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112 The National Music of America.
There had been a civic banquet given to wish them Godspeed. At this banquet the song composed for the army of the lower Rhine was sung. It met with a different reception from the amateur, from that which had been given it by the professional slaughterers, and it at once became the song of the battalion. Through half of France they sang it, therefore when they arrived at Paris, July 29, 1792, they were able to thunder it forth with a fervour partially derived from long practice. The Parisians were aroused to frenzy by this song of the Marseilles men.
Less than a fortnight later the melody received its baptism of blood. August 9th, in the night-time, the tocsin sounded for the attack on the Tuileries, and on the 10th the " Marseillaise" blended with the dying shrieks of the Swiss Guards.
The " Marseillaise " was heard again under very different circumstances; the evil days |
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