"I don't care for that--you have no right to be unjust to the poor children," said the soldier, as he again advanced towards the door.
"Dagobert, I command you to remain here," cried the marshal.
"Listen to me, general.I am your soldier, your inferior, your servant, if you will," said the old grenadier, roughly; "but neither rank nor station shall keep me silent, when I have to defend your daughters.All must be explained--I know but one way--and that is to bring honest people face to face."
If the marshal had not seized him by the arm, Dagobert would have entered the apartment of the young girls.
"Remain!" said the marshal, so imperiously that the soldier, accustomed to obedience, hung his head, and stood still.
"What would you do?" resumed the marshal."Tell my children, that I think they do not love me? induce them to affect a tenderness they do not feel--when it is not their fault, but mine?"
"Oh, general!" said Dagobert, in a tone of despair, "I no longer feel anger, in hearing you speak thus of your children.It is such grief, that it breaks my heart!"
Touched by the expression of the soldier's countenance, the marshal continued, less abruptly: "Come, I may be wrong; and yet I ask you, without bitterness or jealousy, are not my children more confiding, more familiar, with you than with me?"
"God bless me, general!" cried Dagobert; "if you come to that, they are more familiar with Spoil-sport than with either of us.You are their father; and, however kind a father may be, he must always command some respect.Familiar with me! I should think so.A fine story! What the devil should they respect in me, who, except that I am six feet high, and wear a moustache, might pass for the old woman that nursed them?--and then I must say, that, even before the death of your worthy father, you were sad and full of thought; the children have remarked that; and what you take for coldness on their part, is, I am sure, anxiety for you.
Come, general; you are not just.You complain, because they love you too much."
"I complain, because I suffer," said the marshal, in an agony of excitement."I alone know my sufferings."
"They must indeed be grievous, general," said Dagobert, carried further than he would otherwise have gone by his attachment for the orphans, "since those who love you feel them so cruelly."
"What, sir! more reproaches?"
"Yes, general, reproaches," cried Dagobert."Your children have the right to complain of you, since you accuse them so unjustly."
"Sir," said the marshal, scarcely able to contain himself, `this is enough--this is too much!"
"Oh, yes! it is enough," replied Dagobert, with rising emotion."Why defend unfortunate children, who can only love and submit? Why defend them against your unhappy blindness?"
The marshal started with anger and impatience, but then replied, with a forced calmness: "I needs must remember all that I owe you--and I will not forget it, say what you will."
"But, general," cried Dagobert, "why will you not let me fetch your children?"
"Do you not see that this scene is killing me?" cried the exasperated marshal."Do you not understand, that I will not have my children witness what I suffer? A father's grief has its dignity, sir; and you ought to feel for and respect it."
"Respect it? no--not when it is founded on injustice!"
"Enough, sir--enough!"
"And not content with tormenting yourself," cried Dagobert, unable any longer to control his feelings, "do you know what you will do? You will make your children die of sorrow.Was it for this, that I brought them to you from the depths of Siberia?"
"More reproaches!"
"Yes; for the worst ingratitude towards me, is to make your children unhappy."
"Leave the room, sir!" cried the marshal, quite beside himself, and so terrible with rage and grief, that Dagobert, regretting that he had gone so far, resumed: "I was wrong, general.I have perhaps been wanting in respect to you--forgive me--but--"
"I forgive you--only leave me!" said the marshal, hardly restraining himself.
"One word, general--"
"I entreat you to leave me--I ask it as a service--is that enough?" said the marshal, with renewed efforts to control the violence of his emotions.
A deadly paleness succeeded to the high color which during this painful scene had inflamed the cheeks of the marshal.Alarmed at this symptom, Dagobert redoubled his entreaties."I implore you, general," said he, in an agitated mice, "to permit me for one moment--"
"Since you will have it so, sir, I must be the one to leave," said the marshal, making a step towards the door.
These words were said in such a manner, that Dagobert could no longer resist.He hung his head in despair, looked for a moment in silent supplication at the marshal, and then, as the latter seemed yielding to a new movement of rage, the soldier slowly quitted the room.
A few minutes had scarcely elapsed since the departure of Dagobert, when the marshal, who, after a long and gloomy silence, had repeatedly drawn near the door of his daughters' apartment with a mixture of hesitation and anguish, suddenly made a violent effort, wiped the cold sweat from his brow, and entered the chamber in which Rose and Blanche had taken refuge.
