rk of irony
or amusement in a single Anti-Pyrotist, a single defender of Greatauk,
or a single supporter of the army. The gods, in their anger, had refused
to those men the precious gift of humour. They gravely accused the
courtesan and the astronomer of being spies, of treachery, and of
plotting against their country. Bidault-Coquille and Maniflore grew
visibly greater beneath insult, abuse, and calumny.

For long months Penguinia had been divided into two camps and, though at
first sight it may appear strange, hitherto the socialists had taken
no part in the contest. Their groups comprised almost all the manual
workers in the country, necessarily scattered, confused, broken up, and
divided, but formidable. The Pyrot affair threw the group leaders into a
singular embarrassment. They did not wish to place themselves either on
the side of the financiers or on the side of the army. They regarded
the Jews, both great and small, as their uncompromising opponents. Their
principles were not at stake, nor were their interests concerned in the
affair. Still the greater number felt how difficult it was growing for
them to remain aloof from struggles in which all Penguinia was engaged.

Their leaders called a sitting of their federation at the Rue de la
Queue-du-diable-St. Mael, to take into consideration the conduct they
ought to adopt in the present circumstances and in future eventualities.

Comrade Phoenix was the first to speak.

"A crime," said he, "the most odious and cowardly of crimes, a judicial
crime, has been committed. Military judges, coerced or misled by their
superior officers, have condemned an innocent man to an infamous and
cruel punishment. Let us not say that the victim is not one of our own
party, that he belongs to a caste which was, and always will be, our
enemy. Our party is the party of social justice; it can look upon no
iniquity with indifference.

"It would be a shame for us if we left it to Kerdanic, a radical,
to Colomban, a member of the middle classes, and to a few moderate
Republicans, alone to proceed against the crimes of the army. If
the victim is not one of us, his executioners are our brothers'
executioners, and before Greatauk struck down this soldier he shot our
comrades who were on strike.

"Comrades, by an intellectual, moral and material effort you must rescue
Pyrot from his torment, and in performing this generous act you are
not turning aside from the liberating and revolutionar