.0^^ A' -N C* KEIGN OF TERROR HISTORICALLY AND BIOGRAPHICALLY TREATED. BSIX& A COMPEND OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION, PROM ITS COMMENCEMENT TO THE FALL OF ROBESPIERRE. COMPILED FEOM THE MOST AUTHENTIC WRITBRa BY "R:^. MOORE. IZ.LOSTaA.TED WITH EIQBT PORTRAITS AMD FOUR EKeRAVIMGS. PHILADELPHIA : .^ JOHN B. PERRY, No. 198 Market Street. i NEW YORK^NAFIS & CORNISH. '^ 1846. • Entered according to the Act of Congress, in the year 1845, by JOHN B. PERRY, in the office of the Clerk of the District Court of the United States, in and for the Eastern District of PenuBylvania. ^- ADVERTISEMENT. In the present instance, it has been the object of the compiler to give the reader a book free from historic pomp, and merely comprising the actually important and interesting events of an era in French history. He has not attempted a philosophical view of the Reign of Terror — impressed with the conviction, as he is, that those who are fit to read at all, can, if you will only put things distinctly before them, be trusted to understand for themselves and make their own re- flections. He has, therefore, endeavoured to furnish a living and picturesque narrative of the heroes, ac- tions and times of this important period. History, it has been said, is philosophy teaching by example. No history, it has also been said, can present us with the whole truth; but those are the best histories which exhibit such parts of the truth as most nearly produce the effect of the whole. The former remark is Bolingbroke's, the latter Macaulay's; and in this work the compiler has been guided by the implied advice of the latter, in order correctly to produce the effect attributed to history by the former. The compilation, it will be seen, is based upon the works of Mignet and Thiers, but illustrated and annotated by means of various writers upon the French Revolution, both contemporary and of a later date. Philada. May 5, 1845. CONTENTS. CHAP. I. — Condition of France previous to the Revolution, Louis XIV. Louis XV. Licentiousness of tlie Nobility, the Clergy, and the oppressed state of the Common People. Prodigality of the Monarchs and their Mistresses. Madame Pompadour, Madame Diibarri. Immense Revenues of the Church. Lettres-de-cachet, &.c. Louis XVI., his character. Trou- bled Slate of Finances. Meeting of the States-General. Division be- tween the Deputies of the Tiers-Etat, or common people, and the De- puties of the Noblesse and Clergy, The Oath of the Tennis Court. Plots of the Court. Mirabeau. The Palais Royal, Excited state of Paris on the 11th July, 1789. Camille Desmoulines. Fracas between the soldiers and the populace, Sunday, the 12th of July, Increase of popular excitement, Scenes at the Hotel-de-Ville, All Paris in commotion, a universal demand for arms, and the cry of" to the Bastille !" Attack by the populace upon the Bastille. Its defence. Arming, Tumult and Vengeance, The Bastille taken. Death of De Launay and of M. de Flesselles, Destruction of the Bastille, The tidings of these events as received at Versailles by the Court and the National Assembly, Eloquence of Mirabeau, The King's visit to the Assembly, Marie Antoinette. Rejoicings of the Parisians, etc. 9— 3t> CHAP, II.— The King's visit to Paris, La Fayette commander of the Na- tional Guard. M. Bailli, mayor of Paris. M. Necker. Popular excitement. Massacre of Foulon and his son-in-law. Massacres and horrors per- petrated in the Provinces. Destruction of Chateaux and Property. Cruel- ties practised. Newspapers. Marat. A description of him. Formation of the Jacobin Club, its affiliated Societies. Further atrocities in the Provinces. Duke of Orleans, his wealth, his vices, debaucheries. Hi,s manner of gaining popularity, Mirabeau, his birth, his passions and im- petuosity; his expenses, imprisonment, intrigues, description of his per- son, his talents. He becomes a leader in the Assembly. Scorned by the Nobility. Paris yet agitated. The Palais-Royal, Barbers. Tailors. Ser- vants, Tumults and Famine. The populace suspicious of the Court. Arrival of the Flanders Regiment at Versailles, and banquet given to them by the King's Life-Guards. Splendor, Music. Abundance, Toasts offensive to the people, and bacchanalian orgies. Louis XVI. and Marie Antoinette present at these orgies. Wild enthusiasm of the Life- Guards at the appearance of the King and Q.ueen. Cockades distributed. Indignation of the Parisians in consequence of this Banquet. The pro- digality of it considered an insult to the public distress. Rumors of con.spiracy and counter-revolution. The cry of "Bread ?" in the streets of Paris. Crowds at the bakers' shops. Insurrection of the 5th of Octo- ber. The cry of "To Versailles!" Commotion. Fishwomen. Maillard, Immense concourse. The march to Versailles. La Fayette's life threatened. The mob at Versailles. They attack the Palace, Pursue the Q.ueen. Massacre of the Life-Guards. Jourdan. La Fayette. Tumult. The cry of "The King to Paris!" The Q,ueen shows herself on the balcony. Grotesque procession and return of the mob to Paris; sur- rounding the carriages of the Royal Family, etc. 37 — 61 CHAP. III. — Accusations by La Fayette against the Duke of Orleans. Murder of Denis Frangois, a baker, by the mob. Robespierre, some ac- count of him. Execution of the Marquis de Favras. Confiscation of church property. Assignats. Efforts to dissolve the National Assembly, which declares itself permanent till the constitution is completed. All titles of nobility abolished. The fete of the Fcederation, on the 14th of July 1790, the anniversary of the destruction of the Bastille; festivities, illuminations, rejoicings. The royal family prevented by a mob from S b CONTENTS. going to St. Cloud. Preparations of Louis XVI. for flight. Bouilld. Mira- beau bribed by the Court, his magnificent entenainments, his ascen- dency in the Assembly, his eloquence, his illness, his death, his funeral. Flight of the royal family from Paris on the 21st of June 179J. Con- sternation of Paris on the following morning. Placards. Thomas Paine, The Jacobins. Journey of the royal family. Slopped at Varennes by Drouet, the postmaster of that town. Return of the royal family surrounded by a great rabble, and amidst the execrations of the different towns through which thf y passed. Murder of the count de Dampierre at the side of the King's carriage. Barnave. Petion. Entry of the royal family into Paris, no acclamations, silence of the multitude. The assembly sufipends Louis XVI. from his functions. Speech of Robes- pierre in regard to the inviolability of the King. Speech of Barnave in reply. Placards upon the walls of Paris. The dethronement of the monarch, and the establishment of a Republic openly agitated in the streets, at the Palais-Royal, and in all public places. The 17th of July 1791. The red flag unfurled. La Fayette fires upon the mob in the Champs de-Mars. The constitution completed. Dissolution of the first Assembly on the 30th of Sept. 1791. Fetes, illuminations, rejoiciiijfs, Robespierre retires to Arras. 6'2 — SS CHAP. IV.— The Jacobin club. The Cordeliers club. The Feuillans club. Camille Desmoulins and George James Danton, some account of ihem, Robespierre at the Jacobin club. Opening of the new Assembly on the 30tli of October, 1791. Petion elected mayor of Paris. Brissot. La Fayette unpopular. Reception of the Duke of Orleans at Court. He is spit upon by the courtiers. His rage and vexation. Roland, his wife. Dumouriez, Interview between Marie Antoinette and Dumouriez. Massacres at Avignon. Jourdan. Gibbets. Hanging of aristocrats. Havoc and anarchy. Terrible feelings between the aristocrats and patriots of Avignon. Placards. Massacre of the patriot L'Escuyer at the foot of the altar in the church at Avignon. Vengeance of the patriots. Jourdan closes the gates of the town and guards the walls. The body of L'Escuyer carried on a bier. Dreadful massacres. The Ice-tower. Pillage. Violation of women, wailing, pity, rage! The National Assembly, on the 20th of April. 1792, declares war between France and Austria. Murmurs against the court. Roland. Dumouriez, and the Girondists. Marat, his tirades against the priests and aristocrats. Excitement. Distrust. Decree of banishment against all priests that did not take an oath to the consti- tution, and a decree for the establishment of a camp of twenty thousand men around the walls of Paris. Hesitation of the King to confirm these two decrees, and the consequent exasperation of the Jacobins. Roland dismissed from the ministry. Dumouriez at the Assembly. Despondency of Louis XVI. The Jacobins. Bonnet-rouge. Anniversary of the oath at the Tennis Court, and immense gatherings in the suburbs. The proces- sion, pikes, tricolours, sansculottes. Mob defile before the Assembly. Proceed to the Tuilleries, and burst into the palace. Peril of the royal family. Louis the XVI. Marie Antoinette. Madame Elizabeth. Na- poleon Bonaparte. La Fayette. The Jacobins burn La Fayette in eflSgy. Approach of the Prussian army, excited state of Paris. Speech of Verg- niaud in the Assembly. The Marseillais. etc. 89 — 117 CHAP, v.— The third fete of the Foederation. July 14th, 1792. Alarm and agitation. Marat, his views at this crisis, Barbaroux, some account of him. Robespierre, his retired manner of living, his vanity, his influence at the Jacobin club. Interview between him and Marat. Danton, his character, public and private. Arrival of the Marseillais in Paris, and riot between them and a company of royalists in the Champs-Elys^ea. Proclamation of the Duke of Brunswick. General indignation iu con- CONTENTS. 7 sequence of it. Petitions for the dethronement of Louis XVI. In9ur« faction of the 10th of August. Santerre. Legendre. Robespierre. Danton. The Marseillais. Mandat. Alarm at the Tuilleries. Midnight. The alarm gun. The tocsin. Druuis beating. Artillery rumbling through the streets. Assassination of Mandat. Confusion. Terror. Bell answering bell. All Paris awake and astir. The suburbs in motion, Santerre. Westermann. The Marseillais. At daybreak the palace of the Tuilleriea is besieged, Louis XVL Marie Antoinette. The royal family seek protection in the Assembly. The palace attacked by the insurgents. The Swiss guards defend it. An indiscriminate massacre of the Swiss and the servants of the palace. The Assembly dethrones Louis XVI. He and his family con- fined in the Temple. Robespierre's demand for blood and vengeance. Ad- vance of the Prussian army. Terror of the Parisians. Danton. The bar- riers closed. The Reign of Terror proclaimed. Aristocrats arrested. Mas- sacre of the priests. Billaud-Varennes. The September massacres. The Princess Lamballe. her liead carried on a pike to the windows of the Temple. 118—147 CHAP. VI. — Massacres. Flight of La Fayette from the army. Dumouriez. Massacre of prisoners at Versailles. Plunder of the jewel office. The elections in Paris. Robespierre. Danton. Marat, and others elected. The Jacobin Club. Louis XVI. ; and his family. The iron chest. The King summoned to the bar of the convention. He is separated from his family, and brought to trial. Discussions in the Convention. Placards. Excitement of the Parisians. The voting. The sentence; it is read to Louis XVI. Heart-rending interview between him and his family, oa the night previous to his execution. Assassination of Lepelletier. The death of Louis XVI. Shops pillaged by the mob. The Girondists. Popu- lar indignation against them. Insurrection of June 2nd. The Convention surrounded. The Girondists arrested. The provinces incensed. Terror, Emigration. Charlotte Corday. Description of her. She arrives in Paris. Her conduct. Interview with Marat. Marat in his bath. Charlotte stabs hira. Violent scene. Her arrest and trial. Her answers to the judge. Her sentence. Execution. The body of Marat, Funeral pomp with which he is buried, etc. 148—181 CHAP. VII. — Flight of Demouriez. Escape of the Girondins. Revolt in the provinces. Terrible slaughter of the Vendeans. Carrier at Nantes. His barbarous executions. Great numbers in the prisons. The Repub- lican baptisms. The Republican marriages. Drowning in boats. The river clogged up with dead bodies. Massacre of children. Madame de Bon- champs. Madame de Jourdain, and her daughters. Mademoiselle Cuissan. Madame de la Roche St. Andre, Agatha Larochejaquelain. Executions and horrors at Lyons. Collot d'Herbois and Couthon. Destruction of pro- perty. Houses razed to the ground. Death proclaimed an eternal sleep. Impious procession, and burning of the Bible, the Cross and the commu* nion vases. Great numbers shot at Lyons. The fusillades. Extermination of aristocrats, Fouch6 and the Jacobins at dinner. Bodies floating down the Rhone. Thirty-one thousand persons perish. Atrocities at Bordeaux. Marseilles, and Toulon. Freron, Executions at Arras and towns in the north of France, Joseph Lebon, his cruelty, his orgies, his travelling tri- bunal and guillotine, his hatred of the aristocrats, his sanguinary oppres- sion, etc.; Robespierre, Danton. The prisons of Paris become filled with rank and beauty. Description of how the prisoners passed their time. Fouquier-Tinville. Daily executions. The gardens of the Luxembourg. Wives of the prisoners. The Conceirgerie. The wife of a prisoner dashes out her brains. The theatres, and places of amusement. Papers and pamph- lets published against the aristocrats. The Convention. The clubs. Violent outcry of the Jacobins against Marie Antoinette, against the Girondins. against the Duke of Orleans. J. R. Hebert, his abuse of Marie Antoinette. 8 CONTENTS. She is separated from her son, and removed from the Temple to the ConcJergerie. Simon, a shoemaker, placed over the dauphin. His inhu- man treatment of the boy, etc. Marie Antoinette brought to trial. The accusation against her by Fouqiiier-Tinville and by Hebert. Her replies. The witnesses. Clamours of the Jacobins. Her condemnation. Her execution. 182—207 CHAP. VIII. — Terror. Placards. Proclamations. Power of the Jacobins. Distresses throughout the provinces. The Revolutionary army. The pea- sants pillaged, and their sons forced into the army, Liberty! Equality ! Definition of suspected persons. Triumph of the Jacobins. Trial of the Girondins. Vegniaud. Brissot. The Girondins conducted back to theCon- ciergerie. Their Last Supper. The Marseilles hymn. Eloquence of Verg- niaud. Valaz6's dead body. The Girondins executed. Hardships endured by the other Girondins in the provinces. They are hunted by the Jaco- bins, and live in cellars, garrets, and caves. Petion and Barbaroux, ' Louvet. The Duke of Orleans brought to trial. His conduct previous to his execution, Robespierre wishes to marry his daughter. His death on the 6th of November. 1793. Madame Roland brought to trial. Her coura- geous demeanor on the death-cart, her beauty, her death ; The suicide of her husband. M. Bailli brought to trial, his condemnation. Hatred of the Jacobins towards him. Is pelted with mud by them on his way to execution. His death. Destruction of the royal tombs, of the ancient monuments, etc. Pach6. Hebert and Chaumette. Christi- anity abolished. Grotesque and impious conduct of the Jacobins upon this occasion, The Goddess of Reason. Ceremony in Notre Dame and all the churches of Paris. Desecration of images, relics, and proper- ties of the churches. The busts of Marat and Lepellitier, Sunday abolish- ed. Every tenth day a day of rest. The calender altered. Increase of vice. Marriage no longer binding. All charitable institutions suppressed. Robespierre's inirigueB. His plots against Danton. Camille Desmoulins. The winter of 1793 in Paris. Distress of the lower orders. The ambition of Robespierre, etc. 208—229 CHAP. IX.— Tlie French armies. Napoleon Bonaparte at the siege of Tou- lon. The Jacobins. The committee of Public Safety. Robespierre's policy. Nineteen of the Heberlists guillotined. Danion in the Convention. In- terview between Robespierre and Danton. Danton. Desmoulins, and others arrested. Speech of Legendre. Speech of Robespierre. Trial of Danton and his friends. Danton' sconduct before the tribunal. Con- demnation of the Dantonists. Conduct of Danton on the scaffold, etc. Robespierre now reigns alone. Forty to eighty persons daily executed in Paris, Madame Dubarri. The Duchess de Grammont. The Princess Eliza- ,beth. The Reign of Terror in all its horrors J Extracts fronri the list of the condemned. Disgust of the inhabitants in consequence of the executions. The prisons filled. An aqueduct dug to drain off the blood from the guil- lotine. Four men daily employed in emptying the blood into a reservoir. An attempt to assassinate Robespierre by Cecille Renault. Attempt to assassinate Collot d'Herhois. Festival of the Supreme Being on the 8th of June 1794. Pride of Robespierre. He is suspected of aspiring to a dic- tatorship. His plans are thwarted by his colleagues in the Committee. He absents himself from their deliberations, and surrounds himself with his Jacobin followers at the club, St. Just. Robespierre in the Convention. At the club. David the painter. Henriot. The 27th of July, St. Just in the tribune. Thrilling scene in the Convention, Robespierre arrested, Henriot on horseback, All Paris in alarm. Night, The IJotel-de-Ville. Robespierre rescued. Scene on the Place de Greve. He and his accom- plices retaken. Their execution, etc. Jacobinism in the United Slates. Paris after the fall of Robespierre, Prudhomme's account of the victims. Society, Napoleon Bonaparte, Remarks, etc, etc, 230—274 THE REIGN or TERROR CHAPTER I. Condition of France previous to the Revolution — Louis XIV. — Louis XV.— Licentiousness of the Nobihty, the Clergy, and the op- pressed state of the Common People — Prodigahty of the Mon- archs and their Mistresses — Madame Pompadour — Madame Du- barri — Immense Revenues of the Church — Lettres-de-Cachet, &c. — Louis XVI. — His character— Troubled State of Finances — Meeting of the States-General — Division between the Deputies of the Tiers-Etat, or Common People, and the Deputies of the No- blesse and Clergy — the Oath of the Tennis Court — Plots of the Court — Mirabeau — The Palais Royal— Excited State of Paris on the 11th of July. 1789 — Camille Desmoulins— Fracas between the Soldiers and the Populace— Sunday, the r2th of July— Increase of Popular Excitement — Scenes at the Hotel-de-Ville — All Paris in commotion, a universal demand for arms, and the cry of " to the Bastille !" — Attack by the Populace upon the Bastille — Its Defence — Arming, Tumult and Vengeance — The Bastille taken — Death of De Launay and of M. de Flesselles — Destruction of the Bas- tille — ^The Tidings of these Events as received at Versailles by the Court and the National Assembly — Eloquence of Miribeau — The King's Visit to the Assembly — Marie Antoinette— Rejoicings of the Parisians, &c. " The people," says the greatest of French states- men, " never revolt from fickleness, or the mere desire of change. It is the impatience of suffering which alone has this effect." Subsequent events have not falsified the maxim of Sully, though they have shown that it requires modification. If the condition of the lower orders in France, anterior to the Revolution, is 10 THE REIGN OP TERROR. examined, it will not be deemed surprising that a con- vulsion should have arisen ; and if humanity sees much to deplore in the calamities it produced, it will find much consolation in the grievances it has re- moved.* The government of France, from the reign of Louis XIV. to the Revolution, was arbitrary rather than des- potic ; for the monarchs had much greater power than they exercised ; their immense authority was resisted only by the feeblest barriers. The crown disposed of the person by lettres-de-^^achet ; of property by con- fiscations ; of income, b^ imposts. In this enslaved state was the kingdom^lmd also most wretchedly or- ganized. Divided into three orders, which were again subdivided into several classes, the nation was aban- doned to all the evils of despotism, and all the miseries of inequality. The nobility were divided into cour- tiers who lived on the favor of the prince, or, in other words, on the labors of the people ; and who obtained either the governments of the provinces, or high sta- tions in the army — upstarts, who directed the admin- istration, and made a trade of the provinces ; lawyers who administered justice, and monopolized its ap- pointments ; and territorial barons, who oppressed the country by the exercise of their private feudal privi- leges, which had displaced the general political right. The clergy were divided into two classes, of which one was destined for the bishopricks and abbacies, and their rich revenues, the others to apostolic labors, and to poverty. The tiers-etat, (the third estate, or com- mon people,) borne down by the court, and harassed by the nobility, was itself separated into corporations, which retaliated upon each other the evils and the op- pression they received from their superiors. They possessed scarcely a third part of the soil, upon which they were compelled to pay feudal services to their lords, tithes to the priests, and imposts to the king. In compensation for so many sacrifices, they enjoyed no ♦ Alison's History of Eirope. THE REIGN OF TERROR. 11 rights, had no share in the administration, and were admitted to no public employments.* Louis XIV., by his lavish prodigality, in supporting his courtiers and mistresses, carrying on expensive wars, and his personal splendor, plunged the financial affairs of the nation into difficulties ; and he himself saw, before the close of his career, that tyranny, even in its success, exhausts its means, and that it devours in advance the resources of the future. Under his successor, Louis XV., anarchy was introduced into the bosom of the court, the government feill into the hands of mistresses, the sovereign power rapidly de- clined, and opposition was every day making new progress. The most celebrated of this monarch's mis- tresses were Madame de Pompadour and the Countess Dubarri. Madame de Pompadour, whose maiden name was Jane Antoinette Poissan, was married at an early age to Lenormand d'Etoiles, but the king became enamoured of her, and money silenced her husband. The king at first provided her with a house at Ver- sailles; but afterwards gave her apartments in the chateau, where each year her extravagances increased. Though avaricious by instinct, Louis was prodigal through weakness ; he gave her six estates, besides splendid hotels in Paris, Fontainebleu, and Compeigne, where she amassed such a considerable quantity of furniture and other valuables, that, after her death, the sale occupied each day during the space of twelve months. He gave her a pension of fifteen hundred thousand livres, besides daily presents ; independently of which she had six hundred thousand livres to en- able her to have her table always served for the recep- tion of her royal lover, who also created her Marchi- oness of Pompadour. She possessed the talent of amusing the indolent king, who frequently remarked that she made the time pass quickly; and she con- ceived the most ingenious artifices to divert him. He finally resigned the reins of government into her * Mignet's History of the French Revolution. 12 THE REIGN OF TERROR. hand ; she nominated ministers, and was the distribu- ter of all the royal gifts and government employments. Private profligacy increased at court, public disorders augmented throughout the kingdom. There were troubles in the church, schisms among the bishops, agitations among the magistracy, discord among fam- ilies, and disturbances among the people. Madame de Pompadour, after ruling France for twenty years, finished her days at the palace of Ver- sailles, in the year 1764. Four years after, Louis be- came attached to the young and beautiful wife of the Count Dubarri, whose prodigality was equally exces- sive with that of Pompadour. She always used gold plate, and possessed a cup of that metal of enormous value, which was given her by the king. She had a carriage which cost fifty-two thousand francs. The king gave her a boquet of diamonds valued at three hundred thousand francs, and also a dressing-table of massive gold, surmounted by two cupids of the same metal holding a crown enriched with precious stones, and so ingeniously disposed that she could not look on the mirror without beholding herself crowned. Inde- pendently of these prodigalities, she gave at play drafts for large sums at sight, which the court-banker paid with greater exactitude than the governmental expenses. To meet the exigencies of her husband and brother-in-law, she drew more than eighteen millions from the treasury, and squandered the public funds as her desires or caprices prompted.* Her extravagance continued until the death of the king in 1774, when the unfortunate Louis XVI. ascended the throne. Ever since the days of Louis XIV., the nobility and gentry had been in the habit of running into scanda- lous and enormous expenses, which, instead of pay- ing, they availed themselves of their influence at court to be exempted from satisfying the claims of their creditors, whom they found various means of haras- sing, tormenting or evading. Every petty privilege * The Queens and Royal Favorites, by Mrs. Bush. THE REIGN OP TERROR. 13 was kept up with an invidious industry. All places of honor or profit in church and state, were occupied, as were also those in the navy and army, by the no- bility ; and the roturier, as he was called by way of contempt, learned from infancy to hate a race of men who seemed born only to humiliate and oppress the simple citizen. Under the most familiar and affable outward show that the nobleman might choose to ex- hibit towards individuals of the third-estate, there was invariably something to remind the latter of their re- lative situation and his nobility. Such was the case in the common affairs of society, and in case of any injury received, redress was out of the reach of the roturier ; for if he appealed to the king in council, he had ten chances to one against him, decision being generally in favor of the nobleman. So strong wasr the prejudice of rank against the common order of people, that, however wealthy families of the latter might be, they were strictly kept out of the circles of the court and aristocracy. Glaring were the ex- penses and luxury of the court, where the prodigality of Louis XIV. was equalled, but not imitated. " The fourteenth Louis was great even in his follies ; he wac an encourager of merit and talent of every descrip tion, and, by a kind of theatrical manceuvre, rendere(? his court the envy and admiration of all Europe. The palace of Versailles was the grandest in Europe, itr.. gardens the most magnificent ; the flatterers who sur rounded him compared his age with that of Augustus.. and in so doing pleased the vanity of the nation a^ much as they pleased the king. But the court of Ver sailles, in its latter days, paid not the slightest regard for public opinion ; it had all the cost, but none of the glory that marked the reign of the Grand Monarque : it rioted, revelled, and the people were taxed to sup port its improvidence as formerly. Overburthen^.d with these taxes, the people, throughout the reign of Louis XV., had repeatedly called for amelioration, hnt their remonstrances were unheeded by the court, which felt no inclination to retrench or economize ' 2 14 THE REIGN OP TERROR. nor were the many abuses of the laws, of which loud complaints rose from the suffering people, reformed in the slightest. The expenses of the government con- tinued to increase, and the burthen upon the people increased in proportion. Besides, the immense revenues of the church, amounting to near twenty-five millions sterling, were for the greater part disbursed in paying the high cler- gy, who were enormously rich, or to maintain indolent and luxurious monks ; and a very small proportion applied to the payment of the poor and virtuous curates, who did all the hard duties of the church, though they received so few of its good things. Many of the high clergy entered into all the fashionable vices of the age, one of which was to turn religion itself into ridicule ; at the same time they neglected most of those moral duties which are imposed upon every member of society, but more particularly on men whose care it ought to be to instruct and improve others by precept and example. Their selfishness in matters of interest was but ill calculated to conciliate the minds of their fellow citizens, who considered that if men in a state of celibacy required so much money, and were so tenacious of its possession, those who had families to maintain, and were obliged to pay them, were in but a pitiable state. These abuses, arising out of the disproportioned pri- vileges of the nobility and clergy, who were exempted from contributing to the necessities of the state ; the un- equal mode of levying the taxes ; and, above all, the total absorption of every right and authority in the person of the sovereign ; the danger to personal freedom from the tyranny of a lettre de cachet — these were too gross in their nature, and too destructive in their consequences, to have escaped deep thought on the part of reflecting persons, and hatred and dislike from those who suf^ fered more or less under the practical evils. The de- spotic power of the lettre-de-cachet, (a private letter, or mandate issued under the royal signet for the ap- prehension of individuals obnoxious to the Court,) THE REIGN OP TERROR. 15 which gave the monarch the right of banishing or im- prisoning his subjects at his wiJJ, and which had been basely used in many instances, was one of the abuses of thie royal authority against which popular indigna- tion particularly expressed itself Thus, by those general causes which had been in- creasing in force for so many centuries, the minds of men were prepared for a new order of things; and certainly our surprise at its violence and rapidity will be very considerably diminished, when we find so many causes operating in one direction, and that di- rection under the idea of procuring happiness and liberty. * The aristocratic pride of the nobility was especially galling to the self-love of the commoners, who, im- mensely rich from commerce or banking, had all the means of luxury, pomp and display, that the others had, but found themselves still considered not upon an equality. The social tyranny of the noblesse, the old privileges that they maintained, was hateful to the new wealth — and to the new knowledge which the learned men of France had disseminated so generally through- out the middle classes. Every thing indicated the ap- proach of no common revolution ; of a revolution destined to change, not merely the form of the govern- ment, but the distribution of property and the Whole social system; of a revolution, the effects of which were to be felt at every fireside in France. In the foremost of the Revolution were the moneyed men, and the men of letters — the wounded pride of wealth, and the wounded pride of intellect. An immense mul- titude, made ignorant and cruel by oppression, was raging in the rear. The success of republicanism in America, too, encouraged the spirit of revolution in France, and carried to the height the enthusiasm of speculative democrats, f At the accession of the sixteenth Louis, France was beyond example wretched in the condition of her * Pfeyfair, t Macaday. 16 THE REIGN OF TERROR. finances, the evil having grown out of the luxury and improvidence of the two preceding monarchs. The revenue of the government amounted to twenty mil- lions sterling (i?f90,000,000 in round numbers ;) but the expenditure exceeded the revenue about two millions and a half; (-$11,000,000.) Loans of money were ef- fected, every new one attended with inconveniences; and nothing is more self-evident than that an accumu- lation of inconveniences must finish with destroying the system in which it arises — ^just as the man who has con- tinual recourse to mortgaging his property, must finish in the end by ruining himself, however great his resources may have originally been. Ameliorations now became indispensable, were loudly demanded, and Louis XVI., who was a man of pure manners and inexpensive habits, felt the public necessities, and made it his glory to satisfy them. But it was as difficult to operate good as to continue evil. He had just views and an amiable disposition, but was without decision of cha- racter, and had no perseverance in his measures. His projects of amelioration encountered obstacles from his courtiers which he had not foreseen, and which he could not v^anquish.* His reign, up to the period of the States-General, was a long tissue of improvements, which produced no result. Turgot, Malesherbes, Neclier, Calonne and Brienne were successively chosen prime minister ; each failed in relieving the country of embarrassments, and it was finally evident that the States-General had become the only means of govern- ment, and the last resource of the throne. Accordingly the 5th of May, 1789, was appointed for the opening of the States-General, at the palace of Versailles, in a hall called the Menus Plaisirs, where the dresses be- * " Besides the domestic and household expenses of the sovereign, which, so far as personal, were on the most moderate scale, the pub- lic mind was much more justly revolted at the large sum yearly squandered among the needy coiirtiens an^ dependents. The king had endeavoured to abridge this list of gratuities and pensions, but the system of corruption, which had prevailed for two centuries, waa not to be abolished in an instant." — Scott's Napoleon. THE REIGN OF TERROR. 17 longing to the opera and the theatre of the palace had formerly been kept. On that day an immense multi- tude from all parts resorted to Versailles ; the occasion was magnificent, the pomp of decoration, the chant- ings of music, the benevolent and satisfied air of the King, the beauty and noble deportment of the Queen, and, above all, the common expectations, inspired and animated all minds. Of the commons, or tiers- etat, there were 661 deputies ; nobles 285 ; clergy 308 ; total 1254. The clergy and the nobility, at the very outset, refused to act in concert with the commons. After the first day, which was rather a day of cere- mony than business, the deputies of the nobles, and of the dergy, retired to two adjoining halls of a smaller size, which were prepared for them ; the deputies of the third-estate, being the most numerous, remaining in the large hall, or hall of general assembly. This hall was capable of containing two thousand persons, so that there was room for the curious of all descriptions to witness their debates ; and a crowd of all ranks came every day from Paris to witness what passed, returning with the tidings to the capital ; consequently the debates and reasonings of the third-estate, so pop- ular from the cause they tended to support, were wide- ly spread abroad, and repeated and discussed with eagerness and enthusiasm by the whole Parisian pop- ulation. The reasonings of the nobility and clergy, less popular from their nature, but not less eloquent, were little known, and inspired no interest. Five weeks passed in useless debates concerning the form in which the estates should vote; during which period the tiers-etat showed, by their boldness and decision, that they knew the advantage which they held, and were sensible that the other bodies, if they meant to retain the influence of their situation in any shape, must unite with them ; and this came to pass accordingly. The tiers-etat were joined by the whole body of the inferior clergy, and by a few of the nobles, and on the 17th of June J 789, proceeded to constitute themselves the legislative body, exclusively competent 2* 18 THE REIGN OF TERROR. in itself to the entire province of legislation ; and re- nouncing the name of the Third-Estate, which remind- ed men that they were only one out of three bodies, they adopted, by a majority of 491 to 90, that of the National Assembly, and avowed themselves the sole representatives of the people of France. This bold measure alarmed the Court; the aristocracy immediately threw themselves at the feet of the king, imploring him to repress the audacity of the tiers-etat, and to support their rights, which were attacked. They now proposed to do without the States-General, and so- licited him to dissolve them, promising to assent to all the taxes. Louis surrounded by the princes and the queen, was hurried off to Marly, (a royal residence some dis- tance from Versailles,) where they endeavoured to ex tort from him some rigorous measure against the ef- frontery, as they considered it, of the tiers-etat. Neck- er who had been recalled to the post of minister, at- tached to the popular cause, confined himself to useless remonstrances, the purport of which the king saw the justice of when his mind was left free, but the effect of which the Court soon took care to supplant in his mind. Necker, so soon as he saw the necessity for the inter- ference of the royal authority, formed a plan, which was that the monarch, in a royal sitting, should com- mand the union of the orders, but only for measures of general interest ; that he should assume to himself the sanction of all resolutions adopted by the States- General ; that he should condemn beforehand every institution hostile to moderate monarchy, such as that of a single assembly ; lastly, that he should promise the abolition of privileges, the equal admission of all Frenchmen to civil military appointments, &c. The council had followed the king to Marly. There, Necker's plan, at first approved, was subjected to dis- cussion. The council was suspended, resumed, and adjourned till the following day, in spite of the neces- sity that existed for immediate despatch. On the next day, fresh members were added to the council ; the brothers of the king were of the number. Necker's THE REIGN OF TERROR. 19 plan was modified; he resisted, made some conces- sions, but finding himself vanquished, returned to Ver- sailles. A page came three times, bringing him notes containing new modifications ; his plan was wholly- disfigured, and the royal sitting was fixed for the 22d of June. It was as yet but the 20th ; and already the hall of the states was shut up, under the pretex't that preparations were requisite for the presence of the king. These pre- parations might have been made in half a day; but the higher order of the clergy had deliberated the day be- fore upon joining the commons, and the court desired to frustrate this junction. An order of the king had been given, adjourning the sittings till the 22d, and, on the morning of the 20th, heralds, with trumpets, pro- claimed through the streets of Versailles that there was to be a royal sitting on the 22d, and no meeting of the States-General till then. A letter to this purport was also sent to M. Bailli, (President of the Assembly,) by the Marquis de Breze, master of ceremonies. But the members determined not to be thus thwarted by the court, and called upon the president to meet. M. Bailli, conceiving himself bound to obey the resolu- tions of the body over which he presided, and which, on Friday, the 19th, had adjourned to the next day, repaired to the door of the hall. It was surrounded by soldiers of the French guard, who had orders to re- fuse admittance to every one, and inside the carpen- ters were at work. The deputies collected tumultu- ously ; they persisted in assembling ;* some proposed to hold a meeting under the very windows of the king, others proposed the Tennis-court. To the latter they instantly repaired. It was spacious, but the walls * " The deputies stand grouped on the Paris road, on this umbra- geous Avenue de Versailles ; complaining aloud of the indignity done them. Courtiers, it is supposed, look from their windows and giggle. The morning is none of the comfortablest ; raw ; it is even drizzling a little. But all travellers pause ; patriot gallery-men, mis- cellaneous spectators, increase the groups. Wild counsels alter* nate." — Carlyle. 20 THE REIGN OF TERROR. dark and bare ; it had no roof, and was open to the weather. An arm-chair was offered to the president, who declined it, choosing rather to stand with the As- sembly. A bench served for a desk. Two deputies were stationed at the door as door-keepers. The populace thronged round with enthusiasm. Complaints were raised on all sides against the suspension of the sittings, and various expedients were proposed to pre- vent it in future. The agitation increased, and the extreme parties began to work upon the imaginations of the hearers. It was proposed by M. Mounier that the deputies should bind themselves by an oath not to separate until they had given a constitution to France. This proposal was received with transport, and the form of the oath was drawn up. M. Bailli first took the oath, and then tendered it to the deputies. The oath was this : " The National Assembly, considering that they have been convoked to establish the consti- tution of the kingdom, to regenerate the public order, and fix the true principles of the monarchy ; that no- thing can prevent them from continuing their deliber- ations, and completing the important work committed to their charge ; and that, wherever their members are assembled, there is the National Assembly of France — decree, that all the members now assembled shall in- stantly take an oath never to separate, and, if dis- persed, to reassemble wherever they can, until the constitution of the kingdom and the regeneration of the public order are established on a solid basis ; and that this oath, taken by all and each singly, shall be confirmed by the signature of every member, in token of their unshakable resolution." This form pronounced in a loud and intelligible voice, was heard by the great crowd of spectators who thronged around and over- hung the scene, looking down from a " wooden pent- house or roofed spectators' gallery, from wall-top, from adjoining roof and chimney."* The substance * " A naked Tennis-court, as the pictures of that time still give it ; — on the floor not now an idle teeheeing, a snapping of balls and rackets ; but the bellowing din of an indignant national representa- tion, scandalously exiled hither !" — Carlyle. THE REIGN OF TERROR. 21 of the oath was repeated from one to another through- out the concourse, and when the deputies, with all their hands simultaneously outstretched towards their president, solemnly took the oath, applausive shouts rose in the air from all voices. The deputies then proceeded to sign the declaration which they had just made. Such was the celebrated oath of the Tennis- court. The advisers of the King wished to thwart the pro- ceedings of the Assembly, and having tried in vain to prevent the formation of it, they had now no course to take but, by associating with it, to endeavor to di- rect its labors. Failing in this, also, they persuaded the monarch that the security of his throne, required that he should reduce the Assembly to submission; that it was necessary, for this purpose, to call in, with- out delay, the troops to intimidate the Assembly, and keep down the populace of Versailles and Paris. While these plots were being contrived by the court, the deputies were beginning their legislative labors, and preparing the constitution so impatiently expected by the people throughout France. Addresses to them poured in from Paris and the principal towns of the kingdom, congratulating them upon their wisdom, and encouraging them to pursue the work of regenerating the nation. In the meantime, the troops arrived in great numbers ; Versailles presented the appearance of a camp ; the hall of the estates was environed with guards, and entrance prohibited to the citizens ; Paris was surrounded by different bodies of the army, who seemed posted there to be ready; as occasion might require, for a siege or a blockade. These immense military preparations, trains of artillery arriving from the frontiers, the presence of foreign regiments — every thing announced some sinister project. The people were agitated ; the Assembly rushed to inform the throne, and demand from it the removal of the troops. Upon the proposition of Mirabeau, an address, res- pectful and firm, was tendered to the king, but it was unavailing. Louis XVI. declared that the assemblage 22 THE REIGN OP TERROR. of troops was for no other purpose than the mainte- nance of public tranquillity, and the protection due to the National Assembly. He offered, moreover, to transfer the Assembly to Noyon or Soissons, and that he would himself repair to Compeigne. With such an answer the Assembly could not be satisfied, and especially with the proposal to withdraw from the capital and to place itself between two camps. The Count de Crillon proposed that they should ♦' trust to the word of a king, who is an honest man." " The word of a king, who is an honest man," re- plied Mirabeau, " is a bad security for the conduct of his ministers ; our blind confidence in our kings has undone us ; we demand the withdrawal of the troops, and not permission to flee before them. We must in- sist again and again." The 11th of July had now arrived. Necker, the prime minister, while at dinner on that day, received a note from the King, commanding him to quit the realm immediately. The following day, July 12th, was Sunday. A report was now circulated in Paris, that Necker had been dismissed, and sent into exile. The alarm spread rapidly. The people hurried to the Palais- Royal, in the garden of which place they were in the habit of congregating. This building, (built by Car- dinal Richelieu,) which was owned by the Duke of Orleans, and the garden attached to it, had been con- verted into one large elegant hollow square. The duke's residence occupied only one end, the remainder being filled with shops, taverns, hotels for lodging strangers, gaming houses, &c. The great bulk of what was let as lodgings was occupied by women of the town. The middle still continued to be a garden, in which were several small booksellers' shops, and some cafes, under painted pavilions. Around the whole building, looking towards the garden, runs a piazza of very elegant architecture, convenient in rainy wea- ther as a promenade. During the whole of the Revo- lution, this place was the theatre of as great, and sometimes greater importance, than the National As- THE REIGN OF TERROR. 23 sembly. It was from this garden that messengers were sent every two or three hours on important oc- casions, to communicate between Paris and the As- sembly. It was always filled by a multitude, which seemed permanent, and which was incessantly re- newed. A table served as a rostrum, any citizen for an orator ; there they harangued upon the dangers of the country, and excited it to resistance. This day, (Sunday the 12th,) the garden was filled — the people were in great agitation. A young man, (Camille Desmoulins, subsequently conspicuous in the Revolution,) filled with republican enthusiasm, mounted a table, held up a pair of pistols, and shouted " To arms ! to arms !" Then, plucking a branch from a tree, he placed it in his hat as a cockade, and ex- horted the crowds to follow his example. " Citizens," he cried, *' there is not a moment to lose ; the removal of Necker is a tocsin for a St. Bartholomew of patriots ! This evening all the Swiss and German battalions are coming out of the Champ-de-Mars to slaughter us ! There remains for us only one resource ; let us rush to arms !" This was approved, by the most deafening acclamations, and the chesnut trees of the garden were instantly stripped by ten thousand persons collected upon the spot. From the garden they repaired in tu- mult to a museum containing busts in wax. They took the busts of Necker and the Duke of Orleans, for it was reported he also was exiled; they covered them with crape, and carried them in triumph, spreading themselves into the various quarters of Paris, traver- sing the streets of St. Martin, St. Denis, St. Honore, and thickening at every step. They compelled all whom they met to pull off their hats. The horse- patrol was found in their route ; they took these for an escort, and proceeded in this manner to the Place Vendome, where they carried the two busts in proces- sion round the statue of Louis XVI. A detachment of the German Royals arrived, and attempted to dis- perse the populace, but was put to flight by showers of stones, and the multitude continued its course till it arrived at the Place Louis XV. Here it was attacked 24 THE REIGN OF TERROR. by a company of dragoons ; it resisted for some mo- ments, but was broken; the bearer of one of the busts, and a soldier of the French Guards, were killed ; the people were dispersed, a part flying towards the quays, others faUing back upon the boulevards, others throwing themselves into the garden of the Tuilleries. The dragoons, with drawn sabres, pursued into the garden, and charged upon persons who did not in fact belong to the crowd, but who were walking peaceably about. In this charge an old man was killed by a sabre stroke. The crowd defended themselves with the garden chairs ; the indignation became general, and the call to arms resounded through every quarter, in the Tuilleries, in the Palais-Royal, in the city, and in the suburbs. Terror, before unbounded, was now changed into fury. People ran, shouting " To arms !" and hurried to the Hotel-de-Ville* to demand weapons. During the night, the populace forced and burned the barriers, dispersed the gate-keepers, and afforded free access by all the avenues to the city. The gun-smiths' shops were plundered. Tumult was at its height; every man obeyed the dictates of his passion. Troops of laborers, employed by the government in the public works, (the most of them without home or character,) associated with others who sought in insurrection only the means of disorder and pillage, and having burned the barriers, they infested the streets, and plundered several houses. These were what were called the brigands. These events took place on Sunday the 12th of July, and in the night between Sunday and Monday the * Hotel-de-Ville, or Town Hall. Previous to the election of the deputies to the States-General, Paris had been divided into sixty different portions, called sections \ one church in each section was employed for the primary assemblies, who choose among themselves electors, who all assembled to choose the deputies. These sections, or districts, served as points of reunion to the citizens, and had the appearance of so many federal states, having the Hotel-de^Ville for a centre, to which representatives from the different sections were Bent THE REIGN OF TERROR. 25 13th. During the morning of Monday, the convent of the Lazarists, (St. Lazare,) which contained a large quantity of grain, was forced and plundered ; the es- pecial object of the mob being to rummage among the ancient armory that was also stowed away in this house. The armory was quickly plundered, and the rabble, wearing helmets and carrying pikes, were pre- sently seen in all quarters of the city. Before the Ho- tel-de-Ville the crowd was immense; they sounded the tocsin of the Hall of the Municipality, and that of all the churches; drums were beat along the streets to summon the citizens. They collected in the public places ; they formed themselves into troops, under the name of volunteers of the Palais-Royal, volunteers of the Tuilleries, etc. The enthusiasm inspired by continually speaking and acting in a common cause, and sharing a common danger, gave a sort of electric shock that was communicated from one eye to another throughout the whole populace ; but whilst the truly patriotic and virtuous citizen received this unanimity of movement as an earnest of the assurance he felt in the ultimate triumph of popular rights, the low and de- graded part of the population took advantage of it, and abandoned themselves to vicious and brutal ex- cesses. But virtuous and vicious, respectable and canaille, — merchant, banker, shopkeeper, mechanic, labourer, chiffonier, vagrant, — all assembled, and all that could get arms armed themselves. One common sentiment of indignation animated hundreds of thou- sands, and all were zealously active to secure the city against the attack that was, with good reason, sup- posed to be meditated by the troops. The districts acted in concert ; each of them voted two hundred men for their defence. They only wanted arms ; they searched every place where they hoped to find any. Before the Hotel-de-Ville loud shouts arose from the throng, and arms were repeatedly demanded of M. de Flesselles, the provost, who had at first resisted the demand, but now manifested great zeal, and promised 3 26 THE REIGN OF TERROR. twelve thousand muskets that very day, and more on the following days. This assurance appeased for a time the people, and the committee (sitting at the Hotel-de-Vilie) proceeded with a little more calmness to the organization of the city militia. In less than four hours the plan was di- gested, discussed, adopted, printed, and posted up. It was decided that there should be a Parisian guard of 48,000 men. All the citizens were invited to inscribe their names and become a part of it. The distinctive sign was to be the Parisian cockade, red and blue, instead of the green that had been adopted by the throng in the Palais-Royal the day before. But the people were waiting impatiently for the result of the promises of M. de Flesselles. The muskets had not arrived ; night was approaching ; they dreaded an attack from the troops which surrounded the city ; and they believed they were betrayed, when they learned that five thou- sand pounds of powder had been secretly removed from Paris, and that the people at the barriers had seized it. By-and-by, chests arrived inscribed " artil- lery ;" this calmed the tumult, and the crowd escorted the chests to the Hotel-de-Ville, believing them to con- tain the expected muskets; they opened them and found them filled with old linen and bits of wood. At this sight they were fired with indignation against the provost, who declared he had been deceived. To ap- pease them, and in order to gain time, he sent them to the Carthusians' monastery, with the assurance that arms would be found there. The astonished Carthu- sians admitted the furious mob, conducted them into their retreat, and finally convinced them that they pos- sessed nothing of the kind mentioned by the provost. More exasperated than ever, the rabble now returned with shouts of " treachery ;" and the committee saw that they had no other resources for arming Paris and divesting the mob of its suspicions, than by having pikes forged ; they ordered the immediate manufacture of fifty thousand. Vessels with gunpowder were de- scending the Seine, on their way to Versailles ; these THE REIGN OF TERROR. 27 were stopped, and the powder distributed amidst the most imminent danger. A tremendous confusion now prevailed at the Hotel- de-Ville, the seat of the authorities, the head quarters of the militia, and the centre of all operations. It was necessary to provide at once for the safety of the city, which was threatened by the court, and its internal safety endangered by the brigands. To prevent the excesses of the preceding night, the city was illumi- hated, and patrols scoured it in every direction. About the Hotel-de-Ville were to be seen carriages stopped, wagons intercepted, travellers awaiting permission to proceed on their journey. During the night, the Hotel was menaced by the brigands, but St. Merj'-, to whose care it had been committed, caused barrels of powder to be brought, and threatened to blow it up. At this sight the brigands retired. Meanwhile, the citizens, who had retired to their homes, held themselves in readiness for every kind of attack ; they had un paved the streets, opened the trenches, and taken all possible measures for resisting a siege. Next day, those who had not been able to obtain arms, came to demand them from the committee very early in the morning, reproaching it with its refusals and evasions on the preceding evening. The commit- tee had in vain sought for arms, and they so expressed themselves to the citizens, wiio were unanimous in their devotion to the Assembly, and were in constant fear of an attack upon that body at Versailles, and upon the capital. All classes of the citizens had em- braced the patriotic side of affairs ; the capitalists, from motives of interest, and in the fear of bankruptcy ; men of intelligence, and the whole of the middle classes, from patriotism ; the people, pressed by want, and as- cribing its sufferings to the privileged orders and the court; — all had embraced with enthusiasm the cause of the Revolution. Failing in obtaining arms from the Hotel-de-Ville, they now moved in a body to the Hotel- des-Invalides, where there was a depot of arms, and by no means an inconsiderable one. Thronging 28 THE REIGN OP TERROR. around the Hotel, they called upon the governor for arms — some loudly demanded entrance, and M. de Sombreuil, the governor, refused either to hand out the arms and grant admission to the mob ; he stated that he must send to Versailles first for orders. A deaf ear was turned by the populace to his expostulations, and they forced themselves into the place, where they found twenty-eight thousand muskets concealed in the cellars ; these, with a great number of sabres and spears, they seized upon, and, dragging the cannons along, they marched off in triumph with the whole. The cannon they placed so as to defend the city from the expected attack from the troops; and it was al- ready current that the regiments posted at St. Denis were on their march towards the capital. To the ex- citement arising from this report, an alarm was also given that the guns of the Bastille were pointed at the city, ranging upon the Rue St. Antoine. " To the Bastille I to the Bastille !" was now shouted on every side, with furious and frantic gestures. From nine in the morn- ing until two in the afternoon the cry of " to the Bas- tille !" resounded through Paris, and the citizens, from every quarter, thronged in that direction, armed with muskets, pikes and sabres. The sentinels of the for- tress were posted, the bridges raised, and every thing disposed by M. de Launay, the governor, as in a period of war.* Groups of armed citizens continued to arrive upon the spot ; all were excited ; some spoke of the danger they had to apprehend from the fortress ; others rehearsed the long tale of abuses which it protected; whilst others again represented the necessity of occupying a point so important, and of no longer leaving it to their enemies in a moment of insurrection. Mob after mob continued to arrive. " Let us storm the Bastille !" was exclaimed ; the cry was reiterated from man to man, throughout the immense multitude. The garrison summoned the assailants to retire, but they persisted. * Thiers; Mignet. THE REIGN OF TERROR. 29 " We want the Bastille ; we will have the Bastille !" were the words that from time to time arose from the multitude, and, with these and similar exclamations, they continued to demand the surrender of the for- tress. Two men,* with great rapidity, suddenly sprang from the crowd, mounted the roof of the guard house, and broke with axes the chains of the drawbridge, which slammed down with a thundering force. The crowd rushed upon it, and at this moment a dis- charge of musketry from the garrison arrested the progress of the throng ere it reached the second bridge, its object being to batter that down also. But the attack was renewed, and during several hours vigo- rous efforts were directed against the second bridge, the approach to which was now defended by a con- stant fire from the soldiers defending the fortress. These were thirty-two Swiss and eighty-two inva- lides.f Many of the assailants were killed and wound- ed ; this only infuriated them the more. In the meantime, the committee sitting at the Hotel- de-Ville was in great anxiety. The siege of the Bas- tille appeared to it a rash enterprise. It received from time to time the tidings of disasters which were hap- pening at the foot of the fortress. It was placed be- tween the danger from the troops if the garrison proved victorious, and that of the incensed populace, which was imperiously demanding from it ammuni- tion to carry on the siege. As they could not give what they possessed not, they were accused of treach- ery; they had sent two deputations, to procure the suspension of hostilities, and invite De Launay to con- fide the keeping of the place to the citizens ; but in the midst of the continued shout of the swaying multi- tude, discharge of musketry, and unceasing tumult, they were unable to make themselves heard. Wilder * Louis Tournay and Aubin Bonnemere, two old soldiers. Some say that they were mounted, not on the guard house, but " on bayo- nets stuck into joints of the wall." t Invalides are old soldiers, supported by an institution that owes its foundation to Louis XIV. 3* 30 THE REIGN OF TERROR. and wilder swelled the tide of human beings, and more and more deafening the uproar. Those that took the lead, raged up and down amidst the excited thou- sands ! The wounded were carried into the houses of the Rue Cerisaie ; and the dying exhorted the living not to yield until the accursed stronghold was taken ! The firemen, with their fire-pumps, came upon the ground, and endeavoured to throw water upon the cannon of the garrison, to wet the touch- holes ; but they were unable to project a stream so high, and produced only clouds of spray. A third de- putation fi-om the Hotel-de-Ville arrived, with a flag of truce and the beating of drums; the flag and drums to distinguish their body from the dense throng of the populace. The firing was for a time suspended. The deputation advanced ; the garrison awaited them, but such was the clamor, they were unable to make them- selves understood to each other. * Musket shots were fired from some unknown quarter, and the mob, per- suaded that it was betrayed, rushed forward to fire the building. Grape shot were fired into it from the garrison, and the dead and wounded dropped amid the enraged mass. Now all was exasperation, and the French guards who had espoused the popular cause, came up with cannon. The confidence of these soldiers had been gained by the citizens, who had previously mingled among them, invited them to eat and drink, and told them that " they also were citizens before they were soldiers." The soldier found these arguments convincing, and the regiment of French guards, consisting of about 3000, upon which the court had placed great dependence, joined the people. " How the great Bastille clock ticks (inaudible) in its inner court there, at its ease, hour after hour ; as * " Deputations, three in number, arrive from the Hotel-de-Ville. These wave their Town flag in the arched gateway ; and stand, roll- ing their drum, but to no purpose. In such a Crack of Doom, De Lau- nay cannot hear them, dare not believe them : they return, with jus- tilied rage, the whew of lead still singing in their ears." — CarlyU. >..-/•' THE REIGN OP TERROR. 31 if nothing special, for it or the world, were passing ! It tolled one when the firing began ; and now it is point- ing towards five, and still the firing slakes not."* The arrival of the French guards, the captain of which exclaimed, " We are come to join you," changed the face of the combat. The cannon were instantly brought to bear upon the garrison, and the soldiers in the Bastille at once urged upon De Launay the neces- sity of surrendering. He, in the desperation of the moment, seized a lighted match, and approached the powder magazine. He would have blown up the for- tress, and buried himself beneath its ruins ; but the soldiers seized him, prevented him. They hung out a white flag upon the platform, reversed their muskets, and lowered their cannon, in token of peace. But the besiegers, fighting and advancing on, continued ex- claiming, " Let down the bridges !" The garrison de- manded leave to capitulate, and march out with the honors of war. " No ! No !" was the cry from many voices, prompted by blood-thirsty feelings of ven- geance. Finally, the garrison proposed to lay down their arms, if the besiegers would promise to spare their lives. " Let down the bridge ; no harm shall be- fall you," was the reply, and, on this assurance, the Bastille gate was opened, and the second bridge let down. " Victory ! the Bastille is taken !" is the shout- exclamation that fills the air, as the living deluge pour over the bridge and into the Bastille. Those at the head of the multitude, who had promised safety to the garrison, wished to save the Governor, the Swiss and the Invalides. " Give them up to us ! Give them up to us ! They have fired on their fellow-citizens, and they deserve to be hanged !" was the cry of the fiend- ish portion of the mass, as it plunged through court and corridor. The French guards undertook to pro- tect De Launay and his garrison ; but the mad mob tore several from their protection ; one Swiss received a death-thrust ; one Invalide had his hand slashed off him, and he was then dragged to the Place de Greve, * Carlyle. 32 THE REIGN OF TERROR. and there hanged. " Let all the prisoners be marched to the Hotel-de-Ville, to be judged there !" was the de- mand of the mob. De Launay was for killing himself with the sword of his cane, but was prevented. " To the Hotel-de-Ville with him!" was the cry; and, through roarings and cursings, an attempt was made to escort him ; but the escort was hustled aside, and with im- placable ferocity the mob surrounded the unfortunate De Launay.* The committee was still sitting at the Hotel-de-Ville, and in the most painful anxiety. The hall of its sit- tings was choked up by a furious multitude, uttering threats against the provost, M. de Flesselles. It was now half past five o'clock. The attention of the mul- titude was arrested by cries from the Place de Greve of " Victory ! Victory !" An immense throng ap- proached ; they poured into the hall ; one of the French guards, covered with wounds and crowned with lau- rels, was borne in triumph ; others, who had particu- larly distinguished themselves, were similarly honored. The regulations and the keys of the Bastille were sus- pended from the bayonet at the end of a musket. A bloody hand raised above the mob exhibited a bunch of hair; it was the queue of De Launay,f whose head had just been stricken off. T wo of the French guards had defended him to the last extremity. Thus trophied came the conquerors of the Bastille to the Hotel-de- Ville ; their eyes gleaming, their hair in disorder, bearing all kinds of arms, crowding one upon another, and making the boards resound with the stamping of their feet. They came to announce their triumph to the committee, and demand a decision upon the fate * " One other officer is massacred ; one other Invalide is hanged on the lamp-iron ; with difficulty, with generous perseverance, ^he Gardes Frangaise will save the rest." — Carlyle. t " Miserable De Launay ! He shall never enter the Hotel-de- Ville : only his ' bloody hair-queue, held up in a bloody hand ;' that shall enter for a sign. The bleeding trunk lies on the steps there ; the head is off through the streets, ghastly, aloft on a pike." — Carlyle. THE REIGN OF TERROR. 33 of the prisoners taken in the Bastille. " No quarter !" cried some — " no quarter to men who have fired on their fellow citizens !" But others were more merciful ; influential men among them succeeded in appeasing the wrath of the multitude, and in obtaining an am- nesty for the Swiss and Invalides. But so strong was the current of animosity against M. de Flesselles, that the committee, who strove to justify him to the mob, found themselves unable to stem it. It was alleged that he had deceived the people by repeated promises of arms that he never intended to supply. In proof of which, it is said, a letter had been found upon the person of De Launay — from M. de Flesselles to De Launay — " I amuse the Parisians with cockades and promises ; hold out until to-night, and you shall have relief" Flesselles began to be uneasy in his situation, exposed to reproaches and most furious menaces. He was pale, anxious. " Since I am suspected," said he, " I will retire." Several voices called out, " Come to the Palais-Royal to be tried." And from every part of the crowd, " To the Palais-Royal ! to the Palais- Royal !" was echoed and re-echoed. " Ah, well ! be it so, gentlemen," answered Flesselles, with an air of assumed tranquillity ; at the same moment he sprang from the raised part of the hall into the midst of the mob, which opened as he marched forward, and which followed without doing him any violence, though it densely thronged around him as he proceeded. But, at the corner of the Q,uai Pelletier, an unknown per- son advanced towards him and laid him dead with a pistol-shot.* Such were the events of July 14th, 1789. After these scenes of arming, tumult, battle and vengeance, the Parisians prepared themselves for the attack which they that night expected from the troops that sur- rounded the city. They formed barricades, and threw up entrenchments; they broke up the pavements, forged pikes, cast bullets ; the women carried stones to the tops of the houses to be in readiness to hurl ♦ Mignet ; Thiers. 34 THE REIGN OF TERROR. them down upon the troops ; the national guard dis- tributed themselves at different posts ; and Paris re- sembled an immense workshop and a vast camp. " At the Bastille, they have broken open the dungeons, and now along the streets are borne the rescued captives — heads on pikes — the keys of the Bastille, and much else. Likewise ashlar stones of the Bastille continue thundering through the dusk ; its paper archives shall fly white. Old secrets come to view ; and long-buried despair finds voice." * The people of Paris, equally occupied to give orders and execute them, had deter- mined on the destruction of the Bastille they had taken. An immense crowd mounted upon its parapet, and by mere human force began to throw down the large stones of which it was built. It was considered, from its peculiar feudal appearance and public situa- tion, as a sort of despotism personified ; and there were few, if any, who did not feel a pleasure in seeing it fall. All that night was passed by the population of Paris under arms, and in momentary expectation of battle. But the attack upon the city was not made ; Besenval, commander of the troops, withdrew during the night, marching down the left bank of the Seine, and leaving Paris to the conduct of its citizens. In the attack on the Bastille, the Parisians showed themselves resolute and unyielding, as well as prompt and headlong. The garrison of this too famous castle was indeed very weak, but its deep moats, and insur- mountable bulwarks, presented the most imposing show of resistance ; and the triumph which the popu- lar cause obtained in an exploit seemingly so despe- rate, infused a general consternation in the King and royahsts.f Louis XVI. had retired to bed, when the news of the insurrection of Paris reached Versailles. « What, rebellion V he exclaimed, when the tidings were communicated to him. " Sire, rather say revo- lution," was the reply. The capture of the Bastille, the death of De Launay, and that of Flesselles, was known to the National • Carlyle. t Scott's Napoleon. THE REIGN OF TERROR. 35 Assembly about midnight. Several deputations had already been sent by the Assembly to the King, with a request that he would withdraw the obnoxious troops ; and in the morning a new deputation was nominated to convince the monarch of the calamities which would ensue from a longer refusal. As it was starting, " Tell the King," exclaimed Mirabeau, " that the hordes of foreigners by which we are surrounded, received yesterday the visits of princes, princesses, of favorites, of court ladies, and their caresses, their ex- hortations, their presents. Tell him, that all last night these foreign satellites, gorged with money and wine, have, in their impious revels, been predicting the sub- jugation of France, and that their brutal wishes in- voked the destruction of the National Assembly. Tell him, that in his very palace the courtiers mingled with their dances the sound of that barbarous music, and that such orgies were the prelude to the massacre of St. Barthelemy ! Tell him that that Henri,* whose memory the whole world blesses — he of his ancestors whom he should take for a model — tell him that he, when besieging Paris in person, permitted provisions to be conveyed into rebellious Paris ; whereas, his ferocious councillors are now turning back the flour which commerce is sending into his faithful and fam- ished capital !" But at this instant it was announced that the King, attended by his two brothers,! and without escort or retinue, was coming, of his own accord, to the Assem- bly. The hall rang with applause. " Wait," Mirabeau gravely remarked, "till the King has made us ac- quainted with his good dispositions. Let a sullen respect be the first welcome paid to the monarch in this moment of grief The silence of nations is a les- son for kings." The King was accordingly received amidst profound silence; but when he declared that he was one with the nation, and that, relying upon the affections and fidelity of his subjects, he had ordered ♦ Henri Quatre. t Count de Provence, (afterwards Louis XVIII.) and the Count D'Artois, (afterwards Charles X.) 4 36 THE REIGN OF TERROR. the remova] of the troops from Versailles and Paris — when he further spoke of the distrust that had been entertained of him, and avowed that he was willing entirely to confide in the National Assembly — he was hailed with rapturous applause ; the deputies rose spontaneously from their seats, thronged round the monarch, and escorted him, (' interlacing their arms to keep off the excessive pressure from him,') back to the palace. The Q,ueen, surrounded by ladies and gen- tlemen of the court, stood in a balcony, and contem- plated from a distance this affecting scene. Her little boy and girl were at her side, — or, rather, the boy in her arms, the girl standing by, sportively playing with her brother's hair. The Queen kissed her children several times ; and she appeared dehghted by this ex- pression of love for her husband upon the part of the Frenchmen who were escorting him. Vivats filled the air — far and wide the enthusiasm spread, and who would have said otherwise than that the court and the people were fully reconciled f For a .moment all seemed forgotten ; but on the morrow, nay, perhaps the very same day the court had renewed its pride, the people their distrust, and hatred renewed its course. In Paris, a delirious joy had succeeded the terrors of the preceding day. The people flocked to see the Bastille — that so long dreaded den — to which there was now free access. They visited it with a mingled feeling of curiosity and terror. They sought for the instruments of torture, for the deep dungeons. They went thither more particularly to see an enormous stone, in the middle of a dark and damp cell, to the centre of which was fixed a ponderous chain. A com- plete change in the countenances and the minds of the populace was now to be seen. The Bastille taken, and the troops no longer menacing Paris, the consternation of the two preceding days gave place to a joyful triumph !* * Thiers ; Mignet. . THE REIGN OP TERROR. 37 CHAPTER II. The King's visit to Paris — La Fayette commander of the National Guard — M. Bailli, mayor of Paris — M. Necker — Popular excite- ment — Massacre of Foulon and his son-in-law — Massacres and Horrors perpetrated in the Provinces — Destruction of Chateaux and Property — Cruehies practised — Newspapers — Marat — A de- scription of him — Formation of the Jacobin Club — Its affiliated Societies — Further Atrocities in the Provinces — Duke of Orleans — His Wealth — His Vices — Debaucheries — His Manner of gain- ing Popularity — Mirabeau — His Birth — His Passions and Impetu- osity — His Expenses — Imprisonment — Intrigues — Description of his Person — His Talents — He becomes a Leader in the Assembly — Scorned by the Nobihty — Paris yet agitated — The Palais-Royal — Barbers, Tailors, Servants — Tumults and Famine — The Popu- lace suspicious of the Court — Arrival of the Flanders Regiment at Versailles, and Banquet given to them by the King's Life- Guards — Splendor — Music — Abundance — Toasts offensive to the People, and Bacchanalian Orgies — Louis XVI. and Marie An- toinette present at these orgies — Wild Enthusiasm of the Life- Guards at the Appearance of the King and Queen — Cockades distributed — Indignation of the Parisians in consequence of this Banquet — The Prodigality of it considered an Insult to the Pub- lic Distress — Rumors of Conspiracy and Counter-Revolution — The cry of "Bread!" in the streets of Paris--Crowds at the Bakers' Shops — Insurrection of the 5th of October — The cry of " To Versailles !" — Commotion — Fish women— Maillard — Im- mense Concourse — The March to Versailles — La Fayette's Life threatened — The Mob at Versailles — They attack the Palace — Pursue the Queen — Massacre of the Life-Guards — Jourdan — La Fayette— Tumult— The cry of " The King to Paris !"— The Queen shows herself on the Balcony — Grotesque Procession and Return of the Mob to Paris, surrounding the Carriages of the Royal Family, &c. The consequences of the 14th of July were immense. The fall of the Bastille may be said to have shaken France to its deepest foundations. Rumor flies every- where, and it is said that by the management of the Duke of Orleans and Mirabeau, couriers were des- patched, riding with all speed, towards all parts of France, with the tidings of what had occurred ; and 38 THE REIGN OF TERROR, the commotion of Paris was speedily communicated to the provinces, where the lower classes, in imitation of those of the capital, organized themselves into mu- nicipalities for their government, and into national guards for their defence. In Paris, La Fayette* was elected commander of the National Guard, and M. Bailli, mayor of the city. Louis XVI. set out from Versailles to Paris on the 17th, to make his peace with the capital. He dreaded it, and Marie Antoinette wished him not to go. " It was announced in Paris early on Friday morning, that his majesty would be at the town-house at two o'clock in the day. On his road he was met by an armed guard of Paris, who lined the way for eight miles with a double row of the new-made soldiers, forming a motley, but to him a horrible spectacle. The greatest part were armed with pikes, sticks and swords, and a few with muskets, for there were near 200,000 men, and they had neither uniforms nor leaders. Some of the revolted soldiers were interspersed in the ranks." ] M. Bailli presented him with the keys of Paris, the same that two hundred years previously were delivered to Henri IV. " He had conquered his people," said Bailli ; "now the people have re-conquer- ed their king." Louis descended from his carriage, and without any apparent distrust of the populace, entered the Hotel-de-Ville, surrounded by the multi- tude. From the hands of Bailli he received the tri- colored cockade ; he sanctioned the new magistracies, expressed his approbation of the choice of the people therein, and in consequence was greeted with loud cries of " Vive le Roi !" Amidst these acclamations he set out upon his return to Versailles, and when he arrived at the palace, the Glueen, throwing herself into his *"A commandant of the militia yet remained to be appointed. There was in the hall a bust sent by enfranchised America to the city of Paris ; all eyes were directed towards it. It was the bust of the Marquis de La Fayette. A general cry proclaimed him com- mandant." — Thiers. t Playfair's Hist, of Jacobinism. THE REIGN OF TERROR. 39 arms, embraced him as though she had expected never to see him again — such was the terror she and the court entertained of the Parisian populace ! Indeed, they had constantly imagined, since the 14th, that an army from the capital would march upon Ver- sailles; and, in dread of their lives, upon this very day, the Count D'Artois, the Polignac family, and others, particularly odious to the citizens of Paris, had set off in haste, and were the first to quit France. " The day of the king's entry into Paris," says Ali- son, *' was the first of the emigration of the noblesse. The leaders of the royalist party, always the first to propose violent measures, were at the same time un- able to support them when fiiriously opposed; they diminished the sympathy of the world at their fall from so high a rank, by showing that they were un- worthy of it." M. Necker was again called to take charge of affairs. He returned in triumph. Every where on his route, he was met with marks of gratitude, and witnessed the intoxicating joy of the people. * Bailli and La Fayette, owing to the fermented state of the capital, had many difficulties to encounter ; they were inde- fatigably vigilant in their respective duties, the one as Mayor of Paris, the other as commander of the Na- tional Guards, but were not always successful in their endeavours to check the popular fury. Every moment, the most absurd reports were circulated, and * " James Necker, an eminent financier and statesman, bom at Geneva in 1732, and for many years carried on the business of a banker at Paris. His Essays on the Resources of France, inspired such an idea of his financial abilities, that, in 1776, he was appointed director of the treasury, and, shortly after, comptroller-general. In 1788, he advised the convocation of the States-General, but was abruptly dismissed and ordered to quit the kingdom in July, 1789 ; yet was almost instantly recalled in consequence of the ferment which his dismissal excited in the public mind. Necker, however, soon became as much an object of antipathy to the people as he had been of their idolatry, and in 1790 he left France forever. He died at Copet, in Switzerland, in 1804. His daughter was the celebrated Madame de Stael. — Biographical Dictionary. 4* 40 THE REIGN OF TERROR. credited by the unthinking. "National vengeance" and "national justice" were words constantly upon the lips of the populace ; words used by the ignorant upon all occasions, with about as much comprehen- sion of their meaning, as the parrot in his cage has of what he repeats. For example, M. Foulon, for- merly an intendant, (or tax-collector,) who was very rich, but by no means popular, had accepted, when Necker was dismissed, a place in the new ministerial arrangements ; he was also father-in-law to M. Berthier de Sauvigny, the present intendant ; he was a harsh and rapacious man, and was obnoxious to many in consequence of the extortions he had committed when in power. His enemies had spread a report that he had been heard to say the people ought to be made eat grass. He and his son-in-law fled jfrom Paris, and, fierce indeed was popular indignation against them. Foulon, aware that his life was sought, and knowing that no means would be left untried to capture him, felt himself insecure in his hiding-place at Vitry, and circulated a report that he was dead; the which he was enabled to do, inasmuch as one of his domestics died at this time, and he took the opportunity of having a funeral as sumptuous as would have taken place in case of his own demise. But all did not avail ; he was betrayed ; caught upon his own estate ; and, in retort for his wish that the people should be made to eat grass, his mouth was filled with it, a collar of net- tles was put round his neck, and a bunch of hay upon his back. In this state, the old man (he was seventy- four) was forced to walk twenty miles through the heat and dust of a day in July, led with ropes, goaded on with curses and menaces, the pitiablest, most un- pitied of all old men — and brought to the Hotel-de- Ville to be tried. La Fayette exerted himself to save the life of the old man, and several times addressed the mob with success. But a person stepped forward, exclaiming, " Friends, why should we judge this man 1 Has he not been judged these thirty years 1" With wild yells, the crowd then rushed upon Foulon, clutch- THE REIGN OP TERROR. 41 ed him with its hundred hands, and whirled him across the Place de Greve, in spite of his cries and ap- peals to be spared, to the lanterne (lamp-iron) at the corner of the Rue de la Vannerie.* Twice the rope broke with him, but the third effort left him dangling, with the tuft of grass in his mouth, and the boisterous crowd exulting around him. This done, they severed the head from the body, and with it sticking on a pike, (the mouth stiil stuffed with grass) paraded it in tri- umph. The body, naked, was dragged through the streets, with a number of furies, in the form of women, dancing round it as it went along, and with words and gestures, which do not admit of a repetition, en- deavouring to degrade a lifeless corpse, f Berthier de Sauvigny, it was now known, had been arrested and was on his road to Paris. The excite- ment increased. At night-fall, Berthier arrived in a cabriolet, under a guard of five hundred horsemen with drawn sabres. The crowd thronged around him, brandishing placards before his eyes, with sen- tences, in huge letters, such as " He robbed the King and France," "He devoured the substance of the People," " He was the slave of the rich and the tyrant of the poor," " He drank the blood of the widow and orphan," "He betrayed his country," etc. All Paris issues forth to meet him, with dances, windows flung up, triumph-songs, and as he arrives at the Hotel-de-Ville, his gaze is met by the bleeding head of his father-in-law on a pike. He was conducted to the Hotel-de-Viile, where he would answer nothing, utter- ing merely a few words of courage and indignation. The mob clamored for his blood, and, in spite of the * In the beginning of the Revolution, when the mob executed their pleasure on the individuals against whom their suspicions were directed, the lamp-irons served for gibbets, and the ropes by which the lamps or lanterns were suspended across the street, were ready halters. Hence the cry of " Les Aristocrates a la lanterne." The answer of the Abbe Maury is well known. " Eh ! mes amies, et quand vous m'auriez mis a la lanterne, est ce que vous verriez plus cl^ix V'—Boiog. Univ. t Thiers. 42 THE REIGxH OF TERROR. efforts of the guards to save him, he was seized. He snatched a weapon from one of the throng, and des- perately defended himself Overpowered by num- bers, he was beaten down and trampled ; then dragged to the same lamp-iron from which Foulon had been hanged a few hours previously. The rope broke, and he fell to the ground ahve. A sabre was thrust into his bowels, his body was cut open, his entrails dragged out, and his heart and head carried each on a pike throughout the streets.* La Fayette strove to prevent this sanguinary deed, as well as to quiet the disturbances of the populace, but, notwithstanding his indefatigable vigilance, he was unsuccessful in many instances ; for, let a force be ever so active, it cannot show itself every where against a multitude that is every where in agitation. It was upon this occasion the mob discovered, that as the National guards were, in cases of insurrection, to be their antagonists, the best way would be to make the women go foremost. This they long prac- tised, and generally with perfect success ; for besides that, the market-women and fish-women of Paris were mostly full as stout as the men, they were bolder, more daring, and more cruel. The peasantry of many of the provinces imitated, in the meantime, the lower orders of Paris, in a crusade against gentility; castles were burned, their lords hunted forth, the possessors of property menaced and proscribed. On the banks of the Soane, where the country is in general fertile, a country attorney forged an order from the King to destroy gentlemen's chat- eaux. He assembled a mob of 5000, and in the course of six or seven days, above seventy mansions were burnt down, and the churches and small towns were plundered. This armed banditti was at last attacked and defeated, by a sort of army raised by the gentle- men of the country, with considerable slaughter. Some of the ringleaders were legally tried and punished. * Thiers ; Mignet ; Carlyle ; etc. THE REIGN OP TERROR. 43 The mischiefs in other parts did not stop. The Chevalier d'Ambli was taken from his house, dragged naked through a village, and had his hair and eye- brows burnt off; he was thrown upon a dunghill whilst his tormenters, like Indian savages, were danc- ing around. In Languedoc, M. de Barras was cut to pieces in the presence of his wife who was far ad- vanced in pregnancy, and died with the fright. At Mans, M. de Montesson was shot, after witnessing the murder of his father-in-law. The title-deeds of a gentleman were demanded of his steward, who, refu- sing to give them up, was carried to a fire, and his feet were burnt off. In this state of public affairs, a number of small daily newspapers appeared, some of them giving only the debates of the Assembly, and a little news; others giving news, reasonings of their own, and embracing whatever a newspaper may be supposed to contain. The most conspicuous among these was entitled — " The Friend of the People," edited by the notorious Jean Paul Marat,* whose writings were of the most revolu- tionary and destructive nature. "Marat's political exhortations began and ended like the howl of a blood- hound for murder. If a wolf could have written a journal, the gaunt and famished wretch could not have ravened more eagerly for slaughter. It was blood which was Marat's constant demand ; not in drops from the breast of an individual, not in puny streams from the slaughter of families; but blood in the profu- sion of an ocean. We are inclined to believe that there was a touch of insanity in his unnatural ferocity ; and the wild and squalid features of the wretch appear to have intimated a degree of alienation of mind."t His face was hideous, and his head mon- strous for his size. From nature he derived a daring * "An atrocious journal," says M. Thiers, " in which he openly advocated murder, and heaped the most audacious insults on the royal family, and on all who were the objects of suspicion to his frenzied imagination." t Sir Walter Scott 44 THE REIGN OF TERROR. mind, an ungovernable imagination, a vindictive tem- per, and a ferocious heart. His natural enthusiasm rose to delirium, and he preached up revolt, murder and pillage. He wrote and spoke with facility, in a diffuse, incoherent, but bold and impassioned man- ner ; and was one of the most prominent orators of the Jacobin Club, a society established in Paris, and com- posed of the ultra-revolutionists, both in and out of the Assembly. This club in Paris corresponded directly with upwards of eleven hundred similar societies formed throughout the kingdom ; these eleven hundred had each its circle of clubs in the inferior towns and villages, and in this way the total number amounted to about fifteen thousand. An active and vigorous correspondence was continually carried on, and as they consisted of members actuated with one spirit, there was no difficulty of regulating almost all public affairs ; and when they could not regulate, they could counteract any measure, and when they could not counteract they could denounce. The Jacobin club in Paris could write directly to the eleven hund- red, through which, whatever movement was con- templated in the capital, would be immediately com- municated to the remotest provinces, and the popular voice made ready to support any and every measure. Such then was the organization of the Jacobin club, which took its origin from Mirabeau, and its name from the convent of Jacobin monks, where the meet- ings were held. These meetings were almost perpet- ual. Under the cover of giving advice or opinion, or of consulting with each other , they examined every question debated in the Assembly at Versailles ; and, whenever it suited their purpose, their opinions were printed and placarded. With this continued excitement of debating, writing, publishing, and putting in force the new ideas of legislation, the minds of all the people were extremely heated, and the consequence was, that plots of every kind were imagined, and there was no rest by night or day. Novelty, which has a great influence with the Parisian, and hope, which luckily THE REIGN OP TERROR. 45 comes to alleviate the pains of men on most occasions, rendered the citizen content ; but, above all, his self- love was gratified by thinking himself free. Thus it is, that what is difficult and dangerous becomes often more sufferable than it would otherwise be, and at last the necessity of continuing, added to the habit of enduring, supports us for a long series of years under circumstances which would, without these alle- viations, have become intolerable.* Not that we mean to confound republicanism and Jacobinism, but that the French confounded them; not that liberty and anarchy can be mixed together, for where the one is, the other certainly will never be found, but that the majority of the nation mistook the one for the other, and were thereby led into those violent extremes which characterized this epoch of their history. The atrocities of the capita] continued to be imitated throughout the province. The regiments of the line everywhere declared for the popular side, the whole population possessed themselves with arms, and no power remained to resist the insurrections of the lower orders. At Caen, and several other towns, the massacres of the metropolis were too faithfully imita- ted. M. de Belzunce, who endeavoured to restrain the excesses of his regiment, was put to death with the most aggravated circumstances of cruelty ; his re- mains were Mterally devoured by his murderers, f Everywhere the peasants rose in arms, attacked and burned the chateaux of the landlords, and massacred or expelled the possessors. In their blind fury, they did not even spare those seigneurs who were known to be inclined to the popular side, or had done the most to mitigate their sufferings or support their rights. Not unfrequently the most cruel tortures were inflicted ; many had the soles of their feet roasted over a slow fire before being put to death ; others had their hair and eyebrows burned off, while their dwellings were being destroyed, after which they were drowned in the nearest fish-pond. The roads were covered * Playfair's Hist, of Jacobinism. t Lacretelle. 5 46 THE REIGN OF TERROR. with young women of rank and beauty flying from death, and leading their aged parents by the hand. Of the ambitious and designing men who were in- clined to mislead the people, and who had the means of doing it, the Duke of Orleans must be considered as the chief. Possessed of revenues equal to royal, he was distinguished for most of those low vices (carried to a great excess,) which are in general only to be found in the lower class of vagabonds. Every rank in society has the vices natural to itself, but this man, as if to show mankind what an assemblage of wicked- ness might be produced in the same person, had the vices of all different ranks of society. " Make the water muddy," said he, " and I will fish in it." He trusted to his money, his intrigues, his agents, and his new-fangled popularity, for profiting of whatever chances a state of political disorder might throw in his way. A method which he successfully put in prac- tice to obtain the favor of the people, was to buy up corn, and then relieve those who were languishing under the artificial scarcity. In 1788-9, public tables were spread and fires lighted, by his orders, for the paupers of the metropolis, and sums of money were also distributed among them. " The newspapers of the day employed his name in the hints which they daily set forth, that France should follow the example of England. The Duke of Orleans was fixed upon, because, in the English revolution, the direct hne of the royal family had been expelled in favor of the Prince of Orange. The thing was so often repeated, that the Duke began at last to believe he might place himself at the head of a party, and become the leader of a faction." * He, and the numbers of heartlessly ambitious men like him, who emerged into notoriety during the crisis of the times, frustrated the progress, and stained with blood, the career of hberty gloriously commenced. And, however pardonable we may con- sider the first excesses of the nation, since they re- * Mem, Duchess D'Abrantes. THE REIGN OP TERROR. 47 suited from the obstinacy of the abuses it was neces- sary to destroy, we cannot withhold our condemnation from the spirit, that did not, or would not discriminate between the patriotism and ambition of its leaders, and permitted itself to be hurried from guilt to guilt with astonishing recklessness. Prominent as an orator both in the Assembly and at the meetings of the Jacobin Club, was Mirabeau ; and no man in France was at this period equally pop- ular. He was looked up to as the champion of the people. Honore Gabriel Riquetti, Comte de Mirabeau, was born in 1749. Youthful impetuosity and ungov- erned passions made the early part of his life a scene of disorder and misery. After having been sometime in the army, he married Mademoiselle de Marignane, a rich heiress in the city of Aix ; but the union was not fortunate, and his extravagant expenses deranging his affairs, he contracted debts to the amount of three hundred thousand livres, in consequence of which his father obtained from the Chatelet an act of lunacy against him. Enraged at this, he went to set- tle at Manosque ; whence he was, on account of a private quarrel, some time afterwards removed, and shut up in the castle of If; he was then conveyed to that of Joux, in Franche Comte, and obtained per- mission to go occasionally to Pontalier, where he met Sophia de Ruflfey, Marchioness of Monmir, wife of a president in the parliament of Besan9on. Her wit and beauty inspired him with a most violent passion, and he soon escaped to Holland with her, but was for this outrage condemned to lose his head, and would probably have ended his days far from his country, had not an agent of police seized him in 1777, and carried him to the castle of Vincennes, where he re- mained till December, 1780, when he recovered his liberty. The French Revolution soon presented a vast field for his activity ; and, being rejected at the time of the elections by the nobility of Provence, he hired a warehouse, put up this inscription, " Mirabeau, Woollen-Draper," and was elected deputy from the 48 THE REIGN OP TERROR. tiers-etat of Aix. From that time the court of Versailles, to whom he was beginning to be formidable, called him the Plebeian Count.* Divisions among the popular party in the Assembly- began to arise. The most courageous of them all was Mirabeau. Proud of his high qualities, jesting over his vices, by turns haughty or supple, he won some by his flattery, awed others by his sarcasms, and led all in his train by the extraordinary influence he pos- sessed. His party was everywhere ; among the peo- ple, in the Assembly, in the very court, and with all those, in short, to whom he was at the moment ad- dressing himself. Thus, unaided except by his genius, he attacked despotism, which he had sworn to destroy. Harassed moreover by straitened circumstances, dis- satisfied with the present, he was advancing towards an unknown future ; by his talents, his ambition, his vices, his pecuniary embarrassments, he gave rise to all sorts of conjectures, and by his cynical language he authorized all suspicions and all calumnies.f Ac- customed to struggle against despotism, irritated by the scorn of the nobility, which did not value him, and which rejected him from its bosom ; sagacious, bold, eloquent, Mirabeau felt that the revolution would be his work and his life. He was adapted for the wants of his age. His thoughts, his voice, his action, were those of an orator ; in perilous circumstances he had the power of swaying the determinations of an as- * Mirabeau was of the middle stature ; his face was disfi^red by the marks of small -pox; and the enormous quantity of hair on his head gave him some resemblance to a lion. He was of a lofty character, and had talents which were extraordinary, and some which were sublime ; his felicity of diction was unrivalled, his knowledge of the human heart profound ; naturally violent, the least resistance inflamed him ; when he appeared most irritated, his expression had most eloquence ; and being a consummate actor, his voice and gestures lent additional interest to all he said. His chief passion was pride. In the last year of his life, he paid immense debts, bought estates, forniture, the valuable library of Buffon, and lived in a splendid style." — Biographic Moderne. t Thiers. THE REIGN OF TERROR. 49 sembly ; in difficult discussions the tact of bringing them to a close ; in a word, he had the power to keep down ambition, to silence hostility, to disconcert rivalry.* Paris was not yet recovered from the agitation of the 14th of July ; it was at the commencement of the popular government ; 'all those who did not participate in authority, came together in assemblies, and delib- erated on public affairs. The soldiers debated at the Oratoire, the journeymen tailors at the Colonnade, the barbers at the Champs-Elysees, the domestics at the Louvre. But it was at the Palais-Royal in particular that the most animated discussions took place ; there were examined the matters which occupied the debates of the Assembly, and controlled its discussions. The famine also occasioned tumults, and these were not the least dangerous. Night and day the Committee of Public Subsistence were engaged in providing for the wants of the citizens ; the farmers no longer brought their grain to market, fearing it would be seized by the multitude. Large quantities were bought at the public expense, and conducted into Paris, in great convoys, guarded by regiments of horse. It was ground at the public cost, and sold at a reduced rate to the citizens ; but such was the anxiety of the people, that all these pains would not suffice, and loud complaints of starvation incessantly assailed the Assembly. The people of Versailles already insulted and pelted the nobles and clergy at the gate of the Assembly, whom they stigmatized as Aristocrats, an epithet which afterwards became the certain prelude to destruction. The finances of the kingdom were daily falling into a worse condition. Not only were the forced purchases of grain by government, and their sale at a reduced price, unavoidably increasing, but a large body of workmen, thrown out of employment, were main- tained at the public expense, for whose support no less than twelve thousand francs were daily issued from ♦ Mignet 5* 50 THE REIGN OF TERROR. the treasury in Paris alone. Mobs were constantly congregated around the baker-shops, and the cry was that the measures of the court were the cause of the pubhc distress, and that the only way to provide for the subsistence of the people was to secure the person of the King. An attack upon the palace at Versailles was openly discussed in the clubs, and recommended by the orators of the Palais-Royal. The streets were filled with a threatening populace, half-banditti, half- madmen. Many causes of discontent existed, and there only wanted occasion for an insurrection. This the court furnished. Under the pretextof guarding itself from the movements of Paris, it summoned the troops to Ver- sailles, doubled the King's life-guards, and brought up the dragoons and regiment of Flanders. This display of military force gave rise to apprehensions ; a report of some counter-revolutionary blow was spread, and the flight of the King, and the dissolution of the As- sembly, were announced. The confidence of the court increased the distrust of Paris, and costly entertain- ments soon exasperated the sufferings of the populace, who were in want of bread. " Hunger whets every thing ; especially Suspicion and Indignation." The arrival of the regiment from Flanders was wel- comed by a dinner to its officers, given by the life- guards, on Thursday the 1st October, in the hall of the opera. The King's band of musicians was ordered to assist at the festival. The boxes were filled with spectators belonging to the court. Much gayety pre- vailed during the repast, and wine soon raised it to exaltation ; drums sounded, trumpets pealed, and merry voices mingled joyously with the music. The ringing of glasses were mingled with martial songs, and merriment increased each hour. The tables were tastefully adorned and richly laden ; boquets, in costly vases were scattered about ; the guests were seated along the tables ; the life-guards, in their rich uniform and glittering side-arms, conversed confidentially with the ofiicers of Flanders, in their coarse habiliments. THE REIGN OF TERROR. 51 Spectators, guests, all seemed to abandon themselves to the merriment of the occasion. Here and there groups of officers arose from the table, and, overcome by wine, staggered up and do\vn the saloon. Some noisily rung their glasses together, while others sealed their bond of friendship by shaking hands across the table; and the majority drank a tumultuous "confu- sion " to the enemies of the royal family, confusion to the National Assembly, and to the Parisians. At that moment, a few of the heated life-guards, opened wide the doors of the saloon, and in various masses, the soldiers of the Flemish regiment entered, to partake of the feast. A hundred hands met them with full gob- lets, and the officers tendered their inferiors the bowl ; and the proud guard of the royal house condescended to friendly force in bringing the subalterns to the table, offering them the delicacies of the dessert. Trans- ports increased every moment. Suddenly the King was announced. He entered the banquetting room, followed by the Q,ueen, with the Dauphin in her arms. Acclamations of attachment and devotion rang through the saloon. The company, with drawn swords, drank the health of the royal family — the toast of the nation was refused, or, at least, oi^itted. The trumpets sounded a charge; the boxes were scaled with loud shouts by the wine-heated life-guards. All seemed to be filled with exulting loyalty. " Down with the Assem- bly!" was shouted, and other equally imprudent excla- mations were uttered. " O Richard ! O mon roi ! I'universe t'abandonne I" * an expressive and celebra- ted song, was sung. They vowed to die for the King, as if he had been in the most imminent danger : and, in short, the delirium knew no bounds. The jovial clamor, and the profusion of champagne, banished all reserve, and the scene assumed a character sufficiently significant. The excitement increased, and the music could no longer satisfy the demands of the zealous soldiers ; for still louder they wished the drums to beat, * " O Richard ! O my King ! the world is all forsaking thee, etc." 52 THE REIGN OF TERROR. and more noisy they wished the blasts of the trumpets. Cockades, white or black, but only of a single color, were distributed. The young women, as well as the young men, were animated by chivalrous recollections. The national cockade was indignantly dashed upon the floor and trodden under foot, while that of the Queen was assumed with enthusiasm. The banquet broke up in this excitement, and the soldiers spread themselves among the galleries of the palace, where the ladies of the court overwhelmed them with congratulations, and decorated them with ribbons and cockades.* Such was the famous banquet of the 1st of October, 1789. The report of this entertainment soon spread, and popular imagination, in relating the circumstances, added its own exaggerations to those which the ban- quet had itself produced. The promises made to the King, the acclamations to the royal family, were con- strued as threats to the nation; the prodigality dis- played was considered an insult to the public distress. In Paris, the appearance of the black cockade pro- duced the greatest fermentation. Young men who wore them were pursued, maltreated, and obliged to tear them off. Secret rumours, counter-revolutionary invitations, the apprehension of conspiracies, indigna- tion against the court, the increasing fear of famine, everything announced a rising of the people ; already the multitude looked towards Versailles. On the 4th of October, the agitation was greater than ever. People talked of the departure of the King, and the necessity of going to fetch him from Versailles ; they kept an eager lookout for black cockades, and vociferously de- manded bread ! In the morning of the following day, crowds began again to assemble. The women went to the bakers' shops, but found no bread to satisfy their hunger. At once violent and resistless, the in- surrection now broke out. A young woman entered a guard house, seized a drum, and ran along the streets beating it, and crying " Bread ! bread .'" She * Thiers; Mignet; Lacretelle; Toulangeon; Alison; etc THE REIGN OP TERROR. 53 was soon surrounded by a crowd of women. This mob advanced towards the Hotel-de-Ville, thickening as it went, until several thousand women were col- lected together; courtezans of the Palais-Royal, in white dresses, powdered and curled ; working-women of different trades, in their holiday dresses ; fish wo- men, with red faces ; and the greater number armed with broad carving-knives. Several of the women carried spits, broom sticks, and even torches in day- light. There were observed among them many men disguised as females, and they compelled all the wo- men they met to go along with them. Having reached the Hotel-de-Ville, they boldly broke through the sev- eral squadrons of the National guard, who were drawn up in front of the building for its defence. A door was forced open ; they rushed in, a miscellaneous rabble crowding along with them; efforts were made to keep them back, but they succeeded in getting pos- session of the door leading to the great bell, and sounded the tocsin. The fauxbourgs were instant- ly in motion, and dense was the throng of thou- sands upon thousands that collected in front of the Hotel. " Bread ! bread ! to Versailles ! to Versailles !" was the unanimous cry. A citizen named Maillard, one of those who had signalized themselves at the taking of the Bastille, seized a drum, and beating it, descended the steps of the Hotel. He was popular, and the crowd followed him. It was his intention to collect them together, under pretext of going to Ver- sailles, but not to lead them thither. He drew after him a motley multitude of women and men, armed with bludgeons, broomsticks, muskets and cutlasses. Cannon were yoked to cart-horses, and women, with pikes and helmets, bestrode them. The tocsin was sounding, and the crowd continued to augment. Wo- men, with drums at their sides, beat the reveille through every street. From almost every house, girls and women issued, to increase the crowd ; and troops of labourers and vagabonds, from the dregs of the peo- ple, armed with knives, pistols and lances, joined them. 54 THE REIGN OF TERROR. Along the streets were baker-shops burst open, or besieged by mobs, and uproar and riot marked the scene.* With this turbulent multitude, Maillard, in the midst of a drizzling rain and through the mud, proceeded towards Versailles, Unruly as was his singular army, he was in some measure obeyed ; so that until they arrived at Versailles, less damage was done than from such a mob might have been expected, f They enter- ed Versailles in the afternoon, singing patriotic airs, intermingled with blasphemous obscenities, and the most furious threats against the queen. Their first visit was to the National Assembly, where the beating of drums, shouts, shrieks, and a hundred confused sounds, interrupted the deliberations. Maillard,^ brand- ishing a sword in his hand, and supported by a wo- man holding a long pole, to which was attached a tambour de basque, commenced a harangue, announ- cing that they wanted bread, that they were con- vinced the ministers were traitors, that the arm of the people was uplifted and about to strike ; — with much to the same purpose, in the exaggerated eloquence of the period. Some of the women, then crowded into the hall, mixed themselves with the members, sitting on the seats beside them. In the gallery a crowd of fish women were assembled under the guidance of one virago with stentorian lungs, who called to the dep- uties familiarly by name, and insisted that their fa- vorite Mirabeau should speak. They swaggered around the hall, occupied the seats of the president and secretaries ; produced or procured victuals and wine, ate, drank, sung, swore, scolded, screamed, abused * Mignet; Thiers; Lacretelle; Dumont; etc. t Playfair. t " Maillard began early to signalize himself in all the tumults of the metropolis. In September, 1792, he presided at the massacre of the prisoners — he afterwards became one of the denunciators of the prisons, and, during the Reign of Terror, appeared several times at the prison of La Force to mark the victims who were to be condemned by the Revolutionary Tribunal" — Biographie Moderne. THE REIGN OF TERROR. 55 some of the members, and loaded others with curses ; they demanded bread and reparation for the affront offered to the nation by the hfe-guards. The raihng- gates in front of the court-yard of the palace were closed, and the regiment of Flanders, the body-guards, and other soldiers, drawn up within, facing the multi- tude ; while without was an immense crowd of Na- tional Guards, armed men, and furious women, uttering seditious cries, and clamoring for bread. The fero- cious looks of the insurgents, their haggard counte- nances, and uplifted arms, bespoke but too plainly their savage intentions. * In the meantime, the whole armed force of Paris had repeatedly demanded La Fayette to lead them on after the concourse that had departed for Versailles. La ' Fayette hesitated, implored, explained, harangued, but all in vain, and, at about five o'clock in the afternoon, this second emigration from Paris took place, arriving at Versailles at midnight, f Of the National Guards there were 30,000, besides the mass who accompanied them. The guards, instead of waiting in arms till morning, were distributed in the houses of the citizens of Versailles. The armed rabble, of both sexes, had bivouacked after their own manner upon the parade, where the soldiers usually mustered. There they had large fires kindled, were eating, drinking, singing, ca- rousing, and occasionally discharging fire-arms.| Scuf- fles arose from time to time, and one or two of the bodyr guards were killed. The horse of one of these guards * Alison, Scott, Dumont, &c t " The life of La Fayette, in consequence of his opposition to this movement, was several times threatened. "To the lantern with him !" was frequently heard from the crowd. Finally, finding that masses were continually leaving Paris, and that the insurrection was transferring itself to Versailles, he concluded it his duty to follow thither." — Thiers. t " In the hall of the Assembly, drunken women lay extended on its benches, and one shameless amazon occupied the president's chair, and in derision was ringing his bell. At three in the morn- ing the sitting was broken up, and the hall left in possession of its unruly invaders." — Alison. 56 THE REIGN OP TERROR. fell into the hands of the women, was killed, torn in pieces, and eaten half raw and half roasted. The court was in consternation, and two carriages were kept ready at the gate of the Orangerie, to convey the royal family from the scene of danger ; but the King, who was apprehensive that, if he fled, the Duke of Orleans would be immediately declared lieutenant- general of the kingdom, refused to move. He urged the Q,ueen to depart, and take the children with her, but she declared that nothing should induce her, in such an extremity, to separate from her husband. La Fayette had so far succeeded in restoring order by this time, that he assured the royal family of the secu- rity of the palace, and had so much confidence in the preservation of public tranquillity, that he resolved to retire to rest. The King and Q,ueen, overcome with fatigue, upon this assurance, retired to their apart- ments. La Fayette repaired for the remainder of the night to a chateau at a short distance from the palace. It rained heavily, and the multitude sought what- ever shelter they could get, but thousands were neces- sitated to stand shelterless, shivering with wet and cold. Large groups of savage men and intoxicated women continued sitting by the watch-fires in all the streets of Versailles, relieving the tedium of a rainy night by singing revolutionary songs.* Whatever might be the intention of the greater number, the whole formed too promiscuous an assemblage to be all guided by any one sentiment. Plunder was undoubt- edly the object of many amongst them, and plunder could only be obtained by exciting disorder ; and so long as the iron rails and iron gates facing the palace were kept shut, there was no more chance of plunder than if they had been on a barren heath. Several at- tempts were made to force the gates, and in the dark the confusion was great, but without serious conse- quences, t But as daylight appeared, some individu- als of the mob, more excited than the rest, found • Alison. t Playfair. THE REIGN OP TERROR. 57 means to penetrate into the palace, through a gate which had been left unguarded for a moment. Simul- taneously with this, a furious mob surrounded the barracks of the body-guard, broke them open, and pursued the flying inmates to the gates of the palace, where fifteen were seized and doomed to immediate execution. In the meantime, the other mob had rush- ed into the palace, and filled the staircases and ves- tibules of the royal apartments. Two of the life- guards posted at the head of the stairs, made a heroic resistance ; one of them called out " Save the queen !" This cry was heard by her ; she ran, trembling, and half naked, to tfie king's apartments. The assassins rushed into her room a few minutes after she had left it, and, enraged at finding their victim escaped, pierced her bed with their pikes. The two guards at the head of the stairs were trodden down, and mas- sacred with a hundred pike thrusts. The guards re- treated before the mob, bolting and barricading the doors, which were successively beaten in. The bodies of the two life-guards were dragged below the King's windows, there beheaded, and the bloody heads car- ried on pikes through the streets of Versailles. * Re- treating and defending, the guards were pursued from room to room, and finally assembled in the ante-room called the CEil de Boeuf, or bull's eye ; but several, un- able to gain this place of refuge, were dragged down into the court-yard, where a wretch, distinguished by a long beard, a broad bloody axe, and a species of armour which he wore on his person, had taken on himself, by taste and choice, the office of executioner. The strangeness of the man's costume, the sanguinary rehsh with which he discharged his office, and the hoarse roar, with which, from time to time, he de- manded new victims, made him resemble some demon whom hell had vomited forth, to augment the wicked- ness and horror of the scene, f La Fayette, apprized * Lacretelle, Mignet, Thiers, &c. t Jourdan was the real name of this man. He gained his bread 6 58 THE REIGN OP TERROR. of the invasion of the palace, sprung upon the first horse he met with, and directed his course as rapidly as possible to the scene of danger. He found upon the spot the body-guard, surrounded by a furious mob, determined to'massacre them. He threw him- self into the midst, called to his assistance some French guards, and having dispersed the assailants, and saved the body-guard, precipitated himself into the palace. He found it already succoured by his grenadiers, who, at the first rumor of the tumult had run thither, and rescued the life-guards from the fury of the Parisians. His grenadiers surrounded him, and vowed to die for the King. The whole court acknowledged themselves indebted to him for their lives. Madame Adelaide, the King's aunt ran up to him, and clasped him in her arms, saying, " General, you have saved us !" Tumult reigned without. The outside of the palace was still beseiged by the infuriated mob, demanding, with hideous cries, and exclamations the most ob- scene, to see " the Austrian," as they called the Queen. Others were shouting " to Paris ! to Paris ! the royal family to Paris !" Others demanded to see the King — that he should show himself at one of the windows. Louder and louder became these cries, and at last Louis XVI,, accompanied by La Fayette, presented himself at the balcony, and was greeted with shouts of "Vive le Roi!" The Q,ueen next walked out on the balcony, with one of-her children in each hand. " No children !" was cried out, as if on purpose to de- prive the mother of that appeal to humanity which might move the hardest heart. She gently pushed them back into the room, and turning her face to the tumultuous multitude, which tossed and roared be- neath, brandishing pikes and guns with the wildest attitudes of rage, she stood before them, her arms folded on her bosom, with a noble air of courageous by sitting as an academy-model to painters, and for that reason cul- tivated his long beard. He was subsequently distinguished in the massacres of Avignon. THE REIGN OP TERROR. 59 resignation.* The secret reason of this summons — the real cause of repelling the children — could only be to afford a chance for some desperate hand among the crowd to execute the threats which resounded on all sides. A gun was actually levelled, but one of the bystanders struck it down ; for the passions of the mob had taken an opposite turn — and La Fayette, at this moment, with ready chivalry, stooped, took the hand of the Q,ueen, and kissed it respectfully. This act upon his part, together with her contempt of per- sonal danger, subdued the fury of the populace, and shouts of *' Long live the Q,ueen ! Long live La Fay- ette !" rent the air. And now the cry of " To Paris ! to Paris !" was resumed, and La Fayette persuaded the King, as the only means of appeasing the tumult, to accede to the wishes of the people, and, accompa- nied by the royal family, he again appeared on the balcony, and announced to the multitude that the King would comply.f The Assembly informed of his determination, hastily passed a resolution that it was inseparable from the King, and would accompany him to the capital. The carriages of the royal family were got ready, and placed in the middle of an immeasura- ble column, consisting partly of La Fayette's soldiers, partly of the revolutionary rabble. The King, his Queen, his sister Elizabeth, and the two royal children,, got into a carriage. A hundred deputies in other car- riages followed. At one o'clock the procession moved, A detachment of brigands, carrying in triumph the heads of the life guards, had set off two hours earlier. These cannibals stopped for a moment at Sevres, and carried their ferocity to such a pitch as to force a bar- * " She was dressed in white, her head was bare, and adorned wiih beautiful fair locks. Motionless, and in a modest and noble attitude, she appeared tome like a victim on the*block." — Lavallette. t " The Queen, on returning from the balcony, approached my mother, and said to her, with stifled sobs, " They are going to force the King and me to Paris, with the heads of our body-guards carried before us on pikes. Her prediction was accomplished." — Madam de StaeL 60 THE REIGN OF TERROR. ber to dress the hair of two bleeding heads. Before the King's carriage marched the fish-women, and the whole army of abandoned women, who had come the preceding day from Paris, still drunk with fury and wine. Several of them were astride upon the cannon, celebrating by the most abominable songs the spirit with which they were actuated. Others" nearer the King's carriage, were singing allegorical airs, and by their gross gestures applying the insulting allu- sions in them to the Queen. ' Carts laden with corn and flour, which had come to Versailles, formed a con- voy, escorted by grenadiers, and surrounded by wo- men and market-porters armed with pikes, or carry- ing large poplar boughs. This part of the cortege produced a singular effect; it looked like a moving wood, amidst which glistened pike-heads and gun- barrels. Many of the women, besides those astride the cannons, were mounted on the horses of the life- guards, some in masculine fashion, others en-croupe. Women on foot, trudging through the rain and mud, in the transports of their brutal joy, stopped passengers and yelled in their ears, while pointing to the royal carriage, " Courage, my friends ; we shall have plenty of bread now that we have got the baker, the baker's wife, and the baker's boy." * Loaves of bread, borne on the point of lances, everywhere appeared to indi- cate the plenty which the return of the sovereign was expected to confer upon the capital. Behind the car- riage were some of the faithful life-guard, partly on foot, partly on horseback, most of them without hats, all disarmed, and exhausted with hunger and fatigue. The dragoons, the Flanders regiment, the Swiss, and the National guards, preceded, accompanied, and fol- lowed the file of carriages. Such was the procession of fallen majesty from Ver- sailles to Paris, on Tuesday, the 6th of October, 1789, the most humiliating, and the most riotous ever exhibi- * " Nojis ne manquerons plus de pain ; nous amenons le boulanger, la boulangere, et le petit mitron." — Prudhomme. THE REIGN OF TERROR. 61 ted. The procession has been estimated at 200.000. It filled the road for several miles, and was six hours in reaching the Hotel-de-Ville. One author, in speak- ing of it, compared it to one boundless inarticulate Ha ! ha ! of laughter. At the barrier, the King was harangued by M. Bailli, the mayor ; afterwards at the Hotel-de-Ville, by several speakers, and it was nearly eleven o'clock at night before he reached the Tuille- ries. There was joy, or an appearance of it, through- out all Paris, we are told. The King had " come with pleasure, and with confidence, among his people" — " and all the people grasped one another's hands." &i THE REIGN OF TERROR. CHAPTER III. Accusations by La Fayette against the Duke of Orleans — Murder of Denis Francois, a baker, by the mob. Robespierre — some ac- count of him — execution of the Marquis de Favras — Confiscation of church property — assignats — efforts to dissolve the National Assembly, which declares itself permanent till the constitution is completed. All titles of nobihty abolished. The fete of the Foede- ration, on theUth of July 1790, the anniversary of the destruction of the Bastille — festivities — illuminations — rejoicings. The royal family prevented by a mob from ^oing to St. Cloud — preparations of Louis XVI. for flight — Bouille — Mirabeau bribed by the Court — his magnificent entertainments — his ascendancy in the Assem- bly — his eloquence — his illness — his death — his funeral. Flight of the royal family from Paris on the 21st of June 1791. Consterna- tion of Paris on the foUoviring morning — Placards — Thomas Paine — the Jacobins — journey of the royal family — stopped at Var- ennes by Drouet, the post-master of that town — return of the royal family, surrounded by a great rabble, and amidst the execrations of the different towns through which they passed — murder of the Count de Dampierre at the side of the King's carriage — Bamave — Petion — entry of the royal family into Paris — no acclamations — silence of the multitude. The Assembly suspends Louis XVI. from his functions. Speech of Robespierre in regard to the in- violability of the King — speech of Barnave in reply. Placards upon the walls of Paris — the dethronement of the monarch, and the es- tablishment of a Republic openly agitated in the streets, at the Palais-Royal, and in all public places. The 17th of July 1791 — the red flag unfiarled — La Fayette fires upon the mob in the Charnps- de-Mars. The constitution completed. Dissolution of the first As- sembly on the 30th of Sep. 1791, Fetes — illuminations — rejoic- ings. Robespierre retires to Arras. The removal of the Court and the Assembly to Paris produced immediate changes of importance in the contending parties. La Payette exerted himself to show that the Duke of Orleans was the secret author of the disturbances which had so nearly proved fatal to the royal family, and declared publicly that he possessed undoubted proofs of his accession to the tu- mult. The Duke is stated to have skulked in disguise about the outskirts of the scene, but never to have had THE REIGN OF TERROR. 63 the courage to present himself boldly to the people, either to create a sensation by surprise, or to avail himself of that which his satellites had already excited in his favour. " The coward !" said Mirabeau ; he has the appetite for crime, but not the courage to exe- cute it." Even at the Palais-Royal his influence was lost, except with his hireling supporters ; and the King, glad to get rid of so dangerous a subject, with the en- tire concurrence of the Assembly, sent him into honor- able exile on a mission to the court of London. Tumults continued in Paris. A baker, named Denis Francois, was murdered in the streets on the 19th of October, by a mob, who were incensed at him, because he sold bread dear when he could only purchase grain at an enormous price. With the savage temper of the times, they stuck his head on a pike, and paraded it through the streets, compelling many of his brethren in the trade to kiss the bloody head. The wife of Francois, who was running in a state of distraction towards the Hotel-de-Ville, met the crowd ; at sight of the bloody head, she fainted on the pave- ment, and they had the barbarity to lower it into her arms, and press the lifeless lips against her face.* This unparallelled atrocity excited the indignation of all the better class of citizens. La Fayette, at the head of a detachment of the National guards, attacked and dispersed the assassins, and the active wretch, who carried the head, was tried, condemned and executed next day. The Assembly, acting upon the impulse of the moment, passed a decree against seditious assem- blages, known by the name of the decree of Martial Law. This decree was vehemently opposed by Rob- espierre, who about this time began to be conspicuous in the debates of the Assembly.f It was enacted that * Thiers. Scott. Alison. t Maxamilian Joseph Isadore Robespierre, bora in Arras, in 1759. His father was a barrister, who ruined himself by his prodigalities and fled to America, leaving his wife, with two children, to struggle against poverty. The Bishop of Arras became his patron, and sent him to the College of Louis le Grand. One of the professors there. 64 THE REIGN OF TERROR. on occasion of any serious disturbance, the municipal- ity should hoist the red fiag^ and after which signal, those who refused to disperse should be dealt with as open rebels. This edict tended to give the bayonets of the National guard a decided ascendency over the pikes and clubs of the rabble of the suburbs, and con- sequently met with much odium from those quarters, and elevated in their eyes such of the deputies as had opposed the passage of it into a law. The Marquis de Favras was at this period apprehend- ed with circumstances of public notoriety, and sent to the Chatelet. There were rumors of a plot against the Assembly, and he was the supposed ringleader. He was tried, convicted, and sentenced to be hanged. " A la lanterne ! a la lanterne ! " was the cry of a ferocious multitude in the halls of justice, during the progress of the trial, and it is believed that the tribunal was intimidated into the sentence which it passed upon the accused. Favras protested his innocence, and demanded permission to make a declaration before he died. He displayed in his last moments a firmness more worthy a martyr than of an intriguer. After his sentence, he was conveyed to the" Hotel-de-Ville, where he remained till night, and a scaffold was quickly erected in the Place de Greve. The populace, eager to see a marquis hanged, impatiently awaited this example of equality in punishments ; thousands of them thronged round the scaffold while it was being an admirer of the heroes of Rome, contributed greatly to develop the love of republicanism in him ; he sumamed him the Roman, and continually praised his vaunted love of independence and equality. Assiduous and diligent, he went through his studies with much credit In 1775, when Louis XVI made his entry into Paris, he was chosen by his fellow-students to present to that prince the homage of their gratitude. The pohtical troubles of 1788 heated his brain, and in 1789, the tiers-etat of Artois appointed him one of their de- puties to the States General. He soon began to acquire great influ- ence over the populace. For some time he paid court to Mirabeau, who despised him ; yet he accompanied him so assiduously in the streets and public squares, that he was at last sumamed Mxrab^wii ape. THE REIGN OF TERROR. 65 erected. Favras admitted having received a hundred louis from a nobleman of high rank, who had engaged him to dispose the public mind favourably towards the King, but uniformly declared he was no further impli- cated in any conspiracy. He marched with great firmness to the place of execution, clothed in a white shirt ; with a torch in his hand, he read, with a firm voice, his sentence of death, and again protested his innocence. It was night; the Place and the gibbet itself were lighted up ; the populace enjoyed the sight ; it was a subject of cruel jests to them, they encored the performance, and parodied, in various ways, the execution of this unfortunate man. The body of Favras was delivered to his family, and fresh events soon caused his death to be forgotten alike by those who had punished and those who had employed him. It was on the 19th of February, 1790, that his execu- tion took place.* The embarrassment of the finances now occupied the attention of the Assembly. All the measures taken for the relief of the public necessities since the convo- cation of the States-General had proved utterly un- availing. The nation, in truth, was subsisting entirely on borrowed money. In this emergency, the Assembly determined that the property of the Church should come under confiscation for the benefit of the nation. The proposition was made by Talleyrand, then Bishop of Autun. In support of it he argued that " the clergy were not proprietors, but depositaries of their estates ; that they were bestowed originally by the munificence of kings or nobles, and might now be resumed by the nation, which had succeeded to their rights." The funds thus acquired were enormous ; the church lands were nearly one half of the whole landed property of the kingdom. As it was impossible to bring this im- mense property at once to sale, and the necessities of the state being urgent, the Assembly adopted a sys- tem of paper money, called assignats^ which were ♦ Thiers. 66 THE REIGN OP TERROR. secured or hypothecated upon the church lands. The fluctuation of this paper, which was adopted against Necker's earnest cautions, created a great spirit of stock-jobbing; notes, red, blue and green, were sub- stituted for cash, forced into circulation, and to be reimbursed only in the lands of the clergy. Trade revived ; the public treasury paid its debts, and indi- viduals hastened to acquit theirs also. Strenuous efforts were now made to dissolve the Assembly, the period for which the deputies had been elected (one year,) having expired ; the clergy and the aristocratical party were anxious to bring it about, and urged the sovereignty of the people, so recently proclaimed by the popular leaders as the basis of government, as their argument. To this it was re- plied, the dissolution of the Assembly, before the work of the constitution was finished, would lead to its de- struction. " What right have we to speak of perpetuat- ing our power?" said the Abbe Maury. " When did we become a National Assembly] Has the oath of the 20th of June absolved us from that which we took to our constituents 1" Here Mirabeau ascended the tri- bune. " We are asked," said he, *' when our powers began. I reply, from the moment when, finding our place of assembly surrounded by bayonets, we swore rather to perish than abandon our duties towards the nation. Our powers have, since that great event, un- dergone a total change ; whatever we have done haa been sanctioned by the unanimous consent of the na- tion. You all remember the saying of the ancient patriot, who had neglected legal forms to save his country. Summoned by a factious opposition to an- swer for his infraction of the laws, he replied, *I swear that I have saved my country.' Gentlemen, I swear that 5''ou have saved France."* Electrified by this appeal, the Assembly rose by a spontaneous movement, and declared its sitting per- manent till the formation of the constitution was com- * Mignet ; Thiers ; Ferriere. THE REIGN OF TERROR. 67 p]eted. The next act of the Assembly was to abolish all titles of nobility, all coats of arms or other signs of feudal times, "that neither the eyes nor ears of citi- zens might be offended by the remains of despotism." The judicial establishment underwent a total change. The parliaments of the provinces were suppressed. The pardoning power w^as taken from the sovereign. Trial by jury was universally introduced, and the jurors taken indiscriminately from all classes of citi- zens. The Court of Cassation was established at Paris. The military organization was entirely changed ; so effectually, that the National Guard, thirty thousand strong, under the command of La Fayette, was capa- ble of being increased, by beat of drum, to double the number, all in the highest state of discipline and equipment. Great preparations had been in progress to celebrate the 14th of July, the anniversary of the capture of the Bastille. In this celebration and fete, it had been ar- ranged that the whole nation should assist by deputies chosen from amongst the national guards of each de- partment throughout the kingdom. The fete was to be called a Fcederation, and w^as to serve as a testi- mony of the approbation of the whole people in favor of the Revolution. The deputies were to swear to obey the King and the Assembly, and to be faithful to the cause of Liberty. It was to be a meeting of bro- thers and friends, collected together in Paris from all parts of France, with one intention and one mind. The deputies had been constantly arriving for weeks previous to the appointed day, and enthusiasm was raised to its highest pitch. Early on the morning of the 14th, all Paris M^as in motion. Four hundred thou- sand persons repaired with joyful steps to the Champs- de-Mars, and seated themselves, amid songs of con- gratulation, upon the seats w^hich surrounded the plain.* " Two hundred thousand patriotic men; and, twice as good, one hundred thousand patriotic women, * Alison. 68 THE REIGN OF TERROR. all decked and glorified as one can fancy, sit waiting in this Champs-de-Mars. What a picture ! On the heights of Chaillot are many-colored undulating groups ; round and far on, over al] the circling heights that embosom Paris, it is as one more or less peopled amphitheatre, which the eye grows dim with measur- ing."* At seven o'clock the procession advanced. The electors, the representatives of the municipality, the presidents of the districts, the national guards, the deputies of the army, deputies firom all the provinces of the kingdom, and numerous other bodies, in gala dresses, and with banners flying, moved on in order to the stirring sounds of military music, and amidst the shouts and applause of the people. The quays were lined with spectators, the houses were covered with them. A bridge of boats across the Seine, and strewed with flowers, led from one bank to the other, facing the scene of the amphitheatre around which the four hundred thousand were already seated.f The King and the President of the Assembly sat beside one another on similar seats, sprinkled with golden fleurs-de-lis. Behind this there was an elevated balcony for the Q,ueen and court. It was three hours before the procession arrived, when they began to en- ter the amphitheatre under a triumphal arch. Sixty thousand persons now entered it, and performed their evolutions. In the centre, upon a base twenty-five feet high, stood the altar of the country. At the foot of this altar, the King and the National Assembly re- ceived the concourse. Three hundred priests, in white * Carlyle. t " The procession passed through the streets of St. Martin, St Denis, and St. Honore. Wine, ham, fruits, and sausages, were let down from the windows for them ; they were loaded with the peo- ple's blessings. La Fayette, surrounded by his aides-decamp, gave orders and received the homage of the people. The perspiration trickled from his face. The road leading to the Champs-de-Mars was covered with people, who clapped their hands and sang Ca Ira. The heights of Passy presented a spectacle, where the elegant dresses, the charms and the graces of the women, enchanted the eye." — Mem. of Ferriere. THE REIGN OF TERROR. 69 surplices and tricolored scarfs, covered the steps, and were to officiate in the ceremony of the mass. The sky, whose brightness harmonizes so well with human joys, refused at this moment serenity and hght. Rain fell in torrents.* One of the battalions, as it came up, grounded arms, and conceived the idea of forming a dance. Its example was followed by all the others, and in a moment the intermediate space was filled by sixty thousand men, (soldiers and citizens,) opposing gayety of heart to the unfavorable weather. At length the ceremony commenced. The sky happily cleared, and threw its brilliancy over the scene. The Bishop of Autun, (Talleyrand,) began the mass. The choris- ters accompanied the voice of the prelate ; the cannon mingled with it their solemn peals. The mass over, La Fayette alighted from his superb white charger, ascended the steps of the throne, and received the or- ders of the King, who handed to him the form of the oath. La Fayette carried it to the altar. At that mo- ment all the banners waved, every sabre glistened. The general, the army, the president, the deputies cried, "I swear it." The King, standing, with his hand outstretched towards the altar, said, " I, King of the French, swear to employ the power delegated to me by the constitutional act of the state, in maintaining the constitution decreed by the National Assembly, and accepted by me." At this moment, the Q,ueen, moved by the general emotion, lifting the Dauphin in her arms, showed him to the people from the balcony where she was stationed, pledging herself for his ad- herence to the same sentiments ; in reply to which she *"A north wind, moaning cold moisture, began losing; and there descended a very deluge of rain, sad to see ! The thirty-staired seats, all round our amphitheatre, get instantaneously slated with mere umbrellas, fallacious when so thick set. From three to four thou- sand people feel that they have a skin. How all military banners droop; and will not wave, but lazily flap. Snowy muslins all splashed and draggled; the ostrich feather shrunk; all caps are ruined; beauty no longer swims decorated in her garniture." — CarlyLe. 7 70 THE REIGN OF TERROR. received shouts of joy, attachment and enthusiasm. Discharges of artillery, the rolling of drums, the plaud- its of the populace, and the clashing of arms, rent the skies. In the evening, fireworks, illuminations, and festivi- ties prevailed; "Paris, out of doors and in, man, wo- man and child, is jigging it, to the sound of harp and four-stringed fiddle;" and the King, in a concealed caleche, enjoyed the general expression of happiness. These rejoicings lasted several days. There was a regatta on the river ; a general review of the military took place ; a public ball was held on the site of the Bastille, now an open square. Brilliant lamps made amends for daylight ; a tree of liberty, sixty feet high, was set up ; and they danced, with joy and security, on the same spot where formerly fell so many tears ; where courage, genius, and innocence had so often wept ; where so often were stifled the cries of despair. " In the Champs Elysees it is as radiant as day with festooned lamps ; little oil-cups, like variegated fire- flies, daintily illume the highest leaves ; trees there are all sheeted with variegated fire, shedding far a gUm- mer into the dubious woods."* There every one walked about, or sate, or danced, without rivalry, with- out animosity. All classes intermingled, enjoyed them- selves beneath the mild lamp-light, and seemed delighted to be together. Thus, even in the bosom of modern civilization, both sexes seemed to have found anew the times of primitive fraternity. Why, alas ! are these pleasures of concord so soon forgotten !f The deputies to the Poederation, after attending the discussions of the National Assembly, after witnessing the pomp of the court, and the magnificence of Paris, after experiencing the kindness of the King, whom they all visited, and by whom they were kindly re- ceived, returned to their respective homes in trans- ports of intoxication, full of good feelings and illusions. This peaceful exhibition between the court and the * Carlyle. t Thiers, &c. THE REIGN OP TERROR. 71 people produced no permanent result. The revolution was not stopped. Reports circulated that the King projected a flight from the TuilJeries ; and he, doubt- less, considered himself as under forcible restraint ever since he had been dragged in triumph from Ver- sailles to Paris. His palace was guarded by eight hundred men, with two pieces of cannon. The people gave him no credit for sincerity ; and the public voice, in a thousand different ways, announced that his life would be the penalty of any attempt at his deliver- ance. The Jacobin club was active in promulgating its opinions, and one hundred and thirty-three Parisian journals discussed facts and principles. The minds of the people were kept in a continual ferment. Emi- gration of the nobility continued; the departure of the King's two aunts revived a suspicion of the royal family being upon the eve of a similar movement, and to such a height did the public anxiety arise, that the mob forcibly prevented a visit to St. Cloud which the King was desirous to make, under the pretext of seek- ing a change of air, but in reality, it maybe supposed, for the purpose of ascertaining what degree of liberty he would be permitted to exercise. The royal car- riages were drawn out, and the King and Queen had already entered theirs, when the cries of the specta- tors, echoed by those of the National Guards, who were on duty, declared that the king should not be permitted to leave the Tuilleries. * La Fayette arrived * "Their majesties have mounted. Crack go the whips; but twenty patriot arms have seized each of the eight bridles: there is rearing, rocking, vociferation ; not the smallest headway. In vain does La Fayette fret, indignant ; patriots in the passion of terror, bellow round the royal carriage. Rude voices passionately apostro- phize royalty itself. Her majesty has to plead passionately from the carriage window. Order cannot be heard, cannot be followed. La Fayette mounts and dismounts; runs haranguing, panting. Their majesties, counselled to it by royalist friends, by patriot foes, dis- mount; and retire in, with heavy indignant heart; giving up the enterprise. The King must keep his Easter in Paris ; meditating much upon this singular posture of affairs ; but as good as deter- mined to fly from it, desire being whetted by difficulty." — Carlyle. 72 THE REIGN OF TERROR. — commanded, implored, threatened the refractory guards, but was answered by their unanimous refusal to obey his orders. After the scene of tumult had lasted more than an hour, * and it was evident that La Fayette's authority was unable to accomplish his purpose, the royal persons re-entered the palace, now their absolute and avowed prison. [April 18, 1791.] Previous to this, the King, unable to endure the re- straint imposed upon him, had devoted the whole winter to preparations for flight. The zeal of Mira- beau was urged, and great promises were held out to him if he should succeed in setting the royal family at liberty. He formed a plan, which was that the King should retire from Paris to Compeigne, then under the government of the Marquis de Bouille ; that he should there assemble a royal army, and openly employ force to stem the torrent. Mirabeau for the interest he took in bringing about this plan, received a pension of nearly 4000 dollars a month, first from the Count D'Artois, and afterwards from the King. His style of living suddenly changed ; magnificent entertain- ments succeeded each other in endless profusion, and his house. No. 42 of the Rue de la Chaussee D'Antin, resembled rather the hotel of a powerful minister, than the leader of a fierce democracy. His influence in the Assembly was great, and the court considered his favor of the utmost importance. It is certain that he had the highest ascendency which any individual orator exercised over that body, and was the only one who dared to retort threats and deflance to the formidable Jacobins. " I have resisted military and ministerial despotism," said he, when opposing a pro- posed law against the emigrants ; " can it be supposed that I will yield to that of a club 1" And never was * " ' Seven quarters of an hour,* by theTuilleries clock." — Carlyle. *' La Fayette hastened to the spot, besought the King to remain in the carriage, assuring him that he would have a passage cleared for him. The King nevertheless alighted, and would not permit any attempt to be made. It was his old policy not to appear to be free. — Thiers, THE REIGN OF TERROR. 73 his eloquence more powerful than on this occasion, the last on which he ever addressed the Assembly. *' The sensation which the project of this law has ex- cited," he continued, " proves that it is worthy of a place in the code of Draco, and should never be re- ceived into the decrees of the National Assembly of France. It is high time you should be undeceived ; if you or your successors should ever give way to the violent counsels by which you are now beset, the law which you now spurn would be regarded as an act of clemency. In the bloody pages of your statute-book the word Death would be everywhere found ; your mouths would never cease to pronounce that terrible word ; your statutes, while they spread dismay within the kingdom, would chase to foreign shores all who gave lustre to the name of France ; and your exe- crable enactments would find subjects for execution only among the poor, the aged, and the unfortunate. For my own part, far from subscribing to such atro- cious measures, I should conceive myself absolved from every oath of fidelity to those who could carry their infamy so far as to name such a dictorial com- mission." Cries were raised on the left. " Yes," he repeated, " I swear" — He was again interrupted. "That popularity," he resumed, "to which I have aspired, and which I have enjoyed as well as others, is not a feeble seed; I will thrust it deep into the earth, and make it shoot up in the soil of reason and justice." " Applause burst forth from all quarters. " I swear," added the orator, " if a law against emigration is voted, I swear to disobey you." He descended from the tribune, after astounding the Assembly, and overawing his enemies. The discus- sion nevertheless continued. Murmurs, shouts, ap- plauses, succeeded. Mirabeau again demanded to be heard. " What right of dictatorship is it," cried M. Goupil, " that M. de Mirabeau exercises here?" — Mira- beau, without heeding him, hurried to the tribune. "I have not given you permission to speak,'' said the president. "Let the Assembly decide," said Mira- 7* 74 THE REIGN OF TERROR. beau. But the Assembly listened without deciding. " I beg my interrupters," said Mirabeau, " to remem- ber that I have all my life combated tyranny, and that I will combat it wherever- I find it." As he uttered these words he cast his eyes from the right to the left. Loud applause followed his words. He resumed. " I beg M. Goupil to recollect that he was under a mistake some time since in regard to a Catahne, whose dicta- torship he this day attacks." * Fresh murmurs arose on the left. " Silence ! ye thirty voices I" Mirabeau exclaimed, at the pitch of his thundering voice, and the hall was instantly silent.f Mirabeau, on this occasion, was particularly striking by his boldness. Never, perhaps, had he more impe- riously over-ruled the Assembly, But these were his last triumphs. His end approached. For months past he had suffered from illness. In the preceding January, while presiding at the Assembly, he sat at the evening session with his neck wrapt in linen cloths. As he came to the Assembly on the morning in question, [March 27th] he was obliged to seek rest and help in the house of a friend, and lay there, for an hour, half fainting, stretched on a sofa. The wear and tear of his existence had been great. " If I had not lived with him," says Dumont, "I should never have known what a man can make of one day; what things may be placed within the interval of twelve hours. A day for this man was more than a week or month is for others ; the mass of things he guided on together was prodigious ; from the scheming to the executing not a moment was lost." • His life had been as remarkable for profligacy as ta- lents. Presentiments of death had sometimes mingled with his projects, and they had sometimes subdued his flights of fancy. He had latterly appeared in the tribune, pale and with his eyes deeply sunk in their orbits. He was subject to frequent fits of fainting. The 27th of * M Goupil, when attacking Mirabeau upon a former occasion, had exclaimed, " Cataline is at our doors!" 1 Thiers; Scott; Alison. THE REIGN OF TERROR. 75 March was the last day that he left his house. Anxious multitudes beset his doors, incessantly inquiring; crowds of all parties and all kinds ; of all ranks, from the King to the meanest man. The King sent twice a day to inquire. The people spontaneously kept si- lence ; no carriage was permitted to approach the house with its noise. He had enjoined that no phy- sicians should be called in; he was, nevertheless, disobeyed, and they found that death was approach- ing, and that it had already seized his extremities, His head was last attacked, as if nature had decreed that his genius should continue to shine till the very last moment. His death, albeit that of a skeptic, had something sublime in it. He was no stranger to his approaching dissolution ; but, far from being in- timidated by the prospect, he gloried in the name he was to leave. The priest of his parish came to offer his attendance, which he declined. His sufferings were severe. On the morning of April 2nd, he said, " I shall die to-day. Surround me with perfumes and the flowers of spring; dress my hair carefully; let me fall asleep amid the sound of harmonious music." Being aware that recovery was hopeless, he earnestly requested laudanum to put a period to his existenqe. Feigning to comply, those about his bed gave him a cup containing what they said was opium. He calmly drank it off, fell back on his pillow, and appeared satis- fied. In a moment after (at half past eight o'clock in the morning) he expired, aged forty-two. His death was felt by all as a public calamity; by the people, be- cause he had been the early leader and intrepid cham- pion of freedom ; by the royalists, because they trusted to his support against the violence of the Jacobins. His obsequies were celebrated with great pomp on the 4th. All Paris assembled at his funeral, which was celebrated by torch-light, amid the tears of innumer- able spectators. " Tlie people of Paris testified very evident marks of anxiety and grief; the whole of that immense city mourned hke a family that had lost its lather ; even the royalists were sorry, and many of 76 THE REIGN. OF TERROR. them long after entertained the belief that if Mirabeau had lived, tlie revolution would have taken a more mild and favourable turn."* The procession was a league in length : consisting of the National guards, the National Assembly in a body, the Jacobin society, and other societies, the King's ministers, and the mu- nicipalities. At five in the afternoon it moved, sable plumes waving, muffled drums, trombones, and the long-drawn wail of music, amid the grief-hum of sor- rowing thousands. At the church of St. Eustache there was a funeral oration. Thence to the church of St. Genevieve, which the Assembly had converted into a Pantheon, dedicated Aux Grands Hommcs la Patrie recormaisante. It was midnigiit before the ceremony was concluded. The corpse was placed by the remains of Descartes. The bones of Voltaire, and subsequentl}'' those of Rousseau, were soon afterward removed to the same receptacle.! The death of Mirabeau did not extinguish the plan which had been formed by him for the escape of the King ; and the hostile movements of the populace tended to accelerate the flight. M. de Bouille was the person on whom the royal family depended in their distress. For some time past he had prepared every thing for their reception, and, under covert of a mili- tary movement on the frontier, had drawn together the troops most devoted to royalty to the camp at Mont- medy. On their side, the royal family were not inac- tive. Their design, known to few, was betrayed by none ; their manner indicated more than usual confi- dence. The dueen had secured a private door for quitting the palace ; and at eleven o'clock on the night of the 21st of June, [1791,] a coach " was drawn up in the Rue de I'Echelle, hard by the Carrousel and, out- gate of the Tuilleries, ' opposite Ronsin the saddler's door,' as if waiting for a fare." Madame de Tourzel, (" a hooded dame with two hooded children ") pro- ceeded to the carriage and entered it ; the Count de • Playfair. t Thiers; Alison; Carlyle; etc. THE REIGN OP TERROR. 77 Fersen, disguised as a coachman, being on the driver's seat. Then came the King's sister, Madame Eliza- beth, " likewise hooded or shrouded, leaning on the arm of a servant." The King, in round hat and pe- ruke, disguised as a valet, came next. The Queen, shaded in a broad gipsy-hat, and attended by a single servant, was the last to leave the palace ; and she and her attendant being unacquainted with the streets of Paris, they lost their way. She met the carriage of La Fayette, which was accompanied by his ser- vants with flambeaux, and was obliged to conceal her- self behind the colonnade of the Louvre while it passed. Flurried by the flare and the rattle, and trembling at the danger she had escaped of being re- cognized, she took a wrong direction, and it was after midnight before she reached the carriage, w^here she was awaited with extreme impatience. The whole family, being now together, lost no time in setting off. They arrived, after a long ride, (driving about several streets, to deceive any one that might follow,) at the Porte St. Martin, and hastily got into a berline, with six horses, stationed there in waiting for them. Madame de Tourzel, by the name of Madame de Korff, in which name a passport had been obtained for her, was to pass for a mother travelling with her children, and the King for her valet-de-chambre. Three of the life-guards, in disguise, were to precede the carriage as couriers or to follow it as servants. At length they started, Count Fersen on the new box, with its new hammer-cloths, driving fast towards the forest of Bondy, where a chaise with two of the Queen's waiting-maids was to meet them. Here Count Fersen took his leave of' the royal family, amidst their thanks, and left the kingdom. The royal family travelled all night, during which Paris knew nothing of the matter.* The citizens of Paris were in the utmost consterna- * The King's brother, afterwards Louis XVIII, took, on the same night, the road to Flanders, and succeeded in reaching the frontier. 78 THE REIGN OP TERROR. tion when, on the following morning, the escape of the King was discovered. The National Assembly- met at nine in the morning, and listened to the read- ing of a memorial which the monarch had left behind him, and which, m his own hand writing, detailed the reasons that had provoked him to ily from Paris. The most vehement members of the popular party, who already began to be tired of the King, found in his absence an occasion to dispense with him, and in- dulged the hope of a republic. Du Chiitelet, and Thomas Paine, had the walls of Paris profusely plas- tered with their placard, announcing that there must be a Republic. Few persons were apprehensive, as formerly, of seeing the monarch threatening the con- stitution from amidst an army. The rabble alone, into whom this apprehension had been studiously in- stilled by the Jacobins, continued to entertain it when it was no longer felt by the Assembly, and ardently wished for the re-capture of the royal family. Groups met in the streets, and at the Palais-Royal, discussing the flight. The King was in the meantime pursuing his journey. The success of the enterprise, the dis- tance from Paris, the near approach of the royal corps under Bouille, occasioned a relaxation in precautions. Stoppages occurred, and the King " dismounted to walk up hills, and enjoy the blessed sunshine;" at Chalons, too, he frequently put his head out the win- dow, and at St. Menehould, the postmaster, Drouet, was struck by the resemblance of his countenance to the engraving on the assignats ; the age, the number of the royal family, confirmed him in his suspicions, and, after the carriage had departed, he sounded the alarm throughout the village, and despatched his son on a swift horse to cross the country, and have the carriage intercepted at the next post, Varennes. Young Drouet used such speed that he arrived at Varennes before the King, gave information to the municipality, and caused all the necessary measures to be taken to apprehend the fugitives. Varennes is situated on the bank of a narrow but THE REIGN OP TERROR. 79 deep river. The carriage reached this town at night, (eleven o'clock,) and halted, expecting a detachment of hussars in readiness to form an escort ; the officer in command there had watched till tired, and permit- ted his men to go into quarters. Young Drouet, joined by five of the villagers whom he had roused from their beds, instantly set to work in blockading the bridge, over which the route of the carriage lay, with a " furniture-wagon that they found there," and with whatever else they could lay hold of in the hurry of the moment. They then took their station under an archway, and awaited the carriage, which presently drove up. " Halt there ! Your passports !" Drouet ex- claimed, and at the same instant others stopped the horses, whilst levelled muskets were presented at the two coach doors. The passport was handed out. Drouet took it, and said it must be examined by the soliciter of the commune ; and the royal family were necessitated to step out of the carriage and be con- ducted to the house of the soliciter, M. Sausse, a grocer and tallow-chandler.* M. Sausse, having ascertained that a sufficient number of the National Guards had assembled, threw off all disguise, and informed the king that he was recognized and apprehended. An altercation ensued. Louis declared that he was not the king, and the dispute grew warm. "Since you ac- knowledge him to be your king," exclaimed the Q,ueen, angrily, "speak to him with the respect you owe him." Finally, Louis, seeing that further denial was useless, took no more trouble to disguise himself The little room was full of people. He spoke and ex- pressed himself with a warmth that was unusual to him. He insisted upon continuing his journey. With deep emotion, finding his authoritative language had " M. Sausse gives his arms to the Queen and sister Elizabeth ; Majesty taking the two children by the hand. And thus they walk, coolly back, over the market-place, to M. Sausse's ; mount mto his small upper story ; where straightway his majesty demands refresh- ments—gets bread and cheese, with a bottle of Burgundy ; and re- marks that it is the best Burgundy ever he drank r—Carlyle. 80 THE REIGN OF TERROR. no effect, he next embraced M. Sausse, and implored him. The Queen joined him, and taking the dauphin in her arms, besought Sausse to release them. Sausse was affected, but withstood their entreaties, and ad- vised them to return to Paris, to prevent a civil war. At this moment detachments arrived. The officers assembled them, informed them that the King was ar- rested, and that they must release him. The men replied that they were for the nation^ and refused to act. At the same instant the National Guards, called together from the environs, filled the town. The whole night was passed in this state. At six o'clock in the morning, young Romeuf, an aid-de-camp of La Fayette, arrived with the decree of the Assembly, au- thorizing the '* public functionaries to prevent, by all means in their power, the continuance of the journey." He went up stairs and delivered the decree. The King, finding how matters were, submitted, and the royal family re-entered the carriage, which, surround- ed by a great body of the National Guard, set out upon its return to Paris. All the route back to Paris, a great concourse (sixty thousand it is said) accom- panied the carriage, with much noise and tumult. At Epernay, three commisioners, sent by the Assembly, immediately after news of the arrest reached Paris, took command of the fugitives. These three were Petion, La Tour Maubourg, and Barnave, and all orders in respect of the journey emanated from them alone. During the journey, Barnave, though a stern republican, was so melted by the graceful dignity of the Queen, and impressed by the good sense and benevolence of the King, that he was ever afterward their friend.* He sat at the back of the carriage between the King and Q,ueen. Petion sat on the front seat, between Madame Elizabeth and the young * At first a deep silence prevailed. The King at length entered into conversation with Barnave ; it turned upon all sorts of subjects. The Queen was astonished at the superior understanding and delicate politeness of the young man : she soon threw up her veil, and took part in the conversation. — Thiers. THE REIGN OF TERROR. 81 princess, the dauphin first on the lap of one and then on that of the other. The journey was slow, because the carriage followed the pace of the National Guards. The heat was excessive ; and the great cloud of dust, continually raised by the multitude, half suffocated the travellers. In contrast to the delicacy of Barnave, Petion displayed rudeness ; he ate and drank in the King's carriage with httle regard for the presence of royalty, throwing chicken bones out of the window, at the risk of hitting the King in the face. He had the little dauphin on his knee ; he amused himself with rolling the fair hair of the boy in his fingers, and he pulled his locks with such force as to make the child cry. " Give me, my child," said the Q,ueen ; " he is accustomed to kindness, to respect, which unfit him for such familiarities."* During the journey, the two body-guards who had accompanied the flight, were chained on the outside of the carriage; peasants armed with scythes and pitchforks, mixed with the escort, uttering the bitter- est reproaches; and at each village the people as- sembled to vent their execrations. The Count de Dampierre, a nobleman inhabiting a chateau near the road, approached the carriage with an attempt to kiss the hand of the monarch. He was instantly pierced by several balls from the escort, his blood sprinkled the carriage, and his remains were torn to pieces by the savage multitude, f A few leagues from the place where this crime was committed, a poor village cure, had the imprudence to approach for the purpose of speaking to the King ; the savages rushed upon him. " Tigers !" cried Barnave, " have you ceased to be French 1 Prom a nation of brave men, are you changed into a nation of murderers ]" Nothing but these words saved the cure, who was already struck to the ground, from instant death. | * Memoirs of Madame Campan. Thiers. t Alison, t Madame Campan. " Baraave, as he uttered these words, had almost thrown himself out at the door, and Madame Elizabeth, 82 THE REIGN OP TERROR. In Paris, the reception to be given to the royal family had been decided upon. Neither applause nor insults were heard. " So on Saturday evening, about seven o'clock, Paris is again drawn up ; not now dancing the tri-color joy-dance of hope ; nor as yet dancing the fury-dance of hate and revenge; but in silence."* The carriage made a circuit, that it might not be obliged to traverse Paris. It entered by the Champs Elysees, which led directly to the palace. An immense crowd received it in silence, and with hats on. The life-guards were on the box, exposed to the gaze and the wrath of the populace ; they, neverthe- less, experienced no violence.! La Fayette went for- ward to meet the procession. During his absence a great throng had been permitted to approach and gather around the Tuilleries. The Q,ueen, anxious for the safety of the life-guards, no sooner saw the com- mander-in-chief, than she exclaimed, " Save the gardes- du-corps;" and La Fayette placed them himself in security in one of the halls of the palace.| The royal family hastily alighted, and passed between a double file of National Guards, drawn up for its protection. By a decree of the Assembly, Louis XVI. was now temporarily suspended from his functions, and a guard placed over his person, and that of Marie Antoinette and the dauphin. All the liberty extended to Louis was that of walking in the garden of the Tuilleries in the morning before it was opened to the public. It is said that he now occupied himself in studying the history of the English Revolution with particular attention. He had always been powerfully struck by the fall of Charles the First, and he could not help feeling sinister fore- bodings. He had particularly remarked the motive of Charles's condemnation — civil war; and hence con- touched by his noble warmth, held him back by his coat. In speak- ing of this circumstance, the Queen said that in the most critical moments she was always struck by odd contrasts ; and that, on thia occasion, the pious Elizabeth, holding Barnave by the skirt of the coat, had appeared to her a most ridiculous scene." — Mad. Campau. * Carlyle. t Thiers. X Mem. of La Fayette. THE REIGN OP TERROR. 83 tracted an invincible horror of every measure that could produce bloodshed.* A fresh insurrection of the rabble was plotted by the Jacobins. Robespierre, and others, in the Assembly, argued that the King's flight was abdication of the throne, and that nothing remained but to proclaim a republic ; whilst at the Palais-Royal, in the gardens, and at the corners of the streets, demagogues harangued the vicious and idle portion of the population. The examination of the King, on the object of his journey to Varennes, brought out in debate the distinguished leaders on both sides. The inviolability of the^King's person was the basis of the argument, and eloquently insisted upon by Barnave. In answer to which Robes- pierre answered, " To admit the inviolability of the King for acts which are personal to himself, is to estab- lish a god upon earth. We can allow no fiction to consecrate impunity to crime, or give any man a right to bathe our families in blood. But you have decreed, it is said, this inviolability. So much the worse. An authority more powerful than that of the Constitution now condemns it, the authority of reason, the con- science of the people, the duty of providing for their safety. The constitution has not decreed the absolute inviolability of the sovereign; it has only declared him not answerable for the acts of his ministers. To this privilege, already immense, are you prepared to add an immunity from every personal offence — from per- jury, murder, or robber}'-] Shall we, who have levelled so many other distinctions, leave this, the most dan- gerous of them all 7 Ask of England if she recognizes such an impunity in her sovereigns ? Would you be- hold a loved son murdered before your eyes by a furious King, and hesitate to deliver him over to a criminal justice ? Enact laws which punish all crimes without exception — or suffer the people to avenge them for themselves. You have heard the oaths of the King. Where is the juryman who, after having heard this * Thiers. 8* 84 ' THE REIGN OF TERROR. manifesto, and the account of the journey, would hesi- tate to declare the King guilty of perjury, that is, felony to the nation '? The "King is inviolable; but so are you. Do you now contend for his privilege to murder with impunity millions of his subjects ] Do you dare to pronounce the King innocent, when the nation has pronounced him guilty] Consult its good sense, since your own has abandoned you. I am called a republican. Whether I am or not, I declare my conviction, that any form of government is better than that of a feeble monarch, alternately the prey of contending factions." "Regenerators of the empire," rejoined Barnave, "follow, continue the course you have commenced. You have already shown that you have courage enough to destroy the abuses of power ; now is the time to demonstrate that you have wisdom to protect the in- stitutions you have formed. At the moment we evince our strength, let us manifest our moderation ; let us exhibit to the world, intent on our movements, the fair spectacle of peace and justice. What would the trial of a King be but the proclamation of a republic 1 Are you prepared to destroy, at the first shock, the Con- stitution you have framed with so much care 7 You are justly proud of having closed a revolution without a parallel in the annals of the world, — and will you now commence a new one? Will you now open a gulf of which no human wisdom can see the bottom ; in which laws, lives and property would be alike swallowed up T With wisdom and moderation you have exercised the vast powers committed to you by the state — you have created Liberty ! — and beware of substituting in its place a violent and sanguinary des- potism. Be assured that those who now propose to pass sentence on the King, will do the same to your- selves when you first thwart their ambition. If you prolong the revolution, it will increase in violence. You will be beset with clamors for confiscations and murders ; the people will never be satisfied but with substantial advantages, and they cannot be obtained THE REIGN OF TERROR. 85 but by destroying their superiors. The world has hitherto been awed by the powers we have developed; let them now be charmed by the gentleness which graces them."* But " No King' ! No King .'" was the general cry at the meetings of the Jacobins, in the streets, and in the public papers. Numberless addresses were published. One of these (before referred to,) was posted on all the walls of the city, and at the door of the Assembly. It was signed with the name of Achille Duchatelet, a young colonel. He addressed himself to the French. He reminded them of the tranquillity which had pre- vailed during the journey of the King, and thence con- cluded that his absence was more beneficial than his presence ; he added that his flight was an abdication, that the nation and Louis XVI. were released from all engagements to each other ; finally, that history was full of the crimes of kings, and that the people ought to renounce all intention of giving themselves another. This address was from the pen of the celebrated Tho- mas Paine, who, after the publication, in England, of his " Rights of Man," was chosen a member of the National Assembly. The commotion increased. On the morning of the 17th July, a petition for the dethronement of Louis XVI. was carried to the Champs-de-Mars, and laid ^ " Antoine Pierre Joseph Barnave, the son of a very rich attor- ney at Grenoble, sent a deputy to the States-General. On the news of Louis XVI.'s flight, Barnave showed great presence of mind in the midst of the stupefaction of the Assembly, and was appointed one of the commissioners to bring the royal family back to Paris. He returned in the same carriage with them ; showed them great respect, and, by so doing, lost much of his popularity. In contend- ing for the inviolability of the King's person, he was hooted by the Assembly. After the 10th of August, 1792, certain documents, found in the iron chest, having established the connivance of Bar- nave with the court, he was brought before the Revolutionary Tri- bunal, and was guillotined 29th INlovember, 1793. He was a small, but well-looking man, and professed the Protestant religion. Few orators of his day possessed so much grace of diction and sagacity of analysis." — Biographic Moderne. 86 THE REIGN OF TERROR. upon the altar of the Fosderation for the people to sign it* The crowd of the seditious was reinforced by that of the curious. Whilst the petition was being signed, it was announced that a decree had passed the Assem- bly declaring the inviolability of the monarch and that he could not be dethroned. La Fayette arrived with the National Guards, broke down the barricades already erected, was threatened and even fired at ; but, though almost close to the muzzle of the weapon, he escaped uninjured. The municipal officers having joined him, at length prevailed on the populace to re- tire. National Guards were placed to watch their re- treat, and for a moment it was hoped that the disper- sion would pass of peacably. But the tumult was soon renewed. Two invalides were murdered and the uproar became unbounded. f The 7'ed Jiag was un- furled. Bailli, the mayor, advanced with unshrinking firmness and read the summons. He was several times fired at. La Fayette at first ordered a few shots to be fired in the air ; but ineffectually, and, driven to extremity, he gave the word " Fire.'''' The discharge killed and wounded several hundred of the rioters, and. the severe example quieted the agitators for the time. The leading Jacobins slunk in terror to their hiding- places. La Fayette and Bailli were vehemently re- proached, but both of them, considering it their duty to observe the law, and to risk popularity and life in its execution, felt neither regret, nor fear, for what they had done. * " On the morning of the 17th, two different bands of the people were in motion ; one decently clothed, grave in manner, small in number, headed by Brissot ; the other, hideous in aspect, ferocious in lan- guage, formidable in numbers, under the guidance of Robespierre. 'We will repair,' said they, ' to the Field of the Fcederation, and a hundred thousand men will dethrone the perjured King. This day shall be the last of all the friends of treason.' "—Alison. t " Two invalides had placed themselves under the altar to observe this extraordinary scene ; a cry arose that they were assassins placed there to blow up the leaders of the people ; they beheaded the unhappy wretches on the spot, and paraded their heads on pikes around the altar of France." Alison. THE REIGN OP TERROR. 87 The Assembly, by this triumph, or the necessity of having Recourse to it, over the rabble, lost its popular- ity with them. It now proceeded to complete and give the last touches to the constitution, and bring its stormy career to a calm conclusion. It also decreed that its members should be excluded from the next legislature. The constitution was accordingly com- pleted with some haste, and submitted to the King for his acceptance. The strict watch kept over the palace ceased, and he was permitted to retire whithersoever he pleased, to examine the constitutional act and to accept it freely. After a certain number of days, he accepted it. He repaired to the Assembly, where he was received as in the most brilliant times.* La- Fayette, who never forgot to repair the evils of politi- cal troubles, proposed a general amnesty for all acts connected with the revolution, which was proclaimed amidst shouts, and the prisons were instantly thrown open. At length, on the 30th of September, 1791, Thouret, the last president, declared that the Constituent As- sembly had terminated its sittings. Louis XVI. attended in person, and spoke. " In returning to your constituents," said he, " you have still an important duty to discharge ; you have to make known to the citizens the real meaning of the laws you have enact- ed, and to explain my sentiments to the people. Tell them that the King will always be their first and best friend ; that he had need of their affection ; that he knows no enjoyment but in them and with them ; that the hope of contributing to their happiness will sustain his courage, as the satisfaction of having done so will constitute his reward." At the breaking up, Robespierre and Petion were * Thiers. — " But the altered state of the royal authority was evin- ced by the formahties observed even in the midst of the general enthusiasm. The monarch was no longer seated on a throne apart from his subjects ; two chairs, in every respect alike, were allotted to him and to the president ; and he did not possess, even in appearance, more authority than the leader of that haughty body."— AZison. 88 THE REIGN OF TERROR. borne to their places of residence on the shoulders of the people, with loud acclamations. Cries of "Vive le Roi !" were again heard saluting the King ; their majesties visited the opera, gave money to the poor, and even the Q,ueen was occasionally- cheered. " To and fro, amid those lamp-galaxies of the Elysian Fields, the ro3^al carriage slowly wends and rolls ; ever3^where with vivats, from a multitude striving to be glad. Louis looks out, mainly on the variegated lamps and gay human groups, with satis- faction enough for the hour. In her majesty's face, * under that kind graceful smile, a deep sadness is leg- ible.' " Magnificent fetes were ordered by the King, which exhausted the already weakened resources of the throne; the palace and gardens of the Tuilleries were superbly illuminated. Robespierre retired to his native town of Arras, sold a small inheritance he had there, and, after seven weeks, returned to Paris, accompanied by a brother and sister, and to his old lodging, at the cabinet- maker's in the Rue St. Honore. THE REIGN OP TERROR. 89 CHAPTER IV. The Jacobin club — the Cordeliers club — the Feuillans club — Camilla Desmoulins and George James Danton — some account of them — Robespierre at the Jacobin club. Opening of the new Assembly on the 30th of October, 1791. Petion elected mayor of Paris. Brissot— La Fayette unpopular. Reception of the Duke of Or- leans at Court — he is spit upon by the courtiers — his rage and vexation. Roland — his wife — Dumouriez — interview between Marie Antoinette and Dumouriez. Massacres at Avignon — Jour- dan — gibbets — hanging of aristocrats — havoc and anarchy — terri- ble feelings between the aristocrats and patriots in Avignon — placards — massacre of the patriot L'Escuyer at the foot of the altar in the church at Avignon — vengeance of the patriots — Jour- dan closes the gates of the town and guards the wails — the body of L'Escuyer carried on a bier — dreadfiil massacres — the Ice- tower — pillage — violation of women — wailing, pity, rage ! The National Assembly, on the 20th of April, 1792, declares war be- tween France and Austria. Murmurs against the Court. Roland — Dumouriez — and the Girondists. Marat — his tirades against the priests and aristocrats. Excitement — distrust — decree of ban- ishment against all priests that did not take an oath to the consti- tution, and a decree for the establishment of a camp of twenty- thousand men around the walls of Paris — hesitation of the King to confirm these two decrees, and the consequent exasperation of the Jacobins. Roland dismissed from the ministry, Dumouriez at the Assembly, Despondency of Louis XVL The Jacobins — bonnet rouge. Anniversary of the Oath at the Tennis Court, and immense gatherings in the suburbs — the procession — pikes — tri- colors — sans-culottes— mob defile before the Assembly — proceed to the Tuiileries, and burst into the palace— peril of the royal family— Louis XVI. Marie Antoinette — Madame Elizabeth — JN^a- poleon Bonaparte — La Fayette. The Jacobins burn La Fayette in effigy. Approach of the Prussian army — excited state of Paris — speech of Vergniaud in the Assembly. The Marsellais, etc. The old Assembly had broken up. Its members had returned to the bosoms of their families or were scat- tered throughout Paris. The clubs gained at this period great importance. Thither resorted all who lonsced to speak, to take an active part, to agitate. The oldest of the clubs, that of the Jacobins, was so 90 THE REIGN OP TERROR. numerously attended that in the church, in which it was held, there was scarcely sufficient room for its members and auditors. An immense amphitheatre rose in the form of a circus, and occupied the whole great nave of the church ; a desk was placed in the centre, at which sat the president and secretaries. This club, from its seniority and persevering violence, had constantly maintained an ascendency over all those that had desired to show themselves more moderate or even more vehement. The moderate declaimers met at what was called the club of the Feuillans. Another club, that of the Cordeliers, endeavoured to rival in violence that of the Jacobins ; Camille Desmoulins was its secretary,* and Danton its president.! Dan- ton, who had not been successful in his practice as a lawyer, had gained the admiration of the multitude, which he powerfully excited by his athletic figure, his * " B. Camille Desmoulins, a lawyer, born at Guise, in Picardy, in 1762. His appearance was vulgar, his complexion swarthy, and his looks unprepossessing. At the commencement of the Revolution, he and Robespierre formed an intimacy. It was he who harangued the crowd in the Palais-Royal, on Sunday, 12th of July, 1789, with pis- tols in his hand. He frequently asserted that society consisted of two classes — gentlemen and sans-culottes ; and that to save the re- public, it was necessary to take the purses of the one, and put arms in the hands of the other. His connexion with Danton was his ruin ; and his sentence of death the word ' clemency,' which he re- commended in a journal, published by him, the Old Cordelier. He was arrested in 1794. When led to execution, at the age of thirty- three, he made the most violent efforts to avoid getting into the cart. His shirt was in tatters, and his shcujders bare; his eyes glared, and he foamed at the mouth. His wife, whom he adored, and by whom he was as warmly beloved, begged to share his fate, and, ten days afterwards, Robespierre sent her to the scaffold, where she exhibited much more firmness than her husband had done," Biographie Moderne. t George Jacques Danton, bom Oct. 26. 1759. His stature was colossal ; his features harsh, large and disagreeable. His eloquence was vehement, his voice stentorian. He was sometimes denomina- ted the Mirabeau, sometimes the Alcibiades of the rabble. He may be said to have resembled both ; in his tempestuous passions, popu- lar eloquence, dissipation, and debts, like the one ; in his ambition, his daring, and inventive genius, like the other. He exerted his faculties, and indulged his voluptuary indolence alternately, by starts. THE REIGN OF TERROR. 91 sonorous voice, and his popular passions. Robespierre intrenched himself at the Jacobins, where he ruled without a partner, by the dogmatism of his opinions and by a reputation for integrity which had gained for him the epithet of Incorruptible. The new Assembly opened its sittings on the 1st of Oct. 1791. The composition of this assembly was wholly popular. All the nation having partaken of the spirit of the revolution, neither tlie court, the nobles, nor the clergy, exercised any influence over the elections. There were not, as in the preceding assembly, any partizans of absolute power or peculiar privileges. But opinions and parties soon discovered themselves. There were a rights a centre, and left, as in the consti- tuent assembly, but possessing a character altogether different. The left formed the party called the Giron- dins, at the head of which were the brilliant orators from the department of Gironde, from which it took its name. These orators were Vergniaud, Guadet, Gensonne, and others whose eloquence was as glow- ing as theirs. Its principal leader was Brissot, whose activity of mind exerted itself by turns in the journal called The Patriot, in the tribune of the Assembly, and at the Jacobin club. It had in it, also, the rudi- ments of a faction which went far beyond the main party in opinion. This was the germ of that fac- tion which, out of doors, served as auxiliaries to the Girondins, and regulated the affiliation of the clubs and the multitude. Robespierre, in the society of the Ja- cobins; Danton and Desmoulins, at the Cordeliers; together with the brewer, Santerre, in the suburbs, where the popular strength resided; were the real chiefs of that faction which trusted for its support to an entire class of the population.* Santerre, by his stature, his voice, and a certain fluency of speech, pleased the people, and had acquired by these, and by his large capital, a kind of sw^ay in the fauxbourg St. Antoine, the battalion of which he commanded ; and, like all men who are too easily wrought upon, he was * Mignet. 9 92 THE REIGN OF TERROR. capable of becoming very dangerous, according to the excitement of the moment. He attended all the fac- tious meetings held in the distant fauxbourgs. He had already distinguished himself at the taking of the Bas- tille.* It is said that the assassination of Marie Antoi- nette was plotted by him, and that he engaged a grena- dier of his batallion to perpetrate the crime ; that the grenadier gained access to the Tuilleries, was discov- ered, but had the address to escape,! Another of this out-door faction was Legendre, the butcher, one of the earliest and most violent leaders of the mob.J Another was Rossighol, a journeyman goldsmith. And there were several others, among which were Carra, the journalist, and Alexandre, commandant of the fauxbourg St. Marceau, who, by their communi- cations with the populace, could at any moment set all the fauxbourgs in commotion. By the most conspicu- ous among them they communicated with the chiefs of the popular party, and were thus able to conform their movements to a superior direction. On the 30th two decrees were passed; one, com- manding the King's brother to return to France, under pain of being held to have abdicated his eventual right to the regency; the other, declaring all the French without the kingdom engaged in a conspiracy against the constitution, and subjecting all those who should not return before the 1st of January to the penalty of death, and confiscation of their estates. The choice of a mayor for the city of Paris, shortly after occupied the attention of the capital. La Fayette was the candidate of the moderate party, while Petion was the favourite of the Jacobins. The court, jealous * Thiers. t Mem. de MoUeville. t " In 1793 he voted for the King's death, and, the day before his execution, proposed to the Jacobins to cut him into eighty-four pieces, and send one to each of the departments. He was one of the chief instigators of the atrocities at Lyons ; and at Dieppe, when some persons complained of the want of bread, he answered, " well, eat the aristocrats !' He died at Paris in 1797, aged forty-one, and bequeathed his body to the surgeons, ' in order to be useful to man- kind after his death.' " — Biographic Moderne. THE REIGN OP TERROR. 93 of La Payette — Marie Antoinette especially disliked him — had the imprudence to throw the weight of the crown into the scale for Petion, and even expended large sums of money to promote his election. A war with Austria was now strongly called for. But at the Jacobin club, where it was discussed, Robes- pierre was in favor of peace. Was he afraid of war 1 or did he oppose it only because Brissot,* his rival at the same cJub, supported it, and because young Lou- vetf defended it with ability 1 Some expressed them- selves as afraid of a war, lest it should give too many advantages to La Payette, and procure for him a mili- tary dictatorship. This was the continual fear of Ca- mille Desmoulins, who never ceased to figure La Fayette as at the head of a victoi'ious army, shooting down the people as he had done on the 17th of July last in the Champs-de-Mars. Louvet and his party supposed Robespierre hostile to La Fayette because * " Brissot de Warville, born in 1754, at a village near Chartres. His father kept a cook shop, which occasioned the saying that the son had all the heat of his father's stoves. After passing four years in an attorney's office, he turned author, and, at twenty years of age, had already published several works, one of which occasioned his imprisonment in the Bastille in 1784. He married a person attached to the household of the Duchess d'Orleans, and afterwards went to England. He lived there on pay as a spy from the lieutenant of police at Paris. At the same time he employed himself in literature, and endeavoured to form an academy in London; but, this specula- tion proving unsuccessful, he returned to France, and distinguished himself greatly during the Revolution. At the time of the trial of Louis XVI., he strove to bring the subject of his condemnation be- fore the people, and afterwards voted for his death, though he was anxious to retain a reprieve. Being denounced, together with the rest of the Girondins, by the Jacobins, he was guillotined in 1793. He was so passionate an admirer of the Americans, that he adopted the appearance of a Quaker, and was pleased to be mistaken for one." — Biographic Moderne. t Jean Baptiste Louvet de Couvray was an advocate, and dis- tinguished actor in the French Revolution. He attached himself to the Girondins, and was included in the order of arrest issued in 1794 against that party. He, however, managed to escape, and lay concealed in Paris until after the fall of Robespierre. He died at Paris in '1797. He is known as the author of a licentious novel, The Chevalier Fauhlas. 94 THE REIGN OP TERROR. of the latter's enmity to the Duke of Orleans, with whom the Jacobins were said to be secretly united. The Duke, having some time since returned from England, and feeling himself out of place with the pop- ular party, had endeavoured to obtain the pardon of the court during the latter days of the Constituent As- sembly and had been repulsed. Bertrand de Molle- vilie, in his memoirs, gives the following account of the circumstance. " I made a report to the council on the same day of the visit paid me by the Due d'Or- leans, and of our conversation. The King determined to receive him, and next day had a conversation with him that lasted over half an hour, and with which his majesty seemed to be much pleased. 'I think, like you,' said his majesty, ' that he is perfectly sincere, and will do all in his power to repair the mischief he has done, and in which possibly he may not have taken so much part as we imagined.' On the Sunday following, the Duke came to the King's levee, where he met with the most humiliating reception from the courtiers, who were ignorant of what had passed, and from the royalists, who were in the habit of repairing in great numbers to the palace on that day, to pay their court to the royal family. They crowded round him, treading on his toes, edging him towards the door, and he went down stairs to the Queen, whose table was already laid. The moment he appeared, a cry was raised of 'take care of the dishes!' as though it was feared he had poison with him to throw into them ; and the insulting language which his presence everywhere excited, forced him to retire without see- ing the royal family. He was pursued to the Queen's staircase, where they spat upon his head and several times upon his coat. Rage and vexation were depict- ed in his face ; and he left the palace convinced that the outrages he had received were instigated by the King and Queen, who knew nothing of the matter, and who indeed were extremely angry about it. He swore implacable hatred against them, and kept but too faithfully his horrid oath. I was at the palace that THE REIGN OF TERROR. 95 day, and witnessed all the circumstances I have here related." The prince had a right to be exasperated ; and his friends at the Jacobin club, and in the Assem- bly, thought fit to make a noise about the circum- stance ; hence it was supposed his faction was again raising its head, and that his pretensions and his hopes were renewed by the dangers of the throne.* A new ministry was formed. M. Roland was made minister of the interior ; he had formerly been in- specter of manufactories, and had distinguished him- self by some excellent publications on industry and the mechanical arts. This man, with austere man- ners, inflexible opinions, yielded, without being aware of it, to the superior ascendency of his wife. Living in the closest friendship with her husband, she lent him her pen, and communicated to him a portion of her own vivacity. She was the daughter of a distinguish- ed engraver who ruined his fortune by dissipation.! M. Dumouriez (subsequently so celebrated as general of the French armies) received the port-folio of foreign affairs. La Coste, Claviere, Duranthon, and Servan, were severally appointed to the marine, the finances, the judicatory, and war. The court strove to throw ridicule on the somewhat republican simplicity of the new ministry. They termed it the sans-culotte minis- try. Roland was a plain man, and the first time he presented himself at the palace, he appeared without buckles to his shoes, and in a round hat. The master of ceremonies refused to admit him in this unusual costume, not knowing who he was ; being afterwards informed, and in consequence obliged to do sO, he turned to Dumouriez, with a sigh of despair at such an innovation, saying, "Ah, sir, no buckles in his shoes !" To which Dumouriez, with sarcastic irony, * Thiers; Molleville; &c. t " Madame Roland was the soul of the Girondists ; she was the point around which assembled those briUiant and courageous men, to discuss the wants and the dangers of their country. It was she who aroused those whom she knew to be able in action, and directed to the tribune the efforts of those whom she knew to be eloquent."— Mignet. ^^ 96 THE REIGN OF TERROR. replied, " All is lost !" And the latter, mingling mirth with business, pleased Louis XVL, charmed him by his wit, and suited him better than the other ministers from the flexibility of his opinions. Marie Antoinette, perceiving he had more influence over the mind of the monarch than any of his colleagues, was desirous of seeing him. In his memoirs he has recorded the inter- view that took place. On being ushered into her apartment, he found her alone, her face much flushed, walking hastily to and fro, with an agitation which seemed to betoken a warm explanation. He was going to post himself at the corner of the fire-place, painfully affected by the agitated state of this princess, and the terrible sensations from which she was suffer- ing. She advanced towards him, saying, with a ma- jestic air and look of anger, " Sir, you are all powerful at this moment; but it is through the favor of the people, who soon break their idoJs in pieces. Your existence depends on your conduct. It is said that, you possess great abilities. You must be aware that neither the King nor myself can endure all these inno- vations on the constitution. This I tell you frankly : choose your own side." Dumouriez replied to this, that he was deeply pained by the secret which her majesty had just imparted to him, but that he would not betray it. "I stand between the King and the nation," said he, " and I belong to my country. Per- mit me to represent to you that the welfare of the King, your own, and that of your children, is linked with the constitution, as well as the re-establishment of the legitimate authority. I should do you dis-ser- vice, if I were to hold any other language. You and the King are both surrounded by persons who are sacrificing you to their private interest. The consti- tution, when once it shall be in vigor, so far from bringing misery upon the King, will constitute his happiness and glory. It is absolutely necessary that he should concur in establishing it solidly and speedily." Shocked at this contradiction of her opinions, the THE REIGN OF TERROR. 97 due^n, raising her voice, angrily exclaimed, "That will not last. Take care of yourself." Dumouriez rejoined, that his life had been crossed by many perils, and, in accepting the ministry, he was thoroughly sensible that responsibihty was not the greatest of his clangers. "Nothing more," she exclaimed, with deep chagrin, "is wanting, but to calumniate me. You seem to think me capable of causing you to be murdered," and tears trickled from her eyes. "God preserve me," said Dumouriez, himself agi- tated, "from doing you so cruel an injury! Ihe character of your majesty is great and noble ; you have given heroic proofs of it, which I have admired, and which have attached me to you." She now became more calm, and moved nearer to him. " Believe me," he continued, " I have no interest in deceiving you. I abhor anarchy and crime as much as you do. This is not a transient popular movement, as you seem to think. It is an almost unanimous insurrection of a mighty nation against inveterate abuses. Great fac- tions fan this flame. In all of them there are villains and madmen. In the revolution 1 keep only in view the King and the entire nation ; all that tends to part them leads to their mutual ruin ; I strive as much as possible to unite them ; it is for you to assist me. If I am an obstacle, I will at once send my resignation to the King, and hide myself in some corner, to mourn over the fate of my country and over yours." The concluding part of this conversation entirely restored the confidence of the Glueen. She and Du- mouriez reviewed together the different factions ; he pointed out to her the blunders and crimes of all ; he proved to her that she was betrayed by those about her, and repeated the language held by persons in her most intimate confidence. She appeared, in the end, to be convinced, and dismissed him with a- serene and affable regard. She was sincere, says Dumouriez, but those around her, and the horrible excesses of the pa- pers written by Marat and the Jacobins, soon drove 98 THE REIGN OF TERROR. her back to her baneful resolutions. On another oc- casion she said to Dumouriez, in the presence of the King, " You see me sad. I dare liot approach the windows which overlook the garden. Yesterday- evening, I went to the window towards the courl^ just to take'a little air ; a gunner of the guards addressed me in terms of vulgar abuse, adding that he would like to see my head on the point of his bayonet. In this garden you see on one side a man mounted on a chair, reading aloud the most abominable calumnies against me ; on the other, a military man, or an abbe, dragged through one of the basins, overwhelmed with abuse and beaten ; whilst others are playing at ball or quietly walking about. What an abode ! What a people !" Thus, by a kind of fatality, the supposed in- tentions of the palace excited the distrust and fury of the people, and the uproar of the people increased the anxiety and imprudence of the palace.* An event occupied the attention of the Assembly about this time. It was the massacre at Avignon, which city, (at least the majority of its population,) had petitioned to be united with France, and had been the theatre of bloody wars ever since. Whilst the Consti- tuent Assembly were debating upon the matter, two parties, one favorable, the other opposed, to the incor- poration, divided the city.f M. Jouve Jourdan, the Man with the Beard, had fled thither after his partici- pation in the insurrection at Versailles, set himself up as a dealer in madder, formed a club similar to those in Paris, and infused into the lower orders a similar insurrectionary spirit. " For some twenty-five months the confusion has lasted. Say three months of arguing ; then seven of raging ; then finally some fifteen months now of fighting, and even of hanging. For already in February, 1790, the Papal aristocrats had set up four gibbets, for a sign ; but the people rose in June, in re- tributive frenzy, and, forcing the public hangman to * Dumouriez; Thiers; Alison, etc. t Avignon was under the Papal government. THE REIGN OF TERROR. 99 act, hanged four aristocrats." * Then followed emi- gration, dismissal of the papal consul, flight, victory, and the various turns of civil war ; petitions to the National Assembly of France ; "congresses of town- ships, threescore and odd voting for a reunion with France, and twelve voting against it ; township against township, town against town." Carpentras, long jealous of Avignon, turned out in open war with it, and Jourdan, with a rabble army of several thousands, besieged the rival town for two months. " So Jourdan shut up his madder shop, and has risen, for he was the man to do it. The tile-beard of Jourdan is shaven off; his fat visage has got coppered and studded with car- buncles ; the Silenus trunk is swollen with drink and high living. He wears blue National uniform with epaulettes, ' an enormous sabre, two horse-pistols crossed in his belt, and other two smaller sticking from his pockets ;' and styles himself general. Gibbets we see rise on the one side and the other, and wretched carcasses swinging there a dozen in a row. The fruit- ful seed-fields lie unreaped, the vineyards trampled down. Havoc and anarchy everywhere." f On the 14th of September, 1791, the Assembly, having sent commissioners to Avignon and heard their report, decreed that Avignon and the Comtat were Incorporated with France, and that the Pope should be allowed a reasonable indemnity. But the terrible feelings between the Aristocrats and Patriots were not allayed. Placards, denouncing the annexation, were posted up ; and the statue of the Virgin, in the Cordeliers' church, was said to have shed tears and grown red. This last was an appeal to the supersti- tious, who crowded to the church on the morning of Sunday, October 16th. L'Escuyer, a leader among the patriots, repaired to the church, in company with two others, " to meet the Papists there in a body, and to admonish them." He entered the church, addressed the crowd, but was answered with shrieks and ♦Carlyle. t Carlyle. 100 THE REIGN OF TERROR. menaces. He was finally beaten, trampled and stabbed, and left dead before the altar of the church. His two friends raised the alarm. Jourdan and his force, promptly closed the town-gates, the walls were guarded so as to render escape impossible, and then repaired to the church, which they found vacant — silent — the corpse of L'Escuyer, swimming in blood, at the foot of the altar. They raised the body, stretched it upon a bier, circled the ghastly head with laurel, and bore it through the streets with lamentation and cries of vengeance. Sixty obnoxious families were now sought out, dragged from their homes, and thrown into the Glaciere, or Ice-tower ; where, during the obscurity of the night, vengeance was wreaked upon them with impunity. One young man put fourteen to death with his own hands, and only desisted from excess of fatigue; twelve women perished, after having under- gone tortures the most revolting and worse than death itself Lawless men did their worst — murder, pillage, and women violated in the most brutal manner. When vengeance tired, the remains of the victims were torn and mutilated, and heaped up in a ditch, or thrown into the Rhone.* In one ditch lay a hundred and thirty corpses — men, women, and even children ; for the trembling mother, hastily seized, could not leave her infant. " For three days there is mournful lifting out, and recognition ; amid a passionate Southern people, now kneeling in prayer, now storming in wild pity and rage ; lastly, there is a solemn sepulture, with muffled drums, religious requiem, and all the people's wail and tears. Their massacred bodies rest now in holy ground ; buried in one grave."f The situation of France was daily becoming more * Lacretelle. t Carlyle. — " The recital of these atrocities excited the utmost commisseration in the Assembly. Cries of indignation arose on all sides; the president fainted after reading the letter which communi- cated its details. But this, like almost all the other crimes of the popular party during the Revolution, remained unpunished." — Alison. THE REIGN OF TERROR. 101 dangerous, and she had everything to fear from the unfriendly disposition of Europe. Austria was as- sembling troops, laying out camps, and appointing generals. There remained no doubt with regard to her projects, an don the 20th of April, 1792, the Assembly declared war between France and the king of Hung- ary and Bohemia. All France received the declara- tion with joy ; it communicated a new excitement to the people,- already so agitated. The districts, the municipalities, and popular societies sent addresses ; men were enlisted, voluntary contributions were poured into the treasury, and the whole nation spon- taneously rose up in arms to await the onset of Europe, or to invade her. War declared, hostilities were actively commenced, and proved disastrous to the French at the outset. They fled in panic, and massa- cred Dillon, their commander. The populace of Paris, cried out that they were betrayed. Murmurs against the court were renewed. The Glueen was irritated by the revival of popular feeling against her. Dumouriez broke with the Girondists, and influenced the King to resist their counsels. The spirits of the loyalists were raised, and Louis was induced once more to listen to them. The Parisians were proportionally awakened and excited ; and thus were sown afresh the seeds of insurrection. Dumouriez, on accepting the ministry of foreign affairs, had demanded six millions for secret services, and insisted that he should not be called upon to account for the expenditure of that sum. This was strenuously opposed by one party, but, through the influence of the Girondists, his demand proved trium- phant, and the six millions were granted. It was pre- sently understood that he had expended one hundred thousand francs upon his pleasures ; and Roland, around whom rallied the Gironde, was, with all his friends, highly indignant at the circumstance. The ministers dined with one another by turns, for the purpose of deliberating on public affairs. When they met at the house of Roland, it was in the presence of 102 THE REIGN OF TERROR. his wife and all his friends ; and we -may say that the council was then held by the Gironde itself* It was at such a meeting that remonstrances were made to Dumouriez on the nature of his secret ex- penses. At first he replied with gayety and good- humor, afterwards lost his temper, and came to an open rupture with Roland and the Girondins. He ceased to attend these accustomed parties, and gave as his reason that he would not talk of public affairs before a woman or in the presence of Roland's friends. The newspapers attacked him ; Marat, in his " Friend of the People," was particularly severe upon him. He confronted the storm, and caused severe measures to be taken against some of the journalists. Marat was accused of exciting the people to sedition, but es- caped as heretofore, f His pen continued to pour forth tirades against the royal family, particularly the Queen, and against the priests and the aristocrats. Agitation increased. The priests had become extreme- ly odious to the populace in consequence of their plot- tings in favour of the court. Reports of their factious conduct were continually pouring in, and in the south- eren provinces, by abusing the secrecy of the confes- sional to kindle fanaticism,"they were the means of crea- * Thiers. " And so the fair Roland removes from her upper floor m the Rue St. Jacques, to the sumptuous saloons once occupied by Madame Necker. Nay, still earlier, it was Calonne that did all this gilding ; it was he who ground these lustres, Venitian mirrors ; who polished this inlaying, this veneering and or-moulu. The fair Roland, equal to either fortune, has her public dinner on Fridays, the ministers all there in a body. She withdraws to her desk, (the cloth once removed) and seems busy writing ; nevertheless loses no word. Envious men insinuate that the wife of Roland is minister, and not the husband.." Carlyle. t In 1790, La Fayette, with his National Guards, laid siege to Marat's house, for the purpose of seizing him and bringing him be- fore the tribunals of justice ; but he found an asylum in the house of an actress, who was induced by her husband to admit him. In the different searches made after him, the cellars of his partisans, and the vaults of the Cordeliers' church, successively gave him shelter, and thence he continued to send forth his journal. Biogra- pfiie Moderne. THE REIGN OF TERROR. 103 ting a general disturbance.* In this crisis a decree of banishment from the kingdom was pronounced upon them by the Assembly. Distrust of the King also in- creased, for it was generally believed that he was secret- ly treating with the allied courts, whose armies were now surrounding France, for his deliverance from the capital. The Assembly declared its sittings permanent, and directed a camp of twenty-thousand men to be formed near the capital, to secure its safety. The guard around the King was re-modelled ; the officers were chosen in part from a different class than had hitherto commanded, and companies of pikemen were introduced from the faubourgs to neutralize the roy- alty of their fellow-soldiers. The constitutional party made zealous efforts against these innovations ; but in vain, and the approach of danger from the allied armies, and the popular voice, threw the whole weight of goverment into the hands of the Jacobins.f The decf'ee for the banishment of such priests as would not take an oath to support the constitu- tion, as well as that for the formation of the camp of twenty-thousand men, still awaited the signature of the King to become a law. Dumouriez urged the King to adopt both, stating that if he refused to convoke twenty thousand men regularly chosen, forty thousand would spontaneously rise and make themselves masters of the capital ; and that he ought to sanction the decree against the clergy, because they were culpable, and exile would withdraw them from the fury of their enemies. Still Louis hesitated, and said he would consider upon it. Beset by false friends, whose advice he listened to, he refused to sanction the two decrees, and Roland was dismissed from the ministry. Dumouriez, who was ambitious, took advantage of these events, and procured for him- self the office" of minister of war. He repaired to the Assembly, with ' his new title, to read a report upon the state of the army, of the faults of the administra- • Thiers. tMignet 10 104 THE REIGN OP TERROR. ' tion, and of the Assembly. The moment he appeared, he was assailed by violent hootings from the Jacobins ; and a refusal to listen to him was manifested on all sides. He cooly desired to be heard, and at length obtained silence. His remonstrance irritated some of the deputies. " Do you hear him ^" exclaimed Guadet — " he is lecturing us." — " And why not T" coldly an- swered Dumouriez. He finished reading his report, and was by turns hooted and applauded. As soon as he had done, he folded up the paper, as if he intended taking it with him. " He is running away," cried a member. — "No," he rejoined; and boldly laying his memorial on the desk again, he calmly signed it, and walked through the assembly with unshaken compo- sure. This display of firmness cheered the King, who expressed to Dumouriez his satisfaction. The latter, however, continued to urge Louis to sanction the two decrees, and as this was withheld by the monarch, he asked his dismissal, which was granted;* but not without marks of sensibility on the King's part and his own. And having thus saved a part of his credit with the Assembly, which respected his talents, and desired to use them against the invaders, he departed from Paris to the frontiers, to lead the van among the French victors.! The determination of Louis not to adopt the two decrees, daily augmented the indignation of the popu- lace against the court, and the King, harassed with this question, and disconcerted at the impossibility of form- ing an efficient administration, sunk about this time into a despondency that amounted even to physical debility. " He was for ten days together," says Ma- dame Campan, one of the Q,ueen's attendants at this period, and who has left us some very interesting anecdotal information in regard to the royal family, in her memoirs — " He was for ten days together without uttering a word, even in the midst of his family, ex- cepting at the game of backgammon, which he was in * Thiers. t Scott THE REIGN OP TERROR. 105 the habit of playing with his sister, Madame Elizabeth, after dinner, and then he merely pronounced the words that are used in that game. The dueen roused him from this state, so ruinous in a crisis when every moment demanded action, by casting herself upon her knees before him, and sometimes by employing images calculated to terrify him, and at others, by expressions of her affection for him. She also urged the claims which he owed to his family ; and she even went so far as to say that if they must perish, they ought to do so with honor, and not wait to be both stifled on the floor of their own apartment." The Jacobins were actively in motion, their influ- ence had grown enormous; their affiliated societies were daily spreading hatred to the court throughout France, and the debates of the parent club shook the kingdom from one end to the other. They maintained the enthusiasm of the people by revolutionary fetes and increased their efficiency by arming them with pikes. " The word liberty is never named now except in conjunction with another; Liberty and Equality. Note too how the Jacobin brethren are mounting new symbolical headgear ; the woollen cap, better known as the bonnet roug-e, the color being red." * The 20th of June was approaching, and it had been resolved to celebrate that day, (the anniversary of the oath taken by the Assembly in the Tennis-court, June 20th, 1789.) by a procession and fete; a tree of liberty was to be planted, and petitions presented both to the Assembly and to the King. Early on the morning of the 20th, a large tree, of the poplar kind, stood tied to a cart in the suburb St. Antoine, surrounded by a crowd of men, women and children, the men armed with pikes, and many of the women ; the rabble of the other su- burbs were gathering ; the armed, and the unarmed curious, all mingling, and concentrating around this horizontal tree of liberty. The municipal authorities came upon the ground and protested against the as- * Carlyle. 106 THE REIGN OF TERROR. sembling of such an armed body, but Petion, the mayor, did not interfere, and the crowd continued to increase. " They seemed, notwithstanding their great numbers, to act under authority, and amid their cries, their songs, their dances, and the wild intermixture of grotesque and fearful revel, appeared to move by com- mand, and to act with a unanimity that gave the effect of order to that which was in itself confusion." * They were divided into bodies, and had their leaders. Stand- ards were displayed, carefully selected to express the character and purpose of the wretches who were as- sembled under them, and tri-color ribands streamed aloft from pike-heads. Towards noon this great mass marched in proces- sion, taking its direction westward, " led by tall San- terre in blue uniform, by tall St. Huruge, in white hat ;" it was joined on its route by various sections of the mob of the capital, and at the quai St. Bernard the municipal officers again met and harangued it, and pleaded earnestly for it to disperse ; but in vain ; it continued on its way, dragging the liberty-tree and trailing two cannons. The Assembly had just met in expectation of some great event. The middling classes of the citizens were terrified, afraid of a general pil- lage, and concentrated themselves. A strong force of armed citizens guarded all the avenues to the Palais- Royal, in order to protect the wealth of the shops there, excluding the ingress of the rabble, whose cu- pidity it was feared might be too strongly tempted by the display of riches in the windows. The guard around the Tuilleries was doubled by order of the mu- nicipal authorities. It is obvious, says M. Thiers, that the real intention of this mass movement was to strike terror into the palace by the sight of forty thousand pikes. To terrify the King, we infer, in regard to the two decrees that the Jacobins wished to become a law, for he had now vetoed both. At midnight previ- ous, Petion, whether he conceived that the movement * Scott THE REIGN OF TERROR. 107 was irresistible, or that he ought to favour it, wrote to the directory of the mihtary department, soHciting it to authorize the assemblage on the following day by permiting the National guard to receive the citizens of the suburbs into its ranks. This expedient fully ac- complished the views of those who, without wishing for any disturbance, were nevertheless desirous of over- awing the King; and everything proves, says M. Thiers, that such were in fact the views of Petion and the popular chiefs. The tumult became more and more violent. A letter was brought into the Assembly from Santerre. It was read amidst applause from the Jacobins. It purported "that the inhabitants of the faubourg St. Antoine were celebrating the 20th of June ; that they were calumni- ated, and begged to be admitted to the bar of the As- sembly, in order that they might confound their slan- derers, and prove that they were still the men of the 14th of July." The president of the Assembly, after a reply in which he promised the petitioners the vigi- lance of the representatives of the people, and recom- mended obedience to the laws, granted them, in the name of the Assembly, to file before it. The doors were then thrown open, and the mob, amounting at that moment to at least thirty thousand persons, passed through the hall. It is easy to conceive what the imagination of the populace, abandoned to itself, is capable of producing. Enormous tablets, upon which were inscribed " Rights of Man," headed the proces- sion. Around these tablets danced women and child- ren, bearing olive-branches and pikes, that is to say, peace or war, at the option of the enemy. They sang in chorus the famous Ca Ira. Then came the porters of the markets, the working-men of all classes, with wretched muskets, swords, and sharp pieces of iron fastened to the end of thick bludgeons. Santerre and the Marquis de St. Huruges, marched with drawn swords. Battalions of the National guard followed in good order, to prevent tumult by their presence. After them came women and more armed men. 10* 108 THE REIGN OF TERROR. Waving flags were inscribed with " The Constitution or Death." Ragged breeches were held up in the air, with shouts of Vivent les Sa7is-culottes! Lastly, an atrocious sign was displayed to add ferocity to the whimsicality of the spectacle. On the point of a pike was borne a calf's heart, inscribed " Heart of an aris- tocrat."* Grief and indignation burst forth at this sight. The horrid emblem instantly disappeared, but was again exhibited at the gates of the Tuilleries. The applause of the tribunes, the shouts of the people pass- ing through the hall, the civic songs, the confused up- roar, and silence of the anxious Assembly, composed an extraordinary scene, and at the same time an afflicting one to the very deputies who viewed the military as an auxihary. This scene lasted three hours. At length Santerre again came forward to ex- press to the Assembly the thanks of the people, and presented it with a flag in token of gratitude and at- tachment. The mob, at this moment, attempted to get into the garden of the Tuilleries, the gates of which were closed. Numerous detachments of the National guard surrounded the palace, presenting an imposing front. By order of the King, the garden-gate was opened. The people instantly poured in, and filed off under the windows of the palace and before the ranks of the National guard, shouting "Down with the veto! the Sans-culottes forever !" Meanwhile some persons, speaking of the King, said, " Why does he not show himself] we mean to do him no harm, etc." All the avenues became crowded, and a great mass of persons collected before the royal gate, demanding to be ad- mitted. They were refused, and some of the muni- cipal officers addressed them with such success that they were apparently retiring. It is asserted that at * "A bull's heart transfixed with iron, bearing this epigraph, * Ccsur d' Aristocrate, Aristocrat's heart ;' and, more striking still, properly the standard of the host, a pair of old black breeches (silk, they say,) extended on a cross staff high overhead, with these memo- rable words, ' Tremblez tyrans, voila les Sans-culottes." — Carlyle, THE REIGN OF TERROR. 109 this moment, Santerre, coming from the Asesmbly, where he had stayed till the last moment to present the flag, whetted the almost blunted purpose of the people, and caused the cannon to be drawn up to the gate.* It was nearly four o'clock. Two municipal officers all at once ordered the gate to be opened. The troops were then paralyzed. The people rushed headlong into the court, and thence into the vestibule of the palace, taking possession of all the staircases, and by main force dragged one of the cannons up to the first floor. At the same instant, the mob commenced an attack with bludgeons and hatchets upon the doors which were closed against them. Cries of " Down with the veto ! Let the King show himself!" were mingled with blows against the door. Oflncers of the National Guard, and others, surrounded Louis, im- ploring him to show himself, and vowing to die by his side. Without hesitation he then ordered the door to be opened. At that instant, a panel, driven in by a violent blow, fell at his feet. The door was at length opened, and a forest of pikes and bayonets appeared. " Here I am !" said the King, showing himself to the furious rabble. Those who surrounded him kept close to him, and formed a rampart of their bodies. " Pay respect to your King," they exclaimed. Several voices from the crowd announced a petition, and desired that it might be read. Those about the monarch prevailed upon him to retire to a more spacious room to hear this petition. The people, pleased to see their desire complied with, followed the prince ; his attendants had the good sense to place him in the embrasure of a window, and to erect in front of him a sort of barricade with tables and other furniture, stationing themselves as his defenders. Amidst uproar and shouts, continued to be heard the cries of " No veto ! no priests ! no aristocrats ! the camp near Paris !" Legendre, the butcher, stepped up, and, in popular language, de- manded the sanction of the decrees. " This is neither * Shoberl's translation of Thiers. 110 THE REIGN OF TERROR. the place nor the moment," replied the King, with firmness ;"I will do all the Constitution requires." And now, seated on a chair, which was elevated on a table, and surrounded by the few faithful national guards, Louis preserved a serene and undaunted countenance in the midst of the dangers which every instant threat- ened his life. "Vive la nation !" shouted many voices. " Yes," said Louis, " Vive la nation ! I am its best friend." " Well, prove it then," said one of the crowd, poking forward to him a bojinet I'ouge, (red cap,) at the point of a pike. Louis put the cap on his head, and the applause was general, both from the throng inside and outside of the palace.* His situation at the win- dow enabled him to be seen by both. He thought it unnecessary, says Mignet, to refuse a token unimpor- tant to him, but which, in the eye of the multitude, was the signal of liberty. A refusal might have been dangerous, says Thiers, and certainly, in his situation, dignity did not consist in throwing away life by rejecting this sign, but in doing as he did, in bearing with firmness the assault of the multitude. His sister, Madame Elizabeth, who was fondly attached to her brother, and who was the only one of the royal family who had succeeded in getting to him, now followed him from window to window, to share his danger, as he showed himself with the red cap. The multitude at first mistook her for the Q.ueen. Shouts of "There's the Austrian," were raised in an alarming manner. The national grenadiers, surrounding her, endeavored to set the people right. " Leave them in their error," said she, " and save the Q,ueen." Marie Antoinette, with her son and daughter, had not been able to join her husband. At the onset of the multitude, she fled from the lower apartments, hurried to the council-chamber, and, though anxious to join him, and earnestly begging to be led to the room where he was, it was impossible in consequence of the density of the crowd which filled the palace. * Thiers; Scott; Alison, etc. THE REIGN OF TERROR. Ill Standing in the council-chamber, under the protection of some grenadiers, she watched the people file off; her heart full of horror, her eyes swimming with tears. Her daughter was weeping by her ; her young son, frightened at first, soon recovered his cheerfulness, smiling in the happy ignorance of his age. A red cap had been handed to him, and the Q,ueen had placed it on his head. Santerre, the brewer, recommended respect to the throng, and spoke cheeringly to the Q,ueen. Seeing the dauphin encumbered with the cap, '• The boy is stifling" said he, and relieved him by taking it off.* The Assembly, learning the danger of the King and his family, sent several successive deputations to the palace to serve as a safeguard. These deputies, hoisted on the shoulders of the grenadiers, alternately addressed the crowd, entreating them to disperse. At last, Petion, the mayor, arrived, and harangued the populace, exhorting them to retire without tumult. " Fear nothing, sire," said he to Louis XVI. ; " you are in the midst of your people." Louis, taking the hand of a grenadier, placed it upon his heart, saying, " Feel ! does it betray fear] does it beat quicker than usual 1" Petion, by his exhortations, and with the assistance of Santerre, finally prevailed upon the multitude to retire in an orderly manner, and the palace was cleared by seven in the evening. As soon as the mob had left, the King was sur- rounded by his family, all in tears, yet congratulating each other that they had escaped with their Uves. Overcome by the scene, Louis forgot that he had still the red cap on his head. He now perceived it, and flung it from him with indignation. At this moment more deputies arrived from the Assembly to learn the state of the palace. Marie Antoinette walked through the apartments with them, and pointed out the shat- tered doors and broken furniture, expressing her keen vexation at such outrages. Those apartments of royal * Thiers. 112 THE REIGN OP TERROR. magnificence, so long the pride of France, had been laid open to the multitude, like those of Troy to her invaders. The august palace of the proud house of Bourbon had thus been exposed to the rude gaze, and vulgar tread, of a brutal and ferocious rabble. Who dared hav^e prophesied such an event to the royal founders of that stately pile — to the chivalrous Henry of Navarre, or the magnificent Louis XIV.* In the memoirs of Bourrienne, we find that Napo- leon was a spectator of the events of this day. " While we were leading a somewhat idle life," says Bour- rienne, " the 20th of June arrived. We met, (Bour- rienne and Bonaparte were then daily together,) as usual, that morning, in the coflee-house in the Rue St. Honore. On leaving the cafe we perceived a mob approaching, which Bonaparte computed at five or six thousand men, all in rags, and armed with every sort of weapon, vociferating the grossest abuse, and pro- ceeding rapidly towards the Tuilleries. Bonaparte proposed to me that we should follow the rabble. We got before them, and went into the gardens, taking a station on the terrace overlooking the water. Fmm here we witnessed the disgraceful occurrences that ensued. I should fail in attempting to depict the sur- prise and indignation aroused within him. He could not comprehend such weakness and forbearance. But when the King showed himself, at one of the windows fronting the garden, with the red cap, Bonaparte could no longer restrain his indignation. * What madness !' he exclaimed. ' How could they allow these scoundrels to enter T They ought to have blown four or five hun- dred of them into the air with cannon ; the rest would then have taken to their heels.' " Towards evening of the next day, a similar scene was to be apprehended, from the gathering that took place, but it was disapproved of by the popular leaders, and Petion hastened to the palace to inform the King that order was restored. " That is not * Scott THE REIGN OF TERROR. 113 true," said Louis.—" Sire,"—" Be silent."—" It befits not," said Petion, " the magistrate of the people to be silent, when he does his duty and speaks truth." — " The tranquilhty of Paris rests on your head," said Louis. — " I know my duty ; I shall perform it," replied Petion. — "Enough; go and perform it; retire," was the ill-humoured dismissal of Louis, exasperated at the sight of Petion, whom he considered the originator of the scenes of the preceding day. Two proclamations were immediately issued ; one by the King, the other by the municipality; and it was rumored among the suburbs that the court was endeavouring to excite another insurrection among the people, that it might have occasion to sweep them away with artillery. Thus the palace supposed the existence of a plan for murder — the faubourgs that a plan existed for a massacre. Marat and the journal- ists kept alive the hostile feelings of the populace against the court, whilst the Jacobins, by their corres- pondence with the clubs throughout the provinces, infused the same spirit in almost every part ©f the kingdom. Crowds of the populace thronged the halls of the clubs, excited by the inflammatory speeches of Robespierre, Danton and others ; and crowded to the galleries of the Assembly, applauding the sentiments of the Girondists, who continued their attacks upon the court. Eight days after the 20th, La Fayette appeared unexpectedly at the bar of the Assembly. Having provided for the command of his army, he had hastened from the frontiers. He asked in his own name, and that of the army, the punishment of those who had figured in the disturbances of the 20th of June, and the destruction of the Jacobins. This demand excited various sensations among the mem- bers of the Assembly ; the right side applauded him, but the left rose against him, and the majority took no notice of his demand. He next presented himself at the palace, but was received coldly, the King and Queen both distrusting him. His hopes now turned towards the National Guard, which had been so long 114 THE REIGN OP TERROR. devoted to him ; and he trusted, with the aid of its members, to succeed in putting an end to the clubs, dispersing the Jacobins, restoring to Louis XVI. all the authority which the law had conferred on him, and giving strength to the constitution. But the influence of the general with the guards was gone. He ordered a review, but was received in silence by- all the battalions who had so lately worshipped his footsteps, and retired to his hotel, despairing of the constitutional cause. Determined, however, not to abandon his enterprise without further effort, he ap- pointed a rendezvous with a select body of grenadiers and chaussers, who were to meet in the evening at his house, and from thence to march against the clubs, and especially to close the sittings of the Jaco- bins, and wall up their doors. But when the hour of rendezvous came, only about thirty men appeared, and irresolution and uncertainty were painted in every countenance. He remained another day in Paris, amidst denunciations, threats, and hints of assassination, and at length departed, lamenting the uselessness of his self devotion and the fatal obstinacy of the court. The Jacobins were now violent against him, and burned his effigy in the garden of the Palais Royal. * Distrust between the court and the people con- tinued. Forty thousand Prussians, and as many Austrians, were approaching the frontiers. " The country is in danger," was the general cry. All the walls of Paris were covered with threatening placards; the public papers talked of nothing but the forfeiture of the crown and dethronement. In the Assembly, Verginaud, in a powerful discourse, portrayed the dangers which threatened. He quoted the article of the constitution which declared, " that if the King put himself at the head of an armed force against the nation, or did not oppose a similar enterprize attempt- ed in his name, he should be held to have abdicated * Thiers, Mignet, Prudhomme, Lacretelle, etc. THE REIGN OF TERROR. 115 the throne." He continued, " O King! whose belief is doubtless, like that which the tyrant Ly-sander enter- tained, that truth is no better than a lie ; and that men are to be amused with oaths as children with toys ; you have merely feigned a regard to the laws, in order to preserve an authority which may enable you to break them or set them at defiance ; and feigned a love of the constitution, lest you should have been hurled from the throne ; do you suppose that we are any longer to be deceived by your hypocritical protestations 1 Was it to defend us that you opposed foreign armies with forces whose inferiority rendered defeat inevitable] Was it to defend us that you rejected every proposition for fortifying the interior 1 Did the constitution leave you the choice of ministers for our happiness or for our ruin 1 Did it appoint you the head of our armies for our glory or our dis- grace ] Did it leave you, in short, the right of sanc- tioning the laws, did it leave you a civil list, and so many prerogatives, in order that you might constitu- tionally destroy the constitution of the empire 1 No ! You, whom tiie generosity of Frenchmen has been unable to move, sensible only to the love of despotism — you are no longer a part of that constitution you have violated, or of that people whom you have so basely betrayed!" A few days afterwards, Brissot expressed himself still more plainly. " The dangers which surround us," said he, " are the most extraor- dinary which has ever been known. Our country is in danger, not because it wants defenders, not because its soldiers are destitute of courage, not be- cause her frontiers are ill-fortified, not because her resources are scanty. No! But because her forces are secretly paralyzed ! And who has paralyzed them? A single individual ; the very man whom the constitution has declared its chief, and whom perfi- dious advisers have rendered its enemy. You are told to fear the kings of Hungary and Prussia — I tell you that the main strength of these sovereigns is in our own court, and that there you must strike to conquer 11 116 THE REIGN OF TERROR. them. You have been told to take measures against the refractory priests throughout the realm — but I tell you to strike at the Tuilleries and you will reach at once all these priests. You have been told to attack all intriguers, all conspirators, and all factions — I tell you that all these will disappear, if vengeance reaches them through the Tuilleries, for that cabinet is the point where all their plots are concocted, and from whence all impulses proceed ! The nation is the puppet of this cabinet ! This is the secret of our situation and the source of our evils, and there is the point to which the remedy must be applied." * The Girondists in this manner prepared the As- sembly for thie question of deposing the King. In the meantime, Petion had been suspended from the office of mayor by the municipal authorities, on account of his conduct on the 20th of June, but the Assembly restored him to his functions, and he was now the object of popular idolatry. The Assembly had also solemnly declared the country in danger. All the civil authorities immediately took active measures ; all citizens capable of bearing arms were enrolled in the National Guard; every one was called on to declare the arms and ammunition he had in his pos- session ; pikes were given to those who could not carry guns ; battalions were formed in the public squares, in the midst of which banners w^ere planted, bearing the words, " Citizens, the country is in dan- ger." All these measures carried to its height the revolutionary frenzy. The 14th of July, the anniver- sary of the capture of the Bastille, was again at hand. Federates, or representatives, from the differ- ent departments of the kingdom, were daily arriving, and the mob of Paris were anxiously on the lookout for the reception of six hundred men from Marseilles, whom they expected to be present at the Foederation. These men assembled in the town-hall in Marseilles on the 5th of July, and started on their journey to * Mignet. . THE REIGN OF TERROR. 117 Paris, with the significant exclamation from the muni- cipality, " March ! strike down the tyrant !" They were all well armed, musket on shoulder, sabre on thigh. " They wend on their wild way, from the extremity of French land, through unknown cities, to an unknown destiny. A blackbrowed mass, full of grim fire, who wend there, in the hot sultry weather, Dusty of face, with frugal refreshment, they plod on- wards; unweariable, not to be turned aside."* They marched to the air since so celebrated under the name of the Marsellais Hymn ; " the sound of which will make the blood tingle in men's veins, and whole armies and assemblages will sing it, with eyes weeping and hearts burning." — " I never," says Madame de la Roche- jaquelian, " heard any thing more impressive and terrible than their songs." At Lyons, and at several other places, on their march, they were so rude in their conduct, that the inhabitants drove them out of the towns ; and it is said " these brigands consoled themselves for the ill-treatment they received in the towns by pillaging and oppressing the country pea- sants, and ravishing such defenceless women as fell in their way." f * Carlyle. t Playfair. 118 THE REIGN OF TERROR. CHAPTER V. The third fete of the Foederation, July 14th, 1792. Alarm and agi- tation. Marat — his views at this crisis. Barbaroux — some ac- count of him. Robespierre — his retired manner of living — his vanity — his influence at the Jacobin club. Interview between him and Marat. Danton — his character, public and private. Ar- rival of the Marseillais in Paris, and riot between them and a com- pany of royalists in the Champs-Elysees. Proclamation of the Duke of Brunswick — general indignation in consequence of it. Petitions for the dethronement of Louis XVI. Insurrection of the 10th of August. Santerre — Legendre — Robespierre — Danton — the Marsellais — Mandat — alarm at the Tuilleries — midnight — the alarm gun — the tocsin — drums beating — artillery rumbling through the streets — assassination of Mandat — confusion — terror — bell an- swering bell — all Paris awake and astir — the suburbs in motion — Santerre — Westermann — the Marseillais — at daybreak the palace of the Tuilleries is besieged. Louis XVI. — Marie Antoinette — the royal family seek protection in the Assembly — the palace at- tacked by the insurgents — the Swiss guards defend it, and disperse the assailants — the Marseillais renew the attack, fall in great num- bers, and at length break into the palace, the rabble pouring in after them — an indiscriminate massacre of the Swiss and the ser- vants of the palace follows — furniture destroyed and a general pillage. The Assembly dethrones Louis XVI, — he and his family confined in the Temple. Robespierre's demand for blood and vengeance. Advance of the Prussian army — terror of the Parisi- ans — Danton — the barriers closed, the Reign of Terror proclaimed — arrests of the aristocrats— massacre of the priests — Billaud-Va- rennes — the September massacres — the Princess Lamballe — her head carried on a pike to the windows of the Temple. The day of the third anniversary of the Foederation, the 14th of July, 1792, arrived. Eighty-three tents, repre- senting the eighty-three departments of France, had been put up in the Champs-de-Mars ; beside each of these tents rose a poplar, from the top of which waved the tri-colored flag. A large tent was destined for the Assembly and the King, and another for the adminis- trative bodies of France. The altar was a truncated column, placed at the top of the seats which had re- THE REIGN OF TERROR. 119 mained since the first ceremony. On one side was a monument for those who had died, or who were des- tined to die, fighting the enemy on the fi'ontiers. On the other side was an immense tree, called the tree of feudalism, rising from the centre of a vast pile, and bearing on its branches blue ribands, crowns, tiaras, cardinals'-hats, St. Peter's keys, ermine mantles, titles of nobility, escutcheons, etc., which the King was to be invited to set fire to. The oath was to be taken at noon. The King displayed a calm dignity. The Q,ueen strove to conquer a grief that was but too visi- ble; "her eyes were swollen with tears," says Ma- dame de Stael; "and the splendor of her dress, and dignity of her deportment, formed a striking contrast with the train that surrounded her." The King's sister, and his children, were around him. At length the procession arrived at the Champs-de-Mars, which until then .had been comparatively empty, but now the multitude rushed tumultuously into it ; and beneath the balcony where the King was placed, a confused mob of women, children, and drunken men, passed, shouting " Petion forever ! Petion or death !" * and bearing on their hats the words which they had in their mouths. Louis XVI. descended from the balcony, and, amidst a square of troops, moved on with the pro- cession to the altar of the country. Innumerable voices reproached him with his perfidious flight to Varennes. It was with difficulty the soldiers kept back the intrusion, and they were wholly unable to prevent the reproaches and maledictions that were uttered around him. The concourse was so dense that they could move but slowly. "The figure made by the King during this pageant formed a striking and melan- choly parallel with his actual condition in the state. With hair powdered and dressed, with clothes embroi- dered in the ancient court fashion, surrounded and crowded unceremoniously by men of the lowest rank, * " His name was inscribed on a thousand banners ; on all sides the cry was heard " Petion or death !" — Alison. 11* 120 THE REIGN OF TERROR. and in the most wretched garb, he seemed belonging to a former age, but which in the present had lost its fashion and value."* After great exertions on the part of the troops, who had much difficulty in opening a passage through the crowd, Louis XVI. reached the altar. " When he mounted the steps of the altar, he seemed a sacred victim, offering himself as a volun- tary sacrifice " remarks De Stael. In dread of assas- sination, he wore, says Madame Campan, a quilted and ballet proof cuirass under his waistcoat. The Queen, stationed on the balcony, watched the scene through a glass. The confusion seemed to increase about the altar, and the King to descend a step. The Queen, alarmed for her husband's safety, uttered a shriek, filling all around her with alarm. The cere- mony, however, passed off without accident. As soon as the oath was taken, the crowd hastened to the tree of feudalism. They were for hurrying the King along with them, that he might set fire to it ; but he declined, with the pertinent remark that there was no longer any such thing as feudalism. Noon had been the hour ap- pointed, but it was five o'clock before the oath was taken. Louis, with his family, returned to the Tuille- ries, glad at having escaped dangers which he con- ceived to be great, but dejected in heart at those which he beheld approaching. The tree of feudalism stood "unburnt till certain patriot deputies, called by the people, set a torch to it, by way of voluntary after- piece." The tidings which daily reached the capital from the frontiers increased the alarm and agitation. All France was in motion, and men were repairing to Paris, invited by the Jacobin leaders. They daily ar- rived, and were composed of the most violent spirits in the clubs throughout the kingdom. They were termed foederates, ostensibl)'- coming to Paris to assist at the Fcederation, but only two thousand were pre- sent on that day. Those that now came in were al- * Scott. THE REIGN OF TERROR. 121 lowed thirty sous a day by the Assembly, under the pretext that their presence was necessary to defend the capital. They daily attended the sessions of the Assembly, and soon gave law to that body by their shouts of disapprobation or applause ; and were ready for insurrection at the first signal — to which effect they even made a declaration in an address to the As- sembly.* The arrival of theMarseillais was anxiously expected. There were daily agitations in the streets. The dethronement of Louis XVL, and the establish- ment of a republic, was the general topic of conversa- tion. Marat, editor of ' L'Ami du Peuple,' now emerged from the hiding-places in which he had dwelt, and be- came an object of popularity in the capital. His influ- ence had hitherto been principally confined to the su- burbs. The friends of the court, and the moderate party, regarded him with horror and contempt ; but he had learned to despise those who despised him. Hitherto the law had been continually aimed at him, but he had escaped by concealing himself in cellars; . for three years he had lived in this subterraneous exis- tence, skulking from one place of concealment to ano- ther.f He contined to diffuse in his journal the doc- trines with which he was imbued. All polished * Thiers. t Marat was bom at Neufchatel in 1744. He studied medicine, lived in indigence, and was at one time veterinary surgeon to the Count D'Artois. In 1774 he resided at Edinburgh, where he taught the French language, and published in English a volume entided the " Chains of Slavery." He wore, says Madame Roland, boots, but no stockings, a pair of old leather breeches, a white silk vest, a dirty shirt, the bosom of which was open and showed his yellow skin. Long and dirty nails, skinny fingers, and a hideous face, suited ex- actly his whimsical dress. — " There can be little doubt that Marat regarded himself as the apostle of liberty, and the more undeniably wrong he was, the more infallible he thought himself. Others had more delight in the actual spilling of blood ; no one else had the same disinterested and dauntless confidence in his theory. He might be placed at the head of a class that exists at all times, but only breaks out in times of violence and revolution ; who form crime into a code, and proclaim conclusions that make the hair of others stand on end." — HazlitU 122 THE REIGN OF TERROR. manners were, according to his notions, but vices hostile to republican equality, and, in his ardent hatred for the obstacles, he saw but one means of safety — extermination. He proposed a dictator, not for the purpose of conferring on him the despotism of one^ but of imposing on him the terrible task of purifying society. This dictator was to have a cannon-ball at- tached to his leg, that he might always be in the power of the people. He was to have but one faculty left him, that of pointing out victims and ordering death as their only chastisement. Marat knew no other penalty, because he was not for punishing, but for suppressing the obstacle. It was necessary, he as- serted, to strike off several hundred thousand heads, and to destroy all the aristocrats, who rendered liberty impossible. " The French are but paltry revolution- tionists," he said to Barbaroux. " Give me two hund- red Neapolitans, armed with daggers, and on the left arm a muff for a buckler ; with these I will traverse France, and complete the revolution." He also made an exact calculation, showing in what manner 260,000 men might be put to death in one day. In this inter- view with Barbaroux, he further proposed, that, in order to mark the aristocrats, the Assembly should order them to wear a white riband, and that it should be lawful to kill them when three were found together. Under the name of aristocrats, he included the royal- ists and the Girondins; and the difficulty of distin- guishing and recognizing them being suggested by Barbaroux, he declared that it was impossible to mis- take, that it was only necessary to fall upon those who had carriages, servants, silk-clothes, and who were coming out of the theatres. " All such," said he, " are assuredly aristocrats." Barbaroux left him, horror- struck.* * Charles Barbaroux, bom at Marseilles. He embraced the cause of the revolution with uncommon ardour, and repaired to Paris in 1792. He was called Antinous on account of his extraordinary beauty. Marseilles, an opulent city, with a population both numer- ous and democratic, had sent him aa a deputy to the Assembly. It THE REIGN OF TERROR. 123 Robespierre, at this period, divided his time between the sittings of the Jacobin Club and a studious retire- ment. In an elegant cabinet, in the house of the cabinet-maker, where his image was repeated in all possible ways, in painting, in engraving, and in sculp- ture, he devoted himself to assiduous study, and was continually reading Rousseau, in order to glean ideas for his speeches.* His perseverance was indefatigable. He seems to have formed for himself a system out of the boldest and wildest visions of Rousseau, domestic, social, and political. Not like many of the demagogues of the day, he never adopted the external habits of a sans-culotte, but appeared among his fellow Jacobins with hair nicely arranged and powdered; and the neatness of his dress was carefully attended to, so as to counterbalance, if possible, the vulgarity of his person.f His features were mean, his complexion pale, his veins of a greenish hue. His vanity was of the coldest and most selfish character, being such as considers neglect as insult, and receives homage merely as a tribute ; so that, while praise is received without gratitude, it is withheld at the risk of mortal hate. Self-love of this dangerous character is closely allied with envy, and Robespierre was one of the most envious and vindictive men that ever lived.J Mira- beau, whom he courted at the outset of the revolution, despised him ; and full of the ambition of being a has been said that he came to Paris in company with the notorious Marseillais ; but it is not the fact ; he was in Paris before the 20th of June. He did, as we shall see, go from Paris to meet that band at Charenton, as they approached the capital. * " His apartments, though small, were elegant, and vanity had filled them with representations of the occupant. His picture at length hung in one place, his miniature in another, his bust occupied a niche, and on the table were exposed a few medallions exhibiting his head in profile." — Memoirs of Barbaroux. t " While the other leaders of the populace affected a squalid dress and dirty linen, he alone appeared in elegant attire." — Alison. " I had twice occasion to converse with Robespierre. He had a sinister expression of countenance, never looked you in the face, and had a continual and unpleasant winking of the eye." — Dumont. I Scott. 124 THE REIGN OP TERROR. leader, he felt rebuked and humiliated in consequence of the neglect he experienced, outshone as he was by the brilliant orators of the first Assembly. His voice was feeble, his delivery unskilful, his eloquence me- diocre ; " and being unable to render himself remark- able in any other^^way," says Mignet, " than by the singularity of his opinions, he figured as a violent reformer. His ardent self-love kept him constantly aiming at the first rank in the revolution, and led him to work wonders to obtain it, and to venture every- thing to maintain himself in it. He had all the qualities of a tyrant; a mind which was without grandeur, but which, nevertheless, was not vulgar ; the advantage of having but a single ruling idea, a reputation for being above corruption, an austere life, and no aver- sion to the shedding of blood. He was a living proof, that amidst civil troubles, it is not by means of talent, but conduct, that political successes are gained ; and that obstinate mediocrity is more powerful than irre- gular abihty." In the lower sphere in which he moved, says Thiers, he excited enthusiasm by his dogmatism and by his reputation for incorruptibility. He thus founded his popularity upon blind passions and mode- rate understandings. Austerity and cold dogmatism captivate ardent characters, nay, often superior minds. There were actually men who were disposed to dis- cover in Robespierre real energy, and talents superior to those which he possessed. Others, without talents, but subdued by his pedantry, went about repeating that he was the man who ought to be put at the head of the Revolution, and that without such a dictator it could not go on. For his part, winking at all these assertions of his partisans, he never attended any of the secret meetings of the conspirators ; but kept him- self in the back-ground, leaving the business of acting to his panegyrists.* Marat, who was looking for a dictator, wished to ascertain if Robespierre w^as fit for the office. An * Shoberl's translation of Thiers. THE REIGN OF TERROR. 125 interview took place, but the former found in the latter none of that sanguinary audacity which he himself derived from his monstrous convictions — in short, no genius. He departed, filled with contempt for this little man, declared him incapable of serving the state, and became more firmly persuaded than ever that he himself alone possessed the grand social system. Danton was more capable than any other of being the leader whom all ardent imaginations desired, for the purpose of giving unity to the revolutionary move- ments. Unsuccessful at the bar, poor, and consumed by passions, he had rushed into the political commo- tions of the times with ardor ; his audacity was extra- ordinary, and he was capable of executing all that the atrocious mind of Marat was capable of conceiving. His giant figure, his great strength of voice, his eccentric but towering oratory, captivated the mob and the clubs ; and he was therefore the most formid- able leader of those bands which were one and all guided by public declamation.* His features were flat and somewhat African ; his face expressed by turns the brutal passions, jollity, and even good nature. He was the slave of his passions and greedy of plea- sure. Audacious and fond of hurrying forward to the decisive moment, he was incapable of that assiduous toil which the thirst of rule requires ; and, though he possessed great influence over the conspirators, yet he did not govern them. He was merely capable, when they hesitated, of rousing their courage and pro- pelling them to a goal by a decisive plan of operation.f * " A starving advocate in 1789, he rose in audacity and eminence with the public disturbances ; prodigal in expense, and drowned in debt, he had no chance, at any period, even of personal freedom, but in constantly advancing with the fortunes of the Revolution. Like Mirabeau, he was the slave of sensual passions ; like him, he was the terrific leader, during his ascendancy, of the ruling class ; but he shared the character, not of the patricians who commenced the Revolution, but of the plebeians who consummated its wickedness. Bold, unprincipled, and daring, he held that the end in every case justified the means ; that nothing was impossible to those who had the courage to attempt it."— AZison. t Thiers. 126 THE REIGN OP TERROR. He was a revolutionist of the most violent class, says Mignet, and no means appeared to him wrong, pro- vided they were useful. He has been styled the Mira- beau of the populace, and bore some resemblance to that tribune of the higher orders ; their vices were the same; and what was bold in the conceptions of Mira- beau might be traced in Danton, but bearing a differ- ent character, as belonging to a different class and period of the revolution. This powerful demagogue presented a mixture of discordant vices and qualities. Like Mirabeau, he tampered with the court, and received large sums from it. Whilst he was making incendiary motions in the Jacobin meetings, he was a spy for the court, to which he regularly reported what- ever occurred.* Reproached with not fulfilling his bargain, his excuse was that in order to retain the means of serving the court, he was necessitated in appearance to treat it as an enemy.f The court, viewing the many movements in agita- tion against it, took some measures to screen itself from a sudden attack. It had formed a club, called the French Club, which met near the palace, and was composed of artisans and soldiers of the national guard. They had arms concealed in the building in which they assembled, and, in case of emergency, could hasten to the aid of the royal family. It also kept a band in pay, which alternately occupied the galleries in the Assembly, coffee-houses, and public places, for the purpose of speaking in favor of the King, and opposing the continual tumults of the patriots. At length, on the 30th of July, the Marseillais arrived. Their ranks comprised all the most fiery spirits of the South, and all the most turbulent char- acters that commerce brought to the port of Marseilles. Barbaroux went to Charenton to meet them. They entered Paris at the Barriere du Trone, and traversed the city till they came to the Assembly ; in their pro- * Memoirs of La Fayette. t Thiers. THE REIGN OF TERROR. 127 gress obliging all persons they met in the streets to change their cockades made of silk for others of worsted ; overturning, too, as they marched along, all the stalls where silk cockades were sold. Crowds of the lower orders thronged along with them, with shouts of rude welcome, and the whole scene was that of turbulence and drunkenness. After having paid their homage to the Assembly, where they were received with applause, they repaired to the Champs- Elysees, to be entertained, by Santerre and his fau- bourg followers, with a dinner. On the same day, and at the same hour, a party devoted to the court were also dining there. A quarrel was stirred up, and a furious riot ensued. The fiery Marseillais put the royahsts to flight, killing one and wounding many. Some of the fugitives arrived, covered with blood, at the Tuilleries. Attentions, perfectly natural, were paid to them, since they were regarded as friends who had suflTered for their attachment. This occasioned fresh reports, and fresh animosity, against the royal family and the ladies of the court, who, it was said, wiped oflf the perspiration and blood of the wounded. Insubordination now became general, and the exas- peration of the multitude was fired by a proclamation issued by the Duke of Brunswick, commanding the allied armies, and now marching to the rescue of Louis XVI. The proclamation was couched in lan- guage intolerable even to the feelings of such French- men as still might retain towards their King some sen- timents of loyalty. All the towns or villages which should offer the slightest resistance to the allies, were, in this ill-timed manifesto, menaced with fire and sword. Paris was declared responsible for the safety of Louis, and the most violent threats of the total sub- version of that great metropolis were denounced as the penalty. This acted upon the other motives for insurrection, as a high pressure upon a steam-engine, producing explosion. The cause of the King was by this manifesto identified with the invaders beyond a doubt in the minds of the French, and it became every 128 THE REIGN OF TERROR. hour more evident that the capital was speedily to be the scene of some dreadful event.* On the morning of the 3d of August, Petion, mayor of Paris, appeared before the Assembly, presenting a petition, in the name of the forty-eight sections of Paris, proposing the dethronement of the King, and praying the Assembly to insert that important question in the order of the day. The question was adjourned until Thursday the 9th of August. In the meantime, day after day, petitions to the same effect, poured into the Assembly. The King's friends, seeing the crisis, were preparing for his flight; ready themselves to accompany the royal carriage, and, if it were neces- sary, to perish by its side. Louis at first assented, but afterwards, inspirited by the tidings of Brunswick's approach, changed his mind. The day fixed for the dethronement was near. The plan of the insurrection was settled and known. The Marseillais, whose bar- racks were at the farthest extremitv of Paris, had repaired to the section of the Cordeliers, where the club of that name was held, and were now posted in the heart of the capital. The 10th of August was the day fixed for the insurrection and attack on the Tuil- leries. The chief place of assembling was to be in the faubourg St. Antoine. On the evening of the 9th instant, the Jacobins, after a stormy debate in their meeting, proceeded thither in a body, where the inhabitants of that faubourg, under the command of Santerre, were assembling, armed with pikes, swords, scythes and bludgeons. On the other side of the river, the sans-culottes were likewise collecting together in the faubourg St. Marceau, with Lengendre, Fourier, and others, fbr their leaders. But the most formidable band was that which assembled at the club of the Cordehers; among them were the five hundred Mar- seillais, and the vigor of Danton gave energy to all their proceedings. Barbaroux, after stationing scouts at the Assembly and at the Tuilleries, had provided * Scott. TIJE REIGN OP TERROR. 129 couriers ready to start for the South. He had also provided himself with a dose of poison, such was the uncertainty of success, and awaited at the Cordeliers the result of the insurrection. It is not known where Robespierre was this night. All parties hesitated as on the eve of a great and momentous undertaking, but Danton, with a daring proportionate to the impor- tance of the event, ascended the tribune in the club of the Cordeliers, and raised his stentorian voice. He enumerated what he called the crimes of the court. He expatiated on its hate to the constitution, its de- ceitful language, its hypocritical promises, always belied by its conduct, and its plots for bringing in foreigners. " The people," said he, " can now have recourse but to themselves. The legislators are the accomplices of the criminals. This very night the perfidious Louis has chosen to deliver to carnage and conflagration the capital, which he is prepared to quit in the moment of its ruin ! You have therefore none left to save you but yourselves. Lose no time, then, for the satellites of the palace are ready to sally forth upon the people and to slaughter them, before they quit Paris ! Save yourselves, then ! To arms ! to arms !" The insurgents, and especially the Marseil- lais, impatiently called for the signal to march.* Aware of their danger, the court had been for some days making preparations to resist the threatened at- tack. Their principal reliance was on the Swiss guard, whose loyalty, always conspicuous, had been wrought up to the highest pitch by the misfortunes and liber- ality of the royal family. The number of these in attendance was between eight and nine hundred ; and Mandat, commander of the National Guard, had marched with his staff to defend the palace, — in the interior of which were seven or eight hundred royal- ists, chiefly of noble families, determined to share the danger of Louis XVI. ; but, without any regular uni- form, variously armed with pistols, sabres and fire- * Mignet ; Thiers ; Alison. 12* 130 THE REIGN OF TERROR. locks. The heavy dragoons, on horseback, with seve- ral pieces of artillery, were stationed in the gardens and court. Of this civic force some, and especially the artillery-men, were as ill-disposed towards the King as possible ; others were well inclined to him ; the greater part remained doubtful. It is now near midnight — the night is beautiful and calm. In the palace the windows are opened to the air, for the atmosphere is warm ; the apartments are all crowded with anxious hearts, hovering around the royal family, imparting consolation, assuring them that Mandat was entirely in the royal interests, and that he had disposed his force to the best advantage for discouraging the mutinous, and giving confidence to the well-disposed ; ' that a squadron on the Pont Neuf, with cannon, would turn back the Marseillais when they attempted to come across the river; that another at the Hotel-de-Ville would cut St. Antoine in two as it issued from the Arcade St. Jean, drive one half back to the obscure east, drive the other half for- ward through the wickets of the Louvre ; that mount- ed squadrons in the Palais Royal, and in the Place Vendome, would charge at the right moment, sweep this street, and then sweep that.' But the King seemed to recover no fortitude from these assurances. " I have no longer anything to do with earth," he said ; "I must turn all my thoughts on Heaven." Midnight — hark ! — a gun. " To arms ! to arms !" is the cry, which soon spreads far and wide, and the insurrection is proclaimed. The Marseillais quickly formed before the door of the Cordeliers, and a nu- merous concourse, ranged itself by its side. The tocsin sounded, and the generale beat to arms in all quarters of Paris. The first step was to seize the municipality at the Hotel-de-Ville, and a*ppoint a new magistracy. This was done almost without opposi- tion, so completely were all the authorities paralyzed by the impending danger. The dismal sound of the tocsin now pealed through the air, pervading the whole extent of the capital. It was wafted from THE REIGN OF TERROR. 131 Street to street, from building to building. It called the deputies, the magistrates, the citizens, to their posts. At length it reached the palace, proclaiming that the terrible night was come. To this melancholy- music the contending parties arranged their forces for attack or defence. Mandat had but just completed the disposal of his defensive force, when he received an order to repair before the municipality. He hesi- tated ; but those about him, not deeming it right yet to infringe the law by refusing to appear, exhorted him to comply. He then decided. He put into the hands of his son, who was with him at the palace, the order signed by Petion to repel force by force, and obeyed the summons of the municipality. On reach- ing the Hotel-de-Ville, he was surprised to find there a nevj authority. He was instantly surrounded and questioned concerning the order which he had issued. He was then dismissed, and, in dismissing him, the president made a sign which was equivalent to sen- tence of death. As he retired he was clutched by the mob outside and massacred on the steps. The mur- derers stripped him of his clothes, without finding about him the order, and his body was thrown into the river. This sanguinary deed paralyzed all the means of defence of the palace. The drums continued to beat, and the storm-bells to peal. It was a night of alarm, confusion, horror ! The incessant clang of the tocsin, the rolling of drums, the ratthng of artil- lery along the streets, the shouts of the insurgents, and the march of columns, mingled upon the ear! The Marseillais impatiently awaited at the Pont St. Michel for the arrival of the faubourgs St. Antoine and St. Marceau. Santerre had delayed setting his columns in motion, apparently moved by some doubt in regard to the success of the insurrection. Wester- mann kept urging him, but in vain, until he clutched him by the throat with drawn sabre. The faubourgs now successively arrived, some by the Rue St. Honore, others by the Pont Neuf, the Pont Royal, and the wickets of the Louvre. Their numbers were im- 132 THE REIGN OP TERROR. mense. But the real strength of the assault was to lie in the Marseillais who were placed at the head of the columns of the suburb pikemen, as the edge of an axe is armed with steel, while the back is of coarse metal to give weight to the blow. Being formed, they now marched through the night. — tramp ! tramp ! to- wards the Tuilleries — the tocsin still sounding — bell , answering bell from steeple to steeple — clang! clang! " And at the Hotel-de-Ville, it is Marat himself who is pulling the rope. Robespierre lies deep, invisible, for the next forty hours." All Paris — its seven hundred thousand — is awake and astir. The Assembly has met, and sits attempting to debate, with perhaps a disposition to aid the court, but not the power. Pa- trols of the insurgents fly about the streets, arresting spies of the court ; in the Champs Elysees, seventeen persons, with pistols and rapiers, are seized and carried to the nearest guard-house, from which eleven of them escape by back passages ; the remaining six are dragged out by the mob, and in the whirl two more escape, but four are doomed to death, and are massacred upon the spot ! Such are the scenes that usher in the dawn of the 10th of August, 1792, at which hour the palace of the Tuilleries is completely besieged by the assailants, as those within the palace see through the old doors of the courts and from the windows. * And while irres- olution and despondency prevailed at the Tuilleries, the energy of the insurgents was hourly increasing. Early in the morning the arsenal was forced, and arms were distributed to the multitude. The ad- vanced guard of the faubourgs, composed of the Mar- seillais, was arranged in battle array, with their cannon pointed against the palace. Fifteen thousand of the faubourg St. Antoine, and five thousand of St. Mar- ceau, were ready to assist them. The King, after showing himself on the balcony, went down to review the troops, but he was received ♦ Mignet, Thiers, Alison, Scott, Carlyle, etc. THE REIGN OP TERROR. 133 coldly by them ; cries of " Vive la Nation ! Down with the Veto ! Down with the traitor !" rose from the populace on all sides, and he returned, pale and dis- pirited to the palace. Though the Swiss were to be depended upon, it was evident that many battalions of the National Guard would at the first onset join with the insurgents. In this crisis, Louis was advised to throw himself upon the protection of the Assembly ; and it was represented to him that, unless he did so, the destruction of the royal family was inevitable. The Q,ueen vehemently opposed this plan. " I would rather," said she, •' be nailed to the walls of the palace than leave it !" It is even asserted that, snatch- ing a pistol from the belt of one of those around her, she presented it to the King, exclaiming, " Now is the time to show yourself!" He remained silent ; he had the resignation of a martyr, but not the spirit of a hero. The behaviour of Marie Antoinette, was magnanimous in the highest degree. Her majestic air, her Austrian lip, her aquiline nose, gave her an air of dignity which can only be conceived by those who beheld her in that trying hour. * At length Louis XVI. decided to retire to the As- sembly. He rose up, and addressing himself to those around him, said, " Gentlemen, nothing remains to be done here." Accompanied by his wife, his sister, and his children, he descended the stairs. A detachment of Swiss and of the National Guard escorted them, and had the utmost difficulty in getting them into the Assembly, amid the menaces and execrations of the multitude. They were interrupted every moment of their progress by the swaying of the crowd. "Gen- tlemen," said the King, on entering the Assembly, " I come to prevent a great crime, and I think that I cannot be safer than in the midst of you." Verginaud, who was in the chair, replied that he might rely on the firmness of the National Assembly ; that its members had sworn to die in defence of the rights of the people * Thiers ; Alison ,* Lacretelle, etc 134 THE REIGN OF TERROR. and of the constituted authorities." Louis seated himself beside the President, but a member observing that his presence might affect the freedom of delibera- tion, he and his family were placed in the box of the writer appointed to report the proceedings. * It was in this prison, (the reporter's box,) six feet square and eight feet high, that the King and his family spent fourteen hours together in the course of a day that was burning hot. As the mob kept tumultuously crowding round the hall, it was found advisable to destroy an iron railing, which separated this lodge from the Assembly, that the King might be able to get into the Assembly in case the box should be attacked. Four of the ministers and the King himself were obliged to pull down this railing, without any instru- ment, and merely by the strength of their hands and arms. The King then sat down and remained in his chair, with his hat off, during the debate that followed, and taking no refreshment for the whole time but a peach and a glass of water, f Exhausted by fatigue, the infant dauphin dropped off into a pro- found sleep in his mother's arms ; the princess royal and Madame Elizabeth, their eyes streaming tears, sat on each side of the Queen. | Meanwhile the new municipality, with Danton di- recting its movements, had urged the populace on to the attack upon the Tuilleries. The gendarmerie, sta- tioned in front of the palace, quitted their post, crying *' Vive la Nation !" The cannoniers openly joined the insurgents, and the National-guard was so divided as to be incapable of action. The Swiss guards alone remained firm in resolution amid the defection of all around them. The crowd in the palace was dense, and on the outside of it gleamed the pikes and guns of the assailants, who now commenced the attack. The Swiss fired from the windows, and speedily drove back the foremost of the invaders; then descending the staircase, they ranged themselves in battle array, * Thiere. t Peltier. t Alison; Thiers. THE REIGN OF TERROR. 135 and by a heavy and sustained fire they completely dis- persed the insurgents for the time, who fled in confu- sion as far as the Pont Neuf, and many did not stop till they reached their homes in the faubourgs.* But the MarseiUais were ashamed of having given way; they rallied, and returned to the charge with fury.' They rushed forward, fell in great numbers, but at length gained the vestibule of the palace, and made themselves masters of it. The rabble, with pikes, poured in after them, and the rest of the scene was but a general massacre. The unfortunate Swiss, in vain, begged for quarter, at the same time throwing down their arms. They were butchered without mercy.f The gentlemen-ushers of the chambers, the pages of the back-stairs, the door-keepers, even per- sons in the lowest and most servile employments, were all ahke butchered. Streams of blood flowed everywhere from the roofs to the cellars. It was im- possible to set foot on a single spot without treading on a dead body. Stripped, many of them, as soon as they were murdered, their lifeless bodies presented in addition to the ghastliness of death, the shocking spectacle of mutilation of which the mind may con- ceive, but modesty forbids a description. And among the perpetrators of these atrocious deeds were found women ! Bureaus were burst open ; furniture was bro- ken and thrown out of the windows ; the cellars were ransacked; and, in short, the whole presented nothing but scenes of devastation and death, with rapine, drunkenness and impunity hourly increasing.! Some of the fugitives, escaping from the palace, were pur- sued into the garden by the faubourg pikemen, and there unmercifully put to death under the trees, amid the fountains, and at the feet of the statues. § The Assembly had anxiously awaited the issue of the combat, and at eleven o'clock were heard shouts of victory a thousand times repeated. The doors yielded to the pressure of a mob intoxicated with joy * Alison. t Thiers. J Peltier. $ Alison. 136 THE REIGN OP TERROR. and fury. Vergniaud had for a moment quitted the chair, for the purpose of drawing up the decree of de- thronement. He returned, and the Assembly, in the presence of the King, passed the decree that " Louis XVI, is, for the time being, suspended from royalty — A plan of education is directed for the prince-royal — A national convention is convoked." At the palace the massacre and devastation con- tinued. The rabble penetrated into the private apart- ments of the Glueen and indulged in the most obscene mirth. They pried into the most secret recesses, ran- sacked every depository of papers, broke open every lock, and enjoyed the twofold gratification of curiosity and destruction. To the horrors of murder and pil- lage were added those of conflagration. The flames, having already consumed the sheds contiguous to the outer-courts, began to spread to the edifice, but were soon extinguished. The streets were strewed with wrecks of furniture and dead bodies. Every one who fled, or was supposed to be fleeing, was treated as an enemy, pursued, and fired at. An almost incessant report of musketry succeeded that of the cannon, and was every moment the signal of fresh murders.* " I ran from place to place," says Clery, the King's valet, "and finding the apartments and staircases already strewed with dead bodies, I took the resolution of leap- ing from one of the windows down upon the terrace. I continued my road till I came to the dauphin's garden gate, where some Marseillais who had just butchered several of the Swiss were stripping them. At four o'clock in the afl;ernoon the slaughter was still going on ; the women, lost to all sense of shame, committing the most indecent mutilations on the bodies, from which they tore pieces of flesh, and carried them off" in triumph. Toward evening, I took the road to Ver- sailles, and crossed the Pont Louis Seize which was covered with the naked carcases of men already in a state of putrefaction from the great heat of the wea- ther. ♦ Thiera THE REIGN OF TERROR. 137 While these terrible scenes were going forward, the Assembly was in the most violent agitation. The tu- mult around the hall continued to rage with extreme violence, and, in the opinion of the people, it was not sufficient to have suspended royalty — it ought at once to be abolished. Petitions on this subject poured in, and the multitude, in an uproar without, twice or thrice so nearly bursted in the doors as to excite ap- prehensions for the unfortunate family of which the Assembly had taken charge. Vergniaud replied to the petitions. " The Assembly," said he, " has decreed the suspension of the executive power, and appointed a convention which is to decide irrevocably the great question of the dethronement. It has thus satisfied all wants, and at the same time kept within the limits of its prerogatives." These words produced a favorable impression, the petitioners were satisfied, and ex- plained the nature of the case to the people without. At three o'clock on the morning of the 11th, the As- sembly closed its sitting, the royal family having been removed two hours previously to ' three little rooms on the upper floor ' of the building in which the As- sembly met, there to be guarded until the palace of the Luxembourg should be prepared for their recep- tion. Here they remained three days, and on the 13th, the Assembly, at the command of the municipality, di- rected that they should be removed to the Temple, in- asmuch as the Luxembourg could not be got ready. Thither they proceeded in the carriage of Petion, with a prodigious press of people staring at them, shouting ♦' Vive la Nation." The carriage was stopped on the Place Vendome, in order that the royal captives might see the fragments of the statue of Louis XIV, which had shared the fate of all such monuments of royalty since the 10th.* Robespierre now showed himself, and pretended to * " Louis XVI, to whom the Assembly had at first assigned the Luxembourg as a residence, was transferred to the Temple as a prisoner, under the pretext, that it was impossible, without such a 6tep, to be secure of his person." — Mignet. 13 138 THE REIGN OF TERROR. have been active in bringing about the 10th of August. Marat changed the title of his paper fi-om ' L'Ami du Peuple' to tliatof The Journal deRepublique.' Danton was all-powerful. The cry of the mob was for ven- geance on the aristocrats, and petitions poured into the Assembly, generally presented at the bar by Robes- pierre. " Blood," he exclaimed, " has not yet flowed ; the people remain without vengeance. No sacrifice has yet been made to the manes of those who died on the 10th of August. And what have been the results of that immortal day 1 A tyrant has been suspended ; why is he not dethroned and punished 1" The Prussian army was advancing; Lojjgioi had already capitulated, and Verdun was now bombarded. These tidings filled the populace of Paris with the greatest terror; they expected the army of the enemy would soon be under the walls of their city. The blame was all attached to the loyahsts; Marat called for extermination of the aristocrats, and a Revolu- tionary Tribunal was created that should have the power of pronoimcing, without appeal, the extreme punishment of the law. " My advice is," said Danton, "that, to disconcert their measures and arrest the enemy, we strike terror into the loyalists." And on the 29th of xA.ugust the barriers were closed, remain- ing shut for forty-eight hours, so as to render all es- cape impossible; domiciliary visits were made, by order of the municipality, with a vast and appalling force : " Let the reader fancy to himself," says an eye-wit- ness, " a vast metropolis, the streets of which were before alive with the concourse of carriages, and with citizens constantly passing and repassing — let him fancy to himself, I say, streets so populous and so ani- mated, suddenly struck with the dead silence of the grave, before sunset, on a fine summer evening. All the shops are shut ; every one retires into the interior of his house, trembling for life and property. Every- where persons and property are put into concealment. Every one supposes himself to be informed against. Everywhere are heard the interrupted sounds of the THE REIGN OF TERROR. 139 muffled hammer, with cautions knock completing the hiding-place. Roofs, garrets, sinks, chimneys — all are just the same to fear, incapable of calculating any risk. One man, squeezed up behind the wainscot which has been nailed back on him, seems to form part of the wall; another is suffocated with fear and heat be- tween two mattrasses; a third, rolled up in a cask, loses all sense of existence by the tension of his sin- ews. Apprehension is stronger than pain. Patroles, consisting of sixty pikemen, were in every street. The nocturnal tumult of so many armed men ; the in- cessant knocks to make people open their doors ; the crash of those that were burst off their hinges ; and the continued uproar and revelling which took place throughout the night in all the public-houses, formed a picture which will never be effaced from my me- mory." * Marat, perceiving aristocrats on all sides conspi- ring against liberty, collected here and there all the facts that gratified his passion, and denounced with fury, all the names mentioned to him. Great numbers of all ranks, suspected of being adverse to the new order of things, were imprisoned; but the victims were chiefly selected from the nobility and the clergy. The utmost terror was excited by these preparations. An uncertain feeling of horror prevailed. Popular tu- mult was kept up. " Death to the aristocrats !" was the cry, and on the 2nd of September, (it was Sun- day,) the direful tragedy commenced. At two o'clock, the generale began to beat, the tocsin rang, and the alarm-gun thundered. There were at the Hotel-de- Ville twenty-four priests, who had been apprehended on account of their refusal to take the oath to the con- stitution, and were now to be removed to the prisons of the Abbaye. - They were placed in six hackney coaches, and conveyed, at a slow pace, along the quays, over the Pont Neuf, surrounded by a clamo- rous crowd, loading them with abuse. At length they reached the court of the Abbaye, where a multitude * Peltier. 140 THE REIGN OF TERROR. was collected. A furious rabble surrounded the first coach that drove up. The first of the prisoners stepped forward to alight, but was immediately pierced by a thousand weapons. The second threw himself back into the carriage, but was dragged forth and slaugh- tered hke the other ; and as the other coaches drove up, the priests were all dragged forth, and despatched amidst the howls of their murderers.* At this moment Billaud-Varennes arrived ; he was a member of the council of the municipahty, and the only one of the organizers of these massacres who dared openly to encounter the sight of them, and openly to defend them. He came, wearing his scarf Walking in blood, and over the dead bodies of the priests, he addressed the crowd of murderers, and complimented them upon doing their duty. Maillard, (formerly so conspicuous in the attack upon Ver- sailles,) was the leader of the assassins, and now called upon them to follow him to the Church of the Carmelites, in which two hundred priests were con- fined. They broke into the church, and furiously fell upon the unfortunate priests, who prayed to Heaven and embraced each other, as the strokes of the mur- derers put them to death. f The assassins called with loud shouts for the Archbishop of Aries. "I am he," said the venerable prelate, stepping forward. "Ah, wretch !" exclaimed one, " it is you who caused the blood of the patriots of Aries to be spilled 1" — aiming a blow with his sword at the prelate's forehead. He received it unmoved. A second dreadful gash was given him in the face. The third blow brought him to the ground, where he rested on his left hand without uttering a murmur. While he lay thus, one of the assassins plunged his pike into his breast with such violence that the iron part stuck thei-e. The ruffian then jumped on the prelate's palpitating body, trampled ijpon it, and tore away his watch.f After using their swords, they employed fire-arms, and discharged vol- . * Thiers. t Thierst t Peltier. I THE REIGN OF TERROR. 141 eys into the rooms and in the garden, at the tops of ,he walls and the trees, where some of the victims jought to escape their fury. Completing the work of death here, Maillard, and lis gang, returned to the Hotel-de-Ville, and demanded ivine for " the brave laborers who were dehvering the lation from its enemies." Twenty-four quarts were granted them. " To the Abbaye !" Maillard now shouted, pointing to the prison. His gang followed lim, and attacked the door. The trembling prisoners leard the yells — the signal for their death ! The doors were burst in, and the first of the prisoners who ivere met with were seized, dragged forth by the legs, Dutchered, and their bleeding bodies thrown into the :ourt. Some humane persons who had now collected ^n the spot interposed, and the murderers so far lesisted for the moment as to consent to a kind of trial of each individual. Maillard was made president by acclamation, and, seating himself at a table, with a 3rawn sabre before him, and his clothes drenched in. blood, he proceeded to pass sentence. The list of the prisoners was placed before him ; he called around him a few men, taken at random, to give their opinions, and sent some into the prison to bring out the inmates, posting others at the door to consum- mate the massacre. It was agreed that, in order to spare scenes of anguish, Maillard should pronounce these words, " Sir, to La Force !" when the prisoner should be taken out at the wicket, and, unaware of the fate which awaited him, be delivered up to the swords of the party posted there.* The Swiss confined in the Abbaye, and whose officers had been taken to the Conciergerie, were first brought forward. "It was you," said Maillard, " who murdered the people on the 10th of August." The Swiss replied that they were attacked, and that they obeyed their officers. " At any rate," coldly replied Maillard, " you are only going to be taken to La Force." But the prisoners, who had * Thiers ; Alison. 13* 142 THE REIGN OF TERROR. caught a glimpse of the pikes and swords brnndishH on the other side of the wicket, were not to be de- ceived. They were ordered to go, but halted, and drew back. One of them, more courageous, asked which way they were to go. The door was opened, and he rushed headlong amidst the swords and pikes. The others followed, and met the same fate.* Thus the carnage continued throughout that horrid night. The murderers succeeded each other at the tribunal and the wicket, and became by turns judges and executioners. Dragged from their dungeons and cells, the prisoners were hurried before MailJard, or whoever relieved him for a time in his office, and a few minutes, often a few seconds, disposed of the fate of each individual; thrust from the pretended hall of judgment, they were turned out to the populace, who despatched them, demanding a quicker supply of vic- tims. " The victims were despatched," says fcrcott, "by men and women, who, with sleeves tucked up, arms dyed elbow-deep in blood, hands holding axes, pikes and sabres, were executioners of the sentence." The murderers formed an avenue, a row of them on each side, the weapon of each descending upon the victim as he issued from the door. A complaint arose amongst them, that those nearest the door had the best chance at the aristocrats, and that the aristocrats were dead before the others could get a stroke at them. It was, in consequence, agreed that those in advance should only strike with the backs of their sabres, and that the victims should be made to run the gauntlet through * Thiers. — " The Swiss prisoners, remnants of the Tenth of Au- gust, ' clasped each other spasmodically,' and hung back ; grey veterans crying 'Mercy, messieurs, ah, mercy!' But ihere was no meicy. Suddenly, however, one of these men steps forward He had on a blue frock-coat ; he seemed about thirty, his stkture was above common, his look noble and martial. ' I go first,' said he, * since it must be so. Adieu !' Then dashing his hat sharply behind him, ' Which way V cried he ; ' show it me then.' They open the folding-gate ; he is announced to the multitude. He stands a mo- ment motionless; then plunges forth among the pikes, and dies of a thousand wounds." — Carlyle. THE REIGN OF TERROR. 143 the murderers, each of whom should have the satis- faction of striking them before they expired. The women in the adjoining quarter of the city made a formal demand to the municipality for lights to see the massacres, and a lamp was consequently placed near the door from which the victims issued. Benches, under the charge of sentinels, were next arranged, " for the ladies," and anotiier " for the gentlemen," to v/itness the spectacle. As each successive prisoner was turned out of the gate, yells of fiendish exultation rose from the murderers and the great crowd of spec- tators, and when he fell they danced like cannibals round his remains.* M. Thierry, one of the King's valets, after he was condemned to die, kept crying out * God save the King,' even when he had a pike run through his body ; and, as if these words were blas- phemous, the assassins, in a rage, burned his face with two torches. The Count de St. Mart, one of the prisoners, had a spear run through both of his sides ; his executioners then forced him to crawl upon his knees, with his body thus skewered, and burst out laughing at his convulsive writhings ; the}'- at last put an end to his agony by cutting off his head. Young Masaubre had hid himself in a chimney. As he could not be found, the assassins were resolved to make the jailor answerable. The latter, accustomed to the des- peration of the prisoners, and, knowing that the chim- ney was well secured at the top by bars of iron, fired a gun up several times. One ball hit Masaubre, and broke his wrist. He had sufficient self-command to endure the pain in silence. The jailor then set fire to some straw ; the smoke suffocated the unfortunate youth, he tumbled down, and was dragged out, in a wounded, burnt, and half dead condition. On being taken into the street, the executioners determined to complete his death in the manner in which it had been begun. He remained almost a quarter of an hour, lying in blood among heaps of dead bodies, till fire- * Abbe Sicard ; Alison ; Thiers. 144 THE REIGN OF TERROR. arms could be procured, when his tortures were put to an end by five pistol balls through his head.* Thus passed the night ; the doom of the prisoner was generally death, and that doom instantly accom- plished. In the meanwhile those yet in their cells could hear the cries of the murdered, and were con- scious of what was going on. Penned up in their dungeons, like cattle ready for the knife of the butcher, many of them could mark, from windows that overlooked the court below, the fate of the others, and learn from the horrible scene how they might best meet their own fate.f They observed that those who held up their hands, to intercept the blows, suffered longest, because the strokes of the cutlasses were thereby weakened before they reached the head ; that even some of the victims lost their hands and arms before their bodies fell.l In the midst of the massacres. Mademoiselle de Sombreuil, eighteen years of age, threw herself on her father's neck, and declared they should not strike him but through her body — and she clung to him with such tenacity, beseeching the assassins with such a flood of tears and in such piteous accents, that even their fury was suspended. Then, as if to subject that sen- sibility which overpowered them to a fresh trial, "Drink," said they to this affectionate daughter — " Drink ! it is the blood of the aristocrats !" handing her a cup filled with blood, and promising to spare the life of her father, if she drank it off. fehe did so, and he was saved. Mademoiselle Cazotte, of still younger years, sought out her aged parent in prison during the tumult, and clung so firmly to his neck that it was impossible to separate them, and she succeeded in softening the murderers, and saving her father's life.^ Similar tragedies took place at the same time in all the other jails of Paris, and in the religious houses, which were all filled with victims. At the Chatelet, * Peltier. t Scott t M. de St. Meard- $ Thiers ; Peltier ; Alison. THE REIGN OP TERROR. 145 La Force, the Conceirgerie, the Bernardins, St. Firman, La Salpetriere, and the Bicetre, streams of blood flowed as at the Abbaye. Next morning, Monday, Sept. the 3d, day threw a light upon the horrid carnage of the night, and consternation pervaded all the city. From the 2nd to the 6th of September these crimes proceeded uninterrupted, protracted by the actors for the sake of the daily pay of a louis each, openly dis- tributed amongst them by order of the municipality. The books of the Hotel-de-Ville preserve evidence of this fact. There may be seen, says Thiers, in the statement of the municipality's expenses, the entries of several sums paid to the executioners, and under date of September 4th, the sum of one thousand four hundred and sixty-three livres charged to the same account. At La Force, the Bicetre, and the Abbaye, the massacres were continued longer than elsew^here. It was at La Force the unfortunate Princess de Lam- balle was confined. She had been celebrated at court for her beauty, and her intimacy with the Q,ueen, to whom she was tenderly attached, and shared her captivity in the Temple as a matter of choice, but was removed from the presence of the royal family by order of the municipality. When the assassins arrived at her cell, at eight o'clock on the morning of the 3d, she was in bed, oppressed with anxiety and horror. Two men entered to inform her that she was going to be removed. She slipped on her gown, and went down to where two municipal officers, Hebert and L'Huillier, presided in the manner that Maillard did at the Abbaye. When she entered this frightful court, the sight of weapons stained with blood, and of men whose hands, faces, and clothes were smeared over with the same red dye, so shocked her that she seve- ral times fainted. " Who are you 3" she was asked. — "Louisa of Savoy, Princess de Lamballe," was her answer. " What part do you act at court 1 Are you acquainted with the plots of the palace 1" — "I never was acquainted with any plot." — "Swear to love liberty and equality; swear to hate the King, the 146 THE REIGN OF TERROR. Queen, and royalty." — •' I will take the first oath ; the second I cannot take ; it is not in my heart." — " Swear, however," whispered one of the bystanders, who wished her to escape death. But, trembling and overcome, the unfortunate lady could neither hear nor see — she swooned — was conducted to the door, and one of her domestics, whom she had loaded with bene- fits, gave the first blow, striking her upon- the back of her head just as she stepped over the threshold. Two men then laid hold of her, and obliged her to walk over dead bodies, while she was fainting every instant. They then completed her murder by running her through with their pikes on a heap of corpses. She was then stripped of her clothes, and her naked body exposed to the insults of the populace. In this state it remained more than two hours. When any blood gushing from its wounds stained the skin, some men, placed there for the purpose, immediately washed it off, to make the spectators take more particular notice of its whiteness. Towards noon, the murder- ers determined to cut her head off, and carry it in triumph around the streets of Paris. Her beautiful form was then torn in pieces. Her head, breasts, and heart, were borne on the points of pikes, and her limbs trailed along the streets. * "One day," says the Duchess D'Abrantes, " as my brother came to visit us, he perceived, as he came along, groups of people whose sanguinary drunkenness was horrible. Many were naked to the waist, their arms and breasts covered with blood, their countenances inflamed, their eyes haggard, and, in short, they looked hideous. My brother, in his uneasiness, determined to come to us at all risks, and drove rapidly along the Boulevard, until he was stopped by an immense mob, composed also of half-naked people, besmeared with blood, and who had the appearance of demons. They vociferated, sang, and danced. On perceiving my brother's cabri- olet, they cried out ' Let it be taken to him ; he is an * Thiers; Mercier; Peltier; Alison. THE REIGN OF TERROR. 147 aristocrat.' In a moment the cabriolet was surround- ed, and from the middle of the crowd an object seemed to arise and approach. My brother's troubled sight did not at first enable him to perceive long auburn tresses clotted with blood, and a countenance still lovely. The object came nearer and nearer, and rest- ed before his face. My unhappy brother uttered a piercing cry. He had recognized the head of the Princess Lamballe." Having carried the head through many streets, the tigers next proceeded with it to" the Temple, where they paraded it aloft, with loud shouts to attract the attention of the King and Q,ueen. The latter fainted at the sight of it. Madame Elizabeth, the King, and Clery, the valet-de-chambre, carried the unfortunate princess away from the window. For a considerable time afterwards, the shouts of the ferocious rabble rang around the walls of the Temple. 14 148 THE REIGN OF TERROR. CHAPTER VI. Massacres — flight of La Fayette from the army — Dumouriez — mas- sacre of prisoners at Versailles, their heads stuck on the iron-raii- ings round the palace — plunder of the jewel- office. The elections in Paris; Robespierre, Danton, Marat, and others elected. The Jacobin Club. Louis XVI. and his family. The iron chest. The King summoned to the bar of the convention — he is separated from his family — brought to trial — discussions in the Convention — placards — excitement of the Parisians — the voting — the sen- tence — it is read to Louis XVI. — heart-rending interview between him and his family, on the night previous to his execution — assas- sination of Lepelletier — the death of Louis XVL — shops pillaged by the mob. The Girondists — popular indignation against them — insurrection of June 2nd — the Convention surrounded — the Girond- ists arrested. The provinces incensed — terror — emigration — Char- lotte Corday — description of her — she arrives in Paris — her con- duct — interview with Marat Marat in his bath — Charlotte stabs him — violent scene — her arrest — brought to trial — her answers to the judge — her sentence — execution. The body of Marat — funeral pomp, and parade with which he is buried, etc. M. MiGNET, remarking upon the massacres of Sep- tember, says, that " the prisoners shut up at the Car- melites, at the Abbaye, at La Force, the Conceirgerie, etc., were butchered through the space of three days, by a band of about three hundred murderers, under the orders, and in the pay, of the municipality. These men, inspired by a silent fanaticism, prostituting to the ends of murder the sacred forms of justice, acting sometimes judges, and sometimes executioners, seemed less the ministers of vengeance than the performers of a mechanical labour.* They massacred without re- morse, with all the confidence of fanatics, and the obe- dience of hangmen. The populace looked on as indif- * " Women, carrying refreshments, even repaired to the prisons, taking dinner to their husbands, who, they said, were at work at the Abbaye. The men had even established a sort of regularity in their exe- cutions ; suspending them for the purpose of removing the corpses, and taking their meals." — Thiers. THE REIGN OP TERROR. 149 ferent spectators or accomplices. But the punishment of that fearful outrage was visited upon the heads of its authors. The greater number of them perished in the tempest they had raised, and by the violent means they had employed." That the Assembly did not rise from their seats, repair in a body to the pri- sons, and place themselves between the butchers and the victims, " must be attributed," remarks Thiers, " to surprise, to a feeling of impotence, and to that disastrous notion shared by many of the deputies, that the victims were so many conspirators, at whose , hands death might have been expected, had it not been inflicted on themselves." The Bicetre was the scene of the longest and most bloody carnage. There some thousands of prisoners were confined. These when attacked, endeavoured to defend them- selves, and cannon were employed to reduce them. The thirst for blood urged on the multitude. The fury of fighting and murdering had superseded po- litical fanaticism, and it killed for the sake of killing. At this prison the massacre lasted days and nights, but all were eventually assassinated.* In the meantime, La Fayette, having in vain at- tempted to induce his army to rise in favor of Louis XVI. and the constitution, and finding dangers multi- plying on all sides, fled from the army on the 17th of August, intending to proceed to the United States, where his first efforts in favor of freedom had been made; but he was arrested near the frontier by the Austrians, and conducted to the dungeons of Olmutz. He was offered his liberty on condition of making cer- tain recantations; but he preferred remaining four years in a rigorous confinement, to receding in any particular from the principles which he had embraced. The Assembly declared him a traitor, and set a price on his head ; Marat, Danton and Robespierre, were loud in their denunciations of him to the Jacobins ; and the first leader of the revolution owed his life to * Thiers; Peltier. 150 THE REIGN OF TERROR. imprisonment in an Austrian fortress. A friend to the revolution, he had from the first been the opponent of the Jacobins, perceiving as he did that their violent measures must engulph liberty in a vortex of anarchy. After his departure, the command of the army devolved upon Dumouriez, who had the address to attract vic- tory to the French banners, to drive the allies from France, and leave his name strongly written in the annals of his country. He much surpassed any ex- pectation that had. been formed of him, displayed talent and enlarged views, and for some little time his pa- triotism was estimated by his success. But while he was stopping the march of the enemy, Paris was still the theatre of disturbance and confusion. The mas- sacres had familiarized the murderers with blood, and they were bent on spilling more. In the prisons at Orleans were a number of men confined on the charge of high treason. Some hun- dreds of assassins had already set out with the avowed purpose of taking them out of these prisons, and the Assembly, to save them, had decreed that they should be removed to Saumur ; but their destination was changed by the way, and they were brought towards Paris, via Versailles, where the band of murderers re- paired to await them. As soon as the prisoners reached the grand square at Versailles, ten or twelve men laid hold of the reins of the horses in the first carriage, crying out.—" Off with their heads !" There were a few curious spectators in the streets, but the whole escort was under arms. The murderers crowd- ed round the carriages, separating them from the es- cort, knocked Founier, the commandant, from his horse, and beset the carriages. The mayor of Ver- sailles interposed, haranguing the assassins, but in vain ; in vain did he get upon the carriage, and use efforts to guard and cover with his own person the two first of the prisoners who were killed. The assas- sins, masters of the field of slaughter, killed, one after another, forty-seven out of the fifty-three prisoners, and the butchery lasted at least an hour and a quarter. THE REIGN OF TERROR. 151 The dead bodies experienced the same indignities as those of the persons who had been massacred at the Abbaye and the other prisons of Paris. Their heads and limbs were cut off, and fixed upon the iron rails round the palace of Versailles. This was on the 9th of September. Among the victims was the virtuous and enlightened Larochefoucault, slain in the arms of his wife and mother. v A tragedy like this, committed so soon after the other murders, increased the terror which already prevailed. Marat continued to denounce, and the committee of surveillance did not abate its activity ; the aristocrats were everywhere hunted from their hiding-places. The plunder arising from the property of the many victims at this crisis, procured immense wealth to the municipality, and to several of the leaders. Danton, at this period, had the hardihood, says Madame Ro- land, to avow a fortune of 1,400,000 livres, and he wallowed in luxury, she adds, while preaching sans- culottism, and sleeping on heaps of slaughtered men. He, Marat, and Robespierre, were now in complete possession of the municipality, which was filled with their adherents exclusively, and they held the As- sembly as absolutely under their control, as the As- sembly formerly had held the King. The safety of Paris was thus abandoned to chance, and the popu- lace had full scope to do what they pleased. Among the spoils of royalty, the most valuable, and conse- quently the most coveted, were those kept at the Garde Meuble, or jewel-office, in the Tuilleries, the rich depot of the effects that formerly contributed to the splendor of the throne. This, ever since the 10th of August, had excited the cupidity of the mob, and more than one attempt to break into it had sharpened the vigilance of the inspector of the establishment. On the night of the 16th of September it was pillaged of all its precious stones and valuables, the ornaments of the crown disappearing forever. The seals upon the locks were removed, but no marks of violence ap- peared on them, which clearly showed the abstraction 14* 152 THE REIGN OF TERROR. was done by order of the municipalit)'' : * which, also, not only seized the plate of the churches, and all the movables of the emigrants, but the whole effects of the prisoners massacred in the prisons were put under sequestration, and deposited in the warehouses belong- ing to the committee of surveillance. They sold, of their own authority, the furniture of all the mansions, on which the national sesl had been put, in conse- quence of the emigration of their proprietors. Plunder and murder went hand in hand, and the Assembly, and subsequently the Convention, could never obtain from the magistrates of the municipality, either an account of the amount of this plunder, or how it was disposed of Need we look farther for the means by which Danton and other demagogues were enable to " wal- low in luxury?" Such was the state of Paris while the elections for the National Convention were going forward, in which a warm interest was taken throughout France ; and the clubs, directed by the Jacobins at Paris, in a great measure controlled them. In Paris, Robespierre and Danton were the first elected ; after them, Ca- mille Desmoulins; David, the celebrated painter; D'Eglantine, a comic writer; Legendre; Panis; Ser- gent ; Billaud-Varennes ; Collot d'Herbois, an actor ; Robespierre, the younger ; Manuel ; the Duke of Or- leans, who had relinquished his titles and called himself Philippe Egalite ; Dussaulx; Marat; Freron, another journalist, and a few more obscure individuals, completed that famous deputation, correctly repre- senting the confusion and the various classes which were struggling in the immense capital of France. The Convention met on the 20th of September, 1792. In its first sitting, it abohshed royalty and pro- claimed the republic. From the first opening of the Convention, the Girondists, or moderate party, occu- p ed the right, and the Jacobins the seats on the summit of the left, whence their designation, subse- * Thiers ; Alison, etc. THE REIGN OF TERROR. 153 quently so notorious, of "The Mountain" was derived. A neutral body, composed of those members whose principles were not yet declared was called " The Plain." The first measure of the parties, after having formally established the republic, was to oppose each other. The Girondists were indignant at the mas- sacres of September, and witnessed, with horror, on the benches of the Convention, the men who had countenanced or directed them. Two, especially, of the members excited their horror and disgust ; Ro- bespierre, whom they suspected of aspiring to the tyranny, and Marat, who from the commencement of the Revolution had declared himself in his writings the apostle of massacre. * Each of these two were accused, but both, supported by the clamors of the rabble, triumphed over their accusers. The debates in the Convention upon this matter are full of interest, but as they are not immediately necessary to our sub- ject, we pass on to the trial of the King, for which event the public mind had been for some time past prepared. The room of the Jacobin club resounded with invectives against him; reports the most inju- rious to his character were spread ; and his condem- nation was demanded as a security for liberty. The popular societies of the departments addressed the Convention to the same effect; the sections pre- sented themselves at the bar of that assembly, and me» who had been wounded on the 10th of August, were marched into the midst of the members, crying for vengeance on Louis Capet, his family name being now substituted for his royal title. Mobs frequently collected before the Temple, with insulting and threat- ening language. In the hall of the Jacobins, two por- traits, adorned with garlands, of Jacques Clement and Francis Ravaillac, were hung on the walls; and im- mediately below was the date of the murder which each had committed, with the words, "He was fortu- nate; he killed a king."t The sovereignty of the * Thiers; Alison; Mignet. t Henri the Third was assassinated by Jacques Clement on the 2nd 154 THE REIGN OP TERROR. people was the notion everywhere inculcated, and particularly and boldly called for by the orators at the Jacobin club. Such demagogues as advocated this cry soon acquired an ascendency, for the mob ap- plauded those who were loudest in the assertion. Fifteen hundred members usually attended the meet- ings of this club. Only a few lamps lighted the vast extent of the room ; its members appeared for the most part in shabby attire ; and the galleries were filled with the lowest of the populace. In this den of darkness, the meetings were opened by revolutionary songs, and shouts of applause greeted the levelling doctrines of their leaders, Danton, Marat, Robespierre, Billaud-Vaiennes, St. Just, and Collot d'Herbois. Here were prepared, or hatched, all the bloody hsts of pro- scription and massacre, that, by means of the affi- liated societies, were carried on throughout all France. Here came Marat, in his slovenly attire, to be greeted with deafening plaudits, as he laid aside his cap, and poured forth his denunciations of aristocracy, and called for its extermination by blood. Here came Robespierre, with his twang of the " Poor people ! the virtuous people !" — and the people listened to their Cicero, and hastened to execute whatever came re- commended by such honied phrases, though devised by the worst of men for the worst and most inhuman purposes.* The tower in which the King, or Louis Capet, was confined, was an ancient fortress called the Temple, from the Knights Templars, to whom it once belonged. There was in front a house, with some modern im- provements ; but the dwelling of Louis was the donjon or ancient keep, itself a huge square tower of great an- tiquity, consisting of four stories. Each story contained two or three rooms or closets ; but these apartments were unfurnished, affording not even comfort for an of August 1589. Henri the Fourth, assassinated by Francis Ravail- lacHthofMay 1610. ♦ Lacretelle; Mignet; Thiers; Buzot: Alison; Scott THE REIGN OP TERROR. 155 ordinary family, and were quite comfortless to a family accustomed to the space and conveniences of a palace. The King's apartments were on the third story. There was a kitchen separated from his chamber by a small dark room. He usually rose at six in the morning. He shaved himself, and his valet, Clery, dressed his hair. He then went to his reading room, which being very small, the municipal officer on duty remained in the bed-chamber, with the door open, that he might always keep the King in sight. At nine o'clock, the Queen, the children, and Madame Eli- zabeth, went up to his chamber to breakfast. At ten, he and his family went down to the Queen's chamber; and there passed the day. He employed himself in educating his son, made him recite passages from Corneille and Racine, gave him lessons in geography, and exercised him in coloring maps. The Queen, on her part, was employed in the education of her daughter, and these different lessons lasted till noon, when, if the weather was fine, the royal family was conducted to the garden by four municipal officers, and a commander of the National Guards. At two o'clock dinner was served, at which time Santerre regularly came to the Temple, attended by two aides- de-camp. The King sometimes spoke to him — the Queen never. In the evening, the family sat round a table, while the Queen read to them from books of history, or other works proper to amuse and instruct the cihildren. Madame Elizabeth took the book in her turn, and in this manner they read till eight o'clock. After the dauphin had supped, Clery undressed him, and the Queen heard him say his prayers. At nine the King went to supper, and afterwards went a moment to the Queen's chamber, shook hands with her and his sister for the night, kissed his children, and then retired to the turret-room, where he sat reading till midnight Such was the manner, says Clery, in which the royal family daily passed the time. The faithful Clery, who, having escaped the attack on the Tuilleries in August, had returned to Paris to 156 THE REIGN OF TERROR. serve in misfortune those whom he had formerly served in the splendor of their power. Tiie King and Queen were frequently doomed to hear cruel remarks, and found, upon the walls and corridors, expressions of the hatred which the former government had often merited, but which neither Louis XVI. nor his consort had done anything to excite. * On the 3d of December, there were calls from all sides of the Convention for putting Louis Capet upon trial. Some were for condemnation without trial. Robespierre insisted that to admit of deliberation was to admit of doubt, and even of a solution favorable to the accused ; " and," said he, " to make the guilt of Louis problematical is to accuse the Parisians, the foederates ; in short, all the patriots who achieved the revolution of the 10th of August." At this crisis, too, the iron chest was discovered. This was a secret closet, in the Tuilleries, constructed by Louis XVI. in the wall, the door of which was iron, and hence the name given it. The workmen who had been employed to construct it, had given information of it. M. Ro- land secured the papers enclosed in this, containing all the documents relative to the communications which the court had held with the emigrants and dif- ferent members of the Assemblies, besides details of the negotiations between Mirabeau and the court.f From these papers were drawn up a declaration of * " One of the soldiers within wrote one day on the King's cham- ber door, and that, too, on the inside, ' The guillotine is permanent, and ready for the tyrant Louis.' The walls were frequently covered with the most indecent scrawls, in large letters, ' Madame Veto shall swing.— The little wolves must be strangled.' Under a gallows, with a figure hanging, were these words, ' Louis taking an air-bath,' and similar ribaldry."— CZer?/. t " In it were found a detail of all the plots and intrigues of the court against the revolution ; the manoeuvres of Talon, the arrange- ments of Mirabeau ; plots with the aristocrats to bring back the old government. This discovery enhanced the general fury against Louis XVL The bust of Mirabeau was broken in pieces at the Jacobin hall, and the Convention hid with a cloth that which stood in the hall where its sittings were held." — Mignet. THE REIGN OF TERROR. 157 facts imputed to Louis XVI., and Tuesday, the 11th of December was fixed for his appearance before the bar of the Convention. Accordingly, on the morning of the 1 1 th, numerous troops surrounded the Temple, and the din of arms and the tramp of horses reached the ears of the royal prisoners. At one o'clock, Louis entered the mayor's carriage, which was waiting for him. Six hundred picked men surrounded the vehicle ; it was preceded by three pieces of cannon and fol- lowed by three more. A numerous body of cavalry, commanded by Santerre, formed the advance and the rear guard. Louis, dressed in a walnut-colored great- coat, sat, as the procession moved on through the streets, calmly conversing upon the objects that pre- sented themselves on the way. A great concourse of people witnessed the passage, in silence — there were a few shouts. At half-past two o'clock, amid drizzling weather, the carriage arrived at the Convention. " Louis," said Barrere, who was president, " the French nation accuses you ; you are about to hear the charges that are to be preferred against you. Louis, be seated." The charges consisted of an enumeration of the whole crimes of the revolution, from its commence- ment in 1789, all of which were laid to his account. His answers were brief and firm. As each article was read, the president paused and said, "What have you to answer]" Louis denied some of the facts, imputed others to his ministers, and constantly ap- pealed to the constitution, from which he declared he had never deviated. His replies were all very tempe- rate, except to the charge that he spilled the blood of the people on the 10th of August, when he exclaimed indignantly and with emphasis, " No, sir, no ; it was not /.'" All the papers found in the iron-doored closet were then shown to him, and, availing himself of a respectable privilege, he refused to avow part of them, and disputed the existence of the iron-chest. He then demanded copies of the accusation and of the other papers, and counsel to assist him in his defence. After 158 THE REIGN OP TERROR. which the president signified that he might retire, and getting in the mayor's carriage, he was conveyed back to the Temple, where, after traversing the same streets by which he had come, he arrived at half-past six, and the first thing he did was to ask for his fam- ily, from whom he was now to be separated by orders of the municipality, and reduced to solitary confine- ment. He wept, but neither wife, sister, nor children, was permitted to share his tears.* Louis chose for his counsel two men of celebrity, Tronchet and Malesherbes ; Deseze, an excellent law- yer, was afterwards added ; and on Tuesday, the 26th of December, he was again summoned to the bar of the Convention. Deseze opened his case with great ability. He ended with these words ; " Listen to History, who will say to Fame — Louis, who ascended the throne at the age of twenty, carried with him there an example of morals, of justice, and of econo- my ; he had no corrupting passions, and he was the constant friend of the people. The people desired that a disastrous impost should be abolished, and Louis abolished it ; the people asked for the destruction of servitudes, and Louis destroyed them ; they demanded reforms, he consented to them ; they wished to change the laws by which they were governed, he agreed to their wish ; they asked for liberty, and he gave it. No one can dispute that Louis had the glory of anticipa- ting the demands of the people by making these sacri- fices ; and yet it is in the name of this very people that men are now demanding — citizens, I cannot go on — I pause in the presence of history. Remember that History will judge of your judgment, and that her decision will be that of all ages to come." — When the defence was concluded, Louis himself rose, and spoke as follows : " You have heard my defence ; I will not recapitulate it. In addressing you, perhaps, for the last time, I declare that my conscience has nothing to reproach itself with, and that my defenders * Thiers; Mignet; Scott; Carlyle; Alison. THE REIGN OF TERROR. 159 have told you nothing but the truth. I was never afraid that my conduct should be publicly examined ; but my heart bleeds at the accusation brought against me of having been the cause of the misfortunes of my people, and, most of all, that the calamitous events of the 10th of August should be attributed to me. The multiplied proofs I have given, in every period of my reign, and the manner in which I have always con- ducted myself, might, I had hoped, have saved me from such an imputation." Having said these few words, he withdrew with his defenders.* The discussion of the King's punishment now occu- pied the Convention until the 1 5th of January follow- ing ; some of the members advocating death, others banishment, and some imprisonment. Paris was in the highest state of agitation. The Jacobins were clamor- ous for his death, and they threatened the deputies even at the door of the Convention ; new popular excesses were looked for, and Marat, and other jour- nalists, kept alive an outcry against the moderate members of the Convention. Robespierre, St. Just, and others of " the Mountain," declaimed powerfully against Louis XVI., and their invectives were echoed in the hall of the Jacobins, and spread over the capital in placards that everywhere appeared on the walls. In the Palais-Royal, and in the streets, Jacobins harangued the populace, and Louis Capet, his treachery, his du- plicity, his plots against the republic, was the theme of the brawling demagogue ; and, though dethroned, and no longer any more than a private individual, he should suffer death, was the cry, for conspiring against the revolution and the republic. On January 15th, 1793, an extraordinary concourse of spectators surrounded the Convention and filled the galleries. The vote upon Louis Capet's punish- ment was to be taken. For days previously the agita- tion of Paris had been increasing as the awful mo- ment approached. Deep consternation pervaded the * Mignet ; Thiers ; Lacretelle ; Alison. 15 160 THE REIGN OP TERROR. prisons, inasmuch as a report had got into circulation that the atrocities of September were to be repeated, and the relatives of the prisoners beset the deputies with siippKcations. The Jacobins, instructed by Dan- ton, Robespierre and Marat, who were determined to bring about the death of Louis by means of terror, alleged that conspiracies were hatching in all corners to save him from punishment, and to restore royalty. The whole sitting of the 1 5th was taken up by these two questions, " Is Louis Capet guilty of conspiring against the liberty of the nation, and attempts against the general safety of the state ? Shall the judgment, whatever it be, be referred to the sanction of the peo- ple ?" The third question, " What punishment shall be inflicted upon him 7" was reserved for the following day, the 16th, when the sitting drew together a still greater concourse than any that had preceded. The galleries were occupied early in the morning by the Jacobins. The greater part of the day was taken up in discussions, and as the day advanced, it was de- cided that the sitting should be permanent until the voting was over. The voting began at half-past seven in the evening, and lasted all night. Some voted merely death ; others declared themselves in favor of detention, and banishment after the restoration of peace ; whilst others again pronounced death, but with a restriction that they should inquire w^hether it was not expedient to stay the execution. Many great and good men mournfully inclined to the severer side, from an opinion of its absolute necessity to annihilate a dangerous enemy, and to establish an unsettled repub- lic. Among these must be reckoned Carnot, who, when called upon for his vote, gave it in these words : " Death ! and never did word weigh so heavily upon my heart !" * The voting continued amidst tumult. The bravoes of the Jacobins surrounded the hall, and were clam- orous against members who leaned to the side of * Alison. THE REIGN OF TERROR. 161 mercy, threatening them from the galleries that if Louis was acquitted they would instantly go to the Temple and destroy him and his family, and that they would add to his massacre that of all who befriended him. Undoubtedly, among the terrified deputies, there were some moved by these horrible arguments, who conceived that, in giving a vote for Louis's life, they would endanger their own, without saving him.* Many were in dread of an insurrection, and, though deeply moved by the fate of Louis, they were afraid of the consequences of an acquittal. The mob in the galleries received with murmurs all votes that were not for death, and yelled out their threats. The depu- ties replied to them from the interior of the hall, and hence was kept up a fierce exchange of menaces and abusive epithets. Many resolutions were shaken by this fearful and ominous scene. , ;, A deputy whose vote excited a strong sensation, was the Duke of Orleans. Reduced to the necessity of rendering himself endurable to the Jacobins or per- ishing, when called upon to give his vote, he walked with a faltering step, and a face paler than death itself, to the bureau, and there pronounced these words: "Exclusively governed by my duty, and convinced that all those who have resisted the sovereignty of the people deserve death, my vote is for death." f This melancholy sitting lasted the whole night of the 16th, and the whole day of the 17th till seven o'clock in the evening. Its melancholy was mingled with gaiety, dissipation, and the most grotesque con- fusion ; instead of silence, restraint and religious awe which it might naturally be supposed would have per- vaded the scene. The farther end of the hall was converted into boxes, like those of a theatre, where ladies swallowed ices, oranges, liqueurs, and received the salutations of the members who came and went, moved about, and grouped together, as on ordinary occasions. The upper gallery, reserved for the people, * Scott t Thiers, etc. 162 THE REIGN OF TERROR. was during the whole trial constantly full of strangers of every description, drinking wine, as in a tavern. Bets were made as to the issue of the trial in all the neighboring coffee-houses. Ennui, impatience, dis- gust, sat in almost every countenance. The deputies passing and repassing to give their votes, and ren- dered more ghastly by the pallid lights, and who in a slow sepulchral voice pronounced the word death; others calculating if they should have time to go to dinner before they gave their verdict ; women prick- ing cards with pins in order to count the votes ; some of the deputies fallen asleep, and only waked up to give their sentence ; — all this had the appearance of a hideous dream rather than of reality.* The summing up of the votes was awaited with ex- traordinary impatience by the crowd which thronged the doors, galleries and passages. Vergniaud pre- sided. " Citizens," said he, " I am about to proclaim the result. You will observe, I hope, profound silence." Then, in a sorrowful tone, he declared in the name of the Convention, " that the pimishment it pronounces against Louis Capet is death /" The number of de- puties present were 721, and 361 had voted for death unconditionally.f Louis XVI.'s counsel now appeared at the bar, and seemed deeply moved. They endeav- ored to recall the Convention to sentiments of pity, in consideration of the small majority by which he was condemned. The venerable Malesherbes attempted to speak, but could not. His sobs stifled his voice, and the only words that were audible were broken and imploring. The Girondists attempted to procure a delay of the execution as a last resource ; but they faOed in this, combatted as they were at every step of their arguments by Robespierre, Danton, Barrere, and " the Mountain" generally; and, at three o'clock *Hazlitt. t Thiers. — ^Twenty-six voted for death, expressing a wish that the Convention should consider whether it might not be expedient to stay the execution. Their vote was nevertheless to be considered independent of the" latter clause. THE REIGN OF TERROR. 163 on the morning of the 20th of January, it was decided by a majority of 380 voices to 310, that the execution of Louis Capet should take place without delay. A^nd, at two o'clock that afternoon, Santerre appeared with a deputation from the municipality, and the sentence of death was read to the unfortunate monarch, who heard it with unshaken firmness. The first decree de- clared Louis XVI. guilty of treason against the gene- ral safety of the state ; the second condemned him to death ; the third rejected any appeal to the people ; and the fourth, and last, ordered his execution in twenty-four hours. He, in turn, read a letter, in which he demanded firom the Convention a respite of three days to prepare for death, a confessor to assist him in his last moments, liberty to see his family, and per- mission for them to leave France, The Convention granted him an interview with his family, and the assistance of a priest, but refused the two other requests. The execution was fixed for the following morning at ten o'clock. A heart-rending scene was the last in- terview of the royal family. At half past eight that evening, the door of his apartment opened, and Marie Antoinette appeared, leading the dauphin by the hand, followed by the young princess and Madame Eliza- beth. They thronged altogether into the poor King's arms, weeping, sobbing, and during the first moments it was a scene of silent despair, broken only by the bursting anguish of the afflicted family. The King sat down, the Q,ueen on his left, the young princess on his right, Madame Elizabeth in front, the young dauphin between his knees. A glass door was between this and the adjoining apartment, from which the muni- cipal officer on guard, and the confessor, who had now arrived, were witnesses of what passed. The Queen, his daughter and sister leaned upon the poor King, and firequently pressed him in their arms. He con- tinued to speak, with their tears and lamentations in- terrupting his words. This terrible scene of anguish lasted nearly two hours. At length, Louis rose to 15* 164 THE REIGN OF TERROR. put an end to the painful interview, and gave his blessing to them. The princesses still clasped their arms around him, uttering loud lamentations. "I assure you," said he, " that I will see you again at eight o'clock to-morrow morning." " Why not at seven ?" they all said at once. " Well — yes, at seven," said he. " Farewell !" — He pronounced " farewell " so impressively, that their sobs were renewed, and his daughter fainted at his feet. They raised her from the floor; most agonizing were now the lamentations ; he embraced them tenderly, one by one, and broke away from them, again mournfully pronouncing " Adieu ! adieu !" The princesses and the dauphin, returned to their own apartments, and their screams and lamenta- tions were long continued. Abbe Edgeworth, the confessor, was now admitted to the King, and remained with him until twelve o'clock that night, during which time it had been arranged be- tween him and the priest that mass should be said on the following morning if the municipality would con- sent to it. Word was sent from the Temple to the municipality, who complied with the request, and ap- plication was made to a neighboring church for the necessary ornaments. At about midnight Louis re- tired to rest, having made up his mind not to see his family in the morning, and desiring Clery, his A'-alet, to call him at five o'clock; at the same time, "Give this ring to the Q,ueen," said he, " and tell her with what regret I leave her ; give her also this locket, contain- ing the hair of my children ; give this seal to the dau- phin ; and tell them all what I shall suffer without re- ceiving their last embraces, but I wish to spare them the pain of so cruel a separation." The Abbe Edg- worth threw himself upon a bed, and Clery took his place near the pillow of his master, watching the peaceful slumber into which the latter sunk even upon the night before he was to ascend the scaffold. * Meanwhile a few ardent minds were in a ferment * Thiers ; Clery ; Lacretelle. THE REIGN OP. TERROR. 165 here and there, while the great mass, either indifferent or awe-struck, remained immoveable. A young man, who had formerly been one of the King's life-guard, resolved to avenge the fate of Louis XVI. upon one of his judges. Lepelletier St. Fargeau, one of the deputies, was of noble birth and his fortune was immense. Like many others of his rank, he voted for death, in order to throw the veil of oblivion over his birth and fortune. He had excited the more indignation of the loyalists, on account of the class to which he belonged. On the evening of the 20th he was pointed out to the guards- man, as he was just sitting down at a table to dine in a restaurateur's in the Palais-Royal. The young man, wrapped in a cloak, stepped. up to him, and said, "Are you Lepelletier, the villain who voted for the death of the King "?" — " Yes," replied the deputy, " but I am not a villain; I voted according to my conscience." — " There, then," rejoined the guardsman, " take that for your reward;" plunging a sword into his side. Le-' pelletier fell, and the young man escaped before the persons present had time to secure him. Lepelletier ex- pired in a few moments.* Next morning, the 21st of January, 1793, the clock of the Temple struck five, upon hearing which, Clery rose from his chair, and began to light a fire. The noise he made awoke the King, who, drawing his cur- tains, inquired if the hour had struck. Clery answered that it had by several clocks, but not yet by that in the apartment. Having finished with the fire, Clery ap- proached his master's bedside. " I have slept soundly," said the King, " and I stood in need of it ; yesterday was a trying day to me. Where is M. Edgeworth V Clery answered, " On my bed." — " And where were you all night V — " On this chair." — " I am sorry for it," said the King, and he gave his hand to his faithful valet, tenderly pressing it. I then commenced dressing his majesty, says Clery's narrative, who, as soon as he was dressed, bade me go * Thiers. 166 THE REIGN OF TERROR. and call M. Edgeworth, whom I found already risen. Meanwhile I placed a chest of drawers in the middle of the chamber, and arranged it in the form of an altar for saying mass. The necessary ornaments for the service had been brought at two o'clock in the morn- ing. When everything was ready, I informed his ma- jesty. He had a book in his hand, which he opened, and finding the place of the mass, gave it me; he then took another book for himself The priest, meanwhile, was dressing. Before the altar I placed an arm-chair for his majesty, with a large cushion on the floor. The priest came in, and the mass began at six o'clock. There was profound silence during the ceremony. The King, all the time on his knees, heard mass with the most devout attention, and received the commu- nion.* As the service was concluding, the rolling of drums and agitation in the streets announced the prepara- tions for the execution. All the troops in Paris had been under arms from five o'clock in the morning. The beat of drums, the sound of trumpets, the clash of arms, the trampling of horses — all resounded in the Temple. At half past eight the noise increased ; the doors were thrown open with great clatter, and Santerre, accompanied by seven or eight municipal officers, entered. "You are come forme?" said the King. — " Yes," was the answer. — "• Lead on," said the King.f A carriage waited ; on the front seat, inside of it, two officers of gendarmerie were seated, with orders to despatch the King, if the carriage should be * Clery. t " In the course of the morning, the King said to me. ' Tell the Queen, my dear sister, and my children, that, although [ promised to see them again this morning, I have resolved to spare them the trial. He wiped away some tears, and then added in the most mournful accents, ' I charge you to bear them my last farewell.' — I was stand- ing behind the King at the fire-place. I offered him his great-coat. ' I shall not want it,' said he ; 'give me only my hat.' I presented it to him, and his hand met mine, which he pressed for the last time. His majesty then looked at Santerre and said, ' Lead on.' " — Clery. THE REIGN OF TERROR. 167 attacked, rumours having spread that four or five hundred devoted men contemplated rescuing him. The King entered, followed by the Abbe Edgeworth, and during the slow progress of the vehicle he read from a breviary the prayers for persons at the point of death. All persons not called by any obligation to figure on that day kept close at home. Windows and doors were shut up in the streets through which the carriage passed, and people waited within doors the melancholy event. Two men in arms, it is said, followed the train, going into all the coffee-houses and public-places, and asking boldly if there were still any loyal subjects left ready to die for their King ! But such was the uni- versal terror that nobody joined them, and they ar- rived without any increase of their party at the place of execution, where they slipped off in the crowd. It is also a fact that some timid people well affected to Louis had formed an association of eighteen hundred persons, who were to cry out ' Pardon ' before the exe- cution ; but of these only one man had the courage to do so, and he was instantly torn to pieces by the mob which surrounded the scaffold. The carriage advanced slowly, surrounded by a large body of soldiers, and at ten minutes past ten, arrived at the place of execution, where were planted cannon, with the Marseillais, and a violent mixture of Jacobins and rabble, stationed about the scaffold, manifesting even at that moment their satisfaction. On quitting the vehicle, three guards surrounded his majesty, as he mounted the steps of the scaffold, and would have taken off his clothes, but he repulsed them with haughtiness, untying his neckcloth, opening his shirt, andarranging his throat for the axe of the guil- lotine himself He next stripped off his coat, and " stands disclosed in a sleeve-waistcoat of white flan- nel, breeches of grey, white stockings." * When they * " Far around all bristles with cannons and armed men ; specta- tors crowding in the rear ; d'Orleans Egalite there in a cabriolet" Carlyle. 168 THE REIGN OF TERROR. began to bind his hands he resisted with an expression of indignation. " Suffer this outrage," said the Abbe Edgeworth to him — " suffer it as the last resemblance to that Saviour who is about to be your recompense." At these words, the victim, resigned and submissive, permitted himself to be bound and conducted to the block. Suddenly he separated himself from the exe- cutioners, stepped to the edge of the scaffold, and exclaimed, " Frenchmen, I die innocent of the crimes imputed to me; I forgive the authors of my death, and I pray that my blood may not fall upon France." He would have continued, but Santerre ordered the drums to beat.* " Executioners, do your duty," cried out the rabble. He was seized and pressed down to the block, the Abbe Edgeworth exclaiming, " Son of St. Louis, ascend to Heaven !" as the axe fell. As soon as the blood flowed, furious wretches dipped their pikes and handkerchiefs in it, spread themselves throughout Paris, shouting " Vive la Republique ! Vive la nation !" and even went to the gates of the Temple to display to its unfortunate captives a brutal exulta- tion at the death of their unfortunate relative. One of the executioners seized the head, and waved it in the air to the shouts of the mob, the blood sprinkling the priest who was still on his knees beside the lifeless body. Others tasted the blood, and the brutal remark passed around that it was " shockingly bitter." The body was removed to the ancient cemetery of the Madeleine ; large quantities of quicklime were thrown into the grave with it, which occasioned so rapid a decomposition, that when his remains were sought after in 1815, it was with great difficulty that any part could be recovered.! " And so, in some half hour it is * "He was proceeding, when a man on horseback in the national uniform, waved his sword, and ordered the drums to beat. Many voices were at the same time heard encouraging the executfioners, who immediately seized the King with violence, and dragged him under the axe of the guillotine, which with one stroke severed his head from his body." — AIM Edgeworth. t Clery; Thiers; Peltier; Edgeworth. THE REIGN OF TERROR. 169 done ; D'Orleans drives off in his cabriolet, and the multitude has all departed. Pastry-cooks, coffee-sel- lels, milkmen, sing out their trivial quotidian cries ; the world wags on, as if this were a common day. In the coffee-houses tliat evening, says Priidhpmme, pa- triot shook hands with patriot in a more cordial man- ner than usual. Not till some days after, says Mer- cier, did public men see what a grave thing it was."* Thus perished, at the age of thirty-nine, the best but weakest of monarchs. He inherited the revolution from his ancestors. His qualities were better fitted than any of his predecessors to have prevented or terminated it ; for he was capable of being a reformer before it broke out, and of being a constitutional mo- narch under its influence. He Was perhaps the only prince, who, destitute of passion, had not even the love of power; and who united the two qualities most es- sential to a good monarch, fear of God and love of his people. He perished, the victim of passions which he had no share in exciting. There are few kings who have left so venerated a memory ; and history will say of him, that with a little more strength of mind, he would have been a pattern to monarchs.f The execution was over at half past ten, but the shops continued shut. Groups of assassins were to be seen, singing revolutionary songs, the same aS those which preceded the massacres of September.' Their voices reached the Temple, and the Queen, with her orphan son, fell on their knees, and prayed that they might soon join the martyr in the regions of Heaven. J Louis XVI.'s death rendered the Jacobins triumph- ant, and multiplied the external enemies of the repub- lic. England and Spain declared war against her. "The coalised kings threaten us," exclaimed Danton in debate; "we hurl at their feet, as gage of battle, the head of a king !" Robespierre and " the Mountain''. party in the Convention, nOw were victorious over * Carlyle. t Migiiet. , t Aliso.n. 170 THE REIGN OF TERROR. the Girondists, or moderate deputies, whose humanity and spirit of justice were unavailing, and they were accused of being enemies to the people, because they raised their voices against bloodshed and the- horrible excesses that daily were committed. Because they had endeavoured to save the life of Louis XVL, the Jacobins denounced them as being accomplices of the tyrant, and, because they recommended moderation, with betraying the republic. The influence of Marat over the mob was at this time incalculable ; and the difficulty of procuring subsist- ence, together with the total stagnation of commerce, in- creasing to an alarming degree during the months of February and March, he stirred up the populace to pillage the merchants, whom he accused of attempting to forestal provisions. " In every country," said he, " where the rights of the people are not a vain title, the pillage of a few shops, at the doors of which they hung their forestalling owners, would put an end to an evil which reduces five millions of men to despair, and daily causes thousands to die of famine. When will the deputies of the people learn to act, instead of eternally haranguing on evils they know not how to remedy !" He attacked in the most violent manner, both in his journal and at the Jacobin meetings, the aristocracy of the middle classes, the traders, and the statesmen, as he styled the Girondists ; in a word, all who, whether in public or in the Convention, opposed- the dominion of the Sans-culottes and the Mountain. Encouraged by those exhortations, the mob pillaged the shops, and rioted through the streets, flourishing their pikes, and yelling forth their revolutionary songs. All was terror and anarchy in the city. Popular fury was particularly directed against the Girondists, and all their efforts in the Convention to restore order were drowned in the cries and hisses of the multitude in the galleries. The quarrel became daily more and more violent. The parties openly threatened each other. Many of the deputies never went abroad with- out arms, and sat in the legislative halls with daggers THE REIGN OP TERROR. 171 and pistols upon their persons. Robespierre, Danton and Marat, preached destruction to aristocrats and counter-revolutionists, and on the 10th of March, they succeeded in passing a decree for the establishment of the Committee of Public Safety, of which the noto- rious Pouquier Tinville was made public accuser. Justice, in his eyes, consisted in condemning; an ac- quittal was the source of profound vexation ; he was only happy when he secured the conviction of all accused. He required no species of recreation; women, the pleasures of the table, of the theatre,, were alike indifferent to him. He was seldom to be seen at the clubs or any public meeting ; the Revolutionary Tribunal was the theatre of all his exertions, and his joy the extermination of aristocrats. Marat, Robes- pierre, and others denounced, and Pouquier Tinville sentenced. Men were daily perishing ; the guillotine was permanent. Day and night Tinville sat in judg- ment; his power of undergoing fatigue was unbound- ed. The sole recreation he permitted himself was jiow and then to witness the executions. * (;ilt was now indeed the Reign of Terror! The Girondins strove to arrest these barbarities, but the Mountain asserted they were necessary to strike terror to the enemies of the republic, to root aristoc- racy from the soil, and keep the revolutionary wheel in motion. The downfall of the Girondins was the determination of the Jacobins, and they put matters in such a train that on the 31st of May, the tOcsin sound- ed and the faubourg St. Antoine was in movement,|with the purpose of plundering the rich shopkeepers of the Palais Royal, and afterwards marching to the Con- vention, there by force to expel the Girondins from the legislative hall. But at the Palais Royal they found the gates shut, and artillery placed in the avenues which led to them, — deterred by which, the wave of insurrection rolled aside to the more defence- less quarter of the Convention. * Mignet,- Alison. 16 172 THE REIGN OF TERROR. Tne Girondins, notwithstanding the earnest en- treaties of their friends, repaired to the post of danger; having passed the night at the house of a common friend, assembled together armed, and resolved to sell their lives dearly. It was the intention of the mob to rush upon them, and to drag them from the benches of the Convention, but this part of their design they did not put into effect, though they used very me- nacing gestures from the galleries and offensive language. At the meeting of the Jacobin club that night, it was complained that the day had gone with- out producing any result. Next day, the 1st of June, tranquillity was far from being restored; the arrest of the odious Girondins was loudly called for—mobs paraded the streets, singing significant songs, shout- ing, and crying " Perish the Girondins !" — and it was expected new scenes would mark the morrow, the 2nd of June. At dusk, people thronged to the coffee- houses, talked in excitement, denounced the Girond- ins, and, in the Palais Royal, and all the public places, they grouped together in great crowds, listening to the inflammatory harangues of different demagogues; All was excitement, none thought of retiring to their beds, and sometime after midnight, Marat himself rushed to the bell of the Hotel-de-Ville and started the tocsin,, which was quickly answered from bell to bell ; the generale was beat throughout the remainder of the night, and at daybreak, on Sunday the 2nd, all th6 suburbs were in motion, and an irnmehse mass as- sembled upon the Place de Greve, the command of which was assumed by Henriot, a vulgar man, de- voted to the municipality, and popular among the sans-culottes. In order to ensure the concurrence of the faubourgs in all its measures, and keep them under arms in these moments of agitation, the municipality had passed a law that forty, sous per day, should be paid to all the citizens upon duty from the produce of a forced loan extorted from the rich by a recent decree of the Convention. THfT ' ftEIGN OF T3ERRGR. 1 73 The forces assembled on this occasion were most formidable — one hundred and sixty pieces of cannon, with tumbrils, wargons of balls, furnaces to heat them red hot, lighted matches, and drawn swOrds in the hands of the gunners, — the whole resembled rather the preparations for the siege of a powerful fortress than merely demonstrations against a pacific legisla- ture. Plots existed, was the cry, and that they had been discovered, that the leaders were in the Convention, and. that they must be torn from its bosom. Henriot declared, in the name of the insurgent people, that they would not lay down their arms till they had ob- tained the arrest of these obnoxious deputies. By ten o'clock the whole avenues to the Tuilleries (now the ISfational Palace, and where the Convention held its sittings) were blockaded by dense columns and artillery : and eighty thousand armed men, sur- rounded ' the defenceless representatives, ready to commit any a.ct of violence against them. The de- puties of every side had repaired to the sitting. The Mountain, the Plain, and the right side, occupied their benches ; the larger part of the proscribed deputies kept away, but some had come to brave the storm. The • intrepid Lanjuinais mounted the tribune. " I demand leave to ask why the generale is now beating in every part of Paris'?" he exclaimed. He was interrupted by cries of " Down ! down ! He wants a civil war! He wants the counter-revolution! He calumniates Paris ! He insults the people !" In spite of menaces from the Mountain, and fi^om the Jacobin rabble in the galleries, Lanjuinais continued ; his courage rose with his danger; he denounced the pro- jects of Robespierre, Dahton, Marat, Billaud-Varennes, and others, as that of tyrants who were seeking blood and dominion. At this, several of the Mountaihists, Drouet, Robespierre the younger, Julien, and\ Le- gendre, rushed to the, tribune, and endeavoured to drag him 'from it, but he clung tQ..it:j,jG9ntinuihg to denounce his enemies. ',, .' , ^ , .^ i r^ .' ; ■ ' , r i Air tlie parts of the Convention were agitated,- and IT4 THE REIGN OF TERROR. the howls of the galleries continued to render it a frightful scene. A great noise was heard without, together with repeated cries of " To arms ! to arms !" and petitioners entered the hall, demanding the arrest of twenty-two Girondins, with also a threat that if it was not complied with, the people would take the matter into their own hands. Lanjuinais again spoke, and represented the baseness, treachery, cruelty, and im- policy, of thus surrendering to the demand of a blood- thirsty multitude from without. He spoke with such effect, that the Convention resolved to go out in a body, and ascertain what respect would be paid to their persons by the armed force assembled round them. They sallied forth accordingly, in procession, with their president at their head ; but their progress was presently arrested by Henriot on horseback. The president demanded of him to open a passage. " You shall not leave this place," said Henriot, " till you have delivered up the twenty-two conspirators."— " Seize this rebel," said the president to the soldiers. Henriot reined back his horse, and turned to his gun- ners. "Gunners, to your pieces!" said he. Two cannons were immediately pointed at the Convention, Who drew back, and re-entered their hall in conster- nation, amid the chucklings and sneers of the Moun- tain party. " The nation forever ! Down with the Girondins! Marat forever!" were the cries of the multitude, amongst which Marat went up and down, encouraging them to be firm in their demand for the arrest oT the obnoxious deputies — the conspirators against liberty — the friends of the aristocrats ! " No weakness," said he, " and quit not your posts till these men shall have been given up." The Convention, overwhelmed with a sense of its own impotence, now suffered a decree to be passed by the Mountain party for the detention of the Girond- ins in their own houses, and under the safeguard of the people. With the dagger at their throats, as it were, the Convention passed the decree. A large body had the courage to protest against this violence, THE REIGN OF TERROR. 175 and refuse to vote. The suicidal measure was carried by the sole vote of the Mountain and a few adherents; the great majority refusing to have any share in it. The multitude gave tumultuous cheers and dispersed. So fell the party of the Gironde, a party illustrious for the great talents and courage of its members ; a party which did honor to the rising repubhc by its horror of blood, its hatred of crime, its dread of anarchy, its love of order, of justice, and liberty ; a party which was unfortunately placed between the middle classes, whose revolution it had upheld, and the multitude, whose dominion it rejected. Thus were the Jacobins triumphant, and their leaders had no longer any ob- stacles to encounter, carrying forward their work of desolation, until finally the ambition of each other brought them into collision, and they nearly all fell beneath the axe of the guillotine. * Their proceedings, after the overthrow of the Gi- rondins, excited violent opposition throughout the provinces of France, who were justly incensed at this expulsion of their deputies from the legislation, and saw that instead of maintaining a republic, the commonwealth would be plunged into anarchy by the Jacobin leaders. Bitter indignation was felt in differ- ent departments against Robespierre, Danton and Marat. Clubs of Jacobins throughout the country imitated the conduct of the mother society in Paris,— r commissioners from the latter arrived in all the prin|- cipal cities ; they denounced the aristocrats and enemies of the republic; brought heads beneath the guillotine and confiscated property ; a general war was made upon the rich, who sought safety b)?- flying into foreign countries ; and from one end of France to the other, brigands and revolutionary banditti tra- versed the country, spreading fright and horror, and universal was the Reign of Terror. Bordeaux, Marseilles, Toulon, and Lyons, now de- clared themselves against the Jacobin supremacy, and * Toulangeon ; Thiers ; Mignet ; Scott ; Alison, etc. iZ6 THE PwEIGN OP TERROR. the detestation of Marat, Robespierre and Danton was a sentiment universal to the feelings of the friends of humanity. This feehng amounted to heroism in the breast of a young lady, who arrived ht Paris on the 12th of July, 1793, from Caen in Normandy, Alone, and without communicating her departure to her relatives, she had taken her seat in the diligence at Caen and come to the French metropolis. At the Inn de la Providence in the Rue des Vieux Augustins, she alighted, asked for a room, hastened to bed, fatigaed with a journey of three days, and slept all the afternoon and night until the following morning, July the 13th. Her name was Charlotte Corday. Nature had bestowed on her beauty, wit, feeling, and a masculine understanding. She was an enthusiast for the cause of the revolution, like many other women of her time ; and, like Madame Roland, she was intoxicated with the idea of a republic submissive to the laws, and fertile in virtues. The Girondins were her favo- rite orators, and realized her notions of what the republic should be. After their expulsion from the Convention, Barbaroux and others of them arrived at Caen ; with these she had an interview, and was in- spired with the greatest indignation against the Jaco- bin leaders ; and the provinces having at the same time risen in opposition to them, she conceived that the death of Marat would insure victory to the moderate party and put an end to the Reign of Terror. With this thought she had repaired to Paris. " Marat at this time was ill, and kept within d«)ors, spending a considerable part of the day in a bath, agreeable to medical advice. But nothing could di- minish his restless activity. While in his bath, he had pens and paper beside him, writing, constantly engaged upon his journal, and addressing letters to the Conven- tion, denouncing aristocrats and anticipating popular apprehensions. It had been the intention of Charlotte Corday, to poniard him in his seat upon the benches of the legislative hall, and surrounded by his party ; this she could not now do, and was consequently obliged THE REIGN OP TERROR. 177 to seek him at his own home. She made inquiries, ascertained where his residence was, repaired to the Palais-Royal-, bought a knife, hired a coach, and drove to his house. No. 44, in the Rue de I'Ecole de Medecine, but was not allowed to see him. She returned to her lodgings, and wrote the following note to him : " Citi- zen, I have just arrived from Caen; your love of your country inclines me to suppose you will listen with pleasure to the secret events of that part of the repub- lic. I will present myself at your house ; have the goodness to give orders for my admission, and grant me a moment's private conversation. I can point out means by which you may render an important service to France." At eight o'clock, on the evening of Saturday, the 13th of July, she again called upon Marat. His house- keeper, a young woman with whom' he cohabited, made some difficulties, inasmuch as Marat was then in his bath. He, hearing the altercation, and aware of whom it was by Charlotte mentioning her name, and interested by the note she had written to him, directed that she should be admitted to his presence. Being left alone with him, Marat eagerly inquired the names of the deputies at Caen. She mentioned them, and he, snatching up a pencil, began to write them down, adding " Very good ; they shall all go to the guillotine." — " To the guillotine !" repeated "Charlotte. — ^" Yes," replied he, " they shall soon meet with the punishment they deserve." — " Yours is at hand !" exclaimed she, snatching the knife from her bosom and plunging it below his left breast to his heart. "Help!, help, my dear!" he cried to his housekeeper, who iran at his call, and found him covered with blood ; at the same moment a man, who was folding newspapers in another apartment, rushed also to his assistance. Charlotte stood calm and serene. The man knocked her down with a chair ; the housekeeper trampled upon her. The tumult attracted a crowd, and pre^ sently the whole quarter was in an uproar. Charlotte rose, and bore with dignity the rage and ill-usage of I^-S THE REIGN OF TERROR. those around her. Officers came to secure her ; she quietly submitted, and was conducted to prison. On the following Wednesday, she was brought before the Revolutionary Tribunal. The cutler of the Palais-Royal was there to testify that he sold her the sheath-knife ; but Charlotte interrupted these proceed- ings, saying they were needless, and boldly said, " It was I who killed Marat!" — "By whose instigation?" asked Fouquier-Tinville. " By no one's," she replied. " What tempted you then 3" — " His crimes !" — " What do you mean by his crimes'?" — " The calamities which he has occasioned ever since the revolution. I long ago resolved his death — I was anxious to give peace to my country." — " And do you think you have killed all the Marats 1" — " No," she answered sorrowfully-"no !" She went on to confess everything with unshaken assurance, and her advocate briefly summed up in these words : " This composure, this self-denial, sub- lime in one respect, can only be accounted for by the most exalted political fanaticism. It is for you to judge what weight this moral consideration ought to have in the balance of justice." She was condemned to the penalty of death. Her beautiful face betrayed no depression at this sentence, but radiant smiles played upon her countenance. She handed Fouquier-Tinville a letter for her father, in which she said, " Pardon me, my dear father, for hav- ing disposed of my life without your permission. I have avenged many victims, prevented others. The people will one day acknowledge the service I have rendered my country. Farewell, my beloved father ; forget me, or rather rejoice at my fate ; it has sprung from a noble cause. Embrace my sister for me, whom I love with all my heart, as well as all my relations. Never forget the words of Corneille, ' The crime makes the shame, and not the scaifold.' " That same evening she was put on the cart, and led out to execution. Seated in the tumbril, dressed in the red smock of a murderess, she gazed with serenity upon the . crowd that lined the streets through which THE REIGN OP TERROR. 179 the cart slowly rumbled along, smiling at the abuse and execration of the many voices that assailed her. All, however, did not abuse her ; many deplored a victim, so young, so beautiful, so disinterested in her deed, and accompanied her to the scaffold with looks of pity and admiration. Her appearance was that of a lovely female, bearing with meekness and inward satisfaction a triumphal fete of which she was the object. At the scaffold, her face wore the same still smile. The executioners proceeded to bind her feet ; she resisted, thinking it meant as an insult ; but, on a word of explanation, submitted with a cheerful apology. The handkerchief, that covered her bosom, being removed, a blush of maidenly shame suffused her cheeks ; with which glow her cheeks were still tinged when the axe had fallen, and the executioner held up the head to the gaze of the crowd. She perished at the age of twenty-five.* After Marat's death, honors, almost divine, were de- creed to him. Triumphal arches and mausoleums were erected to him ; in the Place du Carrousel a sort of pyramid was raised in celebration of him, within which were placed his bust, his bathing tub, his writing desk, and his lamp. The honors of the Pantheon were decreed him, and poets celebrated him on the stage and in their works. In the Convention, Robespierre pronounced an eloquent eulogium on his virtues. " If I speak to-day," said he, " it is because I am bound to do so. Poniards await the patriots — they await me, and it is but the effect of chance that Marat has been struck before me," he exclaimed in the course of his eulogium. He opposed, however, the extraordinary pomp that was got up upon the occasion. " The best way of avenging Marat," said he, " is to prosecute his enemies without mercy. The vengeance which seeks to satisfy itself by empty pomp is soon appeased, and forgets to employ itself in a more real and more useful DuBroca; Lacretelle; Mignet ; Thiers ; Carlyle. 180 THE REIGN OF TERROR. manner. Avenge, then, Marat in a manner more worthy of him !" The' body of Marat was exhibited in pubhc for several days. It was micovered, and the wound which he had received was exposed to view. The Jacobins, the CordeUers, all the popular societies, and the differ- ent sections of the city, came in procession, and strewed flowers upon his coffin. Young girls, with flowers, constantly surrounded his corpse. The pre- sident of each society, and of each section, spoke over the corpse. " He is dead !" exclaimed one of the pre- sidents—" the Friend of the People is dead ! He died by the hand of the assassin ! Let us not pronounce^ his panegyric over his inanimate remains ! His eulogy is his conduct, his writings, his ghastly wound, his death ! Fair citoyennes, strew flowers on the pale corpse of Marat ! Marat was our friend, the friend oft the people ; for the people he lived, for the people he has died !" At these words, young females walked round the coffin, throwing flowers upon the body. " But enough of lamentation," resumed the speaker. " Listen, to the great soul of Marat, which awakes and says to you, ' Republicans, put an end to your tears ; Republicans should shed but one tear, and then devote themselves to their country; it was not me whom they wished to assassinate, but the republic ; it is not me whom you must avenge — it is the republic, the people, yourselves !" The body, attended by a vast concourse, was conveyed to the garden of the Cordeliers' Club, where it was to be buried under the very trees, at the foot of which he was accustomed in the evening to read his paper to the people. The pro- cession lasted from six in the evening till midnight ; it had nothing in it but what was simple and patriotic, and the quiet grief with which the whole mass moved was at once impressive and sublime. At the garden of the Cordeliers, the coffin was sat down under the trees, and the people surrounded it in silence. Several brief orations were delivered over the body, which was then deposited in the grave. THE REIGN OP TERROR. 181 The heart of Marat, for which several societies con- tended to have possession of, was left with the Corde- liers. His bust circulated everywhere, and figured in all the assemblies, and public places. The seals put upon his effects were removed. Nothing was found in his possession but a five-franc assignat, and his poverty afforded a fresh theme for admiration. His housekeeper was called his widow, and maintained at the expense of the state. 182 THE REIGN OP TERROR. CHAPTER VII. Flight of Dumouriez — escape of the Girondins — revolt in the pro- vinces — terrible slaughter of the Vendeans — Carrier at Nantes^ his barbarous executions — great numbers in the prisons — the Re- pubUcan baptisms, the RepubUcan marriages — drowning in boats — the river clogged up with dead bodies — massacre of children — Madame de Bonchamps. — Madame de Jourdain, and her daugh- ters. — Mademoiselle Cuissan. — Madame de la Roche St. Andre. — Agatha Larochejaquelain — her remarkable danger and escape. Executions and horrors at Lyons — CoUot d'Herbois and Couthon — destruction of property — houses razed to the ground — Death pro- claimed an eternal sleep — impious procession, and burning of the Bible, the Cross, and the communion vases.— Great numbers shot at Lyons — the fusillades — extermination of aristocrats. Fouche and the Jacobins at dinner. Bodies floating down the Rhone — thirty-one thousand persons perish. Atrocities at Bordeaux, Mar- seilles, and Toulon. — Freron — Executions at Arras and towns in the north of France — Joseph Lebon — his cruelty — his orgies — his travelling tribunal and guillotine — his hatred of the aristocrats — his sanguinary oppression, etc. Robespierre — Danton. The pri- sons of Paris become filled with rank and beauty — description of how the prisoners passed their time — Fouquier-Tinville — daily exe- cutions. The gardens of the Luxembourg — wives of the prisoners. The Conceirgerie — the wife of a prisoner dashes out her brains. The theatres, and places of amusement. Papers and pamphlets published against the aristocrats. The Convention — the clubs. Violent outcry of the Jacobins against Marie Antoinette — against the Girondins — against the Duke of Orleans. — J. R. Hebert— his abuse of Marie Antoinette — she is separated from her son, and re- moved from the Temple to the Conciergerie. Simon, a shoemaker, placed over the dauphin — his inhuman treatment of the boy, etc. Marie Antoinette brought to trial — the accusation against her by Fouquier-Tinville and by Hebert — her replies — the witnesses — clamours of the Jacobins — her condemnation — great concourse to witness her execution — she is placed on the tumbril, with her arms tied behind her — arrives at the Place de la Revolution — her death, etc. In the meantime Dumouriez, disgusted with the san- guinary government of the Jacobins, had entered into negotiations with Holland and Great Britain, for the purpose of restoring the constitutional throne, but THE REIGN OF TERROR. 183 was unsuccessful, and he himself, with a few followers, escaped from the army of France to the Austrians. The failure of this conspiracy added strength to the ruling party in Paris, which now, in the name of the safety of the people, prepared to take the most despe- rate measures. A few of the proscribed Girondists had remained prisoners in their own houses, but the most of them had escaped from Paris to the provinces, where they established newspapers in opposition to the sway of Robespierre, Danton, and the ruling' faction, and lent all their energies to increase the revolt which was now going on in La Vendee, Lyons, Bordeaux, Marseilles, and other places.* The Convention took early and vigorous measures to crush the revolt in the province of La Vendee. An army was sent thither with orders to exterminate the enemies of the republic, and commissioners despatched thither to try suspected persons by the Revolutionary Tribunal. All the nobility in La Vendee were up in arms, exasperated by the execution of Louis XVI., and the peasants almost universally arranged them- selves under their command. Their success was for several months uninterrupted, but they were finally defeated with great slaughter, and their chiefs brought to the guillotine, whilst the armies of the republic tra- versed the country, destroying grain and cattle, and their path might be traced by the conflagration of vil- lages, their footsteps known by the corpses of the in- habitants. Male inhabitants disappeared entirely from * " Bordeaux, Marseilles, Toulon, and Lyons, had declared them- selves against the Jacobin supremacy. Rich from commerce and their maratime situation, and, in the case of Lyons, from their com- mand of internal navigation, the wealthy merchants and manufac- turers of those cities foresaw the total insecurity of property, and, in consequence, their own ruin, in the system of arbitary spoliation and murder upon which the government of the Jacobins was founded." — Scott. " These cities were warmly attached to freedom, but it was that regulated freedom which provides for the protection of all, not that which subjects the better classes to the despotism of the lower." — Alison, 17 184 THE REIGN OF TERROR. the towns, either slain, or fled into the forests, where they were hunted by the soldiers. A few v^omen only remained to be seen. Country-seats, cottages, habita- tions of whichever kind, were nearly all burned to the ground. The herds and flocks were wandering in terror around their usual places of shelter, now smok- ing in ruins. At night, the wavering and dismal blaze of conflagration afforded light over the country. Tq the bleating of disturbed flocks, and bellowing of the terrified cattle, were joined the deep hoarse notes of, carrion crows, and the yells of wild animals com,ing from the recesses of the woods to prey on the carcasesi of the slain.* " It seemed as if the Vendeans were no longer regarded as men ; the pregnant woman the child in the cradle, even the beasts of the field, ap- peared to the Republicans worthy of extermination," says a contemporary writer.f While these were devastating the country, scaffolds were erected in the towns. At Nantes, a revolutionary tribunal was formed, under the direction of Jean Bap- tiste Carrier, who had been sent from Paris with a commission to suppress the civil war by severity, which he exercised in the most atrocious manner.| He declared immediately aft;er his arrival at Nantes, that, notwithstanding the promise of pardon made to those of the Vendeans who should lay down their arms, no quarter ought to be given them, but they should all be^put to death ; and he began by causing the wretched creatures who surrendered to be mowed down by musketry and grape-shot, in parties of one and two hundred. And, in fact, this frantic wretch imagined that he had no other mission than to slaugh- ter.§ Unfortunate people were daily arriving in crowds, driven by the armies which pressed them * Memoirs of a Republican Officer. t Toulangeon. t " Carrier, still a young man, was one of those inferior and vie? ^ lent spirits, who, in the excitement of civil wars, become monsters of cruelty and extravagance." — Thiers. § " This Carrier might have summoned hell to match his cruelty, without a demon venturing to answer his challenge." — Scott. THE REIGN OF TERROR. 185 closely on all sides. Carrier ordered them to be con- fined in the prisons, and soon collected ten thousand of them. ^The prisons could no longer contain them, as fresh victims were daily arriving, and the process of the Revolutionary Tribunal was too slow to dis- pose of them ; besides, it was troublesome to bury the bodies. Shooting them by the hundreds, and behead- ing them by the axe of the guillotine, was even too expeditious for burial, and the bodies were left lying upon the scene of carnage, which infected the air to such a degree as to produce an epidemic disease in the town. The river Loire, which runs through Nantes, sug- gested a horrible idea to Carrier, namely, to rid him- self of the prisoners by drowning them. He made a first trial, loaded a barge with ninety "fanatical priests," as they were termed, and under pretext of transporting them to some other place, ordered it to be sunk when at some distance from the city. Hav- ing devised this expedient, he resolved to employ it on a larger scale. He no longer employed the mock for- mality of a trial ; but ordered the prisoners to be taken in the night, in parties of one and two hundred, and put into the boats. By these boats they were carried to small vessels prepared for his horrible purpose. The prisoners were thrown into the hold ; the hatches were nailed down; the avenues to the deck were closed with planks; the executioners then got into boats along side, and carpenters cut holes in the sides of the vessels, and sunk them.* For months was this system of extermination car- ried on ; and the horror expressed by many of the citizens for the mode of execution formed the ground for fresh arrests and increasing murders. Women big with child ; children, eight, nine and ten years of age, were thrown together "into the stream, on the banks of which, men, armed with sabres, were placed to cut off their heads if the waves should throw them un- drowned on the shore. * Thiers. 186 * THE REIGN OF TERROR. On one occasion, by order of Carrier, twenty-three royalist families were guillotined in one day without trial, men, women and children. The executioner died two or three days after, with horror at what he himself had done. On another occasion, five hundred children of both sexes, the eldest of whom was not fourteen years old, were led out to be shot. The little- ness of their stature caused most of the bullets at the first discharge to fly over their heads; they broke their bonds, rushed into the ranks of the executioners, clung round their knees, and sought for mercy. But nothing could soften the assassins. They put them to death even when lying at their feet. At another time, one hundred and forty women, incarcerated upon sus- picion, were drowned together. This was what Car- , rier termed republican baptism. A still greater refine- ment of cruelty, he called republican marriages. T wo persons of different sexes, generally an old man and an old woman, or a young man and a young woman, stripped entirely naked, were bound together with cords, and, after being left in torture in that situation half an hour, thrown into the river.* The Loire was covered with dead bodies. Ships, in weighing anchor, firequently raised boats filled with drowned persons. Birds of prey flocked to the banks of the river, and gorged themselves with human flesh. The fish, feast- ing upon a food which rendered them unwholesome, were forbidden by the municipality to be caught. To these horrors were added that of the disease which had broken out, and of dearth. In this disastrous situation, Carrier, still boiling with rage, forbade the slightest emotion of pity ; he seized by the collar, and threatened with his sword, those who came to remonstrate, and caused bills to be posted, stating that whoever presumed to solicit on behalf of any person in confinement should be thrown into prison himself t Many women died of terror the moment a man entered their cells, conceiving that they * Alison. t Thiers. THE REIGN OF TERROR. 187 were about to be led out to baptism or marriage ; the floors were covered with the bodies of their infants, numbers of whom were yet quivering in the agonies of death. On one occasion, the inspector entered the prison to seek for a child, where, the evening before, he had left above three hundred infants ; they were all gone in the morning, having been drowned the pre- ceding night. In fact, several hundred persons were thrown every night into the river, and their shrieks, as they were led forth from prison to the boats, wakened the inhabitants of the town, freezing every heart with horror. Carrier was often called upon to spare the children, but in vain. " They are all vipers ; let them be stifled," was his reply.* Innumerable instances of heroism occurred, espe- cially among the female sufferers. Madame de Bon- champs, (wife of a Vendean officer,) was pursued by the soldiers of the republicans, and lived in hiding- places, concealed at times in the dwellings of the peasants, at other times in the woods. For several days, when the pursuit was hottest, she was concealed with her two children, in the branches and leaves of an oak tree, at the foot of which the soldiers were fre- quently passing. In this forlorn situation the small-pox atacked her and her children, and her son died. At night, when the soldiers slept, provisions were brought to her by the peasants. At length she was discovered, conveyed to Nantes, and con'demned to death. She had resigned herself to her fate, when she read on a slip of paper, handed to her through the grate of her dungeon, these words: — "Say you are with child." She did so, and her execution was suspended. Her husband having been dead a long time, she was obliged to declare that she was enciente by a republi- can soldier. She remained shut up, and every day saw unfortunate women taken out to execution. At the end of three months, it being evident she was not pregnant, she was ordered for execution, but obtained * Alison - 17* 188 THE REIGN OP TERROR. again two months and a half respite, when the death of Robespierre saved her.* Madame de Jourdain was led out to be drowned with her three daughters. A soldier wished to save the youngest, who was very beautiful. But she, deter- mined to' share the fate of her mother, threw herself into the water. The unfortunate girl, falling on a heap of dead bodies, did not sink. " Oh, push me in ; the water is not deep enough," she exclaimed, and sunk beneath the soldier's thrust. Mademoiselle Cuissan, aged sixteen, of still greater beauty, excited the most vehement admiration in a young officer of hussars, who entreated her to allow him to save her ; but as he could not undertake to free an aged parent, the partner of her captivity, she refused life, and threw herself into the Loire along with her mother.f A horrible death was that of Madame de la Roche St. Andre. As she was with child, they spared her till she gave birth to her infant, and then permitted her to nurse it ; but it died, and the next day she was executed.^ Agatha Larochejaquelain escaped in the most extra- ordinary manner. She had left an asylum in a cot- tage of Brittany, in consequence of one of the deceitful amnesties which Carrier published to lure his victims from their places of concealment, and was seized and brought before Lamberti, a ferocious revo- lutionist. Her beauty excited his lust. He promised to save her, and took her out of prison one night into a little boat on the Loire. This boat had a concealed trap, and Carrier had given it to Lamberti for private murders. Lamberti rowed her out into the stream, and there wished to sacrifice her chastity to his brutal desires; she resisted, he struggled wifh her, forced her down into the bottom of the boat, and in the extremity of *the moment she attempted to throw her- self overboard. Her courage and distress finally * Larochejaquelain. t Alison. t Larochejaquelain. THE REIGN OF TERROR. 189 softened his stern heart. ' " You are a brave girl," said he; "1 will save you." In effect, he left her con- cealed at the bottom of the boat, among some bushes on the margin of the stream, where she lay for eight days and nights a witness to the unceasing nightly massacre of her fellow-prisoners. She was arrested again — again escaped — and was again arrested, and would have perished upon the guillotine, had not the fall of Robespierre suspended the executions, and ultimately restored her to hberty. — In brief, fifteen thousand persons perished at Nantes, under the hands of the executioner, or of diseases in prison, in one month; the total victims of the Reign of Terror at that place exceeded thirty thousand.* At Lyons, Bordeaux, Marseilles, Toulon, and other places throughout France, the same horrors and atrocities marked the Reign of Terror. Robespierre and Danton ruled triumphant in Paris, where they passed whatever decrees they chose in the Convention, and sent forth their satellites to execute their terrible doom of extermination against all who opposed their sway. They had travelling Revolutionary Tribunals, with guillotines rumbling along on wheels, progressing from town to town throughout the whole empire, and, wherever the executioners were dilatory, orders for rigorous proceedings came from Robespierre, with a hint of a dungeon in case of refusal.f A formidable decree, issued against Lyons, enacted that the rebels and their accomplices should be tried by a military commission ; that the sans-culottes should be maintained at the expense of the aristo- crats; that the houses of the wealthy should be de- stroyed, and that the name of the city should be changed. The execution of this decree was entrusted to Collot d'Herbois, Maribon-Montaut, and Fouche. Couthon had already preceded them, and was active * Toulangeon ; Beauchamp ; Alison, etc. t Duchess D'Abrantes. 190 THE REIGN OF TERROR. in the reduction of the city. * The latter attended by a crowd of satellites, traversed the finest quarters or Lyons, with a silver hammer, and striking at the doors of the devoted houses, exclaimed, " Rebelhous house, I strike you in the name of the law." Instantly the agents of destruction, of whom twenty thousand were in the pay of the Convention, commenced, and, with pickaxes and other implements, levelled the dwell- ing to the ground. But this was only a prelude to a more bloody vengeance. Collot d'Herbois was animated with a secret hatred towards the Lyonese, for ten years before, when an obscure actor, he had been hissed off their stage. He now resolved at leisure to gratify his revenge, f Fouche, his associate, pub- * " J. Couthon, surnamed Cato during the Reign of Terror, bom in 1756, an advocate, embraced the revolutionary principles with astonishing eagerness, and, during the sitting of the Convention, showed himself the most ardent partizan of sanguinary measures. He voted for the King's death, and eagerly opposed delay. He was a favorite tool of Robespierre. Being sent to Lyons, he presided at the execution of the rebel chiefs, and began to put in force the de- cree which ordered the demolition of that city. In the year. 1794, he was executed, and suffered horribly before he died ; his singular conformation, and the dreadful contraction of his limbs, so incom- moded the executioner while fastening him on the plank of the guillotine, that he was obliged to lay him on his side to give the fatal blow." Biograpkie Moderne " Couthon was a decrepid being, whose lower extremities were paralyzed— whose sensibility led him constantly to foster a favorite spaniel in his bosom, that he might have something on which to bestow kindness and caresses— but who was at heart as fierce as Danton, and as pitiless as Robespierre." — Scott. t " J, M. Collot d'Herbois first appeared on the stage and had little success. He played at Geneva, at the Hague, and at Lyons, where, having often been hissed, he vowed the most cruel vengeance agamst that town. The line of acting in which he played best was that of tyrants in tragedies. He went to Paris at the beginning of the Revolution, and embraced the popular cause. Posssessed of a fine face, a powerful voice, and great boldness, he became one of the oracles at the Jacobin club. He was no stranger to the September massacres. During the King's trial, he sat at the too of the Moun- tam by Robespierres side, and voted for the monarch's death. It has been said of this man, who was surnamed the Tiger, that he waa the most sanguinary of the Terrorists. In 1793 he took his THE REIGN OF TERROR. 191 lished, before his arrival, a proclamation in which he declared that the French people could acknowledge no other worship than that of universal morality ; that all religious emblems should be destroyed ; and that over the gates of the churchyards should be written — Death is an eternal Sleep. Proceeding on these atheistical principles, the first step of Collot d'Herbois and Fouche was to institute a fete in honor of Chalier, the republican governor of Lyons, who had been put to death by the royalists. His bust was carried through the streets, followed by an immense crowd of assassins and prostitutes. After them came an ass bearing the Gospel, the Cross, and the com- munion vases, which were soon committed to the flames, while the ass was compelled to drink con- secrated wine out of the communion cup. The executions meantime continued without the slighest relaxation. Many women watched for the hour when their husbands were to pass to the scaffold, precipitated themselves upon the cart, were carried along with them, and voluntarily suffered death by by their side. Daughters surrendered their honor to save their parent's lives ; but the monsters who viglated them, adding treachery to crime, led them out to behold the execution of their relatives. Deeming the daily execution of fifteen or twenty per- sons too tardy a display of vengeance, Collot d'Herbois prepared a new and simultaneous mode of punish- ment. Sixty captives of both sexes were led out to- gether, tightly bound in a file, to the Place du Brot- teaux, where they were arranged in two files with a departure for Lyons, protesting that the South should soon be puri- fied. It is from the time of this mission that his horrible celebrity takes its rise. He subsequently became a rival of Robespierre, whom he denounced. In i795 he was transported to Guiana, where he endeavoured to stir up the blacks against the whites. He died in the following year of a violent fever, which was increased by his drinking a bottle of brandy. He was the autlior of some pamphlets and theatrical pieces, none of which deserve notice." Biographie Moderne. 192 TftE REIGN OF TERROR. deep ditch on each side, which was to be the place of their burial, while gendarmes with uplifted sabres threatened with instant death whoever moved from their position. At the extremity of the file, two cannon, loaded with grape shot, were so placed as to enfilade the whole. The signal was then given, and the cannon were fired. Broken limbs, torn off by the shot, were scattered in every direction, while blood streamed into the ditches on either side of the line. A second and . a third discharge were insufficient to complete the work of death, till, at length, the gen- darmes rushed in and despatched the sufferers with their sabres. Day after day this bloody scene was renewed. Upon one occasion two hundred and nine captives were brought before Couthon and the revolutionary judges, andf, with scarcely a hearing, condemned to be executed together. With such precipitancy was the affair conducted, that two commissaries of the prison were led out along with their captives ; their cries, their protestations, were alike disregarded. In pass- ing the bridge Morand, the error was discovered on the captives being counted ; and it was intimated to Collot d'Herbois that there were two too many. " What signifies it," said he, " that there are too many? If they die to-day, they cannot die to-morrow." The whole were brought to the place of execution, where they were attached to one cord made fast to trees at stated intervals, with their hands tied behind their backs, and numerous pickets of soldiers disposed so as at one discharge to destroy them all. At a given signal the fusillade commenced ; but few were killed; the greater part only had a jaw or a limb broken; and, uttering the most piercing cries, they broke loose in their agony from the rope, and were cut down by the gendarmes, many of whom found a pleasure in exterminating the aristocrats. The great numbers who survived "the discharge, rendered the work of destruction a laborious operation, however, and several were still breathing on the following day, THE REIGN OF TERROR. 193 when their bodies were mingled with quicklime, and cast into a common grave. D'Herbois and Fouche were witnesses of this butchery from a distance, by- means of a telescope which they directed to the spot. All the other fusillades were conducted in the same manner. One of them was executed under the win- dows of an hotel on the Quay, where Fouche, with thirty Jacobins and tv/enty courtezans, was engaged at dinner. They rose from the table to enjoy "the bloody spectacle. The bodies of the slain were floated in such num- bers down the Rhone that the waters were tainted. During the course of five months, this carnage was continued, whilst all the houses of the rich were razed to the ground, and a vast amount of plunder fell into the hands of the Jacobins. Thirty-one thousand per- sons were butchered, and more than double that number were driven into exile.* One day, during these bloody executions, a young girl rushed into the hall where the Revolutionary Tri- bunal was held, and throwing herself at the feet of the judges, said, " There remain to me, of all my family, only my brothers ! Mother — father — sisters — uncles — you have butchered all ; and now you are going to condemn my brothers! Ah, in mercy, ordain that I may ascend the scaffold with them !" Her prayer, accompanied as it was with all the marks of frantic despair, was refused. She then threw herself into the Rhone, where she perished, f Atrocities equally great were perpetrated at Bor- deaux, Marseilles and Toulon. One instance of refined cruelty that took place at Bordeaux, was that of a women charged with the crime of having wept at her husband's execution. She was condemned in conse- quence to sit several hours under the suspended blade of the guillotine, which shed upon her, drop by drop, the blood of the deceased, whose corpse was above her on the scaffold, before she was released by death * Alison. t Du Broca, 194 THE REIGN OF TERROR. from her agony. * — At Marseilles and Toulon, Freron, Barras, and Robespierre the younger, were the com- missioners despatched from the Convention to execute its decrees. On their arrival at Marseilles, they pub- lished a proclamation announcing that Terror was the order of the day. f At Toulon several thousand citi- zens of every age and sex perished in a few weeks by the blade of the guillotine ; two hundred were daily beheaded for a considerable period, and twelve thou- sand laborers were hired to demolish the buildings of the city. J " Things go on well here," wrote Freron, five days after his arrival at Toulon ; " we have required twelve thousand masons to raze the town ; each day since our arrival we have caused two hun- dred heads to fall, and already eight hundred Tou- lonese have perished." It was at first intended to put to death all who had accepted any office, or borne arms, in the town during the siege. Freron conse- quently signified to them that they must all go, under pain of death, to the Champs de Mars of that city. The Toulonese, thinking to obtain pardon by submis- sion, obeyed, and eight thousand persons were assem- bled at the appointed place. Freron, accompanied by a formidable train, surrounded this assemblage and commenced firing upon them ; but, shooting with muskets being insufficient, they had afterwards re- course to the mitraillade ; and it was in another exe- cution of this nature, that Freron, in order to despatch the victims who had not perished by the first dis- charge, cried out, " Let those who are still living — rise; the republic pardons them." Some unhappy creatures trusting to this promise, rose, he caused them to be instantly fired upon. § * Louvet. t Biographic Moderne. t Alison. $ Biog. Moderne.— " L. S. Freron was educated at the college Louis-le-grand with Robespierre, whose friend he became in the Revolution, his emulator, and at last one of his denouncers. In 1789 he began to edit the " Orator of the People," and became the coad- jutor of Marat. At the time of the expedition to St. Domingo in 1802, he was appointed prefect of the South, and sailed thither with THE REIGN OF TERROR. 195 While these atrocities were being carried on in the south of France, Joseph Lebon imitated them in the north, having fixed his principal residence at tlie town of Arras, but travelling to and fro with his judges, exe- cutioners and a guillotine. He everywhere left bloody traces of his progress. At St. Pol, St. Omer, Bethune, Bapeaume, Aire, and other places, blood of the aristo- crats freely flowed from his travelling instrument of death. At Cambray, perceiving as he thought that the aristocrats were in secret correspondence with the Austrians, he hastened thither with his executioners and guillotine, and in a few days executed thousands of suspected persons. After finishing an excursion, he would return to Arras, where he would celebrate his successful extermination of aristocracy, by bac- chanal orgies with his judges and various members of the Jacobin clubs in that town. Even his execu- tioners were admitted to his table and treated with the highest consideration. Stationed in a balcony, Lebon witnessed the executions ; he would address the people, and cause the Ca Ira to be played while the blood of the aristocrats was flowing. One day, having received intelligence of a victory obtained by the French over the Austrians, he hastened out upon his balcony and ordered the executions to be sus- pended, that the sufferers who were about to die might be made acquainted with the successes of the republic* Mingling treachery and seduction with Gen. Leclerc ; but he sunk under the influence of the climate, after an illness of six days." — Biographie Moderne * Thier& — " Joseph Lebon, born at Arras, at the period of the Revolution connected himself with Robespierre. After the 10th of August, he was appointed mayor of that town; subsequently joined the Convention as a supplementary deputy. In 1793 he was sent as commissioner to Arras, where he perpetrated the most flagrant cruel- ties. In 1795 he was condemned to death as a Terrorist, and at the time of his execution was but' thirty years of age." Biog. Mod.- — " Lebon prided himself on his apostacy, libertinism, and cruelty. — Every day after dinner he presided at the execution of his victims. By his order, an orchestra was erected close to the guillotine. It was his custom to be present at the executions." — Prudhomme. 18 196 THE REIGN OF TERROR. sanguinary oppression, Lebon turned the despotic powers with which he was invested into the means of individual gratification. After having disgraced the wife of a noWeman, who yielded to his embraces in order to save her husband's life, he put the man to death before her eyes.* Thus all the great cities, the towns and villages of France experienced the vengeance of the Mountain. But Paris, full of illustrious victims, was soon to be- come the theatre of much greater cruelties. The crafty Robespierre, with his reputation of incorrupti- bility, had managed to gain a popularity among the Jacobins superior to that of Danton, whose profusion and expenditure of living, both diminished his reputa- tion, and laid him under the suspicion of peculation.! Preparations were now making for the trial of Marie Antoinette, of the Girondins, of the Duke of Orleans, of M. Bailli, and of a great number of generals and ministers, while the prisons in Paris were daily being filled with suspected persons, Fouquier-Tinville inde- fatigabiy presiding at the Revolutionary Tribunal, and the axe of the guillotine dail)'- at work. Besides the Abbaye, La Force, the Conceirgerie, and the various other prisons, the palace of the Luxembourg, the college of Duplessis, and other buildings were converted into prisons. People of wej^lth and nobility were daily ar- rested, and all the rank and beauty of Paris were hud- dled indiscriminately into dungeons, furnished merely with straw. The cells of the women were as horrid as those of the men, equally dark — damp — filthy — crowded. In time, however, some amelioration was permitted, regulations were established, and domestic duties were divided among them. The high-born would not at first deign to associate with those of in- ferior rank, but community of suffering soon brought them to a level. All had the privilege of assembling together in a common hall, where groups would form around a table, a stove, or a fire-place. Poets, thrown * Alison. t Thiers ; Scott. THE REIGN OF TERROR. 197 into prison with all those who excited distrust by any superiority whatever, recited verses. Musicians gave concerts, and admirable music was daily heard in these places of proscription. Luxury soon became the companion of pleasure. The females indulged in dress ; ties of friendship and love were formed ; and all the ordinary scenes of life were reproduced here till the very day that the scaffold put an end to them — singular example of the French character, of its thoughtlessness, its gaiety, its aptitude to pleasure, in all the situations of life ! Delightful poems, romantic adventures, acts of beneficence, a singular confusion of rank, fortunes, and opinions, characterized this prison-life during the Reign of Terror. It is true that the pride of certain prisoners withstood this equality of misfortune. Affliction, however, brings back all hearts to nature and humanity; and soon, when Fou- quier-Tinville knocked daily at these abodes, demand- ing more lives, and friends and relatives were parted by death, those who were left mourned and took com- fort together, and learned to entertain one and the same feeling amidst the same misfortunes.* At this period the gardens of the Luxembourg every day offered a scene peculiarly interesting and pathetic. A multitude of married women from the various quar- ters of Paris crowded together, in the hope of seeing their husbands for a moment at the windows of the prison, to offer, or receive from them, a look, a ges- ture, or some other testim.ony of their affection. No weather banished these women from the gardens — neither the excess of heat or cold, nor tempests of v/ind or rain. One would present herself with an infant in her arms, bathing it with tears in her husband's sight ; another would disguise herself in the dress of a beg- gar, and sit the whole day at the foot of a tree, where she could be seen by her husband. The miseries of these affectionate women were greatly enhanced when a high fence was thrown around the prison, and they * Thiers. 198 THE REIGN OF TERROR. were forbidden to remain stationary in any spot. Then were they seen wandering Hke shades through the dark and melancholy avenues of the garden, and casting the most anxious looks at the impenetrable walls of the palace.* But in the Conceirgerie, and around it, reigned the most afflicting terror, grief and despair. Within it were crowded those who had at most but three or four days to live ; without it, wailed the relatives of the condemned. Into this, from the other prisons, were the unfortunate victims removed the day previ- ous to their trial, and they remained there only during the interval between their trial and execution.f Here, one day, among a multitude that hourly expected their trial, was a young man accompanied by his wife, a young and beautiful woman. While they were walk- ing in the court with the other prisoners, the wife heard her husband called to the outer gate of the prison. Comprehending that it was the signal of his death, she ran after him, resolved to share his fate. The jailer refused to let her pass. With strength de- rived from despair, she made her way, threw herself into her husband's arms, and besought them to suffer her to die with him. She was torn away by the guards, and at the same moment dashed her head violently against the prison-gate, and in a few minutes ex- pired.J Such was the Reign of Terror in Paris ! Even Fou- quier-Tinville himself felt some compunctions at the horror with which he was surrounded. " On one oc- casion," he says, "the Committee of Public Safety ordered me to increase the executions to one hundred and fifty a day, but the proposal filled my mind with such horror, that, as I returned from the Seine, the river appeared to run red with blood." ^ Nothing astonished the few who escaped from these prisons and the guillotine so much as the want of sympathy * Du Broca. t Thiers. t Du Broca. $ His speech on his Trial. THE REIGN OF TERROR. 199 that prevailed out of doors for the sufferings and death that was continually going on. The theatres, and all places of amusement, were thronged as usual. The prophetic words pronounced months previously by the eloquent Vergniaud, were now being realized. " We are marching," said he, " from crimes to amnes- ties, and from amnesties to crimes. The great body of the citizens are so Winded by their frequent oc- currence, that they confound these seditious disturb- ances with the grand national movement in favour of freedom ; regard the violence of brigands as the efforts of energetic minds; and consider robbery itself as indispensable to public liberty. Citizens, there is but too much reason to dread that the Revolution, like Saturn, will successively devour all its progeny, and finally leave only despotism, with all its attendant ca- lamities." Papers and pamphlets against the aristocrats poured from the press. The Convention continued its sittings, and all the different clubs held nightly meetings. The Jacobins rioted in the confiscations of property, and did all in their power to continue the Reign of Terror. It was evident, too, that the entire Committe of Public Safety were in favor of this system of terror — they perfectly agreed in the extermination of all who op- posed their sway. They advanced bUndly in this hor- rible career, not knowing whither it was likely to lead them ; and such is the sad condition of man engaged in evil, that he has not the power to stop. As soon as he begins to conceive a doubt as to the nature of his actions, as soon as he discovers that he has lost his way, instead of turning back he rushes forward, as if to stun himself— as if to escape from the sights which annoy him.* The Jacobins now brow-beated the Convention, as- sisted by the Mountain faction, in passing a decree for bringing the Q,ueen, the Girondins, and the Duke of Orleans to immediate trial. With the Queen they were * Thiers; Alison, etc. 18* 200 THE REIGN OF TERROR. particularly anxious to commence a long series of im- molations. To her they attributed the treasons of the court, the waste of public money, and, above all, the inveterate hostility of Austria. Louis Capet, they said, had suffered everything to be done ; but it was Marie Antoinette, they asserted, who had been his instigator, and it was upon her, as well as him, that punishment ought to fall. The wretch, Hebert, editor of a disgust- ing paper, entitled " Father Duchesne," had all along made it his particular business to torment the unfortu- nate remnant of the dethroned family confined in the Tem.ple.* He asserted that the family of the tyrant ought not to be better treated than any sans-culotte family; and he had caused a resolution to be passed, by which the sort of luxury in which the prisoners in the Temple were maintained was to be suppressed. They were no longer to be allowed either poultry or pastry ; they were reduced to one sort of aliment for breakfast, and to soup, or broth, and a single dish, for dinner, etc. Tallow candles were furnished them in- stead of wax; pewter instead of silver plate, and delft ware instead of porcelain. *_" J. R. Hebert, bom at Alencon, was naturally of an active dis- position and an ardent imagination, but wholly without informa- tion. Before the Revolution, he lived in Paris by intrigue and im^ posture. Being employed at the theatre of the Varietes as receiver of the checks, he was dismissed for dishonesty, and retired to the house of a physician whom he robbed. In 1789 he embraced with ardour the popular movement, and soon made hinrself known by a journal entitled " Pere Duchesne," which had great success among the people on account of its violent principles. On the 10th of Au- gust, Hebert became one of the insurrectional committee, and, after- wards, in September, contributed to the prison massacres. He was one of the first to preach atheism. His popularity, however, was brief, for he was brought to the scaffold, together with his whole faction, by Robespierre, in 1794. He died with the greatest marks of weakness, and fainted several times on the road to execution. On the occasion of the Queen's trial, Hebert cast an imputation on her of so atrocious and extravagant a nature that even Robespierre was disgusted with it, and exclaimed " Madman ! was it not enough to have asserted she was Messalina, without also making an Agrippina of her !' " — Biographie Moderne. THE REIGN OF TERROR. 201 This had been done, and subsequently it was de- creed that Marie Antoinette should be separated from her sister, her daughter and her son, and removed to the Conciergerie — where, alone, in a narrow prison, she was reduced to what was strictly necessary, like the other prisoners.* It is said that her separation from her son, was a scene so touching, so heart- rending, that the very jailors who witnessed it, when giving an account of it to the authorities, could not refrain from tears.f The young prince was put under the charge of a shoemaker and municipal officer, named Simon ; he and his wife were the instructors to whom it was deemed right to consign him, for the purpose of giving him a sans-culotte education. Simon and his wife were shut up in the Temple, and becoming prisoners with the unfortunate boy, were directed to bring him up in their own way.J " What am I to do with the child 1" said Simon to the Com- mittee of Public Safety. " Must I kill him V he asked. -— " No." — " Must I poison himT" — "No."— " What then V — " Get rid of him,'" This hint was but too faithfully executed. By depriving the boy of air, exercise, and by keeping him in a continual state of squalid filth, he was at length brought to his grave, without imposing upon his keepers the necessity of actual violence. § It appears that Simon carried out his instructions by leaving the boy, sick!)'" as he was, and only eight years old, locked in a large room — absolutely alone — day after day — merely taking vic- tuals to him at stated intervals. For six months his bed remained unmade, and it was alive with bugs and vermin still more disgusting. His linen and his per- son were covered with them. For more than a year he had no change of shirt or stockings. His window was never opened, and the apartment was infectious with the stench arising from his ordure and the un- ventilated atmosphere. He passed his days solitarily * Thiers. T Weber. X Thiers. § Lacretelle ; Alison. 202 THE BEIGN OP TERROR. and wholly without occupation. No light was allowed him in the evening, and he crawled into his dirty bed unattended, and passed the dark hours of the night in alternations of slumber and tears. This situation affected his mind as well as his body, and he sunk to his grave in a frightful state of idiotcy and atrophy.* His aunt and sister were kept confined in another part of the Temple. It was on the 2d of August, 1793, that the Queen was separated from her family, to be received in the Conceirgerie, where a narrow, gloomy and damp apartment, a worn mattress, and a bed of straw, were the sole accommodations of one for whom the splen- dors of Versailles once seemed hardly adequate. She was kept there above two months in the closest con- finement.! Under pretence of giving her a person to wait upon her, they placed near her a spy — a man of horrible countenance, and hollow, sepulchral voice. This wretch, whose name was Barassin, was a robber and murderer by profession. A few days before her trial, he was removed, and a gendarme placed in her chamber, who watched over her night and day, and 'from whom she was not separated, even when in bed, but by a ragged curtain. In this melancholy abode she had no other dress than an old black gown, stock- ings with holes, which she was necessitated to mend every day ; and she was entirely destitute of shoes.| It was on the 14th of October, 1793, that Marie An- toinette was brought before the Revolutionary Tribu- nal, Fouquier-Tinville being her accuser. An immense crowd assembled to witness the spectacle of a deposed Q,ueen undergoing a trial. There she stood — the once beautiful and flattered Glueen of France — dragged before the sanguinary tribunal by inexorable revolu- tionary vengeance. And she appeared there without even a remote chance of acquittal, for it was not to obtain her acquittal that the Jacobins had brought her * Duchess D'Angouleme. The boy lingered until June, 1795. t Alison. |Du Broca. THE REIGN OF TERROR. 203 there — but as an act of defiance to the crowned heads in Europe. As it was necessary to prefer some charges against her, Fouquier-Tinville had collected the rumors current among the populace ever since the arrival of the princess in France, and, in the act of accusation, he charged her with having plundered the exchequer, first for her pleasures, and afterwards in order to transmit money to her brother, the Emperor of Austria.* He insisted on the scenes of the 5th and 6th of October, 1789, and on the dinner of the life- guards, alleging that she had at that period framed a plot, obliging the people of Paris to go to Versailles to frustrate it. He next accused her of having governed her husband, interfered in the choice of ministers, con- ducted the intrigues with those of the deputies who were gained over to the interests of the court, of hav- ing prepared the flight to Varennes, provoked the war, and transmitted to generals of the Austrian army the plans of campaigns drawn out for the action of the French forces.f He further accused her of having prepared a conspiracy on the 10th of August, of having on that day caused the people to be fired upon, of having induced her husband to defend himself by taxing him with cowardice ; lastly, of having never ceased to plot and correspond with foreigners since her captivity in the Temple, and of having there treated her young son as a king.J Such were the accusations against the unfortunate Marie Antoinette, — who thus saw her actions distorted and converted into crime. As the form of examining witnesses was necessary, several were called, but no precise fact was ehcited. Some had seen the Q,ueen in high spirits when the life-guards, upon the night of the * " Her look, they say, as that hideous indictment was reading, continued calm ; ' she was sometimes observed moving her fingers, as when one plays on the piano.' " — Carlyle. t " Her answers (denials of these charges,) are prompt, clear, often of laconic brevity; resolution, which has grown contemptuous with- out ceasing to be dignified, veils itself in calm words. — Carlyle. X Thiers. 204 THE REIGN OF TERROR. celebrated banquet, testified their attachment ; others had seen her vexed and dejected while being brought to Paris, or brought back from Varennes ; others had been present at splendid festivities given by her which must have cost immense sums ; others had heard it said in the ministerial offices that the Glueen was adverse to the sanction of the decrees. Count D'Estaing, upon being called, though the Queen had been his political opponent, said he knew nothing against her. M. Bailli, formerly president of the As- sembly, and also mayor of Paris, when asked if he knew "the woman Capet," said mournfully, and he appeared painfully affected, " Yes," and he bowed respectfully to her, " I have known Madame ;" but he declared that he could say nothing against her, and that certain declarations extorted from the young prince relative to the journey to Varennes were all false. The Jacobins were furious at this testimony ; he was assailed with outrageous reproaches from them ; and from which violent demonstration, he might judge the fate reserved for himself He was a prisoner at the time. The monsters Hebert and Simon were next called, and deponed that the dauphin had informed them that he had been initiated into improper practices by his mother. Simon testified that he had frequently, enter- ing the apartment of the young prince, surprised him in premature vices for his age — vices to which the boy was addicted ; that, upon questioning him, he asserted his mother had instructed him in these indulgences. For the purpose doubtless, said Hebert, of weakening thus early the physical constitution of her son, in order to secure herself the means of ruling him in case he should ever ascend the throne. The Q,ueen had heretofore replied distinctly and unequivocally to the charges brought gainst her ; but overwhelmed with horror at this atrocious falsehood, she remained silent. The audience, too, though wholly Jacobin, was disgusted at the accusation. Hebert and Simon nevertheless persisted in it. Being urged to THE REIGN OF TERROR. 205 answer, she said, with extraordinary emotion, "I thought human nature would excuse me from answer- ing such an imputation." Turning to the audience, with inexpressible dignity, she added, "I appeal to all mothers who hear me whether such a thing is pos- sible !"* After these depositions, several others were received respecting the expenses of the court, the Influence of the Q,ueen in public affairs, the scene of the 10th of August, and what had passed in the Temple ; and the most vague rumors, and most trivial circumstances, were eagerly seized upon as proofs of guilt. Marie Antoinette frequently repeated, during the trial, that there was no precise fact against her ; and that, though the wife of Louis XVI., she was not answerable for ^ny of the acts of his reign.f Fouquier-Tinville never- theless declared her to be convicted, and in spite of the unavailing efforts and eloquence of her counsel, she was condemned to suffer the fate of her husband.| In answer to the question if she had anything further to say, she merely negatively shook her head. The trial had occupied two days. Conveyed back to the Conciergerie, she there passed in tolerable com- posure the night preceding her execution. Scarcely had her trial ended, when the drums were beating to arms in all the sections of Paris ; at sunrise, on the morning of the 16th, the armed force was moving, cannons getting placed at the extremities of the bridges, in the squares, crossways, all along from the * "Can there be a more infernal invention than that made against the Qneen by Hebert — namely, that she had an improper intimacy with her own son? He made use of this, as he subsequently boasted, jn order to prejudice the women against the Queen, and to prevent her execution from exciting pity." — Prudhomme. t " At first, the Queen, consulting her own sense of dignity, had resolved, on her trial, to make no other reply to the question of her judges than ' Assassinate me, as you have already assassinated my husband ' Afterwards, however, she determined to follow the exam- ple of the King, exert herself in her defence, and leave her judges without any excuse or pretext for putting her to death." — Weber, X Thiers. 206 THE REIGN OF TERROR. Palais-de-Justice (in which the trial had taken place,) to the Place de la Revolution. By ten o'clock, nume- rous patroles were circulating in the streets; and thirty thousand foot and horse drawn up under arms. At eleven o'clock, Marie Antoinette was brought out of the Conciergerie, placed on a tumbril, (cart,) with her arms tied behind her, in the same manner as an ordinary criminal. Though but thirty-eight years of age, sorrow had blanched her once beautiful hair, which was now grey ; her cheeks were pale and emaciated, and she bore the marks of being prema- turely old. In an undress of pique-blanc, (white,) accompanied by a constitutional priest, and escorted by numerous detachments of infantry and cavalry, passing through a great concourse of the populace^ she was taken by a circuitous route to the Place de la Revolution, that fatal spot where the guillotine had already destroyed so many lives, and where, ten months previously, Louis XVI. had perished. She appeared to regard with indifference the great crowd that lined the way as she passed, and there was visible neither abasement nor pride on her countenance. To the cries of " Vive la Republique" and " Down with Tyranny," she seemed to pay no heed.* She spoke but little to the ecclesiastic, but listened with calmness to his exhortations. The tri-color flags and streamers floating from the house-tops attracted, it is said, her attention at intervals ; it is also said, she noticed the inscriptions (on the fronts of the houses) of Liberty — Equality — and the like. On reaching the foot of the scaffold her eyes turned towards the Tuilleries, the home of her former gran- deur, and for the moment she gave signs of emotion. But she hastened to ascend the steps of the scaffold, and gave herself up to the executioner. At a quarter past twelve o'clock, the blade of the guillotine clanked * " She cast an indifferent look at the people who in other days had so often applauded her grace and beauty, and now as warmly applauded her execution." — Thiers. THE REIGN OF TERROR. 207 down, severing her head from her body. Samson, the executioner, held up her head (as was his custom when he had sacrificed an illustrious victim) to the gaze of the multitude, who saluted it witft long- continued cries of " Vive la Republique !" * In the morning, a few hours previous to her execu- tion, she wrote a letter to the Princess Elizabeth. " To you, my dear sister, I now address myself for the last time. I have been condemned, not to an ignominious death — ^it is so only to the guilty — but to rejoin your brother. I weep only for my children; I hope that one day, when they have regained their rank, they may be reunited to you, and feel the blessing of your tender care. May my son never forget the last words of his father, which I now repeat from myself—' Never attempt to revenge our death.' I die true to the Cath- olic religion. Deprived of all spiritual consolation, I can only look to Heaven for pardon. I ask forgiveness of all who know me. I pray for forgiveness to all my enemies." f * Thiers ; Lacretelle ; Carlyle, etc. t Marie Antoinette, arch-duchess of Austria, daughter of the em- peror Francis I. and of Marie Therese, was born at Vienna in 1755. On the 16th of May, 1770, she married the dauphin of France, af- terwards Louis Xyi., and her arrival in France was celebrated with every demonstration of public joy. * * * * Her mind was naturally powerful, and had been carefully cultivated. 19 208 THE REIGN OF TERROR. CHAPTER VIIL Terror. — Placards. — Proclamations. Power of the Jacobins — dis- tresses throughout the provinces — the Revolutionary army — the peasants pillaged, and* their sons forced into the army. Liberty! Equality ! Definition of suspected persons. Triumph of the Ja- cobins. Trial of the Girondins, Vergmaud — Brissot — the Giron- dins conducted back to the Conciergerie — their Last Supper — the Marseilles hymn— eloquence of Vergniaud — Valaze's dead body — the Girondins executed. Hardships endured by the other Giron- dins in the provinces — they are hunted by the Jacobins, and live in cellars, garrets and caves. Petion and Barbaroux. — Louvet. — The Duke of Orleans brought to trial — his conduct previous to his execution — Robespierre v^ishes to marry his daughter — his death on the 6th of November, 1793. Madame Roland brought to trial — her courageous demeanor on the death-cart — her beauty — her death. The suicide of her husband — he is found dead on the road between Rouen and Paris. M. Bailli brought to trial — his con- demnation — hatred of the Jacobins towards him — is pelted with mud by them on his way to execution — his death. Destruction of the royal tombs, of the ancient monuments, etc. Pache, Hebert and Chaumette. Christianity abolished, and the Worship of Rea- son established — grotesque and impious conduct of the Jacobins upon this occasion — the Goddess of Reason — ceremony in Notre Dame and all the churches of Paris — desecration of images, relics, and properties of the churches — the busts of Marat and Lepellitier. Sunday abolished — every tenth day a day of rest — the calendar altered — increase of vice — marriage no longer bind- ing—all charitable institutions suppressed. Robespierre's intrigues —his plots against Danton. Camiile Desmoulins. The winter of 1793 in Paris — distress of the lower orders. The ambition of RobespierrS; etc. The Jacobin Club continued to dictate to the Conven- tion, and the latter by its decrees continued to spread' terror and desolation through France. That terrible period had now arrived when the history of the Re- public presented a daily repetition of robbery and murder. " Daily the great guillotine has its due. Like a black spectre, daily at eventide, glides the death- tumbril through the variegated throng of things. The variegated throng shudders at it, for the moment; THE REIGN OF TERROR. 209 next moment forgets it. The Aristocrats ! They were guilty against the Republic ; their death, were it only that their goods are confiscated, will be useful to the Republic : ' Vive la Repubhque !' "* Not a day passed that the Revolutionary Tribunal did not send victims to the scaffold, and the populace went to look on as a matter that had grown into a custom, and as a method of passing time. Placards and proclamations, issued by the municipality, were daily posted to the walls, denouncing plots and plotters, and the arrests and conliscations were continual. Throughout France the system of Terror was supported by swarms of commissaries and agents, whose business was to arrest aristocrats and persons suspected of being inimical to the Republic ; to find out where any treasure was concealed, for, in the alarm of tlie crisis and the insecurity of property, many persons buried their money; to bring accusa- tions against people who were rich ; to enforce the law that fixed the price (maximum) of provisions; and to procure recruits for the army, horses, carriages, and grain. " All prisons or houses of arrest in French land are getting crowded to the ridge-tile : forty-four thousand committees, like as many companies of reap- ers or gleaners, gleaning France, are gathering their harvest, and storing it in these houses. Harvest of Aristocrat tares !"* The life of a man was no longer considered of any importance, and guilt or innocence were scarcely inquired into. Throughout the whole country the Jacobins, of which there was one club or more, in every town and village, swayed the rule, and those who had no protectors among them were liable to fall, and those who had any enemies in them were certain of their fate unless they managed to escape into exile. And, indeed, most part of the people who had any property, were sure to be deprived of it, had they even friends among the Jacobins, for the tempta- tion of it could not be resisted where the facility of * Carlyle. 210 THE REIGN OF TERROR. becoming a man's heir was so great that you had only to accuse him, have him guillotined, and buy in upon easy terms, at pubhc sale, his confiscated effects. The only limit set to this practice was the fear of be- coming a proprietor, which could not fail to bring on the same fate sooner or later, so that in the end the danger of possessing property was the only thing that afforded any protection to the proprietor. To enforce obedience to the committees, a Revolu- tionary army, six thousand strong, (clothed in black, faced with red) perambulated the country; but so great was the dismay that force was not necessary; the few soldiers, at the command of the commission- ers, were found to be sufficient to exact the most absolute obedience. If grain was wanted, and the farmer refused to deliver it, he was shot at his own door. Were the sons demanded for. the army, and the affectionate father hesitated, the whole family were condemned as counter-revolutionists, dragged away or massacred, without process or delay, and the neighbors durst not show signs of grief, for that im- plied disapprobation, and they would be compelled to the same fate. These expeditions to compel the peasants to give up their grain and their sons, were nearly always attend- ed with pillage, and, whenever it suited the plunder- ers, with ravishment and murder. Imagine a detach- ment of this army arriving in a village, and placing a sentinel at the door of the house they were employed in searching. Imagine all the neighbors shutting their doors, and trembling till their turn should arrive, while the father, mother, and children were suffering those cruel vexations of which we have spoken, with- out daring either to resist or cry out, which, even if they did, was of no avail, and was certain to finish with the massacre of the whole. Blind submission alone screened the inhabitants from this last excess. * The miseries of the people throughout the country * Playfair. THE REIGN OF TERROR. 211 were not a little augmented by numbers of false com- missaries, who committed the same excesses ; and as nobody durst ask a commissary to show his powers, these vexations went on without discovery or punish- ment at the time — though the impositions were subse- quently brought to light, — and punishment was not inflicted. The cries of "Liberty," and "Equality," never abated in the midst of all this misery ! Liberty — where it might be said, that there was not a man in France who did not rise in the morning under the painful sensation of vengeance to fear, or vengeance to gratify, and frequently of both. Equality— was there ever a more absolute despotism 1 In Paris the municipality had arrogated to itself authority over all matters of police, provisions, com- merce, and religion. To all the sections of the capital, and throughout France, it had given instructions as to whom were to be considered as suspected persons, in the following definitions. " 1st, Those who in the as- semblies of the people, check their energy by crafty- addresses, turbulent cries, and threats ; 2nd, Those who, more prudent, talk mysteriously of the disasters of the public, deplore the lot of the people, and are always ready to propagate bad news with affected grief; 3d, Those who have changed their conduct and language according to events ; 4th, Those who pity the farmers and the greedy shopkeepers, against whom the law is obliged to take measures; 6th, Those who, though they have the words liberty, republic and country, continually in their mouths, associate with ci-devant nobles, priests, counter-revolutionists, aris- tocrats, and take an interest in their fate ; 6th, Those who have not taken an active part in the Revolution ; 7th, Those who have received the republican consti- tution with indifference, and have expressed false fears concerning its establishment and duration ; 8th, Those who, though they have done nothing against liberty, have done nothing for it ; 9th, Those who do not attend their sections, and allege in excuse that they are no speakers, or that they are prevented by 19* / 212 THE REIGN OF TERROR. business ; 10th, Those who speak contemj^tuously of the constituted authorities, of the popular authorities, of the defenders of liberty; Uth, Those who have signed counter-revolutionary petitions or frequented anti-civic societies and clubs; 12th, Those who are known to have been insincere, to have been partizans of La Fayette, and of those who marched to the charge in the Champs-de-Mars." Was ever any thing more inquisitorial than this 1 And with such a definition, could the number of the sus- pected fail to be unlimited 1 could blood cease to flow from the guillotine ? Every man, who chose to do so, set to work with denunciations and scandal ; mistrust and suspicion reigned ; peaceable men, tired of a con- test where the anonymous villain had the advantage, withdrew from public affairs, which were now left to the care of the abandoned and desperate. * The execution of Marie Antoinette highly elated the Jacobins. " Let these tidings be carried to Austria," said they ; " the Romans sold the ground occupied by Hannibal ; we strike off the heads that are dearest to the sovereigns who have invaded our territory." But this was merely the commencement of vengeance. The tribunal was now to proceed to the trial of the Girondins confined in the Conciergerie. The revolt in the southern provinces was laid to their charge. The imprisoned deputies, those who had voluntarily remained in Paris, whilst others fled, it was admitted were not those who had excited the insurrection ; but they had corresponded with the others, and were sup- porters of the same cause, it was alleged. Their letters had been intercepted, and, though these did not suffi- ciently prove intrigues, they proved enough for a tribunal instituted for the purpose of contenting itself with probability. All their moderation, their energetic protestations against the massacres of the 10th of August, and the September butcheries of 1792, all was construed into a vast conspiracy, of which civil ♦Thiers; Playfair. THE REIGN OP TERROR. 213 war had been the upshot. The trial lasted nine days, and Vergniaud and others of them eloquently defended themselves. The Jacobins, enraged at the tardiness of the tri- bunal, clamored in the galleries of the Convention, and Robespierre caused a decree to be passed, autho- rizing the jury, after three days discussion, to declare themselves sufficiently enlightened, and to proceed to judgment without further hearing. On the 30th of October, at midnight, the jury entered to pronounce their verdict — death. * The accused (there were twenty-two of them) were then brought in. On hear- ing the fatal word, Brissot dropped his arms, and his head drooped upon his breast. Sillery, who was a cripple, let his crutches fall, exclaiming, " This is the most glorious day of my life !" Vergniaud's whole figure wore an expression of pride and disdain. La- source exclaimed, "I die at a time when the people have lost their reason : you will die as soon as they recover it." Valaze stabbed himself, and perished in the presence of the court, who immediately ordered that his dead body should be borne on a tumbril to the place of execution, and be beheaded with the other prison- ers, f Assured of their fate, they all now embraced each other, and the gendarmes surrounded them, and they, were conducted back to the Conciergerie, singing the Marseillais Hymn as they went. Their last night was sublime. Vergniaud had been provided with poison ; he threw it away, that he might die with his friends. In the prison they continued * " Accordingly, at ten o'clock on the night of the 30th of Octo- ber, the Twenty-two, summoned back once more, receive informa- tion that the jury, feeling themselves convinced, have cut short, have brought in their verdict ; that the accused are found guilty, and the sentence on one and all of them is Death with confiscation of goods."— CarZ^/Ze. t " Some hopes had been conceived for the two young brothers, Ducas and Fronfrede, who had appeared to be less compromised, and who had attached themselves to the Girondins, not so much from conformity of opinion, as from admiration of their character and talents. But they were condemned with the others." — Thiers. 214 THE REIGN OF TERROR. singing the Marseillais hymn, which they applied by a slight variation to their own situation. The twenty- one of them took a last meal together, at which they were by turns, merry, serious and eloquent. Verg- niaud presided at this last supper. " Valaze, with bloody breast, sleeps cold in death ; hears not the singing." Vergniaud spoke of expiring liberty in the noblest terms of regret, and in strains of unpre- cedented splendor. * But on the morrow, the 31st of October, all Paris is out, collected to see them pass. The death-carts, Valaze's cold corpse stretched among the yet living Twenty-one, roll along. Bareheaded, hands bound ; in their shirt sleeves, coat flung loosely round the neck ; so fare the eloquent of France, bemurmured, beshout- ed. On their way they repeated the Marseillais Hymn. Reaching the Place de la Revolution, and having ahghted from their carts, they embraced one another, shouting 'Vive la Republique !' They then struck up the Marseillais air again, singing it as the heads of each other were successively struck off. Sillery first mounted the scaffold, perishing amid the song of those who were so rapidly to follow — then another and another, amid the song of the decreasing voices. " Such an act of music ; conceive it well ! The yet * "Vergniaud was the most eloquent speaker of the Gironde, When great occasions rose, he poured forth his generous thoughts in streams of eloquence which never have been equalled in the French Assembly. It was not like that of Mirabeau, broken and emphatic, but uniformly elegant, sonorous and flowing, swelling at times into the highest strains of impassioned oratory. He was humane, gentle, and benevolent. He had not the vigour requisite for the leader of a party in troublesome times." — Alison. " Vergniaud was an indolent inan, and required to be stimulated ; but when once fairly excited, his eloquence was true, forcible, penetrating, and sincere." — Dumont. "Vergniaud was born at Limoges in 1759. He projected the decree which pronounced the. suspension of the King, and the formation of the National Convention. He filled the chair on the day of Louis's sentence, and voted for his death. He was condemned to death aa a Girondin in 1793, and spent the night before his execution in dis- coursing with his friends- upon revolutions and governments."— Shoberl. THE REIGN OF TERROR. 215 living chant there ; the chorus so rapidly wearing weak ! Samson's axe is rapid ! The chorus is wear- ing weak, the chorus is worn out ! Farewell forever, ye Girondins."* All of them followed Sillery's example, and died with the same dignity. In thirty-one minutes the exe- cutioner had despatched these illustrious victims, and thus destroyed in a few monients ^outh, beauty, vir- tue, talents ! " Valaze's dead head is lopped ; the sickle of the guillotine has reaped the Girondins all away ; the eloquent, the young, the beautiful and brave !" f They all died with the resolution of Ro- mans, protesting, with their last breath, their attach- ment to freedom and the Republic.l The other chiefs of the Girondists, who escaped to the provinces, fared no better. The Convention had outlawed them, and they were hunted by the Jacobins; they underwent innumerable dangers, were obliged to assume many disguises, and made escapes more wonderful even than those which romance has figured. Several kept together in their wanderings, and with them was Petion, formerly so popular as mayor of Paris. He had opposed some of the measures of Robespierre and the Jacobins, and so inveterately did Robespierre pursue him with denunciations, that he saw that by escape only could he preserve his head amid the many that were daily struck off by the guil- lotine. After his flight he was outlawed by the Con- vention. He, Barbaroux, Louvet, Gaudet, Salles, Buzot and Valady, passed months of concealment, hardships and suffering in the south. Of these seven, only Louvet escaped death, and in his memoirs he has left an interesting account of their miseries at this time. A sister of Gaudet kept them hid' at times in the loft of her house, at times in the cellar, and they were frequently necessitated to seek shelter in a cave at St. Emelion. Talhen, who was the commissioner at Bordeaux, had his spies continually on the search for * Carlyle. t Thiers ; Lacretelle ; Carlyle. X Alison. 216 THE REIGN OF TERROR. them, and so close was the pursuit in November 1793, that they determined to separate. They suffered much from the poverty of their circumstances — "apparel worn, purse empty; wintry November come; under Tallien and his guillotine, all hope now gone. Danger drawing ever nigher, difficulty pressing ever straiten Not unpathetic the farewell ; tall Barbaroux, cheeriest of brave men, stobps to clasp his Louvet ; ' In whatso- ever place thou findest my mother,' cries he, ' try to be instead of a son to her ; no resource of mine but I will share with thy wife, should chance ever lead me where she is.' " * Louvet set out for Paris, and, after many hair- breadth escapes, travelling as best he could, got there, joined his wife, thence to Switzerland, there to await better days. Gaudet, Salles and Valady, were soon taken, and died by the guillotine. Barbaroux, Buzot and Petion, wandered, and lurked in hiding-places, until the summer of the following year, 1794. One July morning, changing their hiding-place, as they had often to do, they observed a great crowd of country- people coming towards them, and supposing it to be a party of Jacobins in quest of them, Barbaroux drew a pistol, and shot himself dead. The crowd proved to be harmless villagers going to a village wake. A few days afterwards, Buzot and Petion were found in a corn-field, their bodies half devoured by wolves.f The Duke of Orleans was the next titled victim. He had some months previously been decreed under ac- cusation; he fled from the capital, but was arrested, and lay confined in prison at Marseilles, from which he was brought to Paris on the 3rd of November. He * Carlyle t " F. N. L. Buzot, bora 1760 at Evreux, an advocate, embraced the Revolution with warmth, made a deputy to the National As- sembly, opposed the despotism of the Parisian mob, and ended one of his speeches by threatening Paris with the sight of grass grow- ing in the streets if confusion should remain there much longer. Denounced as a Girondin, he made his escape from Paris, and was found, together with Petion, dead in a field, and half-eaten by wolves." Biographie Moderne. THE REIGN OF TERROR. 217 was immediately tried by the Revolutionary Tribunal, and sentenced to die. Of all the victims of the Revo- lution not one was less regretted than this man. The emigrant nobility despised him, and the Jacobins sus- pected him. The part he had taken, was prompted more by hostility to the court than real enthusiasm in favor of the republic. His execution was fixed for the 6th of November. On that morning he had a repast prepared for himself, and ate freely of oysters, cutlets and other edibles, and drank also the greater part of a bottle of claret. Three others were to be executed with him, and it is said they objected to enter the trumbril with a man of whom they entertained so execrable an opinion, and were flung in, neck and heels. His dress was a green frock coat, white waist- coat, yellow buckskins, and polished boots. Through street after street, slowly, and amid execrations, the tumbril rolled along. The populace halted him in front of the Palais-Royal, where he remained, by order of Robespierre it is said, a quarter of an hour. Robes- pierre had solicited the hand of the Duke's daughter in marriage ; a proposal scorned by the Duke ; and had promised him, if he w^ould relent in that extremity, to excite a tumult which should save his life. But de- praved as Egalite was, he had too much honorable feeling left to consent to such a sacrifice. He gazed on his Palais with a smile, and remained in expecta- tion of death without giving the expected signal of acquiescence, when he was permitted to continue his journey to the scaffold. Samson, the executioner, made a movement to draw off his boots. " Tush !" said the Duke, " they will come better off after; let us have done ; depechons-nous !" He met his death with stoical fortitude. The multitude applauded his exe- cution.* * Thiers ; Alison ; Montgalliard ; Carlyle. — He left a widow and four children ; three sons and a daughter. The eldest of these sons, was then twenty years of age, and served in the French army. He is at present the King of the French, raised to the throne by the Revolution of Paris, in July, 1830. He is now 73 years old, and is 218 THE REIGN OF TERROR. On the 8th of November, the beautiful and accom- plished wife of Roland was executed.* Condemned as an accomplice of the Girondins, she heard her sen- tence with a sort of enthusiasm, that excited a kind of religious admiration in all who saw her. Her defence, composed by herself the night before her trial, is one of the most eloquent and touching monuments of the revolution. She went to the scaffold dressed in white; conveyed in the same cart with a man whose firm- ness was not equal to her own. While passing along the streets, her whole anxiety seemed to be an endea- vour to support his courage. When they arrived at the foot of the scaffold, she had the generosity to re- nounce in his favor the privilege of being first exe- cuted. " Ascend first," said she ; " let me at least spare you the pain of seeing my blood flow." Turn- ing to the executioner, she asked if he would consent to that arrangement. He replied that his orders were that she should die first. " You cannot," said she, with a smile, " refuse a woman her last request, I am sure?" But Samson would not infringe his orders, and undismayed by the spectacle which immediately ensued, she calmly bent her head under the guillotine, perishing with the serenity she had evinced ever since her imprisonment. "Oh, Liberty! what crimes are being committed in thy name 1" was her exclamation, undoubtedly the greatest sovereign of this era. His whole life and character form a direct contrast to the career of his father, who was born at St. Cloud on the ]3th of April 1747, and rendered the tide of Due de Chartres, which he bore in his early life, notorious by its de- pravity. He was in stature below the middle size ; his features were regular and pleasing till libertinism and debauchery covered them with inflamed pustules. He was endowed with good natural abili- ties, though ignorant and credulous. In 1778, he was present at the battle off TJshant, and during the engagement concealed himself in the hold of the ship in which he was. This cowardice was made a subject of much merriment by the court, and laid the foundation of his hatred to the royal family. * " Although past the prime of life, she was a fine looking woman, tall, and of an elegant form ; an expression infinitelv superior to what is usually found in women, was seen in her large black eyes, at once foicible and mild." — Memoirs of a Prisoner. ■ THE REIGN OF TERROR. 219 a moment or two before she perished, as she cast her eyes upon the Statue of Liberty, that stood near the guillotine.* That her husband would not long survive her, she predicted, and her prophecy was speedily fulfilled. A few days afterwards he was found dead on the road between Paris and Rouen. Having heard the news of his wife's death, he embraced his kind friends at the latter place, left their house which had given him shelter, and "on the morrow morning, 16th of the month, ' some four leagues from Rouen,' there is seen sitting leant against a tree, the figure of a rigorous wrinkled man; stiff now in the rigour of death; a cane-sword run through his heart ; and at his feet this writing : ' Whoever thou art that discoverest me lying, respect my remains. They are those of a man who consecrated his life to the use of his country, and who died as he had lived, virtuous and unsullied. May my fellow-citizens embrace more humane sentiments! Not fear, but indignation, caused me to quit my re- treat, on learning that my wife had been murdered. I wished not longer to remain on an earth polluted with so many crimes.' "j Thu§, in that frightful delirium which had rendered genius,' virtue and courage suspected, all that was most noble and most generous in France was perishing either by suicide or the blade of the executioner. Among so many illustrious and courageous deaths, that of Bailli, the astronomer, first president of the National Assembly, and the first mayor of Paris, was both lamentable and sublime. He was of the moderate party, and the Jacobins were determined upon his death. His profound and extensive scientific re- searches, his great services in the cause of liberty, and his enlightened philanthropy, pleaded in vain before the Revolutionary Tribunal. The Jacobins were bit- ter against him because he had upon a memorable oc- * Alison; Lacretelle; Thiers, etc. t Alison; Carlyle; Thiers. 20 220 THE REIGN OF TERROR. casion (17th of July 1791,) asserted the supremacy of the law, and a mob were dispersed in the Champs-de- Mars, through his orders, that the red flag should be unfurled, and those of his friend La Fayette, who gave the command to fire. "Doomed now for Royalism, Fayettism ; for that red-flag business of the Champs- de-Mars ; one may say, in general, for leaving his as- tronomy to meddle with the revolution." * He was to be executed in the Champs-de-Mars, the theatre of what was termed his crime. The Uth of November was the day fixed for his execution. The weather was cold and rainy. Conducted on foot, he manifested the utmost composure, amidst the in- sults of a barbarous populace, who howled around him, covering him with curses and mud. During the long walk from the Conceirgerie to the Champs-de- Mars, they waved the red-flag in his face. He was both old and feeble, and in no condition even physi- cally to encounter the long walk and sleety weather. During his passage he repeatedly fell, which would create boisterous shouts from the mob; and hisses, curses and mud would shower upon him. On reach- ing the foot of the scaffold, it might be supposed his sufferings were nearly over ; but one of the vindictive Jacobins, who had so assiduously persecuted him, cried out that the Field of the Foederation ought not to be stained with his blood. The crowd instantly rushed upon the guillotine, and began to take it down, for the purpose of erecting it on a dunghill upon the banks of the Seine; and, in their refinement of cruelty, they chose a spot opposite the house where Bailli had passed his life, and composed his works. While this taking down, removing, and re-erecting the guillotine was going on, they obliged the old man to walk several times around the Champs-de-Mars. Bareheaded, and with his hands pinioned behind him, he could scarcely drag himself along. They continued to pelt him with mud— some kicked him — others struck him with canes. As they thus paraded him, exhausted, * Thiers; Carlyle. THE REIGN OP TERROR. 221 he would fall to the ground. They would lift him up. Rain and cold had communicated to his limbs an in- voluntary shivering. " Thou trembiest," said a sol- dier to him. " It is from the cold," replied Bailli. After he had been thus tormented for several hours, the red-flag was burned under his nose. He was then led to the bank of the river, where the guillotine was at length reared, delivered over to Samson, " and ano- ther illustrious scholar," says M. Thiers, " as well as one of the most virtuous men who ever honored our country, was taken from it." * Among the virtuous members of the first Assembly, there was no one who stood higher than Bailli. As a scholar and a man of science, he had long been in the very first rank of celebrity; his private morals were not only irreproach- able, but exemplary ; and his character and disposition had always been remarkable for gentleness, modera- tion and philanthropy. His popularity was at one time equal to that of any of the idols of the day ; and if it was gained by some degree of culpable indul- gence and unjustifiable zeal, it was forfeited at least by a resolute opposition to disorder, and a meritorious perseverance in the discharge of his duty. There is not perhaps a name in the whole annals of the Revo- lution, with which the praise of unaffected philan- thropy may be more safely associated.! Thus the good and great continued to perish. The limited nature of this book, does not admit of an indi- * Thiers ; Lacretelle ; Toulangeon, etc. t Edinburgh Review. — " Jean Sylvain Bailli, bom in Paris, 15th of September 1736. Passed his life in study, and wrote essays and a history of astronomy. Opposed the violent measures of the Jacobins during the Revolution. After the 17th of July, 1791, he perceived his credit sinking, resigned his office of mayor, and went over to England, whence he returned shortly after to Paris, trusting to spend the remainder of his days in retirement. He was, however, arrested in 1793, and condemned to death. After having been exposed to every species of ignominy in the Champs-de-Mars, he ran himself to the scaffold, which had been fixed upon a heap of dung. He died with great courage. He was tall, his face long and serious. There are several works on astronony by him." — Biographie Moderne. 222 THE REIGN OF TERROR. vidual detail of the distinguished persons who were guillotined during the Reign of Terror ; but the reader may imagine to himself the fact that "the whole country seemed one vast conflagration of revolt and vengeance. The shrieks of death were blended with the yell of the assassin, and the laughter of buffoons. Never were the finest affections more warmly excited, or pierced with more cruel wounds. Whole families were led to the scaffold for no other crime than their relationship : sisters for shedding tears over their bro- thers in the emigrant armies ; wives for lamenting the fate of their husbands ; innocent peasant-girls for danc- ing with the Prussian soldiers ; and a woman giving suck, and whose milk spouted in the face of her exe- cutioner at the fatal stroke, for merely saying, as a group were led to slaughter, ' Here is much blood shed for a trifling cause !"* Having massacred the great of the present, and in- sulted the illustrious of former ages — for the sepulchres of the kings, and the distinguished men, of France, re- nowned for their deeds in past times, were involved in one general ruin, an attack, and a demolition of them, being made upon all the remains of antiquity ; tombs were broken open, and the sculls of monarchs and heroes tossed about like footballs b)'' the profane multitude — nothing remained to the Jacobins but to direct their vengeance against Heaven itself Pache, Hebert, and Chaumette, the leaders of the munici- pality, publicly expressed their determination, " to de- throne the King of Heaven as well as the monarchs of the earth." f To accomplish this design, they pre- * Hazlitt. t "Jean Nicholas Pache, mayor of Paris in 1793. Having sur- vived the Reign of Terror, he was accused by the Directory of vari- ous arbitrary acts, but contrived to escape prosecution, and, quitting Paris in 1797, hved in retirement and obscurity."—" P. G. Chaumette, attorney of the municipality of Paris, born at Nevers in 1763 ; his father was a shoemaker ; after having been a cabin-boy, a steersman, a transcriber, and an attorney's clerk at Paris, he worked under the journalist Prudhomme, who describes him as a very ignorant fellow. He soon acquired great power in the capital, and in 1793 proposed THE REIGN OF TERROR. 223 vailed on Gobel, the constitutional bishop of Paris, to appear at the bar of the Convention, accompanied by some of the clergy of his diocese, and there abjure the Christian faith, declaring " that no other national re- ligion was now required but that of liberty, equality, and morality."* (Nov. 7th. 1793.) The ceremony was as follows. Gobe], with a bonnet-rouge (red cap) on his head; holding in his hand his mitre, crosier, cross, and ring, was introduced into the Convention, and thus addressed that body. " Born a plebian, a cure of Porentruy, sent by my clergy to the first Assembly, then raised to the archbishopric of Paris, I have never ceased to obey the people. I accepted the functions which that people bestowed upon me, and now, in obedience to it, I come to resign them. I suffered my- self to be made a bishop when the people wanted bishops. I cease to be so now when the people no longer desire to have any." f He then laid on the table his episcopal decorations, and received a fraternal em- brace from the president of the Convention. The priests, accompanying him, followed his example. All the sections of Paris, and the members of the muni- cipality, came, one after another, to declare that they renounced the errors of superstition, and that they acknowledged no other worship than that of reason. This was speedily followed by the desecration of all the churches; the edifices and their treasures were seized upon as the property of the Republic ; images of the saints and the Virgin Mary were taken down ; all the robes and decorations of the priests were seized upon. Under the direction of Chaumette, the treasures were heaped in chests, to be taken to the Convention, thence to the municipality, and thence to the formation of the Revolutionary Tribunal, and the tax on the rich. He contrived the Festivals of Reason, and the orgies and pro- fanations which polluted all the churches in Paris. He procured an order for the demolition of all monuments of religion and royalty. He was executed, by order of Robespierre, in 1794." Biographie Moderne. * Alison. t Thiers. 20* 224 ) THE REIGN OF TERROR. the mint, there to be melted down for the public trea- sury. Nov. 10th, a procession was formed, for the purpose of going in a body to the Convention, and the rabble, indulging in their fondness for the burlesque, carica- tured in the most ludicrous manner the ceremonies of religion. Men, wearing surplices and capes, came singing hallelujahs, and dancing the carmagnole, to the bar of the Convention ; there they deposited the host, the boxes in which it was kept, and the statues of gold and silver; they made burlesque speeches, and sometimes addressed the most singular apostrophes to the saints themselves,— for instance, " O you, instru- ments of fanaticism, blessed saints of all kinds, be at length patriots, serve the country by going to the mint, and give us in this world that felicity which you wanted to obtain for us in the other !" A veiled female, ar- rayed in blue drapery, was next introduced to the Convention as the Goddess of Reason ; she wore the red liberty cap, holding a pike in her hand, and was borne on a palanquin, with young girls, in tri-color ribands, dancing before her. The busts of Marat and Pelletier were also borne aloft. Madame Mom ore (the woman who represented the goddess, and, before her marriage Mademoiselle Candeille of the opera, with whose charms most of the persons present were acquainted from her appearance on the stage, while the experience of some individuals was farther ex- tended,) was carried around the benches of the Con- vention, and received the homage of the deputies. After which, the members of the Convention, and the great throng of the populace, formed in procession again, and proceeded, with music, banners, flags, and pageantry, to the ancient church of Notre Dame — a church no longer, but the Temple of Reason. On the high altar of Notre Dame, Madame Momoro took her seat ; a hymn to liberty, words by Chenier, music by Gossec, was chaunted ; round the choir stood tables overloaded with bottles, sausages, pork-puddings, pas- tries, and other meats. The guests flowed in and out, THE REIGN OP TERROR. 225 through all doors ; out of doors were mad multitudes, dancing round bonfires made of chapel balustrades and wooden images of the Crucifixion and of the saints. In all the churches of Paris the same scene was enacted — they were all dedicated by the Jacobins as temples of Reason, and, in all of them, busts of Marat and Lepelletier were placed in the niches from which the saints had been pulled down. Orators harangued, and pointing to the busts, exclaimed, " These are not gods made by men, but worthy citizens assassinated by the slaves of kings !" Prom the pulpit, these ora- tors preached atheism, and denounced any worship but that of Reason. Marat was universally deified, and even the instrument of death was sanctified by the name of the Holy Guillotine. Everywhere was the inscription to be seen — Death is an Eternal Sleep. The comedian, Monert, in the church of St. Roche, carried his impiety to its height. " God, if you exist," said he, " avenge your injured name ! / bid you de- fiance! You remain silent. You dare not launch your thunders. Who after this will believe in your -existence V * This impious and ridiculous mummery had a certain fashion ; and the installation of the Goddess of Reason was renewed and imitated throughout the nation, in such places where the inhabitants desired to show themselves equal to all the heights of the Revolution. The churches were closed against priests and wor- shippers ; baptism ceased ; the bUrial service was no longer heard ; the sick received no communion ; the dying no consolation. The village bells were silent: Sunday was obliterated.! In lieu of the Sabbath and * Thiers ; Alison ; Lacretelle ; Carlyle ; Scott. t To obliterate as far as possible all former recollections, a new era was established ; they changed the divisions of the year, the names of months and days. The ancient and venerable institution of the Sabbath was abolished ; the period of rest was fixed at every tenth day ; time was measured by divisions of ten days ; and the year was divided into twelve equal months, beginning on the 22d of 226 THE REIGN OF TERROR. the services of the Church, the licentious fetes of the new worship were performed by the most abandoned females. On every tenth day a revolutionary leader, or Jacobin orator, ascended the pulpit, and preached the doctrines of atheism to the bewildered audience. The most sacred relations of life, were at the same pe- riod, placed on a new footing, suited to the extrava- gant ideas of the times. Marriage was declared a civil contract, binding only during the pleasure of the contracting parties. Divorce immediately became general ; the corruption of manners reached a pitch unknown during the worst days of the monarchy ; the vices of the marquises and countesses of Louis XV. descended to the shopkeepers and artizans of Paris. So indiscriminate did concubinage become, that, by a decree of the Convention, bastards were declared entitled to an equal share of the succession with legitimate children. In the general havoc, even the establishments of charity were not suffered to escape. The revenues of the hospitals and humane institutions throughout France were confiscated, and their domains sold as part of the national property. Soon the terrible effects of suppressing these institu- tions was felt ; beggary advanced with frightful steps ; and the condition of the helpless poor was lamen- table.* Robespierre opposed the worship of Reason, and declared his belief in the existence of a Supreme Being ; he, cunningly preparing the way as he was to raise himself at the head of the government in his own person, saw that the measures of Hebert, Chau- mette and others were too violent for even the entire September. Vendimiare — September. Brumaire — October. Fri- maire — November. Nivose — December. Pluviose — ^January. Ven- fose— February. Germinal — March FlorM— April Prairial — May. Messidor — June, Thermidor— July. Fructidor — August. All titles had long since been abolished, and even Monsieur and Madame was no longer permitted— it was now simply Citoyen and Citoyenne, for Mr. and Mrs. * Scott; Alison; Dupin; Lacretelle; Liancourt; Burke. THE REIGN OP TERROR. 227 Jacobin approval ; he hypocritically maintained his reputation for incorruptibility, and watched with plea- sure the growing unpopularity of Danton and other rivals of his who peculated the public funds and rioted in luxury. Attacks upon character, and mutual re- criminations, daily took place between the deputies in the Convention. There were many rumors in circu- lation to the discredit of Danton, who retired from any participation in public matters. It was by the advice of Robespierre himself that Danton retired into seclu- sion. " A tempest is brewing," said he ; " the Jacobins dislike your manners; your voluptuous and lazy habits are at variance with their energy ; withdraw, then, for a season ; trust to a friejid who will watch over your dangers, and warn you of the first moment to return." * The attached friends of Danton were Philipeaux, Camille Desmouiins, Fabre-d'Eglantine, Lacroix, and General Westermann. These were now termed the moderate party of the Mountain, who demanded that an end should be put to the revolutionary government, and to the dictatorship of the committees. In brief, they wished to stop the Reign of Terror, which they said had answered its purpose, and that the daily shedding of blood was no longer a matter of necessity as it had been, but useless murder. They contended that the internal enemies of the Republic had been repressed, and instead of the anarchy, and insecurity of life, which prevailed, it was their desire to establish legal authority and the independence of the Conven- tion; they wished to put down the faction of the municipality ; to stop the Revolutionary Tribunal ; to clear the prisons, which were filled with the suspected, of which numbers were daily perishing by the guillo- tine. This scheme of clemency, humanity, and law- ful government was earnestly urged by Camille Des- * Danton disapproved of the condemnation of the Girondins, i. e. the death of them, and reproaches began to shower around him. To avoid the threatened storm, he had retired to Arcis-sur-Aube, and there appeared to forget everything in ieposG.—Mignet. 228 THE REIGN OF TERROR. moulins in his paper of the " Old Cordelier," and he used the weapons of wit and ridicule against Hebert, who in his " Pere Duchesne" violently contended for the continued proscription and extermination of the aristocrats. In fact, Hebert was now looked up to as the leader of all ultra movements. The wily Robes- pierre saw that by making a sacrifice of both the Hebertists and Dantonists, he could at once gain the point of his ambition. For this purpose he resolved, at the same time that he should cut off Hebert, Chau- mette, and the anarchists, to strike with equal seventy against Danton, Camille Desmoulins, and the mode- rate party. By so doing, he would keep up the appearance of even-handed justice, establish the supremacy of the Committee of Public Safety, and remove the* only rival (Danton) that stood between him and sole dominion. The friends of Danton, per- ceiving the ambitious designs of Robespierre, recalled him from his retirement, and he arrived in Paris to defend himself and his party. But the Committee of Public Safety, with Robespierre at the head of it, was all-powerful; St. Just, a powerful demagogue, and Henriot, commander of the National Guards, were both the tools of Robespierre ; the Jacobins began to regard him as the only pure patriot of all their dis- tinguished leaders, and, in fact, his will was becoming the law.* It was now the December of 1793 — winter — and pro- visions were scarce in the capital. The sellers evaded the maximum, or fixed price, by selling all the best of their things for high prices to the rich,"and giving the offal to the mass of the people at the maximum. Dis- satisfaction, and impatience of this evil, was at its height ; tumults in the markets were constantly occur- ring.! Politically and socially, we see the country in a condition wretched beyond all parallel in the history of nations ! Amidst all these distresses the ambitious AFison; Mignet; Thiers; Lacretelle; Toulangeon. t Thiers. THE REIGN OF TERROR. 229 Robespierre now urged on his secret operations to work the downfall of the Hebertists and Dantonists. Flattery for the people in a mass, and cruelty in detail — such were his means. He was methodically and ambitiously cruel, but not from any enjoyment that he had in the slaughter of his fellow-men. The Hebert- ists, however, seemed to have enjoyed cruel actions, and kept the axe of the guillotine employed merely for the sake of a fiendish pleasure. Robespierre never gave signs of such a disposition; cool, interested cruelties were what he excelled in; he would have sacrificed three-fourths of the human race to have reigned over those who remained, but it would not have given him any pleasure to assist at their execu- tion. The cool, calculating murderer is, however, the most terrible of all, when he has it in his power, and finds it his interest to be cruel ; for he does not even take the pains to think what it costs humanity to gratify his views. It was by the method of his cruelty that Robespierre was enabled to carry out his plans. The Hebertists went without order, and sometimes ceased their crimes for a moment ; but Robespierre systematically and surely worked the downfall and death of all his enemies, of all his rivals, and of all those whose reputation or property gave them any share of importance. This has been fully proved since, for as each faction of the Revolution fell, its crimes were brought to light. 21 230 THE REIGN OF TERROR* CHAPTER IX. The French armies. Napoleon Bonaparte at the siege of Toulon. The Jacobins— the committee of Public Safety — Robespierre's policy — nineteen of the Hebertists guillotined — Danton in the Con- vention — interview between Robespierre and Danton — Danton, Desmoulins, and others arrested — speech of Legendre— speech of Robespierre — trial of Danton and his friends — Danton's conduct before the tribunal — the first day of the trial — the second — the third— condemnation of the Dantonists — conduct of Danton on the scaffold, etc. Robespierre now reigns alone — forty, sixty and eighty persons daily executed in Pans— Madame Dubarri — the Duchess de Grammont — the Princess Elizabeth. The Reign of Terror in all its horrors ! Extracts from the List of the Con- demned. Disgust of the inhabitants in consequence of the execu- tions — the prisons filled — an aqueduct dug to drain off the blood from the guillotine — four men daily employed in emptying the blood into a reservoir. An attempt to assassinate Robespierre by Cecille Renault — attempt to assassinate CoUot d'Herbois. Festi- val of ihe Supreme Being, on the 8th of June 1794 — pride of Robespierre — he is suspected of aspiring to a dictatorship — his Slans are thwarted by his colleagues in the Committee — he absents imself from their deliberations, and surrounds himself with his Jacobin followers at the club — St Just. — Robespierre in the Con- vention — at the club — David, the painter. — Henriot — The 27th of July — St. Just in the tribune — Robespierre attacked in the Con- vention — his efforts to speak — the cries of Down with the Tyrant ! — thrilling scene — Robespierre arrested — Henriot on horseback — all Paris in alarm — night — the Hotel- de-Ville — Robespierre rescued — scene on the Place de Greve — he and his accomplices retaken — their execution, etc. Jacobinism in the United States. Paris after the fall of Robespierre — Prudhomme's account of the victims — society — Napoleon Bonaparte — remarks, etc., etc. Prom the spring of 1793, the Republic had been at war not only with Austria, Prussia, and Piedmont, but also with Spain and England ; against all of which she contended, and was now beginning to be victorious. On the 18th of March occurred the battle of Neen- winden, in which the French remained masters of the field. On the 8th of June the ports of France were blockaded by the English. On the 24th of July the THE REIGN OP TERROR. 231 garrison of Mayence capitulated to the King of Prussia, and on the 28th, Valenciennes, after sustain- a bombardment of forty-one days, was surrendered to the Duke of York. The garrison, consisting of seven thousand brave soldiers, marched out with the honors of war. Early in September, the Duke of York laid siege to Dunkirk, where he was attacked by the French, who completely defeated him, and he was obliged to precipitately retreat. [Sep. 8th.] On the i5th of October, the French were victorious at Wat- tignies, and on the 16th the blockade of Maubeuge was raised. But the most remarkable event in the military his- tory of 1793, was the siege of Toulon, not so much from its importance, as from its first bringing to light the talents of Napoleon Bonaparte. Instead of making a regular attack upon the main fortification, he pro- posed to get possession of the prominent points com- manding the harbor, which would render it untenable to the English fleet. Were this once effected, the garrison, he knew, would not hold the town. Accord- ingly his plan was acted upon; the important posts designated by him were captured, and as the cannon from them reached the fleet, the evacuation of the town was decided upon. The English, in departing, set fire to the magazines, and to the French fleet ; a melancholy spectacle to the citizens of Toulon, an exasperating one to their republican conquerors. The circumstances of the siege were, however, useful to the cause of the latter. It proved an example to awe all towns and parties from mounting the white flag of the Bourbons, or receiving under any pretext^ the enemies of their country within their walls. It* was on the 20th of December that the English evacu- ated Toulon. In the meantime, the victorious Jacobins were growing daily more divided among themselves. The National Convention was no longer aught than a nominal representation, a passive instrument of terror. On the ruins of its independence we see that 232 THE REIGN OF TERROR. monstrous dictatorship, the Committee of Public Safe- ty, with the Revolutionary Tribunal at its disposition, and Robespierre the presiding genius of the whole. Terror isolated and struck with stupor the deputies as much as the mass of the citizens. The Hebertists continued to demand the continuance of the Revolu- tionary times and habits, and exclaimed against mode- ratism as their ruin. The Dantonists, who leaned to the side of humanity, and now took their stand against the anarchists, were unfortunately brought to this position by no honorable path. This party was formed of successful plunderers — of those who had enriched themselves in the Revolution, who loved pleasure and luxury, and who thought the time was come for enjoyment. But extermination of the aristo- crats was the sentiment of the Jacobin club, and of the talking majority. Robespierre could not do otherwise than adopt and lead this opinion, the Jaco- bins being his support, the chief source of his popu- larity as a demagogue. But then, as a member of the government, he had to repress the anarchists ; and the difficulty was to refute them, and repulse them, without incurring the suspicion of moderatism. His position was extremely precarious; but the subtle tyrant, whilst obliged to denounce and menace the anarchists, cleansed himself of the crime of moderation by en- forcing measures of blood and keeping the guillotine in action. At the same time he was preparing the means, and watching an opportunity, to deliver him- self from the dilemma by crushing both parties. He struck the first blow at the Hebertists, and in March 1794, they were arrested as conspirators against the Fepublic, condemned, and on the 24th of the month, nineteen of them were guillotined. This was quickly followed by the arrest of Danton and his friends. For sometime past, seated opposite to that tribune where the members of the Committee of Public Safety took their places in the Convention, Danton wore some- what of a threatening, and at the same time contempt- uous, air. His attitude— his expressions, w^hich ran from THE REIGN OP TERROR. 233 mouth to mouth — his connections — all proved that, after seceding from the government, he had set himself up' for its censor, and that he kept himself aloof as if for the purpose of obstructing it by his great reputation. This was not all. Though Danton had lost his popularity, he still retained a reputation for bold- ness and for extraordinary political genius. Robes- pierre saw that, if Danton should be sacrificed, there would be left not one rallying name out of the committee ruled by himself, and that his colleagues in the committee were only of secondary importance in the eyes of the people ; that but two great names now remained — Robespierre and Danton — sacrifice the latter, and Robespierre reigned alone. He was, moreover, exhorted to this sacrifice by all his col- leagues. Couthon and Collet d'Herbois were aware that they were despised by Danton, and in him, Bil- laud-Varennes, cold, vulgar and sanguinary, found something grand and overwhelming. St. Just, dog- matic, austere and proud, felt an antipathy to the generous and easy revolutionist, and perceived that if Danton were dead, he should become the second per- sonage of the republic. Rumors circulated that the Dantonists were about to be apprehended. Mutual friends were desirous of reconciling Robespierre and Danton, and an interview between the two took place at the house of the latter. Danton complained violently, but Robespierre was reserved. "I know," said Danton, "all the hatred which the committee bears me, but I do not fear it." — " You are wrong," replied Robespierre ; " they have no evil intentions against you, but it is good to explain oneself" — "Explain oneself!" retorted Danton, "for that, good faith is necessary ;" and, observing Robes- pierre to assume a grave air at these words, " With- out doubt," added he, " it is necessary to suppress the royalists ; but we ought only to strike blows which are useful to the Republic ; and it is not necessary to confound the iniiocent with the guilty." — "Ah! who has told you," sharply rejoined Robespierre, " that we have caused an innocent person to perish f" Where- 21* 234 THE REIGN OF TERROR. upon DantoR, turning to one of his friends who had accompanied him, asked with a bitter smile, " What say youT Not an innocent perished?" After these words they separated. All the bonds of friendship were broken.* Mutual friends still interfered to bring about a reconciliation. They reminded Robespierre of the friendship he had formerly testified for Danton ; he hypocritically replied that he could not do anything either for or against Danton ; that justice was there to defend innocence ; that, for his part, his whole life had been a continual sacrifice of his aflfections to his coun- try ; and that, if his friends were guilty, he should sacrifice with regret, but like all the others to the good of the republic. Suddenly, on the 2nd of April, 1794, JDanton, Des- moulins, Philipeaux and Lacroix, were arrested at night, by order of the Committee, and conveyed to the Luxembourg. By morning the tidings had spread throughout Paris, and produced a kind of toi-por. The members of the Convention met and preserved a silence, mingled with consternation. The Committee, which always made the Assembly wait for it, and which had the insolence as well as the strength of power, had not yet arrived. Legendre, who was not of sufficient importance to be apprehended with his friends, was eager to speak. "Citizens," said he, "four members of this Assembly were last night arrested. I know that Danton is one of them; the names of the others I know not; but whoever they are, I move that they be heard at the bar. Citizens, I declare that I believe Danton to be as pure as myself, and I believe no one has anything to lay to my charge. I shall not attack any of the committees of pubhc welfare and of general safety, but I have a right to fear that personal animosities and individual p^as- sions may wrest liberty from men who have rendered it the greatest and the most beneficial services. The man who, in September '92, saved France by his energy, deserves to be heard, and ought to be permitted to * Thiers; Mignet,etc. THE REIGN OF TERROR. 235 explain himself, when he is accused of having betrayed his country." Robespierre, having just arrived, ascended the tri- bune. " From the disturbance," said he, " for a long time unknown, which prevails in this Assembly, from the agitation produced by the preceding speaker, it is evident that the question under discussion is one of great interest, that the point is to decide whether a few men shall this day get the better of the country. But how can you so far forget your principles as to propose to grant this day to certain individuals what you have previously refused to others, viz., to hear them at the bar of the Convention'? Why is this difference in favor of some men 1 What care I for the praise that people bestow on themselves and their friends? Too much experience has taught us to dis- trust such praise. The question is not whether a man has performed this or that patriotic act, but what has been his whole career. Legendre pretends to be igno- rant of the names of the persons arrested. They are known to the whole Convention. His friend Lacroix is one of them. Why does Legendre affect ignorance of this 1 Because he knows that it is impossible, with- out impudence, to defend Lacroix. He has mentioned Danton, because he conceives, no doubt, that to his name is attached a privilege. No — we will have no privileges! We will have no privileges! We will have no idols !" (A burst of applause.) " In what re- spect is Danton superior to La Fayette, to Dumouriez, to Brissot, to Fabre, to Chabot, to Hebert? What is said of him that may not be said of them ] And yet have you spared them"? Men talk to you of the despo- tism of the committees, as if the confidence the people have bestowed on you, and which you have trans- ferred to these committees, were not a sure guarantee of their patriotism. They affect doubts ; but I tell you, whoever trembles at this moment is guilty, for inno- cence never dreads the public surveillance." (Fresh applause.) "And in me," continued Robespierre, " they have endeavoured to excite terror, aiming to 236 THE REIGN OP TERROR. make me believe that in meddling with Danton the dan- ger may reach myself. They have written to me ; the friends of Danton have sent me letters, have beset me with their speeches ; they conceived that the remem- brance of an old connexion, that an ancient faith in false virtues, would induce me to slacken my zeal and my passion for liberty ! On the contrary, I declare that if Danton's dangers were ever to become my own, that consideration would not stop me for a moment. It is here that we all ought to have some courage and some greatness of soul. Vulgar minds, or guilty men, are always afraid to see their fellows fall, because, having no longer a barrier of culprits before them, they are left exposed to the light of truth ; but, if there exist vulgar spirits, there are heroic spirits also in this Assembly, and they will know how to brave all false terrors! Besides, the number of the guilty is not great. Crime has found but few partizans among us, and, by striking off a few heads, the country will be delivered." * Robespierre had acquired assurance and skill to say what he meant, and never had he shown more skill or more perfidy than on this occasion. To talk of the sacrifice which he had made in forsaking Danton, to make a merit of it, to take to himself a share of the danger, if there was any, and to cheer the cowards of the Convention by talking of the small number of the guilty, was the height of hypocricy and address. He prevailed, and it was unanimously decided that the four deputies arrested in the night should not be heard in their defence at the bar of the Convention, but be tried by the Revolutionary Tribunal. These unfortu- nate men, as we have said, had been conveyed to the Luxembourg. "Us! arrest us!" said Lacroix to Danton, "I never should have thought it !"—" I had been warned of it," replied Danton.— "And knowing it, thou hast not acted!" exclaimed Lacroix— " the effect of thine accustomed indolence ; it has undone * Thiers. THE REIGN OP TERROR. 237 US !"— " But I did not believe," said Danton, " that they would ever dare execute their design ;" and he was as usual, calm, proud, and jovial. Camille Desmoulins was astonished and depressed. Philipeaux appeared moved and elevated by the danger. Herault-Sechelles, who had been sent to the Luxembourg gome days be- fore them, ran out to meet his friends, and cheerfully embraced them. "When men do silly things," said Danton, " the best thing they can do is to laugh at them." Then perceiving Thomas Paine, (also a prisoner) he said to him, " What thou hast done for the liberty of America, I have attempted to do for France; I have been less fortunate, but not more guilty. They are sending me to the scaffold— well, my friends, we must go to it gaily." * * " Lacroix, condemned to death by the Revolutionary Tribunal in 1794, was originally a country lawyer; was the accomplice of Danton, acquired wealth, and long held a secret correspondence with Dumouriez, whom he pretended to denounce." — Mercier. "Pierre Philipeaux, a lawyer, a deputy to the Convention, voted for the King's death. He was afterwards sent into La Vendee to reorganize the administration of Nantes, where he was involved in a contention with some of the representatives sent into the same country, which ended in his recall to Paris. He was condemned to death by the Revolu- tionary Tribunal, in the 35th year of his age. Philipeaux was an honest and enthusiastic repubhcan." — Biographie Moderne. ''M. J. Herault de Sechelles, born at Paris in 1760 ; began his career at the bar by holding the office of the King's advocate at the Chatelet. In the house of Madame de Pohgnac, where he visited, he met the Queen (Mane Antoinette,) who, delighted with his conversation, promised to befriend him. He embraced the Revolution, was a member of the Convention, was absent from Paris during the King's trial, but wrote a letter to the Convention declaring that Louis Capet deserved death. He was subsequently a zealous sup- porter of the Mountain faction, but having made himself obnoxious to Robespierre, he was sentenced to death in 1793." — Biographie Moderne. " Thomas Paine, an Englishman, born in 1737, the son of a Quaker. In 1774 he went to America, and became editor of the Pennsylvania Magazine, took an active part in the hostilities between the Colonies and Great Britain, and published his celebrated pam- phlet " Common Sense," for which the legislature of Pennsylvania voted him ^500. He afterwards embarked for France, and, after visiting Paris, went to England, where he was prosecuted for his well-known " Rights of Man," but escaped to France, was chosen 238 THE REIGN OF TERROR. On the following day Danton and fourteen others were transferred to the Conceirgerie, where Lacroix expressed his astonishment at the number and wretched state of the prisoners. " What !" said Dan- ton, "did not the daily cart-loads of victims teach you what was passing in Paris 1" On the 2nd of April they were all brought before Pouquier-Tinville. The crowd collected to see the ac- cused was immense. A spark of that interest which Danton had once excited was rekindled at sight of him. Fouquier-Tinville, the judges, the jurors, were embarrassed in his presence. His assurance, his haughtiness, awed them, and he appeared rather to be the accuser than the accused.* When asked the usual questions as to his age and his place of abode, he proudly replied that he was thirty-four years old, that himself would soon be nothing, but his name would live in the Pantheon of history. " Danton," said the president, " the Convention ac- cuses you of having conspired with Mirabeau, with Dumouriez, with Orleans, with the Girondins, with foreigners, and with the faction which wants to rein- state Louis XVII." " My voice," replied Danton, " which has been raised so often for the cause of the people, will have no diffi- culty in repelling that calumny. Let the cowards who accuse me show their faces, and I will cover them with infamy. Let the committees come forward ; I will not answer but in their presence ; I need them for accu- sers and for witnesses. Let them appear. For the rest, I care little for you or your judgment. I have already told you that nothingness will soon be my a member of the National Convention, and lost his popularity with the Jacobins by voting against the death of Louis XVI. and was committed a prisoner to the Luxembourg. On the fall of Robespierre he was released, and remained in France till 1802, when he again embarked for the United States, where he died in 1809, aged 72." Biographie Moderne. * " Danton, calm and indifferent, amused himself during his trial by throwing little paper-pellets at his judges "—Hazliu THE REIGN OP TERROR. 239 asylum. Life is a burden ; take it from me. I long to be delivered from it." "Danton," said the president, "audacity is the quality of guilt, calmness that of innocence." At this expression, Danton replied : "Individual au- dacity ought, no doubt, to be repressed ; but that na- tional audacity of which I have so often set the example, which I have so often shown in the cause of liberty, is the most meritorious of all virtues. That audacity is mine. It is that which I have employed for the republic against the cowards who accuse me. When I find that I am so basely calumniated, how can I contain myself 1 It is not from such a revolutionist as Danton that you may expect a cold defence ! Men of my temper are inappreciable in revolutions. Upon their brow is impressed the spirit of liberty !" As he uttered these words, he shook his head, and defied the tribunal. His formidable countenance produced a pro- found impression. A murmur of approbation escaped from the crowd. "I!" continued Danton — "/ ac- cused of having conspired with Mirabeau, Dumouriez, Orleans ! Oh, thou cowardly St. Just,* thou wilt have to answer to posterity for thy accusation against the staunchest supporter of liberty ! In going through this catalogue of horrors" he added, holding up the act of accusation, "I feel my whole frame shudder !" One of the accusations was that he had hid himself on the 10th of August. " Where," he exclaimed, " are the men who had occasion to urge Danton to show himself on that day 1 Where are the privileged beings from whom he borrowed energy? Let my accusers stand forward ! I am in my sober senses when I call for them. Let them come forward, and I will plunge them into that nothingness from which they ought never to have emerged !" The president would have interrupted him, and rang his bell. Danton drowned the sound of it with his * St. Just had drawn up the accusations specified against Danton. 240 THE REIGN OF TERROR. terrible voice. " Do you not hear me f asked the president. " The voice," replied Danton — " the voice of a man who is defending his honor and his life, must over- power the sound of thy bell !" Danton still insisted that he should be confronted with several members of the Convention and the two committees. The second day passed off without any result ; Danton, and the others accused, still reiterating their demand, and ridiculing the tribunal. In this dilemma, St. Just got a decree passed in the Convention, authorizing the judges to deny the privilege of plead- ing to such of the accused as should show any dis- respect to them. On the third day, Fouquier-Tinville read the decree. Danton indignantly rose. " I call this audience to witness," said he, " that we have not insulted the tribunal." " That is true," cried several voices in the hall. The emotion was general. The tribunal was intimidated. " The truth," added Danton, " will one day be known. — I see great calamities ready to burst upon France.— The dictatorship exhibits itself without veil or disguise !" Perceiving at the farther end of the hall, Amar and Vouland, two deputies who were his enemies, he shook his fist at them. " Look," said he, "at those cowardly assassins; they follow us; they will not leave us so long as we are alive !" Amar and Vouland sneaked off in affright. The tribunal put an end to the sitting. The next day they were condemned, and executed. [April 5th.] The infamous rabble, paid to insult the victims, followed the carts. Desmoulins, filled with indignation, addressed the multitude, and poured forth a torrent of imprecations against the cowardly and hypocritical Robespierre. Danton, casting a calm and contemptuous look on the mob, said, "Be quiet, Camille ; take no notice of this vile rabble." On reaching the foot of the scaffold, Danton was going to embrace Herault-Sechelles, who extended THE REIGN OP TERROR. 241 his arms towards him, but was prevented by the exe- cutioner. " What," said he, " canst thou be more cruel than death? At least, thou canst not prevent our heads from embracing presently at the bottom of the basket." * Such was the end of Danton, who had been so effi- cient in the crisis of the Revolution, and so serviceable to it. The policy of Robespierre demanded victims ; his envy selected them ; and in Danton he sacrificed the most celebrated and the most dreaded man of the day. Danton, like Mirabeau, died proud of himself, considering his faults and his life sufficiently covered by his great services and his last projects. They perished together, Danton and Camille Desmoulins, those active agents of the Revolution — the latter, who may be said to have commenced it on the 12th of July, 1789, the former, who may be said to have accom- plished it on the 10th of August, 1792. Truly, the revolution is devouring its own children ! Robespierre now reigned alone. His power was terrible, irresistible. It was Death, which he and his faction wielded against every feeling of humanity, against every principle of justice. In their iron hands order resumed its sway from the influence of terror ; obedience became universal from the extinction of hope. Silent and unresisted they led their victims to the scaffold, dreaded alike by the soldiers, who crouched, the people, who trembled, and the victims, who suffered.! It is now that we see the Reign of Terror ap- proaching the darkest depths of its night ! Among the next victims, the wife of Hebert, the beautiful wife of Desmoulins,! and all the relics of noble families were successively sacrificed. The Revolutionary Tribunal * Thiers. t Alison. $ " The widow of Camille Desmoulins, young, amiable, and well- informed, during the mock process which condemned her to death, as an accompHce of her husband, loathing Hfe, and anxious to fol- low him, displayed a firmness of mind that was seen with admira- tion, even by her judges. When she heard the sentence pronounced, she exclaimed, ' I shall then, in a few hours, again meet my bus- 22 242 THE REIGN OP TERROR. was unceasingly in session ; the tumbrils rolled daily from tiie Conciergerie, and the multitude crowded daily to the Place de la Revolution to witness the operations of the guillotine and see the heads drop into the basket. The Duke de Chatelet, the marshals of Noailles and Mailly, men of eighty years, too aged to emigrate; the Dukes of Bethune and Villeroy ; many of the members of the old magistracy ; Males- herbes, the defender of Louis, all his family, his child- ren and grandchildren, perished together. Men were wanting, and the rage of the Terrorists vented itself upon women, who perished at this epoch in greater numbers than the other sex. Madame Dubarri, for- merly mistress of Louis XV., the Duchess de Gram- mont, and others, were guillotined. One day saw a troop of girls going to the scaffold for having made an offensive cockade, or carolled an imprudent air ; the next, an estabhshment of nuns, or a crowd of poor peasant women from La Vendee, such as Riouffe describes, tied and heaped in carts, like calves, and Ignorant of their guilt and their fate, stupified with fear, as they went to slaughter. The Princess Eliza- beth, sister of Louis XVI,, made at this time one of a devoted batch, and perished almost unnoticed. * Death was already descending from the upper to the lower classes of society. We find at this period on the band !'— and then, turning to her judges, she added, ' In departing from this world, in which nothing now remains to engage my affec- tions, I am far less the object of pity than you are.' — Previous to going to the scaffold she dressed herself with uncommon attention and taste. Her head-dress was peculiarly elegant ; a white gauze handkerchief, partly covering her beautiful black hair, added to the clearness and brilliancy of her complexion. Being come to the foot of the scaffold, she ascended the steps with resignation and even un- affected pleasure. She received the fatal blow without appearing to have regarded what the executioner was doing."— Du Broca. * " The Princess Elizabeth appeared before her judges with a placid countenance, and listened to the sentence of death with una- bated firmness. As she passed to the place of execution, her hand- kerchief fell from her neck, and exposed her in this situation to the eyes of the multitude. ' In the name of modesty I entreat you to cover my bosom,' she exclaimed to the executioner."— I)a Broca. THE REIGN OF TERROR. 243 list of the Revolutionary Tribunal, tailors, shoemakers, hair-dressers, butchers, farmers, publicans, nay, even laboring men, condemned for sentiments and language held to be counter-revolutionary.* For example, we enumerate a few from the General List of the Con- demned. Jean Julien, wagoner, having been sentenced to twelve years' hard labor, took it into his head to cry '^ Vive le Roi !" He was brought back before the tri- bunal and condemned to death, September, 1792. Jean Baptiste Hem-y, aged eighteen, journeyman tailor, convicted of having sawed a tree of liberty ; executed the 6th of September, 1793. Bernard Augustin D'Absac, aged fifty-one, ex-noble, late captain in the 11th regiment, and formerly in the sea-service, convicted of having betrayed several towns and several ships into the hands of the enemy, condemned to death on the 10th of January, 1794, and executed the same day. Stephen Thomas Ogie Baulny, aged forty-six, ex- noble, convicted of having entrusted his son, aged fourteen, to a life-guard, in order that he might emi- grate. Condemned to death, 31st of January, 1794, and executed the same day. Henriette Frangoise de Marhceuf, aged fifty-five, widow of the ci-devant Marquis de Marboeuf, residing at No. 47 rue St. Honore, in Paris, convicted of having hoped for the arrival of the Austrians and Prussians, and of keeping provisions for them. Condemned 5th of February, 1794 ; executed same day. Jacques de Baume, a Dutch merchant, convicted of being the author and accomplice of a plot which existed in the month of June, 1790. Executed 14th of February, 1794. Jacques Duchesne, aged sixty, formerly a servant, since a broker ; Jean Sauvage, aged thirty-four, gun- smith ; Frangoise Loizelier, aged forty-seven, milliner ; Melanie Cunosse, aged twenty-one, milliner; Marie * Thiers. 244 THE REIGN OF TERROR. Magdalene Virolle, aged twenty-five, female hair- dresser ;— convicted of having, in the city of Paris, where they resided, composed writings, stuck up bills, and pousse de cris — all condemned to death 5th of May, 1794 ; executed same day. Genevieve Gouvon, aged seventy-seven, seamstress, convicted of having been the author and accomplice of various conspiracies formed since the beginning of the Revolution by the enemies of the people and of liberty, tending to create civil war, to paralyze the public, and to annihilate the existing government. Condemned May 11th, 1793 ; executed same day. Frangois Bertrand, aged thirty-seven, tinman and publican at Leure, convicted of having furnished to the defenders of the country sour wine injurious to the health of the citizens; condemned at Paris, May 15th, 1793 ; executed same day. Marie Angelique Plaisant, convicted of having ex- claimed that she was an Aristocrat, and " A fig for the nation !" Condemned 19th of July, 1794 ; executed the same day. Such were the crimes for which p'ersons were arrested, convicted and executed; and no wonder the prisons were filled, and the death-carts daily rumbling through the streets of Paris and the other cities of France. In fact, the inhabitants of Paris, through which these daily processions passed, became at length disgusted, and dared to show it by shutting up their shops. The guillotine was, in consequence, removed to the opposite extremity of Paris, not however, relax- ing its activity. During the four months, says Mignet, which succeeded the fall of Danton's party, the com- mittees exercised their power without opposition and without restraint. Death became the sole means of government, and the republic was a system of daily executions. — Robespierre was now considered by the Jacobins as the greatest man of his age. He became the general object of the flattery of his party ; no- thing was spoken of but his virtue, his genius, his eloquence. THE REIGN OF TERROR. 245 From the farthest extremities of France, crowds of prisoners daily arrived at the gates of the Concier- gerie, which successively sent forth its bands of vic- tims to the scaffold. Gray hairs and youthful forms ; countenances blooming with health, and faces worji with suffering; beauty and talent, rank and virtue, were indiscriminately rolled to the fatal doors. Sixty persons often arrived in a day. Night and day the carts incessantly discharged victims into the prison ; weeping mothers and trembling orphans were thrust in with the brave and the powerful. Sixty or eighty persons were daily sent forth to execution. An aque- duct was dug to carry off the blood and gore from the guillotine, and four men were daily employed in emptying the blood of the victims into a reservoir. At three o'clock each afternoon, the tumbrils, with their victims, set out from the Conciergerie, slowly passing through the vaulted passages of the prison, amidst crowds of captives, gazing on the aspect of those about to undergo a fate which might so soon become their own. The higher orders, in general, behaved with firmness and serenity ; silently they rode to death, with their eyes turned upward in prayer. Numbers of the lower class piteously be- wailed their fate, calling upon heaven and earth to witness their innocence. Women, overcome with fright and horror, died on the way, and their lifeless remains were guillotined ; one kept her infant to her bosom till she reached the foot of the scaffold, where the executioner tore the innocent babe from her breast as she suckled it for the last time, and the screams of maternal agony were only stifled with her life ; one woman, as she was being removed, declared herself upon the point of child-birth, but was compelled to move on, in doing which she fell upon the ground of the court-yard, and was delivered of an infant in the presence of the jailers.* Such accumulated horrors annihilated all the chari- * Alison ; Riouffe. 22* 246 THE REIGN OF TERROR. ties and intercourse of life. Before daybreak the shops of the provision sellers were besieged by crowds of women and children, clamoring for the food which the law of the maximum, in general, prevented them from obtaining. The farmers trembled to bring their pro- duce to market, the shopkeeper to expose them to sale. The richest quarters of the town were deserted; no equipages or crowds of passengers were to be seen on the streets ; the sinister words " National Pro- perty," imprinted in large characters on the walls, everywhere showed how far the work of confiscation had proceeded. Passengers hesitated to address their most intimate friends when they met ; the extent of calamity had rendered men suspicious even of those they loved best. Every one assumed the coarsest dress and most squalid appearance; an elegant ex- terior would have been the certain forerunner of des- truction. At one hour only were any symptoms of animation seen ; it was when the victims were con- veyed to execution — the humane flying in horror from the sight — the Jacobins rushing in crowds to satiate their eyes with human agony.* Night came, but with it no diminution of the anxiety of the people. Every family assembled its members ; with trembling looks they gazed round the room, fearful that the very walls might harbor spies and informers. The sound of a foot, the stroke of a hammer, a voice in the streets, froze all hearts with terror. If a knock was heard at the door, every one, in agonized suspense, expected his fate. Unable to endure such protracted misery, numbers committed suicide, and " had the reign of Robespierre continued much longer," says Freron, "multitudes would have thrown themselves under the guillotine, for the first of social affections, the love of life, was already extinguished in almost every heart." Robespierre at this period conceived the idea of reversing the profanities of the Worship of Reason, by ♦Alison; Lacretelle; Thiers; Riouffe. THE REIGN OF TERROR. 247 professing a public belief in the existence of a Supreme Being; and made speeches to counteract the notion that, in proclaiming the acknowledgment of a Deity, he was labouring for the benefit of the priests. " What is there in common between the priests and God ]" he exclaimed. " The priests are to morahty what quacks are to medicine ! How different is the God of Nature from the God of the priests ! I know nothing that so nearly resembles atheism as the rehgions which they have framed. By grossly misrepresenting the Deity, they have annihilated belief in him as far as lay in their power. They have created him after their own image; they have made him jealous, capricious, greedy, cruel, and implacable ; they have treated him as the mayors of the palace formerly treated the de- scendants of Clovis, in order to reign in his name and put themselves in his place ; they have confined him in heaven as in a palace, and have called him on earth only to demand of him their own interest, tithes, wealth, honors, pleasures and power. The real temple of the Supreme Being is the universe ; his worship, virtue ; his festivals, the joy of a great nation, assembled in his presence to knit closer the bonds of universal frater- nity, and to pay him the homage of intelligent and pure hearts." He succeeded in getting a decree passed, to the effect that the French nation recognized the existence of a Supreme Being, and that a great festival should take place on the 8th of June following. He was at this time, too, exalted higher than ever in the opinions of the Jacobins by an attempt (as it was construed) to assassinate him. A young girl, by the name of Cecile Regnault, whose father lived in Paris and carried on the busi- ness of a paper-maker, called at Robespierre's resi- dence (or rather at the house of the cabinet-maker, Duplaix, in whose family he was domesticated,* in * " Duplaix had a wife and three daughters, who were all flattered by the presence of the great popular leader. Domiciled in this 248 THE REIGN OP TERROR. the Rue St Honore, on the 23d of May, and asked to see him, urgently insisting to be admitted. From the strange air of this young female, suspicions were con- ceived; she was seized and delivered over to the police. She had a bundle under her arm, which was found to contain some clothes and two knives. It was instantly surmised that, emulous of Charlotte Corday, she intended to murder Robespierre. Taken before the Committee of Public Safety, she was ques- tioned as to her business with Robespierre. Her reply was that she wanted to see how a tyrant looked. She was then asked for what purpose the clothes and knifes were. She answered that she had not intended to make any particular use of the knives ; that, as for the clothes, she had provided herself with them be- cause she expected to be carried to prison, and from prison to the guillotine. She added that she was a royalist, because she would rather have one king than fifty thousand. She was urged to answer further questions, but refused, and desired to be conducted to the scaffold. She was condemned by the Revolution- ary Tribunal, and her whole family with her, together with many others. Not less than fifty-four were exe- cuted with her, as accomplices, each covered with a red shirt. A strong guard accompanied the carts, and there was much parade made to gratify the vanity of Robespierre; rumors of plots and con- spiracies against his life were industriously circulated, and congratulations poured into him from the Jaco- bins ; in the Convention it was proposed to grant him family, Robespierre sought no other society, and gave all his private hours to this humble circle. Duplaix himself received his reward in being appointed one of the jurors of the Revolutionary Tribunal, a place of power and emolument. Madame Duplaix became con- spicuous as one of those women who were in the habit of daily sit- ting with their needle-work around the scaffold of the guillotine. The eldest daughter, EUnore, aspired to captivate Robespierre ; she endeavoured to become his wife, and ended in passing, in the opinion of her neiglibours, as his mistress. She and her sisters, and other companions, used to sit at the windows to see the loads of victims who passed every day to the scaffold." — Quarterly Review^ THE REIGN OF TERROR. 249 a life-guard for the protection of a person so invalu- able to the nation ! Cecile Regnault behaved on the scaffold with the firmness of Charlotte Corday. She embraced her relations, exhorting them to die with constancy. * A similar attempt was made upon the life of Collot d'Herbois, by a man by the name of Ladmiral ; a short stout man, fifty years of age, who lodged in the same house with d'Herbois, in the Rue Favart. It appears that he had formed the design to assassinate one of the leading tyrants of the day, and his mind had some- times wavered between Robespierre, and d'Herbois. He had finally made up his mind to despatch the latter, and on the 22nd of May, waited the whole day in the gallery adjoining the Committee room. Intending to shoot him there. Not meeting with a chance to put his design in execution, he returned home and posted himself on the stair-case. About midnight Collot came in and passed up towards his apartment. " Sceleret !" exclaimed Ladmiral, pointing his pistol, but it merely snapped. He pointed it again, but it again missed fire. A third time he was more succes- ful, but the bullet escaped d'Herbois and hit the wall. By the flash, Collot recognized his fellow-lodger. A desperate scuflje ensued, and Collot cried murder. A passing patrole hurried into the house. Ladmiral ran up stairs to his own room, where he fastened himself in. He was followed by the patrole, who threatened to break open the door. Ladmiral declared he was armed, and that he would fire upon any one who dared to approach near him. A crowd collected, and the door was forced. Ladmiral fired a musket and killed a locksmith who was the first to advance. He was secured and conducted to prison. Upon his trial he was asked who had instigated him to commit this crime. He replied that it was not a crime, but a service which he had meant to render his country ; that he alone had conceived the design, and his only * Thiers ; Mignet ; Lacretelle ; Du Broca. 250 THE REIGN OF TERROR. regret was that he had not succeeded. He was executed. The spirit that prompted these two attempts was gradually manifesting itself, notwithstanding the pop- ularity of Robespierre and his colleagues with the Jacobins. The loss of friends by the guillotine filled many with this feehng of mingled despair and desire of revenge, and in desperation, they were willing to meet death if the opportunity presented itself to effect that of the tyrants. The 8th of June was the day of the festival in honor of the Supreme Being. The getting up of this affair had been confided to David, the painter.* Vast pre- parations had been made; the festival was to be magnificent. On the morning of the 8th, the sun shone forth in all his brightness. Robespierre ap- peared in the Convention, in a sky-blue coat, white silk vest embroidered with silver, black silk breeches, white silk stockings, and shoe buckles of gold. His hair was frizzled, powdered, and adorned with a bunch of feathers ; in his hand he held, as did all the represen- tatives, a bouquet of flowers and wheat-ears. In his countenance, usually so gloomy, beamed a cheerful- ness that was uncommon to him. He marched at the head of the Convention, fifteen feet in advance, sur- rounded with a volunteer body guard, " fierce patriots with feruled sticks." * " James Louis David, a celebrated French painter, born in Paris, 1750. Before the Revolution he had acquired fame as an artist. Upon the trial of the King, he voted for his death, and became one of the wildest idolaters of Robespierre and Marat. Nor did his Jacobin- ical feelings cool for some years after the fall of these men. He was unquestionably one of the first of French painters, and this conside- ration had some weight in obtaining his pardon in 1794, when he was accused of being a Terrorist. In 1800, however, Bonaparte ap- pointed him painter to the government, and David seems to have thenceforth manifested no repugnance in seeing supreme power in the hands of a single individual. On the restoration of the Bourbons, he was banished from France in 1816, and died at Brussels in De- cember 1825. In personal appearance, it is said he was hideously ugly." — BiogTophie Moderne. THE REIGN OP TERROR. 251 In the centre of the garden of the Tuilleries an am- phitheatre had been erected, opposite to which were statues representing Atheism, Discord and Selfishness, destined to be burned by the hands of Robespierre. The amphitheatre was to be occupied by the Conven- tion ; and on the right and left were several groups of boys, men, aged persons, and females. The boys wore wreaths of violets, the youths of myrtle, the men of oak, the people of ivy and olive. The women held their daughters by the hand, and carried baskets of flowers. As soon as the Convention had taken its place, the ceremony was opened with music. " Re- publican Frenchmen," said Robespierre, " the ever fortunate day which the French people dedicated to the Supreme Being has at length arrived. Never did the world, which he created, exhibit a spectacle so worthy of his attention. He has beheld tyranny, crime, and imposture reigning upon earth. He be- holds at this moment a whole nation assailed by all the oppressors of mankind, suspending the course of its heroic labors, to lift its thoughts and its prayers towards the Supreme Being, who gave it the mission to undertake and the courage to execute them !" He then descended from the amphitheatre, and with a torch set fire to the figures, Atheism, Discord and Selfishness. From amidst their ashes arose the statue of Wisdom ; but it did not escape notice that it was blackened by the flames from which it issued. Robes- pierre returned to his place, and delivered a second speech. After which the Convention set out in pro- cession for the Champs-de-Mars. The pride of Robes- pierre seemed redoubled ; he walked still in advance, and some keen sarcasms were flung at him from the crowd. He was called the new Pontiff, and laughed at ; the word " tyrant" was occasionally heard, and exclamations that there were " still Brutuses for a Caesar," The day concluded with fireworks and public diver- sions; it was a day on which Robespierre had at- tained the summit of his honors, but he had attained 252 THE REIGN OF TERROR, the summit only to be hurled from it. Everybody had been hurt by his pride. The sarcasms had reached his ear, and he had observed in some of his colleagues a boldness that was unusual. Billaud-Va- rennes and Collot d'Herbois appeared extremely cold in their manner towards him.* Barrere, Tallien, Bourdon, Fouche, Lecointre, Freron and Barras, se- cretly hated him, but feared his power,and were of the same sentiments in regard to the danger they stood in. After this, violent debates took place in the Con- vention, and, as suspicions and jealousy began to be entertained of Robespierre, he was thwarted at every turn in the decrees which he desired to pass. In the Committee, too, his wishes encountered the same oppo- sition. He, indignant at this resistance, resolved to secede from the committe, and take no further part in its deliberations, f He did so, and his absence gave the members of the committee more occasion to differ among themselves, and those who were the enemies of Robespierre more opportunity to cabal against him. He took refuge in the Jacobin club, where his parasites and partizans thronged around him. At the club he spoke against such members of the Conven- tion as were hostile to him ; and they, desperate be- cause they knew he spared no man in his vengeanfce, prepared on the first signal of attack to oppose him with vigor. It was now a month that Robespierre had absented himself from the committee. He gathered around him all his power at the Jacobin club. Billaud-Varennes, d'Herbois, and Barrere, took the direction of the national affairs into their own hands. They con- cealed all their operations, as much as possible from * "Robespierre conceived the idea of celebrating a festival in honor of the Suprerne Being, flattering himself doubtless, with being able to rest his political ascendancy on a religion arranged according to his own notions. But, in the procession of this impious festival, he bethought himself of walking first, in order to mark his pre-emi- nence, and from that moment he was lost." — Madame de Stacl. t Thiera THE REIGN OP TERROR. 253* Couthon, who, not having withdrawn like Robespierre, watched them attentively and annoyed them much. At the Jacobin meetings, Robespierre continued to harangue, and to get his old friends of the Mountain expelled from the club ; Billaud, d'Herbois, Fouche, and others, one after another, were thus excluded from membership, and consequently became openly hostile to him. Thus the storm roared daily more and more, and the horizon on all sides grew overcast with clouds. Both sides complained of each other with great acrimony. Robespierre in dread of assassi- nation, never went out doors without being accom- panied by his body guard of Jacobins, armed with bludgeons. In the meanwhile his particular friend, St. Just, who had been absent on a mission to the army, arrived in Paris. * He was apprized by Robes- pierre of the state of affairs. His maxim was to strike quickly and forcibly. "Z>are.'" said he — " that's the secret of revolutions .'" The Jacobins were accordingly worked up to a proper pitch ; Fleuriot, the mayor, Henriot, the commandant of the armed force, Cofinhal, the judge, and Payen, the procureur, were all in the interest of Robespierre, ready to do his bidding, and an insurrection was resolved upon. For some time past Robespierre had been preparing a voluminous speech ; on the 26th of July he repaired to the Convention to deliver it. It was a long and laboured declamation in defence of himself, and accu- satory of those who had opposed him. In silence he * " St. Just was austere in his manners, like Robespierre, but more enthusiastic. He exhibited the true features of gloomy fanaticism ; a regular visage, dark and lank hair, a penetrating and severe look, a melancholy expression of countenance ; simple and unostentatious in his habits, austere in private life, and indefatigable in public, he was the most resolute, because the most sincere, orall his colleagues. He was one of those, who, filled with visionary aspirations, think that good is always to be worked out of evil, and are ready to sacri- fice themselves and the whole world to any scheme they have set their minds upon. Steeled against every sentiment of pity, he de- manded the execution of victims in the same manner as the supply of armies." — Alison; Hazlitt. 23 254 THE REIGN OP TERROR. began it, in silence he concluded it. He found he had no longer a party in the Convention. He was sur- prised, vexed, and dejected. He hurried away to his trusty Jacobins, to meet his friends and borrow cour- age from them. No sooner did he appear among them than he was greeted with applause. He was requested to read the speech he had just delivered at the Convention. He complied, and took up two hours in repeating it, interrupted every moment by frenzied shouts and plaudits. " This speech which you have just heard," said he, " is my last will and testament. The league of the wicked is so strong that I cannot hope to escape. I fkll without regret ; I leave you my memory; it will be dear to you, and you will defend it." His friends cried out for him not to despair, that they would yet defend him. Henriot, Cofinhal, Dumas, and Payen, surrounded him and declared they were quite ready to act. " Then separate the wicked from the weak," said Robespierre ; " deliver the Convention from the villains who oppress it ; render it the service which it expects of you, as on the 31st of May and on the 2nd of June. March, and once more save lib- erty! If, in spite of all these efforts, we must fall, why then, my friends, you shall see me drink hemlock with composure." "And I," exclaimed David, the artist, catching Robespierre by the hand, in rapture at his eloquence, " will drink the cup with thee." Payen, the national agent, proposed a bold plan. He said that all the conspirators (that is, the opponents of Robespierre) were at that moment assembled, and that they ought to go and secure them. Robespierre ob- jected to this scheme ; St. Just, he said, was to make a report next morning in the Convention ; he, Robes- pierre, would again speak, and, if they should then be unsuccessful in carrying their point of expelling the obnoxious deputies — the magistrates of the people, assembling in the meanwhile at the Hotel-de-Ville, and supported by the armed force of the sections under Henriot, must declare that the people had resumed their THE REIGN OP TERROR. 255 authority, and proceed to deliver the Convention from the villains who were misleading it. Such was his plan. It was agreed to. The meeting broke up. During that night there was agitation in all quarters. What had passed at the Jacobin club, was speedily made known to the committees ; the members of the Convention ran to each other's houses, and, knit to- gether by the common danger which threatened them, agreed to attack Robespierre in a more formal manner on the following day, and to obtain a decree of accusa- tion against him if possible. Tallien agreed to make the first attack, and only desired that the others would have the courage to follow him.* It was the 27th of July. Early in the morning, the deputies hastend to the Convention. Fleuriot, the mayor, and Payen, the national agent, were at the Hotel-de-Ville. Henriot was on horseback, with his aides-de-camp, riding through the streets of Paris. The Jacobins, at their club, had commenced a permanent sitting. At the Convention, the deputies were tumultu- ously pacing the passages and corridors, talking earnestly together, encouraging each other, and ad- dressing those who had not yet declared their senti- ments with vehemence to decide with them in their opposition to Robespierre. It was half past seven o'clock. Tallien was speaking to his colleagues at one of the doors of the hall, when he saw St. Just enter and ascend the tribune. " This is the moment," said Tallien ; " let us go in." They followed him ; the benches filled. St. .Tust was in the tribune. The two Robespierres, Lebas, and Couthon, were seated beside one another.! Collot-d'Herbois occupied the chair. St. Just set out with asserting that he was of no fac- tion ; that he belonged only to truth ; that the tribune * Thiers. t " When St. Just mounted the tribune, Robespierre took his sta- tion on the bench directly opposite, to intimidate his adversaries by his look. His knees trembled ; the color fled from his lips as he as- cended to his seat ; the hostile appearance of the Assembly already gave him an anticipation of his fate." — Alison. 256 THE REIGN OF TERROR. might perhaps prove the Tarpeian rock to him, but that he should nevertheless give his opinion without reserve concerning the dissensions which had broken out. " I am about " said he " to lift the veil — " " I tear it asunder," exclaimed Tallien, interrupting him. " The public interest is sacrificed by individuals, who come hither to speak exclusively in their own name, and conduct themselves as superior to the whole Convention." Billaud-Varennes spoke. He said that the Jacobins had the preceding evening held a sedi- tious meeting, which was attended by hired murder- ers, who avowed a design of slaughtering the Conven- tion. He maintained that St. Just had no right to speak in the name of the committees, because he had not communicated his report to them ; that this was the moment for the Assembly to be firm, for it must perish if it showed any weakness. " No ! no !" cried the deputies, weaving their hats ; " it will not be weak ; it shall not perish !" Billaud continued, and said that Robespierre had always sought to control the committees; that he always had done just what he pleased, and designed to make himself absolute master. He went on to enu- merate many acts of Robespierre, and, v/hile he was detailing these, bursts of indignation escaped from the members, and Robespierre, livid with rage, rushed from his seat and ascended the steps of the tribune. Posted behind Billaud, he demanded of the president, with extreme violence, permission to speak. He seized the moment when Billaud had finished, to renew his demand with still greater vehemence. " Down with the tyrant ! down with the tyrant !" was shouted from all parts of the hall. This accusing cry proclaimed that the Convention dared at length to give him the name which he deserved. While he was persisting, Tallien, who had darted to the tribune, claimed permission to speak again, and obtained it. " Just now," said he, " I desired that the veil might be thrown off; I perceive that it is. The conspirators are unmasked. I knew that my life was THE REIGN OF TERROR. 257 threatened, and hitherto have kept silence ; but yes- terday I attended the sitting of the Jacobins, I saw the army of the new Cromwell formed, I trembled for my country, and I armed myself with a dagger, resolved to plunge it into his bosom, if the Convention had not the courage this day day to pass a decree of accusa- tion !" As he finished these words, Tallien exhibited his dagger, and was greeted with loud applause Robes- piel*re reiterated his demand to be heard ; turning first to the president, then to the Convention, but his voice was drowned in clamourous cries of " Down ! down with the tyrant !" Deputy after deputy rose, and de- nounced him. Henriot and Dumas were decreed con- spirators, and a vote was carried for their immediate ap- prehension. Robespierre, choked with rage and foam- ing at the mouth, interrupted Tallien with furious cries, passing from his place to the tribune, to and fro, like a chafed lion in his cage, " Arrest ! accusation !" shout- ed a great number of the deputies. " Yes ! yes !" re- plied a hundred voices. The younger Robespierre cried out, " I share the crimes of my brother ; let me share his fate." His voice was scarcely noticed. " The arrest! the arrest!" was still shouted. Robespierre continued his demand to be heard, but the president answered him only by ringing the bell ; and, turning towards the Mountain, he saw only cool friends or fu- rious enemies. He next turned towards the Plain. " To you," said he, — " pure men, virtuous men, I address myself, and not to ruffians." They turned away their faces, or used threatening gestures at him. Once more he addressed the president. " For the last time, president of assassins, I ask to be heard." He uttered the concluding words in a faint and stifled voice. " The blood of Danton chokes thee !" cried a voice.* * " while the vaults of the hall echoed with exclamations from those who had hitherto been his accomplices — the former flatterers and followers of this dethroned demagogue — he himself, breathless, foaming, exhausted, tried in vain to raise those screeching notea 23* 258 THE REIGN OF TERROR. The arrest, so generally called for, was put to the vote, and decreed amidst tremendous uproar. The members shouted, waving their hats, " Liberty for- ever ! The Republic forever ! The tyrants are no more !" In the arrest of Robespierre was included that of his brother, Augustin Robespierre, Couthon, St. Just, and Lebas. The accused still remained in their seats. " To the bar ! to the bar !" was the cry, and the five of them went down; Robespierre furious, St. Just calm and contemptuous, the others thunderstruck at this humiliation so new to them. They were sent off to the committee of Public Safety, and the Assembly broke up at five o'clock.* During this stormy contest, the partizans of Robes- pierre had continued collecting at the hall of the Jaco- bins and at the Hotel-de-Ville. They expected that he would be victorious in the Convention, and that the armed force would only be called on to support its decrees. At half-past four, intelligence circulated through Paris of the arrest of Robespierre and his accomplices. Henriot immediately mounted his horse, and with drawn sabre, at the head of his staff, traversed the streets, exclaiming " To arms to save the country !" He was intoxicated at the time ; he rocked upon his horse and flourished his sabre like a maniac. He first galloped to the fauxbourg St. Antoine, to rouse the working-people of that quarter ; they scarcely com- by which the Convention had heretofore been terrified and put to silence. We have been told that Robespierre's last audible vs^ords, contending against the exclamations of hundreds and the bell which the president was incessantly ringing, and uttered in the highest tones which despair could give to a voice naturally shrill and discor- dant, dwelt long on the memory, and haunted the dreams, of many who heard him."— Scott. " Dispirited by so many repulses, Robes- pierre returned to his seat, and sunk back, exhausted with passion and fatigue- His mouth foamed ; his voice grew thick. He was ar- rested amidst shouts of joy, and, as he went out, said, in the hollow accents of despair, ' The republic is lost, the brigrands triumph!"* Mignet. * Theirs; Mignet; Lacretelle. THE REIGN OF TERROR. . 259 prehended what he meant, and had besides begun to pity the victims whom they daily saw passing to the scaffold. Too much blood had sickened their hearts, and they had also awoke to the conviction that their domestic condition was none the better from the spil- ling of it. On his course through the fauxbourg, he met the carts with their daily victims. The arrest of Robespierre being known, these carts were sur- rounded, and an effort was made to turn them back. Henriot interposed, and by his brute power caused this last batch of unfortunates to be guillotined. There were eighty of them. He then returned, still at full gallop, and at the Luxembourg ordered the gend- armerie to assemble. Taking with him a detachment of these, he dashed along the quays, intending to proceed to the Place du Carrousel, and to deliver his arrested friends, who were before the Committee of Public Safety. As he galloped along the quays, he threw down several persons. A man, who had his wife on his arm, called out to the gendarmes, "Ar- rest that ruffian ; he is no longer your general !" An aide-de-camp replied by a cut with his sword. Hen- riot proceeded, dashing through the Rue St. Honore, and, on reaching the Palais-Royal, perceiving Merlin of Thionville (one of the deputies,) he made up to him, shouting "Arrest that scoundrel! he is one of those who persecute the faithful representatives." Merlin was seized, maltreated, and taken to the nearest guard-house. Henriot, brandishing his sabre, swaying upon his horse, and calling upon the people to rise in arms, continued his rapid course, and arri- ving at the courts of the National Palace, (the Tuil- leries) made his companions alight, and endeav^oured to penetrate into the building. The grenadiers refused him admittance, and crossed their bayonets. At this moment a messenger advanced and said, "Gend- armes, arrest that rebel ; a decree of the Convention orders you to do so." Henriot was immediately sur- rounded and disarmed, together with several of his aides-de-camp ; they were pinioned and conducted to (260) THE REIGN OF TERKOR. 261 the hall of the Committee, and placed beside the Robes- pierres, Couthon, St. Just, and Lebas.* But the insurgents regained their advantage between six and seven o'clock, in consequence of the dispersion of the Assembly and the energetic measures of the municipality. Robespierre and his accomplices had been carried off to different prisons, while Henriot was detained before the Committee. The municipahty despatched orders to the different jailers not to detain Robespierre and his arrested friends, at the same time sending detachments to rescue them. Cofinhal, with two hundred cannoniers, hastened to the hall of the Committee, and rescued Henriot, who hurried to the National Palace, where he found his horses still wait- ing ; he leaped upon one of them, and, with great presence of mind, told the companies of the sections and the artillery men about him that the Committee had just declared him innocent and reinstated him in his command. The men rallied around him, and, fol- lowed by a considerable force, he began to give orders against the Convention, and to prepare for besieging the hall, in which the members had now tumultuously reassembled. " Representatives ! the moment is come for dying at our post," said CoUot-d'Herbois, taking his seat in the chair, which, from the arrangements of the hall, must have received the first balls. Henriot was still issuing orders outside. " Outlaw him ! outlaw the ruffian !" cried several of the deputies, which was instantly decreed, and some of the deputies went out and pro- claimed it to the gunners. " Fire !" exclaimed Henriot. " Gunners, will you disgrace yourselves," cried the deputies—" that ruffian is outlawed !" The deputies prevailed, and Henriot's command was disobeyed. His men abandoned him, and he had but barely time to turn his horse's head and seek refuge at the Hotel-de-Ville. * Thiers. 262 THE REIGN OF TERROR. The Convention next outlawed the deputies who had withdrawn themselves from its decrees, and all the members of the municipality who were engaged in the insurrection. They next appointed Barras, (one of their members,) commandant of the armed force, and *sent certain members of their own body throughout the sections to rouse the people in defence of the Con- vention. Barras ordered the generale to be beat, and formed his battalions together. Whilst this was doing, the tocsin was sounding at the Hotel-de-Ville. It sum- moned the citizens thither, whilst the generale called them to the Convention, and Paris was soon in the most violent state of agitation.* In the interim, Robespierre, and the other arrested deputies, had been rescued from prison, and had arrived at the Hotel-de-Ville. When he appeared, his faithful Jacobins embraced him, loaded him with de- monstrations of attachment, and swore to die in his defence. Messengers from both parties arrived at the different sections, calling upon the National Guard, which got under arms, but, distracted and uncertain, hesitated to obey the summons of the municipality, in consequence of the report of Robespierre's arrest. Meanwhile the news of this arrest shot a ray of hope through the minds of numerous proscribed individuals, who were in concealment in the city. With trembling steps they issued from their hiding-places, and, ap- proaching the columns of their fellow-citizens, be- sought them, with tears and pathetic language, to assist in dethroning the tyrant. The minds of many were already won by the persuasion of the deputies to the side of the Convention, those of all Were in a state of uncertainty, when, at ten o'clock, the feeling was such, the battalions marched towards the Conven- tion, and defiled through the hall in the midst of en- thusiastic applause. At midnight above three thousand men had arrived. " The moments are precious," said Freron ; " the time for action has come ; let us in- * Thiers ; Lacretelle ; Alison. THE REIGN OP TERROR. 263 stantly march against the rebels; we will summon them, in the name of the Convention, to deliver up the traitors, and, if they refuse, we will lay the Hotel-de- Ville in ashes." — " Depart," said Tallien, " and let not the rising sun shine on one of the conspirators in life." The order was promptly obeyed; a few battalions and pieces of artillery were left to guard the Conven- tion, and the remainder of the forces, under command of Barras, marched at midnight against the insur- gents, who, at the Hotel-de-Ville, were anxiously awaiting expected reinforcements of the national guard. The night was dark ; a feeble moonlight only shone through the gloom ; but the forced illumination of the houses supplied a vivid hght, which shone on the troops, who, in profound silence and in serried masses, marched from the Tuilleries along the quays of the river towards the head-quarters of Robespierre and his supporters. The adherents of Robespierre consisted of the can- noniers and armed force commanded by Hen^iot, composed of Jacobins and the very lowest of the canaille. The Place-de-Greve, in front of the Hotel- de-Ville, was filled with them, and bristled with bayo- nets and pikes. But their courage was much shaken by the non-appearance of any support from the national guard ; the working men of St. Antoine and St. Marceau had not come; and when the light of torches discovered the national uniform appearing in opposition at all the avenues leading to the square, and ten pieces of artillery pointed against them, the cannoniers no longer felt the disposition to support Robespierre and the municipality, whilst the Jacobin rabble deserted to their homes and obscurity. Henriot, Robespierre, Couthon, St. Just, Lebas, and the con- spirators were inside the Hotel, sitting in council, filled with not a little dismay. Henriot, hearing the shout that was raised when the cannoniers wheeled into the ranks of the Convention, descended the stair of the Hotel to harangue the gunners, but, finding the square 264 THE REIGN OP TERROR. deserted, he vented execrations, and stumbled back with this intelligence to the council. Despair overwhelmed the conspirators. They found themselves abandoned by their troops and surrounded on all sides by those of the Convention. Cofinhal, an energetic man, who had been ill-seconded, enraged against Henriot, said to him, " It is thy cowardice, villain, that has undone us." He then rushed upon him, seized him by the waist, and threw him out of a window. The drunken Henriot fell upon a heap of filth, which prevented his fall from being mortal ; he contrived to crawl, bruised and mutilated, into the entrance of a sewer, from whence he was dragged out by the troops of the Convention. Cofinhal, and the younger Robespierre, leaped from a window into the court-yard, but survived their fall, and were secured on the spot. Lebas blew his brains out with a pistol. Couthon attempted to put an end to his existence by stabbing himself, but failed, and crept under a table, from which he was dragged out by the national guards, who had now rushed up the stairs and broken into the room. St. Just continued calm and immova- ble, holding a pistol in his hand, but without using it. Robespierre had attempted to blow out his brains, but bungled in his suicidal attempt, and only broke his jaw. He was found upon the floor, at the foot of the table under which Couthon was lying. He and Couthon being supposed to be dead, were dragged down stairs by the heels and across the Place-de-Greve to the Quai Pellitier, where it was proposed to throw them into the river; but it being discovered, by the light of daybreak, that they still breathed, they were stretched on planks and carried to the Convention, around which cries of " The Constitution forever ! Down with the tyrants!" now shook the air. The Convention refused that they should be brought in, and they were then conveyed to the hall of the Committee, where the rest of the conspirators had already been secured. Robespierre was laid upon a table, (the same upon which he had signed the death-warrant of so many THE REIGN OF TERROR. 265 citizens,) with his jaw broken and bleeding. Some pieces of pasteboard were placed under his head. He had on a blue coat, the same that he wore at the festi- val of the Supreme Being, nankeen breeches, and white stockings; amidst the tumult, the latter had dropped down about his heels. The blood oozed from his wound, and he was staunching it with the sheath of a pistol. Sorrle persons around him handed to him from time to time bits of paper to wipe his face. In this state he remained several hours exposed to the curiosity and the abuse of a crowd of people.* When the surgeon came to dress his wound, he raised him- self up, got down from the table, and seated himself in an arm-chair. Without a murmur, he underwent a painful dressing. With the sulleness of humbled pride, he made no reply to any observation.! After his wound was dressed, he was conveyed, with the others, to the Conciergerie, where he was confined in the same cell which had been occupied by Danton, Hebert, and the different rivals that he had successively sent to the guillotine. The decree of outlawry rendered a trial superfluous ; It was sufficient to prove the identity. This was done, and at four o'clock, in the afternoon of the 28th of July, Fouquier Tinville sent them, to the number of twenty-one, to execution. An immense crowd filled the streets. Robespierre was placed on a cart between Henriot and Couthon, whose remains were as mutilated as his own. The blood from his jaw * " There stretched upon a table, with a bloody and disfigured countenance, subjected to the view, to the invectives, and curses of the spectators, he beheld the different parties rejoicing over his fall, and upbraiding him with all the crimes he had committed. He dis- played great insensibility to the excessive pain which he expe- rienced." — Mignet. t " It did not escape the minute observers of this scene, that he still held in his hand the bag which had contained the pistol, and which was inscribed with the words Axi Grand Monarque, alluding to the sign, doubtless, of the gunsmith who sold the weapon, but sin- gularly applicable to the high pretensions of the purchaser." — Montgaillard. 24 266 THE REIGN OF TERROR. burst through the bandage and overflowed his dress ; his face was ghastly pale. He kept his eyes closed, but could not shut his ears against the imprecations of the multitude. A woman, breaking from the crowd, sprung on the tumbril, clutching the side of it with one hand, and exclaiming, " The death of thee, Robespierre, gladdens my very heart! Sceleret, go down to Hell, covered with the curses of every wife and mother in France !" The horsemen, who escort- ed the carts, pointed to Robespierre with their swords, in order to designate him to the people who crowded the windows and house-tops to get a sight of the man whose name was associated with so much that was terrible. At the foot of the scaffold, they stretched him on the ground till his turn came. Of the twenty-one exe- cuted, he was the last. St. Just died with the courage which he had always exhibited. Couthon was de- jected. Henriot and the younger Robespierre were nearly dead from the effects of their wounds. Ap- plause accompanied every descent of the fatal blade. Among the twenty-one was Simon, the shoemaker, sans-culottic tutor of the Dauphin. Robespierre being lifted upon the scaffold, the executioner tore off his coat and the bandage from his jaw ; the jaw fell upon his breast, and he uttered a yell which froze every heart with momentary horror. Clank fell the blade of the guillotine, and a loud and continued shout filled the air, as it was announced that the tyrant was no more. General rejoicings now reigned throughout Paris. The prisons rang with songs ; people embraced one another in a species of intoxication, and paid as much as thirty francs for the newspapers containing an account of the events which had just happened; and though the Convention had not declared the system of terror abolished, it was considered as finished with Robespierre, to such a degree had he assumed to him- self all its horrors. * • Thiers; Mignet,etc THE REIGN OP TERROR. 267 Thus terminated the Reign of Terror — a period fraught with greater political instruction than any of equal duration which has existed since the beginning of the world. In no former period had the efforts of the people so completely triumphed, or the higher orders been so thoroughly crushed by the lower. The Revolution was good in its beginning, but the conduct of it fell into bad hands ; into the hands of men, who, consulting private ambition, instead of pub- lic welfare, laboured for their individual aggrandize- ment, overthrew each other, and, in their feuds, de- luged the country with blood. The good and the virtuous citizens of France, desirous of a Republic, beheld the spectacle of anarchy. Each successive con- vulsion had darkened the political atmosphere ; an- guish and suffering incessantly increased ; virtue and religion seemed banished from the earth ; relentless cruelty reigned triumphant. The bright dawn of the morning, to which so many millions of Frenchman had turned in thankfulness, was soon overcast, and darkness, deeper than midnight, overspread the coun- try. "But there is a point of depression in human affairs," says Hume, " from which the change is neces- sarily for the better." Whenever the tendency of institutions is erroneous, an under current begins to flow, destined to correct their imperfections; when they become destructive, it overwhelms them. The result of the conspiracy of Robespierre and the muni- cipality, proved that this point had been reached in the Reign of Terror. * It may be asked what would have happened had Robespierre been victorious. He must either have yielded to the general sentiment that demanded an end to the terror system, or have soon met the fate we have seen befall him. j " If he aimed at supreme power," says Mignet, " after having obtained it, modera- tion would have been necessary, and the system of terror, which ceased by his fall, would also have ceased with his triumph. In my opinion his destruction was in- * Alison. t Thiers. 268 THE REIGN OP TERROR. evitable;, he had no organized party; his friends, although numerous, were not enrolled in a body which could always act in concert ; he possessed only the great power derived from the principle of terror ; so that not being able to surprise his opponents by violence, like Cromwell, he endeavoured to overawe them. Fear not succeeding, he tried insurrection. But as the support of the Committees gave courage to the Convention, so the sections, relying for support on the strength of the Convention, naturally declared themselves against the insurgents." At the point at which Robespierre had arrived, a man wishes to be alone — hence he separated from the committee — he wished to reign by himself He was devoured by his passions, deceived by his hopes and by his fortune, which until then had been propitious; he declared hostility against his colleagues, and fell by the very means which had served to raise him. * Of the Terror of his Reign we may form a concep- tion, from the following extract from the lists of the numbers condemned by the Revolutionary Tribunal of Paris. 1793. April " May " June « July 9 victims. 9 14 « 13 « [Robespierre elected into the Committee of Public Safety.] (( n (( 1794. (( August September October November December January February March 5 16 60 including Brissot, etc. 53 73 83 75 123 including Hebert, etc. * Mignet. THE REIGN OP TERROR. 269 1794. April May " June July 263 including Danton, etc. 324 . 672 835 exclusive of Rob. and his accomplices. Of the number of persons who suffered throughout France during the Reign of Terror, we have the fol- iowmg account by Prudhomme. Nobles Noble women Wives of mechanics Religieuses Priests Persons, not noble 1,278 750 1,467 350 1,135 13,623 18,603 Guillotined by sentence of Revolutionary Tribunal. Women died of premature childbirth In childbirth from grief Women killed in La Vendee Children " « Men " « Victims at Lyons Victims at Nantes, under Carrier Of the latter were children shot — 500^ drowned— 1,500 women shot — 260 drowned — 504 priests shot— 300 priests drowned — 460 nobles « 1,400 mechanics " 5,300. Total, -18,603 3,400 348 15,000 22,000 900,000 31,000 32,000 > 1.022.351 In this enumeration are not comprehended the massa- 24* 270 THE REIGN OF TERROR. ere at Versailles, at the Abbaye, the Carmelites, or other prisons, in September 1792, the victims at Avignon, those shot at Toulon and Marseilles, or the persons slain in the little town of Bedoin, the whole population of which perished. No words can convey an idea of the impression which the overthrow of Robespierre produced in Eu- rope. The ardent and enthusiastic in every country had hailed the beginning of the French Revolution as the dawn of a brighter day in the political world, and in proportion to the warmth of their hopes had been the bitterness of their disappointment at the terrible shade by which it was so early darkened. The fall of the tyrant revived these hopes ; the moral laws of nature were felt to be still in operation ; the tyranny had only existed till it had purged the world of a guilty race, and then it was itself destroyed. The thoughtful admired the wisdom of Providence which had made the wickedness of men the instrument of their own destruction , the pious beheld in their fall an immediate manifestation of the Divine justice.* On the 30th of July, it was proposed in the Conven- tion, by Freron, " that we at length purge the earth of that monster, Fouquier-Tinville ; that he be sent to lick up in hell the blood which he has shed." The proposal was carried by acclamation, and the trial of Fouquier took place with extraordinary formality, and in the most public manner before the Revolutionary Tribunal. It developed all the injustice and oppression of that iniquitous court; the trial of sixty or eighty prisoners in one sitting of three or four hours; the inhuman stopping of any defence, and the atrocious celerity of the condemnation. He was condemned and fourteen of his jurymen along with him. When they were led out to execution, great was the indignation of the populace against them. Carrier, who, at Nantes, had been as terrible as Fou- quier at Paris, was also tried, condemned and exe- * Alison. THE REIGN OF TERROR. 271 cuted. Billaud-Varennes and Collot d'Herbois were banished from the Republic. The citizens of Paris, released from the terror which had hung over them, launched themselves into plea- sure, and the winter of 1794 was a season most bril- liant and gay in the saloons of fashion. The theatres became quite the rage. All the passages in plays that could be applied to the Reign of T^error were ap- plauded ; the air of the Reveil du Peuple was sung, the Marseillais Hymn proscribed. In the boxes ap- peared the belles and beauties of the time ; in the pit, the Gilded Youth or Jeunesse Doree, as they were termed, seemed to spite by their pleasures, dress and tastes, those coarse, sanguinary Terrorists who it was said wanted to stifle all civilization. "They have come out, the Gilt Youths, in a kind of resuscitated state; they wear crape round the left arm. They have suffered much ; their friends guillotined ; their pleasures, frolics, superfine collars, ruthlessly re- pressed. More, they carry clubs loaded with lead ; in an angry manner ; any remnants of Jacobinism they fall in with shall fare the worse. Down with Jacobin- ism ! No Jacobin hymn or demonstration ! We beat down Jacobinism with clubs loaded with lead." * The balls were attended with the same eagerness. There was one kind, says Thiers, at which no person was present who had not lost relatives during the Reign of Terror ; it was called the Ball of the Victims.f It had been the object of the Jacobins to establish their principles all through the world, and Citizen Genet was sent from France to the United States upon an errand to this effect in that country. The Mother Club was established at Philadelphia on the 3d of July, * Carlyle. t "Among the innumerable kind of balls, let the hasty reader mark only this single one, the kind they call Bals a Victime. The dancers in choice costume, have all crape around the left arm ; to be admitted it needs that you have lost a relative under the Terror. Peace to the Dead ; let us dance to their memory !" — Carlyle. 272 THE REIGN OF TERROR. 1793. The officers were David Riitenhouse, president ; William Coates, Charles Biddle* vice-presidents ; James Hutchinson, Alexander J. Dallas, f Michael Lieb, Jonathan Sergeant, David Jackson, committee of correspondence ; Israel Israel, treasurer ; and J. Porter, P. S. Duponceau, secretaries. The following account of Genet's arrival at Phila- delphia, and the cool reception he met from General Washington, is from the pen of the celebrated William Cobbett, published by him in 1796, at which time he was a bookseller in that city, and had a store in North Second street, opposite Christ Church. "On the 16th of May, [1793,] a salvo from the cannons of a frigate lying in the port, gave notice that Citizen Genet would soon be arrived at a place called Gray's Ferry, about three miles distant from the city. Thither all the patriotically disposed went to meet him, and escort him to his dwelling. For some time after his arrival, there was nothing but addressing him and feasting him. It may not be amiss to give an account of one of these treats ; the memory of such scenes should be preserved, and often brought to view. ' On Saturday last a republican dinner was given, at Oeller's hotel, to Citizen Genet, by a respectable number of French and American citizens. After dinner a number of patriotic toasts were drunk ; and after the third toast, an ele- gant ode, suited to the occasion, composed by a young Frenchman, was read by Citizen Duponceau, and universally applauded. After a short interval, the Marseillais Hymn was, upon the request of the citizens, sung by Citizen Bournonville, with great taste and spirit, the whole company joining in chorus. Two additional stanzas, composed by Citizen Genet, and suited to the navy of France, were then called for, sung, and encored. The table was decorated with the tree and cap of liberty, and with the French and American flags. The last toast being drunk, the cap * Father of the late Nicholas Biddle. t Father of Geo. M. Dallas, Vice President of the United States. THE REIGN OF TERROR. 273 of liberty was placed on the head of Citizen Genet, and then it travelled from head to head, [just as the guillotine has since travelled round France,] each wearer enlivening the scene with a patriotic senti- ment. These tokens of liberty, and of American and French fraternity, were delivered to the officers and mariners of the frigate L' Ambuscade, who promised to defend them till death.' On the very day that this liberty-cap feast took place, the citizen-minister was formally received, and acknowledged in his diplomatic capacity, by the President of the United States. There, indeed, his reception was not quite so warm. He after- wards complained that the first object that struck his eye [in Washington's parlor,] was a bust of Louis XVI. I never heard whether he started back or not, at the sight ; but it is certain he looked upon it as an ill omen. He saw that he had not to do with a man whose friendship shifted with the changes of fortune. He saw that the President had not been deceived by the calumnies heaped upon the King ; and that, though the welfare of his country induced him to receive an envoy from the Jacobins, he was far from approving of their deeds." * In Paris, after the Reign of Terror, the Jacobins, though subdued, were not put to rest ; they frequently displayed their insurrectionary spirit, and at their meetings continued to preach their doctrines. To counteract them, the Jeunesse Doree, or Gilt Youth, formed themselves into a powerful body, ever ready to combat the efforts of the Jacobins, and confirm the order which was beginning to prevail. Composed of the most respectable families in the capital, they almost all numbered a parent or relation among the victims of Terror, and had imbibed the utmost horror at its sanguinary excesses. To distinguish themselves from the rabble, they wore a particular dress, consist- ing of a coat without a collar, expressive of their con- nexion with those who had suffered by the guillotine. * Vide Cobbett's History of the American Jacobins 274 THE REIGN OF TERROR. Instead of arms, they carried short clubs, or canes, loaded with lead. Their contests in the Palais-Royal, in the garden of the Tuilleries, on the streets, in the theatres, and in all public places, were frequent, and they contributed by their exertions to confirm and direct the public mind. These youths, supported by the National Guard, finally marched against the Jaco- bin Club at one of its sittings, broke open its doors, and dispersed its members. The day after which the Convention put a seal on their papers, and terminated the existence of the club. [November 12th, 1794.] The progress of the Republic, from this period, pre- sents a history of unparalelled triumphs on the part of the French army, over the allied powers of Europe, directed by the genius and great military talents of Napoleon Bonaparte. THE END. LB s m x^ .^- LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 01 9 644 1 09 8