"Dumont and Ballu?"
"Yes."
"They are on my staff; you will see them."
"I thought they had returned to Besançon?"
"They changed their minds on the way. And so it is to you they owe the warning that probably saved their lives?"
"It seems I did wrong," said the boy, lowering his eyes.
"Wrong! Who told you that you had done wrong in accomplishing a good deed and saving the lives of your fellow-creatures?"
"Saint-Just; but he added that he pardoned me, since pity was a childish virtue. Then he quoted his own example to me; that very morning he had sent his best friend to be shot."
Pichegru's face darkened.