"Citizens," said Enjolras, "what that man did is frightful, and what
I have done is horrible; he killed, and that is why I killed, and
I was obliged to do so, as insurrection must have its discipline.
Assassination is even more of a crime here than elsewhere, for we stand
under the eye of the Revolution, we are the priests of the Republic,
we are the sacred victims to duty, and we must not do aught that would
calumniate our combat. I, therefore, tried and condemned this man to
death; for my part, constrained to do what I have done, but abhorring
it, I have also tried myself, and you will shortly see what sentence I
have passed."
All who listened trembled.
"We will share your fate," Combeferre exclaimed.
"Be it so!" Enjolras continued. "One word more. In executing that man
I obeyed Necessity; but Necessity is a monster of the old world, and
its true name is Fatality. Now, it is the law of progress that monsters
should disappear before angels, and Fatality vanish before Fraternity.
It is a bad moment to utter the word love; but no matter, I utter it,
and I glorify it. Love, thou hast a future; Death, I make use of thee,
but I abhor thee. Citizens, in the future there will be no darkness,
no thunderclaps; neither ferocious ignorance nor bloodthirsty
retaliation; and as there will be no Satan left, there will be no Saint
Michael. In the future no man will kill another man; the earth will be
radiant, and the human race will love. The day will come, citizens,
when all will be concord, harmony, light, joy, and life, and we are
going to die in order that it may come."
Enjolras was silent, his virgin lips closed, and he stood for some
time at the spot where he had shed blood, in the motionlessness of a
marble statue. His fixed eyes caused people to talk in whispers around
him. Jean Prouvaire and Combeferre shook their heads silently, and
leaning against each other in an angle of the barricade, gazed, with
an admiration in which there was compassion, at this grave young man,
who was an executioner and priest, and had, at the same time, the
light and the hardness of crystal. Let us say at once, that after the
action, when the corpses were conveyed to the Morgue and searched, a
police-agent's card was found on Le Cabuc; the author of this work had
in his hands, in 1848, the special report on this subject made to the
Prefect of Police in 1832. Let us add that, if we may believe a strange
but probably well-founded police tradition, Le Cabuc was Claquesous. It
is certainly true that after the death of Cabuc, Claquesous was never
heard of again, and left no trace of his disappearance. He seemed to
have become amalgamated with the invisible; his life had been gloom,
and his end was night.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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