Mrs Gould is thus the lever that shifts the character of the scene, for both Father Roman and Don Pepe. Before, they were hardened campaigners, able to accept the realities of war; but at the threat to her they pass first into dismay, then into crusading resolution. There is an allegorical meaning to this: altruism, as the desire to uplift the lot of mankind, is the underlying premise of every moral crusade, and the lever that turns defensive power to moral aggression.