First Vagabond [emptying his pockets]. Empty your pockets, you thief!
Second Vagabond. Haven't we the right to rob the aristos any more, eh?
The Others. Hang him! Hang him!—Hang him on the sign-board!—A flogging is enough!—Ask pardon of the people!—Good!—Now, get out! [The Vagabond runs away.]
First Vagabond [setting to work]. He ought to have been hanged—for an example. There will be others like him. To be exposed to such nastiness—keep company with thieves! It's nasty.
Camille Desmoulins [entering, in his usual absent-minded idle way]. A spanking will be enough for you. [They all laugh and set to work again.]
The People. Well, let's finish this.
Desmoulins [looking at the house and the workers]. My Lucile is there. I've just been to see her. The house was empty. They told me the family went out to dinner with relatives in the Faubourg Saint-Antoine. They've been blockaded!—Well, I should think so! A splendid fortification! Scarp and counter-scarp, everything perfect. They are besieging the house. But, my friends, we have to demolish the Bastille, and not construct another like it. I don't know what your enemies will think, but it is in any case dangerous to your friends: I've just gotten my feet tangled up in your strings, and I almost stayed where I was.—This cask won't stand. You must put back the paving-blocks.
The Carpenter. Do you work as well as you talk?
Desmoulins [gaily, as he takes up a block]. I can