Page 31 of To Ruin a Gentleman (The Scarlet Chronicle 1)

Angelette opened her mouth to tell this man that he had no right to speak to her in such a way, but Hugh took her wrist and squeezed. “We are friends of liberty,” he said, making his English accent apparent.

“You’re British,” said the youth, who couldn’t have been one and twenty.

“Yes.”

The leader looked them up and down. “The British are no friends of liberty.”

The men muttered their agreement, moving forward menacingly. Most held some sort of weapon. A few had old muskets Hugh doubted had powder or shot, but many carried kitchen knives or crudely made weapons.

“But we are friends of liberty. That is why we stripped our king of his power years ago and created a constitution and a parliament.”

“A parliament ruled by aristos,” the leader said and spat. “The people will rule France.”

“Then long live the people,” Hugh said. He turned to Angelette, his eyes filled with warning.

She could hardly find her voice. “Long live the people,” she repeated finally.

“Aristos,” said someone in the group of what Angelette now realized must be part of the citizens’ militia. “Death to the aristos.”

A few mutters of agreement sounded, and Hugh pulled Angelette behind him. Her legs would barely move. This was not the Paris she knew. The boys moved forward, and Hugh stepped back. Angelette closed her eyes, and then the air exploded in a burst of sound that seemed to rock the entire city.

Angelette was thrown against the building. Her hat toppled from her head, and for a moment all she saw was the gray of the wall and the blue of the sky turning over and over. When she regained her balance, she looked up and into Hugh’s concerned eyes. “Did I hurt you?”

“I don’t think so.” She took a mental inventory of all her aches and pains. None were serious. “Did you throw me to the ground?”

He gave a her a rueful smile. “I was trying to protect you. Obviously, I made a muck of it.”

She raised her hand to cup his cheek, but the moment was short-lived. The half dozen members of the citizens’ militia shouted and jostled and pulled her and Hugh to their feet. “The Bastille! Down with tyranny! Down with the Bastille!”

Angelette was yanked roughly to one side and Hugh to the other. Another boom resounded over the city, and Angelette realized it must be the cannons of the Bastille. Was the garrison there really under siege?

“Let us go,” Hugh was saying over the ringing in her ears. All around them, people had come out of their houses. Doors had opened, windows were raised, and Paris lifted its head to peer about.

“We haven’t done you any wrong. We only want to go to the Palais-Royal.”

“You’re coming with us,” the leader told them, motioning his men. Angelette was grabbed roughly and pulled forward. “Our troop leader is at the Bastille. He can decide what to do with you traitor aristos!”

Angelette tried to protest that she wasn’t a traitor, but the men didn’t listen. She was dragged along with them, past the de Merville house, along the Rue Saint-Honoré, and closer and closer to the roar of the crowds at the Bastille.

***

HUGH KNEW AS SOON ASthey arrived that the situation was serious. From the little conversation he overheard, he surmised that a group of peasants had been shown inside the fortress to negotiate, but as the negotiations dragged on, the crowds had grown impatient and attacked the fortress, gaining entrance into the undefended outer courtyard.

He and Angelette were thrust into the midst of the crowd, surrounded by men and women with pikes, who shouted and screamed and pushed to enter the Bastille. People pushed against them on all sides, screaming and jostling, and it was all Hugh could do to hold on to Angelette and keep his footing. Then the soldiers fired on the crowds. Everyone screamed and ducked down. Some ran for cover, but others rose from overturned wagons and behind walls and fired back. The cannons fired again, shaking the entire city and making Hugh’s ears ring. Choking smoke rose from windows of the Bastille and drifted into the courtyard where the mob had managed to set fires and obscure their activities.

Hugh coughed into his sleeve and fought to keep Angelette close. If he could only find an opening, he could take her and disappear into the crowd, but not only were the crowds too thick, the small militia holding them captive were attentive. He should have fought them earlier—six against one were steep odds—but now he had no chance. He and Angelette were dragged along, closer to the courtyard and the fighting as the boys of the citizens’ militia searched for a leader to whom they could present their spoils. Hugh was taller than many of the other men and he could make out the fallen drawbridge that had been the barrier between the Bastille’s courtyard and the outside. As they neared it, pushed inexorably along, he dragged Angelette against him, using his body to shield her.

“This is madness!” she cried as the crowd surged, and she was crushed to him. “They will never take this fortress.”

But Hugh was not so certain. The royal army had stood by when the people had attacked the Hôtel des Invalides. What was to compel them to act now? Moreover, as Hugh understood it, the Bastille was manned by former soldiers who were too old or infirm to carry out the duties in the regular army. How long could they stand if faced with a lengthy siege? Yes, there were Swiss grenadiers inside, but what good were thirty or so against a thousand?

More musket fire erupted from the Bastille, and thevainqueurs de la Bastille,as the people were calling themselves, retreated, pushing Hugh and Angelette back as well. For a moment, they were separated from the militia, and Hugh looked for a place to take cover and stay hidden. But just as he slid along the wall of the Bastille, a hand grabbed his shoulder and two of the boys from the militia shoved him forward.

“This way, aristo!”

“They’ll kill us,” Angelette said as once again they were pushed by the flood ofvainqueursover the fallen drawbridge and into the courtyard.

“They’re too busy taking the fortress to worry about the nobility today,” he answered. Still, he would rather not test that premise.

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