Part 9 (1/2)
When the tumult had subsided, Victoria took up again her interrupted discourse: ”In casting a rapid glance over the past, I did not intend to arouse suspicion among you or raise dissension. In pointing out the faults committed, I wished only to forewarn you against similar errors, and to show you how to escape new mistakes. Please, then, to give me your attention a few minutes longer: The session in the Tennis Court was a brutal challenge hurled in the teeth of royalty. The Queen, who is a woman of valor, understood it; she pressed the King to take energetic measures, and pledged him to have the National a.s.sembly dissolved by force. Louis XVI submitted to the influence of the Queen; on the 28th of June he went into the heart of the a.s.sembly, surrounded by his guards, and through his chancellor ordered the deputies to disperse, abolished their decrees, and annulled their deliberations. He acted the part of a sovereign.”
”His Majesty indeed displayed great courage that day, and many of the deputies of the n.o.bility and the clergy applauded the act of dissolution and immediately left the chamber,” declared the Duke.
”The King,” a.s.sented Victoria sardonically, ”his faithful n.o.bles and his faithful clergy left the hall. But they left the rebels behind them.
Then Abbot Sieyes sprang to the tribunal and cried 'Continue in session, Representatives of the people! We are to-day what we were yesterday!'”
”But the King did not falter, thank G.o.d!” continued the Duke. ”His Majesty commanded the Marquis of Breze to convey to the malcontents his orders to disperse.”
”Shame and misfortune!” exclaimed the Viscount of Mirabeau. ”It was my own brother who then answered Breze, 'Go and say to your master who sent you, that we are here by the will of the people, and that we shall never quit this hall save by force of bayonets!'”
”Very well, Monsieur Viscount! Your brother pointed out to the royal power its means of safety--_force of bayonets_,” answered Victoria. ”By the blood of Christ, what did Louis XVI do to restore the rebels to their senses? Absolutely nothing. Then the latter, encouraged by their immunity from punishment, declared, in their next session, the inviolability of the National a.s.sembly.”
”Alas, it was upon the motion of my abominable brother that that declaration was carried! G.o.d's blood, I think I could have turned fratricide at the moment,” declared Barrel Mirabeau.
”Your house was not the only one to tremble at such felony,” Victoria replied. ”Did not nearly all the deputies of the n.o.bility, even the most hostile to the revolution, rally around the Third Estate, dragging with them all the clericals?”
”Should the members of the n.o.bility, then, Madam Marchioness,” objected the Duke, ”because the monarchy showed weakness, have abandoned it without attempting to defend it from within the a.s.sembly? No, certainly not.”
”Sir Duke,” replied Victoria, ”the members of the n.o.bility and of the clergy who remained faithful to the throne were in the minority. What could they do for the monarchy? Nothing. Their presence among the ranks of the rebels served only to excuse the slips of the King, for then he could respond with a show of reason, 'I can not dissolve an a.s.sembly which contains so great a number of my servants.'”
”Such was, in fact, the response made by his Majesty to the Queen when she secured the recall of Necker and the appointment of a new minister chosen by Monsieur Broglie. Nevertheless, with the a.s.sistance of the Marshal, the monarchy will still prove able to overcome the revolution.
At least, that is my opinion,” vouchsafed the Count of Plouernel.
”May G.o.d so will it,” rejoined Victoria again. ”But up till now the new minister has done nothing but make mistakes--”
Victoria was interrupted by the entrance of one of the lackeys, whom Plouernel had dismissed from the banquet hall in order that his guests might discuss political affairs confidentially and in safety, who said:
”The steward, my lord, asks to see you immediately.”
”Let him enter,” said the Count; and as the lackey went to fetch him, the host explained to his guests: ”I charged my steward to send out several of my men in disguise, in order to learn through them what was going on in the several quarters of Paris.”
”It is indeed very useful, in these days of effervescence,” nodded Victoria, ”to keep closely informed on the state of affairs.”
The steward entered, bowed humbly to the company, and took up his post close by the door, like a servant awaiting orders.
”Well, Master Robert, what news?” demanded the Count. The company turned around in their chairs and fixed their attention upon the new arrival.
CHAPTER VII.
NEWS FROM THE BARRICADES.
Pursuant to the Count's order, the steward, bowing again, proceeded with his account of what he had learned.
”The news, alas, is very bad, my lord,” he began. ”One of our men has just arrived from the suburb of St. Antoine. The streets are blocked with barricades; they are forging pikes in the iron-mongers' and blacksmiths' shops; the houses are all illuminated. People are carrying up to the roofs of their dwellings beams and paving stones, to hurl down upon the troops of his Majesty Louis XVI, whom may G.o.d protect! Women and children are pouring musket b.a.l.l.s and making cartridges. They have pillaged the armorers' shops in the district. In short, the whole of that impious plebs is swarming in the streets, screeching like the d.a.m.ned, especially against her Majesty our good Queen, his Royal Highness the Count of Artois, and their Holinesses our lords the Princes of Conti and Conde.”
”And what are the pretexts for these insolent cries and rebellious preparations?” asked the Count.