“Lieutenant of Hussars, too--I mean he's a general. A Gascon. Son of a blacksmith, I believe.” “There! I thought so. That Bonaparte had a special predilection for the _canaille_. I don't mean this for you, D'Hubert. You are one of us, though you have served this usurper who...” “Let's leave him out of this,” broke in General D'Hubert. The Chevalier shrugged his peaked shoulders. “A Feraud of sorts. Offspring of a blacksmith and some village troll.... See what comes of mixing yourself up with that sort of people.” “You have made shoes yourself, Chevalier.” “Yes. But I am not the son of a shoemaker. Neither are you, Monsieur D'Hubert. You and I have something that your Bonaparte's, princes, dukes, and marshals have not because there's no power on earth that could give it to them,” retorted the _émigré_, with the rising animation of a man who has got hold of a hopeful argument. “Those people don't exist--all these Ferauds. Feraud! What is Feraud? A _va-nu-pieds_ disguised into a general by a Corsican adventurer masquerading as an emperor. There is no earthly reason for a D'Hubert to _s'encanailler_ by a duel with a person of that sort. You can make your excuses to him perfectly well. And if the _manant_ takes it into his head to decline them you may simply refuse to meet him.” “You say I may do that?” “Yes. With the clearest conscience.” “_Monsieur le Chevalier!_ To what do you think you have returned from your emigration?” This was said in such a startling tone that the old exile raised sharply his bowed head, glimmering silvery white under the points of the little _tricorne_. For a long time he made no sound. “God knows!” he said at last, pointing with a slow and grave gesture at a tall roadside cross mounted on a block of stone and stretching its arms of forged stone all black against the darkening red band in the sky. “God knows! If it were not for this emblem, which I remember seeing in this spot as a child, I would wonder to what we, who have remained faithful to our God and our king, have returned. The very voices of the people have changed.”