United States or Svalbard and Jan Mayen ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Some days after that scene, the Lallier family and the Lecamus family were gathered together in honor of the formal betrothal of Christophe and Babette, in the old brown hall, from which Christophe's bed had been removed; for he was now able to drag himself about and even mount the stairs without his crutches. It was nine o'clock in the evening and the company were awaiting Ambroise Pare.
Therefore, in order that Christophe might in due course of time maintain his rank, he wished to marry him to the daughter of the richest jeweller in the city, his friend Lallier, whose nephew was destined to present to Henri IV. the keys of Paris.
The next day the Parliament was to receive in state, as its president, this illustrious judge, who, after signing the death warrant of Councillor du Bourg, was destined before the close of the year to sit in judgment on the Prince de Conde! "Here!" said the old man, calling to the maid, "go and ask friend Lallier if he will come and sup with us and bring the wine; we'll furnish the victuals.
"Recueil de Pieces Authentiques sur la Revolution a Strasbourg," I., 65. Alfred Lallier, "Les Noyades de Nantes," p.90. Berryat Saint-Prix, p.436. At the end of December, 1793, Camille Desmoulins wrote: "Open the prison doors to those two hundred thousand citizens whom you call 'suspects'!" The number of prisoners largely increased during the seven following months.
"The Prince de Conde would be less disdainful of a counsellor of the Parliament," said Lallier. "Well, what say you, Christophe?" urged Babette. "You are counting without the queen," replied the young lawyer. A few days after this rather bitter disillusion, an apprentice brought Christophe the following laconic little missive: Chaudieu wishes to see his son. "Let him come in!" cried Christophe.
His mind took in, at a glance, the burgher quarter full of its own harmonies, where his happy childhood had been spent, where lived his promised bride, Babette Lallier, where all things promised him a sweet and full existence; he saw the past; he saw the future, and he sacrificed it, or, at any rate, he staked it all. Such were the men of that day.
"I don't want any one to see my preparations for departure, and I have put them on a counter in the shop," he whispered. "Here is the letter," said his father. Christophe took the paper and went out as if to fetch his young neighbor. A few moments after his departure the goodman Lallier and his daughter arrived, preceded by a servant-woman, bearing three bottles of old wine.
These words were so alarming to the jeweller and the two women that they were followed by a dead silence. The ferments of 1789 were already tingling in the veins of Lecamus, who was not yet so old but what he could live to see the bold burghers of the Ligue. "Are you selling well in spite of these troubles?" said Lallier to Mademoiselle Lecamus. "Troubles always do harm," she replied.
"Ah! you want to look into my purse, shrewd-head!" said Lallier. Counsellor to the Parliament! The words worked powerfully in Christophe's brain.
"Well, where is Christophe?" said old Lecamus. "Christophe!" exclaimed Babette. "We have not seen him." "Ha! ha! my son is a bold scamp! He tricks me as if I had no beard. My dear crony, what think you he will turn out to be? We live in days when the children have more sense than their fathers." "Why, the quarter has long been saying he is in some mischief," said Lallier.
Word Of The Day