Part 76 (2/2)
CHAPTER I.
”TO THE BARRICADES!”--1830.
Fifteen years have rolled their course since the second Restoration, accomplished after the Hundred Days. The Bourbon government seems to have set itself the task of making the indignation of the people run over.
Many are the grievances of France against the Bourbons: Provocations, iniquities, barbarisms, the White Terror of 1815;--the provost courts, where the hatred and rancor of the Emigrants sated itself with vengeance;--a.s.sa.s.sination, organized, blessed, and glorified, in the south;--Trestaillon and other defenders of altar and throne slaying their fellow citizens with impunity;--the Chamber of Deputies unattainable, all its members royalists save one;--the billion francs'
indemnity granted to the Emigrants;--the establishment by the Ultramountainists and the Ultraroyalists of the law of sacrilege and the law of primogeniture;--the impieties of the clergy;--the orgies of the mission fathers.
Military and civil conspiracies sprang up, to protest against the Bourbons with the blood of martyrs. The _Carbonarii_, a vast secret society, extended its ramifications throughout all France and preserved the traditions of republicanism. The Chamber of Deputies was dissolved, having been guilty of declaring to Charles X through the organ of its majority, in its address to the crown, that harmony no longer existed between the legislative body and the government. The Chamber having been dissolved, the country in the new elections responded by returning 221 deputies of the opposition which composed the majority of the a.s.sembly.
King Charles X, in place of deferring to this manifestation by the country, imagined that, thanks to the successes of the French arms in Algeria, he could successfully put through a coup d'etat; which he attempted, using Minister Polignac as his instrument, and rendering the ordinances of the 26th of July, 1830, which suppressed the liberties of the nation.
During the fifteen years of the Restoration, John Lebrenn had continued his Breton cloth trade in Paris. Monsieur Desmarais, having gone mad upon the second return of the Bourbons, died in isolation. Marik, Lebrenn's son, had espoused Henory Kerdren, the daughter of a merchant of Vannes, a correspondent of his father's. One son had been born of the marriage. He was now two years old, and had been given the name of one of the heroes of ancient Gaul, Sacrovir.
The 27th of July, the day after the promulgation of the Polignac decrees, at about eleven in the evening, Madam Lebrenn and her daughter-in-law Henory had closed the shop, and had gone up to their mezzanine floor; there, together in their room, they busied themselves with the preparation of lint, in antic.i.p.ation of the insurrection which seemed due on the morrow. Marik Lebrenn and Castillon were loading cartridges. Castillon, now at the ripe old age of sixty-three, was white of hair, but still supple and robust, and still plied his ironsmith's trade. A cradle, in which slept little Sacrovir, the grandson of John Lebrenn, was placed beside Henory. It was a picture of the sweet joys of the family.
”In the presence of the pa.s.sing events, and especially of those that seem to be preparing,” observed Madam Lebrenn, the same brave, steadfast Charlotte as of yore, ”I feel again that grave and almost solemn emotion which I felt in my girlhood, in the grand days of the Revolution. Those were glorious spectacles!”
”A terrible and glorious time, mother,” answered Henory. ”Imperishable memories!”
”In the name of a name! We shall fight, Madam Henory!” quoth old Castillon. ”These cartridges will not be wasted. Down with Charles X, Polignac, and the whole clique of them! Down with the skull-caps!”
Just then John Lebrenn came up. All rose and ran to meet him. He held out his hand to his wife, and kissed his daughter-in-law Henory on the forehead.
”The delegates of the patriot workingmen of the quarter have not yet come?” he asked.
”No, father,” replied Marik.
”What news have you picked up on your travels, my friend?” asked his wife.
”Good, and bad.”
”Commence with the bad, father,” said Marik.
”The 221 deputies of the opposition lack energy,” began his father; ”there is indeed a minority of resolute citizens, Mauguin, Labbey of Pompieres, Dupont from the Eure, Audrey of Puyraveau, Daunou, and some others. But the majority seems paralyzed with fear. Thiers is a coward, Casimir Perier a poltroon. These two wretches pretend that royalty must be given time to repent and to return to the paths of legality. They propose opening negotiations with the monarchy.”
”Death to Thiers, the petty bourgeois! Death to his accomplices. To the lamp-post with the traitors!” cried Castillon, as he filled a sh.e.l.l.
”The same fear, the same lack of confidence on the part of the bourgeoisie as in 1789,” remarked Madam Lebrenn. ”To-day, as then, the bourgeoisie is ready to fall at the feet of the King and implore his aid against the revolution.”
”What is James Lafitte's att.i.tude?” queried Marik. ”Does he show himself a man of resolution in the struggle?”
”His civic courage does not fail him. He remains calm and smiling. His establishment is the rendezvous of the Orleanist party, which is making a lot of stir, but takes no determined stand.”
”And Lafayette--is he on the side of the people?” asked Madam Lebrenn in turn.
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