You will be disdained; the mob will throw stones at you.

Policemen will drag you into prison.
You shall be for the humble as for the powerful, for the poor as for the rich, a subject of laughter, an object of disgust and of pity.

Your priests will dethrone you, and elevate against you an anti-pope, or will say that you are crazy.

And it is necessary that they should tell the truth; it is necessary that you should be crazy; the lunatics have saved the world.

Men will give to you the crown of thorns and the reed sceptre, and they will spit in your face, and it is by that sign that you will appear as Christ and true king; and it is by such means that you will establish Christian socialism, which is the kingdom of God on earth.'" Having spoken in this way, Choulette lighted one of those long and tortuous Italian cigars, which are pierced with a straw.