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Cornell University Library 
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 "Memoirs o1 Barras, "^ernber o| the d^ecto 
 
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Cornell University 
 Library 
 
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 tine Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924020335430 
 
MEMOIRS OF BARRAS 
 
 VOLUME I 
 THE ANCIENT REGIME— THE REVOLUTION 
 

 
 C_. a„ ^A-3-Ji3_- 
 
 
ROBESPIERRE 
 
 From an unpublished Drawing touched up in water-colors 
 attributed to Gerard. 
 
 From the Jubitial de Saint-Albin Collection. 
 
MEMOIRS OF BARRAS 
 
 MEMBER OF THE DIRECTORATE 
 
 EDITED, WITH A GENERAL 
 INTRODUCTION, PREFACES 
 AND APPENDICES, BY 
 
 GEORGE PURUY 
 
 WITH SEVEN PORTRAITS IN PHOTOGRAVURE 
 TWO FAC-SIMILES, AND TWO PLANS 
 
 " Les panzphieiaires, j'e sitis destine A Hre leur 
 fiature, Jtiaisje redouie pen d'etre hur victiine: 
 Us vtordront stir du granit.^^ — Napoleon 
 
 IN FOUR VOLUMES 
 
 VOL.1.— THE ANCIENT REGIME AND 
 
 THE REVOLUTION 
 
 TRANSLATED BY C. E. ROCHE 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 HARPER & BROTHERS FRANKLIN SQUARE 
 
 189s 
 
A.'5 5713> 
 
 Copyright, 1895, by Harper & Brothers. 
 
 All rig;his reserved. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 General Introduction ix 
 
 Preface xliii 
 
 Chapter I i 
 
 Chapter II ... 8 
 
 Chapter III 20 
 
 Chapter IV 31 
 
 Chapter V 42 
 
 Chapter VI 47 
 
 Chapter VII 59 
 
 Chapter VIII . . - 70 
 
 Chapter IX 77 
 
 Chapter X 87 
 
 Chapter XI 96 
 
 Chapter XII 104 
 
 Chapter XIII 112 
 
 Chapter XIV 118 
 
 Chapter XV 128 
 
 Chapter XVI 141 
 
vi CONTENTS 
 
 FAGS 
 
 Chapter XVII 152 
 
 Chapter XVIII 187 
 
 Chapter XIX 205 
 
 Chapter XX 257 
 
 Chapter XXI 279 
 
 Chapter XXII 231 
 
 Chapter XXI II ,48 
 
 Appendix I ,gc 
 
 Appendix II g 
 
 Appendix III gg 
 
 Appendix IV g 
 
 Appendix V . . . . 
 
 393 
 
 Appendix VI . . 
 
 399 
 
 Appendix VII . . 
 
 404 
 
 Appendix VIII . . 
 
 413 
 
ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 Portrait of Robespierre Frontispiece 
 
 Plans of the Siege of Toulon in 1793 and 
 
 OF Fort MuLGRAVE Facing p. xcvi 
 
 Portrait of Danton " 184 
 
 Facsimile of the qth Thermidor Document . " 228 
 
GENERAL INTRODUCTION 
 I. — The History of the Memoirs. Dispositions 
 
 TAKEN BY BARRAS IN HIS WiLL IN REGARD TO HIS 
 
 Memoirs 
 
 In a holographic will, dated Paris, the 30th day of April, 
 1827, registered on the 2d day of February, 1829, and de- 
 posited, pursuant to an order of the President of the Civil 
 Tribunal of the Seine, in the office of M': Damaison, nota- 
 ry, domiciled in Paris, on the 30th day of March of the 
 same year, Paul Barras, a former member of the Director- 
 ate, willed as follows : 
 
 " I give and bequeath to M. Rousselin de Saint-Albin a 
 copy of Anacharsis, and my geographical maps. More- 
 over, it is my desire that my papers and Memoirs, which 
 are deposited with one of my friends, be delivered to him, 
 in order that he shall edit the Memoirs, which I have not 
 had time to edit myself. . . ." 
 
 On the morning of the 29th of January, 1829, Barras, 
 feeling his end approaching (he died the same day at his 
 residence, No. 70 Rue de Chaillot), summoned to his side 
 his godson, M. Paul Grand. " Fearing that the civil pow- 
 er might seize his papers, in order to destroy the evidence 
 of facts undoubtedly objectionable to the Government of 
 the day, and more especially a correspondence which had 
 taken place between him and Louis XVIII., and having 
 special grounds for his fears owing to the recent seizure of 
 the papers of Cambac^rfes, Barras, a few moments before 
 his death, thought it advisable to take all necessary steps 
 to prevent a like proceeding. ... He imparts his fears to 
 Paul Grand, and urgently requests him to take the neces- 
 
X • MEMOIRS OF BARRAS 
 
 sar>' measures to prevent his political papers falling into 
 the hands of the civil power. . . ." ' 
 
 Barras having breathed his last at eleven o'clock that 
 night, his papers were hastily crammed into two large 
 trunks, which Mme. de Barras, M. Paul Grand, and Cour- 
 tot, at one time the house -steward of the ex-director, and 
 subsequently his confidential man, deposited in the domi- 
 cile of M. de Saint-Albin during the course of the same 
 night. 
 
 The precaution was not a useless one, for on the follow- 
 ing day, 30th January, 1829, a justice of peace, accompa- 
 nied by his clerk, made his appearance at the domicile of 
 the deceased in order to affix the seals. This magistrate 
 was acting pursuant to an order of the Attorney for the 
 Crown, bearing date 15th July, 1825. At that date al- 
 ready the health of Barras was badly shaken, and the Min- 
 ister of Justice, M. de Peyronnet, " having learned that M. 
 Barras was very ill, and aware that he was in possession of 
 governmental papers, notably autograph letters emanating 
 from Louis XVIII., had instructed the Attorney for the 
 Crown to cause the seals to be affixed, when the time 
 should come, on all such papers of Barras like to be of in- 
 terest to the Government." " 
 
 A certain number of documents, particularly letters of 
 the time of the Republic, were sealed, in spite of the pro- 
 tests of Mme. de Barras and the friends of the ex-director, 
 who pointed out to the justice of the peace that he had no 
 right to act by virtue of an order given four years before 
 by a Minister who had since then gone out of ofifice. 
 
 This seizure gave rise to a lawsuit brought by Mme. de 
 Barras against the State' — a lawsuit which she lost in part, 
 
 ' Extract from a memorandum laid by M. Paul Grand before the First 
 Chamber of the Tribunal de Prentih-e Instance, 25th February, 1S33. 
 
 ■ Attempted seizure of the political papers of the ex-director Barras ; an 
 opinion in regard to it delivered to M. Pierre Grand, an advocate pleading in 
 the Royal Court, and concurred in by other counsel. Paris, 1829, to be had 
 from Delaforest, bookseller. 
 
 2 The interesting pleadings which took place on this occasion v,-iU be found 
 in the numbers of the Cazctle des Tribunaux of 2Sth February and 7th March, 
 1S29. 
 
GENERAL INTRODUCTION xi 
 
 in spite of the fact that the most eminent pleaders or juris- 
 consults of the period— Isambert, Barthe, Chaix d' Est-Ange, 
 Coffiniferes, Odillon Barrot, Renouard, and others — concur- 
 red, with all the weight of their authority based on reasons 
 duly set forth in the opinion to which reference has been 
 made, wherein Pierre Grand, brother of Barras's godson, de- 
 clared illegal and arbitrary this affixing of the seals to the 
 papers of a man who for over thirty years had held no of- 
 fice from the State, and whom, moreover, his quality of 
 director had made " neither functionary nor public depos- 
 itary." Consequently the greater portion of the docu- 
 ments placed under seal remained in the possession of the 
 Government, and are apparently the documents found in 
 the Tuileries by the commission intrusted with the duty of 
 making an abstract of the papers of King Louis Philippe 
 after the Revolution of 1848, and which were returned to 
 the Saint-Albin family on its petition based on the testa- 
 ment itself of the former member of the Directorate. 
 
 However this may be, the portion of Barras's papers most 
 important, both from their number and the nature of their 
 contents, had escaped the search of the Government of the 
 Restoration, which for four years had been on the lookout 
 for these documents, and, having found some few of them, 
 perhaps left designedly in the domicile of the deceased in 
 order to throw the searchers off the track, doubtless be- 
 lieved that it had laid hands on everything. While the 
 lawsuit referred to was going on, and the Liberal party in 
 a body was making a great noise in regard to the arbitra- 
 ry act perpetrated by the Ministers of Charles X., M. 
 Rousselin de Saint-Albin was quietly getting ready to ful- 
 fil the mission intrusted to him by his friend, and the Rev- 
 olution of July, 1830, occurring a few months subsequent 
 to the events just narrated, allowed him to devote himself 
 to his task without danger of molestation. 
 
 n. — Genuineness of the Memoirs of Barras 
 
 A certain contradiction will doubtless have been noticed 
 in the words used in the testament of Barras in regard to 
 
xii MEMOIRS OF BARRAS 
 
 his Memoirs. If one refers only to the beginning of the 
 sentence, " It is my desire that my papers and Memoirs 
 . . ." one is tempted to come to the conclusion that there 
 existed at the time of the death of the ex-director Memoirs 
 written by him in a complete form. But, on the other 
 hand, the words " in order that he shall edit the Memoirs, 
 which I have not had time to edit myself . . ." might lead 
 one to infer that the Memoirs for so long known, although 
 unpublished to the present day, under the name of Me- 
 vwires de Barras\i3.v& been falsely sheltered under his name, 
 that they do not perhaps embody the exact expression of 
 his ideas in regard to the events of which they treat, and 
 that they are consequently to be classed with the long list 
 of apocryphal Memoirs. The first point to be examined, 
 therefore, is the genuineness of the Memoirs about to be 
 submitted to the reader. 
 
 In a long manuscript statement laid in 1833 before the 
 president of the Tribunal Civil de Premiere Instance (dis- 
 trict court) of the Seine, at the time of the suit — whereof 
 more anon — between MM. Rousselin de Saint -Albin and 
 Paul Grand in regard to the publication of the Memoirs of 
 Barras, M. Paul Grand expressed himself as follows : 
 
 " Bonaparte had fallen, and Barras, although it cannot 
 be said that he had the protection of the new dynast)^ was 
 not yet persecuted by it, was enjoying the quietness of 
 privacy, as he himself admits. He was preparing to put 
 into shape the documents in his possession, classify them, 
 and connect them with one another; he even began a draft 
 on the basis of wliich they zvere to be edited, for the purpose 
 of facilitating the publication of the Memoirs lie intended 
 bringing out . . . His notes luere in part gathered together : 
 there remained to create from these notes an historical 
 entity, to make a narrative of the facts, and deduce there- 
 from such arguments as should serve to establish the jus- 
 tification of himself, for the purpose of which these Me- 
 moirs were conceived." There remained to bring into 
 
 ' In a species of manifesto dated 20th June, i8ig, and entitled " General 
 Barras to liis Fellow-citizens," the former member of the Directorate announced 
 in the following terms his intention of composing his Memoirs ; 
 
GENERAL INTRODUCTION xiii 
 
 play the various personages who were to appear, to give 
 life to the whole, and lastly to clothe these notes in suit- 
 able language. Barras, in consequence of his age and the 
 poor state of his health, shattered by political worry and 
 sorrows, little accustomed, moreover, to write and to put 
 into practice the rules of rhetoric which his serious occupa- 
 tions may well have made him forget, resolved upon trust- 
 ing to friends what was dearest to his heart — the editing 
 which he had facilitated by his work and his notes. . . ." 
 
 In another document relating to the same matter M. 
 Paul Grand has said : 
 
 " Barras wrote himself a number of notes in relation to 
 the principal passages of the projected Memoirs, in order 
 that, should time not be left to him to put the finishing 
 touches to them and weave them into a complete whole, 
 he might intrust to a friend the perfecting and final edit- 
 ing of them." 
 
 The same idea is expressed more positively and clearly 
 in a summons addressed by M. Paul Grand to M. R. de 
 Saint-Albin : "... The Memoirs of Barras have already 
 been edited by Barras himself during his lifetime : the 
 zvork to be done no longer consists but in a classification, a 
 grouping in order of his manuscript. . . ." 
 
 I saw M. Paul Grand in 1885, and had a conversation with 
 him. He was at that time about eighty years old. Age 
 had nowise dimmed his intellectual faculties, and his recol- 
 lections of things and men in regard to which I was desir- 
 ous of consulting him were most clear and distinct. On 
 
 " There has just appeared under the caption of Souvenirs et Anecdotes Se- 
 cretes a work against which I am compelled to protest publicly. . . . Some day 
 perhaps, if my health, shattered by so many vicissitudes, leaves me the faculty 
 . . . I shall perhaps endeavor to render to my fellow-citizens the moral account 
 owed them by men who have handled the affairs of State in most difficult 
 times ; but previous to publishing my Memoirs, I have considered it my 
 duty not to delay recording a denial, in order to establish a most important 
 fact. ..." 
 
 This manifesto, of four pages of print, constitutes a portion, like all other 
 documents I shall call in as evidence without specifying in any particular way 
 ■ their origin, of the papers left by M. Rousselin de Saint-Albin. It was pub- 
 lished in several newspapers of the period. 
 
XIV MEMOIRS OF BARRAS 
 
 my asking him questions as to the origin and composing 
 of the Memoirs, as to Barras himself, whose faithful friend 
 he had been, M. Paul Grand most courteously gave me all 
 the information I was in quest of. He assured me that 
 actual Memoirs were in existence at the death of Barras, 
 the work of the former director himself, dictated, nay ed- 
 ited, by himself in fragmentary form. It will be noticed 
 that this assertion agrees entirely with the one made by 
 M. Paul Grand fifty years earlier in the documents pre- 
 viously quoted by me, but unknown to me at the time I 
 had the honor of visiting him. 
 
 Should this testimony not be considered sufficient, I can 
 adduce still more. I have before me a letter addressed to 
 M. Rousselin de Saint-Albin by the Countess de Pelet, 7ic'e 
 Thermidor Tallien, dated I2th June, 1829. " My father," 
 she writes, " had intrusted to M. Barras important notes 
 touching events which both of them had witnessed or tak- 
 en a part in. These notes, in my father's handwriting, 
 were handed to M. Barras, in order that he might derive 
 from them information most useful to him in editing his 
 Memoirs,'' etc. 
 
 An autograph letter, without date, from Barras himself 
 to M. de Saint-Albin : " Greeting, my dear Alexander. / 
 send you the manuscript and the notes which I have hurried- 
 ly dictated. You will rectify them and edit them ere mak- 
 ing use of them. You will also receive the two volumes of 
 Napoleon ' replete with impudent falsehoods and the ser- 
 vility of his valets. . . ." 
 
 A letter, dated 30th August, 1830, addressed to the same 
 from Courtot : "... I strongly advise you to issue the Me- 
 moirs such as they came from the lips of the author, with the 
 exception of such modifications in the style as you shall 
 see fit to make. . . ." Another letter from the same to the 
 same, dated 19th September, 1831 : ". . . It seems to me 
 that the time has come for us to publish the iMemoirs of 
 the jmfortunate general. ... I am of opinion that no pri- 
 
 ' Sidte au Memorial Saintc-Heline, doubtless, by Grille and Musset-Pathav 
 Paris, 1S24, 2 vols. 8vo. 
 
GENERAL INTRODUCTION XV 
 
 vate consideration should be permitted to stand in the 
 way of the printing of so piquant a work. . . . The Me- 
 moirs of the general will constitute an historical monument 
 from which all will come and draw information about the 
 Revolution, and the facts connected with it. . . ." 
 
 A letter from M. Abeille, mayor of the commune of 
 Ampus (Var), to M. Rousselin de Saint-Albin, dated 5th 
 November, 1830: "I am impatiently waiting to read the 
 Memoirs of my late uncle. ..." 
 
 A letter from Pierre Grand, an advocate pleading in the 
 royal court, to M. Rousselin de Saint-Albin, dated 24th 
 August, 1831 : "... Depositary of the papers of Barras, 
 you hold the documents affording the most convincing 
 proofs that he ever remained faithful to the principles 
 which made him a director. . . . For a long time past the 
 country has been demanding the Memoirs of Barras sol- 
 emnly promised to it. It is more than two years and a 
 half ago since I made the announcement in the Paris courts 
 that the Memoirs of Barras were to appear ere long. . . . 
 A citizen, I exclaimed before them, Barras was fulfilling 
 a citizen's duty wlien dictating pages which will soon con- 
 stitute history. . . ." 
 
 In conclusion, I am able to invoke a final bit of evi- 
 dence, one absolutely decisive in my eyes. I have found 
 in the papers of M. Rousselin de Saint-Albin a chemise 
 (envelope for filing papers) containing a number of manu- 
 script sheets covered with the indecipherable handwriting 
 of Barras. The perusal of these sheets, as well as all oth- 
 ers that have likewise come into my possession, proves be- 
 yond doubt that they are in part mere notes, in part actual 
 fragments in complete form. The chemise is indorsed in 
 the handwriting of M. Rousselin de Saint-Albin: '' Bar- 
 ras' s uninterrupted narrative from the \ZtIi Brumaire to 
 1828. Special events." And above this : ^^ Used." 
 
 The genuineness of the Memoirs of Barras cannot there- 
 fore be called into question. These Memoirs, projected 
 as early as 1819 by the ex-director, were the object of his 
 constant solicitude during the last ten years of his life. He 
 gathered together the materials for them himself — himself 
 
xvi MEMOIRS OF BARRAS 
 
 he wrote or dictated notes more or less lengthy which 
 were to serve for the final editing of them. Those about 
 him knew that he was engaged in this work; they an- 
 nounced its forthcoming publication, which was looked 
 forward to with impatience, as it was expected to contam 
 "piquant" revelations about the men and events of the 
 Revolution, and especially as destined to make a crushing 
 reply to the attacks directed against the former member 
 of the Directorate. Owing to what concatenation of cir- 
 cumstances have these Memoirs, famed ere they ever ap- 
 peared, remained unpublished up to the present time ? 
 This, then, remains to be elucidated. 
 
 III.—DlSPUTES BETWEEN MM. ROUSSELIN DE SAINT- 
 
 Albin and Paul Grand in regard to the Pub- 
 lication OF THE Memoirs of Barras 
 
 In a codicil dated 30th September, 1827, Barras had add- 
 ed to his testament the following clause : " M. de Saint- 
 Albin will take as his coadjutor for the editing of my Me- 
 moirs M. Paul Grand, subject to the orders of my wife, 
 each of them to receive a sum proportionate to the legacy 
 bequeathed to him from the profits arising from the sale 
 of the Memoirs ; Courtot to share in such profits." 
 
 This disposition gave rise to long-drawn-out disputes 
 between the four persons whom it concerned. 
 
 The papers of Barras delivered to M. R. de Saint-Albin 
 a few hours after the ex-director had breathed his last 
 were composed of a considerable number of documents — 
 autograph letters from generals, political men, celebrated 
 personages, reports, documents of all kinds: some pre- 
 served by Barras when he retired into private life in 1799, 
 others collected by him subsequently in view of the com- 
 position of his Memoirs, as attested by the letter above 
 quoted of a daughter of Tallien. If M. Paul Grand is to 
 be believed, the number of these documents was some 
 15,000. In addition to these precious documents, the two 
 large trunks deposited with M. R. de Saint-Albin on the 
 
GENERAL INTRODUCTION xvii 
 
 night of the 29th of January, 1829, contained the frag- 
 ments of the Memoirs dictated by Barras or written out in 
 his own handwriting, and the memoranda in which he had 
 recorded such and such of his recollections, or such and such 
 of his slanders or grudges. M. de Saint-Albin's task con- 
 sisted, in the first place, in "classifying and putting in or- 
 der the manuscript of Barras and the corroborative proofs," 
 and this primary work accomplished, to proceed with the 
 "final editing" of the Memoirs, the definitive form of 
 which Barras had not had time to determine. 
 
 It will be noticed that the expressions of M. Paul Grand 
 already quoted regulate in as precise a fashion as can be 
 desired the respective parts of Barras himself and of M. 
 Rousselin de Saint-Albin in the composition of the Me- 
 moirs. It would not be right to say that they are from 
 beginning to end the handiwork of Barras ; but I posi- 
 tively assert that they are the absolutely faithful expres- 
 sion of the mind, of the opinions, and more particularly 
 of the hatreds of the former member of the Directorate. 
 All the notes, all the autograph fragments of Barras, I 
 have been able to meet with up to the present, and which 
 I have compared with the corresponding passages of the 
 Memoirs, agree in every respect as to the basis, if not as 
 to the form, with the editing of M. R. de Saint-Albin. 
 
 A couple of examples will suffice, I beheve, to illustrate 
 the scrupulous sincerity of this editing. Subjoined is the 
 narrative of a journey undertaken by Barras in 1786, taken 
 from his autograph notes, and opposite to it the same 
 taken from the manuscript of the Memoirs : 
 
 Corresponding Passage of the 
 Barras's Autograph Narrative Memoirs 
 
 " I went on a journey with a canon "I set off in the direction of Pic- 
 Can illegible word) of li^ge in picardy, ardy with a prelate held in high es- 
 he was intimate with all the monks of teem by the monks of all the con- 
 that province, so that we were wel- vents situated on the road to Abbe- 
 comed, feted, lodged, and fed in all ville. We were eagerly welcomed in 
 the monasteries, there reigned there them ; joy and pleasure presided over 
 such licentiousness that, although the meals ; those which they spread 
 young, was unpleasant to me, soon we before us were sumptuous, and re- 
 reached the chateau of the bon. de peatedly ended in orgies. I was com- 
 
XVIU 
 
 MEMOIRS OF BARRAS 
 
 tournon, situated at fiexicourt, he had 
 two daughters, one of whom, to-day 
 Mme. du Chilleau, engaged in litera- 
 ture with success, she corresponded 
 with the most distinguished men of 
 letters and even with the King of 
 Prussia . . . the bon. was a most hon- 
 orable old chevalier, we made there a 
 sojourn full of charms, it compensated 
 me a little for the society of those lux- 
 urious monks," 
 
 pensated for the disgust I experienced 
 at them on arriving at the chateau of 
 U. de Tournon. This venerable pa- 
 triarch welcomed us ^^■ith the exqui- 
 site courtesy of the linights of olden 
 days. He had presided over the edu- 
 cation of his two daughters. One of 
 them, who became the wife of Count 
 du Chillaut, acquired some fame as a 
 playwright, and by her correspond- 
 ence with the King of Prussia." 
 
 Here is another passage wherein Barras tells of his visit 
 to the children of Louis XVI. in their prison of the Tem- 
 ple, the day after the gth Thermidor, 1794. 
 
 Barras's Autograph Narrative 
 
 "The committee of public safety 
 sent word to me that there was some 
 talk of the escape of the prisoners in 
 the temple for whom I was responsi- 
 ble, I went to the temple, I found the 
 young prince in a cradle-bed in the 
 middle of his room, he was in a 
 drowsy condition, he awoke ■\\ith diffi- 
 culty, he wore a pair of trousers and 
 a jacket of gray cloth, I asked him how 
 he was and why he did not sleep in 
 the large bed, he answered me my knees 
 are swollen and cause me suffering njtjc 
 iiitef-valles {sic) at the joints when I 
 stand, the little cradle is more to my 
 taste, I examined the knees, they were 
 greatly swollen as well as the ankles 
 and that his hands his face was bloat- 
 ed and pale, after having asked him if 
 he had what he required and having 
 recommended him to take exercise I 
 gave the order to that effect to the 
 commissaries and scolded them on 
 the untidy state of the room. 
 
 " Thence I went up-stairs to Mme., 
 she had dressed herself early and was 
 up, her room was clean, the noise of 
 the night doubtless awoke you, I said, 
 have you perhaps any complaints to 
 make to me and do they give you what 
 
 Corresponding Passage of the 
 Memoirs 
 
 " The committees spread the rumor 
 that the prisoners in the Temple, the 
 unfortunate children of Louis XVI. , 
 had escaped. I went to the prison and 
 saw the prince, whom I found in a very 
 weak state from a malady evidently 
 undermining him ; he lay in the mid- 
 dle of the room in a little bed hardly 
 more than a cradle ; his knee - joints 
 and ankles were swollen. He awoke 
 from the state of drowsiness he was 
 in when I entered, and said to me, ' I 
 prefer the cradle wherein you find me 
 to the large bed over there ; with that, 
 I have no complaints to make against 
 those who have charge of me.' While 
 saying this to me, he looked at me and 
 at them in turns— at me, to place him- 
 self in some sort under my protection; 
 at them, to ward off any resentment 
 they might have felt had he uttered 
 any complaints against his oppressors 
 when I should no longer be there to 
 protect him. 'And I,' I exclaimed, 
 ' I will complain loudly against the 
 dirty condition of this room.' I then 
 Avent to see Madame. Her room was 
 a little less indecently kept. Madame 
 had dressed herself at an early hour, 
 owing to the noise she had heard dur- 
 
GENERAL INTRODUCTION xix 
 
 you require. Mme. answered me yes ing the night. I gave orders that tlie 
 
 that she had heard the noise of the two children of the House of France 
 
 night, that she thanked me and beg- should take a daily walk in the prison- 
 
 ged me to see that good care be taken yard ; consequent upon the report I 
 
 of her brother, I assured her that I made to the Committee of Public 
 
 had already attended to the matter. I Safety, I obtained leave for medical 
 
 proceeded to the committee of public men to examine the youthful sufferer, 
 
 safety, there was no disturbance at the The physicians, among whom was M. 
 
 temple but the prince is dangerous- Dussault, declared that his illness was 
 
 ly ill, I have ordered that he shall take a most serious one. When granting 
 
 exercise and have sent for Mr. Dus- the two prisoners a morning and even- 
 
 sault, it is urgent that you shall send ing walk, I expressed a desire that the 
 
 other doctors with him, that his con- keeper who had charge of the son of 
 
 dition shall be examined and that Louis XVI. should be assisted by two 
 
 every care required by his condition women, who were particularly to look 
 
 should be given to, the committee after the child's needs, and see that 
 
 gave orders accordingly." his room should be kept in a health- 
 ful condition. I have since learned 
 from a commissary of the Temple that 
 my orders were not carried out." 
 
 If one carefully compares the two texts, it will be seen 
 that certain traits in the autograph manuscript have not 
 been preserved in the definitive editing of the Memoirs: 
 the gray suit, the pale and bloated face of the little pris- 
 oner, the solicitude of his elder sister, to whom woman's 
 unerring instinct reveals even then that she is to take 
 the absent mother's place in exercising tenderness. M. de 
 Saint-Albin has preferred to these picturesque and precise 
 particulars the somewhat high-flown commentary he gives 
 us in regard to the looks which the royal child — wasting 
 away and dying in his wretched lodging in the Temple — is 
 supposed to have cast alternately at his keepers and on 
 the powerful personage adorned with plumes visiting him. 
 
 Must I confess it? The autograph narrative of Barras 
 — this narrative devoid of orthography and spelling, with- 
 out any literary preparation whatsoever — seems to me 
 more interesting, because one feels that it is, in its dry- 
 ness of an official report, the counterdrawing of reality 
 itself. M. de Saint-Albin, intrusted with the duty of 
 finally editing the notes and rude fragments dashed off at 
 random on paper by his friend, naturally conceived this 
 editing in conformity with the literary taste of the period 
 
XX MEMOIRS OF BARRAS 
 
 he had passed through ; now it is well known how greatly 
 this period revelled in oratorical amplification and the de- 
 velopment of a diffuse and hollow rhetorical display. A 
 fecund writer, too fecund perhaps, and fond of a declama- 
 tory and pompous style, he has seen fit to cast aside such 
 or such particular that doubtless seemed to him to be 
 wanting in " nobility." 
 
 An historian possessed more than any one in those 
 days with a concern for accuracy, a sense of the pictu- 
 resque, an understanding of the value of small facts, some- 
 times revealing so much of pregnant significance for him 
 who knows how to interpret the pages and extract there- 
 from the vital spark they conceal— an historian trained in 
 the school of those illustrious callers up of the past, like 
 Augustin Thierry and Michelet, would have been careful 
 not to neglect such traits. Oh, this gray suit of the little 
 Dauphin, this bloated and pale face of this poor little be- 
 ing with his swollen knees and ankles, huddled up like a 
 chilly nestling in the cradle he prefers to the too large 
 bed! And the prayer of the sister — that little princess 
 who does not sleep because the noises of the tragic night 
 have reached her ears, who is perhaps wondering if they 
 are not coming to take her, her brother and herself, as 
 they once before came and took her father and her moth- 
 er ! How heart-rending is all this, and what kind of heart 
 beat in the breast of that man of noble birth who thrice 
 returns to this scene ' in his autograph notes, and who not 
 
 ' These three narratives, apart from some insignificant variations, agree 
 perfectly together. I have given the longest and most interesting one, the 
 one used by M. de Saint-Albin. As an addendum to one of the two other 
 autograph narratives of Barras, which I have not thought necessary to repro- 
 duce here, are a few important lines which, if there could be any possible 
 doubt in regard to the actual death of Louis XVII. in the Temple, would 
 finally set the question at rest : 
 
 " On my return to the Committee of Public Safety, I told them of my visit 
 to the Temple, of the state of neglect, nay, of the badly kept state of the 
 rooms occupied by the prince and princess, of the serious illness consuming 
 the former, of the urgency of sending physicians, and of the increased care he 
 needed in his weak condition, and that I should report the matter to the Con- 
 vention. Do nothing of tlie kind, was the answer made, we will attend to it 
 and give orders that the prisoners be well treated and properly cared for ; I 
 
GENERAL INTRODUCTION xxi 
 
 once was moved to compassion at the recollection of this 
 visit to the moribund child of his king? 
 
 It is therefore a matter of regret, I will admit, that in 
 the speed of hasty editing M. de Saint-Albin did not see 
 fit to preserve and make use of all the particulars supplied 
 him by the autograph text in regard to the visit of Barras 
 to the Temple.' It is none the less demonstrated that — 
 barring the unfortunate addition of certain literary orna- 
 ments somewhat out of date which could well be dis- 
 pensed with— the editor of the Memoirs has scrupulously 
 reproduced in both the fragments just quoted the very nar- 
 rative of Barras. These two examples fully demonstrate 
 the method set unto himself by M. de Saint-Albin when 
 carrying out the wishes of his friend. He has given to the 
 authentic text the " suitable style," or what he considered 
 such, and this is precisely the task confided to him by Bar- 
 ras.' But he has not altered the nature of the text, or 
 even falsified it. The title of Memoirs of Barras, under 
 which the edition made by M. de Saint-Albin has been 
 known for over half a century, under which it was submit- 
 ted to Prieur de la Cote-d'Or, whose autograph pencilled 
 notes are still to be seen in the margin of the manuscript, 
 to Michelet, who expressed a desire to consult it when 
 
 satisfied myself that these orders were given and carried out. But the young 
 prince s constitution was undermined by a hitvioral disease which had already 
 made progress^ so that, in spite of all the care shown him, he succumbed to it^ 
 
 ' Other autograph fragments, published as an appendix, which one can 
 compare with the corresponding passages of the Memoirs, will sliow that M. 
 R. de Saint-Albin copied almost literally the very text of Barras's notes with- 
 out taking with that text the slight liberties just pointed out. 
 
 ' See, above, Barras's letter to M. de Saint-Albin, whereby he expressly com- 
 missions him to rectify and edit the manuscript and autograph notes he sends 
 him. This manuscript is probably the narrative of his two journeys to In- 
 dia, from 1775 to 1783, whereof M. de Saint-Albin has only given the sub- 
 stance in the early chapters of the Memoirs, See, also, above, tlie statement 
 of facts laid by M. Paul Grand before tlie Tribunal de Premiere Instance: 
 "There remained but to clothe these notes (Barras's) in a suitable language." 
 And indeed they are oftentimes in a crude form, and it could no more be a 
 question in those days than it is at present to publish them in this rudimen- 
 tary condition. Moreover, all such notes as were necessary to aid in checking 
 the accuracy of the editor, or which may contain some interesting mention 
 omitted in his hurried labors, will be found in the Appendix. 
 
xxii MEMOIRS OF BARRAS 
 
 composing his Histoire de la Rdvolution, does not consti- 
 tute one of those pompous and mendacious announce- 
 ments having for their object both the allurement and 
 deception of the pubhc. This is, in my opinion,^ an essen- 
 tial point, which it is important to clearly establish. 
 
 At the end of 1829 the work of making a fair copy of 
 the Memoirs of Barras had already reached a very ad- 
 vanced stage. At that time M. R. de Saint- Albin fell a 
 prey to a serious illness, which, together with the events 
 of July, 1830, delayed its completion until 1832. At this 
 date, everything being about finished, MM. Paul Grand 
 and 'Courtot, as well as Mme. de Barras, expressed the 
 opinion that the Memoirs should be published forthwith. 
 The good fame of the deceased, they argued, made it im- 
 perative. The time seemed, moreover, opportune ; the 
 recollections of the Revolution were more than ever hon- 
 ored since the advent to the throne of Philippe Egalit6's 
 son ; publishers were coming forward with the most ad- 
 vantageous offers ; to be brief, M. R. de Saint-Albin had 
 neither the right to deprive Barras of the justification in 
 view of which the e.x- director had undertaken these Me- 
 moirs, nor to deprive his co-legatees of the profits sure to 
 be derived from their publication. M. de Saint-Albin 
 argued in opposition to this desire that he alone should be 
 considered judge of the opportuneness of the publication, 
 just as he had been the only one charged with the care of 
 editing them, the codicil invoked by M. Paul Grand con- 
 ferring upon him merely an altogether subordinate and 
 secondary role. He added that, as his hasty editing re- 
 quired some after- touches, their publication could there- 
 fore not be dreamed of until he had finished the task of 
 revising them. 
 
 These reasons not satisfying MM. Paul Grand and Cour- 
 tot, they served M. de Saint-Albin with a summons in due 
 form. Threatened with a lawsuit, the latter was adroit 
 enough to deprive them of an auxiliary without whom 
 they were unable to act against him. He induced Mme. 
 de Barras to cede unto him all her husband's rights in the 
 Memoirs. A deed of cession was drawn up by M' Damai- 
 
GENERAL INTRODUCTION xxm 
 
 son, notary, on the i8th of December, 1832. The deed 
 recited that Mme de Barras " has ever considered as evi- 
 dence of the greatest confidence the selection made by 
 the general of M. de Saint -Albin to edit his Memoirs. 
 She can but respect this confidence ; hence she believes 
 herself to be religiously fulfilling the intentions of her 
 husband in leaving, in so far as she is concerned, M. de 
 Saint -Albin the absolute master as to the manner and 
 time of publication of the general's Memoirs. ... In con- 
 sequence whereof Mme. de Barras declares by these pres- 
 ents that she renounces gratuitously in favor of M. de 
 Saint-Albin ... all property and other rights she may pos- 
 sess in the Memoirs of General de Barras by virtue of the 
 holograph testaments and codicil of the latter ... it being 
 Mme. de Barras's desire that her rights shall accrue to M. de 
 Saint-Albin exclusively ; and to that end, the latter should 
 unite in his person both his own rights as well as those of 
 Mme. de Barras, whose renunciation is subject to but one 
 condition — to wit, that at whatsoever time the Memoirs 
 be published, neither material nor moral responsibility 
 shall be attributed to her," and so forth. 
 
 This renunciation of Mme. de Barras deprived of all 
 chance of success the judicial action MM. Paul Grand and 
 Courtot intended entering into against M. de Saint-Albin. 
 They realized this, and resigned themselves to accept a 
 transaction whereby, against payment of a certain sum by 
 M. de Saint-Albin to each of them, they jointly renounced 
 in his favor all rights to the eventual profits derived from 
 the publication of the Memoirs, leaving him sole judge of 
 the manner and opportuneness of such publication.' 
 
 IV.— Why the Memoirs of Barras, since 1834 the 
 EXCLUSIVE Property of M. Rousselin de Saint- 
 Albin, were not PUBLISHED BY HIM 
 
 It would have seemed that, the matter thus settled, 
 
 ' Transaction of the 19th of June, 1833, between Messrs. de Saint-Albin 
 and Paul Grand ; deed of cession of the 31st of May, 1834, from M. Courtot 
 to M. de Saint-Albin, drawn up by M? Daraaison, notary, Paris. 
 
MEMOIRS OF BARRAS 
 
 there but remained for M. da Saint -Albin to proceed 
 with the classification and fair copy which he claimed 
 was uncompleted, and thereupon to publish the Memoirs. 
 Still he abstained from so doing. Does one wish to know 
 the secret reason which prevented him from proceeding 
 with the publication, subsequent as previous to the series 
 of transactions whereby these Memoirs became his full 
 and entire property? A confidential letter written by 
 him to Mme. de Barras— a letter, the draft and copy of 
 which I have been fortunate enough to find — will reveal 
 the secret of his hesitancy. The Memoirs, it is stated in 
 this letter,' "were edited hurriedly after the death of Bar- 
 ras, ivliile under the impression of the Just feelings of resent- 
 ment he must have experienced in his lifetime, resentful 
 feelings which my lively hatred of his persecutors had ena- 
 bled me to continue, and the mistake and danger lurking tn 
 them had escaped from me in the hurry of an impassioned 
 composition. . . ." M" Damaison, the notary of Mme. de 
 Barras and M. de Saint-Albin, on being asked his opinion 
 after the manuscript had been submitted to him, gave 
 one to the effect that "it constituted a nestful of libel 
 suits." He also stated, after allowing one of his col- 
 leagues, M^ Trubert, the notary of the X family, to 
 
 read it in a confidential capacity, " that I feel certain that 
 this family, so powerful by its wealth and social position, 
 would never rest until it had obtained vengeance and repa- 
 ration from the courts in regard to ivhat concerned it in the 
 Memoirs. . . ." Mme. de Barras would therefore realize 
 that it was necessary to postpone the publication. 
 
 Thus, according to the admission of Barras's associate 
 in the work, in some parts of them, in particular in those 
 having reference to the personages whom M. de Saint- 
 Albin styles " the persecutors " of the former member of 
 the Directorate, these Memoirs not only assume the garb 
 of a lampoon, but present such a marked and well-defined 
 defamatory character, that their pubhcation was likely to 
 
 ' Letter of M. de Saint-Albin to Mme. de Barras, dated 1st September 
 1S32. ^ 
 
GENERAL INTRODUCTION XXV 
 
 result in prosecutions. This admission has its value. It 
 is of consequence to take note of it at this early stage ; it 
 will be of special consequence to bear it in mind when one 
 shall read in the text itself of the Memoirs certain pas- 
 sages which this confession exposes, so it seems to me, to 
 the most legitimate suspicion. 
 
 M. de Saint-Albin might have solved the difficulty by sup- 
 pressing or modifying the compromising portions wherein 
 Barras has given free rein to his feelings of resentment 
 against Napoleon, his family, and those about " Buona- 
 parte " with no less violence than perfidy and indelicacy. 
 But in altering so deeply the character of the Memoirs, M. 
 R. de Saint-Albin would have been guilty, it must fain be 
 admitted, of a veritable act of betrayal of the friend who 
 had intrusted him on his death-bed with the care of his 
 justification and revenge. If the editor of the Memoirs 
 did not consider he enjoyed the right to distort the thought 
 of Barras, nor even to extenuate it, if he made of these 
 Memoirs, when putting them into final form, precisely 
 what Barras wished them to be — i.e. an apologetic special 
 pleading in favor of all that personally concerns the for- 
 mer member of the Directorate, and a rabid diatribe in re- 
 gard to everything closely or remotely connected with Na- 
 poleon — one must admit that in faithfully carrying out the 
 intentions of the man whose legacy he had accepted, M. 
 R. de Saint-Albin merely conformed with an elementary 
 rule of probity. 
 
 It remains to be added that his personal sentiments in 
 regard to the emperor and the empire were in perfect har- 
 mony with those of the ex-director, and that his common 
 and ardent enmity was doubtless not one of the least of 
 his titles to Barras's selection of him for the final editing 
 of the Memoirs. The friend, during the Revolution, of 
 Danton and of Hoche, whose history he wrote, of Cherin 
 and of Bernadotte, who appointed him Secretary -general 
 to the War Department in 1798, of Carnot, who invested 
 him with important functions at home during the Hundred 
 Days, M. Rousselin de Saint-Albin had preserved, if not in 
 all the youthful intemperance of their fervor, the republi- 
 
xxvi MEMOIRS OF BARRAS 
 
 can opinions of his early youth, at least the strongest and 
 most sincere love of liberty. Rallied to the July Govern- 
 ment, after having figured in no obscure fashion in the 
 ranks of the opposition during the reigns of Louis XVIII. 
 and Charles X., a personal friend of King Louis Philippe 
 and Queen Amelie, who honored him as well as his family 
 with their most special kindness, managing -editor for a 
 number of years of the Constitutionnel — one of the found- 
 ers of which he was, and wherein he invariably champi- 
 oned the cause of liberal doctrines — M. de Saint -Albin 
 hated Napoleon almost as much as he did Robespierre, 
 who in 1794 had sent him before the Revolutionary Tri- 
 bunal as the accomplice of Danton. 
 
 This man, so moderate, so courteous, who contented 
 himself with writing to the author of an alleged biography 
 wherein the part he had played during the Revolution 
 was ridiculously travestied : " Since you are kind enough, 
 citizen, to interest yourself in my reputation, first be kind 
 enough to be accurate. Instead of having been 3. juge of, 
 I was jugc' by the Revolutionary Tribunal. You are too 
 deeply attached to orthography and to truth to persist in 
 depriving me of an accent of such importance to my his- 
 tory" — this fecund and fluent writer, nurtured with the 
 reading of the classics, who seems to have set unto him- 
 self as a model in his numerous works the oratorical grav- 
 ity and fulness of the great historians of antiquity, can no 
 longer contain himself when the name of Napoleon has 
 to be written by him. He then bursts into virulent apos- 
 trophe, invective, and insult ; he accepts and gathers with 
 complacency the silliest and coarsest gossip. Have I not 
 found among his papers the following note in his own 
 handwriting, which, one among many others I might 
 quote, and animated with the same spirit, will suffice, I 
 am of opinion, to show his disposition towards the mem- 
 ory of the great emperor : " According to the story told 
 by several Corsicans who frequented his house, Bona- 
 parte had, when hardly nine years of age, conceived so 
 violent a passion for one of his cousins verging on forty, 
 that he had committed an outrage on her." 
 
GENERAL INTRODUCTION xxvii 
 
 That a grave man of a serious and well-balanced mind, 
 priding himself on his independence and equity, should 
 allow himself to become the dupe of an animosity blind 
 to the point of making note of such nonsense, and put- 
 ting faith in fables so manifestly absurd, constitutes a phe- 
 nomenon passing comprehension, but which one is cer- 
 tainly compelled to take notice of. However this may 
 be, it will be seen from the foregoing that it would have 
 cost M. de Saint-Albin a double effort to modify the text 
 of the Memoirs by rendering them less aggressive : in the 
 first place, because he would have failed in the kind of 
 moral engagement into which he had entered with the 
 man who had charged him with the task of editing them 
 in a spirit of hatred and revenge against Napoleon ; in the 
 second place, because in editing them in this spirit he grat- 
 ified his personal rancor against the emperor and the em- 
 pire. The Memoirs retained, therefore, the form given 
 them by their editor " in the haste of an impassioned com- 
 position which had primarily concealed from him the mis- 
 take and the danger." I have before me the first copy 
 made of the work. It dates from 1830, as attested by sev- 
 eral receipts from copyists. The only corrections it shows 
 marks of are absolutely of no significance. Not a word 
 has either been suppressed or modified in the compromis- 
 ing passages which aroused the prudence of M' Damaison. 
 Rather than change anything in the primitive text com- 
 posed from the notes, dictations, or already edited frag- 
 ments of Barras, M. de Saint-Albin preferred keeping the 
 Memoirs in portfolio, in which they still were when he died 
 in 1847. 
 
 v.— Why the Memoirs of Barras have remained 
 
 UNPUBLISHED SINCE 1 847, AND WHY IT HAS BEEN CON- 
 CLUDED TO PUBLISH THEM NOW 
 
 The children of M. de Saint-Albin, no more than their 
 father, proceeded with the publication of the Memoirs of 
 Barras. The eldest, M. Hortensius de Saint-Albin, a for- 
 
xxviii MEMOIRS OF BARRAS 
 
 mer deputy from the Garthe and a representative of the 
 people in the Constituent Assembly in 1848, was under 
 the Second Empire a councillor at the Court of Appeal. 
 His erudition, his extensively cultivated mind, his literary 
 merits — he wrote prose and verse with equal facility and 
 delicacy — everything seemed to designate him as the one 
 to undertake this publication with which his father had 
 feared to proceed. He was urged to do so, not only by 
 publishers, but by men of literary and scientific attain- 
 ments, who, cognizant of the existence of the Memoirs 
 of Barras, regretted seeing so important a mine of infor- 
 mation withheld from workers in the field of historical 
 research. But in publishing a work wherein is revealed 
 on every page a set determination to blacken Napoleon's 
 fame and character, there was cause to dread calling forth 
 sharp and vexatious reprisals against the memory of 
 Barras, whose friend M. Hortensius de Saint -Albin, like 
 his father, had been,' and against that of M. Rousselin 
 himself, whose political role during the revolutionary 
 period had, as has been shown, been judged in various 
 ways. Hence M. de Saint -Albin did not consider he 
 could permit the Memoirs to see the light of day ; he 
 contented himself with communicating to M. Ars^ne 
 Houssaye's Rcviic du XIX Siccle a short fragment on the 
 9th Thermidor, inserting it subsequently in a volume en- 
 titled Documents rclatifs a la Revolution fran^aise.^ This 
 fragment, the only portion of the Memoirs of Barras 
 which has so far seen light, is, moreover, inaccurate and 
 incomplete. On comparing it with the authentic te.xt, I 
 
 ' The Saint-Albin family was, moreover, connected with Barras, M. Rous- 
 seUn de Saint-Albin's first wife having been a Mile, de Montpezat, a kinswom- 
 an of Barras. 
 
 2 Paris, Dentu, 1S73. This volume contains also interesting extracts from 
 the writings of M. Rousselin de Saint-Albin on Hoche, Championnet, Kleber, 
 Malet, Danton, and Dugommier. Some of these writings, in particular the 
 history of Kleber and Danton, still remain unpublished. The incomplete and 
 inaccurate fragment of the Memoirs of Barras relating to the glh Thermidor 
 has been reproduced by M, de Lescure in vol. i. of his Mhnoires stir les Jouy- 
 :,ees Rfyolutionnaires, de 1789 a 1799 {Bibliothiqiie des MJinoires relatifs h 
 I'Histoirs de France pendant le XVIII' siecle, Paris, F. Didot, 1875.) 
 
GENERAL INTRODUCTION xxix 
 
 have noticed alterations : " Couthon etait tomb^ sous line 
 balle (shot down) " for instance, instead of " etait caclid sous 
 une table (hidden under a table)," which is to be met with 
 in the original manuscript. Seven most interesting pages 
 referring to the execution and burial of Robespierre have 
 been suppressed. A passage of some thirty lines, which 
 does not appear in the Memoirs, has, on the other hand, 
 been inserted in the extract. A curious autograph note 
 on the death of Robespierre, written in pencil by Prieur 
 de la Cote-d'Or in the margin of the manuscript com- 
 municated to him by M. Rousselin de Saint-Albin, does 
 not appear in the fragment published. This note, which 
 rectifies in a single point of detail the narrative embodied 
 in the Memoirs in regard to the 9th Thermidor, assuredly 
 was deserving of being reproduced, had it no other interest 
 than to demonstrate the almost entire agreement of as 
 well an informed witness as Prieur undoubtedly was with 
 Barras's version. 
 
 M. Hortensius de Saint-Albin died in 1877. The Me- 
 moirs of Barras then passed into the possession of his 
 brother, M. Philippe de Saint-Albin, former librarian to 
 H.M. the Empress Eugenie, then into that of his sister, 
 Mme. Achille Jubinal, a widow of the former member of 
 the Corps Legislatif, who followed him to the grave at a 
 few years' interval, without having had the time to un- 
 dertake the publication so long called for and promised. 
 Hence it is that, having myself become connected by mar- 
 riage with the Saint-Albin family, all of whose members 
 have within a space of hardly ten years passed away in 
 succession, I in turn found myself, in 1885, invested with 
 the strange task of coming to a decision in regard to the 
 fate of those famous Memoirs awaited for over half a 
 century. 
 
 Thus, by a truly strange irony of fate, these Memoirs, 
 which one of Napoleon's most bitter enemies has filled 
 with the venom of his long-lived rancor, and which Barras 
 willed, in order that the final touches should be put to 
 them (in other words, that they should, if possible, be 
 rendered still more aggressive), to a friend whose passion- 
 
XXX MEMOIRS OF BARRAS 
 
 ate hatred of the emperor he was cognizant of — these 
 Memoirs lie for fifty -five years without accomplishing 
 their mission of posthumous revenge, and end by falling 
 into the hands of whom ? Into those of an admirer of 
 Napoleon ! 
 
 After a summary examination of them, and after com- 
 ing across the base insults, the ignoble accusations, where- 
 in are revealed from the very outset the resentment of 
 the former member of the Directorate against the extraor- 
 dinary man whose beginnings he never consoled himself 
 for having favored, and whose genius he subsequently 
 refused to admit, just as he had formerly been unable to 
 have an intuition of it — after having ascertained that this 
 resentment fastened itself in a cowardly fashion upon a 
 woman, Josephine, who more than any other woman 
 should have been sheltered from the slanders of Barras, I 
 must confess that my first impulse was to destroy these 
 Memoirs, just as a man remorselessly crushes with his 
 heel some venomous or unclean creature. 
 
 But on reading them a second time with a determina- 
 tion to free my mind of the sentiments of disgust and 
 anger with which they had primarily filled me, I was com- 
 pelled to admit that if on the one hand they constitute, in 
 so far as they refer to Napoleon, his family, his friends, 
 and his servants, the most contemptible of lampoons and 
 least worthy of belief, they contain, on the other, a num- 
 ber of pages of capital importance and of the greatest 
 interest. Thereupon I asked myself if I indeed possessed 
 the right to stifle the voice of a man who was the actor 
 intrusted with one of the leading roles in the most palpi- 
 tating of dramas— this deposition of a witness assuredly 
 open to suspicion when dealing with the memory of an 
 enemy, but who has seen so much, who is so well ac- 
 quainted with the events and persons of a period wherein 
 nothing seems indifferent to our eager curiosity, and who, 
 except in the portions wherein his deposition, after bein'^ 
 primarily the speech of a public prosecutor against Bona'- 
 parte, becomes a special pleading on behalf of Barras him- 
 self, upon the whole tells truthfully what he knows. My 
 
GENERAL INTRODUCTION xxxi 
 
 conscience replied that I did not possess such a right, that 
 I was accountable for so precious a document, that this 
 document belonged to my country and to history just as 
 much as to myself, that I was the depositary as well as the 
 possessor of it, and that the act of destroying a deposit is, 
 morally speaking, almost equivalent to the want of delica- 
 cy which would be shown in embezzling it. 
 
 Having positively cast from me the temptation I had 
 felt of suppressing these Memoirs, I thought I would suffer 
 them to sleep their long sleep in a corner of my library. 
 But what answer was I to make to my friends, my col- 
 leagues, my masters, to all those whom history interests, 
 and who were continually saying to me, " When are you 
 really going to make up your mind to let us see those 
 famous Memoirs?" Alas! what could I say in reply 
 unless it was, " I dare not " ? If at least the difficulty had 
 thus been finally solved, I might perhaps have become 
 resigned, however much I felt over the matter, to incur 
 the reproach of depriving the field of historical research of 
 the advantages they are certain to derive from such pub- 
 lication. " But," I argued with myself, " what will become 
 of the Memoirs when I am no more if I leave them in 
 portfolio? What will become of them? Into whose 
 hands will fate, capricious enough to have made them fall 
 into mine, deliver them ? Was I to bequeath them to the 
 Bibliotheque Nationale, and thus enable some enemy of 
 Napoleon to use as a weapon against him all the venom 
 he would extract from these pages, while careful not to 
 recall and prove to the reader that rancor and envy dic- 
 tated them, thus depriving their testimony of all value? 
 Was I to bequeath them to some safe and conscientious 
 writer possessing a regard both for truth and for the great 
 man outrageously insulted and calumniated by Barras? 
 But then how would it be possible for him to establish 
 this essential point — to wit, that the work of Barras is, in 
 everything referring to Napoleon and the people about 
 him, a well-defined lampoon, the result of the combined 
 efforts of two men who hated him, a production consid- 
 ered libellous by the respectable man who first took cog- 
 
xxxii MEMOIRS OF BARRAS 
 
 nizance of it ? As regards myself, it is an easy task for- 
 me to demonstrate this, owing to the notes, papers, and 
 letters of M. Rousselin de Saint-AIbin which I possess. 
 Lastly, I was obliged to admit that the shift of indefinite- 
 ly postponing the publication was of no good ; for it 
 united with the defect of in itself bearing I know not 
 what mark of pusillanimity not to my liking the still 
 more serious inconvenience of exposing Napoleon's mem- 
 ory to incur hereafter a marked injury. 
 
 It remained to be seen in what way I should proceed 
 with this publication, the necessity of which now forced 
 itself most clearly upon my mind. Was I to give to the 
 public the Memoirs of Barras in their entirety? Or 
 rather, since this text was in some of its passages so man- 
 ifestly unjust to the emperor, would it not be proper to 
 have recourse to skilful excisions which would modify the 
 historical interest of the work without weakening it? I 
 did not feel justified in calling such an expedient to my 
 aid. The master whose teachings I had the honor of 
 listening to — the lamented Fustel de Coulanges, to name 
 only the one who, next to my father, most contributed to 
 forming my conscience as an historian — inculcated into 
 me so great a regard for truth that the mere idea of 
 altering a document in the slightest degree is intensely 
 repugnant to me. I felt that it was beyond my powers to 
 remodel or truncate the text of Barras, since an operation 
 of that kind, even if performed with the most laudable 
 intentions in the world, bears a strange resemblance to a 
 forgery. Ne quid falsi attdeat, ne qtcid veri von aiideat 
 Instoria, Cicero has said.' " To shrink from all falsehood, 
 not to shrink from any truth." It will, I trust, not enter 
 the mind of any one that I have been wrong in putting 
 into application a precept whose observation imposes itself 
 as the most inflexible of rules upon whomsoever under- 
 takes an historian's duties. 
 
 I must add that considerations of another kind con- 
 firmed me in the, so to speak, professional repugnance I 
 
 ^ Dc Omt.,\\. 15. 
 
GENERAL INTRODUCTION xxxiii 
 
 felt in giving to the public an expurgated text of the 
 Memoirs of Barras. Let one take into consideration how 
 they came into my possession — by inheritance, after all. 
 Whether I will it or not, it follows none the less from this 
 initial fact that I am, when publishing these Memoirs, the 
 testamentary executor of Barras himself, who bequeathed 
 them to M. Rousselin de Saint-Albin precisely for the 
 purpose of such publication. Was it then a puerile and 
 gratuitously invented case of conscience, or rather, was it 
 not the most natural of scruples to ask myself, as I have 
 done, if I had not duties to perform towards the man 
 whose heir I am to a certain degree? And did not the 
 first of these duties consist in respecting absolutely his 
 idea of adding nothing to, of eliminating nothing from, 
 what he expressly wished to convey, even when what he 
 says wounds and offends my personal sentiments — in a 
 word, to publish his Memoirs as conceived by him and 
 by the posthumous collaborateur whom he charged with 
 perfecting his work, such, on the whole, as they were 
 transmitted by those from whom I hold them ? I have 
 believed, and I still believe firmly, that there can be no 
 possible doubt on this score, and that it was for me an 
 imperative moral obligation with respect to the author of 
 the Memoirs, as well as history itself, to publish this text 
 without the change of a single word. But I have also 
 considered that my duty as testamentary executor did not 
 exact anything more from me ; that, having once loyally 
 performed it, I once more entered into possession of all 
 my rights as historian and critic ; and that there was no 
 valid reason to prevent my judging with an entire inde- 
 pendence, or if need be, as one may already have seen, 
 with severity, both the Memoirs of Barras and Barras 
 himself. 
 
 Hence did I resolve upon publishing the Memoirs in 
 their original form. But was there not cause to fear that 
 this publication would cause a sort of scandal, from the 
 very fact of the calumnies and insults which make these 
 Memoirs of the ex-director a long diatribe against Na- 
 poleon? This fear had doubtless been experienced by 
 c — I 
 
xxxiv MEMOIRS OF BARRAS 
 
 M. H. de Saint-Albin thirty years before, and it was a 
 legitimate one in those days. There still existed in the 
 France of that period an almost universal sentiment of 
 respect and admiration for the memory of the emperor. 
 Instead of shedding, as required later on by the ofncial 
 doctrine, hypocritical tears over the 1 8th Brumaire — a 
 revolutionary act, like the outrageous execution of the 
 Due d'Enghien, one that is to be judged equitably on con- 
 dition only that it is not taken apart from the series of 
 deeds of violence, popular or governmental, to which it 
 belongs and of which the inner history of the country was 
 made up — one was thankful to Bonaparte for rescuing 
 our fatherland from the rottenness of the Directorate, for 
 remaking a country falling into decomposition, and of 
 finally having embodied in its institutions the best and 
 most essential ideas derived from the conquests of the 
 Revolution. "/ closed the abyss of anarchy and made light 
 shine through chaos. I cleansed the Revolution of its 
 pollution . . . I gave stimulus to every emulation, re- 
 warded every merit, and extended the limits of glory . . ." ' 
 In consideration of such benefits people excused his 
 faults, condoned the very delirium of his ambition and of 
 his pride, and even the follies of that pitiless and un- 
 bridled policy which has cost us so dearly. And I am of 
 opinion that those were the proper sentiments for a great 
 nation to feel towards a great man. 
 
 But to-day, after the appearance of the publications of 
 Michelet, Lanfrey, M. Proth, and M. lung, who is there 
 who could in all sincerity still look upon this dread of 
 scandal as anything but a display of childishness ? Does 
 there remain anything to be said against Napoleon ? 
 Have his detractors spared him a single ignominious in- 
 nuendo, insult, or calumny? Have they not gone so far as 
 to even call in question his military genius, his soldier's 
 courage, as did Lewis Goldsmith as early as 1814 in his 
 vile pamphlet? Has it not been sought to prove that he 
 
 ' Cornspondance de NapoUm I", vol. x.-cxii. , p. 264, Paris, Plon et Du- 
 maine, 1870. 
 
GENERAL INTRODUCTION xxxv 
 
 was in reality naught but a knavish, bloodthirsty, and lewd 
 bandit? Vain efforts! After so furious an onslaught 
 the emperor continues to be the dominant figure of the 
 century on the threshold of which his colossal form stands 
 erect. So the statue of Memnon at the entrance to the 
 Egyptian desert. Sacrilegious hands have attempted to 
 maim the calm visage of granite respected by centuries. 
 But so long as there are men they will stand wrapped 
 in thought at the foot of the giant image and measure 
 their littleness by its greatness. Thus will posterity do 
 in front of the sphinx with the enigmatical and sovereign 
 visage who was Napoleon. 
 
 Toujours lui ! Lui partout ! Ou brulante ou glacee, 
 Son image sans cesse ebranle ma pensee. . . . 
 Histoire, poesie, il joint du pied vos cinies. 
 Eperdu, je ne puis dans ces mondes sublimes 
 Remuer rien de grand sans toucher i son nom.' 
 
 Just now his legend, his indestructible legend, is arising 
 on all sides of us, radiant as a star. On the wane of a 
 ceritury born amid enthusiasm and closing in the gloomy 
 sadness of an universal disenchantment, in this hour when 
 society, battered in breach, knows neither how to reform 
 nor protect itself, and when the most formidable danger 
 threatens all that is dear to us, the urbanity and gentle- 
 ness of our manners, the delicate culture of men's minds, 
 the cherished ideas of toleration, liberty, fatherland, art, 
 and even science, whose name the new barbarians invoke, 
 that science doomed to perish like all other things under 
 their brutal domination — in this hour of anguish through 
 which we are passing, what a beneficial diversion, what a 
 consolation it is to be able to take refuge in that heroic 
 novel full of battles and adventures, to be able to live in 
 thought, if only for a moment, a prouder and nobler life 
 than the one to which the absence of all common faith, 
 of all high ideal, condemns us ! Is not the reason of the 
 renascence of the Napoleonic legend among us? The 
 
 ' Lui in Les Oruntales, Victor Hugo. — Translator's note. 
 
xxxvi MEMOIRS OF BARRAS 
 
 France that we see in it, so different from our own, ex- 
 ercises an irresistible seduction over our minds. How 
 robust and healtliy was the body social in those days ! 
 " This is what we were a century ago," we say to ourselves. 
 " What a generous sap flowed in the nation's veins ! 
 What a fine and strong race of men! How they lived! 
 And how they knew how to die ! What virtue has then 
 passed from us that we so little resemble this superb 
 generation ?" 
 
 Awakening as it does this unanimous sentiment, the 
 sublime epic poem ceases to be the property, the object 
 of the cult of a few interested devotees ; it widens itself 
 and attains the proportion of a kind of national religion. 
 The French conscience, deceived for a while, has at last 
 concluded to understand that this legend would not have 
 struck such deep roots in the heart of our nation had it 
 been merely less mendacious than the impious and mean 
 history with which it has been sought to smother it. And 
 I do not, as far as I am concerned, believe that the popular 
 instinct is wrong in revising the narrow-minded judgment 
 presented to France as the final expression of the truth in 
 regard to Napoleon. 
 
 'Tis true he was a terrible mower of men. I grant that 
 he is to be hated by the mothers of to-day in remem- 
 brance of the many children he took from those of days 
 gone by. But let our hearts, our men's and soldiers' 
 hearts, ever bound at his name ! The heroic undertakings 
 which he exacted of his own, our fatherland may per- 
 chance demand of us to-morrow. And it is fitting our- 
 selves to better fulfil them to think oftentimes of the man- 
 ner in which the companions of the great captain acquitted 
 themselves. Woe to France should a day come when this 
 bloody and stirring page of her history ceases to touch 
 her! 
 
 Besides, there is no crime in getting men killed. The 
 human plant is entitled to live only a few brief days. To 
 cut it down before its hour is not to disturb the eternal 
 order of things, but merely to forestall it. Thus mowed, 
 it grows again just as sturdy. The actual crime consists 
 
GENERAL INTRODUCTION xxxvii 
 
 in degrading, in debasing the soul of a nation. For the 
 soul is not a thing that passes away like men : it remains ; 
 and there does not exist any beneficent power which can 
 undertake the healing of the harm done the soul, as there 
 is a fecund and reparative nature which hastens to raise 
 up new generations to compensate for the loss of those 
 decimated. In the soul every wound is a deep one, slow 
 to heal, if ever it does heal. The fatal materialistic con- 
 ception of life everywhere triumphant nowadays, destruc- 
 tive of every generous aspiration, inflicts on us invisible 
 and mortal wounds from which oozes what is best in us. 
 Napoleon did not inflict any of that nature on us. He 
 did no more than cut into our flesh. The wounds he 
 inflicted have closed up. On leaving his terrible hands, 
 France was once more valiant and strong. Who dares to 
 say that Napoleon committed the crime of debasing his 
 nation ? 
 
 It is not even accurate to assert that all the blood he 
 caused to be shed cries aloud for vengeance against him. 
 Those who shed it for that man were less his victims than 
 the enthusiastic confessors to his superhuman greatness. 
 Go ask Lasalle, Marbot, and the rest if they dreamed of 
 repining because men died young at the side of the em- 
 peror ! Thanks to him, the manly cheerfulness of action 
 made one long enchantment of their brief existence. 
 Their minutes were fuller than our days. These young 
 men had no regrets when falling on the field of battle, for 
 they had lived more and better than the old men of an- 
 other age ; they had exhausted life. Their blood, in 
 which it is sought to drown his glory, is not for that, but, 
 on the contrary, to proclaim that they shed it. To invoke 
 it against him is to tamper with a document, to alter the 
 sense of unimpeachable evidence. And this evidence says 
 clearly, " Praised be unto the consummation of centuries 
 the magician who made us live the most beautiful dream 
 men ever lived ! For him we laid down our lives with 
 joy, because at the degree of love to which we had at- 
 tained the entire sacrifice of ourselves to our god could 
 alone satiate this love, and also because we felt that by 
 
xxxviu MEMOIRS OF BARRAS 
 
 virtue of this sacrifice the most obscure of us became a 
 coUaborateur in an immortal work." 
 
 The boiirgcoise history, the positivist history of to-day, 
 with its narrow views and wretched psychology, feels 
 triumphant when it has set forth in its vain statistics the 
 account of the lives he cut down. It does not know that 
 war has its function on this earth, and that this function 
 is not solely hurtful. The storm breaks off branches, 
 uproots trees, and ploughs the earth, but it purifies the 
 air. Thus does war. It destroys in the material order ; 
 in the moral order it often restores or revives. The man- 
 ly virtues which a nation enslaved by egotistical and gross 
 appetites was suffering to drop into oblivion — constituting 
 as they do the very basis of its existence — are reanimated 
 and restored to their splendor by war. Therefore war 
 rescues that nation from the slow decomposition under- 
 mining it, maiming, but regenerating it. 
 
 Doubtless Napoleon loved war too much. Let it there- 
 fore be said, if so one wills, that the man was Death. 
 But in a no less eminent degree he was also Life. Why 
 does one not show us, in juxtaposition to the hecatombs 
 exacted by his grandiose and mad conceptions, the finest 
 of his works — the temper of heroism he was able to impart 
 to the nation? Who would dare, without reddening with 
 shame, to compare the moral quality of his France with 
 that of ours? "Honor and bravery oozed from all the 
 pores of my young soldiers !" he exclaimed, when speaking 
 of his recruits of 1813 after an engagement in which these 
 lads had fought like lions. Honor and courage, devotion 
 to duty, the spirit of sacrifice for the fatherland, the love of 
 glory— yes, that is indeed of what strong dough his power- 
 ful hands had kneaded France. 
 
 And in spite of what may be said, glory is no vain word, 
 no fleeting sun's ray which rests for an instant and then 
 vanishes. This golden ray penetrates. It fertilizes, it 
 awakens to life mysterious powers lying dormant in the 
 recesses of the conscience of nations. Glory is a force, an 
 active and enduring force, which is transmitted. It incites 
 the new generations not to fall from the high rank in 
 
GENERAL INTRODUCTION xxxix 
 
 which the old ones have placed the fatherland. Those 
 who, like Louis XIV. and Napoleon, have given glory to 
 a nation, remain the eternal benefactors of that nation, for 
 they have thereby conferred on it a moral vigor, a manly 
 pride, a clear consciousness of its dignity, which, extolling 
 it in its own eyes as well as in those of others, compel it to 
 think and act more nobly, if only to remain equal to itself. 
 Now what glor>' is comparable to that France owes to her 
 emperor? 
 
 Such was Napoleon, the greatest creator of energy and 
 enthusiasm, the most powerful disseminator of ideals that 
 ever lived. His was the marvellous gift of being able to 
 elevate an entire nation far above the mean level of hu- 
 manity, of inspiring it unto delirium with the most gener- 
 ous passions. Already before him the Revolution, whose 
 work he continued, and with which he remains indissolu- 
 bly united, had accomplished this miracle. Let us forget 
 and forgive the scaffolds of the one, the slaughter of the 
 other ! There is no shedding of blood that can prevail 
 against a like benefit. This is what France begins to feel 
 in a confused way; such is the essential feature she re- 
 members of that prodigious history which all the venom 
 of a Barras will never succeed in wiping out. What hold 
 does one believe the suspicious tattle of a man exasper- 
 ated with envy can have on the extraordinary man who 
 has so victoriously resisted not only vulgar pamphlets, but 
 the powerful scientific apparatus brought into play by a 
 thinker and writer like Taine? 
 
 But, it will be objected to me, the emperor is not the 
 only person attacked in the Memoirs of Barras. They 
 contain likewise grievous insinuations against Josephine. 
 Do you not dread appearing in a certain degree the ac- 
 complice of the wicked deed perpetrated by the author when 
 giving to the public what Barras too clearly makes under- 
 stood in regard to his intimacy with Mme.de Beauharnais? 
 
 By way of answer to this, I content myself with referring 
 to the supplement of the Biographic Michaud'^ and to the 
 
 ' Vol. Ixix., under the head "Josephine," p. 225 it seq. 
 
xl MEMOIRS OF BARRAS 
 
 Papicrs et Corrcspondanccs de la Famille imperiale ' the 
 persons I may be unfortunate enough to displease by al- 
 lowing the wicked utterances of the ex-member of the Di- 
 rectorate about her who was empress of the French to see 
 the light of publication. It will be sufficient to glance 
 over this article of the Biographic and the two letters 
 of Josephine to Barras published by the commission which 
 accepted the task of ransacking, subsequent to the 4th of 
 September, 1870, the papers of the Emperor Napoleon 
 III., in order to convince themselves that the Memoirs 
 of Barras, whatever innuendoes they may contain, reveal 
 nothing on this score which has not long since been di- 
 vulged. It would therefore be both unjust and absurd to 
 assert that I have, in publishing them, failed in the reserve 
 and consideration a gentleman owes even to the memory 
 of a woman, especially one as good and charming as that 
 one was. I would doubtless have shrunk before the reve- 
 lation of the weaknesses to which it is unfortunately too 
 certain Josephine allowed herself to succumb previous to 
 the time when deep sentiment — one probably new to her 
 — purified her of those " vices of the day," and made the 
 too quickly consoled widow of Alexandre de Beauharnais 
 the blameless wife of the First Consul and of the emperor. 
 But the fact remains that the coquettish and frivolous friend 
 of Mmc. Tallien did not pass unsullied through such a period 
 as that of the Directorate, when public morality had fallen 
 so low, and when the virtue of women was unavoidably 
 exposed to the attacks of the general corruption — this 
 fact, whether one wills it or not, belongs to history. 
 
 Will then the indiscretions, the cowardly slanders of 
 Barras do harm to Josephine ? Alas, we already know 
 that she was frail, and, if all must be said, we have long 
 ago condoned her frailty, so much has her grace, he'r 
 divine goodness, her abnegation in the tragic hour of di- 
 vorce, eloquently pleaded her cause with us! But what 
 we were perhaps ignorant of is, that the fine exterior of 
 
 ' Papiers et Correspondances de la Famille impeiiale. Paris, lS-2, Beauvais, 
 vol. ii. , pp. I, 2. 
 
GENERAL INTRODUCTION xli 
 
 nobility with which the Vicomte de Barras delighted in 
 bedecking himself concealed the soul of a contemptible 
 wretch. And this point will, I venture to believe, be suf- 
 ficiently brought to light when one shall have seen the 
 language he uses towards the woman who did this low 
 fellow the far too great honor of noticing him. To make 
 public this additional trait to what was already known of 
 the cynicism and immorality of this man, to show him — on 
 his own testimony at that — as even more vile than one had 
 suspected him to be, is it not one more means of defending 
 from this defamer the great iigure he sought to outrage? 
 
 This is the reason why I undertake with a feeling of 
 absolute security this publication, wherefrom the memory 
 of Napoleon has, I am convinced, nothing to lose, and 
 from which history will certainly derive benefit. For this 
 purpose I invoke the words of the emperor himself: 
 
 " Calumny has exhausted all its venom against my per- 
 son ; it can no longer affect me ; it is no longer anything 
 more in my eyes than the poison of Mithridates. . . . I 
 am fated to be the food of pamphleteers, but I have no fears 
 of falling a vietim to them : they will bite granite. My 
 memory is entirely composed of facts which mere words 
 cannot obliterate. . . . If the great Frederick or any other 
 man of his mould were to set to zvriting against me, it 
 would be a different matter — it would then perhaps be time 
 for me to be moved ; but as to all others, however much 
 wit they may inject into their work, they will never be doing 
 aught but firing blank cartridge. . . . Falsehood passes, truth 
 remains. . . . What has, after all, been the result of the 
 immense sums spent in libelling me? Soon there will be 
 no traces of them, whereas my monuments and institutions 
 ivill commend me to the most remote posterity. ... In 
 spite of every libel, I entertain no fears for my fame. Pos- 
 terity will render justice unto me. The truth will be 
 known, and the good I have accomplished will be set against 
 the mistakes I have committed. I am not concerned as to 
 the result. . . . " ' 
 
 ' Fragments taken from the Minwrial and reproduced in the Correspon- 
 
xlii MEMOIRS OF BARRAS 
 
 Did I need, in order to publish the Memoirs of Barras, 
 any other permission than that of my conscience, I should 
 find it in the grand utterance under the weight of which 
 Napoleon, with the sovereign authority of genius sure of 
 itself and its work, has beforehand overwhelmed all his 
 defamers. Like all others, Barras " will bite granite." 
 
 George Duruy. 
 
 dance de NapoUon /"'■ Paris, Tlon et Dumaine, 1870, vol. xxxii., pp.252, 287, 
 and 325, passim. 
 
PREFACE 
 
 I.— The Man 
 
 The first volume of the Memoirs comprises the period 
 of the life of Barras prior to the Revolution (Chapters I. 
 to VII.) and the Revolution itself, from 1789 to the Con- 
 stitution of the Year III. {ijg^)—i.e., to the Directorial 
 Government (Chapters VII. to XXII.). 
 
 From the very first pages, the self-complacencyand the 
 vanity which constituted one of the dominant traits of the 
 character of Barras are given full play in the Memoirs 
 with a comic and delightful na'ivcti. If, on the other 
 hand, he is good enough to confess to us his tastes for 
 pleasures "which have oftentimes diverted me from my 
 duties," he eagerly redeems this avowal by revealing that 
 he is proud, brave, and his first impulses were ever gen- 
 erous. 
 
 Any other man might perhaps feel embarrassed about 
 telling us of his pedigree. Bear in mind that he was truly 
 of noble descent, and that his pedigree is a genuine one." 
 But this very nobleman, who treasured among his papers 
 a genealogical tree bearing the proud device Vivat Bar- 
 rassia proles, antiquitate nobilis, virtute nobilior^ took an 
 active part in the decapitation of his king, and even, in 
 the ardor of his Jacobinical zeal, asked that a fete should 
 
 ' Papers of M. de Saint-Albin. An extract from the Nohiliaire de Pro- 
 vence, by the Abbe Robert; "The Barras family is among the oldest and 
 most noble of Provence ; it possesses documents of the year 1200 granting the 
 title of knight to bearers of the name." 
 
 ' Papers of M. de Saint-Albin. Genealogical tree of the Barras family. 
 The arms of the Barras were, according to the same Nobiliaire de Provence, 
 " fascees d'or et d'azur de six pieces." 
 
xliv MEMOIRS OF BARRAS 
 
 celebrate the anniversary of the liberating day on which 
 the head of Capet had fallen on the scaffold. How then 
 reconcile his pride in his noble origin with these deeds 
 which the most rabid sans-ciilottc would not have dis- 
 owned, this studied attitude of an impenitent Revolution- 
 ary which he assumed and studiously retained to the very 
 last day of his life, even after his equivocal intercourse 
 with the brother of the man whose death he had voted ? 
 Barras gets over the difficulty in truly admirable fashion. 
 A nobleman and proud of his parchments, he is careful to 
 inform us that the Blacas, the Pontevfes, the Castellane 
 "claimed" affinity with his own family, that family hav- 
 ing for ages " courage and popularity for its appanage," 
 and which traces its origin so far back that its antiquity 
 " is equal to that of the rocks of Provence." He even 
 condescends to add that one of his ancestors " was select- 
 ed to be present at the single combat between the Em- 
 peror Louis of Bavaria and Francis I." Very single in- 
 deed it was, and one which astonishes the historian 
 accustomed to believe, on the strength of mere bourgeois 
 chronology, that the Emperor Louis of Bavaria and King 
 Francis L, having lived at two centuries' interval, must 
 have experienced some difficulty in coming together. But 
 it must not be imagined that the descendant of this val- 
 iant knight is the dupe of mere vainglory. If he relates 
 these frivolous particulars, it is because an author of me- 
 moirs does not, as is well known, possess the right to con- 
 ceal anything from posterity. Born of a line of Crusaders, 
 but above all a son of the Revolution, Barras estimates at 
 its full value " his feudal baggage." These baubles which 
 he takes such pleasure in enumerating, at heart he de- 
 spises, you may be sure. When still quite young, he al- 
 ready possessed a republican soul, and repulsed with the 
 same horror the humiliation of "wearing a livery" and 
 the offer made him of entering as page the household of 
 the Due d'Orl(Jans. He a page ! Shade of Brutus ! 
 
 And this is the way things are told when one plumes 
 one's self on possessing ancestors contemporaneous with 
 St. Louis, and when one is likewise proud of havino- 
 
PREFACE xlv 
 
 played a part in the Revolution, even though the exi- 
 gencies of the part imposed on one the strange obligation 
 of assisting the son of St. Louis to ascend to heaven. 
 An aristocrat by birth, education, and tastes ; a demagogue 
 by profession ; a terrorist without wickedness, but not 
 without doing harm ; bloodthirsty at certain periods of his 
 life, albeit possessed of good-nature, even of inborn gener- 
 osity, because he lived in terrible days wherein each one 
 trembled for his head, and when the surest way of escap- 
 ing the scaffold was to send to it, by way of precaution, 
 any person who made you uneasy ;' talon rouge et bonnet 
 rouge^—SM<^ was the most epicurean, the most refined, 
 the most ancien regime of the Montagnards, and the most 
 wildly revolutionary among the noblemen in the Conven- 
 tion, the Jacobinical Vicomte Paul de Barras.' 
 
 II. — Barras prior to the Revolution 
 
 The first four chapters are devoted to a narrative of 
 the two journeys to and campaigns in India, in which 
 Barras took part as a sub-lieutenant in the Pondicherry 
 regiment, from 1776 to 1778. These chapters, contain- 
 ing some rather amusing anecdotes — such as the story of 
 a shipwreck on the Maldive Islands — are the rhimi^ of a 
 much fuller narrative composed by the young officer in 
 the form of a travelling journal, the autograph manuscript 
 
 ' See chap. xiii. General Brunet has denounced to the Committee of 
 Public Safety the illegality of certain acts of Barras in the south. Barras, 
 thus threatened, saves himself by accusing in his turn the unfortunate general 
 of treason, and Brunet is guillotined. But the same man who does not 
 hesitate to send a man to the scaffold, in order to keep his own head on his 
 shoulders, becomes humane again as soon as fear no longer compels him 
 to be pitiless. See chap, xviii., how he interfered on behalf of Hoche, 
 Championnet, and Kellermann, and has their names struck off. a proscription 
 list. 
 
 2 Literally, "red heel and red cap," an allusion to the red heels worn by 
 the nobility, and the Phrygian cap of the revolutionaries ; or, nobleman and 
 revolutionary. — Translator's note. 
 
 = At the time of the purging of the Society of Jacobins, early in '93, 
 Barras was considered worthy of being retained on their members' roll. (See 
 Memoirs, vol. i., chap, xi.) 
 
xlvi MEMOIRS OF BARRAS 
 
 of which, found among the papers of M. de Saint-Albin, 
 has seemed sufficiently interesting for a few pages of it to 
 be given in the Appendix. The copious and precise par- 
 ticulars supplied by this journal in regard to the energetic 
 defence of Pondicherry by M. de Bellecombe, from the 5th 
 of July to the i8th of October, 1778, constitute no unim- 
 portant contribution to the history of our struggles against 
 the English in India.' The carelessness of the Govern- 
 ment, the heroism of the officers and soldiers, appear in 
 this narrative in traits which call forth both our anger and 
 admiration. 
 
 The following chapters" set forth the preludes to the 
 Revolution. On returning to France, Barras leaves the 
 army, settles in Paris, lives in the intimacy of the most 
 celebrated persons of the period, and begins to assume an 
 openly avowed attitude of regular fault-finder of the Court 
 and the Government. He stands out boldly against Min- 
 isters,^ denounces the luxury, gormandizing, and corrup- 
 tion which, it appears, reign in conventual establishments.* 
 Certain confidences which his unbearable conceit of lady- 
 killer willingly allows to escape him '' nevertheless give us 
 good cause to think that Barras was not in those days, 
 any more than in his later years, a very austere moralist. 
 This puritan, whom the relaxation of monachal morals 
 scandalizes, is on an intimate footing with such adventur- 
 ers as the Lamottes, of necklace affair notoriety, neither 
 of whom, man or wife, was a model of virtue. Let us not 
 complain of this, for this somewhat interloping connection 
 has furnished Barras the opportunity of giving us concern- 
 ing this famous affair some interesting particulars which 
 clearly demonstrate the absolute innocence of the Queen 
 and the truly fathomless depth of the gallant Cardinal de 
 Rohan's stupidity." Now you may feel sure that if the 
 
 ' See Appendix I. s Chaps, v. and vi. 
 
 ' See in chap. v. his altercatioh with M. de Castries. 
 ^ See chap. vi. 
 
 ' See the beginning of chap, ii., where he sees fit to inform us of his first 
 love affair at the age of sixteen with " a most charming woman." 
 ' See chap. vi. 
 
PREFACE xlvii 
 
 unfortunate Marie Antoinette had in this strange ad- 
 venture been guilty of the slightest indiscretion, Barras 
 would have taken good care to let us hear of it. For 'tis 
 strange this man who was so greatly loved of women 
 never had forgotten that sentiment of indulgent gratitude 
 which seemingly should accompany, in the case of the 
 spoiled children of love, the sweet obligations entered into 
 with the other sex. He loved many women, but he never 
 loved Woman. The instinct of slander was as powerfully 
 developed in him as the instinct of conceit. Noble and 
 illustrious women, such as Mme. Roland and Mme. de 
 Stael, were, as will be seen, like Josephine, subjected to 
 the sharpest traits of his malice. And it savors of a 
 miracle that Marie Antoinette should have escaped suffer- 
 ing from the need felt by Barras of soiling the reputation 
 of every woman whose name he penned.' 
 
 III.^Barras and the Storming of the Bastille 
 
 With Chapter III. of the Memoirs we enter upon the 
 Revolution. The great event opening this period of our 
 history, the storming of the Bastille, is referred to briefly 
 and in a commonplace way. Barras has remembered and 
 transmitted only a solitary particular from among the 
 various incidents characterizing that famous day. He 
 saw emerge from the dungeons " the victims of arbitrary 
 power, rescued at last from torture and the oubliettes {secret 
 dungeons)," and among these " victims " the interesting 
 Marquis de Sade. Such poverty of information is all the 
 more likely to astonish us because not only was Barras 
 
 ' Barras shows, moreover, as little consideration for his male as for his 
 female contemporaries. This is how he passes judgment on some of them : 
 " Fran9ois de Neufchateau, Cambaceres, and Sieyfc, the most degraded 
 trinity; Jourdan, general- in - chief, vile, cowardly, and without talents; 
 Massena, brave, daring, but stupid, a thief and hypocrite, like an Italian ; 
 Letoumeur, a mere cipher, but pufTed up with pride ; Carnot unites to 
 ordinary means a great love of work ; Brune ought never to have left the 
 ranks of printers," etc.— Papers of M. de Saint - Albin, autograph note of 
 Barras. 
 
xlviii MEMOIRS OF BARRAS 
 
 an actual spectator, as he says, but as early as 1789 he 
 had written an account of it, the autograph manuscript of 
 which was found in the papers of M. de Saint-Albin.' 
 
 Now just as the passage in the Memoirs relating to the 
 storming of the Bastille is dull, vague, and insignificant, so 
 is the narrative of 1789 interesting, owing to the quantity 
 and aspect of truth of the information contained in it. 
 The impression remaining after a perusal of these pages, 
 evidently composed on the spur of the dramatic events 
 they record — this impression is, it must be confessed, that 
 the day rendered forever memorable by the taking of the 
 Bastille was upon the whole nothing but a horrible and 
 bloody saturnalia. Nothing heroic in this first narrative. 
 The defenders of the old royal stronghold consist of some 
 fifty old pensioners assailed by 10,000 combatants with 
 100,000 armed men at their back. No " victims of arbi- 
 trary power" rescued " from the rack, torture, and secret 
 dungeons." But, as against these, veritable acts of canni- 
 balism perpetrated by the conquerors ; defenceless wretch- 
 es strung up to lamp-irons, hacked to pieces with sabres ; 
 heads and hands chopped off, bloody hearts carried through 
 the streets, and corpses dragged by the feet by torchlight 
 at night. This is what Barras saw and records in the 
 pages where at that period of his life he daily jots down 
 the events he has witnessed. And his account ends with 
 the following words, which fully demonstrate that it was 
 not written as an afterthought : " To-day, Thursday, every- 
 thing is quiet ; still the people are clamoring for further 
 examples, a hunt is being instituted for proscribed heads, 
 and the wicked have cause to tremble." 
 
 Thirty years have passed. Barras, as early as 1789 an 
 enemy of the Court, has openly declared himself in favor 
 of the Revolution, has played an important part in it, has 
 sat on the benches of the " Mountain," and, the Revolu- 
 
 • See in Appendix IV., p. 3S7, the extract from the autograph journal of 
 Barras in regard to the taking of the Bastille. This narrative comprises the 
 SIX last pages of the journal, wherein is also to be found the account of the 
 siege of Pondicherry. 
 
PREFACE xlix 
 
 tion having run its course, has ostentatiously wrapped 
 himself up in the proud attitude of an inimitable and 
 inveterate Revolutionary. He gathers together his recol- 
 lections in view of Memoirs he intends to publish, jots 
 down a few notes on paper, and as he is not fond of wield- 
 ing the pen, a neurotic malady not leaving him the free 
 use of his arm, and rendering in the last years of his life 
 his writing, bad as it was, almost undecipherable to him- 
 self, he dictates to his friends MM. Paul Grand and Rous- 
 selin de Saint-Albin fragments of his future Memoirs. 
 
 In those days the revolutionary version of the taking 
 of the Bastille is officially established. Legend has taken 
 possession of the event, and clothed it with ornaments 
 most proper to excite our admiration and pity. It is 
 henceforth an admitted fact that the fall of the Bastille 
 was due to an heroic impulse of the Paris masses, and its 
 downfall revealed horrible mysteries of iniquity. And, 
 curiously enough, this legend which has so deeply dis- 
 torted the material circumstances and the outer aspect, if 
 it may be said, of the event, was contemporaneous with 
 the event itself: the spontaneous fruit of popular im- 
 agination, sentimentality, and credulity, and not of the 
 subsequent commentaries of historians friendly to the 
 Revolution. 
 
 No falsification of an historical fact has ever been more 
 flagrant than this one ; but never also was historical falsi- 
 fication more ingenious, more sincere, and possessed of 
 more accomplices. Remember that on the day following 
 that fearful one, when so many worthy folk were slaugh- 
 tered by a populace thirsting for blood, the atrocity of the 
 deed was already vanishing, drowned, swept away by the 
 torrent of general rejoicing. "Where tliere has been no 
 crime, there is no need for pardon," says the Vicomte de 
 Noailles, according to the testimony of Barras himself. 
 One of the principal noblemen of the country was thus 
 absolving the butchery of the previous day. 
 
 It must be said that the Bastille was not a prison like 
 the others. Ever since its lofty and massive walls had, 
 for centuries, raised themselves over Paris, the Bastille had 
 
 D 1 
 
I MEMOIRS OF BARRAS 
 
 gradually ceased to be a thing. It lived a threatening and 
 mysterious life. Such, in days past, that hideous monster 
 the Sphinx, gorged with human blood, squatting at the 
 gates of Thebes. It had become in the eyes of the 
 Parisians a sort of moral person, the docile, pitiless, and 
 silent executor of secular iniquities. It was the material 
 embodiment, the ever-present image, as besetting as a 
 nightmare, of a rifgtme justly execrated more and more 
 day by day. And all this growing hatred which this 
 regime seemed to take pleasure in exciting, in the madness 
 in the midst of which it was seeking to lose itself prior to 
 perishing — all this fury slowly accumulated in the heart of 
 the people, attacked the symbol previous to attacking the 
 system itself, growled with a dull sound, just as the ocean 
 roars around shoals. And that is why, when the Bastille 
 disappeared, swamped by the sudden and terrible ground- 
 wave which, on the 14th of July, 1789, swept against it 
 the Parisian population with the irresistible force of a race 
 — that is why all was forgotten, the violent, murderous, 
 and barbarous deeds of the conquerors. " The Bastille is 
 taken !" This triumphant cry, uttered by Paris, filled 
 France, crossed Europe, and found an echo even on the 
 banks of the Neva. Tears of joy ran down the cheeks of 
 those who heard it ; people who were strangers to one 
 another stopped in the streets of St. Petersburg to impart 
 the good news, to glory in it, and to embrace one another 
 over it. For each one felt confusedly that these words, 
 "The Bastille is taken," carried something fatidical with 
 them ; that this sentence concealed a profound meaning 
 of greater signiiicance than the mere words themselves ; 
 lastly, that in these simple words the funeral knell of the 
 aiteien regime was ringing. Hence the legend is in this 
 case truer than history, for it has marvellously grasped 
 aiid brought into relief the symbolic character of the event 
 — an essential character which those who, in their blind 
 hatred of the Revolution, seek to reduce the taking of the 
 Bastille to the proportions of a simple massacre grossly 
 misappreciate. 
 
 It was that, 'tis true. But a partial truth is not the 
 
PREFACE h 
 
 truth. Now the taking of the Bastille was not merely a 
 massacre. A grand and noble thing was born on that 
 day. It matters little that it was born in blood. Is it 
 not a law here below that life ever emerges from death? 
 Let us forget the pains of this childbirth, to think only of 
 the fine fruit it gave to the world. The time is ill chosen 
 to speak disparagingly of the taking of the Bastille. Who 
 is there so blind as not to see the danger threatening the 
 inestimable benefit it procured us ? If our stupidity and 
 cowardly apathy allow the new revolution which is an- 
 nounced to make us bend our backs under the level of 
 the bestial collectivist servitude, ah, how we shall bless 
 those who took that Bastille of '89, far less odious than 
 the one which will have taken its place ! God grant that 
 the day does not come when we shall shed tears of pain, 
 regret, and shame when remembering that great day of 
 deliverance, just as the Jews in captivity by the rivers of 
 Babylon wept at the remembrance of Jerusalem ! And I 
 am awaiting them, those for whom it is so great a matter 
 of sentiment to be traditionally moved, on the 14th of 
 July, at the recollection of De Launay — those who con- 
 sider it the proper thing to jeer at the masses dancing on 
 that day in the public squares in memory of that joyous 
 farandole of deliverance which our ancestors danced on 
 the ruins of the accursed prison — I await them then! 
 When they shall be deprived of it, they will see whether 
 liberty is not sweet, and whether those who secured a like 
 benefit for our fathers do not deserve the homage of 
 public gratitude ! 
 
 However this may be, Barras, having, many years after 
 the event, to speak of it in his Memoirs, either does not 
 recollect the account he wrote in days gone by, or, if he 
 remembers it and finds it in his papers, reads it, I imagine, 
 with a kind of stupor. What, the taking of the Bastille 
 was nothing more than that ! The people showed them- 
 selves, not magnanimous, but cowardly and ferocious ! And 
 it is he, Barras, who would furnish the enemies of the Rev- 
 olution the materials wherewith to blast forever the recol- 
 lection of that glorious day, the mother of the 20th of June, 
 
lii MEMOIRS OF BARRAS 
 
 of the lOth of August, of all the great revolutionary dates ! 
 Can it be possible that he so badly grasped its significance, 
 that he composed this damning account ? So he deliber- 
 ately sets it aside, as being in contradiction with the legend 
 duly accepted by history, and the genuineness of which he, 
 a fervent revolutionary, can deny all the less, that he now 
 himself believes in this legend, and that it has ended in 
 superseding the testimony of his own eyes. He indites a 
 first note : " The Bastille, that place of torture, was attacked 
 and taken. I was one of the assailants ; Lapoype and Fr^- 
 ron also. Its governor, having caused cannon loaded with 
 grape to be discharged, was killed, the Bastille demolished, 
 and several avowed enemies of the people, who had op- 
 pressed them, were also put to death." ' 
 
 Assuredly, this is less compromising than that unfort- 
 unate account of 1789. But, attenuated as this brief and 
 colorless narrative is, it still makes mention of persons 
 " put to death " by the people. Such recollections must 
 not be suffered to tarnish the splendor of that grand day ! 
 Barras crosses out the passage wherein he has made allusion 
 — so discreet an allusion — to the terrible scenes of slaughter 
 he had described to us in his first account, while the text 
 of the memorandum destined to the Memoirs, erased, care- 
 fully expurgated of anything likely to recall unfortunate 
 incidents, becomes: "The Bastille, that place of torture, 
 was attacked and taken. . . . Its governor caused a dis- 
 charge of guns loaded with grape-shot to be fired. The 
 news of this alarmed the Court." In another memoran- 
 dum, also autographic, Barras thus deals with the event: 
 " The Bastille, that frightful monument of the misdeeds of 
 arbitrary power, was courageously attacked by the people 
 on the 14th of July. Badly defended, it was taken and 
 demolished. This extraordinary occurrence struck terror 
 into the Government."'' 
 
 And so, from attenuation to attenuation, the Memoirs 
 
 ' Papers of M. de Saint-Albin. Autograph memorandum of Barras ; accord- 
 ing to the handwriting, it must, like the one following, have been written in 
 the last years of his life. 2 Papers of M. de Saint-Albin. 
 
PREFACE liii 
 
 have ended in giving us in regard to the taking of the 
 Bastille merely the few lines embodied in Chapter VII., a 
 colorless and insipid passage, but agreeing in its common- 
 place form, just as Barras had expressly willed it, with the 
 sentimental and heroic legend of the event, devoid on the 
 contrary of all picturesque, precise, and horrible particulars 
 embodied by him in his early narrative, ere a new and en- 
 tirely different version had emerged from the popular im- 
 agination, and it had been tacitly agreed among all the 
 friends of the Revolution that the recollection of the abom- 
 inable excesses which had soiled the people's first victory 
 was to be forever wiped out. 
 
 IV. — Barras and the Revolutionary Days of the 
 5TH AND 6th October, and of the 2oth of June 
 AND loTH of August 
 
 The reflections one has just read doubtless explain why 
 the remaining eventful days of the Revolution were, just 
 as the taking of the Bastille, mentioned by Barras only in 
 a cursory way ; one seeks in vain to gather from his narra- 
 tives the abundant and precise information the author of 
 the Memoirs nevertheless seemed to have bound himself 
 to furnish, when being careful to inform us that he is tell- 
 ing us of what he saw. But, what is the value of a specta- 
 tor who will not see everything, or remember all he has 
 seen, and his studied deposition derives its inspiration not 
 from a love and respect of truth itself, but from a constant 
 anxiety to present facts in a light favorable to a certain 
 cause ? Now, Barras has, in his Memoirs, constituted him- 
 self the defending counsel of the Revolution ; he pleads, 
 even when he would have us believe that he is content 
 with making a deposition. And this point has, I am of 
 opinion, been sufficiently brought to the light by the sig- 
 nificant after-touches he has just been shown to have in- 
 dulged in with regard to his own narrative of the taking 
 of the Bastille. 
 
 Did he indite a narrative of the events of the Sth and 
 
liv MEMOIRS OF BARRAS 
 
 6th of October, of the 20th of June, of the lOth of August, 
 just as he did of the 14th of July ? 'Tis possible, nay proba- 
 ble, if one considers that even previous to 1789 he was in 
 the habit of putting into writing his impressions on any 
 notable event coming under his notice. But such narra- 
 tive, if ever it existed, has not fallen into my hands. And 
 the autographic memoranda of Barras bearing on those 
 eventful days, which I have been able to find among the 
 papers of M. de Saint-Albin, furnish as meagre information 
 as the corresponding passages of the Memoirs derived 
 from them.' 
 
 Be this as it may, the narrative of Barras in regard to 
 the 5th and 6th of October, the 20th of June, and loth of 
 
 ^ Autographic memorandum of Barras in regard to the ^th and tth of Octo- 
 ber : " The enemies of the Revolution are actively engaged in sowing discord. 
 'Tis their manoeuvres, the opposition of the nobles and priests, the arming of 
 imigrh under cover of the tlags of the Powers which are the cause of all the 
 excesses committed ; they fully justify the nation's actions. On the 5th of 
 October there was a scarcity of bread in Paris. . . . The people start from 
 Paris in spite of M. de Lafayette. . . . No hostile intention animated them ; 
 bayonets were opposed to them ; an officer of the gardes du corps struck some 
 citizens with his sword. . . . The wounding of the citizens was followed by 
 the discharge of a musket which broke the arm of the officer who had commit- 
 ted the deed. As a result, excesses were committed. . . . The chateau was 
 stormed and invaded ; the gardes du corps defended it, and those of them who 
 fired were killed. . . . The king took advantage of a moment of calm to say 
 that he and his family would accede to the desires of the people. . . . The 
 national guards as well as the Assembly escorted the king as far as Paris. . . . 
 There was once more an abundance of bread." 
 
 Autographic memorandum of Barras on the 20th of June : "On the 20th 
 of June the people proceeded to the chateau. The king dons the red cap, the 
 Assembly disbands the royal guard. Paris is in greater ferment than the 
 provinces. ... It might perhaps have been better policy to leave the king 
 full liberty. . . ." 
 
 Autographic memorandum of Barras on the 10th of August .- "The people, 
 pressed by the danger of the foreign armies marching on Paris, by the daring 
 of the enemies at home, thought it incumbent upon them alone to save public 
 liberty. They determined to accomplish the events of the loth of August. 
 The mob wended its way to the chateau ; the Carrousel was occupied, as also 
 other approaches. Parleys took place with the Swiss guarding the court-yard 
 of the chateau. The king had reviewed them the same morning. Mediators 
 who had advanced towards them were fired at through the gates. . . . The 
 chateau was invaded by the people. The king and his family had taken refuge 
 during the fight in the bosom of the National Assembly," etc. 
 
PREFACE Iv 
 
 August, is, just as the one of the taking of the Bastille, 
 in harmony with the pure revolutionary tradition. On 
 the 5th and 6th of October, the people have been stirred 
 up by an orgy of the body-guards. Barras was present at 
 this orgy, just as he doubtless was present at the freeing 
 of the virtuous prisoners of the Bastille, on the 14th of 
 July. Thus stirred up by the blind partisans of the tyrant, 
 the people have merely had recourse to fair reprisals. 
 And how could it be otherwise? Are the people not 
 always magnanimous? Is not their inborn generosity to 
 be met with even in the manifestations of their anger? 
 No article of the revolutionary creed is more solidly estab- 
 lished than that one. Hence Barras reverentially throws 
 a veil over all particulars of a nature to show us that the 
 public order, the laws, and humanity were equally and 
 outrageously violated on these several days, as it is a fact 
 they were. And so the studied prudence of his narrative 
 explains its commonplace." 
 
 V. — Barras and the 9x11 Thermidor 
 
 Altogether different and far more interesting is the nar- 
 rative he consecrates to the gth Thermidor.' 
 
 At thirty years' distance he enjoys recalling to his mind 
 the remembrance of this great event, to conjure up his 
 own personality, and especially to inform us by what effort 
 
 ' A couple of interesting remarks are however to be taken notice of. It 
 would seem that on the 20th of June battalions of the National Guard de- 
 voted to the king met in the Rue Saint-Honore and about the Palais-Royal, 
 with the design of defending Louis XVI.; had the king made some display 
 of energy, he might have suppressed the sedition. On the loth of August, 
 as on the 14th of July, the victory of the people was in a great measure due 
 to the fact that soldiers mingled with the mob. 
 
 - 1 have it from M. Paul Grand, the godson and intimate friend of Barras, 
 whom, as it has been seen, I have had the honor of consulting in regard to 
 the Memoirs, that there was no period of his political life to which Barras re- 
 ferred with greater complacency in the course of conversation. M, Paul Grand 
 told me that the portion of the Memoirs bearing on the gth Thermidor was 
 put into shape, in part from the very notes of the ex-Director, and in part 
 from the recollections repeatedly evoked by Barras, in the course of his lengthy 
 conversations. 
 
Ivi MEMOIRS OF BARRAS 
 
 of energy and coolness he became the providential man 
 called for by the occasion. He sees himself once more, 
 and complacently depicts himself to us such as he was 
 then, or such as he believes he was — calm, firm, and 
 collected in the thick of the crisis, taking under his pro- 
 tection the Assembly lost in fear, bravely grappling with 
 the tyrant, with the monster, finally hurling Robespierre 
 to the ground. Thus St. George striking down the 
 dragon. 
 
 But then the 9th Thermidor is the great scene of the 
 political role of Barras. An ambitious and clever actor, 
 but who had so far not found the coveted opportunity of 
 coming forth in a leading role, he played this great scene 
 marvellously well, with all the emotional power, partly 
 sincere, partly factitious, derived from his Southern nature, 
 with all the pathetic grimacing, all the emphasis and 
 grandiloqirence which is to the taste of the day, and suited 
 indeed to the denouement of a like drama. Sustained by 
 the situation, truly one of the most tragic it is possible 
 to conceive; intoxicated with the unexpected importance 
 his personage of Saviour of Liberty has suddenly as- 
 sumed ; rejoicing, as an actor making his debut, at seeing 
 at last the eyes of a whole nation converging upon him- 
 self, Barras has found striking attitudes, superb gestures, 
 and " words intended for effect." ' He has equalled Talma ; 
 and he has at once soared to the highest heaven, and won 
 the favors of popularity, a hussy he had been courting for 
 four long years, and who, from a wanton's caprice, had 
 up to that time persistently refused to surrender her 
 charms to him, do what he might. What a rapture for 
 this vainglorious Provencal to be popular, nay, more than 
 popular. For, on that day, Glory, the dupe of his heroic 
 
 'See chap. xix. : " I go to my post, remain at yours.*' (Words alleged 
 to have been addressed by Barras to the Convention just as he was leaving 
 the Assembly to march against Henriot, with the decree outlawing the latter 
 in his hand.) *' ' Come, citizen Fouquier,' / exclaimed in loud, but cold and 
 imperious tones, ' the National Convention has commissioned me to see to the 
 
 execution of its orders. I was surrounded and interrogated ; I replied: 
 
 ' Tkey (Robespierre and his partisans) are dead ere they have been stricken ! ' " 
 
PREFACE Ivii 
 
 posturing, lightly touched with her lips his victorious 
 brow. He would forever like to feel the imprint of that 
 kiss. Now, never again did he taste the sweetness of 
 those chaste lips, which bestowed that kiss on him by an 
 inadvertence. No, never again indeed ; not even in Ven- 
 d^miaire, when another wretched little swarthy Corsican, 
 lean and in threadbare coat, supplanted him— who would 
 have believed it! — him the superbly beplumed Thermi- 
 dorian victor. Since then he has fain had to be content 
 with turning the light brains of women and the mob, with 
 making himself agreeable to the populace and to Mdlle. 
 Lange, triumphs cut to the measure of his deserts. But 
 Barras has preserved the memory of this noble kiss which 
 had gone astray in his direction, of this unique kiss which 
 he did not deserve ; and he finds again something of its 
 fleeting and vanished sweetness by narrating to us in 
 pompous fashion ' the imaginary prowess to which he 
 owed it. It was in his indiscreet and boastful nature to 
 be unable to refrain from making public any piece of 
 good luck, even if it had no aftermath, as in the case of 
 that short meeting of the gth Thermidor with Glory, a 
 mistress of too high degree for this vulgar seducer, and one 
 whose inconstancy was shortly and for a lengthy period to 
 be held captive by another, more worthy of her, the hero 
 with the eagle eye and Caesar's profile. 
 
 So then Barras has returned from the south, where 
 the Convention had intrusted him (April, 1793) with a 
 mission near the Army of Italy. He has " pacified " the 
 rebellious departments of the Basses-Alpes, Bouches-du- 
 Rhone, and Var.° It is only too well known how many 
 deeds of violence, executions, and butcheries are embodied 
 in that gentle word, in the year of terror, 1793. Barras 
 pacified, as pacifying went in those days, with sword and 
 
 'The gth Thermidor constitutes "the most colossal, the most decisive 
 event of modern times, not only for France, but for Europe and the whole 
 human race. ..." '* The battle of the gth Thermidor may be compared 
 with all those fought on the frontier against the coalition. . . ." "It will 
 furnish an eternal theme for conversation to future generations. . . ." 
 (Chap, xix.) ■ See chaps, xiv. , xv., and xvi. 
 
Iviii MEMOIRS OF BARRAS 
 
 flame ; and yet he is uneasy. There is no doubt that he 
 has proved himself a good revolutionary when on this 
 mission. And he has taken all the greater care to shine 
 as such, as it is necessary for him to wipe out at all cost 
 the original sin of having been born an aristocrat, where- 
 by he is open to suspicion. He has therefore outdone 
 even the zeal of his colleagues, has ranted and spouted 
 more noisily than Freron, flattered still more servilely the 
 " popular societies," exercised fearful reprisals against the 
 rebels, terrorized " Sans Norn," deluged the unfortunate 
 " Port de la Montagne " ' with blood, and, lastly, exter- 
 minated this rising Provengale Vendue. Now, one who 
 has thus fulfilled his mandate can return to Paris carrying 
 high his head. 
 
 True, but Barras has not contented himself with paci- 
 fying Provence. Equivocal dealings are intermingled with 
 his revolutionary prowess. Barras has laid a hand on the 
 confiscated property of flying proscripts or victims of the 
 cruel Jacobinical reaction whose executor he has just 
 been ; 'tis a delicate and grasping hand, made not to sign 
 bloodthirsty decrees — it has, nevertheless, signed them — 
 but to thrill with pleasure at the contact of the silken 
 tresses of lovely girls, and the trickling of gold through 
 its fingers. He has speculated with contractors, sold his 
 influence and" protection, indulged in dishonorable dab- 
 bling in a thousand ways, just as he will do all his life. 
 The man, fond of pleasure and of money, already pierces 
 the garb of the demagogue donned for the nonce ; and 
 from the elegant and supple person of this Jacobinical 
 vicomte there exudes the flavor of venality and corrup- 
 tion eternally bound up with his name in history." Pro- 
 vencal patriots — simple folk they, who have got no further 
 
 ' Names given to Marseilles and Toulon, in punishment of their participa- 
 tion in the Federalist insurrection. Barras and Freron unnamed Marseilles 
 on their own authority. — Hamel, Histoirc de Robespierre, vol. iii., p. 401. 
 
 '" Barras was voluptuous and intriguing. . . . His conscience seemed to 
 have no fear of fishing in troubled waters. It would be difficult to calumniate 
 this equivocal and suspicious individual. . . ."■ — De Lescure, Mimoires stir les 
 Journ^es revolutionnaires , vol. i., pp. xl. and xli. 
 
PREFACE lix 
 
 than the conception of an austere republic served by men 
 with the cleanest of hearts — have heard of the illicit profits 
 the representative has derived from his mission. They 
 have denounced him in Paris." And, if Barras is uneasy, 
 in spite of the pledges he has given of the ardor of his 
 revolutionary convictions, it is that he has in his mind the 
 redoubtable man whom he will have to face after the Com- 
 mittee of Public Safety and the Convention, that Robes- 
 pierre whose cold and haughty glance is about to rest on 
 him, and search the deepest recesses of his vicious soul. 
 Robespierre does not like prevaricators. And those whom 
 Robespierre does not like rarely grow old. 
 
 It so happens that at this very moment " the Incor- 
 ruptible " is thinking of purging the Republic of that 
 vermin which has fastened on its body, soiling and eating 
 into it, the corrupt. Tallien, " that belly all for guzzling 
 and wenches " ; ' Fouche, that " ugly-looking scoundrel,' 
 whose atrocious face was less so than his soul";' Carrier, 
 that bloodthirsty satrap who " lives in a seraglio sur- 
 rounded by insolent sultanas"; 'Courtois, thief and forger;" 
 
 ' See the Moniteur of the 6th Vendemiaire, Year III. (27th September, 
 1794), in regard to the sitting of the Convention of the 2d Vendemiaire. 
 The representative Ruamps asks that letters wherein Barras and Freron are 
 accused of pilfering be read. The exactions of Barras and Freron are like- 
 wise denounced by Bar^re in his M/moires (vol. iv., p. 14). One also finds, 
 in a rather poor work, moreover, entitled Amours et Aventtires du Vicomte 
 de Barras (Paris, 1817): "Sent on mission in the south, his coffers were 
 quickly filled and his debts paid " (vol. ii. , p. 1S7). I merely quote for form's 
 sake this work of no historical value, but wherein lovers of tittle-tattle will 
 find sufficient to gratify their taste, when reading the account of the amours 
 of the gallant viscount with Mme. Tallien and Mme. de Beauharnais. 
 
 ^ Michelet, Revolution, vol. vii., p. 122. 
 
 'Words spoken by Dupont de I'Eure about Fouche, and quoted by 
 Hamel, Histoire de Robespierre, vol. iii. , p. 629. 
 
 * Hamel, vol. iii., p. 395. 
 
 ' Letter from Julien to Robespierre, quoted by Hamel, vol. iii., p. 398- 
 
 = He had distinguished himself by his pilfering in Belgium when on 
 mission, and was on those grounds summoned by an order signed by Robes- 
 pierre to appear before the Committee of Public Safety. Later he was ex- 
 cluded from the Tribunate for fraudulent dealings in cereals. His famous 
 report on the gth Thermidor is, as shown by Hamel (vol. iii., pp. 655-660), 
 nothing else than an impudent historical falsification. 
 
Ix MEMOIRS OF BARRAS 
 
 that drunkard Freron, the accomplice of Barras in the exe- 
 cutions of the south ; ' all these men whose hands, accord- 
 ing to the forcible expression of Robespierre himself, " are 
 full of plunder and blood";' Robespierre knows them, 
 watches them, and is preparing to trap them. " I cannot 
 endure this state of things; my heart bursts when I 
 think that in the midst of our victories never has the 
 Republic run so many dangers. / must perish or deliver 
 it from the rogues and traitors who are compassing its 
 ruin." ' 
 
 ' See chap. xiv. of the Memoirs for the portrait Earras furnishes us of his 
 friend : "The use of spirits, the excited state of mind derived therefrom, 
 gave him a daring and an almost warlike intrepidity. This, coupled with 
 a most decided character, viaiie of him an excellent revolutionary," 
 
 • Paraphrasing the utterance of his friend, Couthon spoke in a similar 
 strain to the Jacobins on the 6tli Thermidor of the men "whose hands are 
 full of the riches of the Republic, and from which drop the blood of the inno- 
 cents they have slaughtered." 
 
 ^ Words spoken by Robespierre to one of his friends on the eve of the 
 famous sitting of the Convention of tlie 8th Thermidor (see Hamel, vol. iii., 
 p. 720). This return of Robespierre to ideas of moderation and clemency is 
 testified to by Barras himself in a most important autographic fragment to be 
 found at the end of this volume ; it confirms in a striking fashion the thesis 
 of M, Ernest Hamel as to the original causes of the 9th Thermidor (see 
 Appendix, No. VII.). " He and his colleagues were desirous of reverting to 
 principles of moderation. He declared himself against pilferers, contractors, 
 and scaffolds. This was the time chosen by the members of the Committees 
 to unpopularize him. He was called a moderate, and perished like the 
 worthy Camille Desmoulins, Danton, Bazire, and the other deputies who 
 sought to put an end to the executions, the terror, and authority of the 
 Committees. . . ." This significant homage rendered by Barras himself to 
 his victim has disappeared in the editing of the Memoirs. It seems to me of 
 interest, and but fair to give it a place here. And this is one of the reasons 
 which determined me to publish in the Appendix this autographic fragment 
 of Barras, in spite of the confusion, disorder, and repetitions which will be 
 noticed in it. I freely admit that the autographic account is on some points 
 at variance with the text itself of the Memoirs, See especially what is said 
 in both in regard to the famous letter of Charlotte Robespierre, quoted by 
 Courtois in his report. A violent enemy of Robespierre, M. de Saint- Albir, 
 has conformed more faithfully in his editing with the rancorous Thermidorian 
 tradition than has Barras himself in his personal notes. It is with me a 
 simple matter of historical probity to point out the difference between the 
 two versions. Having fulfilled this duty, I hasten to add that this is the first 
 case of infidelity I have come across in the editing when comparing with the 
 text of the Memoirs the autographic notes of Barras which I have found in 
 the papers of M. de Saint-Albin. 
 
PREFACE Ixi 
 
 And, with the object of reaching them all the more 
 surely and quickly, he causes to be voted the terrible law of 
 the 22d Prairial, directed precisely, in his secret thoughts, 
 against the men guilty of peculation and the butchers who 
 disgrace the Republic. 
 
 The first thing Barras does, therefore, on his return to 
 Paris is to go and do obeisance to Robespierre in his 
 little house in the Rue Saint-Honor6,' where the inflexible 
 tribune of the people sets the example of a simplicity and 
 purity of moral principles which must have caused to 
 smile " the corrupted one par excellence, whose drawing- 
 room will become the beloved asylum and centre of all 
 that was most cynical and impure."' Far from me to 
 destroy the bloom, by analyzing them here, of the pages 
 teeming with picturesque and precise particulars, wherein 
 Barras tells us of his visit to the upright man he dreads as 
 his judge. The freezing reception, the persistent silence 
 of Robespierre, the look of contempt he casts upon the 
 impudent personage who comes and disturbs the retreat 
 where he is in meditation — putting a finishing polish to 
 sentences, the unhappy man ! — the salvation and regener- 
 ation of the Republic by one bold stroke. Therein are 
 traits it is the duty of history to gather up, and we must 
 be grateful to Barras for having transmitted them to us. 
 It is readily understood that a man thus treated should 
 have seen that his only chance of salvation lay in the 
 death of Robespierre. And, when it is remembered that 
 there were several of them in the same predicament — 
 Fouche, Tallien, Freron, and others— the profound causes 
 of the 9th Thermidor are suddenly revealed to us. Then 
 does the downfall of Robespierre appear to us such as it 
 actually was : not the work of a reaction of the pubhc 
 conscience against the rtfgime of the Terror, as it has so 
 long and so wrongfully been taught, but the result of a 
 
 1 Barras, and after him M. Ernest Hamel, believe that this house was 
 demolished. M. Victorien Sardou is of opinion that it still stands, that it 
 was not demolished, but merely raised, and that it nowadays bears No. 398 
 in the Rue Saint-Honore.— See Le Figaro, literary supplement, nth August, 
 jgg^ « Hamel, Histoire de Robespierre, vol. u\., p. 399- 
 
kii MEMOIRS OF BARRAS 
 
 trap cleverly set by all the corrupt ones for the Incor- 
 ruptible, by all the men of prey, who made their living 
 out of the Terror, for the undeceived Terrorist seeking to 
 stem "the terrible course of the Revolution." ' 
 
 The three lengthy chapters " devoted to the tragedy of 
 the gth Thermidor are therefore one of the most interest- 
 ing portions of the first volume. This account of the gth 
 Thermidor, in harmony with the pure Thermidorian tradi- 
 tion, and most hostile consequently to Robespierre, none 
 the less constitutes, in spite of its being rather an expres- 
 sion of the burning hatred of the victorious factions than 
 of the truth, an important contribution to the history of 
 the event which buried Robespierre and the Republic in 
 one and the same grave. Robespierre dead, the heroic 
 age is a thing of the past.' Power passes into the hands 
 of an impure coterie of men steeped in vices and crimes. 
 Directorial corruption is free to expand on this dunghill, 
 until comes the day when Bonaparte, realizing by aid of 
 other means and with another object the supreme thought 
 of Robespierre, Bonaparte — whom I do not consider I am 
 insulting when I recall here that he was the friend and par- 
 tisan of the upright tribune ■" — will sweep away all this filth. 
 
 VI. — The 13TH Vendemiaire and the early con- 
 nection OF Barras with Bonaparte 
 
 The 13th Vendemiaire, likewise included in the volume 
 
 ' The utterance is Bar^re's, and was spoken by him at the sitting of the 
 gtli Thermidor. On the previous day Robespierre had said : " Is it we who 
 have cast patriots into cells, and carried terror into all conditions of life? It 
 is the monsters whom we have accused. Is it we . . . who have declared 
 war on peaceable citizens, made crimes of incurable prejudices or matters of 
 little import, in order to discover guilty ones everywhere, and to render the 
 Republic an object of dread to the masses themselves ? . . ." — Robespierre's 
 speech, 8th Thermidor. * Chaps, xvii., xviii., and .xi.x. 
 
 'At home, at least. With the armies, it continues and will continue to 
 the last day of the Revolution — i.e., up to 1815. 
 
 * See the remarkable opinion expressed by Napoleon on Robespierre : 
 "The true scapegoat of the Revolution." — Memorial, chap, ii., i8th Novem- 
 ber, 1815. 
 
PREFACE Ixiii 
 
 about to be read, has, just as the 9th Thermidor, been 
 honored with plenty of amphfications." Barras, need I 
 say so, conscientiously endeavors to prove that " the con- 
 queror of Thermidor " was on a par with himself in this 
 new crisis, and that liberty, threatened once more, is in- 
 debted for a fresh victory to the activity, resolution, sang- 
 froid, and military talents he displayed. An energetic 
 and skilful soldier, as magnanimous as he was valiant, such 
 did the general-in-chief of the Army of the Interior reveal 
 himself. 'Tis Barras himself who says so. Would you 
 doubt the word of a nobleman ! 
 
 Did we merely find here a new trait of the conceit there 
 has already been occasion to call attention to, we might 
 remain content to smile and pass on. What complicates 
 and aggravates his case is that he denies to another, who 
 perhaps had a better right thereto than himself, the small- 
 est part of the praise he so lavishly awards himself. Let 
 us grant that Barras did everything on this occasion as he 
 pretends ! We are not going to quarrel with him on that 
 score. But it is somewhat surprising to learn that, com- 
 pared with the splendid rijle which the chief attributes to 
 himself on the 13th Venddmiaire, the role of the lieuten- 
 ant was null, effaced, and colorless, as the Memoirs ex- 
 pressly state, when one is aware that the name of that 
 lieutenant was Napoleon Bonaparte. 
 
 This is the proper place to deal with the question con- 
 cerning the amount of belief to be placed in the testimony, 
 or — to set aside this word, out of place here, primarily 
 conveying as it does an idea of justice — the slanders of 
 Barras against Napoleon. 
 
 The first relations between Bonaparte and Barras dated 
 from the time of the siege of Toulon. In his haste, appar- 
 ently, to assume his rQle of protector of Bonaparte, Bar- 
 ras informs us ' that, pleased at a report handed him by 
 the young of^cer after an inspection of the coast of Prov- 
 ence, he promoted him to the rank of captain at the very 
 commencement of the operations. Now, these operations 
 
 ■ See chap. xxi. ' See chap. xv. 
 
Ixiv MEMOIRS OF BARRAS 
 
 did not begin until the end of August, 1793, whereas in 
 July of the same year Bonaparte, attached to coast batter- 
 ies' service, not by the representative Barras, but by one of 
 his former chiefs, General Duteuil, was writing to the Min- 
 ister, in his capacity of captain in the fourth regiment of 
 artillery, in order to obtain the stores of war needed by 
 him for " burning the despots' ships ": ' this mot, coming 
 from the pen of the future Emperor Napoleon, seems to 
 me, in its sincerity, a delicious bit of irony. 
 
 No more importance than is necessary need be attrib- 
 uted to this inaccuracy in regard to the first reference to 
 Bonaparte: still a witness — since Barras lays claim to 
 being one — who commits a mistake at the very outset of 
 his deposition most justly falls under the ban of suspicion. 
 Let us proceed with our perusal of the chapter. We 
 gather from it that Bonaparte had some time previously 
 indited "an infernal screed, ... a monument of the most 
 cynical Jacobinism," the cost of fhe printing of which he 
 neglected liquidating, although a " gratuity " had been 
 granted him for that purpose by the representatives. 
 
 I beg the reader will cast his eye over this "infernal 
 screed."" The Soiiper de BeaHcaire, indited by Bonaparte 
 at Avignon in July, 1793, is an impassioned production, 
 breathing the purest patriotism and an ardent love of the 
 Revolution, which, moreover, Napoleon never denied hav- 
 ing loved — loved as people loved it in those grand and 
 tragic years of extreme danger and enthusiasm : " There 
 were good Jacobins. There was a time when every man 
 possessed of any loftiness of soul was bound to be one. 
 I was one myself, like so many other honest folk.'" M. 
 lung, who is not in the habit, as is well known, of flatter- 
 ing Bonaparte, points out in this composition some " curi- 
 ous aphorisms," some " clear and sensible remarks," some 
 
 ' lung, Bonaparte et son temps, vol. ii. , pp. 324, 325, from the Archives of 
 the War Department. 
 
 * It is given in full in lung, vol. ii., pp. 354-371. 
 
 ^ This precious utterance is quoted from Thibaudeau (M^inoires sur le 
 Considat, p. 59) by Frederic Masson, on p. x. of the Introduction to his fine 
 and learned work, NapoUon et les femmes. 
 
PREFACE Ixv 
 
 " concise judgments revealing the precision of the master 
 and the warrior," some "marvellous qualities."' So these 
 are the pages denounced as " a monument of the most 
 cynical Jacobinism " by the same man who a few days 
 later wrote to the Convention: "Send Brunet before the 
 Revolutionary Tribunal. . . . The time for indulgence has 
 gone by. One must guillotine, or expect to be guillotined 
 one's self. ... So off at once with all guilty heads. . . ."" 
 
 This despatch, I must confess, nowise shocks me. Ap- 
 plied to a like period, the sentimental arguments of to- 
 day seem to me altogether out of season, somewhat silly 
 even, to speak my whole mind. Humanity is and must be 
 the charming luxury of peaceable periods. It was out of 
 place in so critical a juncture. No humanity is shown in 
 a duel unto death. Let us therefore cease reproaching 
 these folk for the little store they set on the lives of others. 
 Many of them held their own just as cheaply, and thought 
 it just as simple and facile a matter to die as to kill. Atro- 
 cious and bloodthirsty as much as you please, their meth- 
 od contributed none the less with sovereign efficacy to 
 the salvation of the Fatherland. Speaking of Jourdan, 
 who has beaten a retreat, Joubert — so, at any rate, Barras 
 tells us — is alleged to have exclaimed : " There's a general 
 who can no longer sit his horse since the dread of the Com- 
 mittee of Public Safety no longer sits behind him." ' A 
 valuable utterance, throwing as it does into light the virt- 
 ue of the scaffold. The scaffold ! Such was the sinister 
 vision suddenly meeting the gaze of every general who 
 felt inclined to look behind. Forward, then ! " Victory 
 or death !" was no vain word, no harmless rhetorical di- 
 lemma. And verily, there was less danger in facing the 
 bayonets of the enemy than about the table covered with 
 green baize round which deliberated those redoubtable 
 men, who with a word sent flying the heads of generals 
 guilty of not having known how to snatch Victory, and to 
 
 ' lung, vol. ii., p. 372. 
 
 5 Archives du Ministere de la Guerre, despatch from Barras, 29th August, 
 j,.„, 3 Mimoires de Barras, vol. ii., chap. xvi. 
 
 E — I 
 
Ixvi MEMOIRS OF BARRAS 
 
 continue living after so great a crime. Let humanity veil 
 its face, if so it pleases, in shame at these deeds. Patriot- 
 ism has no right to disown them — under penalty of dis- 
 owning itself — for they were more frequently, in their sub- 
 lime horror, nothing else than the furious expressions of 
 the purest love of Fatherland. And it constitutes for me, 
 on my soul and conscience, an insoluble problem to know 
 whether in those days I would have been on the side of 
 the " victims " or on that of the " executioners." Hence I 
 do not censure Barras for having insisted on the most ter- 
 rible measure of repression against traitors, especially at a 
 time when an abominable crime like the handing over of 
 Toulon to the English had just been perpetrated. But I 
 find myself inquiring where the Montagnard representa- 
 tive, Paul Barras, derives the right of denouncing the 
 " Jacobinism " of the Soiiper de Beaucaire. 
 
 Let us not seek; he derives it from his hatred. And it 
 is this same hatred — and it alone — which has dictated to 
 him the remaining portion of the chapter. Whence would 
 he have drawn, but from that source, the strange and un- 
 expected revelation it makes us of the physical resem- 
 blance of Bonaparte and Marat ? As for moral analogies, 
 they are supplied by the Marquis de Sade; the same 
 thirst for blood, Barras asserts, exists in the " divine Mar- 
 quis" and in the " Corsican ogre," as will be said, later on, 
 in 1 8 14, in the edifying royalist literature which will blos- 
 som under the aegis of the invasion. Barras is severe tow- 
 ards De Sade, when comparing him to such a monster as 
 Napoleon. Does the ingrate not remember that pretty 
 copy oi Justine, \\\\\c\v the author conceived the polite idea 
 of offering to each one of the members of the Directorate 
 — who did not betray the bad taste of showing themselves 
 scandalized at the gift — a gift that General Bonaparte on 
 his return from Egypt, like a savage unable to appreciate 
 the graceful pursuits of imagination, cast to the flames, 
 when the marquis conceived the unfortunate idea of like- 
 wise favoring him with it?" Barras has much yet to tell. 
 
 ' See Biographic Universclle, Didot.vol. xlii. , p. 298, under the head of De Sade. 
 
PREFACE Ixvii 
 
 He has preserved the recollection of Bonaparte's servility 
 to the representatives,' as well as the " peremptory and 
 decisive" tone which the young officer is alleged to have 
 indulged in when addressing his superior, General Dugom- 
 mier. It will be noticed here that there is a contradiction 
 somewhere. Of course, I am not ignorant of the astound- 
 ing theatrical powers, of the supple and perfidious charm 
 of manner Bonaparte knew so well how to display when 
 he wished to captivate — or deceive. Of the two things 
 Barras here reproaches him with, I am rather inclined to 
 believe the second. It is no effort to me to credit the stiff- 
 ness of the imperious tone, revealing the master even in 
 those early days. On the other hand, I have my doubts 
 about the humility of his attitude towards " those stupid 
 fools " that " breed of ignoraHtacci," as twenty years later 
 he styled, in the presence of O'Meara, the representatives 
 of the Convention attached to the armies. 
 
 And it is not Bonaparte alone whom Barras attacks in 
 >this chapter full of venomous spite. Lucien Bonaparte is 
 likewise dragged in by the heels. Pending the time when 
 all the remaining members of the Bonaparte family are to 
 be insulted in their turn, as they will be, one and all, in 
 the course of the Memoirs, Barras tells us that Lucien, " a 
 keeper of stores at Saint- Maximin, whose name he had 
 caused to be changed to that of Marathon," indulged in 
 the recreation, in 1793, of profaning the holy vessels and 
 the hosts. A revolutionary pastime, the taste for which 
 was apparently shared in common by all the members of 
 that Bonaparte family, since, if we had to believe Lewis 
 Goldsmith, the future author of the Concordat is alleged 
 to have preluded his work of religious pacification "by 
 defiling a ciborium " at Toulon.' Did Barras by any 
 chance study Goldsmith? And may it not perhaps be but 
 a simple reminiscence of the Histoire secrete die cabifiet de 
 NapoUon Bonaparte, which made him credit the younger 
 brother with the strange exploit credited by the vile Eng- 
 
 ' See chap. xvi. 
 
 « Histoire secrete du cabinet de Napolion Boitaparte et de la coiir de Saint- 
 Cloud, by Lewis Goldsmith. Paris, 1S14, 2 vols, in 8vo.— See vol. i., p. 69. 
 
Ixviii MEMOIRS OF'BARRAS 
 
 lish pamphleteer to the turpitude of the elder? It must 
 be admitted that this conjunction is an unfortunate one. 
 It proves, indeed, that the libel of Goldsmith and the Me- 
 moirs of Barras have their origin in the same fixed reso- 
 lution to defame, and have recourse to the same methods 
 of systematic disparagement and insult. With this obser- 
 vation, whose importance can escape no impartial mind, I 
 will conclude my analysis of the account given by Barras 
 of his early connection with Bonaparte. 
 
 VII. — The Role of Bonaparte at the Siege 
 
 OF Toulon 
 
 That Bonaparte resembles Marat physically,' the Mar- 
 quis de Sade morally ; that he should, with an eagerness 
 wherein Barras discovers the calculations of the most 
 Machiavellian ambition, have picked up the gloves or the 
 fan of the representative Ricord, held the bridle or the 
 stirrup for that gentlewoman when she was mounting her 
 horse, constitutes such manifestly childish prattle that I 
 am almost ashamed to have dwelt on it. It is altogether 
 different in regard to the information supplied to us by 
 the Memoirs as to the part played by Bonaparte at the 
 siege of Toulon. 
 
 Barras played a part, a most honorable part, it must be 
 granted, at the siege of Toulon. It is only fair to do hom- 
 age to the energy of the measures taken by his orders at 
 the outset of the rebellion, to his activity, to the valor he 
 gave proof of when exposing himself like a common sol- 
 dier, his representative's sword in hand, at the time of the 
 great attack of the 17th of December against the positions 
 of the enemy about Faron. Dugommier, who bore no 
 good-will towards the representatives," calls attention to 
 
 ' Is it necessary to state that M. Lanfrey — to whom the manuscript of the 
 Memoirs of Barras was communicated — hastens to talcc note of this resem- 
 blance between Bonaparte and Marat?— Sec "Lsinhey, Histoire de Napoleon, 
 V0I. i,, p. 72. 
 
 * He complains with a certain bitterness of their continual interference 
 
PREFACE IxiX 
 
 his courageous behavior in his report on the siege of Tou- 
 lon in the following terms : " The people should see their 
 representatives, in the midst of a most severe night, set- 
 ting an example of steadfastness and devotion during the 
 combat. Saliceti, Robespierre the Younger, Ricord, and 
 Freron were on the promontory of L'Eguillette, while Bar- 
 ras was on the mountain of Le Faron : we were all volun- 
 teers together. This heroic and fraternal ensemble was 
 well calculated to win victory." ' Barras might indeed be 
 proud of having obtained such praise, coming from such 
 a man. 
 
 In the course of the fearful reprisals the Republicans 
 indulged in towards the traitorous city, after having re- 
 taken it by prodigies of heroism, Paul Barras, to tell the 
 truth, was in nowise the moderate, clement, and even ten- 
 der conqueror he pretends he was in his Memoirs. An 
 eye-witness of the massacres, which more cruelly even at 
 Toulon than at Lyons soiled the grand victory of the 
 troops of the Convention, asserts that Barras personally 
 presided over pne of these butcheries." Let us not forget 
 the retaking of Paris from the mobs of the Commune 
 twenty-four years ago. However execrable the crime of 
 the Commune in 1871 appears to our eyes, it is not equal 
 to the one committed by Toulon in 1793. It was a lesser 
 
 with the direction of the operations : " 'Tis no longer a single head that com- 
 mands ; all heads having any authority take a hand in the game, and yet, wlien 
 the game is lost, only the head of the unfortunate general is answerable. . . ." — 
 Archives of t/ie IVar Department. Dugommier's letter to the Minister Bou- 
 chotte, loth December, 1793. 
 
 ^ Dugommier's report, from Toulon headquarters, 6th Nivose, Year II. 
 (26th December, 1793). — Archives of the IVar Department. 
 
 ^ The author of the manuscript notes from which I take this serious depo- 
 sition has unfortunately remained anonymous. He is a good Republican, and 
 apparently belonged to the army which reconquered Toulon. The following is 
 the passage concerning Barras; " Tliese poor wretches, most of them igno- 
 rant of the fate in store for them, grouped together in platoons, and asking 
 one another with the greatest confidence and tranquillity what it all meant, 
 were all slaughtered, on a signal given by the representative Bari'as, who pre- 
 sided on horseback over this awful butchery. ... It is in a like way that in- 
 famous men in authority have but too frequently polluted our sublime Revo- 
 lution. . . . " — Papers of M. de Saint-Albin. 
 
Ixx MEMOIRS OF BARRAS 
 
 crime, and yet its expiation was almost as terrible. I 
 should consider it unfair to censure Barras for a severity 
 which I excuse in those whom stress of circumstances re- 
 cently compelled to have recourse in Paris to like methods. 
 
 Civil war, ever like unto itself, has ever been hideous 
 from the time of the most far-off ages ; it is the criminal 
 madness of men, sons of one common country, who at 
 certain periods rush at and tear one another to pieces ; 
 'tis the execrable inheritance of Cain killing Abel, a parti- 
 cle of which we all carry in our veins, driving us to shed 
 with greater joy the blood of our brethren than that of 
 our enemies themselves ; 'tis all sowers of germs of hatred, 
 all apostles of social discord whom I curse ; 'tis not those 
 who, commissioned by the Fatherland at bay to save it at 
 all costs, roughly accomplish their rough task, and victori- 
 ous, still warm with the infamous struggle, measure the 
 fulness of the penalty by the enormity of the crime. 
 
 Thus did Barras at Toulon.' I do not seek to know 
 whether he continued smiting after the battle was over — 
 as demanded moreover the justice without bowels of the 
 Convention. Peace to his memory, peace to and silence 
 over the memory of all in regard to this bloody page of 
 their history. Where can we find the right of condemning 
 these terrible deeds, we who but yesterday committed sim- 
 ilar ones? 
 
 Whatever the part played by Barras in the repression, 
 the account he gives us of the siege itself should derive a 
 
 ' Should this point not seem to be sufficiently established by the anony- 
 mous note above quoted, I might invoke the testimony of Barras himself, if 
 not in his Memoirs, then in the Official Despatches, signed by him in con- 
 junction with his colleagues: "They (the allies) entered here as traitors; they 
 maintained themselves as cowards; they left as scoundrels. . . , The national 
 vengeance makes itself felt. Wholesale shooting takes place. Already all the 
 naval officers have been exterminated. The Republic shall be avenged in a 
 manner worthy of it; the manes of the patriots shall be appeased. ..." " The 
 nation's justice is meted out daily and in an exemplary fashion. . . . Every one 
 in Toulon connected with the navy, the army of rebels, and the civil and mili- 
 tary administration, has been shot, . . ." — Archives of the War Department 
 Despatches of the 30th Frimaire and 3d Nivose sent to the Committee of 
 Public Safety by the representatives Freron, Saliceti, Robespierre the Young- 
 er, Ricord, and Barras. 
 
PREFACE Ixxi 
 
 special importance from the fact of his being both a wit- 
 ness of and an actor in it. Did Bonaparte conceive the 
 plan whose execution brought about the downfall of the 
 rebel city? Or did he merely co-operate with well-taken 
 measures of a technical order to the success of the plan . 
 conceived by another? Or again, did he do no more than 
 the rest of the officers serving with him ? Of these three 
 opinions, the first adopted by Thiers,' the second by MM. 
 Krebs and Moris," the third by Colonel Iung,Svhich is the 
 one which will be able to derive a strengthening argument 
 from the Memoirs? This will doubtless seem of greater 
 importance than to know if Barras actually caused a new 
 coat to be delivered to Bonaparte in place of the one out 
 at elbows which the future emperor then wore.* Oh, that 
 coat out at elbows, that heroic vestment, despised by Bar- 
 ras ! How is it that that man did not understand that this 
 wretched coat of Captain Bonaparte at the siege of Toulon 
 would appeal even more eloquently to our hearts than the 
 gorgeous coronation mantle I He has thought to lessen Na- 
 poleon by unmasking to us his poverty at the outset of his 
 career. How far poorer is not this calculation of a petty and 
 clumsy hatred ! For the Hero seems all the greater to us 
 both in this coat full of holes and in the redingote grise of 
 1 814. Here is, if I mistake not, a simple particular which 
 foreshadows already the spirit in which the Memoirs are 
 going to lay before us the role of Napoleon at Toulon. 
 
 This role is summed up, according to Barras, in three 
 military blunders. A stranger to the conception of the 
 plan, the honor of which is attributed to the general-in- 
 chief, Bonaparte remained a stranger even to the execu- 
 tion of this plan, or participated in it only to clumsily 
 compromise a combination whose assured success would, 
 but for this " stupid blunder," ' have rendered more deci- 
 
 ' Thiers,./?/OT&^'»«/ro«f3!> (Paris, 1825), vol. vi., p c,ortseq. 
 2 Campagne dans les A Ipes pendant la Kivolution, 1792-1793. i vol. in 8vo, 
 with Bve sketches. ' Bonaparte et son temps, vol, ii., p. 394- 
 
 * See chap. xvi. of the Memoirs. 
 
 • This astounding word has not been given a place in the Memoirs, great- 
 ly to my regret ; but it appears in an autographic memorandum of Barras, 
 
Ixxii MEMOIRS OF BARRAS 
 
 sive the triumph of the army of the Convention. All that 
 Barras is willing to attribute to Bonaparte is the fact of his 
 having given " some proofs of his military talent just begin- 
 ning to develop itself," and of having shown " precocious 
 dispositions in the art of war." Sum total, a fairly gifted 
 officer, active, and with a certain amount of intelligence, 
 but whose role on this occasion was merely a " secondary " 
 one. The veritable "captor" of Toulon, 'tis Dugommier. 
 
 Now how could it be otherwise? Who is this shabby 
 little Corsican endowed with a soul of fire, impatiently 
 chafing at subordinate roles, hungering after glory, prelud- 
 ing at Toulon by a first manifestation of his genius to the 
 great destinies, an obscure presentiment of which that soul 
 had even then ? Oh, not in the least ! On the contrary, 
 a mean intriguer, who, three years previous to marrying 
 Mme. de Beauharnais from motives of sordid ambition, 
 seeks already to pave his way with women as his auxilia- 
 ries. Soldiers of the battery of the Hommes-Sans-Peur 
 (the Know-No-Fear), who saw him at your side under the 
 hail-storm of iron raining from the Mulgrave redoubt, as 
 you had seen him a few days before pointing " with his 
 heroic hands"' the guns remaining standing in the Brd- 
 gaillon battery, ploughed and razed by the thousands of 
 balls vomited on it by the English ships — what do you say 
 to this, ye companions in arms of Bonaparte at Toulon ? 
 
 At Toulon, as later on the 13th Vend^miaire, Bona- 
 parte's role would be therefore null. This is precisely 
 what is asserted, subject to a few shades only in the harsh- 
 ness of the criticism, by the military writers whose names 
 I have just mentioned. Colonel lung has no hesitation in 
 saying that at Toulon Bonaparte " owed whatever impor- 
 tance he had to his activity, and especially to his intimacy 
 with his compatriot Saliceti. . . . He discharged the duties 
 of artillery commandant of a wing of the army. He had 
 both colleagues and superiors. He was mentioned in de- 
 
 wherein precise mention is made of the operation th.Tt f.iiled : " Owing to a 
 
 stupid blunder ot Bonaparte, no Englisli war-ship was sunk at Tonlon." 
 
 Papers of M. de Saint-Albin. i Victor Hn^o. 
 
PREFACE Ixxiii 
 
 spatches only once, and then together with Arena and 
 Cervoni. . . ." ' In the eyes of Commandant Krebs and M. 
 Moris, authors, like Colonel lung, of a very remarkable 
 and learned work, the services rendered by Bonaparte at 
 the siege of Toulon were " considerable," but " they are of 
 a technical order." His chief merit was to " form with 
 feeble resources a small artillery park which he made the 
 most of." Ashamed of this concession— which, modest as 
 it is. Colonel lung has obstinately refused hospitality — 
 they hasten to add, " as to what concerns the deciding of 
 the plan of attack, Bonaparte would have had little merit 
 in discovering the one acknowledged by all as the right 
 one." Thereby are confirmed the first lines of the passage 
 from which I have taken these quotations : " A veritable 
 legend, of which Bonaparte is the hero, has gradually taken 
 shape in connection with the siege of Toulon. Nothing in 
 official documents justifies it, as Colonel lung has already 
 remarked in Bonaparte ct son temps." " 
 
 So we have, on the one hand, history which seeks the 
 truth at its own sources, consults authentic documents, 
 and neglects and consequently makes away with none — 
 erudite, serene, and impartial history, represented by the 
 works of MM. lung, Krebs, and Moris, as well as by the 
 Memoirs of Barras, whose conclusions are almost identi- 
 cal with those of M. lung ; on the other, a legend open 
 to suspicion, born of the silly cult of a few " grognards " ' 
 for their idol, and the adroit adulation of Napoleon's 
 courtiers. 
 
 Let us examine this history, this legend, with no other 
 object than that of reaching the plain and honest truth, 
 and let us show which of the two has spoken falsely. If, 
 perchance, it should happen that when refuting the thesis 
 of Barras, I should succeed in demonstrating likewise the 
 fragility of that of the honorable authors whom I regret 
 
 ' lung, ii., p. 394- 
 
 "> Les Campagnes dans les Alpes pendant la Revolution (\^<)2-l^^'i),\>^^j MM. 
 Krebs and Moris, p. 373, note 3. 
 
 3 Grognards, grumblers, the sobriquet given to Napoleon's old soldiers. — 
 Translator's note. 
 
Ixxiv MEMOIRS OF BARRAS 
 
 seeing in such bad company, great would, I must confess, 
 be my joy. It is not every day that one has the good 
 fortune to dispose of three errors at one and the same 
 time. 
 
 The first point on which light is to be shed is the follow- 
 ing one : when did the opinion first arise that the services 
 rendered by Bonaparte at Toulon contained something 
 particular, something inherent to the man and not to the 
 ofhcer's rank, a special importance, going far beyond the 
 measure of the services exigible of a mere captain of 
 artillery, were he the best of his army? 
 
 It is after the engagement in the Passes of Ollioules 
 (7th September, 1793), where the brave Donmartin, who 
 directed the artillery of the Convention, fell, stricken by 
 a bullet, and exclaiming, " Long live the Republic !" that 
 Bonaparte, a mere captain, was given the command of all 
 the artillery, while retaining his rank. On the 29th of 
 September, the representatives Gasparin and Saliceti are 
 so well pleased with him that they recommend that he be 
 promoted to the rank of major. On the following day, 
 the 30th of September, they write that " Bonna Parte " is 
 " the only artillery captain able to grasp the operations." ' 
 Is not the idea implicitly embodied in the terms here 
 employed by the two representatives that Bonaparte is 
 already at this stage considered fit for something more 
 important than the mere performance of the simple duties 
 of an ordinary officer? 
 
 To Carteaux, who has fallen into disgrace, succeeds 
 (9th November) General Doppet, himself replaced almost 
 immediately by Dugommier. During the short time 
 spent by Doppet with the army before Toulon, he has 
 seen Bonaparte at work. " I had brought with me from 
 the Army of the Alps a general of artillery, an old and 
 excellent officer, named Duteuil; he went with me on a 
 tour of inspection of the batteries erected prior to my 
 arrival, and I saw with much astonishment and satisfac- 
 tion that this old artillery ofificer commended all the 
 
 ' lung, vol. ii., p, 386, from the AirMves 0/ the War Department. 
 
PREFACE Ixxv 
 
 measures taken by young Buonaparte, at that time lieu- 
 tenant-colonel of artillery. I take pleasure in stating 
 that this young officer, who has since become the hero of 
 the Italian campaign, displayed, together with his many 
 talents, a rare intrepidity and the most indefatigable 
 activity. Whenever I visited the posts during my stay 
 with that army, I ever found him at his ; if he needed a 
 moment's rest, he would lie down on the ground, wrapped 
 up in his cloak ; he never left his batteries. . . ." ' 
 
 Five weeks have gone by since Bonaparte has been 
 given command of the artillery. His activity, his bravery, 
 his talents, make him an example to the army. And, at 
 a distance of four years, when the mind of honest Doppet 
 reverts to that Army of Toulon, with which he spent but 
 a short time, he finds ineradicably engraved on his mem- 
 ory the personality of that rare and unique officer. 
 
 On the 30th of September the enemy makes a sortie 
 with 6000 men, and takes possession of one of the Repub- 
 lican redoubts, spiking its guns. Dugommier, taken by 
 surprise, hurries forward and drives back the English with 
 the impetus of fury. Next day he writes: "I cannot too 
 highly praise the behavior of those of our brothers-in-arms 
 who volunteered to fight ; among those who most distin- 
 guished themselves, and who assisted me in rallying and 
 pushing forward, are the citizens Bonnaparte (sic), com- 
 mandant of artillery. Arena, and Cervoni, adjutants -gen- 
 eral."^ And this report of the general-in-chief is fully 
 confirmed in regard to the conduct of Bonaparte on this 
 occasion, by a letter of the representative Saliceti to his 
 colleagues:^ "It is impossible to speak too highly of the 
 valor of our troops. . . . Our soldiers would perform 
 prodigies if they had officers. Dugommier, Garnier, Mou- 
 
 ' Mlinoires politique! et militaires dii Geniral Doppet. Carouge, Year V. 
 of the Republic, i vol. in i2mo, pp. 180, iSi. 
 
 ''Archives of the War Department. — Letter from Dugommier to the Min- 
 ister, nth Frimaire, Year II. (ist December, 1793). 
 
 'Archives of the War Department. — Army of the siege of Toulon. Mil- 
 itary correspondence, Year 1793. Letter of the nth Frimaire, Year II. (ist 
 December, 1793). 
 
Ixxvi MEMOIRS OF BARRAS 
 
 ret, and Buonaparte behaved very well." The repre- 
 sentative makes no special mention either of Arena or 
 Cervoni. But he mentions Bonaparte, just as the general- 
 in-chief had already done. 
 
 On the i6th of December the Republicans attempt a 
 general attack on the enemy's positions. " The fire from 
 our batteries, directed with the greatest talent, warned the 
 enemy of his fate.' Thus Dugommier in his admirable 
 report on the taking of Toulon.' Who then directed the 
 fire of those batteries? To whom, consequently, is this 
 striking homage addressed? Do not ask MM. Krebs and 
 Moris, who do not quote this report. Ask it still less of 
 M. lung, who quotes it, but with the important passage 
 carefully expurgated. Simply ask it of your good sense, 
 of your natural equity, and they will answer you that, be- 
 yond any possibility of doubt, these words are to be ap- 
 plied to Bonaparte. Will M. lung point out perhaps that 
 Bonaparte is not mentioned in it by name? So be it. In 
 that case, however, he will permit me to call his attention 
 to another document, whose clear and precise terms will, 
 I venture to hope, prove satisfactory to him : " / ca?iiiot 
 find words to portray the merit of Bonaparte ; a consider- 
 able amount of science, just as miicli intelligence, and too 
 much bravery, such is a feeble outline of the virtues of that 
 rare officer. 'Tis for thee. Minister, to turn them to the 
 advantage of the Republic.'"' Such is the judgment 
 passed on Bonaparte by the General of Division Duteil, in 
 a letter written the very day after the capture of Toulon, 
 to the Minister of War. How does it happen then that 
 Colonel lung, and after him MM. Krebs and Moris, for 
 whom the Archives of the War Department have no se- 
 crets, should have been unfortunate enough to allow that 
 ■letter to escape their notice — one sufficiently significant, it 
 
 ' Memoir on the siege of Toulon sent by Dugommier with a letter to the 
 President of the Convention, 6th Nivose, Year II. — Archives of the War 
 Departmetit, Army of Toulon. 
 
 '' Letter from Duteil, junior. General of Division, to the Minister of War, 
 igth December, 1793. — Archives of the War Department, Army of Toulon. 
 Military correspondence. Year 1793. 
 
PREFACE Ixxvii 
 
 will be admitted— which their probity as historians would 
 have considered it a duty to publish ? For I will never 
 remain content to believe that they deliberately set aside 
 from the suit they bring against the memory of Bonaparte 
 a deposition of such weight for the sole reason that this 
 deposition is favorable to the man whom they accuse. 
 
 After perusing this report of Dugommier and this letter 
 of Duteil, nothing seems to us more simple, more legiti- 
 mate, than to see the representatives recommend that 
 Bonaparte, a mere captain two months before, be raised 
 to the rank of brigadier-general. They considered that an 
 exceptional recompense, even in those days of rapid pro- 
 motion, was alone fitted to exceptional merit. " The rep- 
 resentatives of the people present at the siege of Toulon, 
 satisfied with the zeal and intelligence of which the cit- 
 izen Bonaparte, a major in the 2d regiment of Artillery, 
 has given proofs by contributing to the surrender of that 
 rebel town, have, by way of a recognition thereof, ap- 
 pointed him brigadier -general, and recommend that the 
 Minister should confirm him in this rank. . . ." ' 
 
 M. lung has not been able to resist the temptation of 
 insinuating that "solicitations and intrigues" doubtless 
 played a part in this fresh promotion. I beg leave not to 
 discuss the opinion of the learned historian. It completes 
 in the happiest and most logical fashion the judgment — 
 in which Barras would concur — passed by M. lung in the 
 foregoing, anent Bonaparte's role at the siege of Toulon : 
 " He was mentioned once only, and then in conjunction 
 with Arena and Cervoni. He owed all his importance to 
 his activity, and especially to his intimacy with his compa- 
 triot Saliceti. ..." 
 
 It will be seen now, I am of opinion, what store is to be 
 set on this judgment, and also on the allegations contained 
 in the Memoirs of Barras, in relation to the insignificance 
 of the role of Bonaparte at the siege of Toulon. I have in- 
 terrogated his companions-in-arms, the men under whose 
 
 ' Provisional decree of the 22d of September, 1793, quoted by lung in a 
 foot-note, vol. ii., p. 395. 
 
Ixxviii MEMOIRS OF BARRAS 
 
 eyes the young officer served at Toulon. They tell us in 
 all simplicity and frankness what they saw. I have pur- 
 posely set aside, as open to the suspicion of not being suf- 
 ficiently disinterested, all depositions not anterior to the 
 Consulate and the Empire. It has been my wish that all 
 testimony invoked by me should be absolutely free from 
 the slightest bias of flattery, that the Captain of Artillery 
 should not derive any benefit from the admiration inspired 
 hereafter by the all-powerful conqueror and master of 
 Europe. This testimony I have taken is all, with but one 
 exception — that of Doppet — from official sources. Before 
 going more deeply into the subject I have asked myself. 
 At what period did one begin to think and say that the 
 role of Bonaparte at the siege of Toulon had been some- 
 thing entirely different from even that of an excellent sub- 
 altern officer? The documents establish with all the clear- 
 ness and preciseness that can be desired that the opinion 
 looked upon as a legend by MM. Krebs and Moris is con- 
 temporaneous with the siege itself; that this legend has 
 a Republican and not a Bonapartist origin, that it was 
 born spontaneously from an admiration inspired by strik- 
 ing merits, to which the whole army had been a witness. 
 This first point set forth, as it has been, with the aid, I 
 repeat, of official documents alone, I will be charitable 
 enough not to dwell with too great an emphasis on the 
 enormity of the assertion of the two conscientious writers 
 whom the fallacious erudition and the prestige of Colonel 
 lung have on this occasion visibly deluded : " Little by 
 little there has sprung up about the siege of Toulon a 
 veritable legend, with Bonaparte as its hero. Nothing hi 
 official dociiiJients justifies it, as already pointed out by 
 Colonel lung." 
 
 The suspicious contribution brought by the Memoirs of 
 Barras in support of this opinion is not likely to convince 
 readers of good faith. One must resign one's self to the 
 fact. Bonaparte did do something at Toulon. It is hard 
 to understand that a like admission should be a painful 
 one for writers having the honor to belong to that branch 
 of the French army in which Bonaparte, one of themselves, 
 
PREFACE Ixxix 
 
 is reported to have shed some lustre, an army which, fol- 
 lowing upon the undeserved disasters it has met with, it 
 behooves more than ever to show itself careful and jealous 
 of its glories. Colonel lung and Commandant Krebs nev- 
 ertheless consider a like admission beyond their strength. 
 Since it is the love of truth which alone inspires, let us 
 bow down before them. I will gladly believe that this 
 sacrifice they have made to truth — such, at least, as they 
 conceive it — was not accomplished by them without some 
 opposition on the part of their feelings as patriots and sol- 
 diers. But why, then, did they not leave the task to us 
 others who do not wear the uniform ? Civilian contractors 
 for the demolition of the military genius of Napoleon would 
 assuredly not have been found wanting even without 
 them. This was seen full well in 1871, in the matter of 
 the Column. 
 
 Having settled this account, I will take up the exam- 
 ination of the second point of this study. What, then, 
 did Bonaparte do at Toulon, since it is now established 
 that he did something? 
 
 In the first place, it was there that he revealed those 
 merits "of a technical order" mentioned by MM. Krebs 
 and Moris. It is not required of me to enter into the 
 detail of the work of Bonaparte in his capacity of com- 
 mandant of the artillery at the siege of Toulon, although 
 this detail, such as I have taken it from the precious 
 Archives of the War Department, be singularly eloquent. 
 I will content myself with bringing into relief the phi- 
 losophy — if I may say it — of all these authentic and 
 scrupulously analyzed documents. What my investiga- 
 tion brings out, clearly demonstrated in my eyes, is what 
 follows : — 
 
 I. An indefatigable, prodigious, and superhuman ac- 
 tivity creating resources where there are none : " I sent 
 to Lyons, to Briancon, to Grenoble, an intelligent ofificer, 
 whom I summoned' from the Army of Italy, for the pur- 
 pose of procuring from these several towns everything 
 that could be of use to us. I requisitioned the Army of 
 Italy to furnish us with the cannon not needed for the 
 
Ixxx MEMOIRS OF BARRAS 
 
 defence of Antibes and Monaco ... I procured by req- 
 uisition one hundred horses at Marseilles ... I caused 
 to be sent here eight bronze guns from Martigues ... I 
 established at Ollioules an arsenal with forty workn:ien, 
 blacksmiths, wheelwrights, carpenters, all working unceas- 
 ingly at what was necessary to us ... I established a park 
 where men are hard at work making gabions, hurdles, 
 faggots for saps, and fascines ... I called by requisition 
 from Marseilles all workmen engaged in weaving baskets 
 and wicker-work for demijohns, and set them to making 
 gabions. I requisitioned horses from every department, 
 from Nice to Valence and Montpellier. I took from La 
 Seyne and La Ciotat all the timbers I could find ... I am 
 having made 5000 earth-sacks per day at Marseilles ... I 
 established an artificers' workshop ... I have taken steps 
 to re-establish the Dardennes foundry ... I have a gun- 
 smith's workshop where all the muskets are repaired. . . ."' 
 Notice the egotism, the tone of authority. Remember 
 that to this scrupulously precise report is added a plan 
 of attack on Toulon, simple and luminous, to which we 
 shall refer further on. Already does this powerful mind 
 reveal itself in full possession of the marvellous gift it 
 possessed of receiving the smallest details just as it em- 
 braced and dominated the most vast ensemble. Is it the 
 artillery captain Bonaparte who has drawn up these two 
 documents? Or is it the Emperor Napoleon who has 
 dictated to Berthier the minute and comprehensive or- 
 donnance of one of his undertakings? 
 
 2. An unfailing quickness in seizing the main point, 
 revealed by the selection of sites for his batteries, always 
 erected by him where they can produce the most redoubt- 
 able effects. 
 
 3. An inconceivable boldness in the selection of these 
 sites. To illustrate : the Br^gaillon battery constructed in 
 a single night, within a few fathoms of the sea-shore, under 
 
 ^Archives of the War Dipartmeni. — Document attached to a " Plan of 
 attack oil Toulon " (published in Napoleon's Correspondence), addressed to 
 the Minister by Bonaparte, from headquarters at Ollioules, 24th Brumaire 
 Year II. (14th November, 1793). 
 
PREFACE Ixxxi 
 
 the very bows of the allied ships ; likewise the battery of 
 the Hommes-Sans-Peur (the Know-No-Fear) constructed 
 with its annexes under the very guns of the big Mulgrave 
 redoubt, "within pistol-shot " of the English positions, says 
 Saliceti with some exaggeration, in his autographic and 
 unpublished account of the siege of Toulon." 
 
 4. An indomitable tenacity in the defence and retain- 
 ing possession of these exposed batteries thrown forward 
 like "a forlorn hope." To illustrate: the 20,000 cannon- 
 balls withstood by the two batteries of La Montague 
 and the Sans-Culottes ;'' the still more fearful cannon- 
 ade withstood by Bregaillon' and the Hommes-Sans- 
 Peur.' 
 
 5. The genius of acting on the offensive, the terrible de- 
 stroying genius of Napoleon, already manifested itself in 
 this audacious use of siege artillery ; not from a distance, 
 not classically, with a waste and loss of cannon-balls, but 
 muzzle to muzzle, so to speak, in order to increase a hun- 
 dredfold the work of destruction of these batteries. A 
 fearful game, wherein there is a danger of being annihi- 
 lated, but wherein one strikes with terror and one's self an- 
 nihilates the enemy, if one can but hold out a few hours. 
 Compare this method with the one he is to use hereafter 
 on battle-fields, his field artillery all brought to bear on 
 one point, like a pistol pointed at the heart of the enemy : 
 the two methods are identical. 
 
 If that is what MM. Krebs and Moris understand by 
 the words " merits of a technical order," I am one with 
 them. But who is there who does not see that there is 
 something else, and that something in excess of merits of 
 
 ^ N'otes autogmphes du repr^sentant Saliceti sur le siige de Toulon. — M. 
 de Saint-Albin's Papers. 
 
 ^ The figure given by Bonaparte himself in the report above quoted. 
 
 5 This battery had to stand the fire of ten ships, two hulks, and two bomb- 
 ketches. 
 
 ■■ " On the first day, nearly all the gunners were lulled or wounded, hence 
 men could not be found to take their places, whereupon Bonaparte conceived 
 the idea of issuing an order of the day, stating that this new battery was to be 
 called the battery of the Hommes-Sans-Peur ; immediately all gunners wished 
 to belong to it." — Saliceti's Notes. 
 F 1 
 
Ixxxii MEMOIRS OF BARRAS 
 
 that modest order, however commendable it may be ; that 
 the man who did this is not only an officer thoroughly 
 grounded in the various parts of his profession ; that, in a 
 word, the great captain is beginning to show himself in the 
 mere artillery commandant? 
 
 And it is on this third point that full light will be 
 thrown, to the confusion of Barras, and not to him alone, 
 by the last portion of this dissertation. 
 
 A few brief topographical indications become necessary 
 at this juncture. The town of Toulon is commanded on 
 the north by the steep flanks of the Faron Mountain, on 
 which the allies — English, Spaniards, Neapolitans, Pied- 
 montese — had strongly entrenched themselves, as in a 
 kind of natural redoubt. East and west forts pitched in 
 front of the body of the town itself held in check the Re- 
 publican army, whose two divisions — the western one un- 
 der Carteaux, Doppet, then Dugommier, the eastern one 
 under Lapoype — were separated one from the other by the 
 Faron mountain-mass. To the south was the harbor, in 
 the absolute possession of the enemy. This harbor is 
 composed of two distinct parts — the great harbor commu- 
 nicating with the high sea, the small harbor well inland. 
 Betweenthem juts out the promontory of L'Eguillette, oc- 
 cupied — just as Mount Faron and all other heights com- 
 manding the two harbors — by the allied troops. The po- 
 sition of besieged was therefore a very strong and secure 
 one ; that of the besiegers, on the contrary, bad. 
 
 In spite of this inequality of conditions between the as- 
 sailants and defenders, Toulon was taken. Far from me 
 to dispute that it is meet to attribute a generous portion 
 of this great success to the besieging army. It is my firm 
 belief that the world has not seen soldiers whose soul 
 quality was superior to that of those soldiers of the Re- 
 public. The armies of the Empire even do not show us 
 anything as grand. Undoubtedly the same bravery is 
 common to them, and with them heroism is natural and a 
 matter of course, but subservient to a less noble ideal. 
 The love of glory, the passionate devotion to a great man, 
 are not virtues of an equal moral value to this pure love of 
 
PREFACE Ixxxiii 
 
 liberty and of Fatherland which fired the hearts of those 
 soldiers of the Year II. In order to find something like 
 unto them, we must go to ancient Greece and Rome for 
 points of comparison. The soldier of the Revolution has 
 nothing to envy the followers of Leonidas and Scipio. 
 Greece in the presence of Xerxes, Rome in the presence 
 of Hannibal do not appear greater or more stoic to me 
 than our Republican France holding its own against the 
 coalition. And I consider that the titles of nobility of our 
 Fatherland would be lacking in something essential were 
 that sublime page absent from its history. 
 
 I admit also that great honor is due to the chief who 
 commanded these admirable soldiers under the walls of 
 Toulon. With his fifty-eight years,' his halo of blanched 
 hair, Dugommier stands forth as an ancestor from among 
 these thirty-year-old generals, glory's precocious flowers, 
 which the Revolution expanded with its fiery rays. But 
 his heart, his proud and generous heart, is unwrinkled ; 
 and this old man is young, if 'tis true, as I believe, that 
 the characteristic of youth is to be ready to shed every 
 drop of its blood for an idea. His is a family of the no- 
 blesse de robe of minor degree, but ancient. Love of the 
 Revolution had taken possession of him, and he gave him- 
 self up to it body and soul. A sincere and ardent sans- 
 culotte he. But, while abjuring the ideas of his caste, he 
 had retained a substratum of indelible nobility. He had 
 been able to rid himself of aristocratic prejudices, but 
 not of the inborn aristocracy of his instincts, being of 
 those whose nobility courses in the very blood of their 
 veins. 'Twas a hearty and rough war he waged against 
 the enemies of the Republic, yet a humane and cour- 
 teous one, too humane and too courteous even to suit 
 the taste of the Committee of Public Safety and the rep- 
 resentatives." The most modest, the most disinterested, 
 
 ^Jacques Cocquille Dugommier was born in 1736 in the island of Guade- 
 loupe, where his family, originally from the Nivernais, had been established 
 for a century, 
 
 ""^^.R Archives of the War Department ; Saliceti's letter to the Committee 
 of Public Safety, 22d Frimaire, Year II. (i2th December, 1793). See also 
 
Ixxxiv MEMOIRS OF BARRAS 
 
 as well as the bravest of men ; oblivious of himself in his 
 reports,' in order to better bring to light the exploits of 
 " brothers- in -arms," as he almost invariably styles his sol- 
 diers. He revelled in battle, and rushed into it with the 
 cheerfulness of a volunteer. " Get rid quickly of your 
 blistering plasters," he writes to Doppet, lying ill at Perpi- 
 gnan, " so that we may go and stick a few on the nape of 
 the enemy's neck." ' What valor do we not discern in the 
 somewhat coarse joviality of this soldier-like plain talking! 
 An incomparable soldier, he was also endowed with the 
 qualities of a commander, a quickness in seizing the main 
 point, decisiveness, and energy. Saliceti found him " some- 
 what slow in his measures." ' Bonaparte has avenged him 
 of this censure.' But he knew not to kill when the fighting 
 was over. The executions «'« 7/iasse ordered by the depu- 
 ties after the capture of Toulon made him feel sick at 
 heart." To shoot down a mob of disarmed men was not 
 in his line. He got himself sent to the Army of the Pyre- 
 
 the letter of Dugommier, 13th December, to the same Committee, wherein he 
 defends himself from having treated "with too much politeness" the English 
 general, O'Hara, taken prisoner. The army has heard " that our brothers-in- 
 arms, prisoners (at Toulon), were being well treated ; we have been humane, 
 I swear it to you, without ceasing to be Republicans." 
 
 'See Archives of the IVar Department ; Dugommier's letter to the Presi- 
 dent of the Convention, 6th Nivose, Year II., announcing the despatch of a 
 Memoir on the taking of Toulon : " We might have sent the flags which we 
 found in great quantity in the evacuated posts ; but our brave brothers-in- 
 arms value only those captured on the breach or wrested from the enemy. . . . 
 I might likewise have given myself some personal ^clat by coming to announce 
 a great event ; dtit Toulon had fallen, a result to zvhich I had contributed with 
 all my main. That was enough for me / the glory of it belongs wholly to my 
 brothers-in-arms." '- Iil^?npires du Gthieral Doppet, p. 248. 
 
 ^ Letter from Saliceti to the Committee of Public Safety, 12th December, 
 1793. — Archives of the War Department. 
 
 ■* " He was endowed with all the qualities of an old soldier. Personally a 
 brave man, he loved brave men and was beloved by them. He was good- 
 natured although hasty, active, fair-minded, possessed the military eye, sang- 
 froid, and stubbornness." — Napoleon, quoted by M. lung, vol. ii., p. 389. 
 
 ' It is ditficult to explain otherwise the request for a furlough, which he 
 sends " by the first mail" to the Committee of Public Safety, six days only 
 after the entry of the troops of the Convention into Toulon. — Archives of the 
 War Department ; Dugommier's letter to the Committee of Pubhc Safety, 
 14th Nivose, Year II, (24th December, 1793). 
 
PREFACE Ixxxv 
 
 nees, where a Spanish cannon-ball brought him the beau- 
 tiful soldier -death for which Marshal de Villars envied 
 Berwick. 
 
 The Revolution produced greater captains. Hoche and 
 Moreau, Kleber and Massena — not to mention the master 
 of them all — were soldiers possessing greater capabilities. 
 But I do not find in any of them, and no more in Bona- 
 parte than in any other of these glorious chieftains, a moral 
 purity to be compared with his." I admire them more ; 
 but there is not one before whom I bow down with greater 
 respect than before this rival of men like Bayard and Mont- 
 calm, this chivalrous Jacobin, this fearless and blameless 
 Republican. Alone, the suave and virginal face of the 
 long-haired hussar, Marceau, might serve as a counterpart 
 to that of old General Dugommier, the Rodriguez and 
 Don Diego of the Revolution. 
 
 It will therefore not be laid to my door that I am seek- 
 ing to lessen the glory of the Army of Toulon and its 
 general -in- chief. But the valor of these incomparable 
 soldiers and the man to whom fell the well-deserved hon- 
 or of commanding them would not have triumphed over 
 the almost insurmountable difficulties of a siege under-. 
 taken under the conditions I have mentioned, had not an 
 
 ' I cannot deny myself the pleasure of recalling here an episode of the 
 siege of Toulon which fully illustrates the temper of the soldiers and the com- 
 mander of the Republican Army. The English general, O'Hara, made pris- 
 oner in a sortie, had sent sixty lottis d'or for distribution among the soldiers 
 of the Ardeche battalion, who instead of making short work of him — pursu- 
 ant to the ferocious orders of the Convention — had raised him from the bat- 
 tle-field, where he lay wounded, and had treated him with humanity. The 
 four volunteers summoned to receive the reward decline it, saying, "They 
 need, not gold, but bread and cartridges." Thereupon, Dugommier writes 
 to O'Hara : "The money sent by you as a recognition of the service rendered 
 by them to you on the loth Frimaire, was offered to the volunteers of the Re- 
 public ; they declined it, with the same generosity which prompted yoit to ten- 
 der it to them. I therefore return to you the sixty loiiis in gold which you 
 had given to be distributed among my brothers-in-arms ; they are content with 
 the pleasure they have felt in succoring a man in distress. It is thus, General, 
 that our Republic erects itself on a foundation composed of every virtue, and it 
 will some day put to shame the deceived nations who combat h."— Archives 
 of the War Department ; Dugommier's letter to O'Hara, loth December, 
 1793. 
 
Ixxxvi MEMOIRS OF BARRAS 
 
 idea, born of genius, presided over the conception of the 
 plan of attack which was adopted, and the execution 
 whereof resulted almost immediately in the surrender of 
 Toulon. 
 
 Here is that idea in all its luminous simplicity. 
 
 The principal strength of Toulon lies in the formidable 
 Anglo-Hispano-Neapolitan fleet, increased by the French 
 squadron which treason has handed over to the enemy. 
 To destroy this fleet, or simply to compel it to retreat, is 
 to have Toulon at one's mercy. But, then, how is it to 
 be attacked, since one does not possess a single ship to 
 contend with it for the mastery of the sea ? By taking 
 up a position whence the Republicans may render un- 
 tenable the two harbors of which the allies are masters. 
 But they are likewise masters of the heights commanding 
 them ! It matters little. Moreover, it is not a question 
 of recapturing all these heights from them. There is a 
 point, a solitary point, Xh^ occupying of which is sufficient 
 to place the hostile fleet in the alternative of flying or 
 being burned. This point is the promontory of L'Eguil- 
 lette, commanding both the large and the small harbor, 
 and likewise the narrow channel by which ships pass from 
 one into the other. But this promontory is impregnable ! 
 It will be taken for all that. But its summit is occupied 
 by Fort Mulgrave, the big English redoubt, bristling with 
 batteries, which have won for it the significant appellation 
 of "Little Gibraltar"! Other batteries shall be erected 
 that shall silence their fire. It is there, and nowhere else, 
 that it is necessary to strike in order to conquer. Let us 
 at all costs take possession of the promontory of L'Eguil- 
 lette, and Toulon is ours. 
 
 Thus, to abandon absolutely the idea of taking Toulon 
 by land, although apparently assailable on that side alone ; 
 to replace the regular operations of a siege similar to all 
 other sieges by a combination as novel as the conditions 
 of this siege were unusual ; to substitute for direct action, 
 of necessity slow, since it must have of necessity been 
 exercised against a town always able to receive by way of 
 the sea provisions, munitions of war, and reinforcements. 
 
PREFACE Ixxxvii 
 
 an indirect action a thousand times more crushing in its 
 effects; to take Toulon by the sea, although not possessing a 
 fleet ; to secure possession of the solitary point from whicli 
 it would be possible, luith batteries taking the place of ships, 
 to engage the enemy in a real naval combat in which it 
 would inevitably be destroyed if it ventured to face so 
 disproportionate a struggle, or compelled to fly in all 
 haste if it preferred to fly from a most terrible danger — 
 such was, stripped of its accessories, the inspiring idea 
 which restored Toulon to the Republic. 
 
 It remains to be seen with whose brain this plan origi- 
 nated. 
 
 M. lung does not even take the trouble of solving 
 the problem.' As for MM. Krebs and Moris, 'tis a kind 
 of anonymous and collective work, everybody in the army 
 having from the very first days of the siege grasped that 
 Toulon could not be taken in any other way." As to 
 Barras, we have seen that if he does not attribute to him- 
 self expressly the recapture of Toulon as he does the vic- 
 tory of the 13th Vend^miaire, he at least accords to Du- 
 gommier alone the honor of this great success.' 
 
 Let us therefore examine anew, not works on the siege 
 of Toulon written at second hand, but authentic and offi- 
 cial documents contemporaneous with the event. Let us 
 ask the Archives of the War Department to reveal to us the 
 
 * " We do not propose to embark upon a detailed narrative of this operation 
 of war, which is well known." — Bonaparte et son temps, vol. ii., p. 391. 
 
 ' See Canipagnes dans les Alpes, p. 373, note 3, already quoted. 
 
 ° " The taking prisoner of General O'Hara, attributed to Bonaparte, the 
 English ship he is alleged to have sunk, the plan of campaign in wliich he is 
 alleged to have had a share, are so many mendacious assertions. ... I repeat, 
 'tis Dugommier who is the actual captor al 1 ovAoii." (Memoirs of Barras, 
 chap, xvi.) Barras is right in regard to the making prisoner of General 
 O'Hara, a deed Napoleon attributed wrongfully to himself later on, and one 
 which time-serving writers have continued attributing to him on the strength 
 of this assertion. O'Hara was made prisoner by four obscure volunteers of 
 the ArdJche battalion, commanded by Suchet. — See Archives of the War De- 
 partment, military correspondence, Army of Toulon, loth December, 1793, a 
 communication made in 1832 to Lieutenant-General Count Pelet, Director 
 of the Ordnance Office, by M. Leone d'Almeyda, a former aide-de-camp of 
 Dugommier before Toulon. 
 
Ixxxviii MEMOIRS OF BARRAS 
 
 genesis of this plan whose author is, it would seem, every- 
 body but Bonaparte. 
 
 They inform us that the first idea of both generals and 
 deputies was to take Toulon by main force by a vigorous 
 attack directed against its defences on the land side. Car- 
 teaux speaks of " carrying all the forts and redoubts with 
 cold steel." On this point he is for once in accord with 
 his colleague Lapoype. No more than the general-in-chief 
 do the deputies at that date of the lOth of September 
 dream of reducing Toulon by the sea. They propose to 
 cut off the town's water supply, to direct a double attack 
 against its land defences ; meanwhile the fleet is to be 
 bombarded so as to prevent its fire protecting the assailed 
 works." Nothing in all this resembles, even remotely, the 
 plan adopted and carried out some weeks later. 
 
 Suddenly an absolutely new idea makes its appearance, 
 and breaks out in the correspondence of the deputies: 
 " Far from us to lay a regular siege to the town of Toulon, 
 ■wlien ive possess a surer means of reducing it, and this means 
 consists in either destroying the hostile squadron by fire, or 
 in compelling it to retreat in fear thereof. . . . We are merely 
 waiting for our heavy artillery to occupy a position whence 
 we can reach the ships with red-hot ball, and we shall then 
 see -wliether we do not become masters of Toulon. ..." 
 
 These lines are dated the 13th of September, 1793. 
 How great a progress have not the representatives of the 
 people made in three days ! We are far from the plan of 
 taking Toulon by thirst! How the idea of "a regular 
 siege," nay, even the idea of direct attacks from the land 
 side, is abruptly and contemptuously abandoned ! Now, 
 on the 29th of the same month, these same representatives 
 recommend for promotion to the rank of major that Cap- 
 tain Bonaparte, in command since the 7th of the artillery ; 
 and on the 30th they write that the young officer is " the 
 only artillery captain capable of conceiving operations." I 
 
 ' Archives of the War Department. — Letters from Carteaux and Lapoype to 
 the Minister Bouchotte, loth and nth September, 1793 ; letter of the repre- 
 sentatives to the Committee of Public Safety, loth September. 
 
PREFACE Ixxxix 
 
 conclude from these lines already quoted, the full value of 
 which it was impossible to gauge previously, that this new 
 idea, springing up suddenly in the correspondence of the 
 representatives, leaves no doubt as to the title Bonaparte 
 has just acquired to their good-will. What is this title, if 
 it is not the indication of a way of taking Toulon, of which 
 neither they nor any one else had thought of in the iirst 
 instance? 
 
 Whether it was, as I believe, inspired by Bonaparte, or 
 whether the honor of it belongs entirely to the men alone 
 who have affixed their signatures to it — Gasparin, Saliceti, 
 and Albitte — the letter of 13th September gives us, it must 
 be admitted, nothing more than the rough sketch, the out- 
 lines of the plan which has just been set forth. An essen- 
 tial feature is lacking — to wit, the precise indication of the 
 point where the Republican Army is to establish itself in 
 order to compel the hostile fleet to evacuate the harbor. 
 However legitimate may be the hypothesis which I have 
 just emitted, it does not constitute a proof. Let us there- 
 fore push our investigation further. 
 
 Here are precisely two plans of attack on Toulon sub- 
 mitted to the Minister of War or to the Committee of 
 Public Safety. The first has for its author Doumet- 
 Revest, a naval engineer.' The idea of occupying posi- 
 tions commanding the harbor is certainly set forth therein. 
 But this is merely an accessory undertaking. Doumet- 
 Revest has nowise foreseen the consequences of such occu- 
 pation. He does not point out the particular position 
 the securing of which is, of itself alone, to have decisive 
 effects, that solitary point whose possession must neces- 
 sarily bring about the downfall of Toulon. 'Tis always, 
 in this excellent but short-sighted plan, on the land side 
 that the Republicans are to bring all their strength to 
 bear. 
 
 ' " Plan of attack on the infamous town of Toulon on all points at which 
 it is susceptible of defence, by citizen Doumet-Revest, naval engineer, resid- 
 ing at Grenoble." — Archives of the Technical Section of Military Engineer- 
 ing, War Department. Siege of Toulon in 1793; document addressed to 
 the Minister Bouchotte, 14th November, 1793. 
 
xc MEMOIRS OF BARRAS 
 
 The second plan, dating from the last days in October, 
 is signed with the illustrious name of Michaud d'Argon,' 
 General of Engineers and Inspector of Fortifications — 
 the greatest authority of the day, and the most justly 
 held in esteem in the matter of sieges or the defence of 
 fortified places. The Archives of the War Department 
 possess no less than three Notes or Memoirs devoted to 
 the "Toulon undertaking," from the 26th to the 31st of 
 October, 1793, from the pen of the great engineer whom 
 the king's army bequeathed — together with so many 
 other excellent officers — to the armies of the Revolution. 
 These several projects constitute a veritable plan of attack, 
 most carefully studied and drawn up, completed by an ex- 
 planatory map.'' This plan provides for a blockade by 
 land, with "at least 150,000 men." Now Dugommier 
 himself confesses to only 20,000 available men in the two 
 corps of the Conventional army, a few days previous to 
 the great attack of the 17th of December!'' 'Tis true 
 that Michaud d'Argon enjoins the occupation of all head- 
 lands, of all heights commanding the harbor. But he 
 has no m.ore than Doumet-Revest suspected the singular 
 importance of one of these positions, he has not seen that 
 the occupation of this sole point would dispense the be- 
 sieging force from occupying all the others.'' In his eyes, 
 as in the eyes of Doumet-Revest, the siege of Toulon is 
 a classical operation. Herissons, chevanx-de-frise, trenches, 
 approaches, parallels, covert ways on the western front of the 
 town, in order to be able to batter in breach its ramparts, 
 the erection of an " immense battery of at least one hundred 
 guns " — not one of the prescriptions of the time-honored 
 
 ^Archives of the War Department ; Notes and Memoirs of Michaud 
 d'Ar^on on the operations against Toulon, 26th, 27th, and 31st October, 
 1793, See, in regard to Michaud d'Ar<;on, the fine work of Arthur Chuquet, 
 La Trahisonde Ditmouriez, pp. 32 and 33, note i. 
 
 "^ Archives of the War Department ; historical atlas, closet F, drawer 3. 
 
 ^ See Archives of the War Department ; Dugommier's letter to Bouchotte, 
 lOth December. 
 
 •■ He even seems to be ignorant of the fact that the promontory of 
 L'Eguillette is occupied, and strongly occupied at that, by the English. 
 
PREFACE XCl 
 
 art of besieging towns is omitted. This plan embodies 
 two great defects: in the first place, it is in no way adapt- 
 ed to the particular and very special conditions of the 
 besieged town ; in the second, it presupposes means of 
 action which were never at the besieging force's disposal. 
 
 With these two plans stands, connected by an evident 
 kinship of inspiration and method, the plan whose princi- 
 pal features we find scattered through the Orders of the 
 Day and the Narrative of the Capture of Toulon by the 
 Major of Engineers, Marescot.' This one also belongs to 
 the traditional classical school. A vast line of investment, 
 with circumvallation ; trenches niyriamhres in length ; 
 galleries, approaches, parallels; in fact, much shovelling 
 of earth. The genuine plan of a good engineer officer, of 
 a " digger," who conscientiously puts into practice on the 
 ground the lessons he has learned in books. The whole 
 slow, circumspect, and methodical — the interminable labor 
 of a mole burrowing its way. 
 
 Yet these are the plans invoked by MM. Krebs and 
 Moris in support'' of their astounding proposition. "In 
 regard to determining the plan of attack, little credit 
 would have been due to Bonaparte for discovering what 
 was patent to all !" Who is there who cannot see that if 
 Toulon had been besieged according to the ideas of the 
 authors of these plans, the siege of Toulon would have 
 lasted as long as that of Troy ? 
 
 Fortunately, Bonaparte interfered. After these long 
 and roundabout preliminaries, rendered necessary by a 
 desire of throwing the fullest light on the truth, I finally 
 come to this early, this clear manifestation of the genius 
 of war revealed by the siege of Toulon, both to the extraor- 
 dinary man who so far bore it unknown to himself, and 
 to those who, witnesses of his striking beginnings, doubt- 
 
 ' Marescot's Orders of the Day. An account of the attacks on Toulon, or 
 Port de la Montagne, by Major Marescot, commanding the Engineers, 20th 
 Nivose, Year II. (gth January, nqi).— Archives of the IVar Department. 
 
 ' Those of Doumet-Revest and of Michaud d'Ar9on, at any rate. MM. 
 Krebs and Moris do not seem to have become cognizant of the ideas of Mares- 
 cot as to the way of attacking Toulon, 
 
xcii MEMOIRS OF BARRAS 
 
 less had a presentiment of the high destinies they herald- 
 ed. Were it necessary to apologize for a fondness for ac- 
 curacy, which is the probity of history, I would say that it 
 is precisely what justifies the care I am bestowing on es- 
 tablishing with minute precision the role of Bonaparte at 
 the siege of Toulon. It is a matter just as worthy of inter- 
 est, and just as philosophical, to wish to know how a great 
 man began as it is to seek how he ended. Now, the le- 
 gend does not lie ; nay, it is even more veracious than cer- 
 tain histories, when it asserts that Napoleon " began " with 
 this memorable siege. 
 
 On the very day that the engineer Doumet-Revest was 
 sending from Chambery to the Minister of War his " Plan 
 of attack on the infamous town of Toulon," viz., on the 
 14th of November, 1793, another plan, signed Bonaparte, 
 left the headquarters at Ollioules, addressed to the same 
 Bouchotte.' The young artillery commandant wrote : 
 " Citizen Minister, the plan of attack I have laid before 
 the generals and the representatives of the people is, I be- 
 lieve, the only practicable one. Had it been followed from 
 the outset with a little more ardor, it is probable that we 
 should now be in Toulon. . . . To drive the enemy out of the 
 harbor is the preliminary point to a regular siege, and per- 
 haps this operation even will give us Toulon!' ... In order 
 to become masters of the harbor, it is necessary to secure 
 possession of the promontory of L Eguillette. . . . More than 
 a month ago did I tell" the generals that the artillery we 
 have at present was powerful enough to silence the fire of tlie 
 English redoubt situated on the summit of the promontory 
 of L'Eguillette. . . ." 
 
 Then follows an enumeration of the batteries he has 
 
 ' Archives of the Technical Section of the Engineer Department at the 
 Ministry of War. Plans of attack on Toulon sent to the Minister by Bona- 
 parte, 24th Brumaire, Year II., published in the Correspondance de NapoUon. 
 14th November. 1793, No, 4, 
 
 ' This is indeed what happened a month later. 
 
 " Attention is called to the fact that this assertion of Bonaparte confirms 
 the hypothesis emitted by me, in regard to the first appearance, in the letter 
 written on the 12th of September by the representatives of the people, of the 
 idea of an indirect attack, by the sea, on Toulon. 
 
PREFACE xciii 
 
 erected to pave the way for the execution of the essential 
 portion of his plan ; the occupation of the promontory of 
 L'Eguillette; the carrying of the terrible English fort or 
 redoubt Mulgrave. Not his the fault if this position is in 
 the hands of the English. " When the representatives of 
 the people placed me in command of the artillery ... ev- 
 erything made me see the necessity for creating an equip- 
 ment which would enable us to drive the enemy out of the 
 harbors by erecting a battery at L'Eguillette. . . . Three 
 days after my arrival the batteries of La Montagne and 
 the sans-ctilottcs were erected, sunk the hulks, and with- 
 stood over twenty thousand cannon-balls. Thereupon the 
 enemy, realizing the insufficiency of their naval artillery, 
 braved all hazards and landed troops at L'Eguillette. 
 They ought to have been crushed during this operation ; 
 fate or folly allowed it to succeed} ... I then grasped that 
 the taking of Toulon had been missed. . . ." 
 
 Postponed, rather. For, without losing a minute, he 
 has gone to work, in order to repair the blunder due to 
 the incapacity of Carteaux. With feverish and lucid ac- 
 tivity he accumulates means of attack, and masses togeth- 
 er the requisite strength. Indifferent to the contradictory 
 orders clashing about him, and to the cltass^-croisd of the 
 generals-in-chief, who come, pass, and disappear, he toils 
 day and night over his task, his tenacious mind never de- 
 viating for a single moment from the object he has in 
 view — to wit, the taking of Little Gibraltar. He advances 
 his batteries to the very base of the big English redoubt ; 
 he has enveloped it, surrounded it with his mortars and 
 cannon, which await but a signal — he cannot, unfortunate- 
 ly, give it himself ! — to belch forth destruction and death 
 on Fort Mulgrave. He will take this formidable position, 
 not by a regular and methodical siege, but with a bound 
 something like that of a beast of prey suddenly springing 
 
 ' The testimony of Bonaparte is here fully confirmed by that of Saliceti, 
 who accuses Carteaux of having allowed the English to secure possession of 
 the heights whence one might have " thundered destruction on the squadron." 
 —Archives of the War Department, letter from Saliceti, 25th September, 
 1793- 
 
xciv MEMOIRS OF BARRAS 
 
 at its victim's throat ; at the appointed moment he will 
 let loose his batteries, just as one unleashes dogs. The 
 siege-artillery itself, the slow, heavy, immutable batteries 
 of position, are called upon, pursuant to a prodigiously 
 daring conception, to join in the impetuous sally which is, 
 at one bound, to carry the Republican Army to the sum- 
 mit of the murderous slope. " With these eight batteries 
 L'Eguillette shall be ours ; it cannot resist on the infantry 
 coming vigorously forward, when once the fire of the ene- 
 my's guns shall have been silenced by the bombs and can- 
 non.'" Let but a general appear, sufficiently intelligent 
 to understand his plan and adopt it, and with enough en- 
 ergy to execute it with the fury required for the supreme 
 attack. Fort Mulgrave is taken, the promontory of L'Eguil- 
 lette torn from English grasp, the harbor evacuated, and 
 Toulon capitulates. Bonaparte awaits Dugommier. 
 
 Compare this plan with those already analyzed. Meas- 
 ure the respective originality, the vigor, and daring of the 
 minds which conceived them. There, all the old formulas 
 of the art of laying siege. Here, a contempt for ordinary 
 rules, because a truer and more penetrating insight has 
 revealed that they are not suitable to the present case, an 
 exceptional one ; the application to a siege under unusual 
 conditions of a method whose merit is precisely to be ab- 
 normal ; the hand placed with supreme clairvoyance from 
 the very first day on the point on which blows are to be 
 dealt, to crush the enemy at one stroke ; a daring concep- 
 tion, served by still more daring means of execution — - 
 means simple and as destructive as thunder ; a plan, in 
 short, which a month before the capture of Toulon gives 
 us point by point the programme of the memorable and 
 decisive operations accomplished by the right wing of the 
 army from the i6th to the i8th of December: the over- 
 whelming of Fort Mulgrave by the batteries encompassing 
 it, the impetuous storming of the big English redoubt, the 
 occupation of the promontory of L'Eguillette, the precipi- 
 tate retreat of the hostile fleet, the surrender of the rebel 
 
 ' This is precisely what happened on the 17th of December. 
 
PREFACE xcv 
 
 city — everything that Bonaparte had foreseen and an- 
 nounced in that " Plan of attack," wherein shines forth al- 
 ready the genius which seems to subject to its imperious 
 yoke — even to the deceptive mobility of coming events. 
 
 Now, if that genius is not the author of this marvellous 
 plan, if it is anybody but Bonaparte — if it be Dugommier, 
 as Barras claims — who took Toulon, then you may as well 
 tell me that it was not the Emperor who won at Austerlitz 
 and at Jena. 
 
 Moreover, the heroic and honest soldier to whom Barras 
 attributes the taking of Toulon, Dugommier, has himself 
 rendered unto Bonaparte what is due to him. At the time 
 of the Council of War held on the 25th of November, nine 
 days after his arrival, the new general-in-chief declared 
 "that he did not think he could submit a more luminous 
 and more feasible plan than the one submitted by the 
 major commanding the Artillery ; that, having followed 
 the ideas of that plan, he had in turn hurriedly drawn one 
 up, and this plan, which it was a pleasure to him to give 
 its primary author credit for, he laid before the Council." ' 
 
 How would Dugommier, who had, so to speak, arrived 
 the day before to take command of the Army of Toulon, 
 have had the time to mature and draw up a plan? 'Tis 
 honor enough for him to have understood from the outset 
 the merit of another's idea, and, after having adopted it 
 without hesitancy, to have carried it out with incompar- 
 able vigor. It is sufficient to cast a glance on this plan of 
 Dugommier's° to convince one's self that the plan of the 
 
 ' Vie de Dugommier, written in 1799 by A. Rousselin de Saint-Albin, as 
 yet unpublished, save for a fragment — relating precisely to the siege of 
 Toulon — published by the author's son among the Docmnents Telatifs ci la 
 Revobition franfaise, taken from the unpublished works of A. Rousselin de 
 Saint-Albin, Paris, Dentu, 1873, I vol. 8vo. The passage quoted by me is 
 taken from the manuscript of M. de Saint-Albin ; its text has not in every in- 
 stance been reproduced faithfully in the publication above mentioned. This 
 Vie de Dugommier, drawn up from a large number of authentic documents col- 
 lected for the purpose by M. de Saint-Albin, when, in 179S, Secretary-General 
 to Bernadotte at the Ministry of War, is of real historic interest. 
 
 ^ Observations on the siege of Toulon, an eight -page manuscript, signed 
 Dugommier, undated, but assuredly posterior to the Council of War of the 
 
xcvi MEMOIRS OF BARRAS 
 
 general-in-chief is naught else, according to his own ad- 
 mission, than a counterdrawing of that of Bonaparte. 
 Not only is the march of operations identical in both, not 
 only does Dugommier set unto himself, as his primary 
 and principal objective, the occupation of the promontory 
 of L'Eguillette and the expulsion of the enemy's fleet; 
 but certain phrases of his are of so strangely a Napoleonic 
 turn, that it may be asked if Bonaparte did not perad- 
 venture himself indite them for his chief. "The success 
 of any enterprise whatsoever depends on an exact calcula- 
 tion of the means employed towards it, of iJicir rigid pro- 
 portions, and of their respective bearings." This is a formu- 
 la born in the brain of a mathematician. " The ships are 
 the maritime ramparts of the town of Toulon. If we com- 
 pel them to sail away, the town loses its principal support." 
 Are not this striking idea and close bit of reasoning one 
 of the characteristics of Napoleon's " mode of expres- 
 sion " ? " The attitude of the enemy after the event, that 
 of our army, lastly, the circumstances which are ever to be 
 taken into account in war, will govern our ulterior line of 
 action!' He who has, even in the slightest degree, made 
 a study of the Napoleonic bent of mind, will admit that 
 this sentence bears unmistakably the mark of the circum- 
 spect soldier whose strategy was ever as supple as his pol- 
 icy, alas ! showed itself inflexible. 
 
 Marescot makes an important remark in his account of 
 the attacks on Toulon. At the Council of War of the 
 25th of November, "the general-in-chief read a plan of 
 attack, which was followed by another prescribed by the 
 Committee of Public Safety. These two plans differed but 
 little from each other!' How could they have differed, 
 since their origin was a common one — viz., the plan of 
 Bonaparte, sent to the Minister of War in Paris, approved 
 of by the Committee,' and evidently communicated by 
 
 25th of November. To this document is attached a plan of attack. — Archives 
 of the War Department ; military correspondence, Army of Toulon, Decem- 
 ber, 1793. 
 
 ^ " A memorandum of a member of the Committee of Public Safety of the 
 day informs us . . . that the Committee of Public Safety . . . was so pleased 
 
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PREFACE xcvii 
 
 the young artillery commandant to his general-in-chief 
 immediately on Dugommier's taking command of the 
 Army of Toulon? 
 
 Thus, whichever way we turn, it is ever the idea of Bo- 
 naparte which we find inspiring the plan whose execution 
 rendered the troops of the Convention masters of Toulon. 
 This idea is so masterly that it has impregnated all who 
 have come into contact with it. 
 
 As if foreseeing the pleasure which such an assertion 
 will doubtless give Colonel lung, Barras declares that 
 Bonaparte nowise contributed to the surrender of Toulon. 
 The documents answer him, and this is what they plainly 
 say: 
 
 1. Bonaparte was the first to see where lay the keys to 
 the town. 
 
 2. Alone he prepared the means for going and taking 
 them from the place where he had said they were. 
 
 3. Together with his companions and his chiefs he 
 went and sought them at that spot, which he had long be- 
 fore pointed out. And as they were indeed there, Toulon 
 was taken. 
 
 Such is, briefly and accurately summed up, the history 
 of the siege of Toulon in 1793; such the nature of the 
 part played by Bonaparte in that siege. 
 
 In other words, he was the man who watches while the 
 others are taking their rest, he who acts while others are 
 deliberating and indulging in idle talk. He was the idea 
 of that heroic army — the idea obstinately set on the rebel 
 town which the Republic had commanded him to reduce — 
 the ever-watchful eye of the Fatherland in danger open on 
 the scoundrelly treason which had to be chastised. 
 
 I am fond of picturing him to myself, wandering along 
 the coast, scanning with his eagle eye the harbor wherein 
 the English ships are. riding at anchor — those accursed 
 
 ■with the views of the young Atiillery officer, that it promoted him to the rank 
 of brigadier-general, and had the presentiment of his genius." — Vie de Du- 
 gommier, by A. Rousselin de Saint-Albin, fragment published in Documents 
 relatifs ^ la Kivolution frani;aise , by H. de Saint-Albin, p. 242. 
 
xcviii MEMOIRS OF BARRAS 
 
 ships which he finds across his path at the very outset of 
 his career, which are to come across his path again and 
 again, on to the end ; or again, at eventide, contemplating 
 the moon which, Uke a red-hot ball vomited by his batter- 
 ies, soars parabola-wise into the heavens, lighting up the 
 threatening profiles of Fort Mulgrave, of that " inacces- 
 sible volcano," mentioned by Dugommier. Just as the 
 brightness of the moon fills space, so shall the glory of 
 his name soon fill the universe. Oh, the sublime dreams 
 which must have haunted his thoughts, stormy and deep 
 as the billows which rolled expiring at his feet ! 
 
 Barras has counted the holes in his coat ; but how could 
 Barras have divined and understood the heart beating un- 
 der the ragged garb? 'Tis not for the pygmy to measure 
 the giant ! 
 
 Musset- Pathay had a truer insight, and his judgment 
 deserves to be put on record. Bonaparte, he says, " was 
 the soul of the siege of Toulon.'" A soul, yes, that is 
 what he was already, and what he ever was ; the most 
 powerful, the most truly and grandly sovereign which ever 
 was. And if that soul was such, it is because — in addition 
 to the most remarkable gifts of intelligence — it had re- 
 ceived from God that which fecundates them, that which 
 makes genius itself produce fruit it would not bear with- 
 out it — will, energy, constancy ; in a word, the character's 
 stamp. It is good to recall that if the man was great, it is 
 because he carried to the highest degree of power that 
 moral force without which nations or individuals are noth- 
 ing more than the semblance of nations, than simulacra of 
 men — a something nerveless, which crumbles away as soon 
 as touched. 
 
 Conceived in this fashion, admiration for Napoleon 
 ceases to be childish fetichism. 'Tis an act of faith in the 
 loyalty of the mind, in its lofty pre-eminence over all that 
 is not dependent on it. I venture to hope that one will 
 do me the honor of believing that these reasons of a philo- 
 
 ' Relations des principaiix sVeges fails ou soutenus en Europe par ks armies 
 franfaise, depuis 1792. Paris, 1806, I vol. 4to, with an atlas. 
 
PREFACE xcix 
 
 sophical order are not foreign to the sentiments I have 
 vowed to the memory of the Emperor. If some one in- 
 sinuates, notwithstanding this — as doubtless will happen — 
 that the soul of a " grognard " lives again in me, my an- 
 swer will be that I appreciate the honor thus done me, 
 but that I do not consider myself altogether worthy of it. 
 
 Assuredly, I am grateful to the Emperor for that he 
 did win many battles for us. Perchance sensible minds 
 will hold with me that ours is not the right, at this hour 
 of our history, to show ourselves too unconcerned in this 
 connection. But I am still far more thankful to him for 
 having bequeathed to us the finest existing exemplar of 
 the moral instrument with which they are won. I hold 
 indeed that the more the materialistic conception shall 
 prevail even in the noble art of war ; that the more war 
 shall become scientific, as the saying is ; that the more its 
 preparation shall be based on the sole means of material 
 force ; the more numbers, already supreme in politics, 
 shall be taken into consideration in war also as the ulti- 
 mate reasons and sovereign means ; the more too will the 
 mind avenge itself of the contempt shown for it, if the 
 blunder is committed of no longer believing in its sov- 
 ereign virtue, of no longer appealing to it, which alone 
 can yet perform the miracle of transforming into our army 
 the immense and flabby multitude of our soldiers. That 
 an army should be a soul — a multiple yet single soul, 
 ardent, vibrating, and irresistible when stirred up by cer- 
 tain blasts : herein lies a spiritualist teaching which is 
 derived with sufificient evidence, it seems to me, from the 
 history of Napoleon, as well as from that of the Revo- 
 lution. 
 
 In J 812 the Grand Army is destroyed. So it is be- 
 lieved, at any rate : and Europe, from the nightmare of 
 that heroic army which jailer -wise holds it shackled, 
 trembles with hope. She is mistaken. The disaster has 
 spared the fiery brain out of which the Grand Army 
 poured like a stream of lava. The Grand Army, 'tis the 
 idea, the soul — I must fain come back to that word — the 
 soul of Napoleon, and Napoleon is not dead. He returns. 
 
C MEMOIRS OF BARRAS 
 
 bringing with him a spark of the sacred fire which has set 
 aglow the invincible legions which gloomy Russia has 
 taken from him. This spark is sufficient. Placed in the 
 hearts of the conscripts of 1S13, it converts those lads 
 into heroes. From the icy grave wherein lies the Grand 
 Army, another Grand Army arises suddenly, as sublime 
 as the old one. The brazier which was believed to be 
 extinct — and which was not, since Napoleon, the principle 
 of that flame, still lived — revives and blazes anew. And 
 the terrified coalition inquires of itself, at Liitzen, Baut- 
 zen, and Dresden, if it has not once more before it the 
 soldiers of Austerlitz and Jena. 
 
 With the single cry. The Fatherland in danger ! the 
 Revolution had previously accomplished prodigies of 
 the same order, and no less astounding than this one. 
 The Fatherland in danger! Magic word, which flew on 
 the wings of the Marseillaise flaming sword which the 
 fourteen armies of the Republic carried in front of them, 
 and at whose approach hostile armies melted as snow 
 under the sun's rays ! 
 
 And, if it now be asked of me why I love, why I ad- 
 mire Napoleon and the Revolution — I hope there will 
 be no one short - sighted enough to feel surprise at my 
 associating in one and the same cult that great king and 
 that great man — I shall merely reply that among other 
 reasons I have for loving and admiring them is this one : 
 the Revolution and Napoleon rendered to a philosophical 
 doctrine which is dear to me the service of proving, by 
 immortal examples, the omnipotence, ignored nowadays, 
 of the idea. 
 
 VIII.— Conclusion 
 
 The pages just penned have, unless I am mistaken, 
 fully and completely disposed of the assertions contained 
 in the Memoirs of Barras in regard to the role of Bona- 
 parte at the siege of Toulon. It was necessary that the 
 partial and aggressive character of the work should be 
 made as plain to all as it is to myself. I did not care to 
 
PREFACE Cl 
 
 rest content with a simple affirmation on that score. My 
 testimony might have seemed open to suspicion. It is 
 indeed tlie testimony of a man who, among the divers 
 and complex sentiments with which Napoleon inspires 
 him, experiences another — as he has just said — one strong- 
 er and more imperious than all the others: that of admira- 
 tion. It is not necessary that the reader should know 
 that this same man, who does not conceal this admiration, 
 is neither a dupe of nor a slave to it ; that he has no 
 intention of abdicating, even before so great a genius, the 
 smallest fraction of his independence of thought ; that he 
 would be prepared, lastly, to take, in case of need, with 
 Napoleon, liberties which he will never take with what he 
 considers to be justice and truth. 
 
 I have therefore deemed it necessary, in order to inspire 
 the reader with entire confidence in the equity of the 
 severe judgment which I pronounce on Barras, to prove 
 by facts that his Memoirs, in everything that touches 
 Napoleon, directly or indirectly, constitute nothing, as I 
 have already stated," but a libellous pamphlet. I am, 
 moreover, not simple enough to believe that the demon- 
 stration of this will prevent political passions from fling- 
 ing themselves on the food which the long -cherished 
 rancor of the ex - Director has prepared for them. We 
 live in a period where few people love the Fatherland 
 sufficiently to understand the broad and pious cult it is 
 proper to honor with the glories, of whatever kind, of its 
 past. I should die with shame had I been unfortunate 
 enough to speak as some have done of Louis XIV. And, 
 had mine been a sufficiently powerful mind to write the 
 admirable books of Taine on the Revolution, the very 
 glory they would have brought me would have tasted 
 bitter, and I could never console myself with being the 
 author of that sacrilegious masterpiece. 
 
 I therefore do not conceal from myself that those for 
 whom the hatred of the Emperor is — as is for others the 
 hatred of the Revolution— a kind of article of faith, will 
 
 ' See the General Introduction to the Memoirs of Barras. 
 
cii MEMOIRS OF BARRAS 
 
 gleefully borrow from this arsenal of wicked gossip 
 weapons to use against Napoleon : blunt and powerless 
 weapons, which — I repeat it with deep conviction — will 
 break like glass coming into contact with bronze. 
 
 But I likewise know that readers of good faith will 
 beware of believing Barras's utterances, and will not go to 
 him for the elements of an equitable judgment on Napo- 
 leon. Now, it is to these readers alone that I address 
 myself. To the others I dedicate the calm indifference 
 of my contempt. I have tried to show, by a significant 
 example, to what daring falsifications of the most un- 
 questioned, the most plain, truth the resentment of the 
 ex-Director indulged in. Having, in the very first words 
 he utters about Bonaparte, caught him in the act of 
 lying, I will not do him the honor of taking up his 
 calumnies one by one to confound them. I abandon him 
 to his defamatory instinct, to the base inspirations of his 
 envy and hatred. It would be an insult to the great 
 memory he seeks to tarnish not to leave it to defend itself 
 single-handed against like attacks. Napoleon does not 
 need that we should come to his rescue, especially when 
 it is a Barras who insults him ! So henceforth I shall 
 leave the author of the Memoirs to distil all his venom at 
 his leisure. This venom I give to the public, without fear 
 or remorse, for I have affixed a warning label to the poison. 
 
 George Duruy 
 
MEMOIRS OF BARRAS 
 
CHAPTER I 
 
 My birth, native village, and ancestry— My uncle, Melchior de Bar- 
 ras — Louis XVI. rewards hira— He declines to sit on a court- 
 martial— My father— The Corsican War— M. de Marbeufs gal- 
 lantry—The Blacas, Ponteves, and Castellane families — My 
 bringing up— Father Cajetan— My character— My friends wish 
 me to become a page to the Due d'Orleans— Rather a soldier 
 than that. 
 
 June, 1755. — I saw the light of day on June 30, 
 1755, at Fox-Amphoux, in the department of Var. 
 This village is perched on a peak ; its foundation 
 goes back to the earliest ages, having doubtless 
 been built at a period when the dwellers in the 
 surrounding country, finding themselves exposed to 
 the inroads of their neighbors, sought the natural 
 intrenchments offered them by mountain summits. 
 Fox, at whose foot a fertile plain unrolls itself, is, on 
 the other hand, protected by a forest of considerable 
 extent, and must in by-gone days have been a point 
 of some importance. The remains of monuments 
 scattered throughout the surrounding territory tes- 
 tify to the fact that my little village also enjoyed 
 its moment of civilization. 
 
 If, in the necessity wherein I believe I find my- 
 self of not leaving in obscurity anything concern- 
 ing my personality, in order to enlighten such judg- 
 ment as may be passed on my actions, I here give 
 some few particulars about my forebears, my whole 
 life is there to show the store I have ever set on 
 I— I 
 
2 MEMOIRS OF BARRAS chap. 
 
 those inequalities for so long a period looked upon 
 as rights, and the way I have ever estimated what is 
 proper to the man or to birth respectively; lastly, 
 in what fashion I bore my feudal baggage in the 
 course of my long journey through the Revolution. 
 The antiquity of the Barras family, according to 
 a local proverb, is coeval with that of the rocks of 
 Provence.' Bravery and popularity, however, con- 
 stituted the appanages of my people. I refer lovers 
 of genealogy to a summary note on my ancestors, 
 from which they may derive some satisfaction, men- 
 tioning here only those nearest to us by the recol- 
 lections of my youth." 
 
 ' Nobles coinnie les Barras, atissi anciens que nos rockers. — Translator's 
 note. 
 
 ^ My ancestors joined in the Crusade for the deliverance of the Holy 
 Land. In 1222 Raymond de Barras commanded an important corps in this 
 expedition. Ferrand de Barras, a Grand Commander of the Order of St. 
 John of Jerusalem, accompanied Charles d'Anjou, in the year 1264, on the 
 occasion of his expedition to Sicily. Guillaume, likewise a Grand Commander 
 of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem, obtained from the same Charles 
 d'Anjou, in 1267, the confirmation of the donations of Manuesca made 
 to his Order. Louis Seigneur, de Melan de Thoard {sic) (de Meulan 
 de Thenars) was Chamberlain to Charles VIII. Delphine de Barras, 
 married to Guillaume de Lignes, Count de Marseille, won fame by her 
 beauty and her romances at the cour d' amour presided over by la belle Laure. 
 Delphine, her daughter, married in 1298 to Saint Elzear de Sabran, was 
 canonized. In 1280 Jean de Barras, eleventh of that name, was appointed 
 Grand Seneschal of Provence. In 1341 King Robert granted to Raymond 
 II. letters -patent conferring on him the post of governor of the town of 
 Nice. In 1350 homage was done by one Ferrand de Barras for his 
 numerous seigniories. In 1493 the family was confirmed in the gifts made 
 to Louis de Barras, Grand Chamberlain to Charles VIII. A Barras was 
 chosen to be present at a duel between Louis of Bavaria and Francis I. 
 Another Barras was one of the hostages of the last-named monarch. Ray- 
 mond III. was created a viscount of the town of Aix. The convent of the 
 Cordeliers (branch of Franciscan monks) of the town of Digne was built by a 
 Louis de Barras, on condition that all the bearers of that name should be 
 buried in the choir of the church, robed in the garb of these religious. Our 
 house was admitted, from the very foundation of their institution, into the 
 Orders of the Knights Templars of Rhodes, of St. John of Jerusalem, and of 
 INIalta. Manuscripts found at Naples and in Aragon prove that the family 
 
I DISTINGUISHED NAVAL ANCESTORS 3 
 
 To the pen of a Barras de la Penne, commodore 
 of the galleys, wearing the grand cordon rouge, in 
 command at Marseilles, is due several works on 
 naval construction and on the position of the Medi- 
 terranean coasts. 
 
 My uncle, Rear- Admiral Melchior de Barras, a 
 most distinguished sailor, was appointed to the 
 Brest command in 1760, and afterwards given 
 charge of the French squadron in American waters. 
 
 Although the command of M. de Barras was an 
 independent one, he lost no time, when called upon 
 by Rochambeau, in hastening to the aid of M. de 
 Grasse, whose squadron, having rashly ventured into 
 Chesapeake Bay, was in jeopardy owing to the su- 
 periority of the British one. Through clever ma- 
 noeuvring, and in full view of the hostile fleet, he 
 dropped anchor in the bay alongside M. de Grasse. 
 He was one of the signatories cf the capitulation 
 which General Washington wrung from Cornwallis, 
 handed over the command of his squadron to M. de 
 Grasse, whose misfortunes he foresaw, and left for 
 Paris, after having contributed to the taking of New 
 York. 
 
 My uncle's disinterested act of devotion won 
 him public esteem. He was welcomed at Court 
 with every mark of honor, and received the con- 
 gratulations of Louis XVI., who created him lieu- 
 tenant-general, and gave him the grand cross of 
 St. Louis. Monsietir, the King's brother, joined 
 with him in his praises, comparing my uncle's 
 
 gave distinguished generals to these two states. The coat-of-arms of the 
 Barras leads one to believe that they are indicative of him who first bore it; 
 he was a high-admiral, endowed with a principality, and holding an impor- 
 tant military position. 
 
4 MEMOIRS OF BARRAS chap. 
 
 splendid behavior to that of Marshal d'Estrees. 
 The Minister of Marine, M. de Castries, was the 
 only one who did not seem content. M. de Barras, 
 in the course of a conversation wherein he believed 
 himself justified in speaking the truth to a cabi- 
 net minister, had predicted the disastrous events 
 in store for his protege M. de Grasse. Indeed, it 
 soon became known that, in order to save a ship, 
 the Zel'e, just as wind-bound it was about to fall into 
 the enemy's hands, M. de Grasse had given battle, 
 and had been completely beaten by Admiral Rod- 
 ney. It was on that occasion that M. de Grasse 
 lost his magnificent flag-ship the Ville de Paris. 
 Had it not been for this imprudent action he would, 
 four days later, when joined by the Spanish squad- 
 ron, have been fully compensated for the loss of the 
 Zel'e, and, thus rendered superior in naval strength, 
 would assuredly have won the day. 
 
 My uncle peremptorily declined to preside over 
 the court-martial which was to try M. de Grasse, in 
 conformity with instructions drawn up by the Gov- 
 ernment. My uncle was one of those men who 
 listen to the voice of their conscience only. 
 
 My father served under M. de Marbeuf in the 
 Corsican War. Wretched were the means used to 
 subjugate Corsica; conciliation is not to be attained 
 through cruel acts of revenge. The general-in-chief 
 was charged with grave neglect of his military du- 
 ties, and improper attentions to a woman at that 
 time unknown to fame, but who has since acquired 
 it as the mother of a personage who subsequently 
 became too famous. Not seeing an end to the ex- 
 pedition to Corsica, my father left the army, and re- 
 turned to Fox, going to reside with his aunt, Mme. 
 
A SKETCH OF HIS FATHER 
 
 de Castellane - Montpezat ; he married her grand- 
 daughter, a young girl possessed of many virtues : 
 she was lovely, modest, of exquisite delicacy, popu- 
 lar, charitable, ever devoted to the family cares, and 
 busily engaged in practising an economy rendered 
 necessary on account of a fortune considerably re- 
 duced by my grandfather's prodigalities. Still, ow- 
 ing to the order which she introduced into the 
 management of household affairs, my father lived 
 in respectable fashion. He was possessed of wit 
 and learning, and enjoyed a prodigious memory. 
 He has left manuscripts on the war in Corsica, on 
 the municipal regime, and on the corvees (forced la- 
 bor of the peasants) in that country. Although his 
 knowledge of administrative matters would have al- 
 lowed him to fill the highest offices, my father pre- 
 ferred the quietude of his manor-house to the tu- 
 mult of the Court, to which he was repeatedly 
 called by Messieurs de Vogue, Talaru, Davaree {sic) 
 (d'Avaray ?), and Chabrillane, our kinsmen. 
 
 My father and mother, while enjoying the rev- 
 erential esteem of the people, were none the less 
 sought after by the nobility: the Blacas, the Pon- 
 teves, and the Castellanes claimed us as relations. 
 The society we welcomed at the chateau found 
 within its walls wit, a kindly greeting, and kindli- 
 ness, untrammelled by etiquette. Such intercourse 
 is in itself an early education. 
 
 My childhood, left to the sole care of the best of 
 mothers, was moulded by her tenderness alone, for 
 I cannot say anything in regard to my studies. I 
 did badly in this respect at a boarding-school, and 
 subsequently at the Carmelite convent. The prior, 
 who devoted his time exclusively to the nuns, in- 
 
6 .MEMOIRS OF BARRAS chap. 
 
 trusted me to the care of a Father Cajetan, an in- 
 firm man of httle learning. As the community did 
 not provide suiificiently for his daily needs, my little 
 savings came to the rescue of the poor father. I 
 was good-hearted, but my moral character could not 
 but be influenced by my physique, enjoying as I did 
 a robust health. At the early age of fourteen I be- 
 gan to be a prey to a spirit of independence and a 
 love of excitement ; courageous and active in the 
 face of peril, if inactivity seemingly diminished my 
 energy, the latter was supplanted by the allurement 
 of pleasures which have repeatedly made me swerve 
 from the path of duty. I blame myself in this re- 
 spect at the very outset of my life, confessing that 
 a like censure is applicable to later circumstances of 
 my career ; I am anxious to reveal my character at 
 the very start, averse as I am either to singing my 
 own praises or overrating myself. I must therefore 
 admit that from those early days, little suited as I 
 was to the work of the closet, it was with difficulty 
 that I acquired any taste for it later on ; but, en- 
 dowed with a right understanding, I feel justified in 
 saying that if my first thoughts were nearly always 
 sound and just, my first movements were ever gen- 
 erous. 
 
 In the meantime my father was pondering, with 
 all the solicitude of a kindly heart, over the future 
 of his children. I had two brothers and one sister, 
 who, after a somewhat lengthy pilgrimage through 
 life, ended their existence in a sad fashion. Al- 
 though he had refused to attend Court, my father 
 kept up a friendly intercourse with several person- 
 ages who were prepared to do him friendly service 
 on behalf of his family. 
 
I HIS OBJECTION TO A LIVERY 7 
 
 M. de Talaru, who took a lively interest in me, 
 proposed to him that I should become one of the 
 pages of the Due d'Orleans. My father communi- 
 cated to me what had been written to him on this 
 score. My mind revolted at the idea that anybody 
 could have dreamed of. thinking that I would wear 
 a livery, even that of a popular prince, one, too, who 
 bore us an affectionate regard. My father kissed 
 me, saying, " You are right ; sooner a soldier 1" 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 I join the Languedoc Regiment as a gentleman-cadet — My first 
 love-affair — La Poterie — I obtain a commission in the Pondi- 
 cherry Regiment— I sail for the He de France— Madeira — Vo- 
 luptuous life of the monks— Flying-fish— A tempestuous passage 
 — Cape Corrientes — Ascension — Sea-turtles — Cape of Good Hope 
 — Dutch settlements — The coast of Constantia — Captain Cook — 
 Port Louis — M. de Chabrillane — A branded negress — I sail for 
 Pondicherry — Mme. Chevreau — Mile. Goupille — The Prince of 
 the Seychelles — Shipwrecked — A desert island — A grotesque 
 situation — The horrors of starvation — Dreadful position of 
 Mme. Chevreau and of Mile. Goupille — Their negress — The 
 Maldive Islands — Scoundrelism of an island chief — A revelation 
 — The king's island — A magnificent reception and sumptuous 
 dinner — The king's brother — Black majesties — The queen — A 
 midnight visit — The monarch takes liberties — A word about the 
 Maldive Islands — The labat — A strange cure — M. de Thermillier 
 — We sail from the Maldives. 
 
 I ENTERED the Langucdoc Regiment as a gentle- 
 man-cadet at the age of sixteen. As I was about to 
 join it I was detained, owing to my becoming ac- 
 quainted with one of the most lovable of women. 
 Through the Bishop of Viviers, a relation of hers, 
 she succeeded in having my departure postponed. 
 At the end of a few months my father exercised his 
 ^ authority to break off this, my first, amo- 
 rous intrigue, and to send me away. I 
 went to Cambrai, where I took my first riding- 
 lessons under the famous La Poterie. I 
 1773 
 
 was attached to the d'Arnonville company. 
 
 Amusements there were galore; but neither the 
 
CHAP. II LEAVES MARSEILLES FOR INDIA 9 
 
 diversions nor the occupations which I found in 
 France suited my tastes, as I was possessed with 
 a craving for journeys abroad. 
 
 One of my kinsmen, M. de Chabrillane, was Gov- 
 ernor of the He de France ; no sooner did I receive 
 my commission as an ofificer in the Pondicherry 
 Regiment than I asked to be sent out to him. He 
 was a Knight of Malta. 
 
 June, 1776. — I sailed from Marseilles in 1776 in 
 the good ship the Due de Duras, which was to stop 
 at Port Louis on its way to India. I ask the read- 
 er's forgiveness if, yielding to the weakness common 
 to writers of memoirs, I do not spare him a few 
 somewhat personal traits of my early life. He is 
 already familiar with the road along which we are to 
 travel together to reach the most stirring times of 
 the political drama which for the past years is being 
 played on the world's stage. 
 
 After having sailed along the Spanish coast, we 
 stopped in our course at Cadiz, in order to procure 
 piastres, then at Madeira, for the purpose of pro- 
 visioning the ship with wine. This island, whose 
 soil is productive and climate temperate, is a most 
 pleasant place to dwell in. Its improved cultivation 
 — the work of the English, who chiefly own it — fur- 
 nishes those wines so sought after in Europe, no less 
 than in the Indies and the Colonies. Many monas- 
 teries have been established there. The monks are 
 a lot of hypocrites, greedy of domination, and lead a 
 life of debauchery within their walls while making 
 an outward display of devotion. I was a guest at 
 some of their evening meals, which were anything 
 but characteristic of anchorite sobriety. 
 
 The ship weighed anchor and crossed the equator, 
 
10 MEMOIRS OF BARRAS chap. 
 
 continually driven along by storms during our per- 
 ilous journey ; quantities of flying - fish, which we 
 found delicious, were cast on the decks. The masses 
 of clouds produced strange pictures with gorgeous 
 reflections, but the fogs, the contrary winds, and the 
 lack of the officers' experience would have exposed 
 us to the worst dangers if our ship, which had 
 drifted into the midst of the reefs of Cape Corrientes, 
 on the African coast, had not been miraculously 
 saved by the return of favorable winds. On arriv- 
 ing at the Isle of Ascension we captured some 
 turtles ; their flesh is wholesome, and is welcomed 
 as a boon by ships' crews ; some of them were of 
 huge dimensions. The island, all upset by earth- 
 quakes, is hardly more than a mass of ashes, and is 
 almost denuded of vegetation. The turtles seek its 
 shores by night, and deposit their eggs in the burn- 
 ing sand. Their captors turn them on their backs 
 by means of sticks, and take them aboard. 
 
 At last we reached the Cape of Good Hope. The 
 town is banked with inaccessible rocks, the retreat 
 of all kinds of monkeys. 
 
 The Dutch settlements are far inland. The soil, 
 naturally fertile, is cultivated by the Hottentots, who 
 are hired for a given period. At the expiration of 
 the engagement the Dutch pay them partly in coin, 
 partly in cattle. 
 
 Between the Cape and False Bay lies the coast 
 of Constantia, the wines of which are so renowned. 
 The vineyards are daily increasing in extent, espe- 
 cially in the vicinity of the little town of La Ro- 
 chelle, built and inhabited by Frenchmen proscribed 
 by the Edict of Nantes. 
 
 As soon as we had taken in stores, we made sail 
 
n HIS MEETING WITH COOK 11 
 
 towards the He de France. At the Cape of Good 
 Hope I made the acquaintance of the famous Cap- 
 tain Cook ; he welcomed me in a kindly fashion, and 
 I came very near accompanying him to austral lands. 
 It was at the risk of some peril that we crossed the 
 billows which surge mountain-like in the Mozam- 
 bique Channel. 
 
 Our ship, the Due de Duras, sustained some dam- 
 age, but finally cast anchor at Port Louis. I took 
 up my quarters with the governor, M. de Chabril- 
 lane, my kinsman, who gave me a friendly welcome. 
 M. de Chabrillane, a Knight of Malta, was somewhat 
 devout, which, however, did not preclude him from 
 indulging in those excepted cases which men char- 
 acterize as peck'es mignons (pet sins) ; he was fond of 
 good cheer and of women, and although not shining 
 by his talents, he governed his island peaceably. 
 
 One fine day, as we were at table, there was intro- 
 duced a negress, branded by the orders of her mis- 
 tress, who was jealous of her. Her whole body was 
 but one sore, the fearful result of the application of 
 live coals. The unfortunate creature was sent to 
 the hospital, and the governor commissioned the in- 
 tendant to settle the terms of her freedom. What a 
 fearful regime is that which subjects wretched slaves 
 to absolute caprice, and holds their very lives at its 
 mercy. 
 
 Letters received from India announced that the 
 English were making great preparations, Pondi- 
 cherry being their objective point. I obtained per- 
 mission to join my regiment at that place. I sailed, 
 having as travelling companion the wife of the in- 
 tendant of the He Bourbon, who was going to join 
 her husband, and to whom M. de Chabrillane had 
 
12 MEMOIRS OF BARRAS chap. 
 
 most warmly recommended me. This very pretty 
 woman was accompanied by a Mile. Goupille, who 
 is also certainly worthy of passing mention. We 
 stopped at the He Bourbon, which the English have 
 been kind enough to leave us in possession of be- 
 cause it has neither harbors nor safe roadsteads. 
 This is characteristic of their usual generosity. 
 
 After enjoying a few days' rest in that island, we 
 sailed for the coast of Coromandel, passing through 
 the low-lying, wooded, and somewhat unhealthy Sey- 
 chelles Islands. A Frenchman, M. Delaunay, had 
 settled there with a few negroes, and assumed the 
 title of "prince." Sickness soon robbed this kinglet 
 of his subjects and throne. 
 
 We were enjoying fine weather, when a violent 
 hurricane sprang up during the night. Our ship 
 ran on a sand-bank, broke her keel, and we were 
 stranded. All rushed hurriedly on deck in a state 
 of semi-nudity ; great consternation prevailed ; face 
 to face with the common danger, we confusedly made 
 plans, to be as quickly abandoned. Our ship was 
 without masts, we were lost in darkness, and we 
 knew not what decision to come to. 
 
 The captain was being hugged in tight embrace 
 by his brother, who in a loud voice commended him- 
 self to Notre Dame de la Garde. Everybody was 
 invoking the aid of the " Blessed Mother." Mme. 
 Chevreau and Mile. Goupille, whose youth and 
 beauty rendered them most attractive (the inten- 
 dante was but twenty), rushing through the midst 
 of the ship's crew in all the disorder of their nio-ht 
 toilet, flung themselves into my arms, exclaiming, 
 " Save us !" 
 
 Great was our predicament. Day broke at last, 
 
II GENTLEWOMEN IN DISTRESS 13 
 
 and the matutinal rays gave us a momentary con- 
 solation, but soon revealed to us the dangers staring 
 us in the face — dangers hidden from us by the night. 
 Shipwrecked on rocks screened by the billows of 
 an angry sea, we considered ourselves fortunate in 
 finding a refuge on the sandbank, the cause of our 
 disaster, and situated a couple of cable-lengths from 
 the almost totally destroyed ship. We succeeded 
 in putting together a raft, on which we all sought 
 safety. Provided with a case containing guns, a 
 barrel of gunpowder and of bullets, two small casks, 
 one containing biscuits and the other brandy, a case 
 full of piastres — the only things it was possible to 
 save — we shaped our course towards a group of 
 islands discernible in the distance. We landed on 
 the one nearest to us ; it was not more than an 
 arpent (an acre and a quarter) in extent, and afford- 
 ed no trace of vegetation whatsoever. A few mo- 
 ments later the ship, which had sprung leaks in 
 every direction, disappeared from our view. 
 
 Our first and foremost care was to seek for 
 means of existence by exploring the place where 
 fate had cast us. A hole dug in the sand furnished 
 us with a somewhat large supply of brackish water, 
 but no other could we discover. Had it not been 
 that our position was a horrible one, it might have 
 been considered grotesque. The passengers, like 
 myself, had for all clothing their shirts and drawers, 
 while the two young women under my protection 
 were in their night-wear ; but we hardly felt inclined 
 to jest. Our scanty stock of provisions was soon 
 exhausted. A heavy gloom spread over us all ; hun- 
 ger was already making itself cruelly felt, and sin- 
 ister mutterings seemed to designate the ladies and 
 
14 MEMOIRS OF BARRAS chap. 
 
 their nesrro waiting-woman as victims whose sacri- 
 
 • 1 
 fice had become necessary. I was determmed to 
 
 use what Httle strength I was still possessed of to 
 defend them. 
 
 In the meantime we discovered that the sur- 
 rounding islands were inhabited ; hope sprang up in 
 our hearts, and we hastened to make signals, which 
 were answered. Soon we noticed a great stir on 
 the shores of the principal island, from which a 
 number of boats departed, taking various directions, 
 then uniting and shaping their course towards us. 
 We awaited their arrival under arms. When the 
 islanders reached hailing distance, we informed 
 them, through the nes^ress who acted as our inter- 
 prefer, that only their chief would be allowed to 
 land. He was soon in our presence, a limping man- 
 nikin speaking Portuguese. He informed us that 
 we were on one of the Maldive Islands. The ship's 
 ofHcers had erred considerably in their calculations. 
 We asked him at what distance the king's island 
 was situated, and whether any European ships were 
 there. He answered that the king's island was 
 forty leagues farther away, that no foreigners were 
 on it, that he would protect us should we be at- 
 tacked, and that he had already sent word to the 
 king that a large European ship had been wrecked 
 on the coast. We begged him to supply us v/ith 
 food, showing him a few piastres the while ; he sold 
 us a copper vessel containing rice, which we eagerly 
 accepted, and promised to bring us some provisions 
 on the following day. He left us for three days a 
 prey to the most cruel expectations, and when he 
 reappeared we came to the conclusion, owing to the 
 number of armed boats surrounding the eyot we 
 
Jl A TREACHEROUS MANNIKIN 15 
 
 occupied, that, excited with cupidity at the sight of 
 our piastres, he had put the intervening time to use 
 in making preparations for our massacre. Our 
 little band drew up in Hne of battle, presenting a 
 bold front. Frightened at our aggressive attitude, 
 the savages, on our threatening command, remained 
 in the offing. Their chief landed without any 
 escort, assured us that we were astray in regard to 
 their intentions, and that the king's instructions, 
 which he was still awaiting, were the sole cause of 
 his deferred return. He replenished the vessel he 
 had given us with rice, added a few cocoa-nuts 
 thereto, and after having privately held a long con- 
 versation with our negress — an interview which he 
 had asked for, on the plea of questioning her as to 
 her country — he withdrew. 
 
 The negress disclosed to us that he had proposed 
 marriage to her, offering to share his wealth with 
 her if she would only poison the water of our well, 
 the sole beverage remaining to us; that she had pre- 
 tended to agree to the scheme, and that he was to 
 bring her some jewels, together with the poison, on 
 the following day. Indeed, he returned in a little 
 boat, accompanied by only a few oarsmen, hoping 
 thus to divert all suspicion. We seized him, while 
 the negress flung his crime in his teeth. Fright- 
 ened out of his wits, he begged us to spare his life, 
 and took an oath that he would get one of his most 
 commodious boats to transport us to the king's 
 island. We needed him, and it was requisite to 
 deal gently with him ; were we to leave our desert 
 eyot without assistance, we were exposing ourselves 
 to be attacked by his followers on the high sea, on 
 our ill-constructed raft, or when setting foot on 
 
l6 MEMOIRS OF BARRAS chap. 
 
 shore, and we would be losing an important re- 
 source, the water we had discovered. We therefore 
 suffered him to depart, and we were still awaiting 
 his return, when a boat sent by the king at the 
 request of some European captains, who, on learn- 
 ing of our shipwreck, had insisted on his so doing, 
 came in quest of us at last, bringing us clothing 
 and all sorts of provisions. We left our sandy spot, 
 which is known as Hymete. 
 
 Our destination was quickly reached, by way of 
 an archipelago composed of innumerable islands. 
 On the quay of the king's island, called Male, we 
 were met by the captains of the English and French 
 ships in port. The inteiidante and Mile. Goupille, 
 who had suffered greatly, were placed in a palan- 
 quin borne by slaves and surmounted by a canopy 
 with drawn curtains. We followed it, to the boom- 
 ing of the cannon of the town, the cortege wending 
 its way to the king's palace. 
 
 Low-ceilinged rooms hung with stuffs were as- 
 signed to us, and in a short time the king's brother, 
 elegantly attired in a muslin robe studded with 
 spangles and bordered with a golden fringe, made 
 his appearance, followed by four slaves bearing a 
 lacquered tray, loaded down with fried chicken 
 piled up pyramid - fashion. Various other fried 
 dishes, pastry, and fruits completed the service. 
 He did the honors of the repast gracefully, and ad- 
 dressed us in French, which he spoke fairly well. 
 He had travelled through Hindustan. His brother 
 had given him exclusive jurisdiction in the matter 
 of administration and trade ; he was a man of pol- 
 ished manners, whereas the king, ignorant and 
 cruel, lived as a despot in his palace, engaged, so 
 
n TREATED WITH DISTINCTION l^ 
 
 he said, with military affairs, sharing in this respect 
 the behef of so many sovereigns of other lands not 
 situated beyond the tropics. In spite of his great 
 occupations, the king found time to call on the 
 mtendante. His sable Majesty, repulsive in de- 
 meanor, made his appearance in a robe of golden 
 cloth, and wearing a turban studded with gems, and, 
 having seated himself, condescended to take the 
 hand of the intendante, pressed it to his heart, kissed 
 it, and withdrew, escorted by a dozen soldiers, some 
 armed with dilapidated old guns, some with broken 
 swords. The queen also paid a visit to the inten- 
 dante ; she was a still youthful wench, but dirty and 
 hideous. 
 
 The king, in accordance with the customs of the 
 country, called again towards midnight on the inten- 
 dante. They do say that he did not content himself 
 with a mere declaration, but that he proceeded to 
 deeds. Although separated from them by mere 
 hanging tapestry, we considered it our duty, well- 
 brought up people as we were, to shut our eyes to 
 the tentative attempts of this wanton majesty, who 
 added to his caresses such presents as it was his 
 wont to make. The whole thing was accepted 
 with grace, not to say gratitude, and madame lin- 
 tendante no longer seemed, as in the first in- 
 stance, to persist in the belief that the king was a 
 monster. 
 
 I took advantage of my sojourn in the locality to 
 study matters in detail. The king, who assumes 
 the title of "Sultan of the Twelve Thousand Isl- 
 ands," professes the Mohammedan religion. Nearly 
 all of his subjects are naked. His kingdom pro- 
 duces nothing but fruit and a few potherbs. A 
 
 1—2 
 
l8 MEMOIRS OF BARRAS chap. 
 
 light stuff of pleasant color is manufactured from 
 the bark of the cocoa-palm. The cowry fishery gives 
 an abundant yield, and is carried on by the women. 
 These cowries constitute the only small change in 
 use with several races of Bengalis; the preparation 
 of these shells contributes towards polluting the 
 air of the islands, unhealthy by nature, and the 
 smell from them is unendurable to all but the 
 natives. Bats form the actual and most consider- 
 able population in those localities. We were laid 
 low with a fever whose symptoms recalled those of 
 yellow-fever; the persons seized by it saw their 
 stomachs tumefy, and succumbed after a few days' 
 illness. Out of a crew of sixty odd, fifteen only 
 survived this disease, which is known as labat. 
 Still, I was witness of a strange cure. A native, 
 whose life was already in jeopardy through an at- 
 tack of the malady, was suddenly and violently 
 grasped by three of his friends and relations ; they 
 held him up under the armpits, two of them hurry- 
 ing him rapidly along, while the third flogged him 
 with a couple of rods, in spite of his screams, until 
 blood trickled down his back. He was then dragged 
 back to his pallet, and rubbed with a certain oil 
 extracted from the soil. For all beverage he was 
 given steaming decoctions of local aromatic herbs. 
 The man was cured on the fourth day by this treat- 
 ment. I make a present of it to the learned follow- 
 ers of ^sculapius. I almost feel inclined to place 
 it at the disposal of politicians, but am restrained 
 by the fear that they would find in it one more 
 method of justification in their dealings with hu- 
 manity. It is a certain fact that these savages' vio- 
 lent method has perhaps a good deal in common 
 
II ESCAPE FROM SICKNESS 19 
 
 with that appHed to civiHzed nations by certain 
 governments laying claim to civilization. 
 
 Having escaped the disease, as did also Mme. 
 Chevreau and Mile. Goupille, I waited impatiently 
 for the time when we should be able to bid the 
 Maldives farewell. 
 
 M. de Thermillier, a large ship-owner, who had 
 defended the Maldives with glory against a Mala- 
 bari invasion, was highly thought of in ^^^ 
 the islands. He stood high in the king's 
 favor, and procured his consent to our sailing by 
 one of his ships for Pondicherry, 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 General Bellecombe — His mustache — He succeeds Law of Lauris- 
 ton — State of the colony — Hyder Ali Khan — The 
 British invest Pondicherry — The siege — M. de 
 Tronjoli's error — Capitulation — Madras — The Nawab of Arcot 
 — Honors rendered to him by the British — Arbitrariness of 
 their administration — The chabuk — A tiger-hunt — Return to the 
 lie de France — Death of M. de Chabrillane — M. de Souillac — 
 He Bourbon — Fetes in honor of M. de Bellecombe — Departure 
 for France — An English commissioner — A monk — A fatal blun- 
 der — Grape — Insolence of two British officers — Bad faith of 
 Captain Homm — We cast anchor at Cadiz — An old acquaint- 
 ance — Arrival at Marseilles — M. de Pleville — I go to Provence 
 — Love afifairs of the Vicomte de Barras. 
 
 M. DE Bellecombe was the Governor of Pondi- 
 cherry in 1777. This general, who had begun his 
 career as a simple grenadier, had given proofs of 
 his merits in the Canadian campaign. He was one 
 of the fine soldiers of his time. On attaining the 
 rank of officer he had gone to Paris, where a 
 singular freak of fate had decided his fortunes. His 
 good looks, and especially his mustache, struck M. 
 de Choiseul, and he mentioned the matter to the 
 King, whose answer was, " I will look at him on 
 Sunday as I pass through the Gallery." M. de 
 Choiseul carried the news to Bellecombe, who, 
 thinking it the correct thing to appear at Court 
 minus a mustache, shaved it off. M. de Choiseul, 
 who was on the lookout for him, was surprised at 
 the metamorphosis, but nevertheless pointed him 
 
CHAP. HI LAW OF LAURISTON 21 
 
 out to the King, who, passing rapidly by, merely 
 asked, " Where is that famous mustache ?" Belle- 
 combe was none the less welcomed at Court. 
 
 After having served with distinction in the sev- 
 eral intervening grades of the military hierarchy, 
 Bellecombe was appointed general commanding at 
 the He Bourbon, to be subsequently transferred to 
 Pondicherry in a like capacity. He took the place 
 of an old servant of the Company, named Law of 
 Lauriston, an infelicitous name for France at more 
 than one period of her history. This Law, more 
 deeply engrossed with his private interests than 
 with those of his country, specially devoted himself 
 to trading in conjons (sic), and, although he did not 
 belong to the army, he had been given the rank of 
 major-general. Governments are always infested 
 with a class of intriguers, whose bad conduct can 
 never be punished otherwise than by fresh rewards. 
 Law and his wife, both born in England, were 
 doubly subject to the influence of that power. 
 They had converted to their own use the funds 
 destined to urgent repairs. The fortifications of 
 Pondicherry had fallen in : M. de Bellecombe, when 
 succeeding a governor of that sort, had plenty of 
 work before him. 
 
 He actively busied himself with improvements, 
 the erection of fortifications, and the replenishing of 
 military stores, at that time in a wretched condition ; 
 he re-established communications, successfully ne- 
 gotiated advantageous treaties with several Indian 
 princes, among others Hyder Ali Khan. Belle- 
 combe likewise revived the military spirit, which 
 had died out owing to the supremacy granted to 
 the Banyans. 
 
22 MEMOIRS OF BARRAS chap. 
 
 British domination became paralyzed at Pondi- 
 cherry; no longer was it the merchant who laid 
 down the law, but a military man full of dignity, a 
 quality much held in esteem by the Nawabs of India. 
 
 In the meantime the British were organizing an 
 army in Madras. Bellecombe demanded explana- 
 tions ; the British replied by sending forward twenty 
 thousand men, who encamped at a league from the 
 town on a slope called Perimbe, and made no other 
 declaration of war than a summons to surrender the 
 town to the superior British forces. Upon the ob- 
 vious rejection of so insulting a proposition the 
 hostile army invested the town, intrenched itself se- 
 curely, directed its attack on two main 
 ""^''^^ points, and opened trenches under the 
 murderous fire of the batteries, handled on either 
 side with as much fury as ability. The superiority 
 of the British artillery carried the day, and soon 
 made a breach in the two strongest bastions of the 
 ramparts. The artillery of the fort, under the orders 
 of Colonel du Barry, repeatedly replied with success 
 to the attacks of the assailants, who unceasingly 
 threw bombs into the town*, fortunately the major- 
 ity of these missiles did no damagfe, losing them- 
 selves as they did in the wide streets of the town. 
 But all display of courage on our part soon proved 
 useless. At the end of a sixty days' siege the town 
 was open, our cannon disabled, our stores exhausted, 
 and the garrison reduced by considerable losses. On 
 the other hand, our squadron, consisting of the flag- 
 ship Le Brillant, commanded by M. de Tronjoli, two 
 superb frigates, and several armed merchantmen, 
 after having defeated and disabled the British ships 
 which had sailed out to them to give battle, had, in 
 
HI CAPITULATION OF PONDICHERRY 23 
 
 spite of the formal prohibition of General Belle- 
 combe, left the roadstead of Pondicherry, so that the 
 British squadron, after having put into Madras for 
 repairs, was free to bring to the land-force provisions 
 and munitions, the arrival of which had been delayed 
 by the rainy season, at the same time suspending 
 siege operations. 
 
 A council of war was held, at which, on the 1 7th 
 of October, 1778, a capitulation was unan- 
 imously resolved upon. The garrison '^'° "' '''' 
 was conveyed to Madras with military honors, until 
 such time as it could be transported to France. I 
 went with my regiment to Madras. 
 
 This populous, mercantile, and wealthy colony is 
 defended by Fort St. George, which the intrepid 
 Lally had in former days taken by storm at the head 
 of his grenadiers. The traveller's gaze is at once 
 arrested by the luxury and beauty of its palaces; one 
 of the most spacious was occupied by the Nawab of 
 Arcot, who had a numerous and gorgeous mass of 
 courtiers. The British had attached to him a guard 
 of honor, which, following him wherever he went, 
 paid the highest consideration and respect to its 
 ■illustrious prisoner. His Majesty was simply a 
 handsomely-paid slave, whose dominions were gov- 
 erned for him. The British governor, who was the 
 real king, prostrated himself before the Nawab, who 
 never went out except environed with all the attri- 
 butes of royalty: his carriage was preceded by su- 
 perb tigers led in a leash, consisting merely of 
 ribbons, by Indians clothed in white and bearing 
 standards of various colors. 
 
 A few leagues distant from Madras is a fort called 
 Pont Damale (su) ; a young British officer, in com- 
 
24 MEMOIRS OF BARRAS chap. 
 
 mand of it, treated me with distinction on my visit 
 there. Pont Damale is a hunting resort ; I had re- 
 ceived an invitation to go thither from the Govern- 
 or of Madras in person, to whom I had borne an 
 introduction from an EngHsh family by name of 
 Fluecher, whom it had been my good -fortune to be 
 of service to when in the He de France. I chanced 
 to be witness of a deed which shows how arbitrary 
 the British are in the exercise of their administra- 
 tion, while so austere in professing principles of lib- 
 erty. The commandant of the fort, having become 
 dissatisfied with one of his contractors, sent two sol- 
 diers to bring him into his presence, and after cen- 
 suring him for several acts of negligence, inflicted 
 a heavy fine on him. On his refusing to pay it, 
 " Bind him," said the commandant. The contractor 
 thereupon received several strokes from a chabtik 
 (whip), enduring the suffering for a few moments. 
 He was wealthy, but protested on his oath that he 
 did not possess more than one hundred rupees. " I 
 must have five hundred," said the officer ; " go on 
 flogging him." The flogging was renewed. Fi- 
 nally the unfortunate man consented to pay the 
 amount exacted, but on returning home he had his 
 sub -contractor brought to his bedside, and said to 
 him, " You see the treatment to which I have been 
 subjected ; I have bound myself to pay five hundred 
 rupees, and I want two hundred from you." The 
 sub-contractor was in his turn laid hold of, and, after 
 a few threats and blows, paid, and was allowed to 
 depart. Such was the ricochet of justice as prac- 
 tised in India by the British. 
 
 The Indian princes occasionally indulge in tio-er- 
 hunting. It takes place in the following fashion: 
 
Ill DEPARTURE FROM PONDICHERRY 2S 
 
 The beast is driven out of the forest by beaters, and 
 is entangled in nets set so as to hem it in. In the 
 midst of a vast enclosure a portable platform is 
 erected for the prince and his Court. A naked Ind- 
 ian, smeared with a species of oil which strength- 
 ens and renders supple the athlete's body, then ap- 
 pears on the scene. Brandishing a buckler with 
 his left hand, and holding in his right a two-edged 
 dagger, he irritates the tiger, which springs upon 
 him, fastening its claws on the buckler. Quick as 
 lightning the Indian plunges the dagger into the 
 belly of the beast, which rolls over howling and dies. 
 The conqueror, after executing a few gambols, re- 
 ceives a present, and goes his way. 
 
 On my arrival at Pondicherry, M. de Bellecombe 
 placed me in the company of chasseurs. After the 
 siege — at the time of which he expressed his satis- 
 faction with my behavior — and during my stay in 
 Madras, I fell a prey to a neurotic malady whose 
 symptoms developed in an alarming fashion, and 
 placed my life in jeopardy. I wrote to M. de Belle- 
 combe, who had remained at Pondicherry, and 
 begofed leave to return to M. de Chabrillane, whose 
 letters to me were truly kindly. M. de Bellecombe 
 granted my petition, and I took advantage of the 
 departure of the intendant of Pondicherry and his 
 wife for the He de France. For the second time 
 did I have Mme. Chevreau as a travelling compan- 
 ion. Our voyage was a happier one than the first. 
 We sailed on the 17th of April, 1779, and cast 
 anchor at Port Louis on the 2 2d of May. April, 1779 
 Immediately on landing I hastened to ^'^^y' '"9 
 the governor's palace, where I learned to my pro- 
 found grief that M. de Chabrillane had died sudden- 
 
26 MEMOIRS OF BARRAS chap. 
 
 ly. M. de Souillac, who had succeeded him, wel- 
 comed me kindly. I learned that the ships which 
 had deserted us in the Pondicherry roadstead at the 
 time of the siege had come to this port to sell the 
 rich cargoes of groceries and stuffs they had saved, 
 and with which they were loaded, the flag-ship espe- 
 cially. Hence it was a sentiment of cupidity which 
 contributed towards making France lose one of her 
 most important possessions in India. I remained 
 in the He de France until the arrival at Bourbon of 
 a British corvette bearing M. and Mme. de Belle- 
 combe and staff. On hearing of this, I left Port 
 Louis, and twenty-four hours later landed on the 
 He Bourbon. M. de Bellecombe seemed pleased to 
 see me again, and gave me many proofs of friend- 
 ship. 
 
 I must not, in connection with my stay in the He 
 Bourbon, where M. de Bellecombe had previously 
 been in command, let the opportunity slip of paying 
 a tribute to the paternal administration of this ex- 
 perienced soldier, who had just reaped so great a 
 glory in his intrepid defence of Pondicherry. 
 
 This visit to the island gave rise to numerous 
 fetes in honor of a man who had won the hearts of 
 all ; it was the sincere and grateful homage of a 
 large population. Such demonstrations have noth- 
 ing in common with those given in Europe by 
 toadying salaried officials, at the nation's expense, to 
 a power which they thereby help to deceive and 
 to ruin — wretched fetes, presenting a melancholy 
 spectacle of insolence and oppression, wherein those 
 who bear all the expenses incidental to them figure 
 merely to assume a fictitious joy, while in reality 
 they are face to face with their distress. 
 
Ill A CARTEL-SHIP ATTACKED 27 
 
 M. de Bellecombe, who had to return to France, 
 had a sufficient sense of modesty not to prolong 
 these genuine rejoicings, the well-earned recompense 
 of his noble conduct. He chartered and provisioned 
 a good-sized ship, the Sariiiie, which had been built 
 at Marseilles, and was kind enough to take me with 
 him. The ship, having been constituted a cartel- 
 ship, carried a British commissioner. He was a 
 petty official of the East India Company, whose 
 mind did not soar above his office, his pen, and 
 money. Ignorant and vain, he became the laughing- 
 stock of both staff and crew, and was nicknamed 
 Maitre Conjon. There was yet another burlesque 
 on humanity, to wit, a drunken, gambling, irreligious 
 monk, who excelled in the art of borrowing money 
 from all on board. As a counterpoise to this strange 
 individual we enjoyed the kindness, graciousness, 
 and amiability of M. de Bellecombe. 
 
 We sailed for the Cape of Good Hope with flags 
 of truce flying. On arriving there we took November, 
 in provisions, and made all necessary re- ^'79 
 pairs. 
 
 May, 1780. — After a fine passage, as we neared 
 Cape St. Vincent, we were overhauled by a British 
 man-of-war cruising off the Cape. When within 
 pistol - range, it poured a broadside into us, put 
 about, swept our deck with grape-shot from its 
 other battery, accompanying it with a lively fusillade, 
 so that, in spite of our flying flags of truce, nine of 
 the crew and our captain were killed. During all 
 this confusion our British commissioner had sought 
 a refuge in the hold. Still the firing continued, 
 and our ship, riddled with shot and leaking in 
 many places, was surely going to be sunk. So 
 
28 MEMOIRS OF BARRAS chap. 
 
 great was the consternation that everybody re- 
 mained inactive. It struck me that this awful 
 treatment arose from the fact that our parhamentary 
 colors had not been seen. I thereupon cut down 
 the French flag flying astern, when the firing ceased 
 instantly. Captain Homm, who thought that he 
 had secured a rich prize, hastened to send his boats 
 alongside to take possession of it, whereupon the 
 English commissioner, venturing out of his hiding- 
 place, thus addressed his fellow-countrymen : " Do 
 you not see the color of our flags } You are a lot of 
 assassins !" 
 
 Astounded, the officers despatched one of their 
 number to their captain to inform him of the state 
 of affairs. Homm was profuse in his apologies. 
 Our most pressing need was to repair the Sartine ; 
 he sent us some calkers. 
 
 We quickly put them to work, so as to be able 
 to remain afloat. While the work was proceeding, 
 a couple of British officers who had come aboard 
 walked the deck, which was still encumbered with 
 the dead and wounded, talking boastfully and seem- 
 ing to defy us in an insolent fashion. The crew 
 gave vent to its indignation with cries of " Let us 
 hang these scoundrels !" " Bravo !" I replied ; " a 
 rope, and lower the yards !" Aloft went the crew ; 
 down jumped the officers into their boats, and 
 returned to their ship, not without bearing marks of 
 rough treatment. 
 
 Homm was merely second in command under 
 Captain Rodney, who, prostrated with sickness, had 
 remained behind in Lisbon. In view of the dis- 
 abled condition in which he had put us, he was 
 obliging enough to escort us until in view of Cadiz, 
 
"I AFTER FORTY YEARS 29 
 
 but under cover of the night he left us to our fate 
 
 and disappeared. We managed to reach 
 
 Cadiz with all pumps working. ^^' '^ ° 
 
 Nearly forty years after the foregoing adventure 
 I once more met at Louvain one of the British 
 officers connected with it; he was then the father 
 of a numerous family, enjoyed the highest consid- 
 eration, and owned several manufactories. He 
 recalled to me what I have just narrated ; the fright 
 he had felt at the time was still present to his 
 memory; he went on to say that my conduct and 
 what he had perceived of my opinions, even in 
 those days sufficiently independent to be styled 
 republican, had inspired him with the highest 
 regard for me, and that he now took pleasure in 
 giving expression to it. These recollections and 
 sentiments bound us together for a twofold reason, 
 as I enjoyed being the witness of his prosperity, 
 while he took pleasure in consoling me in my mis- 
 fortune. It was in the days that I was suffering 
 from the effects of Bonaparte's persecution. I must, 
 however, not anticipate. 
 
 May, 1 780. — As soon as our ship had been re- 
 paired we left Cadiz, and shaped our course towards 
 Marseilles. We went aground at the entrance to 
 the port, owing to the unskilfulness of the successor 
 of Captain Dalles, killed off Cape St. Vincent. M. 
 de Pleville, the naval and port commander, a most 
 active man, in spite of a wooden leg, succeeded by 
 dint of manceuvres known to him in towing our 
 ship alongside the quay. 
 
 M. de Bellecombe left for Paris, while I made my 
 way to Provence, to recruit under the paternal roof 
 my health shattered by the neurotic malady of 
 
30 MEMOIRS OF BARRAS chap, hi 
 
 which I have spoken; I had suffered from it from 
 my very childhood, and it tortured me throughout 
 the course of my Hfe. The ill was perhaps inherent 
 to my original constitution. According to M. de 
 Buffon, physical conditions in the human species 
 generally pass from one sex to the opposite one. 
 My mother died at the age of eighty-six from a sim- 
 ilar illness. I have my doubts that the one which 
 exhausts me will let me reach a like age. During 
 the whole course of my life she ever recommended 
 my taking a course of baths, and it was she who de- 
 cided that I should go to India, whose climate I 
 particularly liked, and where I believe I left a few 
 regrets. 
 
 A scribbler, who was certainly never commis- 
 sioned to write my history, has published, under the 
 title of Antotirs die Vicomte de B arras, three vol- 
 umes, wherein he credits me with the most romantic 
 adventures, dating from the years of my youth spent 
 in India. I have made myself neither better nor 
 worse than I was in the narrative of what happened 
 to me or about me in those lands, and I affirm that 
 the so-called history, and so many others of the same 
 kind, are so many absurdities and inventions. The 
 publisher of these fables, when summoned into my 
 presence to give an explanation of his conduct, sup- 
 plied me with one which does not possess the merit 
 of novelty Avith fellows of his stamp. The self-styled 
 
 Baron de B answered me that " he had a wife 
 
 and children," and repeated to me the well-worn " I 
 have got to live," to which I might, without being 
 too harsh, have replied, " I do not see the necessity 
 of it." 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 Noble but imprudent frankness of M. de Bellecorabe— The naval 
 bureaucracy — Messieurs Law, Coutenseau, Duplessis, de Serre, 
 Villette, and Valorie — M. de Bellecombe in disgrace — He is 
 sent to San Domingo — Comte de Bussy, the /?<?//— Great Brit- 
 ain's influence in the selection of our Cabinet — I go to Paris — 
 A conversation with M. de Bellecombe — His political views — 
 His friendship for me — I join my regiment at Brest — M. de Con- 
 way — My uncle Admiral Barras de la Penne — His luxury — I sail 
 away — M. de Sufiren — Sao Thiago — The Bay of Praya — A naval 
 engagement — M. de Forbin — M. du ChiUaut — A defeat — At the 
 Cape — M. de Sufiren continues his journey to India — He lands 
 the Pondicherry Regiment— Persons of importance at the Cape 
 — M. de Bussy again — His ridiculous ways — The Armada — Cu- 
 pidity of the French officers — Scathing utterance of Hyder Ali 
 Khan — Battle of Cuddalore — D'Ofelize, Duchemin, and DAlbi- 
 gnac — M. de SufTren's bravery — Gross ruse employed against the 
 British administration at Trincomalee — We evacuate Indian ter- 
 ritory — Compensations in America — Louis XVI.; his views; his 
 position — A quarrel with M. de Conway — I return to France 
 bearing despatches and instructions to the Ministry. 
 
 On his arrival in Paris, M. de Bellecombe, as 
 unfamiliar with Court matters as skilled in the art 
 of war, was unwise enough to inform the Minister 
 of all the blunders committed in India by his pred- 
 ecessors. Many of this gentry stood well with the 
 bureaucracy, the Minister, and his mistress. The 
 greater number of these extortioners were in the 
 employ of the Compagnie des Indes. Among them 
 were several holding high rank, which they had 
 purchased, and which was consequently theirs. Mr. 
 
32 MEMOIRS OF BARRAS chap. 
 
 Law, whom I have already mentioned, M. Cou- 
 tenseau, M. Duplessis, and M. de Serre were of the 
 number ; they had never served in any military 
 capacity. Then came a few intriguers, such as 
 Villette, Valorie — all men of evil repute, even at 
 Court. 
 
 M. de Bellecombe had estranged them from him- 
 self by a few sarcastic remarks, which were a kind 
 of compensation for his indulgence towards them, 
 as he had made use of them during the siege of 
 Pondicherry by assigning them to the casemates, 
 whence they never emerged until the British had 
 ceased firing. 
 
 M. de Bellecombe was no match for the naval 
 bureaucracy ; his talents and his integrity were his 
 only support; he fell into disgrace, and it was de- 
 cided to send him far away from Paris and from 
 India, so he was despatched to San Domingo as 
 governor. The exclusion of Bellecombe was soon 
 to be followed by measures equally lacking in fore- 
 sight. It was the last time I saw him. I cannot 
 forget that he gave me good advice, set me many a 
 good example, which he believed I had taken to 
 heart, nor that on his return to France he wrote the 
 most friendly letters to my father. I may add that 
 I received in those days many proofs of the esteem 
 in which all my superior officers held me ; this con- 
 stitutes one of my pleasing recollections. 
 
 The Minister filled his place with the Comte de 
 Bussy, nicknamed the " Doll." This useless dotard 
 was permitted to select his staff, and was placed in 
 command of an army of over twenty-five thousand 
 men, organized by office quill-drivers mindful of the 
 interests of both the English and French companies 
 
I7SI 
 
 IV BELLECOMBE'S FORESIGHT 33 
 
 in India, at that time bound by common interests. 
 Great Britain's influence was especially discernible 
 in the appointment of officers of whom the army 
 did not approve or trust. This power was paving 
 the way to successes which it did not have long to 
 wait for. 
 
 Informed by M. d'Albignac of the intended sail- 
 ing of the Pondicherry Regiment, I reached Paris 
 from Provence a few days before M. de 
 Bellecombe's departure for San Domingo, 
 and I made it my first duty to call on him, to ex- 
 press the pain I felt at the act of injustice of which 
 he was the victim. He foretold me everything that 
 subsequently happened. It was plain that a general 
 as distinguished by his military learning as by his 
 devotion to his country was being sent far away from 
 India, for the reason that he would undoubtedly have 
 re-established our supremacy in that distant land. 
 Held in high esteem as he was by Hyder AH Khan 
 and the other Indian princes with whom he had 
 entered into nesrotiations agjainst the British, M. de 
 Bellecombe would have induced them to give sup- 
 port to the French army, which, strengthened by 
 Indian troops, would have been in a position to at- 
 tack, and could not but have driven the British out 
 of the Peninsula. 
 
 The Pondicherry Regiment having received orders 
 from M. de Castries to go to Brest, I reached that 
 town in company of Colonel Count de 
 
 , March, 1781 
 
 Conway, Major- General of the Kmg s 
 troops. 
 
 My uncle Barras de la Penne commanded the 
 port. He lived ostentatiously both on board his 
 ship and in his residence in the town. The enor- 
 1-3 
 
34 MEMOIRS OF BARRAS chap. 
 
 mous emoluments he enjoyed, far from enabling him 
 to retrieve his financial losses, did not even suffice 
 to meet his expenses. Quite recently decorated with 
 the cordon rouge, and appointed to the command of 
 the French squadron in the United States, he was 
 about to leave for his post. It was with regret that 
 I bade farewell to my uncle to go on board the Ar- 
 tesie7t, one of the five men - of - war under M. de 
 Suffren, who, in those days a simple divisional com- 
 mander, was about to join our naval forces in India, 
 and serve under M. d'Orves, the admiral-in-chief. 
 
 March 22, 1781. — We left the port of Brest si- 
 multaneously with the large squadron of the Antilles, 
 under the orders of M. de Grasse ; it soon parted 
 company with us, shaping its course towards Amer- 
 ica. The course we followed shortly after enabled 
 M. de Suffren to reconnoitre one of the Cape Verde 
 Islands, Sao Thiago, where it was sus- 
 
 ''"''' ^ pected that five British ships, each car- 
 rying from fifty to sixty guns, and under John- 
 ston's command, had put in ; they were protecting 
 a rich transport fleet destined to complete the pro- 
 visioning of Admiral Sir Edward Hughes's fleet, 
 stationed off the Coromandel coast. This fleet, 
 reinforced by the five war-ships, would naturally 
 enjoy a superiority over that of M. d'Orves. At 
 daybreak on the i6th the British ships were sig- 
 nalled. M. de Suffren placed the convoy he was 
 escorting under the protection of our frigates, and 
 made preparations for an engagement. Had we 
 waited for nightfall, the enemy would not have been 
 warned of our proximity. Hampered by his nu- 
 merous transport ships at anchor in Praya Bay, he 
 would not have had time to prepare his defence, 
 
rv A NAVAL ENGAGEMENT 35 
 
 and especially to secure the co-operation of the Port- 
 uguese coast batteries against the French. More- 
 over, M. de Suffren showed too great a haste in 
 attacking. As soon as he perceived the enemy, he 
 ordered his squadron to sail in close formation into 
 the bay. Two of our ships, the one commanded by 
 M. de Forbin and the other by Du Chillaut, drifted 
 to leeward. M. de Suffren did not rally them, so 
 that the flag-ship, the /Zeros, carrying eighty guns, 
 the A7inibal ^nd the Artesicn, of a like fighting ca- 
 pacity, alone took part in the engagement. They 
 were at the very outset surrounded by a fleet of 
 eighty sail. The transports and the coast batteries 
 gave support to the fire of the British war-ships. 
 Our three were soon separated, riddled with ball, 
 and disabled. The Art'esien, aboard of which I was, 
 had lost its captain, and, taking advantage of a 
 breeze springing up from the coast, was driven out 
 of the bay, thus insuring our safety. The Heros, 
 commanded by M. de Suffren, experienced the 
 greatest difficulty in extricating itself from the 
 mass of little ships crossing one another about him 
 and harassing him from all points of the compass. 
 The Annibal, completely dismasted, was on the 
 point of being captured, had it not been cleverly 
 towed away by a little St. Malo brig, forming part 
 of our convoy and lying to at the entrance of the 
 bay, together with our frigates, our corvettes, and 
 the two war-ships which had been unable to render 
 us any assistance. The British squadron had suf- 
 fered considerably, but was nevertheless under sail 
 and following up M. de Suffren, who was retreating. 
 M. de Suffren ordered the convoy to set sail for the 
 Cape of Good Hope, under the escort of a frigate 
 
36 MEMOIRS OF BARRAS chap. 
 
 and corvette, and gave a good account of himself, 
 in spite of the predicament he was in. Darkness 
 finally put an end to the pursuit, and enabled us to 
 repair the damage of the fray. The Annibal was 
 rigged with jury-masts, thus enabling it to follow in 
 our wake ; at daybreak we were a great distance 
 from Sao Thiago, while the British fleet was out of 
 si^ht. 
 
 June, 1 78 1. — We reached the Cape on the 21st 
 of June, 1 78 1. Shortly afterwards the British 
 squadron appeared off the coast, but on seeing it 
 occupied by the French, continued on its way to 
 India. M. de Suffren landed at the Cape, under 
 the orders of Count de Conway, the troops he had 
 on board ; these, joined to a Dutch battalion com- 
 manded by Colonel Gordon, a man of military tal- 
 ent, were to form the garrison ; he afterwards left 
 immediately for the He de France. The squadron 
 of M. d'Orves was off the island, but 
 
 August, 17S1 . 1*11 1- Ti Tv/r 1 or 
 
 its admiral had just died. M. de but- 
 
 fren, by virtue of seniority, assumed command of 
 
 our two squadrons, and set sail with 
 
 them for the coast of Coromandel, 
 
 taking with him Major- General du Chemin. 
 
 In addition to the Pondichcrry regiment, M. de 
 Suffren had left under M. de Conway a portion of 
 the Austrasia regiment. The Court of Versailles, 
 convinced that the existence of our squadrons and 
 the retention of the He de France and of India de- 
 pended on retaining possession of the Cape, had 
 sent us thither to defend them aoainst British at- 
 tacks. 
 
 At the time of my arrival at the Cape of Good 
 Hope its governor was a fat Dutchman, M. Pletin- 
 
'^ M. RE CONWAY— M. DE BUSSY 37 
 
 berg, a member of the Dutch East India Company. 
 His wife was of opinion that her personal fatness 
 conferred on her the right of being as insolent as 
 her husband. These two vain creatures, who lived 
 isolated in their palace, were the terror of the inhab- 
 itants. The lieutenant-governor. Hacker by name, 
 had a wife and two daughters, who graciously wel- 
 comed foreigners, especially Frenchmen. I was ad- 
 mitted to their family circle, and shown friendship 
 and consideration by them. Their horses and car- 
 riages were placed at my disposal. 
 
 The fiscal, M. Boers, an active worker, governed 
 the country; he had a sense of justice, and was tol- 
 erant, enlightened, and polished; his house was the 
 meeting -place of a select circle. His functions were 
 akin to those of inteiidajits in France. 
 
 Our commanding oiificer, M. de Conway, of Irish 
 descent, had served in the French contingent in the 
 United States, and bore scars which testified to his 
 bravery; he was well acquainted with the art of war, 
 but was a despot, and of an acrimonious disposition, 
 generally attributed to a neurotic malady; he was 
 reputed amiable, but was more than anything else 
 brimming over with conceit. Yet he fell in with the 
 views of the Court, and was clever enough to win 
 the good -will of the people at the Cape. 
 
 We witnessed at last the arrival of the great expe- 
 dition destined to India, led by the ridiculous chief- 
 tain whom it had not been feared to appoint as a 
 successor to M. de Bellecombe. M. de Bussy was a 
 sort of painted caricature covered with decorations. 
 This tottering and utterly incapable dotard spent 
 his time in the display of his fineries and his 
 perukes, and especially of a mechanical contrivance, 
 
38 MEMOIRS OF BARRAS chap. 
 
 which, drawing the skin to the back of his head, di- 
 minislied the wrinkles of his forehead. Desirous of 
 emphasizing the fact of his arrival by reviewing us, 
 M. de Bussy asked me to procure for his use one of 
 Governor Hacker's carriages. So it was that, effem- 
 inately borne along and surrounded by his staff, pre- 
 senting as odd an appearance as himself, M. de Bussy 
 passed by a portion of our front; then, exhausted by 
 this fifteen minutes' exertion, the General-in-Chief 
 and his worthy companions-in-arms took their de- 
 parture. The farce over, they went aboard their 
 ships, and the gigantic armada destined to conquer 
 India set sail. 
 
 Immediately on M. de Bussy's landing on the 
 coast of Coromandel, where M. de Suffren was 
 awaiting him, Hyder Ali Khan came in hot haste, 
 escorted by a cavalry force twenty thousand strong, 
 in order to confer with them concerning the meas- 
 ures to be taken against the British. The cere- 
 monial exacted by the French formed the first 
 subject of negotiation. M. de Bussy based his 
 pretensions on the former custom of the Great 
 Mogul, who in days gone by rendered to French 
 governors the honors due to Nawabs. Next, the 
 pretensions of our generals had to be dealt with. 
 
 The point at issue was the field equipment, the 
 pay of the troops and officers, the gratuities to 
 which they should be entitled, besides a consider- 
 able indemnity for the staffs of the naval and land 
 forces. 
 
 These claims were so exorbitant that Hyder Ali 
 Khan, aroused to indignation, exclaimed, " It is 
 money alone you have come to seek ; as for me, it 
 is steel alone that I use against my foes. You shall 
 
IV WHY HYDER ALI KHAN WAS DEFEATED 39 
 
 have the money, you shall have precious stones, of 
 which you seem so greedy ; but let at least the ill- 
 conceived plan of campaign which you lay before 
 me become the principal object of your meditations. 
 Let us beat the English !" On rejoining his army 
 after this utterance Hyder AH Khan added, " Per- 
 haps the people who now groan under British domi- 
 nation will not reap any advantage by passing un- 
 der yours." Again : " I do not see among these new 
 arrivals either a Dupleix or a Labourdonnais." 
 
 While De Bussy was abed dying of old age, the 
 battle of Cuddalore was being lost by us. There 
 can be no doubt that it would have been won had 
 the Cabinet made choice of M. de Bellecombe or 
 of M. de Cornouet. These generals, as capable as 
 they were disinterested, would, while enjoying the 
 confidence of Hyder Ali Khan, have made good use 
 of the military knowledge of that great warrior. 
 
 Hyder Ali Khan had gathered together forty 
 thousand men, who harassed unceasingly the British 
 troops. The British would assuredly have offered 
 no resistance, and would have withdrawn to Bengal, 
 in the direction of the Ganges, if the French had 
 but acted in concert with Hyder Ali Khan. 
 
 Some few officers distinguished themselves in this 
 campaign, which came to an end after De Bussy s 
 demise. I like to recall to my mind the names of 
 Generals d'Ofelise, Du Chemin, and D'Albignac, 
 who vied in ardor with their troops. 
 
 M. de Suffren, an intrepid sailor, but deficient in 
 all the acquirements required of an admiral, fought 
 with remarkable courage the squadron of Admiral 
 Hughes, and repeatedly compelled him to beat a 
 retreat. He would have captured or destroyed it, 
 
40 MEMOIRS OF BARRAS chap. 
 
 had he followed up his victories by giving chase to 
 it, but he secured no other advantage than the occu- 
 pation of the important port of Trincomalee, and he 
 was indebted for this triumph, not to force 
 
 AllcrUSt, 1782 ^ , 1 1 'il 
 
 of arms, but to a gross ruse rewarded with 
 success. He gave on board his ship a splendid 
 entertainment in honor of the governor, who was 
 plied with heady wines and spirituous liquors, whose 
 effects he soon felt. Advantage was taken of his 
 condition to make him sign a capitulation and sur- 
 render the town. This anecdote, told me in days 
 gone by, was recently confirmed by Admiral du 
 Chillaut, the only one who on this occasion fired a 
 few cannon shot at one of the forts defending the 
 port. 
 
 In the meantime the victorious British imposed 
 a burdensome peace on Hyder Ali Khan, the 
 generous prince who had compromised himself by 
 becoming our ally ; while we were compelled to 
 evacuate India, where we were no longer to possess 
 anything but three or four settlements adorned with 
 a flag, the shameful emblem of a trade at second- 
 hand, subject moreover to Great Britain's pleasure. 
 
 Louis XVI., justly dissatisfied with the conduct 
 of his armies in India, received a compensation in 
 the success of his co-operations in the American 
 War, and in the memorable treaty proclaiming the 
 independence of the United States. 
 
 These two great conceptions, the expedition to 
 India and the independence of the United States, 
 should have been directed by capable Ministers, 
 who would not have let them fall into the hands of 
 ignorant clerks, interested perhaps in seeing the 
 plans laid down by the King fail in their execution. 
 
IV HOMEWARD BOUND 41 
 
 Just about that time I became involved in a 
 dispute, which developed into a personal one, with 
 M. de Conway, our commander. He had grossly 
 insulted two of my friends, Captains Dufort and 
 Carles, when under arms. These two honorable 
 soldiers were put under arrest, as I was myself for 
 upholding them. Upon being released, I appeared 
 before M. de Conway, as is customary, when he 
 asked me to dinner. On my declining his invita- 
 tion, he said to me, " You are a hot-headed young 
 man." " You, General," was my rejoinder, " are un- 
 just towards your officers ; they may perhaps not 
 look so very elegant on parade, but they know how 
 to beat the enemy. I beg your leave to return to 
 Europe ; I will try to be worthy at the siege of Gib- 
 raltar of the esteem in which you hold me." 
 
 Next morning, as we were drilling on the espla- 
 nade, M. de Conway took me by the arm in an 
 affectionate way, saying, " I appreciate both your 
 character and services, and I will make a point of 
 bringing them to the knowledge of the Ministers of 
 Marine and of War. There is nothing more to be 
 done here; India is lost to us; your health is becom- 
 ing impaired in this climate; go to Paris direct; I 
 will soon rejoin you; I now intrust you with de- 
 spatches of the highest interest to the Minister of 
 Marine, to whom my brother will introduce you." 
 
 M. de Conway also gave me oral instructions of 
 great importance. Rejoicing at our rec- ^^^^^^^^ ^^^^ 
 onciliation, I bade him farewell, and took 
 advantage of favorable winds to return to France. 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 My interview with M. de Castries— His unbecoming anger— My 
 energetic rejoinder — M. de Crequi — A paternal warning— M. 
 de Breteuil — My reply — I resign my commission — The opposi- 
 tion — Characters of MM. de Breteuil and de Castries — A mot 
 o( Louis XVI. — D'Agoult and Bagneux^My behavior tow- 
 ards MM. de Castries and de Breteuil. 
 
 Peace with England had been proclaimed at 
 Cadiz just as I arrived in that port. I soon left to 
 go to Paris, and thence to Versailles. I was ad- 
 mitted into the presence of M. de Castries, 
 
 ^'' who, after taking cognizance of my de- 
 
 spatches, asked me if I had any information to im- 
 part to him. Pursuant to my mission, I naively 
 unfolded to him the mistakes committed through 
 the influence of his ofificials, the erroneous measures 
 adopted by badly-selected leaders, and the ridicu- 
 lous dispositions of the plan of campaign. I next 
 pointed out to him the discordance of the orders 
 emanating from those in power, as well as the in- 
 capacity of the General-in-Chief and his staff, the 
 cause of our ruin. 
 
 M. de Castries, whose impatience grew with 
 every word I uttered, unable to restrain himself any 
 longer, gave vent to his feelings in these words : 
 " You are very young to dare to censure my doings, 
 and even those of my subordinates ; I am not here 
 to take your advice ; my plan may be deficient in 
 
CHAP. V DEFIES M. DE CASTRIES 43 
 
 some respects, but I adhere to it none the less. I 
 forbid you to repeat the unbecoming story you 
 have just rattled off." I replied to the marshal- 
 minister, " I have perhaps too frankly laid bare 
 the truth. I regret that you do not set any great 
 value on the redress of abuses." Rendered furious 
 by my answer, M. de Castries grasped a book, 
 which he seemed inclined to hurl at my head. I 
 did not display the resignation attributed on a 
 similar occasion to a celebrated poet, the Abbe 
 Delille, who, on his wife threatening to fling an 
 in-folio at him, said to her, smilingly, " My darling, 
 please embody your anger in a smaller volume." 
 " None of that. Monsieur le Marechal," were the 
 only words I addressed to the Minister, striking the 
 same attitude as his own, with my hand on the hilt 
 of my sword. 
 
 The Marquis de Crequi, my kinsman, had, from 
 an adjoining room, heard the scene ; he entered in 
 haste, accompanied by the usher, who was hurrying 
 forward on hearing the disturbance, and dragged me 
 out of the closet. On my way through the salon 
 several generals to whom I narrated my adventure 
 took me by the hand and congratulated me. Once 
 in the court-yard of the Palace of Versailles, Crequi 
 said to me, " You are lost ; let us parry the blow. 
 M. de Breteuil is my friend ; in his capacity of 
 Minister of the King's Household he can prevent 
 the issue of lettres de cachet. Let us not lose any 
 time. You must be put in safety, or go to the 
 B as tiller 
 
 M. de Breteuil was already cognizant of what had 
 taken place when we were ushered into his presence 
 on the following day. Desirous of learning from 
 
44 MEMOIRS OF BARRAS chap. 
 
 my lips the particulars of my quarrel with the mar- 
 shal, he listened to me with interest, and said, " Had 
 the Minister struck you with the book, what would 
 you have done, Monsieur le Baron ?" " I should 
 have killed him," was my reply. At these words 
 M. de Breteuil, taking my hand, said to me, " I ad- 
 mire dignity of character, but you went very far with 
 a sensitive man, who is naught but a . . . Do not 
 worry, no harm shall come to you from it. Come 
 and see me any morning. . . . My good friend," he 
 went on to say to Crequi, " you and your kinsman 
 may depend upon me." I thanked M. de Breteuil, 
 who was generally the protector of young men, be- 
 lieving that their superiors and even their fathers 
 were most frequently to blame for their faults. 
 
 It was sought to send me back to the Colonies; 
 I objected on the grounds of bad health. The 
 authorities persisting in their determination, I sent 
 in my resignation to the Minister of Marine. No 
 longer under the military hierarchy, and feeling 
 strong in the support of M. de Breteuil, I allowed 
 myself to inveigh perhaps somewhat strongly against 
 his lordship, which procured me the honor, without 
 my having any suspicion of it, of being at that early 
 date looked upon as one of those malcontents later 
 on styled " the opposition party," and even " the 
 Government's enemies " — for in those days Minis- 
 ters were determined to be the Government in per- 
 son, and to make the king's personality share the 
 blame which their arbitrary acts called forth from 
 public opinion. 
 
 Both M. de Breteuil and M. de Castries aspired to 
 the post of Prime Minister. Breteuil had, in mat- 
 ters of administration as well as in politics, acquire- 
 
V MINISTERIAL RIVALS 4S 
 
 ments styled "superior" when viewed in the light of 
 the inferiority of talent of that epoch. The Mare- 
 chal de Castries had military pretensions which he 
 justified neither by his actions nor the appreciation 
 of merit in others. He was even chareed with con- 
 cealing from the public one of the first traits of her- 
 oism in war, that of D'Assas exclaiming, "Follow 
 me, Auvergne, 'tis the enemy !" M. de Castries was 
 nothino; more than a courtier and a knight of the 
 alcove, whom Louis XVI. judged at his true value. 
 On one occasion, when the marshal came to him 
 with his portfolio, the King said to him frankly, " I 
 am just finishing the perusal of a document wherein 
 I am charged with devotinsf too much time to me- 
 chanical arts, while you are represented as a Minis- 
 ter not less ignorant than conceited: go and study." 
 
 M. de Castries left the royal presence in a state of 
 great agitation, and, on passing through the QEil-de- 
 Boeuf, he was not vouchsafed a look by the noble- 
 men present, who had perhaps heard the King's 
 severe words. Monsieur, whose rule it was to be 
 on eood terms with those who were on bad terms 
 with his brother, and to greet them affably, at- 
 tempted to show the marshal some sympathy, but 
 his advances were rejected almost with temper. 
 The fact has been related to me by Dagout, one of 
 the officers of the King's household, as well as by 
 Bagneux, a member of the Cent-Suisses, both wit- 
 nesses of the scene, and who were, with several 
 others, overjoyed at seeing the insolent Minister 
 rebuked. 
 
 In much later times than those which I here 
 recall the events of the Revolution enabled me to 
 give a few proofs of a grateful memory to M. de 
 
46 MEMOIRS OF BARRAS chap, v 
 
 Breteuil. Marshal de Castries, having also found 
 himself in a difficult position at a time when I could 
 help him out, did me the justice of acknowledging 
 that he had not appealed in vain to my generosity. 
 He expressed his regrets for the past through one 
 of his relatives, Count de Corlognes, and followed 
 this up by writing to me that he would be grateful 
 for an opportunity of undoing the wrongs he had 
 done me. This was, I confess, somewhat tardy; I 
 none the less frankly accepted an expression of 
 gratitude dictated by misfortune. It is so rare to 
 see those we have to complain of forgive us the 
 injuries they have done us! 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 Paris in 1784— Baron de Valois— Countess de Lamotte— Cardinal 
 de Rohan — Cagliostro — His luxury— His charlatanism— The 
 Due de Luxembourg — Lamotte — His wife's liaison with the Car- 
 dinal de Rohan — Origin of the diamond-necklace intrigue — The 
 girl D'Oliva — The disguise — Rendezvous in the leafy thickets of 
 Trianon — The Cardinal duped — Fictitious correspondence — Pur- 
 chase of the necklace — Lamotte in England — Arrest of his wife — 
 Her punishment — The truth about the Queen — How I became 
 acquainted with the Lamotte woman — A supper at the house of 
 the notary La Fresnaye — At midnight — Her agitated state — What 
 all magnetizers are, after all — A journey into Picardy — Monkish 
 orgies — M. de Tournon and his family — Mme. de la Barre — The 
 unfortunate de la Barre — The Abbess of Jarcy — Her noble char- 
 acter — Quarrel with a colonel — The field-marshals — M. de Rich- 
 elieu — My social relations — Mirabeau — Crequi — Chamfort — Ni- 
 vernais — The Abbe d'Anjou — The Bishop of Orleans — Mile. 
 Arnould — Cubieres — The Prince of Birkenfeld — Prince Henry 
 of Prussia^— His mot about the Court — Vicq d'Azyr — The Prince 
 de Conde — The two plans of M. de Breteuil — An opinion of him. 
 
 1784. — Deprived of all military employment, I 
 had little means wherewith to reside in Paris, where 
 I was supported by an aged lady, a relative of mine, 
 who dwelt at Marseilles. One Valois, styling him- 
 self baron, like so many others at and since that 
 time, introduced me to his sister, whom he called 
 Countess de Lamotte, a woman whose figure showed 
 to greater advantage than did her features. She 
 made pretensions to some little influence at Court. 
 She kept up an establishment and received many 
 people, notably Cardinal de Rohan, who frequently 
 
48 MEMOIRS OF BARRAS chap. 
 
 visited her, doubly attracted by licentiousness and 
 magnetism — two species of occupations much more 
 intimately connected than those who are interested 
 in denying the connection would care to admit. 
 
 The principal part in Mme. de Lamotte's social 
 circle was played by Cagliostro. This very intelli- 
 gent adept, besides concocting love potions preserv- 
 ative of health and prolonging life, indulged in the 
 phantasmagoric evocation of spirits. He daily as- 
 sembled about his chemical furnaces people like the 
 Rohans and Luxembourgs, and other famous illumi- 
 nati ; to all he boldly promised riches, affirming that 
 he had discovered Nature's secrets, as well as the 
 transmutation of copper into pure gold. This indi- 
 vidual, endowed with a species of charlatanism, trav- 
 elled through the world in the garb of a philoso- 
 pher, made dupes of all who believed in him, and 
 piled up riches, which he used as bait to attract oth- 
 er believers, and to make a pretence of being chari- 
 table and generous. He lived in grand style in a 
 house where the honors were done by a pretty and 
 seductive lady of Persian extraction, whom he called 
 his wife. Mme. de Lamotte, previous to conceiving 
 the idea of connecting herself with the royal branch 
 of Valois, had married a former gendarme, an utter 
 mediocrity in every respect, even beneath his educa- 
 tion and station, but endowed with that spirit of in- 
 trigue which the law defines as swindling. Hus- 
 band and wife, so worthy of each other, equally 
 tormented by the desire of emerging from their 
 state of poverty, had, after a hasty survey of life, and 
 from a j^crsonal experience consecutive on sundry 
 attempts made with that purpose in view, concluded 
 " that as a rule only petty thieves are hanged," and 
 
VI A RASCALLY PAIR 49 
 
 that it is safer and more advantageous to " operate," 
 as the saying goes, on a larger scale. So they be- 
 gan to meditate plans to put their reasoning into 
 practice. Let us follow some of the developments. 
 
 Mme. de Lamotte, on securing; a footine of inti- 
 macy with Cardinal de Rohan, expressed a wish to 
 him one fine day of being presented to the Queen, 
 for the purposes of begging certain favors of her, in 
 virtue of her pedigree, which she claimed to have 
 traced back to the Valois. " What you are asking 
 for yourself," the Cardinal replied to his mistress, " I 
 should like to obtain on my own behalf ; but since 
 my ambassadorial mission to Austria I have the 
 misfortune to be in disgrace, at least with the Queen; 
 she even bears me considerable ill-will, and I would 
 give everything in the world for a means to get 
 reconciled with her." 
 
 These words, suffered to escape in the intimacy 
 of gallantry, became the spark to light up the infer- 
 nal and incredible " necklace affair " which blazed 
 forth shortly afterwards. 
 
 " He would give all he possesses to be on good 
 terms with the Queen," said the woman Lamotte to 
 her husband on reaching home, " so he must be 
 served to his taste. They do say that the Queen 
 has taken a fancy to a diamond necklace worth two 
 millions which Boehmer & Bassange have for sale 
 just at present ; the King having forbidden so ex- 
 travagant a purchase, the Queen is consumed with 
 the desire of obtaining this superb ornament. Let 
 us make good use of this popular rumor as to the 
 Queen's desire ; the Cardinal must believe that the 
 Queen can accept such a present at his hands ; with 
 the aid of illuminism we will show him all the 
 1-4 
 
50 MEMOIRS OF BARRAS chap. 
 
 brilliant consequences of such a gift, and convince 
 him that not only shall he be reconciled to the 
 Queen, but made Prime Minister, nay more, become 
 her lover, as the Queen loves him at heart and con- 
 siders him handsome, and that her seemingly un- 
 kind treatment of him merely masks that sen- 
 timent." 
 
 Such was the whole plan of the comedy which 
 since took so tragic a turn. 
 
 What the Lamotte couple had plotted was carried 
 out by them with all the developments contem- 
 porary as well as later memoirs have given super- 
 abundant particulars of. The man Lamotte sought 
 out at the Palais-Royal an unfortunate female, who 
 subsequently appeared at the trial under the name 
 of D'Oliva. This girl, who was of the same height 
 as the Queen, and, almost like her in figure, was 
 dressed as Marie Antoinette in her neglige. Mme. 
 de Lamotte so trained her in regard to matters of 
 deportment as to insure of the cardinal being de- 
 ceived. When planning this deception it was decid- 
 ed that the counterfeit queen should receive the Car- 
 dinal at night in the leafy thickets of the Trianon. 
 Just as the Cardinal thought he was on the point of 
 reaching the goal which had been presented to his 
 frenzied imagination, being under the impression 
 that he was conversing with the Queen, while he 
 was merely dealing with Mile. d'Oliva, a voice was 
 heard announcing the approach of the Count 
 d'Artois. This prince, whom popular rumor 
 credited with having been the Queen's first lover, 
 seemingly came on the scene out of jealousy, and 
 the Cardinal was, in so thorny an affair, only too 
 glad to vanish noiselessly, while remaining under 
 
VI CARDINAL AND ADVENTURESS 51 
 
 the impression that his royal good-fortune was post- 
 poned to some other time. 
 
 The De Lamottes having so cleverly inspired the 
 Cardinal de Rohan with this passion, it became an 
 easy task for them to prove to him that the Queen 
 looked favorably on his suit, loved him, and that 
 he must give some substantial proof of his recipro- 
 cating her feelings. " Presents feed the love even of 
 queens," they argued ; " hence nothing remains but 
 to offer Marie Antoinette the diamond necklace, 
 which everybody knows she is pining for, and which 
 the economical Louis XVI. so cruelly denies her." 
 The Cardinal joyously and gratefully chimed in with 
 this idea ; but how was the necklace to reach the 
 queen ? Mme. de Lamotte pretended to have sure 
 means ; she and her husband would see to it that 
 the necklace reached Her Majesty. The Queen 
 would herself write to the Cardinal previous to that 
 happening. A letter was written in the forged 
 handwriting of the Queen. The Cardinal naively 
 replied to this letter, and to others equally spurious. 
 He looked upon himself as the most fortunate of 
 mortals, since Marie Antoinette deigned to accept 
 the necklace which attached her to him and bound 
 her to his car. The Cardinal therefore purchased 
 the necklace from the jewellers Boehmer & 
 Bassange, and handed it over in full confidence to 
 the De Lamotte creature and her husband, who so 
 obligingly undertook to see to its reaching its des- 
 tination. No sooner was the necklace in their 
 hands than the man fled to England, taking it with 
 him. The woman, who had not been quick enough 
 in following him in his flight, was arrested, and, as a 
 matter of course, became the chief figure in the trial 
 
52 MEMOIRS OF BARRAS chap. 
 
 which engaged the ParHament for the space of a 
 whole twelvemonth. As a result, she was sentenced 
 to the galleys for life, scourged, and branded at the 
 foot of the main staircase of the palace ; while her 
 husband, similarly sentenced, although by contu- 
 macy, ate up in gambling and debauchery the 
 famous necklace still standing to the Cardinal's 
 debit, the only satisfaction the latter received out of 
 the transaction being to be exiled to his chateau of 
 Saverne. 
 
 The celebrity of this affair, the complications with 
 which it has since been sought to obscure it, have 
 determined me not to omit in this place the partic- 
 ulars which my contemporaneous relations have 
 taught me in connection with it. All unite in prov- 
 ing that Marie Antoinette was not only innocent of 
 this low intrigue, but a stranger to it. Odious swin- 
 dlers, not less guilty than assassins, conceived the 
 idea of dragging her name and person into it with 
 unexampled audacity. I have confessed that the life 
 I led as a young man not over- cautious as to his ac- 
 quaintances had brought me into the society of the 
 Lamotte woman. I had not been sufficiently dis- 
 trustful, and I should have required a vast amount 
 of distrust to unravel the perversity concealed in her 
 innermost soul. On the day preceding her arrest I 
 was one of a supper -party at the notary La Fres- 
 naye's, at which were present the Cardinal and sev- 
 eral of his friends. I had noticed that the Lamotte 
 woman, generally very gay, was unusually sad, al- 
 though it was her wont to set everything agoing. 
 A few whisperings exchanged with her husband at- 
 tracted my attention, and it became impossible for 
 me not to notice their state of agitation. Mme. de 
 
VI A MEMORABLE SUPPER S3 
 
 Lamotte had just received word, through several 
 letters brought during the repast, that danger was 
 ahead. At midnight the guests had gone their way. 
 Mme. de Lamotte begged me to see her home; on 
 the road something seemed to prey heavily on her 
 mind, and she invoked my friendship, "which," she 
 said in a most vague way, " she might stand in need 
 of," adding that I was the most loyal man she had 
 ever known. It is quite true that my loyalty went, 
 in those days, the length of ingenuousness, and that 
 while I had made the discovery that Mme. de La- 
 motte was a woman of easy virtue, I was far from 
 suspecting her of being so clever a plotter; and I 
 would never have guessed that the genuine ignoble- 
 ness and apparent silliness of her husband screened 
 so deep and, I may say, such rabid rascality. Later 
 on will be seen the horrible triumph of the animos- 
 ity of this man, who from that time attached himself 
 to the unfortunate Queen as if to a prey. I had 
 sufficiently frequented magnetizers and illuminati to 
 form an opinion concerning them, and to satisfy 
 myself that these manipulators of fluids consisted 
 merely of two distinct species, to wit, dupes and ras- 
 cals. After all, is that not, it will be asked, the nor- 
 mal condition of society? I do not deny it; but I 
 have noticed that the people I have referred to had 
 their specialty, which for a certain period was all- 
 powerful, that it has exercised potent influence, and 
 has been resorted to for that purpose on more than 
 one occasion. 
 
 Rejoicing at not having gone too far in' my inter- 
 course with the Lamottes, and of having escaped 
 the clutches of many other intriguers at Court and 
 in town, I soon felt the need of leaving the capital 
 
54 MEMOIRS OF BARRAS chap. 
 
 which Jean Jacques has so appropriately named 
 "the city of mud and smoke." 
 
 1786. — I set off in the direction of Picardy with a 
 prelate held in high esteem by the monks of all the 
 convents situated on the road to Abbeville. We 
 were eagerly welcomed in them; joy and pleasure 
 presided over the meals; those which they spread 
 before us were sumptuous, and repeatedly ended in 
 orgies. I was compensated for the disgust I experi- 
 enced at them on arriving at the chateau of M. de 
 Tournon. This venerable patriarch welcomed us 
 with the exquisite courtesy of the knights of olden 
 days. He had presided over the education of his 
 two daughters. One of them, who became the wife 
 of Count du Chillaut, acquired some fame as a play- 
 wright and by her correspondence with the King of 
 Prussia. 
 
 At Abbeville we visited in her cloister an abbess, 
 Mme. de la Barre, who received us grandly. The 
 demeanor of this gentlewoman was severe, and she 
 united in herself all social and religious virtues. 
 She was the aunt of the unfortunate young man 
 who, while in a state of intoxication, having suffered 
 some irreligious remarks to escape his lips at the 
 sight of a Christ crucified placed on the bridge at 
 Abbeville, had been sentenced to death and burned 
 alive through the combined efforts of the old Bishop 
 of Amiens, M. de Lamotte, of his coadjutor M. de 
 Machault, and the chapter sitting with these worthy 
 chiefs. It is a known fact that young La Barre had 
 been denounced by a few devout women, who had 
 sprinkled drops of blood on the wounds of the 
 Christ, and who argued from this pretended miracle 
 that La Barre had mutilated it. The town which 
 
VI THE ABBESS OF JARCY 55 
 
 was the scene of this awful deed of fanaticism went 
 into mourning on the day of the auto-da-fe, and 
 shed idle tears on the victim's grave. 
 
 On returning to Paris after my monachal excur- 
 sion, I made the acquaintance of Mme. de Braque, 
 Abbess of Jarcy. Her charming conversation still 
 savored of the world, which her toilette and man- 
 ners showed she had not forgotten. Her short and 
 light gown revealed the daintiest of feet. She kept 
 up a good establishment in the very heart of the 
 convent; a Capuchin of manly and jovial appear- 
 ance was its chaplain. 
 
 A portion of the walls of the abbey had crumbled 
 away, carrying with them in their fall the railings 
 serving as an enclosure. The nuns took advantage 
 of this to freely promenade in the grounds sur- 
 rounding the convent. Certain would-be sancti- 
 monious people sought to have Mme. de Braque 
 suspended for this. She, however, fought the issue 
 with honor with the archbishop, who was at the 
 head of her adversaries, and won the day by the 
 uprightness of her character. 
 
 In these days of my youth I entered into a 
 quarrel with a noble colonel who, unable to claim 
 superiority over me in the matter of nobility, sought 
 to avail himself of his superiority in rank to avoid 
 crossing swords with me. Having used him some- 
 what roughly, I was brought before the tribunal of 
 the field -marshals. Marshal de Richeheu, a good 
 judge in matters of this kind, gave me the benefit 
 of his good-will, and I like to recall his extreme 
 kindhness. After extending some paternal advice 
 to me he said, " Restrain yourself a little more in 
 future," and asked me to dinner. 
 
S6 MEMOIRS OF BARRAS CHAP. 
 
 Less unfortunate on my second than on my first 
 visit to Paris, and in the hope that I might meet 
 some honest people in the best-educated circles, I 
 sought the society of those most distinguished, and 
 entered into connection with Mirabeau, Crequi, 
 Chamfort, Nivernais, the Abbe d'Anjou, Poinsinet, 
 the Bishop of Orleans, Mile. Arnould, Cu- 
 bieres, and the Prince of _Birkenfeld. It 
 was at the house of the last-named that I made the 
 acquaintance of Prince Henry of Prussia. This 
 most distinguished warrior and genuine statesman 
 had conceived so great a contempt for the Court 
 that he very rarely appeared at it. " Never," he 
 was in the habit of saying to us, " have I seen 
 anywhere such utter corruption coupled with such 
 complete incapacity." He told us of the fete given 
 in his honor at Chantilly. The Prince de Conde 
 had gathered there the Ministers and all the nota- 
 ble men of the period. Politics and philosophy fur- 
 nished the theme for conversation. " MM. de Bre- 
 teuil and Vicq d'Azyr were the only two men with 
 whom I could talk," said Prince Henry ; " the oth- 
 ers, including Conde, are bloated ignoramuses with 
 well-filled paunches." 
 
 M. de Breteuil was one of those, in these times the 
 forerunners of the Revolution, of whom it might in 
 some respects have been believed that he had a pre- 
 sentiment of it, and sought to outstrip or forestall it. 
 He had formed plans of reform touching various 
 most important branches of the administration, the 
 exclusive rights of hunting and shooting, feudal 
 rights, corvees, and many other privileges. He was 
 in favor of all Frenchmen being called to public 
 offices, equal taxation, the substitution of judicial 
 
VI M. DE BRETEUIL'S PLANS 57 
 
 courts for the Parlements, and a public rendering of 
 ministerial accounts — in other woi'ds, a commence- 
 ment of ministerial responsibility, and the creation 
 of. a supreme tribunal intrusted with regularizing 
 the judiciary, ecclesiastical, military, and civil orders. 
 According to M. de Breteuil's views, the members 
 of this supreme tribunal were to be appointed by 
 the King, but selected from candidates submitted by 
 the provincial assemblies. The King was to be its 
 sovereign president, his place being taken by a vice- 
 president. This supreme tribunal was to register 
 edicts and ordinances signed by the King, with the 
 faculty of discussing their provisions. M. de Bre- 
 teuil, moreover, thought, true statesman that he was 
 — in other words, a man believing that he has in 
 that capacity the right of being corrupt — that all 
 measures about to be submitted to a nation already 
 aroused should be preceded by a cleverly managed 
 understanding with the new personages about to 
 become a power in the land by their talents and 
 popularity, and that it behooved one in such a case 
 to advance cautiously, preceded by a vanguard of 
 seduction, the most powerful of auxiliaries, if one 
 but knows how to make proper use of it. 
 
 It might perhaps have been possible at that 
 time, when royal authority was not yet on the wane, 
 and had not been shorn of a portion of its preroga- 
 tives, that M. de Breteuil's plan would have ap- 
 peased the malcontents, but an unconquerable op- 
 position broke forth among the privileged classes, 
 who were hostile to an equalization of taxation, and 
 who flattered themselves that they would retain 
 their feudal rights. M. de Breteuil, finding him- 
 self too weak, and possibly caring at heart more 
 
58 MEMOIRS OF BARRAS chap, vi 
 
 for his ministerial position than for the honor to 
 be derived from his plan, at once submitted another 
 project, absolutely the reverse of the one first con- 
 ceived. It embodied the quintessence of aristocratic 
 absolutism. This plan was likewise rejected, and 
 met with no other success than that of beincr extolled 
 
 o 
 
 and admired by the partisans of absolutism, who 
 in those days already styled themselves royalists /^r 
 excellence, for it is not nowadays alone that men 
 have sought to make their interests pass for opin- 
 ions. I have seen these two plans. M. de Breteuil 
 repudiated the former as not emanating from him, 
 attributing it to a savant, his friend, to whom he 
 had not been able to refuse its bringing forth. Ac- 
 cording to the latter statement, what is M. de Bre- 
 teuil's part in the praises I should have liked to 
 have given him ? What opinion did he then hold 
 in those days 1 Is the rest of his political career, so 
 opposed to all reform, to testify to his real senti- 
 ments ? Judges in France, and, later, out of it, who 
 have arrogated to themselves the right of passing 
 judgment on him, are of opinion that M. de Breteuil 
 was merely a creature of the powers that were, and 
 that neither his heart nor his mind ever had any- 
 thing in common with the ideas of philosophy. 
 Witness the eagerness with which he sought to re- 
 pudiate the most honorable idea of his life, and to 
 impute it as a crime to a poor savant in order to 
 clear himself. 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 France in 1788— Opposition of the Parlements— ZzV de justice— 
 Provincial Assemblies — Assembly of Notables ; its opposition 
 —Ministerial troubles— Plenary Court— Suppression of the Par- 
 lements — The Due d'Orleans exiled — Fury of the people— 
 Brienne and Lamoignon — Necker — His character — His finan- 
 cial genius— He renders a decisive service— The States-General 
 — Mirabeau's jko/- Distress of the people — Mad deeds of the 
 Court— The Reveillon affair- The Gardes Frangaises— Their 
 officers — Corporal Hoche — Sergeant Lefebvre — Storming of the 
 Bastille — I witness it — Liberation of the prisoners — The Mar- 
 quis de Sade — Laura and Petrarch — Character of the Marquis 
 de Sade — His morals and his system — His writings — His end — 
 M. de Sade's doctrine — His numerous followers — Doctor Coro- 
 na — "Coronation and slaughter" (sacre et massacre). 
 
 While France was in every direction crying out 
 against oppression, the administration of affairs 
 was in the hands of presumptuous and inexperi- 
 enced men. Dissoluteness of morals was reaching 
 the uttermost point ; courtesans and clergy outvied 
 one another in covetousness, insolence, and de- 
 bauchery ; neither virtue nor talent could any long- 
 er lay claim to favors on the part of the Govern- 
 ment. The nation, already roused to indignation 
 at these numberless abuses, resolved to place its 
 protests in the hands of the Parlements which had 
 themselves so repeatedly oppressed it; the Parle- 
 ments were thereupon exiled, but their exile only 
 served to embitter the popular mind. Louis XVI. 
 was compelled to recall them, whereupon they 
 
i/SS 
 
 60 MEMOIRS OF BARRAS chap. 
 
 threw out the edits bursmix (edicts imposing tax- 
 es). The King then held a lit de Justice. 
 His imperative command that all acts 
 emanating from his will should be registered was 
 criticised, and not carried into execution. The re- 
 sistance of the Parlements, and the outcry of 
 France against the proposed imposition of new 
 taxes and the waste of those already existing and 
 paid in to the Treasury, alarmed the Court. A 
 modern political writer has stated that money was 
 at the bottom of it all ; it is true that questions of 
 interest embody the language best and most gen- 
 erally understood by nations. England's revolu- 
 tion had its origin in the refusal of Hampden to 
 pay a few pennies of a tax illegally imposed by 
 Charles I. The people cried, " No law, no taxes !" 
 to which was added, " Liberty of conscience !" 
 More or less repressed under Charles II. and James 
 II., this cry, never stifled, but ever resounding in the 
 people's hearts, did not become quiescent until the 
 expulsion of the Stuarts in 1688, the period when 
 it was solemnly established that a contract of reci- 
 procity existed between nations and kings, and that 
 the pretension to divine right was in itself a capital 
 crime. 
 
 The Parlements and the Provincial Assemblies 
 demanded the convocation of the States-General ; 
 the Government thought it could elude this request 
 by summoning the Notables. Although tlie King 
 did not personally participate in the squandering of 
 the finances, he derived no advantaare from the es- 
 teem in which his personality was held. The As- 
 sembly of Notables, divided into committees, several 
 of which were presided over by Monsieur and the 
 
VII THE IMPENDING STORM 6l 
 
 Due d'Orleans, became the opposition, and declared 
 that the convocation of the States -General could 
 not be dispensed with. 
 
 The Ministry was at its wits' end to cover the 
 national deficit. " The ship of State," as the Eng- 
 lish say, " needed water." In the belief that the 
 States-General could nevertheless be dispensed with, 
 the creation of the Plenary Court was had recourse 
 to; the Chatelet was empowered to judge provision- 
 ally and without appeal during the absence of the 
 Parlements. All these innovations fell far short 
 of the mark, and gave rise to such forcible protests 
 that they were immediately abandoned. In the 
 midst of the proposing of insane projects, and of 
 growing discontent which was becoming threaten- 
 ing, it was considered prudent to send to a distance 
 the man who was considered the moving spirit and 
 the propagator of ideas already looked upon as 
 revolutionary. The Due d'Orleans was therefore 
 exiled in the first instance to Villers -Cotterets. 
 The people embraced the cause of the proscribed 
 prince. Dummies representing the chef du guet 
 (captain of the night-watch), of Brienne and of 
 Lamoignon, bespattered with mud, were dragged 
 throuch the streets of Paris, while the bust of the 
 Due d'Orleans, crowned with laurel, received the 
 plaudits of the public. The complaints from the 
 provinces had not been heeded ; the distress of the 
 people was becoming alarming ; trade and the arts 
 were neglected. The debates of the Parlements 
 continued the echoes of the public's wail. Members 
 who had signalized themselves by ' their special 
 energy were arrested in the very sanctuary of 
 Justice; the adjutant of the Gardes, D'Agoult, 
 
62 MEMOIRS OF BARRAS chap. 
 
 carried out these arrests. It is said that in this 
 circumstance this officer behaved like a trooper of 
 the Marshalsea. 
 
 However great may be the interest attached to 
 the early events of that period, which are not suffi- 
 ciently known, and are the beginning of everything, 
 it is not my concern to relate them ; they belong to 
 the domain of general history. It is sufficient for 
 me to outline a few of the principal events. It is a 
 fact familiar to all that the important manufactory 
 of one Reveillon, situated in the Faubourg Saint 
 Antoine, was wrecked by workmen whom he had 
 treated badly and dismissed. It was believed at 
 the time and subsequently that this riot had been 
 incited in a populous neighborhood in order to 
 furnish an excuse for bringing the soldiery into it, 
 and to train it to deeds of executive repression. 
 
 A detachment of Gardes Fran9aises was sent, 
 which ruthlessly fired on the defenceless crowd. 
 The workmen placed their dead on stretchers made 
 of sticks, crying out to the soldiers, " Make way ! 
 Respect the dead !" This spectacle and excla- 
 mation made such an impression on the Gardes 
 Fran9aises that they opened their ranks and of a 
 sudden became the friends and protectors of those 
 whom they had been shooting down but a moment 
 before. This conversion, although not producing 
 any other result for the time being, suffices to indi- 
 cate the spirit which took possession of the soldiery 
 from that day. There existed in this large and 
 fine corps, the best one in the army, a feeling of 
 discontent and humiliation at being commanded by 
 officers utterly unskilled in military knowledge, 
 ridiculous in their haughtiness, and unendurable in 
 
VII DISCONTENT OF THE SOLDIERY 63 
 
 their harsh treatment of their men. In contrast to 
 the officers, the non-commissioned officers and pri- 
 vates constituted a nursery of men imbued with the 
 idea of acquiring a standing on their personal 
 merits, should a revolution afford them the op- 
 portunity of proving of what stuff they were 
 made. In their ranks were Corporal Hoche, Ser- 
 geant Lefebvre, and so many others who were later 
 to shed lustre on French arms. 
 
 The Archbishop of Toulouse and Lamoignon 
 were followed by Necker, reputed to be a great 
 financier, and so proclaimed by himself. In spite 
 of his being a Protestant, an edict admitted him 
 into the Cabinet and the councils of the Kine. 
 
 Necker did not re-establish, but he temporarily 
 bore up the finances, or at least the nation's credit, 
 by means of a method inherent to his Genevese 
 genius, viz., loans and anticipations. Necker also 
 advised summoning the States- General, perhaps 
 with an eye to popularity, and again hopeful of 
 obtaining support from them. There being no way 
 of escaping from a recognition of the three separate 
 orders, Necker rendered the decisive service of 
 granting to the Third Estate a number equal to 
 double that of the clergy and nobility; this was 
 already establishins: a sort of balance, ,, 
 
 Jo May, 1789 
 
 and could be considered an omen of 
 popular victory. 
 
 But hardly had the States-General met when the 
 Court appeared to feel the most poignant regret at 
 having summoned them, and at once sought every 
 means of getting rid of them, either by ruse or 
 force. The cruel truth was about to be spoken to 
 the powerful ones hitherto accustomed to avoid 
 
64 MEMOIRS OF BARRAS chap. 
 
 facing it ; the upholders of despotism thought that 
 
 no time was to be lost, so they made the attempt of 
 
 closing the doors of the hall wherein the Assembly 
 
 „ held its sittinsrs. Who does not recall 
 
 June20, 17S9 . ^ 
 
 With enthusiasm how great Mirabeau was 
 on that day when apostrophizing M. de Breze, the 
 grand master of ceremonies, in these words : " Go, 
 tell your master that we are here by the will of the 
 nation, and that nothing but the force of bayonets 
 can drive us hence 1" This rejoinder struck terror 
 in the chateau of Versailles, and bayonets did not 
 venture upon a trial of strength with public opinion 
 rallied by the eloquence of a great man possessing 
 the power of rousing a nation and directing a politi- 
 cal assembly. 
 
 In the meantime the people, gaining courage 
 from the presence and energy of the National 
 Assembly, and resolved upon meting out justice to 
 all the political falsehoods to which their eyes were 
 now opened, began their work by burning down the 
 barriers of Paris and those in provincial towns. 
 
 The mad proceedings of the Court continued to 
 incense the people, who, supported by the noble 
 Tui I th I s resolutions of the National Assembly, 
 took to arms on the 14th of July, 1789, 
 and stormed the Bastille. The valor of the citizens 
 and the energy of the Gardes Frangaises directing 
 the attack were of a nature to terrify the Court. 
 They were the same Gardes Francaises who had 
 but recently been sent to shoot down the people in 
 the Reveillon affair, and who now, forsaking the 
 Court, and hand-in-hand with the masses, had just 
 decided the victory. 
 
 On hearing the cannon of the Bastille and that 
 
■V" STORMING OF THE BASTILLE 65 
 
 fired against it, I hurried to the Faubourg Saint 
 Antoine. Mingling with the crowd, I was present 
 at the enacting of this great drama, and saw emerge 
 from their cells the victims of arbitrary power, "at 
 last rescued from pitiless acts of vengeance, tor- 
 tures, and the oubliettes (cells in which were con- 
 fined life prisoners). Among those prisoners I 
 heard the name spoken of the too notorious Mar- 
 quis de Sade, a member of one of the oldest families 
 of Provence, connected with my own, and with that 
 of the lovely Laura de Sade beloved by Petrarch. 
 
 If anything could justify a State prison like the 
 Bastille, and the incarceration of men without trial, 
 I might almost consider that I am not inconsistent 
 with my ideas concerning legality when saying that 
 the Marquis de Sade richly deserved his imprison- 
 ment, since he had committed a crime such that the 
 publicity demanded by the law in matters judicial 
 could but have caused a scandal more dangerous in 
 its effects than its secret repression. This is not 
 the place to reveal the history of this most extraor- 
 dinary personage, whom one might consider an 
 anomaly in the midst of the human species. The 
 system which he had not feared to lay down in 
 writings not devoid of talent, had already, in various 
 countries, been preceded by a hideous practice 
 which had aroused a general horror, although the 
 laws had not dealt with it. 
 
 According to this system, the pleasures of the 
 senses, instead of consisting in an interchange of 
 agreeable sensations, should, on the contrary, have 
 as basis the greatest pain of the object selected for 
 the gratification of one's passions. 
 
 It was not sufficient for him to attain the highest 
 1-5 
 
65 MEMOIRS OF BARRAS chap. 
 
 expression of it through rape and outrages prac- 
 tised on both sexes, but he must fain teacli that vo- 
 luptuousness should forcibly go in hand with blood- 
 shedding and mutilation. He desired that the joys 
 of his delirious lechery should not be confined to 
 the infliction of pain, but should extend even to the 
 death of his victims ; proofs of the awful application 
 of his homicidal theory have unfortunately been 
 but too well established, as numerous skeletons 
 were found at his country-seat near Saint-Ouen, his 
 latest dwelling-place and where he was arrested ; as 
 if not content with having applied to the body the 
 depravity and ferocity of his system, M. de Sade 
 considered it necessary, in order not to leave it im- 
 perfect, to invade the realms of life's last consola- 
 tions, and to upset all morality's safeguards. Hence, 
 in order to gain proselytes, to allure them, and 
 strengthen them in the paths of crime, he attempted 
 to show in the garb of a novel, calling to his aid all 
 the prestige of eloquence and the inflexibility of 
 logic, that the misfortunes of this world are in store 
 for what we style virtue, while the crown of happi- 
 ness is placed on our brow by vice ; that it has 
 been so from the days of Adam, and will be to the 
 end. He developed the former of these proposi- 
 tions in a book which he openly entitled ytistine, ou 
 le Malheur de la Vertu, continuing the development 
 of the latter one, with increased audacity, in another 
 novel called yuliette, on la Prosperite du Crime. 
 
 The Government, scarcely knowing how to deal 
 with this great criminal, decided upon considering 
 him as a lunatic, and sent him to Charenton, where 
 he ended his days, never ceasing to preach his 
 monstrous doctrine, which he would have liked to 
 
vn INFAMOUS DE SADE 67 
 
 put in continual practice, even behind the bars, and 
 of which he to the end gave developments, one 
 more awful than the other, in his printed works and 
 in the manuscripts he left behind him. 
 
 This doctrine was doubtless that also of that 
 profligate of the old regime, illustrious alike by his 
 name and rank, who, on finding his senses, jaded by 
 debauchery, revive at the sight of a young and beau- 
 tiful girl, sought to possess her in spite of all divine 
 and human law, and was fiendish enough, in order 
 to carry off his prey with impunity, to set fire to her 
 paternal roof. It is this fearful trait that inspired 
 the poet Gilbert with these two well-known lines : 
 
 "Obscur, on I'eut fletri d'un arret legitime. 
 II est puissant : les lois ont ignore son crime." 
 
 A melancholy reflection, which was frequently to 
 present itself to my mind in the course of a series 
 of events referring more particularly to the Revolu- 
 tion, struck me when I began writing my memoirs, 
 and that is why I have for an instant dwelt on M. 
 de Sade's abominable system. When in the world's 
 history men appear who, under the name of con- 
 querors, style themselves the sovereigns of true 
 glory, feasting on nothing but the blood and 
 slaughter of the battle-field; when in the course of 
 time a man of this stamp springs up, a man des- 
 tined to surpass them all, coldly recording in official 
 bulletins how millions of his fellow-creatures have 
 perished under his gaze and by his orders ; when 
 one reads in these frightful pages, wherein he be- 
 lieves he is erecting trophies, that it was a fine 
 spectacle (particularly at Eylau), that of the blood 
 and brains of so many butchered men scattered on 
 
68 MEMOIRS OF BARRAS chak 
 
 the snow-covered ground, and rendered still more 
 admirable by the sun's splendor — is one not justi- 
 fied in believing that this frenzy of the conqueror is 
 nothing less in the eyes of the philosopher and of 
 the physiologist than a veiled disguise of the atro- 
 cious but hidden system of M. de Sade, and its more 
 audacious application on a greater scale ? He who 
 in subsequent times still continued to intoxicate 
 himself with fresh slaughter, and refused to pause 
 in the presence of such numerous massacres, has 
 dared to say ofificially in his organ, " My inclina- 
 tions and my temperament lead me to war": was 
 such a one not ruled by the same instincts as those 
 of M. de Sade ? Carried away as I am by my indig- 
 nation against the De Sades of war and of politics, I 
 here wish to relate an anecdote which misfht have 
 its ludicrous side were not the subject which recalls 
 it horribly serious. A painting by David of the 
 coronation of Napoleon was exposed at the Salon 
 shortly after the first Russian campaign. The 
 picture hung opposite the Battle of Eylau, by Gros. 
 Doctor Corona, one of the most distinguished of 
 Italy's sons, who had been President of the Direc- 
 tory of the Roman Republic, then living in retire- 
 ment in France, on entering the Salon, exclaimed 
 aloud in an outburst of temper on seeing these pict- 
 ures face to face, " Coronation and slaughter ! That 
 is truly he in two volumes !" Thereupon he with- 
 drew, considering it a humiliation to gaze any long- 
 er on these paintings. 
 
 I must bring to an end my digression on the 
 famous prisoner of the Bastille to return to the 
 great insurrectional event, which was the capture, 
 and shortly afterwards the destruction, of the an- 
 
VII CHAMFORT'S BON MOT 69 
 
 cient chateau which had for so long a time har- 
 bored illustrious personages. Chamfort, after going 
 to see it being demolished, uttered the following 
 piquant mot on his return : " The Bastille goes on 
 disappearing and growing more beautiful." In the 
 presence of this significant lesson given to defeated 
 despotism, any measure of repression that might 
 have been attempted would merely have tended to 
 rekindle the flames of exasperation. The 14th of 
 July had decided the triumph of the Revolution ; 
 nothing was left but to submit to it. The foreign 
 troops summoned around Paris were crushed by the 
 withering utterance of Mirabeau. 
 
 The Court could no longer call its mercenaries 
 to its aid, and there was nothing left for it to do 
 but to send them away; this was done. The Rev- 
 olution was encamped on the plains of Victory. 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 
 The Constituent Assembly — Its principles — Its triumphs — The 
 Emigration — Emigres and emigres — The National Guard — La 
 Salle — Lafayette — Banquet of the Gardes du Corps — Imprudent 
 act of the King — It gives great scandal — The national colors 
 trampled under foot — The people at Versailles — Defection of 
 the Flanders regiment — M. de Lafayette — Violent deeds com- 
 mitted by the people — The Chatelet — The chateau forcibly in- 
 vaded — The King compelled to leave Versailles — Fears aroused 
 by the doings of the Queen and the Comte d'Artois — A rash con- 
 jecture — Popularity of the Due d'Orleans — The Comte d'Artois 
 joins the emigres. 
 
 September, 1789. — The Assembly of the States- 
 General, after having resolved itself into a con- 
 stituent one, busied itself with the development 
 of those eternal and imprescriptible principles 
 which nations will ever claim when they are in a 
 position to do so. It decreed the suppression of 
 the Parlements of the feudality, of the corvecs, and 
 all the burdensome privileges extorted from the 
 people ; decreed the equality of all Frenchmen in 
 the eyes of the law, and their admission to public 
 offices ; abolished the let ires de cachet ; and, as a 
 further guarantee of the liberty which it was restor- 
 ing to the people, caused all bastilles to be razed to 
 the ground. A like d'ebict could but serve to win 
 for the Constituent Assembly the nation's esteem 
 and confidence in the highest degree. 
 
 In face of the progressive triumphs obtained by 
 the Assembly, supported by public opinion and 
 
CHAP. VIII THE EMIGRATION 71 
 
 respect, a small minority of the members of the 
 clergy and nobility thought fit, in the despair of 
 their aristocratic tenacity, to begin to emigrate in 
 •order to be out of the coming fight, and to dispense 
 with a display of personal courage by commencing 
 to invoke the aid of the foreigner. This first ex- 
 ample was followed by other priests and nobles, ac- 
 companied in their flight by some few vassals, and 
 a few bourgeois on whom nobility had been con- 
 ferred, or who aspired to have it conferred on them. 
 The latter, in their novice-like fervor as deserters 
 from France, soon became her first enemies. Let 
 us, however, not confound these wretched voluntary 
 fugitives with the unfortunate men whom, as a 
 sequel to a terrible revolution, the imminence of 
 peril compelled to leave temporarily the blood- 
 stained soil of their country. But those who spon- 
 taneously, out of hatred for liberty and equality, and 
 owing to their being unable to live in their country 
 except by privileges, dared to call the foreign armies, 
 and give their co-operation to the Treaty of Pill- 
 nitz, which was to dismember their country, who 
 begged for gold for the purpose of organizing as- 
 sassination in their own country — was I too severe 
 if, at the time of the perils which they conjured up 
 against us, I looked upon them as monsters in 
 human form.? The judgment of Solomon in the 
 case of the two women who were both laying claim 
 to a child, each alleging to be its mother, seems to 
 me to establish difference between the emigres and 
 the patriots who defended their country. Solomon 
 decided that the one who was horrified at the idea 
 of cutting the child in twain was its real mother, 
 and that the child belonged to her. 
 
72 MEMOIRS OF BARRAS chap. 
 
 At the time of the outbreak of the 14th of July 
 the National Guard was created and raised as if by 
 electricity throughout France; its first commanding 
 ofKcer was an old general, one La Salle, an honest . 
 man and a good citizen. He was, on an ill-grounded 
 suspicion in connection with some alleged story of 
 concealing gunpowder, deprived of his command ; 
 he was succeeded by M. de Lafayette, appointed by 
 acclamation commander of the National Guard of 
 the whole kingdom. 
 
 The Court, still believing itself able to run counter 
 to the popular wish, summoned to its aid all the 
 auxiliaries still at its disposal. The Gardes du 
 Corps (body-guards) conceived the idea of second- 
 ing the views of the Court by tendering the co-op- 
 eration of their efforts, and by threatenina: 
 
 Oct., 17S9 . ' J » 
 
 the patriot party with a counter-revolu- 
 tion at the sword's point. A general meeting of 
 them was convened pursuant to that resolution. 
 They were entertained at a banquet in the play- 
 house of the Chateau of Versailles; the King and 
 the Queen, bearing the Dauphin aloft, appeared in 
 their box — nay, descended on the stage, and pre- 
 sented the Dauphin to the assembled guests, many 
 of whom were in a state of excitement following 
 upon intoxication. Was this, it may truly be asked, 
 the place for the King, the Queen, and the heir- 
 presumptive to the French throne, which had just 
 become a constitutional one.? The white cockade 
 was donned, and the tricolor, recognized as the 
 national emblem and adopted by the King a few 
 days before, was trampled under foot. Their Maj- 
 esties thereupon returned to their box, surrounded 
 by Gardes du Corps, by M. d'Estaing, and several 
 
■^l" A CRY FOR BREAD 73 
 
 dignitaries, while the tumultous crowd below, wav- 
 ing wine -stained napkins and brandishing their 
 swords, climbed over into the boxes, terrifying the 
 occupants. I was a witness of the scene; it could 
 not have been more insane, I will even add more 
 disgusting. Even to-day I recall with much pain 
 an event followed by so many melancholy ones, al- 
 though history itself looks on them merely in the 
 light of reprisals. 
 
 The account of the orgy of the Gardes du Corps 
 at Versailles aroused the liveliest indignation in 
 Paris. The people were lacking food, so they 
 wended their way to Versailles on Octo- 
 ber 5, 1789, clamoring for bread, and in- ''■^'^^ '' 
 sisting on consideration and respect being shown to 
 their deputies and the national colors, to which in- 
 sult had been offered. 
 
 When the populace of Paris reached Versailles, 
 the Place d'Armes was occupied by troops. An 
 exempt of the Gardes du Corps, having struck with 
 his sword a citizen who pressed too closely against 
 him, had his arm broken by a gunshot. This act of 
 violence brought on another, which but increased 
 the perplexity of the Court. The Flanders regiment, 
 on which it depended, because it had participated in 
 the banquet given to the Gardes du Corps, went 
 over to the people. When the commandant of the 
 Paris National Guard, M. de Lafayette, informed of 
 the disturbances, hastened from Paris to Versailles, 
 bringing with him a strong column of the National 
 Guard, excesses had already been committed ; but 
 he stopped further ones. The Court, beset with 
 cries of famine, and believing that this was the 
 whole trouble, tardily caused a large quantity of the 
 
74 MEMOIRS OF BARRAS chap. 
 
 finest bread to be distributed; the question consisted 
 of somethinQT else than tossinof a few cakes of fiour 
 into the maw of the new Cerberus. The populace 
 remained in a state of fermentation all night, spread- 
 ing itself about the town. The greater number, un- 
 able to find a lodging, slept on the stones. An idle 
 spectator of what was going on, I came upon a 
 group holding a conversation in which the name of 
 the Due d'Orle'ans was spoken ; I made mention of 
 what I had heard on my return to Paris to several 
 of my friends. M. de Comeyras, desiring to acquire 
 favor with the authorities, quickly went and repeated 
 what I had said at the Chatelet ; hence it was that I 
 was summoned as a witness in the proceedings insti- 
 tuted in connection with the events of the 5th and 
 6th of October. 
 
 The next day the jDeoi^le, whose fury had been 
 inflamed by the gibes of the Versailles aristocrats, 
 appeared at an early hour at the gates of the chateau, 
 and demanded to be admitted in order to present 
 their complaints to the King as a mass. This re- 
 quest being denied them led to an attack on the 
 chateau, which, although defended by the Gardes 
 du Corps, was broken into. M. de Lafayette, who 
 had repaired to the King and the Royal family, led 
 their Majesties to the balcony, where the people 
 were calling for their presence; on their appearance, 
 cries of " To Paris with the King, to Paris !" were ut- 
 tered again and again. The King gave his promise 
 to return to the capital, and at once entered his 
 carriage, escorted by the National Guard of both 
 Paris and Versailles and by a deputation from the 
 National Assembly, which soon followed as a body. 
 Many citizens, and a fev/ individuals who looked 
 
VI" AN IMPROBABLE STORY 73 
 
 upon themselves as the defenders of royalty, because 
 they had become intoxicated a few days previously 
 at the orgy of the Gardes du Corps, perished during 
 the attack on the chateau. The survivors, become 
 cautious at their expense, hastened to doff the royal 
 livery, donned the national uniform, and fraternized 
 with the people, who protected them as far as Paris. 
 The King went to the Tuileries, while the National 
 Assembly took up its quarters in the riding-school 
 adjoining the Terrasse des Feuillants. A surmise, 
 having its origin in the very Chateau of Versailles 
 itself, and which seems to me a most rash one, 
 awakened fears which soon spread about. It was 
 said that the King was to be compelled to abdicate, 
 to banish Monsieur from the realm, and to place the 
 regency in the Queen's hands ; that the Comte 
 d'Artois, appointed lieutenant-general, was, during 
 the night of the 5th of October, to enter the King's 
 bedchamber. The Comte d'Estaing, warned of this 
 plot, slept in the King's bedchamber ; some noise 
 was heard during the night, but no one appeared. 
 What is, however, more certain than this strange 
 undertaking, is that if the Due d'Orleans, in the state 
 of irritation possessing public opinion — that Due 
 d'Orleans, rendered daily more popular owing to the 
 hatred borne him by the Court — if the Due d'Or- 
 leans, I assert, had at that juncture shown any am- 
 bitious inclination, he would, as a matter of course, 
 have been placed on the throne. Let it, however, be 
 noted that on the day following the 14th of July — 
 in other words, for some three months previous- 
 ly — the Comte d'Artois had perhaps adopted the 
 wisest course in view of his position and char- 
 acter — that of leaving France; and it was hardly 
 
76 MEMOIRS OF BARRAS chap, vih 
 
 likely that he would have returned furtively in 
 the night in order to seize the reins of power, com- 
 pel the King to abdicate, and banish Monsieur, his 
 elder. 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 
 Nobles and priests alarmed— They invoke foreign aid— The Court 
 seeks to capitulate— Mirabeau— Certain letters— A man of wit's 
 7K0/— Monsieur's behavior— His interview with the King— He is 
 appointed Prime Minister— His letters to the Due d'Avaray— 
 In later times M. Decazes seeks to purchase them— Moi of 
 Louis XVni. — I return to Provence — The Joicrnie des Poi- 
 ^«ar(/r—BaiIly— Lafayette at the Champ de Mars— Martial law 
 — Electoral assemblies in the Var — Avignon — Carpentras — Civil 
 war — Jourdan Coupe-tete — The priest Escoffier — The Mayor of 
 Avignon — The banker Audiff ret — Mediation — M. Corbeau de 
 Saint-Albin — Antonelle — A desire to hang one of us — The As- 
 sembly of Sorgues — Resolutions adopted by it — Jourdan's ad- 
 vance — The Ice-Tower — Violence of the Provencal character — 
 M. de Mazan — I leave the Comtat Venaissin — Commissioners 
 sent into the department of Vaucluse — The Constituent Assem- 
 bly worn out with fatigue — True and sham Constitutionnels — 
 Revision of the Constitution — The return journey from Va- 
 rennes — The King accepts the Constitution — ^Serious blunder 
 committed by the Constituent Assembly — The Legislative As- 
 sembly. 
 
 On the arrival of the King in Paris, the nobles 
 and priests constituting the minority did not miss 
 the opportunity of crying out against what they 
 styled a violation of the King's person, and of in- 
 veighing against the popular measures decreed by 
 the Assembly. They even called upon the foreign 
 powers to come to the rescue of the throne and the 
 altar, which, they claimed, were being shaken, while 
 they themselves were daily upsetting them by seek- 
 ing with the rotten supports of their worm-eaten 
 architecture to prop them up. 
 
78 MEMOIRS OF BARRAS chap. 
 
 Serious disturbances broke out in various locali- 
 ties in France ; worthy citizens and brave soldiers 
 lost their lives at the outset of the struggle ; but the 
 defeat of the friends of liberty constituted a sufiS- 
 cient indication as to whom victory would favor, 
 the defenders or adversaries of the new system, 
 when once the struggle was fairly engaged. 
 
 The Court had received little encouragement from 
 having recourse to violent measures, and was being 
 brought face to face with a growing power unknown 
 to it — that of public opinion coming to regenerate 
 the nation ; it became necessary to accost in a less 
 direct fashion a power too difficult to assail in front. 
 With the idea of winning over the leaders of the 
 patriotic party, the Court began by approaching the 
 one among them most bitterly opposed to it and 
 most to be dreaded. Negotiators were appointed 
 to treat with Mirabeau on a monetary basis. It 
 seems certain that Mirabeau lent an ear to the over- 
 tures made him ; he was asked to serve, or rather 
 aid by his influence, the very Government he had 
 himself been the first to strike such terrible blows. 
 Mirabeau was to receive fifteen or twenty thousand 
 francs a month, with a prospective seat in the 
 Cabinet. " Mirabeau may have sold himself," has 
 said a man of wit, " but he certainly never delivered 
 himself." It was Monsieur, later Louis XVIII., a 
 prince accustomed at an early stage of his career to 
 hold men in contempt and to bribe them, who con- 
 cluded this bargain with Mirabeau. 
 
 Monsieur, from the very hour of the existence of 
 the Assembly of Notables, and even before, had 
 raised his voice against existing abuses, and was 
 frequently consulted by Louis XVI., who sum- 
 
IX OFFERS MADE TO MIRABEAU 79 
 
 moned him with all the more confidence when most 
 afraid. At a private conference held between the 
 two brothers it was stated that Monsieur had some- 
 what energetically set forth the disturbances, of late 
 on the increase, which the Ministry had been un- 
 able to repress, and which now threatened the 
 crown. Louis XVI., giving way to consternation, 
 and taking up his pen, said to his brother, " I ap- 
 point you constable and lieutenant-general of the 
 kingdom, conferring on you the powers necessary to 
 repress the audacity of the disturbing elements." 
 " So here I am," wrote Monsieur at the time to his 
 best-known cicisbeo, " Prime Minister, and invested 
 with the most extended powers ; for three days do I 
 devote my time to preparing the most urgent meas- 
 ures, but La Vauguyon turns up, and chimes in 
 with Montmorin, and I am no longer anybody." 
 This epistle of Monsieur to his friend has been 
 shown me ; it is in the portfolio of a Parisian of 
 repute. 
 
 Monsieur was in the habit of speaking openly of 
 the King's lack of ability and the preponderating in- 
 fluence of a Queen, whose conduct he sometimes 
 considered giddy. " The Court of Versailles," he 
 would say, " has for some time past been a meeting- 
 place for scarlet women, intriguing priests, and 
 servile noblemen." Here are a few textual lines 
 from Monsieur's confidential letter: " It was in vain 
 that I insisted on some reform or the other; the 
 King would listen to me, but his weakness prevented 
 its being carried out. You are acquainted, my dear 
 fellow, with the timidity I feel at public speaking ; 
 but when I am head to head like the comae, I mas- 
 ter the elephant. I chat separately with the Queen 
 
8o MEMOIRS OF BARRAS chap. 
 
 and King, and what I say carries weight ; but the 
 crowd of ringleaders puts in an appearance, and all 
 I have said, as well as the promises made me, are 
 forgotten." The copies of the letters here quoted 
 were at one time in the hands of a Minister of the 
 Restoration. 
 
 The Minister of Police, in pursuance of his 
 methods and his desire to make himself agreeable 
 to the King, bethought himself of purchasing the 
 originals for a large sum of money. He submitted 
 the matter to Louis XVIII., who replied with his 
 usual tone of superiority, " Were I desirous of 
 calling in everything I have written which might 
 see the light of publication, and in particular the 
 correspondence you allude to, I should exhaust my 
 Treasury." 
 
 In the midst of all the turmoil which stirred 
 Paris so deeply, and filled my soul with the liveliest 
 emotions, I returned to Provence, where I was 
 already looked upon as bound up with 
 ^ the cause of liberty. For some time past 
 I had been desirous of once more seeing my mother. 
 Political upheavals seem to make us feel more 
 keenly the need of our private affections ; 'tis a time 
 of truce and security. 
 
 My mother, for some time a widow, thought to 
 
 retain me at her side by giving me a wife ; but the 
 
 desire, so natural in a young man, to 
 
 Jan., I7gi , ^ • .1 i r 
 
 become an actor m the drama of sreat 
 happenings was soon to compel me to leave my 
 bride in my mother's care. The electoral assemblies 
 were about to be called upon to appoint a legislative 
 body. A citizen, I could not remain inactive on 
 such an occasion : fired with patriotic zeal, I went 
 
IX A VOLUMINOUS CORRESPONDENCE 8l 
 
 on a tour through the Var and adjacent 
 departments. J""'=' '"' 
 
 Just at the time I was passing through Avignon 
 civil war broke out between the Papists and the 
 friends of the Revolution, the latter hav- 
 ing their headquarters at Carpentras, and ^^p''''^' 
 the former at Avignon. A schism had divided 
 the sovereign electoral assembly ; one part sat at 
 Sorgues, where it organized an army placed un- 
 der the orders of Jourdan, nicknamed " Coupe-tete " 
 (chopper-ofi of heads). This personage, whom the 
 aristocracy has sought to confound with one of the 
 most honorable soldiers of the French army, never 
 had aught but the name in common with Marshal 
 Jourdan. 
 
 Avignon had closed its doors, strengthened its 
 ramparts, and armed a National Guard. Carpentras, 
 on its side, likewise made defensive preparations, 
 and raised a National Guard placed under the com- 
 mand of a priest named Escoffier. This town 
 ignored both the electoral assembly of Avignon and 
 that of Sorgues. Political storms did not inspire 
 me with any greater repugnance than tempests at 
 sea had done previously. Perhaps it was that, born 
 in the fire, with a genuine revolutionary vocation, in 
 a measure it was my written destiny to ever be in 
 the thickest of the fray, which already occupied and 
 preoccupied my thoughts. 
 
 When public opinion is set in motion in a na- 
 tion where its expression has always been denied, 
 it soon develops into a power. A reputation for 
 patriotism was beginning to give a man a standing 
 among his fellow-men. It gave and conferred po- 
 Htical powers which, had they been properly taken 
 1—6 
 
62 MEMOIRS OF BARRAS chap. 
 
 into consideration by the Government, would have 
 restored to it its moral force instead of thwarting it. 
 Personally known to M. Richard, Mayor of Avi- 
 gnon, and to M. Audiffret, banker, I was requested 
 by these two citizens, so highly esteemed in the 
 locality, to offer my services as mediator to the dis- 
 sentient parties. They suggested to me as coadju- 
 tors, M. Antonelle, the then Mayor of Aries, and 
 M. Corbeau de Saint- Albin, lieutenant -colonel of 
 artillery, Knight of Saint-Louis. The former was 
 the leader of the most advanced party in the south 
 of France ; he later on achieved fame in more ways 
 than one. The latter, an ornament to the artillery 
 corps, highly thought of by M. de Gribeauval, had 
 had charge of several military schools in the south, 
 where he was looked upon as an upright man and a 
 good patriot ; his reputation as such had been con- 
 firmed by the constitutional societies with which he, 
 as well as ourselves, was affiliated. Thus provided 
 with diplomas of our popularity, we were preparing 
 to fulfil our mission near the Carpentras electoral 
 assembly, when we learned that, in order to show its 
 appreciation of us, the assembly was preparing to 
 reply to our apostleship by erecting in front of the 
 city gate a gallows destined for one of us — to wit, 
 M. de Corbeau, the best of citizens and the most 
 harmless of men. 
 
 We left M. de Corbeau behind at Avignon, and 
 Antonelle and I proceeded, not without some mis- 
 givings, to Sorgues ; we were welcomed there, and 
 admitted to the assembly as members. The as- 
 sembly at Avignon had similarly honored us, but it 
 was in vain that we attempted to pacify the minds 
 of its members. The Sorgues assembly, composed 
 
IX A COWARD'S EXPLOITS 83 
 
 of talented men in a great state of patriotic excite- 
 ment, declined lending an ear to our counsels, and 
 far from sharing the conciliatory spirit of the Mayor 
 of Avignon, at once resolved to begin operations by 
 attacking Carpentras. It ordered Jourdan to march 
 on that town with the little army it had organized. 
 Jourdan thereupon led his troops to the heights 
 commanding the town. He had as lieutenant-gen- 
 eral the self-styled Marquis de Rove re, who, subse- 
 quently a deputy of the National Convention, mas- 
 queraded as a rabid republican, then sailed under 
 totally different colors, with the result of getting 
 himself included in the transportation of the i8th 
 Fructidor, and ended his career of intrigue at Cay- 
 enne. 
 
 At the very outset of his appearance on the scene 
 Jourdan's behavior was far from undeserving of the 
 nickname of " Coupe-tete " acquired by his first ex- 
 ploits. He fired his cannon against Carpentras ; Es- 
 cofifier replied quickly, destroying the epaulements 
 constructed by his opponent, dismounting his guns, 
 and repulsing with loss an attack directed against 
 the aqueduct. The army of Jourdan, which had 
 not alarmed the priest-general, terrified in its retreat 
 the people of the beautiful districts through which 
 it had to pass, setting fire to cottages as well as cha- 
 teaux. Persons of both sexes, arrested without jus- 
 tification, were butchered, and their corpses cast 
 into a tower called La Glaciere, or tossed into the 
 Rhone. The people of Provence have since attrib- 
 uted these excesses to bandits who invaded the 
 country from the Italian border, and from the isles 
 of the Mediterranean. While not wishing to assert 
 that crime is indigenous to the people of Provence, 
 
84 MEMOIRS OF BARRAS chap. 
 
 it must be confessed that these localities have in 
 every age been addicted to excesses, and displayed 
 in those early days the violent characteristics which 
 the Revolution, even in the earlier hotbeds of popu- 
 lar fury, only acquired at a later date. In spite of 
 my excellent reputation for patriotism, I should not 
 have escaped the worst of dangers had it not been 
 for the generous attention shown me by a worthy 
 physician, M. de Mazan. This worthy man accom- 
 panied me, and tendered me the hospitality of his 
 roof in these critical days. We bent our steps 
 thither to the light of incendiary flames. 
 
 Deeply distressed by the atrocities I had wit- 
 nessed, and alarmed at the fresh plans of vengeance 
 which I knew were being hatched in the hearts of 
 the men of the various contending parties, I hur- 
 riedly left the Comtat Venaissin. On my arrival at 
 Marseilles, I persuaded the local popular society to 
 appoint a deputation, whose object it would be to 
 bring about a reconciliation between the people of 
 the department of Vaucluse. I wrote to the Society 
 of Jacobins in Paris, one of whose members I had 
 been from the day of its institution, as well as to my 
 friends, to bring about the despatch of commission- 
 ers, whose pacifying influence might possibly ward 
 off the fresh misfortunes which I could foresee. 
 These commissioners themselves joined issue; this 
 was not the way to re-establish union. Had they 
 been selected for this very reason.? 
 
 As in the future, the provinces took their cue 
 from Paris. We soon learned that the different 
 parties had met face to face in the bosom of the 
 capital. The Joitrn'ee des Poignards, constituting 
 one of the many insolent threats hurled at the 
 
IX THE CONSTITUTION AMENDED 85 
 
 people by the so-called defenders of throne and 
 altar, had driven them to exasperation. A fresh 
 draft of the fundamental articles of the Constitution, 
 those representing its most democratic part, was 
 causing a deep sensation, and gave fervent patriots 
 a cause and pretext for lively protests. A large 
 number of them went in tumultuous fashion to the 
 Champ de Mars to sign a petition against what was 
 styled the Revision. The Mayor of Paris, Bailly, 
 together with Lafayette, appeared at the head of the 
 armed force, displaying the red flag of martial law, 
 and ordered the soldiery to fire on the crowd gath- 
 ered about the Autel de la Patrie. Several citizens 
 were killed unnecessarily, as they bore no arms. 
 This act of rigor called forth angry protests at the 
 time, and became one of the principal counts in the 
 indictment subsequently drawn up against Bailly by 
 the Revolutionary Tribunal, resulting in his atro- 
 cious execution. 
 
 The Constituent Assembly was worn out by 
 varied and quickly-perfected labors, and, while pre- 
 serving its energy, had none the less perhaps lost a 
 little of its earlier fervor. Moreover, it perceived 
 that the Revolution was assuming a character it 
 would be beyond its powers to moderate. The 
 Cabinet favored those opinions opposed to the new- 
 order of things ; already were there genuine and 
 sham consiiiuiionnels. Alarmed, perhaps, at the 
 consequences of its own work, but more especially 
 led astray by the skill of some of its corrupted 
 and corrupting members, the Constituent Assembly 
 seemed to be retracing its steps. In spite of the 
 protest against the display of force the Assembly 
 had called forth, it persisted in its project of re- 
 
86 MEMOIRS OF BARRAS chap. IX 
 
 vision, which was nothing more than an actual 
 modification of the Constitution then in force, and 
 insisted on changes and additions of which pubHc 
 opinion continued to disapprove. The Constitution 
 thus amended was accepted by the King 
 '^^ '' ^^ on the 13th of September, 1791. Louis 
 XVI. maj' possibly have not been sincere at the 
 time, as since his return from Varennes he no 
 longer enjoyed any liberty. On the 30th of the 
 same month the National Assembly announced 
 that its mission had been fulfilled, and its sittings 
 at an end. Yielding to a false sentiment of disinter- 
 estedness, it committed the serious mistake of going 
 into retirement as a body without having com- 
 pleted its patriotic institutions, thus leaving to the 
 Legislative Assembly the task of perfecting the un- 
 finished revolution. 
 
CHAPTER X 
 
 I become an elector in the Var, administrator and haul jure of the 
 High Court of Orleans — A director-general of taxes — The justice 
 of the peace Lariviere — A massacre of prisoners — Consequences 
 of the mistake committed by the Constituent Assembly — Forma- 
 tion of a foreign coalition — Lafayette appointed commander-in- 
 chief — The 2oth of June — The Garde Royale disbanded — The 
 loth of August — My return to Paris previous to that period — 
 Westermann — Danton — Thoughts about the loth of August and 
 the 14th of July — The National Convention — The King in the 
 Temple — I am appointed a commissioner to the Army of Italy — 
 General d'Anselme — Crossing the Var — Taking of Nice — Plotting 
 of the emigres — Curious correspondence — My cousin — The 20th 
 of September — The Republican Era — Pursuit of the Sardinians — 
 I am appointed president of all the administrative departments 
 of Nice — Elected to the National Convention — In unison with 
 D'Anselme — A feminine aide-de-camp. 
 
 An elector of the department of Var by reason 
 of the consideration enjoyed by my family, and per- 
 haps in some degree by virtue of that I had person- 
 ally acquired, I was appointed administrator of the 
 department, then liaut jure, attached to the Orleans 
 tribunal. A newly -elected magistrate, I went to 
 perform my important duties in that 
 town. We had not yet reached the 
 period when it Avas forbidden to acquit prisoners. 
 Of those whom I greatly contributed towards sav- 
 ing I will mention a director -general of taxes of 
 Dijon. Our supreme tribunal did not perhaps 
 make any very great display of dignity, but assur- 
 
88 MEMOIRS OF BARRAS chap. 
 
 edly no one can charge it with undue malice ; rather 
 was it tlie plaything of the prisoners brought before 
 it, so great was the latitude allowed the defence. I 
 can still hear and see a certain justice of the peace 
 named Lariviere, who had been arraigned before 
 the High Court for having arbitrarily arrested two 
 celebrated deputies, Merlin de Thionville and Cha- 
 bot. Lariviere, when committing this outrage, had 
 been the mere instrument of the passions of the 
 Court against a couple of democratic deputies, and 
 had, at the utmost, been guilty of exceeding his 
 powers. We suffered him to say all he chose on his 
 own behalf; his defence was dignified and eloquent, 
 and he was acquitted. Why did this man and 
 others, once free, not remain in Orleans ? Their 
 horribly tragic fate is a matter of notoriety. Sent to 
 Paris shortly afterwards, they were butchered near 
 Versailles by slaughterers detached from the atro- 
 cious bands which had just consummated the ghast- 
 ly executions of the first days of September. 
 
 I have already called attention to the serious 
 mistake committed by the Constituent Assembly 
 when going into retirement as a body. It had 
 deposited in the hands of the King the Constitution 
 of 1 79 1, intrusting the defence of it to the French 
 nation, to the National Guard, and the army ; but 
 it should not have neglected, so to speak, setting its 
 work in motion, or have lost sight of it. In lieu of 
 at least a portion of the Assembly remaining at the 
 post it had so gloriously held for two years between 
 the aristocracy and the democracy, it abandoned 
 everything to its successors. These, sent from de- 
 partments already deeply stirred by passions rever- 
 berating throughout the kingdom, were arriving in 
 
X THE KING'S HUMILIATION 89 
 
 great haste, fired with the' ambition to make their 
 poHtical fortune — a goal they could hope to attain 
 only by going beyond their predecessors. 
 
 Consequently this integral and sudden renewal 
 of members presented chances of a general con- 
 fusion, which detractors of the new political estab- 
 lishment would not fail to seize upon. 
 
 At the very time the founders of the Constitution 
 were acting thus imprudently, the enemies of the 
 new social order were plotting at home, while the 
 enemy from abroad was simultaneously advancing. 
 Lafayette was appointed commander-in-chief of one 
 of the armies sent to oppose the coalition. 
 
 The masses were getting more and more excited 
 by the debates of the popular societies, and pre- 
 served a keen remembrance of the check they had 
 experienced at the Champ de Mars in the course of 
 the preceding year. On the 20th of June the people 
 of the faubourgs marched on the Tuileries to protest 
 against the unconstitutional measures suggested to 
 the King by his flatterers, who were, said the people, 
 so many conspirators, whom the King must dismiss 
 from about his person. In presence of the hideous 
 and terrible petitioners who had pushed their way 
 into his very closet, the King resigned himself to 
 donning the Phrygian cap, and, carrying out to the 
 very end his magnanimity or weakness, he even took 
 the hand of a grenadier, and, placing it on his own 
 heart, said to him, "See if it beats any faster." Was 
 Louis XVI. beginning to give on this occasion the 
 first proofs of that loftiness, doubtless not without 
 some courage, but without action, which does not 
 always suffice kings ? At the request of Mayor 
 Petion, who thought he could take upon himself to 
 
90 MEMOIRS OF BARRAS CHAP. 
 
 assure the petitioners that their demands would be 
 duly granted, they withdrew, although not appearing 
 entirely satisfied. The Legislative Assembly, which 
 ever gained every inch of ground it made royalty 
 lose, disbanded the Garde Royale. It would have 
 been more proper and politic to allow the constitu- 
 tional monarch more liberty. Moderation consti- 
 tuting the best sort of superiority, is the last resort 
 followed by political parties ; as a result, there is no 
 other issue between them than victory or death. 
 
 War, declared some months past, had at first 
 seen the arms of the foreign enemies victorious, as 
 their advance corresponded with plots hatched at 
 home. The population of Paris, reinforced by bat- 
 talions from Brittany and Provence, rose in arms, 
 and on the loth of August proceeded to 
 
 "°' ^ ^ the Tuileries. In the morning Louis 
 XVI. reviewed the Swiss Guards, who, obeying an 
 order from the King or through some unexplained 
 mistake, fired on a delegation of the people engaged 
 in parleying. The struggle was thereupon engaged, 
 with the result that most of the Swiss Guards were 
 killed. Their auxiliaries, those intrepid " Chevaliers 
 du Poignard," who in their boastful utterances had 
 so faithfully promised to defend the King's person, 
 left him to the tender mercies of the victorious 
 crowd. Since then they have themselves charged 
 Louis XVI. with abandoning the position, because 
 at the first outbreak of hostilities he sought refuge 
 with the National Assembly. The neighborhood of 
 the Rue Saint- Honore and the Palais Royal was 
 occupied during the engagement by a few battalions 
 of the National Guard, composed of those who, not 
 sharing the sentiments of the majority, had sworn to 
 
X MASSACRE OF THE SWISS 91 
 
 defend the throne. They were awaiting the turn of 
 events in order to keep their oath. There can be 
 little doubt that had the Court triumphed they would 
 not have failed to join forces with it ; but nobody 
 ever joins the defeated party. Hence they dispersed 
 on learning of the people's victory. I returned to 
 Paris a few days previous to the loth of August, and 
 was a very close spectator of this decisive battle, 
 just as three years before I had witnessed the storm- 
 ing of the Bastille on the 14th of July. Although 
 the participation of the people in the fight was any- 
 thing but doubtful, one is nevertheless justified in 
 believing that at the Tuileries as well as at the 
 Bastille victory was due rather to the action of the 
 regular troops than to the masses. The battalions 
 of Marseillais and Bretons were, at the Tuileries, the 
 counterpart of what the Gardes Fran9aises had been 
 at the Bastille. On both these occasions, so far- 
 reaching in their consequences, I was enabled to 
 judge on what slight threads momentous triumphs 
 hang; they depend on an order, a movement, a 
 sino-le man. In the military world the man of the 
 loth of August was Westermann. In the Place du 
 Carrousel, in the Commune, the revolutionary man 
 of the loth of August, the man who decided the 
 issue, was Danton. Had the first days of the Revo- 
 lution not left the victory in the hands of the people, 
 if on the 14th of July, for instance, the royal power 
 had triumphed, would the battle of the loth of 
 August have even been ventured upon ? Again, if 
 fortune had not favored the people on the loth of 
 August, how different would have been the series of 
 events from those which followed ! Who is there 
 who can calculate them, even in thought.? The 
 
92 MEMOIRS OF BARRAS chap. 
 
 throne had been smashed into splinters, and the 
 King and his family were prisoners in the Temple. 
 
 During the course of the day the Legislative 
 Assembly decreed the calling of a National Con- 
 vention. I was elected to it by the department of 
 the Var ; but, the Tribunal of the High Court 
 having ceased to exist in consequence of the gen- 
 eral upheaval of the system to which it owed its in- 
 stitution, I had been, ere knowing that I was to be 
 chosen a deputy, appointed by the Commission of 
 General Defence commissioner to the army of the 
 South, from that time on known as the army of 
 Italy, with the mission of accelerating the crossing 
 of the Var. I hastened to take charge of this 
 important post. 
 
 The army of Italy was commanded by General 
 d'Anselme, favorably known through his past ser- 
 vices and patriotism. Our troops crossed the Var 
 without encountering any resistance on the 28th of 
 September, 1792. The Sardinian battalions and the 
 emigres abandoned Nice ; Montalban and Villafranca 
 were both evacuated, the Sardinians taking the direc- 
 tion of Sospello. Anselme took possession of Nice, 
 where occurred a few disturbances inseparable from 
 a war which was no longer an ordinary war, but 
 almost a civil one, since the French emigres, its 
 original instigators, were simultaneously its aux- 
 iliaries and guides. 
 
 We had known for some time that Nice was one 
 of the headquarters of the counter-revolution. The 
 proximity of that locality to Southern France and 
 Italy rendered the requisite communications all the 
 more easy to the emigres for the purposes of foment- 
 ing the agitation. The capture of Nice compelled 
 
X THE £MIGR£s at work 93 
 
 them to fly in the utmost haste, and left in our 
 hands numerous proofs of agencies at work, whose 
 existence we had until then merely suspected with 
 an instinct closely akin to divination. Among 
 other things brought to me were military recon- 
 naissances ordered by the princes in regard to the 
 provinces of Languedoc, Provence, and Dauphine. 
 These reconnaissances, carried out with a genuine 
 talent, whoever their authors may have been, gave 
 the most extensive topographical particulars, mi- 
 nutely precise on the localities the princes had or- 
 dered to be examined with the view of carrying out 
 their plan of invasion. The military portion of the 
 matter had seemingly not especially engrossed the 
 attention of the emigres. The subject-matter of 
 their letters was generally the regret they felt at 
 having to forsake their pleasures and privileges 
 when leaving French soil, and their impatient de- 
 sire to again enjoy them, or to obtain them else- 
 where. Among the letters I am speaking of, and 
 which we were ordered to forward to Paris, I no- 
 ticed one of a particular kind, of a truly superior 
 order by virtue of the talent as well as the senti- 
 ment which had inspired it — one between a woman 
 endowed with as much wit as soul and a most dis- 
 tinsuished man who had well deserved her tender- 
 ness during his lifetime, and to whom she had not 
 ceased writing after he had departed this life. An 
 article appeared in 182 1 in one of our best-known 
 publications revealing the name of that remarkable 
 woman, who was a cousin of mine ; she ended her 
 days at my house in Chaillot, whither she had come 
 to seek rest after all her troubles under the shelter 
 of my tender friendship. 
 
94 MEMOIRS OF BARRAS chap. 
 
 In the meantime the National Convention met 
 on the 20th of September and held its first sitting, 
 proclaimed the Republic on the 21st, and on the 
 very next day its era had commenced, dated Year I. 
 of the Repubhc. Thus what were but yesterday 
 the years of the Monarchy were to-day those of the 
 Repubhc. 
 
 Our Republican army, mistress of Nice, followed 
 up the retreat of the Sardinians. Several engage- 
 ments were fought, the French carrying the day. 
 These successes enabled me to devote myself to my 
 home duties, and, appointed president of all the ad- 
 ministrative departments in concert with General 
 d'Anselme, I organized provisionally the department 
 R.F.Veari., of the Alpcs- Maritimcs. Just as I was 
 
 Oct., 1792 attempting to allay the fears disseminated 
 among the population of Nice by the refractory 
 priests, the emigres, and the authorities of the town 
 as they were leaving it, at the very moment I was 
 putting a stop to the pillaging of the residences of 
 Piedmontese nobles, and creating an administration, 
 a municipality, provisional tribunals, and justices of 
 the peace, I learned of my election to the National 
 Convention, and was called upon to join it; but 
 General d'Anselme and the principal citizens of 
 Nice wrote to the Assembly, begging it to allow me 
 to fulfil my mission to the end, and however imper- 
 ative my duty in the Convention was, I could not 
 make up my mind to leave without any government, 
 and in a state of anarchy following the overthrow of 
 a government, a population to which I could still 
 render service, and which was giving me a proof of 
 its gratitude. 
 
 Anselme and I never ceased working harmoni- 
 
X RATHER TOO PATRIOTIC 95 
 
 ously together, although attempts were made to em- 
 broil us by means of suggestions akin to jobbery. 
 They emanated from the sister of that general, 
 doubtless a most patriotic woman, but more so than 
 was required of her. This damsel wore the uniform 
 of an aide-de-camp, and, not content with interfering 
 in military matters, must needs interfere in politics. 
 
CHAPTER XI 
 
 I take my seat in the Convention — Roland the Minister — Mme. 
 Roland — Antinous Barbaroux — A call — I decline an invitation 
 — Women who unsex themselves — Confused state of public 
 affairs — Louis XVI. indicted — Critical position of the Conven- 
 tion — Its action judged — Immense operations — The 2ist of 
 January — I am appointed Commissioner of Recruiting — Sent 
 with Freron into the departments of the Hautes-Alpes and 
 Basses-Alpes — Chamfort's great fright — He wishes to accom- 
 pany me on my mission, then declines; his tragic end. 
 
 Year I., December, 1792. — At the end of two 
 months of uninterrupted labors I left D'Anselme at 
 Nice and took my seat in the Convention, a post 
 which had become so difficult a one since the loth 
 of August. During my Nice mission I had been in 
 correspondence with Roland, the Minister of the In- 
 terior; I learned to do justice to his generous ideas, 
 his patriotic views of organization in regard to the 
 districts soon to become part and parcel of the new 
 France. On reaching Paris I was received by the 
 Minister with sjreat consideration. I was waitinsr 
 in silence in his closet for his wife to leave him, in 
 order to talk with him regarding matters of the 
 gravest import. Roland, interpreting my silence, 
 said to me, " My wife is no stranger to the affairs of 
 my department." 
 
 Mme. Roland was not devoid of physical charms ; 
 it has been said of her that her heart might have 
 shown more reserve when, in her memoirs, speaking 
 
CHAP. XI MME. ROLAND OBJECTED TO 97 
 
 of several deputies for whom she had had a hking, 
 she said that she had found Barbaroux as handsome 
 as Antinous, and called him by that name. Matters 
 like this belong to the domain of private life. Mme. 
 Roland lives in my memory only in regard to her 
 connection with the political events in which she 
 was subsequently to become so cruelly involved, 
 and which were cause of her tragic end as well as 
 that of her husband. As regards myself, my con- 
 science does not refiroach me with having on this 
 or any other occasion encouraged Mme. Roland's 
 ambition to insinuate herself into public affairs. 
 She seemed imperious in the bow of the head with 
 which she favored me, and in the way she occupied 
 with obstinate assurance the closet of the Minister. 
 I was not gallant enough to submit to her presence, 
 considering it indiscreet, so without adding anoth- 
 er word I bowed and withdrew. On the following 
 day I received an invitation to dinner, and declined 
 it on the same grounds. Far from contesting the 
 superior merit women may have displayed in the 
 various ranks of society, I have rarely found that 
 their happiness or that of others is in any way 
 bettered by their unsexing themselves and taking 
 upon themselves men's duties. 
 
 We have already seen, as a consequence of his 
 seeking a refuge with the Legislative Assembly, 
 that Louis XVI. had been taken to the Temple, 
 and his deposition pronounced ; the Legislative 
 Assembly, worn out and consumed by events daily 
 becoming stronger than itself, had the good sense to 
 see that it did not preserve sufficient strength and 
 consideration to save the country, and called to- 
 gether a National Convention, to which I had been 
 1-7 
 
gS MEMOIRS OF BARRAS chap. 
 
 elected by my own department, the Var. Need I 
 recall the critical and threatening situation in 
 France, especially for those who wished to remain 
 united with its destiny ? Many of the deputies had 
 been elected by their constituents pledged to de- 
 mand that the King should be tried. The National 
 Venri., Convention, having met and constituted 
 Dec. 3, 1792 itself, declared the French Republic to be 
 one and indivisible, and impeached Louis XVI. 
 
 This act was doubtless strongly characterized by 
 revolutionary intrepidity and daring, in the face of 
 the advance of the coalition of the kings of Europe 
 already on French soil. But the trial of the King 
 by the National Convention itself was not a forced 
 consequence of the proclamation of the Republic. 
 Our Assembly would have shown itself more august, 
 more strong at its birth, if, declining to usurp judi- 
 cial functions liable to be considered incompatible 
 with the legislative power, it had referred the matter 
 to a tribunal beyond its halls. Rising superior to 
 the principle of discord soon to agitate and divide it, 
 it might rather have devoted its attention to the 
 organization of the army and home affairs. In the 
 belief that it could meet every emergency, and defy 
 all dangers of opinion with Danton, that peace could 
 be obtained from the kings by the arbitrament of 
 war and the decision of victory onl}', the Convention 
 deemed it necessary to pick up, or rather fling down 
 as a gage of battle to kings, the head of Louis 
 XVI. Here occurs one of the most striking scenes 
 of modern history, one which for all time to come 
 will furnish food for thought to both kings and 
 nations. Bound by all my previous pledges to 
 come to a decision at this critical juncture, I do not 
 
XI A JUDGMENT PRONOUNCED BY CONSCIENCE 99 
 
 pretend to justify my conduct, nor pretend that I am 
 called upon to justify, in the eyes of I know not 
 whom, the line of action imposed on me by the 
 times, and which my conscience may also have 
 dictated. Nor do I seek to shirk the responsibility 
 of my conduct, any more than that of my utterances, 
 by calculating that my memoirs will not see the light 
 of publication until after my death ; this would be 
 seeking to escape this amenability under cover of a 
 posthumous mantle. Louis XVI. is to-day in the 
 presence of God, as I will soon be myself ; and it is 
 in presence of this supreme tribunal that I here 
 give expression to my last thought, because it is the 
 judgment pronounced by my conscience. It tells 
 me that if Louis XVI., who was good-hearted, right- 
 minded, of sound and in certain matters large views, 
 had banished from his presence the faction of ultra- 
 montane priests and courtiers interested in abuses 
 relentlessly driving him by fearful prognostications 
 to a line of action spasmodic and without fixity of 
 purpose, to reject one day what he accepted the 
 next, freed from the mental and Jesuitical restrictions 
 imposed on him, and left to his own impulses — my 
 conscience tells me that Louis XVI., by nature in- 
 clining towards the reformative principles of the 
 Constituent Assembly, would have frankly joined in 
 its designs of regeneration ; saved from all perturba- 
 tion, strengthened by the love of the French nation, 
 grateful for the restitution of its rights and the sac- 
 rifice he would have made for them, happy forever, 
 he would have governed France, powerful, at peace, 
 and revered on his throne. . . . 
 
 Year /., January 21, 1793. — The terrible deed ac- 
 complished, its ships burned, and boldly facing all 
 
loo MEMOIRS OF BARRAS cHAP. 
 
 its enemies, and, similar to a central battery, power- 
 ful enough to vomit flame in all its frontiers at one 
 and the same time, the Convention devoted itself ex- 
 clusively to preparing the apparatus for the universal 
 war it had undertaken to wage. It was necessary 
 vigorously to carry out raising the draft of 300,000 
 men subsequently decreed. Its first effect had been 
 to furnish a pretext for the disturbances in Vendee, 
 which, spreading to other portions of France, had 
 no less an object than to light up a general con- 
 flagration. Unsuccessful attempts had been made 
 to raise these extraordinary drafts while the staffs 
 were considerably thinned ; it was of urgent ne- 
 cessity to fill them. It was essential that the Con- 
 vention, which had assumed all the powers of the 
 French nation, should take agents from within its 
 own body to be able to appeal to it with efficacy. 
 The representatives of the people chosen as dele- 
 gates were to create and organize the army, and set 
 it in motion against the enemy. It will be seen 
 that to attain such results it was requisite that the 
 delegates be invested with the widest powers. The 
 representatives of the people thus sent out united 
 all those of the National Convention itself; now it 
 has just been seen that these powers were those of 
 the entire French nation — in other words, sover- 
 eignty itself in the hands of this nation, whom it was 
 no adulation to call sovereign on this tei'rible occa- 
 sion, when only the courage, the arms, and the blood 
 of this genuine monarch could possibly pay the 
 expenses of public defence. I was included in the 
 first lot of this general appointment of deputies 
 hurled through the departments on to the frontier 
 to give strength to the great national object. I was 
 
XI UNFORTUNATE CHAMFORT loi 
 
 given the Hautes-Alpes and the Basses-Alpes, with 
 Freron as coadjutor. My friend Chamfort called 
 on me just as I was about to leave for my destina- 
 tion. He exclaimed, " How fortunate you are to be 
 able to leave Paris! What is occurring and being 
 hatched foretells fearful catastrophes." Chamfort 
 had been one of the most ardent and sincere up- 
 holders of the Revolution, but its accelerated prog- 
 ress did not seem to permit of his following it any 
 longer, and he saw himself in the first rank of those 
 about to halt and perish on the way. Divining his 
 anxiety, I said, "You can be as fortunate as myself, 
 if you think one so fortunate to be able to leave 
 Paris: I propose to you to accompany me on my 
 mission." "Alas! will I be permitted to do so.?" he 
 replied. " If you will undertake to obtain such per- 
 mission from the Committee of Public Safety, how 
 great will my joy be to leave Paris, where my life is 
 threatened." I applied for the permission with suc- 
 cess. " Here is your passport," I said to Chamfort. 
 "Well then," he replied, with animation, "I am off 
 to pack my things." A few hours later he again 
 called on me, looking most dejected, and, returning 
 the passport, said to me, " My friends have dissuaded 
 me from undertaking the journey. They are of the 
 opinion that there is perhaps less danger for me in 
 Paris than on a mission with Barras." 
 
 The Society of Jacobins had just finished a sifting 
 of its membership, and had considered me worthy of 
 not being excluded from its body. Chamfort, who 
 knew me well, was aware that my character would 
 not undergo any change owing to that circum- 
 stance, no more than would my friendship for him; 
 but he feared perhaps more than those of Paris the 
 
102 MEMOIRS OF BARRAS chap. 
 
 disturbances which were breaking out in the south. 
 Grieved at seeing me depart, whom he considered 
 his protector, and yet not daring to accompany me, 
 I could see at this meeting, when Chamfort spoke 
 to me for the last time, how terrified he was at the 
 idea of remaining exposed to the informers of the 
 Committee of Public Safety. 
 
 I was pained to learn some time afterwards that 
 this man, so remarkable for his originality of mind, 
 had, giving way to the terrors of his imagination, 
 cut his throat with a razor. Chamfort was one of 
 the men who had most desired, anticipated, prayed 
 for, and loved the Revolution. Its early excesses, 
 far from alarming him, had diverted him. I have 
 recorded his piquant mot in regard to the razing of 
 the Bastille. It recalls to my memory yet another 
 one which he uttered on his return from the same 
 excursion. He had arrived very late at a dinner 
 where we were all gathered, and by way of apology 
 for his tardiness, said to us, laughingly, " I was 
 imprudent enough to go thither oi cerhnonie " (men 
 of letters still wore the coat known as " habille " — 
 dress-coat — silk stockings, buckled shoes, and car- 
 ried a sword) ; " did they not go and take me for an 
 aristocrat and want to hang me t Oh, how well 
 things are going, are they not .?" The unfortunate 
 man did not know affairs would reach the point 
 when his head, which people believed a sound 
 one, would become unhinged, and drive him to a 
 suicidal end. What more could happen to him 
 than death, for him to give it to himself so cruelly, 
 so suddenly ? There is always a chance gained by 
 waiting. Such was, as regards myself, the simple 
 way in which I argued on the first day I entered 
 
XI SELF-PRESERVATION 103 
 
 the movement of a revolution like our own ; and it 
 is perhaps due to that instinct of courage, much 
 more than to any reasoning, that I believe I owe 
 my survival of so many catastrophes with which I 
 was so seriously bound up, and am able, living in 
 retirement in my cottage, to write to-day my me- 
 moirs. 
 
CHAPTER XII 
 
 Our mission in the Alpine departments accomplished — I return 
 to Fox-Amphoux — Ordered to join the Army of Italy — Bayle, 
 Beauvais, Despinassy — I take Freron with me — Biron — Brunet 
 — Theodore Beauvais — The 31st of May — The Girondins — 
 Spirit animating the Army of Italy — Our reception — My col- 
 leagues forsake me — Haranguing the mutineers — Victory — 
 Brunet suspected — Toulon meditates treason — I hastily go 
 thither — Freron accompanies me — General Lapoype — Victor 
 Grand and Roubaud — My arrival at Pignans — Arrest of my 
 colleagues — A price set on my head — Insurrection in Toulon 
 — I return to Nice — Occurrences at Pignans — An attempt 
 made to arrest me — Our secretaries arrested — Vidauban — The 
 two dragoons — The Mayor of La Roque-Frainel — Saint-Tro- 
 pez — Daillier and Martin — We set sail — The carangiie — The 
 Island of Sainte-Marguerite — Nice — Our secretaries cast into 
 the dungeons of Toulon. 
 
 None of the missions whose circumstances and 
 objects I have just mentioned were Hable to be 
 devoid of dangers, and I did not expect to find an 
 exception in what we were about to encounter in 
 the Hautes-Alpes and Basses-Alpes. 
 
 In spite of all the intrigues of the aristocracy, 
 we quickly and earnestly set to work to carry out 
 our mandate. The armies of Italy and the Alps 
 were furnished all the resources they stood in need 
 of, both in men and stores of war. Our mission 
 accomplished, I again paid a visit to my native 
 village. I had scarcely been two days at Fox- 
 Year i., Amphoux when there came a courier 
 April, 1793 from Paris bearing an order for me to join 
 
CHAP. XII SENT ON MISSION 105 
 
 the Army of Italy. A decree of the Convention 
 had revoked all the powers conferred upon its 
 recruiting commissioners, and appointed me anew 
 its representative with the Army of Italy, together 
 with Bayle, Beauvais, and Despinassy ; I joined the 
 two former at Hyeres. The one was a petty mer- 
 chant's clerk at Marseilles, and the other a physician 
 of Paris, respected professionally, but who no more 
 than Bayle could be expected to have any knowl- 
 edge of administrative, much less military, affairs. 
 The last-named was the father of a young officer, 
 since risen to the rank of general, a soldier of sound 
 political views, who shone more perhaps by his 
 military exploits, but to whom one owes important 
 works, in particular his book entitled Victoires et 
 Conquetes, his Annales de la Guerre, and other pro- 
 ductions which have taken rank in libraries. Fre- 
 ron was recalled to Paris ; he had therefore no 
 longer any mission. He confided to me that he was 
 not desirous of returning to Paris ere I did. In 
 those days, when the public weal was taken into 
 consideration rather than matters of form, I took 
 upon myself to write that Freron had at least pro- 
 visional powers, and that I was taking him with me 
 to Nice. 
 
 The Army of Italy's first general -in -chief had 
 been Biron, formerly Duke de Lauzun. Denounced 
 by the aristocracy, which in those days frequently 
 donned the cloak of patriotism, this general had 
 been torn from his army, which worshipped him, by 
 an order from Paris. Arraigned before the Revolu- 
 tionary Tribunal, he had been tried — in other words, 
 sentenced to death — and executed with the rapidity 
 proper to those times. Biron had been succeeded 
 
io6 MEMOIRS OF BARRAS chap. 
 
 by General Brunet, who, in the matter of patriotism 
 as well as military talent, was inferior to the man he 
 had superseded. 
 
 Year /., May 31, 1793. — The 31st of May, the 
 day which witnessed the violation of the national 
 representation, had seen one of the two factions of 
 the Assembly, the Right, the Girondins, succumb in 
 the struggle against the Left, the Montagnards. 
 The National Convention, setting the baleful exam- 
 ple of intestine war in its own bosom, had divided 
 all citizens into two parties, and was soon to drive 
 one of them to the verge of treason. 
 
 Up to that time I was not for or against the 
 Gironde party in too pronounced a manner ; I 
 merely believed that it behooved us, leaving aside 
 all differences of opinion, to fight and drive off the 
 foreign enemy, and obtain at the cost of every sac- 
 rifice the independence of France. I learned with 
 sincere regret the defeat of the Girondins, and when 
 the popular societies and armies wished in their 
 effervescence of joy to present me with congratula- 
 tory addresses, coupled with the request that I 
 should transmit them to the National Convention, I 
 declined to countenance anything which appeared to 
 applaud a victory won in civil war. The south of 
 France seemed to be its hot-bed. The army com- 
 manded by Brunet was, we learned, in a great state 
 of ferment, not to say mutiny. At such a juncture, 
 when the enemy is on the point of advancing, it is 
 necessary to make a direct attack, so I proceeded 
 at once to the camp at Raoux, its headquarters. 
 Brunet received us coldly. The men were under 
 arms, and should have so remained, yet military 
 petitioners left the ranks, thus testifying to the fact 
 
XII PLAYING AT REVOLUTION 107 
 
 that they had no conception of disciphne. Rein- 
 forced by a number of civiHans, they presented 
 themselves at our tent, and spoke to us in insolent 
 and threatening tones. They were under the delu- 
 sion that they were making a revolution of their 
 own, that they were personages of importance, or 
 at the very least individuals to be feared. Beauvais 
 was already suffering from the grave disease which 
 was to carry him off shortly afterwards, and with 
 Bayle, who was alarmed at the prominent part alot- 
 ted him in a mutiny so little foreseen, adopted the 
 course of bestriding their mules, and I was power- 
 less to dissuade them from returning to Nice. 
 
 Left alone face to face with the petitioners, I 
 addressed them, in my dual capacity of military man 
 and deputy, in terms inspired by the circumstances. 
 It was not the first nor the last time that I received 
 proof that firmness and spirit constitute the only 
 means of winning back erring men, both among 
 the soldiery and popular masses, when one has truly 
 good reasons to assign. I required General Brunet 
 to compel them to withdraw. He contented him- 
 self with sending them back to their post, and re- 
 mained silent. 
 
 I next went with Brunet and his staff along the 
 lines of the army. 
 
 " Hope of your country, defenders of liberty and 
 equality," I said to the soldiers, " the National Con- 
 vention sends me to enlighten you. You will 
 make known to me the names of the authors of 
 the insinuations which have led you astray. Your 
 general should have repressed them. I am com- 
 missioned to provide you with everything you need ; 
 I have already secured food supplies, clothing, and 
 
io8 MEMOIRS OF BARRAS chap. 
 
 munitions ; the privations which you have so nobly 
 endured are about to cease. I am your comrade, 
 attentive to your needs, sharing your labors ; but, a 
 lover of discipline, I will proceed with vigor against 
 those who might seek to disturb order. Your patri- 
 otism will make you point out to me the fomenters 
 of trouble, whatever their rank may be." 
 
 At these words I was interrupted with cries of 
 " Long live the Republic ! Long live the National 
 Convention ! Long live Barras !" Hats were 
 thrown in the air as signs of joy. Brunet looked 
 pale and discomfited. Owing to my orders faith- 
 fully carried out, the troops were abundantly pro- 
 vided for. I returned to Nice, where I found my 
 colleagues on the point of leaving for Toulon. All 
 my efforts to keep them by me were in vain ; they 
 bestrode their mules once more and left me alone 
 with the army. 
 
 Year /., yune, 1793. — Brunet had, on the 8th of 
 June, 1 793, unprofitably attacked the Piedmontese 
 army with 20,000 men, and been driven back into 
 his intrenchments. " Altogether different manoeu- 
 vres and other deeds are required of you," I said to 
 Brunet. " You are general-in-chief, 'tis true, but we 
 have the right to remind you that the representa- 
 tives of the people rank higher than the general-in- 
 chief, and are above everything; they hold the 
 power of life and death in their hands, subject to 
 rendering an account of it later on in the bosom of 
 the Convention." Thereupon Brunet consented to 
 sally from his intrenchments, made new dispositions, 
 and completely defeated the enemy. 
 
 Brunet was suspected of being even then in 
 secret communication with Toulon and the sections 
 
X" BRUNET MEDITATES TREASON 1 09 
 
 assembled there, who claimed to have armed them- 
 selves in support of the Girondin system. Informa- 
 tion reached me from Toulon to the effect that 
 treason was being meditated; a secret correspond- 
 ence was being carried on by Marseilles, the mem- 
 bers of the sections, and Brunet, and it had spread 
 as far as Lyons, which had closed its gates and 
 hoisted the standard of rebellion. My colleagues, 
 threatened and insulted, endeavored to prevail upon 
 me to join them in Toulon. I left with Freron, 
 General Lapoype, and the two secretaries to the 
 commission appointed to recruit 300,000 men — viz., 
 Victor Grand and Cesar Roubaud. We had an es- 
 cort of twelve dragoons ; sinister rumors reached 
 me along the road. On reaching Pignans I discov- 
 ered that these rumors had acquired reality. I 
 learned that my two colleagues, Bayle and Beauvais, 
 had been arrested at Toulon, that the National Con- 
 vention had been disregarded, that a price had been 
 set upon my head, and that commissioners had been 
 sent to enter into negotiations with the Year i., 
 admirals of the British and Spanish J"'>'' '793 
 squadrons cruising off Toulon. A committee drawn 
 from the sections had constituted itself the Govern- 
 ment ; the alarm-bell was being sounded in nearly all 
 the communes ; the insurrection had become gen- 
 eral. My intention in going to Toulon was to give 
 support to my colleagues, and take in unison with 
 them measures to frustrate the intended treason. It 
 was too late. I therefore resolved to return at once 
 to the Army of Italy, and instead of taking the road 
 to Toulon, I took that to Nice. While I was con- 
 ferring with Freron and Lapoype, the municipality 
 of Pignans, surrounded by a number of the inhabi- 
 
no MEMOIRS OF BARRAS chap. 
 
 tants of that commune who had come in haste tow- 
 ards us, were watching us in silence. I was on 
 horseback, as were Freron and Lapoype. The secre- 
 taries to the commission travelled in a barouche with 
 their registers and our baggage. No sooner had this 
 evil-intentioned municipality perceived that, cogni- 
 zant of what was taking place at Toulon, we were 
 retracing our steps, than the mayor, wearing his 
 sash of office and leading an armed force, sought 
 to arrest me. My horse was seized by the bridle, 
 whereupon I drew my sword and commanded my 
 dragoons to draw. With one blow I freed myself, 
 and with my companions and escort charged the 
 municipal officers, who fell back on a neighboring 
 rivulet, thus leaving the road open to us. A few 
 shots fired at us went wide of their mark, but the 
 mob took possession of the barouche wherein sat 
 our two secretaries, who, remaining in the hands 
 of the insurgents, were exposed to the worst dan- 
 gers. As for ourselves, we pushed into Vidauban 
 by cross - roads. We could hear the ringing of 
 the alarm-bell ; the population was under arms, the 
 danger growing more imminent, and as the high- 
 road was closed to us, I crossed the river Argens, 
 at the very spot where the Roman triumvirs had 
 made a partition of the world. Only two dragoons 
 had followed us; I questioned them, and seeing 
 that they were still uncertain as to what course 
 to pursue, I said to them, " If you regret your 
 present step, you may go and rejoin the rebels." 
 Flourishing their swords in the air, they exclaimed, 
 "Yours to command, representative!" I was fortu- 
 nately acquainted with this part of the country, 
 which I had explored when in pursuit of game. 
 
xii ON THE WAY TO NICE iii 
 
 On our arrival at La Roque-Frainel (La Garde- 
 Frainet ?) the mayor came to me in great haste, 
 saying, " You are doubtless going to Saint-Tropez ; 
 lose no time, for couriers are riding through the 
 communes with orders to seize you." We reached 
 Saint-Tropez at nightfall; in that town lived two 
 men, excellent republicans, who were devoted to 
 me; they were the mayor, M. Daillier, and M. 
 Martin, a naval officer. These two worthy citizens 
 confirmed to me the treachery of Toulon. Worn 
 out with fatigue and hunger, we bought a few poor 
 provisions, and went on board a sloop which was 
 in readiness at some little distance from the harbor. 
 "A courier has just arrived from Toulon," said M. 
 Daillier to me ; " fly." We sailed towards the Army 
 of Italy; at daybreak we were surrounded by British 
 vessels. A carangue (cove) studded with rocks, on 
 the coast of Frejus, sheltered us during the day; at 
 night we again set sail. I stopped at the He Sainte- 
 Marguerite, which still remained true to the Con- 
 vention. I ordered certain works of defence to be 
 erected, and proceeded on my way to Nice. I has- 
 tened to send the Council General of the Var a for- 
 mal order to set free our unfortunate secretaries. 
 They had already been conveyed to Toulon and 
 cast into dungeons, from which they were to emerge 
 by their skill and energy alone. 
 
CHAPTER XIII 
 
 My arrival at Nice— I call together the authorities — A dismissal — 
 Brunet's treachery — My reproaches — His reply to them — Mission 
 given to Lapoype — Brunet's fright — Fresh proofs of his treachery 
 — I deprive him of his command — Dumerbion succeeds him — 
 Confidence felt by the army — Brunet's entreaties — My conde- 
 scendence — He denounces me — Caught in his own trap — He is 
 arraigned before the Revolutionary Tribunal — The cause of his 
 untimely end. 
 
 We reached Nice during the night. The chains 
 barring the entrance to the port had not been hung. 
 The whole town was asleep, even the sentry of the 
 guard -room alongside of which we landed. I went 
 to the lodgings I had previously occupied, and im- 
 mediately summoned the authorities, who expressed 
 satisfaction at my return. Brunet had spread the 
 news that I had been arrested and conveyed to 
 Toulon. I began by substituting, with the consent 
 of all, the colonel of gendarmerie Durand as the 
 commandant of the town; Durand's political opin- 
 ion as well as his bravery were known to me. On 
 the following day I again called together the author- 
 ities, and summoned General Brunet to appear be- 
 fore them. He came accompanied by a numerous 
 staff, but he alone was admitted to the sitting ; he 
 protested against having been superseded at Nice. 
 I replied that his neglect to close the fort, and his 
 abandonment of the stage-coach service had justified 
 me in my action; that under less grave circum- 
 
CHAP, xm BRUNET UNMASKED I13 
 
 stances I might have consulted with him. I went 
 on to say that it was necessary to come to an under- 
 standing for the purpose of dissolving the sectionary 
 insurrection organized in the departments of the 
 Bouches-du- Rhone and the Var, especially at Mar- 
 seilles and Toulon; two of my colleagues were un- 
 der arrest in the latter town by virtue of an order of 
 a self-styled Governmental committee, and the rebel- 
 lion should, in its principle, be stamped out by him ; 
 I added that I would require him to detach 3000 
 men from his army for the purpose of re-establishing 
 order in those two departments, and that he should 
 take up a position at La Valette, near Toulon, which 
 had just opened its port to the squadrons of our en- 
 emies. I had despatched a courier to my colleagues 
 attached to the Army of the Alps, informing them 
 of the revolt of the Marseillais and Toulonnais, and, 
 while communicating to them the first measures we 
 had taken, I urgently begged them also to detach 
 3000 or 4000 men from their army: these troops 
 were on their line of march to pacify the department 
 of the Drome, scatter the Marseillais army which had 
 taken possession of Avignon, and capture the passes 
 of Ollioules, so as to interrupt the communications 
 of the insurgents. 
 
 General Brunet, who I do not consider should 
 have been left in ignorance either of our measures 
 or our intentions, at once revealed to me that his 
 ideas were far from coinciding with ours. He told 
 us that neither he nor the Army of the Alps would 
 despatch troops against the loyal citizens of the 
 south ; the effervescence which had shown itself was 
 the result of the actions of the National Convention 
 and the committees ; it would all calm down of its 
 1—8 
 
114 MEMOIRS OF EARRAS chap. 
 
 own accord, and sooner or later the two deputies 
 under arrest would be released ; the British and 
 Spanish squadrons had been granted admission to 
 the port of Toulon with the sole object of protecting 
 the friends of order ; finally, Brunet declined to 
 adopt the measures I proposed, adding that I was 
 moreover the only representative of the people, 
 and he could not recognize the coadjutorship of 
 Freron. 
 
 Brunet then withdrew, the Assembly unani- 
 mously censuring his conduct. His bad grace only 
 served to increase the suspicions hovering about 
 him, for he was reputed to be in correspondence 
 with Toulon. I gave orders that every courier 
 showing himself on the banks of the Var should be 
 brought into my presence. I soon acquired proofs, 
 through the despatches brought by one of them, 
 that Brunet, in agreement with the Toulon rebels, 
 was encouraging them to protest against the 31st 
 of May, persevere in their dispositions, and that he 
 would afford them aid and protection. Strong in 
 this discovery, and after Freron and I had written 
 several official letters wherein we attempted to 
 enlighten Brunet and fight against his bad faith, I 
 again had a talk with him. His obstinacy and 
 arrogance were such as to determine me to com- 
 municate to him formally that I summoned him to 
 detach on his own responsibility, and that very 
 same day, 3000 men, which command I gave with 
 instructions to General Lapoype. 
 
 " Have a care, general," I said to Brunet, on 
 bringing the interview to a close ; " return to your 
 duty, and obey the orders I have the right to give 
 you ; you are no stranger to what is taking place in 
 
XIII DUMERBION TAKES COMMAND iig 
 
 the departments. I have proofs of this in your own 
 handwriting. I am informed that you intend attack- 
 ing the enemy merely to get yourself beaten, and 
 that you are about to take up a position on the 
 banks of the Var to join your forces with those of 
 the counter-revolutionists. I forbid you to give bat- 
 tle ; the positions you occupy are rendered secure 
 by intrenchments ; I command you to retain them." 
 
 Brunet tremblingly subsided, and my orders were 
 then and there carried out. On the adjournment of 
 the sitting Brunet remained alone with me. He 
 afterwards returned to his headquarters, apparently 
 in perfect harmony with me. On reaching them he 
 was censured for having lent a willing ear to my 
 behests. He was given to understand that his 
 honor was compromised, and that he should shake 
 off the yoke of a Jacobin deputy. Fortunately, 
 Lapoype had started on the march, and successfully 
 and zealously executed his mission. 
 
 Brunet again began to inveigh against me in his 
 camp. Once more I intercepted convincing proofs 
 of his complicity in the rebellion of the south. 
 
 It thereupon became incumbent upon me to set 
 aside every other consideration in view of exercising 
 my authority, which was perhaps not altogether de- 
 fined in my attributes, but which could alone save 
 the Army of Italy and the south of France. So I 
 took upon myself to deprive Brunet of his command 
 and appoint as commander-in-chief of the Army of 
 Italy the senior general Dumerbion, whom I at once 
 invested with his command. I commis- yeari., 
 sioned him to seize Brunet's papers, ar- ^"g- '■ ''93 
 rest him, and convey him to Nice. Dumerbion, 
 escorted by grenadiers of his division, carried out 
 
Il6 MEMOIRS OF BARRAS chap. 
 
 my instructions, took command of our troops, and 
 communicated to them my orders and proclamation. 
 The army, dissatisfied with Brunet, testified to its 
 appreciation of obtaining as leader a man as com- 
 mendable by his valor as by his fairness. Dumer- 
 bion had achieved distinction in the Pyrenees, and 
 enjoyed among the soldiers a confidence never ob- 
 tained by Brunet ; delegations came to me to con- 
 gratulate me on my selection. Brunet submitted, 
 and sent me his aide-de-camp to request that I 
 should dispense him from going to Nice, where he 
 had many enemies. I thereupon despatched Gen- 
 eral Durand, officer commanding the garrison, to 
 permit him to change his destination. I authorized 
 him to proceed to his home in the department of 
 the Basses- Alpes. His escort was to leave him 
 after the Var had been crossed. Still desirous of 
 seeing in all his antecedents merely the conse- 
 quences of an impulse common to troublous times 
 rather than an act of treachery, I did not seek to 
 make immediate use of the documents in my posses- 
 sion, which were evidence that Brunet was in com- 
 munication with the Republic's enemies. With a 
 tone of sincerity which touched me, Brunet promised 
 to obey all orders given him. Soon, breaking his 
 word, he secretly departed for Paris, and denounced 
 to the Committee of Public Safety what he was 
 pleased to call the illegality of my acts. At first 
 he met with a favorable reception at the hands of 
 some of its members, particularly from Carnot. I 
 was warned of this machination in suiificient time to 
 despatch Botot, my secretary, armed with Brunet's 
 letters, which he placed in the hands of the Commit- 
 tee of Public Safety. These were inexorable times, 
 
xiii FATE OF BRUNET 1 17 
 
 and there could be no question of showing any 
 consideration of persons. This correspondence, 
 taken cognizance of by the Committee, was judged 
 more severely than it had been by me. Brunet was 
 arraigned before the Revolutionary Tribunal, and 
 suffered the penalty he had sought to draw on the 
 heads of those he had tried to present as the guilty 
 parties. Lack of sense, a large amount of igno- 
 rance, coupled with a stubbornness often the con- 
 sequence of these defects, inclined Brunet to evil 
 promptings. He would have been saved from his 
 fate had he listened to my counsel. Acts of a like 
 rigor to the one to which he succumbed, even when 
 their object and first necessity is the country's wel- 
 fare, ever leave painful recollections iri the minds of 
 the men who were governed in executing them by 
 an imperative sense of duty. 
 
CHAPTER XIV 
 
 I scour the departments of the Basses- Alpes, of the Bouches-du- 
 Rh6ne, and the Var — Toulon in a state of ferment — The army — 
 Freron — His powers — Fresh commissioners — Saliceti, Moltedo, 
 and Ricord — General Carteaux — Success — Excesses committed 
 at Toulon — Sylvestre, Jassaud, and Lemaille — The sections of 
 Toulon — Their doings — Lambert and Barry — Proclamation by 
 Admiral Hood — Louis XVIL proclaimed — Admiral Trogoff — 
 Letter from the Toulonnais to Carteaux — Energetic measures 
 taken by the Convention — Trogoff, Chaussegros, and Puissant 
 outlawed — Behavior of Hood and Langara — The white cockade 
 — All address burned by the executioner — Victor Grand restored 
 to liberty — Important documents — Pretext alleged for the Toulon 
 rebellion — The Due d'Orleans — His death — His character — He 
 did not belong to his party— A mot spoken by an enemy of that 
 prince. 
 
 After concerting measures with General Dumer- 
 bion to secure the tranquillity of the county of Nice 
 and the provisioning of the troops, I scoured the de- 
 partment of the Basses- Alpes, a portion of that of 
 the Bouches-du- Rhone, and the Var. I restored 
 quietness everywhere, no longer hesitating to dis- 
 solve both the popular societies outvieing the Revo- 
 lution and the sectional assemblies attacking the 
 Republic. I dismissed the civil, military, and judi- 
 cial authorities, and established tribunals in the town 
 of Grasse. 
 
 So good was the effect produced by this firm and 
 just conduct that battalions of National Guards 
 sprang up in all directions at my call. The Beaus- 
 
CHAP. XIV PEN-PICTURE OF FRERON 119 
 
 set battalion, so devoted to the Republic, joined me 
 at Nice. 
 
 Toulon, that town of importance and the objec- 
 tive point of the coalition, especially of the British, 
 already admitted to the port, was a prey to discords 
 which threatened to hand over the town to our 
 enemies definitively. At so critical a juncture I 
 considered, without awaiting further instructions 
 from Paris, that it was towards that portion of Prov- 
 ence that we should at once direct our efforts. A 
 large number of patriots gathered round the walls of 
 Toulon, and I assigned them their posts. The army 
 had to be fed, so I procured provisions, sending 
 for that purpose commissioners into the adjoining 
 departments, also to Aries and elsewhere. The 
 provisioning of the troops about Toulon was thus 
 assured, pending those that I had called for from 
 Bordeaux, or caused to be purchased at Genoa and 
 Leghorn. I also despatched ships to the African 
 shore, under a commissioner who procured us re- 
 sources from the Barbary States. All the foregoing 
 arrangements were brought to a successful issue. 
 
 The persons met with in times of revolution are 
 not associated with from choice. Still, whatever has 
 been laid to the door of Freron, I do not repudiate 
 the association which brought us together in the 
 fearful period I am now referring to. 
 
 Freron was, it is true, an effeminate litterateur 
 to whom a military career was a superhuman effort. 
 It was difficult for him to assume at once the vigor 
 and activity inherent to such a course of action, yet 
 he sought to acquire them by every possible means, 
 although contrary to his habits, not to say to his 
 soul. He believed it possible to obtain these qual- 
 
I20 MEMOIRS OF BARRAS chap. 
 
 ities by his physique and by a particular system of 
 hygiene. The use of spirituous Hquors, and the 
 over-excitement consequent upon this auxiliary sup- 
 plied him with an amount of daring and intrepidity 
 almost martial. In addition to this, an already most 
 determined character made of him an excellent 
 revolutionist — I mean to say, a man capable of em- 
 ploying all extraordinary but indispensable means to 
 save the independence and existence of a fatherland 
 assailed at that time by a coalition of the sovereigns 
 of Europe and the pack of their unbridled soldiery. 
 
 Up to this time Freron, associated with the Com- 
 mission of the Hautes-Alpes and Basses-Alpes, had 
 not, like myself, received fresh powers in connection 
 with the Army of Italy ; it has already been seen 
 that Brunet contested his right to such powers ; 
 there were also those who even called in question 
 his right to take part in and sign my acts, but the 
 new commissioners, Saliceti, Moltedo, and Ricord, 
 deputies attached to the Army of Toulon and Italy, 
 arrived, and approved the decision I had taken on 
 my own responsibility of associating Freron with 
 me. From that time all his attributes became equal 
 with my own. All this was perhaps not too strictly 
 legal, but taking the times into consideration, during 
 and even outside of revolutions, is there anything that 
 is legal except victory ? This also was my only 
 thought. 
 
 The 4000 men of the Army of the Alps whom 
 I had summoned arrived, and I placed Carteaux 
 in command of them ; he pacified, as I had wished, 
 the departments of the Drome and of Vaucluse, and 
 drove out the Marseillais army which had seized 
 upon Avignon, pursuing it as far as Aix, where it 
 
XIV CARTEAUX ENTERS MARSEILLES 121 
 
 was dissolved and dispersed by a few shots ; and 
 yet it was composed of nearly 20,000 men. Car- 
 teaux entered Marseilles, disarmed the to\yn, and 
 re-established some degree of order. He then ad- 
 vanced towards the passes of Ollioules, drove out 
 the rebels and a few Toulonnais who had taken 
 possession of them, and temporarily established his 
 headquarters there. 
 
 Meanwhile the presence of the British in the port 
 of Toulon was encouraging the unfortunate ten- 
 dencies already existing in that town, where the 
 wbrSt excesses were being committed. As early as 
 the 19th of July a tribunal styling itself popular 
 sentenced Sylvestre to death; on the 27th it sent 
 Jassaud to the scaffold. Lemaille and others subse- 
 quently shared a like fate. 
 
 On the 29th the Committee of the Sections and 
 the other authorities disregarded the orders of the 
 Committee of Public Safety transmitted by the 
 Minister Dalbarade. 
 
 Toulon finally issued an appeal to all " right- 
 minded people " in France (thus did the Royalists 
 style themselves from that time), as well as to all 
 citizens. These gentry, asserting that the Conven- 
 tion did not enjoy freedom, had in consequence re- 
 jected, and caused to be rejected by a large number 
 of citizens, the constitution proposed to the people 
 in order to unite them. 
 
 What was then taking place in that part of Prov- 
 ence was not altogether new in regard to the po- 
 litical opinions which had always governed Toulon. 
 The events of 1 789 had constituted within its walls a 
 Royalist party, which, after having for some length 
 of time recruited all the malcontents plotting in se- 
 
122 MEMOIRS OF BARRAS chap. 
 
 cret, openly declared itself as soon as it felt powerful 
 enough. At the time whereof I speak, the Royalist 
 party convened eight sections, a central committee, 
 and a popular tribunal ; it won over the ofificers of 
 the fleet, sent commissioners to Marseilles and into 
 the communes of the Var to invite them to make 
 common cause with it; communications with the 
 squadrons of the enemies were established, promising 
 prosperity and plenty ; the arrest of two representa- 
 tives of the people followed, together with that of 
 influential patriots ; every form of power was seized 
 upon, and the city's gates closed ; the co-operation of 
 the commander of the Army of Italy was sought and 
 a declaration made in the most insulting terms, not 
 recognizing the National Convention, as it was in 
 rebellion against its King ; the representatives of the 
 people on mission in the south were declared rebels. 
 The Royalist party, just then triumphant, did me 
 the honor of setting a price upon the head of Bar- 
 ras, and caused the proclamations of the National 
 Convention to be burned by the hand of the execu- 
 tioner. It sent a deputation to the enemies' squad- 
 rons to inform them that Toulon had hoisted the 
 white standard, proclaimed the legitimate monarchy 
 of the Bourbons, and entreated the representatives 
 of the coalition to visit their good city of Toulon, 
 which had shaken off the yoke of the Republican 
 Government. Following upon a series of parleys 
 between people who understood each other so per- 
 fectly, it was agreed that the city, the port, the 
 ships, and the forts should be handed over to the 
 combined squadrons, and the eight rebel sections, 
 the new authorities, and the National Guard they 
 had created, composing in their ensemble almost 
 
XIV THE ROYALISTS DEFIANT 123 
 
 the totality of the inhabitants, should rally to the 
 new order of things. In order to make sure that 
 no dissenting voice might disturb the policy agreed 
 upon by the civil and military authorities, five hun- 
 dred patriots were arrested, forty-two of them being 
 hanged. Simultaneously, the squadrons of the en- 
 emy took possession of the town, forts, port, ships, 
 arsenals, and public establishments. An English- 
 man was appointed governor, and a popular tribunal 
 instituted. Criminal proceedings were ordered to 
 be commenced against the president and secretaries 
 of the National Convention, pending such time as 
 the combined naval, military, and civil forces, with 
 those of the Marseillais and all the malcontents of 
 the southern departments, should be able to concen- 
 trate to march on Paris, where they would be joined 
 by a Prussian army. The Convention and the Paris 
 authorities, the primary authors of the misfortunes 
 oppressing Royalist France, were to be treated in a 
 fashion similar to the forty-two Toulon- year i,, 
 nais patriots — i. e., hanged. On the 19th Aug., 1793 
 of August the Popular Tribunal sent to the scaf- 
 fold Lambert and Barry. 
 
 Encouraged by all the disturbances agitating the 
 interior of the town, the British squadron, com- 
 manded by Admiral Hood, appeared before Tou- 
 lon. Commissioners from the sections went on 
 board the Victory to concert with the British admi- 
 ral, and imparted to their confederates in the plot of 
 high-treason the conditions peremptorily laid down. 
 
 On the 23d of August, Admiral Hood, in a proc- 
 lamation addressed to the inhabitants of southern 
 France, stated that the Revolution and state of an- 
 archy ensuing from it compelled the Powers to in- 
 
124 MEMOIRS OF BARRAS chap. 
 
 tervene for the purpose of restoring the monarchy. 
 " Declare yourselves," he went on to say, " and I will 
 fly to your aid. Let Toulon and Marseilles frankly 
 declare themselves ; let the Royal standard be hoist- 
 ed, the ships disarmed, and the forts and port sur- 
 rendered to us ; ships and port shall be restored to 
 France as soon as peace is established." On the fol- 
 lowing day, August 24th, the Toulonnais accepted Ad- 
 miral Hood's conditions, and proclaimed Louis XVII. 
 
 The French squadron, under the command of Ad- 
 miral Trogoff, was composed of eighteen men-of-war 
 and nine frigates or corvettes. Hood made fresh 
 declarations, and bound himself to supply provisions 
 and pay the crews, announcing finally that he now 
 took possession of Toulon, which he would retain 
 until peace was re-established. 
 
 On their part, the Committees of the Sections of 
 the town wrote to Carteaux that they were the allies 
 of the British and Spaniards, who had brought 
 30,000 men to second their defence, and that section 
 No. 1 1 of Marseilles and its accomplices would be 
 held responsible for sentences of death pronounced 
 against Royalists. 
 
 Under the existing circumstances the Convention 
 proclaimed that the town of Toulon and our squad- 
 ron had been handed over to the British and Span- 
 iards, issued an appeal to the citizens to repress this 
 act of treason, outlawed Admiral Trogoff, Chausse- 
 gros, and the ordonnateiir (intendant commissary of 
 war) Puissant, decreed sequestrated the properties 
 of the counter -revolutionists of Toulon constituting 
 the Central Committee of the Sections, and ordered 
 
 Year I., that the members of the municipality of 
 Sept., 1793 Pignans should be brought to trial for 
 
XIV ADMIRAL TROGOFF OUTLAWED 123 
 
 having committed an outrage against the national 
 representation. 
 
 In the meantime an agreement was signed be- 
 tween the authorities of Toulon, Hood, and Lan- 
 gara, w-hereby a loan of one million piastres was 
 raised in the year 1793, the first of the regeneration 
 of the French monarchy. The Committee of the 
 Sections declared that the white flag and white 
 cockade should be substituted for the tricolor; this 
 on the 27th of September, 1793. 
 
 Vendemiaire, Year II., September, 1793. — These 
 acts were followed by a number of similar ones. A 
 judgment rendered by the Popular Martial Tribunal 
 ordered that an address of the Representatives 
 should be burned by the hangman. The secretaries 
 of the commission arrested at Pignans and conveyed 
 to the dungeons of Toulon — victims reserved for 
 the fury of the rebels — after having undergone re- 
 peated interrogatories, to which they replied with 
 firmness, escaped from the clutches of infuriated 
 men, who, taking them for representatives of the 
 people, had sought to butcher them; and they were 
 awaiting with resignation another form of death, 
 when the wife of General Lapoype, held at Toulon 
 as hostage, procured them the means of escaping 
 from prison. In a very short time they had shaken 
 the dust of the town from their soles. Victor Grand 
 came in haste to throw his arms about me; it was 
 with pleasure that I once more beheld this young 
 man, who had already won my entire confidence, 
 and was one of the few who never ceased to be 
 worthy of it. 
 
 There will be found, as an appendix to these my 
 memoirs, originals of the letters, orders, and procla- 
 
126 MEMOIRS OF BARRAS chap. 
 
 mations of the Toulonnais, Marseillais, generals, and 
 admirals of the army. 
 
 These documents, and so many revelations that 
 came to light subsequently, are conclusive proof 
 that there was at the time nothing imaginary or 
 exaggerated in the accusations the Republicans 
 brought against the Royalists united with that of 
 the foreign enemy. 
 
 What impresses one as most curious among the 
 reasons assigned by the counter-revolutionists of 
 Toulon is that they address themselves to Monsieur 
 because their committee has just learned that " the 
 Due d'Orleans has gone to Paris, which makes 
 them fear that the regicide faction will place at the 
 head of the regency the Due d'Orleans, a position of 
 which he would prove unworthy, even supposing he 
 should be called to it by the Legislature." At the 
 time the alleged good patriots of Toulon were ex- 
 pressing themselves in these terms the unfortunate 
 Due d'Orleans was being, not called, but escorted 
 from Marseilles to Paris by gendarmes and cast into 
 the Conciergerie, which he was to leave only for the 
 scaffold. The most odious calumnies never fail to 
 bear fruit. I was busily engaged at Toulon, and 
 was not long in hearing of the sentence and execu- 
 tion in Paris of the unfortunate Due d'Orleans on 
 Brumaire, ^^^e 1 6th of Octobcr, 1 793. I had occa- 
 Year II., sioually comc across this prince both be- 
 Oct., 1-93 £Qj.g ^^^ during the Revolution, and I had 
 never discovered in him anything else than an un- 
 pretending man loving liberty like any private in- 
 dividual, wishing it for all, and devoid of any per- 
 sonal ambition. It may be that some of his friends 
 had it for him or for themselves, but never was he 
 
XIV A LOVER OF LIBERTY 127 
 
 their accomplice; and it is in this way that it has 
 been said, with a good show of reason, that he was 
 the only one of his party who was not of it — in a 
 word, he was the least Orleanist of the Orleanist 
 party. This butchering of a kindly and popular 
 prince — one, moreover, altogether inoffensive in the 
 matter of politics — had not even a pretext for those 
 who leisurely and wantonly committed this crime. 
 It constitutes one of the most frenzied acts of that 
 Revolution, which was already spoiling and repelling 
 its triumphs by firing on its own troops. One of 
 the enemies of the Due d'Orleans, who was under 
 the impression that he was defending him, or wish- 
 ing to give himself the air of doing so, has since 
 said that the Court had done a real injury to that 
 branch of the family. One scarcely expects to learn 
 the nature of the injury alleged by this individual, 
 who believed he was a Royalist and claimed to be 
 one. He was wont to argue that " it consisted in 
 the longanimity displayed by the Court in leaving 
 the Due d'Orleans in possession of his too great a 
 fortune, amounting to an income of fourteen mill- 
 ions." Thus the ultra-Royalists, who at that time 
 were beginning to show their heads, and who after- 
 wards threw off all disguise, were, at least in the re- 
 spect of malicious passions, much nearer than might 
 have been thought possible to a rapprochement with 
 the Revolutionists who perpetrated so many violent 
 deeds fatal to Hberty in 1793. 
 
CHAPTER XV 
 
 Announcement made by Hood and O'Hara — Great Britain objects 
 to the Comte de Provence's presence in Toulon — The British 
 policy — The Republican army before Toulon — A reconnaissance ' 
 of the coasts — Lieutenant Bonaparte — I promote him to the 
 rank of captain — General Lapoype's camp— Rigorous discipline 
 — Carteaux at Ollioules — A state of disorder — Dismissal of Car- 
 teaux — Doppet — Mme. Carteaux — The order of the day — Bona- 
 parte's complaints — The story of a pamphlet — Marat and 
 Robespierre — His estimate of them — The Souper de Bcaucaim — 
 Who paid for the pamphlet? — The copy that was saved re- 
 printed — Lucien Bonaparte — Marathon — A few incidents of his 
 history — My interest in the young Corsican — A guest at my 
 table — A striking resemblance — Marat — His profession of faith 
 and character — Mile. Theroigne — He saves her — A kick — Char- 
 lotte Corday — Marat and Bonaparte — Dugommier — His grand 
 character — "The little protigi" affects lofty airs, and is put in 
 his place. 
 
 Admiral Hood and General O'Hara, the King of 
 England's commissioners, announced on the 20th of 
 September that their Government approved the en- 
 gagements entered into in its name with Toulon ; 
 that the monarchy once re-established in France, 
 its conquests would be restored to it on payment 
 of an equitable compensation for the outlay in- 
 curred ; three days later they announced that the 
 establishment of a regency was a matter which in- 
 terested all Europe, but they were unable to meet 
 the wishes of the committee, much less consent to 
 the Comte de Provence's being called to Toulon to 
 exercise in that town the functions of regent. The 
 
CHAP. XV BONAPARTE MADE CAPTAIN 129 
 
 English may always be recognized by their policy 
 of double dealing. 
 
 On the other hand, Carteaux had been reinforced 
 at Ollioules by a portion of the battalions I had 
 stationed in the vicinity of Toulon. The rrimaire, 
 others had rejoined the headquarters Vearii., 
 of Lapoype at La Vallette. The troops ^°'- '™ 
 detached from the Armies of Italy and the Pyrenees 
 completed the forces whose mission it was to reduce 
 Toulon to submission. 
 
 Deeply engrossed as I was with everything de- 
 manded by such a serious undertaking as the re- 
 capture of Toulon, now in the hands of the for- 
 eign powers, I thought that serious attention should 
 in the first place be paid to those points on the 
 coasts of Provence where our enemies might effect 
 further landings. I needed an ofificer who under- 
 stood reconnoitring and how to place batteries. An 
 intelligent lieutenant would be sufficient for such 
 work. I intrusted it to one of the youngest, who 
 came to me to receive instructions ; he fulfilled his 
 mission promptly and punctually. Well pleased 
 with the report he handed me on my return, I said 
 to him, " I thank you, captain." He replied to me 
 most respectfully, " I beg pardon, I am only a lieu- 
 tenant." " You are a captain," was my rejoinder, 
 " because you deserve to be one, and I have the 
 power to confer that rank on you." Such was Bona- 
 parte's first interview with me. 
 
 I went over the camp of General Lapoype, 
 where the most severe discipline reigned ; but, on 
 reaching Ollioules, I was struck by the state of 
 disorder prevalent in Carteaux's division; his mili- 
 tary dispositions were badly conceived, while his 
 1-9 
 
130 MEMOIRS OF BARRAS chap. 
 
 batteries did not inflict any harm on the British 
 ships. The famous culverin which subsequently 
 rendered such valuable assistance was at that mo- 
 ment unscientifically placed, and being fired with- 
 out tangible result. Our ammunition and provi- 
 sions were being wasted, so I talked affairs over 
 with my colleague Saliceti. He agreed with me 
 that it was urgent to send Carteaux back to his 
 paint - brushes ; thereupon we drew up a report of 
 what had come under our notice and sent it to the 
 Committee of Public Safety, which immediately ap- 
 pointed Doctor Doppet commander-in-chief of the 
 Army of Toulon. The selection of this man, an 
 estimable one in many respects, could not be ap- 
 proved as regarded ability ; we stated this in plain 
 terms to the Committee of Public Safety. We had 
 no other objections to make against the two above- 
 mentioned generals except that they were inferior 
 to the task in question. 
 
 Carteaux was doubtless what is ordinarily styled 
 a good sort of man, when it is sought to designate 
 one not above mediocrity ; but he had had no ex- 
 perience of war. He also had a pretentious wife 
 who liked to have a finger in matters of administra- 
 tion, not to say of war. According to not a few 
 military men, and particularly the youthful artillery 
 captain, already little inclined to speak or hear any 
 good of others, and who while paying his court to 
 Carteaux and his wife unceasingly sneered at them, 
 it was Madame Carteaux who drew up the orders 
 of the day, and who went so far, either out of sheer 
 impudence or naivete, as to sign them " Femme 
 Carteaux." Doppet was a doctor and a very good 
 patriot; he had given up the medical for the legal 
 
XV BONAPARTE'S PROTEST 13 1 
 
 profession, and the latter for the military state, 
 wherein he had risen to the rank of general. I do 
 not wish to infer that his antecedents were incom- 
 patible with the art of war had he had a vocation 
 for it, which is in all things the necessary starting- 
 point. During my round of inspection of Carteaux's 
 camp, dissatisfied with this general, unable to obtain 
 from him any satisfactory information, and anxious 
 as I was to know our actual position before the 
 rebel town, I visited the outposts. My companion 
 was the young artillery officer who had followed 
 me about ever since my arrival. " Everything is in 
 bad shape," he said to me ; " it is my duty, citizen 
 representative, to place before you the true state of 
 affairs ; your uprightness and military rank are to 
 me a guarantee that you will give an ear to my 
 remarks. I am," he went on to say, " the butt of 
 the Corsican faction, as well as subjected to the 
 arrogance of Carteaux and his wife. I think I may 
 claim to know something about artillery matters. I 
 appeal to your better judgment, as any useful 
 measure I may suggest is contemptuously rejected. 
 I have received orders to suspend the erection of a 
 battery I was erecting on an eminence the enemy 
 has neglected to occupy, and which would enable 
 us to close this passage and protect the battalion 
 commanded by Victor against a surprise. In ad- 
 dition, this eminence is so situated that a fire 
 directed from its summit would plunge into the 
 enem)''s intrenchments. I beg you will support me; 
 my zeal will show you that I am worthy of your 
 protection when you will have looked into all these 
 matters." 
 
 While speaking in these terms Bonaparte offered 
 
132 MEMOIRS OF BARRAS CHAP. 
 
 me a few copies of a pamphlet recently written by 
 him, and which he had had printed at Avignon, at 
 the same time begging my permission to distribute 
 a few among the officers and privates of the Repub- 
 lican army. Carrying a huge bundle of them', he 
 remarked while handing them round, " This will 
 show you whether or not I an\ a patriot ! Can any 
 man be too much of a Revolutionist? Marat and 
 Robespierre are my saints !" He was not protest- 
 ing too much or overdoing it when proclaiming this 
 his profession of faith, for it is truly impossible to 
 imagine anything more ultra-mOntagnard than the 
 principles of this infernal screed, which to-day forms 
 one of the counts of history's indictment of him. 
 
 Bonaparte was soon to ask the representatives of 
 the people to reimburse him for the cost of the 
 pamphlet he was distributing so lavishly ; they did 
 so, adding a gratuity for its author. This screed 
 was his famous Soitpcr dc Bcancairc. Works which 
 saw the light of day subsequent to the incident here 
 recorded reveal the fact that at Bonaparte's acces- 
 sion to the consulate, the widow of the Avignon 
 publisher who had printed his Soiipcr dc Bcancairc 
 called on the consul in Paris for the purpose of 
 asking him to pay the cost of its printing, which 
 was still due. He adopted the course, not without 
 some sense of humiliation, of at once wiping off this 
 more than trifling debt, which the general com- 
 manding the Army of Italy might full well have 
 paid, considering that his savings enabled him to do 
 so. If the story be true, the moral to be deduced 
 from it is that after having received the money from 
 us he had kept it instead of settling with the pub- 
 lisher. This claim recalled to his mind the memory 
 
XV THE STORY OF A PAMPHLET 133 
 
 of a production he believed forgotten by the actors 
 of the day and unknown to his contemporaries, lie 
 eagerly inquired if any more copies remained in 
 stock, promising a sum of money for the witlidrawal 
 from circulation of all those it would be possible to 
 ferret out. So minute was the quest made on these 
 terms that, on my writing to the place of publica- 
 tion with the object of securing this effusion, which 
 I had not forgotten, I have never been able to un- 
 earth a single copy of it. I have since learned that 
 a solitary set of proofs, corrected in Bonaparte's 
 own handwriting, escajjcd the researches made at 
 great cost wherever a trace of its existence was sus- 
 l)eeted. This copy was, miracle-wise, in the posses- 
 sion of M. Agricolc Moureau, who absolutely de- 
 clined to part with it. When publishing, in 1818, a 
 complete edition of what he styled the works of 
 Bonaparte, M. Pancoucke wished to include in it 
 the famous document of whose existence he had 
 heard so much, as being so Jacobinical a production, 
 and consequently disowned by courtiers who never 
 saw in their emperor anything but an angel of mod- 
 eration. M. Moureau intrusted M. Pancoucke with 
 the solitary copy of this Hrst edition. The pub- 
 lisher embodied it in his collection, and to-day it 
 has been duplicated again and again by writers, 
 who have ineorporated it in their compilations. 
 Thus did a solitary copy in the hands of the printer 
 of the department of Vaucluse preserve this monu- 
 ment of the most cynical Jacobinism, so true it is 
 that the printing-press prevents the destruction of 
 documents in the preservation of which society is 
 interested. 
 
 At the very time Bonaparte was giving such 
 
134 MEMOIRS OF BARRAS chap. 
 
 grand proofs of his clvism, his brother Lucien, 
 keeper of stores at Saint - Maximin — which name he 
 had caused to be altered to Marathon — was playing 
 the same comedy as his elder in that town, where 
 everybody stood in awe of him, and where he was a 
 constant speaker at the meetings of the local popu- 
 lar society. 
 
 His behavior there is not to be matched with his ex- 
 cesses of all sorts, in demagogy as well as blasphemy. 
 He would in one and the same speech express the 
 desire of seeing every aristocrat and priest hanged, 
 and pursue with his invectives even God, whom he 
 braved, defied, and unceasingly denied. He actually 
 perpetrated the crimes with which the most frenzied 
 demagogues have been charged in those terrible 
 days : I refer to the profanation of the elements of 
 Holy Communion and the infamous desecrations to 
 which the holy vessels were subjected. But we 
 shall speak of Lucien later on ; let us return to 
 Bonaparte. 
 
 I was struck with his activity from the time we 
 first came together, while his attention to his mili- 
 tary duties impressed me favorably. Friendships 
 are quickly formed in a life of dangers shared to- 
 gether, hence I lost no time in granting all the 
 young Corsican's requests both in matters personal 
 and those pertinent to the service. I labored to 
 destroy Saliceti's prejudices against him, gave him 
 public proofs of my friendly feeling for him, and 
 authorized him to complete the erection of his bat- 
 ter)'. We had many conversations during the prep- 
 arations for the siege. Soon admitted to my table, 
 he was always placed at my side. The world in 
 general is inclined to kindliness, even a certain 
 
^"^ BONAPARTE LIKE MARAT 135 
 
 admiration, towards a man of frail physique who 
 displays more strength than nature seems to have 
 granted him. His soul appears superior to his 
 bod}', and one believes that he must be given credit 
 for a double triumph. Independent of this reason, 
 perhaps the real one, without my being aware of it, 
 and one I do not wish to make any mystery about, 
 attracted me towards this young lieutenant of artil- 
 lery. It was not merely the merit of courageous 
 activity — that perpetual motion and physical agita- 
 tion which, replete with energy, began with the 
 head never to end even at the last extremities, in 
 that little man of low stature ! It was, I say, in all 
 this ensemble a striking resemblance to one of the 
 famous, not to say the most famous of the Revolu- 
 tionists who flitted by on the stage of the Revolu- 
 tion. This Revolutionist, whose name the reader 
 is anxiously awaiting, I do not hesitate to name in 
 the naive expression of the frankness dictating my 
 memoirs. Well, then, this Mena^chmus of Bona- 
 parte was Marat. I had seen a good deal of the 
 latter on the benches of the Convention and even 
 previously. I could assuredly not have felt any 
 more attraction towards him than that inspired and 
 allowed by his perpetual violence and appeals to 
 slaughter; still, without seeking to justify or defend 
 his system as a political writer, I was far from be- 
 lievins; Marat as monstrous a fiend as he was and 
 ever will be considered, and, since his physiognomy 
 is recalled to mind by the apparition of another 
 since become so famous, I think this is the place to 
 jot down a few traits which spring to my memory in 
 regard to this first notoriety, not superior but ante- 
 rior to Bonaparte's. 
 
136 MEMOIRS OF EARRAS chap. 
 
 While Louvet was delivering his attack against 
 Robespierre, Marat, who had been sitting with 
 folded arms at the foot of the tribune, commenced 
 speaking on his behalf, gesticulating wildly. " I do 
 not," he said, " like Robespierre ; he is a vain man, 
 ambitious of domination, but he is a genuine Repub- 
 lican, and on that account I consider it my duty to 
 give him my support. Nor am I the friend of 
 Danton. I wish Republicans to be severe, strict, 
 austere ; nothing has been done for the people, and 
 it is through the people that the Revolution is to be 
 consolidated. Statesmen are fighting for the lead- 
 ership unmindful of the interests of liberty, and 
 hearkening only to passions and interests fatal to 
 the Republic." 
 
 Marat was Republican, but with an ardor over- 
 stepping the bounds of moderation ; the slightest 
 color of a speech contrary to the principles of equal- 
 ity and liberty inspired him with the most violent 
 suspicions , withal, a good, easy man in society, 
 wherein he shone by his acquirements. Had he 
 lived long enough to witness the triumph of the 
 Republic, he would, he was wont to say, have taken 
 refuge in the sphere of his scientific and literary 
 studies. Indeed, there was more good faith in this 
 expression of his ulterior plans than in the mind of 
 the man who is the subject of this parallel when he 
 said, a few days prior to crossing the Rubicon, on 
 the 1 8th Brumaire, and even subsequently, that he 
 had no other ambition than to go into retirement at 
 Malmaison to cultivate the study of mathematics 
 and be at the utmost a justice of the peace. 
 
 No consideration could make Marat swerve from 
 his course when what he considered the interests of 
 
XV TH^ROIGNE DE MERICOURT 137 
 
 the Republic were at stake. From the tribune and 
 in his writings he inveighed against the most in- 
 timate of his friends, just as he sustained his per- 
 sonal enemies if he thought them sincerely attached 
 to the cause of liberty. Such was his line of con- 
 duct towards Robespierre, Danton, and all his col- 
 leagues of the National Convention ; moreover, he 
 mostly did things by fits and starts, believing him- 
 self privileged to be both insolent and eccentric, 
 even when seeming to follow the duties imposed by 
 humanity and espousing its generous sentiments. 
 
 One of the early feminine notabilities of 1789 who 
 had not ceased to bestir herself. Mile. Theroiene, 
 very well known in Paris, owing especially to her 
 democratic sentiments, having become suspected of 
 backsliding, was arrested by the populace and 
 brought before the committee with headquarters at 
 the Feuillants, to the repeated cries of " To a lamp- 
 post with her !" The crowd became so great, so 
 considerable and threatening, that the members of 
 the committee despaired of saving the unfortunate 
 amazon ; when Marat arrived on the scene the 
 danger was imminent even for the members of 
 the committee, who were delaying handing her over 
 to the mercies of the mob. Marat said to them, 
 " I will save her." Leading Mile. Theroigne by the 
 hand, he showed himself to the enraged people, 
 saying, " Citizens, are you bent on attempting the 
 life of a woman ? Are you going to sully yourselves 
 with such a crime? The law alone has the right to 
 strike. Show your contempt for this courtesan and 
 resume your dignity, citizens." The words of the 
 friend of the people quieted the gathering. Marat, 
 taking advantage of this moment of calm, dragged 
 
138 MEMOIRS OF EARRAS chap. 
 
 Mile. Theroigne away and led her into the hall of 
 the Convention, his bold action saving her life. I 
 witnessed a somewhat similar deed of his in the 
 Rue Saint- Honore. The populace had seized upon 
 a man wearing a black coat, with powdered and 
 curled hair, according to the fashion of the old 
 regime. " To a lamp - post with the aristocrat !" 
 was being repeated on all sides. He was on the 
 point of being strung up when Marat, pushing his 
 way through the crowd, said, " What is it you are 
 going to do with so contemptible an aristocrat ? I 
 know the fellow." With that he seized the man, 
 and, giving him a kick in the proper place, said, 
 "Take that! There's a lesson which will teach you 
 to behave better!" The mob clapped its hands, 
 and the aristocrat ran off as fast as his legs would 
 carry him. 
 
 Marat's very death, his defenders have argued, 
 hung on a movement of generosity. Charlotte 
 Corday went to his residence and asked to speak 
 to him. She was told that he was ill and takinor 
 a bath. She thereupon sent word to him that a 
 woman in distress had come to claim his protection 
 and humanity. It was on this message being trans- 
 mitted to Marat that he gave orders that she should 
 be admitted into his presence. " Misfortune, cito- 
 yenne" he said on seeing her, " enjoys rights which 
 I have never disregarded ; be seated." Then did 
 Charlotte Corday draw her dagger and end the ex- 
 istence of a man whom illness might possibly have 
 carried off a few days later. How different would 
 have been the course of events had Charlotte Cor- 
 day given the preference to Robespierre ! 
 
 Marat was in the habit of giving to the poor 
 
XV DUGOMMIER'S "LITTLE PROT&C£" 139 
 
 everything he possessed; he died in insolvency, 
 having exhausted all the profits derived from his 
 works and his political newspapers, which had en- 
 joyed a great vogue. It is difficult for me to realize 
 that a man who at times showed acts and even im- 
 pulses of feeling, should have uttered speeches and 
 written pages which will make future centuries 
 shudder. 
 
 Moreover, now that a very actual resemblance of 
 Bonaparte to Marat is cause that I have for a mo- 
 ment transported myself to the latter with some 
 few particulars about him, the course of events will 
 enable the reader to pursue the comparison; and if, 
 in the first instance, it is an established fact that 
 the ferocity of Marat, more violent or more expres- 
 sive, was less personal and more disinterested than 
 Bonaparte's, he will be able to judge by the facts and 
 the recapitulation of their ensemble, which of the 
 two personages most deserves, both as regards in- 
 tensity and numerical quantity, -the censure of hu- 
 manity, and which was the more fatal to society 
 and liberty. 
 
 The preference I showed Bonaparte silenced his 
 enemies. Meanwhile, the Committee of Public 
 Safety, appreciating the correctness of our remarks 
 concerning the incapacity of Carteaux and Doppet, 
 appointed General Dugommier to supersede them 
 both. Bonaparte was present at the arrival of the 
 new general- in -chief as he was about to assume 
 command. In an eminent degree capable, no less 
 loyal and generous than brave, Dugommier there 
 and then granted the highest confidence to him he 
 called, and who himself took an honor in the appel- 
 lation, " My little protege." Bonaparte was not 
 
I40 MEMOIRS OF BARRAS chap, xv 
 
 long in abusing it, and assumed an absolute and 
 decisive tone distasteful to the general -in -chief. 
 Dugommier had a reputation and character which 
 could not endure being dominated; his plans were 
 his own, and too officious counsels were never suf- 
 fered to modify them. Bonaparte was temporarily 
 in command of the artillery owing to the absence 
 of General Leble {sic) and Commandant Dammartin, 
 the latter having been compelled by a serious wound 
 to retire to Marseilles. This important post did 
 not satisfy Bonaparte; he must needs interfere in 
 everything and with everybody. Losing patience 
 with his remarks and insinuations, adulatory and 
 violent in turn, Dugommier requested Bonaparte 
 to remain within the sphere of his command ; he so 
 ordered him in a firm tone which brooked no reply. 
 
CHAPTER XVI 
 
 Plan of attack— My post— The respective forces— Condition of the 
 town— The battery of the Convention— O'Hara made prisoner- 
 General attack — Advantages of the Republicans — Bonaparte's 
 mistakes— A fire — Devotion shown by the convicts— " The only' 
 respectable people of Toulon " — Lapoype and Massena at Fort 
 Faron — Adjutant-General Micas — Pas de la Masque- 1 am re- 
 ported dead — Taking of Fort La Malgue — Entry into Toulon — 
 The army deserves well of the country — Port-de-la-Montagne 
 — Rigorous measures — Grand jury — Executions— My lamenta- 
 tions — Auguste Barras— Mme. Lapoype — Order restored— The 
 authors of the Toulon rebellion — Suspension of severe meas- 
 ures — -Reactions — The assassination of Marshal Brune — The 
 glory of the capture of Toulon — Bonaparte's share in it — Distri- 
 bution of the besieging troops — Fate of the generals — Death of 
 Dugommier — Bonaparte a brigadier- general — His intrigues 
 with women — Arena, Robespierre the Younger, and Ricord — A 
 fraternal meal — True sans-culottes — Bonaparte's genuflections — 
 A privileged table — Out at elbows — Italian coquetries. 
 
 All confusion quickly ceased with the advent of 
 the new general-in-chief. He at once gave direc- 
 tions for the necessary defensive dispositions; and 
 at a council of war laid before us his plan of attack, 
 which was unanimously adopted. My colleagues 
 remained near him, while I took up my post with 
 the left division under command of Lapoype. 
 
 The army besieging Toulon did not exceed 25,000 
 men as against 30,000 of the enemy. The British 
 and Spaniards, the principal masters of the town, had 
 repaired the forts and erected new batteries ; that of 
 Malbousquet commanded the entire plain. Dugom- 
 
142 MEMOIRS OF BARRAS chap. 
 
 mier rectified the blunder of our artillery, which had 
 placed us at a disadvantage. In the course of a 
 single night he constructed on the summit of a rock 
 the terrible battery of the Convention which com- 
 manded the enemy. 
 
 Several sorties were repulsed, and General O'Hara, 
 pursued and surrounded by our grenadiers, fell into 
 our hands. Finally, on the appointed day, the i8th 
 of December, Toulon was attacked from every side ; 
 Frimaire ^^^ engagement was a bloody one. Du- 
 Yearii., gommicr captured all the redoubts and 
 Dec, 1793 intrenchments erected by the enemy, and 
 drove them from the formidable positions of Ba- 
 laguier and L'Aiguillette, which they occupied owing 
 to Bonaparte's neglect to place heavy guns and per- 
 fect the means of defence at that point ; once master 
 of these important points, Dugommier ordered Bona- 
 parte to hold them. The latter executed this move- 
 ment with a slowness which rendered easy the evacu- 
 ation of Toulon by the besieged, an event that took 
 place on the 19th of December. Previous to with- 
 drawing, the enemy, knowing they could no longer 
 hold their position in the town, set fire to the ship- 
 ping, took such ships as were armed and under Tro- 
 goff, embarked their troops together with a portion 
 of the rebels, set sail, and left the port and roadstead 
 without suffering any great damage. The burning 
 of our shipping and some of our naval establishments 
 was checked by the men employed in the arsenal, 
 and especially by the convicts, who accomplished 
 wonders towards extinguishing the flames kindled 
 by the British. It is owing to the fact that in our 
 narrative of events we did not see fit to deny these 
 unfortunate men the justice due them on this occa- 
 
'^vi MICAS'S CANNONADE 143 
 
 sion that it has been stated we proclaimed them 
 to be " the only respectable people of the town of 
 Toulon." 
 
 While Dugommier was beating the enemy on 
 the right, Lapoype and I were directing a successful 
 attack on Fort Faron, considered impregnable. 
 Massena, whom I had called to me from the Army 
 of Italy, was with us. I decided to invest the fort 
 under cover of darkness, but our advance was so 
 slow that we did not reach its parapets till broad 
 daylight. A cross-fire of ball, grape, and bullets 
 mowed down our front ranks ; the troops fell back, 
 scattered, and formed again at the base of the moun- 
 tain. I knew the locality, so, after conferring with 
 General Lapoype, who approved of my dispositions, 
 I sent Adjutant-General Micas at the head of a de- 
 tachment, with orders to seize upon the peak of the 
 mountain I pointed out to him, at the same time 
 telling him the road he was to follow. Provided 
 with a few guns of small calibre, dragged with ropes 
 up the mountain's slope. Micas, with as much celeri- 
 ty as courage, reached the steep pass leading to the 
 Pas de la Masque, exterminated the Spaniards de- 
 fending it, and took up his position at the base of 
 the mountain under shelter of some partially fallen- 
 in walls, whence his fire plunged down on Fort 
 Faron. As soon as Micas opened his cannonade, 
 which he kept up briskly, Lapoype and I increased 
 ours. I had given my orders, and was advancing 
 on Faron, when one of the captains of the detach- 
 ment I was leading, who was by my side, fell dead 
 at my feet all covered with blood, which gushed 
 out over my clothes. I thought he was merely 
 wounded, and threw myself upon him in order to 
 
144 MEMOIRS OF BARRAS chap. 
 
 raise him and give him help ; the soldiers surround- 
 ing us believed that I had been struck, and one of 
 them cried out in despair, " The people's repre- 
 sentative is dead !" I at once drew my sword, 
 threatening the man who had uttered the cry, as 
 well as all repeating it and thus creating an alarm 
 among the troops, besides making the alleged fact 
 known to the enemy. " No, comrades," I said, with 
 vehemence, " I am still leading you on, and together 
 we shall win the day ! Forward, then, my men !" 
 
 The enemy, assailed on all sides, sallied from the 
 fort. We at once took possession, and they retreated 
 with the utmost haste. All their inferior positions 
 were destroyed by our fire, which dominated them ; 
 thus Toulon and Fort La Malgue, against which 
 some of our fire was directed. The army of the 
 enemy, defeated on the right by Dugommier, on the 
 left by Lapoype, began its retreat while ours was 
 breaking in the gates of the rebel town. The naval 
 troops refused to open them, and were drawn up in 
 battle on the parade ground; but on being surround- 
 ed, they laid down their arms. We reported to 
 the Committee of Public Safety that the Army of 
 the Republic had entered Toulon on the 29th Fri- 
 maire. On the report of the Committee, the Na- 
 Frimaiie ^^oual Convcntiou decreed that the army 
 Year II., Sent agaiust Toulon had desei-ved well of 
 Dec, 1793 ^Yie country, that for the name of Toulon 
 should be substituted that of Port-de-la-Montagne, 
 and that the houses inside the town should be razed 
 to the ground. This measure seemed to us so se- 
 vere that it was only carried out in the case of the 
 houses wherein the rebel committees had met. The 
 Committee also decreed the punishment of all trai- 
 
XVI THE COMMITTEE'S REPRISALS 145 
 
 tors. The chiefs of the naval troops were de- 
 nounced to us as the authors of all unhappy 
 occurrences in that portion of France. The 
 representatives of the people and the Nivose. 
 generals with one accord were of opin- "^■^^'' "• 
 ion that they could not dispense obeying, at least 
 in part, the expressed will of the Convention and 
 the Committee of Public Safety, so we held a meet- 
 ing, recognized the necessity of drastic measures, 
 and determined upon summoning a numerously 
 constituted grand jury. The military and civil lead- 
 ers convicted of participation in the rebellion and 
 surrender of Toulon to the foreign enemy were sen- 
 tenced to death in pursuance of the example they 
 had been the first to set, when, masters of Toulon 
 and supported by the army of the coalition to which 
 they had opened the city's gates, they had, in the 
 name of Louis XVII., arrested, sentenced to death, 
 and executed so many unfortunate patriots. 
 
 At the time of the capture of Toulon, and as we 
 entered the town as conquerors, I advanced sur- 
 rounded by a crowd clamoring for justice and ven- 
 geance, and applauding the triumph just won. A 
 painful feeling prevented me from sharing in their 
 rejoicings. " Must it be," I exclaimed in my an- 
 guish, " that my uncle be among those whom duty 
 compels me to strike, and whom my comrades in 
 arms designate as victims that must be sacrificed to 
 the public weal ?" My tears were noticed, but they 
 were forgiven me by those whose most legitimate 
 anger could not construe them into an act of trea- 
 son. They did me the justice of recognizing that 
 even if I had a relative's heart, the sacred laws of 
 our fatherland were not to be disregarded. My un- 
 I— 10 
 
146 MEMOIRS OF BARRAS CHAP. 
 
 cle, Auguste Barras, whose opinions were then open 
 to doubt, was fortunately not within the walls of the 
 rebel town. Mme. Lapoype, who had so generous- 
 ly assisted our secretaries in their escape from the 
 dungeons of Toulon, had been able to follow them 
 when they left the city. During the siege the first 
 bomb thrown by us fell into her room, and her hus- 
 band was commanding a division of the besieging 
 force ! Mme. Lapoype had a miraculous escape. 
 
 The enemy's losses were estimated at 10,000 men. 
 We took a number of measures to re-establish peace, 
 and pillaging, the unfortunate result of a like catas- 
 trophe, was immediately suppressed. The exam- 
 ple of pillaging had been set by the sectionaries, 
 themselves the primary authors of so many mis- 
 fortunes. The effects left behind by the rebels 
 and the foreign enemy were valued at two millions. 
 One million was appropriated as an indemnity to 
 the army. 
 
 Everything I have narrated sufficiently establishes 
 the act of treason and the massacres committed by 
 the privileged classes of a town whose masses were 
 ever devoted to the Republic. The besieging army 
 was far from exercising, in the hour of its triumph, 
 the reprisals maliciously attributed to it. It has 
 been shown that the carrying out of the more than 
 rigorous orders of the Governmental committees was 
 suspended and postponed. 
 
 Saliceti, Moltedo, and Ricord remained in Toulon, 
 their places subsequently being filled by other 
 deputies. These brought in their following men of 
 no standing, whose presence rendered fresh reactions 
 easy. At no particular time was there any cessation 
 of these reactions in the south. Commencing at 
 
XVI A MURDER WITHOUT PARALLEL 147 
 
 Avignon, Marseilles, Toulon, and in the districts 
 surrounding these towns previous to 1793, they 
 extended to the most remote periods under the Con- 
 vention and the Directory. Can they be said to 
 have ever died out, when we see the former Comtat 
 d' Avignon become, in 181 5, the scene of one of the 
 most awful crimes ever committed within memory 
 of man — the murder of Marshal Brune — a murder 
 which his murderers have had the impudent ferocity 
 to characterize a suicide ? This invention has no 
 parallel in history ; it is modern in every respect. 
 
 The recapture of Toulon beyond doubt has its 
 place in the pages of history, where it will keep 
 green the records of great deeds of war. Its glory 
 is in no danger of being effaced by the victories 
 won by the armies of the Republic. However brill- 
 iant subsequent triumphs were, they never threw 
 into the shade, much less wiped out, those preceding 
 them. The one I allude to enjoys the incontestable 
 merit of having been one of the first obtained by the 
 Republican armies, which at that early date began to 
 show that nothing was impossible to French valor. 
 Then was the road paved for deeds of daring. I 
 might seem to be dwelling too much on a matter 
 wherein my personality is involved were I to give 
 expression to the enthusiasm even the recollection 
 of these my early years awakens in me. Naturally I 
 do not see why I should relinquish the honor I may 
 be entitled to as my share in the capture of Toulon, 
 for I contributed to it with all my forces, all my 
 heart, and not without some measure of success ; but 
 the real conqueror of the coalesced forces of Toulon, 
 the actual captor of the town, if one may use the 
 word, is no other than General Dugommier, and 
 
148 MEMOIRS OF BARRAS chap. 
 
 to Dugommier belongs the immortal glory of the 
 deed. 
 
 The taking prisoner of General O'Hara, attrib- 
 uted to Bonaparte, the British ship he is alleged to 
 have sunk, the plan of campaign in which he is said 
 to have participated, are so many mendacious asser- 
 tions drawn from the imagination of the man who 
 later was to fabricate still other statements, to be 
 repeated by his flatterers when the day dawned 
 that he had money wherewith to buy them. Bona- 
 parte gave proofs of his military talent, then begin- 
 ning to develop itself, but he only played a second- 
 ary part on this occasion. The actual captor of 
 Toulon, I say it once more, was Dugommier. 
 
 The troops of the army under the walls of Toulon 
 were at once divided between the armies of Italy 
 and of the Pyrenees. Dumerbion took command of 
 the former, while Dugommier was appointed to that 
 of the Pyrenees, where he was to lose his life after 
 several glorious engagements resulting in Spain 
 suing for peace. Bonaparte, after the siege of Tou- 
 lon, was appointed brigadier-general, with orders to 
 join the Army of Italy, under the orders of General 
 Dumerbion; it was then, through the patronage of 
 Arena, that he became intimate with Robespierre 
 the Younger, and Ricord and his wife, afterwards 
 his protectors. From the time Bonaparte joined 
 the first Army of Italy, holding very low rank, he 
 desired and systematically sought to get to the top 
 of the ladder by all possible means ; fully convinced 
 that women constituted a powerful aid, he assidu- 
 ously paid court to the wife of Ricord, knowing that 
 she exercised great influence over Robespierre the 
 Younger, her husband's colleague. He pursued 
 
XVI THE HERO OF TOULON 149 
 
 Mme. Ricord with all kinds of attentions, picking 
 up her gloves, handing her her fan, holding with 
 profound respect her bridle and stirrup when she 
 mounted her horse, accompanying her in her walks 
 hat in hand, and seeming to tremble continually lest 
 some accident should befall her. 
 
 Prior to the departure of the generals and repre- 
 sentatives of the people who had reconquered Tou- 
 lon, and before the military executions, from which 
 it was impossible to escape, had come to an end, the 
 Republicans of the town, people and officials, to- 
 gether with the Revolutionary committees which 
 had taken the place of the Royalist committees, 
 wished to give us a banquet expressive of friendship 
 and fraternity. One hundred covers were laid, to 
 which sat down a goodly number of patriots, who, 
 all in tatters as they were, fully deserved the title of 
 sans-culottes on which men prided themselves in 
 those days. Among the representatives of the peo- 
 ple Freron had already taken his seat, while among 
 the military men was the young captain who had 
 attracted my attention, and whose character and ac- 
 tivity I had appreciated even before the siege. He 
 was in tatters also, and as noticeable by his sans- 
 culottism as he had seemed to me to be by his pre- 
 cocity in the art of war. The honor had been 
 shown me of waiting for me, and on my arrival I 
 found my seat empty, as a mark of distinction. I 
 must confess that, in spite of all my inclination to 
 render justice to the memory of the people who 
 had so nobly done their duty in this great fight for 
 the cause of liberty, I was surprised at the promis- 
 cuous gathering, which displayed all the uncouthness 
 of uncivilized nature. I believed it due our position 
 
150 MEMOIRS OF BARRAS chap. 
 
 as representatives of the people to think and even to 
 say that perhaps, in fraternizing in so hearty a fashion 
 with our fellow-citizens, we should dine somewhat 
 apart from them — in other words, have ourselves 
 placed at a table on another floor, where we might 
 still discuss the affairs of the Republic without be- 
 ing disturbed and distracted by the general crowd. 
 I received a most respectful salute from the young 
 captain, who, while quite ready to sit down to table 
 with the sans-culottes, showed me by his looks and 
 his civilities, closely akin to genuflections, his desire 
 to join the company of the representatives of the 
 people, and to enjoy a privilege even at so early 
 a date. I said to him, " Captain, you are invited 
 to dine with the representatives." As Bonaparte 
 thanked me, he called my attention to the state of 
 his coat, out at the elbows, which caused him to 
 dread not making a presentable appearance at our 
 table. Although we paid very little attention to 
 matters of dress just then, it was nevertheless im- 
 possible not to admit that the captain might have 
 had a cleaner coat. " Go and get a change," I said 
 to him, " at the military stores, and tell the com- 
 missary he has my orders for it." No sooner said 
 than done. Bonaparte returned in a very short 
 while, newly fitted out from the crown of his head to 
 the soles of his boots, keeping himself at a respectful 
 distance from the representatives of the people, hat 
 ever in hand, as low as the length of his arms allowed 
 him to hold it. The dinner went off as was usual in 
 those days : an abundance of patriotism, an animated 
 conversation, in which Bonaparte at intervals took 
 part in the most vivacious fashion ; but, beginning 
 already to play the twofold role which was in his 
 
XVI BONAPARTE'S TRANSFORMATION 151 
 
 nature, he managed to find time to alternate be- 
 tween the dinner of the representatives of the peo- 
 ple, where he was both so proud and happy to have 
 been admitted, and that of the sans-culdttes seated in 
 the other dining-room, to whom he paid a visit, as 
 if to testify to his regrets at not being with them, 
 and indulge in those Italian coquetries of which 
 one here sees a glimpse, and of which subsequent 
 chapters of his life will reveal further particulars. 
 
CHAPTER XVII 
 
 I return to Fox — Hailed with acclamation along the road — Death 
 of my father — My mother and wife subjected to annoyances — 
 Untimely end of Bayle and Beauvais — Death of Luckner, 
 Custine, Houchard, the Girondins, and the Queen — Marie An- 
 toinette's remarkable utterance anent the necklace — A plethora 
 of libellous pamphlets — Imprudent conduct of the Ministry — 
 Lamotte before the Constituent and Legislative Assemblies and 
 a grand jury — Action of the Committee of Public Safety in re- 
 gard to Lamotte — The system pursued in connection with the 
 necklace aflair — Imitators of it — The Cardinal examines the girl 
 D'Oliva in his retirement, and establishes her identity — He rec- 
 ognizes he was duped into believing she was the Queen — Caglio- 
 stro's end — Lamotte survives — At eighty years of age still ac- 
 tive — My reception at the hands of the Committee of Public 
 Safety — An altogether different reception by the National Con- 
 vention — I am denounced — The Reign of Terror — The power of 
 disinterestedness — Robespierre — The carpenter of the Rue 
 Saint-Honore — Character of Robespierre — His immense power 
 — Causes of the Terror — Does Robespierre embody its princi- 
 ple? — Influence of his opinion — Daubigny — "No theft com- 
 mitted on the loth of August " — I call on Robespierre — Cornelie 
 Copeau — A home scene — Danican and Brune preparing vegeta- 
 bles — Robespierre at his toilet — His freezing impudence — 
 "Thee" and "thou" distasteful to him — Who is he like? — He 
 does not say one word to us — I create a sensation in the Con- 
 vention — My denouncers confounded — Granet and Thibaudeau 
 — Dress of these gentlemen in the Convention and under the 
 Empire — My conduct approved of — Applauded by the Jacobins 
 — Revolutionary tempest — Dumouriez — Dampierre — Custine 
 — Houchard — Danton — His character — Conversation between 
 Danton, Laignelot, and Robespierre — A crisis in the National 
 Convention — Camille Desmoulins — The Vieux Cordelier — Phe- 
 
CHAP. XVII RETURN TO FOX 153 
 
 lippeaux — Discussion in the Cour du Carrousel — Danton's man- 
 ly energy — He saves Paris and France — Arraigned before the 
 Revolutionary Tribunal — His friends forsake him — Brune de- 
 serts him — His death. 
 
 On Toulon being restored to us, I received from 
 all the communes of the department of the Var nu- 
 merous congratulatory messages expressing an en- 
 thusiastic gratitude ; and on my leaving the town to 
 return to Fox, everywhere on my journey through 
 the very districts where a short while ago I had been 
 hunted down as a turncoat on whose head a price 
 was set, I was welcomed with the applause generally 
 reserved to conquerors. 
 
 Phiviose, Year II. — I found everything in a state 
 of confusion on my return to the bosom of my fam- 
 ily, still in tears over the death of my father, and in- 
 creased, as I have already stated, by a wife for whom 
 I was indebted to the solicitude of my excellent 
 mother. Both my mother and wife had been sub- 
 jected to all kinds of vexations. Armed sectionaries 
 from a neighboring commune had come to arrest 
 and convey me to Toulon. Having first made sure 
 that I was absent, these scoundrels had stolen my 
 arms, and on departing had hurled imprecations and 
 threats against my family. An investigation was 
 held, as a result of which two individuals were ar- 
 rested, tried, and sent to prison. I prevailed upon 
 the authorities not to proceed against the other per- 
 sons implicated in the outrage, several of whom be- 
 longed to the commune of Taverne. 
 
 The representatives Bayle and Beauvais, who had 
 parted company with me at the time I was with the 
 Army of Italy, sought refuge in Toulon just in the 
 thick of the rebellion, and were cast by the section- 
 
IS4 MEMOIRS OF BARRAS CHAP. 
 
 aries into the filthy dungeons of Fort La Malgue. 
 Beauvais had to bear the grief of witnessing his 
 colleague's death there, and as his own health was 
 seriously impaired, came to me, on being released, 
 to ask for money to enable him to go to Mont- 
 pellier, where he hoped to recruit. A very short 
 time afterwards he died. 
 
 Such were then the cares and worries of national 
 representation in presence of the coalition of sov- 
 ereigns ; fortunate indeed if the labors of war, its 
 attendant fatigues and privations had been our only 
 troubles ! 
 
 On setting foot in Paris once more, it became my 
 misfortune to endure far more serious sufferings 
 than had hitherto fallen to our lot. In the midst of 
 the decisive operations absorbing our attention 
 under the walls of Toulon we had, so to speak, 
 lived separated from Paris, in thought as well as by 
 distance. The news brought us referred to doings 
 in which we had no share, but the imperative ex- 
 ample of which occasionally led to a fatal imitation 
 of them. However terrible, moreover, might be the 
 deeds being executed in Paris, we had in general no 
 conception of the state of affairs, and the point mat- 
 ters had reached. It was the time when, as it has 
 been expressed, the tumbrel of death seemed to have 
 acquired the rapidity of chariots crushing all under 
 their wheels, when the collar of the guillotine was 
 stained in such an appalling fashion with the blood 
 of victims of all sorts and conditions. Among them 
 were Generals Luckner, Custine, and Houchard ; 
 again, Barnave, Bailly, Mannel, and Rabaut Saint- 
 Etienne ; and, lastly, the Girondins, who perished in 
 a body. Queen Marie Antoinette preceded all these 
 
XVH HOW LAMOTTE ESCAPED 155 
 
 victims. In regard to this last-named catastrophe, 
 so gratuitously atrocious, and no less without motive 
 than without object, I heard it related that the affair 
 of the necklace was one of the causes of complaint, 
 or rather pretexts, imputed to the unfortunate Queen 
 in the shameless trial she had just undergone. I 
 had from the very outset foreseen the import of 
 Lamotte's audacious outrage, and on observing to 
 what an extent he had carried it out, I merely 
 acquired another proof of the horrible law governing 
 depraved beings — to wit, that executioners never 
 forgive their victims. 
 
 I have told how Lamotte, sentenced to the galleys 
 for life in 1 786, fled to London, while his wife was 
 scourged and branded in Paris, then confined in La 
 Salpetriere, where she remained a couple of years, 
 and whence she escaped owing to the troublous 
 events of 17S9. This is what M. Lacretelle junior 
 says on the subject in his History of France in the 
 XVIIIth Centtcry, chapter xviii., page 129 : 
 
 " The woman Lamotte escaped from La Sal- 
 petriere, together with the wife of the poisoner 
 Desrues, and went to England to join her husband, 
 who still possessed the remnants of the necklace. 
 In 1789 this infamous couple published a libellous 
 pamphlet surpassing in base and absurd statements 
 the most monstrous productions of its kind. Its 
 impudence, or rather the evidence of the rascality 
 dictating it, was so great that refutation became 
 superfluous. It is impossible to peruse this libel 
 without acquiring the conviction that the Queen 
 never held any intercourse with beings whose 
 presence would have degraded the throne." 
 
 All other historians agree with M. Lacretelle, as 
 
156 MEMOIRS OF BARRAS chap. 
 
 well as with the judgment pronounced by the Parle- 
 ment in recognizing after, as is well known, a year's 
 investigation, that the affair of the necklace was not 
 only one of the primary results of an outrageous 
 calumny, but the prototype of the horrible defama- 
 tion, since converted into the indictment, which led 
 the Queen to the scaffold. She had oftentimes said 
 that all her misfortunes could be traced to the im- 
 posture of Lamotte. 
 
 The infamous memorandum memoir brought to 
 Paris by Lamotte, who came to Paris in haste dur- 
 ing the turmoil of 1789, bore the London imprint. 
 This disgusting libel added, if possible, to the crimes 
 of the affair — crimes judged too leniently perhaps by 
 the Parlement. It is in this memorandum, referred 
 to by Lacretelle, that are found those monstrous 
 fabrications of letters never written by the unfortu- 
 nate princess, wherein she is made to " thou " and 
 " thee " the Cardinal de Rohan, and is represented 
 as prostituting herself. . . . Here the pen drops from 
 one's fingers. . . . 
 
 Nevertheless, the King's Ministers, under the im- 
 pression that they would mitigate the poignancy 
 of the Queen's grief over the publication of such 
 rascally statements, conceived the idea of buying 
 up the edition. But the first one, which it was 
 believed was destroyed and stamped out by the 
 payment of its weight in gold, was soon followed 
 by another, and Lamotte had the shameless audacity 
 to again and again sell his infamous production, 
 eight or ten times consecutively, now under the 
 imprint of Neufchatel, then under that of Hamburg, 
 and so forth. It was in the ovens of Sevres that 
 the Ministers caused the surrendered pamphlets to 
 
XVII LAiyiOTTE'S INFAMY IS7 
 
 be burned, under the impression that there was an 
 end to them. Fate would so have it that this opera- 
 tion gave rise to more calumny. Lamotte spread 
 the rumor that it was the secret correspondence of 
 the Queen with Austria which had been consumed, 
 and he continued multiplying the publications he 
 had so repeatedly sold ! Truly it is often a most 
 fatal error to believe that money can disarm crime, 
 even when cupidity is its primary motive. 
 
 I will now bring to a close the history of Lamotte 
 from 1 789, when he believed he had secured immu- 
 nity from his former crimes under shelter of the 
 fresh ones he was perpetrating. While attacking 
 the Queen with fresh calumnies, he simultaneously 
 became imbued with the idea that he might profit 
 by the discord between the Court and the Con- 
 stituent Assembly to come before the latter in the 
 guise of a victim of despotism. Credit is due to the 
 Constituent Assembly as, in spite of all its differ- 
 ences with the Court, it would have thought itself 
 forgetful of what was due to itself by listening to 
 the strange pretension of Lamotte ; while as to his 
 petitions dated from London, the Constituent As- 
 sembly on every occasion of their being presented 
 passed contemptuously to the order of the day. 
 
 Like petitions from Lamotte to the Legislative 
 Assembly were rejected with the same contempt, 
 although the revolutionary movement was daily in- 
 creasing in violence against the Court. Not only 
 was Lamotte repulsed in every direction, but he 
 was claimed as a returned convict by the tribunals 
 reorganized in 1792, and sent before the grand jury 
 shortly before the loth of August. ... But the 
 loth of August burst like a thunder-clap, and La- 
 
IS8 MEMOIRS OF EARRAS chap. 
 
 motte succeeded in escaping owing to the general 
 confusion, as his wife had made good her escape on 
 the 14th of July, 1789. 
 
 The Revolution pursues its march, or rather its 
 course, which has become that of a torrent. . . . 
 The Reign of Terror has come. . . . The Queen 
 is dead, and Lamotte hopes to secure a triumph 
 based on the death of his victim. After a visit to 
 Paris for the purpose of contemplating the bloody 
 knife guided and sharpened by his instrumentality, 
 he has returned to Bar-sur-Aube, his native town, 
 to enjoy his fortune, the fruit of his shameless lar- 
 ceny. . . . But the Committee of Public Safety did 
 not deviate from the action of the Constituent and 
 Legislative Assemblies on so important a moral 
 point ; it ordered the arrest of Lamotte, not only 
 looked upon at all times and under every regime as 
 a scoundrel, but also denounced in several quarters 
 as a spy in British pay. . . . 
 
 I here take leave of Lamotte's history, which al- 
 though already ancient is not out of date, as some 
 would have us believe, while others have not known 
 it at all. I have told it most summarily, at the same 
 time giving those particulars most indispensable to 
 form a proper idea of it. The necklace affair, most 
 simple in its beginnings, remains none the less one 
 of the most audaciously executed conceptions, the 
 consequences of which were so fraught with peril to 
 its authors. Their whole system rested on the idea 
 constituting both basis and plot of the most interest- 
 ing comedies and tragedies presented on the stage 
 — to wit, to make people who can neither see nor 
 hear one another enter into conversation when their 
 physical situation does not allow the verifying of the 
 
XVII CARDINAL DE ROHAN'S PASTIME 159 
 
 words they are made to utter and what is said in 
 their names. This species of intrigue, the invention 
 of which might be credited to dramatic authors, if 
 invention in theatrical art were ausfht but imitation, 
 has seemed to me curious to a degree and important 
 to disclose, not only in consequence of the appalling 
 calamity in which it resulted, but because it has laid 
 down a fundamental doctrine that has subsequently 
 become for political intriguers, not more ingenious 
 perhaps, but as shamelessly bold as Lamotte, the 
 prototype of the vilest methods set in action against 
 the Revolution and the counter-revolution, serving 
 neither, deceiving both, and deluding in turn one 
 and all Governments, princes, and private individuals 
 from which they could extort money. I will name 
 and describe later on the vile wretches I now simply 
 refer to, and whom I proclaim to have applied and 
 imitated the system first imagined by Lamotte for the 
 purpose of swindling Boehmer out of the necklace. 
 
 To finish with all the wretches who figured in the 
 Lamotte affair in 1 786, I will now relate what I have 
 heard of the principal actors in it. I have learned 
 that, living in retirement after the Revolution in 
 that portion of his ecclesiastical estates situated be- 
 yond the French frontier. Cardinal de Rohan, de- 
 sirous, as a pastime in his retirement, of clearing up 
 entirely to his own satisfaction what had taken place 
 in the groves of Trianon, in 1792 summoned to him 
 the girl D'Oliva, still living in Paris ; he compared 
 her identity with that of the woman he had met, and 
 obtained from her lips the confession of the conspir- 
 acy he had been the victim of. The innocence of 
 the Queen and the crimes of Lamotte did not re- 
 quire this additional proof. Mile. d'Oliva, whose 
 
i6o MEMOIRS OF BARRAS chap. 
 
 worries and checkered career had not worn her out 
 as much as Cunegunda, succeeded in still making 
 herself appear sufficiently attractive to a certain Ger- 
 manic judge residing in Strasburg to be relished 
 and married by him. It may truly be said that on 
 this occasion love and justice were doubly blind. 
 The alleged Count de Cagliostro ended his career 
 of intrigue less happily than Mile. d'Oliva. This 
 charlatan, after his exit from a French prison, sought 
 refuse in Rome. After a series of adventures and 
 doings characteristic of his trade, he was cast into a 
 filthy dungeon, and duly strangled by orders from 
 high quarters. As regards the prime mover in the 
 necklace affair, the alleged Count de Lamotte, I 
 know that he has survived all those he deceived or 
 destroyed. I know that, as I write these memoirs 
 (over forty-four years have rolled by since the neck- 
 lace affair), Lamotte, after having squandered in vi- 
 cious pleasures the fruits of several swindles suc- 
 ceeding that of the necklace, still lives at the age of 
 eighty, and the remaining days of his ignoble exist- 
 ence are devoted to fresh plots which no longer 
 add to his fortune in the same degree as the first. 
 
 I had been a couple of days in Paris, stunned 
 with everything that was taking place, inquiring of 
 myself where I really was, asking of everybody ques- 
 tions which received only evasive answers, when I 
 woke with a start, as if out of a dream, to learn that 
 my presence in Paris was known to the members of 
 the Committee of Public Safety, which felt some 
 surprise at my not having already called upon it to 
 render an account of my doings and do obeisance to 
 it. So I wended my way to the headquarters of the 
 Committee of Public Safety. Robespierre, Billaud, 
 
XVII A FREEZING RECEPTION i6i 
 
 Carnot, Barere, Prieur de la Cote-d'Or, and Robert 
 Lindet were holding a sittinsr. I considered I had 
 not a few rights to find in their greeting of me the 
 expression of some satisfaction. Quite apart from 
 any exalted idea I might entertain in regard to the 
 magnitude of the service we had just rendered in 
 recapturing Toulon and driving off the army of the 
 coalition from this important point on the Mediter- 
 ranean, we had heard one universal voice proclaim 
 that we had saved the Republic ; the National Con- 
 vention itself had decreed that the army and the 
 representatives of the people had well desei-ved of 
 the country ; at that point expired the echo of na- 
 tional gratitude. On seeing me enter the members 
 of the Committee remained seated in silence, their 
 eyes riveted on their portfolios. Such a reception 
 was in itself enough to awaken a certain amount of 
 alarm had I not been aware that such was the usual 
 stiff and frigid manner of the members of this Gov- 
 ernment; they would have feared spoiling the citi- 
 zen by speaking graciously to him, however worthy 
 he might be of such courtesy, considering it an act 
 of familiarity derogatory to their power. A like 
 doctrine formed as much a part of the character as 
 of the principles of these rulers, collectively and in- 
 dividually more harsh and sour one than the other, 
 as one of their number has said, and each one more 
 bilious and irritable than the other. Remaining 
 standing, and without any of them inviting me to a 
 seat, I gave them a few particulars regarding the con- 
 dition in which I had left the south ; not a mark of 
 either concurrence in or contradiction of my report 
 was vouchsafed me, not a question was asked of me 
 touching matters of such burning interest. When I 
 I— II 
 
l62 MEMOIRS OF BARRAS chap. 
 
 had finished speaking, after having offered to supply 
 the Committee with whatever further information it 
 might see fit, Billaud, although not being its presi- 
 dent,' said to me dryly, "That will suffice, citizen 
 representative ; the Committee has heard you, and 
 will send for you should it require further informa- 
 tion from you. You may depart." The permission 
 granted me to withdraw was too agreeable for me 
 not to avail myself of it with prompt obedience. 
 Thence I went to the hall of the Convention, where, 
 as soon as my presence became known, I was wel- 
 comed with a unanimous burst of applause, all 
 members present at the sitting crowding about me. 
 The congratulations I received from the assemblage 
 as a whole, the silence of the Committee of Public 
 Safety, which could be taken as a species of congrat- 
 ulation proper to itself, were such as to make me in- 
 cline to the belief that my mission near the army of 
 Toulon met with approval. Hence I could naturally 
 hope that I would escape the denunciations in those 
 days laid against so many of the representatives of 
 the people who had been intrusted with missions. 
 Moreover, I bore the congratulations of over 200 
 popular societies, and all the authorities of Provence, 
 together with official reports all to my credit. But 
 these very congratulations had not been to the taste 
 of several members of the Committee, some of whom 
 
 ' " There never was a president to the Committee ; all debates partook of 
 the nature of an unconventional conversation, brief and untrammelled by any 
 regular forms, in view of the high importance of the affairs discussed and the 
 similarity of the political opinions of its members. The cold reception granted 
 to Barras was due doubtless to information that had reached them about 
 him, and especially because in the bosom of the Convention he had shown 
 himself an opponent of the Committee." — Autographic note of Prieur de 
 la Cote-d'Or. 
 
xvn ROBESPIERRE'S SYSTEM 163 
 
 were partisans of Brunei; nor did they please the 
 minority of the deputations from the Bouches-du- 
 Rhone and the Var. This party had, in a fit of its 
 jealous temper, denounced me for having dismissed, 
 so it said, the revolutionary tribunal of Marseilles 
 and also the municipality of that town. 
 
 This faintly outlined sketch will give an idea of 
 the difficulties and dangers besetting those who, 
 having like ourselves fulfilled all -important duties, 
 had awakened deep-seated enmities, which naturally 
 assumed the form they might see fit. Easy indeed 
 was their triumph in the confusion of the general 
 melee, under cover of which men were killine one 
 another as under cover of darkness. One and all 
 were in those days the prey of the Terror, and 
 Robespierre was beyond doubt the visible and su- 
 preme chief of this regime, the originator of this 
 system. No greater power stands forth in revolu- 
 tions thart that derived from disinterestedness and 
 probity, for it is one which speaks to all interests, 
 and seems to afford guarantees to all. With the 
 ancients this power was paramount. Modern civili- 
 zation has in vain sought to relegate it among the 
 dreams of Greece and Rome. Whenever the peo- 
 ple become convinced of the integrity of purpose of 
 the individual who comes forward in their defence, 
 then will there be between them a pact which death 
 alone will terminate. Hence, at this period of a re- 
 generation having its origin in the indignation felt 
 against the dishonesty of the ancient regime, the 
 man whose conduct contrasted most strongly with 
 so deservedly odious a corruption was bound to 
 occupy the first place in the public mind, and exer- 
 cise a profound sway over the multitude. 
 
i64 MEMOIRS OF BARRAS chap. 
 
 So it was that Robespierre acquired an actual 
 dictatorship owing to his reputation for incorrupti- 
 biHty and, so to speak, political immutability, ever 
 remaining the same in speech, manner, and costume. 
 His hair was ever powdered, at a time when the use 
 of powder was proscribed ; splenetic and morose 
 from the day of his first appearance in the States- 
 General, such he remained ever aftenvards ; and 
 thus it was that naturally, and almost unknown to 
 himself perhaps, he reached a degree of supremacy 
 which made everybody, even himself, tremble, fear- 
 ful as he was of retaining a power he no longer 
 dared to abdicate. 
 
 Beyond doubt this reason for the existence of the 
 Terror, like that of all great political crises des- 
 ignated as phenomena, was not the only one ; it was 
 itself merely the result of many anterior causes. 
 Thus the 2d of September, the loth of August, 
 and, to go further back, all the eventful days of the 
 Revolution, particularly the 14th of July, may be 
 looked upon as the beginnings of the Terror, in the 
 sense that, victory having crowned the manifesta- 
 tions of the popular will, the defeated had only been 
 spared on their protesting their humble submission ; 
 and it was established as an undoubted fact, and in 
 some sort as a principle, that nothing could any 
 lonser resist the course of the Revolution. 
 
 But whatever the anatomical attention devoted to 
 the dissection and examination of this corpse of the 
 Terror, one is nevertheless compelled to recognize 
 when investigating the Terror, whether in itself or 
 in the individuals who produced it, that it bore 
 within itself a primary cause dominating all those 
 previously enumerated, and presenting to the most 
 
XVII THE TERROR DIES WITH ROBESPIERRE 165 
 
 persevering investigator something in the nature of 
 a veritable mystery. Robespierre, some of his par- 
 tisans and even his impartial judges have said, was 
 not its primary cause. My reply to them is that, 
 Robespierre once dead, the Terror ceased to exist ; 
 it did indeed have a few death-struggles, but it ended 
 in being laid to earth with him. I am anticipating 
 in regard to this later episode in order to go deeply, 
 if it be possible, into this subject of the Terror, by 
 connecting it more closely with the person of Robes- 
 pierre, who seemed one with it, and by examining 
 also the manner in which he exercised the power he 
 held at the time. 
 
 Robespierre, having carried the day against all his 
 personal enemies, whom he had succeeded in having 
 regarded as the enemies of the Republic, became in 
 the very bosom of the Convention a sort of tribunal, 
 to which each and every one thought himself bound 
 to appeal for the purpose of obtaining judgment of 
 whatever charges might be brought against him, be- 
 lieving that he had secured his safety when once 
 Robespierre had pronounced absolution. 
 
 The degree of power exercised by this man may 
 be judged of by a trait which springs to my memory. 
 An ardent Revolutionist who had played a part in 
 the eventful loth of August, one Daubigny, having 
 forced his way into the Tuileries at the close of the 
 fight, took from a wardrobe in one of Louis XVI.'s 
 closets a bundle of assignats to the value of some 
 50,000 francs. Caught in the very act, with the 
 assignats, the damning evidence of his guilt, on his 
 person, his very comrades determined to bring him 
 to trial. Robespierre, whom it suited to defend 
 Daubigny, spoke out loudly and arrogantly, " He 
 
l66 MEMOIRS OF BARRAS chap, 
 
 who has helped to make the loth of August is no 
 thief." Any other than Robespierre who would 
 have dared to use such language would have been 
 the first to suffer the fate of the guilty one. Not 
 only was Robespierre powerful enough to have him 
 set at liberty, but to elevate him to one of the first 
 positions of the period, for he made him a deputy to 
 the Minister of War. 
 
 As for myself, in a state of uneasiness which, in 
 spite of all my strength of character, I could not but 
 feel on my return from my mission to Toulon, 
 whence a number of most unjust accusations were 
 being hurled against me, calumniated even as to the 
 very doings which might entitle me to praise, I 
 allowed myself, I know not how, to be governed by 
 Freron, who bore much affection towards Robes- 
 pierre, and who believed himself beloved by him. 
 So I finally resolved on calling upon this almighti- 
 ness, this representative of Republican purity, the 
 incorruptible one par excellence. 
 
 I had never had more than a passing glimpse of 
 Robespierre, either on the benches or in the hall- 
 ways of the Convention ; we had never had any per- 
 sonal intercourse. His frigid attitude, his scorn 
 of courtesies, had imposed on me the maintenance 
 of a reserve which my self -pride dictated to me 
 opposite an equal. Freron placed great importance 
 regarding our safety on this visit, so we wended 
 our way to the residence of Robespierre. It was a 
 little house situated in the Rue Saint-Honore, al- 
 most opposite the Rue Saint-Florentin. I think it 
 no longer exists nowadays, owing to the opening 
 made to create the Rue Duphot just at that spot. 
 This house was occupied and owned by a carpenter, 
 
XVII DUPLAY THE CARPENTER 167 
 
 by name Duplay. This carpenter, a member of the 
 Society of Jacobins, had met Robespierre at its 
 meetings; with the whole of his household he had 
 become an enthusiastic worshipper at the shrine of 
 the popular orator, and had obtained for himself the 
 honor of securing him both as boarder and lodger. 
 In his leisure moments Robespierre was wont to 
 comment on the Entile of Jean Jacques Rousseau, 
 and explain it to the children of the carpenter, just 
 as a good village parish priest expounds the Gospel 
 to his flock. Touched and grateful for this evan- 
 gelistic solicitude, the children and apprentices of 
 the worthy artisan would not suffer his guest, the 
 object of their hero-worship, to go into the street 
 without escorting him to the door of the National 
 Convention, for the purpose of watching over his 
 precious life, which his innate cowardice and the 
 flattery of his courtiers were beginning to make him 
 believe threatened in every possible way by the 
 aristocracy, who were seeking to destroy the incor- 
 ruptible tribune of the people. 
 
 It was necessary, in order to reach the eminent 
 guest deigning to inhabit this humble little hole of 
 a place, to pass through a long alley flanked with 
 planks stacked there, the owner's stock - in - trade. 
 This alley led to a little yard from seven to eight 
 feet square, likewise full of planks. A little wooden 
 staircase led to a room on the first floor. Prior to 
 ascending it we perceived in the yard the daughter 
 of the carpenter Duplay, the owner of the house. 
 This girl allowed no one to take her place in minis- 
 tering to Robespierre's needs. As women of this 
 class in those days freely espoused the political 
 ideas then prevalent, and as in her case they were 
 
1 68 MEMOIRS OF B ARRAS CHAP. 
 
 of a most pronounced nature, Danton had surnamed 
 Cornelie Copeau " the CorneHa who is not the 
 mother of the Gracchi." CorneHe seemed to be 
 finishing spreading Hnen to dry in the yard ; in her 
 hand were a pair of striped cotton stockings, in 
 fashion at the time, and which were certainly similar 
 to those we daily saw encasing the legs of Robes- 
 pierre on his visits to the Convention. Opposite 
 her sat Mother Duplay between a pail and a salad- 
 basket, busily engaged in picking salad herbs. Two 
 men in military garb, standing close to her in a 
 respectful attitude, seemed to be taking part in the 
 duties of the household, obligingly picking herbs, in 
 order to be free to chat more unrestrainedly under 
 the shelter of this familiar occupation. These two 
 men, since famous in their respective positions, were, 
 the one General Danican, who since then, on the 
 13th Vendemiaire, became impressed with the idea 
 that he was a Royalist, and who perhaps still retains 
 the belief because he is one of England's pension- 
 ers ; the other was General, later on Marshal Brune. 
 Freron and I told Cornelie Copeau that we had 
 called to see Robespierre. She began by informing 
 us that he was not in the house, then asked wheth- 
 er he was expecting our visit. Freron, who was 
 familiar with the premises, advanced towards the 
 staircase, while Mother Duplay shook her head in 
 a negative fashion at her daughter. Both generals, 
 smilingly enjoying what was passing through the 
 two women's minds, told us plainly by their looks 
 that he was at home, and to the women that he was 
 not. Cornelie Copeau, on seeing that Freron, per- 
 sisting in his purpose, had his foot on the third 
 step, placed herself in front of him, exclaiming. 
 
■^''" ROBESPIERRE AT HOME 169 
 
 "Well, then, I will apprise him of your presence," 
 and, tripping up-stairs, she again called out, " 'Tis 
 Freron and his friend, whose name I do not know." 
 Freron thereupon said, " 'Tis Barras and Freron," 
 as if announcing himself, entering the while Robes- 
 pierre's room, the door of which had been opened by 
 Cornelie Copeau, we following her closely. Robes- 
 pierre was standing, wrapped in a sort of chemise- 
 peignoir; he had just left the hands of his hair- 
 dresser, who had finished combing and powdering 
 his hair; he was without the spectacles he usually 
 wore in public, and piercing through the powder 
 covering that face, already so white in its natural 
 pallor, we could see a pair of eyes whose dimness 
 the glasses had until then screened from us. These 
 eyes fastened themselves on us with a fixed stare 
 expressive of utter astonishment at our appearance. 
 We saluted him after our own way, without any em- 
 barrassment, and in the simple fashion of the period. 
 He showed no recognition of our courtesy, going by 
 turns to his toilet-glass hanging to a window looking 
 out on the court-yard, and then to a little mirror, 
 intended, doubtless, as an ornament to his mantel- 
 piece, but which noways set it off ; taking his 
 toilet - knife, he began scraping off the powder, 
 mindful of observing the outlines of his carefully 
 dressed hair ; then dofifing his peignoir, he flung it 
 on a chair close to us in such a way as to soil our 
 clothes, without apologizing to us for his action, and 
 without even appearing to notice our presence. He 
 washed himself in a sort of washhand-basin which 
 he held with one hand, cleaned his teeth, repeatedly 
 spat on the ground right at our feet, without so much 
 as heeding us, and in almost as direct a fashion as 
 
170 MEMOIRS OF BARRAS chap. 
 
 Potemkin, who, it is known, did not take the trouble 
 of turning the other way, but who, without warning 
 or taking any precaution, was wont to spit in the 
 faces of those standing before him. This ceremony 
 over, Robespierre did not even then address a single 
 word to us. Freron thought it time to speak, so 
 he introduced me, saying, " This is my colleague, 
 Barras, who has done more than either myself or 
 any military man to bring about the capture of 
 Toulon. Both of us have performed our duty on 
 the field of battle at the peril of our lives, and we 
 are prepared to do likewise in the Convention. It 
 is rather distressing, when men have shown them- 
 selves as willing as ourselves, not to receive simple 
 justice, but to see ourselves the object of the most 
 iniquitous charges and the most monstrous calum- 
 nies. We feel quite sure that at least those who 
 know us as thou dost, Robespierre, will do us justice, 
 and cause it to be done us." 
 
 Robespierre still remained silent ; but Freron 
 thought he noticed, by an almost imperceiDtible 
 shadow which flitted over his motionless features, 
 that the thou, a continuation of the Revolutionary 
 custom, was distasteful to him, so, pursuing the 
 tenor of his speech, he found means of immediately 
 substituting the word you, in order to again be on 
 good terms with this haughty and susceptible per- 
 sonage. Robespierre gave no sign of satisfaction 
 at this act of deference ; he was standing, and so 
 remained, without inviting us to take a seat. I 
 informed him politely that our visit to him was 
 prompted by the esteem in which we held his po- 
 litical principles ; he did not deign replying to me 
 by a single word, nor did his face reveal the trace of 
 
xvn IMPASSIBLENESS OF MARAT AND BONAPARTE 171 
 
 any emotion whatsoever. I have never seen any- 
 thing so impassible in the frigid marble of statuary 
 or in the face of the dead already laid to rest. But 
 one face which has since appeared on the stage of 
 politics has revived the idea I then had of the im- 
 passibleness of a living being disputing this charac- 
 teristic with death, and even surpassing death itself 
 in it. Was this impassibleness a gift of Nature in 
 the case of the present personage, as well as in that 
 of the one to be spoken of subsequently } Or was 
 it the acquisition of a character in itself perverse and 
 improved by the cold calculations of what we call 
 civilization ? However this may be, it is an assured 
 fact that the physical resemblance I have discovered 
 between Marat and Bonaparte, when comparing 
 these two individuals from the standpoint of their 
 ceaseless activity or that effervescence characteriz- 
 ing them — it is, I assert, quite certain that from the 
 opposite standpoint, that of absolute impassibleness 
 and in some sort of examination during life, Robes- 
 pierre and this other personage, who is to appear 
 later on in the course of these memoirs, constitute 
 the two most extraordinary resemblances which his- 
 tory can collect. 
 
 Such was our interview with Robespierre. I cannot 
 call it a conversation, for his lips never parted; tight- 
 ly closed as they were, he pursed them even tighter ; 
 from them, I noticed, oozed a bilious froth boding no 
 good. I had seen all I wanted, for I had had a view of 
 what has since been most accurately described as the 
 tiger-cat. Why is it that, after having recalled the 
 repulsively harsh traits of this surly and implacable 
 physiognomy, I should be compelled to once more 
 repeat that the contemporaries whose fate it was 
 
172 MEMOIRS OF BARRAS chap. 
 
 not to become acquainted with the physical charac- 
 teristics of Robespierre cannot form a more correct 
 idea of him in the ensemble of his countenance, 
 figure, habits, powdered hair so carefully dressed, 
 and faultless attire, than by looking at the other in- 
 dividual, who will also play, albeit for a more lengthy 
 period than Robespierre, a prominent part on the 
 world's stage — a role doubtless less repulsive than 
 that of the popular dictator of 1 793, but a role 
 which, although a secondary and almost ever a sub- 
 ordinate one, is destined to exercise too great and 
 unfortunate a share of influence in the affairs of 
 France? They constitute a couple of original types 
 it is important not to lose sight of, for the very idea 
 of them might disappear when the second of them 
 shall have ceased to exist. I do not wish to antici- 
 pate events for the purpose of depicting at this early 
 stage the second personage, when speaking of him 
 at this juncture. He will come in due time and 
 place, and his actions will fully reveal him." 
 
 Having failed to obtain a more satisfactory result 
 from my call on Robespierre, almost blaming Freron 
 for having induced me to take such a step, and cen- 
 suring myself as if it were an act of moral degrada- 
 tion, or at the very least an act of weakness, I re- 
 solved upon appealing in a decided fashion to the 
 tribunal which had so far not failed me, the National 
 Convention itself. 
 
 My conscience and courage would still stand me 
 in good stead there. I requested that a general and 
 comprehensive report should be made on my con- 
 duct in my several political and military missions, 
 
 ' In this somewhat obscure passage Barras doubtless alludes to Talleyrand. 
 
xvu GRANET AND THIBAUDEAU ' I73 
 
 especially in regard to the latest, adding thereto the 
 request that previous to the drawing up of such re- 
 port my denouncers should not only be heard, but 
 summoned by the Committee of Public Safety. 
 
 Granet alone put in an appearance, withdrew his 
 charges, and, together with his colleagues, apolo- 
 gized, assuring me that they had been deceived. I 
 treated him with contempt ; the familiar of the Com- 
 mittee fled, nobody endorsing him. This man 
 Granet, of whom I now speak, as well as one Thi- 
 baudeau, who will appear later on, were in those 
 days of universal sans-culottism the two individuals 
 most noticeable by the untidiness and dirty condi- 
 tion of their habiliments ; they never appeared at 
 the Convention except wearing sabots and the little 
 open jacket known as the carmagnole. As, after af- 
 fecting the most popular tastes, it is necessary to dis- 
 tinguish one's self by other deeds of servility when 
 another power comes on the stage, it surprised me 
 but little subsequently to see Messieurs Granet and 
 Thibaudeau, the one as mayor, the other as prefect, 
 seek to outvie each other in elegance while wearing 
 the livery of the emperor, his decorations, beplumed 
 headgear, sword, frilled shirts, lace cuffs, silk stock- 
 ings, and gold shoe -buckles. These disguises have 
 ever inspired me with the utmost disgust, reveahng, 
 as it seemed to me, the character of men who make 
 sport of everything. Bonaparte's first woollen epau- 
 lets and his ragged coat might be laid to the door of 
 poverty as a primaiy cause, but did they not also 
 spring from an entirely different origin .? The system 
 of luxury and corruption Napoleon developed^ to so 
 o-reat an extent subsequent to his elevation has 
 moreover laid bare how much sincerity there was in 
 
174 MEMOIRS OF BARRAS chap. 
 
 his affectation of simplicity during the Revolution- 
 ary period. 
 
 Granet's withdrawal of his charges in the bosom 
 of the Committee of Public Safety, humiliating as it 
 was for him, was not sufficiently public for me, so I 
 spoke from my seat in the National Convention, 
 and pointing out my traducers, I in my turn charged 
 them with having incited to acts of vengeance, par- 
 ticipated in the pilferings of the contractors in the 
 south, and contributed to the monopolizing of ce- 
 reals. At the close of the debate I had won the 
 day ; my calumniators, seeing that they were un- 
 masked, held their peace. On the motion of Treil- 
 hard, it was decreed that my conduct " was in every 
 respect approved." I must add that the National 
 Convention ever reposed trust in me and did me 
 justice, even at a time when the oppressive domi- 
 nation of the secret committees threatened more 
 particularly those members who did not vote in the 
 way they wished them to. 
 
 The victory won by me in the Convention was 
 confirmed in the Society of Jacobins, in those days 
 more exaggerated in their tenets, if possible, than 
 the* National Convention itself; this association still 
 pursued the weeding out of its members. I had 
 been fortunate enough to issue safely from this se- 
 vere ordeal, while many members of the Convention, 
 like Fouche himself, were made to suffer the penalty 
 of expulsion. It is but too well known that in those 
 days this was equivalent to a sentence of death. 
 
 The year which had just expired while I was 
 with the army had been replete with terrible hap- 
 penings. The victories won by Dumouriez in 
 Champagne and Belgium had been followed by the 
 
xvn DANTON AND HIS ENEMIES 175 
 
 defeat at Neerwinden and the defection of that 
 illustrious adventurer, who may in many respects 
 be considered a great man. Endowed with the 
 highest faculties of political and military genius, it 
 may be said of him that he organized the war of the 
 Revolution and the revolution of war. Dampierre, 
 who succeeded him, had died on the field of battle, 
 and Custine on the scaffold; a like fate had befallen 
 his successor Houchard. In the midst of appalling 
 political troubles, which at the very least it was 
 necessary to direct, the National Convention had de- 
 creed the Revolutionary Government, whose power, 
 created in the first instance to crush the foreign 
 enemy, was soon turned against personal enemies 
 and against the most sincere friends of the Republic. 
 I have stated how, the Gironde and the Montague 
 having fought for power for nearly a year, the 
 Gironde had been defeated by the Commune of 
 Paris, and strangled by the hatred of Robespierre. 
 The guillotine, standing as a permanent institution, 
 resembled a divinity ever demanding fresh offerings. 
 " Danton's turn has come," dared to say some of the 
 ferocious beings who had already indulged in so 
 many gratuitous crimes. I noticed that the idea of 
 losing this eminent patriot, at first looked upon as 
 inconceivable, was beginning since my return to 
 loom up as a thing likely to occur. The fact was 
 that Danton, the most magnificent and grandest 
 Revolutionist who ever breathed, was beginning to 
 be pointed out as a Moderate, in other words a 
 traitor, because he thought that excesses might prove 
 harmful to the Revolution, and had styled exaggera- 
 tions ultra -revolutionary. Laignelot, one of my 
 most faithful colleagues in the National Convention, 
 
176 MEMOIRS OF BARRAS chap. 
 
 came and informed me that Danton, desirous of 
 coming to an understanding with Robespierre, had 
 begged him, Laignelot, to arrange for a conversation 
 between them. One fine morning the two of them 
 called on Robespierre. The dictator was at his 
 toilet, the ancient forms of which took up no little 
 amount of time. Danton, at once beginning the 
 conversation, said, without preamble, " Let us come 
 to a mutual understanding and save liberty, which 
 is being attacked by most relentless enemies ; they 
 are calumniating and deceiving the people, who 
 look upon them as their friends." Robespierre, 
 who never " thou'd " anybody, replied to Danton, 
 " What do you mean ? Does this apply to me ? 
 You may give to my speeches whatever interpreta- 
 tion you see fit. Your mission to Belgium is per- 
 haps not exempt from blame ; you were badly sec- 
 onded, badly surrounded. Lacroix has heaped odium 
 on that mission." 
 
 Thereupon Danton, assuming a very lofty tone, 
 said to him, " You are speaking now just as the 
 aristocrats do ; they seek to discredit the Conven- 
 tion and the patriots composing it. I will never 
 suffer that any attack be made upon them. You 
 shall not dishonor the Revolution by calumniating 
 its founders." Here Danton's voice became weak ; 
 Robespierre, still continuing his toilet, looked at him 
 and made a gesture of contempt. 
 
 Then Danton, deeply moved, unfolded the dangers 
 threatening liberty, saying, " Liberty will perish if 
 any attacks are made on its defenders, if the Terror 
 is directed against them in lieu of continuing to 
 strike those who conspire against it, and against 
 whom it was established — against your very self. 
 
xvn DESMOULINS AND PHELIPPEAUX 177 
 
 Robespierre, ere six months have gone by, if we 
 become divided against ourselves." 
 
 The conversation came to an end with affected 
 civilities. Danton and Laignelot withdrew, and were 
 still speaking in the street of this sinister interview, 
 when Robespierre emerged from the house and 
 passed close by them, pretending not to notice them. 
 
 It is too true that the Terror, rendered necessary 
 by the manoeuvres of the aristocnats and the mon- 
 archs, was at that time unfortunately turned against 
 the citizens. The first victims were the representa- 
 tives of the people themselves. Their state of 
 division and dread afforded the Governmental com- 
 mittees a pretext for preserving their cruel domina- 
 tion. The National Convention, on all sides ap- 
 pealed to to save liberty, not only neglected to 
 secure to the citizens the possession of their heads ; 
 it suffered to be taken, and even offered, those of its 
 members. When once the committees shall have 
 begun to indulge in reciprocal threats, the dissen- 
 sion born of their own danger will rally the Conven- 
 tion against its oppressors, but it will be long ere 
 this consummation will happen ! How much pa- 
 tience, long-suffering, and resignation will be needed 
 to reach the day of deliverance ! 
 
 In the meantime, the sentiment felt at the oppres- 
 sion endured by the Convention was beginning to 
 find an outlet in private conversations, and even in 
 the public writings of a few men less timid than the 
 others. Camille Desmoulins was publishing his 
 Vieux Cordelier, and Phelippeaux his declamations 
 against the bad management of the Vendean war, 
 which was the reason that it continually rose from its 
 ashes. 
 
178 MEMOIRS OF BARRAS chap. 
 
 As I was leaving the Convention one day in the 
 company of Danton, Courtois, Freron, and Panis, 
 we met in the Cour du Carrousel several deputies 
 who were members of the secret committees. Dan- 
 ton, going towards them, said to them, " You should 
 read the memoirs of Phelippeaux.' They will sup- 
 ply you with the means of putting an end to this 
 Vendean war which you have perpetrated with the 
 view of rendering your powers necessary." Vadier, 
 Amar, Vouland, and Barere charged Danton with 
 having caused these memoirs to be printed and cir- 
 culated ; Danton merely replied, " I am not called 
 upon to vindicate myself." Thereupon an angry 
 discussion ensued, degenerating into personalities. 
 Danton threatened the members of the Committee 
 that he would take the floor in the National Con- 
 vention, and charge them with malversations and 
 tyranny. The others withdrew without replying, 
 but bearing him no good-will. I said to Danton, 
 " Let us at once return to the National Convention ; 
 take the floor ; you may rest assured of our support, 
 but do not let us wait until to-morrow, for there is a 
 likelihood of your being arrested to-night." " They 
 would not dare to," was Danton's contemptuous re- 
 joinder ; then, addressing himself to me, he said, 
 " Come and help us to eat a pullet." I declined. 
 Brune, the friend, and, up to that time, the insepa- 
 
 ' The manuscript here bears a marginal note written in pencil by Prieur 
 de la Cote-d'Or : " Phelippeaux was in the wrong. The Committee had 
 taken energetic and proper measures for the destruction of La Vendee, re- 
 sulting in the decisive event of the sudden capture of Chatillon, Mortagne, 
 and ChoUet, and in consequence of this success the Vendean army moved to 
 the north of the Loire, where it was almost annihilated. Phelippeaux was a 
 bungler, vainglorious, and thoughtless. Danton's imprudent words were the 
 cause of his ruin ; but there was in this affair a misunderstanding on both 
 sides." 
 
XVII DANTON ARRESTED 179 
 
 rable aide-de-camp of Danton, was present. I re- 
 marked to Brune, " Guard Danton carefully, for he 
 threatened where he should have struck." 
 
 wth Germinal, Year II. ; Danton arrested. — En- 
 dowed by nature with a manly eloquence and an ath- 
 letic constitution, Danton had on many occasions 
 displayed great courage. He had proved himself a 
 man of decision on the loth of August. On the 
 evening of the battle he had been appointed Minis- 
 ter of Justice, and could truly say : " A cannon-ball 
 carried me to the Ministry!" After the loth of 
 August, when the troops of the coalition, masters of 
 Verdun and Longwy, were marching on the capital, 
 the Executive Council, of which Danton was a 
 member, having proposed to leave Paris, Danton, 
 Minister of Justice, seizing a flambeau, apostro- 
 phized his colleagues in the following terms : " If 
 you persist in this cowardly resolution, I will sum- 
 mon to this council chamber my old father, my dear 
 mother, my children whom I idolize ; I will make 
 one pyre of them and ourselves, and I will burn us 
 all, together with the city of Paris, rather than sur- 
 render it to the enemy." The Council, taking cour- 
 age, gave up the idea of leaving the capital. Dan- 
 ton had saved both Paris and France. The Gironde 
 surnamed him the lion, Robespierre was the tiger — 
 nay more, the tiger-cat. Was the lion fated to die 
 strangled by the tiger? 
 
 Suddenly, at nine o'clock in the morning of the 
 nth Germinal, I hear of Danton's arrest. I at once 
 proceed to his residence in the Passage du Com- 
 merce, where I had dined two days earlier ; on my 
 arrival there the news of his arrest is confirmed to 
 me ; it had taken place at five o'clock that morning. 
 
ISO MEMOIRS OF BARRAS chap. 
 
 He had been torn from his bed and cast into the 
 Luxembourg prison, where he was in close confine- 
 ment. I hasten to the National Convention ; it was 
 scarcely eleven o'clock. Its members were wending 
 their steps thither, the greater part of them not hav- 
 ing the faintest suspicion of this most extraordinary- 
 arrest — extraordinary even at a time when those 
 occurring daily were becoming more and more 
 extraordinary. Some few of the members had heard 
 rumors to which they attached no faith, and asked 
 me questions as to what I seemed to have learned ; 
 in the midst of all this enter the members of the 
 Committee of Public Safety, Saint-Just bringing up 
 the rear. He at once ascends into the tribune, and 
 reads out the most singular and monstrous indict- 
 ment ever dreamed of. Phlegmatic, and in his 
 sententious tone, he recites this incredible theme, 
 holding the manuscript in a hand that remains mo- 
 tionless, while the other makes but one gesture, inex- 
 orable and from which there is no appeal — a gesture 
 like unto the very knife of the guillotine. I re- 
 ceived a copy of this report, together with a mass of 
 other printed documents such as are usually dis- 
 tributed among the members of legislative bodies. 
 As I write I have before me this copy, bearing the 
 imprint of the National Printing Office ; it is dated 
 Year II. of the Republic, and is entitled: Report 
 addressed to the National Convention, in the name 
 of the Committees of General Security and Public 
 Safety, on the conspiracy hatched for some years past 
 by criminal factions for the purpose of absorbing the 
 French Revolution by a change of dynasty. Printed 
 by order of the National Coiivention at its sitting of 
 the nth Germinal. The reading of this report by 
 
xvn SAINT-JUST'S REPORT i8l 
 
 Saint-Just, even after a lapse of thirty years, over- 
 whelms me with astonishment and chokes me just 
 as much as on the day when I first heard it. 
 
 Danton lost none of his natural intrepidity even in 
 presence of the Revolutionary Tribunal' Friends, 
 
 ' Saint-Jusf s Report. — The Revolution is embodied in the people, and not 
 in the fame of a few personages. This true idea is the source of justice and 
 equality in a free state ; it is the people's security against the crafty men who, 
 in their audacity and the impunity allowed them, set themselves up as its ex- 
 ponents. For a long time it has been sought to debase you, if possible ; you 
 have pursued the tenor of your way between the faction of false patriots 
 and that of the Moderates which it is your duty to lay low. These factions, 
 born with the Revolution, have followed in its course, as reptiles follow the 
 course of torrents. It needs some courage to speak to you of further measures 
 of severity when so much rigor has already been exercised. The aristocracy 
 says, " They are going to cut each other's throats," but its heart gives the lie 
 to its mouth ; it is the aristocracy we are engaged in destroying, and it is well 
 aware of the fact. Hence I am about to designate to you the latest partisans 
 of royalism, those who for the past five years have served the factions and 
 followed the course of liberty merely as a tiger follows its prey. We have 
 weathered all the storms which are generally the concomitants of vast designs. 
 A revolution is a heroic undertaking, whose authors pursue their way flanked 
 on either side by perils and immortality. The last-named is yours if you will 
 but immolate the hostile factions. They constitute tyranny's last hope, and 
 spring from the common passion of turning to one's own account the reputa- 
 tion one has achieved. Let people not be surprised at the collapse of so 
 many trestles ; such has been the march of the human mind among all nations, 
 and they are merely what has remained to us from the monarchical system. 
 All the evil that the tyrants censure us for comes from them, and Europe 
 would rejoice if they did not reign over it. I am about to show you the ad- 
 vantages the factions have known how to derive from these vices of our con- 
 stitution ; you are about to see how all the crimes, compelled to dissimulate 
 by the ardent inclination of the "people towards liberty, were allowed to fer- 
 ment in promiscuous fashion with the Revolution ; we are about to tear the 
 mask from every face and follow the foreigner step by step. The Orleans 
 party was the first constituted ; it possessed branches among all holding power, 
 and in the three legislatures. This criminal party, while deficient in daring, 
 has ever donned the garb of circumstance and adopted the prevailing color ; 
 hence its downfall ; forever dissimulating, but never daring to put its fort- 
 une to the touch, it was carried along by men of good faith and the strength 
 of the people's virtue, ever following the course of the lievolution, screening 
 itself, and never daring to venture on any action. This gave rise in the be- 
 ginning to the belief that d'Orleans had no ambition. These secret convul- 
 sions of the parties which were dissembling have been the cause of all the 
 public misfortunes. The popular revolution was but the crust of a volcano of 
 
i82 MEMOIRS OF BARRAS chap. 
 
 who were thought to be as numerous as in the 
 days of his prosperity, had promised not to forsake 
 him, and to repair to the Palais de Justice to do 
 violence to and disperse the murderous tribunal, 
 
 foreign conspiracies. The Constituent Assembly, a senate by day, was by 
 night a gathering of factions intent on shaking the policy and the crafty ex- 
 pedients of the coming day. A twofold spirit presided over public affairs; 
 the one ostensible and prettily colored, the other secret and leading to hidden 
 results fatal to the interests of the people. A war was waged against the no- 
 bility, the guilty friend of the Bourbons, with the object of paving the way 
 to the throne for D'Orleans. One can trace at every step the efforts of this 
 party to destroy the Court, its enemy, and save royalty ; but the loss of one 
 brought with it that of the other. No royalty can do without a patriciate. 
 Mirabeau's ascendant was reckoned upon to retain the throne without a pa- 
 triciate. He dead, an attempt was made to solve this problem when revising 
 the constitution ; it failed. The Legislature was not powerful enough to 
 show favor to this party, which thereupon flung itself into politics and in- 
 trigues. A new scene unfolds itself ; the tyrant's crimes had rendered odious 
 the royalty which Brissot, Vergniaud, Petion, and their accomplices wished 
 to preserve for D'Orleans. The public sentiment was so hostile to the idea 
 of a monarchy that there was no means of giving it an open support. Then 
 one sees the D'Orleans party dissemble once more ; it is that party which on 
 some occasions proposes the banishment of the Bourbons, and it is that party 
 which seeks to replace them on the throne ; it is that party which seeks to re- 
 establish royalty and also makes a pretence of proscribing it ; it is that party 
 which meets D'Orleans of an evening, and which makes a pretence of de- 
 nouncing and persecuting him. This policy failed in presence of the energy 
 of the partisans of the Republic. Dumouriez, the friend of kings and the 
 leader of the D'Orleans faction — Dumouriez, who merely declared himself 
 against Lafayette because the latter was the right-hand man of the Court — 
 Dumouriez, who wished to see the king banished but not dead, so as to sub- 
 stitute another dynasty — Dumouriez, the trusted man of D'Orleans and Bris- 
 sot, bursts forth. In 1790 there existed a faction which sought to place the 
 crown on the brow of D'Orleans ; another party endeavored to maintain it 
 on the head of the Bourbons ; a third, to place the House of Hanover on the 
 throne of France. These factions were laid low together with royalty on the 
 lOth of August. The Terror compelled all secret conspirators in favor of a 
 monarchy to dissemble still more deeply. Thereupon these factions put on a 
 Republican mask. Brissot, the Gironde, and Dumouriez continued the 
 D'Orleans cabal ; Carta, that of Hanover ; Manuel, Lanjuinais, and others, 
 the Bourbon party. Fabre d'Eglantine was the leader of the last named, and 
 he was not alone ; he was the Cardinal de Retz of to-day. The panegyrist of 
 D'Orleans, he was up to the time of his imprisonment, and even subsequently, 
 the continuator of all the factions, making use of all the plots of the others to 
 intrigue through them. It is you, Danton, who caused Fabre and D'Orleans 
 to be appointed by the electoral college ; you praised the former as a most 
 
XVII DANTON DESERTED 183 
 
 but they failed to put in an appearance. Danton, 
 seeing no one arrive, seemed more particularly as- 
 tonished at the absence of General Brune, his friend 
 
 skilful man, and of the latter you said that a prince of the blood, his presence 
 in the midst of the representatives of the people would give them more impor- 
 tance in the eyes of Europe. Chabot voted in favor of Fabie and D'Orleans. 
 You made Fabre a rich man during your incumbency as Minister. Fabre 
 was then loud in his professions of federalism, and was wont to say that 
 France would be divided into four parts. Roland, a partisan of royalty, 
 sought to cross the Loire in quest of La Vendee's support ; you, remaining in 
 Paris, where D'Orleans was and where you were showing favor to Dumouriez, 
 gave orders to save Duport, who escaped in the midst of a riot instigated by 
 your emissaries in order to search a carriage containing arms. Mallouet and 
 the Bishop of Autun were often at your house ; you befriended them. You 
 agreed to no report being made to the Convention of the independence and 
 treachery of Dumouriez. You were taking part in the secret conferences with 
 AVimpfen and D'Orleans. At the same time you were pronouncing in favor 
 of principles of moderation, and your robust figure seemed to conceal the 
 weakness of your counsels. You were wont to say that seventy would make 
 too many enemies for the Republic. A commonplace conciliator, all j'our 
 exordia in the tribune began like thunder, while you ended in compelling 
 truth to compound with falsehood. Fabre and you were the apologists of 
 D'Orleans, whom you sought to present as an artless and most unfortunate man ; 
 this you repeatedly stated. You were on the mountain the point of contact 
 with and the echo of the conspiracy of Dumouriez, Brissot, and D'Orleans. 
 Lacroix ably seconded you on every opportunity. Danton, you were conse- 
 quently the accomplice of Mirabeau, of Dumouriez, of D'Orleans, and of 
 Brissot. Citizens, the criminal factions are daily seeking to encompass your 
 ruin. All the rogues are rallying to them ; for some days past they have ex- 
 pected to be unmasked. Danton and Lacroix have been saying, " Let us get 
 ready to defend ourselves." Thus Hebert, already haunted by the vision of 
 his execution, cried out three decades ago, " Defend me, they are seeking my 
 destruction !" All the reputations which have crumbled were reputations 
 usurped by the aristocracy or by criminal factions. Those who blame us for 
 our severity would prefer that we should be unjust. Little does it matter 
 that time should have brought divers vanities to the scaffold, to the cemetery, 
 to the nothing that is beyond, provided liberty remains ! People will learn 
 to become modest, and will throw themselves in the arms of solid glory and 
 solid good, represented by obscure probity. The French nation will never 
 lose its reputation ; the imprint of liberty and genius is never to be effaced in 
 the universal ! Oppressed in its lifetime, it oppresses after it prejudices and 
 tyrants. The world is empty since the days of the Romans, and yet their 
 memory fills it and still prophesies liberty ! 
 
 Conclusion of Saint-Just's report. — "There has consequently been for 
 several years a conspiracy hatched to absorb the French Revolution in a 
 change of dynasty." 
 
lS4 MEMOIRS OF BARRAS chap. 
 
 and protege, who had promised to rally powerful 
 supporters to him. Deserted as he was, Danton 
 none the less fought his executioners, whom he 
 abandoned to scorn and execration, and his lonely 
 resistance was limited to words of defence such as 
 are addressed to posterity only. Danton had made 
 a mistake both as to his friends and his enemies. 
 The daring of the latter was only equalled by the 
 cowardice of the former. 
 
 Sentenced to death for the imaginary facts enu- 
 merated in Saint-Just's report, Danton, dragged to his 
 death with all the ferocity of the day as chief of the 
 D' Orleans conspiracy and of \}a.<t faction of the "In- 
 dulgents,'' displayed on the way to the guillotine all 
 the strength of his soul, which Vi^as not to fail him up 
 to the supreme moment. When passing in front of 
 the house where dwelt Robespierre, and which I 
 have already made known, in the Rue Saint-Honore, 
 opposite the Rue Saint- Florentin, Danton, by a 
 movement which struck terror among the execu- 
 tioners and the gendarmes escorting the tumbrels, 
 suddenly arose from his fatal seat to which it was 
 believed he had been bound, and, turning towards 
 the dwelling of Robespierre, exclaimed in his power- 
 ful voice, " You will follow us shortly. Your house 
 shall be beaten down and sowed with salt." Soon, 
 indeed, will one be able to judge of the import of 
 this terrible prophecy ! 
 
 On the tumbrels reaching the Place de la Revolu- 
 tion, Danton being reserved as the last victim, his 
 companions in misfortune bowed their heads in ten- 
 der pity as they passed before him, while Danton, with 
 a truly heroic look, sought to encourage them to the 
 last. Camille Desmoulins and Herault de Sechelles, 
 
DANTON 
 
 From an unpublished Drawing by David. 
 
 From tliejubinal de Saint-Albin Collection. 
 
. tei • ■■ ' ■": !.■ - ;^-;:' ,.!/ riv was, DantO' 
 h . ..>• ;-? ;.■ . ■ .\ ,!;:.'r;crs, whom i: 
 
 ■ •• ,^ :-;i hb iont : 
 . ' - . .v; .,, ..: !i !);;c' such 
 
 !^ had rrv' 
 
 n - :;■:■ ^ IS ::m:. 
 
 ■ ■ '* ■ , .,:, s n\joi [., ' ." ■ 
 
 -- ^^ , : '. . ■!':■.; ierocitv <■.: 
 
 .■•- ' ' :' \v..i ;■ MOTMAQ 
 
 .bivfiCI i{d ;cjni//BiC] barigtldijqnir ru; 0101"? 
 
XV" ROBESPIERRE'S PRESENTIMENT 185 
 
 whose arms were pinioned behind their backs, sought 
 to give Danton a last kiss. On the executioner 
 pushing them back roughly, Danton said to him, 
 "You are even more cruel than death, but you can- 
 not prevent our lips from meeting at the bottom of 
 the sack." His turn having arrived, he ascended 
 the steps of the scaffold with positive alacrity, then, 
 looking heavenward, he exclaimed with an emotion 
 he could no longer control, " My poor wife, my poor 
 children !" Again asserting himself, " Come, no 
 weakness, Danton." He also said to the execu- 
 tioner, " You shall show my head to the people ; 
 'tis a goodly one to behold !" 
 
 It has been stated that, not content with hav- 
 ing seen the victims pass his house, Robespierre 
 had followed them to the place of execution, that 
 he had contemplated them with ferocious satisfac- 
 tion in the different phases of their agony ; lastly, 
 that the insatiable tiger, rendered more blood- 
 thirsty by the sight, appeared to be licking his 
 jaws and gargling his throat with the blood flow- 
 ing in torrents from the scaffold into the Place de la 
 Revolution. 
 
 But if his joy was complete at the very moment 
 when Danton's head fell, he is said by some me- 
 chanical instinct to have put his hand to his neck, 
 as if to make sure that his own head was on his 
 shoulders. He was making no mistake in believing 
 that his head was now more than ever in jeopardy 
 since that of Danton had fallen. It may be said 
 that at that moment the power of Robespierre 
 abdicated its primary support — that of the trust 
 reposed in him by the patriots. He sought to 
 conceal himself amid the masses surrounding the 
 
1 86 MEMOIRS OF BARRAS chap, xvn 
 
 guillotine, but, as if already pursued by a celestial 
 vengeance, he was seen to wend his way home- 
 wards with tottering steps, as if he had lost his 
 balance. 
 
CHAPTER XVIII 
 
 Confusion of authority — Early days of the National Convention — 
 Delegation of its powers to the committees — Defects of the sys- 
 tem, which weakens the Assembly — Danton's mot in this con- 
 nection — Atrocious law proposed by Couthon — I openly and 
 loudly censure the committees — Merlin de Thionville — I be- 
 come one of the leaders of the Opposition — Dinners at Doyen's 
 — Soirees at Corazza's — CofTee- house keeper and diplomat — 
 Courtois — We plan an attack on the committees — False position 
 of the Montague — I cease to go out unless armed — The com- 
 mittees seek to join forces with Robespierre — He declines, and 
 forms an alliance with Couthon and Saint-Just — The commit- 
 tees endeavor to get rid of us — Carnot's proposition — I reject it, 
 as do my colleagues — Robespierre accosts me for the first time 
 — He broaches the question — Our conversation — His plans 
 against the committees — His position — Saint-Just's report — 
 18,000 men required for the Army of Sarabre-et-Meuse — This 
 requisition subsequently revoked — Prieur de la Marne — Jeanbon 
 Saint-Andre — Jourdan — What he was at Limoges — He wins the 
 battle of Fleurus — General Lefebvre's mot — Life infused into the 
 armies — Obstacles thrown in Robespierre's way — Billaud, CoUot 
 d'Herbois, Carnot, Prieur de la Cote-d'Or — Lindet, Barere — 
 Robespierre's alarm — An act of hypocrisy — Vociferations of 
 Collot d'Herbois — Violent scene between him and Robespierre 
 — I save Robespierre — How he shows his gratitude — Stupen- 
 dous blunder of the Convention — Barillier and Granet — The 
 ferment becomes general — Executions continue wholesale not- 
 withstanding Robespierre's absence— The Committee wishes for 
 my advice— Fouquier-Tinville — A list of proscribed persons — 
 Who won the battle of Valmy ? — " The bragging old soldier of 
 the ancient regime" — I defend Kellermann, Hoche, and Cham- 
 pionnet — Fouquier-Tinville pretends he is not as black as he 
 is -painted- Manner in which the lists of those proscribed were 
 drawn up— Enthusiasm of the period— Its analogy with another 
 reign — I save a few more proscribed individuals. 
 
i88 MEMOIRS OF BARRAS chap. 
 
 In the days when I first joined the army the con- 
 trol of the military forces was primarily vested in 
 the executive power, drawing its inspiration from 
 the National Convention. Everything was done 
 without organization in those days, no special attri- 
 butes appertaining to any one branch of authority. 
 The provisional committees were nothing and did 
 nothing without the Convention, in whose bosom 
 were kindled the only flames possessing power to 
 fire the enthusiasm of the Republic. It was neces- 
 sary to set it ablaze, so that it should be able to ac- 
 complish the prodigies of strength required of it. 
 
 The Committee of Public Safety became in the 
 course of events the executive power, dictatorially 
 intrusted with the direction of the war as well as 
 political matters. To the Committee of General 
 Security befell the attribute sufficiently designated 
 by its name — power of life and death over the 
 citizens, whose liberty was at its mercy ; prison 
 gates flew open at its will. The National Conven- 
 tion paid dearly for thus delegating its powers ; 
 a great assembly which makes concessions of such 
 magnitude must sooner or later become their vic- 
 tim. The slightest usurpation of its authority, when 
 once tolerated, is soon to lead to many others. 
 
 Floreal, Year II. — At the time of the judicial mur- 
 der of Danton, a murder preceded and unfortunately 
 followed by many others, the Convention was truly 
 tyrannized over by the committees of the Govern- 
 ment, which had, in the words of that great Repub- 
 lican, "decimated and cut it down periodically," 
 as in the case of a forest. The audacity of the com- 
 
 Prairiai, mittees was such that, on the 2 2d Prairial, 
 
 Year II. Couthou proposcd in their name a law 
 
xviii CORAZZA, DIPLOMAT AND LIQUOR-SELLER 189 
 
 depriving persons arraigned before the Revolution- 
 ary Tribunal of defending counsel. 
 
 The Convention was indignant, but did not dare 
 to reject this proposition. Robespierre, who had 
 been looked upon as disposed, from policy at least, 
 to incline towards some little moderation, had him- 
 self come forward in a frenzied outburst to defend 
 this ferocious law, and had secured its adoption. 
 The influence my missions to the south had in- 
 vested me with still clung to me on the benches of 
 the National Convention, where I received the sup- 
 port of the esteem granted to a character which did 
 not bow before the storm. I openly and loudly cen- 
 sured the committees. Merlin de Thionville spoke 
 in the same sense, and together we inspired fear. 
 
 I led an isolated life, belonging to no coterie and 
 avoiding dinners ; my conduct, which gave no hold 
 upon my person, imposed upon people, and by the 
 very fact pointed to me as one of the leaders of the 
 opposition. We sought to come to an understand- 
 ing as to the best means of putting a curb on the 
 excesses of the committees of the Government, and 
 assisting the National Convention to recover its 
 proper standing. We inaugurated a series of meet- 
 ings, by day at Doyen's, the eating-house keeper in 
 the Champs- Elysees, and by night in a cabinet of 
 the Cafe Corazza. This simple coffee-house keeper, 
 of Italian origin, was at the same time a diplomatic 
 personage; he possessed letters - patent from the 
 Pope empowering him to make stipulations in the 
 interests of the pontifical throne. Corazza was de- 
 voted to me. 
 
 In our group was Courtois, the deputy, an active 
 and shrewd man, who since the death of Danton 
 
igo MEMOIRS OF BARRAS chap. 
 
 had become the relentless and personal enemy of 
 his murderers ; affable and with insinuating ways, 
 Courtois was on good terms with the several par- 
 ties ; he had taken upon himself to prepare his col- 
 leagues for the attack we were proposing to make 
 on the committees, and was fulfilling his task to per- 
 fection. 
 
 Although I sat with the Montagne, as did also 
 Merlin de Thionville and Courtois himself, we were 
 far from feeling as certain of that party of the Con- 
 vention as of the rest of it. The reason for this was 
 simple enough. The Montagnards had bowed to 
 the will of the committees, at the time of the attack 
 on Danton, with a docility which had settled the 
 fate of the victim. Several even had taken an active 
 part in bringing about this dire result owing to the 
 feeling of jealousy that men of mediocrity generally 
 exhibit towards those who are superior to them. 
 Compromised by this their line of action, the mem- 
 bers of the National Convention knew not how to 
 part company with the Committee of Public Safety ; 
 they found themselves in the false position of not 
 knowing how to join issue or how to work in har- 
 mony with it. In order to convince each and every 
 one of them of the possibility of acting definitively on 
 the offensive, all sorts of negotiations were neces- 
 sary ; their success was slow, but still we gained ad- 
 herents. Daily fresh deputies recruited by Courtois 
 would say confidentially to me, " You may depend 
 on us." 
 
 I no longer left my house unless armed. The 
 nucleus of our assemblage comprised nine members. 
 Merlin de Thionville and I, defying the committees, 
 threatened to cut off the head of the first myrmidon 
 
xviii THE DEATH-STRUGGLE BEGINS 191 
 
 attempting to arrest us, and that his head should be 
 shown to the people, who, like ourselves, abhorred 
 tyranny. This hostile attitude had its due effect on 
 our adversaries. The committees, estranged from 
 Robespierre because they were the majority, deemed 
 it advisable to enter into an alliance with him in 
 order to compass our destruction, and with that end 
 in view made a final attempt. 
 
 Robespierre, believing that he was stronger than 
 all of them together, rejected the proposed alliance ; 
 thereupon the committees themselves saw that there 
 was no other way out of the dilemma than to create 
 a diversion, and unite with the National Convention 
 in an attack on Robespierre, Couthon, and Saint- 
 Just. The plan was submitted to several members 
 of the National Convention ; those allowed to hear 
 of it resolved on concentrating upon these three 
 individuals the charges which were, in the first 
 instance, to have been formulated against the whole 
 of the members of the committees collectively ; this 
 prudent resolution isolated therefrom the triumvi- 
 rate, rendered it vulnerable, and afforded the best 
 chances of success towards giving back to the Con- 
 vention its standing. We agreed to this transaction, 
 although it necessarily compromised the Conven- 
 tion, and preserved the power of men who, to my 
 way of thinking, were as guilty as Robespierre — 
 men who up to that very time had been his accom- 
 plices in deeds of cruelty, and to-day were his ene- 
 mies only on the question of the division of power, 
 in other words, of the quarry. 
 
 But all our resolutions were still far from the day 
 when they should be carried out ; and it is when an 
 event is about to happen that uncertainty worries 
 
192 MEMOIRS OF BARRAS chap. 
 
 most those who have experienced the greatest 
 trouble in coming to a decision. Rendered uneasy, 
 above all things, at the consequences of the energy 
 of some of the deputies with whom it was necessary 
 to unite, and anxious as to the issue of the struggle, 
 the committees bethought themselves of sending on 
 mission near the armies those members of the Con- 
 vention whose determination of character they stood 
 in awe of. Carnot, meeting me in the Rue des 
 Petits-Champs as I was walking along with one of 
 my friends who is still living, came up to me and 
 said, " Citizen colleague, the Committee of Public 
 Safety has you in its mind for the fulfilment of an 
 important mission — to wit, that you should at once 
 join the Army of the Rhine, where your firmness 
 and civism will serve to reconcile many interests, 
 and will put an end to unhappy dissensions which 
 have broken out in its midst." " I will not join the 
 Army of the Rhine," was my reply to Carnot ; " the 
 post of honor is in the Convention, and I will not 
 abandon it." 
 
 I am far from suspecting Carnot of any evil in^' 
 tention in this desire to send me away to the army. 
 Carnot, intent on his military occupations, yet not 
 quite so exclusively as he has since pretended, ever 
 had his eyes in the direction of the frontier which it 
 was necessary to defend ; such was the thought up- 
 permost in his mind. It was nevertheless easy to 
 detect the influence of the committees in his prop- 
 osition. It was likewise rejected by several of my col- 
 leagues. We were all agreed that we should remain 
 on the very battle-field where the intestine war was be- 
 ing waged — a war that had become even more fraught 
 with perils than that waged by the coalition itself. 
 
xvni ROBESPIERRE CONCILIATORY 193 
 
 Robespierre's silence and his disdainful ignoring 
 of Freron and myself, on the day of the visit I have 
 referred to previously, had left a doubt in my mind 
 as to whether he had taken sufficient notice of me 
 to knowr me again. On the day following the one 
 on which I declined Carnot's proposal to go again 
 on mission, I was afforded the opportunity of seeing 
 for the first time that I did in some measure occupy 
 a space in the memory of Robespierre, for, coming 
 towards me, he turned as if repentant of his former 
 coldness, and calling me by my name with an air of 
 good -will which constituted for him so great an 
 effort that it was almost tantamount to a convulsion, 
 he said to me, " You have, I learn, felt the necessity 
 of remaining with the Convention ; it is time it 
 should shake off the oppression of the factious 
 majority of the committees." Not grasping the 
 significance of Robespierre's utterance, nor desir- 
 ous of coming in view of it to any conclusion in his 
 favor, but merely with the hope of beginning the 
 fight wherein, everybody being brought face to face, 
 if would become necessary to conquer or die, I an- 
 swered Robespierre thus : " Well, then, ascend the 
 tribune and unmask the conspirators." " The day 
 is not far distant when I shall attack them," replied 
 Robespierre. In what way did he contemplate his 
 attack, and where would he make it.'' Was it in 
 the body of the Jacobins, where he wielded so po- 
 tent an influence, or in the bosom of the Conven- 
 tion, where his influence was none the less genuine ? 
 In the Convention this influence had until now been 
 due to his position as member of the Committee 
 of Public Safety, and to the predominancy with 
 which his popularity invested him even in the bosom 
 
194 MEMOIRS OF BARRAS chap. 
 
 of this Committee, which,- still remaining superior 
 to all executive powers, had become the sole exec- 
 utive power, the one impelling the National Con- 
 vention to action. But the scene was about to 
 change ; the members of the Committee were di- 
 vided against themselves, and Robespierre no longer 
 attended its sittings. If the power imparted to 
 them by the presence of this colossus of popularity 
 was to be diminished by his withdrawal from their 
 midst, the influence that Robespierre in turn had 
 derived from the solidarity of power could not but 
 diminish in a like ratio. But the public not having 
 yet been taken into confidence in regard to the 
 weakness of the dissentients, Robespierre, with a 
 view of getting the start of all others, was circulat- 
 ing and causing to be bruited about by his adhe- 
 rents his strong and indignant disapproval of a prop- 
 osition which he attributed to the members of the 
 Committee of Public Safety, of wishing to adjourn 
 the sittings of the Convention ; and he alleged this 
 reason as one of those on account of which he had 
 not appeared at the sittings of the Committee of 
 Public Safety for a month past. But even admit- 
 ting that he no longer participated in its acts of 
 authority, was Robespierre, the accuser of his col- 
 leagues, any the less wicked than they ? Did he 
 not enjoy in Paris a preponderance inspiring as 
 many fears as the powers of all the committees 
 together ? 
 
 In the midst of all these complicated enmities 
 Saint-Just drew up a report on the position of the 
 Republic, and of Paris in particular, asking that the 
 Committee of Public Safety should allay all alarms, 
 and, in order to accomplish this, that it should no 
 
xvni ANARCHY HOLDS SWAY 195 
 
 longer conceal anything from the public, as it had 
 done heretofore. The propositions of Saint- Just 
 were rejected. The order was issued on the ist 
 Messidor, by the Committee of Public Safety, to 
 detach 18,000 men from the Army of Messidor, 
 Sambre-et-Meuse for the purposes of a Year 11. 
 secret operation ; but the order was revoked, as it 
 was argued that its execution would compel the 
 army to abandon its positions and retire under the 
 walls of Givet. Prieur de la Marne and Jeanbon 
 Saint -Andre being away on missions, the Com- 
 mittee found itself reduced to a membership of five, 
 and although anarchy held sway over the very 
 heart of the Government, the operations of the 
 armies were being most vigorously carried out, so 
 great and terrible was the spirit with which they 
 had been fired. Jourdan, in spite of everything — 
 and perhaps in spite of himself, as General Lefebvre 
 was wont to say — won the battle of Fleurus ; and 
 Jourdan, but a short time before a linen-draper and 
 peddler of linens in Limoges, found himself by stress 
 of circumstances in the position of Premier General 
 of the Republic. 
 
 Accustomed as he was to impose his wishes and 
 see them carried out without discussion, Robespierre 
 was astounded and as if stupefied. He had already 
 encountered opposition on the part of Billaud, a 
 phlegmatic yet irritable individual who never spoke 
 except sententiously and insultingly ; on the part 
 of Collot, a sort of boor of unparalleled violence, 
 whose popular eloquence from the tribune of the 
 Jacobins and from that of the Convention feared 
 not to measure itself with that of Robespierre ; on 
 the part of Carnot, who laid no claim to oratory, 
 
196 MEMOIRS OF BARRAS chap. 
 
 but whose military object of securing France's inde- 
 pendence gave additional strength to his character ; 
 on the part of Prieur de la Cote-d'Or, associated 
 with Carnot, his former comrade in the Engineers ; 
 on the part of Lindet, whose love of labor made him 
 one with those who labored ; on the part of Barere, 
 whose activity and loquacity could not but be of ser- 
 vice to his colleagues, since they constituted the ma- 
 jority, for Barere was ever with the majority. This 
 group, brought together by the common danger, 
 was assuredly a motive of alarm for Robespierre. 
 His too well-known character of implacable re- 
 venge, moreover, did not allow those whom he 
 threatened to entertain any hope of their own safety 
 otherwise than through his defeat, not to say his 
 death. At a time when the Convention was already 
 in a high state of alarm he had circulated a list of 
 five or six deputies. It was rumored that Robes- 
 pierre intended to have them arrested as a little 
 treat to himself, alleging their immorality as the 
 motive of this proposed act of severity. Robes- 
 pierre, informed of what was being imputed to him, 
 asserted that such an idea was foreign to him, and, 
 desirous of hurling it back at its authors, he main- 
 tained that it had originated with the majority of 
 the Committee, which, he alleged, had pushed its 
 cruelty so far as to seek to include thirty-two depu- 
 ties in its latest proscription-list. In vain did those 
 who spoke in defence of Robespierre's innocence of 
 the idea and his humanity protest that it was he 
 who had opposed this more than rigorous measure, 
 that he had torn up the list with his own hands and, 
 apostrophizing the Committee, had said : " You are 
 seeking to still further decimate the Convention ; I 
 
XVIII ROBESPIERRE A " MODERATE " 197 
 
 will not give my support to such action." Robes- 
 pierre had indeed spoken these words just as, mak- 
 ing an attempt to leave the Committee, he had 
 opened the door with the intention of being heard 
 by the deputies and a large number of citizens, who, 
 attracted by the noise of a quarrel in the bosom of 
 the Committee, were waiting in the antechamber 
 for the purpose of gratifying their curiosity thus 
 aroused. CoUot d'Herbois, furious at such hypoc- 
 risy, had sprung after Robespierre, seized him by 
 his coat, and, dragging him towards him in order 
 to bring him back into the room, exclaimed in his 
 resounding voice, which, the door remaining ajar, 
 was heard by all, both the Committee and the peo- 
 ple outside : " Robespierre is an infamous scoun- 
 drel, a hypocrite; he. seeks to impute to us that 
 of which he alone is capable. We love all our 
 colleagues ; we carry all patriots in our hearts. 
 There stands the man who seeks to butcher them 
 one and all !" Thus vociferating, Collot d'Herbois 
 still retained his hold on Robespierre's coat-collar. 
 As I had at that very moment left the Convention, 
 on my way to the Committee, I became a chance 
 spectator of this fearful scene, whose violence was 
 still not the greatest crime in my eyes. Behind it 
 stood revealed the plot of premeditated vengeance, 
 far worse than a mere outburst of anger. I was 
 among those who compelled Collot d'Herbois to 
 release his hold of Robespierre, who thereupon de- 
 clared that he could no longer sit with his enemies, 
 styling them a party of septemvirs, whom he would 
 unmask and fight in the body of the Convention. 
 He then took his departure, in spite of the entrea- 
 ties of the Committee, which, having been unable to 
 
igS MEMOIRS OF BARRAS CHAP. 
 
 conquer, sought to retain him in its midst. " Let 
 him. go his way," I said to those surrounding him. 
 All my interest in him lay in the fact that I did not 
 wish to see him strangled on the spot by a stronger 
 man, and one perhaps as wicked as himself. I fol- 
 lowed him for a short distance in order to see him 
 safely home ; he was trembling as he walked along. 
 Noticing that I was following him closely, he gave 
 me an uncertain look, seeming at one and the same 
 time to thank me for having rescued him but a few 
 moments before, while reproaching me with the 
 humiliating position in which I had seen him. I 
 could just make out from a few sentences he ejacu- 
 lated the words " Jacobins " and " Cordeliers": we 
 shall see." I left him at the door of his house and 
 returned to the Convention, where I told in confi- 
 dence what had taken place. 
 
 The Committee of Public Safety, which should 
 have been renewed every month, had not been 
 renewed. It was on the motion of the officious 
 Granet that this unfortunate extension of powers 
 had been granted ; this constituted an enormous 
 blunder on the part of the National Convention, 
 and the primary cause of the crisis we had been 
 brought face to face with. 
 
 The committees began to rally their followers. 
 Robespierre thought himself too sure of his own to 
 make an appeal to them. In the meantime ferment 
 was at its highest ; each and every one was secretly 
 arming himself, while Robespierre's confederates, 
 although he did nothing out of the way to stim- 
 ulate their zeal, pretended to see in him a victim 
 whom it was necessary to rid of his foes by strik- 
 ing them. These foes were, to their mind, the 
 
XVIII SUMMONED BY THE COMMITTEE 199 
 
 National Convention, and principally the commit- 
 tees. 
 
 A remark has been made to the effect that even 
 subsequent to Robespierre's withdrawal from the 
 Committee of Public Safety none the less whole- 
 sale executions took place. Was this a consequence 
 of the terrible impetus imparted by him, or were 
 these butcheries accelerated through the fear result- 
 mg from his withdrawal and the dominating in- 
 fluence of his absence ? To speak from personal 
 knowledge, I was one day summoned by the Com- 
 mittee of Public Safety, as having given a more 
 special attention to military matters, and for the 
 purpose of being consulted. Why did they need 
 my advice ? How could I foresee this ? On my 
 responding to the summons, I was kept waiting in 
 the large room adjacent to the one wherein sat the 
 Committee. On the table were spread out several 
 large maps, which led me to infer that a decisive 
 plan of campaign was about to be discussed. A 
 few deputies who, like myself, were waiting in- 
 formed me that the matter at issue was merely a 
 plan of canalization through some department or 
 other. I was conversing with them, when suddenly 
 Fouquier-Tinville, the Public Prosecutor, came out 
 of the Committee's room, carrying under his arm a 
 portfolio which was still open. He asked the usher 
 to point out to him the representative of the people 
 Barras. This done, he told me that he wished to 
 speak with me in private ; naturally all the others 
 withdrew, leaving me face to face with my terrible 
 interlocutor. 
 
 Fouquier-Tinville had been commissioned by the 
 Committee of Public Safety to seek my opinion in 
 
200 MEMOIRS OF BARRAS chap. 
 
 regard to a certain number of military men whom 
 it wished to send before the Revolutionary Tribunal. 
 He drew from his portfolio a list headed with the 
 names of Kellermann, Hoche, Championnet, and 
 other generals and adjutant-generals. The members 
 of the Committee had said to him, " You will consult 
 on this matter with Barras, who knows these people 
 better than any one else." 
 
 On casting a look af the list of these names, not 
 one of which was that of an enemy of the Republic, 
 but, on the contrary, many those of its most respect- 
 ed defenders, I stood as if petrified. After a mo- 
 ment of silent stupor I exclaimed warmly, " There 
 is no sense in this ; at the very least it is the most 
 serious of blunders ; I do not see on that list the 
 name of any individual whose conscience can possi- 
 bly take him to task. The greater part of them 
 have well deserved of their country, and can still 
 render the greatest services to it. I will admit that 
 Kellermann is perhaps not a great genius ; yet he 
 behaved well at Valmy, and although the credit for 
 the greater joart of the day's fighting doubtless be- 
 longs to General Dampierre, still some gratitude is 
 due to Kellermann. I see from the notes constitut- 
 ing his indictment that he is charged with being a 
 braCToring old soldier of the ancient renme, but that 
 is not sufficient reason to send a man to his death. 
 As to Hoche, who recovered the lines of Weissem- 
 burg, raised the blockade of Landau, and brought 
 to a successful issue the memorable campaign in 
 the Vosges at the time I was at Toulon, I make 
 bold to say that he was one with us in doing his 
 duty. He still stands out as the finest and truest 
 Republican glory we now possess ; his is a soul of 
 
XVIII FOUQUIEJ^-TINVILLE 201 
 
 fire ; his is a heart filled with the loftiest patriotism ; 
 his is perhaps the greatest brain we have in matters 
 of war and politics ; this much has been admitted by 
 Carnot, one of the very members of the Committee, 
 when speaking to me about him. All these are 
 men whom, instead of sending before the Revolu- 
 tionary Tribunal, one cannot make use of with too 
 great confidence. Championnet and all the others 
 whom I see on your list are likewise patriots, sol- 
 diers of the Revolution, who have won their rank at 
 her hands, and live for her alone." 
 
 Fouquier-Tinville, while listening to my remarks, 
 was nodding approval of them. At the close of 
 them he at once picked up a pen from the table, 
 and struck out the names of the military men in- 
 scribed on the fatal list. It was the first time I had 
 seen Fouquier - Tinville ; his physiognomy, which 
 I had pictured to myself as a sinister one, his eyes, 
 which prejudice had made me assimilate with those 
 of the tiger, all this softening down of a sudden, 
 seemed to me to take on a shade of humanity, so 
 true it is that the most cruel of men, when stripped 
 for a moment of their theatrical cloak, and no longer 
 in presence of the exigencies of their Ministry, seem 
 to abdicate their role temporarily, and not to be in- 
 accessible to the sentiments of nature. Fouquier- 
 Tinville recalled this idea to my mind especially 
 through the sort of candor, may I venture to say, 
 with which he spoke to me in a tone of disapproval 
 of his own actions. To listen to him, it was the 
 Committee which daily drew up lists of proscripts, 
 while he himself merely carried out its orders. 
 These lists themselves were the joint production of 
 the whole Committee, the result of an indeliberate 
 
202 MEMOIRS OF BARRAS chap. 
 
 hurry of business, and many victims would have 
 doubtless been spared had the work only been done 
 with some show of deliberation and by two or three 
 members specially intrusted with this branch of the 
 Committee's attributes. But the members of the 
 Committee, whether ambitious of popularity at a 
 time when nothing in the world was more popular 
 than the guillotine, or from a desire to gratify per- 
 sonal spites and take their share in this banquet 
 of blood, were all equally desirous of participating 
 in this work. Are there any among them who may 
 be credited with doing this for the purpose of res- 
 cuing the innocent .'' Alas ! is it possible to find in 
 those awful days a single one of them enter a plea 
 on behalf of the human beings subjected to peri- 
 odical and systematic thinning out by the knife.? 
 Incredible period, whose impulse it has been sought 
 to explain away by the power and will of one man, 
 and which is connected with so many others ! For 
 such is the strength of a system that, when once it 
 has been adopted by a Government, the very men 
 who appear to be its masters, because they are its 
 leaders, are doing no more than themselves becom- 
 ing subject to its consequences, and can only halt 
 in their course on the day when they shall in turn 
 become victims ! 
 
 Were it allowable to anticipate facts which will 
 hereafter bring confirmation to the remark I record 
 at this juncture, I should say : You will see Bona- 
 parte, the child born of War, able to live for so many 
 years by her only, then perish by War, whose course 
 he can no longer put an end to. In regard to hu- 
 manity, not less cruelly attacked by his system of 
 glory than by the scaffolds of the Terror, I should 
 
XVIII FOUQUIER-TINVILLE 203 
 
 say : Look at the perpetual and inexorable levies of 
 a never-ending conscription which reached all classes 
 and men of every age ; after having harvested down 
 to the last child of our families, to what new class, to 
 what new ages was he still going to look ? Where 
 would this conscription have ever stopped if the au- 
 thor of this implacable system had not met at last 
 with superior force ? 
 
 To return to Fouquier-Tinville, with whom I 
 would like to have done, but across whose path I 
 shall shortly come again. He really sought to ex- 
 cuse himself to me for everything that was happen- 
 ing in the precinct of his revolutionary tribunal, 
 again protesting that the matter was altogether in 
 the hands of the Committee. Desirous of appearing 
 in my eyes as my conversation had in a measure dic- 
 tated to him to appear, he submitted to me another 
 very lengthy list supplementing that of the military 
 men. I saw in it the names of some of the truest 
 patriots, classified as Girondins, Dantonists, the off- 
 spring of all the revolutionary factions, and classed 
 under the general designation of " conspirators 
 against the unity and indivisibility of the Republic." 
 Some few genuine counter- Revolutionists were to 
 be met with among them ; but for the time being 
 the men of the Revolution were given priority in 
 the matter of death. The reason of this is a simple 
 one: these men were those who had been in a posi- 
 tion to give personal offence to, and, so to speak, en- 
 gage in a hand-to-hand conflict with, some of the 
 members of the Committee. In political as well as 
 in religious sects one hates in preference the adversa- 
 ries closer to one ; a follower of Jansenius detests a 
 disciple of Loyola more than he does a sectarian of 
 
204 MEMOIRS OF BARRAS CHAP. XVIII 
 
 Mohammed. It would have been as impossible to 
 conceal my sentiments on seeing the names of all 
 these good citizens as it had been in the case of 
 those of the honorable military men. " My word !" 
 I exclaimed, " what are you about to do ? Here are 
 a lot of men just as true patriots as the previous 
 ones. How can you thus fire on your own troops .? 
 This is nothing more than an attempt to encompass 
 the ruin of us all in succession ; and, to leave our 
 own danger out of the question, it is the most 
 dreadful act of injustice !" " What is, then, your de- 
 sire .?" asked Fouquier-Tinville of me. " Do for the 
 citizens what you have just done in the case of the 
 military men," was my unhesitating reply. Again 
 did Fouquier-Tinville pick up the pen, and in my 
 presence strike out several names whose appear- 
 ance on the list had most revolted me, saying, " Cit- 
 izen representative, the responsibility of this rests 
 with you !" 
 
CHAPTER XIX 
 
 Tallien and Fouche at Robespierre's house — Robespierre's grim 
 silence — Causes of the Terror — Fouche's position — He goes be- 
 yond Robespierre's thoughts — His cowardice — His face; what 
 it expressed — Expelled by the Jacobins, he is afraid to show him- 
 self — His intrigues — I employ him — A deputy's mot in regard to 
 Robespierre — Fouche brings every means into play against him — 
 Robespierre censures Fouche for his atheism — His dishonesty — 
 Fouche at Lyons — Citoyenne Fouche's exit from Lyons — Her 
 critical situation — Collot d'Herbois's eloquence rescues her from 
 her predicament — Fouche redeems his past by striking at the 
 aristocrats — Fouche compromises himself more and more in re- 
 gard to Robespierre — One of his letters intercepted — His under- 
 hand tricks — The 8th Thermidor — Robespierre's speeches in the 
 Convention and at a meeting of the Jacobins — Contrasts — Up- 
 roar at the Jacobins — Collot and Billaud hooted — Couthon de- 
 fends Robespierre — The 9th Thermidor — Vadier and Cambon — 
 Couthon again — Tallien's interruption — Robespierre's fury — 
 Thuriot — Accusations hurled at Robespierre — His extraordinary 
 position — The Convention invaded — Saint -Just in the tribune — 
 Devotion of Robespierre the Younger — The Convention decrees 
 that the two Robespierres, Le Bas, Saint- Just, and Couthon 
 shall be indicted — Difficulties in the way of executing the decree 
 — The accused men dragged to jail — Robespierre's jailers — His 
 embarrassing obedience — He rebels — Henriot — The Convention 
 besieged — The committees offer me the command of the armed 
 force — Dignified attitude of the National Convention — General- 
 in-chief of the Army of the Interior — Reasons for my hesitation 
 — Which was the better man, Robespierre or Billaud ? — I come 
 to a determination — Henriot outlawed— My harangue to his 
 soldiers — Rout of the rebels— Defection of their army— Decisive 
 resolution — Robespierre before the Commune — Fury ofthe Com- 
 mittee— I oppose their bloody plans— Fright of the conspirators 
 —I go to the H6tel-de-Ville — The leaders of the insurgents at 
 bay — Suicides — An awful sight— Robespierre's teeth— He is de- 
 
206 MEMOIRS OF BARRAS chap. 
 
 nied a pen — The blood-stained table — How I dispose of the con- 
 spirators — Robespierre and his accomplices sentenced to death— 
 Their execution — Barere's shameless accusations against Robes- 
 pierre — What the Convention should have done — I pay a visit to 
 the children of the House of France — Condition of the son of 
 Louis XVI, — Madame Royale — I give orders that they shall be 
 treated better — M. Dussault — The Revolutionary Tribunal — I 
 tear condemned persons from its clutches — Fouquier-Tinville 
 again — Our conversation — He quakes — Fouquier-Tinville and I 
 before the Committee — Illegal humanity — The committees shorn 
 of their principal strength — Conduct of the Convention — A pro- 
 miscuous batch of executions — My report to the Assembly — 
 Powers of the committees curtailed — The Revolutionary Tribunal 
 reorganized — The law of the forty sous repealed — Robespierre's 
 papers — Courtois — The iron cupboard — My conduct on the 9th 
 Thermidor — Mile. Robespierre — Leonard Bourdon — The gen- 
 darme Meda — His story — Foundation for Meda's fable — A par- 
 allel. 
 
 I HAVE since learned that the step I took opposite 
 Robespierre — viz., of calHng upon him — was attempt- 
 ed about the same time, and with as little success, 
 by Tallien and Fouche, each of them on his own 
 part. I have learned that their eloquence likewise 
 struck against a determined deaf-mute, and that to 
 all their gentle, forcible, friendly, respectful, and feel- 
 ing words Robespierre vouchsafed no other answer 
 than an obstinate silence, an expressionless physi- 
 ognomy, and neither word nor sign. There is in a 
 like silence, on the part of a man wielding the scep- 
 tre of death, something more fearful to the imagina- 
 tion than uttered threats. Thus, as I have already 
 pointed out, Robespierre's mysteriously grim man- 
 ner, combined with his terrible prerogative of dis- 
 posing of the scaffold, may have had much to do 
 with the causes of the terror which smote in those 
 days the minds of those whom he attacked. 
 
 The new Salmoneus, much as he might wish to 
 
XIX CHARACTER OF FOUCHE 20? 
 
 become sole possessor of the thunderbolts, needed 
 auxiliaries. I have shown that he no longer had 
 any supporters in the Committee but Couthon and 
 Saint-Just. The primary object of his ambition 
 seemed to be to strike, in the first place, what re- 
 mained or what might spring up again of those he 
 looked upon as his personal enemies, of whom in 
 his hatred he never lost sight. At the head of 
 those he had marked for death stood Fouche, and 
 as, in view of the point his personal quarrel with 
 Robespierre had reached, he could not but succumb 
 within a very short time, it had been concluded 
 therefrom that he was to be one of those who would 
 deal the first blows at Robespierre. 
 
 But the arguments brought into play to convince 
 Fouche of his danger were not sufficient to inspire 
 him with courage. He had certainly been at all 
 times an ultra-Revolutionist, and had shown what he 
 was made of in his support of the system of terror; 
 but he had not exactly hit the idea of Robespierre, 
 or rather he had become his rival, and had given 
 him offence by going even further than he did. 
 Fouche's position was therefore not one to afford 
 him opposite his enemy a frank and clearly defined 
 character enabling him to attack him openly. 
 Robespierre had told Fouche that his face was the 
 expression of crime. Fouche, far from replying, took 
 it as a matter of course ; expelled from the Jacobins, 
 he had not been able to return to the fold; he no 
 longer dared show himself even in the Convention, 
 but busied himself actively and with a will with in- 
 trigues and machinations of the lowest kind. I sent 
 him hither and thither to inform our friends of what 
 we knew of the intentions of Robespierre, Saint-Just, 
 
2o8 MEMOIRS OF BARRAS chap. 
 
 and Couthon. His personal dread of the triumvirs 
 served but to increase in his eyes the idea of their 
 hostile plans. Everything that he already dreaded 
 most sincerely was artfully exaggerated by him when 
 seeking to stimulate those whom he sought to in- 
 duce to make up their minds to action. Rising at 
 early morn, he would run round till night calling on 
 deputies of all shades of opinion, saying to each 
 and every one, " You perish to-morrow if he does 
 not." To those who mourned Danton, and who 
 were threatened with the resentment of his execu- 
 tioners, Fouche was wont to say, " We may, if we 
 see fit, be avenged to-morrow, and to-morrow only 
 will we be safe." Such was the terror produced by 
 Robespierre, that a member of the National Con- 
 vention who thought the gaze of the dictator was 
 fixed upon him just as he was putting his hand to 
 his forehead in musing fashion, quickly withdrew it, 
 saying, " He will suppose that I am thinking of 
 something." In order to instil fresh courage into 
 minds so stricken with fright more than one speech 
 was required to place the question before each and 
 every one in such a way that he should see his own 
 interests in it. Hence it cannot be denied that 
 Fouche, gathering together by his clever intriguing 
 all sentiments against Robespierre, was a genuine 
 resource in the midst of the elements extant ready 
 to make a decisive move against the oppressors of 
 the Convention. 
 
 Robespierre accused Fouche of having dishon- 
 ored the Revolution by exaggerating all measures 
 and erecting atheism as a doctrine. " No, Fouche," 
 he said to him in the hall of the Jacobins, " death is 
 not an eternal sleep." Besides, to use his own ex- 
 
XIX CITOYENNE FOUCHE SACRED 209 
 
 pression, he believed he " held " him in his power in 
 the matter of honesty, as Fouche had been charged 
 with not having been any too strictly faithful on 
 the occasion of his mission to Lyons, where, out- 
 stripping his epoch in those early days, he was be- 
 lieved to have enjoyed a foretaste of that corrupt 
 century. Reports, possibly mendacious, had reached 
 Robespierre, according to which Fouche is said to 
 have, in the midst of the demolition of the dwellings 
 in the town doomed to endure his cruelty, behaved 
 somewhat like the incendiaries who carry on their 
 business by the light of the flames. It is that 
 which caused Robespierre to assume so lofty a 
 manner against Fouche, because Fouche was sup- 
 posed to have begun " to make money " at a time 
 when no one in the Republic had so far dreamed 
 of doing such a thing, either because of the Ter- 
 ror, which was not disposed to indulgence towards 
 thieves, or because of a sentiment of genuine hon- 
 esty which dominated men whose sole thought was 
 the defence of the Republic. It was told that as 
 she was leaving Lyons unnamed, and then renamed 
 a commune affranchie, "the carriage of the citoyenne 
 Fouche had met with an accident." This religious 
 custodian of the treasures of the conjugal commu- 
 nity was said to have been caught hiding her coffers 
 under her skirts like a tender hen on her nest. The 
 residents of the suburb of Vaise were witnesses of 
 the catastrophe. The wife of the representative 
 would have been roughly dealt with, and relieved of 
 the opima spolia she was carting off, had Collot 
 d'Herbois, Fouche's colleague at Lyons, not come 
 to her rescue. He is said on this embarrassing 
 and critical occasion to have supported his colleague 
 I-14 
 
2IO MEMOIRS OF BARRAS chap. 
 
 with all the strength of his lungs. He hurled the 
 accusation of aristocracy at the very sans -culottes 
 who had dared to stop the carriage of the wife of a 
 representative of the people, or even look at it when 
 it was overturned. What business was it of theirs 
 what the carriage of the citoyenne Fouche con- 
 tained t It should be sacred to the people. Those 
 who allowed themselves even to make remarks on a 
 similar occasion belonged not to the people, and 
 Collot d'Herbois went so far as to threaten the resi- 
 dents of the Lyons suburb with having them " shot 
 that very moment," and sending them " to join the 
 aristocrats of the Place Bellecour." 
 
 The eloquence of Collot d'Herbois, strengthened 
 by all the apparatus of the armed force at his beck 
 and call (for he had the means of carrying his threats 
 into execution), put an end to the doings of those 
 surrounding the carriage. The carriage of the cito- 
 yenne Fouche was repaired, and she was allowed to 
 pursue her journey to Paris with every show of re- 
 spect. Fouche still remained in Lyons as rear-guard 
 while his wife was carrying away the hoard which 
 had just been in such jeopardy. 
 
 With the object of obliterating this untoward in- 
 cident by a display of patriotism, Fouche deemed 
 it necessary to signalize his stay in Lyons by fur- 
 ther revolutionary acts, launching new thunderbolts 
 against the Lyonnais aristocrats. 
 
 I think I am dispensed in these early pages of 
 my memoirs, considering what one has already 
 gathered of my principles and the antecedents of 
 my life, from declaring that I am not an aristocrat 
 seeking to call forth recollections in condemnation 
 of the extraordinary movement destined to save 
 
XIX FOUCHE'S CONDUCT 211 
 
 France. Quite the contrary, I am one of those, as 
 my political actions clearly demonstrate, who believe 
 that the revolutionary action could not be too strong 
 in view of the deliverance of a country invaded by 
 and in the toils of Europe's coalition. Still, I must 
 fain admit that at the very moment when I was the 
 first to feel, from the example set by the events at 
 Toulon, all the severity that the exigencies of the 
 times rendered imperative to those whose mission it 
 was to defend France in the quarters most threatened 
 — I admit, I say, that I could not fathom the emotion, 
 compassion, and tears of joy invoked by those 
 whose terrible duty it was to smite even the guilty 
 ones ; and, had I not read the official phrases of 
 Fouche and Collot d'Herbois, I would never have 
 thought it possible. Perhaps, as I have just nar- 
 rated, the circumstances under which Fouche had 
 been so seriously compromised, owing to his wife's 
 carriage accident, compelled him, or made him 
 believe he was compelled, to go even beyond the 
 measure in order to destroy the recollection and all 
 traces of that for which he might incur reproach. 
 Thus in his frenzied over-excitement he no longer 
 contented himself, while in Lyons, with appearing 
 in the role of " representative " of the people dele- 
 gated by the National Convention and commis- 
 sioned to execute its revolutionary laws ; he loudly 
 said: " The revolutionary laws do not suffice; some- 
 thing better is needed; one must be ultra-revolu- 
 tionary in these days." When receiving the Bulle- 
 tin des Lois, he was wont to say ironically before 
 the temporary commission engaged in sentencing, 
 or even in shooting without taking the trouble of 
 sentencing : " Come now, friends, let us have no 
 
212 MEMOIRS OF BARRAS chap. 
 
 more laws ; we are in a state of nature." Thus had 
 Fouche's reprehensible conduct stimulated to still 
 further excesses his ordinary feverish impulses, and 
 made him overstep the furthest limits of decency. 
 He was under the impression that he was thus pre- 
 paring unto himself claims to recognition and tro- 
 phies, and to gather in his favor arguments against 
 the accusations of the Committee of Public Safety 
 on his return to Paris. 
 
 But Robespierre was not to be put off with this 
 luxury, this bragging, and it may also be said this 
 ultra-revolutionary reality; and even in the reaction- 
 ary plans already in his mind, at a time when he 
 was desirous, by making pretence to moderation, to 
 win over to himself the real aristocrats, the priests 
 and nobles of the ancient regime, it suited him to a 
 degree that Fouche should have acted in so extrav- 
 agant a fashion, thus giving more strength to the 
 charges he would bring against him. Robespierre 
 had told the Committee, previous to leaving it, that 
 " the impunity enjoyed by Fouche was one of ' his ' 
 grievances." He had pursued this theme among 
 the Jacobins, and caused him to be expelled from 
 their club. It will be seen that Fouche's position 
 was fully, in those days, one of the most in jeopardy. 
 I have told previously how Fouche and Tallien had 
 separately paid a visit of deference and respect to 
 Robespierre ; how each of them, just like Freron 
 and myself, had met with no other reception than an 
 obstinate silence — a refusal to give any explanation 
 or word which this very silence did not plainly ex- 
 press. Matters were growing worse apace ; no 
 longer was there any possibility of a reconciliation, 
 even under the mask of mutual deceit. Not only 
 
^'^ INTRIGUING FOUCHE 213 
 
 had hostilities been declared, but a war to the knife 
 proclaimed. In spite of all Fouche's prudence, a 
 letter written in his own hand had been intercepted, 
 containing particularly the following line addressed 
 to a colleague in the Convention : " Ere a fortnight 
 has rolled over us either Maximilien or we shall 
 have ceased to exist." Hence the quarrel could end 
 only by the destruction of one side or the other ; 
 nothing was left but to conquer or die. 
 
 Even at a time when he was brought face to face 
 with the necessity of defending himself, it was not in 
 Fouche to do so above-board. Indirect means, those 
 of ceaseless and underground intrigue, in which he 
 had served his apprenticeship at the Oratory, he was 
 familiar with ; and just as everything comes handy 
 in a household, so in a conspiracy, which is itself 
 but an intrigue more serious than others, skill and 
 manoeuvring constitute the necessary elements ; and 
 it will be seen that Fouche was to be, if not by his 
 courage, at least by his doings, a useful co-operator 
 in what was about to take place. He has, in later 
 days, boasted that he dealt mortal blows to Robes- 
 pierre; the fact is that in order to flee from his 
 wrath and, if he could have done so, from his relent- 
 less memory, Fouche no longer appeared at the 
 National Convention nor slept at home ; it was at 
 night alone that, under various disguises, he would 
 go the rounds of such of his colleagues as were 
 busily engaged in preparing means of defence 
 against Robespierre, and bring and carry from one 
 to the other every particular as to what was tak- 
 ing place, and go on the errands it was requisite 
 should be dextrously done in order to cement the 
 alliances we were forming pending the moment, 
 
2 14 MEMOIRS OF BARRAS chap. 
 
 impossible to positively determine, when the de- 
 cisive blow was to be struck. 
 
 8//i and (^th Thermidor, Year II. — The hour of 
 the crisis was near. On the 8th Thermidor, Robes- 
 pierre, his mind befogged with the various plans 
 besieging his brain, saw fit to come and prelude in 
 the Convention, by delivering a speech as long as 
 it was vague, mysterious, and threatening. It was 
 listened to in profound silence, and was not well 
 received by the Assembly. Feeling a greater con- 
 fidence in the Jacobins, and believing himself as- 
 sured of obtaining satisfaction, he went in the even- 
 ing to this scene of his habitual and uncontested 
 triumphs, and repeated the speech of which the 
 National Convention had signified its disapproval. 
 The deputies present said that Robespierre was a 
 dominator who sought to erect altar against altar, 
 and upset all that was most sacred. These deputies 
 and citizens were insulted by the people of the 
 Jacobins. Collot and Billaud, who had thought 
 themselves powerful enough to stand the brunt of 
 the fight, even in the arena which was Robespierre's 
 exclusive property, censured him for not having 
 submitted his speech to the Committee of Public 
 Safety, whose sittings he had not attended for 
 nearly two months. These remarks were looked 
 upon as even more than impertinent when ad- 
 dressed to the high and mighty personage, and ex- 
 cited the ire of the Jacobins. Great became the 
 tumult, and the two deputies, hooted down, left the 
 tribune, which Couthon at once ascended to sound 
 the praises of the attacked speech and its author. 
 He denounced the conspiracy of the Committee of 
 Public Safety against liberty, and stated that he 
 
XIX ROBESPIERRE'S LAST SPEECH 2»S 
 
 viewed an opinion emanating from the Jacobins as a 
 political authority; the Society, a prey to the wildest 
 excitement, expelled the deputy Brival, while several 
 members of the National Convention were simulta- 
 neously compelled to slip away. The Committee of 
 General Security had asked for a copy of Robes- 
 pierre's speech, and had met with a refusal. The 
 tumult increased, and bade fair to be far more seri- 
 ous next day. 
 
 <^th T/iermidor, Year II. — On the 9th Thermidor, 
 Vadier led or opened the attack in the Convention 
 in the most singular fashion: he accused Robespierre 
 of having opposed the measures the committees had 
 wished to take against the conspirators. Cambon 
 joined forces with Vadier. Had Robespierre not 
 opposed the decree aimed at the rentiers (persons 
 of independent means) } Barere was waiting before 
 adopting any course, that he might do so without 
 danger, when colleague Saint-Just made his appear- 
 ance, looking profound and wrapped in thought. 
 He ascended the tribune and began a speech, a 
 paraphrase of the one delivered by Robespierre on 
 the foregoing day, and which had raised such a 
 commotion. Tallien interrupted him, exclaiming, 
 " It is time to tear aside the curtain screening so 
 many criminal deeds !" Robespierre, still believing 
 that h-e was absolute master of the tribune, of which 
 he had so long disposed in an exclusive fashion, was 
 astounded on ascending it not to be able to obtain 
 a hearing. Collot was presiding over the Conven- 
 tion. He was, owing to his vigor, one of the most 
 fitted to cope with Robespierre ; he stood the on- 
 slaught with firmness up to the moment when Bil- 
 laud-Varennes in the first place and Tallien next 
 
2i6 MEMOIRS OF BARRAS chap. 
 
 came to the rescue, and hurled at Robespierre, 
 each in his particular way, the most unexpected re- 
 proaches. The eternal accuser of everybody was 
 dumfounded at finding himself in the position of an 
 accused person, wherein he saw himself for the first 
 time ; it was not long ere he lost his head, and look- 
 ing at one and the same time on all sides, after cast- 
 ing his hesitating gaze on the various sections of 
 the Assembly, he thought he could let it rest on the 
 Right ; he appealed to its members with the most 
 humble gentleness, addressing them as " pure men," 
 while styling as " brigands " the men of the Moun- 
 tain, when cries arose on all sides, and his voice was 
 drowned by the words, " Down with the tyrant ! 
 Down with the new Catilina !" Thuriot had just 
 taken Collet's place in the presidential chair. 
 Robespierre, turning furiously towards him, ex- 
 claimed, " You president of assassins, I ask you to 
 let me speak !" Thuriot denied him this request, 
 and rang his bell with a violence superior to all the 
 efforts of Robespierre. Several deputies advanced 
 towards him with threatening gestures, and were 
 heard to say, " Silence, you murderer ! Danton's 
 blood fills your mouth and chokes you." From all 
 sides of the hall, especially from the one where sat 
 the members of the Government, came requests that 
 a decree of indictment be issued against Robes- 
 pierre ; the decree was rendered. 
 
 It was noticed that while the decree of accusation 
 against Robespierre was being put to the vote, he 
 was twirling between his fingers an open penknife, 
 his eyes turned towards the tribune, as if still invok- 
 ing, even when no longer allowed to speak, that pop- 
 ular approval, the instrument of his power, which he 
 
XIX ROBESPIERRE INDICTED 217 
 
 had for so long won by his speeches. Was it in his 
 thoughts to kill himself with that penknife, the like 
 of which had been sufificient for Valaze, one of his 
 victims ? Was it that his courage failed him, or did 
 he still retain a hope of triumphing? He could 
 assuredly entertain such a hope, for the Convention 
 was filled that day with his partisans. They had 
 flocked in from the Jacobins, where on the previous 
 day they had sworn to meet. The judges of the 
 Revolutionary Tribunal, the jury, the staff of Hen- 
 riot, boldly invaded even the very hall of the Con- 
 vention. Whether Robespierre's cause was taken 
 up from sincere fanaticism, or from the calculating 
 fear of all these individuals so practised in crime, it 
 is none the less a fact that they were there awaiting 
 the victims which Teutates misht still deliver to 
 them, and believing that Robespierre had but to 
 speak the word, to make a sign, to send the National 
 Convention to its death. But Robespierre was al- 
 ready defeated in the very " organ " of his power ; 
 his voice was worn out ; his words were drowned in 
 cries more powerful than his own. Robespierre 
 did not possess the military action which the mere 
 gesture of command can give. He had not sufificient 
 daring to majestically drape himself in the folds of 
 his robe like Romulus (su) or to strike like Sulla. 
 What he required was not a tribunal worthy of the 
 high mission designated under the expression of in- 
 terpreter of the law. What he desired was a phan- 
 tom of nominal legality, behind which he might di- 
 rect all the measures of severity so dear to his pas- 
 sions full of hatred, and which left him the resource 
 of still saying that he had acted in all regularity, in 
 order that one should be compelled to proceed with 
 
2i8 MEMOIRS OF BARRAS chap. 
 
 the same observance of the rules of procedure. 
 But what regularity and security did this alleged 
 form present to others, when a single man had all 
 power vested in himself? Moreover, in everything 
 done or left undone by these monstrous creatures, 
 both at the time of their greatness and their down- 
 fall, who is there who can venture to speak as to 
 the real, actual governing motive of their thoughts 
 and their decisions ? The fatal hour has sounded 
 for them ; they are deprived of the strength of 
 others, without which they never could have accom- 
 plished anything; left to themselves, they are really 
 nothing. Such is at this moment the position of 
 Robespierre ; he stands there with a decree of in- 
 dictment hanging over his head. The dictator 
 must fain bow to the law common to all. A decree 
 of indictment is also called for against Saint-Just, 
 who, having once ascended the tribune, does not 
 leave it in spite of the interruption which would 
 have driven any other man from it. He simply 
 comes down a few steps, then goes up again to 
 resume the thread of his speech ; he is not able to 
 add a single word to the two he had in the first 
 instant succeeded in making heard ; motionless, im- 
 passible, undaunted, he seems to defy everything by 
 his coolness. When the decree of indictment is 
 pronounced, he is compelled to assume a different 
 attitude. Le Bas, Saint-Just's colleague, on mission 
 with the troops, requests to be allowed to share the 
 fate of the accused men. 
 
 Robespierre the Younger also entreats that his 
 cause shall not be separated from that of his brother, 
 and a decree of indictment is pronounced against 
 both Robespierres, Le Bas, Saint-Just, and Couthon. 
 
XIX THE DICTATOR'S SHORT-LIVED TRIUMPH 219 
 
 Thereupon great becomes the noise; the accused 
 men protest, while cries of " To the bar !" are re- 
 peated a thousand times over. The president com- 
 mands the ushers to bring the accused to the bar 
 of the house ; the ushers hesitate. The armed force 
 is called upon; it also hesitates. Robespierre and 
 his adherents are dragged to jail. 
 
 The terror inspired by Robespierre is such that 
 at the two prisons to which he is brought, the Lux- 
 embourg and the Conciergerie, the jailers refuse to 
 open the doors to admit him ; he insists on being re- 
 ceived, and, like Socrates, bows to the law ; such be- 
 havior on his part was undoubtedly most wise, and 
 threatened to place the National Convention in a 
 very embarrassing position. How, indeed, could it 
 place on his trial a man against whom it could bring 
 no other charge than that of having uttered from 
 the tribune words it listened to approvingly, subse- 
 quently converting them into decrees .'' 
 
 Fortunately, Robespierre is shortly to find him- 
 self disobeying the Convention, nay, in insurrection 
 against it. He is led in triumph to the Commune. 
 
 In the state of uncertainty which agitated the 
 Assembly so violently to the end, one of the most 
 famous members of the Committee of Public Safety, 
 still ignorant as to the ultimate issue, ascended the 
 tribune with a speech he had prepared against the 
 one who should succumb. But the issue becoming 
 most doubtful, and seeming to come to a termina- 
 tion totally different from the one he had supposed, 
 the speaker left the tribune, took a pen from the 
 desk of the secretaries of the Assembly, struck out 
 what the issue of the struggle seemed to require, 
 then, the chances of battle again shifting ground, he 
 
2 20 MEMOIRS OF BARRAS chap. 
 
 began to reinsert what he had just struck out, and 
 during the whole of the debate he was seen to re- 
 peat this operation at intervals. Who is there who 
 will not recognize Barere by this trait? Need I 
 name him ? 
 
 Previous to Thermidor I had urged the commit- 
 tees to deprive of their command the commandant 
 Henriot and La Valette, his adjutant, whom I sus- 
 pected of complicity with those seeking to over- 
 throw the National Convention. My request had 
 been denied. Events soon showed how correct had 
 been my surmise. Henriot was body and soul de- 
 voted to Robespierre. On hearing of the catas- 
 trophe which had happened to his master, the bravo 
 rushed to the Commune to his rescue, caused every 
 honor to be shown to him, and declared that the 
 whole of the population belonged to Robespierre, 
 and that he considered it his first duty to take the 
 orders of the august persecuted one. The Com- 
 mune, without even Robespierre preferring the re- 
 quest, but by an act of anticipatory obligingness, and 
 that devotion of which the Terror was the principle, 
 ordered General Henriot, who had under him some 
 15,000 men, to surround the Convention, keep it in 
 private confinement, and prevent all debate. 
 
 Henriot, armed with this order, marched on the 
 Assembly and took possession of the room wherein 
 were held the sittings of the Committee of General 
 Security. 
 
 Its members, as well as those of the Committee 
 of Public Safety, who should have remained at their 
 posts and taken such measures as the circumstances 
 demanded, fled to the Convention. Henriot thence 
 wended his way to the court-yard of the Tuileries, 
 
XIX HIS GREAT r6lE 221 
 
 seized the cannon of honor, and trained them on 
 the Convention, which, in so desperate an emergen- 
 cy, recovered its energy. 
 
 Dissatisfied with all the resolutions of which I 
 was a witness, I at first refused the request pre- 
 ferred by the committees that I should take com- 
 mand of the troops in Paris. " You have generals 
 enough," I had said ; " let them mount their horses ; 
 do so yourselves, for the purpose of defending the 
 country you have compromised." And, abandoning 
 there and then these men, only a short while ago 
 so insolent and cruel in the prosperity of their 
 power, but now cowards in the hour of peril, I 
 had returned to my place in the Convention, where 
 its members, seated on their curule chairs, awaited 
 an almost certain death. I was at once surrounded 
 and questioned as to the measures taken by the 
 committees, for it was known that I had been sum- 
 moned by them. My reply was : " They are dead 
 even before a blow has been struck." This was at 
 the very moment that their members were entering 
 the hall of the Convention. After giving expression 
 to their fears for the safety of the national represen- 
 tation, they proposed my appointment as general-in- 
 chief of the Army of the Interior, and to the com- 
 mand of the Paris troops, which I had just declined. 
 The National Convention, rising to its feet as one 
 body, pronounced the decree, which was rendered 
 unanimously. 
 
 There were at my disposal only the poorest 
 resources for putting down the rebellion ; they held 
 possession of our guns and blocked up every exit 
 from the Tuileries. This was not the time for dis- 
 cussion ; it was necessary to act ; but in order to 
 
222 MEMOIRS OF BARRAS CHAP. 
 
 act there was required, for want of the means 
 taken from us, a double confidence on the part of 
 that portion of the citizens and deputies determined 
 not to bow to Robespierre's supremacy. The Con- 
 vention, once more rising to its feet en masse, gave 
 me proof of the most generous confidence. All my 
 colleagues, some shaking me by the hand, others 
 embracing me, told me that they reckoned on this 
 fresh proof of my devotion to the country. I there- 
 fore undertook the task, which might undoubtedly 
 be considered a dangerous one, as the sword was 
 out of the scabbard, and the question one of victory 
 or death. But was it not an every-day question 
 with us ? Was not each one of our sittinsrs a fieht 
 unto death, albeit sometimes premeditated and un- 
 derhand, and almost always ending without honor 
 under the knife of the guillotine .'' Could it be 
 hoped that in the present instance fate would not 
 be unattended by some little glory ? At any rate, 
 we should fall sword in hand ; and if such was to 
 be our end, it was not for us to seek to elude it. 
 Rather should we thank fate for suffering us to die 
 on a field of battle rather than on a scaffold. 
 
 Some astonishment may be felt at my refusal in 
 the first instance, and one is justified in asking me 
 the reason for it. I answer frankly that this species 
 of hesitation might be inherent to the knowledge 
 I had of the individual value of the two parties. 
 What was really the shade constituting the differ- 
 ence between the members of the committees which 
 had joined issue ? Was one set better or worse 
 than the other from the point of view of humanity } 
 With what did Saint-Just and Robespierre reproach 
 Billaud and Collot ? With what did Collot and 
 
XIX ALL EQUALLY MERCILESS 223 
 
 Billaud charge Saint-Just and Robespierre ? They 
 mutually accused one another of things equally false 
 and assumed, for in the matter of political opinion 
 and integrity, as understood in the moral sense, it 
 can be said that both parties were equally above 
 reproach ; but wherein they were equally beyond 
 reproach and guilty to the highest degree was in 
 their cruel and pitiless system against the whole 
 human species, which, as Danton told them when 
 dying, the members of the Committee " had system- 
 atically hewed down." It was in the constant and 
 ceaseless use they made of the instrument of death 
 against the most innocent creatures, against those 
 least noxious to society and the Republic; it con- 
 sisted, if there can be anything more culpable than 
 smiting innocence itself — it consisted, I say, in mak- 
 ing over and above this a selection of their personal 
 enemies, with special predilection and particular joy, 
 for the purpose of sending them to the scaffold. 
 Lastly, whichever way I looked, I can truly say that, 
 in regard to the individuals as well as the difference 
 of a better system for humanity's advantage, I did 
 not see any reason for making any choice between 
 Robespierre and Billaud. 
 
 A certain reflection was, however, cause of the 
 resolution I took immediately upon my appointment 
 being pronounced by the National Convention. In 
 the first place, it was impossible for my soul not to 
 be deeply stirred by the homage done my senti- 
 ments and character in sharing the honors of a com- 
 mon danger; at the same time, my heart was most 
 sincerely in accord with that portion of my estima- 
 ble colleagues who had declared themselves in the 
 most formal fashion against Robespierre, in spite 
 
224 MEMOIRS OF BARRAS chap. 
 
 of the hypocritical appeals he had attempted to 
 make to what he had for the first time called " the 
 sound portion of the Convention," against those of 
 his colleagues who were under the impression that 
 they had until then been his faithful followers, and 
 whom it now suited him to stigmatize as brigands. 
 I also argued with myself, in the course of this 
 rapid reflection, that, taking into account the equal 
 degree of wickedness of those with whom we had 
 now to join forces, their most formidable adversary 
 was certainly this Robespierre, whose revolutionary 
 talisman, obtained through a long series of years of 
 assiduous caressing of the people and triumphs 
 consecrated by the opinion of the masses, presented 
 the most insuperable difficulty and the most terrible 
 and incalculable consequences, if we did not succeed 
 in ridding ourselves of him. This ensemble of 
 tumultuous thoughts and considerations, which I 
 am reasoning out to-day with a cool head in a much 
 more positive fashion than I could at that time, 
 were those which governed me and made me adopt 
 my military as well as political course of advancing 
 against Robespierre to the bitter end. There could, 
 moreover, not be any uncertainty of the result for 
 one side or the other, whichever was the side fa- 
 vored by victory. Death and again death could 
 alone stop in their ceaseless and purposeless course 
 these unmuzzled tigers, whose thirst for human 
 blood was unquenchable. 
 
 Henriot, arrested temporarily by Merlin de Thion- 
 ville, had been restored to liberty by the maddened 
 and drunken soldiers led by Coflinhal, whereupon 
 the Convention at once decreed the outlawry of the 
 rebellious general. I left the Assembly, bearing the 
 
XIX DEATH AND AGAIN DEATH 225 
 
 decree. " I am going to my post ; remain at yours !" 
 Such was the whole of my speech. Henriot was 
 outside with his gunners. I called out to them 
 in a loud voice, " Away with you, you wretches ! 
 Henriot is an outlaw !" The very few soldiers and 
 citizens who were accompanying me exclaimed 
 in their turn, " Obey Barras ! He is general-in- 
 chief." On hearing this, the insurgents and their 
 vile commander were seized with fright, and fled 
 helter-skelter to the Commune. 
 
 The cowardice of Henriot and La Valette, and 
 the disappearance of their soldiery, gave rise to 
 some uproar, followed by a numerous desertion on 
 the part of his troops, which had remained stationed 
 in the Place de Greve at the orders of the Com- 
 mune, whose diminishing ardor seemed to be inclin- 
 ing to some little moderation. 
 
 I took in this state of affairs at a glance, and 
 grasping all its details in an instant, I thought 
 I saw I had sufficient time to make an appeal to 
 the good citizens and prevent the meeting in the 
 Carrousel of the troops then in Paris and those out- 
 side the gates at Meudon and at Saint-Germain. I 
 gave orders to beat to arms and to fire the alarm 
 gun. 
 
 As I had presumed from the hesitating and 
 timorous character of Robespierre, he had not 
 adopted any particular course on reaching the 
 Commune. The rhetor, no longer able to speechify, 
 was passing his time discussing the minutiae of an 
 address to be drawn up. Couthon having proposed 
 to issue an address to the troops, Robespierre 
 asked, " In whose name ?" " Why, in the name 
 of the Convention," replied Couthon. " Is it not 
 
226 MEMOIRS OF BARRAS chap. 
 
 wherever we are ? The rest are but a handful 
 of factious men, whom the armed force will scat- 
 ter and make short work of." " My opinion," 
 Robespierre went on to say, " is that we should 
 write in the name of the people." In this way 
 Robespierre refused to advance on the Conven- 
 tion and dissolve it. This hesitation, communi- 
 cating itself to all about him, served to spread a 
 state of fright by which I was to profit, and which 
 I had reckoned upon. My agents went through 
 the streets proclaiming loudly that large forces had 
 rallied to me. I had about 4000 men under me. I 
 was desirous of avoiding a fight, and dreaded being 
 obliged to cannonade the Hotel-de-Ville. The com- 
 mittees, on finding the scene of the battle trans- 
 ferred from the Tuileries to the Place de Greve, 
 recovered from their fright, and, as a consequence, 
 at once resumed their insolent tone and taste for 
 cruelty. They would have had me sweep every- 
 thing with fire and sword, and exterminate all the 
 insurgents with one discharge of grape-shot. I was 
 fortunate enough to be able to prove to them that 
 it was possible to avoid both carnage and the use of 
 flames. The positions I had taken could, at all 
 events, protect the retreat of the National Conven- 
 tion to the heights of Meudon. 
 
 The display of the measures I had taken created 
 so great an impression that I was not called upon 
 to proceed to extremities. Fear was gaining the 
 conspirators. The defection of their early accom- 
 plices soon became known to and shared by the 
 outside Jacobins, as if by some electric current. 
 From time to time I sent reassuring reports to the 
 Convention, keeping, at the head of my little army, 
 
XIX FEAR OF THE CONSPIRATORS 227 
 
 the road open by way of the quays to the Place 
 de Greve, the rumbling of my artillery putting to 
 flight the remnants of the insurrection. I wended 
 my way to the Hotel -de-Ville, which Merlin de 
 Thionville had already entered. Robespierre had 
 shattered his jaw ' with one of the two pistols 
 carried by Le Bas, who had blown his brains out 
 with the other. Couthon was hiding under a table, 
 and Robespierre in a little room, by the door of 
 
 ' The Thermidorians were interested in casting dishonor on the memory 
 of their victim. The suicide story, showing as it does Robespierre in the 
 h'ght of a great criminal punishing himself in order to escape just cliastisement 
 for his misdeeds, is consequently the one they have seen fit to adopt. In 
 spite of the assertions made by Barras in his memoirs, and of those of Courtois 
 in his report of the 8th Thermidor, Year III., I am inclined to believe that 
 by no means did Robespierre seek to kill himself, but that he was treacherously 
 wounded at the very moment when, after prolonged wavering — the cause of 
 his niin — he had at last made up his mind to respond to the outlawry pro- 
 nounced against him, by an appeal to arms against his enemies in the Con- 
 vention and in the committees. As I write these lines, there lies before me 
 the original draft of this appeal to arms, a fac-simile of which will be found 
 further on. I doubt whether tliere exists to-day in the world a document of 
 more tragic aspect than this sheet of paper bearing the imprint of the Com- 
 mune. The hurried, violent, convulsive handwriting is the expression of the 
 feverish mental agitation of Robespierre's friends in this supreme contingency. 
 The letters run, the words rush in their headlong course ; it is indeed a cry, 
 one of distress or of battle. Side by side with the nervous signatures of 
 Lerebours, Legrand, Louvet, and Payan, the first two letters of Robespierre's 
 name stand out in relief, calm in the midst of all the tumult, signs as cold and 
 methodical as the inflexible will of the man who was deliberately tracing them 
 when the shot was fired. The unfinished word, the name severed with a clean 
 stroke, decapitated, and having as a paraph a wide splash of blood, irresistibly 
 calls up the crimson vision of a head falling from its trunk under the knife of 
 the guillotine. But not only do these two sinister letters flash lightning-wise 
 before our eyes a vision of the drama — they also explain its denouement. The 
 truncated signature seems to prove the surprise, the sudden and thunder-like 
 attempt on life, the bullet despatched by another hand than the one which 
 was tracing those bold characters, so abruptly interrupted — in a word, murder, 
 not suicide. And this is one of the reasons which would induce me to difTer 
 from Thiers, who believes in a suicide ; to agree Avith Mignet, Louis Blanc, 
 Michelet, Ernest Hamel, and M. de Lescure, who believe it was a murder. 
 See in regard to this an able discussion of the points by M. de Lescure in his 
 Introduction to the HUmoires sur les fourn&s rivolutionnaires, pp. 34-39. 
 — G. D. 
 
228 MEMOIRS OF BARRAS chap. 
 
 which Le Bas lay. Saint-Just was ministering to 
 Robespierre. Henriot was crouching in a water- 
 closet. I could not endure this melancholy specta- 
 cle, so I left, and had Robespierre carried into the 
 salon of the Committee of Public Safety, where he 
 was laid on a table. Medical men commissioned to 
 examine and dress his wounds drew up a report 
 confirming that Robespierre's condition was the re- 
 sult of an attempt to commit suicide, and the direc- 
 tion taken by the charge was that of a man who had 
 shot himself. One of the surgeons having placed 
 on the table the teeth which had fallen from Robes- 
 pierre's mouth during his examination of it, one of 
 the gunners on duty pounced on them, and, address- 
 ing Robespierre, exclaimed, " You scoundrel, I will 
 keep them as a monument of execration." In a re- 
 port submitted to me on the circumstances con- 
 nected with Robespierre's agony, I read that he had 
 repeatedly asked for a pen in order to write, as he 
 could no longer articulate, and that this request, 
 again and again made in the hearing of the mem- 
 bers of the Committee, had been by them denied. 
 I have heard this fact, to which I declare not having 
 been a witness, repeated, for I would not have re- 
 fused a pen to this man in his agony ; and, in view 
 of his not being able to speak, he might there- 
 with have given us information which the others 
 might have had interest in suppressing. Was the 
 refusal of the members of the Committee merely an 
 expression of the hatred which might have been in- 
 spired by the man who had sought to have them all 
 killed but a short while ago, and who had almost 
 succeeded in carrying out his design, or, as it has 
 also been stated, did they dread some divulgation .? 
 
APPEAL TO ARMS 
 
 OF THE COMMUNE OF PARIS AGAINST THE CONVENTION 
 ON THE NIGHT OF THE gTH THERMIDOR, YEAR II. (1794). 
 
 Facsimile reduced to half-size. * , 
 
 Beneath, and on the right of the unfinished signature of Robes- 
 pierre (Ro), several spots of the color of rust, produced by splashes 
 of his blood. 
 
 From tjie Jubinal de Saint-Albin Collection, 
 
COMMUNE DK PARIS. 
 
 
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xtx ROBESPIERRE SENTENCED 229 
 
 The sequel of events and an examination of his 
 papers have not proved that Robespierre and his 
 accompHces had anything to reveal they would 
 not have said, and which was not already known. 
 A week later this table, round which the members 
 of the Committee were deliberating, was still dyed 
 with the blood of Robespierre. What carelessness 
 and ferocious attention on the part of those dear 
 colleagues of his ! ' All arrested were taken to 
 prison ; I was on the point of having lothThermi- 
 Couthon transferred to a hospital, but donVearii. 
 the circumstances did not permit even the most sin- 
 cere humanity to display any such particular atten- 
 tions. What attentions could individuals claim on 
 whom death had already laid its hand, and who were 
 about to be delivered over to it ? 
 
 On the loth Thermidor, the Revolutionary Tri- 
 bunal sentenced Robespierre and his accomplices to 
 death, or rather fixed the date of their execution, 
 for, as they were outlawed by the decree of the Con- 
 vention, there was nothing left to do but establish 
 their identity and hand them over to the execu- 
 tioner. Two days later, the members of the Coun- 
 cil General of the Commune who had taken the 
 most active part in the conspiracy were also sen- 
 tenced, and perished on the scaffold. 
 
 An event of such magnitude, although it has 
 been the subject of the most extensive and numer- 
 
 ' Robespierre was placed in a room which was not the one wherein the 
 Committee held its sittings. None of its members can liave even seen him. 
 They had gone to take a rest immediately after Robespierre's arrest at the 
 H6tel-de-Ville. The Committee did not sit again till eight o'clock on the 
 forenoon of the lOth, some three hours after Robespierre had been transported 
 to the prison of La Conciergerie.— Note in the handwriting of M. Prieur de 
 la Coted'Or. 
 
230 MEMOIRS OF BARRAS chap. 
 
 ous narratives, can nevertheless not be recalled by 
 me here without the addition of a few particulars of 
 its principal incidents, those which I am about to 
 place on record being totally unknown so far, and 
 appearing here in their pristine originality. 
 
 1 1 th T/iermzdor, Year II., execution and burial of 
 Robespierre, Couthon, Saint-Just, and their accom- 
 plices. — When Robespierre, Couthon, and Saint- 
 Just were arraigned before the Revolutionary 
 Tribunal, merely for the purpose of having their 
 identity established, since they were outlawed and 
 nothins: remained but to hand them over to the exe- 
 cutioner, Fouquier-Tinville, the Public Prosecutor 
 (performing the duties of the ofiBcer of the law 
 nowadays c^^&di procicreur general), was in a state 
 of agitation hardly to be imagined — he who up to 
 that very moment had gone every day, even but 
 yesterday, to take the orders of Robespierre and 
 Saint-Just in regard to all the unfortunate people 
 whom it pleased them to send to the scaffold, to see 
 himself directly, and by a superior and inevitable 
 will, intrusted with the duty of leading to the same 
 scaffold the men who had been first erected, so to 
 speak, the organizers of slaughter, and lastly, at the 
 very least, the actual dictators ! Fouquier's embar- 
 rassment in so critical a circumstance may be con- 
 ceived ; he doubtless could say to himself with some 
 show of reason and presentiment, " Mutato nomine 
 de te . . ." I could not blame him for the sort of 
 embarrassment I noticed in his whole person at the 
 moment of fulfilling a like duty. Fouquier-Tinville 
 had already made an attempt to apologize for his 
 behavior, so to speak, opposite the condemned men 
 themselves. " I am well aware that it is not I," he 
 
XIX FOUQUIER'S EMBARRASSMENT 231 
 
 said, " who am sentencing ces messieurs'' then, cor- 
 recting himself, " the citizens " (for this was the only 
 allowable appellation, the word monsieur having 
 been struck out of the language), " since they are 
 outlaws, and that in the present case the tribunal 
 merely applies the penalty ; I am well aware that it 
 is my duty and even my right to urge on justice and 
 to guide it ; what I am doing to-day is in one respect 
 less than what I was doing yesterday, for yesterday 
 we rendered judgments on our own responsibility, 
 while to-day we are merely executing the decree of 
 the National Convention ; but yet — " I could not 
 see when this " but yet " was going to stop, and in 
 what way Fouquier-Tinville would get rid of his 
 hesitation ; there was a danger of its growing 
 through all the surrounding confusion. I saw that 
 there was no time to be lost, and that it was neces- 
 sary to instil courage into the head of the Revolu- 
 tionary Tribunal. I am thus designating Fouquier- 
 Tinville ; I would have called him the soul of it, 
 could one believe such monsters possessed a soul. 
 " Come now, citizen Fouquier," I exclaimed in a 
 loud but cold and imperious voice, " the National 
 Convention has commissioned me to see its orders 
 carried out ; I give you the one to proceed without 
 further delay with the fulfilment of your mandate. 
 This is the day to show one's self a patriot by send- 
 ing forthwith the guilty ones to the scaffold await- 
 ing them." 
 
 Fouquier did not require a second warning. He 
 at once took his place on the bench, doffed his little 
 cape, his hat with the brim turned up a la Henri 
 IV., summoned the judges, gave them the fatal 
 formula against Robespierre, Couthon, Saint-Just, 
 
232 MEMOIRS OF BARRAS chap, 
 
 and the whole of the frightful band with as much 
 firmness as on the previous day he had pronounced 
 the formula " by and in the name of Robespierre." 
 All the forms of the ceremonial were completed in 
 short order; in less than half an hour the con- 
 demned men had, to use the judge's phraseology, 
 " their toilet made, their boots greased," and could 
 go to their destination. 
 
 The National Convention, when investing me 
 with all its powers, had undoubtedly imposed the 
 heaviest of responsibilities on me, the least of which 
 was my life. I had often offered the sacrifice of it, 
 both in war and in the capital. Far more was in 
 danger than my individual existence : that of mill- 
 ions of individuals was in the balance, and in the 
 present instance the national welfare was assuredly 
 at stake. What would have been the bounds to the 
 fury of the tigers had they been suffered to escape 
 for a single instant, even in the disfigured, ex- 
 hausted, and crushed state most of them were in ; if 
 they had been allowed a moment's contact with 
 their accomplices on the outside, still scattered 
 about in the public squares, and seeking to rally in 
 all directions after having suffered the defeat of a 
 moment at the Jacobins' Club and at the Com- 
 mune? So I urged on Fouquier, saying, "Come 
 now, let us make a start." " We will start at once," 
 replied Fouquier, quickly, and even with really tri- 
 umphant alacrity ; " but where shall we take them 
 to?" "Why, to the usual place, where so many 
 have preceded them." " But," said Fouquier to me 
 in an undertone, with an air of respectful and in- 
 timate confidence, "for a week, citizen representa- 
 tive, we have been sending our condemned to the 
 
XIX MORE ROYALTY FOR ROBESPIERRE 233 
 
 Barriere du Trone; we have given up using the 
 Place de la Revolution." " Return to it then," I 
 said, with a determined gesture; "the way to it 
 shall be past Robespierre's house; the prophecy 
 must be fulfilled !" " Poor Danton," said Fouquier- 
 Tinville, with an air of being moved to pity, " there 
 was a patriot for you !" believing, the knavish and 
 cruel Fouquier, that he could obliterate by this dole- 
 ful demonstration the fact that he, Fouquier, had 
 been Danton's primary murderer ! 
 
 The prophecy of Danton I here allude to is the 
 one I have previously recorded at the time of the 
 execution of this energetic patriot and real revolu- 
 tionary giant; for when passing in front of Robes- 
 pierre's house on his way to the scaffold, Danton 
 had hurled that terribly prophetic imprecation, 
 " Thou shalt follow us," against the man who was 
 now succeeding him to the rendezvous with death. 
 Fouquier bowed humbly, and said to the clerk of 
 the Court and the escort of gendarmes, " To the 
 Place de la Revolution !" As a consequence of the 
 profound deference shown me by Fouquier-Tin- 
 ville, I saw the executioner himself, citizen Sanson, 
 approach me in the same deferential fashion, hat 
 in hand, and most humbly inquire of me, " Where 
 are their bodies to be laid, citizen representative .''" 
 " Let them be thrown into the grave of the Capets !" 
 I answered, angrily. " Louis XVI. was better than 
 they. It will be some more royalty for Robespierre, 
 for it would seem that he too had a taste for it." 
 Thuriot and Courtois had at the time asserted that 
 a fleur-de-lis seal had been found in Robespierre's 
 dwelling and at the Commune, and that Robespierre 
 had conceived the idea of entering into a matrimo- 
 
234 MEMOIRS OF BARRAS chap. 
 
 nial alliance with the daughter of Louis XVI., then 
 a prisoner in the Temple. I did not believe a word 
 of these allegations, yet they absorbed the minds of 
 the people ; although there was perhaps very little 
 probability about the reports, it did no harm to let 
 them circulate amons; the masses, who could not 
 persuade themselves that he was a tyrant except 
 by associating him with their ideas of the ancient 
 royalty, the only tyrants in their eyes presenting 
 a tangible substance. The popular mass requires 
 something material which its senses can grasp in 
 order that its intelligence should be reached. Now 
 how would it be able to comprehend that he who 
 daily caressed it with adulation, spoke to it of the 
 sovereignty of the people, of liberty, of equality, who 
 styled himself the defender of its rights, and who 
 now appeared to it in the light of a martyr — that this 
 very man, I say, should be what we to-day call an 
 enemy of liberty, an oppressor, a tyrant ? Therein 
 lay something complicated, which the mind of the 
 people might not at once realize, perhaps, if told in 
 one breath that this tyrant had betrayed his trust, 
 that he was in collusion with the enemies of the 
 Republic, with ih^ former kings, or with members of 
 the royal family, and that hence he was an infamous 
 traitor. . . . With the word treachery added to vil- 
 lany everything was made comprehensible, every- 
 thing explained ; and one might expect to see the 
 masses rally and at once direct their fury against 
 those pointed out to them as traitors, and recognized 
 as such by them. 
 
 Having given all necessary orders to insure their 
 execution, I mounted my horse, saying to Fouquier- 
 Tinville, the clerk, and other officials of the Court, 
 
XIX EXECUTION OF ROBESPIERRE 235 
 
 " A report of the execution is to be sent to me at 
 the Committee of Pubhc Safety, whither I am now 
 going." 
 
 I saw the carts containing the doomed men with 
 their escort proceed on their way through the Rue 
 Saint-Honore to go to the Place de la Revolution. 
 The immense throng obstructed the streets and was 
 an obstacle to the rapid progress of the procession, 
 but the prevailing feeling was not only that of 
 unanimous rejoicing, but of deliverance, and yet this 
 feeling did not venture to break out in words and 
 escape from hearts so long oppressed until it had 
 become a recorded fact that the " head of Robes- 
 pierre had really fallen on the Place de la Revolu- 
 tion." The baskets of the executioner were then 
 carried away to the cemetery of the Madeleine, and 
 interred in the place designated as the tombe cap'e- 
 tienne. In less than two hours the clerk, the ushers, 
 the gendarmes, with Fouquier-Tinville still at their 
 head, arrived at the Committee of Public Safety, 
 and all, speaking almost together and with disputed 
 eagerness, gave me an account of the execution as 
 of a triumph thoroughly accomplished. The terri- 
 ble Robespierre was at last launched into the eter- 
 nal night, and slept side by side with Louis XVI. 
 
 I have on several occasions recalled the charac- 
 teristic traits of this period of the Terror, which has 
 doubtless left so profound an impression on the 
 minds of the terrified generation of the day, and 
 still those living who have not been its very con- 
 temporaneous witnesses will never be able to under- 
 stand all the action and extent of this Terror. It 
 has just been seen how the spectators, most impa- 
 tient of and, it may truly be said, hungering for the 
 
236 MEMOIRS OF BARRAS chap. 
 
 death of Robespierre, had not allowed the sigh of 
 deliverance to escape their bodies until after they 
 had convinced themselves of the consummation of 
 the execution by the unquestionable evidence of the 
 head severed from the trunk and rolling into the 
 basket of the executioner. Well, then, even after 
 the execution there seemed to reign an almost gen- 
 eral kind of fear of the possible resurrection of the 
 implacable man whose inexorable speeches and sen- 
 tences, without appeal, had so cruelly tortured hu- 
 man minds. The newspapers were uncertain wheth- 
 er they should venture to publish the mere fact. 
 The Moniteiir, already more than official (for it has 
 always belonged to the victorious side), especially 
 hesitated in presence of its primary duty ; it was 
 only twenty-six days later, i. e.-, on the 6th Fructidor 
 following,' that this Moniteur made up its mind to 
 
 ' Extract from the Moniteur of bth Fructidor, Year II. /—REVOLUTIONARY 
 Criminal Tribunal (Sitting of loth Thermidor). — Maximilien Robespierre, 
 aged 35 years, born at Arras, ex-deputy of the National Convention ; G. 
 Couthon, aged 38 years, born at Orsay, ex-deputy of the National Convention; 
 L. J. B. T. Lavalette, aged 40 years, born in Paris, ex-noble, ex-commandant 
 of a battalion of the section of the Gardes Fran^aises, ex-brigadier-general in 
 the Army of the North ; F. Henriot, aged 33 years, born at Nanterre, ex- 
 exciseman, ex-commander-general of the armed force of Paris ; L. C. F. 
 Dumas, aged 37 years, born at Lucy (Haute-Saone), lawyer at Lons-le-Saunier, 
 ex-president of the Revolutionary Tribunal in Paris , A. Saint-Just, aged 26 
 years, born at Liser (Nievre), ex-deputy of the Convention ; C. F. Payan, 
 aged 27 years, born at Paul-les-Fontaines, ex-juryman of the Revolutionary 
 Tribunal, ex-national agent of tlie Commune of Paris ; N. J. Vivier, aged 50 
 years, born in Paris, ex-judge of the criminal tribunal of the department, ex- 
 president of the so-called Jacobins on the night of the 9th Thermidor ; A. N. 
 Gobeau, aged 26 years, born at Vincennes, temporary ex-deputy of the 
 public prosecutor near the tribunal of the department, municipal oflScer of 
 the Commune of Paris of the loth of August ; J. B. L. Fleuriot-Lescot, 
 aged 39 years, temporary ex-deputy of the p*iblic prosecutor near the Revolu- 
 tionary Tribunal, ex-mayor of Paris ; A. P. J. Robespierre the Younger, ex- 
 deputy of the Convention ; J. C. Bernard, aged 34 years, born in Paris ex- 
 priest ; A. Gency, aged 33 years, born at Reims, cooper ; A. Simon, aged 58 
 years, shoemaker ; D. L. Laurent, aged 33 years ; J. L. F. Warme, aged 29 
 
XIX REJOICING AT THE EXECUTION 237 
 
 record the most colossal and decisive fact of mod- 
 ern times, not only for France, but for Europe and 
 the whole human race. For who can say what 
 would have become of this world had Robespierre 
 triumphed on the 9th Thermidor ? 
 
 The victory of the 9th Thermidor was really a 
 deliverance ; it required nothing less than the legit- 
 imate resentment against so odious a tyranny for 
 one to be but little surprised at seeing many men, 
 and even women of fashion and delicate sentiments, 
 almost hanging from the windows in the streets 
 through which the condemned men passed, and 
 waving their white handkerchiefs on the approach 
 of the fatal carts going to the Place de la Revolu- 
 tion, the place of execution. The masses looked on 
 calmly at the hideous spectacle. After that day the 
 scaffold was no longer erected in the open space 
 where Robespierre and his followers had been ex- 
 ecuted. This open space, previously known as 
 Place Louis XVI., then Place de la Revolution, 
 finally received the name of Place de la Concorde. 
 May it deserve this last baptism by a sincere recon- 
 ciliation between all Frenchmen ! Whatever might 
 be the moral disposition in which these executions 
 left the nation, it is at any rate important to note 
 here that they were the last to take place there, 
 and also that the bodies of Robespierre, Saint- Just, 
 
 years; J. L. Forestier, aged 47 years, metal-founder; N, Guerin, tax-collec- 
 tor ; J. M. B. d'Hazard, hair-dresser ; C. Cochefer, ex-upholsterer ; C. J. M. 
 Bourgon ; J. M. Quenet, wood-merchant — the last eleven ex-members of the 
 Council General of the Commune of Paris ; — all outlawed pursuant to decrees 
 of the Convention of the gth and loth Thermidor — their identity having 
 been established by witnesses, they were handed over to the executor of crim- 
 inal judgments, to be put to death within twenty-four hours on the Place de 
 la Revolution — were executed. 
 
238 MEMOIRS OF BARRAS chap. 
 
 Couthon, and other members of the Convention 
 were those which served to fill up and close the 
 hideous drain called, since the 21st of January, 1793, 
 the Cemetery of the Madeleine, wherein Louis XVI. 
 had been thrown and burned with quicklime (as told 
 in the official records of the Commune), until the 
 9th Thermidor, corresponding to July, 1794. Eigh- 
 teen months had gone by, and nearly every day had 
 been marked by executions which had run up into 
 the thousands. The body of Louis XVI., one of 
 the first victims, assuming that it had not been com- 
 pletely eaten away by the quicklime, was thus buried 
 under the whole of his awful successors who had so 
 long endured. Later on will be seen the develop- 
 ment and application of a most painful fact, but 
 one it is indispensable to place on record here, on 
 account of the imposture subsequent events at- 
 tached to it for the purpose of disfiguring it, and 
 substitute what is unfortunately too true for an 
 impossible story. 
 
 Ever ready to fly to the aid of the conquerors and 
 turn against the defeated, Barere presented, in the 
 name of the committees, a report against Robes- 
 pierre as cruel as it was mendacious ; he vented his 
 fury on those who could no longer defend them- 
 selves ; he was even shameless enough to charge 
 Robespierre with having sought to re-establish the 
 son of Louis XVI. on the throne, and of entertain- 
 ing the idea of marrying Madame, that monarch's 
 daughter (now Mme. la duchesse d'Angouleme). 
 The Convention had just displayed extraordinary 
 courage. Threatened by a conspiracy whose exten- 
 sive ramifications had captivated so many unen- 
 lightened citizens, it had, at one and the same 
 
XIX A VISIT TO THE DAUPHIN 239 
 
 time, held its own against both civil and foreign 
 war. Happy France, had the Convention, ever mis- 
 tress of its actions, preserved that energy of char- 
 acter which could alone maintain and consolidate 
 the victory of the 9th Thermidor! There should 
 have been no hesitancy in dismissing the author- 
 ities, who, in their capacity of agents, had been the 
 real accomplices of the triumvirs and the decemvirs; 
 that would have been sufficient; but it should not 
 have dwelt on the past, nor have gone on forever 
 lamenting misfortunes it had been impossible to 
 prevent — in a word, it should have walked with a 
 firm step towards the accomplishment of its destiny, 
 the establishment of the Republic. 
 
 Following Barere's report, and consequent upon 
 this system of lies intended for the people — lies 
 which Governments totally different from one 
 another seem to transmit from one to the other, 
 with the same object of deception — the committees 
 spread the rumor that the prisoners in the Temple, 
 the unfortunate children of Louis XVI., had es- 
 caped. I went to the prison and saw the prince, 
 whom I found in a very weak state from a malady 
 evidently undermining him ; he lay in the middle of 
 the room in a little bed hardly more than a cradle ; 
 his knee-joints and ankles were swollen. He awoke 
 from the state of drowsiness he was in when I en- 
 tered, and said to me, " I prefer the cradle wherein 
 you find me to the large bed over there ; with that, 
 I have no complaints to make against those who 
 have charge of me." While saying this to me, he 
 looked at me and at them in turns — at me, to place 
 himself in some sort under my protection ; at them, 
 to ward off any resentment they might have felt had 
 
240 MEMOIRS OF BARRAS chap. 
 
 he uttered any complaints against his oppressors 
 when I should no longer be there to protect him. 
 "And I," I exclaimed, "I will complain loudly 
 against the dirty condition of this room." I then 
 went to see Madame. Her room was a little less 
 indecently kept. Madame had dressed herself at an 
 early hour, owing to the noise she had heard during 
 the night. I gave orders that the two children of 
 the House of France should take a daily walk in 
 the prison - yard ; consequent upon the report I 
 made to the Committee of Public Safety, I obtained 
 leave for medical men to examine the youthful suf- 
 ferer. The physicians, among whom was M. Dus- 
 sault, declared that his illness was a most serious 
 one. When granting the two prisoners a morning 
 and evening walk, I expressed a desire that the 
 keeper who had charge of the son of Louis XVI. 
 should be assisted by two women, who were partic- 
 ularly to look after the child's needs, and see that 
 his room was kept in a healthful condition. I have 
 since learned from a commissary of the Temple that 
 my orders were not carried out. 
 
 The Revolutionary Tribunal, before which Robes- 
 pierre and his accomplices had been arraigned by 
 order of the committees, for the purpose of estab- 
 lishing their identity, was under the impression that 
 it had acquired fresh rights to exist as well as to the 
 permanency of its powers. The cruel wretches 
 would not release their prey. I was notified that the 
 persons condemned on the eve of the loth Thermi- 
 dor had remained confined in the Conciergerie, and 
 that Fouquier-Tinville, still acting as if he were the 
 master, was about to fill two carts with them, and 
 send them to the scaffold. I hurried to the Palais 
 
XIX SAVED FROM THE GUILLOTINE Z41 
 
 de Justice ; the space in front of it and the court-yard 
 were filled with people of both sexes. I was on 
 horseback, and escorted by my staff. I stopped at 
 the foot of the main staircase and ordered four 
 officers to bring Fouquier-Tinville to me. He came 
 to me in a most humble way ; as soon as he was 
 close to me I said to him, " Uncover yourself before 
 the people," adding, " I have just learned that two 
 cart-loads of condemned persons are about to be con- 
 veyed to the scaffold ; that several accused persons, 
 now on trial in the court over which you preside, 
 are to be sent to the same destination. No execu- 
 tion can take place without my authorization ; I re- 
 fuse it, and I command you, your judges, and your 
 jury to suspend court. Obey my orders, under 
 penalty of military punishment." Loud applause 
 drowned my words and gave them execution. The 
 same populace, about to follow the fatal carts to the 
 scaffold with perhaps exclamations of approval, as 
 on preceding days, seemed happy to hear me, and 
 sympathized with the sentiment of humanity which 
 was saving victims. Fouquier-Tinville tremblingly 
 answered, " I have acted merely on the instructions 
 given me by the committees of the Government, 
 which no later than this morning sent me lists of 
 the accused persons : henceforth, citizen represent- 
 ative, general, I shall conform to your imperative 
 commands.' 
 
 I pushed my way through the crowd, and hurried 
 to the Committee of Public Safety. Fouqiiier-Tin- 
 ville had reached there before me. He was truly the 
 man he had revealed himself to me, a month earlier, 
 in the antechamber of the Committee of Public 
 Safety, when seeking to prove to me that he was 
 I— 16 
 
242 MEMOIRS OF BARRAS chap. 
 
 a mere instrument ; and it will be seen how at this 
 very moment he felt himself goaded by the members 
 of the Committee, who up to that time had set him 
 in motion. He did not believe that he had yet their 
 permission to take an instant's rest from his labors. 
 Herein are indeed seen the effects, and, if one may 
 so speak, the ricochets of this Terror, ever bandied 
 from one to the other by those obeying it while 
 seeming to command it. 
 
 A discussion, and a violent one at that, had al- 
 ready begun in the Committee in regard to the news 
 brought by Fouquier-Tinville. Protests were being 
 made against the suspension of justice by military 
 power. " The National Convention shall decide," I 
 exclaimed. " I shall submit our respective actions 
 to its supreme judgment." My determination struck 
 terror into the Committee, whose members vied in 
 saying to me in gentle tones altogether novel, " You 
 allow yourself to get angry for a mere remark. We 
 do not blame your conduct ; Ave even approve what 
 you have done ; but it is illegal." 
 
 Nevertheless I had won my case by saving the 
 victims already under the knife of the guillotine. 
 Would I have won the same victory if among the 
 members of this very Committee Robespierre had 
 still been sitting ? It is a question it would perhaps 
 be diiScult to answer positively, since it remains 
 hypothetical. 
 
 Without being desirous of painting Robespierre 
 any blacker than his incontestable deeds make him, 
 I think I may set forth that the attempt at human- 
 ity the members of the Committee called illegal, but 
 which they suffered to subsist, might have met with 
 a superior obstacle if it had so happened that in 
 
XIX ROBESPIERRE THE KEYSTONE OF THE ARCH 243 
 
 acting in opposition to the will of the Committee 
 of Public Safety I had come across a personal wish 
 of Robespierre at its head. I have already fully 
 expressed my opinion about those of his colleagues 
 who had just attacked him. They had co-operated 
 in laying low the man so justly odious. I have 
 stated that, according to my view, they were in real- 
 ity less cruel than Robespierre, but he was the key- 
 stone of the arch. His surviving colleagues would 
 probably have preferred to have perpetrated the 
 cruelties of the Terror in all its plenitude ; but they 
 no longer possessed the necessary strength. It was 
 demonstrated by the state of affairs, as they had pre- 
 sented themselves for the past twenty -four hours 
 only, that the great power of the members of the 
 Committee of Public Safety had consisted especially 
 in their being the accomplices or soldiers of Robes- 
 pierre ; they had become far less formidable now 
 that they no longer had their chief, and left to 
 themselves they would be powerless, now that he 
 was forever lost to them. Nothing could take the 
 place of that leader; he was himself the primary 
 representative of the system incarnated in the Ter- 
 ror ; he was the Terror itself, for everything it will 
 subsequently do to survive will only draw fresh de- 
 feats to it. A last breath may escape from its body, 
 but it will be nothing more than its struggle with 
 death. Later on will be seen similar combats, re- 
 sulting in the disappearance of a leader far less dif- 
 ferent from Robespierre than he and his followers 
 would have us believe (Napoleon). He will doubt- 
 less have made the application of his system with 
 greater developments, with more political and mil- 
 itary embellishments ; but this leader too will disap- 
 
244 MEMOIRS OF BARRAS chap. 
 
 pear ; his system and his partisans will vainly seek 
 to become his heirs and followers, at least in so far 
 as power is concerned ; it is fortunate that such 
 founders of a system cannot be altogether replaced. 
 
 I had avoided any fight, and yet I had succeeded 
 in restoring to the National Convention the pleni- 
 tude of its authority. It left the existing members 
 of the committees in possession of their powers; but 
 the choice it made to fill up the gaps did not meet 
 with the assent of all Republicans, and in general the 
 measures adopted by the Convention were not of 
 a kind to restore confidence in it. I have stated 
 that on the loth Thermidor eleven members of the 
 Commune had been executed along with Robes- 
 pierre, Henriot, Saint -Just, and the other conven- 
 tionnels. On the following day, pursuant to their 
 outlawry, seventy more had been done to death ; in 
 this tumult and jumbling together of condemned 
 men, many were merely victims who had been led 
 astray, and did not deserve a like end. But such 
 was the impulse of this epoch of violence, where all 
 outvied one another in acts of rigor, that it was un- 
 avoidable that a victory won on behalf of humanity 
 should not still be signalized by cruelty ; death had 
 for the past fifteen months constituted common law, 
 and this pitiless jurisprudence could be destroyed 
 by death alone. 
 
 I took advantage of the part I had played at this 
 juncture to make a detailed report to the Assembly 
 in regard to what had taken place, and to embody 
 in it a few remarks as to the actual state of affairs. 
 " It is not meet for me, citizen representatives," I 
 said in conclusion, " to prescribe what should be 
 your action after the victory you have won over con- 
 
XIX BEFORE THE CONVENTION 245 
 
 spirators for the greater part led astray and deceived 
 by treacherous leaders. I have been content with 
 pointing out to you the road it might be advisable 
 to travel by, and I now confine myself to the assur- 
 ance of my devotion to the cause of liberty. I have 
 caused and shall cause the laws to be executed." 
 My speech was received with applause ; but the 
 ideas I should have liked to instil were not wel- 
 comed, but rejected through the influence still re- 
 tained by the committees of the Government, and 
 the precautions they were actively engaged in tak- 
 ing against any division of the power they had for 
 fifteen months exercised in so tyrannical a fashion. 
 Yet the Convention began, on the 1 3th 13th Thermi- 
 Thermidor, by revoking the decree in- dor, Year 11. 
 vesting the Committees of Public Safety and Gen- 
 eral Security with the power of placing under arrest 
 all persons, even members of the Convention — a 
 power these committees had oftentimes exceeded 
 by the violation of the simplest forms imposed on 
 them, and which they had disdained to take cogni- 
 zance of. I also contributed to the abrogation of 
 the law of the 2 2d Prairial on the organization of 
 the Revolutionary Tribunal; new judges and jury 
 were appointed ; it would have been far wiser to 
 have destroyed that tribunal once for all, in order to 
 establish there and then the reign of true liberty ; 
 but such is ever the mistake of victorious parties 
 that, losing sight of the sentiment and reason of 
 their triumph, they still seek to retain at their dis- 
 posal, in order to employ them against the defeated, 
 the instruments they have succeeded in tearing from 
 them, as if the defeated could not again become vic- 
 tors and return to their barbarous ways. The ac- 
 
246 MEMOIKS OF BARRAS CHAP. 
 
 tions and reactions of which France has for so long 
 been the stage will frequently recall this severe but 
 ever overlooked truth. Among the sensible meas- 
 ures taken, consequent upon the events of the 9th 
 Thermidor, may be pointed out the abrogation of 
 the law granting forty sous to persons without 
 means, in payment of their attendance at meetings 
 of the sections, the reorganization of the Committees 
 of Public Safety and General Security, and the re- 
 striction imposed upon them of henceforth basing 
 their decisions strictly according to law. 
 
 The deputy Courtois, intrusted with drawing up 
 an inventory of Robespierre's papers, had had good 
 reasons for claiming this commission. Having, like 
 so many others, had the misfortune to write in most 
 obsequious terms to Robespierre at the time the lat- 
 ter was all-powerful, he had begun his task by secur- 
 ing and burning his letters. I claimed those of 
 Freron, Tallien, and several other deputies, and re- 
 turned them all to their writers. The report made 
 by Courtois was not as interesting as had been ex- 
 pected. Many important papers had been abstract- 
 ed by him, and he was said to have acted similarly 
 in the matter of the contents of the iron closet. 
 This may have been done with an eye to history, 
 and to save documents liable to establish the truth ; 
 but truth is truth, and is not to be tampered with. 
 Therefore an incomplete publication of all that 
 would serve the interests of truth should not have 
 been made, nor should preference have been given 
 to what might do harm to one's personal enemies. 
 Courtois more especially fell into the error of neg- 
 lecting the most elevated standpoints, and omitting 
 general facts whose bringing together could alone 
 
XIX AN ANOMALY IN HUMANITY'S HISTORY 247 
 
 present an ensemble picturing the period. It was 
 assuredly an extraordinary period, even in its most 
 melancholy aspects, the one preceding the 9th Ther- 
 midor; and although it seems so readily explicable 
 by the passions swaying the principal actors, by the 
 pretexts and reasons they invoked in the face of a 
 foreign enemy, there is, nevertheless, in the causes 
 which had engendered this universal terror some- 
 thing mysterious which philosophers and political 
 writers cannot too closely scrutinize before coming 
 to the conclusion that it was an anomaly in the 
 history of humanity. Courtois, who lacked the ca- 
 pacity to conceive his work under this grand aspect, 
 has done little more than place before us individu- 
 alities personal to Robespierre, without ever pene- 
 trating the governing motives of his policy. What 
 was that policy at the very time of his death ? Did 
 he ever have a system ? Is his rise to power ex- 
 plained by Cromwell's saying, " One never goes 
 so far except when one knows not whither one is 
 going?" It has been said that Robespierre had 
 died a Reactionary, and by that it has been meant 
 that, tired of and frightened at the excesses the 
 Revolution had reached, he would have wished to 
 stem the current ; but how is one to reconcile 
 such a design with all that even his last utterance 
 contains in opposition to such an idea.? " We have 
 not been too severe," were his words ; " I call to wit- 
 ness the Republic which freely breathes . . . Peo- 
 ple speak of our severity, while our country blames 
 us for our weakness. It is sought to destroy the 
 Revolutionary Government in order to sacrifice the 
 country to the rascally element. This Government 
 represents the sure and rapid march of justice ; it 
 
248 MEMOIRS OF BARRAS chap. 
 
 is the thunder-bolt hurled by the hand of Liberty 
 against crime. The justice of the people must not 
 be impeded by forms. Penal law must of neces- 
 sity have an element of vagueness, since, the real 
 character of conspirators being a compound of 
 hypocrisy and dissimulation, justice must be in a 
 position to strike them in every possible form. A 
 single mode of conspiring would render illusory 
 and compromise the welfare of the country. It is 
 necessary to stamp out all factions hostile to the 
 national authority, in order to elevate on their ruins 
 the power of justice and liberty." In a catechism 
 in his handwriting we find : " When will the people 
 be enlightened .'' When they shall have bread, and 
 when the rich and the Government shall cease subsi- 
 dizing pens and treacherous tongues for the purpose 
 of deceiving them ; when the interests of the rich 
 and those of the poor shall be one. When will these 
 interests be one ? Never !" The following passage, 
 expressive of his whole train of thought, is to be 
 met with in the other documents annexed to Cour- 
 tois's report : " A vast report should embody all the 
 conspirators, and should reveal all the conspiracies 
 embodied in one ; let these be included in Fayettists, 
 Royalists, Federalists, Hebertists, and Dantonists 
 ( Rousselin e^ a/.)." 
 
 Who is there who has ever been able to believe 
 that these last acts and words of Robespierre allowed 
 one to entertain the slightest suspicion of a return to 
 moderation ? Everything connected with the matter 
 is doubtless vague and incoherent ; but what is no- 
 wise so, and constitutes most damnable evidence, 
 is that Robespierre, ever consumed with gall and 
 hatred, was thinking more than ever of getting rid 
 
XIX HOW BATTLES ARE WON 249 
 
 of his enemies, or of those who seemed to be his 
 enemies, and whom he so styled. His ferocious 
 imagination multiplied the number of them daily. 
 Mention has been made of the fraternal devotion 
 shown by his brother by perishing simultaneous- 
 ly with him on the 9th Thermidor. But this de- 
 votion consisted rather in the association of the 
 parties than in any brotherly feeling. Courtois has 
 not calumniated Robespierre when saying that he 
 had no feelings of tender affection, even for his own. 
 The letters his sister writes to him are the embodi- 
 ment of grief and despair. And yet she was, and it 
 may yet be said (for I think she is still alive) is, a 
 person full of moderation and virtues, who is unde- 
 serving of censure for having been compelled to let 
 her brother go his way. 
 
 Paris could not be otherwise than deeply stirred 
 as a consequence of the stormy crisis which for 
 three long days had engrossed both the authorities 
 and the population. After the battle has disposed 
 of the chief foe, there always spring up those who 
 claim to have guided victory. 
 
 Sitting at my fireside, I have at times told the 
 story of the exploits, or, if one so prefers, the advent- 
 ures of my life ; it is the privilege of nearly all those 
 who have seen life to indulge in narrative. Some 
 make use of this privilege more charily than others. 
 I have seen military men who excelled in this style 
 of narrative ; but he who narrates brings his char- 
 acter into play as well as in everything else he 
 does. So, then, I have heard soldiers complacently 
 tell of battles in which they had taken part, and even 
 of those where they had not been present. The lat- 
 ter especially attribute everything to their personal 
 
2SO MEMOIRS OF BARRAS chap. 
 
 bravery and genius, insisting that not a movement, 
 not a fortunate evolution, took place which was not 
 the result of their calculation, and of combinations 
 most positively meditated long beforehand ; every 
 successful move was their work. I have heard 
 others who had better claims to plume themselves 
 on their conceptions, whose results have crowned 
 them with glory, say frankly, " We know full well 
 why we are desirous of winning the battle, what 
 steps we take to do so, how much we wish for, and 
 even sometimes how much we hope ; but we do not 
 always know how is won the battle redounding to 
 our personal glory. Sometimes it is a captain, 
 sometimes even a lieutenant, who comes forward 
 and decides the issue by a happy movement, an 
 improvisation, an inspiration. The enemy gives 
 way, and no longer stands his ground. 'Tis a case 
 of ' If you retreat, I will advance ; if you advance, I 
 will beat a retreat.' Some advance and exclaim that 
 the battle is won ; so it is, since the battle-field re- 
 mains in possession of the one who is called the con- 
 queror. ' Such is war and nothing else', have often- 
 times said to me men most skilled in the art of war. 
 The vanquished are very much the dead, and the vic- 
 tors in war, as in all other things, those who survive." 
 These considerations frequently suggested them- 
 selves to me at the time of the siege of Toulon, and 
 subsequent to that siege, when I have seen lavished 
 with so little justice the honor of all the operations 
 and success attendant upon the recapture of Toulon 
 on a man who had undoubtedly been present, but 
 was in no way the general-in-chief who had directed 
 events, nor one of the representatives of the people 
 who paved the way for it. 
 
XIX BATTLE OF THE 9™ THERMIDOR 251 
 
 On the 9th Thermidor — which I have recorded 
 in so summary a fashion merely because the story 
 of it is written everywhere, and will eternally fur- 
 nish food for conversation to future generations — I 
 had some share in an operation which, although it 
 may have taken place within the walls of a city 
 containing a large population of bourgeois, and did 
 not occur in the presence of foreign armies, may 
 nevertheless be judged by the standard of all the 
 most difficult of military operations. I make bold 
 to say that the battle of the 9th Thermidor, in its 
 movements, uncertainties, and the dangers incurred 
 by those who took part in it — that this battle is fair- 
 ly to be compared with all those which had just been 
 fought on the frontier against the coalition. Well, 
 then, I have never laid special claim to the part I 
 played in it, and I may add, without any mock mod- 
 esty, that I have never found myself in the necessity 
 of pressing this claim, for a large enough share in it 
 has been attributed to me for me to have nothing to 
 complain of. It is from the newspapers of the day 
 that I have learned the amount of credit belonging 
 to me in the battle of the 9th Thermidor: what I 
 am well aware of is that on this occasion, as on so 
 many others, I unreservedly offered the sacrifice of 
 my life ; and while I did not seek to be sparing of 
 it by having recourse to the ruses and precautions 
 permissible in war, I know that I ran direct and per- 
 sonal risks in advancing on the enemy, our objective 
 point. I know that I spoke and acted in conformity 
 with all the natural impulses imposed on me by the 
 circumstance. 
 
 But how did I act at every step, what were my 
 words, except in the circumstances recorded by pub- 
 
252 MEMOIRS OF BARRAS chap. 
 
 lie narrative and by the newspapers, and confirmed 
 by my words and actions ? This is what it would be 
 difficult for me to state in a precise fashion. There 
 are in an operation similar to the one now before 
 us, which is more than military owing to the various 
 circumstances connected with it and all the fortu- 
 itous exigencies it is called upon to cope with — sud- 
 den, indeliberate, unreasoned, instinctive movements 
 there are, born of the circumstance they control, 
 which the circumstance itself inspires and crowns 
 with success, as when fencing the foil of our oppo- 
 nent his attitude or look dictates to us happy inspi- 
 rations deciding our enemy's fate and securing tri- 
 umph for us. 
 
 Among all the claims which have sprung up since 
 the victory of the 9th Thermidor, I am in no wise 
 desirous of criticising those from which honor has 
 been derived by several of my colleagues, not even 
 in the case of Leonard Bourdon, who is under the 
 impression that he led battalions against the Paris 
 Commune, entered it as a conqueror, and decided 
 the day's victory, i. e., on the night of the 9th Ther- 
 midor, when the brothers Robespierre, Saint-Just, 
 Couthon, and their accomplices succumbed. 
 
 But there is a brilliant exploit with which it has 
 been sought to decorate a citizen gendarme, Meda 
 by name, who is alleged to have died twenty years 
 later a colonel in the Russian campaign, as he was 
 about to be promoted to the rank of brigadier- 
 general. In 1824 there appeared memoirs of this 
 Meda, the conqueror of Robespierre. According to 
 the posthumous narrative of this gendarme, aged 
 nineteen in Thermidor, 1794, he is alleged to have 
 received from the Committee of Public Safety, 
 
XIX MEDA'S BRILLIANT EXPLOIT 253 
 
 through Carnot, a truly singular order given to a 
 soldier who had chiefs — an order which has never 
 since been substantiated — to take command under 
 the Convention, and to place under arrest the 
 members of the Commune. If these memoirs are 
 to be believed, it is pursuant to such an order that 
 the gendarme Meda is said to have joined Leonard 
 Bourdon in his mission, and this representative is 
 alleged to have appointed the gendarme to lead the 
 attack. Shortly afterwards the gendarme Meda is 
 reputed to have left his column to attempt a coup de 
 ■main on the building occupied by the Commune. 
 He is alleged to have hurried thither followed by a 
 mere handful of grenadiers, forced his way into the 
 secretary's office, where, finding Robespierre sur- 
 rounded by some fifty men, he had sprung on him, 
 directing his sword against his heart, and saying to 
 him, " Surrender, traitor !" At these words Robes- 
 pierre, it is alleged, looked up and said, " 'Tis you 
 who are a traitor, and I will have you shot." At 
 these words the gendarme Meda, still according to 
 his own account, taking one of his pistols in his left 
 hand, fired at Robespierre ; he intended shooting 
 him in his chest, but the bullet, striking Robes- 
 pierre's chin, broke his lower jaw, and he fell from 
 his arm-chair. The report of the shot fired by 
 Meda so stupefied Robespierre the Younger that he 
 flung himself out of a window. At this juncture a 
 terrible noise was heard, whereupon Meda is alleged 
 to have exclaimed with all his might, " Long live 
 the Republic !" The grenadiers on hearing him re- 
 peated the cry, according to a report of Leonard 
 Bourdon drawn up on the loth Thermidor; in it he 
 is alleged to have stated that Meda was one of the 
 
254 MEMOIRS OF BARRAS chap. 
 
 first who dealt a blow at the conspirators. Courtois 
 in his report even makes Leonard Bourdon say, 
 when presenting Meda to the Convention : " This 
 courageous gendarme never left me; with his own 
 hand he killed two of the conspirators. . . ." 
 
 This share of glory was not enough for M. Meda; 
 it was necessary that he should in his posthumous 
 narrative, in order to express in his turn his grati- 
 tude towards Leonard Bourdon, contradict his epic 
 poet, and say that Robespierre had wrenched his 
 pistol from him in the midst of the scufHe, while it 
 has been seen previously that the pistol was in all 
 likelihood one of Le Bass brace. It is the make of 
 this pistol, probably picked up at the Commune by 
 the gendarme Meda, which furnished him with a 
 pretext for building up his fable. The pistol was 
 moreover, so it seems to me, of very little interest 
 on the 9th Thermidor, except to the gendarme 
 Meda. He may, it is true, have during his lifetime 
 protested against the assertions opposed to his own, 
 the narrative of which was only made known after 
 his death. I will admit that during his lifetime he 
 sought to make capital out of the circumstance in 
 which connection he attributed to himself so prom- 
 inent a part, and which he kept up before several of 
 my colleagues ; later on he begged Tallien, in his 
 quality of Thermidorian hero, to recommend him to 
 me at the time I was in power. I have received from 
 Meda numerous letters and requests, the object of 
 which was to obtain a promotion in excess of his 
 rights and qualifications. His orthography and 
 style revealed the greatest ignorance, even when he 
 sought to bring into play his cupidity and am- 
 bition — passions which sometimes furnish men 
 
XIX A "FAMOUS PERSONAGE" 2SS 
 
 animated with them a little more wit, or at least 
 tone. 
 
 It was not until 1824, at the time of the publica- 
 tion of the posthumous memoirs of the gendarme 
 Meda, that I learned that this hero had succumbed 
 in one of the engagements fought in Russia in 181 2, 
 under the orders of the Emperor, " who was about 
 to appoint him general," says Meda's historian, 
 proving to me that the gendarme, so hostile to 
 Robespierre, did not feel an equal antipathy against 
 the Emperor, and that he was greatly flattered to 
 receive from him further steps of promotion as a 
 sequel to those he had received from the Conven- 
 tion and the Directory. Moreover, these two pow- 
 ers had not withheld from him the reward deserved 
 for civic good conduct on the 9th Thermidor, since 
 Meda had fought on the side of the National Con- 
 vention, which represented then the primary legal 
 and lawful power of France ; yet rewards had to 
 be subordinate to facts and to actual services ren- 
 dered. 
 
 I am aware that later on, and once more under 
 decisive circumstances, we shall see lauded to the 
 skies and magnificently rewarded as saviors of the 
 life of a famous personage (Bonaparte), and as hav- 
 ing preserved his precious days from the dagger of 
 the assassin, certain grenadiers who never dreamed 
 of so doing, and who did not know at the time 
 what it all meant, but who since then dared to 
 claim the ignoble salary granted to an imposture. 
 The epoch whereof I speak is that when the repre- 
 sentatives of the people shall be treated, in Robes- 
 pierre's own words, as assassins and representatives 
 of the poniard by those who will come and slaugh- 
 
2S6 MEMOIRS OF BARRAS chap. xix. 
 
 ter them in their own halls, as their predecessor 
 Robespierre attempted to do. But in our time we 
 were not comedians. Italy, to our intercourse with 
 which we owe the introduction of so many poisons 
 at various periods in the history of France — Italy, 
 and especially Corsica, far worse than all the Italies 
 together, had not yet been imported into France ! 
 And this is why I have thought it well to restore to 
 its true value the exploit of the gendarme Meda. 
 
CHAPTER XX 
 
 Reprisals of the aristocracy — Organized bands of cutthroats — 
 Frightful acts of brigandage — The energy of the Convention on 
 the wane — Robber chiefs — Legitimacy — Appointed a member of 
 the Committee of General Security — I save from their doom 
 some of those who had handed over Toulon to the English — 
 Denounced by Lucien Bonaparte — Appointed secretary to the 
 Convention ; then its president — The Jacobins in a state of dis- 
 organization — The club's fresh attempt at purging itself. Terri- 
 ble wzo/ of Billaud-Varennes — Representative Legendre — The 
 Club of the Jacobins dissolved — The Commission of Five — I be- 
 come a member of it — Plan of reorganization — My report on the 
 festal celebration of 2ist January — An act of popular humanity 
 — Appointed an East Indian commissioner — I remain in Paris — 
 Deplorable condition of the Republicans — The Farmalagues 
 Club — Boissy d'Anglas — Lanjuinais — Tallien — Impending dis- 
 turbances — A portion of the Paris National Guard makes com- 
 mon cause with the factions — The 12th Germinal — The Conven- 
 tion invaded — I am tendered the command of the armed force 
 of Paris — Pichegru — The Commission of Twenty-one — Barere, 
 Collot d'Herbois, and Billaud-Varennes transported — Their 
 conveyances stopped — Pichegru insulted by the people — I rescue 
 hira — The on/on/ia/air (mttudunt commissary) Hion — Pichegru's 
 fright — Decree of indictment against thirty representatives — 
 "Maximum" laws — Scarcity of food — Critical condition of 
 Paris — Act of neglect of Boissy d'Anglas — My new mission — 
 Rebuffet and Gevaudan — Old Lanchere — Brune, Saint-Martin, 
 and Real — Measures taken by us — Fears of Rebuffet and Gevau- 
 dan — Chappe — Telegraphic communication interrupted — The 
 eventful days of Prairial — The suburbs — Ferraud murdered — 
 Measures taken by me from Ghent — General Leclair — Triumph 
 of the Convention — Disturbances at Saint-Omer — I return to 
 Paris — My brevet as brigadier-general —Consternation of the 
 patriots — Decrees rendered and immediately revoked — The 
 " Mountain " decimated— Distinguished victims— Splendid invo- 
 
 I-17 
 
2S8 MEMOIRS OF BARRAS chap. 
 
 cation of a modern historian — The foreigner an accomplice of 
 reactionary movements — I seek to have a legal rtfgiiite re-estab- 
 lished — My labors in connection with the provisioning of Paris. 
 
 The exaCTaerated and violent deeds of victorious 
 parties are generally followed by still more violent 
 ones on the part of the defeated, when the latter 
 regain the upper hand. The aristocracy, which 
 since 1792 had been completely stricken to the 
 ground, then a victim of oppression, had the first 
 claims to reprisals ; it was to be expected that it 
 would take advantage of what had happened imme- 
 diately after Thermidor. It worked its way into 
 every branch of the administration, and drove out 
 as Robespierrists irreproachable citizens, in spite of 
 their never havino; entertained the slightest idea of 
 being followers of Robespierre. Bands of cutthroats, 
 assuming the most sacred appellations, formed them- 
 selves, especially in the southern departments; they 
 scoured the communes, murdering the most zeal- 
 ous Republicans, robbing the diligences, and pil- 
 laging the public coffers ; they received powerful 
 support from the emigres across the frontier, and 
 clandestinely at home from those who had returned 
 to their native soil. Some few members of the 
 Convention were apparently not foreign to this 
 coalition, and several were suspected of having a 
 secret understanding with England. The Conven- 
 tion had shown itself great on many occasions, but 
 it no longer enjoyed the nation's consideration, no 
 longer was feared by the foreign powers ; its energy 
 had become enfeebled ; it was, moreover, worried 
 by the numerous parties formed in its bosom, while 
 it suffered the incendiary bodies which laid the 
 country waste to obtain a standing. Its despatch 
 
XX THE ARISTOCRACY'S REPRISALS 259 
 
 of deputies and even generals into the departments 
 was a measure more than ever seized upon as a 
 pretext for the commission of crimes by the enemies 
 of the Republic, and it proved unsuccessful in stem- 
 ming their course. Several of these robber chiefs 
 will subsequently be seen finding favor in the eyes 
 of the powers following in succession even after the 
 Restoration, whose principle of legitimacy should 
 not have permitted of anything but virtues ap- 
 proaching it. A few, doubtless, will have concealed 
 their misdeeds from the King and his Ministers ; 
 while others will have boasted of them, and will not 
 only have escaped punishment, but be treated with 
 honor, if money and cordons constitute honor. 
 
 I had just been elected a member of the Com- 
 mittee of General Security. 
 
 The deputies despatched after the 9th Thermidor 
 into the southern and maritime departments of the 
 Republic had met some of the men who had handed 
 over Toulon to the English, and had concluded 
 that they might be comprised in the sort of general 
 amnesty consequent upon the revolution which had 
 brought about Robespierre's downfall ; but Jeanbon 
 Saint-Andre, Espert, and even Cadroy had many of 
 these individuals arrested, and, in order to show 
 their deep hatred of traitors, sent them before the 
 Committee of General Security in Paris, with a view 
 of their being arraigned before the somewhat modi- 
 fied Revolutionary Tribunal still in existence. Sev- 
 eral of these unfortunate men appealed to me in the 
 very first place, invoking the generosity of him 
 whom they styled the "conqueror of Toulon." I 
 did not remain deaf to their appeals, and was fortu- 
 nate enough to soften the severity of their fate by 
 
26o MEMOIRS OF BARRAS chap. 
 
 securing their freedom for them and having them 
 sent back to their homes. " Go your way," I said 
 to them, "and learn the blessings of liberty, and 
 that the Republic protects you." On this occasion, 
 as well as during the whole course of my life, it has 
 never been my opinion that revenge should outlive 
 a victory ; and since Toulon was no longer in the 
 enemy's power, national prosecution was no longer 
 an act of necessary justice. The Convention could 
 well afford to follow this example, but at the very 
 time I acted thus on behalf of all, I was in Province 
 the object of demagogic denunciations, especially in 
 Fructidor and ^'""^ towH of Saint-Maximiu, still decorated 
 Vendemiaire, with the name of Marathon given it by 
 Year III. .j^j.^^^. Lucien Bonapai'tc whose mad excite- 
 ment I had been compelled to curb only a year be- 
 fore, at a time when he sought to bring about a 
 mass uprising, and send, according to his own ex- 
 pression, to the guillotine all the aristocrats, while 
 his brother was engaged in distributing among the 
 soldiery his Souper de Beaticaire, wherein he set 
 forth the goodness and justice of all deeds of vio- 
 lence, both civil and military. Could a Republic be 
 maintained with such men .'' 
 
 Vendemiaire and Friinaire, Year III. — I was ap- 
 pointed secretary to the National Convention ; then 
 its president. 
 
 The Society of the Jacobins had collapsed, as if 
 of its own accord, on the gth day of Thermidor, 
 when Robespierre, its real leader, had fallen ; but, 
 as among its members there existed sincere patriots 
 who, threatened by the triumvirate, had frankly op- 
 posed it at the time the battle was being fought, 
 these true friends of liberty were desirous, after hav- 
 
XX THE END OF THE JACOBINS 261 
 
 ing struck down the men who had abused the insti- 
 tution, that the institution should not perish. They 
 had thought it possible to rescue it from an untimely 
 end by a system of reorganization, and by a purging 
 of undesirable members, carried out on this occasion 
 on a better basis, and exempt from all the violent 
 deeds presiding over the one which had taken place 
 previous to the gth Thermidor. It was a difficult 
 matter that the unfortunate custom of personal de- 
 nunciation should be then and there extirpated, that 
 sentiments of anger and fury should at once disap- 
 pear. The Society of Jacobins has, at a time its 
 efforts were directed against the throne, been com- 
 pared to a battery of artillery, which it had been 
 necessary to touch off in order that its projectiles 
 should reach the goal ; but, the mark once hit, its 
 fire had not ceased, and this terrible battery contin- 
 ued hurling its destructive projectiles against every- 
 thing in front of it. Every structure was in its eyes 
 an objective point to be destroyed. It seemed there- 
 fore that the Society was once more to be the scene 
 of a perpetual upheaval ; thus Billaud-Varennes and 
 Collot d'Herbois sought again to find among the 
 Jacobins the support Robespierre had drawn from 
 them previous to the 9th Thermidor ; while Billaud- 
 Varennes, no less threatening than Robespierre had 
 been in the early days, said, while shaking his mane, 
 that " the lion had been slumbering, but that he was 
 about to rouse himself and devour his foes." Re- 
 gret at having shown wisdom for a few short mo- 
 ments could not be more clearly expressed ; nor 
 could a plainer announcement be made of the storm 
 clouds about to burst over the Convention. 
 
 Just as I believed I had fulfilled my mission and 
 
262 MEMOIRS OF BARRAS chap. 
 
 established order in Paris, I was informed that the 
 Jacobins still retained their quarters in the Rue 
 Saint - Honore. I conferred with the deputy Le- 
 gendre in regard to the urgent necessity of suspend- 
 ing the sittings of that society, so unfortunately 
 enslaved by Robespierre. I felt some scruples in 
 proceeding in military fashion against an unarmed 
 assemblage, when Legendre said to me, " Well, then, 
 I will lead the patriots and go and disperse these 
 wicked Robespierrists, who, in my eyes, are un- 
 worthy of the name of Jacobins." True to his word, 
 he proceeded to their hall of session, where he en- 
 joyed the satisfaction of finding that the greater 
 number of the members had made good their 
 retreat ; he drove out the rest, closed the doors of 
 the hall, and presented the keys to the Convention. 
 Such was the end of this celebrated society, which, 
 composed at its inception of deputies and citizens 
 both decent and devoted to their country, had ren- 
 dered great services to the Revolution. 
 
 Nivbse, Year III. — Discord reigned in the com- 
 mittees as well as in the National Convention. Pe- 
 titions breathing fury were disturbing the public 
 peace. I was appointed a member of the famous 
 Commission of Five, whose action was paralyzed by 
 the big committees still in existence. It was in my 
 capacity of member of this Commission that I co- 
 operated in a plan of governmental reorganization, 
 wherein we embodied wise provisions whose object 
 was to disseminate the authority confined until then 
 in too few hands and resulting in the most outra- 
 geous tyranny. 
 
 Nivose, Year III. — The extraordinary Commis- 
 sion of Five seemed to have been established for 
 
XX HE PREFERS HOME POLITICS 263 
 
 the sole purpose of holding it responsible for the 
 doings of the committees. As the mouth-piece of 
 the Commission, it fell to my lot to make a report 
 on the fatal celebration of the 21st of January. 
 
 The National Convention, laboring under the 
 fear of a possible return of royalty, could never 
 bring itself to believe that it had done sufficient 
 against it, and must needs burn its ships. The real 
 way of proceeding towards the re-establishment of 
 the Republic would have been to endow it with 
 institutions which would have ended in giving it 
 manners. But as there is no possibility of deliver- 
 ing a front attack against opinions in their first fer- 
 vor, I thought I might make use of a very simple 
 expedient, and temper the harshness of a solemnity 
 such as that of the 21st of January, by causing the 
 Convention to perform an act of popular humanity. 
 It was decreed that articles deposited by poor per- 
 sons with the morit-de-piete should be returned to 
 them free of interest and without their being called 
 upon to repay the sums advanced on their deposits. 
 
 Ventbse, Year III. — It was not in me to remain 
 inactive, so the Convention made use of my zeal 
 for the benefit of the public welfare. No sooner 
 had I fulfilled one mission than I was called to an- 
 other. The Commission of Five having terminated 
 its labors, I was appointed an East Indian commis- 
 sioner. This office was altogether to my taste, 
 owing to the recollections of my youth and the 
 knowledge I had acquired in India — a knowledge 
 which could now be turned to good account ; but I 
 had fresh services to render to my country. 
 
 The necessity of opposing the agents of Robes- 
 pierre's system, who still wielded the power, had 
 
264 MEMOIRS OF BARRAS CHAP. 
 
 driven the best Republicans to appeal to all parties 
 for allies; and, as occurs in revolutions, it is not the 
 cleanest men in any party who come forward in a 
 majority. 
 
 The National Convention had lost the Repub- 
 lican majority which had given it its support at the 
 time of great danger ; and yet it was at that very 
 time the Republicans who were being slaughtered 
 received no protection at its hands, and there was 
 no talk but of moderation and justice ! Blood was 
 being shed in torrents ; the laws were not enforced ; 
 the authorities timorous and without power; gather- 
 ings had formed in Paris, supported by the gold of 
 the foreigner ever interested in disturbing the peace 
 of France, whatever its social organization. One of 
 the gatherings I refer to had for its founder one 
 Farmalagues, who, coming forward as a former 
 friend of the dead Girondins, thus cloaked himself 
 with the mask of liberty, and succeeded in attract- 
 ing to his domicile the most prominent men in the 
 Republic. I was invited to the house of this Far- 
 malagues, whither I was allured under the pretext 
 of my meeting several of my colleagues, whose sup- 
 port it was important to gain, in particular Boissy 
 d'Anglas and Lanjuinais. The last- named, whose 
 petulant character was ever greedy of pre-eminence 
 and notoriety, presided over the gathering. The 
 dinner, the cost of which was probably defrayed by 
 the foreigner, was excellent; but the guests were on 
 their guard, and the conversation was carried on in 
 whispers. I felt out of place among these worthy, 
 mysterious folk, and this was the last time I set foot 
 in their club. The weakness of the Government 
 was increasing daily ; the provisions, to which it 
 
XX AGAIN IN COMMAND 265 
 
 should have given its serious attention, were being 
 forestalled ; bread was dear, scarce, and bad ; the 
 enemies of the Republic were not slow in turning 
 these straits to their advantao;e. 
 
 Although I had resigned the command of the 
 Army of the Interior since the 9th Thermidor, I 
 was nevertheless looked upon as the representative 
 of the people near the armed force of Paris. The 
 sections rose in insurrection against the Conven- 
 tion, and the deputations from them insulted it at 
 its very bar, while the speeches and protests of self- 
 appointed orators of the people bore a decided char- 
 acter of insubordination and sedition. Very soon 
 meetings of self-styled popular assemblies took 
 place, at which revolt was loudly advocated. The 
 governmental hierarchy was ignored, the public 
 weal jeopardized, and it became necessary to nip in 
 the bud the actual deeds about to follow on the 
 heels of the words boldly and menacingly uttered ; 
 and there was good cause to fear that a portion of 
 the National Guard would take a part in the pro- 
 jected movements. This Guard, whose organization 
 was defective, had on several eventful occasions in 
 the history of the Revolution shown a spirit which 
 involved it in fatal consequences. 
 
 Germinal, Year III. — On the 12th Germinal 
 (Year III.) a mob gathered from the various quar- 
 ters of Paris forced its way into the hall of the Con- 
 vention ; the drums beat to arms, and the alarm-bell 
 was rung. In so critical a circumstance, the com- 
 mittees of the Government requested me to at once 
 resume active command of Paris, and drew up a 
 resolution to that effect. I declined at first, as has 
 nearly always been my wont, owing to a lack of 
 
266 MEMOIRS OF BARRAS chap. 
 
 ambition I might almost call modesty ; moreover, I 
 could, so it seemed to me, perceive that those who 
 since the 9th Thermidor were my avowed enemies, 
 sought all the more to involve my responsibility as 
 they sought not to undertake any themselves. On 
 my refusal, the committees endeavored to obtain by 
 decree what they had not been able to obtain by a 
 mere resolution, and with that object in view re- 
 newed their proposition in the Convention, which, 
 rising en masse, appointed me. I requested to be 
 allowed to remain with the armed force merely as 
 representative of the people, and that Pichegru, then 
 in Paris, should be invested with the chief command ; 
 to this the Convention assented. 
 
 The Convention, after having dissolved the Jac- 
 obins, on the report of the Commission of Twenty- 
 one, had decided upon issuing a decree of indict- 
 ment against Robespierre's successors. The insur- 
 rection just broken out settled the fate of Barere 
 and Collot d'Herbois, who were sentenced to trans- 
 portation. As the condemned men were about to 
 leave for their place of exile, their conveyances were 
 stopped by the mob on the Place de la Revolution. 
 Pichegru galloped to the spot, was surrounded by 
 the mob, compelled to dismount, and subjected to 
 insult. One of his aides-de-camp hastened to the 
 Tuileries to inform me of the occurrence. With no 
 other escort than one of my officers, Pichegru's aide- 
 de-camp, and the intendant-commissary Hion, I 
 started, and soon reached a battalion of the National 
 Guard stationed at the swing-bridge; I recalled it 
 to a sense of its duty, which, in its sluggishness, it 
 seemed to be ignorant of, and commanded it to fol- 
 low me. On reaching the group holding Pichegru 
 
XX PICHEGRU TREMBLES 267 
 
 captive, the intendant-commissary Hion exclaimed, 
 " Make way for the representative of the people, 
 Barras !" The crowd opened its ranks for me ; 
 whereupon, taking Pichegru by the arm, I called 
 out, " I have orders to give you in the name of the 
 National Convention !" No further resistance was 
 offered, and the carriages were allowed to so their 
 way. Pichegru, little accustomed to these popular 
 movements, was trembling all over; I led him to 
 the quay, and promised to join him as soon as I had 
 completely restored peace. He mounted his horse 
 and rode off to his headquarters. Pichegru did not 
 possess over the multitude that kind of authority 
 which commands its respect; he lacked popularity. 
 The confidence of the people is the first vehicle of 
 success on the occasion of great revolutionary up- 
 heavals. 
 
 The transportation of the four former members 
 of the Committee, the reason given for the insurrec- 
 tion of the 12th Germinal, had merely been a jDre- 
 text at a time when so many positive causes existed. 
 Nor had the spot been reached by decreeing the 
 indictment of some thirty deputies who had signal- 
 ized themselves by the boldness of their revolution- 
 ary and civic ardor, and had thus come to be looked 
 upon as formidable. The standing cause of all in- 
 surrections was there; it was the lack of food sup- 
 plies. A factitious scarcity of food, the result of the 
 " maximum " laws, and a genuine one resulting from 
 the year's poor harvest, superadded to the other 
 causes for political excitement, revived the bad tem- 
 per of the masses by increasing its uneasiness. All 
 the passionate sentiments united in different ways 
 against the National Convention, before and after 
 
268 MEMOIRS OF BARRAS CHAP. 
 
 the gth Thermidor, accused it before the people with 
 not being attentive to its wants, and the cause of all 
 its misfortunes ; harangues were delivered in the 
 public squares, and in front of the bakeries. The 
 situation became daily more critical and more alarm- 
 ing; there was but very little flour in Paris, and 
 that in a damaged condition ; it was supplied by 
 speculators, who had paid a big price for the pro- 
 tection of their patron. 
 
 In this deplorable state of affairs, brought about 
 by the neglect of Boissy d'Anglas, who had charge 
 of the provisioning of Paris, the committees once 
 more did me the honor of rendering homage to 
 whatever credit I may have gained in the course of 
 my several missions, sent for me and asked me to 
 devote once more the activity and energy which, 
 they said, had already rendered such great services 
 to the country, to the present case, which called for 
 the exercise of scrupulousness, as the food supply 
 was the matter at stake — that element of disturb- 
 ance exercising as potent a sway over people whom 
 it is sought to agitate as the setting in motion of 
 the spring of religion. But the necessity of living 
 goes before all else ; religion did not trouble us 
 much in those times, and M. de Lamennais might 
 in those early days have written his work on Indif- 
 ference' I was therefore given a fresh mission 
 Fioreai, — that of visiting the ports along the Eng- 
 Vear III. ijsh Channel, the northern departments, 
 Belgium, and Holland, with a view of directing on 
 Paris all I could obtain or seize of cereals or flour 
 stored in the warehouses of those countries. As I 
 
 ' Essai sur 1' Indifference en Matiere de Religion. — Translator's note. 
 
XX VALUABLE OLD LANCHERE 269 
 
 was already one of the commissioners ordered to 
 the East Indies, I had a just motive to oppose as a 
 reason for my not leaving France at the very time 
 France was hardly tenable, even for men the least 
 easily terrified by revolutions ; but it is not the time 
 to discuss what is most agreeable when one has 
 bound one's self to see that a certain social organiza- 
 tion shall prevail ; the post of the greatest danger is 
 that of civism and honor. I accepted, therefore, 
 the mission most difficult, subject to resuming later 
 on the East Indian one, for which I felt a special 
 liking. 
 
 My operations were of a delicate nature. I sent 
 for the administrators of the artillery trains, Re- 
 buffet and Gevaudan ; but I could not obtain from 
 them what I required, so I sent both about their 
 business. I then applied to the old Lanchere ; he 
 promised me six thousand horses, including those of 
 the artillery-trains which I authorized him to require. 
 I settled with him that these six thousand horses 
 should be distributed in echelons on the road from 
 Paris to Havre, and that detachments of cavalry 
 should be stationed along that road. Nothing 
 seemed impossible to M. Lanchere, who was a man 
 remarkable by his knowledge of matters administra- 
 tive and commercial. The execution of my meas- 
 ures was promptly and well carried out. I left for 
 Havre, taking with me General Brune, General Saint- 
 Martin, and Real. I can only speak in terms of 
 praise of their activity. Subsequent to my dismissal 
 from my presence of Rebuffet and Gevaudan they 
 were in tears, and begged me not to ruin them ; I 
 dismissed them as bad citizens, but assured them 
 that no proceedings should be taken against them. 
 
270 MEMOIRS OF BARRAS chap. 
 
 Later on I came to know Rebuffet in a more favor- 
 able light ; he was not a bad sort of man, and was 
 endowed with talents and patriotic sentiments. 
 
 I was at Ghent when a letter from Paris in- 
 formed me that our capital was again a prey to the 
 most sinister machinations, so I went to Lille, as I 
 was desirous of using the telegraph ; but Chappe 
 informed me that telegraphic communication had 
 been interrupted for the past twenty-four hours. It 
 Prairiai, was the terrible insurrection of the ist 
 Year III. Prairiai, which, starting from the Saint- 
 Antoine and Saint-Marceau suburbs, and composed 
 of this united population, equally strong in number 
 and forces, dragging along cannon, and armed with 
 all kinds of weapons, was marching onward in the 
 name of famine and liberty to the sound of the 
 tocsin rung all over Paris. These insurgents had 
 invaded the National Convention, clamoring for 
 "bread and the Constitution of 1793." Victorious 
 for a while, they had murdered the representative 
 of the people, Ferraud, mistaking him for Freron 
 owing to the resemblance in the name, and were 
 masters of the battle-field. While these events were 
 happening, deprived as I was of all information and 
 means of communication, I no longer knew who 
 represented public authority. I called together the 
 civil and military authorities of Ghent, who informed 
 me that Paris was in a state of insurrection, that the 
 barriers were closed, that no courier could leave it, 
 and that the Convention was in the greatest danger. 
 I commissioned the administrators to place men on 
 watch at the city's gates, for the purpose of conduct- 
 ing into my presence all couriers and travellers seek- 
 ing to enter. I appointed General Leclair to the 
 
XX THE CONVENTION TRIUMPHS 27 1 
 
 command of the army about to be despatched by me 
 to Paris. I authorized him to call for all the avail- 
 able battalions in the surrounding departments. I 
 instructed the officer in command of the artillery to 
 supply the general with a field - battery, some heavy 
 guns, mortars, and all necessary ammunition. I 
 commanded General Leclair to place himself at the 
 head of all the troops he might collect, and to march 
 on Peronne, which I intended reaching before him. 
 My instructions were carried out with so great a 
 zeal by this worthy general that on my arrival there 
 detachments of troops were already in the town ; I 
 soon learned by the telegraph, which was no longer 
 interrupted, that the National Convention had tri- 
 umphed. Under the direction of General Leclair, I 
 sent the troops back to their respective quarters. 
 My plan of establishing myself on the heights of 
 Montmartre having become useless, I returned to 
 Paris after having quieted some disturbance at 
 Saint- Omer, where a few inhabitants insisted on 
 receivina: a share of the cereals destined for the 
 provisioning of the capital, and continued Fructidor, 
 actively operations which placed under ^'"^'^ m- 
 my responsibility the life or death of the whole pop- 
 ulation, and the veiy existence of the city of Paris. 
 All my efforts tended towards insuring MessMor, 
 the prosperity of France and the main- ^'^^'^ i^^- 
 tenance of Hberty. The Convention, grateful to me, 
 repeatedly gave me proofs of its esteem, but I mis- 
 trusted its very praise, dreading nothing so much as 
 being the object of its particular attention. It was 
 a crime to have too much influence in those days. 
 Twice already had the Convention appointed me 
 general -in -chief. Under these circumstances I pre- 
 
272 MEMOIRS OF BARRAS chap. 
 
 ferred receiving from it the rank to which seniority 
 14th Thermi- of scrvice entitled me. I was given my 
 dor, Year III. brevct of brigadier-general. The Nation- 
 al Convention had dearly bought the victory won 
 over the Republicans, who were under the impres- 
 sion that they had done nothing more than defend 
 liberty and equality from attacks. A general con- 
 sternation had taken hold of the patriots. I deeply 
 regretted my tardy arrival on the scene ; it seemed 
 to me that had I been present, I might have con- 
 tributed towards forestalling the misfortunes of the 
 fatal month of Prairial. It was truly the people, 
 who, borne down with privations and insults, had 
 gathered in force to ask that an end be put to the 
 direst of evils, to wit, the famine from which it was 
 suffering, while at the same time the manufactories 
 were being closed up, commerce was dying out, and 
 all building operations were interrupted ; but it is 
 most true also that its complaints had been voiced 
 by the organs of violence. The " Mountain " had 
 thought it well to appease the tumult by indorsing, 
 whatever may be said to the contrary, these just com- 
 plaints ; and in pursuance of this system it had pro- 
 posed several popular decrees, which a portion of 
 the Right, intimidated at the sight of the insurgents, 
 had voted ; and yet the committees had despatched 
 troops to raise the blockade of the Convention. 
 Other detachments were directed against the fau- 
 bourg Saint-Antoine. Freron, Ferraud, and other 
 deputies were at their head ; they advanced far into 
 the faubourg, were hemmed in by barricades ; they 
 compounded, and returned to strengthen that por- 
 tion of the Assembly which had opposed granting a 
 hearing to the people, as well as those who had 
 
^^ AN ARENA OF GLADIATORS 273 
 
 voted with the " Mountain " from fright, now sup- 
 ported by battalions devoted to them, and accused 
 the Montagnards, z. e., the Republicans, of having op- 
 pressed the Assembly ; as a consequence the decrees 
 rendered were revoked. 
 
 The Convention once more became like an arena 
 full of gladiators determined to kill one another, just 
 as before the 9th Thermidor. The deputies of the 
 " Mountain " who had made their voices heard were 
 indicted, inhumanly arrested, and arraigned before 
 an arbitrary commission, which sentenced them to 
 death. The assassins of the deputies were once 
 more encouraged by the violence of other deputies ! 
 
 What nobility of character and heroic courage 
 were displayed by those who were led to the scaffold, 
 as well as by those who, with a small knife handed 
 on from one to the other, took their lives in prison, 
 and with their dying breath expressed a hope that 
 the Republic would triumph ! Among those who 
 succumbed were men who had made a name in 
 science as well as by their virtues ; these were the 
 true- founders of the Republic ; they cherished it 
 with all the enthusiasm engendered in high-minded 
 hearts by the love of liberty and equality. A 
 modern historian has expressed himself as follows in 
 regard to this deplorable moment: " It was a time- 
 when died the Gracchi of Prairial, hurled on the 
 scaffold by the crimes of the post-Thermidorian 
 reaction! Fall, ye heroes of expiring liberty, no less 
 the victims of Tyranny than the most illustrious 
 victims of the Revolution ! Your place in history 
 is not by the heroes of Greece or Rome ; it is far 
 above — it is unique ! Your generous blood is the 
 seed of the resurrection of Vendemiaire !" 
 I— 18 
 
274 MEMOIRS OF BARRAS chap. 
 
 The tragic end of these noble victims once more 
 mutilated the Convention, already mourning the 
 loss of so much patriotism and so many brilliant in- 
 tellects ; it was to lose to a still greater degree the 
 confidence of the people ; it is, moreover, allowable to 
 believe that the most heated passions had not been 
 the sole cause of the unhappy events of Prairial, and 
 on that occasion, as well as on almost all the other 
 disturbances of the Revolution, the underhand machr 
 inations of the Royalists in disguise or dissembling 
 could lay claim to an actual part in the misfortunes 
 of the period. It was the fury of the enemies van- 
 quished abroad which created conspiracies at home. 
 
 The fatal reaction brought about in Paris by the 
 events of Prairial simultaneously extended to the 
 departments with no less frenzy. The deputies on 
 mission followed the bent of their passions, and 
 sought to give pledges to the fury presiding over 
 these fresh crises, just as had been done after the 
 9th Thermidor. I would have liked to have been 
 able to substitute there and then the renme of the 
 law for that of the Terror, and allow all those who 
 had let themselves be led astray by exasperation 
 either one way or the other to participate in the 
 national generosity. Had this system been adopted, 
 how many misfortunes would have been avoided ! 
 
 After having successfully accomplished my mis- 
 sion in regard to the collecting of food supplies, I 
 could not cease devoting some attention, with the 
 hope of somewhat improving it, to that branch of 
 the public administration which I perceived was so 
 badly conceived by those in charge of it. On my 
 return to the bosom of the Convention, I thought I 
 might escape the worry and pain our civil discords 
 
XX FRANCE SORELY BESET 275 
 
 inflicted on me by continuing, to busy myself with 
 the food supplies, which always represent the pri- 
 mary needs of society whatever may be the Govern- 
 ment in power. I therefore proposed a resolution 
 whereby, exposing our distressing situation to the 
 hungering people as well as to their representatives, 
 I hoped to attain the only possible means of sal- 
 vation under the circumstances. It was with the 
 greatest difficulty that I could make myself heard, 
 and all the good-will I encountered on the part of 
 the majority of my colleagues was powerless to tri- 
 umph over the anxiety or first thought wherein the 
 Convention was as if absorbed as a consequence of 
 the events of Prairial. The following are the ideas 
 I nevertheless succeeded in expounding from the 
 tribune : 
 
 " In a revolution," I urged, " each day brings 
 its storms and dangers. A few months ago France 
 was threatened with all the horrors of a famine. 
 Our ferocious enemies, by a lavish recourse to gold, 
 treachery, and intrigues, succeeded in creating scar- 
 city among us with plenty in our midst. The wis- 
 dom of the present Government and its indefati- 
 gable solicitude foiled this hellish plot, and we are 
 just reaching the time of a fresh harvest. Posterity 
 will be struck with astonishment and admiration on 
 seeing the appalling state of distress to which the 
 criminal improvidence of the Committee of Public 
 Safety had reduced us on the one hand, and on the 
 other the courage and patience displayed by French- 
 men under such painful circumstances ; but if the 
 people have shown a constancy and energy the like 
 of which the annals of the world give no example, 
 the Government must redouble its precautionary 
 
276 MEMOIRS OF BARRAS chap. 
 
 measures ifi order to prevent the recurrence of this 
 terrible scourge. The National Convention has, 
 with that object in view, already taken the wisest 
 measures ; by decreeing the payment of taxes in 
 kind, it has secured infallibly the victualling of the 
 army as well as that of the greater number of mu- 
 nicipalities. At the sight of the plenty promised us 
 by the new harvest Malevolence has shaken with 
 rage, redoubled its fury, and I have discovered its 
 new efforts and new means on my tour through the 
 northern departments. The Republic is to - day 
 overrun by a number of vagabonds and vagrants 
 who prowl about the most fertile country districts. 
 This new plague with which France is sorely beset 
 has just made its appearance. Farmers are being 
 besieged by a swarm of people of both sexes and 
 all ages, springing nobody knows whence. These 
 brigands refuse every offer of work made to them, 
 every kind of occupation. They jeer at the moil- 
 ing and toiling of the unfortunate farmer, await- 
 ing the end of his labors in order to deprive him 
 of the fruits of them, and impudently demand and 
 obtain a loaf which they have obstinately declined 
 to make by their work. While the country dis- 
 tricts are everywhere clamoring for hands, they lead 
 the laziest and most dissolute of lives. The rural 
 guards, nay, the very marechaussee (gendarmes) have 
 become powerless against these hordes of thieves 
 who have indurated themselves in their almost daily 
 attacks on the convoys of cereals belonging to the 
 Republic. The silent attitude, too long prolonged, 
 of the constituted authorities has hardened them 
 in their criminal exploits. The municipalities have 
 watched with indifference the pillaging on their 
 
XX REMEDIAL MEASURES 277 
 
 territory of the cereals of the Republic ; they have 
 suffered it to go on; it has not dawned on their 
 minds, in the first place, that their private property 
 would no more be respected than that of the nation, 
 and that the pillaging of the convoys of cereals is 
 but the prelude to the pillaging of the crops. They 
 should and could have nipped in the bud this devas- 
 tating scourge. The law of the i6th Prairial placed 
 the necessary means at their disposal ; but this 
 beneficent law, this law protective of all property, 
 has remained a dead letter. The responsibility laid 
 down by it is illusory and without effect. In vain 
 have the pillagers been arrested and arraigned before 
 the tribunals ; no example has been made of any 
 of them ; crime remains unpunished, and the pillag- 
 ing continues. But as this brigandage is nowadays 
 specially directed against the crops, the municipali- 
 ties of the country-side are loudly clamoring for re- 
 pressive laws ; they beg for help and protection 
 against these vagabonds who look upon the crops 
 as already their prey. But am I to say to them in 
 reply, 'The Government has provided for all this, 
 has done all it could for you, while you have not 
 done anything for it or for yourselves ; help your- 
 selves and you shall receive help. See to it that 
 the law of the i6th Prairial is rigorously executed; 
 hand over without mercy to justice all these idle 
 vagabonds who devour your sustenance ; drive away 
 far from your territory these greedy drones starving 
 the soil instead of fertilizing it ; rouse yourselves at 
 last from your lethargic indifference. Why is the 
 National Guard not yet organized in your cantons ? 
 Who better than yourselves can defend you } We 
 shall never succeed in repressing such disorders as 
 
278 MEMOIRS OF BARRAS chap, xx 
 
 these except by a uniting of all forces, the pressure 
 of all powers, the action of all means, and the zeal 
 of all good citizens.' Here is the text of the meas- 
 ure proposed by me : 
 
 ''Art. I. — TYiQ procureurs generaux (syndics of de- 
 partments) shall send weekly reports to the legisla- 
 tive committee in regard to the execution of the i6th 
 Prairial last, and the sentences passed on pillagers 
 of cereals, as well as on the municipalities on whose 
 territories these offences shall have been committed. 
 
 "Art. 2. — The legislative committee shall gather 
 together all laws rendered up to date against vag- 
 abonds, vagrants, and able - bodied mendicants ; it 
 shall classify them and shall draft them together in 
 proper form, and such revised laws shall be promul- 
 gated in all the municipalities of the Republic." 
 
 I was listened to with deference and approval, 
 but the torrent of affairs would not allow of any at- 
 tention being given to the matter, in spite of the 
 outspoken wishes of all those best versed in matters 
 of this kind. Fortunately the Republic still pre- 
 served in itself some modicum of the vital principle 
 common to both political and physical bodies, and of 
 which one is but too often ignorant of the primary 
 and mysterious cause which sustains them both ; 
 moreover, the harvest promised well, and as the day 
 for the ripening of the crops approached, a return 
 to order and a step to peace was rendered more 
 probable. 
 
CHAPTER XXI 
 
 return to order — Suppression of the clubs — The sans-cidottides 
 receive a different appellation — The new Constitution — Dema- 
 gogy and democracy — An Executive Directory — Two Councils 
 — An omission in the distribution of authority — Gratitude owed 
 the Convention — The two chambers referred to in the Esprit 
 des Lois — The Abbe Galiani — Frenchmen versus monkeys-r-Dis- 
 trust of the executive power — Acceptance of the primary assem- 
 blies — Decree of the two-thirds — Elected a member of the Com- 
 mittee of General Security — A call from Bonaparte — A new 
 storm gathering — M. Pierrugues — Ardisson — Bonaparte at the 
 house of Mile. Montansier and at the Cafe Corazza — Servility 
 and treachery — Bonaparte trapped by Dumerbion — Noble firm- 
 ness of a twelve-year-old child — The apologist of Robespierre 
 the Younger — Clarke — Bonaparte seeks active service at any 
 price — Aubry — Bonaparte's reception at the hands of the Com- 
 mittee — Doulcet defends him — Bonaparte dissatisfied — Du- 
 gommier's noble behavior — Daunou's fine character — Decree 
 proposed by Daunou — Bonaparte complains of the decree — His 
 blood-thirsty utterances — Vendemiaire — Imminent dangers — 
 The Le Pelletier "section " — Menou parleys — I am for the third 
 time appointed general-in-chief of the Army of the Interior — 
 Republicans governed by aristocrats — The prisoners of Prairial 
 set free — Berruyer — The Sacred Battalion — Adjutant-General 
 Valentin — Sinister projects — Menou — Bonaparte sought for in 
 vain — How he was engaged during the preparations — I appoint 
 him my aide-de-camp — Dispositions for the fight— Menou de- 
 prived of his command — Murat at Sablons' camp— Patriotism 
 of the Quinze— Vingts' '■ section "—Verdiere, Carteaux, and 
 Berruyer — Brune's post — An intrenchment to Bonaparte's 
 taste — Ten to one — Pompey's muscadins (dandies) — My plan 
 — Saint-Roch, the stronghold of the aristocrats— Allurements 
 called into play — Their effect — An attempt to murder me 
 — Victor Grand and Porcelet — A decisive manoeuvre — The 
 dandies put to rout — The baraque of Saint- Roch— Fresh 
 
28o MEMOIRS OF BARRAS CHAP. 
 
 difficulties — The faubourg Saint-Germain — Blunder committed 
 by General Carteaux — Danican and Lafond — The members 
 of the " sections " about to invade our batteries — We are vic- 
 torious — The "sections" disarmed — Green and black coat-col- 
 lars — Hair worn a la victime — Pa'ole d'honnett fops — The lead- 
 ers of the "sections" — Description of the army of the "sec- 
 tions" — The Barriere des Sergents — The "sections " surrender 
 — Courts-martial — A solitary execution — Mistake made by his- 
 . torians in regard to the 13th Vendemiaire — Plan of the coali- 
 tion — The man who made the 13th Vendemiaire — His St. He- 
 lena historians — Historians by legacy — The part played by 
 Bonaparte on the 13th Vendemiaire — The cab-horse — A pretty 
 story about Eugene de Beauharnais; Mme.de Beauharnais — The 
 truth about this pretty story — The sword of General de Beau- 
 harnais — Disarmament — Proofs supplied by Bonaparte himself 
 of his equivocal conduct — An historical fragment of Real's — An 
 answer to objections — Another fragment from the pen of Baron 
 Fain. 
 
 The Revolution's greatest enemies could not 
 deny that since the 9th Thermidor the Convention 
 had been sincerely desirous of freeing itself from 
 the disorder preceding that unfortunate period, and 
 which had perhaps been indispensable at a time 
 when it had been necessary to call upon the whole 
 people for the development of the nation's strength 
 against the foreign enemy. We had been daily 
 achieving victories, in the sense of ideas repressive 
 of anarchy, since the 9th Thermidor. Thus, after 
 having dissolved the Society of the Jacobins, we like- 
 wise sought to extinguish all the other incendiary 
 fires which remained burning over all France. The 
 Convention had decreed the dissolution of all the 
 assemblages known as clubs or popular societies; 
 following up our system of re-establishing order 
 even in regard to words themselves, which are but 
 the expressions of ideas, we had sought to efface all 
 marks too closely recalling, by means of strongly 
 
XXI SEPARATION OF THE COUNCILS 281 
 
 accentuated recollections, exuberant democracy. As 
 a consequence the sans - culottides, created by the 
 framers of the new calendar as a sort of homage to 
 the lower strata of society, were replaced by the 
 more intelligible jours complementaires (comple- 
 mentary days). At last, after all the sacrifices of 
 human life consummated in the midst of stormy 
 periods, the National Convention, believing that it 
 was acquiescing in the wishes of the people, and 
 feeling that it no longer enjoyed sufficient credit to 
 continue its legislative labors, hastened to draft a 
 Constitution to take the place of the one of 1793. 
 Demagogy, but not democracy, was studiously kept 
 out of it ; one even rejected the denomi- Fructidor, 
 nation of Executive Power and of Reptib- ^'^^^ i''^- 
 licati Government, because it was feared to use terms 
 having in any way reference to the monarchical sys- 
 tem ; the denomination of Executive Directory, an 
 appellation common to the preceding authorities, 
 was given the preference. 
 
 An incontestable step forward of the ideas happi- 
 ly beginning to predominate, and aiming at a return 
 to public order, was not only the separation of the 
 three great powers, legislative, executive, and judi- 
 cial, but the dividing of the legislative body itself 
 into two Councils ; one did not dare to call them 
 the two Chambers, from a fear of a comparison be- 
 ing drawn between them and those of England, 
 looked upon then by the masses as typical of aris- 
 tocracy. One of these Councils was styled Conseil 
 des Cinq-Cents, composed of the five hundred young- 
 er members; the other, Conseil des Anciens (Council 
 of Ancients) because it comprised married men of 
 over forty years of age. These two assemblies were 
 
282 MEMOIRS OF BARRAS chap. 
 
 to separately discuss proposed laws, the Cinq-Cents 
 first and enjoying the initiative, then the Ancients, 
 for the purpose of sanctioning them. All this 
 might have worked very well had the executive 
 power, which it was even feared to designate by that 
 name, really formed part of the double legislative 
 mechanism ; if, allowed to make suggestions and 
 send messages, it had enjoyed the right of paralyzing 
 irregular movements and preventing eccentricities. 
 But, not to dwell at greater length on the regret 
 which may be felt in view of the cruel experiences 
 resulting from this gap in the organization of the 
 powers and, so to speak, in the armament of the ex- 
 ecutive force, I cannot but pay the tribute of grati- 
 tude to the disposition whereby the enlightened men 
 of the Convention consecrated the hitherto unap- 
 proachable system of two Chambers, a matter previ- 
 ously not to be entertained, owing to revolutionary 
 prejudices. It was one of the ideas laid down by 
 philosophical publicists long before 1789, since the 
 idea of them was derived from Montesquieu's Esprit 
 des Lois some forty years previously. In my youth, 
 when I sought the intercourse of great minds, I had 
 heard the necessity of two legislative Chambers pro- 
 claimed and maintained by a man who could always 
 call to his aid the most picturesque expressions in 
 order to render the most positive ideas ; I speak of 
 the famed Abbe Galiani. This little man, who was 
 as lively as a monkey, often seeking his comparisons 
 in the habits of that animal, said one day in my pres- 
 ence, " The greater the petulance of the nation you 
 have to deal with, the more you must, if you seek to 
 give to it a national representation, separate the 
 Chambers which are its organs. If a nation of 
 
XXI DISTRUST OF THE EXECUTIVE POWER 283 
 
 monkeys were in question, as they are much more 
 lively than men, they might perhaps need a dozen 
 Chambers, in order that the laws, passing from one 
 to another, should receive the necessary cooling; if 
 the French are in question, as they are far less 
 phlegmatic than the English, who have two Cham- 
 bers, it will be necessary, from a proportional stand- 
 point, to give them at least four." 
 
 While the Convention was engaged in laying the 
 foundations of the governmental system which was 
 to be its successor, the distrust inspired by the ex- 
 ecutive power was such that the fear of not placing 
 sufficient restrictions upon it was ever present. The 
 right of dissolving the Legislative Chambers, which 
 the Republic might perhaps have retained, was not 
 conferred upon the Directory. Its Ministers were 
 not admitted to the sittings of the Corps I'egislatif, 
 because their influence was dreaded. This Consti- 
 tution was submitted to the acceptance of the na- 
 tion, as well as the decrees styled des deux Tiers, be- 
 cause they enacted that two-thirds of the members 
 of the National Convention should, de jtire, form 
 part of the new Legislature. This decree was to be 
 most violently opposed in the primary assemblies, 
 where flocked all the emigres who had returned in 
 the hope of overthrowing the Republic, their real 
 objective point, while asserting that their opposition 
 was directed against the National Convention alone. 
 
 I had just been re-elected a member of the Com- 
 mittee of General Security; and, as I had success- 
 fully accomplished my mission in regard to the food 
 supplies, I might now have taken up my mission to 
 the East Indies; but events were daily becoming 
 more serious, and it was neither possible nor becom- 
 
284 MEMOIRS OF BARRAS chap. 
 
 ing to think of drawing away from the Convention. 
 It is no exaggeration to say that the time had come 
 once more to conquer or die at one's post, for such 
 is from beginning to end the history of the National 
 Convention, that all the periods of its existence are 
 so many battles where the question always was that 
 of " to be or not to be." 
 
 A fresh storm was gathering over the Convention, 
 and everything commanded or imposed the duty on 
 it of not delaying putting itself in a state of defence, 
 when I received a visit from the little artillery cap- 
 tain whom we had made battalion commander, then 
 brigadier-general, at Toulon — Bonaparte. He has 
 become sufficiently historical for one to desire to 
 lose nothing of his history. I shall therefore narrate 
 the circumstance to which I was indebted for his 
 return and his call. 
 
 In the course of operations at the siege of Toulon 
 I had had occasion to give marks of confidence to 
 men from my part of the country. I had arranged 
 with a citizen, who had previously filled similar con- 
 tracts, for the supply of meat. It was enough that 
 this citizen should have been treated with such 
 familiarity by me for him to have been jotted down 
 in the memory of Bonaparte as a man who could 
 readily have access to me. Shortly after the 9th 
 Thermidor, Bonaparte, deprived of his command 
 and harassed as a Terrorist, went to Nice and 
 sought out M. Pierrugues, at that time engaged in 
 executing his contracts. He was accompanied by a 
 Marseillais named Ardisson, who was his particular 
 friend. They had heard reports of the superior, not 
 to say brilliant, position which the 9th Thermidor 
 and my subsequent actions had conferred upon me. 
 
^xi A LITTLE ARTILLERY CAPTAIN 285 
 
 They asked of M. Pierrugues (later on my house- 
 steward under the Directorate) a letter of introduc- 
 tion to the "citizen representative of the people, 
 Barras." They laid before him with profuse par- 
 ticulars and the greatest modesty their unfortunate 
 position. They were being accused of terrorism 
 because they were patriots, and they pretended that 
 it was absolutely necessary that they should go to 
 Paris to exculpate themselves. Pierrugues gave 
 them the letter they asked for, and it is with this 
 letter, dated Nice, that Bonaparte, hastening to Paris, 
 called upon me. I told him that I recognized him 
 very well as my " little captain " of the siege of Tou- 
 lon. " Perhaps," I went on to say, " too great an in- 
 justice has not been done you in taking you for 
 somewhat of a Terrorist, for I remember that it was 
 really necessary to restrain you at the time of the 
 military executions ; but, after all, we need men of 
 execution. The Terrorists of royalty are pressing 
 us hard ; those of the Republic must be able to cope 
 with them. Meanwhile, captain, do me the friendly 
 act of dining with me." I lived in those days in 
 the Palais Royal, over the arcades of Mile. Montan- 
 sier, with whom I was personally acquainted ; Bona- 
 parte was aware of the fact, and never missed going 
 to dine there and pay his addresses to the lady.' I 
 
 ^ Here was fresh subject-matter for ill-natured gossip about Bonaparte. 
 The editor of these Memoirs doiibtless felt some regret at having made in- 
 sufficient capital out of it, for in a fragment composed, it would appear, after 
 the final editing of the Memoirs, he returns in most copious fashion to this 
 alleged " courtship " paid by Bonaparte to the old and wealthy Mile. Montan- 
 sier.* It was probably intended that this fragment should find a place in the 
 chapter consecrated to the 13th Vendemiaire. And indeed it is worthy of the 
 Memoirs of Barras. The text of this wicked bit of gossip will be found 
 among the documents published in the Appendix. — G. D. 
 
 * Marguerite Erunet, dit Montansier, the famed theatrical manageress, born in 1730. — 
 Translator's note. 
 
286 MEMOIRS OF BARRAS CHAP. 
 
 learned that on leaving the house he would also go 
 and speechify at the Cafe Corazza, where he would 
 leave unpaid the refreshments rendered necessary 
 by the heat of his conversation. 
 
 Desirous of learning what had happened to Bona- 
 parte since we parted company after the siege of 
 Toulon, I asked a few questions of persons whom 
 he called his friends. I was told substantially what 
 follows. Bonaparte had remained attached to the 
 Army of Italy, which we had left under the orders 
 of General Dumerbion. Dumerbion, who still com- 
 manded it with success, was a plain man, guiltless 
 of intrigue, and attending strictly to his duties. 
 He rarely saw the representatives of the people. 
 Bonaparte did not exhibit a like reserve. He had 
 distinguished himself by his servility towards Robes- 
 pierre the Younger and Ricord, representatives of 
 the people attached to that army. He had got 
 Arena, at that time his friend, to introduce him to 
 Mme. Ricord, to whom Robespierre the Younger was 
 particularly attached. Bonaparte having wormed 
 his way into a council of war where Dumerbion was 
 to expound a plan of campaign, the general-in-chief 
 considered it advisable not to submit the real one, 
 but a fictitious one, in order to satisfy himself as to 
 Bonaparte's character. The latter had immediately 
 laid the plan before Robespierre and Ricord. On 
 the following day Dumerbion read the real plan of 
 campaign before the Council. Bonaparte, who had 
 been thus unmasked, vented his spleen by spreading 
 calumnies against Dumerbion throughout Corsica. 
 The representatives attached to the Army of Italy 
 were recalled ; their successors had Bonaparte ar- 
 rested, and he had only just been released at the 
 
^^^ AN HEROIC BOY 287 
 
 time he sought me out in Paris. He assured me 
 that Robespierre the Younger had not always held 
 the same opinions as his brother, and that he looked 
 upon himself as in exile when with the Army of 
 Italy. He informed me that a woman of the lower 
 classes, who had been assisted by Robespierre the 
 Younger, had been arraigned before the Revolution- 
 ary Tribunal and sentenced to death during his 
 absence from Paris, and that on his return he had 
 expressed disapproval of the sentence, sent for the 
 twelve-year-old son of that woman, clothed him, and 
 admitted him to his table; the boy feeling sad, 
 Ricord commanded him to drink to the health of 
 the Republic, but the lad refused ; thereupon Robes- 
 pierre the Younger, addressing Ricord, said to him, 
 " Respect such a character. You would not do as 
 much under similar circumstances." 
 
 It was easy to gather from everything Bonaparte 
 said, anxious as he seemed to speak well of Robes- 
 pierre the Younger and extol his virtues, that he had 
 a bad cause to defend, and that he was seeking to 
 vindicate the connections he had made. On the 
 occasion of his early visits to Paris in the Year II., 
 and previous to being sent to the Army of Italy, he 
 had become intimate with Clarke, at that time a clerk 
 attached to the Committee of Public Safety, under 
 Carnot, and he had often been seen in company with 
 this clerk, who daily, when the Committee adjourned 
 and its members took their departure, stationed him- 
 self on their road, decorated with a Phrygian cap, 
 and exclaimed with his comrades, " Long live Robes- 
 pierre ! Long live the Committee of Public Safety!" 
 I censured Bonaparte somewhat for his previous con- 
 duct, and kindly told him that it was out of date ; 
 
288 MEMOIRS OF BARRAS CHAP- 
 
 that it was not necessary to be less of a patriot, but 
 less of a Robespierrist. To this Bonaparte replied, 
 " I must find employment at all costs ; if I cannot 
 obtain service, I will tender myself as artilleryman 
 at Constantinople." He entreated me to take him 
 before the Committee of Public Safety, where he de- 
 sired the support of my presence, dreading an unfa- 
 vorable reception at the hands of Aubry. In this 
 he had a reason he did not impart to me — to wit, it 
 was Aubry who, through his correspondence, had 
 official knowledge of Bonaparte's sayings and do- 
 ings, and the cause of his being deprived of his 
 command. I was unacquainted with this corre- 
 spondence, received from Nice, wherein the repre- 
 sentatives of the people had characterized Bona- 
 parte as the incarnation of trickery and intrigue. 
 So coldly was Bonaparte received by the Committee 
 that he was not even offered a seat. Doulcet-Ponte- 
 coulant made vain attempts to speak on his behalf. 
 Bonaparte begged me as a favor to take him to see 
 Aubry, intrusted with the military branch of the 
 Committee's labors. Aubry said to us, " I will never 
 consent that Bonaparte be employed in the artillery. 
 I am willing, on your recommendation, to let him 
 join the line as soon as my report is ready." 
 
 This was not at all satisfactory to Bonaparte, who 
 did not know to whom or whither to turn in his pre- 
 dicament, and who, while engrossed entirely with his 
 own interests, believed he was merely anxious for 
 the public weal, and unceasingly invoked the dan- 
 gers of the Republic, lamented the reverses from 
 which liberty suffered, and would consequently not 
 hear of any possible modification of the Revolution. 
 
 It will be recalled that after the victory before 
 
XXI HUMANE DUGOMMIER 289 
 
 Toulon Dugommier had been transferred to the 
 chief command of the Army of the Pyrenees. Grieved 
 at the number of untoward executions which had 
 taken place after the recapture of Toulon, Dugom- 
 mier, ever mindful of the interests of humanity, sent 
 to the Convention a memorandum setting forth the 
 respective positions of the actual emigres and the 
 fugitive Toulonnais. Dugommier's idea was most 
 felicitous in having Daunou as its exponent — Dau- 
 nou, ever ready to plead for an honorable cause. So 
 it was that but a verj' few days before his death 
 Dugommier was still fighting the battle of humanity, 
 a cause he always considered identical with that of 
 the country. 
 
 It was to me that Dugommier, who had ever 
 written to me in a strain of gratitude for the manner 
 in which I had treated him at Toulon, appealed, and 
 I had happily caused his wishes to be carried out, 
 since the decree proposed by Daunou was couched 
 in the following terms ; 
 
 " A law to explain that of the 20th Fructidor 
 concerning the emigres of Toulon having returned 
 to France since the 2d Vendemiaire, Year IV. of 
 the Republic. 
 
 " The National Convention, having heard its 
 Council of Public Safety, decrees : 
 
 ''Art. I. — The decree of the 20th Fructidor in- 
 cludes among the rebels of Toulon those who burned 
 or assisted in burning the ships of the Republic ; 
 those who took up arms within the town during the 
 siege ; those who, able to bear arms, fled to the ships 
 of the enemy ; those who entered into communica- 
 tion with the English, and handed over the town to 
 
 them. 
 
 I-19 
 
290 MEMOIRS OF BARRAS chap. 
 
 " Art. 2. — Are not included in the law of the 
 20th Fructidor, sailors, bakers, laborers engaged in 
 manual labor, medical men employed in the military 
 hospitals, workmen in the arsenal, women, children, 
 and old men unable to bear arms. 
 
 " Art. 3. — A report shall be made to the Com- 
 mittee of Public Safety in regard to the treason 
 committed at Toulon and its siege." 
 
 Chancing to meet Bonaparte just after the sitting 
 of the Convention at which the decree had been 
 rendered, great was my astonishment at having him 
 come up to me and say in a burst of ill-temper akin 
 to violence, " Daunou disgraced himself to-day by 
 proposing a measure to protect those infamous 
 Toulonnais !" " But," I replied, " it was at the 
 request of Dugommier, transmitted by me, that 
 Daunou spoke." " Well, then, so much the worse 
 for Dugommier," he answered ; " I had thought 
 better of him than that." 
 
 It is true that the preliminaries of a day rendered 
 necessary and indispensable — a day awaited by the 
 nation in order to put an end to the excesses of the 
 reactionary movements worrying France since the 
 9th Thermidor — were rumbling ; and Bonaparte, to 
 whom the rigor of the Committee of Public Safety 
 left no other resource than a change of Government, 
 awaited with a lively impatience the event which was 
 to restore to him the power of acting according to 
 his inclinations, and the disposal of an existence 
 already then a prey to the devouring need of great 
 activity. " Pooh, pooh," said he to me, " the aristo- 
 crats and emigres, when defeated, assume all sorts 
 of disguises ; they pretend to be laborers, bakers, 
 medical men ; to listen to them, there is not one of 
 
XXI AIMING AT POPULACITY 291 
 
 them who is not a little saint. Their pretences 
 should not be so readily accepted ; they must be 
 smitten until not a breath is left in any of their 
 bodies ; it is a very true saying that it is only the 
 dead who do not return." 
 
 We were surrounded by a few people who could 
 hear our conversation. Bonaparte spoke in loud 
 tones, as a man calculating upon securing hearers as 
 well as lookers on. I saw that the little man was 
 aiming at popularity, and even populacity. In view 
 of the urgent circumstances with which we were 
 threatened, I did not consider it advisable to point 
 out to Bonaparte the indelicacy of his proceedings, 
 nor did I censure him for behavior so closely akin 
 to that of an intriguer devoid of conscience. I 
 considered that it constituted an actual danger in 
 appearing to decline the services of men known as 
 men of execution, such as Bonaparte, while the 
 truly alarming progress of our enemies showed us 
 that we could not do without them in order to meet 
 force with force, for the post-Thermidorian reaction, 
 which had met with so great a success in the south, 
 believed it was about to win its final triumph in the 
 very bosom of the capital. 
 
 The " sections " in session were in active cor- 
 respondence ; they unanimously decided to reject 
 the decree of the Two -thirds. The Le Pelletier 
 " section " was one of the most spirited and clamor- 
 ous ; it was inhabited by the richest class of Paris. 
 Several of its inhabitants previously formed part of 
 the battalion of the National Guard designated as 
 the Filles - Saint -Thomas. This battalion was the 
 only one which at the time of the loth of August 
 took part in the defence of the Tuileries, and shared 
 
292 MEMOIRS OF BARRAS chap. 
 
 the fate of the Swiss Guards. The military portion 
 of this section considered itself bound by its royal- 
 ist traditions to second and direct the movement 
 aeainst the National Convention. Hence it was 
 that this Le Pelletier " section," the most fiery of 
 them all, constituted a Central Committee. It was 
 decided to march on the Convention. General 
 Menou had, since the ist Prairial, been substituted 
 for Pichegru as general-in-chief in Paris. He re- 
 ceived orders to clear the headquarters of the " sec- 
 tion," where was assembled the Central Committee, 
 which assumed to be the representative and the or- 
 gan of popular sovereignty. Menou, at the head of 
 an imposing force sufficient to cope with every ob- 
 stacle, entered the Rue Vivienne, of which the mem- 
 bers of the " sections " had already taken possession. 
 Menou thought he was surrounded, when it was 
 his duty to surround the others, and he certainly 
 had every means for doing this. He began a par- 
 ley, and was compelled to beg, and was fortunate 
 enough to obtain permission, to retrace his steps 
 without having unsheathed a bayonet. 
 
 It was at this juncture that the National Con- 
 vention saw fit to give me a fresh proof of its 
 confidence by appointing me for the third time 
 general-in-chief of the Army of the Interior. We 
 no longer had to fight patriots who had been led 
 astray, but a considerable number of battalions of 
 the National Guard. These worthy bourgeois, who 
 called and perhaps believed themselves to be Re- 
 publicans, did not see that they had placed at their 
 head cowardly conspirators of the privileged classes. 
 
 Nothing could be better, in order to combat such 
 adversaries, than to oppose to them their natural 
 
XXI BERRUYER'S "SACRED BATTALION" 293 
 
 enemies — to wit, the patriots imprisoned consequent 
 upon the reactionary movements following upon 
 Thermidor. So the Convention adopted somewhat 
 tardily the measure, for which it could hardly be 
 thanked, of setting free the prisoners arrested as a 
 result of the ist Prairial and preceding days, when 
 the confusion was so great that innocent and guilty 
 were involved together. All these patriots, on re- 
 covering their freedom, flocked to our standard, and 
 together formed a body of twelve to fifteen hundred 
 men. I gave to General Berruyer the command of 
 this precious battalion, composed of men of heart, 
 doubly brave from the fact that they had been most 
 deeply wounded in their feelings ; nothing gives 
 courage like despair. We named it the Sacred 
 Battalion, while our adversaries called it the Bat- 
 talion of the Terrorists ; and the fact remains that 
 the members of the " sections " experienced a genu- 
 ine fright on coming face to face with it. Citizen 
 Valentin, the adjutant-general, suspended from his 
 functions near the Army of the West, came and in- 
 formed me, during the afternoon of the 12th Vende- 
 miaire, that an attack was to be made on the Con- 
 vention next day at four o'clock in the afternoon. 
 " Why not at four o'clock in the morning ?" I in- 
 quired, laughingly ; " it is doubtless because, as in 
 the days of Cardinal de Retz, the worthy bourgeois 
 of Paris do not like to be disturbed in their habits." 
 Valentin had just heard, in the direction of the Rue 
 Saint - Denis, a few young members of the " sec- 
 tions " call for the reincarceration of the patriots, 
 the arrest of many deputies, and announce that a 
 massacre had been decided upon should their wishes 
 not be carried out. 
 
294 MEMOIRS OF BARRAS chap. 
 
 No suspicion of incivism, based on hereditary 
 prejudices, could be entertained in regard to Gen- 
 eral Menou, who belonged to the nobiliary caste. 
 He would have been a patriot had he been any- 
 thing ; but he was a man addicted to pleasure, who 
 had no principles, and lacked to a particular degree 
 the firmness and decision as indispensable in revo- 
 lutions as in war. Perceivins; that I had formed a 
 just estimate of his weakness, he begged me, as a 
 favor, to allow him to withdraw from the struggle, 
 and that I would personally guarantee him that 
 his defection should not bring him into trouble. I 
 thought right at the time to grant his request, or 
 rather entreaty, in so far as lay in my power. I 
 thought nothing could be better than to be rid of 
 him. On Menou leaving us in the lurch, the Com- 
 mittee of Public Safety was at its wits' end ; I 
 addressed it as follows : " Nothing is easier than to 
 fill Menou's place ; I have got the very man you 
 require, in the person of a little Corsican officer, 
 who will not make so much fuss." On my recom- 
 mendation the Committee of Public Safety empow- 
 ered me to employ Bonaparte on active service. It 
 was to Bonaparte I had referred, believing that I 
 could be sure of him after all the overtures he had 
 made to me on the preceding days ; but during the 
 whole of the forenoon of the 12th, when I should 
 have found him with the military men and patriots 
 surrounding me, I had not seen him. As he did 
 not make his appearance, even when I had just had 
 the selection of him favorably entertained, I sent 
 to his lodgings for him. He was not to be found 
 either there or in the various cafes and restaurants 
 he was in the habit of frequenting. 
 
XXI BONAPARTE'S PARLEYING 295 
 
 It was not until nine o'clock at night that he 
 came to the Carrousel, which really constituted my 
 headquarters, and where I placed General Brune in 
 command. I censured Bonaparte for his late ap- 
 pearance. He had on the preceding days tendered 
 me his services with so much eagerness, and even 
 ostentation, against the enemies of the Republic 
 who dared to measure themselves with the national 
 representation ! His behavior of to-day was a slow 
 confirmation of his utterances of days gone before. 
 
 He came from the direction of the " section " Le 
 Pelletier, where it would seem that he had done a 
 lot of parleying. The revolutionary candor we still 
 preserved was cause that I was far from suspecting 
 that a soldier with as pronounced opinions as Bona- 
 parte could hesitate in the slightest degree as to 
 the course to be adopted by him in this issue, and 
 much less that this hesitancy should be the irreso- 
 luteness of treachery seeking to strike a bargain 
 with both sides, and finally coming over to us be- 
 cause the opposite side had not shown him suffi- 
 cient advantages. " I was waiting for orders," said 
 Bonaparte, in accents much embarrassed in compar- 
 ison with the very decided tone I had heard him 
 assume until then. " Besides," he went on to say, 
 " what post have you reserved for me in this strug- 
 gle.?" "All important posts at my disposal have 
 been intrusted to those officers who were first to 
 arrive," I said to Bonaparte ; " you shall be one of 
 my aides-de-camp." 
 
 I next devoted my attention to disposing my mil- 
 itary line in such fashion that our posts could not 
 be turned, assigning to each of the generals and 
 superior officers who had responded to my call his 
 
296 MEMOIRS OF BARRAS chap. 
 
 respective post. In order to make sure that every- 
 thing was in order, I visited all my stations, and 
 examined all outlets. I was surrounded by a nu- 
 merous armed escort of loyal citizens, soldiers of 
 the line, and picked artillerymen. 
 
 Strong in these primary dispositions, I informed 
 the National Convention that I was ready to save 
 the country from the attacks of the paid minions 
 of the aristocracy. " I am at my post ; let each one 
 be at his," I remarked. 
 
 After having attended to those matters most 
 pressing, bringing into play the activity of my 
 measures and the daring of my determination, I 
 thought that, in view of the darkness in which we 
 were marching, some important information might 
 still be obtained from Menou, and that he would 
 not refuse to tell us what he knew with regard to 
 the strength and position of the troops and the ar- 
 tillery. So on leaving the National Convention I re- 
 turned to the Committee of Public Safety, followed 
 by Bonaparte. I sent for Menou, who had been de- 
 prived of his rank, and was held as a prisoner in one 
 of the rooms of the Tuileries. I asked him to tell 
 me in a few words everything likely to enlighten us. 
 Nothing could be less reassuring than the informa- 
 tion he imparted to us ; our enemies outnumbered 
 us in the proportion of eight to one. The total 
 number of troops at my disposal amounted to but 
 5000 men of all arms. There were forty cannon at 
 the Sablons camp, guarded by fifteen men ; it was 
 now midnight, and I received several warnings that 
 we should be attacked at four o'clock in the morn- 
 ing. I said to Bonaparte, " There is, you see, not a 
 moment to be lost, and I had good cause for repri- 
 
XXI MURAT'S FIRST EXPLOIT 297 
 
 manding you for not having come earlier. Let 
 some one hasten at once, fetch this artillery, and 
 bring it back post-haste to me at the Tuileries." 
 Bonaparte immediately transmitted my orders to 
 the major of the 21st Chasseurs, Murat, who started 
 with 300 men. A moment more and it would have 
 been too late. On arriving at Les Sablons at two 
 o'clock in the morning, Murat found himself face to 
 face with the head of a column of " sectionaries," 
 who had come to seize the guns ; but his troops 
 were mounted, and the country was unbroken. The 
 " section " beat a retreat, and at six o'clock on the 
 morning of the 13th Vendemiaire the forty guns 
 entered the court-yard of the Tuileries. 
 
 I must here do special homage to the patriotic 
 conduct of the "section" of the Quin-ze- Vingts. 
 These worthy citizens of the Faubourg Saint-An- 
 toine, forgetting and forgiving all they had been 
 made to endure a few months before (in Germinal 
 and Prairial), eagerly seconded my efforts in view of 
 the coming fight ; their bravest men raUied to my 
 standard. 
 
 General Verdiere was stationed with four guns at 
 the Pont-Royal, to guard this main issue by which 
 the " sections " of the Faubourg Saint - Germain 
 might attempt to leave their quarter ; while General 
 Carteaux sfuarded the Pont-Neuf from the Rue de la 
 Monnaie end, thus holding in check all who might 
 attempt to emerge from the Faubourg Saint-Ger- 
 main by way of the Rue Dauphine, as well as those 
 coming from the Poissonniere and Chaussee-d'Antin 
 quarters by way of the Rue de la Monnaie. The 
 Cul-de-sac Dauphin, which also afforded means for 
 an influx from the " section " of the Place Vendome, 
 
298 MEMOIRS OF BARRAS chap. 
 
 then known as the Section des Piques (pikes), and 
 from all other portions of the Chaussee d'Antin, was 
 covered by four guns under command of General 
 Berruyer. I have stated that I had placed Gener- 
 al Brune in command of the post of the Carrousel. 
 The 2ist Chasseurs, stationed in the Place de la 
 Revolution, was to protect the retreat of the Conven- 
 tion to Saint-Cloud in case of defeat. 
 
 As I have already stated, General Verdiere held 
 the Pont-Royal with guns, on the side of the Tui- 
 leries connected with the Pavilion de Flore. When 
 reconnoitring on the foregoing day the river-bank 
 adjoining the Rue du Bac, I had noticed that a 
 house recently demolished and already in a state 
 of reconstruction constituted a kind of natural in- 
 trenchment where our enemies could conceal them- 
 selves and disturb our plan of defence. I considered 
 it important that we should ourselves occupy it, so 
 as to be prepared for any emergency, and I gave 
 orders to place only thirty grenadiers in it. Bona- 
 parte, intrusted with the carrying out of his order, 
 was greatly pleased with it, as it seemed to him to 
 promise a result which might very shortly assume 
 great importance. 
 
 What was truly the worst part in our situation 
 was the state of confusion reigning on all points, of 
 not knowing what was being done, and what one 
 wished to do. I said to Bonaparte: "It is, in the 
 first place, necessary to study carefully the scene of 
 action, if action there is going to be; then to central- 
 ize our means of defence, taking into account in 
 what fashion and from what direction our enemies 
 are likely to advance : they number 40,000 men at 
 the lowest, while I have hardly 4000. What is our 
 
XXI 4o,ooo AGAINST 4000 299 
 
 point of defence ? Which of necessity the scene of 
 the engagement — the Convention or the Tuiler- 
 ies ? From which side is the enemy Hkely to come 
 — ^from the Faubourg Saint-Germain, or from the 
 direction of the Chaussee - d'Antin ? Let us be- 
 stride the Seine. We shall, it is true, be between two 
 fires, but in taking up such a position we are already 
 intercepting any junction on the part of the rebels, 
 while we shall be massed with all our resources and 
 enabled to derive a better advantage from them. 
 They are 40,000 against 4000 ; granted. We shall 
 make up the deficiency in numbers by our courage ; 
 a single discharge of grape fired in the air will 
 suffice to strike terror in the ranks of our opponents, 
 who will all of them fly if some few of them get 
 their faces scratched; they are naught but Pompey's 
 dandies, afraid of having their faces spoiled." Such 
 was my plan in all its simplicity ; and when I said 
 to Bonaparte, " We must centralize," he fully grasped 
 my intentions. As to developments of the engage- 
 ment which followed, there will be seen, as in all hu- 
 man affairs, an unforeseen concatenation of events, 
 decisive hazards the offspring of chance, and which 
 upset the most systematically conceived arrange- 
 ments. 
 
 As every position is good in time of war, even 
 churches, the " sectionaries " had somewhat wisely 
 established themselves in the Church of Saint-Roch, 
 which constituted an elevated position commanding 
 the Cul-de-sac Dauphin, and by it the Convention 
 and the committees. 
 
 Their movement was concerted with the columns 
 which were to advance by way of the Quai Voltaire. 
 I had taken up my position facing Saint-Roch; it 
 
300 MEMOIRS OF BARRAS chap. 
 
 was on this point that the "sectionaries" based their 
 hopes of success. Their victory was assured if, 
 boldly coming down from this factitious mountain, 
 they had hurled themselves on the battery con- 
 stituting the only obstacle in front of them ; with 
 the sacrifice of a few men, they could have taken 
 our guns and turned them against us. As regards 
 ourselves, it would have been difificult for us to have 
 opened the struggle, as so far we had encountered 
 threats only, and no signs of fight, from those who 
 were ensconced in the church. 
 
 During the forenoon of the 13th the battalions of 
 the Place Vendome and of the Filles-Saint-Thomas 
 had tried every means of winning over the soldiers 
 of the line, and of fraternizing^ as the saying was 
 even at that time. They had made them partake of 
 food and drink at all the restaurateurs of the Palais 
 Royal and vicinity. Hence they concluded that the 
 line was in sympathy with them. 
 
 But on hearing the drums beat to arms, the 
 soldiers shouted as one man, " To the Convention !" 
 and after having done full justice to all the blandish- 
 ments of the " sectionaries," after having eaten and 
 drunk plentifully the whole forenoon, they came on 
 at the double after the drum which was recalling 
 them, to place themselves under my orders ; they 
 hurried forward with a zeal which the excellent wine 
 and the good cheer they had accepted, from their 
 Saint-Thomas brethren while making fools of them 
 did not cool. I wended my way towards the Place 
 du Carrousel, near where I met some richly equipped 
 battalions marching against Brune. I caused them 
 to be summoned to lay down their arms, whereupon 
 they came to a halt in the middle of the street. 
 
^'■^i WASTED LIBERALITIES 301 
 
 While one of my officers was communicating my 
 order to them, a National Guard, leaving the ranks, 
 approached me and dealt a sword-cut at me, which 
 would have laid my head open had it not been 
 for the promptitude with which Victor Grand and 
 Porcelet, my aides-de-camp, warded off the blow, 
 and the dexterity of the latter in seizing with the 
 only arm remaining to him the assassin who had 
 been despatched on so cowardly an errand. He was 
 at once disarmed, and his uniform torn off his back. 
 Those about me demanded that he be executed in 
 military fashion, whereupon the wretch, throwing 
 himself at my feet and bursting into tears, said, " I 
 am engaged in a email line of business, which hardly 
 brings in enough to feed my wife and six little 
 children. Spare me for their sakes." Moved to 
 pity, I contented myself with sending him back 
 without arms, coat, or hat to his battalion, which 
 faced us. Just at that moment Bonaparte, pulling 
 me by the coat-sleeve, whispered, " What do you 
 decide upon doing, General .?" " Let the order be 
 conveyed to Brune to fire off his guns." " That set- 
 tles the issue," remarked Bonaparte; "victory is ours." 
 Brune was engaged in unmasking his guns, when 
 the column, which had now advanced on us, opened 
 fire. This was replied to by a volley of artillery, so 
 directed that the balls should fly over the heads of 
 our opponents ; in spite of this, they were so terrified 
 that they fled in disorder, leaving behind them a 
 quantity of arms and accoutrements of elegant make. 
 In their flight they fell back on a battalion advanc- 
 ing by the Rue Saint-Honore. The latter barricaded 
 itself beyond the sewer with carts, carriages, wood, 
 and furniture. 
 
302 MEMOIRS OF BARRAS chap. 
 
 There stood on the high steps of the Church of 
 Saint-Roch a little penthouse resembling somewhat 
 a sentry-box, affording shelter to several men. A 
 few " sectionaries " had established themselves in it, 
 and thence, as if from a species of casemate where 
 they expected to be invulnerable, they fired shots, 
 killing several of our gunners. In this case self- 
 defence became as legitimate as urgent, so I ordered 
 a gun to be pointed at the structure, which tumbled 
 to pieces with a crash. The battle had begun. 
 
 I had sent Bonaparte to the Pont-Neuf; he re- 
 turned in great haste to tell that from the Quai 
 Voltaire to the Pont - Royal immense columns of 
 National Guards were emerging from the adjacent 
 streets. I galloped to the spot. I have stated that 
 General Verdiere and his guns occupied the impor- 
 tant positions of the Pont-Royal. All my generals 
 were at their posts. A solitary one, General Car- 
 teaux, whose post was the Pont-Neuf, disregarding 
 my orders, had beat a retreat on the appearance 
 of a detachment of "sectionaries," under the Charles 
 IX. wicket -gate. This retreat could be attended 
 with fatal results, in consequence of its allowing 
 the insurgents to communicate with the Faubourg 
 Saint-Germain. I was compelled to make the com- 
 mand of this general deploy in the Jardin de I'ln- 
 fante. The " sections " of the Theatre - Fran9ais, 
 nowadays called the Odeon, and the others of the 
 Faubourg Saint- Germain were the most daring, 
 and presented the best appearance. Their National 
 Guard had the carriage of a body of grenadiers of 
 the line. They advanced, an imposing and deter- 
 mined mass, commanded by General Danican, and 
 led by Lafond, their commander. Desirous as they 
 
XXI THE WHIFF OF GRAPESHOT 363 
 
 were of succeeding rather by a diplomatic ruse than 
 by military strength, these " sections " advanced, pre- 
 ceded by a parliamentary flag. The troops of the 
 line, seeing them under cover of this pacific demon- 
 stration, suffered them to get as far as the Quai des 
 Theatins. Suddenly the grenadiers of the Fau- 
 bourg Saint-Germain, preceded by those of the The- 
 atre - Fran9ais, commanded by Lafond, drew up in 
 close proximity to our batteries. To allow this was 
 most imprudent on our part. They asked to frater- 
 nize. Had they but seized our batteries, to which 
 they had been allowed access, they would have been 
 masters of the situation. Adjutant- General Fle- 
 chard, second in command to Verdiere, replied to 
 them, " No fraternizing with men under arms ; with- 
 draw, or — " 
 
 What course were they going to adopt ? That 
 is what their commanders probably did not know 
 themselves, when suddenly a few shots were 
 fired from the most advanced battalion of these 
 grenadiers of the National Guard. Those of the 
 line, whom Bonaparte had by my orders concealed 
 in the building contiguous to the Rue du Bac, 
 aroused by the report of the discharge, sprang up 
 and opened fire on those whom they had just heard 
 firing. Although unable to judge whether this pre- 
 liminary skirmish was planned or fortuitous, I could 
 see in it the beginning of an engagement, an im- 
 pending melee, as a result of which we could not 
 be otherwise than overpowered by numbers. I had 
 a twelve-pounder under the walls of the Hotel de 
 Nesle, near the Rue de Beaune. The gunners 
 stood in readiness with lighted fuse. I gave the 
 command to fire, and the first volley of grape 
 
304 MEMOIRS OF BARRAS CHAP. 
 
 mowed down some of the nearest National Guards. 
 The whole column wavered, and its retrograde 
 movement proved to me that it could not stand its 
 ground. I thereupon gave orders to keep up the 
 firing, but to fire altogether into the air, as it 
 seemed to me that the noise would be sufficient to 
 disperse the hostile phalanxes. This proved suffi- 
 cient, as I had anticipated, to lay low a few men of 
 the vanguard, and to scatter the whole of the re- 
 mainder. General Carteaux, who had fallen back 
 from the Pont-Neuf to the wicket - gate of the 
 Louvre, supported parallelly the fire of General Ver- 
 diere. A few volleys fired by him into the Rue 
 Dauphine and along the Quai Voltaire put the fin- 
 ishing stroke to the fright of the " sectionaries," who 
 vanished altogether. The engagement was over as 
 a general one. The victorious troops invaded the 
 " sections," and disarmed them. It took nearly the 
 whole of the night to carry out this operation. 
 
 The greater number of the dead and wounded 
 picked up after this fight of a few minutes were 
 found to be Vendeans and eviigres who had already 
 fought against the Parisians; they had just arrived 
 from their respective places of refuge, and were 
 plainly to be distinguished by their black-and-green 
 coat-collars, as well as by their wearing the coiffure 
 a cadenette (lock),' which had become shortly after 
 the 9th Thermidor a rallying -sign of head-dress, 
 styled a la victime (in victim fashion). Fortunately 
 there were among them very few good and worthy 
 
 ' In the reign of Louis XIII. a long lock of hair, worn on the right side of 
 the face, was called moustache. It subsequently took the name of cadenette 
 from Honore d'Albret, Seigneur de Cadenet, who was noted for his splendid 
 lock, — Translator's note. 
 
XXI EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY DARLINGS 305 
 
 tradesmen of Paris; they had for the while been 
 induced to co-operate in the great expedition, but 
 had wisely remained with the main body of the 
 army or with the rear-guard, leaving to the Chouans 
 the honor of the vanguard. 
 
 Civil war is undoubtedly the worst of all political 
 evils ; yet the picture presented by the tumultuous 
 defeat of these rich battalions {cossus, well-padded, in 
 popular style), who left their arms, and even their 
 coats, on the field of battle in following the example 
 of their doughty chiefs, excited to merriment the 
 brave defenders of the Convention. 
 
 And indeed there was as much cause to ridicule 
 them as in the war of the Fronde. The dandies in 
 silk stockings, dragging a long sword; scented 
 soldiers who thought they knew how to spend a 
 night on a gun-carriage ; beardless Catilinas who 
 sang the latest arietta, were what was called the 
 pdoles d'honneu ' a la victime. Our Republican sol- 
 diers were fond of imitating the imperfectly articu- 
 lated language of these effeminate creatures who 
 called themselves victims of the Terror and the au- 
 thors of the 9th Thermidor, to which they were as 
 foreign as they were to every energetic deed per- 
 formed since the inception of the Revolution. I 
 calmed the ardor of triumph and forbade pursuit of 
 the runaways, who were more frightened than hurt. 
 A few wounded were picked up ; the others rushed 
 back into the Faubourg Saint- Germain, and filled 
 up the cellars. The victory of the Republic was 
 complete, and I bore the news to the Convention. 
 
 Night was coming on, so I ordered that each of 
 
 ' Paole d'honneu for parole d'honnem; the dandies of the day indulging 
 in the affectation of dropping the letter r. — Translator's note. 
 
 I — 20 
 
3o6 MEMOIRS OF BARRAS chap. 
 
 my posts should remain where it stood, merely for 
 security's sake ; but some shots being fired from the 
 barricade erected over the sewer of the Barriere des 
 Sergents compelled me to storm this post with the 
 bayonet and occupy it. The movement was skil- 
 fully executed in spite of the fire of the insurgents, 
 who were killed almost to a man. 
 
 On the following day I occupied the Le Pelletier 
 " section," which still made a show of resistance. 
 Two of its chiefs were arrested ; I likewise thought 
 it advisable to make sure of some of the principal 
 agitators in the " sections." Those of the Quinze- 
 Vingts, Popincourt, Montreuil, and Thermes {sic, 
 Ternes ?) remained loyal to the Convention and 
 united to defend it. The others tendered in suc- 
 cession their congratulations to the National Con- 
 vention as soon as it was a settled matter that it was 
 victorious, and set the example of submission to the 
 Republicans of the other " sections." 
 
 Three courts-martial were established to try the 
 conspirators ; I formed these courts of men having 
 no political prejudices. A solitary individual was 
 sentenced to death. 
 
 Certain historians, speaking of the 1 3th Vende- 
 miaire, have, succeeding one another, merely re- 
 peated their predecessors, and being under the im- 
 pression that they could lay down that the inspiring 
 principle of the rebellion of the 13th Vendemiaire 
 was not the desire of re-establishing royalty and 
 bringing back the House of France, but was nothing 
 more than the expression of a deeply-grounded ha- 
 tred of the citizens so long maimed by the Conven- 
 tion, and now merely animated with a desire to be 
 revenged. In the first place, I do not know what 
 
XXI HIS CLAIMS TO RECOGNITION 307 
 
 revenge can be referred to in the case of an assem- 
 bly which, after having itself borne • so many cruel 
 trials, had just given a Constitution to France, 
 which was going into retirement in order to give 
 this Constitution free play, and, establishing a di- 
 vision of powers, reserved unto itself, or rather unto 
 a fraction of itself, only a portion of power necessary 
 to the strict maintenance of the new social organiza- 
 tion. Say, if so you choose, that the great mass of 
 the citizens of Paris who were led into this move- 
 ment were not in the secret: do agitators ever let 
 the masses they agitate into the secret ? What is 
 certain and incontestable is, that both the home and 
 foreign enemy expected much from the results of the 
 insurrection ; that all the hopes of the partitioning 
 of France, of revenge against the Republicans, were 
 breaking out in all directions ; and it is likewise an 
 undoubted fact that the coalition was bafHed in its 
 plans for crushing the Republic. 
 
 I have given an account of the events of the 1 3th 
 Vendemiaire with the calmness which never desert- 
 ed me on that day. I have perhaps introduced into 
 my narrative the disorder of the day itself ; for 
 although both military and political battles are 
 doubtless won as the result of combinations presid- 
 ing over and directing them, it is none the less a 
 fact, as I believe to have successfully demonstrated 
 in regard to the battle of the 9th Thermidor, and as 
 doubtless the participators in it who are men of 
 good faith will admit with me, whatever may have 
 been their part, that there is in these decisive events 
 an instantaneous quickness in seizing the main 
 point, a resolution taken more promptly than light- 
 ning, independent of all forecast, inspired by the 
 
3o8 MEMOIRS OF BARRAS chap. 
 
 circumstance itself, which often wins the day. It 
 would be as unfair to conclude therefrom that every- 
 thinor is to be attributed to chance where our Intel- 
 ligence has its empire, as to seek to attribute all 
 to the combinations of the conqueror. I have re- 
 corded what I did and what others did, and feel cer- 
 tain that I have not overrated the share which may 
 be mine in the battle of the 13th Vendemiaire any 
 more than in that of the 9th Thermidor. 
 
 But, just as in regard to the 9th, wherein I believe 
 I was no less decisive towards success, and not less 
 simple and truthful in my narrative, I have seen per- 
 sonages arise who had been the most foreign to it ; 
 I have seen them simultaneously allot the share of 
 credit to each and every one, and claim honor for 
 their own account. Thus in the case of the 13th 
 Vendemiaire we find posthumous historians who 
 would give their hero in ordinary the glory of hav- 
 ing alone accomplished the 13th Vendemiaire, just 
 as the gendarme Meda, himself the chronicler of his 
 doughty deeds, is credited, after his death, with hav- 
 ing brought about the 9th Thermidor by his in- 
 trepidity, to have led the troops against the Com- 
 mune, to have been the first to enter its halls, to 
 have killed Robespierre with his own hand — in a 
 word, to have exercised the chief command and ful- 
 filled all the duties pertaining to it ; and this in pur- 
 suance of an order he is alleged to have received 
 from the Committee of Public Safety, which is re- 
 puted to have delegated this sovereign power to him, 
 an order which never had any existence. 
 
 So let it be, they say, in the case of the 13th Ven- 
 demiaire. Thus, in spite of what one has seen, and 
 in spite of what the pretty large number of contem- 
 
XXI THE COURT OF ST. HELENA 309 
 
 poraries still surviving know as well as I do, an en- 
 tirely new version is to take the place of authentic 
 facts. All the work done on that day by generals 
 and citizens working in common is to be ignored ; 
 the whole credit of it is to be given to a solitary 
 individual. This solitary individual is doubtless the 
 man who is later on to accomplish a great deal in 
 this world, but who will seek to attribute to himself 
 the credit of more than he has accomplished, or 
 rather who will not suffer that any name but his 
 own shall be heralded by the trumpet of fame. I 
 am not going to challenge here the veracity of the 
 historians of the little Court of St. Helena, which 
 others more severe than myself have seen fit to 
 style Basse- Cour^ by setting forth their character 
 and their position of known interests. It has been 
 said by one of them at the time of his leaving for 
 St. Helena that it might be he was entitled to less 
 credit for the spontaneity and virtue of devotion 
 than he declared, as his choice lay between the 
 prison of Sainte-Pelagie and the island of St. Hele- 
 na. So much for one of them ; as for the other, 
 the pseudonym cupidity with which he is charged 
 by several publishers, the equivocal trade he was 
 engaged in at different periods — and in various 
 countries — all this does not present very reassuring 
 guarantees of morality and independence. Suppos- 
 ing even that these would-be historians of St. Hele- 
 na wrote without any alteration from the dictation 
 of their master all that it pleased him to make them 
 write — is it to be considered worthy of belief.'' Is 
 
 ' Basse-cour, literally a farm-yard. In this instance there is a play on the 
 word basse, which thus gives to basse-cour the meaning of " Low Court." — 
 Translator's note. 
 
3IO MEMOIRS OF BARRAS chap. 
 
 doubt to be cast on the actual deeds accomplished 
 by Napoleon when in power, and emanating from 
 his uncontested will, by retractions and interpreta- 
 tions which he doubtless believed it his interest to 
 make, in order to bring about his escape by deceiv- 
 ing his jailers, or at the very least to soften the 
 severity of his greater jailers, such as Alexander 
 of Russia and George IV.? 
 
 There are other historians, not of the same order, 
 but of a like origin. All, independently of their 
 salaries, received in advance a special donation in 
 view of the present contingency. Their historical 
 mission is given to them in Napoleon's very will. 
 
 " I bequeath to M the sum of -," such are 
 
 the sacramental terms ; for there is not an historical 
 act, either political or military, coupled with the 
 personality of Bonaparte, at the bottom of which 
 money is not to be found. 
 
 I have told, as far as I am concerned, frankly and 
 completely all that Bonaparte did personally in the 
 course of the 13th Vendemiaire; he accompanied me 
 during the forenoon of the 13th Vendemiaire, but he 
 was unable to follow me the whole time, as I was ever 
 on horseback, while he was afoot ; and it is only 
 at the time of the final orders which I gave him to 
 convey that, fearing in spite of his activity that he 
 would not reach his destination in due time, I caused 
 a horse to be supplied to him in order that his prog- 
 ress might be more rapid. The vanquished of the 
 1 3th Vendemiaire, thinking to avenge themselves of 
 their conquerors by a bit of irony of their own, have 
 said since then that the future master of the world 
 had on that occasion bestridden a cab-horse. This 
 is contrary to truth ; moreover, this would not in it- 
 
XXI A PRETTY STORY SPOILED 311 
 
 self constitute a weak part in the armor of the hero, 
 if hero there was on this occasion. It would, on the 
 contrary, constitute one of the most glorious points 
 of his history, this great debut with feeble means. 
 But in his narratives written by the agents of Bona- 
 parte, even supposing them to be such as dictated 
 by him, there always are much trickery and conceal- 
 ment, which, under the cloak of innocence and an 
 appearance of a statement of the most simple facts, 
 reveals a most extensive intuition of a premeditated 
 attempt to deceive. Thus Bonaparte tells that at 
 the time of the general disarmament of the "sec- 
 tions," a lad between ten and twelve years of age ' 
 had come to his staff with the object of entreating 
 the general-in-chief to cause to be restored to him 
 the sword of his father, who had commanded a Re- 
 publican army ; that this lad was Eugene Beauhar- 
 nais, since Viceroy of Italy ; that Napoleon, touched 
 by the nature of his request, had granted him his 
 prayer ; that Eugene had shed tears on seeing his 
 father's sword ; that the general was greatly moved, 
 and showed him so much kindness that Mme. Beau- 
 harnais considered herself obliged to call on him 
 next day and thank him. " All," he goes on to say, 
 " are acquainted with the wonderful beauty of the 
 Empress Josephine, her gentle and winning ways ; 
 the acquaintance thus made soon assumed a tender 
 and intimate nature, and ere long the pair were 
 united in marriage." 
 
 I assert, in the first place, that the story is false in 
 itself. To begin with, there was no occasion to dis- 
 arm young Beauharnais any more than his mother's 
 
 ' Eugene de Beauharnais was born in lySr, and was consequently fourteen 
 years old. — Translator's note. 
 
312 MEMOIRS OF BARRAS chap. 
 
 house. Far from entertaining any intelligence with 
 the " sections," Mme. Beauharnais was personally 
 wholly devoted to our cause, if it can be said that 
 she ever was anything. She was one of the ladies 
 composing Tallien's and my own social circle, and 
 these were certainly not at war with us. I re- 
 member that when the disarming of the "section- 
 aries " took place, we mentioned in conversation, 
 while dining at my house, precisely the contrary of 
 what is related by Bonaparte. Thus, in that mo- 
 ment of agitation, when the armed force was per- 
 haps liable to make mistakes in invading certain 
 residences in quest of arms, I said to Eugene Beau- 
 harnais, who had accompanied his mother, " Your 
 house is not one of those dreamed of in such a con- 
 nection, Eugene ; moreover, you wear your father's 
 sword, truly a Republican one." The young man 
 may have been moved at the recollection ; I was so 
 most truly; while Mme. Beauharnais was affected 
 less than any of us, for Alexander's widow had not 
 seemed to be in the least degree inconsolable since 
 the loss of that good citizen. I smilingly remarked 
 to Bonaparte, whom I had caused to be appointed 
 commander of the home troops in place of myself, 
 that there was no fear to be entertained of mistakes 
 such as we had just spoken of, under the command 
 of a chief possessing as much judgment as himself; 
 that I particularly commended both mother and son 
 to him, and that I placed her house under his special 
 protection. I have stated the facts of the case in all 
 their simpHcity, and it will be seen to what uses 
 Bonaparte put it, in order to convert it into a touch- 
 ing little story drawn entirely from his imagination. 
 Soon will be seen the great developments of the 
 
XXI BONAPARTE ON HIMSELF 313 
 
 little drama thus begun; it will be revealed how 
 nothing comes amiss to Bonaparte, who knows how 
 to gather every advantage and derive every benefit 
 from what chance flings in his way. 
 
 If after having related, or rather re-established 
 the material facts appertaining to the 13th Vende- 
 miaire, so strangely changed and disfigured, I needed 
 to call proofs to the aid of my memory, I should find 
 them in the very versions emanating from St. Hele- 
 na, in the very disguise under which he reveals his 
 actual behavior ; as to what I have stated in regard 
 to his early hesitancy, his real fluctuation between 
 the party of the " sections " and the Convention, this 
 is how Bonaparte speaks himself in the Memorial de 
 Sainte-H'elene : 
 
 "On the i2th Vende'miaire (3d October), at seven o'clock in 
 the evening, General Menou, accompanied by the representa- 
 tives of the people attached as commissioners to the Army of 
 the Interior, went with a large body of troops to the hall where 
 sat the ' section ' Le Pelletier, for the purpose of executing the 
 decree of the Convention affecting it. Infantry, cavalry, artil- 
 lery, all were crowded together in the Rue Vivienne, at whose 
 end stands the convent of the Filles-Saint-Thomas. The ' sec- 
 tionaries ' were posted at the windows of the houses in that 
 street. Several of their battalions drew up in battle array in 
 the courtyard of the convent, and the military force commanded 
 by General Menou was jeopardized. 
 
 " The Committee of the ' section ' had declared itself the rep- 
 resentative of the sovereign people in the exercise of its func- 
 tions. It refused to obey the orders of the Convention ; so, after 
 a fruitless parley, General Menou and the commissaries of the 
 Convention withdrew under cover of a sort of capitulation, with- 
 out having disarmed or dissolved the gathering. 
 
 " Meiwu is deprived of the command of the Army of the Interior. 
 The ' section,' having won the day, constituted itself as a perma- 
 nent body, sent deputations to all the other ' sections,' boasted 
 of its successes, and hurried on the organization which was to 
 
314 MEMOIRS OF BARRAS chap. 
 
 make secure its resistance. Preparations were made for the 
 13th Vendemiaire. 
 
 "General Bonaparte, attached since a few months to the direc- 
 tion of the movements of the armies of the Republic, was in a 
 box at the Theatre Feydeau when one of his friends informed 
 him of the singular scene taking place. He was most anxious 
 to witness the particulars of so great a spectacle ; on seeing the 
 troops of the Convention repulsed, he hastened to the galleries of 
 the Assembly, in order to judge of the effects of the news, and follow 
 the developments as well as the color which jnight be given to them." 
 
 These are Bonaparte's very words, dictated to one 
 of his secretaries of St. Helena. I repeat them. He 
 was anxious, he himself says, to witness the particu- 
 lars of so great a spectacle ; on seeing the troops of 
 the Convention repulsed, he hastened to the galleries 
 of the Assembly, in order to judge of the effects of 
 the news, and follow the developments as well as the 
 color which might be given to them. It seems to 
 me that it is idle to comment upon these words, as 
 they prove of themselves everything said at the time 
 of the equivocal conduct of Bonaparte on this occa- 
 sion, and merely pointed out by me. 
 
 Let us follow him once more in his St. Helena 
 narrative. If this narrative is to be believed, it was 
 the members of the Committee of Public Safety 
 who, consequent upon their daily intercourse with 
 him, had considered him better qualified than any 
 other to extricate them from this dangerous situa- 
 tion by his promptitude at taking in things at a 
 glance, and the energy of his character had caused a 
 search to be instituted for him throughout the city. 
 " Napoleon," he again says of himself, " had heard 
 everything, and knew all about the matter at issue ; 
 he communed with himself for about half an hour as 
 to what course he should adopt. . . ." Where is the 
 
XXI BONAPARTE'S SOPHISTRY 315 
 
 necessity of so much communing, half an hour, a 
 minute, a second even, when it is a question of serv- 
 ing the cause whose first defender one has for a long 
 time past proclaimed one's self to be — the cause one 
 has on all occasions sworn to defend, and to which 
 one is already indebted for so many favors, which 
 has raised one from obscurity ? After having 
 spouted a certain number of sophisms in support of 
 his fluctuation, and still further sophisms to justify 
 the course he adopted of being gracious enough to 
 join us, here is Bonaparte, still speaking of himself 
 in the third person, as if placing himself on the level 
 of Caesar and his Commentaries, saying : " Napoleon 
 made up his mind, and waited on the Com- 
 mittee . . ." ! 
 
 Still according to Bonaparte's version, he spoke 
 warmly to the Committee, and it was pursuant to his 
 advice that the Committee of Public Safety proposed 
 Barras to the National Convention as general-in-chief. 
 
 The mere enumeration of the hours during which 
 events took place, that of Bonaparte's arrival con- 
 fessed to by himself, would constitute a complete 
 refutation of his lying assertions, but any remarks 
 made by me might be looked upon as those of an 
 interested party; I prefer intrusting my defence 
 to those who can be least suspected of showing 
 partiality to me. 
 
 The first of these witnesses I will call as to my 
 more or less decisive participation in the events of 
 the 13th Vendemiaire is M. Real (plain P. F. Real, 
 later M. le Comte Real, one of Bonaparte's life 
 councillors). I transcribe literally a fragment bear- 
 ing on the point at issue from his Essai sur les 
 Jo2(,rnees des 12, ei 14 Vendemiaire : 
 
3l6 MEMOIRS OF BARRAS chap. 
 
 " A fatal reaction had crushed the public mind ; the south was 
 ablaze. Lj'ons, Marseilles, Aix, bathed in the blood of their 
 murdered inhabitants, were the prey of the imigres. The imigres 
 were boldly returning, even in bands, in the north ; they were 
 returning boldly, even in bands, in the Jura ; the volcano prom- 
 ised a further eruption ; the Chouannerie, like unto a plague, was 
 spreading apace, already affecting the department of the Eure, 
 and threatening to starve out Paris. The priests — those horrid 
 priests of Rome, restored to their noxious energy by a parricidal 
 decree — had waved aloft in every direction the torch of fanati- 
 cism, preached disregard of the laws and the assassination of the 
 patriots, introduced dissension into the country districts and ter- 
 ror into men's consciences, deprived our armies of their defend- 
 ers, and sought to make the whole of France a new Vendee. 
 
 " Paris had become the refuge of every conspirator, the hot- 
 bed, the prime mover in all conspiracies; incorrigible royalism, 
 ever defeated, ever hoping, once more was boldly raising its head. 
 Charette, Comartin, Cardinal Maury, the London Cabinet, that 
 of Vienna, d'Artois, Conde', and even Louis XVIII. had officially 
 in Paris their bankers, correspondents, and ambassadors. A 
 horde of Spaniards, Italians, Germans, English, and Swiss, dif- 
 fering in dress, language, and features, were the avowed agents 
 of the vast conspiracy which was to devour France. 
 
 " Members of the Constituent and Legislative Assemblies, 
 women, emigres, and more especially recalcitrant priests, scattered 
 and distributed through the several ' sections ' of Paris, arranged 
 gatherings, card -parties, and suppers, at which, without any 
 great attempt at concealment, preparations were made for the 
 degradation, dissolution, and massacre of the Convention, the 
 proscription and massacre of all patriots, and the return of three 
 or four kings, who, seconded by three or four powers, were for 
 another hundred years perhaps to deluge France with the blood 
 of its unhappy inhabitants ! . . ." (pp. 3 and 4). 
 
 " The conspiracy was to break out in the first days of Vende- 
 miaire ..." (p. 7). 
 
 "The submitting of the Constitution and the convocation of 
 the primary assemblies decided the opening of the campaign. 
 
 "The formation of a camp under the walls of Paris was the 
 first pretext seized upon for a rupture, while the decree of the 
 Two-thirds became that of the first outbreak of hostilities . . ." 
 (p. 8). 
 
XXI REAL AS A WITNESS 317 
 
 " In Paris the Le Pelletier ' section ' gave the signal. This 
 ' section ' was better known in tlie records Of the Revolution 
 under the name of the Filles-Saint-Thomas' 'section.' France 
 had for a long time resounded with the doughty deeds of its 
 brilliant grenadiers. Ever at the foot of the throne, they at- 
 tempted in 1792 to attack the proud Marseillais who had sworn 
 its destruction ; they were beaten. They were again to be met 
 with in Tarquin's camp ; they were at the chateau defending the 
 tyrant when, on the 10th of August, the cannon of liberty laid 
 low the monarchy; again they were defeated, and since that 
 day nothing more had been heard of the five grenadiers of the 
 Filles-Saint-Thomas. 
 
 " It was the same men, so royalist under Louis XVI., who 
 had the audacity, on the 20th Fructidor, to come forward as the 
 advocates and fanatic defenders of the sovereignty of the people. 
 Marat never spoke with greater frenzy of this sovereignty ; never 
 did Robespierre allude to it with greater effrontery. 
 
 " They held out as bait that famous acte de garantie, into which 
 they slipped the maxim, so true in principle, but so false and 
 treacherous in its actual application, that the powers of every 
 constituent body cease in presence of the assembled people. 
 They spoke in it of means to secure the public welfare . . ." (pp. 
 10 and 11). 
 
 " In all the ' sections ' acts of guarantee more or less extrava- 
 gant were adopted. It was the fever, the delirious ravings of 
 sovereignty . . ." (p. 11). 
 
 " In the meantime the Constitution was being accepted every- 
 where ; and in spite of the intrigues of agitators and the expen- 
 diture of money by the rich sovereigns of the Le Pelletier ' sec- 
 tion,' an imposing majority was pronouncing in favor of the 
 decrees of the sth and 13th Fructidor. This great trial was to 
 end in an arithmetical operation . . ." (p. 16). 
 
 "On the loth Vende'miaire, Baudin (Ardennes), in the name 
 of the Commission of Eleven, caused the announcement to be 
 made that the opening of the sittings of the Corps legislatif, an- 
 nounced for the 13th Brumaire, was finally fixed for the fifth day 
 of that month. 
 
 "This decree was a sharp and decisive answer to the oft- 
 repeated calumny that the Convention sought to perpetuate the rev- 
 olutionary Government and delay that of the law. This decree 
 deprived the factious of ten days ; and, in the midst of a like 
 
3l8 MEMOIRS OF BARRAS chap. 
 
 Storm, ten days taken from the conspirators might save the 
 Commonweal . . ." (pp. 20 and 21). 
 
 "On the loth Vende'miaire, the 'section' Le Pelletier, usurp- 
 ing every power, and creating itself a Constituent Assembly, 
 rendered the following enactment . . ." (p. 21) : — 
 
 "'Considering that it is at last time for the people to think 
 of their welfare, since they are deceived, betrayed, and butchered 
 by those intrusted with their interests, 
 
 " ' It is hereby enacted that : 
 
 "'Art. I. — To-morrow, the nth inst., at 10 o'clock in the 
 morning, the electors of all the primary assemblies of Paris shall 
 meet without delay inside the Theatre-Frangais . . .' " (p. 25). 
 
 " 'Art. 6. — The primary assemblies of Paris swear that, look- 
 ing upon this measure as the only one which can save the coun- 
 try, and promptly put in force the Republican Constitution, they 
 will not adjourn their to-morrow's sitting until the electoral body 
 has been definitively installed . . ." (p. 26). 
 
 " Many members, fully cognizant of the perilous situation of 
 the Convention, pointed out, perhaps somewhat harshly, but at 
 any rate most frankly, the only means of salvation, by asking 
 that the committees of the Government should, by a formal law, 
 be declared responsible for any act of neglect or lack of measures 
 liable to jeopardize the common weal. Barras, when making 
 this salutary motion, sufficiently indicated that he was cognizant 
 of the strength of the conspirators and the Government's weak- 
 ness; all he obtained was that the Assembly should not suspend 
 its sittings . . ." (p. 28). 
 
 "While the Convention was deliberating as to the measures 
 to be adopted against the conspirators, the conspirators were 
 taking measures against the Convention . . ." (p. 29). 
 
 "There were to be seen at the head and in the rank and file 
 of the Republicans, styled the Sacred Battalion of the Patriots 
 flf 1789, the veterans of the Revolution, who had seen service in 
 its six campaigns, who had fought under the walls of the Bastille, 
 who had laid low tyranny, arming themselves to-day to defend 
 the same chateau at which they had hurled their thunderbolts 
 on the loth of August. At their head or in the ranks were to 
 be seen aged general officers, covered with scars and laurels, 
 heroes of Jemmappes and of Fleurus, proscribed because their 
 brilliant exploits were attached to obscure names ; deprived of 
 their commands because they had beaten the Prussians not in 
 
XXI VETERANS OB" THE REVOLUTION 3^9 
 
 accordance with any method, and crushed the Austrians while 
 ignorant of mathematics and orthography. 
 
 " The moment when these disarmed men once more received 
 muskets, on the Terrasse des Feuillants and in the yard of the 
 Manfege (riding-school), will never fade from my memory. They 
 seemed to re-enter their country and resume their rights. I can 
 still see a venerable old man grasping the musket delivered to 
 him, pressing it to his lips, and, raising to heaven his eyes 
 dimmed with tears, exclaiming, 'So I am at last free !' 
 
 " I saw there once more the precious remnants of those old 
 Lie'geois and Belgian battalions, under the orders of their old 
 commander, General Fyon. They had in bygone days given us 
 the signal of insurrection, and they were now about to come and 
 die with us for liberty, their old, their eternal divinity . . ." (pp. 
 32 and 52')- 
 
 " Soon there appear at the bar some of those volunteers of 
 this Sacred Battalion, calumniated in so cowardly a fashion by 
 the rebels. They swear to cause persons and property to be re- 
 spected. ' Far from us,' say these old soldiers of the Revolution, 
 ' all ideas of reaction and of private vengeance ; should there 
 arise among us a man deviating from the principles of toleration 
 and humanity which you profess, we solemnly pledge ourselves 
 to expel him with detestation from the phalanxes of '89 ' " (pp. 
 36 and 37). 
 
 "The National Convention decrees that Brigadier -General 
 Barras, representative, shall be appointed to the command of 
 the Army of Paris and of the Interior " (p. 43). 
 
 " This measure, carried with enthusiastic applause, restored 
 calm and confidence. The general of the 9th Thermidor, the 
 conqueror of rebellious Toulon, known by his activity, his tal- 
 ents, by a genuine coolness in the midst of the greatest dangers, 
 by an ardent and pure soul, by deep and absolute devotion to 
 the cause of liberty, restored to anxious patriots the peace of 
 mind and firmness they stood in need of, and assured the tri- 
 umph of the Republican columns. 
 
 " Barras could not deceive himself in regard to all the dan- 
 gers besetting the Convention, nor conceal from himself the ter- 
 rible responsibility attached to his action. 
 
 " Everything was in the most frightful disorder. The heavy 
 guns were still in the Sablons camp, guarded by one hundred 
 and fifty men only! And, barring a few battalion guns, the 
 
32° MEMOIRS OF BARRAS chap. 
 
 four-pounders at the Tuileries lay without gunners in the court- 
 yard of tlie Feuillants " (p. 44). 
 
 " At early morn, representative Freron had gone to the Fau- 
 bourg Saint-Antoine. He had informed these old friends of the 
 Republic, these irreconcilable foes of royalty, of the danger of 
 the besieged Convention; he had made these men of the 14th 
 July and loth August hearken once more to the voice of the for- 
 mer orator of the people ; and the men of the Faubourg, oblivi- 
 ous of recent grievances, once more armed those bands ever so 
 fatal to the friends of kings. A battalion was at once formed, 
 and, passing boldly through a portion of the rebel town, drew up 
 under the walls of the Convention" (p. 47). 
 
 " The line of defence stretched from the Pont-Neuf along the 
 quays of the right bank of the Seine to the Champs-Elyse'es, and 
 extended to the boulevards ; but the rebels were masters of the 
 whole of the Rue Saint-Honord, the Place Vendome, Saint-Roch, 
 and the Place du Palais - Royal ; their numerous battalions 
 blocked up all the avenues. . . . And this National Convention 
 of France, which had made thrones totter and Europe tremble, 
 whose numberless armies, flowing over into Germany, threat- 
 ened to pursue the terrified eagle even to Vienna — this Conven- 
 tion, which two days before had pronounced the adding to France 
 of the vast territories torn by its triumphant armies from Aus- 
 tria, saw itself hemmed in for a few hours by a mob of scamps, 
 factious men, and fools, and its domination confined to the nar- 
 row precinct of a few thousand square fathoms !" (p. 48). 
 
 " The battalion of the Quinze-Vingts passed in front of the 
 Montreuil battalion; that of Popincourt had not yet joined it; 
 Montreuil was desirous of advancing, but the officer in command 
 insisted on getting Parras's order to that effect " ' (p. 49). 
 
 "It must nevertheless be said that the majority of the mem- 
 bers of the Government displayed nothing but weakness and 
 pusillanimity in this terrible moment. On the approach of dan- 
 ger, fear presided over their deliberations ; and these same men 
 who on the previous day — nay, on this very morn — seemed to have 
 become inspired with fresh courage, now cast down and discour- 
 aged, gave birth to nothing but addresses and proclamations" 
 
 (P- ss)- 
 
 " Had the factious ' sections ' abandoned a single one of their 
 ' This battalion reached its destination before the fight. 
 
XXI WEAKNESS AND PUSILLANIMITY 321 
 
 audacious pretensions ? Had not these addresses, parleys, these 
 unbecoming compromises, these mud-bespattered proclamations, 
 had an effect altogether opposed to the one their political and 
 obstinate authors expected from them ? No, it is not in books 
 that one studies the play of a revolution as gigantic and mon- 
 strous as ours in all its results. Nor was it in the boudoir of a 
 foreign female intriguer, in this boudoir to which was adjourned 
 the trial of the loth of August, that a former henchman of our 
 princes could learn what was best suited to the most terrible crisis 
 of this terrible revolution ; it was not in the midst of priests that 
 a man boasting of any good qualities could elevate his soul to the 
 great conceptions demanded by great events" (p. 56). 
 
 " Simultaneously Bailleul presents to the committees an en- 
 actment whose object was the immediate disarming of all the 
 patriots of '89 united under the walls of the Convention, alleging 
 that their conduct had in the course of the Revolution 'been 
 reprehensible!'" (p. 57). 
 
 " I have no hesitation in saying that this order of the day 
 was the salvation of the country. Had Gamon's address been 
 adopted, 20,000 patriots would have been immolated in Paris; 
 100,000 would have been massacred in the departments; while 
 the Convention, degraded, captive, mutilated in the first place 
 by the cutthroats who led the ' sections,' then assassinated piece- 
 meal previous to the sth Brumaire, would have handed over 
 to an entirely new legislature the hall which had become its 
 grave. The carts of Robespierre, or at least the cruel activity 
 of the tribunal of the ist Prairial, would have drowned liberty 
 in blood, and to-day triumphant royalism would be re-establish- 
 ing the debris of the throne of Louis XVI. on the bodies of all 
 those who loved the Revolution" (p. 60). 
 
 " O Genius of Liberty, who for six years past, in the midst of 
 the most fearful storms, hast guided the ship of the Revolution, 
 thou by whom we have subdued Europe with a Government 
 without rulers, armies without pay, thou wast still watching 
 over us in that terrible moment while the Government was de- 
 liberating ! 
 
 "At half-past four repeated discharges of fire-arms, followed 
 by terrible volleys, put an end to all debating. 
 
 "Barras, the general-in-chief, followed by Cavaignac and a 
 crowd of brave soldiers, rushed on the post established at the 
 Manage, where the fight had begun ; seven shots fired from the 
 
 I— 21 
 
322 MEMOIRS OF BARRAS CHAP. 
 
 windows of Venua, which the rebels had taken possession of, 
 had been the signal for the engagement " (p. 63). 
 
 " Simultaneously with the shots fired from the windows of 
 Venua, the 'sectionaries' attacked along the whole line; they 
 were in superior force in the Rue de PEchelle, and skirted 
 the Petit Carrousel, opposite the house occupied by the section 
 of police of the Committee of General Security" (p. 68). 
 
 " The Republicans replied with a heavy discharge. Adjutant- 
 General Blondeau, who commanded them, roused to fur)', ex- 
 claimed, ' You scoundrels ! You do not know that you have 
 to deal with Jacques Blondeau of the Cote-d'Or ! Gunners, 
 stand by your gun !' The gun is fired. One of the brigands, 
 who had already laid his hand on it, is cut in twain, and the 
 street is swept in a moment " (p. 70). 
 
 "We have stated that immediately after the first discharge 
 Barras had proceeded to the Rue de Dauphin. After having 
 given there the necessary orders, he visited in succession all 
 the attacked posts, and was repeatedly seen under fire. He 
 reached the Longueville post. Two four-pounders were enfilad- 
 ing the Rue Saint-Nicaise. As early as two o'clock in the after- 
 noon two columns of some 800 men had made their appear- 
 ance, with the object of carrying this post and forcing their way 
 into the Carrousel ; but, intimidated by the formal declaration 
 that these guns would open fire on them if they did not with- 
 draw, the two columns beat a retreat. Still the post of the 
 Tuileries ' section ' remained in the guard-house situated near 
 the top of the street. 
 
 " It was about a quarter to five ; the cannon of the Rue du 
 Dauphin was making itself heard ; the enemy was in battle array 
 in the lower part of the Rue Saint-Nicaise, and revealed an in- 
 tention of attacking the Republicans. Immediately Barras 
 ordered that the rebels be summoned to withdraw, and on 
 giving this order, he entered the street ahead of the Republi- 
 can's front. Three rebels left the ranks, directing their steps 
 towards him, one of them threatening to strike him. Barras, 
 who could have killed him, lowered the point of his sword ; but 
 one of the Republicans standing close to the general, having 
 noticed the movement of the Chotian, cut him down with his 
 sword, wounding him but slightly, when he surrendered. 
 Barras, going quickly to him, exclaimed, ' Let us respect the 
 defeated enemy.' Then, raising him from the ground, he added, 
 
XXI "LONG LIVE THE REPUBLIC!" 323 
 
 'Fly from here, you unfortunate man,' and so the man with 
 the epaulet was saved. Barras's summons was rephed to by the 
 rebels with a general discharge of musketry. Two discharges 
 from cannon loaded with bullets throw their ranks into dis- 
 order; simultaneously the Republicans enter the Rue Saint- 
 Nicaise with fixed bayonets, and charge the rebels, who seek 
 shelter under the arcades of the Theatre de la Rdpublique as 
 fast as their legs can carry them " (pp. 71 and 72). 
 
 " All now being well in this direction, the indefatigable Barras 
 felt that the rebels should not be allowed breathing-time. 
 
 " Darkness had set in, which did not allow of running the 
 hazard of a general engagement; nor was it any longer suit- 
 able to remain on the defensive. The troops engaged is dis- 
 lodging the rebels from the several posts they still held in the 
 vicinity of the Tuileries" (pp. 75 and 76). 
 
 " To cries of ' Long live the Republic !' the fire of musketry, 
 and cannon thundering in all directions, the hymn to Liberty 
 resounds in the Place du Carrousel ; its terrible refrain, Aux 
 armes, citoyens ! is repeated by all the battalions, and mingled 
 with victorious shouts, clashing of swords and thunder-claps, 
 stirs up every heart with that religious fury, that thirst for 
 battle and generous contempt of death, which have given birth 
 to so many miracles. Ah ! then each one of us truly realized 
 why this hymn, consecrated by so many triumphs, causes such 
 grief to the slaves of kings ! 
 
 " A grenadier, bearing his musket in one hand and a flag in 
 the other, enters the hall of the Convention; he is accompanied 
 by a disarmed citizen and two general officers. This flag had 
 just been taken from the traitors who had assassinated the Re- 
 publicans in the Place du Carrousel. 
 
 " The firing diminishes gradually ; the sound of it is heard at a 
 distance only, and the cannon no longer fire except at rare intervals. 
 
 "Merlin announces that the Republicans have defeated the 
 rebels" (p. 79). 
 
 "At ten o'clock Barras comes to give a summary account of 
 the success' of the fights engaged in at the several forts. Every- 
 where had the Republicans been victorious. He urges upon 
 the Convention to remain calm. 'Victory is ours,' said Barras, 
 'and the rebels will soon be dislodged from the forts occupied 
 by them, as they have been from those surrounding the national 
 palace ' " (p. 86). 
 
324 MEMOIRS OF BARRAS chap. 
 
 " At half-past ten Barras reached the entrance to the Rue 
 Vivienne ; at the end of the street a number of women were 
 concealing the headquarters of the ' section.' They are called 
 upon to disperse ; they show an inclination to stand their 
 ground, but on hearing the command, ' Gunners, stand by your 
 guns,' and seeing the fire of the fuse made to scintillate before 
 their eyes, they withdraw, leaving visible a four- pounder and 
 armed men " (p. 88). 
 
 "Of all the known leaders of the rebellion one only, Lafond, 
 a former garde du corps, was arrested. 
 
 " On the following day fifteen rebel ' sections,' as well as 
 the grenadiers and chasseurs of the other ' sections,' were dis- 
 armed. 
 
 " Thus ended this rebellion, so long prepared, and on which 
 incorrigible royalism had built such hopes ! Thus was thwarted 
 this conspiracy, most atrocious in its object, the most cleverly 
 combined in its means, the most vast in its conception of all 
 those having so far threatened the birth of liberty. 
 
 "I have been a very close witness of all the crises of the 
 Revolution ; I have been a student of all its movements : an 
 essential characteristic distinguishes this one from all others 
 preceding it — it mas not a popular one. 
 
 "In vain did the charlatans who led the rebellion seek to 
 speak in the name of the sovereignty of the people : their words 
 but made a grimace in their mouths ; their reputation was too 
 well known ; it was impossible for them to become the incarna- 
 tion of the people, and, in spite of the misery weighing them 
 down, the people did not understand their language, recognize 
 their garb, or respond to their appeal. They were defeated be- 
 cause they did not possess either popularity or courage. They 
 were beaten because royalty was their goal. 
 
 " It must truly be said that the Convention did not know 
 how to reap the advantages of the victory. Politicians, great 
 men, and revolutionists, who excite one's pity, dared not have 
 recourse to the salutary and decisive measure which would have 
 destroyed the work of the conspiracy. They showed fear, and 
 again called in question that which the cannon of the 13th had 
 settled ; the mere execution of the decree of the 5th Fructidor 
 would have destroyed all the threads of the conspiracy. This 
 decree has been treated with contempt, and the conspiracy still 
 exists in its entirety. 
 
XXI NOT A POPULAR CRISIS 325 
 
 " I am in hopes that I am mistaken, but a sombre presenti- 
 ment besieges rae, and fills me with consternation ; this fatal 
 experience of the past, which sometimes enables me to read the 
 future, torments me, murders me ! 
 
 " No : this apparent and sudden tranquillity, of which a few 
 ipoliticians speak to us hypocritically, does not engender security 
 in my heart ; this silence alarms me ; this dead calm terrifies 
 me. . . . Does it announce a coming storm, a fearful storm ? 
 O Convention, for an instant thou hast been able to make dis- 
 appear entirely the fatal leaven of civil war. Men, either the 
 dupes of their simplicity, puffed up with pride, or criminals in 
 their stupidity, have paralyzed your means, have stayed your 
 arms. . . . They are doubtless most guilty, the atrocious men 
 who have made you do wrong ; are they then innocent, the silly 
 tremblers who have prevented you from doing what was right ? 
 
 " The salvation of the country will hang upon the formation of 
 the executive power. It constitutes the star of salvation; and 
 it is on this star that all looks are turned in the darkness of 
 the night enveloping the destinies of the Republic. By the 
 form you give unto it, ye legislators, will you make it clear to us 
 whether you desire peace or war, the happiness or the misery 
 of the people, the Republic or Royalty. 
 
 " Envious Europe is watching us with an anxious eye. If 
 men of no standing or character, friends of the nobles, friends 
 of the priests, protectors of imigres, kmigres themselves, are ele- 
 vated to that sublime magistracy, foreign war will resume its 
 fatal activity. 
 
 " Civil discord will wave its torch, and the Vendean volcano 
 will once more vomit its burning lava. 
 
 " If your votes elect men consumed with patriotism ; men 
 who, the born enemies of all tyranny, killed Capet and Robes- 
 pierre ; men the declared enemies of the wicked priests and the 
 emigres; men whom the Revolution found poor and who are still 
 poor ; men whose souls rise ennobled, whose strength increases 
 twofold in the hour of danger ; men who are of the people with- 
 out being popular, who are ardent without being incendiary; 
 men forced by their actions between success and the scaffold — 
 then Europe lays down her arms, the volcano of La Vendee be- 
 comes extinct, the conspirators fly; then will there be faith in 
 the Revolution and in the Republic, and this firm faith, achiev- 
 ing the Revolution's work, will establish the Republic." 
 
326 MEMOIRS OF BARRAS chap. 
 
 The fragment just read is, as I have stated, Hter- 
 ally transcribed from the " Essai stir les youniees des 
 13 ^/ 14 Vendemiaire, from the press of J. G. Guyot, 
 Rue des Francs -Bourgeois, Faubourg Saint -Ger- 
 main, No. 794, in Paris. To be had from the said 
 Guyot, printer; from the author (P. F. Real, 17 Rue 
 d'Orleans H) ; and from Louvet, bookseller, at the 
 Palais-Egalite. Year IV. of the Republic." Will it 
 seem that I could not deprive myself of an authority 
 so positive in my favor, and which my conscience 
 doubtless assured me I did not need .? If the quot- 
 ing of a pamphlet of M. Real's, so thoroughly de- 
 scriptive of the times and the political usages of the 
 day, gives rise to certain painful comparisons with 
 subsequent events, let it not in any way be imagined 
 that I am seeking to coin an epigram. The melan- 
 choly story of a revolution followed in succession by 
 an empire and a restoration can at best, not to have 
 recourse to a more severe expression, afford but a 
 display of performing marionnettes. The men who 
 have resolved to remain attached to the power hav- 
 ing their fortune at its disposal, can they be said to 
 have been as faithful to their conscience, which often- 
 times compels a man to sacrifice fortune ? Or, rather, 
 were they not compelled to make unto themselves 
 a fresh conscience to meet every phase of their 
 fortune ? As regards myself, the quotation I have 
 made is dictated far less by the desire of recording 
 my personal defence than by a sense of the duty I 
 feel of setting forth the truth for the benefit of all, 
 and the importance of turning over to history the 
 authentic materials with which its great work is 
 some day to be built up. 
 
 Are the imperial Bonapartists desirous of putting 
 
XXI CERTAIN PAINFUL COMPARISONS 327 
 
 down the narrative of the 13th Vendemiaire by 
 Count Real to the peccadilloes of Count Real in his 
 young days, and claiming that, having modified his 
 opinions about the principles of the Revolution, the 
 Count is still free to indulge in the rectification of 
 facts after having had some thirty years to reflect in ? 
 
 Then my answer to this will be, in the first place, 
 that the youth of the M. Real of those days was the 
 youth of a man forty years of age, which supposes 
 already a grave maturity, as this age of gravity is 
 that thought necessary to impose as a qualification 
 for the Directorate and for the Council of Ancients 
 — an age subsequently attached for all time to the 
 national representation, in the person of the Cham- 
 ber of Deputies, by the charter of 18 14. 
 
 But, leaving aside this authentic and historic testi- 
 mony of M. Real, as it might give rise to some dis- 
 cussion, I will produce another authority, to which 
 objections can hardly be raised — that of Baron 
 Fain, who was, indeed, our secretary in the Direc- 
 torate after leaving the Committee of Public Safety, 
 to which he had been attached in a similar capacity, 
 but who was in a special fashion the secretary of 
 Bonaparte from his accession to his downfall. This 
 is how Baron Fain, permanent secretary to Bona- 
 parte, expresses himself in his manuscript of the 
 Year III.: 
 
 " Time presses ; a new general is necessary ; he is needed 
 that very night. The issue has become so personal a one for 
 the members of the Convention that they are no longer anxious 
 to hand over the command of the troops to an outsider ; it is to 
 a representative that this command must needs be intrusted, 
 and all eyes are looking towards the general of the 9th Ther- 
 midor; so it is that representative Barras is invested with the 
 supreme command" (p. 350). 
 
328 MKMOIRS OF BARRAS chap. 
 
 "The new general has but the night wherein to make his de- 
 fensive dispositions ; all the unemployed officers at present in 
 Paris throng around him to receive his orders. He appoints 
 them to the various outlying posts ; but he needs a second in 
 command whom he can trust in regard to the many details of 
 the profession, one who can beyond doubt take things in at a 
 glance ; thereupon he recalls the young general Bonaparte, who 
 is close to hand in the Topographical Office. He sends for him 
 and gets him accepted as his lieutenant. This adjunction is 
 made in the privacy of the Committee : Barras alone is known 
 as commander by the outside world ; all orders are given in his 
 name.' 
 
 " The Convention itself, which did not adjourn until five 
 o'clock in the morning, meets again at noon ; Barras just shows 
 himself there in order to reassure his colleagues. ' Remain at 
 your post,' he says to them ; ' I am going to mine.' 
 
 "The danger has become imminent. The vanguard, under 
 command of Carteaux on the Pont-Neuf, has fallen back before 
 the ' sectionaries ' of the right bank, who operate in junction 
 with those of the left, by way of the Pont-Neuf. A battalion of 
 these soldiers, driving General Carteaux before it, has taken up 
 its position in the Jardin de I'lnfante. Other 'sections' estab- 
 lish themselves on the steps of the Church of Saint-Roch. 
 Others attempt to force their way through the garden of the 
 Hotel de Noailles to the very gates of the yard of the Manege. 
 The heaviest mass of the 'sectionaries' is grouped under the 
 arcades of the The'atre de la R^publique, ready to dash from the 
 Rue de Richelieu to the Place du Carrousel. A number of our 
 own soldiers and bystanders block up the adjoining streets, 
 compelling the generals of the Convention to tighten the line of 
 
 ' The particulars contained in tlie Memorial de Sainte-Helhie in regard to 
 that period of Bonaparte's accession to celebrity here present some few inac- 
 curacies which have been pointed out ere now. " It is not to be wondered 
 at," says Thibaudeau in regard to the matter {Vie de NapoUon^ vol. i. p. 115), 
 " that after twenty-five years, and considering the circumstances under which 
 Napoleon was dictating, his memory should have betrayed him." " We are 
 still dealing with a period when generals were in the pockets of the repre- 
 sentatives. General Bonaparte's superiority does not require antedating ; this 
 could only be done at the expense of superiorities anterior to his, and it would 
 be not merely incorrect but even unjust. We record here the successive steps 
 of this great ascension by drawing upon our own recollections" (pp. 351 and 
 352). 
 
XXI FAIN'S ACCOUNT OF THE FIGHT 329 
 
 defence about the Tuileries. In consequence of this retrograde 
 movement, the 25,000 to 30,000 men of the 'sections' are left 
 free to advance to the uttermost corners of the streets constitut- 
 ing the extreme boundary between the Carrousel and the City ; 
 friend and foe are but fifteen paces apart. Once more does 
 Barras advance to the outposts, summoning the 'sections' to 
 retire, but the summons is greeted with hooting. It is impor- 
 tant that the loyalty of the soldiery shall not be shaken by the 
 population surging about them. Barras forbids them to stir 
 from the ranks, and harangues both officers and men. 
 
 " These precautions are timely, in view of the systematic at- 
 tempts of the enemy to enter into parleys" (pp. 357 and 358). 
 
 " At half-past four is heard the cry, ' To arms !' The fight 
 is commenced in all directions, and the cannon boom at one 
 and the same time in the Rue Saint-Honore', the Quai du 
 Louvre, and the Pont-Royal " (p. 361). 
 
 " Then is heard a firm voice exclaiming : ' The pretensions of 
 the " sections " were unfounded, but at all events we should be 
 lacking in sense did we consent to treat as a judicial case the 
 establishment of a great Republic ! The time for showing them 
 any consideration is past ; tlie rebels must be driven to submis- 
 sion by force ; it is conquer or die !' " ' (p. 362). 
 
 " During the action, Barras and those of his colleagues acting 
 as his deputies, with their staffs, wended their steps to all points 
 where their presence might be most required. They were seen 
 successively at the Cul-de-Sac Dauphin, in the Rue Saint-Ni- 
 caise, and at the Pont-Royal batteries " (p. 365). 
 
 "At nine o'clock Barras rides to the Assembly, dismounts, 
 and says to his colleagues : ' I have opposed force to force ; it 
 was absolutely necessary to fight those who were advancing 
 with the firm determination of occupying your benches. All 
 that remains to be done now is to scatter the remnants of the 
 rebellion. The assailants of Saint-Roch have intrenched them- 
 
 > '• The first shots were fired, not from the Hotel de Noailles, or, as said at 
 the time, from the hotel occupied by the restaurateur Venua, but from an ad- 
 joining house. . . . These shots were fired with the object of putting an end 
 to the indecision of the committees and preventing iheir consenting to any 
 compromise, which would have undoubtedly assured the triumph of the ' sec- 
 tions.' It was truly the signal for the battle. Bonaparte allowed it even to 
 be belie-.'ed that it was he who had given the order to fire."— Thibaudeau, 
 Vie de NapoUon, pp. 121 and 122. 
 
330 MEMOIRS OF BARRAS chap, xxi 
 
 selves in the church. Those of the Rue de I'Echelle and the Rue 
 Saint-Nicaise fell back under the arcades of the The'atre de la 
 Re'publique and the Palais-Royal. They are still too near, and 
 these are the dispositions which will bring the day's fighting to 
 a close. Duvigneau and Montchoisy, who are no longer required 
 in the Place Louis XV., advance with guns by way of the Rue 
 Royale, turn the Place Vendome by way of the Boulevard de la 
 jNIadeleine ; at the same time, Berruyer emerges from the Pas- 
 sage des Feuillants into the Place Vendome. Brune, issuing 
 from the defile of the Rue Saint-Nicaise, pushes in front of hira 
 howitzers, which finish sweeping the Rue de Richelieu; while 
 Carteaux, who has nothing left to do in the direction of the 
 Louvre, invades the Place du Palais-Royal for the purpose of 
 clearing the Rue Saint-Honore' as far as the Oratoire. The suc- 
 cess being no longer contested, only blank cartridges are fired ' " 
 (p. 366). 
 
 "At the sitting of the i8th, five days after the event, the 
 name of the general who was second in command to Barras is at 
 last mentioned. . . . 
 
 " Barras formally calls the attention of his colleagues to the 
 services rendered by his lieutenant, and causes to be issued the 
 decree confirming him in the position of second in command of 
 the Army of the Interior. 
 
 "From the tribune the name of Brigadier-General Bonaparte 
 passes into the newspapers, and that day emerges from the 
 obscurity which liad so long enveloped it. 
 
 "On the 24th Vende'miaire (i6th October, 1795), Bonaparte 
 is promoted to the rank of general of division ; then, ten days 
 later (4th Brumaire, 26th October), he is finally appointed gen- 
 eral-in-chief of the Army of the Interior" (pp. 372 and 373). 
 
 " The Vendemiaire commotion has now launched General 
 Bonaparte and his fortune " (p. 383). 
 
CHAPTER XXII 
 
 Order restored — I resign my command — Bonaparte's share in the 
 events of the 13th Vendemiaire — His quickness in seizing the 
 main point — Effect produced by my resignation — Carnot — Gen- 
 eral Beaufort — I move that Bonaparte be appointed general-in- 
 chief of the Army of the Interior — The objection is raised that 
 he is a henchman of mine — Hesitancy of the Convention — I 
 vouch for Bonaparte — His gratitude — I clothe him — He equips 
 himself regardless of expense^The ordonttateiir (intendant com- 
 missary) Lefebvrc — His mot on the little Corsican — I have him 
 supplied with arms — His selection — He is received by my social 
 acquaintances — A familiar guest of Mile. Montansier — Mmes. 
 Tallien, Chateau- Renaud, and De Stael — His overtures to Mme. 
 Tallien — How the emperor behaved to the ladies who had kind- 
 ly welcomed Bonaparte — His policy — He is desirous that I 
 should recommend him to Carnot — A pecuniary compensation 
 tendered me — I relinquish it to Bonaparte and Duvignau — The 
 lion's share — History of the Bonaparte family — Its poverty— 
 Antibes — Marseilles — Saint-Zacharie — M. de Chateauneuf — The 
 officer commanding the garrison — The Marquis de Cycere — Dis- 
 reputable conduct of the Bonaparte family — Their doings at 
 Marseilles — I seek to relieve their distress — The Republic's fur- 
 niture — Lucien seriously compromised — The innkeeper Boyer — 
 His virtuous daughter — Was Lucien compelled to make her his 
 wife? — The rise of the Bonaparte family — Joseph — Fesch — Lu- 
 cien as Brutus — Fesch, Inspector of Supplies — The X fami- 
 ly — Nocturnal visits — A pen picture of Mile. Julie — Her marriage 
 to Joseph — Mile. Desiree — Empress or Queen .'—Napoleon's over- 
 tures to her — He is rejected — She marries Bernadotte — Their 
 treatment of M. de Chateauneuf — Sad end of Mile. Boyer. 
 
 All things being restored to order following 
 upon the 13th Vendemiaire, the tranquillity reign- 
 ine in Paris determined me to once more tender to 
 
332 MEMOIRS OF BARRAS chap. 
 
 the Committee of Public Safety and the National 
 Convention my resignation of the extraordinary 
 power vested in me, and to ask that my successor 
 be appointed. 
 
 I have told the truth regarding whatever credit 
 may be due Bonaparte in the matter of the siege of 
 Toulon. But, as he has since his subsequent ap- 
 pearances on the stage attributed unto himself the 
 leading part and the sole influence in all respects, it 
 is necessary that I should once more point out in a 
 precise fashion what pertains to him personally. 
 
 Bonaparte was neither more nor less than my 
 aide-de-camp on the 13th Vendemiaire. I was 
 mounted ; he was afoot, and could consequently not 
 follow me wherever I went. The only mission he 
 received from me was to go to the Pont-Royal, and 
 return and report to me what was going on there. 
 He did not give, and had not the authority to give, 
 any order on his own account ; he was never at any 
 point of attack except at the Carrousel, whence he 
 did not stir after once going to it ; Brune was in 
 command there. I have not omitted the trait, how- 
 ever, which gave indication of a rather quick mili- 
 tary perception, when pulling me by the coat, and 
 drawing me a few paces away from a position expos- 
 ing me to the first discharge, he had said to me, in an 
 outburst of vivacity born of the circumstance, " All 
 would be lost were you killed ; the drama hinges 
 on you alone ; there is no one who could take your 
 place. What do you decide .''" It was then that I 
 ordered Brune to fire his cannon, and Bonaparte, 
 pressing my hand, added, " The Republic is saved." 
 It was during this talk that, a few shots having been 
 fired in our direction, Brune at my order responded 
 
XXII CARNOT'S SATISFACTION 333 
 
 by a volley of cannon, scattering in the twinkling 
 of an eye those fine warriors of the Le Pelletier 
 and other " sections " advancing by the Rue Saint- 
 Honore ; driven back by the runaways, they swelled 
 the number of the retreating force. 
 
 When I appeared before the Committee of Public 
 Safety for the purpose of tendering my resignation, 
 I noticed that several of its members, notably Car- 
 not, listened with satisfaction to what I was saying 
 in this connection. Republican gratitude for ser- 
 vices rendered is not of long endurance, any more 
 than that of royalty, when once the danger is past. 
 Carnot, who had been one of us on the 9th Ther- 
 midor against Robespierre, perhaps more from ne- 
 cessity than sentiment, had been compelled to show 
 his colors more boldly on the 13th Vendemiaire. 
 This victory extricated the former member of the 
 Committee of Public Safety from his false position 
 at a time he no longer was a member of it. In 
 spite of a certain amount of gratitude Carnot owed 
 to the man styled the general of the 13th Vende- 
 miaire, he felt no little embarrassment on seeing 
 me, owing to the opposite paths we had respectively 
 followed, both before and after the 9th Thermidor, 
 when I had come forward as a hater and destroyer 
 of the tyrannical system in which Carnot had been 
 a participant. He was therefore the first to open 
 his lips, saying, " Our colleague can be profitably 
 replaced by General Beaufort." It was pointed out 
 to Carnot that he had made happier military selec- 
 tions. Beaufort was admitted to be the most im- 
 moral and incapable man in the army. I opposed 
 this improper choice by saying, "As for myself, I 
 propose the selection of my chief of staff. Bona- 
 
334 MEMOIRS OF BARRAS chap. 
 
 parted He had been nothing more than my aide- 
 de-camp ; but in investing him with this high func- 
 tion, for which he certainly held no brevet, I was 
 seeking to enhance his position, and pave the way, 
 so to speak, for a transition to the highest rank. 
 Hardly had I proposed this, when I heard whispered 
 about me, " 'Tis one of his henchmen." I left the 
 Committee, and at once returned to the Convention, 
 then in session. I began by announcing that calm 
 reigned once more in Paris; that, invested with a 
 dangerous dictatorship, I felt the desire and need of 
 surrendering the fasces, by handing in my resigna- 
 tion ; I introduced to the Convention as my suc- 
 cessor my first aide-de-camp, who had acted as my 
 chief of staff, Bonaparte, and praised his military 
 talents. The Convention, to whom the very name 
 of the man I was proposing was unknown, hesitated, 
 so I vouched for him personally, at the same time 
 consenting not to sever my connection with the 
 armed force, but continue as representative of the 
 people with the army. The Convention assented 
 by a large majority to my two propositions. The 
 title of general-in-chief of the Army of the Interior 
 i8th ven- ^^^ therefore retained by me. So it was 
 demiaire, that Bouapartc, by a decree of the i8th 
 \ear II. Vendcmiairc, was appointed general sec- 
 ond in command of the Army of the Interior in 
 spite of the committees. He moved respectfully 
 towards me, in an attitude expressive of the live- 
 liest gratitude, saying, " You overwhelm me ; all my 
 family were already loaded with your benefits." 
 Later on will he seen what the gratitude of Bona- 
 parte and his family was worth ! 
 
 Those forming my social circle in Paris have 
 
XXII LEFEBVRE'S MOT 335 
 
 been in a position to notice that Bonaparte never 
 left my side from the time of his arrival in the capi- 
 tal. His wardrobe was of the scantiest ; and in spite 
 of the simplicity of the period, he was even then far 
 behind the fashion, or even the regulation habili- 
 ments ; but as it was his wont to clothe himself with- 
 out much ado from the stores of the Republic, he 
 once more came to me and begged me to do what 
 I had already done for him at the siege of Toulon — 
 viz., to supply him with sufificient material to clothe 
 himself with. I gave him an unlimited order on 
 the intendant commissary of war, Lefebvre, who 
 fraternally and kindly asked him what his require- 
 ments were. At Bonaparte's request, an order was 
 delivered to him by Lefebvre. This order called 
 for eleven ells of blue cloth for coat, frock-coat, and 
 cloak ; two ells of red cloth for waistcoat and jacket, 
 and several ells of white cloth for trousers. It will 
 be seen from this matter of detail, so minutely re- 
 called, that I recognize the principle that nothing is 
 small that concerns a great man. Bonaparte took 
 care, as the vulgar saying goes, to get good measure 
 — so much so that Lefebvre used laughingly to say 
 the little Corsican made free use of the Republic's 
 shops. Bonaparte never forgave one of the most 
 worthy officials of the time this mot uttered without 
 malice. 
 
 Bonaparte also asked me for some arms from 
 among those stored with the inspectors of the hall 
 of the Convention. I granted his request; they 
 were delivered to him, and, once more doing justice 
 to all his deserts, he selected the finest. Persons 
 who saw him perpetually dogging my steps thought 
 they could not very well dispense with inviting him 
 
336 MEMOIRS OF BARRAS chap. 
 
 to their houses whenever they extended that courtesy 
 to me. Thus it was that Bonaparte became acquaint- 
 ed with Mile. Montansier. He expressed the wish 
 of being placed on the free list of her theatre; she 
 kindly granted his request, and invited him to din- 
 ner. He became a regular guest at the old lady's 
 table, and paid her assiduous court. I had taken 
 him with me to the houses of Mmes. Tallien, Cha- 
 teau - Renaud, De Stael, and several other houses, 
 where he was received and invited to dinner. His 
 pretensions in the case of Mme. Tallien met with no 
 success, but merely a disdain bringing him much 
 ridicule. It will be seen how this lady as Avell as all 
 others, with but one exception, were treated by the 
 man on his attaining power and fortune. Even the 
 one whom I am singling out as an exception, in 
 whose case one might have thought that in certain 
 respects his heart was involved — this privileged 
 woman, who will become his wife, what will in turn 
 be her fate when, after having aided and abetted 
 him in all his intrigues, she will no longer be found 
 necessary to his ambition, and he will, if I may be 
 so permitted to say, have squeezed this lemon as 
 well as many others .'' 
 
 First and foremost, Bonaparte sought to derive 
 from his social relations, closely akin to the pursuit 
 of pleasure, connections and combinations which he 
 believed would lead to something. His civilities 
 ever had an altogether personal political object; 
 hence did he ask me to commend him warmly to 
 Carnot, the probable successor of Aubry, whom cir- 
 cumstances had removed from the scene. 
 
 Although the victory of the 13th Vendemiaire 
 was sufficiently reassuring for the committees of 
 
XXII HIS DISINTERESTEDNESS 337 
 
 the Government not to feel any anxiety, and conse- 
 quently any gratitude, they nevertheless showed a 
 desire to testify to it in my favor in their peculiar 
 way. They offered me a considerable indemnity. 
 I answered that the one allowed the members of the 
 Convention satisfied me. " But," said I to them, 
 " if you wish to do good to some one who will not 
 take offence at it, I will send you Bonaparte and 
 Duvignau, the chief of his staff. Both are in need 
 of money. By virtue of the right you now confer 
 on me, I merely ask that they shall share with those 
 who are no less in need than themselves, and dis- 
 tribute one - half the indemnity among the brave 
 fellows who distinguished themselves on the 13th, 
 especially among the wounded, the widows and 
 children of the dead." 
 
 I have been unable to obtain any further partic- 
 ulars as to this distribution, except that the amount 
 handed over by Bonaparte was an extremely small 
 one. On my asking him subsequently on what ba- 
 sis the distribution had been made, and how much 
 had remained to him as his share, he seemed to 
 think a smile constituted a sufficient answer; then, 
 if I insisted on a fuller explanation, he would laugh 
 all the more and shrug his shoulders. This system 
 of accounts appeared to me bold and precocious for 
 the times I am recalling. Bonaparte had done him- 
 self the justice of thinking that it was due to him 
 to appropriate the largest share. Anticipating the 
 days when he shall take the lion's share, he believes 
 that on this occasion he has given proof of great 
 moderation in not keeping the whole amount for 
 himself and his family, for whose share of it it is 
 difficult to discover any reason ; but already at this 
 I — 22 
 
338 MEMOIRS OF BARRAS chap. 
 
 early date this family was to get its share of any 
 and all profits derived from France, as of any spoils 
 taken from the enemy. 
 
 It is true that the Bonaparte family, subsequently 
 to become so burdensome to our country, lived then 
 in a state of great poverty. Driven out of Corsica 
 for reasons far less to their credit than they have 
 since sought to allege, Mother Bonaparte and her 
 children, on their first landing, took up their resi- 
 dence at Antibes, where they presented the spec- 
 tacle of the most distressing poverty, living solely 
 on borrowed money, hardly sufficient to provide 
 them with a mattress they shared in common, and 
 a cauldron wherein to boil vegetables, and out of 
 which they all ate together. 
 
 When the Bonaparte family had exhausted such 
 resources as it had been able to obtain at Antibes, 
 it moved to the house of a respected land-owner 
 of Saint -Zacharie, a few leagues distant from Mar- 
 seilles. This gentleman, by name M. de Chateau- 
 neuf, whose income was of the smallest, welcomed 
 them all, lodged and fed them generously and with 
 delicacy during several months. When they had 
 tired and exhausted Saint-Zacharie as they had An- 
 tibes, they proceeded to Marseilles, where, being as 
 destitute of means as at Antibes, they paraded as 
 Corsican refugees proscribed for the cause of liberty, 
 and as such begged food and lodging. They excit- 
 ed the humanity of the commander of the garrison, 
 who considered them as relations of soldiers, since 
 one of them, an artillery officer, was in the service. 
 He caused them to be given military rations, con- 
 sisting of bread, meat, vegetables, wood, and salt. 
 This commander, a truly humane man himself, had 
 
xxn DISTRESS OF THE BONAPARTES 339 
 
 written to me on the matter in order to obtain my 
 permission. Not only had I granted it, but I had 
 told him that if the relief he was orrantine these un- 
 fortunate people should cause him to be reprimand- 
 ed, and the accountant's department of the Ministry 
 of War not approve, I would give him credit for it, 
 and reimburse him without his getting into any dif- 
 ficulty. Strong in the permission of the keeper of 
 stores at Saint-Maximin, the Bonapartes at first took 
 up their quarters in the house of M. de Cazes, who 
 had been guillotined ; then in that of the Marquis 
 de Cycere, an emigre. The Corsican family were 
 perfectly well satisfied to get their existence out of 
 the confiscated property of emigres, and out of per- 
 sons guillotined for political reasons. 
 
 No species of trade was, must it be recorded, re- 
 pugnant to the Bonaparte family for the purpose of 
 ekinof out a livelihood at Marseilles — even that of 
 the budding allurements of the young ladies ! . . . 
 But the enforced interest of their position did not 
 prevent them from also indulging in pleasures whose 
 disinterestedness did not prevent scandal, or tend 
 to the exaltation of morality. 
 
 In all the appeals for pecuniary help which Bona- 
 parte had successfully made to me since his meeting 
 me at Toulon, it was always, he would say to me, 
 " to come in aid to my unfortunate family, to my 
 poverty-stricken mother." I also have had a mother 
 whom I cherished, whose virtues are ever present to 
 my mind, the object of a worship with me. Bona- 
 parte had heard me express this sentiment, about 
 which I have always felt the need of conversing with 
 persons enjoying my intimacy ; he readily conceived 
 that sympathy in the things nearest the heart was 
 
340 MEMOIRS OF BARRAS chap. 
 
 an additional means of access to the person it was 
 sought to influence ; the sentiment of fihal piety- 
 was a sure path to reach my heart, and render me 
 more indulgent towards past misdeeds ennobled by 
 so moral a principle. So it was that Bonaparte 
 spoke to me in an effusive fashion of his mother's 
 and sisters' wretched condition at Marseilles. Not 
 only did I shut my eyes to the reprehensible side of 
 his avaricious conduct, but I wrote to the commis- 
 sary of the department of the Bouches-du- Rhone 
 that he should cause to be given to Mother Bona- 
 parte the most necessary articles of furniture, to be 
 temporarily taken from the Government warehouses. 
 Mother Bonaparte and her damsels, fed by the com- 
 mander of the garrison — i. e., by the Republic — were 
 also furnished more decently by the same Republic; 
 but their conduct did not rise to the improvement 
 in their household belongings ; they dreamed little 
 of reforming a behavior which not undeservedly 
 called forth the censure of the scrupulous Mar- 
 seillais. The daughters of the Bonaparte house 
 were so fully appreciated for their lack of morality 
 that they were on several occasions formally exclud- 
 ed from invitations to balls given in Marseilles, in 
 spite of the requests and hints preferred by friends 
 of their own sex, whom they begged to procure such 
 invitations for them. 
 
 Lucien, a petty store - keeper of forage {sic) at 
 Saint-Maximin (which he had, as I have stated, em- 
 bellished with the name of Marathoti), and in the 
 enjoyment of a small salary paid in assignats, had 
 likewise appealed to me as early as the siege of 
 Toulon with the object of retaining his post, where 
 he had already begun to give proofs of his rapacity. 
 
XXII LUCIEN BONAPARTE COMPROMISED 341 
 
 He lay under the accusation of having diverted 
 stores from his warehouse. My departure from 
 Saint-Maximin prevented my investigating the case. 
 He had the support of the local popular society, one 
 of whose leading lights he was, wearing the Phryg- 
 ian cap, and it is to his demagogic bawling that he 
 owed being kept at his humble post, which, while 
 adding considerably to his resources, considering he 
 was in a state of indigence, did not respond to his 
 expectations. He lodged with one Boyer, an inn- 
 keeper, who gave him credit ; the seducer rather 
 than the lover of the daughter of this worthy citizen, 
 he succeeded in marrying her through his Jacobin 
 influence. 
 
 It has been generally believed that Lucien was 
 forced into this union by his father-in-law, who, hav- 
 ing surprised Lucien courting his daughter, had, 
 after a club meeting at which the latter had been 
 spouting equality, turning his very utterances against 
 him, said, "You who have so much to say about 
 principles, why do you not commence practising 
 your morality by marrying my daughter, for in not 
 doing so you are injuring her reputation ?" It is 
 also alleged that, this remonstrance having been 
 uttered in the presence of a large gathering, Lucien 
 had not been able to escape from the marriage. 
 This version is a fable spread by the Bonapartes 
 themselves in order to elevate their social status, as 
 well as in all other respects. The fact is, that at the 
 time Lucien married the daughter of the innkeeper 
 Boyer it was she who was the match, and he, Lu- 
 cien, who sued for her hand, which was only grant- 
 ed to him because she was about to become a 
 mother, and his commerce with this young girl was 
 
342 MEMOIRS OF BARRAS chap. 
 
 even reputed to be rather one of interest than of 
 love, since father Boyer, who had already supported 
 citizen Lucien Bonaparte free of cost, had bound 
 himself to support his son-in-law as well as his 
 daughter and their issue. Napoleon himself, while 
 blaming Lucien's marriage with the daughter of the 
 Saint- Maximin innkeeper, has said that "the wife 
 was more respectable than the husband." 
 
 In view of the future soaring of this family, invad- 
 ing as it will every land, let us pause and place on 
 record its true beginnings in the midst of all the 
 passions, whether flattering or inimical, which have 
 their respective reasons for obscuring the truth. 
 
 The Bonapartes arrive on French soil in a state 
 of abject poverty. One of them is an artillery lieu- 
 tenant ; this is Napoleon, the second son. 
 
 Joseph, the eldest, is at first a clerk in a warehouse 
 of food supplies, in the neighborhood of Marseilles. 
 
 Fesch, their uncle, is a keeper of forage stores at 
 Albinga. 
 
 Lucien is storekeeper of spirits (sic) at Saint- 
 Maximin. 
 
 Let us now follow their progress to the present 
 time : we have made a captain of the young artillery 
 lieutenant ; soon I appoint him a major, as a reward 
 for the first mission I have intrusted him with on 
 the Mediterranean coast. Next I promote him to 
 the rank of chef de brigade, then to that of brigadier- 
 eeneral for his behavior at the siege of Toulon. He 
 was a ruined man previous to the 1 3th Vendemiaire ; 
 I take him by the hand, so to speak, and raise him 
 to my own position. He is now general of division, 
 and commander-in-chief, in my stead, of the Army of 
 the Interior. 
 
XXII HUMBLE BEGINNINGS 343 
 
 None of the Bonapartes suffered the grass to 
 grow under their feet, and all begin to gather a crop 
 of gold in the field of intrigue. Lucien, erstwhile 
 Brutus, storekeeper at Saint-Maximin, which he has 
 rebaptized, has succeeded in escaping the punish- 
 ment due to his breach of trust by having himself 
 appointed assistant-commissary, then commissary, of 
 war. 
 
 Fesch, the warehouseman, has become inspector 
 of supplies ; he soars with his own pinions by laying 
 his hands on everything he can steal, and becomes a 
 contractor. 
 
 Joseph has wormed his way into the office of the 
 intendant-commissary Chauvet, whom he captivates 
 by his flatteries in spite of his laziness and his inca- 
 pacity ; little it matters to him that he is despised as 
 much as he deserves to be. Like Lucien, he suc- 
 ceeds in becoming assistant-commissary, then com- 
 missary, of war. Here is a position giving him 
 rank, uniform, administrative and political power in 
 the times whereof we speak ; and from the height of 
 this position he will be enabled to set traps, catch 
 victims, and make his fortune. 
 
 Just about this time died M. X ,' senior, a very 
 
 rich merchant of Marseilles, and the X family, 
 
 comprising three sons and as many daughters, 
 chanced to be exposed to revolutionary proscrip- 
 tion. One of the X boys, named Etienne, 
 
 ' I here put in force the rule I have adopted of substituting the letter X 
 for the names of persons whom Barras has insulted in his Memoirs each time 
 that there will not be an historical interest, superior to every consideration of 
 courtesy, compelling me to print them in full. I will add that it is not with- 
 out some hesitancy I have decided to take such a liberty with the text, the 
 letter as well as the spirit of which I have pledged myself to scrupulously 
 respect. — G. D. 
 
344 MEMOIRS OF BARRAS chap. 
 
 wishing to confer nobility on the paternal fortune 
 accumulated from the sale of soap, conceived the 
 idea of converting himself into an aristocrat ; as the 
 result of his pretension he was incarcerated. His 
 sisters, overwhelmed with grief, went the rounds of 
 all the revolutionary matadors in order to obtain 
 the liberty of their brother. Joseph Bonaparte, com- 
 missary of war and ardent Corsican revolutionary, 
 was pointed out to them as one of the powers of 
 
 the day, so the ladies X called on him. Joseph 
 
 Bonaparte, after having made them call on him sev- 
 eral times and at all hours, even late at night, in 
 order to enhance the value of his influence by a 
 semblance of mystery, thus made sufficient progress 
 in the intimacy of these ladies to ask the hand of 
 one of them ; it was the second. Mile. Julie. She 
 was small of stature, pimpled to a degree, as perfectly 
 ugly and hideous as ever she could be, but she had 
 a dowry and expectations in the shape of several 
 legacies, notably one from a brother of hers named 
 Nicolas, already very rich through usury, and who 
 was to become far richer still in the same profes- 
 sion ; he had taken a kind of public pledge to re- 
 main single. 
 
 The marriage of Joseph with Mile. Julie X 
 
 was crowned by the restoration to liberty of Etienne 
 
 X . Napoleon Bonaparte, on seeing this first 
 
 success of his elder brother, showed a desire to fol- 
 low in his steps, and sued for the hand of the 
 
 youngest of the three ladies X , Desiree by 
 
 name, since Mme. Bernadotte. It was she who was 
 pleased to resign herself to endure the severe cli- 
 mate of Sweden, to allow herself to be crowned in 
 Stockholm, and to sit on the hyperborean throne — 
 
XXII "ONE CORSICAN SUFFICIENT" 345 
 
 which may doubtless be considered a great immola- 
 tion of this august princess, after the sacrifice she 
 had made of all the affairs of the heart she had 
 entered into and been compelled to leave behind 
 her in France. Napoleon had wheedled Mile. De- 
 siree X with all the skill inherent to his char- 
 acter when desirous of attaining a certain object. 
 Desiree, whom he had almost captivated, as re- 
 vealed by many expressions of regret escaped from 
 her lips since the elevation of Bonaparte, would 
 have accepted him, but her guardian and family 
 together said, " One Corsican of that family is quite 
 sufficient." There was no anxiety to become con- 
 nected with the little ultra-revolutionary captain of 
 Toulon and the rabid store-keeper of Saint- Max- 
 imin. 
 
 As a result of the duty I have had to fulfil of 
 properly establishing at the outset the early features 
 of the accession of the Bonapartes, and feeling a 
 sense of disgust at the idea of recurring to their 
 methods respecting those who came to their aid in 
 their hour of distress, I will at once proceed to 
 show their conduct towards all those who helped 
 them to live. 
 
 In later times fortune frowned on M. de Chateau- 
 neuf, their host of Saint-Zacharie ; he was compelled 
 to take the position of tax-gatherer, which I obtained 
 for him. M. de Chateauneuf is one of the first per- 
 sons Bonaparte dismissed on his accession to power. 
 
 The worthy garrison commander who had fed the 
 Bonapartes at Marseilles, having since then been 
 dismissed, came to Paris, when Bonaparte had at- 
 tained power, to appeal. He thought he would be 
 warmly welcomed by him : he always found his door 
 
346 MEMOIRS OF BARRAS chap. 
 
 closed to him ; he then called upon the other mem- 
 bers of the Bonaparte family, and was likewise re- 
 pulsed. In his despair he ventured to write to 
 Bonaparte that, confessing without shame the sore 
 straits to which he was reduced, he now implored 
 him to do for him merely what he had in days past 
 done for his family. A few minutes later he re- 
 ceived orders to leave Paris within twenty -four 
 hours. 
 
 As to the daughter of the worthy innkeeper of 
 Saint- Maximin, Mile. Boyer, who had unfortunately 
 become Mme. Lucien Bonaparte, her husband, once 
 favored by fortune, sought, it is said, to have her 
 educated sufficiently to hold her position as lady of 
 his house ; what else was this but one more piece of 
 deceit added to the many others, in order to cast a 
 veil over the melancholy fate in store for the wom- 
 an who had become an obstacle to the parvenu's 
 schemes ? I have learned that later, a victim to the 
 ill-treatment of her husband, and at the same time 
 repulsed by the Bonaparte family, which since the 
 successful achievements of its head claimed to dis- 
 cover a mesalliance in this union with the daughter 
 of an innkeeper, Mme. Lucien Bonaparte had died. 
 As a sequel to that death was witnessed the cynical 
 ease, the daring freedom it gave to all the excesses 
 of Lucien But do not let us anticipate ; the read- 
 er will see matters as they develop, in due course. 
 
 Without seeking to share in the suspicions and 
 dreadful rumors spread at the time, is it possible, 
 when recalling so many incidents in the history of 
 France, to overlook to what odious imputations of 
 every species of treacherous deeds has at several 
 periods given rise the intercourse of people of high 
 
XXII CORSICAN TREACHERY 347 
 
 rank of Italy with France ? May we not believe 
 that all that is odious and criminal in the employ- 
 ment of certain secret proceedings has come to us 
 from Italy ? And Corsica, which is really Italy in 
 so many respects, is it not, in respect of treachery, 
 more than Italy reinforced? 
 
CHAPTER XXIII 
 
 Various opinions on the Assembly's retirement — Its resolve — Last 
 acts of the Convention — Billaud and Collot transported — Joseph 
 Le Bon — Amnesty — Slaughterers in the south — Prosecution of 
 the Compagjiies de Jehu and du Soleil — Rovere, Saladin, Lo- 
 mont, Aubry, Miranda, and General Menou placed on trial — 
 Julien of Toulouse — Noble works reflecting credit on the last 
 days of the Convention — Fresh charges brought against it — 
 Thibaudeau accuses Tallien — Thibaudeau, "the iron bar" — 
 " There is a straw " — The " cold water tap " — Mot of Desmoulins 
 about Saint -Just — What has been said of the " Anti-Macchia- 
 velli " — Close of the Convention's session — Its stupendous labors 
 reviewed — Consequences of the 13th Vendemiaire — Lafond — I 
 obtain the acquittal of General Menou — Bonaparte's tergiversa- 
 tions at that period — Mme. de Stael's narrative — Bonaparte's 
 fears in presence of the tribunal trying Menou — His behavior 
 and mine — " To be or not to be " — Bivouac of the bourgeois of 
 Paris — My report on the 13th Vendemiaire — Was it drawn up by 
 me? — Tallien's eloquence — "Certainly he is certain" — "The 
 veil must be rent asunder" — Where was the veil? — Had Fouche 
 been as much of a speaker as an intriguer — Talleyrand's opinion 
 of fine words — Fouche's services on the 9th Thermidor — Solu- 
 tion of the problem. 
 
 Strong in the victory of the 1 3th Vendemiaire, a 
 few members of the National Convention, for so 
 long oppressed, found themselves perhaps all the 
 more struck with the idea that the work of the Con- 
 stituent Assembly had perished because this As- 
 sembly had had the modesty, or honesty pushed to 
 the extreme, to go into retirement as a body, to re- 
 tain no powers whatsoever, and to even forbid them- 
 selves from filling any offices. These conventionnels 
 
CHAP. XXIII THE ASSEMBLY'S RETIREMENT 349 
 
 may perhaps have thought, in the interest of their 
 personal defence as much as in that of the main- 
 tenance of the Constitution of the Year III., that 
 they should remain at their posts and continue the 
 National Convention ; but those 'who may have in- 
 dulged in this idea were in a small minority; and 
 the sound majority, one may even call it the unani- 
 mous majority, did not dwell on it for an instant. 
 The habitual disinterestedness of this much-ma- 
 ligned Assembly settled the question. It was once 
 more frankly resolved that the decrees of the 5 th 
 and 13th Fructidor should be executed purely and 
 simply, and the Constitution of the Year III. put in 
 force at once. Pending this and the arrival of the 
 fresh Third, the Convention, such as it stood, did 
 not relax attending to its duties, and continued tak- 
 ing measures useful to the establishment of liberty, 
 steering a middle course among all the rocks and 
 shoals it still encountered in this great commotion, 
 when all the parties mutilated one by the other still 
 stood face to face, although represented only by 
 their fragments. 
 
 20th Vendemiaire, Year IV. — On the 20th Ven- 
 demiaire, the Convention, in order to have done 
 with the acts of justice demanded by public opin- 
 ion, and which could not be assimilated to revenge, 
 repealed articles 2 and 3 of the law of the 4th 
 Prairial, enacting that Barere, Billaud, and CoUot 
 should be tried, and instructed the committees to 
 transport them. With just severity, it passed 
 to the order of the day, a refere which it was 
 sought to introduce in regard to Joseph Le Bon, 
 sentenced to death a few days previously by the 
 criminal tribunal of the department of the Somme. 
 
35° MEMOIRS OF BARRAS chap. 
 
 Some, finding themselves in a situation which was 
 liable to some hard comparison with that of Joseph 
 Le Bon, others, from a principle of sincere respect 
 for the acts of the Revolution and indulgence for its 
 excesses, would have liked to have seen blood cease 
 to flow, and that even Joseph Le Bon should be 
 included in the general amnesty alone capable of 
 terminating the Revolution ; but the National Con- 
 vention thought rightly that the crime imputed to 
 Joseph Le Bon, and for which he had been sen- 
 tenced by process of law, could under no circum- 
 stance be allowed to derive benefit from the am- 
 nesty; but yet the Convention, while acting with 
 such rigorous and pitiless equity for the execution 
 of the man who had shown none in the exercise of 
 his functions, did not consider it meet that it should 
 abandon the men of the Revolution to the hatred 
 and revenge of its enemies. It therefore prohibited 
 the prosecution of all public officials on the ground 
 of any measures they might have taken while in 
 office, when such measures had been authorized by 
 law ; sentences pronounced against them were treat- 
 ed as null and void. 
 
 2C)th Vendeniiaire, Year IV. — It was impossible 
 not to order the prosecution of the Contpagnies de 
 Jehu and du Soleil for the murders committed by 
 them, since these royalist associations were still in 
 full action ; again, it was very difficult not to exclude 
 from public offices, at any rate until the restoration 
 of peace, the instigators of seditious measures, the 
 emigres and their relations, and to order the execu- 
 tion of the laws against the priests, disturbers of the 
 public peace ; for if it was necessary to save the 9th 
 Thermidor, so pure in its principle and so unfortu- 
 
XXIII LABORS OF THE CONVENTION 351 
 
 nately spoiled in its results, it behooved likewise not 
 to lose the 1 3th Vendemiaire, which had come so 
 tardily to repair its breaches. But the Convention, 
 content with meting out stern justice to the most 
 dangerous and guilty men of the post-Thermidorian 
 reaction, decreed the arrest of Rovere, Saladin, Lo- 
 mont, Aubry, and General Menou — all authors of 
 the disturbances which had so nearly been fatal to 
 the Republic — and that General Menou, who had 
 shown himself so unworthy of his post in the 
 presence of the revolted " sections," should at once 
 be placed on his trial. Julien, the deputy from 
 Toulouse, arrested on the 28th Brumaire, Year II., 
 and whose indictment had been decreed on the 26th 
 Ventose following, in connection with the affair in 
 which Chabot and Bazire lost their heads, had been 
 liberated from the effects of this decree on the 20th 
 Germinal, Year III., but not recalled to the bosom 
 of the Convention. Under the impression that the 
 last moment was more favorable to his position, 
 Julien of Toulouse wrote to clear himself of the 
 charges brought against him. The Convention, re- 
 membering that as this accusation had been man- 
 aged by the Committee of Public Safety, doubtless 
 with cruel rigor and in contempt of all judicial 
 forms, there might still be something which might 
 not leave altogether intact the honor of some of the 
 accused, did not see fit to deal with such a question 
 as if by a revolutionary decision, and referred the in- 
 vestigation of Julien's petition to the committees. 
 The Convention, having returned to the happiest 
 times of the session, to the generous and patriotic 
 designs whose object) had been the establishing of 
 liberty, rising superior to all individual passions 
 
352 MEMOIRS OF BARRAS chap. 
 
 which had for so long disgraced and grieved it, 
 pending the arrival of the new Third, whose election 
 was then taking place, devoted itself to nobly ter- 
 minating its mission by rendering decrees of organ- 
 ization which were to make it respected in its 
 expiring moments and honored forever in history. 
 Within less than a fortnight the Convention, re- 
 sponding daily to the needs of imperative circum- 
 stances, either regarding the direction of armies or 
 the home administration, still had time to found the 
 most essential establishments, which were so many 
 actual creations. It provided for the organization 
 of the mints and the workshops connected with 
 them, the Bibliotheque Nationale and its adminis- 
 tration ; that of public instruction in all its branches; 
 
 Brumaire, f^s primary, central, and special schools, 
 
 Year II. a,nd the Institut National; lastly, the estab- 
 lishment of the seven national y^^'^.y. The Conven- 
 tion also decreed a new criminal code and the 
 abolition of the death penalty as soon as general 
 peace should be restored. 
 
 Will it be believed that, at the time when the 
 Convention was putting the finishing touches to 
 these glorious works, which would have sufficed to 
 fill several sessions of an assembly, it should have 
 been subjected to fresh accusations, just as if it had 
 sought to begin the Revolution over again, and 
 return to a system of terror which still threatened 
 France ? 
 
 It is true that this accusation was the work of 
 M. Thibaudeau, that it was directed by him against 
 Tallien, whose personal enemy he was, and that M. 
 Thibaudeau had even gone so far as to make a 
 speech attacking Tallien at a time he was absent 
 
xxiii THIBAUDEAU'S SANS-CULOTTISME 353 
 
 and could hardly foresee this premeditated improvi- 
 sation. I think I have recorded that previous to 
 the 9th Thermidor, Thibaudeau, sitting at the sum- 
 mit of the " Mountain," was second to none in his 
 Republicanism and his garb of sans - culottisme ; 
 he attracted attention by a squalor altogether per- 
 sonal to him, wearing merely a jacket, no collar, a 
 shirt exposing his breast, and sabots, and his garb 
 was only to be compared to that of the cooper 
 Granet of Marseilles, and the wool-carder Armon- 
 ville of Rheims. It will be readily conceived that 
 this man, who had been compelled to change his 
 political costume and ways in view of the 9th 
 Thermidor, which had deprived him of his chiefs, 
 Robespierre and Saint -Just, could not forgive 
 Tallien for having been one of the primary authors 
 of that 9th Thermidor. M. Thibaudeau, who in 
 the days of his Republican flexibility did not lay 
 claim to firmness, has since then wished it to be 
 believed that at all times his conduct had been 
 stiffness itself, and was modest enough to say of 
 himself that he was " an iron bar," to which Freron 
 wittily replied, " An iron bar — yes, truly, but with a 
 straw in it." 
 
 Tallien, whose wit was not very sharp, did not 
 utter many original bright sayings, but was wont to 
 repeat those uttered by others, circulate them, and 
 multiply them in his conversation, which was not 
 lively but interminable, thus obtaining the sobriquet 
 of the " cold-water tap." 
 
 Camilla Desmoulins had, previous to the 9th 
 
 Thermidor, said of Saint-Just, "He carries his head 
 
 like a Saint-Sacrament." Saint-Just, to whom this 
 
 had been repeated, said, " I will make him carry his 
 
 1—23 
 
354 MEMOIRS OF BARRAS chap. 
 
 quite differently." It is a matter of record how 
 cruelly he kept his word to his illustrious victim, 
 whom he dragged to the scaffold, whither he followed 
 him some little time after. On the present occa- 
 sion M. Thibaudeau, who from the summit of the 
 " Mountain " had so readily voted for the death 
 of Camille Desmoulins, Herault-Sechelles, Danton, 
 and so many others — this M. Thibaudeau would 
 doubtless have in his turn liked to have revenged 
 himself of Freron's mot repeated by Tallien, but 
 this was no longer feasible ; and after the pledges 
 M. Thibaudeau had, all in due course, given to ter- 
 rorism, he thought the time had come for him to 
 assume the manners and language of antiterror- 
 ism. It was with this idea in his mind that he 
 charged the absent Tallien with seeking to re-estab- 
 lish the system of the Terror. It has been said 
 that the King of Prussia, when writing in his youth 
 his Anti-Macchiavelli, had sought to divert atten- 
 tion from the Macchiavellianism he was meditating, 
 " and had spat in the plate, so that no one should 
 touch it." This motive might perhaps apply to the 
 case of M. Thibaudeau when accusing of terrorism 
 Tallien the Thermidorian. The National Conven- 
 tion treated as it deserved this attack, as malicious 
 as it was ill-founded; the malevolence of M. Thi- 
 baudeau was appreciated at its just worth. 
 
 The National Convention, after a fortnight thus 
 industriously employed since the 20th Vendemiaire, 
 the elections of the Republic over or not, resolved 
 to remain no longer in the form of existence anterior 
 3d Brumaire, to recently promulgated laws. On the 
 Year IV ^d Brumairc it announced that its ses- 
 sion ended there and then. 
 
XXIII A QUERY FOR PHILOSOPHERS 35S 
 
 I do not pretend to anticipate the verdict of his- 
 tory on this terrible and memorable session of the 
 National Convention, doubtless the most astound- 
 ing of all the political assemblies that the world has 
 seen. Its most irreconcilable enemies, those whom 
 it vanquished and humiliated, those whose positions 
 it disturbed by compelling them to become resigned 
 to equality — would they ever be able to cause the 
 claims acquired by the National Convention to the 
 interest, I venture to say the gratitude, of humanity, 
 to be passed over? The most furious passions 
 doubtless animated it to excess, and carried it be- 
 yond all social proprieties and the generally accept- 
 ed limits of politics. But could all that its mission 
 enjoined upon it to do for France be accomplished 
 in passionless fashion ? How, without passions, 
 create and organize fourteen armies ? How indu- 
 rate them to war so as to enable them to face the 
 seasoned troops of the European coalition } How 
 improvise chiefs capable of leading them ? How 
 overthrow a coalition of kings no less in unison 
 than the one which has since so well disposed of 
 France ? How succeed in giving to her that beau- 
 tiful and secure frontier of the Rhine, Alps, and 
 Pyrenees which the Assembly had gained, and 
 which satisfied its ambition ? How found a new 
 society on the remains of the one so hostile to it, 
 and whose roots went so deep ? How, lastly, with- 
 out passions, substitute the French Republic for a 
 monarchy that had endured for fourteen centuries ? 
 
 Tell us, ye profound philosophers, ye severe and 
 cold judges of history, of calm and judicious history 
 — tell us if a nation left alone against all other na- 
 tions can-accomplish similar miracles if not possessed 
 
35^ MEMOIRS OF BARRAS chap. 
 
 of great energy? If it could have accomplished 
 them without a state of superhuman enthusiasm, 
 self -kindled and set aflame by an almost divine 
 inspiration ? Ah, doubtless it would have been to 
 be desired that this enthusiasm should have been 
 kept within bounds by sober reflection, and never 
 have deviated from the paths of humanity ; but 
 when one sees those who have seemed to be the 
 authors of all the delirious enthusiasm which then 
 stirred up France become its first victims, when one 
 sees the actors in it maimed, ruined, and butchered, 
 and the greater number of the survivors still poor 
 after having been the dispensers and masters of the 
 treasures of the State, who is there to deny them at 
 the very least probity, self-abnegation, disinterested- 
 ness, and indifference to everything except country? 
 Again, when one sees standing out among all those 
 ruins, nowadays swept away, the imperishable mon- 
 uments that the passage of the Convention has left 
 behind it in all parts of things human which it is 
 possible for our intelligence to grasp, who is there 
 to refuse consideration, respect, and even gratitude 
 to this assembly, forcing its way past all obstacles 
 past and present to attain the result, come what 
 may, it has secured for all time — viz., the ameliora- 
 tion of the destinies of the human race, founded on 
 laws themselves based on the rights of man, liberty, 
 and equality ? 
 
 I have stated that the vanquished of Vendemiaire 
 experienced more fright than hurt. If this day has 
 created a great stir because of a few cannon fired 
 in the heart of the capital, and those who had never 
 smelled gunpoAvder had a direct taste of it, it is none 
 the less true that the sequel of the event was not 
 
xxm BONAPARTE AND MENOU 3S7 
 
 as severe as bruited abroad. A few of the most 
 notable insurgents were doubtless sentenced, but in 
 default. One only was executed, by name Lafond, 
 an emigre, full of zeal, who had led the column of 
 the Le Pelletier "section," composed of four bat- 
 talions 
 
 I should like to have saved the unfortunate La- 
 fond, but it was impracticable. His audacious and 
 stubborn replies persistently thwarted any inten- 
 tions his judges may have entertained of acquit- 
 ting him. Menou, whose connivance, through 
 weakness at least, had rendered him an accomplice 
 of the Le Pelletier "section," thereby exposing the 
 Convention to the greatest danger, was necessarily 
 arrested. I was his first accuser, and he fully de- 
 served my accusation, as he had been on the point 
 of ruining everything ; he was placed on his trial by 
 the force of circumstances. I was fortunate enough 
 to discover some justification in his pusillanimity, 
 and to be able to point out that his mistake was not 
 a criminal one. It will be fresh in the reader's 
 memory that a few persons who were present at the 
 time Menou and the Le Pelletier " section " met in- 
 formed me that Bonaparte for a short space of time 
 had gone to the Rue Vivienne, and seemed to place 
 himself completely under Menou's orders. My in- 
 formants added that Bonaparte had even gone in 
 quest of orders to the president of the revolted 
 " section." This fact, which came to my knowledge 
 from various sources, was, it may be believed, denied 
 by Bonaparte, who attributed it to calumny. It has 
 been stated that he subsequently admitted the truth 
 of it. Mme. de Stael gives the following account of 
 it ; " It is alleged that General Bonaparte would 
 
3S8 MEMOIRS OF BARRAS chap. 
 
 have taken the command of the " sections " had 
 they allowed him to do so. I have my doubts as to 
 this anecdote, not that General Bonaparte was, at 
 any period of the Revolution, exclusively attached 
 to any particular opinion, but because he always 
 possessed too well the instinct of strength to have 
 dreamed of supporting the side necessarily the 
 weakest." 
 
 The reason set forth by Mme. de Stael is doubt- 
 less a most judicious one in so far as it affects the 
 cold, calculating spirit and political eclecticism of 
 Bonaparte, ever subordinate to his private interests. 
 But in revolutionary times a man is not always free 
 in making his choice when it is merely dictated by 
 interested motives, and the voice of conscience plays 
 no part in it. What is certain is that Bonaparte 
 was truly afraid of being summoned before the 
 tribunal at the time Menou was to be arraigned ; I 
 have since learned that as general of division, and 
 after having himself composed the court-martial, he 
 had repeatedly taken secret steps to obtain from the 
 judges assurances that he should not be called, and 
 that Menou's case should be disposed of quietly. 
 His object was, as at Toulon, to at one and the same 
 time pay his court to the Revolution by displaying, 
 in an ostensible and popularly brilliant fashion, the 
 most inexorable rigor against those whom he always 
 called " aristocrats " in public, while secretly manoeu- 
 vring to get on good term's with these same aris- 
 tocrats. It was still on their side that were to be 
 found fortune and other social advantages. It was 
 probable that what they lacked would be theirs 
 once more, as exemplified at so many periods in 
 history, which is ever that of the patriciate and of 
 
XXI" HIS MODERATION 3S9 
 
 money. It was therefore necessary that he should 
 reserve unto himself a second string to his bow, 
 and keep open the road to wealth and power. 
 Such was the political morality of Bonaparte, then 
 barely twenty-five years old. Let the reader recall 
 what he has already seen him and his folk do for 
 the purposes of their advancement, elevation, and 
 enrichment; let him not lose sight of these begin- 
 nings, and he will at once be initiated into the sub- 
 sequent phases of their career ; the same methods 
 will be put into application, but merely on a greater 
 scale. 
 
 As for myself, to whom a dual line of conduct has 
 ever been odious, it is my pride to have followed but 
 one on the 13th Vendemiaire, as well as on preced- 
 ing occasions when it was considered that my brain 
 and my arms could be of some help to the country. 
 
 Before Toulon, on the 9th Thermidor, as in these 
 recent days, I considered that the Republic was face 
 to face with its real enemies ; and when the all-im- 
 portant issue is one of life or death, which was then 
 the whole issue, the men really attached to the Re- 
 public had no other course to pursue than to fight 
 openly and win by the force of arms. Victory once 
 obtained, I may say that I felt the desire and need 
 of exercising generosity, that I acted in pursuance 
 of this sentiment, in so far as it was possible, without 
 upsetting or betraying the interests of the Republic. 
 
 At the decisive juncture, as one may call the bat- 
 tle of the 13th Vendemiaire, many prisoners had been 
 made belonging to the bourgeoisie and to trade, mem- 
 bers of the National Guard. They had remained 
 imprisoned and, so to speak, penned up in the gar- 
 den of the Tuileries during the night of the 13th; I 
 
360 MEMOIRS OF BARRAS chap. 
 
 considered that a like nocturnal bivouac was pun- 
 ishment enough for these good folk of Paris, little 
 accustomed to such hardships ; I sent them back re- 
 joicing to their shops, their wives and children, fra- 
 ternally counselling them " not to try it on again." 
 Some of the letters I have at various times received 
 from the vanquished are additional proof of the 
 esteem in which my character was held. 
 
 In the report I made of the day I referred to the 
 principles which would restore to the Republic all 
 the energy it had been deprived of by the post- 
 Thermidorian reaction. It had been thought that 
 this report, of a somewhat vigorous and well -sus- 
 tained style, was rather superior to my talents, 
 because I was not a man of letters. I have never 
 laid any claim to be one, and the active life I have 
 ever led has doubtless not left me the time to fill up 
 the possible gaps in my unfinished education. But 
 those who have said that it was probably Tallien or 
 Fouche who had written out my speech are mistak- 
 en, or particularly anxious to mislead my fellow-cit- 
 izens as to the ability of those by whom they seek 
 to make out I was assisted. In the matter of style 
 and framing documents Tallien, who had received 
 an even less primary education than I, was far less 
 advanced in many matters, to begin with, orthog- 
 raphy itself, which 1 never knew except in its 
 principles, and from which, in my former quality of 
 nobleman, I might have claimed dispensation ; he 
 was devoid of all talent, and did not possess any 
 felicity of expression beyond that required for or- 
 dinary purposes. This is readily to be understood 
 and conceived. His soul, which was susceptible of 
 some degree of emotion when stirred thereto by 
 
XXIII TALLIEN'S LACK OF EDUCATION 361 
 
 critical circumstances, was still more vulgar than his 
 education. Even the things he seemed most to feel 
 were never expressed by him except in the least 
 elegant and most labored fashion. " Certainly, it is 
 certain," he has repeatedly been heard to say at the 
 beginning, in the middle, and at the end of his most 
 remarkable speeches ; and even on the day of the 
 9th Thermidor, when pressed by danger with all the 
 rest of us, strengthened, moreover, by the encour- 
 agement of love, he rose truly superior to himself, 
 Tallien never was above the commonplace. Even 
 on that extraordinary day, carried away as he was, 
 beside himself from the grandeur of his situation, 
 he gave utterance to the words, in a hardly distin- 
 guished fashion, " The veil must be rent asunder," 
 and similar flowers of rhetoric as little lofty as ap- 
 propriate, for in the affair between Robespierre and 
 the Convention there was nothing calling for the 
 " rending asunder of the veil " ; there was not any 
 veil ; everything was patent to a horrible degree. 
 Thus this flower of rhetoric, commonplace as it was, 
 was not even appropriate. 
 
 Nor could Fouche, who even in those early days 
 was truly beginning to become what is called a 
 "jobber," and of whom it has since been said that 
 " he was already seeking to shove his dirty feet in 
 everybody else's shoes," pass any more as a speaker 
 and writer than as a notable personage. In spite 
 of his having been a mathematical tutor in a 
 college, he had not acquired therein any form of 
 style or any elegance of oral expression. Even in 
 the most ordinary reports he was commonplace 
 beyond belief, both in his spoken and written ef- 
 forts; true, he did not pretend to have any such 
 
362 MEMOIRS OF BARRAS chap. 
 
 merit, claiming as he already did to be above such 
 acquirements, of which, as since thought and proved 
 by M. de Talleyrand, " a gentleman must leave the 
 care and the details to the drudges whose trade it 
 is." All the high existence led by superior men 
 seemed to him hardly sufficient to leave time enough 
 to attend to intrigues, to concoct and unravel mach- 
 inations. It was in intrigue that he had been trained 
 from his earliest youth in the Congregation of the 
 Oratory, and it was pursuant to this system that he 
 hoped to shine in the future. 
 
 I am not going to refuse him credit for the ser- 
 vices he rendered us in this fashion in the prepara- 
 tions made in view of Thermidor, and he had found 
 just as good reasons to take a share in the 13th 
 Vendemiaire. It had been possible for him to act 
 only within certain clandestine limits, as he was in- 
 cluded among the deputies eliminated by the reac- 
 tion of the 9th Thermidor; and this suited his char- 
 acter doubly, for he ever preferred working in the 
 shade. But Avhile recognizing here anew his ability, 
 which will later on result in greater developments, I 
 have considered it proper to establish his due share 
 of talent, and that wrongly ascribed to him when 
 seeking to credit him with this particular speech or 
 other utterances of mine. I might have appealed 
 to his acuteness, or consulted his duplicity, of which 
 I had already had the opportunity of judging, had 
 it been a question of something requiring skill or 
 craftiness ; but when it was a matter of rising ener- 
 getically to the true principles of the Revolution — 
 principles which I knew and felt better than did 
 Fouche — I could only rely on my soul, whose nat- 
 ural energy was, I venture to believe, superior to 
 
xxm FOUCHE VERY USEFUL 363 
 
 that of SO many infamous beings with whom the 
 Revolution unavoidably brought us into connection. 
 I was conscious, in a word, of finding in my heart 
 all I had to say, and assuredly the power of express- 
 ing my sentiments never failed me in the most ter- 
 rible circumstances. I would not have indulged in 
 this digression for the purpose of demonstrating 
 that my speech was not that of either Tallien or 
 Fouche had this explanation not afforded me the 
 opportunity of placing on record, by the way, a few 
 traits which establish all the more truthfully the 
 nature of the talent and the share of co-operation of 
 each one in the drama in which we play a part. 
 
APPENDICES 
 
 Narrative of the Siege of Pondicherry (5TH July to i8th 
 October, 1778), taken from the Autograph Diary of 
 Barras's Journey to the East Indies 
 
 Departure, \c^th May, 1777.— ... On the 15th of May, 1777, 
 we set sail for Pondicherry. A few days later we sighted Cay- 
 Ian (Ceylon); this island belongs to the Dutch. It 
 produces important quantities of spices ; I think it Ceylon. 
 is the Tropobane (Taprobane) of the ancients. A violent squall 
 deprived us of the pleasure of coasting along this beautiful land ; 
 nine days later we at last became acquainted with this much-de- 
 sired spot; a blunder of our captain almost got us into trouble ; 
 we came very near colliding with the ship B^-ilUant, riding at 
 anchor in Pondicherry roads. We dropped anchor 
 far out at sea ; we embarked in local boats and Anchored oS 
 landed at Pondicherry on the 24th of May, 1777. 24th°May,^^'7. 
 All our past troubles were quickly forgotten ; the 
 mild and salubrious climate under which I lived left nothing 
 for me to desire — at least, so I thought at the time ; but man 
 is by nature too inconstant, and he is ordinarily happy only ev- 
 erywhere where he is not ; the province wherein I was born has 
 the reputation of causing this inconstancy. 
 
 Pondicherry well laid out. — It is here that I learned to distin- 
 guish between the peoples I had seen and the lands I had vis- 
 ited. This town, which is again springing from its ashes, is 
 built with taste ; the streets are fine and wide, and bordered 
 with trees on either side ; its inhabitants possess a gentle and 
 kindly character ; in fact, they have reached a point of perfec- 
 tion which puts to the blush civilized nations. These peoples 
 are all very peaceful, and would live happily if the Europeans 
 
366 MEMOIRS OF BARRAS APP. 
 
 had not come to sow dissension among them. Sooner or later 
 these peoples, tired of bearing the yoke, will revolt, and drive us 
 from their country. 
 
 M. de Belkcojiibe, Governor of the French. — M. de Bellecombe, 
 a major-general, commanded all the French settlements there. 
 He received me with distinction, and placed me as sub-lieuten- 
 ant in the Pondicherry regiment. Nothing remarkable hap- 
 pened all the time I remained in that town up to the time of 
 its being besieged by the English. All Asiatic powers were 
 enjoying profound peace, when the Councils of Madras and 
 Calcutta ordered the attack of the P"rench possessions. I have 
 since learned that a ship from Sues (Suez) had brought them 
 the order to that effect. 
 
 Narrative of the Siege of Fondicherry, <^th yuly, 1778. — A sec- 
 ond ship, which arrived from Sues on the 5 th of July, brought 
 the information that the ambassadors of France and of England 
 had returned to their respective Courts, but that, for reasons of 
 State, Lord North was trying to calm popular effervescence. 
 
 Order in Council f-om Madras. — As a consequence, the 
 Madras Council gave order that all preparations be made to 
 attack the French possessions, and sent an expedition against 
 Pondicherry. M. de Bellecombe thus found himself in a crit- 
 ical position ; he grasped it in its entirety without being thereby 
 shaken, and unceasingly busied himself with the means of bet- 
 tering it. 
 
 State of the Garrison on the <,fh of yuly. — The following is an 
 expose of the condition of the town and of the regiments com- 
 posing its garrison : Pondicherry regiment, 568 men ; artillery, 
 153 ; Sepoys, 428. The town had a circumference of 3800 
 fathoms, and was surrounded by a system of fortifications sup^ 
 posed to comprise four batteries and thirteen bastions. At the 
 time the French flag was once more hoisted over it an engineer 
 was sent to fortify Pondicherry ; the company, dissatisfied at 
 his being sent, substituted for him M. Descloisons, an excellent 
 officer, who fortified the southern part in accordance with a dif- 
 ferent system. This officer, so full of probity and zeal, was 
 thwarted in his endeavors by the very men who should have 
 afforded him aid and encouragement. The Government also 
 sent away M. Bourcet. M. Descloisons was unfortunately re- 
 called, and Pondicherry remained with crude fortifications and 
 open at several points. 
 
1 SIEGE OF PONDICHERRY 367 
 
 Hence on the 5th July the town was exposed to be carried 
 by main force ; the shore was absolutely without defences ; 
 around the enclosure of the town was a species of advanced 
 ditch, broken at repeated intervals ; there was no glacis ; there 
 were two demilunes (mere earthworks) on the north ; a few bits 
 of covert way ; the ditch had been traced, but so unequally ex- 
 cavated that it was but a foot deep in some places ; the revet- 
 ment of the stronghold was 7 feet high in some spots, but only 
 6 feet in others. Out of thirteen bastions, there were five which 
 were merely roughly outlined ; even the foundations of four cur- 
 tains were still lacking ; four of the batteries remained to be 
 erected ; the existing parapets lacked both the requisite height 
 and thickness, while the platforms did not afford sufficient rest 
 for the guns. It is plain that in order to place the town in a 
 state of defence, time, money, and many workmen were needed. 
 The Treasury was empty ; fortunately a few private individuals, 
 moved by patriotism, opened their purses. 
 
 Commencement of Hostilities. — Such, then, was the condition 
 of Pondicherry when . . . the English were already arresting 
 Frenchmen and seizing their effects on the frontier. M. de 
 Bellecombe wrote jointly with M. Chevreau to the Madras 
 Council to complain of this action. The Council replied that 
 it was not its intention to disturb the peace between the two 
 nations by any infraction of existing treaties ; this answer did 
 not prevent our administrators from engaging in provisioning 
 and fortifying the town ; a solitary colonial engineer, having 
 some knowledge of the theory of fortification, worked unceas- 
 ingly under the directions of the general at carrying out the 
 most urgent works. 
 
 M. de Bellecombe writes to the Indian Princes, to the Governors 
 of Manila and of Batavia, and others. — M. de Bellecombe wrote 
 to all the Indian princes, begging them to create a diversion in 
 his favor; he informed M. de La Brillanne, Governor of the He 
 de France, of his position ; the Dutch, Danish, and Spanish gov- 
 ernors were likewise written to by him ; he raised 
 some native troops. A few Pondicherry traders ,^^'^°[;'^°/g ^j 
 came from Madras to inform the general that the troops. 
 
 rendezvous of the troops was at , and that the 
 
 squadron which the English were fitting out was to act simulta- 
 neously and in concert with them. 
 
 Formation of a Squadron under M. de 7/wz/'o//.— Immediately 
 
368 MEMOIRS OF BARRAS APP. 
 
 on the first rumors of war, M. de Bellecombe had delayed the 
 sailing of the ship Le Brillant, 64 guns ; La Pourvoyeuse, frigate, 
 and a few merchantmen were in the roads, and were ioined by 
 Le Brisson and La Pintade. The general thereupon resolved to 
 form a squadron under the orders of M. de Tronjoli, captain, 
 commanding the King's ship Le Brillant. His division was 
 composed of four ships, including Le Sartine and Le Brisson ; 
 it was fully strong enough to. hold its own against the English 
 squadron, composed of a ship of 60 guns and four others less 
 powerful than our own, under Commodore Vernon. 
 
 Progress of the Works. — M. de Bellecombe gave an unceasing 
 attention to the works of defence ; the town was almost closed 
 to an enemy, and the hope arose that it would not be taken at 
 the first onset. The news which reached him of the English 
 army's advance on Pondicherry compelled him to content him- 
 self with a depth of 5 feet for that portion of the ditch adjacent 
 to the Queen's bastion. The curtains had been erected ; the 
 gates of Cuddalore and Valdaour masked ; the bermes of the 
 wells were protected with stakes and planted with raqnettes 
 (prickly-pear trees ?) ; frises and palisades were put in position 
 as fast as they arrived ; everything liable to render approach 
 easy was destroyed to a distance of 600 fathoms from the town ; 
 two stockades and two batteries closed access by the shore on 
 the north and on the south ; dikes were in readiness to flood 
 the north-northwest of the town ; the bastions were supplied 
 with heavy guns on their front and with lighter guns on their 
 flanks. 
 
 According to the ordinary rules of war we had not enough 
 troops to man a couple of bastions. M. de Bellecombe gathered 
 together a few more Sepoys, whom he added to those he had al- 
 ready ; a body of Palis was raised, and commanded by M. Dus- 
 sossais (Du Saussay?). 
 
 The artillery received the help of some blacks ; fifteen dra- 
 goons, our sole cavalry, were placed under M. Madec, a former 
 member of irregular force ; the bourgeoisie was armed ; a body 
 of Topas was commanded by M. de Champagne, a former offi- 
 cer of the Regiment ifArtois ; the veterans were placed under 
 the command of M. Biche, who had fought with them in recent 
 wars. 
 
 Distribution of the Posts. — M. de Countenceau, lieutenant- 
 colonel, commanded to the south, from the sea -shore to the 
 
1 DEFENSIVE PREPARATIONS 369 
 
 curtain of Cuddalore ; as soon as M. du Boistel arrived from 
 Karikal he was given command of the Hospital bastion and 
 the curtain joining it to the Queen's bastion ; M. de Marguenat, 
 major, an excellent officer, had under his orders the Queen's 
 bastion and that of Villenour, to the city's gate ; those of Sans- 
 Peur, Valdaour, Saint -Joseph, northwest, up to the Madras 
 curtain, were commanded by M. Leonard, an infantry major 
 and a brave officer; the command of M. d'Albignac, lieutenant- 
 colonel of the Pondicherry regiment, an officer of wondrous 
 intrepidity and modesty, extended from the Madras bastion to 
 the northern stockade. 
 
 Fall of Chandernagor. — On the 30th of July a portion of the 
 troops began to sleep on the ramparts, the general setting the 
 example. On the 2d of August we heard of the fall of Chander- 
 nagor in Bengal. 
 
 AI. Miinro, the English Commander. — A few detachments of 
 cavalry pushed as far as our limits, and we learned as a cer- 
 tainty that the English army was only four leagues distant from 
 Pondicherry, and that Major-General Munro had assumed com- 
 mand of it. 
 
 Arrival of the English Army at the Cainp of Fe/imhe. — On the 
 8th of August the English army appeared before Pondicherry, 
 camping a mile distant from it on the Perimbe slope. It was 
 composed at the time of 1200 European soldiers and 500 gun- 
 ners, with ten field-guns, ten battalions of Sepoys, and two reg- 
 iments of cavalry armed European fashion. The siege artil- 
 lery had not yet arrived ; the naval contingent had made its 
 appearance on the east. 
 
 M. Le Fer. — M. Le Fer, captain of Le Lauriston, got under 
 weigh on the morn of the 8th, shaping his course eastward ; he 
 sighted the English squadron, returned to Pondicherry, and in 
 spite of the weak state of his crew this brave officer obtained 
 leave to join M. de Tronjoli's squadron. 
 
 Orders given to M. de Tronjoli. — M. de Bellecombe at once 
 ordered M. de Tronjoli to go and meet the enemy, to become 
 acquainted with the intentions of the English admiral, to sum- 
 mon him to retire, and, if he persisted in cruising in the road- 
 stead, to give him battle, and to return to Pondicherry either 
 victorious or vanquished. Simultaneously the general sum- 
 moned Mr. Munro, the commander of the hostile army, to in- 
 form him of the motives bringing him into such proximity to the 
 I — 24 
 
37° MEMOIRS OF BARRAS APP. 
 
 French possessions, whether he was coming to attack them, in 
 whose name, and by whose authority. The English general 
 gave a vague reply. 
 
 A Summons. — At about ten o'clock on the following morn- 
 ing Lieutenant-Colonel M'Clellan entered the town with two 
 letters for M. de Bellecombe. One was a reply to the letter 
 of tlie day preceding, and the other a summons to surrender 
 the town to the British forces. Our general showed this officer 
 every attention, kept him to dinner, and handed him an answer. 
 The squadron having got under weigh that morning only, 
 M. de Tronjoli was informed of the summons, and ordered to 
 act on the offensive. 
 
 All Ala?-m. — All necessary precautions had been taken against 
 
 a surprise- everything led us to believe in one, the troops 
 
 knew their respective posts, and were to hasten to them 
 
 at the first alarm. The very same evening the 
 
 Vicomte de . -,_ tt-h i 
 
 Barras, m com- commauder of the Porte Villenour beat to arms 
 mand at the ^yy^ fired three discharges from a cannon ; this 
 
 Porte Villenour, ^i • i • ^ r it i 
 
 beats to arms, was the Signal giveu to warn us of the enemy s 
 approach. 
 
 All went to their posts ; the general inspected them ; the 
 Sepoys had, at the approach of a few of the enemy's soldiers, 
 abandoned the limits and fallen back under the protection of 
 the town, after giving a few shots. 
 
 The enemy did not make its appearance ; yet our surprise 
 was great, for the northern defences were keeping up a brisk fire 
 from their heavy guns. Our general hurried in that direction 
 and commanded to cease firing, as the only results had been 
 to kill a few sheep. 
 
 Karikal evacuated. — M. du Boistel had evacuated Karikal. 
 He arrived at night in a chclinqtie (?) with io8 Sepoys, twelve 
 veterans, sixteen Topas, and a few field-pieces. The English 
 took possession of that town on the loth. 
 
 Naval Engagement of the lotk of August. — At dawn we de- 
 scried the two squadrons trying to take the wind out of each 
 other's sails. At two o'clock in the afternoon they were very 
 close together at two leagues from the shore ; the action began ; 
 the fire seemed brisk. At the end of three-quarters of an 
 hour Commodore Edward Vernon bore up and disappeared in a 
 northerly direction. Our squadron returned and anchored off 
 Pondicherry. 
 
THE RESPECTIVE FORCES 
 
 371 
 
 M. de Tronjoli was wounded and compelled to give up the 
 command. The " Te Deum " was nevertheless sung, although 
 the result of the day was merely to leave us in possession of the 
 field. The subjoined table of the respective forces will readily 
 show the advantages and superiority possessed by the French •. 
 
 
 
 Ships. 
 
 FRENCH SQUADRON. 
 
 CAPTAINS. 
 
 Guns. 
 
 Calibre. ckews. 
 
 Le BrillatU. 
 
 La Pourz'oyeiise. 
 
 Le Sartifte. 
 
 Le Lnuristoti. 
 
 Le Brissoji. 
 
 Tronjoli. 
 Saint Oranis. 
 Du Cliailar. 
 
 Le Fer. 
 
 Total.... 
 
 64 
 38 
 26 
 20 
 20 
 
 24 
 
 j8 
 3 
 8 
 8 
 
 574 
 319 
 ■7" 
 ■38 
 106 
 
 1&8 
 
 
 .30S 
 
 SHIPS. 
 
 ENGLISH SQUADRON. 
 
 Captains. 
 
 Guns. 
 
 Calibre, j crews. 
 
 Ripon. 
 
 Coventry. 
 
 SeaJiorse, 
 
 Cormorant. 
 
 Valentine. 
 
 Difference in our favo 
 Guns 
 
 Vernon. 
 Marslau. 
 Penton. 
 
 Total.... 
 
 r: 
 18 1 
 
 60 
 26 
 24 
 '4 
 26 
 
 23 
 9 
 9 
 7 
 9 
 
 360 
 170 
 160 
 120 
 140 
 
 150 
 Men 
 
 950 
 3SS 
 
 The audacious M. de Souville, despatched to the general to 
 report to him on the engagement, on seeing himself the object 
 of great praise and marks of preference, went up to the ladies 
 assembled at Government House, saying to them in an impu- 
 dent tone that " it is sometimes permitted to the conqueror to 
 kiss the fair." Were this maxim to be followed in its narrowest 
 sense, ladies would not often be kissed. 
 
 The two Annies apparently inactive. — The land-forces had so 
 far not stirred. Both sides were busily engaged in preparing 
 means defensive and offensive. General Bellecorabe gave his 
 attention to the repairing o\ our squadron. La Pourvoycusc 
 received orders to cruise to the south ; the corvette La Piniade, 
 commanded by M. de Joyeuse, an excellent officer, was cruising 
 to the north. All these precautionary measures demonstrated 
 the foresight and activity of the general. On the evening of 
 the 14th La Pourvoycuse sighted two ships belonging to the 
 English Company ; as they did not know of the war, they 
 flaunted their flag under the nose of our squadron. On the 
 morning of the isth they sailed past Pondicherry. 
 
372 MEMOIRS OF BARRAS APP. 
 
 La Pourvoyeuse gave chase too late ; Le Sartine displayed no 
 greater haste ; her captain was abed ashore ; the two English 
 ships disappeared, and the English squadron, which was dis- 
 persing northward, put an end to our ship's chase. Le Sartine 
 surrendered without fighting to a frigate of its 
 'i^^^slrtine '"'^''''^ Strength ; Count du Chailar gave as an ex- 
 cuse the preservation of the lives of the men 
 whom His Majesty had intrusted to him. This captain did not 
 possess the slightest knowledge of his profession, and his con- 
 stitution and build were weak. 
 
 Arrival of the '■^Elizabeth" on the \Zth. — On the i8th there 
 arrived the private ship Elisabeth, which was appointed to take 
 the place of Le Sartine. 
 
 M. des Auvergnes, colonel of tiie Pondicherry regiment, was 
 aboard of her; he was welcomed on his taking command of his 
 regiment ; this brave and worthy officer proceeded to the ram- 
 parts at once ; his post was one of the principal points of attack. 
 
 For7nation of a Second Division. — Meanwhile the general was 
 giving his attention to the squadron ; Le Brisson had suffered 
 great damage on the loth, and as it was not in a condition to 
 leave the harbor, its crew was transferred to Le Lauriston. A 
 few twelve -pounders and ammunition were sent to it; two 
 twenty-four-pounders were given to La Fourvoyeuse for its stern 
 ports. 
 
 The Elizabeth, frigate, twenty-six guns, with a crew of 150, 
 commanded by a worthy man, M. Croizet, was placed under the 
 orders of M. de Tronjoli. This second division did not number 
 as many ships, but they were infinitely better armed. 
 
 Appearance of the English Squadron on the 20th of August. — 
 On the 20th of August the British squadron, composed of six 
 ships, made its appearance in the east. M. de Tronjoli received 
 a somewhat strange order — that of fighting it south of Pondi- 
 cherry, in order to be in any case 'enabled to return to the town. 
 
 The issue justified this precaution. 
 
 Departure of our Squadron on the 21st of August ; Capture of 
 " L' Aimable Nannette." — Our squadron at last set sail on the 
 2 1 st of August ; the enemy had already got to windward off Pon- 
 dicherry, and captured under our very eyes D Aimable Nannette, 
 from the He de France, and having on board M. Decaine, en- 
 gineer-in-chief. The English were bearing down under full sail 
 on IM. de Tronjoli ; the two squadrons were then one league dis- 
 
1 ABANDONED BY THE SQUADRON 373 
 
 tant ; M. de Tronjoli offered battle, which Mr. Vernon declined, 
 putting about in order to keep to windward. 
 
 Night hid the two squadrons from our view. M. de Belle- 
 combe was not informed until two days before the siege that it 
 (our squadron) had sailed for the He de France on the 2d of 
 September. La Pourvoyeuse and the Elizabeth remained, and 
 made their appearance at Negapatam on the 3d of October to 
 communicate this departure to the general. These two frigates 
 returned to the He de France on the 14th of the same month. 
 I have not been able to discover the reasons which determined 
 our squadron to abandon Pondicherry. I am not even able to 
 imagine any ; the accursed interest which often governs avari- 
 cious men destroys all sentiment of beautiful glory. 
 
 On the 2isi of August the Enemy capiutrs our Limits. — During 
 the night of the 21st the enemy took possession of our limits 
 and established a post there. Some workmen who were de- 
 stroying everything liable to cover the enemy's approach were 
 put to flight by a few field-pieces ; a few were even killed. 
 
 The English thereupon placed two guns in position, protecting 
 them by an epaulement. 
 
 A battery with four embrasures was erected in the Camera 
 Garden ; two of the pieces were directed against the capital of 
 the Queen's bastion, the two others against the Madras bastion. 
 We committed the blunder of keeping up an excessive and in- 
 effective fire from the heavy guns of the town, as the range was 
 1700 fathoms; it behooved us to be very economical with our 
 ammunition, for the siege might be a long one, and we could not 
 flatter ourselves with the hope of receiving further supplies of it ; 
 it was consequently of the utmost importance that we should 
 husband and not waste powder and shot, as was repeatedly done. 
 
 The Frigate "La Eintade," commanded by M. de Joyeuse ; his 
 Manoeuvre generally approved of; Pondicherry blockaded by the 
 English Squadron. — The frigate La Pintade reappeared in the 
 north on the 26th of August ; M. de Joyeuse, her commander, 
 wrote to the general that he was compelled to go to the eastern 
 coast in order to provision ship. This left Pondicherry block- 
 aded by the English squadron. The general had received in- 
 formation that we were to be attacked by sea and by land on 
 the evening of the 24th ; the enemy's ships had manoeuvred so 
 as to impress us with such a belief ; still we were not disturbed 
 in our tranquillity. 
 
374 MEMOIRS OF BARRAS APP. 
 
 On Saint-Louis' Day the general gave a grand breakfast at 
 
 \YhicIi the King's health was drunk ; the whole of the artillery on 
 
 the ramparts fired the customary salute ; ball was fired from 
 
 the cannon whose fire could be directed against the enemy. 
 
 The movements of the English squadron had 
 
 ammunki™. been made with a view of covering the landing 
 
 Depots of of ammunition; to both north and south the 
 English were gathering together all that was neces- 
 sary for the siege. A deserter informed us of the place of 
 storage of the fascines and gabions , once more was the heavy 
 artillery fired uselessly ; the general put an end to it. 
 
 The general took advantage of the sluggishness of the enemy 
 to increase the number of dikes and the strength and height of 
 the parapets ; the two demilunes were manned, as soon as guns 
 had been placed in them, with Sepoys and Topas under the 
 command of Messieurs Biche and Monbocage , the powder- 
 magazine had just been iron-clad : this building, situated in the 
 mouth of the bastion, was so elevated that it could be seen from 
 the outside. 
 
 The English General's Grievance. — On the 26th a white flag 
 was descried in the plain ; an aide-de-camp of General Munro, 
 admitted into the town, delivered to M. de Bellecombe a letter 
 running as follows : " Sir, at the request of Commodore Edward 
 Vernon, commander of the English squadron, I have the honor 
 to send you a few specimens of the grape-shot recently used by 
 the French squadron ; it is not of the kind used in warfare 
 among civilized nations." 
 
 M de Bellecombe's answer : " I can only see, sir, in what you 
 have sent me grape-shot similar to that used on all occasions by 
 the English squadrons, and it is even not so injurious. It was 
 not worth the trouble you have taken of sending an officer to me, 
 especially after I had begged you to cease all correspondence ; 
 and had I considered it necessary to make remarks in regard to 
 the species of grape-shot employed by Mr. Vernon, I might have 
 sent )-ou not only slugs but also sulphur-boxes, which could be 
 projected on our decks but with the sole object of setting fire to 
 our ships. I am making in connection no reflections nor com- 
 parisons as to the respective means of defence; I am surprised 
 at nothing when I see myself attacked by land and by sea with- 
 out any declaration of war." 
 
 T/ie Troops permanently quartered on the Ramparts. — The dis- 
 
' DE BELLECOMBE'S SURPRISE 375 
 
 tance between the barracks and the ramparts being a great one, 
 the general determined not to allow the soldiers to return to 
 them , he caused sheds to be erected in the necks of the bast- 
 ions ; a few wretched tents were likewise pitched there to pro- 
 tect the troops and their weapons from the inclemency of the 
 weather. 
 
 On the ist of September, at eleven o'clock at night, a detach- 
 ment of the enemy approached the glacis of the northwest bast- 
 ion; their object was to engage our attention and to screen their 
 work from us ; the demilune and northwest bastion put them to 
 flight with a discharge of grape-shot. 
 
 Trenches opened in the South and Southwest. — At daybreak we 
 discovered that they had opened a couple of trenches during the 
 night ; that on the southwest extended from the Pingout Garden 
 to a battery they were erecting at a distance of 270 fathoms from 
 the town, and directed against the capital from the Queen's bast- 
 ion ; the one on the south extended from the Dosset Garden to 
 the escarpment of the river; the barbette battery of the Queen's 
 bastion had fired, but the enemy was under cover. 
 
 The general instructed M. Madec to reconnoitre the trench 
 dug by the enemy ; this officer bravely performed the task. On 
 his return he was ordered to take his dragoons, fifty Sepoys, and 
 a like number of Palis, and to feign an attack on 
 the battery. The enemy fell into the trap, and The enemy 
 
 ■ , ' . , , • , • 1 put to flight m 
 
 brought out into the plam 3000 men ; their cavalry a sham attack, 
 likewise sought to debouch, but the guns of the 
 town quickly compelled them to retire ; we had only one man 
 killed and a few wounded ; embrasures were constructed on the 
 right wing of the Hospital bastion ; their fire was directed on 
 the enemy's works. 
 
 llic Southwest Battery fires. — A battery of eight mortars had 
 just been erected in the southwest ; a number of bombs were 
 fired on the 3d, directed specially against the powder-maga- 
 zine. 
 
 Work on the Shore-line. — On the 4th the English squadron ex- 
 ecuted the same manoeuvre as on the eve of Saint-Louis' Day ; 
 two ships fell into line along with the six former ones ; we were 
 engaged in fortifying the shore-line ; the departure of our squad- 
 ron made this necessary, the Dauphine battery was almost com- 
 pleted ; heavy guns were to be placed in it ; so far, there were 
 only eight mortars in position. 
 
376 MEMOIRS OF BARRAS APP. 
 
 First Parallel of the Attack on the North. — On the sth, at night, 
 it was seen from the demilune on the northwest that the enemy 
 were engaged in throwing up earthworks in the AU^e de la Blan- 
 chisserie ; the northern bastions kept up a heavy fire, but the 
 enemy accomplished their object; on the Sth they placed eight 
 mortars there which shelled us. 
 
 Ricochet Battery on the West. — On the Sth, at sunrise, an epaule- 
 ment having four masked embrasures was erected by the enemy 
 with the object of battering the reverse of the whole northern wing. 
 
 Ten-Gun Battery in titc South. — The enemy could not be throw- 
 ing up so many works simultaneously without considerable forces ; 
 their army had been increased by six battalions ; the weakness of 
 our garrison did not allow us to make any sorties, and conse- 
 quently to dispute every inch of ground with the enemy; we had 
 to content ourselves with defending the body of the place ; the 
 southwest battery kept up a heavy shelling ; the trench of the 
 Dosset Garden was connected with a ten-gun battery which di- 
 rected its fire on the capital of the Hospital bastion. 
 
 New embrasures were opened in an attempt to gain superiority 
 over the enemy; we had but few guns — of poor iron, moreover; 
 the men were disgusted with them ; daily would some of them 
 burst, wounding many people. The general encouraged the 
 troops by his presence and the distribution of money, but on 
 the 9th he was compelled to issue his orders from his closet; he 
 did not remain ill for any length of time; in a few days he again 
 showed himself on the ramparts as usual. It is impossible for 
 me to record all the enemy's movements, so I will only speak of 
 those of which I have a full knowledge. 
 
 Tm-o English frigates made several attempts to capture Le 
 
 Brisson, which had remained in the harbor, but the fire of the 
 
 Saint-Laurent bastion and the Saint-Louis battery drove them 
 
 off ; the enemy had placed a gun in position to batter this ship : 
 
 their fire proved ineffective. From the 21st of August to the 17th 
 
 of September the enemy fired only their advanced 
 
 ■^■'^ '^^^'''^' guns from La Blanchisserie and from the Camera 
 
 Garden ; their mortars and howitzers never ceased 
 
 firing ; the town was fearfully battered by them ; the ramparts 
 
 crumbled to pieces, and most of the houses were destroyed ; the 
 
 hospital was evacuated, as it stood in the line of the 
 
 ^evacuated.^' enemy's fire ; the patients were transferred to the 
 
 Capuchin Church. 
 
1 M. DU BARRI DIES 377 
 
 Cannonade of the iSi/i of September. — On the i8th, at five 
 o'clock in the morning, the English unmasked at a given signal 
 all their batteries north and south ; fifty guns fired simulta- 
 neously from both points ; the superiority of our fire compelled 
 the enemy's to slacken ; at sunset all was quiet. The Hospital 
 and Northwest bastions suffered badly ; 5000 cannon-balls and 
 800 bombs, thrown in the space of twelve hours, had unmounted 
 many of our guns, and killed some twenty soldiers ; it became 
 necessary to repair the fortifications, and we lacked workmen. 
 The trees of the town served us to repair the embrasures and to 
 protect the reverse of the parapets ; meanwhile the enemy kept 
 up their fire and inflicted losses on us daily. 
 
 Death of M. du Barri. — It would take too much time and space 
 to enumerate in detail our losses ; one loss we made nevertheless 
 deserves to be mentioned. On the 19th a cannon-ball deprived us 
 of a very good officer, M. du Barri, who commanded the artillery. 
 
 The works erected by the English were progressing daily ; M. 
 de Bellecombe gave the guarding of our dikes to an old soldier 
 named Manceau. M. Madec was detached on the 2 2d with 
 eighty men and two field-pieces, which he placed in position on 
 the shore in the direction of one of the guts of the southern 
 trench ; he harassed the enemy all day, and retired without loss. 
 On the night of the 23d he again left the town to go and guard 
 the southern side with his dismounted dragoons and forty Sepoys ; 
 he was attacked by a force numbering 300, wliich he held in 
 check till daybreak with his musketry, when the 
 guns of the town put them to rout with a loss of '"S'=> "=="• 
 twenty killed. 
 
 Tlie Powder-magazine evacuated. — The powder-magazine was 
 evacuated; the firing was increased on the south; twenty-four- 
 pounders were supplied to the Cuddalore curtain ; the platforms 
 and embrasures were repaired, and we were prepared for a repe- 
 tition of the i8th. Everything being in readiness, the cannonade 
 began again at sunrise, just as on the i8th ; our 
 artillery was so well served that at eleven o'clock Cannonade oi 
 in the forenoon the enemy kept up their fire trom September. 
 the southwest battery only ; our general gave the 
 command to cease firing; we were tired out and our gunners 
 were exhausted ; ammunition was getting scarce in the town, so 
 the general caused the embrasures of the Hospital and North- 
 west bastions to be closed. 
 
378 MEMOIRS OF BARRAS APP. 
 
 Sortie of the 2C^th of September — Messieurs des Aitvergnes, Carles, 
 Saint-Paul, Larcker, Do?nmarti!i, and Barras. — On the 25th of 
 September the companies of grenadiers and chasseurs of the 
 Pondicherr}' regiment, a picked picket of fifty men of the same 
 bod}', fifty Sepoys, eighty men from M. Madec's detachment, 
 eight gunners, and an engineer with 100 workmen, led by M. des 
 Auvergnes, brigadier, left the town during the night, with orders 
 to destroy tlie battery and the works erected by the enemy to 
 the south. This brave officer, not knowing the surrounding 
 locality, was compelled to trust entirely to a guide given to him 
 by the general; the guide made a mistake, and led the force into 
 an impracticable road, and revealed our presence to the enemy 
 by wresting the musket from a sleeping sentry without killing 
 him. The sortie which was to have been so successful did not 
 consequently take place ; the trench opened fire on us, and com- 
 pelled us to retire in the greatest disorder ; two of our officers 
 and several men were killed. I am not going to make any com- 
 ment on this ; our brave commander was deceived in the most 
 cruel fashion ; our flank batteries were alone in a condition to 
 fire upon the enemy; all our nights were spent in repairing 
 them ; traverses were erected to protect us from the ricochet 
 batteries, which inconvenienced us greatly. The Hospital bast- 
 ion was mined in order to blow it up in case the enemy should 
 try to occupy it; an intrenchment was dug in the neck of the 
 bastion so that we might defend it to the last. 
 
 The Besiegers occupy the Covert-7uay. — The enemy were neverthe- 
 less getting nearer the town ; they had reached, to the south, 
 the edge of the outer ditch, and, to the north, the crest of the 
 covert-way ; they had erected three batteries, one a breacli-bat- 
 tery, against the Hospital bastion, and the two others for the 
 purpose of destroying the flanks of the Cuddalore and Queen 
 bastions ; two were erected on the north, one against the Madras 
 and tlie other against the Saint-Joseph bastion. The enemy, 
 although so close to the town, were held in check for three weeks 
 in their position both by artillery and by musketry fire ; as many 
 as 80,000 cartridges were used in the space of twenty-four hours ; 
 we also fired bombs, carcasses, stones, etc. 
 
 Every evening the general would send out small parties to 
 watch the enemy ; M. Manceau's detachment occupied the cov- 
 ert-way of the Queen's bastion, and guarded the dike of the 
 Pont de Villenour; the enemy had repeatedly made attempts to 
 
I A SERGEANT'S BRAVERY 379 
 
 carry this post, but in Vain. On the 30th of September a 
 sergeant named La Grandeur was in command of 
 the detachment of M. Manceau, who was ill ; the aTrgetnfo"! 
 enemy, to the number of 500, advanced to break "1= 3°"' °f 
 the dike of the Pont de Villenour, and to attack ^"p"""^" 
 the post. Alone with his handful of soldiers, whose ardor he 
 stimulated, he kept up a hot frre , the action ended in the retreat 
 of the English, who were put to rout by the grape fire from the 
 Villenour bastion. 
 
 M. Madec, who guarded on the outside the northwest portion 
 of the defences, sprang into the trench crowning the covert-way, 
 followed by ten Sepoy grenadiers, on the 28th of September ; 
 the enemy, surprised in their sleep, fled ; M. Madec retreated 
 on the approach of a column of infantry. 
 
 Sortie of the ^tk of October. — The general also intrusted M. 
 Madec with the sortie of the 4th of October. During the night 
 of the 3d he left the town by the Villenour gate with fifty men 
 of the Pondicherry regiment, forty Sepoy grenadiers, four gun- 
 ners, and some Kaffirs carrying axes. He placed himself at the 
 head of the troops, with Messieurs de Marneville, Du Boulac, 
 and Caradec, officers. They advanced till they were abreast of 
 the southwest battery, which they had orders to take. They 
 found the enemy asleep ; a few men were slaughtered, the guns 
 badly spiked, but the battery was not destroyed by fire. M. 
 Madec returned into the town with ten prisoners and a field- 
 piece. The general placed the greatest confidence in this 
 Madec ; still, subsequent events unmasked him, and the general, 
 convinced of the displeasure and humiliation felt by the officers 
 who had been compelled to serve under his orders, abandoned 
 him to public contempt; and yet this adventurer obtained his 
 brevet as a colonel, owing to his wealth. This truly speaks well 
 for our Government, and this is not the only instance of its 
 strange doings, even in the siege of Pondicherry. Several mer- 
 chants were created Knights of Saint-Louis and colonels, while 
 not only did the poor officers who got all the hard knocks 
 receive nothing, but the slightest rewards were denied them, all 
 of which was not encouraging. 
 
 Amount of Ammunition. — All these cannonades and minor 
 successes kept up the spirit of the garrison, which was daily 
 diminishing. Our soldiers were so tired out that cannon-balls 
 and bombs would hit them in their sleep. On the ist of October 
 
380 MEMOIRS OF BARRAS APP. 
 
 the ammunition consisted of 9 tons of gunpowder and a few 
 cannon cartridges. 
 
 Talk 0/ Surrendering. — The principal inhabitants, recognizing 
 how critical was our condition, set forth the necessity of sur- 
 rendering. The general replied that he alone was the judge as 
 to up to what point he could continue the defence. 
 
 On the afternoon of the 4th M. de Bellecombe went to visit 
 the northwestern demilune, when he was struck by a bullet in 
 the loins. Fortunately it was soon learned that his wound was 
 not a dangerous one. M. des Auvergnes, ever on duty, gave 
 orders while taking his own from the general. 
 
 Destruction of an English Battery on the iitk oj October. — On 
 the nth five pieces of the right wing of the Saint-Joseph bastion 
 and two of the right wing of the Valdaour bastion fired with such 
 accuracy that in three hours they destroyed the battery situated 
 on the salient angle of the northwest glacis. 
 
 The Ditch drained on the 13//^. — On the 13th the enemy drained 
 the ditch by means of a trench dug opposite the Hospital bastion. 
 The water fell considerably, and it was in vain that we flooded 
 the ditch to make good the outflow. 
 
 Preparations in View of a Storming., — In so critical a state of 
 affairs, the general made preparations to withstand a storming. 
 All assisted him in a determined manner. The wings of the at- 
 tacked bastions were supplied with guns ; to the south INI. de 
 Boistet was keeping up a heavy musketry fire, and throwing 
 bombs and grenades ; to the north M. de Leonard was display- 
 ing the greatest firmness in the midst of a pile of ruins, and 
 ,,. , ,, harassed to a considerable degree the enemy in 
 
 Attack on the , => J 
 
 northwestern their trench. On the night of the 14th the enemy 
 
 demilune. captured the northwestern demilune. The officer 
 
 in command of it allowed himself to be surprised. This post was 
 
 night and day overwhelmed by the enemy's fire. M. 
 
 Gayoche, second _, " i i i i ,-,,,, , ■,, -r^ , , 
 
 in command, Gayochc had been killed there, and M. Roubaud 
 killed; M. Ron- seriously wouuded. As soon as this became known 
 
 baud wounded. . . , _ 
 
 in the town cannon and musketry fire was opened. 
 
 It was so lively that it dislodged the enemy, who retired after 
 
 spiking three guns and a mortar. In the morning 
 
 tope? by profis- ^'''^ general sent that officer back to his post, but 
 
 sion, owes his it was rather in order to show a bold front than 
 
 misfortune to the -ti *.i i • i. c . • • • r , nM 
 
 bottle. '^'^''"^ '"S object of retaining it for long. Ihe am- 
 munition was running out, and it had become 
 
1 PREPARATIONS FOR THE STORMING 381 
 
 necessary to draw on the reserve stock in view of a general 
 attaclc. 
 
 A Council of War. — On tlie 15th, in the afternoon, the general 
 summoned a council of war. The state of the town, the dis- 
 mounted artillery, a garrison the remnants of which were ex- 
 hausted by ceaseless labors extending over seventy-seven days, 
 the small quantity of ammunition still remaining, and the prox- 
 imity of the enemy, who were only fifteen fathoms from our 
 bastions, all were clearly set forth. All these reasons were cause 
 that the general, yielding to sentiments of humanity, resolved 
 upon proposing a capitulation, in order to preserve the residents 
 from the horrors inseparable from pillage by concluding a treaty 
 which shouldbe held sacred. Itwas unanimously resolved that, the 
 town being absolutely defenceless, it was necessary to capitulate. 
 
 Jif. de Bellecombe writes to the English General. — On the morn- 
 ing of the i6th M. de Bellecombe commanded the fire from the 
 ramparts to cease. He sent his aide-de-camp with a letter to Mr. 
 Munro, wherein he proposed to him the surrender of Pondicherry. 
 He requested him at the same time to put an end to the fire from 
 his trenches or he should be compelled to renew his own. 
 
 Tlie English General's Reply. — Immediately on receiving the 
 letter the English general sent orderlies to cause the firing to be 
 suspended. His aide-de-camp was despatched in the evening to 
 M. de Bellecombe with a letter; the terms of the capitulation 
 ■were to follow next day. 
 
 In the morning, a few minutes previous to M. de Bellecombe 
 ordering the cessation of our fire, one of the enemy's bombs fell 
 on the platform of the Hospital bastion, and rolled as far as the 
 fuse which was to fire the mine destined to blow up the bastion 
 in case the enemy should occupy it. This fuse caught fire when 
 the bomb exploded, and was only extinguished at its very junc- 
 tion with the mine. The rain which had penetrated the mine 
 saved us from a dire eventuality. All the men guarding the 
 bastion had already left it, and had the enemy but known of this 
 confusion they could have occupied the bastion unopposed. 
 
 The Hospital Bastion on Fire. — On the 17th Messieurs Laro 
 and Moracin carried to the English camp the terms 
 of the capitulation. Hostages were sent by both ^°=^Xsfir 
 sides : Messieurs Grils and Borose (Burrowes ?), 
 English captains, to Pondicherry, and the Count de Cairion and 
 the Chevalier du Laur, captains in the Pondicherry regiment, 
 
382 MEMOIRS OF BARRAS APP. 
 
 to the English camp. M. de Bellecombe intrusted M. des 
 An act of viola- Auvergncs with a letter for the English general. 
 
 ticnbythe He Complained in it that the enemy were continu- 
 
 °^'^ ■ ing to work at the trenches in violation of the laws 
 
 of war. Messieurs Laro and Moracin returned with the terms 
 
 of the capitulation. The latter went back to the (English) camp 
 
 shortly afterwards. 
 
 TAe Capitulation signed on the -iZth of October. — On the 18th 
 Lieutenant-Colonel M'CIellan presented to M. de Bellecombe 
 tlie capitulation signed by Mr. Munro and Commodore Edward 
 Vernon. 
 
 A Summing up. — Such are the exact facts concerning the siege 
 of Pondicherry. The defence made by M. de Bellecombe reflects 
 the greatest credit on him. With a garrison of 700 Europeans 
 and 400 Sepoys he resisted continuously for nearly eighty days 
 from his ramparts an army of 20,000 men, finally obtaining hon- 
 orable terms at the end of fifty-nine days of open trenches. At 
 half-past four o'clock in the afternoon the Villenour gate was 
 Honors of war handed over to the English. The Pondicherry gar- 
 accorded the rison, numbering 493 men, left the town with the 
 
 sarnson. ]jQ„Qrs of War, flags flying, drums beating, lighted 
 fuses, si.K cannon, and two mortars, which they set down outside 
 the walls, as they were to be forwarded the same evening to Ma- 
 drast {sic), to be shipped thence to France. 
 
 Capitulation. — The following are the principal terms of the 
 capitulation: "The fortress of Pondicherry shall be surrendered 
 to-morrow at noon ; at the same time the British troops shall be 
 put in possession of the Villenour gate. 
 
 "The grand defence made by General Bellecombe and his gar- 
 rison justly entitles him to every mark of honor. The garrison 
 is therefore allowed to leave by the Villenour gate with the hon- 
 ors of war. On reaching the glacis it shall, at the command of 
 its own officers, pile arms and leave them there, together with 
 drums, cannon, and mortars ; all officers to retain their side- 
 arms. 
 
 "All European officers and soldiers shall go to Madrast [sic] or 
 neighborhood. All their needs shall be provided for until such 
 time as the Government of Madrast {sic) can equip ships to con- 
 vey them to France, which shall be done as quickly as possible. 
 
 "All European officers, soldiers, and sailors, and all other mili- 
 tary men in the service of His Most Christian Majesty, at present 
 
I AN HONORABLE DEFENCE 383 
 
 in Pondicherry, shall be provided for in a suitable fashion at the 
 expense of the Madrast (sic) Government, until such time as they 
 shall reach France. 
 
 " Native deserters shall be sent back to the respective Crowns 
 under which they served, with a guarantee that they shall not be 
 molested. 
 
 "The fortifications and public edifices shall not be demolished, 
 pending subsequent instructions from Europe. 
 
 "The artillery, ammunition, provisions, and in general everj'- 
 thing the property of the King of France, shall be delivered in 
 good faith to our English commissioner. 
 
 "This capitulation to be signed by Mr. Vernon, and Mr. Mun- 
 ro, who pledge themselves that it shall be ratified by the Supreme 
 Council of Madrast {sic). 
 
 "In camp before Pondicherry, 17th October, 1778. 
 
 "Signed, Hector Munro, Edvart {sic) Vernon, and, at Pondi- 
 cherry, Bellecombe." 
 
 Statement of the Killed and Wounded during the Siege of 
 • Pondicherry. 
 OJicers— 
 
 Killed, or died of their wounds 9 
 
 Wounded 19 
 
 28 
 
 Poudicherry regiment and petty officers — 
 
 Killed, or died of their wounds 45 
 
 Wounded 143 
 
 188 
 
 Gunners — 
 
 Killed, or died of their wounds 29 
 
 Wounded 6g 
 
 98 
 
 Civilians — 
 
 Killed, or died of their wounds 3 
 
 Wounded 7 
 
 10 
 
 Sepoys and Topas — 
 
 Killed, or died of their wounds 52 
 
 Wounded 94 
 
 146 
 
 Workmen — 
 
 Killed, or died of their wounds 64 
 
 Wounded 148 
 
 212 
 
 Total 682' 
 
 ' Black residents not included. 
 
384 MEMOIRS OF BARRAS APP. 
 
 Expenditure of Ammunition during the Siege. 
 
 Gunpowder (tons) 80,000 
 
 Cannon-balls 34,000 
 
 Shells 1.950 
 
 Fascines 20,000 
 
 Cartridges 900,000 
 
 Guns burst and disabled 164 
 
 English Losses in their Attacks on Pondicherry. 
 
 Officers killed 54 men 
 
 European soldiers 489 
 
 Sepoys 4578 " 
 
 Palis 2000 " 
 
 Total 71:21 " 
 
 Ammunition expended by the Enemy. 
 
 Cannon-balls 80,000 
 
 Bombs 11,000 
 
 Gunpowder (tons) 300,000 
 
 Cartridges 2,000,000 
 
 The siege cost the English 11 pagoda lakhs, or 9,350,000 
 
 II 
 
 Autograph Fragment of Barras in regard to the Neck- 
 lace Affair 
 
 I was living at the time in Paris on a very scanty allowance ; 
 fortunately an aged kinswoman of Marseilles often came to my 
 aid ; I had contracted a few debts which I then paid. Baron 
 de Vallois {sic), a naval officer, introduced me to his sister, the 
 Countess de Lamotte ; she was beautiful, good, and kindly, and was 
 reputed to enjoy great influence; she kept up an extensive estab- 
 lishment,and entertained largely; among her most assiduous guests 
 was Cardinal de Rohan ; she was looked upon as a descendant 
 of the Valois, and consequently entitled to go to Court; she got 
 
 ' French livres, not pounds sterling, are meant. — G. D. 
 
" THE NECKLACE AFFAIR 385 
 
 on an intimate footing with M. de Calonne ; she proposed to me 
 to marry her sister; events prevented this union. One evening 
 when we were at supper with the cardinal at La Fresnay's, the 
 notary, she appeared very melancholy to me ; the cardinal lacked 
 his ordinary swagger ; we all left at midnight. She begged me 
 to enter her carriage and see her home. The moon was shining 
 brightly as we reached the Boulevard Saint-Antoine ; she said to 
 me, "I feel ill at ease in the carriage ; I would prefer walking as 
 far as the Rue Saint-Claude." I gave her my arm ; she was suf- 
 fering from suppressed emotion ; I asked her the reason. She 
 replied, "I am the compromised dupe, and perhaps the victim, 
 of my credulity ; I will tell you all to-morrow. I will be obliged 
 to leave Paris ; you shall accompany me to Bar-sur-Aube." Her 
 sighs, her tears, her fears, which I had already noticed in her own 
 home, the silent demeanor of the cardinal, the violent reproaches 
 addressed by her toCagliostro, and the chagrined air of the friends 
 of the house, aroused certain misgivings in me ; I considered it 
 best to retire after having seen her to her door, in order to avoid 
 being made a confidant of 
 
 The next day I called on a canon who was a friend of Mme. 
 de Lamotte ; there I learned that she was seriously com- 
 promised, that a diamond necklace had been purchased by the 
 cardinal under a pretence that it was to be presented to the 
 Queen, but in reality to be handed over to the adepts of whom 
 Cagliostro was the chief; he was, by decomposing the stones, to 
 transform them into large-sized diamonds. In order to justify 
 the cardinal's purchase, an indecent part was caused to be played 
 in the Park of Versailles by a Mile. Oliva, a Roman Cagliostro, 
 and the other adepts, who had sold the diamonds for their own 
 benefit, and who were the authors of this show and swindle. The 
 payments having fallen due, the jewellers claimed their money • 
 the cardinal being unable to meet the payments, they were told, in 
 order to appease them, that the necklace was in the possession 
 of the Queen, that they must wait, and that capital and interest 
 would in due time be paid. The jewellers saw fit to mention the 
 matter to the Queen, who told the King. The cardinal was ar- 
 rested in the Palace of Versailles and taken to the Bastille ; so 
 was Mme. de Lamotte, who had fled to Bar-sur-Aube. They were 
 tried ; the cardinal was relegated to his abbey, and Mme. de 
 Lamotte degraded by a Parlement which severely punished the 
 sorry remnants of the unfortunate House ofValois. The result 
 
386 MEMOIRS OF BARRAS APP. 
 
 of the chemical operations and evocations of the charlatan Cag- 
 liostro, for which one waited with impatience, was his disappear- 
 ance. 
 
 Ill 
 
 Another Autograph Fragment of Barras in regard to 
 THE Necklace Affair 
 
 The Baron de Valois served in the navy ; I was introduced 
 to his sister the Countess de Lamotte ; she was young, beautiful, 
 and most kindly. She was on an intimate footing with Cardinal 
 de Rohan, Cagliostro, a monk, another sorcerer from Liege, and 
 a notary. She proposed to me to marry her sister, who was then 
 in an abbey in the Rue Saint-Antoine. This union was about 
 to take place when the course of events prevented it. JNIme. de 
 Lamotte went to Court, and lived in fine style in the Rue Saint- 
 Claude ; but people noticed a certain uneasiness about her which 
 she could not always conceal ; it was shared by the persons I 
 have named above. One evening, after an excellent supper at 
 the house of the notary, La Fresnay — albeit a rather melancholy 
 supper, owing to the cardinal having lost his usual bluster — the 
 guests all went their ways. Mme. de Lamotte said to me, "Ac- 
 company me." We get into a carriage; she does not break 
 silence until the Boulevard du Temple is reached, " I have 
 a violent headache," she says ; " let us walk." I dismiss my 
 servants; a moment later,"! want to sit down," Mme. de La- 
 motte says. We seat ourselves on one of the stone benches ; 
 her bosom heaves, and sighs escape her. "What ails you?" I 
 inquire. " I am overwhelmed with grief, my friend ; I am sur- 
 rounded by treacherous and avaricious people ; I have been weak 
 enough not to drive them away, nay, to listen to them. They 
 have strangely compromised me as well as the cardinal ; I stand 
 in need of advice ; my husband is not fit to give me any. Cag- 
 liostro and the others are rogues, the Queen an ingrate, the car- 
 dinal a fool ; we are all three going to be their victims." A few 
 sentences spoken loud enough to be heard had inspired me with 
 misgivings. I reassured the countess, saying to her, " You 
 might adopt the course of getting rid of these importunates, of 
 
IV THE LAMOTTE WOMAN 387 
 
 keeping away from all intrigues, and live as happily as you de- 
 serve to ; — but here it is striking two o'clock in the morning ; let 
 us go home." She saw that I did not wish to be made the de- 
 positary of any secret. I took her to her house, and quickly left. 
 
 The next day I saw the canon and also the sister of Mme. 
 de Lamotte ; I asked them for an explanation of all these mys- 
 teries ; the sister replied : " It is all about a splendid diamond 
 necklace, in regard to which my sister and the cardinal have 
 assumed liabilities, and which some rascally scoundrels have 
 broken up for their own benefit. All is lost; Mme. de Lamotte 
 is leaving Paris; the cardinal should follow her example, and 
 Cagliostro make himself scarce. My sister has been led astray 
 by a lot of rogues ; she has served great personages who have 
 deserted her; one has been essentially wanting in respect to the 
 Queen, who is a stranger to these guilty intrigues." I called on 
 Mme. de Lamotte, who said to me, " I am leaving for Bar-sur- 
 Aube ; I should never have lived in Paris, nor frequented the 
 great people whose victim I am." 
 
 She was degraded by the Parlement, which was desirous of 
 wreaking vengeance on these sorry remnants of the unfortunate 
 House of Valois. The reigning Royal Family committed the 
 mistake of referring so scandalous a case to a court of justice. 
 I took leave of Mme. de Lamotte, whom I never saw again ; I 
 backed out of a marriage which I had been led up to merely 
 from the pleasure of contemplating the excellent qualities of that 
 lady. I must here record my debt of gratitude to the Due 
 d'Orle'ans, who on this occasion showed a great interest in me on 
 account of my liaisons with Mme. de Lamotte. 
 
 IV 
 
 Narrative of the taking of the Bastille, from the Auto- 
 graph Journal of Barras 
 
 Saturday, wth July, 1789.— Dismissal of M. Necker, M. de la 
 
 Luzerne, AL de Montmorin, and , whose place is taken by 
 
 M. de Breteuil, Chief of the Royal Council of Finance, M. 
 
 de la Tour, Comptroller-General, M. d'Amdcourt, and Lambert, 
 
3S8 MEMOIRS OF BARRAS APP. 
 
 called to the Council, M. de Broglie, Minister of War, De la Porte, 
 Minister of Marine, Foulon, to the Contested Claims Department 
 of the War Office. This news was made public in Paris on Sun- 
 day at noon, and spread general consternation. 
 
 It was rumored that the Due d'Orldans and several members 
 of the National Assembly had been arrested. 
 
 At three o'clock in the afternoon the decorated busts of the 
 Due d'Orleans and of M. Necker were carried in triumph. 
 
 Great crowds throng the streets. The orators of the Palais- 
 Royal were haranguing the public. The Palais-Royal was filled 
 with people. 
 
 At four o'clock cries were heard of "To arms!" The watch 
 was compelled to escort the busts. 
 
 Suddenly the masses sprang up and assembled tumultuously, 
 armed with swords and muskets ; cries of " The Third Estate for- 
 ever !" "Long live the Due d'Orleans and M. Neker" («<-) were 
 heard again and again on all sides ; passers-by were enrolled. At 
 five o'clock it was decided to attack the King's troops in the 
 Champ de Mars, the Champs-EIys^es, and at the Barriere Blanche. 
 The Gardes Frangaises abandoned their flags to go over to the 
 people, as did soldiers of the Vintimille, Provence, and other 
 
 regiments. The dragoons oi Royal were likewise attacked ; 
 
 some were killed, others unhorsed, and their horses brought to 
 the Palais-Royal. The Palais- Royal was made the central point 
 of meeting ; subsequently it was the Place d'Armes. 
 
 Royal-Allemand drove back the Parisians in the Place Louis 
 XV., and its colonel, the Prince de Lambesc, sabred several un- 
 armed citizens and cut them down in the Tuileries. 
 
 Night saw the Parisians return to the town ; there were several 
 skirmishes, and some cavalrymen of Royal-Cravate were killed in 
 an encounter on the boulevard between midnight and one o'clock. 
 The night was a very stormy one; nothing was heard but cries of 
 " To arms !" and " The Third Estate forever !" 
 
 Passers-by were stopped, and money extorted from them by 
 the force of arms. 
 
 The day revealed to us a deeply-agitated population ; all gun- 
 smiths' shops were broken into and ransacked for arms ; the 
 house of the Lazarists was next taken possession of; in it were 
 found arms, a large quantity of provisions, especially flour, and 
 even money ; everything was taken to the Hotel de Ville ; the 
 people set fire to one of the buildings, which was consumed. 
 
IV THE MOB TRIUMPHANT 389 
 
 The whole of Monday was spent in searching for arms j an 
 order was issued from the Hotel de Ville to assemble in every 
 district and in every church ; all citizens complied ; orators 
 mounted the pulpit, spoke against existing abuses, and called on 
 citizens of all classes to get enrolled and arm themselves. 
 
 Towards evening the Palais-Royal was filled with people ; all 
 the talk and agitation was in regard to recovering liberty and 
 attacking all enemies of the State. 
 
 The populace decided to ransack the mansions of some of 
 the great; it rushed to that of M. de Breteuil, carrying away arms, 
 and smashed everything else. From there the mob went to the 
 Tuileries, and demanded that they be opened; the Swiss, although 
 his commandant had expressly forbidden him to do so, opened 
 the door at the first summons ; had there been the slightest re- 
 sistance it would have been smashed in. 
 
 Thence the mob went to the Prince de Lambesc's, smashing 
 everything in his house; but, on a few persons remarking that 
 the flames might spread through the quarter, the mansion was not 
 fired. Visits were also paid to the residences of a few other 
 grand folk who had been careful to take their departure. 
 
 Patrols were set afoot during the night ; posts were established. 
 Each quarter was on its own defence ; the streets were full of 
 armed citizens ; in every street were several guard-houses, and 
 patrols followed one another in succession. Cuttings and even 
 intrenchments were made in the avenues of Paris ; they were 
 given the finishing touches in the morning, and cannon were 
 placed in position. 
 
 The greater portion of the Gardes Fran^aises had gone over 
 to the people, and it was felt positively that the Swiss would not 
 act against the Parisians. 
 
 Great was the watchfulness overnight, as an attack was 
 dreaded from the King's troops ; a permanent committee of the 
 electors had established itself at the Palais-Royal ; it issued the 
 necessary orders both for defence and attack, and had them 
 publicly posted; the Provost of the Merchants was its president. 
 
 On the following day (Tuesday) the people proceeded to the 
 Invalides, which the governor was summoned to surrender; on 
 his making defensive preparations, the people, to the number of 
 over 20,000, began to scale the moat, and had the doors and 
 armories, in which were over 20,000 muskets, throivn open. 
 All citizens were notified to come at once and arm themselves, 
 
39° MEMOIRS OF BARRAS app. 
 
 whereupon all Paris hurried to the spot; cannon, cereals, and 
 ammunition of all kinds were dragged away in triumph to Paris 
 to the beating of drums ; the cereals were deposited at the Halle. 
 A most singular circumstance is that the camp of the Champ de 
 j\Iars, comprising three Swiss regiments, a regiment of hussars, 
 and one of dragoons, never stirred. 
 
 Shortly afterwards it was said that the camp was desirous of 
 surrendering, and that it only waited to be attacked in order to 
 declare itself. It was the intention to march to Versailles at 
 eleven o'clock, but an important attack was then engaging all 
 Paris's attention ; the Bastille, that monument of despotism, was 
 being stormed. The Marquis de Launay, the governor of this 
 stronghold, was, in the first instance, summoned to surrender it. 
 The deputies were admitted between the two drawbridges, where- 
 upon the governor immediately had them raised and the doors 
 closed, and opened fire on the deputies, who were all killed on 
 the spot. The people, infuriated at this, knowing neither obsta- 
 cle nor danger, attacked the fort, placed cannon opposite the 
 doors, broke the chains of the first drawbridge, entered in large 
 numbers the outer yard in spite of the fire from the place, repeat- 
 ed its action on reaching the second drawbridge, and penetrated 
 into the fort, hacking right and left. The governor, forced in his 
 stronghold, withdrew to one of the towers ; the lieidenant du roy 
 was killed fighting; the fifty or so old soldiers defending the 
 stronghold were killed, being in no condition to resist the 10,000 
 men who had entered it and the some 100,000 surrounding it. 
 They surrendered ; hands were laid on the governor and two 
 other officers ; flags were planted on the towers ; while the pris- 
 oners were led to the Hotel de Ville amid a shower of blows and 
 the jeers of the multitude, shouting " Hang them !" 
 
 On arriving at the Hotel de Ville, the Marquis de Launay was 
 hacked to pieces. One of his officers met the same fate on the 
 Place de Grece (sic) ; two old soldiers were hanged to a lamp- 
 post opposite the Hotel de Ville, and their hearts torn from their 
 bodies. It was discovered that M. de Flesselles, the Provost of 
 the Merchants, was acting treacherously towards the townsfolk. 
 The crowd called for him. On his reaching the bottom step of 
 the Hotel de Ville he was stabbed through and through, and fell 
 dead. His head, and that of M. de Launay, were placed on 
 pikes and carried past the ranks of the Parisian militia and 
 through all the streets. The jailer was hanged ; his hands were 
 
IV THE TAKING OF THE BASTILLE 391 
 
 cut off and exhibited in the Palais-Royal and in the streets of 
 Paris. 
 
 The night was spent in a state of alarm ; everybody was on 
 the alert ; stones were carried up to the stories of every house for 
 the purpose of showering them down upon the King's troops. 
 During the forenoon of Wednesday all necessary preparations 
 were made to resist an attack. In addition, the people were 
 getting ready, in the event of its not taking place, to march to 
 Versailles in several columns together, numbering over 100,000 
 men. 
 
 The news of the taking of the Bastille was conveyed to Ver- 
 sailles by the Vicomte de Noailles. It so alarmed the Court, 
 and the heads being carried through the streets struck such ter- 
 ror, that the National Assembly obtained that the King should 
 show himself in its midst. And truly the King went thither, 
 without pomp or arms, on Wednesday morning, and said to the 
 deputies, " The head of the French nation, moved by the mis- 
 fortunes afflicting the capital, has come to concert with you for 
 the purpose of putting an end to them, and of seeking your coun- 
 sels." It was decided that the King should dismiss his troops 
 and his perverse Ministers, the cause of all the disturbances. A 
 deputation of about one hundred members of the National As- 
 sembly brought the good news to the capital. They got out of 
 their carriages on entering the city, and passed through an im- 
 mense multitude on their way to the Hotel de Ville, assuring the 
 people that the King, who was both good and just, had forgotten 
 all that had taken place. The Archbishop of Paris spoke, but 
 was not heard; M. de Lafayette read the speech of the King, and 
 told of his paternal intentions ; M. de Lally-Tollendal addressed 
 the crowd with much force, saying that the King, alone and with- 
 out pomp, pained at the misfortunes of the capital, had come 
 among them as the bearer of words of peace. He added that 
 the National Assembly had shared the dangers of the Parisians, 
 but that now all should be forgotten and public order restored. 
 
 The Due de Liancourt attempted to speak of peace, of pardon, 
 but he was interrupted by the people, while the Vicomte de 
 Noailles remarked that there could be no question of pardon 
 where no crime had been committed. This sentiment was loudly 
 cheered. M. de Lafayette was then proclaimed commander of 
 the Parisian militia, and M. Bailli mayor of the city. On Thurs- 
 day evening a deputation from Versailles announced that the 
 
392 MEMOIRS OF BARRAS APP. 
 
 King would come to Paris on the following day. All the troops 
 were still under arms, while the same activity existed. 
 
 On Friday the King left Versailles alone, escorted by the 
 boui-geoisie of Versailles, and drove to the city's gate in an 
 ordinary carriage without guards or any member of his family. 
 With him were Marshal de Beauvau, the Due de Villeroy, Comte 
 d'Estaing, and the Due de Villequier. He entered Paris between 
 a line of Paris soldiers extending from the gate to the Hotel de 
 Villa, and followed by about 100,000 armed militiamen afoot 
 and on horseback. A considerable number of the deputies 
 walked alongside the King's carriage, together with the electors 
 of Paris. The grenadiers of the Gardes Franjaises, who had gone 
 over to the townsfoll<, dragged along two cannon with lighted 
 fuses. When M. Bailli handed the keys of Paris to the King at 
 the gate, he said to him, " Sire, the city of Paris tendered the 
 same keys to Henry IV. after he had conquered the city of Paris. 
 She tenders them to you to-day after having conquered her king." 
 Cries of " Long live the nation!" were heard along the King's 
 route. At the Hotel de Ville the King consented to the dismissal 
 of his troops and his Ministers, the recall of M. Neker {sic), the 
 establishment of a Parisian militia, etc. He was escorted back 
 in the same order to the cries of " Long live the King and the 
 nation !" by the soldiery, with sheathed bayonets and clubbed 
 muskets, as far as the gate, and loudly cheered by the whole of 
 his capital. 
 
 On the following day (Saturday) it was learned that the Poli- 
 gnacs had been dismissed, that Marshal de Broglie, the Ministers, 
 the princes, and the whole cabal had left Versailles to go, it was 
 said, to Metz. The Comte d'Artois had likewise gone on a 
 journey. 
 
 A courier was immediately despatched to INL Neker [sic) to 
 recall him, and to make him acquainted with the wishes of the 
 nfition. 
 
 The demolishing of the Bastille proceeds apace. The people 
 are ordered to bear arms in their respective districts ; steps are 
 being taken to constitute the militia ; the streets are being pa- 
 trolled; the permanent council or committee continues govern- 
 ing the capital. It is in its name and by its order that everything 
 is carried out. There is no more question of the King than if he 
 did not exist. The committee disposes of all public affairs. 
 
 Everything seems quiet ; the patrols are kept up ; on Monday 
 
V M. FOULON IS BEHEADED 393 
 
 it was rumored that the Intendant of Paris had been arrested at 
 Compifegne. It was said that M. Foulon had been arrested in a 
 chateau belonging to M. de. Sartinnes. He was brought into 
 this city on Tuesday, the 22d ; he entered the Hotel de Ville 
 amid a crowd which clamored for his head. In obedience to 
 the threatening cries and demand of the people, M. Foulon was 
 brought out into the Place de I'Hotel de Ville, and hanged to a 
 lamp-post at half-past four o'clock in the afternoon. His head 
 was then cut off, placed at the end of a stick, and exposed in 
 the streets, the mouth stuffed with hay. Two hours later the 
 Intendant arrived at the Hotel de Ville ; he was called outside 
 and hanged to the same lamp-post. The rope broke, whereupon 
 the mob finished him with sabres and bayonets ; his head was 
 cut off and placed at the end of a pike ; his heart was torn out 
 and carried through the streets of Paris by torchlight ; at eleven 
 o'clock at night his body was dragged by the feet through the 
 streets. 
 
 To-day, Thursday, all is quiet ; still the people demand that 
 further examples be made; a search is being instituted for pro- 
 scribed heads, and all the wicked have cause to tremble. 
 
 Autograph Fragment of Barras concerning his Mission 
 TO THE Army of Italy in 1793 — Dismissal of General 
 Brunet 
 
 Deputies from Toulon informed me that the town was meditat- 
 ing an act of treachery, that it was in active communication with 
 Marseilles, with the "sections" of the communes, that it had just 
 adopted this form of organization, and that the civil and military 
 leaders were not the friends of the Republic. I left for Toulon at 
 the repeated requests of my colleagues. On reaching Pignans I 
 learned that the town had closed its gates and arrested Bayle and 
 Beauvais, as well as many Republicans; that its central commit- 
 tee of the "sections" had set a price on my head; that it had 
 summoned the enemy's squadrons, with whom it had been in 
 treaty for some time past ; that couriers had been despatched to 
 
394 MEMOIRS OF BARRAS APP. 
 
 the communes (municipalities) to enjoin upon them to arm them- 
 selves. I had with me an escort of twelve dragoons, General La- 
 poype, Frdron, and my secretaries. The danger was pressing ; I 
 mounted my horse in order to rejoin the Army of Italy. The 
 members of the Pignans municipality, wearing their sashes of 
 office, had gathered together the "sectionaries" ; they made their 
 appearance just as I was leaving by the gate of the town, and 
 summoned me to return in order that my authority should be sub- 
 jected to scrutiny. I commanded them to withdraw, when a few 
 individuals sprang at my horse's bridle in obedience to their or- 
 der. I drew my sword, charging these wretches and the munici- 
 pal officers ; they all flung themselves into the ditches by the 
 roadside. Thus rid of them, I called out, " Here, dragoons ! 
 Follow me !" Two only obeyed ; the remainder forsook me. A 
 few musket-shots were fired at us. ^Ve were soon beyond their 
 reach. The tocsin was being rung in the municipalities we had 
 to pass through in order to join the Army of Italy. I was ac- 
 quainted with the locality, so I made my way towards the moun* 
 tain-ranges of La Roque-Fresnaye. We dismounted at the bridge 
 on the Argens River, at the very spot where the Roman triumvirate 
 divided the world. My two dragoons looked melancholy; I said 
 to Lapoype and Fre'ron, " I must question them ; you two stand 
 at iheir horses' bridles." After a reference to the criminal defec- 
 tion of their comrades, I said, "You are free, dragoons, to rejoin 
 the traitors and to disown the Republic and its representative." 
 At these words the dragoons told me that they had been over- 
 come by the sight of these municipal officers wearing their sashes, 
 as they were accustomed to respect official authority, that they 
 blamed their comrades, that they were mine for life, and, waving 
 their hats, they shouted, " Long live the Republic !" We again 
 mounted our horses. On leaving Pignans I had given orders for 
 my equipages to take the Nice road ; they were stopped and 
 handed over to the Toulonnais. I lost my effects, my carriage, 
 and all my correspondence ; I subsequently refused the indemnity 
 tendered me by the Convention. 
 
 I duly reached La Roque-Fresnaye. It is a wretched village, 
 accessible only by cross-roads, situated in the midst of the woods 
 on the summit of a mountain. Its mayor had not received any 
 orders from Toulon. He was a Republican. I continued my 
 journey, going towards Saint-Tropez, with the intention of em- 
 barking there. I was expected there ; so I was told by the mayor 
 
V AT THE ENEMY'S MERCY 395 
 
 Hallier (?) and the municipal officer, Martin, in charge of the 
 port. These two excellent citizens said to me, " Your arrival in 
 our town has already caused gatherings. We will go and get 
 ready a barque for you, in which we will place two skippers who 
 can be depended upon." Tired out as I was, I nevertheless con- 
 sidered it proper to inspect the citadel, in order to justify my pres- 
 ence in the municipality ; I even gave orders for some works 
 which I considered useful for defensive purposes. Night was 
 falling when the crack of a courier's whip was heard. My two 
 protectors came to me and said, " Here are the despatches from 
 Toulon ; in order to give you time to get away we shall not open 
 them until the municipality shall have been called together; the 
 barque is ready ; get aboard of her quickly." So there we were in 
 our frail boat with its two sailors. During the night the wind 
 was contrary to us ; at daybreak several ships seemed to be ma- 
 noeuvring with the object of coming alongside of us. In view of 
 this danger we sought shelter along the rock-bound coast. We 
 remained in hiding during the day, and resumed our course at 
 night. The appearance of other ships of the enemy compelled 
 me to put into Sainte-Marguerite. I at once summoned the in- 
 valides (pensioners) and gave instructions for the defence. At 
 night we continued our journey in the direction of the Army of 
 Italy, ^^'e put into the port of Nice ; no chain was hung across 
 its entrance; I landed on the qua)', alongside of a guard -house. 
 Everybody, even the sentry, was asleep ; the neglect shown by 
 the commander of the army, made clear to me subsequently, 
 had for its object the leaving of communications open by night. 
 
 On reaching my quarters, I sent at once for the commandant 
 of the town, the mayor, and the principal civil and military 
 authorities. They thought I was in the clutches of the Toulon 
 rebels ; so they had been told by the general-in-chief 
 
 I immediately substituted Colonel Durand, a Republican and 
 valiant man, for the commandant of the town. I had no mis- 
 givings in regard to the patriotism of the inhabitants of Nice. 
 After having laid before the authorities the infamous conduct of 
 the ringleaders at Toulon, the neglect shown in the employment 
 of means to insure against a surprise, even in the port, we adopted 
 several measures to remedy this state of things, and to insure the 
 provisioning of the town ; others to the effect that all couriers 
 bearing despatches, even for the general-in-chief, should be 
 stopped at the entrance to the port, on the banks of the Var, at 
 
396 MEMOIRS OF BARRAS APP. 
 
 the gates of Nice, and be brought into my presence. I sent 
 messengers to the authorities of the departments of Var and 
 Bouches-du- Rhone, in order to inform them of the criminal 
 plotting of a faction which had taken refuge in Toulon, and was 
 in communication with a committee in Marseilles. 
 
 I wrote to General Brunet that I had fortunately escaped the 
 clutches of the " sections," that two of my colleagues were in 
 prison at Toulon, that negotiations were being carried on with 
 the foreign squadrons, that commissioners had proceeded to 
 Genoa in order to assure the King of the loyalty of his good 
 town of Toulon, that the Comte d'Artois was being urged to en- 
 ter it, that under such circumstances it was impossible not to see 
 treason revealed, and that I begged him to come and see me at 
 Nice. He said to my aide-de-camp, "I thought he had. been 
 arrested at Toulon." He arrived at my house with a numerous 
 staff; I admitted him alone into my drawing-room, wherein were 
 assembled all the authorities of the city; he insisted on his escort 
 being admitted ; I refused. 
 
 After having laid before the assemblage the situation of the 
 Republic, the coalition of enemies at home with the foreign 
 enemy, I dwelt in particular on the coalition in the south, on 
 that of Toulon, which had welcomed the enemy's squadrons, on 
 the establishment of a general committee of the " sections," on 
 the organization of military forces in the departments of Var and 
 Bouches-du-Rhone, on the refusal to recognize the Convention, 
 on the institution of popular tribunals already exercising their 
 atrocious ministry, on the white flag being substituted for that 
 of the Republic, on the intercepting of provisions destined to the 
 Army of Italy, and on the intention of marching on Paris with 
 their battalions united to those of several other departments. 
 
 I told them that at so serious a juncture it was proper to 
 take measures to thwart these acts of treachery, to protect by 
 detachments from the army the arrival of provisions ; that it 
 would likewise be necessary to detach therefrom three or four 
 thousand men for the purpose of opposing and repressing the 
 efforts of the home enemy and to keep our communications 
 open ; that positions should be taken up by troops in the passes 
 surrounding Toulon ; that I had just sent word to my colleagues 
 of the Army of the Alps that it was urgent that a like corps of 
 three or four thousand men should be detached at once and sent 
 against Marseilles, and then to the passes of Ollioules; that I was 
 
V BRUNET'S DUPLICITY 397 
 
 about to require General Brunet to second these dispositions by 
 sending a body of troops in the department of Var and to that 
 portion of Toulon facing Ollioules. 
 
 The general laughed sneeringly while I was speaking. There- 
 upon I went on to say, " General, together we will save the south ; 
 we shall be assisted by a mass of good citizens ; if you refuse 
 my propositions, I will save it alone." Brunet replied to me 
 that the " sections " were in favor of the Republic, that they 
 had considered it necessary to secure themselves against the dep- 
 uties they had arrested, that what I had just said in regard to 
 Toulon was merely the idle talk of a few Royalist emigres, that, 
 considering the position of his army, he could not detach a single 
 soldier from it, and that it must be left to the bulk of the citizens 
 to mete out justice to a few brawlers. 
 
 At this juncture I was informed that a courier from Toulon 
 had just been arrested ; I left the room for an instant. The 
 despatch he brouglit was for General Brunet. My reading of it 
 confirmed to me the criminal partnership of the general with the 
 Toulon Committee. Another despatch from the general to the 
 Committee testified to his approval of the measures it was tak- 
 ing for the public weal. Armed with these documents, and many 
 others besides, I said to the general, " It is with good cause that 
 it has been rumored that you were in correspondence with the 
 rebels. I have acquired material proof of it through the arrest 
 of several couriers. I now require you to place at my disposal 
 4000 men of your army; I reserve unto myself the appointment 
 of their commander ; I have contracted this engagement after 
 consulting with my colleagues of the Alps." I asked him to join 
 me, telling him he had doubtless allowed himself to be led into 
 error. 
 
 Thereupon Brunet said to me in a most arrogant tone, "You 
 are without authority in the absence of your two colleagues," add- 
 ing that I had no authority to take Freron as a colleague; that he 
 acknowledged me as a representative with the army, but that he 
 was opposed to my exercising any functions, and all the more op- 
 posed to Freron, who enjoyed no mission, and whose place was in 
 the Convention. 
 
 Had I weakened, all was lost. I informed Brunet that I in- 
 tended using the power conferred upon me by the Convention ; 
 that Fre'ron would second me ; that the rebellion as well as those 
 who favored it should be punished ; that, supported by the valiant 
 
39S MEMOIRS OF EARRAS APP. 
 
 army, the citizens of Nice, and the inhabitants of the surrounding 
 country, my requisitions, which I now converted into orders, would 
 be executed ; that I assumed the responsibiHty of everything ; 
 that I expressly forbade him to make any changes in the present 
 dispositions of his camp or to attack the enemy ; that I was 
 about to issue a proclamation to the army ; and that he had com- 
 pelled me to unmask his conduct, which was more than open to 
 suspicion. 
 
 Brunet, noticing from the window a movement of troops and 
 National Guards which I had summoned to protect my residence, 
 commanded by the gallant Durand, who was present at the meeting, 
 changed color, and in an almost dying voice told me that he had 
 perhaps been mistaken ; that since I assumed the responsibility 
 of everything, he would comply with my requisitions ; that he con- 
 sented to the exercise of my powers and even those of Fre'ron. I 
 shook hands with Brunet, who accepted my invitation to dine at 
 my table with the authorities. All bitterness vanished on both 
 sides during the repast. On taking leave, he assured me he was 
 going to give orders that all our dispositions should be carried 
 out at once. On reaching his camp, he detached 3000 men, 
 whom I sent into the department of Var, under the orders of 
 General Lapoype ; but he subsequently allowed himself to be 
 influenced by the ill-disposed people about him, and gave vent 
 to all kinds of utterances against the Convention and the com- 
 missioners, whom he considered he should arrest, in order that 
 they should not impede the march of regenerating events. 
 
 I intercepted a fresh despatch from the Toulon " sections," as 
 well as Brunet's reply. 
 
 This general was making dispositions to attack the enemy in 
 such a way that he would be repulsed and thus have an excuse 
 for abandoning the county of Nice, withdrawing into the depart- 
 ment of Var, and giving support to the southern rebellion, with- 
 the aid perhaps of the Sardinian army, which would necessarily 
 have followed him. It seemed to me that the only means of 
 saving the army was to give it another commander. I therefore 
 issued an enactment whereby I precisely (or, provisiotially) dis- 
 missed Brunet, giving his command to the senior general, Du- 
 merbion, highly thought of by the troops and citizens, both as 
 a soldier and as a citizen. I sent him a despatch, ordering 
 him to take with him soldiers of his division whom he could 
 trust, arrest Brunet, notify him of his dismissal, take immedi- 
 
VI DUMERBION PUT IN COMMAND 399 
 
 ate command of the army, send Brunet to Nice under heavy 
 escort, post my orders and proclamation in the camp, and exe- 
 cute at once the mission I was intrusting him with for the pubHc 
 weal. 
 
 Dumerbion promptly executed the order, realizing as he did 
 its urgency. He went to Brunet, read my despatch to him, and 
 without waiting for his reply, said, " General, no words ; obey, 
 and dispense me from having recourse to the means of force at 
 my disposal." Brunet, acquainted with the firmness of the gal- 
 lant Dumerbion and his influence with the army, yielded. A de- 
 tachment conducted him to Nice ; the town congratulated me 
 on having taken this step. Brunet, wishing to avoid the town, 
 wrote begging me to dispense him from passing through it. I 
 granted him his request, informing him at the same time through 
 Durand, whom I had appointed brigadier-general, that his escort 
 would not convey him any farther than across the Var, that I 
 advised him to hold his tongue, as, armed with important docu- 
 ments against him, I should not lay them before the Committee 
 of Public Safety if he would quietly withdraw to his place of 
 residence in the Hautes- Alpes. Brunet promised everything; 
 but treacherous advice induced him to go to Paris, and to lay 
 a complaint against me before the Committee of Public Safety. 
 I thereupon immediately sent my secretary, with orders to deposit 
 with the Committee against its receipt the original proofs of the 
 general's treachery. He was arraigned before the Revolutionary 
 Tribunal, and paid with his head the penalty he might have 
 avoided had he followed my advice, and kept his promise of 
 staying at home. 
 
 VI 
 
 Events preceding the qth Thermidor (Autograph 
 Narrative of Barras) 
 
 It was the time when the Convention was being decimated 
 by the governing committee, under whose yoke it was. I hap- 
 pened to be armed with a certain amount of influence, secured 
 to me by my mission, and strengthened by my character ; a 
 regular fault-finder with the doings of these committees, I spoke 
 
400 MEMOIRS OF BARRAS APP. 
 
 out plainly against their atrocious domination ; they had sur- 
 rounded themselves with an escort of cutthroats, among which 
 were a few deputies. I lived in strict seclusion, belonging to no 
 coterie, and never dining out. This line of conduct impressed 
 people ; it made of me an opposition leader, about whom rallied 
 the true friends of liberty. A meeting of deputies was held to 
 consider the means of upsetting the committees and restoring to 
 the Convention the independence it was sighing for. We met 
 several times a week at Doyen's, in the Champs-Elysees, and 
 subsequently at ten o'clock at night in a cabinet of the Cafe 
 Corazza, the loyalty of whose proprietor I felt sure of. To Cour- 
 tois, the shrewdest man in the Convention, and on good terms 
 with all parties, excepting that of the committees, which he had 
 some cause to fear, was intrusted the duty of stirring up the 
 energy of his colleagues, and preparing them for the heavy blow 
 it was proposed to deal these oppressors. Courtois succeeded 
 admirably; daily was I assured by decent deputies that I might 
 depend on them. I never left the house without a sabre and 
 a brace of pistols ; I loudly announced, as did also Merlin de 
 Thionville, that I would slash off the head of any one who 
 ventured to arrest me, and then hold it up to the gaze of the 
 people so cruelly oppressed by the committees. This determina- 
 tion alarmed the committees ; they enacted that it was urgent to 
 send several of the deputies on mission with the armies, in order 
 to get them out of the way, and at a distance from Paris. Carnot, 
 between whom and myself no intimacy existed, was commissioned 
 to inform them of this decision. He met me in the Rue Neuve 
 des Petits - Champs ; with me was a friend who is still living. 
 Carnot, approaching me, said, " Citizen colleague, the Com- 
 mittee has decided to send you to the Army of the Rhine. Its 
 situation demands the presence of a representative who has so 
 ably fulfilled his mission in the south and with the Army of 
 Italy ; the Committee hopes that you will give this fresh proof of 
 your devotion to the country." I replied to Carnot, " I am aware 
 that you have conceived the plan of depriving the Convention of 
 those deputies who are not your servile adulators ; I shall not go 
 to the Army of the Rhine. The great danger which the Republic 
 is running is here, hence I will not leave this post of honor. Tell 
 this to your colleagues." Robespierre accosted me on the fol- 
 lowing day, and said to me, " You feel the necessity of remain- 
 ing in the Convention ; it is time the Convention should take 
 
■VI COLLOT ASSAULTS ROBESPIERRE 401 
 
 measures to free itself from the factious majority of tiie com- 
 mittees." My reply was embodied in these few words : " Well, 
 then, ascend the tribune, and disclose to the Convention its 
 usurpation of power and the bloody measures it daily takes 
 against good citizens." Robespierre answered, " It might, per- 
 haps, be dangerous to make these things public, but the time is 
 not far off when it can be done." A struggle for reputation and 
 for power had divided the committees against themselves. The 
 arrest of deputies and of notable citizens was being discussed ; it 
 was considered advisable to renew the slaughter carried out in 
 regard to Danton, Chaumette, Camille Desmoulins, Bazire, Fabre 
 d'Eglantine, and the virtuous Gosselin, who had revealed the cause 
 of the baneful perpetuation of the Vendean war, of which the com- 
 mittees made use to alarm discontented patriots. 
 
 Robespierre, who had the support of the Jacobins, was the most 
 influential member of the committees, without being for that the 
 wickedest. His partisans were, nevertheless, in a minority in the 
 committees ; the plan of adjourning the sittings of the Conven- 
 tion had not met with his approval. It was deemed advisable to 
 oppose to Robespierre the virile frame of Collot d'Herbois. A 
 quarrel arose out of the proposition of a list of proscription to 
 which Robespierre was justly opposed (the arrest of fourteen dep- 
 uties and several citizens) ; when this list, brought up for discus- 
 sion by the majority and handed to each member, who added a 
 name thereto, reached Robespierre, the names of thirty-two dep- 
 uties stood on it. Robespierre remarked, " I notice five or six 
 deputies unworthy of the character with which they are invested ; 
 it will be an easy matter to induce them to resign ; but I will 
 lend neither my vote nor my signature to the acts of revenge it 
 is sought to perpetrate." Two of Robespierre's friends were of 
 the same opinion ; a heated discussion ensued, and personalities 
 were indulged in. It was thrown in Robespierre's face that he 
 had voted against the Danton faction.' The three dissentient 
 members were stigmatized as "moderates"; thereupon Robes- 
 pierre, rising angrily, said, " You are killing the Republic ; you 
 are the faithful agents of the foreigner who dreads the system of 
 moderation which should be adopted." The sitting became so 
 stormy that Collot committed an assault on Robespierre,' who 
 
 ' The story of this altercation between Robespierre and Collot is told more 
 fully in an autograph note of Barras. " Robespierre having opposed a fresh 
 1—26 
 
4°2 MEMOIRS OF BARRAS app. 
 
 thereupon stated that he withdrew from the Committee, that he 
 could not with any respect for himself sit with executioners, and 
 that he would lay matters before the Convention. The danger 
 attendant upon this scene being made public was at once per- 
 ceived ; CoUot was censured for his patriotic anger, the fatal list 
 was torn up, after which Robespierre was entreated not to sup- 
 ply the enemies of the Republic with fresh weapons wherewith 
 to attack it. Robespierre seemed to be appeased, especially 
 when Collot approached him with the object of embracing him ; 
 he repulsed Collot's advances, and left in spite of all entreaties. 
 
 Vouland and Amar had told me that a member of the commit- 
 tees had said: "This dominator of a Robespierre is oppressing 
 the committees J he should be thrown out on the pavement below 
 some time when he is reading in the embrasure of a window ; it 
 would be set down to a fit of madness, which would give pleasure 
 to a good many people." Robespierre consented to the sacrifice 
 required by the Committee, but for the six weeks preceding the 
 9th Thermidor he did not attend any of its sittings; he frequent- 
 ed more assiduously than ever the Jacobins, whose support he 
 hoped for. During Robespierre's absence from the Committees the 
 
 measure of proscription, saying, ' You are decimating the Convention, you are 
 arresting citizens wliose repulilican energy you dread,' tliat boor Collot d'Her- 
 bois sprang on liim, and tlirowing liis arms about his waist, was on the point 
 of flinging him out of the window, when tlie latter 's friends came to liis rescue. 
 Tlie scene was followed by mutual explanations. Robespierre declaj'ed that 
 he could no longer sit with executioners, that he would withdraw, and lay the 
 matter before the Convention. The Committee, foreseeing its downfall, there- 
 upon endeavored to prevent Robespierre's leaving. The proscription list was 
 torn up in his presence. The hypocritical Carnot and the smooth-tongued 
 Couthon argued with hiiia that Collot's angry impulse was disowned by the 
 Committee, that publicity given to what had just happened would spell ruin 
 for the committees and the Republic. He was entreated to make a sacrifice of 
 all feelings of resentment, and that a like proof of patriotism was expected of 
 him. Collot, who was in a state of fury, apostrophized the \.\\o mediators, re- 
 proached his colleagues with their weakness, and withdrew. Robespierre, 
 deeply affected, looked from one to the other of his adversaries. On leav- 
 ing, he said to them, ' You would have made me pass for a madman had 
 the abortive project of flinging me out of the window been carried out. I 
 see here beings more atrocious than the man who was on the point of per- 
 petrating this deed ; he has left, ashamed at having undertaken to commit 
 this act of assassination.' Robespierre went his way, and for the space of a 
 month did not attend the sittings of the Committee. Robespierre was a sober 
 republican, austere in his morals, but the victim of a pride which tolerated no 
 rivalry. . . ." — G. D. 
 
■*'l FOUQUIER'S DEATH-ROLL PURGED 403 
 
 number of death sentences passed by the Revolutionary Tribunal was 
 doubled. I was requested to present myself before the Committee 
 of Public Safety during its evening session. On entering the room 
 adjoining the one wherein the Committee assembled, the usher 
 said to me, " The Committee begs you will wait a moment." Sev- 
 eral deputies were present waiting to be admitted, Marragon among 
 others ; he had come to submit to the Committee's approval his 
 work on irrigation. We were examining his system, when the door 
 opened, admitting a man clothed in black, who, approaching us, 
 inquired for the representative Barras. It was whispered to me 
 that it was Fouquier-Tinville. Leading me to the other end of 
 the table, he said, " I am instructed to confer with you principally 
 as to arraigning Kellermann, with whom you were not satisfied 
 when he was in command of the Army of the Alps, and next, in 
 regard to Hoche. Here is the list handed me by the Committee." 
 I cast my eyes over the sinister sheet, and said, " I may not have 
 been always satisfied with the operations of Kellermann, but I 
 have never looked upon him as an enemy of the Republic. But 
 since I am appealed to, I must tell you that I would defend him 
 were he brought to trial ; I must also protest against the arraign- 
 ment of Hoche and of the six good citizens whose names I see 
 here, for they are no more guilty than the two others." Fouquier 
 answered, " If you are prepared to vouch for them to the Com- 
 mittee, strike out Kellermann, Hoche, and the six citizens, who 
 are unknown to me." While I was engaged in doing this 
 Fouquier did nothing but repeat, " I am merely the executor of 
 the office intrusted to me by the committees; as you undertake 
 to secure their approval, that is sufficient to cover my responsi- 
 bility. With you do I consent to this act of justice." 
 
 This conversation took place in a room wherein stood deputies 
 all most anxious to learn the particulars of it. On being admitted 
 into the presence of the Committee, I reported the agreement 
 entered into between Fouquier and myself. This was a short 
 time before Robespierre had severed his connection with the 
 Committee; great was my surprise when he said to me, "■You 
 have done well ; they are seeking here to despatch, alleging treason 
 as a pretext, people on whom they wish to wreak vengeance, or whom 
 they fear." I perceived that Robespierre's opinion, against which 
 none protested, was not assented to by all. 
 
404 MEMOIRS OF BARRAS APP, 
 
 VII 
 
 The qth Thermidor (Autograph Narrative of Barras) 
 
 Thermidor was close at hand. The Convention was display- 
 ing a certain amount of energy, it had the support of all good 
 citizens, it was felt that something was about to happen. Every- 
 body was preparing for the struggle. The plan of the commit- 
 tees was to flatter the Convention and cast the odium of all 
 evils on Robespierre. He came up to me as we were leaving the 
 Convention, saying, " I wish to confer with you in regard to 
 tlie dangers threatening the Republic. We can save her; let us 
 join forces ; I have refused to have any further dealings with 
 the committees, never will I again associate myself with such 
 scoundrels. It is time that the Convention should recover the 
 plenitude of its powers ; the object of the committees is to 
 butcher the firmest supporters of liberty. At the present moment 
 tliey are entering into an alliance with the Royalists and Danton- 
 ists ; they are fawning upon the Terrorists, and are even ingrati- 
 ating themselves with the party favoring the foreigner ; they are 
 spreading all sorts of calumnies against the Republicans. This 
 very night serious accusations against me, my brgther, and two 
 other deputies have been posted on the trees in the Tuileries. 
 I no longer attend the sittings of the committees ; the word 
 'clement' has made them my enemies, and yet the daily execu- 
 tions have doubled ; defamation, followed by the scaffold, rid them 
 of courageous men; your patriotism, your honorably -filled mis- 
 sion, have brought you consideration and confidence; let us come 
 to a mutual understanding, and the Republican triumph is as- 
 sured." This conversation took place on the Terrasse des Feuil- 
 lants; more than ten deputies, with whom we were to dine at 
 Doyen's, were watching us with alarm. I replied to Robespierre, 
 " I neither accept nor propose any arrangement. The committees 
 have so abused power that the Convention will deprive them of it; 
 I had friends among those whom you call Dantonists; I also had 
 some among those who perished on the 31st of March. We are 
 opposed to any further domination. The tribune of the Jacobins, 
 so useful to the Republic, no longer resounds but with war-cries 
 uttered at the call of the ringleaders. I rally to the Convention 
 
■^11 ARREST OF ROBESPIERRE 405 
 
 alone; it will again become worthy of the great nation it rep- 
 resents. You are meditating an insurrection ; we shall repress 
 it." On leaving me Robespierre assured me of his devotion to 
 the Republic, imploring me to reflect over the evils which division 
 among the patriots would engender, and the hazard which might 
 prove favorable to the committees, adding that I would always 
 find him an enemy to absolutism, and inclined to act in concert 
 with a man who had so well served his country. I returned to 
 my colleagues, and gave them an account of what had just taken 
 place, of Robespierre's state of embarrassment, and the little con 
 fidence he had in his resources. It was agreed that we should 
 daily meet at breakfast at my house. 
 
 On the 8th Thermidor Robespierre delivered a speech which 
 did not meet with the Convention's approval. The night of the 
 8th Thermidor was a stormy one with the Jacobins, the " sec- 
 tions," and the Commune. The Commune had called to itself 
 the administrators of the loth of August ; the tocsin was rung in 
 all directions, and the insurgents were in close communication. 
 Robespierre sought to plead the cause of justice at the sitting of 
 the Convention of ihe 9th Thermidor. Vadier attacked him for 
 opposing the measures the committees proposed against conspir- 
 ators. Cambon joined Vadier because Robespierre had opposed 
 a decree adverse to pensions (?). Barrfere did not express his 
 sentiments until he thought he could do so without danger. On 
 the 9th Thermidor, Saint -Just approaches the tribune; Tallien 
 interrupts him, saying, " The curtain concealing so many crimes 
 must be rent asunder." He styled him a conspirator, a second 
 Catilina. Robespierre, still in the tribune, could not obtain from 
 Collot, who presided over the Convention, permission to speak. 
 Thereupon he addressed the pure men of the Assembly, calling 
 the Montagnards scoundrels, to the cries ot " Down with the 
 tyrant !" Then, turning towards the president, Thuriot, wlio had 
 succeeded Collot, he said, " I claim that the chief of brigands 
 who is presiding over assassins shall grant me a hearing." Ro- 
 bespierre's arrest is called for in several parts of the hall. Le- 
 bas exclaims that he is ready to share his fate. Robespierre the 
 Younger utters words to the same effect, a decree of arrest is 
 passed against Robespierre, Robespierre the Younger, Couthon, 
 and Saint-Just; the last-named had remained standing at the foot 
 of the tribune ; they ask to be heard. Robespierre waxes furious 
 and apostrophizes the president. The ushers are ordered to bring 
 
4o6 MKMOIRS OF BARRAS APP. 
 
 them to the bar. They hesitate ; the armed force seizes the 
 prisoners on the order of the president, and conveys them to 
 various prisons. Henriot is arrested as he is marching on the 
 Convention. He is released by some National Guards command- 
 ed by.Coffinhal. Quiet has been restored in the Convention, 
 which boldly faces the impending danger. The Commune com- 
 mands the National Guard to release the prisoners. They are 
 escorted in triumph to the Hotel de Ville ; it orders Henriot to 
 surround the Convention, hold its members close prisoners, and 
 prevent all debate. Pursuant to this order he sallies forth at the 
 head of an armed detachment of the National Guard, takes pos- 
 session of the quarters of the Committee of Security (its members 
 and those of the Committee of Public Safety, instead of remaining 
 at their post and taking measures, fled to the Convention), of the 
 Cour du Carrousel, and trains the four guns of honor standing at 
 the entrance to the palace on the Convention. In these desper- 
 ate straits, the Convention regains its energy. I had refused the 
 Committee's request that I should assume the command of the 
 Paris troops. "Go mount your horses, you who are intrusted 
 with the defence of the Convention and the Republic!" had been 
 my answer. Several members propose that I should be appoint- 
 ed general -in -chief ; the whole Convention insisting, I accept. 
 The decree is passed to cries of "Long live the Republic!" An- 
 other is passed pronouncing outlawry against Henriot. He was 
 standing at the doors of the hall. "Take care, here comes Bar- 
 ras," is called out to him. The scoundrel, although in posses- 
 sion of all outlets and at the head of a considerable force, seeks 
 refuge with the Commune. The soldiers follow him in disorder. 
 I had not as yet any military resources to oppose to the rebels; 
 the tocsin and a call to arms were sounding in all directions. 
 The Place de Greve was packed with National Guards and can- 
 non. Nevertheless, the greater part of this National Guard, igno- 
 rant of what was required of it, followed me. The Commu- 
 nal assembly was discussing the massacre of a portion of the 
 Convention ; it forbade obedience to its decrees ; Robespierre, 
 greatly alarmed, seemed to submit, and refused to act against the 
 national representation. All this hesitancy had shaken the citi- 
 zens assembled at the Commune. I had sent agents to enlighten 
 them ; the defection began. I was desirous of avoiding a fight 
 and being driven to cannonade the Hotel de Ville, and, in spite 
 of the entreaties of the Committee of Public Safety, whose mem- 
 
"VII A MISERABLE ENDING 407 
 
 bers had resumed their insolent attitude, it was only then that 
 I decided to march on the Commune. Immediately on my 
 being appointed general-in-chief, I had issued an appeal to all true 
 citizens ; my appeal had not been disregarded. I had ordered 
 that the troops in and about Paris should concentrate in the Cour 
 du Carrousel ; I had established posts of security, and taken 
 possession of the depot at Meudon and other public establish- 
 ments. I made several reports to the Convention, informing it 
 that I had the guns and men necessary to repress the rebellion. 
 I reached the Place de Grfeve with some 3000 men and guns. 
 The noise made by these rumbling over the stones was heard by 
 some remnants of the National Guard, who thereupon fled. The 
 same noise was heard by the Council General, which took to its 
 heels precipitately. Robespierre, outlawed together with his col- 
 leagues, accepted one of the two pistols with which Lebas was 
 armed. The bullet merely shattered his jaw. Lebas shot himself 
 dead with the other pistol. Couthon was hidden under a table, 
 Robespierre the Younger in a closet, at the door of which Lebas 
 had blown his brains out. Saint-Just was ministering to Robes- 
 pierre ; Henriot had concealed himself in a closet. ■ All these 
 individuals were arrested. The greater part of the leaders of the 
 conspiracy were arrested in their flight or in their places of con- 
 cealment. I took possession of the Hotel de Ville, and sent 
 Robespierre to the Committee of Public Safety, with orders to lay 
 him on the table adjoining the study of the Committee, and to 
 bring me a receipt for his body ; the others were conveyed to 
 prisons. Will it be believed that several days later the blood 
 which had flowed from Robespierre's wound was still to be seen 
 on that table ? 
 
 On the loth Thermidor the Revolutionary Tribunal sentenced 
 Robespierre and his accomplices, the deputies and citizens equal- 
 ly outlawed with him, to the number of twenty-two, to death ; on 
 the nth the members of the Council General of the Commune 
 and other citizens who had taken a part in its doings; on the 12th 
 fifteen other individuals were tried and sent to the scaffold. It is 
 painful to record that a population enjoying a reputation for its civ- 
 ilization should on this occasion have shown unbecoming signs of 
 the pleasure it felt at seeing the tumbrels conveying the doomed 
 men to death. Highly distinguished ladies vehemently waved 
 their handkerchiefs from the windows or the pavement, and to- 
 gether with all sorts of individuals indulged in insults. The mass 
 
4o8 MEMOIRS OF BARRAS app. 
 
 of the population remained a calm spectator of the sight. These 
 individuals have no right nowadays to spout against the excesses 
 of the Revolution. 
 
 Barrfere drew up a report against Robespierre on behalf of the 
 committees, inveighing in most inhuman fashion against men who 
 were no longer. He accused him (Robespierre) of having sought 
 to place the son of Louis XVI. on the throne, and of having dared 
 to conceive the insensate plan of marrying the sister of the young 
 prince ; lastly, the committees, which would have preferred a rec- 
 onciliation with Robespierre, decided upon making common cause 
 with the Thermidorians, whom they detested, and casting on Robes- 
 pierre the odium of all the crimes committed by them. Robes- 
 pierre was not an ordinary man. Swept away by the torrent of 
 the Revolution, he had allowed himself to have recourse to ex- 
 treme measures. He had become convinced that the system of 
 terror and death carried out to the highest degree of bloody bar- 
 barity was devouring all men truly Republican ; he sought to put 
 an end to these atrocious e.\ecutions ; he opposed the arrest of 
 several deputies, of a number of respectable citizens, paid homage 
 to divinity, talked clemency, and ended by perishing, like Camille 
 Desmoulins and so many others, through this very return to the 
 principles of justice. 
 
 Robespierre boarded and lodged with the family of the carpen- 
 ter Duplay. They lived in a frugal and temperate way, and their 
 morals were good. Robespierre's sister never thought nor wrote 
 to her brother the alleged letter mentioned by Courtois (?) in his 
 report, which is one mass of falsehood and spitefulness. Mile. 
 Robespierre, a gentlewoman of irreproachable behavior, had ac- 
 companied her younger brother on his mission to the Army of 
 Italy. She left him, unable to overcome the disgust which a very 
 relaxed society inspired her with. The letter above referred to 
 was written to her younger brother, who had remained with the 
 Army of Italy. This Courtois was in the habit of showing us 
 daily letters found among Robespierre's papers. He preserved 
 only those having reference to his secret opinions. Those of Bo- 
 naparte were, at the request of myself and Freron, burned, although 
 their contents were nothing if not most patriotic. 
 
 The Convention had on this memorable occasion shown great 
 courage in the face of a danger threatening it with almost total 
 destruction, but it did not take advantage of its victory; it re- 
 tained the greater number of those who had in the committees 
 
VII JACOBINS DISPERSED BY LEGENDRE 409 
 
 shamefully abused power; it recalled its enemies which it had 
 proscribed, and did not put a stop to the executions ordered 
 by them. This act of humanity was the work of those who were 
 not entirely devoted to the Republic, as well as of those who be- 
 trayed it. 
 
 When Robespierre delivered his speech at the Jacobins' Club, 
 deputies and citizens were insulted for mentioning the word 
 "dominator." Collot from the tribune and Billaud contended 
 that Robespierre should have submitted his speech to the Com- 
 mittee of Public Safety, whose sitting he had ceased to attend 
 for nearly two months. This contention raised a storm in the 
 assemblage, and great tumult ensued. The two deputies were 
 hooted, and compelled to vacate the tribune. Couthon followed 
 in praise of the speech and its author, and denouncing the plot- 
 tings of the Committee of Public Safety against liberty. He 
 stated that he looked upon the Jacobins as an authority in the 
 expression of public opinion. So great became the agitation of 
 the assemblage that the deputy Bre'ard was shown the door, and 
 other deputies stole away. The Committee of General Security 
 asked for a copy of Robespierre's speech : fresh tumult, height- 
 ened by a proposition from the gunners (?) and citizens to restore 
 to liberty the men imprisoned by order of the Convention. 
 
 I spoke to the deputy Legendre as to the pressing necessity 
 of suspending the sittings of the Jacobins, a thing I could not do 
 militarily, when he replied, " I will go and disperse them at the 
 head of armed patriots." And indeed, on reaching the hall 
 where they sat, and from which a large number of the members 
 had already decamped, he drove out the rest, closed the doors of 
 the hall, and presented. them (the keys) to the Convention. 
 
 We had, previous to the 9th Thermidor, requested the com- 
 mittees to dismiss Henriot and La Valette, whose audacity and 
 insolence gave offence to the citizens. Moreover, at the head 
 of a party invested with the military command, they had become 
 dangerous. The Committee of Public Safety refused, alleging 
 that they were Republicans devoted to the governing committees. 
 
 Robespierre's opinion greatly influenced the Jacobins. With 
 the exception of foreigners and a few factious men at home who 
 had sold themselves to the foreign party, the Jacobins were 
 Republicans, but distrustful. Robespierre used them as a sup- 
 port So did the committees, each of whose members thought 
 the immense majority was on his side. When the Convention 
 
41 o MEMOIRS OF BARRAS APP. 
 
 resumed its sway all these dominators showed, as did Bonaparte 
 towards the close of his career, great weakness. Robespierre 
 plumed himself on his opposition to the measures taken against 
 the seventy-three on his opposition in '92, just as in prison he 
 inveighed against kings, ending by saying that two powers exist 
 in the world — tyranny and reason ; that the one is banished wher- 
 ever the other reigns supreme. Is there to be found a solitary 
 member of either of the committees who ever made such a 
 declaration of faith ? The committees had declined to adopt 
 any of the measures proposed to insure public security. They 
 retained the hope to come to terms, at the issue of the struggle, 
 with the victorious party. Meanwhile the Convention was 
 blockaded, and the Committee of Public Safety was not in 
 session. We returned thither. Billaud and two other deputies 
 lay on mattresses placed on the floor. They reckoned on 
 Henriot's promise to sever their case from that of the others, and 
 to bring about a reconciliation with Robespierre. They were, in 
 spite of these pledges, stricken with terror— they who had so in- 
 solently made terror hover over the heads of the citizens. The 
 Convention was in a state of suspense when we informed it that 
 we had at last induced the Committee, which we had called 
 together, to come and lay before it the state of Paris. The 
 members of the Convention were all assembled, with the excep- 
 tion of a few, who have since written memoirs, and acted various 
 parts under the Governments {sic) of Bonaparte, and even under 
 the monarchical Government. 
 
 A member of the committees who had returned to the Con- 
 vention ascended the tribune, and moved the appointment of 
 a general-in-chief. The deputies, rising as a body, approved 
 the motion. The outlawry and my appointment so frightened 
 Henriot and La Valette that, although masters, with 1500 men 
 of the Committee of General Security, of the doors of the Palace 
 of the Tuileries, they fled in all haste to the Commune, which 
 was deliberating in a sovereign capacity. 
 
 After having, by virtue of an appeal to all true citizens, ob- 
 tained that the troops should proceed to the Place du Carrousel, 
 I assigned to each general, to each commander, the posts and 
 the troops I placed under his command. These dispositions 
 were carried out with such celerity that all the avenues to the 
 Tuileries, and even the bridges, were guarded. I thereupon 
 assured the Convention that the zeal of the citizens and military 
 
■>■'" AT THE HOTEL DE VILLE 411 
 
 had been such that no danger any longer threatened its members 
 or its debates ; that I had brought this about with thirty cannon 
 (as yet I possessed only four). This assurance and my disposi- 
 tions reassured the committees. " The whole of the responsi- 
 bility," they argued among themselves, " now rests with Barras." 
 They urged me to march on the Hotel de Ville. I replied to 
 them that I was waiting to see existing laws carried into effect, 
 and the result of the efforts of several respectable citizens, whom 
 I had commissioned to enlighten the mass of patriots who had 
 been led astray, and to invite them to return peacefully to their 
 homes ; moreover, that I intended proceeding to the Place de 
 Grfeve to dissolve by force of arms, in case of any display of 
 resistance, a gathering as illegal as it was guilty. This plan was 
 successful; the true citizens forsook that mass of ringleaders 
 among whom the agents of the foreigner were at work. This 
 defection caused nearly the whole of the gathering to disperse. 
 This example was followed by those who were criminally deliber- 
 ating in the bosom of the Commune. 
 
 Merlin de Thionville got the start of me, so that on my ar- 
 rival the Place de Grfeve was already evacuated. Robespierre 
 was stretched out on some benches, his jaw shattered by the dis' 
 charge of a pistol handed him by Lebas. The latter had blown 
 out his brains with the other pistol in his possession. Robes- 
 pierre the Younger stood by his brother's side, together with 
 Saint-Just ; Couthon was hiding under some tables ; Henriot was 
 found in a closet. A few members of this rebellious Commune 
 were arrested in their flight ; others were hunted down in this 
 huge building. 
 
 I was touched, I must confess, by the condition of Robes- 
 pierre and his colleagues, all either covered with blood or dust. 
 None of them offered any complaint except Couthon. Here, 
 then, was the all-powerful man whom self-love, the spirit of 
 domination, and perhaps the return to clemency, Iiad equally 
 contributed to overthrow. He, together with his colleagues, had 
 sought to revert to principles of moderation ; he had raised his 
 voice against pilferers, against contractors (?), against scaffolds. 
 This was the very time the committees chose to destroy his 
 popularity. He was called a moderate, and perished, just as had 
 
 honest Camille Desmoulins, Danton, Bazire and the other 
 
 deputies who sought to put an end to the executions of the 
 Terror and the power of the committees. I sent Couthon and 
 
412 MEMOIRS OF BARRAS APP. 
 
 the other individuals under arrest to various Paris prisons. As 
 to Robespierre, I had him laid on the table of the large salon 
 adjoining the meeting-room of the Committee of Public Safety, 
 with orders to bring me a receipt for his body. I had cause to 
 be dissatisfied with the utterances of the committees in regard to 
 my hesitancy in attacking the Commune. They were of opinion 
 that the building should have already been razed to the ground, 
 whereas my hesitancy consisted merely in a hope that the gather- 
 ings would dissolve without my being compelled to destroy such 
 a monument, and mow down with grape men who had been de- 
 ceived, and who, in the end, when they learned the truth, cursed 
 the men who had compromised them under pretence of saving 
 liberty. My orders were executed, and a week later spots of 
 blood could still be seen on the table whereon Robespierre had 
 lain. 
 
 Master of the Hotel de Ville, I scoured Paris during the 
 night ; all was quiet. Next morning, learning that the Revolu- 
 tionary Tribunal, which was sitting, had sentenced a number of 
 individuals to death, I proceeded to the Palais de Justice. On' 
 reaching the foot of the grand staircase, I sent for Fouquier- 
 Tinville, with orders to lay hands on him if he disobeyed my 
 order. I was on horseback, surrounded by an immense con- 
 course of people. I commanded him to suspend all executions 
 until such time as he received fresh orders from the Convention. 
 He informed me that he was acting under orders of the com- 
 mittees. " No matter," I replied, " you shall be answerable to 
 me for any infringement of the orders I now give you." There 
 was a general outburst of hooting. Fouquier said to me, " I go 
 and suspend court, after which I will proceed to the committees 
 to report the matter." The committees anew ordered Fouquier 
 not to interrupt the course of justice — that a general had no 
 power to suspend its action ; that, moreover, the Committee had 
 learned that the prisoners confined in the Temple had escaped, 
 doubtless owing to that general not having established a guard 
 at the prison. 
 
BONAPARTE'S COURTSHIP 413 
 
 VIII 
 
 Bonaparte's matrimonial plans in regard to Mlle. Mon- 
 TANSIER — An addition to a chapter in the Memoirs of 
 Barras 
 
 During the course of my several sojourns in Paris, which I 
 had always thought of lesser duration than they really became 
 through the course of events, moreover, being frequently absent 
 on mission, I had not thought it as yet necessary to invest in any 
 furniture. I had occupied a furnished apartment in one of the 
 quarters nearest the National Convention, at first in the Rue 
 Neuve des Petits-Champs, near the Palais-Royal, and subse- 
 quently in the Palais-Royal itself. The lodgings in this en- 
 closure might have been thought to be more expensive than 
 elsewhere, but in reality they were less so, specially for some 
 time past, and for various reasons : in the first place it was oc- 
 cupied by a number of unfortunate females ; again, there were 
 gambling dens, whose vicinity destroyed tranquillity and secu- 
 rity ; there had been less of them subsequent to the latter crises 
 of the Revolution, for the reason that both before and after the 
 9th Thermidor the Palais-Royal had, so to speak, become the 
 central point of all convulsions, and had re-echoed them. Dur- 
 ing the Terror its gates had oftentimes been closed to allow of 
 domiciliary visits, which it was very difficult to escape from. 
 After the 9th Thermidor, Mile. Montansier, who occupied with- 
 in its precincts not only her theatre, but likewise the adjacent 
 arcade, had offered me a suite of rooms, which I accepted. 
 My connection with her was naught else but that of a lodger; 
 this circumstance, like so many others, having given rise to re- 
 marks, and even to an interpretation altogether calumnious in 
 respect to the morality of the apartment, I must say a few words 
 about the principle of my most innocent connection with Mile. 
 Montansier, in those days manageress of the theatre bearing 
 her name ; it had for a short while assumed that of The'atre de 
 la Montagne, at a time when, previous to the gth Therinidor, 
 the " Mountain " gave its name to everything. ■ 
 
 I had from time immemorial known Mile. Montansier, first at 
 Versailles, where my uncle's influence had obtained for me my 
 
414 MEMOIRS OF BARRAS APP. 
 
 admission to Court. Mile. Montansier, who directed the theat- 
 ricals, had been admitted into the private apartments of royal- 
 ty. She had soon got on a footing of intimacy with the queen, 
 owing to a certain amount of assurance, kept, however, within 
 bounds ; her theatrical position gave her a sort of right to be an 
 arbiter of fashions, for in those days it was the stage which set 
 the fashions, and the Court was the first to receive them from 
 the stage. Mile. Bertin, so famed as the queen's milliner, was 
 merely the intermediary, or, if one may say so, the interpreter of 
 Mile. Contat with the queen ; this actress, since her success as 
 Suzanne in Le Mariage de Figaro, was the prima donna, par ex- 
 cellence, to impose the supreme laws of fashion. Hence it was 
 that, being well acquainted with the fashions the moment they 
 made their appearance, and on the lookout for novelties. Mile. 
 Montansier happened to be a power at Court ; she was doubly 
 so owing to her intimacy with the queen's hair-dresser Leonard, 
 a personage who also enjoyed a certain celebrity at that period. 
 Marie- Antoinette may perhaps have shown some thoughtlessness 
 in subjecting herself and even in surrendering herself so abso-' 
 lutely to the exacting mandates of fashion. Great publicists 
 have most seriously held that this familiar intercourse which 
 brought the Court in closer connection with the town and the 
 lowliest and least respectably behaved classes, since it was with 
 the grisettes (coquettish work-girls) that the signal of fashion 
 originated — it has been argued, I say, that this familiarity, mix- 
 ing up all classes together, was considered one of the primary 
 causes of all the misfortunes which since overwhelmed the 
 queen, their primary pretext having been found in her thought- 
 lessness and folly in giving up royal attire to adopt new fash- 
 ions. 
 
 To return to my acquaintance, which it has since been sought 
 to picture as a liaison, with Mile. Montansier. At a time when 
 the scantiest of motives were sufficient to have a man arrested, 
 it was already enough to have held intercourse with the Court of 
 Louis XVI. Mile. Montansier was therefore bound to share the 
 common fate. Independently of this cause for suspicion, Mile. 
 Montansier afforded others : she was possessed of considerable 
 means. Manageress of several theatres at one and the same 
 
V" AS A DRAMATIC CRITIC 415 
 
 Palais- Royal, in the first place built for actors in wood, and 
 known under the name of Salle des Beaujolais, on the stage of 
 which appeared marionettes only, while the actors sang and 
 spoke in the wings. She opened this entertainment in 1790 at 
 Easter. The following year she employed the architect Lenoir 
 to make great alterations to it and enlarge the stage, in order 
 that comedy and tragedy might be performed. 
 
 Mile. Sainval the Elder, who had long since left the stage, 
 made her reappearance on this one. The rush to see her was 
 all the greater, as after so lengthy an absence her appearance 
 was in the style of a resurrection. Many of her contemporaries 
 had believed her dead. Alas ! she was so in regard to the vital 
 part of her talent, scarcely any trace of which remained. One 
 or two fleeting flashes, and doubtful ones at that, is what I per- 
 sonally saw, and my curiosity, as well as that of the friend who 
 accompanied me, was disappointed. Play-acting cannot dis- 
 pense with youth, which is more necessary to it than to war or 
 to love itself. The reason for this seems to me easy of compre- 
 hension ; it is that theatrical action, especially in the matter of 
 tragedy, is bound by stipulated proportions outside of nature 
 and far beyond it. Now, to reach this measure without meas- 
 ure, as demanded by art, even in the days of Mile. Sainval, it 
 was requisite to possess in a very strong physical constitution 
 and great warmth of blood all the means of fulfilling the require- 
 ments of the tragic muse. The talent of Mile. Sainval having 
 entirely consisted in the strength of her lungs and nerves, the 
 weakening brought about by age no longer suffered her to be 
 on a level with her earlier talent. The talent of Mile. Sainval 
 the Younger having, on the other hand, been one altogether of 
 intense feeling, grace, and delicacy, she was enabled to act long 
 after her sister. The reason was that the acting of Mile. Sainval 
 the Younger embodied the moral expression of sentiment ; she 
 was a soul, nay, the soul itself. Hence it is that I ever found 
 her, I will not say younger as she grew older, but as young as 
 ever to the end, because the soul never ages. 
 
 To return to the proprietress of the theatre, abandoned a 
 moment for the actress. When buying the Palais-Royal Theatre 
 Mile. Montansier had acquired several arcades, giving her sev- 
 eral very spacious and convenient passage -rooms which she 
 could let. Knowing as I did that she had been imprisoned pre- 
 vious to the 9th Thermidor, I had been fortunate enough to be 
 
4'6 MEMOIRS OF BARRAS APP. 
 
 able to secure her release after the events of that day. I had 
 met her since, and she could never see me without expressing 
 her liveliest gratitude. 
 
 I did not keep my lodging in Paris when on mission. Mile. 
 Montansier thought my position required that I should take a 
 suite of rooms, so one fine day she most graciously offered me 
 accommodation in her place, speaking to me in the Provencal 
 dialect, which she knew was pleasing to me, since it was m}' 
 own, but not hers, as she was born at Bayonne. She had a 
 suite unoccupied and suitable for a bachelor. It may be said 
 then and later that I truly led a bachelor's life in Paris ; my 
 wife had faithfully remained in her southern home in the depart- 
 ment of Var ; and as she had never set foot in Paris, no one 
 thought I was married, and I could consider myself a bachelor 
 in respect to freedom, but not in respect to economj', for I really 
 kept open house. Compelled as I was occasionally to say, like 
 my cousin Lauraguais, "My table is there, but there is not al- 
 ways something on it," I was nevertheless fortunately in a posi- 
 tion to welcome many patriots who, having been brought into 
 contact with me on various revolutionary occasions, were not in 
 the least ashamed to tell me that they stood in need of a dinner. 
 Among those patriots, some nobly, others ignobly needy, one of 
 the first who took good care to call on me was that little artillery 
 lieutenant of the siege of Toulon, whom we had appointed cap- 
 tain, then major, then brigade-commander, then general of bri- 
 gade. The services I had rendered him at the siege of Toulon 
 were, in my eyes, a sufficient title for Bonaparte to consider him- 
 self dispensed with me from the reserve which people of deli- 
 cacy consider compulsory discretion. As he called on me famil- 
 iarly every morning, he would breakfast with me ; after breakfast 
 I would say to him, " You dine with us ;" he never forgot to 
 come to dinner. " Were it a question of myself alone," he said 
 to me one day, " I might wait patiently ; a man needs but little ; 
 but I have a family which is in the greatest destitution. I know 
 full well that we shall conquer our evil luck; in revolutionary 
 times there must be bread to be found for all, and for long 
 enough have the aristocrats kept the product of the soil, the 
 goods of the earth, for themselves ; our turn must come ; mean- 
 
VIII A MARRIAGE THE VERY THING 417 
 
 talent, ability, courage, and patriotism ; all that will find and 
 take Its proper place a few days sooner or later ; patience, then." 
 As the word "patience " did not seem to please him, I went on 
 to say, pleasantly, " Well, then, if you wish to go ahead still more 
 quickly, I will show you the means : 'tis a marriage. This is 
 the way we did under the old regime; I have seen many a mar- 
 riage of this kind. All our ruined nobles, or those who had 
 never been in a position to be ruined, having come into the 
 world without a fortune — all these nobles were wont to arrange 
 matters as follows : they would go on the hunt after the daugh- 
 ters of merchants, bankers, and financiers ; they did not miss a 
 single one. If I can only find time to cast about and to think, 
 I might be able to find the very thing for you." 
 
 Just at the very moment I was saying these words to Bona- 
 parte, Mile. Montansier, who often called on me without cere- 
 mony, and in a neighborly deshabille, was announced. Already 
 a septuagenarian at the very least, she carried her age with the 
 advantage derived from a certain embonpoint, gayety, obliging- 
 ness of manner, and everything inviting conversation. She spoke 
 to me with a sentiment of confidence and flattering security in 
 the troublous state of affairs which Paris was passing through, 
 of the agitation of the "sections." "You male citizens," she 
 said to us, " will come out of it all right ; you are men and sol- 
 diers. When you are not killed, you reap glory, and you do 
 whatever you will. On the other hand, what is our fate, we 
 women who live alone, without any one to rest upon ; we are, so 
 to speak, predestined to pillage and all other misfortunes ; under 
 all circumstances we are the vanquished ; we belong to the con- 
 queror, whoever he may be ; we are unable to fight. Ah," con- 
 tinued Mile. Montansier with a laugh, "had God only been 
 kind enough to make me a man, if I had the right to wear 
 breeches, zounds (raising her voice), citizens, I would not let you 
 go to battle alone, I can assure you on my honor !" At the same 
 time she let her gentle eyes wander from me to the little soldier, 
 who she saw was one of my intimates. 
 
 " Madame has no husband ?" inquired Bonaparte of Mile. 
 Montansier in a tone of deep concern ; " at any rate she surely 
 does not lack hands to defend her." 
 
 " Of course," I said to Bonaparte, " the lady has no husband, 
 since she is a spinster ; this is Mile. Montansier, who was arrest- 
 ed previous to the 9th Thermidor because of her wealth, because 
 1-27 
 
4i8 MEMOIRS OF BARRAS APP. 
 
 she is owed over a million, and for many other reasons just as 
 good or just as bad." "Yes, alas," said Mile. Montansier with 
 a melancholy air, " I was in prison, and perhaps on the point 
 of perishing with so many others who no more deserved such 
 than myself, when Barras at last ridded us of that fiend of a 
 Robespierre, and made us breathe freely once more. It is to 
 Barras that I owe my life. Hence it is that I count myself in 
 nothing else so happy as in that he has been good enough to 
 accept a lodging under my roof; it seems to me that he is con- 
 stantly protecting me like a lightning - conductor." " jVIade- 
 moiselle," replied Bonaparte, "who would not be flattered and 
 honored at being your defender ? Citizen Barras does certainly 
 not lack friends who would be delighted to do like himself." 
 Mile. Montansier smiled pleasantly on the little soldier who so 
 gallantly offered his services, and thanked him, saying, " That is 
 not to be refused ; I am very glad that Barras's friends should be 
 mine, and I depend on it." As she spoke she approached the 
 little soldier in a familiar fashion, and gave him a gentle tap, one 
 that might be called a caress, on the cheek, and retired gayly, 
 adding, "Yes, citizens, I reckon on all of you." Then she made 
 us a friendly bow, begging us both to dine with her that same 
 evening, when each would tell the other the news gathered during 
 the day. Lastly, all would stand together if it became necessary 
 to defend one's self. 
 
 Bonaparte had most attentively absorbed what I had said in 
 regard to the fortune of Mile. Montansier, and he made clear to 
 me that this attention embodied a well-thought-out principle of 
 interest. "Well," said he to me the following morning, "you 
 have, citizen representative, led me to coquet with Mile. Mon- 
 tansier. One would really not give her the age she has ; she is 
 brimful of gayety ; she is good and obliging, and always engaged 
 in setting people at their ease," 
 
 " Cut short your compliments," I said, smilingly, to Bonaparte. 
 " I mentioned the subject of marriage to you quite recently ; 
 you have not forgotten it. Do you by any chance intend to 
 carry out my idea? Speak out frankly; do you wish to marry 
 Mile. Montansier?" 
 
 " Citizen representative," replied Bonaparte, looking down. 
 
"^I" MONEY HIS OBJECT 419 
 
 in revolutionary times ; but what you have told me of her fort- 
 une, is it as true since her reverses as before ? When one thinks 
 of so serious a thing as marriage, it is necessary to know on 
 what foundation one is building." 
 
 " I am unable to reply to your questions, which are those of 
 a more sensible man than myself," I replied ; " for I married 
 some twenty years ago, and I did not stop to think of these con- 
 siderations. It is true that I married in a hurry, and left my wife 
 in a still greater hurry, for two days later I left for India, and 
 since then I have not seen her." 
 
 " This is a prospective to look forward to," said Bonaparte, 
 "when entering into a certain union. It becomes an easy mat- 
 ter to go away on military duty when once one has properly set- 
 tled one's affairs." 
 
 "Well, then, I will undertake to ask Mile. Montansier the 
 questions the answers to which may respond to your desires. 
 To begin at the beginning, to open the history at the first page 
 and not at the last, I must first ascertain whether she is desirous 
 of marrying ; then, if she would marry you, it will then be time 
 enoojgh to deal with her fortune, and find out what it amounts 
 to nowadays." 
 
 Bonaparte thanked me most humbly. I kept my word to 
 him. Mile. Montansier replied frankly that " she would ask 
 nothing better than to get married, in order to get settled down 
 and have a protector, doubly necessary to a woman getting on in 
 years." 
 
 "What you need is a soldier," I said to her in a friendly 
 fashion. She took my hand ; I pressed hers, adding, " The 
 matter is as good as settled." Soon after I asked her the con- 
 dition of her fortune after all her tribulations. She replied that 
 she still possessed no less than 1,200,000 francs, that she could 
 give me satisfactory proof of this, and that she would be happy 
 to share her wealth with the man to whom she would owe her 
 tranquillity." 
 
 I thought we were on the point of taking leave of each other, 
 when Mile. Montansier asked me what I meant by saying that 
 the matter was as good as settled. " I referred to a young sol- 
 dier who saw you in my apartments, and who took considerable 
 notice oE you. He found you charming, and is prepared to 
 prove it to you." " Can it be the young man I saw, and who 
 paid me such flattering compliments ?" " Why shguld it not be 
 
4-20 MEMOIRS OF BARRAS APP. 
 
 this very one ?" " But he is not thirty years old ; I should be 
 his mother." "Although this young man is not yet past thirty, • 
 he is far ahead of his years in good sense and in thought. He 
 has perhaps been shown little consideration on account of his 
 small stature, but he is nevertheless a gallant officer, who has 
 already shown what he is made of at the siege of Toulon, and 
 who will distinguish himself still further, I answer for him. I 
 have heard those who did not know him call him the culotte de 
 peau (a bragging old soldier), but his character and talents place 
 him beyond such jests. I am sure that the woman he will marry 
 will be happy and honored." 
 
 Little eloquence is needed, when the question of dispropor- 
 tion between the ages is set on one side, to interest, on behalf 
 of a young man, the heart of a sensitive woman who has already 
 reached a maturity which is old age itself. One's last love is no 
 less ardent and sincere than the first one. We feel that it is all 
 that remains to us, and that we must husband it ; were we to lose 
 it, where should we find another ? A celebrated woman, who 
 will make her appearance in the course of my Memoirs at various 
 periods and on divers grand occasions, Mme. de Stael, once pro- 
 pounded in my presence a theory which, however much one 
 may be inclined to smile at it, nevertheless contains a serious 
 element of truth. " When one sees," she said, " a woman love 
 a young man, one imagines at once that it is all a matter of 
 those physical pleasures of love whereof youth is the source and 
 resource , one is strangely mistaken, for oftentimes one does not 
 even think of them," "Yes," I replied to her, angering her 
 somewhat — "yes, Mme. de Stael, it is without any thought of 
 them." " Yes, Barras," was her rejoinder, sharply spoken, " that 
 which one loves in a young man is not his youth, but his purity; 
 and certainly the younger the purer ; and the older one grows, 
 one gradually becomes less pure." 
 
 Let us, however, leave these reflections, so little encouraging 
 for women of a certain age who are in sincere quest oi purity of 
 heart. I must admit that if any one is here guilty, 'tis no other 
 than myself. To return, therefore, to the projected marriage. 
 Bonaparte is anxious for it; he has only asked me one question 
 — that concerning the fortune of his future wife. This question 
 
'^"' A BETROTHAL DINNER 421 
 
 ing it with another capital— that of one's own industry, of one's 
 ability, and, lastly, that of irUrigue, which, for the sake of giving 
 it a respectable name, one calls ta/c-nf. Nothing was left, there- 
 fore, but for the parties to come to an understanding, and to 
 meet again in order to settle terms. 
 
 It is now my duty to bring future husband and wife together 
 at my table. I invite them that very day ; both accept the invi- 
 tation with equal eagerness. On seeing them arrive at the din- 
 ner-hour, and on meeting look at each other with the deepest 
 interest, I am on the point of bursting into a laugh ; but it is 
 necessary to preserve a serious demeanor. Everything must 
 pass off according to etiquette. I place Mile. Montansier by 
 my side ; I tell Bonaparte to sit opposite us, and do the honors 
 at his end of the table. During the whole of the dinner the two 
 look at each other. 
 
 We leave the table ; the betrothed, joining each other, enter 
 into a strictly private conversation. I move away so as not to 
 disturb this interesting colloquy, but already, without my seeking 
 to overhear their utterances, I catch words which would lead 
 one to believe in the intimacy of old acquaintanceship : "We 
 will do this, and we will do that. . . ." IVe all the time ; it is al- 
 ready the Tce of Corinn: so truly defined by Mme. de Stael in 
 her famous novel. Bonaparte speaks of his family, with whom 
 he soon hopes to make Mile. Montansier acquainted. His 
 mother and all his brothers will duly appreciate so distinguished 
 a woman. He is desirous of taking her to Corsica as soon as 
 possible; the climate there is excellent; 'tis a new country, one 
 where people live to a good old age, where a fortune can be 
 rapidly made with a small amount of capital, and double it in 
 a very few years, and so on. Bonaparte is showing his future 
 wife castles in Corsica which are just as good as castles in 
 Spain. 
 
 But in the days whereof I speak (f refer to the quarrel be- 
 tween the " sections " of Paris and the National Convention), 
 it is impossible to spend the after-dinner hour quietly at one's 
 own fireside and enjoy an interchange of personal ideas. Just 
 as I was about to join in the conversation of the two young 
 turtle-doves, information is brought to me that there is a dis- 
 turbance in Paris, that my colleagues require my presence at 
 the Committee of Public Safety. "I leave you to take care 
 of the house," I say to Bonaparte and Mile. Montansier, and 
 
422 MEMOIRS OF BARRAS APP. 
 
 I leave them together. Later on will be seen what becomes of 
 them. . . . 
 
 I have said, when leaving Bonaparte and Mile. Montansier 
 in my apartments, that we shall see later what will become of 
 them. The events which have just taken place have, as it has 
 been shown, made it impossible for us to attend to any but our 
 own affairs — I mean the political battle on which depends, be- 
 yond doubt, the weal of the Republic ; the " to be or not to be " 
 of Hamlet. Since his last interview with Mile. Montansier her 
 future husband had become a hero, and without it being allow- 
 able to believe from the facts which one has seen unfold them- 
 selves that he was the only or even the principal actor in the 
 victory of the 13th Vendemiaire, it had pleased me to attribute 
 to him a good share of it ; in my eyes it was Buonaparte, with 
 the same meaning as given to the name of Buonaparte by the 
 punsters. Mile. Montansier, on learning the issue of events, had 
 sought me daily; but three days went by ere I could return 
 home to sleep or even to get a change of linen ; my man-servant 
 had brought it to me at the Committee of Public Safety, and it 
 was in a closet adjoining the committee-room that I made my 
 hasty toilet. On Mile. Montansier's meeting me at last, she 
 flings her arms round my neck to congratulate me on our tri- 
 umph ; she is doubly happy. Exultant in her joy, she inquires 
 after her intended. There would be full scope for laughter, were 
 it not contrary to all decency to indulge in a poor joke, in the 
 fact that, giving to many of her words an Italian intonation, no- 
 tably pronouncing as ou the letter ii, Mile. Montansier asks 
 naively, " How is xay foil tour?" I inform her that \\tx foutour 
 has greatly distinguished himself, and that I am about to recom- 
 mend that he be promoted. On an occasion so pleasing to her 
 heart, so flattering to her mind, Mile. Montansier no longer 
 deems it necessary to cast her eyes downward with virginal ti- 
 midity, and says to me, eagerly, "Well, then, and when is the wed- 
 ding to come off V " Give him time," is my answer ; " very 
 soon." " Well, then, in order to better settle everything, why do 
 you not ask us to dinner this very day ? For in the interval sep- 
 arating us matters have been interrupted, and you must come to 
 our rescue." "You have merely anticipated my wishes. My 
 
VIII SUDDEN COOLNESS OF BONAPARTE 423 
 
 I went back to headquarters, where Bonaparte was awaiting 
 my return, with the object of taking his orders from me. After 
 attending to the most pressing matters, I said to him, "You are 
 invited to dine with me to-day; not in my house, but in that of 
 Mile. Montansier's, your intended." He gave a smile of ironi- 
 cal regret, and said, " This is most flattering, citizen representa- 
 tive, but we can hardly find time to dine there to-day." " Well, 
 to-morrow then, for we must dine once more if we are not dead." 
 I thereupon send word to Mile. Montansier that I will avail my- 
 self of her courtesy on the next day only ; she replies that she 
 is at our disposal at all times and whenever we are inclined to. 
 call upon her. The next day Bonaparte did not seem any more 
 eager than on the previous one. I said to him without further 
 ado, " You accompany me at half-past five, general." " I go as 
 a soldier," replied Bonaparte ; " I am naught but a soldier, and 
 know obedience only." We. reach the house. Mile. Montan- 
 sier was awaiting us, attired in a fashion which certainly revealed 
 some design. She has the dinner served at once. Then, taking 
 Bonaparte by one hand and me by the other, she leads us into 
 the dining-room, where she places me on her right and Bona- 
 parte on her left. 
 
 A magnificent dinner, splendidly served, extracts a few com- 
 pliments from Bonaparte, but that is about the sum total of his 
 conversation ; he is no longer the amiable man, full of compli- 
 ments, and occupied with Corsican plans, as a few days ago; 
 'tis a taciturn man absorbed in thought we have before us. A 
 toast is proposed at dessert to the victors of Vend^miaire ; I 
 respond on behalf of my absent companions-in-arms, worthily 
 represented here, moreover, I remark, by my friend General Bo- 
 naparte. Mile. Montansier, looking towards him in a marked 
 fashion, drinks the toast, looking with an expression of interest 
 at her future husband. He appreciates the courtesy, which he, 
 however, accepts as his due ; he remains none the less wrapped 
 up in thought. 
 
 Dinner was not quite over when a messenger came for Bona- 
 parte about a matter connected with his military duties. Bona- 
 parte left the room, returning in a short while, when he told me 
 that it was his aide-de-camp, Junot, who had come to make an 
 important report to him on some fresh machinations of the 
 "sections," adding that it was absolutely necessary that he 
 should return to his post; he asks my permission to do so; and, 
 
424 MEMOIRS OF BARRAS app. vm 
 
 without waiting for my answer, he is off, after bowing rapidly 
 and with the slightest inclination of the head to Mile. Montan- 
 sier, saying that he would return ere long. 
 
 I felt perfectly at ease in regard to the state of Paris and the 
 terrible sectionaries, considering all the reports I had received 
 a few minutes previously. Bonaparte takes his departure; I tell 
 him to let me know at once of any fresh developments, and that 
 I expect him to return. Once more does he bow in a hurried 
 fashion to Mile. Montansier; he is off, not to return. 
 
 I proceed to headquarters, and after having heard the reports 
 of the state of Paris, I conclude that there is no cause for fresh 
 alarm, that the sectionaries are far from thinking of stirring; I 
 readily perceive that Bonaparte had ordered Junot to come and 
 fetch him, and that the matter had been arranged between them. 
 One of my aides-de-camp tells me it was simply a lady who had 
 sent for Bonaparte. This lady led by the hand a lad of from 
 fourteen to fifteen years old. I soon discovered that it was Mme. 
 Beauharnais and her son Eugene. Some arms had by mistake 
 been taken from her house in the confusion of those troublous 
 times ; she thought it convenient to make her son say that these 
 weapons were those of her husband, the late General Beauhar- 
 nais, as she considered it a clever stroke of policy to invent this 
 tale, furnishing her as it did with a pretext to prefer a claim to 
 which she could subsequently give further developments of every 
 kind, and which would bring her in closer connection with those 
 in power. She called on me the following day, as if to submit 
 the request already preferred and granted to her, viz., the resti- 
 tution of those arms. Her real motive was to enter my social 
 circle, into which she was aware Mme. Tallien had, since the 
 gth Thermidor, been admitted and taken first rank. 
 
 END OF VOL. I 
 
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