The majority of the Lyonnais had witnessed the revolution of the 10th
of August with great regret. Devoted to commerce and the arts, Lyons
must necessarily have preferred a stable and tranquil government to
the storms of a revolution. Political agitations, the emigration of
the nobles, the proscriptions of the rich, were at every instant
drying up the springs of its commerce, paralyzing its industry, and
deteriorating the products of its manufactures. When private interests
were thus injured, it could not be expected that the Lyonnais should
feel much revolutionary ardour; they were certain to follow the
ideas of the most moderate party. The Convention was recognised, the
Republic proclaimed; but the rich trembled at the opening of the
clubs; they were terrified at seeing municipal powers pass into the
hands of proletaires; their minds revolted at hearing propositions for
murder and carnage, the reward of their generosity in paying a loan of
many millions. Their horror for the men who oppressed them was soon
displaced by a desire for vengeance. Two parties declared themselves in
Lyons: that of the Municipals, supported by the _Montagne_; and that
of the Sections, composed of pure republicans and disguised royalists.
Both sides assembled, and both spoke of preparations for defence and
of measures for attack. Each party designated its enemies, watched its
partisans, exaggerated its injuries and causes of alarm; minds were
heated, and hearts divided. People became accustomed to consider as
irreconcilable enemies all who did not embrace the opinions of the
party they had espoused. The storm, which had been growling for a
length of time, burst forth on the 29th of May, 1793. Two commissioners
from the Convention were sitting with Châlier at the municipality;
they had made a place of arms of it. On their side, the Sectionaries
had gathered together all their columns. There were three attempts at
accommodation, but they all failed through the perfidy of Châlier.
A battalion of the Lyonnais approached the municipality, sent for
under the pretence of conciliation. The signal for carnage was given;
Châlier ordered a discharge of artillery and musketry. The unfortunate
Lyonnais were obliged to abandon the bodies of their friends; the
whole city was in arms. Two columns left the Place de Bellecourt, and
besieged the Hôtel de Ville, defended by eighteen hundred men and two
pieces of cannon; the besiegers did not amount to two thousand. The
combat lasted two hours; the Hôtel de Ville was carried. The Lyonnais
had in their power the men who appeared to have meditated their ruin.
There was still more carnage after the victory; the soldiers were
obliged to defend their prisoners against the fury of the people.
Among them were the two commissioners from the Convention; but liberty
was soon restored to them, on condition of their giving an honest
account of the provocations which had brought on the combat. These
representatives, four days after, notwithstanding a favourable account
had been given, described the Lyonnais to the Convention as rebels,
and demanded vengeance for the national representation having been
unacknowledged, degraded, and insulted in their persons. In the mean
time, the Lyonnais had chosen fresh magistrates, and these had created
a commission to try the prisoners made in the contest on the 29th of
May. Châlier was condemned to death; the rest were spared, and kept
as hostages. The Lyonnais endeavoured at this moment to prove their
love for their country, by concurring with all their power for the
defence of the frontiers. Kellermann, the general of the army of the
Alps, demanded of this city some pieces of artillery and articles of
provisions. Although threatened with a siege, the Lyonnais were moved
by the wants of the very soldiers who were soon to be employed against
them. Kellermann was so affected by such kindness, that he became
their constant intercessor, but one that was never listened to. Two
untoward events then happened which accelerated the misfortunes of the
Lyonnais. The moderate party had been crushed in the Convention by the
31st of May. Marseilles sent an army to the succour of Lyons, on the
very day when treachery, conducted with great art, had given Toulon up
to the English. It was feared, for a moment, that the whole south of
France would detach itself from the north, and that Lyons would make
common cause with Marseilles and Toulon, and all give themselves up
to foreigners. Kellermann despatched Carteau against the Marseillais,
with a body of troops very inferior in numbers to theirs, but which
was to be recruited _en route_, with the national guards and the
volunteers of the country. Carteau followed the left bank of the Rhône,
secured the bridge of St. Esprit and Avignon, met the Marseillais
army at Salon, and afterwards at Septêmes, where he entirely defeated
them. The succours expected from the south by the Lyonnais were thus
annihilated. Lyons made some efforts at conciliation; a deputy replied
to them in these words: “Rebels, confess your crime, open your gates,
show yourselves obedient, be disarmed, and prove yourselves, by your
repentance, worthy of the clemency of the Convention.” The Lyonnais
had no faith in this clemency, and could not avert the storm: the
siege was resolved upon. Kellermann, then called from the army of
the Alps, brought, with much regret, the greater part of it to act
against the second city of France. The rivalry and jealousy of the
neighbouring cities, with the obedience of the country to the orders of
the Convention, soon augmented this army; sixty thousand men surrounded
Lyons, of which fifteen thousand were disciplined troops. The besiegers
received a hundred pieces of cannon, which were served by skilful
gunners. Kellermann, according to the system of the time, had with him
two commissioners from the Convention, Dubois-Crancé and Gauthier.
During civil troubles, party animosities are more ardent in councils
than in camps; the rigour of political principles there yields more
easily to the generous sentiments which a military life establishes
reciprocally between soldier and soldier. Kellermann endeavoured for a
long time to bend the inflexibility of the commissioners; he could not
succeed. In the mean time, the Lyonnais never ceased to express their
devotion to the National Convention; they accepted the constitution
of 1793 in primary assemblies, they celebrated the anniversary of the
10th of August, burnt all feudal titles, and invited Kellermann to be
present at that fête. They kept up with him a regular correspondence,
although they refused to hold any with the Conventional commissioners;
they sought to reunite themselves with the neighbouring departments;
but terror had combined all the inhabitants against them. At length,
on receiving the last propositions of the Conventional deputies, which
were equivalent to surrendering themselves at discretion, they replied:
“Citizens, representatives of the people, your propositions are still
more atrocious than your conduct; we await you; you will not reach
us but over heaps of slain, or the cause of liberty and the republic
will triumph.” From that time all hope of accommodation vanished; the
parties prepared for attack and defence. Warlike enthusiasm fired every
heart in Lyons; the young man who would not have devoted himself to
all the dangers of the good cause, would have been expelled from his
family as well as from the city. Women appeared upon the breach; a
public military chest was formed. The insufficiency of the current coin
was covered by the notes of the principal merchants; a considerable
quantity of provisions of all kinds was brought in, at great expense,
but by no means abundant enough for so immense a population. Lyons,
situated at the confluence of the Saône and the Rhône, is dominated
on the north by the heights which cover a part of its faubourgs; an
engineer named Chennelette traced a plan for redoubts over all this
front: they were erected with astonishing celerity. The houses were
embattlemented, batteries were built, artillery was cast, powder
was manufactured; everything denoted a determination for a vigorous
resistance. All who held in Lyons either administrative or military
posts, knew that there existed no capitulation for them; and they
prepared for defence to the death.
The part of the city situated on the south was occupied by the rich
commercial houses; the Rhône covered all this front; but, on the
opposite side, the bank is uncovered; the buildings, badly protected
by the batteries erected on the quay of the Rhône, were left exposed
to the destructive fire which the besiegers would soon direct against
them. The _corps d’armée_ of the Centre, commanded by Kellermann,
formed the principal attack to the east of the isthmus, between the
union of the Rhône and the Saône, at the faubourg of La Croix-Rousse.
On the north, the quarter of Fouvières, comprised in the great creek
formed by the course of the waters of the Saône, was attacked by the
faubourg of Vaise. Another attack at the confluence of the two rivers
confined the besieged within the lands newly recovered from the waters
by the engineer Purache. The besieging troops were established in
the villages of Oullins and Sainte-Foi. In the latter days of the
siege, the approaches came up to the point of the isthmus, and the
batteries of the besiegers cut off all that part of the city from the
inhabitants. On the south, upon the left bank of the Rhône, which
defended that front, batteries for bombs and firing red-hot shot were
placed. Lyons had armed about twenty-five thousand men, commanded by
Prëcy, an old soldier, Virieu, an ex-constituent, and Nervo. The civil
and administrative authorities, who necessarily took a great part in
the resolutions formed, and even in the operations, were not admitted
entirely into the secrets of the military leaders, and the threads of
the correspondences which were maintained out of the city were not in
their hands: there the insurrection was combined with the movements
of the enemies’ armies in Savoy. It was proposed that the Prussians
and Austrians should drive the French from the lines of Weissemberg,
whilst a _corps d’armée_, commanded by the prince de Condé, should
surprise Huninguen, cross Franche-Comté without stopping for sieges,
and should advance towards Lyons. But the ill-success of the preceding
year had made these powers circumspect upon such bold questions. This
movement failed, as did another, which was to originate in an auxiliary
gathering of emigrants, got together in Switzerland. The Helvetic body
persisted in its neutrality, and refused to allow the passage of these
troops. The Lyonnais had taken up important military positions; their
posts advanced considerably beyond the extent of the city, so as to
favour their communications with Montbrison and Saint-Etienne, whence
they drew their provisions. They occupied the bridge of Oullins, at
a league from Lyons, with the heights of Sainte-Foi and those of La
Croix-Rousse.
It was with great reluctance that the national battalions gathered
around Lyons and turned their arms against their fellow-citizens. In
the first council of war assembled at the commencement of the siege,
all voices inclined towards conciliation, and were against force and
violence. The representative commissioners, armed with the decree of
the National Convention, were obliged to exert all the preponderance
of their terrible authority. General Kellermann told them in writing,
that, whilst deferring to their requisition, he charged himself with
no responsibility. The siege was rather a surrounding attack, than a
system carried through according to the rules of art. The Lyonnais, to
protect their houses from the fire of the besiegers, had carried their
exterior works very far out; they had taken advantage of every building
for placing posts and cannon. All these posts were daily attacked,
defended, taken, disputed, and retaken. In these combats in detail,
the losses were equal, the success balanced, and the results nothing.
The persistency of the Lyonnais leaders was supported by the hope and
expectation of a powerful diversion, to be effected by the Piedmontese
army. This army, by a general movement upon its whole front, had
descended from the mountains which separate Savoy from Piedmont, and
had effected an invasion in Faussigny, Tarantasia, and Mauritta. The
army of the Alps being weakened, had retired. Lyons might hope to be
some day relieved by the approach of a foreign army. The situation of
the French army in Savoy became so embarrassing, that Kellermann was
obliged to leave the conducting of the siege to General Du Muy. A few
days sufficed for repulsing the Piedmontese. The Convention at this
time ordered that Lyons should be set fire to. During several days and
nights, the batteries of the three attacks, east, north, and south,
poured upon the city a deluge of fire; bombs and red-hot balls carried
fire and destruction into all quarters; the public establishments and
the beautiful houses of Bellecourt were either battered down by balls
or consumed by fire; the quarter of Saint-Clair was the first exposed
to the conflagration. Every one was on the watch; all were united in
Lyons to endeavour to stop the progress of it. A general cry of horror
and indignation arose when the arsenal was seen to be on fire. More
than a hundred houses were consumed; magazines of munitions and forage
became the prey of the flames. This disaster appeared to be not the
effect of the bombs, but the crime of some base incendiary. During
the bombardment, traitors gave signals to point out the best places
at which to aim. We tremble to relate an instance of a new species
of crime. A man bearing the title of a representative of the people,
caused bombs to be showered upon the Hôtel-Dieu,--of all the hospitals
in France, the one which was perhaps the best conducted. In this
asylum, the wounded belonging to the city, and those who were taken
prisoners, received equal attention,--a touching lesson of humanity
for the Conventional commissioners, who never failed to have all the
rebels shot who fell into their hands. The Lyonnais could not believe
that there was premeditation in this fire. They hoisted a black flag
over the hospital; but instead of averting the bombs, this signal
seemed only to attract them. At this period, the besieged began to be
sensible of the horrors of famine, their connection with Le Forez being
then cut off. The mills having been destroyed by the bombardment, the
women proposed that all the barley or wheaten bread should be reserved
for the combatants, whilst they should be satisfied with half a pound
of oaten bread delivered to them daily. Very soon everything eatable
was exhausted. Reduced to this cruel extremity, the besieged thought
to gain relief by sending from their walls all the persons useless
for the defence of the city. A colleague of Dubois-Cranée committed
an act of inhumanity scarcely credible: his own sister, an inhabitant
of Lyons, came to the camp of the besiegers, exhausted by hunger and
followed by her family. “Let her go back,” cried the Conventional
commissioner,--“let her go back and ask the rebels for bread!”
The reiterated efforts of the besiegers rendered them masters of
La Croix-Rousse, which dominates over the city very closely. Fresh
requisitions had collected new battalions of national guards in the
department of the Saône. An army was formed of these, which pressed the
works at the point of the isthmus towards Oullins and Sainte-Foi. These
reinforcements placed the army in a condition to attempt a general
attack in open day upon the two fronts of the west and the south. The
besiegers gained possession of the two quarters of the Point Perrache
and the Brotteaux, and set fire to them before they retired. At this
period also, the Lyonnais lost all hopes of receiving succours from the
Piedmontese; General Kellermann had succeeded, by skilful manœuvres,
in driving them back over Mont-Cenis. This advantage decided the fate
of Lyons; the Conventional commissioners conveyed the news into the
city with a proclamation. The public misfortunes, the sufferings from
famine, the fatigues of the service, the carelessness of the people
in a quarrel in which the leaders were the only persons threatened,
together with lassitude, had changed the minds of the multitude. The
sections of Lyons assembled; they insisted upon hearing the reading of
the proclamation; and named commissioners to enter into negotiations.
The leaders of the enterprise felt that it was time to yield. Prëcy
and Virieu, accompanied by three thousand men, whom necessity or the
just fear for the future attached to them, marched out by the gate of
Vaise. Their purpose was, to keep along the banks of the Saône for a
time, to cross it at Riottier, and to advance towards the frontiers of
Switzerland through the department of L’Ain. But the Conventionalists
were aware of this project. The weak remains of the Lyonnais army at
first met with but few obstacles; but they were soon pursued by large
bodies of cavalry: their retreat became a disorderly flight; they threw
themselves into the thickest woods; instead of rejoicing in their
silence, the sound of the tocsin came upon their ears from all parts,
and that was for them the tocsin of death. Countrymen, armed with forks
and scythes, surrounded every issue of the forests, waited for, and
massacred men already conquered by hunger and despair. The column led
by M. de Virieu was entirely destroyed, and not more than fifty or
sixty escaped of that of Prëcy. The next day, the 9th of October, the
republican army took possession of all the abandoned posts of Lyons,
which city it entered without opposition. The Convention decreed that
the walls and public buildings should be destroyed, and the name of
the city changed to _Ville Affranchie_. Of three thousand five hundred
and twenty-eight of the insurgents, as they were called, who were
brought to trial on account of this siege, one thousand six hundred
and eighty-two were either shot or beheaded. In 1794, however, on the
destruction of the faction of the Jacobins, the Convention decreed that
the city should resume its ancient name, and that measures should be
taken to restore its manufactures and commerce. In 1795, the friends of
those who were so wantonly put to death in 1793, revenged their fate by
a general massacre of the judges of the revolutionary tribunal, and of
all the Jacobins who were then confined in the prisons of Lyons.