‘No backward step.  We can bear to fall; we cannot afford to draw back.’

And again: 

’Remember that these uprisings are the manifested pulsations of the heart of your country, so that none shall say she is a corpse, and knowing that she lives, none shall say that she deserves not freedom.  It is the protest of her immortal being against her impious violator.’

Evidently the Chief had heard nothing of the counterstroke of Barto Rizzo, and of Count Medole’s miserable weakness:  but how, thought Carlo, how can a mind like Vittoria’s find matter to suit her in such sentences?  He asked himself the question, forgetting that a little time gone by, while he was aloof from the tumult and dreaming of it, this airy cloudy language and every symbolism, had been strong sustaining food, a vital atmosphere, to him.  He did not for the moment (though by degrees he recovered his last night’s conception of her) understand that among the noble order of women there is, when they plunge into strife, a craving for idealistic truths, which men are apt, under the heat and hurry of their energies, to put aside as stars that are meant merely for shining.

His mother perused the letter—­holding it out at arm’s length—­and laid it by; Luciano likewise.  Countess Ammiani was an aristocrat:  the tone and style of the writing were distasteful to her.  She allowed her son’s judgement of the writer to stand for her own, feeling that she could surrender little prejudices in favour of one who appeared to hate the Austrians so mortally.  On the other hand, she defended Count Medole.  Her soul shrank at the thought of the revolution being yielded up to theorists and men calling themselves men of the people—­a class of men to whom Paolo her soldier-husband’s aversion had always been formidably pronounced.  It was an old and a wearisome task for Carlo to explain to her that the times were changed and the necessities of the hour different since the day when his father conspired and fought for freedom.  Yet he could not gainsay her when she urged that the nobles should be elected to lead, if they consented to lead; for if they did not lead, were they not excluded from the movement?

‘I fancy you have defined their patriotism,’ said Carlo.

‘Nay, my son; but you are one of them.’

‘Indeed, my dearest mother, that is not what they will tell you.’

‘Because you have chosen to throw yourself into the opposite ranks.’

’You perceive that you divide our camp, madame my mother.  For me there is no natural opposition of ranks.  What are we?  We are slaves:  all are slaves.  While I am a slave, shall I boast that I am of noble birth?  “Proud of a coronet with gems of paste!” some one writes.  Save me from that sort of pride!  I am content to take my patent of nobility for good conduct in the revolution.  Then I will be count, or marquis, or duke; I am not a Republican pure blood;—­but not till then.  And in the meantime—­’