France -- History -- Revolution, 1789-1799 -- Fiction
He thought that his reason was tottering, that he would go mad if he
heard another word of this infamy. The hooting and yelling of that
filthy mob sounded like the cries of lost souls, shrieking from hell.
All his pity for them was gone, his love for humanity, his devotion to
the suffering poor.
A great, an immense hatred for this ghastly Revolution and the people it
professed to free filled his whole being, together with a mad, hideous
desire to see them suffer, starve, die a miserable, loathsome death. The
passion of hate, that now overwhelmed his soul, was at least as ugly as
theirs. He was, for one brief moment, now at one with them in their
inordinate lust for revenge.
Only Juliette throughout all this remained calm, silent, impassive.
She had heard the indictment, heard the loathsome sentence, for her
white cheeks had gradually become ashy pale, but never for a moment did
she depart from her attitude of proud aloofness.
She never once turned her head towards the mob who insulted her. She
waited in complete passiveness until the yelling and shouting had
subsided, motionless save for her finger-tips, which beat an impatient
tattoo upon the railing in front of her.
The Bulletin says that she took out her handkerchief and wiped her face
with it. _Elle s'essuya le front qui fut perlé de sueur._ The heat had
become oppressive.
The atmosphere was overcharged with the dank, penetrating odour of
steaming, dirty clothes. The room, though vast, was close and
suffocating, the tallow candles flickering in the humid, hot air threw
the faces of the President and clerks into bold relief, with curious
caricature effects of light and shade.
The petrol lamp above the head of the accused had flared up, and begun
to smoke, causing the chimney to crack with a sharp report. This
diversion effected a momentary silence among the crowd, and the Public
Prosecutor was able to repeat his query:
"Juliette Marny, have you anything to say in reply to the charge brought
against you, and why the sentence which I have demanded should not be
passed against you?"
The sooty smoke from the lamp came down in small, black, greasy
particles; Juliette with her slender finger-tips flicked one of these
quietly off her sleeve, then she replied:
"No; I have nothing to say."
"Have you instructed an advocate to defend you, according to your rights
of citizenship, which the Law allows?" added the Public Prosecutor
solemnly.
Juliette would have replied at once; her mouth had already framed the No
with which she meant to answer.
But now at last had come Déroulède's hour. For this he had been silent,
had suffered and had held his peace, whilst twice twenty-four hours had
dragged their weary lengths along, since the arrest of the woman he
loved.
In a moment he was on his feet before them all, accustomed to speak, to
dominate, to command.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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