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Sep. 6th, 2007 12:50 pmStill migraine (though a lesser type of pain) so I'll let Fanny Burney have the keyboard today.
"I often reflected upon the difference that would have appeared in the two Nations of France & England under similar circumstances: had an Invader of any Name or Renown, effected a footing on any part of our Coast, what a ferment would instantly have been excited in our metropolis! Not a street but would have rung with cries of News, true or false; not a Mail Coach wouild have appeared, but the populace would have stopt it for information; & not an hour would have passed without some real, or pretended Courier, let loose upon the multitiude, to convey or to invent intelligence; for few, at such momentous periods, are fastidious with respect to Truth; something fresh to feed conjecture suffices to appease the famine of Ignorance for, on such occasions, we loath taciturnity far more than falsehood.
But when Buonaparte actually arrived at Lyons, the face of affairs changed."
If you want to know what happened next, remind me that we're at the bottom of p. 194. I feel like a bit of suspense today (as oppose to those rare days when I wear stockings, and feel like suspenders).
"I often reflected upon the difference that would have appeared in the two Nations of France & England under similar circumstances: had an Invader of any Name or Renown, effected a footing on any part of our Coast, what a ferment would instantly have been excited in our metropolis! Not a street but would have rung with cries of News, true or false; not a Mail Coach wouild have appeared, but the populace would have stopt it for information; & not an hour would have passed without some real, or pretended Courier, let loose upon the multitiude, to convey or to invent intelligence; for few, at such momentous periods, are fastidious with respect to Truth; something fresh to feed conjecture suffices to appease the famine of Ignorance for, on such occasions, we loath taciturnity far more than falsehood.
But when Buonaparte actually arrived at Lyons, the face of affairs changed."
If you want to know what happened next, remind me that we're at the bottom of p. 194. I feel like a bit of suspense today (as oppose to those rare days when I wear stockings, and feel like suspenders).