true cross, sir, if he had it; he would drink, sir, from
his mother's skull, and with his father's thigh-bones
play at shinty. What is the law? What less is it
than the will and force of all employed for one; the
savage sense of justice, disciplined and drilled till it
can move in regular array, invincibly, to conquer
wrong; surely too vast an engine to be employed on
trifles. Who wants a wheel to break a butterfly upon;
or, to crush a worm who calls for a pavior's rammer?
Monsieur Montigny, listen. Mercy is Heaven's first
attribute, and the executioner is the State's meanest,
as well as last, servant; shall I, then, stoop to this,
who may aspire to that? Shall I wield a whip of
legal scorpions before your son, should he seek to re-
enter Stillyside? Would you have me, as once Heaven's
cherubim stood at the gates of Paradise, with fiery
swords turning all ways, to hinder its ejected tenants
from breaking back into the garden, -- would you have
me, I say, stand at my gates at Stillyside, and, meet-
ing young Montigny, flourish in his face a fist full of
fasces, in the form of threatened pains and penalties?
No; your suit, sir, is denied: you take nothing by
your motion."

"Dare you deny," retorted the seigneur, loudly,
and with a look of coming triumph; "dare you deny
that you are privy to their intimacy; will you assert
that you -- yourself unseen -- have not witnessed my
son in secret, midnight conversation with your ward at
Stillyside; there overheard them interchanging vows
of endless love, and dealing declarations of devoted-
ness unto each other; -- I ask you; did you not hear
and see these doings, and, even when you did at
length surprise the pair, did you not by failing to
condemn their folly, give it your silent sanction?"

[[58]]

p057 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p058w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p059

v?