gate of the prison, but this time they waited for the executioners. The
procession defiled before a dense crowd; all the windows were full of
spectators, all the shops were open, and joy sparkled in every
countenance. Robespierre and his friends had wearied with executions the
people of Paris; the sanguinary emotions to which they had been so long
accustomed regained their first relish; it was Robespierre that they
were about to see die. He was half stretched out in the cart, livid, and
with a blood-stained cloth round his face. When the executioner snatched
it from him on the scaffold, a terrible cry was heard, the first sign of
suffering the condemned had given. To this shriek cries of joy responded
from all around, which were repeated at each stroke from the fatal axe.
In two days a hundred three executions violently sealed the vengeance of
the Convocation. The justice of God and that of history bide their time.
Robespierre had successively vanquished all his enemies; clever and
bold, protected and served by his reputation for virtue, seconded by the
growing terror which his name inspired, he had usurped the entire power,
and confiscated the Revolution for the profit of despotism. He succumbed
under the blows of those who had constantly pushed him to the front;
wearied or frightened by the tyranny whose vengeance they themselves
dreaded. The hands which overthrew the terrible dictator were not pure
hands, and revolutionary passions continued to animate many minds, but
the public instincts did not err for an instant. The conquerors of the
9th Thermidor could in their turn seize upon power, and the greater
number of them had had no other intention; but they might no longer
spill blood at their pleasure without hindrance and without control. The
culminating point of sufferings and crimes had been attained. Without
wishing it and without knowing it, from envy or from fear, the
"_Thermidoriens_," as they began to be called, in striking down the
triumvirate had changed the course of the Revolution. The nation, always
prompt to concentrate upon the name of one man its affections or its
hatreds, panting and lacerated as it was, began to breathe; the
prisoners ceased to expect death daily; their friends already hoped for
their liberty; timid people ventured forth from their hiding-places; the
bold loudly manifested their joy. People dared to wear mourning for
those who had died on the scaffold; widows came forth from houses in
which they had kept themselves shut up; absent ones reappeared in the
bosom of their families. Robespierre was no more.
The Convention had revolted almost unanimously against the tyrant;
scarcely was he struck down, when it found itself again a prey to
divisions. Public demonstrations of joy and relief were manifested
everywhere, and this disquieted some of the leaders of the conspiracy
formerly directed against Robespierre; they had thought to overthrow him
in order themselves to occupy his place, and already they perceived that
two tendencies were manifesting themselves in the country. The one,
feeble as yet in the Convention, and with no other point of support than
the remnant of the Right, disposed to retrace the course of events, and
even to visit upon their authors the iniquities committed; the other,
disquieted and gloomy, determined to defend the Revolution at any
hazard, even though it might be at the price of new sacrifices. The
small party of the Thermidorians, Tallien at their head, began to form
themselves between these two irreconcilable parties. The reaction as yet
bore no definite name, it did not and could not exercise any power;
desired or dreaded, it was at the bottom of every thought, it influenced
all decisions, often rendering them apparently contrary. The terrible
glory of Robespierre, and the crushing weight that rests upon his
memory, are due to the sudden transformation effected by his death. In
outward semblance, and for some time longer, the customary terms were
employed, but the character of the situation was radically changed.
FOOTNOTES:
[41] Public accuser before the Revolutionary Tribunal.--ED.
[42] Decoys; literally, sheep.--ED.
[43] The royalist War of La Vendee against the Republic was now
raging.--ED.
[44] "It will go." One of the most popular songs at the beginning of the
Revolution (1789), said to have been suggested by Benjamin Franklin,
who, in speaking of the progress of the American Revolution, said: "Ca
ira" meaning, "It will succeed."--ED.
THE DOWNFALL OF POLAND
A.D. 1794
SIR ARCHIBALD ALISON
That the French Revolution was not more actively interfered
with by the powers of Eastern Europe was largely due to the
fact that they were all busy with a spoliation of their own.
When Kosciuszko, the great Polish patriot and hero, failed
in his endeavor to rescue his country from foreign thraldom,
the doom of the ancient kingdom was sealed. In the following
year (1795) the third and final partition of Poland--between
Russia, Austria, and Prussia--was made. This destruction of
a heroic nationality was bewailed by the friends of liberty
throughout the world, and it was told in passionate regret
how "Freedom shrieked, as Kosciuszko fell."
Although brave and liberty-loving, the people of Poland had
not kept pace with political progress among the more
advanced nations. In the fourteenth century Poland had risen
to her greatest power. Her political character, from ancient
days, was peculiar, being at once monarchical and
republican. But she had a feudalism of her own, which
survived long after the European feudal system was outgrown
by other nations. Her political system was cumbrous and
lacking in unity. The first partition, by the powers above
named (1772), left her in still worse disorder. A new
constitution proved unsatisfactory, one party favoring it,
another seeking to overthrow it. Russian interference was
invoked, the Polish patriots resisted, but in 1792 they were
defeated, and Russia, with Prussia, made the second
partition of Poland in 1793.
In 1794 Kosciuszko was made commander-in-chief and dictator
of Poland. The insurrection began with the murder of the
Russians in Warsaw. But the Poles suffered from their own
dissensions as before, and met with the disaster that led to
their national extinction.
There is a certain degree of calamity which overwhelms the courage; but
there is another, which, by reducing men to desperation, sometimes leads
to the greatest and most glorious enterprises. To this latter state the
Poles were now reduced. Abandoned by all the world, distracted with
internal divisions, destitute alike of fortresses and resources, crushed
in the grasp of gigantic enemies, the patriots of that unhappy country,
consulting only their own courage, resolved to make a last effort to
deliver it from its enemies. In the midst of their internal convulsions,
and through all the prostration of their national strength, the Poles
had never lost their individual courage, or the ennobling feelings of
civil independence. They were still the redoubtable hussars who broke
the Mussulman ranks under the walls of Vienna, and carried the Polish
eagles in triumph to the towers of the Kremlin; whose national cry had
so often made the Osmanlis tremble, and who had boasted in their hours
of triumph that if the heaven itself were to fall they would support it
on the points of their lances. A band of patriots at Warsaw resolved at
all hazards to attempt the restoration of their independence, and they
made choice of Kosciuszko, who was then at Leipsic, to direct their
efforts.[45]
This illustrious hero, who had received the rudiments of military
education in France, had afterward served, not without glory, in the War
of Independence in America. Uniting to Polish enthusiasm French ability,
the ardent friend of liberty and the enlightened advocate for order,
brave, loyal, and generous, he was in every way qualified to head the
last struggle of the oldest republic in existence for its national
independence. But a nearer approach to the scene of danger convinced
him that the hour for action had not yet arrived. The passions, indeed,
were awakened; the national enthusiasm was full; but the means of
resistance were inconsiderable, and the old divisions of the Republic
were not so healed as to afford the prospect of the whole national
strength being exerted in its defence. But the public indignation could
brook no delay; several regiments stationed at Pultusk revolted, and
moved toward Galicia; and Kosciuszko, albeit despairing of success,
determined not to be absent in the hour of danger, hastened to Cracow,
where on March 3d he closed the gates and proclaimed the insurrection.
Having, by means of the regiments which had revolted, and the junction
of some bodies of armed peasants--imperfectly armed, indeed, but full of
enthusiasm--collected a force of five thousand men, Kosciuszko left
Cracow, and boldly advanced into the open country. He encountered a body
of three thousand Russians at Raslowice, and, after an obstinate
engagement, succeeded in routing it with great slaughter. This action,
inconsiderable in itself, had important consequences; the Polish
peasants exchanged their scythes for the arms found on the field of
battle, and the insurrection, encouraged by this first gleam of success,
soon communicated itself to the adjoining provinces. In vain Stanislaus
disavowed the acts of his subjects; the flame of independence spread
with the rapidity of lightning, and soon all the freemen in Poland were
in arms. Warsaw was the first great point where the flame broke out. The
intelligence of the success at Raslowice was received there on April
12th and occasioned the most violent agitation. For some days afterward
it was evident that an explosion was at hand; and at length, at daybreak
on the morning of the 17th, the brigade of Polish guards, under the
direction of their officers, attacked the governor's house and the
arsenal, and was speedily joined by the populace. The Russian and
Prussian troops in the neighborhood of the capital were about seven
thousand men; and after a prolonged and obstinate contest in the streets
for thirty-six hours, they were driven across the Vistula with the loss
of above three thousand men in killed and prisoners, and the flag of
independence was hoisted on the towers of Warsaw.
One of the most embarrassing circumstances in the situation of the
Russians was the presence of above sixteen thousand Poles in their
ranks, who were known to sympathize strongly with these heroic efforts
of their fellow-citizens. Orders were immediately despatched to Suvaroff
to assemble a corps and disarm the Polish troops scattered in Podolia
before they could unite in any common measures for their defence. By the
energy and activity of this great commander, the Poles were disarmed
brigade after brigade, and above twelve thousand men reduced to a state
of inaction without much difficulty--a most important operation, not
only by destroying the nucleus of a powerful army, but by stifling the
commencement of the insurrection in Volhynia and Podolia. How different
might have been the fate of Poland and Europe had they been enabled to
join the ranks of their countrymen!
Kosciuszko and his countrymen did everything that courage or energy
could suggest to put on foot a formidable force to resist their
adversaries; a provisional government was established and in a short
time a force of forty thousand men was raised. But this force, though
highly honorable to the patriotism of the Poles, was inconsiderable when
compared with the vast armies which Russia and Prussia could bring up
for their subjugation. Small as the army was, its maintenance was too
great an effort for the resources of the kingdom, which, torn by
intestine factions, without commerce, harbors, or manufactures; having
no national credit, and no industrious class of citizens but the Jews,
now felt the fatal effects of its long career of democratic anarchy. The
population of the country, composed entirely of unruly gentlemen and
ignorant serfs, was totally unable at that time to furnish those
numerous supplies of intelligent officers which are requisite for the
formation of an efficient military force; while the nobility, however
formidable on horseback in the Hungarian or Turkish wars, were less to
be relied on in a contest with regular troops, where infantry and
artillery constituted the great strength of the army, and courage was
unavailing without the aid of science and military discipline.
The central position of Poland, in the midst of its enemies, would have
afforded great military advantages, had its inhabitants possessed a
force capable of turning it to account; that is, if they had had, like
Frederick the Great in the Seven Years' War, a hundred fifty thousand
regular troops--which the population of the country could easily have
maintained--and a few well-fortified towns, to arrest the enemy in one
quarter, while the bulk of the national force was precipitated upon them
in another. The glorious stand made by the nation in 1831, with only
thirty thousand regular soldiers at the commencement of the
insurrection, and no fortifications but those of Warsaw and Modlin,
proves what immense advantages this central position affords, and what
opportunities it offers to military genius like that of Skrynecki to
inflict the most severe wounds even on a superior and well-conducted
antagonist. But all these advantages were wanting to Kosciuszko; and it
augments our admiration of his talents, and of the heroism of his
countrymen, that with such inconsiderable means they made so honorable a
stand for their national independence.
No sooner was the King of Prussia informed of the revolution at Warsaw
than he moved forward at the head of thirty thousand men to besiege that
city; while Suvaroff, with forty thousand veterans, was preparing to
enter the southeastern parts of the kingdom. Aware of the necessity of
striking a blow before the enemy's forces were united, Kosciuszko
advanced with twelve thousand men to attack the Russian General,
Denisoff; but, upon approaching his corps, he discovered that it had
united to the army commanded by the King in person. Unable to face such
superior forces, he immediately retired, but was attacked next morning
at daybreak near Sekoczyre by the allies, and after a gallant resistance
his army was routed, and Cracow fell into the hands of the conquerors.
This check was the more severely felt, as about the same time General
Zayonscheck was defeated at Chelne and obliged to recross the Vistula,
leaving the whole country on the right bank of that river in the hands
of the Russians.
These disasters produced a great impression at Warsaw; the people as
usual ascribed them to treachery, and insisted that the leaders should
be brought to punishment; and although the chiefs escaped, several
persons in an inferior situation were arrested and thrown into prison.
Apprehensive of some subterfuge if the accused were regularly brought to
trial, the burghers assembled in tumultuous bodies, forced the prisons,
erected scaffolds in the streets, and after the manner of the assassins
of September 2d, put above twelve persons to death with their own hands.
These excesses affected with the most profound grief the pure heart of
Kosciuszko; he flew to the capital, restored order, and delivered over
to punishment the leaders of the revolt. But the resources of the
country were evidently unequal to the struggle; the paper money, which
had been issued in their extremity, was at a frightful discount; and the
sacrifices required of the nation were, on that account, the more
severely felt, so that hardly a hope of ultimate success remained.
The combined Russian and Prussian armies, about thirty-five thousand
strong, now advanced against the capital, where Kosciuszko occupied an
intrenched camp with twenty-five thousand men. During the whole of July
and August the besiegers were engaged in fruitless attempts to drive the
Poles into the city; and at length a great convoy, with artillery and
stores for a regular siege, which was ascending the Vistula, having been
captured by a gentleman named Minewsky at the head of a body of
peasants, the King of Prussia raised the siege, leaving a portion of his
sick and stores in the hands of the patriots. After this success the
insurrection spread immensely and the Poles mustered nearly eighty
thousand men under arms. But they were scattered over too extensive a
line of country in order to make head against their numerous enemies--a
policy tempting by the prospect it holds forth of exciting an extensive
insurrection, but ruinous in the end, by exposing the patriotic forces
to the risk of being beaten in detail. Scarcely had the Poles recovered
from their intoxication at the raising of the siege of Warsaw when
intelligence was received of the defeat of Sizakowsky, who commanded a
corps of ten thousand men beyond the Bug, by the Russian grand army
under Suvaroff. This celebrated General, to whom the principal conduct
of the war was now committed, followed up his successes with the utmost
vigor. The retreating column was again assailed on the 19th by the
victorious Russians, and after a glorious resistance driven into the
woods between Janoff and Biala, with the loss of four thousand men and
twenty-eight pieces of cannon. Scarcely three thousand Poles, with
Sizakowsky at their head, escaped into Siedlice.
Upon receiving the accounts of this disaster, Kosciuszko resolved, by
drawing together all his detachments, to fall upon Fersen before he
joined Suvaroff and the other corps which were advancing against the
capital. With this view he ordered General Poninsky to join him, and
marched with all his disposable forces to attack the Russian General,
who was stationed at Maccowice; but fortune on this occasion cruelly
deceived the Poles. Arrived in the neighborhood of Fersen's position he
found that Poninsky had not yet come up; and the Russian commander,
overjoyed at this circumstance, resolved immediately to attack him. In
vain Kosciuszko despatched courier after courier to Poninsky to advance
to his relief. The first was intercepted by the Cossacks, and the second
did not reach that leader in time to enable him to take a decisive part
in the approaching combat. Nevertheless the Polish commander, aware of
the danger of retreating with inexperienced troops in presence of a
disciplined and superior enemy, determined to give battle on the
following day, and drew up his little army with as much skill as the
circumstances would admit.
The forces on the opposite sides in this action, which decided the fate
of Poland, were nearly equal in point of numbers; but the advantages of
discipline and equipment were decisively on the side of the Russians.
Kosciuszko commanded about ten thousand men, a part of whom were
recently raised and imperfectly disciplined; while Fersen was at the
head of twelve thousand veterans, including a most formidable body of
cavalry. Nevertheless, the Poles in the centre and right wing made a
glorious defence; but the left, which Poninsky should have supported,
having been overwhelmed by the cavalry under Denisoff, the whole army
was, after a severe struggle, thrown into confusion. Kosciuszko,
Sizakowsky, and other gallant chiefs in vain made the most heroic
efforts to rally the broken troops. They were wounded, struck down, and
made prisoners by the Cossacks who swarmed over the field of battle;
while the remains of the army, now reduced to seven thousand men, fell
back in confusion toward Warsaw.
After the fall of Kosciuszko, who sustained in his single person the
fortunes of the Republic, nothing but a series of disasters overtook the
Poles. The Austrians, taking advantage of the general confusion,
entered Galicia, and occupied the palatinates of Lublin and Sandomir;
while Suvaroff, pressing forward toward the capital, defeated
Mokronowsky, who, at the head of twelve thousand men, strove to retard
the advance of that redoubtable commander. In vain the Poles made the
utmost efforts; they were routed with the loss of four thousand men; and
the patriots, though now despairing of success, resolved to sell their
lives dearly, and shut themselves up in Warsaw to await the approach of
the conqueror. Suvaroff was soon at the gates of Praga, the eastern
suburb of that capital, where twenty-six thousand men and one hundred
pieces of cannon defended the bridge of the Vistula and the approach to
the capital. To assault such a position with forces hardly superior was
evidently a hazardous enterprise; but the approach of winter, rendering
it indispensable that if anything was done at all it should be
immediately attempted, Suvaroff, who was habituated to successful
assaults in the Turkish wars, resolved to storm the city. On November 2d
the Russians made their appearance before the glacis of Praga, and
Suvaroff, having in great haste completed three powerful batteries and
breached the defences with imposing celerity, made his dispositions for
a general assault on the following day.
The conquerors of Ismail advanced to the attack in the same order which
they had adopted on that memorable occasion. Seven columns at daybreak
approached the ramparts, rapidly filled up the ditches with their
fascines, broke down the defences, and pouring into the intrenched camp
carried destruction into the ranks of the Poles. In vain the defenders
did their utmost to resist the torrent. The wooden houses of Praga
speedily took fire, and amid the shouts of the victors and the cries of
the inhabitants the Polish battalions were borne backward to the edge of
the Vistula. The multitude of fugitives speedily broke down the bridges;
and the citizens of Warsaw beheld with unavailing anguish their
defenders on the other side perishing in the flames, or by the sword of
the conquerors. Ten thousand soldiers fell on the spot, nine thousand
were made prisoners, and above twelve thousand citizens, of every age
and sex, were put to the sword--a dreadful instance of carnage which has
left a lasting stain on the name of Suvaroff and which Russia expiated
in the conflagration of Moscow. The tragedy was at an end. Warsaw
capitulated two days afterward; the detached parties of the patriots
melted away, and Poland was no more. On November 6th Suvaroff made his
triumphant entry into the blood-stained capital. King Stanislaus was
sent into Russia, where he ended his days in captivity, and the final
partition of the monarchy was effected.
FOOTNOTES:
[45] Thaddeus Kosciuszko was born in 1755, of a poor but noble family,
and received the first elements of his education in the corps of cadets
at Warsaw. There he was early distinguished by his diligence, ability,
and progress in mathematical science, insomuch that he was selected as
one of the four students annually chosen at that institution to travel
at the expense of the State. He went abroad, accordingly, and spent
several years in France, chiefly engaged in military studies; from
whence he returned in 1778, with ideas of freedom and independence
unhappily far in advance of his country at that period. As war did not
seem likely at that period in the north of Europe, he set sail for
America, then beginning the War of Independence, and was employed by
Washington as his adjutant, and distinguished himself greatly in that
contest beside Lafayette, Lameth, Dumas, and so many of the other ardent
and enthusiastic spirits from the Old World. He returned to Europe on
the termination of the war, decorated with the order of Cincinnatus, and
lived in retirement till 1789, when, as King Stanislaus was adopting
some steps with a view to the assertion of national independence, he was
appointed major-general by the Polish Diet. In 1791 he joined with
enthusiasm in the formation of the Constitution which was proclaimed on
May 5th of that year.--ED.
THE RISE OF NAPOLEON
THE FRENCH CONQUEST OF ITALY
A.D. 1796
SIR WALTER SCOTT