And yet a great agitation prevailed over the whole surface of France; all the ancient names of the provinces had been changed. France was divided into eighty-three departments. One part of Champagne had taken the names of the Department of the Meuse; the part neighboring was now the Department of the Marne. The little River Biesme, which served as a line of demarcation between Germany and France, and, likewise, between Champagne and Clermontois, fixed the limit of the two departments. Les Islettes, Clermont, and Varennes were in the Department of the Meuse.
Municipalities were constituted under the name of corporations; M. Gerbaut was nominated municipal councillor, and our neighbor, M. Sauce, grocer, procureur of the corporation.
I say our neighbor, because the two houses were separated only by a lane.
The two families frequently visited each other. M. Gerbaut and M. Sauce, with their blushing honors thick upon them, were patriots.
Madame Sauce was a fine woman, but coarse and vulgar, a veritable dealer in candles, butter, and sugar; rather given to serving short measure, but otherwise incapable of committing a fraud. The mother of M. Sauce, an old lady of sixty-three or sixty-four years, was a Royalist. The children, the eldest of whom was only twelve, were incapable of having an opinion.
We shall see presently what Sophie’s opinions were.
Opposite us was the tavern of the “Bras d’Or,” belonging to the brothers Leblanc. Interest made them play a little comedy. As they had the patronage both of the patriotic young men in the town, and the Royalist young nobles from the vicinity, the one brother was a patriot, and the other a Royalist. The elder cried “Vive la nation” with the young tradesmen, while the younger shouted “Vive le Roi” with the noblesse.
In the midst of all this, a national decree was propagated, which caused some uneasiness in the province.
It was the civil constitution of the clergy.
It created an episcopal chair in each department.