Dread tyranny has claimed our song,
And despots swayed our lot.
Now breaks the dawn of Liberty,
Of Law, and fair Equality:
All hail! the Sans-Culottes![[18]]
[16]. The women who formed part of the revolutionary mobs were known as tricoteuses from their habit of knitting at all seasons, even at the foot of the guillotine; the sans-culottes were the men of the same class. Their nether garments, of course, were rather in rags and tatters than wanting altogether. (Trans.)
[17]. A member of an anti-Jacobin Society, known as Feuillants. (Trans.)
[18].
Amis, assez et trop longtemps,