登陆注册
15676700000108

第108章

Nevertheless, news, despatches from Lafayette, or vague noise of rumour, have pierced through, by side roads. In the National Assembly, while all is busy discussing the order of the day; regretting that there should be Anti-national Repasts in Opera-Halls; that his Majesty should still hesitate about accepting the Rights of Man, and hang conditions and peradventures on them,--Mirabeau steps up to the President, experienced Mounier as it chanced to be; and articulates, in bass under-tone:

"Mounier, Paris marche sur nous (Paris is marching on us)."--"May be (Je n'en sais rien)!"--"Believe it or disbelieve it, that is not my concern; but Paris, I say, is marching on us. Fall suddenly unwell; go over to the Chateau; tell them this. There is not a moment to lose.'--"Paris marching on us?" responds Mounier, with an atrabiliar accent" "Well, so much the better! We shall the sooner be a Republic." Mirabeau quits him, as one quits an experienced President getting blindfold into deep waters; and the order of the day continues as before.

Yes, Paris is marching on us; and more than the women of Paris! Scarcely was Maillard gone, when M. de Gouvion's message to all the Districts, and such tocsin and drumming of the generale, began to take effect. Armed National Guards from every District; especially the Grenadiers of the Centre, who are our old Gardes Francaises, arrive, in quick sequence, on the Place de Greve. An 'immense people' is there; Saint-Antoine, with pike and rusty firelock, is all crowding thither, be it welcome or unwelcome.

The Centre Grenadiers are received with cheering: "it is not cheers that we want," answer they gloomily; "the nation has been insulted; to arms, and come with us for orders!" Ha, sits the wind so? Patriotism and Patrollotism are now one!

The Three Hundred have assembled; 'all the Committees are in activity;'

Lafayette is dictating despatches for Versailles, when a Deputation of the Centre Grenadiers introduces itself to him. The Deputation makes military obeisance; and thus speaks, not without a kind of thought in it: "Mon General, we are deputed by the Six Companies of Grenadiers. We do not think you a traitor, but we think the Government betrays you; it is time that this end. We cannot turn our bayonets against women crying to us for bread. The people are miserable, the source of the mischief is at Versailles: we must go seek the King, and bring him to Paris. We must exterminate (exterminer) the Regiment de Flandre and the Gardes-du-Corps, who have dared to trample on the National Cockade. If the King be too weak to wear his crown, let him lay it down. You will crown his Son, you will name a Council of Regency; and all will go better." (Deux Amis, iii. 161.)

Reproachful astonishment paints itself on the face of Lafayette; speaks itself from his eloquent chivalrous lips: in vain. "My General, we would shed the last drop of our blood for you; but the root of the mischief is at Versailles; we must go and bring the King to Paris; all the people wish it, tout le peuple le veut."

My General descends to the outer staircase; and harangues: once more in vain. "To Versailles! To Versailles!" Mayor Bailly, sent for through floods of Sansculottism, attempts academic oratory from his gilt state-coach; realizes nothing but infinite hoarse cries of: "Bread! To Versailles!"--and gladly shrinks within doors. Lafayette mounts the white charger; and again harangues and reharangues: with eloquence, with firmness, indignant demonstration; with all things but persuasion. "To Versailles! To Versailles!" So lasts it, hour after hour; for the space of half a day.

The great Scipio Americanus can do nothing; not so much as escape.

"Morbleu, mon General," cry the Grenadiers serrying their ranks as the white charger makes a motion that way, "You will not leave us, you will abide with us!" A perilous juncture: Mayor Bailly and the Municipals sit quaking within doors; My General is prisoner without: the Place de Greve, with its thirty thousand Regulars, its whole irregular Saint-Antoine and Saint-Marceau, is one minatory mass of clear or rusty steel; all hearts set, with a moody fixedness, on one object. Moody, fixed are all hearts: tranquil is no heart,--if it be not that of the white charger, who paws there, with arched neck, composedly champing his bit; as if no world, with its Dynasties and Eras, were now rushing down. The drizzly day tends westward; the cry is still: "To Versailles!"

Nay now, borne from afar, come quite sinister cries; hoarse, reverberating in longdrawn hollow murmurs, with syllables too like those of Lanterne! Or else, irregular Sansculottism may be marching off, of itself; with pikes, nay with cannon. The inflexible Scipio does at length, by aide-de-camp, ask of the Municipals: Whether or not he may go? A Letter is handed out to him, over armed heads; sixty thousand faces flash fixedly on his, there is stillness and no bosom breathes, till he have read. By Heaven, he grows suddenly pale! Do the Municipals permit? 'Permit and even order,'--since he can no other. Clangour of approval rends the welkin. To your ranks, then; let us march!

It is, as we compute, towards three in the afternoon. Indignant National Guards may dine for once from their haversack: dined or undined, they march with one heart. Paris flings up her windows, claps hands, as the Avengers, with their shrilling drums and shalms tramp by; she will then sit pensive, apprehensive, and pass rather a sleepless night. (Deux Amis, iii.

165.) On the white charger, Lafayette, in the slowest possible manner, going and coming, and eloquently haranguing among the ranks, rolls onward with his thirty thousand. Saint-Antoine, with pike and cannon, has preceded him; a mixed multitude, of all and of no arms, hovers on his flanks and skirts; the country once more pauses agape: Paris marche sur nous.

同类推荐
  • 北巡私记

    北巡私记

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 佛说檀特罗麻油述经

    佛说檀特罗麻油述经

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 原人论

    原人论

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 六十种曲运甓记

    六十种曲运甓记

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 敝帚斋余谈

    敝帚斋余谈

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
热门推荐
  • 独宠前妻:秘密婚恋

    独宠前妻:秘密婚恋

    为了救一个男人,她主动送上门来。他狠狠的羞辱她:“要救人,总要付出一点代价!”他用卑鄙的手段锁她在身边,可当她放下两年前的背叛卸下心里防备时,却被人推下楼梯,最终小产。五年后,夏瑾言带着儿子归来,DNA检测显示,这孩子不是他的种……
  • 玩世至尊

    玩世至尊

    他是一个玩世不恭的小混混,却偏偏又是九五至尊的命。一个游戏风尘不羁的浪子,穿越到三国时代,群雄争霸,看他之后如何揽美女戏江山。
  • 破碎小屋

    破碎小屋

    没有一种情是完美的,每个人的情,如爱情,亲情,友情。。。。。。会在某个不经意间留下伤痕,就有了碎片。而我们的店铺就是收集那些碎片,不过,如果对方愿意用同价的东西换回,那就,欢迎来到,破碎小屋。我是这里的老板,恨无心。
  • 抗日土匪乱世情

    抗日土匪乱世情

    我们经历过苦难。但是我们却依然顽强地生存了下来。我们邂逅过爱情。但是那些郎情妾意早已被历史尘封。从那些泛黄的岁月胶片里,我试图寻找某种现实力量。本书从夏许两家争夺金矿写起,描写了一段国仇、家恨扑朔迷离,爱情、亲情错综复杂的往事。
  • 圣之战歌

    圣之战歌

    一根传承的项链,牵动着世界的命运。三人的异界之行,会有怎样的预示?魔女的预言,是启迪,还是灾厄?是黎明的曙光,还是将至的黑暗。
  • 混在都市当太子

    混在都市当太子

    世上本无恶人,有也是恶鬼附身。世上亦无实景,见也是妖雾障目。所以你们能看到的,只是你们想看到的。............................台湾的101大厦,其实有109层。日月潭,其实是太极图阵眼。阿里山红木,竟是那镇妖木符。士林夜市有两处,人去一处,鬼去一处。
  • 我的sky

    我的sky

    这是本来就在贴吧原创发过的,不过把名字改了一下,角色也不是同人的了。
  • 神算先生

    神算先生

    万事前知,算尽天下事!宇宙在手,万化皆由心!弹指一挥间!掐指知万变!你相信算命吗?你相信未卜先知吗?这是一个关于占卜,算卦,算命的真实故事,来人不用问,便可算出,此人一生的命运,以及这个人即将要发生的事。“掐指神算”“摸骨神算”“铜钱算”“六爻算”“数字算”“时空算”“方位算”“婚姻算”“前途命运八字算”“事业算”“财运算”“”未卜先知,本小说将涉及大量术数风水玄学,如有喜欢此类学术的朋友,可以一看,还希各位喜欢此书的朋友多收藏,多推荐!普通群:412013141VIP群:126042327现在VIP群也是免费加入的,大家可以放心加入!仙踪在此恭候各位大驾光临!
  • 破噬心

    破噬心

    犹如滔天巨兽之口般的宇宙,散发出古老悠长的气息,没人能准确的计算出它存活的时间,万古不灭,生生不息。而在他那不起眼的一个小角落里,一颗蔚蓝的星球静静地躺在他的怀里,犹是出生的婴儿。。。新的旅程新世界
  • 篡位皇后要弃夫

    篡位皇后要弃夫

    欧明玥劫后余生穿越到了古代,刚开始着手建立自己的商业王国,一份巨大的惊喜“咣”地一声砸到了她头上——当今圣上追封她为皇后,谥号庄敬皇后。问题是……她还没有死呀!好端端的谥什么号?为免被这不着调的皇帝咒死,原本扮成男装顶替兄长身份的她再也没法恢复女儿身,还从此沦为皇上的跟班,听他抱怨新皇后无趣,帮他斗倒把持朝政的奸臣,在他与自己仇家相亲相爱时替他们把风……