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"Why, then, with the Duvals it would be young Francois-Auguste. He keeps his old mother with his boot-making..." "And it would be Marie Lebon, she has her blind father dependent on her net-mending." "And old Mother Laferriere, whose grandchildren were left penniless... she keeps them from starvation by her wash-tub." "But Francois-Auguste is a real Republican; he belongs to the Jacobin Club."
"These charges," he said, "have been suggested by wily aristocrats. The man who crushes the enemies of the people, though he may be hurried by his zeal into some excesses, can never be a proper object of censure. The proceedings of Lebon may have been a little harsh as to form."
Knives, spears, scimitars, rifles glinted in the sun. The whine and patter of bullets filled the air, punctured the kiswah, slogged against the Ka'aba. Lebon and Rennes, turning loose the machine-guns, mowed into the white of the pack; but still they came crowding on and on, frenzied, impervious to fear. Up rose the nacelle, as the major wildly shouted into the phone.
The municipal officer on duty opens a door leading into it. Lebon, however, not knowing who he is, takes alarm. "He froths at the mouth," says the municipal officer, "and cries out as if possessed by a demon. 'Stop, stop, scoundrel, you are running off! He draws his saber and seizes me by the collar; I am dragged and borne along by him and his men.
"Give me that book," says the representative. The mother hands it to him; it is the "History of Clarissa Harlowe." The young girl, extending her hand to receive back the book, adds, undoubtedly with a smile: "That is not 'suspect." Lebon deals her a blow with his fist on her stomach which knocks her down; both women are searched and he personally leads them to the guard-room.
Had he been less mean, something might have been said in extenuation of his cruelty. Had he been less cruel, something might have been said in extenuation of his meanness. But for him, regicide and court-spy, for him who patronised Lebon and betrayed Demerville, for him who wantoned alternately in gasconades of Jacobinism and gasconades of servility, what excuse has the largest charity to offer?
When the crimes of Lebon, one of the worst, if not the very worst, of the vicegerents of the Committee of Public Safety, had so maddened the people of the Department of the North that they resorted to the desperate expedient of imploring the protection of the Convention, Barère pleaded the cause of the accused tyrant, and threatened the petitioners with the utmost vengeance of the government.
When the crimes of Lebon, one of the worst, if not the very worst, of the viceregents of the Committee of Public Safety, had so maddened the people of the Department of the North that they resorted to the desperate expedient of imploring the protection of the Convention, Barere pleaded the cause of the accused tyrant, and threatened the petitioners with the utmost vengeance of the government.
"And likely to be, till our friends bring powder, mine that door, and blow it in!" The Master added: "We've still a few minutes maybe more. Now, then " A shrill cry in French, from Lebon, drew all eyes away to the left of the small chamber.
Lequinio, Laignelot and Lebon invite the executioner to dine with them; Monestier, "with his cut-throats, is going himself in search of prisoners in the dungeons, so that he may accompany them to the Tribunal and overwhelm them with charges, if they are disposed to defend themselves; after their condemnation, he attends in uniform" at their execution.
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