you. I would prefer to attend her funeral rather than take her to the
registry office to marry a man who was a son, grandson, brother,
nephew, cousin or connection of one of the four or five wretches who
betrayed--you know what my religion is--

Godard
Betrayed the Emperor. Yes, everyone knows your creed, General.

The General
God, first of all; then France or the Emperor--It is all the same to
me. Lastly, my wife and children! Whoever meddles with my gods becomes
my enemy; I would kill him like a hare, remorselessly. My catechism is
short, but it is good. Do you know why, in the year 1816, after their
cursed disbanding of the army of the Loire, I took my little
motherless child and came here, I, colonel of the Young Guard, wounded
at Waterloo, and became a cloth manufacturer of Louviers?

Godard
I suppose you didn't wish to hold office under them.

The General
No, because I did not wish to die as a murderer on the scaffold.

Godard
What do you mean?

The General
If I had met one of those traitors, I should have finished his
business for him. Even to-day, after some fifteen years, my blood
boils if I read their names in the newspaper or anyone mentions them