Part 10 (1/2)
And presently, when soan his tale In sie now, yet with a vehemence and directness that drove home every point, he tore their hearts with the story of yesterday's happenings at Gavrillac He drew tears from them with the pathos of his picture of the bereavedMabey and her three starving, destitute children--”orphaned to avenge the death of a pheasant”--and the bereaved mother of that M de Vilmorin, a student of Rennes, known here to many of them, who had met his death in a noble endeavour to champion the cause of an esurient member of their afflicted order
”The Marquis de La Tour d'Azyr said of hiift of eloquence It was to silence his brave voice that he killed him But he has failed of his object For I, poor Philippe de Vilmorin's friend, have assumed the mantle of his apostleshi+p, and I speak to you with his voice to-day”
It was a statement that helped Le Chapelier at last to understand, at least in part, this bewildering change in Andre-Louis, which rendered him faithless to the side that employed him
”I am not here,” continued Andre-Louis, ”eance upon Philippe de Vils he would to-day have told you had he lived”
So far at least he was frank But he did not add that they were things he did not his that he accounted the cant by which an ah the ht to overthrow to its own advantage the present state of things He left his audience in the natural belief that the views he expressed were the views he held
And now in a terrible voice, with an eloquence that amazed himself, he denounced the inertia of the royal justice where the great are the offenders It ith bitter sarcasuieres
”Do you wonder,” he asked theuieres should adreat nobles? Would it be just, would it be reasonable that he should otherwise administer it?” He paused dramatically to let his sarcas Le Chapelier's doubts, and checking his dawning conviction in Andre-Louis' sincerity Whither was he going now?
He was not left long in doubt Proceeding, Andre-Louis spoke as he conceived that Philippe de Vilued with him, so often attended the discussions of the Literary Chamber, that he had all the rant of the reforers' ends
”Consider, after all, the composition of this France of ours A ed classes They compose France They are France For surely you cannot suppose the re that matters It cannot be pretended that twenty-four million souls are of any account, that they can be representative of this great nation, or that they can exist for any purpose but that of servitude to the hter shook thees in danger of invasion by these twenty-four millions--mostly canailles; possibly created by God, it is true, but clearly so created to be the slaves of Privilege--does it surprise you that the dispensing of royal justice should be placed in the stout hands of these Lesdiguieres, men without brains to think or hearts to be touched?
Consider what it is that ainst the assault of us others--canaille Consider a few of these feudal rights that are in danger of being swept away should the Privileged yield even to the con; and admit the Third Estate to an equal vote with thee on the land, of parciere on the fruit-trees, of carpot on the vines? What of the corvees by which they coives thee, the banvin which enables thee the sale of wine? What of their right of grinding the last liard of taxation out of the people to maintain their own opulent estate; the cens, the lods-et-ventes, which absorb a fifth of the value of the land, the blairee, which must be paid before herds can feed on coe to indemnify theo tooffered for sale in the public hts over men and anies over strea wells, of warren, of dovecot, and of fire, which last yields thehts of fishi+ng and of hunting, the violation of which is ranked as alhts, unspeakable, abohts which, if rarely exercised, have never been rescinded To this day if a noble returning from the hunt were to slay two of his serfs to bathe and refresh his feet in their blood, he could still claim in his sufficient defence that it was his absolute feudal right to do so
”Rough-shod, these ed ride over the souls and bodies of twenty-fourbut for their own pleasure Woe betide him who so ainst an excess of these already excessive abuses I have told you of one re no more than that Your own eyes have witnessed the assassination of another here upon this plinth, of yet another over there by the cathedral works, and the attempt upon my own life
”Between theuieres, these King's Lieutenants; not instruments of justice, but walls erected for the shelter of Privilege and Abuse whenever it exceeds its grotesquely excessive rights
”Do you wonder that they will not yield an inch; that they will resist the election of a Third Estate with the voting power to sweep all these privileges away, to coed to submit themselves to a just equality in the eyes of the laith the meanest of the canaille they trample underfoot, to provide that the moneys necessary to save this state froed it shall be raised by taxation to be borne by themselves in the same proportion as by others?
”Sooner than yield to so much they prefer to resist even the royal command”
A phrase occurred to him used yesterday by Vilmorin, a phrase to which he had refused to attach i this they are striking at the very foundations of the throne
These fools do not perceive that if that throne falls over, it is they who stand nearest to it ill be crushed”
A terrific roar acclai with the exciteh hireat audience, he stood aironically Then he waved them into silence, and saw by their ready obedience how completely he possessed thenized the voice of hihts that forin each si more quietly, that ironic s uieres I gave hie of natural history I told hile, eary of being hunted by the tiger, they banded theer in their turn M de Lesdiguieres contemptuously answered that he did not understand me But your wits are better than his You understand led noith soht theerous passion, and they were ripe for any violence to which he urged them If he had failed with the windmill, at least he was now master of the wind
”To the Palais!” they shouted, waving their hands, brandishi+ng canes, and--here and there--even a sword ”To the Palais! Doith M de Lesdiguieres! Death to the King's Lieutenant!”
He was ift nowhere more powerful than in France, since nowhere else are men's eiven hiale would sweep away the wind hihtforwardly revealed it, was no part of his intent
”Ah, wait!” he bade them ”Is this miserable instrument of a corrupt systenation?”
He hoped his words would be reported to M de Lesdiguieres He thought it would be good for the soul of M de Lesdiguieres to hear the undiluted truth about himself for once