Alexandre Dumas
The Hero of the People
A Historical Romance of Love, Liberty and Loyalty
Published by Good Press, 2021
EAN 4057664577184
Table of Contents
CHAPTER I. LOCKSMITH AND GUNSMITH.
CHAPTER II. THE THREE ODDITIES.
CHAPTER VI. THE REVOLUTION IN THE COUNTRY.
CHAPTER VII. THE ABDICATION IN A FARMHOUSE.
CHAPTER IX. PITOU BECOMES A TACTICIAN.
CHAPTER X. THE LOVER’S PARTING.
CHAPTER XI. THE ROAD TO PARIS.
CHAPTER XII. THE SPIRIT MATERIALIZED.
CHAPTER XIII. HUSBAND AND WIFE.
CHAPTER XIV. IN SEARCH OF THEIR SON.
CHAPTER XV. THE MAN WITH THE MODEL.
CHAPTER XVI. THE PORTRAIT OF CHARLES FIRST.
CHAPTER XVII. THE KING ATTENDS TO PRIVATE MATTERS.
CHAPTER XVIII. THE KING ATTENDS TO PUBLIC MATTERS.
CHAPTER XX. WITHOUT HUSBAND—WITHOUT LOVER.
CHAPTER XXI. WHAT A CUT-OFF HEAD MAY COUNSEL.
CHAPTER XXII. THE SMILE AND THE NOD.
CHAPTER XXIII. THE ROYAL LOCKSMITH.
CHAPTER XXV. DOWN AMONG THE DEAD
CHAPTER XXVI. GAMAIN PROVES HE IS THE MASTER.
CHAPTER XXVII. THE FRIEND OF THE FALLEN.
CHAPTER XXVIII. THE FIRST GUILLOTINE.
CHAPTER XXX. UNDER THE WINDOW.
CHAPTER I.
LOCKSMITH AND GUNSMITH.
THE French Revolution had begun by the Taking of the Bastile by the people of Paris on the Fourteenth of July, 1789, but it seemed to have reached the high tide by King Louis XVI, with his Queen Marie Antoinette and others of the Royal Family, leaving Versailles, after some sanguinary rioting, for the Capital, Paris.
But those who think, in such lulls of popular tempests, that all the mischief has blown over, make a mistake.
Behind the men who make the first onset, are those who planned it and who wait for the rush to be made and, then, while others are tried or satisfied, glide into the crowds to stir them up.
Mysterious agents of secret, fatal passions, they push on the movement from where it paused, and having urged it to its farthest limit, those who opened the way are horrified, at awakening to see that others attained the end.
At the doorway of a wine saloon at Sevres by the bridge, over the Seine, a man was standing who had played the main part, though unseen, in the riots which compelled the Royal Family to renounce an attempt to escape out of the kingdom like many of their sycophants, and go from Versailles Palace to the Tuileries.
This man was in the prime of life: he was dressed like a workingman, wearing velveteen breeches shielded by a leather apron with pockets such as shinglers wear to carry nailes in, or blacksmith-farriers or locksmiths. His stockings were grey, and his shoes had brass buckles; on his head was a fur cap like a grenadier’s cut in half or what is called nowadays an artillerist’s busby. Grey locks came straggling from under its hair and mingled with shaggy eyebrows; they shaded large bulging eyes, keen and sharp, quick, with such rapid changes that it was hard to tell their true color. His nose was rather thick than medium, the lips full, the teeth white, and his complexion sunburnt.
Without being largely built, this man was well formed: his joints were not course and his hands were small and might have seemed delicate but for their being swart like those of workers in metal.
Despite the vigor of the biceps muscle shown from his having rolled up his shirt sleeves, the skin was remarkable for its whiteness, and almost aristocratically fine.
Within his reach was a richly gold-inlaid double-barrelled fowling piece, branded with the name of Leclere, the fashionable gunsmith of Paris. You may ask how could such a costly firearm come into the hands of a common artisan? In times of riot it is not always the whitest hands which grasp the finest weapons.
This man had only arrived from Versailles since an hour, and perfectly well knew what had happened there: for to the landlord’s questions as he supplied him with a bottle of wine which he did not touch, he had answered as follows:
“The Queen is coming along with the