(…)The new era began; the king was tried, doomed, and beheaded; the
Republic of Liberty, Equality, Fraternity, or Death, declared for victory or
death against the world in arms (…)
A revolutionary tribunal in the capital, and forty or fifty thousand revolutionary
committees all over the land; a law of the Suspected, which struck away all
security for liberty or life, and delivered over any good and innocent person
to any bad and guilty one; prisons gorged with people who had committed no
offence, and could obtain no hearing; these things became the established order
and nature of appointed things, and seemed to be ancient usage before they were
many weeks old. Above all, one hideous figure grew as familiar as if it had
been before the general gaze from the foundations of the world--the figure of
the sharp female called La Guillotine.
It was the popular theme for jests; it was the best cure for headache, it
infallibly prevented the hair from turning grey, it imparted a peculiar
delicacy to the complexion, it was the National Razor which shaved close: who
kissed La Guillotine, looked through the little window and sneezed into the
sack. It was the sign of the regeneration of the human race. It superseded the
Cross. Models of it were worn on breasts from which the Cross was discarded,
and it was bowed down to and believed in where the Cross was denied.
It sheared off heads so many, that it, and the ground it most polluted, were
a rotten red (…)
“A Tale of two cities” by Charles Dickens
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