NAPOLEON. Why?

LADY. Because I must. Because there would have been no other way.

NAPOLEON (with conviction). Because you would have wanted my
letter enough to bear your fear. There is only one universal
passion: fear. Of all the thousand qualities a man may have, the
only one you will find as certainly in the youngest drummer boy
in my army as in me, is fear. It is fear that makes men fight: it
is indifference that makes them run away: fear is the mainspring
of war. Fear! I know fear well, better than you, better than any
woman. I once saw a regiment of good Swiss soldiers massacred by
a mob in Paris because I was afraid to interfere: I felt myself a
coward to the tips of my toes as I looked on at it. Seven months
ago I revenged my shame by pounding that mob to death with cannon
balls. Well, what of that? Has fear ever held a man back from
anything he really wanted--or a woman either? Never. Come with
me; and I will show you twenty thousand cowards who will risk
death every day for the price of a glass of brandy. And do you
think there are no women in the army, braver than the men,
because their lives are worth less? Psha! I think nothing of your
fear or your bravery. If you had had to come across to me at
Lodi, you would not have been afraid: once on the bridge, every
other feeling would have gone down before the necessity--the
necessity--for making your way to my side and getting what you
wanted.

And now, suppose you had done all this--suppose you had come
safely out with that letter in your hand, knowing that when the
hour came, your fear had tightened, not your heart, but your grip