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By Ernest F. Henderson
Symbol and Satire in the French Revolution
Bliicher, and the Uprising of Prussia against
Napoleon
Symbol and Satire in the
French Revolution
By
Ernest F. Henderson, Ph.D., L.H.D.
Author of " A Short History of Germany," " Bliicher," " A Lady
of the Old Regime." etc.
With 171 Illustrations
of
G. P. Putnam's Sons
New York and London
Ube K<mcl;crlvcl;cr press
1912
COPYRIGHT, 1912
BY
ERNEST F. HENDERSON
Ube Itnfcfterbocfter prcsa, Hew JDorfc
Co
MY MILTON FRIENDS
IN MEMORY OF THEIR KINDNESS AND APPRECIATION
THIS BOOK is DEDICATED
PREFACE
HAS sufficient attention been paid to the fact
that, apart from all its horrors and injust-
ice, the French Revolution was a beautiful
dream? Imagination ran riot as never before.
People seemed utterly unable to speak or to think
in plain language. In what period of the world's
history do we meet with so many fables and
personifications, symbols, satires, and emblems?
The dawn of French liberty is like the dawn of the
world's religion; there is the same conflict between
great shapeless monsters that forms the legendary
basis of every modern creed. The war of liberty
against slavery is one of Titans against gods; the
favourite symbol for despotism is the many- headed
hydra. The number of these hydras that were
slain, of the chains that were broken, of the yokes
that were cast off, is simply appalling. The cap
of Liberty, the carpenter's level to denote Equality,
the scales of Justice, the eye of Vigilance, the
bundle of fagots to denote Unity and Indivisi-
bility: all these and many more recur literally
thousands of times. Thrones totter, tyrants bite
the dust, Liberty accomplishes wonderful feats
of prowess and agility, while even the mountain,
vi Preface
symbol of one of the great political parties, shakes
or quakes, jumps or falls, belches forth destructive
lava or in some other way makes life unpleasant
for its opponents.
More interesting in their wealth of symbols than
even the speeches and writings of the time are the
pictorial satires and allegories, great numbers of
which have been preserved. They are documents
of real historical importance and have hitherto
been much neglected. They reveal the spirit of
the time as no mere printed words could ever do.
They are products of this special revolution, for
nothing like them had ever been known before.
They filled a real need, for they appealed even to
the illiterate ; and three fourths of the population
of France at that time could neither read nor write.
They show us the Revolution as it was shown to
the common man of the period.
But more than this. We find that some, if not
all, of these productions were issued as a means of
political propaganda, with the direct and avowed
intention of influencing public opinion. Cartoons
were a strong weapon in the hands of those who
held the public funds, and there is reason to believe
that millions were spent in producing them. Take,
for instance, this extract from a speech of Lequinio's
at the Jacobin Club in November, 1791: "You
know all the evils that fanaticism caused by spread-
ing pictures throughout the country. I propose
that the Society undertake to engage all artists to
labour in opposition to this by making pictures
that have to do with the Revolution."
Preface vii
In October, 1792, we find an artist accorded
honourable mention in the National Convention
because of a cartoon representing the soldiers of
despotism quitting their standards to enrol under
those of Liberty and Equality. The proems verbal
or Journal of the Convention records the statement
that such productions are "one of the most effica-
cious means of instructing the hamlets and speak-
ing to the eyes of the ignorant and unfortunate
inhabitants." The accounts of the Committee of
Public Safety later contain an item of three thousand
francs paid to an artist for two caricatures, one of
which represents a turkey pulling King George of
England by the nose. Later still we find the same
Committee decreeing that a picture glorifying the
patriotic act of a boy, Barra, who died rather than
cry "God save the King!" shall be distributed
among the pupils of all the schools in France.
The patriotic almanac was another means of propa-
ganda employed by the Jacobins.
My cartoons were photographed direct from the
originals — almost all of which are anonymous loose
sheets. They are to be found for the most part
in the Collection Hennin of the Bibliotheque
Nationale in Paris. Others came from the Musee
Carnavalet and a few I was able to purchase from
antiquaries. But the demand for such material is
very keen, and the productions bring prices beyond
the reach of ordinary individuals.
A word about the narrative that accompanies
the cartoons. I have taken great pains to avoid
what is old and hackneyed, and have consulted
Vlll
Preface
original authorities for every phase of the subject.
I have not endeavoured to prove new points or
indeed to indulge in controversy of any sort. My
single aim has been to illumine. With this end
in view I have consulted a number of manuscripts
which have proved very inspiring. The National
Archives are rich in Revolutionary material, and
it is interesting to note how many documents they
contain that were written at critical moments : The
defiance left behind by Louis XVI on the day
that he fled to Varennes; the letter written by
Charlotte Corday after the murder of Marat;
Marie Antoinette's letter written four hours be-
fore her execution; the note pinned by Roland
to his coat just before he committed suicide;
Robespierre's appeal to Couthon to come to the
Hotel de Ville on the Qth of Thermidor, and a
host of others. When we come to think of it, it is
just such documents that were most likely to be
preserved, because they were at once seized by the
police and placed on file. There are autographs,
of course, of all sorts of interesting personages — of
Dr. Guillotin, of Danton, of Marat, of Madame
Roland. There is the protest of the seventy-five
at the expulsion of the Girondists; Petion's account
of his return from Varennes in the royal coach;
Fouquier-Tinville's complaint that the Dantonists
on trial for their life are so insolent as to demand
that witnesses be heard in their defence; the order
of the Committee of Public Safety to separate
Marie Antoinette from her son; an indignant pro-
test on Executioner Samson's part that he has not
Preface ix
been selling Louis XVTs hair; the decree in the
minutes of the Convention abolishing the Christian
Era — in short, there is no end to the treasures of
this kind, and the actual handling of them gives one
a vivid sense of the reality of the happenings.
I have tried to do justice to the modern authori-
ties; but the literature is very vast and even
important works may have escaped me. AuJard,
his journal as well as his monographs; Brette,
Flammermont, Sorel, Jaures, Wallon, Mortimer-
Terneux, Hamel — all have been of great assistance.
I regret that a general account of the Revo-
lution by Madelin has not reached me in time
to be of service. I could not begin to mention
here the works from which I have extracted some
one or more facts; I have given some references
in the footnotes. I have chosen the form of a
chronological narrative because only thus did it
seem possible to show the juncture at which the
cartoons were issued and the part that they played
as the Revolution progressed.
E. F. H.
BOSTON, May 25, 1912.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PACE
I INTRODUCTORY ...... i
II LIBERTY 25
III EQUALITY 73
IV FRATERNITY 121
V FLIGHT 147
VI PROBATION 190
VII DOWNFALL .214
VIII MASSACRE 262
IX WAR 295
X PROSCRIPTION 338
XI TERROR 371
XII IDOLATRY 397
XIII REACTION 424
INDEX 443
ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE
PLATE i. Liberty Crowning Benjamin Franklin . 7
PLATE 2. Born to Trouble. A Comparison of the
Peasant with Domestic Animals. . 9
PLATE 3. Post Tenebras Lux. An Allegorical Re-
presentation in Honour of Necker's
Recall in 1788 21
PLATE 4. The Coach Ornamented with Symbols in
which Louis XVI Went to his Corona-
tion in 1774 22
PLATE 5. A Symbolical Representation of the
Three Estates Proceeding to Versailles
in May, 1789 23
PLATE 6. Another Version of the Symbolical
Representation of the Three Estates
Proceeding to Versailles in May, 1 789. 24
PLATE 7. The Three Estates in their Respective
Costumes of Ceremony ... 26
PLATE 8. The Costume of a Deputy of the Third
Estate 27
PLATE 9. A Symbolical Representation Entitled
"Ah, how Hard Are the Times!" . 30
PLATE 10. A Cartoon Showing the Third Estate
Welcoming the Clergy to the Ranks of
the National Assembly, June 13, 1789. 31
xiii
XIV
PLATE 1 1
Illustrations
PLATE 14. A Cartoon Showing Concord Holding the
Three Estates United by Flowery
Chains .
PLATE 15.
PLATE 16.
A Cartoon Showing the Three Estates
Shouldering in Common the Burden of
the National Debt .
A Cartoon Entitled "The Triumph of
the Three Orders," Showing France
and her Three Sons, the Clergy, Nobil-
ity and Third Estate, on their Way to
the Temple of Justice
PAGE
Mirabeau in the Name of the National
Assembly Defying De Bre*ze*, Master
of Ceremonies of the King . . - 37
PLATE 12. A Cartoon Showing the Third Estate
Welcoming the other Two Estates to
the Ranks of the National Assembly,
June 30, 1789 . . . . . 41
PLATE 13. A Cartoon Showing the Three Estates as
Musicians at Last Playing in Tune . 42
PLATE 17.
43
44
45
Facsimile of Medals Commemorating
the Harmony of the Three Estates in
the Summer of 1789 ... 46
PLATE 18. A Cartoon Representing the Third
Estate Awakening from his Long
Slumber, Casting off his Chains and
Terrifying the Other Two Estates . 47
PLATE 19. A Cartoon Entitled "This Time Justice
Is the Strongest," and Representing
Justice and the Third Estate Weighing
Down the Clergy and Nobility . . 51
Illustrations xv
PAGE
PLATE 20. A Cartoon Entitled "The Noble Two-
Step," in which a Noble and an Abbe*
are Dancing to the Piping of the Third
Estate ...... 52
PLATE 21. A Cartoon Entitled "Despotism Over-
thrown," and Likening the Storming
of the Bastile to the Slaying of a
Hydra 53
PLATE 22. A Representation of Louis XVI Driving
up to the H6tel de Ville in Paris on
July 17, 1789, where he was Acclaimed
1 ' Restorer of French Liberty " . 57
PLATE 23. An Engraving Showing Louis XVI with
the Cap of Liberty which he Publicly
Donned on July 1 7, 1 789 . . . 59
PLATE 24. Louis XVI Depicted as the "Restorer
of French Liberty" . . . .61
PLATE 25. A Portrait of Bailly over which Is the
National Cockade with the Motto In
Hoc Signo Vicimus .... 63
PLATE 26. A Satirical Production Called " The Con-
clusion of the Diet," Showing the
Evil Results of Forcing one Cap upon
the Three Estates .... 64
PLATE 27. A Bloodthirsty Cartoon Called "The
Patriotic Calculator," Showing the
Frenchman Making out a Bill for
Eight Heads Paid on Account, Twelve
Still Due. .... 65
XVI
PLATE 28.
Illustrations
PLATE 29.
PLATE 30.
PLATE 31
PLATE 32.
PLATE 33.
PLATE 34.
PAGE
A Cartoon Called "The Great Step
Accomplished, or the Dawn of a Fine
Day," which Shows the Frenchman
Advancing over the Heads, Bastiles,
etc., to Join with the King and Observe
the Law . . . . .66
A Cartoon Called the " Constitution of
France," Showing Necker Borne Aloft
by the Due d' Orleans and Lafayette
while the Chains of Servitude are
Trampled Under Foot ... 67
An Allegorical Representation to the
Glory of Necker Entitled "Virtue Sur-
mounts all Obstacles." (Remarkable
because the Recall of Necker is Attri-
buted to the Queen.). . . . 68
An Elaborate Allegorical Representa-
tion in which Louis XVI Conducts
Necker along the Path of Glory and
Presents him to the National Assem-
bly .-...-'. 69
A Cartoon in which the King and Necker
are Breaking the Chains of a Grate-
ful Third Estate while Discord takes
to Flight . . . . . 71
A Cartoon Showing the Three Estates
Forging Away at the New Constitu-
tion ...... 74
A Cartoon Representing the French
Nation in a Patriotic Delirium Break-
ing Down Feudalism on August 4,
1789 77
PLATE 35.
PLATE 36.
PLATE 37.
PLATE 38.
PLATE 39.
PLATE 40.
PLATE 41.
PLATE 42.
Illustrations
An Allegorical Representation which
Shows France Inscribing on a Monu-
ment the Feudal Privileges Re-
nounced on August 4, 1789.
A Representation of the Frenchwoman
Become Free .
xvii
PAGE
79
81
PLATE 43.
A Double Cartoon Representing the
Change Wrought in the Condition of
the Peasant by the Renunciations of
August 4th. Before . . .84
A Double Cartoon Representing the
Change Wrought in the Condition of
the Peasant by the Renunciations of
August 4th. After .... 85
A Double Cartoon Representing the
Frenchman Formerly and the French-
man Now. The Frenchman Formerly. 86
A Double Cartoon Representing the
Frenchman Formerly and the French-
man Now. The Frenchman Now . 87
A National Guard in Uniform . . 88
A Representation Intended to Show
What an Advantage the Free French-
man Has over the Enslaved English-
man. Pitt is Trampling on the Crown
and Holding the Parliament En-
chained ...... 91
A Cartoon Showing the Contrast
Between an Englishman's Manner of
Doing Homage to Liberty and a
Frenchman's ..... 92
XV111
PLATE 44.
Illustrations
A Caricature of the First Emigres
Leaving France. Madame de Polig-
nac, the Queen's Favourite Is in the
Donkey-Basket. The King's Brother
Is on Horseback .
PAGE
PLATE 45.
PLATE 46.
PLATE 47.
93
A Cartoon Showing Chabroud Endeav-
ouring to Clear the Due d' Orleans of
Complicity in the Events of October
6,1789 • •' - 97
A Contemporary Drawing of the Expedi-
tion of the Women of Paris to Ver-
sailles on October 5, 1789 99
A Contemporary Drawing Represent-
ing the Women of Paris Returning
from Versailles on October 6, 1789 . 104
PLATE 48. A Representation of the Arrival of the
King and Queen in Paris on October
6, 1789. One Sees the Women Leading
the Cortege .... . 105
PLATE 49. A Cartoon Representing Charon Re-
fusing to Ferry over any of the Head-
less Ones Save a Baker who had been
Killed by Mistake . . . . 108
PLATE 50. A Symbolical Production Showing Rea-
son in the Act of Explaining the New
Divisions of France while Envy and
Hatred seek to Hamper Her . .109
PLATE 51. A Symbolical Production Showing the
Genius of France Adopting Liberty
and Equality . . . . ; . 112
PLATE 52. A Dutch Engraving Showing the Hall of
the Jacobin Club in Paris . . .113
Illustrations
PLATE 53. A Representation of the Typical Jacobin.
One Sees the Eye of Vigilance on his
Cap
PLATE 54. A Cartoon Showing the Clergy Despoiled
of its Possessions. Once it Was Fat,
Now it Is Lean ....
PLATE 55. A Caricature Called "The Overthrow,"
Relating to the Confiscation of the
Estates of the Clergy
PLATE 56. A Caricature Called "The Present
Time," Showing the Clergy Reduced
to a Skeleton and Standing Humbly
before the Other Two Estates .
PLATE 57. A Caricature Against the Clergy En-
titled "The Patriotic Reducer of Fat ".
PLATE 58. A Cartoon Representing the Marquis de
Favras being Received in Hades by
Foulon, Berthier and other Headless
Ones
PLATE 59. A Symbolical Representation of France
Making her Children Clasp Hands in
Token of Fraternity .
PLATE 60. A Representation of the Fete of
Federation on the Champ de Mars,
July 14, 1790 .
PLATE 61 . A Facsimile of a Portion of the Frieze on
the Great Arch at the F£te of Federa-
tion ......
PLATE 62. A Contemporary Illustration Showing
the People of Paris at Work Trans-
forming the Champ de Mars in Prepa-
ration for the F6te .
XIX
PAGE
116
118
123
125
129
131
133
XX
PLATE 63.
PLATE 64.
PLATE 65.
PLATE 66.
PLATE 67.
PLATE 68.
PLATE 69.
PLATE 70.
PLATE 71.
PLATE 72.
PLATE 73.
Illustrations
Another View of the People of Paris at
Work on the Champ de Mars
The Representation of the Awful Fate in
Store for the Priest who will not Take
the Civic Oath. The Wind Whistles
through his Bones ....
PAGE
134
A Fanciful Representation of the King
Aiding in the Work of Transforming
the Champ de Mars . . 135
A Caricature of Mirabeau's Brother
Called ' ' Barrel- Mirabeau ' because
of his Love of Drink . . 137
A Representation of the F£te of Federa-
tion Showing the Deputies Dancing
Around in Glee . . . .141
A Representation of the Typical ' 'Con-
queror of the Bastile" . . . 143
A Representation of the Dancing on the
Ruins of the Bastile on the Anniver-
sary of the Fall of the Fortress . -144
An Allegorical Representation Showing
the King Accepting from the Hand of
France the Pact of Federation . .148
A Cartoon which Shows the Clergy
Asking in Desperation ' ' What Am I ? " 1 49
A Cartoon Showing the Proper Treat-
ment for an Abbe who will not Take the
Civic Oath. The Mother Applauds
the Castigation . . . .151
A Representation of the Beatitude of a
Priest who has Taken the Patriotic
Oath. A Bishop's Mitre is Within his
Reach
153
155
Illustrations xxi
PAGE
PLATE 74. A Representation of an Aristocrat-Priest
Cursing the Revolution. Turn the
Page Upside Down . . . -157
PLATE 75. A Caricature of Marie Antoinette as a
Vile Harpy Treading on the Constitu-
tion 158
PLATE 76. A Caricature of Louis XVI as a Horned
Pig - 159
PLATE 77. A Caricature of Marie Antoinette as an
Austrian Pantheress . . .160
PLATE 78. A Cartoon which Shows the Devil Incit-
ing Pope Pius VI to Sign the Bull
Condemning the Civil Constitution of
the Clergy 161
PLATE 79. A Cartoon Showing the Papal Bull, To-
gether with all the Different Journals
which Favoured the Aristocratic
Party Being Consigned to the Flames . 1 63
PLATE 80. An Exaggerated Representation of what
took Place in the Tuileries on the
' ' Day of Daggers, ' ' February 28, 1 79 1 . 1 65
PLATE 81. What Purports to be the Exact Form of
the Infamous Poniards Wielded by
those who Had their Ears Boxed, or
were Arrested or Driven Away from
the Tuileries by the National Guards
on the 28th of February, 1791 . . 168
PLATE 82. A Contemporary Representation of the
Pantheon "Dedicated by a Grateful
Country to its Great Men. " . . 169
XX11
PLATE 83.
PLATE 84.
PLATE 85.
PLATE 86.
PLATE 87.
PLATE 88.
PLATE 89.
Illustrations
A Portrait of Mirabeau, Issued at the
Time of his Death, which Recalls the
Episode of June 23, 1789, when he
Defied the Master of Ceremonies of
the King . . . . ^
A Facsimile of an Assignat with the Por-
trait of Louis XVI. This one Pur-
ports to have been Issued the Day
Before the Flight but is Officially
Stamped as a Forgery
PAGE
171
182
A Representation of the Return from
Varennes of the Royal Family under
Escort of National Guards. . .184
Barnave Represented as a Double-
Faced Man because of his Friendliness
to the King and Queen after the Flight
to Varennes . . . . .187
A Satire on the Failure of the Attempted
Flight to Varennes. The King is
Pleading for Mercy, the Queen is
Beating her Breast and Crying "My
Fault, all my Fault!" . . .189
A Representation of the Happenings on
the Champ de Mars on July 17, 1791.
Mayor Bailly after Seeking in Vain to
Quell a Disturbance that had Arisen
Ordered the National Guards to Fire
on the Mob . . . . 193
A Satirical Representation Called "The
Future Legislator" and Directed
Against the Requirement that a
Deputy to be Eligible must Pay Taxes.
The Mark of Silver Destroys all Indi-
viduality . . . . 195
PLATE 90.
PLATE 91.
PLATE 92.
PLATE 93.
PLATE 94.
PLATE 95.
PLATE 96.
Illustrations
An Allegorical Representation of the
Acceptance of the Constitution by
Louis XVI. The Faces seem to be
Actual Likenesses. The Republic
Personified is being Driven from the
Hall by Cupids with Whips
XXill
PAGE
197
A Cartoon Intended to Show under what
Constraint Louis XVI had Sanctioned
the Constitution . . . . 2OI
A Representation of a Foreigner Joyfully
Quitting the Land of Slaves for the
Land of Liberty where Everything Is
Gay and Joyous .... 205
A Representation Showing the Effect
Wrought upon an Austrian Sentinel
at the First Sight of the French Na-
tional Cockade. The Austrian Re-
verses his Bayonet and Places his
Hand upon his Heart . . . 206
A Cartoon Showing the Perilous Situa-
tion of Louis XVI. He has Handed
Down Several Cornucopias full of
Sweets to the People but they are Call-
ing for More ..... 207
•
A Cartoon Representing an EmigrS Re-
turning as a Beggar to the Country
that he had Abandoned . . .215
A Cartoon Showing the Elector of
Treves Foaming at the Mouth with
Rage, Owing to the Action of the
French Government in Demanding
the Dispersal of the Emigres . .217
XXIV
PLATE 97.
PLATE 98.
PLATE 99.
PLATE 100.
PLATE 101
PLATE 102.
PLATE 103.
Illustrations
A Cartoon Representing Louis XVI as
"King Janus" with one Face Turned
towards the Constitution and the
Other towards the Non- Juring Clergy .
A Cartoon Showing the Political Situa-
tion at the End of the Year 1791.
Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette,
Curiously enough, are Stemming the
Course of Invasion which Sweden,
Denmark, Russia and the Emigres
are Furthering ....
A Cartoon Showing the Nations in the
Act of Closing in upon Louis XVI
whose only Hope of Rescue is in
Blanchard the Famous Balloonist who
is Hovering over the Scene
PAGE
219
223
225
A Cartoon Showing the Emigres and
the Foreign Powers Stirring the
Flames and Giving the Deputies
Assembled at the Jacobin Club a Hot
Time. The Deputies are Dancing
Round in Agony . . . .227
A Cartoon Showing Lafayette Upheld
by Luckner and Rochambeau, Trying
to Take the Moon in his Teeth. The
Invasion of the German Empire Is a
similar Foolhardy Enterprise . . 229
A Depiction of Cupid as a Sans Culotte
Placing a Wreath on the Altar of
Equality. . . . . .231
A Depiction of the Typical Sans Cu-
lotte of Paris with his Pike, the
Weapon of the Revolution, and the
Cockade in his Hat. . . .235
Illustrations xxv
PAGE
PLATE 104. A Representation of the Scene in the
Tuileries Palace on June 20, 1792,
when the Mob Broke in and Tried to
Force Louis XVI to Rescind his Veto
of the Decrees Providing for a Camp
near Paris and Enacting still Severer
Penalties against the Non-Juring
Clergy . . 237
PLATE 105. A Portrait of Potion, Man of the Hour
and Idolized Mayor of Paris. He is
Enshrined in the Popular Heart under
the Protecting Folds of the Tri-
Colored Ribbon. Note the Heart . 240
PLATE 106. A Newspaper Illustration from the
Revolutions de Paris which Incident-
ally Shows the Flag with "The Coun-
try is in Danger!" Hanging from the
H6teldeVille . . . .241
PLATE 107. A Representation of the Burning Em-
blems of Feudalism at the Celebration
in Memory of the I4th of July, 1789,
Held on July 14, 1792 . . 243
PLATE 108. A Representation of Devotion to Coun-
try. At the Call, "The Country in
Danger," all Prepare to Sacrifice that
which they Hold Most Dear — Hus-
bands, Children, Jewels . . . 244
PLATE 109. A Representation of Cupid as a Volun-
teer, Showing that the Thought of
Marching Against the Ehemy was the
One Dominant Sentiment of the
Moment ..... 245
XXVI
PLATE no.
PLATE in.
PLATE 112.
PLATE 113.
PLATE 114.
PLATE 115.
PLATE 116.
PLATE 117.
PLATE 118.
Illustrations
PAGE
The Words and Music of the Marseil-
laise. From a Copy of the Song Pub-
lished in London in November, 1792 . 249
A Representation of French Soldiers, mil
of Grim Determination Marching to
the Chorus ' ' To Arms, Citizens ! " . 251
A Representation of the Storming of the
Tuileries. From a Contemporary Oil
Painting . . . . . 257
A Representation of the Lion Carved in
the Rock at Lucerne by Thorwaldsen
in Memory of the Swiss Guards who
Fell on August loth and September
3rd. From an Old Engraving .
A Contemporary Newspaper Illustra-
tion (from the Revolutions de Paris)
of the Pulling Down of the Statues of
Louis XIV in the Place Venddme and
the Place des Victoires
A Representation of the Faced Cards in
a Revolutionary Pack. The Kings
are Supplanted by "Geniuses," the
Queens by "Liberties" and the
Knaves by "Equalities" .
A Portrait of Robespierre.
Oil Painting .
From an
A Portrait of Lafayette Engraved at the
Time of his Appointment as Com-
mander of the National Guards
259
263
265
A Representation of Revolutionary
Playing Cards in which the Kings are
"Sages," the Queens "Virtues," the
Knaves " Heroes " . . . . 267
269
273
Illustrations xxvii
PAGE
PLATE 119. A Representation of the Guillotine as
a fine Prop for Liberty . . . 275
PLATE 120. A Portrait of Danton. From an Oil
Painting ..... 277
PLATE 121. A Cartoon Representing the Opening of
the Secret Iron Safe and Showing
Roland and the Man who had Be-
trayed the Secret Facing the Skeleton
of Mirabeau which Holds the Crown
in One Hand and a Bag of Money in
the Other 283
PLATE 122. A Cartoon Representing the Hand-
writing on the Wall and Bidding Louis
the Traitor Read his Sentence. God
has Weighed him in the Balance and
Found him Wanting. Below, the
Guillotine Awaits him . . .285
PLATE 123. A Cartoon Likening Louis XVI to a
Piece of Out-of-Date Money and Re-
commending that he be Melted up . 286
PLATE 124. A Gruesome Cartoon Making Fun of the
Priests who were Massacred on Sep-
tember 3 , 1 792 . They are Represented
as Having had Their Noses Pulled . 291
PLATE 125. A Portrait of Roland. From an Old
Engraving 297
PLATE 126. A Portrait of Madame Roland Taken
From the Cover of a Bonbonniere in
the Muse*e Carnavalet . . . 299
PLATE 127. A Caricature of Monsieur and Madame
Roland ...... 300
XXV111
Illustrations
PAGE
PLATE 128. A Complicated Political Rebus Warning
the Honn&tes Gens or True Patriots
Against Three Prominent Girondists:
Potion, Roland and Clavi&re . .301
PLATE 129. A Caricature on the Withdrawal of the
Austrians and Prussians after the
Battles of Valmy and Genappes . 303
PLATE 130. A German Puzzle Showing the Hydra of
Revolution Devouring the Fleur-de-lis
and Breaking the Crown, Sceptre and
Sword. There are Four Concealed
Silhouettes . . . . 304
PLATE 131. A Symbolical Representation of Victory
Traversing the Republic . . . 306
PLATE 132. A Symbolical Representation of the Pro-
gress of Liberty, Enlightenment and
Republicanism . . . . 307
PLATE 133. A Cartoon Showing the Progress of
Republicanism and the Inevitable
Fate of Each and All of the Rulers of
Europe. Time is Mowing Them
Down and Extinguishing their Life-
Lights . . 308
PLATE 134. The Official Letter-Head of Genet,
Minister of the French Republic to
the United States of America . .310
PLATE 135. A Republican Medal . . . .311
PLATE 136. The French Republic Represented as a
Ship Guided by Liberty . . .312
PLATE 137. A Personification of Republican France 313
PLATE 138. A Personification of Liberty with the
Broken Yoke. .... 314
PLATE 139.
PLATE 140.
PLATE 141.
PLATE 142.
PLATE 143.
PLATE 144.
PLATE 145.
PLATE 146.
PLATE 147.
Illustrations
A Personification of Equality with the
Carpenter's Level ....
A Personification of Fraternity with the
Belt of Hearts .
A Cartoon Entitled " Matter for Reflec-
tion for Crowned Jugglers." Under
the Severed Head of Louis XVI is the
Line from the Marseillaise, "May an
Impure Blood Water our Furrows!".
XXIX
PAGE
315
316
319
A Portrait of Louis XVI Engraved by
some Royalist and with the Line
underneath: "O My King! The Uni-
verse did Abandon Thee !" . . 323
A Memorial to Lepelletier St.-Fargeau
Covered with Inscriptions in his
Honour and Pronouncing the Death-
Penalty Against Anyone who Should
Harbour his Murderer . . 325
An Allegorical Representation Entitled
"The Coalition" and Showing the
Powers of Europe Attacking the
Young French Republic. She, Calm
and Smiling will not let them Touch
so much as a Hair of her Head . . 327
A Caricature on the Subject of the
Arrest by Dumouriez of the Com-
missioners Sent by the National Con-
vention to Arrest him . . . 329
A Portrait of Charlotte Corday. From
the Painting by Hauer . . -351
A Portrait of Marat Engraved from his
Death- Mask and Showing the Gaping
Wound in his Breast
XXX
PLATE 148.
PLATE 149.
PLATE 150.
PLATE 151
PLATE 152.
PLATE 153.
PLATE 154.
Illustrations
A Representation of the Tomb in which
Marat's Remains were Placed before
being Transferred to the Pantheon. It
Faced the "National Palace," for-
merly the Tuileries .
PAGE
355
A Representation of the First Stage of
the Fete to Unity and Indivisibility.
The Fountain of Regeneration is to be
Erected on the Site of the Bastile . 356
A Representation of the Second Stage of
the Fete to Unity and Indivisibility.
The Meeting with the "Heroines of
Liberty" . . . . . 360
A Representation of the Third Stage of
the Fete to Unity and Indivisibility.
The Statue of the Goddess of Liberty
was on the Pedestal of the Old Statue
of Louis XV . . . . 362
A View of the Place de la Revolution
(now Place de la Concorde) with the
Statue of the Goddess of Liberty . 363
A Representation of the Fourth Stage of
the Fete to Unity and Indivisibility.
A Colossal Figure Symbolizing the
French People is Annihilating the
Monster Called Federalism . . 364
A Representation of the Fifth Stage of
the Fete to Unity and Indivisibility.
On the Altar of the Fatherland
(Champ de Mars) the President of the
Convention is Announcing the Accept-
ance of the New Constitution . . 365
Illustrations
PLATE 155.
PLATE 156.
PLATE 157.
PLATE 158.
PLATE 159.
PLATE 160.
PLATE 161.
PLATE 162.
PLATE 163.
XXXI
PAGE
A Representation of the Sixth Stage of
the Fe"te to Unity and Indivisibility.
The Temple Is in Honour of the Dead
Warriors ..... 367
A Symbolical Representation of Unity
and Indivisibility ....
A Representation of Marie Antoinette in
her Prison Cell in the Conciergerie.
The Plan Shows the Arrangement of
the Cell and also of the one Occupied
by the Gendarmes ....
A Representation of a Memorial Urn
with the Silhouettes of Louis XVI and
Marie Antoinette .
368
A Symbolical Representation of Unity
and Indivisibility Watched Over by
the Vigilant Eye of the Jacobins . 369
An Emblem of the Reign of Terror.
There Is to be no Mean between
Liberty and Death .... 372
A Representation of Liberty and her
Great Martyrs Lepelletier, Marat and
Chalier whose Deaths Cry for Ven-
geance . . 373
A Cartoon Summing up the Regime of
Robespierre and Showing the French-
man Blindly Groping for Liberty,
Equality and Fraternity with Death
Ever at Hand as the Alternative
381
384
A Sketch of Marie Antoinette made by
David as she Passed his Window in the
Death-Cart on her Way to Execution . 387
389
XXX11
PLATE 164.
PLATE 165.
PLATE 166.
PLATE 167.
PLATE 168.
PLATE 169.
PLATE 170.
PLATE 171,
Illustrations
PAGE
A Revolutionary Calendar. This Served
as well for one Year as for Another and
for one Month as for Another . . 400
A Representation of Reason.
Eye, the Jacobin Emblem
Note the
A Representation of Love and Reason
Embracing. By Bartolozzi
A Production Representing Robespierre
as the Sun Rising Above the Moun-
tain and Giving Light to the Universe.
There is a Text in the original which
Is omitted here as it could not be
Brought within Compass .
402
407
417
A Representation of the Mountain
Erected over the Altar to the Father-
land on the Champ de Mars and of the
National Convention Marching up to
the Summit at the F£te to the Supreme
Being . . . . . 422
A Caricature of Robespierre's Re*gime.
Other Victims Failing him the Execu-
tioner is Guillotining himself . . 427
An Allegorical Representation of Equal-
ity Triumphing Over Robespierre and
his Adherents. The Workmanship
Looks like that of David who so Re-
cently had Glorified Robespierre . 437
The Place de la Concorde, formerly
Place de la Revolution and Place Louis
Quinze ...... 440
Symbol and Satire in the French
Revolution
Symbol and Satire in the
French Revolution
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTORY
IN dealing with the causes of the French Revolu-
tion, too little stress has been laid by historians
on the peculiar characteristics of the people-
characteristics that have since, let us hope, been
modified by education, by contact with other
nations, and by the general progress of the race.
Looking back on the course of events, one can
hardly avoid subscribing to the criticism of Senac
de Meilhan, x a Frenchman himself, who wrote
frankly, in 1795, that the frivolity and hot-headed-
ness of the French character bore in it "all the
germs of a revolution that one would vainly seek
in the multitude of abuses." Marat himself once
wrote of France as "unfortunately the most frivol-
ous of all the nations of the world"2; while
1 Du gouvernement . . . en France avanl la Revolution, Hamburg,
1795, P- 134.
* Journal de la RSpublique Fran$aist, No. 15.
I
2 The French Revolution
Dumouriez, too, the famous general, speaks of
"the impetuous character of this volcanic na-
tion."1 Certainly there seems to have been a
great lack of ability to form calm judgments or to
appreciate the logic of facts.
This was undoubtedly due in part to misgovern-
ment under the old regime. It is incredible how
little had been done for the education of the people.
There were parts of the kingdom in which educa-
tional establishments were altogether lacking;
there were others where the public-school teachers
were so scantily paid that they had to beg from
door to door ; the universities turned out graduates
not fitted to teach even the most elementary
branches. In a list of complaints handed in to
the States- General by the Paris clergy, there is a
request that the university henceforth give degrees
to no one "who has not done a piece of work and
acquired some knowledge," while the clergy of
Mantes petition that the children of their district at
least be taught to read, "so that when they grow
up they will be less likely to be surprised. " 2
Doubtless the example of Louis XV, too, had
done much to encourage immorality. "Morals?"
writes a journalist,3 "alas! we no longer have any;
no nation is more immoral." In the National
Assembly itself, there are allusions to the dangers the
country members run in coming to wicked Paris.
A formal report fixes the number of gambling
hells in the capital at no less than three thou-
1 Memoires, ii., 24.
3 Prudhomme.
3 Champion, Les Cahiers de 1789, 199-209.
Introductory 3
sand. The clergy ascribe the evils to the increas-
ing disregard for religion, to the frightful progress
of incredulity, to the "unbridled license with which
in our day men hurl themselves on so vener-
able a cult." They speak of the "impious and
audacious sect that desecrates its false wisdom
with the name of philosophy and labours to over-
throw the altars.'* As the prelude to a music-
drama contains strains that are to recur later, so
these complaints sent in to the States- General
sound the first notes of much that was to be
distinctive of the Revolution.
The more one studies the period the more one
finds what an immense influence was exercised by
the teachings of Jean Jacques Rousseau. Doubt-
less it is his followers who are referred to as an
"impious and audacious sect." Already in 1791,
Mercier, better known for his Tableau de Paris,
published a work entitled Jean Jacques Rousseau
Considered as One of the Prime Authors of the
Revolution in which he declares that Rousseau's
maxims had been incorporated in the majority of
the existing French laws and that the Contrat
Social was the lever by which the enormous
Colossus of despotism had been overthrown. Terms
invented by the philosophers had become the coin
of common parlance.
Rousseau, doubtless, is even responsible for the
symbolism — as we know he is for the sentimental-
ism — of the period. The vignette of the original
edition of the Contrat Social displays Justice with
the scales in one hand and the spear and cap of
4 The French Revolution
Liberty in the other. The worship of reason and
of the Supreme Being are outgrowths of his teach-
ings; it is he who inspired Robespierre with the
idea of reducing God to a tutelary deity of France.
Rousseau insists on this adoration of one's country,
declaring that to die for it is martyrdom, to violate
its laws impiety — yes, he urges the putting to death
of any one who is false to a patriotic profession of
faith once made: — such a one "has committed the
gravest of crimes, he has lied before the law. "
Rousseau gave precepts, but another great influ-
ence, too, was at work: that of example — the ex-
ample of the young republic that had been founded
across the seas and the Constitution of which had
been adopted in the year in which the French dis-
turbances began.
Already in 1778, Turgot, who had been dismissed
from his position as Minister of Finance under
Louis XVI, writes that America is the hope of the
human race and may become its model; that the
world will now learn to exist without the chains
imposed by tyrants and charlatans in every dress;
that the earth may seek consolation in the thought
of the asylum now open to the down-trodden of all
nations. What a commentary on the state of
things in his own country when he asks his corre-
spondent not to answer these reflections because the
letter would surely be opened in the post and he,
Turgot, would be looked upon as too great a
friend of liberty!1
1 Turgot's letter, to Dr. Price, is published as an appendix to Mira-
beau's Considerations sur Vordre de Cincinnatus, London, 1785.
Introductory 5
In 1781, Abbe Raynal writes of the American
Revolution : ' ' At the sound of the snapping chains
our own fetters seem to grow lighter and we
imagine for a moment that the air we breathe
grows purer at the news that the universe counts
some tyrants the less." In 1783, the Due de la
Rochefoucauld with his own hand translated all
thirteen of the constitutions of the American
States, publishing them anonymously1; while
Mercier, in 1791, states distinctly: "The emanci-
pation of America gave us the thoughts and
presently the voice of free men ; it made us see the
possibility of resistance and the need of a consti-
tution." He tells us that the troops sent across
the ocean had come back as if electrified.
From 1777 to 1785 there had resided at Paris the
great American to whom the whole civilized world
looked up with reverence. When people would
come to Franklin to ask how the American Revolu-
tion was progressing, his stereotyped answer was
$a ira; and later these words were adopted as the
refrain of one of the most popular French revolu-
tionary songs. "Homage to Franklin!" cried the
Mayor of Auteuil at a civic f£te held in 1792; "he
gave us our first lessons in liberty ; he was the first
journalist of the hamlets; he wrote the proverbs
of Poor Richard; he even invented the refrain $a
ira, an air so dear to patriots!2 "
1 My own copy was a presentation copy ex done Domini Duds de la
Rochefoucauld, and the dedication goes on to state that the Duke was
the translator.
' Both the Moniteur and the FeuilU Villageoisc give this credit to
Franklin for the (a ira.
6 The French Revolution
Franklin once declared that through the many
portraits that had been made of him his face must
have become as familiar as that of the man in the
moon. Men dressed a la Franklin; mothers loved
to give his name to their babies. His bust, long
after his departure, figured side by side with that
of Rousseau at republican fetes. x
Editor Prudhomme, in 1790, declared that philo-
sophy and America had brought about the Revolu-
tion. What then of the oppression by the nobles,
the want and misery of the people? Both have
been exaggerated. We know now from a careful
study of the plaints and grievances submitted to
the States- General that actually more assemblages
of nobles demanded reform of some of the chief
abuses than was the case with assemblages of the
people. It was the nobles of Paris who first
demanded the destruction of the Bastile. The
nobles and clergy in general were just as eager for a
constitution, for responsible ministers, and for cur-
tailment of the king's privileges, as was the third
estate itself. To be sure these same nobles were
consumed by pride of caste and showed a galling
contempt for the roturier. In these very com-
plaints some of them demanded that nobles of
either sex be distinguished from the common herd
by some distinctive mark — -a cross, a scarf, a cord,
the exclusive right to wear the sword as an emblem
of their courage and their virtues.
The old explanation of the Revolution as the
1 In Plate I, p. 7, we have Liberty crowning Franklin at one of these
fetes.
Plate i. — Liberty crowning Benjamin Franklin,
child is pointing out the close proximity of
Philadelphia to Paris.)
(The
8 The French Revolution
sudden uprising of a people wronged and oppressed
beyond human endurance is no longer satisfactory.
It has been estimated1 that the feudal dues about
which so much has been written could not have
amounted to much more than two per cent, of the
gross product of the soil. Carlyle speaks, indeed,
of a "dark, living chaos of ignorance and hunger
five and twenty millions strong," but the whole
population of France was only 25,000,000 and
there must have been a great number of persons
engaged in profitable commercial enterprises, for
statistics show that the exports and imports
amounted in 1787 to eight hundred million francs.
When the lands of the clergy were placed on sale
in 1790, the lower classes invested in them to the
extent of billions. We know now that those who
started the Revolution were not the impecunious
but the comparatively well-to-do — those who
feared for their investments, for their annuities
should the state become bankrupt; those who
dreaded the influence of the proletariat. These
same earliest Revolutionists had a clause inserted
in their new constitution restricting the ballot to
property owners.
Were the peasants then not oppressed and un-
happy? Assuredly, though probably not much
more so than at any time during the previous two
centuries. But the cost of living had increased
for all; the harvest in 1788 had been bad; unrest
was spreading; the fundamental injustice of it all
was beginning to be appreciated. It is to be
1 Jaures, I, 19.
OUR LA V.
.
Plate 2. Bora to trouble. (A comparison of the peasant with
domestic animals.)
9
io The French Revolution
feared, too, that agitators, for political ends, delib-
erately stirred up the people. By whom else could
the cartoon entitled "Born to trouble" have been
issued?1 The peasant would not have gone to the
expense himself, nor is it likely that the production
emanated either from the clergy or the nobles.
The engraving shows the poor peasant burdened
down with his tools and his flail and feeding his
poultry. The cock, perched on his hat, is there to
wake him at daybreak with its crowing. Through
heat and through cold, from year's end to year's
end, he has to toil early and late. And for what?
All roads lead to the house of the tax-collector.
In what do the attributes of the peasant differ
from those of the animals around him? He works
merely for others, even as the cow gives milk or
the bee amasses honey for others to enjoy. No
more respect is paid to him than to the pig, which
is scorned and despised even by those who know
that it is necessary.
Productions like this, of course, tended to make
the so-called privileged classes — the clergy and the
nobility — more and more unpopular. Louis XVI
was not, as yet, personally attacked. The fiction
was long to be kept up that even where his acts
seemed oppressive, foolish, or bad, this was to
be credited not to himself but to his evil coun-
sellors. For this good but weak king there was
still a great feeling of love and loyalty. He was
such a vast improvement over his predecessor,
under the hie jacet of whose tombstone some wag,
1 See Plate 2, p. 9
Introductory n
voicing the common sentiment, had written
Deo gr alias!
But how incredibly incompetent Louis XVI was!
Already before he came to the throne the Austrian
minister, Mercy d'Argenteau, had written of him1:
'Though endowed with sense and good qualities,
the Dauphin will probably never have either the
force or the will to rule by himself. If not by the
Dauphiness, he will be governed by some one else."
What are we to think of a man who burst into
tears when scolded by his wife for being late to
dinner, and who, at one time, was so enraptured of
the game of blind man's buff that serious-minded
persons could suspect a plot to withdraw his atten-
tion from an impending war?
This Mercy d'Argenteau who relates these inci-
dents was himself the evil genius of France. If
Marie Antoinette was to govern her husband, it
was Mercy's avowed intention, as accredited agent
of Austria, to govern Marie Antoinette. He never
quite accomplished his object, but he tainted all
her conceptions, encouraged her in underhanded
intrigue, impressed her with a sense of her power
and influence, and did more than any one else to
make her deserve the epithet, later to be hurled
at her with such deadly effect, of V Autrichienne!
Mercy once writes to Marie Antoinette's mother,
the Empress Maria Theresa, that he has spies in
every room the Dauphiness is likely to enter; again
and again he tells how he has insinuated opinions
and advised not merely courses of action, but even
1 Correspondence, ii., 31.
12 The French Revolution
the very attitude and style of language he wishes
her to adopt.
It was a poor service this imperial mother and
her minister rendered the poor young Queen of
France. They helped her to consummate the ruin
of her adopted country. There were times when
the most important matters of state were decided
by her mere whim. She writes herself in 1775 that
the departure of Minister Aiguillon has been en-
tirely her work. Still worse, in the following year,
her intrigues contributed largely to driving out
Turgot, the one man who still could have saved
France. "The Queen's project," writes Mercy,
"was to make the King dismiss Turgot and even
put him in the Bastile. " And Mercy writes of
Breteuil who wishes a place in the ministry: "I
shall show him that his best means of achieving
this lies in the protection of the Queen." "I
insinuated to the Queen every shade of language
she is to use either to the ministers or to the King, "
Mercy writes in 1778, in connection with French
policies of the utmost importance. He tells how,
with the Queen's aid, he means to hoodwink the
French Prime Minister and, later, he gravely con-
siders the wisdom of putting another, Lomenie de
Brienne, in the Prime Minister's place and induces
Marie Antoinette to procure the cordon bleu for
Lomenie.
The recklessness with which the Queen indulged
in the pursuit of pleasure must have made her
seem all the more unfit to exercise such enormous
political influence. She was constantly rushing to
Introductory 13
Paris to attend public balls which lasted until six
or seven in the morning. Mercy himself reports
that in February, 1777, she has been to two balls
at the Palais Royal and to five or six masqued ones
at the Opera-House; that she has talked to all sorts
of people and has walked round accompanied by
young men, among them many Englishmen, for
whom she shows a marked preference; and that her
familiarity of manner is sure to offend the public.
Meanwhile, the extravagance of the court was
becoming more and more of a popular grievance,
and the blame for it was being more and more
thrown on Marie Antoinette's shoulders. She has
favourites, Madame de Lamballe and Madame de
Polignac, on whom she showers gifts and pensions
that not only help to deplete the Treasury but also
serve to make others envious and jealous. For her-
self she spends enormous sums on jewels. Once, in
almost the same breath in which she is discussing
the hardships caused by certain financial meas-
ures, she announces her intention of buying dia-
monds worth 460,000 francs. Her own special
palace and park — the little Trianon — devour im-
mense sums. The whole park is transformed from
a French formal, into an English informal, garden,
with a lake, a grotto, a hamlet of thatched cottages,
a stream meandering through a meadow, wonderful
little marble pavilions, a theatre, a temple of love.
Her gambling, too, becomes a public scandal. The
King once, without a murmur, pays her debts to
the amount of half a million francs, while Mercy
objects not so much to her playing as to her careless
14 The French Revolution
methods, which make it almost inevitable that she
should lose. And there are indecorous scenes, too
— accusations of false play, the letting down of the
social barriers in favour of those who have money
to stake.
These were things that the French nation never
forgot. The chief charge later hurled against
Marie Antoinette was that she had wantonly dissi-
pated the resources of France; that, sunk deep in
frivolity, she had failed in her duty as wife and
mother.
She had begun to reform — had consented that
her new-born daughter should have a retinue of
but eighty instead of two hundred and fifty people ;
had submitted to having the appropriation for
lighting the Versailles palace cut by Necker from
450,000 to 50,000 francs a year; had refrained from
buying costly jewels that she coveted, when an
affair in which she was merely an innocent victim
revived all the hatred against her and ruined her
irrevocably in the minds of the French people.
It was a diabolical plot, this diamond-necklace
affair — one of the most remarkable in all the
annals of crime. A clever adventuress, pretending
to be a friend of the Queen, duped the ambitious
Cardinal de Rohan — who was convinced that
Marie Antoinette's disfavour barred him from
playing the political r61e he desired — and ac-
quired such boundless influence over him that
she could dispose of his enormous fortune almost
at will.
A very few words must suffice us for this epi-
Introductory 15
sode. x Madame de la Motte brought to Cardinal
de Rohan letters apparently in Marie Antoinette's
handwriting; she persuaded the Cardinal that the
Queen was relenting; that on a certain occasion the
Queen would make a sign to him — later, that
the Queen really had made the sign. All this was
not sufficient for the Cardinal. He demanded a
personal interview with the Queen. This, too,
Madame de la Motte, who herself had never had a
word with Marie Antoinette, promised to procure.
So she decked out a woman of the streets in a
mode of dress the Queen was known to affect,
brought her at dusk into the park of the palace,
had her give the Cardinal a rose as a sign of forgive-
ness and begin to murmur soft words which were
immediately interrupted by the alarm that the
Comte d'Artois was approaching.
Thoroughly convinced now that all was as repre-
sented, Cardinal de Rohan, ostensibly for the
Queen's use, gave hundreds of thousands of francs
to Madame de la Motte. Then the latter per-
suaded him that Marie Antoinette, who from
motives of economy had refused to buy a certain
diamond necklace worth more than one and a
half million francs, was secretly most desirous of
possessing it, and, if the Cardinal would make the
arrangements with the jewellers, would agree to
pay them for it by instalments. We cannot follow
here the web of deceit drawn about the jewellers as
well as about the Cardinal. The necklace found
its way into Madame de la Motte's hands and the
1 Funk Brentano, L 'affaire du Collier, 5th edition.
16 The French Revolution
diamonds were sold separately in London and in
Paris
Then came the partial unravelling of the mys-
tery, the falling of suspicion on the Cardinal, his
arrest at the very moment when, clad in all his
pontifical robes, he was proceeding down the Galerie
des Glaces to read mass in the chapel of the palace.
In the long trial that ensued, Marie Antoinette
lost her last vestige of reputation. She was a party,
and many believed not an innocent one, in a
cause celebre. Pamphlets unspeakably vile were cir-
culated against her. Her portrait was mutilated;
she was hissed at the opera.
The Cardinal, on the other hand, when finally
acquitted, was accompanied to his home by ten
thousand people.
But mere animosity against the Queen did
not account for the outbreak of the Revolution.
There were problems of government involved that
demand, however briefly, some treatment here.
Turgot,1 in 1774, had inaugurated a regime of
order and economy that might have staved off
disaster. He had even demanded that the other
ministers should draw up budgets for their depart-
mental expenses — a radical innovation. For a
time, upheld by the King's favour, he had been a
sort of financial dictator. But the pedantic Parle-
ment, or highest law court, had treated him as an
1 In these financial matters, I have followed mainly the works of
Gomel, of Glagan, and of Chereste.
Introductory 17
enemy of the state and of the monarchy. Writings
directly inspired by him were condemned to be
publicly burned as "contrary to the laws and
customs of France, the sacred and inalienable privi-
leges of the throne, and the rights of private pro-
perty." Turgot himself was satirized as a wild
innovator, a dreamer, a subverter of customs that
had done very well for a thousand years. His real
crime had been that he tried to equalize taxation.
The Parlement finally decreed that those who even
discussed established rights were "rebels against
the law and disturbers of the peace. "
Yet Turgot 's final fall — as has only recently
become clear — was due not so much to opposition
to his reforms as to his attitude on the question of
sending aid to the American colonies. He con-
sidered it suicidal to engage in a war with England
when the Treasury was so in need of replenishment
—and the future was to justify his attitude. The
threatening bankruptcy that precipitated the call-
ing of the States-General was the direct result of
the American war.
Loaded down with debt, all future ministerial
efforts at reform were to prove in vain. Necker
was considered for a time a wizard of finance, but
his panacea for all ills — to contract new loans —
was as dangerous to the national health as the
worst kind of a narcotic. Not until years after-
wards was it recognized on what disadvantageous
terms these loans had been incurred.
The episode of Calonne's administration reads
like a romance. Brought to the King's notice by
1 8 The French Revolution
intriguers in the palace who adroitly left an open
letter praising his abilities where Louis was sure
to find and read it, Calonne adopted a policy that
for a time made him the very idol of the court. To
be rich one had only to seem rich. The good old
days of Louis XIV returned once more. The King
was encouraged to spend 18,000,000 francs in pur-
chasing the estate of Rambouillet. The Queen
bought St. Cloud for 6,000,000 francs, and her pin-
money was more than doubled. Pensions were
once more showered right and left. The debts of
the King's brothers, amounting to millions of
francs, were paid in full. In a single year, Louis
XVI drew sight-drafts to the amount of 136,-
000,000 francs, of which 20,000,000 were made
payable simply to "bearer. "
Not merely the court but the people at large
were to be made to believe that the millennium had
come. Public works were undertaken on a large
scale: the docks at Havre, the harbour at Cher-
bourg. Disallowed or superannuated claims were
cheerfully paid, new subsidies given. And how was
this accomplished? By clever jugglery. People
were delighted to find that old obligations were
being paid off by the Government, but they were
not informed when new ones were contracted.
When credit runs high, much is possible — there
Calonne was perfectly right. But there is a point
beyond which inflation cannot go, and that point
was finally reached.
It was reached when the Parlement refused any
longer to follow Calonne in his flights and register
Introductory 19
more fiscal edicts. Parlements could be coerced
by so-called beds of justice, but how would the
money-lenders respond to such violence? Brought
to bay, Calonne proposed reforms which Louis XVI
designated in horror as " Necker pure and simple " ;
they included taxation of the privileged classes and
also the summoning of notable men from all parts
of France to serve as a sort of advisory council.
Calonne 's notables finally came together, but he
treated them so superciliously, intimating that
they were to have no voice in affairs but merely to
give advice when asked, that nothing was gained
by the measure. Carlyle speaks of a caricature of
the time1 which represents a farmer asking his
fowls with what sauce they would like to be
roasted, and telling them when they demurred at
being roasted at all that they were wandering
from the point. Calonne, for his part, refused to
give a plain statement of the causes of the deficit
in the Treasury, merely saying sarcastically,
'The gentlemen are very curious." Calonne's
successor, Lomenie de Brienne, brought matters
to the breaking-point with the Parlement, which
flatly declined to register the decrees he required,
and demanded an Assembly not merely of men
designated by the King, but one that should be
really representative. The old antagonism of the
Crown and the lawyers revived in full force. The
most drastic means were employed against the
Parlement; members were even banished and im-
prisoned. Louis finally legislated the whole Parle-
1 I have not been able to procure it.
2O The French Revolution
ment out of existence and established a new court :
he was reminded that " there are laws which may
not be violated without shaking the world's founda-
tions and preparing the fall of empires." Yet he
continued on his course by Lomenie's advice. At
dead of night the Palais de Justice was surrounded
by troops and the members still to be found there
were bodily carried off. There was an uprising in
southern France led by the adherents of the local
Parlement, and troops were despatched to the
neighbourhood of Vizille, where the rebels were
congregating.
Louis and his ministers finally found that the
States-General, to be composed of delegates from
every part of France, was their own last hope. A
complicated system of election was adopted with
an equally complicated system of sending in books
of plaints and grievances from each and every
district. Lomenie was dismissed, and Necker, al-
though he himself expressed a fear that it was
already too late, was recalled. When this became
known, government bonds rose thirty points in the
course of a single morning. Mirabeau declared
that in summoning the States-General the na-
tion had progressed a century in twenty-four
hours.
Post tenebras lux1 is the title of a broadside
issued at this juncture and representing the King
and Necker emerging from the clouds, united by a
double chain. Both have the same love and the
same care for the people, we are told in an inscrip-
1 Plate 3, p. 21.
I
r>
22
The French Revolution
tion; while underneath are texts and emblems to
the glory of the reunited pair.
The formal summons to the States-General was
Plate 4. The coach ornamented with symbols in which Louis XVI went
to his coronation in 1774.
issued on January 24, 1789, and the date finally
set was May 5th of the same year.
Off to Versailles! That was the cry that now
rang through France and the artists were inspired
by the theme. The King had gone to his corona-
tion in a coach adorned with symbols1 — France
pointing the way, suppliants falling at the King's
feet, Fame heralding the royal progress, crowns,
1 Plate 4, above.
Introductory 23
fleurs-de-lis, the blazing sun of the Bourbons. It
was a coach with symbols, too, though of a different
kind, in which the three estates were now repre-
.r
Platr 5. A symbolical representation of the three estates proceeding to
Versailles in May, 1789
sented as departing for Versailles.1 The coach is
drawn by six owls representing wisdom. The
clergy drives, the nobility sits at ease and waves
his sword, while the peasantry stands behind, his
spade across his shoulder, and supports the orb
and the crown.
An interesting variation of the theme2 — in allu-
sion possibly to the fact that the third estate had
meanwhile been accorded double representation—
1 Plate 5, above. * Plate 6, p. 24
24 The French Revolution
\
shows the peasantry driving, while both the clergy
and the nobility are in the body of the coach.
Each order has an animal for its emblem: the
Plate 6. Another version of the symbolical representation of the three
estates proceeding to Versailles in May, 1789
peasantry, a sheep ; the nobility, a lion which, inci-
dentally, does all the supporting of the orb and
crown; and the clergy, a leopard.
CHAPTER II
LIBERTY
ON Saturday, May 2, 1789, the representatives
of the French people were received by the
King in his palace of Versailles: the clergy
at eleven, the nobility at one, the third estate at
four o'clock. Two days later came the religious
consecration of the assemblage in the local church
of Notre Dame, after which the three orders filed
past the King and Queen who returned the saluta-
tion of each individual member.1 Through streets
gay with flags and hangings they then passed in
procession, every available space being crowded
with spectators.
The deputies wore their costumes of ceremony2
symbolical of their relative pretensions. The robes
of the clergy were rich and trailing, calculated only
for display; the nobles were in evening dress with
facings of cloth of gold. Their mantles were of
silk, their broad cravates of lace, their hats adorned
with plumes. The deputies of the third were in
plain black suits, with cloaks of cloth and cravates
1 Le Hodey, Journal des Etats GSnkraux.
2 Plate 7, p. 26
25
26
The French Revolution
of simple muslin. It is thus that the Marquis de
Ferrieres describes them and thus that our artist
depicts them. A separate representation of a
deputy of the third estate1 gives us a chance to
study his costume more fully.
Plate 7. The three estates in their respective costumes of ceremony.
Many were impressed by the dignified bearing
of these popular deputies, while from one of them,
Mirabeau, Madame de Stael, Necker's daughter,
tells us it was difficult to turn the eye away.
Though his face was strikingly ugly, his "whole
1 Plate 8, p. 27.
Plate 8. The costume of a deputy of the third
28 The French Revolution
person gave the impression of an unrestrained
power, but of such power as one associates with a
tribune of the people."1
Ferrieres describes himself2 as plunged in the
sweetest ecstasy at the sight of the procession.
He seemed, he says, to hear France calling: "Lay
aside your childish quarrels, for the moment has
come which will give me new life or annihilate me
forever. ' ' Yet, far from being laid aside, these same
childish quarrels had by May 6th brought matters
to a complete deadlock.
The fatal mistake had been made by the King's
ministers of having no definite programme to pre-
sent for the consideration of the States- General.
The deficit? Necker spoke of that as a mere trifle
— something that could very easily be remedied.
But if so, why then these elaborate preparations?
Why this urgent appeal to the people?
The deputies began to wrangle over matters that
should have been settled long beforehand — whether
they should verify their powers in common or
separately: whether they should vote as orders or
as individuals. The nobles and clergy finally re-
fused flatly to have their credentials passed upon
in presence of the third estate and withdrew from
the common meeting-hall to separate apartments
in the same building. It was an unwise move
from every point of view. Sitting there in their
great hall in the midst of a crowd of spectators, the
third estate represented the nation far more than
did the other two assemblies.
1 Considerations, i., 186. a Memoires, L, 19-20.
Liberty 29
Week after week passed and the deadlock con-
tinued unbroken. The whole machinery, not only
of reform, but even of government, had been thrown
out of gear. In the country at large, all the evils of
anarchy broke loose. Trade was at a standstill;
money was hoarded; labour could find no employ-
ment. Organized bands of thieves began to scour
the country. A great panic fell upon the peasants.
From everywhere came tales of brigands, the actual
evils being exaggerated tenfold. Arthur Young,
the English traveller, found the peasants of one
district in a dreadful fright because they had heard
that the Queen meant to blow them all up with
gunpowder. And the States- General, the assem-
bling of which had been welcomed as a panacea for
all evils, was accomplishing literally nothing. In
strife with each other, the people's deputies were
not lifting a finger to alleviate the general misery.
The third estate held firm. The clergy tried
to throw upon them the odium of the schism and
of the sufferings of the peasants, and made bitter
recriminations. Once a clerical emissary appeared
in the hall and flourished a piece of the loathsome
black bread that the poor were condemned to eat.
The clergy and nobles, it was declared, were all
eagerness to take in hand the work of relief, but the
people's deputies stood in the way. If the clergy
are so troubled about the poor, was the response,
why do they not join the third estate, or why do
they not furnish relief from their own vast surplus
of wealth?
This idea that the people's representatives were
30 The French Revolution
turning the needy away from the sanctuary of the
law was exploited, doubtless in the interests of the
clergy, by means of an engraving entitled "Ah,
how hard are the times!"1 An agonized mother
with four children has appealed in vain for aid but
Plate 9. A symbolical representation entitled " Ah, how hard
are the times!"
is sternly being repulsed by the Genius of France
himself.
The last attempt at conciliation was made on
June 9, 1789. On the loth, Mirabeau declared
1 Plate 9, above.
\
K LCUKB J ^\ MS BKN QU VOUS SERI -MS
Plate 10. A cartoon showing the thi: welcoming the
to the ranks of the National Assembly, June 13, 1789.
32 The French Revolution
that some decision must be made, and Sieyes
moved to proceed to a roll-call and begin to verify
powers no matter who might fail to appear. "The
time has come," he declared, "to cut the cable!"
"Seneschalry of Aix, gentlemen of the clergy?
No one present. Gentlemen of the nobility? No
one present. " So the roll-calling began, the mem-
bers of the third alone stepping forward as the
names of their districts were called. On the I3th
of June when "Seneschalry of Poitou, gentlemen
of the clergy?" had been reached, there suddenly
was a profound sensation. Three ecclesiastics
stepped forward and offered to produce their cred-
entials. First there was a stir and a bustle, and
then the hall resounded with applause. The next
day, six more of the clergy responded when their
districts were called, and it was made known that a
majority of the order were in favour of joining the
third estate.
It is this moment that one of our cartoonists
chose for his theme.1 He shows the peasant leav-
ing his plough, doffing his hat, and going forward to
greet the curate: "Shake hands, Mr. Curate, I
knew that you were going to join our side!"
Fiery debates began on June I5th concerning
the name that should be given to the new Assembly.
Should it be called, as Mirabeau wished, "Repre-
sentatives of the French nation," or, as a deputy
from Berry proposed, simply "The National As-
sembly " ? On June 1 7th, the latter designation was
formally adopted and at the same time it was voted
1 Plate 10, p. 31.
Liberty 33
to proceed to the work of national regeneration
stopping at no obstacle or interruption. The die
had been cast and there were to be no half meas-
ures. The Assembly boldly seized the reins of
government and exercised a formal act of sover-
eignty. It declared that all the existing taxes had
been illegally imposed. It did not suddenly abro-
gate them, however, but ordered that they be col-
lected, exactly as before, so long as the Assembly
should remain in session — a clever move, for should
the King dissolve the Assembly it could be claimed
that the taxes were not legal, and many, of course,
would have rejoiced to escape payment. The
general feeling towards Louis was that at heart he
was the people's friend, but that, like Luther's pope,
he was badly advised. There were still hearty
Vive le roi's when his name was mentioned. He had
summoned the States- General ; he would eventually
himself head the Liberal movement. But the
National Assembly meanwhile felt its own dignity
and importance. The members agreed to bind
themselves by a solemn oath. In the midst of
a crowd of excited spectators, all rose and stood
with raised right hand while President Bailly
pronounced the formula: "We swear and promise
to fulfil with zeal and fidelity the functions we
have assumed." "We swear and promise," was
repeated by all.
It was realized that the task of regeneration
might take long and the National Assembly pro-
ceeded to make itself as much at home as possible.
The ventilation of the hall was bad, the seats were
34 The French Revolution
uncomfortable ; but there was a man with consid-
erable mechanical ingenuity among the members,
and he was entrusted with the task of finding a
remedy. x His name was Dr. Guillotin and he was
presently to invent one kind of a remedy at least for
all the ills to which flesh is heir. " With my ma-
chine I chop off your head in the twinkling of an eye
and you don't even notice it," he explained when
exhibiting his invention in one of the sessions, which
remark caused such inextinguishable laughter
that the Assembly had to adjourn.
President Bailly, in his famous memoirs, com-
plains bitterly that from the first the members of
the National Assembly, according as their individ-
ual votes were pleasing or not to the spectators,
were subject to praises or insults. He sees in this
calling in of the people the source of the worst
evils of the Revolution. The judgment of a mob
at a time of crisis is about as reliable as that of a
drove of horses that has been stampeded; and
decisions had far better be left to those who at
calmer moments have been chosen as legislators
because of their sound views and their thorough
training. In the case of the National Assembly,
there was an organized system of intimidation.
Lists of deputies who were supposed to be not
voting as they should were distributed among the
masses, and Bailly tells of members who came to
him in great alarm because they had heard that
their names had been placed on such a list.
It was June I7th, as we have said, when the first
1 Debats et Decrets, June 17.
Liberty 35
revolutionary measures were passed. For the next
three days the court party remained abashed and
disconcerted, the nobles railing at the third estate
and accusing it of a desire to usurp the whole
power. Then the King acted — most unwisely, as
it was to prove.
It was apparently to frustrate the joining of the
National Assembly by a considerable number of
the clergy who, on June I9th, had made their
decision to that effect, that Louis XVI, on the
twentieth, ordered the doors of the Assembly-hall
to be shut and no members to be admitted. The
pretext was that his Majesty had determined to
hold a royal session of all three orders combined
and that it was necessary to have carpenters make
certain changes in the hall. Seeing that the three
orders had met together in that very hall on the
fifth day of the preceding month, the reasons
advanced could not have seemed very cogent.
The King's treatment of the National Assembly
was unceremonious to say the least. The Presi-
dent, Bailly, was officially informed of the closing of
the hall only an hour or so before the regular
session was to have begun. The first intimation to
the members themselves was the finding of the
entrance barred by troops. There were bitter
recriminations on the one hand, threats of violence
on the other. "Strike, it will bring revolution all
the sooner !" cried a deputy when a bayonet was
pressed against his breast. '
It was Dr. Guillotin, always quick and inventive,
* Dtbats et Dlcrtls; Brette, Serment du Jeu de Paumt.
36 The French Revolution
who made the suggestion of adjourning to a build-
ing not controlled altogether by the court, although
its chief patron was the Comte d'Artois and its
owner enjoyed the title of purveyor to the royal
family. Over the door blazed the sun of Louis
XIV, and on the blue ceiling were golden fleurs-de-
lis. In all other respects, the Tennis Court was a
thing of utility rather than of beauty. The walls
were painted black in order that the white balls
might be more visible, and a net, waist high, divided
the hall in halves.1 The proprietor of the estab-
lishment received the deputies with every token
of joy but could do little to make them comfortable.
A few benches and a writing-table were the extent
of the furniture.
Only an hour and a half had been lost by the
unexpected change of locality. The deputies had
gained enormously in popularity because of their
firm attitude, and a crowd of people surrounded
the door and stretched far back into the streets.
Excitement was at the highest pitch. Sieyes
would have liked to have the Assembly cut loose
from the King and move in a body to Paris2 ; but
Mounier intervened with the proposition then
and there to take an oath " never to separate, but
always to reassemble, when circumstances required,
until the constitution of the kingdom should be
established on solid and firm foundations." To
this oath, each member subscribed in writing,
though one member quickly wrote " opposing"
1 Aulard, Etudes et Le$ons, i., 62.
a Mallet du Pan, Memoires, i., 165, note.
Plate ii. Mirabcau in the name of the National Assembly defying De
Bre"zd, Master of Ceremonies of the King.
37
38 The French Revolution
after having affixed his signature.1 That he left
the hall alive seems to have been due only to
Bailly's interference. Yet the Assembly decided
not to erase his name.
The King, it will be remembered, had announced
his intention to hold a royal session. This the
National Assembly voted to attend, but it also
voted to remain in the hall after the session should
be over and transact its own business. It had
meanwhile been joined by the majority of the
clergy — not in the Tennis Court, for the Comte
d'Artois had sent word to the proprietor that he
wished to play a game of tennis — but in the church
of St. Louis. The royal session was held on the
23d of June. Never again was a king of France
to appear with such pomp and circumstance.
Through the crowded streets, Louis XVI' s carriage
advanced in the midst of the falconry, the pages,
the squires, the regiments of body-guards. Arrived
at the hall, the King, followed by the princes of the
blood, the dukes and peers of France, the captains
of the guards, the king-at-arms, and the heralds,
advanced to the platform and seated himself on the
throne that had once done service for Louis XIV.
The nobles and what remained of the clergy had
been allowed to enter from the Avenue de Paris,
and to take their seats without delay. Was it
accident, was it negligence, now, that the National
Assembly was kept waiting for an hour at the back
entrance where only a portion of the members
1 The modern restorers of the Tennis Court have foolishly stricken
Martin Dauch's name from the list of signers. (Jaures, i., 246.)
Liberty 39
could find shelter from the rain? De Br6z6, the
King's master of ceremonies, declared that the
delay was due to the sudden death of one of the
royal secretaries, but Bailly maintained that these
"vain puerilities" had been resorted to in order to
prevent any attempt to take the seats reserved
for the clergy and nobility.
Louis XVTs opening speech was a defiance
which he proceeded to soften by the offer of great
concessions. "The King wills," it began, "that
the ancient distinction of the three orders in the
state be preserved in its entirety as a fundamental
part of the constitution of his kingdom." The
measures passed by the Assembly on June I7th
were simply annulled, and the King "willed to
make it known" in what manner future delib-
erations should be held. We know now that all
this was contrary to the advice of Necker but
that the counsels of Marie Antoinette and the
Comte d'Artois had prevailed. Necker had then
remained away from the session.
The concessions offered were indeed considerable
and would have been hailed with enthusiasm had
they been presented as a programme on the 5th of
May. Reform in taxation, a yearly budget, event-
ual suppression of the lettres de cachet, partial
liberty of the press — all this formed a tempting
bait. The King grew pathetic over his intended
generosity: "If by an unanticipated fatality you
abandon me in so fine an enterprise alone I shall
accomplish the good of my people; alone I shall
consider myself their veritable representative."
4O The French Revolution
He ended by ordering the members to disperse and
to resume their sessions as separate bodies on the
following day. The court filed out, as did also the
nobility and the loyal remnant of the clergy. The
National Assembly did not move.
If defiance was in order, the National Assembly
could be defiant. Mirabeau's answer to Master of
Ceremonies De Breze, when he approached and
asked if the King's intentions had been understood,
was one of those shots fired round the world:
Yes, Sir, we have heard the intentions imputed to the
King. But you who are not his proper representative in
the States-General, you who are out of place here and have
no authority to speak, you are not the one to remind us of
his discourse. Yet, to avoid all ambiguity and all delay, I
will say to you : if you have been commissioned to make us
leave here, you had better procure orders to use force ; for
nothing short of bayonets will make us quit our places!1
There was a cry of "That is the will of the
Assembly! " and De Breze was so astonished at the
storm he had conjured up that he retired backing
out, we are told, as he was accustomed to do from
the presence of royalty.
An engraving of the time2 shows Mirabeau
addressing De Breze. It would be interesting to
know whether the symbolical representations of
liberty and law could possibly have been included
among the decorations that Louis XVI had sanc-
tioned for the hall of the States- General. More
likely the liberation of captives and the breaking
1 This is the version given by the Debats et Decrets which is, on the
whole, the most reliable of the newspapers.
3 Plate u, p. 37.
Liberty 41
of chains were a fanciful addition of the artist
first inspired by the fall of the Bastile.
The King's command to disperse had been flatly
and openly disobeyed. The National Assembly
Plate 12. A cartoon showing the third estate welcoming the other two
estates to the ranks of the National Assembly, June 30, 1789
seized that very occasion to reaffirm emphatically
its previous decrees. And what action was taken
by Louis XVI ? None. He very characteristically
remarked to De Breze: "If the gentlemen of the
third estate do not wish to leave the hall, there is
nothing to do but to allow them to remain there. "
Indirectly, indeed, there was some action taken.
42 The French Revolution
Thirty carpenters were despatched to the hall.
"It was hoped," wrote Ferrieres, "that the noise
Plate 13. A cartoon showing the three estates as musicians
at last playing in tune.
of such a house-moving would force the gentlemen
of the third to end their session and go away. The
gentlemen of the third remained impassive and
Liberty
43
continued their deliberations/* They crowned
their work by declaring the person of each and
every national deputy inviolable.
Louis XVI had renounced further conflict. He
Plate 14. A cartoon showing concord holding the three estates united by
flowery chains.
wrote and requested his faithful clergy and nobility
to unite with the third estate and hasten the
a 'complishment of his paternal views. This both
Jers finally voted to do, taking their seats on the
3Oth of June.
It was a busy time for symbolists! We have
first a production1 in which the peasant welcomes
1 Plate 12, p. 41
44
The French Revolution
the other two orders, using the same terms with
which he had previously welcomed the advance-
guard of the clergy: " Shake, gentlemen, I knew
very well that you would join our side!" Then
again,1 under what may be meant for a tree of
Plate 15. A cartoon showing the three estates shouldering in common
the burden of the national debt.
liberty, we have the three estates, easily recognized
by their respective costumes, playing each on a
different instrument, while beneath are the words,
" Good, now we are in tune ! " Or still again,2 Con-
cord, clasping a bundle of fagots, holds the estates
by flowery chains, while to her right are the medal-
lions of three good kings, to her left those of three
good ministers.
In one representation3 the three orders in com-
1 Plate 13, p. 42 a Plate 14, p. 43 3 Plate 15, see above.
Liberty
45
mon have shouldered the immense burden of the
national debt and are sharing the land-tax in
common. They do not look happy, but each, at
any rate, is bravely doing his duty.
Much more elaborate is "The Triumph of the
three Orders."1 On a huge car, drawn by prancing
Plate 1 6. A cartoon entitled "The Triumph of the Three
Orders," showing France and her three sons, the
clergy, nobility, and third estate, on their
way to the Temple of Justice.
steeds, France and her three sons are borne towards
the Temple of Justice where Father Time awaits
them, holding open the book of history at the page
entitled "Age of Louis XVI. " Headlong into the
abyss are plunging horrible envy and the furies;
while behind the car, with dignified tread, are
marching Hope, Peace, Justice, and Commerce.
One knows them by their attributes: Hope has the
anchor; Peace, the extinguished torch; Justice, the
1 Plate 1 6, see above.
Plate 17. Facsimile of medals commemorating the harmony of the three
estates in the summer of 1789
46
Liberty
47
sword; and Commerce, the bundle of hemp and
various implements.
Not alone in broadsides and loose-sheet engrav-
ings, but also on coins and medals1 do we see this
Plate 1 8. A cartoon representing the third estate awakening from his long
slumber, casting off his chains and terrifying the other two estates.
new harmony of the estates celebrated with ingen-
ious allegories and patriotic utterances. It all
shows with what breathless interest these first
experiments in government by representatives were
followed by the country at large.
A new series of events gave a fresh direction to
1 Plate 17, p. 46.
48 The French Revolution
artistic endeavour. But first we must trace briefly
the rapid decline of the royal power.
Louis XVI could neither lead nor follow; he
blew neither hot nor cold; his acts and his words
did not agree. On June 3Oth, eleven of his guards
who had sworn to disregard any orders that might
seem to be directed against the National Assembly
were incarcerated; they were released by the mob
and Louis XVI pardoned them. A few days later,
there was general panic and dismay at the news
that royal troops were converging on Paris and
Versailles. Mirabeau, in the Assembly, drew a
lurid picture of the situation and of the thousands
of soldiers who had arrived, were arriving, or were
about to arrive: "It is thus that revolutions
begin," he cried; "thus that excesses are com-
mitted; thus that blood is shed!" The Assembly
sent fiery petitions to the King:
Sire, we conjure you in the name of the fatherland, in
the name of your happiness and of your glory, send back
your soldiers to the posts whence your councillors have
drawn them. . . . Your Majesty does not need them.
Ah, why should a monarch adored by twenty-five million
Frenchmen summon several thousand foreigners around the
throne at great expense?
Louis's reply only increased the consternation.
The troops were there to maintain order, he de-
clared; and he suggested that if their presence
gave umbrage to the National Assembly, the latter
should move to Noyon or Soissons ! On July nth,
the King dismissed his ministry. Yet Necker had
Liberty 49
seemed to the people the only man living who could
avert bankruptcy. The worst horrors were immi-
nent: blood was about to flow, eternal shame to
fall upon France. The Assembly voted that Necker
carried with him its esteem and its regret, and
continued to insist on the removal of the troops.
Through the streets of Paris, Necker's bust was
carried veiled in crepe; the foreign troops were
stoned and reviled; the theatres were forcibly
closed; the toll-bars of the city burned. A revolu-
tionary body established itself in the Hotel de
Ville, and Dr. Guillotin, that useful man, was
commissioned to make this latter measure of safety
acceptable to the National Assembly. The pro-
tection of Paris was handed over to a citizen
guard.
On July I4th, after barricades had been erected,
paving-stones torn up, muskets seized, and an
entry forced into the Hotel de Ville, attention was
turned to the Bastile. Here was a symbol of
tyranny that threw all others into the shade. Into
those dark dungeons any one could be thrown on
the mere signing of a slip of paper by the King.
The Bastile might have resisted a sudden storm
but was not provisioned for a siege. The old
governor, De Launay, surrendered even before the
cannon that the mob brought with them had been
fired. It was a day of misunderstandings. Did
De Launay purposely lower the drawbridge to lure
the people into the courtyard and there shoot them
down? Had the garrison made signs to the people
to approach, or had these signs been for the purpose
5o The French Revolution
of warding them off? Had flags of truce been
used as decoys? One will answer these questions,
even to-day, according to one's sympathies, and it
can easily be imagined what fierce protestations
and denials there were at the time.
The bald facts can be briefly stated. The
besiegers, joined by a detachment of the King's
former guards, dragged cannon through the court-
yards while the garrison fired shots and missiles at
them from above, killing some eighty- three persons
and wounding as many more. There are curious
discrepancies as to the intensity of the struggle.
" World-bedlam roaring"; " noise as of the crack
of doom," are expressions used by Carlyle in this
connection. Yet one eye-witness, Pasquier, de-
clares "the so-called fighting was not serious; the
resistance was absolutely nil"; while a reputable
modern authority, The Cambridge History, speaks of
the whole affair as "a petty incident that holds an
altogether disproportionate place in the imagination
of mankind."
That the storming of the Bastile did hold this
place in the popular imagination is, however,
undisputed, and that is what particularly interests
us here. It mattered little that only seven prison-
ers were found — -not in dungeons but in well-
lighted cells; that of these seven all were there
for just cause. These seven prisoners, all the same,
were borne along in a great procession while every
sort of an emblem of tyranny was flourished as a
product of the dark depths: bits of armour, keys,
handcuffs, chains, old bones, caps of liberty, and
Liberty 51
crowns of laurel. In the country at large, too, and
even in other countries, the fall of the Bastile
created an immense sensation. It was as though a
second David had slain his Goliath. We only need
I
Plate 19. A cartoon entitled " This time Justice is the strongest," and
representing Justice and the third estate weighing down the
clergy and nobility.
to look at the cartoons of the period to find proofs
of the excitement.
"Faith it was time for me to wake up, for the
weight of my chains gave me a little too bad a
nightmare" is the text under a broadside1 entitled
"The awakening of the third estate." The third
with fierce determination in his countenance, has
broken the great iron ring to which his chains were
1 Plate 1 8, p. 47.
52 The French Revolution
attached and is stretching out his hand to seize
his weapons, at which sight the clergy and nobility
start back in horror. In the background, the Bas-
tile is being demolished, while the two heads borne
i/&njr ,,mn.r yr/snaee el J<e bvsiftf vclwtJf \rotez, ().af.ce>rd m/ef swus et rwe /a /.{J>er/e'..S
Plate 20. A cartoon entitled "The noble Two-step," in which a noble
and an abbe are dancing to the piping of the third estate.
on stakes are those of the governor, De Launay —
who had been jeered at, pelted with filth, pricked
with sword and spear, stabbed, finally, and his
head severed by a cook with a penknife — and of
the provost of the merchants, Flesselles, whose
great crime had been that, when ordered by
the sovereign people to furnish arms, he had sent
up to the Hotel de Ville some boxes which had
then been found to contain nothing but old linen.
Liberty
53
" This time Justice is on the side of the strongest "
is the heading of another representation,1 where
Justice stands with the third estate on one end of
the see-saw and weighs down the clergy and
Plate 21. A cartoon entitled " Despotism overthrown," and likening the
storming of the Bastile to the slaying of a hydra.
nobility; while in "The noble Two-step, "a we
have a nobleman and an abbe dancing to the piping
of a national guard.
Occasionally we find productions that are ex-
tremely elaborate, like the one entitled " Despotism
overthrown/'3 Here a band of determined pike-
and swords-men, who have a cannon in reserve if it
1 Plate 19, p. 510 a Plate 20, p. 520 » Plate 21, see above.
54 The French Revolution
shall be needed, are attacking a frightful many-
headed monster whose great claw is outstretched
to rend them in pieces. A number of heads have
already been severed and lie on the ground. They
are those doubtless of De Launay and Flesselles and
Foulon and Berthier, of whom we shall speak
presently. One head on a pole is being carried
about. We have a banner waving from the parapet
of the conquered Bastile, while in the corner sits
a weeping figure intended to represent royalty, for
on the head is a crown, while the hand rests on a
shield covered with fleurs-de-lis. The text tells
us at considerable length that
On July 12, 1789, towards four o'clock in the afternoon, a
wild beast in the form of a horrible monster was seen on
the road from Versailles to Paris. Connoisseurs assured us
that it was preparing to enter and ravage the capital. At
once there were cries of "To arms! to arms!" With guns
and halberds all the citizens ran out and vainly sought the
devastating monster. On the fourteenth, at last, it was
learned that he had retired to a den called the Bastile near
the Porte St. Antoine. There was a rush to besiege it in
that place and, having forced it from this last entrenchment,
it was a question of who should cut off the greatest number
of heads. For the monster had several and, as was the
case with the hydra, all had to be cut off to keep them from
growing again.
The deliberations in the National Assembly on
the day after the storming of the Bastile took on a
tone that had as yet been lacking — one full of bitter-
ness against the court. Mirabeau maintained that
the princes and princesses had visited the "foreign
Liberty 55
hordes'* whom the King had called in; that they
had caressed, exhorted, and rewarded them; that
"these foreign satellites gorged with gold and wine
had foretold in their impious songs the enslave-
ment of France"; that this barbarous music had
served as an accompaniment to the dancing of the
courtiers, and that "such was the prologue of
St. Bartholomew!"
There was a change in the attitude of the Assem-
bly when, as mid-day was approaching, the King
suddenly appeared in their hall. In a short speech
he announced that he had given orders to the troops
to withdraw and that the Assembly was authorized
to make known the news in Paris. It was a sur-
render at discretion. Louis's discourse made a
touching impression on the Assembly and, as it
ended, "transports and tenderness reached their
climax" —to quote a contemporary newspaper, the
Journal de Paris.
But danger lurked in all this emotional folly.
The Assembly was establishing the precedent that
the King was to be lauded to the skies when doing
its will; that it could coerce him by showing dis-
approval. Had Louis been a different kind of a
man, he might have established his position as at
least a co-ordinated and equal power in the state.
But now he entered into explanations; he allowed
the president to chide and warn him, and then
seemed to enjoy the "signs of love and gratitude, "
the acclamations, the renewed "inexpressible trans-
ports" that his humility called forth. When he
finally spoke words "seemingly less prepared and
56 The French Revolution
therefore coming more directly from the heart,"
the liveliest emotions were excited. Almost the
whole Assembly rose and followed him back to the
palace. Deputies of all three orders, joining hands,
formed a sort of precinct, a semicircle, in the
centre of which walked the deluded monarch and
his two brothers. An immense crowd followed
behind shouting Vive le roi ! Some one was heard
to remark: "He needs no other body-guards!"
Every one spoke to him and he spoke to every one,
which was very unwise and unkingly. A woman
of the people, we are told, threw herself on his
neck and he showed no objection to being kissed
by her. Quite the contrary! To those who
attempted to pull her off he said, "Let her come!"
And the band of the Swiss guards gaily played the
vulgar popular song of the hour: "Where is one
better off than in the bosom of one's family?"
Louis was to hear that song again at a less happy
moment, as we shall see in time. He was all
amiability now, all subservience. He went so far
as to say of De Launay who had tried to defend his
Bastile : "Ah, he merited his fate ! " '
The cortege followed him to his chapel; the
crowd called him out onto his balcony; the ap-
plause was deafening. The Queen and the Dau-
phin, too, appeared on the balcony before their
loving people. Only too soon they were to appear
there again under different circumstances.
The deputation from the Assembly sent to bring
the news to Paris were greeted literally as "angels
1 Bailly, ii., 42.
/ -
rC
•— >
§
18
57
58 The French Revolution
of peace. " "Never, " so they themselves reported
to the Assembly, ' ' ' was public festival so beautiful,
so touching. . . . History offers no other such
example; history will never succeed in reproduc-
ing what we saw, and, above all, what we felt."
It was in the midst of all this enthusiasm that
Lafayette was appointed commander-general of
the Parisian militia, and Bailly, mayor of Paris.
A crown of laurels was placed on the latter's head
and he was hailed as the man who had laid the
corner-stone of French liberty.
Louis XVI, in response to the clamours of the
people, now sent a letter recalling Necker to the
Assembly, begging that it be forwarded to its
destination. He himself prepared to harvest more
"transports and tenderness" by appearing among
his beloved Parisians.
The visit took place on July iyth and all Paris
joined in the welcome. The streets, the windows,
and the roofs, were thronged with people. Rich
and poor consorted together. Affable and charm-
ing ladies scattered tri-coloured cockades from
their balconies. The tufts of ribbon floated in the
air, rose, fell and were fought for by eager warriors.
We have an elaborate engraving showing Louis
XVI approaching the Hotel de Ville.2 Bailly had
already met him at the city gate and presented
him with the keys of Paris, explaining that they
were the same keys which had once been presented
to Henry IV. His words were slightly double-
edged: "He [Henry IV] had re-conquered his people
1 Debats et Decrets, July 16, 1789. a Plate 22, p. 57
I Illlllllimlffllfflllllllffllllllllll!'' ';ilil!lllilllllil
iiiiiDii iiiiuuiiiiiiiiinur
1 I! lUllHUmffl
Plate 23. An engraving showing Louis XVI with the cap
of Liberty, which he publicly donned on July 17, 1789.
59
60 The French Revolution
but now it is the people who have re-conquered
their king. " Through the Place de Greve Louis
advanced in his coach and eight. In front of him,
on the face of the clock that surmounted the Hotel
de Ville, was the inscription: "To Louis XVI, father
of the French and King of a free people." All
around him were national guards and behind them
was a vast concourse of people. Bailly now gave
him a tri-coloured cockade with "Sire, I have the
honour to present your Majesty with the distinct-
ive mark of the French. " Louis took the cockade
and affixed it to his hat, and an engraving com-
memorates the moment.1 On the edge of the cap
the words are inscribed: "The second crown of
Louis XVI." Louis stood at a window of the
Hotel de Ville to show the crowd that he had
accepted the cockade. Cries of joy rent the air,
and the ladies of the market presented him with
boughs of laurel, symbol of peace. It was voted
by acclamation to erect a statue on the site of
the Bastile to "Louis XVI, Restorer of French
Liberty."2
The revolutionary newspapers are wild with joy,
of course, over this self-abasement of the King and
take occasion to glorify the French people: " O my
country, thou alone knowest how to adore, even
as thou knowest how to avenge!"3 It is consid-
ered remarkable that a people which has just been
"snatching from the breasts of traitors their palpi-
tating entrails" should now "go with radiant brow
1 Plate 23, p. 59 a Plate 24, p. 61
3 Revolutions de Paris, July 17.
LO i
//<• a \'<'/\rti///r.t
Hrsianraiciir (U- la
Plate 24. Louis XVI depicted as the " Restorer of French
Liberty."
61
62 The French Revolution
to offer its king the palm of peace'. " " Frenchmen
what loyalty, what confidence!"
f~ The cult of the revolution was fast becoming a
Religion. Over a portrait of Bailly1 engraved in
connection with his appointment as mayor, we
have the tri-coloured cockade with a motto other-
wise associated only with the cross of Christ:
In hoc signo vicimus.
Adoring and avenging were indeed to be very
closely associated in these first exciting days of the
Revolution. A week after the storming of the Bas-
tile, there was another bloody demonstration in
Paris. Foulon, Necker's temporary successor, and
Foulon's son-in-law, Berthier, fell as victims to the
popular hatred. Had not Foulon enriched him-
self at the expense of a starving people? Had he
not, fearing the people's wrath, pretended to be
dead and caused a dead servant in his place to be
given a pompous burial? As a matter of fact, he
had probably done neither of these things — but the
mere rumour of them sufficed to ruin him. Foulon
was arrested at the country house of a friend, a
Monsieur de Sartines, and because either he or
Monsieur de Sartines — no one was quite sure which
— had asked why the people if they were so hun-
gry did not eat hay, was sent to Paris with a
bundle of hay on his back and a bunch of thistles
in his button-hole. He was strung up to the lamp-
bracket at one corner of the Place de Greve. The
rope broke with his weight; he was strung up
again, this time successfully. He was decapitated;
' Plate 25, p. 63
Plate 25. A portrait of Bailly over which is the national cockade
with the motto In hoc signo vicimus.
64
The French Revolution
his head was stuck on a lance and, with a wisp of
hay fastened in his mouth, was paraded about the
streets. The wisp of hay in his mouth was, says
the Revolutions de Paris,1 "a striking allusion to
the inhuman sentiments of this barbarous man";
LK CONC Ll 81 M J)K LA DIE T K
Plate 26. A satirical production called "The Conclusion of the Diet,"
showing the evil results of forcing one cap upon the three estates.
and the same journal tells us that Foulon's body
was dragged everywhere through the mud and
"announced to the tyrants the terrible vengeance
of a justly irritated people. "
Some one had the humourous idea of thrusting
Foulon's gory head into the carriage which bore
Berthier, his son-in-law, to Paris. It was a fine
1 July 23d.
Plate 27. A bloodthirsty cartoon called " The Patriotic Calculator,"
showing the Frenchman making out a hill for eight heads
paid on account, twelve still due.
66
The French Revolution
reminder of the fate that was impending for Ber-
thier himself. Each zealous patriot vied with the
other in showing disgust for such enemies of the
people. Berthier's head on a stake already seemed
too tame an emblem. His heart, too, was cut out
Plate 28. A cartoon called "The great Step accomplished, or the Dawn
of a fine Day," which shows the Frenchman advancing over heads,
Bastiles, etc., to join with the King and observe the law.
of his body, was stuck on the point of a knife and
carried about. The Revolutions de Paris seems
rather to gloat over the episode. . It tells how some
went so far as to dip the shreds of flesh into the
beverage they were consuming: " Frenchmen, you
exterminate tyrants ; your hatred is revolting, it is
frightful — but at last you shall be free!"
Plate 29. A cartoon called the " Constitution of France," showing
Neckcr borne aloft by the Due d 'Orleans and Lafayette, while the
chains of servitude are trampled under foot.
68
The French Revolution
A satire of the time entitled "The Conclusion of
the Diet " x shows the net result of trying to fit the
cap of liberty onto the heads of the three orders.
Plate 30. An allegorical representation to the glory of Necker, entitled
"Virtue surmounts all Obstacles." (Remarkable because the
recall of Necker is attributed to the Queen.)
All have woe-begone expressions of countenance,
while everywhere one sees nothing but death and
destruction.
The blood-thirstiness of the time is well shown
1 Plate 26, p. 64
t
Plate 31. An elaborate allegorical representation in which Louis
XVI conducts Necker along the path of glory and
presents him to the National Assembly.
69
70 The French Revolution
forth in some of these artistic productions. In the
" Patriotic Calculator"1 the worthy citizen smiles
as he sits before his table of heads — one sees that of
Foulon among the others, with the wisp of hay in
its mouth. On his tablet the citizen writes : ' ' Due,
twenty ; paid on account, eight ; remainder, twelve. ' '
In "The great Step accomplished, or the Dawn of
a fine Day,"2 we see how, over the ruins of the
Bastile, with one foot planted squarely on the
heads of the fallen, the French patriot is hastening
to join hands with Louis XVI so that together they
may govern in the name of the law ; while the sun,
rising in full splendour, gives promise of brightness
for the coming day.
The next great popular excitement, also mir-
rored freely in the artistic productions of the time,
was the return of Necker in answer to the invita-
tion sent him by Louis XVI. He came like a
conquering hero, an immense multitude going out
to the city gate to welcome him. Tears of joy,
we are told, fell from almost every eye, and each
would have been glad of a thousand voices, a
thousand hands: "Oh, who will paint the delicious
transports of this fete?" asks a newspaper. . . .
"Here, crowns of flowers are offered to the liberator
of France ; there, tributes of the ingenious muses
who celebrate his talents and his virtues. " Among
the "tributes of the ingenious muses" we must
reckon our allegorical representations. In one en-
titled the "Constitution of France,"3 we have
Necker borne aloft by Lafayette and D' Orleans
1 Plate 27, p. 65. a Plate 28, p. 66. 3 plate 29, p. 67.
Liberty 71
while with his feet he tramples on the instruments
of slavery. With one hand he holds up the crown
of France; in the other he carries a pole with a cap
Plate 32. A cartoon in which the King and Necker are breaking
the chains of a grateful third estate while Discord
takes to flight.
of liberty. In " Virtue surmounting all Obstacles, ' ' '
we have France showing Necker to her children
while Fame announces him with her trumpet.
Justice, Abundance, and Prudence sit at his feet,
1 Plate 30, p. 68.
72 The French Revolution
and Apollo with his darts chases away loathsome
Envy, Hatred, and Discord.
More elaborate still is a production called, "The
Epoch of French Liberty"1 where an ermine-clad
and fleurs-de-lis-covered Louis XVI conducts
Necker along the path of glory towards the three
estates, which stand together under the equally-
balanced scales. A hand in the clouds holds the
torch of truth which Diogenes is pointing out to
Jean Jacques Rousseau. The sage of the tub is
trampling on his lantern. What need has he now
of any artificial light? Is not his search ended?
Has he not found in every French citizen that for
which he was looking — a man?
In still another allegory,2 the King and his minis-
ter are breaking the chains of the third estate, while
hideous Discord is taking to flight.
1 Plate 31, p. 69. 2 Plate 32, p. 71.
CHAPTER III
EQUALITY
AFTER the fall of the Bastile, the National
Assembly began to busy itself in earnest
with the new constitution. A cartoon1
shows the three estates, each with his great ham-
mer, welding into shape the book of the law which
lies on an anvil. On the very day of the attack on
the fortress a committee had been appointed to
formulate the rights of man — his fundamental,
inalienable rights — and this was to serve as a pre-
amble to the whole.
Already on July i ith Lafayette had handed in a
draft of "rights,"2 reminiscent of the American
constitution, that would have answered very well
for every practical purpose. They included liberty
of person, speech, and opinion, the right to one's
own property, the right to be happy and to resist
oppression. But instead of adopting this bodily
and proceeding to take up the evils that were cry-
ing aloud for remedy, these twelve hundred men
debated hour after hour and week after week on
purely theoretical matters. Ignorance of these
rights of man, it was argued, had kept the French
1 Plate 33, p. 74 ' Buchez et Roux, ii., 78.
73
74
The French Revolution
under the heel of despotism; the programme must
first be laid down before any individual measures
were discussed. In vain Dumouriez, the future
oatfor
tot t#
boil (
m/
Plate 33. A cartoon showing the three estates forging away at the new
constitution.
victor of Valmy and Genappe, declared that what
Frenchmen needed was a knowledge of their duties
rather than of their rights ; in vain he pleaded that
this was the plan on which the much-admired
Americans had proceeded. r
1 Memoir es (Hamburg, 1795), ii., 24.
Equality 75
Triumphantly at last the world was told that
''all men are equal before the law;" that "liberty
consists in doing whatever does not harm others;"
that "no one may be punished save by a law
established and promulgated previously to the
crime;" that "every man is to be presumed in-
nocent until he has been declared guilty;" that
"no one is to be molested on account of his
opinions." These — and there were many more
—were laid down as those rights of man "ig-
norance, forgetfulness, or scorn of which are the
sole causes of public misfortunes."1 Had these
"rights" been formulated for the very purpose of
presenting a contrast to the principles that were to
govern the Revolution they could not have been
worded more strongly. How many persons, for
instance, were to be presumed innocent until they
had been declared guilty? Foulon, perhaps? Or
Berthier? And the rights of property — how about
the forced loans, the "voluntary" contributions?
As for non-molestation on account of opinions,
it is safe to say that the grand majority of arrests
and guillotinings were to be more because of opin-
ions expressed, or even supposed to be cherished
in secret, than for any other cause.
Never could there have been a less favourable
time for prolonged and unpractical deliberations.
Brigands — some few, perhaps, in the flesh, but many
thousands more in the frightened popular imag-
ination— were terrorizing the country districts;
1 Duguit et Mounier: Les constitutions et Us principals lois politiques
de la France depuis 1789.
76 The French Revolution
chateaux and monasteries were being sacked in
search of title-deeds and feudal charters ; the skies
were red with burning buildings. Feudal dues and
rents could no longer be collected; the laws were
without force, the magistrates without authority.
"The peasants/' writes a newspaper, * "declare that
neither their persons nor their goods can form part
of the property of the seigneurs. " It was a new
phase of the eternal dispute between capital and
labour. Beyond a doubt there were evils that
needed reforming; but in this imperfect world the
cooperation of the capitalist, be he feudal lord or
merely a more enterprising fellow-citizen, is neces-
sary to make labour of any tangible value.
What course could the National Assembly pur-
sue? It was bound to respect the rights of prop-
erty, yet it stood for freedom and for emancipation
from the old trammels. It could not well attempt
to suppress the troubles by force of arms; it could
not even permit this to be done by the King, the
chief executive power. How could it entrust him
with an army after the uproar caused by his order-
ing a few regiments to Paris? The Assembly had
already declared itself in favour of enjoining on
the peasantry the necessity of paying the custom-
ary feudal dues; it had spoken of the "sacred
rights of property" and of the "ancient laws that
still subsist and that must be obeyed until the
authority of the nation shall have modified or
abrogated them," when there suddenly was enacted
one of the most striking scenes in all French his-
1 Journal de Paris, Aug. 6.
Equality
77
tory, one that changed the whole course of events.
But was it altogether wise this sweeping concession
to popular demands, demands presented, so to
speak, sword in hand?
In the National Assembly on the evening of
Plate 34. A cartoon representing the French nation in a patriotic delirium
breaking down feudalism on August 4, 1789.
August 4, 1789, the measures to be adopted with
regard to the peasants were under discussion, when
the Vicomte de Noailles, seconded by other nobles,
rose and proposed the abolition of all feudal rights
over persons and the redemption for money of all
feudal dues that had to do with landed property.
This proposal of De Noailles seems to have been
made partly from a spirit of pure devotion and
78 The French Revolution
generosity, but also partly because by renouncing
possessions that had become untenable it was hoped
to secure other advantages. Whatever the motives,
a strong wave of renunciation swept over the
Assembly. The members were seized with what a
cartoonist depicts as a patriotic delirium. I They
are hammering to bits with their flails all the
emblems of the feudal system — the armour, the
shield; the sword of the noble, the crozier and
mitre of the ecclesiastical prince.
The allegory is no exaggeration. The system
that had lasted for nearly a thousand years fell
in a single night. Those four hours saw greater
changes than had been witnessed by many cen-
turies.2 Never, we are told, had so many deputies
claimed the floor, and no one spoke but to offer,
promise, or consummate some sacrifice. There
were eloquent appeals, too:
"Be just, sirs," cried a Breton deputy; "let them bring
to us here those title-deeds that outrage not merely mod-
esty but even humanity ! Let them bring those deeds that
humiliate the human race by requiring men to be harnessed
to a plough like beasts of burden; let them bring those
deeds which oblige men to pass nights in beating the edges
of ponds to keep the frogs from troubling the sleep of their
voluptuous lords ! Who of us, sirs, would not make of these
infamous parchments an expiatory pyre and would not
apply the torch to consummate their sacrifice on the altar
of the fatherland?"
Motions of renunciation were made, seconded
1 Plate 34, p. 77
2 The Debats et Decrets and the Journal de Paris give the best accounts.
I
Plate 35. An allegorical representation which shows France inscribing on a
monument the feudal privileges renounced on August 4, 1 789.
79
8o The French Revolution
and passed with such rapidity that they could
scarcely be recorded. Seigniorial jurisdictions;
whole categories of tithes and clerical fees; the
odious hunting privileges that had so often been the
ruin of the farmer's fields ; the right to keep doves
who lived on his grain ; the main morte or exemption
of church lands: all this and much more was de-
clared abolished. Taxation was to be equalized;
the administration of justice reformed so that the
poor might more readily be given satisfaction;
local barriers of privilege even between province
and province to be thrown down.
"At last," writes the Journal de Paris, "this magnificent
scene, so worthy to be transmitted to all ages and to serve
as a model for all nations, was terminated by a motion of the
Due de Liancourt to consecrate it by a medal on which
should be engraved the inscription : ' To the abolition of
all privileges and to the perfect reunion of all the provinces,
and all the citizens.' In a moment so beautiful, of such
great felicity, it was natural for souls full of joy and tender-
ness to be uplifted to Heaven. The Archbishop of Paris
proposed a general prostration at the feet of the altars of
Notre Dame and the singing of a Te Deum. All the
deputies seemed as religious as this prelate."
An allegorical representation1 entitled "The lib-
erty of France" shows France inscribing on a monu-
ment all the achievements of August 4th. To the
right, youths and maidens are gaily dancing on the
turf ; to the left, we have Commerce reviving, while
above, in the air, we have Fame blowing her trumpet
* Plate 35, p. 79.
Plate 36. A representation of the Frenchwoman
become free.
81
82 The French Revolution
and the devil flying away with the tithes and
privileges.
The Revolutions de Paris1 tells us with what an
intoxication of joy the news of the happenings
in the Assembly was everywhere greeted. The
deputies were hailed as fathers of their country.
A new day was believed to be dawning for France.
Groups formed in the streets or waited to tell the
good news to those who came over the bridges.
Every one congratulated every one else — nay one
saw citizens fall into each other's arms.
Happier than any one else seem to have been
the women of the market. Whether they really
ever dressed as an engraving of the time represents
them5 is not certain. At all events, they love to
place themselves in evidence, now, on all occasions.
A number of them appeared at the palace of Ver-
sailles and congratulated the King and Queen on
the general progress of events. They addressed
the former as "dear man, " "good friend/* and the
like, and said to the Queen, "Open your heart [the
word used is entr allies!] to us even as we open ours
to you. " Their majesties, we are told, received
them in the warmest manner. The people were
not slow to take advantage of their new privileges.
What a joy to kill the game — the does and stags,
the rabbits, hares, partridges, and pigeons — that
had so long been looked upon as nothing but a
scourge! We hear of districts where not even a
sparrow was left alive. Only the preserves of the
Due d' Orleans, that cousin of the King who had
1 Aug. 5th. 2 Plate 36, p. 8 1.
Equality 83
taken his seat in the States-General as a simple
deputy, were spared. His name was everywhere
uttered with tenderness.
One can imagine that the artists were not idle
at this time. More than once we find the subject
of the abolition of the privileges treated on the
plan of before and after. In one such production1
we have first the peasant, "the man of tears," bent
double beneath the weight of the fat prelate and
the smug noble, the latter with a sword that is "red-
dened with blood. ' ' One sees the rabbits busily eat-
ing the peasant's cabbage and the pigeons his grain.
But in the pendant to the picture,2 all is changed.
The peasant shouting "Long live the King, long
live the nation!" is riding on the back of a most
chastened noble who wears the tri-coloured cockade
in his hat and whose sword bears the inscription,
"To protect the nation." The noble in turn is
leaning on a chastened clergy who bears in his
hand the emblems of liberty and equality and relief
for the people. The peasant is clapping his hands
in glee ; on his shoulder is a sword with the inscrip-
tion, "Full of courage," and from the end of it
dangles a dead rabbit. The pigeons lie prone on
their backs, their stiffened legs in the air, while the
cabbage, no longer nibbled and gnawed at, has
thrown out fine curling leaves.
A somewhat similar double production is called
"The Frenchman hitherto,"3 and "The French-
man to-day."4 It is consecrated to the abuses of
1 Plate 37, p. 84. « Plate 38, p. 85.
a Plate 39, p. 86. « Plate 40, p. 87.
A FAITT ESPERER Q'ErJrJEU L.A F1M1H/. rEN"
Plate 37. A double cartoon representing the change wrought in the
condition of the peasant by the renunciations of
August 4th. Before.
84
. .._
J ' S \\01S lu:\"qr\IAl'R ION SNOT tOl'R.
Plate 38. A double cartoon representing the change wrought in
the condition of the peasant by the renunciations of
August 4th. After.
Je /st/J /t\< csfrj
L
Plate 39. A double cartoon representing the Frenchman
formerly and the Frenchman now. The Frenchman
formerly.
86
Plate 40. A double cartoon representing the Frenchman formerly and the
Frenchman now. The Frenchman now.
87
88
The French Revolution
the law-courts remedied by these decrees of August
4th and by subsequent ones. All the different
Plate 41. A national guard in uniform.
fees and exactions are represented as so many rats
gnawing at one who cannot escape, being held in
Equality 89
a sort of crate which is chained to the mill and bak-
ing-oven of the feudal lord. The former police is
represented as the very devil, as a spy and a rogue.
But in the companion picture, all is changed, and
the ghastly heap of heads on the ground at the left
gives one an inkling of how it has been accomplished.
The rats are all dead and hang by the tails from
the shaft of the national weapon, the pike. If we
compare the dress of the peasant with the uniform
of the National Guards x we shall see that we are
dealing with a defender of his country. The coat
was of royal blue, the collar red, the trousers,
waistcoat, and facings white.
An era of peace and good-will did, indeed, seem
to have dawned. Ladies of the market in proces-
sions gay with garlands and ribbons give thanks to
patron saints; the great lantern is put back on its
bracket in the Place de Greve as though no further
hangings were anticipated ; the National Guards are
given a new ensign, representing not an eagle but
a cock which, we are told in an inscription, can
sing as well as fight. A banner is to display the
sentence: "Under Louis XVI the Frenchman has
become free and a soldier, and the soldier has
shown himself a citizen." This is to replace the
old oriflamme of the Bourbons.
Meanwhile the work on the Constitution made
such progress that, by the beginning of October,
the Rights of Man and nineteen articles had been
completed. Friction in the Assembly, indeed, had
delayed the work considerably. One faction saw
1 Plate 41, p. 88.
90 The French Revolution
no reason for not taking over from England what
was best in her Parliamentary institutions; but
this idea was opposed tooth and nail by others who
professed to think that England was under an
oppressive government. Horrible were the pic-
tures, literally pictures, in which these ideas found
vent. In one called "The English Constitution, " z
we have Pitt trampling the crown under foot. In
his right hand he holds the ends of the chains that
are around the necks of the king, the lords, and the
commons; in his left is the staff of the flag of
tyranny, with fetters, flails, and instruments of
torture. In the background are a gallows with its
noosed ropes, and a scaffold with the headsman and
his axe.
Equally specific is the cartoon entitled "The
Frenchman and the Englishman rendering homage
to Liberty each after his own fashion."2 The
Englishman is chained to his constitution, his
civil list, his House of Lords, his Parliament, his
clergy, his taxes on the very air one breathes. One
sees that he is cursing Liberty and is trying to
escape. But the Frenchman is burning incense to
her on an altar ; he waves his hand in her direction
with a happy, satisfied air of proprietorship.
Behind him are a tree of liberty, a cap, a tri-col-
oured banner. One sees broken chains, and he is
treading on the fleur-de-lis.
One must make large allowances for artistic
license in all this. Very far was the Frenchman at
this juncture from being happy and contented.
1 Plate 42, p. 91. * Plate 43, p. 92.
Plate 42. A representation intended to show what an advantage the free
Frenchman has over the enslaved Englishman. Pitt is trampling
on the crown and holding the parliament enchained.
92 The French Revolution
The rich and the poor, the common man and the
aristocrat, were in bitter enmity. More and more
the latter were taking to flight. We have a cari-
cature x of the first batch of emigres which included
Plate 43. A cartoon showing the contrast between an Englishman's
manner of doing homage to Liberty and a Frenchman's.
the Queen's favourite, Madame de Polignac, and
the King's younger brother, the Comte d'Artois.
It is Madame de Polignac who is sitting in the
basket and belabouring her donkey.
The whole relation of employer and employed
had been radically changed. Gone were the re-
1 Plate 44, p. 93.
Equality
93
spectful lackeys and grooms of other days. The
army of the unemployed grew from day to day,
almost from hour to hour; and want and misery
now did, indeed, assume frightful proportions. The
necessaries of life were growing appallingly scarce;
Plate 44. A caricature of the first emigres leaving France. Madame
de Polignac, the Queen's favourite, is in the donkey- basket. The
King's brother is on horseback.
the whole machinery of supplying them had broken
down. The discontent grew in proportion — among
the women, especially, who had to stand in line
many hours at a time waiting to purchase a few
pennies' worth of bread at the bakeries.
Patient the French never were. The present
crisis was not the fault of any one or two persons—
not of the King, not of the Queen. Indeed the
royal pair did their best to alleviate the suffering
94 The French Revolution
by sending their silver plate to the mint and having
the waters of Versailles harnessed to the flour
mills. It was the fault of circumstances: of the
disorganisation of trade, the upsetting of credit,
the general unrest. The harvest of 1789 was
excellent,1 but those who should have been gather-
ing it were busy elsewhere, busy playing politics or
enrolling in the National Guard.
"To-day there were violent struggles at the
doors of the bakeries — happy is he who can get
bread," writes the Revolutions de Paris on August
25th, "there is no more in the villages near the capi-
tal— they are living on vegetables ; at Sevres they
are making cakes/'2 The same paper accuses the
court and the aristocrats of a diabolical plot, with
deliberately causing famine and fomenting anarchy
in order to disgust the people with the new order
of things.
The National Assembly itself was in financial
straits and was glad to receive voluntary gifts.
There was something sentimentally gratifying in
the sight of these ladies entering the august pre-
cincts and laying down their jewels on the altar of
the fatherland. In a moment of patriotic exalta-
tion, the deputies even removed the silver buckles
from their own shoes. But it was a most uncert-
ain manner of providing revenue for the govern-
ment of a great state; and moreover the time
wasted in receiving and duly honouring generous-
minded deputations was considerable. We hear
of young women haranguing and being harangued,
1 Jaures, i., 331. 2 Brioches is the French word.
Equality 95
of honours accorded to them hitherto reserved
exclusively for crowned heads. Necker finally in-
vented an effective compromise. He called for a
general "voluntary contribution " which was to
amount to one quarter of each person's income.
Where the voluntary part of it came in is difficult
to see. There was to be a tax, too, on all silver
and gold plate. One might assess oneself, but the
amounts were to be publicly listed.
As the poverty increased so did the general
excitement. The women began to give louder and
louder voice to their grievances, sending deputa-
tions to the Hotel de Ville, demanding lower
prices, less delay. They were goaded on by the
newspapers and especially by the hysterical shrieks
of Marat's Publiciste de Paris, forerunner of his
Ami du Peuple. Marat is the enemy of all who
are not zealous Revolutionists: "I am the eye of
the people, you are but its little finger!" he said
proudly to the authorities in the Hotel de Ville.1
There were two main grievances against the court
at this time. The King had not yet sanctioned,
indeed had dared to criticise, the "Rights of Man, "
and — with the consent of the local authorities,
as well as of the National Assembly2 indeed — had
summoned a fresh regiment, the regiment of Flan-
ders, to Versailles. On October ist his guards had
f £ted this regiment in what was reported as an anti-
national orgy; a Versailles newspaper published the
'Jaures, i., 332 ff.
1 See the testimony of Miomandre de Chateauneuf in the Procedure
criminette instruite au Chatelet, ii., 350.
96 The French Revolution
announcement that the national cockade had been
publicly insulted and trodden under foot.
In not sanctioning the "Rights of Man*' and
the other constitutional articles that were presented
to him, the King was fully within his rights. He
had not even gone so far as to veto them, although
a suspensive veto had just been accorded him by
the terms of the constitution itself. His whole
crime now was that he had suggested delay. He
had proposed postponing the adoption of the
Rights of Man until the laws for which they were
to serve as a basis had been put into operation.
Yet Robespierre cried out in the National Assem-
bly: "The King's reply is destructive not merely
of any constitution but even of the national right
to have a constitution. "
The reports concerning the banquet or "orgy"
at Versailles had been grossly exaggerated. Such
attentions to a visiting regiment had been in
accordance with old-established custom. Among
the guests, furthermore, had been some twenty
officers of the citizen-guard of the town. All that
actually happened was that enthusiastic cheers
were given for the King and Queen when, by invi-
tation, they appeared in the hall and made the
round of the tables. Some one, a National Guard
doubtless, had suggested playing the inevitable
"Where is one better off than in the bosom of one's
family?" but the bandmaster had refused and had,
instead, struck up the tune of Blondel's song in
Gretry's Richard Lion-hearted: "O Richard, oh
my king, the universe abandons thee!" The
Equality 97
implication, of course, was that Louis XVI would
find here adherents as faithful as Blondel had been
when the latter ended his long search by finding
his master in the tower.
Plate 45. A cartoon showing Chabroud endeavouring to clear the Due
d'Orleans of complicity in the events of October 6, 1789.
Never in history did the playing of a refrain have
such consequences! Not only was the episode
made the most of at the time but it was treasured
up for the trials for treason both of the King and
of the Queen.
The assertion that the tri-coloured or national
cockade was trampled under foot and a white
98 The French Revolution
cockade substituted for it has often been made.1
The man who presided at the banquet, De Cane-
caude, asserted positively in his testimony during
the Chatelet investigation that nothing of the
kind took place. He is corroborated by another
eye-witness. The whole story was a newspaper
invention and has been traced to the Courier de
Versailles.2
On October 4th, in the garden of the Palais
Royal, a woman rose and exhorted her hearers to
follow her to Versailles and demand bread from the
King and his family. She gave a box on the ear
to an individual who made light of her exhorta-
tions. But that same day the details of the expedi-
tion must have been arranged. Whether or not
the gold of the Due d'Orleans played any part in
the matter is a question that has been much
debated. We have a cartoon3 showing his official
defender at the Chatelet investigation vainly
attempting to wash him clean; and when public
indignation against him was at its height he dis-
appeared from view, accepting a mission to Eng-
land.
The events of the 5th and 6th of October can
be described only briefly.4 On the morning of
the 5th a bevy of women entered the courtyard of
the Hotel de Ville. They were for the most part
young, and many were clad in white as for a fete.
1 Carlyle speaks of "fair fingers handing white Bourbon cockades,"
of "trampling of national cockades," etc.
3 Procedure, i., 58. 3 Plate 45, p. 97.
4 Morse Stephens's account is teeming with errors. I have tried to
Compare the testimony of all the different witnesses before the Chatelet.
Equality
99
Their manner was playful, their intentions appar-
ently harmless. They peered into different rooms
as if from curiosity. But their numbers kept
increasing ; worse elements came in ; there was soon
a regular rabble and acts of violence were com-
Plate 46. A contemporary drawing of the expedition of the women of Paris
to Versailles on October 5, 1789.
mitted. Some mounted the belfry and sounded
the tocsin; others liberated some persons who had
been arrested and were awaiting a hearing; others,
still, proceeded to sack the building.
By way of diversion some one cried, "To Ver-
sailles, to Versailles!*' A certain Stanislas Mail-
lard, a conqueror of the Bastile, placed himself at
their head and they marched.
ioo The French Revolution
Both the printed descriptions and an artist's
hasty sketch of them as they passed1 show them
to have been armed with every sort of weapon:
pikes, bayonets, scythes, axes, and pitchforks, and
even brooms. One eye-witness declares that they
reminded him of an army of crusaders.2 Their
cry was for bread and for the King's removal from
Versailles to Paris. They demanded that the
Paris National Guards march with them and exter-
minate these body-guards and these officers of the
regiment of Flanders who had dared to trample
under foot the emblem of French liberty, the
national cockade. The guards themselves urged
their commander, Lafayette, to let them go, but
he held them in leash throughout the greater part
of the day.
Very quickly the women covered the distance to
Versailles. They appeared before the hall of the
National Assembly; Stanislas Maillard made an
address and the women finally invaded the hall,
took the seats of the deputies and even that of the
president. There was disorder and drunkenness.
A band of the women had gathered in front of
the palace railing, and those within the building
could hear coarse and cruel threats against the
Queen. They called for her head, for her heart.
They persuaded the regiment of Flanders to desert
the King. They held a sort of awful revelry in the
Place d'Armes. When the King and Queen tried
to escape, their horses were seized and their coaches
led back to the stable.
1 Plate 46, p. 99. 2 Testimony of Grandchamp, Procedure, i., 108.
Equality 101
As night came on the scene grew bacchanalian.
Fires were lighted in the square, for a chill rain had
begun to fall. One saw groups cutting up and
roasting the flesh of a horse that had fallen. A
deputation which the President of the National
Assembly, Mounier, accompanied, had been ad-
mitted by the King and their requests granted.
The women came back radiant over their recep-
tion, some of them kissing the gardes du corps as
they passed. '
But enthusiasm for the graciousness of the King
was not what the crowd wanted. They kicked,
hit, and almost strangled the fairest of the emissar-
ies declaring that she had been bought with royal
gold. She was obliged to return to the King with
the other women and obtain the concessions from
him in writing. . He signed a paper exculpating
her and appeared with her on the balcony.2
Late that night, Lafayette's army approached
with flaring torches and beating drums. Was he
coming as friend or foe? "What does your army
want?" was the first question asked him as he
entered the Assembly. "There goes Cromwell !"
some one cried, as he crossed the ceil-de-bceuf
on his way to pay his respects to the King.
"Sir, Cromwell would not have come alone," he
answered.
Lafayette undertook to guard the palace, but
retired about dawn having seen that all was quiet.
He felt that he had earned an hour's rest.
The blame for what followed should fall on the
1 Procedure, ii., 318. "Testimony of Louison, Procidure, ii., 33 ff.
102 The French Revolution
Paris National Guards. They gave no alarm,
offered no resistance, when armed bands filed into
the Place d'Armes or outer courtyard.1 There
was an inner court, and even an inmost one, each
separated by a strong iron railing. The crowd
penetrated into both — no one knows whether the
locks were forced or turned.2 Then like tigers the
mob fell on the sentinels. Two were dragged all
the way to the Place d'Armes and their heads
hewn off with axes and carried about in triumph
for hours.
Never were fouler passions generated than by
this revolution. As the bodies lay there, gloating
bystanders dipped their hands in the blood and
smeared their own faces with it. Women jumped
on the corpses, kicked them, tore off shreds of the
bloody clothing.3
But the real object of pursuit was the Queen.
The King from his window saw them rush for her
staircase and he hurried through a secret passage
to her rescue. It all passed with the utmost
rapidity: The attack on the gardes du corps at the
head of the staircase ; their retreat into the great
hall of guards through the door that faces the
stairs; their rescue of one of their companions;
their final entrenchment in the ceil-de-bceuf after
the other doors had been broken in.
In the Queen's apartments there was less resist-
ance. The double door of her hall of guards was
1 Mounier, Appel au Tribunal de V Opinion Publique, 173.
•The question was asked at the time. Procedure, ii., 6.
3 Procedure, ii., 260.
Equality 103
on the right of the little landing. Through it
poured a cursing, howling mass of men and women
clamouring for the Queen's head, heart, and en-
trails. x One of the guards was struck down and
left for dead, but not until he had given the alarm
to the ladies-in-waiting who hurried Marie Antoi-
nette, half-dressed, through the four little rooms
that connect with the ceil-de-bcsuf. A closed door
almost checked the flight, but it was finally opened
from the other side.2
The arrival of Lafayette with his guards quieted
the troubled waters. The King appeared on the
balcony and asked pardon for his defenders. There
was a sudden fraternisation between the forces that
had just been opposing each other. Then the
Queen was told that the people wished to see her
on the balcony. The Marquis de Degoine, who
was present, relates that she hesitated, that Lafay-
ette urged her, that she answered courageously,
"it may be to execution, but I will go!"3 Another
eye-witness4 tells us that as she stepped out on to
the balcony, holding her children by the hand, there
were shouts that children were not wanted. She
thrust them back and came out alone.
It had all been such an ordeal for the King and
Queen of France that it is a wonder Louis XVI th
did not abdicate then and there. Judging from
what we know of the sentiments of the people, such
a course would probably have resulted in his keep-
1 Numerous witnesses specify these cries.
'Procedure, i., 172, 184, 243; ii., 368, 370, 378 ff.
* Procedure, i.f 330. * Derosnet, Procedure, ii., 79,
IO4
The French Revolution
ing, instead of losing, his throne. But he chose
to suffer every possible humiliation rather than
relinquish his hereditary rights.
As they stood there on the balcony, a voice called
out, "The King to Paris!" The cry was taken
up until it became a roar. Wavering, Louis XVI
,^,,,,!,
K ^ *W*
Plate 47. A contemporary drawing representing the women of Paris return-
ing from Versailles on October 6, 1789.
passed back and forth between his room and the
balcony, and then made one of the most fateful and
fatal decisions of his life. Leaning far out over
the railing, he declared that he would go to Paris
with his wife and children. Lafayette repeated
the announcement in a louder tone, and, in order to
spread the news more quickly it was written on
bits of paper and thrown down among the crowd. I
A few hours later the cortege started ; the heads of
1 Batiffol: Les journees des 5 et 6 Octobre, 1789.
vd
l
I8
ll
ctf bfi
w.S
"
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"3 o
11
i
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*
io6 The French Revolution
the slain guards, stuck on poles, had gone on
before.
To the descendant of St. Louis and the daughter
of Maria Theresa, that procession must have
seemed like some old grotesque dance of death.
It would have seemed still more so could they have
looked into the near future. Until the Revolution
began, they had been isolated from the world by
their great body of noble pensioners and their
thousands of attendants. Nine hundred body-
guards had always been at hand to do their bidding.
Now, that armour was pierced. They had become
the plaything of the mob. Their carriage was
accompanied by fishwives and street-walkers for
whom the affair was a continuous frolic. These
women danced by the roadside, sat on the cannon,
tried to mount the horses of the soldiers, and
screamed with delight when they fell back into the
mud. They broke boughs from the trees; they
snatched ribbons from the head-dresses of those of
their sex whom they passed on the road.
We have an artistic production1 illustrating all
this, and Heaven only knows whether it was in-
tended seriously or as a caricature. It is called
"The triumphant Return of the French-Heroines
from Versailles to Paris/' "Heroines of liberty "
was the name by which these women were to be
known throughout the remainder of the Revolu-
tion, and we shall see them still glorified in 1793.
The attitude of the crowd in general seems to
have been respectful, but people jested among
1 Plate 47, p. 104.
Equality 107
themselves. Louis was the baker because he was
bringing with him bread for hungry Paris. Marie
Antoinette was the baker's wife, the Dauphin the
baker's boy.
We have an elaborate representation1 of the
arrival in the Place Louis Quinze — which famous
square we shall soon learn to know under quite
other names. As yet the great equestrian statue
of Louis XV stood in its midst. Round this the
cortege wound on its way to the Tuileries palace.
In front of the cannon and the maidens, one sees
what may have been intended for the heads of the
murdered guards ; then follows a waggon with bags
of meal, and then come the royal coaches.
We have a most curious and bloody satire on the
subject of these murdered guards2 — a satire which
shows the pitiless attitude throughout the Revolu-
tion towards the vanquished and slain. One can
well imagine the smiles that this ingenious produc-
tion called forth. It is of value to us as showing
that the cartoonist must have counted on a suffici-
ently large public to make his enterprise profitable
Nor could he have feared suppression.
Bearing their own heads on stakes, the two
guards appear on the banks of the Styx, together
with the unfortunate governor of the Bastile, with
Flesselles, Foulon, and Berthier, and a baker
who in these days was killed by mistake because
accused of hoarding bread. Such mistakes were
small matters, for it was easy to shift the odium
on to the aristocrats. Charon clubs back with his
1 Plate 48, p. 105. • Plate 49, p. 108.
io8
The French Revolution
oar all the headless ones save the baker, the "vic-
tim of aristocratic fury"; him he ferries across to
where Galas, once persecuted by the Church and
defended by Voltaire, awaits him in the company
of other martyrs.
Plate 49. A cartoon representing Charon refusing to ferry over any of the
headless ones save a baker who had been killed by mistake.
We have meanwhile lost sight — every one lost
sight — of the National Assembly of France. From
first to last it had played an undignified role — •
allowing the women to enter its precincts and
conduct themselves as though they were in a cafe
chantant; taking no apparent interest in what was
going on at the palace ; allowing so vital a matter as
'
Plate 50. A symbolical production showing Reason in the act of
explaining the new divisions of France while Envy and
Hatred seek to hamper her.
109
no The French Revolution
that of the King's change of residence, which would
necessarily affect them deeply, to be decided by a
lawless mob.
There were those who felt all this keenly. The
president of the Assembly, Mounier, fled from
France and took refuge in Geneva. On one pre-
text or another some two hundred members left
Versailles. x We have the defiance that one of them
hurled at those who remained2:
Neither this guilty town nor this still guiltier Assembly
deserve that I justify myself. I had not strength any
longer to endure the horror inspired by this blood, these
heads, this queen all but butchered ; this king led as a slave
and made to enter Paris in the midst of his assassins and
behind the heads of his unfortunate guards ; these perfidious
janissaries, these murderers, these cannibal women, this
cry of " all bishops to the lantern ! " as the King was entering
Paris with his two episcopal councillors in his coach; the
shot I saw fired at one of the Queen's carriages; Monsieur
Bailly calling this a great day; the Assembly declaring
coldly that morning that it was beneath its dignity to go
and protect the King; Monsieur Mirabeau telling this same
Assembly with impunity that the ship of state would not
only not be impeded in its course but would hasten towards
regeneration more rapidly than ever; Monsieur Barnave
joining with him in a laugh when waves of blood were
lapping round us ; virtuous Mounier escaping as by a mira-
cle from the twenty assassins who tried to add his head to
their trophies: now you know my reasons for swearing
never again to set foot in this cave of anthropophagi where
I could no longer find strength to raise my voice, where I
had raised it vainly for six weeks, I, Mounier, and all
honest folk.
1 Stance of Oct. 9, RSv. de Paris, No. xiv.
3 Appendix to Bailly's Memoirs, iii., 435. It was Lally-Tollendal.
Equality in
The Assembly voted to follow the King to Paris
where the City Council promised it absolute liberty.
It held its first sessions in the Archiepiscopal
Palace and then moved to the Manage or riding-
school near the Tuileries. Here in the course of
the next five months it passed a number of epoch-
making decrees all tending still further to weaken
the authority of the King.
The old provinces of France, products of the
feudal system, were divided up into eighty- three
departments; the towns became self-governing
communes.1 The importance of this will be
realised when one learns that these changes left
far more than a million offices of one kind or
another to be filled, and that the King no longer
had any voice in the matter.
We have a symbolical representation2 in which
Reason, aided by the genius of Geography, is
explaining the new divisions. She is trampling
under foot the old title-deeds which horrible Pride
vainly tries to snatch away. Citizens from all
parts of the kingdom embrace mutually ; a foreigner
asks permission to marry a Frenchwoman and
thus become a citizen. Behind Reason is
Law whose votaries are swearing to observe
equality.
France has adopted Equality, now, and has
placed her quite on a level with Liberty. In an
engraving of the time3 we see them both under the
outstretched arms of the Genius of the Fatherland.
1 Decrees of Nov. n and 12, 1789; also Jan. 15 and Feb. 26, 1790.
1 Plate 50, p. 109. * Plate 51, p. 1 12.
112
The French Revolution
Equality has the crude carpenter's level of the
day, while Liberty has the usual pike and cap.
It is unquestionable that neither Liberty nor
Equality would have prevailed as they did but
Plate 51. A symbolical production showing the Genius of France adopting
Liberty and Equality.
for the aid of an organisation, daily becoming more
powerful, which soon grasped with its tentacles
all the thousands of new communes. The Jacobin
Club was to the Revolution what the Jesuit Order
had been to the Roman Catholic reaction of the
1 6th century. The monastery of the Rue St.
Honore became the centre of a regular network of
supervision and control. We have a representa-
tion of it1 that belongs to a later period of the
'Plate 52, p. 113.
Equality
Revolution but that gives us a clear idea of its
general appearance. The facade was adorned with
such emblems and inscriptions as befitted the main
citadel of libertv.
Plate 52. A Dutch engraving showing the Hall of the Jacobin Club in Paris.
The chief virtue that the Jacobins ascribed to
themselves was vigilance, and a great open eye
became their symbol. It floated on their banners ;
we even see it on the cap of the typical Jacobin1
drawn by a patriotic artist. In his hand is the
bell with which he is to be ever ready to sound the
alarm. Exercising inquisitorial power over men's
'Plate 53, p. 114.
I
114
The French Revolution
opinions, supervising the conduct of those in au-
thority, and controlling elections by all manner
JACOBIN
Plate 53. A representation of the typical Jacobin. One
sees the eye of vigilance on his cap.
of intimidation and bribery: those were the chief
activities of the omnipresent Jacobins. On
If Comme- It/fore <Jf ^
f\>u .UJ < .finS ovrw -m*r<
Plate 54. A cartoon showing the clergy despoiled of its possessions. Once
it was fat, now it is lean.
"5
The French Revolution
innumerable occasions, the measures that were
passed in the National Assembly had been con-
cocted or hatched out at a session of the famous club.
Plate 55. A caricature called "The Overthrow" relating to the
confiscation of the estates of the clergy.
A measure quite as radical as the division of
France into departments was the confiscation of
all the landed property of the Church, amounting
to nearly one third of all French territory. Already
in September, 1789, the clergy had been invited
to carry to the mint all silver not essential to the
Equality
117
carrying on of Divine Service.1 After that had
come the demand for a voluntary (?) contribution,
and finally, on October loth, Talleyrand, bishop of
Autun, began the great onslaught on his own order:
"There is one immense resource which can be
Plate 56. A caricature called "the present time," showing the clergy reduced
to a skeleton and standing humbly before the other two estates.
reconciled with the rigid respect for property; it
consists in the estates of the clergy. "2 He reck-
oned the sum that would accrue from their sale at
two billion one hundred million francs. Two
days later, Mirabeau moved that these estates be
declared the property of the nation, fair provision
being made for the clergy. This opened up, as
may be imagined, a heated discussion as to what
1 Duvergier, Collection complete, i., 44.
> Dtbats et Dtcrcts, Oct. 10 ff.
n8
The French Revolution
right the National Assembly had to take such
action and provoked the bitterest attacks from the
clergy. The debates lasted from October I2th
to November 2d, and the motion was finally passed
by 568 to 346 votes. The contention was that the
Plate 57. A caricature against the clergy entitled " The
patriotic Reducer of Flesh "
clergy were tenants, not owners of the property,
and that furthermore, by recent decrees of
the Assembly, there was no such thing as an
order of the clergy in which the ownership could be
vested.
The glee of the radicals knew no bounds. Never
were the cartoonists more active, more full of
ideas. One such satire1 showing the same man
before and after, bears the inscription: "Once I
1 Plate 54, p. 115.
Equality 119
was a big fat monk, as full up to the neck with food
as St. Anthony's pig; but now I am as thin as a
cuckoo/' In a production labelled "The Over-
throw,"1 one of the clergy is toppling over back-
wards, while his tormenters pursue him with
unseemly gestures implying "I told you so." In
another entitled "Here the first shall be last, "2
we have the third estate commanding the other
two. The noble stands meekly at attention, while
the clergy is an actual skeleton resting his hands
on a spade.
Grotesque in the extreme is the cartoon en-
titled ' ' The patriotic Reducer of Flesh. ' '3 A great
fat priest is held fast, but is told "Patience, sir, your
turn will come next." In a press formed of two
boards another priest is being flattened and is dis-
gorging gold from his mouth; while others still,
thin and making gestures of absolute despair, are
disappearing in the distance.
It would lead us too far to deal with the manner
of disposing of these confiscated estates and how
they became the basis or guarantee for the as-
signats or new paper money of France. The first
emission of assignats, in the spring of 1790, was for
400,000,000 francs. The clergy offered to raise
that amount if only they might retain their title
to the lands. This was refused and the bitterness
increased. A member of the clergy after the turn-
ing down of a motion at least to decree that the
" Catholic, Apostolic, and Roman religion" was the
state religion, solemnly pronounced the Divine
1 Plate 55, p. 1 16. a Plate 56, p. 117. J Plate 57, p. 118.
I2O The French Revolution
malediction over the whole National Assembly.1
Another clerical firebrand, D'Epresmesnil, re-
minded the Assembly of the crucifixion of Christ.
To still another, who cited a compact made by
Louis XIV with his clergy, Mirabeau made a
stinging retort: if historical reminiscences were in
order, he begged to remind him that from the very
platform where he was standing he could see the
spot where benighted ecclesiastics caused a French
king to give the signal for the St. Bartholomew
massacre!2
That crime of the French monarchy was in
every one's mind at this period. A play called
Charles IX was being given at the Comedie Fran-
gaise. It threw all the blame for St. Bartholomew
on the intriguing Cardinal de Lorraine.
"The performance of this tragedy," writes a contem-
porary, 3 ' ' brought a fatal change into the character of the
Parisian people. They came forth drunken with vengeance
and tormented with a thirst for blood. When, at the end
of the fourth act, a tolling bell announces the moment of
the massacre, one heard them groan dismally or else cry out
furiously: "Silence! Silence!" as though they feared that
the sound of the death-bell would not penetrate deeply
enough into their hearts and they thus lose some of the
sensations of hatred it was intended to encourage."
1 Journal de Paris, Apr. 14, 1790.
3 Journal de Paris; also in Ferrieres.
3 Ferri&res, Memoires, i., 351.
CHAPTER IV
FRATERNITY
AN event happened on Christmas Day, 1789,
that placed Louis XVI in an embarrassing
position. An apparent plot to carry him
off, to murder Bailly, Lafayette, and Necker, and
reduce Paris to submission by famine, was dis-
covered, and the chief conspirator, the Marquis de
Favras, was arrested. Favras was then tried, con-
victed, condemned to death, and executed. A
cartoon ' shows us what a warm reception he met
with in Hades from DeLaunay, Flesselles, Foulon,
and Berthier, not to speak of Cerberus and a
poisoner named Desrues.
Louis XVI was advised to give some proof of
his patriotic sentiments, and accordingly, on Febru-
ary 4, 1790, appeared in the Assembly without
pomp or ceremony and ended a conciliatory dis-
course by uttering a vow to uphold constitutional
liberty and to see that his son was brought up in
sympathy with the new order of things.2 The
whole Assembly then took the civic oath — the oath
of fidelity to the nation, the law, and the King.
Such a chorus of "I swear it's" had never been
1 Plate 58, p. 123. » Journal de Paris, Feb. 4th, Feb. 6th.
121
122 The French Revolution
heard in France. Not only did the deputies take
the oath, but all the spectators, and, later, all the
National Guards.
It was at this time that the strangest secret
alliance was concluded — one between Mirabeau,
whose influence in the National Assembly was so
great that he said himself: "When I shake my
terrifying mane no one dares to interrupt,"1 and
the King and Queen. Louis XVI would not believe
in Mirabeau's sincerity until the latter had com-
mitted himself in writing.2 Yet Mirabeau was no
ordinary traitor. He called himself a constitu-
tional royalist. He believed that he could be true
to both sides. He promised the King "a loyalty,
zeal, activity, energy, and courage of which no one
can have the least conception." Unfortunately
he accepted pay, and very high pay, for these loyal
services: he was to have a million francs on the
dispersal of the Constituent Assembly should he
have lived up to all his promises, while the King,
in addition, was to expend some 200,000 francs in
paying Mirabeau's debts. He was to have a sal-
ary, too, of 6000 francs a month. Is it strange that
the King and Queen never looked on Mirabeau in
any other light than a paid agent? They so
doubted his honesty that they would not trust to
him the sums for the payment of his creditors.
Yet Mirabeau seems to have served the court as
well as circumstances permitted.
The stream was too strong to be held back.
One by one the King's prerogatives were voted
1 Stern, ii., 133. 2 Stern, ii., 140.
Plate 58. A cartoon representing the Marquis de Fa
being received in Hades by Foulon, Berthier, and
other headless ones.
1*3
124 The French Revolution
away by the National Assembly. Even the royal
title was no longer ' ' Louis by the grace of God King
of France and of Navarre, " but plain " Louis, King
of the French," and an attempt had even been made
to add "by consent of the nation."1 All persons
imprisoned under lettres de cachet had been de-
clared at liberty; the lists of the King's pensioners,
with the amounts accorded, had been published.
Mirabeau had endeavoured to have the King
retain his right to declare war or to make peace,
but in vain. He had carried his efforts so far that
he had been called a traitor and reminded of the
Tarpeian rock, but had finally saved appearances.
On November 5th the natural supporters of the
King, the nobles and the clergy, had been pro-
nounced equal before the law with the third
estate.
Constitutionalism was making very rapid
strides. The first steps had been taken towards
introducing trial by jury, towards establishing one
general system of weights and measures; educa-
tional problems were under discussion — even such a
matter as self-government in schools. The city of
Paris decided to put this latter plan into execution.2
France had gone wild in turn over Liberty, as
typified by the storming of the Bastile, and Equal-
ity, as furthered by the decrees of August 4th and
the subsequent legislation. There was now to be
a new object for patriotic enthusiasm — Fraternity.
France herself was to encourage her children to
1 Revolutions de Paris, Oct. 8th.
* Ibid., Ixi. (Sept. 4-11, 1790).
Fraternity
125
clasp hands. In one of our cartoons we find her
actually fulfilling this benign duty.1
Plate 59. A symbolical representation of France making her
children clasp hands in token of fraternity.
From various districts there had come news of so-
called f£tes of federation to celebrate the brotherly
feeling between the old soldiers of the line and the
new National Guards. It was considered highly
1 Plate 59.
126 The French Revolution
desirable that France should learn the number of
her true defenders. There were patriotic assem-
blages in which the warriors publicly swore to
defend unto death the new constitution of the
kingdom and to perish together rather than re-
nounce liberty for a single instant. There were
scenes of supreme exaltation,1 with endless cheering,
waving of hats on the points of bayonets, fraternal
embraces. There were joyous dances in which all
differences of rank and station were forgotten.
There were rhapsodies like this: "Barbarous
ages ! Ages of fanaticism ! Ages of slavery : How
hideous you seem when compared to our own
beautiful days! . . . We are born anew to glory
and have recovered all our dignity!"
In Paris, on June 5th, a deputation from the
municipality submitted to the National Assembly
what the Journal de Paris calls " one of the happiest
and most brilliant ideas inspired by patriotism since
the Revolution began to elevate and fecundate
men's minds." This was, no longer to have sep-
arate fetes of federation in the provinces, but
rather one grand general fete in the capital under
the eyes of the monarch and the legislators.2
From every section of France were to come dele-
gates of the National Guards and of the troops of
the line. As the orator of the deputation unfolded
his plan, he grew more and more fervid:
Scarcely ten months have elapsed since the memorable
epoch when, from the walls of the conquered Bastile, arose
1 Such a fete is described in La Revolution Fran$aise, i., 15.
a Journal de Paris, June 7, 1790.
Fraternity 127
a sudden cry of "Frenchmen, we are free!" On the corre-
sponding day let there be heard this still more touching cry
of "Frenchmen, we are brothers!" . . . How bright will
be the day of the alliance of the French! A people of
brothers, an empire's regenerators, a citizen king, all rally-
ing round the altar of the fatherland to take one common
oath — what a new and imposing spectacle for the nations ! *
\ ^The spark thus communicated soon became a
\ roaring flame. This Revolution which was to
\ bring forth so many scenes of the bloodiest cruelty
\ and injustice was also to become memorable for
I scenes of popular rejoicing which have scarcely
been equalled in any other land or at any other
period. It is a side of the movement which we, in
I our present study, can least of all afford to ignore.
I It was chiefly in symbolism that all this enthusiasm
found vent.
"The trumpet/' declared Anacharsis Cloots on
June 1 9th,2 has sounded the resurrection of the
French; a joyful chorus twenty -five millions strong
has awakened all the peoples long buried in slavery."
He begged to be allowed to bring a band of for-
eigners to rally round a liberty pole and appear at
the F£te of Federation, not as slaves in a Roman
triumph, but as men freed of their chains by
France's wise laws. The petition was granted
and, when doing so, the president of the Assembly
took occasion to give what he considered whole-
some advice to the respective rulers of Cloots's
foreigners. Cloots himself became known as the
"orator of the human race. "
1 Buchez et Roux, vi.( 275. • Dtbats ct Dtcrets, June I9th.
128 The French Revolution
Alexander von Lameth, in this same session,
moved that as the French were no longer slaves
they should no longer have their sight offended by
"monuments recalling to the eye the servitude of
our fathers/' This was amended to read that all
inscriptions, all attributes, and all emblems in
connection with such monuments should be effaced
in favour of simple recitals of fine actions. In
especial it was voted that the four chained figures
under the statue of Louis XIV in the Place des
Victoires should be removed before the F£te of
Federation.1
It was then moved by Lambel and seconded by
Lafayette and Noailles2 that hereditary nobility
be forever abolished in France; that the titles
prince, marquis, baron, excellency, highness, emin-
ence and the like be no longer conferred on any
one whatsoever ; that no one might display armor-
ial bearings or clothe his servants in livery. In
short, " incense is to be offered to no one but is
only to be burned in temples of worship to honour
the Divinity."
Yet it was something very like incense that the
National Assembly in this same session of June
1 9th accorded to the " Conquerors of the Bastile"
for having "flung off the yoke of slavery and made
their country free." Each was to be given the
complete uniform and equipment of a National
Guard. On the sleeve or lapel of each coat was
to be a mural crown, on the barrel of each gun a
dedication. The Conquerors were to be accorded
1 Revolutions de Paris, No. 51. a Ib.
-8
a
U
JK
u,
•8
I
J
.•->
•8
a
!
s
129
130 The French Revolution
an honourable and conspicuous place in the
celebration of July 14th.1
The Assembly soon found, indeed, that it had
jumped into a hornet's nest; that jealousies were
rampant between the citizens and the military as
to who had played the more important role on the
great day; that hundreds claimed to be Conquerors
who had not been near the spot ; that the pecuni-
ary gratifications the prospect of which was held
out in this same decree were likely to amount to
considerable sums. The various disputes threat-
ened to end in violence and bloodshed when
the Conquerors themselves voted to refuse the
proffered honours.
The preparations for the F£te were made on an
enormous scale. It was solemnly declared by the
committee of arrangements that as the spectacle
of a whole nation renewing its vows of mutual
fraternity was worthy of being witnessed by all the
inhabitants of the universe, the first thing to do
was to choose a stage of vast dimensions.2 The
Champ de Mars or great parade-ground, with its
natural amphitheatre and its surrounding trees,
seemed to offer the most advantages. The artists
of Paris proffered their assistance and threw them-
selves enthusiastically into the work. It was no
light task. There was a prejudice against the use
of wood in making tiers of benches, therefore it was
determined to throw up a great bank of earth
which should provide seats for 160,000 people.
There was to be standing-room for 100,000 more;
1 Duvergier, i., 218. 3 Journal de Paris, July 8th.
Plate 61. A facsimile of a portion of the frieze on the great arch
at the Fete of Federation.
132 The French Revolution
and 40,000 delegates from the provinces were
to take part in the evolutions in the centre.
There was to be an altar to the Fatherland of
magnificent proportions, with huge flights of steps
leading up to it on all four sides. The entrance to
the field was to be through a great triumphal arch
adorned with patriotic scenes, emblems, and in-
scriptions. We have many representations of the
scene during the celebration. The one given here1
was drawn by Gentot on the spot and gives one a
very clear view of the whole. We have the details,
too, — doubtless the artist's own drawings — of the
frieze and inscriptions on the triumphal arch.2
Bas-reliefs are to show every kind of act of sacrifice
and devotion and there are to be mottoes of a
patriotic nature: "Petty tyrants, you who op-
pressed us under a hundred different names, we fear
you no longer!" "The only powerful king is the
king of a free people!" "The rights of man were
not appreciated, they have been revived for all
humanity." "You longed for liberty, you are
now its possessor: show that you are worthy to
retain it."
The preparations for the Fete fostered the spirit
of fraternity in a truly remarkable manner. There
came a sudden fear lest with all the thousands of
hired labourers the whole would not be completed
in time. Then, indeed, one saw extraordinary
sights! There was a sudden outpouring of all
patriotic Paris. Old and young, rich and poor,
even the halt and the blind hurried to the spot and
1 Plate 60, p. 129. a Plate 61, p. 131.
EVEXEMEMTJH' 7 JI'Jl.l.KT 11
Plate 62. A contemporary illustration showing the people of
Paris at work transforming the Champ de Mars in
preparation for the F6te.
133
The French Revolution
began picking and delving. Gaily dressed women
with waving feathers in their hats and with the
blush of rouge still on their cheeks wielded pick-
axes or carried earth or pushed wheelbarrows
and carts. Side by side with them worked abbes
and curates. We can see them toiling thus in two
L'tfiet Ju yir/
Plate 63. Another view of the people of Paris at work on the Champ de
Mars.
of our illustrations.1' 2 In another,3 purely imag-
inary of course, the King himself has taken a hand.
The Revolutions de Paris, with some exaggera-
tion, speaks of 300,000 persons as taking part in
these labours. All greeted each other, we are told,
and talked together. The young people danced,
sang, waved branches of trees, and otherwise dis-
ported themselves in the neighbourhood. That
1 Plate 62, p. 133. a Plate 63, p. above. * Plate 64, p. 135.
LE Rol
Plate 64. A fanciful representation of the King aitling in the
work of transforming the Champ de Mars.
135
136 The French Revolution
they were all of great assistance in furthering the
work cannot be maintained. On July 8th the
municipal commissioners, by placard, were ungal-
lant enough to beg that the citizens kindly remain
at home. The request was not heeded, so far as
we know.
When the day's work or play was done, a great
cortege formed, the men giving the women their
arms. They marched through the streets of Paris
to wave after wave of applause. Each day was a
veritable civic fete in itself, and the air was rent
with cries of " Long live the nation!", "Long live
liberty!"1
A vital question for a time was what part should
be conceded to the King in the approaching feast
to Fraternity. It is curious to note the intense
fear of conceding to him too much, of yielding
some jot or tittle of the newly attained Liberty and
Equality. Was he already head and chief of the
Federation by virtue of his office? If not, should
he be appointed by the nation to that position?
There was a grave question of precedence too:
Should the King sit on the right of the president
of the National Assembly or should the president
sit on the King's right? And what form of oath
should Louis take, and in what capacity? As king
of the French, or as first citizen? It was objected
at the time that such discussions smacked too
much of the etiquette, the haughty feebleness, the
vain jealousies of courts. But the Journal de
Paris2 invoked the example of antiquity and
1 Revolutions de Paris, July 3d-ioth. a July 10, 1790.
Plate 65. A caricature of Mirabeau's brother called " Barrel
Mirabeau" because of his love of drink.
"37
138 The French Revolution
declared that magnificent spectacles displayed to
men should serve to engrave forever on the inmost
surface of their souls the ineffaceable impression of
their duty to their country; and that, therefore, it
was right to attach high importance to the forms
of the solemnities. The disputes finally ended
with ingenious compromises. The King was to be
invited to be nominal head and commander of the
troops sent as delegates by the different depart-
ments, but was to appoint substitutes. He was to
sit on the left of the president, which might be
equally well construed to mean that he, the King,
was the chief personage and had accorded the
position on his right to the president. - Mirabeau's
brother — known to the satirists as Barrel- Mira-
beau1 because of his love of drink — had asked dur-
ing the discussion of this matter that the National
Assembly determine by a decree whether the right
or the left was the place of honour. He was
answered with one of those clinching arguments
that the French Revolutionist loved: God the
Father had sat on the left of God the Son, so why
should any one quarrel with that position? A
place in the centre of the representatives of France
was the most glorious that a king could occupy
on earth. The form of oath was to be this: "I,
citizen, King of the French, swear to the nation
to employ all the power delegated to me by the
constitutional law of the state in maintaining the
constitution, and providing for the execution of
the laws."
1 Plate 65, p. 137.
Fraternity 139
There was an undercurrent of radicalism in the
Paris press that even the approaching f£te could
not divert. There is much growling at the depu-
ties because they had allowed the King so large an
income as 25,000,000 francs and the Queen, in
addition, 4,000,000 francs. Brutal insults are ut-
tered against the Queen and sarcasms against the
King because of the revelations in the book of
pensions, the lime rouge. There are attempts to
boost up the waning prestige of the Conquerors of
the Bastile, sneers at the dangers of making an
idol of Lafayette.
It is the fate of revolutions to engender dema-
gogues with crude ideas and enough brute force
to ensure for them a wide hearing. Representative
government was exactly a year old in France, yet
here were men already raising the cry that no
nation is really free when the will of its representa-
tives takes the place of its own.1 All sober-
minded men know that there is no such thing as
government by the whole people. Human nature
is so made that one portion of a community always
will guide the other; and men chosen with calm
deliberateness after full discussion of their merits
will in nine cases out of ten be safer guides than
those who emerge as heroes of the moment from
the troubled waters of popular excitement. The
immediate future was to show how easily such
heroes of the moment can come to be the intolerant
heads of political factions, and end as fanatics and
persecutors. This development was proceeding
1 Revolutions de Paris, June 5-12, 1790.
140 The French Revolution
fast at the time of the Fete of Federation. Pru-
dhomme with his Revolutions de Paris was soon to
yield the palm to Marat and his Ami du Peuple.
Yet, in general, there was delirious joy at the pros-
pect of the Fete. There was a fierce outcry,
indeed, at the announcement that only ticket-
holders would be admitted. How unfraternal! But
the municipality was soon made to see the error
of its ways, and, at dead of night, sent men with
drums to awaken the citizens and tell them that
cards would not be needed. *
The next day, the great F£te of Federation took
place. The elements were unpropitious. The
rain came down in torrents as the various process-
ions formed at daybreak. "It was desolating,"
writes a deputy,2 "but we chose the better part;
everything can readily be made a source of joy if
only joy abides in the soul. We determined to
smile at our disaster." And this optimist deputy
even took occasion to admire the effect of the
umbrellas of the spectators which formed above
their heads " a sort of roof of many-coloured silks. "
The showers ceased, then began again. They
seemed to have conspired to sadden the Fete but
the glorious optimism continued. No one would
acknowledge to himself that here was an evil omen
for the progress of Fraternity in France. In the
midst of the downpour, some of the military dele-
gates started to dance. We have a representation
of the scene in which the artist seems to have
1 Revolutions de Paris, July ioth-i7th.
a Journal de Paris, July I5th.
141
142 The French Revolution
seized this moment.1 The Journal de Paris de-
scribes how circles were formed, small and few at
first, then multiplying surprisingly — sometimes
broadening out again until a very few of them
covered the whole Champ de Mars, then contract-
ing again into a greater number. One saw nothing
but guards and grenadiers running and jumping
hand in hand, while the air was filled with bits of
song and cries of joy. " Never," writes a mem-
ber of the National Assembly, "was there a spec-
tacle at once more agreeable and more impressive
than that of this army, at the moment of swearing
to shed its last drop of blood for liberty, dancing
around the altar of the fatherland under the gaze
of the legislators/'
One sees from this why an artist thought it
worth while to include the dancing members in his
representation of the scene. But it must be
chronicled that some persons did not view the
episode in the same light. Count Axel Fersen, a
Swedish military attache and the especial friend
of the Queen, is aghast at the want of discipline
exhibited by men who called themselves soldiers.
He had seen them run up to the altar, seize a
priest and two monks, force caps and guns upon
them, and then parade them round the field "sing-
ing and dancing as savages do before eating a
Christian." 2
We need not dwell on the evolutions, the cheers,
the vows, the frantic enthusiasm for Lafayette
whose very legs were covered with kisses as he sat
1 Plate 66, p. 141. 2 Klinckowstrom, p. 56.
Plate 67. A representation of the typical "Conqueror
of theBastile,"
143
144
The French Revolution
on horseback; the celebration of mass on the altar
of the fatherland by three hundred priests wear-
Plate 68. A representation of the dancing on the ruins of the Bastile on the
anniversary of the fall of the fortress.
ing tri-coloured scarves ; the consecration of the
banners of the eighty-three departments.
The radicals were angry because the King had
taken the oath from his seat in the gallery and not
on the altar of the fatherland ; because white flags
had waved among the tri-coloured ones; because
the royal family had been too warmly applauded,
Fraternity 145
and last but not least, because the Conquerors of
the Bastile had been ignored. We have an illus-
tration of a "Conqueror"1 which may have been
intended to represent him in the costume he wore
that day. It was a pity to have gone to such
expense and then not have it appreciated! Yet
we are told by the Revolutions de Paris that there
was "not a word, not a single homage to the mem-
ory of those who, on the corresponding day, per-
ished under the walls of that horrible fortress!"
The delegates from the eighty-three departments
had not even asked to see the Conquerors. They
had danced on the ruins of the Bastile (indeed one
of our illustrations2 shows them thus occupied) and
had not said to themselves, "Last year nearly a
hundred citizens perished here; they have wives
and children, let us visit, embrace, and succor them."
It was utterly in vain that the poor Conquerors
tried to make the delegates from the provinces take
an interest in them. They announced a memorial
celebration, on the scene of their former glory, in
honour of the glorious slain. Around an impromptu
mausoleum they grouped all the widows, orphans,
maimed, and wounded. They sent a special invita-
tion to the delegates, yet few came at all and none
officially. "The standards of the eighty-three
departments were not there, " wrote the Revolutions
de Paris, and it published a formal "Complaint to
the departments on the conduct of the delegates to
the federation." The latter, it declared, had
missed seeing the Conquerors of the Bastile and
1 Plate 67, p. 143. * Plate 68, p. 144.
146 The French Revolution
pressing to their bosoms the cripples, orphans, and
widows. There was surely some conspiracy, some
plan to discourage others from following the noble
example of the Conquerors.
The matter was not so unimportant as might at
first appear. Is it not the first symptom of the
cleft that was to yawn between the capital and the
provinces? The ideals were different. The prov-
inces cared much more for the larger aspects of
the Revolution; the self-glorification, the narrow-
ness, the violence of the Parisians disgusted them.
The Parisians on the other hand were consistently
to maintain the same attitude here adopted. It
was they who had given liberty to France : all who
believed otherwise must be in league with the
aristocrats. We shall see later how this attitude
paved the way for one of the most incredible, in-
defensible, and cowardly acts of the Revolution —
the expulsion of the Girondist members from the
lap of the National Convention.
CHAPTER V
FLIGHT
FOR a short time after the F£te of Federation
things were seen in a rosy light. We have an
allegorical representation1 which shows the
King, father of a free people, accepting from the
hand of France the Constitution and the pact of
federation. Abundance is pouring out her gifts,
while Justice is settling matters with the speculator
who has been fattening on the poor man's money.
Above, in the full glare of the sunlight, the rays of
which she reflects with her mirror, Truth is guid-
ing the sentiments of a prince beloved by his people
and is pointing to the portraits of his august pre-
decessors. Fame with her trumpet announces to
Europe the nation's liberty and the destruction of
despotism.
But meanwhile a brand of discord that was not
to be extinguished for many years was being
ignited.
Between July 12 and August 24, 1790, were
passed the laws that are known collectively as the
civil constitution of the clergy.2 They meant an
entire transformation of that body, a rooting-up of
1 Plate 69, p. 148. 3 The text will be found in Duvergier, i., 242.
H7
Plate 69. An allegorical representation showing the King accepting from the
hand of France the pact of federation.
148
Plate 70. A cartoon which shows the clergy asking in
desperation, " What am I? "
149
150 The French Revolution
all its old traditions, the reduction of all its mem-
bers to mere salaried officials of the state. The
great question of the investiture, about which the
Holy Roman Church and the Holy Roman Empire
had once carried on a bitter struggle lasting fifty
years, was now decided between France and Rome
by a few strokes of the pen. New ecclesiastical
districts were established corresponding to the new
departments ; the election of bishops was to be
wholly in the hands of the state, neither the Pope
nor the King having any voice in the matter.
Before consecration each bishop, and each cure or
parish priest, was to take the civic oath; the salar-
ies were to be fixed by law, which meant that, in
general, they would be vastly reduced.
The result of the passing of these laws by the
National Assembly was utterly to disrupt the
clergy. The allegiance to the Pope was not some-
thing that could be put on or taken off like an old
glove. And new candidates would have to accept
their election from bodies composed, as often as not,
of Jews and Protestants as well as Catholics. We
have a cartoon1 where a member of the clergy is
asking himself in desperation, "What am I?"
By November, 1790, 130 bishops and 46,000
cures had refused to adhere to the new order of
things and take the oath required of them. The
Assembly then began a policy of reprisal and laid
heavy penalties on disobedience: deprivation of
office and prosecution as disturbers of the peace.
About one third of the total number were cowed
1 Plate 70, p. 149.
Plate 71. A cartoon showing the proper treatment for an Abbe"
who will not take the civic oath. The mother applauds
the castigation.
152 The French Revolution
into acquiescence by such measures, but the rest
prepared for an all the more bitter fight.
Louis XVI himself did not dare to veto the civil
constitution. In his last will and testament he
was to express his regret for having given it his
sanction. He wrote to the Pope, now, how scan-
dalized he was at the measure and how he was sign-
ing it with ' ' death in his heart. ' ' He would rather,
he declared, be king of Metz than king of France.
In a matter that aroused such fierce passions as
this, it was only to be expected that the cartoonists
should be active, though the productions of course
are all one-sided. In one entitled "The return of
Abbe M. to his father, "'we have the patriotic old
man, with the cap of liberty on his head, soundly
thrashing his cowering son, the abbe, who has
refused to take the civic oath. From the window
above, the mother looks on and claps her hands,
with "Bravo! bravo! he has long been playing us
dirty tricks!"
We have an interesting double representation2
showing, on the one hand, the patriot-priest tak-
ing the civic oath in good faith, and, on the other,
the aristocrat-priest fleeing from the civic oath.
In the first, the cure, with one hand on his heart
and with a liberty cap in the other, is standing in
front of the cross of Christ against which rests the
civil constitution of the clergy. In the air float the
bishop's crook and mitre that will one day be his
because of his obedience. But the second picture
shows the aristocrat-priest out on the cold, wind-
1 Plate 71, p. 151. a Plates 72 and 73.
PF
U& ,
Plate 72. A representation of the beatitude of a priest who has
taken the patriotic oath. A bishop's mitre is within his reach.
153
154 The French Revolution
swept, snow-covered hillside. He is reduced to a
mere skeleton and he is asking himself, "Where
shall I go?" To call a man an aristocrat in those
days was to say the very worst of him that the
mind of man could conceive. The Revolutions de
Paris came out with an illustration of a most novel
kind.1 At first view it represents a member of the
clergy, with the clerical tie and cross, and grinding
his teeth with rage. Above is the inscription, " An
aristocrat cursing the Revolution." But turning
the page upside down — and the reader can do it as
well with our book as with the Revolutions de
Paris — you see nothing but a Simon-pure noble,
with his titles of nobility for a collar and his privi-
leges for a cravat, giving forth hearty guffaws of
laughter. Above one reads: "An aristocrat trust-
ing in counter-revolution."
Mirabeau had not attempted to stand by the
King openly in this matter of the civil constitution
of the clergy. Indeed he made so violent an on-
slaught on the latter that he was elected president
of the Jacobin Club.2 Yet in secret he continued
his relations with the court, declaring that the more
acts of folly the Assembly could be induced to com-
mit the sooner there would come a revision of the
whole Constitution. The King and Queen were
meanwhile to increase their own popularity by vis-
iting hospitals and asylums and seeking to improve
the condition of the working classes. There was to
be an extensive system of spies and secret agents to
influence public opinion in favour of the monarchy,
1 Plate 74, p. 157. 3 Stern, ii., 219 ft.
VR1STOCRE
' Cl\ I'|UO
Plate 73. A representation of the awful fate in store for the priest
who will not take the civic oath. The wind whistles through
his bones.
155
156 The French Revolution
and a heavily subsidized press as well.1 When we
reflect that Mirabeau's programme included incit-
ing the clergy not to take the civic oath, it is diffi-
cult to see in him anything but a common traitor
to his cause.
What Mirabeau merely planned to do for the
King was meanwhile being done on a large scale
for the opposite party, the leaders of which were
Robespierre, Petion and others. Their friends
packed the galleries in the Assembly, while the
Jacobin clubs disseminated their teachings through-
out France. Those holding opposite opinions were
hounded as execrable criminals. Whether or not
the Revolutions de Paris was paid for its good
offices is not clear, but it keeps up its attacks on the
King and Queen like a gadfly. Louis is railed at
for not visiting the ruins of the Bastile; for allow-
ing the Assembly to come to him to pay its respects
on New Year's Day instead of going to it as a
"salaried functionary" ought to do; for not prop-
erly educating the Dauphin. The latter should be
given such books to read as Crimes of the Kings of
France from the Time ofClovis down to Our Own Day.2
But the worst arraignment was one of the
Queen early in October, I79O.3 It is in the form
of an "open letter to the wife of the King," for
that is the only title they are willing to accord her.
People have changed their minds about the Semi-
ramises, Elizabeths, Maria Theresas, and the like,
and want no more of their kind. What they do
want is a good wife and mother.
1 Stern, ii., 230 ff. * No. 81. 3 No. 65.
Plate 74. A representation of an aristocrat priest cursing the Revolution.
Turn the page upside down.
157
158
The French Revolution
The tone of the letter is cruel and cutting in the
extreme. France once idolized her, now she has
to sue for approbation. It was a good lesson she
Plate 75. A caricature of Marie Antoinette as a vile harpy treading on the
Constitution.
had been given on the 5th and 6th of October. She
has been cherishing vile harpies, indulging in fan-
tastic luxury, playing the Austrian, and diverting
French funds to Austrian uses. She doubtless still
holds in her hands the threads of a plot to remove
the King to Marseilles, Metz, or Rouen.
Flight
159
Marie Antoinette, probably at this period, is
herself represented by a cartoonist as a vile
harpy.1 She is tearing with her great claws at the
Plate 76. A caricature of Louis XVI as a horned pig.
Rights of Man and the Constitution of France.
It must be said in extenuation of such attacks
that Marie Antoinette actually was engaged in a
plot to remove Louis XVI from Paris at the mom-
ent when the "open letter" in the Revolutions de
1 Plate 75, p. 158.
i6o
The French Revolution
Paris appeared. Count Louis de Bouille who was
concerned in the flight to Varennes wrote later in
connection with that affair: "It was in the month
Plate 77. A caricature of Marie Antoinette as an Austrian pantheress.
of October, 1790, when the King and Queen adopted
the project of delivering themselves from slavery. "
Indeed Marie Antoinette played more than a
passive part. " It was at her desire," writes Count
Bouille, "that Count Fersen, who had access to the
; fo Francois crvesv/tt pue A: fltyf
virus i/uf
Plate 78* A cartcxin wliicli shows the devil inciting Pope Pius VI to sign
the bull condemning the civil constitution of the clergy.
» 161
162 The French Revolution
King, caused the project for his deliverance to be
laid before him."1
The hostility against the King and Queen goes
on increasing. We have two caricatures2 that we
can date only by conjecture but that may well
be ascribed to this time. The court's attitude
towards the refractory priests, whom it undoubt-
edly encouraged in secret, had much to do with the
matter. The horns on the head of the pig that
represents Louis XVI are understandable in the
light of a passage from the correspondence of
Stael -Holstein, the Swedish ambassador 3 :
It is much to be feared that there will soon be a new scene
of horror; De la Motte is here with his wife [the De la
Mottes of diamond necklace fame!] and there seems to be
a demand that the Assembly re-try the case and that she
[Madame de la Motte] appear before the bar. They intend
to employ against the Queen every means that the blackest
of imaginations could invent. It is believed that it will soon
be a question of divorce proceedings and that the motion
conceals the darkest designs.
And again, a fortnight later: " There are horribly
black machinations against the Queen. It is she
whom the enrages fear and mean to ruin because
they regard her as their implacable enemy, the only
one who can rally a party around her." Lord
Gower, too, the English ambassador, speaks of an
impending crisis due largely to "the fanaticism of
liberty and democratic rage."4
1 Memoires sur V affaire de Varennes, p. 18. 2 Plates 76 and 77.
a Pp. 177-178. The month is October.
* Gower's Despatches, p. 43.
MATJW££ Dl) PALAIS rtOyAL
Plate 79. A cartoon showing the papal bull, together with all the different
journals which favoured the aristocratic party, being consigned
to the flames.
163
1 64 The French Revolution
The civil constitution of the clergy, which had
been condemned by a bull of the Pope (we have a
caricature1 where the devil is inciting Pius VI to
sign it and another2 where the bull is being burnt),
had called forth rebellion in Brittany, in Nimes, in
Montauban, and in various other places. To
Nancy, where the soldiers had revolted against
their officers, Bouille was despatched with an
army, and the fact that blood was shed in restoring
order engendered extreme bitterness. In Decem-
ber, there were disturbances at Lyons, Strasburg,
and Metz. In Paris itself, there were scenes of
disorder. During a performance of Iphigenie in
the Opera-House, the air Celebrons notre reine was
hissed, and the singers were forced to trample on a
wreath that had been thrown them by way of
approval.3 Early in February there was a regular
panic because three hundred and sixty horses had
been found standing in stables in Versailles ; but it
was discovered that they had been there for months
ana for legitimate purposes.4 Soon afterwards the
Assembly made the Queen's old friends the Poli-
gnacs disgorge 800,000 francs and an estate bought
with money given them by the King.5 Next, the
departure of the King's aged aunts for Rome
threw all France into a ferment. No one cared
for the old ladies themselves — disagreeable, med-
dlesome personalities for whom no one has a good
word to say. But were they not testing the
patience of the people? And might they not be
1 Plate 78, p. 161. 2 Plate, p. 79163. * Stael-Holstein, 183.
<Gower, 55. s Ib., 62.
165
i66 The French Revolution
useful as hostages?1 A mob of fishwives stopped
them on their journey at Arnay-le-Duc, but Mira-
beau obtained a decree in the Assembly permitting
them to continue their journey. The price of gold
went up because of the amount they were supposed
to be carrying with them, while, as a result of the
agitation in the matter, a crowd of Parisian women
went to the Luxembourg to see if Monsieur was safe,
and the latter consented to walk in their company
all the way to the Tuileries.2
The air was thick with storm-clouds. February
28th is known in French history as "the day of
daggers." We have a representation of it3 that
almost rises to the height of the symbolical so
greatly is it exaggerated. For several days the
mob had been surrounding the Tuileries because,
it was reported, the King was having that palace
joined by a subterranean passage to the distant
fortress of Vincennes. Friends of the King had
gone secretly armed to his assistance, but one of
them had inadvertently dropped a hunting knife.
All visitors were then searched by the National
Guards and a number of pistols and daggers were
found. The King commanded their immediate
surrender.4 Lafayette, meanwhile, in the effort
to keep order at Vincennes, had fired on the
people, and in consequence had fallen from his
niche as an idol. Mirabeau, too, who expressed
his indignation at the searching of the King's visi-
tors, was bitterly attacked at the Jacobin Club and,
1 Revolutions de Paris, No. 85. 2 Gower, 59-64.
a Plate 80, p. 165. < Gower, 66-7.
Flight 167
if Camille Desmoulins can be believed, was made
to sweat drops of agony and was left more dead
than alive. A fictitious account was published of
the sums he had received for passing laws against
the people.
The episode of the daggers was of course ex-
ploited to the utmost by the King's enemies. We
have a cartoon entitled "The disarming of the
good nobility"1 and purporting to represent the
" exact form of the infamous poniards wielded by
those who had their ears boxed, or were arrested or
driven away from the Tuileries by the National
Guards on the 28th of February, 1791." On the
ugly blade was an inscription declaring that it had
been forged by aristocrats and that the monarchists
had been led astray by the refractory priests.
In March, the Revolutions de Paris2 published a
decree demanding a republic, which, it said, had
emanated from the eighty-three departments. It
has no mercy any longer for Louis XVI. "It is
absurd and revolting," it declared, "to have to
recognize as supreme head an individual with no
other claim to the place than that he took the
trouble to be born." This was not original, for
Beaumarchais, in his Figaro, had applied the same
words to the nobles. The Revolutions went on to
say that "the throne petrifies the most human of
hearts from the moment that one is seated upon
it, " and that " a crown compresses and narrows the
best organized brain."
It was this juncture that Mirabeau chose for
1 Plate 81, p. 168. : X<>. 90.
Plate 81. What purports to be " the exact form of the infamous
poniards wielded by those who had their ears boxed, or were
arrested or driven away from the Tuileries by the
National Guards on the 28th of
February, 1791."
168
i
.
169
17° The French Revolution
dying.1 In spite of the attacks on him at the
Jacobin Club, he was still enormously popular.
Over and above all the eulogies that were pub-
lished at the time, there are still in the National
Archives one hundred and fifty manuscripts con-
cerning his death. He had the fullest sense of his
own importance to the last, remarking as he lay
on his bed and heard the roar of cannon, "Is that
for the funeral of Achilles?"2 He realized the
hold that he had on the people and he said of his
opponent at the Jacobins', Lameth, who had re-
fused to be one of a deputation to enquire about
his condition: "I knew he was clumsy but never
thought him quite so stupid!"3
The Revolutions de Paris did not dare to speak
disparagingly of him. There is merely a hint that
Mirabeau never did anything otherwise than oppor-
tunely and that his end seemed to furnish new
proof of this assertion. He had died when at the
apex of his glory.
It is doubtful if Paris had ever seen such a
funeral. The church of St. Genevieve, just near-
ing completion, was turned into a Pantheon with
the inscription over the portico: " A grateful coun-
try to her great men." A contemporary print4
shows us the Pantheon before the great city had
closed up around it. All France followed in the
procession that took Mirabeau to his last rest.
The ashes of Rousseau and of Voltaire were soon to
be brought to keep him company. Of all his acts,
1 April 2, 1791. 3 Stern, ii., 303. 3 Gower, 78.
4 Plate 82, p. 169.
Plate 83. A portrait of Mirabeau, issued at the time of his
death, which recalls the episode of June 23, 1789, when
he defied the Master of Ceremonies of the King.
171
172 The French Revolution
if we can judge by a memorial portrait1 published
in connection with the decree according him the
honours reserved for the country's great men, the
one that had made the deepest impression was his
impassioned address to the King's master of cere-
monies on June 23, 1789: "Go tell those who sent
you that we are here by the will of the people and
shall yield only to the force of bayonets ! ' ' We see
him in front of the Temple of Liberty motioning
back the royal emissary, while the bayonets are
already pointed in his direction.
"The ministers and the court are in conster-
nation," writes the Swedish ambassador2 in con-
nection with Mirabeau's death; "the strength of
what they flattered themselves was their party
rested entirely on the prodigious talents of this
man, who, by thought, speech, and action in-
fluenced all events . ' ' The general disorder alarmed
the court greatly, and, indeed, with cause. Lord
Gower3 writes that there is a set of men whose
object is the total annihilation of the monarchy
however limited. As the heads of this party, he
designates Robespierre, Petion, Buzot, and Prieur.
He tells in the same breath how the fish wives have
given the grey nuns a regular whipping because
they had heard mass celebrated by non-juring
priests.
But was not this exactly what the King and
Queen were doing? They, too, needed chastening
by the mob. When, on April i8th, Louis XVI and
Marie Antoinette prepared to drive with their
1 Plate 83, p. 171. a Stael-Holstein, 198. * Despatches, 79.
Flight 173
family to St. Cloud, it was believed, and probably
rightly, that their object was to celebrate the
Easter service with priests of their own choice.
Both were sincerely religious according to their
lights.
Doubtless many of the same fishwives who had
flagellated the grey nuns were among the crowd
that entered the courtyard of the Tuileries and
induced the National Guards to refuse to open the
gates for the royal family to pass out. The latter
were in a position that was ludicrous because of
their helplessness. Neither pleading nor com-
manding was of any avail. Lafayette, as com-
mander of the National Guards, would have used
force had the King given his consent; but Louis
was not willing to go to such lengths. Insulted
and laughed at, they sat there for more than two
hours. The King was told that he was unfit to
reign, that he was paid too much, that he was a
big pig. What was there to do? It was suggested
to Bailly to proclaim martial law, but he refused.
The King and Queen gave up the struggle. Angry,
deeply humiliated, they alighted and re-entered the
palace. Their last scruples were gone. Fersen1
tells us that they are now determined to go to any
length of deception in order to inspire confidence
in the canaille, and then escape from Paris. They
will pretend to accept the Revolution absolutely.
The King did, indeed, make a formal protest
in the Assembly against the indignities to which he
had been subjected; but the Assembly itself was
•i., 97-
174 The French Revolution
in a ludicrous state of indecision. Was it their
inherited political inexperience or was it pure col-
lective pusillanimity that subjected each of these
legislative bodies in turn to the least change in
popular opinion? No king was ever more in the
thrall of cabinet advisers than were these great
bodies of men at the mercy of those who crowded
around the doors or thronged the spectators'
benches. As Louis entered the hall, now, the
president advanced some distance to meet him,
then suddenly bethinking himself that he was
doing too much honour to a mere functionary of
the people, turned and scurried back to his place.
When the King ended his speech asking the Assem-
bly to aid him in showing the nation that he was
free, the members were at a loss to know whether
or not to applaud.1
The one idea, the one longing now, was to
escape from Paris. The King had, unfortunately
very few friends among any class of the population,
a fact of which he himself seems to have been ignor-
ant. Even from the camp of the emigres, the
Marquise de Bombelles2 writes of her sovereign:
"You cannot imagine to what an extent he is
despised abroad and what his nearest relatives
say of him/'
A faithful follower, however, was the Queen's
old friend, Count Axel Fersen. Through him, Louis
and Marie Antoinette hoped to win the aid of the
Swedish king. But what are we to think when
we find them willing to dismember France in order
1 Debats et Decrets, April 19, 1791. * Correspondence, 130.
Flight 175
to procure this assistance? Fersen is to tell his
king that the French sovereigns are inclined to
offer "advantages or reasonable sacrifices" if they
can secure the neutrality of England, and that he
thinks they would also accord Sweden " advantages
proportionate to the extent and importance of the
aid rendered." r They still, then, regard the soil
of France as their own property, but are ready to
barter a part of it away! The King waits anx-
iously to see what "advantages or sacrifices" the
powers will demand ; his idea is not to offer them
but to "accord them if it becomes absolutely neces-
sary " ; there is talk of the part or the whole of "the
Indies."
Fersen himself was something more than the
mere chivalrous knight of a fair queen in distress.
He is a plotter on no mean scale. We find him
seriously discussing with Breteuil, Louis's former
minister, a plan for throwing France into bank-
ruptcy which, however, "the King thinks should
be only partial. " 2 The clergy are to recover their
estates but burdened with the nine hundred mil-
lion assignats already issued. Nine hundred mil-
lion? The King thinks it would be better to say
one billion, then the court will have something upon
which to fall back!
Idle dreams! The first thing to do was to get
away from Paris. But there were difficulties.
Austria, for instance, delayed sending troops. Yet
Breteuil considered the Emperor the person "most
authorized to punish the insults heaped on the
1 Fersen, i., 90-97. ' I., 123, 128.
176 The French Revolution
daughter of the Caesars, and the only sovereign who
could and should give the impulsion to all the rest. "
Again and again the day was set for the escape, but
there was always some reason for postponement.
This or that person was suspected but would soon
be out of the way. It seemed best to wait finally
until the Assembly should have paid the amount
due on the King's salary — a sordid consideration,
for Louis had to humour the Assembly and lull it
into security or run the risk of losing his money.
The day finally set for the great venture was the
20th of June. General Bouille had mapped out the
route: through Chalons, Montmirail, St. Mene-
hould, Varennes, and then to the strong fortress of
Montmedy on the border. The King would lodge
not in the fortress itself but in the neighbouring
chateau of Thonelle. After Chalons, Bouille would
have detachments of soldiers waiting at points
along the route so that rescue would be almost
impossible. We have evidence to show that
Bouille himself did not know whether or not
the King's ultimate intention was to leave the
country. I
How was the escape to be made when the palace
of the Tuileries had been double-sentried because
it was realized that flight might be attempted?
And Lafayette was there, alert, with his National
Guards. That very night he and Bailly had come
to attend the King's retiring and remained unusu-
ally late. After they had taken their departure,
the door of the King's apartment was locked and
1 Fersen, i., 126.
Flight 177
the key given to a sentinel who placed it under his
mattress which was dragged in front of the door.
Surely such precautions were sufficient !
But no! Fersen and the Queen had been very
adroit and had begun their preparations days
before. Between the royal apartments and a rear
entrance to the palace was the apartment formerly
used by the Due de Villequier who had emigrated
after the Day of Daggers. On the pretext of
changing a partition, carpenters had been sum-
moned who secretly cut a door through to one of
the disused rooms.1
There is no need to follow the movements in
detail. The Queen took the lead, first descending
with her children and their governess and seeing
them into a carriage, driven by Fersen, which
moved off to a short distance; then the Queen
returned, not to leave until the King and Madame
Elizabeth were ready to go with her. In the
King's very bedchamber an attendant was wont
to sleep, but Louis, after having retired and closed
the curtains of his bed, seized a moment when the
attendant was out of the room to escape, redraw
the curtains, and pass into another room where a
disguise was laid ready for him to assume.
Fersen was waiting at the corner of the Rue de
1'Echelle and the Place du Petit-Carrousel. The
preparations had taken longer than he had ex-
pected, and it was growing late. To avoid suspi-
cion, the members of the party came up separately,
the Queen, for some reason, appearing only after
1 Fournier, Varennes, p. 76.
178 The French Revolution
a considerable time. She had passed so near to
Lafayette's carriage that she could have touched
it. The King, for his part, had walked close to a
sentinel, but had disarmed suspicion by stopping
unconcernedly and bending down as if to tie his
shoe-string. He was dressed as a servant, as was
also the Queen. Fersen had procured them a pass-
port as the attendants of a great Russian lady,
Madame de Korff, who was represented by the
governess, Madame de Tourzel. The Dauphin
was disguised as a girl, and he and his sister
figured as Madame de Korff 's children.1
It was in Madame de Korff's name, too, that
Fersen had caused to be constructed a comfortable
travelling-coach that was waiting for the party at
the Porte St. Martin. Opinions, even of eye-wit-
nesses, differ as to whether or not there was any-
thing unusual in its appearance.2 That it would
have been wiser to go in separate vehicles is un-
doubted. Monsieur and Monsieur's wife escaped
without difficulty that same night in common
fiacres. But Marie Antoinette had positively
refused to divide her little party.
A greater disadvantage even than the size and
appearance of the coach was the fact that, after
the first halting- place, Bondy, where Fersen quitted
them, there was no cool, clear-headed person left
with the fugitives. Bouille had arranged that one
of his officers, D'Agoult, should ride in the coach;
1 Fournier, 1 14 ff.
"Bouille (Comte Louis de), 94, speaks of the lourdeur of the coach
and of its forme singuliere.
Flight 179
but Madame de Tourzel would have had to cede
her place, and this, that "female Cerberus," as the
Revolutions de Paris once called her, utterly refused
to do. The etiquette of the court of France
required her to remain with the children!1 Eti-
quette of the court of France! The question was
whether or not there should ever again be a court of
France. Louis XVI could not be firm even with
a Madame de Tourzel! The actual progress of
the flight with the questions incidental to it 2 does
not concern us here so much as its effect on public
opinion in Paris.
The flight was discovered at daybreak and soon
the cry spread, "The King is gone!" Crowds
rushed into the Tuileries and wreaked their venge-
ance on inanimate objects. The Queen's hat,
we are told, was trampled under foot; her bed was
taken possession of by a vendor of cherries; the
King's portrait was mocked at and insulted.
Meanwhile the city gates were closed, the tocsin
or alarm bell was rung, cannon were fired at ten-
minute intervals so as to spread the news and "tell
the executive power to return to his post."3
1 Bouille" (Comte Louis de), 92-93.
a Oscar Browning in "The Flight to Varennes and Other Essays"
berates Carlyle for mistaking the distance travelled, and then pro-
ceeds to mistake it himself. It was not sixty-nine miles, nor yet 150
miles: it was about 128 miles. In reducing leagues to miles, Browning
must have overlooked the difference between the common league, or
lieue commune, and the posting league, or lieue de paste. The former
equals 2.76 miles, the latter 2.422 miles. Now Bouille* says expressly
in connection with his mapping-out of the route that he is calculating
in posting leagues. See his letter in Fersen, i., 122.
i The FeuiUe Villageoise, the Debate et Decrets, and the Revolutions de
Paris all give vivid accounts of these happenings.
i8o The French Revolution
Couriers were despatched to every department to
urge the arrest of persons trying to leave France.
The Assembly itself assumed the executive power,
giving its commands to the ministers as well as to
the municipal authorities, and appropriating a
large sum of money, twenty-eight millions, from
the Treasury. As Abbe Gregoire remarked, "If
the heavens should fall, they would strike men who
were dauntless." All necessary measures taken,
the Assembly passed calmly to the order of the day,
and "a stranger would scarcely have suspected the
fatal event that threatened France with a new
revolution. " The shops opened, Paris went about
its business as usual. "No one would have
thought he was looking on a nation without a
head."1
Louis .XVI had left a declaration; it may still
be read in the Archives. As the result of all his
efforts and all his sacrifices, he had seen religion
profaned, the throne debased, crime unpunished.
He protests against all the decrees he has been
forced to sanction, complains of the sins com-
mitted against him — that Necker had been more
applauded than himself; that the Tuileries is an
uncomfortable place of residence; that twenty-five
million a year is not sufficient ; that his queen was
in danger on October 6th and his guards were mas-
sacred; that violence had been employed against
him on February 28th and on April i8th; that
he has been shorn of his prerogatives; that the
Jacobin Club dominates everything.
1 Feuille Villageoise.
Flight 181
The Assembly received all this with equanimity,
and took a calm and lofty attitude. It vowed to
defend the country against internal as well as
external enemies and to die rather than suffer the
invasion of French territory by foreign troops.
That, of course, was the danger that was most
imminent. An address was sent to the provinces
declaring that conspirators and slaves would now
learn to know the intrepidity of the founders of
French liberty.1
The session had just ended and all were in this
exalted mood when, from without, growing louder
and louder, was heard the roar of a great disturb-
ance. There were shouts and bursts of applause,
and above it all could soon be distinguished the
words, "The King is taken!" A surgeon from
Varennes who had been riding post-haste since two
o'clock in the morning then presented himself
before the Assembly. He reported how, late at
night,2 a carriage with couriers and some hussars
had entered Varennes; how the postmaster of St.
Menehould had followed and unfolded his sus-
picions; how the coach had been stopped at the
point of the pistol and the travellers forced to
alight ; how, within an hour, four thousand National
Guards had assembled and the whole countryside
had been aroused. The Assembly thereupon de-
spatched deputies — Petion, Barnave, and Latour-
Maubourg — to escort the fugitives back to the
capital.
Then the legislators relaxed. A military band
1 Dtbats et Dtcrcts, June 22d. * In reality it was not so late.
1 82
The French Revolution
was called in and played airs which "mingled an air
of gaiety with profounder sentiments. " And what
was the air that won the most applause? None
other than that old vulgar popular song that the
bandmaster had refused to play at the banquet
given in Versailles to the regiment of Flanders,
"Where is one better off than in the bosom of one's
Plate 84. A facsimile of an assignat with the portrait of Louis XVI. This
one purports to have been issued the day before the flight, but is
officially stamped a forgery.
family ?" At last, worn out by their long vigils,
the deputies, as well as a number of National
Guards, stretched themselves out on the hard
benches and sought rest in slumber. But in one
of them at least there still lingered the spirit of fun.
The sound of a bell was heard and the deputies
started up in alarm. It was a practical joke on the
part of the funny deputy. But we have it on the
assurance of the Debats et Decrets that " all laughed
at the little pleasantry." It was another proof
Flight 183
that "everything can readily be made a source of
joy if only joy abides in the soul."1
On June 24th, the postmaster of St. Menehould
appeared and told his tale. He also provoked the
members to merriment. He told how he had
recognised the King from his likeness on an assig-
nat2 and the Queen from having seen her before;
how he and a certain Guillaume had chased them
by short cuts to Varennes and had barred the
route by overturning an ox-cart ; how, after the ar-
rest, hussars had ridden up and demanded the
King's release, but how cannon had been called for
and so placed that the hussars would be between
two fires. "They still insisted, and when they
threatened to shoot at us I called, 'Cannoneers,
to your places, quick-match in hand!' I have the
honour to observe to you, sirs, that there was
nothing in the cannon!" "Applause," writes the
Debats et Decrets, "had frequently interrupted
the orator; here bursts of laughter mingled with
the applause."
The coach had reached Chalons in safety, but
far behind the scheduled time. From that time
on there had been one long series of blunders and
misunderstandings. Choiseul, commanding the
detachment at Pont de Sommevelle, had despaired
of the game too soon and sent word which flew
from post to post that the royal party was no
longer to be expected. In Varennes itself there
might easily have been a rescue but for further mis-
understandings. A body of dragoons heard a
1 See p. 140. * Plate 84, p. 182.
1 84
The French Revolution
distant disturbance without suspecting that it was
caused by the stopping of the King's coach.1
We have a representation of the return from
Varennes2 which is difficult to classify. The plight
Plate 85. A representation of the return from Varennes of the royal
family under escort of National Guards.
of the royal family was so wretched that it could
scarcely have been exaggerated. The journey
took three days and the whole route was lined with
spectators for the most part hostile. Was it from
a fellow-feeling for their condition that Louis as he
passed the jail of St. Menehould handed a purse
of gold to the mayor for the benefit of the prison-
ers? At Chalons there was some show of loyalty
1 Carlyle follows Choiseul's narrative and that of the elder Bouille
both of whom, of course, try to extenuate their own conduct. He seems
to have been ignorant of the younger Bound's narrative.
2 Plate 85, above.
Flight 185
but not the least attempt at rescue. Elsewhere
there were threats of violence, shaking of fists, and
attempts to spit in the King's face. It seemed at
one time as though the royal pair would never
reach Paris alive.1
On the Marne, near Port a Binson, the commis-
sioners from the National Assembly met the cap-
tives. Barnave took his place in the coach between
the King and Queen ; Petion sat between Madame
de Tourzel and Madame Elizabeth. Petion has
left an extraordinary account in his own hand-
writing of the remainder of the journey. He
describes the conversation as " cackling," and has
the vanity to think that Madame Elizabeth, one
of the few real saints of the Revolution, has suc-
cumbed to a passion for him and has been unable
to refrain from little affectionate pressures of the
arms. Barnave, on the other hand, really does
seem to have been affected by the proximity of
Marie Antoinette, and a little later made such
efforts on her behalf that he was bitterly satirized
as a double-faced man.2
What a scene was that entry into Paris! The
whole city had come out to the Champs Elys£es
to meet its humiliated royal family. The balcon-
ies, the roofs of the houses, even the very trees
swarmed with people. The cortege entered by the
Porte Chaillot, and then passed down the Champs
Elys6es to the Place Louis Quinze and the Tuiler-
ies.3 There were no less than thirty thousand
1 Lenfttre's Drame de Varennes gives many small details.
a Plate 86, p. 187. J Gower, 99.
1 86 The French Revolution
National Guards in line and they had with them
sixteen cannon. The coach was followed by car-
riages containing the heroes of the day — Maugin,
who had brought the first news of the capture, and
Drouet and Guillaume. Placards on the walls
had warned the people under heavy penalties
neither to applaud nor to insult the captives, and
the silence was broken only by occasional cries of
' ' Petion ! " , " Barnave ! " as they passed along. No
hats were raised to the King or Queen.
The irrepressible gamins of Paris, indeed, caused
smiles that were not of disapproval when it was
found that they had climbed up on the great eques-
trian statue of Louis XV, had first bandaged the
statue's eyes, then pretended, as the cortege was
passing, to wipe away the tears the old King must
be supposed to be weeping at the sight of his
humiliated grandson.1 On the walls were witty
placards too, such as "Lost, a King and Queen.
A reward is offered for not finding them. "2
Just before reaching the Tuileries, there was a
disturbance, which Petion declares threatened to
become a massacre. But he relates how majestic-
ally he himself quelled it, how he "commanded
with an authority that imposed," and how even
the mere mention of his name worked like a charm.
A deputation from the Assembly received the
King at the palace. "I promise never to do it
again!" he is said to have remarked to them. He
wished the deputation to thank the Assembly and
to explain that he had gone away quite against his
1 Revolutions de Paris, No. 103. 3 Feuitte Villageoise, June 3Oth.
Plate 86. Barnave represented as a double-faced man
because of his friendliness to the King and Queen
after the flight to Varennes.
187
1 88 The French Revolution
own will. He was later to make other and more
exhaustive explanations.
By a decree of the Assembly,1 the King, the
Queen, and the Dauphin were each to have a
special guard, and all lesser persons concerned in
the flight were to be regularly imprisoned. Fer-
sen, indeed, after leaving the party at Bondy, had
escaped across the frontier.
The Queen had to suffer the humiliation of being
allowed no privacy whatever2; but she was still
hopeful and courageous. She managed to de-
spatch a letter to Fersen which was later found
among his effects.3
I exist. How anxious I have been about you and how
I pity you for all you suffer in having no news from us!
Heaven grant that this reach you! Do not write me. It
would be too great a risk for us. And above all do not
come back under any consideration. It is known that you
got us away from here; if you were to appear all would be
lost. We are guarded day and night. That is a matter of
indifference to me. Be reassured, nothing will be done to
me. The Assembly means to deal gently with us. Adieu.
I shall not be able to write to you again.
Bouille meanwhile had hurled a terrific defiance
at the Assembly, speaking of "all the crimes you
have committed or sanctioned during these two
years," and of "the anarchy of which you have
made a regular system. " He declares that if a
hair of the head of the King or Queen is injured,
he will lead the foreign armies against Paris and
annihilate it utterly.
1 Duvergier, iii., 64. » Revolutions de Paris, No. 103-
3 Fersen, i., 152.
Flight
189
We have a satirical representation1 on the
theme of the penance the royal pair are presumed
to have performed after the return from their ill-
starred expedition. They are kneeling at an altar
which is consecrated to the law and the nation. In
LJtlt > '
Plate 87. A satire on the failure of the attempted flight to Varennes. The
King is pleading for mercy, the Queen is beating her breast and crying
"My fault, all my fault!"
front of it is a cock, emblem of the French vigilance
that has not permitted them to make good their
escape. Behind Louis are bottles, which must
mean to imply that he drinks. With clasped hands
the King is supplicating, "Have mercy on me, oh
my people, according to thy great mercy." But
the Queen is beating her breast and shrieking, " My
fault! My fault! All my fault!11
1 Plate 87, above.
CHAPTER VI
PROBATION
TE flight of her hereditary monarch was a
more serious matter to France than would
at first appear. To be sure, Louis XVI was
not the kind of man with whom it would have been
difficult to dispense. But his crossing the frontier
would have meant civil war, and in his parting
declaration he had scorned the Constitution on
which the representatives had been at work for
two years. That Constitution had taken ac-
count of him, the King, at every turn. It would
therefore be worthless in his absence.
Not that there was anything in the Constitution
to prevent a simple change of residence. It would
have been wise of Louis to have followed Mira-
beau's advice and gone openly and with head high
to Fontainebleau or some other neighbouring
town. But this slipping away in the night leaving
none who could serve as hostage, this being caught
and brought back like naughty truants, these lame
attempts at explanation: was there any chance
that the wound thus caused should ever really heal?
Yet Barnave pleaded eloquently1 that all be
1 Point du Jour, No. 737: July I7th.
190
Probation 191
forgotten and forgiven, that the Revolution stop
right there: "Enough that we have destroyed
what needed destruction. A continuance may
sweep away all the good you have accomplished."
The battle raged in the Assembly and also in
the Jacobin Club with fierce intensity. Some
maintained that by the terms of the Constitution
the King's person was inviolable and that therefore
he was immune from any consequences. "So,"
answered Petion, "a king may slaughter men like
sheep, may devastate his country with fire and
flame, may be a Caligula, a Nero — and all for
the greater glory of God and happiness of man!
But we must respect his bloody and atrocious in-
clinations! " I Vadier hurled the epithet at Louis
of "crowned brigand."
The flight had brought the idea of a republic
very much into prominence. For more than two
months France managed very well without her
hereditary monarch. But few were ready to face
a complete change in the form of government.
Even Robespierre, the leaden-coloured deputy
from Arras who was no friend of kings, declared
that he feared the reign of faction — perhaps he
saw that his own faction as yet had no chance of
predominating.
It was finally determined to complete the Con-
stitution, revise some of its clauses, and then say
to Louis XVI, " Will you accept this document and
loyally execute its provisions, or will you cease to
be our king?"
1 Point du Jour, July 14, 1791.
The French Revolution
Passions ran too high indeed for the matter to
be so peacefully settled. A petition opposing this
solution of it was drawn up in the Jacobin Club and
laid on the altar of the fatherland for all to sign.
It recounted the crimes of the King and called for
a new executive power. On July iyth there was
rioting around the very altar where a year before
there had been such rejoicings in the name of Fra-
ternity. Liberty, Equality, Fraternity — all were
to end in the same way : Liberty in worse despotism
than ever before; Equality in the uppermost being
crushed under the heel of the nethermost ; Fratern-
ity in the proclaiming of martial law and the firing
on the mob by the National Guards. Martial law
prevailed for the moment1 but the memory of a
mob is long, as Mayor Bailly, he who had ordered
the red flag to be unfurled, was later to experience.
Marat declared that this episode of the Champ
de Mars had caused an " infernal gulf" to yawn
between the bourgeoisie [as represented by the Na-
tional Guards] and the democrats [as represented
by himself and his followers]. The Jacobin Club
was rent asunder and a part split off into the more
moderate club of the Feuillants. But for the
most part the affiliated societies in the country
districts remained loyal to the mother club.
We have a representation of the affair on the
Champ de Mars which cannot have been greatly
exaggerated.2 On the whole, the party that had
stood for order was for the moment high in the
1 Report of the Municipality, Point du Jour, July lyth. See also
Aulard, Histoire Politique, 148. 2 Plate 88, p. 193.
193
194 The French Revolution
ascendant, and it was a sad time for demagogues
like Marat, Robespierre, and Danton. This atti-
tude is reflected in the conservative manner in
which the revision of the Constitution was carried
to its completion. One exception, indeed, was
the abandoning of the requirement that a man to
be eligible for the position of deputy must be a
taxpayer to the amount at least of a mark of silver.
We have a caricature that must have been
issued during the debates on this latter subject
and that is entitled "The future legislator."1
The face is covered with a mask of silver that
makes all men look as much alike as though they
were door-knockers. On the margin are the
words: "Tell me yourself: in the age in which we
live, is it by weight, forsooth, that men are mea-
sured ? " And below are rhymes to the same effect.
Brains do not matter, it is only a question of being
worth a mark of silver!
On the third of September, 1791, the Assembly
formally declared the Constitution completed,
and a delegation of deputies carried the document
to the King in the Tuileries. After devoting ten
days to its consideration, Louis declared that he
had made up his mind to accept and carry out its
provisions.
And what was the real attitude of those who so
long had sat in half -imprisonment within the walls
of their own palace; or rather what was the atti-
tude of the woman who served as the King's right
hand? We have unpardonable letters of Marie
1 Plate 89, p. 195.
rISL
Plate 89. A satirical representation called the " The Future
Legislator," and directed against the requirement that a
deputy to be eligible must pay taxes. The mark of
silver destroys all individuality.
195
196 The French Revolution
Antoinette to show how deeply she involved her
husband in a policy of ruse and deception. It was
all her doing. Louis XVI is evidently not in
sympathy with all of her projects: "You know the
person I have to deal with, " she writes to her old
mentor, Mercy d'Argenteau; "just as one thinks
one has persuaded him, a word, an argument,
makes him unsuspectingly change his mind."1
But she wishes it to be known that one person at
least is looking out for the dignity of the family:
"Never will I consent to anything unworthy of
myself," she writes. ". . . It is in misfortune
that one realizes all the more what one is. My
blood runs in the veins of my son and I hope that
some day he will prove himself a worthy grandson
of Maria Theresa!"
She has some slight glimmering that the course
of action she is planning may not, indeed, be quite
worthy of herself: "It is impossible, " she writes,
"for the King to refuse his acceptance. You must
believe me when I say that this is the case. You
know my character and that it inclines me to a
noble and courageous way of acting. But there
is no courage in running into a more than certain
danger. So our last hope is in the foreign armies. "
Marie Antoinette prevaricates in every word
and act. At the suggestion of Barnave, Duport,
and Lameth, she writes and urges her brother to
make an alliance with revolutionary France; she
declares that she herself has experienced a change
of heart. Then she follows this by secret denials,
' * Lettres de Marie Antoinette (La Rocheterie), ii., 275 ff.
Plate 90. An allegorical representation of the acceptance of the Constitution
by Louis XVI. The faces seem to be actual likenesses. The republic
personified is being driven from the hall by cupids with whips.
197
198 The French Revolution
by complaint that she is coerced into writing what
her enemies require, by requests for ostensible
replies which she can show to those around her.
She calls the Constitution which her husband,
before God and man, is about to swear to maintain,
' ' a tissue of impracticable absurdities. ' ' She means,
however, to pursue such a course of action "as
will remove all suspicion of us and at the same time
serve to outwit them [the Assembly] and over-
throw at the very first opportunity the monstrous
production we have to adopt."
It is not pleasant to see Marie Antoinette so
vindictive. In December, 1791, she confides to
Fersen1 that she thinks on the whole the r61e she
is obliged to play all day long is succeeding; but
for her, things would be much worse. She con-
cludes with "what happiness if I could only regain
sufficient power to show all these beggars [ces
gueux} that I was not their dupe!"
It all sounded so noble and spontaneous, this
spurious acceptance of the King's, with its naive
admissions, its bursts of confidence, its loyal
appeals. They produced, we are told, "a most
acute and tender impression!" The acceptance
was made in writing and orally. In a letter Louis
analysed his own feelings; told his reasons for
taking flight and how greatly things had since al-
tered for the better: "I must tell you, if you had
presented to me the Constitution at that juncture,
I should not have considered that the interests of
the people, my sole and constant rule of conduct,
1 Fersen, ii., 267.
Probation 199
permitted of its acceptance. " But now! Well,
there might be some flaws in the Constitution,
but if there were, time would easily reveal and
remedy them.
When he appeared in the Assembly on Septem-
ber 1 4th, Louis found the members well disposed to
him. We have an allegorical representation of
this formal and public acceptance.1 One hand on
his heart, Louis is pointing with the other to the
constitutional document. A crowned figure that
looks very much like Marie Antoinette is doing like-
wise from the other side and her free hand rests on
the shoulder of a deputy who somewhat resembles
Robespierre. Or it may be France, leaning on her
representative and preferring the Constitution to
the King. To the left we see another crowned
figure, bearing a bundle of fagots, emblem of a
republic, and taking to wild flight chased by angry
cupids. One of the cupids seems to have the
British lion on his shield. All the spectators are in
different attitudes of ecstasy. Beneath is the
oath that Louis took: "I swear to be faithful to the
nation and to the law, to employ all the power
delegated to me in maintaining the Constitution
decreed by the National Constituent Assembly in
the years 1789, 1790, and 1791, and to see that the
laws are executed."
Both the English and the Swedish ambassadors,2
who of course were present, record a significant little
episode. While Louis was reading his speech it
occurred to the deputies, who had remained stand-
1 Plate 90, p. 1 97. * Gower and StaSl-Holstein.
200 The French Revolution
ing, that it was beneath their dignity to continue
in that attitude of respect. Obeying a signal of one
of their number, they all sat down. Louis, however,
showed unusual courage and presence of mind.
Without interrupting his reading, he, too, took a
chair, a proceeding which, strange to say, called
forth rapturous applause. ' ' This instance, ' ' writes
Stael-Holstein, "should have taught him that if
throughout the Revolution he had shown the proper
feeling of what was due to himself he would have
rendered dutiful those who have most abused his
weakness." r
The occasion ended with joyful demonstrations,
the whole Assembly escorting the King back to the
Tuileries amid strains of music and salvos of
artillery.
Marie Antoinette was not altogether happy,
as we can see from her letters to Fersen.2 She
acknowledges that it would have been nobler to
refuse the acceptance, but declares that, in their
actual situation, such a course was out of the ques-
tion. She wishes the acceptance could have been
shorter and simpler; evidently the long mockery
had jarred on her nerves. It had been necessary,
however, to remove every doubt of its not being in
good faith. She is confident that so soon as the
Constitution is put in practice all its absurdities
will be made manifest: "the farther we go and the
more these beggars feel their misery the sooner they
may themselves come to desire the foreigners."
Meanwhile, there have been kindly demonstra-
1 Page 235. * Fersen, i., 192.
Probation
201
tions towards her, but she steels her heart. One
might be touched by them "if one were not forced
Plate 91. A cartoon intended to show under what constraint
Louis XVI had sanctioned the Constitution.
to remember that these were the same people who
insulted us two months ago and who can be swayed
at will. "
2O2 The French Revolution
Louis had acted under constraint in signing the
Constitution: that was now the watchword of all
his adherents. We have an amusing cartoon1
where he is shown sitting at a table, pen in hand,
inside of a great iron cage. Up walks the Austrian
Emperor and asks in astonishment, " Brother-in-
law, what are you doing?" "I 'm sanctioning."
And this foreign sympathy on which Louis and
Marie Antoinette had so fondly based their hopes,
to what did it amount? Emperor Leopold did
bestir himself in a mild sort of way on his sister's
behalf, but he had shown no great anxiety to fur-
nish the fifteen million francs that had been re-
quested of him at the time of the flight.2 He did,
indeed, appeal to his fellow-rulers in Europe and
suggest forming a great league. He was met
everywhere either by refusals or by empty promises.
It is true the annexation by France of Avignon —
it was proclaimed on the very day on which Louis
XVI publicly accepted the Constitution — was an
alarming symptom, but each country was busy with
its own schemes, and Prussia and Austria finally
united with Saxony in a declaration at Pillnitz that
was merely an "august comedy," to quote a
contemporary. The three powers agreed to inter-
vene in French affairs if they could be certain
that the rest of Europe would do likewise. By that
time they were absolutely certain that the rest of
Europe would do nothing of the kind.
1 Plate 91, p. 201.
a For these foreign relations, see Sorel, L' Europe et la Revolution
FranQaise, passim.
Probation 203
The declaration of Pillnitz, indeed, was not to be
altogether without effect. The emigres exploited
it in an open letter from Coblenz seeking to give
the impression that immense foreign armies were
at once to fall upon France. It was a futile means
of intimidation but interfered with the plans of
Louis XVI, whose policy, as we have seen, was to
make the Revolutionists believe in his absolute
sincerity. It was natural to suspect him of col-
lusion with his brothers, and this their open letter
was to form part of the evidence against him at
Louis' trial before the revolutionary tribunal.
But the Revolutionists, too, were disappointed,
were misled by the enthusiasm shown in foreign
countries for the first great popular victories
They had believed that these enslaved peoples
would rise at their call and join their banners, that
no one could long remain deaf to the tones of
liberty. We have a cartoon ' showing one of these
supposed slaves in the very act of hastening to the
happy land where youths and maidens have
nothing to do but dance around trees, and their
elders sit at tables and quaff flowing bowls. We
have a production with similar tendency2 in which
an Austrian sentinel stands at one end, a French at
the other, of a bridge that spans a border stream.
The elaborate text tells us that "no sooner has
our sentinel pointed out the national cockade on
his hat to the German than the latter lays his hand
on his heart, reverses his gun, and makes known his
amicable intentions towards a free nation. "
' Plate92, p. 205. ' Plate93, p. 206.
204 The French Revolution
But for some reason or other these liberated
slaves did not come over in any great numbers.
The flagrant violation of the rights of property in
Alsace where the abolition of feudalism by the
decrees of August 4th was made to apply to the
subjects of foreign princes as well; the extreme
radicalism of a Camille Desmoulins, who declared
in his influential journal1 that international law
ought to be treated as Martin Luther had treated
the canon law: all this had offended subjects as
well as their masters. It was a mere delusion
that the whole world, save for a few gangrened
rulers, was hanging breathless on the happenings
in Paris. The National Assembly might have
spared itself the expense it continually incurred of
having decrees of which it was especially proud
translated into every known language. The hope
of having liberty prevail the world over was as
vain as the boast of the Comte de Provence that
he would enter France with an army and " subdue
by force the fanaticism of public opinion. " Even
Marie Antoinette speaks of the " follies of the
princes and emigres.'11 On the other hand,
she is utterly mistaken as to the general temper
of the Revolutionists. She believes that they
have a horrible dread of foreign invasion: "fear
crops out in all their deeds and in all their
words."2 Yet she herself is growing politic. At-
rocious as the French people are, she writes to Fer-
sen, it may be necessary to continue to live with
them; so she must be careful not to give grounds
1 The Revolutions de Paris et de Brabant. 2 Lettres, ii. , 3 1 4.
)2. A representation of a foreigner joyfully quitting the land of slaves
for the land of liberty where everything is gay and joyous.
205
2O6
The French Revolution
for reproach either to "those here" or to " those
outside."1
A cartoonist gives us an excellent view of Louis
XVI 's exact position at this time.2 The King is
Plate 93. A representation showing the effect wrought upon an Austrian
sfentinel by the first sight of the French national cockade. The
Austrian reverses his bayonet and places his hand
upon his heart.
dancing on a tight-rope and trying to balance
himself with a pole that is weighted at one end
with the Constitution, at the other with a cap
containing cornucopias full of sweets. The crowd
below are clamouring for the sweets and causing
the pole to incline very much in their direction.
On the ground are cornucopias that have already
Lettres, ii., 321 (October 19, 1791).
Plate 94, p. 207.
Probation
207
been emptied. "Look out for false Steps" is the
inscription.
Meanwhile, the Constituent Assembly, having
completed the work it had sworn in the Tennis
Court to perform, prepared to give place to the
Plate 94. A cartoon showing the perilous situation of Louis XVI. He has
handed down several cornucopias full of sweets to the people but
they are calling for more.
new legislative body for which the terms of the Con-
stitution provided. The members were in a kindly
mood towards this king who was now so humbled.
They requested him to have his portrait painted
for the adornment of the hall, and to have himself
represented at the moment of telling his son that
208 The French Revolution
he has accepted the Constitution.1 They decreed
a form of ceremonial to be observed when he should
appear in their midst for the final closing exercises
that was altogether respectful.2 The members
were all to rise as the King entered ; after that they
were to be guided in their movements by him — to
rise or sit, to keep their hats on or take them off,
according as he should give the example. He was
to sit in the centre of the platform in a special
arm-chair covered with gold-embroidered fleurs-de-
lis, and no one was to presume to address him
without an express decree of the Assembly. The
president of that body was to sit on the King's
right hand.
On September 3Oth, interrupted each moment
by enthusiastic applause, Louis XVI bade fare-
well to the men who had robbed him of all but
the merest vestige of his power. There was the
usual emotion, the usual hypocrisy.3 "Going
back to your homes, sirs, " Louis said, "I count on
your being the interpreters to your fellow-citizens
of the uprightness of my sentiments. Tell them
each and all that their king will be their best and
most faithful friend, that he feels the need of their
love, that he cannot be happy save with and for
them."
"Your Majesty/' answered the president, "has
terminated the Revolution by your so loyal and
frank acceptance of the Constitution. . . . Your
1 Debats et Decrets, September 29, 1791.
2 Ib., and also Duvergier, iii., 457.
3 See Point du Jour, September 3Oth, for the speeches of farewell.
Probation 209
heart, sire, has already received its reward; your
Majesty has rejoiced in the touching spectacle
of the joy of the people/' The King withdrew,
the proces verbal or protocol was read, it was
formally declared that the Assembly had completed
its labours. Then the president concluded: "Let
the kings of the earth tell us if their absolute power
can give joys like this, if their beds of justice and
their formal audiences have ever produced such
sweet and deep emotions, such communion of
peoples and kings!"
Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette were playing
their part well. They went about as if free from
care — to the opera, to the Comedie Francaise, to
the municipal f£tes. They illuminated the Tuile-
ries, they interested themselves in the poor of
Paris, sending fifty thousand francs to the mayor to
be distributed for their benefit. t ' It seems to me, ' '
writes the Swedish ambassador, "that the conduct
of this prince would be incomprehensible unless he
really cherished the sentiments he seems to have
adopted. Force can tear certain responses from
one: but this frequenting of the opera and of pub-
lic places in search of applause inspired by the
acceptance would make retraction very difficult. '"
The new legislative body which met on the day
after the dispersal of the old one was far less friendly
to the King. It was made up largely of men whose
whole interests were bound up in the new order of
1 Stafil-Holstein, 237.
14
210 The French Revolution
things; those who held or hoped to hold offices
in the communes, — barristers, journalists, rising
authors. They were all new, alas ! to the business
of governing, for the Constituent Assembly had
passed a self-denying ordinance which prevented
the election of any of the old members.
The whole number of deputies, as the Constitu-
tion had directed, was 745, of whom 160 were
constitutional royalists, the rest being about equally
divided between Jacobins and moderates or in-
dependents.1 The strongest bond of union was a
desire to see that the executive power should learn
to keep its place and not imagine it was in any way
superior to the legislative.
The King, doubtless to test his strength, endeav-
oured to fix his own day for receiving a deputation
from the Assembly, but then yielded the point.
On October 5th, Couthon, the crippled henchman
of Robespierre, was carried to the platform and
uttered severe words against Louis. One by one
other attacks followed.2 Grangeneuve moved the
suppression of the title " Your Majesty "; Guadet
wished the president of the Assembly always to
be admitted to the King's presence "without having
to pass through the antechambers of the keeper of
the seals. " Then the question came up, what cere-
monial should be observed when the King came
to the Assembly? One deputy thought that the
1 Aulard in his Eloquence Parliamentaire gives the Jacobin patriots as
280, the extreme left as 20, the independents as 300, the monarchists as
160. But that would make 760 members in all!
2 Debats et Decrets, October 5th.
Probation 211
members ought to be free to sit or stand without
awaiting the King's pleasure. As if, cried another,
"the representatives of the people were turning
themselves into perfect automatons in the presence
of its first functionary and were unable to act,
think, or move, except as willed by another." A
king, declared Guadet, who regulates one's bodily
movements will soon be claiming to regulate the
movements of one's soul.
Each and every provision that the former
Assembly had so recently made for the King's
reception was made a special object of attack.
Why call him Sire? Why give him a chair "scan-
dalous in its richness"? He ought to have one
neither more nor less magnificent than that of the
president. A decree in five articles embodying all
these restrictions was then passed.
But the members in their censoriousness had far
out-distanced public opinion. The galleries, the
former deputies, the citizens in general were highly
indignant. It was pointed out that the relations
between the Assembly and the chief executive had
been regulated by the Constitution ; moreover that
a decree to become law must pass through three
readings. The Assembly was accused of pride
and conceit, even of crime and fanaticism; it was
declared that public credit was being shaken,
public enemies encouraged.
It was a tempest in a teapot but significant.
It shows that Louis XVI still had a hold on the
affection of his people. The Assembly finally
reconsidered its decree and adjourned the matter
212 The French Revolution
indefinitely.1 On October yth, Louis appeared in
the hall. He was addressed by the president as
"Sire" and as "Majesty," was given the "scanda-
lously rich" chair, and was allowed to set the
example in the matter of standing up or sitting
down.
In the souls of the friends of liberty the reconsid-
eration of the hostile decree spread fierce indig-
nation. In all seriousness, the Revolutions de
Paris compares it to the revocation of the Edict
of Nantes ! Both national glory and the happiness
of the human race are at stake!
This much is important to note. The Jacobins,
for they were "the friends of liberty," are utterly
in the minority in this matter. Couthon and
others complain bitterly of being threatened and
insulted. Gouverneur Morris, the American min-
ister, writes2: "The people of this city are be-
come wonderfully fond of the King and have a
thorough contempt for the Assembly who are in
general what used to be called at Philadelphia
' the blue-stockings.' ... At the Italian Comedy,
people continually cried, Vive le roil, Vive la reine!,
Vive la famille royale, Sire, vive votre Majeste!
One can imagine Marie Antoinette's indigna-
tion at the men who had tried to pluck the whole
royal nimbus from her husband's head. "There is
nothing whatever to be gained from this Assem-
bly," she wrote to Fersen; "it is a conglomeration
of rogues, madmen, and brutes."3 One of the
1 Debats et Decrets, October 7th. a Morris, i., 462 (Oct. 10) .
s Fersen, i., 208.
Probation 213
members, Brissot, glorifying the pike as the new
national weapon had just declared that it must be
pointed against every enemy of the country "even
if he inhabit the Chateau of the Tuileries." '
1 Aulard (Eloquence), i., 238.
CHAPTER VII
DOWNFALL
IT was with the burning questions of the day, not
with abstract legislation, that the new Assem-
bly was to busy itself. What should be done
about these emigres who were stirring up the
foreign powers to invasion? What about this
refractory clergy that refused to take the civic
oath? And what about the foreign powers them-
selves? Were they to be pacified or irritated,
treated amicably or intimidated into submission?
In connection with the acceptance of the Con-
stitution, a general amnesty had been declared,
and the emigres had been invited to return. Few
availed themselves of the privilege. Only a month
later we find Brissot, one of the first men of the
Legislative Assembly to assume leadership, urging
that a blow be struck not at the obscure crowd but
at their chiefs, the brothers of the King. Ver-
gniaud, the brilliant orator from the Gironde, de-
nounced "these agitators, as ridiculous as they are
insolent, who give the bizarre name of 'external
France' to their convulsive assemblage"; these
" haughty beggars" who had scorned the land of
equality but would soon "expiate in shame and
214
Cmiqrand* Revefro/i/7 a .Paris.
Plate 95. A cartoon representing an tmigrf returning as a beggar
to the country that he had abandoned.
215
2i6 The French Revolution
misery their criminal pride and turn eyes bathed in
tears towards the country they have abandoned" ;
these "miserable pygmies who in an access of
delirium dared to parody the enterprise of the
Titans against heaven. " l " Let us rid the nation, ' '
he cried, "of these buzzing insects, greedy for
its blood, that are annoying and harassing it!"
This idea of the haughty beggar coming back with
his eyes bathed in tears was exploited by a car-
toonist.2 Possibly he drew his direct inspiration
from Vergniaud's speech, or was even commissioned
to work up the theme.
On October 3ist, "Louis Stanislas Xavier,
French prince, adult relative, next in line for the
regency," was summoned to return to France within
sixty days or relinquish his rights of succession.
Two weeks later the emigres in general were de-
clared suspected of conspiracy and were threat-
ened with death if, by January ist, they should
still be found banded together.3 The only real
hold, indeed, that the Assembly had was in its
ability to confiscate the lands and revenues of the
emigres, and this course it now announced its
intention of pursuing.
On December I4th, Louis XVI was forced to
send an ultimatum to the Elector of Treves,
brother of Marie Antoinette, whose territory had
become a chief rallying-point for the emigres. The
latter were no longer to be harboured but were to
be told to disperse within a month.
1 Aulard, Eloquence, i., 318. 2 Plate 95, p. 215.
3 Debats et Decrets, November 9, 1791.
Downfall
217
A vigorous
caricature1
is entitled
"Rage and
Despair of
the little
Elector of
Treves on
learning the
Resolution
of the King
of the French
to make War
upon him
should he
any longer
protect the
Assemblages
of the Emig-
res." The El-
ector seems
to be foam-
ing at the
mouth and
is exclaim-
dm*, m+i eta/*
Qi.f <f> rtir t& ^atria/fJ fn»n*J
ng:
great Heav-
ens, what a
fix I have
got into! I
had rather
1 Plate 96, above.
I f
Plate 96. A cartoon showing the Elector of Trev<
foaming at the mouth with rage owing to the
action of the French Government in de-
manding the dispersal of the Emigres.
2i 8 The French Revolution
see the devil in my territory than to see the
French patriots there!"
Louis XVI delayed sanctioning the severest
decrees against the emigres, and secretly urged
Breteuil to rally the powers of Europe in defence
of the Elector of Treves. He writes at this time:
"It is clear to every person who walks on two feet
that I cannot approve of the Revolution and of
the absurd and detestable Constitution which puts
me on a lower plane than even the King of Poland." r
The Elector, for his part, obeyed the summons, ex-
cept in the case of his nephews, the princes.
The question of the refractory clergy was causing
quite as much alarm and excitement as that of the
emigres. "They would like to swim in the blood
of the patriots, " declared Abbe Fauchet on October
2Oth, "that is their sweet and familiar expression.
In comparison with these priests atheists are angels.
. . . Good God, what a Church! ... If hell
could found one among men it would be animated
by just this spirit."2 And Isnard, the Girondist,
made this reply to a plea to treat the non-jurors
with more toleration:
Toleration for those who will not tolerate either the law
or your Constitution? Indulgence for those who conspire
against their country? Indulgence for those who with the
torch of fanaticism are setting the whole kingdom ablaze?
Ah, what! When the corpses of your brothers are crying
for vengeance, when floods of French blood have gone to
swell the floods of the sea — is it then they come to suggest
1 Sorel, ii., 331. 2 Aulard, Eloquence, ii., 121.
Plat r Q7. A cartoon representing Louis XVI as "King Janus" with one
face turned towards the Constitution and the other towards the
non-juring clergy.
219
220 The French Revolution
to you indulgence? It is time for the pride of the censer
like the pride of the diadem to bow before the sceptre of
the sovereignty of the people. x
In November, rigid laws were passed against
those who should refuse to take the civic oath
within a week.2 They were to lose all claim on the
public treasury; they were "to be considered under
suspicion of revolt against the law and of harbour-
ing evil intentions against their country and, on this
ground, to be particularly, subjected and recom-
mended to the surveillance of all the constituted
authorities. " On May 27th the severity reached
its climax. "It would be compromising public
safety, " says the preamble of a new series of laws,
"any longer to regard as members of society men
who are evidently seeking to dissolve it." On
denunciation by twenty active citizens of his
canton, a priest is to be ordered to leave his district
within twenty-four hours, his department within
three days, and the kingdom within a month.
Should he attempt to return he is to be punished
by imprisonment for ten years.3
These laws the King had the courage to refuse
to sign until further consideration. One can
imagine the fury of a mob grown accustomed to
have its way in everything. We have a cartoon4
where Louis is represented as "King Janus, or the
man with two faces/' With one he looks towards
the book of the law declaring, "I will uphold the
Constitution " ; with the other he looks towards the
1 Aulard Eloquence, ii., 68-9. a Debats et Decrets, Nov. 16-18.
3 Buchez et Roux, 14, 247. 4 Plate 97, p. 219.
Downfall 221
clergy and promises to destroy the Constitution.
The crown sits firm on the one head; on the other
it is toppling over.
Two great parties were forming in the Assembly :
the Girondists, or provincials, and the enrages, the
party that was later to be known as the Mountain,
which stood for centralization and the domination
of Paris. Just now, however, it might have been
said that the Girondists were for warring against
external enemies, the enrages for ferreting out
conspiracies at home.
It is not clear why Brissot and his adherents
took such delight in hounding on the French nation
to war with Europe. Was it merely for the sake
of currying favour with the people? Did they see
that it was absolutely necessary to divert all the
empty enthusiasm into some practical channel?
Or did they, as has recently been advanced, ' seek
to apply a supreme test to the loyalty of the King
by making him declare war against his own flesh
and blood?
There is another assumption that seems most
plausible. These Girondists were fanatical ideal-
ists, and Vergniaud was sincere when he cried
out, "To arms! To arms! . . . Assure the
hope of liberty to the human race!" Brissot be-
lieved that if he could only bring the soldiers of
liberty into contact with the soldiers of tyrants
the latter would at once desert in a body. We
have seen the various cartoons that were based on
this idea.2 Brissot was fond of illustrating the
1 Jaures, 815. » See Plate 92, p. 205 and Plate 93, p. 206.
222 The French Revolution
virtues of the soldiers of Liberty from examples
in the American Revolution, in which he had taken
part. Washington, he once cried (it was after
crossing the Delaware), "told me himself his
soldiers had no shoes ; the ice which tore their feet
was dyed with their blood. ' We shall have shoes
to-morrow/ they said, 'we shall beat the English/
And they did!"
Isnard, another of the fiery orators of the party,
was sure that if even in the moment of combat
the light of philosophy should shine forth, the
peoples would embrace and the face of the world
be changed.1 He once, at the Jacobin Club,
brandished a sword that was to be given to the
first French general who struck down an enemy of
the Revolution, and urged the French people to
utter a loud cry to which all other peoples on earth
would respond, with the result that "the earth will
be covered with combatants and all the enemies of
Liberty effaced from the lists of free men."
It may have been, then, this firm belief that the
tyrants would really "tremble on their thrones of
clay, ' ' that ' ' the fire of Liberty armed with the sword
of reason and eloquence " would and must prevail,
that so inflamed the Girondists for war at any cost.
"The sole calamity to be dreaded," cried Brissot on
December 29th, "is not to have war "; and again,
at the Jacobin Club: "I have but one fear, that we
shall not be betrayed. We need some treason; it
will be our salvation!" 2
On January 9th, there was a passage at arms
1 Aulard, Eloquence, ii., 72. 2 Ib., i.T 249.
Downfall
223
between Louvet, the Girondist, and Robespierre,
head of the enrages, that is characteristic of the
mutual attitude of the two parties. Louvet
concluded a speech with a dramatic appeal to
1 ' march against Leopold ! ' ' There was tremendous
/ /fW//r/Vi
' WAV
/'if i
-'.-/•
A I N SI YA l.K M()N1>K
','/!<•<','• (',
tf./.t- /'<?/><
•y/.'
if //•<;
' <•(••<• i\ift:.-
/// /,///
Plate 98. A cartoon showing the political situation at the end of the year
1791. Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, curiously enough, are
stemming the course of invasion which Sweden, Denmark,
Russia and the emigres are furthering.
enthusiasm, hats were swung in the air, and voices
repeated in chorus, "March against Leopold!"
But Robespierre the next day admonished his
hearers roundly, first to subdue the enemies at
home, first to follow up conspirators and put down
despotism, and then — but not until then — to
"march against Leopold/'1
1 Aulard, Eloquence, ii., 11-12.
224 The French Revolution
With the sympathies of the Emperor Leopold
being worked upon in favour of his sister, with
Fersen and the King of Sweden plotting to over-
turn the French Constitution, with the Pope and his
Cardinals urging any course that would restore the
Church's prestige in France, and with the French
Assembly irritating all its neighbours by its
blatant claims and threats, it is no wonder that war
became inevitable.
We have an elaborate cartoon1 called "Thus
the world wags ! " which characterises the situation.
The powers are playing about the roles just in-
dicated. The King of Sweden drives the Em-
peror, who is pulling the coach; the princes and
others who have burdened the coach with their
own baggage push from behind ; in the coach itself
sit a number of Rhenish princes and bishops. On
top the Czarina with a long whip touches up the
Emperor, but Marie Antoinette has hold of her
brother's pigtail and pulls him back while Louis
puts a bar between the spokes of the wheel. Pitt
on the cliffs of his island is at a very safe distance,
but wishes the party a bon voyage; while on the
steps of St. Peter's the Pope and the Cardinals are
giving their blessing to the enterprise.
This theme of France's difficulties inspired more
than one clever artist. We have a representation2
where Louis XVI is trying to escape in his chariot
drawn by six swift hares. The nations pursue
him with every sort of attack. England in the
fcrm of a leopard, with two other wild beasts at her
1 Plate 98, p. 223. a Plate 99, p. 225.
Downfall
225
side, blocks his way; down on him swoops the Ger-
man eagle; after him run the Pope and Cardinals
threatening him with their crooks; Spain makes
the sign of the cross to exorcise him; Denmark
Plate 99. A cartoon showing the nations in the act of closing in upon Louis
XVI whose only hope of rescue is in Blanchard the famous balloonist
who is hovering over the scene.
barks at him; Holland calls him "poor stuff";
Savoy and Switzerland won't receive him. His
only hope is Blanchard, the famous balloonist, who
hovers overhead ready to "carry him off from the
just fury of his enemies. " In a caricature entitled
"Ah, Things are going badly, '" we see the foreign
powers and the brothers of the King, in the base-
1 Plate i oo, p. 227.
15
226 The French Revolution
ment beneath the Jacobin Club, stirring flames the
heat from which makes the enrages above jump and
dance around in pain.
By the middle of January the situation as re-
garded France and Austria had become acute.
The Queen was accused of heading an Austrian
committee that met in secret in the Tuileries. The
constant cry was that France must not wait to be
attacked but must act as Frederick the Great had
done when he seized Silesia. It is strange to see
Frederick the Great set up as a pattern for the
French Revolutionists to follow ! On January 25th
a belligerent message was sent to Austria.
From the camp of the emigres came a cartoon1
showing the utter absurdity of the three revolu-
tionary generals, Lafayette, Luckner, and Rocham-
beau, trying to fall upon the Germanic Empire.
It was issued in Mainz three days before the official
ultimatum to Austria. It represents Lafayette
raised on the batons of Marshals Luckner and
Rochambeau and endeavouring to take the moon
in his teeth — an allusion to the well-known French
idiom which means attempting the impossible.
Marie Antoinette and the court were in a regu-
lar panic. The Queen wrote to her faithful Mercy
d'Argenteau and begged him to see that the
army raised by the Emperor be sufficiently large.
But she is sure, she says, that all the insolence
comes at bottom from fear. The Queen's old
admirer, Fersen, was so impressed by the peril of
the royal family that he braved every danger and
1 Plate 1 01, p. 229.
Plate 100. A cartoon showing the tmigrts and the foreign powers stirring
the flames and giving the deputies assembled at the Jacobin Club a
hot time. The deputies are dancing around in agony.
227
228 The French Revolution
suddenly appeared at the Tuileries in disguise.
He was ready to arrange a new flight. The King
this time, however, was deaf to the voice of the
charmer, but agreed finally that should the allied
troops draw sufficiently near he would conveniently
go astray in the woods and fall into their hands. *
Fersen was quite sure that, with the aid of the
foreigners, the King could easily restore his power
to its full former extent. This was the old delu-
sion of Marie Antoinette. Did she inspire Fersen
with it or did he inspire her?
Austria, on February yth, concluded an alliance
with Prussia, which power agreed to send, if need be,
40,000 men into the field. On March ist, Emperor
Leopold died after a very short illness and was
succeeded by his son Francis II., a youth of twenty-
three who was not likely to endure France's threats
complacently — and the party in power in France
was ready to push things to extremes. Vergniaud
in the Assembly made a wildly savage onslaught on
the corrupt councillors who perverted the King
and were seeking to betray the nation to the House
of Austria. He could see the palace windows, he
cried, where they were plotting counter-revolution,
anarchy, and a return to slavery. But the moment
had come for putting an end to all this insolence
and he apostrophized Terror and Fright bidding
them re-enter in the name of the law that famous
palace whence they had so often issued in the name
of despotism. ' ' And let all who dwell there know, ' '
he concluded, "that our Constitution accords in-
1 Sorel, ii., 365 ff.
Plate 101. A cartoon showing Lafayette, upheld by Luckr.cr and Rocham-
beau, trying to take the moon in his teeth. The invasion of the German
Empire is a similar foolhardy enterprise.
229
230 The French Revolution
violability to the King alone; let them know that
the law will reach without distinction all the guilty,
and that not one single head convicted of crime
shall escape its sword!"1
Fright and Terror obeyed their orders. The
King is reported to have acted like a man preparing
for death.2 He accepted a new ministry at the
hands of the Girondists themselves. It consisted
of Roland, Claviere, Servan, Dumouriez, and one
or two insignificant personages. Dumouriez, who
was now Minister of War, was as eager for the
conflict with Europe as Brissot himself, and had
already begun to form his plan of campaign.
Austria was told to cease her armaments and give
satisfaction by April I5th or take the consequences.
Satisfaction for what? Dumouriez accused her of
breaking all treaties concluded in the past four
hundred years. It was a sweeping charge! No
satisfaction was given, and on April 2Oth France
declared war. The poor King himself had been
obliged to appear in the Assembly and make the
decisive motion.
A modern writer of repute,3 but hostile to
Marie Antoinette, avers that the latter now be-
trayed to Mercy d'Argenteau the results of a
cabinet council held on the 25th of March.
So to all her internal troubles France had added
a war of utterly incalculable dimensions. Hostili-
ties began in a mild way already on April 28th.
1 Aulard, Eloquence, i., 323. a Sorel, ii., 401. * Jaures, 957.
Downfall
231
There were skirmishes on the Belgian frontier
with Austrian detachments. To the Belgian
people a manifesto had been issued proclaiming
war to tyrants but liberty to the people. The
•SANS
Plate 1 02. A depiction of Cupid as a sans-culotte placing a
wreath on the altar of Equality.
Belgian lion was called upon to awake, the Belgian
people to cast off their thraldom: "How are you
nourished? Worse than the dogs of France!
Come, come and die with your brothers the
French!"1
The Belgians were not so ill-nourished that they
'Sorel,ii.,48i.
232 The French Revolution
felt the necessity of dying. They did not desert.
On the contrary in each small encounter they put
the French to flight. The successes were but
temporary indeed, for with Dumouriez himself in
the field the French were to make quite another
showing. But for the present all was in confusion.
The state had not sufficient funds to stand the
heavy drain, and on May I5th partially repudiated
its debts. And then this king! Everything was
now done to humiliate and annoy him. On May
2Qth, even the guards that had been allowed him
by the Constitution were dismissed ; on June 8th,
a decree authorizing a camp of 20,000 patriots
under the walls of Paris was passed. The measure
was directed against himself and he vetoed it
as he did, too, the decree of May 2yth against
the clergy. His Girondist ministry was dismissed.
All this was regarded as treason,1 and perfect
torrents of abuse descended on his head. The
Revolutions de Paris calls the veto "the corner-
stone on which the court intends to re-edify the
system of despotism." The National Assembly
it declares, is hampered [by its own Constitution!]
like a convict tied to a cannon-ball. The King is
doubtless saying : ' ' Bah ! This veto alone avenges
all the grief you have caused me these two years.
. . . Bah! You are meant to be slaves, you
know you are, so long as I have the veto ; and your
own idolized Constitution gave it to me. "
It was on June iQth that official notification of
the King's exercise of the veto power was given.
1 Aulard, Hist. Politique, 179, still regards it thus.
Downfall 233
By the 2Oth, indignation had reached the boiling-
point. At mid-day a vast crowd gathered before
the hall of the National Assembly and clamoured
for admittance.1 They were armed with every
imaginable weapon, including scythes, pitchforks,
and axes, and dragged a score of cannon with them.
Their orator declared that they had come to pour
their woes and their fears into the lap of the
Assembly. Everything was wrong. The army was
not doing its duty, the courts were not swift
enough in their judgments, the perfidious chateau of
the Tuileries was causing the blood of patriots to
flow merely to satisfy its own pride and ambition.
The phrases were marshalled like an army of scare-
crows. Every other word was ' ' crowned despots, ' '
" ulcerated hearts," "majesty of an outraged
people," "vengeance on conspirators."
The mob defiled before its legislators displaying
every kind of emblem: liberty caps, tri-coloured
ribbons, pikes, — even the bloody heart of a calf
with the inscription, "Heart of an aristocrat."
This last was too much for the nerves of the
president and he ordered its removal.
For hours the motley procession continued.2
There was beat of drums, there was light of torches,
there was waving of branches. An old pair of
seatless trousers was carried aloft in honour of the
appellation sans-culotte in which the radicals were
now beginning to glory, although the name had
1 Letter of a deputy, Aze"ma in La Revolution Fran$aisc, xxviii., 170.
In general, see Mortimer-Terneux, Histoire de la Terreur.
•Az&na. See also La Revolution Fran$aiset xxxv., 554.
234 The French Revolution
first been given to them by the artistocrats. We
have a pretty engraving called " Cupid, the Sans-
Culotte"1
There were transparencies with threats against
tyrants: "Obey the laws or tremble!" "The
people are tired of suffering ! " "Liberty or death ! "
"Warning to Louis XVI!" The whole was a bitter
humiliation for the National Assembly, showing
as it did only too plainly that the mob was taking
matters entirely into its own control. It was
adopting, to quote a modern writer,2 the device
of Louis XIV: "It entered whip in hand within
the legislative precincts and proffered to the dazed
representatives of the law the brutal and insolent
formula, ' The state? I am the state ! ' "
And now these good sans-culottes, of whom some
artist thought it worth while to preserve the type,3
determined to administer a direct lesson to the
King and Queen and invade their privacy at
the Tuileries. The royal family were enjoying
their afternoon coffee when there was a crashing
of railings, a forcing of gates, and a beating open of
doors with axes. There were cries of " Down with
the King!" "Down with Monsieur and Madame
Veto ! " 4 Louis was threatened with dethronement
if he did not at once sanction the decrees of the
Assembly and recall his Girondist ministers.
The King had ordered his retainers to cease all
opposition and retired to the shelter of a bay win-
1 Plate 102, p. 231. a Sorel. * Plate 103, p. 235.
4 Aze"ma (Rev. Fr. xxviii., 170); also von Sybel, ii., 405, and Mortimer-
Terneux.
Sans culortc rar
Plate 103. A depiction of the typical sans-adottc of Paris with
his pike, the weapon of the Revolution, and the cockade
in his hat
236 The French Revolution
dow, while Marie Antoinette and the children took
refuge behind a table. The Dauphin and his sister,
we are told, fell on their knees and with folded
hands begged for " mercy for Mama!"
Never had son of St. Louis had his person treated
with such brutal familiarity. He was made to
put on a red cap of Liberty, which was reached
over to him on the end of a pike, and to hold in his
hand a sword twined with flowers and with a tri-
coloured cockade on its point. One good sans-
culotte made repeated dabs at him with his pike,
and others tried to reach him with the points of
their swords.
Order was finally restored after three deputations
had been sent from the National Assembly. "All
is perfectly quiet at this moment," writes a mem-
ber,"1 but it is a terrible lesson for the King, Queen,
and the rest. They are very much affected."
This member maintains that the King ground his
teeth with rage but that the Queen was politic
and tried to be pleasant, even inviting the deputa-
tion to see the Dauphin put to bed. Some of the
deputies seemed flattered by this, "but we, the
patriots, told them the truth and the whole truth
which made them sulk and make faces in spite of
being so politic." There was quite a lengthy
discussion: "for our principles are so very opposed
to theirs!"
We have a glimpse of the Queen indignantly
showing the deputies the broken doors and asking
their advice about how to report the affair. They
1 Az&na.
Downfall
237
told her it was a matter for the Justice of the Peace.
He was summoned and drew up a protocol.
We have a royalist representation ' of this
««WA~»«^^i. ~~ •*-*•*-• -
<
Plate 104. A representation of the scene in the Tuileries palace on June 20,
1792, when the mob broke in and tried to force Louis XVI to rescind
his veto of the decrees providing for a camp near Paris and enacting
still severer penalties against the non-juring clergy.
famous 2Oth of June. The fierce countenances and
rolling eyes of the wicked Revolutionists are amus-
ingly contrasted with the saint-like though troubled
expressions of the royal pair and their guards.
There is a long text which, allowing for bias, does
no great violence to the truth:
1 Plate 1 04, above.
238 The French Revolution
The door of the csil-de-bceuf was closed; they shake it.
It was on the point of being broken in ; all was over with the
royal family. One man and one alone stopped these tigers
thirsting for blood. That man was Louis XVI. He ran
to the door and cried to the Swiss guards: "Open, open!
I need fear nothing from Frenchmen ! ' ' This firmness allays
all the fury. Louis retires to the back of the room. The
bandits rush in crying, "Where is he that we may slay him? "
The Swiss guards draw their swords." The King says to
them calmly, "No, no, I command you to sheathe your
swords!" Louis was surrounded by assassins and every
moment had to listen to the most frightful threats, when
Petion, Mayor of Paris, mounted a stool and said to him:
"Sire, you have nothing to fear!" "Nothing to fear?"
replied the King with emotion, "a good man with a pure
conscience never trembles; only those need to fear who
have cause for self-reproach.'* "Look," he added, taking
the hand of a grenadier who was beside him, "give me your
hand, place it on my heart and tell this man if it beats more
quickly than usual!"
The occurrences of June 2Oth served, above all,
to widen the rift between the different political
factions. Lafayette, who was busy in the field,
first wrote a letter to the Assembly which caused
Guadet to cry out: "When Cromwell used similar
language liberty was lost in England!"1 then left
his post and hurried to Paris trusting to his old-
time popularity — a step which made Robespierre
and the Jacobins denounce him as in league with
Austria. But even among the people many boiled
with indignation at the insults that had been offered
the King, and a petition of protest sent to the
National Assembly was signed by twenty thousand.
1 Sorel, ii., 484-5.
Downfall 239
Louis XVI himself issued a proclamation re-
hearsing all the events of the day, declaring that
no amount of violence would make him consent to
measures that were opposed to the general welfare,
and bidding the enemies of the monarchy, if they
wished one crime more, to commit it now.1 The
Assembly, finally, on June 23d, put itself on record
as "intending to maintain the Constitution and the
inviolability of the hereditary representative of
the nation," spoke of " enemies of the people
and of Liberty who had usurped the language of
patriotism," and urged all good citizens to aid the
constituted authorities in preserving order.2
Yet only ten days later Vergniaud, in one of the
most stirring harangues of the whole Revolution,
accused Louis XVI of conspiring with foreigners
to enslave and dismember France. The fact, too,
that Petion, Mayor of Paris, was suspended at
Louis' instigation for not having taken better
measures for his protection, added to the ferment.
Dumouriez sent alarming reports of the condition of
the army ; yet the enemies were rapidly approach-
ing the frontier, Prussia having formally declared
war on July 6th. In Brittany, in La Vendee,
there were the beginnings of insurrection.
In the Assembly there were fierce debates as to
whether or not Petion should be dismissed from
office. We have a representation of Petion3 that
must have been issued by his partisans at this
very crisis and that is interesting in various regards.
Potion's portrait in the form of a medallion is
1 Duvergier, iv., 223. » Ib., iv., 225. » Plate 105, p. 240.
The French Revolution
suspended by a tri-coloured ribbon in or over
a great heart. The text underneath reads: " Je-
J1ROME
Mire iu !)(
Plate 105. A portrait of Petion, man of the hour and idolized Mayor of
Paris. He is enshrined in the popular heart under the protecting
folds of the tri-coloured ribbon. Note the heart.
rome Petion, Mayor of Paris, illegally suspended
by the counter-revolutionary department-direc-
tory at the instigation of a superior authority
Downfall
241
more revolutionary still." Around the medallion
are the words, "His love for liberty has placed him
in our hearts. He was an incorruptible legislator.
He is a mayor without fear and without reproach. "
Events now followed thick and fast. On July
7th, after frightful bickerings in the Assembly,
Plate 1 06. A newspaper illustration from the Revolutions de Paris which
incidentally shows the flag with "The country is in danger!" hanging
from the H6tel de Ville.
Abbe Lamourette rose and made an eloquent
appeal to forget all differences and unite all parties
against this foreign enemy that was about to
invade France. There was an extraordinary scene
of enthusiasm and brotherly love during which
political enmities were forgotten and deputies of
the right and deputies of the left crossed the hall
and literally kissed each other. But how long
did this harmony last? On the following day
16
242 The French Revolution
matters were as bad as ever. The kiss, it was
declared, was the kiss of Judas ; a Hercules and his
club, not a weeping priest, were needed against
crowned robbers and ogres. The King's friends
believed that he was in danger of being assassinated,
and Lafayette as well as Madame de Stael are
really said to have been concerned in a new plot for
the escape of the royal family.1
On July 9th, the ministers presented a most
alarming report on the general state of affairs in
the kingdom, and resigned in a body. On the nth
the Assembly resorted to its last and most des-
perate measure — a measure borrowed from ancient
Rome — and proclaimed the country in danger.2
A great flag with an inscription to that effect was
hung out from the Hotel de Ville.3 A public an-
nouncement was made that troops were converg-
ing on the frontier. Every functionary, every
soldier, was ordered to remain at his post; every
patriot was to wear the national cockade. Dis-
obedience was to be considered as rebellion, and
those who failed to denounce were to be treated
as accomplices.
It was in a frenzied state of mind that the anni-
versary of the storming of the Bastile was cele-
brated on the Champ de Mars and the emblems of
feudalism were once more consigned to the flames.4
We have a serious representation of the scene,5 by
the conscientious Prieur, which shows every sort of
1 Sorel, ii., 489.
a Debats et Decrets, July n, 1792. See also number of July 4th.
a Plate 106, p. 241 . 4 Feuille Villageoise iv., 384. s Plate 107, p. 243.
243
94
13 o>
.9 I
•S 1
« s
< -3
§ 2
•2
244
•vrOK,
Plate 109. A representation of Cupid as a volunteer, showing that the
thought of marching against the enemy was the one dominant
sentiment of the moment.
245
246 The French Revolution
emblem hung on a tree which the flames are rapidly
consuming.
The King appeared at the f£te and this time
mounted the steps of the altar of the fatherland
to take the oath to maintain the Constitution.
But he reminded Madame de Stae'l of a sacrificial
victim. The decree of "The country in danger "
inspired one of the best artistic productions of the
whole Revolutionary period.1 It is entitled "De-
votion to Country," and there is a life and move-
ment to it that must have thrilled men to the heart
at a moment of such danger and excitement. On a
throne, the base of which is adorned with all the
Revolutionary emblems, including the huge eye
of the Jacobins, sits France; while another figure,
on a tall pedestal, bears the device: "Citizens, the
country is in danger ! ' ' Heroic mothers are offering
up their children; jewels are being laid on an altar,
while wives are speeding their husbands to the
front, and an old man, leaning on a crutch, is
giving his blessing. Another engraving, called
"Cupid, the Volunteer," 2 shows us the spirit that
undoubtedly did animate the French patriots at
that time. This military ardour, which was to
accomplish great things, is the most sympathetic
aspect of the Revolution. Here was something
definite to do. All the wild exaltation, all the
vows, all the hopes, were to be transmuted into
action.
Meanwhile a stirring message of patriotic good
fellowship had been received from the south, from
1 Plate 108, p. 244. 2 Plate 109, p. 245.
Downfall 247
Marseilles. A picked band of fiery Revolutionists1
announced that they were under way. Already
on June 2Oth the Assembly had received a letter
signed by one hundred citizens declaring that
French liberty was in peril; that the men of the
South had risen to defend it; that the day of the
wrath of the people had come, and the too greatly
angered lion was about to quit its repose and spring
upon its enemies.
These men of Marseilles came in a spirit that
was hostile to the very idea of monarchy; they
were ready, if need be, to invoke the aid of fire
and sword. They sang a hymn of revolution that
everywhere roused patriots to frenzy. The words
and music, combining fervid sentiments and stir-
ring strains of melody, gripped all hearts. Rouget
de Lille, the composer, had caught the very es-
sence of the Jacobin gospel. The " Marseillaise "
was a hymn to the God of Liberty. It found most
rapid acceptance everywhere. It was taught in
the schools, was preached from the pulpit, was sung
in the field. We find it published in London, in
that same year,2 and the vignette at the head shows
the troop rollicking on to the scene with fife playing
and drum beating.
There is nothing original in the words of the
"Marseillaise." It is simply a concentration and
co-ordination of the old well-known similes and
metaphors. The day of glory has arrived when the
impure blood of the slaves of traitors and tyrants
1 Aulard declares that they were recruited from the best families,
Mortimer-Terneux that they were ex-bandits. a Plate 1 10, p. 249.
248 The French Revolution
shall water the free furrows of France. The piti-
less tigers who are ready to tear their mother's
breasts shall learn what Liberty and love of
country can accomplish. We have a representa-
tion1 of some of this devoted band hurrying forward
and singing the chorus: "To arms, citizens!
Form your battalions!"
Into all this seething mass of excitement the
Duke of Brunswick, commander-in-chief of the
forces of Austria and Prussia, hurled a bomb that
was like a flash of lightning setting loose all the
thunders of heaven. He lent his name to a
blatant manifesto, composed mainly by Calonne
and Fersen, and intended "to inspire a wholesome
terror. " A year later Brunswick declared that he
would give his life not to have signed the docu-
ment and that he should repent of it to his dying
day.2 Pains were taken to recount in detail all the
sins of the French, all their "attacks on the throne
and the altar." On the word of honour of the
sovereigns, " should the palace of the Tuileries be as-
sailed, should the least act of violence be attempted
against the royal family, vengeance will be taken
at once exemplary and memorable; the guilty will
be handed over to their merited punishment, and
the city of Paris to military execution and total
overthrow!"3
If you lash a spirited horse with a whip and it
takes to flight, the damage is apt to assume un-
expected forms. The immediate result of Bruns-
1 Plate 1 1 1 , p. 25 1 . a Massenbach, Memoiren, i., 236.
3 La Revolution Frangaise, vii., 87.
MARCHE I>KS MAH SKI I.LOIS
/;//'AA'/\ « /•///:./•//
~. I
,,,tfttt* ktrJr J,..
. /tff<j ctHi-rt* •••*• !'•.,+*•*•*
•*. *,.,•*',.,.• pr+* , /M
<j^iliM«* ^»»* ntv»rf rf/i y«^/ **Awy<v • *./^*//*r**^*v*Wf .tmtlm *W;
^^^^^^•.^•If, '1+0*,
<j*r *«"t
«- tt& /y - -••« «M/k<.
Plate no. The words and music of the Marseillaise. From a copy of the
song published in London in November, 1792.
249
250 The French Revolution
wick's manifesto was to cause intense irritation
against the King. There were loud calls for the
overthrow of the monarchy. Assemblages in
forty-seven out of forty-eight sections of Paris
joined in a declaration that "the first link in the
counter-revolutionary chain is the chief executive
power. " One section openly cast off its allegiance
to Louis.1
The next day, it is true, a delegation from one of
the sections came to protest that the declaration
did not represent the sentiment of the majority
in the district; but the agitators in such a case
always have the upper hand. Danton and other
able leaders had undoubtedly resorted to all the
tricks of which demagogy is capable. There was
an organized plot to join with the Marseilles
patriots and hurl Louis XVI from the throne.
Petitioners kept coming to demand that the
"persecutive power" be destroyed; that the Tuile-
ries be razed as the Bastile had been; that all
decrees passed since the flight to Varennes be
rescinded; that the rights of man be veiled as the
ancients veiled the statues of the gods.2 Excite-
ment was running so high that deputies whose
sentiments were unpopular were not only insulted
and threatened but were subjected to actual
violence. If they ventured to complain in the
Assembly, the recital of their woes was greeted with
roars of laughter from the galleries. One had been
stoned, another pelted with filth, another almost
1 Debats et Decrets, August 4th.
3 Debats et Decrets, August 5th~9th.
Plate in. A ivpivsintution of French soldiers, full of grim determination,
marching to the chorus "To arms, citizens!"
251
252 The French Revolution
hung to the lantern-bracket. The more gruesome
the details the louder the mirth. "In your very
precincts I was struck/* cried a deputy. "Where? "
cried a voice. "I am asked where I was struck —
it was behind. Assassins never strike anywhere
else.'* A member, Vanblanc, furious at all the
disorder, spoke plain words to the Assembly
itself, declaring that its authority was gone and
that it was simply ridiculous to hear the president
attempting to call the galleries to order.
The view of these legislators that one gains
from their own records shows them to have been
one of the feeblest bodies that ever attempted to
rule a state. They made no opposition when the
sections of Paris, after midnight elections con-
ducted without a shadow of fairness, installed a
new governing council in the Hotel de Ville. This
council then delivered an ultimatum to the As-
sembly itself. If by eleven that evening — it was
August 9th — the dethronement of Louis XVI had
not been decreed, the Tuileries would be stormed
and pillaged.
The Assembly was not intimidated quite to the
extent of at once obeying this order, but through
the long night the deputies remained in session
anxiously awaiting developments. At half-past
four they dispersed, at half -past five they were
hastily summoned together again.
They knew that the King was in great danger.
Should they or should they not send to aid him as
they had done on the twentieth of June? It was
objected that those former deputations had not
Downfall 253
been treated with sufficient respect. Brissot sug-
gested inviting the King to take refuge with the
Assembly.
The Journal des Debats et Decrets1 tells us
that in the midst of these idle debates a National
Guard appeared at the bar. He announced that a
body of troops was drawn up in line of battle and
had pointed its cannon against the gates of the
Tuileries. "If our king has sinned/* he added,
"he should be punished; but they ought not to
mur— " and his voice choked with emotion. Mes-
sengers kept coming with fresh announcements:
a head on a pole, that of Suleau, the journalist,
struck down by Theroigne de Mericourt whom he
had defamed; an armed mob surging around the
Tuileries. The members fell to discussing once
more, should they or should they not go to the
King's aid? The question was answered for them.
The royal party stood there on the very thresh-
old. A deputation was appointed to receive them.
"Their clothes were all in disorder/' writes the
same deputy who had spoken such plain but unwel-
come words to them on the twentieth of June, "and
they hung their heads just like wet chickens."
What had happened? Louis had guards with-
in the palace grounds to the number of nearly
three thousand. Many to be sure were National
Guards — on whose fidelity no reliance could be
placed. But there were the loyal Swiss merce-
naries, obedient to the death. And had Louis
shown courage, fully half of the National Guards
1 August loth. » Az&na (Rto. Fr. xxvil, 177).
254 The French Revolution
would have rallied to him.1 Not all had refused
to cheer him when he reviewed them at dawn that
morning, though some had cried "Down with the
veto ! " ' ' Down with the King ! ' '
But he had given up the struggle although the
Queen urged him to resist. They had walked
across the garden past men who were raking leaves.
"The leaves are falling early this year," was the
King's only recorded remark. His own life was
blighted like the leaves.
They entered and were escorted through the
hall. First came the King accompanied by his
ministers, and followed by the Queen, by the little
Madame, by Madame Elizabeth, Louis' sister t
and by three ladies of the court. A grenadier
bore the little Dauphin in his arms and placed him
on the president's desk under the care of the secre-
taries.2 Standing beside the president, Louis ad-
dressed the house: "I have come here to prevent a
great crime. I shall always consider myself and
my family safe in the midst of the nation's repre-
sentatives. I shall pass the day there."
His reception was not unfriendly. Vergniaud,
the president, declared that the National Assembly
knew its duties and that it regarded as one of the
most cherished of these the maintenance of the
constituted authorities. It would know how,
if need be, to die at its post. Would one believe it,
later, as evidences of royalism, these remarks were
to prove fatal to Vergniaud!
Objection was presently made on constitutional
1 v. Sybel, i., 442. 2 Debats et Decrcts, August loth.
Downfall 255
grounds to Louis' presence on the floor of the
Assembly hall. He and his family were rele-
gated to the alcove reserved for the newspaper
reporters.
The Debats et Decrets describes what next
happened in the simplest and most unsensational
language, but with a wealth of detail that puts to
.shame the highest dramatic art. Nor does the
narrative suffer from the fact that the reporter's
point of observation was the hall of the National
Assembly and not the Tuileries palace. These mes-
sengers, these sounds that penetrate the hall, the
confusion, the dread — all render the scene more
vivid, the succession of events more compre-
hensible.
First, the commander of the National Guards
at the palace appeared and announced that the
gates had been forced. What line of action did the
Assembly wish him to pursue? " There are citi-
zens about to be massacred," he said; "something
must be done to save them!" Anxious and agi-
tated, the Assembly sent an appeal to the people
and despatched a deputation of twenty members
to the spot. It was voted to send commissioners,
too, to confer with the new Revolutionary authori-
ties in the Hotel de Ville. They were to seek out
" all those in whose hands, either legally or illegally,
there may reside at this moment any authority
whatever." The naming of the commissioners
was in progress when the roar of cannon was heard
and with it other sounds of a great tumult. What
was happening can be grasped by a glance at the
256 The French Revolution
painting of Bertaux, I an artist well known for the
general correctness of his productions.
At the first shot the spectators in the galleries
rose, stretched out their arms to the deputies and
cried, "Long live the National Assembly! Long
live the nation ! Long live Liberty and Equality ! ' '
Then an officer of the national guard rushed in
shouting that the Swiss guards had given way.
The delegation that had been sent now returned
having been unable to penetrate the crowd. It
declared that it was already too late to interfere.
Between the volleys from the cannon there could
be heard quick discharges of musketry. No one
could tell how the struggle had begun.
The din increased from moment to moment;
the tocsin was sounding in every quarter. There
was a sudden rattle of bullets against the window-
panes of the hall of the Assembly. There were
cries of "To arms! to arms!" Some deputies rose
intending to make their escape. Others cried,
"No, no, our post is here, and here we must die!"
The galleries cheered; the whole Assembly rose
and repeated, "Long live the nation!"
Soon voices were heard; there were shouts of
joy: "The Swiss are vanquished! Victory!" The
Assembly broke out in rejoicings. Some one cried
that Petion, the adored Mayor of Paris, must be
set at liberty. A decree was passed and promul-
gated to the sound of a trumpet, inviting "the
magistrate whom the people cherishes to appear
before the people's eyes."
'Plate 1 12, p. 257.
257
258 The French Revolution
A curious change had come over the Assembly.
These men had been willing to die for the Constitu-
tion. Now when it was proposed to preface the
new proclamation with ' ' Long live Liberty, Long
live Equality, Long live the Constitution!" there
was applause for the first two sentiments but
silence for the last one.
What had happened at the Tuileries was this.
The National Guards had gone over to the mob
in a body. The Swiss had refused to yield and
had stationed themselves on the stairway of the
palace. It is not known who fired the first
shot.
The King had failed to leave any instructions
for his guards. This was pardonable, it would
seem, as he could only imagine that the attacks
were intended for his person. At the first sound
of the firing he had despatched an order to the
guards to retire. It was a well-meant but fatal
order. Seeing the Swiss yield, the mob pressed on.
The retreat became a massacre. The palace was
pillaged and set on fire. Some eight hundred
guards perished now or were slaughtered in the
prisons in the early September days.
A worthy monument1 was erected to their
memory by their own fellow- citizens. In the living
rock at Lucerne, Thorwaldsen carved his splendid
symbol: the great lion wounded to death yet still
guarding his trust. The names are inscribed
below of " those who, lest they should break their
plighted faith, died most bravely fighting."
1 Plate 1 13, p. 259.
Plate 113. A representation of the lion carved in the rock at Lucerne by
Thorwaldsen in memory of the Swiss guards who fell on August loth
and September 3rd. From an old engraving.
259
26o The French Revolution
There was no longer any talk in the Assembly of
" upholding the constituted powers." The rabble
was in complete control. Every word in defence
of the King was cried down as treason, for the
ordeal of battle had declared against him. The
"new magistrates of the people," as the members
of the Commune called themselves, dictated every-
thing to the National Assembly, declaring grandly
that they still regarded the Assembly as worthy of
confidence but would brook no criticism of their
recent actions. Only the French people, "your
sovereign and ours, united in primary assemblies,"
could be the judge of their conduct. "Know that
fire has broken out in the Tuileries, " declared
another delegation from the Commune, "and that
we shall not put it out until the vengeance of the
people is assuaged!" As if any political agitators
when appealing to the sovereignty of the people
ever included as "people " those whose opinions did
not coincide with their own !
The National Assembly sacrificed the King and
at the same time shifted all responsibility on to
other shoulders. In a decree it declared that the
dangers of the country had reached their climax;
that it was necessary to strike at the root of
the evil; that the whole trouble came from dis-
trust of the chief executive, and that there was a
general desire to see the authority of Louis XVI
revoked. It, the Assembly, would "bury itself
under the ruins of the temple of Liberty rather
than see that Liberty perish," and therefore now
had recourse to the sovereignty of the people and
Downfall 261
was issuing a solemn summons to a national
convention. '
The King was provisionally suspended from
power, and the royal family were to remain within
the precincts of the National Assembly until safe
quarters could be provided for them elsewhere.
1 Debats et Decrets (also La Revolution Fran$aisc, vii., 183).
CHAPTER VIII
MASSACRE
THE place of detention finally decided upon
for the royal family was the so-called Tem-
ple, built by the Knights Templars in the
Middle Ages and situated in the heart of Paris. As
Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette drove to this
their last earthly abiding place in common, they
were subjected to every kind of insult. Proclama-
tion had been made that no one might take off his
hat to them under penalty of death. Among the
cries recorded were : ' ' Down with the pig I" " Down
with the perfidious Austrian woman!"
For two days the royal apartments at the Tuile-
ries were thrown open to the public, and any one,
we are told, " might go and satisfy his sad and
stupid curiosity in this palace once so full of glory,
but now heaped high with corpses and dyed red
with blood." r On August i6th it was decreed that
the contents of all the royal palaces should be sold
for the benefit of the Treasury. Already many
articles of value had been transferred from the
Tuileries to the Hotel de Ville. The palace of
Versailles to-day, bare and empty as it stands, is
1 Peltier, Tableau de Paris, i., 193.
262
Plate 114. A contemporary newspaper illustration (from the
Revolutions de Paris) of the pulling down of the statues
of Louis XIV in the Place Venddme and the
Place des Victoircs.
263
264 The French Revolution
yet the grandest monument of modern history:
what would it have been if the thousands of
objects which represented all that was best in the
different arts of the time had remained intact !
There was relentless war now on every symbol,
every emblem, every reminder of royalty. Formal
decrees of the Assembly ordered that "all monu-
ments raised to pride, prejudice, and tyranny,"
all "statues, bas-reliefs, inscriptions, and other
memorials erected in public squares, temples,
gardens, parks, etc.," be removed. The huge
equestrian statue of Louis XIV in the Place
Vendome, as also the statue of the same king in
the Place des Victoires from the base of which the
chained slaves had already been removed as an
insult to Equality, came crashing down.1 Yes, to
such incredible lengths did the hatred and disgust
for the name of King and Queen lead these ardent
republicans that the very playing-cards had to be
changed throughout the length and breadth of the
land. Knaves also were tabooed as contrary to
Equality. And what was offered in return? We
find in one pack2 four Geniuses (war, art, com-
merce, and peace); four Liberties (worship, the
press, the professions, marriage), and four Equal-
ities (of duties, of rank, of colour, and of rights).
Liberty of marriage includes Liberty of divorce, an
achievement of which the Revolutionists seemed
particularly proud.
We have another pack3 where the Kings are
Sages (Solon, Cato, Rousseau, Brutus) ; the Queens,
1 Plate 1 14, p. 263. 2 Plate 1 15, p. 265. 3 Plate 1 16, p. 267.
Plate 115. A representation of the faced cards in a Revolutionary pack.
The Kings are supplanted by "Geniuses," the Queens by " Liberties,"
and the Knaves by "Equali: i
265
266 The French Revolution
Virtues (Justice, Prudence, Union, and Force) ; and
the Knaves Heroes (Hannibal, Horatius, Mutius
Scaevola, and Publius Decius Mus). Doubtless
there were many other ingenious substitutes for
the real thing.
Horace Walpole is authority for the fact that
the royal Bengal tiger became the National Bengal
tiger. If you once begin to wipe out so general a
conception as that of king, there is no length to
which one will not have to go. All dramatic
literature that had to do with kings was banished
from the stage; books dedicated to kings or even
printed with their permission were destroyed, and
it was seriously proposed to burn the whole national
library. Dead kings in their marble sarcophagi
were special objects of attack, and it is well known
how the tombs in the church of St. Denis were
opened and the royal corpses dragged out and
insulted. Henry IV was found in a good state of
preservation; he was placed against a column and
a patriotic soldier cut off his beard with his sword.
Infinite damage to art was done by all this van-
dalism. Later a committee was appointed by the
National Convention to restrain the patriotic ardour
and rescue objects of real artistic value. Its report z
is a terrible arraignment not only of all the vindic-
tiveness but of the gross stupidity that was often
shown. Paintings had been defaced merely be-
cause of the supposed political sentiments of the
owners or artists; the committee managed to save
a sculptured stag that had been doomed because it
1 Moniteur, Sept. 2, 1794.
ft?
Plate 1 1 6. A representation of Revolutionary playing cards in which the
Kings are " Sages," the Queens " Virtues," the Knaves " Heroes."
267
268 The French Revolution
recalled to mind the odious hunting privileges of
the nobles !
In honour of the storming of the Tuileries and
at the same time as a memorial to the dead, a
great fete was celebrated at which was displayed
every sort of patriotic symbol and emblem. Over
the little sheet of water in front of the Tuileries
palace was erected a pyramid in Egyptian style,
and it bore the inscription: "Silence, they are at
rest!" There were banners with the names of the
dead and others with recitals of the King's iniqui-
ties. These names and these sentiments, we are
told, "first desolated the hearts of the onlookers,
but then roused them to the highest pitch of
indignation against the authors of so many crimes."
There was a "touching group" of women in white
and black who bore the petition for Louis XVI's
dethronement that had been drawn up after the
flight to Varennes, and it was explained that a whole
year of liberty would have been gained had it been
heeded at the time. France would have been
delivered of a despot who was the born enemy of
the rights of man.
A huge sarcophagus containing the bodies of
the fallen (possibly they were merely symbolical
bodies) approached, drawn by oxen, through
clouds of incense. The swords of the patriots
who formed the escort were twined with oak leaves,
and the inscriptions on their banners breathed
terrible threats of vengeance and exhorted widows
and mothers to weep for their slain. There was
Plate 117. A portrait of Robespierre. From an oil painting.
269
270 The French Revolution
an image of Liberty and another of Law, the
escort of Law being made up of judges.
Such celebrations undoubtedly were a means of
fanning revolutionary passions into flame. But
here, as on many another similar occasion, one sees
the ropes and pulleys behind the scenes. Had it
not been for a body of agitators who made it their
chief occupation to hound and lure others on,
the Revolution might have ended with the com-
pletion of the Constitution. The Revolutions de
Paris itself is authority for the statement that all
this display of patriotism at the fete in honour
of the tenth of August failed of its effect ; that the
"proper sadness and holy indignation" were not
displayed by the spectators ; that the mourning was
evidenced more in the garments than in the faces ;
that "an air of dissipation and even of noisy joy"
formed too great a contrast to the symbols of
grief; that the desired illusion was destroyed.
The overthrow of royalty had been the work
of a very few men. The chief of these had been
enrolled in the new council of the Commune
which now governed Paris. To all intents and
purposes it also governed France. Its first act
was to appoint a new ministry. It recalled
several of those whom Louis XVI had dismissed.
Roland, having quitted his post of Minister of
Justice with the nimbus of martyrdom, was now
given the post of Minister of the Interior. Claviere
was made Minister of Finance. Danton took the
important position of Minister of Justice and, for
a time, was the leading man in France. Robes-
Massacre 271
pierre and Marat were members of the council
and worked for the cause with voice and pen.
Petion, against whom all proceedings in connection
with his attitude on the 2Oth of June were at once
dropped, was now the idol of Paris and resumed the
position of mayor, from which he had been
suspended.
When one reflects how hastily the chief offices
of state were filled it is not surprising that mis-
takes were made, even from the point of view of the
enrages. Some weeks, however, were to elapse
before these mistakes were found out. Found out
by whom? By the Jacobin Club, of whom Robes-
pierre was the leading spirit. It is safe to say that
opposition to, or agreement with, Robespierre's
views was henceforth to mark a man out for ruin
or advancement. The transactions of the club1
show him ever in the foreground, sternly denounc-
ing, coldly disapproving.
The great Mirabeau had once said of Robes-
pierre: "This young man will go far; he believes
all that he says." It was that quality of fanati-
cal sincerity that had advanced him to a posi-
tion where he was to the Jacobins what the
Grand Inquisitor had been to the Spanish
Tribunal. He was perfectly consistent when he
declared it possible and necessary to banish every
enemy of Liberty from the soil of France.
Robespierre's face, as seen in his portraits,2 is
almost benign: not at all in accord with the de-
scriptions given of him by some of his contempo-
1 Published by Aulard in five volumes. " Plate 1 17, p. 269.
272 The French Revolution
raries. But possibly Merlin de Thionville is right
when he dwells on the changeableness of the man's
expression. He likens him to a cat: sometimes a
sweet domestic cat with merely a certain restive-
ness in his eyes, but then again a ferocious wild-
cat. A Miss Williams, who saw and heard
Robespierre in 1794 declares that his very manner
of manipulating his eye-glasses could freeze the
beholder with terror. Several complain of the
unsteadiness of his gaze, of his inability to look one
in the face.
Robespierre strongly repelled and as strongly
attracted. That he stood so firmly for hatred of
tyranny, for liberty, and for the sovereignty of the
people gave him a strong hold, even though the
more penetrating must have realized his enormous
egotism. His ideas were drawn mainly from Rous-
seau, and we find him fighting for things that
Rousseau advocated, even though they might
seem outside the sphere of the politician. One has
heard of a modern statesman entering the lists for
large families; just so Robespierre, in season and
out of season, insisted that the mothers in France
should nurse their own children. Robespierre
even went so far in his later measures for the relief
of the indigent as to make this a condition of
rendering state aid to destitute mothers.
Robespierre and Danton were occasionally in
accord; fundamentally they differed. Danton was
a man more of action than of ideas. He had been
ward politician and had engineered the whole
conspiracy that broke out on August loth. Not
IS 1)K l.\ FAYKTTR
Plate 1 1 8. A portrait of Lafayette engraved at the time of his appointment
as commander of the National Guards.
273
274 The French Revolution
that he was uneducated. He is known to have
read Shakespeare, Adam Smith, and Rousseau,
and rumour even went so far as to credit him with
reading the whole of the Encyclopaedia. Strange
to say, Robespierre was eventually to find Danton
too moderate. Yet it was Danton who uttered
the famous " Audacity, more audacity, still more
audacity." It was now, while the foreign enemies
were at the gate, that Danton was at his best.
Robespierre was more concerned about the ene-
mies at home. He had his own little group, a
conspirator's club, to which continually he kept
adding. The members of this club were men
whose worst crime was to hold views contrary to
his own.
The Commune, of which Robespierre was the
mouthpiece, now simply dictated its will to the
moribund Legislative Assembly. It was the Com-
mune that had insisted on the Temple, rather than
the Luxembourg, as a place of residence for the
royal family. Through the Commune's influence,
too, Lafayette, after having long been the object
of the bitterest attacks in the Jacobin Club, was
removed from his command as head of the Na-
tional Guards. We have a portrait of Lafayette
engraved under far other circumstances. x
It was the Commune which insisted on the
formation of a separate Revolutionary Tribunal
to deal exclusively with "traitors." When the
National Assembly sought to modify the plan, it
was simply told that by midnight the measure
1 Plate 1 1 8, p. 273.
Massacre
275
must be passed or else the tocsin would be sounded
and the citi-
zens called to
arms. Within
less than a week
after the storm-
ing of the
Tuileries the
sessions of the
tribunal had
begun, and on-
ly four days
later the first
victim had
perished by
the guillotine
which was set
up in the Place
du Carrousel.
"Ah, what a
fine prop for
Liberty!" is
the inscription
under a repre-
sentation of the
guillotine1 that
very likely was
issued at this
juncture. Good Plate "9-
L \VF.RM AHl I til II I OTINKOIV.-
Dr. Guillotin!
How proud he
1 Plate 119, above.
A representation of the guillotine as
a fine prop for liberty.
had been of his invention and
276 The French Revolution
of the merciful promptitude with which it put an
end to the misery of the condemned! "With my
machine I cut off your head in the twinkling of
an eye and you don't notice it at all!" The inex-
tinguishable laughter of the members had broken
up the session for the rest of the day. But, alas,
how many were now to have the experience the
thought of which had caused them such merriment !
Guillotin's machine at the moment had been
a mere curiosity. He had offered to decapitate a
few sheep, or some bodies of dead men, in the
presence of the Assembly: but that body had not
felt equal to the experience. Many members were
opposed to capital punishment. As late as May,
1791,' even Robespierre had denounced it as "a
cowardly abuse of the infinite power of all against
one," as "a solemn form of assassination," as
"unjust, ineffectual, and barbarous — like the
slaying of a vanquished and captured enemy."
From the very first there were instances of fine
bravery and self-possession among the victims of
the guillotine. One, a scientist, wrote and begged
the National Assembly to have his blood, which
would no longer be of any use to himself, transfused
into the veins of an older man to see if the result
would be rejuvenation. There were cases innu-
merable where retributive justice overtook those
who had sent others to the guillotine, but doubtless
none more striking than when, also in these earliest
days, the executioner in the very act of holding up a
severed head fell off the platform and was killed
1 Debats et Decrets, May 3<rth.
Massacre
27?
himself. That Doctor Guillotin perished by means
of his own invention is a statement often met with,
Plate 1 20. A portrait of Danton. From an oil painting.
but it is untrue. There is a letter of his in the
National Archives, written long after the Reign of
Terror — a mere little note, but enough to show that
278 The French Revolution
he was alive. He incidentally sends his love to
Madame Guillotin, which would tend, even, to
show that he was happy.
With such props as the Revolutionary Tribunal
and the guillotine and with a Legislative Assembly
only too anxious to efface itself and be gone, the
Commune of Paris reigned supreme. x To read its
addresses to the provinces, however, one would
imagine it imbued with the strongest sense of the
power and dignity of the National Assembly.
Bull-faced Danton2 and his fellows had inau-
gurated a marvellous campaign for the control
of public opinion. On the very day of the storming
of the Tuileries, an iron hand had descended on the
press. Every sheet with the least royalist tend-
ency was permanently prohibited. But more
than this: the city gates had immediately been
closed and none but patriots allowed to go out and
spread the news. Throughout the city there were
carefully planned nocturnal visits, and thousands
of persons suspected of royalism were arrested and
carried off to prison.
Aided by the Jacobin Society the work of
propaganda was undertaken on an enormous scale.
Cost was a mere detail. The Legislative Assembly
was made to vote an appropriation of six million
francs for secret purposes. One hundred thousand
francs was to be used immediately, "for the print-
ing and distributing throughout the departments
and in the armies of all writings fitted to enlighten
1 Mortimer-Terneux has the best account of the Commune's excesses.
2 Plate 120, p. 277.
Massacre 279
men's minds as to the criminal plots of the enemies
of the state."1 Emissaries were instructed to
visit even the smallest towns and the loneliest
country districts and "seek to discover the zealous
patriots." They were to spread their literature
"not with economy, but with discernment/' and to
rouse the energy of the people "by all sorts of power-
ful reasonings calculated to elevate it and to sustain
it at the highest pitch of ardour and firmness.2'
It was constantly in the mouths of the Communist
orators that the will of the people was supreme:
but it was a will doctored, moulded, and beaten
into shape by a few demagogues with an almost
superhuman talent for organization.
The National Assembly employed the eloquent
Condorcet to pen a defence of its own conduct
and to explain the reasons for calling a National
Convention. The document shows most clearly
how one and the same event can be made to assume
two totally different aspects. Even the irruption
into the Tuileries on the 2Oth of June was repre-
sented as a most pleasant and harmless affair:
"few crowded assemblies have passed off with less
disorder. " The fault lay with the King who had
issued a proclamation full of calumnies; while his
ministers had persistently sowed discord between
Paris and the departments, between the people
and the army, between those at home and those
on the frontier. All the iniquities of the King
himself, of the emigres, of the refractory priests,
1 Decree of August i8th, Duvergier, iv., 423.
1 Revolutions de Paris, xiii., 473.
280 The French Revolution
are passed in review. Louis had gone to the extent
of hiring journalists to make the Parisians odious
to the rest of France. And then that manifesto
of the Duke of Brunswick! To such an aristocrat,
twenty-six million men were as nothing compared
with one privileged family! Things had come to
such a pass, continues Condorcet, that the Assem-
bly had finally thought best to accede to the
demand of the Commune of Paris for the downfall
of the King and to vote for the calling of the
National Convention. In the new elections,
nature's laws alone were to prevail; there were to
be no restrictions that could hamper the sovereign
people, no distinction between those who paid
taxes and those who did not.
In spite of all this eloquent pleading, the high-
handed action of the Parisians in overthrowing the
French monarchy would never have been accepted
with such equanimity but for another factor. The
enemy was literally at the gates : the spectre of for-
eign invasion had become a reality. The sacred
soil of France was imperilled: whatever happened,
whoever suffered, these foes must be driven back.
All other feelings, even those of common humanity,
were stifled.
It was a case where Paris alone could take the
lead. The National Assembly, on the eve of dis-
persing and cowed into submission by the Com-
mune, was powerless. Where could such energy
be found, as with Danton and his like? Their
methods might be brutal, diabolical, including, as
they did, the searching of domiciles, wholesale
Massacre 281
arrests and proscriptions, arbitrary sequestrations.
All of the twenty thousand, for instance, who had
signed the petition protesting against the violence
done to the King on June 2Oth were regarded as
unpatriotic and shadowed as enemies. But all
murmurs against injustice, all groans of distress,
were silenced by the high notes of patriotism. The
whole city was full of the clang of arms and the
rush of warriors: "We burn to face the enemy,"
cried the spokesman of one of the innumerable
little bands that came to the Assembly's hall before
departing for the frontier; " let them tremble, those
proud soldiers of despotism. . . . Continue, legis-
lators, to combat tyranny and strengthen liberty,
and with their bodies the French soldiers will make
for you a rampart ! "
We have the form of oath that the young warriors
pronounced in the Assembly: "I swear to be faith-
ful to the nation, to uphold liberty and equality,
to die in defending them!" And these men were
sincere and really brave. The brightest feature of
the Revolution was this military ardour that was
to carry all before it. From first to last something
like a million men were put into the field. When
arms and ammunition failed, pikes were hastily
welded from iron gratings, bullets were moulded
from church bells, and saltpetre for gunpowder
was scraped from the floors of cellars.
The armies in the field all recognized the new
order of things, and Lafayette's troops abandoned
him when he tried to organize revolt. He was
obliged to fly for his life, and crossed the frontier
282 The French Revolution
to remain a prisoner of the Austrians for years.
How the patriots execrated him! No symbol of
shame was considered too vile. It was proposed
to raze his house to the ground and erect on the spot
a column that should perpetuate his infamy. He
was burned in effigy, and a medal that had once
been decreed in his honour was publicly broken
by the executioner on the scaffold.
Hatred against the King, meanwhile, was kept
at a white heat. Compromising letters had been
found in a secret hiding place — an iron safe let
into the wall. There was mystery about the dis-
covery. The man who had made the safe had
informed Roland, and Roland had kept the papers
in his possession for more than two hours before
imforming the committee appointed to search for
such evidence. Had Roland tampered with the
letters for his own purposes and extracted such
ones as would have compromised his Girondist
friends? Or it is possible that other documents
were inserted in order to make the case more plain
against the King? Louis XVI at his trial denied
their authenticity and urged that the letters be
submitted to an expert in handwriting; but this
his accusers refused to permit.
Among the secrets revealed by the iron safe was
that of Mirabeau's dealings with the court. In an
instant the great man's glory faded to an ashen
grey. We have a remarkable cartoon, entitled
" Royal Correspondence."1 The doors of the
great cupboard are thrown open and the skeleton
1 Plate 121, p. 283.
Plate 121. A cartoon rep resenting the opening of the secret iron safe, and
showing Roland and the man who had betrayed the secret facing the
skeleton of Mirabeau, which holds the crown in one hand and a
bag of money in the other.
283
284 The French Revolution
of Mirabeau appears throned on the books and
papers. One hand rests on the royal crown, in
the other is a bag of money. Roland, in the corner,
spreads out his hands in amazement, while above,
Louis XVI, as a serpent, vomits into a cap of
Liberty.
One can imagine to what frenzied denunciations
of Louis these revelations gave rise. He is a
monster who has been fattening on crime. With his
Austrian pantheress he had plotted the annihila-
tion of those in authority as well as of the Jacobin
Club — yes, he had intended to set fire to Paris and
reduce it to a heap of ruins and of corpses. One
paper regrets that the "holy wrath of the country"
has not yet sent to the guillotine " Louis Nero
and Medicis Antoinette." The rabble is bidden
to rise and shed blood: "Despotism has been the
aggressor, now it succumbs. No mercy! Let it
die!"
The cartoons reflect the same tone. We have
one called " Louis the Traitor, read thy sentence, " x
where a great hand is writing on the wall: "God
has judged thy reign and put an end to it. Thou
hast been weighed in the balance and found
wanting." Beneath is a guillotine with "She
awaits the guilty one," while a long text reads as
follows :
A hundred times guilty and a hundred times pardoned
Louis the Last has too greatly tried the amiability and
generosity of the people not to realize himself that he must
have worn out all the sentiments of humanity that alone
1 Plate 122, p. 285.
Plate 122. A cartoon representing the handwriting on the wall and bidding
Louis the Traitor read his sentence. God has weighed him in the balance
and found him wanting. Below, the guillotine awaits him.
285
286
The French Revolution
a remnant of pity could have retained for him these four
years. His conscience is doubtless his cruelest executioner,
and would that it were possible to abandon him to this
internal torment a thousand times worse than death. But
the most sacred of laws, the safety of twenty-four million
Plate 123. A cartoon likening Louis XVI to a piece of out-of-date money
and recommending that he be melted up.
people, requires that he be judged ; and the glory of France,
bound up in the judgment of the present and of future
generations, requires that he be punished. In the present
state of France and the dangerous agitation of Europe,
how can this monster be considered in any other light than
that of a rallying point for counter-revolutionists and a
nucleus of counter-revolution ? Does sound policy, then,
permit in his favour a clemency which, sooner or later, might
cause the overthrow of the Republic ?
We have another representation in a jocose vein.1
1 Plate 123, above.
Massacre 287
A National Guard stands at attention before a
great coin with Louis XVI's likeness and a Dei
Gratia. A bystander asks him: "What are you
doing there?*' "I am guarding this great coin
that nobody wants any more." "Ah, why don't
you melt it up; you might get something at all
events."
On August 26, 1792, came tidings that threw
the most excitable nation in the world into a
deadly panic. Despatches from Verdun announced
the surrender of the fortress of Longwy. So the
enemy was actually in possession of French soil!
The Assembly sanctioned the most astounding
measure ever passed by a parliament. Twelve
hundred volunteers were to be called out to act as
tyrannicides and compass the death by any means
whatever of the hostile kings and generals. It is
true the measure was soon reconsidered, but the
wonder of it is that it could ever have been passed.
Another measure, voted in holy indignation
against the inhabitants of Longwy for being so
base as to surrender, was that every private house
in the place should be razed to the ground and
every inhabitant lose his rights as a French citizen
for ten years to come.
The one idea of the Commune was to spread
alarm in Paris and make people believe that they
were in danger from those about them as well as
from those at the frontier. An address and a
deputation were sent to the National Assembly
itself "to unmask the traitors that are in its
midst." Yes, in the very committee meetings—
288 The French Revolution
so it was declared — plots were being hatched.
The Commune decreed the arrest of a journalist,
Girey Dupr6, who had dared to criticize the noc-
turnal domiciliary visits, and its troops even sur-
rounded the house of the Minister of War, where
Girey Dupre was supposed to be in hiding.1
The National Assembly was at last stung into
retaliation. It cashiered the council of the Com-
mune and ordered new elections. The council
refused to be intimidated. One of the members
called to mind that all had taken oath never to
abandon their posts so long as the country was in
danger. This fierce internal conflict, therefore,
was added to all the other horrors. The Commune
won. It had sent a deputation to the Assembly
with an address drawn up by Robespierre. Weight
was laid upon the great services of the Commune
to the Revolution: " You have heard us," was the
peroration. "Speak! we are there! . . . Never
will we betray the interests of the people. Such
cowardice is unworthy of us, unworthy of our
fellow-citizens!" The perils of the moment made
reconciliation more easy: "This is no time for
disputing," cried Vergniaud; "we must dig the
grave of our enemies or each step in advance will
dig our own." The Assembly was finally trapped
into a decree that virtually restored to the Com-
mune all its old power.
Graves were to be needed soon enough and in
great quantities.
On September 2d came the terrible announce-
1 All this is described at length by Mortimer- Terneux.
Massacre 289
ment that the Austrians and Prussians were be-
sieging Verdun and that this, the only fortress
between the invaders and Paris, could not hold out
for more than a week. As before, the Commune
seemed to think that the best policy was to frighten
people as badly as possible. It voted that its own
members should disperse among the sections,
should " depict with energy to their fellow-
citizens" the desperate state of affairs, and should
"represent to them forcibly how liberty is threat-
ened, French territory invaded." All suspects and
cowards were to be disarmed, all able-bodied
men enrolled. Even the horses in Paris were
declared public property to be used in the great
struggle.
There were dramatic incitements to bravery
and constancy. Frenchmen were urged to let
themselves be buried under their country's ruins
rather than return to ignominious slavery; not to
surrender their homes before they were reduced
to mere heaps of ashes.
But there were other cries, more fraught
with danger. These priests who had refused
to take the civic oath, were they not equally
the enemies of good republicans? Should not
the earth be rid of these traitors with whom the
prisons were filled? One section of Paris, the
Poissoniere, decreed on its own responsibility
that all priests and all suspects in the prisons
of Paris, Orleans, and elsewhere should be put
to death.
It would carry us too far to enter into all the
290 The French Revolution
details of these awful massacres of September.1
Some fourteen hundred victims fell in three days
slaughtered in the prison yards as one butchers
animals. The claim that there was any legality
whatever to the matter is absurd. We do find
tribunals active in the case of every prison. But
they were popular tribunals in the worst sense of
the word, for no one can imagine for a moment
that they represented the real will of the French
people. Judges hastily appointed by themselves
or by those around them asked a few perfunctory
questions and then let loose the victims among the
so-called travailleurs or workers in blood. Some
few of the prisoners were acquitted; them "the
people" received with extravagant joy. They
have left harrowing tales of their experiences.2
Who, in especial, perpetrated these massacres?
It is safe to infer that it was the same band of men
who had successfully plotted to overthrow Louis
XVI about three weeks before. Among them now,
as then, were many federes of the kind that had
marched from Marseilles. But they were merely
instruments of a higher will. The chief responsi-
bility rested with the Commune, and it is indeed
strange to witness the spectacle of a recognized city
government, lending its countenance to such
murderous orgies.
We have the protocol of the proceedings of the
Commune during the critical days.3 It requires
1 Many original documents are contained in the Memoires de Sep-
tembre (Paris, 1823).
2 Riouffe's narrative went through countless editions.
s Memoires de Septembre, 166 ff.
Massacre
291
little astuteness to be able to read between the
lines. In the very midst of the massacres it sends
to the different prisons to protect those incarcerated
for debt. So the others it considers fair prey! On
Plate 124. A gruesome cartoon making fun of the priests who were massacred
on September 3, 1792. They are represented as having had their
noses pulled.
September 3d, indeed, the Commune expresses
itself as "greatly alarmed and touched by the
rigorous measures being employed against the
prisoners. " It even appointed delegates to "calm
the effervescence and bring back to right principles
those who may have gone astray." This from a
body of men ready to surround the hall of the
National Assembly at a moment's notice and put
292 The French Revolution
through some decree at the point of the bayonet!
How different the language employed when the
Commune was really distressed or alarmed! And
how sympathetically now it listens to every argu-
ment in favour of the murderers, to every alleged
proof of a vast conspiracy on the part of the pris-
oners to elude their jailors and massacre all the
patriots !
There are strange entries in the financial accounts
of the Commune1 : " For those labouring to preserve
the salubrity of the air on September 3d, 4th, and
5th, and for those who presided at these dangerous
operations, " so and so much ; or so much "for time
spent in expediting priests of St. Firmin." If any
one doubts the bloodthirsty spirit, the absolute
suppression of all merciful feeling in certain circles
at that time, he has only to look at the cartoon
entitled, "Last procession of the refractory priests
on August 31,1 792 . " 2 It must have been thought
out, drawn, and published in the very midst of the
massacres. More than once we have seen such
pitiless, tigerish productions, but none equal in
heartlessness to this.
A banner above bears the inscription, "Who
laughs Friday shall weep Sunday" (The mas-
sacres had corne between !) The clergy are repre-
sented as entering the church of the Carmelites,
which was to be their prison, after having their
noses pulled!
France possessed at that time a Minister of
Justice, Danton, who was probably one of the
1 Also in Memoires de Septembre. 2 Plate 124, p. 291.
Massacre 293
chief instigators of the massacres. At all events
he later assumed the responsibility, declaring:
" It was I who caused them. Rivers of blood had
to flow between us and our enemies/'1 He made
no recorded protest, took no steps to prevent the
massacres.
But, indeed, the general absence of protest, at
the moment at least, is one of the strangest features
of this whole affair. It speaks volumes for the
cowed condition of all, Assembly and press included.
The Assembly did not issue any decree on the
subject until the massacres had already been in
progress for thirty-six hours. Even then, it merely
urged cessation and called for reports. The
Commune reassured it. Only the guilty had
fallen. Both judges and executioners had acted
from the purest motives. Why a man who tried
to steal a pocket handkerchief had been put to
death for the crime!2
The silence of the press would have been in-
comprehensible— there was not a single case of
outspoken disapproval of the massacres — did we
not have to remember that all newspapers not in
good favour with the Commune had been sup-
pressed on the tenth of August.
And how did the Commune render account of
its actions to the provinces? As follows; and the
wording of the circular drawn up by Marat and
countersigned by Danton — (his defenders have all
1 My authority for this is oral. Danton used these words to the
future Louis Philippe, whose son repeated them to my informant, a
well-known Dutch diplomat. * Duvergier, iv., 414.
294 The French Revolution
sorts of theories to explain the latter 's action) —
fairly makes one's flesh creep. There is talk of
"acts of justice which seemed indispensable in
order to check by terror these legions of traitors";
then the hope is expressed that the entire nation
"will hasten to adopt this most necessary means
of public salvation," and that all will cry with the
Parisians: "We march against the enemy but we
leave behind us no brigands to slaughter our women
and children!"
CHAPTER IX
WAR
THE National Convention called for the pur-
pose of dealing with the King — the name
National Convention was borrowed directly
from America — met on September 21,1 792. That
unfair methods were used in the elections is un-
doubted. Even among the ardent upholders of the
Revolution to-day it is merely a question of how far
the results were affected by intimidation. Knowing
the general spirit of the Jacobins as we do, and con-
sidering that the hall of their club was the chief
election booth in Paris; considering, too, their atti-
tude towards aristocrats and the fact that each
voter was compelled to give an account of himself
before casting his ballot and then to do so orally and
publicly, it is difficult to see why the whole pro-
ceeding was not a farce as far as finding out the
real will of the people was concerned.
It is a curiosity in parliamentary history that so
small a minority as that formed by the enrages or
extreme Jacobins should have been so powerful.
They numbered but about fifty out of seven
hundred and forty-five members. But among
295
296 The French Revolution
them were fanatics like Robespierre, Danton, and
Marat, not to speak of St. -Just and Collot-d'
Herbois; while the whole radical element of Paris
was at their beck and call. Just why the party
was called the Mountain is not clear. Because of
the loftiness of their sentiments, is an explanation
one of them gave at the time. Or was it, as has
often been stated, because they occupied a higher
tier of seats in the hall?
The Girondists, who stood to the Mountaineers
as the Ghibellines had stood to the Guelphs, out-
numbered them by more than two to one. It is
generally considered that their organizing power was
defective as compared with that of their opponents ;
but it must be remembered that they had no such
backing as that of the Mountain by the Commune.
While the members who formed the nucleus of the
party, save for Brissot, were from the department
of the Gironde, many were from other departments.
Almost immediately they felt the need of some
counterpoise to this enormous influence of the
Parisian rabble, and one of their chief sins in the
eyes of the Mountain was the bringing forward of a
measure to have the National Convention guarded
by an armed force drawn equally from all the
departments.
The Minister of the Interior, Roland, was of
their party, and so were the Minister of Finance,
Claviere, and the Mayor of Paris, Petion. Roland
and Petion especially had for a time enjoyed
enormous popularity. But to judge by the de-
bates in the Jacobin Club, all through the months
J.M.RO LAND.
Plate 125. A portrait of Roland. From an old engraving.
297
298 The French Revolution
of October and November, 1792, the chief task of
that society was to shatter these idols.
Roland was really Madame Roland; for he,
himself, whose face1 reminds one more of some
gentle, stolid equine than of anything else, was
guided in all things by her powerful personality.
Her influence was no secret. It was well known
that she wrote his speeches and letters. At the
very outset, when it was a question of inviting
Roland to retain the post of Minister of the Interior,
Danton had cried: "If you invite him you must
also invite Madame Roland, for every one knows
that Roland has not been alone in his department " ;
and Marat, once demanded that an address "be
returned to its place of origin, the boudoir of the
woman Roland."
But Madame Roland was more than the alter
ego of her husband. She has been well called the
mother of the Girondists. She was in constant
communication with the leading members of the
party, some of whom were always dining at her
house. Her salon was a hotbed of new ideas.
She was a woman of great beauty and had her
warm admirers who treated her as a saint — some
one had her face reproduced on the cover of a
bonbonniere and it is one of the finest portraits of
her.2 She was a very human saint, for she fell
in love with Buzot, one of her Girondists. It was
impossible for her to love dry old Roland as well,
and honesty compelled her to tell him so; which
greatly embittered his life. But such fidelity
1 Plate 125, p. 297. 2 Plate 126, p. 299.
War 299
and loyalty as she could give were his to the
last.
The transactions of the Jacobin Club show that
Plate 126. A portrait of Madame Roland taken from the cover of a
bonbonntire in the Muse*c Carnavalet.
one of the chief grievances against Roland was his
disseminating, with public funds, of an address
in which Louvet bitterly assailed the great pillar
of the Mountain Party, Robespierre. Week after
week the tirades on this subject continue and, as
usual, the cartoonists were pressed into the service.
The French Revolution
We have a caricature of Roland as a cock and
Madame Roland as a hen. J Some of the details
of the production are unintelligible — to the author
Plate 127. A caricature of Monsieur and Madame Roland.
at least — but Coco is a term of endearment that
Madame Roland was wont to apply to her husband.
This caricature gives the clue to a very clever
rebus2 which, to the author of this book, long
seemed undecipherable. It may be that even now
the solution is incomplete and the author will be
1 Plate 127, p. 300. 2 Plate 128, p. 301.
,!
.1
ez
*
1!
301
302 The French Revolution
grateful for any corrections. The puzzle has been
a sleep-wrecker. Avis aux honnetes gens. (A
warning to honest folk, i.e., to the good Jacobins.)
Petion de Villeneuve deux fois mai-re de Paris grand
premier mouchard. (Petion de Villeneuve, twice
mayor of Paris, [is] an A No. I spy.) Egalement en
preeminence la sont Roland qui foule la liberte et
Clavier e qui la Iraine dans la boue avec cent torts a la
fraternite. Des trois le meilleur ne vaut rien.
(Prominent equally there are Roland who tramples
on Liberty and Claviere who drags it in the mire
with a hundred wrongs against Fraternity. Of the
three the best is no good.) The little figure clasp-
ing Claviere around the neck and making of him
a centaur a la fraternite is ingenious to say the least.
The date, to judge by the political conjuncture, is
October or November, 1792.
For a while after the opening of the National
Convention the Girondists were high in the ascend-
ant. The war that they had so strenuously
advocated was succeeding beyond all hope. On
September 2Oth, the day before the opening session
of the National Convention, Dumouriez, himself
a Girondist in sympathies, had defeated and turned
back the Duke of Brunswick at Valmy. We have
a caricature1 showing "The joyous and triumphal
re-entry of the Prussian Don Quixotes into Ger-
many, after the conquest of France, under the
guidance of the Austrian eagle." The Duke of
1 Plate 129, p. 303.
War
303
Brunswick on one dejected steed and the Prussian
King on another — both with their faces tailwards
— are being addressed by the double eagle which
holds the reins: "Let us fly to new conquests!"
Brunswick with scowling brow is saying: "How
Plate 129. A caricature on the withdrawal of the Austrians and Prussians
after the battles of Valmy and Genappes.
they do fight, these dogs of Sans- Culottes!" Fred-
erick William's words are too inelegant to repeat.
The first vote of the first session of the Conven-
tion was that royalty was abolished in France.1
Hard words were spoken during the debates.
Kings in general were monsters; dynasties were
devouring hordes; courts were the workshops of
1 For all that concerns the Convention up to January 21, 1793, my
authority has been the minutes of the sessions, published by the Librairie
Populaire — no date.
304 The French Revolution
crime; the history of kings was the "martyrology
of nations." When the vote was passed, says the
Gazette de France, "all arms remained raised to
Heaven as if to thank it for delivering France
Plate 130. A German puzzle showing the hydra of Revolution devouring
the fleur-de-lis and breaking the crown, sceptre, and sword. There are
four concealed silhouettes.
from the greatest scourge that ever afflicted the
earth." The news was proclaimed in the public
squares to the sound of trumpets, and the prisoners
in the Temple could plainly make out the words
of the town-criers.
It was all political hysteria, of course. France
herself after trying many ruinous experiments
was to come back to kings, for a while at least.
Louis had sinned from almost any point of view.
But were these Robespierres, these Dantons, these
War 305
Marats so free from sin themselves? It was to be
the fate of almost every one who was in any way
prominent in the Revolution to succumb to the
rage of the next faction in power. There were
some who considered the vote of the Convention
abolishing royalty not valid ; for at the time when
it was taken many of the provincial members had
not yet arrived, and only 371 out of a possible 745
were present. The Parisian deputation, of course,
was out in full force. And they controlled the
press of the capital!
There seems to have been no effort to reconsider
the vote. Instead it was decreed that the golden
crown and sceptre should be publicly broken in
pieces.
We have a German puzzle that seems to refer to
this episode.1 It is entitled "Four secret silhou-
ettes of extraordinary resemblance." Two are
the King and Queen of England and two are "The
unhappy King and Queen of France." The hydra
of revolution is tearing with its teeth at the lily
of France. With the folds of its body it has sun-
dered the crown and broken the sword and the
sceptre. The silhouettes, which really are good
likenesses, will be discovered by the reader with
the smallest expenditure of patience.
How the victories now piled up ! On October 2 1 st
Custine took Mainz; on November 6th, Dumouriez
defeated the Austrians at Genappes; or the 27th
Savoy was annexed as an eighty-fourth department
of France. One can well imagine the enthusiasm
1 Plate 130, p. 304
306
The French Revolution
of the rulers of the infant republic. The president
of the National Assembly, referring to the fact that
Mont Blanc was in the new department, declared
Plate 131. A symbolical representation of victory,
traversing the republic.
that Liberty's throne on the summit of that
mountain was the only throne in Europe that was
not tottering, and that the goddess herself would
soon be embracing the whole universe. There are
War
307
a number of artistic productions that deal with the
theme.
Plate 132. A symbolical representation of the progress of Liberty, enlighten-
ment, and republicanism.
In "Victory traversing the republic"1 the
goddess is springing with nimble feet over that
portion of the globe. We have another representa-
tion2 apparently without a title, but the meaning
1 Plate 131, p. 306. • Plate 132, above.
308
The French Revolution
of which is plain. Held up by National Guards, all
the emblems of liberty — the banners, the cap, the
Plate 133. A cartoon showing the progress of republicanism and the inevit-
able fate of each and all of the rulers of Europe. Time is mowing them
down and extinguishing their life-lights.
cockade, the garland of oak, the bundle of staves —
are floating through space on what might be a
magic carpet.
Still more curious and very complicated is
"The new French Star or the tri-coloured Cockade
following the Course of the Zodiac."1 Above are
1 Plate 133, above.
War 309
the twelve signs, below are twelve sovereigns on
pedestals, each with a life-light above his crown.
But Father Time has already extinguished that of
Louis XVI, those of Joseph II, and Leopold, and is
in the act of extinguishing that of Gustave III of
Sweden. The others will follow in due course.
The crown of Catherine II, who is represented as
a most hideous old hag, is already falling off.
Louis XVI has been toppled over completely, pedes-
tal and all. His severed head lies on the ground
with the crown and some other object at a short
distance. At the base of the overturned pedestal
is the inscription, " Louis the Traitor and the last."
There are other inscriptions in every imaginable
part of the picture as well as underneath. In one,
Father Time is speaking: "Let me destroy at
last this cohort of ambitious ones, these vile usurp-
ers of the rights of their fellows!" And again:
"Peoples, resume your rights. Soon there will be
no more tyrants. Time, too just, gives you liberty
and equality." In the clouds, below the signs of
the zodiac, one finds this "Announcement to future
ages": "Pride formed, reason destroys them."
To the right, also among the clouds, we have:
"The work of Time, or Prejudice conquered, " and
"Triumph of Philosophy and Reason."
On coins, on official documents of every kind,
on letter-heads, we now find some emblem of the
republic. Some show little imagination, like the
letter-head of Edmond Charles Gen£t, Minister
Plenipotentiary to the United States of America, l
1 Plate 134, p. 310.
The French Revolution
or a medal where the emblems are merely the cap
and the bundle of staves.1 But one vignette,
signed by way of exception — (it is by Gatteaux)—
is of real artistic beauty.2 It is the ship of state
Plate 134. The official letterhead of Genet, Minister of the French Republic
to the United States of America.
bowling along with all banners waving and Liberty
holding to the mast. There is evidently a tem-
pest in progress for the sails are tightly furled. But
France will weather it. Beneath is the inscription,
' ' Live free or die ! ' '
We have a personification of republican France
Plate 135, p. 311.
2 Plate 136, p. 312.
War
engraved by Darcis r that is interesting. A female
figure wears a liberty-cap which, curiously enough,
turns into a cock at its extremity. A carpenter's
Plate 135. A republican medal.
level hangs from her neck while oak-leaves adorn
the border of her cap. Boizot and Darcis together
have given us similar personifications of Liberty,
Equality, and Fraternity.2 Liberty has the cap
and a broken yoke; Equality the inevitable level,
1 Plate 137, p. 313. * Plates 138, 139, 140, pp. 314, 315, 316.
312
The French Revolution
while Fraternity has the oak-leaves and a belt of
hearts.
On December 4th the penalty of death was de-
creed for any one who should even propose to
re-establish royalty in France. Barere had gone
so far as to declare that kings were no longer to be
Plate 136. The French Republic represented as a ship guided by Liberty.
considered members of the human race. There
were beginning to be loud demands for the judg-
ment of Louis XVI.
And how had the royal family fared all this time
since the loth of August? In the beginning their
treatment had not been harsh. Half a million
francs had been appropriated for their maintenance
and the expenses of their table alone amounted to
between eight and nine thousand francs a month. z
The bills for their wearing apparel between August
1 Clery's Journal, Eclair dssements, 297 ff.
War 313
loth and October 3Oth amounted to 29,505 francs
14 sous. But this the King and Queen found
excessive, and overcharges were detected to the
amount of four thousand francs.
The life in the Temple has been minutely de-
Plate 137. A personification of Republican France.
scribed by the King's valet, Clery. Hope had not
altogether vanished, and faithful servitors even
managed to find a way for keeping up communica-
tion with the outer world. The chief intermediary
was one Hue, a former servitor, and harm-
less looking bits of paper thrown into a waste-
paper basket and removed by a friendly sweeper
played the chief part. The messages were written
314 The French Revolution
in ink that was invisible for the time being.
One of the most unhappy days of Marie An-
toinette's life was probably that third of September
when her beloved Madame de Lamballe perished
with a great number of other victims of the prison
Plate 138. A personification of Liberty with the broken yoke.
of La Force. The mob insisted that the captive
Queen should look on the bloody corpse of her
former favourite. The head with the hair waving
round the stake was brought on a pike and paraded
under her window. Attempts were made to drag
the body up the stairs. Marie Antoinette fainted
away.
With the beginning of the King's trial on
December i ith, even the consolation of each other's
War
presence was denied the unhappy pair; nor was
any communication allowed.
The trial was a farce from first to last. The
Convention was not a Court of Justice. Louis,
indeed, was allowed official defenders, but was not
Plate 139. A personification of Equality with the carpenter's level.
permitted to proauce witnesses. An outburst of
Lepelletier St.-Fargeau, ' an ardent Mountaineer,
is characteristic of the whole proceedings:
"A dangerous proposition has just been made: it is that
Roland and others be heard at the bar. I am opposed to
this as I am to all proof in the way of testimony. For, if
one admits proof against, one would have to admit proof
1 On Dec. I5th (see Minutes of Convention).
316 The French Revolution
in favour ; and I must confess all such proofs seem to me
suspicious, since I saw a man about to be condemned to
death on testimony of two men which had been bought for
six francs."
Louis was condemned on the strength of docu-
Plate 140. A personification of Fraternity with the belt of
hearts.
ments of which he himself denied the authenticity.
He was ably and eloquently defended by his
counsel. If Louis was to be judged as king, he
said, then dethronement was the only penalty pro-
vided by the Constitution; if as a man, then the
proper and customary legal forms had been omitted
— a three fourths vote, for instance, would be
necessary for condemnation. Furthermore, all
War 317
had formed their own opinions of the case irre-
spective of the evidence: "Is Louis, then, to be the
only Frenchman for whom neither law nor forms
shall exist? Is he to have neither the rights of a
citizen nor the prerogatives of a king? Shall he
benefit neither by his old nor his new position?
Strange and inconceivable destiny!"
Wilder scenes had never been witnessed in a
National Assembly than took place during this
trial. 'This enclosure has become an arena of
gladiators," once cried the deputy Jullien. He
demanded that the president go and hide himself
in a corner of the hall — in the darkest corner.
Once Billaud-Varennes ordered an usher to drag
Petion from the speaker's desk; again Legendre
moved that Manuel be decreed to have gone out
of his head; still again Louvet cried to Danton:
"You are not yet king!"
The King still had friends who dared to plead
in his behalf. One of them was Thomas Paine,
chosen a member of the Convention on account
of his writings in the cause of liberty. Paine
repeatedly urged that Louis XVI be not put to
death, but be sent instead to the United States
of America. It is well known that a number
of Americans had an organized plan to this end.
Paine's argument was diplomatic. Louis would
not only be safely out of harm's way, but would
have an opportunity to learn the meaning of true
representative government. Paine told, too, of
the universal affliction that the King's death would
cause Americans and the pleasure it would give
318 The French Revolution
"the despot of England" to see one who had been
the aider and abettor of his enemy sent to the
scaffold.
But the King's opponents were too strong.
This was the one point on which the Gironde and
the Mountain were ever in accord, though the
Gironde, as a whole, was not as bloodthirsty as
the Mountain, and many members would gladly
have seen an appeal to the people or at least a delay
of execution. The Mountain on the other hand,
through the Commune, used every means to
inspire horror of the tyrant. Those who had been
wounded on the tenth of August were made to
defile before the bar, and one man, whose wounds
were still gaping, was carried by on a litter.
It came to the final voting. It began on January
1 5th. The verdict was almost unanimous that
Louis was guilty. But the debates and votes on
the questions of appealing to the people, on what
penalty should be imposed on Louis, and whether
it should be immediate or subject to delay, occupied
five days. The first reading of the ballots that
condemned the King to death gave a majority,
in favour, of only five votes. A recount gave a
majority of fifty-three.
Robespierre, Couthon, and Barere were the
strongest advocates of haste. Robespierre, indeed,
had been in favour of not holding a regular trial
over Louis, but of putting him to death at once as
an enemy of the state. "Louis is not an accused,"
he had said on December 3d, x "you are no judges.
1 Proces-verbal.
A brou v o nos Sill
W/rx M/I tfiuu-f Ju "t.ttin sttr la ,
mult
///.»/i R.*i/>iff . ef-fr^f /tt rtsmf-.. '•te'^^^^ji'i yi
v.^».» d£M> /hut
<v .//•>•
..•//
Plate 141. A cartoon entitled *' Matter for Reflection for crowned Jugglers."
Under the severed head of Louis XVI is the line from the Marseillaise:
" May an impure blood water our furrows! "
319
320 The French Revolution
You are not and you cannot be anything else but
statesmen and the representatives of the nation.
. . . Peoples do not judge like law-courts ; they do
not sell their sentences, they hurl thunderbolts;
they do not condemn kings, they replunge them
unto nothingness. . . . Louis must die that the
country may live."
The ballot on the question of delay stood 380
against 310. It was cast on Sunday, January 2Oth,
and on Monday Louis was to die. Permission
was accorded him for one last interview with his
family. The valet Clery describes it all minutely
in simple, heart-rending terms. In parting, Louis
kept up the fiction that they would all meet again
on the following morning.
There is no need to dwell on that well-known
scene on the scaffold, which had been erected in the
Place de la Revolution, between the pedestal of
Louis XV's statue and the Champs Ely sees.
Louis tried to address the crowd, but was silenced
by the roll of drums. He had objected to the
tying of his hands, but had been told by the abbe
who accompanied him that it was only one more
insult among the many that made him like unto
the persecuted Christ. "Son of St. Louis, ascend
to Heaven!" were the abbe's words as the axe fell.
Danton in railing against France's enemies was
now able to declare: "We have thrown them as
gage of battle the head of a king!"
A cartoonist1 shows us the head held up by the
hair, while from it the blood is falling in great
'Plate 141, p. 319.
War 321
drops. Above are the words, ' ' Matter for reflection
for crowned jugglers," while below is the line from
the Marseillaise: "May an impure blood water
our furrows!" An elaborate text informs us:
On Monday, January 2ist, at quarter past ten in the
morning, on the Place de la Revolution hitherto called
Place Louis XV, the Tyrant fell under the swords of the
law. This grand act of justice has thrown consternation
among the aristocracy, annihilated the royal superstition,
and created the republic. It impresses a great character
on the National Convention and renders it worthy of the
confidence of the French. It was in vain that an auda-
cious faction and insidious orators exhausted all the resources
of calumny, of charlatanism, and of chicanery. The cour-
age of the republicans triumphed ; the majority of the Con-
vention remained unshakable in its principles, and the
Genius of Intrigue yielded to the Genius of Liberty and the
Ascendency of Virtue.
These fine sentiments, as one might have
recognized by the style, are from the pen of Maxi-
milien Robespierre; for the whole text is an extract
from one of his letters to his constituents.
Relic hunters in those days were as persistent as
in our own. No sooner was the execution over
than many rushed to the spot to secure at least a
few drops of blood. They dipped their handker-
chiefs in it, they gathered it up on bits of paper.
It was widely asserted that Samson, the executioner,
had sold the hair; but this he indignantly denied
in a letter that may still be read in the National
Archives.1
We have a portrait of Louis XVI2 that is evi-
1 See also Buchez et Roux, xxiii, 355. * Plate 142, p. 323.
322 The French Revolution
dently a sort of "in memoriam." Above is the
national cockade, but combined with funeral em-
blems. Below is the inscription, both in French and
German: "Louis XVI, last King of France, was
born August 23, 1754, mounted the throne May 10,
1774, and the scaffold, January 21, 1793." Then
comes a reminiscence of the song played by the
band at the memorable banquet given by the
King's body-guards to the visiting regiment of
Flanders on October i, 1789. But the verse is
now in the past, just as a dirge should be in a
minor key: "O my King! The universe did
abandon thee!"
How did the Parisians as a whole take the
execution of their king? Marat speaks in his
paper of their "serene joy" when all was over.
But the Revolutions de Paris has to confess that
"the women in general were pretty sad" and that
"perhaps a few tears were shed." This, however,
it considers "pardonable in a frivolous, fragile sex
still under the glamour of the last fine days of a
brilliant court." They will soon recover and come
to realize that they are "less enslaved, more
honoured, and better loved than before."
Louis XVI left a will — a noble and dignified
document, breathing the highest spirit of Christian
resignation. He declares before God that he is
guiltless of the crimes charged against him and
urges that his son do not attempt to avenge his
death. He prays God to pardon him for ever
having signed the civil constitution of the clergy.
To a small extent, indeed, his death had been
\/ /
.'i.iym/ .;'
•
( /
/ ///
, \//
/
Plate 142. A portrait of Louis "X.VI, engraved by some royalist and with the
line underneath: "O my King! The universe did abandon thee!"
323
324 The French Revolution
avenged on the day of his own execution. For
on that day died a patriot deputy, Lepelletier St.-
Fargeau, who had been struck down by a former
guardsman of the King. The only grievance had
been that St.-Fargeau had voted for Louis XVI's
death.
One wail went up from all the patriots. St.-
Fargeau was solemnly adjudged among the Mar-
tyrs of Liberty and was given a burial worthy of
antiquity. There were thirty distinct features to
the procession: one included the carrying of the
victim's bloody garments on the end of a pike,
which was festooned with oak and cypress. The
body was exposed to view on the pedestal, in the
Place des Piques, now Place Vendome, where had
stood the statue of Louis XIV.1 Lepelletier's
bust was given a place in the hall of the Assembly
next to that of Brutus. Brutus was there, of
course, because he had killed Caesar.
We have a pictorial representation which is
partly a memorial of Lepelletier, partly an appeal
to arrest his murderer.2 It is headed, "He voted
the abolition of royalty and the death of the
tyrant." That then was Lepelletier's chief title
to fame. So zealous was the search for the mur-
derer on the part of "the committee of general
security and surveillance," that the Palais Royal
gardens were surrounded by troops and some six
thousand persons examined. It was pointed out
at the time that this was acting as Louis XIV at
the height of his power would never have dared to
1 Revolutions de Paris, xv., 226. 2 Plate 143, p. 325.
>r i \ v. •
Plate 143. A memorial to Lepclletier St. -Fargeau, covered with
inscriptions in his honour and pronouncing the death penalty
against anyone who should harbour his murderer.
325
326 The French Revolution
do, nor were such methods accepted with equa-
nimity. An agent of the police reports widespread
discontent with the Revolution and declares that
only the fear of the guillotine keeps the women of
the market from shouting " Vive le roi!"1 There
were constant disturbances in which "the heroines
of liberty" played no small part. They would
stand at the door of the Assembly Hall and vilify
the deputies.2 "From the smallest groups to the
largest assemblies," writes another police spy on
June ist, "there is everywhere the same spirit:
everywhere dissension, everywhere a mortal hatred.
The patriots detest each other more than ever did
the aristocrats and plebeians."3 The Convention's
own commissioners made similar reports from the
provinces — that everywhere people were tired of
the Revolution.
It was indeed a critical time for the new republic.
Insurrections were breaking out in Normandy,
in Lyons, in Toulon, in Corsica, and in La Vendee,
in which latter province the struggle was to last
long and to be of unprecedented bitterness. And
all Europe was taking up the gage of battle that
Danton had flung down.
The revolutionary press and the revolutionary
orators simply gloried in the prospect. "A like
zeal inflames us all," writes the Revolutions de
Paris, "the Genius of Liberty hovers over France.
As if we had anything to fear from the tyrants and
their flocks of slaves!" And again: "Let Russia,
1 See Schmidt, Tableaux de la Revolution Frangaise, i., 173.
3Ib., i., 267. 3/fc., i., 376.
War
327
England, Sweden, Holland, Spain, Sardinia, join
Prussia, Austria, and all Germany — well, so much
/
'
Plato 144. An allegorical representation entitled "The Coalition," and
showing the Powers of Europe attacking the young French Republic.
She, calm and smiling, will not let them touch so much as a
hair of her head.
the better! The Frenchman needs a little danger,
then only is he great ! " The delusion was kept up
328 The French Revolution
that all the foreign soldiers would desert to the
French ranks ; it was declared that they were merely
being made to fight as bulls are in the arena: were
pricked and goaded into the fray.
England declared war on February ist ; on March
7th hostilities were begun with Spain. Dumouriez
was ordered to invade Holland and Kellermann
prepared to overrun Italy. "I am going, under
your auspices" — so he wrote to the Convention — •
"to carry back to the ancient Romans the liberty
so long excluded from their beautiful climes."1
The Revolutions de Paris hopes that he will capture
the Pope and seize all the church treasure.
Towards the end of March, the Holy Roman
Empire formally joined with France's enemies.
Incredible as it may sound, that power was now
at war with all Europe save for the relatively
unimportant states of Denmark, Sweden, Switzer-
land, and Turkey. We have an allegorical view of
the situation drawn with all the characteristic
gaiety of heart of the time.2 The picture is
called "The Coalition." The powers are rending
away at the young republic, but she holds her own
calmly smiling. They shall not touch a hair of her
head. Their own faces, on the other hand, are
horribly contorted with evil passions.
As a climax to the ills, Dumouriez, the most
illustrious general, victor of Valmy and Genappes,
turned traitor to the cause. Disgusted with the
whole conduct of affairs at Paris, he would gladly
have seen the restoration of constitutional mon-
1 Mortimer-Terneux, v., 85. 2 Plate 144, p. 327.
War
329
archy with the Dauphin on the throne. He had
uttered fierce diatribes against the Convention,
had declared that it consisted of 745 tyrants, all
regicides, and that in it 400 imbeciles let themselves
be guided by 300 brigands. He feared that all
Plate 145. A caricature on the subject of the arrest by Dumouriez of the
commissioners sent by the National Convention to arrest him.
Frenchmen were about to perish "massacring each
other like the Jews of Jerusalem." He denounced
the "atrocities" of the Jacobins and spoke proudly
of himself as a man who had "several times had
the good fortune to save his country," and who
would still save it in spite of all.
The Convention sent commissioners to arrest
this Lucifer: he turned the tables by calling in
Austrian hussars to arrest the commissioners. Oh
33° The French Revolution
how surprised and enraged they were! We have
a caricature entitled "Evil overtakes those who
wish Evil."1 The commissioners are tied up by
ropes to the wall and each is uttering an appropriate
exclamation: " It is all up with us" ; "Not a hole
to creep out of"; "Damnation take this traitor
Dumouriez"; "Now I begin to have a little sym-
pathy for these poor prisoners in the Temple," and
more of the kind. Their expressions of counte-
nance are really comical.
At Marat's instigation, the Convention set a
price of three hundred thousand francs on the head
of Dumouriez, and decreed the extraordinary
measure of holding the fathers, mothers, wives or
children of all officers implicated with him as
hostages for the imprisoned commissioners.
The tide of invasion rolled on. Why France was
not swamped by it is a marvel and a mystery. By
July, 1793, no less than five foreign armies were
crossing the French frontiers, and the English were
in possession of the harbour of Toulon.
Yet France, as we know, was saved. She was
saved by her mad and imbecile Convention and by
her atrocious Jacobin Club; by the ardour of her
soldiers and the general patriotic enthusiasm;
by a system of terrorism such as the world has
never seen, but which kept in check the internal
enemies.
The patriotic enthusiasm was fostered in every
way: by cartoons such as those we have been
considering; by plays that "retraced the glorious
1 Plate 145, p. 329.
War 331
events of the Revolution and the virtues of the
defenders of liberty." Brutus, William Tell, and
the Gracchi were frequently seen upon the stage,
while other subjects that might tend to "deprave
public sentiment and awaken the shameful super-
stition of royalty" were tabooed. The public
squares and streets of the city received republican
names; the very words ville and village were thrust
out of the language because related to villeinage;
the coinage had to be changed, for of course there
could no longer be louis (Tors. There were to be
instead "republicans" and "gold francs," which
were to bear the inscription, "The people alone is
sovereign."1 Children were to be given only
republican names in baptism: no more of your
Charles's, Louis's, Henrys; of your Maries and
Elizabeths. Victors and Franklins and Pierres
were to take their places. The Due d'Orleans
became Philippe Egalite. We have names so
bizarre that they excited the derision even of
patriotic newspapers: for instance, "Liberty
of Conscience." The Feuille Villageoise writes of
this name: "A father when giving his daughter a
paternal kiss, a comrade in the joyous games of
youth, a lover in the transports of a legitimate
affection — will they call her 'Liberty of Con-
science'?" It insists that the purpose of a name is
to call or designate some one, and maintains that
this does not fulfil its purpose.
As a real concession to Equality the old com-
munal lands of France were divided up among the
1 Duvergier, vi., 212.
332 The French Revolution
citizens,1 exception being made in the cases of
mountains, marshes, etc., that were more useful
to the community as a whole. Old obligations,
like that which compelled the town of Schoeffers-
heim to maintain an ever-burning lamp for the
repose of the soul of its old Seigneur, were declared
null and void. The lamp had been burning for
four hundred years, but it now went out.2
Zealous converts were won for the Revolution
by playing fast and loose with all the old-established
rights of property. Illegitimate children, being
"the elders of the human race and the founders of
all society, " were to inherit equally with legitimate ;
mothers and fathers who, on account of the size of
their families could not make both ends meet, were
to be given national aid.3 Those about to be-
come mothers might demand this aid beforehand
and — Oh shades of Rousseau! — will get a layette
worth eighteen francs in addition if they promise
to nurse their babies themselves. Foundlings are
to be the special care of the nation but, lest their
feelings should be hurt, they are never to be called
anything but "orphans."
Revenue for all this was to be obtained by taxing
the "superfluity" of the rich; and the actual need
of the father of a family was placed at 1500 francs
a year. All else was superfluity. To have a larger
income than 30,000 francs a year was prohibited.
Thus, if one's income happened to be 50,000 francs
the tax would amount to at least 20,000 francs.4
1 Duvergier, v., 325 (Decree of June 10, 1793). 2 Ib., v., 347.
3 Ib., v., 362. 4 Buchez et Roux, xxvi., 399.
War 333
There were times when even such taxation as this
did not produce sufficient revenue; but in one case,
at least, we have this laconic decree: " There shall
be a forced loan of one billion on all rich citizens. "l
In the course of the debate on this latter measure
Cambon remarked: " It is only just that those who
never served Liberty with their arms should serve
it with their fortunes." Such sentiments were
becoming very popular, and we are told that the
passing of the decree summarily borrowing a
billion francs was greeted with great applause on
the part of the citizens in the gallery.2
These were drastic measures of course, but like
all the terrorism and all the artificial inspiring of
patriotism they helped towards the final result.
That there was another way of producing that
result — namely, ceasing from the belligerent atti-
tude towards the other powers, many of which were
very much averse to the war — does not seem to have
entered any patriotic head.
The Commune of Paris, as was to be expected,
went much farther even than the National Con-
vention in catering to the proletariat. In Novem-
ber, 1793, it decreed that riches and poverty were
alike abolished; to be idle and to beg were alike
forbidden. The sick, the indigent, the old, and
the orphans were to be lodged, nourished, and
clothed at the expense of their neighbours;
bakers must bake only one kind of bread, the
11 bread of equality."1 In December Danton pro-
1 Buchez et Roux, xxvii., 150. a Dtbats et Dfcrcts, May 20, 1793.
» For these measures of the Commune see Moniteur, Nov. 26, 1793.
334 The French Revolution
cured a vote in the Convention confiscating the
property of those who had sons among the emigres
unless they could prove that they were ardent
patriots. Already decrees had been issued forbid-
ding any rich persons to hide their gold, silver, or
jewels. Those who gave information of such con-
cealment were entitled to five per cent, of the value.1
Such, then, was the spirit of legislation during
these anxious days. The same spirit reigned in
the armies and helped to make them effective.
The Convention kept a tight rein by means of its
representatives-on-mission, an institution old as
the days of Charlemagne who was wont to send
out his mis si dominici, two by two, to control and
supervise all the local authorities.
The authority of these emissaries of the Conven-
tion was practically unlimited. Life and death
were in their hands, and it is well known how Carrier
in Nantes was able to invent and carry out a
method of disposing of his prisoners in batches
by sending them out on the Loire in scows that
were then scuttled.
St.-Just and Le Bas,2 on mission to the army,
once called for a loan of nine millions to be paid
by the rich citizens of Strassburg within twenty-
four hours. Similar peremptory orders brought
in ten thousand pairs of shoes, one thousand beds,
and every cloak belonging to a civilian. The
representatives could summarily remove even the
most renowned of the generals.
1 Moniteur, Nov. 14, 1793.
3 BuchezetRoux, vol.xxvii., passim, has accounts of such confiscations.
War 335
Over the heads of all, now, floated the dread of
the Revolutionary Tribunal. It was no longer the
comparatively gentle institution that had been
established on August 17, 1792. It had been re-
organized on March 9, 1793, after Danton had
cried: "Let us be terrible to spare the people
from so being. . . . Let us drink, if we must, the
blood of humanity's enemies!"1 The first official
bulletin of the tribunal2 announced that "it has
been found needful once more to swing the
avenging axe ... to destroy the ferocious beast
that nothing could tame." The Cordelier Club,
which Danton had founded, voted to "veil for a
time the rights of man." The chief function of the
tribunal was to be the inquiring into plots. It was
to deal especially with such persons as "by their
conduct or the manifestation of opinions should
have tried to lead the people astray." Those who
had held any office or position under the old regime
were especially recommended to its supervision.3
No wonder that Vergniaud cried out against
"this inquisition a thousand times more formid-
able than that of Venice," and declared that he
would die rather than consent to its establishment.
Cambon was prophetic when he feared that the
Convention itself might fall a victim to the tribunal.
In its first public prosecutor, Fouquier-Tinville,
the extremists found a man after their own heart.4
A more cruel, more ferocious man never existed.
1 Wallon, i., 51 ff. J Buchez et Roux, xxv., 305.
3 /&., XXV., 1 8 ff.
* Domenget, Fouquier-Timrille et le Tribunal RSvolutijnnaire.
336 The French Revolution
He had advocated bleeding the condemned that
they might give the executioner less trouble.
On April 6, 1793, was established another insti-
tution that was to be most closely allied to the
Revolutionary Tribunal — the Committee of Public
Safety.1 It might arrest whom it pleased, might
issue edicts, and was not to be asked to account
for its expenditures. Even Marat announced that
this was setting up a new tyrant, but declared
that it was necessary in order to crush the despot-
ism of kings. Among its members when at the
height of its influence — after July, 1793 — were
Robespierre, Couthon, St. -Just and Billaud-Va-
rennes. By that time the whole government was
in its hands. It gave its orders to the civil and
military officials, instructed the representatives
on mission, and negotiated with foreign powers.
It had under it the local committees of surveillance
all over France. To these committees it once
addressed the following circular:
The activity originating in the bosom of the Convention
culminates in you. You are, so to speak, the hands of the
body politic of which the Convention is the head and we
are the eyes. It is through you that the national will,
once formulated, strikes. You are the levers by which it
crushes resistance. You, then, are like those formidable
engines of war which are placed in front by the general and
merely await the electric spark before launching terror
and death.2
The Committee of Public Safety used its eyes
1 J. Gros, Le Comite de Salut Public, Paris, 1893.
2 Aulard, Hist. Pol., 353.
War 337
well with regard to these local committees and
frequently " purified" them: that is, expelled those
members who gave it grounds for disapproval.
One sees here in France, throughout 1793 and
1794, a marvellous network of supervision not
unlike that commonly attributed to the great
Jesuit Order in the 1 6th and 1 7th centuries. These
people really seem to have believed that they could
keep track of the political opinions of every man
in France. The Convention was made to decree
that even its own members were not inviolable1
and that on the exterior of every house in France
must be placed the names, forenames, surnames,
ages, and professions of those inhabiting it. Cards
of civism were to be required of every person and
those who could not produce them were to be
placed under arrest.2 Domiciliary visits were
made in search of suspected persons, and even the
galleries of the National Convention were passed
in review.
To this it had come in the land of Liberty,
Equality, and Fraternity!
1 Afoniteur, April I, 1793. 2 Buchez et Roux-, xxv., 150-155.
CHAPTER X
PROSCRIPTION
HOT as had been the passions during the
struggle against royalty they were as nothing
compared to those which party strife now
engendered.1 There had been some excuse for de-
posing the King; he had broken his promises, vio-
lated his oaths. There was not the shadow of such
an excuse for the treatment of the Gironde by the
Mountain. It was simply a case of one faction
saying to another: "If you do not vote as we
please we will coerce you into doing so, or force you
out of the Assembly." There was the pretence, of
course, that the good of the state demanded such
action, but woe to the state where there is no check
on arbitrariness.
From the first this arbitrariness was the real
question at issue. The Parisian delegation, headed
by Danton, Robespierre, and Marat, was bound to
have its way. When accused of wishing to exercise
despotic power, the Mountain retaliated by a
charge that the Gironde was trying to decentralize
France, to cut it up into separate states like the
United States of America. Between dictatorship
1 Mortimer-Terneux has the best account of this whole struggle.
338
Proscription 339
and federalism: there lay the real conflict. It was
no fair struggle. The Gironde had the majority,
as we have seen. But the Mountain had combat-
iveness, ruthlessness, and good organization. It
could rely, too, on insurrection in Paris; it could,
and did, pack the galleries of the Convention with
its adherents.
There had been clashes in the very first sessions.
The Gironde wished an inquiry into the whole
subject of the September massacres. This the
Mountain opposed — not unnaturally, seeing that
some of its leading members had personally been
concerned in the matter. The general tone was so
autocratic that Buzot asked if, then they were all
slaves to certain members from Paris.
The Gironde finally brought forward the sug-
gestion that the Convention have its own body-
guard, to be recruited in equal measure from all
of the eighty-three departments. It was a fair
proposition but was frantically resented by the
Mountain. There had been no attempt to conceal
the fact that the measure was directed against
Paris. Lasource had openly declared in debate
that " Paris must be reduced to one eighty-
third of influence." Marat and Robespierre had
been denounced by name. Marat, in his defence,
made a theatrical coup. Suddenly pointing a pistol
to his brow, he declared that, had he been con-
demned unheard, he would have blown out his
brains at the foot of the Speaker's desk. "Pro-
found sensation!'1 say the minutes,1 which, of
1 Prods-verbal, Sept. 25, 1792.
34° The French Revolution
course, was what Marat desired. He more than
any other man was to be responsible in the next
few months for keeping excitement at fever pitch.
His newspaper, the Ami du Peuple, was one long
shriek of denunciation.
Among the grievances of the Girondists were:
that Paris was unduly favoured by legislation;
that the taxes from the provinces went to further
her special interests; that army supplies were
ordered exclusively from her merchants. And
what had she done to deserve all this? She had
permitted the September massacres! That was
the taunt that ever recurred. The investigation
hung over the head of the Mountain like the sword
of Damocles. It was staved off as long as possible.
The violence of some of the scenes in the Conven-
tion when such matters were being discussed fairly
beggars description. Accusations were bandied
to and fro. Bazire once even tried to prove that
the aristocrats had instigated the massacres in
order to throw the odium on the Commune.1
The Girondists were charged with wishing to have
a Pretorian guard at their disposal.
The personal attacks were virulent. Marat's
very name made him shiver with horror, declared
Boileau; and he demanded that the desk where
Marat had just spoken should be disinfected!
Louvet likened Robespierre to "all the usurpers
from Caesar to Cromwell, from Sulla to Masa-
niello, " and, indeed, uttered such a tirade against
him, that the great leader for a moment was nearly
1 Traces-verbal, Nov. 6, 1792.
Proscription 341
crushed. When Lou vet had ceased speaking,
Cambon shook his fist in the direction of the
Mountain and cried: " Wretches, that is the death-
sentence of dictators!" But Robespierre had
asked for delay to prepare his reply and then had
come forth triumphant from the ordeal. He even
dared to defend the massacres as a necessary
measure of safety; and that was the theory now
boldly adopted by his party: "It cannot be dis-
guised," cried Collot-d'Herbois in the Jacobin
Club, "that the terrible affair of September 2d
is the main article of our creed of liberty!" His
theory was that but for the massacres the Revo-
lution would never have been accomplished.
Gensonne reviled the men of the Mountain as
"sycophants" and "demagogues"; as "charlatans
of patriotism and false adorers of liberty"; as
"shriekers" who pretended to have saved the
state and who had played no greater part in the
matter than the geese in the capitol when they
saved ancient Rome. Robespierre was once lik-
ened to the Old Man of the Mountain of crusading
times, whose hired band gave to the world the name
and conception of Assassins. Guadet likened
Marat to a croaking toad, and Marat promptly
responded with "Shut up, vile bird!"
Marat accused the Girondists of being accom-
plices of the traitor Dumouriez. He meant to force
them from their last intrenchments, he wrote, and
make them declare themselves royalists. He him-
self had been decreed under arrest and haled before
the Revolutionary Tribunal. But the judges were all
342 The French Revolution
adherents of the Commune and Marat was escorted
back to his seat in the Convention garlanded with
laurels. The idea had already taken form with him
that a number of the Girondists must be expelled.
He wrote a proud letter during his arrest: "Before
belonging to the Con vent ion I belonged to the father-
land; I am at the service of the people, of whom I
am the eyes. ... I do not wish the Assembly dis-
solved: I demand that it be purged of the traitors
who seek to destroy the nation by restoring despot-
ism." Traitors, thieves, conspirators, are his ever-
recurring appellations for the Girondists.
The Girondists were stung and goaded into fury.
The deliberations in the Convention were no longer
free. Isnard, one of the chief orators, was led into
using language that was to serve as a millstone
around his own neck: "If the national representa-
tives are molested, I declare in the name of all
France that Paris shall fall and men shall be search-
ing the banks of the Seine to see if it ever existed ! "
Searching the banks of the Seine ! The utterance,
to these blind fanatics, was criminal. It betrayed
the existence of a plot to overthrow Paris. It was
full evidence of a conspiracy!
The next development in the quarrel was that a
deputation from the Commune formally demanded
the expulsion of twenty-two Girondist deputies
as "guilty of the crime of felony against the
sovereign people." Guadet asked in this con-
nection if the Convention was the highest power
in the land or if there was one above it. There
was one above it and that was the Commune of
Proscription 343
Paris. This body began corresponding with other
communes now, with regard to this matter of the
expulsion. Its own deputations assume an ever
lordlier tone. It wishes more money taken from
the rich for the benefit of the poor; it proposes
measures for the salvation of the republic: "If
you do not adopt them, we who do intend to save
it shall declare ourselves in a state of insurrection!"
On May loth the Convention moved to the Tui-
leries palace where a hall had been prepared
for it. The "sovereign" had come into its own
and manifested its power by acts of great oppres-
sion. In other words, the adherents of the Mount-
ain forcibly kept from the galleries the adherents
of the Gironde. It even seemed as though the
Commune were meditating new massacres. Gua-
det, the Girondist, moved that the wound be
probed to the bottom and the whole Municipal
Council cashiered. His motion was not carried,
but the Gironde obtained the appointing of a com-
mittee to inquire into the conduct of the Communal
Council as well as of the sections of Paris. This
Committee of Twelve was as hateful to the Mount-
ain as had been the contemplated guard from the
departments, and the climax was reached when the
demagogue Hebert, editor of the Pere Duchene,
was declared under arrest.
The members of the Mountain knew all the
ruses in parliamentary tactics much better than
did their opponents. At dead of night they unex-
pectedly called a vote disbanding the Committee
of Twelve and ordering the release of Hubert.
344 The French Revolution
The next day, of course, the vote was rescinded,
but Hebert was at liberty.
With the arrival of bad news from the frontier
on May 29th, Paris fell into one of its period-
ical fits of frenzy. The Communal Council de-
clared itself in permanence, and announced that
it would save the republic. On May 3ist it gave
the signal for an attack on the " aristocratic
factions" — in other words on the Girondist mem-
bers of the National Convention! Marat had
been foremost in bringing things to this pass.
How he had railed at those who had tried "to
crush the Mountain, bulwark of Liberty ! ' ' He had
urged the people to take up arms and not lay them
down until the Convention should have been
"purified." Purification was the technical term
in the Jacobin Club for removing those whose
opinions were not orthodox. When insurrection
was finally proclaimed, Marat himself climbed the
tower of Notre Dame and sounded the tocsin with
his own hand. The Communal forces were re-
cruited by paying those willing to join in the
enterprise. Hanriot, one of the workers in blood
during the September massacres, was made
Commander of the National Guards.
All was ready now for one of the greatest blows
at liberty that ever Frenchmen had struck. The
Commune sent its commands to the National
Convention: the Committee of Twelve as well as
twenty-two other Girondists were to be arrested
and brought to trial. Among the sins of the
members it proscribed, the Commune mentioned,
Proscription 345
particularly, Isnard's speech about searching the
banks of the Seine to see if Paris ever existed.
Was not such a speech in itself proof positive of a
conspiracy to destroy Paris?
The Commune sent forces to surround ex-Minister
Roland 's house, but Roland had already been spir-
ited away. Madame Roland, however, was taken
and carried off to prison. We have her energetic
protest to the Convention, but it was of no avail.
The 3 ist of May ended with a strange sort of
reconciliation, and Girondists and Mountaineers
embraced, sang, danced, and generally revelled
until dawn. The next day a revised list was
handed in with the peremptory demand that "all
these traitors be made to bite the dust." The
grand climax was reserved for the 2d of June.
The attitude of the Convention in general re-
minds one of that of the Legislative Assembly
when it was a question of protecting Louis XVI.
The Mountain had no esprit de corps as far as the
other members were concerned ; its orators taunted
and goaded the Girondists in every way. It was
proposed that for the sake of peace the denounced
members voluntarily suspend themselves; but
Marat cried out against this, declaring that "one
must be pure to offer sacrifices to one's country!"
In answer to the taunts, the Girondist orators
unfolded a very lofty eloquence. Barbaroux
chided his opponents. He had seen victims led
to the altar, he said, garlanded with flowers and
decked with ribbons, but the priest who offered
them in sacrifice had not insulted them. Lanjui-
346 The French Revolution
nais unfolded a prophetic vision of the horrible
monster of dictatorship advancing over heaps of
ruins and piles of corpses, swallowing the deputies
one by one and overthrowing the republic.
These were swan songs: the last efforts of great
orators.
For Hanriot was closing in around the Tuileries
with the hired assassins of the Commune. What
a message to send to one's legislators! If the
inculpated members were not handed over within
one hour, he, Hanriot, would have the president of
the National Convention dragged out and shot !
The Convention determined to march out of
its hall and see if none among these National
Guards would rally to its aid. Barere had declared
that slaves could no longer make laws. Stranger
procession never was! Individual deputies were
seized by the tricoteuses who rushed down from
the galleries and tried to hold them back. Shouts
of "Long live the Mountain!" filled the air.
Marat, too, was loudly cheered. At sight of the
members, Hanriot bade his cannoneers stand to
their guns.
The procession held together and crossed the
garden. But all attempts to pass out by the Pont
Tournant were in vain. The line broke. The
deputies slunk back to their hall much as Louis XVI
and his family had done after the refusal of the
crowd to let them drive to St. Cloud in April, 1791.
The Mountain was victorious. The members
once more took their seats. Couthon moved the
arrest of the twelve, of the twenty-two, and of the
Proscription 347
Ministers Clavi&re and Lebrun. His prefatory
remark makes one wonder if he was sarcastic:
"Now that you are free to deliberate . . .!" It
was a strange kind of freedom! And after Marat
had personally revised the lists, and thirty-one
Girondists, including all the greatest orators, had
been taken into custody, the Commune sent and
thanked the Convention for its patriotic conduct
and congratulated it on having voted without
coercion !
How did France take the news of this treatment
of its elected deputies? There was a bright flare
of rebellion in almost every department. The
town of Lyons raised twenty thousand men and
declared the whole Mountain in the ban. Armies
mustered in Calvados and elsewhere. Moreover,
in the Convention, seventy-five members found
courage to sign an energetic protest. Of the
arrested members themselves, a number escaped,
rallied at Caen in Normandy, and prepared for
civil war.
But just as the Commune had controlled public
opinion in the case of the storming of the Tuileries
and the September massacres, so now it spread
its own version of this affair through the press and
through the post-office. The people should know
the truth about these insurgents: they were
counter-revolutionists — in league with royalists!
The Mountain was soon able to pit army against
army, and on July I3th, a day otherwise memorable,
the opposing forces met in the neighbourhood of
the Norman town of Vernon. The encounter,
348 The French Revolution
indeed, was nearer to the ridiculous than to the
sublime. One man only was killed and both sides
ran away!
Yet the combat sealed the fate of the Girondists.
They had staked all and their opponents were
hourly gaining ground. They were abandoned by
the town of Caen, and on the door of the room that
had served as their place of assembly a placard
announced that they were outlaws. The Conven-
tion itself declared them traitors to their country.
Petion, once the idol of Paris; Buzot, the man
whom Madame Roland loved more than she did
her husband; Louvet, the popular author; Bar-
baroux, and others, started off, disguised as soldiers,
to reach the sea and take ship for their own beloved
province where they expected to be welcomed
with open arms. After incredible hardships they
reached Bordeaux only to find that here, too,
the insurrection had been quelled. Then began
the awful flight, the tracking like wild beasts, the
hiding in caves, cellars, and deserted quarries: all of
which Louvet has so graphically described in his
memoirs.
We have said that the day of the encounter at
Vernon was otherwise memorable. On that day
Charlotte Corday avenged the expulsion of the
Girondists from the Convention by stabbing to
the heart their worst enemy, Marat. The inspira-
tion to the deed — she had acted entirely of her own
initiative — had come from consorting with the
fugitive deputies at Caen. "What finally decided
me," she wrote to Barbaroux, "was the courage
Proscription 349
with which our volunteers enrolled on July 7th. "
She had been present when the forces mustered.
Charlotte Corday, however, was far from having
acted on the spur of the moment. She had been
a close student of Revolutionary affairs. She de-
clared at her trial that she had read over five
hundred pamphlets dealing with the subject.
One of her special admirations in history was the
mother of the Gracchi. Just before the bloody
deed, of which there is no need to recount the -well-
known details, she wrote a letter to " law-abiding
and peace-loving Frenchmen," in which she
bitterly arraigned the Mountain and justified^ her
intended act. She called Marat an odious monster,
a "wild beast fattening on human blood. " "He
told me that in a few days he would have you all
guillotined in Paris/' she wrote to Barbaroux;
"these last words sealed his fate."
Like the Tragic Muse in person she had risen
above all the little sordid details of her hard task.
Twice, if not three times, she had gone to Marat's
house with the great knife concealed in the folds
of her dress. Like the Tragic Muse, too — so
indifferent to her own fate that even her worst
enemies marvelled — she went to her execution in
the scarlet robe of a murderess. Her one request
was not for any alleviation of her lot but for
permission to hand down her features to posterity.
She wrote to the Committee of Public Safety:
"As I still have a few minutes to live, may I hope,
Citizens, for permission to have my portrait
painted?"
35° The French Revolution
We have a portrait, x generally recognized as the
most authentic, which was painted by Hauer.
He was present at her trial and is said to have
been allowed to visit her in her cell.
Of Marat in the act of being stabbed and of
Marat dead there were numerous representations.
His crooked, leering face was easy to reproduce.
Louis David, the artist, painted a famous picture
of the scene, and we have an engraving by Verite
for which the plaster cast of Marat's features
served as model.2 The gaping wound is there,
with the blood oozing from it, and the demagogue
is quoted as saying: "Unable to corrupt, they have
assassinated me ! ' '
There was a sudden wave of Marat worship.
He was likened to Christ. On the temporary tomb3
in which he was laid until he could be transferred to
the Pantheon was placed the inscription: "From
the depths of his black cave he made traitors
tremble. A perfidious hand snatched him away
from the love of his people." The representation
of the tomb is headed: "To the immortal glory of
Marat, the people's friend."
But Marat's death was not looked upon as a
closed episode. There lay the chief tragedy.
Charlotte Corday's act had been more than in
vain for Marat became a martyr.
Over the door of the house where Marat had
lived was placed this line: "Weep, but remember
that he must be avenged!" Everything was done
to inflame passions that were already at fever heat.
' Plate 146, p. 351. 2 Plate 147, p. 353. 3 Plate 148, p. 355.
Plate 146. A portrait of Charlotte Corday. From the painting
by Hauer.
351
352 The French Revolution
The body was exposed to view in the bath and
with the blood-stained shirt hanging near. Orator
succeeded orator and wrung tears by plaintive
laments :
Citizens, strew flowers over the pale corpse of Marat.
He was our friend, the friend of the people. For the people
he lived, for the people he died. . . . Marat, rare and
sublime soul, we will imitate thee, we will crush all traitors!
Our courage, our virtue shall avenge thy death. We swear
it on thy bloody corpse, on the dagger which has pierced
thy breast! We swear it! x
The Chronique de Paris,2 after telling how a fury
from Caen has plunged a dagger into the breast
of the apostle and martyr of liberty, declares
solemnly that the hour of freedom has sounded
and that the blood that has just flowed is the
fulminating decree of condemnation for all traitors.
The laws and coercive measures become now more
uncompromisingly severe, more utterly tyrannical.
Speculators in grain, for instance — who are scourged
as vampires, beasts of prey, and assassins of the
poor — are declared to be guilty of a capital crime.3
A repetition of a refusal to receive assignats as
legal tender is to be punishable with twenty years
in irons.4 On August ist all Bourbons not in prison
were expelled from the soil of France, while the
expenditures for the captives in the Temple were
reduced to a minimum. A special decree had
1 Journal de la Montague, in Buchez et Roux, xxviii., 388.
2 July 1 7th. 3 Moniteur, July 26th. 4 ft., July 3Oth.
j, r , ;M A K A •;
\ /-. i t . i \ i i / / * / '4 . )
/ .
/)<y>///< if A/ <
• //////»/ .'
Plat i- 147. A portrait of Marat engraved from his death-
mask and showing the gaping wound in his breast.
353
354 The French Revolution
already ordered that Marie Antoinette be separated
from her son.1
On August 6th the Journal de la Montague
tells us :
The administration has taken steps to arrest all sus-
pected persons. Last Friday the so-called National
Theatre, the Vaudeville, and the Opera, were surrounded
by an armed force between eight and nine o'clock. No
one might leave without showing his card [of civism].
The number of young men arrested is estimated at five
hundred.
Under the Girondist regime a new Constitution
had been drawn up and almost brought to com-
pletion. It was, of course, now a dead letter for
it was tainted with federalism. But a new one
was ready in about seven weeks. It had become
as easy to make laws as to issue paper money;
more than eleven thousand of them were passed
under France's first three Assemblies.
What shall we say of the new Constitution? It
was more socialistic than its predecessors, going
so far as to formulate the theory that society
owed support to those unable to find work and to
declare insurrection a sacred duty under certain
circumstances. The right of forming popular
societies like the Jacobin Club was also vindicated.
On July 25th the Convention had decreed it a
crime against liberty, and punishable as such, to
attempt to dissolve such societies.2
1 The original manuscript of the decree, National Archives.
3 Duvergier, vi., 54.
Plate 148. A representation of the tomb in which Marat's remains were
placed before being transferred to the Pantheon. It faced the
"National Palace," formerly the Tuileries.
355
356
The French Revolution
This Constitution of 1793, although it was
accepted by nearly all France, was never to be
applied; for, as we shall see presently, permanent
Plate 149. A representation of the first stage of the F£te to Unity
and Indivisibility. The Fountain of Regeneration is to be
erected on the site of the Bastile.
laws of any kind were to prove too hampering for
liberty. But for the moment the Mountain was
intensely proud of its work. In honour of the
acceptance of the Constitution and at the same
time of the victory over federalism, it was deter-
mined to give one of the grandest fetes that the
mind of man had ever imagined. The day chosen
Proscription 357
was August loth, anniversary of the storming of
the Tuileries.
The arrangements were made by David, the
famous painter, to whom it seems to have been
indifferent whether he glorified the republic or the
Empire, Robespierre or Napoleon. His full pro-
gramme for the occasion has been preserved ' but
would be much less intelligible were it not for a
series of six sketches, possibly also by David,
which show the different stages of the fete.
We have reached the highest point of symbol-
ism in the French Revolution. Alas, these poor
people needed to be dazzled and blinded in order
to make them forget the hideous realities beneath
it all! Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity had
proved hollow mockeries; all the more were they
to be clung fast to as high ideals. David's report
to the Convention embodying his programme for
the day is such a treasure-trove of Revolutionary
allegory that it is necessary to give it here in full:
The French assembled to celebrate the f6 te of Unity and
Indivisibility will rise before dawn. The touching scene
of their reunion will be lightened by the first rays of the
sun. This beneficent star whose light extends throughout
the universe will be to them the symbol of truth to which
they will address praises and hymns.
The gathering will take place on the site of the
Bastilc.2 In the midst of its ruins will be erected the
fountain of Regeneration representing nature. From her
fertile breasts (which she will press with her hands) will
spurt an abundance of pure and healthful water of which
1 In the Chronique de Paris, July i8th. • Plate 149, p. 356.
358 The French Revolution
shall drink, each in his turn, eighty-six commissioners, sent
by the primary assemblies — one, namely, from each depart-
ment, seniority being given the preference.
A single cup shall serve for all. After the president of
the National Convention shall have watered the soil of
liberty by a sort of libation, he shall be the first to drink;
he shall then pass the cup in succession to the commission-
ers of the primary assemblies. They shall be summoned
alphabetically to the sound of the drum and trumpet.
Each time a commissioner shall have drunk, a salvo of
artillery shall announce the consummation of this act of
fraternity.
Then, to the beloved air of the "Children of Marseilles,"
strophes shall be sung that bear analogy to the ceremony.
The surrounding scene shall be simple; its richness shall
be adopted from nature. Here and there one shall see,
traced on stones, inscriptions which shall recall the monu-
ment of our ancient servitude; and the commissioners,
having all drunk, shall reciprocally give each other the
fraternal kiss.
The cortege shall march along the boulevards. At its
head shall be the popular societies in a body. They shall
bear a banner on which shall be painted the eye of vigilance
penetrating a thick cloud.
The second group shall be composed of the National
Convention marching in a body, its ushers in the lead.
As the one and only distinctive mark, each of its members
shall bear in his hand a bouquet, formed of sheaves of wheat
and of different fruits. Eight of them shall carry on a
litter an ark ; it shall be open ; it shall have in it the tablets
on which are engraved the rights of man and the constitu-
tional document. The commissioners delegated from the
primary assemblies of the eighty-six departments shall
form a chain around the National Convention. They shall
be joined one to another by the light but indissoluble bond
of Unity and Indivisibility formed by a tri-coloured cordon.
Each one of them shall be distinguished by a pike or portion
Proscription 359
of the fascicle his department will have confided to him—
which he shall hold in one hand with a little banner in-
scribed with the name of his department — and by an olive-
branch, symbol of peace, which he shall carry in the other.
The delegates from the primary assemblies shall likewise
carry the olive-branch in their hands.
The third group shall be composed of the whole worthy
mass of the sovereign: here everything is eclipsed, every-
thing mingled in the presence of the primary assemblies.
Here there is no longer such a thing as a corporation. All
useful members of society shall be massed together indis-
criminately, although characterized by their distinctive
marks.
Thus shall one see the president of the provisional
executive council on a line with the blacksmith; the mayor
with his scarf side by side with the wood-chopper or mason;
the judge, in his robes and his plumed hat, next to the
dyer or shoemaker. The black African, differing only in
colour, shall walk beside the white European. The inter-
esting scholars of the institution for the blind, drawn on a
moving platform, shall present the touching spectacle of
misfortune honoured. You, too, shall be there, tender
nurslings of the foundling asylum, carried in white bassi-
nettes: you shall begin to enjoy your civil rights which you
have so justly recovered ! And you, worthy labourers, you
shall carry in triumph the useful and honourable tools of
your calling! Finally in the midst of this numerous and in-
dustrious family, one will especially notice a true triumphal
car formed by a simple plough on which will be seated an
old man and his old wife, drawn by their own children — a
touching example of filial piety and of veneration for old
age.
Among the attributes of all its different trades one will
read these words written in large letters: "Such is the
service which an indefatigable people renders to human
society."
A military group shall follow this one, escorting in
360
The French Revolution
triumph a car drawn by eight white horses. It will
contain an urn, depository of the ashes of the heroes who
have died gloriously for their country. This car, adorned
with garlands and civic crowns, shall be surrounded by the
Plate 150. A representation of the second stage of the Fe"tc to
Unity and Indivisibility. The meeting with the
" Heroines of Liberty. "
relatives of those whose virtue and courage are being
honoured; the citizens of every age and of every sex [sic]
shall each carry garlands of flowers in their hands. Braziers
shall burn perfumes around the car and military music
shall make the air resound with its warlike tones. A de-
tachment of infantry and cavalry shall bring up the rear
and in the midst of it shall be drawn carts covered with
Proscription 361
hangings shot through with fleurs-de-lis and filled with the
plunder of the vile attributes of royalty and all these
haughty gewgaws of ignorant nobility. On banners in
these carts one will read these words: "People, here is
what has caused all the misfortunes of human society."
When the procession has arrived in this order on the
Boulevard Poissoniere, one will meet,1 under a portico
or triumphal arch, the heroines of the fifth and sixth
of October, seated as they were then on their cannon.
Some will bear branches of trees, others trophies which shall
be unequivocal signs of the brilliant victory these courageous
citizenesses won at that time over the servile body-guards.
There they shall receive from the hands of the president
or the National Convention a branch of laurel and then,
with their cannon turned round, they shall follow the line
of march and, always with a proud attitude, shall join the
sovereign. On the monument will be inscriptions recalling
these two memorable days. The harangues, the joyous
songs, the salvos of artillery, will be renewed at each
halting-place.
Citizens, we have reached the immortal and imperishable
day of the loth.2 It is in the Place dc la Revolution, it is
on the spot where the tyrant died that it must be celebrated.
On the remains of the pedestal of Tyranny which are still
there shall be erected the statue of Liberty, which shall be
inaugurated with due solemnity. Tufted oaks shall form
around her an imposing mass of shade and verdure.3
The branches shall be covered with offerings from all free
French people. Tri-coloured ribbons, liberty caps, hymns,
inscriptions, paintings, will be the fruits that will please
the goddess. At her feet will be an enormous pyre, reached
by steps from on all sides : there in profoundest silence shall
be offered in expiatory sacrifice the impostured attributes
of royalty. There, in the presence of the beloved goddess
of the French, the eighty-six commissioners, each with a
1 Plate 150, p. 360. * Plate 151, p. 362.
* For a better view of this statue of Liberty, see Plate 152, p. 363.
362
The French Revolution
torch in his hand, shall vie with each other in applying the
flame; there the memory of the tyrant shall be devoted to
public execration and then immediately thousands of birds,
restored to liberty and bearing on their necks light bands
Plate 151. A representation of the third stage of the Fete to Unity
and Indivisibility. The statue of the Goddess of Liberty was
on the pedestal of the old statue of Louis XV.
on which shall be written some articles of the declaration
of the rights of man, shall take their rapid flight through
the air and carry to heaven the testimony of liberty restored
to earth.
The fourth halt1 shall be made in the Place des Invalides.
In the middle of the Place, on the summit of a mountain,
1 Plate 1 53, p. 364.
363
364
The French Revolution
shall be represented a colossal figure, the French people,
gathering in its vigorous arms the departmental bundle of
staves. Ambitious federalism, coming forth from its slimy
marsh, with one hand brushing aside the reeds, tries with
Plate 153. A representation of the fourth stage of the F£te to
Unity and Indivisibility. A colossal figure symbolizing the
French people is annihilating the monster called
Federalism.
the other to detach some of the staves; the French people
catches sight of it, takes its club, strikes it, and makes it
return to its pullulating waters never to quit them again.
The fifth and last halt,1 finally, shall be at the Champ de
Mars. Before entering it, a striking homage shall be paid
to Equality — a rightful and necessary act in a republic.
' Plate 154, p. 365.
Proscription
365
They will pass under a gateway of which nature will seem
to have borne the whole expense. Two figures,1 symbols
of Equality and Liberty, shaded by dense foliage and facing
each other with some distance between, shall hold at a
Plate 154. A representation of the fifth stage of the F6te to Unity
and Indivisibility. On the altar of the Fatherland (Champ de
Mars), the president of the Convention is announcing
the acceptance of the new Constitution.
proper height a tri-coloured garland drawn to full length
from which shall be hung an enormous level — the national
level. It shall soar over the heads of all without distinction
of persons. Ye proud ones, ye shall bend your necks!
Arrived at the Champ de Mars, the president of the
1 Termes in the original, being busts rising directly out of the pedestal
as one sees them to-day in Versailles.
366 The French Revolution
National Convention, the Convention, the eighty-six
commissioners of the primary assemblies shall mount the
steps of the altar of the fatherland. At the same time
every one shall go and attach to the outer surface of the
altar his offering: the fruits of his labour, the implements of
his trade or art. It will thus be more magnificently adorned
than by the far-fetched emblems of insignificant painting.
Here we have an immense and industrious people doing
homage to its country with the instruments of the calling
by which it supports wife and children. When this cere-
mony is over, the people shall range themselves round the
altar. Then the president of the National Convention,
having laid on the altar of the Fatherland all the counts of
the ballots in the primary assemblies, the will of the French
people regarding the Constitution shall be proclaimed in
the presence of all the delegates of the sovereign and under
the vault of heaven. The people shall take a vow to
defend it unto death. A general salvo shall announce this
sublime taking of the oath. This done, the eighty-six
commissioners delegated by the primary assemblies shall
advance towards the president of the Convention and
shall deliver over to him, each in turn, the portion of the
bundle of staves he has been carrying in his hand throughout
the whole march. The president shall seize them and shall
bind them all together with a tri- coloured ribbon; then
shall give back to the people the bundle tightly tied, ex-
plaining that the people will be invincible if there be no
division among them. He will also hand over to them the
ark holding the Constitution and will proclaim aloud:
" People, I make you the depositary of the Constitution
under the safeguard of all the virtues."
The people will respectfully receive the ark and the bundle
of staves and will carry them in triumph. Fraternal
kisses, a thousand times repeated, will terminate this novel
and touching scene.
In the engraving we have a sixth stage of the
Proscription
367
proceedings ' taking place around a funeral monu-
ment erected in the Champ de Mars in memory
of the warriors who had died for their country.
This was probably only a project, the times being
Plate 155. A representation of the sixth stage of the F6te to Unity
and Indivisibility. The temple is in honour of the dead warriors.
too troubled for the erection of so elaborate a
monument. David himself was occupied with
Marat's funeral, and we see from the newspapers
how, in the very articles describing the f&te, the
call to arms is interwoven. The Chronique de
Paris writes on August i6th:
1 Plate 155, above.
368
The French Revolution
Never since men and empires existed did a greater social
act culminate in a f£te so august and so touching. . . .
O spectacle the most magnificent and the most moving
that Earth ever displayed to the eyes of the Eternal!
)e M C /\ (%Mff/tf//e
Plate 156. A symbolical representation of Unity and Indivisibility.
To arms, Frenchmen! At the very moment when a nation
of friends and brothers are clasping each other in their
embraces the despots of Europe are violating our property
and devastating our frontiers. . . . This time let all
perish; and let their bones bleaching in our fields rise like
trophies in the ground that their blood will have rendered
more fertile !
The ark with the Constitution and the bundle of
Proscription
369
staves representing Unity and Indivisibility were
carried the next day into the hall of the National
Convention and David promised to design a
resting-place for them. Yet before the Constitu-
tion could go into effect it was found necessary to
MTE
f:r
INJMVIMIilLITE
74
REPUBLIOUE
Plate 157. A symbolical representation of Unity and
Indivisibility watched over by the vigilant eye
of the Jacobins.
decree that "the government of France is to be
revolutionary until peace is proclaimed" and that
terror was the order of the day. It remained
forever a dead letter.
We have various symbolical representations that
have to do with this theme of indivisibility. In one, '
France is looking forward to a new day, her feet on
1 Plate 156, p. 368.
34
37° The French Revolution
the dead hydra of Federalism, her arm resting on
a shield with the bundle of staves tightly tied to-
gether, while beneath is the inscription, "In the
name of the republic one and indivisible." In an-
other production1 the most prominent feature is an
eye — the eye of vigilance of the Jacobins. David, it
will be remembered, had given the most prominent
place in his procession to the so-called popular
societies, and this emblem of the eye had figured
on their banner. Then, indeed, the eye had been
represented as piercing a thick cloud: now it is in
the very centre of the blazing sun. From that sun,
in all directions, emanate vivifying rays, and to it
are turning the barking dog and the crowing cock,
watchers-out for France's safety. Unity has
become as much of an attribute of the young
republic as Liberty, Equality, or Fraternity. But
there is a dark presence now on almost all
the symbols. In different forms we are told
again and again that the alternative is death.
The Reign of Terror has begun.
1 Plate 157, p. 369.
CHAPTER XI
TERROR
AN engraving ' published after the victory over
the Girondists, and glorifying the unity and
indivisibility of the French republic, has a
cap of liberty and a grinning skull with the words
between, "No middle course"; and that was to be
the policy of those governing France during the
whole of the next dark year. We have a repre-
sentation, too, of the Martyrs of Liberty2 whose
deaths are to be avenged: Lepelletier, who was
murdered at the time of Louis XVI 's execution;
Marat, and Chalier, who was put to death four
days after Marat by adherents of the Girondists,
in the town of Lyons. In the background on the
left one sees the Bastile with the inevitable "Live
free or die," on the right the Pantheon, where
these three are to be received among France's
great men.
Qn July 2jth Robespierre became a member of
the Committee of Public Safety, and the SITU
severe measures began that were to send so many
hundreds to the guillotine merely because of their
political opinions and that made a pure mockery
1 Plate 158, p. 372. • Plate 159, p. 373.
371
372
The French Revolution
of all legal forms. On July 3Oth the Revolutionary
Tribunal was divided into two sections, thus doubl-
ing its activity, ^jew days later it was redivided
into four. We now begin to hear frequently of
a new class of criminals, the suspects. We have
Plate 158. An emblem of the Reign of Terror. There is to
be no mean between Liberty and Death.
harangues like this in the Convention: "No more
quarter, no more mercy for traitors" — (simultan-
eous cries from all parts of the hall of "No! No!")
"If we do not get ahead of them they will get
ahead of us. Let us cast between them and us
the barrier of Eternity . . . The day of justice
and of wrath has come."
Billaud-Varennes moved the establishment of a
Plate 159. A representation of Liberty and her great martyrs, Lepellcticr,
Marat, and Chalier, whose deaths cry for vengeance.
373
374 The French Revolution
Revolutionary army, and Danton, in supporting
him, called for bi-weekly assemblies of the sections
of Paris, each person attending to be given forty
sous a day and a hundred million francs being
appropriated to supply these citizens with arms —
measures which were immediately passed. The
Revolutionary committees were given power to
issue warrants of arrest, as well as to make domi-
ciliary visits and seize what weapons they might
find.'
The satellites of tyrants [cried the spokesman of a Ja-
cobin deputation on September 6th], the ferocious islanders,
the tyrants of the North who spread devastation among
us, are less to be feared than the traitors who disquiet us
within, who sow discord, who arm us one against the
other. ... It is time that Equality wield her scythe above
all heads. It is time to frighten all conspirators. Yes,
Legislators, make terror the order of the day! (Vehement
applause !)
"The day has come to be as inflexible as you have
hitherto been weak!" cried Drouet; "the moment
is there for shedding the blood of the guilty ! . . .
Let us be brigands — " but here, to its credit, there
were murmurs in the Assembly. Drouet had to
explain away his forcible utterance and contented
himself with extolling the words of the delegate
from the Commune, "Let us make terror the
order of the day," and with apostrophizing the
enemies of the Mountain — "Well, the Mountain
will crush you!" It was decided that the Revolu-
tionary army should number six thousand men.
Terror 375
As at the time of the September massacres, so
now the happenings in the field served as an excuse
for all the severities. On July 23d, Mainz had
been lost to France after its garrison had been
reduced to eating cats and mice; on the 28th
Valenciennes had been recovered by the Austrians;
on August 27th Toulon admitted the English to
its harbour. The rebels were in the ascendant in
La Vendee and in Lyons. The Convention decreed
the levee en masse, and ordered the young men to
hurry to the battle-line and the old men to sit in
the public squares and preach hatred of kings and
the unity of the republic. The women were to
make tents and uniforms and act as nurses, while
even the children were to fray lint. The public
buildings were turned into barracks, the squares
into arsenals. All horses not needed for agricul-
ture were requisitioned ; all cellar floors were to be
scraped for saltpetre to be used in the manufacture
of gunpowder.
In September strong fetters were laid upon
commerce by fixing a maximum price at which the
necessaries of life might be sold, a measure which
very soon resulted in famine. It was characteristic
of these men to accomplish their narrowest views,
regardless of consequences. Their one idea was
that the patriots must be clothed and fed at a price
within their means. This, they declared, was more
important to the national welfare than that mer-
chants should grow rich. So a long list was pre-
pared fixing the prices of objects of prime necessity;
and these objects were made to range from meat
3?6 The French Revolution
to white paper. The blow to enterprise was
deadly.
No wonder such measures roused discontent
and that the women of the market armed them-
selves with whips and declared they would trounce
all who wore the national cockade. "All agree
on one point," writes an agent of the police, "the
need of a new order of things." One of the govern-
ment spies reported that a pack of playing-cards
was circulating in which the Kings were made in
the likeness of Dumouriez, the Queens were
Charlotte Cordays, and the Knaves were the
soldiers of the republic! Alarming symptoms,
cankerous sores, for which Hebert and Chaumette,
Robespierre and St. -Just, could think of no reme-
dies but more and more Draconic laws l_J These
reptiles with venomous stings must be crushed,
this impious struggle must cease, the enemies of
the republic must be destroyed lest they in turn
destroy. "Hercules is ready! Give the club into
his robust hands," cried Chaumette," and soon the
soil of Liberty will be purged of all the brigands
that infest it!" It was Chaumette who wished
all parks and gardens of the rich to be ploughed
up and planted to vegetables. He urged the
arrest of all nobles as enemies of humanity.
On September iyth it was decreed that "all
suspects who are still at liberty shall be placed
under arrest," and the decree applied to all French
..territory; . Suspects were defined as those who had
shown themselves the friends of tyranny_and
federalism either by words they might have
Terror 377
written or remarks they might have made, and
even those who cannot prove their patriotism
and "have not constantly manifested their attach-
ment to the Revolution." Tribunals were author-
ized to retain in jail even those who had been
legally acquitted.
No wonder the number of prisons had to be
trebled and quadrupled. The law was to be no
dead letter. We have the instructions that
Chaumette issued to the "sections" of Paris as to
how the suspects were to be recognized. Included
are those who have tried to impede the work of the
local assemblies by " astute discourses," as well
as those who "speak mysteriously of the mis-
fortunes of the republic and bewail the fate of the
people but are always ready to spread bad news,
even when affecting to grieve over it." Those who
"while they have done nothing a£amst__Ljbei±y_
yet have done nothing for it" are likewise to be
classed among the suspects. When we reflect that
informers were always welcomed and rewarded,
and that in each town of France the Jacobin Club,
receiving its orders from the mother society in
Paris kept open the eye of vigilance, one wonders
if even religious persecution in the ignorant
Middle Ages ever went so far.
The all-important certificates of civism were
refused by the Commune of Paris to whole cate-
gories of persons — to all of the twenty thousand,
for instance, who had signed the petition protesting
against the violence done to the King on June 20,
1792. The actors of the Th64tre Frangais were
378 The French Revolution
arrested for uttering a verse that occurred in the
play of Pamela: " The party that triumphs is the
only legitimate one."
The sufferings to which the flower of France—
those who made the least attempt to think or act
independently — were now subjected are almost
inconceivable. It is true the fiction was kept up
for a while that this detention was merely a
measure of public safety and that the prisoners
might make themselves as comfortable as the
circumstances permitted. Those who were sent
tcTthe Luxembourg, especially, occupied fine airy
apartments, and the accounts of some of the doings
remind one of Boccaccio. In Port-Royal, which
had been rechristened Port-Libre, it was the same.
There were irrepressible spirits who feasted, en-
joyed music, played games, and made love. The
usages of polite society were observed, and a
Monsieur de Nicolai, we are told, never could meet
a fellow-prisoner at a door without disputing who
should pass out first. Visitors were admitted,
and the prisoners might send out and purchase
what they wished or could pay for. There are
records of kindly concierges who did all in their
power to make their charges comfortable.
But the ignominy, the shame, the injustice, the
separation from those near and dear and the un-
certainty as to their fate: the eventual crowding,
too, and the daily dread of the summons from the
Revolutionary Tribunal, soon made life a perfect
hell. And -a great number of prisons were little
^better than duneeons. The most dreaded of all
Terror 379
was the Conciergerie, always the last halting-place
on the path to the guillotine. In the so-called
Souriciere which was inexpressibly foul and dis-
gusting, one had to fight all night to save one's
extremities from rats. Madame Roland, in Saint-
Pelagie, complained of the narrowness, of the dirt,
of the annoyance of hearing the great bolts fastened,
of the want of air, of the exposure to the gaze of
the jailor. Yet Madame Roland exceeded almost
all in the fortitude with which she bore her long
sufferings and the kindliness and self-sacrifice
with which she tried to alleviate the lot of those
about her. She found sufficient composure of
mind while in prison to write her memoirs and to
provide for their being spirited away to a place of
safety. Only half, indeed, of what she wrote has
been preserved.
Those Girondists, too, who had not escaped
from Paris bore the inevitable philosophically, and
passed the time in profitable conversation and in
singing the songs of their southern home — the
home of the Troubadours.
The gaiety on which some writers are pleased
to dwell was often mere hysterical desperation.
Riouffe, himself long a prisoner, tells of bursts of
mad joy, of mock-guillotinings, of repasts where
one tried not to realize that half of those present
were there for the last time. Suicides were fre-
quent: the ex- Minister Claviere silently hammered
a dagger into his own heart.
Every now and then the Moniteur, the official
organ of the government, gave the total number
380 The French Revolution
of prisoners confined in Paris, though probably
the truth was but half told. After October, 1793,
when all pretence of constitutionalism had van-
ished, the numbers rose by leaps and bounds, and,
at the height of the Terror, there were about eight
thousand in prison at one time.
On October loth it was decreed by the Con-
vention that the government of France should be
revolutionary so long as war continued. There
could be no prosperity, declared St. -Just, so long
as one enemy of Liberty continued to draw the
breath of life. Steel was to take the place of
justice. The people were to reign over the rich
and "make them bathe their proud brows in
sweat."
On that same day the Convention hurled its
anathema at the whole flourishing town of Lyons,
which, it will be remembered, had raised an army
and outlawed the Mountain:
The town of Lyons shall be destroyed; the name Lyons
shall be effaced from the list of towns of the Republic.
What remains of the houses shall henceforth be called
Ville Affranchie. A column shall be erected on the ruins to
attest to posterity the crimes and the punishment of the
royalists of this town. On it shall be inscribed: "Lyons
made war on Liberty. Lyons is no more."
We have interesting letters from Collot-d'Herbois1
who was sent to oversee the demolition and the
punishment of the rebels :
Terror, salutary terror, is truly here the order of the day
1 Buchez et Roux, xxx., 399.
Pl.i-.o 1 60. A cartoon summing up the regime of Robespierre and showing the
Frenchman blindly groping for Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity with
Death ever at hand as the alternative.
381
382 The French Revolution
. . . when we are able, we use cannon and mines in the
work of destruction, but you can imagine that among a
population of 150,000 these measures find many obstacles.
. . . Sixty-four of these conspirators were shot yesterday.
. . . Two hundred and thirty are to fall to-day. ... I
do not think I have once shown weakness, though health
and strength have often failed me. . . . There are sixty
thousand individuals here who will never make republicans :
we must have them sent away and carefully scattered over
the republic. . . . The long siege and general daily dan-
ger have inspired a sort of indifference to life: yes, a total
scorn of death. Yesterday, returning from an execution
a spectator said: " There 's no great hardship about that.
What shall I do to be guillotined? Insult the representa-
tives?" ... I have new measures in mind, weighty and
effectual.
We have letters from other "patriots" sent to
Lyons that are even more horrible than those of
Collot-d'Herbois, because in them one detects a
note of actual glee:
Heads, more heads every day! . . . How you would
have enjoyed seeing national justice meted out to two
hundred and nine rogues! . . . What cement for the
republic! ... I say fete, citizen president — yes, fete
is the right word ! . . . The guillotining and fusilading
are not going badly !
Probably at this juncture appeared a cartoon1
called " The French people or the regime of Robes-
pierre." It must have been issued in the same
defiant spirit as that of the spectator above quoted.
The figure in the middle represents the people,
and he is blindfolded. Around him are Liberty,
1 Plate 160, p. 381.
Terror 383
Equality, Fraternity, and Death. He tries in
vain to catch any one of them and comes to the
conclusion: "It is I in this game that they are
trying to catch."
On October ad the Convention had decreed
jDutlaws twenty fugitive Girondists, had ordered
brought to trial twenty-one others, and had sent
to arrest all of the seventy-five of its own members
who had dared to remonstrate at the happenings
of June 2d. The time had come to sentence Marie
Antoinette, too, and Madame Roland.
For the former Queen of France the day even
of respectful treatment had long since passed.
On August 2d she had been removed to the Con-
ciergerie, and in September, having been found
corresponding with some one by means of pin-
pricks in paper, had been placed in a double-
doored, heavily barred cell and obliged to submit
to the scrutiny of jailors, by night as well as by day.
We know the sums that were spent for her main-
tenance: fifteen francs a day for her food; three
francs and eighteen sous for trimming a skirt;
eighteen sous for hair ribbon and shoe-strings;
three francs twelve sous for tooth- wash, and
sixteen francs for books. She had had two new
caps — fourteen francs for the two. Not much
for a woman who had found her husband's salary
of twenty-five million francs and her own pin-
money of four million francs entirely too small !
We have an engraving of Marie Antoinette1
as she sits in her lonely cell looking up at the
1 Plate 161, p. 384.
384
Terror 385
scant rays of light that come though the small
window. We can see in the accompanying plan the
opening that separated her from the gendarmes.
A screen was her only protection.
On the nth of October the unhappy woman
appeared before the Revolutionary Tribunal.
Clothed in black, she entered the great hall of
audience and seated herself in front of Fouquier-
Tinville, the relentless public prosecutor, being
guarded on either side by an officer of the law.
The president of the tribunal, Hermann, carried
on the interrogation. The mere dry protocol of
the hearing is more eloquent than any rhetoric
and shows what an ordeal it must have been.
The hall was dim, being lighted only by two candles
on the table of the scribe, who wrote down the
minutes of the proceedings, which we still have.
She could scarcely see the president, so the minutes
tell us, and behind, completely in the shadow,
were a number of faces that she could not recognize
"which greatly disquieted Antoinette."
Her answers showed courage and ability. The
questions ranged over the whole period since her
arrival in France, and dealt with her extravagance,
her political activity, the banquet at Versailles
where the band played "O Richard, O my King,"
the flight to Varennes, the loth of August. For
the bloodshed on that latter date Fouquier-Tinville
held her responsible. The man had a sort of
lurid power of expression and must have thrilled
his hearers as he depicted this fury sweeping into
the hall of the Swiss guards, fiercely urging them
25
386 The French Revolution
on, even taking in her mouth the lead they were man-
ipulating and biting off pieces to serve as bullets.
She had, Fouquier said, secretly advocated the
firing on the people and had thrust a pistol into
Louis XVI's unwilling hand. Some of the ques-
tions asked her were useless and cruel. Did she
consider kings necessary to the happiness of the
people? Did she regret that her son had lost his
throne?
On October I5th Fouquier gave his summing up.
Marie Antoinette was a Messalina, a Brunhilda,
a Fredegunda, a Marie de Medicis. She had been
a scourge, a leech to the French people. She had
corrupted the morals of her own son and Fouquier
charged her with abominable doings, the mere
idea of which makes one shudder with horror.
And the worst of it was that such a confession as
Fouquier wished had been extorted from the little
Dauphin who could not in the least have known
the import of what he was saying. Marie An-
toinette's only answer was, "Could a mother have
done such things?"
All the different accusations were finally con-
centrated in the charge that she had " attempted
to destroy budding Liberty." The jury rendered
a unanimous verdict of death within twenty-four
hours.
The next morning before dawn she wrote a
queenly letter to Madame Elizabeth. It was
never delivered, but was placed among the public
documents and thus has been preserved. No
one can read it to-day without feeling a tugging
'
Plate 162. A sketch of Marie Antoinette made by David as she passed his
window in the death-cart on her way to execution.
388 The French Revolution
at the heart-strings. She has been condemned,
she says, to death, but not to shame — that is only
for criminals. Her own conscience is free from
reproach. But how she regrets leaving those poor
children! "You know I only lived for them and
you." She prays that they may remain united
through life and that Madame Elizabeth may be
spared to watch over them. She expresses humility,
religious fervour, and contrition for her shortcom-
ings and ends pathetically with:
Farewell, my good and gentle sister. May this letter
reach you! Think of me always. With my whole heart
I embrace you and those poor dear children. My God,
how heart-rending it is to part from them forever ! Farewell,
farewell! I shall give myself up to my spiritual duties.
As I am not free, they will probably bring me one of their
priests, but I swear here that I will say no word to him
but treat him like an absolute alien.
The artist David, sitting at the side of the noto-
rious Madame Tallien, sketched Marie Antoinette
as she passed him on the way to execution. x Was
it meant for a caricature, or did the once beautiful
Queen really look like that? Her hair had, indeed,
been cut short in order that it might not interfere
when the blade of the guillotine descended on her
neck ; she had been obliged to don the cap of Liber-
ty ; she rode in a common cart with her hands tied
behind her back. At all events, the sketch is a
striking symbol of the passing of the glory of this
world, and months of loneliness and dread may
1 Plate 162, p. 387.
Terror
389
well have given her that rigid look. The drawing
is a more creditable memorial to her than it is to
David.
Plate 163. A representation of a memorial urn with the silhouettes of
Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette.
We have the representation of a funeral urn
with the hidden silhouettes of the King and Queen '
which scarcely would have been allowed to circulate
in France. There must have been many, however,
1 Plate 163, above.
39° The French Revolution
who felt inclined to weep, and we shall see in our
next chapter that artists treated very dangerous
subjects.
The trial of the Girondists followed immediately
upon that of the Queen. The general charge was
conspiracy against the unity and indivisibility of
the republic.! These men had dared to recom-
d a different public policy from that of the
blind fanatics who were now in power — that was
their real crime. How far removed were those
dreams of liberty, those broken yokes and sundered
chains, that filled the minds of the first Revolu-
tionists! The rights of man, where now were
they? The very essence of the parliamentary
system is that men may not be called to account
for honest opinions they may have expressed in
debate. Yet now, every old grievance of the
Mountain against the Gironde was aired anew.
There was no attempt at a legal conviction for
conspiracy. The only proofs adduced were utter-
ances in the National Assembly, in the press, or in
private letters that had been seized. Vergniaud's
remark to Louis on August loth declaring that
the Assembly would uphold the constituted
authorities was now imputed as a crime; every
Girondist objection to the supremacy of Paris
was rehearsed. One member had called it a den
of crime, another a scene of carnage, still another
had declared that it was "the tomb of national
representation." The city which was the mother
and protectress of Liberty, which had given birth
to the republic, had been painted by these wretches
Terror 391
"under odious aspects/' had been reported as
"swimming in blood !" All France had been
called in to destroy it. One can imagine that
Isnard's unfortunate remark about the future
traveller searching the banks of the Seine to see
if Paris ever existed was not forgotten: "He has
dared to unveil the intentions of the conspirators
by this atrocious word."
Few trials have been more ludicrous both as
regarded the charges and the kind of evidence
admitted. Convictions and impressions were sol-
emnly listened to, real arguments accorded no
weight whatever. Brissot interrupted a witness
by declaring that he never had uttered any such
calumnies against Paris as were imputed to him.
But did you ever deny those calumnies? asked the
president of the tribunal, as if that settled the ques-
tion. It was taken as proof of calumniating Paris
that Brissot had once contrasted Robespierre's
followers with honest people. Hebert accom-
plished a master-stroke by turning the odium for
the September massacres on to the Girondists
themselves. They had instigated them simply
for the pleasure of throwing the blame on the
Parisians. There was no objection when Hebert
gave evidence against Roland that had come to
him not even at second but at third hand. Lou vet,
he said, who was known to be Roland's agent,
had told it to a deputy who had repeated it to him,
Hebert. In the same way another witness, Mon-
taut, said that Guadet had told Soul6s who had told
him, Montaut, of a certain plot to murder Marat.
392 The French Revolution
Every patriotic action of the Girondists was
treated as having been hypocritical and performed
with ulterior motives in view: they "had taught all
the enemies of the Revolution the hateful art of
assassinating Liberty by adopting its rallying cry" ;
they had made a habit of imputing to real patri-
ots the crimes they themselves were meditating.
In short, our modern minds fairly reel when
brought into the presence of such false reasoning.
Trial by jury was in its infancy in France and
was intrenched by no bulwark of long-established
procedure. Essential features of it were now
calmly set aside. On October 2 9th, after the
trial of the Girondists had lasted three days, the
Jacobin Club petitioned the Convention to free
the Revolutionary Tribunal "of formalities that!
stifle the conscience and hinder conviction" and
permit the jury to give a verdict whenever, after
'three days, their consciences were sufficiently
satisfied. The decree was passed, and the Revolu-
tionary Tribunal decided on June 3Qth not to waste
ytime in listening to the defence, but at once to
sentence the Girondists.
We have the minutes of the tribunal for the
session in which judgment was passed and they
tell us with some detail what a commotion there
was among the condemned when the sentence
was read, what majesty of demeanour the pa-
triots of the Mountain preserved, how some of
the Girondists hurled invectives at their judges
while others threw assignats to the people and
cried, "Rally to us, friends!" how the people
Terror 393
trampled the assignats under foot and cried, " Long
live the republic! " proving by this truly admirable
conduct that they are inaccessible to corruption.
Despairing of the pass to which French justice
had come, one of the condemned Girondists,
Valaze, stabbed himself to the heart as he went out
from the hall. He had cheated the guillotine. We
have it on the authority of a clerk of the court
that Fouquier-Tinville wished to have the corpse
beheaded, but the tribunal merely decreed that
"the corpse of said Valaze shall lie in a cart
accompanying those that transport his accomplices
to their place of punishment," and that he should
be buried in the same grave. The session broke
up late with cries of "Perish all traitors!" A
fellow-prisoner of the Girondists1 tells how that
night they sang their own dirges and how "we were
so uplifted by their courage that we only felt the
blow long after it had fallen." Then, indeed,
"despair seized us and, weeping, we showed each
other the wretched straw-heap great Vergniaud
had left to go with bound hands and lay his head
upon the scaffold."
Rarely a day passed now without executions.
Philippe d 'Orleans had toyed with the Revolution,
had changed his name to Philippe Egalite", had
voted for the death of the King: but it availed him
nothing. He was condemned as "an author or
accomplice" of the Girondist plot. He showed
pride and courage. "One would have taken him
for a conqueror at the head of his soldiers," writes
1 RioufiV.
394 The French Revolution
a contemporary,1 "rather than for a wretch being
led by the minions of the law to execution." "I
have merited death in expiation of my sins,"
d' Orleans said at the last; "I have contributed to
the death of an innocent man. . . . May God
unite us both with St. Louis!"
The real head of the Girondists remained —
Madame Roland. She had been their guide and
counsellor to the end and from her prison to theirs
had sent letters of encouragement. She had ex-
pected to be called as a witness at their trial and
had made all her arrangements for ending her
career with as much eclat as possible. She had asked
a friend to procure her "a sufficient quantity of
opium," telling him that she intended to " thunder
without reserve and then end it." Her friend had
refused her the poison, and the decision of the court
to hear no evidence for the defence had foiled her
plan of plain speaking. On the very day of the exe-
cution of the Girondists she had been moved from
the prison of St. Pelagie to the Conciergerie.
Few women have managed to stand out from
their surroundings in bolder relief than Madame
Roland. Her memoirs, which she called "an ap-
peal to impartial posterity," have justly become
famous. She was always effective, always dra-
matic, always in the lead. She appeared now at her
trial strikingly dressed in white, with her long hair
floating behind her, but was not allowed to read
her defence. She drew up her own account of
the questions that were asked her and the answers
1 Beaulieu.
Terror 395
that she made. She was condemned to die to-
gether with a forger, and together they ate their
last meal. Her concierge's daughter relates that
Madame Roland tried to cheer the poor dejected
man, that she made fun of him, telling how becom-
ing it was to him to have the hair cut away from
his neck. He entered the death-cart ahead of her;
she told him that that was not showing proper
politeness to a lady. We have a last glimpse of
her from the pen of one who saw the cart go by.
Fresh, calm, and smiling, the indomitable woman
passed on. She was still trying to inspire with a
little courage the wretched man at her side. His
pallor and dejection were in striking contrast to
her brilliant colouring and air of assurance. Two
contemporaries, Riouffe and Des Essarts, vouch
for the statement that on her arrival at the Place
de la Revolution she turned to the statue of
Liberty erected for the celebration on August loth
and cried: "O Liberty, what crimes they commit
in thy name!"1
Madame Roland had once remarked that were
her husband to be guillotined, she would perish
at the foot of the scaffold, and that she was confi-
dent that he in turn would pierce his heart when
he heard of her death. Exactly that happened
now ; there was no delay. In the park of a chateau
about twelve miles from Rouen, where he had
found refuge, he fell on the point of his sword-cane,
having carefully pinned to his coat a note that has
1 Lord Acton disbelieves the anecdote, but Perroud, the learned editor
of the memoirs, sees no reason to doubt its truth.
396 The French Revolution
been preserved1 and that is as full of dignity as of
pathos. No one doubts its genuineness. He asks
that respect be shown to his remains as those of an
honest man, foretells an awful judgment for
France, and prays that his country may one day
come to abhor its terrible crimes. On the back
of the note is written: "Not fear but indignation.
I left my retreat at the moment of hearing that
they were about to murder my wife ; nor do I care
longer to remain in a world filled with crime."
No less sad than the fate of Roland was the end
of those Girondists who had seen their hopes
blasted by the outcome of the battle in Normandy
and had found their way to Bordeaux. Tracked
and hounded, Barbaroux, Guadet, and Salles were
at last found hiding in a cave and put to death.
Rabaut St.-Etienne was betrayed by a friend.
Two bodies discovered in a field, the flesh gnawed
by animals, proved to be Petion, once mayor of
Paris, and Buzot, the object of Madame Roland's
love.
The guillotine was to continue its work without
cessation now. The leaves were falling early, as
Louis XVI had said. They were also falling thick
and fast.
1 It is in the National Archives where the author photographed it.
CHAPTER XII
IDOLATRY
TE last and most daring enterprise of the
French Revolution remains to be chronicled
—the storming of heaven. It was a logical
outcome of the overthrow of all authority. Al-
ready in their complaints to the States-General
of 1789, the clergy speak of the growing disre-
gard of the Sabbath, of "the frightful progress
of incredulity," of "the audacity with which im-
piety attacks even the Divinity Himself." They
inveigh against an "impious and audacious sect
that desecrates its false wisdom with the name
of philosophy and seeks to overthrow the altars."
This was literally what was now to be accom-
plished; for a time at least the altars in France
were to be overthrown. The Christian Era
was to be abolished, the Sabbath to be done
away with, Christ to be publicly denied by hund-
reds of priests and bishops, the churches to be
closed or handed over to ceremonies that were
purely pagan.
All the measures that tended to secularize the
clergy — the confiscation of their lands, the segre-
gation into patriotic and unpatriotic priests, the
397
398 The French Revolution
persecution of the refractory, the putting down
the rebellion in La Vendee which was headed
largely by priests: all these had been so many steps
in the downward progress. The encouragement of
sacerdotal marriages tended to throw ridicule on
the whole old church system. In the conception
of the party in power in France, God now merges
into a sort of tutelary deity of patriotism, into
Liberty, then into Reason, and finally into the
amorphous Supreme Being of Robespierre. There
is no phase of the Revolution more absorbingly
interesting 'than this.
We cannot attempt here to follow the progress
of irreligion in detail, but a few examples will
show whither men's minds were tending.
Already in December, 1792, a deputy named
Dupont had been allowed to make a regular
tirade in the Convention against religion. He
asked why when thrones were tottering, scep-
tres breaking, kings expiring, the altars of the
gods were allowed to stand. A breath of Reason
would make them disappear: " Nature and Reason
• — those are the gods of a man, those are my gods ! "
There were bursts of laughter as an abbe, in
disgust, left the room. Dupont 's open declaration
that he was an atheist did, however, rouse opposi-
tion, but many cried: "Never mind, you're an
honest man!"
Freedom of speech was bearing strange fruits.
After the death of Marat, his heart was placed in
a sort of shrine in the garden of the Luxembourg,
and an orator made the following invocation:
Idolatry 399
"O heart of Jesus, O heart of Marat! . . . You
have an equal right to our homage!" Or take
this extract from the proceedings of the Conven-
tion about six weeks later, the occasion being
a deputation that demanded compulsory secular
education: "One of the children accompanying
the deputation demands that instead of being
preached to in the name of a so-called God they
be instructed in the principles of Equality and of
the Rights of Man and the Constitution."
On October 5th1 the Convention adopted the
Revolutionary calendar that was a further step
towards paganism, and that interests us here, in
addition, because of the many symbols employed.
The decree states that the new era is to date from
the 22d of September, 1792, of the common era,
which is now declared abolished. The 22d was
chosen as the day of the founding of the republic
and at the same time the day on which the sun
arrived at the true autumnal equinox — omen that
Liberty would soon enlighten both halves of the
sphere. We are fortunate enough to possess one
of these calendars,2 which, being perpetual, did
not vary from year to year. There are four seasons
as before, and our artist has given us pretty little
pictures to illustrate them. They show the
progress of a loving pair. In autumn, the man is
on horseback hunting; in winter, he kneels at her
feet and avows his passion ; in spring, the maid sits
'Aulard's Revolution Frangaise, viii., 747 gives the date as 4th
Frimaire, which would be Nov. 25th. But the MS. of the decree,
which I photographed in the Archives, is plainly dated Oct. 5th.
1 Plate 164, p. 400.
II
3 §
^ rt
1.8
b
i
o
•43
400
Idolatry 401
pensive and watches the flocks and the birds,
while in summer we see them arrived in the bridal
chamber.
Each season has three months of thirty days
each and each month has a name significant of its
season. Take, for instance, the months: Vende-
miaire, Brumaire, and Frimaire: they are the
months of vintage, of mists, and of frosts, and the
common ending aire shows that they all belong to
autumn. Fabre d'Eglantine, one of the com-
mittee appointed to draw up the calendar, declares
that in these names he has tried to "profit by the
imitative harmony of the language." Nivose,
Plumose, and Ventose are the sad -sounding winter
months; Germinal, Floreal, and Prairial have to do
with the buds of spring, while all comes to its
fruition in Messidor, Thermidor and Fructidor.
There are no weeks in the Revolutionary calendar
and one gains the impression that one of its chief
aims was to eliminate Sunday. Each month is
divided into three equal parts or decades, and the
days are known by number: primidi, duodi, tridi,
continuing up to decadi which is to be a holiday.
One main idea of the new system was to consecrate
agriculture. The old Saints* calendar, Fabre tells
us, had been a "repertory of lying, duplicity, and
charlatanism " ; but this "canonized crowd " is now
to be expelled. The names are to be replaced by
objects of rational interest, such as plants, trees,
fruits, agricultural implements, and domestic ani-
mals. These are objects, writes witty Fabre, if
not of cult at least of cultivation, and domestic
26
4O2
The French Revolution
animals should be "far more precious in the sight
of Reason than beatified skeletons dragged from
the catacombs of Rome."
Plate 165 A representation of Reason. Note the Eye, the Jacobin emblem.
"In the sight of Reason." Reason, as yet
often confounded with Liberty, was fast becoming
the goddess of France. We have a representation
of her,1 showing how she sits on the crouching lion
of French courage and restrains his fierce ardour.
1 Plate 165, above,
Idolatry 403
In one hand is the torch of truth from the flame
of which looks out the bright Jacobin eye of
vigilance.
So the cat, the horse, the plough, the grape, the
saffron, the chestnut, were to replace the old St.
Johns, St. Georges, and St. Peters, and especially
the St. Louises, though it is not clear that any
serious attempt was made to have them do so.
The calendar remained in actual force from 1793
to 1806 and has since served to make life bitter
for many a historian.
If there were to be twelve equal months of
thirty days each, there would remain five addi-
tional days, and, every four years, a sixth one.
Fabre's disposal of these shows the flowery
spirit of the Revolution. These days, writes Fabre,
were first entitled epagomenal days, but this name
he finds "mute to the imagination," giving to the
people "but a cold idea." So he has thought of a
collective name expressive both of the joy and of
the wit of the French people. He would call
these days the sans-culottides, declaring that even
in classic times the region around rebellious Lyons
had beeen called Gallia bracata, and the rest of
Gaul must, accordingly, have been non-ctdottee.
But old or new this appellation had been made
illustrious by Liberty and ought to be solemnly
consecrated.
The five sans-culottides were all to be holidays
and were to be celebrated in a manner that should
be emblematic of the virtues of the French. There
was to be a day for Genius, a day for Labour, a day
404 The French Revolution
for Actions, a day for Recompense, and a day for
Opinion. The sixth day, recurring every four
years, is to be known as the Sans-culottide par
excellence and to be celebrated by national games.
In the programme for the Fete of Opinion, Fabre's
fancy has a chance to soar. On that one day the
French people may make to its officials what
personal remarks or criticisms it pleases: "The
law gives full sway to the humorous and gay im-
agination of the French . . . and we venture to
say that this one fete day will better restrain the
magistrates within the bounds of duty throughout
the year than even Draconian laws or all the tri-
bunals of France."
It was very shortly after the issue of the Revolu-
tionary calendar that Christ was formally and
publicly denied — first in the region around Corbeil
where there were public abjurations of faith, then
within the very precincts of the National Conven-
tion. In the session of November yth, an abbe
designated himself as "priest, curate, and, there-
.fore, charlatan" and received honourable mention.
The Archbishop of Paris, Gobel, renounced super-
stition, as he called it, and declared that Liberty
and "holy Equality " should henceforth be his gods.
He laid down his ring and crozier and took up a
cap of Liberty. Others followed suit. The Com-
mune of Paris opened a regular bureau for abjura-
tions and sent the Pope a copy of its decrees "to
cure him of his errors." It announced a fete in
Notre Dame, at which hymns would be sung to a
statue of Liberty ' 'erected in place of the ci-devant
Idolatry 405
Holy Virgin/' The cathedral was transformed for
the occasion, a mountain being erected with a
Greek temple on the summit, wherein was an
altar on which burned the torch of Truth. White-
clad maidens with tri-coloured scarfs ascended
the mountain and bowed before the altar. Reason,
clad in a white skirt, blue mantle, and red cap,
then came forth from the temple, and sitting on a
bank of verdure, received the homage of the repub-
licans. A hymn was sung in her praise and then
she disappeared within the temple, turning however
"to cast one more beneficent glance upon her
friends."
We are at the heyday of what is known as
Hebertism, for Hebert's Pere Duchene was the
foremost advocate of this worship of reason,
though Chaumette was the most active worker
in the cause. One is astonished to find so well
known an artist as Bartolozzi lending his aid to
the propaganda, though he doubtless was well
rewarded for it. We have a charming drawing1
of Love and Reason embracing, while beneath
is the text in verse:
Peoples, can you look with indifference on Love, long blind
but to-day without a bandage; on Reason, sublime,
borrowing the torch in order to change through its beams
the destinies of France? Do thou, Love of Count ry, and
thou, sage Reason, set aflame the horizon of this vast
universe! Spring up in all hearts; your holy alliance is the
firmest hope of good citizens. Show us the virtues as well
as Liberty hovering over the ruins of overturned thrones!
'Plate 166, p. 407.
406 The French Revolution
And thou, God of the humans, Supreme Intelligence,
make the French the avengers of debased mortals. And
everywhere the shield with the three colours shall be the
happy emblem of omnipotence.
It is an everlasting blot on the National Con-
vention that it submitted to be a participator in
all this anti-Christian mummery, that it allowed
itself to be swayed by such evanescent passions.
The legislators were not directing public opinion
or making laws according to their own consciences.
But what could one expect of an Assembly that
had allowed seventy-five of its members to be
imprisoned for merely signing a protest ! It was
no longer representative of anything but tyranny.
We shall soon see its factions devouring each other.
The Assembly-hall in the Tuileries was now
treated to much the same scenes as had taken
place in Notre Dame. Reason was borne in on
a sort of throne to the sound of drums and music,
and around her were maidens with garlands of
roses. There were cries of "Long live Reason!'*
"Down with Fanaticism" [in other words Christi-
anity!] Chaumette then told how Fanaticism's
squinting eyes could no longer, bear the light, how
the Gothic vaults of Notre Dame had now for
the first time heard the truth, how dead idols had
made place for an animated image — chef-d'ceuvre
of nature — and he pointed to the young goddess
who is described as young and infinitely pretty.
Incredible as it may sound, he asked and obtained
a decree of the Convention henceforth consecrat-
ing the world-famous cathedral to the worship of
Plate 1 66. A representation of Love and Reason embracing. By
Bartolozzi
407
408 The French Revolution
Reason. ' ' Amid a thousand bravos * ' the president
of the Convention gave the goddess a fraternal
kiss, whereupon his secretaries asked and obtained
the same privilege. The Convention in a body
then repaired to Reason's new temple, although a
number of the deputies silently escaped. "Ah,
what a fine fete we had last decadi!" writes the
Pere Duchene. ". . . How angry the good God
must be! No doubt the last trump is about to
sound."
There were similar celebrations in various places.
At Rochefort, the orator of the day began his
speech with "No, citizens, there is no future life!"
At Nantes, the American consul played a promi-
nent part in the celebration, holding one end of a
tri-coloured ribbon of which the infamous Carrier,
whose specialty was drowning his victims in
great batches, held the other.
It will be remembered that the Convention
supervised the government of France at this time
by means of its representatives on mission, who
were given almost dictatorial powers. Some out-
did even the Parisian iconoclasts in their attacks on
religion. One representative forced priests of
Abbeville (department of the Somme) to mount
the pulpit and confess that they were merely
harlequins who played monkey tricks in order
to cheat the people of their money. He, the
representative, was then acclaimed with cries of
' ' Long live the Convention ! ' ' and ' ' We are saved ! ' '
At Amiens it was decreed that priests who ven-
tured to celebrate mass should be handed over to
Idolatry 409
the Revolutionary Tribunal.1 At Nevers, Chau-
mette and Fouche paid religious honours to the
bust of Brutus, and Fouche ordered every priest
either to marry, adopt a child, or nourish an
indigent old man. It was Fouche, too, who
ordered all outward signs of religion, even figures
on tombstones, to be suppressed or replaced by
effigies of sleep. He wished nuptials celebrated
in a temple of love, and he officiated at a fete
before an altar to Vesta on which was burning a
sacred flame.
It was real iconoclasm, the iconoclasm of the
eighth century. The images of the patron saints
were replaced by those of Brutus, Lepelletier, and
Marat, and at the same time we find the spoils
of the churches actually brought into the hall of
the Convention and paraded before the members.
In a single day, November I3th, a dozen litter-
loads of candelabra, chalices, gilded busts of
bishops and monks and other church treasure
were dumped upon the floor amid loud cries of
"Long live the republic!" Again, among other
objects, a deputation from St. Denis bore the head
of that famous saint and apostrophized it as a
"stinking relic." The department of the Nidvre
sent spoils in silverware and in money to the value
of nearly three million francs.
Chaumette reported in the Jacobin Club on No-
vember 1 8th that a f £te had been celebrated in Lyons
in honour of Chalier — a f&te where "Fanaticism"
had been struck to earth and where the chief actor
1 Aulard, Cidte de la, Raison, pp. 24 ff.
410 The French Revolution
had been "an ass decorated with all the pontifical
trappings and bearing a mitre on its head." Four
days later took place one of the great masquerades
in the Convention and a deputation swore with
raised hands to have no other cult than that of
Reason, Liberty, Equality, and the Republic.
The president, Laloi, replied to this deputation:
"In one single instant you make vanish into
nothingness eighteen centuries of errors."
We still have the official account in the Moniteur
of one of the wildest of the iconoclastic orgies
countenanced by the Convention.
The section of Gravilliers is admitted. At its head
marches a troop of men clad in sacerdotal and pontifical
robes. The music plays the Carmagnole and Malbrough
s'en va-t-en guerre. Banners and crosses are borne aloft.
Ah, le bel oiseau! is played as the dais enters. Simultane-
ously all the citizens of the section disrobe, and from under
the bedizenments of fanaticism one sees defenders of their
country issue forth clothed in the national uniform. Each
casts away his discarded vestments and the air is full of
stoles, mitres, chasubles, and dalmatics.
A child then read a discourse doing homage to
Reason.
The culmination of Hebertism was the decree
passed by the Commune that all the churches of
Paris be closed and all priests be excluded from
public functions and employments, which latter
measure was rescinded two days later. Hebert
also obtained a vote that all the church steeples
in Paris be levelled and all statues of saints be
Idolatry 411
demolished; but his influence was not of long
duration and the measure was not carried out.
For this we have to thank Robespierre. Like
many popular leaders, he was as hostile to those
who went beyond him as to those who failed to
come up to his personal standard. He could not
recognize any righteousness but that which con-
sisted in following his admonishments. "Timid
goodness" was as abhorrent to him as open crime.
He considered the ordinary practices of the church
fanaticism, indeed, but now thundered away in
the Jacobin Club against "the pompous and
exaggerated zeal" with which they were being
attacked. He accused Hebert and his followers
of "usurping a false popularity" and of "attaching
the bells of folly to the very sceptre of philosophy."
As a matter of fact, Robespierre had his own
little religion all ready to impose. It was radical
enough, too. He believed in a Divinity and de-
clared that did God not exist one would have to
invent him. But his Supreme Being was a mere
personification of the attributes that he, Robes-
pierre, admired — a defender of the free institutions
of the French, a death-dealer to tyrants.
In the face of Robespierre's attacks the H6bert-
ists were driven from one intrenchment to another.
On November 28th, the decree closing all the
churches was rescinded, and it was voted that the
Council of the Commune should listen to no more
discussions regarding religious or metaphysical
ideas. The worship of Reason was soon dead in
Paris though it persisted surprisingly long in the
412 The French Revolution
provinces. The Convention, on December 5th,
declared that "the French nation and its repre-
sentatives respect the liberty of all forms of worship
and proscribe none."
We shall soon see what were the consequences
to Hebert of incurring Robespierre's enmity.
The Committee of Public Safety, of which the
latter was the leading spirit, was daily becoming
more terrible. No former services in the cause of
the Revolution were allowed to count. Gentle old
Bailly, the hero of the Tennis Court oath and once
Mayor of Paris, was executed for having pro-
claimed martial law against the sovereign people
at the time of the petition of the Champ de
Mars (July 17, 1791). The guillotine was set up
on the scene of the crime, and the red flag Bailly
had used was ignited and thrust in his face,
causing him acute pain. His death was quickly
followed by that of a long succession of ministers,
deputies, generals (Luckner among them), magis-
trates, merchants, and artisans. There were a
number of women, too, ranging in character from
the infamous Madame du Barry, who unlike most
of those of the real aristocracy died hard and uttered
shrieks of despair, to innocent Carmelite nuns.
Robespierre's theory was that republics are
founded on repression of crime as well as on
virtues, that the land on which Liberty shines
must see all monsters thrust back into the shadow,
that the guilty must roll in the dust and be
trampled under foot. And if one is to punish one
must punish promptly, purging one's soul of all
Idolatry 413
feebleness. One's arm must be brazen and, like
Brutus, one must be willing to sacrifice, if need be,
children, brothers, friends. As Collot-d'Herbois
expressed it, if patriotism drop from its height for
an instant it is no longer patriotism. "Let
Europe know/' cried St. -Just, Robespierre's truest
disciple, "that you mean to leave not one unhappy
man nor one oppressor on French soil!"
In February, the Hebertists endeavoured to
have the Committee of Public Safety dissolved;
Robespierre denounced them in the Jacobin Club
in his most scathing manner as "these patriots of
yesterday who try to scale the Mountain and expel
the veterans of the Revolution!" Yet he is quite
as severe against the so-called "moderates" of
whom Danton, strange to say, was the chief repre-
sentative. The one, he declared, would transport
you into the torrid, the other into the frigid zone;
the one would make of Liberty a Bacchante, the
other a common prostitute.
Robespierre's egotism as regards political tenets
is simply astounding. He and he alone knows
what is right and all others are enemies of the
republic, not fit to cumber its soil. Yet the dis-
tinctions are often too fine for us to recognize.
He is almost infantile when he seeks to expose
the hidden motives of his enemies, and here he
includes both Dantonists and Hebertists. Their
zeal and their laxness are alike suspicious to him:
"they oppose energetic measures, but, when un-
able to prevent them, carry these same measures
to extremes;" "they will tell the truth just enough
414 The French Revolution
to be able to lie with impunity;" "they are aflame
for great resolutions that mean nothing and more
than indifferent to those that can further the cause
of the people."
The conclusion of one of his great speeches
against these enemies1 is full of naive self -betrayal :
"In their perfidious hands the remedies for our
evils become so many poisons. All you can do,
all you can say, they turn against you — even the
truths we have just been expounding!" A terrible
and dangerous man this Robespierre, because of
his absolute faith in himself!
The Hebertists had never been noted for modera-
tion of language and they used expressions against
the Dantonists which gave Robespierre the handle
he desired. Hebert and his adherents, in speeches
at the Cordelier Club, glorified insurrection —
1 ' holy insurrection ' ' one of them called it. Further
than such incendiary talk they do not seem to
have gone. But, on March I3th, St. -Just read a
report "concerning conspiracies against the French
people and Liberty," and that night Hebert and
nineteen of his followers, — one, Ronsin, was
commander of the "revolutionary army" — were
placed under arrest. The conspiracy was painted
in the blackest colours imaginable and popular
opinion became bitterly hostile to the men who
had been idols the week before. "My God, who
would ever have thought it!" a woman was heard
to exclaim. People looked forward to the execution
as to a f£te.
1 Hamel, iii., 390.
Idolatry 415
Rumour supplied all the necessary evidence and
distorted remarks and disjointed passages from
Pere Duchene were the weapons that destroyed
the Hebertists. Had not Ronsin declared that he
wished he were Cromwell for twenty-four hours?
Had not Dessieux said that "morals amount to
nothing "? The trial lasted three days; on the
fourth, the jury pronounced its conscience satisfied,
although the counsel for the defence had not been
heard. One prisoner was acquitted; he had been
merely a decoy-duck sent to spy on the others.
A woman was spared for the moment because she
declared herself enceinte. The rest were executed
within twenty-four hours, and when it came
Hebert's turn, caps were swung in the air and there
were prolonged shouts of "Long live the republic!"
On the very day of Hebert's execution, Robes-
pierre yielded, we are told, to the instances of St.-
Just and Billaud-Varennes, and the Committee
of Public Safety decreed the arrest of Danton and
all the chief men of his party. The blow was so
heavy that the recoil almost overthrew Robespierre.
This Danton had once been his friend; together
they had risen to eminence. But Danton now
stood in his way. He was too moderate, too
much inclined to conciliation. Although he had
served his country well his policy was different.
At the news of his arrest by Robespierre there
were cries in the Convention of "Down with the
dictator!" Legendre, declaring that Danton was
as pure as himself, demanded a hearing for the
accused; but Robespierre's threatening eloquence
416 The French Revolution
reduced him to such a state that he stammered
forth excuses. Danton was a rotten idol which
must not, in falling, be allowed to crush the Con-
vention, though he, Robespierre, for his part,
was ready to die. Danton and his partisans had
followed Liberty, St. -Just declared, merely as a
tiger follows its prey. In reality they were royal-
ists. St. -Just, too, offered to die in defence of
the truth ; the friendly tomb would hide him from
the shame of seeing the wicked triumph.
We must hasten over the trial of the Dantonists,
mentioning merely enough to enable the reader to
appreciate the symbolism of Robespierre's final
great fete to the Supreme Being that had delivered
France of its enemies. Never were men prouder in
the presence of a tribunal. "Your age?" Camille
Desmoulins was asked. " That of the sans-culotte
Jesus, thirty-three years." "Your name and
dwelling-place?" they said to Danton. "One will
soon be in the Pantheon, the other in space!"
The passionate replies to every question drove
Fouquier-Tinville to desperation; he complained
of "these accused who, like bandits, clamour to
have wit nesses heard in their defence." We still
have the letter that he wrote to the Convention
from the courtroom. "A horrible storm," it
began, "has been raging ever since the session
opened."
In discussing this letter, St. -Just cried: "What
innocent man ever revolted against the law?"
and the Convention decreed: "Any one who
resists or insults national justice shall instantly
Idolatry 417
be deprived of the right to debate!*' The Dan-
tonists, accordingly, were led away while sentence
was passed in their absence. Eighteen were
condemned and executed. As Danton stood at
the foot of the scaffold, he spoke tenderly of his
Plate 167. A production representing Robespierre as the sun rising above the
mountain and giving light to the universe. There is a text in the original
which is omitted here as it could not be brought within compass. It reads:
Notre montagne, enfin, est couverte de gloire;
L'intrigue est renvers^e; et la saine raison,
Sous le glaive des lois livrant la trahison,
Nous rend libre a jamais le champ de la victoire.
A Paris chez la C'enne Bergny Mde. d'Estampes, rue du Coq St. Honore, No. ijj.
young wife, then straightened himself up with
" Danton, no weakness! "
We have a most curious production1 that must
have been issued at this juncture. The text
applies well to the fall of the Dantonists: "Our
Mountain at last is covered with glory; intrigue
is overthrown and sane Reason delivering treason
to the sword of the law frees for us forever the
field of victory. " Robespierre's head, rising like
1 Plate 167, above.
27
4i 8 The French Revolution
the sun over the summit of the mountain, with the
inscription, "I light up the whole universe," would
seem to be an allusion to his new religion. It is
more than probable that the whole was meant
seriously and not sarcastically.
In order properly to introduce this new religion,
Robespierre had, in May, 1794, procured from the
Convention a decree recognizing not only the Su-
preme Being but also the immortality of the soul
and announcing a great Fete. His report at the
time had been ordered to be translated into every
known tongue. A zealous commissioner of pub-
lic instruction had proposed to banish all who
did not believe in the divinity; but this Robes-
pierre himself could not conscientiously advocate.
But the Committee of Public Safety decreed that
on every church should be placed the inscription :
" The French people recognizes the Supreme
Being and the immortality of the soul." There
are churches to-day on which these words, graven
in the stone, still stand.
An attempt to murder Robespierre, or rather
a harmless incident exploited as such, gave him
at this juncture the martyr-halo that he had long
desired. The Moniteur declares that when, after
his escape, he entered the Jacobin Club, "all
hearts bounded in unison." He was chosen
president of the National Convention. In an
address at the Jacobin Club he swore ' ' by the dag-
gers red with the blood of the martyrs of the Revolu-
tion and recently pointed against us "to exterminate
to the last rascal those who attacked Liberty.
Idolatry 419
David had charge of the projected F6te to the
Supreme Being, just as he had had charge of
the fete of the year before. Would he rise to the
task? This was to be the final consecration of the
whole work of the Revolution. Some repetition
was unavoidable, but, on the whole, David was
equal to the occasion. We need not dwell on the
homage to the rising sun, on the fluttering em-
blems, the flowers and branches of trees. Each
deputy wore a tri-coloured scarf and a hat with
red, white, and blue plumes; each carried in his
hand, too, a huge bouquet of flowers, fruits, and
wheat-sheaves. All classes of the population were
pressed into the service: the aged, whose eyes—
so David had arranged it at least — were wet with
tears of joy; the chaste spouses twining the floating
hair of their daughters — yes, even the very infants
at the breast had their r61e assigned them.
There was a huge car drawn by eight white
bullocks with garlands around their horns. On
this car sat Liberty under the shadow of a good-
sized tree, and behind her was every known
implement and emblem of agriculture.
The Convention assembled at the Tuileries,
while an orchestra discoursed slow music and an
immense crowd of spectators gathered. Robes-
pierre, from an elevation, delivered the great
speech of his life: "It has come at last the day
forever blessed which the French people con-
secrates to the Supreme Being." He goes on to
tell how tyranny, crime, and imposture have
hitherto reigned in the world but how now the
420 The French Revolution
immortal hand of the Supreme Being has graven
in the hearts of men the death-sentence of despots.
No longer shall kings prey upon the human species;
no longer shall priests practice pride, perfidy,
avarice, and debauchery. The Supreme Being
adorns with modesty the brow of beauty, makes
the mother's heart thrill with tenderness, fills the
son's eyes with delicious tears as he falls on that
mother's bosom, unites all mortals with a great
chain of love and fidelity. Perish the tyrant who
dares to break it !
Pausing in his harangue, Robespierre, at the
head of the Convention, advanced to a sort of
amphitheatre in the garden where, after addressing
the crowd once more, he applied a lighted torch
to a group of wooden statues representing atheism,
ambition, discord, etc. As the wood burned away
it disclosed one single statue — wisdom; and
Robespierre cried exultingly:
It has vanished into space, the monster that the genius
of kings once vomited against France — may there go with it
all the crime and all the misery of the world! . . . Being
of beings, author of nature, the vile pander of despotism,
the cruel and perfidious aristocrat outrages thee by invok-
ing thee, but the defenders of Liberty can confidently
throw themselves on thy paternal breast !
From which we learn that the Supreme Being is a
male.
From the Tuileries the great procession, the car
in its midst, marched to the Champ de Mars.
A tri-coloured ribbon, held by groups representing
infancy, youth, manhood, and old age, separated
Idolatry 421
the Convention from the crowd. Robespierre
wore a sky-blue coat, trousers of nankeen, and white
stockings, and walked alone and in the lead.
Now came the last and greatest flight of David's
imagination. Mountains we have had before in
celebrations, but never one like this. Fortunate
we are to have a graphic illustration of it ' to aid
us in understanding the descriptions. The new
mountain covered the altar of the fatherland-
did it possibly occur to David that the Mountain
Party actually had taken the place of the nation?—
and was of huge dimensions, culminating in a
great tree of Liberty. There were other trees, too,
and grottoes, and arches, and winding paths, and
there must have been room on its surface for many
hundreds of people. Incense rose in clouds from
enormous braziers, while flags and banners waved
and trophies were brandished.
Could symbolism, could idolatry go farther?
It was an apotheosis, a transfiguration. And all
was action, all movement. While Liberty's great
car drew up to one side, the deputies, gay with
their tri-coloured plumes and their huge bouquets
—one can see even the latter in the picture —
formed in a double line and slowly climbed the
mountain — up to the very summit. Beneath
them, groups of men and maidens had taken their
places, each group with its appointed task of
glorification to perform. The maidens threw
flowers high in the air; the youths drew their
swords and vowed with loud voices to conquer
1 Plate 1 68, p. 422.
422
Idolatry 423
the enemy or die; while the old men placed then-
hands on the heads of the youths and gave them the
paternal benediction. Then cannon crashed re-
peatedly to signify vengeance on the hated foe, and
the day ended with a rapturous clasping of all by
all in embraces of fraternity.
The F6te to the Supreme Being was over.
CHAPTER XIII
REACTION
EVEN as he walked at the head of the proces-
sion in the Fete to the Supreme Being, Robes-
pierre had heard ominous mutterings and
sarcastic comments — allusions to his ambition, to
his kingly aspirations, and to the Tarpeian rock.
He noted the names of these detractors for future
use — the notes were later found among his papers.
At the Jacobin Club on July ist, he speaks of calum-
nies that have been uttered "you would shudder
were I to tell you where!"
The increased severity of the Revolutionary Tri-
bunal undermined even Robespierre's popularity.
A commission at Orange prepared to try some
twelve or fifteen thousand persons — too many to
send to Paris, writes the Convention's emissary.
At the same time, the so-called laws of Prairial made
many deputies fear for their own safety. In Paris
alone, the daily executions averaged twenty-eight
for seven successive weeks, and the guillotine had
to be moved because the continual passing of death-
carts along the Rue St. Honore injured business.
There would be batches of forty and sixty persons
at a time. And there was no longer even a shadow
424
Reaction 425
of justice in the trials en masse, where the judges
had the sentences already signed, with room left to
fill in the names, while the death-carts stood wait-
ing at the door. People who had never even seen
each other were executed as fellow-conspirators.
By these new laws death was to be the immediate
penalty for such vague crimes as spreading false
news or "trying to mar the purity of republican
principles.'* Anything was to be admitted by
way of proof that would convince "a just and
reasonable mind." As if, any such were still to
be found among these advocates of Liberty gone
mad! No legal forms were any longer to be
observed. There were no longer to be judges or
juries, but merely commissioners, who were to
proceed from prison to prison and dispose of the
cases of all the inmates. "The only delay needed
when punishing the country's enemies," declared
Couthon, "is time to recognize them." He be-
lieved that it was a question of "exterminating the
implacable satellites of tyranny' ' or of perishing with
the republic. Robespierre exerted his whole in-
fluence in favour of these drastic laws, maintain-
ing that there was not a single paragraph in them
but what was founded on justice and on reason, and
that true lovers of their country would welcome
with transports the means of striking its enemies.
He kept harping on all the good the government
had done by killing traitors, and if he wished to
ruin any one he referred to him as an ally of
Danton. In the Convention he spoke like a
Christian martyr and was doubtless as sincere:
426 The French Revolution
"Give us strength to bear the immense, the
almost superhuman burden you have imposed
upon us!" Barere made the Convention shudder
by telling how avid were the nation's enemies,
especially the English, of Robespierre's blood,
and how at an English masquerade-ball a woman
dressed as Charlotte Corday had, with a raised
dagger, pursued some one disguised as Robespierre
and threatened to Maratize him! Robespierre
himself referred to caricatures of him that were
circulating in London, but declared that virtue
and courage were his allies and that he was ready
to die fighting tyrants and conspirators.
Within the seven weeks beginning June 10,
1794, more persons were guillotined than in the
whole thirteen months preceding. We have a
caricature of Robespierre's regime1 that represents
the executioner at last placing his own head under
the blade as there was no one else left to guillotine.
The goddess of Liberty looks on complacently,
while beneath are heads in heaps sorted out
according to calling: the clergy, the parlement, the
nobility, the Constituent and Legislative Assem-
blies, the Convention. But by far the largest heap
is that of the common people.
But what, now, was coming over Robespierre?
During the six weeks that followed on the F£te
to the Supreme Being, he kept away from the
sessions of the Committee of Public Safety. Was
it, as his defenders maintain, because he disap-
proved of all the bloodshed? If so, a very sudden
1 Plate 169, p. 427.
•
( . .
Plate 169. A caricature of Robespierre's regime. Other
victims failing him, the executioner is guillotining
himself.
428 The French Revolution
change must have come over him since the days
when he championed the laws of Prairial. Or was
it because he read the signs of the times and saw
ominous tokens that his rule was over? More
than once he had to defend himself in the Jacobin
Club, to refute the "absurd charges" that he was
aiming at dictatorship and that members of the
Convention were in danger from him.
He was harmed at this critical juncture by being
involved in the charge of having protected an old
woman, Catherine Theot, who was now brought
to trial and who posed as the founder of a new
religion and even called herself the Mother of God.
But what finally ruined Robespierre was not
his personal ambition, not his dealings with an old
sorceress, but the fact that France was gaining
victories. They fell on him, writes Barere in his
memoirs, like so many furies. So long as the
enemies threatened the ruin and disruption of the
country, men had deliberately closed their eyes
to the hideous doings at home. But at Fleurus
the French won, and both the Austrians and the
English were driven out of Belgium. From day to
day the feeling gained ground that the bloody
system irrevocably associated with Robespierre's
name was no longer necessary, that the national
existence was no longer at stake.
We have the letters of a secret agent who warned
Robespierre that storms were gathering round
him, but who saw in still further severity his only
hope of salvation. Robespierre was urged to ap-
pear in the Convention and strike a blow that
Reaction 429
should utterly terrify his antagonists. " Go to work
on a grand scale ; go to work like the legislators of
a great republic," writes the agent, who lays stress
on the opposition to Robespierre's religious system
and also on the affair of Catherine Theot. '
On July 26th, Robespierre did appear in the
Convention and did make the speech his agent
had advised. He began in a wheedling tone: he
had come to dispel cruel errors; they were no
tyrants, so the cries of outraged innocence would
not offend them. It was not the Committee of
Public Safety who were responsible for the Reign
of Terror, it was the monsters who accused it.
None but conspirators could have invented this
idea of dictatorship. To think that he, Robes-
pierre, should seem an object of dread to the men
he loved and revered! For a sensitive soul like
his, what a punishment! They call him a tyrant,
but if he was one, these would be the very men
to crawl at his feet and to let him stuff them with
gold. No, he is no tyrant, he declares, he is a
slave of Liberty, a living martyr of the republic.
Here we may imagine that the tame cat expres-
sion left him and the tigerish gleam flashed from
his eyes. He has truths to utter, but if they wish
him to conceal them, let them bring the hemlock
and he will drink it. He must do his duty, he has
traitors to denounce! In the very heart of the
Convention there is a criminal coalition; among
the conspirators are members even of the Com-
1 All the chief documents for the last dealings of Robespierre with
the Convention are to be found in Buchez et Roux, vol. xxxiii.
43° The French Revolution
mittee of Public Safety. They are seeking the
ruin of their country. What is the remedy? To
seize these traitors! To rid the defenders of
Liberty of this horde of rascals!
So completely was the Convention under the
spell of Robespierre's rushing eloquence that the
full import of these remarks was not at first per-
ceived. It was voted to print his discourse and
distribute it among all the departments of France.
Then a vague fear came over the deputies. What
was this charge of treason? Whose turn would
come next? A member courageously called upon
Robespierre to name those whom he accused, and
others joined in the chorus. Robespierre had
dared all and lost. He would not name them, he
declared, not then, at least. The Convention
revoked its decree to print his discourse and send
it to the departments. Robespierre's prestige had
received a crushing blow.
But the closing scene in this greatest of all
political dramas was reserved for the next day.
Shortly after mid-day, St.-Just rose to speak; but
when it became evident that he meant to defend
Robespierre, he encountered a towering wave of
opposition. One whom Robespierre had person-
ally injured, Tallien, threw caution to the winds.
His heart ached, he declared, at all the woes of
his country; the moment had come for rending
the veil asunder! There were cries of approval
from all sides: "Yes, yes, let the truth shine
forth and let the traitors be known!" Among
those denouncing St.-Just was one of Robes-
Reaction 431
pierre's own Committee of Public Safety, Billaud-
Varennes.
It was a supreme moment: tensest with passion
of any in the Revolution. In this one man the
whole policy of blood was now being condemned.
The members applauded each blow that was
struck at their former idol; they rose in a body,
they waved their hats, they cheered the republic,
the Convention, the Committee of Public Safety.
They offered to die for Liberty. When Lebas, a
friend of Robespierre's, tried to take the floor, he
was shouted down, and when Robespierre himself
made a dash for the speaker's desk, there were
cries of "Down with him ! Down with the tyrant !"
It was as though dogs had tasted blood. All
hurled themselves on Robespierre. Billaud-Va-
rennes threw the whole odium for the laws of
Prairial on his former associate and, to quote the
minutes literally, "all eyes are turned on Robes-
pierre and express the horror he inspires; a general
shudder is perceptible." Tallien threatened to
stab "this new Cromwell" to the heart should the
Convention not punish him. He now denounced
others as adherents of Robespierre.
A score of times the hounded man tried to reply.
Unanimous cries prevented him from speaking.
He grew more and more agitated and furiously
waved his arms. "Down with the tyrant!"
came in a steady roar. "He turns for a moment
to St.-Just," say the minutes, "whose attitude pro-
claims his despair at seeing himself unmasked and
who has no encouragement to offer." Once more he
432 The French Revolution
insisted on the floor, once more all the members
cry, "Down with the tyrant!" and at last force
him into silence.
All constraint was gone. A member even
evoked laughter by ridiculing Robespierre as the
one and only defender of Liberty, the martyr, the
man of rare modesty. The latter found breath
to accuse Tallien of falsehood, then the din silenced
him again.
We have a most vivid and detailed account in
the Moniteur of the scenes that followed: how
Robespierre made a mute appeal with his eyes to
his former friends of the Mountain, how some
remained immovable, others turned away their
heads but the great majority showed hostility;
how the frantic man then appealed to the whole
Assembly against these "bandits" and how finally
he shrieked at the president of the Convention:
"President of assassins, I demand the floor!"
There was a violent commotion. The noise was so
great that Robespierre wore himself out with efforts
to make himself heard. His voice died away. He
seemed at the last gasp. Then a member ex-
claimed: "It is the blood of Danton that is
suffocating him ! " This brought Robespierre back
to life: " Then it is Danton you are trying to
avenge!" he cried, and the tumult began anew.
There was now a demand, first isolated then
becoming unanimous, for Robespierre's arrest.
He begged them to decree his death, and it was
declared that he well deserved such a fate. There-
upon the younger Robespierre rushed to his
Reaction 433
brother's side and asked to die with him; "both,"
say the minutes, "their eyes sparkling with rage
and seeing the uselessness of a further pretence of
calmness, insult, abuse, and threaten the National
Assembly."
The whole Convention rose. With an air of
fury Robespierre runs to different parts of the hall ;
he mounts and descends the steps of the platform;
he finally falls panting on a chair. His arrest is
decreed amid thunders of applause, as is like-
wise that of Couthon, St.-Just, and Lebas. The
ushers are summoned to bring them before the
bar.
In the course of the next few hours, all the
wildest scenes of the Revolution were re-enacted
in swift succession. The tocsin rang, the barriers
were closed, the Commune armed its satellites
who rescued the Convention's prisoners. Save the
paralytic Couthon, they were soon all in the Hotel
de Ville.
To the Convention came news that a new Re-
volutionary government was being set up and
that the meeting-place of the Committee of Public
Safety was being surrounded. But the Conven-
tion itself was upheld now by many of the spec-
tators and by the National Guards and showed
a different spirit from what the Legislative Assem-
bly had done on a similar occasion. Hanriot,
again a leader of the mob, was arrested, then torn
from his captors. The Convention proclaimed
Hanriot, as well as the two Robespierres, St.-Just,
Lebas, and Couthon, rebels and outlaws to be shot
28
434 The French Revolution
down by any one at sight. A force of guards was
despatched to the Hotel de Ville.
In the National Archives of France is a note,
addressed to Couthon and signed by the Robes-
pierres and St.- Just: " Couthon, all the patriots
are outlawed; the entire people has risen; it would
be treason to it not to come to us at the
Commune !"
The cause of the Convention was rapidly gaining.
There were deputations, protestations of fidelity,
cheers. Word was sent to the guards that before
the sun rose the conspirators must be snatched
from their retreat and punished. A drenching
rain helped to scatter the disorganized mob.
A pall of despair settled down upon the besieged.
Then came acts of violence, of self-destruction.
Hanriot was thrown from a window by a member
of the Council of the Commune for daring to say
that all was lost. Robespierre shot himself,
shattering his jaw, and Lebas succeeded better
with a similar attempt at suicide. St. -Just and
some twenty adherents were arrested.
Over at the Tuileries, for a brief moment, the
National Convention was thrown into a fresh
panic. The president announced "the cowardly
Robespierre is there. ... It is doubtless your will
that he do not come in.'* The suffering man had
been borne on a litter to the scene of his former
triumphs. A thousand voices cried ' ' No. ' ' It was
declared that the corpse of the tyrant would bring
naught but the plague, that he and his accom-
plices must be guillotined on the Place de la
Reaction 435
Revolution. He was carried to the quarters of
the Committee of Public Safety.
One shudders at the accounts of the insults
heaped upon the helpless Robespierre: how he
was reproached, struck, spat upon, and pricked with
knives. He lay long impassive, though suffering
terribly; then for a moment the old Adam rose
in him mightily. As he was being carried down
the great staircase of the Tuileries, he suddenly
collected all his strength and struck out savagely
at one of his bearers.
He had been recognized as an enemy of his
country, and therefore, according to Billaud-
Varennes' maxim, needed no trial. Eighty- two
of his partisans were guillotined with him.
As the last in our series of symbolical repre-
sentations we have an allegory called "Equality
triumphant or the Triumvirate punished."1
Underneath is the text:
Equality with the scales in one hand and the sword in
the other hovers over the republic, her foot lightly resting
on a level. She crushes the heads of the tyrant Robes-
pierre, the hypocrite Couthon, and the insolent St.-Just.
Their agents lie with them in the tomb of ignominy. The
National Convention which, in the night from the 9th to
the loth of Thermidor displayed as much courage as virtue
in putting down the triumvirs, has saved the country. Let
us all repeat with it : Long live the Republic, Liberty, and
Equality.
The complete reversal of what Robespierre
' Plate 170, p. 437-
436 The French Revolution
might have called "my policies" did not come
quite as swiftly as one would have imagined,
although the influence of his fall was felt immedi-
ately. Space forbids our going into this matter
of the reaction in detail, but it is interesting to
look at the dates at least of some of the chief
legislative acts, remembering that the date of
Robespierre's execution was July 28, 1794.
Already on August 5th it was decreed that all
categories of suspects not especially designated
by the laws of September, 1793, should be at once
set at liberty and that the reasons for their arrest
should be furnished to those still detained or to
their relatives and friends. In October a check was
put on the reckless denunciations in the Convention
that had caused that body to lose so many of its
members.
The Convention was still chary of stirring up
the question of the ownership of property confis-
cated during the Terror, and as late as December,
1794, declared formally that it would admit no
demands for reversal of judgments in this matter.
But in June, 1795, all confiscations of property
made since March, 1793, were annulled, and with
certain exceptions, restitution was made either
to the owners or their heirs.
The Revolutionary Tribunal still continued in
existence for a while, but with many modifications
in the severity of the procedure; the accused were
allowed not only to call witnesses but also to
confront them one with another. In May, 1795,
the whole institution was abolished and a return
iOM I'M \\
Plate 170. An allegorical representation of Equality triumphing over
Robespierre and his adherents. The workmanship looks like that of
David who so recently had glorified Robespierre.
437
438 The French Revolution
made to the state of affairs in September 1791.
On February 21, 1795, freedom of worship was
decreed, but within proper bounds. There was
to be no state-religion, no salaried clergy, no flaunt-
ing of religious emblems.
The penalties against the emigres continued in
force, but in April it was decreed that their rela-
tives and friends should be free from molestation.
Women, as we have seen, had played a very
great part throughout the Revolution. But in a
movement where so much harm was done by the
frequent giving way to the excitement of the
moment, their influence had been particularly
baneful. This the National Convention fully
recognized. On May 23, 1795, it had the courage
— for it takes courage to oppose a whole sex and
deprive it of rights long enjoyed but not worthily
exercised — to decree that women might no longer
be present at any political assembly and, further-
more, that they should be liable to arrest if they
assembled in the streets to the number of more than
five. This, then, was the outcome of woman's
rights agitation during the Revolution.
In June, 1795, the daughter of Louis XVI and
Marie Antoinette, the last survivor of the royal
party that had been incarcerated in the Temple
in August, 1792, was formally handed over by
agreement to the Austrians. She became the
Duchesse d'Angouleme. Her brother, the Dau-
phin, had died in captivity; or, at all events, not
one of the thirty or more pretenders who afterwards
cropped up ever succeeded in telling a really
Reaction 439
plausible story. Even clever investigators like
Le N6tre and Barbey, who claim to have proved
the Dauphin's escape from the Temple, do not
profess to follow him farther than the door.
On August, 15, 1795, all sentences passed in Revo-
lutionary matters since March 10, 1793, were re-
voked and all prisoners ordered to be released,
unless the regular courts should have found reason
to reindict them, and even then the period of
detention already served was to be taken into
consideration.
A great step forward was the abolition on
August 23, 1795, of the Jacobin Club, and, indeed,
of all political clubs or popular societies. The
Convention was coming now to the very root of
the matter. The name of sans-culotte had be-
come odious, and on August 24th the term sans-
culottides was voted out of the calendar. The
priests — those at least who had refused to take
the oath in the form required by a law of the 1 1 th
of Prairial of the year II — remained unforgiven.
Indeed, by a law passed on October 14, 1795,
those emigres and refractory priests who had re-
turned to France without permission were form-
ally expelled once more, as well as all pronounced
royalists.
There remained two acts of expiation. The
surviving members of the Girondist party, so
cruelly expelled on June 2, 1793, had been formally
received back into the bosom of the Convention,
and by decree of October 3, 1795, a day was
solemnly consecrated to the memory of forty-
440
Reaction 441
seven of them, who were mentioned by name as
having perished in the prisons, or in the fortresses
or on the scaffold, or as having taken their own
lives "during the tyranny of the decemvirs/' We
find among them the eloquent Vergniaud, Valaze,
Barbaroux, Petion, Buzot, and Roland.
The last great act was a purely symbolical one—
the renaming of what had been the great stage on
which the drama of the Revolution had been acted.
Once the Place Louis Quinze, then the Place de la
Revolution, it hence-forward was to be the Place
de la Concorde.1
Whatever ingenious historians may say as to
the date of the conclusion of the Revolution,
the decree of the fourth of Brumaire of the
year IV (October 26, 1795) stands there as a
great terminal monument. From that day all
warrants of arrest, whether served as yet or not,
all prosecutions, proceedings, and sentences that
had to do with purely Revolutionary matters,
were declared null and void. In connection with
the naming of the Place de la Concorde it was
expressly and literally decreed as follows: " The
street which leads to this Place shall bear the name
of Rue de la Revolution" meaning that the old
troubled epoch had served its turn, but was now
superseded.
1 Plate 171, p. 440.
INDEX
Abbeville, 408
Abundance, personified, 147
Achilles, 170
Acton, Lord, 395 n.
Agoult, see d' Agoult
Aiguillon, Minister, 12
Aix, seneschalry of, 32
Alsace, violation of property
rights in, 204
America, 4, 6, 295, 317
American colonies, 17
American Constitution, the, 4, 73
American Revolution, the. 5, 222
American States, constitutions of
the, 5; example dreaded, 338
Americans, the, 74; wished Louis
XVI sent to them, 317
Ami du Peuple, the, of Marat, 95,
140, 340
Amiens, 408
Anthony, St., 119
Archiepiscopal palace, ill
Archives, National, see National
Aristocrat, hatred of the, 155, 157
A rmoire de fer, the, finding of, 282 ;
cartoon concerning, 283-4
Arras, 191
Artois, Comte d', 15; patron of
Tennis Court, 36; wishes to play
tennis, 38; advises Louis AVI,
39; emigrates, 92-3
Assembly, National, see National
Assignats, emission of, 119
August 4, 1789, decrees of, 88,
1 24,204
August 10, 1792, events of, 252-
6i;f6te in honour of, 268-70,
Aulard,36n., 192 n.,2ion., 21311.,
216 n., 218 n., 220 n., 222 n.,
223 n., 230 n., 231 n., 247 n.,
271 n., 336 n., 399 n., 409 n.
Aunts, the King's, 164, 166
Austria, joins in declaration of
Pillnitz, 202; ultimatum sent to,
226; allies herself with Prussia,
228; war declared against, by
France, 230; her forces com-
manded by Brunswick, 248;
scorned by France, 327
Austrians, the, besiege Verdun,
289; defeated at Genappes, 305;
driven out of Belgium, 428
Auteuil, 5
Autun, Talleyrand, bishop of, 117
Avignon, annexed to France, 202
Aze"ma, deputy, 233 n., 234 n.,
236 n., 253 n.
B
Bailly, Jean Sylvain, administers
oath, 33; complains of specta-
tors, 34; badly treated, 35;
protects Martin Dauch, 38; ob-
jects to treatment of Assembly,
39, 56 n.; Mayor of Paris, 58;
presents keys of Paris, 58; gives
cockade to Louis XVI, 60,
62-3, no n.; plot to murder,
121, 173, 176; fires on mob, 192-
3; execution of, 412
Barbaroux, Girondist deputy, 345,
348-9; death of, 396; justice
done to, 441
Barbey, 439
Barere, 312; advocates haste with
King's trial, 318; makes the
Convention shudder, 426, 428
Barnave, deputy, no; sent to
bring back royal family, 181,
185, 186-7; pleads for Louis
XVI, 190, 196
443
444
Index
Barry, Madame du, dies hard, 412
Bartholomew, St., massacre of, 55
Bartolozzi, artist, 405
Bastile, the, 6, 12; condition of, 49;
storming of, 50-1; demolition
of, 52, 60, 73, 99, 107, 124, 126;
Conquerors of the, 123, 130, 139,
143, 145-6; anniversary of the
fall of, 242-3, 250, 356-7, 371
Batiffol, 104 n.
Bazire, deputy, 340
Beaulieu, 394 n.
Beaumarchais, 167
Belgians, the, 231
Belgium, 231; the English and
Austrians driven out of, 428
Berry, 32
Bertaux, artist, 256
Berthier, 54, 64, 121, 123; his
corpse mutilated, 66, 75
Billaud-Varennes, deputy, 317;
member of the Committee of
Public Safety, 336, 372, 415;
denounces St.-Just, 431
Blan chard, balloonist, 225
Blondel, 97
Boileau, deputy, 340
Boizot, engraver, 311
Bombelles, Marquise de, 174
Bondy, 178, 188
Bordeaux, 348, 396
Bouille, General, 178, 184 n.
Bouille", Comte Louis de, 178 n.,
179 n., 184 n.
Bourbons, the, 23, 89; expelled,
359
Breteuil, minister, 12, 175, 218
Br6ze", de, see de
Brienne, Lomenie de, minister,
12; breaks with the Parlement,
19; dismissal, 20
Brigands, the, 75
Brissot, deputy, 214, 221, 253;
trial of, 391
Brumaire, month of, 401
Brunswick, Duke of, his mani-
festo, 248, 280; defeated at
Valmy, 302; caricature of, 303
Brutus, 264, 324, 331, 409, 413
Buchez (et Roux), 73 n., 127 n.,
321 n., 333 n., 334 n., 337 n.,
352 n., 380 n., 429 n.
Buzot, deputy, 172; beloved by
Madame Roland, 298, 348;
death of, 396; rehabilitated, 441
Ca ira, the, 5
Caen, 347; abandons the Giron-
dists, 348, 352
Caesar, Julius, 324, 340
Galas, victim of persecution, 108
Calendar, the Revolutionary, see
Revolutionary
Caligula, 191
Calonne, his policy, 17-18; op-
posed by Parlement, 18; pro-
poses reforms, 19; refuses to
give statement, 19; helps draw
up Brunswick's manifesto, 248
Calvados, department of the, 347
Cambon, deputy, 333, 335, 341
Cambridge, 50
Camille Desmoulins, see Des-
moulins.
Canecaude, de, 98
Carlyle, Thomas, 8, 19, 50, 98 n.,
179 n., 184 n.
Carmagnole, the, 410
Carrier, at Nantes, 334; at Fe"te
to Reason, 406
Carrousel, Place du, see Place
Catherine II, Czarina, 224, 309
Catherine Theot, see Theot
Cato, 264
Cerberus, 121
Chabroud, 97-8
Chalier, deputy and martyr of
Liberty, 37 1, 373, 409
Chalons, 176, 183-4
Champ de Mars, 129-30, 133,
135, 142; affair of July I7th on,
192-3; anniversary held on,
242-3; F£te held on, 365 ff.;
Bailly executed on, 412; F£te
to the Supreme Being held on,
420-3
Champion, 2 n.
Champs Elysees, 185
Charlemagne, 334
Charles IX, play of, 120
Charlotte, Queen of England, 305
Charon, 107-8
Chateauneuf, Miomandre de, see
Miomandre
Chatelet, the, 95 n.
Chaumette, deputy, 376-7; wor-
ships reason, 406, 409
Cherbourg, harbour of, 18
Chereste, i6n.
Index
445
Christ, denial of, 404
Christian Era, abolished, 397-9
Chronique de Paris, 352, 357 n.,
367-8
Church, landed property of the,
116
Cincinnatus, order of, 4 n.
Claviere,firstministry,23o; Minis-
ter of Finance, 270, 296
Cle"ry, valet of Louis XVI, 312 n.t
313, 320
Cloots, Anacharsis, 127
Clovis, 156
Coalition, the, 327-8
Coblenz, 203
Collier, V affaire du, 15 n.
Collot d' Herbois, 296; and the
September massacres, 341; in
Lyons, 380, 382, 413
Come"die Francaise, 120, 209
Committee of Public Safety, its
organization, 336 ff., 349; joined
by Robespierre, 371; dissolu-
tion of, attempted by Hubert,
413; decrees Danton's arrest,
415; recognizes the Supreme
Being and the immortality of
the soul, 429-31, 433, 435
Committee of Twelve, 343, 346
Committee of surveillance, 336-7
Commune, the, of Paris, on August
10, 1792, 260 ff.; council of the,
270,274; its work of propaganda,
278-9, 280; spreads alarm, 287-
9; cashiered, 288; favors the
September massacres, 290-4,
296, 333, 340; demands expul-
sion of Girondist members,
342-7, 374; refuses certificates
of civism, 377; opens bureau
for abjurations, 404
Conciergerie, prison, 379; Marie
Antoinette in the, 383-5;
Madame Roland in the, 394
Condorcet, defends the men of
August loth, 279-80
Conquerors of the Bastile, see
Bastile
Constitution, the, of 1789-91,
<>ath never to separate until
completed, 36; forging away
at the, 73-4; completed, 194;
accepted, 197-202, 206-8, 210-
11, 219-21, 224, 228, 232, 239,
246, 258, 270, 316
Constitution, the American, see
American
Constitution, the Girondist, of
f 1793. 354
Constitution, the Jacobin, cf 1793,
354. 356; F6te in honour of,
357 ff.; oath to defend, 366;
a dead letter, 368-9
Control Social, 3
Corbeil, 404
Corday, Charlotte, stabs Marat,
348 ; a close student of the Revo-
lution, 349; executed, 349;
painted by Hauer, 350-1; her
effigy on playing cards, 376;
an English masquerader as, 426
Cordelier Club, 335, 414
Corsica, 326
Courier de Versailles, 98
Couthon, and the trial of Louis
XVI, 318; joins the Committee
of Public Safety, 336; moves
arrest of the Committee of
Twelve, 346, 425; under arrest,
433; summoned by Robespierre,
»St.-Just., etc., 434; executed,
435
Cromwell, 101, 238
Custine, General, takes Mainz,
305
Daggers, the day of, 165-8, 177
d'Agoult, 178
Danton, 194, 250; made Minister
of Justice, 270; his career, 27^;
characteristics of, 274; his
activity on August loth, 278;
and the September massacres,
292-4, 296, 298, 304, 320, 326,
333. 335. 338, 374; incurs
Robespierre's enmity, 413; at
the foot of the scaffold, 417, 425
Dantonists the, assailed by Robes-
pierre, 413: under arrest, 415;
trial and execution, 416-17
Darcis, engraver, 311
d'Argentegu, Mercy, see Mercy
omte, see Artois
artin, 36, 38 n.
the, 156, 178, 1 88,
rried to the National
, 254; testifies against
386; his fate, 438-9
d' Artois,
Dauch,
Dauphii
236;
Assemf
his
446
Index
David, artist, 350; arranges F6te
to Unity and Indivisibility,
357-67; arranges Marat's fu-
neral, 367, 369-70; sketches
Marie Antoinette, 387-9; ar-
ranges F6te to the Supreme
Being, 419, 421, 437
David, King, 51
Debats et Decrets, Journal des, 34
n., 35 n., 40 n., 58 n., 78 n., 117
n., 174 n., 179 n., 181 n., 182 n.,
183 n., 208 n., 210 n., 212
n., 220 n., 242 n., 255 n., 261
n., 276 n., 333 n.
de Bre"ze", Master of Ceremonies,
40, 172-3
de Canecaude, 98
Declaration of Pillnitz, see Pill-
nitz
d'Eglantine, see Fabre
Degoine, Marquis de, 103
De la Motte see Motte
De Launay, governor of the
Bastile, surrenders, 49; mur-
dered, 52, 56; satire on, 107-8,
121
Delaware, the, 222
Denis, St., see St.
Denmark, 223, 225, 328
d'Epre"smesnil, see Epre*smesnil
Derosnet, 103 n.
Des Essarts, 395
Desmoulins, Camille, 167, 204
Desrues, poisoner, 121, 123
Diogenes, 72
Drouet, postmaster of St. Mene-
hould, 1 8 1, 1 86
Drouet, deputy, 374
Duche"ne, Pere, see Pere
Duguit et Mounier, 75 n.
Dumouriez, minister and general,
2, 74, 232; sends alarming
reports, 239; told to invade
Holland, 328; turns traitor,
328; arrests commissioners, 329-
30, 341; his effigy on playing
cards, 376
Duvergier, 117 n., 130 n., 147 n.,
188 n., 208 n., 239 n., 279 n.,
293 n., 331 n., 332 n., 354 n.
Echelle, Rue de 1', see Rue
d'Eglantine, see Fabre
Elizabeth, Madame, 177; made
love to by Potion, 185; on
August 10, 1792, 254; letter of
Marie Antoinette to, 388
Elizabeth, Queen of England, 156
Eloquence parlementaire (Aulard),
213 n., 216 n., 218 n., 220 n.,
, 222 n., 230 n.
Emigres, the first, 92-3; exploit
declaration of Pillnitz, 203;
their follies, 204; summoned to
return, 214; as haughty beggars,
215; threats against, 216; Treves
made to abandon, 217-18;
measures against, not sanc-
tioned by King, 218; carica-
tured, 223; cartoon concerning,
226, 229; property of fathers, of
confiscated, 334; not pardoned,
43?
Empire, the Germanic, or Holy
Roman, 226, 229, 328
Encyclopaedia, the, 274
England, constitution of, 90-92,
305, 318, 327; declares war, 328
English, the, in possession of
Toulon, 330; driven from Bel-
gium, 428 .
Envy, personified, 109
Enrages, the, 221; caricatured,
226-7; their power, 295
Epr6smesnil, d', 120
Equality, personified, 311, 315
Era, the Christian, see Christian
Estate, the third, awakening of,
51; leads nobles and clergy a
dance, 52
Estates, the three, depart for
Versailles, 23-4; received by
King, 25; costumes of, 25-7;
deadlock between, 28-30; re-
uniting of, 41-7
Estates of the clergy, see Clergy
Fabre d'Eglantine, his report on
the Calendar, 401-2, 403-4
Fame, personified, 147
Fargeau, Lepelletier St., see
Lepelletier
Fauchet, Abbe", 218
Favras, Marquis de, arrest and
execution of, 121; satire on, 123
Federation, F6te of, see F£te
Index
447
Ferrieres, Marquis de, 26; his
hopefulness, 28, 42
Fersen, Count Axel, 142; plans
flight to Varennes, 160, 162,
173; negotiates with Swedish
king, 174; plans to bankrupt
France, 175; assists in details
of flight to Varennes, 177; as
coachman, 178, 188, 198 n.,
200 n., 204, 212 n.. 224; returns
to Paris, 226, 228; helps with
Brunswick manifesto, 248
F6te of Actions, 404
F6te of Federation, inception of,
126-7; a representation of, 129;
preparations for, 130-2; en-
thusiasm for, 132-6; questions
in connection with, 136, 138;
unpropitious circumstances of,
140; merriment at, 141-2; r61e
of Conquerors of the Bastile
at, 145-6, 147
F6te of Genius, 403
F6te of Labour, 403
F6te of Opinion, 404
F6te of Recompense, 404
F6te to the Supreme Being,
decreed by Convention, 418;
arranged by David, 419; Robes-
pierre at the, 419-424; rdle of
the Mountain at, 421-2
Ffite to Unity and Indivisibility,
its purpose, 356; arranged by
David, 357; programme of,
357 ff.; first stage, 357~6i;
second stage, 361; third stage,
361-2; fourth stage, 362-4;
fifth stage, 364-6; sixth stage,
366-7
Fcuillants, club of the, 192
Feuille Villageoise, 179 n., 180 n.,
186 n., 242 n., 331
Figaro, 167
Firmin, St., priests of, 292
Flanders, regiment of, summoned
to Versailles, 95; f6ted, 95-6;
deserts the King, 100, 182
Flesselles, murder of, 52, 54;
satire on, 107-8, 1 21, 123
Fleurus, battle of. 428
Floreal, month of, 401
Fontainebleau, 190
Force, la, prison of, 314
Fouche", deputy, 409
Foulon, 54; arrest of, 62; murder
of, 62; violence to body of, 64,
70, 75; satire on, 107-8; 121, 123
Fouquier-Tinville, public prose-
cutor, 385; arraigns Marie
Antoinette, 385-6; would be-
head ValazS's corpse, 393; and
the Dantonists, 416
France, population of, 8
Franklin, Benjamin, and the
fa ira, 5; popularity of, 6;
crowned by Liberty, 7
Fraternity, personified, 311
Frederick the Great, 226
Fright, personified, 230
Frimaire, month of, 401
Fructidor, month of, 401
Funk-Brentano, 15
Galerie des Glaces, 16
Gallia bracata, 403
Gazette de France, 304
Genappes, battle of, 74, 303, 305,
328
Geneva, no
Genevieve, St., Church of, see
Saint
Genius, the, of France, 30
Gensonne*, Girondist deputy, 341
Gentot, artist, 132
Geography, the Genius of, in
George III, of England, 305
Germanic Empire, see Empire
Germany, 327
Germinal, month of, 401
Ghibellines, the, 296
Girey Dupre", 288
Gironde, the, and the trial of
Louis XVI, 318; treatment of,
by the Mountain, 338-46; mem-
bers of, arrested, 346-8; re-
habilitated, 439
Girondists, the, their policy, 221;
their ministers dismissed, 232,
296; in the ascendant, 302;
expelled, 344-7; start rebellion,
347-8; Charlotte Corday and
the, 348, 371; in prison', 379;
outlawed, 383; trial and execu-
tion of the, 390-3, 394, 396
Gobel, archbishop of Paris, re-
pudiates Christianity, 404
Goliath, 51
Gomel, 169
448
Index
Gower, Lord, 162, 162 n., 166 n.,
172, 185 n., 199 n.
Gracchi, the, 331; mother of the,
• 349^
Grandchamp, 100 n.
Grangeneuve, deputy, attacks
King, 210
Granvilliers, section of, 410
Gre"goire, Abbe", 180
Greve, Place de, see Place
Guadet, Girondist deputy, attacks
King, 210-11, death of, 395
Guards, the National, see Na-
tional
Guelphs, the, 296
Guillaume, 183, 186
Guillotin, Dr., exhibits machine,
34; suggests adjourning to the
Tennis Court, 35; mediates, 49,
275-6; did not perish by own
machine, 277-8
Guillotin, Madame, 278
H
Hamburg, I n., 74 n.
Hamel, 414 n.
Hannibal, 266
Hanriot, would shoot president of
the Assembly, 346; outlawed,
433? thrown from a window,
434
Hatred, personified, in
Havre, docks of, 18
Hubert, 376, 391; against church
s teeples ,410; attacked by Robes-
pierre, 411-12; arrested, 414;
executed, 415
He"bertists, the, denounced by
Robespierre, 413; glorify in-
surrection, 414; denounced by
St.-Just, 414; trial of the, 415
Henry IV, King, 58; beard
chopped off, 266
Hercules, 242
Heroines of Liberty, the, 106;
feted on August 10, 1793,
360-1
Histoire Politique (Aulard), 336 n.
Hodey, Le, see Le
Holland, 225, 327
Holy Roman Empire, see Empire
Honore", Rue St., see Rue
Horatius, 266
H6tel de Ville, revolutionary
body in, 49; entry into, 49, 52,
57-8; visited by Louis XVI,
60; deputations to, 95; invaded
by women, 98; "country in
danger" proclaimed from, 242;
new council installed in, 252,
262; on 9th of Thermidor, 434
Hue*, servitor of Louis XVI, 313
I phi genie, opera, 164
Isnard, Girondist deputy, inveighs
against clergy, 218; urges war,
222; threatens Paris, 342, 345,
3? i
Italian Comedy, 212
Jacobin, the typical, 113-14
Jacobin Club, the, its place in the
Revolution, 112-13, IJ6; elects
Mirabeau its president, 154,
156, 166, 180, 191; division in,
192, 222; satire against, 225-7,
271, 278, 284, 296; transactions
of the, 299; helps to save France,
330, 341, 344, 354, 377; peti-
tions the Convention, 392, 409,
411
Jacobins, the, 210, 212, 238, 246,
295, 302, 329, 369-70, 374,
402-3
Jaures, 8 n., 38 n., 94 n., 95 n.,
221 n., 230 n.
Jean Jacques Rousseau, see Rous-
seau
Jerusalem, 329
Jesuit order, the, 337
Jews, 329
Joseph II., Emperor, 309
Journal des Debats et Decrets, see
Debats
Journal des Etats Generaux, 25
Journal de la Republique Fran^aise,
i n.
Journal de Paris, 76 n., 78 n.,
80, 121 n.
Judas, 242
Jullien, deputy, 317
June 20, 1792, events of, 233 ff.,
252, 281
Index
449
Just, St., 296; on mission to the
army, 334; on Committee of
Public Safety, 336, 376, 380,
413; denounces the H£l.
414; induces Robespierre to
abandon the Dantonists, 415;
assails the Dantonists, 416; de-
fends Robespierre, 430, 431 ; ar-
rested, 433; writes to Couthon,
434; executed, 435
Justice, personified, 147
Lafayette, made commander of
the National Guards, 58; hands
in draft of Rights of Man, 73;
on October 5, 1789, 100; on
October 6th, 103; on August
4, 1789, 128, 139; idolized, 142;
nres on the people at Vincennes,
1 66; sends protest to the
Assembly, 173; spends evening
with the King, 176, 178, 226,
229; on June 20, 1792, 238;
concerned in plot for King's
escape, 242; portrait of, 273;
declared infamous, 282
Laloi, deputy, 410
Lamballe, Madame de, gifts of
Queen to, 13; murder of, 314
Lambel, deputy, 128
Lameth, deputy, 128, 170
La Motte, Madame de, see Motte
Lamourette, Abbe", 241
La Ri'-volntion Fran$aise, review,
see Revolution, la
La Rochefoucauld, see Roche-
foucauld
Lasource, deputy, 339
Latour-Maubourg, deputy, 181
Launay, de, see De Launay
La Vended, see Vended
Le Bas, deputy, 334, 431 ; arrested,
433; commits suicide, 434
Legendre, deputy, 415
Le Hodey, 25 n.
Lendtre, 185 n.
Leopold II, Emperor, 202, 224,
226; dies, 228
Lepelletier, St.-Fargeau, murder
of, 324; memorial to, 325, 371,
373. 4<x>
Liancourt, Due de, 80
Liberty of Conscience, as proper
name, 331
Lillr, Rouget de, see Rouget
Lomenie de Brienne, see Brienne
London, 16, 247, 249
Lorraine, Cardinal de, 120
Louis, St., see Saint
Louis XIV, 18, 36, 38, 114, 120,
186,263-4
Louis XV, 2, 10, 186, 320, 362;
statue of, 107
Louis XV, Place, see Place
Louis XVI, 4; charitable feelings
towards, 10; his utter incom-
petency, ii; pays his wife's
debts, 13; squanders money, 18;
opposed by Parlentent, 19-20;
recalls Necker, 20—21, 22; re-
ceives deputies, 25; hopes still
placed in, 33; orders Assembly-
hall closed, 35, 36-37; holds
royal session, 38; speech of, at
royal session, 39; defied by the
National Assembly, 40; yields
to the National Assembly, 41;
renounces further conflict, 43,
45; pardons guards, 48; appears
in National Assembly, 55; dem-
onstrations over, 56; at H6tel
de Ville, 57-60; again recalls
Necker, 58 ; dons cap of liberty,
59-60; restorerof French liberty,
6 1 , 66; and the return of Necker,
69-70, 72, 76; visited by
women of the market, 82, 89,
92; tries to alleviate suffering,
93 ; criticises Rights of Man, 95-
6; at banquet at Versailles,
96, 97, 98; on October 5, 1789,
100-1; hastens to Queen's res-
cue, 102; appears on balcony,
103 ; consents to leave Versailles,
104-5; moves to Paris, 106-7;
called "the baker," 107, no;
followed by National Assembly,
in; appears in Assembly, 121:
alliance with Mirabeau, 122;
loses prerogatives, 124; on
Champ 5; privi-
leges of, at Fete of federation,
136-8; salary considered too
large, 139; radicals angry at,
144; accepts the pact of federa-
tion, i =,0; sanctions
civil constitution of the clergy,
450
Index
Louis XVI— Con tinned
152; courts popularity, 154; bit-
terly attacked by press, 156,157;
caricatured as a horned pig,
159, 162, 167, 171; prepares to
drive to St. Cloud, 172; pre-
vented from leaving the Tuiler-
ies, 172-3; protest of, to the
Assembly, 173; appears in the
Assembly, 174; willing to sacri-
fice French soil, 175; and the
flight to Varennes, 170-189;
his fate in the balance, 190-1,
192; accepts the Constitution,
194-202; shows courage, 200,
203; his perilous position, 206-
7; bids farewell to Assembly,
208; plays his part well, 209;
attacks on, in the Assembly,
210-11; appears in the Assem-
bly, 212, 214; sends ultimatum
to Treves, 216; withholds his
sanction, 218; as King Janus,
219; refuses sanction, 220, 221,
224, 225, 228; in terror, 230;
efforts to humiliate, 232; warn-
ing to, 234; on June 20, 1792,
236-8; issues proclamation, 239,
242; takes oath to Constitution,
246; indignation against, 250;
dethronement demanded, 252;
on August 10, 1792, 253-5,
260-1; sent to the Temple,
262, 270, 280-1 ; and the armoire
de fer, 282-4; denunciations of,
285-7, 290, 295, 304, 305, 309;
in the Temple, 312-13; trial of,
,-214-7; condemnation of, 318;
execution of, 319-22; memorial
of, 323, 324, 338, 345, 346, 377,
386, 389, 390, 396, 438
Louison, 1 01 n.
Lucerne, the lion of, 258-9
Luckner, General, 226; executed,
412
Luther, Martin, 33, 204
Luxembourg, 166, 378
Lyons, disturbances in, 164; re-
bellion in, 347, 371, 375;
anathema against, 380; blood-
shed in, 382, 403, 409
M
Maillard, Stanislas, leads women
to Versailles, 99; addresses
Assembly, 100
Mainz, 226, 375
Mallet du Pan, 36 n.
Manege, the, in
Manifesto, the, of the Duke of
Brunswick, 248, 280
Mantes, 2
Manuel, deputy, 317
Marat, i, 140, 192, 194; member
of Council of the Commune,
271; his circular concerning the
massacres, 293-4, 296; reflects
on Madame Roland, 298, 305,
322 ; has price set on Dumouriez 's
head, 330, 336; draws pistol,
339-4O; fosters excitement, 340;
attacks on, 340; arrested, 341;
freed, 342; sounds the tocsin,
344, 345; revises lists of Giron-
dists, 347; stabbed by Charlotte
Corday, 348-50; a martyr of
liberty, 350-2, 367, 371, 373;
his heart in a shrine, 398;
apostrophized, 399, 409
Maria Theresa, Empress, 11-12,
106, 156, 196
Marie Antoinette, influenced by
Mercy d'Argenteau, n; her
intrigues, 12; her extravagance,
13; involved in the diamond-
necklace affair, 14-15; her repu-
tation gone, 1 6; buys St. Cloud,
1 8; receives the deputies at Ver-
sailles, 25; counsels coercion of
National Assembly, 39; appears
on balcony, 56, 68; visited
by women of the market, 82,
92; tries to alleviate suffering,
93 ; at banquet to the Regiment
of Flanders, 96, 97; on October
5th, 100; on October 6th, 102-5,
no; insults heaped upon, 139,
142; courts popularity, 154;
bitterly assailed by the press,
156-62; plots to remove Louis
XVI from Paris, 159-60; machi-
nations against, 162; prevented
from leaving Tuileries, 172-3;
hopes to win Swedish king,
174-5; manages the flight to
Varennes, 177-189; her atti-
tude after the flight, 194;
prevaricates, 196; her vindic-
tiveness, 198, 199; and the
Index
Marie Antoinette — Continued
acceptance of the Constitution,
200, 202; migrcs,
204; plays her part well, 209;
indignant at Legislative As-
sembly, 212, 2 1 6, 223-4; in a
panic, 226, 228; on June 20,
i-t)2, 234-238; on August 10,
1792, 254; sent to the Tcmpk-,
262; denunciations of, in Jaco-
bin Club, 284; in the Temple,
312; during the massacres, 314;
separated from her son, 354; in
prison, 383-5; trial of, 385-6;
letter to Madame Elizabeth,
386 ff.; sketched by David, 387-
9
. the river, 185
Marseillaise, the, 247-9, 3J9. 321,
358
Marseilles, 158; the patriots from,
247, 250, 290
s, the, of September,
see September
Massenbach, 248
Maximum, law of the, 375-6
Medicis, Marie de, 386
Mcilhan, Senac de, i
Memoires de Septembre, see Sep-
tembre
"ires sur I' affaire de Varennes,
i(>2 n.
Menehould, St., 176, l8i, 183-4
Merrier, 3, 5
y d'Argenteau, his intrigues,
ii, 12, 13, 226
Mcrieourt, Theroigne de, 253
Merlin de Thionville, 272
Messalina, 386
Messidor, month of, 401
i5-\ 158
Mioinandre de Chateauneuf, 95 n.
Mirabeau, Barrel, brother of
Honord Riquetti, 137-8
Miraheau, Honore" Riquetti, 4 n.,
20; impression made by, 26, 28;
seeks to break deadlock, 32;
detirs de Kreze, 37, 40; speech
of, in the Assembly, 48; att
the lourt, 54, no; D
cor "Tgy's lands, 117;
retorts to clergy. iao;
King and Queen, 122; del
roy. Datives, 124; his
attitude to civil constitution
of the clergy, 154; president
of Jacobin Club, 154; his pro-
gramme, 156; (! .ing's
aunts, 1 66; death and burial,
170-2, 190, 271; dealings
with the court discovt
282-4
Monitcur, the, 5 n., 266 n., 333 n.,
334 n., 337 n., 379, 410, 418; its
account of Rob< fall,
432
Monsieur, brother of the King,
166, 178
Mont Blanc, 306
Montauban, 104
Montmirail, 176
Morris, Gouverneur, 212, 212 n.
Morse Stephens, see Stephens
Mortimer-Terneux, 247 n., 278 n.,
288 n., 328 n., 338 n.
Motte, Madame de la, 14-16;
returns to Paris, 162
Mounier, president of National
Assembly, 36, 102 n.; escapes
from France, no
Mountain, the, political party,
296, 299; and the trial of Louis
XVI, 318; its strength, 339;
and the September massacres,
340; denounced by Gensonne",
341; its tactics, 343, 344, 346;
declared in the ban by Lyons,
347; celebrates fall of the
Girondists, 356 ff., 374, 380, 390,
392, 413; apotheosis of the, 421
Mountain, Old Man of the, 341
N
Nantes, edict of, 212
National Assembly (Constituent),
2; formation of, 31-33;
Ciuillotin's measures for its
comfort, 34; spectators in-
fluence it, 34; its hall closed on
June 2Oth, 35; holds session in
the Tennis Court .
to attend royal session, t8;
kept waiting by King, 39; defies
the King's c« rnmand to dis-
rees,
41; ds petitions to the King.
48: dismissal,
49; is bitter against t
54; is impressed by the King's
452
Index
National Assembly — Continued
discourse, 55; accompanies the
King to his palace, 56, 58, 69;
busies itself with the Constitu-
tion, 73; on August 4th, 76-78,
82; friction in, 89; voluntary
gifts to, 94; its hall invaded by
women, 100, 101; plays undigni-
fied rdle, 1 08, no; votes to
follow King to Paris, in, 116;
and the estates of the clergy,
118; malediction pronounced
over, 120; takes civic oath, 121;
votes away King's prerogatives,
124; honours Conquerors of the
Bastile, 128, 130, 136, 138, 142;
passes civil constitution of the
clergy, 147, 149-50; galleries
of, packed, 156, 166, 173;
receives the King, 174, 176, 185,
1 88; debates on the King's
fate, 191 ; declares the Constitu-
tion completed, 194, 198; the
King appears in, 199; escorts
the King to the Tuileries, 200,
204; prepares to disperse, 207;
bidden farewell by Louis XVI,
209; passes self-denying ordin-
ance, 210, 211, 276, 426
National Assembly (Legislative),
unfriendly to the King, 209-2 12 ;
busies itself with emigres, 214-
216; passes laws against the
clergy, 220, 228; hampered
by Constitution, 232, 233; on
June 20, 1792, 234-6; La-
fayette's letter to, 238; fierce
debates over Petion, 239; the
kiss of Lamourette in, 241;
receives letter from Marseilles,
247; demands for King's de-
thronement in, 250, 252; on
August 10, 1792, 253-261 ; votes
destruction of emblems of royal-
ty, 264; votes six millions for
secret purposes, 278; employs
Condorcet to write defence of
August loth, 279, 280, 281;
sanctions band of tyrannicides,
287; cashiers council of the
Commune, 288, 291; and the
September massacres, 293, 345,
x 357, 426
National Assembly (Convention),
146, 266, 280; first session of,
295; parties in the, 296; Giron-
dists control, 302; abolishes
royalty, 303, 305; tries Louis
XVI for his life, 314-321, 326,
328; sends commission to arrest
Dumouriez, 329-330, 333; con-
fiscates property of fathers of
emigres, 334; reorganizes Revo-
lutionary Tribunal, 335; estab-
lishes Committee of Public-
Safety, 336; decrees its own
members not inviolable, 337,
338; debates question of body-
guard, 339; scenes of violence
m> 34° » 342; moves to the
Tuileries, 343; on May 3ist,
344J on June 2d, 345-7;
seventy-five members protest,
347 1 348; takes part in the
Fete to Unity and Indivisibility,
358, 361, 365; terrorist ha-
rangues in, 372; hurls anathema
at Lyons, 380; outlaws Girond-
ists, 383 ; irreligious tirade in , 398 ;
adopts Revolutionary Calendar,
399; countenances worship of
Reason, 406-10; declares for
toleration, 412, 415-16; de-
clares for worship of Supreme
Being, 418; participates in
Fete to the Supreme Being, 419-
23, 424; and the laws of Prai-
rial, 424-425, 426, 428; Robes-
pierre's last speech in, 429;
turns against Robespierre, 430;
on the 9th of Thermidor, 431-3;
relations with the Commune,
434; refuses to see Robespierre,
434. 435; releases suspects, 436;
annuls confiscations, 436-8; de-
crees freedom of worship, 438;
tries to suppress women, 438
National Guards, 94; urge march
on Versailles, 100; guard palace
badly, 102; take civic oath, 122,
125, 126, 167, 173, 176, 181-2;
escort King from Varennes, 184-
5; fire on the mob, 192; play
part on August loth, 253, 287,
308, 344
National Palace, 355
National Theatre, 354
Meeker, minister, 17, 19; his
recall, 21, 26; and the States-
General, 28; dismissed, 48-9;
Index
453
Necker, minister — Continued
bust paraded, 49; again r.
58, 62, 67-70; returns, 70-72;
imposes contribution, 95; plot
to murder, 121
Nicolai, Monsieur de, 378
Noailles, Vicomte de, on August
4th, 77
Notables, assembly of the, 19
Notre Dame, Church of, in Paris,
80; worship of Reason in, 406
Notre Dame, Church of, in Ver-
sailles, 25
Noyon, 48
Opfra, the, 354
Opinion, Ffite of, 404
Orange, commission at, 424
Orleans, 289
Orleans, Due d', 67, 70; his
hunting preserves spared, 82 ; at-
tempt to cleanse him of sus-
picion, 97-8; becomes Philippe
6galite", 331; executed, 393-4
Paine, Thomas, defends Louis
XVI, 317
Palais Royal, 13, 324
Pamela, quotation from, 378
Pantheon, the, 169-70, 350, 355,
371,416
Paris, 2, 3, 6, 7, 13, 16, 36; troops
converging on, 48; on July I4th,
4(). 54-5, 57; visit of Louis XVI
to, 58, 60 n., 62, 64, 66, 76 n.,
80, 82, 94-5, loo, 104-^6, 1 10,
in, 121 n., 124 n., 126 n.,
us n., 130, 133-4, 136 n., 139,
140 n., 142, 145, 156, 159;
scenes of disorder in, 164, 170,
173-4, 179 n.; entry into, after
Varennes, 185, 186 n., 188 n.,
204, 212; camp under the walls
of, 232, 2,^7, 241; threatened
in Brunswick's manifesto, 248,
250, 252; commune of, 260 ff.,
262, 270-1, 279 n., 289, 295,
302, 326, 328, 333, 339, 34 :
348-9, 352, 367, 374, 377:
number of prisoners in, 380,
390-1, 404; churches of, to be
closed, 410; number of execu-
tions in, 424
Pnrlement, the, opposes Turgot,
16-17; opposes Calonne, 18;
coercion of, 19-20; suppression
of, 20
Pasquier, 50
Pelagic, St., prison of, 394
Perc Duchene, the, 343, 408, 415
Potion de Villeneuve, 156, 172;
after Varennes, 181; and Ma-
dame Elizabeth, 185, 186, 191;
on Tune 20, 1792, 238; sus-
pended, 239-40; freed, 256; re-
instated, 271; rebus concerning,
301-2, 317; tracked, 348; found
dead, 396; rehabilitated, 441
Philadelphia, 7, 212
Pillnitz, declaration of, 202-3
Pitt, William, 90-1, 224
Pius VI, Pope, 161; and the civil
constitution of the clergy, 163-
4, 224-5, 328, 404
Place d Armes, 100-102
Place de Greve, 89
Place de la Concorde, 363, 440-1
Place de la Revolution, 328, 361,
363, 395, 441
Place des Invalides, 362
Place des Piques, 324
Place des Victoires, 263-4
Place du Petit-Carrousel, 177
Place Louis Quinze, 185, 441
Place Venddme, 263-4
Pluvidsc, month of, 401
Point du Jour, the, 190 n., 191 n.,
192 n., 208 n.
Poissoniere, section of Paris, 289
Poitou, seneschalry of, 32
Poland, 218
Polignac, Madame de, 13; emi-
grates, 92-3
Pont de Sommevelle, 183
Pont Tournant, the, 346
Port a Binson, 185
Port-Libre, see Port-Royal
Port-Royal, 378
Porte Chaillot, 185
Porte St. Antoine, 54
Porte St. Martin, 178
IVairial, month of, 401; laws o£
424, 428
Pnde, personified, in
Prieur, 242-3
Prisons, the, 377 ff.
454
Index
Procedure criminelle instruite au
Chatelet, 95 n.
Proces-verbal, 339-40
Provence, Comte de, summoned to
return, 216
Prudhomme, 2 n., 6, 140
Prussia, issues declaration of Pill-
nitz, 202-3; joins Austria, 228,
248, 327
Publius Decius Mus, 266
R
Rabaut St.-Etienne, death of, 396
Rambouillet, 18
Raynal, Abbe, 5
Reason, personified, 109, in,
402-3; the goddess of, 405-9;
worship of, 406-8; Fetes to,
404-10
Recompense, F£te of, 404
Representatives-on-mission , 408
Revolution Franqaise, la, (review),
126 n., 233 n., 234 n., 248 n.,
253 n.
Revolutionary army, established,
372-4
Revolutionary Calendar, 399-400
Revolutionary Tribunal, estab-
lished, 274-5, 27$; reorganized,
335-6; subdivided, 372, 378;
freed from formalities, 392, 409;
increases its severity, 424; abol-
ished, 436
Revolution de Paris, 64, 66, 82, 94,
no n., 124 n., 126 n., 128 n.,
134, 136 n., 139 n., 140, 140 n.,
145, 154, 156, 159, 166 n.
Revolutions de Paris et de Brabant,
204 n.
Richard, Coeur de Lion, 96
Rights of Man, the, 89
Riouffe, 290, 370, 395
Robespierre, influenced by Rous-
seau, 4; attacks Louis XVI, 96,
156, 172, 191, 194, 199; answers
Louvet, 223; denounces Lafay-
ette, 238; portrait of, 269; mem-
ber of Communal Council, 2 70-1 ;
character and appearance of,
271-2; opposed to capital pun-
ishment, 276, 296, 304; wants
Louis XVI executed as enemy,
318-20; his account of the
execution, 321, 336, 338; called
usurper, 340; triumph of, 341,
357; on Committee of Public
Safety, 371, 376, 381-2, 391;
his Supreme Being, 398; attacks
the He~bertists, 411; his theories
of punishment, 412; attacks
Dantonists as well as Heber-
tists, 413; overthrows Danton,
416-17; introduces his religion,
418; supposed attempt to mur-
der, 418; at the Fete to the
Supreme Being, 418-24; hears
mutterings, 424; advocates laws
cf Prairial, 425; his regime
caricatured, 426-7; ruined by
victories, 428; last speech, 429-
30; assailed in Convention,
431-3; at the Hotel de Ville,
434; shoots himself, 434; exe-
cuted, 435-8
Rochambeau, general, 226, 229
Rochefort, 408
Rochefoucauld, Due de la, 5
Rohan, Cardinal de, and the
diamond necklace, 14-16
Roland, first ministry of, 230;
Minister of the Interior, 270;
and the armoire de fer, 282-4,
296^7; grievance of Mountain
against, 299; caricatured, 300;
rebus concerning, 301-2, 315;
his house surrounded, 345, 391 ;
falls on his sword, 395-6;
rehabilitated, 441
Roland, Madame, mother of the
Girondists, 298-9; caricatured,
300; imprisoned, 345, 348; in
St. Pelagic, 379; writes memoirs,
379. 383: trial of, 394~5; execu-
tion of, 395
Rome, 150, 242
Ronsin, deputy, 414-15
Rouen, 158
Rouget de Lille, composes Mar-
seillaise, 247
Rousseau, Jean Jacques, his in-
fluence, 3-4, 72 ; inspires Robes-
pierre, 272
Rue de la Revolution, 441
Rue St. Honore", 112, 424
Russia, 223
St. Anthony, 119
Index
455
St. Bartholomew, massacre, 55,
120
St. Cloud, 1 8, 173
St. Denis, 409
vSt. Denis, church of, 266
St. Pirrnin, 292
,<>uis, 320, 3<>4
St. Menehould, 176, 181, 1X3-4
Salles, (jirondist deputy, 396
Samson, executioner, 321, 427
•culotte, 231, 233-6, 303
Sans-culottides, 403-4; abolished,
439
Sardinia, 327
Sartines, Monsieur de, 62
Saxony, 202
Schoeffersheim, ever-burning lamp
of, 332
Seme, river, 342
Scmiramis, 156
September massacres, 290-4, 339-
4i
Septembre, Mcmoires de, 290 n.,
292 n.
Sevres, 94
Shakespeare, 274
Sieyes, would "cut the cable," 32;
would break loose from King,
36
Silesia, 226
Smith, Adam, 274
Soissons, 48
Solon, 204
Sorel, 202 n., 218 n., 228 n., 231 n.,
234 n., 238 n., 242 n.
Spain, 225; hostilities with,
328
Stael, Madame de, 242, 246
1-Holstein, Swedish ambassa-
dor, 162, 164 n., 172 n., 199 n.,
200, 209 n.
Stephens, Morse, 98 n.
Stern (Mirabeau). 122 n., 154 n.,
156 n., 170 n.
Strasburg, 164, 334
Styx, the, 107
Su'leau, 253
Sulla, 340
Supreme Being, worshipped, 411
IT.; Fete to the, 418-24
Sweden, 224, 327-8
Swiss Guards, 56, 288 ; on August
loth, 253-8, 259
Switzerland* 224, 328
Syhel, von, 234 n., 254 n.
df Paris, 3
Talleyrand, 1 17
Tullien, deputy, assails Robes-
pierre, 432
Tarpeian rock, the, 124
Tell. William. 331
Temple, the, 262, 274, 304, 313,
330. 352
Tennis Court, the, 36; oath in the,
36, 38, 207
Terror, personified, 228, 230
Terror, Reign of, 370 ff.
Theatre Francais, 377
Theot, Catherine, 429
Thermidor, month of, 401
Thiunville, Merlin de, 272
Third estate, the, 28 ff., 47, 51 ff.
Time, personified, 308
Titans, the, 216
Toulon, 330
Tourzel, Madame de, 178-9, 185
Treves, elector of, 217-18
Trial by jury, 124
Trianon, the little, 13
Truth, personified, 147
Tuileries, 107, in, 165-6, 167-8,
172-3, 176, 179, 180, 185-6, 194,
209, 213, 228, 233
Turgot, 4, 4 n.; incurs Queen's
enmity, 12; and the Parlement,
16-17
Vadier, deputy, 191
Valaze", deputy, kills himself, 393
Valenciennes. 375
Valmy, battle of, 74, 303, 328
Varennes, flight to, 160, 162 n.,
176-189
Vanblanc, deputy, 252
Vaudeville Theatre, 354
Vendee, La, 326, 375, 398
V.ndcmiaire, month of, 401
'>se, month of, 401
Verdun, 287, 289
Vergniaud, deputy, attacks court,
228; arraigns Louis XVI, 239.
288, 335, 390
Vernon, battle of. 347-8
Versailles. 14.
95-6. 98. 99 ff-. 101, 106, no,
164, 182, 262-3
456
Index
Victory, personified, 306-7
Ville Affranchie (Lyons), 380
Villequier, Due de, 177
Vizille, 20
Voltaire, 170
W
Washington, George, 222
Young, Arthur, 29
Z
Zodiac, signs of the, 309
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BLUCHER
And the Uprising of Prussia Against
Napoleon, 1806-1815
By ERNEST f. HENDERSON, Ph.D., L.H.D.
Author of " Symbol and Satire in the French Revolution "
Cr. 8vo. Fully Illustrated. Cloth, $1.50 net. Half leather,
$1.75 net. Postage, 15 cents
No. 46 in Heroes of the Nations Series
" Mr. Henderson's narrative of the thrilling years that ended with
Waterloo is clearly and competently unfolded. The author has
shown special skill in conjuring up the background of the age and in
making clear how fear and hatred of the name of Napoleon paralyzed
the allies and rendered them incapable of decisive action. We may
thank Dr. Henderson for his orderly and scholarly volume." — Man-
chester Guardian.
" Mr. Henderson writes with the skill of an expert and his book is
intensely interesting reading. The history may fairly be described as
masterly." — London Pall Mall Gazette.
The Lowell Lectures, Spring 1912
THE PERSONALITY OF
NAPOLEON
By J. HOLLAND ROSE
Reader in Modern History to the University of Cambridge
Author of " The Development of the European Nations," etc.
8vo. $2.50 net. By mail, $2.75
This volume by a scholar of authority will include a series of
studies of the most important sides of Napoleon's character — (i) Man
(including the salient features of his character); (2) jacobin; (3)
•r; (4) Lawgiver; (5) Emperor; (6) Thinker; (7) World Ruler;
(8) Exile.
This method of treatment, supported by numerous extracts from
Napoleon's letters, etc., will offer new points of view in an oft -treated
theme.
G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS
NEW YORK LONDON
fa France, England, and the United States, this work is recognized as
the most important of all the contributions to modern history. It placet
M, Hanotaux in the front rank of French historians with Guizct. De
Tocquc-vilJe, and Thiers,
CONTEMPORARY FRANCE
By
GABRIEL HANOTAUX
Formerly Minister of Foreign Affairs
Translated by
John Charles Tarver
and
E. Sparvel=Bayly
Pour volumes. Octavo. Each complete in itself and covering
a definite period. Illustrated with portraits in photogravure.
Sold 'separately ', each, net, $3*75.
Vol. I. FRANCE IN 1870-1873.
Vol. II. FRANCE IN 1873-1875.
Vol. HI. FRANCE IN 1874-1877.
Vol. IV. FRANCE IN 1877-1882.
"It is with satisfaction on taking up one of the most important contri-
butions to history, to find the work so sympathetically and exactly translated
as is M. Hanotaux's 'Contemporary France.' Such a translation fits the
American reader to appreciate the work in all of its excellence. . . . The
first of the four volumes challenges our attention from start to finish, because
in it we recognize not only the work of a careful, trained scholar, but also
that of the first-hand observer. . . . M. Hanotaux guides us with a
very personal hand ; on every page he gives recollections of the great men
whom he himself has known. . . . The readers of this volume will await
with keen interest the publication of the others. Together the four should
form a monument of contemporary history indispensable to the library of
thevStudent either of recent history or present politics." — The Outlook.
G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS
NEW YORK LONDON
The Most Brilliant Historical Work of Years
The
Greatness and Decline
of Rome
By Guglielmo Ferrero
Authorized Edition. 5 Volumes, 8vo, Each $250 net
Student's Edition, 5 volumes, Cr. 8vo. $8.00 per set
(Separately $1.7 5 net per volume)
Vol. I. The Empire Builders Vol. III. The Fall of an Aristocracy
Vol. II. Julius Caesar Vol. IV. Rome and Egypt
Vol. V. The Republic of Augustus
Un (form with ** The Greatness and Decline of Rome."
Characters and Events of Roman History
From Cftsar to Nero (60 B.C. -70 A.D.)
^ \uthorizcd Translation by France* Lance Ferrero
8vo. With Portrait. $2.50 net
Student's Edition. I2mo. $1.50 net
" It is the work at once of a scholar and of an artist ; it is based upon founda-
tions of the most solid erudition, and it is marked on every page by the traces of
a brilliant, imaginative, and exceedingly original mind. Signer Ferrero's genius
is less reflective than dramatic ; the picture which he unrolls before us is crowded
with vivid figures, impelled towards sinister conflicts and strange dooms, strug-
gling now with one another, now with the culminating fury of forces far greater
than themselves, to be swept at last to a common ruin; and as we look we seem
to be watching one of those Elizabethan tragedies in which the wickedness and the
horror are mingled with a mysterious exaltation of despair. '\Vherewast thou
when I laid the foundations of the earth? Declare if thou hast understanding.'
That is the text of which Signer P'errero's history is the commentary, — the text of
the littleness of man. The greatest names seem to lose their lustre upon his
pages; he shows us the ignorance of the wise, the weakness of the strong, the
folly of the prudent, the helplessness of the well-meaning; the rest is darkness and
fate." — London Spectator.
44 His largeness of vision, his sound scholarship, his sense of proportion, his
power to measure life that has been by his observation of life that is — his posses-
sion of the true historical sense. . . . He is a bold, not to say audacious,
proponent of new theories and conclusions wholly at variance from those of hu
innumerable predecessors in this most industriously cultivated of all historic fields.
The translation is competent and more than that, and the history is good reading
throughout. There are no dry pages." — Ar. Y. Times.
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Q. P. PUTNAM'S SONS
New York London
The Cambridge History
of English Literature
Edited by
A. W. Ward, Litt.D., F.B.A., Master of Peterhouse
and
A. R. Waller, M.A., Peterhouse
To be published in 14 volumes and two volumes supplementary
to the History
Royal 8vo, of about 500 pages each, $2.50 net
Subscriptions received for the complete work at $36.00 net, payable at the rate of
$2.25 on the notification of the publication of each volume. (Carriage additional)
Vol. I. From the Beginnings to the Cycles of Romance.
II. The End of the Middle Ages.
III. Renascence and Reformation.
IV. Prose and Poetry from Sir Thomas North to
Michael Drayton.
V. The Drama to 1642. Part I.
" T7T tt « It tt it TT
" VII. Cavalier and Puritan.
" VIII. The Age of Dryden.
IX. The Age of Swift and Pope.
Other volumes in active preparation and will be issued at frequent intervale
Ptofessof W, W, Lawrence, Professor of English Literature, Columbia
University, " The danger that a history of this sort may make the impression
of a collection of heterogeneous chapters has been skilfully avoided. The
various sections, while, of necessity, the work of different scholars, are written
in a simple straightforward style, and the material well distributed and clearly
worked out. The arrangement of the apparatus criticus is admirable.
" The editors and publishers of the series are to be congratulated on their
opening volume. It can hardly fail to remain for many years one of the stand-
ard authorities on the history of literature in early England."
Month, ' From every point of view, whether of interest, scholarship, or
practical utilitv we cannot hesitate for a moment in pronouncing that . . .
it bids fa;i to prove the best work of its kind that has ever been produced.
. . . Writing from a Catholic standpoint we cannot fail to commend the
generally temperate and even sympathetic tone in which the religious questions
of the Middle Ages are treated."
Chicago Tribune. " One of the most important events of the year in the
world of letters,**
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