S.A. Bent, comp. Familiar Short Sayings of Great Men. 1887.
Duc d’Orléans (Égalité)
[Louis Philippe Joseph, Duc d’Orléans, surnamed Égalité; cousin of Louis XVI., and first prince of the blood; born at St. Cloud, 1747; served in the navy; elected to the States-General, 1789, and joined the Tiers État, being repulsed by the court, united himself with Danton, and voted for the king’s death; imprisoned at Marseilles, 1793, and executed at Paris in November of that year.]
Notwithstanding the professions of democracy which the duke made,—perhaps in revenge for cold treatment by the court party,—his popularity waned, until, for no particular cause, he was arrested and carried to execution, the people hissing and cursing him on the way to the guillotine.
As the executioner was about to draw off the duke’s boots, the latter coolly remarked, “They will come off better after: let us have done” (dépêchons-nous).—CARLYLE: French Revolution, II. 7, 2.
