Ange Pitou (Volume 1) Read online

  Ange Pitou

  Ange Pitou

  Alexandre Dumas

  1873 Press

  First Published 1890

  All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions.

  Published in the United States by 1873 Press, New York.

  1873 Press and colophon are trademarks of Barnes & Noble, Inc.

  Book Design by Ericka O'Rourke, Elm Design

  www.elmdesign.com

  ISBN 0-594-02969-4

  Contents

  Introductory Note

  Volume I

  I. In which the Reader is made acquainted with the Hero of this History, as well as with the Country in which he first saw the Light

  II. In which it is proved that an Aunt is not always a Mother

  III. Ange Pitou at his Aunt's

  IV. Of the Influence which a Barbarism and Seven Solecisms may have upon the Whole Life of a Man

  V. A Philosophical Farmer

  VI. Pastoral Scenes

  VII. In which it is demonstrated that although Long Legs's may be somewhat Ungraceful in Dancing, they are very useful in Running

  VIII. Showing why the Gentleman in Black had gone into the Farm at the same time with the Two Sergeants

  IX. The Road to Paris

  X. What was happening at the End of the Road which Pitou was travelling upon,—that is to say, at Paris

  XI. The Night between the 12th and 13th of July

  XII. What occurred during the Night of the 12th July, 1789

  XIII. The King is so good! the Queen is so good!

  XIV. The Three Powers of France

  XV. Monsieur de Launay, Governor of the Bastille

  XVI. The Bastille and it's Governor

  XVII. The Bastille

  XVIII. Doctor Gilbert

  XIX. The Triangle

  XX. Sebastien Gilbert

  XXI. Madame de Staël

  XXII. The King Louis XVI

  XXIII. The Countess de Charny

  XXIV. Royal Philosophy

  XXV. In the Queen's Apartments

  XXVI. How the King supped on the 14th of July, 1789

  XXVII.Olivier de Charny

  XXVIII. Olivier de Charny

  XXIX. A Trio

  XXX. A King and a Queen

  Volume II

  I. What the Queen's Thoughts were, during the Night from July 14 to July 15, 1789

  II. The King's Physician

  III. The Council

  IV. Decision

  V. The Shirt of Mail

  VI. The Departure

  VII. The Journey

  VIII. Showing what was taking place at Versailles while the King was listening to the Speeches of the Municipality

  IX. The Return

  X. Foulon

  XI. The Father-in-Law

  XII. The Son-in-Law

  XIII. Billot begins to perceive that all is not Roses in Revolutions

  XIV. The Pitts

  XV. Medea

  XVI. What the Queen wished

  XVII. The Flanders Regiment

  XVIII. The Banquet given by the Guards

  XIX. The Wowen begin to stir

  XX. Maillard a General

  XXI. Versailles

  XXII. The Fifth October

  XXIII. The Evening of the Fifth and Sixth of October

  XXIV. The Night of the Fifth and Sixth of October

  XXV. The Morning

  XXVI. George de Charny

  XXVII. Departure, Journey, and Arrival of Pitou and Sebastien Gilbert

  XXVIII. How Pitou, after having been cursed and turned out of Doors by his Aunt on account of a Barbarism and three Solecisms, was again cursed and turned out by her on account of a fowl cooked with rice

  XXIX. Pitou a Revolutionist

  XXX. Madame Billot Abdicates

  XXXI. What decided Pitou to leave the Farm and return to Haramont, his real and only Country

  XXXII. Pitou an Orator

  XXXIII. Pitou a Conspirator

  XXXIV. In which will be seen opposed to each other the Monarchical Principle represented by the Abbé Fortier, and the Revolutionary Principle represented by Pitou

  XXXV. Pitou a Diplomatist

  XXXVI. Pitou Triumphs

  XXXVII. How Pitou learned Tactics, and acquired a Noble Bearing

  XXXVIII. Catherine becomes a Diplomatist

  XXXIX. Honey and Absinthe

  XL. An Unexpected Dénouement

  List of Illustrations

  Volume I

  Ange and Catherine

  Marat

  Volume II

  Louis XVI.

  For the Queen!

  Introductory Note

  ON Christmas Day, 1753, Lord Chesterfield wrote from Paris, summing up his observations on the state of France: "In short, all the symptoms which I have ever met with in history, previous to great changes and revolutions in government, now exist and daily increase in France."

  This, being written so early and by a foreigner, is perhaps the most noteworthy of the prophecies of disaster to come which were trumpeted forth by so many keen-sighted intellects during the last half of the eighteenth century. It was floating in the air; it was written upon the faces of the starving, down-trodden people, who found themselves burdened with this tax and that tax, with tithes and tailles, from which the nobility and clergy Were exempt; while on the other hand, the luxury and extravagance of those privileged classes grew every day more wanton, and their vices more shameless. Upon such a foundation the philosophers and encyclopædists had built solidly and well, so that Voltaire wrote exultingly of the "glorious sights" which the young men of his day would live to see; wherefore they were greatly to be envied!

  The old Marquis de Mirabeau, father of him who became so prominent a figure during the early months of the Revolution,—a curious, crabbed old fellow, who called himself the "friend of men," and whose peculiarities are described by Dumas in the "Comtesse de Charny,"—wrote in his memoirs a description of a peasant's holiday which he witnessed in the provinces about the time of the death of Louis XV. (1774). After describing the dance which ended in a battle, and "the frightful men, or rather frightful wild animals,…of gigantic stature, heightened by high wooden clogs,…their faces haggard and covered with long greasy hair,-the upper part of the visage waxing pale, the lower, distorting itself into the attempt at a cruel laugh and a sort of ferocious impatience,"—he moralizes thus: "And these people pay the taille! And you want, further, to take their salt from them! And you know not what it is you are stripping barer, or as you call it, governing,—what, by a spurt of your pen, in its cold, dastard indifference, you will fancy you can starve always with impunity, always till the catastrophe come! Ah, Madame, such government by blindman's-buff, stumbling along too far, will end in a general overturn."

  It is curious to notice with what unanimity the good intentions of Louis XVI. are admitted, almost taken for granted, by all writers upon this period, except the virulent pamphleteers of the day. Even Michelet admits it, though somewhat grudgingly,—Michelet, who went out of his way to charge Louis XV., whose load of sin was heavy enough in all conscience, with a foul crime for which there seems to be no shadow of authority.

  But it is hard to convince one's self that the general overturn could have been avoided, even had the will and character of the young king been as worthy of praise as his impulses and intentions undoubtedly were. Hastened it was, beyond question, by his weakness at critical moments, by his subserviency to the will of the queen, which was exerted uninterruptedly, and with what now seems like fatal perversity, in the wrong direction, during the years when there was still a chance, at least, of saving the monarchy. It was through the influence of the queen and her intimate circ
le that step after step, which, if taken in time, would have made a favorable impression upon an impressionable people, "whose nature it was to love their kings," was delayed until it was, so to say, extorted, and hence bereft of all appearance of a willing, voluntary concession. Numerous instances of this fatality, if we may so call it, are told by Dumas; notably the day's postponement of the king's journey to Paris after the day of the Bastille.

  With the virtuous, philosophic Turgot, "who had a whole reformed France in his head," for Controller-General of the Finances, the reign of Louis XVI. seemed to start off under the best of auspices. But, as Carlyle tersely puts it, "Turgot has faculties, honesty, insight, heroic volition, but the Fortunatus's purse he has not. Sanguine controller-general! a whole pacific French Revolution may stand schemed in the head of the thinker, but who shall pay the unspeakable 'indemnities' that will be needed? Alas! far from that; on the very threshold of the business he proposes that the clergy, the noblesse, the very parliaments, be subjected to taxes like the people! One shriek of indignation and astonishment reverberates through all the chateau galleries;…the poor king, who had written to him a few weeks ago, 'You and I are the only ones who have the people's interest at heart,' must write now a dismissal, and let the French Revolution accomplish itself, pacifically or not, as it can."

  To Turgot succeeded Necker, also a skilful and honest financier, also with schemes of peaceful reform in his head. For five years he carried the burden; and at last he, too, was driven to propose the taxation of clergy and nobility, and thereupon to take his departure, May, 1781.

  Under the short administrations of Joly de Fleury and D'Ormesson, matters failed to improve (as indeed, how could they do otherwise?), until on the retirement of the latter, when the king purchased Rambouillet, without consulting him, in the autumn of 1783, "matters threaten to come to a still-stand," says Carlyle.

  At such a crisis destiny decreed that M. de Calonne should be put forward to fill the vacancy,—a man of indisputable genius, "before all things, for borrowing."

  "Hope radiates from his face, persuasion hangs on his tongue. For all straits he has present remedy, and will make the world roll on wheels before him."

  In the "Diamond Necklace," Dumas has given us a faithful picture of Calonne and his method of exploiting his financial genius. His grandiloquent, "Madame, if it is but difficult, it is done; if it is impossible, it shall be done," seems hardly to stamp him as the man for the place at that critical period, however great may have been the felicity of the Œil-de-Bœuf under the temporary plenty which resulted from the policy of "borrowing at any price."

  It would be hard to exaggerate the effect upon the growing aspirations of the French people after the unfamiliar something which they came to call "liberty," of the result of the struggle in America, in which the cause of the colonists was so powerfully supported by the little band of Frenchmen of whom Lafayette was the most prominent and the most notable. He returned to France in 1783, to be dubbed in some quarters "Scipio Americanus."

  The scandalous affair of the necklace was, as we have heretofore seen, seized upon by the enemies of the queen as a weapon with which to assail her reputation, although her absolute innocence of any guilty connection with it is now beyond doubt. The results of this unfortunate episode—the "immense rumor and conjecture from all mankind," coupled with the slanderous charges made by Madame Lamotte in a letter from London after her escape from the Salpétrière—went far towards creating the unreasoning hatred of the "Austrian woman," which she herself did so little to assuage when the clouds became blacker than night, and began to emit the thunder and lightning of the Revolution.

  In the spring of 1787, Calonne, his borrowing powers being at an end, conceived the idea of convoking the "Notables"—an expedient unheard of for one hundred and sixty years—to sanction his new plan of taxation. They met on the 22d of February, 1787, one hundred and thirty-seven of them, "men of the sword, men of the robe, peers, dignified clergy, parliamentary presidents," with seven princes of the blood to preside over the seven bureaux,—"a round gross in all." They would have none of Calonne or his plans; and he was dismissed in April, after which the "Notables" sat until May 25, "treating of all manner of public things," and then first were the States-General mentioned.

  Calonne was succeeded by Cardinal Loménie de Brienne,—a dissolute, worthless sexagenarian, who devised various tax-edicts, stamp-taxes, and the like, all of which the Parliament of Paris refused to register. The expedient of a Bed of Justice was resorted to, and resulted in the most ominous of all portents: for the first time in history the Parliament refused to obey the royal "Je veux" (I wish it.) They were exiled for a month,—August to September, 1787,—and returned upon conditions.

  In the spring of 1788, Loménie's great scheme of dismissing the parliaments altogether, and substituting a more subservient "Plenary Court" was detected before it was ripe, and denounced to the Parliament of Paris, which body, upon remonstrating, was again exiled (May). An attempt thereafter to raise supplies by royal edict simply, led to the rebellion of all the provincial parliaments, the public expressing its approval more noisily than ever. On August 8 appeared a royal edict to the effect that the States-General should be convoked for May following; it was followed by another edict, that treasury payments should thenceforth be made three-fifths in cash and two-fifths in paper,—a virtual confession that the treasury was insolvent. Thereupon Loménie was incontinently dismissed, and Necker recalled from Switzerland to become the "Savior of France."

  A second convocation of the "Notables" (November 6 to December 12, 1788) undertook to decide how the States should be held: whether the three estates should meet as one deliberative body, or as three, or two; and, most important of all, what should be the relative force, in voting, of the Third Estate, or Commonalty. They separated without settling any of the points in question.

  In January, 1789, the elections began,—the real beginning of the French Revolution in the opinion of Carlyle, and indeed, of most writers.

  On the 13th of July, 1788, there had been a most destructive hail-storm throughout France, and the growing crops were literally destroyed; whereby the extreme destitution which had come to be the natural condition of the lower classes had been accentuated. In addition, the winter of 1788-89 was one of extreme rigor, so that it seemed almost as if God himself were openly manifesting his will that the general overturn should come.

  The riot in which Réveillon, the paper manufacturer, was concerned occurred in April, 1789, just prior to the assembling of the States-General on May 4.

  The clergy and nobility at once exhibited their purpose to act as separate bodies; and the Third Estate, led by Mirabeau and others, decided that it must be the mainspring of the whole, and that it would remain "inert" until the other two estates should join with it; under which circumstances it could outvote them and do what it chose. For seven weeks this state of "inertia" endured, until the court decided to intervene and the assembly hall was found closed against the representatives of the people on June 20. Thereupon they met in the old tennis-court (Jeu de Paume), and there the celebrated "Oath of the Tennis-Court" was taken by every man of them but one,—an oath "that they will not separate for man below, but will meet in all places, under all circumstances, wheresoever two or three can get together, till they have made the Constitution."

  One subsequent attempt was made by the king to intimidate this ominously persistent body; but the messenger whom he despatched to command them to separate ("Mercury" de Brézé, Carlyle calls him) was addressed in very plain language by the lion-headed Mirabeau, and retired in confusion. The court recoiled before the spectacle of "all France on the edge of blazing out;" the other two estates joined the Third, which triumphed in every particular. Henceforth the States-General are the "National Assembly," sometimes called the "Constituent Assembly," or assembly met to make the constitution.

  This cursory sketch of the leading events of the early years of the reign of Louis XVI. is off
ered as a sort of supplement to that presented by Dumas before he takes his readers into the "thick of the business" in Paris.

  The badly veiled military preparations to which the terror of the queen and the court led the king to consent, kept the Parisian populace in a constant state of fermentation, which was powerfully helped on by the continued scarcity of food and the consequent influx of starving provincials into the metropolis. The Gardes Françaises gave indubitable symptoms of popular leanings, which perhaps emboldened the effervescent spirits of the mob more than a little.

  The news of the dismissal of Necker, circulated on Sunday, July 12, kindled the first panic terror of Paris into a wild frenzy, and resulted in the siege of the Bastille, "perhaps the most momentous known to history."

  The course of events immediately preceding the descent upon that "stronghold of tyranny, called Bastille, or 'building,' as if there were no other building," as well as those of the siege itself, is traced with marvellous fidelity by Dumas, due allowance being made, of course, for the necessities of the romance. He closely follows Michelet; but the details are told, with substantial unanimity, by all historians of the fateful event.

  The part assigned to Billot in the narrative before us was in reality played by several persons. It was Thuriot, an elector from the Hôtel de Ville, who gained admission to the fortress and investigated its condition; who ascended with De Launay to the battlements and showed himself to the mob to quiet their fears that he had been foully dealt with. This same Thuriot, as president of the convention, refused to allow Robespierre to speak in his own defence on the 10th Thermidor, year II. (July 28, 1794). It was Louis Tournay, a blacksmith and old soldier of the Regiment Dauphiné, who hacked away the chain which upheld the first drawbridge. It was an unknown man who first essayed to cross the ditch to take the note dictating terms and fell to the bottom (and was killed); but it was Stanislas Maillard who followed and made the passage in safety.