We had made many offers to the canton to be
released ourselves, from this charge; we had prayed them--Herr Melchior,
you should know how earnestly we have prayed the council, to be suffered
to live like others, and without this accursed doom--but they would not.
They said the usage was ancient, that change was dangerous, and that what
God willed must come to pass. We could not bear that the burthen we found
so hard to endure ourselves should go down for ever as a curse upon our
descendants, Herr Doge," he continued, raising his meek face in the pride
of honesty; "it is well for those who are the possessors of honors to be
proud of their privileges; but when the inheritance is one of wrongs and
scorn, when the evil eyes of our fellows are upon us, the heart sickens.
Such was our feeling when we looked upon our first-born. The wish to save
him from our own disgrace was uppermost, and we bethought us of the
means."
"Ay!" sternly interrupted Marguerite, "I parted with my child, and
silenced a mother's longings, proud nobles, that he might not become the
tool of your ruthless policy; I gave up a mother's joy in nourishing and
in cherishing her young, that the little innocent might live among his
fellows, as God had created him, their equal and not their victim!"
Balthazar paused, as was usual with him when ever his energetic wife
manifested any of her strong and masculine qualities, and then, when deep
silence had followed her remark, he proceeded.
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