Time for chapter 2.2.3, "Tresaillement des fibres profondes," variously translated as "The Thrill of Hidden Chords" and "A Stirring of the Inmost Nerves."
Cimourdain is acting like a counterbalance to Marat here. Marat is the Voice of the People: the “people” meaning those represented by the Evêché, the least refined, the least respectable, the least willing to compromise. Marat is about to leave, and Danton and Robespierre feel a “frisson” when he does, because he is like an eccentric prophet of the people and his leaving is like a curse. Losing him is losing the people. But then Cimourdain shows up, and he’s every bit as much the Voice of the People as Marat. In fact, more so: Marat fears the Evêché even while he allies with it. I love the aside about how each revolutionary has to be uneasy with the ones who are more extreme than he is—and to be able to distinguish which demands come from principle and which from covetousness. Cimourdain shows up and tells Marat he’s wrong, and affirms Robespierre’s fears about the Vendée threat. He swings the balance back from where it had been, in Marat’s favor, by throwing his rhetorical weight behind Robespierre. Did Laurent Basse deliberately let Cimourdain in because he didn't like the way the conversation was going? He was instructed to let in members of the Evêché, but I wonder if there was personal discretion involved.
Of course, he himself is thrown off-balance after hearing Gauvain’s name at the end.
As soon as I saw that Cimourdain was a priest at Lantenac’s house, I guessed that Lantenac was the great-uncle of the child Cimourdain raised, the great-uncle who fled. I also guessed that the mysterious “Gauvain,” whose signature was on the republican alert of Lantenac’s arrival and identity, and who commands the Vendée battalion against Lantenac’s forces, was the child Cimourdain raised. His child is too merciful by Cimourdain’s standards, by Robespierre’s and Danton’s and Marat’s standards. Which means that, by Cimourdain’s principles, Gauvain is coming perilously close to treason. Uh-oh. I’m remembering the royalists talking about the royalist dude who killed his republican son. Gauvain would appear to be caught in the crossfire between Lantenac and Cimourdain, both possibly willing to kill him for ideological treachery. Cimourdain is both shrewd and right to say that he has to be particularly strict with the noble republican commander, because if a priest is supervising a noble, that’s going to make the people especially suspicious, and for good reason.
I note that Cimourdain calls Marat “tu,” while Danton, Robespierre, and Marat were vous-ing each other (except at the very end when Marat was being even more insulting). Danton makes fun of Léchelle by turning his name into a pun on “l’échelle” or “the ladder.” Hugo cannot resist his puns.
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Of course, he himself is thrown off-balance after hearing Gauvain’s name at the end.
As soon as I saw that Cimourdain was a priest at Lantenac’s house, I guessed that Lantenac was the great-uncle of the child Cimourdain raised, the great-uncle who fled. I also guessed that the mysterious “Gauvain,” whose signature was on the republican alert of Lantenac’s arrival and identity, and who commands the Vendée battalion against Lantenac’s forces, was the child Cimourdain raised. His child is too merciful by Cimourdain’s standards, by Robespierre’s and Danton’s and Marat’s standards. Which means that, by Cimourdain’s principles, Gauvain is coming perilously close to treason. Uh-oh. I’m remembering the royalists talking about the royalist dude who killed his republican son. Gauvain would appear to be caught in the crossfire between Lantenac and Cimourdain, both possibly willing to kill him for ideological treachery. Cimourdain is both shrewd and right to say that he has to be particularly strict with the noble republican commander, because if a priest is supervising a noble, that’s going to make the people especially suspicious, and for good reason.
I note that Cimourdain calls Marat “tu,” while Danton, Robespierre, and Marat were vous-ing each other (except at the very end when Marat was being even more insulting).
Danton makes fun of Léchelle by turning his name into a pun on “l’échelle” or “the ladder.” Hugo cannot resist his puns.