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Taine, Hippolyte, 1828-1893

"The French Revolution - Volume 1"


V.
Popular mobs become a political force. - Pressure on the Assembly. -
Defection of the soldiery.
This is the dictatorship of a mob, and its proceedings, conforming
to its nature, consist in acts of violence, wherever it finds
resistance, it strikes. -- The people of Versailles, in the streets
and at the doors of the Assembly, daily "come and insult those whom
they call aristocrats."[24] On Monday, June 22nd, "d'Espr?m?nil
barely escapes being knocked down; the Abb? Maury. . . owes his
escape to the strength of a cur?, who takes him up in his arms and
tosses him into the carriage of the Archbishop of Arles." On the
23rd, "the Archbishop of Paris and the Keeper of the Seals are
hooted, railed at, scoffed at, and derided, until they almost sink
with shame and rage." So formidable is the tempest of rage with
which they are greeted, that Passeret, the King's secretary, who
accompanies the minister, dies of the excitement that very day. On
the 24th, the Bishop of Beauvais is almost knocked down by a stone
striking him on the head.


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