country. He resolved to seek an asylum in a neutral territory
with the hope, as he himself somewhat naively expressed it,
'some day to be again of service to liberty and to France.'
Lafayette made every preparation for the safety of his troops,
placing them under the orders of Luckner until the arrival of
Dumouriez, the new general in command. He publicly
acknowledged responsibility for the arrest of the
commissioners and the defiance of Sedan to the Commune, in
order that the municipal officers who had supported him might
escape punishment. He included in his party his
staff-officers, whose association with him would have
subjected them to the fury of the Commune, and some others who
had also been declared traitors on account of obedience to his
orders. He then made his way to Bouillon, on the extreme
frontier. There, dismissing the escort, and sending back final
orders for the security of the army, he rode with his
companions into a foreign land."
B. Tuckerman,
Life of Lafayette,
volume 2, chapter 3.
{1280}
FRANCE: A. D. 1792 (August-September).
The September Massacres in the Paris prisons.
The house-to-house search for suspects was carried on during
the night of August 29 and the following day. "The next
morning, at daybreak, the Mairie, the sections, the ancient
prisons of Paris, and the convents that had been converted
into prisons, were crowded with prisoners. They were summarily
interrogated, and half of them, the victims of error or
precipitation, were set at liberty, or claimed by their
sections. The remainder were distributed in the prisons of the
Abbaye Saint Germain, the Conciergerie, the Châtelet, La
Force, the Luxembourg, and the ancient monasteries of the
Bernardins, Saint Firmin, and the Carmes; Bicêtre and the
Salpêtrière also opened their gates to receive fresh inmates.
The three days that followed this night were employed by the
commissaries in making a selection of the prisoners. Already
their death was projected. ... "We must purge the prisons, and
leave no traitors behind us when we hasten to the frontiers.'
Such was the cry put into the mouth of the people by Marat and
Danton. Such was the attitude of Danton on the brink of these
crimes. As for the part of Robespierre, it was the same as in
all these crises--on the debate concerning war, on the 20th of
June, and on the 10th of August. He did not act, he blamed;
but he left the event to itself, and when once accomplished he
accepted it as a progressive step of the Revolution. ... On
Sunday, the 2d of September, at three o'clock in the
afternoon, the signal for the massacre was given by one of
those accidents that seem so perfectly the effect of chance.
Five coaches, each containing six priests, started from the
Hôtel-de-Ville to the prison of the Abbaye ... escorted by
weak detachments of Avignonnais and Marseillais, armed with
pikes and sabers. ... Groups of men, women and children
insulted them as they passed, and their escort joined in the
invective threats and outrages of the populace. ... The
émeute, increasing in number at every step across the Rue
Dauphine, was met by another mob, that blocked up the
Carrefour Bussy, where municipal officers received enrolments
in the open air. The carriages stopped; and a man, forcing his
way through the escort, sprung on the step of the first
carriage, plunged his saber twice into the body of one of the
priests, and displayed it reeking with blood: the people
uttered a cry of horror. 'This frightens you, cowards!' said
the assassin, with a smile of disdain; 'You must accustom
yourselves to look on death.' With these [words] he again
plunged his saber into the carriage and continued to strike.
... The coaches slowly moved on, and the assassin, passing
from one to the other, and clinging with one hand to the door,
stabbed at random at all he could reach; while the assassins
of Avignon, who formed part of their escort, plunged their
bayonets into the interior; and the pikes, pointed against the
windows, prevented any of the priests from leaping into the
street. The long line of carriages moving slowly on, and
leaving a bloody trace behind them, the despairing cries and
gestures of the priests, the ferocious shouts of their
butchers, the yells of applause of the populace, announced
from a distance their arrival to the prisoners of the Abbaye.
The cortège stopped at the door of the prison, and the
soldiers of the escort dragged out by the feet eight dead
bodies. The priests who had escaped, or who were only wounded,
precipitated themselves into the prison; four of them were
seized and massacred on the threshold. ... The prisoners ...
cooped up in the Abbaye heard this prelude to murder at their
gates. ... The internal wickets were closed on them, and they
received orders to return to their chambers, as if to answer
the muster-roll. A fearful spectacle was visible in the outer
court: the last wicket opening into it had been transformed
into a tribunal; and around a large table--covered with
papers, writing materials, the registers of the prisons,
glasses, bottles, pistols, sabers, and pipes--were seated
twelve judges, whose gloomy features and athletic proportions
stamped them men of toil, debauch or blood. Their attire was
that of the laboring classes. ... Two or three of them
attracted attention by the whiteness of their hands and the
elegance of their shape; and that betrayed the presence of men
of intellect, purposely mingled with these men of action to
guide them. A man in a gray coat, a saber at his side, pen in
his hand, and whose inflexible features seemed as though they
were petrified, was seated at the center of the table, and
presided over the tribunal. This was the Huissier Maillard,
the idol of the mobs of the Faubourg Saint Marceau ... an
actor in the days of October, the 20th of June, and the 10th
of August. ... He had just returned from the Carmes, where he
had organized the massacre. It was not chance that had brought
him to the Abbaye at the precise moment of the arrival of the
prisoners, and with the prison registers in his hand. He had
received, the previous evening, the secret orders of Marat,
through the members of the Comité de Surveillance. Danton had
sent for the registers to the prison, and gone through them;
and Maillard was shown those he was to acquit and condemn. If
the prisoner was acquitted, Maillard said, 'Let this gentleman
be set at liberty'; if condemned, a voice said, 'A la Force.'
At these words the outer door opened, and the prisoner fell
dead as he crossed the threshold. The massacre commenced with
the Swiss, of whom there were 150 at the Abbaye, officers and
soldiers. ... They fell, one after another, like sheep in a
slaughter-house. The tumbrils were not sufficient to carry
away the corpses, and they were piled up on each side of the
court to make room for the rest to die: their commander, Major
Reding, was the last to fall. ... After the Swiss, the king's
guards, imprisoned in the Abbaye, were judged en masse. ...
Their massacre lasted a long time, for the people, excited by
what they had drank--brandy mingled with gun-powder-and
intoxicated by the sight of blood, prolonged their tortures.
... The whole night was scarcely enough to slay and strip
them."
A. de Lamartine,
History of the Girondists,
book 25 (volume 2).
"To moral intoxication is added physical intoxication, wine in
profusion, bumpers at every pause, revelry over corpses. ...
They dance ... and sing the 'carmagnole'; they arouse the
people of the quarter 'to amuse them,' and that they may have
their share of 'the fine fête.' Benches are arranged for
'gentlemen' and others for 'ladies': the latter, with greater
curiosity, are additionally anxious to contemplate at their
ease 'the aristocrats' already slain; consequently, lights are
required, and one is placed on the breast of each corpse.
Meanwhile, slaughter continues, and is carried to perfection.
A butcher at the Abbaye complains that 'the aristocrats die
too quick, and that those only who strike first have the
pleasure of it'; henceforth they are to be struck with the
backs of the swords only, and made to run between two rows of
their butchers, like soldiers formerly running a gauntlet. ...
{1281}
All the unfettered instincts that live in the lowest depths of
the heart start from the human abyss at once, not alone the
heinous instincts with their fangs, but likewise the foulest
with their slaver, while both packs fall furiously on women
whose noble or infamous repute brings them before the world;
on Madame de Lamballe, the Queen's friend; on Madame Desrues,
widow of the famous prisoner; on the flower-girl of the
Palais-Royal, who, two years before, had mutilated her lover,
a French guardsman, in a fit of jealousy. Ferocity here is
associated with lubricity to add profanation to torture, while
life is attacked through attacks on modesty. In Madame de
Lamballe, killed too quickly, the libidinous butchers could
only outrage a corpse, but for the widow, and especially the
flower-girl, they imagine the same as a Nero the fire-circle
of the Iroquois. ... At La Force, Madame de Lamballe is cut to
pieces. I cannot transcribe what Charlot, the hair-dresser,
did with her head. I merely state that another wretch, in the
Rue Saint-Antoine, bore off her heart and 'ate it.' They kill
and they drink, and drink and kill again. ... As the prisons
are to be cleaned out, it is as well to clean them all out,
and do it at once. After the Swiss, priests, the aristocrats,
and the 'white-skin gentlemen,' there remain convicts and
those confined through the ordinary channels of justice,
robbers, assassins, and those sentenced to the galleys in the
Conciergerie, in the Châtelet, and in the Tour St. Bernard,
with branded women, vagabonds, old beggars and boys confined
in Bicêtre and the Salpétrière. They are good for nothing,
cost something to feed, and, probably, cherish evil designs.
... This time, as the job is more foul, the broom is wielded
by fouler hands. ... At the Salpétrière, 'all the bullies of
Paris, former spies, ... libertines, the rascals of France and
all Europe, prepare beforehand for the operation,' and rape
alternates with massacre. ... At Bicêtre, however, it is crude
butchery, the carnivorous instinct alone satisfying itself.
Among other prisoners are 43 youths of the lowest class, from
17 to 19 years of age, placed there for correction by their
parents, or by those to whom they are bound. ... These the
band falls on, beating them to death with clubs. ... There are
six days and five nights of uninterrupted butchery, 171
murders at the Abbaye, 169 at La Force, 223 at the Châtelet,
328 at the Conciergerie, 73 at the Tour-Saint-Bernard, 120 at
the Carmelites, 79 at Saint-Firmin, 170 at Bicêtre, 35 at the
Salpétrière; among the dead, 250 priests, 3 bishops or
archbishops, general officers, magistrates, one former
minister, one royal princess, belonging to the best names in
France, and, on the other side, one negro, several low class
women, young scape-graces, convicts, and poor old men. ...
Fournier, Lazowski, and Bécard, the chiefs of robbers and
assassins, return from Orleans with 1,500 cut-throats. On the
way they kill M. de Brissac, M. de Lessart, and 42 others
accused of 'lèse-nation,' whom they arrested from their
judges' hands, and then, by way of surplus, 'following the
example of Paris,' 21 prisoners taken from the Versailles
prisons. At Paris the Minister of Justice thanks them, the
Commune congratulates them, and the sections feast them and
embrace them. ... All the journals approve, palliate, or keep
silent; nobody dares offer resistance. Property as well as
lives belong to whoever wants to take them. ... Like a man
struck on the head with a mallet, Paris, felled to the ground,
lets things go; the authors of the massacre have fully
attained their ends. The faction has fast hold of power, and
will maintain its hold. Neither in the Legislative Assembly
nor in the Convention will the aims of the Girondists be
successful against its tenacious usurpation. ... The Jacobins,
through sudden terror, have maintained their illegal
authority; through a prolongation of terror they are going to
establish their legal authority. A forced suffrage is going to
put them in office at the Hotel-de-Ville, in the tribunals, in
the National Guard, in the sections, and in the various
administrations."
H. A. Taine,
The French Revolution,
book 4, chapter 9 (volume 2).
ALSO IN:
A. Thiers,
History of the French Revolution,
(American edition.), volume 1, pages 350-368.
Sergent Marceau,
Reminiscences of a Regicide,
chapter 9.
A. Dobson,
The Princess de Lamballe
("Four Frenchwomen," chapter 3).
The Reign of Terror: A collection of Authentic
Narratives, volume 2.
J. B. Cléry,
Journal of Occurrences at the Temple.
Despatches of Earl Gower,
pages 225-229.
FRANCE: A. D. 1792 (September-November).
Meeting of the National Convention.
Abolition of royalty.
Proclamation of the Republic.
Adoption of the Era of the Republic.
Establishment of absolute equality.
The losing struggle of the Girondists with the Jacobins of the
Mountain.
"It was in the midst of these horrors [of the September
massacres] that the Legislative Assembly approached its
termination. ... The National Convention began [September 22]
under darker auspices. ... The great and inert mass of the
people were disposed, as in all commotions, to range
themselves on the victorious side. The sections of Paris,
under the influence of Robespierre and Marat, returned the
most revolutionary deputies; those of most other towns
followed their example. The Jacobins, with their affiliated
clubs, on this occasion exercised an overwhelming influence
over all France. ... At Paris, where the elections took place
on the 2d September, amidst all the excitement and horrors of
the massacres in the prisons, the violent leaders of the
municipality, who had organized the revolt of August 10th,
exercised an irresistible sway over the citizens. Robespierre
and Danton were the first named, amidst unanimous shouts of
applause; after them Camille Desmoulins, Tallien, Osselin,
Freron, Anacharsis Clootz, Fabre d'Eglantine, David, the
celebrated painter, Collot d'Herbois, Billaud Varennes,
Legendre, Panis, Sergent, almost all implicated in the
massacres in the prisons, were also chosen. To these was added
the Duke of Orleans, who had abdicated his titles, and was
called Philippe Égalité. ... The most conservative part of the
new Assembly were the Girondists who had overturned the
throne. From the first opening of the Convention, the
Girondists occupied the right, and the Jacobins the seats on
the summit of the left; whence their designation of 'The
Mountain' was derived. The former had the majority of votes,
the greater part of the departments having returned men of
comparatively moderate principles. But the latter possessed a
great advantage, in having on their side all the members of
the city of Paris, who ruled the mob, ... and in being
supported by the municipality, which had already grown into a
ruling power in the state, and had become the great centre of
the democratic party.
{1282}
A neutral body, composed of those members whose principles
were not yet declared, was called the Plain, or, Marais; it
ranged itself with the Girondists, until terror compelled its
members to coalesce with the victorious side. ... The two
rival parties mutually indulged in recriminations, in order to
influence the public mind. The Jacobins incessantly reproached
the Girondists with desiring to dissolve the Republic; to
establish three-and-twenty separate democratic states, held
together, like the American provinces, by a mere federal
union. ... Nothing more was requisite to render them in the
highest degree unpopular in Paris, the very existence of which
depended on its remaining, through all the phases of government,
the seat of the ruling power. The Girondists retorted upon
their adversaries charges better founded, but not so likely to
inflame the populace. They reproached them with endeavouring
to establish in the municipality of Paris a power superior to
the legislature of all France, with overawing the
deliberations of the Convention by menacing petitions, or the
open display of brute force; and secretly preparing for their
favourite leaders, Danton, Robespierre, and Marat, a
triumvirate of power, which would speedily extinguish all the
freedom which had been acquired. The first part of the
accusation was well-founded even then; of the last, time soon
afforded an ample confirmation. The Convention met at first in
one of the halls of the Tuileries, but immediately adjourned
to the Salle du Ménage, where its subsequent sittings were
held. Its first step was, on the motion of the Abbé Gregoire,
and amidst unanimous transports, to declare Royalty abolished
in France, and to proclaim a republic; and by another decree
it was ordered, that the old calendar taken from the year of
Christ's birth should be abandoned, and that all public acts
should be dated from the first year of the French republic.
This era began on the 22d September 1792. [See, also, below:
A. D. 1793 (OCTOBER).] ... A still more democratic
constitution than that framed by the Constituent and
Legislative Assemblies was at the same time established. All
the requisites for election to any office whatever were, on
the motion of the Duke of Orleans, abolished. It was no longer
necessary to select judges from legal men, nor magistrates
from the class of proprietors. All persons, in whatever rank,
were declared eligible to every situation; and the right of
voting in the primary assemblies was conferred on every man
above the age of 21 years. Absolute equality, in its literal
sense, was universally established. Universal suffrage was the
basis on which government rested." The leaders of the
Girondists soon opened attacks upon Robespierre and Marat,
accusing the former of aspiring to a dictatorship, and also
holding him responsible, with Marat and Danton, for the
September massacres; but Louvet and others who made the attack
were feebly supported by their party. Louvet "repeatedly
appealed to Pétion, Vergniaud, and the other leaders, to
support his statements; but they had not the firmness boldly
to state the truth. Had they testified a fourth part of what
they knew, the accusation must have been instantly voted, and
the tyrant crushed at once. As it was, Robespierre, fearful of
its effects, demanded eight days to prepare for his defence.
In the interval, the whole machinery of terror was put in
force. The Jacobins thundered out accusations against the
intrepid accuser, and all the leaders of the Mountain were
indefatigable in their efforts to strike fear into their
opponents. ... By degrees the impression cooled, fear resumed
its sway, and the accused mounted the tribune at the end of
the week with the air of a victor. ... It was now evident that
the Girondists were no match for their terrible adversaries.
The men of action on their side, Louvet, Barbaroux, and
Lanjuinais, in vain strove to rouse them to the necessity of
vigorous measures in contending with such enemies. Their
constant reply was, that they would not be the first to
commence the shedding of blood. Their whole vigour manifested
itself in declamation, their whole wisdom in abstract
discussion. They had now become humane in intention, and
moderate in counsel, though they were far from having been so
in the earlier stages of the Revolution. ... They were too
honourable to believe in the wickedness of their opponents,
too scrupulous to adopt the measures requisite to disarm, too
destitute of moral courage to be able to crush them. ... The
Jacobins ... while they were daily strengthening and
increasing the armed force of the sections at the command of
the municipality, ... strenuously resisted the slightest
approach towards the establishment of any guard or civic force
for the defence of the Convention. ... Aware of their weakness
from this cause, the Girondists brought forward a proposal for
an armed guard for the Convention. The populace was
immediately put in motion," and the overawed Convention
abandoned the measure. "In the midst of these vehement
passions, laws still more stringent and sanguinary were passed
against the priests and emigrants. ... First, it was decreed
that every Frenchman taken with arms in his hands against
France should be punished with death; and soon after, that
'the French emigrants are forever banished from the territory
of France, and those who return shall be punished with death.'
A third decree directed that all their property, movable and
immovable, should be confiscated to the service of the state.
These decrees were rigidly executed: and though almost
unnoticed amidst the bloody deeds which at the same period
stained the Revolution, ultimately produced the most lasting
and irremediable effects. At length the prostration of the
Assembly before the armed sections of Paris had become so
excessive, that Buzot and Barbaroux, the most intrepid of the
Girondists, brought forward two measures which, if they could
have been carried, would have emancipated the legislature from
this odious thraldom. Buzot proposed to establish a guard,
specially for the protection of the Convention, drawn from
young men chosen from the different departments. Barbaroux at
the same time brought forward four decrees. ... By the first,
the capital was to cease to be the seat of the legislature,
when it lost its claim to their presence by failing to protect
them from insult. By the second, the troops of the Fédérés and
the national cavalry were to be charged, along with the armed
sections, with the protection of the legislature. By the
third, the Convention was to constitute itself into a court of
justice, for the trial of all conspirators against its
authority. By the fourth, the Convention suspended the
municipality of Paris. ... The Jacobins skilfully availed
themselves of these impotent manifestations of distrust, to
give additional currency to the report that the Girondists
intended to transport the seat of government to the southern
provinces. This rumour rapidly gained ground with the
populace, and augmented their dislike at the ministry. ... All
these preliminary struggles were essays of strength by the two
parties, prior to the grand question which was now destined to
attract the eyes of Europe and the world. This was the trial
of Louis XVI."
Sir A. Alison,
History of Europe,
chapter 8 (volume 3).
ALSO IN:
G. H. Lewes,
Life of Robespierre,
chapter 16.
A. de Lamartine,
History of the Girondists,
books 29-31.
C. D. Yonge,
History of France under the Bourbons,
chapter 43 (volume 4).
J. Moore,
Journal in France, 1792,
volume 2.
{1283}
FRANCE: A. D. 1792 (September-December).
The war on the northern frontier.
Battle of Valmy.
Retreat of the invading army.
Custine in Germany and Dumouriez in the Netherlands.
Annexation of Savoy and Nice.
The Decree of December 15.
Proclamation of a republican crusade.
"The defence of France rested on General Dumouriez. ...
Happily for France the slow advance of the Prussian general
permitted Dumouriez to occupy the difficult country of the
Argonnes, where, while waiting for his reinforcements, he was
able for some time to hold the invaders in check. At length
Brunswick made his way past the defile which Dumouriez had
chosen for his first line of defence; but it was only to find
the French posted in such strength on his flank that any
further advance would imperil his own army. If the advance was
to be continued, Dumouriez must be dislodged. Accordingly, on
the 20th of September, Brunswick, facing half-round from his
line of march, directed his artillery against the hills of
Valmy, where Kellermann and the French left were encamped. The
cannonade continued for some hours, but it was followed by no
general attack. Already, before a blow had been struck, the
German forces were wasting away with disease. ... The King of
Prussia began to listen to the proposals of peace which were
sent to him by Dumouriez. A week spent in negotiations served
only to strengthen the French and to aggravate the scarcity
and sickness within the German camp. Dissensions broke out
between the Prussian and Austrian commanders; a retreat was
ordered; and, to the astonishment of Europe, the veteran
forces of Brunswick fell back before the mutinous soldiery and
unknown generals of the Revolution. ... In the meantime the
Legislative Assembly had decreed its own dissolution ... and
had ordered the election of representatives to frame a
constitution for France. ... The Girondins, who had been the
party of extremes in the Legislative Assembly, were the party
of moderation and order in the Convention. ... Monarchy was
abolished, and France declared a Republic (September 21).
Office continued in the hands of the Gironde; but the
vehement, uncompromising spirit of their rivals, the so-called
party of the Mountain, quickly made itself felt in all the
relations of France to foreign powers. The intention of
conquest might still be as sincerely disavowed as it had been
five months before; but were the converts to liberty to be
denied the right of uniting themselves to the French people by
their own free will? ... The scruples which had lately
condemned all annexation of territory vanished in that orgy of
patriotism which followed the expulsion of the invader and the
discovery that the Revolution was already a power in other
lands than France. ... Along the entire frontier, from Dunkirk
to the Maritime Alps, France nowhere touched a strong united, and
independent people; and along this entire frontier, except in
the country opposite Alsace, the armed proselytism of the
French Revolution proved a greater force than the influences
on which the existing order of things depended. In the Low
Countries, in the Principalities of the Rhine, in Switzerland,
in Savoy, in Piedmont itself, the doctrines of the Revolution
were welcomed by a more or less numerous class, and the armies
of France appeared for a moment as the missionaries of liberty
and right rather than as an invading enemy. No sooner had
Brunswick been brought to a stand by Dumouriez at Valmy than a
French division under Custine crossed the Alsatian frontier
and advanced upon Spires, where Brunswick had left large
stores of war. The garrison was defeated in an encounter
outside the town; Spires and Worms surrendered to Custine. In
the neighbouring fortress of Mainz, the key to western
Germany, Custine's advance was watched with anxious
satisfaction by a republican party among the inhabitants, from
whom the French general learnt that he had only to appear
before the city to become its master. ... At the news of the
capture of Spires, the Archbishop retired into the interior of
Germany, leaving the administration to a board of
ecclesiastics and officials, who published a manifesto calling
upon their 'beloved brethren' the citizens to defend
themselves to the last extremity, and then followed their
master's example. A council of war declared the city to be
untenable; and, before Custine had brought up a single
siege-gun, the garrison capitulated, and the French were
welcomed into Mainz by the partisans of the Republic (October
20). ... Although the mass of the inhabitants held aloof, a
Republic was finally proclaimed, and incorporated with the
Republic of France. The success of Custine's raid into Germany
did not divert the Convention from the design of attacking
Austria in the Netherlands, which Dumouriez had from the first
pressed upon the Government. It was not three years since the
Netherlands had been in full revolt against the Emperor
Joseph. ... Thus the ground was everywhere prepared for a
French occupation. Dumouriez crossed the frontier. The border
fortresses no longer existed: and after a single battle won by
the French at Jemappes on the 6th November, the Austrians,
finding the population universally hostile, abandoned the
Netherlands without a struggle. The victory of Jemappes, the
first pitched battle won by the Republic, excited an outburst
of revolutionary fervour in the Convention which deeply
affected the relations of France to Great Britain, hitherto a
neutral spectator of the war. A decree was passed for the
publication of a manifesto in all languages, declaring that
the French nation offered its alliance to all peoples who
wished to recover their freedom, and charging the generals of
the Republic to give their protection to all persons who had
suffered or might suffer in the cause of liberty. (November
19.) A week later Savoy and Nice were annexed to France, the
population of Savoy having almost unanimously declared in
favour of France on the outbreak of war between France and
Sardinia.
{1284}
On the 15th December the Convention proclaimed that a system
of social and political revolution was henceforth to accompany
every movement of its armies on foreign soil. 'In every
country that shall be occupied by the armies of the French
Republic'--such was the substance of the Decree of December
15th--'the generals shall announce the abolition of all
existing authorities; of nobility, of serfage, of every feudal
right and every monopoly; they shall proclaim the sovereignty
of the people. ... The French nation will treat as enemies any
people which, refusing liberty and equality, desires to
preserve its prince and privileged castes, or to make any
accommodation with them.' This singular announcement of a new
crusade caused the Government of Great Britain to arm."
C. A. Fyffe,
History of Modern Europe,
volume 1, chapter 2.
ALSO IN:
F. C. Schlosser,
History of the 18th Century,
volume 6, division 2, chapter 2, section 1.
E. Baines,
History of the Wars of the French Revolution,
book 1, chapters 3-5 (volume 1).
FRANCE: A.D. 1792 (November-December).
Charges against the King.
Jacobin clamor for his condemnation.
The contest in Convention.
"There were, without a doubt, in this conjuncture, a great
number of Mountaineers who, on this occasion, acted with the
greatest sincerity, and only as republicans, in whose eyes
Louis XVI. appeared guilty with respect to the revolution; and
a dethroned king was dangerous to a young democracy. But this
party would have been more clement, had it not had to ruin the
Gironde at the same time with Louis XVI. ... Party motives and
popular animosities combined against this unfortunate prince.
Those who, two months before, would have repelled the idea of
exposing him to any other punishment than that of
dethronement, were stupefied; so quickly does man lose in
moments of crisis the right to defend his opinions! ... After
the 10th of August, there were found in the offices of the
civil list documents which proved the secret correspondence of
Louis XVI. with the discontented princes, with the emigration,
and with Europe. In a report, drawn up at the command of the
legislative assembly, he was accused of intending to betray
the state and overthrow the revolution. He was accused of
having written, on the 16th April, 1791, to the bishop of
Clermont, that if he regained his power he would restore the
former government, and the clergy to the state in which they
previously were; of having afterwards proposed war, merely to
hasten the approach of his deliverers; ... of having been on
terms with his brothers, whom his public measures had
discountenanced; and, lastly, of having constantly opposed the
revolution. Fresh documents were soon brought forward in
support of this accusation. In the Tuileries, behind a panel
in the wainscot, there was a hole wrought in the wall, and
closed by an iron door. This secret closet was pointed out by
the minister, Roland, and there were discovered proofs of all
the conspiracies and intrigues of the court against the
revolution; projects with the popular leaders to strengthen
the constitutional power of the king, to restore the ancient
regime and the aristocrats; the manœuvres of Talon, the
arrangements with Mirabeau, the propositions accepted by
Bouillé, under the constituent assembly, and some new plots
under the legislative assembly. This discovery increased the
exasperation against Louis XVI. Mirabeau's bust was broken by
the Jacobins, and the convention covered the one which stood
in the hall where it held its sittings. For some time there
had been a question in the assembly as to the trial of this
prince, who, having been dethroned, could no longer be
proceeded against. There was no tribunal empowered to
pronounce his sentence, no punishment which could be inflicted
on him: accordingly, they plunged into false interpretations
of the inviolability granted to Louis XVI., in order to
condemn him legally. ... The committee of legislation,
commissioned to draw up a report on the question as to whether
Louis XVI. could be tried, and whether he could be tried by
the convention, decided in the affirmative. ... The discussion
commenced on the 13th of November, six days after the report
of the committee. ... This violent party [the Mountain], who
wished to substitute a coup d'etat for a sentence, to follow
no law, no form, but to strike Louis XVI. like a conquered
prisoner, by making hostilities even survive victory, had but
a very feeble majority in the convention; but without, it was
strongly supported by the Jacobins and the commune.
Notwithstanding the terror which it already inspired, its
murderous suggestions were repelled by the convention; and the
partisans of inviolability, in their turn, courageously
asserted reasons of public interest at the same time as rules
of justice and humanity. They maintained that the same men
could not be judges and legislators, the jury and the
accusers. ... In a political view, they showed the
consequences of the king's condemnation, as it would affect
the anarchical party of the kingdom, rendering it still more
insolent; and with regard to Europe, whose still neutral
powers it would induce to join the coalition against the
republic. But Robespierre, who during this long debate
displayed a daring and perseverance that presaged his power,
appeared at the tribune to support Saint Just, to reproach the
convention with involving in doubt what the insurrection had
decided, and with restoring, by sympathy and the publicity of
a defence, the fallen royalist party. 'The assembly,' said
Robespierre, 'has involuntarily been led far away from the
real question. Here we have nothing to do with trial: Louis is
not an accused man; you are not judges, you are, and can only
be statesmen. You have no sentence to pronounce for or against
a man, but you are called on to adopt a measure of public
safety; to perform an act of national precaution. A dethroned
king is only fit for two purposes, to disturb the tranquillity
of the state, and shake its freedom, or to strengthen one or
the other of them. Louis was king; the republic is founded;
the famous question you are discussing is decided in these few
words. Louis cannot be tried; he is already tried, he is
condemned, or the republic is not absolved.' He required that
the convention should declare Louis XVI. a traitor towards the
French, criminal towards humanity, and sentence him at once to
death, by virtue of the insurrection. The Mountaineers, by
these extreme propositions, by the popularity they attained
without, rendered condemnation in a measure inevitable. By
gaining an extraordinary advance on the other parties, it
obliged them to follow it, though at a distance. The majority
of the convention, composed in a large part of Girondists, who
dared not pronounce Louis XVI. inviolable, and of the Plain,
decided, on Pétion's proposition, against the opinion of the
fanatical Mountaineers and against that of the partisans of
inviolability, that Louis XVI. should be tried by the
convention. Robert Lindet then made, in the name of the
commission of the twenty-one, his report respecting Louis XVI.
The arraignment, setting forth the offences imputed to him,
was drawn up, and the convention summoned the prisoner to its
bar."
F. A. Mignet,
History of the French Revolution,
chapter 6.
ALSO IN:
G. H. Lewes,
Life of Robespierre,
chapter 17.
A. de Lamartine,
History of the Girondists,
books 32-33 (volume 2).
A. de Beauchesne,
Louis XVII.: His Life, his Suffering, his Death,
book 9.
{1285}
FRANCE: A. D. 1792-1793 (December-January).
The King's Trial and death sentence.
"On December 11, the ill-fated monarch, taken from his prison
to his former palace, appeared at the bar of his republican
judges, was received in silence and with covered heads, and
answered interrogatories addressed to him as 'Louis Capet,'
though with an air of deference. His passive constancy touched
many hearts. ... On the 26th the advocates of the King made an
eloquent defence for their discrowned client, and Louis added,
in a few simple words, that the 'blood of the 10th of August
should not be laid to his charge.' The debates in the Assembly
now began, and it soon became evident that the Jacobin faction
were making the question the means to further their objects,
and to hold up their opponents to popular hatred. They
clamored for immediate vengeance on the tyrant, declared that
the Republic could not be safe until the Court was smitten on
its head, and a great example had been given to Europe, and
denounced as reactionary and as concealed royalists all who
resisted the demands of patriotism. These ferocious invectives
were aided by the expedients so often employed with success,
and the capital and its mobs were arrayed to intimidate any
deputies who hesitated in the 'cause of the Nation.' The
Moderates, on the other hand, were divided in mind; a
majority, perhaps, condemning the King, but also wishing to
spare his life: and the Gironde leaders, halting between their
convictions, their feelings, their desires, and their fears,
shrank from a courageous and resolute course. The result was
such as usually follows when energy and will encounter
indecision. On January 14 [the 15th, according to Thiers and
others], 1793, the Convention declared Louis XVI. guilty, and
on the following day [the speaking and voting lasted through
the night of the 16th and the day after it] sentence of
immediate death was pronounced by a majority of one [but the
minority, in this view, included 26 votes that were cast for
death but in favor of a postponement of the penalty, on
grounds of political expediency], proposals for a respite and
an appeal to the people having been rejected at the critical
moment. The votes had been taken after a solemn call of the
deputies at a sitting protracted for days; and the spectacle
of the vast dim hall, of the shadowy figures of the awestruck
judges meting out the fate of their former Sovereign, and tier
upon tier of half-seen faces, looking, as in a theatre, on the
drama below, and breaking out into discordant clamor, made a
fearful impression on many eye-witnesses. One vote excited a
sensation of disgust even among the most ruthless chiefs of
the Mountain, though it was remarked that many of the
abandoned women who crowded the galleries shrieked
approbation. The Duke of Orleans, whose Jacobin professions
had caused him to be returned for Paris, with a voice in which
effrontery mingled with terror, pronounced for the immediate
execution of his kinsman. The minister of justice--Danton had
resigned--announced on the 20th the sentence to the King. The
captive received the message calmly, asked for three days to
get ready to die (a request, however, at once refused), and
prayed that he might see his family and have a confessor."
W. O'C. Morris,
The French Revolution, and First Empire,
chapter 5.
ALSO IN:
A. Thiers,
History of the French Revolution
(American edition), volume 2, pages 44-72.
A. F. Bertrand de Moleville,
Private Memoirs, relative to the last year of Louis XVI.,
chapters 39-40.
J. B. Cléry,
Journal of Occurrences at the Temple.
FRANCE: A. D. 1792-1793 (December-February).
Determination to incorporate the Austrian Netherlands and to
attack Holland.
Pitt's unavailing struggle for peace.
England driven to arms.
War with the Maritime Powers declared by the French.
"Since the beginning of December, the French government had
contracted their far-reaching schemes within definite limits.
They were compelled to give up the hope of revolutionizing the
German Empire and establishing a Republic in the British
Islands; but they were all the more determined in the resolve
to subject the countries which had hitherto been occupied in
the name of freedom, to the rule of France. This object was
more especially pursued in Belgium by Danton and three other
deputies, who were sent as Commissioners of the Convention to
that country on the 30th of November. They were directed to
enquire into the condition of the Provinces, and to consider
Dumouriez's complaints against Pache [the Minister at War] and
the Committee formed to purchase supplies for the army."
Danton became resolute in the determination to incorporate
Belgium and pressed the project inexorably. "It was a matter
of course that England would interpose both by word and deed
directly France prepared to take possession of Belgium. ...
England had guaranteed the possession of Belgium to the
Emperor in 1790--and the closing of the Scheldt to the Dutch,
and its political position in Holland to the House of Orange
in 1788. Under an imperative sense of her own interests, she
had struggled to prevent the French from gaining a footing in
Antwerp and Ostend. Prudence, fidelity to treaties, the
retrospect of the past and the hopes of the future--all called
loudly upon her not to allow the balance of Europe to be
disturbed, and least of all in Belgium."
H. von Sybel,
History of the French Revolution,
book 5, chapter 5 (volume 2).
"The French Government resolved to attack Holland, and ordered
its generals to enforce by arms the opening of the Scheldt. To
do this was to force England into war. Public opinion was
already pressing every day harder upon Pitt [see ENGLAND: A.
D. 1793-1796]. ... Across the Channel his moderation was only
taken for fear. ... The rejection of his last offers indeed
made a contest inevitable. Both sides ceased from diplomatic
communications, and in February 1793 France issued her
Declaration of War."
J. R. Green,
History of the English People,
book 9, chapter 4 (volume 4).
ALSO IN:
W. E. H. Lecky,
History of England in the 18th Century,
chapter 22 (volume 6).
Earl Stanhope,
Life of Pitt,
chapter 16 (volume 2).
Despatches of Earl Gower,
page 256-309.
{1286}
FRANCE: A. D. 1793 (January).
The execution of the king.
"To this conclusion, then, hast thou come, O hapless Louis!
The Son of Sixty Kings is to die on the Scaffold by form of
Law. Under Sixty Kings this same form of law, form of Society,
has been fashioning itself together these thousand years; and
has become, one way and other, a most strange Machine. Surely,
if needful, it is also frightful, this Machine: dead, blind:
not what it should be: which with swift stroke, or by cold
slow torture, has wasted the lives and souls of innumerable
men. And behold now a King himself or say rather Kinghood in
his person, is to expire here in cruel tortures;--like a
Phalaris shut in the belly of his own red-heated Brazen Bull!
It is ever so; and thou shouldst know it, O haughty tyrannous
man: injustice breeds injustice: curses and falsehoods do
verily return 'always home,' wide as they may wander. Innocent
Louis bears the sins of many generations: he too experiences
that man's tribunal is not in this Earth: that if he had no
higher one, it were not well with him. A King dying by such
violence appeals impressively to the imagination; as the like
must do, and ought to do. And yet at bottom it is not the King
dying, but the man! Kingship is a coat: the grand loss is of
the skin. The man from whom you take his Life, to him can the
whole combined world do more? ... A Confessor has come; Abbé
Edgeworth, of Irish extraction, whom the King knew by good
report, has come promptly on this solemn mission. Leave the
Earth alone, then, thou hapless King; it with its malice will
go its way, thou also canst go thine. A hard scene yet
remains: the parting with our loved ones. Kind hearts,
environed in the same grim peril with us; to be left here! Let
the reader look with the eyes of Valet Cléry through these
glass-doors, where also the Municipality watches: and see the
cruelest of scenes: 'At half-past eight, the door of the
ante-room opened: the Queen appeared first, leading her Son by
the hand: then Madame Royale and Madame Elizabeth: they all
flung themselves into the arms of the King. Silence reigned
for some minutes; interrupted only by sobs.' ... For nearly
two hours this agony lasts; then they tear themselves asunder.
'Promise that you will see us on the morrow.' He promises:
--Ah yes, yes: yet once; and go now, ye loved ones: cry to God
for yourselves and met!--It was a hard scene, but it is over.
He will not see them on the morrow. The Queen in passing
through the ante-room, glanced at the Cerberus Municipals;
and, with woman's vehemence, said through her tears, 'Vous
étes tous des scélérats.' King Louis slept sound, till five in
the morning, when Cléry, as he had been ordered, awoke him.
Cléry dressed his hair: while this went forward, Louis took a
ring from his watch, and kept trying it on his finger: it was
his wedding-ring, which he is now to return to the Queen as a
mute farewell. At half-past six, he took the Sacrament, and
continued in devotion, and conference with Abbé Edgeworth. He
will not see his family: it were too hard to bear. At eight
the Municipals enter: the King gives them his Will, and
messages and effects; which they, at first, brutally refuse to
take charge of: he gives them a roll of gold pieces, a hundred
and twenty-five louis; these are to be returned to
Malesherbes, who had lent them. At nine, Santerre says the
hour is come. The King begs yet to retire for three minutes.
At the end of three minutes, Santerre again says the hour is
come. 'Stamping on the ground with his right-foot, Louis
answers: Partons, Let us go.'--How the rolling of those drums
comes in, through the Temple bastions and bulwarks, on the
heart of a queenly wife; soon to be a widow! He is gone, then,
and has not seen us? ... At the Temple Gate were some faint
cries, perhaps from voices of pitiful women: Grace! Grace!
Through the rest of the streets there is silence as of the
grave. No man not armed is allowed to be there: the armed, did
any even pity, dare not express it, each man overawed by all
his neighbours. All windows are down, none seen looking
through them. All shops are shut. No wheel-carriage rolls,
this morning, in these streets but one only. 80,000 armed men
stand ranked, like armed statues of men; cannons bristle,
cannoneers with match burning, but no word or movement: it is
as a city enchanted into silence and stone: one carriage with
its escort, slowly rumbling, is the only sound. Louis reads,
in his Book of Devotion, the Prayers of the Dying: clatter of
this death-march falls sharp on the ear, in the great silence;
but the thought would fain struggle heavenward, and forget the
Earth. As the clock strikes ten, behold the Place de la
Revolution, once Place de Louis Quinze: the Guillotine,
mounted near the old Pedestal where once stood the Statue of
that Louis! Far round, all bristles with cannons and armed
men: spectators crowding in the rear; D'Orléans Egalité there
in cabriolet. ... Heedless of all Louis reads his Prayers of
the Dying; not till five minutes yet has he finished: then the
Carriage opens. What temper he is in? Ten different witnesses
will give ten different accounts of it. He is in the collision
of all tempers; arrived now at the black Mahlstrom and descent
of Death: in sorrow, in indignation, in resignation struggling
to be resigned. 'Take care of M. Edgeworth,' he straitly
charges the Lieutenant who is sitting with them: then they two
descend. The drums are beating: 'Taisez-vous, Silence!' he
cries 'in a terrible voice, d'une voix terrible.' He mounts
the scaffold, not without delay; he is in puce coat, breeches
of gray, white stockings. He strips off the coat; stands
disclosed in a sleeve-waistcoat of white flannel. The
executioners approach to bind him: he spurns, resists; Abbé
Edgeworth has to remind him how the Saviour, in whom men
trust, submitted to be bound. His hands are tied, his head
bare; the fatal moment is come. He advances to the edge of the
Scaffold, 'his face very red,' and says: 'Frenchmen, I die
innocent: it is from the Scaffold and near appearing before
God that I tell you so. I pardon my enemies; I desire that
France--' A General on horseback, Santerre or another, prances
out with uplifted hand: 'Tambours!' The drums drown the voice.
'Executioners, do your duty!' The Executioners, desperate lest
themselves be murdered (for Santerre and his Armed Ranks will
strike, if they do not), seize the hapless Louis: six of them
desperate, him singly desperate, struggling there; and bind
him to their plank. Abbé Edgeworth, stooping, bespeaks him:
'Son of Saint Louis, ascend to Heaven.' The Axe clanks down; a
King's Life is shorn away. It is Monday the 21st of January
1793. He was aged 38 years four months and 28 days.
{1287}
Executioner Samson shows the Head: fierce shouts of Vive la
République rises, and swells; caps raised on bayonets, hats
waving: students of the College of Four Nations take it up, on
the far Quais; fling it over Paris. D'Orléans drives off in
his cabriolet: the Townhall Councillors rub their hands,
saying, 'It is done, It is done.' ... In the coffee-houses
that evening, says Prudhomme, Patriot shook hands with Patriot
in a more cordial manner than usual. Not till some days after,
according to Mercier, did public men see what a grave thing it
was. A grave thing it indisputably is; and will have
consequences. ... At home this Killing of a King has divided
all friends; and abroad it has united all enemies. Fraternity
of Peoples, Revolutionary Propagandism; Atheism, Regicide;
total destruction of social order in this world! All Kings,
and lovers of Kings, and haters of Anarchy, rank in coalition;
as in a war for life."
T. Carlyle,
The French Revolution,
volume 3, book 2, chapter 8.
FRANCE: A. D. 1793 (February-April).
Increasing anarchy.
Degradation of manners.
Formation of the terrible Revolutionary Tribunal.
Treacherous designs of Dumouriez.
His invasion of Holland.
His defeat at Neerwinden and retreat.
His flight to the enemy.
"While the French were ... throwing down the gauntlet to all
Europe, their own country seemed sinking into anarchical
dissolution. Paris was filled with tumult, insurrection and
robbery. At the denunciations of Marat against 'forestallers,'
the shops were entered by the mob, who carried off articles at
their own prices, and sometimes without paying at all. The
populace was agitated by the harangues of low itinerant
demagogues. Rough and brutal manners were affected, and all
the courtesies of life abolished. The revolutionary leaders
adopted a dress called the 'carmagnole,' consisting of
enormous black pantaloons, a short jacket, a three-coloured
waistcoat, and a Jacobite wig of short black hair, a terrible
moustache, the 'bonnet rouge,' and an enormous sabre. [The
name Carmagnole was also given to a tune and a dance; it is
supposed to have borne originally some reference not now
understood to Carmagnola in Piedmont.] Moderate persons of no
strong political opinions were denounced as 'suspected,' and
their crime stigmatised by the newly coined word of
'moderantisme.' The variations of popular feeling were
recorded like the heat of the weather, or the rising of a
flood. The principal articles in the journals were entitled
'Thermometer of the Public Mind;' the Jacobins talked of ...
being 'up to the level.' Many of the provinces were in a
disturbed state. A movement had been organising in Brittany
ever since 1791, but the death of the Marquis de la Rouarie,
its principal leader, had for the present suspended it. A more
formidable insurrection was preparing in La Vendée. ... It was
in the midst of these disturbances, aggravated by a suspicion
of General Dumouriez's treachery, which we shall presently
have to relate, that the terrible court known as the
Revolutionary Tribunal was established. It was first formally
proposed in the Convention March 9th, by Carrier, the
miscreant afterwards notorious by his massacres at Nantes,
urged by Cambacérès on the 10th, and completed that very night
at the instance of Danton, who rushed to the tribune, insisted
that the Assembly should not separate, till the new Court had
been organised. ... The extraordinary tribunal of August 1792
had not been found to work fast enough, and it was now
superseded by this new one, which became in fact only a method
of massacring under the form of law. The Revolutionary
Tribunal was designed to take cognisance of all
counter-revolutionary attempts, of all attacks upon liberty,
equality, the unity and indivisibility of the Republic, the
internal and external safety of the State. A commission of six
members of the Convention was to examine and report upon the
cases to be brought before it, to draw up and present the acts
of accusation. The tribunal was to be composed of a jury to
decide upon the facts, five judges to apply the law, a public
accuser, and two substitutes; from its sentence there was no
appeal. Meanwhile Dumouriez had returned to the army, very
dissatisfied that he had failed in his attempts to save the
King and baffle the Jacobins. He had formed the design of
invading Holland, dissolving the Revolutionary Committee in
that country, annulling the decree of December 15th, offering
neutrality to the English, a suspension of arms to the
Austrians, reuniting the Belgian and Batavian republics, and
proposing to France a re-union with them. In case of refusal,
he designed to march upon Paris, dissolve the Convention,
extinguish Jacobinism; in short, to play the part of Monk in
England. This plan was confided to four persons only, among
whom Danton is said to have been one. ... Dumouriez, having
directed General Miranda to lay siege to Maestricht, left
Antwerp for Holland, February 22nd, and by March 4th had
seized Breda, Klundert and Gertruydenberg. Austria, at the
instance of England, had pushed forward 112,000 men under
Prince Josias of Saxe-Coburg. Clairfait, with his army, at
this time occupied Berghem, where he was separated from the
French only by the little river Roer and the fortress of