The revolutionary epoch presents a wide gap in the written history of sparkling Champagne which no one seems to have taken the trouble of filling, though this hiatus can be to some extent bridged over by a glance at the caricatures of the period. It is evident from these that Champagne continued to be the fashionable wine _par excellence_. We can comprehend it was _de rigueur_ to 'fouetter le Champagne'[232] at the epicurean repasts held at the _petits maisons_ of the rich _fermiers généraux_, and that the _talons rouges_ of the Court of Louis Seize were not averse to the payment of 3 livres 10 sols for a bottle of this delightful beverage[233] when regaling some fair _émule_ of Sophie Arnould or Mademoiselle Guimard in the _coulisses_. One evening Mademoiselle Laguerre appeared on the stage as Iphigenia unmistakably intoxicated. 'Ah,' interjected the lively Sophie, 'this is not Iphigenia in Tauris, but Iphigenia in Champagne.' A proof of the aristocratic status of the wine is furnished by a print entitled _L'Accord Fraternel_, published at the very outset of the revolutionary movement, when it was fondly hoped that the Three Orders of the States General would unite in bringing about a harmonious solution to the evils by which France was sorely beset. In this the burly well-fed representative of the clergy holds out a bumper of Burgundy; the peasant--not one of the lean scraggy labourers, with neither shirt nor sabots,[234] prowling about half naked and hunger-stricken in quest of roots and nettle-tops, but a regular stage peasant in white stockings and pumps--grips a tumbler well filled with _vin du pays_; while the nobleman, elaborately arrayed in full military costume, with sword, cockade, and tie-wig all complete, delicately poises between his finger and thumb a tall _flute_ charged with sparkling Champagne. Moreover, we can plainly trace the exhilarating influence of the wine upon the 'feather-headed young ensigns' at the memorable banquet given to the officers of the Régiment de Flandre by the Gardes du Corps at Versailles, on the 2d Oct. 1789.[235] [Illustration: MIRABEAU TONNEAU (From a sketch by Camille Desmoulins).] Conspicuous amongst the titled topers of this period was the Viscount de Mirabeau--the younger brother of the celebrated orator and a fervent Royalist--nicknamed Mirabeau Tonneau, or Barrel Mirabeau, 'on account of his rotundity, and the quantity of strong liquor he contains.'[236] In a caricature dated 'An 1^{er} de la liberté,' and ascribed to Camille Desmoulins,[237] with whom the viscount long waged a paper war, his physical and bibacious attributes are very happily hit off. His body is a barrel; his arms, pitchers; his thighs, rundlets; and his legs inverted Champagne flasks; whilst in his left hand he holds a foam-crowned _flute_, and in his right another of those flasks, two of which he was credited with emptying at each repast.[238] [Illustration: LE NOUVEAU PRESSOIR DU CLERGÉ, 1789