"Yes," thought Gamelin, "victory is ours. We have paid full price for it."
He could see the beaten Generals, disconsolate10 shades, trailing in the blood-stained dust of yonder Place de la Révolution where they perished. And he smiled proudly, reflecting that, but for the severities in which he had borne his share, the Austrian horses would to-day be gnawing11 the bark of the trees beside him.
He soliloquized:
"Life-giving terror, oh! blessed terror! Last year at this time, our heroic defenders12 were beaten and in rags, the soil of the fatherland was invaded, two-thirds of the departments in revolt. Now our armies, well equipped, well trained, commanded by able generals, are taking the offensive, ready to bear liberty through the world. Peace reigns13 over all the territory of the Republic.... Life-giving terror, oh! blessed terror! oh! saintly guillotine! Last year at this time, the Republic was torn with factions14, the hydra15 of Federalism threatened to devour16 her. Now a united Jacobinism spreads over the empire its might and its wisdom...."
Nevertheless, he was gloomy. His brow was deeply lined, his mouth bitter. His thoughts ran: "We used to say: To conquer or to die. We were wrong; it is to conquer and to die we ought to say."
He looked about him. Children were building sand-castles. Citoyennes in their wooden chairs under the trees were sewing or embroidering17. The passers-by, in coat and breeches of elegant cut and strange fashion, their thoughts fixed18 on their business or their pleasures, were making for home. And Gamelin felt himself alone amongst them; he was no compatriot, no contemporary of theirs. What was it had happened? How came the enthusiasm of the great years to have been succeeded by indifference19, weariness, perhaps disgust? It was plain to see, these people never wanted to hear the Revolutionary Tribunal spoken of again and averted20 their eyes from the guillotine. Grown too painful a sight in the Place de la Révolution, it had been banished21 to the extremity22 of the Faubourg Antoine. There even, the passage of the tumbrils was greeted with murmurs23. Voices, it was said, had been heard to shout: "Enough!"
Enough, when there were still traitors24, conspirators25! Enough, when the Committees must be reformed, the Convention purged26! Enough, when scoundrels disgraced the National representation. Enough, when they were planning the downfall of The Just! For, dreadful thought, but only too true! Fouquier himself was weaving plots, and it was to ruin Maximilien that he had sacrificed with solemn ceremony fifty-seven victims haled to death in the red sheet of parricides. France was giving way to pity—and pity was a crime! Then we should have saved her in spite of herself, and when she cried for mercy, stopped our ears and struck! Alas27! the fates had decided28 otherwise; the fatherland was for cursing its saviours29. Well, let it curse, if only it may be saved!
"It is not enough to immolate30 obscure victims, aristocrats31, financiers, publicists, poets, a Lavoisier, a Roucher, an André Chénier. We must strike these all-puissant malefactors who, with hands full of gold and dripping with blood, are plotting the ruin of the Mountain—the Fouchers, Talliens, Rovères, Carriers, Bourdons. We must deliver the State from all its enemies. If Hébert had triumphed, the Convention was overthrown32, the Republic hastening to the abyss; if Desmoulins and Danton had triumphed, the Convention had lost its virtue33, ready to surrender the Republic to the aristocrats, the money-jobbers and the Generals. If men like Tallien and Foucher, monsters gorged34 with blood and rapine, triumph, France is overwhelmed in a welter of crime and infamy35 ... Robespierre, awake; when criminals, drunken with fury and affright, plan your death and the death of freedom! Couthon, Saint-Just, make haste; why tarry ye to denounce the plots?
"Why! the old-time state, the Royal monster, assured its empire by imprisoning36 every year four hundred thousand persons, by hanging fifteen thousand, by breaking three thousand on the wheel—and the Republic still hesitates to sacrifice a few hundred heads for its security and domination! Let us drown in blood and save the fatherland...."
He was buried in these thoughts when élodie hurried up to him, pale-faced and distraught:
"évariste, what have you to say to me? Why not come to the Amour peintre to the blue chamber37? Why have you made me come here?"
"To bid you an eternal farewell."
He stopped her with a very slight movement of the hand:
"élodie, I cannot any more accept your love."
She begged him to walk on further; people could see them, overhear them, where they were.
He moved on a score of yards, and resumed, very quietly:
"I have made sacrifices to my country of my life and my honour. I shall die infamous39; I shall have naught40 to leave you, unhappy girl, save an execrated41 memory.... We, love? Can anyone love me still?... Can I love?"
She told him he was mad; that she loved him, that she would always love him. She was ardent43, sincere; but she felt as well as he, she felt better than he, that he was right. But she fought against the evidence of her senses.
He went on:
"I blame myself for nothing. What I have done, I would do again. I have made myself anathema44 for my country's sake. I am accursed. I have put myself outside humanity; I shall never re-enter its pale. No, the great task is not finished. Oh! clemency45, forgiveness!—Do the traitors forgive? Are the conspirators clement46? scoundrels, parricides multiply unceasingly; they spring up from underground, they swarm47 in from all our frontiers,—young men, who would have done better to perish with our armies, old men, children, women, with every mark of innocence48, purity, and grace. They are offered up a sacrifice,—and more victims are ready for the knife!... You can see, élodie, I must needs renounce49 love, renounce all joy, all sweetness of life, renounce life itself."
He fell silent. Born to taste tranquil50 joys, élodie not for the first time was appalled51 to find, under the tragic52 kisses of a lover like évariste, her voluptuous53 transports blended with images of horror and bloodshed; she offered no reply. To évariste the girl's silence was as a draught54 of a bitter chalice55.
"Yes, you can see, élodie, we are on a precipice56; our deeds devour us. Our days, our hours are years. I shall soon have lived a century. Look at this brow! Is it a lover's? Love!..."
"évariste, you are mine, I will not let you go; I will not give you back your freedom."
She was speaking in the language of sacrifice. He felt it; she felt it herself.
"Will you be able, élodie, one day to bear witness that I lived faithful to my duty, that my heart was upright and my soul unsullied, that I knew no passion but the public good; that I was born to feel and love? Will you say: 'He did his duty'? But no! You will not say it and I do not ask you to say it. Perish my memory! My glory is in my own heart; shame beleaguers57 me about. If you love me, never speak my name; eternal silence is best."
He lifted the boy suddenly in his arms:
"Child, you will grow up free, happy, and you will owe it to the infamous Gamelin. I am ferocious59, that you may be happy. I am cruel, that you may be kind; I am pitiless, that to-morrow all Frenchmen may embrace with tears of joy."
He pressed the child to his breast.
"Little one, when you are a man, you will owe your happiness, your innocence to me; and, if ever you hear my name uttered, you will execrate42 it."
Then he put down the child, which ran away in terror to cling to its mother's skirts, who had hurried up to the rescue. The young mother, who was pretty and charming in her aristocratic grace, with her gown of white lawn, carried off the boy with a haughty60 look.
Gamelin turned his eyes on élodie:
"I have held the child in my arms; perhaps I shall send the mother to the guillotine,"—and he walked away with long strides under the ordered trees.
élodie stood a moment motionless, her eyes fixed on the ground. Then, suddenly, she darted61 after her lover, and frenzied62, dishevelled, like a M?nad, she gripped him as if to tear him in pieces and cried in a voice choked with blood and tears:
"Well, then! me too, my beloved, send me to the guillotine; me too, lay me under the knife!"
And, at the thought of the knife at her neck, all her flesh melted in an ecstasy63 of horror and voluptuous transport.

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1
gendarmes
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n.宪兵,警官( gendarme的名词复数 ) | |
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2
rumbling
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n. 隆隆声, 辘辘声 adj. 隆隆响的 动词rumble的现在分词 | |
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3
pensive
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a.沉思的,哀思的,忧沉的 | |
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4
fiery
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adj.燃烧着的,火红的;暴躁的;激烈的 | |
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5
darts
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n.掷飞镖游戏;飞镖( dart的名词复数 );急驰,飞奔v.投掷,投射( dart的第三人称单数 );向前冲,飞奔 | |
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6
chestnuts
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n.栗子( chestnut的名词复数 );栗色;栗树;栗色马 | |
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7
everlasting
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adj.永恒的,持久的,无止境的 | |
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8
trumpet
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n.喇叭,喇叭声;v.吹喇叭,吹嘘 | |
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9
bawling
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v.大叫,大喊( bawl的现在分词 );放声大哭;大声叫出;叫卖(货物) | |
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10
disconsolate
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adj.忧郁的,不快的 | |
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11
gnawing
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a.痛苦的,折磨人的 | |
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12
defenders
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n.防御者( defender的名词复数 );守卫者;保护者;辩护者 | |
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13
reigns
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n.君主的统治( reign的名词复数 );君主统治时期;任期;当政期 | |
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14
factions
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组织中的小派别,派系( faction的名词复数 ) | |
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15
hydra
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n.水螅;难于根除的祸患 | |
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16
devour
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v.吞没;贪婪地注视或谛听,贪读;使着迷 | |
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17
embroidering
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v.(在织物上)绣花( embroider的现在分词 );刺绣;对…加以渲染(或修饰);给…添枝加叶 | |
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18
fixed
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adj.固定的,不变的,准备好的;(计算机)固定的 | |
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19
indifference
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n.不感兴趣,不关心,冷淡,不在乎 | |
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20
averted
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防止,避免( avert的过去式和过去分词 ); 转移 | |
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21
banished
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v.放逐,驱逐( banish的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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22
extremity
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n.末端,尽头;尽力;终极;极度 | |
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23
murmurs
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n.低沉、连续而不清的声音( murmur的名词复数 );低语声;怨言;嘀咕 | |
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24
traitors
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卖国贼( traitor的名词复数 ); 叛徒; 背叛者; 背信弃义的人 | |
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25
conspirators
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n.共谋者,阴谋家( conspirator的名词复数 ) | |
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26
purged
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清除(政敌等)( purge的过去式和过去分词 ); 涤除(罪恶等); 净化(心灵、风气等); 消除(错事等)的不良影响 | |
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27
alas
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int.唉(表示悲伤、忧愁、恐惧等) | |
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28
decided
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adj.决定了的,坚决的;明显的,明确的 | |
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29
saviours
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n.救助者( saviour的名词复数 );救星;救世主;耶稣基督 | |
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30
immolate
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v.牺牲 | |
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31
aristocrats
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n.贵族( aristocrat的名词复数 ) | |
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32
overthrown
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adj. 打翻的,推倒的,倾覆的 动词overthrow的过去分词 | |
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33
virtue
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n.德行,美德;贞操;优点;功效,效力 | |
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34
gorged
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v.(用食物把自己)塞饱,填饱( gorge的过去式和过去分词 );作呕 | |
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35
infamy
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n.声名狼藉,出丑,恶行 | |
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36
imprisoning
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v.下狱,监禁( imprison的现在分词 ) | |
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37
chamber
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n.房间,寝室;会议厅;议院;会所 | |
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38
faltered
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(嗓音)颤抖( falter的过去式和过去分词 ); 支吾其词; 蹒跚; 摇晃 | |
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39
infamous
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adj.声名狼藉的,臭名昭著的,邪恶的 | |
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40
naught
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n.无,零 [=nought] | |
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41
execrated
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v.憎恶( execrate的过去式和过去分词 );厌恶;诅咒;咒骂 | |
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42
execrate
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v.憎恶;厌恶;诅咒 | |
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43
ardent
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adj.热情的,热烈的,强烈的,烈性的 | |
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44
anathema
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n.诅咒;被诅咒的人(物),十分讨厌的人(物) | |
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45
clemency
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n.温和,仁慈,宽厚 | |
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46
clement
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adj.仁慈的;温和的 | |
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47
swarm
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n.(昆虫)等一大群;vi.成群飞舞;蜂拥而入 | |
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48
innocence
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n.无罪;天真;无害 | |
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49
renounce
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v.放弃;拒绝承认,宣布与…断绝关系 | |
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50
tranquil
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adj. 安静的, 宁静的, 稳定的, 不变的 | |
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51
appalled
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v.使惊骇,使充满恐惧( appall的过去式和过去分词)adj.惊骇的;丧胆的 | |
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52
tragic
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adj.悲剧的,悲剧性的,悲惨的 | |
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53
voluptuous
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adj.肉欲的,骄奢淫逸的 | |
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54
draught
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n.拉,牵引,拖;一网(饮,吸,阵);顿服药量,通风;v.起草,设计 | |
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55
chalice
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n.圣餐杯;金杯毒酒 | |
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56
precipice
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n.悬崖,危急的处境 | |
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57
beleaguers
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v.围攻( beleaguer的第三人称单数 );困扰;骚扰 | |
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58
hoop
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n.(篮球)篮圈,篮 | |
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59
ferocious
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adj.凶猛的,残暴的,极度的,十分强烈的 | |
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60
haughty
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adj.傲慢的,高傲的 | |
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61
darted
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v.投掷,投射( dart的过去式和过去分词 );向前冲,飞奔 | |
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62
frenzied
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a.激怒的;疯狂的 | |
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63
ecstasy
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n.狂喜,心醉神怡,入迷 | |
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