Don Marcelo felt a presentiment that his
life was hanging on this examination; should an evil suggestion, a
cruel caprice flash across this brain, he was surely lost. The general
shrugged his shoulders and said a few words in a contemptuous tone, then
entered his automobile with two of his aids, and the group disbanded.
The cruel uncertainty, the interminable moments before the official
returned to his side, filled Desnoyers with dread.
"His Excellency is very gracious," announced the lieutenant. "He might
have shot you, but he pardons you and yet you people say that we are
savages!" . . .
With involuntary contempt, he further explained that he had conducted
him thither fully expecting that he would be shot. The General was
planning to punish all the prominent residents of Villeblanche, and he
had inferred, on his own initiative, that the owner of the castle must
be one of them.
"Military duty, sir. . . . War exacts it."
After this excuse the petty official renewed his eulogies of His
Excellency. He was going to make his headquarters in Don Marcelo's
property, and on that account granted him his life. He ought to thank
him. . . . Then again his face trembled with wrath. He pointed to some
bodies lying near the road. They were the corpses of Uhlans, covered
with some cloaks from which were protruding the enormous soles of their
boots.
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