THE tumbrels are rolling again in France, and the crowd is restless.
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French monarchists, during the revolution, endured it as well in the tumbrels carrying them to the guillotine.
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They were trodden by jaunty French soldiers in 1914 and jubilant Free French liberators in 1944, and were rolled over by the tumbrels of 1793 and the panzers of 1940.
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On April 18793, she and her fellow militants were driven through the streets of St. Petersburg in tumbrels, dressed in black robes, with their hands tied behind them and black placards reading "Czaricide" hung around their necks.
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This hope, however, is frustrated by an announcement that the President's chair has been taken by Citizen Maire and the trial of the prisoners has gone forward and the condemned are to be taken to the place of execution in the tumbrels. Labussière endeavours to delay the fatal procession to the guillotine by saying that in so uncertain a time, it would be a fearful risk to send the prisoners to execution until it was certain that Dumas was restored to power or executed himself. Fouquier Tinville, dining out with a friend, orders the tumbrels to proceed on their way despite the uncertainty. An inspiration then seizes Labussière who declares that Fabienne is a nun who has broken her vows for the sake of her lover, Martial, and is entitled to stay of execution because she is pregnant.
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Act IV In the lesser court of the Conciergerie, Debrun, Brault and others, jailers, turn-keys, National Guards, gendarmes and executioners, including the Chief Headsman, Sanson, are waiting to send the tumbrels containing the condemned prisoners forth to the guillotine. Brault's daughter is watering her flowers at a window. All are talking about the late events and wondering what has been done with Robespierre, some being in his favour, others against him. Labussière and Martial enter, searching for Fabienne.
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Fabienne indignantly refuses to sign a document to this effect and upbraids Martial with trying to dishonour her in the eyes of God and of the world. Françoise and the other women strive hard to persuade her, but in vain. The beat of the soldiers' drums is played for the tumbrels to start at once. Martial then, in despair, swears that he is the father of the unborn child, and Françoise testifies to the truth of his assertion.
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They had 67,000 animals (of whom were used as: 3,141 horse carts, 1,970 ox carts, 2,318 tumbrels and 71 phaetons), but only 198 trucks and 33 automobiles/ambulances.. As the supply situation worsened for the Greeks, things improved for the Turks. After the Armistice of Mudros, the Allies had dissolved the Ottoman army, confiscated all Ottoman weapons and ammunition,. hence the Turkish National Movement which was in the progress of establishing a new army, was in desperate need of weapons. In addition to the weapons not yet confiscated by the Allies,.
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The Abbey was embroiled in long standing disputes with the townspeople of Colchester throughout the Thirteenth, Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries, as well as several sometimes violent confrontations with the Augustinian convent of St. Botolph's Priory which stood across the road from it. In 1253, following long standing dispute over access to the free warren in West Donyland, to the south of the town, and the extent of the Abbot's jurisdiction, a group of forty Colchester men attacked and destroyed the Abbey's gallows and tumbrels at Greenstead to the East of the town, before cutting the ropes of the Abbey’s ships at Brightlingsea. By 1255 these particular disagreements were settled, although in 1270 the king had to order the abbot to desist from distraining the Colchester men in matters of trespass of bread and ale, as it was outside of his jurisdiction. An anti-Abbey riot broke out at the Midsummers Fair in 1272 on St John's Green outside of the Abbey, and the following day the monks showed the Colchester coroner a dead body on the Green, purportedly one of their number killed by the townspeople.
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