THE WOLF : THE BANDIT. 
249 
corrupted air of cities ; he is sometimes a dialectician of the nat» 
ural school, who asks of the oppressors an account of their inhu- 
man laws; or he is a warrior of a conquered race, who protests 
with armed hand against the brutal right of conquest. 
The robber is like the poacher, the hero of popular legends ; 
and the poets, those wonderful advocates of just causes, have 
through all tirrie sought inspiration from the sources of legends 
where the protests of right against force are written ; and they 
have loved to embroider with the pearls of their song the history 
of the national bandit. 
I shall sometimes repeat what I have said of other beasts in the 
course of this defense, but I excuse myself by the example of na- 
ture ; for I must say what she wills, as I write under her dicta- 
tion. Since the emblems of evil dominate in the accursed socie- 
ties, we ought not to be surprised to hear a number of beasts hold 
a similar language. It is not my fault if the wolf professes the 
same political opinions as the wild sheep and the zebra. 
Remus and Romulus, who founded the Eternal City, were two 
robber chiefs, reared by a she wolf! . . . and the civilizees still 
submit to the law of the children of the she- wolf. 
The cowardly vulgar, the mass that kneels before success, and 
only takes account of facts, the odious vulgar have established be- 
tween the hero of the battle-field and the hero of the high-road, 
an absurd distinction, which the sage does not admit. 
The justice of the crowd, who use false balances, has valued 
glory in proportion to the blood shed. It salutes with the name 
conquerors the executioners of nations, wlio make the largest pro- 
vision of coiqDses for the hyenas and vultures; the Alexanders, Na- 
poleons, and Djingis Khans ; and it withers with the ignoble 
names of robber and assassin, the chiefs of hordes who work on a 
smaller scrde. 
Now I beg to be informed what difference there is, from the 
point of view of absolute truth, between the conqueror who car- 
ries his fury over the whole surface of the globe, to distribute em- 
pires to all the members of his family, and the buccaneer, the con- 
trabandist, the corsair who operate on a small scale, urged by the 
same motives. 
