A woman—a stranger—had been arrested and imprisoned in the Fort Gayole and the town-crier publicly proclaimed that if she escaped from jail, one member of every family in the town—rich or poor, republican or royalist, Catholic or free-thinker—would be summarily guillotined.
That member, the bread-winner!
“Why, then, with the Duvals it would be young Francois-Auguste. He keeps his old mother with his boot-making...”
“And it would be Marie Lebon, she has her blind father dependent on her net-mending.”
“And old Mother Laferriere, whose grandchildren were left penniless... she keeps them from starvation by her wash-tub.”
“But Francois-Auguste is a real Republican; he belongs to the Jacobin Club.”
“And look at Pierre, who never meets a calotin but he must needs spit on him.”
“Is there no safety anywhere?... are we to be butchered like so many cattle?...”
Somebody makes the suggestion:
“It is a threat... they would not dare!...”