imperious word been spoken; and at the shop of M. Sauce, the worthy
village grocer; and, last of all, when Goguelat and de Choiseul had
arrived with their hussars, bringing rescue, salvation--did not all
depend, a hundred times over, on a mere yes or no, a step, a
gesture, a look? Take any ten men with whom you are intimate, let
them have been King of France, you can foretell the issue of their
ten nights. Ah, it was that night truly that heaped shame on
fatality, that laid bare her weakness! For that night revealed to
all men the dependence, the wretched and shivering poverty of the
great mysterious force that, in moments of undue resignation, seems
to weigh so heavily on life! Never before has she been beheld so
completely despoiled of her vestments, of her imposing, deceptive
robes, as she incessantly came and went that night, from death to
life, from life to death; throwing herself at last, like a woman
distraught, into the arms of an unhappy king, whom she besought til
dawn for a decision, an existence, that she herself never can find
save only in the depths of the will and the intellect of man.

22. And yet this is not the entire truth. It is helpful to regard
events in this fashion, thus seeking to minimise the importance of
fatality, looking upon it as some vague and wandering creature that
we have to shelter and guide. We gain the more courage thereby, the
more confidence, initiative; and these are qualities essential to
the doing of anything useful; and they shall stand us in good stead,
too, when our own hour of danger draws nigh. But for all that, we do
not pretend that there truly is no other force--that all things can
be governed by our will and our intellect. These must be trained to
act like the soldiers of a conquering army; they must learn to
thrive at the cost of all that opposes them; they must find
sustenance even in the unknown that towers above them. Those who