"Is there hope--is there a glimmer of hope to incite anybody while
these conditions endure?" he continued, bitterly.
"No. France must suffer, France must stand alone in terrible
humiliation, France must offer the self-sacrifice of fire and mount
the altar herself!
"Then, and only then, shall the nation, purified, reborn, rise and
live, and build again, setting a beacon of civilized freedom high as
the beacon we Americans are raising,... slowly yet surely raising, to
the glory of God, Scarlett--to the glory of God. No other dedication
can be justified in this world."