Liberté, égalité, fraternité ou la mort

You are Marie Davanche, an aristocrat in disguise. You are in danger of being found out and led to the guillotine. You have experience much difficulty with playing the part of a peasant. You really can't get down their accent, even though you have heard it over and over again and you don't know how to walk like the peasants.

     You finally get used to your clothes, and enjoy walking around Paris. You get up early in the morning to get in line for a loaf of bread. You take out a leather bag from a hiding place in your house, and then grab 5 sous. You will use that amount to go and buy a loaf of bread. When you get in line, you are at the very back. It seems like the whole city of Paris is there. You are very disappointed that you didn't get up earlier.

     When it is your turn, you ask for a big loaf of bread, but to your dismay, all that there is left is a very tiny loaf.

     "Can't you make a bigger loaf for me and save it? I will pay for it right now and then get it tomorrow," you plead like every other peasant does. See, you have observed them in the streets and picked up on the way they bargain.

     "No, if I did that to everyone, then I wouldn't be being fair," he said in a rather sympathetic tone. You walk away sad and frustrated. Bread is the staple you need to stay alive. Instead, you decide that you would rather starve to death then waste your money on a dinky loaf of bread.

      You decide to go and watch the guillotining. You walk over and push yourself to the front of the crowd. A man is walking up the steps; you watch as he is strapped to the plank and pushed in. After he is guillotined, his head is held up high and then tossed into a basket along with the rest of his body. That was it for you, and you walk away disgusted with what has happened.

     You get the shocking news that Jean Paul Marat was murdered by Charlotte Corday. The people view him as their "god", and now, he is seen as their martyr.

     You receive the news that Charlotte Corday has now been guillotined for the murder of Marat. You feel sad. She was one of your friends, and yet she got killed. You wish that you could have done something for her, but then what is there that you could have done? You would have probably been blamed for conspiring with her, and then you would have been guillotined yourself.

She was the only friend that you trusted with your secret. Now who could you trust?

     When Catholicism and Christianity are banished from France, you are not surprised. The French Republic calendar is the "new thing." One week now consists of ten days so that the French people forget to observe Sunday. You think that this has gone too far.

     Finally, Georges Danton raises a cry against the guillotine. He says that the Revolutionaries have had enough blood shed. Robespierre does not agree. When you hear that Danton is killed, all you have left is to follow Robespierre or give up your identity.

     You hate all this bloodshed. You’ve even seen some of your

friends killed. You’ve had to betray others in order to mask your identity. It’s getting harder to star concealed. You decide to take action and flee Paris. You can’t trust anybody, so you tell no one about your secret,

     You take your leather pouch out of its hiding place and stuff it into a flour sack. You then take an extra change of clothes and shove them into a hiding place till tomorrow when you escape Paris.

     You wake up early in the morning, and start for the bakery. With your 20 sous, you purchase 4 loaves of bread. When you arrive, there is just a short line. When it's your turn, you ask for four loaves of bread. You put down the money and you receive 4 of the biggest loaves. 

     As you walk to your house, you look behind you making sure that nobody is following you. When you arrive at your house, you walk in and hurriedly shut and bolt your door. You walk over to your hiding place, and take out the sack. Upon opening it, you wrap the bread in a white cloth and stuff it into the sack. 

     Now you are all ready to move. You walk out the back door, and rush to the dock looking very carefully around at your settings.

     At the end of the dock, you find a steady looking rowboat tied to stake and decide to take. This might lead you to finding a ship headed for England. You toss your bag into the boat and then carefully climb in. After untying the knot that is on the boat, you use your legs to kick the dock and give your boat a running start. Rowing is not nearly as difficult as the work you've done in the past. All of the sudden you see a ship. You hold up one of the lanterns that you’ve brought along with you and look. It doesn't have a British flag, but it doesn't have a French flag; so you decide to row towards it. You row faster and harder.

     When you reach the ship, you hear faint whispers. "What is it Jacques?"

     "I don't know. It looks like a rowboat, but I'm not sure."

     "Let's pull it in. Maybe it's one of those people who are trying to escape France."

     "Let's just let this one escape, Pierre."

     "No, you know we were put on this duty for a reason. If we let this one escape we could get guillotined. You know how fierce Robespierre is about these kinds of things. He would be so angry. Pull her in or I will report you as a friend of the aristocrats."

     After hearing the conversation, you try to row away but it is impossible. You are stuck. You don't know how, but you just want to get away. Grabbing your sack, you prepare to jump. Just as you get ready to, something comes flying at you and knocks you out.

     After that, Jacques throws a rope with a hook, and it digs into your boat. "Did you get it?"

     Yes, I did."

     "Haul her in then," Pierre commands. Jacques pulls the rope and the boat comes closer. When it comes as close as it will, Jacques ties it to a pole on the ship, and jumps onto the boat. He looks very closely you and then yells up to Pierre, "You can cast the rope down. This time, Pierre casts down a rope without a hook. Jacques grabs it and ties it around you, and then ties the remaining rope around himself. "You can pull now," he yelled. Pierre pulls in and Jacques climbs up the steep side of the ship.

When he arrives on the deck he carefully lays you down onto the deck of the ship. Pierre kneels down and carefully examines you. He searches for anything that would be proof of her aristocracy. "Was there anything in the boat when you went down?"

    "Yes, there was a flour sack."

     "Well, that must have the proof that we need. Go down and get it," Pierre commands in an annoyed voice. Jacques goes through the same process again, and when he arrives on the ship for a second time, he tosses the sack to Pierre.

     Pierre hurriedly opens up your bag and rummages through it. He sets down the loaves of bread, and then finds the leather pouch. After carefully dumping out its contents onto the deck, he starts counting the pieces. "Forty sous; No poor person could ever earn that much money. I am sure of it," Pierre said in a wicked tone. He stuffs everything back into the sack and makes the command to start the way back to Paris.

     When you wake up, you are in a French prison bound with chains around your feet and hands. You also have fetters around your neck. You try to twist your head, but all you can do is look ahead. The prison is full of other convicts. Worst of all, the prison is infested with rats. You try the best you can to scoot away from them before they craw all over you.

     Finally, after a few days of being in prison, you are called up with several other prisoners. The fetters on your neck and feet are unlocked and you are led away to your unknown destination.

     The guards open the door to a building and you are led into the room first. Two guards stand by you and you walk down a long hallway. When you come to the end of the hall, there is a man dressed very richly.

     “Hmhm,”  he clears his throat and then precedes. "You have been found to have been identified as Marie Davanche, an aristocrat in disguise. Do you have anything to say against the accusation? If not, I will proceed." You remain silent.

"You were found in a rowboat trying to escape from Paris. If all this is found to be true, you are sentenced to death by the guillotine. Do you have anything to say in your defense?"

"Yes."

"Then proceed."

     "I have a right to escape. Paris was not made to be a prison. It was made for people to live freely in, and I think that it is unfair that you are killing innocent children. I am finished."

     "Treason! Treason! Lead her to the guillotine! Liberté, égalité, fraternité!" the people cry in their anger. One man comes up with a knife and cuts your hair. Then two of the people grab you before the judge can say anything. You are led down the streets to the guillotine with the angry mob following close behind you, shouting, "Liberté, égalité, fraternité!"  

    Your only option is to walk up the steps of the guillotine to your death. When you arrive at the top, you are bound with a rope and shoved onto the plank. Then, a man pushes the plank until your head is locked into a stock. You wait nervously for the blade to slam down upon your head. The last thing you hear is the crowd shouting, "Down with the blade! Down with the blade!" The Slam, the blade comes down upon your head, and you never ever again see the     light of day.