Alexandre Dumas

“ Duplay lifted his brows.
“No wonder M. Robespierre is not his friend!”
“One cannot be friendly with Robespierre and the Duke of Orleans at the same time,” said Duplay, shaking his head. “But patience!” All eyes are turned towards a man who enters. One felt, at first sight, without knowing him, that he was some great personage.
An immense forest of hair; a head resembling, for size and marked outline, a lion’s or a bull’s, indicated a ruler of the multitude. I had not time to ask Duplay who he was, for every mouth murmured the word “Mirabeau!—Mirabeau!” ”

“ A strange sight! Thousands of armed men—soldiers with cannon and musket, prepared against a numerous foe; a swiftly passing crowd of men, armed to the teeth, jealously guarding a carriage half-filled with two such as they themselves were,—all against—what?
Sixty drums beating to drown—utter silence! Two hundred thousand men, to keep order amongst—space! Armed men—and that was all!
On the line, not a human being to be seen beyond the serried lines of armed men. Not a woman’s form for the eye to rest on—every window blind, every street passed, a desert. Paris was a city of the dead. ”

“ When Louis died all pity had expired; with her death, all France was to gasp with thirst for blood.
She mounted the cart—her hands having been bound behind her, and in the midst of a raging crowd. The cart swayed, and she could scarcely keep her seat on the plank.
She grew red and pale by turns, as she was dragged through the mob. The patience and pity exhibited by the King she could not imitate. Her lips were bitter each moment; but she never took her dry, hot eyes from the raging people. ”

“ I felt wounded that the King should think that I required to be paid for what I had done.
“Sire,” replied I, “if you make a promise to the nation, keep it; and, as a citizen, you will have done all for me that I can ask.”
“You see, sister,” said the King, “he is a savage.”
“What is your name, sir?” asked Madame Elizabeth.
“Réné Besson.”
“Whence come you?”
“From the Forest of Argonne.”
“I told you he was a savage,” said the King. “What else could you expect?”
“What trade are you?”
“A carpenter.”
“My brother, you know the fable of the Lion and the Rat,” said Madame Elizabeth. ”

“ I told him all that had happened—from my meeting with the carpenter, on the Champ de Mars, to my visit to the Jacobin Club.
“Very good,” said Drouet. “You passed last night among the aristocracy—you shall pass this among the canaille.”
“Shall we spend the night together?” cried I, joyously.
“Yes; I will take you to the Cordeliers, where you will meet neither dukes, nor princes, nor marquises, but three citizens, whom you tell me you have often thought of—to wit, Marat, Danton, and Camille Desmoulins; in the meantime, we will take a stroll round Paris.” ”

“ The shedding of blood, and the madness of the States, alike command that one and all should unite their efforts for the preservation of the King and Queen and the royal family of France. It is impossible to shake my resolution. I have determined, once and for all, never to abandon, at a moment when they are forsaken by their oldest servants, those who have none to look to but me. ”

“ A sort of sympathy drew us to the Champ de Mars.
There was the same amount of bustle as on the day before. A hundred thousand workmen were throwing up the earth, and forming a valley between two hills.
The work progressed as if under the wave of an enchanter’s rod. There was no doubt but that all would be ready for the morrow, so that in seven days the gigantic undertaking would have been completed. The middle of the place was entirely clear. Here they erected the altar of the country, and in front of the Ecole Militaire, built up seats for the King and the Assembly. ”

“ Men will be what they ought to be, when one can say, ‘The world is my country, the world is mine;’ but till then, there are more proscriptions, more banishments, more exiles. Nature is one; why is not society one? They are divided forces, which strike one another when nations are driven against each other by the breath of hatred, and, like clouds, they strike and are scattered. Tyrants, we wish not that, and the proof is that we demand not your death. Kill yourselves, slay each other. Descend, O kings, from your thrones, and we will give you your choice ’twixt misery and a scaffold. ”

“ All at once, a large mass of people entered the club. They were what were called the Bucks of the Palais Royal, dragging with them about fifty young women of questionable character.
“Ah, ah!” murmured Danton. “’Tis a planned affair!”
All the newly-arrived mixed with the Jacobins, crying, “The forfeiture—the forfeiture!”
Laclos ascended the tribune.
“You see,” said he, “’tis the people—the people who desire the forfeiture. A petition is necessary, of which I approve.”
All this immense crowd, who probably had the word, cried with one voice, “The petition—the petition!” ”

“ The Queen turned aside, shedding tears of rage.
She had never been so humbled before.
The day began to dawn.
The crowd filled the street, the Place de la Rue Neuve, and the Place Latry.
All the citizens cried from their windows, “To Paris—to Paris—to Paris with the King!”
Alas! to show himself—he was to appear no longer, as on the 6th of October, on the balcony of the marble court, but at the windows of a grocer’s house. ”

“ Without being handsome, I was at an age when youth supplies the want of beauty. I was tall, well-made, with an open expression of countenance, and a well-knit frame. The loyalty of my heart beamed upon my face. In short, I made the same impression upon the Duc d’Orleans and Madame de Buffon as I had upon the King, the Queen, and Madame Elizabeth—that of being a well-looking lad.
“You come from Varennes, my friend?” ”

“ The carriage, the nearer it approached Paris, appeared to be entering the mouth of a furnace.
The Queen, whom nothing hitherto had conquered, was beaten by the heat. Twice or thrice she cried, “I suffocate!”
At Bourget, the King asked for wine.
Broken down by fatigue, Madame Elizabeth slept.
The change of places had brought Pétion close by her. The face of the future Mayor of Paris had a remarkable expression of joy. The Queen, who cared not for sleeping herself, shook her by the arm in order to awaken her.
“Let her alone,” cried Pétion. “Nature must take its course.” ”

“ He turned, and left the chamber.
“Let him be judged!” cried Bazere.
“’Tis time the nation learns if she is right in wishing to be free, and if this is a crime!”
“I ask,” cried Languinais, “that the sentence be declared by a ballot of all France!”
“To prison with Languinais!” cried many voices.
“You are too openly a Royalist,” cried Thuriot.
“Why,” cried another, “he wills to try us, and make Louis himself judge.”
“And I say,” replied Languinais, fearlessly, “that you constitute yourselves accusers, judges, jury, and executioners. Let the people declare themselves! ”

“ I, Louis XVI of that name, and King of France, confined for four months in the Tower of the Temple, at Paris, by those who were my subjects, and deprived during eleven days of all communication with even my family, and, moreover, implicated in a trial, the outcome of which no man can with certainty foresee—for who can measure the passions of men?—having no one, save God, as a witness of my thoughts, or to whom I can address myself, do here declare, in His presence, this my last will and testament. I bequeath my soul to God, my creator, and pray that, in all his mercy he will accept it. ”

“ All France knew that the English Revolution, which sent Charles I to the block, had resulted in a social condition in England which offered an example for France to follow.
But having once passed upon a man the dignity of approaching death; having thrown round him the darkness of the coming tomb—to crush his heart—to humiliate him—to embitter his last moments—to play with his life as a cat with a poor, palpitating mouse—to try to resuscitate the desire to live—to seek to change the calmness of resignation back into the whirlpool of despair—these are not the acts of men, but demons. ”

“ It was the people declaring the abolition of royalty, and the declaration of a republic.
“My kingdom,” he said to the Queen, “has passed away like a dream, and it has not been a happy dream. God gave it me, and the people take it away. I pray that France may be happy.”
On the evening of the same day, one of his gaolers asked the King brutally, if he knew that he was living in a republic.
“I have heard it,” he replied; “and I have prayed that the republic may deal justly with my country. I have never placed myself between the people and their happiness.” ”

“ Oh, listen to the voice of reason; may patriotism warm your hearts to build up a temple which will hold all the representatives of the human race. Then ten thousand men will suffice to represent the universe!”
“Bravo! bravo!” cried all from all sides.
“There are plenty of heads to chop off here and there,” said Marat.
“Ye-ye-yes,” Stammered Camille Desmoulins; “six hundred yes-yes-yesterday, nineteen thousand four hun-hundred to-day; and if a to-morrow arrives, there will be fif-fif-fifty thousand.”
“Anacharsis,” cried Danton, “you err, but on the side of a good and generous heart.” ”

“ The life or death of the King was really the question of the Convention; it was the test of Royalty or Republicanism, and no man knew this better than Robespierre. It was by the exercise of this knowledge that he rose to power—to that power, by the exercise of which almost all the men who had formed a portion of the National Assembly, who were members of the Convention which superseded the Assembly, were sent to the scaffold before he himself mounted the fatal ladder. ”

“ I am the King of Poverty. May every head, which would rear itself above the level of the people soon fall, when I cry ‘Kill!’”
A few days, and, in his arrogance, he says to his brother Conventionists, “I hold you as a little water in the palm of this hand; and as readily as I spill it, so I can spill the blood of all of you!”
By this time, Philip Equality, for what he had been—a Duke—had become hated of the people. Strangely enough, he who had been so cowardly as a youth, now, when his life was threatened, became brave. ”

“ Passing through the gates of the city, and noticing the ardor with which the postilion urged on their steeds, the Queen, and Madame Elizabeth gave vent each to the same cry:—“We are saved!”
But at that very moment a man, arisen, as it were, suddenly from the very bosom of the earth, passed on horseback to the door of the carriage, and said, “Your measures are badly taken! You will be stopped!”
It was never known who this man was.
By good luck, they were distant only four leagues from Pont-de-Somme-Vesles, where M. de Choiseul was awaiting them with his forty hussars. ”

“ In this shape of pity, he nearly lost his own head.
She wrote of Marat finally:—“Pardon me, oh men! The name of Marat dishonors your race. He was a beast of prey seeking to devour France by war and hate. I thank Heaven that by birth he was no Frenchman.”
She was pained by the accusation made by Chabot, the wretch who had torn away her neckerchief, who declared she had been his mistress, far more than by the thought of approaching death. “Chabot,” she wrote, “is a mere madman. I never even dreamed of this man. He need not be feared—he has not intellect enough to be dangerous.” ”

“ I had once or twice heard the name of the heroine of the 5th and 8th of October—the impetuous Liègoise, beautiful, but terrible; who, at Versailles, with a smile and soft voice, had ordered the regiments of Flanders to lay down their arms. An unhappy affection—the treason of an unfaithful one, had thrust her out from woman’s life. She had embraced the cause of the Revolution with transport. It was her last love. The unhappy woman was whipped by the Royalists in the Garden of the Tuileries, became insane, and died in Bicetre, or Charenton, I forget which, after twenty years of agony. ”

“ Why, in 1300, did they discourse the holy gospel? Why, during the captivity of King John, did the Provost of Paris, Etienne Marcel, making himself a dictator, establish a popular club there, equal to that of the eighteenth century? Why were the Cordeliers, especially, of all the minor orders of St. Francis, republican in their tendencies—so much so, that, three centuries before Barbeuf and Prudhomme, they had dreamt the abolition of the rights of property?
The 13th of July was Vesuvius, with its fire-ejecting crater, threatening to destroy Naples, and overturn the world. ”

“ I continued my reading.
“The needle and the sword can never be wielded by the same hand. If I were a king, I would only permit the ell, the wand, and the shears, to women, and to maimed men, equally feeble with the weaker sex. I would forbid callings against health, but not those which are simply laborious, or even dangerous, for those demand at once both strength and courage. Everything considered, the trade which I should like a pupil of mine to adopt of himself would be that of a carpenter.” ”