Robert Tournay: A Romance of the French RevolutionSage, William
History
Robert Tournay: A Romance of the French Revolution
Sage, William
France -- History -- Revolution, 1789-1799 -- Fiction
"You mean 'What did I intend to do with it?' do you not?"
The gendarme examined the file carefully.
"No, I mean what have you been using it on," he said.
Tournay was silent.
"Oh, you need not hesitate to speak; it will be found out."
Tournay shrugged his shoulders, and made no reply.
"Well, you are right," said the gendarme. "It is for us to find out."
And he relapsed into a silence that was not broken until they reached
the conciergerie.
"You will hardly escape from this place though you had a whole workshop
of tools," he said grimly at parting.
Tournay realized the truth of this statement, for he was now in the most
dreaded of all the prisons of Paris, and he knew well what his transfer
foreshadowed.
Tournay had no certain means of knowing whether their attempt to cut
their way out of the Luxembourg had been discovered; and he still
cherished the slight hope that St. Hilaire might be able to escape from
the Luxembourg with the assistance of Gaillard.
Had they both escaped, St. Hilaire and he had formed a daring plan to
rescue the Republic from the hands of those who were destroying it. And
now, even though it was frustrated, he could not help going over all the
details in his mind, although the thought of their complete failure
added to his misery.
The news of the arrest of General Hoche had reached Tournay's ears some
time before, and although it had caused him great pain to learn of the
misfortune that had befallen his chief, he felt that the event would
embitter the army, and that they would the more readily give their
support to any plan that would of necessity liberate Hoche.
This plan had been made for Tournay to reach the army and enlist the
officers in his support; then return to Paris with a sufficient force at
his back to destroy the tyrants and overawe that part of the Commune
that still idolized them. That would give an opportunity for the cooler
and more moderate heads in the convention to come to the front, restore
order, and form a stable government based upon the constitution.
St. Hilaire, meanwhile, was to remain in hiding; but the first approach
of the national troops and the first blast of the counter-revolution was
to be the signal for him to appear in the faubourgs, supported by all
the followers he could muster, armed with all the eloquence he could
command, to move the people to action, and fan to white heat the flame
of opposition to the Terrorists which was already smouldering on every
side.
But now all the fabric of the carefully spun scheme had been blown
roughly aside by one puff of adverse wind.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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