france was sick. a great change and fever had fallen upon her, and there was no physician near skilled enough to cure her. now and then one of her sons would look upon the pale, wasted features and note the rapidly throbbing pulse, the wild ravings of the disordered brain, and, frightened and despondent, would hurry away to consult with his brothers what should be done. but never to any good. medicines were tried which had been potent with others in like sickness, but they seemed only to increase her delirium or lessen her vitality—never to bring her strength and reason. day by day she grew worse. 'twas as if some quick poison were working in her veins, until at last the poor body was one mass of swollen disfigurements, of putrid sores, that only a miracle from heaven could heal. as miracles could not be looked for, everyone who had any skill in such desperate cases was called, and a thousand different opinions were given, a thousand different cures tried. and when all was seen to have been in vain, her tortured children, in their despair, left her and turned upon the false physicians, putting them to death and with ferocious joy avenging her agonies. and in the quiet which thus fell upon her, when all had left her to die, the fever and pain vanished; from her opened veins the poisoned blood dropped away; to the blinded eyes sight returned; in the distracted brain reason once more held sway. slowly and faintly she arose and went about her business.
it was of that fast-sickening france, of that blighted land of france, that mr. jefferson spoke so earnestly in the gathering darkness of that winter's day in the year 1789. the storm which had just swept over the american colonies had passed, leaving wrecks strewn from shore to shore, 'tis true, but a land fairer and greater than ever, a people tried by adversity and made strong. the tempest, which had been so gallantly withstood by our ably manned ship of state, had blown across the atlantic and was beating upon the unprotected shores of france. the storm was gathering fast in that most famous year of 1789—the alpha and omega of french history, the ending of all things old, the beginning of all things new, for france. two years before the bewildered assemblée des notables had met and had been dismissed to spread their agitation and disaffection throughout all france by the still more bewildered loménie de brienne, who was trying his hand at the impossible finances of france after the fall of that magnificent spendthrift, monsieur colonne. he, in turn, had been swept from his office and replaced by the pompous and incompetent necker. lafayette, the deus ex machina of the times, had asked for his states-general, and now in this never-sufficiently-to-be-remembered year of 1789 they were to be convoked.
all france was disquieted by the elections—nay, more, agitated and agitating. men who had never thought before were thinking now, and, as was inevitable to such unused intellects, were thinking badly. for the first time the common people were permitted to think. for the first time they were allowed, even urged, to look into their wretched hearts and tell their lord and king what grievances they found there. what wonder that when the ashes were raked from the long-smouldering fires of envy, of injustice, of oppression, of extortion, of misrule of every conceivable sort, they sprang into fierce flame? what wonder that when the bonds of silence were loosed from their miserable mouths, such a wild clamor went up to heaven as made the king tremble upon his throne and his ministers shake with fear? who could tell at what moment this unlooked-for, unprecedented clemency might be withdrawn and silence once more be sealed upon them? what wonder, then, that they made the most of their opportunity? what wonder that, suddenly finding themselves strong, who had been weak, they did make the most of it?
the world seemed topsy-turvy. strange ideas and theories were being written and talked about. physical science had been revolutionized. people suddenly discovered that what they had held all their lives to be facts were entire misconceptions of the truth. and, if they had been so mistaken about the facts of physical science, might they not be equally mistaken about theology, about law, about politics? everywhere was doubt and questioning. revolution was in the air. it was the fashion, and the young french officers returned from the war of independence in the american colonies found themselves alike the heroes of the common people and of the fashionable world.
true to its nature, the nobility played with revolution as it had played with everything from the beginning of time. it played with reform, with suggestions to abandon its privileges, its titles, with the freedom of the newly born press, with the prerogatives of the crown, with the tiers état, with life, liberty, and happiness. it was a dangerous game, and in the danger lay its fascination. society felt its foundations shake, and the more insecure it felt itself to be the more feverish seemed its desire to enjoy life to the dregs, to seize upon that fleet-footed pleasure who ever kept ahead of her pursuers. there was a constant succession of balls, dramatic fêtes, dinner-parties, of official entertainments by the members of the diplomatic corps in this volcanic year of 1789. the ministers of louis's court, being at their wits' end to know what was to be done to allay the disturbances, were of the mind that they could and would, at least, enjoy themselves. the king having always been at his wits' end was not conscious of being in any unusual or dangerous position. as short-sighted mentally as he was physically, he saw in the popular excitement of the times nothing to dread. conscious of his own good intentions toward his people, he saw nothing in their ever-increasing demands but evidences of a spirit of progress which he was the first to applaud. unmindful of the fact that "the most dangerous moment for a bad government is the moment when it meddles with reform," he yielded everything. the nobles, noting with bitterness his concessions to the tiers état, told themselves that the king had abandoned them; the common people, suspicious and bewildered, told themselves that their king was but deceiving them. the king, informed of the hostile attitude of the nobility and the ingratitude of the masses, vacillated between his own generous impulses and the despotic demands of the court party. by the king's weakness, more than by all else, were loosened the foundations of that throne of france, already tottering under its long-accumulated weight of injustice, of mad extravagance, of dissoluteness, of bloody crime.
nature herself seemed to be in league with the discontent of the times. a long drouth in the summer, which had made the poor harvests poorer still, was followed by that famous winter of 1789—that winter of merciless, of unexampled, cold for france. and in the heat of that long summer and in the cold of that still longer winter, the storm gathered fast which was to rise higher and higher until it should beat upon the very throne itself, and all that was left of honor and justice in france should perish therein.
