He looked at him, trying to remember who he was; and then, suddenly pointing to the mantel-piece, he asked: "Was it you whom they arrested yesterday morning, and who sent me a note by the landlady of your inn?" "Yes, citizen," answered Charles; "it was I." "Then the men who arrested you allowed you to write to me?" "I wrote before I was arrested." "How was that?" "I knew that I was going to be arrested." "And you did not hide yourself?" "What for? I was innocent, and they say that you are just." Saint-Just looked at the boy in silence. He himself looked very young just then, with his shirt of whitest linen and large sleeves, his white waistcoat, and his artistically tied cravat. "Are your parents emigrants?" "No, citizen; my parents are not aristocrats." "What are they?" "My father presides over the tribunal of Besamjon, and my uncle is commander of a battalion." "How old are you?" "A little over thirteen." "Come nearer." The boy obeyed. "Upon my word, it's true," said Saint-Just; "he looks like a little girl. But you must have done something to be arrested." "Two of my compatriots, citizens Ballu and Dumont, came to Strasbourg to secure the release of Adjutant-General Perrin. I knew that they were to be arrested during the night, and I sent them a little note of warning. My handwriting was recognized. I thought I was doing right. I appeal to your heart, citizen Saint-Just!" Saint-Just placed his hand, which was as white and well cared for as that of a woman, upon the boy's shoulder. "You are still a child," he replied, "and I will only say this: There is a sentiment even more holy than love of one's countrymen; it is love of one's country. Before being citizens of the same town we are children of the same country. A day will come when reason will have advanced sufficiently to value humanity more than patriotism, when all men will be brothers, all nations as sisters, when tyrants will be the only enemies. You yielded to an honorable sentiment, the love of your neighbor, which is enjoined by the Evangelist; but in yielding to it you have forgotten a sentiment which is yet higher, more sacred, more sublime. Devotion to your country should come before everything else. If these men were enemies of their country, if they had transgressed its laws, you should not have interfered between them and the knife. I have no right to set myself up as an example, being one of the humblest servants of liberty; but I serve her according to my ability, I cause her to triumph whenever it lies within my power to do so; that is my sole ambition. Why am I to-day so calm and so proud of myself? It is because I have this very day, at the price of my own heart's blood, given a proof of respect for the law which I myself made."