Part 13 (1/2)
(42) _Correspondance:_ To the Citizen Thore, May 28, 1848
”If, instead of following Lamartine's stupid, insipid policy,” she then wrote, ”we had challenged all absolute monarchies, we should have had war outside, but union at hoth, in consequence of this, it horeat ancestors, she declared that the revolutionary idea is neither that of a sect nor of a party ”It is a religion,” she says, ”that ant to proclaim” All this zeal, this passion and this persistency in a wo, but one does not feel much confidence in a certain kind of inspiration for politics after all this
(43) _Correspondance:_ To Mazzini, October 10, 1849
My reason for dwelling on the subject is that George Sand did not content herself withplace, or even with talking about them with her friends She took part in the events, by means of her pen She scattered abroad all kinds of revolutionary writings On the 7th of March, she published her first _Letter to the People_, at the price of a penny, the profits of which were to be distributed a these great and good people on their noble victory, she tells thes
That was exactly the state of the case They did not yet knohat they wanted, but, in the , they had at any rate begun with a revolution There was a second _Letter to the People_, and then these ceased Publications in those days were very short-lived They cah, sometimes from their ashes In April a newspaper was started, entitled _The Cause of the People_ This was edited al article: _Sovereignty is Equality_ She reproduced her first _Letter to the People_, gave an article on the aspect of the streets of Paris, and another on theatrical events She left to her collaborator, Victor Borie, the task of explaining that the increase of taxes was an ereeable surprise for the person who had to pay them The third nue Sand, entitled _Le Roi attend_ This had just been given at the Comedie-Francaise, or at the Theatre de la Republique, as it was then called It had been a gratis perforiven on the 9th of April, 1848, as a first national representation The actors at that tiustine Brohan and Rachel There were not s to interpret
In George Sand's piece, Moliere was at ith his servant, Laforet, who could not read, but without whom, it appears, he could not have written a line He has not finished his play, the actors have not learnt their parts, and the king is i Moliere is perplexed, and, not knohat to do, he decides to go to sleep The Muse appears to his to hireat poets before him AEschylus, Sophocles, Euripides and Shakespeare all declare to hi the Revolution of 1848 Moliere then wakes up, and goes on to the stage to pay his respects to the king The king has been changed, though ”I see a king,” says Moliere, ”but his nan people That is a word I did not knoord as great as eternity”
We recognize the democrat in all this _Le Roi_ _attend_ may be considered as an authentic curiosity of revolutionary art The newspaper announced to its readers that subscriptions could be paid in the Rue Richelieu Subscribers were probably not forthco, as the paper died a natural death after the third nuh(44) We et that she was an official publicist in 1848 She had volunteered her services to Ledru-Rollin, and he had accepted them ”I am as busy as a statesman,” she wrote at this time ”I have already written two Governe Sand's _role_, see _La Revolution de_ 1848, by Daniel Stern (Madaoult)
(45) _Correspondance:_ To Maurice Sand, March 24, 1848
With George Sand's collaboration, the _Bulletin de la Republique_ beca This paper was published every other day, by order of Ledru-Rollin, and was intended to establish a constant interchange of ideas and sentiments between the Government and the people ”It was specially addressed to the people of rural districts, and was in the form of a poster that the mayor of the place could have put up on the walls, and also distribute to the postiven away The _Bulletins_ were anonye Sand The seventh is one of these, and also the twelfth The latter ritten with a view to drawing the attention of the public to the wretched lot of the woirls of the lower classes, ere reduced to prostitution by the lowness of their wages
Their virginity is an object of traffic,” we are told, ”quoted on the exchange of infamy” The sixteenth _Bulletin_ was si ahead to what ought to take place, in case the elections did not lead to the triumph of social truth ”The people,” she hoped, ”would know their duty There would, in that case, be only one way of salvation for the people who had erected barricades, and that would be to manifest their will a second time, and so adjourn the decisions of a representation that was not national” This was nothing e of another Fructidor And we knoas the result of words in those days The _Bulletin_ was dated the 15th, and on the 17th the people were on the way to the Hotel de Ville These popular h, as they frequently take an unexpected turn, and even change their direction when on the way It happened this tiainst those ere its instigators Shouts were heard that day in Paris of _”Death to the Coe Sand could not understand things at all This was not in the prograan to have her doubts about the future of the Republic--the real one, that of her friends
It was much worse on the 15th of May, the day which was so fatal to Barbes, for he played the part of hero and of dupe on that eventful day
Barbes was George Sand's idol at that tih, with her vivid ied her idols frequently With her idealis in soining It seeh she exteriorized the needs of her own mind and put them into an individual who seemed suitable to her for the particular requirements of that es and Pierre Leroux had been able to play the part, the former of a radical theorician and the latter of the mystical forerunner of the new times At present Barbes had come on to the scene
He was a born conspirator, the very man for secret societies He had made his career by means of prisons, or rather he hadthirty of the prisoners of April to escape froie At that time he was affiliated to the _Societe des Familles_ The police discovered a whole arsenal of powder and ammunition at the house in the Rue de Lourcine, and Barbes was condemned to prison for a year and sent to Carcassonne, where he had relatives When he left prison, the _Societe des Saisons_ had taken the place of the _Societe des Faanized the insurrection of May 12 and 13, 1830 This time blood was shed In front of the Palais de Justice, the men, commanded by Barbes, had invited Lieutenant Droulneau to let them enter The officer replied that he would die first He was immediately shot, but Barbes was sentenced to death for this Thanks to the intervention of Lao, his life was spared, but he was imprisoned at Mont Saint-Michel until 1843, and afterwards at Nimes On the 28th of February, 1848, the Governor of Nimes prison informed him that he was free He was more surprised and embarrassed than pleased by this news
”I was quite bewildered,” he owned later on, ”by this idea of leaving prison I looked at rown so accustomed I looked atso carefully at the foot of my bed” He asked permission to stay there another day He had becoain, and free, he was like a man who feels ill at ease
He took part in the affair of the 15th of May, and this is what gives a tragic, and at the same time co in favour of Poland, the National assembly was to be invaded Barbes did not approve of this manifestation, and had decided to keep out of it Some people cannot be present at a revolutionary scene without taking part in it, and without soon wanting to play the chief part in it The excite in instinct over which he had no control, for, together with a workman named Albert, he headed the procession which was to march from the Chamber of Deputies to the Hotel de Ville and establish a fresh Provisional Govern the proclah the s to the people, after the manner of the times, when suddenly Lamartine appeared on the scene with Ledru-Rollin and a captain in the artillery The following dialogue then took place:
”Who are you?”
”A member of the Provisional Government”
”Of the Government of yesterday or of to-day?”
”Of the one of to-day”
”In that case I arrest you”
Barbes was taken to Vincennes He had been free rather less than three h it were his natural dwelling-place
George Sand adreat man of the Revolution was neither Ledru-Rollin, Lamartine, nor even Louis-Blanc; it was Barbes She compared him to Joan of Arc and to Robespierre To her, he was much eons, ever mysterious and unfortunate, always ready for a drama or a romance In her heart she kept an altar for thiswhether, after all, this idol and hero were not a e Sand very considerably The June insurrection and the civil ith blood flowing in the Paris streets, those streets which were forrief From henceforth her letters were full of her sadness and discourageloomy depression took the place of her former enthusiase to take place In February she had been so proud of France, and now she felt that she was to be pitied for being a Frenchwoman It was all so sad, and she was so ashamed There was no one to count upon now
Lamartine was a chatterer; Ledru-Rollin was like a worateful, so that the e in fiction, and buried herself in her dreams of art We are not sorry to follow her there