synarchy movement of empire book ii - Pierre Beaudry's Galactic ...

Reynaud was returning to Vichy after he had been in a car accident in
which his mistress, Countess Helene de Porte, had been killed. For some
unreported reason, the driver of the car suddenly applied on the brakes, and
the luggage, which was pilled on the back seat, fell on both Reynaud and
Helene de Porte's heads. The Countess de Portes had a broken neck and
died, while Paul Reynaud had to be hospitalized, and came to Vichy with
bandages around his head. William Shirer reports: "Against his doctor's
orders, Reynaud had made his way to Vichy - not to try to save the Republic
against the machinations of Laval, as many hoped and some expected, but
merely, as he informed the Marshal in a cordial letter on July 8, to defend
two of his former aides, Leca and Devaux, who had been arrested in Madrid
with a large amount of money from secret governments funds and the gold
and jewelry of Madame de Portes in their luggage." (William l. Shirer, {The
Collapse of the Third Republic}, Simon and Schuster, New York, 1969,
p.931.) Shirer further noted that Reynaud did not attend the most important
session of the Assembly, and departed from Vichy immediately after lunch,
that is, before the beginning of the most important final meeting.
Reynaud reported later: "I had no more reason to prolong my stay in
Vichy, to which my doctor had strongly objected. I therefore left without
attending the meeting of the National Assembly, where I had nothing to do."
"I cannot go on," he told Vincent Auriol. "Excuse me, but I have to go."
Those were Reynaud's last words before leaving government.
In the afternoon, the Speaker of the House, Edouard Herriot, who had
been devoted to the parliamentary institutions of the Third Republic, and had
been its strong defender for a quarter of a century, turned completely around,
and led the assembly into an homage to Petain and appealed to the deputies
to unanimously approve the motion presented by Laval. Herriot stated:
"Around the Marshal, in the veneration which his name inspires in us all, our
nation has rallied in its distress. Let us be careful not to trouble the accord
which has been established under his authority."
These words resounded throughout the Grand Casino like a clarion
announcing the doom of the Republic. It was a total capitulation before a
silent audience, except for the extreme-right Young Turk hecklers led by
Pierre Tixier-Vignancour, who were paid to scare the deputies into silence,
and especially to target Paul Reynaud, had he been there, and to reduce him
to silence. The galleries had been stacked by right-wing terrorists, all of
115