Taking the Bastile (47 page)

What, then, do you now advise that I should do, Monsieur Gilbert?’

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‘If you wish to b useful to your country, to the nation, to your brother men, to the world, remain here, Billot; take a hammer and work in this Vulcan’s furnace, which is forging thunders for the whole world. 1

‘Remain here to see men butchered, and perhaps at last learn to butcher them myself?”

‘How so ?’ said Gilbert, with a faint smile. ‘You, Billot, become a murderer 1 What is it you are saying?’

‘I say that should I remain here as you request me,’ cried Billot, trembling with agitation, ‘I say that the first man whom I shall see attaching a rope to a lamp-post, I will hang that man with these my hands.’

Gilbert’s smile became more positive.

‘Well, now,’ said he, ‘I find you understand me, and now you also are a murderer.’

‘Yes; a murderer of vile wretches.’

‘Tell me, Billot, you have seen De Losme, De Launay, De Flesselles, Foulon, and Berthier slaughtered?’

‘Yes.’

‘What epithet did those who slaughtered them apply to them ? ‘

‘They called them wretches.’

‘Oh I that is true,’ said Pitou, ‘they did call them wretches.’

‘Yes; but it is I who am right and not they,’ rejoined Billot.

‘You will be in the right,’ said Gilbert, ‘if you hang them; but in the wrong if they hang you.’

Billot hung down his head under this heavy blow; then suddenly raising it again, with dignity,

‘Will you venture to maintain,’ said he, ‘that those who assassinate defenceless men, and who are under the safe-guard of public honour, will you maintain that they are as good Frenchmen as I am?

‘Ah !’ said Gilbert, ‘that is quite another question. Yes, in France we have several sorts of Frenchmen. First of all, we have the people, to which Pitou belongs, to which you belong, to which I belong; then we have the French clergy, and then the French nobility. Three classes of Frenchmen in France, each French in his own point of view, that is to say, as regards their interests, and this without counting the King of France, who is also a Frenchman in his way. Ah I Billot, here you see, in these different modes of all these Frenchmen considering

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themselves French, here is the real secret of the revolution. You will be a Frenchman in your own way, the Abbe Maury will be a Frenchman in his way, Mirabeau will be a Frenchman in a mode that differs from that of the Abbe Maury, and the king will be a Frenchman in another way than that of Mirabeau. Well, Billot, my excellent friend, thou man of upright heart and sound judgment, you have just entered upon the second part of the question which I am now engaged upon. Do me the pleasure, Billot, to cast your eyes on this.’

And Gilbert presented a printed paper to the farmer.

‘What is this?’ asked Billot, taking the paper.

‘Read.’

‘Why, you know full well that I cannot read.’

‘It is English,’ said Gilbert, ‘and I will translate that paper to you; but, in the first place, read the signature.’

‘PITT,’ spelt Pitou; ‘what does PITT mean?’

‘Pnr,’ rejoined Gilbert, ‘is the son of Pitt.’

‘Well, now 1’ cried Pitou, ‘that is just as we have it in the bible. There is then Pitt the first and Pitt the second?’

‘Yes, and Pitt the first, my friends listen attentively to what I am going to tell you ‘

‘We are listening,’ replied Billot and Pitou at the same moment.

‘This Pitt the first was during thirty years the sworn enemy of France; he combated in the retirement of his cabinet, to which he was nailed by the gout, Montcalm and Vaudreuil in America, the Bailly de Suffren and D’Estangon the seas, Noailles and Broglie on the continent. This Pitt the first made it a principle with him that it was necessary to destroy the influence which France had gained over the whole of Europe; during thirty yean he reconquered from us, one by one, all our colonies one by one, all our factories, the whole of our possessions in the East Indies, a hundred leagues of territory in Canada, and then, when he saw that France was three-fourths ruined, h* brings forward hia son to ruin her altogether.’

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‘Ah ! ah I’ exclaimed Billot, evidently much interested, ‘so that the Pitt we have now ‘

‘Precisely,’ replied Gilbert, ‘he is the son of the Pitt whom we have had, and whom you already know. Father Billot, whom Pitou knows, whom all the universe knows, and this Pitt junior was thirty years old this last May.’

‘Thirty years old?’

‘Yes; you see that he has well employed his time, my friends. Notwithstanding his youth he has now governed England for seven years seven years has he put in practice the theory of his father.’

‘Well, then, we are likely to have him for a long time yet,’ said Billot.

‘And it is the more probable that the vital qualities are very tenacious among the Pitts. Let me give you a proof of it.’

Pitou and Billot indicated by a motion of their heads that they were listening with the greatest attention.

Gilbert continued,

‘In 1778, the father of our enemy was dying, his physicians announced to him that his life was merely hanging by a thread, and that the slightest effort would break that thread. The English Parliament was then debating on the question of abandoning the American colonies and yielding to their desire for independence, in order to put a stop to the war, which threatened, fomented as it was by the French, to swallow up the riches and all the soldiers of Great Britain. It was at the moment when Louis XVI., our good king, he on whom the whole nation has just conferred the title of ” Father of French Liberty,” had solemnly recognised the independence of America; and on the fields of battle in that country, and in their councils, the swords and genius of the French had obtained the mastery. England had offered to Washington, that is to say, to the chief of the insurgents, the recognition of American nationality, on condition that the new nation should ally itself with England against Franca,’

‘But.’ said Billot, ‘it appears to me this proposition was not a decent one, to be either offered or accepted.’

‘My dear Billot, this is what is called diplomacy, and in the political world these sorts of ideas are much admired. Well, Billot, however immoral you may consider the matter, in spite of Washington, the most faithful of men, Americans would have been found to accede to this

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degrading concession on the part of England. But Lord Chatham, the father of Pitt, the man who had been given over by the physicians, this dying man, this phantom who was already standing knee deep in the grave, determined on appearing in the Parliament where the question was about to be discussed. He summoned up strength enough to speak for three whole hours; he found fire enough within his heart to lend lightnings to his eyes : in his soul he found accents which stirred up the hearts of all who heard him. Having concluded his peroration, having hurled his last threat, he fell to the ground as if thunder-stricken. He had nothing more to do in this world he was carried expiring from the house. Some few days afterwards he was dead.’

‘Oh 1 oh I’ cried both Billot and Pitou simultaneously, ‘ ‘what a man this Lord Chatham was I’

‘He was the father of the young man of thirty who is now occupying our attention pursued Gilbert. ‘Lord Chatham died at the age of seventy. If the son lives to ^ be the same age, we shall have to endure William Pitt j for forty years longer. This is the man, Father Billot, with whom we have to contend; this is the man who now governs Great Britain, who well remembers the name of ] Lambeth, of Rochambeau, and Lafayette, who at this moment knows the name of every man in the National Assembly; the man, in short, who will not breathe freely as long as there shall be a loaded musket in France and A full pocket. Do you begin to understand?’

‘I do not altogether see your meaning.’

‘Well, then, read these four words.’ And he presented a paper to Pitou.

English again,’ cried Pitou.

‘Yes; these are the words ” Don’t mind the money.” ‘

‘I hear the words, but I do not understand them,’ rejoined Pitou.

Gilbert translated the words, and then : ‘But more than this : he further on reiterates the same advice, for he says ” tell them not to be sparing of money, and they need not send me any accounts.”

‘Then they are arming, said Billot.

‘No; they are bribing. The money which is thus given, thus strewn abroad, thus lavished, is given to peasants, to artisans, to wretches, to men, in short, who will degrade our revolution.’

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Father Billot held down his head : these words explained many things.

‘Would you have knocked down De Launay with the butt end of a musket, Billot? Would you have killed Flesselles by firing a pistol at him? Would you have carried the still bleeding heart of Berthier and placed it on the table of the electors?’

‘Infamy 1’ exclaimed Billot. ‘On the contrary, however guilty this man may have been, I would have allowed myself to be torn to pieces could I have saved him by it.’

‘Well, then, see you now, Billot, there are many men who would act as you have done, when they feel that they have some one to assist them near them, and who, on the contrary, if abandoned to bad examples, become wicked, then ferocious then when the evil is done, why, ‘tis done.’

‘But,’ observed Billot, ‘admitting that Mr Pitt, or rather his money, had something to do with the death of Flesselles, of Foulon, and of Berthier, what would he gain by it?’

Gilbert began to laugh with that inaudible laugh which astonishes the simple, but which makes the thinking shudder.

‘What would he gain by it 1’ he exclaimed, ‘can you ask that?’

‘Yes, I do ask it.’

‘I will tell you. It is this : you were much pleased with the revolution, were you not you who walked in blood to take the Bastille?’

‘Yes, I was pleased with it.’ ,

‘Well I you now like it less well I now you regret Villers-Cottere’ts, your farm, the shades of your great forests.’

‘Oh 1 yes, you are right,’ sighed Billot.

‘Well, then, you, Father Billot, you, a farmer, you : the proprietor of land, you, a child of the Isle of France, and consequently a Frenchman of the olden time, you represent the third order, you belong to that which is called the majority. Well, then, you are disgusted.’

‘I acknowledge it.’

‘Then the majority will become disgusted as you are,’

‘And what then?’

‘And you will one day open your arms to the scldiers of the Duke of Brunswick or of Mr Pitt, who will come to

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you in the name of those two liberators of France to restore wholesome doctrine.

‘Never 1’

‘Flesselles, Berthier, and Foulon were at bottom villains,’ observed Pitou.

‘This word villain, do you see, is the word by which in revolutions we designate the man who thinks differently from us; we are all destined to bear that name more or less; some will bear it so far that their countrymen will inscribe it on their tombs, others so much farther that posterity will ratify the epithet. This, my dear Billot, is what I see and which you do not see. Billot, Billot I people of real worth must therefore not withdraw.’

‘Bah I’ cried Billot, ‘even were honest people to withdraw, the revolution would still run its course ; it is in full motion.’

Another smile rose to the lips of Gilbert.

‘Great child 1’ cried he, ‘who would abandon the handle of the plough, unyoke the horses from it, and then say ” Good I the plough has no need of me, the plough will trace its furrow by itself.’ ‘But my friends, who was it undertook the revolution ? honest people, were they not ? ‘

‘France flatters herself that it is so. It appears to me that Lafayette is an honest man, it appears to me that Bailly is an honest man, it appears to me that Monsieur de Necker is an honest man, it appears to me that Monsieur Elie, Monsieur Hullin, and Monsieur Maiilard, who fought side by side with me, are honest people, it appears to me that you yourself ‘

‘Well,, Billot, if honest people, if you, if I, if Maiilard, if Hullin, if Elie, if Necker, if Bailly, if Lafayette should withdraw, who would carry on the work? why, those wretches, those assassins, those villains whom I have pointed out to you the agents, the agents of Mr Pitt 1’

‘Try to answer that. Father Billot, said Pitou, convinced of the justice of the doctor’s argument.

‘Well, then, replied Billot, ‘we will arm ourselves, and shoot these villains down as if they were dogs.’

‘Wait a moment who will arm themselves?’

‘Everybody.’

‘Billot, Billot 1 remember one thing, my good friend, and it is this, that what we are doing at this moment is called what do you call what we are now doing, Billot?’

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Talking politics, Monsieur Gilbert.’

‘Well 1 in politics there is no longer any absolute crime; one is a villain or an honest man, as we favour or thwart the interests of the man who judges us. Those whom you call villains will always give some specious reasons for their crimes; and to many honest people, who may have had a direct or an indirect interest in the commission of these crimes, these very villains will appear honest men also. From the moment that we reach that point, Billot, we must beware. There will then be men to hold the plough-handle. It will move onward, Billot it will move onward, and without us.’

‘It is frightful,’ said the farmer; ‘but if it moves onward without us, where will it stop?’

‘God only knows 1’ exclaimed Gilbert; ‘as to myself, I know not.’

‘Well, then, ifyou do not know, you, who are a learned man, Monsieur Gilbert, I, who am an ignoramus, cannot be expected to know anything of the matter. I augur from it ‘

‘Well, what do yon augur from it? Let us hear.’

‘I augur from it that what we had better do I mean Pitou and myself is to return to the farm. We will again take to the plough the real plough that of iron and wood, with which we turn up the earth, and not the one of flesh and blood, called the French people, and which is as restive as a vicious horse. We will make pur corn grow instead of shedding blood, and we shall live free, joyous, and happy as lords in our own domain. Come with us, come with us, Monsieur Gilbert. The deuce 1 I like to know where I am going 1’