The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from The Deputy of Arcis by Honore de Balzac: /M. le Colonel Franchessini/.--Gentlemen, being more accustomed to
the frankness of camps than to the reticence of these precincts, I
may perhaps have committed the impropriety of thinking aloud. The
preceding speaker said to you that he believed M. de Sallenauve
was employed in collecting his means of defence; well, I do not
say to you "I believe," I tell you I /know/ that a rich stranger
succeed in substituting his protection for what which Phidias, our
colleague, was bestowing on his handsome model, an Italian woman--
[Fresh interruption. "Order! order!" "This is intolerable!"]
/A Voice/.--M. le president, silence the speaker!
Colonel Franchessini crosses his arms and waits till the tumult
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