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"
"That's likely enough."
"Very well, then; shall we wait here, meekly
sending in petitions, till Lambruschini and his
pack have persuaded the Grand Duke to put us
bodily under Jesuit rule, with perhaps a few Austrian
hussars to patrol the streets and keep us
in order; or shall we forestall them and take advantage
of their momentary discomfiture to strike
the first blow?"
"Tell us first what blow you propose?"
"I would suggest that we start an organized
propaganda and agitation against the Jesuits."
"A pamphleteering declaration of war, in
fact?"
"Yes; exposing their intrigues, ferreting out
their secrets, and calling upon the people to make
common cause against them."
"But there are no Jesuits here to expose."
"Aren't there? Wait three months and see
how many we shall have. It'll be too late to keep
them out then."
"But really to rouse the town against the
Jesuits one must speak plainly; and if you do that
how will you evade the censorship?"
"I wouldn't evade it; I would defy it.


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