What we want
for him is Disgrace, not Death! Death is far too easy! An innocent
child may die; do not give to a false-hearted knave the simple exit
common to the brave and true! Disgrace!--disgrace! Shame, confusion,
and the curse of the country,--let these be your vengeance on the man
who seeks to clutch the reins of government!--the man who would drive
the people like whipped horses to their ruin!"
Another roar answered him, but this time it was mingled with murmurs of
dissatisfaction. Thord caught these up, and at once responded to them.
"I hear you, O People! I hear the clamour of your hearts and souls,
which is almost too strong to find expression in speech! You cannot
wait, you would tell me! You would have Perousse dragged out here,--you
would tear him to pieces among you, if you could, and carry the
fragments of him to the King, to prove what a people can do with a
villain proposed to them as their Prime Minister!" Loud and ferocious
shouts answered these words, and he went on; "I know--I understand!--
and I sympathise! But even as I know you, you know me! Believe me now,
therefore, and hear my promise! I swear to you before you all"--and
here he extended both arms with a solemn and impressive gesture--"that
this month shall not be ended before the dishonesty of Carl Perousse is
publicly and flagrantly known at every street corner,--in every town
and province of the land!--and before the most high God, I take my oath
to you, the People,--that he shall never be the governing head of the
country!"
A hurricane of applause answered him--a tempest of shouting that seemed
to surge and sway through the air and down to the earth again like the
beating of a powerful wind.
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