The funeral details were arranged. Even the most intolerant of the Christians felt the necessity, in spite of their prejudices, of uniting for the time being with the Jews in perfect fraternity. Jacob passed a sleepless night on one of the benches of the assembly room. At daybreak he again hastened to Mann's house. He found him a little irritated that the popular vote had preferred Rosen to himself, and he had retired like Achilles to his tent. The pompous old fellow was awake and already surrounded with visitors, although he had not finished his toilet. Booted, but in his shirt, he presented a laughable spectacle on account of his extreme corpulence. He, no doubt, noticed this himself, for he interrupted himself in the middle of a heated harangue, to which his visitors listened respectfully, to throw over his shoulders a cotton dressing-gown.
"Ah!" said he, "our friends the nobles have become, then, meek as lambs. It is they who first ask to embrace us. One sees that they know the proverb,--
'Dans l'embarras
Va chez Judas.'
It is for us to remember the other part of the verse:--
'Plus d'embarras
Va t'en, Judas.'"
"The harmony is well established," said Bartold. "It is sincere; we must take advantage of it."
"No; it is not peace, it is only a truce. The Agricultural Society, representative of the nobles, continues to repulse us. Its secretary has sent Matthieu Rosen a letter, which leaves no doubt of their malevolence towards us. They wish, they say, that we should merit our right as citizens, as if we had not deserved that title since we were established on Polish soil. Feudalists, ultramontanes, fanatics, they desire war; let them go to the war, then. Let us not mix with them. Every one to his own interest."
Thus spake the fiery Achilles, Mann, whom Henri Segel tried to calm.
"You must admit, however," said he, "that Matthieu Rosen, though treated with little consideration by the secretary of the Agricultural Society, has been named a delegate. Let us strike while the iron is hot."
"From this iron there can only come new chains for us," said Mann. "They are incorrigible, these nobles, eaten up by pride of long descent. We shall have conciliations when Dumah has thrown them all into hell; not before."