CHAPTER XI.
"WAIT AND HOPE."
Just then a light rap was heard at the private door, which Marrastimmediately hastened to open, as if in anticipation of the arrival of afriend.
A brief and rapid colloquy ensued; then M. Dantes, the Deputy fromMarseilles, was introduced. He seemed acquainted with, and to be held inhigh regard by all present. His dress, as usual, was black, with a whitecravat, and his manner and bearing had all that magnetism and dignitywhich so deeply impressed those he met.
"I find you in private conference, do I not, Messieurs?" asked he,glancing around with a smile. "I pray you let me not interrupt. I havecalled but for a moment to speak with M. Marrast respecting a measure inthe Chamber, and have consented to enter only at his solicitation."
"You are right, M. Dantes," replied Marrast, "in supposing us engaged ina private conference, and upon matters of deep import, thoughconferences in this office can never be so private or so important asnot to derive benefit from the presence and counsel of the Deputy fromMarseilles."
"Most true," observed Louis Blanc; "and so far from intrusion do weview your arrival that we can but consider it most opportune that wehave the privilege of referring to you a question on which, between us,especially between our friend Marrast and myself, there seems somelittle diversity of sentiment."
"It would, I fear," said M. Dantes, "be unpardonable arrogance in one soyoung as I am in the great cause of human liberty to offer counsel toyou, who are all veterans, and most of you little less than martyrs toyour enthusiasm. But no good citizen will shrink from the responsibilityof declaring the results of his reflections on all topics which havereference to the general weal."
"We differ mainly in this," said Marrast: "Louis Blanc attributes theRepublican failures of the past ten years to prematurity and want ofpreparation in our attempts, and contends that all those reverses may beretrieved by patience and prudence in future, while, to my mind, thereis nothing to indicate for the future, from the same causes, differentresults than those experienced in the past."
"Concert of action," said M. Dantes, mildly, "is always an indispensablerequisite in the accomplishment of every enterprise which relies for itssuccess on association, or the combined efforts of individuals laboringfor a common end; yet, with all the concert of action which can possiblybe attained, the best arranged and best digested scheme in the world maybe ruined by premature movement. Of this we surely have sad proof in thehistory of the past ten years alluded to. There is something of truthin the declaration so frequently made that the French people are not yetprepared for freedom. If this be so, then it is the duty of theirfriends to prepare them. It is folly to suppose that the masses should,at first, intuitively know all their rights and the best mode ofvindicating them. This they must be taught; and, to this end, the pressshould be unceasingly at work, not only all over France, but all overEurope, in diffusing correct views upon life and labor, and politicalrights and powers. There should be, also, concert of action among thefriends of freedom, and clubs should at once be instituted in everycity, town and village in France, which should be in private andintimate correspondence with similar clubs at Paris and in all thecapitals of Christendom. There should, likewise, be unity of actionintroduced among the masses themselves. In a city like Paris, and amonga people like the French, secret signals can easily be arranged, bywhich, at any hour of the night, or of the day, fifty thousand laborersin their blouses might be concentrated at any point where their presenceis required, and that, too, with arms in their hands furnished fromsecret arsenals; and thus would those pitiable slaughters of helplessinsurgents, like those of sheep in the shambles, we have so oftenwitnessed, be avoided, if nothing besides were gained. The people areever but too ready to pour out their blood, and the most difficult anddelicate task in our enterprise is, after all, to restrain them--toimpress upon them the all important maxim, without which nothing great,good or enduring is achieved, those three words in which all humanwisdom is contained, 'Wait and hope.'"
"And for what are we to wait and hope, for which we have not already invain waited and hoped the past ten years?" asked Marrast.
"The true hour to strike!" was the firm answer.
"And that hour, when will it come?"
"It may come quickly, as it will come surely, soon or late! It cannot bethat the Revolution of July should continue much longer to result in thesolemn mockery it has. It cannot be that its friends should much longerbe withheld from those by whom it was achieved, only to aggrandize oneold man and his sons. It cannot be that the unmitigated and disgustingselfism of Louis Philippe, and his efforts to ally himself with everycrowned head in Europe--not for the glory of France, but for hisown--will much longer be overlooked or their perils masked. Theappanages grasped by himself--the dotation and bridal outfit of the Dukeof Orleans--the dotation sought for the Duke of Nemours, and hisappointment as Regent during the minority of the Count of Paris--theGovernorship of Algeria bestowed on the youthful and inexperiencedAumale, to the insult of so many brave and victorious generals--thenaval supremacy, to which has been exalted the ambitious Joinville, andhis union to the opulent Brazilian Princess--the effort to unite theyoung Montpensier with the Infanta of Spain--the environment of Pariswith Bastilles, with the avowed purpose of fortifying order by turningthe ordnance which should protect into enginery of destruction--animmense standing army--the notorious corruption of officials, and theaudacious dabbling of Ministers in the stocks, if not the King himself,by means of information obtained by the Government telegraph, andwithheld from the people, or of information manufactured by thetelegraph designed to affect the Bourse--the unprecedented number ofplacemen occupying seats in the Chamber of Deputies, yet receivingexorbitant salaries as incumbents of civil offices, one man being oftenin receipt of the salaries of several offices, though performing theduties of none--the fact that Ministers have maintained majorities byunblushing bribery in elections--that hardly one man in two hundred isan elector--the profligate arts of corruption by which every able man isbought by the Court--the disgraceful censorship of the press and thedrama--the enormous appropriations for the civil list, wrung out bygrinding taxes from the toil and sweat of millions--the absurdassumption, yet the monstrous power, over the press and its conductors,of that conclave of hoary dotards called the Chamber of Peers--the utterand most impious disregard of the deprivation and misery of theoperative and laborer, although arrayed side by side with the insolenceand wealth pampered by the taxes torn from themselves--the totalforgetfulness of the self-evident truth of the right of all men tolabor, unrestricted by the baleful influences of the competition ofcapitalists--these facts, properly urged and set forth by the press,from the tribune and in the clubs, in connection with due enlightenmentof the masses upon their rights as to labor and its reward and the dutyof government thereupon could not fail to prepare the popular mind, allover France, and all over Europe, for reform--for revolution."
"Unquestionably," cried Louis Blanc, "such would be the effect; and itwould not only prepare the people for reform, and stimulate them toobtain it, but it would make them Republicans--trueRepublicans--American Republicans! The Americans do not plume themselveson the title citizen, but they work; they dispute little about words,but clear their lands; they do not talk of exterminating anybody, butthey cover the sea with their ships, they construct immense canals,roads and steamers without jabbering at every stroke of the spade aboutthe rights of man. With them, labor, merit, talent and honest opulenceare honored and rewarded aristocracies. Such Republicans would furnishFrance more Washingtons, Jeffersons and Madisons, and fewerRobespierres, Dantons and Marats!"
"There can be no doubt," remarked Flocon, "that the paramount interestin a republic is that of those who work, that the labor question is ofsupreme importance, that the profound problem now submitted to theindustrial nations of Christendom demands satisfactory solution, andthat the long-enduring and most iniquitous miseries of those who toilmust cease. Reform, revolution and government which achie
ve not these,achieve nothing! They would be worse than useless. The measuressuggested by our distinguished friend seem to me eminently calculated toattain the consummation we desire."
"A good government must and always will systematically uphold the poor,and ever interpose to protect the weak against the strong," said LouisBlanc. "The state should be tutelary for the ignorant, the poor and thesuffering of every description. We must have a guardian government--agovernment that will accord the aid of that mighty engine, credit, notto the rich only, but also to the poor. It must interpose likewise inthe matter of industry, and exclude that antagonistical principle ofcompetition--the poisoned fount of so much virulence, violence and ruin.Our maxim is, brothers, and in this do we all concur, 'HumanSolidarity,' and our motto, 'Unity, Liberty, Equality and Fraternity.'All men are of one family, and once thoroughly sensible of this kindred,discord, hate and selfism will no longer be possible."
"The views advanced," said Ledru Rollin, "so far as they tend to theelevation of the masses and to popular preparation for reform,Republicanism or revolution, have my most cordial approval; but I wouldbeg to ask how long are the people to 'wait and hope?' When is to comethe hour to strike?"
"Who can tell," said M. Dantes, in his low, clear and musical tones,"at what moment the breath will come which may hurl on its errand ofdevastation the avalanche which the snows and suns of centuries,perchance, have been preparing for its awful mission? In the stillnessof the night-time, beneath the clear blue sky of summer, or amid theravings of the midnight tempest, its dread march is ordered, and inresistless, crushing sublimity it begins to move on to accomplish itsterrible errand. Who may predict the precise moment when the earthquakeshall rock, the tornado sweep, the red lightning scathe, or the lavaflood desolate? And who shall tell the day or the hour when the people,in their majesty and might, shall rise to avenge their wrongs? Thesnow-flake falls fleecily on the mountain's top through many a long andsilent night; a land green as Eden smiles over the volcano; through manya calm and sunny day the electric flame gathers in the firmament! Atlength, when least expected, the avalanche sweeps, the volcano bursts,the red bolt strikes. France is the victim of many wrongs. Which one ofthem shall prove the last drop in her cup of bitterness we know not.France is divided into many political sects, and all but one aim atrevolution. Which one of all shall it be to set the ball of revolutionin motion? The Legitimists, who consider the Duke of Bordeaux therightful heir, and Louis Philippe a usurper; the Bonapartists, who thinkthey evoke the great shade of Napoleon in the person of his unworthydescendant; or the old Republicans? As for the Conservatives, let themwith Guizot at their head, uphold themselves if they can, and let thedynasties under Barrot and Thiers overthrow and succeed their factionalfoes. Their petty quarrels we care not for. Nor shall we, theCommunists, ever suffer ourselves to be deemed the revolutionary party;but the revolution once commenced, let us throw ourselves into itstorrent, and with our thorough, perfect and secret organization, wecannot fail to shape it most successfully to our own, our righteousends. The hour when revolution may commence we cannot predict, as it isnot our policy to start or precipitate it; but that hour may comequickly. It must come on the demise of Louis Philippe, which eventcannot be long delayed, and it may be precipitated before. Nor willFrance alone be convulsed. As the news of that old man's death, on thelightning's wing, spreads over Europe, the electric wire will prove buta train passing through repeated mines, which, one after the other, willexplode with awful devastation. Berlin, Vienna and St. Petersburg, thestrongholds of despotism in Europe, each will totter--all but the lastwill fall. The press is powerless on the Russian serf. Russia will bethe tyrant's last citadel. Italy will throw off the Austrian yoke and befree. Gregory XVIII. will shortly die. A wise, far-seeing and benevolentpriest, named Giovanni Maria Mastai Ferretti, born at Sinigaglia, andnow a cardinal, with the title of SS. Peter and Marcellinus, willsucceed to the Papal See, and Italy will be a republic; Genoa, Venice,Naples, Lombardy, Piedmont and Sardinia will be sister yet sovereignstates, forming one union--the constellation of freedom, the favoritescheme of Napoleon's better days at last achieving reality. Switzerland,with her green hills and her field Morgarten, her priestly despotsexpelled, shall also be free. But I weary you, Messieurs."
"By no means," cried Marrast, cordially clasping M. Dantes by the hand."I have listened in silence to your earnest exposition of the policy yousuggest, and so truly do I subscribe to it that, henceforth, I am yourdisciple and adopt your motto, 'Wait and hope' for my own. But it isnearly two o'clock. In an hour the Chamber sits."
"And, meanwhile, Messieurs," interrupted M. Dantes, "I know not that wecan better employ ourselves, after so protracted a seance, than torepair to Vefour's. This talking is hungry work, and listening andthinking, which are by far more tedious, are still more so. So toVefour's."
"The seance 'National' is closed!" cried Ledru Rollin, laughing, as thewhole company descended the gloomy stairs.