"Then we shall all be in the same boat," cried Boakoam laughing,--"peasants, Jews, gypsies, bourgeoisie, pell-mell with us the fine flower of the aristocracy."
"Modern theories, fatal doctrines born of revolutionary folly," remarked a pupil of the Jesuits, fresh from Belgium. "I believe neither in progress nor a new order of things. All that I see in this accursed age is the hand of God, which chastises us and plunges us into confusion and chaos."
Saying this the disciple of Loyola took his departure, furious. Many followed his example, while Jacob was making his final remarks thus:--
"We are new citizens, but rest assured that in recovering our rights of citizenship after so long ostracism we will not refuse the accompanying duties. If until the present the Jew has not considered himself a Pole, the fault has not been with him nor with Poland herself, but with the barbarity of past ages, to the shadows of a prolonged epoch of darkness. 'Light, light, still more light!' as said the dying Goethe, and the world will move on in the sight of God."
"As true as I love God," said Boakoam, "these are holy words. And I must save myself, for my confessor would refuse absolution because I had dealings with the Old Testament, in the absence of the New. Good-evening."
CHAPTER XVIII.
[THE COUNTRY WILLS IT.]
Events precipitated themselves with frightful rapidity. Veiled promises and secret encouragements on the part of Napoleon III. contributed largely to the development of an insurrection whose instigators were too confident in the diplomatic intervention of France, England, and Austria. A bitter disappointment was the result, as we know. A brutal reply from the Russian government sufficed to make Europe fall back, and rendered harder than ever the fate of Poland.
At the point whither our story has carried us, all hope of preventing a fatal catastrophe was not lost. Several men of influence, whose foresight was better than that of the foolish masses, made heroic efforts toward this end. Among these was our Jacob, whose interview with Gromof had resulted in enlightening him as to the fatal consequences of a premature revolution.
The most of the Jews rallied around the Marquis Wielopolski, a double-faced man, half Russian, half Polish, with equivocal politics. He was clever in appearance, but deceitful at heart, and sought to please both sides. This policy was not pleasing to the nobles, whom he held of little account; it alienated the ultramontanes, and irritated the revolutionists, whom he tried to reduce by violent measures. The marquis, much more authoritative than liberal, wished to inaugurate that which he called the legal progress; but not leaning on either party, he soon had every one against him. The Jews, however, sustained him for some time with ardour; but he soon displeased them, like the others, by an absolute want of tact in his conduct toward them.