Ninety-Three by Hugo, Victo

< Hl<ii!P!!i ! II liijilt Downloaded from https://www.holybooks.com Downloaded from https://www.holybooks.com P<1 Downloaded from https://www.holybooks.com Digitized by tine Internet Archive in 2010 with funding from University of Toronto http://www.archive.org/details/ninetythreeOOhugo Downloaded from https://www.holybooks.com NINETY-THREE. By VICTOR HUGO, Author of "Lea Mserables," "HuncKback ofNotre Dame," "By Order of the King," "ToUera of the 8ea," ''History of a Crime." A. I* BURT COJiPANY, PUBLISHERS, NEW YORK. Downloaded from https://www.holybooks.com ^^ Downloaded from https://www.holybooks.com . CONTENTS. PART FIRST.—AT SEA. BOOK FIRST. CHAPTER ?AeB The Woods of La Saudraie 8 BOOK SECOND.—THE CORVETTE "CLAYMORE." L England and France 20 IL A Night on Shipboard, and concerning the Passenger. ... 23 IIL- Noble and Plebeian in Alliance 25 IV. Tormentuin Belli 81 V. Vis et Vu- S3 VL The Two Scales of the Balance 38 Vn. A Voyage is a Lottery 41 VIIL 9-380 44 TX. Some one Escapes 49 X. Does he Escape ? 51 BOOK THIRD.—HALMALO. L The Persuasive Power of Human Speech. 54 IL A Peasant's Memory is Worth a Captain's Knowledge. 59 BOOK FOURTH.—TELLMARCH. L The Top of the Dune 63 XL Aures Habet et non Audiet 71 nX The Advantage of Large Letters 73 rV. The Caimand 76 V. Signed " Gauvain " 81 VL The Sudden Changes of Civil War 84 VIL No Mercy : The Watchword of the Commune. No Quarter : The Watchword of the Princes 88 Downloaded from https://www.holybooks.com I CONTENTS. PART SECOND—IN PARIS. BOOK FIRST.—CIMOURDAIN. L The Streets of Paris at this Period. 94 IL Cimourdain 101 IIL A Heel not Dipped in the Styx lOT BOOK SECOND.—THE PUBLIC HOUSE OF THE RUE DU PAON". L Minos, ^acns, and Rhadamanthns Ill IL Magna Testantur Voce per Umbras 112 m. The Thrill of Hidden Chords 126 ^ BOOK THIRD—THE CONVENTION. L The Convention 135 IL Marat in the Lobby 158 PART THIRD.—IN VENDEE BOOK FIRST.—IN VENDEE. I. The Forests 164 IL The Men 168 m. Men and Forests in Connivance 168 IV. Their Life Underground 170 V. Their Life in Time of War 172 VI. The Soul of the Earth absorbed by Men 177 VII. La Vendee was the End of Brittany 180 BOOK SECOND.—THE THREE CHILDREN. L Plus Quam Civilia Bella 18x IL Dol 188 III. Small Armies and Great Battles 194 IV. It is the Second Time 201 V. The Drop of Cold Water 2a3 VL A Healed Breast, a Bleeding Heart 206 VII. The Two Poles of Truth 211 VJIL Dolorosa 217 IX. A Provincial Bastille 220 X. The Hostages 22S XI. Terrible as in Ancient Dairs 234 Downloaded from https://www.holybooks.com CONTENTS. XIL A Scheme for Escape 237 XIII. What the Marquis Does 240 XIV. What L'Imanus Does 242 BOOK THIKD.—THE MASSACRE OF SAINT BAR- THOLOMEW. I. 244 XL 247 III 249 IV. 251 V 254 VL 256 TIL 268 BOOK FOURTH.—THE MOTHER. L Death Passes by. 260 XL Death Speaks 263 HI. Murmurings of the Peasants 267 IV. A Mistake 271 V. Vox in Deserto 273 VI. The Situation 275 VII. Prehminaries , 278 VIII. The Summons and the Reply 282 IX. Titans against Giants 285 X. Radoub 289 XL The Desperate 296 XIL ADeliverer 299 XIII. The Executioner 301 XIV. L'Imanus also Escapes 303 XV. Never put a Watch and a Key in the same Pocket.- 306 BOOK FIFTH—IN D^MONE DEUS. I. Foimd but Lost 810 II. From the Stone Door to the Iron Door 317 IIL The Children Awaken 819 BOOK SIXTH—THE BATTLE AFTER THE VICTORY. I. Lantenac Taken 824 n. Freedom or Death—^Which ? 836 m. The General's Cloak. 338 Downloaded from https://www.holybooks.com 6 CONTENTS. BOOK SEVENTH.—FEUDALISM AND REVOLUTION. I. Tlie Ancestor 341 IL The Court-Martial 348 III. The Votes 353 rV. After Cimourdain as a Judge, Cimourdain as Master. 356 V. The Dungeon 357 VI. Nevertheless, the sun rises 365 Downloaded from https://www.holybooks.com ; NINETY-THREE. PAET EIEST.-AT SEA. BOOK FIRST. THE WOODS OF LA SAUDRAIE. During the last of May, 1793, one of the Parisian bat- tahons led into Brittany by Santerre was scouring ^he- terrible woods of La Saudraie in Astille. The battalion had only three hundred men left, for it had been decimated by the cruel war. It was at the time when after Argonne^ Jemraapes, and Valmy, there remained of the first battalion of Paris, originally numbering six hundred volunteers, twenty-seven men ; of the second battalion, thirty-three men ; and of the third, fifty-seven. It was a time of epic conflicts. The battalions sent from Paris to La Vendee numbered nine hundred and twelve men. Each battalion had three pieces of cannon. The troops had been quickly raised. On the twenty-fifth of April, Gohier being minister of justice, and Bouchotte minister of war, the section of the JBon Conseil, had proposed to send battalions of volunteers to La Vendee. Lubin, member of the commune, had made the report : the first of May, Santerre was ready to send out twelve thousand soldiers, thirty field-pieces and a battalion of gunners. These battalions organized hastily were so well organized, that they serve as models to-day the companies of the line are made up on the principle Downloaded from https://www.holybooks.com b yiNETT'lBSEM., governing them ; the only change has been in the propor- tion between the number of soldiers and non-commissioned oflBcers. On the twenty-eighth of April the commmie of Paris " gave this order to Santerre's volunteers : Xo mercy, no quarter." At the end of May, of the twelve thousand Parisian troops, two-thirds were dead. The battalion engaged in the woods of La Saudraie was proceeding cautiously. They took their time. They looked to the right and to the left, in front of them and behind them at the same time. Kleber has said : " The soldier has an eye in his back." They had been marching for h >urs. What time could it be ? What part of the day was it ? It would have been difficult to say, for there is always a sort of twilight in such wild thickets, and it is never light in these woods. The forest of La Saudraie was tragic. It was in these woods that the civil war began its crimes in the month of November, 1792. The ferocious cripple, Mousqueton, had come out of these gloomy depths ; the number of murders committed there made one's hair stand on end. There was no place more frightful. The soldiers penetrated there cautiously. Everywhere was abundance of flowers; one was surrounded with a trembling wall of branches, from which the freshness hung charming of the foliage ; sunbeams here and there made their way through the green shade ; on the ground the gladiolus, the yellow swamp flag, the meadow narcissus, the genotte, the herald of fine weather, and the spring crocus formed the embroid- ery and decoration of a thick carpet of vegetation, luxuriant in every kind of moss, from that resembling velvet, to that like stars. The soldiers advanced step by step in silence, noiselessly pushing aside the underbrush. The birds warbled above their bayonets. La Saudraie was one of those thickets where formerly in times of peace they used to hold the Houicheba,—hunting birds at night ; now they were hunting men there. The wood was full of birch trees, beeches, and oaks ; the ground flat ; the moss and thick grass deadened the sound of the marching men; every path lost itself abruptly among the holly, wild sloe, ferns, hedges of rest-harrow, tall briers ; it was impossible to see a man ten feet away. Downloaded from https://www.holybooks.com " : NINETY-THREE. 9 Occasionally, a heron or a waterfowl passed through fche branches, showing that there were swamps near by. They marched on. They went at haphazard, full of anxiety, and fearing to find what they they sought. From time to time they came across traces of encamp- ments, burnt places, trodden-down grass, sticlis in the form of a cross, bloody branches. There soup had been made, there mass had been said, there wounds had been dressed. But those who had passed this way had disap- peared. Where were they ? Far away, perhaps. Perhaps close by, concealed, gun in hand. The woods seemed deserted. The battalion redoubled its precaution. Sol- itude and suspicion. There was nobody to be seen ; the more reason for fearing somebody. They had to do with a forest of ill-repute. An ambuscade was probable. Thirty grenadiers, detached as scouts and commanded by a sergeant, were marching in advance at a considerable distance from the main body of the troop. The vivan- diere of the battalion accompanied them. The vivandi^res join the vanguards from choice. They run a risk, but they expect to see something. Curiosity is one form of feminine bravery. Suddenly the soldiers in this little souad experienced that thrill familiar to huntsmen, which indicates that they have reached their prey. They had heard something like a whisper in the midst of a thicket, and it seemed that some one had just seen a movement among the leaves. The soldiers made signs to each other. In the sort of watch and search entrusted to scouts, the ofi&cers do not need to take part ; whatever must be done is done of itself. In less than a minute, the spot where the movement had been seen was surrounded ; a circle of pointed mus- kets enclosed it, the obscure centre of the thicket was aimed at from all sides at once, and the soldiers with fingers on the trigger and eyes on the suspected place, only waited for the sergeant's command to riddle it with bullets.

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