Long, long enough, yea far too long Dread tyranny has claimed our song, And despots swayed our lot. Now breaks the dawn of Liberty, Of Law, and fair Equality: All hail! the Sans-Culottes![18] ----- Footnote 16: The women who formed part of the revolutionary mobs were known as _tricoteuses_ from their habit of knitting at all seasons, even at the foot of the guillotine; the _sans-culottes_ were the men of the same class. Their nether garments, of course, were rather in rags and tatters than wanting altogether. (TRANS.) Footnote 17: A member of an anti-Jacobin Society, known as _Feuillants_. (TRANS.) Footnote 18: Amis, assez et trop longtemps, Sous le règne affreux des tyrans, On chanta les despotes. Sous celui de l’Egalité, Des Lois et de la Liberté, Chantons les Sans-Culottes. ----- The trial of the king aroused me to indescribable distress. My days rolled by in horror. One morning there was a knock at the door. I divined somehow that it proceeded from a gentle and friendly hand. I opened, and Madame Berthemet flung herself into my arms. “Save me, save us!” she said. “My brother, Monsieur Eustance, my only brother, was scheduled as an _émigré_,[19] and came to seek shelter in my house. He was denounced and arrested. He has been in prison now for five days. Luckily the accusation which hangs over him is vague and ill-founded. My brother was never an _émigré_. To effect his release, all that is necessary is that some one who can vouch for his unbroken residence in France will give evidence in his favour. I begged the Chevalier de St. Ange to do me this service. He prudently begged to be excused. Well! my friend, my son, that service which it would be perilous to him to render me, to you will be still more perilous; yet I come to ask it of you.” ----- Footnote 19: A person who had left France without a licence from the Government. (TRANS.) ----- I thanked her for her request as if it had been a favour. And, indeed, it was so to be regarded, and of a quality so inestimable that an upright man could scarcely be honoured by a greater. “Well enough I knew that you would not refuse!” exclaimed Madame Berthemet, embracing me. “But this is not all,” she added. “You will need to procure a second witness; they demand that two shall come forward if my brother is to be released. Oh, my friend, what times we are living in! Monsieur de St. Ange keeps aloof from us; our misfortunes embarrass him; and Monsieur Mille would be afraid to visit folks under suspicion. Who would have thought it, my friend—who would have thought it? Do you remember Federation Day? We were all brimful of enthusiasm about fraternity, and I had on a very becoming dress.”