All was now ready ; it only remained to give a popular air to the movement by starting the proposed panic on the subject of the “ conspiracy in the prisons.” On the 1st of September a wretched wagoner named Jean Jullien, who had been condemned to ten years’ hard labour, was, according to the barbarous custom still preserved under the Reign of Liberty, publicly exhibited on a pillory in the Place de Grève. Thus exposed to the jeers of the mob the man grew frantic, and broke out into furious cries of “ Vive le Roi ! Vive la Reine ! Down with the nation ! ” By the order of the Commune he was thereupon removed to the Conciergerie to await further trial, and the people were then informed that during his detention he had confessed his complicity in an immense Royalist plot which had ramifications in all the prisons. [42] As
a matter of fact Jullien stated nothing of the kind, as the register of the Criminal Tribunal afterwards revealed, [43] but he was condemned to death as a conspirator, and guillotined
on the Place du Carrousel.
“ It is not possible,” wrote Dr. Moore indignantly, “ that the Court could have believed that this wagoner intended to excite any sedition ; what he said was a mere rash retort on the mob, who insulted him in his misery. If their cry had been ‘ Vive le Roi et la Reine ! ’ his would have been ‘ Vive la nation ! ’ It is plain, therefore, that he was condemned to die to please the people.” [44]
Dr. Moore, unacquainted with the undercurrent of events, misinterpreted the incident ; the unfortunate Jean Jullien was sacrificed not to please the people, but to whet their appetite for blood in preparation for the events of the morrow, and also to give colour to the story of the conspiracy in the prisons.
The same day pamphlets were distributed announcing—“ Great treachery of Louis Capet. Plot discovered for assassinating all good citizens during the night of the 2nd and 3rd of this month.” [45]
Meanwhile the lying rumour of the fall of Verdun was purposely circulated throughout Paris, and “ nothing,” remarks Madame Roland, “ was forgotten that could inflame the imagination, magnify facts, and make the dangers seem greater.” [46]
But it was not until twelve o’clock on the following day—Sunday, the 2nd of September—that the imminent arrival of the Prussians was officially proclaimed. “ The enemy is at the gates of Paris ; Verdun, which arrests his march, can only hold out for a week… . Citizens, this very day, immediately, let all friends of liberty rally around its http://yamaguchy.netfirms.com/webster/frenchrev/fr_rev_06.html (13 of 61)5.4.2006 10:40:30
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banner, let an army of 60,000 men be found without delay, let us march on the enemy… .” [47]
At the same time the tocsin rang, cannons were fired, the générale was sounded, and from all sides citizens flew to arms. Dr. Moore, coming out of church, “ found people hurrying up and down with anxious faces ; groups … formed at every corner one told that a courier had arrived with very bad news ; another asserted that Verdun had been betrayed like Longwy, and that the enemy were advancing ; others shook their heads and said it was the traitors within Paris and not the declared enemies on the frontiers that were to be feared.” [48]
But it was not amongst the people this last alarm arose ; the panic-mongers were emissaries of the Commune sent out to circulate the parrot phrase composed by the leaders.[49] “ Directly after the proclamation had been issued,” says Beaulieu, “ the men who have the orders to begin the massacres cry out that, whilst the friends of liberty are grappling with the soldiers of despots, their wives and children will be at the mercy of the aristocrats, and that before starting they must exterminate these scoundrels more eager for the blood of the patriots than the Prussians and Austrians themselves.” [50]
A great number of citizens listened with astonishment to these suggestions, asking themselves “ why at the least danger people should find pleasure in throwing Paris into a state of alarm, in striking all its inhabitants with terror, instead of maintaining in their hearts that masculine energy which befits warriors and ensures victory in battle. Was this not, indeed, an effectual method for undermining their courage ? But those who did not know the secrets of the conspirators were soon enlightened by their own experience.” [51]
Meanwhile at the Assembly Danton was delivering his famous speech. “ It is very gratifying, Messieurs, for the Minister of justice of a free people to have the task of announcing to it that the country will be saved… . You know that Verdun is not yet in the power of our enemies. One part of the people will march to the frontiers ; another will dig trenches, and the third will defend the interior of our towns with pikes… . The tocsin, which is about to sound, is not a signal of alarm, it is the charge against the enemies of the country. In order to overcome them, Messieurs, we need audacity, more audacity, always audacity, and France is saved ! ”
These words, which have sounded down the years as the trumpet-call of patriotism, must be studied in their context in order to understand their true significance. Posterity that at a moment of national danger sighs, “ Oh for a Danton ! ” takes it for granted that the audacity to which the great demagogue referred was to be displayed towards the advancing Austrians and Prussians. In this case, why employ the word audacity ? In http://yamaguchy.netfirms.com/webster/frenchrev/fr_rev_06.html (14 of 61)5.4.2006 10:40:30
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referring to soldiers marching against their country’s enemies, we may speak of them as bold or courageous, we may describe them as “ daring ” for undertaking some novel or hazardous method of attack, but we do not call them “ audacious.” Audacity does not merely signify bravery, it implies a certain degree of effrontery, of insolent contempt for public opinion, the mental resolution to bring off a coup and brazen out the consequences. It was precisely in this sense that it was applied by Danton, for the tocsin to which he referred was not a summons to Frenchmen to march against Prussians, but the call to Frenchmen to fall upon Frenchmen ; it was a signal for the massacres of September.[52]
Danton, having uttered his famous apostrophe, returned home, and said to his colleagues who awaited him, “ Foutre ! I electrified them ! Now we can go forward !” which, says Proussinalle, meant “ we can begin the massacres.” “ It was then twelve o’clock. The men of blood who were waiting this signal went out hurriedly from the ministers ; soon the tocsin and the cannon of alarm were heard, the assassins started for the prisons, and the massacres began.” [53]
A certain lawyer named Grandpré, relates Madame Roland, was employed by Roland at this time to visit the prisons, and, finding that great alarm prevailed there concerning the rumour of a projected massacre, waylaid Danton the same morning as he came out of a meeting of council at the Ministry of the Interior, and begged him to ensure the safety of the prisoners. “ He was interrupted by an exclamation from Danton, shouting in his bull’s voice, with his eyes starting out of his head, and with a furious gesture : ‘ What do I care about the prisoners ! Let them take care of themselves ! ’ ( Je me f… . bien des Prisonniers ! qu’ils deviennent ce qu’ils pourront ! ) ” [54]
Grandpré was not the only man to approach Danton on this fatal morning. Prudhomme the journalist, seated in his office, hearing the sound of the tocsin and the cannon, hurried to the Ministry of justice, where he found Danton, and said to him, “ What means this cannon of alarm, this tocsin, and the rumour of the arrival of the Prussians in Paris ? ”
“ Keep calm, old friend of liberty,” answered Danton, “ it is the tocsin of victory.” “ But,” persisted Prudhomme, “ they speak of massacring——”
“ Yes,” said Danton, “ we were all to have been massacred to-night, beginning with the purest patriots. These rascals of aristocrats who are in the prisons had procured firearms and daggers. At a certain hour indicated to-night the doors were to be opened to them.
They would have scattered into all the different quarters to butcher the wives and children of patriots who march against the Prussians.” Prudhomme, bewildered by this monstrous fable, inquired what means had been taken to prevent the execution of the http://yamaguchy.netfirms.com/webster/frenchrev/fr_rev_06.html (15 of 61)5.4.2006 10:40:30
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plot. “ What means ? ” cried Danton ; “ the irritated people, who were told in time, mean to administer justice themselves to all the scoundrels who are in the prisons.” At this Prudhomme declares he was stupefied with horror ; we may question whether he ventured, however, to remonstrate at the time with quite the courage he afterwards attributed to himself. When, a moment later, Camille Desmoulins entered, Prudhomme goes on to relate, Danton turned to him with the words, “ Prudhomme has come to ask what is going to be done.”
“ Yes,” said Prudhomme, “ my heart is rent by what I have just heard.” “ Then you have not told him,” Camille said, turning to Danton, “ that the innocent will not be confounded with the guilty ? ” Prudhomme continued to remonstrate, but Danton answered firmly, “ Every kind of moderate measure is useless ; the anger of the people is at its height, it would be actually dangerous to arrest it. When their first anger is assuaged we shall be able to make them listen to reason.”
“ But if,” Prudhomme suggested, “ the legislative body and the constituted authorities were to go all over Paris and harangue the people ? ”
“ No, no,” answered Camille, “ that would be too dangerous, for the people in their first anger might find victims in the persons of their dearest friends.” [55]
Prudhomme went out sadly, and on his way through the dining-room perceived a pleasant dinner-party in progress—Madame Desmoulins, Madame Danton, and Fabre d’Églantine were amongst the guests.[56] Word being brought at this moment to Danton
that “ all was going well,” the Minister of justice complacently took his seat at the table.
So at the very moment that the assassins started forth on their terrible work, the authors of the crime sat down to feast.
THE FIRST MASSACRE AT THE ABBAYE [58]
Punctually at twelve o’clock a troop of Marseillais and Avignonnais
confederates—amongst whom were a number of men who had taken part in the Glacière d’Avignon [59]—arrived, obedient to orders and singing the “ Marseillaise,” at the Hôtel
de Ville, to transfer the first batch of prisoners to the Abbaye. Twenty-four priests, among which, in spite of the appeal of the deaf-mutes, the Abbé Sicard was included, were thrust into several cabs, and the drivers received the order to proceed slowly through the streets under pain of being massacred on their seats if they disobeyed. The confederates, who formed the escort, loudly informed the prisoners that they would http://yamaguchy.netfirms.com/webster/frenchrev/fr_rev_06.html (16 of 61)5.4.2006 10:40:30
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never reach the Abbaye, as “ the people ” to whom they were to be delivered intended to massacre them on the way. In order to facilitate this operation the doors of the cabs were left open, and all efforts on the part of the priests to close them were overcome by the soldiers, who, pointing at the prisoners with their sabres, cried out to the disorderly crowd following in the wake of the procession, “ These are your enemies, the accomplices of those who delivered up Verdun, those who only awaited your departure to murder your wives and children. Here are our pikes and sabres ; put these monsters to death ! ”
But if the leaders had hoped to give a popular air to the proceedings by inducing the mob to begin the massacres, they were disappointed, for the people around the cabs contented themselves with shouting insults, and the Marseillais were obliged to make use of their weapons themselves. After cutting at the defenceless priests with their sabres, one of the soldiers finally mounted on the steps of a carriage and plunged his sabre into the heart of the first victim. [60] His comrades quickly followed his example, thrusting at the
prisoners through the open doorways, but the blows being ill-directed only a few were mortally wounded, and it was not until the procession stopped at the doors of the Abbaye, where Maillard and his hired assassins were waiting, that the massacres began in earnest. Out of the twenty-four prisoners, twenty-one perished ; two, including the Abbé Sicard, succeeded in escaping to the neighbouring “ Committee of the Section,” and, throwing themselves into the arms of the commissioners there assembled, cried out, “ Save us ! Save us ! ” Several of these men, terrified for their own lives, roughly repulsed the unhappy priests, answering, “ Go away ! would you have us massacred ? ” but one, recognizing the Abbé Sicard, led them into the inner hall, and closed the door on the mob. Here they might have remained in safety had not a “ fury ” in the crowd, who happened to be an accomplice of the Abbé Sicard’s enemies, rushed to inform them of his escape. The next moment heavy blows sounded on the doors and voices called aloud for the two prisoners.
The Abbé Sicard felt that his last hour had come. Handing his watch to one of the commissioners he said, “ Give this to the first deaf-mute who asks for news of me.” The blows on the door redoubled. The Abbé Sicard fell on his knees, offered his last prayer, then, rising, embraced his comrade and said, “ Let us hold each other close and die together ; the door is about to open, the murderers are there, we have not five minutes to live.”
The next moment the assassins burst into the room and rushed upon the prisoners. The Abbé Sicard’s companion fell dead at his side ; Sicard himself saw a pike levelled at his breast, when suddenly one of the commissioners of the section, a clockmaker named http://yamaguchy.netfirms.com/webster/frenchrev/fr_rev_06.html (17 of 61)5.4.2006 10:40:30
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Monnot, thrust his way through the crowd, and, throwing himself between the assassins and their victim, bared his breast to their blows, crying out, “ Here is the breast through which you must pass to reach that one. He is the Abbé Sicard, one of the men who have rendered the greatest service to his country, the father of the deaf-mutes. You must cross my body to get to him ! ”
At these words the murderous pike was lowered, and for a moment it seemed that the brave clockmaker had succeeded in disarming the assassins. But outside the hall the rest of the ferocious band waited, howling like wolves for their prey. Then the good Abbé, showing himself at the window, obtained a moment of silence, and spoke in these words to the raving herd :
“ My friends, here is an innocent man, would you have him die without giving him a hearing ? ”
Voices answered, “ You were with the others we have just killed. You are guilty as they were ! ”
“ Listen to me a moment, and if after hearing me you decree my death I shall not complain. My life is in your hands. Learn, then, what I do, who I am, and then you will decide my fate. I am the Abbé Sicard.”
A murmur went round, “ He is the Abbé Sicard, the father of the deaf-mutes, we must listen to him.”
The Abbé continued : “ I teach the deaf-mutes from their birth, and, as the number of these unfortunate ones is greater amongst the poor than amongst the rich, I belong more to you than to the rich.” Then a voice cried, “ The Abbé Sicard must be saved. He is too valuable a man to perish. His whole life is employed in doing a great work ; no, he has not time to be a conspirator.”
Immediately a chorus took up the last words, adding, “ We must save him ! We must save him ! ”
Whereupon the assassins, standing behind the Abbé at the window, seized him in their arms, and led him out through the ranks of their blood-stained comrades, who fell on his neck, embraced him, and begged to be allowed to lead him home in triumph.
Nothing is stranger in all the strange history of the Revolution than the evidence of latent idealism that seems to have lingered in many ferocious hearts : how did it come to pass that, amongst this fearful horde, men could be found to applaud a noble life and perceive its value to the world, whilst themselves employed only in crime and destruction ?
But, although the Abbé Sicard had succeeded in disarming his terrible assassins by a direct appeal to their better feelings, he was quite unable to touch the hearts of the men who had ordained the crime, for, having refused to leave the prison until legally released http://yamaguchy.netfirms.com/webster/frenchrev/fr_rev_06.html (18 of 61)5.4.2006 10:40:30
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by the Commune, he waited in vain for this order to arrive ; two days later we find him still writing plaintive appeals to the Assembly to rescue him from the place of horror in which he is confined, and where he is perpetually threatened with a hideous death. The Assembly contented itself with passing on the letter to the Commune. But since it was there his death had been decreed, the unfortunate Abbé was left to his fate, and it was not until seven o’clock in the evening of the 4th of September, by the intercession of the deputy Pastoret with Hérault de Sechelles, that the Abbé Sicard obtained his release.[61]
At five o’clock in the evening of the 2nd, when the carnage was temporarily suspended, Billaud-Varenne arrived in his puce-coloured coat and black wig, wearing his municipal scarf as delegate of the Commune.[62] Stepping over the bodies of the dead priests, he thus addressed the assassins : “ Respectable citizens, you have killed scoundrels ; you have done your duty, and you will each have twenty-four livres.” [63]
This discourse aroused afresh the fury of the assassins, and they began to call aloud for further victims. Then Maillard, known as Tape-Dur, answered loudly, “ There is nothing more to be done here ; let us go to the Carmes ! ” [64]
THE MASSACRE AT THE CARMES [65]
At the Couvent des Carmes, in the Rue de Vaugirard, between 150 and 200 priests had been incarcerated after the 10th of August. For a time they had believed themselves to be threatened merely with deportation, but during the two days preceding the massacres a number of sinister indications showed them that they had only a little while to live.
The patriarch of this band, the venerable Archbishop of Arles, who, in spite of his age and infirmities, insisted on sharing every hardship and privation with his companions, succeeded in inspiring them all with his own heroic spirit, and it was thus that in perfect calm and resignation they awaited their end. When on this terrible Sunday afternoon, the 2nd of September, Joachim Ceyrat, the principal organizer of this massacre, whose inveterate hatred of religion filled him with unrelenting fury towards its ministers, ordered them all to leave the church which served as their prison and assemble in the garden, they well knew that their last moment had come. Yet it was still with undisturbed serenity that for half-an-hour they paced the shady alleys, whilst the terrible band of Maillard came steadily nearer.
Then suddenly, at the entrance to the convent, cries of rage were heard ; through the bars was seen the flash of sabres, and at this the priests, retreating into a small oratory at the far end of the garden, fell on their knees and gave each other the last blessing.
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The Abbé de Pannonie, standing in the doorway of this chapel with the Archbishop of Arles, said, “ Monseigneur, I think they have come to assassinate us.” “ Then,” said the Archbishop, “ this is the moment of our sacrifice ; let us resign ourselves and thank God we can offer Him our blood in so splendid a cause.” And with these words he entered the oratory, and knelt in prayer before the altar.
Even as he spoke the garden gates were broken down, and a drunken band of assassins, armed with pistols and sabres, threw themselves with savage howls upon their victims.
The first to perish was Père Gérault, who, absorbed in his breviary, walked up and down beside the fountain in the middle of the garden ; the second was the Abbé Salins, who had hurried to the side of his fallen comrade.
Meanwhile another group of murderers made their way towards the oratory, calling out furiously, “ Where is the Archbishop of Arles ? Where is the Archbishop of Arles ? ” The Archbishop, hearing his name, rose from his knees and came towards the doorway.
In vain his companions attempted to hold him back. “ Let me pass,” he said ; “ may my blood appease them ! ”
Then, standing on the steps of the chapel, he fearlessly confronted his assassins.
“ It is you, old scoundrel, who are the Archbishop of Arles ? ” cried the leader of the band.
“ Yes, messieurs, it is I.”
“ It was you who had the blood of patriots shed at Arles ? ”
“ Messieurs, I have never had the blood of any one shed ; nor have I ever injured any one in my life.”
“ Well, then, I will injure you ! ” answered the murderer, striking the Archbishop across the forehead with a sabre. A second assassin dealt him a fearful blow with a scimitar, cleaving his face almost in two.
The heroic old man uttered never a murmur, but, still erect on the steps of the chapel, raised his hands to the streaming wound, then, at a third blow, fell forward at the feet of his murderers, and a pike was thrust through his heart.
At this sight a savage howl of triumph rose from all the assassins, and, levelling their pistols at the kneeling priests inside the chapel, they began a murderous fusillade ; in a few moments the floor was strewn with the dead and dying.
Amongst the priests who had not taken refuge in the oratory were a certain number of young men less resigned than their superiors, and these, seeing the massacre in progress, attempted to elude their murderers.
Then in the old garden a terrible man-hunt began ; around the trunks of trees, in and out http://yamaguchy.netfirms.com/webster/frenchrev/fr_rev_06.html (20 of 61)5.4.2006 10:40:30
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amongst the bushes, the raging horde pursued their victims, uttering foul blasphemies against religion and singing the bloodthirsty refrain :
Dansons la Carmagnole,
Vive le son ! vive le son !
Dansons la Carmagnole,
Vive le son du canon !
A few of the young priests, with extraordinary agility, succeeded in scaling the ten-foot wall of the garden into the neighbouring Rue Cassette, helping themselves upward by means of the stone figure of a monk that stood close against it ; but some of these, after reaching safety, were stricken with remorse lest their escape should make the fate of those they had left behind more terrible, and with sublime courage they climbed back again into the garden and met their death.
Suddenly in the midst of the butchery a voice cried, “ Halt ! This is not the way to go to work ! ”
It was Maillard who, interposing between the assassins and their victims, ordered those of the priests who still survived to be driven into the church, whilst a tribunal was set up for their judgement.
At the Carmes this socalled “ Tribunal of the Sovereign People ” was even more a mockery than at the other prisons, for here none of the populace were even admitted to watch the massacre ; [66] indeed, the “ ladies of the quarter,” that is to say, the poor women from the surrounding streets, who had collected outside the gate where they could catch a glimpse of the scene taking place in the garden, loudly protested against the shooting of the priests,[67] and it seems to have been mainly for this reason that it was
decided to finish the massacre in a more orderly manner out of view of the street, whilst at the same time a cordon of Gendarmes Nationaux, stationed at the gates, prevented the people from breaking in and interfering with the assassins. [68] A table was then arranged
in a gloomy cloister of the convent, and here either Maillard or a commissioner named Violette [69] seated himself with the list of the prisoners, drawn up by Joachim Ceyrat,
spread out before him. Needless to say, no trial of any kind took place, for Ceyrat that morning had pronounced the verdict, “ All who are in the Carmes are guilty ! ” [70] A few managed to find hiding-places and survived the massacre ; a few others succeeded in melting the hearts of the assassins ; the rest, summoned two by two from the church to appear before the tribunal, rose from their knees blessing God for the privilege of shedding their blood in His cause, and clasping the Scriptures in their hands, with eyes raised to Heaven, went out into the corridor to meet their death. In less than two hours http://yamaguchy.netfirms.com/webster/frenchrev/fr_rev_06.html (21 of 61)5.4.2006 10:40:30
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one hundred and nineteen victims had perished.
THE SECOND MASSACRE AT THE ABBAYE [71]
At seven o’clock in the evening, after the massacre at the Carmes, Maillard and his band returned to the Abbaye, where a number of prisoners still remained incarcerated, for the murder of the contingent in cabs at the entrance had been only the prelude to a general massacre.
The Abbé de Salamon, a young papal nuncio, whose account of these September days is perhaps the most thrilling of all existing records, has described, with frightful minuteness, the agony of mind in which he and a company of fellow-priests passed that interminable Sunday afternoon. At half-past two, when they had just finished dining in the long dark hall assigned them as a prison, the gaoler noisily drew the bolts, and threw open the door with the words, “ Be quick, the people are marching on the prisons, and have already begun to massacre all the prisoners.” It was, in fact, at this very moment that the procession of cabs arrived at the Abbaye and the carnage began.
At this news, says the Abbé Salamon, “ there was great agitation amongst us. Some cried, ‘ What will happen to us ? ’ Others, ‘ Then we must die I ’ Many went to the door to look through the key-hole—a hole that did not exist, for prison locks only open from outside and show no opening on the interior. Others sprang up on their heels as if to look out of the windows, which were fourteen feet high ; finally, others walking up and down without knowing where they were going knocked their legs violently against the seats and tables… . We began to hear the cries of the people ; it was like a great distant murmur.”
Standing apart were two young Minim brothers—“ the youngest one had an angelic face.” The Abbé Salamon, going up to them, spoke words of comfort. “ Ah, mon Dieu, monsieur,” answered the younger, “ I do not regard it as a disgrace to die for religion ; on the contrary, I am afraid they may not kill me because I am only a sub-deacon.” The Abbé Salamon, none too devout himself, admits that he blushed at these words, “ worthy of the earliest martyrs of the Church.”
But the hour for martyrdom had not yet arrived ; the band of assassins, after murdering the priests at the entrance of the convent, had gone on to the Carmes, and for some hours all was quiet. The priests spent the rest of the afternoon in prayer and confession. Then suddenly the door was thrown open again, and the voice of the gaoler called out roughly, “ The people are more and more irritated ; there are perhaps 2000 men in the Abbaye.” http://yamaguchy.netfirms.com/webster/frenchrev/fr_rev_06.html (22 of 61)5.4.2006 10:40:30
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And, indeed, the tumult and the howling of the mob could now be heard distinctly by the prisoners. The gaoler added brutally, “ It is just announced that all the priests in the Carmes have been massacred.” At these words the assembled company threw themselves with one accord at the feet of the Cure de St. Jean en Grève—a saintly old man of eighty, “ who retained all the serenity of a noble soul ”—and begged him to give them absolution in articulo mortis.
After this had been given all remained kneeling, whilst the old cure said, “ We may regard ourselves as sick men about to die… . I will recite the prayers of the dying ; join with me that God may have pity on us.”
But at the opening words, uttered with so great dignity by the aged priest, “ Depart, Christian souls, from this world in the name of God the Father Almighty …,” almost all burst into tears. “ Some lay brothers loudly lamented at dying so young, and gave way to imprecations against their assassins. The good cure interrupted them, representing to them with great gentleness that they must generously pardon, and that perhaps if God were pleased with their resignation He might create means to save them.” Such were the men who were represented as planning to massacre the wives and children of the citizens !
Meanwhile, outside the gate of the prison in the Rue Sainte-Marguerite, the massacre of the prisoners had begun. A band of assassins, preceding that of Maillard, which was still occupied at the Carmes, had besieged the gate clamouring for victims, and the concierge, fearing to resist them, had handed out several prisoners committed to his care. It was thus that, when Maillard and his band returned from the Carmes, they found the hideous work already begun. This “ band of massacrers,” says Felhémési, “ comes back covered with blood and dust ; these monsters are tired of carnage but not sated with blood. They are out of breath, they ask for wine, for wine, or death. What reply can be made to this irresistible desire ? The civil committee of the section gives them orders for 24 pints to be drawn at a neighbouring wine-merchant. Soon they have drunk, they are intoxicated, and contemplate with satisfaction the corpses strewn in the courtyard of the Abbaye.” It was then decided, in order to give an air of justice to their proceedings, that again a socalled “ popular tribunal,” under Maillard, should be set up.
Maillard, who was himself a thief,[72] had brought with him twelve swindlers to act as his accomplices, and these men, mingling in the crowd “ as if by accident,” came forward “ in the name of the Sovereign People ” and seized the registers of the prison.
At this “ the turnkeys tremble, the gaoler and the gaoler’s wife faint, the prison is surrounded by furious men, cries and tumult increase.” [73] Suddenly one of the
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attempted to soothe the mob, whom he took to be the cause of the uproar : “ My comrades, my friends, you are good patriots … but you must love justice. There is not one of you who does not shudder at the frightful idea of soaking his hands in innocent blood ! ” Even this vile mob, collected by the leaders to abet them in their crimes, showed itself amenable to sentiments of humanity and justice, and cried out loudly, “ Yes ! Yes ! ”
But those who had ordained the massacres had prepared against any eventualities of this kind, and a man in the crowd was ready with the prescribed phrase. Springing forward, with blazing eyes and brandishing a blood-stained sword, he interrupted the orator in these words : “ Say, then, monsieur le citoyen, … do you wish to lull us to sleep ? … I am not an orator, I delude no one, and I tell you that I am the father of a family, that I have a wife and five children whom I am willing to leave here under the protection of my section in order to go and fight the enemy, but meanwhile I do not mean that the rascals who are in this prison, or the others who will open the doors to them, shall go and murder my wife and children … so by me, or by others, the prison shall be purged of all these cursed scoundrels ! ”
Instantly the mob, rallying to the word of command, shouted, “ He is right ; no mercy !
” and Maillard’s accomplices called out for a tribunal to be formed by their leader : “ Monsieur Maillard ! Citizen Maillard as president ! He is a good man, Citizen Maillard ! ” [74]
In a hall opening on the garden of the convent the terrible tribunal was then set up. At a table covered with a green cloth, on which ink, pens, and paper were arranged, Maillard, in his black coat and powdered hair, took his place, with the register of the prison spread before him. This register, preserved by the “ Prefecture of Police,” long remained one of the ghastliest relics of the revolutionary era ; on the greasy pages great marks of wine and blood might be seen, and all down the list of names blood-stained finger-prints left by the assassins, as they indicated the prisoner concerning whom they asked for orders.
Needless to say, the verdicts had been arranged beforehand, and it was then agreed that instead of pronouncing sentence of death the words “ To La Force ! ” should be employed. By this means the victims, imagining themselves to be acquitted and about to be transferred to this other prison, would go forward without a struggle into the arms of their assassins. The ruse, no doubt, served a double purpose, for in cases where no evidence was forthcoming against the prisoner the socalled “ judges ” could absolve themselves of the injustice of condemning him, and attribute his death to the uncontrollable passions of “ the people.”
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The first victims of this mock tribunal were the Swiss, who had been imprisoned after the siege of the Tuileries on the 10th of August. These, to the number of forty-three, were all common soldiers, for their officers, with the exception of M. de Reding, who lay wounded in the chapel of the Abbaye, had been taken to the Conciergerie. A voice, speaking through the window of the hall occupied by the “ tribunal,” and declaring itself to be “ entrusted with the wish of the people,” now exclaimed loudly, “ There are Swiss in the prison, lose no time in examining them ; they are all guilty, not one must escape !
” And the rabble obediently echoed, “ That is just, that is just, let us begin with them ! ” The tribunal thereupon pronounced the words, “ To La Force ! ”
Maillard then went to the Swiss and ordered them to come forth. “ You assassinated the people on the 10th of August ; to-day they demand justice, you must go to La Force.” The unhappy Swiss, instantly understanding the significance of these words, for the howls of the mob had reached them in their prison, fell on their knees, crying out, “ Mercy ! Mercy ! ” But Maillard was inexorable. Two of the assassins followed, saying harshly to the prisoners, “ Come, come, make up your minds ! Let us go ! ” Then “ lamentations and horrible groans ” arose ; the unhappy Swiss, all huddling together at the back of the room, clung to each other, embraced, gave way to pitiful despair at the sight of so hideous a death. A few white-haired old men, “ whose looks resembled those of Coligny,” almost succeeded in disarming their murderers. But a relentless voice cried, “ Well, which of you is to go out the first ? ” At this a tall young man in a blue overcoat, with a noble countenance and martial air, came forward fearlessly : “ I pass the first ! ” he cried, “ I Will give the example ! ” Throwing off his hat he advanced proudly, “ with the apparent calm of concentrated fury,” and faced the raging crowd.
For a moment the horde, stupefied by his intrepidity, fell back ; a circle formed around him ; with folded arms he stood defiant, then, realizing that death was inevitable, suddenly rushed forward upon the pikes and bayonets, and the next moment fell pierced with a hundred wounds.
All but one of his unhappy comrades shared the same fate ; this sole survivor, a boy “ of ingenuous countenance,” succeeded in enlisting the sympathy of a Marseillais, who bore him forth triumphantly amidst the applause of the crowd.
Four other victims followed, accused of forging assignats ; then Montmorin, the former Minister of Foreign Affairs, and arch-enemy of Brissot and the pro-Prussian party.
Montmorin had been summoned before the bar of the Assembly on the 22nd of August and accused by the Girondins of having opposed an alliance between France and Prussia, and of wishing to maintain the Franco-Austrian alliance, but the Assembly, not entirely dominated by this faction, had acquitted Montmorin, and so his death by violent means was decreed. Can we doubt that Peltier was right in saying that this foul crime lay at the http://yamaguchy.netfirms.com/webster/frenchrev/fr_rev_06.html (25 of 61)5.4.2006 10:40:30
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door of Brissot, [76] and may not the hand of Prussia also be detected here ? Yet this too was attributed to the fury of “ the people ” ! The register of Maillard bears these words, beside the name of Montmorin : “ On the 4th of September [77] 1792, the Sieur Montmorin has been judged by the people and executed on the spot.”
Other victims followed quickly—Thierry de Ville d’Avray, valet de chambre to the King, and guardian of the Garde Meuble where the Crown jewels were kept, was condemned with the words, “ Like master, like man ! ” Two magistrates, Buob and Bosquillon, who had started an inquiry on the events of the 20th of June, the Comte de St. Marc, the Comte de Wittgenstein, the solicitor Séron—accused of calumniating the nation because he had complained of being rudely awakened from his sleep on the night of his arrest—were all put to death with indescribable barbarity.
Jourgniac de St. Méard has vividly described the agony of mind in which he and his fellow-prisoners passed this terrible night and the no less terrible day that followed, for the piercing screams of the victims penetrated to them in their prison, and none doubted that before long their own turn must come.
“ The principal thing with which we occupied ourselves,” says St. Méard, “ was to know what position we should assume in order to receive death the least painfully when we entered the place of massacre. From time to time we sent one of our comrades to the window of the tower, to tell us what position those unfortunate people took up who were then being immolated, so as to calculate from their report that which it would be best for us to assume. They reported that those who held out their hands suffered much longer, because the sabre-cuts were stopped before reaching their heads—there were even some whose hands and arms fell before their bodies—and that those who held them behind their backs seemed to suffer much the least… . Well, it was on these horrible details we deliberated… . We calculated the advantages of this last position, and we advised each other to assume it when our turn came to be massacred ! …”
It was not until nearly midnight that the company of priests, which included the Abbé Salamon, was led before the terrible tribunal.
“ We walked,” says the nuncio, who certainly had not acquired the resignation of his more devout companions, “ escorted by a crowd in arms, in the midst of a great number of torches, and under the rays of a beautiful moon that lit up all those vile scoundrels.” Arraigned before the green-covered table they awaited their sentence, whilst a quarrel took place amongst the judges. At last Maillard, by loudly ringing his bell, obtained silence, and one of his assistants addressed the crowd : “ Here are a lot of rascals who are waiting for the just punishment of their crimes. All these people are priests ; they are the sworn enemies of the nation, who would not take the oath …; they are all http://yamaguchy.netfirms.com/webster/frenchrev/fr_rev_06.html (26 of 61)5.4.2006 10:40:30
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aristocrats, we must begin with them, certainly they are the most guilty.” The form of interrogatory was confined to the one question, “ Have you taken the oath ?
” The first to answer it was the old Curé de St. Jean en Grève, who, owning courageously that he had not taken it because he regarded it as contrary to the principles of his religion, asked only to be spared a lingering death in consideration of his great age and infirmity. Instantly a storm of blows descended on the venerable head, and a moment later the lifeless body was dragged out to the cries of “ Vive la nation ! ” Nearly all his companions shared the same fate ; amongst the last to fall were the two Minim brothers, over whom a furious struggle took place, some of the assassins wishing to take them out and kill them, others to detain them in the hall. “ I noticed,” says Salamon, “ that the under-deacon who so desired to die opposed less resistance to those who wished to drag him out than to those who wished to save him. In the end the scoundrels triumphed, and they were massacred.”
Such was the nature of the “ gangrene ” which the regenerators of France held it necessary to destroy ! Of such stuff was made the clergy of the Old Régime, described to us as “ vicious ” and “ effete,” whose fate was but the just retribution of their deeds !
Amongst the priests who perished on these September days was not a single one who had been distinguished for profligacy or extravagance ; the great majority were humble, saintly men, many white-haired and venerable, whose lives had been passed in doing good, and who in death displayed a heroic resignation never surpassed in the earliest days of Christendom. No, the Old Order was not effete that produced such men as these ! The lay prisoners, however, were not all of the stuff of which martyrs are made.
Some defended themselves vigorously. Two quite young men, who had been recognized as members of the King’s new bodyguard, were dragged forward and denounced to the mob as chevaliers du poignard, who must be punished on the spot, whereat the mob replied with savage howls of “ Death ! death ! ”
“ They were,” says the Abbé Salamon, “ two young men of superb figures and handsome countenances …”; the crowd “ began to overwhelm them with insults ; then one man, more cowardly than the rest, gave the tallest one a violent blow with a sabre, to which he replied only with a shrug of the shoulders. Then began a horrible struggle between these vile drinkers of blood and these two young men, who, although unarmed, defended themselves like lions. They threw many (of their assailants) to the ground, and I think if only they had had a knife they would have been victorious. At last they fell on the floor of the hall all pierced with blows. They seemed in despair at dying, and I heard one crying out, ‘ Must one die at this age, and in this manner ? ’ ”
All through this dreadful night the massacres continued in the courtyards of the prison.
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victims, the howls of the murderers, the savage songs and dances taking place around the bodies of the dead. At intervals an assassin, with sleeves rolled up, clutching a blood-stained sabre, would come to the section clamouring for more drink : “ Our good brothers have been long at work in the courtyard ; they are tired, their lips are dry ; I come to ask for wine for them ! ” And finally the committee tremblingly ordered them four more flagons. Then, crazed with the fumes of alcohol, the massacrers returned to their hideous task. “ One,” says the Abbé Sicard, “ complained that these aristocrats died too quickly, that only the first ones had the pleasure of striking, and it was decided to hit them only with the flat of the sword, and then make them run between two rows of massacrers, as was formerly the practice with soldiers condemned to be scourged. It was also arranged that there should be seats around this place for the ‘ ladies’ and ‘
gentlemen.’ … One can imagine,” Sicard adds significantly, “ what ladies these were ! ” The council of the Commune had taken care to provide not only the actors but the audience. The women of the district, trained at the Société Fraternelle, were reinforced during the massacres of September by a terrible brigade of female malefactors released from the prisons, whose rôle was to applaud the assassinations and incite the murderers to further violence. It was this legion that afterwards peopled the tribunes of the Terror, and became known as the tricoteuses or “ furies ” of the guillotine.[78]
Nothing had been left to chance by the organizers of the massacres. In the middle of the night members of the Commune, alarmed lest under the influence of fiery drinks and excitement some of the spoils they counted on might elude them, deputed Billaud-Varenne again to harangue the massacrers.
“ My friends, my good friends,” cried Billaud, standing on a platform in their midst, “ the Commune sends me to you to represent to you that you are dishonouring this beautiful day. They have been told that you are robbing these rascals of aristocrats after executing justice on them. Leave, leave all the jewels, all the money and goods they have on them for the expenses of the great act of justice you are exercising. They will have a care to pay you as was arranged with you. Be noble, great, and generous like the profession you follow. May everything in this great day be worthy of the people whose sovereignty is entrusted to you ! ” [79]
And these were the massacres that the Commune afterwards declared itself powerless to prevent !
Even to the most ingenuous observer it was evident that the atrocities taking place were not a matter of misdirected popular fury, but the result of a deep-laid scheme. Honest Dr. John Moore, a stranger to all intrigues, had been told earlier in the day that “ the people ” had broken into the Abbaye and were massacring the prisoners. But at http://yamaguchy.netfirms.com/webster/frenchrev/fr_rev_06.html (28 of 61)5.4.2006 10:40:30
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midnight, as he sits writing in his hotel, close by the prison, a sudden flash of revelation comes to him : all at once he understands, and with a thrill of realization writes these illuminating words : “ Is this the work of a furious and deluded mob ? How come the citizens of this populous metropolis to remain passive spectators of so dreadful an outrage ? Is it possible that this is the accomplishment of a plan concerted two or three weeks ago ; that those arbitrary arrests were ordered with this view ; that false rumours of treasons and intended insurrections and massacres were spread to exasperate the people ; and that, taking advantage of the rumours of bad news from the frontiers, orders have been issued for firing the cannon and sounding the tocsin, to increase the alarm, and terrify the public into acquiescence ; while a band of chosen ruffians were hired to massacre those whom hatred, revenge, or fear had destined to destruction, but whom law and justice could not destroy ?
“ It is now past twelve at midnight, and the bloody work still goes on ! Almighty God ! ”
Not only at the Abbaye was the bloody work in progress ; during the same night the Châtelet and the Conciergerie had been invaded by other bands of massacrers. At one o’clock in the morning, the 3rd of September, the massacre began at La Force. It was here that a number of aristocrats had been incarcerated after the 10th of August ; these included M. de Rulhières, ex-commander of the mounted guard of Paris ; MM. de Baudin and de la Chesnaye, who had remained in command at the Tuileries after the murder of Mandat ; several of the Queen’s ladies, Madame and Mademoiselle de Tourzel, Madame de Sainte-Brice, the Princesse de Lamballe, Madame de Mackau, Madame Bazire, and Madame de Navarre ; also a foster-brother of the Queen’s named Weber, and Maton de la Varenne, the author of the memoirs already quoted. There were also ten or twelve priests ; the rest of the prisoners were common malefactors. Very few of the aristocrats perished, only about six in all ; these included De Rulhières and De la Chesnaye. Weber and Maton de la Varenne, though both ardent Royalists, were acquitted, amidst the frantic applause of the populace.[81] All the Queen’s ladies, with
one tragic exception, were likewise set at liberty by the Commune through the influence of Manuel. But there was one victim whom even Manuel was powerless to save. This was the Queen’s friend, the ill-fated Princesse de Lamballe.
“ The condemnation of the Princesse de Lamballe,” MM. Buchez et Roux have the infamy to write, “ is it not quite simply explained by the particular hatred the people bore her ? ” [82] No blacker calumny was ever uttered against either the princess or the http://yamaguchy.netfirms.com/webster/frenchrev/fr_rev_06.html (29 of 61)5.4.2006 10:40:30
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people. “ Amidst all our agitations,” even the revolutionary Mercier admits, “ she had played no rôle ; nothing could render her suspect in the eyes of the people, by whom she was only known for innumerable acts of benevolence.” [83] On the estates of her father-in-law, the Duc de Penthièvre, with whom she had lived since the early death of her husband, she was known as “ the good angel ”; in the whole world she had but one implacable enemy, her husband’s brother-in-law, Philippe d’Orléans. It has been said that the princess’s dowry had excited the cupidity of the duke, and that by her death he hoped to add it to his waning fortune ; whether this was so or not the duke had a further reason for resentment, namely, that the princess, recognizing his complicity in the march on Versailles on the 5th of October 1789, had refused from that time onward to associate with him. [84] This was enough to arouse all the bitter hatred of which Philippe showed himself peculiarly capable, and under the influence of wounded vanity he planned a terrible revenge.
Manuel, who had hitherto been a partisan of the Duc d’Orléans, had, however, been paid the sum of 50,000 écus to save the princess, and, unlike Danton, Manuel displayed a certain degree of integrity with regard to compacts of this kind. Accordingly he carried out his promise to rescue Madame and Mademoiselle de Tourzel, for whom he had received a large ransom, and also gave orders that the Princesse de Lamballe should be set at liberty. [85] But the accomplices of the duke were too strong for him. Once again
the services of the bloodthirsty Rotondo had been enlisted—Rotondo who, after the disbanding of the “ Compagnie du Sabbat,” still remained in the pay of the Orléaniste conspiracy, and now placed himself at the head of a band of ferocious assassins specially hired to carry out the vengeance of the duke. The men that composed this gang were Gonor, a wheelwright, Renier, known as “ le grand Nicolas,” an agitator of the Palais Royal called Petit Mamain, Grison, and Charlat. [86]
At eight o’clock in the morning of September 3 the Princesse de Lamballe was brought before the socalled “ tribunal ” presided over by Hébert,[87] hereafter to become for ever infamous as the author of the atrocious accusation against the Queen at her trial. The verdict was, of course, a foregone conclusion.
“ When the princess had arrived before this frightful tribunal,” says Peltier, “ the sight of the blood-stained weapons, of the murderers, whose faces and clothing were marked with blood, caused her so great a shock that she fell into one fainting fit after another.” Then, as soon as she had sufficiently recovered consciousness, her cross-examination began.
“ Who are you ? ”
“ Marie Louise, Princess of Savoy.”
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“ Your position ? ”
“ Superintendent of the Queen’s household.”
“ Have you any knowledge of the plots on the 10th of August ? ”
“ I do not know whether there were any plots on the 10th of August, but I know that I had no knowledge of them.”
“ Take the oath of liberty, of equality, of hatred for the King, the Queen, and royalty.” “ I will willingly swear to the first, but not to the last. It is not in my heart.” Some one whispered to her, “ Swear—if you do not, you are dead.”
But this heroic woman, whose excessive nervousness had excited even the kindly derision of her friends, now that the supreme moment had come, never faltered in her resolution ; over the quivering flesh the indomitable spirit rose triumphantly. Without a word she walked towards the wicket, well knowing the fate that there awaited her.
The judge then said, “ Set Madame free.”
These words were the signal of death.[88]
Instantly the hired band of assassins closed around her. The gate was opened. It is said that at the sight of the corpses piled around her she cried out faintly, “ Fi ! l’horreur ! ” and that two of her murderers, of whom one was Gonor, holding her beneath the arms, forced her to walk forward, fainting at each footstep, over the bodies of the dead.
But the hideous story of her end is already known to every one, and need not be related here. For the purpose of this book it is necessary only to follow the intrigue that ordained the crime, and to prove the non-complicity of the people.
The chief murderer of the Princesse de Lamballe was thus an Italian—Rotondo. Of this there can be no doubt whatever, for, besides the assertions of Montjoie, we have the evidence of Maton de la Varenne, who was in the prison of La Force at the time, [89] and of Peltier, who was in London when Rotondo at a tavern in that city openly boasted of his share in the crime. [90] Moreover, when Rotondo later fled to Switzerland he was
arrested by the Government as “ one of the assassins of the Princesse de Lamballe,” and imprisoned by the King of Sardinia. [91]
A further light is thrown upon the incident by a curious document that has been preserved amongst the Chatham papers at the Record Office in London. Apparently Pitt was in the habit of employing secret agents to give him information concerning the revolutionary intrigues, and from one of these he inquired about Rotondo, whose boast in the tavern had possibly reached his ears. To this inquiry his correspondent makes the astonishing reply that Rotondo was the husband of one of the Princesse de Lamballe’s kitchen-maids, who helped to dismember the body of her mistress. [92]
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Now it was said in Paris that several of the princess’s footmen, disguised as massacrers, had attempted to save her,[93] but they were recognized amongst the crowd and overpowered. Who so likely to recognize them as their fellow-servant ? And since Rotondo had been for more than two years in the pay of the Duc d’Orléans, is it not possible that his wife—also perhaps an Italian—had been introduced to the Hôtel de Penthièvre as an accomplice of the Orléaniste conspiracy ?
It is evident, moreover, that the gang had been hired for this crime alone, since none of them were paid by the Commune, [94] nor do they appear to have taken any further part in the massacres, but as soon as they had carried out their sanguinary mission they marched off with their trophy, the head of the princess, to show to their employer. By a refinement of brutality they halted first at a hairdresser’s for the long fair curls to be washed of blood-stains and freshly powdered, then, led by Charlat carrying the head on a pike, they went on to display it to the two best friends of the dead princess—Gabrielle de Beauvau, Abbess of the Abbaye de Saint-Antoine, and Marie Antoinette at the Temple.
After this the procession marched on amidst the roll of drums and the sound of “ Ça ira !
” to the Palais Royal. The Duc d’Orléans was just sitting down to dinner with his mistress, Madame Buffon, and several Englishmen, when the savage howls of triumph that heralded this arrival attracted his attention. Walking to the window he looked out calmly on the scene, contemplated with a perfectly unmoved countenance the dead, white face, the fair curls fluttering round the pike-head, and without a word returned to his place at the table. One of the Englishmen present, overcome with horror, rose and left the room ; the others remained to feast with the murderer.[95] Who these men were we shall see later.
But once again Philippe d’Orléans had overreached himself ; the effect of this atrocious crime was to alienate the sympathies of at least two of his supporters. “ Manuel,” says Montjoie, “ outraged by the assassination of the Princesse de Lamballe, from this moment declared war to the death against D’Orléans. Impulsive in his passions, knowing moderation neither in good nor evil, he was no longer either a Republican, or a Royalist, or a Constitutional, or a Monarchist ; he was nothing but anti-Orléaniste… . It was not hatred, it was rage. The Abbé Fauchet was taken with the same fury… . He began to compose a newspaper which was nothing but a long tissue of insults and imprecations against the party he had finally abandoned. Often when re-reading his pages he would say, ‘ Ah but my God ! what must one do to have the honour of being butchered by these people ? ’ ”
Several members of the Convention later on ranged themselves on the side of Manuel and Fauchet.
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Most of the assassins of the Princesse de Lamballe ended as miserably as their chief ; after the 9th of Thermidor an inquiry was made into the massacres of September, and Renier, le grand Nicolas, was condemned to twenty years in irons, Petit Mamain to deportation, Charlat, bearer of the princess’s head, and guilty of further outrages that cannot be described, was put to death by the soldiers of the regiment in which he enlisted, to whom he had boasted of his crime, whilst Rotondo, leader of the gang, lived a hunted life execrated by all his fellow-men, and died either in prison or on the gallows.