"To do some good business with their aid. We are not yet too many. Calabash remains here with me to keep the tavern. Nicholas is alone; once taught, Francois and Amandine will help him. They threw stones at them also, children as they were; they must revenge themselves."
"Mother, you love Calabash and Nicholas, don't you?"
"What then?"
"They will go to the scaffold like father."
"What then, what then?"
"And does not their fate make you tremble?"
"Their fate shall be mine—neither better nor worse. I steal, they steal; I kill, they kill. Who takes the mother will take the children. We will not be separated. If our heads fall, they shall fall in the same basket, where they will say adieu! We will not turn back; you are the only coward in the family; we drive you away. Get out!"
"But the children—the children!"
"The children will grow up. I tell you, except for you, they would have been already formed. Francois is almost ready; when you are gone, Amandine shall make up for lost time."
"Mother, I entreat you, consent to send the children away as apprentices far from here."