An Episode under the Terror by Honoré de Balzac
page 24 of 26 (92%)
page 24 of 26 (92%)
![]() | ![]() |
|
submitted. The priest fancied that he saw a smile on the man's lips as
he saw their preparations for his visit, but it was at once repressed. He heard mass, said his prayer, and then disappeared, declining, with a few polite words, Mademoiselle de Langeais' invitation to partake of the little collation made ready for him. After the 9th Thermidor, the Sisters and the Abbe de Marolles could go about Paris without the least danger. The first time that the abbe went out he walked to a perfumer's shop at the sign of _The Queen of Roses_, kept by the Citizen Ragon and his wife, court perfumers. The Ragons had been faithful adherents of the Royalist cause; it was through their means that the Vendean leaders kept up a correspondence with the Princes and the Royalist Committee in Paris. The abbe, in the ordinary dress of the time, was standing on the threshold of the shop --which stood between Saint Roch and the Rue des Frondeurs--when he saw that the Rue Saint Honore was filled with a crowd and he could not go out. "What is the matter?" he asked Madame Ragon. "Nothing," she said; "it is only the tumbril cart and the executioner going to the Place Louis XV. Ah! we used to see it often enough last year; but to-day, four days after the anniversary of the twenty-first of January, one does not feel sorry to see the ghastly procession." "Why not?" asked the abbe. "That is not said like a Christian." "Eh! but it is the execution of Robespierre's accomplices. They defended themselves as long as they could, but now it is their turn to go where they sent so many innocent people." |
|