’Sire, you have sacrificed his son, and he defended his son — you sacrificed himself; he addressed you in the name of honor, of religion, of virtue — you repulsed, drove him away, imprisoned him.

’ I should be harder than he was, for I should say to you — ’Sire; it is for you to choose. Do you wish to have friends or lackeys — soldiers or slaves — great men or mere puppets? Do you wish men to serve you, or to bend and crouch before you? Do you wish men to love you, or to be afraid of you? If you prefer baseness, intrigue, cowardice, say so at once, sire, and we will leave you, — we who are the only individuals who are left, — nay, I will say more, the only models of the valor of former times; we who have done our duty, and have exceeded, perhaps, in courage and in