What was he about to do?
Was he to betray God's trust?
No. And he muttered to himself: Lantenac must be saved.
Well, then, go your way; connive with the English, desert your country, ally yourself with her enemy! Save Lantenac and betray France!
Here he shuddered.
Dreamer that thou art, this is no solution! and Gauvain fancied he saw in the shadow the baleful smile of the sphinx.
This combination of circumstances was like a platform whereon conflicting truths had taken their stand, ready for the encounter, and where the three loftiest principles of mankind—humanity, family, and country—stood face to face.
Each of these voices spoke in turn, and each one spoke the truth. How was a man to choose? Each one by turns seemed to have discovered the point of union between justice and wisdom, and said, "Act thus." Must he obey this voice? Yes. No. Reason suggested one thing, sentiment another; and their counsels were diametrically opposed. Logic is nothing more than reason; sentiment is often the voice of the conscience: the one comes from man, the other from above.
Hence the perceptions of sentiment are less clear, but wield a stronger influence.
But what a power dwells in stern reason!