A faint murmur, like the rising ripple of an angry sea, rose from the
crowd, but quickly died away again into silence.

"Shall I tell you why you stay?" went on Thord,--"Because you know I
am your friend--and because you also know that the priests are your
enemies! Because you know that I tell you the truth, and that the
priests tell you lies! Because you feel that all the promises made to
you of happiness in Heaven cannot explain away to your satisfaction the
causes of your bitter suffering and poverty on earth! Because you are
gradually learning that the chief business of priestcraft is to deceive
the people and keep them down,--down, always down in a state of
wretched ignorance. Learn, learn all you can, my brothers--take the
only good thing modern government gives you--Education! Education is
thrown at us like a bone thrown to a dog, half picked by others and
barely nourishing--but take it, take it, friends, for in it you shall
find the marrow of vengeance on your tyrants and oppressors! The
education of the masses means the downfall of false creeds,--the ruin
of all false priests! For it is only through the ignorance of the many
that tyrannical dominion is given into the hands of the few! Slavish
submission to a corrupt government would be impossible if we all
refused to be slaves. O friends, O brothers, throw off your chains!
Break down your prison doors! Some good you have done already--be brave
and strong to do more! Press forward fearlessly and strive for liberty
and justice! To-day we are told that the King has refused crown-lands
to the Jesuits. Shall we be told to-morrow that the King has dismissed
Carl Perousse from office?"

A long wild shout told how this suggestion had gone straight home to
the throng.