France -- History -- Louis XVI, 1774-1793; France -- History -- Revolution, 1789-1799
vellum; sweet young Chimera, adust middle-aged one! The
Prison-doors are open. Hardly again shall ye preside the Rouen
Chamber of Accounts; but vanish obscurely into Limbo.[287]
Chapter 2.1.VIII.
Solemn League and Covenant.
Such dim masses, and specks of even deepest black, work in that
white-hot glow of the French mind, now wholly in fusion, and
_con_fusion. Old women here swearing their ten children on the
new Evangel of Jean Jacques; old women there looking up for
Favras’ Heads in the celestial Luminary: these _are_
preternatural signs, prefiguring somewhat.
In fact, to the Patriot children of Hope themselves, it is
undeniable that difficulties exist: emigrating Seigneurs;
Parlements in sneaking but most malicious mutiny (though the rope
is round their neck); above all, the most decided “deficiency of
grains.” Sorrowful: but, to a Nation that hopes, not
irremediable. To a Nation which is in fusion and ardent communion
of thought; which, for example, on signal of one Fugleman, will
lift its right hand like a drilled regiment, and swear and
illuminate, till every village from Ardennes to the Pyrenees has
rolled its village-drum, and sent up its little oath, and glimmer
of tallow-illumination some fathoms into the reign of Night!
If grains are defective, the fault is not of Nature or National
Assembly, but of Art and Antinational Intriguers. Such malign
individuals, of the scoundrel species, have power to vex us,
while the Constitution is a-making. Endure it, ye heroic
Patriots: nay rather, why not cure it? Grains do grow, they lie
extant there in sheaf or sack; only that regraters and Royalist
plotters, to provoke the people into illegality, obstruct the
transport of grains. Quick, ye organised Patriot Authorities,
armed National Guards, meet together; unite your goodwill; in
union is tenfold strength: let the concentred flash of your
Patriotism strike stealthy Scoundrelism blind, paralytic, as with
a _coup de soleil._
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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