Andre-Louis may therefore
have felt a justifiable satisfaction in offering up the Chevalier's
life to the Manes of his murdered friend. He may have viewed it as
an act of common justice not to be procured by any other means.
Also it is to be remembered that Chabrillane had gone confidently
to the meeting, conceiving that he, a practised ferailleur, had to
deal with a bourgeois utterly unskilled in swordsmanship. Morally,
then, he was little better than a murderer, and that he should have
tumbled into the pit he conceived that he dug for Andre-Louis was
a poetic retribution. Yet, notwithstanding all this, I should find
the cynical note on which Andre-Louis announced the issue to the
Assembly utterly detestable did I believe it sincere. It would
justify Aline of the expressed opinion, which she held in common
with so many others who had come into close contact with him, that
Andre-Louis was quite heartless.
You have seen something of the same heartlessness in his conduct
when he discovered the faithlessness of La Binet although that is
belied by the measures he took to avenge himself.
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