O nations! you have a leprosy, ignorance; you have a plague, fanaticism; there is not one of you but is afflicted with that frightful malady called a despot; go, march, break the bonds of evil; I deliver you, I cure you!" Throughout the earth a grateful clamour arose among the nations which these words made sound and strong.

One day it accosted dead Poland; it raised its finger, and exclaimed, "Arise!" and dead Poland arose.
This nation, the men of the past, whose fall it announced, dreaded and hated.

By dint of stratagem, of tortuous patience, and of audacity, they ended by seizing it, and succeeded in throttling it.
For three years and more, the world has witnessed a tremendous agony and a frightful spectacle.

For three years and more, the men of the past, the scribes, the Pharisees, the publicans, the princes of the priests, have crucified, in presence of the human race, the Christ of nations, the French people.

Some furnished the cross, others the nails, others the hammer.