Never owned anything but his cart, and fights every day with his wife--""But, my good fellow," said the chairman, interposing, "you are abusing the patience of this assembly.""No, no! let him talk!" cried voices from all parts of the room.
The voter was amusing, and Sallenauve himself seemed to let the chairman know he would like to see what the man was driving at.
The elector, being allowed to continue, went on:--"I was going to say, with due respect to you, colonel, about that daughter of Jean Remy's,--a man I'll pursue to hell, for my bounds were in their right place, and them experts was all wrong.Well! what did that slut do? Left her father and mother and went to Paris! What did she do there? I didn't go to see, but I'm told she made acquaintance with a deputy, and has got the tobacco license for the rue Mouffetard, the longest street in Paris.But I'd like to see my wife, widow of an honest man, doubled up with rheumatism for having slept in the woods during that terror in 1815,--I'd like to see my poor widow get a license!""But you are not dead yet," they shouted to him from all parts of the room.The colonel, meantime, to put an end to the burlesque scene, nodded to a little confectioner who was waiting for the floor, a well-known Republican.The new questioner, in a falsetto voice, put the following insidious question to the candidate,--a question which might, by the way, be called national in Arcis,--"What does Monsieur think of Danton?"
"Monsieur Dauphin," said the chairman, "I have the honor to remind you that Danton belongs to history.""To the Pantheon of history, monsieur; that is the proper expression.""Well, history, or the Pantheon of history, as you please; but Danton is irrelevant here.""Permit me, Mr.Chairman," said Sallenauve, "though the question does not seem to have much purpose on the bearing of this meeting, I cannot forego the opportunity thus given me to give proof of the impartiality and independence with which I can judge that great memory, the fame of which still echoes in this town.""Hear! hear!" cried the assembly, almost unanimously.
"I am firmly convinced," resumed Sallenauve, "that if Danton had been born in a calm and peaceful epoch like our own, he would have shown himself, what in fact he was, a good father, a good husband, a warm and faithful friend, a man of kindly temper, who, by the force of his great talents, would have risen to some eminent place in the State and in society.""Yes, yes! bravo! very good!"
"Born, on the contrary, in troublesome times, and amid the storm of unchained passions, Danton was better constituted than others to kindle the flame of that atmosphere of fire.Danton was the torch that fired; his scarlet glare lent itself only too readily to scenes of blood and horror which I must not recall.But, they said, the national independence was at stake, traitors and dissemblers must be awed,--in a word, a cruel and awful sacrifice was necessary for the public weal.