Lord Tony's Wife

This historic book may have numerous typos, missing text, images, or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1917. Not illustrated. Excerpt: ... BOOK TWO: NANTES, DECEMBER, 1793 CHAPTER I THE TIGER S LAIR Nante's is in the grip of the tiger. Representative Carrier--with powers as of a proconsul--has been sent down to stamp out the lingering remnants of the counter-revolution. La Vendee is temporarily subdued; the army of the royalists driven back across the Loire; but traitors still abound--this the National Convention in Paris hath decreed--there are traitors everywhere. They were not all massacred at Cholet and Savenay. Disbanded, yes! but not exterminated, and wolves must not be allowed to run loose, lest they band again, and try to devour the flocks. Therefore extermination is the order of the day. Every traitor or would-be traitor--every son and daughter and father and mother of traitors must be destroyed ere they do more mischief. And Carrier--Carrier the coward who turned tail and bolted at Cholet--is sent to Nantes to carry on the work of destruction. Wolves and wolflings all! Let none survive. Give them fair trial, of course. As traitors they have deserved death--have they not taken up ams against the Republic and against the Will and the Reign of the People? But let a court of justice sit in Nantes town; let the whole nation know how traitors are dealt with: let the nation see that her rulers are both wise and just. Let wolves and wolflings be brought up for trial, and set up the guillotine on Place du Bouffay with four executioners appointed to do her work. There would be too much work for two, or even three. Let there be four--and let the work of extermination be complete. And Carrier--with powers as of a proconsul--arrives in Nantes town and sets to work to organise his household. Civil and military--with pomp and circumstance--for the son of a small farmer, destined originally for ...