Vuillet commenced by
narrating the entry of the insurgents into Plassans. The description
was a perfect masterpiece. He spoke of "those bandits, those
villainous-looking countenances, that scum of the galleys," invading the
town, "intoxicated with brandy, lust, and pillage." Then he exhibited
them "parading their cynicism in the streets, terrifying the inhabitants
with their savage cries and seeking only violence and murder." Further
on, the scene at the town-hall and the arrest of the authorities became
a most horrible drama. "Then they seized the most respectable people by
the throat; and the mayor, the brave commander of the national
guard, the postmaster, that kindly functionary, were--even like the
Divinity--crowned with thorns by those wretches, who spat in their
faces." The passage devoted to Miette and her red pelisse was quite a
flight of imagination. Vuillet had seen ten, twenty girls steeped in
blood: "and who," he wrote, "did not behold among those monsters some
infamous creatures clothed in red, who must have bathed themselves in
the blood of the martyrs murdered by the brigands along the high roads?
They were brandishing banners, and openly receiving the vile caresses of
the entire horde." And Vuillet added, with Biblical magniloquence, "The
Republic ever marches on amidst debauchery and murder."
That, however, was only the first part of the article; the narrative
being ended, the editor asked if the country would any longer tolerate
"the shamelessness of those wild beasts, who respected neither property
nor persons.
Pages:
387
388
389
390
391
392
393
394
395
396
397
398
399
400
401
402
403
404
405
406
407
408
409
410
411