Through that long and lonely ride through the dull plains of Brittany, now at their dreariest2 in their winter garb3, he had ample leisure in which to review his actions and his position. From one who had taken hitherto a purely4 academic and by no means friendly interest in the new philosophies of social life, exercising his wits upon these new ideas merely as a fencer exercises his eye and wrist with the foils, without ever suffering himself to be deluded5 into supposing the issue a real one, he found himself suddenly converted into a revolutionary firebrand, committed to revolutionary action of the most desperate kind. The representative and delegate of a nobleman in the States of Brittany, he found himself simultaneously6 and incongruously the representative and delegate of the whole Third Estate of Rennes.
It is difficult to determine to what extent, in the heat of passion and swept along by the torrent7 of his own oratory8, he might yesterday have succeeded in deceiving himself. But it is at least certain that, looking back in cold blood now, he had no single delusion9 on the score of what he had done. Cynically10 he had presented to his audience one side only of the great question that he propounded11.
But since the established order of things in France was such as to make a rampart for M. de La Tour d’Azyr, affording him complete immunity12 for this and any other crimes that it pleased him to commit, why, then the established order must take the consequences of its wrong-doing. Therein he perceived his clear justification13.
And so it was without misgivings14 that he came on his errand of sedition15 into that beautiful city of Nantes, rendered by its spacious16 streets and splendid port the rival in prosperity of Bordeaux and Marseilles.
He found an inn on the Quai La Fosse, where he put up his horse, and where he dined in the embrasure of a window that looked out over the tree-bordered quay17 and the broad bosom18 of the Loire, on which argosies of all nations rode at anchor. The sun had again broken through the clouds, and shed its pale wintry light over the yellow waters and the tall-masted shipping19.
Along the quays20 there was a stir of life as great as that to be seen on the quays of Paris. Foreign sailors in outlandish garments and of harsh-sounding, outlandish speech, stalwart fishwives with baskets of herrings on their heads, voluminous of petticoat above bare legs and bare feet, calling their wares21 shrilly22 and almost inarticulately, watermen in woollen caps and loose trousers rolled to the knees, peasants in goatskin coats, their wooden shoes clattering23 on the round kidney-stones, shipwrights24 and labourers from the dockyards, bellows-menders, rat-catchers, water-carriers, ink-sellers, and other itinerant25 pedlars. And, sprinkled through this proletariat mass that came and went in constant movement, Andre–Louis beheld26 tradesmen in sober garments, merchants in long, fur-lined coats; occasionally a merchant-prince rolling along in his two-horse cabriolet to the whip-crackings and shouts of “Gare!” from his coachman; occasionally a dainty lady carried past in her sedan-chair, with perhaps a mincing27 abbe from the episcopal court tripping along in attendance; occasionally an officer in scarlet28 riding disdainfully; and once the great carriage of a nobleman, with escutcheoned panels and a pair of white-stockinged, powdered footmen in gorgeous liveries hanging on behind. And there were Capuchins in brown and Benedictines in black, and secular30 priests in plenty — for God was well served in the sixteen parishes of Nantes — and by way of contrast there were lean-jawed, out-at-elbow adventurers, and gendarmes31 in blue coats and gaitered legs, sauntering guardians32 of the peace.
Representatives of every class that went to make up the seventy thousand inhabitants of that wealthy, industrious33 city were to be seen in the human stream that ebbed34 and flowed beneath the window from which Andre–Louis observed it.
Of the waiter who ministered to his humble35 wants with soup and bouilli, and a measure of vin gris, Andre–Louis enquired36 into the state of public feeling in the city. The waiter, a staunch supporter of the privileged orders, admitted regretfully that an uneasiness prevailed. Much would depend upon what happened at Rennes. If it was true that the King had dissolved the States of Brittany, then all should be well, and the malcontents would have no pretext37 for further disturbances38. There had been trouble and to spare in Nantes already. They wanted no repetition of it. All manner of rumours39 were abroad, and since early morning there had been crowds besieging40 the portals of the Chamber41 of Commerce for definite news. But definite news was yet to come. It was not even known for a fact that His Majesty42 actually had dissolved the States.
It was striking two, the busiest hour of the day upon the Bourse, when Andre–Louis reached the Place du Commerce. The square, dominated by the imposing43 classical building of the Exchange, was so crowded that he was compelled almost to fight his way through to the steps of the magnificent Ionic porch. A word would have sufficed to have opened a way for him at once. But guile44 moved him to keep silent. He would come upon that waiting multitude as a thunderclap, precisely45 as yesterday he had come upon the mob at Rennes. He would lose nothing of the surprise effect of his entrance.
The precincts of that house of commerce were jealously kept by a line of ushers46 armed with staves, a guard as hurriedly assembled by the merchants as it was evidently necessary. One of these now effectively barred the young lawyer’s passage as he attempted to mount the steps.
Andre–Louis announced himself in a whisper.
The stave was instantly raised from the horizontal, and he passed and went up the steps in the wake of the usher47. At the top, on the threshold of the chamber, he paused, and stayed his guide.
“I will wait here,” he announced. “Bring the president to me.”
“Your name, monsieur?”
Almost had Andre–Louis answered him when he remembered Le Chapelier’s warning of the danger with which his mission was fraught48, and Le Chapelier’s parting admonition to conceal49 his identity.
“My name is unknown to him; it matters nothing; I am the mouthpiece of a people, no more. Go.”
The usher went, and in the shadow of that lofty, pillared portico50 Andre–Louis waited, his eyes straying out ever and anon to survey that spread of upturned faces immediately below him.
Soon the president came, others following, crowding out into the portico, jostling one another in their eagerness to hear the news.
“You are a messenger from Rennes?”
“I am the delegate sent by the Literary Chamber of that city to inform you here in Nantes of what is taking place.”
“Your name?”
Andre–Louis paused. “The less we mention names perhaps the better.”
The president’s eyes grew big with gravity. He was a corpulent, florid man, purse-proud, and self-sufficient.
He hesitated a moment. Then —“Come into the Chamber,” said he.
“By your leave, monsieur, I will deliver my message from here — from these steps.”
“From here?” The great merchant frowned.
“My message is for the people of Nantes, and from here I can speak at once to the greatest number of Nantais of all ranks, and it is my desire — and the desire of those whom I represent — that as great a number as possible should hear my message at first hand.”
“Tell me, sir, is it true that the King has dissolved the States?”
Andre–Louis looked at him. He smiled apologetically, and waved a hand towards the crowd, which by now was straining for a glimpse of this slim young man who had brought forth the president and more than half the numbers of the Chamber, guessing already, with that curious instinct of crowds, that he was the awaited bearer of tidings.
“Summon the gentlemen of your Chamber, monsieur,” said he, “and you shall hear all.”
“So be it.”
A word, and forth they came to crowd upon the steps, but leaving clear the topmost step and a half-moon space in the middle.
To the spot so indicated, Andre–Louis now advanced very deliberately51. He took his stand there, dominating the entire assembly. He removed his hat, and launched the opening bombshell of that address which is historic, marking as it does one of the great stages of France’s progress towards revolution.
“People of this great city of Nantes, I have come to summon you to arms!”
In the amazed and rather scared silence that followed he surveyed them for a moment before resuming.
“I am a delegate of the people of Rennes, charged to announce to you what is taking place, and to invite you in this dreadful hour of our country’s peril53 to rise and march to her defence.”
“Name! Your name!” a voice shouted, and instantly the cry was taken up by others, until the multitude rang with the question.
He could not answer that excited mob as he had answered the president. It was necessary to compromise, and he did so, happily. “My name,” said he, “is Omnes Omnibus — all for all. Let that suffice you now. I am a herald54, a mouthpiece, a voice; no more. I come to announce to you that since the privileged orders, assembled for the States of Brittany in Rennes, resisted your will — our will — despite the King’s plain hint to them, His Majesty has dissolved the States.”
There was a burst of delirious55 applause. Men laughed and shouted, and cries of “Vive le Roi!” rolled forth like thunder. Andre–Louis waited, and gradually the preternatural gravity of his countenance56 came to be observed, and to beget57 the suspicion that there might be more to follow. Gradually silence was restored, and at last Andre Louis was able to proceed.
“You rejoice too soon. Unfortunately, the nobles, in their insolent58 arrogance59, have elected to ignore the royal dissolution, and in despite of it persist in sitting and in conducting matters as seems good to them.”
A silence of utter dismay greeted that disconcerting epilogue to the announcement that had been so rapturously received. Andre–Louis continued after a moment’s pause:
“So that these men who were already rebels against the people, rebels, against justice and equity60, rebels against humanity itself, are now also rebels against their King. Sooner than yield an inch of the unconscionable privileges by which too long already they have flourished, to the misery61 of a whole nation, they will make a mock of royal authority, hold up the King himself to contempt. They are determined62 to prove that there is no real sovereignty in France but the sovereignty of their own parasitic63 faineantise.”
There was a faint splutter of applause, but the majority of the audience remained silent, waiting.
“This is no new thing. Always has it been the same. No minister in the last ten years, who, seeing the needs and perils64 of the State, counselled the measures that we now demand as the only means of arresting our motherland in its ever-quickening progress 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 ministry65, to be twice dismissed when his insistent66 counsels of reform threatened the privileges of clergy67 and nobility. For the third time now has he been called to office, and at last it seems we are to have States General in spite of Privilege. But what the privileged orders can no longer prevent, they are determined to stultify68. Since it is now a settled thing that these States General are to meet, at least the nobles and the clergy will see to it — unless we take measures to prevent them — by packing the Third Estate with their own creatures, and denying it all effective representation, that they convert the States General into an instrument of their own will for the perpetuation69 of the abuses by which they live. To achieve this end they will stop at nothing. They have flouted70 the authority of the King, and they are silencing by assassination71 those who raise their voices to condemn72 them. Yesterday in Rennes two young men who addressed the people as I am addressing you were done to death in the streets by assassins at the instigation of the nobility. Their blood cries out for vengeance73.”
Beginning in a sullen74 mutter, the indignation that moved his hearers swelled75 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 proclaim it to the world that we recognize that the measures to liberate52 the Third Estate from the slavery in which for centuries it has groaned76 find only obstacles in those orders whose phrenetic egotism sees in the tears and suffering of the unfortunate an odious77 tribute which they would pass on to their generations still unborn. Realizing from the barbarity of the means employed by our enemies to perpetuate78 our oppression that we have everything to fear from the aristocracy they would set up as a constitutional principle for the governing of France, let us declare ourselves at once enfranchised79 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 themselves the precious fruits of the philosophy of this eighteenth century.”
Acclamations broke out unstintedly now. He had caught them in the snare80 of his oratory. And he pressed his advantage instantly.
“Let us all swear,” he cried in a great voice, “to raise up in the name of humanity and of liberty a rampart against our enemies, to oppose to their bloodthirsty covetousness81 the calm perseverance82 of men whose cause is just. And let us protest here and in advance against any tyrannical decrees that should declare us seditious when we 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 expediency83 — which are, in effect, but acts of despotism — let us swear, I say, to give a full expression to the strength that is in us and do that in self-defence which nature, courage, and despair dictate84 to us.”
Loud and long rolled the applause that greeted his conclusion, and he observed with satisfaction and even some inward grim amusement that the wealthy merchants who had been congregated85 upon the steps, and who now came crowding about him to shake him by the hand and to acclaim86 him, were not merely participants in, but the actual leaders of, this delirium87 of enthusiasm.
It confirmed him, had he needed confirmation88, in his conviction that just as the philosophies upon which this new movement was based had their source in thinkers extracted from the bourgeoisie, so the need to adopt those philosophies to the practical purposes of life was most acutely felt at present by those bourgeois89 who found themselves debarred by Privilege from the expansion their wealth permitted them. If it might be said of Andre–Louis that he had that day lighted the torch of the Revolution in Nantes, it might with even greater 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 backbone90 of the formal protest which they drew up and signed in their thousands. Nor were the results of that powerful protest — which, after all, might already be said to harmonize with the expressed will of the sovereign himself — long delayed. Who shall say how far it may have strengthened the hand of Necker, when on the 27th of that same month of November he compelled the Council to adopt the most significant and comprehensive of all those measures to which clergy and nobility had refused their consent? On that date was published the royal decree ordaining91 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 fully29 representative by numbering as many as the deputies of clergy and nobility together.
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1
forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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dreariest
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| 使人闷闷不乐或沮丧的( dreary的最高级 )； 阴沉的； 令人厌烦的； 单调的 | |
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garb
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| n.服装，装束 | |
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purely
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| adv.纯粹地，完全地 | |
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deluded
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| v.欺骗，哄骗( delude的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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simultaneously
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| adv.同时发生地，同时进行地 | |
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torrent
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| n.激流，洪流；爆发，(话语等的)连发 | |
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oratory
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| n.演讲术；词藻华丽的言辞 | |
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delusion
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| n.谬见，欺骗，幻觉，迷惑 | |
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cynically
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| adv.爱嘲笑地，冷笑地 | |
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propounded
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| v.提出（问题、计划等）供考虑[讨论]，提议( propound的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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12
immunity
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| n.优惠；免除；豁免，豁免权 | |
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justification
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| n.正当的理由；辩解的理由 | |
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misgivings
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| n.疑虑，担忧，害怕；疑虑，担心，恐惧( misgiving的名词复数 )；疑惧 | |
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sedition
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| n.煽动叛乱 | |
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spacious
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| adj.广阔的，宽敞的 | |
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17
quay
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| n.码头，靠岸处 | |
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bosom
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| n.胸，胸部；胸怀；内心；adj.亲密的 | |
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shipping
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| n.船运（发货，运输，乘船） | |
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quays
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| 码头( quay的名词复数 ) | |
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wares
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| n. 货物, 商品 | |
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shrilly
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| 尖声的； 光亮的，耀眼的 | |
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clattering
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| 发出咔哒声（clatter的现在分词形式） | |
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shipwrights
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| n.造船者，修船者( shipwright的名词复数 ) | |
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itinerant
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| adj.巡回的；流动的 | |
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beheld
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| v.看，注视( behold的过去式和过去分词 )；瞧；看呀；（叙述中用于引出某人意外的出现）哎哟 | |
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mincing
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| adj.矫饰的；v.切碎；切碎 | |
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scarlet
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| n.深红色，绯红色，红衣；adj.绯红色的 | |
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fully
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| adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地 | |
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secular
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| n.牧师，凡人；adj.世俗的，现世的，不朽的 | |
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gendarmes
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| n.宪兵，警官( gendarme的名词复数 ) | |
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guardians
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| 监护人( guardian的名词复数 )； 保护者，维护者 | |
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industrious
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| adj.勤劳的，刻苦的，奋发的 | |
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ebbed
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| （指潮水）退( ebb的过去式和过去分词 )； 落； 减少； 衰落 | |
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humble
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| adj.谦卑的，恭顺的；地位低下的；v.降低，贬低 | |
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enquired
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| 打听( enquire的过去式和过去分词 )； 询问； 问问题； 查问 | |
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pretext
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| n.借口，托词 | |
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disturbances
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| n.骚乱( disturbance的名词复数 )；打扰；困扰；障碍 | |
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rumours
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| n.传闻( rumour的名词复数 )；风闻；谣言；谣传 | |
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besieging
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| 包围，围困，围攻( besiege的现在分词 ) | |
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chamber
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| n.房间，寝室；会议厅；议院；会所 | |
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majesty
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| n.雄伟，壮丽，庄严，威严；最高权威，王权 | |
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imposing
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| adj.使人难忘的，壮丽的，堂皇的，雄伟的 | |
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guile
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| n.诈术 | |
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precisely
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| adv.恰好，正好，精确地，细致地 | |
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ushers
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| n.引座员( usher的名词复数 )；招待员；门房；助理教员v.引，领，陪同( usher的第三人称单数 ) | |
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usher
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| n.带位员，招待员；vt.引导，护送；vi.做招待，担任引座员 | |
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48
fraught
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| adj.充满…的，伴有(危险等)的；忧虑的 | |
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49
conceal
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| v.隐藏，隐瞒，隐蔽 | |
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50
portico
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| n.柱廊，门廊 | |
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51
deliberately
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| adv.审慎地；蓄意地；故意地 | |
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52
liberate
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| v.解放，使获得自由，释出，放出；vt.解放，使获自由 | |
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53
peril
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| n.(严重的)危险；危险的事物 | |
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herald
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| vt.预示...的来临，预告，宣布，欢迎 | |
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55
delirious
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| adj.不省人事的，神智昏迷的 | |
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56
countenance
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| n.脸色，面容；面部表情；vt.支持，赞同 | |
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57
beget
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| v.引起；产生 | |
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insolent
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| adj.傲慢的，无理的 | |
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arrogance
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| n.傲慢，自大 | |
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equity
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| n.公正，公平，（无固定利息的）股票 | |
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misery
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| n.痛苦，苦恼，苦难；悲惨的境遇，贫苦 | |
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determined
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| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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parasitic
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| adj.寄生的 | |
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perils
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| 极大危险( peril的名词复数 )； 危险的事（或环境） | |
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ministry
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| n.(政府的)部；牧师 | |
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insistent
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| adj.迫切的，坚持的 | |
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clergy
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| n.[总称]牧师，神职人员 | |
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stultify
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| v.愚弄；使呆滞 | |
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perpetuation
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| n.永存，不朽 | |
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flouted
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| v.藐视，轻视( flout的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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assassination
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| n.暗杀；暗杀事件 | |
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72
condemn
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| vt.谴责，指责；宣判(罪犯)，判刑 | |
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73
vengeance
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| n.报复，报仇，复仇 | |
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74
sullen
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| adj.愠怒的，闷闷不乐的，(天气等)阴沉的 | |
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75
swelled
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| 增强( swell的过去式和过去分词 )； 肿胀； （使）凸出； 充满（激情） | |
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76
groaned
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| v.呻吟( groan的过去式和过去分词 )；发牢骚；抱怨；受苦 | |
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77
odious
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| adj.可憎的，讨厌的 | |
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78
perpetuate
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| v.使永存，使永记不忘 | |
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79
enfranchised
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| v.给予选举权( enfranchise的过去式和过去分词 )；（从奴隶制中）解放 | |
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80
snare
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| n.陷阱，诱惑，圈套；（去除息肉或者肿瘤的）勒除器；响弦，小军鼓；vt.以陷阱捕获，诱惑 | |
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81
covetousness
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82
perseverance
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| n.坚持不懈，不屈不挠 | |
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83
expediency
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| n.适宜；方便；合算；利己 | |
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84
dictate
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| v.口授；(使)听写；指令，指示，命令 | |
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85
congregated
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| （使）集合，聚集( congregate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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86
acclaim
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| v.向…欢呼，公认；n.欢呼，喝彩，称赞 | |
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87
delirium
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| n. 神智昏迷,说胡话;极度兴奋 | |
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88
confirmation
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| n.证实，确认，批准 | |
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89
bourgeois
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| adj./n.追求物质享受的(人)；中产阶级分子 | |
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90
backbone
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| n.脊骨，脊柱，骨干；刚毅，骨气 | |
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91
ordaining
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| v.任命（某人）为牧师( ordain的现在分词 )；授予（某人）圣职；（上帝、法律等）命令；判定 | |
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