“Ah! all the better.”
“Covered with glory and honor. Curse him! oh, curse him! curse him!”
“I am in luck. I am going to the Rhine.”
“I know it. That is why I waited here all through this night of misery. Yes, you are in luck. But you will send me a line when you have killed him; will you not? Then I shall know joy again. Should he escape you, he shall not escape me.”
“Young man,” said Raynal, with dignity, “this rage is unmanly. Besides, we have not heard his side of the story. He is a good soldier; perhaps he is not all to blame: or perhaps passion has betrayed him into a sin that his conscience and honor disapprove: if so, he must not die. You think only of your wrong: it is natural: but I am the girl’s brother; guardian of her honor and my own. His life is precious as gold. I shall make him marry her.”
“What! reward him for his villany?” cried Edouard, frantically.
“A mighty reward,” replied Raynal, with a sneer.
“You leave one thing out of the calculation, monsieur,” said Edouard, trembling with anger, “that I will kill your brother-in-law at the altar, before her eyes.”
“YOU leave one thing out of the calculation: that you will first have to cross swords, at the altar, with me.”
“So be it. I will not draw on my old commandant. I could not; but be sure I will catch him and her alone some day, and the bride shall be a widow in her honeymoon.”