LA ROCHE.
If boasting wins, your side will doubtless better ours.
PRISONER.
If blows win--your side is sure to fail. You've not a regiment that's
trained better than a pack of boys!
LA HOGUE.
I wish he were a liar, but he isn't.
LA ROCHE.
Our boys struck hard enough, it seems, to capture you.
PRISONER.
We were ten, surprised by a battalion, and yet it cost you nearly
fifty of your friends to take but ten of us.
LA HOGUE.
There he goes again riddling us with facts.
LA ROCHE.
Sir,--you know there is no quarter given to traitors found in arms
against the King.
PRISONER.
France has no sovereign but the people.--It is you who are the
traitors.
LA ROCHE.
Answer civilly and I may show you mercy.
PRISONER.
I neither ask, nor accept mercy. I have done my best to deal a
crushing blow to you.--So call your guards, and shoot me without more
waste of words.
LA ROCHE.
I see that you are brave.
PRISONER.
Brave? Because I'm not afraid to die?
[_Laughs bitterly_.]
Bah! It takes more courage sometimes to consent to live.
LA ROCHE.
You are young, a Frenchman, and--though misled--a credit to your
country.
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