When he told me that, George, it was too much; I cried: "I do. It is not possible!" And, opening the window, I called out:
"Marie-Rose! Marie-Rose! Come here. Jean has arrived."
She was hanging out clothes in the shed, and leaving at once her work, she came up stairs.
"Marie-Rose," I said, "is it true that you have consented to let Jean Merlin go to fight the Germans at Orleans, behind Paris? Is it true? Speak freely."
Then, pale as death, with flashing eyes, she said:
"Yes. It is his duty. He must go. We do not wish to be Prussians, and the others ought not to fight alone to save us. He must be a man. He must defend his country."
She said other things of the same kind that warmed my blood and made me think:
"What a brave girl that is! No, I did not know her before. She is the true descendant of the old Burats. How the old people wake up and speak through the mouths of their children! They want us to defend the earth of the old cemetery where their bones lie buried."
I rose, white as a sheet, with open arms. "Come to my arms!" I said to them; "come to my arms! You are right. Yes, it is the duty of every Frenchman to go and fight. Ah! if I were only ten years younger, I would go with you, Jean; we would be two brothers in arms." And we embraced each other all round.
XXIV