Parisians, the — Volume 12 by Baron Edward Bulwer Lytton Lytton
page 52 of 108 (48%)
page 52 of 108 (48%)
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of these terrible journals which the _decheance_ has let loose upon us.
Our unhappy boy is the principal writer of one of the worst of them, under the name of 'Diderot le Jeune."' "What!" cried the Venosta. "That monster! The good Abbe Vertpre was telling us of the writings with that name attached to them. The Abbe himself is denounced by name as one of those meddling priests who are to be constrained to serve as soldiers or pointed out to the vengeance of the _canaille_. Isaura's _fiancee_ a blasphemer!" "Hush, hush!" said Madame Rameau, rising, very pale but self-collected. "How do you know this, Jacques?" "From the lips of Gustave himself. I heard first of it yesterday from one of the young reprobates with whom he used to be familiar, and who even complimented me on the rising fame of my son, and praised the eloquence of his article that day. But I would not believe him. I bought the journal--here it is; saw the name and address of the printer --went this morning to the office--was there told that 'Diderot le Jeune' was within revising the press--stationed myself by the street door, and when Gustave came out I seized his arm, and asked him to say Yes or No if he was the author of this infamous article,--this, which I now hold in my hand. He owned the authorship with pride; talked wildly of the great man he was--of the great things he was to do; said that, in hitherto concealing his true name, he had done all he could to defer to the bigoted prejudices of his parents and his fiancee; and that if genius, like fire, would find its way out, he could not help it; that a time was rapidly coming when his opinions would be uppermost; that since October the Communists were gaining ascendancy, and only waited the end of the siege to put down the present Government, and with it all hypocrisies and |
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