Page 1111 - les-miserables

no more sovereign eloquence than the true in indignation;
he was eloquent with that eloquence. He was inexhaustible
on that infamous date of 1772, on the subject of that noble
and valiant race suppressed by treason, and that three-sided
crime, on that monstrous ambush, the prototype and pattern
of all those horrible suppressions of states, which, since that
time, have struck many a noble nation, and have annulled
their certificate of birth, so to speak. All contemporary so-
cial crimes have their origin in the partition of Poland. The
partition of Poland is a theorem of which all present politi-
cal outrages are the corollaries. There has not been a despot,
nor a traitor for nearly a century back, who has not signed,
approved, counter-signed, and copied, ne variatur, the par-
tition of Poland. When the record of modern treasons was
examined, that was the first thing which made its appear-
ance. The congress of Vienna consulted that crime before
consummating its own. 1772 sounded the onset; 1815 was
the death of the game. Such was Feuilly’s habitual text. This
poor workingman had constituted himself the tutor of Jus-
tice, and she recompensed him by rendering him great. The
fact is, that there is eternity in right. Warsaw can no more
be Tartar than Venice can be Teuton. Kings lose their pains
and their honor in the attempt to make them so. Sooner or
later, the submerged part floats to the surface and reappears.
Greece becomes Greece again, Italy is once more Italy. The
protest of right against the deed persists forever. The theft
of a nation cannot be allowed by prescription. These lofty
deeds of rascality have no future. A nation cannot have its
mark extracted like a pocket handkerchief.

1111