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.