Ye are the best braggarts, and have sufficiently learned the art of making
dregs boil.
I believe, first, that neither a leader nor any decisive action can come out of the
dregs of a people.
My state of mind regarding the pilfering from which I had been so unexpectedly exonerated, did not impel me to frank disclosure; but I hope it had some
dregs of good at the bottom of it.
The truth was, the nation as a body was in the world for one object, and one only: to grovel before king and Church and noble; to slave for them, sweat blood for them, starve that they might be fed, work that they might play, drink misery to the
dregs that they might be happy, go naked that they might wear silks and jewels, pay taxes that they might be spared from pay- ing them, be familiar all their lives with the degrading language and postures of adulation that they might walk in pride and think themselves the gods of this world.
Armed men and women flocked out of the Quarter so fast, and drew even these last
dregs after them with such a force of suction, that within a quarter of an hour there was not a human creature in Saint Antoine's bosom but a few old crones and the wailing children.
Clots of blood had formed in the bruised and broken mass, in colour like the
dregs of wine.
But if you desire to drain to the
dregs the fullest cup of scorn and hatred that a fellow human creature can pour out for you, let a young mother hear you call dear baby "it."
Where I have but sipped and tasted, he drains the cup to the
dregs; and if ever for a moment I have sought to drown the voice of reflection in madness and folly, or if I have wasted too much of my time and talents among reckless and dissipated companions, God knows I would gladly renounce them entirely and for ever, if I had but half the blessings that man so thanklessly casts behind his back - but half the inducements to virtue and domestic, orderly habits that he despises - but such a home, and such a partner to share it!
The case of Duson will be sifted to the
dregs, but unless I am greatly mistaken, and I do not see room for the possibility of a mistake, I know the truth already."
When he had done, instead of feeling better, calmer, more enlightened by his discourse, I experienced an inexpressible sadness; for it seemed to me--I know not whether equally so to others--that the eloquence to which I had been listening had sprung from a depth where lay turbid
dregs of disappointment--where moved troubling impulses of insatiate yearnings and disquieting aspirations.
The tankards are on the side-table still, but the bossed silver is undimmed by handling, and there are no
dregs to send forth unpleasant suggestions: the only prevailing scent is of the lavender and rose-leaves that fill the vases of Derbyshire spar.
When he finally spoke his voice was as bitter as
dregs. "Oh, you're going to do great things, I s'pose!"