His old companions were all turning to the politicians; the famous Nihilists who made Europe tremble--sons of village priests, of the lower middle class, of tradesmen--could not rise above the idea of national liberation, and seemed to believe that the world would be delivered--when they had killed their despot. As soon as he spoke to them of razing society to the ground like a ripe harvest--as soon as he even pronounced the infantile word "republic"--he felt that he was misunderstood and a disturber, henceforth unclassed, enrolled among the lost leaders of cosmopolitan revolution.
Ses anciens camarades tournaient tous aux politiciens, les fameux nihilistes dont l'Europe tremblait, des fils de pope, des petits bourgeois, des marchands, ne s'élevaient pas au-dela de la libération nationale, semblaient croire a la délivrance du monde, quand ils auraient tué le despote; et, des qu'il leur parlait de raser la vieille humanité comme une moisson mure, des qu'il prononçait meme le mot enfantin de république, il se sentait incompris, inquiétant, déclassé désormais, enrôlé parmi les princes ratés du cosmopolitisme révolutionnaire.