History of the Girondists: Or, Personal Memoirs of the Patriots of the French Revolution from Unpublished Sources, Volume 1

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Harper & brothers, 1849 - France
In LC copy v. 1 dated 1854. Vol. 3: With a biographical sketch of the author.

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Page 29 - QUEEN. in full sunlight — the extreme loveliness which the ideal conveys, and which by giving it life increases its attraction. With all these charms, a soul yearning to attach itself, a heart easily moved, but yet earnest in desire to fix itself ; a pensive and intelligent smile, with nothing of vacuity in it, nothing of preference or mere acquaintanceship in it, because it felt itself worthy of friendships. Such was Marie- Antoinette as a woman.
Page 246 - Antoinette. There was perceptible in the general's attitude, it was to be seen in his words, distinguishable in his accent, beneath the cold and polished forms of the courtier, the inflexibility of the citizen. The queen preferred the factions. She thus plainly spoke to her confidents. " M. de La Fayette," she said, " will not be the mayor of Paris in order that he may the sooner become the maire du Palais. Petion is a Jacobin, a republican ; but he is a fool, incapable of ever becoming the leader...
Page 485 - Frenchwoman by all the feelings of my heart as a wife and mother. I shall never again see my own country. I can only be happy or unhappy in France. I was happy when you loved me.
Page 483 - ... our strength in the times in which we live. Oh, do not return, or return as late as possible. Your heart would be too deeply wounded ; you would have too many tears to shed over my misfortunes, you who love me so tenderly. This race of tigers which infests the kingdom woulcl, cruelly enjoy itself if it knew all the sufferings we undergo. Adieu, my dear Lamballe ; I am always thinking of you, and you know I never change.
Page 19 - Human thought, like God, makes the world in its own image. Thought was revived by a philosophical age. It had to transform the social world. The French Revolution was therefore in its essence a sublime and impassioned spirituality. It had a divine and universal ideal. This is the reason why its passion spread beyond the frontiers of France. Those who limit, mutilate it. It was the accession of three moral sovereignties: — The sovereignty of right over force; The sovereignty of intelligence over...
Page 36 - ... she undertakes to recount. Maximilien Robespierre was born at Arras, of a poor family, honest and respectable ; his father, who died in Germany, was of English origin. This may explain the shade of Puritanism in his character. The bishop of Arras had defrayed the cost of his education. Young Maximilien had distinguished himself on leaving college by a studious life, and austere manners. Literature and the bar shared his time. The philosophy of Jean Jacques Rousseau had made a profound impression...
Page 195 - France to strengthen with the most perfect liberty the bases of a monarchical government, equally conformable to the rights of sovereigns and the welfare of the French nation.
Page 28 - Her naturally majestic carriage in no way impaired the grace of her movements ; her neck rising elegantly and distinctly from her shoulders gave expression to every attitude. The woman was perceptible beneath the queen, the tenderness of heart was not lost in the elevation of her destiny. Her light brown hair was long and silky, her forehead, high and rather projecting, was united to her temples by those fine curves which give so much delicacy and expression to that seat of thought or the 22 THE...
Page 38 - LEADERS. brow, eyes, mouth, and all the facial muscles ; in regarding him it was perceptible that the whole of his features, like the labor of his mind, converged incessantly on a single point with such power that there was no waste of will in his temperament, and he appeared to foresee all he desired to accomplish, as though he had already the reality before his eyes. Such then was the man destined to absorb in himself all those men, and make them his victims after he had used them as his instruments....
Page 495 - Lisle's old mother, a royalist and religious, alarmed at the effect of her son's voice, wrote to him : " What is this revolutionary hymn, sung by bands of brigands, who are traversing France, and with which our name is mingled ?" De Lisle himself, proscribed as a royalist, heard it and shuddered, as it sounded on his ears, whilst UNIVERSALLY ADOPTED. 495 escaping by some of the wild passes of the Alps. " What do they call that hymn ?" he inquired of his guide. " The Marseillaise,

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