Part II

[montagnarde1793]

I've decided to include what excerpts from French books I have along with the English one. I apologize in advance to those of you who won't be able to understand them, but I'll try to translate them at some point. But I'll get to that a couple of entries hence, since going chronologically, there's still a few more Enlish excerpts to get through before arriving at the French.

Miranda: A Tale of the French Revolution

Sir Charles Augustus Murray

1850

 

Page 175

            Duplay, his host, had a wife, a son, and four daughters, all equally devoted with himself to the democratic leader.

            One of these daughters still lives; and it is to the solemn words culled from her lips that history owes much of the history of this extraordinary man.

            Robespierre loved Elénore [Éléonore], or, as he called her, Cornelia Duplay; and the love was returned by her, and approved of by her family. Their love was pure and sincere.

            “The total want of fortune,” said Robespierre, “and the uncertainty of the morrow, prevented him from marrying her until the destiny of France was determined on; but he only awaited the moment when the revolution should be determined on and wholly concluded, in order to retire from the turmoil and strife, and marry her whom he loved, retiring to live in Artois in one of the farms which he had saved from amongst the possession of his family, there to mingle his obscure happiness in the common lot of his family.”[1]

---

[1] See Lamartine’s Girondins.

Comments

[maelicia.livejournal.com]

Maxime has a farm in Artois now...? Ah, the things we learn. XD

[estellacat.livejournal.com]

Lamartine apparently thought his father had left him one. Which is a bit odd, since lawyers don't usually have farms, and I was fairly certain that his father didn't have anything to bequeath to him... But it's assuredly Lamartine's fault, not that of this novelist.

[maelicia.livejournal.com]

We could almost make a list from all the random and odd trivia:

Did you know that...

- Éléonore Duplay danced with an Austrian ambassador?

- Robespierre had a random farm where he wished to retire with Éléonore?

Etc.

[estellacat.livejournal.com]

Well, I suppose it's no less true for coming from novels than most of what passes for "history" these days...

[maelicia.livejournal.com]

Yes, we can add: Did you know that...

- Saint-Just was Lucifer?

[estellacat.livejournal.com]

No, I didn't! Did you know he went around assassinating random aristos, before the Revolution even started? *headdesk*

[trf-chan.livejournal.com]

Man, not just a farm. It says 'one of the farms.' Maybe François's clients paid him in farms instead of money?

[estellacat.livejournal.com]

Well, you know, with the devaluation of currency... XD!