They were even willing to accept this new religion which Robespierre had invented: a religion which was only a mockery, with an actress to represent its supreme deity.
Mais, que voulez-vous?
Boulogne had long ago ceased to have faith in God: the terrors of the Revolution, which culminated in that agonizing watch of last night, had smothered all thoughts of worship and of prayer.
The Scarlet Pimpernel must indeed be a dangerous spy that his arrest should cause so much joy in Paris! Even Boulogne had learned by experience that the Committee of Public Safety did not readily give up a prey, once its vulture-like claws had closed upon it.

The proportion of condemnations as against acquittals was as a hundred to one.
But because this one man was taken, scores to-day were to be set free! In the evening at a given hour--seven o'clock had Auguste Moleux, the town-crier, understood--the boom of the cannon would be heard, the gates of the town would be opened, the harbour would become a free port.
The inhabitants of Boulogne were ready to shout: "Vive the Scarlet Pimpernel!" Whatever he was--hero or spy--he was undoubtedly the primary cause of all their joy.
By the time Auguste Moleux had cried out the news throughout the town, and pinned the new proclamation of mercy up on every public building, all traces of fatigue and anxiety had vanished.

In spite of the fact that wearisome vigils had been kept in every home that night, and that hundreds of men and women had stood about for hours in the vicinity of the Gayole Fort, no sooner was the joyful news known, than all lassitude was forgotten and everyone set to with a right merry will to make the great fete-day a complete success.
There is in every native of Normandy, be he peasant or gentleman, an infinite capacity for enjoyment, and at the same time a marvellous faculty for co-ordinating and systematizing his pleasures.
In a trice the surly crowds had vanished.

Instead of these, there were groups of gaily-visaged men pleasantly chattering outside every eating and drinking place in the town.

The national holiday had come upon these people quite unawares, so the early part of it had to be spent in thinking out a satisfactory programme for it.