rhaps, they had long been seeking and thirsting for in
their hearts--their hearts insulted and revolted by the injustice of
their severe life. Those who were near stood in silence. The mother
saw their gloomy faces, their frowning brows, their eyes, and felt
their warm breath on her face.

"Get up on the bench," they said.

"I'll be arrested immediately. It's not necessary."

"Speak quicker! They're coming!"

"Go to meet the honest people. Seek those who advise all the poor
disinherited. Don't be reconciled, comrades, don't! Don't yield to
the power of the powerful. Arise, you working people! you are the
masters of life! All live by your labor; and only for your labor do
they untie your hands. Behold! you are bound, and they have killed,
robbed your soul. Unite with your heart and your mind into one power.
It will overcome everything. You have no friends except yourselves.
That's what their only friends say to the working people, their friends
who go to them and perish on the road to prison. Not so would
dishonest people speak, not so deceivers."

"Out of the way! Disperse!" the shouts of the gendarmes came nearer
and nearer. There were more of them already; they pushed more
forcibly; and the people in front of the mother swayed, catching hold
of one another.

"Is that all you have in the valise?" whispered somebody.

"Take it! Take all!" said the mother aloud, feeling that the words
disposed themselves into a song in her breast, and noticing with pain
that her voice did not hold out, that it was hoarse, trembled, and
broke.

"The word of my son is the honest word of a workingman, of an unsold
soul. You will recognize its incorruptibility by its boldness. It is
fearless, and if necessary it goes even against itself to meet the
truth. It goes to you, working people, incorruptible, wise, fearless.
Receive it with an open heart, feed on it; it will give you the power
to understand everything, to fight against everything for the truth,
for the freedom of mankind. Receive it, believe it, go with it toward
the happiness of all the people, to a new life with great joy!"

She received a blow on the chest; she staggered and fell on the bench.
The gendarmes' hands darted over the heads of the people, and seizing
collars and shoulders, threw them aside, tore off hats, flung them far
away. Everything grew dark and began to whirl before the eyes of the
mother. But overcoming her fatigue, she again sh