cious Anti-Pyrotists.

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