FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   1200   1201   1202   1203   1204   1205   1206   1207   1208   1209   1210   1211   1212   1213   1214   1215   1216   1217   1218   1219   1220   1221   1222   1223   1224  
1225   1226   1227   1228   1229   1230   1231   1232   1233   1234   1235   1236   1237   1238   1239   1240   1241   1242   1243   1244   1245   1246   1247   1248   1249   >>   >|  
opinion as to the prowess of Captain Ambrose. The tables were turned, the miniature revolution was at an end, the counter-revolution effected. Gosson and his confederates escaped out of a back door, but were soon afterwards arrested. Next morning, Baron Capres, the great Malcontent seignior, who was stationed with his regiment in the neighbourhood, and who had long been secretly coquetting with the Prior and Parma, marched into the city at the head of a strong detachment, and straightway proceeded to erect a very tall gibbet in front of the Hotel de Ville. This looked practical in the eyes of the liberated and reinstated magistrates, and Gosson, Crugeot, and the rest were summoned at once before them. The advocate thought, perhaps, with a sigh, that his judges, so recently his prisoners, might have been the fruit for another gallowstree, had he planted it when the ground was his own; but taking heart of grace, he encouraged his colleagues--now his fellow-culprits. Crugeot, undismayed, made his appearance before the tribunal, arrayed in a corslet of proof, with a golden hilted sword, a scarf embroidered with pearls and gold, and a hat bravely plumaged with white, blue, and, orange feathers--the colors of William the Silent--of all which finery he was stripped, however, as soon as he entered the court. The process was rapid. A summons from Brussels was expected every hour from the general government, ordering the cases to be brought before the federal tribunal; and as the Walloon provinces were not yet ready for open revolt, the order would be an inconvenient one. Hence the necessity for haste. The superior court of Artois, to which an appeal from the magistrates lay, immediately held a session in another chamber of the Hotel de Ville while the lower court was trying the prisoners, and Bertoul, Crugeot, Mordacq, with several others, were condemned in a few hours to the gibbet. They were invited to appeal, if they chose, to the council of Artois, but hearing that the court was sitting next door, so that there was no chance of a rescue in the streets, they declared themselves satisfied with the sentence. Gosson had not been tried, his case being reserved for the morrow. Meantime, the short autumnal day had drawn to a close. A wild, stormy, rainy night then set in, but still the royalist party--citizens and soldiers intermingled--all armed to the teeth, and uttering fierce cries, while the whole scene was fitfully illumin
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   1200   1201   1202   1203   1204   1205   1206   1207   1208   1209   1210   1211   1212   1213   1214   1215   1216   1217   1218   1219   1220   1221   1222   1223   1224  
1225   1226   1227   1228   1229   1230   1231   1232   1233   1234   1235   1236   1237   1238   1239   1240   1241   1242   1243   1244   1245   1246   1247   1248   1249   >>   >|  



Top keywords:
Gosson
 

Crugeot

 

magistrates

 
gibbet
 
appeal
 

Artois

 
prisoners
 

tribunal

 
revolution
 

inconvenient


necessity

 

revolt

 

soldiers

 

citizens

 

session

 

intermingled

 
immediately
 

superior

 

uttering

 

summons


Brussels

 
process
 

entered

 

illumin

 

fitfully

 
expected
 

brought

 

federal

 

Walloon

 

provinces


fierce

 

general

 

government

 

ordering

 

chamber

 
rescue
 
streets
 

declared

 

chance

 

sitting


satisfied

 

sentence

 

Meantime

 
autumnal
 

morrow

 
reserved
 

stormy

 

condemned

 

Mordacq

 

royalist