In the Reign of Terror | Page 4

the story speaks for itself.
My object has been rather to tell you a tale of interest than to impart
historical knowledge, for the facts of the dreadful time when "the

terror" reigned supreme in France are well known to all educated lads. I
need only say that such historical allusions as are necessary for the
sequence of the story will be found correct, except that the Noyades at
Nantes did not take place until a somewhat later period than is here
assigned to them.
Yours sincerely,
G.A. HENTY.

CHAPTER I
A Journey to France
"I don't know what to say, my dear."
"Why, surely, James, you are not thinking for a moment of letting him
go?"
"Well, I don't know. Yes, I am certainly thinking of it, though I haven't
at all made up my mind. There are advantages and disadvantages."
"Oh, but it is such a long way, and to live among those French people,
who have been doing such dreadful things, attacking the Bastille, and,
as I have heard you say, passing all sorts of revolutionary laws, and
holding their king and queen almost as prisoners in Paris!"
"Well, they won't eat him, my dear. The French Assembly, or the
National Assembly, or whatever it ought to be called, has certainly
been passing laws limiting the power of the king and abolishing many
of the rights and privileges of the nobility and clergy; but you must
remember that the condition of the vast body of the French nation has
been terrible. We have long conquered our liberties, and, indeed, never
even in the height of the feudal system were the mass of the English
people more enslaved as have been the peasants of France.
"We must not be surprised, therefore, if in their newly-recovered
freedom they push matters to an excess at first; but all this will right
itself, and no doubt a constitutional form of government, somewhat
similar to our own, will be established. But all this is no reason against
Harry's going out there. You don't suppose that the French people are
going to fly at the throats of the nobility. Why, even in the heat of the
civil war here there was no instance of any personal wrong being done
to the families of those engaged in the struggle, and in only two or
three cases, after repeated risings, were any even of the leaders

executed.
"No; Harry will be just as safe there as he would be here. As to the
distance, it's nothing like so far as if he went to India, for example. I
don't see any great chance of his setting the Thames on fire at home.
His school report is always the same - 'Conduct fair; progress in study
moderate' - which means, as I take it, that he just scrapes along. That's
it, isn't it, Harry?"
"Yes, father, I think so. You see every one cannot be at the top of the
form."
"That's a very true observation, my boy. It is clear that if there are
twenty boys in a class, nineteen fathers have to be disappointed. Still,
of course, one would like to be the father who is not disappointed."
"I stick to my work," the boy said; "but there are always fellows who
seem to know just the right words without taking any trouble about it. It
comes to them, I suppose."
"What do you say to this idea yourself, Harry?"
"I don't know, sir," the boy said doubtfully.
"And I don't know," his father agreed. "At anyrate we will sleep upon it.
I am clear that the offer is not to be lightly rejected."
Dr. Sandwith was a doctor in Chelsea. Chelsea in the year 1790 was a
very different place to Chelsea of the present day. It was a pretty
suburban hamlet, and was indeed a very fashionable quarter. Here
many of the nobility and personages connected with the court had their
houses, and broad country fields and lanes separated it from the stir and
din of London. Dr. Sandwith had a good practice, but he had also a
large family. Harry was at Westminster, going backwards and forwards
across the fields to school. So far he had evinced no predilection for
any special career. He was a sturdy, well-built lad of some sixteen
years old. He was, as his father said, not likely to set the Thames on fire
in any way. He was as undistinguished in the various sports popular
among boys in those days as he was in his lessons. He was as good as
the average, but no better; had fought some tough fights with boys of
his own age, and had shown endurance rather than brilliancy.
In the ordinary course of things he would probably in three or four