“A week ago,” he exclaimed, “I was an anti-militarist!  How far away that seems now—­as if a year had gone by!  I keep thinking as before!  I love peace and hate war like all my comrades.  But the French have not offended anybody, and yet they threaten us, wishing to enslave us. . . .  But we French can be fierce, since they oblige us to be, and in order to defend ourselves it is just that nobody should shirk, that all should obey.  Discipline does not quarrel with Revolution.  Remember the armies of the first Republic—­all citizens, Generals as well as soldiers, but Hoche, Kleber and the others were rough-hewn, unpolished benefactors who knew how to command and exact obedience.”

The carpenter was well read.  Besides the papers and pamphlets of “the Idea,” he had also read on stray sheets the views of Michelet and other liberal actors on the stage of history.

“We are going to make war on War,” he added.  “We are going to fight so that this war will be the last.”

This statement did not seem to be expressed with sufficient clearness, so he recast his thought.

“We are going to fight for the future; we are going to die in order that our grandchildren may not have to endure a similar calamity.  If the enemy triumphs, the war-habit will triumph, and conquest will be the only means of growth.  First they will overcome Europe, then the rest of the world.  Later on, those who have been pillaged will rise up in their wrath.  More wars! . . .  We do not want conquests.  We desire to regain Alsace and Lorraine, for their inhabitants wish to return to us . . . and nothing more.  We shall not imitate the enemy, appropriating territory and jeopardizing the peace of the world.  We had enough of that with Napoleon; we must not repeat that experience.  We are going to fight for our immediate security, and at the same time for the security of the world—­for the life of the weaker nations.  If this were a war of aggression, of mere vanity, of conquest, then we Socialists would bethink ourselves of our anti-militarism.  But this is self-defense, and the government has not been at fault.  Since we are attacked, we must be united in our defensive.”

The carpenter, who was also anti-clerical, was now showing a more generous tolerance, an amplitude of ideas that embraced all mankind.  The day before he had met at the administration office a Reservist who was just leaving to join his regiment.  At a glance he saw that this man was a priest.

“I am a carpenter,” he had said to him, by way of introduction, “and you, comrade, are working in the churches?”

He employed this figure of speech in order that the priest might not suspect him of anything offensive.  The two had clasped hands.

“I do not take much stock in the clerical cowl,” Robert explained to Desnoyers.  “For some time I have not been on friendly terms with religion.  But in every walk of life there must be good people, and the good people ought to understand each other in a crisis like this.  Don’t you think so, Boss?”