Scaramouche: A Romance of the French RevolutionSabatini, Rafael
History
Scaramouche: A Romance of the French Revolution
Sabatini, Rafael
Adventure stories; France -- History -- Revolution, 1789-1799 -- Fiction; Love stories; War stories
That was open revolt at last, and with revolt Privilege knew how to
deal. It would strangle this mutinous Paris in the iron grip of the
foreign regiments. Measures were quickly concerted. Old Marechal de
Broglie, a veteran of the Seven Years’ War, imbued with a soldier’s
contempt for civilians, conceiving that the sight of a uniform would
be enough to restore peace and order, took control with Besenval as his
second-in-command. The foreign regiments were stationed in the
environs of Paris, regiments whose very names were an irritation to the
Parisians, regiments of Reisbach, of Diesbach, of Nassau, Esterhazy, and
Roehmer. Reenforcements of Swiss were sent to the Bastille between whose
crenels already since the 30th of June were to be seen the menacing
mouths of loaded cannon.
On the 10th of July the electors once more addressed the King to request
the withdrawal of the troops. They were answered next day that the
troops served the purpose of defending the liberties of the Assembly!
And on the next day to that, which was a Sunday, the philanthropist Dr.
Guillotin--whose philanthropic engine of painless death was before very
long to find a deal of work--came from the Assembly, of which he was a
member, to assure the electors of Paris that all was well, appearances
notwithstanding, since Necker was more firmly in the saddle than ever.
He did not know that at the very moment in which he was speaking so
confidently, the oft-dismissed and oft-recalled M. Necker had just been
dismissed yet again by the hostile cabal about the Queen. Privilege
wanted conclusive measures, and conclusive measures it would
have--conclusive to itself.
And at the same time yet another philanthropist, also a doctor, one
Jean-Paul Mara, of Italian extraction--better known as Marat, the
gallicized form of name he adopted--a man of letters, too, who had spent
some years in England, and there published several works on sociology,
was writing:
“Have a care! Consider what would be the fatal effect of a seditious
movement. If you should have the misfortune to give way to that, you
will be treated as people in revolt, and blood will flow.”
Andre-Louis was in the gardens of the Palais Royal, that place of shops
and puppet-shows, of circus and cafes, of gaming houses and brothels,
that universal rendezvous, on that Sunday morning when the news of
Necker’s dismissal spread, carrying with it dismay and fury. Into
Necker’s dismissal the people read the triumph of the party hostile to
themselves. It sounded the knell of all hope of redress of their wrongs.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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