PRUSSIA

Whilst Anarchists, Orléanistes, Girondins, and English Jacobins were fighting for the mastery in Paris, Prussia played her part in the final ruin of the French monarchy. The cannonade of Valmy—it cannot be described as a battle—that on the 20th of September checked the advance of the allied armies on the capital, is one of the enigmas of history which will never perhaps be entirely solved. Pro-revolutionary historians have endeavoured to explain the retreat of the best-trained troops of Europe before the undisciplined revolutionary army by the state of the weather, the muddy condition of the ground, by the fact that dysentery had broken out amongst the Prussians, or merely by the irresistible valour inspired by democratic doctrines. These legends have now been almost universally accepted as fact, but in the minds of well-informed contemporaries no doubt exists that some further explanation must be sought for the check to the allied armies at Valmy and their subsequent retreat.

Thus Lord Auckland, writing to Sir Morton Eden from the Hague on October 19, 1792, hazards the opinion that “ a complete victory (for the allies) might have been on the 20th (at Valmy), if the royal personage who was present had not prevented the engagement for unknown reasons.” A note adds that this royal personage was the King of Prussia, but Fersen declares that the King of Prussia wished to attack, and that it was only the cowardice and indecision of the Duke of Brunswick that prevented the engagement.

Thiébault, then with the army on the frontier, takes the same view. Matilda Hawkins, whose Memoirs were published in 1824, relates that her friend, the Comte de Jarnac, who “ was with the army at the time of the Duke of Brunswick’s unaccountable retreat http://yamaguchy.netfirms.com/webster/frenchrev/fr_rev_06.html (51 of 61)5.4.2006 10:40:30

 

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from Paris,” told her that the Duke himself said, “ Why I retreated will never be known to my death.”

According to prevailing opinion at the time the retreat after Valmy was effected by negotiation, and three different theories were advanced as to the authors of these negotiations. Firstly, then, Beaulieu and Pagès assert that Louis XVI., assured by Manuel, Petion, and Kersaint that the presence of the allied armies was the main cause of irritation against him, allowed himself to be persuaded to write and ask the King of Prussia to withdraw, in return for which the three deputies promised him his life. [173]

Secondly, the Mountain, represented by Camille Desmoulins, declared that the retreat was brought about by an understanding between the Girondins and the Prussians, and when we remember the eulogies lavished by Carra on the Duke of Brunswick in July, and find that Carra was the man chosen by Pétion to go with Sillery on the 24th of September to Dumouriez’s camp at La Lune and confer with Manstein, the representative of the King of Prussia, this seems not improbable. [174] Thirdly, D’Allonville, the author of the Mémoires secrets, states that it was Danton who negotiated the “ defeat ” of the Prussians at Valmy and their subsequent retreat by the simple method of bribery. This was effected through the agency of Dumouriez, at this moment Danton’s ally, to whom he wrote immediately after Valmy, instructing him to drive back the Prussians without attempting to destroy them, since the Prussians “ were not the natural enemies of France.”[175] The manner in which Danton procured the

necessary sums is thus described by D’Allonville “ Billaud-Varenne, who left Paris after the massacres of September, had reached the army on the 11th and had opened negotiations, of which the sums promised, but not yet paid, alone delayed the conclusion. Two or three millions, the fruit of the pillage of the 10th of August, were all that the Commune of Paris possessed, and it was not enough. ‘ Why do you not rob the Garde-Meuble ( i.e. the depository where the Crown jewels were kept) ? ’ cries Panis, and this thing was done on the 16th of September by the orders of Tallien and Danton, which produced, in different species, a sum of thirty millions. The first overtures had facilitated the escape of Dumouriez from the position in which he would have been irrevocably lost, others prevented him from being driven from his position during the cannonade of Valmy, and from the 22nd to the 23rd negotiations were, as we have said, actively carried out.” [176]

This evidence is exactly confirmed by General Michaud, who was with the armies at the time. The deputies of the Gironde, Michaud declares, were not in the secret of the negotiations with the Prussians, and it is to the Orléaniste schemes of Danton that these are to be attributed. “ It is only with audacity and yet more audacity that we can save ourselves,” said the Minister of Justice. “ Danton was, no doubt, a very audacious man, http://yamaguchy.netfirms.com/webster/frenchrev/fr_rev_06.html (52 of 61)5.4.2006 10:40:31

 

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but when he pronounced these words it is certain that he knew of the secret negotiation, since he himself was directing it with his colleague Lebrun… . Already he was assured that the Prussians would not get to Paris, he knew that it was only a matter of satisfying them, and fulfilling the engagements entered into by Dumouriez… . Hence this resolution to remain in the capital, to pillage the Garde-Meuble, to massacre the prisoners and plunder the victims… . So it might be said, without exaggeration, that the horrible system of blood and terror … was a consequence of what had taken place in Champagne between the Prussians and the leaders of the Revolution, who were no other than the leaders of the Orléaniste faction.” [177]

The theft of the Crown jewels was not attributed to Danton by Royalists alone. When on the night of the 16th to the 17th of September the Garde-Meuble was broken into and the Crown jewels were removed, no one seriously believed that the coup could be attributed to ordinary burglars, and by Girondins as well as Royalists it was declared to be the work of the Commune. Why, indeed, should it not be so ? The Commune, as every one knew, had ordered the pillage that took place after the 10th of August, and it was again the Commune that had taken possession of the greater part of the spoils wrested from the victims of the massacres. When several large burglaries have been effected by the same gang in the same district, it is only reasonable to attribute a further one to the same agency. Madame Roland had no hesitation in designating Danton as the chief burglar of the Crown jewels and Fabre d’Églantine as his assistant, although, as usual in the case of crimes ordained by the revolutionary leaders, the obscure instruments who carried out the deed were arrested and put to death.[178]

At any rate, whatever were the means employed, it is clear that some pressure was brought to bear upon the Prussians in order to ensure their retreat. The unaccountable part of the affair lies not so much in the fact that their triumphant advance was checked by a reverse at Valmy, but that this one reverse should have turned the tide of the whole war, yet should not have resulted in the rout of the allied armies. For if the revolutionary troops were strong enough to arrest finally the enemy’s advance, why did they not follow up their victory at Valmy with greater vigour ? This problem was so apparent to every one at the time that it was admitted even by Desmoulins, the ally of Danton, though, at the instigation of Robespierre, he cleverly turned it into an accusation against the Girondins.

“ Is it not inconceivable to every one and unheard of in history,” wrote Camille Desmoulins in his Histoire des Brissotins, “ as I said to Dumouriez himself when he appeared at the Convention, that a general who with 17,000 men had held back an army of 92,000 men—after Dumouriez, Ajax Beurnonville, and Kellermann had announced http://yamaguchy.netfirms.com/webster/frenchrev/fr_rev_06.html (53 of 61)5.4.2006 10:40:31

 

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that the plains of Champagne would be the tomb of the King of Prussia’s army, like that of Attila, and that not one man would escape—should not have cut off the retreat of this army when it was reduced to nearly half by dysentery, when its march was impeded by nearly 20,000 sick, and that, on the other hand, the victorious army had increased to more than 100,000 men ! All the soldiers of the vanguard of our army will tell you that when the rearguard of the Prussians called a halt, we called a halt ; when they went to the right, we marched to the left ; in a word, Dumouriez led back the King of Prussia rather than he pursued him, and there was not a soldier in the army who was not convinced that there had been an arrangement between the Prussians and the Convention by the medium of Dumouriez.”

Such, then, in the words of the revolutionary leaders themselves, was the “ irresistible élan of the victorious revolutionary army ” ! Whether, therefore, the retreat of the Prussians was due to the Girondins or Orléanistes, whether Carra was acting in the interests of the Duke of Brunswick or the Duc d’Orléans, whether Danton had an understanding with the Girondins and afterwards disowned them, or whether he was carrying on an intrigue with Dumouriez as the agent of the Commune and later on betrayed him, representing him through Desmoulins as the accomplice of the Gironde, it is evident that something happened at Valmy which has never been explained to this day. Valmy and its sequel remain an insoluble mystery. Only, in the light of our present knowledge of Prussian diplomacy, it seems not impossible that some profounder policy may have underlain the action of both Frederick William and the Duke of Brunswick than has yet been attributed to them. At any rate, whether they realized it at the time or not, the “ defeat ” of Valmy was a superb victory for Prussia. For to march on to Paris at this crisis must have been to re-establish the Bourbons on the throne, and to leave the way open to a renewal of the Franco-Austrian alliance ; by leaving France to tear herself to pieces Frederick William worthily carried out the traditions of the great Frederick, and assured the future supremacy of Prussia. Valmy had but paved the way for Sadowa and Sedan.

Goethe, looking on at the famous fusillade, is said to have uttered these prophetic words : “ From this place and from this day forth begins a new era in the world’s history, and you can all say that you were present at its birth.”

A new era in truth, an era wherein the civilization of old France should be utterly destroyed and the great barbaric German Empire should rise upon the ruins. The Golden Age had ended ; the Age of Blood and Iron was to begin.

 

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1. La Demagogie en 1793, by A. Dauban, p. ix.

2. I have shown elsewhere how numerous these philanthropic nobles were. See The Chevalier de Boufflers, p. 256

and following.

3. Séances des Jacobins, date of June 17, 1792.

4. Histoire des Montagnards, by Esquiros, p. 206.

5. Isnard to the Legislative Assembly, November 14, 1791.

6. Histoire secrète de la Révolution, by François Pagès (1797), ii. 19 ; Montjoie, Conjuration de d’Orléans, ii.

154 ; Mémoires de Monseigneur de Salamon, p. 15.

7. Marat en Angleterre, by H.S. Ashbee.

8. Biographie Michaud, article on Danton by Beaulieu.

9. Révolutions de Paris, by Prudhomme, xiii. 522.

10. Anecdotes, by Harmand de la Meuse, member of the Convention. On the subject of Marat’s appearance contemporaries are curiously in accord ; he seems to have inspired the same horror in all beholders. Thus, for example, Garat describes him as “ a man whose face, covered with a bronzed yellow, gave him the appearance of having come out of the bloody cavern of cannibals or from the red-hot soil of hell ; that by his convulsive, brusque, and jerky walk one recognized as an assassin who had escaped from the executioner but not from the furies, and who wished to annihilate the human race.” Dr. Moore exactly corroborates Garat : “ Marat is a little man of a cadaverous complexion, and a countenance exceedingly expressive of his disposition ; to a painter of massacres Marat’s head would be invaluable. Such heads are rare in this country (England), yet they are sometimes to be met with at the Old Bailey ” ( Journal of a Residence in France, i. 455).

11. Taine, La Révolulion, vii. 198.

12. L’Ami du Peuple, No. 258.

13. Ibid. No. 198.

14. Ibid. No. 305.

15. Mémoires de Barbaroux, p. 57 ; confirmed by Marat himself at Convention. See Moniteur for October 26, 1792.

16. L’Ami du Peuple, No. 680, pp. 7 and 8, date of August 19, 1792.

17. Crimes de la Révolution, by Prudhomme, iv. 155. This conversation is entirely ignored by the historians who have attempted to prove that Marat was not the author of the massacres of September. But Prudhomme as the intime of the Montagnards could have had no possible object in inventing it, he merely, like many other of their accomplices, ended by giving them away. Moreover, all Prudhomme’s evidence on this period is exactly confirmed by other authorities. The dialogue is given in the same words by Proussinalle ( Histoire secrète du Tribunal révolutionnaire, p. 39, published in 1815).

18. Article by Marat, Buchez et Roux, xiv. 188.

19. This is admitted even by M. Louis Blanc, Révolution, vii. 193 : “ Between Danton concurring in the massacres because he approves them, and Robespierre not preventing them although he deplores them, I do not hesitate to declare that the most culpable is Robespierre.”

20. Journal de la République, No. 221.

21. Crimes de la Révolution, by Prudhomme, iv. 156.

22. Ibid.; Maton de la Varenne, Histoire particulière, p. 285 ; Histoire secrète, by Proussinalle, pp. 40, 41.

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23. Granier de Cassagnac, Histoire des Girondins, ii. 9 ; Mémoires de Mme. Roland, i. 112.

24. Crimes de la Révolution, by Prudhomme, iv. 156.

25. Ibid. iv. 158 ; Proussinalle, p. 43 ; Mémoires de Hua, p. 167.

26. Crimes de la Révolution, by Prudhomme, iv. 161.

27. Mémoires de Mme. Roland, ii. 94.

28. Mémoires de Hua, p. 167.

29. Crimes de la Révolution, by Prudhomme, iv. 159.

30. Ibid. iv. 156 ; Histoire particulière, etc., by Maton de la Varenne, p. 285.

31. Histoire secrète du Tribunal réolutionnaire, by Proussinalle, p. 42. (Proussinalle is the pseudonym of P.J.A.

Roussel.)

32. Histoire particulière, etc., by Maton de la Varenne, p. 285. The rate of salary was fixed by Billaud-Varenne (see Histoire des Girondins, by Granier de Cassagnac, ii. 48, 49).

33. Histoire secrète du Tribunal révolutionnaire, by Proussinalle, p. 41.

34. “ The Comité de Surveillance had undertaken to prepare the minds (of the people) for this frightful idea (the massacres of September) ; it circulated everywhere this word of command that it counted on exploiting later : ‘

Before flying to the frontiers we must make sure of leaving behind us no traitors, no conspirators ’ ” ( Histoire de la Terreur, by Mortimer Ternaux, iii. 194 ; cf. Journal du Club des Jacobins, No. CCLV.).

35. Mercier, Le Nouveau Paris, i. 154. The English doctor, John Moore, noticed exactly the same thing. On the 19th of August, after driving through the Champs Élysées, he writes : “ All those extensive fields were crowded with company of one sort or another ; an immense number of small booths was erected, where refreshments were sold, and which resounded with music and singing. Pantomimes and puppet-shows of various kinds are here exhibited, and in some parts they were dancing in the open fields. ‘ Are these people as happy as they seem ? ’ said I to a Frenchman who was with me. ‘ Ils sont heureux comme des dieux, Monsieur,’ replied he. ‘ Do you think the Duke of Brunswick never enters their thoughts ? ’ said I. ‘ Soyez sûr, Monsieur,’ resumed he, ‘ que Brunswick est précisément l’homme du monde auquel ils pensent le moins’ ” ( Journal of a Residence in France, i. 122).

36. Révolution du 10 Août, ii. 219.

37. Histoire particulière, by Maton de la Varenne, p. 287 ; Histoire secrète du Tribunal révolutionnaire, by Proussinalle, i. 45 ; Mémoires de Monseigneur de Salamon, p. 33 ; Récit de l’Abbé Berthelet, quoted by M. de Granier de Cassagnac, Histoire des Girondins, ii. 285.

38. La Demagogie à Paris, by C.A. Dauban, p. 64.

39. “ Procés verbaux de la Commune,” in Mémoires sur les Journées de Septembre, p. 272, note.

40. Moniteur, xiii. 587.

41. Le véritable Ami du Peuple, by Roch Marcandier (secretary of Camille Desmoulins) ; Histoire secrète du Tribunal révolutionsnaire, by Proussinalle, p. 43.

42. Mortimer Ternaux, iii. 200.

43. Ibid. iii. 472.

44. Journal of a Residence in France, i. 294.

45. Madelin, p. 255.

46. Mémoires de Mme. Roland, i. 100.

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47. Procés verbaux de la Commune, Séance du 2 Septembre 1792.

48. Journal of a Residence in France, i. 300.

49. Fantin Désodoards, ii. 240.

50. Beaulieu, iv. 96.

51. Mercier, Le Nouveau Paris, i. 98 ; Histoire des Hommes de Proie, by Roch Marcandier.

52. “ Every one knows to-day that the cannon of alarm was on that day of blood to be the signal of the massacre ” (“ Relation de l’Abbé Sicard,” Mémoires sur les Journées de Septembre, p. 100).

53. Histoire secrète du Tribunal révolutionnaire, by Proussinalle, i. 48 ; Crimes de la Révolution, by Prudhomme, iv. 141.

54. Mémoires de Mme. Roland, i. 31.

55. Crimes de la Révolution, by Prudhomme, iv. 91. Prudhomme, now convinced by the reasoning of Danton that the massacres were really a case of irrepressible popular fury at the discovery of a gigantic plot against the lives of the citizens, published a justification of the movement in his Révolutions de Paris, No. 165. It was not till much later that he realized he had been duped. “ When in the Révolutions de Paris,” he wrote afterwards, “ we described this day (the 2nd of September) as ‘ The justice of the People,’ we were not only authorized by the ideas we then entertained but also by the criminal silence of the legislative body and of the ministers. It is, above all, the crafty and atrocious behaviour of the Commune of Paris which caused us to commit many involuntary errors ” ( Crimes de la Révolution, iv. 87). Revolutionary historians freely quote the former work, but are of course perfectly silent about the latter.

56. Ibid.; also Histoire secrète du Tribunal révolutionnaire, by Proussinalle, i. 48.

57. Ibid.

58. Authorities consulted on the first massacre at the Abbaye : Mémoires de l’Abbé Sicard ; La Verité toute entièe sur les vrais Acteurs de la Journée du 2 Septembre 1792, by Felhémési. Felhémési is an anagram of Méhée fils.

The author of this pamphlet, a bystander, not a prisoner, was the son of the recorder Méhée and a friend of Danton and Desmoulins ; his object, therefore, is not to tell the truth on the real authors of the massacres, for he attributes all the blame to Billaud-Varenne, but as an eyewitness his account of events is valuable.

59. Crimes de la Révolution, by Prudhomme, iv. 96.

60. Mortimer Ternaux, iii. 225.

61. “ Relation de l’Abbé Sicard,” also “ Procés verbaux de la Commune de Paris,” in Mémoires sur les Journées de Septembre, p. 272.

62. Felhémési ; Beaulieu, iv. 119.

63. Les Crimes de Marat, by Maton de la Varenne.

64. Felhémési.

65. Authorities consulted on the massacre at the Carmes : Le Couvent des Carmes. by Alexandre Sorel ; Histoire du Clergé, by the Abbé Barruel (1794) ; La Révolution du 10 Août, vol. ii., by Peltier ; also Granier de Cassagnac and Mortimer Ternaux, op. cit.; article on “ Les Carmes ” in Paris révolutionnaire, by G. Lenôtre.

66. “ The principal door of the church opening into the Rue de Vaugirard remained closed during the whole execution. The people did not take the least part in it ” (Peltier, La Révolution du 10 Août, ii. 245).

67. Granier de Cassagnac, Histoire des Girondins, ii. 292.

68. Histoire du Clergé, by l’Abbé Barruel, p. 251.

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69. Granier de Cassagnac says it was Violette ; Sorel ( Le Couvent des Carmes, p. 132) says it was more probably Maillard.

70. Mortimer Ternaux, iii. 231.

71. Authorities consulted on the massacres at the Abbaye (accounts of prisoners) : Mon Agonie de trente-huit Heures, by Jourgniac de St. Méard ; Mémoires de l’Abbé Sicard ; Mémories inédits de l’Internonce à Paris pendant la Révolution, Monseigneur de Salamon (Plon Nourrit, 1890) ; Felhémési, op. cit.

72. Mémoires de Sénart (edition de Lescure), p. 28.

73. Felhémési.

74. Felhémési, op. cit.

75. Histoire des Girondins, by Granier de Cassagnac, ii. 165. M. de Cassagnac made use of these documents for his work, but they were destroyed later by the Commune in 1871.

76. Peltier, La Révolution du 10 Août, ii. 193, 194. 389.

77. This was an error. Montmorin was massacred on the 2nd of September.

78. Histoire secrète du Tribunal révolutionnaire, by Proussinalle, p. 42 ; Crimes de la Révolution, by Prudhomme, iii. 272, 273.

79. Mémoires de l’Abbé Sicard ; Felhémési, op. cit. It seems, however, that Billaud did not pay them as arranged, for Felhémési relates that a terrible uproar arose next day when he reappeared at the prison, and he was surrounded by a horde of the assassins clamouring for higher salaries. “ Do you think I have earned only 24 francs ? ” a butcher’s apprentice, armed with a club, said loudly. “ I have killed more than forty on my own account.” This seems to confirm the statement of Maton de la Varenne that on engagement they were promised 30 livres, but some were only paid 24 livres, as the registers of the Commune reveal. The Abbé de Salamon, who saw them being paid on the Wednesday morning, September 5, by a member of the Commune wearing his municipal scarf, says : “ The salary given to those who had, as they said, ‘ worked well ’—that is to say, massacred well—was from 30 to 35

francs. A certain number obtained less. I even saw one who only obtained 6 francs. His work was not considered sufficient ” ( Mémoires de Monseigneur de Salamon, p. 122).

80. Authorities consulted on massacre at La Force : Mémoires de Weber, ii. 265 ; Ma Résurrection, by Maton de la Varenne ; Les Crimes de Marat, by Maton de la Varenne.

81. Moniteur, xiii. 603.

82. Buchez et Roux, xvii. 418.

83. Mercier, Le Nouveau Paris, i. 110.

84. Montjoie, Conjuration de d’Orléans, iii. 210 ; Histoire particulière, by Maton de la Varenne, p. 395 ; Peltier, Révolution du 10 Août, ii. 313.

85. Montjoie, Conjuration de d’Orléans, iii. 210 ; Histoire particulière, by Maton de la Varenne, p. 395.

86. Ibid. ; also Beaulieu, iv. 110 ; Histoire des Girondins, by Granier de Cassagnac, ii. 510, 515 ; Mortimer Ternaux, iii. 498.

87. Histoire particulière, by Maton de la Varenne ; Révolution du 10 Août, by Peltier, ii. 305.

88. Peltier, Histoire de la Révolution du 10 Août, ii. 3o6.

89. Maton de la Varenne, Histoire particulière, etc., p. 395.

90. Peltier, Révolution du 10 Août, ii. 313.

91. Vieilles Maisons vieux Papiers, by G. Lenôtre, ii. 153.

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92. See Appendix, p. 504.

93. La Révolution du 10 Août, by Peltier, ii. 380.

94. See list of assassins published by Granier de Cassagnac, Histoire des Girondins, ii. 502.

95. Montjoie, Conjuration de d’Orléans, iii. 211 ; Beaulieu, iv. 114 ; Peltier, ii. 312.

96. Mortimer Ternaux, iii. 498 ; article on Rotondo in Vieilles Maisons vieux Papiers, by G. Lenôtre.

97. That is to say, from Sunday the 2nd until Thursday the 6th, or possibly till Friday the 7th. Granier de Cassagnac, ii. 419 ; Beaulieu, iv. 115 ; Mémoires de Monseigneur de Salamon, p. 121 ; see also Pétion’s Letter to the Assembly on September 7, Moniteur, xiii. 644

98. Révolution du 10 Août, ii. 285, by Peltier.

99. “ The people, touched by this spectacle, asked mercy for him and obtained it ” ( Mon Agonie de Trente-huit Heures, by Jourgniac de St. Méard).

100. This story has been declared to be a legend, but Granier de Cassagnac confirms it by documentary evidence ; see Histoire des Girondins, ii. 223, 226.

101. Granier de Cassagnac, Histoire des Girondins, ii. 343.

102. Ibid. pp. 351-367.

103. Crimes de la Révolution, by Prudhomme, iv. 112.

104. Ibid. iv. 113.

105. Granier de Cassagnac, op, cit. pp. 372, 377-389.

106. Ibid. p. 352.

107. Mortimer Ternaux, iii. 272 ; Granier de Cassagnac, op. cit. ii. 83, 468.

108. Granier de Cassagnac, op. cit. ii. 432.

109. Procés verbaux de l’Assemblée Nationale, xiv. 219.

110. Mortimer Ternaux, iii. 294 ; Granier de Cassagnac, ii. 434.

111. Barthélemy Maurice, Histoire politique et anecdotique des Prisons de la Seine, p. 329.

112. Crimes de la Révolution, by Prudbomme, iv. 118, 119.

113. Madame Roland, Lettres à Bancal des Issarts, pp. 348, 349.

114. The totals of these lists are taken from M. Mortimer Ternaux ( Histoire de la Terreur, iii. 548) ; the details from M. Granier de Cassagnac ( Histoire des Girondins, vol. ii.). The numbers given are the lowest possible ; according to M. Granier de Cassagnac, 370 of the people perished at the Conciergerie ; according to Prudhomme, 380. See Crimes de la Révolution, iv. 86.

115. Robespierre, Lettres à ses Commettants, No. 4, pp. 170, 172, 173. This “ one innocent ” was not, needless to say, the guiltless Princesse de Lamballe, nor was he to be found amongst the martyred priests or the poor little boys at Bicêtre. The victim in question was simply a good citizen, named an elector the day before by his section (Granier de Cassagnac, Histoire des Girondins, ii. 66).

116. Journal de la République, No. 12.

117. Jean Paul Marat, by Alfred Bougeart, ii. 93. Hamel, the panegyrist of Robespierre, also heaps all the blame on the people ( Vie de Robespierre, i. 410).

118. See also Prudhomme’s definite statement : “ The people did not kill ; the massacrers were men paid to do it ” ( Crimes de la Révolution, iv. 107).

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119. “ Procés verbaux de la Commune de Paris,” published in Memoires sur les Journées de Septembre, pp. 286, 314 ; Mortimer Ternaux, iii. 525-528 ; Beaulieu, iv. 120-123.

120. A bundle of twenty-four of these receipts was preserved at the Prefecture de Police in Paris (Mortimer Ternaux, iii. 525, 527). M. Granier de Cassagnac has reproduced two in facsimile ( Histoire des Girondins, ii.

514). These also were destroyed by the Commune of 1871.

121. Journal of a Residence in France, i. 374.

122. “ The number of assassins did not exceed 300 ” (Roch Marcandier (an eyewitness), Histoire des Hommes de Proie) ; Louvet said about 200 ( Accusation contre Maximilien Robespierre, Séance de la Convention du 29

Octobre 1792) ; “ 300,” says Mercier ( Le Nouveau Paris, i. 94) ; M. Granier de Cassagnac gives 235 as the approximate number ( Histoire des Girondins ii. 30).

123. Histoire des Girondins, ii. 502-516.

124. “ They were not all of the dregs of the people,” the Abbé Barruel says of the massacrers at the Carmes ; “ their accent, their speeches betrayed amongst them adepts whom the philosophy of the Clubs and the schools of the day, far more than boorish ignorance, had inflamed against the priests ” ( Histoire du Clergé, p. 248).

125. Deux Amis, viii. 296.

126. Mon Agonie de trente-huit Heures, by Jourgniac de St. Méard.

127. Beaulieu, iv. 109.

128. Prudhomme, like Peltier, over-estimated the number of victims.

129. Crimes de la Révolution, by Prudhomme, iv. 107.

130. Histoire de la Conspiration du 10 Août, by Bigot de Sainte-Croix, p. 104.

131. Mortimer Ternaux, iii. 185.

132. Mémoires de Mme. Roland, i. 110.

133. Crimes de la Révolution, by Prudhomme, iv. 130.

134. Beaulieu, iv. 119 ; Deux Amis, viii. 308.

135. Evidence of eyewitness, M. de la Roserie, who was present at the massacre at the Carmes, and stated that “ half the assassins employed there were, by an infamous prostitution, in the uniform of the National Guards ” ( Mémoires de Thiébault, i. 319).

136. Extract from the registers of the sections of Paris published by M. Mortimer Ternaux, Histoire de la Terreur, iii. 480.

137. Mémoires de Sénart (edition de Lescure), p. 29.

138. Mortimer Ternaux, iii. 309.

139. According to Louis Philippe, Danton frankly admitted his responsibility for the September days. The future King, then the Duc de Chartres, related that when on a visit to Paris from the frontier he met Danton and ventured to blame the authors of the massacres. To this remonstrance Danton replied : “ It was I who did it. All the Parisians are jean foutres. It was necessary to put a river of blood between them and the émigrés ” ( Récit du Duc d’Aumale, quoted by Taine, La Révolution, vi. 30).

140. Prudhomme, Révolutions de Paris, x111. 522.

141. Beaulieu, iv. 145.

142. Dr. Moore, Journal of a Residence in France, i. 256.

143. Procés des Vingt-Deux, evidence of Duhem. According to the Deux Amis de la Liberté, viii. 304, the assassins entered with heads in their hands.

144. Mémoires de Sénart (edition de Lescure), p. 34.

145. J.P. Brissot à ses Commettants, p. 52 ; Beaulieu, v. 247.

146. Buchez et Roux, xvii. 382.

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147. Procés verbaux de la Commune de Paris, date of September 2. The precise words employed by Robespierre are not given in this report, but are recorded in part by Peltier ( Révolution du 10 Août, ii. 234) ; it is Hamel ( Vie de Robespierre, i. 415) who states that Robespierre used the expression “ a powerful party.” On this accusation see also Beaulieu, iv. 147 ; Moniteur, xiii. 617, 62o-622 ; Mortimer Ternaux, iii. 205.

148. Discours de Pétion sur l’Accusation intentée contre Maximilien Robespierre, p. 16.

149. Moniteur, xiii. 623.

150. Les Moyens d’adoucir la Rigueur des Lois pénales en France, 1781.

151. Life of Charles, third Earl of Stanhope, by Ghita Stanhope and G.P. Gooch, p. 120.

152. Histoire du Clergé, by L’Abbé Barruel, p. 349.

153. Histoire de la Révolution du 10 Août, by Peltier, ii. 391.

154. Barruel, op. cit. pp. 353, 354.

155. I have been unable to find this correspondence in English. These passages are taken from the Histoire Socialiste de la Révolution, volume La Convention, by Jean Jaurés, p. 196 and following, and from Danton Émigré, by Dr. Robinet.

156. Date of November 7, 1792.

157. Date of November 10, 1792.

158. Date of November 28, 1792.

159. Playfair’s History of Jacobinism, p. 384.

160. Séances des Jacobins, date of June 4, 1792.

161. Mémoires de Mme. Roland, ii. 300.

162. Journal of a Residence in France, i. 134.

163. Arthur Young, The Example of France, Appendix, p. 3.

164. Oswald’s Speech at the Jacobin Club, September 30, 1792.

165. J. Mason to J.B. Burges, letter dated September 13, 1792 ( Fortescue Historical MSS. ii. 316).

166. Correspondence of Lord Auckland, ii. 438.

167. Oswald’s Speech to the Jacobins on September 30, 1792 (Aulard’s Séances des Jacobins, iv. 346).

168. “ Déclaration d’Antoine Gabriel Aimé Jourdan,” in Mémoires sur les Journées de Septembre, p. 154.

169. Crimes de la Révolution, iv. 123.

170. Playfair’s History of Jacobinism, p. 501.

171. The arms referred to by Oswald in his speech (Aulard’s Séances des Jacobins, iv. 346).

172. Life of Charles, third Earl of Stanhope, by Ghita Stanhope and G.P. Gooch, p. 120.

173. Beaulieu, iv. 169 ; Pagès, ii. 45.

174. Carra had also been sent by Servan and Danton to “ harangue the soldiers at the camp of ‘ La Maulde ’ in August ” (see Prècis de la Défense de Carra, p. 29).

175. D’Allonville, Mémoires d’un Homme d’État, i. 401.

176. D’Allonville, Mémoires secrets, iii. 95.

177. Biographie de Louis Philippe d’Orléans, by L.G. Michaud, Appendix, PP. 16, 17.

178. Mémoires de Mme. Roland, i. 113.

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