The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, Vol. 6

He would begin working at midnight after returning from “socializing,” and would continue until 4 or 5 a.m. Because he possessed an extraordinary ease and natural talent, he finished his part of the task in two winters. Some of the tales in the collection, especially that of “Maugraby,” are attributed entirely to his own invention. As a rule, his aim and object were to spread his spiritual ideas and to write essays on moral perfection in the form of short stories original: novelle.

Cazotte, after a well-spent and honorable life, had reason to expect a peaceful “evening and ending of a fine day.” But this was not to be; the French Revolution original: Great Revolution had burst like a hurricane over the land, and he was doomed to die a hero’s death. His character was too sincere, and his temperament too honest, for times that demanded secrecy. He had become one of the Illuminati term: Illuminati; here referring to a mystical secret society in 18th-century France, and the writer La Harpe attributed to him a celebrated prophecy that described the smallest events of the French Revolution. A royalist to the core original: pur sang, he freely expressed his feelings to his old friend Ponteau, who was then Secretary of the Civil List. His letters came to light shortly after the terrible day of August 10, 1792. He was summarily arrested at Pierry and brought to Paris, where he was thrown into prison. On September 3, when violence again broke out, he was attacked by the “patriot-assassins.” He was saved only by the devotion of his daughter Elizabeth, who threw herself upon the old man, crying, “You shall not reach my father’s heart before piercing mine!” The courage of the noble pair earned the admiration of the thugs, and they were carried home in triumph.

For a few weeks the family remained unmolested, but in those days “Providence” slept and fortune did not favor the brave. The Municipality term: Municipality; the revolutionary government of Paris soon ordered a second arrest, and the venerable man of letters original: littérateur, aged seventy-two, was sent before the revolutionary tribunal appointed to deal with the alleged offenses of August 10. He was subjected to an interrogation lasting thirty-six hours, during which his calmness and presence of mind never left him and even impressed his accusers. But he was condemned to