changed. The extraordinary commission of twelve presented, through
Pastoret, an unsatisfactory picture of the state and divisions of party.
Jean Debry, in the name of the same commission, proposed that the assembly
should secure the tranquillity of the people, now greatly disturbed, by
declaring that when the crisis became imminent, the assembly would declare
_the country is in danger_; and that it would then take measures for the
public safety. The debate opened upon this important subject. Vergniaud,
in a speech which deeply moved the assembly, drew a vivid picture of all
the perils to which the country was at that moment exposed. He said that
it was in the name of the king that the emigrants were assembled, that the
sovereigns of Europe had formed a coalition, that foreign armies were
marching on our frontiers, and that internal disturbances were taking
place. He accused him of checking the national zeal by his refusals, and
of giving France up to the coalition. He quoted the article of the
constitution by which it was declared that "if the king placed himself at
the head of an army and directed its force against the nation, or if he
did not formally oppose such an enterprise, undertaken in his name, he
should be considered as having abdicated the throne." Supposing, then,
that Louis XVI. voluntarily opposed the means of defending the country, in
that case, said he: "have we not a right to say to him: 'O king, who
thought, no doubt, with the tyrant Lysander, that truth was of no more
worth than falsehood, and that men were to be amused by oaths, as children
are diverted by toys; who only feigned obedience to the laws that you
might better preserve the power that enables you to defy them; and who
only feigned love for the constitution that it might not precipitate you
from the throne on which you felt bound to remain in order to destroy the
constitution, do you expect to deceive us by hypocritical protestations?
Do you think to deceive us as to our misfortunes by the art of your
excuses? Was it defending us to oppose to foreign soldiers forces whose
known inferiority admitted of no doubt as to their defeat? To set aside
projects for strengthening the interior? Was it defending us not to check
a general who was violating the constitution, while you repressed the
courage of those who sought to serve it? Did the constitution leave you
the choice of ministers for our happiness or our ruin? Did it place you at
the head of our army for our glory or our shame? Did it give you the right
of sanction, a civil list and so many prerogatives, constitutionally to
lose the empire and the constitution? No! no! man! whom the generosity of
the French could not affect, whom the love of despotism alone actuates,
you are now nothing to the constitution you have so unworthily violated,
and to the people you have so basely betrayed!'"
The only resource of the Gironde, in its present situation, was the
abdication of the king; Vergniaud, it is true, as yet only expressed
himself ambiguously, but all the popular party attributed to Louis XVI.
projects which Vergniaud had only expressed in the form of suppositions.
In a few days, Brissot expressed himself more openly. "Our peril," said
he, "exceeds all that past ages have witnessed. The country is in danger,
not because we are in want of troops, not because those troops want
courage, or that our frontiers are badly fortified, and our resources
scanty. No, it is in danger, because its force is paralysed. And who has
paralysed it? A man--one man, the man whom the constitution has made its
chief, and whom perfidious advisers have made its foe. You are told to
fear the kings of Hungary and Prussia; I say, the chief force of these
kings is at the court, and it is there that we must first conquer them.
They tell you to strike the dissentient priests throughout the kingdom. I
tell you to strike at the Tuileries, that is, to fell all the priests with
a single blow; you are told to prosecute all factious and intriguing
conspirators; they will all disappear if you once knock loud enough at the
door of the cabinet of the Tuileries, for that cabinet is the point to
which all these threads tend, where every scheme is plotted, and whence
every impulse proceeds. The nation is the plaything of this cabinet. This
is the secret of our position, this is the source of the evil, and here
the remedy must be applied."
In this way the Gironde prepared the assembly for the question of
deposition. But the great question concerning the danger of the country
was first terminated. The three united committees declared that it was
necessary to take measures for the public safety, and on the 5th July the
assembly pronounced the solemn declaration: _Citizens, the country is in
danger!_ All the civil authorities immediately established themselves _en
surveillance permanente_. All citizens able to bear arms, and having
already served in the national guard, were placed in active service; every
one was obliged to make known what arms and ammunition he possessed; pikes
were given to those who were unable to procure guns; battalions of
volunteers were enrolled on the public squares, in the midst of which
banners were placed, bearing the words--"Citizens, the country is in
danger!" and a camp was formed at Soissons. These measures of defence, now
become indispensable, raised the revolutionary enthusiasm to the highest
pitch. It was especially observable on the anniversary of the 14th of
July, when the sentiments of the multitude and the federates from the
departments were manifested without reserve. Pétion was the object of the
people's idolatry, and had all the honours of the federation. A few days
before, he had been dismissed, on account of his conduct on the 20th of
June by the directory of the department and the council; but the assembly
had restored him to his functions, and the only cry on the day of the
federation was: "_Pétion or death!_" A few battalions of the national
guard, such as that of the Filles-Saint-Thomas, still betrayed attachment
to the court; they became the object of popular resentment and mistrust. A
disturbance was excited in the Champs Élysées between the grenadiers of
the Filles-Saint-Thomas and the federates of Marseilles, in which some
grenadiers were wounded. Every day the crisis became more imminent; the
party in favour of war could no longer endure that of the constitution.
Attacks against Lafayette multiplied; he was censured in the journals,
denounced in the assembly. At length hostilities began. The club of the
Feuillants was closed; the grenadier and chasseur companies of the
national guard which formed the force of the bourgeoisie were disbanded;
the soldiers of the line, and a portion of the Swiss, were sent away from
Paris, and open preparations were made for the catastrophe of the 10th of
August.
The progress of the Prussians and the famous manifesto of Brunswick
contributed to hasten this movement. Prussia had joined Austria and the
German princes against France. This coalition, to which the court of Turin
joined itself, was formidable, though it did not comprise all the powers
that were to have joined it at first. The death of Gustavus, appointed at
first commander of the invading army, detached Sweden; the substitution of
the count d'Aranda, a prudent and moderate man, for the minister Florida-
Blanca, prevented Spain from entering it; Russia and England secretly
approved the attacks of the European league, without as yet co-operating
with it. After the military operations already mentioned, they watched
each other rather than fought. During the interval, Lafayette had inspired
his army with good habits of discipline and devotedness; and Dumouriez,
stationed under Luckner at the camp of Maulde, had inured the troops
confided to him by petty engagements and daily successes. In this way they
had formed the nucleus of a good army; a desirable thing, as they required
organization and confidence to repel the approaching invasion of the
coalesced powers.
The duke of Brunswick directed it. He had the chief command of the enemy's
army, composed of seventy thousand Prussians, and sixty-eight thousand
Austrians, Hessians, or emigrants. The plan of invasion was as follows:--
The duke of Brunswick with the Prussians, was to pass the Rhine at
Coblentz, ascend the left bank of the Moselle, attack the French frontier
by its central and most accessible point, and advance on the capital by
way of Longwy, Verdun, and Châlons. The prince von Hohenlohe on his left,
was to advance in the direction of Metz and Thionville, with the Hessians
and a body of emigrants; while general Clairfayt, with the Austrians and
another body of emigrants, was to overthrow Lafayette, stationed before
Sedan and Mézieres, cross the Meuse, and march upon Paris by Rheims and
Soissons. Thus the centre and two wings were to make a concentrated
advance on the capital from the Moselle, the Rhine, and the Netherlands.
Other detachments stationed on the frontier of the Rhine and the extreme
northern frontier, were to attack our troops on these sides and facilitate
the central invasion.
On the 26th of July, when the army began to move from Coblentz, the duke
of Brunswick published a manifesto in the name of the emperor and the king
of Prussia. He reproached _those who had usurped the reins of
administration in France_, with having disturbed order and overturned the
legitimate government; with having used daily-renewed violence against the
king and his family; with having arbitrarily suppressed the rights and
possessions of the German princes in Alsace and Lorraine; and, finally,
with having crowned the measure by declaring an unjust war against his
majesty the emperor, and attacking his provinces in the Netherlands. He
declared that the allied sovereigns were advancing to put an end to
anarchy in France, to arrest the attacks made on the altar and the throne;
to restore to the king the security and liberty he was deprived of, and to
place him in a condition to exercise his legitimate authority. He
consequently rendered the national guard and the authorities responsible
for all the disorders that should arise until the arrival of the troops of
the coalition. He summoned them to return to their ancient fidelity. He
said that the inhabitants of towns, _who dared to stand on the defensive_,
should instantly be punished as rebels, with the rigour of war, and their
houses demolished or burned; that if the city of Paris did not restore the
king to full liberty, and render him due respect, the princes of the
coalition would make the members of the national assembly, of the
department, of the district, the corporation, and the national guard,
personally responsible with their heads, to be tried by martial-law, and
without hope of pardon; and that if the château were attacked or insulted,
the princes would inflict an exemplary and never-to-be-forgotten
vengeance, by delivering Paris over to military execution, and total
subversion. He promised, on the other hand, if the inhabitants of Paris
would promptly obey the orders of the coalition, to secure for them the
mediation of the allied princes with Louis XVI. for the pardon of their
offences and errors.
This fiery and impolitic manifesto, which disguised neither the designs of
the emigrants nor those of Europe, which treated a great nation with a
truly extraordinary tone of command and contempt, which openly announced
to it all the miseries of an invasion, and, moreover, vengeance and
despotism, excited a national insurrection. It more than anything else
hastened the fall of the throne, and prevented the success of the
coalition. There was but one wish, one cry of resistance, from one end of
France to the other; and whoever had not joined in it, would have been
looked on as guilty of impiety towards his country and the sacred cause of
its independence. The popular party, placed in the necessity of
conquering, saw no other way than that of annihilating the power of the
king, and in order to annihilate it, than that of dethroning him. But in
this party, every one wished to attain the end in his own way: the Gironde
by a decree of the assembly; the leaders of the multitude by an
insurrection. Danton, Robespierre, Camille Desmoulins, Fabre-d'Eglantine,
Marat, etc., were a displaced faction requiring a revolution that would
raise it from the midst of the people to the assembly and the corporation.
They were the true leaders of the new movement about to take place by the
means of the lower class of society against the middle class, to which the
Girondists belonged by their habits and position. A division arose from
that day between those who only wished to suppress the court in the
existing order of things, and those who wished to introduce the multitude.
The latter could not fall in with the tardiness of discussion. Agitated by
every revolutionary passion, they disposed themselves for an attack by
force of arms, the preparations for which were made openly, and a long
time beforehand.
Their enterprise had been projected and suspended several times. On the
26th of July, an insurrection was to break out; but it was badly
contrived, and Pétion prevented it. When the federates from Marseilles
arrived, on their way to the camp at Soissons, the faubourgs were to meet
them, and then repair, unexpectedly, to the château. This insurrection
also failed. Yet the arrival of the Marseillais encouraged the agitators
of the capital, and conferences were held at Charenton between them and
the federal leaders for the overthrow of the throne. The sections were
much agitated; that of Mauconseil was the first to declare itself in a
state of insurrection, and notified this to the assembly. The dethronement
was discussed in the clubs, and on the 3rd of August, the mayor Pétion
came to solicit it of the legislative body, in the name of the commune and
of the sections. The petition was referred to the extraordinary commission
of twelve. On the 8th, the accusation of Lafayette was discussed. Some
remains of courage induced the majority to support him, and not without
danger. He was acquitted; but all who had voted for him were hissed,
pursued, and ill treated by the people at the breaking up of the sitting.
The following day the excitement was extreme. The assembly learned by the
letters of a large number of deputies, that the day before on leaving the
house they had been ill used, and threatened with death, for voting the
acquittal of Lafayette. Vaublanc announced that a crowd had invested and
searched his house in pursuit of him. Girardin exclaimed: "Discussion is
impossible, without perfect liberty of opinion; I declare to my
constituents that I cannot deliberate if the legislative body does not
secure me liberty and safety." Vaublanc earnestly urged that the assembly
should take the strongest measures to secure respect to the law. He also
required that the federates, who were defended by the Girondists, should
be sent without delay to Soissons. During these debates the president
received a message from de Joly, minister of justice. He announced that
the mischief was at its height, and the people urged to every kind of
excess. He gave an account of those committed the evening before, not only
against the deputies, but against many other persons. "I have," said the
minister, "denounced these attacks in the criminal court; but law is
powerless; and I am impelled by honour and probity to inform you, that
without the promptest assistance of the legislative body, the government
can no longer be responsible." In the meantime, it was announced that the
section of the Quinze-vingts had declared that, if the dethronement were
not pronounced that very day, at midnight they would sound the tocsin,
would beat the générale and attack the château. This decision had been
transmitted to the forty-eight sections, and all had approved it, except
one. The assembly summoned the recorder of the department, who assured
them of his good-will, but his inability; and the mayor, who replied that,
at a time when the sections had resumed their sovereignty, he could only
exercise over the people the influence of persuasion. The assembly broke
up without adopting any measures.
The insurgents fixed the attack on the château for the morning of the 10th
of August. On the 8th, the Marseillais had been transferred from their
barracks in the Rue Blanche to the Cordeliers, with their arms, cannon,
and standard. They had received five thousand ball cartridges, which had
been distributed to them by command of the commissioner of police. The
principal scene of the insurrection was the Faubourg Saint Antoine. In the
evening, after a very stormy sitting, the Jacobins repaired thither in
procession; the insurrection was then organized. It was decided to
dissolve the department; to dismiss Pétion, in order to withdraw him from
the duties of his place, and all responsibility; and, finally, to replace
the general council of the present commune by an insurrectional
municipality. Agitators repaired at the same time to the sections of the
faubourgs and to the barracks of the federate Marseillais and Bretons.
The court had been apprised of the danger for some time, and had placed
itself in a state of defence. At this juncture, it probably thought it was
not only able to resist, but also entirely to re-establish itself. The
interior of the château was occupied by Swiss, to the number of eight or
nine hundred, by officers of the disbanded guard, and by a troop of
gentlemen and royalists, who had offered their services, armed with
sabres, swords, and pistols. Mandat, the general-in-chief of the national
guard, had repaired to the château, with his staff, to defend it; he had
given orders to the battalions most attached to the constitution to take
arms. The ministers were also with the king; the recorder of the
department had gone thither in the evening at the command of the king, who
had also sent for Pétion, to ascertain from him the state of Paris, and
obtain an authorization to repel force by force.
At midnight, the tocsin sounded; the générale was beaten. The insurgents
assembled, and fell into their ranks; the members of the sections broke up
the municipality, and named a provisional council of the commune, which
proceeded to the Hôtel de Ville to direct the insurrection. The battalions
of the national guard, on their side, took the route to the château, and
were stationed in the court, or at the principal posts, with the mounted
gendarmerie; artillerymen occupied the avenues of the Tuileries, with
their pieces; while the Swiss and volunteers guarded the apartments. The
defence was in the best condition.
Some deputies, meanwhile, aroused by the tocsin, had hurried to the hall
of the legislative body, and had opened the sitting under the
presidentship of Vergniaud. Hearing that Pétion was at the Tuileries, and
presuming he was detained there, and wanted to be released, they sent for
him to the bar of the assembly, to give an account of the state of Paris.
On receiving this order, he left the château; he appeared before the
assembly, where a deputation again inquired for him, also supposing him to
be a prisoner at the Tuileries. With this deputation he returned to the
Hôtel de Ville, where he was placed under a guard of three hundred men by
the new commune. The latter, unwilling to allow any other authority on
this day of disorder than the insurrectional authorities, early in the
morning sent for the commandant Mandat, to know what arrangements were
made at the château. Mandat hesitated to obey; yet, as he did not know
that the municipality had been changed, and as his duty required him to
obey its orders, on a second call which he received from the commune, he
proceeded to the Hôtel de Ville. On perceiving new faces as he entered, he
turned pale. He was accused of authorizing the troops to fire on the
people. He became agitated, and was ordered to the Abbaye, and the mob
murdered him as he was leaving, on the steps of the Hôtel de Ville. The
commune immediately conferred the command of the national guard on
Santerre.
The court was thus deprived of its most determined and influential
defender. The presence of Mandat, and the order he had received to employ
force in case of need, were necessary to induce the national guard to
fight. The sight of the nobles and royalists had lessened its zeal. Mandat
himself, previous to his departure, had urged the queen in vain to dismiss
this troop, which the constitutionalists considered as a troop of
aristocrats.
About four in the morning the queen summoned Roederer, the recorder of the
department, who had passed the night at the Tuileries, and inquired what
was to be done under these circumstances? Roederer replied, that he
thought it necessary that the king and the royal family should proceed to
the national assembly. "You propose," said Dubouchage, "to take the king
to his foes." Roederer replied, that, two days before, four hundred
members of that assembly out of six hundred, had pronounced in favour of
Lafayette; and that he had only proposed this plan as the least dangerous.
The queen then said, in a very positive tone: "Sir, we have forces here:
it is at length time to know who is to prevail, the king and the
constitution, or faction?" "In that case, madam," rejoined Roederer, "let
us see what arrangements have been made for resistance." Laschenaye, who
commanded in the absence of Mandat, was sent for. He was asked if he had
taken measures to prevent the crowd from arriving at the château? If he
had guarded the Carrousel? He replied in the affirmative; and, addressing
the queen, he said, in a tone of anger: "I must not allow you to remain in
ignorance, madam, that the apartments are filled with people of all kinds,
who very much impede the service, and prevent free access to the king, a
circumstance which creates dissatisfaction among the national guard."
"This is out of season," replied the queen; "I will answer for those who
are here; they will advance first or last, in the ranks, as you please;
they are ready for all that is necessary; they are sure men." They
contented themselves with sending the two ministers, Joly and Champion to
the assembly to apprise it of the danger, and ask for its assistance and
for commissioners. [Footnote: _Chronique des Cinquante Jours_, par P. L.
Roederer, a writer of the most scrupulous accuracy.]
Division already existed between the defenders of the château, when Louis
XVI. passed them in review at five o'clock in the morning. He first
visited the interior posts, and found them animated by the best
intentions. He was accompanied by some members of his family, and appeared
extremely sad. "I will not," he said, "separate my cause from that of good
citizens; we will save ourselves or perish together." He then descended
into the yard, accompanied by some general officers. As soon as he
arrived, they beat to arms. The cry of "Vive le roi!" was heard, and was
repeated by the national guard; but the artillerymen, and the battalion of
the Croix Rouge replied by the cry of "Vive la nation!" At the same
instant, new battalions, armed with guns and pikes, defiled before the
king, and took their places upon the terrace of the Seine, crying; "Vive
la nation!" "Vive Pétion!" The king continued the review, not, however,
without feeling saddened by this omen. He was received with the strongest
evidences of devotion by the battalions of the Filles-Saint-Thomas, and
Petits-Pères, who occupied the terrace, extending the length of the
château. As he crossed the garden to visit the ports of the Pont Tournant,
the pike battalions pursued him with the cry of: "Down with the veto!"
"Down with the traitor!" and as he returned, they quitted their position,
placed themselves near the Pont Royal, and turned their cannon against the
château. Two other battalions stationed in the courts imitated them, and
established themselves on the Place du Carrousel in an attitude of attack.
On re-entering the château, the king was pale and dejected; and the queen
said, "All is lost! This kind of review has done more harm than good."
While all this was passing at the Tuileries, the insurgents were advancing
in several columns; they had passed the night in assembling, and becoming
organized. In the morning, they had forced the arsenal, and distributed
the arms. The column of the Faubourg Saint-Antoine, about fifteen thousand
strong, and that of the Faubourg Saint Marceau, amounting to five
thousand, began to march about six. The crowd increased as they advanced.
Artillerymen had been placed on the Pont Neuf by the directory of the
department, in order to prevent the union of the insurgents from the two
sides of the river. But Manuel, the town clerk, had ordered them to be
withdrawn, and the passage was accordingly free. The vanguard of the
Faubourgs, composed of Marseillais and Breton federates, had already
arrived by the Rue Saint Honoré, stationed themselves in battle array on
the Carrousel, and turned their cannon against the château. De Joly and
Champion returned from the assembly, stating that the attendance was not
sufficient in number to debate; that it scarcely amounted to sixty or
eighty members, and that their proposition had not been heard. Then
Roederer, the recorder of the department, with the members of the
department, presented himself to the crowd, observing that so great a
multitude could not have access to the king, or to the national assembly,
and recommending them to nominate twenty deputies, and entrust them with
their requests. But they did not listen to him. He turned to the national
guard, reminded them of the article of the law, which enjoined them when
attacked, to repel force by force. A very small part of the national guard
seemed disposed to do so; and a discharge of cannon was the only reply of
the artillerymen. Roederer, seeing that the insurgents were everywhere
triumphant, that they were masters of the field, and that they disposed of
the multitude, and even of the troops, returned hastily to the château, at
the head of the executive directory.
The king held a council with the queen and ministers. A municipal officer
had just given the alarm by announcing that the columns of the insurgents
were advancing upon the Tuileries. "Well, and what do they want?" asked
Joly, keeper of the seals. "Abdication," replied the officer. "To be
pronounced by the assembly," added the minister. "And what will follow
abdication?" inquired the queen. The municipal officer bowed in silence.
At this moment Roederer arrived, and increased the alarm of the court by
announcing that the danger was extreme; that the insurgents would not be
treated with, and that the national guard could not be depended upon.
"Sire," said he, urgently, "your majesty has not five minutes to lose:
your only safety is in the national assembly; it is the opinion of the
department that you ought to repair thither without delay. There are not
sufficient men in the court to defend the château; nor are we sure of
them. At the mention of defence, the artillerymen discharged their
cannon." The king replied, at first, that he had not observed many people
on the Carrousel; and the queen rejoined with vivacity, that the king had
forces to defend the château. But, at the renewed urgency of Roederer, the
king after looking at him attentively for a few minutes, turned to the
queen, and said, as he rose: "Let us go." "Monsieur Roederer," said Madame
Elizabeth, addressing the recorder, "you answer for the life of the king?"
"Yes, madame, with my own," he replied. "I will walk immediately before
him."
Louis XVI. left his chamber with his family, ministers, and the members of
the department, and announced to the persons assembled for the defence of
the château that he was going to the national assembly. He placed himself
between two ranks of national guards, summoned to escort him, and crossed
the apartments and garden of the Tuileries. A deputation of the assembly,
apprised of his approach, came to meet him: "Sire," said the president of
this deputation, "the assembly, eager to provide for your safety, offers
you and your family an asylum in its bosom." The procession resumed its
march, and had some difficulty in crossing the terrace of the Tuileries,
which was crowded with an animated mob, breathing forth threats and
insults. The king and his family had great difficulty in reaching the hall
of the assembly, where they took the seats reserved for the ministers.
"Gentlemen," said the king, "I come here to avoid a great crime; I think I
cannot be safer than with you." "Sire," replied Vergniaud, who filled the
chair, "you may rely on the firmness of the national assembly. Its members
have sworn to die in maintaining the rights of the people, and the
constituted authorities." The king then took his seat next the president.
But Chabot reminded him that the assembly could not deliberate in the
presence of the king, and Louis XVI. retired with his family and ministers
into the reporter's box behind the president, whence all that took place
could be seen and heard.
All motives for resistance ceased with the king's departure. The means of
defence had also been diminished by the departure of the national guards
who escorted the king. The gendarmerie left their posts, crying "Vive la
nation!" The national guard began to move in favour of the insurgents. But
the foes were confronted, and, although the cause was removed, the combat
nevertheless commenced. The column of the insurgents surrounded the
château. The Marseillais and Bretons who occupied the first rank had just
forced the Porte Royale on the Carrousel, and entered the court of the
château. They were led by an old subaltern, called Westermann, a friend of
Danton, and a very daring man. He ranged his force in battle array, and
approaching the artillerymen, induced them to join the Marseillais with
their pieces. The Swiss filled the windows of the château, and stood
motionless. The two bodies confronted each other for some time without
making an attack. A few of the assailants advanced amicably, and the Swiss
threw some cartridges from the windows in token of peace. They penetrated
as far as the vestibule, where they were met by other defenders of the
château. A barrier separated them. Here the combat began, but it is
unknown on which side it commenced. The Swiss discharged a murderous fire
on the assailants, who were dispersed. The Place du Carrousel was cleared.
But the Marseillais and Bretons soon returned with renewed force; the
Swiss were fired on by the cannon, and surrounded. They kept their posts
until they received orders from the king to cease firing. The exasperated
mob did not cease, however, to pursue them, and gave itself up to the most
sanguinary reprisals. It now became a massacre rather than a combat; and
the crowd perpetrated in the château all the excesses of victory.
All this time the assembly was in the greatest alarm. The first cannonade
filled them with consternation. As the firing became more frequent, the
agitation increased. At one moment, the members considered themselves
lost. An officer entering the hall, hastily exclaimed: "To your places,
legislators; we are forced!" A few rose to go out. "No, no," cried others,
"this is our post." The spectators in the gallery exclaimed instantly,
"Vive l'assemblée nationale!" and the assembly replied, "Vive la nation!"
Shouts of victory were then heard without, and the fate of monarchy was
decided.
The assembly instantly made a proclamation to restore tranquillity, and
implore the people to respect justice, their magistrates, the rights of
man, liberty, and equality. But the multitude and their chiefs had all the
power in their hands, and were determined to use it. The new municipality
came to assert its authority. It was preceded by three banners, inscribed
with the words, "Patrie, liberté, egalité." Its address was imperious, and
concluded by demanding the deposition of the king, and a national
convention. Deputations followed, and all expressed the same desire, or
rather issued the same command.
The assembly felt itself compelled to yield; it would not, however, take
upon itself the deposition of the king. Vergniaud ascended the tribune, in
the name of the commission of twelve, and said: "I am about to propose to
you a very rigorous measure; I appeal to the affliction of your hearts to
judge how necessary it is to adopt it immediately." This measure consisted
of the convocation of a national assembly, the dismissal of the ministers,
and the suspension of the king. The assembly adopted it unanimously. The
Girondist ministers were recalled; the celebrated decrees were carried
into execution, about four thousand non-juring priests were exiled, and
commissioners were despatched to the armies to make sure of them. Louis
XVI., to whom the assembly had at first assigned the Luxembourg as a
residence, was transferred as a prisoner to the Temple, by the all-
powerful commune, under the pretext that it could not otherwise be
answerable for the safety of his person. Finally, the 23rd of September
was appointed for opening the extraordinary assembly, destined to decide
the fate of royalty. But royalty had already fallen on the 10th of August,
that day marked by the insurrection of the multitude against the middle
classes and the constitutional throne, as the 14th of July had seen the
insurrection of the middle class against the privileged class and the
absolute power of the crown. On the 10th of August began the dictatorial
and arbitrary epoch of the revolution. Circumstances becoming more and
more difficult to encounter, a vast warfare arose, requiring still greater
energy than ever, and that energy irregular, because popular, rendered the
domination of the lower class restless, cruel, and oppressive. The nature
of the question was then entirely changed; it was no longer a matter of
liberty, but of public safety; and the conventional period, from the end
of the constitution of 1791, to the time when the constitution of the year
III. established the directory, was only a long campaign of the revolution
against parties and against Europe. It was scarcely possible it should be
otherwise. "The revolutionary movement once established," says M. de
Maîstre, in his _Considerations sur la France._ [Footnote: Lausanne,
1796.] "France and the monarchy could only be saved by Jacobinism. Our
grandchildren, who will care little for our sufferings, and will dance on
our graves, will laugh at our present ignorance; they will easily console
themselves for the excesses we have witnessed, and which will have
preserved the integrity of the finest of kingdoms."
The departments adhered to the events of the 10th of August. The army,
which shortly afterwards came under the influence of the revolution, was
at yet of constitutional royalist principles; but as the troops were
subordinate to parties, they would easily submit to the dominant opinion.
The generals, second in rank, such as Dumouriez, Custines, Biron,
Kellermann, and Labourdonnaie, were disposed to adopt the last changes.
They had not yet declared for any particular party, looking to the
revolution as a means of advancement. It was not the same with the two
generals in chief. Luckner floated undecided between the insurrection of
the 10th of August, which he termed, "a little accident that had happened
to Paris and his friend, Lafayette." The latter, head of the
constitutional party, firmly adhering to his oaths, wished still to defend
the overturned throne, and a constitution which no longer existed. He
commanded about thirty thousand men, who were devoted to his person and
his cause. His head-quarters were near Sedan. In his project of resistance
in favour of the constitution, he concerted with the municipality of that
town, and the directory of the department of Ardennes, to establish a
civil centre round which all the departments might rally. The three
commissioners, Kersaint, Antonelle, and Péraldy, sent by the legislature
to his army, were arrested and imprisoned in the tower of Sedan. The
reason assigned for this measure was, that the assembly having been
intimidated, the members who had accepted such a mission were necessarily
but the leaders or instruments of the faction which had subjugated the
national assembly and the king. The troops and the civil authorities then
renewed their oath to the constitution, and Lafayette endeavoured to
enlarge the circle of the insurrection of the army against the popular
insurrection.
General Lafayette at that moment thought, possibly, too much on the past,
on the law, and the common oath, and not enough on the really
extraordinary position in which France then was. He only saw the dearest
hopes of the friends of liberty destroyed, the usurpation of the state by
the multitude, and the anarchical reign of the Jacobins; he did not
perceive the fatality of a situation which rendered the triumph of the
latest comer in the revolution indispensable. It was scarcely possible
that the bourgeoisie, which had been strong enough to overthrow the old
system and the privileged classes, but which had reposed after that
victory, could resist the emigrants and all Europe. For this a new shock,
a new faith were necessary; there was need of a numerous, ardent,
inexhaustible class, as enthusiastic for the 10th of August, as the
bourgeoisie had been for the 14th of July. Lafayette could not associate
with this party; he had combated it, under the constituent assembly, at
the Champ de Mars, before and after the 20th of June. He could not
continue to play his former part, nor defend a cause just in itself, but
condemned by events, without compromising his country, and the results of
a revolution to which he was sincerely attached. His resistance, if
continued, would have given rise to a civil war between the people and the
army, at a time when it was not certain that the combination of all
parties would suffice against a foreign war.
It was the 19th of August, and the army of invasion having left Coblentz
on the 30th of July, was ascending the Moselle, and advancing on that
frontier. In consideration of the common danger, the troops were disposed
to resume their obedience to the assembly; Luckner, who at first approved
of Lafayette's views, retracted, weeping and swearing, before the
municipality of Metz; and Lafayette himself saw the necessity of yielding
to a more powerful destiny. He left his army, taking upon himself all the
responsibility of the whole insurrection. He was accompanied by Bureau-de-
Pusy, Latour-Maubourg, Alexander Lameth, and some officers of his staff.
He proceeded through the enemy's posts towards Holland, intending to go to
the United States, his adopted country. But he was discovered and arrested
with his companions. In violation of the rights of nations, he was treated
as a prisoner of war, and confined first in the dungeons of Magdeburg, and
then by the Austrians at Olmütz. The English parliament itself took steps
in his favour; but it was not until the treaty of Campo-Formio that
Bonaparte released him from prison. During four years of the hardest
captivity, subject to every description of privation, kept in ignorance of
the state of his country and of liberty, with no prospect before him but
that of perpetual and harsh imprisonment, he displayed the most heroic
courage. He might have obtained his liberty by making certain
retractations, but he preferred remaining buried in his dungeon to
abandoning in the least degree the sacred cause he had embraced.
There have been in our day few lives more pure than Lafayette's; few
characters more beautiful; few men whose popularity has been more justly
won and longer maintained. After defending liberty in America at the side
of Washington, he desired to establish it in the same manner in France;
but this noble part was impossible in our revolution. When a people in the
pursuit of liberty has no internal dissension, and no foes but foreigners,
it may find a deliverer; may produce, in Switzerland a William Tell, in
the Netherlands a prince of Orange, in America a Washington; but when it
pursues it against its own countrymen and foreigners, at once amidst
factions and battles, it can only produce a Cromwell or a Bonaparte, who
become the dictators of revolutions when the struggle subsides and parties
are exhausted. Lafayette, an actor in the first epoch of the crisis,
enthusiastically declared for its results. He became the general of the
middle class, at the head of the national guard under the constituent
assembly, in the army under the legislative assembly. He had risen by it,
and he would end with it. It may be said of him, that if he committed some
faults of position, he had ever but one object, liberty, and that he
employed but one means, the law. The manner in which, when yet quite
young, he devoted himself to the deliverance of the two worlds, his
glorious conduct and his invariable firmness, will transmit his name with
honour to posterity, with whom a man cannot have two reputations, as in
the time of party, but his own alone.
The authors of the events of the 10th of August became more and more
divided, having no common views as to the results which should arise from
that revolution. The more daring party, which had got hold of the commune
or municipality, wished by means of that commune to rule Paris; by means
of Paris, the national assembly; and by means of the assembly, France.
After having effected the transference of Louis XVI. to the Temple, it
threw down all the statues of the kings, and destroyed all the emblems of
the monarchy. The department exercised a right of superintendence over the
municipality; to be completely independent, it abrogated this right. The
law required certain conditions to constitute a citizen; it decreed the
cessation of these, in order that the multitude might be introduced into
the government of the state. At the same time, it demanded the
establishment of an extraordinary tribunal to try _the conspirators of the
10th of August_. As the assembly did not prove sufficiently docile, and
endeavoured by proclamations to recall the people to more just and
moderate sentiments, it received threatening messages from the Hôtel de
Ville. "As a citizen," said a member of the commune, "as a magistrate of
the people, I come to announce to you that this evening, at midnight, the
tocsin will sound, the drum beat to arms. The people are weary of not
being avenged; tremble lest they administer justice themselves." "If,
before two or three hours pass, the foreman of the jury be not named,"
said another, "and if the jury be not itself in a condition to act, great
calamities will befall Paris." To avert the threatened outbreaks, the
assembly was obliged to appoint an extraordinary criminal tribunal. This
tribunal condemned a few persons, but the commune having conceived the
most terrible projects, did not consider it sufficiently expeditious.
At the head of the commune were Marat, Panis, Sergent, Duplain, Lenfent,
Lefort, Jourdeuil, Collot d'Herbois, Billaud-Varennes, Tallien, etc.; but
the chief leader of the party at that time was Danton. He, more than any
other person, had distinguished himself on the 10th of August. During the
whole of that night he had rushed about from the sections to the barracks
of the Marseillais and Bretons, and from these to the Faubourgs. A member
of the revolutionary commune, he had directed its operations, and had
afterwards been appointed minister of justice.
Danton was a gigantic revolutionist; he deemed no means censurable so they
were useful, and, according to him, men could do whatever they dared
attempt. Danton, who has been termed the Mirabeau of the populace bore a
physical resemblance to that tribune of the higher classes; he had
irregular features, a powerful voice, impetuous gesticulation, a daring
eloquence, a lordly brow. Their vices, too, were the same; only Mirabeau's
were those of a patrician, Danton's those of a democrat; that which there
was of daring in the conceptions of Mirabeau, was to be found in Danton,
but in another way, because, in the revolution, he belonged to another
class and another epoch. Ardent, overwhelmed with debts and wants, of
dissolute habits, given up now to his passions, now to his party, he was
formidable while in the pursuit of an object, but became indifferent as
soon as he had obtained it. This powerful demagogue presented a mixture of
the most opposite vices and qualities. Though he had sold himself to the
court, he did not seem sordid; he was one of those who, so to speak, give
an air of freedom even to baseness. He was an absolute exterminator,
without being personally ferocious; inexorable towards masses, humane,
generous even towards individuals. [Footnote: At the time the commune was
arranging the massacre of the 2nd September, he saved all who applied to
him; he, of his own accord, released from prison Duport, Barnave, and Ch.
Lameth, his personal antagonists.] Revolution, in his opinion, was a game
at which the conqueror, if he required it, won the life of the conquered.
The welfare of his party was, in his eyes, superior to law and even to
humanity; this will explain his endeavours after the 10th of August, and
his return to moderation when he considered the republic established.
At this period the Prussians, advancing on the plan of invasion described
above, passed the frontier, after a march of twenty days. The army of
Sedan was without a leader, and incapable of resisting a force so superior
in numbers and so much better organised. On the 20th of August, Longwy was
invested by the Prussians; on the 21st it was bombarded, and on the 24th
it capitulated. On the 30th the hostile army arrived before Verdun,
invested it, and began to bombard it. Verdun taken, the road to the
capital was open. The capture of Longwy, and the approach of so great a
danger, threw Paris into the utmost agitation and alarm. The executive
council, composed of the ministers, was summoned by the committee of
general defence, to deliberate on the best measures to be adopted in this
perilous conjuncture. Some proposed to wait for the enemy under the walls
of the capital, others to retire to Saumur. "You are not ignorant," said
Danton, when his turn to speak arrived, "that France is Paris; if you
abandon the capital to the foreigner, you surrender yourselves, and you
surrender France. It is in Paris that we must defend ourselves by every
possible means. I cannot sanction any plan tending to remove you from it.
The second project does not appear to me any better. It is impossible to
think of fighting under the walls of the capital. The 10th of August has
divided France into two parties, the one attached to royalty, the other
desiring a republic. The latter, the decided minority of which in the
state cannot be concealed, is the only one on which you can rely to fight;
the other will refuse to march; it will excite Paris in favour of the
foreigner, while your defenders, placed between two fires, will perish in
repelling him. Should they fall, which seems to me beyond a doubt, your
ruin and that of France are certain; if, contrary to all expectation, they
return victorious over the coalition, this victory will still be a defeat
for you; for it will have cost you thousands of brave men, while the
royalists, more numerous than you, will have lost nothing of their
strength and influence. It is my opinion, that to disconcert their
measures and stop the enemy, we must make the royalists fear." The
committee, at once understanding the meaning of these words, were thrown
into a state of consternation. "Yes, I tell you," resumed Danton, "we must
make them fear." As the committee rejected this proposition by a silence
full of alarm, Danton concerted with the commune. His aim was to put down
its enemies by terror, to involve the multitude more and more by making
them his accomplices, and to leave the revolution no other refuge than
victory.
Domiciliary visits were made with great and gloomy ceremony; a large
number of persons whose condition, opinions, or conduct rendered them
objects of suspicion, were thrown into prison. These unfortunate persons
were taken especially from the two dissentient classes, the nobles and the
clergy, who were charged with conspiracy under the legislative assembly.
All citizens capable of bearing arms were enrolled in the Champ de Mars,
and departed on the first of September for the frontier. The générale was
beat, the tocsin sounded, cannon were fired, and Danton, presenting
himself to the assembly to report the measures taken to save the country,
exclaimed: "The cannon you hear are no alarm cannon, but the signal for
attacking the enemy! To conquer them, to prostrate them, what is
necessary? Daring, again daring, and still again and ever daring!"
Intelligence of the taking of Verdun arrived during the night of the 1st
of September. The commune availed themselves of this moment, when Paris,
filled with terror, thought it saw the enemy already at its gates, to
execute their fearful projects. The cannon were again fired, the tocsin
sounded, the barriers were closed, and the massacre began.
During three days, the prisoners confined in the Carmes, the Abbaye, the
Conciergérie, the Force, etc., were slaughtered by a band of about three
hundred assassins, directed and paid by the commune. This body, with a
calm fanaticism, prostituting to murder the sacred forms of justice, now
judges, now executioners, seemed rather to be practising a calling than to
be exercising vengeance; they massacred without question, without remorse,
with the conviction of fanatics and the obedience of executioners. If some
peculiar circumstances seemed to move them, and to recall them to
sentiments of humanity, to justice, and to mercy, they yielded to the
impression for a moment, and then began anew. In this way a few persons
were saved; but they were very few. The assembly desired to prevent the
massacres, but were unable to do so. The ministry were as incapable as the
assembly; the terrible commune alone could order and do everything;
Pétion, the mayor, had been cashiered; the soldiers placed in charge of
the prisoners feared to resist the murderers, and allowed them to take
their own course; the crowd seemed indifferent, or accomplices; the rest
of the citizens dared not even betray their consternation. We might be
astonished that so great a crime should, with such deliberation, have been
conceived, executed, and endured, did we not know what the fanaticism of
party will do, and what fear will suffer. But the chastisement of this
enormous crime fell at last upon the heads of its authors. The majority of
them perished in the storm they had themselves raised, and by the same
violent means that they had themselves employed. Men of party seldom
escape the fate they have made others undergo.
The executive council, directed, as to military operations by general
Servan, advanced the newly-levied battalions towards the frontier. As a
man of judgment, he was desirous of placing a general at the threatened
point; but the choice was difficult. Among the generals who had declared
in favour of the late political events, Kellermann seemed only adapted for
a subordinate command, and the authorities had therefore merely placed him
in the room of the vacillative and incompetent Luckner. Custine was but
little skilled in his art; he was fit for any dashing _coup de main_, but
not for the conduct of a great army intrusted with the destiny of France.
The same military inferiority was chargeable upon Biron, Labourdonnaie,
and the rest, who were therefore left at their old stations, with the
corps under their command. Dumouriez alone remained, against whom the
Girondists still retained some rancour, and in whom they, moreover,
suspected the ambitious views, the tastes, and character of an adventurer,
while they rendered justice to his superior talents. However, as he was
the only general equal to so important a position, the executive council
gave him the command of the army of the Moselle.
Dumouriez repaired in all haste from the camp at Maulde to that of Sedan.
He assembled a council of war, in which the general opinion was in favour
of retiring towards Châlons or Rheims, and covering themselves with the
Marne. Far from adopting this dangerous plan, which would have discouraged
the troops, given up Lorraine, Trois Evêchés, and a part of Champagne, and
thrown open the road to Paris, Dumouriez conceived a project full of
genius. He saw that it was necessary, by a daring march, to advance on the
forest of Argonne, where he might infallibly stop the enemy. This forest
had four issues; that of the Chêne-Populeux on the left; those of the
Croix-au-Bois and of Grandpré in the centre, and that of Les Islettes on
the right, which opened or closed the passage into France. The Prussians
were only six leagues from the forest, and Dumouriez had twelve to pass
over, and his design of occupying it to conceal, if he hoped for success.
He executed his project skilfully and boldly. General Dillon, advancing on
the Islettes, took possession of them with seven thousand men; he himself
reached Grandpré, and there established a camp of thirteen thousand men.
The Croix-au-Bois, and the Chêne-Populeux were in like manner occupied and
defended by some troops. It was here that he wrote to the minister of war,
Servan:--"Verdun is taken; I await the Prussians. The camps of Grandpré
and Les Islettes are the Thermopylae of France; but I shall be more
fortunate than Leonidas."
In this position, Dumouriez might have stopped the enemy, and himself have
securely awaited the succours which were on their road to him from every
part of France. The various battalions of volunteers repaired to the camps
in the interior, whence they were despatched to his army, as soon as they
were at all in a state of discipline. Beurnonville, who was on the Flemish
frontier, had received orders to advance with nine thousand men, and to be
at Rhétel, on Dumouriez's left, by the 13th of September. Duval was also
on the 7th to march with seven thousand men to the Chêne-Populeux; and
Kellermann was advancing from Metz, on his right, with a reinforcement of
twenty-two thousand men. Time, therefore, was all that was necessary.
The duke of Brunswick, after taking Verdun, passed the Meuse in three
columns. General Clairfait was operating on his right, and prince
Hohenlohe on his left. Renouncing all hope of driving Dumouriez from his
position by attacking him in front, he tried to turn him. Dumouriez had
been so imprudent as to place nearly his whole force at Grandpré and the
Islettes, and to put only a small corps at Chêne-Populeux and Coix-au-
Bois--posts, it is true, of minor importance. The Prussians, accordingly,
seized upon these, and were on the point of turning him in his camp at
Grandpré, and of thus compelling him to lay down his arms. After this
grand blunder, which neutralized his first manoeuvres, he did not despair
of his situation. He broke up his camp secretly during the night of the
14th September, passed the Aisne, the approach to which might have been
closed to him, made a retreat as able as his advance on the Argonne had
been, and concentrated his forces in the camp at Sainte-Menehould. He had
already delayed the advance of the Prussians at Argonne. The season, as it
advanced, became bad. He had now only to maintain his post till the
arrival of Kellermann and Beurnonville, and the success of the campaign
would be certain. The troops had become disciplined and inured, and the
army amounted to about seventy thousand men, after the arrival of
Beurnonville and Kellermann, which took place on the 17th.
The Prussian army had followed the movements of Dumouriez. On the 20th, it
attacked Kellermann at Valmy, in order to cut off from the French army the
retreat on Châlons. There was a brisk cannonade on both sides. The
Prussians advanced in columns towards the heights of Valmy, to carry them.
Kellermann also formed his infantry in columns, enjoined them not to fire,
but to await the approach of the enemy, and charge them with the bayonet.
He gave this command, with the cry of _Vive la nation!_ and this cry,
repeated from one end of the line to the other, startled the Prussians
still more than the firm attitude of our troops. The duke of Brunswick
made his somewhat shaken battalions fall back; the firing continued till
the evening; the enemy attempted a fresh attack, but were repulsed. The
day was ours; and the success of Valmy, almost insignificant in itself,
produced on our troops, and upon opinion in France, the effect of the most
complete victory.
From the same epoch may be dated the discouragement and retreat of the
enemy. The Prussians had entered upon this campaign on the assurance of
the emigrants that it would be a mere military promenade. They were
without magazines or provisions; in the midst of a perfectly open country,
they encountered a resistance each day more energetic; the incessant rains
had broken up the roads; the soldiers marched knee-deep in mud, and, for
four days past, boiled corn had been their only food. Diseases, produced
by the chalky water, want of clothing, and damp, had made great ravages in
the army. The duke of Brunswick advised a retreat, contrary to the opinion
of the king of Prussia and the emigrants, who wished to risk a battle, and
get possession of Châlons. But as the fate of the Prussian monarchy
depended on its army, and the entire ruin of that army would be the
inevitable consequence of a defeat, the duke of Brunswick's opinion
prevailed. Negotiations were opened, and the Prussians, abating their
first demands, now only required the restoration of the king upon the
constitutional throne. But the convention had just assembled; the republic
had been proclaimed, and the executive council replied, "that the French
republic could listen to no proposition until the Prussian troops had
entirely evacuated the French territory." The Prussians, upon this,
commenced their retreat on the evening of the 30th of September. It was
slightly disturbed by Kellermann, whom Dumouriez sent in pursuit, while he
himself proceeded to Paris to enjoy his triumph, and concert measures for
the invasion of Belgium. The French troops re-entered Verdun and Longwy;
and the enemy, after having crossed the Ardennes and Luxembourg, repassed
the Rhine at Coblentz, towards the end of October. This campaign had been
marked by general success. In Flanders, the duke of Saxe-Teschen had been
compelled to raise the siege of Lille, after seven days of a bombardment,
contrary, both in its duration and in its useless barbarity, to all the
usages of war. On the Rhine, Custine had taken Trèves, Spires, and
Mayence. In the Alps, general Montesquiou had invaded Savoy, and general
Anselme the territory of Nice. Our armies, victorious in all directions,
had everywhere assumed the offensive, and the revolution was saved.
If we were to present the picture of a state emerging from a great crisis,
and were to say: "There were in this state an absolute government whose
authority has been restricted; two privileged classes which have lost
their supremacy; a vast population, already freed by the effect of
civilization and intelligence, but without political rights, and who have
been obliged, by reason of repeated refusals, to gain these for
themselves"; if we were to add: "The government, after opposing this
revolution, submitted to it, but the privileged classes constantly opposed
it,"--the following would probably be concluded from these data:
"The government will be full of regret, the people will exhibit distrust,
and the privileged classes will attack the new order of things, each in
its own way. The nobility, unable to do so at home, from its weakness
there, will emigrate, in order to excite foreign powers, who will make
preparations for attack; the clergy, who would lose its means of action
abroad, will remain at home, where it will seek out foes to the
revolution. The people, threatened from without, in danger at home,
irritated against the emigrants who seek to arm foreign powers, against
foreign powers about to attack its independence, against the clergy, who
excite the country to insurrection, will treat as enemies clergy,
emigrants, and foreign powers. It will require first surveillance over,
then the banishment of the refractory priests; confiscation of the
property of the emigrants; war against allied Europe, in order to
forestall it. The first authors of the revolution will condemn such of
these measures as shall violate the law; the continuators of the
revolution will, on the contrary, regard them as the salvation of the
country; and discord will arise between those who prefer the constitution
to the state, and those who prefer the state to the constitution. The
monarch, induced by his interests as king, his affections and his
conscience, to reject such a course of policy, will pass for an accomplice
of the counter-revolution, because he will appear to protect it. The
revolutionists will then seek to gain over the king by intimidation, and
failing in this, will overthrow his authority."
Such was the history of the legislative assembly. Internal disturbances
led to the decree against the priests; external menaces to that against
the emigrants; the coalition of foreign powers to war against Europe; the
first defeat of our armies, to the formation of the camp of twenty
thousand. The refusal of Louis XVI. to adopt most of these decrees,
rendered him an object of suspicion to the Girondists; the dissensions
between the latter and the constitutionalists, who desired some of them to
be legislators, as in time of peace, others, enemies, as in time of war,
disunited the partisans of the revolution. With the Girondists the
question of liberty was involved in victory, and victory in the decrees.
The 20th of June was an attempt to force their acceptance; but having
failed in its effect, they deemed that either the crown or the revolution
must be renounced, and they brought on the 10th of August. Thus, but for
emigration which induced the war, but for the schism which induced the
disturbances, the king would probably have agreed to the constitution, and
the revolutionists would not have dreamed of the republic.
THE NATIONAL CONVENTION