human
I, said Eugene, as he classified his military documents,
gpt
Yes, replied Charles,
human
Of course I am!
gpt
Well, he is in danger of being exiled, or even of being put to death, as you told me.
human
Pooh! Themistocles took part in the battles of Marathon and Salamis, and he died in exile. Exile, when it is undeserved, makes a hero of a general. When death strikes the innocent it makes of the hero a demigod. Wouldn't you like to be Phocion, even at the risk of having to drink hemlock like him?
gpt
Hemlock for hemlock, replied Charles,
human
I would rather drink that of Socrates; he is the hero for me.
gpt
Ah! I don't dispute that! He began by being a soldier; at Potidæa he saved Alcibiades' life, and at Delium, that of Xenophon. Saving a man's life, Charles, was the act for which the Romans bestowed their most beautiful crown--the crown of oak.
human
To save the life of two men, and to make sixty thousand perish, as Phocion, of whom you spoke just now, did in the forty-five battles which he fought, do you think that would be sufficient compensation?
gpt
Upon my word, yes, when those two men were Alcibiades and Xenophon.
human
I am not as ambitious as you, said Charles, with a sigh.
gpt
You want to be an Alexander, a Scipio, or a Cæsar, while I should be content to be, I don't say, a Virgil--there never will be but one Virgil--but a Horace, a Longinus, or even an Apuleius. You want a camp, an army, tents, horses, bright uniforms, drums, bugles, trumpets, military music, the cracking of rifles, the thunder of cannon; for me the _aurea mediocritas_ of the poet is enough--a little house full of friends, a great library full of books, a life work and dreams, the death of the righteous in the end, and God will have given me more than I dare to ask. Ah! if I only knew Greek!
human
But what are you going to Pichegru for except to become his aide-de-camp some day.
gpt
No, to be his secretary now; there, my bag is strapped.
human
And my trunk is packed.
gpt
Ah! said he,
human
Do you think then that my ambition is not as great as yours, my dear Eugene, and that it is less difficult to become a Diderot than a Maréchal de Saxe, a Voltaire than a Turenne? To be sure, I do not aspire to be either a Diderot or a Voltaire.
gpt
Nor I the Maréchal de Saxe.
human
Never mind, we can wish for it, anyway.
gpt
Now then, young men, dinner is ready!
human
Come, Monsieur Scholar!
gpt
Come, Citizen General!