The French people rose
just as the incensed lion does, and determined to wreak their
vengeance on their keepers, on those whom they had so long called
their lords and rulers.
To pacify the lion some prey must be thrown to him, and to him who
thirsts for vengeance and blood, a human offering must be brought to
propitiate him.
Marie Antoinette had to be the offering to the lion! Her blood had
to flow for the sins of the Bourbons! On her all the anger, the
exasperation, the rage of the people must concentrate! She must bear
the blame of all the miseries and the needs of France! She must
satisfy the hunger for vengeance, in order that when the lion is
appeased it can be made placable and patient again, the chains put
on which he has broken in his rage--the chains, however, to which,
when his rage is past, he must again submit.
The queen, the queen is to blame for all! Marie Antoinette has
brought royalty into discredit; the Austrian woman has brought the
hatred of the French nation upon herself, and she must atone for it,
she alone!
Libels and calumnies are forged against the queen by those who were
once the friends and cavaliers of the queen--cavaliers no longer,
but cavillers now; the poisoned arrows are sent to France to be
directed against the head of the queen, to destroy first her honor
and good name, and then to make her a prey for scorn and contempt.
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