France -- History -- Revolution, 1789-1799 -- Fiction; Napoleon I, Emperor of the French, 1769-1821 -- Fiction
Some young men, shouting "Down with the Two-thirds Men!" had met a squad
of Menou's soldiers, and refusing to disperse when ordered to do so,
they had fired upon the soldiers, who had replied to their pistol-shots
with gun-shots, and blood had been shed.
In the meantime--that is to say, on the evening of the 10th
Vendémiaire--the young president of the Section Le Peletier, which was
then in session at the convent of the Daughters of Saint Thomas (which
was situated on the spot where the Bourse now stands), gave up the chair
to the vice-president, and, jumping into a carriage, was driven rapidly
to a large house in the Rue Nôtre-Dame-des-Victoires, belonging to the
Jesuits. All the windows of this house were closed, and not a ray of
light escaped them.
The young man stopped the carriage at the gate and paid the driver;
then, when the carriage had turned the corner of the Rue du
Puit-qui-parle, and the sound of the wheels had died away, he went a few
steps further, and, making sure that the street was empty, knocked at
the gate in a peculiar manner. The gate was opened so quickly that it
was evident that some one was stationed behind it to attend to visitors.
"Moses," said the affiliated member who opened the gate.
"Manou," replied the new-comer.
The gate closed in answer to this response of the Hindoo to the Hebrew
lawgiver, and the way being pointed out to the young president of the
Section Le Peletier, he proceeded round the corner of the house. The
windows overlooking the garden were closed as carefully as those which
overlooked the street. The front door was open, however, though a guard
stood before it. This time it was the new-comer who said: "Moses!"
And the other replied, "Manou!"
Thereupon the doorkeeper drew back to allow the young president to pass;
and he, encountering no further obstacle, went straight to a third door,
which admitted him to a room where he found the persons whom he was
seeking. They were the presidents of the Sections Butte-des-Moulins,
Contrat-Social, Luxembourg, Rue Poissonière, Brutus and Temple, who had
come to announce that they were ready to follow the Mother Section, and
to join in the rebellion.
The new-comer had hardly opened the door when he was greeted by a man
about forty-five years of age, wearing a general's uniform. This was
citizen Auguste Danican, who had just been appointed general-in-chief of
the Sections. He had served in the Vendée against the Vendéans, but,
suspected of connivance with Georges Cadoudal, he had been recalled, had
escaped the guillotine by a miracle only, thanks to the 9th Thermidor,
and had subsequently taken his place in the ranks of the
counter-revolution.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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