"But in spite of everything, let the infamy of this war be welcome! They have willed it, they shall have it!"
His hearers looked at one another with questioning eyes. Then in a flash they understood.
"Who are They?" "Those," he replied, "who, controlling forces, abuse them; who, possessing plenty, let the hungry starve; who, enjoying happiness, stir not a finger to make a better world, that all may have their chance to live, and love, and give! The powerful, I mean, who change life to death, and love to hatred!"
"But the Day is coming," he cried. "This war is indeed the beginning of Der Tag! I feel it coming—a part of it is here already within my heart. I do not know how it is to come, whether little by little, or suddenly, flamingly, like an avenger!"
"But I know that the Day is coming—the Day that will be sacred to Justice!"
In the silence that followed, the young minds to whom he had spoken thought of what such a day would mean, to each of them, to all whom they knew; and the eyes of some of those who listened, dreaming and desiring better things, grew wet....
At the far end of the table, Monsalvat, head erect, sat gazing at the future, at what lay beyond the great Crime, at that Dawn whose splendor would justify the hopes of the dead, and the efforts of the living.
And his night lifted and lightened with the radiance of innumerable stars.
THE END