[Triple-discussion] bitterly reproach yourself."

[Gilbert <oxy...@mo...>]

Djusts and points a cannon, continued in silence to watch the battle,
like an old wolf, which, sated with victims and torpid with age,
contemplates in the plain the ravages of a lion among a herd of cattle,
which he himself dares not attack. From time to time his eye brightens;
the smell of blood rejoices him, and he laps his burning tongue over his
toothless jaw. On that day, it was remarked by his servants--or, in
other words, by all surrounding him--that from the time of his rising
until night he took no nourishment, and so fixed all the application of
his soul on the events which he had to conduct that he triumphed over
his physical pains, seeming, by forgetting, to have destroyed them. It
was this power of attention, this continual presence of mind, that
raised him almost to genius. He would have attained it quite, had he not
lacked native elevation of soul and generous sensibility of heart.
Everything happened upon the field of battle as he had wished, fortune
attending him there as well as in the cabinet. Louis XIII claimed with
eager hand the victory which his minister had procured for him; he had
contributed himself, however