You
must not ask me, monsieur."
"But what do you conceive is going to happen?" asked the
half-demented gentleman.
"It is war," said Rougane, who was well informed, as we have seen.
"War between the people and the Court. I am desolated that my
warning should have come too late. But, when all is said, I do not
think that you need really alarm yourself. War will not be made
on women." M. de Kercadiou clung for comfort to that assurance after
the mayor and his son had departed. But at the back of his mind
there remained the knowledge of the traffic in which M. de Plougastel
was engaged. What if the revolutionaries were equally well informed?
And most probably they were. The women-folk political offenders had
been known aforetime to suffer for the sins of their men. Anything
was possible in a popular upheaval, and Aline would be exposed
jointly with Mme. de Plougastel.
Late that night, as he sat gloomily in his brother's library, the
pipe in which he had sought solace extinguished between his fingers,
there came a sharp knocking at the door.
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