FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   1447   1448   1449   1450   1451   1452   1453   1454   1455   1456   1457   1458   1459   1460   1461   1462   1463   1464   1465   1466   1467   1468   1469   1470   1471  
1472   1473   1474   1475   1476   1477   1478   1479   1480   1481   1482   1483   1484   1485   1486   1487   1488   1489   1490   1491   1492   1493   1494   1495   1496   >>   >|  
tress raised to crush and conquer the city slumbering beneath it. It had already brought him suffering during the last days when he had said mass in it and was struggling with his torments. "They call it the national votive offering," he now exclaimed. "But the nation's longing is for health and strength and restoration to its old position by work. That is a thing the Church does not understand. It argues that if France was stricken with defeat, it was because she deserved punishment. She was guilty, and so to-day she ought to repent. Repent of what? Of the Revolution, of a century of free examination and science, of the emancipation of her mind, of her initiatory and liberative labour in all parts of the world? That indeed is her real transgression; and it is as a punishment for all our labour, search for truth, increase of knowledge and march towards justice that they have reared that huge pile which Paris will see from all her streets, and will never be able to see without feeling derided and insulted in her labour and glory." With a wave of his hand he pointed to the city, slumbering in the moonlight as beneath a sheet of silver, and then set off again with his brother, down the slopes, towards the black and deserted streets. They did not meet a living soul until they reached the outer boulevard. Here, however, no matter what the hour may be, life continues with scarcely a pause. No sooner are the wine shops, music and dancing halls closed, than vice and want, cast into the street, there resume their nocturnal existence. Thus the brothers came upon all the homeless ones: low prostitutes seeking a pallet, vagabonds stretched on the benches under the trees, rogues who prowled hither and thither on the lookout for a good stroke. Encouraged by their accomplice--night, all the mire and woe of Paris had returned to the surface. The empty roadway now belonged to the breadless, homeless starvelings, those for whom there was no place in the sunlight, the vague, swarming, despairing herd which is only espied at night-time. Ah! what spectres of destitution, what apparitions of grief and fright there were! What a sob of agony passed by in Paris that morning, when as soon as the dawn should rise, a man--a pauper, a sufferer like the others--was to be guillotined! As Guillaume and Pierre were about to descend the Rue des Martyrs, the former perceived an old man lying on a bench with his bare feet protruding from his gaping,
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   1447   1448   1449   1450   1451   1452   1453   1454   1455   1456   1457   1458   1459   1460   1461   1462   1463   1464   1465   1466   1467   1468   1469   1470   1471  
1472   1473   1474   1475   1476   1477   1478   1479   1480   1481   1482   1483   1484   1485   1486   1487   1488   1489   1490   1491   1492   1493   1494   1495   1496   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

labour

 
homeless
 

punishment

 

streets

 

slumbering

 

beneath

 

Encouraged

 

sooner

 

accomplice

 
scarcely

thither

 

stroke

 

lookout

 

prowled

 

rogues

 
benches
 

brothers

 
resume
 

street

 

nocturnal


existence
 
stretched
 
closed
 

dancing

 

vagabonds

 

pallet

 

prostitutes

 

seeking

 

pauper

 

sufferer


guillotined
 

gaping

 

passed

 
morning
 

Guillaume

 

perceived

 

protruding

 

Martyrs

 
Pierre
 
descend

starvelings
 

breadless

 
continues
 

belonged

 

roadway

 

returned

 

surface

 

sunlight

 

spectres

 

destitution