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Dtv not deface hooks liy marks and writiae. DC 185.F6T" """"""^ '■'""^ ^^1 iiiuffi?.',. £! „.?, JPX. in. .Pansduring the 3 1924 024 315 404 Cornell University Library The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924024315404 THE JOURNAL OF A SPY IN PARIS DURING THE REIGN OF TERROR January — July, 1794 I M \:i\ V RAOUL HESDIN NEW YORK HARPER & BROTHERS PUBLISHERS l8g6 ,1 i>i' r(i'' ^/TYW Copyright, 1895, by Hakper & Brothers. All riffhts reserved. PREFACE The following fragment appears to be part of the journal of an English spy in Paris, kept during the terrible months of January to July, 1794. " Raoul Hesdin," the name written upon the brown paper , cover of the book, is ap- parently a mere blind. So is the title, Quelques Observations sur les Indus- tries^ etc. No such person as " Hesdin " can be traced among the employes of the French Government at the time, but there was an enormous number of persons serving the Committee of Public Safety in various capacities whom it would be how equally impossible to identify. Internal evidence may, in- PREFACE deed, supply many suggestions as to what kind of man he was, and as to his course of life, both in Paris and pre- viously. He appears to have been trained as a wood-engraver in France in his youth, to have been at one time in North America, and possibly also in Germany ; to have been thoroughly familiar with Paris under the ancien regime; to have been present at many of the earlier scenes of the Revolution, especially in 1789 and 1790 — he may even have seen and spoken with Arthur Young on his famous tour in the former year — and to have returned to Paris late in the year 1 793, but whether from Eng- land or America seems doubtful. Also it is nowhere directly stated, though it is difficult to put any but one construc- tion on his words, that he was in the pay of the English Government at this PREFACE latter time. Anyhow, he obtained em- ployment, apparently as an engraver or director of engravings, under the Com- mittee of Public Safety, which, since the suspension of the "Constitution of 1 793 " in the previous summer, exer- cised an absolutely despotic and practi- cally irresponsible power in France. For the benefit of English readers it may be well to recall the composition of that Committee, the minuter history of which may be best studied in the excellent little work of M. Gros, Le Comite de Salut Public (Paris, 1893). Though this body of men was apparent- ly, and for many purposes, such as the war, really united, the divisions in it, the increase of which Hesdin marks so clearly, ran somewhat upon these lines : Robespierre, St. Just, and Couthon were the theorists; Billaud, Collot d'Herbois, and Barere were the " men of PREFACE their hands " in matters internal ; Carnot, the two Prieurs, Lindet, and Jean Bon St. Andre were the " War Ministry," the last named being the head of the naval department. It must be remem- bered that, under this Committee, "Ministries" up to the 12th Germinal, and " Commissions of Government " after that date, continued to exist, but wholly without power. The " Lesser Committee," or Committee of General Security, of which the leaders were Vadier, Amar, Lebas, and David, and which always seems to have got on badly with the greater, was more direct- ly concerned with matters of police. It would be quite out of place here to attempt any summary of the events of the Revolution, either internal or ex- ternal, during these seven months ; and it must suffice to say that the leading fact is the steady elimination of parties PREFACE and individuals by Robespierre for his own benefit. The followers of Hebert fell in March, those of Danton in April; each party left, however, a " tail," which gradually united with those members of the Committees who were themselves threatened, to work the Revolution of Thermidor. In the history of the war Lord Howe's naval victory of the ist of June, 1794, did little to compensate for the continued success of the French Republic on land. The defeats of the Vendeens, and the surrender of Toulon in December, 1793, allowed the whole attention of Carnot to be concentrated on the northeastern frontier, where the lack of accord between the English and Austrians resulted in the evacuation of the Netherlands by the allies after Jour- dan's victory of Fleurus (June 26th). Austria and Prussia were indeed turn- ing their thoughts more towards Poland, PREFACE and England stood alone in seriously desiring the restoration of the Bourbons in France — an event which, as Hesdin points out, might be by no means such an unmixed blessing, or such a certain pledge of peace, as the English Govern- ment supposed. Holland was threat- ened, as it had been threatened at the end of 1792, but was not yet attacked. Hesdin does not expect it to make any resistance. The Spaniards were still fighting on the East and West Pyre- nees, but the Sardinian Government had pretty well shot its bolt. Hesdin was of sufficient importance to be allowed to work in a room in the Tuileries, near to that in which the Committee itself sat. He seems to have been intimate, in the practical way in which we should expect to find a spy intimate, with several persons of consid- eration. Fouche, if the " Nantais " is PREFACE rightly identified with that astute person, was evidently known to him previously. Some one high in the confidence of Danton appears to have received a large sum of money from him, and, on the fall of the Dantonist party, he considers himself to be in some danger. He had, however, other channels of information besides Fouche, and was associated with an Englishman or American whom he calls V , whom it is impossible to identify, but who certainly seems to have been a spy also. When and how Hesdin left Paris does not appear ; he is always longing to get away. Mr. Pitt, it is well known, left a great deal of freedom of movement to his secret agents. The date of " Fruc- tidor I'an II." on the cover may be a part of the blind ; but if not, the jour- nal was brought to conclusion between August 1 8th and September i6th. The PREFACE present mutilated condition of the jour- nal suggests an unascertainable number of leaves missing at the end, a few miss- ing at the beginning, and two or three also lost a few pages further on. It is, of course, a matter of great regret that the diary, as we now have it, breaks off within a week of Thermidor 9th. That Hesdin's sources of information were not always correct may be gathered from his tone of extreme despondency in the month of July; for though the success of the Thermidorian movement which overthrew Robespierre, and ulti- mately the Terrorist Government, was up to the last moment doubtful, we have abundant evidence that the hopes of the opposition did continue to rise from day to day, and of this Fouche would be sure to be well informed. Probably Fouche, if it were he, did not always care to communicate his inmost thoughts. PREFACE The further question arises, why Hesdin should have desired the, overthrow of Robespierre — why he should have iden- tified himself with any party in the State instead of acting as a mere dispassion- ate observer. To this there seem to be three answers : first, that no peace could be concluded between the Allies and a Terrorist Government, and that Hesdin, whose sympathies — before the revolu- tion, at least — seem to have been as much French as English, ardently de- sired the re-establishment of peace; secondly, that, in his new capacity, he had had to submit to hob and nob with the filthy canaille of the revolutionary committees of several of the sections, especially his own, and must have learned to loathe the persons as well as the principles of these extreme Radi- cals ; lastly, that only in the overthrow of this "Government by spies and spies PREFACE of spies " could there be any hope of his getting out of his present employment, and the " blood-dripping city," which he had once loved so well. It may, then, be assumed that his in- formation on political matters is neither very new nor very important. The question whether he sent any other "in- formation by the usual channel " to Eng- land can only be answered when the se- cret service papers shall have been tnor- oughly explored. The present fragment looks more as if it were intended for the information of some private friend, either at Philadelphia or in England ; or it may be that the address to " M. J. Hesdin, Bureau des Affaires Etrangeres," in the former place, is elaborately invented, to conceal the real destination of the man- uscript ; and, if this be the case, it may also be supposed that the social condi- tions of the starving capital of France PREFACE were the real object of Hesdin's study, and such study the reason of his mission. On these points his observations seem to possess no little interest and value. No contemporary book, either in French or English, paints these conditions quite in the light which this manuscript throws upon them. That " famine and the dread of famine " is the real clue to the horrors of 1 794 is tolerably certain ; that the most drastic socialistic measures only aggravated a thousandfold the condi- tions they were intended to relieve, suf- ficiently appears from these pages. For the rest, Hesdin appears to have been a man of some erudition, keen powers of observation, plenty of pluck, and more tender sympathies than might have been expected in a spy. The style in which the diary is writ- ten shows more evidence of carelessness than of haste. It is always that of an XIV PREFACE educated man, and is even stilted and antiquated in places. There are, as is natural, many Gallicisms, many passages in which it is perfectly clear that the writer thinks now in French, now in English ; yet his spelling " of French names is little better than that of some of the Sans-culottes, whom he so much despised. There are, it may also be re- marked, one or two curious Scotticisms, for which it is difficult to account. The use of the title " monsieur " throughout, instead of " citizen," indicates either per- fect confidence that no unfriendly eye would read, or else indifference to Re- publican etiquette. Little trouble is taken to explain the names of men, places, or things, and much knowledge of Paris and Parisian life is taken for granted. Where, however, it has been found possible to identify a person or a date, a note has been made to that effect, PREFACE except in cases of such well - known names as those of the Great Committee, or, e.g., the painter David ; much still re- mains for which no adequate explana- tion is forthcoming. Contempt "and hatred for the Repub- lic and all things Republican are blend- ed on every page of this diary with a genuine love for France and the French people. Can the Englishman who lives, as the late Sir H. Maine said, in fcece Romuli, altogether afford, in 1895, to neglect the terrible object lesson afford- ed to him by Paris one hundred and one years ago ? CONTENTS December, 1793 PAGE Injustice of the Maximum — Dialogue on it with a Stone-mason — Gloomy Prospects of the Vendean In- surrection — The Allies have neglected La Vendee —State of the Church of St. Sulpice and of St. Denys — Old Methods of Embalming — Certificates of Good Citizenship — Municipal and Official Vanity — The Ladies and the Cockade i January, 1794 Question of Public Bake-shops — A City on Rations — The "Queues" — Use of Napkins compulsory — Iniquity of Management by Police — Scuffling for Coals and Wood — Shoes for the Army, which hates the Government — Hesdin's Work-room at the Tui- leries — The System of Couriers of Government — The Emigres are hard up for Money — La Vendee neglected — David, the Painter — Revolutionary En-^ gravings — The Cap of Liberty — Evasions of the Tariff Law- — Origin of "Strikes" — King George ridiculed on the Stage — Talma, the Actor — Gam- bling-hells — P^re Duchesne — A German Prince CONTENTS acting as a Revolution Agent — The Name of Mar- seilles to be changed — " Revolutionary Principles " February, 1794 The Government has no " Secrets," except Famine — The Accapareurs — Hopelessness of Attempt to en- force Tariff — New Metrical System and Calendar —The Jacobin Club — Hesdin's Pocket picked — —Patriotic Thief— King Louis XVII. at the Tem- ple Prison — The Sections of the Luxembourg and Pantheon ( Hesdin's own Section ) — Printing of Speeches — Change in Aspect of Streets owing to Abolition of Religion — Destruction of Churches, etc. — Nuns executed — Recruiting for the Army ; it is the only Safe Place — Cannon Foundries created — Talleyrand expelled from England — Hesdin's Judgment of him — A Strange Story from Plymouth — Death of Lomenie de Brienne — A Visit to some Pottery Works — The Revolution has done away with Honest Work, and given Birth to the " Cor- ner - man " — France will fight for Independence under any Government — Accusations of High Trea- son are frequent — Mild Winter — English People in Prison at St. Omer — Their Fears of Massacre — Scandalous Violations of International Law ... 28 March, 1794 A Concert at the Lycee — Violation of Maximum — An Amusing Scene on the River ; another at a City Gate — Paris is a Commercial Cul-de-sac — Starva- CONTENTS xix FACE tion — Wild Beasts multiplying — More Strikes — No Fodder — Emigres return in Disguise — Gardens to be requisitioned for Vegetable Growing — A ' ' Patri- otic" Riot — Marat's Paper to be continued — The ' ' Fall of Toulon " at the Theatre — Barire en evi- dence at the Theatre, with " Ladies " — Prices at the Theatres — Disgrace of the Stage — Immorality and Prostitution — Use of Tobacco disgusts Hesdin — ' ' Ignorance and Contempt for Refinement " — Books despised — Art at a Stand-still — The "Jury des Arts " — An Engraver's Opinion of Painters — The Hfebertists arrested — ^Wild Rumors and Proba- bility of an Insurrection to save Hebert — Absurd Travesty in the Convention — Week of Excitement over Hebert — Iniquity of his Party — Danger past, and Hubert condemned — "A Duel between the Government and the Town Council " — Execution of Hebert and his Friends — Will there be a Bank- ruptcy ? — Forged Assignats — Fouche and his Influ- ence — State of Parties — There will be a Struggle for the Mastery 52 April, 1794 Fall of the Dantonists — Danton's Recent Indifference to Politics — Robespierre and Bar^re — Sources of Robespierre's Power — His Loneliness — His Mis- tress? — Beautiful Weather — Tom Paine in Prison — He tries to pass as an American Citizen — New Plan of Certificates of Citizenship — Candle Famine — " The Streets smell of Blood "—Recent Shifting of the Population — The Quarters of Paris change their Character — Dirt and Pig-killing in the Streets CONTENTS — Is England going to take Corsica ? — Jealousy be- tween England and Spain — The Drama and the Press both gagged — Executive Council of Ministers abolished — Executions : Mesdames Desmoulins and Hubert, Chaumette — A Bloody Pamphlet in Praise of the Guillotine — Women faint at the Sight of it — Servants denounce their Masters — Route taken by the Death-cart — Tree of Liberty planted in Hesdin's Section — Famine progresses — Meat Mar- ket insufficiently supplied — The Paris Butcher a Sturdy Man — Yet Restaurant-keepers get supplied somehovir — Lack of Fodder and of Bread — Arms of the Republic to be affixed over the Prisons — France intends to seize Jersey — La Vendee flickers on — A Revolutionary General disgraced there — More Ex- ecutions : the Virgins of Verdun — The Limonadiers as News-agents — The Stone-masons all Radicals . 8i May, 1794 Disappearance of Gayety — Silence in the Streets ; Con- trast to 1789 — Universal Terror — Sequestration of Private Property — The Agents of the Government in the Provinces — Personation of them frequent — The Trial of the Princess Elizabeth — Fouquier's Savagery towards her — The "Hall of Liberty ;" its Internal Arrangements — Counsel for the Defence a mere Farce — Government by Spies — The Terrorists themselves in Terror — Robespierre's Body-guard — Instances of Recklessness of Royalists — Hesdin makes an "Unpleasant Discovery" — Rfene Vatar, the Printer — Habeas Corpus suspended in England — Local Rates and Reflections on them, and on CONTENTS xxi PAGE Municipal Government in general — Peculation Uni- versal — Orgies of Officials with Public Money — Proposal for Compulsory and Free Education — Is this Liberty ? — Knowledge is a Mark of ' ' Aristoc- racy " — Robespierre to make a New Religion ; it is impossible — Manufacture of Muskets — The War on the Italian and Spanish Frontiers — The Last Stand of Poland; will it succeed? — America hostile to England ; Mr. Jay's Mission — The Chateau at Meu- don ; what goes on there ? — Gunpowder Factories — St. Just irritates Carnot — Barire and his Orgies at Clichy — Probable Rupture in the Government — Acquittal of Rosselin — Houdon the Sculptor, his Grievance 107 June, 1794 ' God send the End quickly " — Heat of the Weather — Tobacco- smoking — 111 - treatment of English Prisoners at St. Omer and elsewhere in France — Robespierre as President of the Convention — Inter- nal Arrangements of the Hall — Methods of Voting — Eagerness of the Deputies to escape Notice — General Terror of the Conventionals — Robespierre as an Orator — Other Orators — Guffroy's Case; Probably the Prelude of a Struggle — Couthon de- nounces the Press en masse — Catherine Theot — Vadier the Terrorist — Robespierre's Private Police in Quarrel with the Committee of General Security — Spies and Counter-spies — Methods of Arrest — "La Chasse aux Suspects" — Forecast of the Fut- ure: Peace or War ?— Restoration or Despotism? — Greed of the Allies — Danger from Russia ; will CONTENTS she ally with the French Republic ?— The Fete of the "Supreme Being" was a Failure, and badly arranged — Fouche versus Robespierre — Probability of an Explosion — Law of 22 Prairial — Lecointre and TaUien — The Guillotine to be moved to the "East End" — The Women worship Robespierre as a Messiah — Catherine Theot again — St. Just is a Man of Ideas — He will reconstruct Society — Rural versus Urban France — Hesdin's Practical Ideas on the Subject — Barire's Old Age Pension Scheme — St. Just was a Rogue before 1789 — Cecile Reg- nault's Attempt — Fresh Emission of Assignats — Question of Depreciation — Republican Dress to be adopted — Arrest of a Section Committee en masse; why? — "The Millers won't work; they shall be forced to " — " Fraternal Banquets " — Duke of York in Retreat — Death of Buzot reported — Revolution Literature collected — Disturbance in Section Lux- embourg — Long digression on the Prisons — Increase of Ordinary Crime, especially round Paris — Prison Hospitals do not exist — Rate of Executions — Battle of Fleurus — Women's Wigs 134 July, 1794 Is the Government wanting a Peace ?-^Disorganization of Navy — The Churches continue open — Repub- lican Services in them — Sales of Lands of Church and Emigres — Block-houses at City Gates — "Poli- tics are asleep " — There is no hope — A Pyramid to be erected at Calais — Air-Balloons and Aerial Tele- graphs — More Bloodshed — New Cemetery at " East End" — New Theatres — Fouch^ again attacked — QONTENTS The Pantheon — The Continental System fore- shadowed — Danger of Holland — Mockery of the Trials of Prisoners — Eight Hundred Persons guillo- tined in a Month — The Jardin des Plantes — The Wild Beasts removed thither from Versailles — Ver- sailles dismantled — Fine Harvest of 1794 . . .184 THE DIARY OF A SPY IN PARIS [ The first three sheets of the Diary are torn out.'\ published, and copies despatched to all the Sections.* I was discussing this table with an enraged friend of mine (a stonemason) not long ago, and found him quite sensible of the corrup- tion with which the fixture of prices has already come to be associated : * This apparently refers to the chiffre of the Maximum, of which various sicetches were circu- lated in 1793, though the complete and final tarifi was only promulgated in February, 1794. Cf. note infra, p. 30. 2 THE DIARY OF A SPY IN PARIS [Dec. " For v'la," says he, " they are good pa- triots who have fixed it — the best of patriots — but, citizen, who shall prevent the National Agents to whom is en- trusted the task of calculating the cost of transport of the article to Paris — who shall prevent them from being coquins ? And the benefice, citizen, — look at the benefice to the shopkeeper, — it is at ten per centum ! Bah ! but it is too high !" Paris has been, in fact, so long accustomed to be fed by the Gov- ernments, whether Royal or Municipal, that the inhabitants cannot understand that any Individual is entitled to a fair profit on the sale of provisions. " And we are all sans travail, these eight weeks," he added. " Bah ! it is heads we must have before this will go bet- ter!" I might have suggested, had it been politic to do so, that he was sans travail chiefly because all those I793-] GLOOMY PROSPECTS IN LA VENDISe 3 who could employ were either in prison or in dread of prison. But it is hard to expect a man to be reasonable who has only the pay of forty sous per week* and his ration of black bread; meat they hardly see. The only class in regular employ are those under the Army Contractors. The year is fitly closing in disaster after disaster. The fatal event of the igth.t to which I had long looked for- ward as inevitable, has been followed by a crushing disaster in the north-west to the Catholic army of the Vendeens.^ As the most ferocious vengeance is al- ready being taken on the unhappy Tou- lonners by the butcher Freron, so we may expect to see the Reign of Terror , * Danton's " Law of the Forty Sous," granting payment to the lowest class for attending section meetings, passed on September 5, 1793. t The fall of Toulon on its evacuation by the English. X The battle of Savenay, see note, p. 104. 4 THE DIARY OF A SPY IN PARIS [Dec. established definitely in Lower Brittany. I can't but think the allies to have been neglectful of the importance of these Rebels; their leaders are men of immense determination, and, though unsuccessful in Normandy, may yet live to cause the Republic some trouble in their own province. It's a poor reflection, but a natural one for an Englishman, that the destruction of Toulon means the destruction of French commerce in the waters of the Levantine, and the de- struction of French commerce must mean the advantage of British. Let the British Convention of Edinburgh * take note of this fact ; though, for my part, I wish Muir and all his brethren were safe at Botany Bay. * See Jephson's " History of the Platform," vol. i. pp. 201 and 211. This refers to one of the numer- ous movements of seditious persons in the United Kingdom, against which the stringent Acts of Mr. Pitt's ministry were directed. I793-] STATE OF CHURCHES ' 5 I have made my visit to St. Sulpicia. It's the saddest thing in the world : the Virgin's chapel, which had been so beautifully restored by M. Wailly after the fire at the Fair of 1763* is stripped of everything. M. Pigalle's glorious Virgin of the High Altar is battered beyond recognition, and the head of the Child knocked off. But what are our local losses compared to those of Notre Dame and St. Dennis ! I happened to be made acquainted, a day or two ago, with a priest who was present at the recent exhumation of the royal corpses. I learned from him some curious details as to the old methods of embalming with quick- silver; and much else that would have delighted the learned Browne.t It * The Foire St. Germain, part of which used to be held in the church. t Sir T. Browne, author of " Hydriotaphia." 6 THK DIARY OF A SPY IN PARIS [Dec. seems that from the sixteenth century the greedy Monks substituted copper crowns for the real gold ones with which the Kings used to be buried. Several bodies, he says, were found almost intact — Henry IV.'s among them, and the Marshal Turenne. Some of the monuments (in a mutilated condition, for most were broken in the process ) to the Museum ; * the bones of the crowned scelerats and coquins were heaved into a common trench ! 30th. — One of the most ridiculous of all the tyrannies, and one concerning which I experienced some difficulty be- fore my entry to my present employ, is the Certificates of good Citizenship. Here the Town Hall\ puts forth all its most * Sic : the museum referred to is the Louvre, t The " Town Hall," or " the Municipals," is Hes- din's usual expression for the Commune, or Town I793-] CERTIFICATES OF GOOD CITIZENSHIP 7 arbitrary powers. It is absolutely nec- essary, either by bribery, or by secret influence, or by an affectation of ex- treme patriotism^ to possess one's self of the little card or paper on which, to- gether with a description of one's per- sonal appearance, a note is made of one's dwelling-place, age, and employ. The paper is obtained first at Section Meeting, signed by the President and secretary of the same, and then for- warded to the Town Hall in copy. It is, indeed, the chief business of the Com- mittee at Section Meetings to allot these papers. Any person who has been con- tinually resident since 1789 must pro- duce proof of having served in the Blues,* paid all taxes including those so ridiculously cdXledi patriotic gifts, signed Council of Paris, which sat at the H&tel de Ville, under the Maire. * National Guards, vide infra. 8 THE DIARY OF A SPY IN PARIS [Dec. no Monarchical petitions, been rejected at no Republican, a member of no Mo- narchical clubs ; not have held more than one office or received more than one salary from the Republick at the same time ; and the like. By strict law, seven signatures of Committee-men* are nec- essary, but such are hardly ever present to give force to it, A man is at all times liable to be called on to present his carte de civisme to any Agent of the Government, or to any person repre- senting himself to be such. It is a fa- vourite device of the Municipals for the extortion of moneys to summon a whole family to their bar, and then, cancel- ling their certificates without assigning any reason, to leave the dread of being considered suspect hanging over their heads. It is the fashion to wear one's *I.e. Revolutionary committees of sections. I793-] MUNICIPAL AND OFFICIAL VANITY 9 carte stuck in the hat -band, and I ob- serve that some carry their card of membership of the yacobin or Cordelier Clubs in the same place. But perhaps the most curious fashion is that of the Presidents of the Sectional Committees, who, as a pendant to the broad tricolour neck-ribbon, carry a little plaque, like the traditionary stone tables of the Law, on one side of which is printed in very small letters the Rights of Man, and on the other the Constitution,* or an abridg- ment of the same. These scarves and insignia of office form one of the great- est attractions in the eyes of the vulgar sort. There is even a difference in the Way of wearing the bonnet rouge, and in the size and shape of the tricolour cock- ade. With Mddles. les Citoyennes this has become a matter of coquettery.t It * The abortive " Constitution of the year I." (or 1793) is here meant. t Sic. 10 THE DIARY OF A SPY IN PARIS [Jan. is extreme patriotism to wear it very- large and between the breasts ; it is mod- eration at the least to allow it to peep from under the curls. Our Rulers are not above constant proclamations that it be worn large and conspicuous. But against the ladies what decrees are operative? Nay, I meet occasionally men in the streets who do not seem to have heard of the Revolution, who wear powder and dress elegantly, and dine, no doubt, luxuriantly. They are getting fewer, however, every day, and that they exist at all is only explicable by bribery, 1 794 : Jan. 6th. — Famine ! famine ! When the Municipals think it necessa- ry, as they did last week, to placard the streets with the joyful tidings that a thousand loaves of sugar have been re- ceived by them for distribution to the grocers, we cannot be said to be many days removed from famine. There is a I794-] PUBLIC BAKE-SHOPS II question continually agitated as to the advisability of creating public bake- shops, to be owned and worked by servants of the Municipals. Such a plan would no doubt afford warm places to a number of their favourites, but it would respond neither to oeconomy nor common sense. They cry out against the selfishness of the bakers, the grasp- ing and grinding of those who have Cap- ital, the inefficiency of the Tariff law, and the like ; but what is really neces- sary is a little more, nay, a good deal more, freedom. I believe now prices might be almost at the level of their fnaximum were the fellows who used to sell bread rolls in the market alleys allowed to ply their trade. These, however, have long disappeared, and there are considerably fewer bakers^ shops than in 1789. It is the fear of losing custom that alone will keep 12 THE DIARY OF A SPY IN PARIS [Jan. prices down, not the fear of being called a rich egoist, or even of losing your head; for where many are in mischief each thinks he will escape the thresh- ing. And even on their miserable plan of force, if there were half a dozen bakers more in each Section the dis- graceful scenes of the mornings might be avoided. Paris is on Ration like a besieged city, each person receives from his Section a baker's card, and is thereby entitled to receive from the baker, at the maximum price, as much bread as the Municipals consider sufficient for him and his fam- ily. This ration varies weekly. The baker is bound to calculate, from the number of mouths he feeds, the quanti- ty of corn he will need to buy from the Municipals, who distribute it weekly. We who are not obliged to /aire queue at the bakers' doors — thanks to my em- 1794-] A CITY ON RATIONS 13 ploy, I am exempt from this, and a bare sufficiency of bread is delivered, together with meat and vegetables, at my lodg- ing daily — have very little conception of the sufferings of those who are. The queues are somewhat differently regu- lated in different, Sections, but my host's daughters, who take it in turn to go, are often waiting from four of the clock after midnight till eight or nine in the morning. 8th. — There is posted to-day, at all the shambles at St. Genevieva's, a notice that only napery * is to be brought by the women in the queues to fetch their meat away. 'Tis because these ladies were in the habit of breaking one an- other's heads with the tin platters they are wont to carry. Most dangerous and unjust are the arrangements ; and most * Napkins or linen (a Scotticism). 14 THE DIARY OF A SPY IN PARIS [Jan. infamous schools of morals for the girls are these same queues. The police, who stand to marshal the applicants and receive their allotted numeros, will al- low any who slips a few sous into their hand to take her place in the front rank, though she arrive never so late; and then perhaps those who have been stand- ing for hours will lose their turn, or find the stall empty and closed before it arrives; nor will the numero of one day serve for the next. The most dis- orderly scenes are, however, enacted at the Partes on the River Seine, where no regular queues are possible for those who wish to provide themselves with slender rations of wood or coal for fuel. The Porte du Charbon is right faced to the Greve,* and the width of the square behind gives room for plenty of scuffling *The Place de Grgve, where the HStel de.Ville was situated. I794-] SHOES FOR THE ARMY I5 when the boats discharge their cargoes. But at all the chantiers* on the upper part of the river {Here it is evident that there is only one leaf missing, or two at most.^ me by Meunier and d'Arcon, two Clerks in the war office. The innumerable quantity of shoes required for the army has caused an edict that the shoemakers should work only for the Contractors, at the rate of two pair of shoes per week. As it is, many of the soldiers go bare- foot or in sabots, and the requisitioned shoes are too often made of other materi- al than leather. But it cannot be denied that the Government, indifferent to ev- erything else, takes excellent care for the health of the troops on foreign service. * Wood-yards. l6 THE DIARY OF A SPY IN PARIS [Jan. The enormous sums made by the Con- tractors intercepts* a part of this benev- olence. Yet I believe the army to be, with the exception of those sent against the Vendeeans, united to a man in detes- tation of this bloody Government ; and I sometimes amuse myself by reflecting on the clean sweep that would be made of Messieurs of the Faction, if any one of the Generals of the Frontier should pro- pose to the Enemy a six weeks' truce, come back, and burn Paris and these rascals alive in it, restore the King, and then march against the Austrians again. My word on it, France would be for that man ! Had Dumorrier t been an hon- est man, he would have effected this. The ludicrous way in which a Govern- ment, consisting almost wholly of Civil * Sic. \ Dumouriez, the great French general, victor of Jemappes, defeated at Neerwinden, went over to the allies, March, 1793. He died at Henley-on-Thames. I794-] hesdin's work-room 17 men, pretends to criticize the action of the Military, and sends to prison and the scaffold* honourable soldiers for strategies which, perhaps, are the sav- ing of their armies, is patent to all the world. gth. — My new work-room at the pal- ace t is at the bottom of a long cor. ridor, at a short right angle to that which leads to the chamber of the Prin^ cipal Committee (called the Public Safe-' ty). It is dark, but not inconvenient; but one is annoyed by the constant tramp of Blues\ and messengers in the passage outside. Cannons with matches burning are always kept at the entrance of the Palace. Courriers are for ever on the move. I walked the other day from * E.g., the two Custines, father and son, and the narrow escape of Hoche himself, t The Tuileries. X The National Guards. l8 THE DIARY OF A SPY IN PARIS [Jan. Section Meeting* with a very honest man called Henri, who has recently received a place as Courrier Extraordinary. He tells me that he received an offer of two hundred livres per mensem from a friend of Hebert's if he would employ himself in tracking aristocrats, many of his former master's friends being known to be in hiding in the City ; but he thought it a dishonest employ, and ex- cused himself. He is now in receipt of a good wage, but the service is hard. They have twenty -four Extraordinary Courriers, who are bound to be in turn booted and spurred night and day in the gallery of the ante-chamber of the committee. One of these men broke his shoulder, when on service in Bel- gium, from a fall from his horse last * The writer belonged to the section of the Pan- theon in which his dwelling, in the Rue St. Jacques, was situated. — Vide infra. 1794- fiMIGRfiS HARD UP FOR MONEY ig autumn, but he has never received a penny in compensation, being dismissed at once. loth. — I hear, from the very best sources, that the Emigration are in the greatest straits for money: the news from Toulon has dashed all their hopes ; they dare not trust more to us; they believe, as indeed do all here as well as on the frontier, our Government may any day be overturned ; and all they have to live on is the charity of the Empress of Russia, and the Prince* is on his knees to her for more.t Monsieur is at Turin, or somewhere in the north of Italy. They babble of assisting Ven- de ; % the Pope sends blessed banners and the like, but no one sends any guns. * D'Artois. t Forneron, " Histoire GenSrale des Emigres," vol. i. p. 293, says that the gifts of Catharine to the cause did not exceed four million francs. \ Sic. 20 THE DIARY OF A SPY IN PARIS [Jan. It is a great deal of pity that Lord Moira appears to have done so little in this direction.* But Lord Grenville appears determined to shut his ears to every suggestion that is made to him by the soberer party among the Emi- gres.! i2th. — I have at times some of M. Da- vid's work to engrave ; it is clear, but de- ficient in light and shadow. I do not know any one in Paris who inspires me with more horror and disgust than this person. His hideous countenance, with a great swelling on one cheek, is the reflection of his hideous heart. It is said that during the Prison Massacres he employed himself in the courtyard * Hesdin was quite right. The English Govern- ment was singularly blind to the excellent opening afforded by the Vend6an insurrection. Lord Moira's futile effort was in December, 1793. t A somewhat similar complaint occurs in Mr. Miles's "Correspondence" (ii. 122). I794-] REVOLUTIONARY ENGRAVING 21 of the prisons making drawing-studies of the agonies of the dying. He does not, happily for me, interest himself in the medals and tail -pieces with the image of Brutus and the galley-slaves' cap* between two piques, which form the staple of my work. I can, however, flat- ter myself on having introduced a better style of setting than heretofore usedt for the seals of the Republic. I am just designing an Oval with a very small in- terior beading, surmounted by festooned oak-leaves above and draped roses de- pendent. If I could only persuade them to allow Madam Republick to drop her heavy bundle of antient Roman weapons, or stow it under her petticoats, and to take off her hideous cap, I would not * The origin of the red cap as a Revolutionary emblem is a subject of doubt. See the article " Bonnet Rouge," in the " Dictionnaire de la Revo- lution," par Bonsin et Challamel. t Sic. 22 THE DIARY OF A SPY IN PARIS [Jan. be ill pleased. Tiolier's * work is some- times graceful — much more so, I think, than Dupre's — though with ungraceful subjects to work upon. He's now at an awkward design of an eye on the top of a mountain, which looks more like a symbol of the Freemasons than a Sun of Liberty. The absurd passion for the Red Cap has gone so far that it has been adopted and decreed to be the official head-dress of all Municipals. " If one wants a Statue to escape mutilation," says F , " one decorates it with a red cap," and even your Virgin Mothers are thus transferable into Goddesses of Lib- erty at will. ijth. — One hears of constant com- plaints of the sale of provisions furtively at midnight. There is a poultry-stall next door to the Foy,\ which I am told * Tiolier was a celebrated medallist and mintier. t Cafe Foy in the Palais Royal (?). I794-] EVASIONS OF THE TARIFF LAW 23 is entered by a back alley, and does a roaring trade in the evening. Female hawkers also evade the law, by private understanding with the stall - keepers in the markets, purchasing large quan- tities of small provisions, eggs, but- ter, and the like, and vending them from door to door, under the pretence that they are linen wares, with which, for a show, the tops of their baskets are covered. I have myself made an arrangement with Citoyenne Cor- niche, whose husband works under me, to supply me with an omelette twice a week ! The porters and bargemen on the Seine are a fierce and independent race, and utterly refuse to submit to the Tarifa for the carriage of fuel, both on and from the river. Their wage is supposed to be fixed by the Municipality, as the agri- cultural wage used to be fixed by the 24 THE DIARY OF A SPY IN PARIS [Jan. Justices in Quarter Sessions * in Eng- land. It's supposed one -third higher than in i ygo, but not a week passes but all the men in some wood-yard throw down their packs and refuse to lift them till a much higher pourboire is given. If we should have a sharp winter now, the result would be terrible. It costs four livres a load at my door now — nearly double the price of 1789 in the Vaugirard.t 24th. — They have given at the City Theatre a play entitled The Madness * An Act of 19 George II., empowering interested persons to demand that the J. P.'s should fix the rate of wages, evidently recognizes that the practice had been almost disused. It was common enough in the seventeenth century, but Hesdin can hardly have been familiar with it in his youth. See Cun- ningham, " Growth of English Industry and Com- merce," p. 359. t " It " evidently means wood for fuel from the chantiers. This seems to indicate that Hesdin stayed in Rue Vaugirard (not far from his present quarters) in 1789. I794-] KING GEORGE RIDICULED 25 of King George* in which our coming Revolution is predicted with all the ab- surdity possible; Mr, Fox the leader, and the Tower the Bastille. How men can be found to play such parts ! But some twenty leading actors of the old Stage, who had made it the most fa- mous in Europe, are in prison, and their lives daily threatened. Talma has pros- tituted himself to them ; not that I mean he plays in such as this, but he lives and plays. He has immense histrionic tal- ent, but his voice is rather monotonous ; he mouths and rants, both with voice and gesture. The Government is making great ef- * " La Folie de Georges ou I'Ouverture du Parle- ment d'Angleterre," a comedy by Lebrun-Tossa, was given at the City Theatre for the first time on January 23, 1794. Pitt and the Prince of Wales are massacred by the people, and George is drawn in a chariot by Burlce, Grenville, and Chesterfield to " Beedlam " (Welschinger, " Theatre de la Revolu- tion," p. 205). 26 THE DIARY OF A SPY IN PARIS [Jan. forts to close the gambling-booths. The rage for gambling appears to have at- tained a fearful height since the com- mencement of the Revolution. There were some scandalous revelations re- cently made of the system of the black mail being levied by Agents of the Gov- ernment itself, to wink at the loto and biribi tables. The fellows who used to tell your fortunes with a greasy pack of cards on the Pont Neuf for three half- pence have been hunted away, but there are plenty of Calliostros* left plying their trade under false colours. M. He- bert's filthy broad -sheet, entitled, Le Fere Duchene, is now appearing four times per decade: it is incredible how such stuff can have had such a long life ; and at fifty sous a month ! Every one says that its publication must cost * Sic. 1794.] GERMAN PRINCE ACTING AS SPY 27 far more, and that it is helped out by the plundering of State funds; but every- one reads it at the street corners, and the Cour des Forges * is a scene of great excitement at the appearance of every fresh numero. Sometimes there are home truths in it, as when it is pointed out that the soldiers are shod with brown paper ^ and fed with black beans for coffee. 30th. — There is nothing more strange in the Revolution than the wonderful people it attracts from foreign countries. Without mentioning Mr. Paine, my countryman, there are at least four Per- sons of Quality from beyond the Rhine who have played or are playing their part with the most violent. One of these, an actual Prince of the Empire, recently lived in a garret opposite my dwelling, and acted as a Spy for the Government; * Where Pere DucMne was sold. I am unable to identify the locality. 28 THE DIARY OF A SPY IN PARIS [Feb. one supposes that he filled his breeches pocket fairly thereby, but it could not and did not prevent him from becom- ing "suspected." 'Tis veritably a Fever which possesses such men. In spite of the denunciations of our Government, which are so much in fashion, it's easy to see that Lord Stanhope's* speech of last week, which has found its way into sev- eral French newspapers, has made an impression upon thinking Frenchmen. Feb. jrd. — Oh, Posterity ! please to take note that there is a new town in France. It is called " Sans-nom." It used to be called Marseilles, and then at- tained some celebrity as a trading-port. I am surprised at no destruction in the name of Revolutionary principles ; it is * Lord Stanhope spoke in the Lords on January 23d, in favour of a peace, but it is not easy to see why the speech of a leading Opposition lord should be interpreted in Paris as appears in the text. 1794-] GOVERNMENT HAS NO SECRETS 2g extraordinary what influence a few phrases, a few ideas, possibly right or righteous in themselves, but without convenience to the existing circum- stances, have over these people. It was one of the Brissotines, or Brissot himself, who said, "/ would rather our Colonies perished than a single principle of the Revolution were slighted" * Feb. 4th. — I have little heart in such scenes for the compilation of a regular Journal; if there were the least chance of my obtaining employment elsewhere, or a passport to leave, I would leave this hideous shambles to-morrow. I am here to discover the secrets of a Government which has none, to unriddle mysteries * Prig as Brissot was, he spoke in the heat of the moment, and would probably have been the first to denounce, in modern England, a distinguished pro- fessor who, without his (Brissot's) excuse, made an almost exactly similar remark about England's Ind- ian Empire. 30 THE DIARY OF A SPY IN PARIS [Feb. when everything is but too patent, to assign causes to effects when famine, hideous famine, is the cause of every- thing. At times I console myself with the thought that I am taking part in a piece that will one day be read and re-read on History's page — if, indeed, all history be not destroyed and the End of all things come. 'Tis this pres- ent thing, famine, and the dread of worse farriine, that has converted the most loveable and hospitable people in Europe into a den of tigers. The name of hatred most frequently upon all lips is not Aristocrat, but " Accapa- reur" (that is, one who buys up provi- sions in order to sell them at an en- hanced price). For this the absurd law of which I have recorded the chiffre above.* For this the patrols at the * (Deest.) That is, the law of the Maximum, fix- ing the price of all the necessaries of life. Various 1794-] FAILURE TO ENFORCE TARIFF 31 Grilles of the Barriers or entrances to the city from the home counties ; which are requisitioned to supply the capital, indifferent to their loss, and, indeed, tp* all but its own daily needs. For this the same patrols at all the ports or landing- places along the quays of the Seine River. Yet these precautions are as fruitless as are the efforts of the Police of the markets; it seems impossible to prevent those who have mpney — and there are many such, with whom the dread of losing it alternates with the in- difference to everything except the en- decrees — the most important being in the months of May, 1793, September, 1793, February, 1794 (when the completed tables appeared) — gradually established it, and it continued nominally in force till December, 1794. It did nothing to alleviate the distress, and, as a matter of fact, was, of course, constantly evaded ; though, during the early sum- mer, it seems to have been really enforced in all small transactions in market overt, by the agency of the Terror. 32 THE DIARY OF A SPY IN PARIS [Feb. joyment of the actual moment — ^from getting a larger share of food than those who have nothing. There are eating- houses, even within the circuit of the Palace Royal, where it is possible to dine scarce less sumptuously than in the reign of the late King. " Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die." Sth. — Perhaps the most useful Pro- posal hitherto made during the Rev- olution is that for a system of uni- form measures of weight, of length, and of superfices. Although it must take a century at least before such system can really make way, for the daily cus- toms of the ignorant and poor are the last things the most despotick of gov- ernors can change, it will be a great blessing to future ages to get rid of the infinite variations of the livre and the aune which obtained in the several Provinces. But, of course, it is ren- 1794-] THE JACOBIN CLUB 33 dered ridiculous by being tacked on to their new Kalendar and their new divi- sions of the clock. By a recent decree the system is declared to be completed, but with rare common sense its com- pulsory adoption is deferred for a peri- od. Will Mesdemoiselles of the Opera measure their too scanty garments by the metre? Last night to the Gallery of the Great Club* for the first time since my return. It is held in a mean, straight edifice, formerly a Monkery. The windows are all in the roof, and additional supports have had to be contrived for the roof, which gives it an ungainly aspect inside. The Galleries at each end are crowded with those who applaud the more patriotic orators ; and the art of filling theset with * The celebrated " Jacobin Club," so called be- cause held in the Jacobin convent off the Rue St. Honor6. t Sc. galleries. 3 34 THE DIARY OF A SPY IN PARIS [Feb. a man's own friends when he is going to speak is not the least necessary among parliamentary tricks practised here. The Club is the very workshop of delation and denunciation. When an individual dis- pleases it, a deputation is forthwith sent off to the Town Hall or the Committees to accuse him. The debates of the Club are as fully reported as those of the Convention, or may be read condensed in the Journal of the Mountain. The crush as we came out was enormous. By ill-luck I had, in perfect safety as I thought, a net purse with a few coins, a roll of one hundred livre Assignats, and my carte de siirete, all buttoned tight inside the breast pocket of my coat. When I got to the bridge I put down my hand, and, behold, two cross slashes, evidently made with a razor, represented my possessions. But the humour of the rascal was good, for I have just received I794-] A PATRIOTIC THIEF 35 by the petite paste my carte de surete again, with an intimation from my very patriotic filou that, though regretfully obliged to borrow my Assignats for his necessities, he would not for the world disquiet so brave a sansculotte respect- ing his Citizenship. But it will evident- ly not do to be careless about what I carry — " Who steals my purse steals dross ;" but I might easily have been carry- ing papers which would have given the Government a right to steal other heads as well as my own ; and there- by have made my patriotic filou a rich man! 8th. — There are over two hundred men told off every week from the Blues, to act as a special guard for the young King's prison in the Templars. One hears endless stories of projects for his 36 THE DIARY OF A SPY IN PARIS [Feb. escape, and also of the cruel treatment to which he is subjected. It's probable that before very long he will be mur- dered, and his aunt and sister trans- ferred to some common prison. For genuine ribaldry and folly a sec- tion meeting of our good neighbours at the Luxemburg* (who have recently changed their name, to match the pre- vailing passion for antiquity, into that of the Section of Mucins Sccsvola) is to be commended. There is much rivalry in incendiary motions between us and those ; and between us we embrace more rascal- dom and more Revolutionary nonsense than any two sections in Paris. There are about three thousand electors in each, and not a hundred regularly attend the meetings. Even of these all business is managed by half a dozen or so. We sit * The section of that name to the west of Sec- tion Panthfeon. I794-] PRINTING OF SPEECHES 37 at the old Carmelite Nunnery,* they at St. Sulpicia's ; and the arches which I remember ringing with the finest mu- sic of the Fete Dieu, now only re-echo the filthy brawls of greedy and blood- thirsty demagogues. I was deputed to take a message to them the other day, and Roche, their president, insisted on kissing me on both cheeks. A more dis- gusting scoundrel does not live, though his secretary, Jehannot, is not far be- hind him. We are a most voluminous Section in the matter of speeches, and the printing of them — at the public ex- pense, of course. If I miss a meeting I am sure to receive from Lion's,! the * There appear to have been two Carmelite estab- lishments on the left bank — one on the right of the Rue de Grenelle, in the Rue Vaugirard, the other on the right of the Faubourg St. Jacques, communicat- ing with the Faubourg by the Passage des Carmel- ites. The one here referred to is the latter. (Frank- lin, "Les Anciens Plans de Paris," p. 152.) t The name Lion appears as that of the printer 38 THE DIARY OF A SPY IN PARIS [Feb. next morning, a new broad-sheet with a speech of Professor Carentan, who now calls himself Draco, and leads us all by the length of his lungs. I notice no change more than that made by the suppression of the Monk- eries et Ccetera. The difference which this has made to the appearance, and above all to the street noises of Paris, is quite wonderful. Before the Revolu- tion this street * was quite as much of 2i pfarrer gassed as the river Main val- ley, and it was bells, bells, from morn till night. I used often to visit old Toussaint the naturalist here — he loved not the Processions, and would spit, of various addresses of the Section Pantheon dur- ing this year. * Rue Saint Jacques. t The Pfarrer or Pfaffen Gasse (Parson's Alley) was the name given to the valley of the river Main, from Bamberg to Frankfort, on account of the great number of ecclesiastical fiefs there. I794-] DESTRUCTION OF CHURCHES 3g with a '■'■ corbeaux" when he saw them coming. Besides all the College and University buildings, there were between the Observatory and the Bridge three parish churches, two other churches, and nine Convents or Monasteries ;* they had a perfect little St, Dennis of Royal Relicks in the various churches, especially in the Jacobins',! and St. Magloire, now all scattered to the winds. Then the gorgeous buildings of the University, now all confiscated. Be- tween St. Severina's Fountain and the little passage down to Hell Street\ there is not a single crucifix, where before I am sure there were twenty. All the * Among the latter was that of the English Bene- dictines, where James II. of England was buried. The three parish churches were St. Etienne des Gres, St. Benoit, and St. Jacques. t Jacobins' Church — in the Rue St. Jacques — not to be confused with their convent off St. Honore, where the Great Club sat. % Rue de I'Enfer. 40 THE DIARY OF A SPY IN PARIS [Feb. royal statues on the bridges have fol- lowed them — even my favourite infant Louis.* But it's the same story from St. Mandy to Chaillott gth. — Some unhappy Nuns were con- demned to death to-day for no cause except their Profession. But the Carmel- ites have been an object of suspicion to the managers ever since the mas- sacre of '92. One of these was quite a decrepit old woman, incapable of any conspiracy such as these wretches allege to have been hatched by them. Meanwhile the recruiting the army goes on steadily, and is perhaps the most sat- isfactory sign of the hour ; even a cy- devant^ may, be safe in the ranks. Men * Possibly this refers to a figure of Louis XIV. with his father and mother in a group, which stood on the Pont du Change, close to the Chatelet. t As we might say " from Camberwell to Ken- sington." I That is to say, " a noble." I794-] CANNON FOUNDRIES CREATED 41 and boys of all heights and ages are ad- mitted, and whether it is from eagerness to escape from the blood-stained Capital, which reeks with spies and delation, or no, there is a real enthusiasm for all things Military ; whereas the service in the Blues is continually done by depu- ty, in spite of all laws to the contrary. There is, for instance, great difficulty in supplying the Blues with arms — most have only the pike ; but they are such rapscallions and so perpetually drunk, that it is as well they have few mus- kets, though these are supposed to be turned out of the factories on the river boats at a surprising rate. The Inva- lids' Terrace, too, and the Luxemburg Garden have been converted into vast cannon foundries. There are fifty-four forges at the Luxemburg alone for can- nons, working night and day, besides the smaller ones for bayonets -and pikes. 42 THE DIARY OF A SPY IN PARIS [Feb. The noise and filth they generate is very great : all the refuse from the works is flung pell-mell into the Seine. i£th. — I have just heard a rumour that the Bishop of Autun* has been expelled from England. I cannot but felicitate the Ministry on so bold a step. I have no direct proof (and, in F 's absence, can have none), but the very strongest suspicion that he had entered secret relations with this Government, which would not be slow to pay his services — not with any hope of cre- ating a Rebellion in England, they are too shrewd for that, but to ascertain the disposition of our Government towards the Emigration, and the probable move- ments of the Alliance. Of all men of * This shows how slowly news from England reached Paris. Talleyrand was expelled from Eng- land (under the Alien Act) January 30th, and went to America. I794-] A STRANGE STORY FROM PLYMOUTH 43 the Revolution he is the most false, the most utterly without party or principle, save of his own advantage. But I do not expect him to compromise his fut- ure with coming hither. He will more probably stir up strife in the camp of the Emigration itself. Valcour* put a most astounding thing in his news sheet to-day — a manifest falsehood, yet one for which I see no French reason — to wit, that the French prisoners at Plymouth had been allowed to celebrate the day of their late King's murder, and had planted a tree of liberty in the prison yard. Such indulgence is not what they're accustomed to relate of Eng- lish prisons. lyth. — The Cardinal Archbishop of * Philippe Aristide Valcour, comedian, founder of the Theatre "Delassement Comiques," and one of the editors of the Journal de la Montague, which lived from June i, 1793,10 28 Brumaire I'an III. 44 THE DIARY OF A SPY IN PARIS [Feb. Sens is reported dead in his prison, whether by his own hand or another's I know not. He had only been recent- ly arrested ; I know not why he was spared so long, unless that, being enor- mously wealthy, he probably could afford it* He was, perhaps, the worst minis- ter of the old Monarchy, and did more to precipitate the Revolution than any one. But his persecution was probably aggravated by the affair of the Water Company. It's alleged that he and sev- eral other officials, among whom was the poet Caron de Beaumarchais, had fraud- ulently machinated against the Perriers, who were the originals, and the largest shareholders.! * This is a mistake. Lomenie de Brienne had been for some time in prison in 1793, but was re- leased, quite possibly owing to bribery, as Hesdin here hints : re-arrested in February, 1794, he died the same night. t The Perriers were the i'nventors of the hydrant I794-] A VISIT TO POTTERY WORKS 45 To-day to St. Antoine, to see the pot- tery works of Mons. OUivier le jeune, for whom we may have some commis- sions. A most flattering reception. He has made his peace with the Govern- ment for a while, and is beloved by the few workmen who stay with him. I consider him the best living artist in 'France of any kind ; a man of infinite patience of Invention, he works when necessary in the habit of a common ouvrier, and yet is by far the ablest head at the Lycee.* He is presently engaged upon some designs for imi- tating the antient brown vases of the Etruscans, after the manner of Mr. Wedgwood, yet of sufficient original system, with the two pumping-stations at Chaillot and the Gros Caillou ; their affairs had been in liti- gation before the Chatelet as early as 1790. (See " Dictionnaire de la Rev.," article " Perrier.") * Des Arts, situated in the Palais Royal garden. 46 THE DIARY OF A SPY IN PARIS [Feb. worth to appear rather as a rival than a copyer. There is, however, no clay in the Seine valley equal to Staffordshire, while the want of workmen and the unsettled state of the Republick prevent development of the art on any large scale ; the Sevres manufacture is, for the same reason, at a standstill. When one is told by these ideots * that a Re- publick is of all governments the most favourable to art, and has Greece and Rome thrown daily at one's head, one cannot forget that in the latter Repub- licks all material labour was done by slaves. Now, a slave must work ; while one of the worst features, oeconomically speaking, of this Revolution has been the growing dislike of the lowest class to work. 'Tis a feature that is likely to remain, and be a standing curse to * Sic. I794-] "CORNER MEN" 47 this once frugal and industrious race. Five years of frothy declamation have convinced them that they have a right to eat the bread of others, and they therefore hang about the Quays, and the street corners, and the Arcades of the Palace, ready for any excitement and mischief. If the majority of the middle class should ever come to their senses and their courage again, these messieurs will find they have lost their steady habit of industry, and have no longer the State's charity, or plunder, which is the same thing, to depend upon. At present, however, these gen- try, when they do earn anything, are paid by their Sections for defacing roy- al or Aristocratical or Religious monu- ments. Feb. 20th. — The incredible slowness of the Austrian Court and the vacilla- tion of the Prussian seem to take away 48 THE DIARY OF A SPY IN PARIS [Feb. all hope of a real victory. Whatever Government be in power, the French people will fight for Independence. It is the only thing upon which all are agreed. But any serious reverse of French arms would be followed by the establishment of a military Despotism in the hands of some one General, who would then either declare for the old Monarchy or make himself King with full powers to save the State. One hears continually of the " factions de I'Etranger;" no accused person is brought to trial without being " in the pay of Pitt and Cobourg." Both are, of course, equally false, as I have the best reason to know. And the Emigration has no money to distribute. The French Government, however, has money to dis- tribute in the smaller foreign courts. I have recently been assured by F that one of the Piedmontese Secretaries I794.] MILD WINTER 49 is in their pay.* The winter has been the mildest I remember, with the excep- tion of a few slight frosts at Christmas- tide. It is an infinite blessing, for this people would die by hundreds if, as may even yet happen, a month of hard frost should come. There has been no sus- pension of mason's work from this cause since my return. ■ Feb. s'/th. — I have just learned from V 1 that, more than a month ago, he had information from St. Omer's * Probably incorrect. During the time Deforgues was at tlie Foreign Office (June 21, 1793, to April 2, 1794) the Secret Service money was almost entirely spent upon Revolutionary work at home. (Masson, " Le Department des Affaires Etrangeres pendant la Revolution," p. 300, n. i.) t I thought, at one time, that V , to whom several references are made, was possibly Samuel Vaughan, of whom occasional mention is made in contemporary documents, but am now rather of opinion that he was more probably an American subject in the service of Gouverneur Morris, the accredited agent of the U.S.A. 50 THE DIARY OF A SPY IN PARIS [Feb. that our imprisoned countrymen and women there* are being treated with the utmost rigour. His correspondent implored moneys in the first place, as many are almost destitute of the com- mon necessaries of life ; the ladies are confined pell-mell with the men, and even the sheets which they endeavour to erect for the sake of privateness are torn down. They have been compelled to dance at the Republican festivals ^ even at that for the celebration of the Recapt- ure of Toulon. Such conduct towards persons who are not only not prisoners of war, but merely private individuals who foolishly remained in France, on the faith of a public decree of the Na- tional Convention, is only paralleled in Turkish an7ials. Yet it seemed that these poor persons had two greater evils * It is unknown to whom reference is here made. I794-] INTERNATIONAL LAW VIOLATED 51 to dread, one, that His Highness might * advance from Dunkirk, in which event their instant massacre was probable; the other, that they might be transferred to Arras, where there is a bloody Tribu- nal sitting under a savage ex-priest called Le Bon. There was a great seminary and school of English priests of the Catholick faith at St. Omer's, long es- tablished there; this is, of course, now broken up, and the poor boys, for the sole fault of being of that Religion and that Nationality, are imprisoned, and like to be starved. I cannot but think that acts like these will visit themselves on the head of this bloody Government. It's after all no great concern of the Powers what a Nation may choose to do * The Duke of York had long ago raised the siege of Dunkirk (Sept., 1793), but was not yet in retreat towards the Dutch frontier ; the allies still occupied a great part of the Netherlands. 52 THE DIARY OF A SPY IN PARIS [Mar. in its internal polity; but Europe is in- terested in all keeping to the laws of civil warfare. Mar. 1st. — Last night to a concerto at the Lycee des Arts, to hear Madame Bellicarde play upon the harp ; it was a pretty performance, but a very small number to listen. The precautions to prevent food be- ing smuggled out of the City are very considerable, yet one sees not why any should be tempted to do so* when the price is so much higher within the barriers than outside (for the Maximum no serious man of business cares a fico, until he is denounced for violat- ing it; and, as he will be pretty sure- ly denounced whether he. violate it or no, he finds it better to have in his * {Sic) The haste with which these pages were written is constantly marked by elliptical sentences of this kind, as well as by the handwriting. I794-] VIOLATIONS OF "MAXIMUM" 53 pocket wherewithal to bribe his denun- ciator). There's a vast amount of printer's ink wasted in posting on the walls all round the market how Citizen this or Citizeness that has been fined half his or her substance for violating some trumpery fraction of this unjust Law: and how he has been compelled to bear the cost of printing a hundred or a hundred and fifty copies of the placard retailing his iniquities. V^la comment on fait peur. For my part, I do not be- lieve in the stories of accaparement of which one hears so much. Certainly, if they were true, and provisions were smuggled out of Paris, there is nothing in the river-chains and the feeble light of the Reverb'eres * along the quais to prevent it. As for any order being kept by the Blues at the ports and barriers, * Lamp-posts. 54 THE DIARY OF A SPY IN PARIS [Mar. it's absurd. I saw a most entertaining scene not long ago, on the Tournelle, which proved their insufficiency : a boat coming down laden with wine was pil- laged and sunk in the shallow water; the guards, themselves taking part and rushing into the water up to their knees, broke open the head of the barreeks* with their pikes. Similar events are of daily occurrence at all the barriers. Take the following, which M. Armand saw a few days since : At the Barriere de VEnfer, a peasant's cart, laden with but- ter, eggs, and vegetables, arrived from the Bourg la Reine road at six in the morning. The Blues on guard were asleep or drunk, but a crowd of women inside undid the grilles with the keys which they stole from the sleeping men. The instant the cart was inside it was * " Bariques " or " barriques." I794-] PARIS A COMMERCIAL CUL-DE-SAC 55 invaded by the very women who had opened to it ; the villager, a stalwart man, was flung in the mud, and the whole contents plundered, the women fighting like starving tigresses for the fragments. One of the foremost of these slipped from the cart, and the wheel passed over her wrist and shat- tered it, but none of the rest heard her cries. It cannot be expected that the most ferocious penalties will long induce men to bring provisions to a City which receives them in this manner. Now that the Colonial wares have ceased to find their way to Paris or France except through the channel of the enemy, or by the extremely costly and round-about trade with the Hanseatick towns, Paris has nothing to send to her tributaries in return for bare subsistence: and the Agrarian Law, little as it is observed, has killed every spirit of enterprise. S6 THE DIARY OF A SPY IN PARIS [Mar. jrd. — They are making bread now of dried pease, and perhaps the last jest we shall hear on French lips will be this " careme republicain." Wolves and foxes have multiplied extraordinarily in the wilder provinces since the abolition of the game laws, contrary to all expecta- tion, and great complaints are made of their ravages among the flocks. But this is a natural result of the land that is gone out of culture owing to all Cap- ital being eat up, or exported, or hoard- ed. I am told it is no uncommon thing to meet flocks of sheep or pigs that have run wild for want of an owner, and had the luck to avoid the Requisition men. Wages do not keep pace with the ad- vancing dearness of provisions, maxi- mum or no maxim,um,; they are now for skilled masons and carpenters about six livres a day ; but this will purchase less than two livres at the commencement I794-] MORE STRIKES 57 of the Revolution. Continual demands for rise under threat of not returning to work. The forty sous, which those who make a declaration of indigence obtain for attending the Section meet- ings, are almost invariably spent in drink during the meeting itself. The baking of paste wares and the wearing of hair- powder have been forbidden ; and the abandonment of the latter elegant fash- ion, which began in the late King's reign, is now almost complete. (I no- tice also, by the way, the complete aban- donment of the use of muffs:, even in 1 790 the very beggars in the street af- fected the muff.) The lack of proven- der for the beasts and horses is one of the most serious questions. A weekly allowance is supposed to be allotted to horse-keepers, in the Rue de Seine, but there is never enough to go round, and the very Government Courriers have 58 THE DIARY OF A SPY IN PARIS [Mar. to put their horses on short commons. The sole object of vendors, in such times, is to be able to live ; and herein is seen another evil result of the aboli- tion of Game and Fishery Laws, for every one kills all that he can for the present, and destroys far more than he has a chance of selling. Mar. 4th. — The enormous number who left France in '89 and '90 expected to return victorious in a few months to their lands and their personal property, and for that reason a great many men concealed such valuables as they were not able to carry with them. Now their furniture is sold, their lands are being rapidly sold and divided up (though as yet largely uncultivated), their Paris Hotels are turned into prisons or foun- dries, and their valets enjoy their discom- fiture. I believe it is not uncommon for such men to return in disguise, either to 1794.] NO GARDENS "FOR LUXURY" 59 give a last regard on the relicks of their former splendour, or to fetch away con- cealed jewels and papers. The employ of coach - drivers, colporteurs, and ped- lars of every kind lends facilities for such disguises. The risk they run from their former valetaille is enormous; every Police Agent is constantly on the hunt for disguised aristocrats, and the Police are largely recruited from the domestick class. The Municipality recently ordered Commissions to go round to inquire into the possibility of converting the gardens and public Parks within the walls into vegetable gardens for the growing of pease and beans, and a strict order has been issued against the cultivating of gardens " for luxury," i. e., one presumes, for floral culture. Famine, it is thought, may thus be kept at bay. There is, un- doubtedly, suflficient empty space within 6o THE DIARY OF A SPY IN PARIS [Mar. ) the Barriers to raise quantities sufficient to provision the markets. But the more immediate result would be the ruin of the neighbouring Communes, which sub- sist wholly by the sale of these articles. Sth. — Oh equality! oh liberty! A poor tavern-keeper had the audacity to make a complaint at Section to this effect: he had a rude head, which had once repre- sented King Louis, painted up on a panel. Some ^x\VD}&.&vy patriots, with that wretch Mahe at their head, broke open his house by night, tore out the panel, and destroyed all the furniture of his little cabaret; and, because the man com- plained, he was denounced and sent to prison. The Cordeliers have just decided to continue the issue of Marat's journal,* * The celebrated newspaper professing to be written by " L'Ami du Peuple " (Marat), came to an end at his death in 1793. On the question of its I794-] FALL OF TOULON AT THE THEATRE 6l which had for its object the investiga- tion of the character of Government officers. The brute left a wife * and a sister, who are said to be quarrelling over the job, or its profits ; but the Cor^ delier Committee will not let much of the latter slip their own fingers. '/th. — How utterly a failure is that which they call here z. piece de circon- stance, yet scarce anything else is now played. It was enacted last autumn that the leading theatres should give three times a week tragedies of a republican character, and the recent fall of Toulon has been made the subject of a drama, to. which I went last night. It would have been hissed off the stage at the continuation, see Bougeart, "Vie de Marat," p. 315, who is inclined to think that the Cordeliers did not do more than issue a prospectus. * An error. Simonne Evrard, who, represented herself as " Veuve Marat," was only his mistress. 62 THE DIARY OF A SPY IN PARIS [Mar. most trumpery fair in England. I fancy many of the little cowardly shopkeeper fellows spend their evenings at the The- atre rather to escape the reproaches of their wives, whom they must leave in the dark, for, God knows, they can af- ford neither fire nor candle. Robes- pierre seldom attends the stage plays, but my Lord Peacock* is always in full view in the cy-devant royal box when a new piece is on, generally with a bevy of harlots. (Talking of harlots, what is Mdlle. du The t doing in England .'' I think she ought to be watched. She was formerly intimate with many of the Clichy gang.) Certain boxes are re- * Probably Berere, who goes by various nick- names, such as " Vieusac " and " Paon," in contem- porary writings. Cf. p. 190. t There was a courtesan of this name celebrated in the Parisian demi-monde, but I find no record of her being at any time in England. Some infor- mation on these ladies in general may be gleaned from Boisgobey, " Le Demi-Monde sous la Terreur." I794-] VICES AT THE THEATRES 63 served for the members of the Commit- tees of Government. Great complaint is made against this, as most of them are empty. The prices in the rest of the Theatre are low, and at many Theatres there is a space for those who pay noth- ing. I had rather pay two livres, as in the old times for a place, in the second lodges, to see a comedy by Beaumar- chais, than listen for nothing to the inane harangues of Citizen Regulus. Moliere, Voltaire, Racine, and all the old dram- atists are suspected of aristocracy. Even when Greek and Roman subjects are represented, the heathen Gods are made to speak the language of the Heroes of the Bastille: and Brutus is forbid- den to call Caesar Monsieur ; and the goddesses descend from the wings in tricolour scarves and drawers. I remem- ber old Boucher telling me that, before the Ailstrian war, it was customary for 64 THE DIARY OF A SPY IN PARIS [Mar. the Heroes of Antiquity to strut the stage in the garments of the period : and I think it was first under M. Favart that an attempt to represent the real Greek and Roman dresses was made. Any- how, for twenty years before the Revolu- tion it was universal in France, as it cer- tainly is not in England, to adhere to purity of tradition in such matters. The morality of those engaged on the stage is, I fear, no "higher under the reign of " Virtue and Terror" than it was formerly. But how can it be other- wise when the fundamentals of Religion and Morals are sapped by their damna- ble doctrines } The increase in prosti- tution, especially among the very young, has been noted ever since the commence- ment of the Revolution. It is not un- common to see children of eleven and twelve years delivering themselves over to this vice. • The gardens of the Pal- 1794-] IMMORALITY AND PROSTITUTION 63 ace,* which were bad enough under the old Monarchy, are now a disgrace to civ- ihzation. The rudeness of men to wom- en naturally keeps pace. Formerly the withdrawing rooms, even of the easy women, kept up a pretence of decency and courtesy. Now the Government, while absolutely indifferent to the low- est class of prostitutes, holds as suspect all those who attempt to keep any style. Indeed, it's impossible that such wom- en should not hate the present state of things. Even virtuous women complain of the coarse language and the rude puffing of tobacco smoke in their faces, with which they are daily regaled on the Terrace. The dancing saloons (at which the true patriot dances in boots and mus- tachios perfumed with tobacco and with * Palais Royal ; though the writer sometimes used the word for the Tuileries, sometimes for the Palais Royal. 66 THE DIARY OF A SPY IN PARIS '[Mar. his hat on), in spite of the Governmental prohibition, shift themselves from place to place, and the proprietors escape with a fine, and probably a heavy bribe. Thus the reign of Liberty and Virtue punishes only those who are rich and vicious, not those who are poor and vicious. Coarse- ness and ignorance are become emblems of democratic virtue. So one hears much of debates and plans for Public Instruc- tion to the young, while all around ig- norance and contempt for learning and refinement reigns. All the monuments of their past History seem to have be- come objects of derision to the French ; and it must be ever so where the mob rules. Yet the contrast to the intellectu- al activity of ten years ago is prodigious. At the National auctions the most price- less pictures and books sell for a mere trifle : lucky, too, will be he who can buy back such undamaged. Moreau's great I794-] ART AT A STANDSTILL 67 edition of the playwright Moliere, en- riched with the beautiful woodcuts of a past age, was sold not long since for forty livres. Oh, shade of Maitre Cail- lard ! * Oh, manes of Gravelot ! t Not but what there are ateliers still open. Daubenton, of whom my dear patron Sir Robert ^ talked so much; is still working, and Wilier is still alive ; but the efflorescence of the Art, which was such a marked feature of the years be- tween the Colonial troubles and the out- break of the Revolution, is entirely over. * A famous wood - engraver of the early part of the century. Hesdin can hardly have studied un- der him, but may have been taught by one of his pupils. ' t Gravelot was a contemporary of Caillard, and died in England in 1772. X Probably Sir Robert Strange, the well-known Jacobite engraver, who was knighted by George III. He visited Paris on the eve of the American war, and obtained an English pardon for his brother-in- law, Andrew Lumsden, who had been the Pretend- er's secretary. 68 THE DIARY OF A SPY IN PARIS [Mar. As the old Academies troubled the En- graver little, so does their new substi- tute, which they call a Jury of the Arts, exercise little control over us. By no means all of these jurymen are artists, and I'm far from saying that this is en- tirely a bad thing; but some of them, nay, a majority, are quite uneducated creatures from" the lower classes, if not the lowest. To them the Convention has addressed the task * of choosing fit- ting monuments to decorate the Capital : to them the management of the art stu- dents at the Ecole.t David is, of course, at the bottom of all this — young Gerard and Le Sueur are of it : indeed, paint- ers predominate — what the devil they know about sculptured monuments I have yet to learn ; they have ever de- spised the Sister Arts, and arrogate to * Sic. t Des Beaux Arts.' I794-] HEBERTISTS ARRESTED 69 themselves to do so, because their own art is the more popular. I have real cause for complaint, when I look at the hideous statues they are every day putting up, the beauties they are ev- ery day destroying. The destruction of Louis XIV. with Desjardin's beau- tiful groups can't,* it's true, be wholly attributed to this Government or this Jury. Mar. loth. — News! news! Hebert and all his associates, it's uncertain how many, have been arrested, and the one excitement of the hour — since my re- turn to Paris I have known nothing like it — is whether they will be condemned. If they are, we may look for a bloody insurrection of the suburban Canaille to save them. With what joy must they in the prisons greet the arrival of such * A celebrated statue in commemoration of the victories of the " Grand Monarque." 70 , THE DIARY OF A SPY IN PARIS [Mar. a batch of rascals, who have so often preached the " clearing of the prisons," " the new September," and the like ter- rible words! The Government is un- doubtedly in earnest, and, should it triumph, may rivet on the neck of France a Dictatorship or a Triumvirate. So completely has Hebert's party domi- nated all the minor offices of state, that, if they have any cohesion, it seems im- possible that their rising should fail. The man has been deified by the lowest scum of democracy. His death might be the beginning of a return to common sense. The wildest rumours are afloat, and it is even said that all the windows of the St. Honore are already let, a week in advance, to those desirous of seeing him pass to the scaffold. If so, the gaz- ers will pay with their lives for the sight. Yet I cannot tell, for the fickle- ness of a democracy is only equalled by I794-] TRAVESTY IN CONVENTION 71 its cowardice, and the idol may be broken by the idolaters. i6th. — This is the sort of occupation of the Legislature of the freest people on earth, an Assembly (which is for ever railing at our Parliament as a horde of slaves and courtiers who spend all their time in fulsome eulogies of their Mon- arch) : a few days ago V happened to be in the North Gallery, when an old man was brought in who had served in the Austrian wars, and gave a grand ac- count of the martial exploits of his son, now serving in I forget which Army on the frontiers. The old man, with the spittle running down his chin, told sto- ries of the gigantic stature of the various Coalised Tyrants who had been impaled on the sabre of his gallant offspring; enfin, on encountering the cranium of some obtuser tyrant, the sabre had broken in half: may it please the Na- 72 THE DIARY OF A SPY IN PARIS [Mar. tional Convention to give him a new sword! " Receive, grand relick of an age when no rewards were given," re- plied the President of the Convention, " the grasp of fraternity ; thy demand is granted !" They have always half a score of old fopls in readiness to be made a raree-show of like this. lyth. — A week of intense agitation owing to Hebert's trial ; the excite- ment of men's minds may be guessed by the fact that, when a number of houses in St. Antaine were found a day or two ago marked with a red cross, the inhabitants fled from them, and sought shelter at the Town Hall. It was prob- ably a mere prank to cause terror. It seems that a great number of names, well-known in the Revolution, will be involved in this business to their hurt. Pache and Santerre will be at pains to clear themselves. Were / to turn de- 1794-] INIQUITY OF HlfiBERX'S PARTY 73 nunciator there is more than one of my fellow-employes I could send to the scaffold. As for the accusations of "in- trigue with England," we know what that is worth; but that the accused have speculated in Government paper is un- doubted. M. Bouchotte has made a large fortune by it. The enormous in- crease of the forgery of the Assignats has, of course, been traced to Hebert; and one of the very men who now sits on the Tribunal jury has himself been in prison for the crime, and only managed to es- cape by betraying his associates. The German Koff * is supposed to have been the centre of Hebert's foreign in- trigues ; he held banquets for his friends * Hesdin probably means the Dutch banker, Jeari Conrad Kock, who was a member of the Dutch Revolutionary Committee, and was executed with Hebert. Paul de Kock, the celebrated novelist, passed as his son. (See Morse Stephens, " Orators of the French Revolution," vol. ii. p. Si3i n- 2.) 74 THE DIARY OF A SPY IN PARIS [Mar. at Passy; but the Cordeliers Club is the real centre from which danger is to be apprehended, and there all is evidently preparing for a fresh revolu- tion. 2ist. — It is over, and the worst fears of Insurrection over with it. There were nineteen other persons, one being a woman, brought to trial at the same time. A more damnable set of rogues never disgraced a civilized Capital. A few threatening letters to the jury — no sort of expression of sympathy from the mob for their Idol. And it is this which fills me with more loathing and terror of this cowardly mob than anything else. If they will not strike for Hebert, for whom or what will they strike ? Only for and never against him who displays courage and firmness. A few rounds of cannon shot in 1789, and the world would have been spared the horrors of I794-] MADEMOISELLE LACOMBE 75 the last five years. Ok, Posterity, de te narratur fabula ! If the popular voice speaks truth it is an old Jacobite turned Jacobin, the infamous municipal* Arthur, who has contributed most to turn the day against Hebert at the Town Hall ; but it means the breaking of the power of these men themselves. There has been a duel be- tween the Tuileries and the Hotel de Ville, and Jaute d^une insurrection the former has won. Whether Mademoi- selle Lacombet has anything to do with Hebert, I don't know. It may be she only finds her trade slackening here ; any way she is to appear on the stage in the Northern Provinces. She is one of the worst leaders of the female Jacobins, and perpetually haunts the Club Gal- * Arthur was a paper-manufacturer of Irish ex- traction, guillotined 12th Thermidor. t A famous courtesan. 76 THE DIARY OF A SPY IN PARIS [Mar. leries. It's said that the Municipals in- tend to render the granting of passports to players much more difficult, with the vain hope of getting some few of talent to accept of employment in the Capital. 2^th. — I went yesterday to see He- bert killed. The executor* was very brutal, and struck him repeatedly, but I fancy the beast was either drugged, or paralysed with fear, or perhaps dead al- ready. The savage joy of the enormous crowd (who so lately carried him on their shoulders) was as fearful a sight as one could imagine; the question is, is this a victory for Order or not? I cannot yet tell. Hebert's party, while unquestionably the worst and unques- tionably the least solid, is yet the largest of contemporary factions, and the death of its Leader has added a new motive — * Sic. I794-] A BANKRUPTCY LOOKED FOR 77 revenge. Its weakness consists in hav- ing no definite aim. To destroy the Convention and " make a new second of June," as the phrase goes here ; well — but afterwards ? Plunder and places for themselves. But their continual cry, that the Convention is a pack of rascals or cowards, is too true to fail to pene- trate the popular ear some day. 28th. — I suppose they are betting in the clubs in London upon the date when the Bankruptcy will be declared ; but I think this Nation will suffer all things first. The Emigration is con- tinually accused by the public voice of emitting a fictitious Paper as well as forging that of the Convention ; but though the latter accusation may be true, I see no possible use for the for- mer, since the Royalist disasters in the West. It is, however, possible and prob- able that a great number of forged As- 78 THE DIARY OF A SPY IN PARIS [Mar. signats are in circulation, besides trades- men's tokens for purposes of barter. The great number of Provincial mints which existed before 1789, and their staff of officers now reduced to poverty (for though all old officials of the Royal Government are supposed indemnified, those who did not capitalize their pen- sions have mostly experienced the Pu- nick faith of Republican masters), would account for the ease with which such forgeries were made. Besides, a great number of royal bank-notes of Louis XVII, were issued from Chatillon,* till the presses were broken up on the entry of the Republick's troops in the au- tumn ; and many of them are treasured, though probably not circulated, by such as still look for a Restoration. But were the quantity of forged paper far * Chatillon-sur-Sevre, the place where the Ven- dean treasure-chest was kfept. I794-] FOUCHE AND HIS INFLUENCE 79 greater it would not accelerate the Bank- ruptcy. 31st. — I have now, since the return of my Nantese friend,* become much more interested in Political matters. He is undoubtedly deep in the confidence of the leaders, and, as he is utterly without scruple and a man of keen intelligence (he was educated like Billaud, Chabot, SieySjt and many of the more success- ful Revolutionists, for a priest), I have made it my principal aim to devote him to the service. I never see his face without being reminded of a cat ; but I cannot believe that he is as devoted to * I have given some reasons in the preface for the supposition that the " Nantais " several times referred to is probably Fouche, afterwards the cel- ebrated Police Minister. It was just at this time that he returned from his mission to Lyons, and re- cent evidence all goes to prove how much he was implicated in the intrigues which overthrew Robes- pierre, t Sic. 8o THE DIARY OF A SPY IN PARIS [Mar. Robespierre as he professes (even to me) to be. The natures of the two men are too similar (though all the balance of ability is on our side), and should any attempt be made, which I do not how- ever at present look for, to overturn the Government, I shall expect to see my friend in the forefront of the battle. His intimate friendship with Javogues * seems to be incompatible with any real belief in his mind in the stability of the present state of things. In any coming struggle, however, Billaud will be the man to reckon with : a pale, cold, thin- visaged man, with a trembling, convul- sive twitch of face when he speaks or listens. Collot and Barere will, I * Javogues was a Convention man, who was as- sociated with Collot d'Herbois and Fouche in the massacres of Lyons. He appears to have belonged to the extreme Terrorist party, but to have been a bitter enemy of Robespierre and Couthon. He was shot in 1796 for a share in the Grenelle plot. I794-] FALL OF THE DANTONISTS 8l fancy, count for little. The former is a hot-headed debauchee, without faith, honour, or morality ; Hves, utter- ly abandoned to fornication, in Rue Favart, April 1st. — After the prodigious ex- citement of the last two weeks, the ar- rest of Danton and all his party has fallen almost unnoticed. But, my God! to what a pitch are we come. And I am uneasy for many reasons, besides the suddenness of the blow, which has probably prevented L * from de- stroying his papers. I have been told that Danton spoke English fluently. I * L • may be Lacroix, an intimate of Danton's ; vide infra, April i ith, " the two thousand bank-bills which went with my friend of the old Cordelier party." This seems to point to some relation between Hesdin and the Dantonist party, which makes me doubly regret the loss of the journal after the 20th of July. The Dantonists were undoubtedly the " old Cordelier party," so called after Camille Des- moulins' newspaper of that name. 6 82 THE DIARY OF A SPY IN PARIS [Apr. have never seen him except in the Con- vention and at the theatre : he has lived latterly almost entirely at Sevres, and taken no part in politics. His name, however, would still be one to conjure with if the successes of the Government against the Hebert party had not annihilated all hopes of resist- ance. He will die like the rest. The writer des Moulins is involved in the same plot. I had thought him an affide of Robespierre. If I had any hope of peace and order returning it would be only when the tail of the defeated parties should unite in vengeance for the death of their Lead- ers. Danton's party is far smaller, but in men of force probably far stronger than that of Hebert. But I have not seen F * since the news, and can * This F is not Fouche. F is mentioned several times before Fouche's return to Paris. I794-] ROBESPIERRE AND BARERE 83 only guess that the thing* was planned in the Government Committee in the deep- est secresy. King Maximilian f is not always master of himself sufficiently to hide his mislikings. F told me that at a dinner at Venua's, given by Barere, he was extremely rude to his host. Yet I cannot fancy the Peacock a serious candidate for the Dictatorship, which, since the event of this morning, all now consider inevitable. Nor is Robespierre exactly the King of the mob as Danton and Hebert were its Kings ; he has rather risen to the top by pan- dering to the lowest of the petite bour- geoisie, and representing himself as per- petually in opposition to all existing Governments. Yet so absolutely has he himself governed (as the events of the last three months will prove) that * The arrest of Danton. + Sc. Robespierre. 84 THE DIAKY OF A SPY IN PARIS [Apr. all eloquence, all talent, all fortune, all intelligence, which will not entirely sub- serve himself, is to be destroyed and swept from his path. Suspicion of every- thing and everybody is his only active principle. His own colleagues in the Committee must hate and dread him; it is impossible they should not. The only friends he has are men like Viot* and Darthay,t and Antonelle;^ and prob- ably, if one knew the truth, even among them suspicion reigns supreme. M. Duplay § has a daughter who commonly * Viot I cannot identify. t Darthay, or Darthe, was from Calais. He was imprisoned after Thermidor, and afterwards was in- volved in Babceuf's plot, 1797, and executed. X Antonelle can hardly be the Marquis d'Anto- nelle, who, though a Conventional and a member of the Jury of the First Revolutionary Tribunal, was imprisoned by the committee late in 1793, and only came out after the Thermidor. § The small tradesman with whom Robespierre lodged, 366, Rue St. Honore. I794-] TOM PAINE IN PRISON 85 passes for his * mistress. I don't, how- ever, believe he has a mistress. 'Tis said, his name was whispered as a loose liver in '89, but now his room contains nothing but portraits of himself, and that he lets himself rather be adored by women than enjoy them. The wits, however, call this young lady Cornelia, and many grosser names. April 2nd. — It is wonderful weather: all the trees in bloom six weeks before their time, as if the smile of Nature meant to mock at the horrors of Mankind. I wonder if Mr. Payne can see any trees from his window at the Luxemburg Pal- ace. I have not laughed so heartily since I came to this city of death, as at the notion of his imprisonment. He is said to be moving heaven and earth to get himself recognised as an American * Sc. Robespierre's. 86 THE DIARY OF A SPY IN PARIS [Apr. Citizen, and thereon liberated. He was imprisoned on the fall of the first Re- publican party last June, and has now been in durance some months. The minister of the American States is too shrewd to allow such a fish to go over and swim in his waters, if he can pre- vent it; and avows to Robespierre that he knows nothing of any rights of Nat- uralisation claimable by Mr. P. 'Tis, to my thinking, a mean thing to go from country to country stirring up se- dition, and then, as soon as he reaps the true reward of his deeds, to claim citizenship of some other [ *]. And it is quite certain that the man is now a French Citizen, so far as a solemn vote of the National Convention can have made him one. True, it may be an ob- jection that he cannot speak French (I * Country. I794-] TOM PAINE 87 have repeatedly heard V say that his speeches in the Assembly had to be interpreted); but no more can several of the other scoundrels who print sedi- tion in English in the Rue Notre Dame des Champs to tickle the ear of Mr. Tone and Company.* Even in prison, they say, he is generally drunk. They won't let him out. This Government means to govern, not to be Tom-Payned. Another proof of this is, that since the 17th of March the acquittals of those official persons who are accused of plun- dering the public purse are much less frequent. Before Hebert's arrest, for one of these vile creatures executed there were three acquitted. ^rd. — Just returned from a brave de- * Probably Wolfe Tone. There was an English press in the street mentioned, which was largely used for maintaining relations with the United Irishmen. 88 THE DIARY OF A SPY IN PARIS . [Apr. bate in Section, on a new proposal with regard to granting the civic cards. The plan to be adopted is, that no person should be allowed to appear as a wit- ness who had any direct or indirect connection with the Principal : an ex* cellent rule ; and further, that no illit- eratus should be allowed to witness. As one would expect, there was great opposition to the latter; but we are tamer now than we were in February,* and both were carried, being under- stood to be de par le Roi. The pre- vailing candle famine leads to the early closing of section meetings at pres- ent. It's lucky that summer is com- ing on, for both wax and tallow have disappeared. I went a long round by the Quays * The section of the Panth6on probably contained many Hebertists, and the fall of their leader would account for their being " tamer." 1794- ] STREETS SMELL OF BLOOD 89 on my way home. There were a few groups at the street corners engaged in discussing Vaffaire Danton. To-night I felt sick and weary of Hfe, and wished to God my head was in the basket. The very paving-stones smell of blood, and the river seems to run blood. Not a group of chatterers to-night, but there were two or three Government agents listening for the least sign of sympathy with an accused person. The number of houses to be let is most astonish- ing, especially in the old strangers' quar- ter ; and the shuffling of the population since the commencement of the Revo- lution must have been very great. The better faubourgs, and such places as Sevres and Meudon, are nearly desert- ed.* The wonderful medley of classes that inhabited St. Marceau, where all * He says elsewhere that the villages round were nests of thieves {ijide June 29th). go THE DIARV OF A SPY IN PARIS [Apr. the little out-of-the-way trades of Paris were thronged, remains much the same. On the contrary, the Quai de VHopital, where not a decent person could be found in the old days, is full to over- crowding. The Arsenal garden is a wilderness. The filth in the streets is as great or greater than ever; but the splendour that was always hard by the filth is gone. Even the great chestnut walk in the Elysian Fields, once the re- sort of all that was gay and gentle, is encumbered with ordures. The old City Magistrates did little enough to keep Paris clean, but it did not allow pigs to be killed in the streets and their blood to swill into the kennels, nor heaps of dung to be accumulated for weeks at the corners. One of the filthiest quar- ters is the new district, which grew up in the late King's reign, almost opposite the Palace, after the Old I794-] IS ENGLAND TO TAKE CORSICA? gi Blind Hospital and Church* were re- moved.t yth. — It is rumoured that the English Fleet is again in the neighbourhood of Corsica, and that an attack upon the principal fortress of the island, Bastia, is hourly expected ; if it is pushed with vigour it must succeed. The inhabitants may not be favourable to an English oc- cupation, but these brave and ignorant mountaineers are fanaticks for their re- ligion^ and would welcome any defend- ers of it. It would be a fine thing for England to seize the Island and make * The Church and Hospital of the Quinze Vingts, transferred to the " east end " by Cardinal Rohan, 1779. It was intended to make a grand new " quar- ter " in their place, but the design was never carried out, and innumerable little slums grew rapidly up instead. The reader should consult that interest- ing work, " Paris a travers les Ages," for this and similar references. t It is to be noticed that no allusion is made to the execution of Danton, April 5th, in the Diary. 92 THE DIARY OF A SPY IN PARIS [Apr. a commanding position in the Mediter- ranean Sea. It is to feared, however, that such a proceeding would enhance the jealousy of our Spanish Allies, which was so lamentably displayed, if what the French newspapers say is true, at the rendition of Toulon. But attack Corsica or not, Lord Hood must be kept strong in the Mediterranean if Italy is not to be overrun by the French speedily. M. Chenier, who is the one passa- ble dramatist left, has had a tragedy called Timoleon mutilated, and, after three representations, hissed off the boards by the agents of the Faction, because some reflections appear to be cast on the Government by a passage indicating that History has given in- stances of Tyrants without Crowns. So the Theatre is gagged. The Prints, too, are utterly stifled. The Gazette is noth- ing but an organ of Ministerial Edicts ; 1794-] THEATRE AND PRESS GAGGED ' 93 under Clavelin, the new editor, it is hardly even ferocious enough to be amusing. The Journal de Paris sur- vives somehow, but it is at the lowest level of dullness, and differs little from a bulletin of the Revolutionary Tribu- nal. My newspaper is the Montagne, which used to be edited by that rogue Lavaux.* It is now by Valcour and Rosuseau; but I expect Lavaux is still at the making of it. It contains the opinions of the Club,t and is fairly entertaining. Its Foreign News is, however, the most stupendous mass of lies imaginable. There are also little ephemeral prints, which change their names from week to week. Even a Government organ. The Public Safety, fed for a long period with public money, was suspended the other day, because * The Journal de la Montagne, edited by Charles Laveaux, + Jacobin Club. 94 THE DIARY OF A SPY IN PARIS [Apr. its name had become offensive to the Majesty of our Rulers. But, indeed, there is ten times more sedition printed at Ridgeway's * every week than would be allowed here in a year. The most complete establishment of the Tyranny of the present Government has just been received by Paris and France with- out a murmur, and almost unnoticed ; the Convention has decreed to abolish the Executive Council of Ministers, the old- est body in the Republick, created near two years ago. 'Tis true, their offices have been mere pension -sucks a year since, but the twelve sub - committees which will replace them are avowed to be mere nominees of the Government, whereas the former really were named in the Convention.! * A London press, used by the Revolution socie- ties in England. t This is a mistake. The twelve Commissions of I794-] EXECUTION OF LUCILE DESMOULINS 95 iith. — The cup of these bloody ras- cals runs over ! Madame Desmoulins will be avenged. A gentler, simpler creature never breathed. Every fresh female execution, I notice, if it is not that of a cy-devant, rouses more and more secret hate against Robespierre. The peculiar horror of cutting off the head of a young and beautiful widow, whose only crime was to seek to speak to her husband in prison, can be due only to him. Hebert's widow, a prostituted nun, suffered with her, and the great Lord Mayor Ckomette* for whom, I think, few will be sorry. But why should Chomette be sacrificed, when Pache is spared ? for he must have been pos- sessed of much more ample means of bribery. One is not Lord Mayor in a the decree of 12th Germinal were to be named by the Convention on the presentation of the Commit- tee of Public Safety. * Chaumette. 96 THE DIARY OF A SPY IN PARIS [Apr. democracy for nothing. But the term of Pache, indeed the term of every one, cannot be far off. My own obscure head feels very loose on my shoulders since the two thousand bank bills that went with my friend of the old Cordeliers' party* It certainly will be a mean thing to be left alive ! The high and mighty princess Guillotine has recently taken to speaking, as well as acting. I bought at Petit's, a few days back, an account of the late trial, together with an address of Mrs. Guillotine to her faithful breechless ones ; it's easy to be witty at the expense of the proscribed. It is the work of a prison spy called Dulacque. Such literature is indeed terrible to contemplate. I see signs, however, that, if the Terror is to be maintained, such literature is necessary. * Vide supra, April ist. I794-] HORROR OF THE GUILLOTINE 97 For instance, nothing is more common than for women to faint at the sight of the Guillotine, especially those with child ; and one hears horrible stories of children being born with the mark of a lunette on their necks.* People are beginning to desert the quarter of the Place,! or to close their shutters when the death cart comes by, though not unfrequently the brutal mob has broken the windows of those who dare to do so ; and though it has become necessary to station guards to prevent the street urchins from leaping on the scaffold and playing there. The terror exercised by the vile class of domesticks, who incessantly extort * The semi-circular " Window " of the fatal instru- ment. t Place de la Revolution, ci-devant Place Louis XV., now Place de la Concorde, where the guillotine stood until May. gS THE DIARY OF A SPY IN PARIS [Apr. money by threats of denunciation on their own masters at the least sign of pity for the victims, is one of the most degrading features of the Revolution ; such persons have, of course, the ordi- nary appetite of the vulgar for- the hor- rible, yet many such persons I am com- pelled to greet as my daily associates. In order that every one may have a full opportunity of seeing the horrors, the route taken by the death cart on its way from the prison to the Place is frequent- ly varied as well as the hour, though it's generally five of the evening. If the streets are blocked, the journey often lasts an hour, and the crowd on the Quays is an unusually fierce one. I have seen a mother suckling her infant in the death cart amid the howlings of the mob. But the bravery of the suf- ferers, and especially of the women, is beyond all praise. I794-] TREE OF LIBERTY PLANTED gg i6th. — A pretty ceremony in St.Gene- vieva's to-day — the replantation of Lib- erty s emblem, a young poplar with its roots much lopped away. It was hung with garlands and ribbons like a may- pole. There was little zeal ; all who were present only felt that they were carrying out an Edict of the grim Tyrants at the Palace ; yet they per- formed some graceful dances, and sang hymns to Liberty. There's a regular trade of these emblems. Tripet, the flowerist * in the Faubourg St. Germain, is the best-known purveyor. He was chosen to fix the January one in front of the Club Hall, and, as it is still alive, it has proved of great advertisement to his commerce. i8th. — Were it not for the wonderful season, there would have been more * Sic. 100 THE DIARY OF A SPY IN PARIS [Apr. deaths from Famine than there have been. The new Edict concerning meat is the theme of universal comment. The distribution is only to be made every five days, and in half pounds ; but the utter powerlessness of the Municipals to carry out anything like this system of rationment must soon become evident. The six hundred fat beasts which they profess to slaughter per diem are not killed in a week : to say nothing of the sheep, calves, and pigs. The butchers are to be chosen in each Section by a vote of this corrupt body,* that is, by bribery — one in each Section alternately is to go to the meat-market and convey all the meat necessary for himself and the others in his section. He is sup- posed paid ten per centum on his outlay; but his outlay is to be made, * The Commune. 1794] STURDY PARIS BUTCHERS lOI not at the market, where his usually- sturdy form might enforce a good bar- gain, but at the Town hall, on the follow- ing day. As in the case of the bread, no delivery is to be made except in the presence of a Government spy, called a Commissary. Rations for Government Officers, Hospitals, etc., are to be pur- chased by another set of Officers, and distributed by them. The eating-house keepers are to be allowed to purchase only what remains over after the daily distributions. I say such a system can- not work. In the first place, the only people of whom the Officers stand in serious fear are the Paris butchers — ^a race of men of great independence and much common interest ; in the second place, the meat is not to be obtained; and in the third place, no proper account is made that some Sections are more popu- lous than others. In the Sections which I02 THE DIARY OF A SPY IN PARIS [Apr. include and border on the principal Government buildings, the eating-houses are necessarily twenty times more nu- merous than elsewhere. Nearly all Deputies dine at a traiteurs of some sort, and dine extreme well ; even those who have their rations provided at home, dine and will dine abroad also : and by every species of fraud and bribery, these traiteurs are sure, to be served first. Fish, both river and sea is, of course, inordinately dear ; but it is still exempt from rationation, and is mostly bought up by hawking women, who sell it from door to door ; naturally it is none too fresh. All Paris ate meat under the old Government, and the quantity of foreign meat imported then from neighbour countries is proved by the difficulty of obtaining it now. The cattle are mere scare-crows, owing to the lack of fodder ; and the warfare be- 1794 ] SCARCITY OF FOOD IN PARIS 103 tween the Capital and the surrounding parishes, as to the supply, daily in- creases. It is indeed hard to compel a butcher, ten miles from the Pont Neuf, to drive his beasts to Paris, there to be sold at a ruinous loss; while all the time the Tarifa which is beginning to be really enforced here is evaded in the remoter faubourgs. The bread-shops are gener- ally cleaned out and shut by nine or ten of the clock;* only too frequently half the expectants have to go away empty. How the poorest class live, God knows. A new emblazonment of Emblems of the Republick is under consideration, to be affixed over the doors of all State offices and Prisons. The latter are un- doubtedly the most important offices of this State. The employ will be an use- ful one for my purpose. * In the morning. I04 THE DIARY OF A SPY IN PARIS [Apr. 2gth. — Jambon* is said to be making preparations for a descent on Jersey from St. Maloes, which they now call Port Malo. If he can get out of the lat- ter (which we should look to that he don^t), it may cost my Lord Balcarrast some trouble to keep him out of the former. There's no lack of good pilots in. the Breton ports who know the way into Saint Hellyers with their eyes shut. Till we have as good, these damned lit- tle islands will always be more trouble to us than they're worth. The Western Rebellion flickers on, I thought it was all over with the Savenay affair I in December. The worst off- * Jean Bon St. Andre, the Member of the Com- mittee who looked after the naval business. t Lord Balcarres was Governor of Jersey at the time. I Route of the Vendean army, on its way back from Normandy, at Le Mans (December 12th), and Savenay (December 23rd), 1793. 1794-] ATROCITIES IN LA VENDUE 105 scourings of Paris are poured on those unhappy Provinces with commissions as Captains and Colonels from the Re- publick. 'Tis common talk that Dan- ton's friends first made themselves odi- ous to Robespierre by denouncing this Vendean business, and that Danton begged them to leave it alone. Yet even Robespierre, or his War Minister, has disgraced General Houchet for rav- ishing a Vendean girl on a pile of corpses and then shooting her. And still each day the Holocaust of victims here increases. Some of the leading artists in Revolution go every day ta their deaths bound with ropes in the same cart with the noblest blood of France. Yet for the moment the storm seems to have passed by those for whom we naturally fear the most* The fe- * This again points to the Dantonist party, who I06 THE DIARY OF A SPY IN PARIS [Apr. male executions continue to excite sym- pathy, but indifference becomes more and more the tone towards tjiose of the men. On the 25th suffered some half- dozen young girls, of whom three were sisters, and scarce one over twenty years; and it was because they had been chosen, very probably against their will, to welcome the King of Prussia on his entry into one of the Eastern For- tresses in the year '92.* 30th. — There are no better news agents than the Limonadiers. I drink great quantities of noxious sirrops in the pursuit of ce qiCon dit from them ; the Profession of these gentry brings them into contact with all sorts of peo- kept quiet till the end of July, when they avenged their leaders on the 9th Thermidor. * Sc. Verdun. These were the celebrated " Vir- gins of Verdun." See Carnpardon, " Le Tribunal Revolutionnaire," i. 308. 1794-] STONE-MASONS ALL RADICALS 107 pie, and they are generally indifferent to all but the latest tale of the hour. Few extreme factious among them, yet there are some who sit in the Com- mune-hall. On the contrary, the worst of the factious, at least in our Section, seem to come from the trade of the stone- masons. They are continually in com- bination to refuse work unless their pay is encreased ; and there are indications that this habit may extend to other trades also. When once the temptation to plunder has been cast before the ignorant mob, it is easy to divine that they will not work. The wages of these men has steadily increased for the last few months, yet they continue to de- mand more. May 6th. — I often wonder if people outside France are aware of the utter disappearance of gaiety which has ac- companied this Revolution. The Fete 108 THE DIARY OF A SPY IN PARIS [May, of the tenth day, which has replaced Sunday, is ten times more gloomy than a Sabbath under Crumwell would have been, and without the religious consola- tions which that, undoubtedly, afforded to many minds. I walked to-day under the chestnuts for an hour. The trees here have so far been spared, though in the Bois they have more than half been cut for fuel. The contrast to my youth- ful recollections of Paris moved me al- most to tears. Nothing but the eternal white dust of the streets seems the same. I speak now, not merely of the days of the old Monarchy, but even of '89 and '90. The ferment of minds in the sa- lons, clubs, and coffee-houses, above all in the streets, was indescribable. People literally lived in the open air those two summers, and in '89 at every moment were seen horsemen dashing in with news from the Court or the Assembly I794-] UNIVERSAL TERROR log at Versailles ; orators declaiming on every chair and balustrade on the ter- race. Now it is the silence of the grave. I was passing down the Rue des Lan- ternes at nine of the clock yesterday evening ; there was a small group talk- ing outside a grocer's booth at the cor- ner of the Marmouzets* not more than five people, but a patrol approaching they all dispersed hurriedly, and not a figure was in sight for the whole street's length. Rue de Bourbon — Rue de /' Universite, once the gayest, are now alike silent: even the cryers on the Bridges, even the infernal bawling of the newsboys is diminished to an incredible extent. It is, of course, largely accounted for by the enormous shift of population. The houses of Emigrants are, naturally, sold together with their lands by the State or * Rue des Marmousets in the Cite. There was an- other street of the name in the St. Marceau quarter. no THE DIARY OF A SPY IN PARIS [May, the Municipals ; and the houses of those in prison are quite as liable to be seques- tered or requisitioned, as their word goes, for Government purposes. In the Prov- inces this is really the rule. No sooner comes Monsieur le Representant en mis- sion with his four horses and his train, than he goes straight to the Chateau and establishes himself there, breaks down the panels and hangings in search of concealed property, chooses a few of the better-favoured village girls for his trav- elling hareem, and drinks up all the wine in the cellar. If the suspect is after- wards liberated, he does not complain. Lucky if he is not obliged to sign -away a lease of his woods to some faggot-maker, who may happen to have ingratiated himself with the Representant. In Paris, however, we have hardly reached that stage, though the gardens of such prop- erties as have not been sold are to be 1794-] TRIAL OF PRINCESS ELIZABETH III leased to cultivators by the Municipals. To whom M. Lespine made on the sub- ject t'other day a sensible speech against jobbery ! And it was voted to prohibit all under-leases — meanwhile they hesi- tate to compel us to cultivate our gar- dens for fear of the hostility of the neighbour villages. Of these Conventionals on Mission, one hears all sorts of stories, and none more frequently than of their being person- ated by ingenious rogues for weeks to- gether. There's nothing wonderful in this, most of the Conventionals being originally obscure men unknown outside their own parish, or at least Province. loth. — I seldom go to the Tribunal, but I could not remit going to-day to hear the Princess interrogated.* Strong language does not make a Cause, nor * Madame Elizabeth, sister of Louis XVI. 112 THE DIARY OF A SPY IN PARIS [May, the repetition of such terms as Sover- eignty of the People make the People fit to be sovereigns. However much in theory an Englishman might be a par- tisan of such terms and such ideas, had he once seen them put in practice, and leading to their inevitable conclusion, he would repent in sackcloth and ashes. The crowd of women was unusually fe- rocious, yet the absurdity and savagery of the Accuser Public's * language was even worse. I cannot understand how the denunciations of the late Queen as " Messalina" " harlot" and " assassin " can produce effect, yet they evidently gave great pleasure to the audience. Her Highness was the very model of dignity, grace, and virtue, and showed them all, together with the most Chris- tian fortitude, to the last moment of her * Fouquier Tinville. I794-] THE "HALL OF LIBERTY" 113 trial. It is too well known that she was no friend to the late unfortunate Queen, yet not a word that could indicate any- thing but reverence for her memory es- caped her. The main point of accusa- tion, which she did not attempt to deny, was that she had treated her Nephew as King, and done her best to prepare him for his High Destinies. I am not here to make reflections on the destinies of Kings, but one might make many on such an end to such a beautiful life as the Princess's. The " Hall of Liberty," as they call the place where these mock trials are held, is adorned in True Re- publican Fashion^ with a bust of Brutus flanked by Marat and some other name- less abominations, a table in the middle at which the Notaries sit, and another for Mons, Fouquier, The President and three other Judges are on a sort of raised platform, and in front of them 114 THE DIARY OF A SPY IN PARIS [May, the accused stand in a half-circle, each guarded by a Blue : to make them so stand would be an extreme ahd need- less piece of cruelty were the period of the audiences sufficiently long to ad- mit of a protracted defence. But as it is there are too many to be condemned in a day to admit of this. There are coun- sel allotted for the defence — a pitiful set of low attorneys, who would not dare to show their faces at an English Sessions; and even in them it needs some cour- age. If they show the least skill in ar- gument or sympathy for their clients, the women and children hiss them ; more than one of them has already ex- piated* on the scaffold. Nothing but the allotted eighteen livres per diem could tempt such wretches to the task. Several of my masters of the Cdmmit- * ? expired. I794-] GOVERNMENT BY SPIES II5 tee do actually attend the Court, and when they are absent there are always plenty of their spies there. Indeed, Gov- ernment by the Sovereign people means nothing but government by spies, and spies of spies : and when you have sta- ble boys for judges, perhaps they need spying. If a Judge or a juror show the slightest inclination to mercy, he is de- nounced at once. The tigers who sit on this seat of judgement are not, how- ever, much to be envied. They live in constant dread of assassination at the hands of their victims' relatives: the President of the Tribunal lives sur- rounded by spies and armed Blues, with his doors barred like a siege gate. In- deed, none of the Leaders of the Revo- lution dares go about the streets unpro- tected. King Maximilian has a regu- lar acknowledged body-guard of armed ruffians. 'Tis said the Accuser Public Il6 THE DIARY OF A SPY IN PARIS [May, often receives letters beginning " Vive le Roi !" imploring to be sent to prison, and death, and vilifying the Govern- ment and the Tribunal in every possi- ble way. Such instances of reckless- ness, strange as they might sound in London, do not appear strange to me here, where the life of private individ- uals has become the plaything of a few factious scoundrels : and where Famine has made life, to all but Government officers, a burden rather than a pleas- ure. I made an unpleasing discovery „ at the Tribunal. There must be many of my old fellow-students scattered up and down Paris, but I have as yet met none. To-day, however, I saw sitting as juror, or in immediate proximity to the jurors, one Prieur,* whom I remem- * This may be one of the illustrators of the fa- mous " Tableaux de la Revolution Frangaise." (Three volumes, Paris, 1797.) I794-] RENE VATAR, THE PRINTER 117 ber at the atelier as a mere lad. Luck- ily for me he lives at the opposite end of Paris, in the Faubourg St. Denis. He is a protege of M, David's, and af- fects his school of Historical design; but, from what I can learn, he is prin- cipally employed by the booksellers. The Prince of Conde's former libra- rian, Deinge, is now a clerk in the Treasury Office, but I have no great fear of his memory. i2th. — Rene Vatar * was in waiting when I had occasion to go to the Com- mittee yesterday, and with much an- gry gesture declaimed against the al- lowance of wax which we get for our dies, while he finds it impossible to * Master Printer to the Committee of Public Safety, in a position apparently parallel to that of Hesdin. He was afterwards mixed up in Terrorist movements against the Consulate, and sent to Cay- enne; died in America in 1842. Il8 THE DIARV of a spy IN PARIS [May, procure sufficient candle for his men to work by. There was two hundred pounds of candle requisitioned a month ago, but all has been used. Some of it, no doubt, having gone to grease the pockets of M. Vatar and his crew. I detest this Vatar. I am truly delighted to learn that the English Ministers have at last decided to suspend the Habeas Corpus* — it ought to have been done long ago. This will make short work of the Army of the British Convention ninety thou- sand strong, of which they are so fond of talking here. The local taxes which we levy every week upon the inhabitants of Section Pantheon are subjects of constant mur- * The bill to suspend the Habeas Corpus was introduced in the Commons on May i6th, but the intention to suspend was no doubt known in France earlier. I794-] EXORBITANT TAXES COMPLAINED OF Iig murs ; but these are stifled by terror, and do not reach the Convention — small use should they do so ; every Sec- tion Committee regards itself as a small Municipality, and no words can describe the corruption and plundering of which these bodies are guilty. The pleasure of spending the ■money of other people for one's own benefit is probably one of the oldest passions of Humanity: it is cer- tainly like to be the last pleasure of which effete Humanity will be satiated. I have seen it exemplified in the ad- ministering of poor's relief in old Eng- land and in the townships of New Eng- land. But here it is unchecked, for no public opinion dare make itself heard ; and the plunder is a double one, first for Sectional expenses, of which no balance sheet is ever presented, and secondly, by their High Mightinesses at the Town Hall. Of all forms of jobbery and cor- 120 THE DIARY OF A SPY IN PARIS [May, ruption, I have always regarded Munic- ipal Government as the vilest ; and that vilest of all, when the Managers are elected by the lowest popular vote, and are consequently the men with the most brazen faces and the most leathern lungs. These taxes are, however, a rock upon which this Government by Sections may very probably suffer shipwreck. The peculation is so enormous and so open. If a man is arrested and detained at the nearest Guard-room for the night, he is mercilessly yf^^f^ get a little breathing space to the Jardin des Plantes^'tis a favourite place for the Aristocracy of the Revolu- tion to dine : choke full of spies, too, as every such place is — every flower-girl with her bunch of roses you know to be in Heron's t pay, just as they were in * Really the rate was somewhat faster ; over thir- teen hundred perished between the Law of the 22nd Prairial and the 9th Thermidor. t H6ron was the chief of Robespierre's private police {vide supra, p. 145). I794-] BEASTS REMOVED FROM VERSAILLES 201 Hebert's in '92 and '93. These pretty creatures have had for years a right pre- scriptive to enter all cafes and public places, and even private houses, when- ever there is an Assembly. Since the wild beasts from Versailles have been moved to this place, they are kept in an enclosure close down by the River bank. I think it would break the heart of poor old M. Leroy,* were he alive, to witness the filthy condition of his favourite old Lion, covered with sores and vermin, and tormented by the Parisian sans-culottes because he was a King. I remember him lying with ■&. favour- ite dog between his paws in his old home. The Beasts are not the only thing of which the Palace has been stripped ; the Government has very wisely, to * C. George Leroy, keeper of the King's wild beasts at Versailles, and author of " Lettres sur les Ani- maux ;" died in 1789. 202 THE DIARY OF A SPY IN PARIS [July, prevent worse mischief, been steadily transporting to the Louvre all the best works of Art from thence : the rest is to be broken up, and all traces of a past splendour effaced. It's not at present for sale, there being prob- ably the intention to use it as a cannon foundry, or the like ; but Trianon is for sale, and even now has a notice to that effect over its gateway. Versailles, like all the district round Paris, is a nest of thieves. Once it had a population of sixty thousand, and is said to have lost five-sixths of that in five years. The first returns of the year's crop are beginning to be sold. It is to be a wonderful har- vest, if any survive to eat of it ; but there is no doubt that the Tariff Law has fixed the price * far too low in * Sc. of corn. 1794] REVOLUTION PROFITABLE FOR FARMERS 203 proportion to that of other commod- ities. The Government regards the farmer as a sort of ofificer, who owes a strict account to them of what he produces. Yet, whenever the vile plan of forced requisition at less than the cost of the produce shall be abandoned, as it must be one day, it will be found that this is the class which has gained most by the Revolution ; and, most of all, the wine - growers have gained, and it seems that there are greater facilities for them to evade the Tariff than for the Farmers. The differences in the cost of prod- uce in each District, the inequality with which the cost of its transporta- tion is calculated, the universal corrup- tion among the innumerable scoundrels who are entrusted with the manage- ment, render their boasted maximum 204 THE DIARY OF A SPY IN^ PARIS [July, 1794. a mere absurdity, or a mere instru- ment of terror imposed upon the inhab- itants — * * Here the journal comes to an abrupt conclusion on the very eve of the overthrow of the Terrorist Government. The date given on the cover seems, however, to favor the view suggested in the Preface, that many leaves are lost at the end. MEMOIRS OF BARRAS Member of the Directorate. Edited, with a Gen- eral Introduction, Prefaces, and Appendices, by George Duruy. Translated. With Seven Portraits in Photogravure, Two Fac-similes, and Two Plans. In Four Volumes. Vol. I. The Ancient Regime and the Revolution. Vol. II. The Directorate up to the i8th Fruc- tidor. 8vo, Cloth, Uncut Edges and Gilt Tops, $3 75 per volume. (Vols. III. and IV., in press.") Of all the books relating to the Napoleonic period that have appeared in recent years, none is superior to, and but few compare with, these Memoirs in throwing light upon a time as interesting as any with which history has to deal. . . . They will be read with keenest interest and closest atten- tion. — iV. Y. Times. The first volume, at least, is so graphically piquant that it is difficult to lay it down. . . . We welcome the vol- umes because they are vivid, picturesque, and delightfully pungent. — London Times. The most important and interesting pieces of Napole- onic literature ever given to the English-speaking readers. They are written from a standpoint of the closest intimacy with the personages described. — Boston Traveller. Rarely, if ever, has there been published a book of such importance on Bonaparte and his contemporaries as these Memoirs. — N. Y. Mail and Express. Certainly the most important recent addition to our knowledge of Bonaparte and his times. The two final vol- umes will be impatiently awaited. — N. Y. Herald. The book is indispensable to all who would understand the French Revolution and the Consulate and the Empire that followed it. . . . It is a work of the first importance. — London Daily News. These Memoirs are undoubtedly of great historical value. Barras had a sharp eye as well as a sharp pen. He was in 2 MEMOIRS OF BARRAS the midst of it all, lived through the Terror in constant dan- ger of the guillotine, and saw the sordid inside of the great upheaval that ushered in the r/gime moderne. ... A highly valuable commentary. — Critic, N. Y. In many ways the most important book that the Na- poleonic craze has called forth. . . . They convey the un- mistakable impression of actual narrative, and scarcely an- other writer has brought us into the same close personal re- lations with this tremendous period of history. . . . Both the special student and the general reader, when they have finished these two volumes, will be eager for more. — Phila- delphia Times, It is not too much to say that the life of Napoleon will have to be rewritten. Here is new light ; here amid a great deal that is splenetic, uncritical, and venomous are new facts which demand a new historical adjustment. . . . In Barras's Memoirs one comes close to the man Napoleon. — N. Y. Advertiser. The personal history connected with these Memoirs is of the greatest value. Barras's own views on many of the questions of tactics, the motives for his own strategy ; his intercourse with Bonaparte, Carnot (particularly), his de- tailed reports of the revolution and the Italian campaign. There is not a word to be lost. — Chicago Times-Herald. Barras has bequeathed an invaluable record to posterity, and we cannot too much thank M. Duruy that he decided after mature deliberation to give us an unexpurgated text. We await the appearance of the two concluding volumes with great interest. — Examiner, N. Y. A work that will create a sensation in political and lit- erary circles in Europe and America. ... In view of the new facts brought to light by these Memoirs, they cannot fail to call forth much discussion, and cause a revision of a large portion of the history of the French Revolution. — Lutheran Observer, Philadelphia. Published by HARPER & BROTHERS, New York. as- The above wirrk is for sale hy all booksellers, or will be mailed by the publishers, postage prepaid, on receipt of the price.