"
"God help our babes and our women!" said the old Marquis shuddering, "if
they fall into the clutches of Santerre, and that other still blacker
demon!"
"Do not fear, father; have we not shewn that we are men? Santerre will
find that he has better soldiers to meet than any he brings with him."
"Fear, Henri! no, for myself I fear nothing. What injury can they do to
an old man like me? I do not even fear for my own children; if their
lives are required in the King's service, they know how to part with
them in perfect confidence of eternal happiness hereafter; but, Henri,
I do feel for our poor people; they are now full of joy and enthusiasm,
for they are warm from victory, and the grief of the few, who are
weeping for their relatives, is lost in the joy of the multitude. But
this cannot always be so, we cannot expect continual victory, and even
victory itself, when so often repeated, will bring death and desolation
into every parish and into every family."
"I trust, father, the war will not be prolonged so distantly as you seem
to think; the forces of Austria, England and Prussia already surround
the frontiers of France; and we have every reason to hope that friendly
troops from Britain will soon land on our own coast.
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