1. Whoever claims to be noble must conduct himself nobly.

2. (Figuratively) One must act in a fashion that conforms to one's position and privileges with which one has been born, bestowed and/or has earned. - [The Dictionnaire de l'Académie française.]

The War plays on, and the Butler is late for breakfast.

The rabid Baron vies for meat. The bleak Butcher stalks for rank.

The Baroness dances, kicking, to quash, as her haunted Daughter carries the tune on her viola.

And the Son, blinded by the fog, searches desperately for the last of any light left.

Another day breaks, and high above the corpses of the forgotten splayed in ashen gutters, noble vermin feed upon what is rotten.