Page:Rolland - Two Plays of the French Revolution.djvu/116

110 [to  to me, Monseigneur. You can prevent the carnage. We hold nothing against you personally, but against this mass of  stone, which has for centuries weighed heavy on the  people of Paris. Blind power is no less shameful to those who impose it than for those against whom it is  directed. It is disgusting to every one who reasons. You who are more intelligent than we, ought to feel that and suffer more than we. Help us, do not fight against us. Reason, for which we are fighting, is as much your own as ours. Give up this prison of your own accord; don't force us to capture it.

he is spouting about reason and conscience. These Rousseau monkeysTo . compliments! You made us a pretty present!

present?

Jean-Jacques. You might at least have kept him in Switzerland.

would have been glad to dispense with him ourselves.

[to  are crazy. Did you ever hear of the stronger relinquishing their arms, from sheer good-heartedness, to the weaker?

are not the stronger.

you think these brave men, these twenty cannon, twenty chests of bullets, and thousands of rounds of ammunition, are nothing?

may kill a few hundred men. But what will that avail you? They will return thousands strong.

shall be re-inforced.