"Fac salvam Genevam!" he replied in a voice low and not quite steady.

"Do that, keep Geneva safe--guard well our faith, our wives and little ones--and I care not what you do!" And he rose from his seat.
The Fourth Syndic did not answer.

Those few words that in a moment raised the discussion from the low level of detail on which the Inquisitor commonly wasted himself, and set it on the true plane of patriotism--for with all his faults Petitot was a patriot--silenced Blondel while they irritated and puzzled him.

Why did the man assume such airs?
Why talk as if he and he alone cared for Geneva?
Why bear himself as if he and he alone had shed and was prepared to shed his blood for the State?
Why, indeed?
Blondel snarled his indignation, but made no other answer.
A few minutes later, as he descended the stairs, he laughed at the momentary annoyance which he had felt.

What did it matter to him, a dying man, who had the better or who the worse, who posed, or who believed in the pose?
It was of moment indeed that his enemies had contrived to fix him with the responsibility of arresting Basterga, or of leaving him at large: that they had contrived to connect him with the Paduan, and made him accountable to an extent which did not please him for the man's future behaviour.