Prev | Current Page 434 | Next

Taine, Hippolyte, 1828-1893

"The French Revolution - Volume 3"

"
"When he passes in the street people take off their hats to him, cheer
him, and shout 'Hurrah for Ysabeau! Hurrah for the savior of Bordeaux,
our friend and father!' The children of aristocrats come and
apostrophize him in this way, even at the doors of his carriage; for
he has a Carriage, and several of them, with a coachman, horses, and
the equipage of a former noble, gendarmes preceding him everywhere,
even on excursions into the country," where his new courtiers call him
"great man," and welcome him with "Asiatic magnificence." There is
good cheer at his table, "superb white bread," called
"representatives' bread," whilst the country folk of the neighborhood
live on roots, and the inhabitants of Bordeaux can scarcely obtain
more than four ounces of musty bread per day. - There is the same
feasting with the representatives at Lyons, in the midst of similar
distress. In the reports made by Collot we find a list of bottles of
brandy at four francs each, along with partridges, capons, turkeys,
chickens, pike, and crawfish, note also the white bread, the other
kind, called "equality bread," assigned to simple mortals, offends
this august palate. Add to this the requisitions made by Albitte and
Fouch?, seven hundred bottles of fine wine, in one lot, another of
fifty pounds of coffee, one hundred and sixty ells of muslin, three
dozen silk handkerchiefs for cravats, three dozen pairs of gloves, and
four dozen pairs of stockings: they provide themselves with a good
stock.


Pages:
422 423 424 425 426 427 428 429 430 431 432 433 434 435 436 437 438 439 440 441 442 443 444 445 446