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
Outside, on the terrace of the Tuileries, other events of interest
appeared to be happening, and Jean lingered to witness them. A man
standing on an armchair at a window in the palace, was addressing the
crowds below. It proved to be Pétion, the Mayor of Paris, and he was
bidding the mob disperse peaceably now that the King had been
interviewed. While Jean was looking up, he felt himself clapped on the
shoulder, and a voice exclaimed:
"Well, if here is not my young friend the catapult!" and turning, he
found himself face to face with the thin young man. "And what may you be
doing here? Helping to mob the King?" Now Jean could scarcely have
explained why, but something about this young man both invited and
compelled his confidence, and he had the instinctive feeling that
confidence in him would not be misplaced. So he boldly declared:
"No, Citizen Bonaparte, indeed I have been far from mobbing the King. I
am not a royalist, and I wish to be a true patriot, but I feel that the
people are not dealing rightly with the King, and that they will yet
allow the rabble to do him an ill turn!"
"Well said!" agreed the young man, heartily. "My opinion to a dot! My
friend, I am a Corsican by birth, and I have aided in the unsuccessful
fight for Corsica's liberty, but now I believe I will adopt a new
country and become a French patriot. The situation in this land appeals
to me. My heart thrills when I see an oppressed people rising to throw
off the yoke of the oppressor! And you are right when you say that,
groping in the twilight of their first new liberties, the people are not
dealing justly with their king. But, look you, my friend! Their king
means well, only he is making the biggest mistake a monarch ever made!
He is yet their monarch! He should show it! The people bow to force, to
power, and to that alone. See him now!" and he pointed to a window
where Louis XVI, still crowned with the red cap, was surveying the
throng below.
"Never should he have allowed them to put on him that emblem!" continued
Bonaparte vehemently. "Never should he have countenanced this invasion
of his palace! It was madness! Had he turned a few cannon upon them, and
blown a hundred or more of this rabble to pieces, the rest would have
taken to their heels and fled with respect for him in their hearts! As
it is now, they have none! Mark my words!--worse will come, and he will
live to regret his forbearance!"
Jean marvelled at the fire that flashed from those grey eyes. Instinct
told him that here was a man born to command, and he felt drawn to the
stranger by a feeling of intense admiration.
"I came here to-day through curiosity," he continued, "but what did you
in the palace, my young friend?" And Jean, in his new trust, told the
whole story of his attachment to the little Dauphin, and the debt of
gratitude the Clouets owed to the Queen. When he had finished his
auditor remarked:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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