Chapter 3
Volume 2: 2: Cosette · Book 2: 2: The Ship Orion
3: Showing That the Chain of the Iron Ring Must Needs Have Undergone a Certain Preparation to Be Thus Broken by One Blow of the Hammer
Chapter 3Visible text2 paragraphs
TOWARDS the end of October, in that same year, 1823, the inhabitants of Toulon saw coming back into their port, in consequence of heavy weather, and in order to repair some damages, the ship Orion, which was at a later period employed at Brest as a vessel of instruction, and which then formed a part of the Mediterranean squadron. This ship, crippled as she was, for the sea had used her roughly, produced some sensation on entering the roadstead. ' She flew I forget what pennant, but it entitled her to a regular salute of eleven guns, which she returned shot for shot : in all twenty -two. It has been estimated that in salutes, royal and military compliments, exchanges of courteous hubbub, signals of etiquette, roadstead and citadel formalities, risings and settings of the sun saluted daily by all fortresses and all vessels of war, the opening and closing of gates, etc., etc., the civilised world, in every part of the globe, fires off, daily, one hundred and fifty thousand useless cannon shots. At six francs per shot, that would amount to nine hundred thousand francs per day, or three hundred millions per year, blown off in smoke. This is only an item. In the meanwhile, the poor are dying with hunger.
The year 1823 was what the Restoration has called the " time of the Spanish War."