"I believe throughout with my mother. The insurrection must be called."
"And your opinion, Castillon? Speak, old comrade," Lebrenn continued.
"Faggot and death, and Ça ira! Commune and Federation, and the Red Flag!"
"You have no need to ask me, friend Lebrenn," volunteered Duchemin. "You have only to look at my musket. The barrel is oiled, and the lock graced with a new flint. Long live the social and democratic Republic!"
"What do you think about it, my dear Martin? What is your advice?" asked Lebrenn of the painter in turn.
"I," said Martin, "say with Madam Lebrenn: Civil war is a terrible extremity; but legal resistance is impossible and laughable. When a government appeals to cannon to back up a coup d'etat, insurrection becomes the most sacred of duties. Long live the Republic!"
"Is that your opinion too, Duresnel?" queried Lebrenn.
"Aye, and all the more so because, as I see it, the insurrection has every chance of success. As for asserting that success will lead to a re-establishment of the Republic, I would be careful of falling into a deception. But at any rate we will have made a big step forward in finally driving out the Bourbons; and whatever the government may be that succeeds them, it can not but carry us far towards the Republic. So, then, down with the King! Down with the Jesuits and priests!"
General Oliver did not wait for the question to be put to him. "My friend," he declared simply, "I have but one way to redeem the past. That is to fight for the Republic, or to die for it."
"As to you, Marik," said Lebrenn, turning to his son, "you have regarded an insurrection as inevitable ever since you heard of the ordinances. You are, then, for taking arms, are you not?"