Part 9 (2/2)
”Can there be two opinions?” quoth Andre-Louis
”There are usually two opinions whenever you and I are together, Moreau--ate of a nobleman You see what your friends have done No doubt you approve their methods” He was coldly hostile
Andre-Louis looked at him without surprise So invariably opposed to each other in academic debates, how should Le Chapelier suspect his present intentions?
”If you won't tell them what is to be done, I will,” said he
”Nom de Dieu! If you want to invite a bullet from the other side, I shall not hinder you It may help to square the account”
Scarcely were the words out than he repented the up on to the plinth Alarmed now, for he could only suppose it to be Andre-Louis' intention to speak on behalf of Privilege, of which he was a publicly appointed representative, Le Chapelier clutched hiain
”Ah, that, no!” he was shouting ”Come down, you fool Do you think ill let you ruin everything by your clowning? Co his position by clutching one of the legs of the bronze horse, flung his voice like a bugle-note over the heads of that seething er!”
The effect was electric A stir ran, like a ripple over water, across that froth of upturned hureat silence they looked at this sli in the breeze, his neckcloth in disorder, his face white, his eyes on fire
Andre-Louis felt a sudden surge of exaltation as he realized by instinct that at one grip he had seized that crowd, and that he held it fast in the spell of his cry and his audacity
Even Le Chapelier, though still clinging to his ankle, had ceased to tug The reforh unshaken in his assumption of Andre-Louis'
intentions, was for a moment bewildered by the first note of his appeal
And then, slowly, impressively, in a voice that travelled clear to the ends of the square, the young lawyer of Gavrillac began to speak
”Shuddering in horror of the vile deed here perpetrated, my voice demands to be heard by you You have seen murder done under your eyes--the ave voice to the wrongs by which we are all oppressed Fearing that voice, shunning the truth as foul things shun the light, our oppressors sent their agents to silence him in death”
Le Chapelier released at last his hold of Andre-Louis' ankle, staring up at him the while in sheer amazement It seemed that the felloas in earnest; serious for once; and for once on the right side What had come to him?
”Of assassins what shall you look for but assassination? I have a tale to tell which will show that this is no new thing that you have witnessed here to-day; it will reveal to you the forces hich you have to deal Yesterday”
There was an interruption A voice in the crowd, some twenty paces, perhaps, was raised to shout:
”Yet another of them!”
Immediately after the voice caainst the bronze figure just behind Andre-Louis
Instantly there was turmoil in the crowd, most intense about the spot whence the shot had been fired The assailant was one of a considerable group of the opposition, a group that found itself at once beset on every side, and hard put to it to defend hi the voice of the studentsAndre-Louis to seek shelter
”Come down! Come down at once! They'll murder you as theywide his arhed ”I stand here at their mercy Let them, if they will, add mine to the blood that will presently rise up to choke them Let them assassinate me It is a trade they understand But until they do so, they shall not preventyou what is to be looked for in thehed, not merely in exaltation as they supposed atched him from below, but also in amusement And his alibly he uttered the phrases proper to whip up the emotions of a crowd: the other was in the remembrance of how the crafty Cardinal de Retz, for the purpose of infla popular sy fellows to fire upon his carriage He was in just such case as that arch-politician True, he had not hired the fellow to fire that pistol-shot; but he was none the less obliged to hie froht to protect that ry, heaving press
”Let theo!” Andre-Louis called down”What o, and listen to me, my countrymen!”