.. Never will the victors have a richer prey. Forty thousand
palaces, mansions, and ch?teaux, two-fifth of the property of
France, will be the recompense of valor. Those who pretend to be
the conquerors will be conquered in turn. The nation shall be
purged."
Here, in advance, is the program of the Reign of Terror.
Now all this is not only read, but declaimed, amplified, and turned
to practical account. In front of the coffee-houses "those who have
stentorian lungs relieve each other every evening."[22] "They get
up on a chair or a table, they read the strongest articles on
current affairs, . .. . the eagerness with which they are heard,
and the thunder of applause they receive for every sentiment of more
than common hardiness or violence against the present Government,
cannot easily be imagined." "Three days ago a child of four years,
well taught and intelligent, was promenaded around the garden, in
broad daylight, at least twenty times, borne on the shoulders of a
street porter, crying out, 'Verdict of the French people: Polignac
exiled one hundred leagues from Paris; Cond? the same; Conti the
same; Artois the same; the Queen, -- I dare not write it.
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