was soon confined to a few narrowing centres. What, in the
meantime, had been the achievements of the mighty Coalition of
banded Europe? Success, that might have been great, was
attained on the Alpine and Pyrenean frontiers; and had the
Piedmontese and Spaniards been well led they could have
overrun Provence and Rousillon, and made the insurrection of
the South fatal. But here, as elsewhere, the Allies did
little; and, though defeated in almost every encounter, the
republican levies held their ground against enemies who
nowhere advanced. It was, however, in the North and the
North-east that the real prize of victory was placed; and no
doubt can exist that had unanimity in the councils of the
Coalition prevailed, or had a great commander been in its
camp, Paris might have been captured without difficulty, and
the Revolution been summarily put down. But the Austrians, the
Prussians, and the English, were divided in mind; they had no
General capable of rising above the most ordinary routine of
war; and the result was that the allied armies advanced
tardily on an immense front, each leader thinking of his own
plans only, and no one venturing to press forward boldly, or
to pass the fortresses on the hostile frontiers, though
obstacles like these could be of little use without the aid of
powerful forces in the field. In this manner half the summer
was lost in besieging Mayence, Valenciennes, and Condé; and
when, after the fall of these places [July-August], an attempt
was made to invade Picardy, dissensions between the Allies
broke out, and the British contingent was detached to besiege
Dunkirk, while the Austrians lingered in French Flanders,
intent on enlarging by conquest Belgium, at that period an
Austrian Province. Time was thus gained for the French armies,
which, though they had made an honorable resistance, had been
obliged to fall back at all points, and were in no condition
to oppose their enemy; and the French army in the North,
though driven nearly to the Somme, within a few marches of the
capital, was allowed an opportunity to recruit its strength,
and was not, as it might have been easily, destroyed. A part
of the hastily raised levies was now incorporated in its
ranks; and as these were largely composed of seasoned men from
the old army of the Bourbon Monarchy, and from the volunteers
of Valmy and Jemmapes, a respectable force was before long
mustered. At the peremptory command of the Jacobin Government,
this was at once directed against the invaders, who did not
know what an invasion meant. The Duke of York, assailed with
vigor and skill, was compelled to raise the siege of Dunkirk
[by the French victory at Hondschotten, September 8]; and, to
the astonishment of Europe, the divided forces of the halting
and irresolute Coalition began to recede before the enemies,
who saw victory yielded to them, and who, feeble soldiers as
they often were, were nevertheless fired by ardent patriotism.
As the autumn closed the trembling balance of fortune inclined
decidedly on the side of the Republic. The French recruits,
hurried to the frontier in masses, became gradually better
soldiers, under the influence of increasing success. Carnot, a
man of great but overrated powers, took the general direction
of military affairs; and though his strategy was not sound, it
was much better than the imbecility of his foes. At the same
time, the Generals of the fallen Monarchy having disappeared,
or, for the most part, failed, brilliant names began to emerge
from the ranks, and to lead the suddenly raised armies; and
though worthless selections were not seldom made, more than
one private and sergeant gave proof of capacity of no common
order. Terror certainly added strength to patriotism, for
thousands were driven to the camp by force, and death was the
usual penalty of a defeated chief; but it was not the less a
great national movement, and high honor is justly due to a
people which, in a situation that might have seemed hopeless,
made such heroic: and noble efforts, even though it triumphed
through the weakness of its foe. Owing to a happy inspiration
of Carnot, a detachment was rapidly marched from the Rhine,
where the Prussians remained in complete inaction; and with
this reinforcement Jourdan gained a victory at Wattignies
[October 16] over the Austrians, and opened the way into the
Low Countries. At the close of the year the youthful Hoche,
once a corporal, but a man of genius, who had given studious
hours to the theory of war, divided Brunswick from the
Austrian Würmser by a daring and able march through the
Vosges; and the baffled Allies were driven out of Alsace, the
borders of which they had just invaded. By these operations
the great Northern frontier, the really vulnerable part of
France, was almost freed from the invaders' presence; and,
though less was achieved on the Southern frontier, the enemies
of the Republic began to lose courage."
_W. O'C. Morris,
The French Revolution,
chapter 6._
"The Prussians had remained wholly inactive for two months
after the fall of Mayence, contenting themselves with watching
the French in their lines at Weissenburg. Wearied at length by
the torpor of his opponents, Moreau assumed the initiative,
and attacked the Prussian corps at Pirmasens. This bold
attempt was repulsed (September 14) with the loss of 4,000
men; but it was not till a month later (October 13) that the
Allies resumed the offensive, when the Weissenburg lines were
stormed by a mixed force of Austrians and Prussians, and the
French fled in confusion almost to Strasburg. But this
important advantage led to no results, though the defeat of
the Republican movement was hailed by a royalist movement in
Alsace.
{1296}
The Austrians, immovable in their plans of conquest, refused
to occupy Strasburg in the name of Louis XVII.; and the
unfortunate royalists, abandoned to Republican vengeance, were
indiscriminately consigned to the guillotine by a decree of
the Convention, while the confederate army was occupied in the
siege of Landau. But the lukewarmness of the Prussians had now
become so evident, that it was only by the most vehement
remonstrances of the Austrian cabinet that they were prevented
from seceding altogether from the league; and the Republicans,
taking advantage of the disunion of their enemies, again
attacked the Allies (December 26), who were routed and driven
over the Rhine [abandoning the siege of Landau]; while the
victors, following up their success, retook Spires, and
advanced to the gates of Mannheim. The operations in the
Pyrenees and on the side of Savoy, during this campaign, led
to no important results. On the western extremity of the
Pyrenees, the Spaniards [had] entered France in the middle of
April, routed their opponents in several encounters, and drove
them into St. Jean Pied-de-Poet. An invasion of Roussillon, at
the same time, was equally successful; and the Spaniards
maintained themselves in the province till the end of the
year, taking the fortresses of Bellegarde and Collioure, and
routing two armies which attempted to dislodge them, at Truellas
(September 22) and Boulon (December 7). An attempt of the
Sardinians to expel the French from their conquests in Savoy
was less fortunate; and, at the close of the campaign, both
parties remained in their former position."
_A. Alison,
Epitome of History of Europe,
pages 58-59 (chapter 13,
volume 4 of complete work)._
ALSO IN:
_H. Von Sybel,
History of the French Revolution,
book 8, chapter 2 (volume 3)._
_E. Baines,
History of the Wars of the French Revolution,
volume 1, chapters 9-11._
FRANCE: A. D. 1793 (August).
Emancipation in San Domingo proclaimed.
See HAYTI: A. D. 1632-1803.
FRANCE: A. D. 1793 (September-December).
The "Reign of Terror" becomes the "Order of the Day."
Trial and execution of Marie Antoinette, Madame Roland, and
the Girondists.
"On the 16th of September, the Faubourg Saint-Antoine
surrounded the Hôtel de Ville, clamoring for 'Bread.' Hébert
and Chaumette appeased the mob by vociferous harangues against
rich men and monopolists, and by promising to raise a
revolutionary army with orders to scour the country, empty the
granaries, and put the grain within reach of the people. 'The
next thing will he a guillotine for the monopolists,' added
Hébert. This had been demanded by memorials from the most
ultra provincial Jacobins. The next day the Convention
witnessed the terrible reaction of this scene. At the opening
of the session Merlin de Douai proposed and carried a vote for
the division of the revolutionary tribunal into four sections,
in order to remedy the dilatoriness complained of by
Robespierre and the Jacobins. The municipality soon arrived,
followed by a great crowd; Chaumette, in a furious harangue,
demanded a revolutionary army with a travelling guillotine.
The ferocious Billaud-Varennes declared that this was not
enough, and that all suspected persons must be arrested
immediately. Danton interposed with the powerful eloquence of
his palmy days; he approved of an immediate decree for the
formation of a revolutionary army, but made no mention of the
guillotine. ... Danton's words were impetuous, but his ideas
were politic and deliberate. His motions were carried, amid
general acclamation. But the violent propositions of
Billaud-Varennes and others were also carried. The decree
forbidding domiciliary visits and night arrests, which had
been due to the Girondists, was revoked. A deputation from the
Jacobins and the sections demanded the indictment of the
'monster' Brissot with his accomplices, Vergniaud, Gensonné,
and other 'miscreants.' 'Lawgivers,' said the spokesman of the
deputation, 'let the Reign of Terror be the order of the day!'
Barère, in the name of the Committee of Public Safety,
obtained the passage of a decree organizing an armed force to
restrain counter-revolutionists and protect supplies. Fear led
him to unite with the most violent, and to adopt the great
motto of the Paris Commune, 'Let the Reign of Terror be the
order of the day!' 'The royalists are conspiring,' he said;
'they want blood. Well they shall have that of the
conspirators, of the Brissots and Marie Antoinettes!' The
association of these two names shows what frenzy prevailed in
the minds of the people. The next day September 6, two of the
most formidable Jacobins, the cold, implacable
Billaud-Varennes and the fiery Collot d'Herbois, were added to
the Committee of Public Safety. Danton persisted in his
refusal to return to it. This proves how mistaken the
Girondists had been in accusing him of aspiring to the
dictatorship. He kept aloof from the Committee chiefly because
he knew that they were lost, and did not wish to contribute to
their fall. Before leaving the ministry Garat had tried to
prevent the Girondists from being brought to trial; upon
making known his wish to Robespierre and Danton, he found
Robespierre implacable, while Danton, with tears coursing down
his rugged cheeks replied, 'I cannot save them!' ... On the 10th
of October Saint-Just, in the name of the Committee of Public
Safety, read to the Assembly an important report upon the
situation of the Republic. It was violent and menacing to
others beside the enemies of the Mountain; Hébert and his gang
might well tremble. He inveighed not only against those who
were plundering the government, but against the whole
administration. ... Saint-Just's report had been preceded on
the 3d of October by a report from the new Committee of Public
Safety, concluding with the indictment of 40 deputies; 39 were
Girondists or friends of the Gironde; the fortieth was the
ex-Duke of Orleans. Twenty-one of these 39 were now in the
hands of their enemies, and of these 21 only 9 belonged to
the first deputies indicted on the 2d of June; the remainder
had left Paris hoping to organize outside resistance, and had
been declared outlawed. The deputies subsequently added to
this number were members of the Right who had signed protests
against the violation of the national representation on that
fatal day. ... It was decided at the same session to bring the
40 deputies, together with Marie Antoinette, to trial. The
Jacobins and the commune had long been demanding the trial of
the unhappy queen, and were raising loud clamors over the
plots for her deliverance.
{1297}
She might perhaps have escaped from the Temple if she would
have consented to leave her children. During July a sorrow
equal to that of the 21st of January had been inflicted on
her; she had been separated from her young son under the
pretence that she treated him like a king, and was bringing
him up to make 'a tyrant of him.' The child was placed in
another part of the Temple, and his education was intrusted to
a vulgar and brutal shoemaker, named Simon. Nevertheless the
fate of Marie Antoinette at this epoch was still doubtful;
neither the Committee of Public Safety nor the ministry
desired her death. While Lebrun, the friend of the Girondists,
was minister of foreign affairs, a project had been formed
which would have saved her life. Danton knew of it and aided
it. ... This plan was a negotiation with Venice, Tuscany, and
Naples, the three Italian States yet neutral, who were to
pledge themselves to maintain their wavering neutrality, in
consideration of a guaranty of the safety of Marie Antoinette
and her family. Two diplomatic agents who afterwards held high
posts in France, Marat and Sémonville, were intrusted with
this affair. As they were crossing from Switzerland into
Italy, they were arrested, in violation of the law of nations,
upon the neutral territory of the Grisons by an Austrian
detachment (July 25). ... At tidings of the arrest of the
French envoys, Marie Antoinette was separated from her
daughter and sister-in-law Elizabeth, and transferred to the
Conciergerie. On the 14th of October she appeared before the
revolutionary tribunal. To the accusation of the public
prosecutor, Fouquier-Tinville, made up of calumnies against
her private life, and for the most part well-founded
imputations against her political conduct, she opposed a
plausible defence, which effaced as far as possible her part
in the late government. ... The following questions were put
to the jurors: 'Has Marie Antoinette aided in movements
designed to assist the foreign enemies of the Republic to open
French territory to them and to facilitate the progress of
their arms? Has she taken part in a conspiracy tending to
incite civil war?' The answer was in the affirmative, and the
sentence of death was passed on her. The decisive portions
which we now possess of the queen's correspondence with
Austria had not then been made public; but enough was known to
leave no doubt of her guilt, which had the same moral excuses
as that of her husband. ... She met death [October 16] with
courage and resignation. The populace who had hated her so
much did not insult her last moments. ... A week after the
queen's death the Girondists were summoned before the
revolutionary tribunal. Brissot and Lasource alone had tried
to escape this bloody ordeal, and to stir up resistance
against it in the South. Vergniaud, Gensonné, and Valazé
remained unshaken in their resolve to await trial. Gensonné,
who had been placed in the keeping of a Swiss whose life he
had saved on the 10th of August, and who had become a
gendarme, might have escaped, but he refused to profit by this
man's gratitude. ... The act of indictment drawn up by the
ex-Feuillant Amar was only a repetition of the monstrous
calumnies which had circulated through the clubs and the
journals. Brissot was accused of having ruined the colonies by
advocating the liberation of slaves, and of having drawn
foreign arms upon France by declaring war on kings. The whole
trial corresponded to this beginning. ... On the 29th the
Jacobins appeared at the bar of the Convention, and called for
a decree giving the jurors of the revolutionary tribunal the
right to bring the proceedings to a close as soon as they
believed themselves sufficiently enlightened. Robespierre and
Barère supported the Jacobin demand. Upon Robespierre's motion
it was decreed that after three days' proceedings, the jurors
might declare themselves ready to render their verdict. The
next day the jurors availed themselves of their privilege, and
declared themselves sufficiently informed, although they had
not heard the evidence for acquittal, neither the accused nor
their counsel having been allowed to plead their cause.
Brissot, Vergniaud, Gensonné, Valazé, Bishop Fauchet, Ducos,
Boyer-Fonfrède, Lasource, and their friends were declared
guilty of having conspired against the unity and
indivisibility of the Republic, and against the liberty and
safety of the French people. ... Danton, who had not been an
accomplice in their death, had retired to his mother's home at
Arcis-sur-Aube, that he might not be a witness thereof. The
condemned were brought back to hear their sentence. The
greater part of them rose up with a common impulse, and cried,
'We are innocent! People, they are deceiving you!' The crowd
remained motionless and silent. ... At midnight they partook
of a last repast, passing the rest of the night in converse
about their native land, their remnant of life being cheered
by news of victory and pleasant sallies from young Ducos, who
might have escaped, but preferred to share his friend
Fonfréde's fate. Vergniaud had been given a subtle poison by
Condorcet, but threw it away, choosing to die with his
companions. One of his noble utterances gives us the key to
his life. 'Others sought to consummate the Revolution by
terror; I would accomplish it by love.' Next day, October 31,
at noon, the prisoners were led forth, and as the five carts
containing them left the Conciergerie, they struck up the
national hymn ... and shouts of 'Long live the Republic.' The
sounds died away as their number decreased, but did not cease
until the last of the 21 mounted the fatal platform. ... The
murderers of the Girondists were not likely to spare the
illustrious woman who was at once the inspiration and the
honor of that party, and the very same day Madame Roland who
had been for five months a prisoner at St. Pelagie and the
Abbaye, was transferred to the Conciergerie. Hébert and his
followers had long clamored for her head. During her captivity
she wrote her Memoirs, which unfortunately have not been
preserved complete; no other souvenir of the Revolution equals
this, although it is not always reliable, for Madame Roland
had feminine weaknesses of intellect, despite her masculine
strength of soul; she was prejudiced against all who disagreed
with her, and regarded caution and compromise with a noble but
impolitic scorn. ... The 18th Brumaire (November 10), she was
summoned before the revolutionary tribunal; when she left her
cell, clad in white, her dark hair, floating loosely over her
shoulders, a smile on her lips and her face sparkling with
life and animation. ...
{1298}
She was condemned in advance, not being allowed a word in her
own defence, and was declared guilty of being an author or
accomplice 'of a monstrous conspiracy against the unity and
indivisibility of the Republic.' She heard her sentence
calmly, saying to the judges: 'You deem me worthy the fate of
the great men you have murdered. I will try to display the
same courage on the scaffold.' She was taken directly to the
Place de la Revolution, a man condemned for treason being
placed in the same cart, who was overwhelmed with terror. She
passed the mournful journey in soothing him, and on reaching
the scaffold bid him mount first, that his sufferings might
not be prolonged. As she took her place in turn, her eye fell
on a colossal statue of Liberty, erected August 10, 1793. 'O
Liberty,' she cried, 'what crimes are committed in thy name!'
Some say that she said, 'O Liberty, how they have deceived
thee!' Thus died the noblest woman in history since the
incomparable Joan, who saved France! ... The bloody tribunal
never paused; famous men of every party succeeded each other
at the fatal bar, the ex-Duke of Orleans among them, but four
days earlier than Madame Roland. ... The day after Madame
Roland's trial began that of the venerable Bailli, ex-mayor of
Paris and ex-president of the Constituent Assembly, a man who
played a great part early in the Revolution, but faded out of
sight with the constituent power."
_Henry Martin,
Popular History of France, 1789-1877,
volume 1, chapter 16._
ALSO IN
_A. de Lamartine,
History of the Girondists,
chapters 46-52 (volume 3)._
_C. D. Yonge,
Life of Marie Antoinette,
chapter 39._
_Madame Campan,
Memoirs of the Private Life of Marie Antoinette,
volume 2, conclusion._
_S. Marceau,
Reminiscences of a Regicide,
chapter 11._
_Count Beugnot,
Life,
volume 1, chapter 6._
_Lord R. Gower,
Last Days of Marie Antoinette._
FRANCE: A. D. 1793 (October).
Life in Paris during the Reign of Terror.
Gaiety in the Prisons.
The Tricoteuses, or knitting women.
Revolutionary costumes and modes of speech.
The guillotine as plaything and ornament.