Victor Hugo, Ayn Rand, And A Need To Save Children That Transcends Bitter Hatred Of Our Enemies

“Fire! Help! They’re angels, little angels!. What have those innocent babies done? First I’m shot and now they’re being burned! Who is it that’s doing those things? Help! Save my children! Don’t you hear me? You’d take pity on a dog! There can’t be men on earth who’ll let those poor little children die like that! Oh, if they die like that I’ll kill God!”

A fleeing Royalist, Lantenac, hears the pitiable cries of the mother and it calls him to action. He alone has the key to the building in which the children are. To return will mean that he will be captured by the Republicans and put to death. He sacrifices his life for the lives of the children. Together, Royalist and Republicans work to rescue the young ones. And when the children are safe, Lantenac is arrested.

Gauvain, the leader of the Republicans, is amazed by this act of unselfishness. He recognizes in it a morality that transcends politics. In recognition of this noble action, Gauvain allows Lantenac to escape, even though he knows that to do so will mean his own arrest and execution as a traitor.

This, in brief, is the ending of the novel Ninety-Three by Victor Hugo. The entirety of the book is a buildup to the eventual confrontation between these two mortal enemies. But in the end, they found that more pressing matters had to be dealt with. The battle between the two sides is still to be fought, the conviction of neither man wavers. But each…