the hopper, if that would build a
bridge to my end. You call to mind how those Spaniards conquered the
Mexique city which was all canals like Venice? They filled the waterways
with shattered houses and the bodies of their enemies, as they fought
their way to Montezuma's palace. So I would know not pity if I had a
great cause. In anything vital I would have success at all cost, and to
get, destroy as I went--if I were a great man."

I thought for a moment with horror of his pursuit of my dear Alixe.
"I am your hunter," had been his words to her, and I knew not what had
happened in all these months.

"If you were a great man, you should have the best prerogative of
greatness," I remarked quietly.

"And what is that? Some excellent moral, I doubt not," was the
rejoinder.

"Mercy," I replied.

"Tush!" he retorted, "mercy is for the fireside, not for the throne.
In great causes, what is a screw of tyranny here, a bolt of oppression
there, or a few thousand lives!" He suddenly got to his feet, and,
looking into the distance, made a swift motion of his hand, his eyes
half closed, his brows brooding and firm. "I should look beyond the
moment, the year, or the generation. Why fret because the hour of death
comes sooner than we looked for? In the movement of the ponderous car,
some honest folk must be crushed by the wicked wheels. No, no, in large
affairs there must be no thought of the detail of misery, else what
should be done in the world! He who is the strongest shall survive, and
he alone. It is all conflict--all. For when conflict ceases, and those
who could and should be great spend their time chasing butterflies among
the fountains, there comes miasma and their doom. Mercy? Mercy? No, no:
for none but the poor and sick and overridden, in time of peace; in time
of war, mercy for none, pity nowhere, till the joybells ring the great
man home."

"But mercy to women always," said I, "in war or peace."

He withdrew his eyes as if from a distant prospect, and they dropped to
the stove, where I had corn parching. He nodded, as if amused, but did
not answer at once, and taking from my hand the feather with which I
stirred the corn, softly whisked some off for himself, and smiled at the
remaining kernels as they danced upon the hot iron. After a little while
he said, "Women? Women should have all that men can give them. Beautiful
things should adorn them; no man should set his hand in cruelty on a
woman--after she is his.