Mich. I think little of pen and ink in revolutions. One dagger will do more than a hundred epigrams. Still, let us read this scholar's last production. Give it to me. I will read it myself.
Prof. Brother, you never mind your stops; let Alexis read it.
Mich. Ay! he is as tripping of speech as if he were some young aristocrat; but for my own part I care not for the stops so that the sense be plain.
Alex. (reading). "The past has belonged to the tyrant, and he has defiled it; ours is the future, and we shall make it holy." Ay! let us make the future holy; let there be one revolution at least which is not bred in crime, nurtured in murder!
Mich. They have spoken to us by the sword, and by the sword we shall answer! You are too delicate for us, Alexis. There should be none here but men whose hands are rough with labour or red with blood.
Pres. Peace, Michael, peace! He is the bravest heart among us.
Mich. (aside). He will need to be brave to-night.
(The sound of sleigh bells is heard outside.)
Voice (outside). Per crucem ad lucem.
Answer of man on guard. Per sanguinem ad libertatem.