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Taine, Hippolyte, 1828-1893

"The French Revolution - Volume 3"

"[161] At Feurs, where the shootings
take place at the house of M. du Rosier, in the great avenue of the
park, his daughter, quite a young woman, advances in tears to
Javogues, and asks for the release of her husband. "Oh, yes, my
dear," replies Javogues, "you shall have him home to-morrow." In
effect, the next day, her husband is shot, and buried in the
avenue.[162] - It is evident that they get to liking the business.
Like their September predecessors, they find amusement in murdering:
people around them allude gaily to "the red theater" and "the national
razor." An aristocrat is said to be "putting his head at the national
window," and "he has put his head through the cathole."[163] They
themselves have the style and humor of their trade. "To-morrow, at
seven o'clock," writes Hugues, "let the sacred guillotine be erected!"
- "The demoiselle guillotine," writes Lecarlier, "keeps steadily
agoing."[164] - "The relatives and friends of emigr?s and of
refractory priests," writes Lebon, "monopolize the guillotine. .
.[165] Day before yesterday, the sister of the former Comte de
Bethune sneezed in the sack." Carrier loudly proclaims "the pleasure
he has derived" from seeing priests executed: "I never laughed in my
life as I did at the faces they made in dying.


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