We Come in Victory

  

They are coming. 

Atom by atom, 

They will coil around us 

and take all that we are. 

There is one way to confront this threat. 

By reuniting the 24 Warring Houses of Our Own Empire. 

We have forgotten The Unforgettable... 

The last to unify Our Tribes: Kahless. 

Together, under one creed... 

Remain Klingon! 

Remain Klingon! 

That is why we light our beacon this day. 

To assemble Our People. 

To lock arms against those whose fatal greeting is... 

"We come in Victory."

WORF: 

You never told me that your wife was opposed to this marriage.

MARTOK: 

Sirella is a Woman of Strong Convictions.

 

She believes that by bringing aliens into our families we risk losing Our Identity as Klingons.

WORF: 

That is a prejudiced, xenophobic view.

MARTOK: 

We are Klingons, Worf!

 

We don't embrace other cultures, 

we conquer them! 

If someone wishes to join us, they must honour our traditions and prove themselves worthy of wearing The Crest of A Great House.

WORF: 

Jadzia is worthy.

MARTOK: 

Of course she is. 

She is an honourable woman and a formidable warrior.

WORF: 

You should say that to Sirella.

MARTOK: 

That's not such a good idea. 

I don't want her to think that I'm 

interfering in her domain.

WORF: 

Perhaps I should speak with her. 

Coming from me, 

it would not seem like a challenge to her authority.

MARTOK: 

I wouldn't do that if I were you.

WORF: 

Why?

MARTOK: 

Well, the truth is....

She doesn't like you that much either.

WORF: 

Me.

MARTOK: 

Don't let that bother you -- 

I had every right to bring you into The Family 

and she's accepted the fact that there's nothing she can do about it.

WORF: 

How comforting.

MARTOK: 

Ha! And they say that you have no sense of humour!

What Would Riker Do?

The Beard is an 

Ancient and Proud Tradition.

RIKER :

You get some rest? 

PICARD :

Oh, I tried. I'm worried about My Pilot. 

That he didn't make it. 

RIKER :

What have you gotten yourself into, Jean-Luc? 

Can you tell me? 

PICARD :

No. I never wanted you to get involved in any of this, Will. 

Coming here was a desperate impulse. 

I regret it already. 

RIKER :

Copy that. 

I'll stick to making pizza. 

I'm just thinking how great it would be if Ignorance of Danger was all it took to keep it away from The People We Love. 

[ he smiles, as the tears begin to whell up inside of him ]

PICARD :

That's not what I was saying. 

RIKER :

[ He sniffs and shakes it off -- back to Business ]

Smell that. Antarean basil. 

Grows like weeds around here. 

Everything does. 

The Soil has regenerative powers, 

which, is why we came here, of course. 

[ He spots his daughter, exiting the house with her new friend in tow ]

Wild Girl of The Woods! 

KESTRA TROI-RIKER,

The Wild Girl of The Woods :

I'm taking her to see The Garden. 

RIKER :

Ah. Allamalan val peresta o manal. 

Dr. SOJII ASHA :

Vo peresta melinàs andlif. 

KESTRA TROI-RIKER,

The Wild Girl of The Woods :

She read Thad's Viveen dictionary. 

All of it, in, like, two minutes. 

RIKER :

Two minutes? That thing's 300 pages long. 

[ Gives the teenage newcomer his attention ]

Hmm. We haven't met, Soji.

[ Offers her his hand, covered in flour. ] 

I'm Kestra's Dad. Will. 

Dr. SOJII ASHA :

Hello, Will. 

RIKER :

Hi. 

PICARD : 

Commander Riker and I served together on the USS Enterprise. 

[ TWO of Them, actually. But who's counting? ]

KESTRA TROI-RIKER,

The Wild Girl of The Woods :

And you were The Greatest Captain ever, I heard. 

RIKER :

[ Not embarrassed, by this - ]

The Greatest Captain ever? 

Where'd you get that nonsense?

KESTRA TROI-RIKER,

The Wild Girl of The Woods :

From you.

RIKER :

From me? Well, I must have been drinking at the time. 

Could you tell your mom we could use some more tomatoes. 

[ Give Sojii his attention once more - bows in courtesy ]

Nice to meet you. 

PICARD :

Speaking of drinking, may I? 

RIKER :

Please. 

PICARD :

[ He pours and takes a glass of wine from the bottle on The Table. ] 

Thank you. 

RIKER :

So, I'm just gonna speculate 

and Say Out Loud what I've been Saying in My Brain. 

You don't have to tell me anything; 

How's that sound? 

[ This man is a Poker Player par excellence. ]

You're worried about cloaks. 

That says Romulans. 

And the level of anxiety and fear for our safety, tells me Tal Shiar. 

Next, you're not the one that's on the run, 

it's her. 

But Why? 

What has poor Soji done to incur their wrath? 

Could it have anything to do with the fact... 

That she's clearly an android? 

And not just any android. 

I'd recognize that head tilt anywhere. 

Kid's got Data in her DNA. 

And that's why you're here. 

How am I doing? 

PICARD :

Not bad, for a pizza chef. 

RIKER :

Now I understand why you wanted to keep it a secret. 

Classic Picard arrogance. 

You get to make the decisions 

about who gets to take the chances and who doesn't, 

and who's in The Loop, and who's Out of The Loop. 

And, naturally, 

it always ends up with you. 

Well... That's fine, 

on the bridge of your starship, Captain. 

But you're dealing with a teenager now, more or less. 

That can be an extremely humbling experience. 

Frankly... I'm not sure you're up to it. 

PICARD :

Perhaps I'm not. 

RIKER :

There you go. 

Baby steps. 

PICARD :

Baby steps.

The poker scene was added to the script when it was running short.

[Riker's quarters]

(the poker game is in full swing, and Beverly is dealing)

WORF: 

Commander, is it your intention to continue to grow your beard?

LAFORGE: 

Actually, I'm not sure yet. 

Why, Worf?

WORF: 

I am just asking.

CRUSHER: 

Seven card stud, one-eyed jacks are wild.

RIKER: 

Frankly, Geordi, I like the beard.

LAFORGE: 

Thank you, Commander.

CRUSHER: 

You know, I have always been a little suspicious of Men with Beards.

WORF: 

Why is that?

CRUSHER: 

I don't know. 

It's as if they're trying to hide something.

[ horrible and disfiguring scarring acquired during wars, dueling, hunting and fighting, usually. ]

RIKER: 

Hide? Don't be ridiculous, Doctor. 

The Beard is an Ancient and Proud Tradition.

LAFORGE: 

Some of the most distinguished Men in History have worn beards, Doctor.

CRUSHER: 

I know. But after the razor was invented I think beards became mostly a fashion statement.

WORF: 

I'm not concerned with Fashion. 

To a Klingon, 

A Beard is a Symbol of Courage.

RIKER: 

I think it's a Sign of Strength.

CRUSHER: 

Sure, and of course, 

Women can't grow beards.

LAFORGE: 

Doctor, it sounds to me like you feel beards are nothing more than an affectation.

CRUSHER: 

I do. But there's nothing wrong with that. 

I mean, women wear makeup and nail polish. 

I just think it's time you men admitted it.

RIKER: 

My beard is not an affectation.

CRUSHER: 

Oh? Well then you wouldn't mind shaving it off.

RIKER: 

I could lose it in a minute. 

I've just gotten used to it.

CRUSHER: 

Okay, then why don't we up the stakes a little? 

And if I win, all off you shave your beards off.

LAFORGE: 

Wait a minute, wait a minute. 

What if you lose? 

What are you going to give up?

CRUSHER: 

I'm open for suggestions.

RIKER: 

Well, I've always wanted to see you as a brunette.

CRUSHER: 

Oh, I did that once when I was thirteen. 

I couldn't change back fast enough.

RIKER : 

That makes me even more curious....!

CRUSHER : 

Fine. If one of you wins, 

I become a brunette. Are we on?

LAFORGE: 

Yeah, yeah, we'll take that bet.

CRUSHER : 

Looks like you have the hand to beat, Commander.

LAFORGE: 

Two hundred.

CRUSHER: 

I'm in two hundred.

RIKER:

Geordi.

PICARD : 

This is the Captain. 

We have arrived at the Tyran system. 

All senior staff to the Bridge.

CRUSHER: 

Wait!

RIKER: 

Sorry, you heard the Captain. 

Duty calls. I guess we'll have to do this some other time.

Jonathan Frakes commented, 

"It was a little heavy on technobabble, but all things considered I think that show came off quite well." 

However, he was disappointed that there was no callback to the poker scene at the end of the episode. 

"We should have seen the result of the bet the characters made. 

Either Gates [McFadden] should have been a brunette or we should have been sitting in the chair about to be shaved. 

I don't know why they would lay it out as a red herring and not have it pay off in some way – 

as if no one was watching the show."

The Original Vulcan Hello

"Do you have the right to commit murder?"

COMPUTER VOICE 

(on viewscreen): 

...six, ...five, ...four, ...three, ...two, ...one...

(on the viewscreen the Enterprise self-destructs)

KLINGON AMBASSADOR: 

Hold the image. Hold! ...Behold! 

The Quintessential Devil in these matters! 

James T. Kirk, 

Renegade and Terrorist! 

Not only is he responsible for the murder of a Klingon crew, 

the theft of a Klingon vessel -

See now the real plot and intentions - 

Even as this Federation was negotiating a peace treaty with us, 

Kirk was secretly developing the Genesis torpedo, 

conceived by Kirk's son and test-detonated by the Admiral himself!

The result of this awesome energy was euphemistically called 

'The Genesis Planet' 

...A secret base from which to launch 

The Annihilation of The Klingon People! 

We demand the extradition of Kirk! 

We demand Justice!

SAREK: 

Klingon justice is a unique point of view, Mister President.

Genesis was perfectly named. 

The Creation of Life, not Death. 

The Klingons shed the first blood while attempting to possess its secrets.

KLINGON AMBASSADOR: 

Vulcans are well known as the intellectual puppets of this Federation!

SAREK: 

Your vessel did destroy U.S.S. Grissom. 

Your men did kill Kirk's son. 

Do you deny these events?

KLINGON AMBASSADOR: 

We deny nothing! 

We have the right to preserve our race!

SAREK: 

Do you have the right to commit murder?

FEDERATION PRESIDENT: 

Silence! Silence! 

There will be no further outbursts from the floor.

SAREK: 

Mister President, I have come to speak on behalf of the accused.

KLINGON AMBASSADOR: 

Personal bias! 

His son was saved by Kirk!

FEDERATION PRESIDENT: 

Mister Ambassador, with all respect, the Council's deliberations are over.

KLINGON AMBASSADOR: 

Then Kirk goes unpunished?

FEDERATION PRESIDENT: 

Admiral Kirk has been charged with 9 violations of Starfleet regulations.

• Conspiracy. 
• Assault on Federation Officers. 
• Theft of Federation Property, namely the Starship Enterprise. 
• Sabotage of the U.S.S. Excelsior, 
• Wilful destruction of Federation Property, specifically the aforementioned U.S.S. Enterprise. 

• Disobeying Direct Orders of the Starfleet Commander.

KLINGON AMBASSADOR: 

Starfleet regulations? That's outrageous! 

Remember this well - 

There shall be no peace as long as Kirk lives!

ORCHIDS

“Hybrids! A Crime against Nature!”

[Tuvok's quarters]

(Tuvok is tending his orchids when the doorbell rings.)

TUVOK: 

Come in. Captain, this is unexpected.

JANEWAY: 

I've been in your quarters before.

TUVOK: 

Indeed, but so rarely that I can 

remember each instance. 

Vulcan spice tea, hot. 

And it was always at a time when 

you were particularly troubled.

JANEWAY: 

Right as usual. Thank you. 

Commander Chakotay has proposed that we make an alliance with one of the Kazon factions. 

We wouldn't give them weapons or technology, but we would pledge to support and defend them if they're attacked.

TUVOK: 

I am sure that made you uncomfortable.

JANEWAY: 

How can I consider it? 

I can't just walk away from the precepts Starfleet has laid our for us. 

You don't deal with Outlaws. 

You don't involve yourself in the political machinations of other cultures. 

It goes against everything I believe, everything I trained for, everything experience has taught me.

TUVOK: 

Quite right.

JANEWAY: 

Do I hear a ‘however’ coming?

TUVOK: 

You are perceptive, Captain. 

I believe Commander Chakotay's suggestion does have merit.

JANEWAY: 

Help me understand that.

TUVOK: 

When I was a Young Man, 

A Great Visionary named Spock recommended an alliance between the Federation and the Klingon Empire. 

This produced a major dispute. 

The Klingons, after all, were Outlaws, employing violence and brutality in order to build their Empire. 

I myself spoke out against such a coalition. 

But the alliance was forged and it brought a stability to the quadrant that had not been there for two hundred years. 

Spock's suggestion, so controversial at first, 

proved to be the cornerstone of peace.

JANEWAY: 

There are some differences here. 

By allying ourselves to one faction, we'd be giving that faction more power than the others. 

That would clearly affect the internal politics of all the Kazon.

TUVOK: 

I understand your concern, but remember, it would only be a temporary arrangement since we are on our way out of this quadrant. 

In the meantime, it might bring stability to the region and security for us.

JANEWAY: 

Once we're gone they'll probably go back to their in-fighting.

TUVOK: 

Perhaps. But even temporary stability can bring an appreciation for peace. 

This flower is a rare hybrid. 

As far as I know it exists nowhere else in the galaxy. 

I created it by grafting a cutting from a South American orchid onto a Vulcan favinit plant. 

I doubted the graft would take, 

and indeed the plant was sickly at first. 

However, after a few weeks both plants adapted to their new condition and in fact became stronger than either had been alone.

Fierce Orion

ORION : 

I thought My People would grow tired of Killing. 

But You Were Right. 

 

They see that it is easier than trading and it has pleasures. 

 

I feel it myself. 

Like The Hunt,

but with richer rewards.

 

KRELL,

The Klingon : 

You will be rich one day, Apella,

beyond your dreams. 

 

The Leader of a Whole World. 

A Governor in the Klingon Empire.

 

See, The Deal was a secret, but Metron has worked it out --

Everyone else must just assume that Highfather’s Son, 

Orion, The Fierce,

is a blood-relative — that’s assuming that New Gods have blood….

Nine Inch Nails

I seen through junkies, 

I been through it all

I seen Religion 
from Jesus to Paul
Don't let them fool you 
with Dope and Cocaine
No one can harm you,
 feel Your Own Pain

Worf: 

I prefer Klingon Beliefs.

Kira: 
I suppose Your Gods 
aren’t as cryptic as Ours.

Worf: 

Our Gods are Dead —

Ancient Klingon Warriors slew them a millennium ago. 

They were More Trouble than They were Worth.

No Man or Woman can be too Powerful or too Beautiful without Disaster befalling.

They laugh when you rise too high and crush everything you've built with a whim.

What Glory They give, in The End, They take away.

They make of us Slaves.

Truth is in Our Hearts, 

and none will tell you this but Your Father.

Men hate The Gods.

The only reason we worship any of them is because we fear worse.

What's worse?

The Titans.

If they were ever to be set free, it would be Darkness such as we have never seen before.

Could They ever come back?

Can Zeus imprison The Titans forever under Mount Olympus?

It's said that when Zeus burned them to dust with his lightning bolt they took the Titans' ashes and, in a cold revenge, mixed it with those of Mortal Men.

Why?

Who Knows These Things?

One day, Things will Change.

Men will Change.

But first, The Gods must Change.

But all this you'll forget, Alexander.

That's why we call them Myths.

We can't bear to remember them.

“God is Dead,” said Nietzsche. 

“God remains dead. And we have killed him. 

How shall we, murderers of all murderers, console ourselves? 

That which was the holiest and mightiest of all that The World has yet possessed has bled to death under our knives. 

Who will wipe this blood off us?”

The central dogmas of the Western faith were no longer credible, according to Nietzsche, given what the Western mind now considered Truth. 

But it was his second attack — on the removal of the true moral burden of Christianity during the development of the Church — that was most devastating. 

The hammer-wielding philosopher mounted an assault on an early-established and then highly influential line of Christian thinking: that Christianity meant accepting the proposition that Christ’s sacrifice, and only that sacrifice, had redeemed humanity. 

This did not mean, absolutely, that a Christian who believed that Christ died on the cross for the salvation of mankind was thereby freed from any and all personal moral obligation. 

But it did strongly imply that the primary responsibility for redemption had already been borne by The Saviour, and that nothing too important to do remained for all-too-fallen human individuals. 

Nietzsche believed that Paul, and later the Protestants following Luther, had removed moral responsibility from Christ’s followers. They had watered down the idea of the imitation of Christ. 

This imitation was The Sacred Duty of The Believer not to adhere (or merely to mouth) a set of statements about abstract belief but instead to actually manifest The Spirit of The Saviour in the particular, specific conditions of his or her life — to realize or incarnate the archetype, as Jung had it; to clothe the eternal pattern in flesh. 

Nietzsche writes, 

“The Christians have never practiced the actions Jesus prescribed them; and the impudent garrulous talk about the ‘justification by faith’ and its supreme and sole significance is only the consequence of the Church’s lack of courage and will to profess the works Jesus demanded.”

Nietzsche was, indeed, a critic without parallel. Dogmatic belief in the central axioms of Christianity (that Christ’s crucifixion redeemed the world; that salvation was reserved for the hereafter; that salvation could not be achieved through works) had three mutually reinforcing consequences: First, devaluation of the significance of earthly life, as only the hereafter mattered. This also meant that it had become acceptable to overlook and shirk responsibility for the suffering that existed in the here-and-now; Second, passive acceptance of the status quo, because salvation could not be earned in any case through effort in this life (a consequence that Marx also derided, with his proposition that religion was the opiate of the masses); and, finally, third, the right of the believer to reject any real moral burden (outside of the stated belief in salvation through Christ), because the Son of God had already done all the important work. It was for such reasons that Dostoevsky, who was a great influence on Nietzsche, also criticized institutional Christianity (although he arguably managed it in a more ambiguous but also more sophisticated manner). 

In his masterwork, The Brothers Karamazov, Dostoevsky has his atheist superman, Ivan, tell a little story, “The Grand Inquisitor.”

A brief review is in order. 

Ivan speaks to his brother Alyosha — whose pursuits as a monastic novitiate he holds in contempt — of Christ returning to Earth at the time of The Spanish Inquisition. 

The returning Savior makes quite a ruckus, as would be expected. He Heals The Sick. He Raises The Dead. 

His antics soon attract attention from The Grand Inquisitor himself, who promptly has Christ arrested and thrown into a prison cell. 

Later, the Inquisitor pays Him a visit. 

He informs Christ that he is no longer needed. His return is simply too great a threat to the Church. The Inquisitor tells Christ that the burden He laid on mankind—the burden of existence in Faith and Truth — was simply too great for mere mortals to bear. The Inquisitor claims that the Church, in its mercy, diluted that Message, lifting the demand for Perfect Being from the shoulders of its followers, providing them instead with the simple and merciful escapes of Faith and the afterlife. 

That work took centuries, says the Inquisitor, and the last thing the Church needs after all that effort is the return of the Man who insisted that people bear all the weight in the first place. 

Christ listens in silence. 

Then, as the Inquisitor turns to leave, Christ embraces him, and kisses him on the lips. 

The Inquisitor turns white, in shock. 

Then he goes out, leaving the cell door open. 

The profundity of this story and the greatness of spirit necessary to produce it can hardly be exaggerated. Dostoevsky, one of the great literary geniuses of all time, confronted the most serious existential problems in all his great writings, and he did so courageously, headlong, and heedless of the consequences. 

Clearly Christian, he nonetheless adamantly refuses to make a straw man of his rationalist and atheistic opponents. Quite the contrary: In The Brothers Karamazov, for example, Dostoevsky’s atheist, Ivan, argues against the presuppositions of Christianity with unsurpassable clarity and passion. Alyosha, aligned with the Church by temperament and decision, cannot undermine a single one of his brother’s arguments (although his faith remains unshakeable). Dostoevsky knew and admitted that Christianity had been defeated by the rational faculty—by the intellect, even—but (and this is of primary importance) he did not hide from that fact. He didn’t attempt through denial or deceit or even satire to weaken the position that opposed what he believed to be most true and valuable. He instead placed action above words, and addressed the problem successfully. 

By the novel’s end, Dostoevsky has the great embodied moral goodness of Alyosha—the novitiate’s courageous imitation of Christ—attain victory over the spectacular but ultimately nihilistic critical intelligence of Ivan. The Christian church described by the Grand Inquisitor is the same church pilloried by Nietzsche. Childish, sanctimonious, patriarchal, servant of the state, that church is everything rotten still objected to by modern critics of Christianity. Nietzsche, for all his brilliance, allows himself anger, but does not perhaps sufficiently temper it with judgement. This is where Dostoevsky truly transcends Nietzsche, in my estimation—where Dostoevsky’s great literature transcends Nietzsche’s mere philosophy. The Russian writer’s Inquisitor is the genuine article, in every sense. 

He is an opportunistic, cynical, manipulative and cruel interrogator, willing to persecute heretics—even to torture and kill them. He is the purveyor of a dogma he knows to be false. But Dostoevsky has Christ, the archetypal perfect man, kiss him anyway. Equally importantly, in the aftermath of the kiss, the Grand Inquisitor leaves the door ajar so Christ can escape his pending execution. Dostoevsky saw that the great, corrupt edifice of Christianity still managed to make room for the spirit of its Founder. That’s the gratitude of a wise and profound soul for the enduring wisdom of the West, despite its faults. It’s not as if Nietzsche was unwilling to give the faith—and, more particularly, Catholicism—its due. 

Nietzsche believed that the long tradition of “unfreedom” characterizing dogmatic Christianity—its insistence that everything be explained within the confines of a single, coherent metaphysical theory—was a necessary precondition for the emergence of the disciplined but free modern mind. As he stated in Beyond Good and Evil: The long bondage of the spirit … the persistent spiritual will to interpret everything that happened according to a Christian scheme, and in every occurrence to rediscover and justify the Christian God in every accident:—all this violence, arbitrariness, severity, dreadfulness, and execution. Dostoevsky saw that the great, corrupt unreasonableness, has proved itself the disciplinary means whereby the European spirit has attained its strength, its remorseless curiosity and subtle mobility; granted also that much irrecoverable strength and spirit had to be stifled, suffocated and spoiled in the process.

For Nietzsche and Dostoevsky alike, freedom — even the ability to act — requires constraint. For this reason, they both recognized the vital necessity of The Dogma of The Church. 

The Individual must be constrained, moulded — even brought close to destruction—by a restrictive, coherent disciplinary structure, before he or she can act freely and competently. 

Dostoevsky, with his great generosity of spirit, granted to The Church, corrupt as it might be, a certain element of mercy, a certain pragmatism. He admitted that The Spirit of Christ, The World-Engendering Logos, had historically and might still find its resting place — even its Sovereignty — within that dogmatic structure. 

If a Father disciplines his son properly, he obviously interferes with His Freedom, particularly in the here-and-now, He put limits on the voluntary expression of His Son’s Being,  forcing him to take his place as a socialized member of The World. 

Such a father requires that all that childish potential be funneled down a singly pathway. In placing such limitations on his son, he might be considered a destructive force, acting as he does to replace the miraculous plurality of childhood with a single narrow actuality. But if the father does not take such action, he merely lets his son remain Peter Pan, the eternal Boy, King of the Lost Boys, Ruler of the non-existent Neverland. That is not a morally acceptable alternative. 

The Dogma of The Church was undermined by The Spirit of Truth strongly developed by The Church itself.

HOUSE

K'MTAR: 

Q'apla, Worf. 

You are too much for them. 

WORF: 

I have seen you before. 

Who are you? 

K'MTAR: 

A friend. 

(he holds out his fist, displaying a ring)

WORF: 

Are you K'mtar. 

K'MTAR: 

Your brother sent me here to protect you.

WORF: 

He is gin'tak to the House of Mogh. 

RIKER: 

Gin'tak? 

WORF: 

An advisor so trusted that he is become part of a family. 

RIKER: 

Do you have any idea who was behind the attack? 

K'MTAR: 

It is a Klingon matter. 

It is not your concern. 

RIKER: 

One of my officers was almost killed. 

That makes it my concern. 

K'MTAR: 

Recently, rumours began to circulate on the homeworld that an assassination attempt was going to be made on the Family of Mogh.

“A Decree of The Senate empowered Brutus to propose to the people a measure exiling all the members of The House of Tarquin. 

A Conspiracy to Restore the Tarquins.

Though no one doubted that war with the Tarquins was imminent, it did not come as soon as was universally expected. What was not expected, however, was that through intrigue and treachery the new-won liberty was almost lost.

There were some young men of high birth in Rome who during the late reign had done pretty much what they pleased, and being born companions of the young Tarquins were accustomed to live in royal fashion. Now that all were equal before the law, they missed their former licence and complained that the liberty which others enjoyed had become slavery for them; as long as there was a king, there was a person from whom they could get what they wanted, whether lawful or not, there was room for personal influence and kindness, he could show severity or indulgence, could discriminate between his friends and his enemies. But the law was a thing, deaf and inexorable, more favourable to the weak than to the powerful, showing no indulgence or forgiveness to those who transgressed; human nature being what it was, it was a dangerous plan to trust solely to one's innocence. When they had worked themselves into a state of disaffection, envoys from the royal family arrived, bringing a demand for the restoration of their property without any allusion to their possible return. An audience was granted them by the senate, and the matter was discussed for some days; fears were expressed that the non-surrender would be taken as a pretext for war, while if surrendered it might provide the means of war. The envoys, meantime, were engaged on another task: whilst ostensibly seeking only the surrender of the property they were secretly hatching schemes for regaining the crown. Whilst canvassing the young nobility in favour of their apparent object, they sounded them as to their other proposals, and meeting with a favourable reception, they brought letters addressed to them by the Tarquins and discussed plans for admitting them secretly at night into the City.