The Countess De Charny - Volume II by Alexandre Dumas Read Free Book Online Page B

forth shall bring, With hands already raised to smite you.”
     
    THE MARSEILLAISE. 51
    ” Yes, yes ! ” shouted every auditor.
    A crowd had come in after the banquet to listen to the speeches and songs, and fathers pushed forward their sous who were old enough to walk, and mothers lifted high above their heads children who still had to be carried.
    Then Rouget de I’Isle saw that a verse was still lacking, — the song of the children; and while his companions were enthusiastically repeating the terrible refrain, he leaned his head upon his hand, and, in the midst of all that noise and applause and commotion, he improvised the following stanza : —
    ” Upon their life-work we will enter,
    When our dear parents are no more. May their bright virtues be our mentor
    In all the paths they trod before !
    Less anxious far to long survive them Than honored graves with them to share,
    With pride sublime we ‘11 do or dare, Their deaths avenge, or die beside them ! “
    And above the stifled sobs of the mothers, and the enthusiastic shouts of the fathers, the pure voices of girlhood could be heard chanting the refrain : —
    ” To arms, to arms, ye brave ! Tlie avenging sword unsheathe ! March on ! March on ! All hearts resolved On victory or death ! “
    “N’ow on your knees, all of you,” cried Rouget de I’Tsle.
    They obeyed.
    Rouget alone remained standing. Placing one foot on a neighbour’s chair, as if upon the first step of the Temple of Liberty, and lifting his clasped hands to Heaven, he sang the last stanza, — an invocation to the presiding genius of France: —
    ” Liberty, can man resign thee,
    Who once has felt thy generous flame ?
     
    52 LA COMTESSE DE CHARNY.
    Cau duugeous, bolts, aud bars conflue thee,
    Or whips thy noble spirit tame ?
    Too long the world has wept, bewailing That falsehood’s dagger tyrants wield ; —
    But freedom is our sword aud shield, And all their arts are unavailing.”
    Then once again every voice joined in that sublime refrain, that De profundis of despotism, — that Magnificat of Liberty : —
    ” March on ! March on, ye brave ! The avenging sword unsheathe! March on ! March on ! All hearts resolved On liberty or death.”
    Wild, intoxicating joy filled every heart. Every person embraced his neighbour, and fair maidens heaped bouquets and floral crowns at the poet’s feet with a lavish hand.
    Thirty-eight years afterwards, when he narrated the incidents of that eventful evening to me, — then a young man, — the poet’s brow was still radiant with the sublime aureole of 1792.
    Nor is this strange; for the “Marseillaise” is not only a war-cry, but a paean of fraternity. It typifies the powerful hand of France outstretched to the oppressed of all nations. This hymn, indeed, must ever be the last sigh of expiring Liberty, the first glad cry of new-born freedom.
    But as the hymn was composed in Strasburg, and chris-tened the Song of the Rhine, how did it happen to suddenly appear in the heart of France under the name of the Marseilles Hymn?
    That is what we are about to explain to our readers.
     
    BARBAEOUX’S FIVE HUNDRED. 53
    CHAPTER VII.
    BARBAROUX’S FIVE HUNDRED.
    As if to fnrnisli just grounds for declaring the country in danger, the manifesto from Coblentz reached Paris on the 2Sth of July. As we have previously remarked, it was a foolish document, — a threat, and consequently an insult, to France.
    The Duke of Brunswick, an exceedingly clever man, considered the document absurd; but the duke was obliged, of course, to bow to the will of the allied sovereigns, who, having received the manifesto all prepared from the hands of the French monarch, imposed it upon the leader of their forces.
    According to this manifesto, all Frenchmen were criminals, and every town and village ought to be demolished or burned. As for Paris, that was a modern Nineveh, which should be given over to destruction, and not a single stone be left standing above another.
    Such were the