Parisians, the — Volume 11 by Baron Edward Bulwer Lytton Lytton
page 55 of 121 (45%)
page 55 of 121 (45%)
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two of their body may possibly recover by casting blame on their
confreres,--you never could. But it is not for you to oppose that Government with an enemy on its march to Paris. You are not a soldier; military command is not in your rode. The issue of events is uncertain; but whatever it be, the men in power cannot conduct a prosperous war nor obtain an honourable peace. Hereafter you may be the _Deus ex machina_. No personage of that rank and with that mission appears till the end of the play: we are only in the first act. Leave Paris at once, and abstain from all action." INCOGNITO (dejectedly).--"I cannot deny the soundness of your advice, though in accepting it I feel unutterably saddened. Still you, the calmest and shrewdest observer among my friends, think there is cause for hope, not despair. Victor, I have more than most men to make life pleasant, but I would lay down life at this moment with you. You know me well enough to be sure that I utter no melodramatic fiction when I say that I love my country as a young man loves the ideal of his dreams--with my whole mind and heart and soul! and the thought that I cannot now aid her in the hour of her mortal trial is--is--" The man's voice broke down, and he turned aside, veiling his face with a hand that trembled. DE MAULEON--"Courage--patience! All Frenchmen have the first; set them an example they much need in the second. I, too, love my country, though I owe to it little enough, heaven knows. I suppose love of country is inherent in all who are not Internationalists. They profess only to love humanity, by which, if they mean anything practical, they mean a rise in wages." |
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