I want to die in the sunshine and flowers."
[Footnote: Mirabeau's words.--See "Memoires sur Mirabeau," vol. iv.,
p. 298.]
His friends did not venture to oppose his last wish. The gladiator
wanted to make his last toilet and be elaborately arrayed in order
to fall in the arena of life as a hero falls, and even in death to
excite the wonder and the applause of the public.
All Paris was in this last scene the public of this gladiator; all
Paris had, in these last days of his battle for life, only one
thought, "How is it with Mirabeau? Will he compel the dreadful enemy
Death to retire from before him, or will he fall as the prey of
Death?" This question was written on all faces, repeated in all
houses and in all hearts. Every one wanted to receive an answer from
that still house, with its closely-drawn curtains, where Mirabeau
lived. All the streets which led thither were, during the last three
days before his death, filled with a dense mass of men, and no
carriage was permitted to drive through the neighborhood, lest it
should disturb Mirabeau. The theatres were closed, and, without any
consultation together, the merchants shut their stores as they do on
great days of national fasting or thanksgiving.
On the morning of the fourth day, before life had begun to move in
the streets of Paris, and before the houses were opened, a cry was
heard in the great highways of the city, ringing up into all the
houses, and entering all the agitated hearts that heard it:
"Flowers, bring flowers! Mirabeau wants flowers! Bring roses and
violets for Mirabeau! Mirabeau wants to die amid flowers!"
This cry awoke slumbering Paris the 2d of April, 1791, and, as it
resounded through the streets, windows and doors opened, and
hundreds, thousands of men hastened from all directions toward
Mirabeau's house, carrying nosegays, bouquets, whole baskets of
flowers.
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