A hearty applause showed approval of this expression uttered for the first time.
"If this view is adopted it solves the question," said Jacob.
"Pardon," replied Mann, "a thousand pardons. This phrase does not decide whether we will make common cause with the nobles, who do not wish a premature revolution, or with the bourgeoisie, who are the promoters of this movement."
"That's the chief point," cried Simon, always eager to give his advice. "I vote for the nobles; by going with them we may succeed in obtaining crests. I am very anxious to stamp on my seal three onions on a field of gold."
"Cursed babbler!" cried Mann, striking the table with his fist. "Will you keep silent or not?"
"I will shut up," said Simon.
"Let us be serious," replied Bartold. "Monsieur Mann has put the question well."
"I do not think so," said Jacob. "To take sides with this party or that is all that we should have to decide. The question is altogether different for me. Here it is: What is the better part for us to take in the interest of Poland, our adopted country?"
"Listen to me," cried Henri Segel. "We should be blind, indeed, not to see that, if we join in a revolution lost in advance, it would mean as certain ruin to us as to the rest of the country."
A small man with a consumptive look gazed around him, coughed, and let fall, drop by drop, these words:--