THE WORKS OF ANATOLE FRANCE THE WORKS OF ANATOLE FRANCE THE WORKS OF ANATOLE FRANCE IN AN ENGLISH TRANSLATION EDITED BY FREDERIC CHAPMAN THE GODS ARE ATHIRST THE GODS ARE ATHIRST BY ANATOLE FRANCE A TRANSLATION BY MRS. WILFRID JACKSON NEW YORK: JOHN LANE COMPANY LONDON JOHN LANE, THE BODLEY HEAD TORONTO BELL COKBURN MCMXIV Copyright, 1913 by JOHN LANE COMPANY THE GODS ARE ATHIRST I variste Gamelin, painter, pupil of David, member of the Section du Pont-Neuf, formerly Section Henri IV, had betaken himself at an early hour in the morning to the old church of the Barnabites, which for three years, since 21st May 1790, had served as meeting-place for the General Assembly of the Section. The church stood in a narrow, gloomy square, not far from the gates of the Palais de Justice. On the façade, which consisted of two of the Classical orders superimposed and was decorated with inverted brackets and flaming urns, blackened by the weather and disfigured by the hand of man, the religious emblems had been battered to pieces, while above the doorway had been inscribed in black letters the Republican catchword of "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity or Death." Évariste Gamelin made his way into the nave; the same vaults which had heard the surpliced clerks of the Congregation of St. Paul sing the divine offices, now looked down on red-capped patriots assembled to elect the Municipal magistrates and deliberate on the affairs of the Section. The Saints had been dragged from their niches and
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