Take guns, not
fiddles."
"Abbe, you have sense enough to know that it is not in a general
assembly of our partisans that I can learn to know these people, or
judge of what I may be able to undertake with them. A supper is better
for examining faces than all the spying in the world, of which, by the
bye, I have a horror; they can be made to talk with glasses in their
hand."
Marie quivered, as she listened, and conceived the idea of going to
the ball and there avenging herself.
"Do you take me for an idiot with your sermon against dancing?"
continued Montauran. "Wouldn't you yourself dance a reed if it would
restore your order under its new name of Fathers of the Faith? Don't
you know that Bretons come away from the mass and go to dancing? Are
you aware that Messieurs Hyde de Neuville and d'Andigne had a
conference, five days ago, with the First Consul, on the question of
restoring his Majesty Louis XVIII.? Ah, monsieur, the princes are
deceived as to the true state of France. The devotions which uphold
them are solely those of rank. Abbe, if I have set my feet in blood,
at least I will not go into it to my middle without full knowledge of
what I do. I am devoted to the king, but not to four hot-heads, not to
a man crippled with debt like Rifoel, not to 'chauffeurs,' not to--"
"Say frankly, monsieur, not to abbes who force contributions on the
highway to carry on the war," retorted the Abbe Gudin.
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