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illuminates it around me."
"And I also," he exclaimed--and I affirm that nothing could be more
sincere or more loyal than his tone--"and I also feel and see my
conscience. It approves of what I am doing. I appear to be betraying
Louis; but I am really doing him a service. To save him from a crime is
to save him. I have tried every means. There only remains this one, to
arrest him. In coming to you, in acting as I do, I conspire at the same
time against him and for him, against his power, and for his honor. What
I am doing is right."
"It is true," I said to him. "You have a generous and a lofty aim."
And I resumed,--
"But our two duties are different. I could not hinder Louis Bonaparte
from committing a crime unless I committed one myself. I wish neither for
an Eighteenth Brumaire for him, nor for an Eighteenth Fructidor for
myself. I would rather be proscribed than be a proscriber. I have the
choice between two crimes, my crime and the crime of Louis Bonaparte. I
will not choose my crime."
"But then you will have to endure his."
"I would rather endure a crime than commit one."
He remained thoughtful, and said to me,--
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