WHILST the wind of anger and hatred3 blew in Alca, Eugine Bidault–Coquille, poorest and happiest of astronomers4, installed in an old steam-engine of the time of the Draconides, was observing the heavens through a bad telescope, and photographing the paths of the meteors upon some damaged photographic plates. His genius corrected the errors of his instruments and his love of science triumphed over the worthlessness of his apparatus6. With an inextinguishable ardour he observed aerolites, meteors, and fire-balls, and all the glowing ruins and blazing sparks which pass through the terrestrial atmosphere with prodigious7 speed, and as a reward for his studious vigils he received the indifference8 of the public, the ingratitude9 of the State and the blame of the learned societies. Engulfed10 in the celestial11 spaces he knew not what occurred upon the surface of the earth. He never read the newspapers, and when he walked through the town his mind was occupied with the November asteroids12, and more than once he found himself at the bottom of a pond in one of the public parks or beneath the wheels of a motor omnibus.
Elevated in stature13 as in thought he respected himself and others. This was shown by his cold politeness as well as by a very thin black frock coat and a tall hat which gave to his person an appearance at once emaciated14 and sublime15. He took his meals in a little restaurant from which all customers less intellectual than himself had fled, and thenceforth his napkin bound by its wooden ring rested alone in the abandoned rack.
In this cook-shop his eyes fell one evening upon Colomban’s memorandum16 in favour of Pyrot. He read it as he was cracking some bad nuts and suddenly, exalted17 with astonishment18, admiration19, horror, and pity, he forgot all about falling meteors and shooting stars and saw nothing but the innocent man hanging in his cage exposed to the winds of heaven and the ravens20 perching upon it.
That image did not leave him. For a week he had been obsessed21 by the innocent convict, when, as he was leaving his cook-shop, he saw a crowd of citizens entering a public-house in which a public meeting was going on. He went in. The meeting was disorderly; they were yelling, abusing one another and knocking one another down in the smoke-laden hall. The Pyrotists and the Anti–Pyrotists spoke22 in turn and were alternately cheered and hissed23 at. An obscure and confused enthusiasm moved the audience. With the audacity24 of a timid and retired25 man Bidault–Coquille leaped upon the platform and spoke for three-quarters of an hour. He spoke very quickly, without order, but with vehemence26, and with all the conviction of a mathematical mystic. He was cheered. When he got down from the platform a big woman of uncertain age, dressed in red, and wearing an immense hat trimmed with heroic feathers, throwing herself into his arms, embraced him, and said to him:
“You are splendid!”
He thought in his simplicity27 that there was some truth in the statement.
She declared to him that henceforth she would live but for Pyrot’s defence and Colomban’s glory. He thought her sublime and beautiful. She was Maniflore, a poor old courtesan, now forgotten and discarded, who had suddenly become a vehement28 politician.
She never left him. They spent glorious hours together in doss-houses and in lodgings29 beautified by their love, in newspaper offices, in meeting-halls and in lecture-halls. As he was an idealist, he persisted in thinking her beautiful, although she gave him abundant opportunity of seeing that she had preserved no charm of any kind. From her past beauty she only retained a confidence in her capacity for pleasing and a lofty assurance in demanding homage30. Still, it must be admitted that this Pyrot affair, so fruitful in prodigies31, invested Maniflore with a sort of civic32 majesty33, and transformed her, at public meetings, into an august symbol of justice and truth.
Bidault–Coquille and Maniflore did not kindle34 the least spark of irony35 or amusement in a single Anti–Pyrotist, a single defender36 of Greatauk, or a single supporter of the army. The gods, in their anger, had refused to those men the precious gift of humour. They gravely accused the courtesan and the astronomer5 of being spies, of treachery, and of plotting against their country. Bidault–Coquille and Maniflore grew visibly greater beneath insult, abuse, and calumny37.
For long months Penguinia had been divided into two camps and, though at first sight it may appear strange, hitherto the socialists had taken no part in the contest. Their groups comprised almost all the manual workers in the country, necessarily scattered39, confused, broken up, and divided, but formidable. The Pyrot affair threw the group leaders into a singular embarrassment40. They did not wish to place themselves either on the side of the financiers or on the side of the army. They regarded the Jews, both great and small, as their uncompromising opponents. Their principles were not at stake, nor were their interests concerned in the affair. Still the greater number felt how difficult it was growing for them to remain aloof41 from struggles in which all Penguinia was engaged.
Their leaders called a sitting of their federation42 at the Rue43 de la Queue-du-diable-St. Mael, to take into consideration the conduct they ought to adopt in the present circumstances and in future eventualities.
Comrade Phoenix44 was the first to speak.
“A crime,” said he, “the most odious45 and cowardly of crimes, a judicial46 crime, has been committed. Military judges, coerced47 or misled by their superior officers, have condemned48 an innocent man to an infamous49 and cruel punishment. Let us not say that the victim is not one of our own party, that he belongs to a caste which was, and always will be, our enemy. Our party is the party of social justice; it can look upon no iniquity50 with indifference.
“It would be a shame for us if we left it to Kerdanic, a radical51, to Colomban, a member of the middle classes, and to a few moderate Republicans, alone to proceed against the crimes of the army. If the victim is not one of us, his executioners are our brothers’ executioners, and before Greatauk struck down this soldier he shot our comrades who were on strike.
“Comrades, by an intellectual, moral and material effort you must rescue Pyrot from his torment52, and in performing this generous act you are not turning aside from the liberating53 and revolutionary task you have undertaken, for Pyrot has become the symbol of the oppressed and of all the social iniquities54 that now exist; by destroying one you make all the others tremble.”
When Phoenix ended, comrade Sapor spoke in these terms:
“You are advised to abandon your task in order to do something with which you have no concern. Why throw yourselves into a conflict where, on whatever side you turn, you will find none but your natural, uncompromising, even necessary opponents? Are the financiers to be less hated by us than the army? What inept55 and criminal generosity56 is it that hurries you to save those seven hundred Pyrotists whom you will always find confronting you in the social war?
“It is proposed that you act the part of the police for your enemies, and that you are to re-establish for them the order which their own crimes have disturbed. Magnanimity pushed to this degree changes its name.
“Comrades, there is a point at which infamy57 becomes fatal to a society. Penguin38 society is being strangled by its infamy, and you are requested to save it, to give it air that it can breathe. This is simply turning you into ridicule58.
“Leave it to smother59 itself and let us gaze at its last convulsions with joyful60 contempt, only regretting that it has so entirely61 corrupted62 the soil on which it has been built that we shall find nothing but poisoned mud on which to lay the foundations of a new society.”
When Sapor had ended his speech comrade Lapersonne pronounced these few words:
“Phoenix calls us to Pyrot’s help for the reason that Pyrot is innocent. It seems to me that that is a very bad reason. If Pyrot is innocent he has behaved like a good soldier and has always conscientiously63 worked at his trade, which principally consists in shooting the people. That is not a motive64 to make the people brave all dangers in his defence. When it is demonstrated to me that Pyrot is guilty and that he stole the army hay, I shall be on his side.”
Comrade Larrivee afterwards spoke.
“I am not of my friend, Phoenix’s opinion but I am not with my friend Sapor either. I do not believe that the party is bound to embrace a cause as soon as we are told that that cause is just. That, I am afraid, is a grievous abuse of words and a dangerous equivocation65. For social justice is not revolutionary justice. They are both in perpetual antagonism66: to serve the one is to oppose the other. As for me, my choice is made. I am for revolutionary justice as against social justice. Still, in the present case I am against abstention. I say that when a lucky chance brings us an affair like this we should be fools not to profit by it.
“How? We are given an opportunity of striking terrible, perhaps fatal, blows against militarism. And am I to fold my arms? I tell you, comrades, I am not a fakir, I have never been a fakir, and if there are fakirs here let them not count on me. To sit in meditation67 is a policy without results and one which I shall never adopt.
“A party like ours ought to be continually asserting itself. It ought to prove its existence by continual action. We will intervene in the Pyrot affair but we will intervene in it in a revolutionary manner; we will adopt violent action. . . . Perhaps you think that violence is old-fashioned and superannuated68, to be scrapped69 along with diligences, hand-presses and aerial telegraphy. You are mistaken. To-day as yesterday nothing is obtained except by violence; it is the one efficient instrument. The only thing necessary is to know how to use it. You ask what will our action be? I will tell you: it will be to stir up the governing classes against one another, to put the army in conflict with the capitalists, the government with the magistracy, the nobility and clergy70 with the Jews, and if possible to drive them all to destroy one another. To do this would be to carry on an agitation71 which would weaken government in the same way that fever wears out the sick.
“The Pyrot affair, little as we know how to turn it to advantage, will put forward by ten years the growth of the Socialist1 party and the emancipation72 of the proletariat, by disarmament, the general strike, and revolution.”
The leaders of the party having each expressed a different opinion, the discussion was continued, not without vivacity73. The orators74, as always happens in such a case, reproduced the arguments they had already brought forward, though with less order and moderation than before. The dispute was prolonged and none changed his opinion. But these opinions, in the final analysis, were reduced to two, that of Sapor and Lapersonne who advised abstention, and that of Phoenix and Larrivee, who wanted intervention75. Even these two contrary opinions were united in a common hatred of the heads of the army and of their justice, and in a common belief in Pyrot’s innocence76. So that public opinion was hardly mistaken in regarding all the Socialist leaders as pernicious Anti–Pyrotists.
As for the vast masses in whose name they spoke and whom they represented as far as speech can express the inexpressible — as for the proletarians whose thought is difficult to know and who do not know it themselves, it seemed that the Pyrot affair did not interest them. It was too literary for them, it was in too classical a style, and had an upper-middle-class-class and high-finance tone about it that did not please them much.
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1
socialist
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| n.社会主义者；adj.社会主义的 | |
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socialists
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| 社会主义者( socialist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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astronomers
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| n.天文学者，天文学家( astronomer的名词复数 ) | |
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astronomer
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| n.天文学家 | |
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apparatus
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| n.装置，器械；器具，设备 | |
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prodigious
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| adj.惊人的，奇妙的；异常的；巨大的；庞大的 | |
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indifference
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| n.不感兴趣，不关心，冷淡，不在乎 | |
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ingratitude
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| n.忘恩负义 | |
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engulfed
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| v.吞没，包住( engulf的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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celestial
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| adj.天体的；天上的 | |
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asteroids
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| n.小行星( asteroid的名词复数 )；海盘车，海星 | |
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stature
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| n.（高度）水平，（高度）境界，身高，身材 | |
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emaciated
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| adj.衰弱的，消瘦的 | |
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sublime
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| adj.崇高的，伟大的；极度的，不顾后果的 | |
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memorandum
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| n.备忘录，便笺 | |
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exalted
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| adj.(地位等)高的，崇高的；尊贵的，高尚的 | |
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astonishment
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| n.惊奇，惊异 | |
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admiration
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| n.钦佩，赞美，羡慕 | |
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ravens
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| n.低质煤；渡鸦( raven的名词复数 ) | |
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obsessed
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| adj.心神不宁的,鬼迷心窍的,沉迷的 | |
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spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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hissed
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| 发嘶嘶声( hiss的过去式和过去分词 )； 发嘘声表示反对 | |
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audacity
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| n.大胆，卤莽，无礼 | |
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retired
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| adj.隐退的，退休的，退役的 | |
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vehemence
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| n.热切；激烈；愤怒 | |
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simplicity
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| n.简单，简易；朴素；直率，单纯 | |
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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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lodgings
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| n. 出租的房舍, 寄宿舍 | |
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homage
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| n.尊敬，敬意，崇敬 | |
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prodigies
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| n.奇才，天才（尤指神童）( prodigy的名词复数 ) | |
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civic
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| adj.城市的，都市的，市民的，公民的 | |
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majesty
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| n.雄伟，壮丽，庄严，威严；最高权威，王权 | |
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kindle
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| v.点燃，着火 | |
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irony
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| n.反语，冷嘲；具有讽刺意味的事，嘲弄 | |
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defender
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| n.保卫者，拥护者，辩护人 | |
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calumny
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| n.诽谤，污蔑，中伤 | |
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penguin
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| n.企鹅 | |
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scattered
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| adj.分散的，稀疏的；散步的；疏疏落落的 | |
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embarrassment
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| n.尴尬；使人为难的人(事物)；障碍；窘迫 | |
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aloof
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| adj.远离的；冷淡的，漠不关心的 | |
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federation
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| n.同盟，联邦，联合，联盟，联合会 | |
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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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phoenix
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| n.凤凰，长生(不死)鸟；引申为重生 | |
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odious
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| adj.可憎的，讨厌的 | |
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judicial
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| adj.司法的，法庭的，审判的，明断的，公正的 | |
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coerced
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| v.迫使做( coerce的过去式和过去分词 )；强迫；（以武力、惩罚、威胁等手段）控制；支配 | |
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48
condemned
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| adj. 被责难的, 被宣告有罪的 动词condemn的过去式和过去分词 | |
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infamous
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| adj.声名狼藉的，臭名昭著的，邪恶的 | |
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iniquity
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| n.邪恶；不公正 | |
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51
radical
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| n.激进份子，原子团，根号；adj.根本的，激进的，彻底的 | |
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52
torment
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| n.折磨；令人痛苦的东西(人)；vt.折磨；纠缠 | |
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53
liberating
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| 解放，释放( liberate的现在分词 ) | |
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54
iniquities
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| n.邪恶( iniquity的名词复数 )；极不公正 | |
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inept
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| adj.不恰当的，荒谬的，拙劣的 | |
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56
generosity
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| n.大度，慷慨，慷慨的行为 | |
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infamy
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| n.声名狼藉，出丑，恶行 | |
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ridicule
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| v.讥讽，挖苦；n.嘲弄 | |
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smother
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| vt./vi.使窒息；抑制；闷死；n.浓烟；窒息 | |
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joyful
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| adj.欢乐的，令人欢欣的 | |
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entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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corrupted
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| （使）败坏( corrupt的过去式和过去分词 )； （使）腐化； 引起（计算机文件等的）错误； 破坏 | |
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conscientiously
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| adv.凭良心地；认真地，负责尽职地；老老实实 | |
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motive
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| n.动机，目的；adv.发动的，运动的 | |
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equivocation
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| n.模棱两可的话，含糊话 | |
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antagonism
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| n.对抗，敌对，对立 | |
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meditation
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| n.熟虑，（尤指宗教的）默想，沉思，（pl.）冥想录 | |
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superannuated
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| adj.老朽的，退休的；v.因落后于时代而废除，勒令退学 | |
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scrapped
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| 废弃(scrap的过去式与过去分词)； 打架 | |
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clergy
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| n.[总称]牧师，神职人员 | |
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agitation
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| n.搅动；搅拌；鼓动，煽动 | |
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emancipation
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| n.（从束缚、支配下）解放 | |
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vivacity
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| n.快活，活泼，精神充沛 | |
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orators
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| n.演说者，演讲家( orator的名词复数 ) | |
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intervention
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| n.介入，干涉，干预 | |
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innocence
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| n.无罪；天真；无害 | |
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