And how through hardships manifold and long
  The glorious renovation would proceed. 
  Thus interrupted by uneasy bursts
  Of exultation, I pursued my way 595
  Along that very shore which I had skimmed
  In former days, when—­spurring from the Vale
  Of Nightshade, and St. Mary’s mouldering fane, [e]
  And the stone abbot, after circuit made
  In wantonness of heart, a joyous band 600
  Of school-boys hastening to their distant home
  Along the margin of the moonlight sea—­
  We beat with thundering hoofs the level sand. [f]

* * * * *

FOOTNOTES ON THE TEXT

[Footnote A:  He left Blois for Paris in the late autumn of 1792—­Ed.]

[Footnote B:  King Louis the Sixteenth, dethroned on August 10th, 1792.—­Ed.]

[Footnote C:  “The Ormrahs or lords of the Moghul’s court.”  See Francois Besnier’s letter ’Concerning Hindusthan’.—­Ed.]

[Footnote D:  The “Republic” was decreed on the 22nd of September 1792.—­Ed.]

[Footnote E:  The “September Massacres” lasted from the 2nd to the 6th of that month.—­Ed.]

[Footnote F:  He reached Paris in the beginning of October 1792.—­Ed.]

[Footnote G:  The Place du Carrousel.—­Ed.]

[Footnote H:  See notes [E] and [F].—­Ed.]

[Footnote I: 

“One day, among the last of October, Robespierre, being summoned to the tribune by some new hint of that old calumny of the Dictatorship, was speaking and pleading there, with more and more comfort to himself; till rising high in heart, he cried out valiantly:  Is there any man here that dare specifically accuse me? ‘’Moi!’’ exclaimed one.  Pause of deep silence:  a lean angry little Figure, with broad bald brow, strode swiftly towards the tribune, taking papers from its pocket:  ‘I accuse thee, Robespierre,—­I, Jean Baptiste Louvet!’ The Seagreen became tallow-green; shrinking to a corner of the tribune, Danton cried, ’Speak, Robespierre; there are many good citizens that listen;’ but the tongue refused its office.  And so Louvet, with a shrill tone, read and recited crime after crime:  dictatorial temper, exclusive popularity, bullying at elections, mob-retinue, September Massacres;—­till all the Convention shrieked again,” etc. etc.

Carlyle’s ‘French Revolution’, vol. iii. book ii. chap. 5.—­Ed.]

[Footnote K:  Robespierre got a week’s delay to prepare a defence.

“That week he is not idle.  He is ready at the day with his written Speech:  smooth as a Jesuit Doctor’s, and convinces some.  And now?...poor Louvet, unprepared, can do little or nothing.  Barrere proposes that these comparatively despicable personalities be dismissed by order of the day!  Order of the day it accordingly is.”

Carlyle, ut supra.—­Ed.]