“Do you hear that noise down there, Capet?” he shouted to the Prince. “It is the voice of the people, lamenting the loss of their friend. You wear black clothes for your father; I was going to make you take them off to-morrow, but now you shall wear them still longer. Capet shall put on mourning for Marat! But, accursed one, you do not seem much grieved about it! Perhaps you are glad that he is dead?”
With these words, furious with rage, he shook the boy, threatened him with his fist, and pushed him violently away.
“I do not know the man who is dead,” returned the child, “and you should not say that I am glad. We never wish for the death of anyone.”
“Ah, we? ‘We wish?’ We?” roared the cobbler. “Are you presuming to say we, like those tyrants, your forefathers?”
“Oh, no,” answered the Prince, “I say we, in the plural, meaning myself and my family.”
Somewhat appeased by this apology, the cobbler strode up and down, puffing great clouds of smoke from his mouth and laughing to himself as he repeated: “Capet shall put on mourning for Marat!”
Marat was buried on the following morning, and Simon’s resentment at not being able to attend the funeral ceremonies made him furious. All day long he paced the floor of his room like a caged tiger, sparing the innocent Prince neither blows nor curses.
Some days later, news came of a crushing defeat of the Republican army at Saumur,[19] and again the poor child had to suffer from his master’s rage and spite.
“It is your friends who are doing this!” shouted Simon to him.
In vain the little Prince cried, “Indeed it is not my fault!” The infamous wretch furiously rushed at him, and shook him with the ferocity of a maddened beast. The child bore it all in silence; great tears rolled down his cheeks, but he allowed no cry of pain to escape him, for fear his mother might hear it and be distressed about him. This fear gave him strength, and enabled him to bear his sufferings with the courage of a hero. Joy had long since been banished from his heart, the roses of health from his cheeks, but they had not succeeded yet in extinguishing his love of truth and purity.