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Marie Antoinette
AMD *^
THE DOWNFALL OF ROYALTY
BY
IMBERT DE SAINT-AMAND
TRANSLATED BY
ELIZABETH GILBERT MARTIN
WITH PORTRAIT
NEW YORK
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
1899
f, 1891, BY
CBARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS.
DC
MANHATTAN PRESS
47* W. BSOADWAV
NEW YORK
CONTENTS.
CHAPTBR PAfiB
I. Paris at the Beginning of 1792 1
II. Count de Person's Last Journey to Paris 14
III. The Death of the Emperor Leopold 23
IV. The Death of Gustavus III 32
V. The Beginnings of Madame Roland 46
VI. Madame Roland's Entrance on the Scene 60
VII. Marie Antoinette and Madame Roland 73
VIII. Madame Roland at the Ministry of the Interior ^^5
IX. Dumouriez, Minister of Foreign Affairs 94
X. The Council of Ministers 103
XI. The FfiTE of the Swiss of Chateauvieux 110
XII. The Declaration of War 126
XIII. The Disbanding of the Constitutional Guard. . . 137
XIV. The Sufferings of Louis XVI 148
XV, Roland's Dismissal from Office 158
XVI. A Three Days' Ministry 166
XVII. The Prologue to June Twentieth 176
XVIII. The Morning of June Twentieth 186
V
VI CONTENTS.
CHAPTEB PAOS
XIX. The Invasion of the Tuileries 198
XX, Marie Antoinette on June Twentieth 210
XXI. The Morrow of June Twentieth 219
XXII. Lafayette in Paris 229
XXIII. The Lamodrette Kiss 239
XXIV. The FSte of the Federation in 1792 24ir
XXV. The Last Days at the Tdileries 259
XXVI. The Prologue to the Tenth of August 267
XXVII. The Night of August Ninth to Tenth 276
XXVIII. The Morning of August Tenth 284
XXIX. The Box of the Logograph 299
XXX. The Combat 306
XXXI. The Results of the Combat 316
XXXII. The Royal Family in the Convent of the
Feuillants 329
XXXIII. The Temple 337
XXXIV. The Princess de Lamballe's Murder 350
XXXV. The September Massacres 359
XXXVI. Madame Roland during the Massacres 372
XXXVII. The Proclamation of the Republic 384
MARIE ANTOINETTE
AND
THE DOWNFALL OF ROYALTY.
I.
PARIS AT THE BEGINNING OP 1792.
PARIS in 1792 is no longer what it was in 1789.
In 1789, the old French society was still brill-
iant. The past endured beside the present. Neither
names nor escutcheons, neither liveries nor places at
court, had been suppressed. The aristocracy and the
Revolution lived face to face. In 1792, the scene has
changed. The Paris of the nobility is no longer in
Paris, but at Coblentz. The Faubourg Saint-Germain
is like a desert. Since June, 1790, armorial bearings
have been taken down. The blazons of ancient
houses have been broken and thrown into the gut-
ters. No more display, no more liveries, no more
carriages with coats-of-arms on their panels. Titles
and manorial names are done away with. The Duke
de Brissac is called M. Coss^ ; the Duke de Cara-
man, M. Riquet; the Duke d'Aiguillon, M. Vig-
nerot. The Almanack royal of 1792 mentions not
a single court appointment.
1
THE DOWNFALL OF ROYALTY.
In 1789, it was still an exceptional thing for the
nobility to emigrate. In 1792, it is the rule. Those
among the nobles who have had the courage to re-
main at Paris in the midst of the furnace, so as to
make a rampart for the King of their bodies, seem
half ashamed of their generous conduct. The illu-
sions of worldliness have been dispelled. Nearly
every salon was open in 1789. In 1792, they are
nearly all closed; those of the magistrates and the
great capitalists as well as those of the aristocracy.
Etiquette is still observed at the Tuileries, but
there is no question of fetes ; no balls, no concerts,
none of that elegance and animation which once
made the court a rendezvous of pleasures. In 1789,
illusions, dreams, a naive expectation of the age of
gold, were to be found everywhere. In 1792, ec-
logues and pastoral poetry are beginning to go out
of fashion. The diapason of hatred is pitched
higher. Already there is powder and a smell of
blood in the air. A general instinct forebodes that
France and Europe are on the verge of a terrible
duel. On both sides passions have touched their
culminating point. Distrust and uneasiness are
universal. Every day the despotism of the clubs
becomes more threatening. The Jacobins do not
reign yet, but they govern. Deputies who, if left
to their own impulses, would vote on the conserva-
tive side, pronounce for the Revolution solely
through fear of the demagogues. In 1789, the
religious sentiment still retained power among the
PARTS AT THE BEGINNING OF 1793. 3
masses. In 1792, irreligion and atheism have
wrought their havoc. In 1789, the most ardent
revolutionists, Marat, Danton, Robespierre, were
all royalists. At the beginning of 1792, the repub-
lic begins to show its face beneath the monarchical
mask.
The Tuileries, menaced by the neighboring lanes
of the Carrousel and the Palais Royal, resembles a
besieged fortress. The Revolution daily augments its
trenches and parallels around the sanctuary of the
monarchy. Its barracks are the faubourgs ; its sol-
diers, red-bonneted pikemen. Louis XVI. in his
palace is like a general-in-chief in a stronghold, who
should have voluntarily dampened his powder, spiked
his cannon, and torn his flags. He no longer
inspires his troops with confidence. A capitulation
seems imminent. The unfortunate monarch still
hopes vaguely for assistance from abroad, for the
arrival of some liberating army. Vain hope! He
is blockaded in his castle, and the moment is at
hand when he will be compelled to play the buffoon
in a red bonnet.
Glance at the palace and see how closely it is
hemmed in by the earthworks of the Revolution.
The abode of luxury and display, intended for fStes
rather than for war, Philibert Delorme's chef-
d'oeuvre has in its architecture none of those means
of defence by which the military and feudal sover-
eignties of old times fortified their dwellings. On
the side of the courtyards a multitude of little
THE DOWNFALL OF ROTALTT.
streets contain a hostile population ready to swell
every riot. Near the Pavilion of Marsan is the
Palais Royal, that headquarters of insurrection,
with its caf ^s, its gambling-dens, its houses of ill-
fame, its wooden galleries which are known as the
camp of the Tartars. It is the Duke of Orleans
who has democratized the Palais Royal. In spite of
the sarcasms of the aristocracy and the lawsuits of
neighboring proprietors, he has destroyed the fine
gardens bounded by the rue de Richelieu, the rue des
Petit-Champs, and the rue des Bons-Enfants. In
the place it occupied he has caused the rue de Valois,
the rue de Beaujolais, and the rue de Montpensier
to be opened, all of them inhabited by a revolutionary-
population. The remaining space he has surrounded
on three sides with constructions pierced by galler-
ies, where he has built the shops that form the finest
bazaar in Europe. The fourth side of these new con-
structions was originally intended to form part of
the Prince's palace, and to be composed of an open
colonnade supporting suites of apartments. But this
side has not been erected. In place of it the Duke
of Orleans has run up some temporary wooden sheds,
containing three rows of shops separated by two
large passage-ways, the ground of which has not
even been made level.
The privileges pertaining to the Orleans family
prevent the police from entering the enclosure of
the Palais Royal. Hence it becomes the rendezvous
of all conspirators. The taking of the Bastille was
PABI8 AT THE BEGINNING OF 1792. 5
plotted there, and there the 20th of June and the
10th of August will yet be organized.
A little further off is the National Assembly. Its
sessions are held in the riding-school built when
the little Louis XV. was to be taught horseman-
ship. It adjoins the terrace of the Feuillants. One
of its courtyards which looks towards the front of the
edifice, is at the upper end of the rue de Dauphin.
The other extremity occupies the site whcr-^ the rue
Castiglione will be opened later on. There, close
beside the Tuileries, sits the National Assembly,
the rival and victorious power that will overcome
the monarchy.
The Assembly terrorizes the Tuileries. The Jac-
obin Club terrorizes the Assembly. Close beside
the Hall of the Manage, on the site to be occupied
afterward by the market of Saint-Honord, the revo-
lutionary club holds its tumultuous sessions in the
former convent founded in 1611 by the Jacobin, or
Dominican, friarso The club meets three times a
week, at seven in the evening. The hall is a long
rectangle with a vaulted roof. Four rows of stalls
occupy the longer sides, while the two ends serve
as public galleries. Nearly in the middle of the
hall, the speaker's platform and the president's
writing-table stand opposite each other. Hither
come all ambitious revolutionists who desire to talk,
to agitate, to make themselves conspicuous. Here
Robespierre lords it, not being a deputy in conse-
quence of the law forbidding members of the Con-
6 THE DOWNFALL OF ROYALTY.
stituent Assembly to belong to the legislative body.
Those who love disorder come here to seek emotions.
Some find lucrative employment, applause being
paid for, and the different parties having each its
claque in the galleries. Since April, 1791, the Jaco-
bin Club has affiliations in two thousand French
towns and villages. At its orders and in its pay is
an army of agents whose business it is to make
stump speeches, to sing in the streets, to make prop-
ositions in cafes, to applaud or to hiss in the gal-
leries of the National Assembly. These hirelings
usually receive about five francs a day, but as the
number of the chevaliers of the revolutionary lus-
trum increases, the pay diminishes, until it is finally
reduced to forty sous. Deserters and soldiers dis-
missed from their regiments for misconduct are
admitted by preference.
For some days past, the Club of Moderate Revolu-
tionists, friends of Lafayette, who might have closed
the old clubs after the sanguinary repression of the
riot in the Champ-de-Mars, and who contented them-
selves with opening a new one, have been meeting
in the convent of the Feuillants, rue Saint-Honor^.
But this new club has not been a great success;
moderation is not the order of the day; the Jacobins
have regained their empire, and on December 26,
1791, seals are placed on the door of the Club of the
Feuillants.
At the other extremity of Paris there is a club
still more inflammatory than that of the Jacobins:
PARIS AT THE BEGINNING OF 1793, 7
that of the Cordeliers. "The Jacobins," said Bar-
baroux, " have no common aim, although they act in
concert. The Cordeliers are bent on blood, gold,
and offices." Speaking as a rule, the Cordeliers
belong to the Jacobin Club, while hardly a single
Jacobin is a Cordelier. The Cordeliers are the
advance-guard of the Revolution. They are, as
Camille Desmoulins has said, Jacobins of the Jaco-
bins. The chiefs are Dan ton, Marat, Hubert, Chau-
mette. They take their names from those religious
democrats, the Minorite friars of Saint Francis, who
wear a girdle of rope over their coarse gray habit.
They meet in the Place of the School of Medicine,
in a monastery whose church was built in the reign
of Saint Louis, in 1259, with the fine paid as indem-
nity for a murder. In 1590, it became the resort of the
most famous Leaguers. Chateaubriand says : " There
are places which seem to be the laboratory of sedi-
tions." How well this expression of the author of
the MSmoires d^ Outre-tomb e describes the club-room
of the Cordeliers ! The pictures, the sculptured or
painted images, the veils and curtains of the convent,
have been torn down. The basilica displays noth-
ing but its bare bones to the eyes of the spectator.
At the apse, where wind and rain enter through
the ungi zed rose-window, joiners' work-benches
serve as a desk for the president and as places on
which to d posit the red caps. Do you see the fallen
beams, the wooden benches, the dismantled stalls,
the relics of saints pushed or rolled against the walls
8 THE DOWNFALL OF ROYALTY.
to serve as benches for "dirty, dusty, drunken,
sweaty spectators in torn jackets, pikes on their
shoulders, or with their bare arms crossed"? Do
you hear the orators who " call each other beggars,
pickpockets, robbers, assassins, to the discordant
noise of hisses and those proper to their different
groups of devils? They find the material of their,
metaphors in murder, they borrow them from the
filthiest of sewers and dungheaps, and from places
set apart for the prostitution of men and women.
Gestures render their figures of speech more compre-
hensible ; with the cynicism of dogs, they call every-
thing by its own name, in an impious and obscene
parade of oaths and curses. To destroy and to pro-
duce, death and generation, nothing 'else can be
disentangled from the savage jargon which deafens
one's ears." And what is it that interrupts the
speakers? "The little black owls of the cloister
without monks and the steeple without bells, mak-
ing themselves merry in the broken windows in
expectation of their prey. At first they are called
to order by the tinkling of an ineffectual bell ; but
as their cries do not cease, they are shot at to make
them keep silence. They fall, palpitating, bleeding,
and ominous, into the midst of the pandemonium. "
So, then, clubs take the place of convents. Since
the Constituent Assembly had decreed the abolition
of monastic vows by its vote of February 13, 1790,
many persons, rudely detached from their usual way
of life and its duties, had abandoned their vocation.
PARIS AT THE BEGINNING OF 1792. 9
The nun became a working-woman ; the shaved Cap-
uchin read his journal in suburban taverns; and
grinning crowds visited the profaned and open con-
vents "as, in Grenada, travellers pass through the
abandoned halls of the Alhambra, or as they pause,
at Tivoli, under the columns of the Sibyl's temple."
The Jacobin Club and the Club of the Cordeliers
will destroy the monarchy. In the Memoirs of
Lafayette it is remarked that "it is hard to under-
stand how the Jacobin minority and a rxandful of
pretended Marseillais made themselves masters of
Paris when nearly all the forty thousand citizens
composing the National Guard desired the Constitu-
tion; but the clubs had succeeded in scattering the
true patriots and in creating a dread of vigorous
measures. Experience had not yet taught what this
feebleness and disorganization must needs cost."
The dark side of the picture is plainly far more
evident than it was in 1789. But how vivid it is
still ! Those who hunger after sensations are in their
element. When has there been more noise, more
tumult, more movement, more unexpected or more
varied scenes? Listen once more to Chateaubriand
who, on his return from America, passed through
Paris at this epoch : " When I read the Histoire des
troubles publics ches divers peuples before the Revolu-
tion, I could not conceive how it was possible to live
in those times. I was surprised that Montaigne
wrote so cheerfully in a castle which he could not
walk around without risk of being abducted by bands
10 THE DOWNFALL OF ROYALTY.
of Leaguers or Protestants. The Revolution has en-
abled me to comprehend this possibility of existence.
With us men, critical moments produce an increase
of life. In a society which is dissolving and form-
ing itself anew, the strife between the two ten-
dencies, the collision of the past and the future, the
medley of ancient and modern manners, form a tran-
sitory combination which does not admit a moment
of ennui. Passions and characters, freed from
restraint, display themselves with an energy they
do not possess in well-regulated cities. The infrac-
tion of laws, the emancipation from duties, usages,
and the rules of decorum, even perils themselves,
increase the interest of this disorder."
Yes, people complain, grow angry, suffer, but
they are not bored. How many incidents, episodes,
emotions, there are in this strange tragi-comedy !
Everywhere there is something to be seen; in the
Assembly, the clubs, the public places, the prome-
nades, streets, caf^s, and theatres. Brawls and
discussions are heard on every side. If by chance a
salon is still open, disputes go on there as they
would at a club. What quarrels take place in the
caf^s! Men stand on chairs and tables to spout.
And what dissensions in the theatres ! The actors
meddle with politics as well as the spectators. In
the greenroom of the ComSdie-Frangaise there is a
right side, whose chief is the royalist Naudet, and a
left side led by the republican Talma. Neither.actor
goes out except well armed. There are pistols
PARIS AT THE BEGINNING OF 1792. 11
underneath their togas. The kings of tragedy,
threatened by their political adversaries, have real
poniards wherewith to defend themselves. Les
Horaces^ Brutus, La Mort de CSsar, Barnevelt, G-uil-
laume Tell, Charles IX., are plays containing in
each tirade allusions which inflame the boxes and
the pit. The theatre is a tilting-ground. If the
royalists are there in force, they cause the orchestra
to play their favorite airs: Charmante Crahrielle,
Vive Henri Quatre ! 0 1 Richard, 0 ! mon roi ! The
revolutionists protest, and sing their own chosen
melody, the Ca ira. Sometimes they come to blows,
swords are drawn, and, the play over, elegant women
are dragged through the gutters. There is a general
outbreak of insults and violence. The journals play
the chief part in this universal madness. Some-
times the press is eloquent, but it is oftener ribald
or atrocious. To borrow an expression from Mon-
taigne, "it lowers itself even to the worthless
esteem of extreme inferiority." The beautiful
French tongue, once so correct and pure, is no
longer recognizable. Vulgar words fall thick as
hail. To the language of the Academy has suc-
ceeded the jargon of the markets.
What a swarm! what a swirl! How noisy, how
restless, is this revolutionary Paris ! What excited
crowds fill the clubs, the Assembly, the Palais
Royal, the gambling-houses, and the tumultuous
faubourgs! Riotous gatherings, popular deputa-
tions, detachments of cavalry, companies of foot-
12 THE DOWNFALL OF ROYALTY.
soldiers ; gentlemen in French coats, powdered hair,
swords at their sides, hats under their arms, silk
stockings and low shoes; democrats close-cropped
and unpowdered, with English frock coats and
American cravats; ragged sans-culottes in red caps,
weave in and out in ceaseless motion.
Do you know what was the chief distraction of
this crowd in April, 1792? The d^but of that new
and fashionable machine, the guillotine. It was
used for the first time on the 25th, for a criminal
guilty of rape. Sensitive people congratulated each
other on the mitigated torment, which they were
pleased to consider a humanitarian improvement.
The excellent philanthropist. Doctor Guillotin, was
lauded to the skies. His machine was named guil-
lotine in his honor, just as the stage-coaches
established by Turgot had been called turgotines.
What enthusiasm, what infatuation, for this guil-
lotine, already so famous and destined to be so
much more so ! The editors of the Moniteur declare
in a lyric outburst that it is worthy of the approach-
ing century. The truth is that it accelerates and
makes less difficult the executioner's task. In the
end the crowd would become disgusted with massa-
cres. The delays of the gibbet would weary their
patience. The sans-culottes, who doubtless have a
presentiment of all that is going to happen, wel-
come the guillotine, then, with acclamations. At
the Ambigu theatre a ballet-pantomime, called Les
Quatre Fils Aymon, is given, and all Paris runs to
PARIS AT THE BEGINNING OF 179$. 13
see the heads of all four fall at once, in the midst of
loud applause, under the blade of the good doctor's
machine. People amuse themselves with their fut-
ure instrument of torture as if it were a toy. In a
Girondin salon they play at guillotine with a move=
able screen that is lifted and let fall again. At
elegant dinners a little guillotine is brought in with
the dessert and takes the place of a sweet dish. A
pretty woman places a doll representing some polit-
ical adversary under the knife ; it is decapitated in
the neatest possible style, and out of it runs some-
thing red that smells good, a liqueur perfumed with
ambergris, into which every lady hastens to dip her
lace handkerchief. French gaiety would make a
vaudeville out of the day of judgment. Poor soci-
ety, which passes so quick from gay to grave, from
lively to severe, and which, like the Figaro of
Beaumarchais, laughs at everything so that it may
not weep J
n.
COUNT DE FERSEN'S LAST JOURNEY TO PARIS.
IT has been supposed until lately that after the
day when he bade farewell to the royal family
at the beginning of the Varennes journey, Count de
Fersen never again saw Marie Antoinette. A new
publication of very great importance proves that this
is an error, and that the Swedish nobleman came
to Paris for the last time in 1792, and had several
interviews with the King and Queen. This publi-
cation is entitled: Extraits des papiers du grand
marSchal de Suede, Comte Jean Axel de Fersen, and
is published by his great-nephew. Baron de Kinck-
owstrom, a Swedish colonel. There is something
romantic in this episode of the mysterious journey
made by Marie Antoinette's loyal chevalier, which
merits to leave a trace in history.
Fersen was one of those men whose sentiments
are all the more profound because they know how to
veil them under an apparently imperturbable calm.
A soul of fire under an exterior of ice, as the Baron-
ess de Korff describes him, courageous to temerity,
devoted to heroism, he had conceived for Marie
Antoinette one of those disinterested and ardent
14
BE FERSEN'S LAST JOURNEY TO PARIS. 15
friendships which lie midway between love and
religion. Almost as much a Frenchman as he was
a Swede, he did not forget that he had fought in
America under the standard of the Most Christian
King, and had been colonel of a regiment in the
service of France. Having been the courtier of the
happy and brilliant Queen, he remained the court-
ier of the Queen overcome by anguish. He had
enkindled in the soul of his sovereign, Gustavus
III., the same chivalrous sentiment which animated
his own, and was impatiently awaiting the time
when he could hasten to the aid of Louis XVI. and
Marie Antoinette under the Swedish flag. His
dearest ambition was to draw his sword in the
Queen's defence. From the Varennes journey up
to the day of Marie Antoinette's execution, he had
but one thought: to rescue the woman for whom he
would willingly have shed the last drop of his
blood. This fixed idea has left its trace on every
line of his journal. The sad and melancholy coun-
tenance of Fersen, the courtier of misfortune, the
friend of unhappy days, is assuredly one of the cele-
brated types in the drama of Versailles and the
Tuileries. This man, who would have made no
mark in history but for the martyr Queen, is cer-
tain, thanks to her, not to be forgotten by posterity.
Marie Antoinette was to return him in glory what
he gave her in devotion.
On her return to the Tuileries after the disas-
trous journey to Varennes, the Queen wrote to
16 THE DOWNFALL OF ROYALTY.
Fersen, Jmie 27, 1791: "Be at ease about us; we
are living," and Fersen replied: "I am well, and
live only to serve you." June 29, she wrote him
another letter in which she said : " Do not write to
me; it would endanger us; and, above all, do not
return here under any pretext ; all would be lost if
you should make your appearance. They never lose
sight of us by night or day; which is a matter of
indifference to me. Be tranquil ; nothing will hap-
pen to me. The Assembly desires to treat us with
gentleness. Adieu. I shall not be able to write to
you again."
Marie Antoinette was in error when she supposed
she would not write again. She was in error, like-
wise, when she imagined that Fersen, in spite of
all dangers and difficulties, would not find means to
see her again. Their correspondence was not inter-
rupted. After the acceptance of the Constitution,
Marie Antoinette wrote to him: "Can you under-
stand my position and the part I am continually
obliged to play? Sometimes I do not understand
myself, and am obliged to consider whether it is
really I who am speaking ; but what is to be done ?
It is all necessary, and be sure our position would
be still worse than it is if I had not at once assumed
this attitude ; we at least gain time by it, and that
is all that is required. I keep up better than could
be expected, seeing that I go out so little and
endure constantly such immense fatigue of mind.
What with the persons whom I must see, my writ-
BE FEBSEN'S LAST JOUBNEY TO PABI8. 17
ing, and the time I spend with my children, I
have not a moment to myself. The last occupation,
which is not the least, gives me my sole happiness.
When I am very sad, I take my little boy in my
arms, embrace him with my whole heart, and for a
moment am consoled."
Fersen, touched and pitying, was constantly
thinking of that fatal palace of the Tuileries where
the Queen was so much to be compassionated. An
invincible attraction drew him thither. There, he
thought, was the post of devotion and of honor.
November 26, he wrote : " Tell me whether there is
any possibility of going to see you entirely alone,
without a servant, in case I receive the order to do
so from the King (Gustavus III.); he has already
spoken to me of his desire to bring this about."
Of all the sovereigns who interested themselves in
the fate of Louis XVI. and Marie Antoinette,
Gustavus was the most active, brave, and resolute;
he was also the only one in whom Marie Antoinette
placed absolute confidence. She expected less from
her own brother, the Emperor Leopold, and it was
to Stockholm above all that she turned her eyes.
Gustavus ordered Fersen to go secretly to Paris, and
on December 22, 1791, he sent him a memoir and
certain letters, commissioning him to deliver them
to Louis XVI. and Marie Antoinette. He recom-
mended, as forcibly as he could, a new attempt at
flight, but with precautions suggested by the lesson
of Varennes. He thought the members of the royal
18 THE DOWNFALL OF ROYALTY.
family should depart separately and in disguise, and
that, once outside of his kingdom, Louis XVI.
should call for the intervention of a congress. The
following passage occurs in the letter of the Swedish
King to Marie Antoinette : " I beg Your Majesty to
consider seriously that violent disorders can only
be cured by violent remedies, and that if moderation
is a virtue in the course of ordinary life, it often
becomes a vice when there is question of public
matters. The King of France can re-establish his
dominion only by resuming his former rights ; every
other remedy is illusory ; anjiihing except this would
merely open the way to endless discussions which
would augment the confusion instead of ending it.
The King's rights were torn from him by the sword;
it is by the sword that they must be reconquered.
But I refrain ; I should remember that I am address-
ing a princess who, in the most terrible moments of
her life, has shown the most intrepid courage."
Fersen obtained permission from Louis XVI. to
accomplish the mission confided to him by Gustavus
III. He left Stockholm under an assumed name
and with the passport of a Swedish courier, and
reached Paris without accident, February 13, 1792.
He was so adroit and prudent that no one suspected
his presence. On the very evening of his arrival
he wrote in his journal: "Went to the Queen by
my usual road ; very few National Guards ; did not
see the King." Fersen, therefore, only reappeared
at the Tuileries in the darkness, like a fugitive or
BE FEBSEN'8 LAST JOURNEY TO PARIS. 19
an outlaw. He found the Queen pale with grief
and with hair whitened by sorrow and emotion. It
was a solemn moment. The storm was raging
within France and beyond it. Terrible omens,
snares, and dangers lay on every side. One might
have said that the Tuileries were about to be swal-
lowed up in a gulf of fire and blood.
The next day Fersen saw the King. He wrote
in his journal: "Tuesday, 14. Saw the King at
six in the evening. He will not go and can not,
on account of the extreme vigilance. In fact, he
scruples at it, having so often promised to remain,
for he is an honest man. . . . He sees that force
is the only resource ; but, being weak, he thinks it
impossible to resume all his authority. . . . Un-
less he were constantly encouraged, I am not sure
he would not be tempted to negotiate with the
rebels. He said to me afterwards: 'That's all very
well! We are by ourselves and we can talk; but
nobody ever found himself in my position. I know
I missed the right moment ; it was the 14th of July ;
we ought to have gone then, and I wanted to, but
how could I when Monsieur himself begged me to
stay, and Marshal de Broglie, who was in command,
said to me: "Yes, we can go to Metz. But what
shall we do when we get there ? " I lost the oppor-
tunity and never found it again. I have been aban-
doned by everybody. ' " Louis XVI. desired Fersen
to warn the Powers that they must not be surprised
at anything he might be forced to do ; that he was
20 THE DOWNFALL OF ROYALTY.
obliged, that it was the effect of constraint. " They
must put me out of the question," he added, "and
let me do what I can."
Fersen had a long talk with Marie Antoinette the
same day. She entered into full details aboi\t the
present and especially about the past. She ex-
plained why the flight to Varennes, in which Fersen
had taken such a prominent part, and which had
succeeded so well so long as he directed it, had
ended in failure. The Queen described the anguish
of the arrest and the return. To the project of a
new effort to escape, she replied by pointing out
the implacable surveillance of which she was the
object, and the effervescence of popular passions,
which this time would overleap all restraint if the
fugitives were taken. It would be better for the
royal family to suffer together than to expose them-
selves to die separately. It would be better to die
like princes, who abdicate majesty only with life,
than as vagabonds, under a vulgar disguise. " The
Queen," adds Fersen, "told me that she saw Alex-
ander Lameth and Dupcrt ; that they always tell her
that there is no remedy but foreign troojDS ; failing
that, all is lost, that this cannot last, that they
have gone farther than they wished to. In spite of
all this, she thinks them malicious, does not trust
them, but uses them as best she can. All the
ministers are traitors who betray the King." Fersen
had a final interview with Louis XVI. and Marie
Antoinette on February 21, 1792. By February 24,
DE FEBSEN'S LAST JOURNEY TO PARIS. 21
he had returned to Brussels. He was profoundly
moved on quitting the Tuileries, but, dismal and
lugubrious as his forebodings may have been, how
much more sombre was the reality to prove !
What a terrible fate was reserved for the chief
actors in this drama! Yet a few days, and the
chivalrous Gustavus was to be assassinated. The
hour of execution was approaching for Louis XVI.
and Marie Antoinette. Fersen, likewise, was to
have a most tragic end. From the moment when
he bade his last adieu to the unhappy Queen, his
life was but one long torment. His disposition,
already inclined to melancholy, became incurably
sad. His loyal and devoted soul could not accustom
itself to the thought of the calamities weighing so
cruelly upon that good and beautiful sovereign of
whom he said in 1778: "The Queen is the prettiest
and most amiable princess that I know." On
October 14, 1793, he will still be endeavoring, with
the aid of Baron de Breteuil, to bring to completion
a thousandth plot to extricate the august captive
from her fate. He will learn the fatal tidings
on the 20th. "I can think of nothing but my
loss," he will write in his journal. "It is frightful
to have no positive details. It is horrible that she
should have been alone in her last moments, with
no one to speak to, or to receive her last wishes.
No; without vengeance, my heart will never be con-
tent." Covered with honors under the reign of
Gustavus IV., senator, chancellor of the Academy of
22 THE DOWNFALL OF ROYALTY.
Upsal, member of the Seraphim Order, grand
marshal of the kingdom of Sweden, there will
remain in the depths of his heart a wound which
nothing can heal. An inveterate fatality will pur-
sue him as it had done the unfortunate sovereign of
whom he had been the chevalier. He will perish
in a riot at Stockholm, June 20, 1810, at the time
of the obsequies of the Prince Royal. Struck down
by fists and walking-sticks, his hair pulled out, his
clothes torn to rags, he will be dragged about half-
naked, rolled underfoot, assassinated by a maddened
populace. Before rendering his last sigh, he will
succeed in rising to his knees, and, joining his
hands, he will utter these words from the stoning
of Saint Stephen: "O my God, who callest me to
Thee, I implore Thee for my tormentors, whom I
pardon." If not the same words, they are at least
the same thoughts as those of Marie Antoinette on
the platform of the scaffold.
III.
THE DEATH OF THE EMPEEOR LEOPOLD.
ONE after another, Marie Antoinette lost her
last chances of safety ; blows as unforeseen as
terrible beat down the combinations on which she
had built her hopes. Within a fortnight she was to
see the two sovereigns disappear from whom she had
expected succor : her brother, the Emperor Leopold,
and Gustavus III., the King of Sweden. Leopold
had not been equal to all the illusions which his
sister had cherished with regard to him, but, never-
theless, he showed great interest in French affairs,
and a lively desire to be useful to Louis XVI.
Pacific by disposition, he had temporized at first,
and adopted a conciliatory policy. He desired a
reconciliation with the new principles, and, more-
over, he was not blind to the inexperience and levity
of the SmigrSs. But the obligation, to which he
was bound by treaties, to defend the rights of princes
holding property in Alsace, his fear of the propa-
ganda of sedition, the aggressive language of the
National Assembly and the Parisian press, had
ended by determining him to take a more resolute
attitude, and it was at the moment when he was
28
24 THE DOWNFALL OF ROYALTY.
seriously intending to come to his sister's aid that
he was carried off by sudden death. Though she
did not desire a war between Austria and France,
the Queen had persisted in wishing for an armed
congress, which would have been a compromise
between peace and war, but which the National
Assembly would have regarded as an intolerable
humiliation. It must not be denied, the situation
was a false one. Between the true sentiments of
Louis XVI. and his new r61e as a constitutional
sovereign, there was a real incompatibility. As to
the Queen, she was on good terms neither with the
SmigrSs nor with the Assembly.
In order to get a just idea of the sentiments
shown by the SmigrSs^ it is necessaiy to read a
letter written from Treves, October 16, 1791, by
Madame de Raigecourt, the friend of Madame Elisa-
beth, to another friend of the Princess, the Marquise
de Bombelles: "I see with pain that Paris and
Coblentz are not on good terms. The Emperor
treats the Princes like children. . . . The Princes
cannot avoid suspecting that it is the influence of
the Queen and her agents which thwarts their plans
and causes the Emperor to behave so sti-angely. . . .
Some trickery on the part of the Tuileries is still
suspected in this country. They ought to explain
themselves to each other once for all. Is the Queen
afraid lest the Count d'Artois should arrogate an
authority in the realm which would diminish her
own? Let her be at ease on that score: she will
THE DEATH OF THE EMPEROR LEOPOLD. 25
always be the King's wife and always dominant.
What is she afraid of, then? She complains that
she is not sufficiently respected. But you know the
good heart and the uprightness of our Prince ; he is
incapable of the remarks attributed to him, and
which have certainly been reported to the Queen
with the intention of estranging them entirely."
Madame de Raigecourt ends her letter with this
complaint against Louis XVI. : " Our wretched
King lowers himself more and more every day; for
he is doing too much, even if he still intends to
escape. . . . The emigration, meanwhile, increases
daily, and presently there will be more Frenchmen
than Germans in this region." At this very time,
the Queen was having recourse to her brother Leo-
pold as to a saviour. She wrote to him, October
4, 1791: "My only consolation is in writing to
you, my dear brother; I am surrounded by so
many atrocities that I need all your friendship to
tranquillize my mind. ... A point of primary
importance is to regulate the conduct of the SmigrSs.
If they re-enter France in arms, all is lost, and it
will be impossible to make it believed that we are
not in connivance with them. Even the existence
of an army of SmigrSs on the frontier would be
enough to keep up the irritation and afford ground
for accusations against us ; it appears to me that a
congress would make the task of restraining them
less difficult. . . . This idea of a congress pleases
me greatly; it would second the efforts we are mak-
26 THE DOWNFALL OF BOTALTY.
ing to maintain confidence. In the first place, I
repeat, it would put a check on the SmigrSs^ and,
moreover, it would make an impression here from
which I hope much. I submit that to your better
judgment. . . . Adieu, my dear brother; we love
you, and my daughter has particularly charged me
to embrace her good uncle."
"While Marie Antoinette was thus turning towards
Austria for assistance, the National Assembly at
Paris repelled with energy all thought of any
intervention whatsoever on the part of foreign
powers. January 1, 1792, it issued a decree of
impeachment against the King's brothers, the Prince
de Conde, and Calonne. The confiscation of the
property of the SmigrSs and the taxation of their
revenues for the benefit of the State had been pre-
scribed by another decree to which Louis XVI. had
offered no opposition. January 14, Guadet said in
the tribune, while speaking of the congress : " If it
is true that by delays and discouragement they
wish to bring us to accept this shameful mediation,
ought the National Assembly to close its eyes to
such a danger? Let us all swear to die here rather
than — " He was not allowed to finish. The whole
assembly rose to their feet, crying: "Yes, yes; we
swear it!" And in a burst of enthusiasm, every
Frenchman who would take part in a congress
having for its object the modification of the Consti-
tution, was declared an infamous traitor. January
17, it was decreed that the King should require the
THE DEATH OF THE EMPEROR LEOPOLD. 21
Emperor Leopold to explain himself definitely before
March 1.
By a curious coincidence, this date of March 1
was precisely that on which the Emperor Leopold
was to die of a dreadful malady. He was in perfect
health on February 27, when he gave audience to
the Turkish envoy; he was in his agony, February
28, and on March 1, he died. His usual physician
asserted that he had been poisoned. The idea that a
crime had been committed spread among the people.
Vague rumors got about concerning a woman who
had caused remark at the last masked ball at court.
This unknown person, under shelter of her disguise,
might have presented the sovereign with poisoned
bonbons. The Jacobins, who might have desired to
get rid of the armed chief of the empire, and the
^migrSs, who might have reproached him as too luke-
warm in his opposition to the principles of the French
Revolution, were alternately suspected. The last
hypothesis was hardly probable, nor does anything
prove that the Jacobins had any hand in the possibly
natural death of the Emperor Leopold. But minds
were so overexcited at the time that the parties
mutually accused each other, on all occasions, of the
most execrable crimes. For that matter, there were
Jacobins who, out of mere bravado, would willingly
have gloried in crimes of which they were not
guilty, provided that these crimes had been com-
mitted against kings.
What is certain is, that Marie Antoinette believed
28 THE DOWNFALL OF ROTALTT.
in poison. "The death of the Emperor Leopold,"
says Madame Campan, "occurred on March 1, 1792.
The Queen was out when the news arrived at the
Tuileries. On her return, I gave her the letter
announcing it. She cried out that the Emperor had
been poisoned; that she had remarked and preserved
a gazette in which, in an article on the session of
the Jacobin Club at the time when Leopold had
declared for the Coalition, it was said, in speakii^g
of him, that a bit of pieci*ust could settle that affair.
From that moment the Queen had regarded this
phrase as an inadvertence of the propagandists."
On the very day when Marie Antoinette's brother
died, Louis XVI. 's Minister of Foreign Affairs, De
Lessart, had enraged the National Assembly by
reading them extracts from his diplomatic coitc-
spondence, which they found not sufficiently firm.
They were indignant at a despatch in which Prince
de Kaunitz said: "The latest events give us hopes;
it appears that the majority of the French nation,
impressed with the evils they have prepared, are
returning to more moderate principles, and incline
to render to the throne the dignity and authority
which are the essence of monarchical government."
When De Lessart came down from the tribune, the
whispering changed into cries of rage and threats
against the minister and the court, which, it was
said, was planning a counter-revolution at the Tui-
leries, and dictating to the cabinet of Vienna the
language by which it hoped to intimidate France.
THE DEATH OF THE EMPEKOB LEOPOLD. 29
At the evening session of the same day, Rouyer, a
deputy, proposed to impeach the Minister of Foreign
Affairs. "Is it possible," cried he, "that a perfidi-
ous minister should come here to make a parade of
his work and lay the responsibility of it on a foreign
power? Will the time never arrive when ministers
shall cease to betray us ? Were my head to be the
price of the denunciation I am making, I would
none the less go on with it." At the session of
March 6, Guadet said : " It is time to know whether
the ministers wish to make Louis XVI. King of the
French, or the King of Coblentz."
On the 10th the storm broke. The day before,
Narbonne had received his dismission. Brissot
accused De Lessart of having compromised the safety
of France, withheld from the Assembly the docu-
ments establishing the alliance between the Emperor
and the King of Prussia, discredited the assignats,
depreciated the credit, lowered the rate of exchange,
and encouraged interior disorder. Vergniaud fol-
lowed him, exclaiming: "From the tribune where
I am speaking may be seen the palace where per-
verse counsellors lead astray and deceive the King
given to you by the Constitution ; where they forge
chains for the nation, and arrange the manoeuvres
which are to deliver us up to Austria, after having
caused us to pass through the horrors of civil war.
Terror and dismay have often issued from that
famous palace. Let them re-enter it to-day in the
name of the law, let them penetrate all hearts, and
30 THE DOWNFALL OF BOTALTT.
teach all who dwell there, that our Constitution
accords inviolability to the King alone. Let them
know that the law will overtake all the guilty with-
out exception, and that there will not be a single
head convicted of crime which can escape its sword."
The decree of impeachment against the ministers
was voted by a very large majority. De Lessart
was advised to take flight, but he refused. " I owe
it to my country," said he, "I owe it to my King
and to myself to make my innocence and the regu-
larity of my conduct plain before the tribunal of the
high court, and I have decided to give myself up
at Orleans." He was conducted by gendarmes to
that city, where he was imprisoned. Louis XVI.
dared not do anything to save his favorite minister.
On March 11, Potion, the mayor of Paris, came to
the bar of the Assembly, and read, in the name of
the Commune, an address in which it was said:
"When the atmosphere surrounding us is heavy
with noisome vapors. Nature can relieve herself only
by a thunder-storm. So, too, society can purge
itself from the abuses which disturb it only by a
formidable explosion. ... It is true, then, that
responsibility is not an idle word; that all men,
whatever may be their stations, are equal before the
law; that the sword of justice is poised over all
heads without distinction." Was not this language
like a prognostic of the 21st of January and the 16th
of October? Encompassed by a thousand snares,
hated by each of the extreme parties, by the
THE DEATH OF THE EMPEEOR LEOPOLD. 31
SmigrSs as well as by the Jacobins, Marie Antoi-
nette no longer beheld anything but aspects of sor-
row. Abroad, as in France, her gaze fell on dismal
spectacles only. Her imagination was affected. She
hardly dared taste the dishes served at her table.
All had conspired to betray her. She had experi-
enced so many deceptions and so much anguish;
fate had pursued her with so much bitterness, that
her heart, exhausted with emotions, and over-
whelmed with sadness, was weary of all things,
even of hope.
IV.
THE DEATH OF GTTSTAVTJS HI.
THE drama of the Revolution is not French
alone ; it is European. It has its afterclap in
every empire, in every kingdom, even to the most
distant lands. It excites minds in Stockholm almost
as much as in Paris. Among the Swedes there are
people whose greatest desire would be to parody the
October Days, and to carry about on pikes the bleed-
ing heads of their adversaries. The new ideas take
fire and spread like a train of gunpowder. It is the
fashion to go to extremes; a nameless frenzy and
fatality seem let loose upon this epoch of agitations
and catastrophes. All those who, at one time or
another, have been guests at the palace of Ver-
sailles, are condemned, as by a mysterious sentence,
either to exile or to death.
How will terminate the career of that brilliant
King of Sweden, who had received from Versailles
and from Paris, from the court and from the city,
such an enthusiastic reception? Gustavus, the idol
of the great lords, the philosophers, and the fashion-
able beauties, who, after being the hero of the
encyclopsedists, came to hold his court at Aix-la-
82
THE DEATH OF GUSTAVUS III. 33
Chapelle amid the French ^migrSs, and who, on his
return to Stockholm, prepared there the great cru-
sade for authority, announcing himself as the
avenger of divine right, the saviour of all thrones ?
The last days of his life, his presentiments, which
recall those of Caesar, his superstitions, his belief
in prophecies, his magic incantations, that warning
which he scorns, as the Duke de Guise did at the
castle of Blois, that masked ball where the costumes,
the music, the flowers, the lights, offer a painfully
strange contrast to the horror of the attack; all is
sinister, lugubrious, in these fantastic and fatal
scenes which have already tempted more than one
dramatist, more than one musician, and whose
phases a Shakespeare only could retrace. The
crime of Stockholm is linked closely to the death-
struggle of French royalty. The funeral knell
which tolled at this extremity of the North had
echoes in Paris. The Swedish regicides set the
example to the regicides of France.
M. Geffroy has remarked very justly in his work,
Crustave III. et la cour de France, that the bloody
deed which put an end to the reign and the life of
Gustavus is not an isolated fact: "The faults com-
mitted by this Prince would not have sufficed to
arm his assassins. The true source whence Ankar-
stroem and his accomplices drew their first inspira-
tion was that vertigo caused during the last years of
the century by the annihilation of all religious and
even all philosophical faith. . . . No moment of
34 THE DOWNFALL OF BOTALTT.
modem history has presented an intellectual and
moral anarchy comparable to that which accompanied
the revolutionary period in Europe."
The eighteenth century was punished for incre-
dulity by superstition. Having refused to believe
the most holy truths, it lent credence to the most
fantastic chimeras. For priests it substituted sor-
cerers; for Christian ceremonies, the rites of free-
masonry. The time was coming when, because it
had rejected the Sacred Heart of Jesus, it was going
to bow before the sacred heart of Marat. The adepts
of Mesmer and of De Puysegur, the seekers after the
philosopher's stone, the Nicolaites of Berlin, the
illuminati of Bavaria, enlarged the boundaries of
human credulity, and the men who succumbed in
the most naive and foolish manner to these wretched
weaknesses of mind, were precisely the haughtiest
philosophers, those who had prided themselves the
most on their distinction as free-thinkers. Such a
one was Gustavus III.
This Voltairean Prince, who had held the Chris-
tian verities so cheap, was superstitious even to
puerility. He did not believe in the Gospels, but
he believed in books of magic. In a corner of his
palace he had arranged a cupboard with a censer and
a pair of candlesticks, before which he performed
cabalistic operations in nothing but his shirt.
Throughout his entire reign he consulted a fortune-
teller named Madame Arfwedsson, who read the fut-
ure for him in coffee-grounds. Around his neck
THE DEATH OF GUSTAVUS III 35
he wore a gold box containing a sachet in which
there was a powder that, according to his belief,
would drive away evil spirits. All this apparatus
of incantation and sorcery was one of the causes of
Gustavus's fall. It multiplied the snares around
the unfortunate monarch, and served to mask his
enemies. Prophecies announced his approaching
end, and conspirators took care to fulfil the proph-
ecies.
The Duke of Sudermania, the King's brother,
without being an accomplice in the project of crime,
encouraged underhand practices. Sectarians ap-
proached Gustavus to reproach him for his luxury,
his prodigalities, his entertainments, or addressed
him anonymous warnings which, in Biblical lan-
guage, declared him accursed and rejected by the
Lord. Their insolence knew no bounds. Madame
Arfwedsson had counselled the King to beware if
he should meet a man dressed in red. Count de
Ribbing, one of the future conspirators, having
heard of this, ordered a red costume out of bravado,
and presented himself in it before his sovereign,
whom such an apparition caused to reflect if not to
tremble.
Gustavus, like Caesar, was to see his Ides of
March. It had been predicted to him that the
month of March would be fatal to him. This month
approached, and the monarch diverted himself by
f^tes and boisterous entertainments in order to
banish the presentiments which never ceased to assail
36 THE DOWNFALL OF ROYALTY.
him. He said to himself that all this phantas-
magoria would probably soon vanish; that the fu-
nereal images would of themselves depart ; and that
the spectres would disappear at the sound of arms.
The monarchical crusade of which he proposed to be
the leader grew upon him as the best means by
which to escape the incessant obsessions haunting
his spirit. In vain was he reminded that Sweden
was in need of money, and that a war of interven-
tion in the affairs of France was not popular. His
resolution remained unshaken. He counted the
days and hours which still separated him from the
moment of action: his sole idea was to chastise
the Jacobins and avenge the majesty of thrones.
Returned to Stockholm from Aix-la-Chapelle, at
the beginning of August, 1791, the impetuous mon-
arch began to be very active in his warlike prepara-
tions. The Marquis de Bouill^, who had been
obliged to quit France at the time of the unsuccess-
ful journey to Varennes, had entered his service and
was to counsel him and fight at his side under the
Swedish flag. At the same time Gustavus officially
renewed his promises of aid to the King of France.
Louis XVI. replied : —
"Monsieur my Brother and Cousin: I have
just received the lines with which you have honored
me on the occasion of your return. It is always a
great consolation to have such proofs of a friendly
sentiment as are given me by this letter. The
concern. Sire, which you take in all that relates to
THE DEATH OF GUSTAVUS III. 37
my interest touches me more and more, and I recog-
nize in each word the august soul of a king whom
the world admires as much for his magnanimous
heart as for his wisdom. ' '
Meanwhile the conspirators, animated either by-
personal rancor or the passions common to nobles
hostile to their king, were secretly preparing for an
attack. The five leaders were Captain Ankarstroem,
Count de Ribbing, Count de Horn, Count de Lilien-
horn, major of the Blue Guards, and Baron Pechlin,
an old man of seventy-two, who had been distin-
guished in the civil wars, and was the soul of the
plot. The conspirators had doubts before commit-
ting the crime. During the Diet, which met at
Gefle, January 25, 1792, they refrained at the very
moment when they were about to strike.
Gustavus was in his castle of Haga, about a league
from Stockholm, without guards or attendants.
Three of the conspirators approached the castle at
five in the evening. They were armed with car-
bines, and, having placed themselves in ambush
near the King's apartment on the ground-floor, were
awaiting an opportunity to kill their sovereign.
Gustavus coming in from a long walk, went in his
dressing-gown to sit in the library, the windows
of which opened like doors into the garden. He
fell asleep in his armchair. Whether they were
alarmed by the sound of footsteps, or whether the
contrast between the slumber of the unsuspicious
King and the death poising above his head awakened
88 THE DOWNFALL OF EOTALTY.
some remorse, the assassins once more abandoned
their meditated crime.
Weary of the attempts they had been planning
for six months, and which never came to anything,
the conspirators might possibly have given them up
altogether if a circumstance which they considered
providential had not come to rekindle their regicidal
zeal. The last masked ball of the season was to be
given in the Opera-house on the night of March
16-17, and it was known that Gustavus would be
present. To strike the monarch in the midst of the
festival, in order to chastise him for his love of
pleasure, was an idea which charmed the assassins.
Moreover, the mask alone could embolden them;
they thought that if the august victim were envel-
oped in a domino they need no longer dread that
royal prestige which had more than onoe caused
them to recoil.
Gustavus was counselled to be on his guard. The
young Count Louis de Bouill^, who was then at
Stockholm, and who had been informed by a letter
from Germany that the King was about to be assas-
sinated, begged him to profit by the warnings reach-
ing him from every quarter. Gustavus replied that
he would rather go blindly to meet his fate than
torment himself with the numberless precautions
which such suspicions would demand. "If I lis-
tened," added he, "to all the advice I receive, I
could not even drink a glass of water ; besides, I am
far from believing in the execution of such a plot.
THE DEATH OF GUSTAVUS III. 39
My subjects, although very brave in war, are ex-
tremely timid in politics. The successes I expect
to gain in France, the trophies of which I shall bring
back to Stockholm, will speedily augment my power
by the confidence and general respect which will be
their result."
Meantime the fatal hour was approaching. The
masked ball of March 16 was about to open. Before
going there, Gustavus toak supper with a few of the
persons belonging to his household. While he was
at table he received a note, written in French and
unsigned, in which he was entreated not to enter
the playhouse, where he was about to be stricken to
death. The author of the note urgently recom-
mended the King not to make his appearance at the
ball, and, if he persisted in going, to suspect the
crowd which would press around him, because this
gathering was to be the prelude and signal of the
blow aimed at him. The really bizarre thing about
this was that the man who wrote these lines was
himself one of the conspirators, Count de Lilien-
horn.
"It is impossible to tell," says the Marquis de
Bouill^ in his Memoirs, "whether his conscience
wished to acquit itself in this manner towards the
King, to whom he owed everything, without forfeit-
ing his word to his party, or whether, knowing the
fearless character of this prince, he did not offer his
anonymous advice as a bait to his courage. It cer-
tainly produced the latter effect." Gustavus made no
40 THE DOWNFALL OF ROYALTY.
reflections on reading this note, and went fearlessly
to the ball.
The orchestra is playing wildly. The dances are
animated. The hall, adorned with flowers, sparkles
under the glow of the chandeliers. Gustavus appears
for a moment in his box. It is only then that he
shows to Baron d'Essen, his first equerry, the anony-
mous note he had received while at supper. That
faithful servant begs him not to go down into, the
hall. Gustavus disregards the prudent counsel. He
says that hereafter he will wear a coat of mail, but
that, for this time, he is perfectly determined to be
reckless about danger. The King and his equerry
go into the saloon in front of the royal box, where
each puts on a domino. Then they enter the hall
by way of the stage. There are men essentially
courageous, who love danger for its own sake. Gus-
tavus is one of them. Hence he takes pleasure in
braving all his assassins. As he is crossing the
greenroom with Baron d'Essen on his arm, " Let us
see," says he, " whether they will really dare to kill
me." Yes, they will dare it. The moment that the
King enters he is recognized in spite of his mask and
his domino. He walks slowly around the hall, and
then goes into the pit, where he strolls about during
several minutes. He is about to retrace his steps,
when he finds himself surrounded, as had been pre-
dicted, by a group of maskers who get between him
and the officers of his suite. Several black dominos
approach. They are the assassins. One of them,
THE DEATH OF GUSTAVUS III. 41
Count de Horn, lays a hand on Ms shoulder : " Good
day, fine masker ! " he says. This Judas salute,
this ironical welcome given by the murderers to
their victim, is the signal for the attack. On the
instant, Ankarstroem fires on the King with a pistol
loaded with old iron.
Gustavus, struck in the left hip, cries, "I am
wounded ! " The pistol, which had been wrapped
in wool, made only a muffled report, and the smoke
spreading throughout the room, the crowd does not
think of a murder, but a fire. Cries of " Fire ! fire ! "
augment the confusion. Baron d'Essen, all covered
with his master's blood, helps him to gain a little box
called the (Eil-de-Boeuf, and from there a salon,
where he is laid upon a sofa. Baron d'Armfelt
orders the doors of the theatre to be closed, and every
one to unmask. A man, brazening it out, lifts his
mask before the officer of police, and says to him
with assurance, "As for me, sir, I hope that you
will not suspect me.'* It is Ankarstroem, the assas-
sin. He goes out quietly. But, after the crime was
committed, his weapons, a pistol and a knife like
that of Ravaillac, had fallen on the floor. A gun-
smith of Stockholm will recognize the pistol and
declare that he had sold it a few days before to a
former officer of the guards, Captain Ankarstroem.
It is the token which will cause the arrest of the
assassin, and his punishment by the penalty of par-
ricides, — decapitation and the cutting off of his
right hand.
42 THE DOWNFALL OF ROTALTr.
The King showed admirable calm and resignation
during the thirteen days he had still to live. He
asked with anxiety if the murderer had been arrested,
and being answered that his name was not yet
known: "Ah! God grant," said he, "that he may
not be discovered ! " As soon as the first bandages
were put on, the wounded man was taken to his
apartments at the castle. There he received his cour-
tiers and the foreign ministers. When he saw the
Duke d'Escars, who represented the brothers of Louis
XVI. at Stockholm : " This is a blow," said he,
" which is going to rejoice your Parisian Jacobins ;
but write to the Princes that if I recover from it, it
will change neither my sentiments nor my zeal for
their just cause." In the midst of his sufferings he
preserved a dignity above all praise. Neither recrim-
inations nor murmurs issued from his lips. He sum-
moned to his death-bed both his friends and those who
had been among the number of his enemies, but
would have been horrified to have been accomplices
in a crime. When the old Count de Brah6, leader
of the nobles of the opposition, presented himself,
Gustavus said, as he pressed him in his arms: "I
bless my wound, since it has brought back an old
friend who had withdrawn from me. Embrace me,
my dear count, and let all be forgotten between us."
The fate of his son, who was about to ascend the
throne at the age of thirteen, was the chief preoccu-
pation of the King. " Let them put me on a litter,"
cried he ; "I will go to the public square and speak to
THE DEATH OF GU8TAVU8 III. 43
the people." And he said to Baron d'Armfelt: " Go,
and like another Antony, show the bloody vestments
of Caesar." It was also to D'Armfelt that he said as
he was signing with his dying hand his commission
as Governor of Stockholm : " Give me your knightly
word that you will serve my son as faithfully as you
have served me." He made his confession to his
grand-almoner : "I fear," he said to him, "that I have
no great merit before God, but at least I am sure that
I have never done harm to any one intentionally."
He meant to receive the sacraments according to the
Lutheran form, and to have the Queen brought to
him, as he had not seen her since his illness. But
while seeking sleep in order to tranquillize his mind
before this emotion, he found the slumber of death,
March 29, 1792, at eleven in the morning. He
was forty-six years old.
Thus terminated the brilliant and stormy career of
the prince on whom the Marquis de Bouill^ has pro-
nounced the following judgment : " His manners and
his politeness rendered him the most amiable and at-
tractive man in his country, although the Swedes are
naturally intelligent. He had a vivid imagination, a
mind enlightened and adorned by a taste for letters,
a masculine and persuasive eloquence, and an easy
elocution even when speaking French; useful and
agreeable acquirements, a prodigious memory, polite
and affable manners, accompanied by a certain oddity
which did not displease. His strong and ardent soul
was enkindled with an inordinate love of glory ; but a
44 THE DOWNFALL OF BOYALTT.
chivalrous spirit and loyalty dominated there. His
sensitive heart rendered him clement, when he ought,
perhaps, to have been severe ; he was even susceptible
of friendship, and this prince has had and has preserved
friends whom I have known, and who were worthy
to be such. He had a firm and decided character,
and, above all, that resolution so necessary to states-
men, without which wit, prudence, talents, experi-
ence, are not only useless, but often injurious."
According to the Marquis de Bouill^, Gustavus
should have been the King of France, and Louis
XVI. King of Sweden. "As the sovereign of France,
Gustavus would have been, beyond all doubt, one of
its greatest kings. He would have preserved that
beautiful realm from a revolution ; he would have
governed with glory and with splendor. . . . Louis
XVI., on the other hand, placed on the throne of
Sweden, would have obtained the respect and esteem
of that simple people by his moral and religious vir-
tues, his economy, his spirit of justice, and his good
and benevolent sentiments. He would have contrib-
uted to the happiness of the Swedes, who would have
wept above his tomb ; whereas both these monarchs
perished at the hands of their subjects. But the
designs of Providence are impenetrable, and we
ought, in respect and silence, to obey its unalterable
decrees."
The Jacobins of Paris, who affected to despise the
projects of Gustavus III., showed how much they
had feared him by the mad joy they displayed on
THE DEATH OF GU8TAVUS III. 45
learning of his death. They lavished praises on
" Brutus Ankarstroem." Although it had been com-
mitted by the nobles, there was a certain reminiscence
of the French Revolution about the assault. In their
secret meetings the conspirators had agreed to carry
around on pikes the heads of Gustavus's principal
friends, " in the French style," as was said in those
days. Count de Lilienhorn, brought up, nourished,
and drawn from poverty and obscurity by Gustavus,
and overwhelmed to the last moment by the benefits
of the generous monarch, explained his monstrous
ingratitude and the part he had taken in the attack,
by saying he had been led astray by the idea of com-
manding the National Guards of Stockholm after the
Revolution, and playing the same part as Lafayette.
The Girondin ministry attained to power in France
a few days after Gustavus had been struck down in
Sweden. There was no connecting link between the
two facts ; but at Paris, as at Stockholm, the cause of
kings sustained a terrible repulse. The tragic death
of their faithful friend must have caused Louis XVI.
and Marie Antoinette some painful forebodings con-
cerning their own fate. The murder of Gustavus was
the first of a series of great catastrophes. The pistol
of the Swedish regicide heralded the blade of the
Parisian guillotine. The 16th of March was the
prelude of the 21st of January.
V.
THE BEQENNINGS OF MADAME ROLAND.
THE moment is at hand when a woman of the
middle class, born in humble circumstances, is
about to make her appearance on the scene of politics ;
a woman who, after living in obscurity during thirty-
eight years, was to become famous in a few days, and
attract the attention of all France first and after-
wards that of Europe entire. No figure is more curi-
ous to study than hers, and it is not surprising that
of late years it has tempted men of great merit, such
as MM. Daubant and Faug^re, whose publications
have shed great light on the Egeria of the Girondins.
At every epoch of history there are certain women
who become as it were living symbols, and sum up
in their own persons the passions, prejudices, and
illusions of their time. They reflect at once its
vices and its virtues, its qualities and its defects.
Such was Madame Roland. All the distinctive char-
acteristics of the close of the eighteenth century are
resumed in her : ardent enthusiasm, generous ideals,
aspiration towards progress, passion for liberty, heroic
courage in view of persecution, captivity, and death ;
an absence of religious faith, an implacable vanity, a
46
THE BEGINNINGS OF MADAME BOLAND. 47
thirst for emotions, plagiarism of antiquity, declama-
tory language and sentiments, and childish imitation
of Greece and Rome, Nothing is more interesting
than to analyze the conceptions of this mind, count
the pulsations of this heart, and surprise the inmost
secrets of a woman whose psychological importance is
as considerable as her place in history. Intellectually
as well as morally, Madame Roland is the daughter
of Jean-Jacques Rousseau; socially she is the per-
sonification of that third estate which, having been
nothing, wished at first to be something and after-
wards to be all ; politically, she is by turns the heroine
and the victim of the Revolution, which, under pre-
text of liberty, engendered tyranny, which used the
guillotine and perished by the guillotine, and which
after dreaming of light expired in mire and blood.
How was it that this little bourgeoises the daughter
of Philipon the engraver, a man midway between an
artisan and an artist, whose very origin seemed to re-
move her so far from any political r61e, attained to high
renown? What influences formed this woman whose
qualities were masculine ? Whence was drawn the
inspiration of this siren, destined to be taken in her
own snares and die the victim of her own incanta-
tions ? A rapid glance at the earliest years of Marie-
Jeanne Philipon, the future Madame Roland, is
enough to explain her passions and her hopes, her
errors and her talents, her rages and her enthusiasms.
She was born in Paris, March 18, 1754, of an intel-
ligent but frivolous father, and a simple, devoted,
48 THE DOWNFALL OF EOTALTT.
honestly commonplace mother. From infancy she
felt herself superior to those by whom she was sur-
rounded. Thence sprang an unmeasured pride and
a continual hunger to produce an impression. The
infant prodigy preluded the female politician. Speak-
ing of herself in her Memoirs, she becomes ecstatic
over the child who "read serious works, explained
very well the circles of the celestial globe, used cray-
ons and the burin, found at eight years that she was
the best dancer in an assembly of young persons
older than herself," and who, nevertheless, "was
often summoned to the kitchen to make an omelette,
clean the vegetables, or skim the pot." She admires
her own willingness to descend to domestic cares :
" I was never out of my element," she says ; " I could
make soup as skilfully as Philopoemen could chop
wood ; but no one, observing me, could imagine that
'<' this was suitable employment." Still speaking of
herself, she celebrates "the little person who on Sun-
days went to church or out walking in a spick-and-
span costume whose appearance was fully sustained
by her demeanor and her language." She calls at-
tention to the contrast by which, on week-days, the
same child went out alone, in a little cloth frock, to
buy parsley and salad at a short distance from home.
" It must be owned," she adds, " that I did not like
this very well ; but I did not show it, and I had the
art of doing my errands in such a way as to find some
pleasure in it. I united such great politeness to a
certain dignity, that the fruit-seller or other person
THE BEGINNINGS OF MADAME ROLAND. 49
of the sort, took pleasure in serving me first, and
even those who came before me thought this proper."
So the little Philipon wanted to take the chief
place in the fruiterer's shop, just as, later on, she
desired it on the political stage or the Ministry of
the Interior. This enemy of privileges will admit
them only for herself. In everything she made pre-
tentions : pretentions to elegance, beauty, distinction,
talent, knowledge, eloquence, genius, and, when she
wanted to be simple, to simplicity. In her style as
in her conversation, in her public as in her private
life, what she sought before all things was effect. It
was absolutely essential that people should talk about
her, that she should be playing a part, or standing on
a pedestal. Assuredly, if she had a fault, it was not
excess of modesty. She regarded herself as the flower
of her sex, a superior woman, made to be loved, flat-
tered, and adored. She speaks of her charms with the
precision of a doctor and the enthusiasm of a poet.
Not one of her perfections escapes her. It is through
a magnifying-glass and before a mirror that she stud-
ies and admires herself. She discovers that a society
in which a woman so remarkable and so attractive
is not thoroughly well known, must be badly or-
ganized. Middle-class by birth, and aristocratic by
instinct, she represents what one might then have
called the new social strata. A secret voice told
her that the day was to come when she would make
herself feared by the powerful of the earth, those
giants with feet of clay who, at the beginning of her
50 THE DOWNFALL OF ROYALTY.
career, were still looked at kneeling. Banished by
fate from the theatre where the human tragi-comedy
is played, she said to herself: "I too will have a
part one of these days." In the earliest stage of her
existence there was in her a confused medley of
uneasiness and ambition, of spite and anger. She
had a horror of the slightly disdainful protection of
people of quality. She conceived an aversion for
persons like that Demoiselle d'Hannaches, "big,
awkward, dry, and yellow," infatuated with her
nobility, annoying everybody with her titles, and
yet, in spite of her ignorance, her stiff manners, her
old-fashioned dress and her follies, well received
everywhere on account of her birth.
Slowly, but steadily, the future amazon of the
Revolution prepared herself for the combat. The
books which she read and re-read incessantly were
the arsenal whence she drew her weapons. One of
those presentiments which do not deceive, promised
her a stormy but illustrious destiny. More Roman
than French, more pagan than Christian, she longed
for glory like that of the heroines of Plutarch, her
favorite author. In the humble dwelling of her
father, situated at the corner of ' the Pont-Neuf and
the Quai des Orf^vres, she caught a glimpse of hori-
zons as wide as her thoughts. " From the upper part
of our house," she says, "a great expanse offered
itself to my dreamy and romantic imagination. How
often from my north window have I contemplated
with emotion the deserts of the sky, its superb azure
THE BEGINNINGS OF MADAME ROLAND. 61
vault splendidly outlined from the bluish dawn far
behind the Pont du Change, to the sunset gilded
with a faint purplish lustre behind the trees of the
Champs Elys^es and the houses of Chaillot."
Irritated with the obscurity to which she was con-
demned by fate, there was but one resource which
could have consoled her for the social inequalities
which bruised her vanity and her pride. That
resource would have been religion. Nothing but an
ideal of humility could have appeased the interior
revolts of this soul of fire. To such a woman, what
is lacking is heaven. Earth, no matter what hap-
pens, can give her nothing but deceptions. The only
moment of her life when she felt herself really happy
was that when she enjoyed the supreme good, peace
of heart. Of all parts of her Memoirs, the most pure
and touching are those sh^^^devotes to her recol-
lections of the convent. One might think that the
author of MoUd Had remembered them when he
described in such penetrating terms the mystic
poetry of the cloister, and the regrets often engen-
dered by the loss of faith in the minds and hearts of
people who have become unbelievers.
The little Philipon, being in her twelfth year,
asked to be sent to a convent, in order to prepare
better for her first communion. She was placed with
the Ladies of the Congregation, rue Neuve-Saint-
Etienne, in the Faubourg Saint-Marcel, near Sainte-
P^lagie, her future prison : " How I pressed my
dear mamma in my arms at the moment of parting
62 THE DOWNFALL OF BOYALTY.
from her for the first time ! I was stifled, over-
whelmed ; but I obeyed the voice of God, and
crossed the threshold of the cloister, offering Him
with tears the greatest sacrifice that I could make.
The first night I spent at the convent was agitated :
I was no longer under the paternal roof. I felt that
I was far from that good mother who was surely
thinking of me with tenderness. There was a feeble
light in the room where I had been put to bed, with
four other children of my own age ; I rose quietly
and went to the window. The moonlight permitted
me to see the garden upon which it looked. The
most profound silence reigned; I listened to it, so to
say, with a sort of respect; great trees cast their
gigantic shadows here and there, and promised a safe
refuge for tranquil meditation. I lifted my eyes to
the pure and serene sky, and thought I felt the pres-
ence of the Divinity, who smiled at my sacrifice and
already offered me its recompense in the peace of a
celestial abode. Delicious tears flowed slowly down
my cheeks ; I reiterated my vows with a holy trans-
port, and I enjoyed the slumber of the elect."
As if in these silent cloisters, which she crossed
slowly so as to enjoy their solitude more fully, she
had a presentiment of the storms in her destiny and
her heart, she sometimes stopped beside a tomb
on which was engraven the eulogy of a holy maiden.
" She is happy ! " she said to herself with a sigh.
While she was in prison she remembered with emo-
tion a novice's taking the veil : " I experience yet the
THE BEGINNINGS OF MADAME BOLAND. 53
thrill caused by her faintly tremulous voice when she
chanted melodiously the customary versicle : ' Elegi:
Here I have chosen my abode, and I will not depart
from it forever.' I have not forgotten the notes of
this little air ; I can repeat them as exactly as if I
had heard them yesterday."
Unhappily, religious ideas were soon to undergo a
change in the mind of the future Madame Roland.
Returning to the paternal dwelling, she was badly
brought up there ; her mother let her read every-
thing, even Candide. Voltaire, Helv^tius, Diderot,
had no secrets for this young girl. Extreme disorder
and confusion in mind and heart were the result.
When she had the misfortune to lose her mother at
the age of twenty-one, the book in which she sought
consolation was the Nouvelle HSloise. Jean-Jacques
became her god. " It seems," she says, " as if he were
my natural aliment and the interpreter of the senti-
ment I had already, and which he alone knew how to
explain to me. . . . To have the whole of Jean-
Jacques," she says again, "to be able to consult him
incessantly, to enlighten and elevate one's self with
him at all times of life, is a felicity which can only
be tasted by adoring him as I did." Such reading
robbed her of faith. It made her a free-thinker
and a bluestocking. It inspired her with an un-
healthy ambition, sullied her imagination, and troubled
the peace of her heart. It deprived her of that moral
delicacy, lacking which, even virtue itself loses its
charms. She was no longer anything but a young
54 THE DOWJUFALL OF BOTALTY.
girl, well-conducted but not pure, honest but shame-
less.
Was not a day coming when, a prisoner and on the
point of getting into the fatal cart, she would throw
off the terrible anxieties of her situation in order to
imitate the impurities of the Confessions of Jean-
Jacques, and retrace indecent details with compla-
cency ? Do not seek in her that flower of innocence
which is the young girl's grace. The charming puri-
tan does not commit great faults, but she has
astonishing licenses of thought and speech. For
her, Louvet's Fauhlas is "one of those charming
romances known to persons of taste, in which the
graces of imagination ally themselves to the tone of
philosophy." Is not this woman, who begins her life
like a saint and ends it as a pupil of Voltaire and
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, the symbol of that troubled
eighteenth century which opened in fidelity to relig-
ious faith and closed in the depths of the abyss of
incredulity ? The ravages caused by bad reading in
the soul of this young girl explain the catastrophes of
the entire century.
From the time when she replaced the Gospels by
the Contrat Social and the Imitation of Jesus Christ
by the Nouvelle HSloise^ there was no longer any-
thing simple or natural remaining in the young
philosopher. All her thoughts and actions became
declamatory. There was something theatrical in her
attitudes and gestures, and even in the sound of her
voice. Her speech was rhythmical, cadenced, marked
THE BEGINNINGS OF MADAME ROLAND. 55
by a special accent. Even her private letters often
resemble the amplifications of rhetoric rather than
the effusions of friendship. One might say that their
author had a presentiment that they would be printed.
She wrote to Mademoiselle Sophie Cannet, January
3, 1776 : " In any case, burn nothing. Though my
letters were one day to be read by all the world,
I would not hide the only monuments of my weak-
ness, and my sentiments." Monuments of weakness
— is not the expression worthy of the bombast of the
time?
Not finding love. Mademoiselle Philipon married
philosophically. Her union bears a striking imitation
to that of H^loise with M. de Volmar. " Looking her
destiny peacefully and tenderly in the face, greatly
moved but not infatuated," she united herself to a
man whom she esteemed but did not love. This was
Roland de la Platidre, who was descended from an
ancient and very honorable middle class family.
Though not rich, he was at least comfortably well
off. Well educated, honest, simple in his tastes and
manners, he fulfilled his duties as inspector of man-
ufactures in a notable way. The marriage was cele-
brated on February 4, 1780. Roland was forty-six
years old, while his wife was not yet twenty-six.
Thin, bald, careless in his dress, the husband was not
at all an ideal person. It had taken him five years to
declare his passion, and this hesitation, as his wife
was to write thirteen years later, " left not a vestige
of illusion in his sentiments." " I have often felt,"
56 THE DOWNFALL OF ROYALTY.
says she, " that there was no similarity between us.
If we lived in retirement, I spent many painful
hours ; if we mingled in society, I was loved by per-
sons among whom I perceived there were some who
might affect me too much ; I plunged into labor with
my husband. ... It was a long time before I
gained courage to contradict him."
M. Roland was sent to Amiens, where his wife pre-
sented him with a daughter, whom she nursed, and
afterwards brought up with the utmost tenderness
and devotion. In 1784, he was summoned to Lyons,
where he found himself once more in his native
region. Thenceforward he spent two of the winter
months in Lyons, and the remainder of the year on
his paternal domain, the Close of Plati^re, two leagues
from Villefranche, surrounded by woods and vine-
yards, and opposite the mountains of Beaujolais.
While her husband went to take possession of his
new post, Madame Roland, not yet a republican,
remained a few weeks in Paris in order to obtain,
if possible, the patent of nobility so ardently desired
by the family. Her solicitations proved unsuccess-
ful, and the married pair, despairing of becoming
nobles, consoled themselves by a frank avowal of
democracy.
Up to the time of the Revolution, Madame Roland's
life glided peacefully away without any remarkable
incidents. In the Close of Plati^re, which she calls
her dovecot, she appears as a good housekeeper who
looks after everything, from the cellar to the garret ;
THE BEGINNINGS OF MADAME BOLANI). 57
who plays the doctor among the poor villagers ; who
is delighted to find in nature a savor of frank and
free rusticity. The life she leads is not merely hon-
est, but edifying. She is very careful at this period
to hide her philosophy. She writes to Bosc, one of
her friends, February 9, 1785 : " My brother-in-law,
whose disposition is extremely gentle and sensitive,
is also very religious; I leave him the satisfaction of
thinking that the dogmas are as evident to me as
they appear to him, and my exterior actions are such
as become the mother of a family out in the country,
who is bound to edify everybody. As I was very
devout in my early youth, I know my prayers as well
as my philosophy, and I prefer to make use of my
first erudition." She wrote again to Bosc, October 12,
1785 : " I have hardly touched a pen for a month,
and I think I am acquiring some of the inclinations
of the beast whose milk refreshes me ; I am extremely
asinine, and I busy myself with all the petty cares of
the hoggish country life. I make preserved pears
that are delicious; we dry grapes and plums; we
wash and make up linen; we have white wine for
breakfast, and we lie down on the grass to rest ; we
follow the vintagers; we repose in the woods and
fields."
Before looking at the female politician, let us
glance once more at the woman in private life, the
charitable, devoted, honorable mother of a family,
such as she paints herself in a letter of November
10, 1786 : " From the corner of my fire, at eleven
58 THE DOWNFALL OF BOTALTT.
o'clock, after a quiet night and the various morning
cares, my husband at his desk, my little girl knit-
ting, and I chatting with one and superintending
the other's work, enjoying the happiness of being
snugly in the bosom of my dear little family, writing
to a friend, while the snow is falling on so many
wretches weighed down by poverty and sorrow, I am
touched with compassion for their fate ; I turn back
sweetly to my own, and at this moment I count as
nothing the annoyances of relations or circumstances
which seem occasionally to mar its felicity."
Alas, why did not Madame Roland stay in her
modest country-house to dry her grapes and plums,
to superintend her washing, mend her linen, and
spread out in her garret the fruits for winter use?
Were not obscurity, repose, peace of heart, better for
her than that fictitious glory which was to pass so
quickly and end upon the scaffold ? One might say
that before quitting nature, that great consoler which
calms and does not betray, in order to plunge herself
into the odious world of politics, which spoils and
embitters the most beautiful souls, she experiences
a certain vague regret for the sweet and tranquil
joys which her folly was about to cause her to
renounce forever.
"The weather is delightful," wrote Madame Ro-
land, May 17, 1790 ; " the country has changed almost
beyond recognition in only six days ; the vines and
walnuts were as black as they are in winter, but a
stroke of the magic wand does not alter the aspect of
THE BEGINNINGS OF MADAME ROLANB. 59
things more quickly than the heat of a few fine days
has done; everything turns green and leafs out; a
soft verdure is visible where there was nothing but
the dull and faded tint of torpor and inaction. I
could easily forget public affairs and men's contro-
versies here ; content to arrange the manor, to see
my fowls brood, and take care of my rabbits, I would
care nothing more about the revolutions of empires.
But, as soon as I am in the city, the poverty of the
people and the insolence of the rich rouse my hatred
of injustice and oppression: I have no longer any
soul or desire except for the triumph of great truths
and the success of our regeneration."
The die is cast.^ The daughter of Philipon the
engraver is about to become a political woman. The
hour is come when this great actress, who has long
known her part, is at last going on the stage. She
has a presentiment of the risk she is running in
assuming a task which is beyond her sex. But, like
soldiers who love danger for danger's sake, and pre-
fer the emotions of the battle-field to garrison life,
she will joyfully quit her province and throw herself
,into the seething furnace of Paris. Even though she
is to meet persecution and death at the end of her
new career, she will not recoil. A short but agitated
life will seem better to her than a long and fortunate
existence without violent emotions. A clear sky
pleases her no longer. She is homesick for storms
and lightning flashes.
VI.
MADAME ROLAND'S ENTRANCE ON THE SCENE.
THE hour of the Revolution had struck, and,
ambitious, unbelieving, full of disdain for the
leading classes, full of confidence in her own superi-
ority, active, eloquent, impassioned, uniting the lan-
guage of an orator to the seductions of a charming
woman, Madame Roland was ripe for the Revolution.
Her epoch suited her, and she suited her epoch.
This pagan who, according to her own expression,
roamed mentally in Greece, attended the Olympic
games, and despised herself for being French ; this
fanatical admirer of antiquity who, at eight years
of age, carried Plutarch to church with her instead of
a missal, who styled Roland the virtuous as the Athe-
nians called Aristides the just, who will die like her
heroes, Socrates and Phocion ; this student who, at
another period, would have been rated as an under-
bred woman of the middle class, a more or less ridicu-
lous bluestocking, suddenly found herself, in conse-
quence of a general panic and circumstances as
strange as they were unforeseen, the very ideal of the
society in which she lived. For several months she
was to be its fashionable type, its favorite heroine.
60
EEB ENTRANCE ON THE SCENE. 61
But the Revolution was a Saturn who devoured his
children, male and female, and the Egeria of the
Girondins expiated bitterly the intoxication caused
by her brief popularity.
In 1777, at the age of twenty-three, she had writ-
ten : " Gay and jesting speeches fall from this mouth
which sobs at night upon its pillow ; a laugh dwells
on my lips, while my tears, shut up within my heart,
at length make on it, in spite of its hardness, the
effect produced by water on a stone : falling drop by
drop, they insensibly wear it awa3\" In 1791, when
she was thirty-eight, she wrote : " The phenomena
of nature, which make the vulgar grow pale, and
which are imposing even to the philosophical eye,
offer nothing to a sensitive person preoccupied with
great concerns, but scenes inferior to those of which
her own heart is the theatre." The flame consuming
the eloquent and ardent disciple of Rousseau was in
need of fuel, and, finding this in politics, she threw
herself upon it with a sort of ravenous fury, just
as she had once abandoned herself to study. At
twenty-two she had written to one of her young
friends : " You scold me for studying too hard.
Bear in mind, then, that unless I did so, love might
perhaps excite my imagination to frenzy. It is a
necessary distraction. I am not trying to become a
learned woman ; I study because I need to study,
as I do to eat." It was thus that Madame Roland
plunged into politics. All her unappeased instincts
and repressed forces found their outlet in that
direction.
62 THE DOWNFALL OF ROYALTY.
Woman being formed by nature to be dominated,
nothing is more agreeable to her than to invert the
parts, and in her turn to domineer. To exert in-
fluence in public affairs, to designate or support the
candidates for great offices of State, to organize or
direct a ministry, to make themselves listened to by
serious men, to inspire opinions or systems, is to
ambitious women a kind of revenge for their sex.
Those who have acquired a habit of exercising this
sort of power cannot relinquish it without extreme
reluctance. If they have once persuaded themselves
of their superiority to men, nothing can ever root
the conviction from their minds. To be protected
humiliates them ; what they long for most of all is
to be acknowledged as protectresses. Self-deluded,
they attribute to their passion for the public welfare
what is, especially in their case, the need of petty
glory, the thirst for emotions, or the amusement of
pride and vanity.
The Revolutionary bluestocking, Madame Roland,
was from the very start delighted to see that her
works were printed, and that they produced as much
effect as if they had been written by some great
statesman. These first successes seemed to her to
justify the excellent opinion she had always enter-
tained of herself. She got into a habit of playing
the oracle. No sooner had her lips touched the cup
containing this poisonous but intoxicating beverage
than she would have no other. That alone could
refresh, even while it killed her.
HER ENTRANCE ON THE SCENE. 63
Politics has the immense defect of exasperating,
troubling, and disfiguring souls. Madame Roland
was born good, sensible, and generous. Politics
made her at times wicked, vindictive, and cruel.
July 26, 1789, she wrote this odious letter : " You
are nothing but children ; your enthusiasm is a fire
of straw, and if the National Assembly does not
order the trial of two illustrious heads, or some
generous Decius does not strike them down, you are
all . . . lost " (Madame Roland employed a more
trivial expression). "If this letter does not reach
you, may the cowards who read it redden to learn
that it is from a woman, and tremble in reflecting
that she can create a hundred enthusiasts from whom
will proceed a million others." Roland had been
employed by the Agricultural Society of Lyons to
draw up its reports for the States- General. Madame
Roland wrote much more of them than her husband
did. She sent article on article to a journal founded
by Champagneux to forward the revolutionary propa-
ganda. Sixty thousand copies were printed of one
of them in which she described the festival of the
Federation at Lyons. Imagine the joy felt by the
femme-auteur, the pupil of Jean-Jacques, the model
of George Sand ! Soon afterwards, the municipality
deputed Rolaud to the Constituent Assembly to
advocate the interests of the city, which was in-
volved to the extent of forty millions, and which
asked to have this debt assumed by the State.
Roland and his wife arrived in Paris, February 20,
1791.
64 THE DOWNFALL OF ROYALTY.
The married pair installed themselves on the third
floor of the hotel Britannique, in rue Gudn^gaud.
There a sort of political reunion was formed, of
which Brissot was the first link. Four times a week
a few friends, and certain deputies and journalists,
met around this still unknown woman, whose wit,
charm, and beauty were not long in making a sensa-
tion. It was at this period that she made Buzot's
acquaintance. The day of her first interview with
the young and brilhant deputy was an epoch in her
sentimental life. Thenceforward, two passions, love
and ambition, the one as fierce and devouring as the
other, were to occupy her ardent soul. Comparing
the young orator, whom she perhaps transformed in
her imagination into the president of a more or less
Athenian republic, with the austere and prosaic com-
panion of her existence, she perceived that, according
to her own expression, there was no equality between
her and her husband, and that "the ascendency of
a domineering character, joined to twenty years' sen-
iority, rendered one of these superiorities too great "
— that of age. She was herself six years older than
Buzot. Even though her love for him may have re-
mained Platonic, she gave him all her heart and soul.
For the majority of women, still beautiful, who
mingle in public affairs, love is the principal thing;
politics but the accessory, the pretext. They imagine
they are attaching themselves to ideas, and it is to
men. In this respect the heroines of the Revolution
resemble those of the Fronde. The stateswoman in
HER ENTRANCE ON THE SCENE. 65
Madame Roland plays second to the lover of Buzot.
In her mind the Republic and the handsome republi-
can blend into one. Believing herself a patriot when
she is above all a woman in love, she carries the emo-
tions, the infatuations, the ardors and exaggerations
of her private life into her public one. With her,
angers and enthusiasms rise to paroxysm. She is
extreme in all things.
She detests Louis XVI. as much as she loves
Buzot. After the flight to Varennes, she wrote :
"To replace the King on the throne is a folly, an
absurdity, if it is not a horror; to declare him de-
mented is to make obligatory the appointment of a
regent. To impeach Louis XVI. would be, beyond
all contradiction, the greatest and most righteous
step, but you are incapable of taking it. Well then,
put him not exactly under interdict, but suspend
him." Here begins the influence of Madame Roland.
The suspension of the royal authority is one of her
ideas. " So long as peace lasted," she says, " I ad-
hered to the peaceful r61e and to that kind of influ-
ence which I thought fitting to my sex ; when war
was declared by the King's departure, it appeared to
me that every one should devote himself unreserv-
edly. I joined the fraternal societies, being per-
suaded that zeal and good intentions might be very
useful in critical moments. I was unable to stay at
home any longer, and I went to the houses of worthy
people of my acquaintance that we might excite each
other to great measures." One knows what the
66 THE DOWNFALL OF ROYALTY.
Revolution meant by that expression: great meas-
ures. Madame Roland became furious. She wanted
a freedom of the press without check or limit. She
was angry because Marat's newspapers were destroyed
by the satellites of Lafayette. " It is a cruel thing
to think of," she exclaims, "but it becomes every
day more evident that peace means retrogression,
and that we can only be regenerated by blood."
Her hatred includes both Louis XVI. and Marie
Antoinette. June 25, 1791, she writes : " It appears
to me that the King ought to be sequestered and his
wife impeached." And on July 1 : " The King has
sunk to the lowest depths of degradation ; his trick
has exposed him completely, and he inspires nothing
but contempt. His name, his portrait, and his arms
have been effaced everywhere. Notaries have been
obliged to take down the escutcheons marked with a
flower-de-luce which served to designate their houses.
He is called nothing but Louis the False, or the
great hog. Caricatures of every sort represent him
under emblems which, though not the most odious,
are the most suitable to nourish and augment popu-
lar disdain. The people tend of their own accord to
all that can express this sentiment, and it is impos-
sible that they should ever again be willing to see
seated on the throne a being they despise so com-
pletely."
Things did not go fast enough to suit Madame
Roland's furious hatred. The popular gathering in
the Champ-de-Mars, whose aim was to bring about
IIER ENTRANCE ON THE SCENE. 67
the deposition of the King, was forcibly dispersed on
July 17. With six exceptions, all the deputies who
had belonged either to the Jacobin Club or that of
the Cordeliers, left them on account of their demand
that Louis XVI. should be brought to trial. The
time for great measures, to use Madame Roland's
expression, had not yet arrived. The ardent demo-
crat laments it. " I cannot describe our situation to
you," she writes at this moment of the revolution-
ary recoil; "I feel environed by a silent horror; my
heart grows steadfast in a mournful and solemn
silence, ready to sacrifice all rather than cease to
defend principles, but not knowing the moment when
they can triumph, and forming no resolution but that
of giving a great example."
The mission which had kept Roland in Paris for
seven months being ended, the discouraged pair re-
turned to their province in September. After stop-
ping a few days in Lyons, in order to found a popular
society afiiliated to the Jacobins of the capital, they
went to spend the remainder of the autumn at their
country place, the Close of Plati^re. But calm and
silence no longer suited Madame Roland. Repose
exasperated her. She missed the struggle and the
emotions of revolutionary Paris, of which she had
said : " One lives ten years here in twenty-four hours ;
events and affections blend with and succeed each
other with singular rapidity ; no such great events
ever occupied minds."
The pleasure of seeing her daughter again was not
68 THE DOWNFALL OF ROYALTY.
enough to compensate her for the chagrin of having
parted from Buzot. Just as she was despairing at
the thought of sinking back into all the nullity of
the province, as she expresses it, the news came
that the inspectors of agriculture had been suppressed.
Roland, no longer an official, deliberated with his
wife as to their next step. His own inclination was
to settle permanently in the country and devote him-
self to agricultural labors which would surely and
safely augment his fortune. But his wife was by no
means of the same mind. She must see her dear
Buzot again at any cost. She flattered the self-love
of her unsuspecting spouse, and persuaded him that
Paris was the sole theatre worthy of the virtuous
Roland. Roland allowed himself to be convinced.
His wife, no longer mistress of herself, was drawn
into the Parisian abyss as by an irresistible force.
And yet was it not she who had proposed to herself
this ideal, so easily to have been realized? "I have
never imagined anything more desirable than a life
divided between domestic cares and those of agricul-
ture, spent on a healthy and fertile farm, with a little
family where the example of its heads and common
labor maintain attachment, peace, and freedom."
Was it not she who had uttered this profoundly true
thought : " I see neither pleasure nor happiness ex-
cept in the reunion of that which charms the heart as
well as the senses, and costs no regrets"? In the
most beautiful days of her youth had she not writ-
ten : " There was a time when I was never content
HER ENTRANCE ON THE SCENE. 69
except when I had a book or a pen in my hand ; at
present I am as well satisfied when I have made a shirt
for my father or added up an account of expenses as
if I had read something profound. I do not care at
all to be learned ; I want to be good and happy ; that
is my chief business. What is necessary but good,
honest common sense ? " Is it not she, too, who will
write at the beginning of her Memoirs : " I have
observed that in all classes, ambition is generally
fatal; for the few happy ones whom it exalts, it
makes a multitude of victims." Why did she not
more frequently remind herself of the sentiment so
just and well expressed in a letter dated in 1790 :
" Women are not made to share in all the occupations
of men : they are altogether bound to domestic cares
and virtues, and they cannot turn away from them
without destroying their happiness." But, alas !
passion does not reason. Farewell common sense,
wisdom, and experience, when ambition and love have
taken possession of a woman's heart. Returning to
Paris, December 15, 1791, the Rolands established
themselves in the rue de la Harpe, and plunged head-
long into politics. The wife redoubled her activii;y,
eloquence, and passion. The husband, instead of
attending quietly to the management of his retiring
pension, was named a member of the Jacobin corre-
sponding committee at the beginning of 1792, a revo-
lutionary centre of which Brissot was the leader. At
this period, we are informed by Madame Roland, the
intimidated court imagined that the nomination of a
70 THE DOWNFALL OF ROYALTY.
minister chosen from among the patriots of the As-
sembly would cause it to regain a little popularity.
Brissot proposed Roland, who, on March 24, 1792,
accepted the portfolio of the Interior.
Madame, behold yourself, then, the wife of a min-
ister, and in fact more of a minister than your hus-
band. Your ambitious projects, which have been
treated as chimerical, are now realized. You have a
cortege like Marie Antoinette. Men seek the favor
of a smile, a word, from you. They court, they solicit,
they fear you. The monarchy, which you detest, is
at last obliged to reckon with you and your friends.
Your beauty, your talent, and your eloquence are
boasted of. Your name is in every mouth. You are
powerful, you are celebrated. Well! you will find
out for yourself what bitterness there is at the bottom
of this cup of pride which has tempted your lips so
long. You will learn at your own expense that re-
nown does not produce happiness, and that, for a
woman, twilight is better than the full glare of day.
Yes, you will long for the obscurity which weighed
upon you. You will long for the house of your father,
the engraver, on the Quai des Orfevres. You will
dream of the sunsets which affected you, and of the
monotonous but peaceful succession of your days.
You, the deist, the female philosopher, will recall
with regret the cloisters where in your adolescence
you tasted the peace of the elect. In the time of
your supreme trial Buzot's miniature will not console
you ; it is not his image you should cover with your
HER ENTRANCE ON THE SCENE. 71
kisses. No; that miniature is not the viaticum for
eternity. What you will need is the crucifix, and
you respect the crucifix no longer. And yet your
imagination will evoke the mystic cloister, with its
altars decked with flowers, its painted windows, its
penetrating and ineilable poesy. And in thought,
also, you will see the country once more, the harvest
time, the month of the vintage, the poor who come
to the door asking for bread and who go away with
blessings on their lips and gratitude in their hearts.
Why have you quitted these honest people ? What
have you come to do in the midst of these ferocious
Jacobins, who flatter you to-day and will assassinate
you to-morrow ? Do you fancy that Marie Antoi-
nette is the only woman who will be insulted, calum-
niated, and betrayed? Why do you seat at your
hospitable table this livid-faced Robespierre, who to-
day, perhaps, will address you a madrigal, and
to-morrow send you to the scaffold ? You will pay
very dear for these false and artificial joys, these
gusts of commonplace vanity, this pride of a parvenu,
and the pleasure of presiding for a few evenings at
the dinners given to the Minister of the Interior in
Calonne's dining-room. The Legislative Assembly,
the Jacobin Club, the journals and the ministry, the
souvenirs of Plutarch and the parodies of Jean-
Jacques, the noisy crowd of flatterers who are the
courtiers of demagogues as they would have been
the courtiers of kings, these adulators who are going
to change into executioners, — all are vanity ! Poor
72 THE DOWNFALL OF EOTALTT.
woman, whose power will be so ephemeral, why do
you make yourself a persecutor ? You will so soon
be persecuted. Why labor so relentlessly to shake
the foundations of a throne that will bury you be-
neath its ruins?
VII.
MAEIE ANTOINETTE AND MADAME EOLAND.
TWO women find themselves confronted across
the chessboa,rd and about to move the pieces
in a terrible game in which each stakes her head, and
each is foredoomed to lose. One is the woman who
represents the old regime — the daughter of the Ger-
man Caesars, the Queen of France and Navarre ; the
other stands for the new r(^gime, the Parisian middle
classes — the daughter of the engraver of the Quai des
Orf^vres. They are nearly the same age. Madame
Roland was born March 18, 1754 ; and Marie Antoi-
nette, November 2, 1755. Both are beautiful, and
both are conscious of their charm. Each exercises a
sort of domination over all who approach her.
In 1792, when Roland enters the ministry, Marie
Antoinette is no longer thinking of coquetry, luxury,
or dress. The heroine of the Gallery of the Mirrors,
the crowned shepherdess of the Trianon, the queen
of elegance, pleasure, and fashion is not recognizable
in her. The time for splendors is over, like the time
for pastorals. No more festivals, no more distractions,
no more theatres. Incessant anxieties and unremitting
labor; writing throughout the day and reading, medi-
73
74 THE DOWNFALL OF ROYALTY.
tating, and praying throughout the night, are now the
unfortunate sovereign's whole existence. She hardly
sleeps. Her eyes are reddened by tears. A single
night, that of the arrest on the journey to Varennes,
had sufficed to whiten her hair. She wears mourning
for her brother, the Emperor Leopold, and for her
ally, the King of Sweden, Gustavus III., and one
might say that she is also wearing it for the French
monarchy. All trace of frivolity has disappeared.
The severe and majestic countenance of the woman
who suffers so cruelly as queen, spouse, and mother,
is sanctified by the double poetry of religion and
sorrow.
Madame Roland, on the other hand, is more coquet-
tish than she has ever been. The actress who has at
last found her theatre and is very proud to play her
part, wishes to allure, desires to reign. She delights
in presiding at these political dinners where all the
guests are men, and of which her grace and eloquence
constitute the charm. She has just completed her
thirty-eighth year. Her husband is nearly fifty-eight ;
Buzot is only thirty-two. Possibly she is still more
preoccupied with love than with ambition. To use
one of her own expressions, "her heart swells with
the desire to please," to please Buzot above all ; she
takes pains to celebrate her own beauty, which, in
spite of showing symptoms of decline, has the brill-
iance of sunset. In her Memoirs she describes her
*' large and superbly modelled bust, her light, quick
step, her frank and open glance, at once keen and
MARIE ANTOINETTE AND MADAME ROLAND. 75
soft, which sometimes amazes, but which caresses still
more, and always quickens." She writes : " My mouth
is rather large; there are a thousand prettier, but
none that has a softer and more seductive smile."
In prison, when she is nearly forty, she states that if
she has lost some of her attractions, yet she needs no
help from art to make her look five or six years
younger. " Even those who see me every day," she
adds, " require to be told my age, in order to believe
me more than thirty-two or thirty-three." Madame
Roland had at first written thirty-three or thirty-four.
-But after reflection, finding herself too modest, she
made an erasure and retrenched another year. She
adds that she made very little use of her charms ;
avowing at the same time, and with the most absolute
frankness, that if she could reconcile her duty with
her inclination to utilize them more fully, she would
not be sorry.
' Both Marie Antoinette and Madame Roland were
political women. But the one became so in her own
despite, in the hope of saving the life of her husband
and the heritage of her son ; the other, through ambi-
tion and the desire to play a part for which her origin
had not destined her. In the one, everything is at
once noble and simple, natural and majestic ; in the
other there is always something affected and theatri-
cal ; one scents the parvenue who will never be a
grande dame., even in the Ministry of the Interior or
at the house of Calonne. All is unstudied in Marie
Antoinette ; Madame Roland, on the contrary, is an
artist in coquetry.
76 THE DOWNFALL OF ROYALTY.
Bizarre caprice of fate which makes political rivals
and adversaries treating with each other on equal terms
of these two women, of whom one was so much above
the other by rank and birth. The Tuileries and the
house of the Minister of the Interior are like two hos-
tile citadels at a stone's throw from each other. On
both sides there is watchfulness and fear. An impas-
sable abyss, hollowed out by the vanity of the com-
moner still more than b}"- the pride of the Queen,
forever separates these two courageous women who,
had they united instead of antagonizing each other,
might have saved both their country and themselves.
It is necessary to go back a few years in order to
comprehend the motive of Madame Roland's hatred
for Marie Antoinette. It was inspired in the vain
commoner by envy, the worst and vilest of all coun-
sellors. Madame Roland's special characteristic was
the passion for making an effect. Now the effect pro-
duced by Marie Antoinette under the old regime was
immense ; that produced by the future Egeria of the
Girondin group was almost niill. A simple mortal,
regarding Olympus from below, she said to herself
with vexation, that in spite of her talents and her
charms there was no place for her among the gods
and goddesses. Versailles was like a superior world
from which it maddened her to be excluded. She was
twenty years old when, in 1774, she visited it with
her mother, her uncle, the Abb^ Bimont, and an aged
gentlewoman, Mademoiselle d'Hannaches. They all
lodged at the palace. One of Marie Antoinette's
MARIE ANTOINETTE AND MADAME ROLAND. 77
women, who was acquainted with the Abb^, and who
was not then on duty, lent them her apartment. The
only object of the excursion was to give the young
girl a near view of the court.
In recalling this souvenir in her Memoirs, Madame
Roland displays her aversion for the old society. She
is annoyed even with the companion of her visit, be-
cause she was, according to the expression then in
use, a person of quality. " Mademoiselle d'Han-
naches," she says, " went boldly wherever she chose,
ready to fling her name in the face of any one who
tried to stop her, thinking they ought to be able to
read on her grotesque visage her six hundred years
of established nobility. The fine figure of a pedantic
little cleric like the Abbe Bimont, and the imbecile
pride of the ugly d'Hannaches were not out of keep-
ing in those scenes ; but the unpainted face of my
worthy mamma, and the modesty of my dress, an-
nounced that we were commoners ; if my eyes or my
youth provoked remark, it was almost patronizing,
and caused me nearly as much displeasure as Ma-
dame de Boismorel's compliments." It was this Ma-
dame de Boismorel who, although she found the little
Philipon very pleasing, had said to the grandmother
of the future Madame Roland : " Take care that she
does not become a learned women ; it would be a
great pity."
The splendors of Versailles did not dazzle the
daughter of the engraver of the Quai des Orfdvres.
The apartment she occupied was at the top of the
78 THE DOWNFALL OF ROYALTY.
palace, in the same corridor as that of the Archbishop
of Paris, and so near it that it was necessary for the
prelate to take precautions lest she should overhear
him talk. " Two poorly furnished rooms," she says,
" in the upper end of one of which space had been
contrived for a valet's bed, was the habitation which
a duke and peer of France esteemed himself honored
in possessing, in order to be closer at hand to cringe
every morning at the lev^e of Their Majesties : and
yet he was the rigorist Beaumont. . . . The ordi-
nary and the ceremonial table-service of the entire
family, eating separately or all together, the masses,
the promenades, the gaming, the presentations, had
us for spectators during a week." What impres-
sion was made on her by this excursion to the royal
palace ? She herself will tell us nineteen years later,
in her prison. " I was not insensible," she says, " to
the effect of so much pomp and ceremony, but I was
indignant that its object should be to exalt certain
individuals already too powerful and of very slight
pereonal importance : I liked much better to look at
the statues in the gardens than at the persons in the
palace ; and when my mother asked if I was satis-
fied with my visit, ' Yes,' I replied, ' provided it will
soon be over ; if I stay here many days longer, I shall
detest the people so much that I shall be unable to
hide my hatred.' 'What harm are they doing you,
then?' 'Making me feel injustice, and constantly
behold absurdity.' "
How this impression is emphasized in the really
MARIE ANTOINETTE AND MADAME ROLAND. 79
prophetic letter written by the future heroine of the
Revolution to her friend, Mademoiselle Sophie Cannet,
October 4, 1774 : " To return to Versailles. I cannot
tell you how greatly all I have examined has made me
value my own situation, and thank Heaven that I was
born in an obscure condition. You think, perhaps,
that this sentiment is based on the slight esteem I
attach to the worth of opinion, and my sense of the
reality of the penalties attached to greatness. Not
at all. It is based on the knowledge I have of my
own character, which would be very detrimental both
to me and to the State if I were placed at a little
distance from the throne ; because I would be keenly
shocked by the extreme inequality which sets so many
thousands of men below a single individual of the
same species ! " What a prediction ! The most un-
foreseen events were one day to bring this young
plebeian near that royalty formerly so far above her.
The engraver's daughter will be the wife of a minis-
ter of State. And then what will happen ? Accord-
ing to her own expression, her r61e will be very
detrimental to herself and to the State.
In the same letter she had written : " A beneficent
king seems to me an almost adorable being; but if,
before coming into the world, the choice of a govern-
ment had been given me, my character would have
made me decide for a republic." She will end by
hating the beneficent King, and probably no one
will contribute more than she towards establishing
the republican regime in France.
80 THE DOWNFALL OF ROYALTY.
Supposing that, instead of being merely an insig-
nificant commoner, Madame Roland liad been born
in the ranks of aristocracy, had enjoyed tlie right of
sitting down in the presence of Their Majesties at
Versailles, and had shone at the familiar entertain-
ments of the Trianon, she would doubtless have
shared the sentiments and ideas of the women of the
old regime, and, like the Princess de Lamballe or the
Duchess de Polignac, have shed tears of compassion
over the Queen's misfortunes. Fate, in placing her
in a subordinate position, made her an enemy and a
rebel. She anathematized the society in which her
rank bore no relation to her lofty intelligence and
her need of domination. When, from the upper win-
dow of her father's house on the Quai des Orfevres,
beside the Pont-Neuf, she saw the brilliant retinue
of Marie Antoinette pass by on their way to Notre
Dame to return thanks to God for some happy event,
she grew angry at all this pomp and glitter, so much
in contrast with her own obscure condition. What
crimes have been engendered by the sentiment of
envy ! The furies of the guillotine wers above all
things envious. They were delighted to see in the
fatal cart the woman whom they had formerly beheld
in gala carriages resplendent with gold. Madame
Roland certainly ought not to have carried hex hatred
to such a pitch ; but had she not demanded in 1789,
when speaking of Louis XVI. and the Queen, that
" two illustrious heads " should be brought to trial ?
Who knows? If, in 1784, she had obtained the
MARIE ANTOINETTE AND MADAME ROLAND. 81
patent of nobility for her husband which at that
period she solicited so ardently, she might have be-
come sincerely royalist! But having remained,
despite herself, in the citizen class, she retained and
personified, to her latest hour, its rancor, pettiness,
and wrath. What figure could she have made at
Versailles, or even at the Tuileries? In the midst
of great lords and noble ladies the haughty commoner
would have been out of place ; she would have stifled.
It was chiefly on that account that she attached her-
self to the new ideas. She told herself that so long
as royalty lasted, she would always be of small im-
portance ; while, if the republic were established, she
might aspire to anything. Though her husband was
one of the King's ministers, she became daily more
adverse to the monarchy, and Roland, following her
counsels, was like a pilot whose whole intent is to
make the vessel founder, even though he were to
perish with its crew.
It is a sad thing to say, but even their community
in suffering did not disarm Madame Roland's hate
for Marie Antoinette. It was in prison, on the eve
of ascending the scaffold herself, that she wrote con-
cerning Louis XVI. and the Queen : " He was led
away by a giddy creature who united the presump-
tion of youth and grandeur to Austrian insolence,
the intoxication of the senses, and the heedlessness of
levity, and was herself seduced by all the vices of an
Asiatic court, for which she had been too well pre-
pared by the example of her mother." Ah ! why
82 THE DOWNFALL OF ROYALTY.
were not these cruel lines effaced by the tears Madame
Roland shed in floods over the pages she was writing,
and of which the traces still remain on the manu-
script of her Memoirs ? Why did she not sympathize
in the grief of Marie Antoinette, separated from her
children, when in speaking of her daughter Eudora,
she wrote : " Good God ! I am a prisoner, and she
is living far from me ! I dare not even send for her
to receive my embraces; hatred pursues even the
children of those whom tyranny persecutes, and mine,
with her eleven years, her virginal figure, and her
beautiful fair hair, could hardly appear in the streets
without creatures suborned or deluded by falsehood
pointing her out as the offspring of a conspirator.
Cruel wretches ! how well they know how to tear a
mother's heart ! "
Why were these two women political adversa-
ries? Both sensitive, both artistic, with inexhausti-
ble sources of poetry and tenderness at heart, they
were born for gentle emotions and not for horrible
catastrophes. Who, at their dawning, could have
predicted for them such an appalling night? Like
Marie Antoinette, Madame Roland loved nature and
the arts. She felt the profound and penetrating
charm of the fields. She drew, she played on the
harp, guitar, and violin, and she sang. " No one
knows," she wrote a few moments before her death,
"what an alleviation music is in solitude and an-
guish, nor from how many temptations it can save
one in prosperity." She had sung the same romances
MABIE ANTOINETTE AND MADAME ROLAND. 83
as the Queen. The same poets had inspired and
affected each.
Does not this most feminine passage in Madame
Roland's Memoirs recall the character of the mistress
of the Little Trianon? "I always remember the
singular effect produced on me by a bunch of violets
at Christmas ; when I received them I was in that
condition of soul often induced by a season favorable
to serious thought. My imagination slumbered, I
reflected coldly, and I hardly felt at all ; suddenly
the color of these violets and their delicate perfume
struck my senses ; it was an awakening to life. . . .
A rosy tinge suffused the horizon of the day." Would
not this cry of Madame Roland in her captivity suit
Marie Antoinette as well? "Ah! when shall I
breathe pure air and those soft exhalations so agree-
able to my heart? " And might not the daughter of
the great Maria Theresa have cried, like the daughter
of Philipon the engraver ? " Adieu ! my child, my
husband, my friends. Adieu ! sun whose brilliant
rays brought serenity to my soul, as if they were
recalling it to the skies. Adieu ! ye solitary fields
which have so often moved me."
What must not these two keenly sensitive women
have had to suffer at the epoch when France became
a hell? They have each believed in the amelioration
of the human species and the return of the golden
age to earth, and what will their awakening be, after
such alluring dreams? Men will be as unjust, as
wicked, as cruel to the republican as to the queen.
84 THE DOWNFALL OF ROYALTY.
She, too, will be drenched with calumnies and out-
rages. They will insult her also in the most cowardly
and ferocious manner. Under the very windows of
her dungeon she will hear the hawkers crying :
" Great visit of P^re Duchesne to Citizeness Roland,
in the Abbey prison, for the purpose of pumping her."
The ignoble journalist will call her " old sack of the
counter-revolution." He will say to her with his
habitual oaths : " Weep for your crimes, old fright,
before you expiate them on the scaffold ! " The wife
of Louis XVI. and the wife of Roland will die within
twenty-three days of each other : one on October 16,
the other on November 8, 1793. They will start
from the same prison of the Conciergerie, to be led
to the same Place Louis XV., to have their heads
cut off by the blade of the same guillotine. The com-
moner who had been so jealous of the Queen, can no
longer complain. If the lives of the two women have
been different, they will at least have the same
death ; and the doer of the noble deeds of the regime
of equality, the headsman, will make no distinction
between the two victims, between the veritable sov-
ereign, the Queen of France and Navarre, and the
sovereign of a day, whom Pdre Duchesne, as insolent
to one as to the other, will no longer speak of except
under the sobriquet of Queen Coqo.
YIII.
MADAME ROLAND AT THE MINISTflY OF THE
INTERIOR.
EOLAND took the portfolio of the Interior,
March 24, 1792, and installed himself and his
wife in the ministerial residence, then occupying the
site afterwards built on by the ThSdtre Italien. This
very beautiful and luxurious mansion had formerly
been the controller's office, and both Calonne and
Necker had lived in it. Madame Roland found no
small pleasure in queening it under the gilded cano-
pies of the old regime. It was not at all disagreeable
to her to give dinners in the sumptuous banqueting
hall erected by the elegant Calonne, nor did the
austere admirer of the ancients set the black broth of
Sparta before her guests.
Once arrived at power, was this great enemy of
nobility and prescription simple, and easy of ap-
proach? Not in the least. There is often more
arrogance displayed by parvenus of both sexes than
by those who are aristocrats by birth. . Madame
Roland was extremely proud of her new dignity, and
at once resolved, as she tells us in her Memoirs,
neither to make nor receive visits. Her attitude and
85
86 THE DOWNFALL OF ROYALTY.
manners wliile at the ministry were those of an
Asiatic sovereign. She secluded herself, permitting
only a small number of privileged courtiers to enter
her presence. Under the old regime, the wives of
ministers and ambassadors, dukes and peers, had
never felicitated themselves on " cultivating their pri-
vate tastes " to the detriment of the proprieties and
obligations of good breeding. But the Revolution
had changed all that. French politeness was now
mere old-fashioned rubbish. At the Ministry of the
Interior, the etiquette whose " severity " is vaunted
by Madame Roland was more rigorous than that of
the court of Versailles, and ft was easier to see the
wife of the King than the wife of the minister. With
what hauteur the latter expresses herself concerning
" the self-seeking crowds who throng about those
who hold great places " ! Assuredly, the Queen had
never spoken of her subjects in this tone of disdainful
patronage.
Madame Roland, who " was tired of fools," incom-
moded herself for nobody. The agreeable side of
power was all she wanted. Suppressing the recep-
tions which annoyed her, she gave none but men's
dinners, where she perorated and paraded, and
where, being the only woman present, she had no
rivals to fear. Self-sufficiency 9.nd insufficiency are,
for the most part, what fall to the share of parvenus.
"What would have been said in the old days of a
noble dame who did the honors of a ministry so
strangely, who never invited another woman to din-
MADAME ROLAND
AT THE MINISTRY OF THE INTERIOR. 87
ner, and admitted no one to her presence but a little
clique of flatterers ? Everybody would have accused
such a lady as lacking in good breeding. But to
Madame Roland all that she did was right in her
own eyes. How could a woman so superior be ex-
pected to submit to the tyranny of polite usages?
Was not the first of all despotisms the very one to
be shaken off? and ought not a person so proud of
the originality of her genius feel bound before all
things, as she said herself, "to preserve her own
mode of being " ? Madame Roland did at the minis-
try just what she did from her cradle to her grave :
she posed.
" To listen to Madame Roland," said Count Beu-
gnot in his witty and curious Memoirs, " you would
have thought she had imbibed the passion for liberty
from reading the great writers of antiquity. . . .
Cato the Elder was her hero, and it was probably
out of respect for this hero that she showed a lack
of courtesy towards her husband. She was unwill-
ing to see that there was as much difference between
Roland's wife and the Roman minister as there was
between the Brutus of the Revolutionary Tribunal
and him of the Capitol. Self-love was the means by
which this woman had been elevated to the point
where we have seen her; she was incessantly actuated
by it, and does not dissimulate the fact." It was
she, and not her husband, wlio was Minister of the
Interior. If the aristocrats treated Roland as a min-
ister sans-culottes, it might have been added that the
88 THE DOWNFALL OF ROYALTT.
breeches which he lacked were worn by his spouse.
Out of all the rooms composing a vast apartment,
she had chosen for her own daily use the smallest
that could be converted into a study, and kept her
books and writing-table in it. It was from this bou-
doir, half literary, half political, that she conducted
the ministry according to her own whims. " It often
happened," says she, "that friends or colleagues
desiring to speak confidentially with the minister,
instead of going to his own room, where he was sur-
rounded by his clerks and the public, came to mine
and begged me to have him called thither. Thus I
found myself in the stream of affairs without either
intrigue or idle curiosity. Roland took pleasure in
talking these subjects over with me afterwards with
that confidence which has always reigned between
us, and which has brought our knowledge and our
opinions into community."
On this head, M. Dauban makes the very just re-
mark : " A community in which there is no equi-
librium of forces, becomes a sort of omnipotence for
the strongest." The omnipotence in this case was
not on the side of the beard, but of Madame Roland.
The wife wrote, thought, and acted for her husband.
It was she who drew up his circulars and reports to
the National Assembly. "My husband," she tells
us, "had nothing to lose in passing through my
hands. Roland, without me, would have been none
the less a good administrator ; with me, he has made
more sensation, because I imparted to my \rritings
AT THE MINISTRY OF THE INTEBIOB. 89
that mixture of force and sweetness, that authority
of reason and charm of sentiment, which perhaps
belongs only to a sensitive woman, endowed with
sound understanding." And the " virtuous " Roland
took pride in the magnificent phrases which he naively
believed to be the expression of his own genius, when
his wife had saved him not merely the trouble of
writing, but even of thinking. " He often ended,"
she says, " by persuading himself that he had really
been in a good vein when he had written such or
such a passage which proceeded from my pen."
Madame Roland had at her orders a man of letters,
salaried by the Ministry of the Interior, who was the
official defender of the minister and his policy. " It
had been felt," she tells us, " that it was needful to
counteract the influence of the court, the aristocracy,
the civil list and their journals, by popular instruc-
tions to which great publicity should be given. A
journal posted up in public places seemed to be the
proper thing, and a wise and enlightened man had to
be found for its editor." This wise and enlightened
man was Louvet, the author of the Amours de Favr
hlas. He was the writer whom Madame Roland es-
teemed most capable of instructing and of moralizing
the masses. " Men of letters and persons of taste,"
she says, "know his charming romances, in which
the graces of imagination are allied to lightness of
style, a philosophical tone, and the salt of criticism.
He has proved that his skilful hand could alternately
shake the bells of folly, hold the burin of history, and
90 THE DOWNFALL OF BOYALTY.
launch the thunderbolts of eloquence. Courageous
as a lion, simple as a child, a sensible man, a good
citizen, a vigorous writer, he could make Catiline
tremble from the tribune, dine with the Graces, and
sup with Bachaumont."
Madame Roland admired the author of Fauhlas^
now become the editor-in-chief of the Sentinelle ; but
among her intimates there was a man whom she
admired much more. This was Buzot. With what
complacency she draws in her Memoirs the portrait
of this man "of an elevated character, a haughty-
spirit, and a vehement courage, sensitive, ardent,
melancholy; an impassioned lover of nature, nour-
ishing his imagination with all the charms she has
to offer, and his soul with the principles of the most
touching philosophy ; he seems formed to enjoy and
to procure domestic happiness; he could forget the
universe in the sweetness of private virtues practised
with a heart worthy of his own." Needless to say
that in Madame Roland's thought, this heart worthy
of the heart of Buzot was her own. "He is sus-
ceptible," says she, "of the tenderest affections"
(always for Madame Roland), "capable of sublime
flights and the most generous resolutions." Into
what ecstasies she falls over the noble face and
elegant figure of this handsome .man, in whose cos-
tume "reigns that care, cleanliness, and decency
which manifest the spirit of order, taste, the senti-
ment of decorum, and the respect of an honest man
for the public and himself " ! How she contrasts with
AT THE MINISTRY OF THE INTERIOR. 91
men wlio think patriotism consists in "swearing,
drinking, and dressing like porters, in order to fra-
ternize with their equals," this attractive, this ir-
resistible Buzot, who " professes the morality of
Socrates and the politeness of Scipio " !
Clearly, the veritable idol of the Egeria of the
Girondins is not the republic, but Buzot. He is
so elegant, so distinguished ! His mind and his
person have so many charms ! Poor Roland ! You
think that your better half is solely occupied with
your ministry. Alas ! this learned woman has other
thoughts in her head. Your position as a minister
has not augmented your prestige in the region of
sentiment. Though you lord it in the Hotel
Calonne, yet, in spite of the throng of petitioners
and flatterers who surround you, you will never be
a Lovelace, and your romantic spouse will not allow
herself to be affected by your appearance, like that
of a Quaker in Sunday clothes. You thought you
were doing wonders in presenting yourself at the
council of ministers with lanky, unpowdered locks,
a round hat, and shoes minus buckles. This peasant
costume, which so greatly scandalized the master of
ceremonies, doubtless made the best impression at
the Jacobin Club, but your wife prefers the careful
dress of her too dear Buzot.
Madame Roland, who had just completed her
thirty-eighth year, was still very charming. L^-
montey thus paints her portrait as she appeared at
this epoch: "Her eyes and hair were remarkably
92 THE DOWNFALL OF ROYALTY.
beautiful; her delicate complexion had a freshness
and color which made her look singularly young.
At the beginning of her husband's ministry she had
lost nothing of her air of youth and simplicity ; her
husband resembled a Quaker whose daughter she
might have been, and her child hovered round her
with hair floating to her waist; one might have
thought them natives of Pennsylvania transported
to the drawing-room of M. de Calonne."
Count Beugnot, who was the companion of her
captivity in the Conciergerie, is severe on the female
politician, but he admires the pretty woman. " Her
figure was graceful," he says, "and her hands per-
fectly modelled. Her glance was expressive, and
even in repose her face had something noble and
subtly attractive in it. One surmised her wit with-
out needing to hear her speak, but no woman whom
I have ever listened to, spoke with more purity and
elegance. She must have owed her faculty of giving
to French a rhythm and cadence veritably new, to
her familiar knowledge of Italian. The harmony of
her voice was still further heightened by graceful
and appropriate gestures and the expression of her
eyes, which grew animated in conversation. I daily
experienced new charm in listening to her, less on
account of what she said than because of the magic
of her delivery."
If Madame Roland, a prisoner, crushed by mis-
fortune, on the very threshold of the scaffold, after
so many sleepless nights and so many tears, had pre-
AT THE MINISTBY OF THE INTERIOIt. 93
served such attractions, what a charm must she not
have exercised at the Ministry of the Interior, when
' hope and pride illumined her beautiful face, and
when, after appearing to her electrified adorers as the
Muse of the new regime, the magician, the Circe of
the Revolution, she touched so profoundly their
minds and hearts! She who knew so well how to
love and how to hate, who felt so keenly, who had so
much energy, so much vigor, what fascination must
she not have exerted with her glance of fire, her long
black tresses, her more than ornate eloquence, her
inspired, lyric, enthusiastic bearing, and that con-
summate art which, according to the remark of
Fontanes, made one believe that in her everything
was the work of nature !
IX.
DUMOUKIEZ, MINISTER OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS.
MADAME ROLAND had wished to reign alone.
She saw an influential rival in Dumouriez,
and at once conceived for him an instinctive repug-
nance and suspicion. She met him first on March
23, 1792, at the time when, as Minister of Foreign
Affairs, he came to salute Roland, just named Minis-
ter of the Interior, as his colleague. As soon as he
departed: "There," said she to her husband, "is a
man with a crafty mind and a false glance, against
whom it is probably more necessary to be on one's
guard than any other person; he expressed great
satisfaction at the patriotic choice he was deputed to
announce ; but I should not be at all surprised if he
were to have you dismissed some day." She thought
she recognized in Dumouriez at first sight, " a witty
rou6, an insolent chevalier who makes sport of every-
thing except his own interests and glory."
Later on she drew the following portrait of him :
" Among all his colleagues, he had most of what is
called wit, and less than any of morality. Diligent
and brave, a good general, a skilful courtier, writing
well and expressing himself with ease, capable of
94
DUMOUEIEZ, MINISTER OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS. 95
great enterprises, all he lacked was character enough
to balance his mind, or a cooler brain to carry out
the plans he had conceived. Agreeable to his
friends, and ready to betray them, gallant to women,
but not at all suited to succeed with those among
them who are susceptible to affectionate relations, he
was made for the ministerial intrigues of a corrupt
court."
The nomination of Dumouriez as Minister of For-
eign Affairs is one of the most curious and unforeseen
events of this strange epoch. Few men have had a
career so adventurous and agitated as his. A com-
plex and mobile nature, where the intriguer and the
great man were blended into one, he never com-
manded esteem, but at certain moments he secured
admiration. Napoleon I. seems to have been too
severe when he said of him that he was " only a mis-
erable intriguer." The man who opened the series
of great French victories, and who saved his country
from invasion by his admirable defence of the defiles of
Argonne, merited more than this disdainful mention.
It is none the less certain, however, that one scents,
as it were, an air of Beaumarchais in the Memoirs of
Dumouriez, and that there is more than one link of
character and existence between the author of the
Mariage de Figaro and the victor of Jemmapes.
Both were men without principles, but full of resource,
wit, and fascination. Both were lovable in spite of
their great defects, because of their humanity aiid
kindness. Both belonged at the same time to the
96 THE DOWNFALL OF HOYALTT.
old regime and the Revolution. Before arriving at
celebrity, each had a stormy youth, tormented by the
love of pleasure, the need of money, and a sort of
perpetual restlessness : they flattered every power of
the time, sought fortune by the most circuitous ways,
were diplomatic couriers, and secret agents; before
coming out into open daylight, they made trial of
their marvellous address in obscurity, and signalized
themselves among those men of action and initiative
whom governments, which make use of them in
occult ways, first launch, then compromise, disavow,
and sometimes imprison.
Born at Cambrai, January 25, 1739, Dumouriez
belonged to a family of the upper middle class.
Entering the army early, he distinguished himself
by his high spirits and courage. As a cornet of the
Penthi^vre cavalry, he served in the German cam-
paigns from 1758 to 1761, and was invalided in 1763.
He spent twenty-four years at the wars and brought
back nothing but twenty-two wounds, the rank of
captain, a decoration, and some debts. Seeking then
a new career, he entered, thanks to his connection
with Favier, the secret diplomacy of Louis XV.,
and was sent to Corsica, Italy, and Portugal. He
returned to the army in 1768, and made a brilliant
record in the Corsican campaign, obtaining success-
ively the grades of adjutant-major general, adjutant-
quartermaster, and colonel of cavalry. It was he
who seized the castle of Corte, Paoli's last asylum.
In 1771, he again became a secret agent. Louis XV.
BUMOURIEZ, MINISTER OF FOBEIGN AFFAIRS. 97
wished to befriend Poland in its death-struggle, but
without betraying his hand. Dumouriez was sent
to the Polish confederates. He was reputed to be
merely acting on his own impulses. He organized
troops and fought successfully against Souvaroff, the
future adversary of the French Republic, but could
not save Poland — that Asiatic nation of Europe, as
he called it. He came back to Paris in 1772, and the
government, complying with the demands of Russia,
shut him up for a year in the Bastille, where he had
leisure to meditate on the ingratitude of courts.
This captivity strengthened his taste for study, and,
far from allaying his ambition, gave it renewed force.
Louis XVI. put him in command at Cherbourg,
and it was he who conceived the plan of making
that town a station for the French marine. He was
fifty years old when the Revolution of 1789 broke
out. At once he saw in it an opportunity for success
and glory. Full of confidence in his own superiority,
he merely awaited the hour when events should
second his ambition. He said to himself that the
emigration, by making a void in the upper ranks of
the army, was going to leave him free scope, and that
he would be commander-in-chief of the French troops
under the new r(3gime. To attain this end he de-
cided to serve the King, the Assembly, and the fac-
tions ; to assume all parts and all masks, and to be in
turn, and simultaneously if need were, the courtier
of Louis XVI. and the favorite of the Jacobins.
As has been very well said by M. Fr^d^ric Masson
98 THE DOWNFALL OF ROYALTY.
in an excellent book, as novel as it is interesting,
Le DSpartement des affaires Strang^res sous la Revolu-
tion^ Dumouriez had been accustomed to make his
way everywhere, to eat at all tables, and listen at all
doors. One of the agents of Count d'Artois brought
him into relations with Mirabeau. He was protected
by the minister Montmorin. He drew up plans of
campaign for Narbonne. He used the intimate " thou "
to Laporte, the King's confidant and intendant of the
civil list. He made use of women also. Separated
from his lawful wife, he lived in marital relations
with a sister of Rivarol, the Baroness de Beauvert, a
charming person who had much intercourse with
aristocratic society, who speculated in arms, and who
was pensioned by the Duke of Orleans, as appears
from a letter of Latouche de Trdville, the prince's
chancellor, dated April 17, 1789. Dumouriez, who
had expensive tastes, sought at the same time for
gold and honors. Either by means of the court or
the Revolution, he desired to gain a great fortune and
much glory, to become a statesman, a minister, com-
mander-in-chief, and realize his great military plan,
the conquest of the natural frontiers of France. He
said to himself: He who wills the end wills the
means, and managed as adroitly with parties as with
soldiers. At Niort, where he was in command at the
beginning of the Revolution, he made himself remark-
able by his enthusiasm for the new ideas, and became
president of the club and honorary citizen of the
town. He contracted an intimacy with Gensonnd,
DUMOURIEZ, MINISTER OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS. 99
whom the Assembly had sent into the departments
of the west to observe their spirit. In January, 1792,
the emigration of general officers had become so con-
siderable that he rose by seniority to the rank of
lieutenant-general. Thereafter, he believed his hour
had come, and threw himself boldly into the political
arena. The Gironde and the Jacobins were the two
powers then in vogue ; he flattered both the Jacobins
and the Gironde. Brissot was the corypheus of the
diplomatic committee and the chief of the war party.
He became the familiar of Brissot. Already, in 1791,
he had prepared a memoir on the subject of the Min-
istry of Foreign Affairs which he dedicated and read
to the Jacobins. In it he announced (singular pre-
diction for the future minister of a king !) that before
.fifty years had passed, Europe would be republican.
He demanded an immediate and radical change in
the diplomatic personnel. " It is of small importance,"
said he in the same memoir, " that our representa-
tives would lack experience. In the first place, our
interests are greatly simplified ; moreover, our former
representatives were young men belonging to the
court who had had no political education. In a
word, it is the majesty of the nation which gives
our negotiations weight. The minister," he added,
" should be a man of approved patriotism, above all
suspicion, like the wife of Caesar. Absolute integ-
rity, great knowledge of men, great firmness, a broad
and upright mind, should complete his character."
Dumouriez perhaps imagined that all these qualities
100 THE DOWNFALL OF ROYALTY.
of an ideal minister were reunited in his person.
However that may be, he accepted, without any mis-
trust of his own abilities, the portfolio of Foreign
Affairs, confided to him March 15, 1792, on account
of his relations with the Gironde and his popularity
with the Jacobins. He had a high opinion of him-
self, and, even after his cruel disappointments, he
was to write in his Memoirs, in 1794 : " Dumouriez
sometimes laughs sardonically in his retreat over the
judgments passed upon him. When he arrived at
the ministry, the courtiers said and published that
he was only a soldier of fortune, incapable of con-
ducting political affairs, in which he would make
nothing but blunders. When he commanded an
army, they told the Prussians and the German Em-
peror's troops that he was a mere writer, who had
never made war and understood nothing about it.
Since he retired with reputation from public employ-
ments, they have published that up to the date of the
Revolution he had been an intriguing adventurer,
a ministerial spy, an office-sweeper. Would to God,
they had employed the adventures of their youth
in similar espionages ! They would not have begun
the Revolution like factionists, they would have con-
ducted it with wisdom, they would have preserved
the esteem of the nation, they would not have been
the prime authors of the King's death, either by
betraying or abandoning him."
The new Minister of Foreign Affairs began to
play his r61e of leader of French diplomacy in a
BUMOURIEZ, MINISTER OF FOREIGN AFFAIBS. 101
singular fashion. Repairing to the Jacobin Club,
he described himself as their liegeman, assumed the
red bonnet in their presence, and, with it on his head,
announced that as soon as war should be declared,
he would throw away his pen in order to resume his
sword. Let us add that he was simultaneously try-
ing to conciliate the good graces of Louis XVL and
to persuade him that if he leaned upon the Jacobins,
it was solely in the hope of serving the King and
consolidating the throne. At the same time he ap-
pointed as director of foreign affairs that Bonne-
Carrere whose portrait has been traced in this wise
by Brissot : " Falling with all his vices and perverse
habits into the midst of a revolution whereby the
people had recovered sovereignty, he merely changed
his idol without changing his idolatry. He caressed
the people instead of caressing the great, made the
hall of the Jacobins his Q5il-de-Boeuf, played valet to
the successful parties one after another, the Lameths
and the Mirabeaus, and succeeded in raising himself
from the secretaryship of the Jacobins to the embassy
of Li^ge, by the aid of that very Montmorin who de-
tested the Jacobins, and could but advance a man
who betrayed them."
Dumouriez then, foUomng the example of Mira-
beau, was about to play a double game ; to be revolu-
tionary with the Revolution and a courtier with the
court. As to Madame Roland, he never placed him-
self at her feet. The despotism of this female min-
ister, the pretentions of this demagogic bluestocking,
102 THE DOWNFALL OF BOYALTT.
her affectation of puritan rigor, her mania for direct-
ing everything, shocked the good sense of a man
who believed that woman is made to please, not to
reign. It was repugnant to this soldier to take his
orders from the Egeria of the Girondins. On the
other hand, Dumouriez was displeasing to Madame
Roland. She found him too dissolute and not senti-
mental enough. She could not pardon his having
Madame de Beauvert for mistress and Bonne-
Carrere for confidant. She admitted neither his
free-and-easy tone, his Gallic humor, nor his natural
gaiety, so unlike the declamatory tone and preten-
tious jargon of the disciples of Jean-Jacques Rousseau.
Moreover, she found him too much of a royalist, too
accustomed to the old regime. The ministry, appar-
ently so homogeneous, was soon to be divided against
itself.
X.
THE COUNCIL OF MINISTEKS.
LOUIS XVI. had been persuaded that the only
means of regaining public confidence would
be to name a ministry chosen by the Gironde and
accepted by the Jacobins. The six ministers —
Dumouriez of Foreign Affairs, Roland of the Interior,
De Grave of War, Clavi^re of Finances, Duranton of
Justice, Lacoste of Marine — formed what was called
the Girondin ministry ; the reactionists named it the
sans-culottes ministry. The revolutionists rejoiced in
its advent, while the royalists sought to cover it with
ridicule.
On the day when the Council met for the first
time at the Tuileries (in the great royal cabinet on
the first floor, afterwards called the Salon of Louis
XIV.), Roland created a scandal by his plebeian
dress. The simplicity of his costume, his round hat,
his shoes fastened with ribbons instead of buckles,
caused, as his wife disdainfully remarks, "astonish-
ment to all the valets, those creatures who, existing
only for the sake of etiquette, thought the safety of
the empire depended on its preservation." The mas-
ter of ceremonies, approaching Dumouriez with an
103
104 THE DOWNFALL OF ROTALTT.
uneasy frown, glanced at Roland, and said in an
undertone, " Eh ! sir, no buckles on his shoes ! "
" Ah ! sir, all is lost ! " replied Dumouriez so coolly
that it raised a laugh.
Louis XVI., who wished, as one might say, to
enlarge the borders of gentleness and resignation,
displayed more than good-will towards the ministers ;
he showed them deference. This was the more mer-
itorious because to him this ministry was like a
reunion of the seditious, like the Revolution in arms
against his crown ; his pretended advisers seemed
much more like enemies than auxiliaries. He tried,
however, to attach them to him by kindness, and
made a sincere trial of his rights and duties as a con-
stitutional sovereign. Madame Roland herself, bitter
and violent as she is, renders him a certain justice.
" Louis XVI.," says she, " showed the greatest good
nature towards his new ministers ; this man was not
precisely such as he has been painted by those who
seek to degrade him." As to Dumouriez, he says in
his Memoirs : " Dumouriez had been greatly deceived
concerning the character of Louis XVI., who had
been represented to him as a violent and wrathful
man, who swore a great deal and maltreated his
ministers. He must, on the contrary, do him the
justice to say that during three' months when he
observed him closely and i© very delicate circum-
stances, he always found him polite, gentle, affable,
and even very patient. This prince had a great
timidity arising from his education and his distrust
THE COUNCIL OF MINISTERS. 105
of himself, some difficulty in speaking, a just and
dispassionate mind, upright sentiments, great knowl-
edge of history, geography, and the arts, and an
astonishing memory." Madame Roland also owns
that he had an excellent memory and much activity ;
that he was never idle ; that he read often, and had
a distinct knowledge of all the different treaties con-
cluded by France with neighboring powers ; that he
knew history well, and was the best geographer in
the kingdom. " His knowledge of the names and
faces of those belonging to his court," she adds, "and
the anecdotes peculiar to each, extended to all persons
who had come into prominence during the Revolu-
tion ; no subject could be mentioned to him on
which he had not some opinion founded on certain
facts."
At first, the sessions of the ministry went off very
tranquilly. The King, with an accent of candor,
protested his attachment to the Constitution and his
desire to see it solidly established. Often he left his
ministers to chat among themselves without taking
any part in their conversation. During such times
he read his French and English journals, or wrote
letters. If a decree was presented for his sanction,
he deferred his decision until the next meeting, to
which he came with a settled opinion, concealing it
carefully, none the less, and appearing to decide only
in accordance with the will of the majority. He fre-
quently evaded irritating questions by turning the
conversation to other subjects. If war were the
106 THE DOWNFALL OF BOTALTY.
topic, he spoke of travels ; apropos of diplomacy, he
described the manners of the country in question;
to Roland he spoke of his works, to Dumouriez of his
adventures. The Minister of Foreign Affairs, who
was a firstrclass story-teller, and whose freedom of
speech was welcomed by the King, to use Madame
Roland's expression, amused both his colleagues and
his sovereign by his jests and anecdotes.
But all this was far from agreeable to the spiteful
companion of the Minister of the Interior. Indig-
nant at the accord which seemed to exist between
Louis XVI. and his counsellors, she dreamed of
nothing but discussions and conflicts. All that wore
the appearance of reconciliation was repugnant to
her. She made her obedient spouse recount to her
the smallest details of the sessions of the Council,
meddling with and criticising all. During the first
three weeks, Roland and Claviere, enchanted with
the King's dispositions, flattered themselves that the
Revolution was at an end. Madame Roland scoffed
at their confidence. " Bon Dieu^" she said to them,
" every time I see you start for the Council with this
charming confidence, it seems to me you are ready to
commit some folly." — "I assure you," replied Cla-
viere, "that the King is perfectly aware that his
interests are bound up with the observance of the
laws just established ; he reasons too pertinently
not to be convinced of this truth." — " WeU," added
Roland, " if he is not an honest man, he is the great-
est rascal in the kingdom ; nobody can dissimulate
TBE COUNCIL OF MINISTERS. 107
like that." Madame Roland rejoined that she could
not believe in love for the Constitution on the part of
a man nourished in the prejudices and accustomed
to the use of despotic power. She, who doubtless
thought herself the only person capable of presiding
well at the council of ministers, treated it as a " caf^
where they amused themselves with idle gossip."
" There was no record of their deliberations," says
she, " nor a secretary to take them down ; after sit-
ting three or four hours, they went away without
having accomplished anything but a few signatures ;
it was like this three times a week." — " This is
pitiable ! " she would exclaim impatiently when, on
his return, she asked her husband what had passed.
" You are all in very good humor because there have
been no disputes or vexations, and you have even
been treated with civility ; each of you seems to be
doing pretty much as he pleases in his own depart-
ment. I am afraid you are being made game of."
— "Nevertheless, business is getting on." — "Yes, and
time is wasted, for in the torrent that is carrying you
away, I should be much better pleased to have you
employ three hours in solid meditation on great com-
binations than to see you spend them in useless
chatter."
It must needs be said that no person contributea
more to the downfall of royalty than Madame Ro-
land. At the moment when the good temper and
gentleness of Louis XVI. began to gain upon his
ministers, when Dumouriez was softened by the
108 THE DOWNFALL OF ROYALTY.
royal kindness, when minds experienced a relaxa-
tion, and honest people, worn out by so many politi-
cal shocks, were sincerely desirous of repose, it was
she who nourished discord, made the Gironde irrecon-
cilable, inspired the subversive pamphlets of Louvet,
embittered her husband's heart, and invented the
provocations against which the conscience of the
unfortunate monarch rebelled. This part, which
would have been a sorry one for a man to play,
seems still worse in a woman. Count Beugnot
has said very justly : " I have seen that a woman can
preserve only the faults of her sex in the midst of
such a frightful catastrophe, not its virtues. The
gentle, amiable, sensitive qualities grow and develop
in the shelter of peaceful domestic joys ; they are lost
and obliterated in the heat of debates, the bitterness
of parties, and the shock of passions. The soft and
tender foot of woman cannot tread unharmed in
paths bristling with steel and red with blood. To do
so with safety she must become a man ; but to me, a
man-woman seems a monster. Ah I let them leave
to us, whom nature has granted the pitiful advantage
of strength, the field of contention and the fate of
war ; we are adequate to this cruel destiny ; but let
them keep to the easier and sweeter part of pouring
balm into wounds and staunching tears."
Roland's character was tranquil ; it was his wife
who made him ambitious, haughty, and inflexible.
She should have pacified her husband, but instead of
that she excited him. Never was he malevolent and
THE COUNCIL OF MINISTERS. 109
spiteful enough to suit her. She would not pardon
him a single movement of compassion or respect
towards the august unfortunates. Led by her, Ro-
land no longer dared entertain a generous thought.
He returned shamefaced to the Ministry of the In-
terior if he had felt a humane sentiment while at the
Tuileries. It is sad to find tenderness and pity in
the heart of a man, Dumouriez, and in the heart of a
woman, Madame Roland, nothing but malevolence
and hatred. Dumouriez wanted to put out the fire ;
Madame Roland, to stir it up. Dumouriez sincerely
desired the King's safety ; Madame Roland swore that
he should perish. If a germ of pity woke to life in
the hearts of the ministers, Madame Roland hastened
to stifle it. Her hostility towards the royal family
was more than deliberate ; there was something like
ferocity in it. Her Memoirs and those of Dumouriez
display two very different minds. Sadness dominates
in his ; anger in hers. Even on the steps of the
scaffold, Madame Roland will not feel her hatred
lessen. Dumouriez, on the contrary, will cast a
glance of melancholy respect upon the unfortunate
sovereign whose sorrows and whose resignation, whose
gentleness and uprightness, had touched him so
profoundly.
XI.
THE f£tE of the SWISS OF CHATEAUVIEUX.
DUMOURIEZ, at the beginning of his ministry,
was still the slave of the Jacobins, his allies
and protectors. His elevation to the mijiistry was in
great part due to them, and even while despising
them, he felt unable to shake off their yoke. Little
by little, they inspired him with horror, and before
many weeks were over, his only idea was to free him-
self from their control. But at first he treated them
like a power with which he was obliged to reckon.
What proves this is his passive attitude at the time
of the celebrated fete of the Swiss of Chateauvieux.
The prologue of the bloody tragedies that were in
course of preparation, this fete shows what head-
way the revolutionary ideas had made. The sinister
days of the Convention were approaching, the Terror,
existed in germ, and already many representatives
who, on a secret ballot, would have voted in accord-
ance with right and honor, were ' cowardly enough lo
do so against their conscience when they had to
answer to their names.
Things had travelled fast since the close of the
Constituent Assembly. In 1790, that Assembly, as
110
THE FETE OF THE SWISS. Ill
the faithful guardian of discipline, had congratulated
the Marquis de Bouilld on the energy with which he
repressed the military rebellion that broke out at
Nancy, August 31. The soldiers garrisoned at this
town were guilty of the greatest crimes. They pil-
laged the military chests, arrested the officers, and
fired on the troops who remained faithful. M.
Desilles, an officer of the King's regiment, conducted
himself at the time in a heroic manner. When the
insurgents were about to discharge the cannon oppo-
site the Stainville gate, he sprang towards it, and
covering it with his body, cried : " It is your friends,
your brothers, who are coming ! The National As-
sembly sends them. Do you mean to fire on them?
Will you disgrace your flags ? " It was useless to
try to hold Desilles back. He broke away from his
friends and threw himself again in front of the rebels,
falling under four wounds at the moment when the
fight began.
The Constituent Assembly passed a decree by which
it thanked the Marquis de Bouill^ and his troops " for
having gloriously fulfilled their duty " in repressing
the military insurrection of Nancy. Its president
wrote an official letter to Desilles, soon to die in
consequence of his wounds : " The National Assem-
bly has learned with just admiration, mingled with
profound sorrow, the danger to which your heroic
devotion has exposed you ; in trying to describe it,
I should weaken the emotion by which the Assembly
was penetrated. So sublime an example of courage
112 THE DOWNFALL OF BOYALTY.
and civic virtue is above all praise. It has secured
you a sweeter recompense and one more worthy of
you; you will find it in your own heart, and the
eternal memory of the French people."
The Swiss regiment of Chateauvieux had taken
part in the rebellion at Nancy. Switzerland had re-
served, by treaty, its federal jurisdiction over such of
its troops as had taken service under the King of
France. By virtue of this special jurisdiction the
soldiers of the regiment of Chateauvieux, taken arms
in hand, were tried before a council of war composed
of Swiss officers. Twenty-two were condemned to
death and shot. Fifty were condemned to the gal-
leys and sent to the convict prison at Brest. It was
in vain that Louis XVI. attempted to negotiate their
pardon with the Swiss Confederacy. It remained
inflexible, and the guilty were still undergoing their
penalty when the Jacobins resolved to release them
from prison in defiance of the treaties uniting Swit-
zerland and France. " To deliver these condemned
prisoners," says Dumouriez in his Memoirs, " was to
insult the Cantons, attack their treaty rights, and
judge their criminals. We had enemies enough
already without seeking new ones among an allied
people who were behaving wisely towards us, espe-
cially a free and republican people." But revolu-
tionary passions do not reason. CoUot d'Herbois, a
wretched actor who had passed from the theatrical
stage to that of politics, and who, not content with
having bored people, wiahed to terrorize them also,
THE FETE OF THE SWISS. 113
made himself the champion of the galley-slaves of the
regiment of Chateauvieux. He was the principal
impresario of the lugubrious fete which disgraced
Paris on April 15, 1792.
The programme was not arranged without some
opposition. Public opinion was not yet ripe for
saturnalia. There were still a few honest and cour-
ageous publicists who, like Andr^ Ch<^nier, boldly
lifted their voices to stigmatize certain infamies. In
the tribune of the Assembly some orators were to be
found who expressed their minds freely and held
their own against the tempests of demagogy. There
were generals and soldiers in the army for whom dis-
cipline was not an idle word ; and if the f^te of the
Swiss of Chateauvieux made the future Septembrists
and furies of the guillotine utter shouts of joy, it
drew from honest men a long cry of grief and
indignation.
Intimidated by the menaces of the Jacobins, the
Assembly voted the release of the Swiss incarcerated
in the prison of Brest. But merely to deliver them
was not enough : the Jacobins wanted to give them
an ovation. Their march from Brest to Paris was a
triumph, and Collot d'Herbois organized a gigantic
fete in their honor.
Andr^ Ch^nier was at this time writing weekly
letters for the Journal de Paris, in which he elo-
quently supported the principles of order and liberty.
As M. de Lamartine has said, he was the Tyrtseus
of good sense and moderation. He was indignant at
114 THE DOWNFALL OF BOYALTY.
the threatened scandal, and, in concert with his col-
laborator on the Journal de Paris, Roucher, the poet
of Les Mois, he criticised in most energetic terms the
revolutionary manifestation then organizing. At the
Jacobin Club, on April 4, Collot d'Herbois freed his
mind against him. " This is not Ch^nier-Gracchus,"
said the comedian ; " it is another person, quite an-
other." He spoke of Andr^ as a "sterile prose
writer," and pointed him out to popular vengeance.
The two brothers were in opposing camps. While
Andr6 Ch^nier stigmatized the fete of anarchy, his
brother Joseph was diligently manufacturing scraps
of poetry, inscriptions, and devices which were to
figure in the programme. " What ! " cried Andr^,
" must we invent extravagances capable of destroying
any form of government, recompense rebellion against
the laws, and crown foreign satellites for having shot
French citizens in a riot? People say that the statues
will be veiled in every place through which this pro-
cession is to pass. Oh ! if this odious orgy takes
place, it will be well to veil the whole city ; but it
is not the images of despots that should be wrapt in
funeral crape, but the faces of honest men. How
is it that you do not blush when a turbulent handful,
who seem numerous because they are united and
make a noise, oblige you to do their will, telling you
that it is your own, and amusing your childish curi-
osity meanwhile with unworthy spectacles? In a
city which respected itself such a fete would meet
nothing but solitude and silence." The controversy
THE FETE OF THE SWISS. 115
waxed furious. The walls were covered with posters
for and against the fSte. Roucher thus flagellated
CoUot d'Herbois : " This character out of a comic
novel, who skipped from Polichinello's booth to the
platform of the Jacobins, has sprung at me as if he
were going to strike me with the oar the Swiss
brought back from the galleys ! "
Potion, then mayor of Paris, far from opposing the
fete, approved and encouraged it. "I think it my
duty," he wrote, April 6, 1792, "to explain myself
briefly concerning the fete which is being arranged
to celebrate the arrival of the soldiers of Chateau-
vie ux. Minds are heated, passions are in ferment,
and citizens hold different opinions; everything
seems to betoken disorder. It is sought to change a
day of rejoicing into a day of mourning. . . . What
is it all about? Some soldiers, leaders with the
French guards, who have broken our chains and
afterwards been overloaded with them, are about to
enter within our walls ; some citizens propose to
meet and offer them a fraternal welcome ; these
citizens are obeying a natural impulse and using a
right which belongs to all. The magistrates see
nothing but what is simple and innocent in all this ;
they see certain citizens abandoning themselves to
joy and mirth ; every one is at liberty to participate
or not to participate in the f§te. Public spirit rises
and assumes a new degree of energy amidst civic
amusements." The municipality ordered this letter
of Potion's to be printed, posted on tJie walls, and
116 THE DOWNFALL OF ROYALTY.
sent to the forty-eight sectional committees and the
sixty battalions of the National Guard.
Not all the members of the National Assembly
shared the optimism of the mayor of Paris. The
preparations for the fete, which was announced for
April 15, occasioned, on the 9th, a session as affecting
as it was stormy. The whole debate should be read
in the Moniteur. The question was put whether the
Swiss of Chateauvieux, then waiting outside the doors,
should be introduced and admitted to the honors of
the session. M. de Gouvion, who had been major-
general of the National Guard under Lafayette,
gravely ascended the tribune. "Gentlemen," said
he, " I had a brother, a good patriot, who, through
the favorable opinion of your fellow-citizens, had
been successively a commander of the National
Guard and a member from the Department. Al-
ways ready to sacrifice himself for the Revolution
and the law, it was in the name of the Revolution
and the law that he was required to march to Nancy
with the brave National Guards. There he fell,
pierced by fifty bayonets in the hands of those
who. ... I ask if I am condemned to look on tran-
quilly while the assassins of my brother enter here ? "
A voice rising from the midst of the Assembly cried :
" Very well, sir, go out ! " The galleries applauded.
Gouvion attempted to continue. The murmurs re-
doubled. Several persons in the galleries cried:
"Down! down!"
The Assembly, revolutionary though it was, felt
THE FETE OF THE SWISS. 117
indignant at the scandal, and called the galleries
to order. The president reiterated the injunction to
keep silence. Gouvion began anew : " I treat with
all the contempt he merits, and with ... I would
say the word if I did not respect the Assembly —
the coward who has been base enough to outrage a
brother's grief." The question was then put whether
the Swiss of Chateau vieux should be admitted to the
honors of the session. Out of 546 votes, 288 were
in the affirmative, and 265 in the negative. Con-
sequently, the president announced that the soldiers
of Chateauvieux, who had asked to present them-
selves to the Assembly, should be admitted to the
honors of the session. Gouvion went out by one
door, indignant, and swearing that he would never
re-enter an Assembly which received his brother's
assassins as conquerors. By another door, Collot
d'Herbois made his entry with his prot^g^s, the
ex-galley slaves.
The party of the left and the spectators in the
galleries burst into transports of joy, and gave three
rounds of applause. The soldiers entered the hall
to the beating of drums and cries of " Long live the
nation ! " They were followed by a large procession
of men and women carrying pikes and banners. Col-
lot d'Herbois, the showman of the Swiss, pronounced
an emphatic address in praise of the pretended mar-
tyrs of liberty, which the Assembly ordered to be
printed. One Goachon, speaking for the Faubourg
Saint-Antoine, and holding a pike ornamented with a
118 THE DOWNFALL OF ROYALTY.
red liberty cap, exclaimed : " The citizens of the Fau-
bourg Saint-Antoine, the victors of the Bastille, the
men of July 14, have charged me to warn you that
they are going to make ten thousand more pikes after
the model which you see."
The fete took place on Sunday, April 15. It
was the triumph of anarchy, the glorification of
indiscipline and revolt. On that day the galley
slaves were treated like heroes. The emblems
adopted were a colossal galley, ornamented with
flowers, and the convicts' head gear, that hideous
.red bonnet in which Dumouriez had already played
the buffoon, and which was presently to be set on the
august head of Louis XVI. The soldier galley
slaves, whose chains were kissed with transports by a
swarm of harlots, came forward wearing civic crowns.
What a difference between the Constituent Assem-
bly and the Legislative Assembly ! Under the
one, a grand expiatory ceremony on the Champ-de-
Mars had honored the soldiers slain at Nancy, and
the National Guards had worn mourning for these
martyrs of duty. Under the other, it was not the
victims who were lauded, but their assassins. A
goddess of Liberty in a Phrygian cap was borne in a
state chariot. The procession halted at the Bastille,
the Hotel de Ville, and the Champ-de-Mars. The
mayor and municipality of Paris were present in
their official capacity. The Ca ira was sung in a
frenzy of enthusiasm. Soldiers and public women
embraced each other. It was David who had de-
THE FETE OF THE SWISS. 119
signed the costumes, planned the chariot, and organ-
ized the whole performance, — David, the revolution-
ary artist who was destined by a change of fortune
to paint the portrait of a Pope and the coronation of
an Emperor.
In 1791, Andr^ Ch^nier and David, then friends,
and saluting together the dawn of the Revolution,
had celebrated with lyre and pencil the " Serment du
Jen de PaumeT ^ Consecrating an ode to the painter's
magnificent tableau, the poet exclaimed : —
. Resume thy golden robe, bind on thy chaplet rich.
Divine and youthful Poesy !
To David's lips, King of the skilful brush,
Bear the ambrosial cup.
How he repented his enthusiasm now ! What ill-
will he bore the artist who placed his art, that sacred
gift, at the service of anarchical passions ! With
what irony the same pen passed from dithyramb to
satire !
Arts worthy of our eyes, pomp and magnificence
Worthy of our liberty.
Worthy of the vile tyrants who are devouring France,
Worthy of the atrocious- dementia
Of that stupid David whom in other days I sang !
On the very day of the fete the young poet had
the courage to publish in the Journal de Paris an
avenging satire, which branded the shoulders of the
ex-galley slaves as with a new hot iron. The sweet
^ The oath taken by the deputies of the third estate in the tennis-
court of Versailles, in 1789.
120 THE DOWNFALL OF ROYALTY.
and pathetic elegiast, the Catullus, the Tibullus of
France, added a bronze chord to his lyre : —
Hail, divine triumph ! Enter within our walls !
Bring us these warriors so famed
For Desilles' blood, and for the obsequies
Of many Frenchmen massacred . . .
One day alone could win so much renown,
And this fair day will shine upon us soon 1
When thou shalt lead Jourdan to our army.
And Lafayette to the scaffoM 1
Jourdan was the slaughterer, the headsman, the
torturer of the Glacier of Avignon, who, coming
under the provisions of the amnesty, had arrived to
take part in the triumph of the Swiss of Chateauvieux.
The acclamations were lugubrious. The lanterns
and torches shed a funereal glare. Nothing is more
doleful than enthusiasm for ignominy. The applause
accorded to disgrace and crime sounds like sinister
derision. Outraged public conscience extinguishes
the fires of apotheoses such as these. Madame Elisa-
beth, in a letter of April 18, speaks with a sort of
pity of this odious but ridiculous fete : " The people
have been to see Dame Liberty waggling about on
her triumphal car, but they shrugged their shoulders.
Three or four hundred sans-culottes followed, crying
' Long live the nation ! Long livfe liberty ! Long live
the sans-culottes ! to the devil with Lafayette ! ' All
this was noisy but sad. The National Guards took
no part in it ; on the contrary, they were indignant,
and Potion, they say, is ashamed of his conduct.
THE FETE OF THE SWISS. 121
The next day a pike surmounted by a red bonnet
was carried noiselessly through the garden, and did
not remain there long." The Princess de Lamballe,
who was living at the Tuileries in the Pavilion of
Flora, could see the pike thus carried by a passer.
It may, perhaps, have been that belonging to one of
the Septembrists, — that on which her own head was
to be placed.
The Moniteur, however, grew ecstatic over the f^te.
"There are plenty of others," it said, " who will de-
scribe the march of the triumphal cortege, the groups
composing it, the car of Liberty, conducted by Fame,
drawn by twenty superb horses, preceded by ravish-
ing music which was sometimes listened to in religious
silence and sometimes interrupted by wild, irregu-
lar dances whose very disorder was rendered more
piquant by the fraternal union reigning in all hearts.
. . . The people were there in all their might, and
did not abuse it. There was not a weapon to repress
excesses, and not an excess to be repressed." It con-
cluded thus : " We say to the administration : Give
such festivals as these often. Repeat this one every
year on April 15 ; let the feast of Liberty be our
spring festival ; and let other civic solemnities signal-
ize the return of the other seasons. In former days
the people had none but those of their masters, and
all that was accomplished by them was their deprav-
ity and abasement. Give them some that shall be
their own, and that will elevate their souls, develop
their sensibilities, and fortify their courage. They
122 THE DOWNFALL OF ROYALTY.
will create, or, better, they have already created, a
new pe'bple. Popular festivals are the best educa-
tion for the people."
Optimists, how will your illusions terminate?
You who see nothing but an idyl in all this, can not
you perceive that such ceremonies are the prelude to
massacres, and that an odor of blood mingles with
their perfumes ? All who took part on either side of
the heated controversy which preceded the ovation
to the Swiss of Chateauvieux, will be pui-sued by
fate. Gouvion, who had sworn never again to set
foot within the precincts of the Assembly where the
murderers of his brother triumphed, kept his word.
On the very day of that shameful session he asked to
be sent to the Army of the North, and three months
later was to be carried off by a cannon-ball. Still
more melancholy was to be the fate of Potion, who
showed such complaisance toward the Swiss on this
occasion. He, once so popular that in 1791 he wa.s
asked to allow the ninth child, which a citizeness had
just presented to her country, " to be baptized in his
name, revered almost as much as that of the Divin-
ity " ; he of whom some one said at that time, " For
the same reason which would have made Jesus a
suitable mayor of Jerusalem, Potion is a suitable
mayor of Paris ; there is too striking a resemblance
between them to be overlooked," was sadly to ex-
claim some months later: "I am one of the most
notable examples of popular inconsistency. . . .
For a long time I have said to myself and to my
THE FETE OF THE SWISS. 128
friends: The people will hate me still more than
they have loved me. I can no longer either enter
or depart from the place where we hold our sessions
without being exposed to the grossest insults and the
most seditious threats. How often have I not heard
them say as I was passing : ' Scoundrel ! we will have
your head ! ' "
Proscribed with the Girondins, May 31, 1793, he
fled at first to Normandy, and afterwards into the
Gironde, wandering from town to town, from field to
field, and hiding for several months thirty feet under
ground, in a sort of well ; the poor people who showed
him hospitality paid for it with their heads. Ah!
how disenchanted he must have been with that rev-
olutionary policy of which he had been the enthu-
siastic promoter ! How sad .was the farewell to life
signed by him and Buzot : " Now that it has been
demonstrated that liberty is hopelessly lost ; that the
principles of morality and justice are trodden under
foot; that there is nothing to choose between two
despotisms, — that of the brigands who are tearing the
vitals of France and that of foreign powers ; that the
nation has lost all its energy; that it lies at the feet
of the tyrants by whom it is oppressed ; that we can
render no further service to our country ; that, far
from being able to give happiness to the beings we
hold most dear, we shall bring down hatred, vengeance,
and misfortune upon them, so long as we live, — we
have resolved to quit life and be no longer witnesses
of the slavery which is about to desolate our unhappy
country."
124 THE DOWNFALL OF ROYALTY.
After ending with this cry of grief and indignation :
" We devote the vile scoundrels who have destroyed
liberty and plunged France into an abyss of evils to
the scorn and indignation of all time," the two pro-
scripts were found dead in a wheat-field about a league
from Saint-Emilion. Their bodies were half de-
voured by wolves.
And how will Andr^ Ch^nier end ? On the day
of the Swiss fete, the city where such a scandal took
place seemed to him insupportable. For several
days he sought refuge in the country where he could
breathe a purer air beneath the blossoming trees.
But contemplation of nature did not soothe him.
Running to meet danger, he returned and threw
himself into the furnace, more ardent and indignant
than before. With manly enthusiasm he exclaimed :
" It is above all when the sacrifices which must be
made to truth, liberty, and country are dangerous
and difficult, that they are accompanied by inexpres-
sible delights. It is in the midst of spying accusa-
tions, outrages, and proscriptions, it is in dungeons and
on scaffolds, that virtue, probity, and constancy taste
the pleasures of a proud and pure conscience." Andr^
had a presentiment of his fate.
He was to die on the same day and the same scaf-
fold as his friend Roucher, a few hours earlier than
the moment when Robespierre's condemnation would
have saved them. It is thus that he was to pay with
his life for his opposition to the fete of the Swiss
of Chateauvieux, and Collot d'Herbois was avenged.
THE F&TE OF THE SWISS. 125
But after the turn of the victims came that of the
headsmen. The unlucky comedian who, pursuing
even his comrades v^ith his hatred, asked that " the
head of the ComSdie Frangaise should be guillotined
and the rest transported," the impresario of the fete
of the Swiss galley slaves, the organizer of the Lyons
massacres, CoUot d'Herbois, cursed by friends and
enemies, was transported to Guiana and died there
in 1796, just as he had lived, in an access of burning
fever.
XII.
THE DECLARATION OF WAR.
THE wave of anarchy constantly rose higher, but
the optimists, sheltering themselves, like Potion,
in a beatific calm, obstinately closed their eyes and
would not see it. Abroad and at home there was
such a series of shocks and agitations, of struggles
and emotions, perils and troubles ; things hurried on
so fast, and the scenes of the drama were so varied
and so violent, that what happened to-day was for-
gotten by the morrow. The noise of the fete of the
Swiss of Chateauvieux had hardly ceased when the
shouts of the multitude were heard saluting Louis
XVI., who had just declared war on Austria.
In reality, the King did not desire war, but the
bellicose current had become irresistible. The court
of Vienna had shown itself intractable. It forbade
the princes who owned possessions in Lorraine and
Alsace to receive the indemnities offered by France
in exchange for their feudal rights, and threatened
to have the Diet of Ratisbonne annul any private
treaties they might conclude concerning them. The
electors of Treves, Cologne, and Mayence undisguis-
edly favored the levying of troops by the emigrant
126
THE DECLARATION OF WAR. 127
princes, and even paid subsidies toward their support.
They refused to recognize the official ambassadors of
Louis XVI., while recognizing the plenipotentiaries
of these princes. There was talk of holding a Con-
gress at Aix-la-Chapelle for the purpose of intimidat-
ing the National Assembly. The successor of the
Emperor Leopold, Francis II., who, before his election
to the Empire, had assumed the title of King of
Hungary and Bohemia, displayed extremely martial
sentiments. Austria, which had sent forty thousand
men to the Low Countries and twenty thousand to
the Rhine, had just signed a treaty of alliance with
Prussia, "to put an end to the troubles in France."
Dumouriez urgently demanded the court of Vienna
to explain itself. It finally sent the French Ambas-
sador, Marquis de Noailles, a dry, curt, and formal
note, naming the only conditions on which peace
could be preserved. These were : the re-establish-
ment of the French monarchy on the bases of the
royal declaration of June 23, 1789, and, consequently,
the restoration of the nobility and clergy as orders ;
the restitution of Church property; the return of
Alsace to the German princes, with all their sover-
eign and feudal rights ; and, finally, the surrender of
Avignon and the county of Venaisson to the Holy
See.
"In truth," says Dumouriez in his Memoirs, "if
the Viennese minister had slept through the entire
thirty-three months that had elapsed since the royal
stance, and had dictated this note on awaking with-
128 THE DOWNFALL OF ROYALTY.
out knowledge of what had happened, he could not
have proposed conditions more incongruous with the
progress of the Revolution. . . . The new social
compact was founded on the abolition of the orders
and the equality of all citizens. The financial sys-
tem, which alone could prevent bankruptcy, was
founded on the creation of assignats. The assignats
were hypothecated on the property of the clergy,
now become the property of the nation, and the
greater part of which had been already sold. The
nation, therefore, could not accept these conditions
except by violating its Constitution, destroying prop-
erty, ruining its purchasers, annulling its assignats,
and declaring bankruptcy. Could so humiliating an
obedience be expected from a great nation, proud of
having conquered its liberty ? and that for the sake
of placing itself once more under the yoke of nobles
who, having abandoned their King himself, now
threatened to re-enter their country with sword and
flame and every scourge of vengeance ? "
The entire National Assembly reasoned in the same
way as Dumouriez. A cry for war arose on all sides.
The Girondins saw in it the indispensable consecra-
tion of the Revolution. The Feuillants hoped that
besides proving creditable to the government, it
would accomplish the additional end of drawing
away from Paris and other great cities a multitude
of turbulent men who, for lack of anything else to
do, were disturbing public order. Certain reaction-
ists, stifling the sentiment of patriotism in their hearts,
THE DECLARATION OF WAR. 129
were equally anxious for war, in the secret hope that
it would prove disastrous for the French army, and
result in the re-establishment of the old regime.
On the other hand, there were good citizens, inclined
to optimism and judging others by themselves, who
thought that when confronted with an enemy, all
intestine dissensions would vanish as by enchant-
ment, and that the new Constitution, hallowed by
victory and glory, would ensure the country a most
brilliant destiny. Ministers were unanimous, and
enthusiasm universal. Even if he had so desired,
Louis XVI. could no longer resist it. On April 20,
1792, he went to the Assembly. The hall was filled
with a crowd which comprehended the importance
and solemnity of the act about to be accomplished.
According to Dumouriez, the King was very ma-
jestic : " I come," he said, " in accordance with the
terms of the Constitution, formally to propose war
against the King of Hungary and Bohemia." He
afterwards paid the greatest attention to the report
of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, and seemed, by the
motions of his head and hands, to approve it in every
respect. He returned to the Tuileries amidst general
acclamations. War was unanimously decided on,
and Dumouriez went to the diplomatic committee in
order to draw up the declaration. At ten in the
evening the decree was brought in and carried to the
King, who sanctioned it at once.
Thus commenced that gigantic war which France
was to wage against all Europe, and which ended,
130 THE DOWNFALL OF ROYALTY.
twenty-three years later, in the disaster of Waterloo.
How many battles, what suffering, and what a pro-
digious shedding of blood ! And to attain what end?
Simply the point of departure ; that is to say, in the
political order, to constitutional monarchy, and in
territory, to the boundaries of 1792. What ! to have
filled Europe with noise and renown ; to have carried
the standards of France from east to west, from
north to south; to have camped victoriously in
Brussels, Milan, Venice, Rome, Naples, Cairo, Berlin,
Madrid, Vienna, Moscow ; to have enlarged the bor-
ders of valor, heroism, and self-sacrifice in order to
arrive, after so many efforts, just at the spot where
the strife began ? Ah ! how short-sighted is human
wisdom, how deceitful the previsions of mortal man,
how sterile the agitations of republics and mon-
archs ! " Assuredly ! " says Dumouriez, " if the
Emperor and the King of Prussia could have fore-
seen that France was able to withstand all Europe,
they would not have meddled with her domestic
quarrels ; they would have treated the SmigrSs not
with confidence, but compassion; they would have
responded frankly and without trickery to the minis-
ter's negotiation; the Revolution would have been
accomplished without cruelties ; Europe would have
remained at peace, and France would be happy."
What sadness underlies all history, and what dispro-
portion there is between man's sacrifices and their
results ! The Revolution was achieved. All neces-
sary liberties had been conquered. Privileges ex-
THE DECLARATION OF WAR. 131
isted no longer. Animated by excellent intentions,
Louis XVI. would have been the best of constitu-
tional sovereigns, had his subjects possessed wisdom.
Why this long misunderstanding between him and
his people ? Why, on one side, the insensate attitude
of the Smigres, whose task seemed to be to justify
the revolutionists; and why, on the other, those
savage passions which seemed trying to justify the
wrathful recriminations of Coblentz? Why that
untimely intervention of Austria which irritated
French national sentiment and gave a political pre-
text to inexcusable violence, cruelty, and crime?
Inextricable confusion of false situations ! Multi-
tudes asked themselves in what direction right and
duty lay. A large contingent of the French nobility
heartily desired the success of foreign armies. At
Coblentz a gathering of twenty-two thousand gentle-
men hastened to the side of the seven Bourbon
princes : the Comte de Provence, the Comte d'Artois,
the Due de Berry, the Due d'Angouleme, the Prince
de Conde, the Due de Bourbon, and the Due
d'Enghien.
As M. de Lamartine has said: "Infidelity to the
country called itself fidelity to the King. Desertion
called itself honor. Fealty to the throne was the
religion of the French nobility. To them the sov-
ereignty of the people seemed an insolent dogma
against which it was necessary to draw the sword
under penalty of sharing the crime. There was real
devotion in the act by which these men, young and
132 THE DOWNFALL OF ROYALTY.
old, abandoned their rank in the army, and the ties
of country and family, and rushed into a foreign
land to defend the white flag as common soldiers. . . .
Their country symbolized duty for the patriots; to
the SmigrSs^ duty meant the throne. One of these
parties deceived itself concerning its duty, but both
of them believed they were performing it."
As to the unfortunate Louis XVI., he suffered
cruelly. It was like death to him to declare war
against his nephew, and at certain moments he felt
that this Austrian army against which his troops
contended might yet be his last resource. He could
not even flatter himself that the sacrifice he had
made of his sympathies and family feelings would be
repaid by the love and confidence of his people.
" We have no difficulty nowadays in comprehend-
ing," says M. Geffroy very justly, " what pure patri-
otism there was in that young army of 1792, which
represented new France. But this army, formed
in independence of the old regiments, was none
the less, in the eyes of the Queen, a veritable army
of sedition. She thought of it as composed of the
victors of the Bastille, those whom Mirabeau styled
the greatest scoundrels of Paris; the very rabble
who came to Versailles on the 6th of October. She
believed they could be crushed by the first attack at
the frontier, and that France and Paris would be rid
of them." The following reflection by M. Geffroy is
very judicious : " Marie Antoinette committed a
double error, but honest men who had not the same
THE DECLABATION OF WAR. 133
overpowering motives as she, have committed it
likewise. I do not allude merely to those French-
men who, after April 20, remained in the ranks
of the Emigration, and who, apparently, did not
suppose themselves to be betraying the true inter-
ests of their country. But look at M. de Bouill^.
He even accepted a command in the foreign army
under Gustavus III. And yet M. de Bouille is an
honest man who knows France and loves her ardently.
Observe, in his Memoirs, his involuntary pride in our
success, and how he shrugs his shoulders at the
bluster of the Prussian officers."
It is not yet well understood what vigor, enthusi-
asm, and martial ardor animated that brave national
army, which, according to the foreigners, was but a
band of rioters, but which was suddenly to appear on
the battle-field as a people of heroes. Honor took
refuge in the camps. It was there that men whom
the Jacobin Club enraged, and who had no consola-
tion for their patriotic grief but the virile emotions of
combat, went to fight and die. Why did not Louis
XVI. call to mind that he was the commander-in-
chief of the army? Ah! had he been a soldier, had
he been accustomed to wear a uniform, to command,
and, above all, to speak to his troops, how quickly he
would have come to the end of his difficulties !
Count de Yaublanc had good reason to say : " Any-
thing can be done with Frenchmen if one knows how
to animate and impress them with vehement ardor ;
otherwise, nothing need be expected. . . . Never did
134 THE DOWNFALL OF BOYALTY.
a prince merit better the eternal rewards promised
by religion to the true Christian ; and yet his exam-
ple should forever teach kings that their conduct
must be totally different from his. Lacking the cour-
age which acts, the most virtuous king cannot achieve
his own safety." Why did not Louis XVI. go
amongst his soldiers? Victory would have given
him a sceptre and a crown. While he still retained
his sword, why did he leave it in the scabbard?
Why did he not remember that it might launch
thunderbolts ?
On the contrary, Louis XVI. hesitates, fumbles,
temporizes. Count de Vaublanc says again : " This
wretched time proves thoroughly that finesse is the
most detestable means of conducting great affairs.
Nothing but finesse was opposed to the impetuous
attacks of the Jacobins. All was dissimulation ;
conversations, writings, measures; authority acted
only by crooked ways. With a thousand means of
safety, people were lost because they pushed prudence
to excess, and extreme prudence always degenerates
into despicable means. I was in every great crisis
of the Revolution, and I have always seen the same
faults produce the same misfortunes. It Ls the same
thing in revolution as in war ; no matter how prudent
a general may be, he must take some risk. Other-
wise it would be impossible to gain a single battle."
Ah I how true and how striking is that great say-
ing of Bossuet : " When God wills to overthrow
empires, all is feeble and irregular in their designs.'
THE DECLARATION OF WAR. 135
Undecided and fickle, Louis XVI. does not even
know whether to desire the success or the failure of
the Austrian army. He has no plan, no steadiness of
purpose. The secret mission he gives to Mallet du
Pan is a fresh proof of the irresolution of his charac-
ter and his policy. What is it he asks? To have
the Powers declare that they are making war against
an anti-social faction, and not the French nation ; that
they are undertaking the defence of legitimate gov-
ernments and of peoples against anarchy ; that they
will treat only with the King ; that they shall de-
mand perfect liberty for him; that they convoke a
congress to which the SmigrSs may be admitted as
complainants, and where the general scheme of claims
and reclamations shall be negotiated under the aus-
pices and the guarantee of the great courts of Europe.
Hesitating between Austria and his own kingdom,
the unhappy monarch attempts to continue that equiv-
ocal system, that see-saw policy in which he has
succeeded so ill, and which constrains him to dissimu-
lation, that last resource of the feeble. Sent to Ger-
many with instructions written by Louis XVL, with
his own hand. Mallet du Pan recommends the sover-
eigns to be cautious in advancing into France, to
observe the greatest prudence in dealing with the
inhabitants of the invaded provinces, and to precede
their arrival by a manifesto in which they declare
conciliatory and pacific intentions. It follows that
official ministers of the King did not possess his con-
fidence and were not the interpreters of his mind. A
136 THE DOWNFALL OF ROYALTY.
sort of occult and mysterious government existed,
with a diplomacy, secret funds, and agents abroad
and at home. Such a system, lacking all grandeur
and sincerity, could accomplish nothing but catas-
trophes.
Meanwhile, the war had begun under the most
painful conditions. The invasion of Belgium, ar-
ranged for the end of April, failed miserably. Near
Mons, Biron's troops took to flight, threatening to
fire on their officers, and crying : " We are betrayed ! "
At Lille, General Theobald Dillon was massacred by
his own soldiers. Such news caused indescribable
emotion in Paris. Popular mistrust and irritation
reached their height. The different parties hurled
reproaches and accusations in each other's face. The
Girondins, finding the National Guard too conserva-
tive, demanded pikes for the men of the faubourgs
who had no guns. The sans-culottes enlisted. The
army of assassins was organized. The only thing
left to do before giving the signal for a riot was to
obtain from the King a last concession, — the dis-
banding of his guard.
XIII.
THE DISBANDING OF THE CONSTITUTIONAL GUARD.
LOUIS XVI. had still some defenders, some
heroes resolved to shed the last drop of their
blood for their King. Hence it was necessary to
remove them from his person. What means of doing
so could be found ? Calumny. Fable on fable was
spread among an always credulous public, imaginary
conspiracies invented, and the wretched monarch
constrained to deprive himself of his last resource, in
order to deliver him, weak and disarmed, into the
hands of his enemies.
The Constitution provided a guard for Louis XVI.
One third of it was composed of soldiers of the line,
and the remainder of National Guards, chosen by
the Departments themselves from among their best-
formed, richest, and best-bred citizens. It was com-
manded by one of the greatest lords 6f the old
r%ime, the Duke de Coss^-Brissac. Born in 1734,
the son of a marshal of France, the Duke had been
governor of Paris, grand steward of France, and
colonel of the Hundred-Switzers. He had never
been willing to leave the King since the beginning
of the Revolution. When his regiment was dis«
137
138 THE DOWNFALL OF ROYALTr.
banded he might have fled, and Louis XVI. begged
him to do so ; but the heart of a subject so faithful
had been deaf to the entreaties of the unfortunate
sovereign. " Sire," he had answered, " if I fly, they
will say that I am guilty, and j^ou will be considered
my accomplice : my flight would be your accusation ;
I would rather die." And, in fact, he did die. He
had a real devotion to the former mistress of Louis
XV., the Countess du Barry, and this latest con-
quest is not the least important of the favorite's
adventures. Probably Count d'AUonville exagger-
ates when, in his Memoirs, he extols in Madame du
Barry " that decency of tone, that nobility of manners,
that bearing equally removed from pride and humil-
ity, from license and from prudery, that countenance
which was enough to refute all the pamphlets."
Nevertheless, it is certain that the society of the Duke
de Brissac inspired the former favorite with generous
sentiments. After the October Days, she took the
wounded body-guards into her own house, and when
the Queen sent to thank her for it, she replied:
" These wounded young men • regret nothing except
not having died for a princess so worthy of all
homage as Your Majesty. . . . Luciennes^ is yours,
Madame ; did not your benevolence give it back to
me ? . . . The late King, by a sort of presentiment,
forced me to accept a thousand precious objects
1 The magnificent mansion built for Madame du Barry by Loms
XV. , and restored to her after her banishment to Meaux by Marie
Antoinette.
DISBANDING THE CONSTITUTIONAL GUABD. 139
before sending me away from his person. I already-
had the honor of offering you this treasure in the
time of the Notables ; I offer it again, Madame, with
eagerness. You have so many expenses to provide
for, and so many favors to confer. Permit me, I
entreat you, to render to Caesar that which belongs
to Csesar."
An enthusiastic royalist, a gentleman of the old
nobility, chivalrous and full of courtesy, bred in
notions of romantic susceptibility like those of ClSlie
and Astree, the Duke de Brissac, like a knight-
errant of former times, represented at the court of
Louis XVI. a whole past which was crumbling to
decay. If the unhappy monarch had been a man of
action, he would have turned to good advantage a
guard commanded by such a champion. He could
have made it the nucleus of resistance by grouping
the Swiss regiments and the well-inclined battalions
of the National Guard around it. Unfortunately,
there was nothing warlike in Louis XVI. " Among
the deplorable causes which ruined him," says the
Count de Vaublanc in his Memoirs, " must be
counted the wretched education which kept him
apart from every sort of military action. I remember
that in the early days of the Consulate, after a
review held on the Place of the Tuileries by Bona-
parte, when talking about this to M. Suard, of the
French Academy, I said that Bonaparte walked as if
he were always ready to defend himself sword in
hand. ' Ah, well ! ' responded M. Suard, naively,
140 THE DOWNFALL OF ROYALTY.
' we used to think differently ; we wanted the King
to have nothing military about him, and never to
wear a uniform.' "
To this anecdote, M. de Vaublanc adds another.
" We had in 1792," he says, " a forcible proof of the
despondency under which a royal soul, spoiled by a
detestable education, can labor. M. de Narbonne,
the. Minister of War, with great difficulty induced
the King to review three excellent battalions of the
Paris National Guard. He was on foot, in silk
breeches and white silk stockings, and wearing his
hair in a black bag. After the review a notary,
named Chandon, I think, left the ranks and said to
the King : ' Sire, the National Guard would be
greatly honored to see Your Majesty in its uniform.'
' Sire,' said M. de Narbonne, at once, ' have the
goodness to promise to do so. At the head of these
three battalions of heroes you could destroy the
Jacobins' den.' After a minute's reflection, the King
replied: 'I will inquire of my Council whether the
Constitution permits me to wear the uniform of the
National Guard.' " Louis XVI. allowed the last
resources accorded by fortune to slip away, and
elements which in other hands would have produced
notable results, remained sterile in his.
The Constitutional Guard, which according to
regulation should have numbered eighteen hundred
men, really amounted, says Dumouriez, to six
thousand fit for duty. The royalist element pre-
dominated in it. But a certain number of "false
DISBANDING THE CONSTITUTIONAL GUARD. 141
brethren " had found their way into the ranks, who
managed by the aid of bribery to spy upon their
officers, and made reports to the committee of public
safety. Undoubtedly the King's guards did not
approve of all that was going on. But how could
devoted royalists and men accustomed to discipline
be expected to approve the fete of the Swiss of
Chateauvieux, for example? How could they help
being indignant when, while on duty at the Tuileries,
they heard the populace insult the royal family under
the very windows of the palace ?
When they returned to their barracks at the Mili-
tary School, they expressed this indignation too forci-
bly, and their words, hawked about in all quarters
by ill-will, were represented as the preliminary symp-
toms of a reactionary plot. A guard commanded by
a Duke de Brissac was intolerable to the Jacobins.
Their sole idea was to drive it from the Tuileries,
where its presence appeared to insure order, —
a thing they held in utmost horror. A 20th of
June would not have been possible with a constitu-
tional guard, and ever since May, the 20th of June
had been in course of preparation. Its organizers
had their plan completely laid already. An adroit
rumor was started of a so-called plot, some Saint-
Bartholomew or other, which they pretended was on
foot against the patriots, and of which the Ecole
Militaire was the centre. The white flag, which was
to be the signal for the assassins to assemble, was
said to be hidden there. Potion, the mayor of Paris,
142 THE DOWNFALL OF ROYALTY.
under pretext of preventing troubles, sent municipal
officers to make a search. They could not lay their
hands on the white flag which was the pretended
object of their visit, but they did find monarchical
hymns and ballads, and counter-revolutionary writ-
ings.
An unlucky incident still further increased sus-
picion. The famous Countess de La Motte had just
published in London some new particulars concern-
ing the affair of the necklace. In order to avert
scandal, the Queen had caused Laporte, intendant of
the civil list, to buy up the whole edition, and he had
burned every copy of it at the manufactory of Sevres.
That very evening the committee of surveillance
were in possession of the fact that Laporte had gone
to Sdvres with three unknown persons, and that
thirty bales of paper had been put into the fire in his
presence. There was at this time a great deal of
talk concerning a pretended Austrian committee, in
which a complete plan of restoration by foreign aid
was being elaborated. It was claimed that the papers
burned at the manufactory were the archives of this
committee, with which popular imagination was
extremely busy. Denunciations fell in showers.
Laporte and several others were summoned before
the committee of surveillance. . Potion declared
that the people were surrounded by conspiracies.
Bazire demanded the disbanding of the King's guard,
which, according to him, was made up of servants of
the Smigr4sy and refractory priests. It was claimed
DISBANDING THE CONSTITUTIONAL GUARD. 143
that the soldiers, to whom the Duke de Brissac had
given sabres with hilts representing a cock sur-
mounted by a royal crown, used insulting language
concerning the Assembly and the nation in their
barracks. They were said to rejoice in the reverses
which the French troops had just sustained on the
northern frontier, and it was added that they meant
to march twenty leagues under a white flag to meet
the Austrians. The masses, always so easily de-
ceived, were convinced that the conspiracy was on
the brink of discovery.
The National Assembly took up the question, and
a stormy debate on it occupied the evening session
of May 29. " What will become of the individual
liberty of citizens," cried M. Daverhout^, "if the
dominant party, merely by alleging suspicions, can
decree the impeachment of all who displease it, and
if the different parties, coming successively into
power, overthrow, by means of this unchecked right
of impeachment, both ministers and all functionaries
by the torrent of their intrigues ? In that case you
would see proscriptions like those of Marius and
Sylla." In fact, this was what the near future was
about to show. Vergniaud responded by evoking a
souvenir of the praetorian guards of Caligula and
Nero. At the close of his speech the Assembly
passed the following decree : —
" Article 1. The existing hired guard of the
King is disbanded, and will be replaced immediately
in conformity with the laws.
144 THE DOWNFALL OF ROYALTY.
"Art. 2. Until the formation of the new guard,
the National Guard of Paris will be on duty near the
King's person, in the same manner as before the estab-
lishment of the King's guard."
A discussion ensued on the subject of Brissac's
impeachment. The struggle between the two oppos-
ing parties was of unheard-of vivacity. One of the
most courageous members of the right, M. Calvet,
gave free vent to his indignation. " The informer,"
said he, " is a scoundrel who makes a thrust with a
poniard and hides himself ; he was unknown at Rome
until the times of Sejanus and Tiberius ; times, gen-
tlemen, of which you remind me often." "To the
Abbey ! to the Abbey ! " retorted the left, with fury.
Said Guadet : " I demand that M. Calvet should be
sent to the Abbey for three days, for having dared
to say that the representatives of the French people
remind him of the Roman Tiberius and Sejanus."
The motion was adopted, and the Assembly decided
that M. Calvet should pass three days in prison.
M. de Jaucourt threatened to cudgel Chabot, and
the ex-friar, ascending the tribune, said : " I think it
was very cowardly on the part of a colonel to offer
to cane a Capuchin." The Assembly, having passed
an order of the day concerning this incident, decreed
that " there was reason for an - accusation against
M. Coss^, styled Brissac, and that his papers should
be sealed up at once."
The King and Queen, awakened in the middle of
the night by these tidings, besought Brissac to make
DISBANDING THE CONSTITUTIONAL GUARD. 145
his escape, and provided him with the means. The
Duke refused, and instead of trying to assure his
safety, sat down to write a long letter to Madame du
Barry. At first Louis XVI. wished to veto this de-
cree, as was his duty, but his ministers dissuaded
him. They reminded him of the October Days, and
the weak monarch, alarmed on account of his family,
if not on his own, sacrificed his Constitutional Guard
and also the brave servitor who commanded it. Speak-
ing to M. d'Aubier, one of the ordinary gentlemen of
the King's bedchamber, the Queen said : " I tremble
lest the King's guard should think the honor of the
corps compromised by their, disarmament." — " Doubt-
less, Madame, that corps would have preferred to die
at the feet of Your Majesties." — "Yes," replied the
Queen, "but the few partisans who still adhere to
the King in the Assembly counsel him to sanction
the decree disbanding them, and to disregard their
advice is to run the risk of losing them." While the
Queen was yet speaking, a man approached under
pretence of asking alms. " You see," said she to
M. d'Aubier, "there is no place and no time when
I am free from spies."
The Constitutional Guard were sent as prisoners
to the Ecole Militaire between a double file of
National Guards, and forced to surrender their wea-
pons. By a sort of fatality Louis XVI. was led to
disarm himself, to spike his cannons, tear down his
flags, and dismantle his fortresses. By dint of ap-
proaching too near the fatal declivity of concessions.
146 THE DOWNFALL OF ROYALTY.
he ended by losing even his dignity as man and King.
He was paralyzed, annihilated by the Assembly,
which treated him like a hostage, a conquered man,
and which struck down, one after another, the last
defenders of the monarchy and of public order. The
fate of the Constitutional Guard might well discour-
age honest men who only sought to devote them-
selves. How was it possible to remain faithful to a
chief who was false to himself, who was more like
a victim than a king? Finding themselves unsup-
ported by the Tuileries, the royalists began to look
across the frontier, and many men who would have
flocked around an energetic monarch, fled from a
feeble king and sorrowfully went to swell the ranks
of the emigration.
In spite of the advice of Dumouriez, Louis XVI.
would not make use of his right to form another
guard. He preferred to put himself in the hands of
the National Guard, who were his jailors rather than
his servants. As to the Duke de Brissac, even the
formality of an interrogatory was dispensed with,
and he was sent before the Superior Court of Orleans.
When he bade adieu to Louis XVI., the King said to
him : " You are going to prison ; I should be much
more afflicted if you were not leaving me there my-
self." What wa^ to be the fate of the loyal and
devoted servant, thus sacrificed to his master's inex-
cusable weakness ? He left the dungeons of Orleans
only to be transferred to Versailles by the Marseillais,
and there, on September 9, 1792, was assaulted by a
DISBANDING THE CONSTITUTIONAL GUARD. 147
furious throng surrounding the carriages containing
the prisonei-s. The brave old man struggled long
against the assassins, but, after losing two fingers and
receiving several other wounds, he was killed by a
sabre-thrust which broke his jaw, and his head was
set on one of the spikes of the palace gate.
XIV.
THE SUFFERINGS OF LOUIS XVI.
DISSATISFIED with men and things, dissatis^
fied with others and himself, the mind and
heart of Louis XVI. were the prey of moral tortures
which left him no repose. He began to be ashamed
of his concessions, and to repent of having accepted
pusillanimous advice. Why had he not succeeded in
being a king ? Why had he garrisoned Paris insuffi-
ciently ever since the outbreak of the Revolution?
Why had he suffered the Bastille to be taken,
encouraged the emigration, and disbanded his body-
guards ? Why had he not opposed the first persecu-
tions aimed at the Church ? Why had he pretended
to approve acts and ideas which horrified him ? Why,
by resorting to deplorable equivocations which cast
a shadow over his policy and his character, had he
reduced his most devoted followers to doubt and
despair? Such thoughts as these assailed him like
so many stings of conscience. The sentiments of
monarchy and of military honor awoke in him once
more, and he sounded with bitterness the whole depth
of the abyss into which his irresolution had plunged
him. In seeing what he was, he recalled sorrowfully
148
THE SUFFERINGS OF LOUIS XVI. 149
what he had been, and comprehended by cruel ex-
perience what feebleness could make of a Most Chris-
tian King and eldest son of the Church, an heir of
Louis XIV. He thought of the many brave men,
victims of his political errors, who on his account had
suffered exile and ruin ; of the faithful royalists men-
aced, because of him, with prison and death. He
thought of the incessantly repeated crimes, the mas-
sacres of the Glaci^re, the impunity of the brigands
of " headsman " Jourdan, of Brissac's incarceration.
This is what it is, he said within himself, to have suf-
fered religion to be persecuted and to have believed
that, were the altar once overthrown, the throne might
rest secure. He reproached himself bitterly for hav-
ing sanctioned the civil organization of the clergy at
the close of 1790, and thus drawn upon himself the
censure of the Sovereign Pontiff. He wanted to be
done with concessions, but he understood perfectly
that it was too late now to resist, and that he was
irrevocably lost in consequence of events undesired
and unforeseen.
What was to be done ? How could he sail against
the stream ? Where find a point of vantage ? Ought
he to take violent measures ? If the unhappy King
had been alone, perhaps he might have tried to do so.
But he feared to endanger his wife and children by
thus acting.
As if to push the wretched monarch to extremities,
the National Assembly passed two decrees which
struck him to the heart. According to the first of
150 THE DOWNFALL OF BOTALTY.
these, voted May 19, any ecclesiastic having refused
the oath to the civil constitution of the clergy, could
be transported at the simple request of twenty citi-
zens of the canton in which he resided. According
to the second, voted June 8, a camp of twenty thou-
sand federates, recruited from every canton of the
realm, were to be assembled before Paris, in order,
as was said in one of the preambles, " to take every
hope from the enemies of the common weal who are
scheming in the interior."
They had counted too much on the King's patience.
He could not resolve to sanction the two decrees, and
banish the ecclesiastics whose behavior he honored.
Dumouriez afflicted him still further, when, in entreat-
ing him to yield, he asked why he had sanctioned,
at the close of 1790, the decree obliging the clergy
to take oath to the civil constitution of the clergy.
" Sire," said he, " you sanctioned the decree for the
priests' oath, and it is to that your veto must be ap-
plied. If I had been one of your counsellors at the
time, I would, at the risk of my life, have advised
you to refuse your sanction. Now my opinion is that
having, as I dare to say, committed the fault of
approving this decree, which has produced enormous
evils, your veto, if you apply it to the second decree,
which may arrest the deluge of blood ready to flow,
will burden your conscience with all the crimes to
which the people are tending." Never had a sover-
eign's conscience been a prey to similar perplexities.
Louis XVI. seemed crushed beneath an irresistible
THE SUFFERINGS OF LOUIS XVI. 151
fatality. The Tuileries, haunted night and day by
the spectre of Charles I., assumed a dismal air. At
this period a sort of stupor characterized the counte-
nance, the gait, and even the silence of the future
victim of January 21. He no longer spoke; one might
say he no longer thought. He seemed prostrated,
petrified.
A rumor got about that he had become almost
imbecile through care and trouble, so much so that
he did not recognize his son, but on seeing him
approach, had asked : " What child is that ? " It was
added that while out walking he caught sight of the
steeple of Saint Denis from the top of the hill, and
cried out : " That is where I shall be on my birthday."
He had been so calumniated, so misunderstood, so out-
raged, that not merely his crown but his existence
had become an intolerable burden to him. His throne
and his life alike disgusted him. He was no longer
a King, but only the ghost of one.
Madame Campan thus describes him : " At this
period the King fell into a discouragement amounting
to physical prostration. For ten days together he
never uttered a word, even in the bosom of his fam-
ily, except when the game of backgammon, which he
played with Madame Elisabeth after dinner, obliged
him to pronounce some indispensable words. The
Queen drew him out of this condition, so fatal at a crit-
ical time when every minute may necessitate action,
by throwing herself at his feet and addressing him
sometimes in words intended only to frighten him,
152 THE DOWNFALL OF ROYALTY.
and at others expressing her affection for him. She
demanded, also, what he owed to his family, and went
so far as to say that if they must perish, it ought to
be with honor, and without waiting to be strangled
one after another on the floor of their apartment."
While Louis XVI. assisted unmoved, not merely
like Charles V. at his own obsequies, but at those of
royalty, the blood of Maria Theresa was boiling in
the veins of Marie Antoinette. The scenes she
had witnessed sometimes extorted sobs and cries of
anguish from her. Her pride revolted at seeing the
royal mantle, crown, and sceptre dragged through the
mire. She wanted to struggle to the last, to hope
against all hope, to cling to the last chances of safety
like a shipwrecked sailor to the fragments of lys ship.
Who could say? She might find defenders where
she least expected them. It was for this reason that
she wished to meet Dumouriez, as she had met Mira-
beau and Barnave. Dumouriez has preserved the
details of this interview in his Memoirs.
How times had changed! Secrecy was almost
necessary if one sought the honor of speaking with
the Queen of France. Even to salute her was to
expose one's self to the suspicion of belonging to the
pretended Austrian committee which was the per-
petual object of popular invective. When Louis
XVI. told Dumouriez that the Queen desired a pri-
vate interview with him, the minister was not at all
well pleased. He thought it a useless step which
might be misinterpreted by all parties. However,
THE SUFFERINGS OF LOUIS XVI. 153
he must needs obey. He had received an order to
go down to the Queen an hour before the meeting of
the Council. That it might be tlie sooner over, he
took the precaution of going half an hour late to this
perilous rendezvous. He had been presented to
Marie Antoinette on the day of his nomination as
minister. She had then addressed him several
words, asking him to serve the King well, and he
had replied with a respectful phrase. Since then
he had not seen her. When he entered her room,
he found the Queen alone, very much flushed, and
pacing to and fro in an agitation which promised a
lively interview. She approached him with an air
of majestic irritation : " Sir ! " she exclaimed, " you
are all-powerful at this moment, but it is by the favor
of the people, who soon break their idols. Your
existence depends upon your conduct." Dumouriez
insisted on the necessity of scrupulously respecting
the Constitution, which Marie Antoinette was unwill-
ing to do. " It will not last," she said, raising her
voice ; " take care of yourself ! " — " Madame," re-
plied the minister, " I am past fifty ; I have encoun-
tered many perils during my life, and in entering
the ministry, I thoroughly understood that respon-
sibility was not the greatest of my dangers." —
" Nothing was wanting but to calumniate me," cried
the Queen, tears flowing from her eyes; "you seem
to think me capable of having you assassinated."
Agitated as greatly as the sovereign, " God pre-
serve me," said Dumouriez, " from offering you so
154 TUE DOWNFALL OF ROYALTY.
grievous an offence ! Your Majesty's character is
great and noble. You have given proofs of it which
I admire and which have attached me to you." Marie
Antoinette grew calmer. " Believe me, Madame,"
went on the minister ; " I have no interest in deceiv-
ing you, and I abhor anarchy and crime as much as
you do. . . . This^ is not, as you seem to think, a
popular and transitory movement. It is the almost
unanimous insurrection of a great nation against
inveterate abuses. The conflagration is stirred up by
great parties, and there are scoundrels and fools in
all of them. I behold nothing in the Revolution but
the King and the nation as a whole ; all that tends
to separate them leads to their mutual ruin; I am
doing all I can to reunite them, and it is your part
to aid me. Tj'J_aiTT_nTwiWaj^,1p fn ynur^ dp^igns^^y
SO, and I will at once offer niy_resignatiQn_jto„th&
.^ng, and go intojuCQrner to bewail_th&-iate-Qf my
country and your own." The interview ended ami-
caBlyT The C^ueen arid the minister talked over the
different factions. Dumouriez spoke to Marie Antoi-
nette of the faults and crimes of each ; he tried to
convince her that she was misled by those who
surrounded her, and the Queen appeared to be
convinced. When he was obliged to call her atten-
tion to the clock, as the hour for the Council had
arrived, she dismissed him most affably.
If we may credit Madame Campan, who has also
given an account of this interview, the impression
Marie Antoinette received from it was scarcely a
THE SUFFERINGS OF LOUIS XVI. 155
good one. " One day," says Madame Campan, " I
found the Queen extremely troubled. She said she
no longer knew where she stood ; whether the Jaco-
bin chiefs were making overtures to her through
Dumouriez, or Dumouriez, abandoning the Jacobins,
was acting on his own account ; that she had given
him an audience ; that, when alone with her, he had
fallen at her feet and said that although he had
pulled the red bonnet down to his ears, yet he was
not and could not be a Jacobin ; that the Revolution
had been allowed to fall into the hands of a rabble
of disorganizers who, seeking only for pillage, were
capable of everything, and could furnish the Assem-
bly with a formidable army, ready to undermine the
support of a throne already too much shaken. While
speaking with extreme warmth, he had seized the
Queen's hand, and, kissing it with transport, cried,
' Permit yourself to be saved ! ' The Queen said to
me that the protestations of a traitor could not be
believed, and that his entire conduct was so well
known that undoubtedly the wisest thing would be
not to trust him."
Meantime, the danger constantly increased. Even
the gates of the Tuileries were no longer fastened.
Hawkers of vile pamphlets and sanguinary satires on
the Queen cried their infamous wares under the very
windows of the palace ; and the National Assembly,
sitting close beside, and hearing them — the National
Assembly, terrorized by Jacobins and pikemen —
dared not even censure such baseness. On June 4|
156 THE DOWNFALL OF ROYALTY.
a deputy named Ribes, till then unknown, cited from
the tribune the titles of the following articles in
Fr^ron's journal, V Orateur du Peuple : " The crowned
porcupine, a constitutional animal who behaves un-
constitutionally." — " Crimes of M. Capet since the
Revolution." — " Decree to be passed forbidding the
Queen to sleep with the King." — " The royal tigress,
separated from her worthy spouse, to serve as a hos-
tage." " Rouse up ! " cried the indignant deputy.
" There is still time. Join with me in proclaiming
war on traitors and justice for the seditious, and the
country is safe ! " Ribes preached in the desert.
The Assembly shrugged their shoulders and treated
him as a fool.
June 11, another deputy, M. Delsaux, said from
the tribune : " Last evening, at half-past seven, pass-
ing through the Tuileries, I saw an orator standing
on a chair and speaking with great vehemence. Mix-
ing with the crowd, I heard him read a libel strongly
inciting to the King's assassination. This libel is
called, 'The Fall of the Idol of the French,' and
these sentences occur in it : ' This monster employs
his power and his treasures to hinder our regenera-
tion. A new Charles IX., he wishes to bring deso-
lation and death to France. Go, cruel wretch ; thy
crimes shall have an end. Damiens was less guilty.
He was punished by most horrible tortures for having
desired to deliver France from a monster. And thou,
whose offences are twenty-five million times greater,
art left unpunished ! But tremble, tyrant ; there is
a Scsevola amongst us.' "
THE SUFFERINGS OF LOUIS XVL 157
The Assembly listened, but took no measures.
No further restraint was placed either on moral or
material disorder. Anarchy showed a nameless
epileptic ferocity. Never had the press been more
furious or licentious. It was a torrent of mud and
gall and blood. The limits of invective and insult
were driven further back. "You see that I am
annoyed," said the Queen to Dumouriez in Louis
XVI.'s presence ; " I dare not go to the window
looking into the garden. Last evening, needing a
breath of air, I showed myself at the window facing
the courtyard. A gunner belonging to the guard
apostrophized me in an insulting way, and added:
' What pleasure it would give me to have your head
on the end of my bayonet ! ' In that frightful garden
a man standing on a chair reads out horrors against
us on one side, and on the other may be seen a sol-
dier or a priest whom they are dragging through a
pond, and crushing with blows and insults. Mean-
time, others are flying balloons or quietly strolling
about. Ah ! what a place ! what a people ! "
XV.
bolaitd's dismissal from office.
IN the ministry, as elsewhere, discord reigned. At
first, the ministers had seemed to be of one
mind. They dined at each other's houses four times
a week, on the days when there was a meeting of the
Council. Friday was Roland's day for receiving his
colleagues at his table, where his wife presided and
perorated. " These dinners," says Etienne Dumont,
"were often remarkable for their gaiety, of which
no situation can deprive Frenchmen when they meet
in society, and which was natural to men contented
with themselves and flattered by their elevation.
The future was hidden from them by the present.
The cares of the ministry were forgotten. They
seated themselves in their dwellings as if they were
to abide there forever." This sort of political honey-
moon could not last very long. Things presently
began to change for the worse. Dumouriez tired
very soon of Madame Roland's pretensions; she
wanted to know, see, and direct everything, and he
persisted in refusing to transform himself into a
puppet whose strings were to be pulled by this
woman and the Girondins. Madanie Roland, who
108
BOLAND'S DISMISSAL FEOM OFFICE. 159
posed as a puritan, caused remonstrances to be ad-
dressed to Dumouriez on the subject of some more or
less suspicious affairs, said to have been negotiated
by Bonne-Carrere, the director at the Ministry of
Foreign Affairs, by which Madame de Beauvert was
supposed to have gained large sums. The wife of
the Minister of the Interior had a grudge against
the favorite of the Minister of Foreign Affairs. "She
is Dumouriez's mistress," said she ; " she lives in his
house and does the honors at his table, to the great
scandal of sensible men, who are friendly to good
morals and liberty. For this license on the part of
a public man charged with State affairs marks
too plainly his contempt for decorum ; and Madame
de Beauvert, Rivarol's sister, very well and very
unfavorably known, is surrounded by the tools of
aristocracy, unworthy in all respects." One evening,
after dinner, Roland, " with the gravity belonging to
his age and character," as his wife says, gave a lec-
ture on morality to the Minister of Foreign Affairs
apropos of this matter. At first Dumouriez mad
jesting replies, but afterwards showed temper and
appeared displeased with his entertainers. There-
after he seldom visited the Ministry of the Interior.
Reflecting on this, Madame Roland said to her hus-
band : " Though not a good judge of intrigue, I think
worldly wisdom would dictate that the hour has
come for getting rid of Dumouriez, if we wish to
avoid being ruined by him. I know very well that
you would be unwilling to lower yourself to such an
160 THE DOWNFALL OF ROYALTY.
action ; and yet it is plain that Dumouriez must be
seeking to disembarrass himself of those whose cen-
sure has offended him. When one undertakes to
preach, and does so in vain, he must either punish or
expect to be molested."
Thenceforward, Madame Roland formed a distinct
group within the ministry, composed of her husband,
Claviere, and Servan, who had just replaced De Grave
as Minister of War. While Dumouriez, Lacoste, and
Duranton (whom Louis XVI. called " the good
Duranton") allowed themselves to be affected by
the King's goodness, and sincerely wished to save
him, their three colleagues, inspired by the spiteful
Madame Roland, had but one idea : to destroy him.
" Roland, Claviere, and Servan," says Dumouriez in
his Memoirs, "no longer observed any moderation,
not merely with their colleagues, but with the King
himself. At every meeting of the Council they
abused the mildness of this prince, in order to
mortify and kill him with pin-pricks."
It was Servan who proposed forming a camp of
twenty thousand federates around Paris. He thought
it would be a sort of central revolutionary army,
analogous to that English parliamentary army under
command of Cromwell, which had brought Charles I.
to the scaffold. "Servan, a very wicked naan and
most inimical to the King," says Dumouriez again,
"took the notion to write to the President of the
Assembly, without consulting his colleagues, and
propose a decree for assembling an army of twenty
BOLAND'8 DISMISSAL FROM OFFICE. 161
thousand men around Paris. This was at the time
when the Girondin faction was at the height of its
power, having the Jacobins at their command, and
governing Paris through Potion. They wanted to
destroy the Feuillants, perhaps at the sword's point,
to put down the court, and probably to begin putting
their republican projects into execution. Thus it was
this faction which brought to Paris the federates
who ended by causing every one of them to perish
on the scaffold after making Louis XVI. ascend it."
Dumouriez was indignant that the Minister of War
should have taken it on himself to propose such a
decree without even mentioning it to the sovereign.
The dispute on this matter was so violent that, but
for the presence of the King, the meeting of the
Council might have come to a bloody close. Louis
XVI., deeply grieved by such scandals, resolved to
dismiss the three ministers, who, instead of supporting
him, were merely conspirators who had sworn his
ruin.
The anguish of the unhappy monarch had reached
its height. Four councils were held without his
returning the decrees submitted to him for considera-
tion. The National Assembly grew impatient. The
Jacobins were in a rage. At last the King con-
cluded to take up in the Council the decree relative
to the camp of twenty thousand federates. " I
think," said Dumouriez, " that the decree is danger-
ous to the nation, the King, the National Assembly,
and above all to its authors, whose chastisement it
162 THE DOWNFALL OF ROYALTY.
will turn out to be ; and yet, Sire, it is my opinion
that you cannot refuse it. It was proposed by
profound malice, debated with fury, and decreed
with enthusiasm; everybody is blinded. If you
veto it, it will none the less be passed." The hesi-
tation of Louis XVI. redoubled. As to the decree
concerning the clergy, he declared that he would
never sanction it. This was the only time that
Dumouriez ever saw " the character of this gentle
soul somewhat changed for the worse."
Meanwhile, Madame Roland, more impatient and
vindictive than ever, wrote the famous letter supposed
to issue from her husband, which was to echo in the
ears of royalty like a funeral knell. She says of it : —
" The letter was written at one stroke, like nearly
all matters of the sort which I have done ; for, to feel
the necessity, the fitness of a thing, to apprehend its
good effect, to desire to produce it, and to give form
to the object from which this effect should result, was
to me but a single operation."
This letter, a veritable arraignment of the King,
was much more like a club speech or a newspaper
article than a letter from a minister of state to his
sovereign. Such sentences as these pccur in it :
" Sire, the existing state of things in France cannot
long continue ; it is a crisis whose violence is attain-
ing its highest point; it must end by an outbreak
which should interest Your Majesty as seriously as
it affects the entire kingdom. ... It is no longer
possible to draw back. The Revolution is accom-
ROLAND'S DISMISSAL FROM OFFICE. 163
plished in men's minds ; it will end in blood and be
cemented by blood if wisdom does not avert the evils
whicli it is still possible to prevent. . . . Yet a little
more delay, and the afflicted people will behold in
their King the friend and accomplice of conspirators.
Just Heaven ! hast Thou stricken with blindness the
powerful of this earth, and will they never heed other
counsels than those which drag them to destruction I
I know that the austere language of truth is rarely
welcomed near the throne ; I know, also, that it is
because it so rarely obtains a hearing there that
revolutions become necessary ; I know, above all,
that I am bound to employ it to Your Majesty, not
merely as a citizen submissive to the law, but as a
minister honored with your confidence, or vested
with functions which imply this."
The letter also contained a defence of the two de-
crees, and plainly threatened Louis XVI., should he
veto them, with the horrors of a civil war which
would develop " that sombre energy, mother of vir-
tues and of crimes, which is always fatal to those who
have evoked it ! " Was not Madame Roland here
announcing the September massacres, and the heinous
crimes of which she herself was speedily to become
one of the most celebrated victims ?
At first Roland sent this letter to the King, with a
promise that it should always remain a secret be-
tween them. But, incited by the vanity of his wife,
who was incessantly urging him on to notoriety and
display, Roland did not keep this promise. He read
164 THE DOWNFALL OF ROYALTY.
the letter at the next meeting of the Council, June
11. " The King," says Dumouriez, " listened to this
impudent diatribe with admirable patience, and said
with the greatest coolness: 'M. Roland, you had
already sent me your letter; it was unnecessary to
read it to the Council, as it was to remain a secret
between ourselves.' " Dumouriez was summoned to
the palace the following morning, June 12. He
found the King in his own room, accompanied by the
Queen. " Do you think. Monsieur," said Marie An-
toitiette, " that the King ought to submit any longer
to the threats and insolence of Roland and the
knaverj'^ of Servan and Clavidre ? " — " No, Madame,"
he replied ; " I am indignant at them ; I admire the
King's patience, and I venture to ask him to make an
entire change in his ministry. Let him dismiss us
on the spot, and appoint men belonging to neither
party." — " That is not my intention," said Louis
XVI. " I wish you to remain, as well as Lacoste
and that good man, Duranton. Do me the service
of ridding me of these three factious and insolent
persons, for my patience is exhausted." — "It is a
dangerous matter. Sire, but I will do it." As a
condition of remaining in the ministry, Dumouriez
exacted the sanction of the two decrees. There was
another ministerial council the same evening. Roland,
Servan, and Clavi^re were more insolent and acrimo-
nious than usual. Louis XVI. closed the session
with mingled dissatisfaction and dignity.
At eight o'clock that evening (June 12), Servan,
ROLAND'S DISMISSAL FROM OFFICE. 165
the Minister of War, went to Madame Roland and
said: "Congratulate me! I have been turned out." — ■
" I am much piqued," replied she, " that you should
be the first to receive that honor, but I hope it will
not be long before it will be decreed to my husband
also." Madame Roland's prayer was granted. The
virtuous Minister of the Interior received his letters
of dismissal the next morning. As Duranton, who
delivered it at the Ministry of Justice, was slowly
drawing it from his pocket, —
" You make us wait for our liberty," said Roland ;
and, taking the letter, he added, " In reality that is
what it is." Then he went home to his wife to
announce to her that he was no longer minister.
Madame Roland, with the instinct of hatred, saw
at once how to obtain revenge. " One thing remains
to be done," she cried; "we must be the first to com-
municate the news to the Assembly, sending them
at the same time a copy of the letter to the King
which must have caused it." This idea pleased the
ex-minister highly, and he put it instantly into exe-
cution. " I was conscious," says the irascible Egeria
of the Girondins in her Memoirs, " of all the effects
this might produce, and I was not deceived; my
double object was attained, and both utility and glory
attended the retirement of my husband. I had not
been proud of his entering the ministry, but I was of
his leaving it." Thenceforward Madame Roland was
to be the most indefatigable cause of the Revolution,
and Louis XVI. was to learn by experience what the
vengeance of a woman can accomplish.
XVI.
A THREE days' MmiSTEY.
DUMOURIEZ had taken the portfolio of war.
He kept it three days only. But during
those three days what activity! what excitement!
More than fifteen hundred signatures affixed, instruc-
tions sent to all the generals, a most tumultuous ses-
sion of the National Assembly, a last effort to induce
Louis XVI. to make further concessions, a resigna-
tion which was to be the signal for catastrophes.
How the scenes of the drama multiply ! How the
denouement is accelerated!
The session at which Dumouriez was to appear for
the first time as Minister of War could not fail to be
singular. It took place June 13, 1792, and from ten
o'clock in the morning all the galleries had been
crowded. The Jacobins had filled them with their
satellites. The Girondins had prepared a dramatic
surprise. The three ex-ministers were to be brought
into the chamber under pretext of explaining the
causes of their dismissal. It was agreed that they
should be received as victims of the aristocracy and
martyrs of the Revolution. Roland's letter — say,
rather, his wife's letter — to Louis XVI. was read to
166
A THREE DATS' MINISTRY. 167
the Assembly and frequently interrupted by loud
bursts of applause. Just as it was finished, and some
one was demanding that it should be sent to all the
eighty-three departments, Dumouriez entered the hall.
Murmurs and hisses arose on all sides. The Assem-
bly voted the despatch of the letter to the depart-
ments. A deputy exclaimed : " It will be a famous
document in the history of the Revolution and of
the ministers." The Assembly went on to declare
that Roland was followed by the regrets of the
nation. Then Dumouriez ascended the tribune and
read a message in which M. Lafayette announced the
death of M. de Gouvion. He had been major-general
of the National Guard, and, having quitted the
Assembly rather than be present at the triumph of
the Swiss of Chateauvieux, had met his death bravely
in the Army of the North. " A cannon-ball," said
the message, "has terminated a virtuous life." The
Assembly was affected, and voted complimentary
condolences to the father of the heroic officer.
Afterwards, Dumouriez read his report on military
affairs. It was a long criticism on the legislators
who had ordered a new levy of troops before provid-
ing the existing corps with their full complements ;
on the muster-masters, the standing committees,
and the market-contractors, who were piling up
abuses. Dumouriez complained of everything; he
reproached the factions, and insisted on the consid-
eration due to ministers. Guadet thundered out:
" Do you hear him ? He already thinks himself so
168 TUB DOWNFALL OF ROTALTT.
sure of power that lie takes it on him to give us
advice." — "And why not?" resumed the minister,
turning toward the side of the Mountain.^ This bold
response astonished the most furious. Some one
said: "The document is not signed. Let him sign
it ! Let him sign it ! " Dumouriez called for pen
and ink, signed his memoir, and went to lay it on the
desk. Then he slowly crossed the hall and went
quietly out by the door beneath the Mountain, with
a haughty glance at his adversaries. His martial
attitude disconcerted them. The shouts and hoot-
ings ceased, and complete silence ensued. On leav-
ing the Assembly, Dumouriez was surrounded by a
group of persons before the door of the Feuillants,
but their faces displayed no signs of anger toward
him. As soon as he quitted the Assembly, his
enemies, no longer intimidated by his presence,
redoubled their attacks. Three or four deputies left
the Chamber, and making their way to him through
the crowd, said : " They are raising the devil inside ;
they would like to send you to Orleans." (It was
there the Duke de Brissac was imprisoned and the
Superior Court held its sessions.) " So much the bet-
ter," replied Dumouriez ; " I would take the baths,
drink butter-milk, and rest myself." This sally
amused the crowd, and the minister as he entered the
Tuileries garden, said to the deputies who followed
him : " It will be a mistake for my enemies to have
1 The advanced republican party in the Assembly.
A THREE DAYS' MINISTRY. 169
my memoir printed, for it will bring all good citizens
back to me. At present, being drunk and crazy, you
have just extolled Roland's infamous perfidy to the
skies." Then he went to the palace. Louis XVI.
complimented him on his firmness, but absolutely
refused to sanction the decree against the priests.
Far from ameliorating, the situation continued to
grow worse. Potion's emissaries stirred up the in-
habitants of the faubourgs. That evening Dumou-
riez sent a letter to the King announcing that a riot
was apprehended. Louis XVI. suspected that the
minister was lying, and wrote to him: "Do not
believe, Monsieur, that any one can succeed in
frightening me by threats ; my resolution is taken."
Dumouriez had based his entire scheme on the hypoth-
esis that the decree concerning the priests would
be accepted by the King. From the moment that
Louis XVI. rejected it, Dumouriez no longer hoped
to remain in the ministry. He wrote again, implor-
ing the sovereign to give it his sanction, and an-
nouncing that, in case of his refusal, the ministers
would all feel obliged to retire. The next day, June
15, the King received them in his chamber. "Are
you still," said he to Dumouriez, " in the same sen-
timents expressed in your letter last evening ? " —
" Yes, Sire, if Your Majesty will not permit yourself
to be moved by our fidelity and attachment." —
" Very well," replied Louis XVI., with a gloomy air,
" since your decision is made, I accept your resigna-
tion and will provide for it." Dumouriez was no
170 THE DOWNFALL OF ROYALTY.
longer a minister. In his Memoirs he describes him-
self as much affected, "not on account of quitting
a dangerous post, which simply made his existence
disturbed and painful, but because he saw all his
trouble thrown away, and the King handed over to
the fury of cruel enemies and the criminal indiscre-
tion of false friends."
At bottom, Dumouriez inspired nobody with confi-
dence. He belonged to no party, and no one knew
his opinions. He had leaned on both Jacobins and
Girondins, while at the same time he was inspiring
certain hopes in the Feuillants, and flattering the King,
to whom he promised signs and wonders. Too revolu-
tionary for the conservatives and too conservative for
the revolutionists, he had tried a see-saw policy
which would no longer answer. It became indispen-
sable to make a choice. It was impossible to please
both the Jacobins and the court.
And yet Dumouriez was a man of resources, and
it is much to be regretted, on the King's account,
that no better understanding could be arrived at
between them. More successfully than any one else,
Dumouriez might have resorted to bold measures and
called in at this time the intervention of the army,
as he did several years later. He loved money and
rank ; royalty still excited a great prestige over him,
and he had used the Revolution as a means, not as
an end.
Could Louis XVI. have pretended patience for a
few days longer, perhaps he might have extricated
A THBEE BATS' MINISTRY. 171
himself from diiRculties which, though grave, were
still not insoluble. He did not choose his hour for
resistance wisely. It was either too late or too soon.
The dismission of Dumouriez was a blunder. At
what moment did Louis XVI. elect to deprive him-
self of his minister's aid? That very one when,
attacked by the Girondins, exasperated by Roland's
conduct, and disgusted with the progress of anarchy,
the force of circumstances was about to toss Dumou-
riez back to the side of the reactionists. The
camp of twenty thousand men, if confided to safe
hands, and secret service money judiciously em-
ployed, might have become the nucleus of a mon-
archical resistance. Lafayette and his partisans were
becoming conservative, and between him and Dumou-
riez agreement was not impossible. Louis XVI.
was in too great a hurry. His conscience revolted at
an unfortunate moment. Why, if he was bent on
this veto, so just, so honest, but so ill-timed, had he
freely made so many concessions which thus became
inexplicable ? In rejecting the offers of Dumouriez,
the Queen possibly deprived herself of her only
remaining support. He who saved France in the
Passes of Argonne might, had he gained the entire
confidence of Louis XVI. and Marie Antoinette,
have saved the King and royalty.
Dumouriez had a final interview with Louis XVI.,
June 18. The King received him in his chamber.
He had resumed his kindly air, and when the ex-
minister had shown him the accounts of the last
172 THE DOWNFALL OF ROYALTY.
fortnight, lie complimented him on their clearness.
Afterwards, the following conversation took place :
" Then you are going to join Luckner's army ? " —
" Yes, Sire, I leave this frightful city with delight ; I
have but one regret; you are in danger here." —
"Yes, that. is certain." — "Well, Sire, you can no
longer fancy that I have any personal interest to
nonsuit in talking with you ; once having left your
Council, I shall never again approach you ; it is
through fidelity and the purest attachment that I
dare once more entreat you, by your love for your
country, your safety and that of your crown, by your
august spouse and your interesting children, not to
persist in the fatal resolution of vetoing the two
decrees. This persistence will do no good, and you
will ruin yourself by it." — " Don't say any more
about it; my decision is made." — "Ah! Sire, you
said the same thing when, in this very room, and in
presence of the Queen, you gave me your word to
sanction them." — "I was wrong, and I repent of it."
— " Sire, I shall never see you again ; pardon my
frankness ; I am fifty-three, and I have some expe-
rience. It was not then that you were wrong, but
now. Your conscience is abused concerning this
decree against the priests ; you are being forced into
civil war ; you are helpless, and you will be over-
thrown, and history, though it may pity you, will
reproach you with having caused all the misfortunes
of France. On your account, I fear your friends
still more than your enemies." — " God is my witness
A THREE DATS' MINISTRY. 173
that I wish for nothing but the welfare of France."
— "I do not doubt it, Sire ; but you will have to
account to God, not solely for the purity but also for
the enlightened execution of your intentions. You
expect to save religion, and you destroy it. The
priests will be massacred and your crown torn from
you. Perhaps even your wife, your children ..."
Emotion prevented Dumouriez from going on. Tears
stood in his eyes. He kissed the hand of Louis XVI.
respectfully. The King wept also, and for a moment
both were silent. "Sire," resumed Dumouriez, "if
all Frenchmen knew you as well as I do, our woes
would soon be ended. Do you desire the welfare *of
France ? Very well ! That demands the sacrifice of
your scruples . . . You are still master of your fate.
Your soul is guiltless; believe a man exempt from
passion and prejudice, and who has always told you
the truth." — "I expect my death," replied Louis
XVI. sadly, " and I forgive them for it in advance.
I thank you for your sensibility. You have served
me well ; I esteem you, and if a happier time shall
ever come, I will prove it to you." With these words
the King rose sadly, and went to a window at the
end of the apartment. Dumouriez gathered up his
papers slowly, in order to gain time to compose his
features ; he was unwilling to let his emotion become
evident to the persons at the door as he went out.
" Adieu," said the King kindly, " and be happy ! "
As he was leaving, he met his friend Laporte, in-
tendant of the civil list. The two, who were meeting
174 THE DOWNFALL OF ROYALTY.
for the last time, went into another room and closed
the door. " You advised me to resign," said Laporte,
" and I meant to do so, but I have changed my mind.
My master is in danger, and I will share his fate." —
" If I were in the personal service of the King, as you
are," replied Dumouriez, " I would think and act the
same ; I esteem your devotion, and love you the more
for it ; each of us is faithful in his own way ; you, to
Louis ; I, to the King of the French. May both of
us felicitate him some day on his happiness ! " Then
the two friends separated, after embracing each other
with tears.
The sole thought of Dumouriez now was to escape
from the city where he had witnessed so many in-
trigues and been so often deceived. He was very
sorrowful at heart. Ordinarily so gay, so brilliant,
so full of Gallic and Rabelaisian wit, power had made
him melancholy. His ministerial life left on him
an abiding impression of bitterness and repugnance.
" One needs," he has said, " either a patriotism equal
to any test, or else an insatiable ambition, to aspire
in any way whatever after those difficult positions
where one is surrounded with snares and calumnies.
One learns only too soon that men are not worth the
trouble one takes to govern them." June 19, he
wrote to the Assembly, asking an authorization to
repair to the Army of the North. "I have spent
thirty-six years in military and diplomatic service,
and have twenty-two wounds," said he in this letter ;
" I envy the fate of the virtuous Gouvion, and should
A THREE BAYS' MINISTRY. 175
esteem myself happy if a cannon-ball could, put an end
to all differences concerning me." He never again
returned either to the palace, the Assembly, or any
other place where he might encounter either minis-
ters, deputies, or persons belonging to the court. He
started for the army, June 26, regarding it as " the
only asylum where an honest man might still be safe.
At least, death presents itself there under the attrac-
tive aspect of glory." He left in the capital "con-
sternation, suspicion, hatred, which pierced through
the frivolity of the wretched Parisians." With an
intuition worthy of a man of genius, he foresaw the
vicious circle about to be described by French history,
and divined that by plunging into license men return
inevitably to servitude, because "it is impossible to
sustain liberty with an absurd government, founded
on barbarity, terror, and the subversion of every prin-
ciple necessary to the maintenance of human society."
Two years later, in 1794, he wrote in his Memoirs :
" The serpent will recoil upon itself. His tail,
which is anarchy, will re-enter his throat, which is
despotism."
XVII.
THE PROLOGUE TO JUNE TWENTIETH.
ON retiring from the ministry, Dumouriez left his
successors a burden far too heavy for their
shoulders, and under which they were to succumb.
The new ministers, Lajard, Terrier de Montciel, and
Chambonas, were almost unknown men who had no
definite, decided opinions, and offered no resistance
to disorder: for that matter, they had no means of
doing so. The political system then in power had
left Paris a helpless prey to sedition. By the new
laws, the executive power could take no direct action
looking to the preservation of public order in any
French commune. Any minister or departmental
administration that should adopt a police regulation
or give a commander to armed forces, would be
guilty of betraying a trust. The power to prevent
or repress disorder belonged exclusively to the munic-
ipal authority, which, in Paris, was composed of a
mayor, sixteen administrators, thirty-two municipal
councillors, a council-general of ninety-six notables,
an attorney-general and his two substitutes. This
body of 148 members was the redoubtable power
known as the Commune of Paris. It was not com-
176
THE PROLOGUE TO JUNE TWENTIETH. 177
posed entirely of seditious persons, and in the Na-
tional Guard, also, there were still battalions fervently-
devoted to the constitutional monarchy. But Potion
was mayor of Paris ; Manuel, the attorney-general,
and Danton his substitute. Seditious movements
were sure to find instigators and accomplices in these
three men.
Moreover, the insurrection was regularly organized.
It had its muster-rolls, its oificers, sergeants, soldiers ;
its strategy and plans of battle. It utilized wine-
shops as guard-houses, the faubourgs as barracks, the
red bonnet and the carmagnole, or revolutionary
jacket, as a uniform. Its agitators distributed wine,
beer, and brandy gratuitously. The Jacobins or the
Cordeliers had but to give the signal for a riot, and a
riot sprang out of the ground. The mine was loaded ;
the only question was when to fire the train. The
Girondins were of one mind with the Jacobins. Exas-
perated by the dismissal of three ministers who shared
their opinions, they wanted to intimidate the court
by means of a popular tumult, and thus force the
unhappy sovereign to sanction the two decrees, con-
cerning the deportation of priests and the camp of
twenty thousand men. The populace already mani-
fested their restlessness by threats and strange
rumors. At the Jacobin Club the most violent prop-
ositions were mooted. Some wanted to establish a
minority, on the ground of the King's mental aliena-
tion ; some, to send the Queen back to Austria ; the
more moderate talked of suppressing the army, dis-
178 THE DOWNFALL OF ROYALTY.
missing the staff-officers of the National Guard,
depriving the King of the right of veto, and electing
a Constituent Assembly. Revolutionary conventicles
multiplied beyond all measure. The division of
Paris into forty-eight sections became an exhaustless
source of confusion. The assembly of each section
transformed itself into a club.
Meanwhile, the moderate party rested all its hopes
on Lafayette, who was friendly not only to liberty, but
to order. He considered himself the founder of the
new monarchy, of constitutional royalty ; but, for
that very reason, he felt that he had duties toward
the King. Despising the reactionists, whose hopes
were more or less enlisted on behalf of the foreign
armies, he also detested the Jacobins who were dis-
honoring and compromising the new order of things.
He expresses both sentiments in a letter addressed
to the National Assembly, and written from the
intrenched camp of Maubeuge, June 16, 1792, the
Fourth Year of Liberty : " Can you conceal from
yourselves," he says in it, " that a faction, and to use
plain terms, the Jacobin faction, has caused all these
disorder ? I make the accusation boldly. Organized
like a separate empire, with its capital and its affil-
iations blindly directed by certain ambitious chiefs,
this sect forms a distinct body in the midst of the
French people, whose powers it usurps by subjugating
its representatives and agents. In its public meet-
ings, attachment to the laws is named aristocracy,
and disobedience to them patriotism ; there the assas-
THE PROLOGUE TO JUNE TWENTIETH. 179
sins of Desilles are received in triumph, and Jourdan's
insensate clamor finds panegyrists ; there the story of
the assassinations which defiled the city of Metz is
still greeted with infernal applause."
Lafayette puts himself courageously forward in
his letter : " As to me, gentlemen, who espoused the
American cause at the very time when the ambassa-
dors assured me it was lost ; who, from that period,
devoted myself to a persistent defence of the liberty
and sovereignty of peoples ; who, on June 11, 1789,
in presenting a declaration of rights to my country,
dared to say, 'For a nation to be free, all that is
necessary is that it shall will to be so,' I come
to-day, full of confidence in the justice of our cause,
of scorn for the cowards who desert it, and of indig-
nation against the traitors who would sully it; I
come to declare that the French nation, if it be not
the vilest in the universe, can and ought to resist the
conspiracy of kings which has been leagued against
it." At the same time, the general enthusiastically
praised his soldiers : " Doubtless it is not within the
bosom of my brave army that sentiments of timid-
ity are permissible. Patriotism, energy, discipline,
patience, mutual confidence, all civic and military
virtues, I find here. Here the principles of liberty
and equality are cherished, the laws respected, and
property held sacred; here, neither calumnies nor
seditions are known."
Including both revolutionists and reactionists in
the same accusation, Lafayette makes this reflection :
180 THE DOWNFALL OF EOTALTT.
" What a remarkable conformity of language exists,
gentlemen, between those seditious persons acknowl-
edged by the aristocracy, and those who usurp the
name of patriots ! All are alike ready to repeal our
laws, to rejoice in disorders, to rebel against the
authorities granted by the people, to detest the
National Guard, to preach indiscipline to the army,
and almost to disseminate distrust and discourage-
ment." Lafayette concludes in these words : " Let the
royal power be intact, for it is guaranteed by the Con-
stitution ; let it be independent, for this independence
is one of the forces of our liberty ; let the King be
revered, for he is invested with the national majesty ;
let him choose a ministry unhampered by the yoke of
any faction; if conspirators exist, let them perish
only by the sword of law; finally, let the reign of
clubs, brought to nothing by you, give place to the
reign of law ; their disorganizing maxims to the true
principles of liberty ; their delirious fury to the calm
courage of a nation which knows its rights and which
defends them ! "
Lafayette's letter was read to the Assembly at the
session of June 18. The noble thoughts it expresses
produced at first a favorable impression, and it was
greeted with much applause. For an instant the
Girondins were disconcerted ; but, feeling themselves
supported by the Jacobins who lined the galleries,
they soon resumed the offensive. "What does the
advice of the general of the army amount to," said
Vergniaud, " if it is not law ? " Guadet maintained
THE PROLOGUE TO JUNE TWENTIETH. 181
that the letter must be apocryphal. " When Crom-
well used such language," said he, " liberty was at an
end in England, and I cannot persuade myself that
the emulator of Washington desires to imitate the
conduct of the Protector. We no longer have a
constitution if a general can give us laws." The
allusion to Cromwell produced its effect. The letter,
instead of being published and copies sent to the
eighty-three departments, was merely referred to a
committee.
Nevertheless, public opinion was aroused. A
reactionary sentiment against the Jacobins began to
show itself. The King might have profited by it,
and found his account in relying upon Lafayette,
the army, and the National Guard. But Louis XVI.
was in too much haste. His resistance, like his con-
cessions, was maladroit and inopportune. Without
having combined his means of defence, consulted
with Lafayette, or having any troops at his disposal,
he vetoed the two famous decrees, June 19, and thus
threw himself headlong into the snare. The Revolu-
tion, which had lain in wait for him, would not let
its prey escape. It gave Lafayette no time to arrive,
but, without losing a minute, organized an insurrec-
tion for the next day. The royal tree had been so
violently shaken, that it needed, or so they thought,
but one more shock to lay it low and root it out.
On June 16, a request had been presented to the
Council-General of the Commune, asking them to
authorize the citizens of the Faubourg Saint-Antoine
182 THE DOWNFALL OF BOTALTY.
to assemble in arms on June 20, the anniversary of
the oath of the Jeu de Paume^ and present a petition
to the Assembly and the King. The Council had
passed to the order of the day, but the petitioners
declared that they would assemble notwithstanding.
On the 19th, the Directory of the department, which
on all occasions had shown itself inimical to agita-
tors, and which was presided over by the Duke de La
Rochefoucauld, issued an order forbidding all armed
gatherings, and enjoining the commandant-general
and the mayor to take all necessary measures for
dispersing them. This order was communicated to
the National Assembly by the Minister of the Interior
at the evening session.
" It is important," said a deputy, " that the Assem-
bly should know the decrees of the administrative
bodies when they tend to assure public tranquillity.
Nobody is ignorant that at this moment the peo-
ple are greatly agitated. Nobody is ignorant that
to-morrow threatens to be a day of violence." Verg-
niaud replied : " I do not know whether or not to-mor-
row is to be a day of troubles, but I cannot understand
how M. Becquet, who is always so constitutional"
(here there was laughter and applause), "how M.
Becquet, by an inversion of law and order, desires the
National Assembly to occupy itself with police regula-
tions." The decree of the Directory was read, never-
theless. But the Assembly, far from supporting it,
passed to the order of the day. The rioters had
nothing to fear.
THE PROLOGUE TO JUNE TWENTIETH. 183
During the same session, a deputation of citizens
from Marseilles had been presented at the bar of
the Assembly. The orator of this deputation thus
expressed himself: "French liberty is in danger.
The free men of the South are ready to march in its
defence. The day of the people's wrath has come at
last. The people, whom they have always sought to
ruin or enslave, are tired of parrying blows. They
want to inflict them, and to annihilate conspiracies.
It is time for the people to rise. This lion, generous
but enraged, is about to quit his repose, and spring
upon the pack of conspirators." Here the galleries
applauded furiously. The orator continued: "The
popular force is your force ; employ it. No quarter,
since you can expect none." The applause and
enthusiastic cries of the galleries redoubled. Some-
body demanded that the speech should be sent to the
eighty-three departments of France. A deputy, M.
Rouher, was courageous enough to exclaim : " It is
not by the harangues of seditious persons that the
departments should be instructed ! " Another dep-
uty, M. Lecointre-Puyravaux, responded : " Is it sur-
prising that men born under a burning sun should
have a more ardent imagination and a patriotism
more energetic than ours ? " The question whether
the discourse should be sent to the departments was
put to vote, and the president and secretaries declared
that the Assembly had decided against it. This did
not suit the public in the galleries. They howled,
they vociferated. They claimed that the result was
184 THE DOWNFALL OF ROYALTY.
doubtful. They demanded a viva voce count. This
demand alarmed those deputies who never dared to
look the Revolution in the face. A new vote was
taken, and this time, the sending of the address to
the eightj^-three departments was decreed. With
such an Assembly, why should the insurrectionists
have hesitated?
The rioters of the next day did not hesitate a
moment. The order of the Directory had somewhat
intimidated them. But Chabot, the deputy so cele-
brated for his violence at the Jacobin Club, hastened
to reassure them. " To-morrow," said he, " you will
be received with open arms by the National Assem-
bly. People count on you." The Faubourg Saint-
Antoine was in commotion. Condorcet . said, in
speaking of the anxieties expressed by the ministers :
" Is it not fine to see the Executive asking legisla-
tors to provide means of action! Let them save
themselves ; that is their business ! "
The Most Christian King is treated like the Divine
Master. Potion, mayor of Paris, is to play the r61e
of Pontius Pilate. He washes his hands of all that
is to happen. He orders the battalions of National
Guards under arms for the following day, not in
order to oppose the march of the columns of the
people, but to fraternize with the^ petitioners, and act
as escort to the insurrection. This equivocal meas-
ure, he thinks, will set him right with both the
Directory and the populace. To one he says : " I
am watching," and to the other, " I am with you."
THE PROLOGUE TO JUNE TWENTIETH. 185
The rioters count on Potion as anarchy counts on
weakness. He is precisely the magistrate that suits
the faubourgs when they resort to violent measures.
A last conventicle was held at the house of San-
terre the brewer, chief of battalion of the National
Guard of the Faubourg Saint-Antoine, on the night
of June 19-20. It broke up at midnight. All was
ready. The leaders of the insurrection repaired
each to his post. They summoned their loyal adher-
ents, and sent them about in small detachments to
assemble and mass together the working classes, as
soon as they should leave their houses in the morn-
ing. Santerre had declared that the National Guard
could offer no opposition to the rioters. "Rest easy,"
said he to the conspirators ; " Potion will be there."
Louis XYI. no longer feigned not to notice the dan-
ger. " Who knows," said he during the night to M.
de Malesherbes, with a melancholy smile, " who knows
if I shall see the sun set to-morrow ? "
XVIII.
THE MOBNING OF JUNE TWENTIETH.
IT is Wednesday, June 20, 1792, the anniversary
of the oath of the Jeu de Paume. The signal
is given. The faubourgs assemble. It is five in the
morning. Santerre, on horseback, is at the Place
de la Bastille, at the head of a popular staff. The
army of rioters forms slowly. Some anxiety is
shown at first. The departmental decree forbidding
armed gatherings had been posted, and occasioned
some reflection in the timid. But Santerre reassures
them. He tells them that the National Guard will
not be ordered to oppose their march, and that they
may count on Potion's complicity.
When the march toward the National Assembly
begins, hardly more than fifteen hundred are in line.
But the little band increases as it goes. The route
lies through rues Saint-Antoine, de la Verrerie, des
Lombards, de la Ferronnerie, and- Saint-Honor^. The
procession is headed by soldiers, after whom comes
a great poplar stretched upon a wagon. It is the
Liberty tree. According to some, it is to be planted
in the courtyard of the Riding School, opposite the
Assembly chamber; according to others, on the
186
THE MOENING OF JUNE TWENTIETH. 187
terrace of the Tuileries, before the principal door of
the palace. A military band plays the Ca ira, which
is chanted in chorus by the insurrectionary troop.
No obstacle impedes their march. The torrent swells
incessantly. The inquisitive mingle with the ban-
dits. Some are in uniform, some in rags ; there are
soldiers, active and disabled, National Guards, work-
men, and beggars. Harlots in dirty silk gowns join
the contingent from studios, garrets, and robbers'
dens, and gangs of ragpickers unite with butchers
from the slaughter-houses. Pikes, lances, spits,
masons' hammers, paviors' crowbars, kitchen utensils,
— their equipment is oddity itself.
It is noon. The session of the Assembly has just
been opened. At this hour the throng, now number-
ing some twenty thousand persons, enters the rue
Saint-Honord. The Directory of the Department of
Paris demands admission to the bar on pressing
business, and the municipal attorney-general, Rce-
derer, begins to speak. Heeding neither the mur-
murs of the galleries, the disapprobation of part
of the Assembly, nor the clamor sure to be raised
against him that evening in the Jacobin and Cordelier
clubs, he boldly announces what is going on. He
reminds them of the law, and the decrees forbidding
armed gatherings which have been issued by the
Commune and the Department. He adds that,
without such prohibitions, neither the authorities nor
private individuals have any security for their lives.
" We demand," cried he, " to be invested with com-
188 THE DOWNFALL OF BOTALTT.
plete responsibility ; we demand that our obligation
to die for the maintenance of public tranquillity shall
in nowise be diminished."
Vergniaud ascends the platform. He owns that,
in principle, the Assembly is wrong in admitting
armed gatherings within its precincts, but he declares
that he thinks it impossible to refuse a permission
accorded to so many others to that which now pre-
sents itself. He believes, moreover, that it could not
be dispersed without a resort to martial law and a
renewal of the massacre of the Champ-de-Mars. " It
would be insulting to the citizens who are now ask-
ing to pay their respects to you," said he, " to sus-
pect them of bad intentions. . . The assemblage
doubtless does not claim to accompany the citizens
who desire to present a petition to the King. Never-
theless, as a precaution, I propose that sixty members
of the Assembly shall be commissioned to go to the
King and remain near him until this gathering shall
have been dispersed."
The discussion continues. M. Ramond follows
Vergniaud. What is going to happen ? What will
the insurrectionary column do? Glance for an in-
stant at the topography of the Assembly and its envi-
rons. The session-chamber is the Hall of the Riding
School, which extends to the terrace of the Feuillants,
and occupies the site where the rue de Rivoli was
opened later on, almost at the corner of the future
rue de Castiglione. It is a building about one hun-
dred and fifty feet long. In front of it is a long and
THE MOBNLNQ OF JUNE TWENTIETH. 189
narrow courtyard beginning very near the me de Dau-
phin. It is entered through this courtyard, which a
wall, afterwards replaced by a grating, separates from
the terrace of the Feuillants. It may be entered at the
other extremity, also, at the spot where the flight of
steps facing the Place Vend6me was afterwards built.
From the side of the courtyard it can be approached
by carriages, but from the other, only by pedestrians
who cross the narrow passage of the Feuillants, which
starts from the rue Saint-Honor^, opposite the Place
VendQme, and leads to the garden of the Tuileries.
This passage is bordered on the right by the convent
of the Capuchins ; on the left is the Riding School,
almost at the spot where the passage opens into the
Tuileries Garden by a door which had just been
closed, and before which had been placed a cannon
and a battalion of National Guards.
On reaching the rue Saint-Honor^, the crowd had
taken good care not to enter the court of the Riding
School, where they might have been arrested and
disarmed. They preferred to follow the rue Saint-
Honord and take the passage conducting thence to
the Assembly and the terrace of the Feuillants. Three
municipal officei-s who had gone to the Tuileries Gar-
den, passed through this passage before the crowd,
and met the advancing column at the door of the
Assembly, just as M. Ramond was in the tribune dis-
cussing Vergniaud's proposition. While the head of
the column was awaiting the issue of this discussion,
the rank and file were constantly advancing. The
190 THE DOWNFALL OF ROYALTY.
passage became so thronged that people were in
danger of stifling. Part of them withdrew from the
crowd and went into the garden of the Capuchin con-
vent, where they amused themselves by planting the
Liberty tree in the classic ground of monkish igno-
rance and idleness, as was said in those days. The
remainder, which was in front of the door and the
grating of the terrace of the Feuillants, became exas-
perated. The sight of the glittering bayonets, and
the cannon placed in front of this grating, reused
them to fury.
Meanwhile, a letter from Santerre reached the pres-
ident of the National Assembly : " Gentlemen," said
he, " I have received a letter from the commandant
of the National Guard, which announces that the
gathering amounts to eight thousand men, and that
they demand admission to the bar of the chamber." —
" Since there are eight thousand of them," cried a
deputy, " and since we are only seven hundred and
forty-five, I move that we adjourn the session and go
away."
Santerre's letter is thus expressed : " Mr. President,
the inhabitants of the Faubourg Saint-Antoine are cele-
brating to-day the anniversary of the oath of the Jeu
de Paume. They have been calumniated before you;
they ask to be admitted to the bar ; they will con-
found their cowardly detractors for the second time,
and prove that they are still the men of July 14."
It was applauded by a large number of the Assembly.
On the other side murmurs rose against it. M. Ramond
THE MOBNING OF JUNE TWENTIETH. 191
went on with his speech : " Eight thousand men, they
say, are awaiting your decision. You owe it to twenty-
five millions of other men who await it with no less
interest. . . . Certainly, I shall never fear to see the
citizens of Paris in our midst, nor the entire French
people around us. No one could behold with greater
pleasure than I the weapons which are a terror to the
enemies of liberty ; but the law and the authorities
have spoken. Let the petitioners, therefore, lay down
at the entrance of the sanctuary the arms they are
forbidden to bear within it. You ought to insist on
this. They ought to obey."
M. Ramond's courage did not last long. Passing
to Vergniaud's proposal to send sixty members of the
Assembly to the Tuileries, he said : " I applaud the
motive which prompted this proposition. But, con-
vinced that there is nothing to be feared by any per-
son from the citizens of Paris, I regard the motion as
insulting to them."
Meanwhile, the noise at the door redoubles ; the
petitioners are growing impatient. Guadet rises to
demand that they shall come in with their arms. It
is plain that the Gironde has taken the riot under its
patronage. After some disorderly and violent debate,
it is resolved that the president shall put the ques-
tion : Are the petitioners to be admitted to the bar ?
They do not yet decide this other : Shall the armed
citizens defile before the Assembly after they have
been heard? The first question is answered in the
affirmative. The delegates of the crowd are ad-
192 THE DOWNFALL OF ROYALTY.
mitted to the bar. They make their entry into the
Assembly between one and two in the afternoon.
Their orator is a person named Huguenin, who will
preside a few weeks later at the Council of the Com-
mune during the September massacres. In his
declamatory harangue he includes every tirade,
threat, and insult current in the streets. "We
demand," said he, "that you should find out why
our armies are inactive. If the executive power
is the cause, let it be abolished. The blood of pat-
riots must not flow to satisfy the pride and ambi-
tion of the perfidious palace of the Tuileries." Here
the galleries burst into enthusiastic applause. The
orator goes on : " We complain of the delays of the
Superior National Court. Why is it so slow in
bringing down the sword of the law upon the heads
of the guilty? . . . Do the enemies of the country
imagine that the men of July 14 are sleeping? If
they appear to be so, their awakening will be terrible.
. . . There is no time to dissimulate; the hour is
come, blood will flow, and the tree of Liberty we are
about to plant will flourish in peace." The applause
from the galleries redoubles. Huguenin excites
himself to fury : " The image of the countiy," he
shouts, "is the sole divinity which it shall be per-
mitted to adore. Ought this divinity, so dear to
Frenchmen, to find in its own temple those who rebel
against its worship ? Are there any such ? Let them
show themselves, these friends of arbitrary power; let
them make themselves known ! This is not their
THE MORNING OF JUNE TWENTIETH. 193
place ! Let them depart from the land of liberty !
Let them go to Coblentz and rejoin the Emigres. There,
their hearts will expand, they will distil their venom,
they will machinate, they will conspire against their
country." The orator concludes by demanding that
the armed citizens shall be passed in review by the
Assembly. It was in vain that Stanislas de Girardin
cries, "Do the laws exist no longer, then?" The
Assembly capitulates. Armed citizens are intro-
duced. Twenty thousand men are about to pass
through the session hall. The march is opened by
a dozen musicians, who stop in front of the president's
armchair. Then the two leaders of the manifesta-
tion make their appearance : Santerre, king of the
fish markets, idol of the faubourgs, and Saint-Hu-
ruge, the deserter from the aristocracy, the marquis
demagogue ; Saint-Huruge, cast into the Bastille for
his debts and scandalous behavior, and liberated by
the Revolution ; Saint-Huruge, the man of gigantic
stature and the strength of a Hercules, who is the
rioter par excellence, and whose stentorian voice rises
above the bellowing of the crowd.
The spectators in the galleries tremble with joy ;
they stamp on perceiving both Santerre and Saint-
Huruge, sabre in hand and pistols at the belt. The
band plays the Ca ira, the national hymn of the
red caps. Is this an orgy, a masquerade ? Look at
these rags, these bizarre costumes, these butcher-boys
brandishing their knives, these tattered women, these
drunken harlots who dance and shout; inhale this
194 THE DOWNFALL OF ROYALTY.
odor of wine and eau-de-vie ; behold the ensigns, the
banners of insurrection, the ambulating trophies, the
stone table on which are inscribed the Rights of
Man ; the placards wherein one reads : " Down with
the veto ! " " The people are tired of suffering ! "
"Liberty or Death!" "Tremble, tyrant!"; the
gibbet from which hangs a doll representing Marie
Antoinette ; the ragged breeches surmounting the
fashionable motto : " Live the Sans-Culottes ! " ; the
bleeding heart set upon a pike, with the inscription,
" Heart of an aristocrat ! " The procession, which
began about two in the afternoon, is not over until
nearly four o'clock. At this time Santerre repairs
to the bar, where he says : " The citizens of the
Faubourg Saint-Antoine came here to express to you
their ardent wishes for the welfare of the country.
They beg you to accept this flag in gratitude for the
good will you have shown towards them." The
president responds: "The National Assembly re-
ceives your offering; it invites you to continue to
march under the protection of the law, the safeguard
of the country." And then, heedless of the dangers
the King was about to incur, he adjourns the session
at half-past four in the afternoon.
What is going to happen? Will the armed citi-
zens return peaceably to their homes ? Or, not con-
tent with their promenade to the Assembly, will they
make another to the palace of the Tuileries ? What
preparations have been made for its defence ? Ten
battalions line the terrace facing the palace. Two
THE MORNING OF JUNE TWENTIETH. 195
others are on the terrace at the water side, four on
the side of the Carrousel. There are two companies
of gendarmes before the door of the Royal Court ;
four on the Place Louis XVI., to guard the passage
of the Orangery, opposite rue Saint-Florentin. Here,
there might have been serious means of defence.
But Louis XVI. is a sovereign who does not defend
himself. Two municipal officers, MM. Boucher-
Saint-Sauveur and Mouchet, had just approached
him : " My colleagues and myself," said M. Mouchet
to him, " have observed with pain that the Tuileries
were closed the very instant the cortege made its
appearance. The people, crowded into the passage of
the Feuillants, were all the more dissatisfied because
they could see through the wicket that there were
persons in the garden. We ourselves. Sire, were
very much affected at seeing cannon pointed at the
people. It is urgent that Your Majesty should order
the gates of the Tuileries to be opened."
After hesitating slightly, Louis XVI. ended by
replying : " I consent that the door of the Feuillants
shall be opened ; but on condition that you make the
procession march across the length of the terrace and
go out by the courtyard gate of the Riding School,
without descending into the garden."
This was one of the King's illusions. While he
was parleying with the two municipal officers the
armed citizens had passed in review before the As-
sembly. They had just left the session hall by a
door leading into the courtyard. Once in this court-
196 THE DOWNFALL OF ROYALTY.
yard, the intervention of some municipal officers
caused the entrance known as the Dauphin's door,
opposite the street of the same name, to be opened for
them. It was by this that they entered the Tuileries
Garden, while it was the wish of Louis XVI. that
they should pass out through it from the terrace of
the Feuillants. There they are, then, in the garden,
having made an iiTuption there instead of continuing
their route through rue Saint-Honor^. Here they
come along the terrace in front of the palace, on
which several battalions of the National Guard are
stationed. The crowd passes quickly before these
battalions. Some of the guards unfix their bayonets ;
others present arms, as if to do honor to the riot.
Having passed through the garden, the columns of
the people go out through the gate before the Pont-
Royal. They pass up the quay, and through the
Louvre wickets, and so into the Place Carrousel,
which is cut up by a multitude of streets, a sort of
covered ways very suitable to facilitate the attack.
Certain municipal officers make some slight efforts
to quiet the assailants ; others, on the contrary, do
what they can to embolden and excite them. The
four battalions at the entrance of the Carrousel, and
the two companies of gendarmes posted before the
door of the Royal Court, make no resistance. The
rioters, who have invaded the Carrousel, find their
march obstructed by the closing of this door. San-
terre and Saint-Huruge, who had been the last to
leave the National Assembly, make their appearance,
THE MORNING OF JUNE TWENTIETH. 197
raging with anger. They rail at the people for not
having penetrated into the palace. " That is all we
came for," say they. Santerre, before the door of
the Royal Court — one of the three courtyards in
front of the palace, opposite the Carrousel — sum-
mons his cannoneers. "I am going," he cries, "to
open the doors with cannon-balls."
Some royalist officers of the National Guard seek
vainly to defend the palace. No one heeds them.
The door of the Royal Court opens its two leaves.
The crowd presses through. No more dike to the
torrent; the gendarmes set their caps on the ends
of their sabres, and cry : " Live the nation ! " The
thing is done ; the palace is invaded.
XIX.
THE INVASION OP THE TUILEEIES.
IT is nearly four o'clock in the afternoon. The in-
vasion of the Tuileries is beginning. Let us
glance at the palace and get a notion of the apart-
ments through which the crowd are about to rush.
On approaching it by way of the Carrousel, one comes
first to three courtyards : that of the Princes, in front
of the Pavilion of Flora ; the Royal Court, before the
Pavilion of the Horloge ; and the Swiss Court, before
the Pavilion of Marsan. The assailants enter by the
Royal Court, pass into the palace through the vesti-
bule of the Horloge Pavilion, and climb the great
staircase. On the left of this are the large apart-
ments of the first story : —
1. The Hall of the Hundred Swiss (the future
Hall of the Marshals) ;
2. The Hall of the Guards (the future Hall of the
First Consul) ;
3. The King's Antechamber (the future Salon
d'ApoUon) ;
4. The State Bedchamber (the future Throne-
room) ;
198
THE INVASION OF THE TUILERIES. 199
6. The King's Grand Cabinet (called later the
Salon of Louis XIV.) ;
6. The Gallery of Diana.
There are a battalion and two companies of gen-
darmes in the palace, as well as the guards then on
duty and those they had relieved. But as no orders
are given to these troops, they either break their
ranks or fraternize with the enemy. No obstacle, no
resistance, is offered, and nobody defends the apart-
ments. The assailants, who have taken a cannon as
far as the first story, enter the Hall of the Hundred
Swiss, whose doors are neither locked nor barricaded.
They penetrate into the Hall of the Guards with the
same ease. But when they try to make their way
into the (Eil-de-Boeuf, or King's Antechamber, the
locked door of this apartment arrests their progress.
This exasperates them, and one of the panels is soon
broken.
Where is Louis XVI. when the invasion begins ?
In his bedroom with his family. It communicates
with the Grand Cabinet, and has windows command-
ing a view of the garden. M. Acloque, chief of the
second legion of the National Guard, and a faithful
royalist, hastens to the King by way of the little
staircase leading from the Princes' Court to the royal
chamber, in order to tell him what has happened. He
finds the door locked; he knocks, gives his name,
urgently demands admittance, and obtains it. He
advises Louis XVI. to show himself to the people.
200 THE DOWNFALL OF ROYALTY.
The King, whom no peril has ever frightened, does not
hesitate to follow this advice. The Queen wishes to
accompany her husband ; but she is opposed in this
and forcibly drawn into the Dauphin's chamber, which
is near that of Louis XVI. Happier than the Queen,
— these are her own words, — Madame Elisabeth finds
nobody to tear her from the King. She takes hold of
the skirts of her brother's coat. Nothing could
separate them.
Louis XVI. passes into the Great Cabinet, thence
into the State Bedchamber, and through it into the
(Eil-de-Boeuf, where he will presently receive the
crowd. He is surrounded at this moment by Ma-
dame Elisabeth, three of his ministers (MM. de
Beaulieu, de Lajard, and Terrier de Montciel), the
old Marshal de Mouchy, Chevalier de Canolle, M.
d'Hervilly, M. Guinguerlet, lieutenant-colonel of the
unmounted gendarmes, and M. de Vainfrais, also an
officer of gendarmes. Some grenadiers of the National
Guard afterwards arrive through the Great Cabinet
and the State Bedchamber. " Come here ! four grena-
diers of the National Guard ! " cries the King. One
of them says, "Sire, do not be afraid." — "I am not
afraid," replies the King; "put your hand on my
heart ; it is pure and tranquil." And taking the gren-
adier's hand he presses it forcibly against his breast.
The grenadier is a tailor named Jean Lalanne. Later,
under the Terror, by a decree of the 12th Messidor,
Year II., he will be condemned to death for having —
so runs the sentence — " displayed the character of a
THE INVASION OF TEE TUILERIES. 201
cringing valet of the tyrant, in boasting before sev-
eral citizens that Capet, taking his hand and laying it
on his heart, had said to him, ' Feel, my friend,
whether it palpitates.' "
" Gentlemen, save the King ! " cries Madame Elisa-
beth. Meanwhile, the crowd is still in the next
apartment, the Hall of the Guards. They are batter-
ing away with hatchets and gun-stocks at the door
which opens into the King's Antechamber. Nothing
but a partition separates Louis XVI. from the assail-
ants. He orders the door to be opened. The crowd
rush in. " Here I am," says Louis XVI. calmly ; " I
have never deviated from the Constitution."
" Citizens," says Acloque, " recognize your King
and respect him; the law commands you to do so.
We will all perish rather than suffer him to receive
the slightest harm." M. de Canolle cries : " Long live
the nation ! Long live the King ! " This cry is not re-
peated. Some one begs Madame Elisabeth to retire.
" I will not leave the King," she replies, " I will not
leave him." Those who surround Louis XVI. make
a rampart for him of their bodies. The crowd be-
comes immense. It is proposed to the King that he
stand on a bench in the embrasure of the central
window, from which there is a view of the court-
yard. Other benches and a table are placed in front
of him. Madame Elisabeth takes a bench in the
next window with M. de Marsilly. The hall is full.
Groans, atrocious threats, and gross insults resound
on every side. Some one shouts : " Down with the
202 THE DOWNFALL OF ROYALTY.
veto ! To the devil with the veto ! Recall the pa-
triot ministers ! Let him sign, or we will not go out
of here ! " The butcher Legendre comes forward. He
asks permission to speak. Silence is obtained, and,
addressing the King, he says : " Monsieur." At this
unusual title, Louis XVI. make a gesture of surprise.
" Yes, Monsieur," goes on Legendre, " listen to us ; it
is your duty to listen to us. . . . You are a traitor.
You have always deceived us, and you deceive us
still; the measure is full, and the people are tired
of being made your laughing-stock." The insolent
butcher, who calls himself the agent of the people,
then reads a pretended petition which is a mere tissue
of recriminations and threats. Louis XVI. listens
with imperturbable sang-froid. He answers simply :
"I will do what the Constitution and the decrees
ordain that I shall do." The noise begins anew. It
is a rain, a hail of insults.
Some individuals mistake Madame Elisabeth for
Marie Antoinette. Her equerry, M. de Saint-Par-
doux, throws himself between her and the furious
wretches, who cr}"- : " Ah ! there is the Austrian
woman ; we must have the Austrian ! " and unde-
ceives them by naming her. — "Why did you not
allow them to believe I am the Queen ? " says the
courageous Princess; "perhaps you might have
averted a greater crime." And, putting aside a bay-
onet which almost touches her breast, " Take care,
Monsieur," she says gently, "you might hurt some-
body, and I am sure you would be sorry to do that."
THE INVASION OF THE TUILERIES. 203
The shouts redouble. The confusion becomes ter-
rible. It is with great difi&culty that some grenadiers
of the National Guard defend the embrasure of the
window where Louis XVI. still stands immovable on
his bench. Mingled with the crowd there are inof-
fensive persons, who have come merely out of curi-
osity, and even honest men who sincerely pity the
King. But there are tigers and assassins as well.
One of them, armed with a club ending in a sword-
blade, tries to thrust it into the King's heart. The
grenadiers parry the blow with their bayonets. A
market porter struggles long to reach Louis XVI.,
against whom he brandishes a sabre. Several times
the wretched monarch seeks to address the crowd.
His voice is lost in the uproar. A municipal official,
M. Mouchet, hoisting himself on the shoulders of
two persons, demands by voice and gesture a mo-
ment's silence for the King and for himself. Vain
efforts. The vociferations of the crowd only increase.
Here comes a long pole on the end of which is a
Phrygian cap, a bonnet rouge. The pole is inclined
towards M. Mouchet. M. Mouchet takes the cap
and presents it to the King, who, to please the crowd,
puts it on his head.
Is it possible? That man on a bench, with the
ignoble cap of a galley-slave on his head, surrounded
by a drunken and tattered rabble who vomit filthy
language, that man the King of France and Navarre,
the most Christian King, Louis XVI.? Go back to
the day of the coronation, June 11, 1775. It is
204 THE DOWNFALL OF ROYALTY.
just seventeen years and nine days ago ! Do you
remember the Cathedral of Rheinis, luminous, glitter-
ing ; the cardinals, ministers, and marshals of France,
the red ribbons, the blue ribbons, the lay peers with
their vests of cloth-of-gold, their violet ducal mantles
lined with ermine ; the clerical peers with cope and
cross? Do you remember the King taking Charle-
magne's' sword in his hand, and then prostrating him-
self before the altar on a great kneeling-cushion of
velvet sown with golden lilies? Do you see him
vested by the grand-chamberlain with the tunic, the
dalmatica, and the ermine-lined mantle which repre-
sent the vestments of a sub-deacon, deacon, and priest,
because the King is not merely a sovereign, but a pon-
tiff ? Do you see him seizing the royal sceptre, that
golden sceptre set with oriental pearls, and carvings
representing the great Carlovingian Emperor on a
throne adorned with lions and eagles ? Do you re-
member the pealing of the bells, the chords of the
organ, the blare of trumpets, the clouds of incense,
the birds flying in the nave ?
And now, instead of the coronation the pillory;
instead of the crown the hideous red cap ; instead of
hymns and murmurs of admiration and respect, —
insults, the buffoonery of the fish-market, shouts of
contempt and hatred, threats of murder. Ah! the
time is not far distant when a Conventionist will
break the vial containing the sacred oil on the pave-
ment of the Abbey of Saint Remi. How slippery is
the swift descent, the fatal descent by which a sov-
THE INVASION OF THE TUILERIES. 205
ereign who disarms himself glides down from the
heights of power and glory to the depths of oppro-
brium and sorrow ! There he is ! Not content with
putting the red bonnet on his head, he keeps it there,
and mumming in the Jacobin coiffure, he cries:
" Long live the nation I " The crowd find the spec-
tacle amusing. A National Guard, to whom some
one has passed a bottle of wine, offers the complaisant
King a drink. Perhaps the wine is poisoned. No
matter ; Louis XVI. takes a glass of it.
While all this is going on, two deputies, Isnard and
Vergniaud, present themselves. " Citizens," says the
first, " I am Isnard, a deputy. If what you demand
were at once granted, it might be thought you ex-
torted it by force. In the name of the law and the
National Assembly, I ask you to respect the consti-
tuted authorities and retire. The National Assembly
will do justice ; I will aid thereto with all my power.
You shall obtain satisfaction ; I answer for it with
my head; but go away." Vergniaud follows him
with similar remarks. Neither is listened to. No-
body departs.
It is six in the evening. For two hours, one man,
exposed to every insult, has held his own against a
multitude. At last Potion arrives wearing his
mayor's scarf. The crowd draws back. " Sire," says
he, " I have just this instant learned the situation you
were in." — "That is very astonishing," returns Louis
XVI. ; " for it has lasted two hours." — " Sire, truly,
I was ignorant that there was trouble at the palace.
206 THE DOWNFALL OF BOTALTT.
As soon as I was informed, I hastened to your side.
But you have nothing to fear ; I answer for it that
the people will respect you." — "I fear nothing,"
replies the King. "Moreover, I have not been in
any danger, since I was surrounded by the National
Guard."
Potion, like Pontius Pilate, pretends indifference.
A municipal officer, M. Champion, reminds him of
his duties, and says with firmness : " Order the people
to retire ; order them in the name of the law ; we are
threatened with great danger, and you must speak."
At last Potion decides to intervene. "Citizens," he
says, "all you who are listening to me, came to
present legally your petition to the hereditary rep-
resentative of the nation, and you have done so with
the dignity and majesty of a free people ; return now
to your homes, for you can desire nothing further.
Your demand will doubtless be reiterated by all the
eighty-three departments, and the King will grant
your prayer. Retire, and do not, by remaining longer,
give occasion to the public enemies to impugn your
worthy intentions."
At fiirst this discourse of the mayor of Paris pro-
duces but slight effect. The cries and threats con-
tinue. But, after a while, the crowd, worn out with
shouting, and hungry and thirsty as well, begin to
quiet down a little. The most excited cry : " We
are waiting for an answer from the King. Nothing
has been asked of him yet." Others say : " Listen
to the mayor, he is going to speak again; we will
TBE INVASION OF THE TUILERIES. 207
hear him." Potion repeats what he said before : " If
you do not wish your magistrates to be unjustly
accused, withdraw."
M. Sergent, administrator of police, who had come
with the mayor, asked if any one has ordered the
doors leading from the Grand Cabinet to the Gallery
of Diana to be opened, so as to allow the crowd to
pass out by the small staircase into the Court of the
Princes. Louis XVI. overheard this question. " I
have had the apartments opened," said he ; " the peo-
ple, marching out on the gallery side, will like to see
them." A sentiment of curiosity hastened the move-
ments of the crowd. In order to go out, they had
to pass through the State Bedchamber, the Grand
Cabinet, and the Gallery of Diana. Sergent, stand-
ing in front of the door, leading from the CEil-de-
Boeuf to the State Bedchamber, unfastens his scarf
and waving it over his head, cries : " Citizens, this is
the badge of the law ; in its name we invite you to
retire and follow us." Potion says : " The people
have done what they ought to do. You have acted
with the pride and dignity of freemen. But there
has been enough of it ; let all retire." A double row
of National Guards is formed, and the people pass
between them. The return march begins. A few
recalcitrants want to remain, and keep up a cry of
" Down with the veto ! Recall the ministers ! " But
they are swept on by the stream, and follow the march
like all the rest. While they are going out through
the door between the (Eil-de-Bceuf and the State Bed-
208 THE DOWNFALL OF ROYALTY.
chamber, the National Guard prevents any one from
entering on the other side, through the door connect-
ing the CEil-de-Boeuf with the Hall of the Guards.
At this moment, a deputation of twenty-four mem-
bers of the Assembly present themselves. Roused
by the public clamor announcing that the King's life
is in danger, the National Assembly has called an
extraordinary evening session. The president of the
deputation, M. Brunk, says to the King : " Sire, the
National Assembly sends us to assure ourselves of
your situation, to protect the constitutional liberty
you should enjoy, and to share your danger." Louis
XVI. replies : " I am grateful for the solicitude of the
Assembly ; I am undisturbed in the midst of French-
men." At the same time. Potion goes to turn back
the crowd, who are constantly ascending the great
staircase, and who threaten another invasion. The
sentry at the doorway of the GEil-de-Bceuf is replaced,
and the crowd ceases to flock thither. The circle of
National Guards about the sovereign is increased.
A space is formed, and he is surrounded by the depu-
tation from the Assembly. Acloque, seeing that the
tumult is lessening and the room no longer encum-
bered by the crowd, proposes to the King that he
should retire, and Louis XVI. decides to do so. Sur-
rounded by deputies and National Guards, he passes
into the State Bedchamber, and notwithstanding the
throng, he manages to reach a secret door at the right
of the bed, near the chimney, which communicates
with his bedroom. He goes through this little door,
and some one closes it behind him.
THE INVASION OF THE TUILERIES. 209
It is not far from eight o'clock in the evening.
The peril and humiliation of Louis XVI. have lasted
nearly four hours, and the unhappy King is not yet
at the end of his sufferings, for he does not know
what has become of his wife and children. While
these sad scenes had been enacting in the palace, a
furious populace had been in incessant commotion
beneath the windows, in the garden and the court-
yards. People desiring to establish communication
between those down stairs and those above, had been
heard to cry : " Have they been struck down ? Are
they dead ? Throw us down their heads ! "
A slender young man, with the profile of a Roman
medal, a pale complexion, and flashing eyes, was
looking at all this from the upper part of the terrace
beside the water. Unable to comprehend the long-
suffering of Louis XVI., he said in an indignant
tone : " How could they have allowed this rabble to
enter ? They should have swept out four or five
hundred of them with cannon, and the rest would
have run." The man who spoke thus, obscure and
hidden in the crowd, opposite that palace where he
was to play so great a part, was the " straight^haired
Corsican," the future Emperor Napoleon.
XX.
MARIE ANTOINETTE ON JUNE TWENTIETH.
LOUIS XVI. had just entered his bedchamber.
The crowd, after leaving the hall of the CEil-
de-Boeuf, had departed through the State Bedchamber,
and the King's Great Cabinet, called also the Council
Hall. On entering this last apartment, an unex-
pected scene had surprised them. Behind the large
table they saw the Queen, Madame Elisabeth, the
Dauphin, and Madame Royale.
How came the Queen to be there? What had
happened? At a quarter of four, when Louis XVI.
had left his room to go into the hall of the BuU's-
Eye and meet the rioters, Marie Antoinette, as we
have already said, made desperate efforts to follow
him. M. Aubier, placing himself before the door of
the King's chamber, prevented the Queen from going
out. In vain she cried : " Let me pass ; my place is
beside the King ; I will join him- and perish with him
if it must be." M. Aubier, through devotion, dis-
obeyed her. Nevertheless, the Queen, whose courage
redoubled her strength, would have borne down this
faithful servant if M. Rougeville, a chevalier of Saint-
Louis, had not aided him to block up the passage.
210
MARIE ANTOINETTE ON JUNE TWENTIETH. 211
Imploring Marie Antoinette in the name of her own
safety and that of the King, not to expose herself
needlessly to poniards, and aided by the Minister of
Foreign Affairs, they drew her almost by force into
the chamber of the Dauphin, which was near the
King's. MM. de Choiseul, d'Haussonville, and de
Saint-Priest, assisted by several grenadiers of the
National Guard, afterwards induced her to go with
her children into the Grand Cabinet of the King,
called also the Council Hall, because the ministers
were accustomed to assemble there.
The Princess de Lamballe, the Princess of Tarento,
the Marchioness de Tourzel, the Duchesses de Luynes,
de Duras, de Maille, the Marchioness de Laroche-
Aymon, Madame de Soucy, the Baroness de Mackau,
the Countess de Ginestous, remained with the Queen.
So also did the Minister Chambonas, the Duke de
Choiseul, Counts d'Haussonville and de Montmorin,
Viscount de Saint-Priest, Marquis de Champcenetz,
and General de Wittenghoff, commander of the 17th
military division. The Queen and her children occu-
pied the embrasure of a window, and the large and
heavy table used by the ministerial council was placed
in front of them as a sort of barricade.
Meanwhile, Marie Antoinette's apartments and her
bedroom on the ground-floor were invaded. Some
National Guards tried vainly to defend them. " You
are cutting your own throats ! " shouted the people.
Overwhelmed by numbers, they saw the door of the
first apartment broken down by hatchets. It con-
212 THE DOWNFALL OF ROYALTY.
tained the beds of the Queen's servants, ranged
behind screens. Afterwards they saw the invaders
go into Marie Antoinette's sleeping-room, tear the
clothes off her bed, and loll upon it, crying as they
did so, " We will have the Austrian woman, dead or
alive ! "
The Queen, however, remained in the Council Hall,
where she could hear the echo of the cries resounding
in that of the CEil-de-Boeuf, where Louis XVI. was,
and from which she was separated only by the State
Bedchamber. Toward seven in the evening she beheld
Madame Elisabeth, who, after heroically sharing the
dangers of the King, had now found means to rejoin
her. " The deputies who came to us," she wrote to
Madame de Raigecourt, July 3, "had come out of
good will. A veritable deputation arrived and per-
suaded the King to go back to his own apartments.
As I was told this, and as I was unwilling to be left
in the crowd, I went away about an hour before he
did, and rejoined the Queen : you can imagine with
what pleasure I embraced her." In their perils,
therefore, Madame Elisabeth was near both Louis
XVI. and Marie Antoinette.
After having voluntarily exposed herself to all the
anguish of the invasion of the CEil-de-Boeuf, the cour-
ageous Princess was with the Queeu in the Council
Hall, when the crowd, coming through the State Bed-
chamber, arrived there. The horde marched through
it, carrying their barbarous inscriptions like so many
ferocious standards. " One of these," says Madame
MARIE ANTOINETTE ON JUNE TWENTIETH. 213
Campan in her Memoirs, " represented a gibbet from
which an ugly doll was hanging ; below it was writ-
ten: 'Marie Antoinette to the lamp-post!' Another
was a plank to which a bullock's heart had been
fastened, surrounded by the words : ' Heart of Louis
XVI.' Finally, a third presented a pair of bullock's
horns with an indecent motto." Some royalist
grenadiers belonging to the battalion called the
FillesSaint-Thomas, were near the council-table and
protected the Queen. Marie Antoinette was stand-
ing, and held her daughter's hand. The Dauphin
sat on the table in front of her. At the moment
when the march began, a woman threw a red cap
on this table and cried out that it must be placed on
the Queen's head. M. de Wittenghoff, his hand
trembling with indignation, took the cap and after
holding it for a moment over Marie Antoinette's
head, put it back on the table. Then a cry was
raised : " The red cap for the Prince Royal ! Tri-
colored ribbons for little Veto ! " Ribbons were
thrown down beside the Phrygian cap. Some one
shouted : " If you love the nation, set the red cap
on your son's head." The Queen made an affirma-
tive sign, and the revolutionary coiffure was set on
the child's fair head.
What humiliations were these for the unhappy
mother ! What anguish for so haughty, so mag-
nanimous a queen ! The galley-slave's cap has
touched the head of the daughter of Caesars, and
now soils the forehead of her son ! The slang of the
214 THE DOWNFALL OF BOTALTT.
fish-markets resounds beneath the venerable arches
of the palace. How bitterly the unfortunate sover-
eign expiates her former triumphs ! Where are the
ovations and the apotheoses, the carriages of gold and
crystal, the solemn entries into the city in its gala
dress, to the sound of bells and trumpets? What
trace remains of those brilliant days when, more
goddess than woman, the Queen of France and Na-
varre appeared through a cloud of incense, in the
midst of flowers and light ? This good and beauti-
ful sovereign, whose least smile, or glance, or nod,
had been regarded as a precious recompense, a su-
preme favor by the noble lords and ladies who bent
respectfully before her, behold how she is treated
now ! Consider the costumes and the language of her
new courtiers ! And yet, Marie Antoinette is majestic
still. Even in this horrible scene, in presence of
these drunken women and ragged suburbans, sho
does not lose that gift of pleasing which is her special
dower. At a distance they curse her ; but when they
come near they are subjugated by her spell. Her
most ferocious enemies are touched in their own
despite. A young girl had just called her '''' Autrichi-
enne^ " You call me an Austrian woman," replied
she, " but I am the wife of the King of France, I am
the mother of the Dauphin ; I am a Frenchwoman by
my sentiments as wife and mother. I shall never
again see the land where I was born. I can be happy
or unhappy nowhere but in France. I was happy
when you loved me." Confused by this gentle re-
MARIE ANTOINETTE ON JUNE TWENTIETH. 215
proach, the young girl softened. " Pardon me," she
said ; " it was because I did not know you ; I see very
well now that you are not wicked." A woman,
passing, stopped before the Queen and began to sob.
" What is the matter with her ? " asked Santerre ;
" what is she crying about ? " And he shook her by
the arm, saying : " Make her pass on, she is drunk."
Even Santerre himself felt Marie Antoinette's in-
fluence. "Madame," he said to her, "the people
wish you no harm. Your friends deceive you ; you
have nothing to fear, and I am going to prove it by
serving as your shield." It was he who took pity on
the Dauphin whom the heat was stifling, and said:
" Take the red cap off the child ; he is too hot."
He too, it was, that hastened the march of the pro-
cession and pointed out to the people the different
members of the royal family by name, saying : " This
is the Queen, this is her son, this her daughter, this
Madame Elisabeth."
At last the crowd is gone. The hall is empty. It
is eight o'clock. The Queen and her children enter
the King's chamber. Louis XVI., who finds them
once more after so many perils and emotions, covers
them with kisses. In the midst of this pathetic scene
some deputies arrive. Marie Antoinette shows them
the traces of violence which the people have left
behind them, — locks broken, hinges forced off, wain-
scoting burst through, furniture ruined. She speaks
of the dangers that have threatened the King and the
insults offered to herself. Perceiving that Merlin de
216 THE DOWNFALL OF ROYALTY.
Thionville, an ardent Jacobin, has tears in his eyes,
she says : " You are weeping to see the King and his
family so cruelly treated by people whom he has
always desired to render happy." The republican
answered : " Yes, Madame, I weep, but it is for the
misfortunes of the mother of a family, not for the
King and Queen; I hate kings and queens." A
deputy accosted Marie Antoinette, saying in a fa-
miliar tone : " You were very much afraid, Madame,
you must admit." " No, Monsieur," she replied, " I
was not at all afraid ; but I suffered much in being
separated from the King at a moment when his life
was in danger. At least, I had the consolation of
being with my children and performing one of my
duties." " Without pretending to excuse everything,
agree, Madame, that the people showed themselves
very good-natured." " The King and I, Monsieur,
are convinced of the natural goodness of the people ;
it is only when they are misled that they are wicked."
— " How old is Mademoiselle ? " went on the deputy,
pointing to Madame Royale. — "She is at that age.
Monsieur, when one feels only too great a horror of
such scenes."
Other deputies surround the Dauphin. They
question him on different subjects, especially con-
cerning the geography of France and its new terri-
torial division into departments and districts, and are
enchanted by the correctness of his replies.
An officer of Chasseurs of the National Guard
enters the King's chamber. This officer had shown
MARIE ANTOINETTE ON JUNE TWENTIETH. 217
the utmost zeal in protecting his sovereign and
had had the honor of being wounded at his side.
He is congratulated. The Dauphin perceives him.
" What is the name of that guard who defended my
father so bravely ? " he asks. — " Monseigneur, " re-
plies M. Hue, " I do not know ; he will be flattered
if you ask him." The Prince runs to put his ques-
tion to the officer, but the latter, in respectful terms,
declines to answer. Then M. Hue insists. " I beg
you," he cries, "tell us your name." — "I ought to
conceal my name," replies the officer ; " unfortunately
for me, it is the same as that of an execrable man."
The faithful royalist bore the same name as the man
who had caused the arrest of the royal family at
Varennes the previous year. He was called Drouot.
The hour for repose has come at last. It is ten
o'clock. Certain individuals still complain : " They
took us there for nothing ; but we will go back and
have what we want." Still, the storm is over. The
crowd has evacuated the palace, the courtyards, and
the garden. The Assembly closes its sessions at half-
past ten. Potion said there : " The King has no
cause of complaint against the citizens who marched
before him. He has said as much to the deputies
and magistrates." Finally, as the deputies were
about to separate after this exciting day, one of them,
M. Guy ton-Morveau, remarked : " The deputation
which preceded us, has doubtless announced to you
that all is now tranquil. We remained with the
King for some time, and saw nothing which could
218 THE DOWNFALL OF ROYALTY.
inspire the least alarm. We invited the King to
seek some repose. He sent an officer of the National
Guard to visit the posts, and the officer reported that
there was nobody in the palace. His Majesty assured
us that he desired to remain alone ; we left him ; and
we can certify to you that all is quiet."
XXI.
THE MORKOW OF JUNE TWENTIETH.
IN the morning of June 21 there were still some
disorderly gatherings in front of the Tuileries.
On awaking, the Dauphin put this artless question
to the Queen: "Mamma, is it yesterday still?"
Alas ! yes, it was still yesterday, it was always to be
yesterday until the catastrophes at the end of the
drama. It was just a year to a day since the royal
family had furtively quitted Paris to begin the fatal
journey which terminated at Varennes. This souve-
nir occurred to Marie Antoinette, and, recalling the
first stations of her Calvary, the unfortunate sovereign
told herself that her humiliations had but just begun.
Her lips had touched only the brim of the chalice,
and it must be drained to the dregs.
Meanwhile, visitors were arriving at the Tuileries
one after another to condole with and protest their
fidelity to the King and his family. When Marshal
de Mouchy made his appearance, the worthy old man
was received with the honors due to his noble con-
duct on the previous day. When the invasion began,
Louis XVI., in order not to irritate the rabble, had
given his gentlemen a formal order to withdraw, but
219
220 THE DOWNFALL OF ROYALTY.
the old marshal, hoping that his great age (he was
seventy-seven) would excuse his presence in the
palace, had refused to leave his master. More than
once, with a strength rejuvenated by devotion, he
had succeeded in repulsing persons whose violence
made him tremble for the King's life. As soon as
she saw the marshal, Marie Antoinette made haste
to say : " I have learned from the King how coura-
geously you defended him yesterday. I share his
gratitude." — "Madame," he replied, alluding to
those of his relatives who had figured among the
promoters of the Revolution, " I did very little in
comparison with the injuries I should like to repair.
They were not mine, but they touch me very nearly."
— " My son," said the Queen, calling the Dauphin,
" repeat before the marshal, the prayer you addressed
to God this morning for the King." The child,
kneeling down, put his hands together, and looking
up to heaven, began to sing this refrain from the
opera of Pierre le Crrand : —
del, entends lapriere
Qu'ici je fais :
Conserve un si bon pere
A ses sujets.
After the Marshal de Mouchy-came M. de Males-
herbes. Contrary to his usual custom, the ex-first
J Listen, heaven, to the prayer
That here I make :
Preserve so good a father
To his subjects.
THE MORROW OF JUNE TWENTIETH. 221
president wore his sword. " It is a long time,'* some
one said to him, "since you have worn a sword."
— " True," replied the old man, "but who would not
arm when the King's life is in danger?" Then,
looking with emotion at the little Prince, he said to
Marie Antoinette : " I hope, Madame, that at least
our children will see better days ! "
And yet, even for the present there still remained
a glimmer of hope. Hardly had the invaders left the
palace than invectives against them rose from all
classes of society. The calmness and courage of the
King and his family found admirers on every side.
The departments sent addresses demanding the pun-
ishment of those who had been guilty. Royalist
sentiments woke to life anew. One might almost
believe that the indignation caused by the recent
scandals would produce an immediate reaction in
favor of Louis XVI. Possibly, with an energetic
sovereign, something might have been attempted.
On the whole, the insurrection had obtained nothing.
Even the Girondins perceived the dangerous char-
acter of revolutionary passions. Honest men stigma-
tized the criminal tendencies which had just displayed
themselves. It was the moment for the King to
show himself and strike a great blow. But Louis
XVI. had neither will nor energy. Letting the last
chance of safety which fortune offered him escape,
he was unable to profit by the turn in public opinion.
Nothing could shake him out of that easy patience
which was the chief cause of his ruin.
222 THE DOWNFALL OF ROYALTY.
Marie Antoinette herself was opposed to vigorous
measures. She still desired to try the effects of
kindness. Learning that a legal inquiry was pro-
posed into the events of June 20, and foreseeing that
M. Hue would be called as a witness, she said to this
loyal servant : " Say as little in your deposition as
truth will permit. I recommend you, on the King's
part and my own, to forget that we were the objects
^f these popular movements. Every suspicion that
either the King or myself feel the least resentment
for what happened must be avoided ; it is not the
people who are guilty, and even if it were, they
would always obtain pardon and forgetfulness of
their errors from us."
During this time the Assembly maintained ian
attitude more than equivocal. It contained a great
number of honest men. But, terrorized already, it
no longer possessed the courage of indignation. It
grew pale before the menaces of the public. By
cringxng to the rabble it had attained that hypocriti-
cal optimism which is the distinctive mark of moder-
ate revolutionists, and which makes them in turn the
dupes and the victims of those who are more zealous.
If the majority of the deputies had said openly
what they silently thought, they would not have
hesitated to stigmatize the invasion of the Tuileries
as it deserved. But in that case, what would have
become of their popularity with the pikemen ? And
then, must they not take into account the ambitions
of the Girondins, the hatreds of the Mountain party,
THE MORBOW OF JUNE TWENTIETH. 223
and the rancor of Madame Roland and her friends ?
Was it not, moreover, a real satisfaction to the bour-
geoisie to give power a lesson and humiliate a sover-
eign ? Ah ! how cruelly this pleasure will be expiated
by those who take delight in it, and how they will
repent some day for having permitted justice, law,
and authority to be trampled under foot !
When the session of June 21 opened. Deputy
Daverhoult denounced in energetic terms the vio-
lence of the previous day. Thuriot exclaimed : " Are
we expected to press an inquiry against forty thousand
men?" Duranton, the Minister of Justice, then
read a letter from the King, dated that day, and
worded thus : " Gentlemen, the National Assembly
is already acquainted with the events of yesterday.
Paris is doubtless in consternation ; France will hear
the news with astonishment and grief. I was much
affected by the zeal shown for me by the National
Assembly on this occasion. I leave to its prudence
the task of investigating the causes of this event,
weighing its circumstances, and taking the necessary
measures to maintain the Constitution and assure the
inviolability and constitutional liberty of the heredi-
tary representative of the nation. For my part,
nothing can prevent me, at all times and under all
circumstances, 'from performing the duties imposed
on me by the Constitution, which I have accepted in
the true interests of the French nation."
A few moments after this letter had been read, the
session was disturbed by a warning from the munici-
224 THE DOWNFALL OF ROYALTY.
pal agent of the department, to the effect that an
armed crowd were marching towards the palace.
This was soon followed by tidings that Potion had
hindered their further advance, and the mayor him-
self came to the Assembly to receive the laudations
of his friends. " Order reigns everywhere," said he ;
"all precautions have been taken. The magistrates
have done their duty; they will always do so, and
the hour approaches when justice will be rendered
them."
Potion then went to the Tuileries, where he
addressed the King nearly in these terms : —
"Sire, we learn that you have been warned of
the arrival of a crowd at the palace. We come to
announce that this crowd is composed of unarmed
citizens who wish to set up a may-pole. I know.
Sire, that the municipality has been calumniated;
but its conduct will be understood by you." — " It
ought to be by all France," responded Louis XVI. ;
" I accuse no one in particular, I saw everything." —
" It will be," returned the mayor ; " and but for the
prudent measures taken by the municipality, much
more disagreeable events might have occurred."
The King attempted to reply, but Potion, without
listening to him, went on : " Not to your own per-
son; you may well understand that it will always
be respected." The King, unaccustomed to inter-
ruption when speaking, said in a loud voice : " Be
silent ! " There was sUence for an instant, and then
Louis XVI. added: "Is it what you call respecting
THE MORROW OF JUNE TWENTIETH. 225
my person to enter my house in arms, break down
my doors and use force to my guards?" — "Sire,"
answered Petion, "I know the extent of my duties
and of my responsibility." — " Do your duty ! " replied
Louis' XVI. ; " you are answerable for the tranquillity
of Paris. Adieu ! " And the King turned his back
on the mayor.
Pdtion revenged himself that very evening, by cir-
culating a rumor that the royal family were prepar-
ing to escape ; in consequence, he requested the
commanders of the National Guard to re-enforce the
sentries and redouble their vigilance. The revolu-
tionists, who had been disconcerted for a moment by
popular indignation, raised their heads again. Prud-
homme wrote in the Revolutions de Paris : " The
Parisian people — yes, the people, not the aristo-
cratic class of citizens — have just set a grand ex-
ample to France. The King, at the instigation of
Lafayette, discharged his patriotic ministers ; he par-
alyzed by his veto the decree relative to the camp of
twenty thousand men, and that on the banishment of
priests. Very well ! the people rose and signified to
him their sovereign will that the ministers should be
reinstated and these two murderous vetoes recalled.
. . . Doubtless it will not be long before Europe
will be full of a caricature representing Louis XVL
of the big paunch, covered with orders, crowned
with a red cap, and drinking out of the same bottle
with the 8a7is-culottes, who are crying : ' The King is
drinking, the King has drunk. He has the liberty
226 THE DOWNFALL OF ROYALTY.
cap on his head.' Would he might have it in his
heart!"
Apropos of this red bonnet which remained for
three hours on the sovereign's head, Bertrand de
Molleville ventured to put some questions to Louis
XVI. on the evening of June 21. According to the
Memoirs of the former Minister of Marine, this is
what the King replied : " The cries of ' Long live the
Nation' increasing in violence and seeming to be
addressed to me, I answered that the nation had no
better friend than I. Then an ill-looking man, thrust-
ing himself through the crowd, came close to me and
said in a rude tone : ' Very well ! if you are telling
the truth, prove it to us by putting on this red
cap.' 'I consent,' said I. Instantly one or two of
these people advanced and placed the cap on my
hair, for it was too small for my head to enter it. I
was convinced, I don't know why, that their inten-
tion was simply to place this cap on my head and
then retire, and I was so preoccupied with what was
going on before my eyes, that I did not notice whether
it was there or not. So little did I feel it that after
I had returned to my chamber I did not observe that
I still wore it until I was told. I was greatly aston-
ished to find it on my head, and was all the more dis-
pleased because I could have taken it off at once
without the least difficulty. But I am convinced that
if I had hesitated to receive it, the drunken man by
whom it was presented would have thrust his pike
into my stomach."
THE MOBEOW OF JUNE TWENTIETH. 227
During the same interview Bertrand de Molleville
congratulated the King upon his almost miraculous
escape from the dangers of the previous day. Louis
XVI. replied : " All my anxieties were for the Queen,
my children and my sister ; because I feared nothing
for myself." — " But it seems to me," rejoined his
interlocutor, " that this insurrection was aimed chiefly
against Your Majesty." — "I know it very well," re-
turned Louis XVI. ; " I saw clearly that they wanted
to assassinate me, and I don't know why they did not
do it ; but I shall not escape them another day. So
I have gained nothing; it is all the same whether I
am assassinated now or two months from now ! " —
" Great God ! " cried Bertrand de Molleville, " does
Your Majesty believe that you will be assassinated?"
— "I am convinced of it," replied the King ; " I have
expected it for a long time and have accustomed
myself to the thought. Do you think I am afraid of
death? " — " Certainly not, but I would desire Your
Majesty to take vigorous measures to protect yourself
from danger." — " It is possible," went on the King
after a moment of reflection, "that I may escape.
There are many odds against me, and I am not lucky.
If I were alone I would risk one more attempt. Ah !
if my wife and children were not with me, people
should see that I am not so weak as they fancy.
What would be their fate if the measures you propose
to me did not succeed?" — "But if they assassinate
Your Majesty, do you think that the Queen and her
children would be in less danger ? " — " Yes, I think
228 THE DOWNFALL OF ROYALTY.
SO, and even were it otherwise, I should not have to
reproach myself with being the cause."
A sort of Christian fanaticism had taken possession
of the King's soul. Resigned to his fate, he ceased
to struggle, and wrote to his confessor : " Come to
see me to-day ; I have done with men ; I want nothing
now but heaven."
XXII.
LAPAYETTE IN PARIS.
ONE of the greatest griefs of a political career is
disencliantinent. To pass from devout opti-
mism to profound discouragement; to have treated
as alarmists or cowards whoever perceived the least
cloud on the horizon, and then to see the most for-
midable tempests unchained; to be obliged to recog-
nize at one's proper cost that one has carried illusion
to the verge of simplicity and has judged neither men
nor things aright; to have heard distressed passengers
saying that a pilot without experience or prudence is
responsible for the shipwreck ; to have promised the
age of gold and suddenly found one's self in the age
"of iron, is a veritable torture for the pride and the
conscience of a statesman. And this torture is still
more cruel when to disappointment is added the loss
of a popularity laboriously acquired ; when, having
been accustomed to excite nothing but enthusiasm
and applause, one is all at once greeted with criticism,
howls, and curses, and when, having long strutted
xbout triumphantly on the summits of the Capitol,
one sees yawning before him the gulf at the foot of
the Tarpeian rock.
229
230 THE DOWNFALL OF ROYALTY.
Such was the fate of Lafayette. A few months had
sufficed to tlirow down the popular idol from his
pedestal, and the same persons who had once almost
burned incense before him, now thought of nothing
but flinging him into the gutter. Stunned by his fall,
Lafayette could not believe it. To familiarize him-
self with the fickleness, the caprices, and the inconse-
quence of the multitude was impossible. For him
the Constitution was the sacred ark, and he did not
believe that the very men who had constructed this
edifice at such a cost had now nothing so much at
heart as to destroy it. He would not admit that the
predictions of the royalists were about to be accom-
plished in every point, and still desired to hold
aloof from the complicities into which revolutions
drag the most upright minds and the most honest
characters. He who, in July, 1789, had not been
able to prevent the assassination of Foulon and Ber-
thier ; who, on October 5, had marched, despite him-
self, against Versailles ; who, on April 18, 1791, had
been unable to protect the departure of the royal fam-
ily to Saint Cloud ; who, on the following June 21,
had thought himself obliged to say to the Jacobins in
their club : " I have come to rejoin you, because I
think the true patriots are here,'-' nevertheless imag-
ined that just a year later, all that was necessary to
vanquish the same Jacobins was for him to show him-
self and say like Caesar : " Veni^ vidi, vici^
It was only a later illusion of the generous but
imprudent man who had already dreamed many
LAFAYETTE IN PABI8. 231
dreams. He thought the popular tiger could be
muzzled by persuasion. He was going to make a
coup d'Stat, not in deeds, but in words, forgetting
that the Revolution neither esteems nor fears any-
thing but force. As M. de Larmartime has said:
" One gets from factions only what one snatches."
Instead of striking, Lafayette was going to speak and
write. The Jacobins might have feared his sword;
they despised his words and pen. But though it was
not very wise, the noble audacity with which the hero
of America came spontaneously to throw himself into
the heat of the struggle and utter his protest in the
name of right and honor, was none the less an act of
courage. While with the army, that asylum of gen-
erous ideas, the sentiments on which his ancestors
had prided themselves rekindled in his heart. Mem-
ories of his early youth revived anew. Doubtless he
also recalled his personal obligations to Louis XVI.
On his return from the United States, had he not
been created major-general over the heads of a multi-
tude of older officers ? Had not the Queen accorded
him at that epoch the most flattering eulogies ? Had
he not been received at the great receptions of May
29, 1785, when any other officer unless highly born
would have remained in the (Eil-de-Boeuf or paid his
court in the passage of the chapel ? Had he not ac-
cepted the rank of lieutenant-general from the King,
on June 30, 1791? The gentleman reappeared beneath
the revolutionist. The humiliation of a throne for
which his ancestors had so often shed their blood
232 THE DOWNFALL OF ROYALTY.
caused him a real grief, and it is perhaps regret-
table that Louis XVI. should have refused the hand
which his recent adversary extended loyally though
late.
Lafayette was encamped near Bavay with the
Army of the North when the first tidings of June 20
reached him. His soul was roused to indignation,
and he wanted to start at once for Paris to lift his
voice against the Jacobins. Old Marshal Luckner
tried in vain to restrain him by saying that the sans-
culottes would have his head. Nothing could stop
him. Placing his army in safety under the cannon
of Maubeuge, he started with no companion but an
aide-de-camp. At Soissons some persons tried to dis-
suade him from going further by painting a doleful
picture of the dangers to which he would expose him-
self. He listened to nobody and went on his way.
Reaching Paris in the night of June 27-28, he alighted
at the house of his intimate friend, the Duke de La
Rochefoucauld, who was about to play so honorable
a part. As soon as morning came, Lafayette was at
the door of the National Assembly, asking permission
to offer the homage of his respect. This authoriza-
tion having been granted, he entered the hall. The
right applauded ; the left kept silence. Being allowed
to speak, he declared that he was the author of the
letter to the Assembly of June 16, whose authenticity
had been denied, and that he openly avowed respon-
sibility for it. He then expressed himself in the
sincerest terms concerning the outrages committed in
LAFAYETTE IN PARIS. 233
the palace of the Tuileries on June 20. He said he
had received from the officers, subalterns, and soldiers
of his army a great number of addresses expressive
of their love for the Constitution, their respect for
the authorities, and their patriotic hatred against sedi-
tious men of all parties. He ended by imploring the
Assembly to punish the authors or instigators of the
violences committed on June 20, as guilty of treason
against the nation, and to destroy a sect which en-
croached upon National Sovereignty, and terrorized
citizens, and by their public debates removed all
doubts concerning the atrocity of their projects.
" In my own name and that of all honest men in the
kingdom," said he in conclusion, " I entreat you to
take efficacious measures to make all constitutional
authorities respected, particularly your own and that
of the King, and to assure the army that the Consti-
tution will receive no injury from within, while so
many brave Frenchmen are lavishing their blood to
defend it on the frontiers."
Applause from the right and from some of those
in the galleries began anew. The president said:
" The National Assembly has sworn to maintain the
Constitution. Faithful to its oath, it will be able to
guarantee it against all attacks. It accords to you
the honors of the session." The general went to
take his seat on the right. Deputy Kersaint ob-
served that his place was on the petitioners' bench.
The general obeyed this hint and sat down modestly
on the bench assigned him. Renewed applause en-
234 THE DOWNFALL OF ROYALTY.
sued. Thereupon Guadet ascended the tribune and
said in an ironic tone: "At the moment when M.
Lafayette's presence in Paris was announced to me,
a most consoling idea presented itself. So we have
no more external enemies, thought I ; the Austrians
are conquered. This illusion did not last long. Our
enemies remain the same. Our exterior situation is
not altered, and yet M. Lafayette is in Paris ! What
powerful motives have brought him hither? Our
internal troubles? Does he fear, then, that the
National Assembly is not strong enough to repress
them ? He constitutes himself the organ of his army
and of honest men. Where are these honest men?
How has the army been able to deliberate ? " Guadet
-concluded thus : " I demand that the Minister of
War be asked whether he gave leave of absence
to M. Lafayette, and that the extraordinary Com-
mittee of Twelve make a report to-morrow on the
danger of granting the right of petition to generals."
Ramond, one of the most courageous members of
the right, was the next speaker: "Four days ago,"
said he, " an armed multitude asked to appear before
you. Positive laws forbade such a thing, and a proc-
lamation made by the department on the previous
day recalled this law and demanded that \t should
be put into execution. You paid no attention, but
admitted armed men into your midst. To-day M.
Lafayette presents himself; he is known only by
reason of his love of liberty ; his life is a series of
combats against despotisms of every sort; he has
LAFAYETTE IN PABlS. 235
sacrificed his life and fortune to the Revolution. It
is against this man that pretended suspicions are
directed and every passion unchained. Has the
National Assembly two weights and measures, then ?
Certainly, if respect is to be had to persons, it should
be shown to this eldest son of French liberty." This
eulogy exasperated the left. Deputy Saladin ex-
claimed : " I ask M. Ramond if he is making M.
Lafayette's funeral oration?" However, the right
was still in the majority. After a long tumult
Guadet's motion against Lafayette was rejected by
339 votes against 234. The general left the Assem-
bly surrounded by a numerous cortege of deputies and
National Guards, and went directly to the palace of
the Tuileries.
It is the decisive moment. The vote just taken
may serve as the starting-point of a conservative
reaction if the King will trust himself to Lafayette.
But how will he receive him ? The sovereign's greet-
ing will be polite, but not cordial. The King and
Queen say they are persuaded that there is no safety
but in the Constitution. Louis XVI. adds that he
would consider it a very fortunate thing if the Aus-
trians were beaten without delay. Lafayette is
treated with a courtesy through which suspicion
pierces. When he leaves the palace, a large crowd
accompany him to his house and plant a may-pole
before the door. On the next day Louis XVI. w£is
to review four thousand men of the National Guard.
Lafayette had proposed to appear at this review
236 THE DOWNFALL OF ROTALTT.
beside the King and make a speech in favor of order.
But the court does not desire the general's aid, and
takes what measures it can to defeat this project.
Potion, whom it had preferred to Lafayette as mayor
of Paris, countermands the review an hour before
daybreak.
Perhaps Louis XVI. might have succeeded in
overcoming his repugnance to Lafayette and sub-
mitted to be rescued by him. But the Queen abso-
lutely refused to trust the man whom she considered
her evil genius. She had seen him rise like a spectre
at every hapless hour. He had brought her back to
Paris a prisoner on the 6th of October. He had
been her jailer. His apparition amid the glare of
torches in the Court of the Carrousel had frozen her
with terror when she was flying from her prison, the
Tuileries, to begin the fatal journey to Varennes.
His aides-de-camp had pursued her. He was respon-
sible for her arrest ; he was present at her humiliating
and sorrowful return ; the sight of his face, the sound
of his voice, made her tremble ; she could not hear
his name without a shudder. In vain Madame Elisa-
beth exclaimed : " Let us forget the past and throw
ourselves into the arms of the only man who can save
the King and his family ! " Marie Antoinette's pride
revolted at the thought of owing anything to her
former persecutor. Moreover, in his latest confiden-
tial communications with her, Mirabeau had said:
" Madame, be on your guard against Lafayette ; if
ever he commands the army, he would like to keep
LAFAYETTE IN PARIS. 237
the King in Ms tent." In the Queen's opinion, to
rely on Lafayette would be to accept him as regent
of the palace under a sluggard King. Protector for
protector, she preferred Dan ton. Danton, who, sub-
sidized from the civil list, accepts money without
knowing whether he will fairly earn it ; Danton, who,
while awaiting events, had made the cynical remark
that he would " save the King or kill him." Strange
that the orator of the faubourgs inspired the daugh-
ter of Caesars with less repugnance than the gentle-
man, the marquis. " They propose M. de Lafay-
ette as a resource," she said to Madame Campan;
"but it would be better to perish than owe our
safety to the man who has done us most harm."
However, Lafayette was not yet discouraged. He
wished to save the royal family in spite of themselves.
He assembled several officers of the National Guard
at his house. He represented to them the dangers
into which the apathy of each plunged the affairs of
all ; he showed the urgent necessity of combining
against the avowed enterprises of the anarchists, of
inspiring the National Assembly with the firmness
required to repress the intended attacks, and foretold
the inevitable calamities which would result from the
weakness and disunion of honest men. He wanted
to march against the Jacobin Club and close it. But,
in consequence of the instructions issued by the
court, the royalists of the National Guard were indis-
posed to second him in this measure. Lafayette,
having no one on his side but the constitutionals, an
288 THE DOWNFALL OF ROYALTY.
honest but scanty group who were suspected by both
of the extreme parties, gave up the struggle. The
next day, June 30, he beat a hasty retreat to the
army, after writing to the Assembly another letter
which was merely an echo of the first one. A
moment since, the Jacobins were trembling. Now,
they are reassured, they triumph. In his Chronique
des Cinquante Jours, Rcederer says: "If M. de
Lafayette had had the will and ability to make a
bold stroke and seize the dictatorship, reserving the
power to relinquish it after the re-establishment of
order, one could comprehend his coming to the
Assembly with the sword of a dictator at his side ;
but, to show it only, without resolving to draw it
from the scabbard, was a fatal imprudence. In civil
commotions it will not answer to dare by halves."
XXIII.
THE LAMOUEETTB KISS.
FRANCE had still its moments of enthusiasm
and illusion before plunging into the abyss
of woes. It seemed under an hallucination, or suf-
fering from a sort of vertigo. A nameless frenzy,
both in good and evil, agitated and disturbed it
beyond measure in 1792, that year so fertile in
surprises and dramas of every kind. Strange and
bizarre epoch, full of love and hatred, launching
itself from one extreme to the other with frightful
inconstancy, now weeping with tenderness, and now
howling with rage ! Society resembled a drunken
man who is sometimes amiable in his cups, and
sometimes cruel. There were sudden halts on the
road of fury, oases in the midst of scorching sands,
beneath a sun whose fire consumed. But the caravan
does not rest long beneath the shady trees. Quickly
it resumes its course as if urged by a mysterious
force, and soon the terrible simoom overwhelms and
destroys it.
Madame Elisabeth wrote to Madame de Raige-
court, July 8, 1792 : " It would need all Madame
de S^vign^'s eloquence to describe properly what
230
240 THE DOWNFALL OF ROYALTY.
happened yesterday; for it was certainly the most
surprising thing, the most extraordinary, the greatest,
the smallest, etc., etc. But, fortunately, experience
may aid comprehension. In a word, here were Jaco-
bins, Feuillants, republicans, and monarchists, abjur-
ing all their discords and assembling near the tree of
the Constitution and of liberty, to promise sincerely
that they will act in accordance with law and not
depart from it. Luckily, August is coming, the time
when, the leaves being well grown, the tree of liberty
will aiford a more secure shelter."
What had happened on the day before Madame
Elisabeth wrote this letter ? There had been a very
singular session of the Legislative Assembly. In the
morning, a woman named Olympe de Gouges, whose
mother was a dealer in second-hand clothing at
Montauban, being consumed with a desire to be
talked about, had caused an emphatic placard to be
posted up, in which she preached concord between
all parties. This placard was like a prologue to the
day's session.
Among the deputies there was a certain Abb6
Lamourette, the constitutional bishop of Lyons, who
played at religious democracy. He was an ex-Laza-
rist who had been professor of theology at the Semi-
nary at Toul. Weary of the conventual yoke, he had
left his order, and at the beginning of the Revolution
was the vicar-general of the diocese of Arras. He
had published several works in which he sought to
reconcile philosophy and religion. Mirabeau was
THE L AMOURETTE KISS. 241
one of his acolytes and adopted him as his theologian
in ordinary. Finding him fit to " bishopize " {d evS-
quaillef), to use his own expression, the great tribune
recommended him to the electors of the Rhone de-
partment. It was thus that the Abb^ Lamourette
became the constitutional bishop of Lyons. After
his consecration, he issued a pastoral instruction in
such agreement with current ideas that Mirabeau,
his protector, induced the Constituent Assembly to
have it sent as a model to every department in
France. In 1792, the Abb^ Lamourette was fifty
years old. Affable, unctuous, his mouth always full
of pacific and gentle words, he naively preached
moderation, concord, and fraternity in conversations
which were like so many sermons.
For several days the discussions in the Assembly
had been of unparalleled violence. Suspicion, hatred,
rancor, wrath, were unchained in a fury that bor-
dered on delirium. Right and left emulated each
other in outrages and invectives. Lafayette's appear-
ance and the fear of a foreign invasion had disturbed
all minds. The National Assembly, sitting both day
and night, was like an arena of gladiators fighting
without truce or pity. It was this moment which
the good Abb^ Lamourette chose for delivering his
most touching sermon from the tribune.
During the session of July 7, Brissot was about
to ascend the tribune and propose new measures
of public safety. Lamourette, getting before him,
asked to be heard on a motion of order. He said
242 THE DOWNFALL OF ROYALTY.
that of all the means proposed for arresting the
divisions which were destroying France, but one had
been forgotten, and that the only one which could be
efficacious. It was the union of all Frenchmen in
one mind, the reconciliation of all the deputies, with-
out exception. What was to prevent this? The
only irreconcilable things are crime and virtue. What
do all our mistrust and suspicions amount to ? One
party in the Assembly attributes to the other a sedi-
tious desire to destroy the monarchy. The others
attribute to their colleagues a desire to destroy con-
stitutional equality and to establish the aristocratic
government known as that of the Two Chambers.
These are the disastrous suspicions which divide
the empire. " Very well ! " cried the abb^, " let us
crush both the republic and the Two Chambers."
The hall rang with unanimous applause from the
Assembly and the galleries. From all sides came
shouts of " Yes, yes, we want nothing but the Con-
stitution." Lamourette went on : " Let us swear to
have but one mind, one sentiment. Let us swear to
sink all our differences and become a homogeneous
mass of freemen formidable both to the spirit of
anarchy and that of feudalism. The moment when
foreigners see that we desire one ' settled thing, and
that we all desire it, will be the moment when
liberty will triumph and France be saved. I ask
the president to put to vote this simple proposi-
tion: That those who equally abjure and execrate
the republic and the Two Chambers shall rise." At
THE LAMOURETTE KISS. 243
once, as if moved by the same impulse, the members
of the Assembly rose as one man, and swore enthusi-
astically never to permit, either by the introduction
of the republican system or by that of the Two
Chambers, any alteration whatsoever in the Consti-
tution.
By a spontaneous movement, the members of the
extreme left went towards the deputies of the right.
They were received with open arms, and, in their
turn, the right advanced toward the ranks of the left.
All parties blended. Jaucourt and Merlin, Albite
and Ramond, Gensonn^ and Calvet, Chabot and
Genty, men who ordinarily opposed each other relent-
lessly, could be seen sitting on the same bench. As
if by miracle, the Assembly chamber became the
temple of Concord. The moved spectators mingled
their acclamations with the oaths of the deputies.
According to the expressions of the Moniteur, seren-
ity and joy were on all faces, and unction in every
heart.
M. Emmery was the next speaker. "When the
Assembly is reunited," said he, " all the powers ought
to be so. I ask, therefore, that the Assembly at once
send the King the minutes of its proceedings by a
deputation of twenty-four members." The motion
was adopted.
A few minutes later, Louis XVI., followed by the
deputation and surrounded by his ministers, entered
the hall. Cries of " Long live the nation ! Long live
the King ! " resounded from every side. The sovereign
244 THE DOWNFALL OF ROYALTY.
placed himself near the president, and in a voice that
betrayed emotion, made the following address : " Gen-
tlemen, the spectacle most affecting to my heart is
that of the reunion of all wills for the sake of the
country's safety. I have long desired this salutary
moment; my desire is accomplished. The nation
and the King are one. Each of them has the same
end in view. Their reunion will save France. The
Constitution should be the rallying-point for all
Frenchmen. We all ought to defend it. The King
will always set the example of so doing." The presi-
dent replied : " Sire, this memorable moment, when
all constituted authorities unite, is a signal of joy
to the friends of liberty, and of terror to its enemies.
From this union will issue the force necessary to
combat the tyrants combined against us. It is a
sure warrant of liberty."
After prolonged applause a great silence followed.
" I own to you, M. the President," presently said
the complaisant Louis XVI., " that I was longing for
the deputation to finish, so that I might hasten to the
Assembly." Applause and cries of "Long live the
nation ! Long live the King ! " redoubled. What !
this monarch now acclaimed is the same prince
against whom Vergniaud hurled invectives a few
days ago with the enthusiastic approbation of the
same Assembly ! He is the sovereign whom the
Girondin thus addressed: "O King, who doubtless
have believed with Lysander the tyrant that truth is
no better than a lie, and that men must be amused
THE LAMOUBETTE KISS. 245
with oaths like children with rattles ; who have pre-
tended to love the laws only to preserve the power
that will enable you to defy them ; the Constitution
only that it may not cast you from the throne where
you must remain in order to destroy it ; the nation
only to assure the success of your perfidy by inspiring
it with confidence, — do you think you can impose
upon us to-day by hypocritical protestations?" What
has occurred since the day when Vergniaud, uttering
such words as these, was frantically cheered? Noth-
ing. That day, the weather-cock pointed to anger;
to-day to concord. Why ? No one knows. Tired of
hating, the Assembly doubtless needed an instant of
relaxation. Violent sentiments end by wearying the
souls that experience them. They must rest and
renew their energies in order to hate better to-mor-
row. And why say to-morrow ? This very evening
the quarrelling, anger, and fury will begin anew.
At half-past three Louis XVI. left the Hall of the
Manage, in the midst of joyful applause from the
Assembly and the galleries. During the evening
session discord reappeared. The following letter
from the King was read : " I have just been handed
the departmental decree which provisionally suspends
the mayor and the procureur of the Commune of
Paris. As this decree is based on facts which person-
ally concern me, the first impulse of my heart is to
beg the Assembly to decide upon it." Does any one
believe that the Assembly will have the courage to
condemn Potion and the 20th of June? Not a bit
246 THE DOWNFALL OF EOTALTT.
of it. It makes no decision, but passes unanimously
from the King's letter to the order of the day. And
what occurs at the clubs? Listen to Billaud-Va-
rennes at the Jacobins : " They embrace each other at
the Assembly," he exclaims ; " it is the kiss of Judas,
it is the kiss of Charles IX., extending his hand to
Coligny. They were embracing like this while the
King was preparing for flight on October 6. They
were embracing like this before the massacres of the
Champ-de-Mars. They embrace, but are the court
conspiracies coming to an end? Have our enemies
ceased their advance against our frontiers? Is La-
fayette the less a traitor ? " And thereupon the cry
broke out : " Potion or death ! " The next day, June
8, at the Assembly, loud applause greeted the orator
from a section who said, concerning the department :
" It openly serves the sinister projects and disastrous
conspiracies of a perfidious court. It is the first link
in the immense chain of plots formed against the peo-
ple. It is an accomplice in the extravagant projects
of this general, who, not being able to become the
hero of liberty, has preferred to make himself the
Don Quixote of the court." A deputy exclaimed:
"The acclamations with which the Assembly has
listened to this petition authorize me to ask its pub-
lication: I make an express motion to that effect."
And the publication was decreed.
O poor Lamourette ! humanitarian abb^, rose-water
revolutionist, of what avail is your democratic holy
water ? What have you gained by your sentimental
TEE lAMOURETTE KISS. 247
jargon? what do your dreams of evangelical phil-
osophy and universal brotherhood amount to ? Poor
constitutional abb^, people are scoffing already at
your sacerdotal unction, your soothing homily ! The
very men who, to please you, have sworn to destroy
the republic, will proclaim it two and a half months
later. Your famous reunion of parties, people are
already shrugging their shoulders at and calling it
the " baiser d^ Amourette, la reconciliation normande " ;
the calf-love kiss, the pretended reconciliation. They
accuse you of having sold yourself to the court.
They ridicule, they flout, and they will kill you.
January 11, ,1794, Fouquier-Tinville's prosecuting
speech will punish you for your moderatism. You
will carry your head to the scaffold^ and, optimist to
the end, you will say: "What is the guillotine?
only a rap on the neck."
XXIV.
THE F^TE OF THE FEDERATION IN 1792.
THE fSte of the Federation, which was to be
celebrated July 14, was awaited with anxiety.
The federates came into Paris full of the most revo-
lutionary projects. Anxiety and anguish reigned at
the Tuileries. Louis XVI, and Marie Antoinette,
who were to be present in the Champ-de-Mars, feared
to be assassinated there. The Queen's importunities
decided the King to have a plastron made, to ward
off a poniard thrust. Composed of fifteen thicknesses
of Italian taffeta, this plastron consisted of a vest and
a large belt. Madame Campan secretly tried it on
the King in the chamber where Marie Antoinette was
lying. Pulling Madame Campan by the dress as far
as possible from the Queen's bed, Louis XVI. whis-
pered : " It is to satisfy her that I yield ; they will
not assassinate me ; their plan is changed ; they will
put me to death in another way." When the King
had gone out, the Queen forced Madame Campan to
tell her what he had just said. " I had divined it ! "
she exclaimed. " He has said this long time that all
that is going on in France is an imitation of the revo-
lution in England under Charles I. I begin to dread
248
THE F&TE OF THE FEDERATION IN 1792. 249
an impeachment for him . As for me, I am a foreigner,
and they will assassinate me. What will become
of ray poor children ? " And she fell to weeping.
Madame Campan tried to administer a nervine, but
the Queen refused it. " Nervous maladies," said she.;
" are the ailments of happy women ; I no longer have
them." Without her knowledge a sort of corset, in
the style of her husband's plastron, had been made
for her. Nothing could induce her to wear it. To
those who implored her with tears to put it on, she
replied : " If seditious persons assassinate me, so much
the better ; they will deliver me from a most sorrow-
ful life."
The f6te of the Federation was celebrated in 1792
amidst extremely tragical preoccupations. Things
had changed very greatly since the f^te which had
excited such enthusiasm two years earlier. On July
14, 1790, the Champ-de-Mars was filled at four o'clock
in the morning by a crowd delirious with joy. At
eight o'clock in the morning of July 14, 1792, it was
still empty. The people were said to be at the Bas-
tille witnessing the laying of the first stone of the
column to be erected on the ruins of the famous for-
tress. On the Champ-de-Mars there was no magnifi-
cent altar served by three hundred priests, no side
benches covered by an innumerable crowd, none of
that sincere and ardent joy which throbbed in every
heart two years before. For the fSte of 1792, eighty-
three little tents, representing the departments of the
kingdom, had been erected on hillocks of sand. Be-
250 THE DOWNFALL OF ROTALTT.
fore each tent stood a poplar, so frail that it seemed
as if a breath might blow away the tree and its tri-
colored pendant. In the middle of the Champ-de-
Mars were four stretchers covered with canvas painted
gray which would have made a miserable decoration
for a boulevard theatre. It was a so-called tomb, an
honorary monument to those who had died or were
about to die on the frontiers. On one side of it was
the inscription: "Tremble, tyrants; we will avenge
them ! " The Altar of the Country could hardly be
seen. It was formed of a truncated column placed
on the top of the altar steps raised in 1790. Perfumes
were burned on the four small corner altars. Two
hundred yards farther off, near the Seine, a large tree
had been set up and named the Tree of Feudalism.
From its branches depended escutcheons, helmets,
and blue ribboi^s interwoven with chains. This tree
rose out of a wood-pile on which lay a heap of crowns,
tiaras, cardinals' hats. Saint Peter's keys, ermine man-
tles, doctors' caps, and titles of nobility. A royal
crown was among them, and beside it the escutcheons
of the Count de Provence, the Count d'Artois, and
the Prince de Cond6. The organizers of the f^te
hoped to induce the King himself to set fire to this
pile, covered with feudal emblems. A figure repre-
senting Liberty, and another representing Law, were
placed on casters by the aid of which the two divini-
ties were to be rolled about. Fifty-four pieces of
cannon bordered the Champ-de-Mars on the side next
the Seine, and the Phrygian cap crowned every tree.
THE F&TE OF THE FEBEBATION IN 1792. 251
At eleven in the morning the King and his cortege
arrived at the Military School. A detachment of
cavalry opened the march. There were three car-
riages. In the first were the Prince de Poix, the
Marquis de Br^z^, and the Count de Saint-Priest ; in
the second, the Queen's ladies, Mesdames de Tarente,
de la Roche- Aymon, de Maill^, and de Mackau ; in
the third, the King, the Queen, their two children, and
Madame Elisabeth. The trumpets sounded and the
drums beat a salute. A salvo of artillery announced
the arrival of the royal family. The sovereign's
countenance was mild and benevolent. Marie An-
toinette appeared still more majestic than usual. The
dignity of her demeanor, the grace of her children,
and the angelic charm of Madame Elisabeth inspired
a tender respect. The little Dauphin wore the uni-
form of a National Guard. " He has not deserved the
cap yet," said the Queen to the grenadiers.
The royal family took their places on the balcony
of the Military School,' which was covered with a red
velvet carpet embroidered with gold, and watched
the popular procession, entering the Champ-de-Mars
by the gate of the rue de Grenelle, and marching tow-
ards the Altar of the Country. What a strange proces-
sion ! Men, women, children, armed with pikes, sticks,
and hatchets; bands singing the Ca ira; drunken
harlots, adorned with flowers ; people from the fau-
bourgs with the inscription, " Long live Potion ! "
chalked on their head-gear ; six legions of National
Guards marching pell-mell with the sans-culottes ; red
262 THE DOWNFALL OF ROYALTY.
caps ; placards with devices either ferocious or stupid,
like this one: "Long live the heroes who died in the
siege of the Bastille ! " a plan in relief of the cele-
brated fortress ; a travelling printing-press throwing
off copies of the revolutionary manifesto, which the
crowd at first mistook for a little guillotine ; a great
deal of noise and shouting, — and there you have the
popular cortege. By way of compensation, the troops
of the line and the grenadiers of the National Guard
displayed extremely royalist sentiments. The 104th
regiment of infantry having halted under the balcony,
its band played the air : Oil peut-on Stre mieux qu'au
sein de safamillef (Where is one better off than in
the bosom of liis family ?)
The moment when Louis XVI. left the Military
School to walk to the Altar of the Country with the
National Assembly was not without solemnity. A
certain anxiety was felt by all as to what might hap-
pen. Would Louis XVL be struck by a ball or by a
poniard ? What might not be feared from so many
demoniacs, howling like cannibals ? The King, the
deputies, the soldiers, the crowd, all pressed against
each other in a solid mass that left no vacant spaces ;
all was in continual undulation. Louis XVI. could
only advance slowly and with difficulty. The inter-
vention of the troops was necessary to enable him to
reach the Altar of the Country, where he was to swear
allegiance for the second time to the Constitution
whose fragments were to overwhelm his throne. " It
needed the character of Louis XVL," Madame de
THE FETE OF THE FEDERATION IN 1792. 253
Stael has said, "it needed that martyr character
which he never belied, to support such a situation as
he did. His gait, his countenance, had something
peculiar to himself; on other occasions one might
have wished he had more grandeur; but at this
moment it was enough for him to remain what he
was in order to appear sublime. From a distance I
watched his powdered head in the midst of all those
black ones ; his coat, still embroidered as it had been
in former days, stood out against the costumes of the
common people who pressed around him. When he
ascended the steps of the altar, one seemed to behold
the sacred victim offering himself in voluntary sacri-
fice."
The Queen had remained on the balcony of the
Military School. From there she watched through a
lorgnette the dangerous progress of the King. A
prey to inexpressible emotion, she remained motionless
during an entire hour, hardly able to breathe on ac-
count of excessive anguish. She used the lorgnette
steadily, but at one moment she cried out : " He has
come down two steps ! " This cry made all those
about her shudder. The King could not, in fact,
reach the summit of the altar, because a throng of
suspicious-looking persons had already taken posses-
sion of it.
Deputy Dumas had the presence of mind to cry
out: "Attention, Grenadiers! present arms!" The
intimidated sans-culottes remained quiet, and Louis
XVI. took the oath amid the thundering of the can-
non ranged beside the Seine.
264 THE DOWNFALL OF BOYALTT.
It was then proposed to the King that he should
set fire to the Tree of Feudalism ; it was close to the
river and the arms of France were hung upon it.
Louis XVI. spared himself that shame, exclaiming,
"There is no more feudalism ! " He returned to the
Military School by the way he came. The 6th
legion of the National Guard had not yet marched
past when the cavalry announced the King's ap-
proach. This legion, quickening its pace, was inter-
cepted by the royal escort, and invaded, not to say
routed, by the populace, which from aU sides pressed
into its ranks.
Meanwhile the anguish of Marie Antoinette re-
doubled. "The expression of the Queen's face,"
Madame de Stael says again, " will never be effaced
from my memory. Her eyes were drowned in tears ;
the splendor of her toilette, the dignity of her de-
meanor, contrasted with the throng that surrounded
her. Nothing separated her from the populace but a
few National Guards; the armed men assembled in
the Champ-de-Mars seemed more as if they had come
together for a riot than for a festival." Potion, who
had been reinstated in his functions as mayor of
Paris on the previous day, was the hero of the occa-
sion. They called him King Potion, and the cheers
which resounded in honor of this revolutionist were
like a funeral knell in the ears of Marie Antoinette.
At last Louis XVI. appeared in front of the Mili-
tary School. The Queen experienced a momentary
loy in seeing him approach. Rising hastily, she ran
THE FETE OF THE FEDERATION IN 1792. 255
down the stairs to meet him. Always calm, the King
tenderly clasped his wife's hand. At once royalist sen-
timent took fire. All who were present — National
Guards, troops of the line, Switzers, people in the
courts, at the windows, on balconies and gates — all
cried : "Long live the King ! Long live the Queen ! "
The royal family regained the Tuileries in the midst
of acclamations. At the entrance of the palace en-
thusiasm deepened. From the Royal Court to the
great stairway of the Horloge Pavilion, the grena-
diers of the National Guard, who had escorted and
saved the King, formed into line with shouts of joy.
"All former souvenirs," says the Count de Vau-
blanc in his Memoirs, " all foi-mer habits of respect
then awoke. . . . Yes, I saw and observed this mul-
titude; it was animated with the best sentiments;
at heart it was faithful to its King and crowned him
with sincere benedictions. But do popular love and
fidelity afford any support to a tottering throne ? He
is mad who can think so. The people will be specta-
tors of the latest combat and will applaud the victor.
And let no one blame them ! What can they do if
they are not united, encouraged, and led? The
people behold a few seditious individuals attack a
throne, and a few courageous men defend it; they
fear one party and desire the success of the other.
When the struggle is over, they submit and obey.
The most honest of them weep in silence, the timid
force themselves to display a guilty joy in order to
escape the hatred of the victors whom they see bath-
256 THE DOWNFALL OF ROYALTY.
ing themselves in blood. They think about their
families, their affairs, their means of support. They
were not expected to lead themselves ; that duty was
imposed on others ; have they fulfilled it ? "
It is said that during the fete those who were
friendly to the King, amongst the crowd, were await-
ing a signal they expected from him. They hoped
that, by the assistance of the Swiss, they could force
their way to the royal family during the confusion
of a hand-to-hand affray, and get them safely out of
Paris. But Louis XVI. neither spoke nor acted. He
returned to his palace without having dared any-
thing. And, nevertheless, there were still many
chances of safety open. Imagine the effect of a
haughty bearing, a commanding gesture in place of
the inert attitude habitual to the unfortunate sover-
eign. Fancy the Most Christian King, the heir of
Louis XIV., on horseback, haranguing the people in
the style of his witty and valiant ancestor, Henry IV. !
He is still King. The troops of the line are faithful.
The great majority of the National Guard are well-
disposed towards him. Luckner, Lafayette, Dumou-
riez himself, would ask nothing better than to defend
him if he would show a little energy.
The day after the ceremony of July l4, Lafayette
was still anxious that Louis XVI. should leave Paris
openly and go to Compi^gne, so as to show France
and Europe that he was free. In case of resistance,
the general demanded only fifty loyal cavaliers to
take the royal family away. From Compi^gne, picked
THE FETE OF THE FEDERATION IN 1792. 257
squadrons would conduct them to the midst of the
French army, the asylum of devotion and honor. But
Louis XVI. refused. The last resources remaining
to him were to evaporate between his hands. He
will profit neither by the sympathies of all European
courts, which ardently desire his safety ; by his civil
list, which might be such an efficacious means of
action ; nor by the loyalty of his brave soldiers, who
are ready to shed their last drop of blood in his
defence. A large party in the Legislative Assembly
would ask nothing but a signal, providing it were
seriously given, to rally with vigor to the royal cause.
He had intrepid champions there whom no menace
could affright, and who on every occasion, no matter
how violent or tumultuous the galleries might be,
had braved the storm with heroic constancy. Public
opinion was changing for the better. The schemes
and language of the Jacobins exasperated the mass of
honest people. The provinces were sending addresses
of fidelity to the King.
What was lacking to the monarch to enable him
to combine so many scattered elements into a solid
group? A little will, a little of that essential quality,
audacity, which, according to Danton, is the last word
of politics. But Louis XVI. has a timorous soul.
If he makes one step forward, he is in haste to make
another back. He is scrupulous, hesitating ; he has
no confidence in himself or any one else. This prince,
so incontestably courageous, acts as if he were a cow-
ard. He has made so many concessions already that
258 THE DOWNFALL OF BOTALTY.
the idea of any manner of resistance seems to him
chimerical. Does the fate of Charles I. make him
dread the beginning of civil war as the supreme dan-
ger ? Does he fear to imperil the lives of his wife
and children by an energetic deed? Is he expecting
foreign aid ? Does he think to prove his wisdom by
his patience, and that success will crown delay ? Is
he so benevolent, so gentle, that the least thought of
repression is repugnant to him? Does he wish to
carry to extremes that pardon of injuries which is
recommended by the Gospel ? What is plain is, that
he rejects every firm resolution.
Palliatives, expedients, half-measures, were what
suited this honest but feeble nature. Distui'bed by
contradictory councils, and no longer knowing what
to desire or what to hope, he looked on at his own
destruction like an unmoved spectator. He was no
longer a sovereign full of the sentiment of his power
and his rights, but an almost unconscious victim of
fatality. Example full of startling lessons for all
leaders of state who adopt weakness as a system, and
who, under pretext of benevolence or moderation, no
longer know how to foresee, to will, or to strike !
XXV.
THE LAST DAYS AT THE TUILERIES.
DURING one of the last nights of July, at one
o'clock, Madame Campan was alone near the
Queen's bed, when she heard some one walking softly
in the adjoining corridor, which was ordinarily locked
at both ends. Madame Campan summoned the valet-
de-chambre, who went into the corridor ; presently
the noise of two men fighting reached the ears of
Marie Antoinette. " What a position ! " cried the
unfortunate Queen. " Insults by day and assassins
by night ! " The valet cried : " Madame, it is a
scoundrel whom I know; I am holding him." — "Let
him go," said the Queen. " Open the door for him ;
he came to assassinate me ; he will be carried in
triumph by the Jacobins to-morrow."
People were constantly saying that the Faubourg
Saint-Antoine was getting ready to march against
the palace. Marie Antoinette was so badly guarded,
and it was so easy to force an entrance to her apart-
ment on the ground-floor, opposite the garden, that
Madame de Tourzel, her children's governess, begged
her to sleep in the Dauphin's room on the first floor.
The Queen was averse to this step, as she was im-
259
260 THE DOWNFALL OF ROYALTY.
willing to have any one suspect her uneasiness. But
Madame de Tourzel having shown her that it would
be easy to keep the secret of tliis change by using the
-Dauphin's private staircase, she ended by accepting the
proposal so long as the trouble should last. She was so
thoughtful of all those in her service that it cost her
much to incommode them in the least. Finally, she
consented to use the bed of the governess, and a
pallet was laid for the latter every evening.
Mademoiselle Pauline de Tourzel slept on a sofa in
an adjoining closet. As no one in the house sus-
pected that the Queen might have changed her
apartment for the night, Madame de Tourzel and her
daughter took precautionary measures. When the
Queen had gone to bed, they rose, and after making
sure that the doors were locked, they shot the inside
bolts. " The closet I occupied served as a passage for
the royal family when they went to supper," says
Mademoiselle de Tourzel, afterwards Madame de
Bdarn, in her Souvenirs de Quarante Ans ; " I went
to bed early; sometimes I pretended to be asleep
when the Princes were passing through, and I saw
them approach my sofa, one after another; I heard
their expressions of kindness and good will toward
me, and noticed what care they took not to disturb
my slumber."
Poor Marie Antoinette ! Could one believe that a
Queen of France would be reduced to keeping a
little dog in her bedroom to warn her of the least
noise in her apartment ? The Dauphin, delighted to
THE LAST DAYS AT THE TUILERIES. 261
have his mother sleep so near him, used to run to her
as soon as he awoke, and clasping her in his little
arms would say the most affectionate things. This
was the only moment of the day that brought her
any consolation.
By the end of July, both the Queen and her
children were obliged to give up walking in the
garden. She had gone out to take the air with her
daughter in the Dauphin's small parterre at the
extreme end of the Tuileries, close to the Place
Louis XV. Some federates grossly insulted her.
Four Swiss officers made their way through the crowd,
and placing the Queen and the young Princess be-
tween them, brought them back to the palace. When
she reached her apartments, Marie Antoinette thanked
her defenders in the most affecting terms, but she
never went out again.
After June 20, the garden, excepting the terrace of
the Feuillants, which, by a decree of the Assembly,
had become a part of its precincts, had been for-
bidden to the populace. Posters warned the people
to remain on the terrace and not go down into the
garden. The terrace was called National Ground,
and the garden the Land of Coblentz. Inscriptions
apprised passers-by of this novel topography. Tri-
colored ribbons had been tied to the banisters of the
staircases by way of barriers. Placards were fastened
at intervals to the trees bordering the terrace, whereon
could be read : " Citizens, respect yourselves ; give the
force of bayonets to this feeble barrier. Citizens, do
262 THE DOWNFALL OF ROYALTY.
not go into this foreign land, this Coblentz, abode of
corruption." The leaders had such an empire over
the crowd that no one disobeyed. And yet it was
the height of summer, the trees offered their verdant
shade, and the King had withdrawn all his guards
and opened every gate. Nobody dared infringe the
revolutionary mandate. One young man, paying no
attention, went down into the garden. Furious
clamors broke out on all sides. " To the lamp-post
with him ! " cried some one on the terrace. There-
upon the young man, taking off his shoes, drew out
his handkerchief and began to wipe the dust from
their soles. People cried bravo, and he was carried
in triumph.
Marie Antoinette could not become resigned to this
hatred. Often she frightened her women by wishing
to go out of the palace and address the people.
"Yes," she would cry, her voice trembling, as she
walked quickly to and fro in her chamber, "yes, I
will say to them: Frenchmen, they have had the
cruelty to persuade you that I do not love France,
I, the wife of its King and the mother of a Dauphin ! "
Then, this brief moment of generous exaltation over,
the illusion of being able to move a nation of insul-
ters quickly vanished. Her life was a daily, hourly
struggle. The wife, the mother, the queen, never
ceased to contend against destiny. She hardly slept
or ate ; but from the very excess of danger she drew
additional energy, and moral and material force.
As she awoke at daybreak, she required that the
THE LAST DAYS AT THE TUILERIES. 263
shutters should not be closed, so that her sleepless
nights might be sooner consoled by the light of
morning. The most widely diverse sentiments occu-
pied her soul. A captive in her palace, she some-
times believed herself irrevocably condemned by
fate, and sometimes hoped for deliverance.
Toward the middle of one of the last nights pre-
ceding the 10th of August, the moon shone into
her bedchamber. " In a month," she said to Madame
Campan, " I shall not see that moon unless I am
freed from my chains." But she was not free from
anxiety concerning all that might happen before that.
" The King is not a poltroon," she added ; " he has
very great passive courage, but he is crushed by a
false shame, a doubt of himself, which arises from his
education quite as much as from his character. He
is afraid of commanding ; he dreads above everything
to speak to assemblages of men. He lived uneasily
and like a child, under the eyes of Louis XV. until
he was twenty, and this constraint has had an effect
on his timidity. In our circumstances, a few clearly
spoken words addressed to the Parisians who are
devoted to us would immensely strengthen our party,
but he will not say them." Then Marie Antoinette
explained why she did not put herself forward more :
" For my part," said she, " I could act, and mount a
horse if need were ; but, if I acted, it would put
weapons into the hands of King's enemies ; a general
outcry would be raised in France against the Aus-
trian woman, against female domination; moreover,
264 THE DOWNFALL OF ROYALTY.
-\
I should reduce the King to nothingness by showing
myself. A queen who is not regent must in such
circumstances remain inactive and prepare to die."
The danger constantly increased. At four in the
morning of one of the last days of July, warning was
given at the palace that the faubourgs were threat-
ening, and would doubtless march against the Tuile-
ries. Madame Campan went very softly into the
Queen's room. For a wonder, Marie Antoinette
was sleeping peacefully and profoundly. Madame
Campan did not rouse her. " You were right," said
Louis XVI. ; " it is good to see her take a little rest.
Oh ! her griefs redouble mine ! " At her waking the
Queen, on being informed of what had passed, began
to weep, and said: "Why was I not called?" Ma-
dame Campan excused herself by saying : " It was
only a false alarm. Your Majesty needed to repair
your prostrate strength." — " It is not prostrate,"
quickly replied the courageous sovereign ; " misfor-
tune makes it all the greater. Elisabeth was with
the King, and I was sleeping ! I, who wish to perish
beside him ! I am his wife ; I am not willing that he
should incur the least danger without me ! "
On Sunday, August 5, — the last Sunday the royal
family were to spend at the Tuileries, — as they were
going to the chapel to hear Mass, half the National
Guards on duty cried : " Long live the King ! " The
others said: "No, no; no King, down with the
veto ! " The same day, at Vespers, the chanters had
agreed to swell their tones greatly, and in a menac-
THE LAST BATS AT THE TUILERIES. 265
ing way, when reciting this versicle of the Magnifi-
cat : Deposuit potentes de sede — " He hath put down
the mighty from their seat." In their turn the royal-
ists, after the Dominum salvumfac regem^ cried thrice,
turning as they did so toward the Queen : Et regi-
nam. There was a continual murmuring all through
the divine office. Five days later, the same chapel
was to be a pool of blood.
And yet Madame Elisabeth, always calm and
always angelic, still had illusions. One morning of
this terrible month of August, while in her room in the
Pavilion of Flora, she thought she heard some one
humming her favorite air, Pauvre Jacques, beneath
her windows. Attracted by this refrain, which in
the midst of sorrow renewed the souvenir of happier
times, she half opened her window and listened at-
tentively. The words sung were not those of the
ballad she loved, yet they were royalist in sentiment
and adapted to the same air. The poor people had
been substituted for poor Jack — the poor people
who were pitied for having a king no longer and for
knowing nothing but wretchedness. Such marks of
attachment consoled the virtuous Princess, and made
her hope against all hope. She wrote, August 8, to
her friend Madame de Raigecourt : " They say that
the King is going to be turned out of here somewhat
forcibly, and made to lodge in the H8tel-de-Ville.
They say that there will be a very strong movement
to that effect in Paris. Do you believe it ? For my
part, I do not. I believe in rumors, but not in their
266 THE DOWNFALL OF ROYALTY.
resulting in anything. That is my profession of
faith. For the rest, everything is perfectly quiet
to-day. Yesterday passed in the same way, and I
think this one will be like it." On August 9, the
eve of the fatal day, Madame Elisabeth again ad-
dressed a reassuring letter to one of her friends,
Madame de Bombelles. Curiously enough she dated
this letter August 10, no doubt by accident, and
when Madame de Bombelles received it, she read
these lines, which seem like the irony of fate : " This
day of the 10th, which was to have been so exciting,
so terrible, is as calm as possible ; the Assembly has
decreed neither deposition nor suspension."
XXVI.
THE PkOLOGUB to THE TENTH OF AUGUST.
THE first rumblings of the storm began. People
quarrelled and fought in the Palais Royal, the
caf^s, and the theatres. Half of the National Guard
sided with the court, and the other half with the peo-
ple. To seditious speeches were added songs full of
insults to the King and Queen. These songs, sold
on every corner, applauded in every tavern, and
repeated by the wives and children of the people,
propagated revolutionary fury. There was a con-
stant succession of gatherings, brawls, and riots.
The Assembly had declared the country in danger.
Rumors of every sort excited popular imagination.
It was said that priests who refused the oath were
in hiding at the Tuileries, which was, moreover, full
of arms and munitions. The Duke of Brunswick's
manifesto exasperated national sentiment. It was
read aloud in every street. The leaders neglected
nothing likely to excite the populace, and prepared
their last attack on the throne, their afterpiece of
June 20, with as much audacity as skill.
In order to subdue the court, it was necessary to
destroy its only remaining means of defence. To
267
268 THE DOWNFALL OF ROYALTY.
leave plenty of elbow-room for the riot, the Assem-
bly, on July 15, ordered the troops of the line to be
sent some thirty-five miles beyond Paris and kept
there. A singular means was devised for breaking
up the choice troops of the National Guard, who
were royalists. They were told that it was contrary
to equality for certain citizens to be more brilliantly
equipped than others ; that a bearskin cap humiliated
those who were entitled only to a felt one ; and that
there was a something aristocratic about the name of
grenadier which was really intolerable to a simple
fooi>soldier. The choice troops were dissolved in
consequence, and the grenadiers came to the Assem-
bly like good patriots to lay down their epaulettes
and bearskin caps and assume the red cap. On
July 30, the National Guard was reconstructed, by
taking in all the vagabonds and bandits that the
clubs could muster.
The famous federates of Marseilles, who were to
take such an active part in the coming insurrection,
arrived in Paris the same day. The Girondins, hav-
ing failed to obtain their camp of twenty thousand
men before Paris, had devised instead of it a reunion
of federate volunteers, summoned from every part of
France. The roads were at once thronged by future
rioters whom the Assembly allowed thirty cents a
day.
The Jacobins of Brest and Marseilles distinguished
themselves. Instead of a handful of volunteers they
sent two battalions. That of Marseilles, recruited by
PROLOGUE TO THE TENTH OF AUGUST. 269
Barbaroux, comprised five hundred men and two
pieces of artillery. Starting July 5, it entered Paris
July 30. Excited to fanaticism by the sun and the
declamations of the southern clubs, it had run over
France, been received under triumphal arches, and
chanted in a sort of frenzy the terrible stanzas of
Rouget de I'lsle's new hymn, the Marseillaise. It
was at this time that Blanc Gilli, deputy from the
Bouches du Rhone department to the Legislative
Assembly, wrote : " These pretended Marseillais are
the scum of the jails of Genoa, Piedmont, Sicily, and
of all Italy, Spain, the Archipelago, and Barbary. I
run across them every day." Rouget de I'lsle re-
ceived from his old mother, a royalist and Catholic
at heart, a letter in which she said: "What is this
revolutionary hymn which a horde of brigands are
singing as they pass through France, and in which
your name is mixed up ? " At Paris the accents of
that terrible melody sounded like strokes of the toc-
sin. The men who sang it filled the conservatives
with terror. They wore woollen cockades and in-
sulted as aristocrats those who wore silk ones.
There was no longer any dike to the torrent.
August 1, Louis XVI. nominated a cabinet composed
of loyal men : Joly was Minister of Justice ; Champion
de Villeneuve, of the Interior; Bigot de Sainte-Croix,
of Foreign Affairs; Du Bouchage, of the Marine;
Leroux de la Ville, of Public Taxes ; and D'Aban-
court, of War. But this ministry was to last only
ten days. Certain petitioners at the bar of the As-
270 THE DOWNFALL OF ROYALTY.
sembly asked for the deposition of the King in most
violent language. " This measure," says Barbaroux
in his Memoirs, "would have carried Philippe of
Orleans to the regency, and therefore his party vio-
lently clamored for it. His creditors, his hirelings,
and boon-companions, Marat and his Cordeliers, all
manner of swindlers and insolvent debtors, thronged
public places and incited to this deposition because
they were hungry for money and positions under a
regent who was their tool and their accomplice."
In vain did Louis XVI. display those sentiments
of paternal kindness which had hitherto availed him
so little. August 3, he sent a message to the Assem-
bly, in which he said : " I will uphold national inde-
pendence to my latest breath. Personal dangers are
nothing compared to public ones. Oh! what are
personal dangers to a King whom men are seeking to
deprive of his people's love ? This is the real plague-
spot in my heart. Perhaps the people will some day
know how dear their welfare is to me. How many
of my sorrows could be obliterated by the least evi-
dence of a return to right feeling ! "
How did they respond to this conciliatory lan-
guage? After it had been read. Potion, the mayor
of Paris, presented himself at the bar, and read an
address from the Council General of the Commune,
in which these words occur : " The chief of the exec-
utive power is the first link of the counter-revolution-
ary chain. . . . Through a lingering forbearance,
we would have desired the power to ask you for the
PROLOGUE TO THE TENTH OF AUGUST. 271
suspension of Louis XVI., but to this the Constitu-
tion is opposed. Louis XVI. incessantly inv^okes the
Constitution ; we invoke it in our turn, and ask you
for his deposition." The next day the municipality
distributed five thousand ball cartridges to the Mar-
seillais, while refusing any to the National Guards.
Nevertheless, the Girondins still hesitated. Gua-
det, Vergniaud, and Gensonn^ would have declared
themselves satisfied if the three ministers belonging
to their party had been reinstated, and on July 29
they secretly despatched a letter to the sovereign, by
Thierry, his valet-de-chambre, in which they said that,
" attached to the interests of the nation, they would
never separate them from those of the King except
in so far as he separated them himself." As to Bar-
baroux, like a true visionary, he dreamed of I know
not what rose-water insurrection. " They should not
have entered the apartments of the palace," he has '
said, "but merely blockaded them. Had this plan
been followed, the blood of Frenchmen and Swiss,
ignorant victims of court perfidy, would not have
J)een shed on the 10th of August, the republic would
have been founded without convulsions or massacres,
and we, corroded by popular gangrene, should not
have become the horror of all nations." The dema-
gogues were not at all certain of success. Robes-
pierre was to spend the 10th of August in the discreet
darkness of a cellar. Danton was prudently to await
the end of the combat before arming himself with a
big sabre and marching at the head of the Marseilles
272 THE DOWNFALL OF ROYALTY.
battalion as the hero of the day. Barbaroux says in
his Memoirs that on the 1st, 3d, and 7th of August,
Marat implored him to take him to Marseilles, and
that on the evening of the 9th he renewed this
prayer more urgently than ever, adding that he would
disguise himself as a jockey in order to get away.
In spite of their many weaknesses, the majority of
the Assembly were royalists and constitutionalists
still. The proof is that on August 8, in spite of the
violent menaces of the galleries, they decided by 406
against 244 votes, that there was no occasion to im-
peach Lafayette, so abhorred by the Jacobins. This
vote excited the wrath of the revolutionists to fury.
The conservative deputies were insulted, pursued,
and struck. Several of them barely escaped assassi-
nation. The sessions became stormier from day to
day. Not only were the large galleries of the As-
sembly overthronged by violent crowds, but the
courtyards, the approaches, and the corridors were
obstructed. Many sat or stood on the exterior entab-
latures of the high windows. The upper part of the
hall, where the Jacobins sat, received many strangers,
in spite of the often-reiterated opposition of the right.
Below this Mountain sat the members of the centre,
the Ventrus. There were not seats enough for them,
and they were crowded up in a ridiculous manner.
At the bottom of the hall, almost entirely deserted,
were the forty-four members of the right. They were
easily marked and counted by their future execution-
ers, who threatened them by voice and gesture. Every
PROLOGUE TO THE TENTH OF AUGUST. 273
day the petitioners who were admitted to the honors
of the session avoided the empty benches of the right
and seated themselves with the Mountain or the
centre, where they crowded still more the already
overcrowded deputies. The discussions were like
formidable tempests. " The effect produced by such
a spectacle," says Count de Vaublanc in his Memoirs,
" was still greater on those who entered the hall
during one of those terrible moments. I received
this impression several times myself, and it will never
be effaced from my mind ; I seek vainly for expres-
sions by which to describe it. Long afterwards, M.
de Caux, then Minister of War, said to me : 'You
made the profoundest impression on me which I ever
received in my life. I was young at the time. I
entered the galleries just as you were standing out
against the furious shouts of a part of the deputies
and the people in the galleries.' "
Meanwhile the end was approaching. Faithful
royalists still proposed schemes of flight to Louis
XVI. Bertrand de Molleville, who is so ill disposed
toward Madame de Stael, says concerning this :
" There was nobody, even to Madame de Stael, who,
either in the hope of being pardoned the injury her
intrigues had done the King, or else through her con-
tinual need of intrigue, had not invented some plan
of escape for His Majesty." Louis XVI. declined
them all. He would owe nothing to Lafayette. He
relied on the money he had given to Danton and
other demagogues, and hoped that the insurrection-
274 TBE DOWNFALL OF ROYALTY.
ary bands would be repulsed by the royalists of the
National Guard and the Swiss regiment. August
8th, in the evening, this fine regiment left its Cour-
bevoie barracks and arrived at the Tuileries at day-
break next morning. Under various idle pretexts it
had been deprived of its twelve pieces of artillery,
and also of thi"ee hundred men who had been given
the commission, true or false as may be, to watch over
the transportation of corn in Normandy. Only seven
hundred and fifty, officers and soldiers, remained ; but
all of them had said : " We will let ourselves be
killed to the last man rather than fail in honor or
betray the sanctity of our oaths." In company with
a handful of noblemen, these were to be the last de-
fenders of the throne. The fatal hour was approach-
ing. The section of the Cordeliers had decided that
if the Assembly had not pronounced the King's depo-
sition by the evening of August 9th, the drums should
beat the general alarm at the stroke of midnight, and
the insurrection march against the Tuileries. The
revolutionists were to carry out their plan, and the
Swiss to keep their word.
XXVII.
THE NIGHT OF AUGUST NINTH TO TENTH.
THE night was serene, the sky clear and sown with
stars. The calmness of nature contrasted with
the revolutionary passions that had been unchained.
On account of the heat, all the windows of the Tui-
leries had been left open, and from a distance the pal-
ace could be seen illuminated as if for a fete. It had
just struck midnight. The Revolution was executing
the programme of the Cordeliers' section. The tocsin
was sounding all over the city. Everybody named
the church whose bell he thought he recognized. The
people of the faubourgs were out of bed in their
houses. The drums mingled with the tocsin. The
revolutionists beat the general alarm, and the royal-
ists the call to arms.
No one was asleep at the Tuileries. There was no
further question of etiquette. The night reception
in the royal bedchamber was omitted for the first
time. Certain old servitors, faithful guardians of
tradition, in vain recalled that it was not permissible
to sit down in the sovereign's apartments. The cour-
tiers of the last hour seated themselves in armchairs,
on tables and consoles. Louis XVI. stayed sometimes
275
276 THE DOWNFALL OF ROYALTY.
in his chamber and sometimes in his Great Cabinet,
also called the Council Hall, where the assembled
ministers received constant tidings of what was hap-
pening without. The pious monarch had summoned
his confessor, Abbe Hubert, and shutting himself up
with this venerable priest, he besought from Heaven
the resignation and courage he needed to pass through
the final crisis. Madame Elisabeth showed the faith-
ful Madame Campan the carnelian pin which fastened
her fichu. These words, surrounding the stalk of a
lily, were engraved on it : " Forget ofiFences, pardon
injuries." — " I fear much," said the virtuous Princess,
"that this maxim has little influence over our ene-
mies, but it must be none the less dear to us." Louis
XVI. did not wear his padded vest. " I consented to
do so on the 14th of July," said he, "because on that
day I was merely going to a ceremony where an assas-
sin's dagger might be apprehended. But on a day
when my party may be forced to fight with the revo-
lutionists, I should think it cowardly to preserve my
life by such means."
Marie Antoinette was grave and tranquil in her
heroism. There was nothing affected about her,
nothing theatrical, neither passion, despair, nor the
spirit of revenge. According to the expressions of
Rcederer, who never left her, " she was a woman, a
mother, a wife in peril; she feared, she hoped, she
grieved, and she took heart again." She was also a
queen, and the daughter of Maria Theresa. Her
anxiety and grief were restrained or concealed by
THE NIGHT OF AUGUST NINTH TO TENTH. 277
her respect for lier rank, her dignity, and her name.
When she reappeared amidst the courtiers in the
Council Hall, after having dissolved in tears in
Thierry's room, the redness of her cheeks and eyes
had disappeared. The courtiers said to each other :
" What serenity ! what courage !"
The struggle might still seem doubtful. Some-
thing like two hundred noblemen who had spontane-
ously repaired to the King, seven hundred and fifty
Swiss, and nine hundred mounted gendarmes posted
at the approaches of the Tuileries were the last
resources of the commander-in-chief of the French
army. The Swiss, who through some one's extreme
imprudence had not cartridges enough, were posted
in the apartments, the chapel, and at the entry of
the Royal Court. Baron de Salis, as the oldest cap-
tain of the regiment, commanded at the stairways.
A reserve of three hundred men, under Captain
Durler, was stationed in the Swiss Court, before the
Pavilion of Marsan. The National Guards belong-
ing to the sections Petits-Peres and the Filles-Saint-
TTiomas showed themselves well disposed toward the
King ; but it was different with the other companies.
As to the mounted gendarmes, Louis XVI. could not
count on them, and before the riot ended they were
to join the insurgents in spite of all the efforts made
by their royalist officers. The artillerists of the
National Guard, charged with serving the cannons
placed in the courts and before the palace doors to
defend the entry, were to act in the same manner.
278 THE DOWNFALL OF EOTALTT.
Like the Swiss, the two hundred noblemen, martyrs
to the old French ideas of honor, had resolved to be
loyal unto death. With their silk coats and drawing-
room swords, they seemed as if they had come to a
f^te instead of a combat. The servants of the
chateau joined them. Some of them had pistols and
blunderbusses. Some, for lack of other weapons,
had taken the tongs from the chimneys. They jested
with each other over their accoutrements. No, no ;
there was nothing laughable in these champions of
misfortune. They represented the past, with its
ancient fidelity to the altar and the throne. A great
poet who had the spirit of divination, Heinrich
Heine, wrote on November 12, 1840, as if he foresaw
February 24, 1848 : " The middle classes will possibly
make less resistance than the aristocracy would do in
a similar case. Even in its most pitiable weakness,
its enervation by immorality and its degeneration
through flattery, the old nobility was still alive to
a certain point of honor unknown to our middle
classes, who have become prosperous by industry, but
who will perish by it also. Another 10th of August
is predicted for these middle classes ; but I doubt
whether the industrial Knights of the throne of July
will prove themselves as heroic as the powdered
marquises of the old regime who, in silk coats and
flimsy dress swords, opposed the people who invaded
the Tuileries." The greater part of these noblemen,
volunteers for the last conflict, were old men with
white hair. There were also children among them.
THE NIGHT OF AUGUST NINTH TO TENTH. 279
M. Mortimer-Ternaux, author of the Mistoire de la
Terreur^ has remarked : " Was not this a time to
exclaim with Racine : —
" ' See what avengers arm themselves for the quarrel?'
" Who could have told Louis XIV., when in the
midst of the splendors of his court he was present at
the performance of Athalie,, that the poet was predict-
ing, through the mouth of Joad, the fate reserved for
his great-grandson ? " The royalist National Guards
who were in the apartments considered the volunteer
noblemen as companions in arms. They shook hands
with each other amid cries of " Long live the King !
Long live the National Guard ! " But the troops
outside did not share these sentiments. Jealous of
the royalists assembled in the palace, they wanted to
have them sent out. A regimental commander hav-
ing come to make known this desire to Louis XVI.,
Marie Antoinette exclaimed : " Nothing can separate
us from these gentlemen ; they are our most faithful
friends. They will share the dangers of the National
Guard. They will obey us. Put them at the
cannon's mouth, and they will show you how men die
for their Kmg."
Meantime what had become of Potion, whose busi-
ness it was, as mayor, to defend the palace ? Sum-
moned to the Tuileries, he arrived there at eleven in
the evening. As Louis XVI. said to him : " It
seems there is a great deal of commotion ? " — " Yes,
sire," he replied, " the excitement is great." And he
280 THE DOWNFALL OF ROYALTY.
enlarged upon the measures he claimed that he had
taken, and his pretended haste to wait upon the
King. In going out, he came face to face with M.
de Mandat, who, as general-in-chief of the Na-
tional Guard, was in command of all military forces.
" Why," exclaimed he, " have the police refused
cartridges to the National Guard when they have
wasted them on the Marseillais ? My men have only
four charges apiece ; some of them have not one. No
matter; I answer for everything; my measures are
taken, providing I am authorized, by an order signed
by you, to repel force by force." Not daring to avow
his complicity with the riot, Petion signed the order
demanded. Then he made his escape under pretext
of inspecting the gardens, and fell amongst some roy-
alist National Guards, who reprimanded him severely.
He began to fear being kept at the Tuileries as a
hostage, to guarantee the palace against the attempts
of the populace, and went to the Assembly. It had
adjourned at ten o'clock the evening before, but on
account of the crisis had met again at two in the
morning. The Assembly knew the gravity of the
danger as well as the King did ; but through a ridic-
ulous and culpable point of honor, it affected not to
recognize it, and devoted to the reading of a colonial
report the moments it should have employed in
saving that Constitution it had sworn to maintain.
Petion merely put in an appearance in the Hall of
the Manage. But he took good care not to return to
the Tuileries. At half-past three in the morning the
THE NIGHT OF AUGUST NINTH TO TENTH. 281
rolling of a carriage was heard from the palace. It
was that of the mayor, going back empty. He had
not dared to get into it, and had only sent his coach-
man an order to return when he found himself in
safety at the mayoralty, whither he had made his
way on foot.
Meanwhile, some hundred unknown individuals,
who gathered at the H8tel-de-Ville, and surrepti-
tiously made their way into one of the halls, had
formed an insurrectionary Commune. On their own
authority they appointed commissaries of sections,
and dismissed the staff of the National Guard, who
were very much in their way ; hilt retained in office
Manuel as procurator and Potion as mayor. This new
municipality, whose very existence was unknown at
the palace, had just learned that Mandat, general-in-
chief of the National Guard, had a document in his
pocket by which Potion authorized him to oppose
force to force. It was necessary to get rid of this
document at any cost. The municipality sent Man-
dat an order to come to the HStel-de-Ville. He
knew nothing about the revolution that had just
taken place there. And yet he hesitated to obey.
A secret presentiment took possession of his soul.
Finally, at the instance of Rcederer, he decided,
towards five in the morning, to leave the Tuileries
and go to that H6tel-de-Ville, which was to be so
fatal to him. When he came before the municipality
he was surprised to see new faces.
He was accused of having intended to disperse " the
282 THE DOWNFALL OF EOTALTT.
innocent and patriotic column of the people,^ and
sentenced to be taken to the Abbey prison. It was a
sentence of death. Mandat. was massacred on the
steps of the H6tel-de-Ville. A pistol-shot brought
him down. Pikes and sabres finished him. His
body was thrown into the Seine. Such was the first
exploit of the new Commune. It preluded thus the
massacres of September. " Mandat's death," says
Count de Vaublanc in his Memoirs, "was, beyond
any doubt, the chief cause of the calamities of the
day. If he had attacked the rebels as soon as they
came near the palace, he could have dispersed them
with ease. They took a long time to form and set
off; and, being undecided and uneasy, they often
halted. No troop marching from a given point in
this immense city knew whether it was seconded by
the rebels from other quarters, and lost much time in
making sure." The second exploit of the Commune
was to confine Potion at the mayoralty under the
guard of six men. A voluntary captive, this accom-
plice of the insurrection rejoiced at a measure which
sheltered him from every danger. As M. Mortimer-
Ternaux has observed : " On this fatal night, when
the passion of the royalty was fulfilled. Potion
doubled the parts of Judas and Pontius Pilate. Like
Judas, he went at nightfall to give the kiss of peace
to Louis XVI. by assuring him of his loyalty ; like
the Roman governor, he proclaimed at daybreak the
impotence with which he had stricken himself, and
washed his hands of all that was to happen."
THE NIGHT OF AUGUST NINTH TO TENTH. 283
When the first fires of this fatal day were kindling
in the sky, Marie Antoinette experienced a profound
emotion. Looking with melancholy at the horizon
which began to lighten : " Sister," said she to
Madame Elisabeth, "come and see the sun rise."
It was the sun that was to illumine the death-
struggle of royalty. Sinister omen ! the sun was red
as blood.
XXVIII.
THE MORNING OF AUGUST TENTH.
THE fatal day began. It was five o'clock in the
morning. The Queen made her children rise,
lest the swords of the insurgents should surprise
them in their beds. The Dauphin, unaccustomed
to being called so early, stared with surprise at
the spectacle presented by the court and garden.
" Mamma," said he, " why should any one harm
papa ? He is so good ! " Then, turning to a little
girl who was his usual companion in his games, he
addressed her these words, which prove how well, in
spite of his age, he knew the peril he was in : " Here,
Josephine, take this lock of my hair, and promise to
wear it as long as I am in danger."
Led by their chief. Marshal de Mailly, an old man
of eighty-six, the two hundred noblemen, who had
assembled in the Galler}^ of Diana, passed in review
before the royal family with those of the National
Guards who were royalists. " Sire," exclaimed the
old marshal, bending his knee, " here are your faith-
ful nobles who have hastened to re-establish Your
Majesty on the throne of your ancestors." — "For
this ouce," responded Louis XVL, " I consent that
284
THE MORNING OF AUGUST TENTH. 285
my friends should defend me ; we will perish or save
ourselves together." The last defenders of the throne
shed tears of fidelity and tenderness. They kneeled
before Marie Antoinette, and entreated the honor of
kissing her hand. Never had the Queen appeared
more gracious and majestic. The National Guards,
enchanted, loaded their arms with transport. The
Queen seized the Dauphin in her arms and held him
above their heads like a livijig standard. The young
men shouted : " Long live the Kings of our fathers ! "
And the old men cried : " Long live the King of our
children ! "
At the gates of the Tuileries the tide was rising.
Vanguards of the insurrection, the Marseillais arrived
unhindered. The municipality had succeeded in
removing the cannons which were to have prevented
approach by way of the Pont-Neuf and the Pont-
Royal. Mandat was no longer there to issue orders.
Nothing impeded the march of the faubourgs.
And yet resistance might still have been possible.
It is Barbaroux, the fierce revolutionist himself, who
says so. " All the faults committed by the insurrec-
tion, the wretched arrangement of the attacking
party, the terror of some and the ignorance of others,
the forces at the palace, all made the victory of the
court certain, if the King had not left his post. If
he had shown himself on horseback, a large majority
of the people of Paris would have pronounced for
him." Napoleon, who was an eye-witness, had said
the night before to Pozzo di Borgo, that with two
286 THE DOWNFALL OF ROYALTY.
battalions of Swiss and some cavalry he would under-
take to give the rioters a lesson they would remember.
In the evening of August 10, he wrote to his brother
Joseph : " According to what I saw of the temper of
the crowd in the morning, if Louis XVI. had mounted
a horse, he would have gained the victory." Very
few of the insurgents were seriously determined on a
revolt. Most of them marched blindly, not knowing,
and not even asking, whither they went.
Westermann had been obliged to threaten San-
terre, and even to put his sword against his breast,
in order to induce him to march. A great number of
the people of the faubourgs, uneasy as to the result
of the enterprise, said that, considering the prepai-a-
tions made by the palace, it would be better to defer
the matter to another day. The unarmed crowd
followed through mere curiosity, and were ready to
take flight at the first discharge of musketry. Ac-
cording to Count de Vaublanc, the Swiss, if they had
been commanded by a good officer from four o'clock
in the morning, would have sufficed to disperse the
multitude as they came up, and possibly might have
won the day for the King without bloodshed. " Thus,
the best of princes rendered useless the courage of
his defenders, and to spare the blood of his enemies
accomplished the ruin of his friends. All his virtues
turned against him and brought him to his ruin."
M. de Vaublanc says again in his Memoirs : " At six
in the morning those who were in revolt had not yet
assembled. How much time had been lost, how
THE MORNING OF AUGUST TENTH. 287
much was still to be lost ! It was too evident that
no military judgment had presided over that strange
disposition of troops, so placed within and without
the palace as to be unable to give each other mutual
support ; a military man knows too well the value of
the briefest moments, he knows too well how quickly
victory can be decided by attacking the flank of a
multitude with a small number of brave men. If the
King had appointed one of the generals near him
absolute master of operations, no doubt this general
would have given the rebels no time to unite. . . .
Alas ! Louis XVI. had three times more courage
than was necessary to conquer, but he knew not how
to avail himself of it." Such also was the opinion of
M. Thiers, who, in his Histoire de la Revolution fran-
faise, says : " It must be repeated, the unfortunate
Prince feared nothing for himself. He had, in fact,
refused to wear a wadded vest, as he had done on
July 14, saying that on a day of combat he ought to
be as much exposed as the least of his servants.
Courage did not fail him then, and afterwards he
displayed a bravery that was noble and elevated
enough; but he lacked boldness to take the offensive.
... It is certain, as has been frequently said, that
if he had mounted a horse and charged at the head
of his troops, the insurrection would have been put
down."
Toward six o'clock the King went out on the bal-
cony. He was saluted with acclamations. Then he
went down the great staircase with the Queen to
288 THE DOWNFALL OF ROYALTY.
inspect the troops stationed in the courtyards. As
one of his gentlemen-of-the-chamber, Emmanuel Au-
bier, has remarked : " He had never made war himself
during his reign ; there had never been a war on the
continent; he was so unfortunate as to be wanting
in grace, even awkward, and to look thoughtful
rather than energetic, — a thing displeasing to French
soldiers." Instead of putting on a uniform and
mounting a horse, he wore a purple coat, of the shade
used as mourning for kings, on this fatal day when he
was to wear mourning for the monarchy. Unspurred,
unbooted, shod as if for a drawing-room, with white
silk stockings, his hat under his arm, his hair out of
curl and badly powdered, there was nothing martial,
nothing royal about him. At this hour, when what
was needed was the attitude and the fire of a Henry
IV., he looked like an honest country gentleman talk-
ing with his farmers. The first condition of inspir-
ing confidence is to possess it. Louis XVI.'s aspect
was much more that of a victim than a sovereign.
The cries of " Long live the King ! " which would
have been enthusiastic for a prince ready to battle for
his rights and reconquer his realm at the sword's
point, were few and sad. After having inspected the
troops in the courts, Louis XVL decided to inspect
those in the garden also. The Queen returned to
the palace, and he continued his rounds.
The loyal National Guards, comprising the compa-
nies of the Petits-Peres and the Filles-Saint- Thomas^
were drawn up on the terrace between the palace and
THE MORNING OF AUGUST TENTH. 289
the garden. They received the King sympathetically
and advised him to continue his inspection as far as
the Place Louis XV. At this moment a battalion of
the National Guards from the Saint-Marceau section
defiled before him, uttering shouts of hatred and
fury. Louis XVI. was undisturbed by this. He re-
mained calm, and when this battalion had got into
position, he tranquilly reviewed it. Then he walked
on again and crossed the entire garden. The battalion
of the Croix-Rouge^ which was on the terrace beside
the water, cried from a distance : " Down with the
veto ! Down with the traitor ! " On the terrace of
the Feuillants, at the other side, there was an equally
violent crowd. The King, calm as ever, went on to
the swing-bridge by which the Tuileries was entered
from Place Louis XV. He was well enough received
by the troops stationed there. But his return to the
palace could not but be difficult. The National
Guards of the Croix-Rouge had broken rank and
come down from the terrace beside the river to the
garden, and pressed around the King with menacing
shouts. The unfortunate monarch could only re-
enter the palace where he had but a few moments
more to stay, by calling to his aid a double row of
faithful grenadiers. The ministers who were at the
windows became alarmed. One of them, M. de
Bouchage, cried : " Great God ! it is the King they
are hooting ! What the devil are they doing down
there? Quick; we must go after him ! " And he has-
tened to descend into the garden with his colleague,
290 THE DOWNFALL OF ROYALTY.
Bigot de Sainte-Croix, to meet his master. The Queen,
who beheld the sight, shed tears. The two ministers
brought back Louis XVI. He came in out of breath,
and fatigued by the heat and the exercise he had
taken, but otherwise seeming very little moved.
" All is lost," said the Queen. " This review has
done more harm than good."
From this moment bad tidings succeeded each
other without interruption. They were apprised of
the formation of the new Commune, Mandat's mur-
der, the march of the faubourgs, and the arrival of
the first detachments of rioters. The Marseillais
debouched into the Carrousel, and sent an envoy to
demand that the gate of the Royal Court should be
opened. As it remained closed, they knocked on it
with repeated blows, while the National Guards said :
" We will not fire on our brothers."
Would resistance have been possible even at this
moment ; that is to say, between seven and eight in
the morning ? M. de Vaublanc thought so. " I do
not know," he writes, " to what section the first band
that arrived on the Carrousel belonged ; it was in dis-
order and badly armed. If the King had marched
towards this troop at the head of a battalion of the
National Guard, if he had pronounced these words :
' I am your King ; I order you to lay down your arms,'
the success would have been decided. The flight of
a single battalion of rebels would have sufficed to
frighten and disperse the others, even before they
were formed into line."
THE MORNING OF AUGUST TENTH. 291
It was at this time that Roederer, instead of coun-
selling resistance, implored Louis XVI. to seek shel-
ter in the Assembly for the royal family. " Sire," he
said in an urgent tone, " Your Majesty has not five
minutes to lose ; there is no safety for you except in
the National Assembly. In the opinion of the depart-
ment, it is necessary to go there without delay. There
are not men enough in the courtyards to defend the
palace ; nor are they perfectly well-disposed. On the
mere recommendation to be on the defensive, the can-
noneers have already unloaded their cannons." —
" But," said the King, " I did not see many persons
on the Carrousel." — " Sire," returned Roederer,
"there are a dozen pieces of artillery, and an immense
crowd is arriving from the faubourgs." The idea of
a flight before the insurrection revolted the Queen's
pride. "What are you saying, Sir?" cried she; "you
are proposing that we should seek shelter with our
most cruel persecutors! Never! never! I will be
nailed to these walls before I consent to leave them.
Sir, we have troops." — " Madame, all Paris is on the
march. Resistance is impossible. Will you cause
the massacre of the King, your children, and your
servants ? "
Louis XVI. still hesitating, Roederer vehemently
insisted. " Sire," said he, " time presses ; this is no
longer an entreaty nor even a counsel we take the
liberty of offering you ; there is only one thing left
for us to do now, and we ask your permission to take
you away." The King looked fixedly at his interloc-
292 THE DOWNFALL OF EOYALTT.
utor for several seconds ; then, turning to the Queen,
he said : " Let us go," and rose to his feet. Madame
Elisabeth said : " Monsieur Rcederer, do you answer
for the King's life ? " — " Yes, Madame, with my
own," responded the communal attorney. Then,
turning to the King : " Sire," said he, " I ask Your
Majesty not to take any of your court with you, but
to have no cortege but the department and no escort
except the National Guard." — " Yes," replied the
King, " there is nothing but that to say." The Min-
ister of Justice exclaimed : " The ministers will follow
the King." — " Yes, they have a place in the Assem-
bly." — " And Madame de Tourzel, my children's
governess ? " said the Queen. — " Yes, Madame ; she
will accompany you."
Roederer then left the King's chamber, where this
conversation had taken place, and said in a loud voice
to the persons crowding together in the Council Hall :
" The King and his family are going to the Assembly
without other attendants than the department, the
ministers, and a guard." Then he asked : " Is the
officer who commands the guard here ? " This offi-
cer presenting himself, he said to him : " You must
bring forward a double file of National Guards to
accompany the King. The King desires it." The
officer replied: "It shall be done." Louis XVI. came
out of his chamber with his family. He waited sev-
eral minutes in the hall until the guard should arrive,
and, going around the circle composed of some forty
or fifty persons belonging to his court : " Come, gen-
THE MORNING OF AUGUST TENTH. 293
tlemen," said he, " there is nothing more to do here."
The Queen, turning to Madame Campan, said : " Wait
in my apartment ; I will rejoin you or else send word
to go I don't know where." Marie Antoinette took
no one with her except the Princess de Lamballe and
Madame de Tourzel. The Princess de Tarente and
Madame de la Roche- Aymon, afiQicted at the thought
of being left at the Tuileries, went down with all the
other ladies to the Queen's apartments on the ground-
floor.
La Chesnaye, who had succeeded to the command
of the National Guard in consequence of Mandat's
death, put himself at the head of the escort. This
was formed of detachments from the most loyal bat-
talions, the Petits-Peres, the Butte des MouUns, and
the FiUes-iSaint- Thomas, re-enforced by about two
hundred Swiss, commanded by the colonel of the
regiment, Marquis de Maillardoz, and the major,
Baron de Bachmann. The cortege reached the great
staircase by way of the Council Hall, the Royal
Bedchamber, the (Eil-de-Bceuf, the Hall of the
Guards, and the Hall of the Hundred Swiss. As
he was passing through the CEil-de-Boeuf, Louis XVI.
took the hat of the National Guard on his right,
and replaced it by his own, which was adorned
with white feathers. The guard, surprised, removed
the King's hat from his head and carried it under his
arm.
When Louis XVI. arrived at the foot of the stairs
in the Pavilion of the Horloge, his thoughts recurred
294 THE DOWNFALL OF ROYALTY.
to the faithful adherents who had so uselessly devoted
themselves to his defence, and whom he was leaving
at the Tuileries without watchword or direction.
"What is going to become of all those who have
stayed up stairs? " said he. — " Sire," replied Roederer,
" it seemed to me that they were all in colored coats.
Those who have swords need only lay them off, follow
you, and go out through the garden." — " That is
true," returned Louis XVI. In the vestibule, a little
further on, as he was about to quit the fatal palace
which fate had condemned him never to re-enter, he
had a last moment of scruple and hesitation. He
said again: "But after all, there are not many people
on the Carrousel."
" True, Sire," replied Rcederer ; " but the faubourgs
will soon arrive, and all the sections are armed, and
have assembled at the municipality ; besides, there
are neither men enough here, nor are they determined
enough to resist the actual gathering on the Carrousel,
which has twelve pieces of artillery."
The die is cast; Louis XVI. abandons the Tuileries.
Respect alone restrains the grief and indignation that
move the Swiss soldiers and the noblemen whose
weapons and whose blood have been refused. They
looked down from the windows at the cortege, or
better, the funeral procession of royalty. It was
about seven o'clock in the morning. The escort was
drawn up in two lines. The members of the de-
partment formed a circle around the royal family.
Roederer walked first. Then came the King, with
THE MORNING OF AUGUST TENTH. 295
Bigot de Sainte-Croix, Minister of Foreign Affairs,
at his side; the Queen followed, giving her left arm
to M. du Bouchage, Minister of Marine, and her
right hand to the Dauphin, who held Madame de
Tourzel with the other; then Madame Royale and
Madame Elisabeth, with De Joly, Minister of Jus-
tice; the Minister of War, D'Abancourt, leading the
Princess de Lamballe. The Ministers of the Inte-
rior and of Taxes, Champion de Villeneuve and Le
Roux de la Ville, closed the procession. The air
was pure and the morning radiant. The sun lighted
up the garden, the marble sculpture, and the sheets
of water. Birds sang under the trees, and nature
smiled on this day of mourning as if it were a
festival.
Looking at the populace, Madame Elisabeth said:
"All those people have gone astray; I should like
them to be converted ; I should not like them to be
punished.^' Tears stood in the eyes of the little
Madame Royale. The Princess de Lamballe said
mournfully: "We shall never return to the Tui-
leries ! " The Prince de Poix, the Duke de Choiseul,
Counts d'Haussonville, de Viom^nil, de Hervilly, and
de Pont-l'Abb^, the Marquis de Briges, Chevalier de
Fleurieu, Viscount de Saint-Priest, the Marquis de
Nantouillet, MM. de Fresnes and de Salaignac, the
King's equerries, and Saint-Pardoux, the equerry of
Madame Elisabeth, followed the sad procession.
They passed through the grand alley unobstructed
as far as the parterres, then turned to the right,
296 THE DOWNFALL OF ROYALTY.
toward the alley of the chestnut trees. There a halt
of some minutes occurred, in order to give time for
warning the Assembly. Louis XVI. looked down
at a heap of dead leaves which had been swept up
by the gardeners after a storm the night before.
"There are a good many leaves," said the King;
"they are falling early this year." It was only a
few days before that Manuel had written in a jour-
nal that the King would not last until the falling
of the leaves. Perhaps Louis XVI. remembered the
prophecy of the revolutionist; the Dauphin, with
the carelessness belonging to his age, amused himself
by kicking about the dead leaves, the leaves that
had fallen as his father's crown was falling at this
moment.
Before the royal family could enter the Assembly
chamber, it was necessary that the step the King had
taken should be announced to the deputies. The
president of the department undertook this commis-
sion. A deputation of twenty-four members was at
once sent to meet Louis XVI. They found him in
the large alley at the foot of the terrace of the Feuil-
lants, a few steps from the staircase leading up to
it, and which goes as far as the lobby through which
one enters the hall occupied by the National Assem-
bly. " Sire," said the leader of the deputation, " the
Assembly, eager to contribute to your safety, ofifers
to you and your family an asylum in its midst."
During this time, the terrace and the staircase had
become thronged by a furious crowd. A man carry-
THE MORNING OF AUGUST TENTH. 297
ing a long pole cried out in rage: '-No, no; they
shall not enter the Assembly. They are the cause of
all our troubles. This must be ended. Down with
them ! " Roederer, standing on the fourth step of the
staircase, cried : " Citizens, I demand silence in the
name of the law. You seem disposed to prevent
the King and his family from entering the National
Assembly ; you are not justified in opposing it. The
King has a place there in virtue of the Constitution ;
and though his family has none legally, they have
just been authorized by a decree to go there. Here
are the deputies sent to meet the King ; they will
attest the existence of this decree." The deputies
confirmed his words. Nevertheless, the crowd still
hesitated to leave the way clear. The man with the
pole kept on brandishing it, and crying : " Down with
them ! down with them ! " Roederer, going on to the
terrace, snatched the pole and flung it into the gar-
den. The crowd was so compact that in the midst
of the squabble some one stole the Queen's watch and
her purse. A man with a sinister face approached
the Dauphin, took him from Marie Antoinette, and
lifted him in his arms. The Queen uttered a cry.
" Do not be frightened," said the man ; " I will do
him no harm." Another person said to Louis XVI. :
" Sire, we are honest men ; but we are not willing to
be betrayed any longer. Be a good citizen, and don't
forget to drive away your shavelings and your wife."
Insults and threats resounded fi'om all sides. Finally,
after an actual struggle, the royal family succeeded
298 THE DOWNFALL OF ROYALTY.
in opening a passage. They made their way with
difficulty through the narrow lobby, choked with
people, penetrated the crowd, and entered the session
chamber. It was there that royalty, humiliated and
overcome, was to lie at the point of death under the
eyes of its implacable enemies.
XXIX.
THE BOX OF THE LOGOGEAPH.
THE royal family has just entered the session
chamber. It will find there not an asylum,
but the vestibule of the prison and the scaffold.
The man who had taken the Dauphin from the
Queen's arms at the door of the Assembly set him
down on the secretary's desk with an air of triumph,
and the young Prince was greeted with applause.
Marie Antoinette advanced with dignity. Accord-
ing to Vaublanc's expression, she would not have
had a different bearing or a more august serenity on
a day of royal pomp. Louis XVI. took a place near
the president. The Queen, her daughter, Madame
Elisabeth, and Madame de Tourzel sat down on the
ministerial benches. As soon as the Dauphin was
left to himself, he sprang towards his mother. A
voice cried : " Take him to the King ! The Austrian
woman is unworthy of the people's confidence."
An usher attempted to obey this injunction. How-
ever, the child began to cry, people were affected,
and he was allowed to remain with the Queen. At
this moment some armed noblemen made their
appearance at the extremity of the hall. "You
299
300 THE DOWNFALL OF TtOYALTY.
compromise the King's safety ! " exclaimed some one,
and the nobles retired.
Order was restored. Louis XVI. began to speak.
" I came here," said he, " to prevent a great crime,
and I think that I could be nowhere more secure
than amidst the representatives of the nation."
Alas ! the crime will not be prevented, but only
adjourned. Vergniaud occupied the president's chair.
" Sire," he replied, " you may count on the firmness
of the National Assembly. It knows its duties ; its
members have sworn to die in defending the rights
of the people and the constituted authorities."
So they still called Louis XVI. Sire ; presently
they will call him nothing but Louis Capet. They
allow him to take an armchair near the president ;
but in a few minutes they will find this place too
good for him. And it is the voice of this very
Vergniaud who, a few hours from now, will pro-
nounce his deposition, and five months later his
sentence of death.
Hardly had the unhappy King sat down when
Chabot, the unfrocked Capuchin, claimed that a
clause of the Constitution forbade the Assembly to
deliberate in presence of the sovereign. Under this
pretext his place was changed, and Louis XVI. with
all his family was shut up in the reporters' gallery,
sometimes called the box of the Logograph. This
miserable hole, about six feet high by twelve wide,
was on a level with the last ranks of the Assembly,
behind the president's chair and the seats of the
THE BOX OF THE LOGOGBAPH. 301
secretaries. It was ordinarily set apart for the
editors, or rather for the stenographers of a great
newspaper which reported the proceedings, and
which was called the Journal logographique^ or the
Log otachy graphs^ usually abbreviated into the Logo-
graphe. Louis XVI. seated himself in the front of
the box, Marie Antoinette half-concealed herself in
a corner, where she sought a little shelter against
so many humiliations. Her children and their
governess took places on a bench with Madame
Elisabeth and the Princess de Lamballe. Several
noblemen, the latest courtiers of misfortune, stood
up behind them.
Roederer, who was at the bar, then made a report
in the name of the municipal department, in which
he explained all that had taken place. He declared
that he had said to the soldiers and National Guard
detailed for the defence of the Tuileries: "We do
not ask you to shed the blood of your brethren nor
to attack your fellow-citizens ; your cannons are
there for your defence, not for an attack; but I
require this defence in the name of the law, in the
name of the Constitution. The law authorizes you,
when violence is used against you, to repress it
vigorously. . . . Once more, you are not to be assail-
ants, but to act on the defensive only."
Rcederer added that the cannoneers, instead of
complying with his urgent exhortations, gave no
response save that of unloading their pieces before
him. After having explained how greatly the de-
302 THE DOWNI'ALL OF ROTALTT.
fence was disorganized, he thus ended his report :
" We felt ourselves no longer in a position to protect
the charge confided to us ; this charge was the King;
the King is a man; this man is a father. The chil-
dren ask us to assure the existence of the father;
the law asks us to assure the existence of the
King of France; humanity asks of us the exist-
ence of the man. No longer able to defend this
charge, no other idea presented itself than that of
entreating the King to come with his family to the
National Assembly. . . . We have nothing to add
to what I have just said, except that, our force being
paralyzed, and no longer in existence, we can have
none but that which it shall please the National
Assembly to communicate. We are ready to die in
the execution of the orders it may give us. We ask,
while awaiting them, to remain near it, being useless
everywhere else." The Assembly, not then suspect-
ing that it would so soon depose Louis XVI.,
applauded without contradiction from the galleries.
The president said to Roederer : " The Assembly has
listened to your account with the greatest interest j
it invites you to be present at the session."
The advice given by Rcsderer to the King has
been greatly blamed. The ev6nt has seriously in-
fluenced the judgment since passed upon it. If
Louis XVI. had received the support he had a right
to count on from the representatives, things would
have appeared in quite another light. Count de
Vaublanc, in his Memoirs, has rendered full justice
THE BOX OF THE LOGOGBAPH. 303
to the loyal intentions of the municipal attorney.
" The advice he gave has been accounted a crime,"
says M. de Vaublanc ; " I think it is an unjust
reproach. Until then he had done all that lay in his
power to contribute to the defence of the palace.
He must have seen clearly that as the King would
not defend himself, he could no longer be defended.
If the rebels had been attacked, neither M. Roederer
nor any one else would have proposed going to the
Assembly ; but since they were on the defensive, and
without any recognized leader, the magistrate might
doubtless have been struck with a single thought:
The King and his family are about to be massacred.
The King put an end to all irresolution in saying
these words : ' There is nothing more to do here.' "
At first, Louis XVI. seemed not to repent of the
step he had been obliged to take. Even in that
wretched hole, the Logograph box, his face at first
was calm and even confident. As the shouting had
increased outside, Vergniaud ordered the removal of
the iron grating separating this box from the hall, so
that in case the populace made an irruption into the
lobbies, the King could take refuge in the midst of
the deputies. In default of workmen and tools, the
deputies nearest at hand, the Duke de Choiseul,
Prince de Poix, and the ministers, undertook to tear
away the grating, and Louis XVI. himself, accus-
tomed to the rough work of a locksmith, joined his
efforts to theirs. The fastenings having been broken
in this manner, the unfortunate sovereign seemed not
304 THE DOWNFALL OF ROYALTY.
to doubt the sentiments of the National Assembly.
He pointed out the most remarkable deputies to the
Dauphin, chatted with several among them, and
looked on at the session like a mere spectator in a
box at the theatre.
The royal family had been nearly two hours at the
Assembly when all of a sudden a frightful discharge
of musketry and artillery was heard. The deputies
of the left grew pale with fear and anger, thinking
themselves betrayed. Casting glances of uneasiness
and wrath at the feeble monarch, they accused him of
having ordered a massacre, and said that all was lost.
An officer of the National Guard rushed in, crying :
" We are pursued, we are overpowered ! " The
galleries, affrighted, imagined that the Swiss would
arrive at any moment. Excitement was at its height.
Sinister, imposing, dreadful moment ! Solemn hour,
when the monarchy, amidst a frightful tempest, was
like a venerable oak which lightning has just stricken;
when terror, wrath, and pity disputed the possession
of men's souls, and when the King, already captive,
was present like Charles V. at his own funeral. Marie
Antoinette had started. At the sound of the cannon
her cheeks kindled and her eyes blazed. A vague
hope animated her. Perhaps, she said within herself,
the monarchy is at last to be avenged ; perhaps the
Swiss are about to give the insurrection a lesson it
will remember ; perhaps Louis XVI. will re-enter in
triumph the palace of his forefathers. The daughter
of Csesars prayed God in silence, and supplicated
THE BOX OF THE LOGOGBAPH. 305
Him to grant victory to the defenders of the
throne.
Chimeras ! vain hopes ! Louis XVI. has no longer
but one idea : to cast off all responsibility for events.
He mustered up, so to say, the little authority he had
yet remaining, to write hastily, in pencil, the last
order he was to sign: the order to stop firing. He
flattered himself that the prohibition to shoot would
justify him completely in the sight of the National
Assembly, and induce them to treat him with more
consideration. But he asked himself anxiously who
would be bold enough to carry his order as far as the
palace. Would not so perilous a mission intimidate
even the most heroic? M. d'Hervilly, who was at
this moment in the box of the Logograph, offered
himself. As the King and Queen at first refused his
offer, and pointed out all the dangers of such an
errand: "I beg Their Majesties," cried he, "not to
think of my danger ; my duty is to brave everything
in their service ; my place is in the midst of the firing,
and if I were afraid of it I should be unworthy of my
uniform." These words determined Louis XVI. to
give M. d'Hervilly the order signed by his own hand;
the valiant nobleman, bearing this order which was
to have such disastrous consequences for the defenders
of the palace, went hastily out of the Assembly hall
and made his way to the Tuileries through a rain of
balls and canister.
XXX.
THE COMBAT.
WHAT had taken place at the Tuileries after
the departure of the royal family for the
Assembly? At the very moment when they aban-
doned this palace which they were never to see again,
the Marseillais, the vanguard of the insurrection,
were pounding at the gate of the principal courtyard,
furious because it was not opened. A few minutes
later, the column of the Faubourg Saint- Antoine, after
passing through the rue Saint-Honor^, debouched on
the Carrousel. It was under command of the Pole,
Lazouski, and Westermann, who directed it toward
the gate of the Royal Court. As the Marseillais had
not yet succeeded in forcing this, Westermann had it
broken open. The cannoneers, whose business it was
to defend the palace, at once declared on the side of
the riot and turned their pieces against the Tuileries.
With the exception of the domestics there were now
in the palace only the seven hundred and fifty Swiss,
about a hundred National Guards, and a few nobles.
The sole instructions the Swiss received came from old
Marshal de Mailly : " Do not let yourselves be taken."
Louis XVI. had said absolutely nothing on going
306
THE COMBAT. 307
away, and his departure discouraged his most faith-
ful adherents. Add to this that the Swiss had not
enough cartridges. What was to be the fate of this
fine regiment, this corps d^Slite, which everywhere
and always had set the example of discipline and
military honor; which ever since the Revolution
began had haughtily repulsed every attempt to tam-
per with it; and whose red uniforms alone struck
terror into the populace? These brave soldiers
guarded respectfully the traditions of their ancestors
who, at the famous retreat of Meaux, had saved
Charles IX. " But for my good friends the Swiss,"
said that prince, " my life and liberty would have
been in a bad way." What the Swiss of the six-
teenth century had done for one King of France, the
Swiss of the eighteenth century would have done for
his successor. They would have saved Louis XVI.
if he would have let himself be saved.
A major-general who had remained at the Tuileries,
judging that it was impossible to defend the courts
with so few soldiers, cried : " Gentlemen, retire to
the palace ! " " They had to leave six cannon in the
power of the enemy and to abandon the courts. It
should have been foreseen that it would be necessary
to retake these under penalty of being burned in the
palace ; the common soldiers said so loudly. Mean-
while they obeyed, and were disposed as well as time
and the localities permitted. The stairs and win-
dows were lined with soldiers." (Account of Colonel
Pfyffer d'Altishoffen, published at Lucerne in 1819.)
308 THE DOWNFALL OF ROYALTY.
One post occupied the chapel, and another the ves-
tibule and grand staircase. There were Swiss also at
the windows looking into the courts. " Down with the
Swiss !" cried the Marseillais. "Down! down! Sur-
render ! " However, the struggle had not yet begun.
Nearly fifteen minutes elapsed between the invasion
of the Royal Court and the first shot. The Mar-
seillais brandished their pikes and guns, but they
were not confident, for at first they dared not cross
the court more than half-way. The Swiss and
National Guards who were at the windows made
gestures to induce the populace to quiet down and
go away. The throng of insurgents grew greater
every minute. They had just got their cannon into
battery against the Tuileries. What the Swiss spe-
cially intended was to defend the grand staircase, so
as to prevent the apartments on the first floor from
being invaded. This staircase, afterwards destroyed,
was in the middle of the vestibule of the Horloge
Pavilion. The chapel, whose site was afterwards
changed, was on the level of the first landing ; and
from this landing, two symmetrical flights, at right
angles with the first, led to the Hall of the Hundred
Swiss (the future Hall of the Marshals). Wester-
mann, bolder than the other insurgents, had advanced
as far as the vestibule with several Marseillais. He
began to parley with the soldiers, trying to set them
against their officers and induce them to lay down
their arms. Sergeant Blazer answered Westermann :
" We are Swiss, and the Swiss only lay down their
weapons with their lives."
THE COMBAT. 309
The officers caused a barricade of pieces of wood
to be raised on the first landing at the head of the
stairs, to prevent new deputations from coming to
demoralize their men. The Marseillais attempted to
take it by main force. Some of them were armed with
halberds terminating in hooks. These they thrust
below the barricade, trying to catch the men defend-
ing it. They seized an adjutant in this way and
disarmed him. At the foot of the stairs " they seized
the first Swiss sentry and afterwards five others.
They laid hold of them with hooked pikes which
they thrust into their coats and drew them forwards,
disarming them at once of their sabres, guns, and
cartridge-boxes, amidst shouts of laughter. Encour-
aged by the success of this forlorn hope, the whole
crowd pressed towards the foot of the stairs and there
massacred the five Swiss already taken and disarmed."
(M. Peltier's Relation.) Then a pistol-shot was
heard. From which side did it come ? Was it the
Marseillais who provoked the combat ? Was it the
Swiss who sought to avenge their comrades, the sen-
tries? Whoever it was, this pistol-shot was the
signal for the fight, which began about half-past ten
in the morning.
At first the Swiss had the advantage. Every shot
they fired from the windows told. Among the people
crowding the courtyards were many who had not
come to fight, but through mere curiosity. Pale with
fright, they fled toward the Carrousel through the
gate of the Royal Court, which was strewn in an
810 THE DOWNFALL OF ROYALTY.
instant with guns, pikes, and cartridge-boxes. Some
of the insurgents fell flat on their faces and counter-
feited death, rising occasionally and gliding along the
walls to gain the sentry-boxes of the mounted senti-
nels as best they could. Even the majority of the
cannoneers deserted their pieces and ran like the rest.
The courts were cleared in an instant. Two Swiss
officers, MM. de Durler and de Pfyffer, instantly
made a sortie at the head of one hundred and twenty
soldiers, took four cannon, and found themselves
once more masters of the door of the Royal Court.
A detachment of sixty soldiers formed themselves
into a hollow square before this door and kept up a
rolling fire on the rioters remaining on the Carrousel
until the place was completely swept. At the same
time, on the side of the garden, another detachment
of Swiss, under Count de Salis, seized three cannon
and brought them to the palace gate. Napoleon,
who witnessed the combat from a distance, says:
"The Swiss handled their artUlery with vigor; in
ten minutes the Marseillais were chased as far as the
rue de I'Echelle, and never came back until the Swiss
were withdrawn by the King's order."
It was now, in fact, that M. d'Hervilly arrived,
hatless and unarmed, through the fusillade of grape.
They wanted to show him the dispositions they had
just made on the garden side. " There is no ques-
tion of that," said he ; " you must go to the Assem-
bly; it is the King's order." The unfortunate
soldiers flattered themselves that they might still
th:e combat. 311
be of use. " Yes, brave Swiss," cried Baron de
Viomesnil, "go and find the King. Your ancestors
did so more than once." In spite of their chagrin
at abandoning the field of which they they had just
become masters, they obeyed. Their only thought
was to repair to that Assembly where a last humilia-
tion awaited them. The officers had the drums beat
the call to arms, and, in spite of the rain of balls
from every side, they succeeded in marshalling the
soldiers as if for a dress parade in front of the
palace, opposite the garden. The signal for depart-
ure was given. An unforeseen peril was reserved for
these heroes. The battalions of the National Guard,
stationed at the door of the Pont Royal, at that of
the Manage court, and the beginning of the terrace
of the Feuillants, had stood still, with their weapons
grounded, since the affray began. But hardly had
the Swiss entered the grand alley than these bat-
talions, neutral until now, detailed a number of
individuals who hid behind the trees, and fired, with
their muzzles almost touching the troops. On reach-
ing the middle of the alley, the Swiss, who hardly
deigned to return this fire, divided into two columns.
The first, turning to the right under the trees, went
towards the staircase leading to the Assembly from
the terrace of the Feuillants. The second, which fol-
lowed at a short distance and acted as a rearguard,
went on as far as the Place Louis XV., where it
found the mounted gendarmes. If this body of cav-
alry had done its duty, it would have united with the
312 THE DOWNFALL OF ROYALTY.
Swiss. But, far from that, it declared for the insur-
rection, and sahred them. It is said that the officers
and soldiers killed in this retreat across the garden
were interred at the foot of the famous chestnut
whose exceptional forwardness has earned the sur-
name of the tree of March 20. Thus the Bonapartist
tree of popular tradition owes its astonishing strength
of vegetation solely to the human compost furnished
by the corpses of the last defenders of royalty.
The first column, that which was on its way to the
Assembly, presented itself resolutely in front of the
terrace of the Feuillants, which was full of people.
These took flight, and the Swiss entered the corri-
dors of the Assembly. Carried away by his zeal, one
of their officers, Baron de Salis, entered the hall with
his naked sword in his hand. The left uttered a cry
of affright. A deputy went out to order the com-
mander. Baron de Durler, to make his troop lay
down their arms. M. de Durler, having refused, he
was conducted to the King. " Sire," said he, with
sorrowful indignation, "they want me to lay down
arms." Louis XVI. responded: "Put them in the
hands of the National Guard ; I am not willing that
brave men like you should perish." To surrender
arms ! Did Louis XVI. fully comprehend that for
soldiers like these such an outrage was a hundred
times worse than death? The King's words were
like a thunderbolt to them. They wept with rage.
"But," said they, "even if we have no more car-
tridges, we can still defend ourselves with our bayo-
THE COMBAT. 313
nets ! " Such devotion, such courage, such discipline,
such heroism to end like this ! And yet the unfor-
tunate Swiss, though grieved to the heart, resigned
themselves to the last sacrifice their master required
from their fidelity, laid down their arms, and were
imprisoned in the ancient church of the Feuillants,
to the number of about two hundred and fifty. It
was all that remained of this magnificent regiment.
The others had been killed in the garden or had
their throats cut in the palace, and the greater part
of the survivors were to be assassinated in the massa-
cres of September.
" Thus ended the French King's regiment of Swiss
Guards, like one of those sturdy oaks whose pro-
longed existence has affronted so many storms, and
which nothing but an earthquake can uproot. It
fell the very day on which the ancient French mon-
archy also fell. It counted more than a century and
a half of faithful services rendered to France. To
destroy this worthy corps a combination of unfortu-
nate events had been required ; it had been necessary
to deprive the Swiss of their artillery, their ammu-
nition, their staff, and the presence of the King ; to
enfeeble them five days before the combat by send-
ing away a detachment of three hundred men; to
forbid the two hundred men who accompanied the
King to the Assembly to fire a shot ; to render use-
less the wise dispositions of MM. de Maillardoz and
de Bachmann by an ill-advised order at the moment
of the attack ; and to have M. d'Hervilly come at
314 THE DOWNFALL OF ROYALTY.
the moment of victory to divide and enfeeble the
defence." (Relation of Colonel Pfyffer d'Altis-
hoffen.)
The Swiss republic has honored the memory of
these sons who died for a king. At the entrance of
Lucerne, in the side of a rock, a grotto has been
hollowed out, in which may be seen a colossal stone
lion, the work of Thorwaldsen, the famous Danish
sculptor. This lion, struck by a lance, and lying
down to die, holds tight within his claws the royal
escutcheon upon a shield adorned with fleurs-de-lis.
Underneath the lion are engraved the names of the
Swiss officers and soldiers who died between August
10 and September 2, 1792. Above it may be read
this inscription cut in the rock : —
HkLVETIORUM FiDEI AC ViKTUTI.
To the fidelity and courage of the Swiss.
Louis XVI. had to repent his weakness bitterly.
The wretched monarch had at last reached the bot-
tom of the abyss where the slippery descent of con-
cessions ends, and for having been willing to spare
the blood of a few criminals, he was to see that of
his most loyal and faithful adherents shed in torrents.
It is said that Napoleon, who witnessed the combat
from a distance, cried several times, in speaking
of Louis XVI. : " What, then, wretched man ! Have
you no cannon to sweep out this rabble ? " Behind
the people of the 10th of August, the man of Bru-
maire already appeared as a conqueror.
THE COMBAT. 316
Work away, then, insurgents ! This unknown
young man, this " straight-haired Corsican," hidden
in the crowd, will be the master of you all ! He will
crush the Kevolution, he will made himself all-power-
ful in that palace of the Tuileries where the riot is
lording it at this moment! And after him, the
brother of the King whom you insult to-day and will
kill to-morrow, the Count de Provence, that SmigrS
who is the object of your hatred, will triumphantly
enter the palace of his forefathers. And each of them
in his turn, the Corsican gentleman and the brother
of Louis XVI., will be received with the same trans-
ports in that fatal palace which is now red with the
blood of the Swiss ! How surprised these people
would be if they could foresee what the future has
in store for them I Among these frenzied demagogues,
these ultra-revolutionists, these dishevelled Marseil-
lais with lips blackened by powder, and jackets all
blood, how many will be the fanatical admirers and
soldiers of a Csesar I
XXXI.
THE EESULTS OF THE COMBAT.
THE results of the combat were, at the Assembly,
the decree of suspension, or, rather, the decree
of deposition ; at the Tuileries, devastation, massa-
cre, and conflagration. From the moment when he
ordered his last defenders to lay down their arms,
Louis XVI. was but the phantom of a king.
While the fight was going on, Robespierre had
remained in hiding ; Marat had not quitted the bot-
tom of a cellar. Even Danton, the man of " audac-
ity," did not show himself until after the last shot
had been fired. But now that fate had declared for
the Revolution, those who were trembling and hesi-
tating a moment since, were those who talked the
loudest. Louis XVI., who had been dreaded a few
minutes ago, was insulted and jeered at. The Na-
tional Assembly, royalist in the morning, became the
accomplice of the republicans during the day. It
perceived, moreover, that the -10th of August was
aimed at it not less than at the throne, and that its
own downfall would be contemporaneous with that
of royalty.
Huguenin, the president of the new Commune,
came boldly to the bar, and said to the deputies:
316
THE RESULTS OF THE COMBAT. 317
" The people is youf sovereign as well as ours ! "
Another individual, likewise at the bar, exclaimed in
a menacing tone : " For a long time the people has
asked you to pronounce the deposition, and you have
not even yet pronounced the suspension ! Know that
the Tuileries is on fire, and that we shall not extin-
guish it until the vengeance of the people has been
satisfied ! " Vergniaud, who in the morning had
promised the King the support of the Assembly, no
longer even attempted to stem the revolutionary tide.
He came down from the president's chair, and went
to a desk to write the decree which should give a
legislative form to the will of the insurrection. In
virtue of this decree, which Vergniaud read from the
tribune, and which was unanimously adopted, the
royal power was suspended and a National Conven-
tion convoked. In reality this was a veritable depo-
sition, and yet the Assembly still hesitated to give
the last shock which should uproot the royal tree
that had sheltered beneath its branches so many
faithful generations. It declared that in default of a
civil list, a salary should be granted to the King dur-
ing his suspension ; that Louis XVI. and his family
should have a palace, the Luxembourg, for a resi-
dence, and that he should be appointed governor of
the Prince-royal.
Concerning this, Madame de Stael has remarked in
her Considerations sur les principaux SvSnements de la
RSvolution frangaise : "Ambition for power mingled
with the enthusiasm of principles in the republicans
818 THE DOWNFALL OF ROYALTY.
of 1792, and several among them offered to maintain
royalty if all the ministerial places were given to their
friends. . . . The throne they attacked served to
shelter them, and it was not until after they had tri-
umphed that they found themselves exposed before
the people." What the Girondins wanted was merely
a change in the ministry; it was not a revolution.
Vergniaud felt that he had been distanced. When
he read the act of deposition, his voice was sad, his
attitude dejected, and his action feeble. Did he fore-
see that the King and himself would die at the same
place, on the same scaffold, and only nine months
apart ?
Louis XVI. listened to the invectives launched
against him, and to the decree depriving him of royal
power, without a change of color. At the very
moment when the vote was taken, he bent towards
Deputy Coustard, who sat beside the box of the
Logographe^ and said with the greatest tranquillity :
" What you are doing there is not very constitutional."
Impassive, and speaking of himself as of a king
who had lived a thousand years before, he leaned his
elbows on the front of the box, and looked on, like a
disinterested spectator, at the lugubrious spectacle
that was unrolled before him. -
Marie Antoinette, on the contrary, was shudder-
ing. So long as the combat lasted, a secret hope had
thrilled her. But when she saw them bringing to
the Assembly and laying on the table the jewel-cases,
trinkets, and portfolios which the insurgents had just
THE RESULTS OF THE COMBAT. 319
taken from her bedroom at the Tuileries ; when she
heard the victorious cries of the rioters ; when Ver-
gniaud's voice sounded in her ears like a funeral knell
— she could hardly contain her grief and indignation.
For one instant she closed her eyes. But presently
she haughtily raised her head.
The tide was rising, rising incessantly. Petitioners
demanded sometimes the deposition, and sometimes
the death, of the King. This dialogue was overheard
between the painter David and Merlin de Thion-
ville, who were talking together about Louis XVI.:
" Would you believe it ? Just now he asked me, as I
was passing his box, if I would soon have his portrait
finished." — "Bah! and what did you say?" — "That
I would never paint the portrait of a tyrant again
until I should have his head in my hat." — " Admi-
rable ! I don't know a more sublime answer, even in
antiquity."
The demands of the Revolution grew greater from
minute to minute. In the decree of deposition which
had been voted on Yergniaud's proposition, it was
stipulated that the ministers should continue to exer-
cise their functions. A few instants later, Brissot
caused it to be decreed that they had lost the nation's
confidence. A new ministry was nominated during
the session. The three ministers dismissed before
June 20 — Roland, Clavi^re, and Servan — were rein-
stalled by acclamation in the ministries of the Inte-
rior, of Finances, and of War. The other ministers
were chosen by ballot ; Danton was nominated to that
820 THE DOWNFALL OF ROYALTY.
of Justice by 282 votes, Monge to the Marine by 150,
and Lebriin-Tondu to Foreign Affairs by 100. This
ballot established the fact that out of the 749 mem-
bers composing the Assembly, but 284 were present.
Two days before, 680 had voted on the question con-
cerning Lafayette, and now, at the moment of the
final crisis, not more than 284 could be found ! All
the others had disappeared, through fear or through
disgust. The Revolution was accomplished by an
Assembly thus reduced, and a Commune whose mem-
bers had appointed themselves. Marie Antoinette, in
her pride as Queen, was unable to conceive that there
could be anything serious in such a government.
When Lebrun-Tondu's appointment was announced,
she leaned towards Bigot de Sainte-Croix, and said in
his ear : " I hope you will none the less believe your-
self Minister of Foreign Affairs."
The unfortunate royal family were still prisoners
in the narrow box of the LogograpTie. The heat there
was horrible : the sun scorched the white walls of
this furnace where the captives listened, as in a place
of torture, to the most ignoble insults and the most
sanguinary threats.
At seven o'clock in the evening. Count Francois de
la Rochefoucauld succeeded in approaching the box
of the LogograpTie. He thus describes its aspect at
this hour : " I approached the King's box ; it was un-
guarded except by some wretches who were drunk
and paid no attention to me, so that I half-opened
the door. I saw the King with a fatigued and down-
THE RESULTS OF THE COMBAT. 321
cast face ; he was sitting on the front of the box,
coldly observing through his lorgnette the scoundrels
who were talking, sometimes one after another, and
sometimes all together. Near him was the Queen,
whose tears and perspiration had completely drenched
her fichu and her handkerchief. The Dauphin was
asleep on her lap, and resting partly also on that of
Madame de Tourzel. Mesdames Elisabeth, de Lam-
balle, and Madame the King's daughter were at the
back of the box. I offered my services to the King,
who replied that it would be too dangerous to try to
see him again, and added that he was going to the
Luxembourg that evening. The Queen asked me for
a handkerchief ; I had none ; mine had served to bind
up the wounds of the Viscount de Maill^, whom I
had rescued from some pikemen. I went out to look
for a handkerchief, and borrowed one from the keeper
of the refreshment-room ; but as I was taking it to
the Queen, the sentinels were relieved, and I found
it impossible to approach the box."
We have just seen what occurred at the Assembly
after the close of the combat. Cast now a glance at
the Tuileries. What horrible scenes, what cries of
grief, how many wounded, dead, and dying, what
streams of blood ! What had become of those Swiss
who, either in consequence of their wounds, or
through some other motive, had been obliged to
remain at the palace ? Eighty of them had defended
the grand staircase like heroes, against an immense
crowd, and died after prodigies of valor. Seventeen
322 THE DOWNFALL OF ROYALTY.
Swiss who were posted in the chapel, and who had
not fired a shot since the fight began, hoped to save
their lives by laying down their arms. It was a
mistake. They had their throats cut like the others.
Two ushers of the King's chamber, MM. Pallas and
de Marchais, sword in hand, and hats pulled down
over their eyes, said : " We don't want to live any
longer ; this is our post ; we ought to die here ! "
and they were killed at the door of their master's
chamber.
M. Dieu died in the same way on the threshold of
the Queen's bedroom. A certain number of nobles
who had not followed the King to the Assembly suc-
ceeded in escaping the blows of the assassins. Pass-
ing through the suite of large apartments towards
the Louvre Gallery, they rejoined there some soldiers
detailed to guard an opening contrived in the floor-
ing, so as to prevent the assailants from entering
by that way. They crossed this opening on boards,
and reached the extremity of the gallery unhin-
dered ; then, going down the staircase of Catharine
de Medici, they managed to gain the streets near the
Louvre. These may have been saved. But woe to
all men, no matter what their conditions, who re-
mained in the Tuileries ! Domestic servants, ushers,
laborers, every soul was put to death. They killed
even the dying, even the surgeons who were caring
for the wounded. It is Barbaroux himself who
describes the murderers as " cowardly fugitives dur-
ing the action, assassins after the victory, butchers
THE RESULTS OF THE COMBAT. 323
of dead bodies which they stabbed with their swords
so as to give themselves the honors of the combat.
In the apartments, on roofs, and in cellars, they mas-
sacred the Swiss, armed or disarmed, the chevaliers,
soldiers, and all who peopled the chUteau. . . . Our
devotion was of no avail," says Barbaroux again;
" we were speaking to men who no longer recognized
us."
And the women, what was their fate ? When the
firing began, the Queen's ladies and the Princesses
descended to Marie Antoinette's apartments on the
ground-floor. They closed the shutters, hoping to
incur less danger, and lighted a candle so as not to
be in total darkness. Then Mademoiselle Pauline
de Tourzel exclaimed : " Let us light all the candles
in the chandelier, the sconces, and the torches ; if
the brigands force open the door, the astonishment
so many lights will cause them may delay the first
blow and give us time to speak." The ladies set to
work. When the invaders broke in, sabre in hand,
the numberless lights, which were repeated also in
the mirrors, made such a contrast with the daylight
they had just left, that for a moment they remained
stupefied. And yet, the Princess de Tarente, Ma-
dame de La Roche- Aymon, Mademoiselle de Tourzel,
Madame de Ginestons, and all the other ladies were
about to perish when a man with a long beard made
his appearance, crying to the assassins in Potion's
name : " Spare the women ; do not dishonor the
nation."
824 THE DOWNFALL OF BOYALTY.
Madame Campan had attempted to go up a stair-
way in pursuit of her sister. The murderers fol-
lowed her. She already felt a terrible hand against
her back, trying to seize her by her clothes, when
some one cried from the foot of the stairs : " What
are you doing up there ? " — " Hey ! " said the mur-
derer, in a tone that did not soon leave the trembling
woman's ears. The other voice replied : " We don't
kill women." The Revolution goes fast ; it will
kill them next year. Madame Campan was on her
knees. Her executioner let go his hold. " Get up,
hussy," he said to her, " the nation spares you ! "
In going back she walked over corpses ; she recog-
nized that of the old Viscount de Broves. The
Queen had sent word to him and to another old
man as the last night began, that she desired them
to go home. He had replied : " We have been only
too obedient to the King's orders in all circum-
stances when it was necessary to expose our lives
to save him; this time we will not obey, and
will simply preserve the memory of the Queen's
kindness."
What a sight the Tuileries presented! People
walked on nothing but dead bodies. A comic actor
drank a glass of blood, the blood of a Swiss; one
might have thought himself at a feast of Atreus.
The furniture was broken, the secretaries forced open,
the mirrors smashed to pieces. Prudhomme, the
journalist of the RSvolutions de Paris, thinks that
" Medicis- Antoinette has too long studied in them
THE EE8ULT8 OF THE COMBAT. 325
the hypocritical look she wears in public." What a
sinister carnival ! Drunken women and prostitutes
put on the Queen's dresses and sprawl on her bed.
Through the cellar gratings one can see a thousand
hands groping in the sand, and drawing forth bottles
of wine. Everywhere people are laughing, drinking,
killing. The royal wine runs in streams. Torrents
of wine, torrents of blood. The apartments, the
staircase, the vestibule, are crimson pools. Dis-
figured corpses, pictures thrust through with pikes,
musicians' stands thrown on the altar, the organ dis-
mounted, broken, — that is how the chapel looks.
But to rob and murder is not enough: they will
kindle a conflagration. It devours the stables of the
mounted guards, all the buildings in the courts, the
house of the governor of the palace : eighteen hun-
dred yards of barracks, huts, and houses. Already
the fire is gaining on the Pavilion of Marsan and
the Pavilion of Flora. The flames are perceived at
the Assembly. A deputy asks to have the firemen
sent to fight this fire which threatens the whole
quarter Saint-Honor^. Somebody remarks that this
is the Commune's business. But the Commune, to
use a phrase then in vogue, thinks it has something
else to do besides preventing the destruction of the
tyrant's palace. It turns a deaf ear. The messenger
returns to the Assembly. It is remarked that the
flames are doing terrible damage. The president
decides to send orders to the firemen. But the fire-
men return, saying : " We can do nothing. They
326 THE DOWNFALL OF BOYALTT.
are firing on us. They want to throw us into the
fire." What is to be done ? The president bethinks
himself of a " patriot " architect, Citizen Palloy, who
generally makes his appearance whenever there are
" patriotic " demolitions to be accomplished. It is
he whom they send to the palace, and who succeeds
in getting the flames extinguished. The Tuileries
are not burned up this time. The work of the
incendiaries of 1792 was only to be finished by the
petroleurs of 1871.
Night was come. A great number of the Parisian
population were groaning, but the revolutionists tri-
umphed with joy. Curiosity to see the morning bat-
tle-field, urged the indolent, who had stayed at home
all day, towards the quays, the Champs-Elys^es, and
the Tuileries. They looked at the trees under which
the Swiss had fallen, at the windows of the apart-
ments where the massacres had taken place, at the
ravages made by the hardly extinguished fire. The
buildings in the three com-ts : Court of the Princes,
Court Royal, Court of the Swiss, had been completely
consumed. Thenceforward these three courts formed
only one, separated from the Carrousel by a board
partition which remained until 1800, and was
replaced by a grating finished on the very day when
the First Consul came to install himself at the
Tuileries. The inscription which was placed above
the wooden partition : " On August 10 royalty was
abolished; it will never rise again," disappeared
even before the proclamation of the Empire.
THE RESULTS OF THE COMBAT. 327
Squads of laborers gathered up the dead bodies
and threw them into tumbrels. At midnight an
immense pile was erected on the Carrousel with
timbers and furniture from the palace. There the
corpses of the victims that had strewed the courts,
the vestibule, and the apartments were heaped up, and
set on fire.
The National Guard had disappeared ; it figured
with the King and the Assembly itself, among the
vanquished of the day. Instead of its bayonets and
uniforms one saw nothing in the stations and patrols
that divided Paris but pikes and tatters. " Some one
came to tell me," relates Madame de Stael, " that all
of my friends who had been on guard outside the
palace, had been seized and massacred. I went out
at once to learn the news ; the coachman who drove
me was stopped at the bridge by men who silently
made signs that they were murdering on the other
side. After two hours of useless efforts to pass I
learned that all those in whom I was interested were
still living, but that most of them had been obliged
to hide in order to escape the proscription with which
they were threatened. When I went to see them in
the evening, on foot, and in the mean houses where
they had been able to find shelter, I found armed men
lying before the doors, stupid with drink, a-nd only
half waking to utter execrable curses. Several women
of the people were in the same state, and their vocif-
erations were more odious still. Whenever a patrol
intended to maintain order made its appearance, hon-
328 THE DOWNFALL OF ROYALTY.
est people fled out of its way ; for what they called
maintaining order was to contribute to the triumph of
assassins and rid them of all hindrances."
At last the city was going to rest a while after so
much emotion ! It was three o'clock in the morning.
The Assembly, which had been in session for twenty-
four hours, adjourned. Only a few members remained
in the hall to maintain the permanence proclaimed at
the beginning of the crisis. The inspectors of the
hall came for Louis XVI. and his family, to conduct
them, not to the Luxembourg, but to the upper story
of the convent of the Feuillants, above the corridor
where the offices and committees of the Assembly
had been established. It was there, in the cells of
the monks, that the royal family were to pass the
night. Then all was silent once more. Koyalty was
dying!
XXXII.
THE EOYAIi .FAMILY IN THE CONVENT OF THE
FEUILLANTS.
WHAT a strange prison was tliis dilapidated old
monastery, these little cells, not lived in for
two years, with their flooring half-destroyed, and
their narrow windows looking down into courts full
of men drunken with wine and blood ! By the light
of candles stuck into gun-barrels the royal family
entered this gloomy lodging. Trembling for her
son, who was frightened, the Queen took him from
M. Aubier's arms and whispered to him. The child
grew calmer. " Mamma," said he, " has promised to
let me sleep in her room because I was very good
before all those wicked men." Four cells, all open-
ing by similar small doors upon the same corridor,
comprised the quarters of the royal family. What
a night ! The souvenirs of the previous day came
back like dismal dreams. Their ears were still deaf-
ened with furious cries. They seemed to see the
blood of the Swiss flowing like a torrent, the pyra-
mids of corpses in red uniforms, the flames of the
terrible conflagration sweeping the approaches to the
Tuileries. Marie Antoinette seems under an hallu-
329
330 THE DOWNFALL OF ROTALTT.
cination ; her emotions break her down. Is this
woman, confided to the care of an unknown servant,
in this deserted old convent, really she ? Is this the
Queen of France and Navarre ? This the daughter
of the great Empress Maria Theresa ? What uncer-
tainty rests over the fate of her most faithful servi-
tors ! What news will she yet learn ? Who has
fallen ? Who has survived the carnage ? The hours
of the night wear on ; Marie Antoinette has not been
able to sleep a moment.
The Marquis de Tourzel and M. d'Aubier remained
near the King's bedside. Before sleeping, he talked
to them with the utmost calmness of all that had
taken place. " People regret," said he, " that I did
not have the rebels attacked before they could have
forced the Assembly ; but besides the fact that in
accordance with the terms of the Constitution, the
National Guards might have refused to be the aggres-
sors, what would have been the result of this attack ?
The measures of the insurrection were too well taken
for my party to have been victorious, even if I had
not left the Tuileries. Do they forget that when the
seditious Commune massacred M. Mandat, it rendered
his projected defence of no avail ? " While Louis
XVI. was saying this, the men placed under the
windows were shouting loudly for the Queen's head.
"What has she done to them?" cried the unfortunate
sovereign.
The next morning, August 11, several persons
were authorized to enter the cells of the convent.
IN THE CONVENT OF THE FEUILLANTS. 331
Among them was one of the officers of the King's
bedchamber, Fran9ois Hue, who had incurred the
greatest dangers on the previous day. Cards of
admission were distributed by the inspector of the
Assembly hall. A large guard was stationed at all
the issues of the corridor. No one could pass with-
out being stopped and questioned. After surmount-
ing all obstacles, M. Hue reached the cell of Louis
XVI. The King was still in bed, with his head
covered by a coarse cloth. He looked tenderly at
his faithful servant. M. Hue, who could scarcely
speak for sobbing, apprised his unhappy master of
the tragic death of several persons whom His Majesty
was especially fond of, among others, the Chevalier
d'AUonville, who had been under-governor to the
first Dauphin, and several officers of the bedchamber:
MM. Le Tellier, Pallas, and de Marchais. " I have,
at least," said Louis XVI., " the consolation of seeing
you saved from this massacre ! "
All night long, Madame Elisabeth, the Princess de
Lamballe, and Madame de Tourzel had prayed and
wept in silence at the door of the chamber where
Marie Antoinette watched beside her sleeping chil-
dren. It was not until morning, after cruel insom-
nia, that the wretched Queen was at last able to close
her eyes. And when, after a few minutes, she
opened them again, what an awakening !
At eight o'clock in the morning Mademoiselle Paul-
ine de Tourzel arrived at the Feuillants. " I cannot
say enough," she writes in her Souvenirs de Quarante
332 THE DOWNFALL OF ROYALTY.
Ans, "about the goodness of the King and Queen;
they asked me many questions about the persons
concerning whom I could give them any tidings.
Madame and the Dauphin received me with touch-
ing signs of affection ; they embraced me, and Ma-
dame said : ' My dear Pauline, do not leave us any
more ! ' " The courtiers of misfortune came one
after another. Madame Campan and her sister,
Madame Auguid, saw the Prince de Poix, M. d'Au-
bier, M. de Saint-Pardou, Madame Elisabeth's equerry,
MM. de Goguelat, Hue, and de Chamilly in the first
cell ; in the second they found the King. They
wanted to kiss his hand, but he prevented it, and
embraced them without speaking. In the third cell
they saw the Queen, waited on by an unknown
woman. Marie Antoinette held out her arms.
" Come ! " she cried ; " come, unhappy women ! come
and see one who is still more unhappy than you,
since it is she who has been the cause of all your
sorrow ! " She added : " We are mined. We have
reached the place at last to which they have been
leading us for three years by every possible outrage ;
we shall succumb in this horrible revolution, and
many others will perish after us. Everybody has
contributed to our ruin : the innovators like fools,
others like the ambitious, in order to aid their own
fortunes ; for the most furious of the Jacobins wanted
gold and places, and the crowd expected pillage.
There is not a patriot in the whole infamous horde ;
the emigrants had their schemes and manoeuvres j
IN THE CONVENT OF THE FEUILLANT8. 333
the foreigners wanted to profit by the dissensions of
France ; everybody has had a part in our misfor-
tunes." Here the Dauphin entered with his sister and
Madame de Tourzel. " Poor children I " cried the
Queen. " How cruel it is not to transmit to them
so noble a heritage, and to say : All is over for us ! "
And as the little Dauphin, seeing his mother and
those around her weeping, began to shed tears also :
" My child,'* tlie Queen said, embracing him, " you
see I have consolations too ; the friends whom mis-
fortune deprived me of were not worth as much as
those it gave me." Then Marie Antoinette asked
for news of the Princess de Tareute, Madame de la
Roche- Aymon, and others whom she had left at the
Tuileries. She compassionated the fate of the vic-
tims of the previous day.
Madame Campan expressed a desire to know what
the foreign ambassadors had done in this catastrophe.
The Queen replied that they had done nothing, but
that the English ambassadress. Lady Sutherland, had
just displayed some interest by sending linen for the
Dauphin, who was in need of it.
What memories must not that little cell in the
Feuillants convent have left in the souls of those
who were privileged to present there the homage of
their devotion to the Queen ! " I think I still see,"
Madame Campan has said in her Memoirs, "I shall
always see, that little cell, hung with green paper,
that wretched couch from which the dethroned sov-
ereign stretched out her arms to us, saying that our
334 THE DOWNFALL OF ROYALTY.
woes, of which she was the cause, aggravated her
own. There, for the last time, I saw the tears flow-
ing and heard the sobs of her whose birth and natural
gifts, and above all the goodness of whose heart had
destined her to be the ornament of all thrones and the
happiness of all peoples."
During the 11th and 12th of August the tortures
of the 10th were renewed for the royal family. They
were obliged to occupy the odious box of the Logo-
graphe during the sessions of the Assembly, and from
there witness, as at a show, the slow and painful
death-struggle of royalty. As she was on her way to
this wretched hole, Marie Antoinette perceived in the
garden some curious spectators on whose faces a cer-
tain compassion was depicted. She saluted them.
Then a voice cried : " Don't put on so many airs with
that graceful head; it is not worth while. You'll
not have it much longer." From the box of the
Logographe the royal family listened to the most
offensive motions; to decrees according the Mar-
seillais a payment of thirty sous a day, ordering all
statues of kings to be overthrown, and petitions de-
manding the heads of all the Swiss who had escaped
the massacre. At last the Assembly grew tired of
the long humiliation of the august captives. On
Monday, August 13, they were not present at the
session, and during the day they were notified that
in the evening they were to be incarcerated, not in
the Luxembourg, — that palace being too good for
them, — but in the tower of the Temple. When Marie
IN THE CONVENT OF THE FEUILLANTS. 335
Antoinette was informed of this decision, she turned
toward Madame de Tourzel, and putting her hands
over her eyes, said: "I always asked the Count
d'Artois to have that villanous tower of the Temple
torn down ; it always filled me with horror ! " Po-
tion told Louis XVI. that the Communal Council
had decreed that none of the persons proposed for
the service of the royal family should follow them to
their new abode. By force of remonstrance the King
finally obtained permission that the Princess de Lam-
balle, Madame de Tourzel and her daughter should
be excepted from this interdiction, and also MM.
Hue and de Chamilly, and Mesdames Thibaud, Basire,
Navarre, and Saint-Brice. The departure for the
Temple took place at five in the evening. The royal
family went in a large carriage with Manuel and
Potion, who kept their hats on. The coachman and
footmen, dressed in gray, served their masters for
the last time. National Guards escorted the car-
riage on foot and with reversed arms. The passage
through a hostile multitude occupied not less than
two hours. The vehicle, which moved very slowly,
stopped for several moments in the Place Vend6me.
There Manuel pointed out the statue of Louis XIV.,
which had been thrown down from its pedestal. At
first the descendant of the great King reddened
with indignation, then, tranquillizing himself in-
stantly, he calmly replied : " It is fortunate, Sir, that
the rage of the people spends itself on inanimate
objects." Manuel might have gone on to say that
836 THE DOWNFALL OF ROYALTY.
on this very Place Vend6rae " Queen Violet," ovid of
the most furious vixens of the October Days, had
just been crushed by the fall of this equestrian statue
of Louis XIV. to which she was hanging in order to
help bring it down. The statue of Henry IV. in the
Place Royale, that of Louis XIII. in the Place des
Victoires, and that of Louis XV. in the place that
bears his name, had fallen at the same time.
The royal family arrived at the Temple at seven
in the evening. The lanterns placed on the project-
ing portions of the walls and the battlements of the
great tower made it resemble a catafalque surrounded
by funeral lights. The Queen wore a shoe with a
hole in it, through which her foot could be seen.
" You would not believe," said she, smiling, " that a
Queen of France was in need of shoes." The doors
closed upon the captives, and a sanguinary crowd
complained of the thickness of the walls separating
them from their prey.
XXXIII.
THE TEMPLE.
THERE are places which, by the very souvenirs
they evoke, seem fatal and accursed. Such
was the dungeon that was to serve as a prison for
Louis XVI. and his family. The great tower for
which Marie Antoinette had felt a nameless instinct-
ive repugnance in the happiest days of her reign,
arose at the extremity of Paris like a gigantic phan-
tom, and recalled in a sinister fashion the tragedies
of the Middle Ages and the sombre legends of the
Templars. It was formerly the manor, the fortress,
of that religious and military Order of the Temple,
founded in the Holy Land at the beginning of the
twelfth century, to protect the pilgrims, and which,
after the fall of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, had spread
all over Europe. The great tower was built by Fr^re
Hubert, in the early years of the thirteenth century,
in the midst of an enclosure surrounded by turreted
walls. There ruled, by cross and sword, those men
of iron, in white habits, who took the triple vows of
poverty, chastity, and obedience, and who excited
royal jealousy by the increase of their power. It
was there that Philippe le Bel went on October 13,
337
338 THE DOWNFALL OF ROYALTY.
1307, with his lawyers and his archers, to lay his
hand on the grand-master, seize the treasures of the
order, and on the same day, at the same hour, cause
all Templars to be arrested throughout the realm.
Then began that mysterious trial which has remained
an insoluble problem to posterity, and after which
these monastic knights, whose bravery and whose
exploits have made so prolonged an echo, perished in
prisons or on scaffolds. Pursued by horrible accusa-
tions, they had confessed under torture, but they
denied at execution. When the grand-master,
Jacques de Molay, and the commander of Normandy
were burned alive before the garden of Philippe le
Bel, March 11, 1314, even in the midst of flames,
they did not cease to attest the innocence of the
Order of the Temple. The people, astonished by
their heroism, believed that they had summoned the
Pope and the King to appear in the presence of God
before the end of the year. Clement V., on April 20,
and Philippe IV., on November 29, obeyed the
summons.
The possessions of the order were given to the
Hospitallers of Saint John of Jerusalem, who trans-
formed themselves into Knights of Malta toward the
middle of the sixteenth century. The Temple
became the provincial house of the grand-prior of the
Order of Malta for the nation or language of France,
and the great tower contained successively the
treasure, the arsenal, and the archives. In 1607, the
grand-prior, Jacques de Souvrd, had a house built in
THE TEMPLE. 339
front of the old manor, between the court and the
garden, which was called the palace of the grand-
prior. His successor, Philippe de Vend6me, made
his palace a rendezvous of elegance and pleasure.
There shone that Anacreon in a cassock, the gay and
sprightly Abb^ de Chaulieu, who died a fervent
Christian in the voluptuous abode where he had dwelt
a careless Epicurean. There young Voltaire went to
complete the lessons he had begun in the sceptical
circle of Ninon de I'Enclos. The office of grand-prior,
which was worth sixty thousand livres a year, passed
afterwards to Prince de Conti, who in 1765 sheltered
Jean-Jacques Rousseau there, as lettres de cachet
could not penetrate within its privileged precinct.
Under Louis XVI. the palace of the grand-prior had
served as a passing hostelry to the young and brilliant
Count d'Artois when he came from Versailles to
Paris. The flowers of the entertainments given
there by the Prince were hardly faded when Louis
XVI. suddenly entered it as a prisoner.
It was seven o'clock in the evening when the
wretched King and his family, coming from the
convent of the Feuillants, arrived at the Temple.
Situated near the Faubourg Saint-Antoine, not far
from the former site of the Bastille, the Temple
enclosure at this period was not more than two hun-
dred yards long by nearly as many wide. The rest
of the ancient precinct had disappeared under the
pavements or the houses of the great city. Never-
theless, the enclosure still formed a sort of little
340 THE DOWNFALL OF ROYALTY.
private city, sometimes called the Ville-Neuve-dur
Temple, the gates of which were closed every night.
In one of its angles stood the house called the grand-
prior's palace.
This was the first stopping-place of the royal
family, which had been entrusted by Potion to the
surveillance of the municipality and the guard of
Santerre. The municipal officers stayed close to the
King, kept their hats on, and gave him no title ex-
cept " Monsieur." Louis XVI., not doubting that
the palace of the grand-prior was the residence
assigned him by the nation until the close of his
career, began to visit its apartments. While the
municipal officers took a cruel pleasure in this error,
thinking of the still keener one they would enjoy
when they disabused him of it, he pleased himself by
allotting the different rooms in advance. The word
palace had an unpleasant sound to the persecutors of
royalty. The Temple tower looked more like a
prison. Toward eleven o'clock, one of the commis-
sioners ordered the august captives to collect such
linen and other clothing as they had been able to
procure, and follow him. They silently obeyed, and
left the palace. The night was very dark. They
passed through a double row of soldiers holding
naked sabres. The municipal officers carried lanterns.
One of them broke the dismal silence he had observed
throughout the march. " Thy master," said he to M.
Hue, " has been accustomed to gilded canopies. Very
well ! he is going to find out how we lodge the
assassins of the people."
THE TEMPLE. 341
The lamps in the windows of the old quadrangular
dungeon lighted up its high pinnacles and turrets,
its gigantic profile and gloomy bulk. The immense
tower, one hundred and fifty feet high, and with
walls nine feet thick, rose, menacing and fatal,
amidst the darkness. Beside it was another tower,
narrower and not so high, but which was also flanked
by turrets. Thus the whole dungeon was composed
of two distinct yet united towers. The second of
these, called the little tower, to distinguish it from
the great one, was selected as the prison of the for-
mer hosts of Versailles, Fontainebleau, and the Tui
leries.
The little tower of the Temple, which had no inte-
rior communication with the great one against which
it stood, was a long quadrangle flanked by two tur-
rets. Four steps led to the door, which was low
and narrow, and opened on a landing at the end of
which began a winding staircase shaped like a, snail-
shell. Wide from its base as far as the first story,
it grew narrower as it climbed up into the second.
The door, which was considered too weak, was to be
strengthened on the following day by heavy bars,
and supplied with an enormous lock brought from
the prisons of the ChS,telet. The Queen was put on
the second floor, and the King on the third. On en-
tering his chamber, Louis XVI. found a miserable
bed in an alcove without tapestry or curtains. He
showed neither ill humor nor surprise. Engravings,
indecent for the most part, covered the walls. He
342 THE DOWNFALL OF ROYALTY.
took them down himself. "I will not leave such
objects before my children's eyes," said he. Then
he lay down and slept tranquilly.
The first days of captivity were relatively calm.
The prisoners consoled themselves by their family
life, reading, and, above all, prayer. Forgetting that
he had been a king, and remembering that he was a
father, Louis XVI. gave lessons to the Dauphin.
"It would have been worth while for the whole
nation to be present at these lessons; they would
have been both surprised and touched at all the sen-
sible, cordial, and kindly things the good King found
to say when the map of France lay spread out before
him, or concerning the chronology of his predeces-
sors. Everything in his remarks showed the love he
bore his subjects and how greatly his paternal heart
desired their happiness. What great and useful les-
sons one could learn in listening to this captive king
instructing a child born to the throne and con-
demned to share the captivity of his parents." (^Sou-
venirs de Quarante Ans^ by Madame de B^arn, nSe de
Tourzel.)
All those who had been authorized to follow the
royal family to the Temple — the Princess de Lam-
balle, Madame de Tourzel and her' daughter, Mesdames
Thibaud, Basire, Navarre, MM. de Chamilly and
Fran9ois Hue — surrounded the captives with the
most respectful and devoted attentions. But these
noble courtiers of misfortune, these voluntary prison
ers who were so glad to be associated in their mas-
THE TEMPLE. 343
ter's trials, were not long to enjoy an honor they had
so keenly desired. In the night of August 18-19,
two municipal officers presented themselves, who
were commissioned to fetch away "all persons not
belonging to the Capet family." The Queen pointed
out in vain that the Princess de Lamballe was her
relative. The Princess must go with the others.
"In our position," has said Madame de Tourzel, the
governess of the children of France, "there was
nothing to do but obey. We dressed ourselves and
then went to the Queen, to whom I resigned that
dear little Prince, whose bed had been carried into
her room without awaking him." It was an inde-
scribable torture for Madame de Tourzel to aban-
don the Dauphin, whom she cherished so tenderly,
and whom she had educated since 1789. "I ab-
stained from looking at him," she adds, " not only to
avoid weakening the courage we had so much need
of, but in order to give no room for censure, and so
come back, if possible, to a place we left with so
much regret. The Queen went instantly into the
chamber of the Princess de Lamballe, from whom
she parted with the utmost grief. To Pauline and
me she showed a touching sensibility, and said to me
in an undertone : ' If we are not so happy as to see
you again, take good care of Madame de Lamballe.
Do the talking on all important occasions, and spare
her as much as possible from having to answer cap-
tious and embarrassing questions.' " The two muni-
"ipal officers said to Hue and Chamilly : " Are you
344 THE DOWNFALL OF ROYALTY.
the valets-de-chambre ? " On their affirmative re-
sponse, the two faithful servants were ordered to get
up and prepare for departure. They shook hands
with each other, both of them convinced that they
had reached the end of their existence. One of the
municipal officers had said that very day in their
presence : " The guillotine is permanent, and strikes
with death the pretended servants of Louis." When
they descended to the Queen's antechamber, a very
small room in which the Princess de Lamballe slept,
they found that Princess and Madame de Tourzel all
ready to start, and clasped in one embrace with the
Queen, the children, and Madame Elisabeth. Ten-
der and heart-breaking farewells, presages of separa-
tions more cruel still !
All these exiles from the prison left at the same
time. Only one of them, M. Fran9ois Hue, was to
return. He was examined at the H6tel-de-Ville, and
at the close of this interrogation an order was signed
permitting him to be taken back to the tower. " How
happy I was," he writes, " to return to the Temple !
I ran to the King's chamber. He was already up and
dressed, and was reading as usual in the little tower.
The moment he saw me, his anxiety to know what
had occurred made him advance toward me ; but the
presence of the municipal officers and the guards who
were near him made all conversation impossible. I
indicated by a glance that, for the moment, prudence
forbade me to explain myself. Feeling the necessity
of silence as well as myself, the King resumed his
THE TEMPLE. 345
reading and waited for a more opportune moment.
Some hours later, I hastily informed him what ques-
tions had been asked me and what I had replied."
QDerniires AnnSes de Louis XVI., par Frangois Hue.')
The unfortunate sovereign doubtless believed that
the others were also about to return. Vain hope !
During the day Manuel announced to the King that
none of them would come back to the Temple.
" What has become of them ? " asked Louis XVI.
anxiously. — " They are prisoners at the Force," re-
turned Manuel. — " What are they going to do with
the only servant I have left ? " asked the King, glanc-
ing at M. Hue. — " The Commune leaves him with
you," said Manuel ; " but as he cannot do everything,
men will be sent to assist him." — "I do not want
them," replied Louis XVI. ; " what he cannot do, we
will do ourselves. Please God, we will not voluntarily
give those who have been taken from us the chagrin
of seeing their places taken by others ! " In Manuel's
presence, the Queen and Madame Elisabeth aided M.
Hue to prepare the things most necessary for the new
prisoners of the Force. The two Princesses arranged
the packets of linen and other matters with the skill
and activity of chambermaids.
Behold the heir of Louis XIV., the King of France
and Navarre, with but a single servant left him ! He
has but one coat, and at night his sister mends it.
Behold the daughter of the German Caesars, with not
even one woman to wait upon her, and who waits on
herself, incessantly watched, meanwhile, by the in-
346 THE DOWNFALL OF ROYALTY.
quisitors of the Commune ; who cannot speak a word
or make a gesture unwitnessed by a squad of informers
who pursue her even into the chamber where she goes
to change her dress, and who spy on her even when
she is sleeping ! And yet neither the calmness nor
the dignity of the prisoners suffers any loss.
There was but one thing that keenly annoyed Louis
XVI. It was when, on August 24, they deprived him,
the chief of gentlemen, of his sword, as if taking away
his sceptre were not enough. He consoled himself
by prayer, meditation, and reading. He spent hours
in the room containing the library of the keeper
of archives of the Order of Malta, who had pre-
viously occupied the little tower. One day when he
was looking for books, he pointed out to M. Hue
the works of Voltaire and Jean-Jacques Rousseau.
" Those two men have ruined France," said he in
an undertone. On another day he was pained by
overhearing the insults heaped on this faithful ser-
vant by one of the Municipal Guards. " You have
had a great deal to suffer to-day," he said to him.
" Well ! for the love of me, continue to endure every-
thing ; make no answer." At another time he slipped
into his hand a folded paper. " This is some of my
hair," said he ; " it is the only present I can give you
at this moment." M. Hue exclaims in his pathetic
book : " O shade forever cherished ! I will preserve
this precious gift to my latest day ! The inheritance
of my son, it will pass on to my descendants, and all
of them will see in this testimonial of Louis XVI.'s
THE TEMPLE. 847
goodness, that they had a father who merited the
affection of his King by his fidelity."
In the evenings the Queen made the Dauphin
recite this prayer : " Almighty God, who created
and redeemed me, I adore Thee. Spare the lives
of the King, my father, and those of my family 1
Defend us against our enemies ! Grant Madame
de Tourzel the strength she needs to support the
evils she endures on our account." And the angel
of the Temple, Madame Elisabeth, recited every day
this sublime prayer of her own composition : " What
will happen to me to-day, O my God! I do not
know. All I know is, that nothing will happen that
has not been foreseen by Thee from all eternity. It
is enough, my God, to keep me tranquil. I adore
Thy eternal designs, I submit to them with my
whole heart ; I will all, I accept all ; I sacrifice all to
Thee ; I unite this sacrifice to that of Thy dear Son,
my Saviour, asking Thee by His sacred heart and
His infinite merits, the patience in our afflictions and
the perfect submission which is due to Thee for all
that Thou wiliest and permittest." One day when
she had finished her prayer, the saintly Princess said
to M. Hue : " It is less for the unhappy King than
for his misguided people that I pray. May the Lord
deign to be moved, and to look mercifully upon
France ! " Then she added, with her admirable res-
ignation : " Come, let us take courage. God will
never send us more troubles than we are able to
bear."
848 THE DOWNFALL OF ROTALTT.
The prisoners were permitted to walk a few steps
in the garden every day to get a breath of fresh air.
But even there they were insulted. As they passed
by, the guards stationed at the base of the tower took
pains to put on their hats and sit down. The sen-
tries scrawled insults on the walls. Colporteurs
maliciously cried out bad tidings, which were some-
times false. One day, one of them announced a
pretended decree separating the King from his family.
The Queen, who was near enough to hear distinctly
the voice which told this news, not exact as yet, was
struck with a terror from which she did not recover.
And yet there were still souls that gave way to
compassion. From the upper stories of houses near
the Temple enclosure there were eyes looking down
into the garden when the prisoners took their walk.
The common people and the workmen living in these
poor abodes were affected. Sometimes, to show her
gratitude for the sympathy of those unknown friends,
Marie Antoinette would remove her veil, and smUe.
When the little Dauphin was playing, there would
be hands at the windows, joined as if to applaud.
Flowers would sometimes fall, as if by chance, from
a garret roof to the Queen's feet, and occasionally it
happened that when the captives had gone back to
their prison, they would hear in the darkness the
echo of some royalist refrain, hummed by a passer-by
in the silence of the night.
The Temple tower is no longer in existence. Bona-
parte visited it when he was Consul. "There are
THE TEMPLE. 349
too many souvenirs in that prison," he exclaimed.
" I will tear it down." In 1811 he kept his promise.
The palace of the grand-prior was destroyed in 1853.
No trace remains of that famous enclosure of the
Templars whose legend has so sombre a poetry. But
it has left an impress on the imagination of peoples
which will never be effaced. It seems to rise again
gigantic, that tower where the son of Saint Louis
realized not alone the type of the antique sage of
whom Horace said: Impavidum ferient ruince, but also
the purest ideal of the true Christian. Does not the
name Temple seem predestinated for a. spot which
was to be sanctified by so many virtues, and where
the martyr King put in practice these verses of the
Imitation of Jesus Christ, his favorite book : " It
needs no great virtue to live peaceably with those
who are upright and amiable ; one is naturally
pleased in such society ; we always love those whose
sentiments agree with ours. But it is very praise-
worthy, and the effect of a special grace and great
courage to live in peace with severe and wicked men,
who are disorderly, or who contradict us. . . . He
who knows best how to suffer, will enjoy the greatest
peace ; such a one is the conqueror of himself, master
of the world, the friend of Jesus Christ, and the inher-
itor of heaven."
XXXIV.
THE PRINCESS DE LAMBALLE'S MURDER.
THE Princess de Lamballe, after being taken
from the Temple in the night of August 18-19,
had been examined by Billaud-Varennes at the
H6tel-de-ViUe, and then sent, at noon, August 19,
to the Force. This prison, divided into two distinct
parts, the great and the little Force, was situated
between the rues Roi-de-Sicile, Culture, and Pav^e.
In 1792 it supplemented the Abbey and Ch^telet
prisons, which were overcrowded. The little Force
had a separate entry on the rue Pav^e to the Marais,
while the door of the large one opened on the rue
des Ballets, a few steps from the rue Saint-Antoine.
The register of the little Force, which is preserved in
the archives of the prefecture of police, records that,
at the time of the September massacres, this prison in
which the Princess de Lamballe was immured, con-
tained one hundred and ten women, most of them not
concerned with political affairs, and in great part
women of the town. Here, from August 19 to Sep-
tember 3, the Princess suffered inexpressible anguish.
She never heard a turnkey open the door of her cell
without thinking that her last hour had come.
860
THE PRINCESS BE LAMBALLE'S MUBDER. 351
The massacres began on September 2. On that
day the Princess de Lamballe was spared. In the
evening she threw herself on her bed, a prey to the
most cruel anxiety. Toward six o'clock the next
morning, the turnkey entered with a frightened air :
-' They are coming here," he said to the prisoners,
oix men, armed with sabres, guns, and pistols, fol-
lowed him, approached the beds, asked the names of
the women, and went out again. Madame de Tourzel,
who shared the Princess de Lamballe's captivity, said
to her : " This threatens to be a terrible day, dear
Princess ; we know not what Heaven intends for us ;
we must ask God to forgive our faults. Let us say
the Miserere and the Confiteor as acts of contrition,
and recommend ourselves to His goodness." The
two women said their prayers aloud, and incited each
other to resignation and courage.
There was a window which opened on the street,
and from which, although it was very high, one could
see what was passing by mounting on Madame de
Lamballe's bed, and thence to the window ledge.
The Princess climbed up, and as soon as her head was
noticed on the street, a pretence of firing on her was
made. She saw a considerable crowd at the prison
door.
Very little doubt remained concerning her fate.
Neither she nor Madame de Tourzel had eaten since
the previous day. But they were too greatly moved
to take any breakfast. They dared not speak to each
other. They took their work, and sat down to await
the result of the fatal day in silence.
862 THE DOWNFALL OF ROYALTY.
Toward eleven o'clock the door opened. Armed
men filled the room and demanded Madame de Lam-
balle. The Princess put on a gown, bade adieu to
Madame de Tourzel, and was led to the great Force,
where some municipal officers, wearing their insignia,
subjected the prisoners to a pretended trial. In front
of this tribunal stood executioners with ferocious
faces, who brandished bloody weapons. The atmos-
phere was sickening: full of the steam of carnage,
and the odors of wine and blood. Madame de Lam-
balle fainted. When she recovered consciousness she
was interrogated : " Who are you ? " — " Marie Louise,
Princess of Savoy." — "What is your rank?" — "Su-
perintendent of the Queen's household." — " Were
you acquainted with the conspiracies of the court ou
August 10 ? " — "I do not know that there were any
conspiracies on August 10, but I know I had no
knowledge of them." — " Swear liberty, equality,
hatred to the King, the Queen, and royalty." — "I
will swear the first two without difficulty ; I cannot
swear the last; it is not in my heart." Here an assist-
ant said in a whisper to Madame de Lamballe : " Swear
it! if you do not swear, you are a dead woman." The
Princess made no answer ; she put her hands up to
her eyes, covered her face with them and made a step
toward the wicket. The judge exclaimed : " Let
some one release Madame ! " This phrase was the
death signal. Two men took the victim roughly by
the arms, and made her walk over corpses. Hardly
had she crossed the threshold when she received a
THE PRINCESS BE LAMBALLE'S MURBER. 353
blow from a sabre on the back of her head, which
made her blood flow in streams. In the narrow pas-
sage leading from the rue Saint-Antoine to the Force,
and called the. Priests' cul-de-sac, she was despatched
with pikes on a heap of dead bodies. Then they
stripped off her clothes and exposed her body to the
insults of a horde of cannibals. When the blood that
flowed from her wounds, or that of the neighboring
corpses, had soiled the body too much, they washed
it with a sponge, so that the crowd might notice its
whiteness better. They cut off her head and her
breasts. They tore out her heart, and of this head
and this heart they made horrible trophies. The
pikes which bore them were lifted high in air, and
they went to carry around these excellent spoils of
the Revolution.
At the very moment when the hideous procession
began its march, Madame de Lebel, the wife of a
painter, who owed many benefits to Madame de
Lamballe, was trying to get near the prison, hoping
to hear news of her. Seeing the great commotion
in the crowd, she inquired the cause. When some
one replied: "It is Lamballe's head that they are
going to carry through Paris," she was seized with
horror, and, turning back, took refuge in a hair-
dresser's shop on the Place Bastille. Hardly had,
she done so when the crowd entered the Place. The
murderers came into the shop and required the hair-
dresser to arrange the head of the Princess. They
washed it, and powdered the fair hair, all soiled with
354 THE DOWNFALL OF ROYALTY.
blood. Then one of the assassins cried joyfully:
" Now, at any rate, Antoinette can recognize her ! "
The procession resumed its march. From time to
time they called a halt before a wine-shop. Wishing
to empty his glass, the scoundrel who had the Prin-
cess's head in his hand, set it flat down on the lead
counter. Then it was put back on .the end of a pike.
The heart was on another pike, and other individuals
dragged along the headless corpse. In this manner
they arrived in front of the Temple. It was three
o'clock in the afternoon.
On that day the royal family had been refused per-
mission to go into the garden. They were in the
little tower when the cries of the multitude became
audible. The workmen who were then employed in
tearing down the walls and buildings contiguous to
the Temple dungeon, mingled with the crowd, in-
creased also by innumerable curious spectators, and
uttered furious shouts. One of the Municipal Guards
at the Temple closed doors and widows, and pulled
down curtains so that the captives could see nothing.
On the street in front of the enclosure a tricolored
ribbon had been fastened across, with this inscrip-
tion ; " Citizens, you who know how to ally the love
of order with a just vengeance, respect this barrier;
it is necessary to our surveillance and our responsi-
bility." This was the sole dike they meant to oppose
to the torrent. At the side of this ribbon stood a
municipal officer named Danjou, formerly a priest,
who was called Abbe Six-feet, on account of his
THE PRINCESS DE LAMBALLE'S MUBDER. 355
height. He mounted on a chair and harangued the
crowd. He felt his face touched by Madame de Lam-
balle's head, still on the end of a pike which the
bearer shook about and gesticulated with, and also
by a rag of her chemise, soaked with blood and mire,
which another individual also carried on a pike. The
naked body was there likewise, with its back to the
ground and the front cut open to the very breast.
Danjou tried to make the crowd of assassins who
wanted to invade the Temple understand that at a
moment when the enemy was master of the fron-
tiers, it would be impolitic to deprive themselves of
hostages so precious as Louis XVI. and his family.
"Moreover," he added, "would it not demonstrate,
their innocence if you dare not try them? How
much worthier it is of a great people to execute a
king guilty of treasc n on the scaffold ! " Thus,
while preventing an iinmediate massacre, he held the
scaffold in reserve. Danjou said that the Communal
Council, in order to show its confidence in the citi-
zens composing the mob, had decided that six of
them should be admitted to make the rounds of the
Temple garden, with the commissioners at their
head. The ribbon was then raised and several per-
sons entered the enclosure. They were those who
carried the remains of Madame de Lamballe. With
these were the laborers who had been at work on the
demolitions. Voices were heard demanding furiously
that Marie Antoinette should show herself at a win-
dow, so that some one might climb up and make her
356 THE DOWNFALL OF ROYALTY.
kiss her friend's head. As Danjou opposed this infer-
nal scheme, he was accused of being on the side of
the tyrant. Was the dungeon of the Temple to be
forced ? Were the assassins about to seize the Queen,
tear her in pieces, and drag her, like her friend,
through streets and squares to the rolling of drums
and the chanting of the Marseillaise and the Ca ira f
A municipal officer entered the tower and began a
mysterious parley with his colleagues. As Louis
XVI. asked what was going on, some one replied:
" Well, sir, since you desire to know, they want to
show you Madame de Lamballe's head." Meanwhile
the cries outside were growing louder. Another
municipal came in, followed by four delegates from
the mob. One of them, who carried a heayy sabre
in his hand, insisted that the prisoners should pre-
sent themselves at the window, but this was opposed
by the municipal officers, who were less cruel. This
man said to 'the Queen in an insulting tone : " They
want us to hide the Princess de Lamballe's head from
you when we brought it to let you see how the people
avenge themselves on their tyrants. I advise you to
show yourself if you don't want the people to come
up." Marie Antoinette fainted on learning her
friend's death in this manner. Her children burst
into tears and tried by their caresses to bring her
back to consciousness. The man did not go away.
" Sir," the King said to him, " we are prepared for
the worst, but you might have dispensed yourself
from informing the Queen of this frightful calamity."
THE PBINCES8 BE LAMBALLE'S MUBDEB. 357
Cldry, the King's valet, was looking through a corner
of the window blinds, and saw Madame de Lamballe's
head. The person carrying it had climbed up on a
heap of rubbish from the buildings in process of
demolition. Another, who stood beside him, held
her bleeding heart. Cl^ry heard Danjou expostu-
lating the crowd in words like these : " Antoinette's
head does not belong to you; the departments have
their rights in it also. France has confided these
great criminals to the care of Paris ; and it is your
business to assist us in guarding them until national
justice shall avenge the people." Then, addressing
himself to these cannibals as if they were heroes
whose courage and exploits he praised, he added,
in speaking of the profaned corpse of the Princess
de Lamballe : " The remains you have there are the
property of all. Do they not belong to all Paris?
Have you the right to deprive others of the pleasure
of sharing your triumph? Night will soon be here.
Make haste, then, to quit this precinct, which is too
narrow for your glory. You ought to place this trophy
in the Palais Royal or the Tuileries garden, where
the sovereignty of the people has been so often tram-
pled under foot, as an eternal monument of the vic-
tory you have just won." Remarks like these were
all that could prevent these tigers from entering the
Temple and destroying the prisoners. Shouts of
"To the Palais Royal!" proved to Danjou that his
harangue had been appreciated. The assassins at
last departed, after having covered his face with
358 THE DOWNFALL OF ROYALTY.
kisses that smelt of wine and blood. They wanted
to show their victim's head at the H6tel Toulouse,
the mansion of the venerable Duke d« Penthievre,
her father-in-law, but were deterred by the assurance
that she did not ordinarily live there, but at the
Tuileries. Then they turned toward the Palais
Royal. The Duke of Orleans was at a window with
his mistress, Madame de Buffon. He left it, but he
may have seen the head of his sister-in-law.
Some of the cannibals had remained in the neigh-
borhood of the Temple. Sitting down at table in a
wine-shop, they had the heart of the Princess de
Lamballe cooked, and ate it with avidity. " Thus,"
says M. de Beauchesne in his excellent work on
Louis XVII., " this civilization which had departed
from God, surpassed at a single bound the fury of
savages, and the eighteenth century, so proud of
its learning and humanity, ended by anthropophagy."
In the evening, when some one was giving Collot
d'Herbois an account of the day's performances, he
expressed but one regret, — that they had not suc-
ceeded in showing Marie Antoinette the remains of
the Princess de Lamballe. " What ! " he spitefully
exclaimed, " did they spare the Queen that impres-
sion? They ought to have served up her best friend's
head in a covered dish at her table."
XXXV.
THE SEPTEMBER MASSACRES.
LOVERS of paradoxes have tried to represent
the September massacres as something sponta-
neous, a passing delirium of opinion, a sort of great
national convulsion. This myth was a lie against
history and humanity. It exists no longer, Heaven
be thanked. The mists with which it was sought to
shroud these execrable crimes are now dissipated.
Light has been shed upon that series of infernal
spectacles which would have made cannibals blush.
No; these odious massacres were not the result of
a popular movement, an unforeseen fanaticism, a
paroxysm of rage or vengeance. They present an
ensemble of murders committed in cool blood, a
planned and premeditated thing. M. Mortimer-Ter-
naux, in his Histoire de la Terreur, M. Granier de
Cassagnac, in his Histoire des Grirondins et des Mas^
sacres de Septembre, have proved this abundantly.
They have exhumed from the archives and the rec-
ord offices such a mass of uncontested and incontes-
table documents, that not the slightest doubt is now
permissible. Edgar Quinet has not hesitated to recog-
nize this in his book, La RSvolution. He says : " The
369
360 THE DOWNFALL OF ROYALTY.
massacres were executed administratively ; the same
discipline was everywhere displayed throughout the
carnage. . . . This was not a piece of blind, sponta-
neous barbarism ; it was a barbarity slowly meditated,
minutely elaborated by a sanguinary mind. Hence
it bears no resemblance to anything previously known
in history. Marat harvested in September what he
had been sowing for three years." The Parisian
populace, eight hundred thousand souls, was inert;
it was cowardly, it trembled ; but it did not approve,
it was not an accomplice. It was a monstrous thing
that a handful of cut-throats should be enough to
transform Paris into a slaughter-house. One shud-
ders in thinking what a few criminals can accom-
plish in the midst of an immense population. " The
people, the real people — that composed of laborious
and honest workmen, ardent and patriotic at heart,
and of young bourgeois with generous aspirations and
indomitable couragfe — never united for an instant
with the scoundrels recruited by Maillard from every
kennel in the capital. While the hired assassins
of the Committee of Surveillance established in
the prisons what Vergniaud called a butcher's shop
for human flesh, the true populace was assembled
on the Champ-de-Mars, and before the enlistment
booths ; it was offering its purest blood for the coun-
try ; it would have blushed to shed that of helpless
unfortunates." ^ In 1871, the murder of hostages and
1 M. Mortimer- Temaux, Histoire de la Terreur.
TUE SEPTEMBER MASSACRES. 361
the burning of monuments was no more approved
by the population than the massacres in the prisons
were in 1792. The crimes were committed at both
epochs by a mere handful of individuals. The great
majority of the people were guilty merely of apathy
and fear.
The hideous tableau surpasses the most lugubrious
conceptions of Dante's sombre imagination. Paris
is a hell. From August 29, it is like a torpid Orien-
tal town. The whole city is in custody, like a crimi-
nal whose limbs are held while he is being searched
and put in irons. Every house is inspected by the
agents of the Commune. A knock at the door
makes the inmates tremble. The denunciation of
an enemy, a servant, a neighbor, is a death sentence.
People scarcely dare to breathe. Neither running
water nor solid earth is free. The parapets of quays,
the arches of bridges, the bathing and washing boats
are bristling with sentries. Everything is surrounded.
There is no refuge. Three thousand suspected per-
sons are taken out of houses, and crowded into prisons.
The hunt begins anew the following day. The pro-
gramme of massacres is arranged. The Communal
Council of Surveillance has minutely regulated every-
thing. The price of the actual work is settled. The
personnel of cut-throats is at its post. Danton has
furnished the executioners ; Manuel, the victims. All
is ready. The bloody drama can begin.
On September 2, Danton said to the Assembly :
" The tocsin about to sound is not an alarm signal ; it
362 THE DOWNFALL OF ROTALTT.
is a charge upon the enemies of the country. To van-
quish them, gentlemen, all that is needed is boldness,
and again boldness, and always boldness." Two days
before, he had been still more explicit. " The 10th
of August," said he, "divided us into republicans
and roj'alists; the first few in number, the second
many . . . ; we must make the royalists afraid," A
frightful gesture, a horizontal gesture, sufficed to
express his meaning.
Robbery preceded murder. It was a veritable raid.
The Commune caused the palaces, national property,
the Garde-Meuble, the houses and mansions of the
SmigrSs to be pillaged. One saw nothing but carts
and wagons transporting stolen goods to the Hotel-
de-Ville. All the plate was stolen from the churches
likewise. "Millions," says Madame Roland in her
Memoirs, "passed into the hands of people who
used it to perpetuate the anarchy which was the
source of their domination." When will the men of
the Commune render their accounts ? Never. Who
are the accomplices of Danton and Marat in organ-
izing the massacres ? A band of defaulting account-
ants, faithless violators of public trusts, breakers of
locks, swindlers, spies, and men overwhelmed with
debts. What interest have they in planning the
murders ? That of perpetuating the dictatorship
they had assumed on the eve of August 10, and,
above all, of having no accounts to render. A few
weeks later on, CoUot d'Herbois will say at the
Jacobin Club : " The 2d of September is the chief
article in the creed of our liberty."
THE SEPTEMBER MASSACRES. 363
The jailors were forewarned. They served the
prisoners' dinner earlier, and took away their knives.
There was a disturbed and uneasy look in their faces
which made the victims suspect their end was near.
Toward noon the general alarm was beaten in every
street. The citizens were ordered to return at once
to their dwellings. An order was issued to illumi-
nate every house when night fell. The shops were
closed. Terror overspread the entire city.
It was agreed that at the third discharge of can-
non the cut-throats should set to work. The first
blood shed was that of prisoners taken from the
mayoralty to the Abbey prison. The carriages con-
taining them passed along the Quai des Orf^vres, the
Pont-Neuf and rue Dauphine, until it reached the
Bussy square. Here there was a crowd assembled
around a platform where enlistments were going on.
The throng impeded the progress of the carriages.
Thereupon one of the escort opened the door of one
of them, and standing on the step, plunged his sabre
into the breast of an aged priest. The multitude
shuddered and fled in affright. " That makes you
afraid," said the assassin ; " you will see plenty more
like it."
The rest of the escort followed the example set
them. The carriages go on again, and so do the
massacres. They kill along the route, and they kill
on arriving at the Abbey. Towards five o'clock,
Billaud-Yarennes presents himself there, wearing his
municipal scarf. " People," says he — what he calls
364 THE DOWNFALL OF ROYALTY.
people is a band of salaried assassins — " people, thou
immolatest thine enemies, thou art doing thy duty."
Then he walks into the midst of the dead bodies,
dipping his feet in blood, and fraternizes with the
murderers. " There is nothing more to do here,"
exclaims Maillard; "let us go to the Carmelites."
At the Carmelites, one hundred and eighty priests,
crowded into the church and convent, were awaiting
their fate with pious resignation. Two days before,
Manuel had said to them ironically : " In forty-eight
hours you will all be free. Get ready to go into a
foreign country and enjoy the repose you cannot
find here." And on the previous day a gendarme
had said to the Archbishop of Aries, blowing the
smoke from his pipe into his face as he did so : " It
is to-morrow, then, that they are going to kill Your
Grandeur." A short time before the massacre began,
the victims were sent into the garden. At the bot-
tom of it was an orangery which has since become a
chapel. Mgr. Dulau, Archbishop of Aries, and the
Bishops of Beauvais and de Saintes, both of whom
were named de la Rochefoucauld, kneeled down with
the other priests and recited the last prayers. The
murderers approached. The Archbishop of Aries,
who was upwards of eighty, advanced to meet them.
" I am he whom you seek," he said ; " my sacrifice
is made ; but spare these worthy priests ; they will
pray for you on earth, and I in heaven." They
insulted him before they struck him. " I have never
done harm to any one," said he. An assassin
THE SEPTEMBER MASSACRES. 365
responded : " Very well ; I'll do some to you," and
killed him. The other priests were chased around
the garden from one tree to another, and shot down.
During this infernal hunt the murderers were shout-
ing with laughter and singing their favorite song;
Dansez la Carmagnole f
The massacre of the Carmelites is over. "Let us
go back to the Abbey!" cries Maillard; "we shall
find more game there." This time there is a pretence
of justice made. The tribunal is the vestibule of the
Abbey; Maillard, the chief cut-throat, is president;
the assassins are the judges, and the public, the Mar-
seillais, the sans-culottes, the female furies, and men
to whom murder was a delightful spectacle. The
prisoners are summoned one after another. They
enter the vestibule, which has a wicket as a door of
exit. They are questioned simply as a matter of
form. Their answers are not even listened to.
" Conduct this gentleman to the Force ! " says the
president. The prisoner thinks he is safe ; he does
not know that this phrase has been agreed upon as
the signal of death. On reaching the wicket, hatchet
and sabre strokes cut him down in the midst of his
dream. The Swiss officers and soldiers who had sur-
vived August 10 were murdered thus. Their torture
lasted a longer or shorter time, and was accom-
plished with more or less cruel refinements, according
to the caprice of the assassins, who were nearly all
drunk.
Night came, and torches were lighted. No
866 THE DOWNFALL OF ROYALTY.
shadows; a grand illumination. They must see
clearly in the slaughter house. Lanterns were
placed near the lakes of blood and heaps of dead
bodies, so as plainly to distinguish the work from the
workmen. There were some who were bent on losing
no details of the carnage. The spectators wanted to
take things easy. They were tired of standing too
long. Benches for men and others for dames were
got ready for them. The death-rattle of the agoniz-
ing, the vociferations of the assassins, the emulation
between the executioners who kill slowly and the
victims who are in haste to die, give joy to the spec-
tators. There is no interruption to the human
butchery. There has been so much blood spilled that
the feet of the murderers slip on the pavement.
A litter is made of straw and the clothes of the
victims, and thereafter none are killed except upon
this mattress. In this way the work is more com-
modiously accomplished. The assassins have plenty
of assurance. Morning dawns on the continuation
of the murders, and the wives of the murderers bring
them something to eat.
On September 2, the only persons handed over to
the cut-throats, were at the Abbey, the Carmelites,
and Saint-Firmin. On September 3, the massacre
became more general. The assassins had said: "If
there is no more work, we shall have to find some."
Their desire realizes itself. Work will not be lack-
ing. There is still some at the Force, where the
Princess de Lamballe, the preferred victim, is mur-
THE SEPTEMBER MAS8ACBE8. 367
dered. The assassins, who at the Abbey had been
paid at the r^te of eight francs a day, get only fifty
sous at the Force. They work with undiminished
zeal, even at this reduction. If necessary, they
would work for nothing. To drink wine and shed
blood is the essential thing. The negro Delorme,
servant to Fournier "the American," distinguishes
himself among them all. His black skin, reddened
with blood, his white teeth and ferocious eyes, his
bestial laugh, his ravenous fury, make him a choice
assassin. There is work too at the Conciergerie, at the
great and little Ch^telet, the Salpetriere, and the
Bic6tre. A great number of those detained are
people condemned or accused of private crimes which
had absolutely nothing in common with politics. No
matter ; blood is wanted ; they kill there as else-
where. At the Grand ChS,telet, work is so plenty,
and the assassins so few, that they release several
individuals imprisoned for theft, and impress them
into their service. One of these unfortunate acci-
dental executioners begins in a hesitating way, strikes
a few undecided blows, and then throws down the
hatchet placed in his hands. " No, no," he cries, " I
cannot. No, no ! Rather a victim than a murderer !
I would rather receive death from scoundrels like
you, then give it to innocent, disarmed people. Strike
me ! " And at once the veteran murderers kill
the inexperienced cut-throat. There was a woman,
known on account of her charms as the Beautiful
Flower Girl, who was accused of having wounded
868 THE DOWNFALL OF ROYALTY.
her lover, a French guard, in a fit of jealousy. Th^-
roigne de Mericourt, an amazon of the' gutters, was
her rival. She pointed her out to the assassins.
They fastened her naked to a post, her legs apart and
her feet nailed to the ground. They burned her
alive. They cut off her breasts ^vith sabre strokes.
They impaled her on a hot iron. Her shrieks carried
dismay as far as the outer banks of the Seine. Th^-
roigne was at the height of felicity.
At the Salpetridre there was still another spectacle.
This prison for fallen women is a place of correction
for the old, of amendment for the young, and an asy-
lum for those who are still children. More than forty
children of the lower classes were slain during these
horrible days. The delirium of murder reached its
height. Gorged with wine mingled with gunpowder,
intoxicated with the fumes and reek of carnage, the
assassins experienced a devouring, inextinguishable
thirst for blood which nothing could quench. More
blood, and yet more blood ! And where can it now
be found? The prisons are empty. There are no
more nobles, no more priests, to put to death. Very
well ! for lack of anything better, they will go' to an
asylum for the poor, the sick, and the insane ; to the
Bicetre. Vagabonds, paupers, fools, thieves, steward,
chaplains, janitor, all is fish that comes to their net.
The butchery lasts five days and nights without stop-
ping. Massacre takes every form; some are drowned
in the cellars, othei"S shot in the courts. Water, fire,
and sword, every sort of torture.
THE SEPTEMBER MASSACRES. 369
The cut-throats can at last take some repose. They
have worked all the week. There are still some,
however, who have not yet had enough, and who are
going to continue the massacres of Paris in the prov-
inces. The Communal Council of Surveillance has
taken care to send to every commune in France a
circular bearing the seal of the Minister of Justice,
inviting them to follow the example of the capital.
September 9, the prisoners who had been detained
at Orleans to be tried there by the Superior Court,
entered Versailles on carts. At the moment when
they approached the grating of the Orangery, assas-
sins sent from Paris under the lead of Fournier " the
American " sprang upon them and immolated every
one. Thus perished the former Minister of Foreign
Affairs, de Lessart, and the Duke de Brissac, former
commander of the Constitutional Guard. Fournier
"the American "1 returned on horseback to Paris and
began to caracole on the Place VendQme ; Danton
loudly felicitated him on the success of the expedi-
tion, from the balcony of the Ministry of Justice.
During all this time, what efforts had the Assembly
made to put a stop to the murders ? None, absolutely
none. Never has any deliberative body shown a like
cowardice. Neither Vergniaud's voice nor that of
any other Girondin was heard in protest. Indigna-
tion, pity, found not a single word to say. Speeches,
1 Claude Fournier-Lhfiritier, was born in Auvergne, 1745, and
served as a volunteer in Santo Domingo, 1772-85, with Toussaint
rOuverture, whence his sobriquet " the American."
370 THE DOWNFALL OF ROYALTY.
discussions, votes on different questions, went on as
usual. Concerning the massacres, not a syllable.
During that infamous week, neither the ministers, the
virtuous Roland not more than the others, neither
Potion, the mayor of Paris, nor the commander of the
National Guard sent a picket guard of fifty men to
any quarter to prevent the murders. A population
of eight hundred thousand souls and a National
Guard of fifty thousand men bent their necks under
the yoke of a handful of bandits, of two hundred and
thirty-five assassins (the exact number is known).
People trembled. At the Assembly the old moder-
ate party had disappeared. There were not more
than two hundred odd deputies present at the shame-
ful and powerless sessions. Terrorized Paris was in
a state of stupor and prostration.
The murderers ended by execrating themselves.
Tormented by remorse, they could see nothing be-
fore them but vivid faces, reeking entrails, bleeding
limbs. " Among the cut-throats," M. Louis Blanc
has said, " some gave signs of insanity that led to the
supposition that some mysterious and terrible drug
had been mingled with the wine they drank." Some
of them became furious madmen. Others sought
refuge in suicide, killing themselves the moment
they had no one else to kill. Others enlisted. They
were chased out of the army. Among these was the
man who had carried the head of the Princess de
Lamballe on a pike. One day when he was boasting
of his murders, the soldiers became indignant and
THE SEPTEMBER MASSACRES. 371
put him to death. Others still were tried as Sep-
tembrists and sent to the scaffold. The guilty-
received their punishment, even on this earth. Well !
there are people nowadays who would like to rehabil-
itate them ! In vain has Lamartine, the founder
of the Second Republic, exclaimed in a burst of noble
wrath : " Has human speech an execration, an anath-
ema, which is equal to the horror these crimes of can-
nibals inspire in me, as in all civilized men?" In
vain have the most celebrated historians of democ-
racy, Edgar Quinet and Michelet, expressed in elo-
quent terms their indignation against these crimes.
In vain has M. Louis Blanc said : " Every murder is
a suicide. In the victim the body alone is killed;
but what is killed in the murderer is the soul."
There are men who would not alone excuse, but
glorify the assassinations and the assassins !
XXXVI.
MADAME EOLAND DURING THE MASSACRES.
MADAME ROLAND'S hatred was appeased.
The ambitious hourgeoise throned it for the
second time at the Ministry of the Interior, and the
Queen groaned in captivity in the Temple tower.
The Egeria of the Girondins had not felt her heart
swell with a single movement of pity for Marie
Antoinette. The fatal 10th of August had seemed
to her a personal triumph in which her pride de-
lighted. The parvenue enjoyed the humiliations of
the daughter of the German CsBsars. Her jealous
instincts feasted on the afflictions of the Queen of
France and Navarre.
Lamartine, indignant at this cruelty on Madame
Roland's part, has repented of the eulogies he gave
her in his Histoire des Crirondins. In his Cours de
LittSrature (Volume XIII. Conversation XXIII.), he
says : "I glided over that medley of intrigue and pom-
posity which composed the genius, both feminine and
Roman, of this woman. In so doing, I conceded
more to popularity than to truth. I wanted to give
a Cornelia- to the Republic. As a matter of fact, I
do not know what Cornelia was, that mother of the
372
MADAME BOLAND DURING THE MASSACRES. 373
Gracchi who brought up conspirators against the
Roman Senate, and trained them to sedition, that
virtue of ambitious commoners. As to Madame
Roland, who inflated a vulgar husband by the breath
of her feminine anger against a court she found
odious because it did not open to her upstart vanity,
there was nothing really fine in her except her death.
Her rOle had been a mere parade of true greatness of
soul." What Lamartine finds fault with most of all
is her hostility to the martyr Queen. He adds :
" She inspired the Girondins, her intimate friends,
with an implacable hatred against the Queen, already
so humiliated and so menaced ; she had neither
respect nor pity for this victim; she points her
out to the rebellious multitude. She is no longer a
wife, a mother, or a Frenchwoman. She poses as
Nemesis at the door of the Temple, when the Queen
is groaning there over her husband, her children, and
herself, between the throne and the scaffold. This
ostentatious stoicism of implacability is what, in my
view, kills the woman in this female demagogue."
Alas ! if Madame Roland was guilty, she was to
be punished cruelly. The colleague of the virtuous
Roland was the organizer of the September massacres.
The republican sheepfold dreamed of by the admirer
of Jean-Jacques Rousseau was invaded by ferocious
beasts. Human nature had never appeared under a
more execrable aspect than since its so-called regen-
eration. Madame Roland was filled with a naive
astonishment. After having sown the wind she was
874 THE DOWNFALL OF BOYALTT.
utterly surprised to reap the whirlwind. What ! she
said to herself, my husband is minister, or, to speak
with great exactness, I am the minister myself, and
yet there are people in France who are dissatisfied !
Ungrateful nation, why dost thou not appreciate thy
happiness ? Madame Roland resembled certain poli-
ticians, who, having attained to power, would will-
ingly disembarrass themselves of those by whose aid
they reached it. For the second time she had just
arrived at the goal of her ambition. Who dared,
then, to pollute her joy? Why did that marplot,
Danton, come with his untimely massacres to destroy
such brilliant projects and banish such delightful
dreams ? The man who, as if in derision and antith-
esis, allowed himself to be called the Minister of
Justice, produced the effect of a monster on Madame
Roland. The republic as conceived by him had not
the head of a goddess, but of a Gorgon. Its eyes
glittered with a sinister lustre. The sword it held
was that of an assassin or a headsman.
Madame Roland was greatly astonished when, on
Sunday, September 2, 1792, toward five in the even-
ing, when the massacres had already begun, she saw
two hundred men of forbidding appearance arrive at
the Ministry of the Interior and ask for her husband,
who was absent. Lucky for him he was ; for albeit a
minister, they had come to arrest him in virtue of a
mandate of the Communal Council of Surveillance.
Not fmding Roland, the two hundred men retired.
One of them, with his shirt-sleeves rolled up to his
MADAME ROLANB DURING THE MASSACRES. 375
elbows, and a sabre in his hand, declaimed furiously
against the treachery of ministers. A few minutes
later, Danton said to Potion : " Do you know what
they have taken into their heads ? If they haven't
issued a decree to arrest Roland ! " — " Who did
that?" demanded the mayor. — "Eh ! those devils of
committeemen. I have taken the mandate ; hold I
here it is ! "
What was Madame Roland doing the next day,
when the worst of the massacres were going on?
She gave a dinner, and allowed the Prussian, Ana-
charsis Clootz, who came, moreover, uninvited, to make
a regular defence of these horrible murders. " The
events of the day," she says in her Memoirs, "formed
the subject of conversation. Clootz pretended to
prove that it was an indispensable and salutary meas-
ure ; he uttered a good many commonplaces about
the people's rights, the justice of their vengeance,
and of its utility to the welfare of the species ; he
talked a long while and very loudly, ate still more,
and fatigued more than one listener."
And yet, revolutionary passions had not extin-
guished every notion of humanity and justice in
Madame Roland's soul. On that very day she in-
duced her husband to write a letter to the National
Assembly concerning the massacres. But how weak
and undecided is this letter, and how public opinion
must have been lowered and debased when it could
regard Roland as a courageous minister ! In place
of scathing the murderers with the energy of an hon-
376 THE DOWNFALL OF ROYALTY.
est man, he pleads extenuating circumstances in their
favor. " It is in the nature of things and according
to the human heart," he said in his pale missive,
" that victory should lead to some excesses. The
sea, agitated by a violent storm, continues to roar
long after the tempest ; but everything has its limits
and must finally see them determined. Yesterday
was a day over whose events we ought, perhaps, to
draw a veil. I know that the terrible vengeance of
the people carries with it a sort of justice ; but how
easy it is for scoundrels and traitors to abuse this
effervescence, and how necessary it is to arrest it ! "
This language produced not the least effect. The
massacres went on, and Roland remained minister ;
although in his letter of September 3 he had written :
" I ask the privilege of resigning if the silence of the
laws does not permit me to act." The virtuous Ro-
land sat in the Council beside his colleague, the
organizer of this human butchery. September 13, he
addressed a letter to the Parisians in which he burnt
incense to himself, bragged about his character, his
actions, and his firmness, and carried his infatuation
so far as to write : " I have twice accepted a burden
which I felt myself able to beai." Ah ! how difficult
it is to renoimce even a shadow of power, and of
what compromises with their couLciences are not
ministers capable in order to retain for a few days
longer the portfolios that are slipping from their
hands ! In the depths of his soul Roland, like his
wife, had the profoundest horror of the murders and
MADAME BOLAND DUBING THE MA8SACBES. 377
the murderers. And yet notice how he extenuates
them in his letter to the Parisians : " I admired
August 10 ; I trembled over the results of September
2 ; I carefully considered what the betrayed patience
of the people and their justice had produced, and I
did not blame a first impulse too inconsiderately ; I
believe that its further progress should have been
prevented, and that those who were seeking to per-
petuate it were deceived by their imagination or by
cruel and evil-minded men. If the erring brethren
recognize that they have been deceived, let them
come ; my arms are open to them." That was a
very prompt amnesty. Already the assassins are but
erring brethren, and the minister welcomes them to
his arms !
Thie Gironde kept silence, or, if it spoke, it was to
attribute, like Vergniaud, the massacres " to the Smi-
gres and the satellites of Coblentz." Later on, they
were horrified by the crimes, but it was when others
were to profit by them. Each taken by himself, the
Girondins did not hesitate to condemn the murders ;
but taken as a whole, they considered merely the in-
terests of their party. Were not three of them still
in the Ministerial Council ? What had they to com-
plain 1% then? The September massacres are the
most striking expression of what abominations the
ambitious may commit or allow to be committed in
order to maintain themselves a few weeks longer in
power.
But there is a voice in the depths of conscience
878 THE DOWNFALL OF EOYALTT.
which neither interest nor ambition can succeed in
stifling. Madame Roland could not blind herself.
The odious reality appeared to her. At last she saw
the yawning gulf beneath her feet, and she uttered
a cry of terror. A secret voice warned her that her
fate would be like that of the September victims.
After the 9th of that fatal month her imagination
was vividly impressed. Bloody phantoms rose before
her. She wrote on that day to Bancal des Issarts : " If
you knew the frightful details of these expeditions.
. . . You know my enthusiasm for the Revolution ;
well, I am ashamed of it ; it has become hideous. In
a week . . . how do I know what may happen ? It
is degrading to remain in office, and we are not per-
mitted to leave Paris. We are detained so that we
may be destroyed at the propitious moment."
From that time a rising anger and indignation took
possession of the mind and heart of the Egeria of the
Girondins, and constantly increased until the hour
when she ascended the steps of the scaffold. She
writes in her Memoirs, apropos of the September
massacres : " All Paris witnessed these horrible scenes
executed by a small number of wretches (there were
but fifteen at the Abbey, at the door of which only
two National Guards were stationed, in spi^'^ of the
applications made to the Commune and the command-
ant). All Paris permitted it to go on. All Paris was
accursed in my eyes, and I no longer hoped that lib-
erty might be established among cowards, insensible
to the worst outrages that could be perpetrated
MADAME ROLAND DUBINO THE MASSACRES. 379
against nature and humanity, cold spectators of at-
tempts which the courage of fifty armed men could
have prevented with ease. ... It is not the first
night that astonishes me ; but four days ! — and
inquisitive people going to see this spectacle ! No,
I know nothing in the annals of the most barbarous
peoples which can compare with these atrocities."
What a striking lesson for those who play with
anarchical passions and end by falling themselves into
the snares they have laid for others ! Nothing is more
deserving of study than this retaliatory punishment
which is found, one may say, on every page of revolu-
tionary histories. The hour was coming when the
Girondins and their heroine would repent of the means
they had employed to overset the throne. This was
when the same means were employed against them,
when they recognized their own weapons in the
wounds they received. Then, when they had no
more interest in keeping silence, they sought to
escape a complicity that gained them nothing. In-
stead of the luminous heights which in their golden
dreams they had aspired to gain, they fell, crushed
and overwhelmed, into a dismal gulf, full of tears and
blood. How bitter then were their recriminations
against men and things ! It was only to virtue that
the dying Brutus said : " Thou art but a name." The
Girondins said it also to glory, to country, and to
liberty. Those among them who did not succeed in
fleeing, disavowed, denounced, and insulted each other
before the revolutionary tribunal. At the Concier-
880 THE DOWNFALL OF ROYALTY.
gerie they intoned the Marseillaise, but parodying
the demagogic chant in this wise : —
Centre nous de la tyrannie ^
Le couteau sanglant est lev^.
Read the Memoirs of Louvet, Buzot, Barbaroux,
Potion, and Madame Roland, and you will see to
what extremes of bitterness the language of deceived
ambition can go. They are paroxysms of rage, howls
of anger, shrieks of despair. Consider the difference
between philosophy and religion ! The philosophers
curse, and the Christian pardons. Yes, as Edgar
Quinet has said, " Louis XVI. alone speaks of for-
giveness on that scaffold to which the others were to
bring thoughts of vengeance and despair. And by
that he seems still to reign over those who were to
follow him in death with the passions and the furies
of earth." Louis XVI. will be magnanimous and
calm. A celestial sweetness will overspread his
royal countenance. An infernal rage will distort
the heart and the features of the Girondins. What
pains, what tortures, in their death-struggle ! Earth
fails them, and they do not look to heaven. What
accents of disgust and hatred when they speak of
their former accomplices, now become their execu-
tioners !
" Great God ! " Buzot will say, " if it is only by
such men and such infamous means that republics
^ The bloody knife of tyranny is lifted against us.
MADAME ROLAND DURING THE MASSACRES. 381
can arise and be consolidated, there is no government
more frightful on this earth nor more fatal to human
happiness." He will address these insults, worthy
of the imprecations of Camillus, to the city of Paris :
" I say truly, that France can expect neither liberty
nor happiness except from the irreparable destruction
of that capital."
Barbaroux will be still more severe. His anathe-
mas are launched not only at Paris, but at all France.
" The people," he says, " do not deserve that one
should become attached to them, for they are essen-
tially ungrateful. It is the absurdest folly to try to
conduct to liberty people without morals, who blas-
pheme God and adore Marat. These people are no
more fit for a philosophic government than the lazza-
roni of Naples or the cannibals of America. . . .
Liberty, virtue, sacred rights of men, to-day you are
nothing but empty names." Potion, before dying,
will write to his son this letter, which is like the
testament of the Gironde : " My greatest torment
will be to think that so many crimes went unpun-
ished; vengeance is here the most sacred of duties.
. . . My son, either the murderers of thy father and
thy country will be delivered to the severities of the
law and expiate their crimes upon the scaffold, or
thou art under obligation to free thy country from
them. They have broken all the ties of society;
their crimes are of such a nature that they do not
fall under ordinary rules. From such monsters every
one is authorized to purge the earth."
882 THE DOWNFALL OF ROYALTY.
Madame Roland will be not less vehement than
Buzot, Barbaroux, and Potion. She will address
these severe but just reproaches to her friends who
had not been valiant enough in their own defence :
" They temporized with crime, the cowards ! They
were to fall in their turn, but they succumb shame-
fully, pitied by nobody, and with nothing to expect
from posterity but utter contempt. . . . Rather than
obey their tyrants, than descend from the bar and go
out of the Assembly like a timid flock about to be
branded by the butcher, why did they not do justice
to themselves by falling on the monsters to annihilate
them rather than be sentenced by them ? " It is not
her friends alone whom her anger will lash, but the
sovereign people, the people once so flattered, whom
she will pursue with her anathemas. " The people,"
she will say, " can feel nothing but the cannibal joy
of seeing blood flow, in order that they may run
no risk of shedding their own. That predicted time
has come when, if they ask for bread, dead bodies
will be given them ; but their degraded nature takes
pleasure in the spectacle, and the satisfied instinct of
cruelty makes the dearth supportable until it becomes
absolute." The Egeria of the Girondins will com-
prehend that all is lost, that even her blood will be
sterile, and that France is condemned either to anar-
chy or a dictatorship. " Liberty," she will exclaim,
" was i^ot made for this corrupt nation, which leaves
the bed of debauchery or the dunghill of poverty
only to brutalize itself in license, and howl as it
MADAME ROLAND DURING THE MASi^ACRES. 383
wallows in the blood streaming from scaffolds."
Like the damned souls in Dante, Madame Roland
will leave all hope behind, and when, a few days
after Marie Antoinette, she ascends the steps of the
guillotine, instead of thinking of heaven, like the
Queen, she will address this sarcastic speech to the
plaster statue which has replaced that of Louis XV. :
" O Liberty ! how they have betrayed thee ! "
But let us not anticipate. The Girondins are still
to have a glimmer of joy. The Republic is about to
be proclaimed.
XXXVII.
THE PROCLAMATION OF THE REPUBLIC.
" /^NE of the astonishing things in the French
V_y Revolution," says one of the most eminent
writers of the democratic school, Edgar Quinet, " is
the unexpectedness with which the great changes
occur. The most important events, the destruction
of the monarchy and the advent of the Republic,
came about without any previous warning." The
most ardent republicans were royalists, not merely
under the old regime, but after 1789, and even up to
August 10, 1792. Marat wrote, in No. 374 of the
Ami du Peuple, February 17, 1791: "I have often
been represented as a mortal enemy of royalty, but I
claim that the King has no better friend than my-
self." And he added: "As to Louis XVI. person-
ally, I know very well that his defects are chargeable
solely to his education, and that by nature he is an
excellent sort of man, whom one would have cited as
a worthy citizen if he had not had the misfortune to
be bom on the throne ; but, such as he is, he is at
all events the King we want. We ought to thank
Heaven for having given him to us. We ought to
pray that he may be spared to us." Marat praying,
384
THE PBOCLAMATION OF THE REPUBLIC. 385
Marat thanking Heaven ! and for whom ? For the
King. Does not that prove what deep root royalty
had taken in France? April 20, 1792, the same
Marat bitterly reproached Condorcet with "shame-
lessly calumniating the Jacobin Club, and perfidi-
ously accusing it of wishing to destroy the monarchy"
(i' Ami du Peuple, No. 434). June 13, he attacked
those who violated the oath taken at the time of the
Federation, and said : " To defend the Constitution
is the same thing as to be faithful to the nation, the
law, and the King " (i' Ami du Peuple, No. 448).
During the entire continuance of the Legislative
Assembly, when Robespierre, having left the tribune,
was pretending to educate the people by means of his
journal, what he defended to the utmost was the royal
Constitution. Madame Roland relates that after
the flight to Varennes, when the prospect of a repul)-
lic loomed up, possibly for the first time, at a secret
meeting, Robespierre, grinning as usual, and biting
his nails, asked ironically what a republic might be.
In June, 1792, the entire Jacobin Club was royalist
still. It proposed to drop Billaud- Varennes, because
Billaud- Varennes had dared to put the monarchical
principle in question. On the 7th of July following,
two months and a half, that is, before the opening of
the Convention, at the time of the famous Lamourette
Kiss, all the members of the Assembly swore to exe-
crate the Republic forever. Three weeks after Septem-
ber 2, Danton alleged the paucity and the weakness
of the republicans, compared with the royalists, as
386 THE DOWNFALL OF BOYALTY.
motives for the massacres. Potion has said : " When
the insurrection of August 10 was undertaken, there
were but five men in France who desired a republic."
Buzot, Madame Roland's idol, has written: "A
wretched mob, unintelligent and unenlightened, vom-
ited forth insults against royalty; the rest neither
desired nor willed anything but the Constitution of
1791, and spoke of the republicans just as one speaks
of extremely honest fools. This people is republican
only through force of the guillotine." And yet, Sep-
tember 21, 1792, the Convention, holding its first sit-
ting in the Hall of the Manage, began by proclaiming
the Republic.
Buzot, in his Memoirs, has thus described the dep-
utations that were sent to the bar, and the public that
occupied the galleries : " It seemed as if the outlet of
every sewer in Paris and other great cities had been
searched for whatever was most filthy, hideous, and
infected. Villainously dirty faces, surmounted by
shocks of greasy hair, and with eyes half sunk into
their heads, they spat out, with their nauseating
breath, the grossest insults mingled with the sharp
snarls of carnivorous beasts. The galleries were
worthy of such legislators : men whose frightful
aspect betokened crime and poverty, and women
whose shameless faces expressed the filthiest debauch-
ery. When all these with hands and feet and voice
made their horrible racket, one seemed to be in an
assembly of devils."
When the session opened, Collot d'Herbois was
THE PBOCLAMATION OF THE REPUBLIC. 387
the first speaker. He said : " There is a matter
which you cannot put off until to-morrow, which you
cannot put off until this evening, which you cannot
defer for a single instant without being unfaithful
to the wishes of the nation ; it is the abolition of
royalty." Quinet having objected that it would be
better to present this question when the Constitution
was to be discussed, Gr^goire, constitutional Bishop
of Blois, exclaimed : " Certainly, no one will ever
propose to us to preserve the deadly race of kings in
France. All the dynasties have been breeds of rav-
enous beasts, living on nothing but human flesh ;
still it is necessary to reassure plainly the friends of
liberty; this magic talisman, which still has power
to stupefy so many men, must be destroyed." Bazire
remarked that it would be a frightful example to the
people to see an Assembly which they had entrusted
with their dearest interests, resolve upon anything in
a moment of enthusiasm and without thorough dis-
cussion. Gr^goire replied with vehemence : " Eh !
what need is there of discussion when everybody is
of the same mind? Kings, in the moral order, are
what monsters are in the physical order. Courts are
the workshop of crime and the lair of tyrants. The
history of kings is the martyrology of nations ; we
are all equally penetrated by this truth. What is the
use of discussing it ? " Then the question, put to
vote in these terms : " The National Convention
declares that royalty is abolished in France," was
adopted amidst applause.
388 THE DOWNFALL OF ROYALTY.
At four in the afternoon of the same day, a munic-
ipal officer named Lubin, surrounded by mounted
gendarmes and a large crowd of people, came to read
a proclamation before the Temple tower. The trum-
pets were sounded. A great silence ensued, and
Lubin, who had a stentorian voice, read loud enough
to be heard by the royal family confined in the dun-
geon, this proclamation, the death knell of monarchy :
" Royalty is abolished in France. All public acts
will be dated from the first year of the Republic.
The seal of State will be inscribed with this motto :
Repuhlique frangaise. The National Seal will repre-
sent a woman seated on a sheaf of arms, holding in
one hand a pike surmounted by a liberty-cap." Hubert
(the famous P^re Duchesne) was at this moment on
guard near the royal family. Sitting on the threshold
of their chamber, he sought to discover a movement
of vexation or anger, or any other emotion on their
faces. He was unsuccessful. While listening to the
revolutionary decree which snatched away his throne,
the descendant of Saint Louis, Henry IV., and Louis
XIV. experienced not the slightest trouble. He had
a book in his hand, and he quietly went on reading
it. As impassive as her spouse, the Queen neither
made a movement nor uttered a word. When the
proclamation was finished, the trumpets sounded
again. Cl^ry then went to the window, and the eyes
of the crowd turned instantly towards him. As they
mistook him for Louis XVI., they overwhelmed him
with insults. The gendarmes made threatening ges-
THE PROCLAMATION OF THE REPUBLIC. 389
tures, and he was obliged to withdraw so as to quiet
the tumult. While the populace was unchained
around the Temple prison, one man alone was calm,
one man alone seemed a stranger to all anxiety: it
was the prisoner.
A new era begins. The death-struggle of royalty
is over. Royalty is dead, and the King is soon to die.
Gr^goire, who had stolen the vote (there were but
371 conventionists present ; 374 were absent ; that is
to say, more than half), is both surprised and enthu-
siastic about what he has done. He confesses that
for several days his excessive joy deprived him of
appetite and sleep. Such joy will not last very long.
M. Taine compares revolutionary France to a badly
nourished workman, poor, and overdriven with toil,
and yet who drinks strong liquors. At first, in his
intoxication, he thinks he is a millionnaire, loved and
admired ; he thinks himself a king. " But soon the
radiant visions give place to black and monstrous
phantoms. ... At present, France has passed
through the period of joyous delirium, and is about
to enter on another that is sombre ; behold it, capable
of daring, suffering, and doing all things, whenever
its guides, as widely astray as itself, shall point out
an enemy or an obstacle to its fury."
How quickly the disenchantments come ! Already
Lafayette, the man of generous illusions, has had to
imitate the conduct of those emigrSs on whom he has
been so severe. He has fled to a foreign land, and
found there not a refuge, but a prison. He will
390 THE DOWNFALL OF ROYALTY.
remain more than five years in the gloomy fortress
of Olmutz. The victor of Valmy, Dumouriez, will
hardly be more fortunate. He will go over to the
enemy, and live in exile on a pension from foreign
powers. How close together deceptions and recan-
tations come ! Marat, who had already said to the
inhabitants of the capital : " Eternal cockneys, with
what epithets would I not assail you in the tran-
sports of my despair, if I knew any more humili-
ating than that of Parisians ? " ^ Marat, who had
said to all Frenchmen : " No, no ; liberty is not made
for an ignorant, light, and frivolous nation, for
cits brought up in fear, dissimulation, knavery, and
lying, nourished in cunning, intrigue, sycophancy,
avarice, and swindling, subsisting only by theft and
rapine, aspiring after nothing but pleasures, titles,
and decorations, and always ready to sell themselves
for gold ! " 2 Marat will write. May 7th, 1793, that
is to say, at the apogee of his favorite political
system : " All measures taken up to the present day
by the assemblies, constituent, legislative, and con-
ventional, to establish and consolidate liberty, have
been thoughtless, vain, and illusory, even supposing
them to have been taken in good faith. The gi-eater
part seem to have had for their object to perpetuate
oppression, bring on anarchy, death, poverty, and
famine ; to make the people weary of their independ-
ence, to make liberty a burden, to cause them to
^ Ami du Peuple, No. 429. ^ ^^j ^^ Peuple, No. 539.
THE PROCLAMATION OF THE BEPUBLIC. 391
detest the Revolution, through its excessive disorders,
to exhaust them by watching, fatigue, want, and
inanition, to reduce them to despair by hunger, and
to bring them back to despotism by civil war." ^
There were six ministers appointed on August 10.
Two of them, Clavi^re and Roland, will kill them-
selves ; two others, Lebrun-Tondu and Danton, will
be guillotined; the remaining two, Servan and
Monge, are destined to become, one a general of
division under Napoleon, and the other a senator of
the Empire and Count of P^luse ; and when, at the
beginning of his reign, the Emperor complains to
the latter because there are still partisans of the
Republic to be found : " Sire," the former minister of
August 10 will answer, " we had so much trouble to
make them republicans ! may it please Your Majesty
kindly to allow them at least a few days to become
imperialists ! " Of the two men who had so enthu-
siastically brought about the proclamation of the
Republic, one, Collot d'Herbois, will be transported
to Guiana by the republicans, and die there in a
paroxysm of burning fever ; the other, Gr^goire, will
be a senator of the Empire, which will not, however,
prevent him from promoting the deposition of
Napoleon as he had promoted that of Louis XVI.
There are men who will exchange the jacket of the
sans-culotte for the gilded livery of an imperial
functionary. The conventionists and regicides are
1 La Publiciste de la R^publique, No. 211.
392 THE DOWNFALL OF ROYALTY.
transformed into dukes and counts and barons.
David, the official painter of the Empire, Napoleon's
favorite, will paint with joy the picture of a pope,
and be very proud of his great picture of the new
Charlemagne's coronation. But listen to Edgar
Quinet : " When I see the orators of deputations
taking things with such a high hand at the bar, and
lording it so proudly over mute and complaisant
assemblies, I should like to know what became of
them a few years later." And thereupon he sets out
to discover their traces. But after considerable inves-
tigation he stops. " If I searched any further," he
exclaims, " I should be afraid of encountering them
among the petty employes of the Empire. It was
quite enough to see Huguenin, the indomitable presi-
dent of the insurrectionary Commune, so quickly
tamed, soliciting and obtaining a post as clerk of
town gates as soon as absolute power made its reap-
pearance after the 18th Brumaire. The terrible
Santerre becomes the gentlest of men as soon as he is
pensioned by the First Consul. Hardly had Bourdon
de rOise and Albitte, those men of iron, felt the rod
than you see them the supplest functionaries of the
Empire. The great king-taker, Drouet, thrones it
in the sub-prefecture of Sainte-Menehould. Napo-
leon has related that, on August 10, he was in a shop
in the Carrousel, whence he witnessed the taking of
the palace. If he had a presentiment then, he must
have smiled at the chaos which he was to reduce so
easily to its former limits. How many furies, and all
to terminate so soon in the accustomed obedience I "
THE PROCLAMATION OF THE REPUBLIC. 393
Is not history, with its perpetual alternatives of
license and despotism, like a vicious circle ? And do
not the nations pass their time in producing webs of
Penelope, whose bloody threads they weave and un-
weave again with tears ? All governments, royalties,
empires, republics, ought to be more modest. But all,
profoundly forgetful of the lessons of the past, believe
themselves immortal. All declare haughtily that
they have closed forever the era of revolutions.
With the advent of the Republic a new calendar
had been put in force. The equality of days and
nights at the autumnal equinox opened the era of
civil equality on September 22. " Who would have
believed that this human geometry, so profoundly
calculated, was written in the sand, and that in a
few years no traces of it would remain ? . . . The
heavens have continued to gravitate, and have
brought back the equality of days and nights; but
they have allowed the promised liberty and equality
to perish, like meteors that vanish in empty space. . . .
The sans-culottes have not been able to make them-
selves popular among the starry peoples. . . . An
ancient belief which the men of the Revolution had
neglected through fear or through contempt was again
met with ; a spectre had appeared ; a chilly breath,
like that of Samuel, had made itself felt ; and lo, the
edifice so sagely constructed, and leaning on the
worlds, has vanished away." ^
1 Edgar Quinet, La Revolution, t. 11.
394 THE DOWNFALL OF ROYALTY.
There lies at the foundation of history a supreme
sadness and melancholy. This never-ending series
of illusions and deceptions, errors and afflictions,
faults and crimes ; this rage, and passion, and folly ;
so many efforts and fatigues, so many dangers, tor-
tures, and tears, so much blood, such revolutions,
catastrophies, cataclysms of every sort, — and all for
what ? Wretched humanity, rolling its stone of Sisy-
phus from age to age, inspires far more compassion
than contempt. The painful reflections caused by
the annals of all peoples are perhaps more sombre
for the French Revolution than for any other period.
Edgar Quinet justly laments over the inequality
between the sacrifices of the victims and the results
obtained by posterity. He affirms that in other his-
tories one thing reconciles us to the fury of men,
and that is the speedy fecundity of the blood they
shed; for example, when one sees that of the martyrs
flow, one also sees Christianity spread over the earth
from the depth of the catacombs ; while amongst us,
the blood which streamed most abundantly and from
such lofty sources, did not find soil equally well pre-
pai^ed. And the illustrious historian exclaims sadly :
"The supreme consolation has been refused to our
greatest dead; their blood has not been a seed of
virtue and independence for their posterity. If they
should reappear once more, they would feel themselves
tortured again, and on a worse scaffold, by the denial
of their descendants ; they would hurl at us again the
same adieu : ' O Liberty ! how they have betrayed
thee I'"
INDEX.
Abbey prison, the, massacre of the
prisoners of, 363.
Ankarstrcem, Captain, the assassin
of Gustavus III., 37, 41.
Aries, Archbishop of, massacre of,
364.
Assassins, the, of the September
massacres, 362 et seq.; their fate,
370.
Assignats created, 128.
Aubier, M. d', on the King's unwar-
like disposition, 288 ; with the
King in the Convent of the Feuil-
lants, 330.
Barbarous, visionary schemes of,
271 ; declares the King might
have maintained himself, 285;
anathemas of, on the Septem-
brists, 381.
Barry, Madame du, her letter to
Marie Antoinette, 138.
Beaumarchais compared with Du-
mouriez, 95.
Belgium, the invasion of, a failure,
136.
Beugnot, Count, his description of
Madame Roland, 87, 92 ; philo-
sophic remarks of, on woman,
108.
Billaud-Varennes, 246 ; at the
Abbey, 363.
Blanc, M. Louis, quoted, 370.
Bonne-Carrere, director of foreign
affairs, portrait of, 101.
Bossuet quoted, 134.
Bouill^, Count de, warns Gustavus
III. of the conspiracy against
him, 38; his judgment on Gus-
tavus III., 43.
Bouille, Marquis de, suppresses the
insurrection at Nancy, 111, 133.
Brissac, Duke of, his devotion to
royalty, 137 et seq.; intolerable
to the Jacobins, 141 ; accused in
the Assembly, 144 ; assassinated,
147, 369.
Brunswick, Duke of, his manifesto,
267.
Buzot, Madame Roland's affection
for, 64 ; quoted, 386.
Calvet, M., sent to the Abbey, 144.
Campan, Madame, describes the
Queen's emotion on hearing of
her brother's death, 28; her ac-
count of Dumouriez' interview
with the Queen, 155 ; in peril in
the Tuileries, 324.
Carmelite church, massacre at, 364.
Chateaubriand, quotation from, 9.
Chateauvieux, the fete of, 110 et
seq.; mutinous soldiers of, pun-
ished, 112 ; feted by the Jacobins,
113, 118; admitted to the Assem-
bly, 117.
Che'nier, Andre, patriotic conduct
of, 113, 124; his ode to David,
119 ; his fate, 124.
Claviere made Minister of the Fi-
nances, 103, 160.
Clootz, Anacharsis, defends the Sep-
tember massacres, 375.
ConUdie-Fran<iaise, the, in the
Revolution, 10.
Commune, insurrectionary, formed
in the H6tel-de-Ville, 281 ; refuse
to extinguish the tire at the
Tuileries, 326, 335, 345, 355; in-
vites every commune in France
396
396
INDEX.
to follow the example of massa- \
ere in Paris, 369 ; terrorize the j
Assembly, 370; order the arrest
of Roland, 374, 378.
Constitutional Guard, the composi-
tion of, 140 ; disarmed, 145.
Ck)rdeliers, club of the, 7; chiefs
of, 7 ; decide to attack the Tui-
leries, 274.
Danjoa tarns the mob bearing the
Princess de Lamballe's head away
from the Temple, 355.
Danton, cowardice of, 271, 316; his
bloodthirsty speech to the Assem-
bly, 361, 374; fate of, 391.
Dauphin, the, the red cap set on his
head, 213; bis interest in the
guard, Drouet, 217, 219; his
prayer for the King, 220 ; on the
morning of August 10, 284 ; taken
from his mother's arms by an
insurrectionist, 297; in the As-
sembly, 299; in the Convent of
the Feuillants, 329, 333; prayer
taught him by his mother, 347.
David, his part in the fete of
Chateauvieux, 119 ; conversation
of, 319 ; under the Empire, 392.
Delorme, the negro assassin, 367.
Desilles, killed in the insurrection
at Nancy, 111.
Drouet, the royalist guard, 217.
Dumouriez, portrait of, by Madame
Roland, 94; Minister of Foreign
Affairs, 95; "a miserable in-
triguer," 95; his career, 96;
Masson's description of him, 98 ;
plays a double part, 101 ; his de-
scription of Louis XVI., 104 ;
made Minister of Foreign Affairs,
103; Memoirs of, quoted, 127,
129, 130 ; urges the King to sign
the decree for the transportation
of the clergy, 150 ; has an inter-
view with the Queen, 153 ; refuses
to be Madame Roland's puppet,
158; aids the King to be rid of
Roland and his faction, 164;
takes the portfolio of War, 166;
before the Assembly, 167; re-
signs, 169; final interview of,
with the King, 171 ; entreats him
not to veto the decrees, 172 et
seq. ; goes to the army, 174.
Duranton, made Minister of Jus-
tice, 103, 160.
Elisabeth, Madame, letter of, con-
cerning tlie fete of Chateauvieux,
120; remains with the King dur-
ing the invasion of the Tuileries,
200 ; mistaken by the mob for
Marie Antoinette, 202 ; rejoins the
Queen, 212 ; letter of, to Madame
de Kaigecourt, 239 ; cherishes
false illusions, 265 ; pious maxim
of, 276 ; her gentleness, 295 ;
prayer of, in the Temple, 347.
Emigration of the nobility the rule
in 1792, 2.
Federation, fete of the, 249 et seq.
Fersen, Count de, new information
concerning, 14; his chivalric de-
votion to Marie Antoinette, 15;
their correspondence, 16; secret
mission of, 18 ; sees the King and
Queen, 19; his melancholy end,
21,22.
Feuillants, Convent of the, royal
family imprisoned in, 328 et seq.
Feuillants, club of, 6.
Force, the, prison of, 350.
Fournier, " the American," 369.
Francis II., warlike acts of, 127.
Geoffroy, M., remarks of, on Gus-
tavus III., 33; quoted, 132.
Girondins, the, 177 ; hesitate to
depose the King, 271 ; tacitly
approve the massacres, 377.
Grouges, Olympe de, 240.
Gouvion, M. de, protests against
admitting the Swiss to the As-
sembly, 116 ; death of, 167,
Grand Chatelet, massacres at, 367.
INDEX.
397
Grave, de, made Minister of War,
103 ; replaced by Servan, 160.
Gre'goire urges the abolition of
royalty, 387 ; career of, after the
Revolution, 391.
Guadet, hostility of, to Lafayette,
234.
Guillotine, Doctor, and his inven-
tion, 12.
Guillotine, the, 12; diversion of
society over, 13.
Gustavus III., his interest in Marie
Antoinette, 17; trusted by her,
17 ; letter of, to her, 18 ; at Aix-
la-Chapelle, 32 ; his supersti-
tion, 34; his promises to Louis
XVI., 36; conspiracy against, 37
et seq.; assassination of, 40 et
seq.; scenes at his death, 42 ; char-
acter of, 43.
Hannaches, Mademoiselle d', 30,77.
Hebert, Abbe, confesses the King,
276.
Hebert (P^re Duchesne) on guard
at the Temple, 388.
Heine, Heinrich, quoted, 278.
Herbois, Collot d', his part in the
affair of the regiment of Chateau-
vieux, 112 et seq. ; attacks Andre
Chenier, liA; fate of, 125; boasts
of the 2d of September, 362;
urges the abolition of royalty,
387 ; fate of, 391.
Hervelly, M. d', brings the order to
the Swiss to cease firing, 310.
Hue, Fran9ois, with the King in his
captivity, 331 ; receives from the
King a lock of his hair, 346.
Huguenin, the orator of the insur-
rectionists of June 20, 192 ; chief
of the Commune, 316.
Insurrectionists of June 20, organ-
ization of, 182 ; enter the hall of
the Assembly, 193; break into
the Tuilerits, 198.
Isle, Rouget de 1', author of the
Marseillaise, 269.
Jacobin Club, place of its meeting,
5; its affiliations, 6; Lafayette's
remarks on, 9; joy of at, the death
of Gustavus III., 44; the insur-
rectionary power of, 177 ; of Brest
and Marseilles, send two battal-
ions to Paris, 268; royalist, in
June, 1792, 385.
Jourdan, the headsman, 120.
June 20, insurrection of, 186 et seq.
La Chesnaye commands the force
in the Tuileries, 293.
Lacoste, made Minister of the Ma-
rine, 103.
Lafayette, letter of, to the Assem-
bly, 178 et seq. ; his letter not
published, but referred to a com-
mittee, 181; his relations to the
Jacobins, 230 ; before the National
Assembly, 232 ; distrusted by the
King and Queen, 236; anxious
that the King should leave Paris,
256.
Lalanne, the grenadier, and Louis
XVI., 200.
Lamartine, quoted, 131; his observa-
tions on Lafayette, 231; on Mar
dame Roland, 372.
Lamballe, Princess of, 121, 321, 331 ;
not allowed to go to the Temple
with the Queen, 343 ; sent to
the Force, 350 et seq. ; examina-
tion and execution of, 352 et seq. ;
her body mutilated and her head
carried on a pike to the Temple,
355; her heart eaten, 358.
Lamourette, Abbe, his career, 241 ;
his speech to the Assembly and
his proposition for harmony, 242.
Laporte burns the Countess de la
Motte's book at the Queen's
order, 142.
Lebel, Madame de, 353.
Legendre, addresses the King in-
solently, 202.
Leopold II., his interest in French
affairs, 23 ; death of, 27.
Lessart, de, report of, disapproved
398
INDEX.
by the Assembly, 28 ; impeached,
30 ; massacre of, 369.
Lilienhorn, Count de, one of the
assassins of Gustavus III., 37, 45.
Logographe, box of the, 299 et seq.
Louis XVI., despised by the ^mi-
gr€s, 25; letter of, to Gustavus
III., 36 ; appoints a ministry cho-
sen by the Gironde, 103 ; his def-
erence to his ministers, 104 et
seq.; declares war on Austria,
126, 129 ; sufferings of, 132 ; not a
soldier, 133, 139; has no plan,
135 ; anecdotes of, by M. de Vau-
blanc, 139, 140; sacrifices his
guard, 145; repents his conces-
sions, 148 ; for several days in a
sort of stupor, 151; insulted by
Roland and his faction, 160 ; Ma-
dame Roland's letter to him read
in the Council, 1G4 ; asks Dumou-
riez to help rid him of Roland's
faction, 164; refuses to sign the
decree against the priests, 169;
accepts the resignation of Du-
mouriez, 169 ; resists Dumouriez'
entreaties not to veto the decrees,
172 ; vetoes the decrees, 181 ;
permits the gate of the Tui-
leries to be opened to the mob,
195 ; his conduct at the invasion
of the Tuileries, 199 et seq. ; his
reception of the mob in the
'Tuileries, 201; addressed by the
butcher Legendre, 202 ; in bodily
peril, 203; returns to the bed-
chamber, 208 ; letter of, to the As-
sembly relative to the invasion
of the Tuileries, 223; interview
of, with Petion, 224 ; incident of
the red bonnet, 226; conversation
of, with Bertrand de MoUeville,
227 ; repugnance of, to Lafayette,
236; address of, to the Assembly,
243; letter of, to the Assembly,
245 ; his plastron, 248 ; takes part
in the fete of the Federation, 249
et seq. ; too timorous and hesita-
ting to act, 257 ; nominates a new
cabinet, 269; conciliatory mes-
sage of, to the Assembly, 270;
declines to entertain any plan of
escape, 273; consents that the
royalist noblemen should defend
him, 284; unwarlike character
of, 288 ; reviews the troops in the
Tuileries garden and narrowly
escapes from them, 289; urged
by Roederer, goes with his family
to the Assembly, 292 et seq. ; his
escort, 295 ; addresses the Assem-
bly, 300 ; compelled to remain in
the reporters' gallery, 300 ; orders
the defenders of the Tuileries to
cease firing, 305; deposition of,
proposed in the Assembly, 317;
acts like a disinterested spectator,
318 ; taken to the Convent of the
Feuillants, 328; transferred to
the Temple, 334, 339; his quar-
ters, 341; gives lessons to the
Dauphin in the Temple, 342 : de-
prived of his sword, 346; hears
the proclamation abolishing roy-
alty without emotion, 388.
Louvet, the author of Faublas, 54;
editor of the Sentinelle, and
Madame Roland's confidant, 89
et seq.
Maillard, president of the tribunal
at the Abbey, 365.
Mailly, Marshal de, the chief of the
two hundred noblemen in the
Tuileries, 284.
Malta, Knights of, 338.
Mandat, M. de, receives from
Petion an order to repel force,
280;- goes to the H6tel-de-Ville
and is massacred, 281.
Marat incites to the deposition of
the king, 270; on Louis XVI., 384.
Marie Antoinette, chivalric devo-
tion of Count de Fersen for, 15 ;
her correspondence with him, 16 ;
places absolute confidence in
Gustavus III., 17; letter of, to
her brother Leopold, 25; condi<
INDEX.
399
tion of, in 1792, 73; has an in-
terview with Dumouriez, 153;
annoyed and insulted by the
populace, 156, 157; during the
invasion of the Tuileries, 210 et
seq.; opposed to vigorous meas-
ures, 222; her distrust of Lafay-
ette and preference for Danton,
237; present at the fete of the
Federation, 251 et seq. ; her alarm
at the King's peril, 253; midnight
alarms of, 259 ; insulted by fed-
erates and forced to keep to her
apartments, 261; her estimate of
the King's character, 263; on
the night of August 9, 276 ; takes
. refuge in the Assembly, 299;
her hopes excited by the sound
of artillery, 304; in the box of
the Logographe, 321 ; in the Con-
vent of the Feuillante, 332; in
the Temple, 343 ; faints when she
hears of the Princesse de Lam-
balle's death, 356.
Marseillaise, the, Rouget de I'lsle's
new hymn, 269.
Marseilles, federates of, arrive in
Paris, 268; the scum of the jails,
269; at the Tuileries, 290, 306
et seq., 309.
Masson, M. Frederic, his descrip-
tion of Dumouriez, 98.
Ministry appointed by the King
resign ; new, appointed, 176.
Mirabeau cautions the Queen
against Lafayette, 236; and Abbe
Lamourette, 241.
MoUeville, Bertrand de, conversa-
tion of, with the King, 227 ;
quoted, 273.
Monge, senator of the Empire, re-
ply of, to Napoleon, 391,
Moniteur, the, on the fSte of
Chateauvieux, 121.
Mortimer-Ternaux, M., quoted,
279, 282 ; his Histoire de la Ter-
reur, 359.
Mouchy, Marshal de, his devotion
to the King and Queen, 220.
Napoleon, a witness of the inva-
sion of the Tuileries, 209; asserts
the King could have gained the
victory, 286 ; a witness of the at-
tack of the Marseillais on the
Tuileries, 310, 314 ; visits the
Temple, and has it destroyed,
348.
National Assembly, place of meet-
ing of, 5 ; impeach the King's
brothers and confiscate the Emi-
gres' property, 26; impeach De
Lessart, 30 ; order the King's
guard disbanded, 143; decrees of
as to the clergy and an army be-
fore Paris, 150 ; Madame Roland's
letter to the King, read to, 167;
letter of Lafayette read in the,
178; receive a deputation from
Marseilles, 183; consider the ad-
mission of the resurrectionists
to the chamber, 187; the place
of meeting of, 188; deputation
from, to the King during the in-
vasion of the Tuileries, 208 ; ques-
tion the Queen, 216 ; maintain
an equivocal attitude, 222; the
majority of, royalists and consti-
tutionalists, 272 ; affect not to
recognize the King's danger, 280 ;
send a deputation to receive the
King and his family, 296; num-
ber of members present wl»c. '.lie
decree of deposition was voted,
320 ; terrorized by the Commune,
370; royalty abolished and the
republic proclaimed by, 387.
National Guard, at the Tuileries,
196 ; the choice troops of, broken
up, 268 ; royalist, in the Tuileries,
279, 288.
Noblemen, royalist, fidelity of, to
the King, 278, 284 ; fate of,
322.
Orleans, Duke of, and the Palais
Royal, 4; and his party clamor
for the deposition of the King,
270.
400
INDEX,
Palais Royal, the, in 1792, 4.
Pan, Mallet du, sent to Germany
by Louis XVI., 135.
Paris, in 1792, 1 ; the Archbishop
of, at Versailles, in 1774, 78;
Commune of, how organized, 176 ;
a hell during the September mas-
sacres, 361.
Petion, address of, to the Assembly,
30 ; promotes the fete of Chateau-
vieux, 115; fate of, 122 et seq.;
favors the insurrectionists, 184 ;
his insolent address to the King,
224 ; the hero of the fete of the
Federation, 264 ; presents an
address to the Assembly pray-
ing for the King's deposition,
270 ; signs an order giving M. de
Mandat the right to repel force,
280 ; his treachery and hypocrisy,
282.
Philipon, the father of Madame
Roland, 47.
Prisons of Paris, the September
massacres at, 363 et seq.
Prudhomme's Revolutions de Paris
quoted, 225.
Quinet, Edgar, quoted, 360, 371 ; on
Louis XVI.'s magnanimity, 380,
384; quoted, 392, 394.
Kaigecourt, Madame de, letter of,
24.
Ramond defends Lafayette in the
Assembly, 235.
Republic proclaimed, 388.
Revolution, beginning of the organ-
ization of, 181.
Revolutionists, the, in the Tuileries,
199 ; insolence of, to the King,
200 ; refuse to leave the Assembly,
205; their barbarity and inde-
cency, 213.
Robespierre in the Jacobin Club, 6 ;
cowardice of, 271, 316 ; his defence
of the Constitution, 385.
Rochefoucauld, Count de la, de-
scribes the appearance of the
royal family in the box of the
Logographe, 321.
Roederer, remarks of, on Lafay-
ette, 238 ; urges the King to seek
shelter with the Assembly, 291,
294; addresses the mob, 297;
explains to the Assembly the
cause of King's taking refuge
with them, 301; blamed for his
advice, 302.
Roland de la Platiere, M., marries
Mademoiselle Philipon, 55; de-
puted to the Assembly, 63 ; takes
the portfolio of the Interior, 70;
dominated by his wife, 88 ; his
plebeian dress at the Council, 103 ;
driven by his wife to hostility
against the King, 108 ; his fac-
tion desire to destroy the King,
160 ; dismissed from the Coun-
cil, 165; reinstated, 319; arrest
of, determined, 374 ; writes a
letter to the Assembly concern-
ing the massacres, 375; continues
minister, 376 ; fate of, 391.
Roland, Madame, the distinctive
characteristics of the century re-
sumed in her, 46 ; early years of,
47 et seq.; married to Roland de
la Platiere, 55 ; strives to obtain
a patent of nobility for her hus-
band, 56 ; letters of, to Bosc, 57 ;
her description of herself, 61, 74 ;
draws up her husband's reports,
63; her infatuation for Buzot,
64; her hatred of royalty, 65;
established in Paris, 70 ; and
Marie Antoinette, 74 ; the motive
of her hatred of Marie Antoi-
nette, 76, 80; describes her visit to
Versailles, 77, 79 ; her part in es-
tablishing the republican regime
in France, 79, 107 ; her judgment
of Louis XVI., 81 ; her character
contrasted with that of Marie
Antoinette, 82; her arrogant de-
meanor, 86 ; acts for her husband
in public affairs, 88; her inti-
macy with Louvet, 89 et seq,;
INDEX.
401
Lemontey's picture of her, 91;
and Dumouriez, 94, 102; creates
discord in the Council, 106; de-
cides to get rid of Dumouriez,
159 ; her letter to the King, 162 ;
her advice ou the dismissal of the
ministers, 165 ; on the September
massacres, 362 ; feels no pity for
the Queen, 372, 375; her horror
at the murders, 376; her appre-
hensions, 378; reproaches her
friends with temporizing, 382;
her last speech, 383.
Rousseau, imprisoned in the Tem-
ple, 339.
Saint-Antoine, Faubourg, citizens
of, ask permission to assemble in
arms, 182 ; in commotion, 184.
Saint-Hurage, the rioter, 193.
Salpetriere, the, butchery at, 368.
Santerre, at the head of the in-
surrectionists on June 20, 186;
demands admission for the in-
surrectionists to the Assembly,
190; violence of, at the Tuileries,
197 ; offers to protect the Queen,
215; forced by Westermann to
march to the Tuileries, 286.
September massacres, the, 359 et
seq.
Sergent, M., 207.
Servan, made Minister of War, 160 ;
proposes the formation of an
army around Paris, 160 ; dis-
missed from the Council, 165; his
career after the Revolution, 391.
Stael, Madame de, views the fete of
the Federation, her observations,
253 ; invents a plan of escape for
the King, 273; quoted, 317, 327.
Suderraania, Duke of, brother of
Gustavus III., practices of, 35.
Sutherland, Lady, sends linen for
the Dauphin to the Convent of the
Feuillants, 333.
Swiss regiment, the, go to the
Tuileries, 274; ill provided with
ammunition, 277; defend the Tui-
leries, but are commanded to re-
tire, 307 ; sweep the Carrousel of
rioters, 310 ; ordered to go to the
King, 311 ; surrender their arms,
313 ; imprisoned in the church of
the Feuillants, 313 ; fate of the,
321.
Taine, on revolutionary France, 389.
Temple, the, the royal family taken
to, 336; description of, 337; the
Order of the, 337 ; destroyed by
Napoleon, 349.
Thiers, quoted, 287.
Thorwaldsen's lion at Lucerne, 314.
Tourzel, Pauline de, in peril in the
Tuileries, 323.
Tuileries, the, guard of, 195; the in-
vasion of, 198 et seq. ; the, on the
night of August 9, 275 et seq.;
attacked by the Marseillais, 306
et seq.; rioters in, 325; on fire,
325.
Vaublanc, Count de, quoted, 133;
anecdotes of, concerning Louis
XVI., 139, 140, 256, 273, 282, 286,
290, 303.
Vergniaud, 180, 182; speech of,
with regard to the admission of
the insurrectionists to the Assem-
bly, 188; violent attack of, on
the King, 244 ; as president of the
Assembly, receives Louis XVL,
300 ; presents the decree suspend-
ing the royal power, 317.
"Violet, Queen," 336.
Voltaire, imprisoned in the Temple,
339.
Westermann forces Santerre to
march, 286; leader of the Mar-
seillais, who attacked the Tui-
leries, 306, 308.
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