emble for their money and their life of
selfishness.

Consequently, when the Clerical reaction of 1849 declared itself, nearly
all the middle classes passed over to the Conservative party. They were
received with open arms. The new town had never before had such close
relations with the Saint-Marc quarter: some of the nobility even went
so far as to shake hands with lawyers and retired oil-dealers. This
unexpected familiarity kindled the enthusiasm of the new quarter, which
henceforward waged bitter warfare against the republican government. To
bring about such a coalition, the clergy had to display marvellous skill
and endurance. The nobility of Plassans for the most part lay prostrate,
as if half dead. They retained their faith, but lethargy had fallen on
them, and they preferred to remain inactive, allowing the heavens to
work their will. They would gladly have contented themselves with silent
protest, feeling, perhaps, a vague presentiment that their divinities
were dead, and that there was nothing left for them to do but rejoin
them. Even at this period of confusion, when the catastrophe of 1848 was
calculated to give them a momentary hope of the return of the Bourbons,
they showed themselves spiritless and indifferent, speaking of rushing
into the melee, yet never quitting their hearths without a pang of
regret.

The clergy battled indefatigably against this feeling of impotence and
resignation. They infused a kind of passion into their work: a priest,
when he despairs, struggles all the more fiercely. The fundamental
policy of the Church is to march straight forward; even though she
may have to postpone the accomplishment of her projects for several
centuries, she never wastes a single hour, but is always pushing forward
with increasing energy. So it was the clergy who led the reaction of
Plassans; the nobility only lent them their name, nothing more. The
priests hid themselves behind the nobles, restrained them, directed
them, and even succeeded in endowing them with a semblance of life. When
they had induced them to overcome their repugnance so far as to make
common cause with the middle classes, they believed themselves certain
of victory. The ground was marvellously well prepared. This ancient
royalist town, with its population of peaceful householders and timorous
tradespeople, was destined to range itself, sooner or later, on the side
of law and order. The clergy, by their tactics, hastened the conversion.