| | 1 | Author: | Cooper
James Fenimore
1789-1851 | Add | | | Title: | The Headsman, Or, the Abbaye Des Vignerons  | | | | Published: | 1997 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Modern English collection | UVA-LIB-Text | University of Virginia Library, Early American Fiction, 1789-1875 | UVA-LIB-EarlyAmFict1789-1875 | | | | Description: | While the mummeries related were exhibiting
in the great square, Maso, Pippo, Conrad, and the
others concerned in the little disturbance connected
with the affair of the dog, were eating their discontent
within the walls of the guard-house. Vevey
has several squares, and the various ceremonies
of the gods and demigods were now to be repeated
in the smaller areas. On one of the latter
stands the town-house and prison. The offenders
in question had been summarily transferred to the
gaol, in obedience to the command of the officer
charged with preserving the peace. By an act of
grace, however, that properly belonged to the day,
as well as to the character of the offence, the prisoners
were permitted to occupy a part of the edifice
that commanded a view of the square, and
consequently were not precluded from all participation
in the joyousness of the festivities. This
indulgence had been accorded on the condition
that the parties should cease their wrangling, and
otherwise conduct themselves in a way not to
bring scandal on the exhibition in which the pride
of every Vévaisan was so deeply enlisted. All
the captives, the innocent as well as the guilty, gladly
subscribed to the terms; for they found themselves
in a temporary duresse which did not admit
of any fair argument of the merits of the case,
and there is no leveller so effectual as a common
misfortune. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
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