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.
De Launey [to Hoche]. You are crazy. Did you ever hear of the stronger relinquishing their arms, from sheer good-heartedness, to the weaker?
Hoche. You are not the stronger.
De Launey. Do you think these brave men, these twenty cannon, twenty chests of bullets, and thousands of rounds of ammunition, are nothing?
Hoche. You may kill a few hundred men. But what will that avail you? They will return thousands strong.
De Launey. We shall be re-inforced.
