As for the vast masses in whose name they spoke and whom they represented as far as speech can express the impossible—­as for the proletarians whose thought is difficult to know and who do not know it themselves, it seemed that the Pyrot affair did not interest them.  It was too literary for them, it was in too classical a style, and had an upper-middle-class and high-finance tone about it that did not please them much.

VIII.  THE COLOMBAN TRIAL

When the Colomban trial began, the Pyrotists were not many more than thirty thousand, but they were every where and might be found even among the priests and millionaires.  What injured them most was the sympathy of the rich Jews.  On the other hand they derived valuable advantages from their feeble number.  In the first place there were among them fewer fools than among their opponents, who were over-burdened with them.  Comprising but a feeble minority, they co-operated easily, acted with harmony, and had no temptation to divide and thus counteract one another’s efforts.  Each of them felt the necessity of doing the best possible and was the more careful of his conduct as he found himself more in the public eye.  Finally, they had every reason to hope that they would gain fresh adherents, while their opponents, having had everybody with them at the beginning, could only decrease.

Summoned before the judges at a public sitting, Colomban immediately perceived that his judges were not anxious to discover the truth.  As soon as he opened his mouth the President ordered him to be silent in the superior interests of the State.  For the same reason, which is the supreme reason, the witnesses for the defence were not heard.  General Panther, the Chief of the Staff, appeared in the witness-box, in full uniform and decorated with all his orders.  He deposed as follows: 

“The infamous Colomban states that we have no proofs against Pyrot.  He lies; we have them.  I have in my archives seven hundred and thirty-two square yards of them which at five hundred pounds each make three hundred and sixty-six thousand pounds.”

That superior officer afterwards gave, with elegance and ease, a summary of those proofs.

“They are of all colours and all shades,” said he in substance, “they are of every form—­pot, crown, sovereign, grape, dove-cot, grand eagle, etc.  The smallest is less than the hundredth part of a square inch, the largest measures seventy yards long by ninety yards broad.”

At this revelation the audience shuddered with horror.

Greatauk came to give evidence in his turn.  Simpler, and perhaps greater, he wore a grey tunic and held his hands joined behind his back.

“I leave,” said he calmly and in a slightly raised voice, “I leave to M. Colomban the responsibility for an act that has brought our country to the brink of ruin.  The Pyrot affair is secret; it ought to remain secret.  If it were divulged the cruelest ills, wars, pillages, depredations, fires, massacres, and epidemics would immediately burst upon Penguinia.  I should consider myself guilty of high treason if I uttered another word.”