Chapter 9 wedding in lyon
On November 12, 1793, Barrel put forward a proposal at the French National Convention to put Lyon, the riotous and later captured city, to death.The proposal ends with two succinct sentences: "Lyon opposes liberty, and Lyon will cease to exist in the future." Barrel demanded that all the buildings of this rebellious city be razed to the ground, and all its monuments be reduced to ashes, even the city's name. also canceled.The National Convention hesitated for eight days before deciding to agree to the destruction of France's second largest city.However, even after the signing of this decision, the people's representative Couton still adopted a perfunctory attitude when implementing this bloody heroic order, because he knew that Robespierre acquiesced to his actions.In order to show off, he summoned the people to Bellegour Square, held a huge rally, and symbolically knocked with a silver hammer on those houses that he decided to destroy, but when he really wanted to dig up those exquisite facades, the shovel hesitated Suspected that the ground could not be used, the killing machine on the guillotine just rumbled in the air, and the guillotine seldom fell.Seeing this unexpectedly moderate attitude, people felt relieved, and the city, which had been panicked by the civil war and the siege that lasted for more than a month, finally dared to breathe its first breath of hope.But at this moment the benevolent and hesitant tribune was suddenly recalled, and Colo de Bois and Fouche were sent to replace him.With the arrival of these two commanders, wearing the ribbons of representatives of the people, Lyon has since been called "City of Liberation" in the decrees of the Republic.As a result, what was originally thought to be a bluff to intimidate the decree turned into a terrifying reality overnight. "So far nothing has been done here," said the two new tribunes, who eagerly submitted their first report to the Convention upon their arrival, to prove their own patriotic zeal and attitude towards the The moderate predecessor was skeptical.They immediately resorted to terror to carry out the orders of the Convention.Fouché, "the executioner of Lyon," future Duke of Otranto and defender of all legal principles, was the last thing he wanted to recall later.
Instead of slowly shoveling the mortar off the buildings with a shovel, gunpowder is buried and the beautiful buildings are blown up row by row. Instead of the guillotine, the condemned were executed en masse by the gun and shot by the hundreds.Every day the judiciary, receiving new and severe orders, went on a killing spree, and like a scythe, it mowed down the grain in handfuls, and day after day it mowed down masses of citizens to the ground, The dead were too slow to be buried, so they threw the dead into the Rhone, and let the raging waves wash away the body.Suspects abound, and prisons are already overcrowded.So the cellars of public buildings, schools, and monasteries were all used to house the condemned. Of course, the time of housekeeping was extremely short, because the sickle was mowed quickly, and there was rarely a pile of grass that would warm the body of the same prisoner. one night.
In that bloody month, on a bitterly cold day, another group of prisoners was herded into the cellars of the town hall, and they all stayed together briefly and miserably.At noon they were brought before the sheriff one by one, and a casual questioning decided their fate.Now sixty-four condemned men and women sat sprawling in a low-vaulted cellar, smelling of barrels and musty in the dark, warmed not much by a fire in the front fireplace, but Just dyed the darkness a little red.Most of the prisoners were lying on their straw mattresses in a daze, while the rest were crowded on the only wooden table allowed there, writing their farewell letters hastily by the flickering candlelight. They all knew that Their lives will end sooner than the trembling blue candles in this cold room.None of them spoke in whispers, so the muffled explosion of the landmines and the crash of the houses that followed were heard quite clearly here in the freezing air of the silent street.However, the development of the situation is like a thunderbolt that cannot be concealed. These people who have been tortured by fate have lost their senses and the ability to think clearly. Leaning against the wall, motionless and without a word, they were devastated, and there was no longer any hope.
Nearly seven o'clock in the evening, there was a creak and the rusty latch was thrown open.Everyone subconsciously jumped up: in the past, it was allowed to stay overnight, so contrary to this tragic routine, their last moment has now come?A cold draft blew through the open door, and the blue flames of the candles danced and danced, as if trying to escape their wax bodies and leap out of the cellar.With the flickering of the candlelight, everyone was terrified, and they were uncertain about the upcoming events.But after a while everyone calmed down, because the jailer didn't do anything else, but added a new batch of prisoners here, about twenty.Without saying a word, the jailer ushered them down the steps into the crowded room without assigning them a specific place, and then slammed the heavy iron gates shut again.
The prisoners looked at these newcomers with unfriendly eyes, because human nature is very strange, good at adapting to any environment, even if the time is extremely short, they will feel as if they are at home, which seems to be a matter of course.So these first comers have subconsciously regarded this stagnant and musty room, the green hairy straw mattress and the position around the fireplace as their own property, and feel that every newcomer is A trespassing, off-putting intruder.As for the prisoners who had just come in, they probably also clearly noticed the cold hostility shown by the prisoners who came here first, although this hostility seemed so absurd at this moment of death.Strangely enough, they neither exchanged greetings nor spoke to the fellow sufferers who had come first, nor did they ask for a place on the table or on the straw mats, but just huddled together in a corner without saying a word and sullenly.If the silence that had previously floated over the vaults had been brutal, it was all the more grim because of the needless arousal of emotional tension.
Suddenly, a cry broke the silence.At this moment, the cry sounded particularly sweet and loud, as if it came from another world.This loud, almost trembling cry touched with its irresistible force even the most indifferent souls, and shook their depressed, hopeless hearts.A new girl, who had just joined the other prisoners, suddenly jumped up, threw her arms forward as if about to fall, and chanting "Robert, Robert!" in a trembling voice, threw herself at a young man. .The young man, who was leaning against the window grill on one side, was separated from the girl by several people, and at this moment he also rushed towards her.Immediately, the bodies of the two young men hugged each other tightly, their lips pressed against each other, like two flames burning affectionately together, tears of joy welled up in their eyes and trickled down each other's faces, their sobs seemed to come from a person who was about to Exploded throat.Once they pause for a moment, they don't believe it's true.The unbelievable event terrified them, and in an instant they embraced each other again, more passionately.They cried bitterly, sobbed, talked and yelled in one breath, blindly immersed in the endless ocean of emotion, completely ignoring the fellow sufferers around them.The fellow sufferers were so surprised that they regained their anger and approached the two young men hesitantly.
The girl had been childhood sweethearts with Robert de L., the son of the high-ranking city official, and they had just been engaged a few months earlier.The wedding announcement had already been posted in the church, and the wedding had been scheduled for the day when the blood was everywhere.That day, the troops of the National Convention broke through the city of Lyon.Her fiancé has been fighting against the Republic in General Percy's army, and at this juncture, of course, she has the responsibility to accompany the royalist general on a desperate breakout.There was no news of him for weeks afterward, and she almost hoped that he had been lucky enough to escape across the border to Switzerland.At this time, an official of the city government suddenly told her that the informer had found out that her fiancé was hiding in a farm, and that he had been sent to the Revolutionary Court yesterday.On hearing the news that her fiancé and his certainty to be executed, a strange and incomprehensible force arose in the brave girl, that power which is in the nature of a woman in the nick of time, to do what would otherwise be impossible. can do.She personally rushed to the inaccessible representatives of the people and begged for mercy for her fiancé.She first knelt at the feet of Chloe de Bois, but was severely rebuffed.Chloe de Bois said he had no mercy for traitors.Then she ran to Fouché.And the cruelty of this person is no less than that of Colo de Bois, but his methods are even more cunning.He seemed moved by the despair of the young girl, and he prevaricated with a lie, saying that he would have liked to have intervened and given her fiancé a lighter sentence, but he saw—and at this moment, the accustomed The veteran deceitful man glanced casually through his monocle at an insignificant piece of paper—Robert de L. had been shot martially this morning in the fields of Brodo.The young girl was so completely deceived by the old cunning fellow that she immediately believed her fiancé was dead.In such a situation, women usually have no choice but to wallow in pain helplessly, but this is not the case with her. She has ignored the meaningless life.At this time, she took off the badge decorated with the revolutionary emblem from her hair, threw it on the ground, stomped on her feet, and yelled at Fouché and the guards rushing to be a bunch of despicable vampires, executioners and vicious criminals .The high-pitched roar shook the room.As she was tied up by soldiers and dragged out of the room, she heard Fouché dictating orders for her arrest to his pockmarked secretary.
The enthusiastic girl told the people around her almost joyfully that all this no longer seemed real to her at the time, and she no longer felt that it was real. On the contrary, when she thought that she would soon be followed by the After the executed fiancé left, I felt that my wish was fulfilled, and I felt a sense of brilliance in my heart.During the interrogation, she refused to answer all the questions. She was so keenly aware that death was approaching that she was so happy that she didn't even lift her eyes when the soldiers pushed her into the prison with the rest of the prisoners.Because she knows that the person she loves is dead, and she herself will approach him happily under the nine springs, then, what else in this world can't let go!So she lay in one corner completely at ease.When her eyes had just adjusted to the darkness in the prison, she found a young man leaning against the window and meditating. His posture surprised her, just like her fiancé usually staring blankly.She tried to restrain herself from harboring such illusory, vain hopes, but she got up anyway.At this moment, the young man approached the candle's light circle almost at the same time.She said in a voice still excited that she really didn't understand that she didn't pass out at this heart-wrenching moment, because she clearly felt that when she suddenly saw her fiancé who had been executed a long time ago still alive When she was in front of her, her heart seemed to pop out of her chest.
The girl hurriedly told the story of the experience, and at the same time her hand was tightly holding the hand of her sweetheart, and did not let go for a moment.She stared at him intently, hugging him again and again, as if still uncertain of his presence.This touching scene miraculously shocked all the fellow sufferers.The prisoners, who had been stupefied, exhausted, indifferent, and ashamed until now, were suddenly alive and enthusiastic, and crowded around this pair of lovers who had been so strangely brought together.By this extraordinary event, they all forgot their doom, and each of them was overwhelmed with emotion, and could not help but want to say a word of concern, support, or sympathy to them, but the passionate girl was intoxicated like this. In the obsessive pride, she doesn't need others to hug her.unnecessary.She said that she was very happy, completely happy, because she now knew that she could die at the same time as her sweetheart, and neither of them needed to be sad for the other.But there is one flaw in the ointment, that is, she is not married, and can only use her father's surname, and cannot go to God with him as his wife.
She spoke her heart innocently, without any intention, and almost forgot as soon as she said it, but kept embracing her beloved, so she didn't realize that one of Robert's comrades-in-arms was caught by her wish. Deeply moved, he slipped away cautiously at this time, quietly concluding with an older fellow sufferer.What he had said in a low voice seemed to have greatly moved the man, for at once he rose up abruptly, and pressed himself beside the two young men.He told the lovers that he was a priest from Toulon--he was so unrecognizable in his peasant attire--who had refused to take the oath of allegiance to the Republic, and had been arrested here on the basis of an informer.But, though he was now without the priest's robe, he still felt in his heart the same duties and priestly powers he had to perform.He said that since the wedding of the two had been announced, and since both had been condemned, the consecration could not be delayed; The witnesses of the fellow sufferer and the omnipresent God made them husband and wife.
The young girl never imagined that her wish could still come true, and she was so surprised that she looked at her fiancé inquiringly.His answer was just a beaming, shining look.Then the young girl fell on her knees on the hard flagstones, kissed the priest's hand, and begged him to marry them in this very unseemly room, for she thought her thoughts were pure, and her heart was full of Holy feeling.This gloomy house of the dead was to be turned into a church in an instant, and this incident deeply touched the hearts of the other fellow sufferers. They were all subconsciously infected by the excitement of the bride, and they all hurriedly did this and that to cover up their inner excitement.The men brought in and arranged the few chairs, placed the candles in a straight line before the iron crucifix, and arranged the table like an altar.At this time, the women hastily weaved some flowers that sympathizers gave them on the way to prison into a thin wreath, and put it on the girl's head.At this time, the priest and Robert, who is about to become her husband, entered the concubine. The priest first listened to the groom and then the bride's confession.The two newcomers walked to the temporary altar. At this moment, for a few minutes, there was no sound in the room, so quiet that the guards thought that something suspicious happened in the prison, so they suddenly opened the cell door and walked in.His dark peasant face involuntarily grew solemn and solemn as he discovered the strange preparations being made in the house.He stood at the door, not to disturb them, and thus himself a silent witness to this extraordinary wedding.
The priest went to the table and explained briefly: Where people are willing to join together before God with sincerity, there are churches and altars.After he finished speaking, he knelt down on both knees, and all the people present also knelt with him. The room was so quiet that the flame of a candle didn't move at all.Then the priest broke the silence and asked the couple if they would like to live and die together.The two replied with a firm voice: "May life and death be together." The word "death" was a terrifying word just now, and now it resounded loudly and clearly through the silent room, and it was no longer scary at all.Then the priest put their hands together, and announced their union with these words: "Ego auctoritate sanctae matris Ecclesiae qua fungor. conjungo vos in matrimoniam in nomine Patris et Filii et Spiritus sancti."
At this point, the wedding ceremony is over.The newlyweds kissed the priest's hand.All the fellow sufferers crowded forward and said their sincere blessings to the newlyweds one by one.At this moment, no one thinks about death, even those who feel death no longer feel the fear of death.
During this period, the friend who was a witness at the wedding just now had a private discussion with a few other fellow sufferers, and after a while they were strangely busy again.The man moved the straw mattress out of the next hut.At this moment, the two newlyweds were completely immersed in a dreamlike state of affairs, unaware of the completed preparations.The friend walked up to them and told them with a smile that he and his fellow sufferers would like to give the couple a gift to celebrate this happy day, but for those who even their own lives are at stake What other worldly gift can there be for those who live in the world!So they wanted to give only one thing that the newlyweds would be very happy and valued: to set aside this little cottage for them to use as their bridal chamber, where they could spend their wedding night in comfort, a final night that the fellow sufferers themselves would Prefer to squeeze in the outhouse. "Make good use of the few hours," he added, "for a moment is never given back to us, and whoever has the gift of love in such moments should enjoy it to the fullest. "
The maiden blushed to the roots of her hair, while her husband gazed sincerely into his friend's eyes, and clasped his brotherly hand in excitement.They didn't say a word, just stared at each other.
In this way, no one loudly arranged, the men subconsciously surrounded the groom, and the women surrounded the bride. Everyone solemnly held up candles and sent the couple into the bridal chamber borrowed from the god of death. The heart is filled with caring feelings, so this ancient wedding custom appeared again inadvertently.
Then they closed the door gently behind the newlyweds, but no one dared to make an inappropriate or unclean joke about the approaching marriage, because since everyone has been powerless to their own fate, but they can still Since giving others a little happiness, a special solemn feeling has quietly arisen in everyone's heart.They had done a little good and distracted from their own inevitable doom, for which everyone was secretly grateful.So these people who have been sentenced are scattered in the dark, lying awake or dreaming on straw mattresses everywhere until dawn. Although the room is full of desperate breaths, few people sigh.
When the soldiers came in early the next morning to take the eighty-four prisoners to the execution ground, they found that they were all awake and ready to go.Only the bridal chamber of the newlyweds next to them was still silent, and even the bang of the gun butts on the door did not wake up the two exhausted people.So the best man hurriedly ran quietly into the bridal chamber, so as not to wait for the executioner to forcefully wake the happy couple.They were lying, hugging each other loosely, her hand rested on his slightly receding neck, as if she forgot to take it out, even though the expressions on their faces were frozen in sleep, their faces were still stretched , glowing with happiness, so that the bridesmaid was also greatly moved, and couldn't bear to disturb such peace.But the situation did not allow him to hesitate, so he first shook the groom awake and told him that the situation was urgent.As soon as the bridegroom opened his eyes in ecstasy, he sadly remembered the situation at hand, so he lifted his wife from the bunk affectionately.She looked up, terrified like a child by the sudden cold reality, but then smiled knowingly at him and said, "I'm ready!"
When the newlyweds walked into the outer room hand in hand, all the people involuntarily gave way to them, so that the newlyweds inadvertently walked in front of the group of death row prisoners who were being led to the execution ground.The townspeople, who are used to seeing the mournful procession being led to the execution ground every day, nevertheless watched this strange procession go away with amazement, because the two people who walked in front of the procession—a The young officer and the girl with the bridal wreath—so full of such an unearthly joy and certainty of happiness that even the most dull-witted would here reverently feel a sublime secret.Others did not drag their weary pace like the death row prisoners who were taken to the execution ground in the past, but everyone stared at the new couple with passionate eyes and unshakable trust. .The two of them had already fulfilled their wishes thrice, unexpectedly, and in these two happy beings there must be, must be yet another miracle, a final miracle, which would save them all from certain death.
Life always loves strange things, but miracles rarely appear in reality.What was taken for granted in Lyon at the time is now finally happening.The convoy of prisoners was led across the bridge into the marshes of Brodo, where they were greeted by twelve regiments of infantry, each with the barrels of three guns aimed at one man.Soldiers lined up the death row prisoners, and a row of bullets knocked down all the prisoners.Then, the soldiers threw the bleeding bodies into the Rhone, and the rapids carelessly washed the faces and fates of these strangers to the bottom of the river.Only the wedding wreath fell slowly from the sinking bride's head, and floated meaninglessly and conspicuously on the rushing waves for a while.Then the wreath disappeared too, and with it the memory of that evening of love snatched from the lips of Death, and all the more memorable, was long forgotten.
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