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soldiers waiting outside. one threw a cauldron with-
However, before they were orit mentioning Dame
able to do so someone fired Royaurne, as follows:
a shot which raised the '1,V
alarm. Dame Royaume 479ff A Savoyard round about
was one of the people to !I )")'i La Monnaie
see the Savoyards %S killed by a great blow
approaching the Porte de la from a cookirxgpot
Monnaie-from within the Thrown from an ttpstairs
city. Another gate, the window.
Porte Neuve, was going to He fell stone dead,
be blown open with explo- stretched out.
sives, but the guard, Isaac
Mercier, reacted quickly Nevertheless, in his will of
by dropping the iron 1676, the grandson of
portcullis. The troops wait- Cath6rine and Pierre
ing outside quickly real- Royaume-also known as
ized that the alaim had Pierre-left to his descen-
been given, the situation dants in his will various
was hopeless and retreated, objects, including "the pot
but the Savoyards inside named after tl'ie Escalade
the city wall were now [...] made of pewter and
trapped. engraved in the manner of
Piei're Royaume, my
attack tlie assailants from Dame Royaume or a
Lanterns were lit and ancestor". This pot was
the rear. Nevertheless, it is pewter pot. It does say that
church bells ning. There then kept at the Arsenal in
Dame Royaume who a woman threw some
was great commotion as Geneva for a number of
became famous. stones and a barrel from
the entire population years, but disappeared dur-
her window. Written some
turned out to fight the ing the French occupation
It is therefore perplexing tiine later, the twenty-ninth
intniders. The next moi'n- of Geneva in 1798.
that the earliest existing verse of the song recount-
ing fifty-four enemy bod-
text about the Escalade ing the Escalade, C6 qu'e
ies were counted and eight- HAYWARD BEYWOOD
makes no mention of the lain6 [That which is above,
een Genevans had lost
Porte de la Monnaie, or i.e. God] tells us that some-
their lives. Thirteen prison-
ers, many of them from the
Savoyard aristocracy, were
tried, found guilty and
lianged that same day.
Cath6rine Royarurie was
not tlie only householder to
take action against the
invaders, for many people
threw tables, chairs and
tableware onto tlie attack-
ers in the city's st'eets that
night. Nor was slie the only
lieroine of tliis cold
December night for anoth-
er lady, Jeanne Piaget,
threw a key from lier win-
dow to the city's defenders
allowing tliem to open a
door to an alleyway and
5 2006 Diva 37
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