have understood and excused the exasperation of those who signed the anti-militarist poster."
And finally, if you cannot touch their feelings, you will tell them: "It was in our own interest, in the interest of our class, that we acquitted them; we did not wish to give them the glory of martyrdom, and thus increase their moral authority and their power of swaying the workers with their ideas."
Ah! gentlemen, I tell you sincerely, it is in the interest of your class itself that we should be acquitted. We may not be of the same class, we may consider your class to be the enemy of ours, yet, still the claims of class have not killed in us all feelings of humanity.
We know well that under your bourgeois garb there beats the heart of a man, like our own. In the interest of your class itself, in the interest of the men and the women of your class—our brothers and sisters in humanity—we would have you pause before further exasperating by a vindictive verdict, our class, which is already sufficiently exasperated against you. I wish to preserve you from ferocious reprisals. Today you are the stronger, but your domination will not be eternal. I have an idea that it will not last long. Perhaps you do not believe it. Neither did the Czar, when a few years ago he came here in all his pomp and glory, believe that the day was so near when he would have to settle accounts with his people. When the day comes for your class to settle its account with us, we shall be happy, we the prisoners at the bar, to be able to plead extenuating circumstances in your favor. Please do not misunderstand me; I do not threaten you with reprisals; I do not want to terrify you; I imagine that fear has no more influence on you than on us. But, as we do not hold you individually responsible for the evils of the present social system, we desire that the approaching Revolution should make as few victims as possible among your class. When the turn comes for our class to judge yours, we shall be glad to be able to say to the more exasperated and bitter of our comrades
