Page 581 - les-miserables

CHAPTER XV

CAMBRONNE

If any French reader object to having his susceptibilities
offended, one would have to refrain from repeating in his
presence what is perhaps the finest reply that a Frenchman
ever made. This would enjoin us from consigning some-
thing sublime to History.
At our own risk and peril, let us violate this injunction.
Now, then, among those giants there was one Titan,—
Cambronne.
To make that reply and then perish, what could be grand-
er? For being willing to die is the same as to die; and it was
not this man’s fault if he survived after he was shot.
The winner of the battle of Waterloo was not Napoleon,
who was put to flight; nor Wellington, giving way at four
o’clock, in despair at five; nor Blucher, who took no part in
the engagement. The winner of Waterloo was Cambronne.
To thunder forth such a reply at the lightning-flash that
kills you is to conquer!
Thus to answer the Catastrophe, thus to speak to Fate, to
give this pedestal to the future lion, to hurl such a challenge
to the midnight rainstorm, to the treacherous wall of Hou-

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