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| (1) One: not counting the autonomists (2) Indivisible: except for the separatists |
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| Look how, with a few strokes of the pencil, a portrait has been sketched of a set of menacing figures. Before these characters have received even a single mention in the text, their appearance alone makes us feel that their repression is justified. And don't expect to find any mention of the 5,000 Republican prisoners liberated by the dying Bonchamps. In any case, this is what Merlin, a Republican commander, says on 18 October 1793: "...these cowardly enemies of our country have, we are told, spared the lives of more than 4,000 of our soldiers whom they were holding prisoner. This is perfectly true; I have heard it direct from several of the men that were released. Some of them even appear moved by this piece of unbelievable hypocrisy // you will oblige me by not breathing a word of this indignity. The idea that free men should owe their lives to these slaves. etc". Merlin can rest easy in his grave. His words are still heeded. | |||
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| t is interesting to see how the uprising - the spontaneity of which is not called into question - is presented here as something imposed upon the people by force. | |||
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