A VOICE [_terrified_]. They're coming! They're coming! The cavalry! ONE OF GONCHON'S MEN [_in a strident voice_]. Run for your lives! [_Great confusion and shouting._] HULIN [_leaping upon the man who just shouted, and striking him on the head_]. Good God! [_To_ ROBESPIERRE.] Continue! [ROBESPIERRE _tries to go on, but his voice fails him.._ HOCHE _jumps up on the table beside_ ROBESPIERRE, _and reads with enthusiasm, which stirs the Crowd._] HOCHE. "The Nation is sovereign, and the government is its work.--When the government violates the rights of the nation, insurrection in that nation becomes the most sacred of duties.--Those who make war upon a people in order to arrest the progress of its liberty, ought to be attacked by all, not as ordinary enemies, but as rebel slaves who have lifted a hand against the Sovereign of the World, which is Mankind." [_Amid the wild acclamations,_ DESMOULINS, _hair waving in the wind and eyes aflame, jumps up on the table from which_ HOCHE _has just stepped down._] DESMOULINS. Liberty, liberty! It is now flying just above our heads. It bears me along with its sacred whirlwind. On to victory! Let us march with the wind of her wings! The day of bondage has passed--passed. Stand up, and let us send back the thunderbolt against the scoundrels who have the army! Against the King! [_The Crowd shouts:_ "_Against the King!_"] Look at me, spies! You are hidden here, I know. It is I, Camille Desmoulins, who incite Paris to revolt! I fear nothing: no matter what happens, they will never catch me alive. [_He displays a pistol which he has taken from his pocket_.] The only catastrophe I fear is to see France enslaved! But we shan't see that! It will be free with us, or die with us. Yes, like Virginius we will stab her with our own hands, rather than allow her to be violated by tyrants. Brothers, we will be free! We are already free! Against the Bastilles of stone we will offer our breasts, the unconquerable fortresses of Liberty! Look! The very heavens open, the gods are on our side. The sun tears open the clouds. See, the leaves on the trees tremble for joy! Oh, leaves that quiver with the life-blood of a people that is now awaking to life, be our rallying emblem, our pledge of victory; you are the color of hope, of the sea, of young and free Nature! [_He breaks off a small branch from a chestnut tree.] In hoc signo vinces._ Liberty! Liberty! THE PEOPLE. Liberty! [_They crowd about_ DESMOULINS, _embracing and kissing him._] LA CONTAT [_putting leaves in her hair_]. Oh, young Liberty! Bloom in my hair and flourish in my heart! [_She throws handfuls of leaves to the people._] Friends, deck yourselves with the cockades of summer! [_The Crowd strip the trees of their leaves._] THE OLD WOMAN SHOPKEEPER. Against the King! He was right! You must go to the King!--On to Versailles, my children! HULIN [_pointing to the_ OLD WOMAN _and_ LA CONTAT]. Now _they_ are more excited than the rest!