Marie-Anne must be, and will be, the instrument of my plans.
A man situated as I am is free from the considerations that restrain other men.

Fortune, friends, life, honor--I have been forced to sacrifice all.

Perish my daughter's virtue--perish my daughter herself--what do they matter, if I can but succeed ?" He was terrible in his fanaticism; and in his mad excitement he clinched his hands as if he were threatening some invisible enemy; his eyes were wild and bloodshot.
The baron seized him by the coat as if to prevent his escape.
"You admit it, then ?" he said.

"You wish to revenge yourself on the Sairmeuse family, and you have made Chanlouineau your accomplice ?" But Lacheneur, with a sudden movement, freed himself.
"I admit nothing," he replied.

"And yet I wish to reassure you----" He raised his hand as if to take an oath, and in a solemn voice, he said: "Before God, who hears my words, by all that I hold sacred in this world, by the memory of my sainted wife who lies beneath the sod, I swear that I am plotting nothing against the Sairmeuse family; that I had no thought of touching a hair of their heads.