"Oh, monsieur! Your mind is too lofty, your knowledge of men too sound to mistake for base flattery the sincere enthusiasm that one feels at my age for genius and virtue. If you only knew with what avidity I have listened to our friend, Monsieur Serdan, when he told us of the simplicity of your life, which, for so many years, has been consecrated to the service of the Republic, to the defense of its rights, to the promotion of its power, and to the solidification of its conquered freedom! If you only knew how sweet, how wholesome to the soul is the religious adoration one entertains for great and upright men! how fruitful such admiration is of generous aspirations and brave resolutions! how it redoubles in one the love of justice and the horror for iniquity! Oh, Monsieur De Witt, if my admiration wounds your modesty, allow me at least to express to you my gratitude for the noble thoughts that your words and your presence inspire me with, for the good that you have done to me!" Nominoë uttered these words in a voice tremulous with emotion, and eyes glistening with tears. "God forfend, young man, that I should question your sincerity," answered John De Witt touched by the language of Nominoë. "Yes," he proceeded, extending his hand to the young sailor, "yes, you are right--admiration, if not for men, then at least for the principles that they represent, is wholesome and fruitful of good! You have expressed that noble sentiment in such terms that I can not but congratulate your father in having such a son. Preserve your vigorous hatred for all tyrants." Yielding to an involuntary impulse of enthusiasm, instead of clasping the hand that John De Witt offered him, Nominoë bowed down and, with a motion of almost filial veneration, approached De Witt's hand to his lips. The act was so natural and so touching that his father, Monsieur Serdan and John De Witt felt solemnly impressed. His eyes moist with tears and filled with ineffable happiness, Salaun Lebrenn said to the ex-Pensionary of Holland: "Yes, monsieur, I am a happy father." "And now, my friend," resumed Monsieur Serdan addressing John De Witt, "if you entertained any doubt upon the reliableness of the information transmitted to you by Monsieur Lebrenn concerning the popular sentiment in Brittany, the lofty sentiments of my worthy friend and his son should cause you, I hope, to place full confidence in them." "Their straightforwardness and nobility of character do, indeed, deserve my full confidence," answered John De Witt. "I shall listen with interest to any further information that your friends may have concerning the political affairs of your country."