Sunday, October 30, 2016

A Comment on my history Paper: French Revolution

While my former history paper of three to four years ago is epically boring to read at times, even for me, I do have some epically exciting parts in there (probably not conducive, though, to a professional account of history) that you may have skipped because most of it is boring:

"On April 5th, Danton, the penitent, the good thief, mounted the steps to the guillotine, stepping, perhaps, on the blood of his friend Camille who was not spared after all. Once there, before the weapon that had caused so many deaths, a weapon he once cherished and now abhorred, he looked upon the faces in the crowd. It is said that the same priest who married Danton and his second wife raised his hand then to give him absolution (Belloc, 1899, p. 280). When the hand of the executioner was placed on his shoulder, Danton did not flinch. “Show my head to the people; it is well worth the while,” he said (Belloc, 1899, p. 281). This last request of his was done, and soon as it was “the sun set” and “there rose at once the confused noise of a thousand voices that rejoiced, or questioned, or despaired, and in the gathering darkness the Parisians returned…to their homes” (Belloc, 1899, p. 281). And so died Danton, the man who had played such a large part in the September Massacres, who killed so many innocent lives and scoffed in the direction of pious Catholics, so died the man whose soul God possibly touched and showed mercy to, the man who at the end died fighting for a cause that was just."

I gotta say that in the end, I fell for the possibly idealistic notion that Danton converted and was saved. I guess it's not totally probable and all of those titles I gave him: ("penitent", "good thief") may or may not be false, but I cling to the hope we will see him in heaven.

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