|
The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from An Historical Mystery by Honore de Balzac: relative of the Cinq-Cygnes. These eight courageous champions poured a
deadly fire into the crowd. Every shot killed or wounded an assailant.
Laurence, instead of wringing her hands, loaded the guns with
extraordinary coolness, and passed the balls and powder to those who
needed them. The Comtesse de Cinq-Cygne was on her knees.
"What are you doing, mother?" said Laurence.
"I am praying," she answered, "for them and for you."
Sublime words,--said also by the mother of Godoy, prince of the Peace,
in Spain, under similar circumstances.
In a moment eleven persons were killed and lying on the ground among a
number of wounded. Such results either cool or excite a populace;
| 
