LE TOMBEAU
DE
MIRABEAU
MIRABEAU'S TOMB [1]
My fellow citizens, death has just
taken from us the father of liberty; this loss is engraved in our hearts; the enemies
of the motherland believe they have triumphed, they are wrong, in Mirabeau they
have lost a protecting rampart, just as we have lost one of our strongest
supports.
My fellow citizens, this
loss is harrowing, but let us not be discouraged, let us render unto this great
man all that we owe him; he exhausted himself, he lost his life working night
and day for our happiness: if he made mistakes his never to be forgotten works,
which may be worth centuries of virtue, have effaced them.
To him I predicted that
once he turned his pen to the public good, altars would need to be raised in
his honour. He did it; it is up to you, my fellow citizens, to realise my
prediction. Could there be a more favourable moment for our gratitude! Could
there be a more fitting moment to manifest our affliction than when his still
smouldering ashes invite us to enclose them in a tomb worthy of this great man,
worthy of the Romans whom we emulate.
It is beneath the altar of
the motherland that his ashes should rest; that is where he must remind us of
all he has done for us; that is where we must swear on his tomb to continue all
that he began. That is what I, the most ardent patriot and the best of
citizens, dare propose.
DE GOUGES.