In
the western section of Paris, in the prisons of the rue de S?vres[151]
the prisoners consist of the most distinguished personages of the
Quartier Saint Germain, prelates, officers, grand-seigniors, and noble
ladies, - - Monseigneur de Clermont-Tonnerre, Monseigneur de Crussol
d'Amboise, Monseigneur de Hersaint, Monseigneur de Saint Simon, bishop
of Agde, the Comtesse de Narbonne-Pelet, the Duchesse de Choiseul, the
Princesse de Chimay, the Comtesse de Raymond-Narbonne and her
daughter, two years of age, in short, the flower of that refined
society which Europe admired and imitated and which, in its exquisite
perfection, equalled or surpassed all that Greece, Rome and Italy had
produced in brilliancy, polish and amiability. Contrast with these
the arbiters of their lives and deaths, the potentates of the same
quarter who issue the warrants of arrest against them, who pen them in
to speculate on them, and who revel at their expense and before their
eyes: these consist of the members of the revolutionary committee of
the Croix-Rouge, the eighteen convicted rogues and debauchees
previously described,[152] ex-cab-drivers, porters, cobblers, street-
messengers, stevedores, bankrupts, counterfeiters, former or future
jail-birds, all clients of the police or alms-house riff-raff.
Pages:
713
714
715
716
717
718
719
720
721
722
723
724
725
726
727
728
729
730
731
732
733
734
735
736
737