The thoughts of young Madame de Gromance were of a less generous kind. She had loved and deceived Gustave Dellion, and then she had loved him no longer. But as he removed her light pink-flowered cloak under the respectfully-lowered eyes of the head-waiter on the terrace of the “Belle Chocolatière,” Gustave muttered in her ears words that sounded strangely like “jade12” and “beastly strumpet.” She did not allow the least distress14 to appear on her face, but inwardly she thought him rather sweet, and felt that she was about to love him again. And Gustave thoughtfully realized that for the first time in his life he had spoken like a lover. He sat down solemnly beside Clotilde.
The dinner, which was the last of the season, was by no means a merry one. The sadness of farewell was felt and a certain Nationalist melancholy15. Doubtless they still hoped—what am I saying?—they still cherished infinite hopes, but it is painful, when one has everything, both men and money, to await the future, the dim, distant future, the realization16 of long-cherished desires and urgent ambitions. Joseph Lacrisse alone remained calm, thinking that he had done enough for his King in being elected municipal councillor by the Nationalist Republicans of the Grandes-écuries.
“Taking it altogether,” he said, “everything went very well at Longchamps on the 14th. The Army was cheered. There were shouts of ‘Hurrah17 for Jamont! Hurrah for Bougon!’ There was a great deal of enthusiasm.”
“Doubtless, doubtless,” said Henri Léon; “but Loubet returned unmolested to the élysée, and the day did not forward our affairs overmuch.”
Hugues Chassons des Aigues, who had a fresh scar on his nose—which was of the big and royal order—frowned and said proudly:
“I can tell you things were hot at the Cascades18. When the Socialists19 cheered the Republic and the Army——”
“The police,” put in Madame de Bonmont, “ought not to allow things to be shouted.”
“When the Socialists cheered the Republic and the Army we replied, ‘Long live the Army! Death to the Jews!’ The ‘white carnations,’ whom I had hidden in the crowd, rallied to my cry. They charged the ‘red eglantines’ under a hail of iron chairs. They were magnificent. But it was no good, the crowd would not respond. The Parisians had come with their wives and children, with baskets and string bags full of food, and the place swarmed20 with country cousins come to see the Exhibition. Old farmers with stiff legs who looked on with fishy21 eyes, peasant women in shawls, looking as scared as owls22! How could we stir up a family party of that sort?”
“Doubtless,” said Lacrisse, “the moment was ill-chosen. Besides, to a certain extent, we have to respect the Exhibition truce23.”
“All the same,” said Chassons des Aigues, “we hit pretty hard at the Cascades. I gave Citizen Bissolo a crack on the head that sent it down into his hump. I saw him fall to the ground; he looked just like a tortoise. Then, ‘Hurrah for the Army! Death to the Jews!’”
“Doubtless, doubtless,” said Henri Léon gravely. “But ‘Hurrah for the Army!’ and ‘Death to the Jews!’ is a trifle subtle for crowds. It is—if I may say so—too literary, too classical, and it is not sufficiently24 revolutionary. ‘Hurrah for the Army!’ It is fine, it is noble, it is proper, it is cold—yes, it is cold. Let me tell you, there is only one way to excite a crowd, and that is by panic. Believe me, the only way to get a mob of unarmed people on the run is to put fear into their bellies25. You should have run, crying—what shall I say?—‘Save yourselves! Look out! You are betrayed! Frenchmen, you are betrayed!’ If you had shouted that or something like it, in a lugubrious26 voice, running along the lawn, five hundred thousand people would have run along with you, would have run quicker than you, until they dropped. It would have been terrible and magnificent. You would have been knocked down and trampled27 to death, mashed28 to a pulp29, but you would have started the revolution.”
“Do you really think so?” asked Jacques de Cadde.
“I am certain of it,” replied Henri Léon. “‘Treachery!’ that is the true cry of riot, the cry that gives wings to the crowd and sets brave men and cowards alike going at the same pace, fills a hundred thousand hearts with one emotion and restores the use of his legs to the paralytic31. Ah, my dear Chassons, if you had shouted at Longchamps ‘We are betrayed!’ you would have seen your old screech-owl with her basket of hard-boiled eggs and her umbrella and your old fellow with the stiff legs running like hares.”
“Running where?” asked Lacrisse.
“I don’t know. Who knows where a panic-stricken crowd runs to? They don’t know themselves. But what does that matter? They’ve been set going, and that’s enough. You can’t cause riots with method. To occupy strategical points was well enough in the far-off days of Barbès and Blanqui, but to-day, what with the telegraph, telephone or merely the police and their bicycles, any sort of concerted action is out of the question. Can you see Jacques de Cadde occupying the police-station in the Rue30 de Grenelle, for instance? No. All that is possible nowadays is a vague, immense, tumultuous demonstration32. And fear, unanimous, tragical33 fear alone is capable of carrying away the enormous human masses that frequent public fêtes or open-air shows. You ask me where the crowd of the 14th of July would have run to, spurred on as by a big black flag at the cries of ‘Treachery! Treachery! The foreigner! Treachery!’ Where would they have run to? Into the lake, I suppose.”
“Into the lake,” repeated Jacques de Cadde. “Well, they would have been drowned, that’s all.”
“Well,” returned Henri Léon, “would thirty thousand drowned citizens have counted for nothing? Would not the Ministry34 and the Government have experienced serious difficulty and real danger in the matter? Wouldn’t that have been a good day’s work? Look here, you are no politicians. You don’t care a damn whether you overthrow35 the Republic or not.”
“You’ll see that after the Exhibition,” said young Cadde with the simplicity36 of faith. “I myself smashed one of them at Longchamps for a start.”
“Ah, you smashed one of them, did you?” asked young Dellion with interest. “What sort of a specimen37?”
“A mechanic. It would have been better if he had been a Senator, of course; but in a crowd you are more likely to chance on a workman.”
“What was your mechanic doing?” asked Léon.
“He was shouting ‘Hurrah for the Army!’ so I bashed him.”
Thereupon, fired with generous emulation38, young Dellion told them that on hearing a Socialist-Dreyfusard shout for Loubet, he had bashed his jaw39 for him.
“All goes well!” said Jacques de Cadde.
“There are some things that might go better,” said Hugues Chassons des Aigues. “Don’t let us be too pleased with ourselves. On July the 14th, Loubet, Waldeck, Millerand and André each returned home safe and sound. They would not have returned had my advice been heeded40. But no one will act, we are lacking in energy.”
Joseph Lacrisse answered gravely:
“No, no, we are not wanting in energy, but for the moment there’s nothing to be done. After the Exhibition we shall enter upon a vigorous course of action. It will be a favourable41 moment. After her fête France will be suffering from a bad head and a bad temper. There will be lock-outs and strikes. Nothing simpler than to provoke a Ministerial crisis, even a Presidential crisis. Don’t you agree with me, Léon?”
“Doubtless, doubtless,” replied Henri Léon. “But we must not forget that in three months’ time we shall be a little less numerous and Loubet a little less unpopular.”
Jacques de Cadde, Chassons des Aigues, Dellion, Lacrisse and all the Trublions tried to drown with their protestations so dismal42 a prediction, but in a very quiet voice Henri Léon proceeded:
“It is inevitable43. Loubet will become less unpopular daily. He was primarily disliked because of the reports that we spread about him, but he will not live up to all of them. He is not great enough to equal the picture we drew of him, to the terror of the crowd. We showed them a Loubet of a hundred cubits’ stature44, protecting the thieves in Parliament and destroying the Army. The reality will seem much less terrible. They will see that he does not always protect the thieves or disorganize the Army. He will hold reviews. That will produce an impression. He will ride in a carriage. That is more dignified45 than going on foot. He will bestow46 crosses and an abundance of academic palms, and those who receive the cross or the palms will refuse to believe that he intends to betray France. He will make tactful speeches; you may be sure of that; tactful because utterly47 inane48. If he wants to be acclaimed49 he has only to travel about. The country people will cheer for the President as he passes, just as though he were the kind-hearted tanner whose loss we all deplore50 because he loved the Army. And if the Russian alliance were pulled off—the bare idea of such a thing makes me shudder—you would see our Nationalist friends unharness his carriage and drag it through the streets. I don’t say he’s a genius, but he’s not a bigger fool than the rest of us, and he is trying to improve his position. That’s only natural. We want to overthrow him and he is wearing us out.”
“I defy him to wear us out,” cried young Cadde.
“Time alone will suffice to wear us out,” replied Henri Léon. “How fine our Municipal Council was on the evening of the poll that gave us the majority! ‘Hurrah for the Army! Death to the Jews!’ yelled the electors, drunk with joy, pride and love. And the successful candidates, beaming, replied, ‘Death to the Jews! Hurrah for the Army!’ But as the new Council can neither free the sons of the electors from military service nor distribute the money of the rich Jews among the small shopkeepers nor even spare the working-man the horrors of slack times, it will betray vast hopes and become as odious51 as it was once desirable. It will shortly run the risk of becoming unpopular over questions of monopoly, gas, water and omnibuses.”
“You are wrong, my dear Léon,” cried Joseph Lacrisse. “There is nothing to fear with regard to the renewal52 of monopolies. We say to the electors, ‘We are giving you cheap gas,’ and the electors will not complain. The Municipal Council of Paris, elected on an exclusively political programme, will exercise a decisive influence on the political and national crises that will follow immediately after the closing of the Exhibition.”
“Yes, but in order to do that,” said Chassons des Aigues, “it will have to place itself at the head of the revolutionary movement. If it is moderate, prudent53, conciliatory, considerate, all is lost. The Council must realize that it has been elected to overthrow and smash Parliamentarianism.”
“Little must be said, but that little to the point,” continued Chassons des Aigues.
“Blow the trumpet! Blow the trumpet!”
“A pledge, a simple pledge should be expressed from time to time. Such as: ‘Impeachment55 of the Ministers——’”
“Blow the trumpet! Blow the trumpet!” cried young Cadde louder than ever.
Chassons des Aigues tried to make him listen to reason.
“I am not opposed on principle to our friends sounding the hallali of the parliamentarians, but in public gatherings56 the trumpet is the supreme57 argument of the minority. We must keep it for the Luxembourg and Palais Bourbon. I should like to point out, my dear fellow, that at the H?tel de Ville we are in the majority.”
This consideration did not move young Cadde, who continued to vociferate:
“Blow the trumpet! Blow the trumpet! Do you know how to blow the trumpet, Lacrisse? If you don’t, I’ll teach you; it is quite essential for a municipal councillor to know how to blow the trumpet.”
“To resume,” said Chassons des Aigues, as solemn as a judge, “the first pledge of the Council should be the impeachment of the Ministers; the second, the impeachment of the Senators; and the third, the impeachment of the President of the Republic. After a few resolutions of this description the Ministry will proceed to the dissolution of the Council. The Council resists, and makes a vehement58 appeal to public opinion. Outraged59 Paris rises——”
“Do you think so?” asked Henri Léon quietly. “Do you really think, Chassons, that outraged Paris will rise?”
“I do think so,” replied Chassons des Aigues.
“I do not think so,” said Henri Léon. “You know Citizen Bissolo—since it was you who nearly brained him on the fourteenth of July at the review—I know him too. One night, on the boulevard, during a demonstration following the election of the deplorable Loubet, Citizen Bissolo came to me as the most constant and most generous of his enemies. We exchanged a few words. All our paid roughs were shouting at the top of their voices. Shouts of ‘Hurrah for the Army!’ resounded60 from the Bastille to the Madeleine. Smiling and amused, the passers-by were on our side. Bissolo stretched out his long hunchback’s arm like a scythe61 in the direction of the crowd and remarked: ‘I know the jade. Mount her, and she’ll break your back by suddenly lying down when you aren’t expecting it.’ Those were the words of Citizen Bissolo as we stood at the corner of the Rue Drouot on the day when Paris offered herself to us.”
“But this Bissolo of yours is a rogue,” cried Joseph Lacrisse. “He insults the people.”
“He is a prophet,” replied Henri Léon.
Young Jacques de Cadde chanted, in his thick voice:
“Blow the trumpet! It’s the only way!”
THE END.
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1
situated
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| adj.坐落在...的，处于某种境地的 | |
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militant
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| adj.激进的，好斗的；n.激进分子，斗士 | |
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relentless
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| adj.残酷的，不留情的，无怜悯心的 | |
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warriors
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| 武士，勇士，战士( warrior的名词复数 ) | |
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hatred
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| n.憎恶，憎恨，仇恨 | |
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premature
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| adj.比预期时间早的；不成熟的，仓促的 | |
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retirement
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| n.退休，退职 | |
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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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solely
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| adv.仅仅，唯一地 | |
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10
admiration
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| n.钦佩，赞美，羡慕 | |
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11
imposing
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| adj.使人难忘的，壮丽的，堂皇的，雄伟的 | |
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12
jade
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| n.玉石；碧玉；翡翠 | |
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trumpet
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| n.喇叭，喇叭声；v.吹喇叭，吹嘘 | |
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distress
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| n.苦恼，痛苦，不舒适；不幸；vt.使悲痛 | |
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melancholy
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| n.忧郁，愁思；adj.令人感伤（沮丧）的，忧郁的 | |
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realization
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| n.实现；认识到，深刻了解 | |
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hurrah
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| int.好哇，万岁，乌拉 | |
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cascades
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| 倾泻( cascade的名词复数 )； 小瀑布（尤指一连串瀑布中的一支）； 瀑布状物； 倾泻（或涌出）的东西 | |
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socialists
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| 社会主义者( socialist的名词复数 ) | |
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swarmed
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| 密集( swarm的过去式和过去分词 )； 云集； 成群地移动； 蜜蜂或其他飞行昆虫成群地飞来飞去 | |
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21
fishy
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| adj. 值得怀疑的 | |
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owls
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| n.猫头鹰( owl的名词复数 ) | |
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truce
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| n.休战，(争执，烦恼等的)缓和；v.以停战结束 | |
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sufficiently
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| adv.足够地，充分地 | |
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bellies
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| n.肚子( belly的名词复数 )；腹部；（物体的）圆形或凸起部份；腹部…形的 | |
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lugubrious
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| adj.悲哀的，忧郁的 | |
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trampled
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| 踩( trample的过去式和过去分词 )； 践踏； 无视； 侵犯 | |
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mashed
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| a.捣烂的 | |
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pulp
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| n.果肉，纸浆；v.化成纸浆，除去...果肉，制成纸浆 | |
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rue
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| n.懊悔，芸香，后悔；v.后悔，悲伤，懊悔 | |
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paralytic
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| adj. 瘫痪的 n. 瘫痪病人 | |
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32
demonstration
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| n.表明，示范，论证，示威 | |
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tragical
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| adj. 悲剧的, 悲剧性的 | |
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ministry
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| n.(政府的)部；牧师 | |
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overthrow
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| v.推翻，打倒，颠覆；n.推翻，瓦解，颠覆 | |
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simplicity
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| n.简单，简易；朴素；直率，单纯 | |
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specimen
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| n.样本，标本 | |
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emulation
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| n.竞争；仿效 | |
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39
jaw
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| n.颚，颌，说教，流言蜚语；v.喋喋不休，教训 | |
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40
heeded
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| v.听某人的劝告，听从( heed的过去式和过去分词 )；变平，使（某物）变平( flatten的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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41
favourable
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| adj.赞成的，称赞的，有利的，良好的，顺利的 | |
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dismal
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| adj.阴沉的，凄凉的，令人忧郁的，差劲的 | |
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43
inevitable
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| adj.不可避免的，必然发生的 | |
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44
stature
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| n.（高度）水平，（高度）境界，身高，身材 | |
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45
dignified
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| a.可敬的，高贵的 | |
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46
bestow
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| v.把…赠与，把…授予；花费 | |
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47
utterly
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| adv.完全地，绝对地 | |
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48
inane
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| adj.空虚的，愚蠢的，空洞的 | |
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49
acclaimed
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| adj.受人欢迎的 | |
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50
deplore
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| vt.哀叹，对...深感遗憾 | |
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51
odious
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| adj.可憎的，讨厌的 | |
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52
renewal
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| adj.(契约)延期，续订，更新，复活，重来 | |
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53
prudent
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| adj.谨慎的，有远见的，精打细算的 | |
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54
disdained
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| 鄙视( disdain的过去式和过去分词 )； 不屑于做，不愿意做 | |
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55
impeachment
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| n.弹劾；控告；怀疑 | |
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56
gatherings
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| 聚集( gathering的名词复数 )； 收集； 采集； 搜集 | |
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57
supreme
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| adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的 | |
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58
vehement
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| adj.感情强烈的；热烈的；(人)有强烈感情的 | |
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59
outraged
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| a.震惊的，义愤填膺的 | |
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60
resounded
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| v.（指声音等）回荡于某处( resound的过去式和过去分词 )；产生回响；（指某处）回荡着声音 | |
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61
scythe
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| n. 长柄的大镰刀，战车镰； v. 以大镰刀割 | |
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