1.2.3-Valdsbejakande

Quatrevingt-treize 1.2.3
"Still in this Third Estate," replied Boisberthelot, "there are estimable men. Take, for example, the clockmaker Joly. He was a sergeant in the Flanders regiment; he becomes a Vendéan chief; he commands a company on the coast; he has a son, who is a republican, and while the father serves with the Whites, the son serves with the Blues. They meet. Battle. The father takes his son prisoner, and blows his brains out." "That is good," said la Vieuville.

The Brutus they are talking about isn’t the one who stabbed Caesar, it’s his ancestor, Lucius Junius Brutus. He led a rebellion against the king, deposing him and establishing the Roman Republic. Brutus’ sons conspired to restore the monarchy. They were found out and condemned to death. Brutus watched the execution without interfering.

"And the Duke de Chartres!" "Son of Egalité. Ah, when will he be king, that fellow? Never!" "He is on his way to the throne. His crimes assist him."

Philippe Egalité was the name the former duke of Orleans took after the revolution. He was suspected of aspiring to be king and executed during the Terror.

His son, the Duke of Chartres, went on to become king Louis Philippe I in 1830.

I have pretty much no idea who the other people mentioned in this chapter are, and there are a lot of them. I wonder how familiar this chapter would have been for the first readers of this book.

Something terrible had just happened.

Uh oh!"A royalist Brutus," replied Boisberthelot.

Commentary
Pilferingapples Interesting that these two describe Louis-Phillipe with “his crimes assist him.” They may be being sarcastic about the crimes being crimes, depending, but it’s still…interesting. Any time Hugo talks Louis-Phillipe I get skeptical; I’m wondering if he’s putting this dismissal in these characters’ voices to sort of discredit or mock it?

Thanks for all the extra context! I did not know the Brutus thing at ALL, wow, that’s really harsh. 0_o

Lifeisyetfair (reply to Pilferingapples) I’m think they’re referring to Louis-Philippe’s father, Philippe Egalite, who was a supporter of the revolution, but suspected of only doing that out of ambition. In that case, his crime would have been to vote for the death of the king, his own cousin.