A Trip to Paris in July and August 1792 — John Shaqi
A Trip to Paris in July and August 1792Twiss, Richard
History
A Trip to Paris in July and August 1792
Twiss, Richard
France -- History -- 1789-1793; Paris (France) -- Description and travel -- Early works to 1800
After the account of the Pantheon (p. 28) should be added: In April,
1791, the body or _Mirabeau_ was deposited here; and in July following
that of _Voltaire_. Soon after this it was decreed, that _Rousseau_ had
merited the honours due to great men, but that his ashes should remain
where they were.
To the lift of engravings of the _Maiden_ must be added another,
prefixed to a little tract, called _Gibbet-Law_.
By _premier An de l'Egalite_,(first year of Equality) it is not to be
understood that every person in France is equal, but that as they have
no sovereign, no person is above, but every person is equally under the
protection of the law. This matter has been both misunderstood and
misrepresented in England.
On the 18th I was out of the barriers of Paris by three in the
afternoon, and proceeded to _Chantilly_, where we[43] arrived at nine,
and remained for the night. We were informed that two hundred
_Sans-culottes_ and _Marseillois_ had walk'd here from Paris, (28 miles)
two or three days before, had pulled down an equestrian statue,
(probably that of the Constable _de Montmorenci_) cut off a man's head,
carried it about the streets on a pike, _a la mode de Paris_, caught and
eat most of the carp which had been swimming in the ponds which surround
the palace above a hundred years, were then in the stables and intended
to return to Paris the next day. They did no other damage to the
building than breaking the _Conde_ arms, which were carved in stone.
[Note 43: The Gentleman who came with me, an English and an Irish
Gentleman, with their Ladies, in their own chaises.
There is an octavo Description of _Chantilly_ just published, with a
map, and twenty _mezzotinto_ views of the gardens.]
The night of the next day we passed at _Flixcourt_, and that of the
Monday at the Post-house, at the foot of the hill on which _Boulogne_ is
situated.
On Tuesday the 21st we arrived at Calais in the morning; the wind was so
violent and unfavorable that we were detained here till the 24th, when
we failed, and had a passage of seven hours to Dover.
There was nothing to remark on the road from Paris to Calais, except
that the harvest was not yet got in, for want of hands, that the corn
was _lodged_, and sowing itself again; that every person and thing was
as quiet as if nothing had happened in Paris, and that no one knew the
particulars of what _had_ happened.
At Calais many person wore trowsers, after the fashion of the
_Sans-culottes_.
EPILOGUE.
SOON after my return to London the two following paragraphs appeared in
the newspapers.
"T. has been over to France, botanizing, and has gotten what he
went to seek."
"I'll tell you, my Lord Fool, From this Nettle danger we pluck the
_Flower_ safety."
This I insert merely on account of the Betise of the quotation. The
Dutch inscription on sticks of sealing-wax would have been as
applicable.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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