Woe to the rebel against the soul of his country! To be in
the right and in opposition to her is to be wrong, and in the hour of
action wrong is a crime. The Republic demands obedience from her sons.
"The Republic or death," said Clerambault ironically. "And this is a
free country? Free, yes, because there have always been, and always
will be some souls like mine, which refuse to bend to a yoke which
their conscience disavows. We are become a nation of tyrants. There
was no great advantage in taking the Bastille. In the old days one ran
the risk of perpetual imprisonment if one made so bold as to differ
from the Prince--the fagot, if you did not agree with the Church; but
now you must think with forty millions of men and follow them in their
frantic contradictions. One day you must scream: "Down with England!"
Tomorrow it will be: "Down with Germany!" and the next day it may be
the turn of Italy; and _da capo_ in a week or two. Today we acclaim a
man or an idea, tomorrow we shall insult him; and anyone who refuses
risks dishonour--or a pistol bullet. This is the most ignoble and
shameful servitude of all!... By what right do a hundred, a thousand,
one or forty millions of men, demand that I shall renounce my soul?
Each of them has one, like mine. Forty millions of souls together
often make only one, which has denied itself forty millions of
times.
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