Page:The Rebellion in the Cevennes (Volume 1).djvu/275

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inquiringly, "I understand the strangeness of these words. You think that I, a rebel, an outlaw, who even accepts sums of money from foreign lands, may be purchased at a cheap rate by the enemies of my king, and that I should maliciously rejoice at every calamity that befell my sovereign. But it is not thus, no Frenchman sinks so low. Let the king give us liberty of conscience, and lame, starved, and bleeding at every pore, we will still fight for him against England and Germany. And never would I, and my friends lend our aid to bring our country under a foreign yoke; even should he persist to act thus cruelly towards us: do not calculate upon that. But I will fight for my cause in an honourable manner, as long as breath is in me. Weak as we may be, we occupy a whole army, and with it lend efficient succour to foreign countries. Do you not think, that with these sentiments, I may call myself a good subject, though certain of my ultimate ruin,