Good Citizen Uncle,

With the greatest agitation of spirit I write to acquaint you with an occurrence which transpired last evening in our barracks, that you might recount it to all your friends and comrades and thereby, though you possess no hand with which to bear arms, write, or labour, yet still contribute to our future triumph over traitors and enemies.

It is not unknown to you that since our unit came under the command of Major Anagret Pel, the first female major of our great army, our appointed duty after the evening meal has been the reading of The New Regime, that wise newspaper of Citizen Henscher, from which one may learn much concerning the proper means of attaining the true prosperity of the People and of dealing with all vermin who openly or secretly labour to destroy that prosperity. So it was yesterday. When all had eaten what there was to eat, the customary sound of the bugler intoning Down with the King served as a sign that the various conversations in the refectory should cease and that we should proceed to the serious reading of the sheet which rightly styles itself the finest shield the People may possess in defence of their natural interest.

Soldier Hushtein, whose voice rings the clearest, requested of Major Pel leave to begin the reading, and when he had obtained it, mounted the flag-decked platform and commenced.

You, uncle, begin every day with The New Regime, without doubt, and so the text read to us will be familiar to you. It consisted of passages from the Catalogue of Injustice, compiled for the Republic by the new regional commander of Alwald, Citizen Kunze. First there was read Citizen Henscher’s editorial, which illuminated Kunze’s character for us as though we had been given a spyglass turned toward the past: how each evening he descends secretly to his cellar, draws from a chest a black notebook, and by the dim light of a candle strains his eyes to inscribe for eternity the accusations he addresses to the Republic and to History concerning the crimes he has witnessed.

When the editorial had been read, Major Anagret raised her hand — and though she was the highest in rank within the room, her reverence toward the text being read seemed, for the duration of that reading, to render Soldier Hushtein, in whose hands the paper rested, superior even to herself — and thus she requested the right to say a few words before we proceeded to the reading of the very list of villainous wretches which that worthy man Kunce had set down.

“Fellow citizens, soldiers of the People,” she addressed us, when Hushtein, visibly pleased with his accidental and temporary presidency, motioned with his hand that she might speak, “I take this opportunity to express my civic admiration for Citizen Kunze, who alone, solitary and unaided, armed with nothing but pen and ink, surrounded by enemies on every side, has fulfilled his duty; and I declare my opinion that by his deed he has deprived us of every excuse should we — who are many and who each bear arms in our hands — fail in what is demanded of us.”

“Hurrah!” cried our censor sharply from his chair, thereby properly affirming the soundness of the sentiment. A few moments later the same cry, like a howl, broke through the hall, shaking the flames of the candles that lit it.

“Death to the enemies!” shouted Hushtein from the platform with satisfaction, which likewise produced a unanimous echo. My comrades at the table and I spared not our voices in sending the People’s message to the foe.

Then, however, something unusual occurred.

Soldier Zabern, whom I know only slightly and do not particularly esteem, for he has a habit of speaking in an un-Republican and improper manner of Major Anagret, requested the floor. Major Pel, feeling that since she had granted herself the liberty of interrupting the reading of an important text she could not deny that same right to an ordinary soldier, signalled that he might speak.

“Citizen Major, citizen soldiers, all honour to Citizen Kunze, still greater honour to Citizen Henscher, and to every Representative of the National Assembly; yet I must, in the name of the Constitution, pose the following question. The Republic consists not only in listening to those whom we have elected, but also in hearing all equally before deciding whom we shall heed. Henscher is indeed chairman of the Committee, but if we read only his words every day, then at the next elections he shall enjoy an advantage over other candidates who have not had the opportunity to address us daily. Therefore I propose that we do not read Citizen Henscher’s paper every evening, but sometimes that of Citizen Masden, and sometimes that of Citizen Hrebs.”

These words sounded reasonable in principle, and an uncertain and scattered approval spread through the hall, expressed by nods of the head and by murmurs perhaps not wholly Republican. All then looked toward Major Pel — who is known to stand firmly with Henscher in all matters — and toward the moral censor, whose word in such affairs must carry weight.

“I agree that the words of all the People’s legislators ought to be read,” said the Major, “but whenever I read the writings of the citizens you mention, I find there only reproaches and criticisms of the laws of our country, and our elected leaders spoken of more harshly than our enemies. We are the army and we serve the People. We read what is written to rouse the People against the enemy and the dreadful old regime which the enemy seeks to restore, not what is written to set the People against their own representatives and the laws which those representatives, in accordance with the Constitution, have enacted in their name. When the war is ended and free elections proclaimed, then we shall read equally the words of authority and opposition alike, praise and criticism both, and we shall have sufficient time to choose what is best for ourselves and for our homeland.”

The moral censor approved this also with the word “Hurrah.” Though not thunderous, it spread through every part of the hall, encouraged by the reader Hushtein, who alone truly roared it, as though unwilling to waste his strong throat upon the vileness of Hrebs and the cynical quibbles of Masden.

Yet Zabern, though shaken, did not sit, but continued:

“Perhaps you are right, Citizen Major; you are wiser than we and know better. But if it is not good to hear the opposition, perhaps it would be fitting at least not to hear the government every evening either, but sometimes to rest from politics and read something lighter for the mind of the common soldier, who longs for repose after a whole day of hard campaigning. For example, now that we have in principle read and accepted the essence of the text concerning Citizen Kunze, we might read more of Hurel’s fables, whose lessons are moral, or some humorous tales, such as these which I found yesterday among the ruins of a house struck by a cannonball”— and he produced a bundle and waved it so that all might see.

Every good Republican loves Hurel’s fables, though most already know them, and we have often read one after each session of The New Regime. As for the humorous tales, Major Anagret ordered that they be handed to the moral censor, who would decide, after examining them, whether they were fit for public reading on some future day. Nevertheless, she declared that Citizen Kunze’s exploit deserved that his Catalogue of Injustice be given the entire evening, and she signalled Hushtein to proceed with the black list itself, whereupon Zabern reluctantly returned to his seat.

You, my uncle, surely already know that famous list of infamous men and deeds, and even if not it is doubtless available to you, so I shall not waste paper and ink recounting what is contained therein. I shall say only that in our hall every deed was met with universal indignation and every name with a thunderous cry of condemnation, so that you need not fear that we, like royalist soldiers, have lost amid the harsh life of war our sense of moral purification and exaltation.

What followed, however, at number twenty-six of Kunce’s list surpassed all expectations and brought all present into a state of extraordinary trial and purification.

“Twenty-five,” resounded Hushtein’s voice, “Timbert Koheberg, so-called marquis, idler, hurrying to a ball, on the thirteenth day of Kunikal of the Fourth Year, drove his carriage over a hundred-year-old woman, who expired beneath the horses’ hooves.”

“BOOOOO!”

“This timbert koheberg—”

“BOOOOOOOO!”

“—may be recognized by brown hair, a crooked snub nose, and a mole upon the right cheek.”

The turning of the page could not be heard amid the general patriotic and civic clamour. Even upon the lips of Anagret Pel one could read the cry of civic indignation; yet from her whole expression it seemed that, though a Henscherite, and unlike the vast majority present, she pitied the victim far more than she savoured, like a true Republican stork, the intoxicating thirst for vengeance upon the culprit.

“Twenty-six, Maxer Zabern—”

“BOOO!”

“—milkman, testifying before the so-called royal so-called court, on the twenty-first day of Kunikal of the Fourth Year, lied that he had not seen the incident above mentioned under number twenty-five, thereby enabling the infamous said marquis to escape the punishment which even under the unjust so-called royal law would have awaited him. This Maxer Zabern—”

“BOOOOO!”

“—may be recognized by—”

Here Hushtein fell silent, and a chill passed through the entire hall, where for a moment the only sounds seemed to be the fluttering of moths about the trembling candles that illuminated the framed Preamble at the front of the hall, and the drip of wax upon their holders.

“This Maxer Zabern may be recognized by—” he repeated for the first time something already read, and suddenly widened his eyes in righteous fury, in the very direction to which all other eyes now turned — toward Soldier Maxer Zabern — whose most accurate description came in Hushtein’s next words:

“—fair hair, a thin nose, and a burn upon the left hand.”

For several moments, an icy silence reigned, broken only by Zabern himself, who stammered in justification: “Only a man utterly mad would testify in my place to having seen what I saw… a milkman accusing a marquis before a noble court…” — He was cut off by a thunderous “BOOO!” and those nearest him seized him as though he were under arrest and brought him before the Major and the moral censor, expecting them to deal with him according to the rules of natural and constitutional justice.

“Citizen soldiers,” the censor said in a solemn voice, “if a man has committed perjury before a Republican court, he must answer to the Republican court for violation of the Republic’s law. Yet if he has spoken falsehoods before the so-called royal, so-called court, his deed may only be judged from the standpoint of natural law, and the verdict shall be rendered and executed by the Republican public through Revolutionary violence!”

“Hurrah!” burst forth from every quarter, and the mention of Revolutionary violence stirred the blood in all hearts. Cowards and sycophants such as Zabern formed the foundation of the royalist order, which could not have endured had thousands of such characters not been willing not only to bow before injustice but also to trample truth and justice, speaking the lies required by the unjustly privileged to maintain their unclean positions. Bayonets from every corner of the hall were leveled at the culprit, and their bearers concealed not their intention to cut short the life of the guilty man. And then, indeed, his life might have been forfeit, had not the clear command of Major Anagret Pel sounded.

“Soldiers, to your places! Soldier Zabern may be subject to revolutionary law, but as soldiers you all are subject to the orders of your commanding officer. If you do what you intend, you may commit a grave error which you shall never be able to repair, and for which you shall repent eternally. Worse still, the Constitutional and Legal Army would soil itself by committing injustice, and as its members we must not permit this under any circumstances.”

She then summoned Zabern’s immediate superior, a mustachioed sergeant, and together with him and the old censor departed the hall, evidently to confer. Before doing so, she commanded that Zabern be forbidden to leave, and that no one should insult or threaten him in any way.

Until her return, twenty minutes later, the hall remained in the most complete silence.

When that time had elapsed, three Republican figures returned to the hall, accompanied by a thunderous “Hurrah.” They stood together before the Preamble itself, and Major Pel addressed the assembly, reading from a paper upon which she had doubtless condensed and arranged her argument, founded without doubt upon the logic of natural morality and Republican doctrine, as drawn from civic literature and the counsel of the moral censor.

“When a witness lies before a Republican court, which judges in the name of the People and enforces the laws that the sovereign People have enacted upon the basis of their own will and natural reason, regardless of the actual social power of the party against whom the testimony is given, that witness is an accomplice in evil and injustice, and a mortal enemy of justice. Perhaps even worse, he demonstrates disbelief in the power and resolve of his fellow citizens to defend their Laws and those who enforce them. With such a wicked citizen, the People are bound to act with the utmost severity, for should the conduct of such a witness become common, laws and justice shall vanish, the worst shall usurp sovereignty, and the People shall descend into the deepest tyranno-anarchy, statelessness, and lawlessness, wherein none shall be secure in their lives or in the enjoyment of the fruits of their virtues.”

All present assented to this irrefutable truth with the loudest “Hurrah” yet. Even Zabern himself visibly joined in the cry, and the pallor of fear that had drained his face returned in a flush of red.

“But Citizen Zabern did not lie to the Republican court,” continued Major Anagret, now speaking from memory rather than from the paper, “but to a quasi-court bound by so-called royal so-called laws, by whose unjust punctations that marquis, if he were condemned thereby, would have been sentenced to a few years’ imprisonment; whereas Zabern, had he in the same manner slain the marquis’s aged mother, could under the same quasi-laws have been torn apart by horses.”

“Such a non-court ought indeed to be lied to!” exclaimed one.

“Indeed, the worse under the king,” cried another, “the more the People shall rise in rebellion. Therefore it was well that he deceived the tyrannical quasi-court.”

“That was precisely my intent!” Zabern immediately cried, emboldened.

“There are such opinions, that this is good,” resumed the Major. “Yet if so, every oppressor of the People would have excuse for all he did under the king, claiming it was only to prompt the People to rise sooner. By publicly declaring that he did not see what he did see, Zabern deceived not only the tyrannical non-court but the People as well, before whom the supposed trial of the marquis was staged, and the People, as sovereign, must know the truth in order to issue and execute its righteous judgment at the proper time.”

“But I told the people in the tavern what I saw — how else would Kunze have known to place me upon his list?” defended Zabern. “I lied only before the so-called court.”

“You prevented the unfortunate old woman from receiving even a measure of justice,” said the Major. “And it is better to have some justice than none. Yet matters may still be rectified. Should that marquis be found and captured during the war, Zabern shall have the opportunity to testify before a true court and enable the execution of the utmost justice, proving himself a righteous citizen. On the other hand, if we learn that the marquis fled to some distant continent, where punishment is unlikely to reach him soon, or that he died peacefully and unpunished, then we shall hold Zabern accountable for the old woman receiving no justice, and we shall punish him, not by annihilation, but in some fitting manner — particularly since it is clear that Alvald has been freed by action from across the continent, and Zabern’s falsehood before the court contributed in no way to the People’s uprising on that island. Thus Citizen Zabern shall have yet greater motive to fight for every victory and success of our great Republican army, which will be a step toward ensuring that infamous marquis is annihilated or falls into our hands. Zabern’s sergeant assured me he is a good soldier, and today we require every good soldier, especially one motivated to atone for the fear he displayed far from Republican institutions, alone before the bloody quasi-court of our enemies.”

Both the censor and the entire army cried “Hurrah!” and I, my dear uncle, transmit this exclamation to you once more, with all civic regard.