Part 12 (1/2)
There was a faint splutter of applause, but the
”This is no new thing Always has it been the sa the needs and perils of the State, counselled theour ress to the abyss, but found himself as a consequence cast out of office by the influence which Privilege brought to bear against him Twice already has M Necker been called to the ministry, to be twice dismissed when his insistent counsels of refory and nobility For the third time now has he been called to office, and at last it seee But what the privileged orders can no longer prevent, they are deter that these States General are to y will see to it--unless we takethe Third Estate with their own creatures, and denying it all effective representation, that they convert the States General into an instrument of their oill for the perpetuation of the abuses by which they live To achieve this end they will stop at nothing They have flouted the authority of the King, and they are silencing by assassination those who raise their voices to condeyou were done to death in the streets by assassins at the instigation of the nobility Their blood cries out for vengeance”
Beginning in a sullen nation that moved his hearers swelled up to express itself in a roar of anger
”Citizens of Nantes, the motherland is in peril Let us march to her defence Let us proclainize that the measures to liberate the Third Estate froroaned find only obstacles in those orders whose phrenetic egotis of the unfortunate an odious tribute which they would pass on to their generations still unborn Realizing from the barbarity of the means employed by our ene to fear from the aristocracy they would set up as a constitutional principle for the governing of France, let us declare ourselves at once enfranchised from it
”The establishment of liberty and equality should be the aim of every citizen member of the Third Estate; and to this end we should stand indivisibly united, especially the young and vigorous, especially those who have had the good fortune to be born late enough to be able to gather for thehteenth century”
Acclaht thee instantly
”Let us all swear,” he cried in a great voice, ”to raise up in the naainst our enemies, to oppose to their bloodthirsty covetousness the calm perseverance of men whose cause is just And let us protest here and in advance against any tyrannical decrees that should declare us seditious e have none but pure and just intentions Let us make oath upon the honour of our motherland that should any of us be seized by an unjust tribunal, intending against us one of those acts termed of political expediency--which are, in effect, but acts of despotisive a full expression to the strength that is in us and do that in self-defence which nature, courage, and despair dictate to us”
Loud and long rolled the applause that greeted his conclusion, and he observed with satisfaction and even soriregated upon the steps, and who now ca about him to shake him by the hand and to acclaim him, were not merely participants in, but the actual leaders of, this delirium of enthusiasm
It confirmed him, had he needed confirmation, in his conviction that just as the philosophies upon which this new movement was based had their source in thinkers extracted froeoisie, so the need to adopt those philosophies to the practical purposes of life was eois who found thee froht be said of Andre-Louis that he had that day lighted the torch of the Revolution in Nantes, it reater truth be said that the torch itself was supplied by the opulent bourgeoisie
I need not dwell at any length upon the sequel It is a matter of history how that oath which Omnes Omnibus administered to the citizens of Nantes formed the backbone of the forned in their thousands Nor were the results of that powerful protest--which, after all, ht already be said to har delayed Who shall say how far it thened the hand of Necker, when on the 27th of that same month of Novenificant and coy and nobility had refused their consent? On that date was published the royal decree ordaining that the deputies to be elected to the States General should number at least one thousand, and that the deputies of the Third Estate should be fully representative by nuether
CHAPTER IX THE AFTERMATH
Dusk of the following day was falling when the ho fully what a hue and cry there would presently be for the apostle of revolution who had summoned the people of Nantes to arms, he desired as far as possible to conceal the fact that he had been in thatthe river at Bruz, and recrossing it a little above Chavagne, so as to approach Gavrillac fro froo
Within a ht his first gli slowly towards him But it was not until they had come within a few yards of each other, and he observed that this cloaked figure was leaning forward to peer at him, that he took ed almost at once by a woman's voice
”It is you, Andre--at last!”
He drew rein, mildly surprised, to be assailed by another question, impatiently, anxiously asked
”Where have you been?”
”Where have I been, Cousin Aline? Oh seeing the world”
”I have been patrolling this road since noon to-day waiting for you” She spoke breathlessly, in haste to explain ”A troop of thein quest of you They turned the chateau and the village inside out, and at last discovered that you were due to return with a horse hired from the Breton arme So they have taken up their quarters at the inn to wait for you I have been here all the afternoon on the lookout to warn you against walking into that trap”
”My dear Aline! That I should have been the cause of so much concern and trouble!”
”Never mind that It is not important”
”On the contrary; it is the most important part of what you tell me It is the rest that is unimportant”
”Do you realize that they have co impatience ”You are wanted for sedition, and upon a warrant frouieres”