Meeting his pupils Goubin and Denis, on one of the paths of the
Luxembourg garden, Monsieur Bergeret said:
“I have good news for you, gentlemen. The peace of Europe will not be
disturbed. The Trublions themselves have assured me of it.”
And Monsieur Bergeret went on to relate the following story:
“I met Jean Coq, Jean Mouton, Jean Laiglon and Gilles Singe at
the Exhibition, where they were listening to the creaking of the
footbridges. Jean Coq came up to me, and said sternly: ‘Monsieur
Bergeret, you said that we wanted war, and that we should make war,
that Jean Mouton and I were going to land at Dover with an army and
occupy London, and that then I should take Berlin and various other
capitals. You said this, I know. You said it with malicious intent
to harm us and make the French nation believe that we desire war.
Understand, monsieur, that this is a lie. Our tendencies are not
war-like; they are military, which is quite another thing. We desire
peace, and when we have established the Imperial Republic in France we
shall not go to war.’
“I told Jean Coq that I was quite ready to believe him, and, what was
more, that I saw that I had been mistaken and that my mistake was
obvious; that Jean Coq, Jean Mouton, Jean Laiglon and Gilles Singe had
sufficiently proved their love of peace by refusing to go and fight
in China, whither they had been invited by beautiful white placards.
‘From that time forth,’ said I, ‘I realized the truly civil nature
of your military sentiments, and the strength of your love for your
country. You could not leave the soil of France. I beg you to accept my
apologies, Monsieur Coq. I rejoice to see that you are as peacefully
disposed as I.’
“Jean Coq looked at me with that eye that causes the world to tremble:
‘I am peacefully disposed, Monsieur Bergeret, but, thank God, not
as you are. The peace I desire is not your peace. You are slavishly
content with the peace that is forced upon us to-day. Our spirit is too
great to endure it without impatience. This feeble enervating peace
which satisfies you, cruelly wounds the pride of our hearts. When we
are the masters we shall make another peace; a terrible, clanking,
spurred and booted, equestrian peace! We shall make a pitiless, savage
peace, a threatening, horrible, blazing peace; a peace worthy of us; a
peace which, more frightful than the most frightful war, will freeze
the world with terror and kill all the English by inhibition. That,
Monsieur Bergeret, is our manner of being pacific. In two or three
months’ time our peace will burst upon the world and will set it in a
blaze.’
“After this speech I was forced to admit that the Trublions were
peacefully disposed, and thus was confirmed the truth of the oracle
written upon an ancient sycamore leaf by the sibyl of Panzoust:
“‘Toi qui de vent te repais,
Trublion, ma petite outre,
Si vraiment tu veux la paix,
Commence par nous la f...’”