me! You have described me perfectly. [He smiles to himself.]

HOCHE [who comes in. He wears the uniform of a corporal of the French Guards. He carries some clothes over his arm. To MARAT]. Don't believe him, citizen. He libels himself. He never refuses the outstretched hand of misfortune. Only last week, he took command of us and freed the French Guards who were imprisoned in the Abbey by the aristocrats.

HULIN [without turning his head, extends his hand over his shoulder]. Ah, it's you, Hoche? Who has asked for your advice? You're talking nonsense! I was telling you not long ago that sometimes I feel I have too much strength, and then I knock in a door, or demolish a wall. And, of course, when I see a drowning man, I offer him a helping hand. I don't reason about those things. But I don't lie in wait for people who are going to drown, nor do I throw them into the water—like these people who start revolutions—just in order to fish them out afterward.

MARAT. You are ashamed of the good you do. I hate these people who brag of their vices. [He turns his back.] What are you carrying there?

HOCHE. Some waistcoats that I embroidered; I'm trying to sell them.

MARAT. Pretty work for a soldier! Do you mend clothes?

HOCHE. It's as good a trade as tearing them.

MARAT. Don't you blush to steal women's business? So that is what you are doing? You think of your business, you hoard your gold, when Paris is about to swim in blood!

HOCHE [quietly, and with a touch of disdain]. Oh, we have time enough. Everything in due time.

MARAT. Your heart is cold, your pulse is slow. You are no patriot. [To HULIN.] And as for you, you are worse than if you really did what you brag about! You had a decent healthy character, which you are wilfully perverting.—Oh, Liberty, these are your defenders. Indifferent to the dangers that beset you, they will do nothing to combat them! I at least will not abandon you, I alone. I shall watch over the people. I will save them in spite of themselves. [He goes out.]

HULIN [watching him go, and laughing]. Our gay associate! He sees everything through pink spectacles. He's a doctor from my country. One feels immediately that he is used to commanding people. He hasn't enough to do in his own business, he must needs treat all humanity.

HOCHE [following MARAT with his eyes, and with a mixture of pity and interest]. An honest man. The woes of humanity weigh heavy on his shoulders; they unhinge his reason and his judgment. He is sick with virtue.

HULIN. Where did you know him?

HOCHE. I've read his books.

HULIN. You must have time to waste. Where did you get hold of them?

HOCHE. I bought them with the money I received from these waistcoats—for which he reproached me.

HULIN [looking at him]. Let me see. What's the matter? Have you been fighting again?

HOCHE. Yes.

HULIN. Barbarian! Where did you get that?

HOCHE. In the Place Louis XV. I was walking past. The arrogance of those Germans, camping here in our own Paris, got on my nerves. I could not help laughing at them. They fell upon me in a body, but the people there got me away from them. I made a mess of one or two, however.

HULIN. Indeed! That will cost you dear.

HOCHE. Bah! Do me a favor, Hulin. Bead this letter for me.

HULIN. To whom is it addressed?

HOCHE. To the King.

HULIN. Are you writing to the King?

HOCHE. Why shouldn't I? He is a son of Adam, like me. If I can give him some good advice, why shouldn't I? And why shouldn't he follow it?

HULIN [jokingly]. And what have you to say to the King?

HOCHE. I tell him to send his troops away from Paris, and to come himself to the city and start the revolution. [HULIN laughs uproariously. HOCHE smiles.] Your reasons are excellent. Thank you for your advice, but that is not what I want.

HULIN. What, then?

HOCHE [embarrassed]. The—the style, you see. And the spelling—I'm not quite sure.

HULIN. Do you imagine he is going to read it?

HOCHE. That makes no difference.

HULIN. I'll see to it, then.

HOCHE. How fortunate you are to have an education! Work as I will now, I can never make up for lost time.

HULIN. Are you really so simple as to think this letter will be read?

HOCHE [good-humoredly]. To tell the truth, I don't think it will. And yet it would be very easy for all those fellows who run the government of Europe, to apply just a little common sense, ordinary everyday sense! So much the worse for them! If they don't, it will be done without them!

HULIN. Instead of trying to reform the world, you'd do much better to get yourself out of the fix you're in now. You are going to be reported—perhaps you have been already. Do you know what will be waiting for you when you return to the barracks?

HOCHE. Yes, but do you know what is waiting for the barracks when I return to them?

HULIN. What?

HOCHE. You'll see.

HULIN. Now what are you plotting? Don't get excited. Don't you think there's enough disorder as it is?

HOCHE. When order is injustice, disorder is the beginning of justice.

HULIN. Justice! Justice consists in not demanding of things what they cannot give. You can't make over the world; you must accept it as it is. Why demand the impossible?

HOCHE. Poor Hulin, do you know everything that is impossible?

HULIN. What do you mean? Let the people do merely what they can do, and you will see whether or not the world can be made over!

HULIN [his hand on HOCHE'S shoulder]. Ah, you are ambitious. You dream of dominating the people!

HOCHE. You ignorant colossus! Fine ambition, that! Do you think I have the spirit of a corporal? [He looks at his uniform.]

HULIN. Disgusted, eh? What's the matter with you? You seem very happy today. Are they going to make you a sergeant?

HOCHE [shrugging his shoulders]. Happiness is in the air.

HULIN. You're not hard to please. There is famine. Imminent massacre. Your people are about to be destroyed. And you, what are you going to do? You will have to march against those you love, or else be killed with your friends.

HOCHE [smiling]. Very well, then.

HULIN. You think it very well? The thunderbolt is above you; everything is ready to crumble.... Roll, thunder! Truth, burn the night!

HULIN. I am not afraid of the storm. Everything I have told you, comrade, doesn't make me any more afraid. I am not afraid for my own skin. But I don't see even