He saw this with satisfaction. At the same
moment Madame Hulot came into the room in a state to touch the heart
of the sternest judge. She flew into Hector's arms, looking
alternately with a crazy eye at the Marshal and at the case of
pistols.
"What have you to say against your brother? What has my husband done
to you?" said she, in such a voice that the Marshal heard her.
"He has disgraced us all!" replied the Republican veteran, who spoke
with a vehemence that reopened one of his old wounds. "He has robbed
the Government! He has cast odium on my name, he makes me wish I were
dead--he has killed me!--I have only strength enough left to make
restitution!
"I have been abased before the Conde of the Republic, the man I esteem
above all others, and to whom I unjustifiably gave the lie--the Prince
of Wissembourg!--Is that nothing? That is the score his country has
against him!"
He wiped away a tear.
"Now, as to his family," he went on. "He is robbing you of the bread I
had saved for you, the fruit of thirty years' economy, of the
privations of an old soldier! Here is what was intended for you," and
he held up the bank-notes. "He has killed his Uncle Fischer, a noble
and worthy son of Alsace who could not--as he can--endure the thought
of a stain on his peasant's honor.
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