France -- History -- Revolution, 1789-1799 -- Fiction; Short stories
And by this time she's certainly in heaven,
and that's a very good place they say!'
"I talked like this to my Baron, till he began to walk, and went faster
and faster, out through the city gates, and never looked back for me
till we came to some houses where English lived in a village a few miles
from Paris, where the French didn't make such a time as in the city
itself. The English were going back to their own country, as all this
was rather uncomfortable, and we traveled with them by slow stages to
the coast, and then in a small boat to England, where they eat their
beef too red for my taste; In other ways they live well enough, and I
would have had nothing to complain of if my Baron had been a little more
cheerful. He had forgotten how to laugh, had grown pale and silent, and
nights instead of sleeping he lay groaning and muttering in French and
Danish to himself. In his dreams he was always calling for Manon, a
senseless thing to do since she couldn't come!"
The old man looked thoughtfully toward the setting sun. "When I thought
over the whole affair I felt dreadfully sorry about little Mam-sell. She
was such a pretty little thing with short brown hair, and such laughing
eyes as if there were no trouble or sorrow in the world. I was only
a green lad then, and knew nothing about women, but the memory of her
smile as she sat in the cart stayed by me. Afterward I once saw a baby
lying in its coffin, that looked as content as Mamsell Manon did that
day, going to lay her white neck on the block, I grew more reasonable
as time went on and forgot my vexation over my black suit. The Baron
treated me very decently, I can't complain. Later on, though, he
decided we had better part, for I had grown too free in my manners in
Paris, He gave me a good present and if I hadn't had all sorts of bad
luck I might be a rich man now. But it's always so, there's no 'egalite'
in this country, and if we don't have a good revolution it will never be
any different. Though it doesn't always turn out well for everyone even
then, The French grocer who did such a good business with the King's
wine was one of those who could never get enough aristocrats killed; and
finally his own flesh and blood went to her death for the sake of one of
them. If misfortune is bound to come there's no getting out of it, and
it came to me the time they said I belonged to that band of thieves
there was such a talk about. I defended myself well, but all the same I
was put in gaol in Gluckstadt, and there's no knowing how long I might
have stayed there if it hadn't been for a lucky chance that brought the
Danish king to see the prison, along with a lot of fine gentlemen.
All of us convicts had to stand in rank and file while old Friedrich
inspected us. And who should be behind the King but my Baron, with white
hair and bent back, and a great star on his breast. They were going
slowly past us, when I coughed, and he started and came close to me. 'Do
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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