"'"Montpensier! For shame, Montpensier! Your father's throne in peril, and you strike no blow for it!"
"'If possible, his pallor deepened. Even a girl, as I was, could see that there was some struggle, which I did not understand, proceeding in his mind.
"'"What would you have me do, my mother?"' he asked, trembling before her.
"'"What to do?" she repeated. "Was it for this, then, that you were given the command of the artillery—that you should tell us in the day of trouble that you don't know what to do? For shame, Montpensier! And, once more, for shame! Can't you bring out your guns and shoot this rabble down? Better to die at your post——"
"'He answered, "Anything is better, my mother, than that the French guns should be turned on the French people.'
"'"And to think that it is my own son who speaks thus to me! To think that I have lived to learn that I am the mother of a coward!"
"'It was clear that the taunt stung him to the quick. I thought that it must move him to take up the challenge and offer to risk his life against any odds. But no; he stood his ground and answered, with a cold, impassive stare—
"'"My mother, if I told you that I have given my plighted word to act as I am acting, you would not believe me; but so it is. Some day, it may be, you will know the truth. In the meantime I would rather be thought a coward than know myself to be a liar."
"'"Yes, Montpensier, you are a coward! Coward—coward!" she hissed, and turned upon her heel and left him.
"'And he was a coward, wasn't he?' Babette commented. 'Even a Republican like you must think of him as a coward.'