Louisiana capitolian. (Baton Rouge, La.) 1879-1881, 1881-07-21
NO. 71.

thousands.
How the great Bastile clock ticks lin
audible) in it's inner court there, at it's
ease, hour after hour; as If nothing spe-
cial for it or the world, were passing.
It tolled one when the firing began and
is now pointing toward five, and still
the firing Stake not. Far down, in their
vaults, the seven prisoners hear mufled
din Of earthquakes; their turkeys an
swer vaguely.
Woe to thee, de Launay, with thy poor
hundred Invalides Broglie is distant,
and his ears heavy; Besenval hears, but
can send no help. One poor troop Of
Hussars has crept, accommodating, eau
tiously along the Quais, as far asAhe
Pont Neuf 1--WE are come to join "
said the Captain; for the crowd Il
shoreless A large-headed dwarfshE IN
divldual Of smoke bleared aspect, sham
bles forward, opening his blse lips; for
there is sense in him, and croaks,
"Alight, then, and give up your arms p
The Hussar captain is too happy to
be escorted to the Barriers, and dismiss
ed on parole. Who the squat individual ]
VAST Men answer, sit is M. Marat, ar-
thor of the excellent pacific Avis an
peuple." Great truly, O thou remarka-
BILE Dog leech, is this thy day Of emer-
gence and new birth; and yet this same
day come four years. But let the cur
tains of the future hang.
What shall de Launay do One thing
only de Launay has done--what he
said he would do. Fancy him sitting,
from the first, with lighted taper, within
arms length Of the powder magazine;
motionless, like old Roman Senator, or
bronze lamp-holder coldly apprising
Thuriot and all his men, by slight mo-
ton Of his eye, what his resolution was.
Harmless he sat there, while unharm-
ed but the Kings fortress, meanwhile,
could, might, would or should in nowise
be surrendered, save to the kings mes
senger. One old mans life is worthless,
so it be lost with honor; but think, ye
brawling canaille, how it will be when
a whole Bastile springs skyward. In
such statuesque, taper-holding attitude,
one fancies de Launay might have left
Thuriot, 1.-THE red clerks of the Basoche,
cure of Saint Stephen and all the tag
rag-and- bobtail Of the world to work
their will.
And yet, withal, he could not do it.
Hast thou considered how each mans
heart is so TREMENDOUSLY responsive to the
hearts of all men hast thou noted how
omnipotent is the very sound of many
men How their Shrek Of Indignation
palsies the strong soul; their howl Of
contumely withers with unfelt pangsF
! The Ritter Gluck confessed that the
ground tone Of the noblest passage in
one Of his noblest operas was the voice
Of the populace he had heard at Vienna,
crying to their Kaiser: "Bread Bread p
Great is the combined voice of men,
the utterance Of their instincts, which
are truer than their thoughts; it is the
greatest a man encounters, among the
sounds and shadows which make up
this World Of Time. He who can resist
that has his footing somewhere beyond
time. De Launay could not dot. Dis
tracted, he hovers between two: hopes
in the middle of despair; surrenders not
his fortress; declares that he will blow
it up, seizes torches to blow it up, and
does not blow it up. Unhappy old De
Launay, it is the death agony of the Bas-
tile and thee, Jail tailoring and jailor, all
three, such as they have been, must
finish.
For four hours, now, has the World
Bedlam roared call it the world Chi
mera, blowing fire. The poor Invalides
have sunk under their battlements, or
rise only with reversed muskets; they
have made white flag of napkins; 60
beating the chamade, or seeming to beat,
for one can hear nothing The very
Swiss at the porticullis look weary Of
firing; disheartened in the fire deluge.
A portfolio at the drawbridge is opened,
as by one that would speak.
See Hussar Maillapd, the shifty mani
On his plank, swinging over the abyss
of that stone-ditch; plank resting on
parapet, balanced by weight of Patriots
he hovers perilous. Such dove to-
wards such an ark! Deity thou shity
usher-one man already fell, and lies,
smashed, far down there, against the
masonry. Usher Maillard falls not,
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