A foreign peasant, from a land of despotic autocracy, who had just
immigrated to the United States, was once haled into one of our police
courts, charged with almost murdering his wife with a club. His defense
was that he now was in a land of liberty and he thought he could do what
he liked. Multiply this by a million-fold and you have the Reign of
Terror, the second chapter of the French Revolution.
"_Aimez les amis du peuple et l'enthousiasme pour la liberté, mais
réservez l'aveugle soumission pour la loi_," said Lafayette to the
Federation of National Guards. The atrocities, both at the storming of
the Bastile and afterward, he would not countenance, and on more than
one occasion, at the head of his armed troops, he enforced law and
order. Finally, Austria and Prussia declared war upon France, and
Lafayette was sent from Paris and at the head of a French army of
twenty-eight thousand men was stationed at Sedan.
It was inevitable that he and the Jacobins, the leaders in the mad orgy
of debauched democracy that succeeded the initial stages of the
revolution, should soon split. For a long time the Jacobins had seemed
to shrink from a contest with him, probably because they hoped to win
him over to their excesses. Finding him inflexible, when at last they
controlled the government, they vowed his destruction, and he was
deprived of his command. They proposed that a price should be set upon
his head and that "_chaque citoyen pût courir sus_"--that is to say,
that any one who pleased might murder him.
Deprived of his command, and with destruction awaiting him in the rear,
his only resource was flight. Even then he hesitated, but reason
prevailed and on a dark and rainy night, with a few companions on
horseback, he started for Holland. To get there he had to pass through
territory occupied by the Austrian and Prussian troops. Facing the
almost certain chance of falling in with a superior force, he determined
to make a bold front, and went directly to the Austrian commander at
Namur, declaring that he was a French officer attached to constitutional
measures and seeking an asylum in Holland. Instead of being given a
passport, he was, when recognized, detained, given over to a Prussian
commander, sent in a cart to Wesel on the Rhine and there put in a cell
in irons. It was then intimated to him that the burden of the situation
would be lightened if he would draw up certain plans to be used against
France. The Prussians, finding that he would not do this, instead of
treating him as a prisoner of war threw him into a dungeon at
Magdebourg. His estate at home was confiscated and his wife imprisoned.
After a year's imprisonment at Magdebourg in a dirty and humid vault he
was transferred by the Prussians from one dungeon to another, and at
last confined in the Austrian citadel of Olmutz.
The walls of his dungeon at Olmutz were six feet thick and the air was
admitted through openings two feet square secured at each end by massive
iron bars. Before these loopholes was situated a broad ditch, which was
filled with water only when it rained; at other times it was a stagnant
marsh continually emitting disease; beyond this were the outer walls of
the castle, so that the slightest breeze could never refresh the inmate.
Each cell had two doors, one of iron, the other of wood nearly two feet
thick, and both were covered with bolts, bars, and padlocks. When the
soldiers twice a day brought the prisoner's wretched portion it was
carefully examined to find out if there was any note or communication
contained in it. A messy bed of rotten straw filled with vermin,
together with a broken chair and an old worm-eaten table, formed the
whole furniture of his establishment. The cell was from eight to ten
paces long and six wide; in storms the water frequently flowed through
the loopholes; when the sun did not shine he remained almost in darkness
during the whole day.
He was a prisoner of war and entitled to be treated as such. But instead
he was confined in a dungeon and was given to believe that he would
never again see beyond its four walls, that he would never receive news
of any events or persons, that his name would be unknown in the citadel,
and that in all accounts of him sent to Court he would be designated
only by a number. Even knives and forks were denied him, and he was told
that this was done because his situation was such as naturally to lead
to suicide. His sufferings proved almost beyond his strength. The want
of air and decent food, and the loathsome dampness of his dungeon
brought him more than once to the borders of the grave. His frame was
wasted by diseases, and on one occasion he was so reduced that "his hair
fell from him entirely by the excess of his sufferings."
Following a bold attempt to escape, the torture of his imprisonment was
increased. Irons were securely fastened around his ankles. During the
winter of 1794-1795, which was extremely severe, he had a violent fever
and almost died; he was deprived of proper attendance, of air, of
suitable food, and of decent clothes; in this state he had nothing for
his bed but a little damp and mouldy straw; around his waist was a chain
which was fastened to the wall and barely permitted him to turn from one
side to the other. No light was admitted into his cell. To increase his
miseries, almost insupportable mental anguish was added to his physical
suffering. He was made to believe that he was only saved for a public
execution, while at the same time he was not permitted to know whether
his family were still alive or had perished under the axe during the
Reign of Terror.
A Prussian statesman to whom in 1793 a memorial had been addressed
soliciting Lafayette's release is said to have replied: "Lafayette has
too much fanaticism for liberty. He does not conceal it. All his letters
prove it. If he were out of prison he could not remain quiet. I saw him
when he was here and I shall always recollect one of his expressions,
which surprised me very much at the time: 'Do you believe,' said he,
'that I went to America to obtain military reputation?--it was for
liberty I went there. He who loves liberty can only remain quiet after
having established it in his own country.'"
O liberty, hard is thy path! License wearing thy mask at home, and thy
champion betrayed to the dungeon of thy eternal foe!