"Well, I think you have no faith in the continuance of the Republic. Your policy is to turn to the best use you can, in the interest of your own party, the authority that the present government entrusts to you and many others. In short, you expect, at a given moment, to utilize your position in the army in favor of the return of _your master_, as you call, I believe, that big boy, the last of the Capets and of the Frankish Kings by the right of conquest. The government is placing in your hands weapons against the Republic. You accept them; it is all fair in war, from your viewpoint. As to me, I hate the monarchy of divine right by reason of the ills with which it has scourged my country. I have fought it with all my strength; nevertheless, never would I have served it with the intention of ruining it. Never would I have worn its livery, or its colors." "Monsieur, I do not wear the livery of the Republic," answered General Plouernel warmly. "I wear the uniform of the Army." "Come, monsieur," replied the merchant, smiling, "admit it, without reproach, that, for a soldier, what you have just said is, perhaps, a little--a little _priestlike_. But let that pass--everyone serves his cause in his own fashion. Besides, as you see, here we are, we two--you decked in the insignia of power and of force; I, a poor man, dragging a galley-slave's chain, the very same as, fifteen hundred years ago, my forefathers wore the slave's iron ring. Your party is powerful and influential. It enjoys the good wishes and would, at a pinch, enjoy the material support of the monarchists of Europe. It owns wealth; it has the clergy on its side; furthermore, the waverers, the camp-followers, the cynics, the ambitious of all previous regimes, have rallied to your side in the fear that popular sovereignty inspires them with. They proclaim aloud that, rather than democracy, they prefer the monarchy of divine right and absolute such as existed before 1789, even if it be necessary to have it supported by a permanent army of Cossacks. On the other hand, those of my party and I have implicit faith in the triumph of democracy." The entrance of the Commissioner of Marine put an end to the conversation between the General and the merchant. The latter obtained without difficulty, thanks to the intervention of his "protector," permission to take with him his iron ring, his _manille_ as the thing is called in the galleys. That same evening Marik Lebrenn proceeded to Paris. CHAPTER XIII. HOME AGAIN. On the 10th of September, 1849, two days after General Plouernel brought to Marik Lebrenn his pardon and complete restitution to civic and political rights, the merchant's family was gathered in a modest apartment on the second floor of their house. The shop had been closed two hours before. A lamp, placed upon a large round center table, lighted the several personages who sat around it.