"
He immediately commits him to prison.[119] - One evening, at the
theater, he enters a box in which the ladies, seated in front, keep
their places. In a rage, he goes out, rushes on the stage and,
brandishing his great saber, shouts and threatens the audience, taking
immense strides across the boards and acting and looking so much like
a wild beast that several of the ladies faint away:
"Look there !" he shouts, at those muscadines who do not condescend
to move for a representative of twenty-five millions of men! Everybody
used to make way for a prince - they will not budge for me, a
representative, who am more than a king!"[120]
The word is spoken. But this king is frightened, and he is one who
thinks of nothing but conspiracy;[121] in the street, in open
daylight, the people who are passing him are plotting against him
either by words or signs. Meeting in the main street of Arras a young
girl and her mother talking Flemish, - that seems to him "suspect."
"Where are you going?" he demands. "What's that to you?" replies the
child, who does not know him. The girl, the mother and the father are
sent to prison.[122] - On the ramparts, another young girl,
accompanied by her mother, is taking the air, and reading a book.
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