He knew that he ought to go, for his own sake as well as the Syndic's.

He knew that nothing was to be made and much might be lost by the disclosure that was on his tongue.
But he was intoxicated with the success which he had gained; with the clang of arms, and the glitter of his armed presence.

The true spirit of the man, as happens in intoxication of another kind, rose to the surface, cruel, waggish, insolent--of an insolence long restrained, the insolence of the scholar, who always in secret, now in the light, panted to repay the slights he had suffered, the patronage of leaders, the scoffs of power.

"Ay," he continued, "they may find me with you! But if you do not mind, I need not.

And I was just asking you--why not both?
Life and power, my friend ?" "You know," Blondel answered, breathing quickly.