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The Downfall by Émile Zola
page 290 of 812 (35%)
ineffable folly and falsehood.

"Besides," he went on, "what good was there in making fools of us as
they have been doing all along, telling us that the Prussians were
dying of hunger and disease, that they had not so much as a shirt to
their back, and were tramping along the highways like ragged, filthy
paupers!"

Loubet laughed the laugh of the Parisian gamin, who has experienced
the various vicissitudes of life in the Halles.

"Oh, that's all in my eye! it is we fellows who have been catching it
right along; we are the poor devils whose leaky brogans and tattered
toggery would make folks throw us a copper. And then those great
victories about which they made such a fuss! What precious liars they
must be, to tell us that old Bismarck had been made prisoner and that
a German army had been driven over a quarry and dashed to pieces! Oh
yes, they fooled us in great shape."

Pache and Lapoulle, who were standing near, shook their heads and
clenched their fists ominously. There were others, also, who made no
attempt to conceal their anger, for the course of the newspapers in
constantly printing bogus news had had most disastrous results; all
confidence was destroyed, men had ceased to believe anything or
anybody. And so it was that in the soldiers, children of a larger
growth, their bright dreams of other days had now been supplanted by
exaggerated anticipations of misfortune.

"_Pardi_!" continued Chouteau, "the thing is accounted for easily
enough, since our rulers have been selling us to the enemy right from
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