The Beginning Of The Prophecy


"'Ah,' said Condorcet, with his insolent and half-suppressed smile, 'let

us hear--a philosopher is not sorry to encounter a prophet--let us

hear?' Cazotte replied: 'You, Monsieur de Condorcet--you will yield up

your last breath on the floor of a dungeon; you will die from poison,

which you will have taken in order to escape from execution--from poison

which the happiness of that time will oblige you to carry around your

person. You, Monsieur de Chamfort, you will open your veins with

twenty-two cuts of a razor, and yet will not die till some months

afterward.' These personages looked at each other, and laughed again.

Cazotte continued: 'You, Monsieur Vicq d'Azir, you will not open your

own veins, but you will cause yourself to be bled six times in one day,

during the paroxysm of the gout, in order to make more sure of your end,

and you will die in the night.'



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