To Georgiana, the legacy of the feudal age was not churches with rose windows or sacred vessels of gold and silver, but chaos—and this map displayed it in full.
These plots awaiting sale or lease belonged to all manner of associations, local bodies, trade guilds, secular organizations, religious groups, and so on. Saint Anne Abbey might once have stood in a convent district. Besides this abbey, there had been other monasteries nearby, and the abbess's castle could be reached by following Melati Path through the woods.
Melati was pronounced similarly to the Dutch word melaats, meaning leprosy. Monasteries provided poor people with places to rest and seek shelter, so this area had always been like this.
During the French Revolution, many buildings had been demolished. For instance, the land where the restaurant stood had originally housed the nuns. Only an empty shell remained of the small chapel. Its bells had been taken down for minting coins; not only church bells, but even the bronze equestrian statue the Austrian governor had placed in the square had been melted down.
Those shelters that had taken in the poor were gone, leaving them no choice but to "camp out." Who would willingly live that way? So those already pushed to the edge became even more enraged. It was even possible that some of those attacking the sentries posted in the city came from among them.
Laggett's father had been a wine merchant, but he was now the Dutch ambassador to Paris. His eyesight was poor, and he needed someone to read documents aloud to know their contents. Usually, his wife Catherine handled it, but she had not accompanied him this time because she was staying with Joseph's wife, Julie.
Georgiana observed his eyes. He might have cataracts, something surgery could resolve.
But everyone