Gillot was only too ready to believe this; as an educated workman he
was better armed for the fray than Moreau or Clerambault himself.
Nothing depressed him for long; "fall down, pick yourself up again,
and try once more," he would say, and he always believed he could
surmount any obstacle that barred his way. He was ready to march
against them on his one leg, the quicker the better. Like the others,
he was devoted to the idea of revolution and found means to reconcile
it with his optimism; everything was to pass off quietly according to
him, for he was a man without rancour.
It would not have been safe, however, to trust him too much in this
respect; there are many surprises in these plebeian characters, for
they are very easily moved and apt to change. Clerambault heard him
one day talking with a friend named Lagneau on leave from the front;
they said the poilus meant to knock everything to pieces when the war
was over, maybe before. A man of the lower classes in France is often
charming, quick to seize on your idea before you have had a chance to
explain it thoroughly; but good Lord! how soon he forgets. He forgets
what was said, what he answered, what he saw, what he believed, what
he wanted; but he is always sure of what he says, and sees, and thinks
now.
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