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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from The Ball at Sceaux by Honore de Balzac: period of modern history, he was wont to say in jest, "I am one of the
men who gave themselves to be killed on the steps of the throne." And
the pleasantry had some truth in it, as spoken by a man left for dead
at the bloody battle of Les Quatre Chemins. Though ruined by
confiscation, the staunch Vendeen steadily refused the lucrative posts
offered to him by the Emperor Napoleon. Immovable in his aristocratic
faith, he had blindly obeyed its precepts when he thought it fitting
to choose a companion for life. In spite of the blandishments of a
rich but revolutionary parvenu, who valued the alliance at a high
figure, he married Mademoiselle de Kergarouet, without a fortune, but
belonging to one of the oldest families in Brittany.
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