Free Désirée by Annemarie Selinko Page A

second uniform would be quite superfluous, wouldn't it?"
    "Children, I have a great, a very great surprise for you!" Mama stood before us, laughing and crying at the same time. "Julie and Joseph—" Her voice quivered. Then she pulled herself together. "Eugénie, call Suzanne! And go and see if Etienne is home yet. He promised me he'd be here punctually at half-past five."
    I rushed up the stairs and told them both.
    And then we all drank champagne. It was getting dark in he garden, but Joseph and Julie no longer bothered about he summer house, but kept talking about the home they would have in one of the suburbs. Part of Julie's dowry was togo for buying a nice villa. Napoleone left to tell his mother all about it. And I came up to my room to write it all down. .
    My nice little tipsiness is all gone. I'm only tired and a little bit sad. For now I'll soon be alone in our white room and I'll never be able to use Julie's rouge again and surrep titiously read her novels. But I don't want to be sad; I wan t to think about something cheerful. I must find out when Nap oleone's birthday is. Perhaps the allowance I've saved will be enough for a gala uniform. But—where do you buy gala uniform for a General?
     
    Marseilles, middle of Thermidor (Beginning of August, Mama says)
    Napoleone has been arrested.
    I have been living in a bad dream since last evening. Except for me, the whole town is wild with joy. People are dancing in front of the Town Hall, bands march by one after another, and the mayor is planning a ball, the first in two years. On the ninth of Thermidor Robespierre and his brother were deprived of their civil rights by the other deputies, arrested, and the next morning hauled off to the guillotine. Everyone who had anything whatsoever to do with Robespierre is afraid now of being arrested. Joseph has already lost the post he got through Napoleone's friendship with Robespierre's younger brother. So far, more than ninety Jacobins have been executed in Paris. Etienne says he will never forgive me for bringing the Buonapartes to our home. Mama insists that Julie and I attend the mayor's ball. It would be my first ball, but I won't go. I can hardly laugh and da when I don't know where they've taken Napoleone.
    Until the ninth of Thermidor—no, actually until the tenth— Julie and I were very happy. Julie was working eagerly on her trousseau and embroidered hundreds of times the letter B on pillow slips, table cloths, towels and handkerchiefs. The wedding is to be in about six weeks. Joseph came see o us every evening, often with his mother and his brothers and sisters. If Napoleone wasn't inspecting some fortification or other, he appeared at all hours of the day; and sometimes his handsome adjutants, Lieutenant Junot and Captain Marmont, came, too. But the interminable talk about politics d idn't interest me at all. That's why I've just learned that about two months ago Robespierre instituted a new method of voting. It seems that from now on even deputies can be arrested at the order of a member of the Committee of Public Safety. They say that lots of deputies have guilty consciences because they've got rich on bribes. Deputies Tallien and Barras are rumoured millionaires. Robespierre also unexpectedly arrested the beautiful Marquise de Fontenay, whom Deputy Tallien had previously released from prison and who, since then, has been his mistress. Why Robespierre arrested her, no one knows—perhaps only to annoy Tallien. Many believe there really was something against Fontenay, while others believe that Tallien and Barras were afraid of being arrested themselves because they took bribes—in any event, they organized a great conspiracy, secretly, with a certain Fouché.
    At first we could hardly believe these rumours. But when the first newspapers arrived from Paris, the whole town changed with a bang. Flags were hung from the windows, the shops were closed, and everyone called on everyone else, The mayor didn't wait for