"The uprising happened much as we remember it," says Combeferre, "but there was help, at the end. It wasn't just outliers like us and Saint-Merry left at the end. The other barricades held, the people rose in greater numbers and pressed their chance harder--I think perhaps the cholera epidemic wasn't as bad, in that Paris, though I'm not sure. And there was no rain on June 5th." No rain. The sun came out, the clouds dispersed, and men were saved. France was saved. It was that simple, that providential.
"And then--a Republic. Elected by a free and sovereign people, with no desperately poor people on the streets. I don't know the precise policies in place. Likely justice was still incomplete, but it was far less dire than in our world. A true Republic. And all of us a part of it. You were a statesman, had been for decades at that point--Joly was a scientist, Feuilly did great work for Poland and other nations, and their people who took refuge in France...and there were airships. In the 1860s, there were airships. And Matelote owned the Corinthe, and it was..."
Combeferre searches for the right word to describe the difference. He settles on, "Clean."
no subject
"The uprising happened much as we remember it," says Combeferre, "but there was help, at the end. It wasn't just outliers like us and Saint-Merry left at the end. The other barricades held, the people rose in greater numbers and pressed their chance harder--I think perhaps the cholera epidemic wasn't as bad, in that Paris, though I'm not sure. And there was no rain on June 5th." No rain. The sun came out, the clouds dispersed, and men were saved. France was saved. It was that simple, that providential.
"And then--a Republic. Elected by a free and sovereign people, with no desperately poor people on the streets. I don't know the precise policies in place. Likely justice was still incomplete, but it was far less dire than in our world. A true Republic. And all of us a part of it. You were a statesman, had been for decades at that point--Joly was a scientist, Feuilly did great work for Poland and other nations, and their people who took refuge in France...and there were airships. In the 1860s, there were airships. And Matelote owned the Corinthe, and it was..."
Combeferre searches for the right word to describe the difference. He settles on, "Clean."