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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from An Historical Mystery by Honore de Balzac: The Cinq-Cygne mansion at Troyes stands opposite to that of Simeuse.
When the populace, incited by minds that were as shrewd as they were
cautious, pillaged the hotel Simeuse, discovered the marquis and
marchioness, who were accused of corresponding with the nation's
enemies, and delivered them to the national guards who took them to
prison, the crowd shouted, "Now for the Cinq-Cygnes!" To their minds
the Cinq-Cygnes were as guilty as other aristocrats. The brave and
worthy Monsieur de Simeuse in the endeavor to save his two sons, then
eighteen years of age, whose courage was likely to compromise them,
had confided them, a few hours before the storm broke, to their aunt,
the Comtesse de Cinq-Cygne. Two servants attached to the Simeuse
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