THE TUMULT IN PARIS.
Marshal Broglie.--Gatherings at the Palais Royal.--Disaffection of
the Soldiers.--Imprisonment and Rescue.--Fraternization.--Petition
to the Assembly.--Wishes of the Patriots.--Movement of the
Troops.--Speech of Mirabeau.--New Menaces.--Declaration of
Rights.--Dismissal of Necker.--Commotion in Paris.--Camille
Desmoulins.--The French Guards join the People.--Terror in
Paris.--Character of the King.
Notwithstanding the National Assembly was thus organized, rumors filled
the air that the junction was but transient, and that the court was
making preparation for some deed of violence. The citizens of Paris
were in a great ferment, all business was at a stand, the poorer
classes had no employment, and their families were actually perishing
from hunger. Troops were continually parading the streets, and an army
of fifty thousand men, now placed under the command of the veteran
Marshal Broglie, encircled the city of Versailles. The spacious garden
of the Palais Royal in Paris, surrounded by the most brilliant shops in
Europe, was the general rendezvous of the populace anxiously watching
the progress of events. The people in their misery had nothing to
do but to meet together to hear the news from Versailles. Often ten
thousand men were assembled in the garden, where impassioned orators
harangued them upon their rights and upon their wrongs. The Duke of
Orleans, with his boundless wealth, encouraged every insurrectionary
movement. He was willing so far to renounce aristocratic privileges as
to adopt a constitution like that of England, if he, as the head of the
popular party, could be placed upon the throne, from which he hoped to
eject his cousin Louis XVI.
It soon became evident that there was a _Tiers Etat_ in the army as
well as in the state. The French Guards, consisting of three thousand
six hundred picked men, in the highest state of discipline and
equipment, were stationed at Paris. They began to echo the murmurs
of the populace. The declaration of the king had informed them that
no reform whatever was to be tolerated in the army; that the common
soldier was to be forever excluded from all promotion. The privates and
subalterns were doomed to endure all the toil of the army and its most
imminent perils, but were to share none of its honors or emoluments.
The troops were governed by young nobles, generally the most dissolute
and ignorant men, who merely exhibited themselves upon the field on
parade days, and who never condescended even to show themselves in the
barracks.
The discontent of the soldiers reached the ears of their officers.
Apprehensive that by association with the people the troops might
become allied to them by a common sympathy, the officers commanded
the guards no longer to go into the streets, and consigned them
to imprisonment in their barracks. This of course increased their
exasperation, and, being left to themselves and with nothing to do,
they held meetings very much like those which they had attended in the
Palais Royal, and talked over their grievances and the state of the
monarchy.[134] Patriotic enthusiasm rapidly gained strength among them,
and they took an oath that they would not fire upon the people. The
colonel of the regiment arrested eleven of the most prominent in this
movement and sent them to the prison of the Abbaye, where they were to
await a court-martial and such punishment as might be their doom. This
was the 30th of June.[135] On the evening of that day, as a vast and
agitated multitude was assembled at the Palais Royal, listening to the
speakers who there, notwithstanding reiterated municipal prohibitions,
gave intelligence of all that was passing at Versailles, tidings came
of the arrest of the soldiers. A young man, M. Lourtalot, editor of a
Parisian paper, mounted a chair and said,
"These are the brave soldiers who have refused to shed the blood of
their fellow-citizens. Let us go and deliver them. To the rescue!"
There was an instantaneous cry, rising from a thousand voices in the
garden and reverberating through the streets, "To the Abbaye!" The
throng poured out of the gate, and, seizing axes and crowbars as they
rushed along, every moment increasing in numbers, soon arrived at the
prison, six thousand strong. There was no force there which could for a
moment resist them. The doors were speedily battered down, the soldiers
liberated and conducted in triumph to the Palais Royal. Here they were
provided with food and lodging, and placed under the protection of a
citizens' guard.
While on their way to the Palais Royal a squadron of cavalry was
ordered to charge upon the people. They approached at full gallop,
and then, regardless of their officers, reined in their horses,
and, lifting their caps, with true French politeness saluted their
citizen-friends. There was then a scene of _fraternization_ such as
the French metropolis alone can exhibit. Men and women ran out from
the houses and the shops presenting to the dragoons goblets of wine,
shouting "Vive le Roi! Vive la Nation!"[136]
The people were still disposed to love their king. They instinctively
felt that his sympathies were with them. Thus far they desired only
reform, not the overthrow of the monarchy. The court, however, were
instructed by these scenes that they could not rely upon the French
Guards to execute the bloody mandates they were about to issue. Hence
vigorous efforts were immediately adopted to concentrate in the
metropolis an efficient force of foreign mercenaries, Swiss and German
troops, who would be less scrupulous in shooting down and trampling
under iron hoofs the French people. The Parisians distinctly understood
this movement, and one can hardly conceive of a measure more
exasperating. It is worthy of record that the citizens, ascertaining
that they had liberated one soldier who was accused of what they deemed
a crime, immediately sent that one back to his prison cell.
The next day, July 1st, the populace at the Palais Royal, who were
thus far under the guidance of the most virtuous, intelligent, and
influential citizens, sent a committee to the National Assembly at
Versailles urging them to interpose with the king for a pardon for
the soldiers. This was a movement quite unexampled. The citizens,
heretofore deprived of all political rights, had never before ventured
to make their wishes known to their rulers. Even then it was considered
by the privileged classes in the Assembly very impudent.[137] The
Assembly very prudently sent back word to the Parisians, exhorting
them to refrain from all acts of violence, and assuring them that the
maintenance of good order was essential to the prosperity of their
cause.[138] At the same time the Assembly sent a deputation to the king
imploring his clemency for the soldiers.
Troops were, however, still rapidly approaching the city from different
parts of the kingdom. The nobles and the higher clergy were throwing
every possible obstruction in the way of either deliberation or action
by the Assembly, and it was manifest to all that a conspiracy was in
progress for its violent dissolution.[139]
The courtiers could not conceal their exultation, and began openly
to boast that their hour of triumph was at hand. Fifteen regiments
of Swiss and German troops were now between Paris and Versailles. It
was supposed that they, without reluctance, would fire upon French
citizens. It was very evident that the court was studiously endeavoring
to foment disturbances in Paris, that an appeal to the military might
be necessary. On the other hand, the leaders of the revolution were
doing every thing in their power to keep the people calm. A very able
pamphlet was circulated through the city, containing the following
sentiments:
"Citizens! the ministers, the aristocrats, are endeavoring to excite
sedition. Be peaceful, tranquil, submissive to good order. If you
do not disturb the precious harmony now reigning in the National
Assembly, a revolution the most salutary and the most important will be
irrevocably consummated, without causing the nation blood or humanity
tears."
One is bewildered in learning that these sentiments came from the pen
of Jean Paul Marat![140]
The next day, the 2d of July, the king returned an answer to the
deputation from the Assembly, that the soldiers should be pardoned as
soon as order was re-established in the capital. Upon the receipt of
the message at the Palais Royal, the guards were taken back to prison,
from whence they were speedily released by a pardon from the king.
On the 3d of July, M. Bailly having resigned the presidency of the
Assembly, the Archbishop of Vienne, one of the high clergy, who had
warmly espoused the popular cause, was chosen president, and the
Marquis de la Fayette, equally devoted to popular rights, was elected
vice-president. Thus the two most important offices of the Assembly
were conferred upon men selected from the highest ranks of the
privileged class. But this act of conciliation did not in the least
degree conciliate men who were determined at every hazard to perpetuate
despotism.
The aspect of affairs was every hour becoming more threatening. New
regiments of foreigners were continually marching into the metropolis,
and occupying all the avenues which conducted to Paris and Versailles.
Squadrons of horse were galloping through the streets and heavy
artillery rumbling over the pavements of both the cities. The Elysian
Fields, the Place Louis XV., the Field of Mars, presented the aspect
of an encampment. Sentinels were placed around the French Guards,
who were confined in their barracks, to prevent them from holding
any intercourse with the citizens or with the other soldiers.[141]
Versailles was encompassed by armies, and a battery of artillery was
pointed at the very doors of the Assembly.
On Friday, the 10th of July,[142] Mirabeau rose in the Assembly, and
proposed that the discussion of the Constitution should be suspended
while a petition was sent to the king urging the removal of these
menacing armies.
"Fresh troops," said he, "are daily advancing; all communications are
intercepted. All the bridges and promenades are converted into military
posts. Movements, public and secret, hasty orders and counter-orders,
meet all eyes. Soldiers are hastening hither from all quarters.
Thirty-five thousand men are already cantoned in Paris and Versailles.
Twenty thousand more are expected. They are followed by trains of
artillery; spots are marked for batteries; every communication is
secured, every pass is blocked up; our streets, our bridges, our public
walks are converted into military stations. Events of public notoriety,
concealed facts, secret orders, precipitate counter-orders--in a
word, preparations for war strike every eye and fill every heart with
indignation."
At the same time a pamphlet was circulated through Paris, stating
that the king was to hold another royal sitting on the 13th; that he
had determined to enforce his declarations of the 23d of June; that
the National Assembly was to be dissolved by violence, its leaders
arrested, and Necker to be driven from the kingdom.
The tidings excited great consternation in the city, and the crowd
in the Palais Royal began to talk of arming in self-defense. In the
evening of that day an artillery company, which had been posted at the
Hôtel des Invalides, came to the Palais Royal to fraternize with the
people there. The citizens gave them a supper in the Elysian Fields,
where they were joined by many troops from other regiments, and the
friendly festivities were continued late into the hours of the warm
summer night.[143]
This speech of Mirabeau was received with applause, and a deputation
of twenty-four members was sent with a petition to the king. The
address was drawn up by Mirabeau, and is of world-wide celebrity.[144]
"It is not to be dissembled," says Bailly, "that Mirabeau was in the
Assembly its principal force. Nothing could be more grand, more firm,
more worthy of the occasion than this address to the king. The great
quality of Mirabeau was boldness. It was this that fortified his
talents, directed him in the management of them, and developed their
force. Whatever might be his moral character, when he was once elevated
by circumstances he assumed grandeur and purity, and was exalted by his
genius to the full height of courage and virtue."
Though Necker earnestly advised the removal of the troops, the king,
now in the hands of his worst counselors, returned to the Assembly
almost an insulting answer. He affirmed that the troops were mustered
for the maintenance of public order and for the protection of the
Assembly; and that if the members of the Assembly were afraid of their
protectors, they might adjourn to Noyon or to Soissons, cities some
fifty or sixty miles north of Paris, where, removed from the protection
of the capital, they would have been entirely at the mercy of their
enemies.[145]
"We have not," Mirabeau indignantly retorted, "asked permission to run
away from the troops, but have requested that the troops may be removed
from the capital."
Upon the reception of this answer from the king, La Fayette presented
the Assembly a declaration of rights based upon that Declaration of
American Independence which is almost the gospel of popular liberty.
It is probable that Thomas Jefferson, who was then in Paris, aided La
Fayette in preparing this paper. It affirmed that nature has made all
men free and equal, that sovereignty resides in the _nation_, and that
no one can claim authority which does not emanate from the people.
On the evening of this day, Saturday, July 11th, as Necker was dressing
for dinner, he received a note announcing his dismissal. A confidential
letter from the king at the same time informed him that the monarch
was unable to prevent his removal, and urged the minister to leave the
kingdom without delay, and not to communicate to any one the knowledge
of his dismissal lest it should excite public disturbance.[146] Necker,
true to the confidence thus reposed in him, quietly dined, and then
taking his carriage, as if for an evening drive with his wife, took
the direction to the Netherlands, the nearest frontier, and pressed on
rapidly through the night.
The next day was the Sabbath, July 12th. Early in the morning an
extraordinary degree of activity was observed among the troops.
Infantry and artillery were marching and countermarching through the
streets of Paris and Versailles. The next day, Monday, was secretly
appointed for the great _coup d'état_, in which the National Assembly
was to be dispersed, and the citizens of Paris, if they manifested any
resistance, were to be mown down by grapeshot. Redoubts were thrown
up upon the heights of Montmartre, where cannon could be placed which
would command the metropolis. Enormous placards were posted, enjoining
the people to remain at home and not to assemble in the streets. The
numerous staff of Marshal Broglie were galloping in all directions,
disgusting the people with their insolent and consequential airs.[147]
A battery of cannon was placed at the Sevres bridge, cutting off all
direct communication between Versailles and Paris. The Place of Louis
XV. was filled with troops, presenting the aspect of an encampment.
In the adjoining Elysian Fields the Swiss Guards, with four pieces of
artillery, were drawn up in battle array.
The people wondered what all this meant. At an early hour the garden of
the Palais Royal was filled with an anxious and inquiring crowd. About
ten o'clock an unknown person announced that Necker was dismissed,
and that a new ministry was organized, composed of members of most
determined hostility to popular reform. These tidings explained
the formidable military display, and excited universal alarm and
indignation. A young man, Camille Desmoulins, sprung upon a table, his
dress disarranged, his hair disheveled, his face flushed, his eyes
gleaming with indignation and tears, and, with a pistol in each hand to
protect himself from the police, shouted,
"To arms! to arms! This dismissal is but the precursor to another St.
Bartholomew. This night the Swiss and German troops are to march to our
massacre. We have but one resource; it is to defend ourselves."
The impassioned cry was immediately echoed by the multitude, "To
arms! to arms!" A rallying sign was needed. Desmoulins plucked a
green leaf from a tree and attached it to his hat. Instantly all the
chestnut-trees which embellished the garden were stripped of their
foliage, and the leaf became the pledge of union. The flash of a moment
had brought the whole body of the populace into a recognized uniform
and a rude organization.
An army of more than a hundred thousand souls was in an hour enlisted,
inspired with deathless enthusiasm, and crying out for leaders and
for weapons. The movement was now in progress which was to scatter
like chaff the battalions of foreign mercenaries, and to prostrate
in dust and ashes the court and the throne. But alas for man! the
flame which cheers the fireside may lay palaces and temples and happy
homes in ruins. A new power had arisen, and it proved to be as blind
and ignorant as it was resistless. Had the populace been imbued with
Christian principles and intelligence, blessings only would have
resulted from their sway.
[Illustration: CAMILLE DESMOULINS IN THE PALAIS ROYAL.]
In this wild hour of turmoil the multitude were bewildered, and knew
not what to do. They had no arms, and no recognized leaders except the
National Assembly at Versailles, from whom they were now cut off by
detachments of troops.
Near by there was a museum of wax figures. Some men ran to the spot
and brought out busts of Necker and of the Duke of Orleans, who was
also, it was said, threatened with exile. Decorating these busts with
crape they bore them aloft through the streets with funeral honors. As
the procession, rapidly increasing to many thousands, approached the
Place of Louis XV., a detachment of German troops were marched up to
charge them. But these soldiers had but little spirit for their work,
and they were speedily put to flight by a shower of stones. A company
of dragoons then made a charge. The unarmed procession was broken and
put to flight in all directions. The busts were hacked to pieces by the
sabres of the soldiers, and one man, a French guardsman, who disdained
to run, was cut down and killed.
The French Guards were all this time locked up in their barracks, and
the Prince of Lambesc had stationed a squadron of German dragoons
in front of their quarters to prevent them coming to the aid of the
people. But nothing now could restrain them. They broke down and
leaped over the iron rails, and fiercely attacked the hated foreigners.
The dragoons fled before them, and the Prince of Lambesc, who
commanded, fell back upon the garden of the Tuileries, and, entering
the gates, charged upon the people who were there. One old man was
killed and the rest were put to flight.
The French Guards, however, immediately drew up in battle array, and
placed themselves between the citizens and the royal troops. In the
mean time a formidable array of Swiss and German troops had been
collected in the Field of Mars. They received orders to march to the
Place Louis XIV. and dislodge the French Guards. In obedience to the
command they marched to the spot, and then reversing their arms,
positively refused to fire upon their comrades.[148]
The populace, however, unconscious of the support which they were
receiving from the soldiers, were in a state of phrensy. The women and
children, who had been passing the pleasant day in the recreations of
the Elysian Fields, and who had fled shrieking before the horses and
the sabres of the dragoons, speedily carried the tidings of the assault
to every part of the city. An indescribable scene of tumult ensued.
The multitude were running to and fro in search of arms. Upon all the
steeples every bell rang the alarm. A population of nearly a million
of souls was agitated by the most intense emotions of indignation and
terror.[149]
"It would be difficult," writes Bertrand de Moleville, "to paint
the disorder, fermentation, and alarm that prevailed in the capital
during this dreadful day. A city taken by storm and delivered up to
the soldiers' fury could not present a more dreadful picture. Imagine
detachments of cavalry and dragoons making their way through different
parts of the town at full gallop to the posts assigned them; trains
of artillery rolling over the pavements with a monstrous noise; bands
of ill-armed ruffians and women, drunk with brandy, running through
the streets like furies, breaking the shops open, and spreading terror
every where by their howlings, mingled with frequent reports of guns
or pistols fired in the air; all the barriers on fire; thousands of
smugglers taking advantage of the tumult to hurry in their goods; the
alarm-bells ringing in almost all the churches; a great part of the
citizens shutting themselves up at home, loading their guns and burying
their money, papers, and valuable effects in cellars and gardens; and
during the night the town paraded by numerous patrols of citizens of
every class, and even of both sexes, for many women were seen with
muskets or pikes upon their shoulders. Such is the exact picture of
the state of Paris on the 12th of July."
To add to the alarm, a letter which had been intercepted from Marshal
Broglie was printed and circulated through the city, in which the
marshal wrote to the Prince of Condé that the greater part of the
National Assembly were hungry wolves, ready to devour the nobility;
that with fifty thousand troops he would quickly disperse them and the
crowd of fools who applauded them.[150]
As the sun went down and darkness enshrouded the city, the tumult
increased, and the night was passed in sleeplessness, terror, and
bewilderment. All were apprehensive that the dawn would usher in a
dreadful day. A report of the agitated state of the metropolis was
carried to the Assembly at Versailles, exciting very great anxiety in
the minds of the patriots deliberating there. The nobles rejoiced. They
earnestly desired such violence on the part of the people as should
compel the king to restore the ancient order of things by the energies
of grapeshot and the bayonet.[151]
M. Bailly, a man of unblemished character, whose purity and whose
patriotism never can be questioned, gives the following testimony to
the integrity of Louis XVI.:
"Despotism is what never entered into the head of the king. He never
had any wish but the happiness of his people, and this was the only
consideration that could be ever employed as a means of influencing
him. If any acts of authority were to be resorted to, he was never
to be persuaded but by showing him that some good was to be attained
or some evil avoided. I am convinced that his authority was never
considered by him, nor did he wish to maintain it but as the best means
of supporting and securing the tranquillity and peace of the community.
As we are now speaking of the causes that produced this regeneration of
the country, let us state the first to be the character of Louis XVI. A
king less of a good man and ministers more adroit, and we should have
had no revolution."
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 134: "The French Guards, those generous citizens, rebels
to their masters, in the language of despotism, but faithful to the
nation, are the first to swear never to turn their arms against
her."--_M. Rabaud de St. Etienne_, vol. i., p. 62.
Mr. Alison calls this the "_revolt and treason of the French Guards_."
The same occurrence assumes very different aspects as seen from
different stand-points.]
[Footnote 135: M. Rabaud de St. Etienne.]
[Footnote 136: Hist. Parlementaire, vol. ii., p. 32. Michelet, vol. i.,
p. 127.]
[Footnote 137: Histoire des Montagnards, par Alphonse Esquiros, p. 15.]
[Footnote 138: Thiers, vol. i., p. 61.]
[Footnote 139: "While on this subject I can not refrain from remarking
on the impolitic conduct of the nobles and the bishops. As they aimed
only to dissolve the Assembly, to throw discredit on its operations,
when the president stated a question they left the hall, inviting the
deputies of their party to follow them. With this senseless conduct
they combined an insulting disdain, both of the Assembly and of the
people who attended the sittings. Instead of listening, they laughed
and talked aloud, thus confirming the people in the unfavorable opinion
which it had conceived of them; and instead of striving to recover the
confidence and the esteem of the people, they strove only to gain their
hatred and contempt."--_Ferrières_, t. ii., p. 122.]
[Footnote 140: Histoire des Montagnards, par Alphonse Esquiros, p. 15.]
[Footnote 141: France and its Revolutions, by George Long, Esq.]
[Footnote 142: Some authorities say the 9th.]
[Footnote 143: France and its Revolutions, by George Long, Esq., vol.
i., p. 25.]
[Footnote 144: It is said that this famous address to the king was
composed by M. Dumont, the leading ideas having been communicated to
him by Mirabeau. A few extracts will give one an idea of the spirit of
the piece.
"In the emotions of your own heart, sire, we look for the true safety
of the French. When troops advance from every quarter, when camps are
forming around us, when the capital is besieged, we ask one another
with astonishment, 'Hath the king distrusted the fidelity of his
people? What mean these menacing preparations? Where are the enemies of
the state and of the king that are to be subdued?'
"The danger, sire, is urgent, is universal, is beyond all the
calculations of human prudence.
"The danger is for the provinces. Should they once be alarmed for our
liberty we should no longer have it in our power to restrain their
impetuosity.
"The danger is for the capital. With what sensations will the people,
in their state of indigence, and tortured with the keenest anguish, see
the relics of its subsistence disputed for by a throng of threatening
soldiers?
"The danger is for the troops. They may forget that the ceremony of
enlisting made them soldiers, and recollect that nature made them men.
"The danger, sire, is yet more terrible. And judge of its extent by the
alarms which bring us before you. Mighty revolutions have arisen from
causes far less striking.
"Sire, we conjure you, in the name of our country, in the name of
your own happiness, and your own glory, to send back your soldiers to
the posts from which your counselors have drawn them. Send back that
artillery," etc.]
[Footnote 145: The Marquis of Ferrières acknowledges the insincerity of
the court in the king's answer. "The Assembly saw," he writes, "through
the snare that was spread for them. They would have lost all their
hold if they had once removed themselves from the security which the
vicinity of Paris afforded. Inclosed between the two camps (of Flanders
and Paris) they would have found themselves at the mercy of the
court."--_See also Hist. Phil. de la Rev. de France, par Ant. Fantin
Desodoards_, vol. i., p. 150.]
[Footnote 146: Madame de Staël's Considerations, etc., ch. xii.]
[Footnote 147: Alison, vol. i., p. 73.]
[Footnote 148: Miguet, vol. i., p. 50. Thiers, vol. i., p. 62.]
[Footnote 149: The following journal kept by the king during these
stormy days singularly illustrates the weakness of his character. We
give it as found in the interesting work, _Histoire des Montagnards,
par Alphonse Esquiros_.
"_July 1st, 1789, Wednesday._ Nothing; deputation from the States.
_Thursday 2d._ Mounted horseback at the gate Du Main to hunt a stag
at Port Royal; took one. _Friday 3d._ Nothing. _Saturday 4th._ Hunted
a buck at Boutard; took one and shot twenty-nine game. _Sunday 5th._
Vespers and benediction. _Monday 6th._ Nothing. _Tuesday 7th._ Hunted a
stag at Port Royal; took two. _Wednesday 8th._ Nothing. _Thursday 9th_.
Nothing; deputation from the States. _Friday 10th._ Nothing; answer to
the deputation from the States. _Saturday 11th._ Nothing; departure
of M. Necker. _Sunday 12th._ Nothing; departure of M. Montmorin, St.
Priest and Luzerne. _Sunday 12th._ Nothing; took medicine."
Such was the record of the predecessor of Napoleon upon the throne of
France when the monarchy was tottering to its foundations.]
[Footnote 150: France and its Revolutions, by Geo. Long, Esq., vol. i.,
23.]
[Footnote 151: "During this day of mourning and consternation the
conspirators gave loose to a guilty joy. At Versailles, in that
orangery where were lodged, or, to speak more properly, dispersed in
ambuscade, the German troops of Nassau, princes, princesses, favorites,
male and female, were entertaining themselves with the music of the
martial instruments. They were loading the soldiers with caresses and
presents; and the latter, amid their brutal orgies, were pleasing
themselves with the thought of dispersing the National Assembly, and
of subjugating the kingdom. Calamitous night! when the courtiers
were dancing to that foreign music, and enjoying the idea of the
massacre."--_M. Rabaud de St. Etienne_, vol. i., p. 66.]