These words were received with applause, and Johann instantly mounted the platform.
His appearance was the signal for a chilling silence, which struck unpleasantly on his nerves, used as he had been to be greeted with applause as one of the favourite orators of the society. Nevertheless, he did not allow himself to be daunted, but began at once, facing the audience boldly, and speaking in a loud, steady voice.
“Comrades, I am glad that you are at least willing to grant me a hearing, although it seems that some of you have already condemned me in my absence. I did not come here to-night to defend my character as a Socialist and a republican—a more advanced republican, perhaps, than any man in the room. I rely upon my own record in the past: I was fighting for our principles in the dark days of King Leopold, and it is not likely that I should desert them now that we are on the eve of a glorious triumph. I came here simply to tell you as friends and fellow-workers of what I have been trying to do for the cause. The president has referred to the object with which I went to Neustadt. I went there to shoot King Maximilian with this pistol”—a thrill ran through the assembly as he produced the weapon and held it out before their gaze—“and I did so because I believed him to be a bad and worthless ruler.”
Here the speaker was interrupted for a moment by ironical applause from some of his listeners. He went on with a heightened colour.
“If I still believed him to be bad and worthless, I should use this weapon still. If in a year’s time, or in ten years’ time, I believe it, I shall go there again and do what I meant to have done this time. The only reason why King Maximilian is still alive is because I have been convinced that, whatever he may have been in the past, he now sincerely wishes to do whatever he can to help us in the objects we have at heart.”
At this point the incredulity of the meeting broke forth in scornful murmurs, which the president in vain attempted to suppress.
Johann felt his anger kindling.
“I was promised a fair hearing!” he shouted out above the disturbance. “Hear me out before you interrupt. You have been quick enough to assume that the King had converted me to the cause of reaction: did it never occur to you as possible that I might have converted the King to the cause of revolution? I tell you plainly, as I stand here, that there is no man in this room who, as I believe, is more sincere in desiring to see our principles triumph than Maximilian IV.”
Some of the audience could not refrain from mocking laughter at this statement. The rest stared at the speaker in stubborn disbelief.
“You do not believe me. I dare say not. You think, perhaps, that the King has only to hold up his hand in order to bring about everything which we want.” (Hear, hear.) “Fools, have you ever realised what a government is; that it is a huge organisation, running in a groove, from which it is as difficult to turn it without reducing the whole state of society to chaos as it is to throw an express train off the rails without upsetting it? That is why I have been staying at Neustadt, that I might see with my own eyes what the difficulties are, and do what I could to help the King in overcoming them. Do you think I have learned nothing in these few days? I have learned a great deal, and this most of all, that no one man, not even though he be a king, can change the whole structure of society at a moment’s notice. There are the Ministers to deal with, the legislature, the sullen resistance of the whole official and propertied classes. Give him time, and if nothing changes for the better at the end of the next six months I pledge myself to leave the King and come back to you.”