"The morrow? We shall preserve our conquest, or shall fight other battles, equally victorious!"
"No illusions, dear boy! Louis the Lusty fled before an insurrection that he did not think himself equal to cope with. But ere long he will be back to the walls of Laon with considerable forces, and he will then dictate his will."
"We shall resist unto death!"
"I know, that despite all our heroism, we shall succumb in the fray."
"What! These franchises, paid for with our good money and now sealed with our blood,—shall they be torn from us? Are our children to fall back under the abhorred yoke of the lay and ecclesiastical seigneurs? Oh, father, are we to despair of the future?"
"To despair? Never! Thanks to the communal insurrections, that were provoked by the feudal atrocities, our worst days are over. The legitimate and terrible reprisals of Noyon, Cambrai, Amiens and Beauvais, just as these fresh ones of Laon, will inspire the seigneurs with a wholesome fear. These holy insurrections have proved to our masters that the 'clowns, artisans and bourgeois' will no longer allow themselves to be taxed at mercy, robbed, tortured and killed with impunity. Our darkest days are over. But our descendants will still have bloody battles to fight before the arrival of the radiant day predicted by Victoria the Great!"
"And yet all has gone our way on this day."
"Rely upon my experience and foresight. Louis the Lusty will presently return at the head of redoubtable forces. The death of this infamous Gaudry, just though it was, will unchain against our city the fury of the clericals. The bolts of excommunication will second the royal arms. We are bound to go down—not before the excommunication; people laugh at that—but under the blows of the soldiers of Louis the Lusty. Our bravest men will be killed in battle, banished or executed after the King's victory. Another bishop will be imposed upon the city of Laon. Our belfry will be torn down, our seal will be broken, our banner torn and our treasury pilfered. The episcopals, supported by the King, will take vengeance for their defeat. Torrents of blood will flow in the city. That's what's before us."
"Then all is lost!"
"Child," proceeded Fergan with a melancholy smile, "men are killed; the principle of freedom never, after it has once penetrated the popular heart. Will Louis the Lusty, the new bishop, the nobles, however cruel their vengeance may be, massacre all the inhabitants of Laon? No. They are bound to leave alive the larger part of the communiers, if for no other purpose than to have whom to levy taxes on. The mothers, sisters, wives, the children of those who will have died for liberty, will continue to live. Oh, no doubt, for a while, the terror will be intense; the recollection of the disasters, of the massacres, of the banishments, and of the executions that will have followed upon the struggle, will at first paralyze all thought of insurrection. But none of that will last."