Playing with Fire (2)

After the capture of the Bastille, rumors spread throughout the city of Paris that the king was furious and would soon mobilize his army to suppress the people of Paris. It is said that the furious king ordered the city of Paris, "the trees should be over the fire, the stone should be over the knife, people should be changed". So the whole of Paris was tense, and the streets were filled with people building barricades. Some people, out of fear, tore down their houses (of course, most of the time, it was the houses of the "tyrant's lackeys" that were torn down, and how many of them there were depended on how much material was needed to build the barricades). to build the barricades.

　　Almost overnight, all the hired carriage drivers in the whole of Paris were out of a job, because all the streets had barricades and barricades on them. Some inexperienced fellows built the barricades and barricades without even thinking about leaving a way in and out.

　　In order to defend themselves against a possible attack, all the militias in Paris felt that they should unite and fight under the same banner. So the representatives of the militias of each neighborhood gathered together to discuss the matter of unity of command.

　　Each neighborhood militia sincerely wanted to be united, which is actually the instinct of human beings as herd animals in times of crisis. Yet unity requires a command structure, a commander. But the militia immediately realized that they would have a hard time identifying such a person.

　　Because most of the militia didn't know each other, while most of them, at the same time, were aware of their lack of military skills, the circumstances of the siege of Bastille made them realize how far they were from the regular army. Although every one of them in their mouths do not put the kingdom's army along the Montmartre heights in their eyes, but every one of them in their hearts are actually trembling with fear, and some of them dream of the guillotine or the gallows when they dream.

　　Under these circumstances, a "good nobleman", who did not attend the meeting at all, but was considered to be "honorable, good-natured, a lover of the people, and well versed in military affairs", was elected by the majority of the delegates to be the Commander-in-Chief of the unified militia. This "good nobleman" was naturally the Marquis de Lafayette.

　　It is said that the name of another "good nobleman", the Duc d'Orléans, was also mentioned during the meeting. However, other delegates said that His Royal Highness, the Duke of Orleans, was indeed a good nobleman who was "upright, kind, and loved the people," and that he was "more generous" than the Marquis de Lafayette (because the Duke of Orleans was much richer than the Marquis de Lafayette). (because the Duke of Orleans was much richer than the Marquis of Lafayette) but the Duke of Orleans was completely ignorant of the military. If he were to take command, it would be to the detriment of all.

　　Some delegates even said that during the siege of the Bastille, because of His Highness, the Duke of Orleans' well-intentioned help, it led to even greater sacrifices than those brought about by the tyrant's guns.

　　"All in all, Duke Orleans is a good and trustworthy man. But things like military command are beyond him." This statement became the general consensus.

　　After electing the Marquis de Lafayette, everyone sent people to ask the Marquis de Lafayette to take office. This was somewhat similar to the later times after a certain uprising in the Eastern Great Eating Country, when the leaders of the insurgent army pushed Rippert, who had not participated in the uprising at all, into the position of governor. Only, the representatives of the Paris militia did not break into the house of the Marquis de Lafayette with guns, they just went to the door of Lafayette and had the invitation handed in; and the Marquis de Lafayette, instead of hiding under the bed and shouting "don't harm me, don't harm me" as Liputa did, accepted the invitation and became the Commander-in-Chief of the Paris militia. He accepted the invitation and became commander-in-chief of the Paris militia.

　　As soon as he assumed office, the Marquis de Lafayette immediately began to reorganize the militia of Paris, and first of all he intended to integrate all the militia of Paris into a national self-defense force.

　　For this purpose, he at once brought out the uniform designed for the National Guard - a uniform with blue pants - and he also brought out the insignia and flag of the National Guard - both of which consisted of the colors red, white and blue. Of these, red and blue, are the colors of the coat of arms of the city of Paris, while white is the representative color of the Bourbon dynasty.

　　Such a coat of arms and flag clearly demonstrate the political leanings of the Marquis de Lafayette, who was a constitutional monarchist. But to be honest, the commoners of Paris were all "tyrants" at the moment. However, they are very much in favor of such a flag and insignia.

　　The Parisian men without pants did not think that they could overthrow the king at all, and they were very afraid of the king's possible punishment after the Bastille, and they also agreed to the Marquis de Lafayette to become the Commander-in-Chief, and one of the reasons was that they thought that the Marquis de Lafayette could help them to speak in front of the king.

　　In the opinion of those condomless pants-holders, Marquis de Lafayette was definitely the most suitable for the job. Even more so, he was the only one fit to do it. For the other of the two great noblemen (the Duke of Orleans), who was clearly inclined to revolution, was obviously in a strained relationship with the king. (The Duc d'Orléans had been working to discredit the king and of course to create an image of himself as being at odds with the 'tyrant', so when people needed a figure who could communicate with the king, no one thought of him.)

　　The Marquis de Lafayette was very successful in exploiting this mentality of theirs, and he assured them that he would, and he could, defend everyone, if only they would support his leadership.

　　The feared massacre did not happen and the king's army did not attack Paris. In fact, the king did not trust the army at all, and those around him, were trying their best to show him that the army was not reliable.

　　For the constitutionalists like the Marquis de Lafayette, the only way to force the king to accept a constitutional monarchy was to convince him that the army was only loyal to the state and not to the king personally. And for those nobles of the conservative school, such as the Count of Artois and the like, the national standing army was not a good thing in the first place. What standing army did the country need? Shouldn't all armies belong to the private nobles and be called up when the king needs them? And they were also trying to discredit the French army against their political rival, the Marquis de Lafayette.

　　At least the conservatives and the constitutionalists were in rare agreement on the unreliability of the army. King Louis XVI was a somewhat indecisive man, so he naturally believed in what everyone said. So the king did not even think about this time, with the army blood wash Paris thing, even when the "mob" down the Bastille, and the count of Artois people said that the army actually also participated in the rebellion, the king was so scared that almost intend to flee to the provinces. In fact, just as the citizens of Paris were fearful of the king, so was the king fearful of the Parisian mob.

　　But all this was unknown to those commoners in the city of Paris. In their opinion, it must have been the Marquis de Lafayette's fault that the fabled massacre did not take place. Radical people believe that this is because he organized the National Revolutionary Army to let the king know to retreat; more moderate people feel that this is because the Marquis Lord suitable as a bridge between the citizens and the king.

　　The Marquis de Lafayette did, indeed, act as that bridge. He came to Versailles a few days later with a body of national guards to meet King Louis XVI. It is said that they had a good conversation and that Louis XVI wore on his hat the insignia of the National Revolutionary Army, which the Marquis de Lafayette had brought with him.

　　The Marquis de Lafayette seemed to have won a great victory. An English-style, constitutional monarchy, France, seemed to be within reach.

　　Things seemed to have calmed down, and the Marquis de Lafayette was said to be busy drawing up a very historic Declaration of Independence in the light of the North American Declaration of Independence, and setting up a system of parliamentary and administrative institutions which had reference to both England and North America.

　　The situation had eased, but the Officers' School in Paris was not yet back to normal. So Joseph was able to stay home and watch the theater.

　　"If the revolution could end here, it might be a good thing for France." Joseph looked out the window. Outside in the street, a group of National Guard troops were busy dismantling barricades.

　　"Is the revolution not over yet?" Louis said, "Joseph, I don't like the revolution at all. I can't go out on the streets, I can't go to school, I can't play with my classmates, and Aunt Sophie isn't coming, and Lucienne wants me to do the housework ... I don't like the revolution at all!"

　　"At first you didn't know how happy you were when you heard that school was closed! Now that Joseph is home, you pretend to love learning!" Lucien straddled the chair, propped his chin on the high back of it, and squinted his eyes in contempt.

　　"That's not because you're pushing all kinds of chores on me while Joseph's not home!"

　　"Willing to bet, I've let you have a knight and a bishop, and you still lost, so what else is there to say!"

　　So Louis was silent. Instead, it was Lucien who spoke up, "Joseph, from what I heard you say just now, do you think that the revolution is not yet over?"

　　"Over? How can it be?" Joseph sneered, "My brother, this is not the end, nor is it the beginning of the end, it's not even the end of the beginning. How can this revolution end until those who are dissatisfied with today's reality and think they have the power are satisfied, or exhaust themselves? Besides, in today's arena, there may not be heroes who can accomplish great things, but there is definitely no shortage of the kind of people who can't get anything done if left to their own devices, but if they are asked to mess things up for someone else, they are top-notch. You'll just have to wait and see."