You prefer the colour of tears; I prefer
that of blood!"
He opened a bottle of white wine: "_Suum cuique!_ Tastes differ.
We can now breathe again, and sleep quietly at night. That was the
hardest thing to bear during this last decade--the loss of sleep at
night. The fear of death was worse than death itself."
"The worst for us--pardon the expression--was to see the State and
society turned topsyturvy, and brutality enthroned."
"Wait a little! Louis XIV paid two gentlemen of the chamber twenty
thousand livres yearly to examine and carry away his night stool
every morning. The Sansculottes could not be coarser than that.
Marie Antoinette used to go and spend the night drinking with her
boon-companions, so that she returned home about eleven o'clock the
next morning exhausted; that was coarse conduct for such a fine
lady."
"You may draw the long bow to-night, Jaques; but to-morrow take care
of your head! You ought not to speak so of these high personages who
have suffered a martyr's death."
"Stop! stop! The King was what they call 'a fine fellow,' but the
Queen was a wretch. But both were justly condemned to death--both!
Look you! if Turgot could have remained at his post, the Revolution
would not have broken out. All the reforms in the State, Church, and
Society, which we--pardon the expression--have carried through could
have been carried through then, if Turgot had been allowed to put
his plans into operation.
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