"Oh!"
"Who knows? You yourself may then, perhaps, reject it."
"Valentine! Valentine!"
"Well, to obtain this glorious result, I only ask two years."
"So long?"
"Oh, such is man!" cried the soldier, with a faint, pitying laugh. "But an instant ago, and you were anxious to die, because the word had never stood in its true light before you; and now you have not the courage to look forward, or wait two years, which constitute only a few minutes of human life!"
"Yes, but——"
"Be satisfied, brother—be satisfied! If in two years I have not fulfilled my promise, I myself will load your pistols—and then——"
"Well, and then?"
"And then you shall not die alone," he said coolly.