Part 61 (2/2)
Thence he raised his voice, and, facing the soldiers, he shouted to them, ”Citizens!”
At this word a sort of electric shudder ensued which was felt from one barricade to the other. Every sound was hushed, every voice was silent, on both sides reigned a deep religious and solemn silence. By the distant glimmer of a few lighted windows the soldiers could vaguely distinguish a man standing above a ma.s.s of shadows, like a phantom who was speaking to them in the night.
Denis continued,--
”Citizens of the Army! Listen to me!”
The silence grew still more profound.
He resumed,--
”What have you come to do here? You and ourselves, all of us who are in this street, at this hour, with the sword or gun in hand, what are we about to do? To kill each other! To kill each other, citizens! Why?
Because they have raised a misunderstanding between us! Because we obey--you your discipline--we our Right! You believe that you are carrying out your instructions; as for us, we know that we are doing our duty. Yes! it is Universal Suffrage, it is the Right of the Republic, it is our Right that we are defending, and our Right, soldiers, is your Right. The Army is the People, as the People is the Army. We are the same nation, the some country, the same men. My G.o.d! See, is there any Russian blood in my veins, in me who am speaking to you? Is there any Prussian blood in your veins, in you who are listening to me? No! Why then should we fight? It is always an unfortunate thing for a man to fire upon a man. Nevertheless, a gun-shot between a Frenchman and an Englishman can be understood; but between a Frenchman and a Frenchman, ah! that wounds Reason, that wounds France, that wounds our mother!”
All anxiously listened to him. At this moment from the opposite barricade a voice shouted to him,--
”Go home, then!”
At this coa.r.s.e interruption an angry murmur ran through Denis's companions, and several guns could be heard being loaded. Denis restrained them by a sign.
This sign possessed a strange authority.
”Who is this man?” the combatants behind the barricade asked each other.
Suddenly they cried out,--
”He is a Representative of the People!”
Denis had, in fact, suddenly a.s.sumed his brother Gaston's sash.
What he had premeditated was about to be accomplished; the hour of the heroic falsehood had arrived. He cried out,--
”Soldiers, do you know what the man is who is speaking to you at this moment? He is not only a citizen, he is a Legislator! He is a Representative chosen by Universal Suffrage! My name is Dus...o...b.., and I am a Representative of the People. It is in the name of the National a.s.sembly, it is in the name of the Sovereign a.s.sembly, it is in the name of the People, and in the name of the Law, that I summon you to hear me.
Soldiers, you are the armed force. Well, then, when the Law speaks, the armed force listens.”
This time the silence was not broken.
We reproduce these words almost literally; such as they are, and such as they have remained graven on the memory of those who heard them; but what we cannot reproduce, and what should be added to these words, in order to realize the effect, is the att.i.tude, the accent, the thrill of emotion, the vibration of the words issuing from this n.o.ble breast, the intense impression produced by the terrible hour and place.
Denis Dus...o...b.. continued: ”He spoke for some twenty minutes,” an eye-witness has told me. Another has said, ”He spoke with a loud voice; the whole street heard him.” He was vehement, eloquent, earnest; a judge for Bonaparte, a friend for the soldiers. He sought to rouse them by everything which could still vibrate in them; he recalled to them their true wars, their true victories, the national glory, the ancient military honor, the flag. He told them that all this was about to be slain by the bullets from their guns. He adjured them, he ordered them to join themselves to the People and to the Law; and then suddenly coming back to the first words which he had p.r.o.nounced, carried away by that fraternity with which his soul overflowed, he interrupted himself in the middle of a half-completed sentence, and cried out:--
”But to what purpose are all these words? It is not all this that is wanted, it is a shake of the hand between brothers! Soldiers, you are there opposite us, at a hundred paces from us, in a barricade, with the sword drawn, with guns pointed; you are aiming directly at me; well then, all of us who are here love you! There is not one of us who would not give his life for one of you. You are the peasants of the fields of France; we are the workmen of Paris. What, then, is in question? Simply to see each other, to speak to each other, and not to cut each other's throats. Shall we try this? Say! Ah! as for myself in this frightful battle-field of civil war, I would rather die than kill. Look now, I am going to get off this barricade and come to you. I am unarmed; I only know that you are my brothers. I am confident, I am calm; and if one of you presents his bayonet at me, I will offer him my hand.”
He finished speaking.
A voice cried out from the opposite barricade, ”Advance in order!”
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