To the right-about, march! Let me alone, or it will be the
worse for you."
"But read that," persisted Corentin.
"Don't bother me with your functions," cried Hulot, furious at
receiving orders from a man he regarded as contemptible.
At this instant Galope-Chopine's boy suddenly appeared among them like
a rat from a hole.
"The Gars has started!" he cried.
"Which way?"
"The rue Saint-Leonard."
"Beau-Pied," said Hulot in a whisper to the corporal who was near him,
"go and tell your lieutenant to draw in closer round the house, and
make ready to fire. Left wheel, forward on the tower, the rest of
you!" he shouted.
To understand the conclusion of this fatal drama we must re-enter the
house with Mademoiselle de Verneuil when she returned to it after
denouncing the marquis to the commandant.
When passions reach their crisis they bring us under the dominion of
far greater intoxication than the petty excitements of wine or opium.
The lucidity then given to ideas, the delicacy of the high-wrought
senses, produce the most singular and unexpected effects. Some persons
when they find themselves under the tyranny of a single thought can
see with extraordinary distinctness objects scarcely visible to
others, while at the same time the most palpable things become to them
almost as if they did not exist. When Mademoiselle de Verneuil
hurried, after reading the marquis's letter, to prepare the way for
vengeance just as she had lately been preparing all for love, she was
in that stage of mental intoxication which makes real life like the
life of a somnambulist.
Pages:
405
406
407
408
409
410
411
412
413
414
415
416
417
418
419
420
421
422
423
424
425
426
427
428
429