by Eugène Sue
CHAPTER XI.
LONG LIVE THE REPUBLIC!
After the battle, after the victory, the inauguration of the triumph,and the glorification of the ashes of the victims.
A few days after the overthrow of the throne of Louis Philippe, a largecrowd gathered towards ten in the morning around the Madeleine Church,the facade of which was completely draped in black and silver. The frontof the edifice bore the inscription:
THE FRENCH REPUBLIC. LIBERTY--EQUALITY--FRATERNITY.
An immense multitude crowded the boulevards, where, from the site of theBastille clear to the square of the Madeleine, there rose two long linesof lofty funeral tripods. On that day homage was rendered to the shadesof the citizens who died in February in defense of freedom. A doublecordon of National Guards under the command of General Courtais, withthe old republican soldier Guinard as his lieutenant, lined the road.
The multitude, grave and calm, looked conscious of its new sovereignty,freshly conquered with the blood of its brothers.
Presently the cannon boomed, and the patriotic hymn, the Marseillaise,was intoned. The members of the provisional government arrived. Theywere Citizens Dupont of L'Eure, Ledru-Rollin, Arago, Louis Blanc,Albert, Flocon, Lamartine, Cremieux, Garnier-Pages and Marast. Slowlythey ascended the broad stairs of the church. Tricolor sashes fastenedwith a knot were the sole badges that distinguished the citizens uponwhom at that juncture rested the destinies of France.
Behind them, and acclaiming the Republic and popular sovereignty, camethe heads of Departments, the high magistrature in red robes, thelearned corps in their official dress, the marshals, the admirals andthe generals in resplendent uniform.
Passionate shouts of "Long live the Republic" broke out along the lineof march of the dignitaries, most of whom, courtiers under so manyregimes and now neophyte republicans, had grown grey in the service ofthe monarchy.
All the windows of the houses situated on Madeleine Square were chokedwith spectators. On the second floor of a shop occupied by one ofMonsieur Lebrenn's friends Madam Lebrenn and her daughter were seen at awindow. They were both clad in black. Monsieur Lebrenn, his son, as wellas father Morin and his grandson George, who still wore his arm in asling, stood behind them--all now constituting one family. On theevening before this memorable day Monsieur and Madam Lebrenn hadannounced to their daughter that they consented to her marriage withGeorge. The beautiful visage of Velleda said as much. It expressedprofound happiness, a happiness, however, that the character of theimposing ceremony which aroused a pious emotion in the merchant's familykept under restraint. When the procession had entered the church and theMarseillaise ceased, Monsieur Lebrenn cried out with eyes swimming intears of joy:
"Oh! This is a great day! It sees the establishment in perpetuity of ourRepublic, clean of all excesses, of all proscription, of all stain!Merciful as strength and right, fraternal as its own symbol, the firstthought of the Republic has been to throw down the political scaffold,the scaffold, which, had the Republic been vanquished, it would havebeen made to dye purple with its own purest and most glorious blood!Contemplate it--loyal and generous, the Republic summons those verymagistrates and generals, until yesterday implacable enemies of therepublicans, whom they smote both with the sword of the Law and thesword of the Army, to join with it in a solemn pact of oblivion, ofpardon and of concord, sworn to over the ashes of the latest martyrs ofour rights! Oh, it is beautiful; it is noble, thus to reach out to ourfoes of yesterday a friendly and unarmed hand!"
"My children," put in Madam Lebrenn, "let us hope, let us believe thatthe martyrs of liberty, whose ashes we to-day render homage to, may bethe last victims of royalty."
"Yes! Everywhere freedom is awakening!" cried Sacrovir Lebrennenthusiastically. "Revolution in Vienna--revolution in Milan--revolutionin Berlin--every day brings the tidings that the republican ferment ofFrance has caused all the thrones of Europe to shake! The end ofmonarchy has arrived!"
"One army on the Rhine, another on the frontier of Italy--both ready tomarch to the support of our brothers of Europe," said George Duchene."The Republic will make the rounds of the world! From that time on--nomore wars, not so Monsieur Lebrenn? Union! The fraternity of thepeoples! Universal peace! Labor! Industry! Happiness for all! No moreinsurrections, since the peaceful struggle of universal suffrage willhenceforth replace the fratricidal struggles in which so many of ourbrothers have perished."
"Oh!" cried Velleda Lebrenn, who had watched her betrothed withsparkling eyes as he spoke. "How happy one must feel to live in timeslike these! What great and noble things are we not about to witness; notso, father?"
"To doubt it, my children, would be to deny the onward march, theconstant progress of humanity," answered Lebrenn. "Never yet did mankindretrogress."
"May the good God hear you, Monsieur Lebrenn," put in father Morin."Although I am quite old, I expect to see a good part of that beautifulpicture. To want more than that, one must be quite a glutton," added theold man naively, and casting a tender look upon the merchant's daughter."Could I, after that, still have anything to wish for, now that I knowthat this good and beautiful girl is to be the wife of my grandson? Ishe not now a member of a family of good people? The daughter is worthyof the mother, the son is worthy of the father. Zounds! When one hasseen all that, and is as old as I am, there is nothing more that theheart can wish for--one may take his leave with a contented mind."
"Take your leave, good father?" said Madam Lebrenn, taking and warmingin her own one of the trembling hands of the old man. "And what aboutthose who remain behind and love you?"
"And who will feel doubly happy," added Velleda embracing thegrandfather, "if you remain to witness their happiness."
"And who desire to render homage in you, good father, and for many longyears, to labor, to courage, and to a big good heart!" exclaimedSacrovir in accents of respectful deference, while the old man, more andmore moved, carried his tremulous and venerable hands to his eyes.
"Oh! Do you imagine, Monsieur Morin," asked the merchant, smiling, "thatyou are not our 'good grandfather' as well? Do you imagine you do notbelong to us, as well as to our dear George? As if our affections werenot his own, and his own ours!"
"My God! My God!" exclaimed the old man, so moved with delight thattears filled his eyes. "What can I say to all that? It is too much--toomuch--all I can say is thanks, and weep. George, you who can talk, speakfor me, do!"
"That is easy enough for you to say, grandfather," replied George, noless moved than Monsieur Morin.
"Father!" suddenly cried Sacrovir, stepping to the window. "Look! Look!"
And he added with exaltation:
"Oh, you brave and generous people of all peoples!"
At the call of the young man all rushed to the window.
The funeral ceremony being over, the boulevard was now free. At the headof a long procession of workingmen, there marched four members of theirclass carrying on their shoulders a species of shield decked withribbons, in the middle of which a small casket of white wood was placed.Immediately behind followed a banner bearing the inscription:
LONG LIVE THE REPUBLIC! LIBERTY--EQUALITY--FRATERNITY. AN OFFERING TO THE FATHERLAND.
The people who lined the street shouted in transports of joy:
"Long live the Republic!"
"Oh!" cried the merchant with moist eyes. "I recognize them by theirconduct! It is like themselves, the proletarians--they who uttered thesublime sentiment: _We gave three months of misery to the service of theRepublic_, they the poor workingmen in the civil service, who were thefirst to be struck by the commercial crisis! And yet, behold them, thefirst to offer to the country the little that they possess--half theirmorrow's bread, perhaps!"
"And these men," added Madam Lebrenn, "who set such a noble example tothe rich and the happy of the land; these men who display so muchabnegation, such broadness of heart, so much resignation, so muchpatriotism, are they not to escape from their servitude! What, are theirintelligence and industr
y forever to remain sterile only to themselves!Is for them a family ever to be the source of worry, the present acontinuous privation, the future a frightful nightmare, and property asardonic dream! No, no, you God of Justice! These men who have triumphedwith so much grandeur have at last climbed to the top of their Calvary!The day of justice has come for them also! With your father, mychildren, I say--this is a glorious day, a day of equity and of justice,free from all taint of vengeance!"
"And those sacred words are the symbol of the emancipation of theworkers!" exclaimed Monsieur Lebrenn pointing to the inscription infront of the church:
LIBERTY--EQUALITY--FRATERNITY.