THE MASSACRE OF THE ROYALISTS.
Supremacy of the Jacobins.--Their energetic Measures.--The Assembly
threatened.--Commissioners sent to the Army.--Spirit of the Court
Party in England.--Speech of Edmund Burke.--Triumphant March of the
Allies.--The Nation summoned _en masse_ to resist the Foe.--Murder of
the Princess Lamballe.--Apology of the Assassins.--Robespierre and
St. Just.--Views of Napoleon.
The majestic armies of the Allies were now rapidly on the march toward
France, and there was no force on the frontiers which could present any
effectual resistance. La Fayette was at Sedan, about one hundred and
fifty miles northwest of Paris, at the head of twenty thousand troops
who were devoted to him. His opposition to the Jacobins had already
caused him to be denounced as a traitor, and it was feared that he
might go over to the enemy, and by his strong influence carry not only
his own troops, but those of General Luckner with him. The condition of
the Patriots was apparently desperate. The Allies were confident of a
triumphant and a rapid march to Paris, where all who had sacrilegiously
laid hands upon the old despotism of France would be visited with
condign punishment.
The Jacobin Club was now the sovereign power in France. It was more
numerous than the Legislative Assembly, and its speakers, more able
and impassioned, had perfect control of the populace. The Jacobins
had, by the insurrection, or rather revolution of the 10th of August,
organized a new municipal government. Whatever measure the Jacobin Club
decided to have enforced it sent to the committee which the club had
organized as the city government at the Hôtel de Ville. This committee
immediately demanded the passage of the decree by the Legislative
Assembly. If the Assembly manifested any reluctance in obeying, they
were informed that the tocsin would be rung, the populace summoned, and
the scenes of the 10th of August renewed, to make them willing. Such
was now the new government instituted in France.
The _Commune of Paris_, as this municipal body at the Hôtel de Ville
was called, immediately entered upon the most vigorous measures to
break up the conspiracy of the Royalists, that they might not be
able to rise and join the invading armies of the Allies. The French
Patriots had two foes equally formidable to dread--the emigrants with
the Allies marching upon the frontiers, composing an army nearly two
hundred thousand strong, and the Royalists in France, who were ready,
as soon as the Allies entered the kingdom, to raise the standard of
civil war, and to fall upon the Patriots with exterminating hand.
There was thus left for the leaders of the Revolution only the choice
between killing and being killed. It was clear that they must now
either exterminate their foes or be exterminated by them. And it must
on all hands be admitted that the king and the court, by refusing to
accept constitutional liberty, had brought the nation to this direful
alternative.
To prevent suspected persons from escaping, no one was allowed
to leave the gates of Paris without the most careful scrutiny of
his passport. A list was made out of every individual known to be
unfriendly to the Revolution, and all such were placed under the
most vigilant surveillance. The citizens were enjoined to denounce
all who had taken any part in the slaughter of the citizens on the
10th of August. All writers who had supported the Royalist cause were
ordered to be arrested, and their presses were given to Patriotic
writers. Commissioners were sent to the prisons to release all who had
been confined for offenses against the court. As it was feared that
the army, influenced by La Fayette, might manifest hostility to the
revolutionary movement in Paris, which had so effectually demolished
the Constitution, commissioners were sent to enlighten the soldiers
and bring them over to the support of the people. It was at first
contemplated to assign the palace of the Luxembourg as the retreat
of the royal family. The Commune of Paris, however, decided that the
public safety required that they should be held in custody where escape
would be impossible, and that their safe-keeping should be committed to
the mayor, Pétion, and to Santerre, who had been appointed commander of
the National Guards.
The Assembly, alarmed at the encroachments of the self-constituted
_Commune of Paris_, ordered a re-election of a municipal government
to take the place of that which the insurrection had dissolved. The
Commune instantly dispatched a committee to inform the Assembly that if
they made any farther move in that direction the tocsin should again
be rung, and that the populace, who had stormed the Tuileries, should
be directed against their hall. The deputies, overawed by the threat,
left the Commune in undisputed possession of its power. The Commune
now demanded of the Assembly the appointment of a special tribunal to
punish the Royalists who had fired upon the people from the Tuileries,
and those who "as conspirators and traitors" were ready to join the
Allies as soon as they should enter France. The Assembly hesitated. The
Commune sent Robespierre at the head of a deputation to inform them in
those emphatic terms which he ever had at his command, that the country
was in danger, that the Allies and emigrants were on the march, that no
delay could be tolerated, and that if the decree were not immediately
passed _the tocsin should be rung_. The appalling threat was efficient,
and the decree, though some heroically opposed, was passed.[360] Such
was the origin of the first revolutionary tribunal.
[Illustration: LA FAYETTE IN PRISON AT OLMUTZ.]
As soon as the commissioners from Paris arrived at the camp of La
Fayette they were by his orders arrested and imprisoned, and the
soldiers took anew the oath of fidelity to the _law_ and the _king_.
The news of their arrest reached Paris on the 17th, and excited intense
irritation. La Fayette was denounced more vehemently than ever, and
a fresh deputation was dispatched to the army. La Fayette was now
ruined. The court was ready to hang him for his devotion to liberty.
The Jacobins thirsted for his blood because he thwarted their plans.
Every hour his situation became more desperate, and it was soon evident
that he could do no more for his country, and that there was no refuge
for him but in flight. On the 20th, accompanied by a few friends, he
secretly left his army, and took the road to the Netherlands. When
he reached the Austrian outposts at Rochefort, he was arrested as a
criminal in defiance of all law. With great secrecy he was taken into
the interior of Austria, and thrown into a dungeon in the impregnable
fortress of Olmutz. His only crime was that he had wished to introduce
_constitutional liberty_ to his country. This, in the eye of despots,
was an unpardonable sin. Here we must leave him to languish five years
in captivity, deprived of every comfort. Many efforts were made in vain
for his release. Washington wrote directly to the Emperor of Austria in
his behalf, but without effect. It was not till Napoleon, thundering at
the walls of Vienna with his invincible legions, demanded the release
of La Fayette, in 1797, that the doors of his dungeon were thrown
open.[361]
The British _people_ sympathized deeply with La Fayette, but the
British _government_ assailed him with unrelenting ferocity. On the
17th of March, 1794, General Fitzpatrick moved an address in the House
of Commons, to his majesty, requesting his interference with the King
of Prussia in behalf of La Fayette. Mr. Fox advocated the measure in a
speech of great eloquence and power. Nothing can more clearly show the
spirit of the court party in England at this time than the speeches
made by them on this occasion. William Pitt assailed La Fayette in the
most unfeeling manner, declaring that "he would never admit that La
Fayette was a true friend of liberty or deserved well of his country
or of Europe." "He said," writes Prof. Smyth, "every thing that it
is painful to read--he was rendered insensible on this occasion to
all the better notions of his education and natural intuitions of
his understanding. There is no pleasure in reading the abstract of
his speech. It might have been made by the most vulgar minister that
ever appeared. Edmund Burke followed in a speech of unmeasured abuse.
In glowing colors he depicted all the scenes of violence which had
occurred in France, and, declaring La Fayette responsible for them
all," concluded with the words, "I would not debauch my humanity by
supporting an application like the present in behalf of such a horrid
ruffian."[362] Mr. Windham followed in the same strain. He expressed
exultation in view of the calamities which had fallen upon this
great patriot. "La Fayette," said he, "has brought himself into that
state into which all fomenters of great and ruinous revolutions must
necessarily fall; he has betrayed and ruined his country and his king.
I am not sorry. I rejoice to see such men drink deep of the cup of
calamity which they have prepared for the lips of others; and I never
will consent to do an act which will put a premium on revolution, and
which will give the example of sanction to treason, and of reward to
rebellion."
Such was the spirit of the court of St. James at this time. These
speeches were made after La Fayette had been languishing for two
years in the dungeons of Olmutz, exposed to almost every conceivable
indignity, the particulars of which Mr. Fox had affectingly narrated.
The debate was concluded by Mr. Dundas, who thanked Mr. Windham for
his admirable speech. When the vote was taken but fifty were found
in sympathy with La Fayette, while one hundred and thirty-two voted
against him.
The two sovereigns of Prussia and Austria were now at Mayence. Sixty
thousand Prussians were marching in single column by Luxembourg upon
Longwy, flanked on the right by twenty thousand Austrians, and on the
left by twenty-six thousand Austrians and Hessians. This majestic force
was strengthened by several co-operating corps of French emigrants,
destined to attack exposed positions, and to afford rallying points
for treason. The invaders crossed the frontiers unimpeded, and after
a short and bloody strife captured Longwy. Onward they rushed. The
feeble, undisciplined patriots, could make no resistance, and fled
rapidly before them. Thionville and Verdun were surrounded, and after
a short but terrific storm of balls and shells capitulated. There were
many Royalists in each of these towns, and they received the invaders
with every demonstration of joy. Their daughters in congratulatory
procession met the King of Prussia at the gates and strewed his path
with flowers.
The garrison of Verdun might have held out for several days, though
they would have eventually been compelled to surrender. General
Beaurepaire urged very strenuously that they should maintain the siege
to the last possible moment. But the defensive council of the city,
with whom rested the decision, voted an immediate capitulation.
"Gentlemen," said Beaurepaire, "I have sworn never to surrender but
with my life. You may live in disgrace, since you wish it; but as for
me, faithful to my oath, behold my last words: _I die free_."
Immediately he discharged a pistol-shot through his brain, and fell
dead before them. The Convention decreed to him the honors of the
Pantheon, and granted a pension to his widow.
[Illustration: SUICIDE OF BEAUREPAIRE.]
The victorious allies, having surmounted these first obstacles, now
plunged into the defiles of the Argonne, and in fierce and bloody
assaults drove before them the troops of Dumouriez, who had hoped in
these forest-encumbered passes to present effectual resistance to the
foe. The invaders were now triumphantly marching on the high-road
to Paris, and fugitives were continually arriving in the metropolis,
declaring that the army of the north was destroyed, and that there was
no longer any obstacle to the advance of the enemy. No language can
describe the consternation which pervaded the capital. The exultation
in the enemy's camp was immense. The "cobblers and tailors," as the
emigrants contemptuously called the Patriots, were running away, it was
said, like sheep.[363]
As each day brought tidings of the fearful strides which the Allies
were making toward the capital, indescribable terror was enkindled. The
Constitutionalists and the Girondists were utterly paralyzed. But the
leaders of the Jacobins--Danton, Robespierre, and Marat--resolved that,
if they were to perish, their Royalist enemies should perish with them.
It was known that the Royalists intended, as soon as the Allies should
be in Paris, to rise, liberate the king, and with the immense moral
force they would attain by having the king at their head, join the
invaders. Nothing would then remain for the Revolutionists but exile,
death, and the dungeon.[364]
It was now with them but a desperate struggle for life. They must
either destroy or be destroyed. The first great peril to be apprehended
was the rising of the Royalists in Paris. The barriers were immediately
ordered to be closed, and guard-boats were stationed on the river that
no one might escape. At the beat of the drum every individual was
enjoined to repair to his home. Commissioners then, accompanied by an
armed force, visited every dwelling. Party lines were so distinctly
drawn that the Royalists could not easily escape detection. At the
knock of the commissioners they held their breath with terror. Many
attempted concealment in chimneys, in cellar-vaults, beneath the
floors, and in recesses covered by pictures of tapestry. But workmen,
accustomed to all such arts, accompanied the commissioners. Chimneys
were smoked, doors burst open, and cellars, floors, and walls sounded.
In one short night five thousand suspected persons were torn from their
homes and dragged to prison. Every man was deemed guilty who could not
prove his devotion to the popular cause.[365]
Still the enemy was approaching. "In three days," rumor said, "the
Prussians will be in Paris." The whole city was in a state of phrensy,
and ready for any deed of desperation which could rescue them from
their peril. Danton entered the Assembly and ascended the tribune with
pallid face and compressed lips. Silence, as of the grave, awaited his
utterance.
"The enemy," said he, "threatens the kingdom, and the Assembly must
prove itself worthy of the nation. It is by a convulsion that we have
overthrown despotism; it is only by another vast national convulsion
that we shall drive back the despots. It is time to urge the people to
precipitate themselves _en masse_ against their enemies. The French
nation wills to be free, and it shall be."
There was lurking beneath these words a terrible significance then
little dreamed of. Jacobins and Girondists were now united by the
pressure of a common and a terrible danger. A decree was immediately
passed for every citizen in Paris capable of bearing arms to repair to
the Field of Mars, there to be enrolled to march to repel the Allies.
It was the morning of the Sabbath. The _générale_ was beat, the tocsin
rung, alarm-guns fired, and placards upon the walls, and the voice
of public criers, summoned every able-bodied man to the appointed
rendezvous. The philosophic Vergniaud, in a word, explained to Paris
the necessity and the efficacy of the measure.[366]
"The plan of the enemy," said he, "is to march directly to the capital,
leaving the fortresses behind him. Let him do so. This course will be
our salvation and his ruin. Our armies, too weak to withstand him, will
be strong enough to harass him in the rear. When he arrives, pursued
by our battalions, he will find himself face to face with our Parisian
army drawn up in battle array under the walls of the capital. There,
surrounded on all sides, he will be swallowed up by the soil which he
has profaned."
In the midst of the uproar of the multitudes surging through the
streets, as the bells were ringing, drums beating, and the armed
citizens hurrying to the Field of Mars, the rumor was widely circulated
that the Royalists had formed a conspiracy to strike down their
jailers, break from their prisons, liberate the king, take possession
of the city, rally all their confederates around them, and thus throw
open the gates of Paris to the Prussians. It was manifest to all that,
in the confusion which then reigned, and when the thunders of the
Prussian and Austrian batteries were hourly expected to be heard from
the heights of Montmartre, this was far from an impracticable plan.
It was certain that the Royalists would attempt it, whether they had
already formed such a plan or not.
It is, however, probable that shrewd men, foreseeing this peril, had
deliberately resolved to hurl the mob of Paris upon the prisons for the
assassination of all the Royalists, before emptying the city of its
defenders to march to meet the foe. While the bewildered masses were in
this state of terrific excitement, six hackney-coaches left the Hôtel
de Ville, conducting twenty-four Royalist priests, who had refused to
take the oath, to the prisons of the Abbaye. The people crowding around
and following the carriages began to murmur. "Here are the traitors,"
said they, "who intend to murder our wives and children while we are on
the frontiers."
The first carriage reached the door of the prison. One priest alighted.
He was instantly seized, and fell pierced by a thousand poniards. It
was the signal for the slaughter of the whole. The murderers fell upon
every carriage, and in a few moments all but one, who miraculously
escaped, were slain. This hideous massacre roused the populace as the
tiger is roused when he has once lapped his tongue in blood. The cry
was raised, "To the Carmelites, to the Carmelites." In this prison two
hundred priests were confined. The mob broke in and butchered them all.
[Illustration: BUTCHERY AT THE CARMELITES.]
A man by the name of Maillard headed this mob, which consisted of but a
few hundred men. Having finished the work at the Carmelites and gorged
themselves with wine, Maillard exclaimed, "Now to the Abbaye." The
blood-stained crew rushed after him through the streets, and dashed
in the doors of the prison. The Abbaye was filled with debtors and
ordinary convicts as well as suspected aristocrats. As the mob rushed
into the corridor one of the jailers mounted a stool, and, addressing
the assassins, said, "My friends, you wish to destroy the aristocrats,
who are the enemies of the people, and who meant to murder your wives
and children while you were at the frontiers. You are right no doubt;
but you are good citizens; you love justice; and you would be very
sorry to steep your hands in innocent blood."
"Yes, certainly," one of the leaders replied.
"Well, then," continued the jailer, "when you are rushing like furious
tigers upon men who are strangers to you, are you not liable to
confound the innocent with the guilty?"
These thoughts seemed to impress them, and it was immediately decided
that Maillard should judge each prisoner. He took his seat at a table;
the prison list was placed in his hands, and the prisoners, one by one,
were brought before his prompt and terrible tribunal. It was agreed, in
order to spare unnecessary suffering, that when the judge should say,
"Sir, you must go to the prison of La Force," as soon as the prisoner
was led out into the court-yard he should be cut down.
A Swiss officer was first brought forward. "It was you," said Maillard,
"who murdered the people on the 10th of August."
"We were attacked," the unfortunate man replied, "and only obeyed our
superior officers."
"Very well," said Maillard, "we must send you to the prison of La
Force."
He was led into the court-yard and instantly slain. Every Swiss
soldier in the prison met the same fate. Thus the work went on with
terrible expedition until one hundred and eighty were put to death.
All the women were left unharmed. Many who were brought before the
tribunal were acquitted, and the crowd manifested great joy in
rescuing them as their friends. Amid these horrid scenes there were
some gleams of humanity. The Governor of the Invalides was doomed to
death. His daughter clasped her father in her arms and clung to him so
despairingly that the hearts of the assassins were melted. One, in a
strange freak, presented her with a cup of blood, saying, "If you would
save your father drink this blood of an aristocrat." She seized the cup
and drained it. Shouts of applause greeted the act, and her father was
saved.[367]
All the night long these horrid scenes were continued. Every prison in
Paris witnessed the same massacres, accompanied with every conceivable
variety of horrors.
The unfortunate Princess Lamballe, bosom friend of Marie Antoinette,
was confined in the prison of La Force. She was brought before the
revolutionary judge, and after a brief interrogation she was ordered
to "swear to love liberty and equality; to swear to hate the king,
the queen, and royalty." "I will take the first oath," the princess
replied; "the second I can not take; it is not in my heart." One of the
judges, wishing to save her, whispered in her ear, "Swear every thing
or you are lost." But the unhappy princess was now utterly bewildered
with terror, and could neither see nor hear. Her youth and beauty
touched the hearts even of many of these brutal men. They desired her
rescue, and endeavored to lead her safely through the crowd. Cry out,
said they, 'long live the nation,' and you will not be harmed. But as
she beheld the pavement strewn with corpses of the slain, she could not
utter a word. Her silence was taken for defiance. A sabre blow struck
her down. The murderers fell upon her like famished wolves upon a lamb.
Her body was cut into fragments, and a band of wretches, with her head
and heart upon pikes, shouted "_Let us carry them to the foot of the
throne_." They rushed through the streets to the Temple, and shouted
for the king and queen to look out at the windows. A humane officer, to
shield them from the awful sight, informed them of the horrors which
were transpiring. The queen fainted. As the king and Madame Elizabeth
bent over her, for hours they were appalled by the clamor of the rabble
around the walls of the Temple.
At last the prisons were emptied, and the murderers themselves became
weary of blood. It is impossible to ascertain the numbers who perished.
The estimate varies from six to twelve thousand. The Commune of Paris,
which was but the servant of the Jacobin Club, issued orders that no
more blood should be shed. Assuming that the assassination was demanded
by the public danger, and that the wretches who had perpetrated it had
performed a patriotic though a painful duty, they rewarded them for
their work. Nothing can more clearly show the terrible excitation of
the public mind, produced by a sense of impending danger, than that
a circular should have been addressed to all the communes of France,
giving an account of the massacre as a necessary and a praiseworthy
deed. In this extraordinary memorial, signed by the Administrators of
the Committee of Surveillance, the writers say,
"Brethren and Friends,--A horrid plot, hatched by the court, to
murder all the Patriots of the French empire, a plot in which a great
number of members of the National Assembly are implicated, having, on
the ninth of last month, reduced the Commune of Paris to the cruel
necessity of employing the power of the people to save the nation, it
has not neglected any thing to deserve well of the country.
"Apprised that barbarous hordes are advancing against it, the Commune
of Paris hastens to inform its brethren in all the departments that
part of the ferocious conspirators confined in the prisons have
been put to death by the people--acts of justice which appear to
it indispensable for repressing by terror the legions of traitors
encompassed by its walls, at the moment when the people were about
to march against the enemy; and no doubt the nation, after the long
series of treasons which have brought it to the brink of the abyss,
will eagerly adopt this useful and necessary expedient; and all the
French will say, like the Parisians, 'We are marching against the
enemy, and we will not leave behind us brigands to murder our wives
and children.'"
The instigators of these atrocious deeds defended the measure as one
of absolute necessity. "We must all go," it was said, "to fight the
Prussians, and we can not leave these foes behind us, to rise and take
the city and assail us in the rear." "If they had been allowed to
live," others said, "in a few days we should have been murdered. It was
strictly an act of self-defense." Danton ever avowed his approval of
the measure, and said, "I looked my crime steadfastly in the face and
I did it." Marat is reproached as having contributed to the deed.[368]
Robespierre appears to have given his assent to the massacre with
reluctance, but it is in evidence that he walked his chamber through
the whole night in agony, unable to sleep.
At eleven o'clock at night of this 2d of September Robespierre and St.
Just retired together from the Jacobin Club to the room of the latter.
St. Just threw himself upon the bed for sleep. Robespierre exclaimed in
astonishment,
"What, can you think of sleeping on such a night? Do you not hear the
tocsin? Do you not know that this night will be the last to perhaps
thousands of our fellow-creatures, who are men at the moment you fall
asleep, and when you awake will be lifeless corpses?"
"I know it," replied St. Just, "and deplore it; and I wish that I
could moderate the convulsions of society; but what am I?" then,
turning in his bed, he fell asleep. In the morning, as he awoke, he saw
Robespierre pacing the chamber with hasty steps, occasionally stopping
to look out of the window, and listening to the noises in the streets.
"What, have you not slept?" asked St. Just.
"Sleep!" cried Robespierre; "sleep while hundreds of assassins murdered
thousands of victims, and their pure or impure blood runs like water
down the streets! Oh no! I have not slept. I have watched like remorse
or crime. I have had the weakness not to close my eyes, but _Danton, he
has slept_."[369]
Paris was at this time in a state of such universal consternation, the
government so disorganized, and the outbreak so sudden and so speedy in
its execution, that the Legislative Assembly, which was not in sympathy
with the mob, and which was already overawed, ventured upon no measures
of resistance.[370]
But there can be no excuse offered in palliation of such crimes.
Language is too feeble to express the horror with which they ever
must be regarded by every generous soul. But while we consign to the
deepest infamy the assassins of September, to equal infamy let those
despots be consigned who, in the fierce endeavor to rivet the chains
of slavery anew upon twenty-five millions of freemen, goaded a nation
to such hideous madness. The allied despots of Europe roused the
people to a phrensy of despair, and thus drove them to the deed. Let
it never be forgotten that it was _despotism_, not _liberty_, which
planted the tree which bore this fruit. If the government of a country
be such that there is no means of redress for the oppressed people
but in the horrors of insurrection, that country must bide its doom,
for, sooner or later, an outraged people will rise. While, therefore,
we contemplate with horror the outrages committed by the insurgent
people, with still greater horror must we contemplate the outrages
perpetrated by proud oppressors during long ages, consigning the people
to ignorance and degradation. They who _brutalize_ a people should be
the last to complain that, when these people rise in the terribleness
of their might, they behave _like brutes_. There is no safety for any
nation but in the education, piety, and liberty of its masses.[371]
The Duke of Brunswick, urging resistlessly on his solid columns,
battering down fortresses, plunging through defiles, anticipated
no check. But on the 20th of September, to his great surprise, he
encountered a formidable army intrenched upon the heights of Valmy,
near Chalons, apparently prepared for firm resistance. Here Dumouriez,
with much military skill, had rallied his retreating troops. All
France had been roused and was rushing eagerly to his support. Paris,
no longer fearing a rise of the Royalists, was dispatching several
thousand thoroughly-armed men from the gates every day to strengthen
the camp at Valmy, which was hardly a hundred miles from Paris.
Dumouriez, when first assailed, had less than forty thousand troops in
his intrenchments, but the number rapidly increased to over seventy
thousand.
These were nearly all inexperienced soldiers, but they were inspired
with intense enthusiasm, all struggling for national independence, and
many conscious that defeat would but conduct them to the scaffold.
Macdonald,[372] who afterward so gloriously led the columns at Wagram,
and Kellerman, who subsequently headed the decisive charge at Marengo,
were aids of Dumouriez. Louis Philippe also, then the Duke of Chartres
and eldest son of the Duke of Orleans, signalized himself on the
patriot side at the stern strife of Valmy.
The Duke of Brunswick brought forward his batteries and commenced a
terrific cannonade. Column after column was urged against the redoubts.
But the young soldiers of France, shouting _Vive la Nation_, bravely
repulsed every assault. The Prussians, to their inexpressible chagrin,
found it impossible to advance a step. Here the storm of battle raged
with almost incessant fury for twenty days. The French were hurrying
from all quarters to the field; the supplies of the invaders were cut
off; dysentery broke out in their camp; autumnal rains drenched them;
winter was approaching; and they were compelled, in discomfiture and
humiliation, to turn upon their track and retire.
On the 15th of October the Allies abandoned their camp and commenced
a retreat. They retired in good order, and recrossed the frontier,
leaving behind them twenty-five thousand, who had perished by sickness,
the bullet, and the sword. Dumouriez did not pursue them with much
vigor, for the army of the Allies was infinitely superior in discipline
to the raw troops under his command.
Winter was now at hand, during which no external attack upon France was
to be feared. All government was disorganized, and the question which
agitated every heart was, "What shall be done with the king?"
The Duke of Chartres, subsequently Louis Philippe, King of the
French, then a young man but seventeen years of age, after vigorously
co-operating with Dumouriez in repelling the invaders, returned to
Paris. He presented himself at the audience of Servan, Minister of War,
to complain of some injustice. Danton was present, and, taking the
young duke aside, said to him,
"What do you do here? Servan is but the shadow of a minister. He can
neither help nor harm you. Call on me to-morrow and I will arrange your
business."
The next day Danton, the powerful plebeian, received the young
patrician with an air of much affected superiority. "Well, young man,"
said he, "I am informed that your language resembles murmurs; that you
blame the great measures of government; that you express compassion for
the victims and hatred for the executioners. Beware; patriotism does
not admit of lukewarmness, and you have to obtain pardon for your great
name."
The young prince boldly replied, "The army looks with horror on
bloodshed any where but on the battle-field. The massacres of September
seem in their eyes to dishonor liberty."
"You are too young," Danton replied, "to judge of these events; to
comprehend these you must be in our place. For the future be silent.
Return to the army; fight bravely; but do not rashly expose your life.
France does not love a republic; she has the habits, the weaknesses,
the need of a monarchy. After our storms she will return to it, either
through her vices or necessities, and you will be king. Adieu, young
man. Remember the prediction of Danton."[373]
In reference to these scenes Napoleon remarked at St. Helena, on
the 3d of September, 1816, "To-day is the anniversary of a hideous
remembrance; of the massacres of September, the St. Bartholomew of
the French Revolution. The atrocities of the 3d of September were not
committed under the sanction of government, which, on the contrary,
used its endeavors to punish the crime. The massacres were committed
by the mob of Paris, and were the result of fanaticism rather than
of absolute brutality. The Septembriseurs did not pillage, they only
wished to murder. They even hanged one of their own party for having
appropriated a watch which belonged to one of their victims.
"This dreadful event arose out of the force of circumstances and
the spirit of the moment. We must acknowledge that there has been
no political change unattended by popular fury, as soon as the
masses enter into action. The Prussian army had arrived within
one hundred miles of Paris. The famous manifesto of the Duke of
Brunswick was placarded on all the walls of the city. The people had
persuaded themselves that the death of all the Royalists in Paris was
indispensable to the safety of the Revolution. They ran to the prisons
and intoxicated themselves with blood, shouting _Vive la Revolution_.
Their energy had an electric effect, from the fear with which it
inspired one party, and the example which it gave to the other. One
hundred thousand volunteers joined the army, and the Revolution was
saved.
"I might have preserved my crown by turning loose the masses of the
people against the advocates of the restoration. You well recollect,
Montholon, when, at the head of your _faubouriens_, you wished to
punish the treachery of Fouché and proclaim my dictatorship. I did not
choose to do so. My whole soul revolted at the thought of being king
of another mob. As a general rule no social revolution can take place
without terror. Every revolution is in principle a revolt, which time
and success ennoble and render legal, but of which terror has been one
of the inevitable phases. How, indeed, can we say to those who possess
fortune and public situations, '_Begone and leave us your fortunes and
your situations_,' without first intimidating them, and rendering any
defense impossible. In France this point was effected by the lantern
and the guillotine."[374]
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 360: "As a citizen, as a magistrate of the people," said one
of the deputation, "I come to inform you that at twelve o'clock this
night the tocsin will be rung and the alarm beaten. The people are
weary of not being avenged. Beware lest they do themselves justice. I
demand that you forthwith decree that a citizen be appointed by each
section to form a criminal tribunal."--_Thiers_, i, 341.]
[Footnote 361: "However irritated they might be by La Fayette's
behavior at the outset of the Revolution, the present conduct of the
monarchs toward him was neither to be vindicated by morality, the law
of nations, nor the rules of sound policy. Even if he had been amenable
for a crime against his own country, we know not what right Austria or
Prussia had to take cognizance of it."--_Scott's Life of Napoleon._]
[Footnote 362: "Such were the reasonings and expressions of Mr.
Burke on this striking occasion. So entirely was the mind of this
extraordinary man now over excited and overthrown; so entirely
estranged from those elevated feelings and that spirit of philanthropic
wisdom which have made his speeches in the American contest, and many
paragraphs of his Reflections on this Revolution of France, so justly
the admiration of mankind."--_Prof. Smyth's Lectures on the French
Revolution_, vol. ii., p. 409.]
[Footnote 363: Jean Debry, in the Assembly, exclaimed with fervor,
"The most instant and vigorous measures must be adopted in defense
of our country. The expense must not be thought of. Within fifteen
days we shall enjoy freedom or meet with death. If we are conquered
we shall have no need of money, for we shall not exist. If we are
victorious, still we shall not feel the want of money, for we shall be
_free_."--_Journal of John Moore, M.D._, vol. i., p. 116.]
[Footnote 364: "The intelligence of the flight of La Fayette, the
entry of the army of the coalition into the French territory, the
capture of Longwy, and the surrender of Verdun burst like thunder in
Paris, and filled every heart with consternation, for France had never
approached more nearly those sinister days which presage the decay
of nations. Every thing was dead in her save the desire of living;
the enthusiasm of the country and liberty survived. Abandoned by all,
the country did not abandon itself. Two things were required to save
it--time and a dictatorship. Time? The heroism of Dumouriez afforded
it. The dictatorship? Danton assumed it in the name of the Commune of
Paris."--_Lamartine, Hist. Gir._, vol, ii., p. 119.]
[Footnote 365: Dr. John Moore, a very intelligent English physician,
who, in company with Lord Lauderdale, was in Paris during all these
scenes, writes in his journal, "This search was made accordingly in the
course of last night and this morning. The commissioners were attended
with a body of the National Guards, and all avenues of the section were
watched to prevent any persons from escaping. They did not come to our
hotel till about six in the morning. I attended them through every
room, and opened every door of our apartments. They behaved with great
civility. We had no arms but pistols, which lay openly on the chimney.
They admired the nicety of the workmanship of one pair, but never
offered to take them."--Vol. i., p. 116.]
[Footnote 366: "The people are told that there was a horrid plot
between the Duke of Brunswick and certain traitors in Paris; that as
soon as all the new levies were completed, and all the men intended for
the frontiers had marched out of Paris, then those same traitors were
to take command of a large body of men, now dispersed over the capital
and its environs, who have been long in the pay of the court, though
they also are concealed; that these concealed leaders at the head of
their concealed troops were to have thrown open the prisons and to arm
the prisoners, then to go to the Temple, set the royal family free, and
proclaim the king; to condemn to death all the Patriots who remain in
Paris, and most of the wives and children of those who have marched out
of it against the enemies of their country."--_Moore's Journal_, vol.
i., p. 144.]
[Footnote 367: "Some inexplicable and consolatory acts astonish us amid
these horrors. The compassion of Maillard appeared to seek for the
innocent with as much care as his vengeance sought for the guilty. He
exposed his life to snatch victims from his executions."--_Lamartine,
History of the Girondists_, vol. ii., p. 140.]
[Footnote 368: M. Chabot, a patriotic orator, who had been a Franciscan
friar, spoke in the Society of Jacobins as follows of Marat: "Marat is
reproached with being of a sanguinary disposition; that he contributed
to the late massacres in the prisons. But in so doing he acted in the
true spirit of the Revolution, for it was not to be expected that
while our bravest patriots were on the frontiers we should remain here
exposed to the rage of the prisoners, who were promised arms and the
opportunity of assassinating us. It is well known that the plan of the
aristocrats has always been, and still is, to make a general carnage of
the common people. Now, as the number of the latter is to that of the
former in the proportion of ninety-nine to one, it is evident that he
who proposes to kill one to prevent the killing of ninety-nine is not a
blood-thirsty man."]
[Footnote 369: Lamartine, _History of the Girondists_, ii., 132.]
[Footnote 370: Dr. Moore, while denouncing in the strongest terms the
brutality of the populace, says, "In such an abominable system of
oppression as the French labored under before the Revolution, when the
will of one man could control the course of law, and his mandate tear
any citizen from the arms of his family and throw him into a dungeon
for years or for life--in a country where such a system of government
prevails, insurrection, being the sole means of redress, is not only
justifiable, but it is the duty of every lover of mankind and of
his country, as soon as any occasion presents itself which promises
success."]
[Footnote 371: "Amid the disorders and sad events which have taken
place in this country of late, it is impossible not to admire the
generous spirit which glows all over the nation in support of its
independency. No country ever displayed a nobler or more patriotic
enthusiasm than pervades France at this period, and which glows with
increasing ardor since the publication of the Duke of Brunswick's
manifesto, and the entrance of the Prussians into the country. None but
those whose minds are obscured by prejudice or perverted by selfishness
will refuse this justice to the general spirit displayed by the French
in defense of their national independence. A detestation of the
excesses committed at Paris, not only is compatible with an admiration
of this spirit, but it is such well-informed minds alone as possess
sufficient candor and sensibility to admire the one, who can have a due
horror of the other."--_Journal of John Moore, M.D._, vol. i., p. 160.]
[Footnote 372: "The young Macdonald, descended from a Scotch family
transplanted to France, was aid-de-camp to Dumouriez. He learned at
the camp of Grandpré, under his commander, how to save a country.
Subsequently he learned, under Napoleon, how to illustrate it. A hero
at his first step, he became a marshal of France at the end of his
life."--_Lamartine, Hist. Gir._, ii., 158.]
[Footnote 373: History of the Girondists, by Lamartine, ii., 185.]