Chapter 33
THE JACQUERIE Meanwhile, after the 2nd of December, the crime being committed, it was imperative to mislead public opinion. The coup d'tat began to shriek about the Jacquerie, like the assassin who cried: "Stop thief!" We may add, that a Jacquerie had been promised, and that M. Bonaparte could not break all his promises at once without some inconvenience. What but the Jacquerie was the red spectre? Some reality must be imparted to that spectre: one cannot suddenly burst out laughing in the face of a whole people and say: "It was nothing! I only kept you in fear of yourselves." Consequently there was a Jacquerie. The promises of the play-bill were observed. The imaginations of his entourage gave themselves a free rein; that old bugbear Mother Goose was resuscitated, and many a child, on
- Writer
