reathing an eternal farewell. Their consent would be the
share of cruel sacrifice, that life demands, their supreme gift to life,
the tithe levied by life on their affection and their blood. To pursue
its victory, life, the perpetual conqueror, demanded this portion
of their flesh, this overplus of the numerous family, which was
overflowing, spreading, peopling the world. And what could they answer,
how could they refuse? The son who was unprovided for took himself
off; nothing could be more logical or more sensible. Far beyond the
fatherland there were vast continents yet uninhabited, and the seed
which is scattered by the breezes of heaven knows no frontiers. Beyond
the race there is mankind with that endless spreading of humanity that
is leading us to the one fraternal people of the accomplished times,
when the whole earth shall be but one sole city of truth and justice.

Moreover, quite apart from the great dream of those seers, the poets,
Nicolas, like a practical man, whatever his enthusiasm, gayly gave his
reasons for departing. He did not wish to be a parasite; he was setting
off to the conquest of another land, where he would grow the bread he
needed, since his own country had no field left for him. Besides, he
took his country with him in his blood; she it was that he wished to
enlarge afar off with unlimited increase of wealth and strength. It was
ancient Africa, the mysterious, now explored, traversed from end to
end, that attracted him. In the first instance he intended to repair to
Senegal, whence he would doubtless push on to the Soudan, to the very
heart of the virgin lands where he dreamt of a new France, an immense
colonial empire, which would rejuvenate the old Gallic race by endowing
it with its due share of the earth. And it was there that he had the
ambition of carving out a kingdom for himself, and of founding with
Lisbeth another dynasty of Froments, and a new Chantebled, covering
under the hot sun a tract ten times as extensive as the old one, and
peopled with the people of his own children. And he spoke of all this
with such joyous courage that Mathieu and Marianne ended by smiling amid
their tears, despite the rending of their poor hearts.

"Go, my lad, we cannot keep you back. Go wherever life calls you,
wherever you may live with more health and joy and strength. All that
may spring from you yonder will still be health and joy and strength
derived from us, of which we shall be proud. You are