"Ungrateful fellow.... You would strangle me.... Yet you ignore how generous I have been.... I have saved the lives of the three chiefs of that band of raving wolves.... Do you doubt it?" he inquired, answering a painful sigh that escaped from the breast of Jocelyn, whose thoughts ran upon his brother; "you question my clemency and generosity!" "Could it be true?" cried Jocelyn, yielding to a vague hope; "did my brother Mazurec really escape?" "If you talk calmly instead of bellowing like a staked steer, I shall give you my word as a knight that you will see your brother." "Mazurec lives.... I shall see him!" "He lives.... You will see him ... upon the word of a knight. But let us talk sensibly. We must now consider the means by which Marcel and I can co-operate in the accomplishment of our common projects." "Marcel will not co-operate with the butcher of so many innocent victims!" cried Jocelyn. "Marcel will not ally himself with you, who just told me that all rebellious vassals deserve death!... The fatal alliance he entered into with you, compelled thereto by stress of circumstances, is now forever sundered. It has been a terrible lesson. It will enlighten the people who seek the support of princes in the struggle against their oppressors." "You slander Marcel's good judgment, whose political sagacity none appreciates more than I. That clothier is a master-man. Do you know what he will answer you when, back to Paris, you will have reported to him the carnage of the Jacquerie?" "Oh, indeed I do!" "He will say this: 'The bourgeoisie and the Jacquerie were my army; I expected to discipline it and to be able to say to the King of Navarre: "My army is superior to yours; accept my conditions; let us jointly march against the Regent; I promise you his crown if you consent to submit to the national assembly as the supreme power. If you prefer allying yourself with the Regent, do so. The bourgeoisie holds the towns, the Jacquerie the country. I do not fear you." But here is the Jacquerie, the bulk of my army, annihilated.' Marcel will thoughtfully add: 'The disaster is irreparable. I now have but one of two courses open: either submission to the Regent, and deliver up to him my head and the heads of my friends, or promote the projects of the King of Navarre, who has an army capable of coping with the royal forces. Accordingly, instead of dictating terms to the King of Navarre, I am compelled to accept his terms.' That is what Marcel will say." "Marcel will never betray the cause to which he has devoted his life."