have had the power to bring death and devastation upon two flourishing
provinces and cause serious anxiety to the leaders of the revolution
in the very hour of its success!" He paused to let the wonder of it
penetrate our minds.

"Death and devastation," somebody murmured in surprise: "how
shocking!"

The old General gave a glance in the direction of the murmur and went
on. "Yes. That is, war--calamity. But the means by which she obtained
the power to work this havoc on our southern frontier seem to me, who
have seen her and spoken to her, still more shocking. That particular
thing left on my mind a dreadful amazement which the further
experience of life, of more than fifty years, has done nothing to
diminish." He looked round as if to make sure of our attention, and,
in a changed voice: "I am, as you know, a republican, son of a
Liberator," he declared. "My incomparable mother, God rest her soul,
was a Frenchwoman, the daughter of an ardent republican. As a boy I
fought for liberty; I've always believed in the equality of men; and
as to their brotherhood, that, to my mind, is even more certain. Look
at the fierce animosity they display in their differences. And what in
the world do you know that is more bitterly fierce than brothers'
quarrels?"

All absence of cynicism checked an inclination to smile at this view
of human brotherhood. On the contrary, there was in the tone the
melancholy natural to a man profoundly humane at heart who from duty,
from conviction and from necessity, had played his part in scenes of
ruthless violence.