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There a dialogue ensued. The Representatives summoned the President to
put himself at their head, and to re-enter the Hall, he, the man of the
Assembly, with them, the men of the Nation.
M. Dupin refused point-blank, maintained his ground, was very firm, and
clung bravely to his nonentity.
"
What do you want me to do?" said he, mingling with his alarmed protests
many law maxims and Latin quotations, an instinct of chattering jays,
who pour forth all their vocabulary when they are frightened. "What do
you want me to do? Who am I? What can I do? I am nothing. No one is any
longer anything. Ubi nihil, nihil. Might is there. Where there is
Might the people lose their Rights. Novus nascitur ordo. Shape your
course accordingly. I am obliged to submit. Dura lex, sed lex. A law
of necessity we admit, but not a law of right. But what is to be done? I
ask to be let alone. I can do nothing. I do what I can. I am not wanting
in good will. If I had a corporal and four men, I would have them
killed."
"
This man only recognizes force," said the Representatives. "Very well,
let us employ force."
They used violence towards him, they girded him with a scarf like a cord
round his neck, and, as they had said, they dragged him towards the
Hall, begging for his "liberty," moaning, kicking--I would say
wrestling, if the word were not too exalted.
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