loaded with the old powdered wig and a fragment of the infamous old chain, advanced as the herald of the coming spring of the world, and cried to the pale and frightened master of the ceremonies of the past, "Allez dire à votre maître que nous sommes ici par la puissance du peuple, et qu'on ne nous en arrachera que par la force des baionettes." With these words the French Revolution began; no bourgeois would have had the courage to utter them; the tongues of roturiers and vilains were as yet tied by the dumb spell of ancient obedience, and so it was that it was only in the nobility, in that over-bold, arrogant caste, which never felt true fearful reverence (Ehrfurcht) before a king, that the new era found its first organ.
And here I cannot refrain from mentioning that those world-famed words of Mirabeau, as I was recently assured, were really due to Count Volney, who, sitting by him, whispered them in his ear. I do not believe that this report is quite groundless; it in no respect conflicts with the character of Mirabeau, who borrowed ideas of his friends as freely as he did their money, and who on that account has been terribly abused in many memoirs, especially in those of Brissot and the recently published work of Dumont.[1]
- ↑ Dumont declares, and evidently with truth, that Mirabeau had entire speeches written for him, which he merely got by
