Vive le Roi! de chaque régiment
Que ces trois mots soient la seule consigne.”
“All the same,” said Chassons des Aigues, “you are wrong, Lacrisse, to reject revolutionary measures; they are the best.”
“Children!” said Henri Léon. “We have only one means of action, one only, but it is certain, powerful and efficacious. It is the Affair. The Affair gave us birth; we Nationalists must not forget that. We have grown and prospered through the Affair. It alone has fed us and feeds us still. Thence comes our food and our drink; thence we derive the staff of our being. If, uprooted from the soil, it withers and dies, we shall languish and fade out of existence.
“We can pretend to uproot it, but in reality we shall cherish it carefully, nourish it and water it. The public is an ass; moreover, it is disposed in our favour. When it sees us digging and scraping and hoeing round the plant it will think we are doing our best to uproot it completely, and it will love and bless us for our zeal. It will never dream that we may be lovingly cultivating it. It has flowered anew in the very middle of the Exhibition, and this simple-minded people does not see that it is our care that has achieved this result.”
Jambe-d’Argent sang:
“Puisqu’ici notre général
Du plaisir nous donn’ le signal,
Mes amis, poussons à la vente;
Si nous voulons bien le r’mercier,