The French Revolution : a history . a grimmer, of the Roman Inquisition, andnot quit it. But, after all, what is this Bastille business to that ofthe Champs Elyshs\ Thither, to these Fields wellnamed Elysian, all feet tend. It is radiant as day withfestooned lamps; little oil-cups, like variegated fire-flies, daintily illume the highest leaves: trees there areall sheeted with variegated fire, shedding far a glimmerinto the dubious wood. There, under the free sky, dotight-limbed Federates, with fairest newfound sweet-hearts, elastic as Diana, and not of that coyness andtart humour of Diana, thr
The French Revolution : a history . a grimmer, of the Roman Inquisition, andnot quit it. But, after all, what is this Bastille business to that ofthe Champs Elyshs\ Thither, to these Fields wellnamed Elysian, all feet tend. It is radiant as day withfestooned lamps; little oil-cups, like variegated fire-flies, daintily illume the highest leaves: trees there areall sheeted with variegated fire, shedding far a glimmerinto the dubious wood. There, under the free sky, dotight-limbed Federates, with fairest newfound sweet-hearts, elastic as Diana, and not of that coyness andtart humour of Diana, thread their jocund mazes, allthrough the ambrosial night; and hearts were touchedand fired; and seldom surely had our old Planet, inthat huge conic Shadow of hers, which goes beyondthe Moon, and is named Night curtained such a Ball-room. O if, according to Seneca, the very gods lookdown on a good man struggling with adversity, andsmile; what must they think of Five-and-twenty million See his Lettre au Peuple Frangais (London, 1786).. JULY 14-18, 1790] SOUND AND SMOKE 83 indifferent ones victorious over it,—for eight days andmore? In this way, and in such ways, however, has the Feastof Pikes danced itself off: gallant Federates wendinghomewards, towards every point of the compass, withfeverish nerves, heart and head much heated; some ofthem, indeed, as Dampmartins elderly respectable friendfrom Strasburg, quite burnt out with liquors, andflickering towards extinction. The Feast of Pikes hasdanced itself off, and become defunct, and the ghost ofa Feast;—nothing of it now remaining but this vision inmens memory ; and the place that knew it (for the slopeof that Champ-de-Mars is crumbled to half the originalheight) now knowing it no more. Undoubtedly one ofthe memorablest National Hightides. Never or hardlyever, as we said, was Oath sworn with such heart-effu-sion, emphasis and expenditure of joyance ; and then itwas broken irremediably within year and day. Ah,why ? When the swea
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