And if France licked the dust, she could plead more
than we can--it had not been cast off from her enemy's shoes.
Carne's love of liberty, like that of most people who talk very largely
about it, was about as deep as beauty is declared to be; or even less
than that, for he would not have imperilled the gloss of his epiderm for
the fair goddess. So that it irked him very little that his Chief had
smashed up the Republic, but very greatly that his own hand should
be out in the cold, and have nothing put inside it to restore its
circulation. "If I had stuck to my proper line of work, in the
Artillery, which has made his fortune"--he could not help saying to
himself sometimes--"instead of losing more than a year over here, and
perhaps another year to follow, and all for the sake of these dirty old
ruins, and my mother's revenge upon this country, I might have been a
General by this time almost--for nothing depends upon age in France--and
worthy to claim something lofty and grand, or else to be bought off at
a truly high figure. The little gunner has made a great mistake if he
thinks that his flat thumb of low breed can press me down shuddering,
and starving, and crouching, just until it suits him to hold up a finger
for me. My true course is now to consider myself, to watch events, and
act accordingly. My honour is free to go either way, because he has not
kept his word with me; he promised to act upon my advice, and to land
within a twelvemonth.
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