Page:Zanoni.djvu/77

Rh his eyes dwelt vacantly on space, and in a low, hollow voice, he thus answered —

"You ask how it will affect yourselves — you, its most learned, and its least selfish agents. I will answer; you, Marquis de Condorcet, will die in prison, but not by the hand of the executioner. In the peaceful happiness of that day, the philosopher will carry about with him, not the elixir but the poison."

"My poor Cazotte," said Condorcet, with his gentle smile, "what have prisons, executioners, and poison, to do with an age of liberty and brotherhood?"

"It is in the names of Liberty and Brotherhood that the prisons will reek, and the headsman be glutted."

"You are thinking of priestcraft, not philosophy, Cazotte," said Champfort. "And what of me?"

"You will open your own veins to escape the fraternity of Cain. Be comforted; the last drops will not