“Yes, Madame; so my friend De Beauvais informs me.”
“And you have refused,—is it not so?”
“Even so, Madame.”
“How is this, sir? Are you so weary of a soldier's life, that you would leave it thus early?”
“This was not the reason, Madame.”
“You loved the Emperor, sir,” said she, hastily, and with a tone of almost passionate eagerness, “even as I loved my dear, kind mistress; and you felt allegiance to be too sacred a thing to be bartered at a moment's notice. Is this the true explanation?”
“I am proud to say, you have read my motives; such were they.”
“Why are there not many more to act thus?” cried she, vehemently. “Why do not the great names he made glorious, become greater by fidelity than ever they were by heroism? There was one, sir, who, had he lived, had given this example to the world.”
“True, most true, Madame. But was not his fate happier than to have survived for this?”
A long pause, unbroken by a word on either side, followed; when at last she said,—