n the necessities of the
hour were too much for the strength of his soul. He was the Girondin of
the family.

With no less sensibility, Edmee had greater courage; a woman and
compassionate, she sympathized profoundly with the sufferings of all
classes. She bewailed the misfortune of her age; but she never failed to
appreciate the greatness of its holy fanaticism. She remained faithful
to her ideas of absolute equality. At a time when the acts of the
Mountain were irritating the abbe, and driving him to despair, she
generously sacrificed her own patriotic enthusiasm; and her delicacy
would never let her mention in his presence certain names that made
him shudder, names for which she herself had a sort of passionate
veneration, the like of which I have never seen in any woman.

As for myself, I can truthfully say that it was she who educated me;
during the whole course of my life I had the profoundest respect for
her judgment and rectitude. When, in my enthusiasm, I was filled with
a longing to play a part as a leader of the people, she held me back by
showing how my name would destroy any influence I might have; since they
would distrust me, and imagine my aim was to use them as an instrument
for recovering my rank. When the enemy was at the gates of France, she
sent me to serve as a volunteer; when the Republic was overthrown, and
a military career came to be merely a means of gratifying ambition, she
recalled me, and said:

"You must never leave me again."

Patience played a great part in the Revolution. He was unanimously
chosen as judge of his district. His integrity, his impartiality between
castle and cottage, his firmness and wisdom will never be forgotten in
Varenne.

During the war I was instrumental in saving M. de la Marche's life, and
helping him to escape to a foreign country.

Such, I believe, said old Mauprat, are all the events of my life in
which Edmee played a part. The rest of it is not worth the telling.
If there is anything helpful in my story, try to profit by it, young
fellows. Hope to be blessed with a frank counsellor, a severe friend;
and love not the man who flatters, but the man who reproves. Do not
believe too much in phrenology; for I have the murderer's bump largely
developed, and, as Edmee used to say with grim humour, "killing comes
natural" to our family. Do not believe in fate, or, at least, never
advise any one to tamely submit to it. Such is the moral of my story.

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