Allons enfants de la patrie!
This is our country. This is our home. These are our men, our sons, are children. These are the women who bake your bread; these are the women who will fight your war.
Le jour de gloire est arrivé.
This is our revolution. Long live France! Long live the people!
Contre nous de la tyrannie, l'étendard sanglant est levé!
Take up your arms, sound the bells! Today, we take back our livelihood. Today, we bring down the king!
Entendez-vous dans les campagnes mugir ces féroces soldats?
Quick, here come the troops! Listen well, and do not hesitate. Stand your ground, and do not waver.
Ils viennent jusque dans vos bras égorger vos fils, vos compagnes!
Watch them slaughter your people; watch them kill your loved ones. Is this the oppression that we must endure? Well, no longer!
Aux armes, citoyens!
Have you got your guns, your weapons, your stones? Are you ready to fight for our honor?
Formez vos bataillons!
Build our walls, and build our defences. Together, we are one. Together, we shall go!
Marchons, marchons…
Charge, my people! This is our day, our hour, our minute – this is our moment of truth.
Qu'un sang impur abreuve nos sillons!
Let us take the head of the king. Let us rule ourselves.
Francis sipped his wine delicately, caught up in the old memories, the old ideas. It had been 221 years since the start of the Revolution – the glory days, the storming of la Bastille… 221 years since his people had risen, united, against a single enemy. 221 years since he himself had stood by the revolutionaries' sides and cheered and shouted along with the rest of them. Those were the years when all of Europe had fallen at his feet.
He smiled, just a touch sadly.
"Joyeux anniversaire…"
GAH. Okay, this is pretty awful. Not to mention the formatting is quite awful on . Do pardon my failures; I wrote this in about 20-30 mins. Anyways, this is to celebrate Bastille Day AKA Francis' birthday. I'm really sorry Francis! I know I didn't spend as long on this as I did for Alfred, but I was pushed for time... badly. So... I guess that's the end. There might be one line I like in this entire thing... maybe two. But hey, I tried. Btw, any translations can be found on Google Translate. And I hope that you at least recognise the lyrics to La Marseillaise. And joyeux anniversaire should be quite obvious, in the context.
Also, I'm not so sure about my history here (FOR SHAME FOR SHAME I cry at my woeful lack of knowledge... But I'm going completely by memory, so just... bear with any misinformation, because I haven't referenced it), but during the French Revolution (1789), the major population of France was represented by the Third Estate, and they were quite underrepresented in their government. This is also the time of Marie Antoinette and the whole "Let them eat cake" thing. (Which, according to my history teacher, showed her ignorance about the plight of her people when she heard about the bread riots. In her mind, giving food, namely, cake, to the poor would be enough to solve the problem. Sorry, you were mistaken, and your people were not exactly amused...) Obviously, the people were not so happy about it. The Third Estate did all sorts of things to get in trouble (somehow, they were locked out of the meeting at one point, and drew up a constitution(?) on a tennis court instead, I believe), and finally, once the people had had enough, they stormed La (or is it Le?) Bastille on July 14. Today, in other words (221 years ago). And so began the French Revolution. Which, in turn sparked about a bajillion other little revolutions all around Europe and elsewhere. "When France sneezes, all of Europe catches a cold..."
Er, lots of pointless (and probably inaccurate!) history there. End babbling. (I bet this is longer than the actual fic, what a fail I am...)
Joyeux anniversaire, Francis! A votre santé. Ne me hais pas parce que j'ai écrit un mauvais fanfiction. J'essayais. (And please pardon my bad French. I have studied it for five years, and I hope it would be worth something, but... *sigh*)