The boy waited in the rain for hours. He had been given a tremendous honor, to give the welcoming speech (in Latin) for the newly crowned king and his young queen. But the king and queen were late, and the boy was wet. Finally, the royal coach arrived, and the boy’s moment of glory arrived. Only the royal couple never exited the coach, probably due to the weather, and so one wonders if the king ever heard the carefully prepared words or not, since he signaled his driver to leave even before the boy was finished.
Life is full of ironies. As the young boy bowed his head to his sovereign, who could predict that in just a few short years that very same ruler, Louis XVI of France, would find his own head bowed down onto the guillotine at the command of the boy from the rain, Maximilien Robespierre.
For further reading follow the links below:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robespierre
www.moonlit.org.uk/robespierre/childhood.htm
www.loyno.edu/history/journal/1983-4/mcletchie.htm
No comments:
Post a Comment