“The red cap” by Daniel de Roulet
Published: Monday, Jan 22nd 2024, 11:20
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Two million Swiss once hired themselves out as mercenaries. The Geneva-based author Daniel de Roulet places eight of them at the center of his story "The Red Cap". He recounts their fate - and at the same time creates a monument to the two million with a literary twist.
Samuel Bouchaye, a carpenter from Geneva, is not even twenty years old when he becomes a mercenary in 1788 - because of an unhappy love affair. From then on, his troop included seven other fellow sufferers from the Geneva area.
A few years earlier, as a child, he had been present when the people had risen up in Geneva in the fight for equality and a fairer constitution. However, when the Bastille was stormed in Paris on July 14, 1789, he was forced to defend the old order. After a forced march to Nancy, there was no pay. An entire Swiss regiment dares to revolt and demands the promised payment.
The response of the owners of these mercenary troops was brutal. 300 men fell, 20 died on the gallows, one was publicly executed, 72 others, including Samuel Bouchaye, were sentenced to 30 years in prison in Brest. But three decades turned into 18 months for Bouchaye and his comrades. Their red uniform caps became a symbol of freedom and equality.
Author Daniel de Roulet tells this story with empathy, zooming in very closely on Bouchay and his comrades. But he does not psychologize and always maintains an outside perspective. He constantly lets it be known that the story is based on historical facts. He also gives it an almost fairytale-like quality towards the end.
And: De Roulet chooses a peculiar form for his story. He tells it in verses - masterfully, in simple, precise language. The whole book comes across like a long folk song, based on "Vreneli ab em Guggisberg". This ballad, which is part of Swiss folklore, is the subject of the men in the story.
By telling his story of the eight mercenaries from the Geneva region in the style of a folk ballad, de Roulet asserts its universal validity. He is not only creating a literary monument to Bouchay and his comrades, but to all the two million Swiss mercenaries who are often forgotten in the official Swiss view of history. And he says why he is doing this: "only literature/gives the floor to those less fortunate."
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