The Count of Monte Cristo

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'These two children of a cruel and persecuting king, who have inherited
the vices of their father, which I alone could perceive in their
juvenile propensities--these two children are impediments in my way of
promoting the happiness of the English people, whose unhappiness they
(the children) would infallibly have caused.' Thus was Lady Macbeth
served by her conscience, when she sought to give her son, and not her
husband (whatever Shakespeare may say), a throne. Ah, maternal love is a
great virtue, a powerful motive--so powerful that it excuses a multitude
of things, even if, after Duncan's death, Lady Macbeth had been at all
pricked by her conscience."

Madame de Villefort listened with avidity to these appalling maxims and
horrible paradoxes, delivered by the count with that ironical simplicity
which was peculiar to him. After a moment's silence, the lady inquired,
"Do you know, my dear count," she said, "that you are a very terrible
reasoner, and that you look at the world through a somewhat distempered
medium? Have you really measured the world by scrutinies, or through