Today | News | Books | Recipes Adventure | Science Fiction | Ghost stories | Poetry | Children | History The Hero of the People: A Historical Romance of Love, Liberty and LoyaltyThe Project Gutenberg eBook of The Hero of the People: A Historical Romance of Love, Liberty and Loyalty This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this eBook. Title: The Hero of the People: A Historical Romance of Love, Liberty and Loyalty Author: Alexandre Dumas Translator: Henry Llewellyn Williams Release date: May 10, 2013 [eBook #42681] Most recently updated: October 4, 2014 Language: English Other information and formats: www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/42681 Credits: Produced by Juliet Sutherland. Chuck Greif and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net *** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE HERO OF THE PEOPLE: A HISTORICAL ROMANCE OF LOVE, LIBERTY AND LOYALTY *** Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Chuck Greif and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net Many spelling and punctuation errors have been corrected. A list of the etext transcriber's spelling corrections follows the text. Consistent archaic spellings have not been changed. (Note of etext transcriber.) PRICE, 25 CENTS. No. 80. THE SUNSET SERIES. By Subscription, per Year, Nine Dollars. February 22, 1894. Entered at the New York Post-Office as second-class matter. Copyright 1891, by J. S. OGILVIE. The Hero Of The People. BY Alex. Dumas. NEW YORK: J. S. OGILVIE PUBLISHING COMPANY, 57 ROSE STREET. A WONDERFUL OFFER! 70 House Plans for $1.00. [Illustration] If you are thinking about building a house don't fail to get the new book PALLISER'S AMERICAN ARCHITECTURE, containing 104 pages, 11×14 inches in size, consisting of large 9×12 plate pages giving plans, elevations, perspective views, descriptions, owners' names, actual cost of construction (=_no guess work_=), and instructions =_How to Build_= 70 Cottages, Villas, Double Houses, Brick Block Houses, suitable for city suburbs, town and country, houses for the farm, and workingmen's homes for all sections of the country, and costing from $300 to $6,500, together with specifications, form of contract, and a large amount of information on the erection of buildings and employment of architects, prepared by Palliser, Palliser & Co., the well-known architects. This book will save you hundreds of dollars. There is not a Builder, nor anyone intending to build or otherwise interested, that can afford to be without it. It is a practical work, and the best, cheapest and most popular book ever issued on Building. Nearly four hundred drawings. It is worth $5.00 to anyone, but we will send it bound in paper cover, by mail, post-paid for only $1.00; bound in handsome cloth, $2.00. Address all orders to _J. S. OGILVIE PUBLISHING CO., Lock Box 2767. 57 Rose Street, New York._ THE HERO OF THE PEOPLE. A HISTORICAL ROMANCE OF LOVE, LIBERTY AND LOYALTY. BY ALEX. DUMAS. Author of "The Queen's Necklace," "The Three Musketeers," "Balsamo the Magician," "Monte Cristo," "Taking the Bastile," "Chicot the Jester," etc. TRANSLATED FROM THE AUTHOR'S REVISED LATEST EDITION. BY HENRY LLEWELLYN WILLIAMS NEW YORK: J. S. OGILVIE PUBLISHING COMPANY, 57 ROSE STREET. _Entered according to act of Congress in the year 1892, by A. E. Smith & Co., in the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington._ THE HERO OF THE PEOPLE. CHAPTER I. LOCKSMITH AND GUNSMITH. The French Revolution had begun by the Taking of the Bastile by the people of Paris on the Fourteenth of July, 1789, but it seemed to have reached the high tide by King Louis XVI, with his Queen Marie Antoinette and others of the Royal Family, leaving Versailles, after some sanguinary rioting, for the Capital, Paris. But those who think, in such lulls of popular tempests, that all the mischief has blown over, make a mistake. Behind the men who make the first onset, are those who planned it and who wait for the rush to be made and, then, while others are tried or satisfied, glide into the crowds to stir them up. Mysterious agents of secret, fatal passions, they push on the movement from where it paused, and having urged it to its farthest limit, those who opened the way are horrified, at awakening to see that others attained the end. At the doorway of a wine saloon at Sevres by the bridge, over the Seine, a man was standing who had played the main part, though unseen, in the riots which compelled the Royal Family to renounce an attempt to escape out of the kingdom like many of their sycophants, and go from Versailles Palace to the Tuileries. This man was in the prime of life: he was dressed like a workingman, wearing velveteen breeches shielded by a leather apron with pockets such as shinglers wear to carry nailes in, or blacksmith-farriers or locksmiths. His stockings were grey, and his shoes had brass buckles; on his head was a fur cap like a grenadier's cut in half or what is called nowadays an artillerist's busby. Grey locks came straggling from under its hair and mingled with shaggy eyebrows; they shaded large bulging eyes, keen and sharp, quick, with such rapid changes that it was hard to tell their true color. His nose was rather thick than medium, the lips full, the teeth white, and his complexion sunburnt. Without being largely built, this man was well formed: his joints were not course and his hands were small and might have seemed delicate but for their being swart like those of workers in metal. Despite the vigor of the biceps muscle shown from his having rolled up his shirt sleeves, the skin was remarkable for its whiteness, and almost aristocratically fine. Within his reach was a richly gold-inlaid double-barrelled fowling piece, branded with the name of Leclere, the fashionable gunsmith of Paris. You may ask how could such a costly firearm come into the hands of a common artisan? In times of riot it is not always the whitest hands which grasp the finest weapons. This man had only arrived from Versailles since an hour, and perfectly well knew what had happened there: for to the landlord's questions as he supplied him with a bottle of wine which he did not touch, he had answered as follows: "The Queen is coming along with the King and the Dauphin. They had started at half afternoon, having at last decided to live at the Tuileries; in consequence of which for the future Paris would no longer want for bread, as it would have in her midst, the Baker, the Baker's Wife and the Baker's Boy, as the popular slang dubbed the three 'Royals'." As for himself, he was going to hang round to see the procession go by. This last assertion might be true, although it was easy to tell that his glance was more often bent on the side towards Paris than Versailles, w |