France -- History -- Louis XVI, 1774-1793; France -- History -- Revolution, 1789-1799
In the Court, all is mystery, not without whisperings of terror;
though ye dream of lemonade and epaulettes, ye foolish women! His
Majesty, kept in happy ignorance, perhaps dreams of
double-barrels and the Woods of Meudon. Late at night, the Duke
de Liancourt, having official right of entrance, gains access to
the Royal Apartments; unfolds, with earnest clearness, in his
constitutional way, the Job’s-news. ‘_Mais_,’ said poor Louis,
‘_c’est une révolte_, Why, that is a revolt!’—‘Sire,’ answered
Liancourt, ‘It is not a revolt, it is a revolution.’
Chapter 1.5.VIII.
Conquering your King.
On the morrow a fourth Deputation to the Château is on foot: of a
more solemn, not to say awful character, for, besides “orgies in
the Orangery,” it seems, “the grain convoys are all stopped;” nor
has Mirabeau’s thunder been silent. Such Deputation is on the
point of setting out—when lo, his Majesty himself attended only
by his two Brothers, step in; quite in the paternal manner;
announces that the troops, and all causes of offence, are gone,
and henceforth there shall be nothing but trust, reconcilement,
good-will; whereof he “permits and even requests,” a National
Assembly to assure Paris in his name! Acclamation, as of men
suddenly delivered from death, gives answer. The whole Assembly
spontaneously rises to escort his Majesty back; “interlacing
their arms to keep off the excessive pressure from him;” for all
Versailles is crowding and shouting. The Château Musicians, with
a felicitous promptitude, strike up the _Sein de sa Famille_
(Bosom of one’s Family): the Queen appears at the balcony with
her little boy and girl, “kissing them several times;” infinite
_Vivats_ spread far and wide;—and suddenly there has come, as it
were, a new Heaven-on-Earth.
Eighty-eight august Senators, Bailly, Lafayette, and our
repentant Archbishop among them, take coach for Paris, with the
great intelligence; benedictions without end on their heads. From
the Place Louis Quinze, where they alight, all the way to the
Hôtel-de-Ville, it is one sea of Tricolor cockades, of clear
National muskets; one tempest of huzzaings, hand-clappings, aided
by “occasional rollings” of drum-music. Harangues of due fervour
are delivered; especially by Lally Tollendal, pious son of the
ill-fated murdered Lally; on whose head, in consequence, a civic
crown (of oak or parsley) is forced,—which he forcibly transfers
to Bailly’s.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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