The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Gods are Athirst, by Anatole France

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Title: The Gods are Athirst

Author: Anatole France

Translator: Mrs. Wilfrid Jackson

Release Date: December 24, 2007 [EBook #24010]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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THE WORKS OF ANATOLE FRANCE
IN AN ENGLISH TRANSLATION
EDITED BY FREDERIC CHAPMAN

THE GODS ARE ATHIRST

[Illustration]

THE GODS ARE
ATHIRST

BY ANATOLE FRANCE

A TRANSLATION BY
MRS. WILFRID JACKSON

[Illustration]

NEW YORK: JOHN LANE COMPANY
LONDON: JOHN LANE, THE BODLEY HEAD
TORONTO: BELL & COCKBURN MCMXIV

Copyright, 1913 by
JOHN LANE COMPANY

THE GODS ARE ATHIRST

I

Evariste Gamelin, painter, pupil of David, member of the Section du
Pont-Neuf, formerly Section Henri IV, had betaken himself at an early
hour in the morning to the old church of the Barnabites, which for three
years, since 21st May 1790, had served as meeting-place for the General
Assembly of the Section. The church stood in a narrow, gloomy square,
not far from the gates of the Palais de Justice. On the facade, which
consisted of two of the Classical orders superimposed and was decorated
with inverted brackets and flaming urns, blackened by the weather and
disfigured by the hand of man, the religious emblems had been battered
to pieces, while above the doorway had been inscribed in black letters
the Republican catchword of "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity or Death."
Evariste Gamelin made his way into the nave; the same vaults which had
heard the surpliced clerks of the Congregation of St. Paul sing the
divine offices, now looked down on red-capped patriots assembled to
elect the Municipal magistrates and deliberate on the affairs of the
Section. The Saints had been dragged from their niches and replaced by
the busts of Brutus, Jean-Jacques and Le Peltier. The altar had been
stripped bare and was surmou