Alexandre Dumas

The Mesmerist's Victim Alexandre Dumas

Publisher Marketing: ON the thirteenth of May, 1770, Paris celebrated the wedding of the Dauphin or Prince Royal Louis Aguste, grandson of Louis XV. still reigning, with Marie-Antoinette, Archduchess of Austria. The entire population flocked towards Louis XV. Place, where fireworks were to be let off. A pyrotechnical display was the finish to all grand public ceremonies, and the Parisians were fond of them although they might make fun. The ground was happily chosen, as it would hold six thousand spectators. Around the equestrian statue of the King, stands were built circularly to give a view of the fireworks, to be set off at ten or twelve feet elevation. The townsfolk began to assemble long before seven o'clock when the City Guard arrived to keep order. This duty rather belonged to the French Guards, but the Municipal government had refused the extra pay their Commander, Colonel, the Marshal Duke Biron, demanded, and these warriors in a huff were scattered in the mob, vexed and quarrelsome. They sneered loudly at the tumult, which they boasted they would have quelled with the pike-stock or the musket-butt if they had the ruling of the gathering. The shrieks of the women, squeezed in the press, the wailing of the children, the swearing of the troopers, the grumbling of the fat citizens, the protests of the cake and candy merchants whose goods were stolen, all prepared a petty uproar preceding the deafening one which six hundred thousand souls were sure to create when collected. At eight at evening, they produced a vast picture, like one after Teniers, but with French faces. Contributor Bio:  Dumas, Alexandre One of the most widely read French authors in history, Alexandre Dumas is best-known for his iconic classic The Three Musketeers, as well as for The Count of Monte Cristo, and the two Musketeer sequels Twenty Years After and The Vicomte de Bragelome: Ten Years Later. Dumas began his writing career as a successful playwright, and later evolved to writing magazine articles and travel books, before extending his talents to fiction. His work has been translated into over one hundred languages and has been the subject of nearly two hundred film adaptations that include talent as varied as Leonardo DiCaprio, James Whale, and Mickey Mouse.