Diotimos Library · Literary Fiction Collection · Bilingual Edition
The Gods Are Athirst
Les Dieux ont soif · Complete French–English bilingual edition
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Facing Pages · Branch 102 of 120
Chapter XXVII · Paragraphs 44–47
Edition pages
Printed pages in the supplied Diotimos 2026 bilingual edition.
- French
- Diotimos 2026 pp. 464, 466
- English
- Diotimos 2026 pp. 465, 467
French
Le Conseil général se fait apporter des sabres, des pistolets, des fusils. Mais un fracas d’armes, de pas et de vitres brisées emplit la maison. Les troupes de la Convention passent comme une avalanche à travers la salle des délibérations et s’engouffrent dans la salle du Conseil. Un coup de feu retentit: Gamelin voit Robespierre tomber la mâchoire fracassée. Lui-même, il saisit son couteau, le couteau de six sous qui, un jour de famine, avait coupé du pain pour une mère indigente, et que, dans la ferme d’Orangis, par un beau soir, Élodie avait gardé sur ses genoux, en tirant les gages; il l’ouvre, veut l’enfoncer dans son cœur: la lame rencontre une côte et se replie sur la virole qui a cédé et il s’entame deux doigts. Gamelin tombe ensanglanté. Il est sans mouvement, mais il souffre d’un froid cruel, et, dans le tumulte d’une lutte effroyable, foulé aux pieds, il entend distinctement la voix du jeune dragon Henry qui s’écrie:
"Le tyran n’est plus; ses satellites sont brisés. La Révolution va reprendre son cours majestueux et terrible."
Gamelin s’évanouit.
A sept heures du matin, un chirurgien envoyé par la Convention le pansa. La Convention était pleine de sollicitude pour les complices de Robespierre: elle ne voulait pas qu’aucun d’eux échappât à la guillotine. L’artiste peintre, ex-juré, ex-membre du Conseil général de la Commune, fut porté sur une civière à la Conciergerie.
English
The General Council calls for sabres, pistols and muskets. But a crash of weapons, footsteps and breaking glass fills the building. The Convention’s troops sweep like an avalanche through the deliberation room and pour into the Council chamber. A shot rings out: Gamelin sees Robespierre fall, his jaw shattered. He himself seizes his knife, the six-sou knife that one day in a famine had cut bread for a destitute mother, and which at the Orangis farm, on a beautiful evening, Élodie had held in her lap while the forfeits were being claimed. He opens it, tries to plunge it into his heart: the blade strikes a rib and folds back against the metal collar, which has given way, and cuts two of his fingers. Gamelin falls, bleeding. He lies motionless, but suffers a cruel cold, and, trampled underfoot in the tumult of a terrible struggle, distinctly hears the voice of the young dragoon Henry crying:
“The tyrant is no more; his satellites are crushed. The Revolution will resume its majestic and terrible course.”
Gamelin faints.
At seven in the morning a surgeon sent by the Convention dressed his wounds. The Convention was full of solicitude for Robespierre’s accomplices: it wished none of them to escape the guillotine. The painter, former juror, former member of the Commune’s General Council, was carried on a stretcher to the Conciergerie.
Socrates
Reading The Gods Are Athirst · Chapter XXVII · Chapter XXVII · Paragraphs 44–47
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Socrates will begin with this book and its sources.About This Reading Edition
Anatole France’s The Gods Are Athirst follows the painter Évariste Gamelin as revolutionary conviction draws him into the work of the Revolutionary Tribunal. This complete French–English edition preserves the novel’s twenty-nine chapters, paired by source paragraph, with an introduction, historical orientation, glossary, and chapter notes.
Historical Text and Translation
The novel appeared in volume in 1912. The complete French reading text follows Project Gutenberg eBook 36477, whose underlying impression is undated and carries a later Brodard & Taupin colophon. Chapter I was also checked against a separate 1912 printing; that limited collation is distinguished from the source used for the whole novel.
About Diotimos Editions
The new English translation and editorial matter were generated and revised with AI for Diotimos Editions. The reader preserves the supplied paragraph pairing, songs, quoted letters, and 431 chapter notes, together with the source register and the edition’s statement of editorial responsibility.
Rights
Anatole France’s French source work is in the public domain. The new 2026 English translation and Diotimos editorial matter are credited as supplied in this bilingual edition.