"Jaurès," says Rappoport, "made no reply." There was too much of greater moment to preoccupy him. His spirit, though profound, ardent, and passionate, was naturally gay and serene, but the hour had now come when even his brave heart was appalled at the approaching cloud which had begun to overspread Europe.
On the 28th July, 1914, he went with other comrades—Guesde, Vaillant, Sembat, Longuet—to Brussels to make a final effort by means of the International to save the cause of Peace. There in the Royal Circus of Brussels he made his last speech. He declared that the French Government wanted peace, and set himself to oppose the idea that France should allow herself to be dragged unwillingly into war because of secret treaties. "If appeal is made to secret treaties with Russia," he cried, "we shall appeal to public treaties with Humanity."
From the last article which he wrote we can gather the depth of his feeling: "When one sees the panic, the financial disasters, the sinister rumours that the mere thought of this war have unchained, one asks if even the maddest and most wicked of men are capable of bringing about such a crisis." The greatest danger of all, he feels, is in "the enervation which gains on everyone, the sudden impulses of fear, of prolonged anxiety.…" And then he made one more appeal to the sanity of the people.
