Show a n THE WORLDS GREAT EVENTS ALBERT PAYSON TERHUNE b t ta W by dodd mead md the ria fall fak of the has file aft OUR majesty the people are starving for or lock lack of bread I 1 then replied queen marta ilarie antoinette fornette fol nette of france la in utter surprise why dont they eat cake the frivolous queen did not ask this question as a joke she had so little knowledge of 0 po poverty erty and of the needs of a nation that she could not understand how unappeased hunger could exist this one speech of hers sizes sixes up op better than could a whole volume the grievances that led to that red horror the french revolution those high in authority neither knew nor cared bow the great mass of the people existed louis bouts XIV after affer bebing france by his big extravagances had been by lila ills great grand grandson on louis XV tile latter had all the grand monarchs vices and extravagance with nono none of his genius ne ile left france almost bankrupt the clergy and the nobles were exempt by law from taxation thus the fearful burden of taxes tell fell ou all the and peasants to make matters worse the taxes were farmed out and the collectors wrung the helpless hel plesa poor still further to obtain gruft graft tor for themselves out of the transaction so 80 while the court reveled in unheard ot of luxury and magnificence the plain people who paid tor for it till all were left to starve moreover the aristocracy taking their cue from the king oppressed and ill III treated their luckless tenants grind ing them to the dust unspeakable outrages were perpetrated by the nobles against their defenseless peasant sand undeserved life torture and death were common occurrences and tor for centuries the people of france had submitted so long in fact that their masters had ceased to regard it as possible that the downtrodden slaves love could ever revolt but during all these centuries the seeds of revolution were germinating seeds which were one day to burst into a bloody harvest ot of retribution that should set the whole world aghast among the vilest abuses of the era was the bartile Bas this huge fortress was at once the state slate prison and the citadel of paris when a monarch a nobleman or a man of power had an enemy he could not legally oll dispose of lie he procured if he had sufficient clent influence a secret warrant known us its a lettre de cachet and had his foe or victim seized and conveyed to the bastile Bas there without trial without hope of rescue with his friends ignorant of hla his whereabouts thu the prisoner would linger often foe to a lifetime alie aile bastile was the visible ay symbol abol and sign of despotic power end and as aa such the people of F france rance hated it even as they feared it louis XV had been wise in his way ne had calculated to a nicety the number of years the people would continue to endure such treatment it will last out my cay time said he but I 1 pity my grandson and the pointed painted bedizened bedizen ed duchesse Du chease de pompadour nt at his side crooked croaked the gruesomely epigrammatic prophecy after us the del deluge I 1 and now louis XV was dead and his grandson louis XVI reigned in his stead the sixteenth louis was an amiable stupid weak willed fellow he was married to fin an austrian archduchess marle antoinette whose mother had planned the match and had coached the girl queen how bow to promote Aus influence ill at the french court louis XVI had begun his reign with some boma vague theories as to the rights of the people but marle antoinette and her party at court had soon driven such notions from his stupid head bead the people grew to loathe ilarie antoinette and to blame her tor for their suffering buffering the american revolution had met with warm support from france but plunged that country into disastrous war with england and moreover tired the people with republican ideas if america had cut free from the bondage of royal despotism why should not france the people began to awake and to think famine was rife throughout the rural districts throngs of country folk flocked into paris riots and other disturbances sprang up ap A national guard was formed by the municipality and lafayette was placed at its ita head the people were at lust last aroused they did not yet dare to turn against royalty itself but they assailed its most hated symbol the Ila basille Bas stile on july 14 1789 a mob marched on tills fortress calling on the governor de launt gauntly daunoy ly to surrender Dela delaunay imay refused then the crowd attacked de ladnay a stanch lyal old soldier fought them off for baars hoars till some of 0 the guard came up with several pieces of artillery and forced him to yield the mob soldiers peasants and townsfolk alike rushed ito the Kas released the prisoners sonic some of whom were insane or dazed from long confinement billed delaunay arid and proceeded to tear down the fortress on the wall of one cell they found this prophecy scrawled a half century earlier by cagliostro the charI charlatan chahinian nian the bastile shall lie destroyed and the people deuce batice on its hs site the latter part of the prophecy was fulfilled liy by streaked fried re revolutionists who their wild dance with of if vengeance tho revolution had tj dawned |