When a Cobbler Ruled the KingSeaman, Augusta Huiell
General
When a Cobbler Ruled the King
Seaman, Augusta Huiell
Louis XVII, of France, 1785-1795 -- Fiction
After this event, Jean was sorely perplexed. He talked his trouble over
with Mère Clouet who seemed more kindly disposed toward him since the
load of debt had been lifted from her shoulders, and her mind had been
set at rest about a home for her beloved Yvonne.
"I do not now know how to act," he told her. "My heart is still all for
the people and the cause of our Liberty, yet I do truly love the little
prince, and even the King and Queen. And I fear from the things I have
heard, that the people will sometime do them harm."
"Let your sympathies still be with the people," counselled Mère Clouet
wisely. "We are not royalists, and our heads will not be safe should we
appear so! But that need not prevent your loyal friendship for these
royal ones, only you must keep it very secret. Heaven help us should it
be discovered! I pray God that the royalty may be left in peace, or at
least be allowed to depart from the country unharmed when the time
comes. We may not desire their sway, but we should not menace their
personal safety."
"Well, at least," answered Jean, "it will do no harm for me to keep
posted as to what the popular intention toward them may be. And for
this, I could learn best what I wish at one of the political clubs,--the
Cordeliers or the Jacobins. But none except the initiated are allowed
to enter. However, I'm going to watch my chance and try!" True to this
resolve, he informed Mère Clouet one evening:
"I shall go to the Rue St. Honoré to-night and linger near the Jacobin
Club. We shall see what we shall see!" And he was off before she could
even protest at the lateness of the hour.
The way from the Rue de Lille to the Rue St. Honoré was not long, but it
was varied by sights and sounds only to be witnessed in Paris during one
of her revolutions. More than once Jean caught the infection from some
shouting group, and snatching outstretched hands, joined in the wild
dance of the Carmagnole. Then again he would pause before a
gesticulating orator madly haranguing his audience from a bench or
improvised platform. The air was filled with shouts of "Vive la Nation!"
"Vive Danton!" "A bas le Roi!" Jean drank it all in, his boyish bosom
filled with pride at the thought of this strange, new liberty. Yet at
the cry, "Down with the King!" his heart would grow sick with the menace
that it carried for his benefactors.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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