Most of them follow this course, some instinctively and through
lassitude, and others because the display they make adds to their
authority. "Dragged along in Carriages with six horses, surrounded by
guards, seated at sumptuous tables set for thirty persons, eating to
the sound of music along with a Cortege of actors, courtesans and
praetorians,"[32135] they impress the imagination with an idea of their
omnipotence, and people bow all the lower because they make a grand
show.--At Troyes, on the arrival of young Rousselin, cannon are
discharged as if for the entry of a prince. The entire population of
Nevers is called upon to honor the birth of Fouché's child; the civil
and military authorities pay their respects to him, and the National
Guards are under arms.[32136] At Lyons, "The imposing display of Collot
d'Herbois resembles that of the Grand Turk. It requires three successive
applications to obtain an audience; nobody approaches nearer than a
distance of fifteen feet; two sentinels with muskets stand on each
side of him, with their eyes fixed on the petitioners."[32137]--Less
menacing, but not less imposing, is the pomp which surrounds the
representatives at Bordeaux; to approach them, requires "a pass from the
captain of the guards,"[32138] through several squads of sentinels.
One of them, Ysabeau, who, after having guillotined to a considerable
extent, has become almost tractable, allows adulation, and, like a Duc
de Richelieu coming down from Versailles, tries to play the popular
potentate, with all the luxuries which the situation affords. At the
theaters, in his presence, they give a ballet in which shepherds form
with garlands of flowers the words "Ysabeau, Liberty, Equality." He
allows his portrait to pass from hand to hand, and condescendingly
smiles on the artist who inscribes these words at the bottom of
an engraving of the day: "An event which took place under Ysabeau,
representative of the people." "When he passes in the street people take
off their hats to him, cheer him, and shout 'Hurrah for Ysabeau! Hurrah
for the savior of Bordeaux, our friend and father!' The children of
aristocrats come and apostrophize him in this way, even at the doors
of his carriage; for he has a Carriage, and several of them, with
a coachman, horses, and the equipage of a former noble, gendarmes
preceding him everywhere, even on excursions into the country," where
his new courtiers call him "great man," and welcome him with "Asiatic
magnificence." There is good cheer at his table, "superb white bread,"
called "representatives' bread," whilst the country folk of the
neighborhood live on roots, and the inhabitants of Bordeaux can scarcely
obtain more than four ounces of musty bread per day.--There is the same
feasting with the representatives at Lyons, in the midst of similar
distress. In the reports made by Collot we find a list of bottles of
brandy at four francs each, along with partridges, capons, turkeys,
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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