Ange Pitou by Alexandre Dumas part three

And consequently he was expelled.

“You see, then,” said Pitou, “the image of the Revolution of Paris; as Monsieur Prudhomme or Loustalot has said—I think it was the virtuous Loustalot who said it—yes, ’twas he, I am now certain of it:—

“‘The great appear to us to be great, solely because we are upon our knees; let us stand up.'”

This epigram had not the slightest bearing on the question in dispute, but perhaps for that very reason it produced a prodigious effect.

The sceptic Boniface, who was standing at a distance of twenty paces, was struck by it, and he returned to Pitou, humbly saying to him:—

“You must not be angry with us, Pitou, if we do not understand liberty as well as you do.”

“It is not liberty,” said Pitou, “but the rights of man.”

This was another blow with the sledge-hammer, with which Pitou a second time felled the whole auditory.

“Decidedly,” said Boniface, “you are a learned man, and we pay homage to you.”

Pitou bowed.

“Yes,” said he,” education and experience have placed me above you; and if just now I spoke to you rather harshly, it was from my friendship for you.”

Loud applause followed this; Pitou saw that he could now give vent to his eloquence.

“You have just talked of work,” said he, “but do you know what work is? To you labor consists in splitting wood, in reaping the harvest, in picking up beech-mast, in tying up wheat-sheaves, in placing stones one above another, and consolidating them with cement. That is what you consider work. In your opinion I do not work at all. Well, then, you are mistaken, for I alone labor much more than you do all together,—for I am meditating your emancipation; for I am dreaming of your liberty, of your equality. A moment of my time is therefore of more value than a hundred of your days. The oxen who plough the ground do but one and the same thing; but the man who thinks surpasses all the strength of matter. I, by myself, am worth the whole of you. Look at Monsieur de Lafayette; he is a thin, fair man, not much taller than Claude Tellier. He has a pointed nose, thin legs, and arms as small as the back joints of this chair. As to his hands and feet, it is not worth while to mention them; a man might as well be without. Well! this man has carried two worlds on his shoulders, which is one more than Atlas did, and his little hands have broken the chains of America and France.

“Now, as his arms have done all this, arms not thicker than the back railing of a chair, only imagine to yourselves what arms like mine can do.”

And Pitou bared his arms, which were as knotty as the trunk of a holly-tree.

And having drawn this parallel, he paused, well assured that he had produced, without coming to a regular conclusion, an immense effect.

And he had produced it.

Chapter XXXIII

Pitou a Conspirator

THE greater portion of events which happen to man, and which confer on him great happiness or great honors, are almost always brought about from his having fervently desired or much disdained them.

If this maxim were duly applied to events and to men cited in history, it would be found that it possesses not only profundity, but also truth.

We shall, however, content ourselves, without having recourse to proofs, with applying it to Ange Pitou, our man and our history.

In fact, Pitou, if we are allowed to retrograde a few steps, and to return to the wound which he had received straight to the heart,—Pitou had, in fact, after the discovery he had made on the borders of the forest, been seized with a withering disdain for the things of this nether world.

He who had hoped to find blossom within his heart that rare and precious plant which mortals denominate Love; he who had returned to his own province with a helmet and a sabre, proud of thus associating Mars and Venus, as was said by his illustrious compatriot, Demonstier, in his “Letters to Emilie on Mythology,”—found himself completely taken aback and very unhappy on perceiving that there existed at Villers-Cotterets and its neighborhood more lovers than were necessary.

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