’s
brother saw her and admired her, and asked that man to lend her
to himfor what are husbands among us! He was willing enough,
but my sister was good and virtuous, and hated his brother with a
hatred as strong as mine. What did the two then, to persuade her
husband to use his influence with her, to make her willing?’
“The boy’s eyes, which had been fixed on mine, slowly turned
to the looker-on, and I saw in the two faces that all he said was
true. The two opposing kinds of pride confronting one another, I
can see, even in this Bastille; the gentleman’s all negligent
indifference; the peasant’s, all trodden-down sentiment, and
passionate revenge.
“‘You know, Doctor, that it is among the Rights of these Nobles
to harness us common dogs to carts, and drive us. They so
harnessed him and drove him. You know that it is among their
Rights to keep us in their grounds all night, quieting the frogs, in
order that their noble sleep may not be disturbed. They kept him
out in the unwholesome mists at night, and ordered him back into
his harness in the day. But he was not persuaded. No! Taken out
of harness one day at noon, to feedif he could find foodhe
sobbed twelve times, once for every stroke of the bell, and died on
her bosom.’ “Nothing human could have held life in the boy but
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his determinat