Revenons à nos Moutons, let us return to the matter in hand. This phrase comes from an old French comedy of the fifteenth century, entitled L’Avocat Patelin, by Blanchet. A clothier, giving evidence against a shepherd who had stolen some sheep, is for ever running from the subject to talk about some cloth of which Patelin, his lawyer, had defrauded him. The judge from time to time pulls him up by saying, “Well, well! and about the sheep?” “What about the sheep!” (See [Patelin].)
Revolutionary Songs. By far the most popular were:
1. La Marseillaise, both words and music by Rouget de Lisle (1792).
2. Veillons au Salut de l’Empire, by Adolphe S. Boy (1791). Music by Dalayra. Very strange that men whose whole purpose was to destroy the empire should go about singing “Let us guard it!”
3. Ça Ira, written to the tune of Le Carillon National, in 1789, while preparations were being made for the Fête de la Féderation. It was a great favorite with Marie Antoinette, who was for ever “strumming the tune on her harpsichord.”
4. Chant du Départ, by Marie Joseph de Chénier (1794). Music by Méhul. This was the most popular next to the Marseillaise.
5. La Carmagnole. “Madame Veto avait promis de faire égorger tout Paris ...” (1792). Probably so called from Carmagnole, in Piedmont. The burden of this dancing song is:
Danson la Carmagnole,
Vive le son! Vive le son!
Danson la Carmagnole,
Vive le son du canon!
6. La Vengeur, a spirited story, in verse, about a ship so called. Lord Howe took six of the French ships, June 1, 1794; but La Vengeur was sunk by the crew, that it might not fall into the hands of the English, and went down while the crew shouted “Vive la République!” The story bears a strong resemblance to that of “The Revenge,” Sir Richard Grenville’s ship. See [ante].
In the second Revolution we have: