HOCHE [_to_ DE LAUNEY]. Listen 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. VINTIMILLE. There he is spouting about reason and conscience. These Rousseau monkeys. [_To_ DE FLUE.] My compliments! You made us a pretty present! DE FLUE. What present? VINTIMILLE. Your Jean-Jacques. You might at least have kept him in Switzerland. DE FLUE. We would have been glad to dispense with him ourselves. DE LAUNEY [_to_ HOCHE]. You are crazy. Did you ever hear of the stronger relinquishing their arms, from sheer good-heartedness, to the weaker? HOCHE. You are not the stronger. DE LAUNEY. Do you think these brave men, these twenty cannon, twenty chests of bullets, and thousands of rounds of ammunition, are nothing? HOCHE. You may kill a few hundred men. But what will that avail you? They will return thousands strong. DE LAUNEY. We shall be re-inforced. HOCHE. You will not be re-inforced. You might have been, but you were not. A king cannot murder his people; it would be not only murder but suicide. I tell you, you will be overcome. You display your artillery; you are used to the old-fashioned warfare, but you do not know the way we fight. You do not know what a freed nation is. War is only a game for you, because your hearts are not in it. Since Malplaquet, no one has taken an interest in the _Patrie._ You were friends of the enemy you fought, and were glad of the success of the King of Prussia. Victory is not a necessity for you. But we have no choice: we must conquer. [_To the Pensioners_.] Comrades, I know you well, and I respect you; you are fine old fellows. But when you fought, you were merely obeying orders; you do not know what it means to fight for yourself. [_To_ BÉQUART.] You yourself, Father Béquart--we all love you and admire your bravery--when you were at Prague, shut up with the enemy, you only defended your skin. We are fighting for our souls, and the souls of our sons and all the rest who will come after us. Do you hear the crowd outside? They are only a small part of our forces. Millions, all mankind to come, fight in our ranks, and make up that formidable and invisible mass which wins battles. DE FLUE. You make me tired. We'll sweep those invisible masses off the earth with a few cannon-shots. HOCHE. Do not fire. If you do, you are lost. A people is not a regular army; you can't let it loose without dire consequences.