OF tmi-: 
 
 RENCH REVOLUTION 
 
cornsll University Library 
 
 3 1924 031 498 193 
 
 olin.anx 
 
Cornell University 
 Library 
 
 The original of this book is in 
 the Cornell University Library. 
 
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 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924031498193 
 
THE 
 
 CONTEMPORARY HISTORY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 FRENCH REVOLUTION 
 
MARIE ANTOINETTE 
 
 ON THE WAY TO EXECUTION. 
 
 [From the Sketch by Da.vid.\ 
 
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 W'C. ;,XX.X!.n 
 
THE 
 
 CONTEMPORARY HISTORY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 FRENCH REVOLUTION 
 
 COMPILED FROM THE 
 
 "ANNUAL REGISTER" 
 
 iBY 
 
 F. BAYFORD HARRISON 
 
 " The tyranny of one 
 Was prelude to the tyranny of all. 
 . . . . The tyranny of all 
 
 backward to the tyranny of one " 
 
 Tennyson's Tiresias 
 
 RIVINGTQNS 
 WA TERL 00 PLACE, L OND ON 
 
 MDCCCLXXXIX 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 I'AGE 
 INTRODUCTORY t 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE KING'S REFORMS AND POPULARITY. 
 
 Alarming Temper of the People — Disturbances in the Provinces 
 — The King's Mind greatly agitated — Abolition of the 
 " Corvee "—Total Abolition of the " Gabelles " 13 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE REFORMS AND POPULARITY OF NECKER. 
 
 The Notables legislate with Hesitation — The Innovators spread 
 Confusion — Cour Pleniere proposed — Poverty of the Govern- 
 ment — The Reforms and Popularity of Necker — Riotous Dis- 
 position of the Populace — Severe Weather and Scarcity of 
 Bread 24 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 CONVENTION OF THE STATES-GENERAL. 
 
 Jealousy in the States-General — Duke of Orleans seeks Popularity 
 — Mirabeau becomes a Democratic Leader — The Elections 
 — Disturbances , 38 
 
viii Contents. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE " SEANCE OF THE JEU DE PAUME," AND THE BEGINNING 
 
 OF HORRORS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 The " Assembled Nationale "—Seance of the "Jeu de Paume"— 
 Nobles and Clergy join the Commons — Necker dismissed — 
 "La Lanterne "— The Bastille taken— La Fayette, General 
 of the New Army— Foulon and Berthier murdered .... 48 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE ROYAL FAMILY MADE CAPTIVES, AND BROUGHT TO PARIS. 
 
 Duke of Orleans supports the Revolution — Generosity of Nobles I 
 
 and Clergy — Scarcity of Money — The Regiment of Flanders 
 at Versailles — The King gives offence to the Assembly — The 
 Army of Women — The Queen's Life threatened — The Royal 
 Family made Captives 64 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE CLERGY DEPRIVED OF THEIR RIGHTS AND PRIVILEGES. 
 
 The Royal Family at the Tuileries — Anacharsis Clootz — The 
 Oath of Federation — Civil Constitution of the Clergy — Per- 
 secution of the Clergy — The Guards deprived of their Arms . 80 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE FLIGHT TO VARENNES, AND THE RETURN. 
 
 The King kept in Paris by Force — Flight to Varennes — Composed 
 Attitude of the Assembly — The Royal Party delayed at Va- 
 rennes — The King made Prisoner — Brought back to Paris 
 
 Riots — Martial Law g? 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 ALL THE KINGDOMS OF EUROPE OPPOSED TO FRANCE. 
 
 A New Constitution — A New Assembly — Rumours of Wars . . 100 
 
Contents. Ix. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 THE TWENTIETH OF JUNE. 
 
 PACE 
 
 Alarming Situation of the King — The Twentieth of June — Out- 
 rages within the Tuileries — Inaction of Louis — ' ' Baiser de 
 1'amourette " — Violence of the F£deres 117 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 THE TENTH OF AUGUST — THE TRIAL OF THE KING. 
 
 Virulent Speeches in the Assembly — Action of the Swiss Guard — 
 Royal Family removed to the Temple — The King's Trial 
 begins — His Defence — His Sentence 130 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 DEATH OF LOUIS XVI. — ASSASSINATION OF MARAT. 
 
 The King takes leave of his Family — His Patience and Firmness 
 
 — The National Convention — Assassination of Marat . . 141 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 EXECUTION OF MARIE ANTOINETTE ; OF PHILIPPE EGALITE ; 
 OF MADAMF, ROLAND ; AND OF MANY OTHERS. 
 
 The Queen in the Conciergerie — Her Trial — Her Execution and 
 
 Burial — Execution of Madame Roland 150 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 ROBESPIERRE RULER OF FRANCE. 
 
 "Soupers Fraternels" — Declaration of the British Ministers — 
 Hebert and Desmoulins executed — Trial and Execution of 
 Danton — General Dillon and five others executed — Princess 
 Elizabeth executed — Attempt on Life of Robespierre— The 
 Revolutionary Calendar . . 158 
 
x Contents. 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 FALL OF ROBESPIERRE, AND END OF THE REIGN OF TERROR. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Robespierre's Power receives a check — He is denounced — He is 
 made Prisoner — He is executed — End of the Reign of Terror 
 — Retribution — Death of the Dauphin .174 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 LEADING BACKWARD. 
 
 The Directory installed — Bonaparte lands in France 
 
 Index t gs 
 
INTRODUCTORY, 
 
 THE French Revolution may be described as the 
 greatest storm which ever swept over France ; its 
 fury ravaged that country, and the fringe of its 
 clouds, its occasional flashes, and its stray thunder- 
 bolts, alarmed, if they did not devastate, every nation 
 of Europe. 
 
 The following chapters are copied from the 
 Annual Register, a serial first projected and published 
 in 1758 by Robert Dodsley, in conjunction with 
 Edmund Burke, and still appearing every year. 
 Many histories of the French Revolution have been 
 written in French, English, and other languages ; 
 this stands perhaps alone, in that it was given to the 
 world within a year or two of the events which 
 it records, and often in the naive language of con- 
 temporary chroniclers. The lapse of those two or 
 three years has the great advantage of affording 
 time for the historian to place himself at a point 
 from whence the events are seen in their true per- 
 spective, which can hardly be when the writer is on 
 the same level of time with his facts. 
 
2 The French Revolution. 
 
 From this reprint of the History of the first 
 French Revolution, as furnished by the Annual 
 Register, nothing will be omitted which is essential, 
 nothing altered except obvious errors, and nothing 
 added but necessary and explanatory matter. The 
 narrative of those extraordinary events which took 
 place exactly one hundred years ago should have 
 something of the same charm which we find now 
 in newspaper reports, and in "letters from special 
 correspondents " — the charm of the personal touch of 
 writers telling of scenes among which they move, 
 and of persons with whom they mingle. 
 
 Before entering on the story of the Revolution 
 it is absolutely needful to glance, however cursorily, 
 at its causes. These have been pointed out at 
 length in Carlyle's " French Revolution," and vividly 
 painted in Dickens's powerful and pathetic " Tale of 
 Two Cities." The germs which afterwards increased 
 so fearfully may be detected in any History of 
 France during the earlier part of the eighteenth 
 century. They may be briefly alluded to here. 
 
 Luxury and vice in the sovereign was a salient 
 grievance, and led to many others. Louis XIV. 
 reigned during seventy-two years, and was called 
 the "Great." The history of France while he was 
 on the throne was extremely brilliant ; statesmen, 
 generals, writers, poets, preachers, were numerous and 
 famous. He firmly believed in the "divine right" 
 of kings, and when quite young said, " The State- 
 that is myself! " Except his determination to reign 
 absolutely, he does not appear to have had any great 
 
Introductory. 3 
 
 quality ; his private life was far from exemplary, 
 and to give up his own will or his own wish for 
 the sake of benefiting his people would have seemed 
 to him an act of Quixotic madness. 
 
 He was succeeded by his great-grandson, Louis 
 XV., son of the Duke of Burgundy. This monarch is 
 remembered only for his selfishness and debauchery 
 And yet, singularly enough, his surname is " the 
 Beloved ; " and that such a title was given to him 
 by his people after his recovery from a severe attack 
 of small-pox, shows how willingly the French would 
 have revered a king who had done anything to 
 merit affection. But nothing is recorded of Louis 
 XV. except luxury and consequent extortion. His 
 public life was feeble, his private life vicious. The 
 brightest names of his reign are pale beside those 
 of the reign of his predecessor ; and the people, 
 ground down, impoverished, treated as chattels created 
 only for the amusement and advantage of the classes 
 above them, began to question in ominous under- 
 tones whether a king was worth all that he cost, 
 whether the nobles were worth anything at all. 
 
 Probably, if Louis XV. and his courtiers could 
 have foreseen what was to befall the throne and 
 the nobility of the next generation, they would 
 still have held on their wicked way, too entirely 
 selfish and hardened to care what should happen 
 to their children so long as the present state of 
 things should last out their own time. This must, 
 of course, be taken in a general sense, for there were 
 then, as jn all other corrupt states of society, many 
 
4 The French Revolution. 
 
 pure and holy hearts, though they were in such a 
 minority as to render their good influence almost 
 inappreciable. The queen, Marie Leczinska, was 
 pious and amiable ; she saw her husband desert her 
 for one haughty and vicious woman after another ; 
 she saw the death of all her children, except four 
 plain, homely, good daughters, who never married ; 
 and she died of weariness, and of want of wish to 
 live. 
 
 There was much that was brilliant in France 
 during the reign of Louis XV. ; but such brilliancy 
 resembled the phosphorescence of decay. Voltaire 
 and Rousseau both died in 1778, the one in extreme 
 old age, the other nearly twenty years his junior. 
 Both exercised great influence over the minds of the 
 eighteenth century ; Rousseau's theories had a special 
 fascination for his contemporaries. Indeed, some great 
 living authorities attribute the Revolution mainly to 
 Rousseau's theories, and to crude attempts to put them 
 into practice. The want of a check on an absolute 
 monarchy had long been felt ; while kings were on 
 the throne who existed only for pleasure, and who 
 left government in such strong hands as those of 
 Richelieu,. Mazarin, Louvois, the universal discontent 
 could not openly break out; but as soon as the 
 sovereign showed himself amiable, considerate, anxious 
 to conciliate, eager to ameliorate, desirous to rule 
 constitutionally, then all the smothered disaffection 
 burst forth, and the best and weakest of French 
 kings paid the penalty of his forefathers' short- 
 comings and misdeeds. 
 
Introductory. 5 
 
 Louis XVI. succeeded his grandfather in 1778, 
 His father the Dauphin, and his mother, Mary 
 Josephine of Saxony, both died while he was yet 
 a child ; and when but sixteen years of age he 
 was married to Marie Antoinette of Austria, daughter 
 of the great Maria Theresa, whose people called her 
 their " king." The queen of France was one year 
 younger than her husband, and as her beauty and 
 character formed she became one of the most lovely 
 and most noble women whom the world has ever 
 seen. The king's appearance, on the contrary, was 
 plain, even vulgar, and his character weak and 
 irresolute. 
 
 He began his reign with certain measures of 
 popular reform ; Maurepas, Minister of State, re- 
 established the parlements, which three years previously 
 had been done away with. These parlements were 
 courts of supreme law j the chief one sat in Paris, 
 the lesser in provincial towns. That in Paris was 
 the Court of Final Appeal, and gave judgment in the 
 king's name ; it registered laws and edicts. As 
 soon as the parlement of Paris was re-established 
 by Louis XVI. it began to show itself hostile to 
 reform, and above all to the suppression of the 
 corve~e. The right of corvee had come down from 
 feudal times, and at some period existed in almost 
 every country of Europe. By it the nobles could 
 demand from their serfs a certain amount of forced 
 labour, and had certain rights, some of a most 
 shameful nature, over the persons and goods of 
 their dependents. The nobles in France had little 
 
6 The French Revolution. 
 
 respected the legal limits of the corvie, and had 
 exacted much more than was their due. Louis 
 XIV. had fixed fresh limits ; Turgot, Controller- 
 General of Finance, abolished it altogether in 1776. 
 The nobles were furious against the minister, and 
 Louis was obliged to dismiss him ; in doing so, he 
 said, "No one cares for the people save M. Turgot 
 and myself." To Malesherbes he said, " I wish that, 
 like you, I could retire from my position ; " and this 
 at the moment when the man with the most en- 
 lightened ideas of liberty and order was, like Turgot, 
 dismissed by Louis at the jealous instigation of the 
 nobles. 
 
 At this time France was engaged in war with 
 England, endeavouring to sustain and preserve her 
 colonies in America. To do this, taxation was raised, 
 and taxation is a fertile source of discontent. A 
 deficit made itself felt in the Treasury. In 1787 an 
 Assembled des Notables met, and parted without doing 
 any useful work ; Necker, the great financier, a native 
 of Geneva, took in hand the monetary resources of the 
 country. 
 
 The position of France was at this moment almost 
 desperate ; that of the king, though he knew it not, 
 equally so. He summoned the parlement to meet, as 
 a " Bed of Justice," at Versailles, on August 6, 1787. 
 
 Louis was present, seated under a canopy, at 
 the session of the parlement. In the previous year 
 the Duke of Orleans and two other counsellors of the 
 parlement had been arrested by order, or under 
 sanction, of the king. The duke was a distant 
 
Introductory. 7 
 
 cousin of the king. (The second son of Louis XIII. 
 and Anne of Austria was created Duke of Orleans ; 
 his son by Elizabeth Charlotte of Bavaria succeeded 
 him, and was regent during the minority of Louis XV. 
 The third member of this house who held this title 
 was born in 1725 and died in 1785. His son Louis 
 Philippe Joseph was born in 1747, and was one of 
 the heroes of the Revolution, and known by the 
 sobriquet of " EgaliteV' He voted for the death of 
 the king, and was himself condemned and executed, 
 as a Girondin, in 1793. His son Louis Philippe be- 
 came king of the French in 1830.)' The other two 
 counsellors arrested were M. de Monsabert and 
 M. d'Esprem6nil. 
 
 It is not necessary now to go further into the 
 subject of quarrel, but some extracts from the address 
 of the parliament to Louis XVI. will show the spirit 
 which was beginning to prevail in France : — 
 
 " Sire, 
 
 " Your parliament is confirmed, by every 
 proceeding, of the entire innovation which is aimed 
 in the system of monarchy. At the moment even 
 when your parliament was offering their suspicions 
 and remonstrances at the foot of the throne, an act 
 of absolute authority is exercised in your home 
 against two magistrates whose conduct is irreproach- 
 able, and who should rather deserve your Majesty's 
 protection for their support of the rights of monarchy. 
 . . . Your Majesty, in summoning your parliament 
 to the throne, was about to conciliate the love of 
 
8 The French Revolution. 
 
 your people by a measure conformable to ancient 
 practice. But, Sire, the French nation will never 
 adopt the despotic measures which you are invited 
 to, and whose effects alarm the most faithful of your 
 magistrates. We shall not repeat all the unfortunate 
 circumstances which afflict us ; we shall only represent 
 to you, with respectful firmness, that the fundamental 
 laws of the kingdom must not be trampled on, and 
 that your authority can only be esteemed so long as 
 it is tempered with justice." 
 
 The above translation of a portion of the address 
 from his parlement to Louis XVI. is not an elegant 
 one, but there can be no doubt as to its meaning ; 
 it tells the king very plainly that acts of high-handed 
 authority will be met by something like mutiny on 
 the part of his magistrates. The next article in the 
 volume before us 1 is the " Speech of his most Christian 
 Majesty on opening the Bed of Justice, May the 
 8th":— 
 
 " There is no point in which my parliament has 
 not, for this year past, deviated from its duty. Not 
 satisfied with raising the opinion of each of your 
 members to the level of my will, you have presumed 
 to say that a registry, 2 to which you could not be 
 forced, was necessary for confirming what I should 
 determine, even at the request of the nation. 
 
 " The parliaments of the provinces have adopted 
 the same pretensions, the same liberties. 
 
 1 Annual Register, 1788, p. 282, State Papers. 
 
 2 Rather, " registration." 
 
Introductory. g 
 
 " I owe to my people, to myself, and to my 
 successors, to put a stop to these extravagant pro- 
 ceedings. 
 
 " My intention is not to destroy my parliaments ; 
 I mean only to bring them back to their duty. . . ." 
 
 These few extracts will have shown the mutual 
 distrust between the king and his parliaments, and 
 the strain to which their relations were now subjected. 
 
 As these pages profess to give the story of the 
 Revolution, not an account of the complicated causes 
 which led up to it, we will not go back into the 
 history of France, even as far as Mr. Carlyle did ; 
 his first pages are dated from 1744 to 1774. It will 
 be enough to know that Louis XVI., the heir of a 
 dynasty of absolute sovereigns, had not perceived 
 that the time was past in France for irresponsible 
 governments ; he tried to believe that the old state 
 of things would continue ; and being naturally indolent, 
 he thought that a weak concession here, and a 
 peremptory edict there, would keep the State in its 
 ancient poise of balance. But the equilibrium once 
 destroyed, the whole fabric toppled over with a crash. 
 
 The Assembled des Notables will be constantly 
 spoken of in the following pages ; it will therefore 
 be as well to give here a short account of its history 
 and status. It resembled in many ways our English 
 parliament, being composed of the three orders of 
 nobles, clergy, and commons, and was summoned 
 from time to time at the king's pleasure, when he 
 desired advice. 
 
io The French Revolution. 
 
 In 1786 the embarrassed state of the national 
 finances had caused the then minister, Calonne, to 
 think that the Notables might suggest means for 
 helping him out of his difficulties. On December 29 
 Louis XVI. issued summonses for their meeting ; and 
 they assembled on February 22, 1 787. Calonne, a man 
 of infamous moral character, was so much disliked 
 that the Notables would not even consider his schemes 
 for re-establishing the credit of the country ; but his 
 successor, Lom^nie de Brienne, Archbishop of Sens, 
 obtained all that was desired. Lamoignon, Keeper of 
 the Seals, thanked them in the king's name for their 
 docility, and used the curiously prophetic expression, 
 " You have been your king's counsellors ; you have 
 prepared and facilitated a revolution much to be 
 desired," etc. The Notables, having given the 
 example of contesting the monarch's wishes, were 
 followed by the parliament, who entered on a struggle 
 with the minister, and that struggle was only termi- 
 nated by Louis declaring that he would call together 
 the States-General. 
 
 A second meeting of the Notables was convened 
 to consider the constitution of the States, and met 
 on October 5, 1788. 
 
 From this point the historian of the Annual 
 Register shall use his own words, annotated as may 
 seem advisable, and in accordance with later and more 
 accurate knowledge of the events narrated. A few 
 passages printed within brackets are not from the 
 Annual Register, but are inserted by the Compiler in 
 order to condense the narrative or to reader it coherent. 
 
FROM THE 
 
 ANNUAL REGISTER 
 1788— 1794. 
 
CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE KING'S REFORMS AND POPULARITY. 
 
 THE head-quarters of the parliament of Paris, what 
 might be considered as their citadel, was at this time 
 carried by a coup de main. For the governor I788 . 
 of that city, properly attended, proceeded to Ma y- 
 the Palais Royal, 1 where, entering the different 
 chambers, and opening the presses and bureaus, he 
 took possession of all the papers and archives of 
 every kind pertaining to the parliament ; and this 
 business being finished, after locking and placing the 
 king's seal upon the doors, he carried away the keys. 2 
 AH the other parliaments in the kingdom were about 
 the . same time suspended from their functions, and 
 forbidden, under the severest penalties, from re- 
 assembling, from holding any private meetings, and 
 from issuing any resolutions or opinions whatever 
 upon public affairs. ' 
 
 The Chatelet, 3 a court next in reputation, authority, 
 
 1 Built by Richelieu for his own residence, and given by him to 
 Louis XIII. ; hence its name. 
 
 2 The members deliberated at Versailles. 
 
 3 Ch&telet ("little castle"), a fortress of Paris, said to have been 
 erected by Julius Csesar, or by Julian. There was also a Petit Chatelet. 
 
14 The French Revolution. [1788. 
 
 and dignity to the great chamber of parliament, was 
 so far from being dismayed at these proceedings, 
 I7 8s. that after a sitting of thirty-six hours they 
 May 16. j Ssuec j an instrument under the name of an 
 arrit (but which seems more properly a declaration 
 or protest), in which, after declaring how deeply they 
 are affected by seeing the various acts of authority 
 exercised against the different seats of magistracy 
 throughout the kingdom, they particularize the follow- 
 ing instances : The seat of justice invested by armed 
 troops ; the liberty of suffrages wantonly violated, by 
 arresting and confining magistrates ; and other points 
 enumerated. 
 
 A duke, three other peers, and two archbishops 
 presented themselves in person to the king at Ver- 
 sailles, and delivered into his own hands a paper 
 of so extraordinary a nature that neither the names 
 of the presenters or subscribers were ever given. 
 It was entitled, " The humble and dutiful address of 
 the subscribers, in behalf of themselves and the 
 public," and was signed by forty-seven peers and 
 bishops '" for themselves and the nation." 
 
 They declare the grief with which they find them- 
 selves obliged to approach his Majesty in the line 
 of their duty ; but it is a duty which they cannot 
 resist. They declare, upon the same ground of 
 showing their motives and duty, that, as princes 
 pledged in the name of the whole nobility for the 
 preservation of the laws, as peers born for the security 
 of the throne, and as citizens _ bound for the public 
 welfare, they cannot, consistently with their loyalty 
 
1788.] Alarming Temper of the People. 1 5 
 
 to his Majesty, their duty to themselves, to the nation, 
 and to posterity, let the present period pass unnoticed. 
 That .from these motives and causes they were bound 
 to proceed against the dissolution of the national 
 parliament, against all the late edicts, and in general 
 against every act which militated against those 
 established laws whose foundations had been laid 
 on wisdom, moderation, and justice. That with the 
 purest loyalty they lay their sentiments before the 
 king, hoping that God may incline their sovereign 
 to reconsider these measures, and to permit in future 
 things to go on in that channel to which for ages they 
 had been accustomed ; and thereby prevent an altera- 
 tion which could not but entail the most ruinous 
 eonsequences, too easily to be foreseen, both on the 
 sovereign and on the people. 
 
 It was at the time reported, and we can only 
 give it as a report, that a council having been held 
 on the evening after this remonstrance was received, 
 lettres de cachet* were there absolutely signed and 
 issued against all the subscribers ; but that at mid- 
 night Monsieur (the king's eldest brother and the 
 favourite of the people) went to the royal bed- 
 chamber, and prevailed on the king to have them 
 recalled. 
 
 In the meantime nothing could be more alarm- 
 ing than the temper which now became prevalent 
 among all orders and classes of the people, and the 
 
 1 Letters sealed with the king's privy seal, by which persons could 
 be imprisoned or banished without having had any form of trial. They 
 were at first designed to spare noble families the scandal of public trials, 
 but great abuses sprang up in regard to them* 
 
1 6 The French Revohition. [178& 
 
 aspect which almost every part of the kingdom ex- 
 hibited. Paris presented each morning the new 
 spectacle of seditious, inflammatory, or treasonable 
 written or printed papers, posted upon the gates or 
 corners of the streets. An incendiary libel of the 
 most atrocious nature and dangerous tendency was 
 detected at a private printing-house, where the press 
 was destroyed, and the printed copies, to the amount 
 of several hundreds, seized ; but a number of others, 
 it seems, had been already distributed, and several 
 were most daringly put up on the city gates and 
 other public places, although the king was openly 
 branded in them with the appellation of tyrant, 
 charged with having trampled with impunity upon 
 the dearest rights of the people, and that he, whd 
 should be their father, was become their bitterest 
 enemy and most implacable oppressor. In a similar 
 strain of seditious invective, the people are reproached 
 with want of spirit for not having already punished 
 their oppressors ; and every other instigation to im- 
 mediate violence and rebellion is closed by that 
 emphatic Scripture phrase, which had been used so 
 many ages ago in similar ferments, " To your tents, 
 O Israel ! " 
 
 In several of the provinces things seemed to 
 wear a worse appearance even than in Paris. Bre- 
 tagne had been for some time in a strange state of 
 disorder ; the flame became so violent and the com- 
 motions so alarming that the Bishop of Rennes 
 found it necessary to set out himself express to 
 Paris, and to use such expedition as to spend but 
 
1788.] Disturbances in the Provinces. \J 
 
 thirty-six hours on a journey of two hundred miles, 
 in order to lay before the king a clear statement of 
 the dangerous situation of affairs in that province. 
 
 In the provinces further south things were little 
 better. The parliaments of Toulouse and Grenoble 
 were both in exile, and some of the most re- 
 fractory members had been committed to State 
 prisons. This procedure irritated the inhabitants of 
 these provincial capitals so highly that they were 
 guilty of the greatest excesses and violences, in all 
 which they were supported by their country neigh- 
 bours. The Comte de Perigord, Governor of Lan- 
 guedoc, and hitherto one of the best-beloved noblemen 
 in France, was, nothwithstanding his popularity and 
 great natural influence in the country, obliged to fly 
 precipitately from Toulouse. Two regiments who 
 were quartered there under his command were like- 
 wise obliged to withdraw, whilst the inhabitants not 
 only took possession of the gates, but are said to 
 have taken up the pavements, as providing for a 
 siege or bombardment. 
 
 At Grenoble, in Dauphind, the excesses were 
 carried to the highest point of exorbitance ; and 
 much blood was even reported to have been shed 
 in the conflicts between the military and the in- 
 habitants, who were joined by some thousands of 
 the neighbouring mountaineers. 
 
 It seems tolerably ascertained that the life of 
 the Due de Tonnere, who governed that province, 
 was in imminent danger ; that he was obliged to 
 surrender the keys of the palace to the insurgents, 
 
 C 
 
1 8 The French Revolution. [1788. 
 
 for its preservation. It is said that although the 
 troops did not, like their fellows at Toulouse, abso- 
 lutely refuse to obey their officers, yet that they 
 acted with such slackness and apparent reluctance 
 as contributed more than the number or force of 
 the malcontents to defeat the effect, and sufficiently 
 convinced their commanders that they were no 
 longer to be trusted. 
 
 The parliament of Brittany, which, as well as the 
 province at large, had long been in a state of great 
 1788. and continual variance with the Court, in 
 June, defiance of the king's positive orders, re- 
 assembled at Rennes (their capital) in the beginning 
 of June, and after sitting from four o'clock in the 
 morning until six o'clock in the evening, among other 
 violent resolutions, passed one in which they declared 
 all persons who should in any degree attempt to 
 carry the sovereign's new ordinances into execution 
 to be guilty of high treason, and to be prosecuted and 
 punished as such. They were afterwards surrounded, 
 and their proceedings interrupted by a strong de- 
 tachment of the troops in garrison ; but the inhabi- 
 tants flying in crowds to the rescue of the parliament, 
 and being joined by a vast concourse of people from 
 the adjacent country, the troops found themselves 
 compelled, after a great riot and some mischief had 
 taken place, to give way to the immense multitude 
 of their antagonists and relinquish their design, while 
 no person would venture to serve the lettres de cachet 
 which had been sent down for the exile or imprison- 
 ment of the members. 
 
1788J The King's Mind greatly agitated. 19 
 
 We hear no more of the parliament, who perhaps 
 did not think it safe to proceed to greater lengths. 
 A great provincial meeting was, however, convened, 
 in order to determine upon the most effectual methods 
 for opposing the execution of the new ordinances. 
 At this assembly a grand deputation, composed of 
 several eminent persons, was appointed to proceed 
 to Versailles, and to remonstrate strongly with the 
 king, in the name of the province, against the Cour 
 PleViiere * in particular, as being deemed the greatest 
 innovation and the most dangerous to the parlia- 
 ments, and in general against all the other new 
 tribunals and ordinances. The confidence and ardour 
 with which the deputation set out on their com- 
 mission was suddenly checked upon their arrival at 
 Versailles, for they were not only refused an audience, 
 but committed close prisoners to the Bastille. 
 
 During this season of fruitless hope, continual 
 disappointment, constant turmoil, vexation, and alarm, 
 the agitation of the king's mind was frequently so 
 great and apparent as to excite the compassion of 
 all who had an opportunity of being near his person. 
 It was universally acknowledged on all sides that no 
 man could mean better, or more fervently wish and 
 fully intend the happiness of his subjects. For the 
 king's wish to promote the ease, content, and happi- 
 ness of the people was not a passive or inert disposi- 
 tion, indulged only in speculation ; it was embodied 
 
 1 The Cour Pleniere was originally instituted to celebrate some joyful 
 event, such as a marriage, and was held by the king at Christmas or at 
 Easter. The last court of the kind was held by Charles VII., and 
 Louis XVI. proposed to revive it, but was unable to do so. 
 
20 The French Revolution. [1788. 
 
 and brought fully into act ; he had done more in 
 a few years for the gratification and benefit of his 
 subjects than had been done by all his predecessors 
 put together, from the foundation of the monarchy. 
 
 Unfortunately, the State was too deeply involved 
 in debt and embarrassment to be extricated or relieved 
 by anything within the immediate powers of the 
 Crown ; the same benevolent disposition which made 
 the king ready to relinquish his personal interests 
 rendered him averse to the execution of such vigorous 
 and decisive measures as the exigencies of his affairs 
 absolutely required. To which is to be added that, in 
 consequence of the late reforms, dictated by the same 
 love for his people, the monarchy had been dismantled 
 of what formed an essential part of its strength and 
 security. 
 
 It is well known that a considerable proportion 
 of the numerous nobility of France have always been 
 dependent on the Crown for the means of supporting 
 their rank and preserving the dignity of their families. 
 All these saw themselves now for ever cut off from 
 that resource, the king having equally put it out of 
 his power to bestow bounty and to reward merit or 
 service. Above four hundred persons had already 
 lost their offices in the royal household, and were 
 turned adrift upon the world without means or re- 
 source ; a much greater number were affected in the 
 same manner by the reduction in thf military depart- 
 ments. Upon the same principle' of relieving the 
 people, the Crown was further weakened by reducing 
 thegensd'armesand other corps of the household troops. 
 
1788.] Abolition of the " Corvde." ■ 21 
 
 The institution of provincial assemblies afforded 
 a notable instance of the king's wishes to render 
 government as easy as possible to the people, and 
 even to admit them to something approaching to a 
 republican share in the internal administration of their 
 affairs. These assemblies were to be composed of 
 a prescribed number of each of the three estates — 
 the nobles, clergy, and commons, the members being 
 freely elected by their respective orders ; so that each 
 assembly seemed in itself a circumscribed meeting of 
 the States-General, who were, however, paramount 
 over all. This measure, if not allowed to be a great 
 advance towards a new constitution, was at least a 
 wonderful and little-expected improvement of the old. 
 
 The Assembly of the Notables, whatever were its 
 defects, had done great things towards ameliorating the 
 government and bettering the condition of the lower 
 orders of the people. The enormities which prevailed 
 in the mode of levying the taxes, and the boundless 
 peculation which attended the collection, besides being 
 ruinous to the State, had, from the days of Sully, 
 been a constant source of the most intolerable griev- 
 ance and oppression to the people. This subject the 
 Notables entered deeply into, traced various evils to 
 their source, and recommended judicious remedies, 
 which were immediately adopted. 
 
 The abolition of the corvee, in kind, which had for 
 ages been a source of constant oppression to the coun- 
 try people through the partial and unjustifiable manner 
 in which the compulsion to labour upon the roads had 
 been frequently exercised, was an act scarcely of greater 
 
22 ' The French Revolution. [1788. 
 
 utility than of mercy with respect to that most useful 
 class of mankind. The commutation of money for 
 personal service, at the option of the farmer, freeing him 
 from the tyranny of petty officers, along with other 
 regulations which went to guard against oppression 
 in any shape or case, rendered the duty so compara- 
 tively light that it seemed scarcely to be any longer 
 considered as a burden. 
 
 Other regulations, though lower in degree, were 
 still of great public utility. Of these was the removal 
 of the barriers between the different provinces, and 
 the abolition of all internal taxes and duties. The 
 decree for laying open and free the commerce of grain 
 throughout the kingdom, may perhaps be considered 
 of still greater importance. The relief afforded to 
 Protestants, a measure which gave security and hap- 
 piness to so considerable a portion of the people, 
 should not be overlooked in an enumeration of public 
 benefits. 
 
 To those benefits actually conferred may be fairly 
 added that greatest of all, which was yet only in 
 contemplation, it being at the present impossible to 
 be carried into execution. This was no less than 
 the total abolition of the gabelles- throughout the 
 kingdom, which had ever been the opprobrium of the 
 
 1 Gabelle, from the German, gabt, "gift," was an indirect form of 
 taxation at first applied to wine, cloth, etc., afterwards chiefly levied on 
 salt. A monopoly was created, by which certain persons were entitled 
 to sell certain quantities of salt at a certain price to each family in their 
 districts. It could not be retailed, and the methods of using it were 
 restricted. Of all forms of taxation, the gabelle was the most vexatious 
 and the most odious. 
 
1788.3 Total Abolition of the "Gabelles." 23 
 
 French Government, and the most odious and in- 
 tolerable of all schemes of taxation to the people. 
 This " sublime idea," as it was deservedly termed in 
 the Assembly, was communicated to the Notables 
 on the day of their rising by Monsieur, the king's 
 brother, who declared that it was his Majesty's first 
 wish and most earnest intention, and that he should 
 ever consider the moment of its accomplishment as 
 the happiest of his life. This declaration undoubtedly 
 contributed to the extraordinary adulation which 
 marked the speeches of that day, when the mayor, 
 or chief magistrate of Paris, seeking not to be out- 
 done in that figure of speech called the " hyperbole," 
 made use of the following expressions : — -" That 
 Louis XVI. would have been the exemplar and model 
 upon which Henry the Great would have formed him- 
 self if the partial destiny of the present generation 
 of Frenchmen had not reserved him to complete their 
 happiness." 
 
 It was at no very distant period that the king was 
 to be taught experimentally the true value of adula- 
 tion and compliments. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE REFORMS AND POPULARITY OF NECKER. 
 
 The reforms and improvements spoken of, however 
 excellent in their design, and however beneficial they 
 might hereafter prove in their effect, could afford no 
 present relief to government. The Notables, there- 
 fore, recommended to the king, after all the retrench- 
 ments which he had already made, a still further 
 reduction in the royal and public expenses, to the 
 extraordinary amount of forty millions of livres l 
 annually. Though this proposal was complied with, 
 that assembly was still sensible that this saving, great 
 as it was, could in no degree supply the immediate 
 exigencies of the State, by enabling government to 
 fulfil its public engagements to its creditors, and at 
 the same time to provide for the unavoidable civil 
 and military establishments. For these purposes a 
 tax or taxes were indisputably necessary, upon 
 security of which such a loan could be raised as 
 would be sufficient to extricate the State from its 
 present difficulties, and thereby afford time for the 
 system of reform and economy now adopted, as well 
 
 1 ;£l, 600,000. 
 
1758.] The Notables legislate with Hesitation. 25 
 
 as the. unexampled presents made by the sovereign 
 to the public, to operate in producing their proper 
 effects. 
 
 The Notables approved, though with some differ- 
 ence of degree in respect to its parts, of that scheme 
 of taxation proposed by the ministers for supplying 
 the present emergencies by which the burden was to 
 be laid upon those parts of the nation which were 
 the best able to support its weight, upon the great 
 commercial and landed interests. The intended 
 tax upon stamps, which was afterwards described 
 in such odious colours, not only received the most 
 unqualified approbation from the Notables, but they 
 seemed to step beyond the lines which they had 
 prescribed to themselves, by recommending its exten- 
 sion with respect both to objects and duty further 
 than either the original design or the adopted scheme 
 reached. 
 
 But with respect to the act for the territorial 
 revenue, or land-tax, which would have fallen upon 
 the nobility or clergy, and thereby removed, so far as 
 it went, those exemptions which had been so long 
 considered as an intolerable grievance, here it would 
 seem that the patriotism of the Assembly began to 
 fail, or that they were awed by the potent bodies 
 whose interests were concerned. Upon this subject 
 the Notables were guarded, cautious, and indecisive ; 
 and though they could not consistently with their 
 own avowed sentiment but approve the principle of 
 the tax, they did it hesitatingly; and, to get entirely 
 quit of the question, flew off suddenly to the old plea 
 
26 The French Revolution. [1788. 
 
 of total incompetency with respect to taxation, a 
 business, they said, which rested solely with the 
 sovereign, to whose prudence and discretion it must 
 be entirely referred. It was rather a curious circum- 
 stance of observation that a little before this display 
 of extreme delicacy they had strongly recommended 
 a tax upon the city of Paris, whose vast increase of 
 population they represented as extremely injurious 
 to the kingdom at large, and whose inhabitants should 
 therefore be more heavily taxed than the laborious 
 countrymen. 
 
 The territorial revenue act, upon the whole, 
 received their tacit approbation ; they owned the 
 justice of the principle, made no objection to any of 
 the parts, and only recommended, or hinted at, some 
 doubtful improvements in the mode of regulation. 
 
 The people being now relieved from a number of 
 their most crying grievances, and having full room to 
 hope, and rational grounds for expectation, that what 
 was already done was only introductory to a progres- 
 sive course of measures for the amelioration of the 
 constitution and the improvement of all the depart- 
 ments of government, it might seem that little more 
 was wanting than an accommodating and conciliatory 
 disposition in the parliament of Paris, by filling up 
 the line already traced by the Notables, to have 
 established the prosperity of the present reign upon 
 the firmest basis — that of the happiness and con- 
 sequent affection of the people. 
 
 The cabals of the innovators began about this 
 time to be regularly formed and embodied, and to 
 
1788.] The Innovators spread Confusion. 27 
 
 spread through every part of France. Instead of 
 looking, with other parties, to the changes of men, or 
 to an alteration of measures in the administration of 
 public affairs, they directed their attention to the 
 utter subversion of government. If the parliament 
 was not immediately under the influence of these 
 cabals, they at least prepared the way for the con- 
 fusion that followed, by their conduct and proceed- 
 ings in the violent contests with the king since the 
 rejection of the two money bills. For the paper war, 
 as it may justly be termed, which they incessantly 
 carried on, and took so much care to publish, and 
 which was in a great measure directly and personally 
 pointed against the king, could not but tend in a 
 great degree to render the sovereign odious as well 
 as contemptible. Indeed, many of their published 
 documents, exclusive of their reproach and invective, 
 bore rather the character of manifestoes than of 
 resolutions and remonstrances, as they were called. 
 Their effect went far beyond the original design ; 
 disorder, confusion, and anarchy spread through the 
 kingdom ; and they found, too late, that they had 
 raised a spirit which they could never be able to lay. 
 
 On this day, Sunday, about nine in the morning, 
 without any eclipse, a dreadful and almost total 
 darkness suddenly overspread the face of the J788 . 
 earth in several parts of France, and this July I3- 
 awful gloom was the prelude to a tempest or hurri- 
 cane supposed to be without example in the tempe- 
 rate climates of Europe. The whole face of nature 
 was so totally changed in about an hour that no 
 
28 The French Revolution. [1728. 
 
 person who had slept during the tempest could have 
 believed himself in the same part of the world when 
 he awoke. The soil was changed into a morass, the 
 standing corn beaten into the quagmire, the vines 
 broken to pieces, and their branches buried in the 
 same manner, the fruit-trees of every kind demolished, 
 and the hail lying unmelted in heaps, like rocks of 
 solid ice. The disordered state of public affairs pre- 
 vented both the course and extent of this hurricane 
 from being defined as it would have been in a happier 
 season. The thoughts of those who were qualified to 
 observe and record so extraordinary a phenomenon 
 were otherwise occupied ; and the sufferers could 
 only describe what they immediately felt, with little 
 curiosity as to the fate of others. Several large dis- 
 tricts were entirely desolated ; one of sixty square 
 leagues was totally ruined. Of the sixty-six parishes 
 included in the district of Pontoise, forty-three were 
 entirely desolated, while of the remaining twenty- 
 three some lost two-thirds, and others not above half 
 their harvest. The entire loss or damage was said to 
 be moderately estimated at fourscore million of livres, 
 or between three and four million pounds sterling. 
 
 The king, in the first instance, granted an imme- 
 diate benevolence of 1,200,000 livres to the sufferers, 
 and as a further relief established a lottery of forty 
 thousand tickets in their favour ; he likewise remitted 
 all taxes to them for a year to come. All possible 
 measures were immediately pursued for procuring 
 such an importation of corn as might supply the 
 domestic loss; but the wished-for supply fell far 
 
1788.] Cour Pl&niere proposed. 29 
 
 short of the expectation. The Duke of Orleans was 
 eminently distinguished by the extent of his benevo- 
 lence upon this occasion, which his immense fortune, 
 as the richest subject in Europe, rendered a matter of 
 no difficulty. Several of the nobility and dignified, 
 clergy merited great praise upon the same account. 
 But notwithstanding everything that was, and, perhaps, 
 could be done, the distresses of the people throughout 
 France were great, severe, and lasting. 
 
 An arrit which had been issued by the Council of 
 State a few days previous to this misfortune, although 
 only remotely preparatory to the future assem- I788 . 
 bling of the States-General, yet as it showed J u 'ys- 
 that the Court had not abandoned the design, and 
 that measures were in train for the execution of 
 that purpose, was so exceedingly popular that the 
 funds rose three per cent, upon it, and a gleam of 
 hope, satisfaction, and good-humour was spread 
 through the country for the short intervening time. 
 
 The king found himself at length under a necessity 
 of abandoning the new constitution which he held 
 so much at heart, and from which he had formed the 
 most sanguine hopes. The opposition to it was so 
 great, so general, and so determined, that it was 
 impossible to be surmounted. 
 
 The Dukes de la Rochefoucauld, de Noailles, de 
 Luxemburg, and several others who stood among the 
 highest of the kingdom in point of rank, weight, and 
 public opinion, rejected the king's nomination, and 
 absolutely refused to sit in the Cour Pl&iiere. There 
 was no alternative ; the king was condemned to 
 
30 The French Revolution. [1788. 
 
 submit to this public insult, and to retract all he had 
 done. Thus was the Court sunk to the lowest ebb 
 of degradation, while the parliaments were exalted to 
 the pinnacle of triumph and power. 
 
 In the meantime the poverty of government was 
 so extreme that it became incapable of discharging 
 its functions or answering the public demands, so 
 that a public bankruptcy seemed fast approaching. 
 In this state the king issued an arrit, in which he 
 gave notice that in these circumstances only a certain 
 proportion of the demands on the treasury could be 
 paid in cash, and the remainder must be taken in bills 
 payable in a year, and bearing five per cent, interest, 
 the bills likewise to be received as money in the sub- 
 scription to the first loan that was raised. 
 
 Though publicity was the great object of such 
 a notice, and could alone give it any effect, yet such 
 1788. was the consequence of shame or apprehen- 
 August 18. s j on t hat operated on the Court that the 
 copies of the arrit seemed to be distributed by stealth 
 on Monday evening, August 18. But neither this 
 precaution, the fairness of the proposals, nor the 
 goodness of the security could prevent such a general 
 alarm as was nearly without example from being 
 spread through the city of Paris on the following 
 morning. The immediate consequences were a great 
 fall of the stocks and a violent run on the Caisse 
 d'Escomptes, 1 or, as it was considered, the national 
 bank. For two days the crowds who came to change 
 
 1 An institution, sanctioned by Turgot, for discounting bills at four 
 per cent. 
 
1783.] Poverty of the Government. 31 
 
 their notes were so great and pressing that the guards 
 were obliged to marshal and keep them in order, to 
 prevent confusion, and that each might be brought 
 forward in turn to the bank. By procuring all the 
 cash that was possible, and using much address to 
 make each payment take up as much time as was 
 possible, the bank was enabled to weather the 
 tempest, until an edict from the king relieved them 
 on the third day, commanding all bankers and others 
 to receive their bills in payment as cash — a measure 
 which afforded little satisfaction to the public, although 
 it saved the Caisse d'Escomptes. 
 
 In the meantime public discontents were height- 
 ened by private distress. Bread had already risen 
 in Paris from two and a half to four sous per pound ; 
 and worse still being expected, prudent families 
 began to discharge their servants, which necessarily 
 increased the number of idlers who crowded the 
 streets and were in a state of the most deplorable 
 distress. 
 
 Under this alarming aspect of affairs, the Prime 
 Minister, the Archbishop of Sens, 1 looking more to 
 his own safety than to the duty or gratitude I788 _ 
 which he owed to his royal master, made August2 s- 
 no scruple of leaving him alone to weather the ap- 
 proaching tempest as he could, and departed with 
 the utmost expedition for Italy. 
 
 1 Etienne Charles de Lomenie de Brienne, born in 1727, died in 
 1794, Controller-General of Finances in 1787, showed himself unfit for 
 the . post, and was succeeded by Necker. He accepted the civil con- 
 stitution of the clergy in 1791, and relinquished the cardinal's hat 
 which he had received in 1788. 
 
2)2 The French Revolution. [1788. 
 
 The king's situation was sufficiently difficult and 
 embarrassing ; compelled lately to dismiss a favourite 
 minister, forsaken now by his successor, who left him 
 involved in all the troubles which the rashness or 
 failure of his measures had occasioned, and destitute 
 in himself of those great and commanding personal 
 qualities which have often wrought such wonders in 
 critical affairs, and which were never more necessary 
 than in the present instance to enable him to stem 
 that torrent of discontent and disorder which was 
 spreading with such violence through his dominions. 
 
 Thus circumstanced, he perceived no other resource 
 than that of throwing himself into the arms of the 
 popular party, and, by coinciding with their proposals, 
 to endeavour to restore concord and harmony in the 
 kingdom, and to obtain that personal quiet which 
 he sought beyond all things. Little disposed him- 
 self to any exertions of arbitrary power, and as little 
 calculated by nature to their support, concessions 
 offered no great violence to his feelings. He saw 
 that the spirit which had been shown upon different 
 occasions by persons the most nearly related to him, 
 in their endeavours to support the prerogative or to 
 inspire vigour into the general measures of adminis- 
 tration, had rendered them universally odious, and 
 that their party was become too weak to admit any 
 further attempts with a probability of success. 
 
 The first step to be taken upon this change of 
 system was in a great measure declaratory and 
 decisive with respect to those that were to follow. 
 This was the recall of the celebrated M. Necker, and 
 
1788.] The Reforms and Popularity o/Necker. 33 
 
 the placing him again at the head of the finances. 
 This gentleman was become the idol of the people 
 in a degree, perhaps, without example with respect 
 to any man in any country under similar circum- 
 stances. Several causes concurred in procuring him 
 this extraordinary popularity. His famous " Compte 
 rendu au Roi," in which he laid open to all the world 
 the expenditure, revenue, and resources of France, 
 and disclosed all those arcana of the State and 
 monarchy which had hitherto been deemed most 
 sacred and unrevealable, although a measure, per- 
 haps, not very justifiable, was highly captivating to 
 the people. The circumstance of his being, by birth 
 at least, a republican, 1 was so fortunately adapted 
 to the spirit and disposition of the times that, it was 
 not only sufficient to remove all prejudices with 
 respect to his being a foreigner and a Protestant, but 
 would have rendered him popular if he had not been 
 so otherwise. 
 
 Such was the state of things when M. Necker was 
 again placed at the head of public affairs. The joy 
 of the people was indescribable, and their expecta- 
 tions and hopes passed all bounds of reason and 
 possibility. It seemed as if they conceived that he 
 possessed a magical wand ; that by waving it he 
 could pay off an immense public debt without money ; 
 and that by another movement he could with the 
 same ease supply twenty-five millions of people with 
 corn and bread. Circumstances seemed for a moment 
 to give a sanction to the delusion ; the funds sud- 
 1 He was Swiss. 
 
 D 
 
34 The French Revolution. [1788. 
 
 denly rose, and the general good-humour seemed to 
 dispel all those black clouds which hung so heavily 
 over the political horizon. 
 
 The new minister neglected nothing which would 
 tend to the support of that public opinion so essential 
 to his fame and greatness. He soon discovered, or 
 perhaps previously knew, that there were large sums 
 of money lying in several public departments, destined 
 to assigned purposes which were not yet in being. 
 Secure of this support, he immediately issued public 
 notice that all demands on the Treasury should in 
 future be at once paid in ready money. Nothing 
 could ever produce greater fclat. He was called the 
 saviour of the country ; the preservation of France 
 from the ruin and disgrace of public bankruptcy was 
 universally ascribed to him. He likewise used all 
 possible means to draw corn from different parts to 
 the relief of the metropolis, where the natural turbu- 
 lence of the inhabitants was liable upon any accidental 
 occasion to be stimulated to acts of outrage and 
 violence. 
 
 The coming in of M. Necker was attended with 
 the dismissal of all the principals of the archbishop's 
 party. Everybody supposed that the restoration of 
 the parliament of Paris to its functions would have 
 been one of the effects of the change in the ministry. 
 The parliament met about the middle of September, 
 I7 88. and after some display of moderation in their 
 Sept. 14- fi rs t sittings, soon began a new squabble with 
 the Crown, on the ground of prosecuting those mem- 
 bers of the late ministry who were forthcoming, 
 
i?88.] Riotous Disposition of the Populace. 35 
 
 especially MM. de Lairioighon and de Brienne, 1 for 
 the evil advice they had given, and the mischiefs 
 which they had thereby drawn upon the nation. But 
 the king peremptorily refused to admit this prosecu- 
 tion, declaring that he alone was responsible for all 
 the late measures, and that if any mischiefs took place 
 they proceeded entirely from the refractory conduct 
 and obstinacy of the parliament. 
 
 In the meantime the populace of Paris began to 
 make a display of that ungoverned and riotous dis- 
 position which has since rendered them so con- 
 spicuous. It seems probable that the king's refusal 
 to admit the prosecution against M. de Lamoignon, 
 the late Keeper of the Seals, directed their fury against 
 that gentleman, as the riot commenced immediately 
 after. A multitude of people, seemingly for sport, 
 assembled about the Pont Neuf, where they amused 
 themselves for some time with throwing squibs and 
 crackers, and obliging the passers-by to take off their 
 hats and bow to the statue of Henry IV. But seem- 
 ing to grow tired of this sport, they suddenly provided 
 themselves with lighted torches, and proceeded in a 
 body to burn and destroy the house of M. de 
 Lamoignon. The timely interference of the guards 
 saved the house, and probably the life, of that gentle- 
 man, to whom his country owed so much for his 
 admirable reform of the code of criminal justice, and 
 in whose humane regulations in the mode of prosecu- 
 tion the order of men who now sought his destruction 
 were so nearly and particularly concerned. The 
 1 Archbishop of Sens. 
 
$6 The Fi'ench Revolution. [1788. 
 
 crowd dispersed upon the interference of the military, 
 but reassembled in another part, and were proceed- 
 ing to burn the late Keeper in effigy, 1 when, finding 
 themselves pursued, and again interrupted by the 
 guards, their indignation was raised so high that they 
 stood a battle with them, but were soon routed, 
 above thirty of their number being killed, and a. 
 much greater number undoubtedly wounded. 
 
 The parliament soon afforded an instance of the 
 degree of moderation with which they were disposed 
 to exercise power or to enjoy triumph, as well as of 
 the terms upon which they intended to stand with 
 the Court. That body caused all the king's decrees 
 1788. which related to their suspension, or which 
 ° ct ' "■ they considered as encroaching on their 
 privileges, to be publicly burnt in Paris. In this act 
 the heinousness of the example to a turbulent and 
 inflamed populace equalled the wantonness of the 
 insult. 
 
 The only public business of any consequence 
 
 which was transacted during the remainder of the 
 
 year was the summoning a new convention of the 
 
 Notables, who met in the beginning of November. 
 
 The object of assembling them was to receive 
 Nov. 6. . . . , , . . 
 
 their opinion and advice in answer to a number 
 
 of written questions proposed to them, relative to the 
 
 organization of the States-General, the mode of 
 
 election to be pursued, the qualifications of the 
 
 electors and of the elected, the numbers to be re- 
 
 1 A wicker figure. 
 
1788.] Severe Weather and Scarcity of Bread. 2,7 
 
 turned by the respective districts, etc. The meeting 
 of the States was fixed for May I, 1789. 1 
 
 The unequalled severity of the winter could not 
 but produce the most deplorable effects in a country 
 where the people were already so much distressed 
 for want of subsistence. It was in vain that bounties 
 were offered for the importation of wheat, rye, and 
 other grain. The countries of Europe were in no 
 condition in any degree to supply the wants of so pro- 
 digious a number of people ; the relief, however, thus 
 furnished, although far from sufficient, undoubtedly 
 preserved multitudes from perishing. Paris probably 
 suffered more than the provinces, but the want in all 
 was extreme. The people, instead of looking to the 
 general effect of bad harvests, or to the particular 
 ruin occasioned by the late hurricane, attributed the 
 scarcity and dearness of bread to the nefarious 
 schemes of the Court, which they charged with the 
 impossible crime of exporting the corn by stealth to 
 foreign countries. 
 
 Thus gloomily closed the year 1788. 
 1 They had not met since 1614. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 CONVENTION OF THE STATES-GENERAL. 
 
 M. Necker had at the beginning of winter summoned 
 a new Convention of Notables in order to receive 
 their opinion and advice on several subjects relative 
 to the convocation of the States-General. Two great 
 questions were at issue between the three orders or 
 classes from which that body was to be drawn, 
 namely, the nobles, the clergy, and the tiers Hat, or 
 commons ; and these necessarily agitated the whole 
 nation. The first was, Whether the deputies of the 
 three orders of the State should meet together in one 
 assembly, in which all the concentrated powers of the 
 States-General should reside ; or whether they should 
 be divided, as they had been at the last meeting, in 
 1 6 14, into three chambers, through each of which a 
 resolution must be carried (or, at least, through two 
 of them) before it became the acknowledged Act of 
 the States. 
 
 The next question was, Whether the number of 
 deputies from each of the orders should be the same 
 as in 1614, which was about three hundred of each ; 
 or whether, the clergy and nobles still adhering to 
 
1788.] Convention of the States-General. 39 
 
 their former numbers, the third estate should be 
 allowed to send six hundred members, which would 
 equal both in number. This was called the Double 
 Representation of the people. 
 
 The gaining of this point was the great and 
 principal object in view with the third estate. It was 
 generally taken for granted that the clergy and 
 nobles, being privileged bodies, would coalesce, and 
 act nearly, if not entirely, together ; so that they 
 would carry every question against the commons. 
 But if the Double Representation took place the 
 commons would then have six hundred votes to 
 oppose the three hundred of each other order, and 
 they were sure of desertions from each ; particularly 
 that many of the curates 1 would join them ; while 
 they had nothing less than a certainty that the 
 members of their own order would hold well together. 
 Also, the three orders, sitting together without any 
 distinction in the same chamber, would vote by 
 heads, and the majority of votes, without any regard 
 to orders, be of course conclusive. 
 
 On these questions the king's absolute authority 
 was equally appealed to by all the parties for a final 
 decision, the plenitude of his power not being yet 
 openly questioned by any. On the other hand, the 
 sovereign resigned himself entirely to the advice of 
 M. Necker in everything relative to this subject 
 
 That minister found himself entirely out of his 
 
 element when he became involved in the untried and 
 
 difficult science of political legislation. Honest him- 
 
 1 i.e. Cures, or parish clergy, few of whom belonged to the noble 
 classes. 
 
40 The French Revolution. [1788. 
 
 self, and moderate in all his views, he- seems to have 
 built too much upon the rectitude of others, and not 
 to have been aware that the designs of men often 
 extend far beyond their present avowal or action. 
 With respect to the questions which now so much 
 agitated the nation, Necker never gave any decided 
 opinion upon the subjects either of the States voting 
 by heads or by classes, of their sitting in one chamber 
 or in three, nor of their amalgamation ; but with 
 respect to the Double Representation he took a most 
 decided part in favour of that measure, and perse- 
 vered in it with no small degree of pertinacity. The 
 Notables were of a directly contrary opinion ; they 
 recommended the constitution of 1614 as the model 
 by which the present convocation of the States should 
 be regulated. 
 
 The Notables in giving this advice only trod in 
 the steps of the parliament of Paris, whose conduct, 
 which in other seasons would have been productive 
 of all the applause which usually attended their pro- 
 ceedings, upon this occasion produced a very different 
 effect. The minds of men were now too much heated, 
 and the new-fangled notions of government too widely 
 spread, to admit of their being at all satisfied with 
 those securities or concessions which would before 
 have occasioned the greatest joy and triumph. 
 
 The unexpected change in the public opinion was 
 
 most sensibly felt by the parliament, who, in order 
 
 I5 83. to recover the affection of the people, assem- 
 
 December bled with more than usual formality, inviting 
 
 at the same time (to give the greater eclat to their 
 
1788.] Jealousy in the States-General. 41 
 
 proceedings) the attendance of the princes and peers. 
 At this meeting they offered a piece, under the title 
 of an arret, on the present state of the nation, con- 
 taining a number of resolutions which seemed to 
 include their ideas of the principal points of French 
 liberty. 
 
 These provisions for establishing and preserving 
 the rights and security of the people, and the attain- 
 ment of which only a small time back would have 
 been considered as presenting a glorious Magna 
 Charta of French freedom, and as forming a new 
 epoch in the history of that country, were now 
 received not only with indifference but with the 
 greatest contempt. They fell so far short of the 
 ideas of liberty and equality now spread that they 
 could not be listened to with patience ; the parliament 
 of Paris was totally disappointed in the hope of 
 recovering that popularity which it so eagerly sought, 
 and from this time continued to dwindle day after 
 day into still lower degrees of insignificance, until it 
 was at length totally laid aside, and all its past 
 exertions and consequence forgotten. 
 
 In the meantime the greatest jealousy and dissen- 
 sion subsisted between the different orders which 
 were to compose the States. The third estate, or 
 commons, so far from being satisfied with the sub- 
 mission of the nobility to an equal taxation, would 
 overthrow all privileges whatever. Many of the lords 
 had, ages since, whether upon principles of kindness 
 or common utility, released their peasants from that 
 state of vassalage in which they were then held, and 
 
42 The French Revolution. [1788. 
 
 received certain fixed rents from them as a compen- 
 sation for their lands ; but it was now taught to be 
 an intolerable grievance and oppression to pay a price 
 for the enjoyments of those rights and goods of 
 nature to which every man was, as such, equally 
 entitled. Several feudal rights and services were 
 likewise still retained in most or all lordships and 
 manors, some of which were commuted in money, 
 and others, perhaps more, discharged in kind. The 
 loss of these rents and services would be very severely 
 felt by the smaller nobility, who were very numerous. 
 
 The nobility who, most fatally to themselves, had 
 in the year 1787 held so tenacious a grasp of their 
 pecuniary exemptions that they would not afford the 
 smallest aid to extricate their sovereign or the public 
 from the emergencies in which they were involved, 
 were now become fully sensible of their error, and 
 began to perceive and to feel some part of the growing 
 danger of their situation. The dukes and peers of 
 France had already presented a memorial to the king, 
 -offering to bear their due proportion of the public 
 charges ; and they were supported in this engage- 
 ment by the nobles in different parts of the kingdom. 
 But their repentance, or right sense of their condition, 
 was too late ; the season was now past, and the 
 popular ferment was grown to such a height that all 
 hope of conciliation seemed at an end. 
 
 The jealousy and dislike between the nobility and 
 commons (with whom most of the parish clergy 
 ranged themselves) was every day increasing. The 
 Comte d'Artois (the king's second brother), with the 
 
1788.] Duke of Orleans seeks Popularity. 43 
 
 Princes of Conde" and of Conti, who were at this time 
 called the Triumvirate, declared themselves strongly 
 in support of the rights of the nobility, and presented 
 a memorial to the king consenting to an equalization 
 of taxes ; they, however, reserved the obnoxious pro- 
 vision, "that this was to be considered as a matter 
 of condescension and favour, but not of right." The 
 count, who had long been sufficiently unpopular, was 
 now execrated throughout the nation. 
 
 The first prince of the blood, the Duke of Orleans, 
 had, upon the change of ministry, been discharged by 
 the king from the restrictions which confined him to 
 his country seat ; but instead of going to Court he 
 proceeded to the Palais Royal in Paris, which was his 
 own estate, and which for some time might have been 
 considered as his citadel. There he laid himself out 
 by all possible means to obtain a popularity in the 
 acquisition of which he had hitherto through life been 
 singularly unfortunate. His immense fortune (being 
 reckoned the richest subject in Europe, and his yearly 
 income estimated at something about half a million 
 sterling) rendered this design, in the present state of 
 things, a matter of no great difficulty. By excessive 
 largesses in money and corn lie soon became the idol 
 of Paris. It was impossible that such a man in such 
 a situation and such circumstances should be destitute 
 of a considerable party. Mirabeau x and some other 
 
 1 Gabriel Honore de Riquetti, Comte de Mirabeau, was born 
 March 9, 1749. His public life will explain • itself in the following 
 pages ; his private life was immoral. He died in 1791. 
 
44 The French Revolution. [1789. 
 
 of the most violent demagogues in the succeeding 
 convulsion were closely connected with him, and were 
 thought to be actuated in their proceedings by views 
 very different from those which were avowed. The 
 duke was supposed to guide the clouds, and to direct 
 the course of the tempest. 
 
 The royal edict was published for convening the 
 States-General, and the elections took place. The 
 I78g following short account of the different parties 
 Jan. 24. th en j n France is thus given by a person well- 
 acquainted with them, 1 and who was himself an actor 
 of consideration in the scenes then exhibited : — " The 
 commons wished to conquer ; the riobles wished to 
 preserve what they already possessed ; the clergy 
 waited to see which side would be victorious, in order 
 to join the conquerors ; if any one sincerely wished 
 for peace it was the king." 
 
 The States had been summoned for April 27, and 
 most of the deputies were on that day assembled 
 at Versailles ; but the numerous deputation 
 from Paris, as well as the multitude of the 
 electors, occasioned so much delay in the elections 
 of that city that the king thought it necessary to 
 defer the opening of the Assembly until May 4. The 
 
 1 Trophime Gerard, Marquis de Lally Tollendal, born in 1751. He 
 went to the Etats Generaux as a deputy of the nobility, and supported 
 the scheme of a monarchy limited by two chambers, with the absolute 
 veto of the king. After October 5 and 6, 1789, he retired to Coppet, 
 on the Lake of Geneva, returned to France in 1792, was imprisoned in 
 the Abbaye, but escaped. He then lived in England, but once more 
 returned to France under the Consulate, lived a private life until the 
 Restoration, when he was made a peer of France, and died in 1830. 
 
1789.] Mirabeau becomes a Democratic Leader. 45 
 
 factions who were thus brought from all parts of the 
 kingdom to clash together and show their animosity at 
 Versailles were soon distinguished, and were arranged 
 under their respective leaders before the formal open- 
 ing of the Assembly. 
 
 They were classed under three great divisions, 
 and these subdivided into smaller parties. The first 
 was the aristocratic party ; the second was the middle 
 or moderate party ; the last, but the great and trium- 
 phant division, was that overwhelming democratic 
 party which was destined to swallow up all others, 
 and to level all distinctions, from the sceptre to the 
 plain Cross of St. Louis, 1 in the dust. This party 
 contained the most violent and turbulent spirits of 
 the nation in the third estate, among whom Mirabeau, 
 finding himself rejected with contempt by his own 
 order, obtained a seat, and soon became the most 
 conspicuous of their leaders. Nor were democratic 
 principles confined entirely to the third estate ; they 
 were adopted with no less violence by the Bishop 
 of Autun 2 and the Abbe" Gr^goire, 3 who headed a 
 party among the clergy. The Duke of Orleans, 
 having been chosen a member of the States for his 
 own bailliage of Cressy, in Valois, took care to pro- 
 vide a sanction for his future conduct by employing 
 
 1 The Order of St. Louis was instituted in 1693 by Louis XIV., as 
 a reward for military service. Louis XVI. increased the number of 
 members. The Order was suppressed at the Revolution, revived in 
 1815, but has not been conferred since 1830. 
 
 2 Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Perigord, the famous diplomatist. 
 
 3 The Abbe Henri Gregoire was born in 1750, became known in 
 the literary world, supported the civil constitution of the clergy, voted 
 for the death of the king, and died in 1831. 
 
46 The French Revolution. [1789. 
 
 the Abbe" Sieyes, 1 who was particularly attached to 
 him, and whose name stood high among the modern 
 speculative philosophers and politicians, to draw up 
 his cahier, or instructions, in the name of that baili- 
 wick, which the abbe accomplished in a manner that 
 could not but afford content to the most eager wishes 
 of democracy. 
 
 The primary elections had for some days been 
 carried on quietly enough ; but M. Reveillon, a citi- 
 zen of respectability, who conducted a large paper 
 manufactory, presided, with others, at the primary 
 assembly held for the district of St. Antoine. As- 
 tonished at the violence of the harangues of some 
 of his own workmen, ReVeillon could not help show- 
 ing some marks of disapprobation at their conduct. 
 This enraged them so much that they got up false 
 reports concerning him ; and in the tumultuous suburb, 
 or Faubourg de St. Antoine, it was like the appli- 
 cation of a match to gunpowder. The rabble amused 
 themselves the first day by burning M. Reveillon and 
 some others in effigy. A detachment of guards, who 
 were sent to suppress the tumult, being too weak 
 for the purpose, their failure served to increase the 
 audacity of the mob. 
 
 They proceeded next day to demolish the house 
 
 of M. Reveillon, which they did with great despatch. 
 
 J7 8 9 . A strong body of the guards having arrived 
 
 April 28. before they could proceed any further in the 
 
 1 Emmanuel Joseph, Abbe, afterwards Comte, Sieyes, born 1748, 
 died 1836; a "metaphysical politician," whose views greatly influenced 
 the thought of his times. 
 
1789.] The Elections — Disturbances. 47 
 
 accomplishment of their designs, were saluted with 
 a violent shower of stones and tiles, which they bore 
 for some time with great temper ; but perceiving that 
 their forbearance only served to render the mob more 
 daring and violent in their attack, the guards at 
 length threw in a close and heavy fire, which made 
 a miserable slaughter among the people. A great 
 number were killed, 1 the hospitals crowded with the 
 wounded, and, terror immediately succeeding to in- 
 solence, the rest dispersed as fast as they could. 
 
 Though peace was thus apparently restored to 
 the capital, yet the fermentation among the mob was 
 so great that it was easily seen to be of a very doubt- 
 ful and precarious nature ; a stronger proof of which 
 need not be given than that the whole body of French 
 guards 2 in Paris were obliged to be drawn out, with 
 loaded arms, bayonets fixed, and artillery planted in 
 different places, in order to ensure the execution of 
 two ruffians who had been taken in the very act of 
 plunder. It was in this insurrection that women were 
 first seen to forget all the timidity natural to their 
 sex, with all the restraints fixed by habit and opinion, 
 and to mix with more than masculine fury in scenes 
 of blood and destruction. 
 
 Such were the sad auspices under which the first 
 assembly of the States-General of France, after a 
 lapse of 175 years, was destined to commence its pro- 
 ceedings. 
 
 1 It is said, from four to five hundred. 
 
 2 The Gardes' Francaises, an infantry regiment raised by Charles IX. 
 in 1563. They formed part of the king's household troops, and pos- 
 sessed various privileges. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE "SEANCE OF THE JEU DE PAUME," AND THE 
 BEGINNING OF HORRORS. 
 
 NOTHING could be more solemn or august than the 
 opening of the States-General of France at Versailles. 
 I78g The king delivered a short speech from the 
 Ma y 4- throne, concluding with these words : " May 
 a happy union reign in this assembly, and this epoch 
 become for ever memorable from the happiness and 
 prosperity of my subjects ! " 
 
 The expectation of all parties was raised to the 
 highest pitch to hear the long oration of M. Necker ; 
 but all parties were disappointed ; the speech kept 
 wide of the great points which seemed to be its only 
 proper objects. 
 
 Immediately arose a contest between the nobles 
 
 and clergy on the one hand and the commons on the 
 
 other. It became every hour more evident that 
 
 May 11. 
 
 the great object of the third estate was to 
 deprive these brethren in legislation of all weight and 
 power. Some feelings of alarm began now to break 
 through that stupor in which the ministers had 
 
1789-] The "Assemble Nationale." 49 
 
 apparently been involved. Everything was tending 
 fast to that consummation in which one branch of 
 the legislature was to swallow up all the other powers 
 of the State. A number of pamphlets were circulated 
 through every part of the kingdom, proposing to the 
 people a doctrine always highly captivating to the 
 multitude — that of total abolition of distinctions of 
 blood and rank. The most celebrated of these 
 pamphlets was one written by Mirabeau. 
 
 The commons were so sensible of their own 
 strength that they determined to constitute themselves 
 into what may be called an " active assembly." Great 
 debates arose upon the new and comprehensive title 
 which it would be proper for them to assume. At 
 length the lucky hit of " Assemblee Nationale " was 
 made by M. Le Grand, and received with great I7 s 9 . 
 applause ; was formally put to the vote, and June 7 - 
 carried by a vast majority. A profound silence 
 reigned all the time the votes were collecting ; but as 
 soon as the majority was declared the air resounded 
 with a universal shout of " Long live the king ! 
 Long live the National Assembly ! " 1 
 
 The democratic party within the Assembly were 
 now unceasing in their zeal to infuse that tumultuous 
 spirit which operated with great violence upon them- 
 selves into the public mind at large. The nobles 
 were in agonies of despair, and yet could not bring 
 themselves to descend from their inflexible haughti- 
 ness. The clergy were in a very different temper. 
 
 1 The first president of the National Assembly was Jean Sylvain 
 Bailly, astronomer and man of letters. 
 
50 The French Revolution. [1789. 
 
 The party who sided with the commons had nearly 
 attained a majority ; and that final decision was only 
 retarded by the influence of the Archbishop of Paris, 
 who, when it at length took place, joined in a strong 
 protest against it. The consequence was that though 
 he was a prelate of respectable character, and his 
 charities to the poor were so extensive as to pass 
 beyond all customary limits, he was, some days after, 
 pursued with all the violence of popular fury, attacked, 
 insulted, and his life endangered. He was rescued 
 with some difficulty ; and it was on this occasion 
 that the troops first refused to act, as they termed it, 
 against their " fellow-citizens." Such was the first fruit 
 of that terrible power assumed by the French troops 
 of judging for themselves on all public questions as 
 well as on all cases of military subordination. 
 
 The king, who had hitherto trusted to M. Necker's 
 promises of an easy and happy reign, finding himself 
 disappointed in all his hopes, began to hesitate in his 
 proceedings, and perhaps to call in question the 
 wisdom and propriety of his past conduct. Council 
 after council was held in the king's palace, but the 
 natural effects of weakness, disorder, and faction 
 were so predominant that they could not agree in 
 anything. M. Necker at length thought it advisable 
 that the king should recur to the ancient method of 
 holding what they call a stance royale, or "royal 
 session." The plan was fixed, and the day appointed. 
 Nothing could have been more innocent in itself than 
 this measure, but the folly, rashness, and violence with 
 which it was conducted rendered it an immediate 
 
1789.] Stance of the " Jeu de Pcmme." • 5 1 
 
 instrument in the ruin of the monarchy and the 
 subversion of the government., 
 
 The hall in which the third estate held their 
 assembly being far larger than either of the other 
 chambers, it had from the beginning been the place 
 where the king met and harangued the States. 
 Without the smallest preparatory address or manage- 
 ment, a party of guards took possession in the 
 morning of this hall. Workmen were sent in i 7 8g. 
 to erect a throne for the king, the royal session June 2 °' 
 was formally proclaimed by the heralds, and M. 
 Bailly, the president, and other members of the 
 commons, were repulsed, without ceremony or ex- 
 planation, from their own door. 
 
 The commons, apprehending nothing less than 
 an immediate dissolution, were naturally inflamed 
 with resentment, and in that passion hurried on foot, 
 through a violent storm of rain, to an old tennis- 
 court, 1 where, with equal spirit and firmness, they 
 bound themselves by a solemn oath "never to part 
 until the constitution was completed." The affecting 
 spectacle of six hundred representatives of the nation 
 being driven to the extremity of encountering such 
 weather in such a manner, and of standing bareheaded 
 under all its inclemency while they were taking this 
 awful oath, could not but excite the greatest and, 
 indeed, the most universal, indignation against the 
 Court. Had the united talents of all the ministers 
 
 1 The game of tennis is called in French, jeu de paume, paume being 
 the palm of the hand. This court was in the Rue St. Francois, Old 
 Versailles. . The stance of the jeu de paume is one of the earliest and 
 most salient landmarks of t:he Revolution. 
 
52 The French Revolution. [1789. 
 
 been combined in contriving a scheme to render the 
 king incurably odious, and to bind the people 
 indissolubly to the commons, they could not have 
 found one more effectual. M. Mounier was the 
 proposer and framer of the oath. The following day 
 produced a scene of a different nature. The majority 
 of the clergy flew off from the Court at this most 
 critical moment and joined the commons. The 
 clergy met in the choir, the commons in the body, 
 of the church of St. Louis. After some messages to 
 adjust ceremonials the separating doors flew open ; 
 the clergy, with their president, the Archbishop of 
 Vienne, at their head, advanced, while the commons 
 rose to receive them and yielded the upper hand. The 
 two presidents embraced, and sat down by each 
 other ; the loudest shouts of applause celebrated the 
 happy reconciliation of two of the discordant orders 
 of citizens. 
 
 The commons, emboldened by the junction of 
 these new allies, waited with confidence for the open- 
 1789. ing of the royal session. On the day appointed, 
 June 23 ' the king ascended that throne which he never 
 was again to ascend in any equal degree of greatness 
 and power. His plan of a new constitution was read 
 to the assembled orders. It was of great length, and 
 its chief fault was its being too dictatorial and the 
 " king's will '' being too frequently brought forward. 
 It declared that there should be no distinctions of the 
 different orders in the payment of taxes ; but it 
 declared too openly for the temper of the times that 
 all property should be sacred, and that tithes and 
 
1789.] Nobles and Clergy join the Commons. 53 
 
 feudal rents should be considered property. There 
 were a great number of provisions, to which the 
 commons listened in sullen silence ; and as soon as 
 the king departed they absolutely refused to break 
 up their session. Mirabeau told the king's attendants 
 that nothing but the points of bayonets should force 
 them out of their chamber. 
 
 The ferment at Versailles was nothing compared 
 with that which prevailed at Paris, which had been 
 increasing ever since the beginning of May. The 
 fish-women of Paris (called les poissardes, and some- 
 times les dames de la halle) had from time immemorial 
 assumed the leadership of all political mobs ; they 
 could not pass by so glorious an opening to mischief 
 as was now presented. The garden of the Palais 
 Royal, belonging to the Duke of Orleans, was now 
 become the grand theatre of popular politics. 
 
 On June 24 the Count de Clermont Tonnere 
 moved that the nobles should unite with the 
 commons, and was ably seconded by M. de I7 a 9 . 
 Lally Tollendal. This they performed on J une2 7- 
 the succeeding day. At four o'clock in the afternoon 
 of the 27th the commons were informed that the 
 nobles were coming into their hall. They were 
 accompanied by the remaining dissidents of the 
 clergy, headed by the Cardinal de la Rochefoucauld. 1 
 The commons used their victory with moderation. 
 Public rejoicings and illuminations took place upon 
 
 1 Dominique de la Rochefoucauld, born in 1743, died in 1800 ; 
 Cardinal, and Archbishop of Rouen ; he refused to accept the civil 
 constitution of the clergy, and emigrated after August 10, 1792. 
 
54 The French Revolution. [[789- 
 
 this union of the orders, and the people fondly thought 
 that the happiness of the nation was now complete. 
 
 The French guards had been so long stationed to 
 preserve order in Paris, that by degrees their intimacy 
 with the inhabitants became so close that it led them 
 •to imbibe all their political opinions. The streets 
 and gardens resounded with popular ballads made 
 on purpose to encourage and inflame the soldiery. 
 It was no wonder that they should join the crowd in 
 huzzaing for the third estate. For these and similar 
 acts of disobedience and contempt of order, eleven of 
 the most daring and refractory soldiers were committed 
 to the prison of the Abbaye de St. Germains, pre- 
 paratory to their trial by a court-martial. The people 
 flew in crowds to the prison, forced the gates, removed 
 the prisoners to the Hotel de Geneve. The next day a 
 deputation of young Parisians waited on the National 
 Assembly, requiring from them the free discharge of 
 the prisoners. The Assembly felt their embarrassed 
 position, and entreated the king's clemency towards 
 the delinquents. He could do nothing but comply ; 
 and thus was an end put to military discipline as well 
 as to civil government in Paris. 
 
 But there were other matters at this time which 
 reached more immediately both to his sovereignty and 
 to his personal safety than even the commotions in 
 Paris. It is charged upon Mirabeau by two members 
 of the Assembly, whose characters stood high, that he 
 talked without reserve with them about their having 
 " a Louis the Seventeenth in the place of a Louis the 
 Sixteenth " as king, or, at least, as lieutenant-general 
 
I7&9-] Necker Dismissed. . 55 
 
 of the kingdom ; thereby alluding by name to the 
 first prince of the blood (Louis Philippe Joseph 
 d'Orleans), with whom, he said, he had conversed, 
 upon the subject. Mounier x has likewise recorded 
 that Mirabeau said to him, " What signifies whether, 
 we have Louis the Seventeenth or Louis the Six- 
 teenth, and why need we have a bambini to govern us?" 
 Astonishment and terror must have struck the 
 king when expressions of this nature were commu- 
 nicated to him. An entire change of measures was 
 determined on by the Court. Necker received the 
 king's orders to give up his place and to I78g . 
 quit the kingdom as soon as possible; the J u >y"- 
 other ministers were either turned out, or resigned, 
 the next day. M. de Breteuil 3 was placed at the 
 head of the ministry, and Marshal Broglie 4 became 
 Commander-in-Chief. When this news reached Paris 
 on the morning of Sunday the mixed conflict 
 of fury and despair exceeded all powers of uy " 
 description. Busts of Necker and of the Duke of 
 
 1 Jean Joseph Mounier, born in 1758, died in 1806; distinguished 
 at the bar and as a political writer. He was a man of high character 
 and of moderate views ; he left France in 1 790, resigning his seat as 
 deputy, but afterwards returned and became Counsellor of State in 1805. 
 
 2 Bambin is a contemptuous word for " a baby," or "an idiot." 
 
 3 Louis Auguste le Tonnelier, Baron de Breteuil, born 1733, died- 
 in 1807 ; ambassador and statesman. After the taking of the Bastille 
 he served the cause of Louis XVI. at foreign courts, and returned to 
 France in 1802. He was then in poverty, and Josephine obtained a 
 pension for him. 
 
 4 Victor Claude, Prince de Broglie, born in 1 727, executed by order 
 of the revolutionary tribunal in 1794. He was a consistent loyalist, 
 though he approved the principles of the Revolution at its beginning. 
 His son married Necker's granddaughter, Madame de StaeTs daughter. - 
 
56 The French Revolution. [1789. 
 
 Orleans were carried about in triumph ; but the sober 
 and independent part of the citizens had no wish to 
 see that prince on the throne or in any public situation. 
 
 On the same day the Prince de Lambesc, who 
 commanded a regiment of horse, made a most ill- 
 judged attempt to disperse the populace, who were 
 very riotous and numerous in the gardens of the 
 Tuileries, as they were in all other open parts of the 
 city. Two or three persons were wounded ; three 
 troopers were killed. The ministers were totally 
 innocent of any share in this unlucky transaction. 
 Weakness and inanity were the characteristics at that 
 time of the French government. All regal, all 
 judicial, all municipal government being now at an 
 end in the city of Paris, an universal panic was on 
 the Sunday night spread throughout all its quarters. 
 
 The day which succeeded to this night of terror 
 and confusion produced a very different and a 
 1789. very extraordinary scene. Thirty thousand 
 July 13- citizens, totally unaccustomed to arms, were 
 soon seen armed at all points. A new peculiar 
 cockade 1 was formed for the new army. Some 
 plunder and mischief took place, particularly at the 
 house of the congregation of St. Lazarus, who were 
 suspected of having corn concealed in their granaries. 2 
 Small groups of thieves committing robberies on their 
 
 1 Red and blue, instead of the old green one. 
 
 2 This house was originally a hospital for lepers. The brothers to 
 whom it belonged established themselves in France in the reign of 
 Louis VII. They became Chevaliers de St. Lazare, were one hundred 
 in number, and could marry. After this year, 1789, we hear no more 
 of them. 
 
1789J "La Lanterne." 57 
 
 own account were instantly dragged to the Place de 
 Greve, the common place of execution, and hanged 
 by the ropes which were used to fasten the lanterns. 1 
 Hence originated the horrid practice of the mob's 
 constituting themselves judges and executioners in 
 the same moment ; and hence that horrid cry, " A la 
 lanterne ! " — the last sound that vibrated in the ears 
 of so many unhappy victims who have thus cruelly 
 perished. 
 
 The next day, the famous Tuesday^ July 14, will 
 long be remembered in the history of mankind. On 
 that morning the newly-formed army com- I7Sg . 
 pleted their means for offensive and defensive July I4- 
 operations, by stripping the Garde Meuble and the 
 H6tel des Invalides 2 of their weapons, and by seizing 
 the arms and ammunition which were lodged in the 
 latter. Thus provided, the idea of attacking the Bas- 
 tille 3 was instantly adopted, and De Launay, 4 the 
 
 1 In a volume entitled " La D£magogie,en 1793, par C. A. Dauban : 
 Paris, 1868," are reproductions of curious prints published during the 
 Revolution. In one is a view of a lanterne, an iron column about twenty- 
 five feet in height, from which is suspended a lantern for lighting a 
 courtyard. Below are two carts full of intended victims, and an 
 excited crowd of executioners. 
 
 2 Louis XIII. founded this military asylum in 1633 ; but it was 
 Louis XIV. who began to carry out the idea in 1670. It is a home for 
 infirm soldiers who have lost a limb or have been thirty years on 
 active service. The Invalides in Paris is not unlike Chelsea College in 
 London as regards plan and scope, and is a very fine building. Within 
 an open circular vault stands the sarcophagus of Napoleon. 
 
 3 This name, which means "a building," was given to several mediaeval 
 fortresses. That of Paris was composed of eight lofty, round towers, 
 united by ramparts, the whole surrounded by a walled moat. 
 
 4 Bernard Rene Jourdan, Marquis de Launay, was born in 1740. 
 His father also had been governor of the Bastille. 
 
58 The French Revolution. 11789. 
 
 governor, summoned to lay down his arms and sur- 
 render the fortress. The general report was that De 
 Launay held out deceitful hopes of compliance ; that 
 a number of Parisians came to the gates to demand 
 arms and ammunition ; that they were received within 
 an outer court, then treacherously fired upon, and a 
 cruel slaughter made. It seems very probable that the 
 story might have been invented at the time to increase 
 the animosity of the crowds which were pressing from 
 all quarters upon the Bastille. However that was, the 
 enthusiasm and fury of the people was so great that 
 the Bastille, the citadel of Paris, with its seemingly 
 impassable ditches, its towers and ramparts covered 
 with a powerful artillery, was, after an attack of two 
 hours, carried by storm. 
 
 De Launay was immediately dragged to the Place 
 dc Greve, and De Losme, the Major of the Bastille, 
 met with an equal fate and equal cruelty, though he 
 was a man of great humanity, whose tenderness to the 
 prisoners deserved far different treatment. 
 
 On this day it was that the savage custom of 
 insulting and mutilating the remains of the dead, and 
 of exhibiting their heads to public view upon pikes, 
 was first introduced into the polished city of Paris. 
 
 In the midst of these disorders, M. de Flesselles, 
 the Prevot des Marchands, or Mayor of Paris, had been 
 detected in a correspondence with the Court. He was 
 accordingly turned out of his office by the committee 
 of electors, and ordered to be conveyed to prison until 
 his trial ; but he had scarcely reached the bottom of 
 the steps of the H6tel de Ville when the new executors 
 
1789-] The Bastille taken. . 59 
 
 of summary justice forced him from the guard, shot 
 him instantly without trial or inquiry, dismembered 
 his body, and carried his bleeding head about the 
 streets on a pike in triumph, like the others they had 
 cut off. 
 
 After more than two hours had passed speedily 
 away under the double intoxication of joy and revenge, 
 some humane persons reminded the populace that the 
 prisoners in the Bastille ought to be delivered. Their 
 cells were accordingly broken open ; but how great 
 was the surprise, if not disappointment, when it was 
 found that these dreary dungeons, which were sup- 
 posed to be crowded with the victims of despotism, 
 contained only seven . prisoners ! that of these the 
 greater number, were confined on accusations of 
 forgery.; and that either two or three, who had con- 
 tinued there since the reign of Louis XV., were the 
 only objects of compassion among them ; for these 
 unhappy persons having lost the use of their reason 
 before the commencement of the present reign, or at 
 least before there was leisure to inquire into the state 
 of the prisons, they had since been detained because 
 the officers did not know in what manner otherwise 
 to dispose of them. A few days later they were sent 
 to the public madhouse at Charenton. 
 
 The National Assembly, who upon the disgrace 
 of Necker thought their own ruin determined, met on 
 Monday, July 13, and with all the terrors of dissolu- 
 tion and imprisonment before their eyes, resolved not 
 to give up a single point which they had been pre- 
 determined to maintain. They passed a famous 
 
60 The French Revolution. [1789. 
 
 resolution by which they declared "that the actual 
 counsellors of the king were personally responsible 
 for the present misfortunes, and for all that might 
 ensue." They likewise solicited the king to recall his 
 troops, and to entrust Paris to the guard of its own 
 citizens. Louis returned a general answer, and invited 
 the Assembly to go on with its labours. 
 
 But when on the Tuesday night the news arrived 
 of the taking of the Bastille, and of the deplorable 
 fate of De Launay, Flesselles, and De Losme, the 
 ministers seemed as if stricken by a thunderbolt. In 
 the course of that day the National Assembly passed 
 the resolution not to break up their session, but to 
 spend the night in their hall. The ministers still 
 adhered to their only refuge of concealment by keep- 
 ing the king in the dark as to his situation. It is 
 said that about midnight the Duke de Liancourt 1 
 forced his way into Louis's apartment, and, though 
 the latter was in bed, told him the whole truth. The 
 most unconditional submission was, accordingly, re- 
 solved upon, and the king went early on Wednesday 
 I78g . morning, without guards, to resign himself 
 July 15- entirely into the hands and power of the 
 Assembly. The members accompanied the king back 
 to the palace. From that instant he had, in effect, 
 resigned the sovereignty into their hands. 
 
 The terror of sieges and blockades had got such 
 
 1 Francois Alexandre FredeVic, Due de la Rochefoucauld-Liancourt, 
 born in 1747, died in 1827, Grand-Mattre de la Garde-Robe to Louis 
 XV. and Louis XVI. He was devoted to his unfortunate sovereign, as 
 will appear later on. After August 10 he emigrated to England and to 
 the United States, but afterwards returned to France. 
 
1789O La Fayette, General of the new Army. 61 
 
 possession of the minds of the Parisians that they 
 could think of nothing else. M. de la Fayette, 1 with 
 whom the English people were acquainted during the 
 American War, when he served under Washington, 
 was now elected to the command of the new army, 
 with the title of " general." The old office or title of 
 Prev6t des Marchands was either suppressed or 
 changed, and M. Bailly, formerly known by his 
 astronomical writings, was appointed chief magistrate, 
 under the name of Mayor of Paris. That capital was 
 now to be considered as a republic. The king was 
 advised, in the hope of reducing it to a state of good 
 order and temper, to visit the city of Paris.' This 
 desperate measure he carried into execution I7 8 9 . 
 on the Friday, in full expectation of being July I7 ' 
 assassinated. He was received at Sevres by a body 
 of 25,000 National Guards (the term now assigned to 
 the new army), and was thus led in melancholy pro- 
 cession to Paris, his ears being stunned the whole 
 way by the loud and continual acclamations of " Vive 
 la Nation ! " while the ancient cry of " Vive le Roi ! " 
 was not once heard. He was conducted to the Hotel 
 de Ville, where, after, submitting to the disgrace of 
 accepting and wearing the new Parisian cockade, and 
 
 1 Marie Paul Joseph Roch Ives Gilbert de Motier, Marquis de la 
 Fayette, born in 1757, died in Paris, 1834. At the age of sixteen he 
 married Mdlle. de Noailles ; he equipped a frigate at his own expense 
 when he joined the American army. He afterwards fought in the 
 French army against the English. He supported the cause of Louis ; 
 was imprisoned at Olmiitz; returned to France, opposed the Consulate, 
 retired from public life during the Empire. He then opposed the 
 Bourbons, but gave his adhesion to Louis-Philippe, whom he after- 
 wards deserted. 
 
62 The French Revolution. [1789. 
 
 after he had made a speech declaring his invariable 
 affection for the people, he was condemned to listen 
 to a M. de St. M6ry, who insinuated the charge 
 against the king of those cruel designs against the 
 city which had been imputed, groundlessly, to the 
 Court. A denial, involuntary as positive, burst from 
 his lips. The king's behaviour at the Hotel de Ville 
 recalled the old cry of " Vive la Roi ! " to the mouths 
 of the populace, though it was generally coupled with 
 the new and fashionable one. He returned safely in 
 the evening to Versailles, and was received with 
 transport by his family and friends, who had hardly 
 hoped to see him again. 
 
 Four days later occurred the horrible deaths of 
 Foulon and Berthier. The former of these was an 
 I . I789- old rich financier, a man of bad character, 1 
 July 91. anc j suspected of having accepted a place, 
 though he had not time to occupy it, under the late 
 administration. Berthier was Intendant de Paris, a 
 man of a totally different character, who seems to 
 have been neither accused nor suspected of any crime, 
 unless his being married to Foulon's daughter could 
 have constituted one. These unhappy men, having 
 
 1 Joseph Francois Foulon, bora in 1715. He was in turn Commis- 
 saire de Guerre, Intendant de l'Armee, in 1756, Counsellor of State in 
 1771, and it was thought that he would be Controller-General of 
 Finances after Necker's dismissal on July 12, 1789. He had said that 
 " bankruptcy alone would restore the credit of France ; " and when 
 accused of withholding corn from the people of Paris, he replied, " Let 
 the canaille eat grass." He was hanged to the lamp-iron at the corner 
 of the Rue de la Vannerie, near the Place de Greve ; two ropes broke, 
 but the third killed him. His head was carried on a pike, the mouth 
 being stuffed full of grass. 
 
1789.] Foulon and Berthier murdered. 63 
 
 had some warning of their danger, had attempted to 
 escape, but were pursued, seized, and dragged back 
 to Paris, where they were murdered with every cir- 
 cumstance of refined insult and cruelty which could 
 have been exhibited by a tribe of cannibals. 1 
 
 Bailly, the mayor, endeavoured unsuccessfully to 
 preserve these miserable victims. La Fayette threat- 
 ened to resign the command of the Parisian army, 
 but was persuaded to retain it, the more sober part 
 of the citizens hoping that he might be the means 
 of preventing still worse mischief. In the course of 
 a few days Marshal Broglie, the Polignacs, the 
 Luxembourgs, the Princes of Condd and Conti, the 
 Count d'Artois and his two sons, and numbers of 
 others, emigrated to England, Germany, or Italy, and 
 the king and queen were almost literally left alone. 
 
 Necker had been recalled by the king's letters, 
 and made his triumphal entry into Paris, amid i 7 8g. 
 universal shouts of " Vive M. Necker ! " July 3 °- 
 
 1 Berthier was also hanged a la lanterne. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE ROYAL FAMILY MADE CAPTIVES AND 
 BROUGHT TO PARIS. 
 
 Among the novelties for which the election of deputies 
 to the States-General had given occasion, was the 
 division of Paris into sixty districts, affording easy 
 means of summoning the people of each district to 
 conference or action upon the shortest notice. In 
 each district general assemblies were held, at- which 
 every inhabitant was permitted to speak and vote. 
 In this state of things Paris was rather to be considered 
 as a confederacy between sixty distinct democratical 
 republics than as one commonwealth, or as acting 
 under one simple form of government. In process 
 of time a few of the most turbulent demagogues 
 became the leaders in every assembly, and all power 
 in every department came by degrees to be virtually 
 lodged in their hands. Now arose the Jacobin Club, 1 
 whose sanction of any measure was the sure passport 
 to success. 
 
 1 The deputies from Brittany to the States-General had formed a 
 club at Versailles, which they called the Club Breton. They afterwards 
 installed themselves in the premises of the Jacobin convent in the Rue 
 St. Honored in Paris ; hence the name. 
 
1789.] Duke of Orleans supports the Revolution. 65 
 
 The unbounded licentiousness of the press was 
 a most potent instrument of the Revolution. But 
 the great promoter, cause, and it might perhaps be 
 said, author of the Revolution, was the first prince 
 of the blood, the man next in succession to the crown 
 in the case of the failure of issue male in the reigning 
 family — Philippe, Duke of Orleans. His immense 
 wealth was devoted to the ruin of his country and 
 the extermination of the royal family, to whom he 
 was so nearly related. Hence it was that the gardens 
 of the Palais Royal and the open places of Paris were 
 stocked with hungry, ignorant, and abandoned orators ; 
 thus, likewise, was the ferocity of the dames de la 
 halle and of the other female furies of the capital 
 called into action ; and thus a numerous army of 
 ragged sans-culottes, of ruffians from the galleys and 
 from every part of the kingdom, was maintained 
 and kept in readiness for the purposes of rebellion, 
 anarchy, and murder. Nor was the National Assem- 
 bly by any means free from the operation of the same 
 cause, nor was the effect it produced on many of its 
 members less known. 
 
 Outrages, conflagrations, and massacres were 
 spreading desolation through the kingdom. In con- 
 sequence of forged orders and false intelligence 
 conveyed to the peasantry, the whole nation was 
 constantly in arms. The nobility were in many 
 places hunted down like wild beasts, their family seats 
 demolished, their patents and title-deeds destroyed 
 by fire. In too many instances such atrocious acts 
 were committed that nature recoils at the recital. 
 
 F 
 
66 The French Revolution. [1789. 
 
 Nor were these cruelties in any degree confined to 
 such persons as had previously rendered themselves 
 odious by their pride or oppression. Lyonnais, 
 Dauphind, Franche-Comte, and part of Burgundy 
 seemed particularly marked as scenes of desolation. 
 In a few places the gentlemen and other land pro- 
 prietors had the spirit and sense to unite and stand 
 successfully on their defence. All the landed pro- 
 I7 s 9 . prietors in the Assembly were involved in these 
 August 4 . ca i am ities ; conflagrations, murders, and mas- 
 sacres were the only subjects which could be talked 
 or thought of. Under these impressions the Viscount 
 de Noailles and the Duke dAiguillon proposed that 
 all imposts should be equitably and equally laid on ; 
 that the feudal services should be redeemable at an 
 equitable price ; that personal servitude should be 
 abolished ; with some other articles, all tending to 
 the ease and relief of the peasantry. 
 
 The contagion of generosity spread instantaneously 
 through the two orders of the nobles and clergy ; the 
 commons perceived all the advantages which were 
 to be drawn from the present fervour, and determined 
 not to miss any of them. The deputies of the Pays 
 d'Etats * offered up the sacrifice of their antique rights 
 and charters, covering the steps of the bureau of the 
 Assembly with their parchments and pendant seals. 
 
 The Assembly considered all this as a complete 
 regeneration of France, and decreed that a medal 
 should be struck in order to immortalize the acts of 
 
 1 The Pays d'Etats were certain provinces which governed and 
 taxed themselves. Their assemblies were called Etats Provinciaux. 
 
1789.] Generosity of Nobles and Clergy. 67 
 
 that glorious night ; and they conferred upon the 
 king the flattering but short-lived title of " Restorer 
 of the Liberty of France," and ordered a deputation 
 to present him with the decrees, with the homage of 
 his regenerated kingdom, and to address him by his 
 new title. When Le Chapelier, 1 the president, and 
 the deputation had addressed the king, he concluded 
 his answer to them with the following words : " Let 
 us go and return thanks to God for the generous 
 sentiments which prevail in your Assembly." A 
 solemn Te Deum was accordingly celebrated, and 
 attended by the whole Assembly, Le Chapelier (the 
 leader and founder of the Breton Club, so deter- 
 minedly inimical to monarchy) walking as president, 
 though a commoner, by the side of the king, and 
 thus, it was observed, properly supporting the majesty 
 of the people. 
 
 It is remarkable that the concessions made by the 
 clergy did not procure them the smallest mark of 
 favour ; on the contrary, the good-humour of August 
 4 was soon wound up by a motion for the suppression 
 of their tithes. This debate was resumed on the 
 next day. The celebrated Abbe' Sieyes 2 concluded 
 
 1 Isaac Rene Guy Le Chapelier, born 1754, died 1794. He was 
 one of the foremost orators of the Etats Generaux in 1 789. Later on 
 he withdrew into England, but returned to France when the decree was 
 passed confiscating the property of the absent. He was arrested during 
 the Terror, and executed together with Thouret and d'Epremesnil. 
 
 2 Emmanuel Joseph Sieyes, Abbe, afterwards Count, born in 1748, 
 died in 1836, was one of the most remarkable figures of the Revolution. 
 He uttered theories of a new constitution for France ; he had great 
 influence, though he was of irritable temper and indulged in long 
 periods of silence. In June, 1790, he was elected President of the 
 
68 The French Revolution. [1789. 
 
 a very forcible speech by boldly telling the Assembly 
 that " if they wished to be. free, they should begin by 
 being just." Though the Abbe" had been no small 
 favourite with the Assembly, yet his arguments 
 now were heard with the utmost impatience, even 
 to interruption, both by the nobility and commons. 
 
 In the night of August 4 sixteen resolutions of 
 the greatest importance were passed in a few hours. 
 The debate, if it can be so called, was continued 
 through the whole day. At the commencement of 
 the sitting on August 6 the Archbishop of Paris, 
 I78g . in the name of his brethren, surrendered all the 
 August e. t i t hes of the Church into the hands of the 
 nation. This sacrifice was received with an affected 
 acclamation of applause, as if any one could be per- 
 suaded that it was a free and voluntary gift ! 
 
 As an appearance of some tranquillity and good 
 temper now prevailed in the Court and Assembly, 
 the king ventured upon the appointment of a new 
 ministry. The Assembly expressed great satisfaction 
 at his choice of ministers. Necker, as Minister of 
 
 Assembly. At the moment of the establishment of the civil constitution 
 of the clergy he refused the bishopric of Paris. After August 10, 
 1792, he was a deputy to the Convention. He voted for the king's 
 death. As Minister of War he was a failure, and then devoted himself 
 to public instruction. When the Girondins fell Sieyes contrived to 
 escape the scaffold. Later on he adopted => moderate policy, refused 
 . the presidency of the Committee of Public Welfare, and, elected member 
 of the Directory, declined to take his seat. In 1798, he became envoy 
 to the Court of Berlin. When Bonaparte was First Provisional Consul 
 Sieyes was Second Provisional Consul. Under the Empire he received 
 the title of Count. Estranged from Napoleon, and exiled under Louis 
 XVIII., he returned to France after the Revolution of 1830. 
 
1789J Scarcity of Money. 69 
 
 Finance, demanded that the Assembly should give 
 its sanction to a loan of thirty millions of livres, as 
 a measure indispensably necessary. The Assembly 
 declared now their total want of confidence in him, 
 altering his plan and narrowing his terms. The con- 
 sequence was natural ; the monied men would not 
 part with their cash, and nobody subscribed. In the 
 meantime a scheme of promoting and receiving 
 patriotic contributions was adopted, and, like other 
 novelties, raged for its time as an epidemic. Silver 
 buckles and gold rings were the most common con- 
 tributions to the Assembly ; so that in a few days 
 not a silver buckle was to be seen, nor probably many 
 wedding-rings to be found anywhere in or near Paris. 
 
 In the pinching scarcity of money which now 
 prevailed, the king and queen sent their gold and 
 silver plate to the mint for coinage. This was origin- 
 ally understood as a patriotic donation ; but it 
 appears that it proceeded from absolute poverty in 
 the royal personages, who were obliged to convert 
 the plate into current coin for the relief of their 
 immediate necessities. 
 
 The patriotic offerings being totally incapable of 
 relieving the public necessities, Necker ventured to 
 lay before the Assembly the scheme for a supply 
 which the boldest minister that ever lived, and in the 
 most despotic government, would have hesitated at 
 adopting. This was the extraordinary contribution 
 of the fourth part of every man's revenue, to be paid 
 at different assigned periods during the course of 
 three years, the estimate of each man's income being 
 
70 The French Revolution. f.1789. 
 
 left to his own honour. Mirabeau's eloquence was 
 necessary to make the decree pass glibly through the 
 Assembly. 
 
 The National Assembly was now busily occupied 
 in forming different parts of the new constitution, and 
 particularly in framing their celebrated declaration of 
 the rights of men and of citizens. In thus settling the 
 constitution a question necessarily arose which served 
 more to divide the opinions and to agitate the minds 
 of men than any other. This was the grand question, 
 What share of authority it was fitting the king should 
 possess in the new legislature ? This operated like a 
 touchstone. The king's veto was the present osten- 
 sible cause of tumult. It was at length agreed that 
 the king should have the power to suspend a law 
 during two legislatures, but that if the third assembly 
 persisted in it he should then be obliged to give his 
 sanction. 
 
 Another business of not less importance under- 
 went at the same time a course of long and great 
 discussion. This was, Whether the National Assembly 
 should be composed of one or two chambers ? The 
 question was finally put to the vote, when 
 Sept. 10. only eighty-nine members voted for two 
 chambers against a majority of above nine hundred. 
 
 In the meantime things were tending fast to a 
 crisis. The violent republicans were determined that 
 by some means or other the residence both of the 
 Court and of the National Assembly should be trans- 
 ferred from Versailles to Paris. The Court, and 
 particularly the queen, were struck with horror at 
 
1789.] The Regiment of Flanders at Versailles. 71 
 
 the idea of being compelled to reside among so tumul- 
 tuous a people. It is not to be doubted that the 
 queen listened eagerly to any proposal for removing 
 the Court to some reasonable distance from the jealous 
 and dangerous custody of the Parisians. The only 
 protection the king could rely on rested in his Gardes 
 du Corps ; 1 he was likewise attended by the National 
 Guards of Versailles, under the command of d'Estaing, 2 
 but not the smallest confidence could be placed in 
 their protection. The municipal committee of Ver- 
 sailles demanded an additional regiment, in order to 
 protect the town from any sudden violence. The 
 arrival of the Regiment of Flanders caused as great a 
 ferment in Paris and Versailles as that of a foreign 
 invading army could have done. The orators of the 
 Palais Royal were set to work to assure the people 
 that the king intended to make his escape under the 
 escort of this regiment. The officers of the King's 
 Life Guards at Versailles gave an entertain- . 
 ment to those of the Regiment of Flanders. ° ct - *• 
 The king and queen were most injudiciously advised 
 to visit these bacchanals after dinner, and to bring 
 the dauphin with them. The extravagance of the 
 joy that prevailed upon their appearance was beyond 
 all description, and the whole company seemed to be 
 men mad with loyalty. A loyal air which, with a 
 song appropriated to it, had till very lately been 
 
 1 Instituted by Louis XI., in 1475. 
 
 2 Charles Hector, Comte d'Estaing, bom in 1729, died in 1792. 
 He was named Admiral and Lieutenant-General of the Naval Forces, 
 in 1792, though he had never served in the navy. Soon afterwards 
 he was arrested as a noble and a rich man, and died on the scaffold. 
 
j 2 The French Revolution. [1789. 
 
 highly popular, being now played by the music, 
 excited the general fever to the highest pitch. The 
 dauphin was carried by his royal mother completely 
 round the table ; the enthusiasm then taking posses- 
 sion of the guests, they, sword in hand, drank the 
 august healths of all the family, while the Court, 
 bowing and curtsying, retired. The banquet was 
 continued through the greater part of the night, and 
 ended in the most complete drunkenness ; and the 
 rashest things were said and done. The officers of 
 Flanders, in one of the freaks of their festivity, stripped 
 the national cockade out of their hats, and were 
 supplied by the Court ladies with white ones as fast 
 as they could make them, or procure them to be 
 made. 
 
 Nothing could exceed the rage which the exagge- 
 rated account of this ill-fated banquet produced upon 
 the populace of Paris. They charged the queen with 
 being at the head of a conspiracy for carrying off the 
 king and exciting a civil war, and they represented 
 this affair at Versailles as the opening of the plot, 
 and declared that, as some were desirous of carrying 
 off the king to place him at the head of a party, they 
 had no other course to take than to be beforehand 
 with them by securing his person in the capital. At 
 the same time the starving multitude were taught to 
 believe that the famine proceeded from the Court, 
 and were loud in their outcries for proceeding to Ver- 
 sailles in order to demand bread from him, and to 
 bring him to Paris and keep him there. 
 
 Nothing seemed more unlucky than that the king 
 
1789.J The King gives offence to the Assembly. 73 
 
 should at this critical moment involve himself in a 
 dispute with the National Assembly. Being pressed 
 for his sanction to some articles of their declaration 
 of rights, he entered into a written discussion with 
 them, in which the following words were particularly- 
 marked as affording great cause of offence : " I grant, 
 according to your desire, my accession to these articles, 
 but on the positive condition, which I will never 
 depart from, that by the general result of your deli- 
 berations the executive power shall have its entire 
 effect in the hands of the monarch." 
 
 This message immediately produced the most 
 violent debates ; in the course of these, Potion 1 having 
 inveighed against the late imprudent feast of IjSg , 
 the Life Guards, and asserting that it had ° ct -s- 
 been attended with both criminal words and actions, 
 a member on the other side asked whether he would 
 venture to denounce (that is, to impeach) any par- 
 ticular person, and seemed to dare him to it. 
 
 With that Mirabeau started up, and, with the 
 
 utmost fury in his looks and manner, cried out, 
 
 " Declare that the king's person alone is sacred, and 
 
 I will bring forward the impeachment myself ! " When 
 
 he sat down he informed the people near him that 
 
 the queen and the Duke de Guiche, Colonel of the 
 
 1 Jerome Petion de Villeneuve, born 1753, died 1793, was a lawyer 
 of Chartres, and one of the most prominent members of the Assembly. 
 In 1791, he was elected Mayor of Paris. He became the first President 
 of the Convention, joined the Girondins, and voted for the death of the 
 king. He lost his popularity when he shrank from the horrors which 
 he had evoked, and in 1793 he was proscribed. He fled to Caen, and 
 afterwards to the south of France, where it is supposed that he com- 
 mitted suicide, his body being discovered half devoured by wolves. 
 
74 The French Revolution. [1789. 
 
 Life Guards, were the objects he had in view. Mou- 
 nier happened to be president, and valued himself 
 highly for those last but powerful exertions of his 
 official authority, by which he prevented the agitation 
 of a question which most probably would have led to 
 the massacre of the unfortunate queen. 
 
 The debate on the king's answer was resumed ; 
 and in the course of the tumults of the succeeding 
 day and night he was obliged to find time for retract- 
 ing, as usual, his own positions, and for giving a full 
 acceptance to all the decrees of the Assembly. 
 
 The ferment in Paris had risen to its highest pitch 
 on that very day. A universal cry was raised in the 
 morning to go to Versailles to demand bread of the 
 king and the Assembly, and to take vengeance on 
 the Gardes du Corps. It was deemed fitting that 
 the women should take the lead in this insurrection. 
 The dames de la halle and other female votaries of 
 liberty pressed every woman they met with into the 
 service. It is said that a great number of men, dis- 
 guised in women's clothes, swelled the ranks of this 
 supposed female army. 
 
 " Bread ! " was at first their watchword and uni- 
 versal cry ; arms were, however, thought necessary 
 The crowd, accordingly, went to the H6tel de Ville, 
 which they broke open and plundered, passing through 
 several battalions of Parisian guards. Meeting on the 
 stairs of the H6tel de Ville an unfortunate eccle- 
 siastic (Abbe Lefevre), 1 they, as an essay in the busi- 
 
 1 His crime had been that of handing powder to the defenders of 
 the Bastille. 
 
1789-] The Army of Women. 75 
 
 ness of death, immediately hung him up by the neck. 
 Some of their male followers, whether it was through 
 mercy or by way of varying the pastime, cut the 
 priest down before he was quite dead, and then so 
 effectually kicked and tossed his carcase about that 
 in a short time he fully recovered his sensibility, and 
 was most unexpectedly permitted to get home as he 
 could. After plundering the H6tel de Ville, seizing 
 a magazine of arms, gathering the artillery together, 
 and forcing open the prisons, this hermaphrodite 
 army set out about noon for Versailles, the cannon 
 being dragged behind as a rearguard. The cries for 
 bread were now changed into loud threats against 
 the queen, the Life Guards, and the clergy. One Mail- 
 Jard, 1 in the proper garb and character of a man, 
 appeared now as their leader. Notwithstanding the 
 boasted discipline and order which Maillard was said 
 to have established in his Amazon army, their march 
 to Versailles was marked by circumstances of out- 
 rage, brutality, and gross obscenity of language. It 
 was currently reported at the time, and we have never 
 heard it contradicted, that having hung up to death 
 two unfortunate passengers whom they met on the 
 way, they had the audacity to boast to the National 
 Assembly of these wanton and horrid murders, which, 
 it seems, no member would venture to reprove them 
 for. 2 Maillard prevailed on the women to permit 
 
 1 Stanislas Marie Maillard was originally an usher at the Chatelet. 
 His name appears in the accounts of most of the revolutionary satur- 
 nalia. The date of his death is not known ; but he was alive about 
 1804, and had changed his name. 
 
 2 This incident is not mentioned in any other history. 
 
j6 The French Revolution. [1789. 
 
 him to be their spokesman to the Assembly. The 
 Assembly sent a deputation of the most decent of 
 the women, with their orator, Maillard, accompanied 
 by their own president, Mounier, to wait upon the 
 king, the subject of the deputation being confined 
 to the scarcity of provisions only. The king, who 
 was just returned from the chase, received them 
 kindly, and issued the strongest orders in his power 
 to give for the immediate supply of Paris with pro- 
 visions. 
 
 In the meantime no words could describe the 
 extravagances which the women exhibited at the 
 National Assembly. Upon the absence of the presi- 
 dent with the king, in procuring the royal sanction 
 to the decrees, they mounted into, and took posses- 
 sion of his chair. 
 
 It is reported that Mounier advised the king to 
 submit so far to the necessity of the time as to give 
 his pure and simple acceptation to the constitutional 
 articles, faulty as they were, but, at the same time, 
 to resist to the utmost the insolent and violent attempts 
 of the Parisians. But the danger to which the queen 
 was exposed clogged his measures and designs. To 
 remedy this evil, he sent for the royal carriages, that 
 she might be removed to some place of greater safety ; 
 but the carriages were stopped and seized by the 
 rabble. As soon as she heard of the design, the queen 
 declared "that she would stay and die at the king's 
 feet." 
 
 It was about midnight when La Fayette, with 
 thirty thousand troops, arrived at Versailles ; between 
 
1789.] The Queens Life threatened. Jj 
 
 two and three in the morning he persuaded Mounier 
 to break up the Assembly and allow every one to 
 retire to rest, 1 an advice which opened the way to 
 all the ruin which ensued. 
 
 Notwithstanding the horrors of the situation — the 
 hearing her life repeatedly threatened, and her blood 
 howled for — the queen possessed such a stock of 
 intrepidity that she retired at two o'clock, and slept 
 soundly. At six o'clock a body of the ruffians arrived 
 from Paris, broke into the courts of the palace, where 
 they seized two of the Life Guards, dragged them from 
 their posts, and murdered them, their heads being, 
 with many blows, severed from their bodies by the 
 bungling hands and blunt axe of one Nicholas, a self- 
 constituted executioner. Another party rushed into 
 the queen's apartments, with loud threats too horrid 
 to be related. The sentinel, M. de Miomandre, after 
 bravely resisting for a few minutes, finding himself 
 overpowered, opened the queen's door, and called out 
 with a loud voice, " Save the queen ; her life is aimed 
 at ! I stand alone against two thousand tigers ! " 
 He soon after sank down, covered with wounds, and 
 was left for dead ; but, coming again to the use of 
 his senses, he had the fortune to creep away un- 
 observed through the crowd. He was afterwards 
 cured of his wounds. 
 
 The unhappy queen flew almost naked through 
 the apartments, calling eagerly to such guards as she 
 met, "Oh, my friends, save my life — save my chil- 
 
 1 La Fayette has always been severely blamed for yielding to sleep, 
 however weary he may have been. 
 
78 The French Revolution. [1789. 
 
 dren ! " The attendants, concluding that the life of 
 the poor young prince, the heir to the crown, was 
 particularly aimed at, ran instantly to the children's 
 apartments, and brought them away, half-clothed, to 
 place them under the protection of their royal father ; 
 they still thought that Frenchmen could not but pay 
 some reverence to the person of their king. 
 
 The king, awakened by the noise, flew through 
 a private passage to the queen's apartment, in order 
 to save her life, or to perish along with her. He 
 was met by some of his guards, who escorted him 
 back to his own apartment, where the queen was 
 already arrived, and the children speedily after. A 
 party of the guards had only time to barricade them- 
 selves in some of the rooms adjoining to the royal 
 apartments ; and, being there completely enclosed, 
 the pursuing murderers were in the act of forcing 
 open the doors. At this critical moment La Fayette 
 and his officers appeared, and, with much entreaty, 
 induced them to desist. The king, with La Fayette, 
 went through the palace, anxious for the safety of 
 the guards. He then went out on a balcony ; but 
 the mob roared with the utmost violence for the 
 queen. La Fayette accordingly went for her. She 
 hesitated a moment, and asked if her presence was 
 necessary to appease the people. He assured her 
 that it was. " Then," said she, " I will go, even if 
 I were sure that I went to execution." She appeared 
 in the balcony with the dauphin in her arms, and 
 the popular fury seemed in some degree to subside. 
 Some sort of calm took place for a few minutes, 
 
1789.] The Royal Family made Captives. 79 
 
 which was suddenly interrupted by a universal cry, 
 directed to the royal pair, " To Paris ! " There was 
 no refusing or remonstrating ; the whole royal family 
 were at the mercy of the rabble, nor could La Fayette 
 have insured their lives for a moment if they had 
 appeared only to hesitate. 
 
 And now one of the most degrading and melan- 
 choly processions commenced of which there is any 
 record in history. The sovereign of one of the I78gt 
 most splendid monarchies in the universe i S) ° ctober6 - 
 with his queen and family, dragged from their palace, 
 and they are led captives in savage triumph. A party 
 of the Life Guards, without arms, were appointed, under 
 the name of an escort, to attend their sovereigns. 
 The mangled and bloody heads of the two guards 
 who had been murdered in the morning were carried 
 along on pikes to grace the spectacle! [M. Thiers 
 contradicts this horrid story.] 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE CLERGY DEPRIVED OF THEIR RIGHTS AND 
 PRIVILEGES. 
 
 THE extraordinary measure was now taken of send- 
 ing the Duke of Orleans out of the kingdom. In a 
 short and sudden conference with the duke, La Fayette 
 informed him that his presence in France was at this 
 juncture incompatible with the good of the nation. 
 England was deemed the country most fitting for 
 him to retire to ; a passport from the king was ready 
 for him, and, to cover the matter, he should be 
 apparently sent to execute a private commission from 
 his Majesty. The duke was thus despatched to 
 England. Mirabeau's rage was unbounded at this 
 cowardly submission, as he called it, of the duke. 
 He concluded a torrent of the grossest abuse by 
 exclaiming, " He does not deserve the trouble that has 
 been taken for his sake ! " 
 
 The Assembly, now sitting in Paris, to destroy all 
 vestiges of whatever had passed before their own 
 reign, succeeded in expunging the term " province " 
 from the French vocabulary, and in dividing the 
 kingdom into eighty-three departments. 
 
1 790. J The Royal Family at the Tuileries. 81 
 
 At this time a decree was passed by which the 
 ecclesiastical estates were all declared to be at the 
 disposal of the nation, subjected, however, to I78g . 
 charges for providing in a proper manner for Nov - 2 - 
 the expense of celebrating public worship, for the main- 
 tenance of the ministers, and for the relief of the poor. 
 This decree received the sanction of the captive king. 
 
 The palace of the Tuileries had been so long 
 uninhabited that it was not fit for the reception of 
 any person whatever. But there is no doubt 
 that the apartments necessary to the con- 
 venience of the royal family were soon furnished, and 
 rendered otherwise habitable. The Assembly dis- 
 played an unexpected act of liberality, requesting the 
 king himself to name a sum that would be sufficient for 
 his expenses, or what is usually called the " Civil List." 
 
 We must here mention the case of the Marquis de 
 Favras, who was charged with being concerned in a 
 plot for overthrowing the new constitution, and for 
 bringing about a counter-revolution. The evidence 
 against him was weak and defective, but he was con- 
 demned and executed. [He was hanged on February 
 19, 1790. Hitherto only criminals of the lower classes 
 had been hanged, nobles being decapitated ; this 
 execution marked the equality of penalties.} 
 
 Whatever were his motives, the king appeared 
 suddenly at the National Assembly, and declared it 
 to be his desire that it should be universally I7go . 
 known that the monarch and the representa- Feb - 4- 
 tives of the nation were entirely united, and their 
 wishes the same. As soon as the king was with- 
 
 G 
 
82 The French Revolution. [179°- 
 
 drawn the Assembly voted an address of thanks to 
 him. Soon after the exhibition of this State farce, 
 this strange coalition, the National Assembly resumed 
 , 7go . the business of the affairs of the clergy. All 
 Feb. 13. monastic establishments were suppressed for 
 ever, and all their lands confiscated ; some special 
 favours were granted to the present friars and nuns. 
 
 By this time the Assembly had placed France on 
 bad terms with every other European country, and 
 the tactics of the revolutionary party at home had 
 been copied by the mulattos of Haiti, who rose 
 against the white population, and involved the little 
 colony in atrocities and bloodshed. An unexpected 
 dispute arose between Spain and England, sudden 
 and insignificant as to cause. The Court of Madrid 
 claiming the assistance which France was bound by 
 the Family Compact to afford in case of a war, the 
 king sent a message to the Assembly informing them 
 of the dispute, the claim, and the great naval pre- 
 parations made by England. This brought up the 
 grand question, In whose hands the power of making 
 peace and war should at the present and in 
 
 May ifl. 
 
 future be lodged ? A decree was promulgated 
 that war should not be made but by a decree of the 
 National Assembly, after the king's formal notifica- 
 tion of his opinion of the necessity for war ; and that 
 the king should make peace if the Assembly required. 
 In this decree was included that celebrated clause 
 which in the name of the French nation renounced 
 for ever all conquests, and consequently all wars 
 leading to that object. 
 
i79°-] Anackarsis Clootz. 83 
 
 The message from the king threw the whole of 
 Paris into a state of violent agitation, on the supposi- 
 tion that the entire business was a concocted plot of 
 the king and the aristocrats to find a pretence for 
 uniting the naval and military forces of the two 
 nations, and so accomplishing a counter-revolution. 
 The dispute in the Assembly and the mutinous spirit 
 among the sailors caused delay ; and, in the end, 
 Spain suddenly concluded a convention with Eng- 
 land, which settled the matter without a war. 
 
 We must now bring forward a strange character, 
 Anacharsis Clootz, 1 a malcontent Prussian, who 
 wanted to teach to the French those ideas of I7go 
 liberty which he dared not talk about at home. J une J s- 
 Having procured a number of those vagabonds who 
 infested the streets of Paris, and disguised them in 
 foreign, ancient, and grotesque dresses, furnished by 
 the opera and play-houses, he masqueraded with this 
 motley crew to the National Assembly, where he 
 introduced them as strangers of all the nations of 
 the globe, virtual ambassadors of all who wished to 
 be free ; he delivered an absurd and bombastic ora- 
 tion. To heighten the ridiculousness of the scene, it 
 was affirmed that several of the Asiatic ambassadors, 
 
 1 This extraordinary person was Jean Baptiste du Val de Grace, 
 Baron de Clootz, born at Cleves in 1755. He called himself after the 
 Greek sage, Anacharsis, proclaimed himself the "Orator of the Human 
 Race," was elected deputy in 1792, and voted for the death of Louis 
 XVI. ' ' and of all kings." He went so far in the fanaticism of atheism 
 and democracy that Robespierre even mistrusted "a sans-culotte with 
 100,000 francs a year," and denounced Clootz as being in the pay of 
 foreigners. He went to the scaffold with Hubert in 1794. 
 
84 The French Revolution. [1790. 
 
 stripped of their hired robes and plumes, were seen 
 at the door of the Assembly in their proper cha- 
 racters, soliciting the payment of their wages. 
 
 When the ambassadors had acted their part and 
 withdrawn, it seemed as if the Assembly must needs 
 act theirs. The resolution for abolishing hereditary 
 nobility for ever was] in this same evening's sitting 
 introduced, debated in a certain manner, and passed 
 into an irrevocable law before their rising. All titles 
 and marks of respect were abolished. This decree 
 1790. was passed on June 19, and received the 
 June ai. kjng'g sanction two days later. Of all his 
 ministers, Necker alone, a plebeian and republican, 
 earnestly desired Louis to refuse his sanction. 
 
 A grand confederation had for some time been 
 announced by the National Assembly to take place 
 on July 14, the anniversary of the taking of the 
 Bastille. The Duke of Orleans applied for leave to 
 return from England, and this was granted. The 
 preparations for this new and extraordinary spectacle 
 were attended with immense labour. No less than 
 twelve thousand hired workmen were employed, and 
 the work would not have been finished anything 
 nearly within the time if it had not been for the 
 exertions of the Parisians, who, with their wives and 
 children, were to be seen from morning to night in 
 the hottest weather, with spades, shovels, pickaxes, 
 and barrows, labouring in digging and removing the 
 mould from the great field of the Champ-de-Mars, 
 which was destined evermore to be distinguished by 
 the name of the Field of Confederation. It was 
 
i79°-l The Oath of Federation. 85 
 
 necessary to remove several feet of earth from the sur- 
 face of this field, which was about half an English mile 
 in length, and in wide proportion, in order to surround 
 it with seats rising in the form of an amphitheatre, for 
 the purpose of accommodating something approach- 
 ing half a million of people, who were expected to 
 behold the spectacle. A vast scaffold was erected in 
 the centre, where the king and the National Assembly 
 were to be placed, and where, the national altar being 
 also erected, they were to take the prescribed oath in 
 the sight of all the people ; who, in their several 
 classes, were all to go through the same rite. Music, 
 incense, flags, military pomp — all that could dazzle or 
 captivate the people, were here exhibited. 
 
 The king, the Assembly, the army, and the people, 
 were all reciprocally sworn ; the purport of the oath 
 was the maintenance of the constitution, I7go 
 to which was added, " to continue free or ■I" 1 *' *♦• ' 
 to perish." The same oath was taken on the same 
 day throughout the whole kingdom, and all the 
 troops were personally sworn at their respective 
 stations. The troops, however, were not to be 
 secured or restrained by oaths ; they were as zealous 
 partisans in all the business of reform and govern- 
 ment as the civilians among whom they lived. At 
 Nancy, the capital of Lorraine, the excesses of the 
 soldiers and of the ruling party of the townsmen were 
 carried to such a pitch that they were deemed, if not 
 declared, to be in a state of rebellion. The Marquis 
 de BouilleV then commanding at Metz, received an 
 
 1 Francois Claude Amour, Marquis de Bouille, born in 1739, a 
 brilliant and successful general in Europe and in the colonies. After 
 
86 The French Revolution. [1790- 
 
 order to suppress the insurgents at Nancy by force 
 of arms. This command was repented as soon as 
 issued. But Bouille^ had lost no time in the execu- 
 tion of his orders. A bloody contest took place, in 
 which the insurgents were reduced with considerable 
 slaughter, and with no small loss to the assailants. 
 The embarrassment of the Assembly on Bouill^'s 
 success seemed rather ridiculous. They could not 
 but apparently approve his conduct ; yet the rage of 
 the Parisians at the shedding of so much patriotic 
 blood was beyond all description. All the insurgents 
 who were slain were regarded as martyrs to the cause 
 of liberty, and Bouille' with his troops as murdering 
 aristocrats. 
 
 The ferment thus produced hastened the resigna- 
 tion of M. Necker and his final departure from France. 
 He sent a letter with his resignation to the National 
 Assembly, who, having read it, called for the order of 
 the day without taking the smallest notice of it. He 
 set out directly for Switzerland, but was stopped at a 
 little town called Arcis-sur-Aube by the National 
 Guard. He now had to undergo the mortification of 
 a second application to the Assembly, who returned 
 a dry answer, but ordered his release ; and he at 
 length arrived safely in his own country. 
 
 New contests with the clergy occupied the re- 
 mainder of the year ; the Assembly ended by imposing 
 a new oath on them, by which they were bound to 
 
 the king's attempted flight to Varennes Bouille left the kingdom. 
 He afterwards joined the Duke of York's army, and died in England 
 in 1800. 
 
I79 1 -] Civil Constitution of the Clergy. 87 
 
 observe and submit to the constitution as decreed by 
 the Assembly, in all cases whatever. Vast numbers 
 of the clergy refused to take the oath ; many offered 
 to take it with reservations ; all who refused it were 
 immediately ejected from their benefices. Of one 
 hundred and thirty-one bishops only three 1 were 
 found servile enough to take an oath which was a 
 direct breach of that taken at ordination. This 
 measure occasioned a schism among the people as 
 well as the clergy, the more devout and scrupulous 
 refusing to acknowledge the new pastors. 
 
 The time allowed to the ecclesiastical members of 
 the Assembly for taking the new oath was to expire 
 on January 4. The day being now come , 7gi . 
 which was to try the faith and fortitude of January 4- 
 the Gallican Church, the gardens of the Tuileries, the 
 avenues of the Assembly, and the galleries, were 
 occupied at an early hour by hired ruffians. Nothing 
 was heard but cries of "To the lamp-post with all 
 non-juring bishops and priests ! " But their constancy 
 was not shaken. The Abbe" Gregoire mounted the 
 tribune and endeavoured to explain away the whole 
 force of the oath, saying, among other things, that 
 "the Assembly did not judge consciences, nor even 
 exact an interior consent.'' The scandal of thus un- 
 blushingly recommending hypocrisy was felt by all, 
 even by Mirabeau. At last the president summoned 
 the ecclesiastics to answer. The venerable M. Bonnac, 
 Bishop of Agen, advanced ; " I demand to speak," 
 
 1 These three were Talleyrand, Bishop of Autun, and the Bishops of 
 Babylon and Lydia, whose titles were merely honorary. 
 
88 The French Revolution. [1791. 
 
 said he, but instantly on the left arose a cry of " No 
 talking ! Take the oath, aye or no ! " And deafening 
 clamours from without drowned every voice. In the 
 end the bishop declared that he was not able to take 
 the oath. A M. Fournet, of the same diocese, was 
 next on the list ; he professed himself ready to follow 
 his bishop, even to martyrdom. Much confusion 
 ensued ; and after some delay three ecclesiastics came 
 forward and offered to take the oath with reservations, 
 but they were directed to take it pure and simple. 
 The president demanded if any other person would 
 take the oath agreeably to the order of the Assembly. 
 Silence ensued. It continued without interruption 
 for a quarter of an hour. M. Beaupoil St. Aulaire, 
 Bishop of Poitiers, made a short but noble speech ; 
 and instantly all the clerical members on the right 
 arose from their seats and declared their unanimous 
 adherence to his sentiments. At the close of the 
 affair Mirabeau said, " We have their money, but they 
 have all the honour of the day." 
 
 All artifices being found to be lost on the great 
 body of the clergy, compulsion was now more gene- 
 rally attempted. M. Bailly having asked M. Marduel, 
 a respectable clergyman who had the benefice of 
 St. Roch, "whether it was true that the late decrees 
 were contrary to the Catholic religion," and being 
 told that " they certainly were," " Then," replied he, 
 " did it depend upon myself, the Catholic religion 
 should this day be annihilated in France." The 
 general mode of proceeding was that having fixed a 
 day for the ceremony, a party of municipal officers 
 
i79i-] Persecution of the Clergy. 89 
 
 came to the church, surrounded by muskets, bayonets, 
 and pikes, and the ministers of the altar, if they refused 
 to swear what was required of them, were insulted, 
 outraged, and wounded in the very temples of God ! 
 In some of the provinces their fate was even more 
 severe ; many who declined taking the oath were 
 killed at the doors of the churches ; and in Brittany, 
 even thus early, several priests are said to have been 
 hunted through the forests, where, after enduring 
 every extremity of hunger and fatigue, they perished 
 miserably. The bishop of St. Pol-de-L^on escaped 
 in an open boat to Cornwall. 
 
 These ecclesiastical troubles led to serious conflicts 
 between the Catholics and Protestants of Nimes, 
 in which the violence and cruelty appear to have 
 been almost entirely on the side of the Protestants. 
 Another result of the assaults on religion was that the 
 king's aunts signified an intention of going to end 
 their days at Rome. The princesses were delayed 
 upon various pretexts, and were detained at Arnay- 
 le-Duc, near the frontier, on the plea- that their 
 passports were not en regie. When the Assembly 
 met to discuss the matter, the galleries were I7gi 
 filled by the populace ; and on the motion of Feb - 2 +- 
 M. Mirabeau being carried " that there was no room 
 to deliberate, and that the whole affair should be 
 referred to the Executive Power," 1 the multitude, 
 led by the famous Mademoiselle Theroigne, 2 rushed 
 
 1 One of the names by which the king was known. 
 
 2 A woman of the vilest character and most cruel violence, Anne 
 Joseph The'roigne de Mericourt played an Amazon's part in the revo- 
 
90 The French Revolution. [1791. 
 
 towards the palace. The king's life was thought to 
 be in danger. It was not till late in the evening, 
 and on the arrival of three detachments of National 
 Guards with their artillery, that the crowd was dis- 
 persed. 1 M. Chapelier now proposed a law to regulate 
 I79I , and enforce the obedience and respect due to 
 Feb " 28- courts of justice and their officers. Instantly 
 the preamble was attacked by Potion and Robespierre, 2 
 as contrary to the rights of man ; the law was passed 
 with various amendments and alterations. The ex- 
 pected law against emigration followed. The galleries 
 were violent, and the bill was read in the midst of 
 confusion and uproar. 
 
 While one detachment of the populace was em- 
 ployed in overawing the Assembly, another had 
 marched to Vincenries, 3 and was hard at work 
 demolishing the castle. La Fayette succeeded in 
 dispersing the multitude and seizing sixty-four of the 
 ringleaders. Scarcely had he executed this service 
 
 lution ; until in May, 1793, the women of Paris turned upon her, and 
 hooted and flogged her. She ended her life in the prison of La 
 SalpStriere. 
 
 1 By an order of the Assembly the princesses were permitted to 
 continue their journey, and to save themselves. 
 
 2 Francois Joseph Maximilien Isidore Robespierre, born in 1759, 
 died on the scaffold in 1 794. He was a lawyer, the son of a lawyer at 
 Arras, but on the outbreak of revolutionary ideas became one of their 
 most energetic exponents. His character will be seen in the following 
 pages. 
 
 3 Vincennes is within four miles of Paris, and is a. fortress. The 
 castle was begun by Philip Augustus (1165-1219), the chapel built by 
 Charles V. (1337-1380). The dungeon became a State prison under 
 Louis IX.; under Louis XIII. the castle became a hunting-lodge. The 
 Due d'Enghien was shot in its trenches by order of Napoleon Bonaparte. 
 
I79I-J The Guards deprived of their Arms. 91 
 
 when an alarm arose of a different kind. Some cried 
 that there was a plot to assassinate the king ; others 
 that the design was to carry him away. The pretended 
 plot was probably believed by very few. 
 
 The gentlemen of the king's guard again assembled; 
 but their presence gave umbrage to the National 
 Guard. The king, to avoid more mischievous I?gi _ 
 consequences, commanded his nobility to Febs8 - 
 deposit their arms in his charge; they were then 
 driven with blows and every other indignity out of 
 the palace. At this moment M. de la Fayette arrived 
 from Vincennes. He treated the king and his officers 
 as without authority in the palace, and as actually 
 under military custody. This disgrace suffered by the 
 nobility and gentry of France caused them to prepare 
 to fly from a country where they B found no support from 
 their prince, and only hostility from the people. 
 About the same time the faction which afterwards 
 overturned the monarchy first began to take form. 
 M. Roland, 1 who had long enjoyed a place under 
 government at Lyons, now arrived in Paris, and at 
 his house assembled a knot of politicians, of whom 
 M. Brissot 2 soon became the most eminent. There 
 
 1 Jean Marie Roland de la Platiere, born in 1732, Inspector-General 
 of Manufactures at Rouen and Amiens ; he joined the Girondins, and 
 became Minister of the Interior in 1792, and resigned his post in 
 January, 1793. When he heard that his wife had been executed, his 
 mind gave way, and he was found dead by his own hand, on the road- 
 side, a few miles distant from Rouen. 
 
 2 Jean Pierre Brissot de Warville, born in 1754, son of an innkeeper 
 near Chartres. He studied law, visited England, and on his return 
 was sent to the Bastille, and soon after liberated by the influence of 
 the Duke of Orleans. He at first was the leader of the Girondins, but 
 
92 The French Revolution. [1791. 
 
 could be no question as to the form of future govern- 
 ment, till Louis XVI. was destroyed or forced into 
 banishment; and to that point, therefore, they zealously 
 co-operated. 
 
 was denounced by Robespierre as an agent of England, and guillotined 
 in 1793. 
 
h i 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE FLIGHT TO VARENNES, AND THE RETURN. 
 
 The serious illness of Mirabeau was, for a time, the 
 subject most in the thoughts of Frenchmen. He 
 complained of being ill ; and as the warm bath iygi 
 commonly relieved him, he had recourse to it, March 22 - 
 with some success, on the present occasion. All the 
 entreaties of his friends could not prevent him from 
 returning to a debate relative to the property of 
 mines ; in the course of it he spoke no less 
 than five times. His arguments prevailed, but 
 his success was fatal to him. The hand of death 
 was upon him. 
 
 The Sunday night he spent in the country ; 
 returning to Paris on Monday, he went to a theatre. 
 From that evening he never again quitted his house ; 
 he grew worse and worse till the morning of the fol- 
 lowing Saturday, when, feeling the approach 
 of death, he affected to meet it with the gaiety 
 of an ancient Epicurean. " Nothing remains," said 
 he, " but to sprinkle myself with essences, to crown 
 myself with flowers, and to lap my senses in soft 
 music, that I may enter agreeably into that sleep 
 
94 The French Revolution. [1791. 
 
 from which I shall never more awake." But it needs 
 the support of religion to bear with resignation the 
 pangs and horrors of a death-bed. After he had lost 
 his speech he made signs for pen, ink, and paper, 
 and demanded opium. While a messenger was gone 
 for the medicine, his impatience even restored to him 
 the use of his tongue, and he died with reproaches to 
 his friend and physician Cabanis, 1 from whom he had 
 previously exacted a secret promise that he should 
 not be suffered to linger in unnecessary pain. 
 
 In the last months of his life Mirabeau had 
 become more decided and fixed in the support of 
 order. During his illness the opposite parties showed 
 a common concern in his welfare. He was snatched 
 away, therefore, in a moment of fortunate ambiguity 
 for his glory, and, after a life of private and public 
 crimes, died generally lamented. It was decreed that 
 the new church of Ste. Genevieve should be finished, 
 and instead of the dedication to God and the saint, 
 be inscribed to the memory of the great men of the 
 Revolution from the gratitude of their country ; 2 that 
 Mirabeau's remains should be there entombed, and 
 till the completion of the edifice be deposited in the 
 old church, next to the ashes of Descartes. His 
 funeral was conducted with great pomp, and attended 
 by the Assembly, the king's ministers, the officers of 
 
 1 Pierre Jean George Cabanis, a celebrated physician and physiolo- 
 gist, born in 1757, died in 1808, best known as the friend of Mirabeau, 
 and afterwards of Bonaparte. 
 
 2 This building was called the Pantheon, and on it was placed the 
 inscription, " Aux grands hommes la patriereconnaissante." In saner 
 times it was restored to the worship of God. 
 
i79'J The King kept in Paris by Force. 95 
 
 departments and municipalities, as well as the mem- 
 bers of the different popular clubs, and a mourning of 
 eight days was decreed. 
 
 On Palm Sunday, the king was at his devotions 
 in the chapel of the Tuileries ; the Grand Almoner, 
 it was said, who was celebrating Mass, and 17gI 
 all the chaplains who were assisting, were A P rfll 7- 
 refractory priests. Louis's intended departure the next 
 day, to take the benefit of air and exercise at St. 
 Cloud, was represented as a mere colour to have the 
 opportunity of keeping the holy season of Easter with 
 non-juring priests. No sooner did the royal coaches 
 appear next morning at the gate of the palace than 
 the alarm-bell in the church of St. Roch was rung, 
 and the multitude came flocking from every part of 
 Paris. La Fayette arrived with a party of National 
 Guards, but the soldiers gave strong signs of mutiny. 
 When the royal family got into their carriages the 
 tumult thickened. The soldiers presented their 
 bayonets at the postilions, while the rioters cut the 
 traces. After having endured for an hour and three- 
 quarters every manner of outrage, the king was 
 constrained to return to his prison — for what other 
 appellation could be given to his palace ? 
 
 Decrees respecting the regency and the guardian- 
 ship of a minor king had been some time settled and 
 voted, but still remained to be presented for the 
 king's acceptance. The last of them introduced a 
 case of deposition, under the gentler name of a 
 " constructive abdication," if the king should quit the 
 realm and not return on the summons of the Assembly. 
 
g6 The French Revolution. [1791. 
 
 In no quarter did any prospect open to the king 
 which could afford him a hope of happiness, tran- 
 quillity, or safety. 
 
 The patience of Louis, meek as was his nature, 
 was at length exhausted. About this period, there- 
 fore, he seems to have taken his final resolution. 
 
 Various plans, in all which the Marquis de Bouille" 
 was to have been the principal actor, had been formed 
 at different times for the purpose of extricating Louis 
 XVI. out of his difficulties. He chose one of these 
 in which he was to throw himself wholly on the 
 affections of his people. 
 
 When the king had once resolved he sought the 
 means of execution. Ten days before his flight he 
 179 j. and the queen went in person to make some 
 June 11. arrangement in the apartments of the palace, 
 so as to get access to a private staircase by which 
 they afterwards descended ; and they ordered a new 
 key to the door of communication with that staircase. 
 Intelligence was carried the same day from one of 
 the queen's women to an officer of the National 
 Guards, and by his means to M. Gouvion, second in 
 command to M. de la Fayette ; but he was taught to 
 believe that it was the queen only who meditated an 
 attempt to escape with the dauphin and the princess 
 royal. The guards on duty at the palace were 
 doubled. 
 
 The duplicate of a passport granted to the 
 Baroness Korff 1 and her family on June 5 was 
 
 1 Madame de Tourzel, governess to the royal children, was to pass 
 under this name. 
 
I79 1 -] Flight to Varennes. 97 
 
 procured through the Russian Ambassador, on a pre- 
 tence that a former one had been acciden- I79I . 
 tally destroyed. M. Dumoustier, who had for- l^v- 
 merly belonged to the Life Guards, received orders in 
 the name of the king that himself and two comrades 
 should provide themselves with the dresses of cou- 
 riers, as they would be wanted to go with some 
 important despatches. The king himself did not see 
 either of those three gentlemen till the evening of his 
 departure. He then told one of them that 
 
 Tune 20. 
 
 they were to accompany him and his family 
 from Paris, but he did not mention his ultimate 
 destination. Their several parts were assigned them, 
 and a particular injunction was laid upon them that 
 on no account should they carry any arms. 
 
 About eleven o'clock at night fresh intelligence 
 was brought to M. Gouvion of the queen's intention 
 to fly, and by him was communicated to the mayor, 
 who, after informing the Council-General, sent orders 
 to all the post-houses to let no horses without 
 acquainting him, and to all the barriers to suffer 
 none to depart without a passport from the munici- 
 pality. He then, with M. de la Fayette, repaired to 
 the Tuileries, where they found everything quiet and 
 apparently safe, and gave orders to have all the 
 gates shut, except those of the Court of Princes, 
 leaving several of the superior officers of the National 
 Guards to watch the whole night. It is said that as 
 they entered the palace they actually passed, without 
 knowing, the queen and the Princess Elizabeth (the 
 king's sister) on their way to the coach which was 
 
 H 
 
98 The French Revolution. [1791- 
 
 waiting for them on the Quai Voltaire, and to which 
 Madame Tourzel and the two royal children had 
 already been conducted. The king soon after came, 
 attended by M. Malleden. Immediately they all 
 drove to the Porte St. Martin, and there got into a 
 travelling carriage with four horses, which had been 
 procured for .them by M. Dumoustier ; and being 
 joined on the road by a chaise in which were two 
 female attendants who had been sent separately out 
 of Paris, found M. Valory at Bondy with post-horses 
 ready to proceed to the next stage. 
 
 All night they continued their journey, without 
 I79I . encountering any obstacle, and the morning 
 June 21. saw them at such a distance from Paris as 
 seemed to put them out of reach of danger. 
 
 The departure of the royal family was announced 
 the next morning to M. Gouvion by the same person 
 who had given him all his former intelligence. He 
 acquainted the mayor, by whom the president of the 
 Assembly was informed that "some enemies of the 
 public weal had carried off the king and his family." 
 When this was declared in the Assembly a deep 
 silence reigned for a long time. A number of decrees 
 seemingly necessitated by this circumstance were 
 passed, and M. La Porte, Intendant of the Civil List, 
 delivered a memoir written in the king's own hand, 
 which he had found in a sealed packet addressed to 
 him. It was read, and appeared to be a declaration 
 of the king to France and the whole world on the 
 subject of his own conduct and that of the govern- 
 ment which had established itself in the realm. 
 
179 1 ] Composed Attitude of the Assembly. 99 
 
 When this paper had been read a committee 
 was appointed to draw up an answer. Such other 
 measures, demanded by the exigency of the moment, 
 as were proposed, were either decreed or rejected ; 
 and the president, looking round with a composed 
 air, observed that " if no member had anything more 
 to offer, they might pass to the order of the day." 
 
 The event was not any surprise to the greater 
 part of the members ; it gave rise, however, to 
 serious reflections in the minds of many. M. Barnave, 1 
 in particular, showed this by a change of conduct 
 highly honourable to him. From that day his in- 
 fluence was employed in bringing the minds of all 
 around him to a better temper. The general im- 
 pression made on the people was similar. On the 
 other hand, the Orleanists, the republicans, and the 
 anarchists, could not dissemble their joy. 
 
 The king and his family, continuing their journey 
 without stopping, had now safely arrived within the 
 limits of M. Bouille^s command, when the very pre- 
 cautions taken by that officer for their security became 
 
 1 Antoine Pierre Joseph Marie Bamave, born in 1761, died by the 
 guillotine in 1793, was one of the finest characters of the Revolution. 
 He was always at heart a loyalist, though he once forgot himself so far 
 as to say, when discussing the murder of Foulon, "The^blood then 
 shed was not so very pure ! " — a terrible phrase, which he ever after- 
 wards regretted. Love of novelty and popularity carried him further 
 than he intended. His eloquence and influence were second only to 
 those of Mirabeau. Sent by the Assembly to bring back the royal 
 family from Varennes, he was so touched by the goodness of the king 
 and the sorrows of the queen that he returned entirely to his views as 
 to a limited monarchy. In 1792, he was denounced on account of some 
 papers found in the king's desk, arrested, imprisoned, and executed in 
 the following year. 
 
ioo The French Revolution. [1791- 
 
 the source of danger. The appearance of his troops 
 alarmed the inhabitants of the little town of St. 
 I7gI . Menehould. In the evening, between the 
 June 21. jjQuj-g f seven anc | eight, two carriages 
 changed horses, and passed on without exciting 
 any suspicion of the personages who were in them ; 
 but they were scarcely gone when some circum- 
 stances in the conduct of the commanding officer, 
 who spoke familiarly to one of the couriers attending 
 the carriages, made the postmaster, M. Drouet, suspect 
 some mystery ; and he thought it his duty to in- 
 form the municipality. An express from Marne 
 increased their fears, and they finally ordered M. 
 Drouet and another of the inhabitants named Guil- 
 laume to follow and stop the carriages. At Clermont 
 the horses were ordered for Verdun ; but the travellers 
 turned off to Varennes, 1 which was the more private 
 way to Montmedy. Varennes not being a post- 
 town, a relay had there been provided for the king, 
 but, unluckily, at the farther end of the town, and 
 the postilions did not choose to pass the house at 
 the entrance without baiting their horses. The king 
 being eager to proceed, his three attendants, and 
 even himself, offered the men a purse of a hundred 
 louis d'or to go on ; but the magnitude of the sum 
 only gave an alarm. A dispute ensued, in the midst 
 of which arrived M. Drouet and his companion. 
 Their first care was to prevent the further progress 
 of the carriages ; and, opportunely for their purpose, 
 
 1 Varennes-en-Argonne, the capital of the department of the Meuse, 
 is only noticeable for this melancholy incident. 
 
i79i-] The Royal Party delayed at Varennes. 101 
 
 they found near the town bridge, over which the 
 track lay, a cart loaded with furniture ; this they 
 overturned, so as completely to obstruct the way. 
 They then called up all the persons in civil and 
 military authority, who here, as at St. Menehould, had 
 their suspicions excited by the mysterious movements 
 of the troops during the two preceding days, the 
 king having been, in truth, expected by M. Bouille 
 one day sooner. The passport of the travellers was 
 then demanded and produced. Till it could be 
 regularly examined at the town hall, M. Sausse, a 
 tallow-chandler by trade, invited the travellers into 
 his house. To avoid observation they accepted the 
 offer. The loaf, the cheese, a bottle of Burgundy, 
 were placed before them. Whether the king's palate 
 was easy to be pleased from long abstinence (for 
 since his departure from Paris he had only taken a 
 morsel of bread and two or three glasses of cham- 
 pagne, which they had brought with them in the 
 carriage), or whether he wished to ingratiate himself 
 with his host, he pronounced the wine to be some 
 of the best he had ever tasted. 
 
 He then entered into familiar conversation on 
 public affairs with M. Sausse. Upon hearing that 
 the mayor was gone to the National Assembly he 
 is said for the first time to have betrayed some 
 emotion. He asked if there was any club in 
 Varennes, and being told there was not, " So much 
 the better," rejoined he ; " those villainous clubs have 
 ruined France." During the whole discourse the queen 
 said very little. The king showed much restless ex- 
 
102 The French Revolution. Ex- 
 
 pectation, and after some time inquired with im- 
 patience about the different ways of pursuing the 
 journey. M. Sausse occasionally, under various pre- 
 texts, left the room, and sent most pressing messages 
 to the neighbouring districts for assistance. 
 
 M. Goglas arrived with a detachment of troops 
 intended for the assistance of the royal party, and, 
 addressing himself to M. Sausse, who still affected 
 not to know the rank of his guests, desired ad- 
 mittance, which was granted. The king told him to 
 remain quiet, refusing to owe his deliverance to force. 
 M. Goglas then went out, and, to try whether the 
 men had been corrupted in his absence, asked whether 
 they were for the king or the nation, upon which 
 they cried out unanimously, " For the nation ; for 
 that we are, and ever will be ! " Immediately one 
 of the National Guards put himself at their head, 
 and was received as their commander. 
 
 At length, when M. Sausse perceived that a 
 sufficient force was collected to secure his guests 
 against a rescue, he resolved to inform them that 
 they must return to Paris. He suddenly pointed to 
 a picture and said, " Sire, that is your portrait ! " 
 " Yes," cried Louis, finding all further concealment 
 vain, "I am your king!" He then spoke in plain 
 and affecting terms, while the queen, taking the 
 dauphin in her arms, abjured M. Sausse in the most 
 pathetic manner to save his king and the future 
 hope of the nation. 
 
 Having endured many insults, Louis at length 
 assumed a firm tone, and asserted his right of pass- 
 
'79'-3 The King made Prisoner. 103 
 
 ing wherever he pleased within the kingdom, de- 
 claring that he meant only to go to Montmedy. In 
 answer, the decree fixing his residence within twenty 
 leagues of the National Assembly was shown to 
 him. "No," said he, with indignation, "that decree 
 I never sanctioned." 
 
 Being twice asked for his orders, he replied that 
 he was a prisoner, and could give no orders. It 
 was then resolved to hasten his departure ; he was 
 informed about eight o'clock that the carriages were 
 ready to convey him and his family back towards 
 the capital. 
 
 The Assembly, meanwhile, were hastily passing 
 decrees for securing all power to themselves, and, 
 after a long pause, a cry resounded through the 
 hall, " He is taken ! he is taken ! " The Assembly 
 immediately named three commissioners — M. La 
 Tour-Maubourg, 1 M. Barnave, and M. Potion — one 
 from each of the principal parties that formed the 
 majority ; their charge was to protect the royal 
 family. By another decree M. Bouilk4 was sus- 
 pended, and ordered to be arrested, but he was 
 already out of their power. 2 
 
 Four days were the king and his family on the 
 road, exposed perpetually to all manner of insults. 
 They were doomed to witness a scene more afflict- 
 
 1 Marie Charles Fay, Comte de la Tour-Maubourg, born in 1756, 
 died in 1831. He emigrated in 1792, returned in 1798, served with 
 distinction under Bonaparte, was made a peer of France in 1814, 
 Minister of War in 1820, and Governor of the Invalides from 1 82 1 to 
 1830. 
 
 2 He had escaped over the frontier into Luxemburg. 
 
io4 The French Revolution. [1791. 
 
 ing than any words to their senses. The Marquis 
 Dampierre, learning that they were passing near 
 his estate, mounted his horse, pierced through the 
 crowd, approached the carriage, alighted, bowed, and 
 respectfully kissed the hand of his captive sovereign ; 
 in which attitude he received in his body three 
 musket balls, discharged at him from behind. He 
 fell, and the king in vain stretched out to him the 
 hand which he had just kissed ; the wheels of the 
 carriage went over him, and his last breath was 
 uttered in a cry of loyalty. 
 
 The three commissioners met the royal family 
 
 near Epernay ; at Bandy the Parisian guards took 
 
 I7gI . charge of their royal prisoners ; all arrived at 
 
 June 25.. p ar j s ; n sa f e ty. It was about seven in. the 
 
 evening when they entered the capital. The streets 
 were lined with an immense concourse of spectators, 
 forbidden by La Fayette, on pain of corporal punish- 
 ment, to show any marks of respect. La Fayette 
 himself rode before the king,, commanding all to be 
 covered. Behind the two carriages was seen an open 
 chariot adorned with laurels, in which the National 
 Guard who first seized the royal family at Varennes was 
 drawn in triumph. Shouts of " The law L the law ! " 
 arose, and cries for blood. The royal family entered 
 their prison,, and the gates were closed upon them. 
 
 Whatever could lead to any discovery was taken 
 from the king ; he was denied all communication 
 with his wife, sister, children, or servants ; fifteen 
 officers constantly watched in his apartment, and the 
 door of his bed-chamber was left open during the 
 
r79i.] Brought back to Paris. 105 
 
 night. The rest of the royal family were guarded 
 in the same manner. All night long a sentinel took 
 post in the arm-chair by the bedside of the queen, 
 who dared not undress herself; and at frequent in- 
 tervals the commanding officer undrew the curtains 
 to see that she was there. 
 
 But the most afflicting circumstance in the cap- 
 tivity of this unhappy family was the malignant art 
 used to poison the mind of the dauphin against his 
 royal parents. He was taught by his guards, in 
 ridicule of his father's misfortunes, to play at the 
 arrest of the king. 
 
 The whole constitution of the kingdom was 
 changed by these measures ; from a monarchy it 
 became in effect a republic. The republicans were 
 zealously supported by the anarchists and the 
 Orleanists. This ensured the co-operation of the 
 Cordeliers and other clubs of the same stamp. But 
 it was of more importance to regain, if possible, the 
 ascendency among the Jacobins. With this view, on 
 July 10, M. Brissot addressed the society I7gI . 
 in a long, laboured, and able harangue, urging July I0 - 
 the necessity of deposing Louis XVI. In it he 
 answered, much at large, the objection of the more 
 moderate party, that such a measure would alarm all 
 neighbouring sovereigns and draw down their united 
 resentment. 
 
 Seven committees had been ordered to report on 
 the whole question respecting the king, and at length 
 their report was produced. To the surprise and con- 
 sternation, of the more violent faction, it was in favour 
 
106 The French Revolution. Imw- 
 
 of the king. That very night a deputation from the 
 I79I . Market-house Club went to the Jacobin Club 
 July 13. f or the p ur pose of requesting that society to 
 concur in a petition to the National Assembly, that 
 they would come to no vote on the subject of the 
 report without having collected the will of the 
 nation. The next day the former presented 
 their petition, couched in very indecent terms, and 
 signed by a hundred persons in the name of the 
 whole people ; and the latter were debating what 
 petition they should present, when it was announced 
 that four thousand persons were at the door, and de- 
 manded admittance. The hall was filled in an instant 
 with boys, mechanics and women of the lowest 
 kind, and rioters of every description. The society 
 deliberated with that mob, who also voted. Their 
 petition to the Assembly went forth with the con- 
 cluding declaration that till the majority of the 
 nation should have expressed a will contrary to that 
 of the petition, the society would not acknowledge 
 Louis XVI. for their king. Brissot had written 
 further, " nor any other king," but these words were 
 omitted from the printed paper. The object was 
 evidently to open the way for the elevation of the 
 Duke of Orleans to the regency, if not to the throne. 
 
 After a debate of three days the National Assem- 
 bly passed a decree agreeable to the report of the 
 seven committees. The club then voted that the 
 petition must be now suppressed. The populace, 
 however, was not so tractable. They were inflamed 
 by some words which Robespierre let fall as he came 
 
i79i-] Riots — Martial Law. ioj 
 
 out of the Assembly. " My friends," said he, " all is 
 lost ; the king is saved ! " 
 
 On the Sunday, another popular meeting being 
 expected in the Champ-de-Mars, an old invalid and 
 a hairdresser's apprentice concealed themselves under 
 the national altar from motives of curiosity ; but they 
 were soon detected, accused of a gunpowder plot, and 
 instantly hanged at ■ the first lamp-post ; the cord 
 broke ; they were beheaded alive, and their heads 
 stuck on pikes to be carried in triumph through the 
 streets of the city to the Palais Royal. Then arrived 
 La Fayette and an armed force to proclaim martial 
 law. The rioters fled at their approach. Hardly 
 was La Fayette gone when the crowd gathered again, 
 with pikes, flags, harangues, and a remonstrance to 
 the Assembly. 
 
 These transactions being denounced to the As- 
 sembly, the president, C. Lameth, 1 wrote a strong 
 
 1 Of the three brothers, Comtes de Lameth, the eldest, Theodore, 
 was born in 1756, served with the army in America, was deputy in 
 1791, sat with the constitutional party, retired to Switzerland in 1793, 
 and afterwards came little before the public. He died in 1854. The 
 second brother, Charles Malo Francois, was born in 1757, was wounded 
 in the war in America, in 1789 was deputy to the States-General, 
 arrested as a noble after August 10, 1792, and fled to Hamburg. He 
 returned to France in quieter times, rejoined the army, and was sent 
 to the Chamber of Deputies. In the Assembly he had voted for the 
 abolition of the nobility, and warmly supported the Constitution. In 
 1830, as a deputy, he voted for hereditary peerages. Alexander was 
 the younger brother of the preceding, and was born in 1760. Like 
 them he served in the army, and like them clamoured for the abolition 
 of all privileges. He took refuge in London and Hamburg, but under 
 Napoleon was prefect, baron, and peer. At the Restoration he was 
 deprived of his peerage. He died in 1829. 
 
io8 The French Revolution. D79 1 - 
 
 letter to the Common Council of Paris. Martial law 
 was proclaimed ; the red flag was displayed 1 from the 
 town hall ; and, after a delay of two hours, finding 
 that signal not regarded, M. de la Fayette, with 
 M. Bailly, the mayor, . marched to the Champ-de- 
 Mars at the head of some National Guards. On his 
 appearance there was a tumultuous cry of " Down 
 with the red flag ! down with the bayonets ! " As 
 he continued his march, a shower of sticks and 
 stones was poured upon him and his men, and a pistol 
 was fired, which, narrowly missing the mayor, wounded 
 a soldier who was near him. In return, the National 
 Guards fired in the air, which only increased the 
 audacity of the assailants ; the insults and outrages 
 were redoubled, and several other pistols discharged. 
 The troops then levelled their pieces at the place 
 whence the shots came. About eleven or twelve of 
 the rioters are said to have been killed, and as many 
 more wounded, on this occasion. Of the soldiers, 
 one was beaten off his horse, and one grenadier was 
 left dead on the field. 
 
 1 As a sign that martial law prevailed. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 ALL THE KINGDOMS OF EUROPE OPPOSED TO FRANCE. 
 
 Nothing could now equal the discomfiture of the 
 republican faction, except the exultation of the 
 dominant party. Marat 1 and other incendiary writers 
 concealed themselves. Brissot was shunned by all. 
 Robespierre expected to be made the object of rigor- 
 ous proceedings. Everything, however, evaporated 
 in a general decree against the men of blood. There 
 now remained in the Jacobin Club only six persons 
 who belonged to the National Assembly ; these were 
 Robespierre, Petion, Buzot, 2 Antoine, 8 Coroller, 3 and 
 
 1 Jean Paul Marat was born in 1744. He studied medicine, and 
 before 1789 had published several scientific books. Eager for celebrity, 
 he professed in his daily journal, L'Ami du Peuple, the most fierce and 
 furious democratic views. He incited to pillage and murder. When 
 in any danger, he hid himself in cellars, from whence he still issued his 
 sanguinary sheets. Paris sent him as deputy to the Convention. He 
 demanded 170,000 heads ! He voted for the death of the king, and 
 clamoured for the Law of Suspected Persons. Worn out by excitement 
 and by vice, he was a dying man when Charlotte Corday stabbed him 
 in his bath on July 13, 1793. 
 
 2 Francois Leonard Nicolas Buzot, born in 1760, died in 1793. 
 He was one of the chiefs of the Girondins. He fled with Petion, and 
 their bones were found in a wood, they having died of hunger or been 
 devoured by wolves. 
 
 * Of whom I know nothing more. 
 
no The French Revolution. [179*- 
 
 Rcederer. 1 The whole company at the first sitting after 
 the rupture is said not to have exceeded thirty. The 
 seceders only thought of setting up a rival club, which, 
 from the place of meeting, was called the Feuillants. 2 
 [" One party, which thinks the Jacobins lukewarm, 
 constitutes itself into Club of the Cordeliers ; . . . the 
 other party, again, which thinks the Jacobins scalding 
 hot, flies off . . . and are afterwards named Feuillants' 
 Club" (Carlyle).] 
 
 The Assembly now entered on the great task of 
 revising the constitution ; and a few days later it 
 was considered as irrevocably fixed. It will be un- 
 necessary to enter into any detailed remarks on a 
 constitution which did not last a year. 3 When the 
 
 1 Pierre Louis, Comte Roederer, was born at Metz in 1751. He 
 was eminent as a. lawyer and as a political economist. He defended 
 the royal family on their trial, and had to conceal himself when the 
 Girondins were proscribed. He accepted office under Bonaparte, but 
 retired at the Restoration. In his later years he occupied himself much 
 with letters, and he died in 1835. 
 
 8 The Feuillants were a religious congregation — a branch of the 
 Bernardine Order. They settled at Feuillant, in Languedoc. The 
 Feuillants' Club occupied the convent of the dislodged monks. 
 
 3 Seven constitutions have been made and unmade in France within 
 the last hundred years : — 
 
 1. The constitution of 1791, when the States-General declared 
 themselves to be the National Assembly. 
 
 2. That of 1 793, the work of the National Convention, and never 
 executed. 
 
 3. That of 1795, made by the Convention, and delegating the 
 executive power to the Directory. 
 
 4. That of 1799, in which the executive power was confided to 
 three consuls, of whom Napoleon Bonaparte was the first. 
 
 5. That of 1848, which lasted until the coup cCitat of 1851, by 
 which Louis Napoleon Bonaparte became President of the Republic. 
 
 6. That of 1852, which suppressed the Republic and made Louis 
 Napoleon the Emperor Napoleon III. 
 
 7. That of 1871, after the Commune. 
 
I79 1 -] A New Constitution. r 1 1 
 
 code of the constitution was settled in the details, 
 before it was finally read and passed a mode I79I . 
 of acceptance by the king was decreed. Two Sept- * 
 days after it was presented to him by a deputation of 
 sixty members, who proceeded in great pomp to the 
 palace, and, to give it the greater effect, by torchlight, 
 escorted by a numerous detachment of the National 
 Guards, and attended by the applause of a vast 
 multitude. The royal prisoner, to whom they brought 
 the first semblance of liberty, returned them a favour- 
 able answer, and declared that he did not mean to leave 
 Paris, and would issue the orders which he thought 
 expedient for his guard to the Commander-in-chief. 
 
 The eyes of the whole kingdom and of foreign 
 nations were now turned upon Louis XVI. His 
 natural character, peaceable, hopeful, and 
 indolent, prevailed over his deliberate judg- 
 ment, and his letter, accepting the constitution, was 
 received by the Assembly. The next day he went 
 down to the Assembly, at the hour which he had 
 appointed, amidst the roar of cannon and the shouts 
 of the people. When he entered the hall there was a 
 profound silence. He advanced to the chair of state 
 which had been placed for him, and began speaking, 
 as he stood, to the Assembly, which was also standing. 
 
 The French nation, during a century of errors, appears not yet to 
 have learnt that a constitution must grow and cannot be made. It is 
 the weed and not the oak which springs up in a single night. Sir Henry 
 Bulwer, Lord Dalling, in his "Talleyrand," says that "the great 
 evil of any constitution formed for a particular time, and not the result 
 of continual adaptation to the wants of various epochs, is that it is 
 altogether of one character, and is almost immediately out of date. " 
 
ii2 The French Revolution. [i79 r - 
 
 The president sat down, and all the members followed 
 his example. The king perceived the insult, and 
 hastened to take his seat also. The code was signed 
 by the king, countersigned by the Keeper of the 
 Seals, now called the Minister of Justice, and returned 
 to the president, to be deposited among the archives. 
 A supplement to the constitutional code was soon 
 after decreed, relating to the legislation of the colonies. 
 The general amnesty already declared was extended 
 to the colonies. 
 
 There was now a general wish for the termina- 
 tion of the present long-protracted session of the 
 17gi . Assembly ; the king appeared, with his minis- 
 sept 30. £ ers> an( j f-^g Assembly put a period to its own 
 existence. In no one act had this body ever turned 
 their eyes towards their ancient constitution. They 
 seemed, by common consent, to have renounced their 
 ancestors. By one of their decrees none of their 
 members could sit in the Assembly about to be con- 
 voked, or hold any post of administration under the 
 king. Thus the new Assembly must be entirely 
 without legislative experience. 
 
 Space cannot here be given to trace, even in bare 
 outline, any sketch of the insurrections and atrocities 
 which rendered infamous the very names of Avignon 
 and St. Domingo. The baleful influence of disorder 
 and anarchy in France extended to her dependen- 
 cies, and Jourdan and Toussaint 1'Ouverture were the 
 centres of scenes rivalling in horror the massacres 
 which in Paris surrounded Robespierre and Danton 
 and Marat 
 
I79J-3 A New Assembly. 113 
 
 The composition of the new Assembly was not 
 such as to give any consoling prospect of moderate 
 and steady counsels. It had nothing like a represen- 
 tation of the landed or monied interest in it. 
 
 Notwithstanding the affected veneration for the 
 constitution, the conduct of the new legislators towards 
 the king, who formed an essential part of it, indicated 
 a disposition to degrade royalty, apparent to the most 
 superficial observer. On former occasions when his 
 Majesty went to the Assembly a chair of state was 
 placed for him above that in which the president sat ; 
 but this distinction appeared offensive in the eyes of 
 the present legislators, who resolved to abolish it. In 
 spite of the insult thus offered to the king, his resolu- 
 tion of scrupulously adhering to the new constitution 
 seems to have been firm and sincere. He attended 
 the opening of the session without resenting I7gi 
 in the slightest degree the insult he had re- ° ct -7- 
 ceived. The Assembly passed a decree to deprive 
 his brother 1 of his right to the regency, unless the 
 prince returned to Paris within two months from the 
 date of the proclamation. It was also proposed that 
 the French princes absent from the kingdom, together 
 with all persons in civil and military employments 
 also absent, unless they returned by the first of the 
 ensuing January, should be adjudged guilty of high 
 treason, and subject to the penalty of death. The 
 king, supported by the advice of his ministers, refused 
 his sanction to this decree. Another was soon after 
 submitted for the king's sanction ; it was levelled 
 
 1 Afterwards Louis XVIII. 
 
 I 
 
1 14 The French Revolution. [1791- 
 
 against the non-juring priests, and went to deprive 
 i 79 i. them of their pensions, and, in case of their 
 Nov. ts. disobedience to the constituted authorities, to 
 punish them with two years' imprisonment. In con- 
 formity with the advice of the administration, the 
 bishops, and the directory of the department of Paris, 
 the royal sanction was likewise refused to this decree. 
 These exercises of the power invested in Louis by the 
 constitution became the subjects of severe animad- 
 version in a variety of addresses daily presented to 
 the Assembly. It will not be necessary to notice any 
 of the insults addressed by the Assembly to the king 
 till we come to the period when the spirit which was 
 working at bottom broke out into open attempts 
 against his throne and life. 
 
 [Within the limits of this small volume it is im- 
 possible even to allude to one half of the com- 
 plications in which the French people now found 
 themselves involved, both at home and abroad ; and 
 it is perhaps hardly necessary to remark that every 
 throne in Europe felt the vibration of that tremendous 
 revolution which had almost overturned the throne 
 of France, and that no kingly head could lie quite 
 easy on its pillow when the head of the king of 
 France was so insecure within the walls of his palace- 
 prison. 1 It was only probable that a people which 
 sought to destroy its monarch would become in the 
 
 1 At Pilnitz, a village in Saxony, Leopold II. , Emperor of Austria, 
 and Frederick William II., King of Prussia, met on August 25, 1 79 1, 
 to consider the affairs of Poland ; the state of France also came under 
 consideration, and the position of Louis XVI. was declared a matter of 
 common interest to all the sovereigns of Europe. 
 
1792.J Rumours of Wars. 115 
 
 eyes of all other monarchs an object to be destroyed. 
 Moreover, a country which, like France, has frontiers 
 touching some half-dozen other countries, is constantly 
 inclined to make, or exposed to endure, incursions 
 which may at any moment lead to serious war. 
 Leopold, Emperor of Austria, 1 brother to Marie 
 Antoinette, could not, unmoved, behold the outrages 
 borne by his sister, and the dangers which she might 
 be exposed to. The Assembly had contrived to dis- 
 please England, the asylum of many of the French 
 emigrants — England, which saw her turbulent younger 
 sister, Ireland, excited to frenzy by the examples and 
 the exhortations of revolted France. At this time 
 all the European powers were on one side, and France 
 on the other ; the one man who was destined to make 
 France the equal of all the continental powers com- 
 bined was yet but a subaltern in the army, and only 
 twenty-two years of age.J 
 
 The death of Gustavus, King of Sweden, 2 afforded 
 a subject of great and indecent triumph to the French 
 revolutionists ; it freed them from their most decided 
 and active enemy, at the critical period when they 
 were preparing to declare war against the House of 
 Austria. La Fayette wished to be appointed com- 
 mander-in-chief of the whole force to be employed, 
 
 1 He died March I, 1792. 
 
 2 Gustavus III. was born in 1746. When he heard how Louis had 
 been stopped and turned back at Varennes, he resolved to invade 
 France, restore the Bourbons, and put an end to the Revolution. A 
 plot was formed against him by Count Horn and others, and at a 
 masked ball at Stockholm he was shot by Anckarstrom, on March 16, 
 and died on March 29, 1792. 
 
116 The French Revolution. [1792. 
 
 and proposed to enter the enemy's country by way of 
 Namur, and proceed down the Meuse as far as Liege. 
 That city, and the principality dependent upon it, 
 had nothing to do with the war against the King of 
 Hungary (Emperor of Austria), but the possession 
 of it, he thought, would ensure the reduction of the 
 Netherlands. 
 
 Expeditions against Tournay and Mons proved 
 fruitless, the soldiers turning against their own 
 officers, as being aristocrats. Shortly afterwards the 
 French generals gave up all thoughts of an offensive 
 campaign ; the constant superiority of the Austrians 
 seems to leave very little doubt of the issue had 
 France been attacked at this time. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 THE TWENTIETH OF JUNE. 
 
 There had for some time been rumours of what was 
 called an " Austrian Committee," of which the beau- 
 tiful Princess de Lamballe 1 was the presiding spirit. 
 
 1 Marie Therese Louise de Savoie-Carignan, born in 1749, died 
 September 3, 1792, married the son of the Due de Penthievre, a Bour- 
 bon, with the title, Prince de Lamballe, who died within fifteen months 
 of their marriage. She was placed over the household of Marie 
 Antoinette, and attached to her by the tenderest friendship, which 
 proved her ruin. She was confined in the prison of La Force, whence 
 she was dragged out, half dead, towards the guillotine. The execu- 
 tioners asked her what she knew of the plot. " I know of no plot,'' 
 was her reply. "Swear to love liberty and equality, and to hate the 
 king and queen." She answered, " I will take the first of these oaths, 
 but I cannot take the second." They still urged her, hoping that she 
 would swear, and so be saved. But she was now beyond sight and 
 hearing. " Let them release madame," said the chief door-keeper. It 
 may have been that he really intended to release the unhappy woman ; 
 but the word elargir which he used had latterly been employed as 
 a cant phrase signifying " death." The door was opened, and she was 
 cast out — happily, not conscious — to the furious mob. A sabre-cut at 
 the back of her head drew the blood ; but, led by two men, she 
 advanced a step, when another blow laid her dead. Her beautiful 
 corpse was torn to pieces ; her head, her heart, and other portions of 
 her body, were paraded on pikes from end to end of Paris, and under 
 the windows of the royal prisoners in the Temple. The municipal 
 
n8 The French Revolution. [i79 2 - 
 
 Jean Louis Carra, 1 a journalist, declared that this 
 committee was a fact, and roused afresh the popular 
 fury against the royal family. 
 
 Almost certain proofs were brought that no such 
 committee existed ; but Chabot 2 undertook to show 
 I792 . forth the existence of the pretended com- 
 june 4 . m ittee. The evidence of which he had so 
 greatly boasted was of the most frivolous kind. 3 
 Still, there can be little doubt that the Princess de 
 Lamballe and many others plotted and intrigued for 
 the safety of the royal prisoners. 
 
 The situation of the monarch and his family grew 
 from day to day more distressing and alarming. If 
 they approached the windows they beheld in one 
 part of the garden a man mounted on a stool, and 
 reading aloud the most incendiary writings against 
 them ; in another part an old officer or a priest, 
 whom the crowd was dragging to one of the basins 
 of water, loading him with outrages and blows ; while 
 in every part some were walking, and others amusing 
 
 officers endeavoured to prevent the queen from looking out. At length 
 a soldier said, "It is Lamballe's head that they want to prevent your 
 seeing." The queen fainted, and was carried from the room by the 
 king and the attendants. 
 
 1 Executed with the Girondins in 1793. 
 
 2 A furious and dishonest revolutionist; guillotined, deservedly, in 
 
 1794- 
 
 3 A volume called "The Great French Revolution, Narrated in the 
 
 Letters of Madame J , of the Jacobin Party, edited by her Grandson, 
 
 M. Edouard Lockroy," and of which a translation was published by 
 Messrs. Sampson Low and Co., in 1885, contains some curious reading. 
 
 Under date May 23, 1792, Madame J writes, "The stupid crowd 
 
 asks for material proofs, and it is impossible to obtain anything but 
 moral certainty," 
 
1792.] Alarming Situation of the King. 119 
 
 themselves with different sports, in the greatest tran- 
 quillity. Within the palace they knew that they had, 
 among their domestics, many spies bribed by their 
 own money to betray them to their enemies. The 
 king's council, of which the most conspicuous member 
 was M. Roland (whose conduct was dictated by his 
 more famous wife), was disunited, and Roland, Servan, 1 
 and Claviere 2 seceded, or were dismissed from it. 
 
 The Girondins, Jacobins, and Cordeliers, now sus- 
 pending their own dissensions, and again assembling 
 together for the purpose of uniting against the Feuil- 
 lants, displayed all the evil energy of their nature. 
 They determined to carry into effect the insurrection 
 which had long been meditated, in imitation of the 
 attack on the Palace of Versailles in 1780. The 
 20th of June was fixed upon for this enterprise, as 
 being the anniversary of the celebrated Session of the 
 Tennis-Court. 
 
 In pursuance of this plan they made the most 
 active preparations for assembling persons of all 
 descriptions in their interest The Assembly was 
 occupied with discussions, among others, as to the 
 method of preserving public tranquillity, but adopted 
 no resolution on the subject. Chabot went to a 
 public meeting of the suburb of St. Antoine, and 
 made an inflammatory harangue of three hours, 
 which lasted till midnight. He was seconded by 
 
 1 Joseph Servan afterwards was a general in the army ; he died in 
 1803. 
 
 2 Etienne Claviere was a native of Geneva. He followed the for- 
 tunes of the Girondins, was arrested in 1793, an ^ forestalled the sen- 
 tence of execution by committing suicide. 
 
120 The French Revolution. [i79 2 - 
 
 Santerre, 1 who in a manner governed that section ; 
 while other leaders were at the same time equally 
 busy, in putting the suburb of St. Marcel, and the rest 
 of the districts of Paris over which they had any 
 influence, into a state of insurrection. 
 
 Under these auspices* broke the morning of the 
 20th of June. The National Assembly began to con- 
 I792 . sider whether an armed populace could be 
 June 20. tolerated under the constitution ; but their 
 voices were overwhelmed by the hisses of the galleries. 
 A letter from M. Santerre was read, which announced 
 that the citizens of the suburb of St. Antoine were 
 at the door, and requested the honour of defiling 
 through the Assembly. After a slight opposition it 
 was decreed that the petitioners should be admitted. 
 The orator of the crowd then entered the hall ; 2 he 
 asserted that the people had risen, and that blood 
 must flow before the tree of liberty would flourish in 
 peace. 
 
 Having obtained permission to file through the 
 Assembly, an immense crowd of men, women, and 
 children pressed forward, with St. Huruge 3 and 
 
 1 Claude Santerre was a brewer of the Faubourg St. Antoine ; he 
 was born in 1752, and died in 1808. He was one of the most notorious 
 demagogues of his day ; took an active part in the assault on the 
 Bastille, led this insurrection of June 20, and was general of the Paris 
 National Guards, in which capacity he led Louis XVI. to the scaffold. 
 Afterwards he commanded a corps in La Vendee, and signalized him- 
 self by his incapacity. On his return he was arrested as an Orleanist, 
 and when released from prison retired into private life. 
 
 2 They sat in the Salle de Manege, or "riding-school," attached to 
 the Tuileries. 
 
 3 The Marquis de St. Huruge was born about 1750, and died about 
 1S10. He was at first in the army, but ran through his patrimony, 
 
1 792. J The Twentieth of June. 121 
 
 Santerre at their head. They were armed with 
 all sorts of weapons of offence. One man waved 
 a scroll of paper, inscribed, "Tremble, Tyrant, 
 thy hour is come ! " Another (who, indeed, was 
 driven out of the hall) carried a reeking calf s heart, 
 stuck upon a pike, and inscribed as the heart of an 
 aristocrat. As soon as this singular spectacle, which 
 occupied fully two hours, was concluded, the Assembly 
 adjourned. 
 
 The populace proceeded towards the Tuileries. 
 
 An opposition was made to their passage at the 
 entrance of the Louvre, some troops having been 
 stationed that morning at different posts, to guard 
 against any sudden surprise ; but at the command of 
 two municipal officers, who appeared in their scarfs, 
 the crowd soon obtained admittance. Full thirty 
 thousand people of all descriptions began to pour 
 into the Place du Carrousel, 1 drawing up towards the 
 gate called the Porte Royale several pieces of cannon, 
 which they threatened to fire if the least resistance 
 were made. Successful likewise here, they at length 
 arrived without further obstacles at the front entrance 
 of the palace, through which they dragged their 
 cannon, and into the very hall of the guards. The 
 blows 'of a thousand hatchets, forcing the doors of 
 
 lived a turbulent life, became a popular orator and the agent of 
 Danton. When Danton's faction fell, St. Huruge was imprisoned in 
 the Luxembourg, and, being released, spent the rest of his life in 
 obscurity. 
 
 1 The Carrousel was a gentler kind of tournament. Louis XIV. 
 held one on ground belonging to the Tuileries, which has ever since 
 been known as the Place du Carrousel. 
 
122 The French Revolution. [1792. 
 
 the several apartments, now resounded through the 
 palace, and convinced the king that his immediate 
 presence was necessary. 
 
 He came forward, therefore, to meet the danger, 
 attended by the Princess Elizabeth, his sister, by a 
 few brave and faithful servants, and by several 
 individuals of the National Guard, who had run to 
 his assistance, and were resolved to protect him or 
 die at his feet. When the door of the room to which 
 he had advanced was opened to the populace (at the 
 time violently assailing it with their hatchets), among 
 the first that entered was a man armed with a stick, 
 to the end of which was fastened a sharp-pointed 
 sword-blade. Rushing forward with this instrument 
 in his hand, he put himself in a posture to attack the 
 king, but the bayonets of the grenadiers frustrated 
 his attempt. 
 
 The clamour which at first arose when the rabble 
 burst into the room was so great that for about half 
 an hour it was impossible for any single voice to be 
 distinctly heard. After the tumult had a little sub- 
 sided, Legendre, 1 addressing the king by the plain 
 title of " Monsieur," exclaimed, " Hear us ; for it is 
 your duty to do so ! You are perfidious, and have 
 always deceived us. You deceive us still. But take 
 care of yourself ; for the people are weary of seeing 
 themselves your laughing-stock ! " He then read a 
 paper full of obloquy and threats, containing what 
 
 1 Louis Legendre, a butcher by trade, was born in 1756, and died 
 in 1797. He was a furious demagogue ; he became President of the 
 Convention. Under the Directory he was a member of the Conseil 
 des Anciens. 
 
i79 2 -] Outrages within the Tuileries. 123 
 
 was termed "the will of the sovereign people," in 
 whose name he pretended to speak. The king coolly 
 answered that his conduct would be regulated by 
 the constitution and the decrees of the National 
 Assembly. 
 
 In order to be better seen, he stood upon an 
 elevated spot in the recess of the window, with the 
 Princess Elizabeth by his side, and his attendants 
 around him, who guarded him with increasing solici- 
 tude. After he was thus raised, a person from the 
 throng (Legendre) thrust forward, on the top of a 
 pike, a red cap with the national cockade and ribbons 
 attached to it. Louis instantly placed it on his head, 
 much to the satisfaction of the spectators, who ap- 
 plauded the act ; and he kept it on during their stay. 
 Another person offered him a bottle, requesting him 
 to drink its contents. He took it without hesitation, 
 and immediately drank the uncertain draught. Not- 
 withstanding these proofs of condescension and 
 heroism, several abandoned wretches treated him 
 with unmerited insult, accompanying the grossest 
 language with the most threatening gestures. 1 
 
 Scarcely was there a room in the quarter of the 
 Tuileries inhabited by the royal family, the door of 
 which had not been forced. Many of the rioters 
 expressed the most inveterate rancour against the 
 queen ; and, from their ignorance of her person, much 
 
 1 "The hair-dresser . . . assures us that the people have every- 
 where displayed the utmost moderation and good sense. ... I have 
 never seen so much suavity and open-hearted gaiety, mingled at the 
 same time with a certain pride, and with dignity which rendered 
 laughter imposing " (Lockroy). 
 
124 The French Revolution. [1792. 
 
 obloquy intended for her was lavished on the Princess 
 Elizabeth, who, finding their error, heroically forbade 
 her attendants to undeceive them. 
 
 The queen, at the commencement of the tumult, 
 was left by the king in an inner apartment with the 
 dauphin and the princess royal, it being his wish to 
 stem the torrent alone. As there seemed, however, 
 a necessity for her appearance, she went, with her 
 children and attendants, into the council chamber, 
 where a party of National Guards surrounded her, 
 and protected her, if not from insult, at least from 
 injury. In order to prevent the populace from press- 
 ing too near, the council-table was brought up and 
 placed in front of the royal family. Some confusion 
 at first arose at the door before it was opened, and an 
 officer was wounded in the hand ; but, admittance 
 being soon obtained, the rabble rushed in with 
 Santerre at their head. A red cap was offered to the 
 queen, which she took and placed upon her head, 
 speaking at the same time to the person who offered 
 it with great affability ; then, removing it from her 
 own, she put it on the head of the young dauphin, who 
 wore it for a considerable time. Although torrents 
 of abuse were poured forth, the heart of every spec- 
 tator was not equally unfeeling ; for a woman, among 
 the crowd, as she passed, sobbed and wept aloud, 
 much to the indignation of Santerre, who angrily 
 ordered her to quit the room. After the party had 
 sufficiently gazed at the queen, and many of them 
 insulted her in the coarsest terms, they moved away 
 at the command of their leader, and mingled with 
 
1 79- J Inaction of Louis. 125 
 
 the other crowds which were now streaming out from 
 the palace. 
 
 Amidst all the dangers and trials of this threat- 
 ening day the king preserved the most undisturbed 
 serenity. It was for his family alone that he con- 
 sented to temporize. " Oh," exclaimed he next day 
 to M. Bertrand, 1 who was advising measures of 
 vigour, " if my wife and children were not with me, 
 it would soon appear that I am not so weak as 
 is imagined ; but what would become of them if the 
 measures to which you allude should fail ? " 2 
 
 On the evening of the next day M. Pdtion had an 
 interview with the king, and spoke so insolently that 
 at length Louis commanded him to retire. During 
 this momentary lull M. Bertrand urged, his master to 
 avail himself of the opportunity to quit Paris openly, 
 and after a formal notice of his intention to the 
 Assembly. But Louis saw difficulties, and nothing 
 was done. 
 
 The Assembly lost no time in attacking the king 
 and his new administration. They summoned the 
 ministers to appear the next day, and desired that 
 they should be required to deliver in writing, within 
 twenty-four hours, a statement of the measures taken 
 for the safety of the empire, in putting a stop to the 
 troubles excited by fanaticism, and in posting a suffi-» 
 cient army of reserve between the frontiers and Paris. 
 
 1 This was Antoine Frangois, Marquis de Bertrand de Molleville, 
 who was at this time Minister of the Marine. 
 
 2 It must be confessed that Louis's courage was of the passive kind ; 
 he could endure, but could not act. Had he acted with vigour at the 
 first it is probable that he would not have had to endure at the last. 
 
126 The French Revolution. [1792. 
 
 The ministers attended accordingly. 1 M. Lajarre, 
 Minister of War, asked for forty-two battalions, to be 
 stationed at Soissons. He was followed by the 
 Minister of the Home Department, who communi- 
 cated a bill which had been posted up about the 
 streets. It denounced the king in explicit terms as 
 unworthy any longer to fill the throne, called for the 
 sword of justice to strike at his head, and threatened 
 to smite traitors, wherever found, even in the bosom 
 of the Assembly. 
 
 La Fayette repaired to the capital and delivered 
 a petition to the Assembly in his own individual 
 character, as a citizen, though with an avowal 
 June 28. that he spoke the sense of his whole army. 
 His demands were chiefly that the instigators and 
 leaders of the violences committed at the Tuileries on 
 June 20 should be prosecuted and punished for high 
 treason, and that the Jacobins should no longer be 
 suffered to meet. An entertainment was given to the 
 general, and he departed, unanswered, to resume his 
 command. 
 
 About the same time the new ministry gave the 
 first sign of approaching dissolution. 
 
 At the moment when Brissot was going to deliver 
 
 a set harangue on the state of the nation a singular 
 
 scene occurred. M. Lamourette, the consti- 
 
 July 7. ' 
 
 tutional Bishop of Lyons, 1 rose and inveighed 
 
 1 " The Ministers appeared at the Assembly yesterday ; a goodly 
 'show of noxious beasts " (Lockroy). 
 
 2 Adrien Lamourette was born about 1742, and was executed in 
 1794. This absurd reconciliation of parties gave rise to the proverbial 
 expression " Baiser de l'amourette," or "Delilah-kiss;" amourette 
 meaning a ' ' love-affair. " 
 
1792.] " Baiser de V amourette." 127 
 
 against the disastrous divisions of the Assembly. 
 " Let us," he continued amidst loud applause, " with 
 one unanimous and irrevocable oath blast for ever 
 the project both of a republic and of two chambers. 
 I move that the president shall put the question for 
 all to stand up who adjure and execrate alike a 
 republic and two chambers." He had scarcely 
 finished when every member present stood up and 
 swore that they would never suffer any change what- 
 ever to be made in the existing constitution. After 
 this ceremony they rushed across the hall into each 
 other's embraces, the opposite parties affectedly 
 mingling together ; and they who had distinguished 
 themselves by any marked personalities ostentatiously 
 seating themselves side by side. 1 
 
 A message was sent by twenty-four deputies to 
 Louis, who, attended by his ministers and the 
 deputies, entered amidst cries which of late he had 
 not often heard. He had come, he said, to express 
 in person that the nation and the king were one. 
 When he retired he was followed by every mark of 
 cordial satisfaction and delight from the Assembly 
 and the galleries. 
 
 Many of those who joined in this oath were 
 beyond doubt unfeignedly transported by the enthu- 
 siasm of the moment. Two days after, I7g2 
 Brissot declared that they had a right to J ul y9- 
 dispose of their personal resentments, but not of the 
 
 1 " Never was there a fiercer, more exciting, majestic, and astonish- 
 ing spectacle ; I was choked with rage, because I detected the snare ; 
 nevertheless my eyes were charmed, in spite of my reason, by this 
 sublime union, unmistakably displayed " (Lockroy). 
 
128 The French Revolution. [1792. 
 
 national justice. The whole course of the proceedings 
 in the ■ Assembly showed a determination to abridge 
 the king's power in every direction, and to drive him 
 or to drag him from the throne. 
 
 Nor was much vigour shown by the king on a 
 question which involved no less than the command 
 of Paris. This was the suspension of Petion from his 
 office. M. Rcederer passed a vote, in consequence of 
 his conduct on June 20, to suspend him from his 
 functions. The king ratified the suspension. The 
 majority in the Assembly restored the mayor, and he 
 resumed his functions. 
 
 On the day of the Federation everything was con- 
 trived tto prejudice the royal cause as much as pos- 
 sible in the eyes of the people. Immediately previous 
 to the ceremony the president of the Assembly went 
 to lay the foundation stone of a pillar to be dedi- 
 cated to Liberty, on the ruins of the Bastille. The 
 president, the legislative body, the National Guards, 
 the troops, and all the citizens present, on behalf of 
 themselves and of the whole people, now again 
 solemnly swore, on what they called the altar of their 
 country, to maintain the constitution decreed by the 
 first Assembly, and to be faithful to the nation, the 
 law, and the king. 
 
 In the provinces, the Jacobins blew into increased 
 rage all the old animosities against the nobles and the 
 Catholic clergy. At Brest, every non-juring priest 
 was imprisoned or banished. At Vans, M. Bravard, 
 aged ninety-eight, and the Abbe" Novi, aged twenty- 
 eight, were murdered ; at Bordeaux, the Abbe Dupuis 
 
179 2 ] Violence of the Fe'de'ris. 129 
 
 and M. Langoiran. Two hundred priests were im- 
 prisoned at Mans, three hundred at Cevennes, others 
 at Nantes, Port Louis, and other towns. 
 
 The king awaited the issue of events with resig- 
 nation. He frequently read the history of our 
 Charles I. 
 
 The Assembly voted that the terrace adjoining 
 the place of their meeting, called the Terrace of the 
 Feuillants, was a part of the precincts of their hall, 
 and should be open to the public. It was divided 
 from the gardens within by the new fence of a tri- 
 coloured ribbon. The next day a riotous crowd 
 gathered on this terrace, where the street-orators, 
 advancing to the ribbon, poured forth the most furious 
 invectives towards the palace. M. d'Esprem^nil, 
 who, before the meeting of the States-General, had 
 been almost adored as a martyr of liberty, was dis- 
 covered on the terrace. He was reviled, stripped, 
 beaten, mangled with the sabres of the F£deY6s, and 
 at last escaped from their hands, covered from head 
 to foot with blood and wounds. In the evening, M- 
 Champion, the new Minister of the Home Depart- 
 ment, ran a similar danger of his life. The Girondins 
 clamoured for the recall of Roland, Servan, and Cla- 
 viere, but Louis was firm in his refusal. 
 
 K 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 THE TENTH OF AUGUST — THE TRIAL OF THE KING. 
 
 An insurrection had been fixed for June 29, but was 
 postponed until August 9 or 10 ; this news was soon 
 I7gs . carried to M. Bertrand, and through him to 
 August 3. t j, e king, who made a new declaration of his 
 feelings and principles in a message to the Assembly. 
 
 The king's situation was now so manifestly des- 
 perate that many plans for his escape were daily 
 offered. Madame de Stael 1 proposed one of the 
 most romantic, in which an important part was 
 assigned to M. Narbonne. 2 But Louis rejected all 
 these proposals. 
 
 In the Assembly was brought forward the question 
 
 1 Anne Louise Germaine, Baronne de Stael-Holstein, daughter of 
 Necker, the famous daughter of famous parents. She was born in 
 1766, and died in 1817. It is superfluous to give any rhitmi of her life 
 so well-known to even superficial students of history. 
 
 2 Louis, Comte de Narbonne-Lara, born in 1755, died in 1813. 
 He accepted the first principles of the Revolution, accompanied the 
 king's aunts in their emigration, was for a short time Minister of War, 
 acted nobly on August 10, 1792, saved himself by flight, returned 
 under the consulate, became private aide-de-camp to Napoleon, and 
 ambassador to Vienna. He was a man of talent and much beloved by 
 his friends. 
 
1792.] Virulent Speeches in the Assembly. 131 
 
 of the impeachment of La Fayette, as having failed in 
 his duty to the country ; but the decree of I?92 . 
 impeachment was rejected by a large majority. Au s ust 8 - 
 This decision was furiously resented by the galleries, 
 by the Feuillants, and by the Jacobins. 
 
 The next day the Assembly listened to speeches 
 and passed decrees, all breathing a virulent spirit 
 against the king; and the preparations of 
 the Jacobins were well known at the Tuileries. 
 Defensive measures became necessary at the palace. 
 Troops were posted, and inspected by Petion and 
 Rcederer. On Petion's return to the Assembly that 
 suspicious body sent him as a prisoner to his own 
 house. The Assembly sat all night. 
 
 M. Mandat received a written order from Petion 
 to resist force by force. He was ordered to attend at 
 the hall of the Council General of the Commune. 
 The president ordered him to the Abbaye, 1 and at 
 the same time gave, by gesture, the order for his 
 assassination. 
 
 The king prepared himself for his fate by the ex- 
 ercise of religious duties. The queen passed the night 
 in alternately visiting her children and the council^ 
 chamber. The cries were heard of " Petion for ever ! 
 Down with the veto ! Down with the tyrant ! " The 
 attack of the insurgents was hourly expected. 
 
 The nobility and gentry, with some four or five 
 hundred of the National Guard, made a rampart of 
 
 1 A prison situated near the abbey of St. Germain des Pres. It 
 was built in 1522, and was in this year (1792) the scene of frightful 
 massacres. In 1854 it was demolished, 
 
132 The French Revolution. [1792. 
 
 their bodies around their sovereign. At about half- 
 I7g2 . past eight in the morning M. Rcederer advised 
 August 10. t jj e king- 1 fly f or protection to the Assembly. 
 The queen at first opposed this plan ; but at length 
 they left the Tuileries. On their arrival at the steps 
 leading to the Terrace of the Feuillants the crowds 
 pressed forward, shouting, " Death, death ! We will 
 have no more, tyrants ! " A small body of the 
 Directory of the department who accompanied the 
 royal party succeeded in making way for them. 
 
 Arrived at the Assembly, the king directed his 
 steps to the seats appropriated to the ministers, 
 observing that he came there to prevent a great 
 crime, perfectly assured that nowhere else could he 
 be safer. Vergniaud, 1 the vice-president, was in the 
 chair. Louis seated himself at his side ; but as the 
 constitution forbade all debate in the king's presence, 
 he was requested to retire with his family to a box 
 behind the president's chair, which had been used by 
 the editors of a newspaper called the Logographe. In 
 this confined situation, in a small whitewashed room 
 about ten feet square and six high, the unhappy 
 monarch and his family passed fourteen hours on a 
 burning August day, partaking of little or no refresh- 
 ment. 
 
 At different periods during the night several indi- 
 viduals, two and twenty in all, were arrested by the 
 insurgents. Eleven found means to escape; the popu- 
 lace, exhorted by The>oigne de MeVicourt, demanded 
 
 1 Pierre Victorin Vergniaud, an eminent barrister, of Bordeaux, 
 born in 1759, died with the Girondins, 1793. 
 
i79 2 -] Action of the Swiss Guard. 133 
 
 the others as victims. The Abbe" Bouyon was cut in 
 pieces by sabres. M. de Solminiac followed. M. 
 Sulean and six others were butchered. Two of the 
 eleven had escaped. 
 
 Five of the Swiss Guard who defended the 
 Tuileries had their brains beaten out by clubs. After 
 firing in the air, and the attack still continuing, the 
 Swiss at length resolved to repel force by force, and 
 a heavy fire commenced from the windows of the 
 palace. 1 
 
 When the report of the cannon was heard at the 
 Assembly the greatest consternation for a time pre- 
 vailed. The king declared that he had given direc- 
 tions to the Swiss not to fire. About a hundred of 
 them were brought from the palace to the Assembly, 
 and stripped of their uniforms, which were carried by 
 the people in triumph through the streets. Within 
 an hour a further engagement took place. The troops 
 were overpowered, no quarter was shown them ; those 
 who remained in the palace were still more cruelly 
 put to death. Even the royal domestics found within 
 the Tuileries were indiscriminately put to the sword. 
 The massacre was succeeded by a general plunder. 2 
 
 The Assembly grew bolder as the success of the 
 
 1 "All of a sudden the windows of the palace were filled with 
 Swiss Guards, who, without warning, fired on the National Guard. . . . 
 The justice of Heaven smoothed all difficulties, and the Swiss Guard 
 expiated, by every sort of death, the vile treason of which they were 
 the instruments " (Lockroy). 
 
 2 " The gold found in the palace, whether through vanity or through 
 disinterestedness born of excitement, was carried to the Assembly " 
 (Thiers). 
 
134 The French Revolution. [1792. 
 
 insurrection seemed assured, and took open part with 
 the conspirators. The sitting was made permanent. 
 All decrees not already sanctioned were voted to have 
 the force of laws. A national convention to settle 
 the future government was summoned. The king 
 was provisionally suspended from his functions, and, 
 with his family, committed to the close custody of 
 the municipality formed for his destruction ; while 
 his power was to be exercised by a new executive 
 council appointed by the Assembly. The three dis- 
 missed ministers were, of course, placed at the head 
 of it ; with them was joined M. Monge, 1 as Minister 
 of the Marine ; M. Lebrun for the Foreign Depart- 
 ment ; and, for his asserted merits in the late insur- 
 rection, Danton, 2 the great leader of the Cordeliers, 
 as Minister of Justice. 
 
 The former ministers and the most obnoxious of 
 the royalists and Feuillants were seized and thrown 
 into prison. La Fayette fled from his command, but 
 he was captured and detained a prisoner of war. 
 M. Dumouriez 8 accepted the post which La Fayette 
 had vacated. 
 
 1 Gaspard Monge was born in 1746, the son of a pedlar ; he was a 
 famous geometrician. He took little part in the Revolution beyond 
 accepting the direction of the navy for eight months. He died in 1818. 
 
 2 Georges Jacques Danton was born in 1759, and at the outbreak 
 of the Revolution was a barrister without briefs. Robespierre feared 
 Danton's power over the people, and denounced him as guilty of 
 " Moderantism," and as the enemy of the Republic; he was im- 
 prisoned March 31, 1794, condemned and executed April 5 following. 
 
 3 Charles Francois Duperrier, General Dumouriez, was born in 
 1739, and died in 1823. From the age of sixteen years he followed his 
 father in the profession of arms. At twenty-four he had received 
 
I792-] Royal Family removed to the Temple. 135 
 
 [During three days Louis and his family occupied 
 the reporters' box of the Logographe, passing the 
 night in the small upper rooms. On the I792 . 
 fourth day they were removed to the Temple Aupist I3- 
 prison. 1 As they passed through the streets in 
 Potion's carriage the crowd was in general ominously 
 silent, but occasional cries of " Vive la Nation ! " were 
 heard. All the foreign ambassadors immediately 
 quitted France. Having done its work of destroying 
 order, the Constituent Assembly now destroyed itself; 
 it disappears in lurid flame, and the "Convention" 
 rises from its ashes. Deputies were elected, all dis- 
 abilities being abolished. Seven hundred 
 and forty-five deputies composed this new ugus 
 chamber of legislation, which emancipated France 
 from Christianity, from God, from monarchy, from 
 freedom; "reason" and the guillotine reigned in 
 their stead. 2 ] 
 
 It was an undoubted principle with the most 
 active party of the Convention that while Louis 
 lived there could be no permanent security for them. 
 Legendre proposed that all who had written out their 
 opinions on the subject of the king's conduct should 
 lay them on the table of the Assembly, and that after 
 
 twenty-two wounds. He joined the Girondins ; was head of the Army 
 of the North, and won the battle of Jemmapes ; came to Paris for the 
 king's trial ; rejoined the army, and agreed to betray his trust to the 
 Austrians. He came to England disgraced,- and there died. 
 
 1 Formerly a monastery of the Knights Templar. 
 
 2 "Writing under date of August 21, 1792, Madame J says, 
 
 ' ' Mesdames De Lamballe, De Tourzel, and De Luynes . . . were taken 
 
 to La Force [a prison]. The ci-devant Prince de Poix was arrested at 
 
136 The French Revolution. [1792. 
 
 the intervention of one day they should pronounce 
 sentence on the culprit, without suffering him to utter 
 a word in his defence. Robespierre thought the 
 whole business might be completed in twenty-four 
 hours. The intended proceedings were carefully 
 concealed from the king ; it was only from Cliry, his 
 faithful valet-de-chambre, that he knew anything of 
 them. He was also cruelly and suddenly separated 
 from his son. 
 
 The plan of trial was detailed in fourteen articles. 
 Eight proofs of guilt were scheduled ; they consisted 
 of receipts of money paid to some of the king's 
 relatives and troops, such payments being contrary 
 to the constitution. The consideration of these 
 matters was succeeded by a question concerning the 
 constitutional inviolability of the king ; the objection 
 raised was overruled by a post-facto law. M. Cazales 
 and M. de Narbonne desired to appear as counsel for 
 Louis, but their request was refused. Louis XVI., 
 the best of the kings of France, was left to his fate. 
 
 At 5 a.m. the preparations began, and a body of 
 
 cavalry, with several pieces of cannon, were intro- 
 
 I792 . duced into the Temple gardens. At n a.m. 
 
 Dec. 11. ^e dauphin, to whom his father was acting 
 
 as tutor, was forcibly taken to his mother. At 1 p.m. 
 
 Chambon, Mayor of Paris, appeared ; with him two 
 
 Passy. . . . How gay and good-humoured the French are ! They 
 scatter roses everywhere. . . . My prayers to God are all praises. You 
 and I, dear husband, whose souls are truly great and humane, we feel 
 that it is sometimes necessary to be barbarous from virtuous motives. 
 Yesterday - . . D'Anglemont took his head to the guillotine ; to-day ■ 
 it is the turn of the Prince de Poix and La Porte ' " (Lockroy). 
 
*79 2 -J The Kings Trial begins. 137 
 
 generals, one of whom was Santerre. Louis was' pre- 
 sented at the bar of the National Convention. Barere, 1 
 the president, thus addressed him, " Louis, the French 
 nation accuses you. The National Convention decreed 
 on December 3 that you should be tried by it. On 
 December 6 it was decreed that you should be brought 
 to the bar; and while the charges against you are 
 read, you are permitted to seat yourself." 
 
 Louis submitted. The chief accusations were that 
 he had attempted to dissolve the Assembly in June, 
 
 1 Bertrand Barere, de Vieuzac (his father's native place), was born 
 in I755> died in January, 1841. He was a successful barrister, deputy 
 to the States-General, editor of the Point du Jour. He sought popu- 
 larity with avidity, and abandoned his convictions, uniting himself to 
 the extreme party. At the Convention he represented the department 
 of the Hautes Pyrenees, and indulged in showy eloquence, being nick- 
 named the "Anacreon of the Guillotine." His " bloody cowardice " 
 culminated at the trial of Louis XVI. ; he uttered these words, " The 
 tree of Liberty only flourishes when watered by the blood of tyrants ! " 
 When on the Committee of Public Safety he decreed that "terror was 
 the order of the day ; '' he also said, when advising massacres, " The 
 dead alone never return I" In 1796, he was proscribed, and lived in 
 retreat until the return of Napoleon in 1815, when he was sent to the 
 Chamber of Deputies, and showed himself very moderate in his views. 
 He was banished by Louis XVIII., and retired to Belgium. Again 
 elected a deputy in 1830, the Chamber quashed his election as informal. 
 M. H. Camot in 1842 published a volume of extracts from Barere's 
 papers, and this gave occasion to Macaulay to put forth in the Edin- 
 burgh Review one of his most magnificent essays. " Barere was not 
 unnaturally considered by persons who lived at a distance from the 
 seat of government, and above all by foreigners, who, while the war 
 raged, knew France only from journals, as the head of that administra- 
 tion of which, in truth, he was only the secretary and spokesman. The 
 author of the ' History of Europe ' in our own Annual Register appears 
 to have been completely under this delusion. . . . Barere approached 
 nearer than any person mentioned in history or fiction, whether man 
 or devil, to the idea of consummate and universal depravity" 
 (Macaulay, April, 1844). 
 
138 The French Revolution. [i79 2 - 
 
 1 789 ; that he had endeavoured to overawe it with 
 troops; that he had ordered the Regiment of Flanders 
 to Versailles ; that he had fled to Varennes ; that he 
 had encouraged libels against the patriots. Among 
 the personal charges against him were these : that he 
 had promised, if he should recover his authority, to 
 restore the Christian religion ; that he had assisted 
 the emigrants ; that he had corresponded with his 
 brothers ; that the horrors of August 10 were to be 
 imputed to him. The former class of charges shocked 
 even the morality of Marat, and troubled the philo- 
 sophy of Thomas Paine. 1 
 
 A long series of bitter accusations was read aloud 
 to Louis, who denied knowledge of almost all. Then 
 the president said, " Louis, the National Convention 
 permits you to retire." The king immediately with- 
 drew. He was allowed counsel, and chose as one 
 M. de Lamoignon Malesherbes, a man universally 
 respected and beloved, who was seventy-two years 
 of age. 
 
 It was now decreed that Louis should have no 
 communication with the queen or with his sister ; 
 but he might see his children, provided they were 
 kept apart from their mother and aunt. From the 
 conduct of the king during his imprisonment it 
 
 1 Thomas Paine, born in 1737, atThetford, in Norfolk, died in 1809 
 in America. He was successively staymaker, exciseman, author. He 
 wrote the "Rights of Man," in answer to Burke. Being prosecuted, 
 he went to France and was chosen into the Assembly ; under Robes- 
 pierre he was thrown into prison, and narrowly escaped the guillotine. 
 At this time he wrote his infamous "Age of Reason." In 1802, he 
 . went to America, having previously made a scandalous attack on the 
 character of Washington. 
 
i79 2 -3 His Defence — His Sentence. 139 
 
 appears that he entertained but little, if any, expecta- 
 tions that his enemies would permit him to live. His 
 strong sense of religion served to support him in 
 one of the most trying situations that our miserable 
 nature has ever experienced. He employed himself 
 on Christmas Day in writing that last will and testa- 
 ment which is so replete with piety, benevolence, and 
 understanding, as to have excited the admiration 
 and awakened the sympathy of every intelligent and 
 feeling mind that has contemplated this extraordinary 
 effort of suffering humanity. 
 
 On the following day the king was conducted a 
 second time to the bar of the Convention, this being 
 the day for hearing his defence. M. de Sezes 1 
 began the defence which had been prepared Dec.*^. 
 by himself, Tronchet 2 and Malesherbes. 3 
 
 When M. de Sezes had finished, the president 
 demanded of Louis if he had anything to add to the 
 defence made by his counsel. The king replied in 
 a few calm and dignified sentences. The president 
 then demanded if he wished to add anything more ; 
 and the king, having answered in the negative, with- 
 
 1 Raymond, Comte de Sezes, was a barrister of Bordeaux. He was 
 arrested in 1793 as suspect. After the 9th of Thermidor he resumed his 
 profession. Louis XVIII. created him a peer of France, and he was 
 admitted into the Academic He died in 1828. 
 
 2 Francois Denis Tronchet, bom in 1726, died in 1806. He was a 
 barrister ; in 1801 he became one of Bonaparte's senators. 
 
 3 Chretien Guillaume de Lamoignon de Malesherbes was bom in 
 1 721, executed in 1794. He was a man of great talent and greater 
 goodness. "His writings," said Laharpe, "are monuments of virtue 
 in an age of corruption." A memorial has been erected to him in the 
 Palais de Justice in Paris. 
 
140 The French Revolution. [1793- 
 
 drew, attended by his counsel, into the Chamber of 
 Conferences, and was soon conducted, amid the 
 outcries of the rabble, which were more frequent than 
 on the former day, to his prison in the Temple. 
 
 During several succeeding days the Convention 
 was principally occupied In hearing the opinions of 
 its members, all of whom introduced their discourses 
 with a declaration of the king's guilt. They, how- 
 ever, differed as to the penalty he had incurred, many 
 of them being of opinion that both justice and policy 
 forbade the punishment of death. All the Rolandists, 
 Brissotins, and Girondins were of that number. The 
 party of Danton and Robespierre argued for imme- 
 diate death. At length it was decreed that the follow- 
 ing questions should be put to all the members, and 
 be determined by nominal appeal or public vote : — 
 
 1. Is Louis Capet, late King of France, guilty of a 
 conspiracy against liberty, and of attempts against 
 the general safety of the State ? Yes or no. 
 
 2. Shall the judgment to be pronounced on Louis 
 be submitted to the ratification of the people in the 
 primary assemblies ? Yes or no. 
 
 3. What punishment has he incurred ? 
 
 The Convention met on January 16, to determine 
 the punishment that Louis was to suffer. The fatal 
 I793 . ceremony occupied the whole day, and ended 
 Jan. 16. j n t h e sentence of death. There were 72 1 
 votes ; and if those which were for death with certain 
 restrictions are subtracted from the majority, it does 
 not appear that the sentence was carried by more 
 than five votes. 
 
CHAPTER XI. 
 
 DEATH OF LOUIS XVI. — ASSASSINATION OF MARAT. 
 
 M. DE SEZES read a few lines from the king pro- 
 testing against the injustice of his sentence, and 
 appealing from the Convention to the nation iyg3 
 at large. The Convention rejected the appeal ( ^^" 
 to the people, but adjourned to consider the Republic.) 
 subject of a reprieve. 
 
 On the Thursday, M. de Malesherbes had an in- 
 terview with the king, to inform him of the sentence 
 passed. Louis earnestly entreated his old 
 
 ... Ja n - J 7- 
 
 friend to repeat his visits and not to abandon 
 him in his last moments. But this final request was 
 denied the persecuted and insulted king, and he saw 
 his faithful friend and counsellor no more. 
 
 The circumstance which most afflicted Louis was 
 the conduct of the Duke of Orleans, who had voted for 
 the death of his king and kinsman. In the 
 
 Jan. 18. 
 
 interval of his devotions the royal prisoner 
 
 read the account of the death of Charles I., as related 
 
 by Hume. 
 
 The king's desk and drawers were searched for 
 
142 The French Revolution. C1793. 
 
 any weapons with which he might attempt his life. 
 1793. To these and other insults he submitted with 
 Jan- 19- ^he utmost patience and resignation. 
 
 The morning of this day he employed in reading 
 
 and writing ; and about two o'clock he received the 
 
 fatal visit of the Executive Council. Garat, 
 
 Jan. 20. 
 
 Minister of Justice, Le Brun, Minister of 
 Foreign Affairs, Grouvelle, Secretary of the Council, 
 and several officers of the police and criminal tribunal 
 were introduced by Santerre, with his usual insolence. 
 Louis was informed that he would suffer the punish- 
 ment of death, and that his execution would take place 
 within twenty-four hours after its notification. 1 
 
 During this ceremony, which troubled even those 
 who were employed to perform it, the countenance 
 of the king suffered no change that denoted alarm. 
 He took a paper from his pocket-book containing 
 his last requests ; viz. that his sentence might be 
 delayed for three days, in order that he might be 
 better prepared to appear in the presence of God ; 
 that he might be freely visited by a person whom he 
 should name (M. lAbbe" Edgeworth de Fremont), 
 
 1 Under date January 19, in the volume called "La Demagogie a 
 Paris, 1793/' appears this extract from a print of the day : " This news 
 was soon known to all Paris, and the calmness of terror fell upon the 
 whole city. . . . While the Convention solemnly pronounced the 
 penalty of death upon the tyrant . . , certain F^deres of Marseilles and 
 of many other departments, together with their brethren of Paris, 
 beneath the gaze of the magistrates, sang the 'Hymn of Liberty,' 
 and the air 'Caira,' dancing merry farandoles, and forming but one 
 chain of many thousands of both sexes, holding each other by the hand." 
 
 Madame J writes: "Paris remains majestically calm ; not a 
 
 remonstrance or complaint is to be heard " (Lockroy), 
 
I793-J The King takes leave of his Family. 143 
 
 who would be qualified to assist him in the solemn 
 act of preparation ; that he might have a free com- 
 munication with his family, and without witnesses ; 
 that the National Convention would allow his family 
 to withdraw from France ; and one or two wishes for 
 the welfare of his old servants. 
 
 At six o'clock Garat informed him that he might 
 see M. Edgeworth and his family ; that the nation 
 would take on itself the care of his family and pen- 
 sioners ; but that the delay was refused. 
 
 The king then retired with M. Edgeworth, a 
 gentleman who was from the piety of his life, the 
 strength of his mind, and the gentleness of his 
 manners, in a pre-eminent degree qualified to fulfil 
 this important and affecting duty. His family was 
 from Ireland ; but he had been bred in France, and 
 had been chosen by the Princess Elizabeth as her 
 confessor. 1 
 
 At eight o'clock the king received his family. 
 When the first agony had in some degree subsided, 
 he informed them of the sentence which condemned 
 him to die, and in how short a time it was to be 
 executed. It is a scene whose history will appal man- 
 kind while there is a sense of honour or justice in the 
 world, and will awaken sensibility in the human 
 breast while there are hearts to feel or tears to shed. 
 
 1 He was of the same family as Richard Lovell Edgeworth and his 
 daughter Maria Edgeworth; was born in 1745, and after the execution 
 of Louis escaped in disguise to England, and from thence to Mittau, in 
 Russia, where Louis XVIII. resided in exile. There the Abbe devoted 
 himself to the sufferers from an epidemic, caught the disease, and died 
 in 1807. 
 
144 The French Revolution. [1793. 
 
 Nothing now remained for his consolation but to 
 perform the rites and receive the Communion of his. 
 Church. When his solemn confession was over, M. 
 Edgeworth, perceiving his royal penitent to be almost 
 exhausted, entreated him to go to bed and endeavour 
 to obtain a little rest The king did so, and enjoyed 
 I7g3 . a calm repose until five next morning, when 
 J anuaiy2I \he was awakened according, to his order. 
 At seven he heard Mass, and received the Sacrament 
 with the most profound devotion. 
 
 All Paris had been under arms since five o'clock, 
 while the sound of drums, the noise of weapons, the 
 clatter of horses, and the passage of cannon were 
 distinctly heard in the tower. At nine the bustle 
 increased, and Santerre appeared, attended by ten 
 gens d'armes, who disposed themselves in two lines. 
 The king, with a firm voice, said to Santerre, " Let us 
 be gone." 1 M. Edgeworth followed his master, and 
 was with him in the carriage which awaited them, 
 together with two gens d'armes. 
 
 During the passage from the Temple to the Place 
 de la Revolution, formerly called the Place Louis 
 Quinze, 2 he read such prayers as were best suited to 
 his situation. When the carriage stopped at the 
 scaffold, the king immediately descended from it, 
 and having thrown off his coat was about to ascend 
 the scaffold, when the executioners seized his hands, 
 in order to tie them behind him. As he was not 
 
 1 "Louis . . . saying, ' Marchons, je suis prW . . . accompanied 
 by . . . Firmont, and a commissioner of the Commune, named Roux, 
 an apostate priest" ("La Demagogie "). 
 
 * Now the Place de la Concorde. 
 
I793-] His Patience and Firmness. 145 
 
 prepared for this last insult, he appeared disposed to 
 repel it ; but M. Edgeworth, sensible that resistance 
 would be vain, and might expose the royal sufferer to 
 outrages more violent, said to him, " Sire, this added 
 humiliation is another circumstance in which your 
 Majesty's sufferings resemble those of that Saviour 
 Who will soon be your recompense." These words 
 softened him at once, and he presented his hands to 
 the murderous attendants, and they tied them with 
 so much force as to call forth another remonstrance 
 from the king. 
 
 He now mounted the scaffold, and M. Edgeworth, 
 following him, boldly exclaimed with the fervent 
 animation of his holy zeal, " Son of St. Louis, ascend 
 to heaven ! " 
 
 The king, bound and disfigured as he was, ad- 
 vanced with a firm step to that part of the scaffold 
 which faced the palace, and, requesting the drums to 
 cease, was instantly obeyed. He then addressed the 
 people in a tone of voice loud enough to be heard in 
 the garden of the Tuileries : " Frenchmen, I die 
 innocent of all the crimes which have been imputed 
 to me. I forgive my enemies ; I implore God, from 
 the bottom of my heart, to pardon them, and not to 
 take vengeance on the French nation for the blood 
 about to be shed." 
 
 He was proceeding, when Santerre, who was on 
 horseback near the scaffold, made a signal for the 
 drums to beat, when the assistants seized their victim, 
 and the horrid murder was completed. 
 
 When the king's head was severed from the body, 
 
 L 
 
146 The French Revolution. [1793- 
 
 one of the executioners held it up by the hair, dancing 
 at the same time round the scaffold, with the most 
 savage exultation, and the shouts of "Vive la Nation ! 
 Vive la Republique ! " seemed to applaud the exe- 
 crable deed. The body was conveyed in a cart to 
 the churchyard of the Madeleine, and thrown into a 
 grave, which was instantly filled with quicklime, and 
 a guard placed over it till the corpse was consumed. 1 
 
 Thus did the French nation, who had endured the 
 cruelties of Louis XL, the treachery of Charles IX., 
 and the tyranny of Louis XIV., condemn and execute 
 for the pretended crimes of cruelty, treachery, and 
 tyranny, the most mild, just, and humane prince who 
 ever sat on the throne of France. He was thirty- 
 eight years of age. 
 
 [It could not be supposed that such an event as 
 the murder of Louis XVI. could take place without 
 producing various consequences which must very 
 much affect the state and condition of the country 
 where it happened. A war with England was the 
 first of them. But as this volume only professes to 
 deal with the actual Revolution, and not with its 
 consequences, the latter will merely be glanced at 
 from time to time, and only when intimately con- 
 nected with events taking place within France. 
 
 1 An engraving in " La Demagogie " shows the inhuman delight of 
 the savages round the scaffold. The details are too horrible to be 
 
 repeated, here. Madame J says, " The people displayed a majestic 
 
 calm." Thiers says, "These madmen displayed the brutal and unreal 
 joy which the populace manifests at the birth, at the accession, and at 
 the fall of every prince. '' But the English populace showed no such 
 exultation at the execution of Charles I. 
 
1793-3 The National Convention. 147 
 
 A pause occurred after the king's execution, 1 
 which was filled up by legislation on the part of the 
 Convention, who established a " Revolutionary Tri- 
 bunal " and a " Committee of Public Safety." Violent 
 contests arose between the different factions. The 
 National Convention took possession of their I793 . 
 new Hall of Assembly in the Palace of the Ma y I0 - 
 Tuileries, and laid the first stone of the new edifice 
 of their constitution. The Gironde party had felt 
 themselves tottering. The inflammatory journal 2 
 conducted by Marat was generally believed to have 
 fomented the spirit of discontent which prevailed 
 (he had declared that the victories of Grandprd, Jem- 
 mapes, etc., had been disastrous for the republic), and 
 on March 26 he had been denounced ; on April 12 
 he was committed to the Abbaye. The jury by 
 whom he was tried acquitted him without a dissen- 
 tient voice. 
 
 The Convention was now become one continued 
 scene of recrimination and commotion. On May 31, 
 the Girondin party was precipitated from 
 power by the Jacobin faction. On the libera- 
 tion of Marat he had become more bold and daring 
 than he had hitherto been.] 
 
 Among the extraordinary circumstances of the 
 eventful moment which is before us, is the death of 
 
 1 Carlyle steps from January 21 to February 25 ; " La Demagogie" 
 has little to tell until March 26 ; Lockroy gives one or two letters of 
 anxiety about the scarcity of food, and of admiration for Robespierre. 
 
 Madame J 's last letter is dated May 1 ; she was arrested on 
 
 August 10, and her son soon afterwards. 
 
 1 VAmi du Peuple ; latterly it went by other names. 
 
148 The French Revolution. [1793- 
 
 Marat, a reputed member, at least, of that party which 
 had now obtained the ruling power in France. This 
 furious incendiary, who, from the violence of his cha 
 I793 . racter, has been suspected of insanity, was 
 July 13. assass inated by a young, well-educated, and 
 beautiful woman, 1 from Caen in Normandy, in the 
 department of Calvados, which appears to have been 
 particularly attached to the Girondin party. Char- 
 lotte Corday was the extraordinary person who had 
 conceived the project, as far as it depended upon her 
 single arm, of destroying those men whom she 
 believed to be the leading tyrants of her country. 
 After several unsuccessful attempts, the important 
 moment at length arrived when she found herself in 
 his presence. The conduct of her Brissotin friends 
 became the subject of conversation ; and at the 
 moment when Marat declared that such traitors 
 would find their reward beneath the guillotine, she 
 plunged a dagger in his breast. 2 
 
 1 " One description of Charlotte Corday says that she was of medium 
 height, with an oval face, fine features, blue eyes, a good nose, beauti- 
 ful mouth, chestnut hair, lovely hands and arms ; another says that she 
 was a virago, awkward, dirty, insolent, rubicund, and fat ; and that if 
 she had been pretty she would have been more anxious to live" (La 
 Demagogie). 
 
 ■ " It is yellow July evening. . . . M. Marat . . . sits now about 
 half-past seven of the clock, stewing in slipper-bath ; sore afflicted ; ill 
 of Revolution fever [and] of , . . other malady. Excessively sick and 
 worn . . . with precisely elevenpence-halfpenny of ready-money in 
 paper [Thiers says five francs] ; with slipper-bath ; strong three-footed 
 stool for writing on, the while . . . Charlotte Corday is admitted. . . . 
 ' What deputies are at Caen ? ' Charlotte names some. ' Their heads 
 shall fall within a fortnight.' . . . Charlotte has drawn her knife from 
 the sheath, plunges it, with one sure stroke, into . . [his] . . . 
 heart" (Carlyle). 
 
I793-J Assassination of Marat. 1 49 
 
 Having perpetrated the deed which was the object 
 of her visit, she walked with perfect composure out 
 of the house, treated the officers who seized her with 
 silent contempt, and suffered death on the scaffold 
 with the same calm fortitude which accompanied the 
 perpetration of the deed which had brought her to it. 1 
 She was but twenty-five years of age. 
 
 The remains of the murdered Jacobin were 
 interred with great pomp. The - honours of the 
 Pantheon were granted to his remains ; but I?g3 . 
 within two years they were disinterred, and J ulyI 7- 
 scattered with every mark of contemptuous and irate 
 indignity. 
 
 1 " We read in the Moniteur, ' Charlotte Corday has been executed, 
 the 17th, about seven p.m., in the Place de la Revolution, in the [red] 
 garb of assassins, and her goods confiscated to the Republic' The 
 executioner . . . struck the bleeding head, when showing it, according 
 to custom, to those present ; the cheeks were still crimson, and it was 
 said that they were so in consequence of the insult thus offered to 
 them " (La Demagogie). 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 
 EXECUTION OF MARIE ANTOINETTE ; OF PHILIPPE 
 EGALITE ; OF MADAME ROLAND ; OF TWENTY 
 PUBLIC MEN ; AND OF MANY OTHERS. 
 
 [As before remarked, this is not the place in which 
 to enter into any account of the wars in which 
 France was engaged. At Aix, at Toulon, at Lyons, 
 the disputes of parties developed into civil war. At 
 Toulon the young Napoleon Bonaparte gave some 
 indications of what his military genius would be in 
 its maturity.] 
 
 The government of France was now become a 
 government of blood, to be sustained by the terrors 
 of the guillotine ; it was employed to remove those 
 who were obnoxious, to destroy those who were 
 suspected, and to punish those who, though they 
 deserved good fortune, could not always command it. 
 Hence it was that the unfortunate Custine, 1 one of 
 the most meritorious generals that France could 
 boast, was called from the northern army, and 
 
 1 Adam Philippe, Comte de Custine, born in 1740. He was a 
 brave officer, but not equal to the command of an army. He was 
 executed on August 28, 1793. 
 
1 793] The Queen in the Conciergerie. 151 
 
 accused of corresponding with the Russians ; his 
 transition was but short from the prison to the 
 scaffold. 
 
 This act of injustice was soon followed by another 
 of the most affecting nature, which the people had 
 been urged to demand, and the ruling powers were 
 anxious to perform. It was no less than the death 
 of the queen. She had been already separated from 
 her family in the Temple. In the night of i 793 . 
 August 1 she was suddenly and in the most Au e" st u 
 cruel and insulting manner removed to the Con- 
 ciergerie, 1 a prison destined for the reception of the 
 vilest malefactors. There she was treated with a 
 degree of wanton and savage barbarity of which we 
 know not how to conceive the motive, unless it was 
 hoped that its severity might save her persecutors 
 the forms of a trial, or that it would familiarize 
 the people with humiliated royalty. The cell in 
 which she was immured was only eight feet square 
 her bed a hard mattress of straw, and her food of 
 the meanest kind ; while she was never allowed 
 the privilege of being alone, two soldiers being 
 appointed to watch her day and night, without the 
 intermission of a moment. 
 
 After a confinement of ten weeks in this loath- 
 some dungeon, she was at length brought before the 
 Revolutionary Tribunal. The act of accusation was 
 
 1 This prison was called the Conciergerie because it served as the 
 lodge of the concierge of the Palais de Justice. The dungeon of Marie 
 Antoinette afterwards became a bath-room ; that in which Madame 
 Elizabeth, and afterwards Robespierre, were confined, was turned into 
 the sacristy of the chapel ; that of Lavalette into a chaujfoir. 
 
152 The French Revolution. [1793- 
 
 of great length, heavily charged with the most calum- 
 niating expressions, in which she was represented as 
 having been the cause of every real or supposed 
 public calamity which had happened in France, from 
 the time of her arrival there to that moment. She 
 was charged, among other things, with dissipating 
 the public revenues, with sending to her brother 
 Joseph (Emperor of Austria) two hundred millions 
 of francs (eight million pounds sterling), as a relief 
 in his wars with the Turks ; with holding a corre- 
 spondence with foreign powers, and inviting them to 
 attack France ; with causing a famine, and kindling 
 a civil war in the realm ; and, to complete the folly 
 as well as the atrocity of her accusers, she was 
 charged with crimes against morality, and even 
 against nature ! 
 
 Of these various charges not one was proved, 
 which appears extraordinary, considering how easy 
 it was to procure evidence to any charge, and ,oaths 
 to support any evidence. The trial was conducted 
 I793 . with some appearance of formality, but the 
 October i3. sentence was a j rea( ]y prepared. On being 
 
 informed by the president of the tribunal that she 
 must prepare to submit to the same fate which her 
 husband had already suffered, she did not discover 
 the least emotion, and her aspect lost none of that 
 dignity which it displayed in every circumstance of 
 her misfortunes. She had probably anticipated her 
 fate, and therefore met it with calmness and resigna- 
 tion. During her trial, though she was wholly unpre- 
 pared to meet, as she was uninformed of, the circum- 
 
1793-J Her Trial. 153 
 
 stances of her accusations, she displayed great presence 
 of mind, penetration, and ability, in every part of the 
 proceedings against her, rising above herself into 
 sublimity when the charges were urged against her 
 moral character. The advocates assigned to plead 
 her cause were afraid to do their duty, or, knowing 
 how vain their efforts would be, let her pass unde- 
 fended to her fate. 
 
 She retired from the hall without uttering a word 
 to the court or to the people, and at four I?g3 
 o'clock in the morning was reconducted to° ctoberi6 - 
 her dungeon. 
 
 At five, the drums beat to arms in every part of 
 the city ; cannon were planted in the squares and at 
 the ends of the bridges ; and at ten, numerous patrols 
 passed through the streets. 
 
 At half-past eleven, the queen was brought out 
 of prison, and, like an ordinary malefactor, was con- 
 ducted in a common cart to the place of execution. 1 
 Her hair was entirely cut off from the back of her 
 head, which was covered with a small white cap ; she 
 wore a white undress ; her hands were tied behind 
 her, and she sat with her back to the horses. The 
 executioner was seated on her right, and on the left 
 was a constitutional priest. The cart was escorted 
 by numerous detachments of horse and foot. Henriot, 
 Ronsin, and Boulanger, generals of the revolutionary 
 army, preceded by numerous staff officers, rode before 
 it. An immense mob of people, in which the women 
 
 1 Formerly known as the Place Louis XV. ; then as the Place de la 
 Revolution ; latterly as the Place de la Concorde. 
 
154 The French Revolution. [1793- 
 
 appeared to predominate, crowded the streets, insulted 
 the queen, and vociferated " Long live the Republic ! " 
 
 She seldom cast' her eyes upon the populace, and 
 regarded with indifference, if she at all regarded, the 
 great armed force of thirty thousand men which lined 
 the streets in double ranks. They who had seen her 
 in the former part of her life could not but observe 
 the altered state of her countenance, and what a sad 
 change sorrow had made in that seat of animation 
 and beauty. Her spirits appeared to be calm, and 
 she conversed with the priest who was seated by 
 her with an air of decent submission, but without 
 the least appearance of anguish or dejection. She . 
 ascended the scaffold with much haste and seeming 
 impatience, and then turned her eyes with apparent 
 emotion towards the garden of the Tuileries, one of 
 the scenes of her former greatness. 
 
 At half-past twelve, the guillotine severed her 
 head from her body, and the executioner exhibited 
 it, all streaming with blood, from the four corners of 
 the scaffold to an inveterate and insatiable multitude. 
 
 Thus perished, in the thirty-eighth year of her age, 
 Marie Antoinette, Queen of France, who had enjoyed 
 all the good the world can give and suffered all the 
 evil it can inflict. No doubt her errors have been 
 greatly magnified by the tongue of calumny ; but even 
 if, amid the splendour of her life, she should have been 
 subject to reproach, the period of her adversity has 
 redeemed it, and every future age will accompany 
 the reflection of her sad fate with the mingled tear 
 of respect and commiseration. 
 
'793-J Her Execution and Burial. 155 
 
 The corpse of this ill-fated queen was immediately 
 conveyed to a grave filled with quicklime, in the 
 churchyard called De la Madeleine, where the remains 
 of Louis XVI. had been interred with the same priva- 
 tion of pious regard or decent ceremonial. 
 
 The death of the queen was soon followed by 
 that of the accused deputies. They were convicted 
 of having conspired against the unity and 
 indivisibility of the Republic, by exciting a 0ctober 3°- 
 rebellion in the departments of the south, and that 
 of Calvados. On October 30, twenty-one of these 
 deputies suffered the stroke of the guillotine. They 
 were Brissot, Vergniaud, Gensonne, Duprat, Lehardi, 
 Ducos, Fonfrede, Boileau, Gardien, Duchatel, Sillery, 
 Fauchet, Dufriche, Duperret, La Source, Carra, 
 Beauvais, Mainville, Antiboul, Viget, and Lacaze. 
 Valaz6, who had prepared the charges against the 
 king, stabbed himself at the moment when the 
 sentence was pronounced against him. 
 
 Manuel, 1 who had exerted himself to save the life 
 
 of his former king, was soon cut off by the vengeance 
 
 of Robespierre, who could not forget, and was not 
 
 formed to forgive, the cutting sarcasms of his hostile 
 
 1 Pierre Louis Manuel was bom in 1751. A pamphlet against 
 religion caused him to be sent to the Bastille, from whence he came 
 out full of revolutionary ardour. He directed the doings of June 20 
 and August 10; he caused Louis XVI. to be transferred to the Temple ; 
 he sanctioned many massacres, and yet rescued many victims. His 
 official visits to Louis in prison had the effect of changing his opinions, 
 and he spoke bravely in defence of the king's life. The next day he 
 was forced to resign his seat ; he retired to his native town, Montargis, 
 where he was arrested on August 20, 1 793 ; and he was guillotined in 
 Paris in the following November. 
 
156 The French Revolution. [1793. 
 
 wit. The Generals Houchard and Luckner shared 
 the same fate. Bailly, the first Mayor of Paris after 
 the Revolution, was condemned by the same tribunal. 
 M. Barnave also felt the weight of Jacobinic resent- 
 ment or apprehension. He was a man of great elo- 
 quence, splendid talent, and high character. 1 
 
 Rabaut de St. Etienne, whose integrity was his 
 real crime, soon followed to the same scaffold, with 
 many others who either deserved to live, or were not 
 condemned for the crimes for which they deserved 
 to die. 2 
 
 The decree which removed the Bourbon family to 
 Marseilles has been already mentioned, and that the 
 Duke of Orleans, who had assumed the ridiculous 
 and silly title of " Philippe Egalitd," was included in 
 its operation. He was, however, in the beginning of 
 November, brought to Paris, to appear as a criminal 
 before the Revolutionary Tribunal. He was accused 
 of having aspired to the sovereign power from the 
 very commencement of the Revolution ; but whether 
 this charge was proved against him we are not com- 
 
 1 "Barnave, on the scaffold, stamped with his foot, and looking 
 upwards was heard to ejaculate, ' This, then, is my reward ! ' " 
 
 2 Adam Lux ; Custine the younger ; Generals Biron, Beauharnais 
 (whose widow Josephine married Napoleon Bonaparte), Brunet ; Du- 
 port ; Lebrun ; Jourdan, " the headsman " ; the Abbe Lamourette, etc. 
 The catalogue would be too long. Hardly a name prominent in 1786 
 can be found in the records of 1795. All, in long succession, went to 
 violent death, and hundreds of whom now not even the names can be 
 recalled. On November 28, it was announced that the first of the 
 Loire "drownings" had taken place; eighty-four priests had been 
 taken out in a boat, of which the bottom could be dropped at will, and 
 left to their fate. 
 
1 793 J Execution of Madame Roland. 157 
 
 petent to determine ; we can only add that he was 
 condemned to die. This odious, execrable man 
 actually assumed an air of fortitude at the conclusion 
 of his life. In the evening of November 6, I7g3 . 
 he was conveyed in a cart to the place of Nov - 6 - 
 execution, where the public detestation and abhor- 
 rence accompanied the close of his infamous career. 
 
 The ignominious catastrophe of this man's life 
 may be considered without horror by the most gentle 
 natures ; but how shall we express our feelings when 
 we relate the cruel and unmerited fate of that 
 excellent, accomplished, and lovely woman, Madame 
 Roland, who, in two short days, followed such a 
 wretch to such an end? On November 8, 
 
 Nov. 8. 
 
 she suffered with all the dignity that became 
 her character and her virtues. Her rare talents and 
 acquired knowledge are well known, nor were her 
 domestic qualities inferior to them. Her husband, 
 who was hated by Robespierre on account of his 
 attachment to the Gironde party, was included in the 
 proscription that followed the decree of May 31. He 
 accordingly quitted Paris ; 1 but his wife was appre- 
 hended and committed to prison. She was at length 
 brought to trial, and the empty charge of a conspiracy 
 was followed by a sentence of death. At the place 
 of execution she maintained that firm, undaunted 
 spirit which had hitherto supported her, and bowing 
 down before the statue of Liberty she exclaimed, 
 " O Liberty, how many crimes are committed in thy 
 
 name ! 
 
 His death has been referred to in a note on page 91. 
 
CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 ROBESPIERRE RULER OF FRANCE. 
 
 On a first view it might appear strange that amid 
 such scenes of blood and murder the Government of 
 France should employ itself in such a trifling and 
 unnecessary measure as the alteration of the calendar. 
 But the design was of a more serious nature and had 
 a deeper tendency than superficial observers might 
 imagine. It was not a revolutionary frolic, but a part 
 of that system which had been formed by the philo- 
 sophers of France to abolish Christianity in their 
 country, and, if possible, to drive it out of the 
 world. 1 
 
 Robespierre, however, with all his impiety, could 
 not but perceive that, amidst their enormities, the 
 people retained the spirit of their ancient faith, and 
 that while they were infringing, the laws of their 
 religion every moment of their lives, they saw with 
 
 1 This new calendar was in vogue during thirteen years, and it is 
 usual to give the dates of that period in both the new and the old form. 
 Some account of it will be found at the end of this chapter. 
 
I793-] " Soupers Fraternels." 159 
 
 disgust the violation of its altars. He therefore 
 thought it necessary to stand forth in favour of these 
 religious prepossessions ; and it may be in great 
 measure owing to this part of his conduct that he 
 acquired the predominant popularity which was now 
 seen to attend and support him. 
 
 [Among the puerile follies of this time, in which 
 ferocity was curiously mingled with absurdity, it is 
 worth while to notice the " soupers fraternels." The 
 first of these meals was held, by order, on August 10, 
 1793. An illustration in the " D6magogie " shows a 
 wide street, of which the pavements are crowded with 
 tables, every one being commanded to eat his supper 
 in the open air, and in the company of his neighbours. 
 It was also decreed that every section of Paris should 
 supply at these feasts " two new manages," that is to 
 say, two couples married that morning, and set up in 
 domestic life by funds supplied by the Republic. 
 Here we have the sentimental notion of brotherly 
 love ; then the social, for the kiss of peace and glee- 
 singing were also enjoined ; and then the strange 
 marriages of two couples selected for the occasion. 
 The order winds up with the words that " No person 
 must on any pretext be absent from this . supper. 
 Fraternity or death ! " 
 
 A few lines must also be spared to record the 
 setting up of a substitute for religion, namely, Reason. 
 On August 10 was celebrated the Feast of Reason. 
 The Goddess of Reason was represented by the 
 citizeness Maillard, 1 an actress from the opera. She 
 1 Carlyle calls her " Candeille. '' 
 
160 The French Revolution. [1793. 
 
 was carried by four men in a chair garlanded with 
 oak-leaves. On her head was a red cap, on her 
 shoulders a blue mantle ; she leaned upon a pike ; 
 young women dressed in white, with tri-coloured 
 sashes, their heads decorated with flowers, walked 
 before her. 
 
 Following these were men wearing oak-leaves 
 round their heads. They sang " Ca ira " and the 
 17g3 , " Marseillaise." The beautiful Gothic church 
 August 10. Q f N t re Dame was desecrated by a mock 
 service. Reason was seen, in the person of a beau- 
 tiful woman, seated upon the high altar. In other 
 churches similar scenes were enacted. Joseph Marie 
 Ch^nier wrote a hymn for the occasion (his elder 
 brother, Andre Marie Chenier, a true and tender poet, 
 Was guillotined). 
 
 All the rest of Europe was now allied against 
 France.] 
 
 Some rapid successes crowned the French arms. 
 While they were victorious in the Netherlands and 
 on the frontiers of Germany, they were no less suc- 
 cessful on the borders of Spain. 
 
 History does not furnish an example of a nation 
 that, having emancipated itself from despotism and 
 acquired a constitution founded on principles of free- 
 dom, was again so quickly enslaved as the French. 
 Perhaps if Mirabeau had lived — and only perhaps — 
 France might have derived from him benefits similar 
 to those conferred on America by General Wash- 
 ington. 
 
 But the love of monarchical government was not 
 
I793-] Declaration of the British Ministers. 161 
 
 dead ; it was a considerable time before that resolute 
 spirit was subdued which took up arms for the royal 
 cause in the department of La Vendee. The famous 
 and unhappy Charette, 1 on March 10, 1793, had 
 publicly erected the royal standard, and proclaimed 
 the infant son of Louis XVI. King of France, by the 
 name Louis XVII. 
 
 A declaration had been published by the British 
 ministry, 2 stating the motives for continuing the war 
 against France. The French answer to this declara- 
 tion charged it with a manifest avowal of a design to 
 restore despotism in France, and of countenancing it 
 in the rest of Europe. This answer was penned 
 under the direction of that celebrated triumvirate, 
 Robespierre, 3 Danton, and Barere. After the entire 
 destruction of the Girondins, the chiefs of whom, all 
 men of eminent talents, perished by the guillotine, 
 the connection between Robespierre and Danton 
 began to lessen. 
 
 Hebert * was at this time at the head of a body of 
 
 1 Francois Athanase Charette de la Contrie, born in 1763, of a 
 noble family of Brittany. He was shot as a military traitor on March 
 29, 1795. 
 
 2 William Pitt was the English Prime Minister. The French 
 revolutionary party long thought, or affected to think, that Pitt was the 
 cause of every misfortune which afflicted their country, that English 
 bribes supported everything and everybody except the revolutionary 
 party. 
 
 3 Robespierre did not seek his own advantage, and was called the 
 "Incorruptible." He was of a bilious complexion, therefore Carlyle 
 adds the adjective "sea-green," and more often calls Robespierre by 
 the epithet " sea-green incorruptible " than by his name. 
 
 4 Jacques Rene Hebert was born in 1755. His early life was spent 
 in dishonest practices, his later life in ferocious cruelties. His appear- 
 
 M 
 
1 62 The French Revolution. [1793. 
 
 violent men ; and the Cordelier Club, over which he 
 exercised the chief influence, was ready to second his 
 views. Robespierre was no favourite there, nor did 
 they enjoy his countenance. Robespierre and Danton 
 had both been members of this club, but had aban- 
 doned it. 
 
 Fabre d'Eglantine 1 and Camille Desmoulins 2 
 had both acted a conspicuous part since the meeting 
 of the Convention. The latter was a man of spirit 
 as well as of ability ; the former had made himself 
 chiefly known by his antipathy to religion. Robes- 
 
 ance was pleasing and his speech fluent. He published a journal 
 which he called the Pire Duchine, using the name of a little royalist 
 paper. In August, 1792, he became Procureur de la Commune, or 
 public attorney. The lengths to which his newspaper went caused him 
 to be arrested, and this again made him immensely popular. The 
 name of Pere Duchene was transferred to Hebert himself. He ad- 
 dressed infamous questions to the queen on her trial, and to her little 
 son. When the Girondins were arrested, he proposed that they should 
 be assassinated. He was one of those who suggested the worship of 
 Reason. When the schism arose among the Cordeliers, Danton and 
 his followers were known as the Moderates, the Hebertists as the 
 enraged, or the maddened, club. Robespierre contrived the arrest of 
 Hebert, Momoro, Anacharsis Clootz, and others, to the number of 
 nineteen persons. Then the bully became the coward, and Hebert's 
 terror equalled his former ferocity. The whole band were condemned 
 to death, which they suffered on March 24, 1 794. 
 
 1 Philippe Francois Nazaire Fabre d'Eglantine was born in 1755. 
 He wrote very successfully for the stage before he joined the revolu- 
 tionary party. He lived so expensively that suspicion fell on him of 
 having taken bribes in his official capacity. Danton and Desmoulins 
 complained of having to die on the same scaffold with " a thief." 
 
 2 Camille Desmoulins was born in 1762. He led the attack on the 
 Bastille. A man of education and of excitable character, sceptical, 
 shrewd, witty, as Carlyle says, one might almost love him. He was 
 arrested as one of the modirfa or indulgents ; his young and charming 
 wife followed him to the guillotine a week later. 
 
1 794- J Hdbert and Desmoulins executed. 163 
 
 pierre had long lived in habits of intimacy with Des- 
 moulins. 
 
 Hdbert had the boldness to make a speech at the 
 club in which he openly declared that tyranny existed 
 in the Republic. This was construed into a denun- 
 ciation of Robespierre and his party, who instantly 
 determined to sacrifice Hebert to their vengeance and 
 security. He was arrested with his principal asso- 
 ciates, and brought before the Revolutionary I?g4 
 Tribunal. His fall was decreed. The most March 15. 
 puerile and most inconsistent allegations were made 
 against the Hebertists. Of the nineteen persons 
 accused (one of them a woman), only one, a man, was 
 acquitted. 
 
 This execution of persons whose guilt at most 
 was problematical, and whose fall was beheld with so 
 much apathy, now convinced Robespierre that he 
 might proceed without much fear of opposition in 
 completing the scheme he had in contemplation, 
 which appears to have been no less than that of 
 rendering himself supreme and uncontrolled ruler of 
 the state. He soon judged it necessary to rid himself 
 of a man of whose capacity he had often made use, 
 and had even just lately employed against Hebert. 
 This was Camille Desmoulins, who had actually 
 ventured on a personal attack upon St. Just, 1 the 
 bosom friend of Robespierre. 
 
 1 Antoine Louis Leon Florelle de St. Just, born in 1769, an enthusi- 
 astic and energetic partisan of Robespierre ; he was at one time Presi- 
 dent of the Assembly. Young, handsome, and talented, in happier 
 times he might have been a distinguished man. 
 
164 The French Revolution. [1794- 
 
 A secret enmity had long subsisted between Danton 
 and Robespierre, which was more inveterate on the 
 part of Robespierre than on that of Danton. The 
 latter in a long interview tried to show that their 
 mutual interests required a reconciliation ; but 
 Robespierre stood aloof, with great pride and in- 
 difference. Danton, understanding this behaviour, 
 said at parting, " Beware, for if you destroy me you 
 will shortly be destroyed yourself! " 
 
 Robespierre procured the arrest of Fabre d'Eglan- 
 tine, charged with receiving pay from the powers at 
 war with the Republic ; and also that of Chabot, 1 the 
 ex-Capuchin, and of Bazire. The partizans of Robes- 
 pierre insisted on their trial, and that the Committees 
 of Public and General Safety ought to possess the full 
 confidence of the people. This tended directly to 
 invest at once the executive department with exclu- 
 sive and boundless authority, or, in other terms, to 
 constitute Robespierre sole and supreme judge in all 
 matters referred to those committees, the members 
 of which, however indirectly, were of his own appoint- 
 ment. It was observed on this occasion that, whether 
 through inadvertence or a desire to conciliate Robes- 
 pierre, Danton expressed his approbation of the senti- 
 ments uttered by his enemy's partizans. Danton 
 thus put himself unresistingly into the hands of a 
 
 1 Francois Chabot loved uncleanness of person and language. He 
 married an Austrian lady, though he was a monk, and became so fond 
 of luxury and money that he forged a decree in order to obtain a large 
 sum. For this crime he was, deservedly enough according to the 
 criminal code of his day, brought to the scaffold. He was born in 
 1759, and died in 1794. 
 
'794-1 Trial and Execution of Danton. 165 
 
 rival whom he knew to be implacable. Ten days 
 later he was, together with his friend Camille Des- 
 moulins, arrested in the night of March 30. Two 
 others were also imprisoned at the same time — I?g4 
 Julien de Toulouse, and Phelippeaux, become March 3°- 
 odious to Robespierre on account of the faithful 
 relation of the barbarities committed in La Vendue, 
 whither he had been sent as a commissioner. Danton 
 was warmly defended in the Convention by his friend 
 Le Gendre, who moved that Danton and La Croix, 
 his fellow-prisoner, should be heard in their defence 
 at the bar of the house. But Robespierre argued 
 with virulence against both. 
 
 In the conspiracy attributed to Fabre d'Eglan- 
 tine, among the persons accused as principal accom- 
 plices were Hdrault Sechelles, who had been President 
 of the Convention on the famous May 31, 1793, 
 when the Gironde party was overthrown ; Chaumette, 
 procureur of the commerce of Paris, well known by 
 his brutal behaviour to the king on his trial ; Gobat, 
 who had been constitutional Bishop of Paris, and had, 
 about twelve months before, publicly renounced his 
 functions and his religion ; Westerman, who com- 
 manded the popular insurrection on August 10, 1792 ; 
 and the two Freys, brothers-in-law of Chabot, opulent 
 bankers. 
 
 The trial of Danton and of his fellow-prisoners 
 was peculiarly memorable. When questioned, 
 according to the usual forms, respecting his name 
 and abode, " My name," he answered, " will live in 
 history for ever ; but my abode will soon be nowhere." 
 
1 66 The French Revolution. [1794. 
 
 He flung paper bullets at the president by way of 
 
 showing his contempt. 
 
 Robespierre and his coadjutor Barrere refused to 
 
 appear against the prisoners, on pretence that a plot 
 
 had been formed for their assassination. On this 
 
 refusal the prisoners persisted in their determination 
 
 to answer no interrogatories, insisting that they were 
 
 illegal unless their accusers personally appeared. 
 
 The embarrassment of the tribunal was such 
 1794. 
 
 April 2. that, averse to proceed without being sanc- 
 tioned, they sent notice to the Convention of the 
 difficulty they were in. St. Just immediately moved 
 that a decree should pass empowering the tribunal to 
 proceed without hearing them. Danton did not fail 
 to continue an able and spirited defence, speaking 
 with such boldness that the president enjoined him to 
 silence. But Danton paid no regard to this injunc- 
 tion, and it was with difficulty that he was persuaded 
 to retire out of court to take, as he was told, some 
 refreshment. Then, by virtue of the decrees against 
 refractory prisoners, sentence was passed on him and 
 on the others who had been brought before the 
 tribunal ; out of sixteen, one only, Lallier, a man of 
 small importance, was acquitted. 
 
 This sentence was pronounced at three in the 
 afternoon, and they were all executed at six in the 
 evening. The prisoners submitted to their fate with 
 great firmness. The intrepidity of Danton was re- 
 markable ; he met the stroke of death with an air 
 of dignity which was long remembered. 
 
 Robespierre, whatever satisfaction he might derive 
 
1 794-3 Gen. Dillon and five others executed. 167 
 
 from the destruction of the only rival he dreaded, 
 soon perceived that a party remained which I794 . 
 would require his utmost vigilance. Among A P ril s- 
 the many unfortunate persons confined in the prisons 
 of Paris were Simon, a member of the Convention, 
 and General Arthur Dillon, who had the command of 
 a division of the French army when the Prussians 
 were repulsed in the forest of Argonne. He was con- 
 nected with Camille Desmoulins, and when talking 
 with Simon about Danton and the other prisoners on 
 trial, confessed, in presence of La Flotte, who had 
 been agent of the Republic at the Court of Florence, 
 his fervent hope of their deliverance. La Flotte 
 informed the Committee of Public Safety of the words 
 spoken by General Dillon, who was, in consequence, 
 brought before the Revolutionary Tribunal. He was 
 condemned to death on this charge, and for having 
 sent a letter to the wife of Desmoulins, enclosing an 
 order for a thousand crowns, with which he was 
 accused of intending to hire a mob for the purpose 
 of overawing the Revolutionary Tribunal. This un- 
 happy woman never received the letter ; but she was, 
 nevertheless, condemned as accessory to this intention, 
 and executed, together with General Dillon and the 
 door-keeper of the prison, who suffered for having 
 neglected to inform the Committee of Public Safety 
 of the receipt of the letter. They were accompanied 
 on the scaffold by Chaumette, Gobat, and General 
 Bayssur, charged with treasonable practices 
 while at the head of the forces employed 
 against the insurgents of La Vendee. The wife of 
 
1 68 The French Revolution. [1794 
 
 Hubert was also a sufferer on this occasion. She and 
 the wife of Desmoulins, a very beautiful woman, were 
 the only persons who excited or deserved the com- 
 miseration of the public. These executions took 
 place two days after that of Danton. 
 
 It ought in justice to Robespierre to be acknow- 
 ledged that if he possessed any quality deserving the 
 name of virtue it was disinterestedness. It was upon 
 this incorruptibility of disposition in whatever related 
 to pecuniary matters that he chiefly founded his 
 claims to popularity. Some severe decrees were 
 passed against peculation ; against persons convicted 
 of pronouncing discourses inimical to the Revolution ; 
 and also a decree levelled against the clergy, to whom 
 the country were still secretly and firmly attached- 
 Another curious decree was made, prohibiting the 
 marriage of the wives of emigrants with foreigners, 
 under the heaviest penalties. The wives of royalists 
 who had emigrated, desirous of being with their 
 husbands, had hit on an expedient which for a time 
 proved successful. They contracted pretended mar- 
 riages with foreigners who were in the secret, and by 
 whom they were carried out of the country, as if by 
 their husbands. 
 
 The Convention passed a decree by which all the 
 Farmers-General of the old days of the monarchy 
 1794. were consigned to trial, where many of them 
 May 5. were condemned to die, and executed ac- 
 cordingly. 
 
 Fouquier-Tinville, a man well-fitted for the 
 bloody office of Accuser-General with which he was 
 
I794-J Princess Elizabeth executed. 169 
 
 invested, formally demanded that the Princess Eliza- 
 beth, sister of the late king, should be cited to appear 
 before the Revolutionary Tribunal on suspicion of 
 being concerned in counter-revolutionary practices. 
 The utter impossibility that a woman, under the strict 
 confinement in which she was held, should be acces- 
 sory to any such proceedings was so obvious that all 
 Paris was struck with amazement when told that she 
 was to undergo a trial. Her character was in every 
 sense unimpeachable. To the various charges urged 
 against her she made the most satisfactory answers, 
 and completely cleared herself of every accusation. 
 To that of having encouraged her nephew in the hope 
 that he would be one day King of France, she frankly 
 replied that she had employed every means to com- 
 fort him in his melancholy situation. This ingenuous 
 answer was interpreted as an acknowledgment that 
 she had really encouraged him in that expectation, 
 and sentence of death was passed upon her. I794 . 
 She suffered in company with twenty-six May 9 - 
 others, and was executed the last She behaved with 
 great dignity in her last moments. 
 
 These numerous and merciless executions filled 
 all France with terror. This was the very end in 
 view. But this terror was accompanied with equal 
 horror. Robespierre now adopted an idea which he 
 thought would be useful to his designs ; this was to 
 set apart the tenth day for religious and moral obser- 
 vance, in imitation of the seventh of the Christian 
 system. He hoped thus to keep up his character for 
 piety. The decree was passed, and the French nation 
 
170 The French Revolution. [1794. 
 
 thereby acknowledged the existence of a Supreme 
 Being, and the immortality of the soul. The follow- 
 ing days were annually to be celebrated as festivals : 
 July 14, August 10, January 21, and May 31. Every 
 tenth day of the month was also to be a festival. 
 The last article of the decree, that which Robespierre 
 had most at heart, was the solemn celebration of a 
 festival in honour of the Supreme Being, which was 
 appointed for the eighth of the next June. 
 
 In front of the Tuileries a spacious amphitheatre 
 was erected, in the midst of which was placed a 
 1794. tribune, wherein Robespierre, as President of 
 June 8. t^e Convention, and as the head, in fact, of the 
 French nation, held forth with great solemnity on the 
 business of the day. A variety of ceremonies and 
 singular transactions took place in the course of this 
 remarkable festival, which closed with hymns and 
 musical compositions in praise of the Deity. 
 
 The new religious creed and institutions of Robes- 
 pierre naturally became a subject of much speculation. 
 Not long before the festival of June 8, an event hap- 
 pened which ought to have warned him of the pre- 
 cariousness and danger of his situation, and prevented 
 his assumption of unseasonable pride. A resolution 
 had been taken to assassinate him and one of his 
 intimates, Collot d'Herbois, 1 by a man of the name of 
 
 1 Jean Marie Collot d'Herbois, born in 1750, began life as a comic 
 actor, and wrote some plays successful in their day. He was at Nice, 
 as envoy, at the time of the trial of Louis XVI., but wrote that he 
 voted "for death without delay." On his return, he advocated the 
 most sanguinary measures, and put them in practice at Lyons. After 
 May 31, 1793, he consorted less with Robespierre; he presided at the 
 
I794-J Attempt on Life of Robespierre. 171 
 
 Amiral, who fired a pistol at d'Herbois in open day 
 as he was crossing a street. Being immediately 
 seized, Amiral confessed and gloried in his intentions, 
 regretting only that the attempt had failed. On the 
 very same day (May 25) a young woman named 
 Cecilia Renault went to Robespierre's dwelling, and 
 being told that he was absent, expressed much dis- 
 appointment. She was suspected, and was consigned 
 to the Revolutionary Tribunal, where her only answer 
 was that she was desirous to see what sort of being a 
 tyrant was. No weapons were found upon her ; but 
 she was, together with her family, against whom 
 nothing could be alleged, sent to the guillotine with 
 Amiral and above sixty other persons. 
 
 These two attempts against the life of Robespierre 
 were alarming proofs that his popularity was not 
 universal ; but he did not seem inclined to relax 
 from the severity he had so steadily adopted ever 
 since his entrance into power. He was now arrived 
 at the plenitude of that power. He acted almost 
 without control. The dreadful decrees followed each 
 other with hardly a day's intermission. No man was 
 safe from the malice of an acquaintance. Informers 
 were secure from detection ; no person denouncing 
 another was called upon to allege his motives, or to 
 discover his name, profession, or dwelling. The 
 Revolutionary Tribunal decided at once on the 
 reputation and life of every one brought before it. 
 An accusation, an arrest, and a sentence of death, 
 
 Convention of Thermidor 9 (July 27, 1794). Eight months later, he 
 was banished to Cayenne, where he died in 1 796. 
 
172 The French Revolution. [1794. 
 
 were now reputed the same thing, One of the 
 assassins of the Tribunal waited every morning upon 
 Robespierre, with a list of the prisoners, and it was 
 his custom to mark with a cross the names of those 
 that were to be condemned. Armed with such 
 power it was not surprising that he made himself, 
 if not the nominal, still the real sovereign of France. 
 
 [NOTE ON THE REVOLUTIONARY 
 CALENDAR. 
 
 The Calendrier Rfyublicain, set forth by the Con- 
 vention, abolished the Christian era, and dated the 
 era of the Republic from September 22, 1792, the day 
 of the autumnal equinox. The months, twelve in 
 number, were uniformly composed of thirty days, and 
 were in this order : Vend^miaire (vintage), Brumaire 
 (foggy), Frimaire (frosty), Nivose (snowy), Pluviose 
 (rainy), Ventose (windy), Germinal (buds), Flor^al 
 (flowery), Prairial (meadows), Messidor (reaping), 
 Thermidor (heat), Fructidor (fruits). The year was 
 completed by five extra days ; six in leap-year. In- 
 stead of the months being divided into weeks, there 
 was an arrangement of three decades, of which the 
 days were called, primidi, duodi, tridi, quartidi, quin- 
 tidi, sextidi, septidi, octidi, nonidi, ddcadi ; the d^cadi, 
 or tenth day, being the day of rest. The day was 
 divided into ten hours. To replace the calendar of 
 the Roman Church, of which every day was a holy 
 
'794] The Revolutionary Calendar. 173 
 
 day or the festival of a saint, there was devised a 
 series of names of animals, metals, agricultural imple- 
 ments, etc., e.g. Venddmiaire : primidi, grape ; duodi, 
 saffron, etc. The first of the complementary days 
 was consecrated to Virtue ; the second to Genius ; the 
 third to Labour ; the fourth to Opinion ; the fifth to 
 Rewards ; the sixth, which made up leap-year, was 
 the Festival of the Revolution. Each period of four 
 years ending with bissextile was a franciade. 
 
 The Republican Calendar was calculated by 
 Gilbert Romme, a mathematician. He was a warm 
 revolutionist, being one of the leaders of the insur- 
 rection in Paris on May 20 s 1795. He was cited 
 before a military commission, condemned to death, 
 but stabbed himself on the spot. Fabre d'Eglantine 
 invented the names for the calendar. It was in use 
 during thirteen years, and ended on December 31, 
 1805, when the Gregorian Calendar was re-established 
 in France.] 
 
CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 FALL OF ROBESPIERRE, AND END OF THE REIGN 
 OF TERROR. 
 
 Among the many victims of Robespierre's barbarity, 
 was that truly great man, Lamoignon de Malesherbes. 
 He was born in 172 1 ; he served his country faith- 
 fully until 1786, when, thinking with good reason her 
 condition desperate, he retired to his country house. 
 Full of gratitude and intrepidity, he undertook, at 
 great risk, the defence of his unhappy monarch. He 
 was now dragged from his retirement and condemned 
 to die by the guillotine, together with his daughter 
 1794. and her child. The Viscountess de Noailles 
 Apni 22. was doomed because it was thought that 
 probably she had taken part in a conspiracy against 
 the revolutionary government, though it appeared on 
 her trial that it was impossible she could have done 
 so. Anacharsis Clootz was executed ; and Lavoisier, 
 the great chemist ; and Baron Trenck, on a charge 
 of counter - revolutionary practices ; also Colonel 
 Newton, an Englishman who had risen to high rank 
 in the French army ; and Thomas Payne. Were 
 we to relate all the barbarities of Robespierre we 
 
1794-3 Robespierre s Power receives a check. 175 
 
 must of necessity make them the subject of a separate 
 volume. 
 
 That party in the Convention to which Danton, 
 Desmoulins, and Fabre d'Eglantine had belonged 
 became convinced that no safety remained but in the 
 removal of Robespierre. Full of this conviction, they 
 determined, if necessary, to put him to death in the 
 Convention, and trust to their country for approbation 
 of the deed. This seems, however, to have been their 
 last remedy for the present evils. 
 
 Robespierre procured a decree by which the two 
 Committees of Public and of General Safety might 
 consign to the Revolutionary Tribunal whomsoever 
 they might think fit objects of national severity. It 
 passed on the day after the grand festival. 17g4 . 
 But the following day opened a new scene. June 9 - 
 A man of great intrepidity undertook to stand 
 forward in asserting the rights of the Convention. 
 This was Bourdon de l'Oise. He demanded of the 
 president whether, by the power vested in the com- 
 mittees, they were authorized to bring the National 
 Deputies before the Tribunal. This question roused 
 at once the whole Convention, which formally decreed 
 that the Committees had the right of arresting mem- 
 bers of the Convention, but not of consigning them to 
 the Tribunal until a decree of accusation had been 
 passed against them by their fellow-deputies. This 
 was the first check which Robespierre had ever 
 received in the Convention. He bore it with much 
 coolness, and though generally absent from the Con- 
 vention, he laboured by means of his trusty agents, 
 
176 The French Revolution. [1794. 
 
 St. Just and Couthon, 1 to procure a number of 
 salutary laws to be passed. 
 
 - During these two months the victories obtained 
 by the French over the powers combined against 
 them seemed to cast a lustre on the administration 
 under which they were so triumphant. But the 
 cruelties of Robespierre were such as not to admit of 
 exculpation. He was accused, moreover, of intend- 
 ing to procure himself a nomination to supreme and 
 absolute power, under the title of Dictator, and to 
 appoint St. Just and Couthon his coadjutors. In the 
 Committee of Public Safety a powerful combination 
 had been formed against him. Having discovered 
 the parties and resolved to destroy them, he had, 
 according to custom, inserted their names in a list of 
 persons whom he intended to destroy. This list was 
 found upon a member of the Revolutionary Jury, who 
 had been arrested. 2 A report of this nature alarmed 
 the whole of that party which was leagued for his 
 destruction, and they determined on its quickest 
 acceleration. 
 
 1 Georges Couthon, born in 1756, although deprived of the use. of 
 his legs, was a prominent actor in the Revolution. He was the first 
 person who demanded the execution of Louis, and who voted for 
 "death without delay." With Robespierre and St. Just, he formed 
 the Triumvirate of the Terror, and it was thought that he aspired to 
 the sovereign power. He fell, with his accomplices, on Thermidor 9, 
 and next day died upon the scaffold which he had long merited for his 
 cold-blooded atrocities.. 
 
 2 "There was a remarkable bachelor dinner one hot day, at Barrere's. 
 The day being so hot, it is said the guests all stript their coats and left 
 them in the drawing-room ; whereupon Carnot glided out, groped in 
 Robespierre's pocket, found a list of forty, his own name among them, 
 and tarried not at the wine-cup that day " (Carlyle). 
 
1794] He is denounced. 177 
 
 It appeared, however, that they were not finally 
 prepared how to act. Barrere found himself obliged 
 to assume the mask of dissimulation ; he 
 warned the Convention to be on their guard -> uI y 2 3- 
 against conspiracies, and to adhere faithfully to 
 government. The Jacobin Club formally denounced 
 a domestic faction aiming at the ruin of the 
 Convention and the Committees ; and on the y "' 
 following day Robespierre mounted the tribune of 
 the Convention, after an absence of six weeks from 
 that assembly, and delivered a long speech on the 
 state of affairs, not forgetting to take notice of the 
 accusation that he aspired to the place of dictator. 
 He violently disclaimed such an idea, which he attri- 
 buted to the malicious enmity of the British ministry. 1 
 
 The furious altercation which followed, and the 
 attacks made upon him, struck Robespierre with 
 silent amazement. He would have moved towards 
 the Tribune to speak, but was deterred by Tallien's 2 
 drawing a dagger, and vowing that he would plunge 
 it into his heart unless the Convention delivered him 
 
 1 During nearly the whole of the Revolution all the misfortunes of 
 France were attributed to the enmity of England, and especially to the 
 malevolence of William Pitt. 
 
 2 Jean Lambert Tallien was born in 1769. He was a violent 
 revolutionist, but perceiving that the only way to save his own life 
 was by destroying Robespierre, he united with others like himself in the 
 accusation and condemnation of the would-be dictator. After the 
 dissolution of the Convention he was one of the Council of the Five 
 Hundred. With the 18th of Fructidor (August — September, 1796) his 
 political career terminated. He accompanied Bonaparte to Egypt, was 
 captured by the English on his return, and was afterwards appointed 
 consul at Alicante. He died in 1820. His wife was celebrated as 
 one of the most beautiful women of her time. 
 
 N 
 
1 794-1 Robespierre is made Prisoner. i 79 
 
 arrested by decree of the Convention, but found means 
 to escape, and to collect a body of men which he divided 
 into three parts ; one as a guard to the municipality 
 at the H6tel de Ville ; another against the Committee 
 of Public Safety ; the third against the Convention 
 itself. The Convention adopted vigorous measures 
 against their adversaries, and before night had 
 secured the adherence of the different sections of 
 Paris. In the meantime, Henriot, at the head of his 
 division, made an attempt on the Tuileries, where the 
 Convention held its sittings ; but on their proclaim- 
 ing him outlawed, his soldiers and officers forsook 
 him directly, and he withdrew with this distressing 
 intelligence to his associates at the H6tel de Ville. 
 Their affairs were now in a desperate condition. 
 
 Relying on the effect which the scheme of out- 
 lawry had produced, the Convention resolved to 
 attack their enemies with that weapon. At I?g4 . 
 three o'clock in the morning, Bourdon de J u 'ya8. 
 l'Oise 1 put himself at their head, and marched to the 
 Hotel de Ville. He halted in front of it, and read 
 the declaration of outlawry ; on which the National 
 Guards refused all further obedience to the party they 
 had been brought together to defend. Nothing was 
 
 pierre and his accomplices ; but, seeing him drunk on his horse, his 
 men refused to obey him. 
 
 1 Francois Louis Bourdon, deputy for the department of the Oise 
 to the Convention, began by being a violent revolutionist, but from 
 this 9th of Thermidor became a violent reactionary. He made a large 
 fortune by speculating in assignats, and posed as the enemy of every- 
 thing that could be deemed republican. The_Directory banished him 
 in 1 797, and he died shortly afterwards. 
 
180 The French Revolution. [1794. 
 
 left to do but to seize the heads of that party. Bour- 
 don de l'Oise, with a sufficient force, rushed into the 
 H6tel de Ville and seized most of them. Those who 
 escaped for the present were speedily taken. 
 
 Robespierre was found in a room, alone. He had 
 discharged a pistol in his mouth, which had broken 
 his under-jaw. He held a knife in his hand, appa- 
 rently with the intention of despatching himself ; but 
 the soldier who discovered him, thinking that he 
 meant to employ it in his defence, fired a pistol which 
 wounded him in the side. His brother threw him- 
 self out of a window, and broke a leg and an arm. 
 Couthon stabbed himself, but not mortally ; only 
 Lebas shot himself dead on the spot. Henriot, in 
 the meantime, was endeavouring from one of the 
 windows of the H6tel de Ville to prevail by his en- 
 treaties on the soldiers who had been under his com- 
 mand not to desert the cause they had promised to 
 defend ; but he was seized while he was speaking, 
 and hurled headlong upon the stones, where he was 
 bruised to death. 
 
 The circumstances attending the latter hours of 
 Robespierre were horrible. He was first conveyed 
 to the house of the Committee of General Security, 
 where he was laid on a table, weltering in the blood 
 which flowed from his wounds. The agony of his 
 mind corresponded with that of his body. In this 
 condition he was carried to the H6tel Dieu (a hos- 
 pital). Here his wounds were dressed, merely to 
 enable him to go through the forms of justice. He 
 was then removed to that prison (the Conciergerie) 
 
1 794-] Robespierre is executed. 181 
 
 whither he had sent so many others, and brought 
 from thence before the Revolutionary Tribunal, with 
 his accomplices, where Fouquier-Tinville, 1 the Public 
 Accuser, his intimate and his creature, was officially 
 compelled to demand sentence of death against him 
 and them. He was conducted in their company to 
 the place of execution, where he had caused such 
 numbers to die, loaded all the way with the execra- 
 tions of a multitude which exceeded any numbers 
 ever assembled before on such an occasion. 
 
 The principal of those who suffered with him were 
 his brother, Couthon, St. Just, Dumas, Fleuriot, Mayor 
 of Paris, Vivres, President of the Jacobin Club, and 
 fourteen others of inferior note. In the morning of 
 this memorable day they were deeply busied in the 
 most daring and dangerous conspiracy that ever 
 threatened the Convention ; at five in the afternoon 
 their vast projects had been overthrown, and they 
 were all no more ! 
 
 With the death of Robespierre the Reign of Terror 
 came to an end, and France, weary of bloodshed, stood 
 aghast at her own misdeeds and misery. The follow- 
 ing epitaph was written on Robespierre, and appeared 
 in the Paris papers about this time— 
 
 " Passant, qui que tu sois, ne pleurez pas mon sort ; 
 Si je vivais, tu serais mort. " 
 
 which may be thus translated — 
 
 1 Antoine Quentin Fouquier-Tinville, born in 1747, appears to have 
 joined in the excesses of the Revolution as a shelter from his creditors. 
 He was frigidly sanguinary. On August 9 his accusation was begun, 
 and after forty days' trial he was condemned and executed. 
 
1 82 The French Revolution. [1794. 
 
 " Lament not that I lie in my last bed, 
 For were I living, friend, you would be dead.'' 
 
 The fall of Robespierre was attended by circum- 
 stances which strongly proved his popularity to have 
 declined much more than was generally believed. 
 Instead of affording any testimonials of respect to his 
 memory, the populace expressed universal satisfaction 
 at the triumph of the Convention. Two days after 
 his execution about seventy accomplices of the in- 
 surrection in his favour were put to death. They 
 were mostly members of the municipality and officers 
 of the National Guards. 
 
 [It will have been noticed that the chief actors in 
 the Revolution were men who had hardly attained 
 middle age, and who consequently lacked experience 
 and the calmness which comes with experience and 
 with years ; also that very few of the leaders survived 
 the movements which they led ; one after another 
 they and their movements were abruptly ended by 
 the axe ; and, further, that the French during the last 
 hundred years have been constantly endeavouring to 
 make their constitution as they do their roads, by 
 cutting a straight line from one point to another. 
 Such a method of road-making precludes the pictur- 
 esque windings which show that the highway has 
 grown from the footpath ; and such attempts at con- 
 stitutions prove the absence of that stability which is 
 the result of law based upon immemorial custom. 
 But here, the simile fails ; for while the roads arrive at 
 their destination, the constitutions do not, or rather, 
 do come to an end not aimed at by their engineers.] 
 
1 794-3 End of the Reign of Terror. 183 
 
 The people at large, but particularly the more re- 
 spectable classes, began to breathe from the fatiguing 
 anxiety with which they were continually agitated. 
 The Revolutionary Tribunal, the engine of blood and 
 barbarity, was, pursuant to a decree of the legislature, 
 though not altogether abolished, newly modelled, and 
 placed on a footing of equity and justice that quieted 
 the fears of all friends to the Revolution, at the same 
 time that it held out no further terrors to those who 
 peaceably submitted to the existing government. 
 The prisons, too, were no longer suffered to retain 
 indiscriminately the innocent and the guilty. 
 
 The members of the Convention had lived in per- 
 petual terror during the whole time of Robespierre's 
 administration. Distrustful of each other, and con- 
 scious that the least indication of discontent at his 
 measures would expose them to instant destruction, 
 they carefully concealed their real sentiments, and 
 expressed so much approbation of his conduct that 
 his partizans in that assembly had no room to suspect 
 its general attachment to him, and were struck with 
 astonishment, as well as himself, when they found 
 their mistake. But the discovery was made too late ; 
 the antipathy to Robespierre burst out like a sudden 
 explosion. Though he was apprised that an opposi- 
 tion was formed against him, he never conceived it to 
 be so extensive as to include the whole Convention. 
 
 That assembly, being all determined republicans, 
 resolved to frame such a plan of government as might 
 effectually prevent the accumulation of the whole 
 power of the State into the hands of one. The per- 
 
184 The French Revolution. [1794- 
 
 son selected to do this was Barrere. His indefatig- 
 able industry enabled him within a week to lay before 
 I794 . the Convention the scheme of a temporary 
 August 5. government entirely comformable to what 
 had been proposed. It was accepted by the Conven- 
 tion with much applause, and decreed to continue in 
 force until the intended plan of a new constitution 
 should have been duly prepared and revised by that 
 body, and have received its formal sanction. 
 
 While the Convention were thus employed in 
 endeavours to reconcile, through lenity, the numerous 
 enemies whom the late government had created at 
 home through severity and terror, the utmost efforts 
 were made in that assembly to restore union between 
 the parties that still continued to divide the nation. 
 Those members who had been outlawed or imprisoned 
 were restored to liberty, and, shortly after, to their 
 seats in the Convention. Their number amounted to 
 seventy. 
 
 Robespierre's murderous edict prohibiting quarter 
 to be given to the English had always been held in 
 detestation by the public ; some members of the Con- 
 vention, indignant that such a decree should remain 
 on their registers, procured its formal repeal. 
 
 An order was made for examining into the conduct 
 of Barrere, Billaud-Varennes, 1 Collot d'Herbois, and 
 Vaudier, who had been the principal acting members 
 
 1 J. Nicolas Billaud-Varennes, born about 1760, was first an 
 Oratorian (i.e. a member of the religious congregation founded by 
 St. Philip Neri), but was dismissed. He then married, and entered 
 political life. It was he who moved for " Terror as the order of the 
 day." He died in 1819. 
 
J795-] Retribution. 185 
 
 of the Committee of Public Safety under the ad- 
 ministration of Robespierre. After two months' 
 examination into their conduct, it was de- I79S . 
 clared that they had been accessory to the March M - 
 tyranny that had been exercised over the people and 
 the Convention. Their lives were spared, but they 
 were banished to Guiana. In this manner terminated 
 the careers of Barrere, Collot d'Herbois, and Billaud- 
 Varennes. Vaudier had found means to make his 
 escape. 
 
 There still remained a man equally guilty with 
 the worst of those who had suffered. This was 
 Joseph Lebon. 1 He was brought to a trial, which 
 terminated in his execution. The president and 
 judges of the Revolutionary Tribunal were also 
 brought to justice. At the head of them stood 
 Fouquier-Tinville. Fifteen others were compre- 
 hended in the list, either judges or jurors of the 
 Revolutionary Tribunal. They were condemned and 
 executed, to the universal satisfaction of the humane 
 and equitable part of society. 
 
 The scarcity of bread, whether real or artificial, 
 was now become too true. Among the remaining 
 leaders of the Jacobins were two members of 
 the Convention whom it had sentenced to ay9 ' 
 imprisonment with several others ; but they contrived 
 to escape, and excited the people to rise in arms against 
 
 1 Joseph Lebon was born at Arras in 1 745 ; was an Oratorian ; 
 Cure of Neuville near Arras ; Mayor of Arras from August 10, 1792 ; 
 established the Reign of Terror in his native town j distinguished him- 
 self by his cruelties ; and was executed there on October 9, 1795. 
 
1 86 The French Revolution. [1795- 
 
 the Convention. They advised the citizens of Paris 
 to demand "bread, and the constitution of 1793." 
 
 The Convention, forewarned, had assembled, and 
 passed a decree to outlaw every one who headed the 
 i 79S . insurgents. But these now rushed in and 
 May 20. f- 00 k possession of the tribunes, and a fierce 
 contest ensued between them and the Conventional 
 Guards. A body of citizens arrived and entered the 
 hall. One of them snatching off the hat of an insur- 
 gent, on which was chalked "Bread, and the constitu- 
 tion of 1793," was instantly cut down with sabres and 
 wounded by a musket-shot. A member of the Con- 
 vention, Ferrand, endeavouring to assist him, was 
 immediately murdered by the mob, his head cut off 
 and fixed upon a pike. The tumult was become so 
 dreadful that the majority of the membersthought it 
 prudent to withdraw. Those only continued in the 
 hall who were favourable to the principles of the 
 insurgents. They were proceeding to pass decrees, 
 when an armed body of citizens, in company with 
 another of military, making their way into the hall, with 
 the information that all Paris was under arms, and that 
 General Hoche L was at the head of the city militia, 
 with also a number of the military, struck them with 
 such terror that they dispersed and fled on every side. 
 But they soon reassembled and returned ; and the 
 Convention thought it prudent to temporize by invit- 
 ing the deputies of the insurgents to the honours of 
 
 1 Lazare Hoche, born in 1768, was one of the most eminent 
 generals of the Revolution. He died at the age of twenty-nine, leaving 
 a name which his country delights to honour.. 
 
J79S-3 Death of the Dauphin. 187 
 
 the sitting, and giving them the fraternal kiss. The 
 citizens, alarmed, now hastened to support the Con- 
 vention, and the insurgents, in consequence, prepared 
 for a stout resistance. After a doubtful conflict of 
 three days, fortune declared at last for the Convention. 
 
 After the suppression of this dangerous insurrec- 
 tion, the Convention thought it indispensable to make 
 some examples of its authors and promoters. Six of 
 their own body were tried by a military commission, 
 and condemned to die. Three of them were executed, 
 and three perished by their own hands. About fifteen 
 others of inferior note were also put to death. The 
 spirit that promoted this insurrection had been more 
 active than was at first suspected. At Toulon, at 
 Marseilles, at Lyons, and in other parts of France, the 
 work of the Jacobins was remarkable. Ever since 
 the fall of Robespierre the Jacobins had experienced 
 the revenge of the many individuals whose friends 
 and relatives had perished through his cruelties. 
 Violations of the law were reputed justifiable against 
 men who, under its pretended sanction, had committed 
 so many acts of injustice. 
 
 A motive which, though not acknowledged, might 
 be justly presumed to operate powerfully in the venge- 
 ance now exercised against the Jacobins, was I795 . 
 the death of the son of Louis XVI. That J une8 - 
 unhappy child had been confined in the Temple at 
 the same time with his unfortunate parents. He 
 had now suffered imprisonment nearly three years, 
 and his constitution had been greatly impaired by 
 the wretchedness of his situation. It had been pro- 
 
1 88 The French Revolution. [179s. 
 
 posed in the Convention to set him at liberty ; but 
 he was kept still in close confinement, and was used 
 with much inhumanity. So severe a lot, especially 
 at his time of life, accelerated his end ; he died in the 
 twelfth year of his age. 
 
 The daughter 1 of the unhappy Louis still remained 
 in the hands of the Convention, of whom the most 
 moderate were desirous to liberate her. The decease 
 of her brother had excited almost universal com- 
 miseration. A negotiation was opened with the 
 Austrian ministry, who agreed to deliver up some 
 members of the Convention and two ambassadors to 
 the Ottoman Court, who were held captive by order 
 of the imperial government. Towards the close of De- 
 cember the princess was set free from her imprison- 
 ment in the Temple, and conducted to Bile, where 
 she was exchanged for the persons above mentioned. 
 
 1 Marie Therese Charlotte, Madame Royale, was born in 1778. 
 On recovering her liberty she went to Vienna. In 1 798, she rejoined 
 her uncle, the Comte de Lille, afterwards Louis XVIII., and the 
 following year married her cousin, the Due d'Angoul£me, eldest son 
 of the Due d'Artois, afterwards Charles X. After some years of wan- 
 dering, spent chiefly in England, she returned to France in 1814, and 
 came back to England the following year. After the battle of Waterloo 
 she took up her abode in Paris. Again exiled when the Revolution of 
 1830 placed her cousin Louis Philippe on the throne, she became a 
 widow in 1844, and died at Frohsdorf, in Austria, in October, 1851. 
 Thus closed her gloomy life, than which few can have been more 
 stormy. She left no child. 
 
CHAPTER XV. 
 
 LEADING BACKWARD. 
 
 A NEW constitution was again proposed for France ; 
 those who coolly weighed its merits and defects 
 against those that had been already tried, at once 
 gave it the preference. Its authors prudently admitted 
 of nothicg in it that might furnish a pretext to the 
 Jacobins for accusing them of inclining to royalism. 
 
 The Convention, in arranging a scheme for a new 
 National Assembly, naturally endeavoured to provide 
 for their own interests, and decreed that the electoral 
 bodies must choose two-thirds of their deputies out 
 of the members of the present Convention. To support 
 their pretensions the Convention released from prison 
 a great number of those who went by the name of 
 Terrorists — men full of rancour at the Parisians for 
 having assisted in quelling the insurrections they had 
 raised. The sight of them inflamed the anger of the 
 Parisians, who were now to make trial whether the 
 confidence they had placed in the military was well 
 or ill-founded. After a fight which lasted the ms . 
 whole day they yielded a dear-bought victory ° ctober s- 
 
190 The French Revolution. ['795- 
 
 to the troops of the Convention. It was in this conflict 
 that Bonaparte appeared first on the theatre of war, 
 and by his courage and conduct laid the foundation 
 of that confidence in his powers which conducted him 
 so soon thereafter to preferment and to glory. 
 
 The Convention was now dominant in Paris, and, 
 consequently, in France. Their new constitution had 
 been accepted by the people. What, therefore, was 
 the disappointment felt when it was found that 
 hardly any other alteration was intended in the form 
 of government than that of names ! The Convention 
 came forward with a declaration that such was the 
 danger of the State, that nothing less than a dictature 
 of five men would be able to save it. On October 
 26" the Convention dissolved itself, after sitting up- 
 1795- wards of three years. No political assembly 
 october26. recor d ec j m history ever did much greater or 
 worse things ; no assembly ever displayed a more 
 astonishing mixture of shining qualities and of 
 atrocious vices. 
 
 The meeting of the new legislation opened a scene 
 of the most intricate nature. The predominant party 
 held the reins of government in their hands, but the 
 people favoured their rivals. The great object of 
 ambition now was to occupy a seat on the dictatorial 
 throne ; but of five directors four were of the ruling 
 faction. Of these the most remarkable and the most 
 known to posterity was the Abbe Sieyes. The one 
 man who was of the opposite faction was Lepaux, 
 a lawyer and a Girondist. 
 
 The Revolution being at an end, and weary France 
 
'795-] The Directory installed. 191 
 
 longing for a settled government, her history now 
 becomes chiefly political. The members of the 
 Directory were installed in their high office with great 
 pomp, and with Guards, and with all the magnificence 
 of royalty. The first measure of importance adopted 
 by the Directory was to suppress the Society of the 
 Pantheon, which was, in fact, the Jacobin Society 
 revived. They then founded an institution for the 
 progress and encouragement of arts and sciences. 
 They also, exclusive of the pacification with the two 
 great powers of Spain and Prussia, concluded amicable 
 treaties with Tuscany, with Sweden, with Switzerland, 
 or rather, with the Protestant cantons of that republic ; 
 the affairs of Switzerland belong to another page of 
 history, and cannot be even glanced at here. Holland, 
 too, acceded to the friendly overtures of France. 
 
 The conclusion of the year 1794 and the com- 
 mencement of 1795 were marked by the splendour 
 attending the arms of France in every part of Europe, 
 and the dejection with which their successes had 
 impressed most of the powers engaged in the coalition 
 against them. [The foreign policy and campaigns of 
 France, though closely connected with her internal 
 agitations, have appeared to be so much outside the 
 scope of the present volume that little has been said 
 about them. In like manner the war in La Vendee 
 has scarcely received an allusion, for the reason that 
 to speak of it with more than a mere allusion would 
 necessarily occupy far too much space. But now, as 
 we drift from the raging ocean of the French Revolu- 
 tion into waters stormy enough, but not fierce with 
 
192 The French Revolution. [1795. 
 
 that fury in which no sail could lead, no helm could 
 guide, we must see the position which France held 
 among the nations, and the port to which she was 
 driving by stress of weather.] 
 
 The successes of her arms had painfully impressed 
 most of the powers engaged in the coalition ; every- 
 where the people of the inferior ranks reprobated the 
 coalition, and styled it the war of kings against the 
 people. The triumphs of France over all her enemies 
 and the popular sympathy of the lower classes with 
 the French republicans could not but perplex and 
 trouble the English ministry, and make them hesitate 
 concerning the measures proper to be pursued, when 
 the parliament of Great Britain resumed its annual 
 session. Their country was already involved in a 
 war with France, and the taxation necessary to carry 
 it on weighed heavily on the country. 
 
 The French, in the midst of their successes against 
 all their other enemies, were deeply exasperated at 
 the unconquerable resistance of the English. In both 
 the House of Lords and the House of Commons it was 
 warmly debated whether one nation had a right to 
 interfere in the government of another that acted on 
 principles dangerous to its neighbours, and what was 
 the object for which the English were contending. 
 Mr. Pitt said that though the French had been so 
 successful, there was no motive sufficiently strong to 
 induce this country to look upon the affairs of the 
 coalition as in a state of danger. He would therefore 
 move " that it was the determination of the House to 
 prosecute the war, as the only means of procuring a 
 
1 799-] Buonaparte lands in France. 193 
 
 permanent and secure peace." The ministry were 
 unwilling that England should recognize a republican 
 form of government in France by treating with its 
 heads ; the Opposition again and again insisted that 
 it was incumbent on government to remove every 
 impediment that stood in the way of peace between 
 Great Britain and France. Pitt carried his point, and 
 the country stood committed to war with France. 
 
 [We have seen how the executive power in France 
 was lodged in the hands of the five persons called the 
 " Directory." One member of this body must I7g5 . 
 vacate his seat and be replaced each year ;° ctober2 ''- 
 but the Directory had a difficult task in endeavouring 
 to please all parties, for all parties mistrusted them. 
 When they took office the public exchequer was 
 empty, but they soon succeeded in restoring a gold 
 and silver currency. The circulation of specie revived 
 confidence ; then also revived luxury and corruption, 
 all the greater because following on a time of depres- 
 sion, of mourning, and of bloodshed. The royalist 
 party threatened the revolutionary, which was saved 
 by the coup cFJtat of the 18th of Fructidor (September 
 4, 1797), when three of the directeurs rose against 
 their two fellows, and the Councils of the Five 
 Hundred and the Ancients. On June 18, 1799, the 
 Councils were in revolt against the Directory ; a great 
 crisis had arrived, and a vast change or upheaval 
 appeared imminent. General Buonaparte secretly 
 quitted Egypt, and landed at Frejus. At once the 
 constitution was abolished, the Directory dissolved, 
 and the government of the Republic became " pro- 
 
 O 
 
194 The French Revolution. [1799- 
 
 visionally consular." The only mark which the 
 Directory left on its age was that of unchecked stock- 
 jobbing and unbridled licence of morals and manners. 
 
 Buonaparte was First Consul, Si^yes Second, Roger 
 Ducos Third. 
 
 His wonderful career and success made Buonaparte 
 the idol of the people, and prepared them for any 
 step which he might choose to take. During the 
 next fifteen years England and France were at either 
 open or covert enmity. The great general, to whom 
 England opposed one as great, was even now learning 
 his art with a rapidity which in a few years brought 
 him to the highest point of success. At Toulon the 
 port, the arsenal, and the fleet had been delivered by 
 treason to the English. Napoleon Buonaparte re- 
 captured the fort, and the English retired from Toulon. 
 We see him commanding in Italy ; we have already 
 seen him prominent in Paris, and victorious in Egypt. 
 He will lead his country on from glory to glory, 
 himself the very focus of his country's glory. At last 
 we shall behold him step up from the seat of Consul 
 to the throne of Emperor ; and then we shall watch 
 his quick decline from splendour to failure, to exile, 
 and to death. 
 
 But the life of Napoleon is not to be written here. 
 We have followed the Revolution from its origin in 
 the effete monarchy to its close in a republican govern- 
 ment. Our present task is finished.] 
 
INDEX 
 
 Agen, Bishop of, refuses to take 
 civil oath, 87 
 
 Aiguillon, Duke d', proposes to 
 equalize taxation, 66 
 
 Arairal fires at d'Herbois, and is 
 executed, 171 
 
 Artois, Comte d', one of a triumvi- 
 rate, 43 ; emigrates, 63 
 
 Assemblee Nationale meets, 49 ; 
 dissolves itself, 112; new one 
 formed, 113; cites king's ministers 
 to appear before it, 123 ; king flies 
 to it for protection, 130 ; dissolves 
 itself, 133 
 
 Assemblies, provincial, 21 
 
 Austrian committee, alleged, 117 
 
 Bailly, mayor of Paris, 61 ; would 
 abolish Catholic religion, 88 
 
 Baiser de T amourette, 126 
 
 Barere accuses Louis, 137 ; one of 
 triumvirate, 161 ; formulates new 
 government, 184; is banished, 185 
 
 Barnave, change of conduct, 99 ; 
 brings king from Varennes, 103 ; 
 executed, 156 
 
 Bastille taken, 55 
 
 Bayssur executed, 167 
 
 Bazire arrested, 164 
 
 " Bed of Justice " meets at Ver- 
 sailles, 6 
 Berthier murdered, 62 
 Bertrand advises measures of vigour, 
 
 125 
 Billaud-Varennes exiled, 185 
 Bonnac, Bishop of Agen, refuses to 
 
 take civil oath, 87 
 Bouille, Marquis de, commanding 
 at Metz, 85 ; endeavours to pro- 
 mote king's flight, 99 ; suspended 
 from command, 103 
 Boulanger, general of revolutionary 
 
 army, 153 
 Bourdon de l'Oise asserts rights of 
 Convention, 1 75 ; at head of Con- 
 vention, 179 
 Bouyon, Abbe, murdered, 133 
 Bravard, M., murdered, 128 
 Breteuil, head of ministry, 55 
 Brissot, leader of the Girondins, 105 
 Brittany, state of, 16 ; parlement of, 
 
 in rebellion, 18 
 Broglie, Marshal, commander-in- 
 chief, 55 ; emigrates, 63 
 Buonaparte appears in Paris, 190 ; 
 quits Egypt and lands in France, 
 193 ; becomes First Consul, 194 
 Buzot, a chief of Girondins, 109 
 
ig6 
 
 Index. 
 
 Cabanis, Dr., at Mirabeau's death- 
 bed, 92 
 Caisse ctescomptes, run on, 30 
 Calendar, Revolutionary, 158 
 Calonne, king's minister, 10 
 Carra, a journalist, 118 
 Cazalet desires to plead for king, 
 
 136 
 Chabot, his violent speech, 119; 
 
 arrested and executed, 164 
 Chambon, mayor of Paris, 136 
 Champ de Mars, popular meeting 
 
 in, 107 
 Champion attacked by mob, 129 
 Charette proclaims Louis XVII., 161 
 Chatelet, court of the, issues a pro- 
 test, 14 
 Chaumette executed, 167 
 Chenier, Andre, executed, 160 
 
 •, Joseph Marie, writes hymn 
 
 for Feast of Reason, 160 
 Claviere quits king's council, 119 
 Clergy, their generosity, 67 ; civil 
 constitution of, 86 ; persecution 
 of, 87 
 Clery, king's faithful valet, 136 
 Clootz, Anacharsis, ridiculous visit 
 to Assembly, 83 ; execution, 174 
 Collot d'Herbois fired at by Amiral, 
 
 171 ; exiled, 185 
 Committee of public safety, 147 
 Conde, Prince of, one of a triumvi- 
 rate, 43 ; emigrates, 63 
 Confederation, 84 
 Constitutions of France, 1 10 
 Conti, Prince of, one of a triumvi- 
 rate, 43 ; emigrates, 63 
 Convention succeeds Assembly, 135 ; 
 
 dissolves itself, 190 
 Corday, Charlotte, assassinates 
 Marat, 148 ; is executed, 149 
 
 Cordeliers' Club, 108 
 
 CorvSe, 5 ; abolished, 19 
 
 Cour Plenitre unpopular, 19; several 
 nobles refuse to sit in it, 29 ; re- 
 linquished by king, 30 
 
 Couthon, agent of Robespierre, 1 76 ; 
 executed, 181 
 
 Custine, General, executed, 150 
 
 Dames de la Halle march to Ver- 
 sailles, 74 
 Dampierre, Marquis, murdered be- 
 side king's carriage, 104 
 Danton, minister of justice, 134 ; 
 one of triumvirate, 161 ; his trial, 
 165 ; execution, 166 
 Dauphin prisoner, 105 ; taken from 
 his father, 136 ; proclaimed king 
 by Charette, 161 ; death, 187 
 Departments, France divided into, 80 
 Deputation from Brittany to Ver- 
 sailles, 19 
 Deputies, twenty, executed, 155 
 Desmoulins, Camille, conspicuous 
 in Convention, 162 ; executed, 166 
 
 , Madame, executed, 167 
 
 D'Espremenil arrested, 7 ; attacked 
 
 by mob, 129 
 Dillon, General, executed, 167 
 Directory formed, 190; dissolved, 
 
 193 
 Double representation, 37 
 Drouet arrests royal family in their 
 
 flight, 100 
 Ducos, Third Consul, 194 
 Dumas executed, 181 
 Dumouriez, General, succeeds La 
 
 Fayette, 134 
 Dumoustier provides for flight of 
 
 royal family, 97 
 Dupuis, Abbe, murdered, 128 
 
Index. 
 
 197 
 
 Edgeworth, Abbe, administers last 
 rites of Church to king, 144 
 
 Elizabeth, Princess, her flight to 
 Varennes, 97 ; stands beside king 
 during outrages within Tuileries, 
 123 ; prisoner, 104 ; executed, 169 
 
 Estaing, Count d', commands regi- 
 ment of Flanders, 71 
 
 Fabre d'Eglantine conspicuous in 
 Convention, 162 ; his names for 
 Revolutionary Calendar, 1 73 ; 
 arrested, 164 ; -executed, 166 
 
 " Family Compact," the, 82 
 
 Favras, Marquis of, hanged, 81 
 
 Federation, 128 
 
 Festival of the Supreme Being, 170 
 
 Feuillants more moderate than 
 Jacobins, no ; Terrace of, 127 
 
 Fish-women, 51 
 
 Flanders, Regiment of, at Versailles, 
 69 
 
 Flesselles, mayor of Paris, murdered, 
 
 59 
 Fleuriot executed, 181 
 Foulon murdered, 62 
 Fouquier-Tinville cites Princess 
 
 Elizabeth before Revolutionary 
 
 Tribunal, 169 ; executed, 185 
 Fournet, M. de, refuses to take 
 
 civil oath of clergy, 88 
 Frederick William, king of Prussia, 
 
 meets emperor of Austria at Pil- 
 
 nitz, 114 
 Frey, the brothers, executed, 166 
 
 Gabelles abolished, 22 
 Gardes du corps unpopular, 74 
 Girondins, origin of, 90 
 Gobat, Archbishop of Paris, exe- 
 cuted, 167 
 
 Goglas brings troops to Varennes, 
 
 102 
 Gouvion suspects intended flight of 
 
 royal family, 97 
 Gregoire, Abbe, heads a party 
 
 among the clergy, 45 ; tries to 
 
 explain away civil oath, 87 
 Grenoble, parkment of, in exile, 
 
 17 
 Guiche, Duke of, colonel of Life- 
 
 Guards, 73 
 Gustavus III., King of Sweden, 
 
 assassinated, 115 
 
 Haiti, troubles in, 82 
 
 Hebert, head of Cordeliers' Club, 
 162 ; executed, 163 
 
 , Madame, executed, 168 
 
 Henriot, general of revolutionary 
 army, 153; outlawed by Conven- 
 tion, 179 
 
 Herbois, Collot d', fired at by 
 Amiral, 171 ; exiled, 185 
 
 Hoche, General, head of city militia , 
 186 
 
 Houchard, General, executed, 156 
 
 Insurrection of June 20, 119 
 against Convention, 186 
 
 Jacobins, their rise, 64; petition 
 Assembly to recognize king, 104 
 Jeu de pan me, session of the, 49 
 Julien de Toulouse executed, 166 
 Jourdan, the "Headsman," exe- 
 cuted, 156 
 
 Korff, Baroness, passport for royal 
 family in name of, 96 
 
 La Croix executed, 166 
 
 O 3 
 
198 
 
 Index. 
 
 La Fayette called General, 61 ; at 
 Versailles, 76 ; disperses rioters 
 at Vincennes, 90 ; appears before 
 Assembly, 126; quits his com- 
 mand, 134 
 
 La Flotte accuses Dillon and others, 
 167 
 
 Lajarre, Minister of War, 126 
 
 Lally Tollendal, 44 
 
 Lamballe, Princess of, murdered, 
 117 
 
 Lambesc, Prince of, disperses popu- 
 lace, 56 
 
 Lameth, Charles, President of 
 Assembly, 107 
 
 Lamoignon, Keeper of the Seals, 
 10 ; public fury against, 35 
 
 V amourette, Baiser de, 127 
 
 Land tax, 23 
 
 Langoiran murdered, 129 
 
 Lanterne first used , 57 
 
 La Porte delivers king's declaration 
 to Assembly, 98 
 
 La Tour Maubourg brings lung 
 captive from Varennes, 103 
 
 Launay, de, Governor of Bastille, 
 murdered, 58 
 
 La Vendee, insurrection in, 159 
 
 Lavoisier executed, 174 
 
 Lebas arrested, 178 ; shoots him- 
 self dead, 180 
 
 Lebon executed, 185 
 
 Lebrun, Minister of Foreign Affairs, 
 
 134 
 
 Le Chapelier, President of Assem- 
 bly, 67 
 
 Lefevre, Abbe, almost murdered, 
 
 74 
 Legendre addresses king at Tui- 
 leries, 122 ; speaks in Assembly, 
 136 
 
 Leopold, Emperor of Austria, meets 
 King of Prussia at Pilnitz, 112; 
 death of, 115 
 
 Lepaux on Directory, 190 
 
 Liancourt, Duke of, tells Louis the 
 truth, 60 
 
 Logographe, reporters' box of, 132 
 
 Lomenie de Brienne, minister, 10 ; 
 abandons king, 31 
 
 Losme, de, murdered, 58 
 
 Louis XIV., 2 
 
 XV., 3 
 
 XVI., marriage of, 5 ; present 
 
 at session of parlement, 6 ; calls 
 a " Royal Session," 50 ; his plan 
 of a new constitution, 52 ; puts 
 himself into hands of Assembly, 
 60 ; visits Paris, 61 ; led prisoner 
 to Paris, 79 ; his guards deprived 
 of arms, 89 ; kept in Paris, 95 ; 
 patience exhausted, 96 ; flight to 
 Varennes, 97 ; taken prisoner 
 there, 103 ; confined in Tuileries, 
 104 ; accepts new constitution, 
 ill; refuses sanction to various 
 decrees, 113; flies to Assembly 
 for protection, 132 ; trial, 135- 
 140 ; writes his will, 139 ; con- 
 demned to death, 140 ; Santerre 
 informs him of his sentence, 142 ; 
 he takes leave of his family, 143 ; 
 receives last rites of the Church, 
 144 ; his execution, 145 ; burial, 
 146 
 
 XVII. proclaimed by Cha- 
 
 rette, 161 
 
 Luckner, General, executed, 156 
 
 Madame Royale exiled, 188 
 Maillard, Citizeness, as Goddess of 
 Reason, 159 
 
Index. 
 
 199 
 
 Maillard leads army of women to 
 
 Versailles, 75 
 Malesherbes dismissed by king, 
 
 6 ; defends king on his trial, 138 ; 
 
 executed, 174 
 Mandat executed, 131 
 Manuel executed, 135 
 Marat, an incendiary writer, 109 ; 
 
 assassinated, 148 ; burial of, 
 
 149 
 
 Marie Antoinette, her marriage, 5 \ 
 life threatened, 77 ; captive in 
 Paris, 79 ; flight to Varennes, 97 ; 
 prisoner in Tuileries, 105 ; wears 
 red cap, 124 ; removed to Temple, 
 135 ; to Conciergerie, 151 ; 
 brought before Revolutionary 
 Tribunal, 151 ; condemned to 
 death, 153; execution, 154; 
 burial, 155 
 
 Marie Therese Charlotte, Madame 
 Royale, exiled, 188 
 
 Martial law in Paris, 108 
 
 Maurepas, Phelippeaux, arrested, 
 165 ; executed, 166 
 
 Miomandre defends the queen at 
 Versailles, 77 
 
 Mirabeau, a violent demagogue, 
 44 ; said to have used disloyal 
 language, 55 ; remarkable words 
 in Assembly, 73 ; illness, 93 ; 
 death, 94 
 
 Monge, Minister of Marine, 134 
 
 Mons, expedition against, 116 
 
 Monsabert arrested, 7 
 
 Monsieur persuades Louis to recall 
 lettres de cachet, 15 ; informs 
 Notables of abolition of gabelles, 
 23 ; deprived of his right to the 
 Regency, 113 
 
 Mounier proposes oath of Session 
 
 oijcu de paume, 52 ; meets army 
 of women, 76 
 
 Nancy, insurgents at, 85 
 
 Narbonne desires to plead for king, 
 136 
 
 Necker recalled, 32 ; at the head 
 of affairs, 34 ; oration to States- 
 General, 48 ; dismissed, 55 J 
 recalled, 63 ; finally leaves 
 France, 86 
 
 Newton, Colonel, executed, 174 
 
 Nimes, troubles at, 89 
 
 Noailles, Viscount de, proposes to 
 equalize taxation, 66 
 
 , Viscountess de, executed, 
 
 174 
 
 Nobles unite with Clergy and Com- 
 mons, 53 ; their generosity, 66 
 
 Notables, Assembly of, history of, 
 9 ; abolish corvie, 21 ; their 
 legislation, 25 ; new convention 
 
 of, 3° 
 Notre Dame, desecrated, 160 
 Novi, Abbe, murdered, 128 
 
 Oath of Federation, 85 
 
 Orders, the three, 42 ; they unite, 
 
 S3 
 Orleans, Duke of, arrested by order 
 
 of king, 6 ; bis largesses, 43 ; 
 
 member of States- General, 45 ; 
 
 sent out of France, 80 ; returns 
 
 from England, 84; votes for 
 . death of king, 141 ; accused before 
 
 Revolutionary Tribunal, 156 ; 
 
 executed, 157 
 Outrages within Tuileries, 120 
 
 Palais Royal, the parlement driven 
 from, 13 
 
200 
 
 Index. 
 
 Pantheon Society, late Jacobin, 
 
 suppressed, 191 
 Paris, Archbishop of, unpopular, 
 50; surrenders tithes to nation, 68 
 Parkment of Brittany in rebellion, 18 
 
 of Grenoble in exile, 17 
 
 of Paris suspended, 13 
 
 of Toulouse in exile, 17 
 
 Patriotic offerings, 69 
 Payne, Thomas, executed, 174 
 Peers present a protest to king, 14 
 Perigord, Count of, flies from 
 
 Toulouse, 17 
 Petion, violent speech of in Assem- 
 bly) 73 > (now mayor of Paris) 
 attacks authority of law, 90 ; 
 brings the king from Varennes, 
 103 ; his insolence to king, 125 ; 
 suspended and reinstated, 128 ; 
 prisoner in his own house, 131 
 Phelippeaux (Maurepas) executed, 
 
 165 
 Pilnitz, Treaty of, 114 
 Pitt continues war between Eng- 
 land and France, 161 ; prolongs 
 it, 192 
 Poitiers, Bishop of, his noble 
 
 speech, 88 
 Polignac, Counts of, emigrate, 63 
 Protestants, relief afforded to, 22 
 Public Safety, Committee of, 147 
 
 Reason, Feast of, 159 
 
 Regiment of Flanders at Versailles, 
 
 71 
 Reign of Terror at an end, 181 
 Renault, Cecilia, suspected of de- 
 sign on Robespierre's life, and 
 executed, 171 
 Rennes, Bishop of, his journey to 
 Paris, 16 
 
 ReVeillon, his house destroyed by 
 mob, 46 
 
 Revolutionary Calendar, note on, 
 172 
 
 Tribunal, 147 
 
 Robespierre attacks authority of 
 law, 90 ; his violent language in 
 Assembly, 106 ; and again, 136 ; 
 one of triumvirate, 161 ; attempts 
 on his life, 171 ; virtual sovereign, 
 172 ; speech in Convention, 177 ; 
 attempts his own life, 180 ; exe- 
 cuted, 181 ; epitaph on, 181 
 
 Rochefoucauld, Cardinal, leads dis- 
 sident clergy, 53 
 
 , de Liancourt, Duke of, tells 
 
 Louis the truth, 60 
 
 Rcederer, a Jacobin, 1 10 ; advises 
 king to fly to Assembly for pro- 
 tection, 132 
 
 Roland arrives in Paris, 91 ; quits 
 king's council, 1 19 
 
 , Madame, executed, 157 
 
 Romme calculates Revolutionary 
 Calendar, 173 ; commits suicide, 
 
 173 
 Rousseau, theories of, 4 
 
 St. Antoine, people , of, defile 
 through Assembly, 120 ; force 
 their way into Tuileries, 122 
 
 St. Etienne executed, 156 
 
 St. Huruge at Assembly, 120 
 
 St. Just attacked, by Desmoulins, 
 163 ; executed, 181 
 
 St. Menehould, royal family pass 
 through, 100 
 
 St. Pol-de-Leon, Bishop of, escapes 
 to Cornwall, 89 
 
 Santerre, his letter to Assembly, 
 120; visits Assembly, 121 ; leads 
 
Index. 
 
 20 r 
 
 mob into Tuileries, 124 ; informs 
 
 king of his sentence, 142 
 Sausse, a grocer at Varennes, 101 
 Scarcity said to be caused by court, 
 
 72 
 
 of bread, 185 
 
 Stance Royale determined on, 50 
 
 of the/eu de paume, 51 
 
 Sechelles accused, 165 ; executed, 
 
 166 
 Seditious prints, 16 
 Servan quits king's council, 1 19 
 Sezes, de, defends king, 139 
 Sieves, Abbe, his bold speech in 
 
 Assembly, 67 ; on Directory, 
 
 190 ; Second Consul, 194 
 Solminiac, de, murdered, 133 
 Soupers Fraterneh, 159 
 Stael, Madame de, proposes plan of 
 
 escape for royal family, 130 
 States-General, elections for, 44 ; 
 
 opening of, 48 ; call themselves 
 
 Assemblie Nationale, 49 
 Sulean murdered, 133 
 Swiss Guard defend Tuileries, 133 
 
 Talleyrand (Bishop of Autun) heads 
 a party among the clergy, 45 ; 
 takes civil oath, 87 
 
 Tallien threatens Robespierre, 177; 
 causes his arrest, 178 
 
 Tempest, 27 
 
 Terror, Reign of, at an end, 181 
 Terrorists released from prison, 189 
 Theroigne de Mericourt, Anne, 
 
 leads mob, 89 ; and again, 132 
 Tonnere, Duke of, his life in danger, 
 
 17 
 Toulouse, parhment of, in exile, 
 
 17 
 Tournay, expedition against, 1 16 
 Tourzel, Madame, obtains passport 
 
 for royal family, 96 
 Trenck, Baron, executed, 174 
 Triumvirate, 161 
 Tronchet defends king, 139 
 Turgot abolishes corvee, and is dis- 
 missed by Louis, 6 
 
 Valory meets king at Bondy, 98 
 
 Vaudier ordered into exile, but 
 escapes, 185 
 
 Vergniaud, Vice-President of As- 
 sembly, 132 
 
 Victories of the French arms, 176 
 
 Vienne, Archbishop of, president 
 of clergy in States-General, 52 
 
 Vincennes, castle of, destroyed, 90 
 
 Vivres executed, 18J 
 
 Voltaire, theories of, 4 
 
 Westerman executed, 165 
 
HJP