by Marge Piercy
The Palais Royal was changed. Nobody was making speeches. She saw not one person who would classify as a sans-culotte or an artisan. It was the province of Gilded Youth, who celebrated the downfall of Robespierre with Lobster Thermidor, a new dish that was all the rage and cost a small fortune. In luxury restaurants and refurbished cafes, the clientele was composed of financiers, middlemen, deputies, purveyors to the army, big landlords, the courtesans who pleased them, their mistresses. The patron was not interested in bedding her; rather she had caught the eye of a certain manufacturer of boots, who he said was well connected and a personal friend of Tallien.
“Alas,” she said theatrically. “The gentlemen who procured my liberty has also procured my favors. I could not be unfaithful to him.”
“I heard that was a Jew from Bordeaux.”
“He was merely the middleman. I’m sure you understand the need for discretion.”
“Of course.” The patron looked properly impressed. He did not push her further; neither did he invite her to have dessert. That was too bad; she had wanted to try the Tortoni everyone was talking about.
This was a Paris of new fashions in food and drink, of elaborate parties, of finery and jewels, of dubious taste and ostentatious consumption. But this was not the ancien régime. Birth meant little. People with money had power, generals had power. There was a class of politicians whom everybody wooed. Actors and Jews and Protestants kept their rights. But women were losing theirs. They had gone three steps forward and two steps back. The only women who mattered were mistresses or wives of men with power. Life on the bottom seemed little changed, except that the people had learned what they wanted and might not forget it. They were crushed, disarmed, policed and kept down, but they met in quiet conspiratorial groups and talked of freedom, of equality, of a just society. They told their children stories. In low voices in the Dancing Badger, the men mumbled of politics, the women muttered to each other. By now, they knew their local police spies.
When the melodrama closed, Claire had trouble finding another job. Managers seemed to have remembered who she was. The only thing she could locate required her to pose nude in a pantomime, and she thought she was getting a little too old to stand that long in a draft. However, she had a job offer from a company based in Nantes. Victoire and Claire decided they had little to keep them in Paris, so they would follow the job. Victoire had skills as a seamstress.
“I was born in Beaujolais, in Morgon,” Victoire said. “Maybe someday we can buy a little piece of land near there. It’s good country.”
“I figure I have two, three years left for the stage. I’m no great actress.” Claire was packing her wardrobe into a battered trunk that had traveled all over France.
“But you’re a great woman,” Victoire said. “If you hadn’t given those years to the Revolution, you’d be famous today as an actress.”
“Maybe, maybe not. That was my life. Now we have our life. A quiet one, I hope.” She took Victoire’s round face between her hands. She could see the stress of the last year etched around her lover’s eyes. For Victoire, waiting and worrying, perhaps it had been harder than for her. “We have to save our money. Plan for the long haul. At least people like us can buy land now. The Revolution took the lid off.”
Victoire took a brush and let down Claire’s long dark hair. “After you leave the stage, we’ll set up in business together. Between us, we can manage.”
Claire let her eyes close, enjoying the brushing that made her feel like a purring cat. “We’ll be safer out of Paris. And we have one great gift: we can trust each other.”
EIGHTY-FIVE
Claire
(Fall 1812)
CLAIRE was sitting with Victoire and their visitor, Pauline Leclerc, in the courtyard of the yellow stone farmhouse she and Victoire owned, in southern Beaujolais near Lyon. They had run a cafe in the city for twelve years, but three years ago, they had sold the business and retired to their land, a piece Victoire had inherited. Another chunk they had bought. They had a vineyard, chickens, ducks on a small pond, ill-tempered geese, three goats, peach and plum trees, raspberries, vegetables.
“Isn’t it hard work for a couple of women in their forties? I don’t think I could go up on a ladder in the trees the way you do,” Pauline said. If Claire had turned wiry and Victoire had wrinkled like a white-haired raisin, Pauline had gone round as a pumpkin. She was a plump prosperous-looking lady dressed in blue silks and perspiring, mopping her face with a dainty lace-edged handkerchief in the modest heat. At her throat she wore a sapphire. They were sitting in the shade of an arbor of table grapes.
“We have help,” Victoire said, “and we like to stay spry.”
“Why did you give up the cafe?”
Claire said, “We feel safer here. Some people in Lyon know who I was.” Moreover, something in both of them had said, This is the good life: a plot of land, some animals, to sit under their vine and drink their own Beaujolais and be at peace. They wanted to take the two girls and the boy they had adopted, street orphans all, out of the city.
“Sometimes Théo thinks of going back into politics, but I always put my foot down. We had enough of that.”
“Isn’t his job political?” Claire knew Théo was an official in the Napoleonic government set up in northern Italy.
“Just administrative. We keep our noses clean.”
“What brings you to Lyon this time?” Victoire asked. She was a little wary of Pauline, because of Théo’s old affair with Claire, because Pauline had been close to Claire before Victoire. They had wondered together if Pauline recognized the nature of their relationship. Claire thought that Pauline must know, but Victoire insisted Pauline would not consider the possibility.
“We’re on our way to see Théo’s folks. And he had an uncle in Lyon who died recently. We’re paying our respects.”
“Do you get on any better with his family?”
Pauline snorted. “After seventeen years? After three sons and two daughters? They’ve had to accept me. I’m a fact.”
Pauline was stout and she waded through the humid air instead of marching, but she was still a force, energetic, loud, cheerful, radiating a kind of centered strength. Claire smiled at her. “We didn’t get what we wanted, did we? What we imagined for women. Freedom, equality.”
“We survived. I have Théo and my kids. But yes, women got shunted aside. That’s Napoléon.”
Claire noted that Pauline gave herself leave to criticize the Emperor. It was a pleasure to hear her. “There’s so few of us left.”
“More than you think,” Pauline said. “Théo and I have raised our children to be good revolutionaries. Napoléon won’t last forever.” Pauline helped herself to more of the plum cake that had been one of Victoire’s specialties in the cafe. “Both my girls are getting an education. Aimée has a gift for languages. Who’d think a daughter of mine would speak English and Italian at age eleven? She’s a little genius. They’re all smart, and I don’t just say this as a mother.… Don’t you ever wish you had children?”
Victoire’s eyebrows rose. “What do you call André, Colette and Marie?”
“I mean, of your own.” Pauline was looking at Claire.
“They are my own,” Claire said quietly.
Pauline sighed. “I hope you forgive me for Théo. If only you’d married, I’d feel less guilty.… But you never did.…” She shrugged. “I never imagined you’d end up a spinster, but if you like it…?”
Claire looked at her lover, who looked back at her. Well, that answered that question. “Don’t bother feeling guilty, please. We like our life. By the way, we’re supposed to be war widows, sisters-in-law. There are so many widows nobody thinks anything of women alone.”
“I’m glad Théo went into administration. The mortality rate in the army is incredible. We’re killing off a whole generation. Don’t believe what you hear about the glorious victories. Ever see a battlefield?” Pauline waited for Claire and Victoire to shake their heads no. “It’
s just a big butcher shop, like that area near Les Halles where they used to cut up steers and calves, where the gutters ran thick and red. It’s a bunch of guys who died in horrible pain, body parts everyplace. You can take the glory of war and stuff it.… But Théo has done all right.”
“So have we,” Victoire said. “When I think of the women from our group who are dead already.…” She sighed, and their eyes met.
“Sometimes I remember, Pauline, all the people we knew. I think of Jacques. Olympe de Gouges. Danton. And that boy who never grew up—Desmoulins with his pretty, silly wife. None of them ever got to be middle-aged. They were all so young. We were all so young. Even Robespierre. Do you remember when you had a crush on him, Pauline? I met his girlfriend in prison. She got out not long after I did.”
“The best thing he ever did was land reform,” Victoire said. “That’s changed the face of this country forever. All the peasants who could manage it got a piece of land. No one’s starving. They don’t expose babies any more or have to send all the girls off to the cities to work as scullery maids, the way my parents sent me.”
“We thought we would make a new just world where we would all be free,” Pauline said. “We were naive.”
“We did make a new world,” Claire said. “Just not exactly the one we intended. It’s a bigger job than we realized, to make things good and fair. It won’t be us who finish it. But we gave it a pretty good start before we lost our way. Now, as Voltaire said, we cultivate our garden. A small place where we can be ourselves in peace.”
“Still,” Pauline said, “I remember and I make sure my daughters know, it was old biddies like we are now and young women who brought the King down. We were the Revolution, ladies, and we carry it in our blood to the future.”
They all sighed, smiling ironically at each other, and had another piece of plum cake under the arbor.
CAST OF CHARACTERS
MAX
MAXIMILIEN
ROBESPIERRE Oldest child of Francois de Robespierre; lawyer; orator, leading revolutionary; Jacobin
CHARLOTTE Max’s sister, second-born
HENRIETTE Max’s sister, third-born
AUGUSTIN Max’s younger brother, fourth-born; also called Bonbon
THE CARRAUTS Max’s mother’s family; local brewers
BISHOP OF ARRAS Powerful bishop, controlled scholarships at Louis-le-Grand school; involved in a scandal with the Queen; also known as Cardinal Rohan
CAMILLE DESMOULINS Student at Louis-le-Grand school; friend of Max and later of Georges Danton
JÉRÔME PÉTION Student at Louis-le-Grand school; later Mayor of Paris
CLEMENTINE Client of Max
MLLE DESHORTIES Distant cousin of Max, whom he courted
LAZARE CARNOT Acquaintance of Max; Jacobin; later member of the Committee of Public Safety
DR. GUILLOTIN Delegate to National Assembly; inventor of the guillotine
JEAN MOUNIER Delegate to the National Assembly
DUC DE NOAILLES Delegate to the National Assembly
COMTE DE MIRABEAU Deputy of the Third Estate in the Assembly; important leader in early Revolution
M. DUPLAY Carpenter in whose house Max lived; Jacobin
MME DUPLAY His wife
VIVIENNE DUPLAY Their youngest daughter
ELISABETH DUPLAY Their middle daughter; later to be Elisabeth Lebas
ELÉANORE DUPLAY Their oldest daughter
COUTHON Delegate in the Legislative Assembly and the Convention; Jacobin; ally of Max; later member of the Committee of Public Safety
DUKE OF BRUNSWICK Led Austrian and Prussian troops against the French Army of the Rhine; fought to restore power of the King and the Church
ANTOINE SAINT-JUST Colleague of Max; youngest deputy in the Convention; later member of the Committee of Public Safety
PHILIPPE FRANÇOIS
LEBAS Jacobin; colleague and friend of Max; married Elisabeth Duplay
VARLET One of the Enragés, also called Mad Dogs
HANRIOT Supporter of Max; head of the National Guard ’93–’94
AMAR Member of the Committee of Security; anti-feminist
VADIER Member of the Committee of Security; also called “The Old Inquisitor”
DAVID Artist; Jacobin; friend of Max
CATHERINE THÉOT Arrested for prophesying that Max was the messiah
TALLIEN Important delegate in the Convention
FRÉRON Ally of Tallien
CLAIRE
CLAIRE LACOMBE Youngest of five surviving children
ANNE-MARIE Claire’s mother; laundrywoman
YVETTE Claire’s older sister
PAPA Claire’s father; bricklayer
PIERRE Claire’s brother, the only one who lived at home
GRANDMÉRE Claire’s grandmother; Protestant
JEAN-PAUL Actor in a troupe that visited Pamiers
JEAN COLLOT
D’HERBOIS Actor; playwright; Jacobin and Cordelier; later member of the Committee of Public Safety
YVONNE Actress in Collot’s theater company
JULIETTE Actress in Colot’s theater company
MADAME Collot’s wife
LUCIE DE FONTANELLE Actress in Collot’s company
MME ABIEL Actress in Collot’s company
FRANÇOIS Actor in Collot’s company
MENDÈS HERRERA Jewish merchant in Bordeaux
HÉLÈNE Friend of Claire from the Paris theater
SANTERRE Brewer; leader of guards; revolutionary
JACQUES ROUX Friend of Claire; radical priest; one of the Enragés
THÉOPHILE LECLERC Young army officer; one of the Enragés
MOMORO Cordelier; one of Hébert’s group
MONTGOLFIER BROTHERS Built and flew hot air balloons
NICOLAS
MARIE JEAN NICOLAS
CARITAT, MARQUIS DE
CONDORCET (NICOLAS) Mathemetician, philosopher, social scientist, feminist
JEAN LE ROND
D’ALEMBERT Friend and mentor of Nicolas
JULIE DE LESPINASSE Jean’s best friend; led an important liberal salon
VOLTAIRE Philosopher and author; friend of Nicolas
DIDEROT Encyclopedist; author
AMÉLIE SUARD Married woman in whose house Nicolas lived
ANTOINE SUARD Her husband; editor; friend of Nicolas
BARON TURGOT One of Louis XVI’s chief ministers; friend of Nicolas; reformer
MALESHERBES Minister under Louis XVI; chief censor
NECKER Minister under Louis XVI; Protestant; Swiss-born
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN Envoy from America
BUFFON Naturalist; rival of Jean d’Alembert
JEAN-PAUL MARAT Doctor; radical journalist; revolutionary
MESMER Doctor who used electricity and hypnotism to cure
DU PATY Older friend of Nicolas; liberal who sought justice
SOPHIE DE GROUCHY Daughter of du Paty’s in-laws; later wife to Nicolas; also called Grouchette
CHARLES Sophie’s little cousin
MME HELVÉTIUS Widow of philosopher; adopted Dr. Cabanis who was courting Sophie’s sister; led famous liberal salon
ADRIEN DUPORT Wealthy magistrate and member of the Parlement of Paris; Committee of Thirty met at his house
GILBERT LAFAYETTE Marquis de Lafayette; soldier and politician; friend of Nicolas; helped fight for independence in America; commander of the National Guard
ABBÉ SIEYÈS Member of the Committee of Thirty and the Estates General
JEAN-SYLVAIN BAILLY Astronomer; Nicolas’ rival for admission to the Academy; leader in the Third Estate; later Mayor of Paris
NICHOLAS BONNEVILLE Revolutionary; editor of Iron Mouth; associated with the Social Circle and the Girondins
ABBÉ FAUCHET Revolutionary priest, associated with the Social Circle
DR. PIERRE CABANIS Sophie’s doctor; adopted son of Mme Helvétius; courted Sophie’s younger sister
CHODERLOS DE LACLOS Chevalier; ex-army officer; novelist; Jacobin; wrote Les
Liaisons Dangereuses; secretary to duc d’Orléans
TOM PAINE Englishman; pamphleteer; involved in the American revolution; friend of Nicolas; associated with the Girondins
ETTA PALM D’AELDERS Dutch feminist; associated with the Social Circle
ELIZA Daughter of Sophie and Nicolas
ROEDERER In charge of defending the Tuilleries, August 10, 1792
ROBERT LINDET Radical; in the Convention; member of the Committee of Public Safety
CHAMBON Jacobin Mayor of Paris
BARÈRE Jacobin; Cordelier; in the Convention; member of the Committee of Public Safety; orator
CHABOT Demanded that Nicolas be arrested for sedition
MME VERNET Had an apartment where Nicolas lived in hiding
MANON
MANON PHILIPON Maiden name of Mme Roland
SOPHIE CARNET Lifelong friend of Manon
GRANDMÈRE Manon’s grandmother; lived on Île Notre Dame
M. PHILIPON Manon’s father; master craftsman
MME PETRIE Manon’s wet nurse and friend
MME DU BOISMOREL Aristocratic lady for whom Grandmère worked as a governess
MIGNONNE Elderly maid of the Philipon family
JEAN ROLAND DE
LA PLATIÈRE Older government bureaucrat whom Manon married; later associated with the Girondins; minister of the Interior
MARGUERITE FLEURY Maid to Manon
EUDORA Daughter of Manon and Jean
DR. LANTHÉNAS Friend of Manon and Jean; associated with the Social Circle and the Girondins
BOSC Young botanist; friend of Manon and Jean
DOMINIQUE Canon; Jean’s brother
LAURENT Another clerical brother of Jean
JEANNOT Poor peasant in Thiezé
JACQUES-PIERRE BRISSOT Young journalist who corresponded with Manon and Jean; member of the Assembly and the Convention; associated with the Social Circle; more or less head of the Girondins (also called Brissotins)
HENRI BANCAL Friend of Manon; political man and lawyer; associated with the Girondins