Aristide
Dauvray finds instant promotion in his calling. The hiding Communists
are hunted down and swell the vast crowd of wretches in the Orangery.
Already, all tribunals are busy. Deportation or death awaits the
leaders of the revolt.
Raoul Dauvray, whose regiment is returned from its fortnight's guard
duty at Versailles, is permitted to revisit his family. Peace now
signed--the peace of disgrace--enables the decimated Garde Mobile
to be disbanded. In a few weeks, he will be a sculptor again. A
soldier no more. France needs him no longer in the field.
By the family Lares and Penates the young soldier tells of
the awful sights of Versailles. The thousand captured cannon of
the Communists, splashed with human blood, the wanton ruin of the
lovely grounds of the Bois, dear to the Parisian heart, and all the
strange scenes of the gleaning of the fields of death show how the
touch of anarchy has seared the heart of France. Raoul's adventures
are a nightly recital.
"I had one strange adventure," says the handsome soldier, knocking
the ashes from his cigar. "I was on guard with my company in command
of the main gate of the Orangery, the night after the crushing of
these devils at Montmartre.
Pages:
403
404
405
406
407
408
409
410
411
412
413
414
415
416
417
418
419
420
421
422
423
424
425
426
427