obscurely in some provincial village, than purchase our admission to
court at the price of such humiliation as that!"

"No, no--I had sworn to be revenged upon my persecutors, and no plan
of vendetta could I carry out in a provincial village. Do you
remember what I told my sons on the day of our return to the Hotel
de Soissons?"

"Ay, mother, that do I. You said: 'Bow your heads in ostensible
humility, but never forget that the Bourbons have robbed you of your
inheritance. Never forget that if you are poor, it is because on
some idle pretext of a conspiracy that never could be proved, Louis
XIV. sequestered the estates of the Counts de Soissons.' These were
your words, and you see that I have not forgotten them. They are the
steel on which I have sharpened the hate I feel for the King of
France. And now that its edge is keen, why may I not lift it against
the man who belied my mother, and murdered my father? Oh mother,
mother, why will you force me to become a priest?"

"What else could you become?" asked Olympia. "The king is your
guardian, and he it is that from your childhood has destined you for
the church."

"I hate this garb," exclaimed Eugene, touching his cassock. "My
vocation is not for the priesthood, and, if I am called upon to
utter compulsory vows, I feel that I shall disgrace my cloth. Dear
mother, loosen the detested bonds that bind me to a listless and
contemplative life! Gird me with a sword, and let me go out to
battle with the world like a man!"