THE PENSIONER [angry at first]. Fool? [He reflects a moment, scratching his head.] True, though!
JULIE [who sits down and plays with a cannon]. You're not going to fire on us, are you? [They do not answer.] Tell me you won't. Please. I like you. You must like me.
BÉQUART [hissing her]. Good little thing!
DE LAUNEY [shrugs his shoulders, after reading the letter]. This is unheard-of! Messieurs, this strange message which has been delivered to me by some committee of tramps—this—this Permanent Committee, asks me to divide the guard of the Bastille between the rest of our own troops and the people! [The Soldiers laugh, the officers rage.]
VINTIMILLE. Charming proposal!
HOCHE [to DE LAUNEY]. Listen to me, Monseigneur. You can prevent the carnage. We hold nothing against you personally, but against this mass of stone, which has for centuries weighed heavy on the people of Paris. Blind power is no less shameful to those who impose it than for those against whom it is directed. It is disgusting to every one who reasons. You who are more intelligent than we, ought to feel that and suffer more than we. Help us, do not fight against us. Reason, for which we are fighting, is as much your own as ours. Give up this prison of your own accord; don't force us to capture it.
VINTIMILLE. There he is spouting about reason and conscience. These Rousseau monkeys. [To DE FLUE.] My compliments! You made us a pretty present!
DE FLUE. What present?
VINTIMILLE. Your Jean-Jacques. You might at least have kept him in Switzerland.
DE FLUE. We would have been glad to dispense with him ourselves.