The King and Queen well knew the fate that in all probability awaited them. Twice already since the 20th of June the Queen had narrowly escaped assassination—once at the Champ de Mars on the 14th of July, once at midnight when the murderer was arrested on the threshold of her apartment—and all through these weeks, says Montjoie, Louis XVI. had slept in his clothes ready to rise at the first alarm.
Now, as the sinister knell of the tocsin rang out over the city, the Queen sat weeping silently ; the King paced the great rooms of the Château striving to decide on the course of action to pursue. The troops, he knew, could offer a vigorous resistance to assault, but this meant bloodshed, and again the old question that at every crisis of the Revolution had tortured him arose in his mind : “ Was a king justified in shedding the blood of his people in his own defence ? ” Royalists said yes ; believers in the “ sovereignty of the people ” said no ; moreover the King’s own conscience said no likewise.
This dilemma produced in Louis XVI. an agony of irresolution that could never have afflicted any of his predecessors. Henry IV., for all his benevolence, would have buckled on his sword, mounted his charger, and shown himself to his troops as their sovereign chief, and undoubtedly, if Louis XVI. had done this, even Barbaroux admits the day would have been won, for “ the great majority of the battalions had declared themselves for him.”
It seems that in the end the King, yielding to the entreaties of the Royalists, decided that the Château should be defended by force of arms, but this, to him a terrible decision, was reached only by hours of mental conflict. When at half-past five on the morning of the 10th he came forth from his apartments to inspect the troops, his defenders saw with dismay that the sangfroid which had saved him on the 20th of June was no longer at his command— his nerve was gone.
This was not the result of cowardice ; the hardest rider, the boldest airman, may find himself suddenly, as the result of continuous exposure to danger, the victim of nerve failure, and Louis XVI., as we know, was subject to such attacks under the influence of acute mental strain. From the accounts of all eyewitnesses it is evident that at this http://yamaguchy.netfirms.com/webster/frenchrev/fr_rev_05.html (16 of 39)5.4.2006 10:40:20
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supreme moment the King was suffering from a return of the malady that had afflicted him three months earlier, and that now deprived him of all the energy he needed wherewith to meet the crisis. Above the violet of his coat his face showed white as death, his eyes were wet with tears his powdered hair disordered—“ he looked,” says Madame Campan, “ as if he had ceased to exist.”
The effect on the troops was, of course, deplorable. Up to this moment their enthusiasm had remained at boiling-point, and as the King passed on his way “ all the vaulted ceilings of the palace rang to the cries of ‘ Vive le Roi ! ’ ‘ No, Sire,’ cried the troops, ‘
do not fear a recurrence of the 20th of June, we will wipe out that stain ; the last drop of our blood belongs to your Majesty ! ’ ” [49] When the King came down into the
courtyards loud cheers burst from every company of the National Guards “ Vive le Roi !
Vive Louis XVI.! Long live the King of the Constitution ! We wish for him ! We wish for no other ! Let him put himself at our head and we will defend him to death ! ”[50]
If only he had put himself at their head ! If only he could have found ringing tones in which to respond to these acclamations, have summoned smiles to his lips, and so won all hearts finally to his cause ! But it seems that Louis XVI., more than ever inarticulate under the stress of great emotion, cast a chill over the spirits of the men, and as the cries of “ Vive le Roi ! ” died down voices were heard to answer with “ Vive la nation ! ” On the other side of the Château the situation assumed a more threatening aspect, for at the moment that the King entered the garden the advance-guard of the revolutionary army, armed with pikes, arrived on the scene from the Faubourg Saint-Marceau, and as they filed past overwhelmed him with insults. By some strange mismanagement this revolutionary battalion was allowed to take up its stand amongst the other troops ; inevitably the spirit of insurrection spread, and when the King returned to the Château along the terrace bordering the river, angry cries were raised : “ Down with the King !
Long live the Sans-Culottes ! ” and other invectives of a grosser kind—only a dozen voices in all, yet loud enough to be heard in the Château. [51]
The sinister murmurs reached the ears of the Queen. M. Dubouchage rushing to the window cried out in horror, “ Good God ! It is the King they are hooting ! What the devil is he doing there ? Let us go down and find him.” The Queen burst into tears. “ All is lost,” she said, when a moment later the King returned pale and breathless, “ this review has done more harm than good.”
All indeed was lost. News had now arrived that Mandat had been either killed or arrested, that “ all Paris ” was on foot, and that the Faubourgs had assembled and were marching on the Château with their cannons. Then the Royalists who had collected in the palace knew that the moment had come to rally round the King, and M. d’Hervilly, a http://yamaguchy.netfirms.com/webster/frenchrev/fr_rev_05.html (17 of 39)5.4.2006 10:40:20
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drawn sword in his hand, ordered the usher to open the doors to “ the French nobility ! ” But where were the “ 15,000 aristocrats ” the revolutionaries declared to be concealed in the Château ? Where were the bloodthirsty chevaliers du poignard who were to execute a new massacre of St. Barthélemy at the bidding of Antoinette Médicis ? Nothing further from this description could be imagined than the strange procession that now streamed into the room led by the old Maréchal de Mailly, aged eighty-six, and composed of two to three hundred men and boys, many with no pretensions to “ nobility,” but “ ennobled by their devotion ” to a lost cause. [52] Few had been able to
procure guns, and the greater number were armed only with swords or pistols, or with hastily improvised weapons they had seized on their passage—a squire and page had divided a pair of fire-tongs between them. Always, throughout the whole Revolution, the same unpreparedness, the same hopeless lack of design on the part of the Old Order, and on the other side foresight, method, superb organization ! Surely a warning to all ages that courage and devotion may prove unavailing before calculating cowardice and organized malevolence ? If bravery could have won the day on this 10th of August the Château must have triumphed. The Queen, now that the danger was actually at the gates, dried her tears, and resolved that, since the King could inspire no enthusiasm in his defenders, she herself would take up his rôle. When some of the National Guards murmured at the intrusion of the “ nobility,” which they regarded as a slur on their own ability to defend the Royal Family, Marie Antoinette begged them to be reconciled. “ They are our best friends,” she said ; “ they will share the dangers of the National Guards, they will obey you,” and turning to some grenadiers standing near she added : “ Messieurs, remember that all you hold most dear, your wives, your children, your property, depends on our existence ; our interest is one ; you must not have the least distrust of these brave people, who will defend you to their last breath.” According to Beaulieu, these words had the result of promoting a complete understanding between the two parties of the King’s defenders, and all now stood together, resolved to resist attack by force of arms.
Meanwhile an order to the same effect was given by the attorney-general, Roederer,[53]
and the municipal officer, Leroux, to the troops surrounding the Château, but in so half-hearted a manner as only to increase the audacity of the insurgents ; the gunners defiantly replied by unloading their cannons, and a deputation of seven or eight citizens came forward to demand the deposition of the King. The two magistrates thereupon decided that resistance was useless, and that the King must be persuaded to leave the Château with his family, and take refuge in the hall of the National Assembly. Leroux accordingly returned to the royal apartments and presented himself to the King, who was in his bedroom surrounded by his family and several ministers. The danger, said http://yamaguchy.netfirms.com/webster/frenchrev/fr_rev_05.html (18 of 39)5.4.2006 10:40:20
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Leroux, was now at its height, the National Guards had been corrupted, and the King and Queen, with their children and entourage, would all be massacred if they remained at the Château.
Marie Antoinette had always held that “ a king should die on his throne,” and cried out indignantly that she would rather be nailed to the walls of the Château than leave it ; but Louis XVI., ever anxious to avoid bloodshed, seemed not unwilling to consider the proposal. Seeing this the Queen seized his hand and, raising it to her eyes, covered it with tears. [54] Roederer, arriving a moment later, added his entreaties to those of Leroux,
and to the repeated protests of the Queen replied, “ You wish then, Madame, to make yourself responsible for the death of the King, of your own son, of your daughter, of yourself, and of all those who would defend you.”
And at the mention of her children the Queen, touched in her most vulnerable spot, surrendered.
The King looked at her with tears in his eyes, rose from his seat, and said, “ Allons, marchons.”
His family gathered round him.
“ Monsieur Roederer,” said Madame Elizabeth, “ will you answer for the King’s life ? ” “ Yes, madame, on my own.”
But when, a moment later, the Queen repeated the question, “ Will you answer for the King’s life and for that of my son ? ”
Roederer responded gloomily, “ Madame, we will answer for dying at your side, that is all that we can promise.”
At Roederer’s earnest request none of the Court was allowed to escort the Royal Family to the Assembly, and the King, obviously with the intention of signifying that they were now free to depart, turned to his nobles with the words, “ Come, messieurs, there is nothing more to be done here either for you or me.”
But at the foot of the staircase, overcome with misgivings for their safety, he paused, and looking back at his faithful defenders he said to Roederer, “ But what will become of them all ? ”
“ Sire,” answered Roederer, “ it seemed to me that they were in coloured coats ( i.e. not in uniform) ; those who have swords need only take them off and follow you, going out by the garden.” Yet after this assurance, and although it was at Roederer’s own request that the King left the Château and that the nobles did not escort him, Roederer allowed it to be said by his friend Pétion without contradiction, that the King, “ with complete sangfroid, left his satellites in the Château to be butchered.”[55]
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The Royalists, it is true, were indignant at his departure ; they were all prepared to fight for him, and believed that if he had held his ground and remorselessly ordered the Swiss to fire on the mob, the day would have been won. From the point of view of believers in despotism, the King was guilty therefore of criminal weakness, but for the advocates of democracy to blame him is monstrous. He left the Château solely to avoid bloodshed.
It must be remembered that the attack on the Château had not yet begun, and did not begin until about an hour after the King had left it, and he not unnaturally imagined that since it was against himself the movement was directed, his departure would remove all cause de guerre ; he could not possibly foresee that the revolutionary leaders would be guilty of such inconceivable cowardice as to wreak their vengeance on the unfortunate Swiss Guards—most of them men of the people who were only doing their duty by remaining at their posts. According to Montjoie, the King, on leaving the Château, gave strict orders to the Swiss not to fire on the insurgents, and to offer no resistance whatever happened, thereby depriving the Marseillais of any pretext for aggression, and, whether Montjoie is right or not, this, as we shall see, was precisely the course the Swiss pursued.
The King, satisfied therefore that no hostilities could now take place, led the way to the Assembly. The Queen followed with Madame de Tourzel, each holding a hand of the Dauphin ; Madame Elizabeth with Madame Royale, and the Princesse de Lamballe walked behind them with one of the ministers. An escort, formed of 150 Swiss and 300
National Guards, marched in line on either side of the Royal Family.
In the freshness of the glorious August morning the tragic procession made its way, first down the great central alley of the Tuileries garden, with its cool fountains and blazing flower-beds, then to the right under the shade of the ancient chestnut trees, from which, in the heat of this tropical summer, the leaves had already begun to flutter down on to the pathway, where the gardeners, unmoved by the fall of dynasties, were employed in sweeping them tidily into heaps. Perhaps it was the sudden recall to the normal facts of life produced by this circumstance that prompted the King’s memorable remark, “ The leaves are falling early this year.”
But at the Porte des Feuillants grim realities reasserted themselves. Outside the gateway a crowd of men and women, evidently animated by hostile intentions, were waiting, and it was precisely at this moment, when the Royal Family most needed protection, that Roederer elected to deprive them of their military escort on the ridiculous pretext that the terrace of the Feuillants was the property of the National Assembly. Whether, therefore, by the official stupidity or the deliberate treachery of Roederer, the Royal Family was obliged to go forward into the midst of the crowd escorted only by a few deputies of the Assembly who now came to meet them. Instantly the horde of ruffians surged forward howling execrations. “ No, no, they shall not enter the Assembly, they http://yamaguchy.netfirms.com/webster/frenchrev/fr_rev_05.html (20 of 39)5.4.2006 10:40:20
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are the cause of all our troubles ! Down with them ! Down !” As usual, it was against the Queen that their fury was principally directed, and now, pressing closely around her, they snatched her watch and purse, overwhelming her the while with insults. A man of enormous height and “ atrocious countenance ” seized the Dauphin from his mother, but at the Queen’s cry of terror said reassuringly, “ Do not be afraid. I will do him no harm.” And a passage through the crowd being at last cleared, he carried the boy in his arms to the Assembly.
The Royal Family entered the hall. “ Messieurs,” said Louis XVI., addressing the Assembly, “ I have come here to prevent a great crime, and I think I cannot be more in safety than amongst you, messieurs.”
Alas ! the King had not prevented crimes from taking place on that terrible day. The vengeance of the leaders was not directed only against the King and Royal Family ; other victims had been singled out, and nothing the unfortunate Louis XVI. could have done or said would have availed to slake their thirst for blood. Even as the King uttered these words three heads were carried on pikes past the door of the Assembly.
As usual in the revolutionary outbreaks, the mob collected at the Porte des Feuillants had not come forward spontaneously to insult the Royal Family. The emissaries of the Duc d’Orléans were behind the movement.[56] It was they who told the people that the Royal
Family must not be allowed to take refuge with the Assembly, and it was they who drove the mob to carry out the first proscriptions on the list they had drawn up for the day.
Of all the enemies that the Duc d’Orléans had made for himself during his revolutionary career, none was so violent or so unrelenting as the journalist Suleau. François Louis Suleau was no aristocrat, but the son of a cloth-maker, and he had thrown himself into the counter-revolutionary movement with all the ardour usually to be found only in the opposing camp.
“ A vigorous mind, always giving vent to witty sallies and bursts of boisterous laughter, with an unbridled but infectious gaiety … a Meridional of the North, loving danger for danger’s sake … the joyous champion of lost causes … mocking at a revolution,” [57]
Suleau had all the makings of a rebel, and at the outbreak of the Revolution had marched in the vanguard of insurrection. But before long his fierce love of justice drew him over to the cause of the King, in whom he recognized the one hope of liberty for France, and in his far from respectful Petit Mot à Louis XVI. he frankly declared his reason for this allegiance : “ If the good of humanity and the salvation of my country did not happen to be identified with the interests of your glory, you would find me amongst the most http://yamaguchy.netfirms.com/webster/frenchrev/fr_rev_05.html (21 of 39)5.4.2006 10:40:20
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intrepid in proving to you that I am a man and a citizen before I am your subject.” It was because he hated fraud and imposture, because he dreaded the misfortunes which the usurpation of the throne by the Duc d’Orléans would have brought on France, that from August of 1789 he had devoted all his talents, all his wit and untiring energy, to fighting the Orléaniste conspiracy. Careless of the consequences, perpetually menaced with assassination, Suleau had continued with his pen to attack the duke—“ he had outraged him, threatened him, defied him in every way, before the tribunals and the justice of men, and before the judgement of God.”[58]
Naturally, Suleau’s name had long been on the list of proscriptions drawn up by the Orléanistes. Two days before the 10th of August, Camille Desmoulins, his old college friend, who had remained attached to him in spite of the fact that they were now political antagonists, warned him that his head was one of the first marked down by the leaders of the insurrection, and offered him a refuge in his own house. Suleau refused to compromise his friend, and went forward boldly to meet his fate the sacrifice of his life, he said, had long since been made. At eight o’clock in the morning of the 10th of August, Suleau, who had spent the night in the Tuileries, came out on to the Terrasse des Feuillants where the crowd, set in motion by the Orléanistes, had assembled. His handsome appearance, his fresh attire and glittering sword attracted attention, and he was arrested on the pretext that he formed part of a false patrol. Suleau proved his innocence and was liberated, but the Orléanistes had this time made sure of their victim.
In the Cour des Feuillants Théroigne de Méricourt was waiting for him—Théroigne at the very height of revolutionary frenzy. The little Belgian had a private vengeance to execute in attacking Suleau, for the witty journalist, in his campaign against the Orléaniste conspiracy, had frequently made Théroigne the butt of his pleasantries, and it was not only as a partisan of the duke, but as a woman outraged in her vanity and even in her prudery—for fille de joie though she was, Théroigne could endure no imputations on her “ virtue ”—that she longed to plunge her dagger into the heart of her persecutor.
Yet it would be absurd to accept the view of M. Louis Blanc that Théroigne was acting independently on this occasion, for it was always as an agent of the Duc d’Orléans that she had figured in the revolutionary movement, it was as an Orléaniste that she had incurred the animosity of Robespierre and Collot d’Herbois, [59] and since, as we have
seen, it was the Orléanistes who had planned the death of Suleau, it was obviously at their bidding that she carried out the design. Her personal rancour merely lent a sharper edge to her fury, which at this crisis reached a pitch bordering on the insanity that was later on to become chronic. Théroigne, on the morning of this 10th of August, was nearly as mad as the enraged hyena that afterwards bore her name in the Salpétrière, but this madness that was to rob her of all semblance to a human being gave her to-day a http://yamaguchy.netfirms.com/webster/frenchrev/fr_rev_05.html (22 of 39)5.4.2006 10:40:20
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kind of diabolical beauty which amazed all beholders. Dressed in a blue riding-habit, wearing on her head a feathered hat à la Henri IV., with a pair of pistols and a dagger in her belt, the little creature seemed suddenly to have recovered her lost youth, for her face, haggard in repose, was now lit by an inward fire that glowed in her dark skin, and flamed forth from her eyes obliterating the ravages of ill-spent years. Thiébault, meeting her at this moment, took her to be only twenty—no woman, he wrote long afterwards had ever made such an impression on him : “ I say, with a sort of horror, that she was pretty, very pretty, her excitement enhanced her beauty … for she was in the throes of revolutionary hysteria impossible to describe.”
Forcing a passage through the crowd in the Cour des Feuillants with the cry of “ Make way ! Make way ! ” Théroigne sprang on to a cannon and shouted, “ How long will you allow yourselves to be misled with vain words ? ” Playing on the passions of the mob she urged them to violence. “ Where is Suleau—the Abbé Suleau ? ” she cried, for she had never seen her enemy and imagined him to be a priest.
Then Suleau saw his death had been resolved on, and, hoping by the sacrifice of his life to avoid further bloodshed, said to the National Guards around him, “ I see that to-day the people wish for blood ; perhaps one victim will suffice, let me go toward, them. I will pay for all.” The Guards attempted to detain him, but Suleau rushed forward to face his assassins. For the first time these two sworn foes—the little virago mounted on the cannon, and the young man in all the beauty of his strength and fierce courage—looked each other in the eyes. The moment of reckoning had come at last. Terrible in her rage, Théroigne sprang upon her victim, seized him by the collar, and, with the aid of the armed ruffians in her following, dragged him towards the courtyard. But if Suleau was prepared to die, he went not as a lamb to the slaughter ; ever a fighter, he contrived to possess himself of a sabre and fought his assailants like a lion. Three other victims fell beside him—the gigantic Abbé Bouyon and two officers of the King’s old bodyguard, M. de Solminiac and M. du Vigier, known for his beauty as “ le beau Vigier.” At last Suleau, seeing that he too must now be overwhelmed, crossed his arms and cried out defiantly, “ Kill me, then, and see how a Royalist can die ! ” Instantly Théroigne and her murderous horde closed upon him—Suleau fell pierced with dagger thrusts. His lifeless body was dragged to the Place Vendôme and hacked to pieces. Then that noble head was raised on a pike and carried in triumph[60] past the door of the Assembly at the moment the Royal Family entered the hall.
Whilst these scenes were taking place around the Salle du Manège, confusion reigned at the Château. The troops, left by the death of Mandat without a leader, could decide on no plan of campaign ; some were for leaving their post and retiring to barracks, http://yamaguchy.netfirms.com/webster/frenchrev/fr_rev_05.html (23 of 39)5.4.2006 10:40:20
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declaring that now the Royal Family had gone nothing but bricks and mortar remained to be defended. The gendarmerie stationed on the Place du Louvre being of this opinion calmly withdrew to the Palais Royal, leaving the approach to the Château open to the enemy.
But the nobles who remained in the royal apartments were for standing their ground ; only a few of their number had followed the King, and the rest, rallying round the Maréchal de Mailly, enthusiastically concurred in his plan for resisting invasion to the last. “ Here are the gallants I Here are the last of the nobility,” cried the heroic old man as this pathetic legion ranged itself in order of battle ; “ the post of a general and of his companions-in-arms is at the place where the throne is attacked and in peril ! ” And as he went up and down the ranks he continued to repeat, “ Conquer or die, gentlemen, conquer or die ! ”
The first detachment of the Marseillais had now arrived on the Carrousel, but here a delay occurred in the attack on the Château, for the Faubourgs failed to put in an appearance. Once again Balaam’s ass had refused to go forward. Santerre indeed, who was to lead Saint-Antoine, “ the Faubourg of glory,” to the assault, seemed at the last moment overcome with panic, and urged his battalions not to march on the Château, where he said the Royalists were assembled in force. Thereupon Westermann, holding his sword to Santerre’s throat, ordered him to lead on his men, and Santerre obeyed ; but at the Hôtel de Ville he contrived to have himself elected commander-in-chief, and, on the pretext that his post should now be at headquarters, absented himself from the army and was seen no more all day.
At last the Faubourgs, commanded by Westermann and Lazowski, arrived on the field of battle before the entrance to the Château. Such was the attacking army—a vanguard of Marseillais largely composed of Italians, a reluctant rearguard from the Faubourgs led by a German and a Pole. [61] And this was the French people rising as one man to
overthrow the monarchy !
At the first onslaught the Marseillais and the confederates from Brest, in Brittany, alone displayed any resolution, and it was they who advanced towards the courtyards from which the Swiss and National Guards had retreated into the palace, [62] and beat on the great gates of the Château demanding admittance. The royal concierges withdrew the bolts and fled. A band of Marseillais rushed forward into the arms of the gunners of the National Guard, who, always the disloyal element in this body, immediately joined forces with the insurgents, and bringing out their cannons pointed them against the Château.
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the revolutionary battalions had penetrated into the Carrousel and the courtyards reassured the most timorous, and streams of idlers, ever eager for a spectacle, hurried to the scene of action.
Only about 750 Swiss, a handful of National Guards, and 200 nobles now remained to defend the Château. If only the Swiss, therefore, could be suborned or vanquished, further resistance would be impossible ; and the mob, seeing a number of these men looking down on them from the windows, shouted loudly, “ Down with the Swiss ! Lay down your arms ! ”
The Swiss, who entertained no hostile feelings towards the people, replied with conciliatory gestures by way of persuading them to desist from attack, and the better to prove their pacific intentions, threw down packets of cartridges amongst them.
But the group of Swiss sentinels drawn up at the foot of the staircase [63] presented a
more formidable appearance, and for a quarter of an hour this gallant band held the immense mob at bay by their intrepid air and resolute countenances. At last a dozen Marseillais, led by Westermann, ventured forward and ordered the men to lay down their arms, adding, “We have come to fraternize with you.”
The Swiss, who understood little French, remained immovable. Westermann repeated the demand in German, urging them not to sacrifice their lives at the bidding of their officers.
To this the Sergeant Blazer replied : “ We are Swiss, and the Swiss only lay down their arms with their lives. We do not consider we have deserved such an insult. If the regiment is not needed let it be legally ordered to retire, but we will not leave our posts and we will not be disarmed.” [64]
Thereupon Westermann and his troops retreated, for it was never the revolutionary way to advance upon armed men, however inferior in number, and none of the “ brave Marseillais ” felt inclined to engage the Swiss in open combat. Some of the insurgents happened, however, to be armed with long pikes hooked at the end, and these ruffians now ventured forward and, whilst remaining out of range of the sentinels’ swords, contrived to harpoon five of the unfortunate men, dragging them at the same time towards them by means of the hooks affixed in their clothing. [65] This manœuvre
delighted the mob, who gathered round with shrieks of laughter, whilst the five Swiss were disarmed, stripped, and finally massacred at the foot of the staircase. [66] Suddenly
a shot was fired—by whom contemporaries are unable to agree in stating. The revolutionaries, of course, declared the Swiss were the aggressors, but D’Ossonville, an eyewitness, afterwards an agent of the Comité de Salut Public in the Terror, who as a revolutionary could have no object in whitewashing the Swiss, asserts that “ several http://yamaguchy.netfirms.com/webster/frenchrev/fr_rev_05.html (25 of 39)5.4.2006 10:40:20
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rebels having dressed up in Swiss uniform slipped amongst their ranks, fired on the insurgents, and directly the first report was heard, women, purposely stationed on the terrace, began to call out, ‘ Ah ! the rascals of Swiss are firing on our brothers the patriots ! ’ At the same moment the fight began, and became general… . This is what has remained unknown but what I saw and observed. But it was necessary to say that the King had ordered the attack when he had expressly forbidden it.” [67]
The question of this discharge is, however, a matter of little importance, for the point is not who fired the first shot, but who shed the first blood. It was not the report of a gun that gave the signal for battle, but the cowardly murder of the five sentinels, and if the Swiss then fired they were in no way the aggressors.[68]
At any rate they did fire now, and they fired vigorously ; a perfect hail of musketry swept the front ranks of the assailants, whereupon the Swiss on the upper floors, with the nobles and the National Guards, joined in the fusillade, shooting down at the crowd from the balconies, roofs, and windows.
The effect of this was terrific, for the insurgents, after responding with a few cannon-balls, so uncertainly aimed as to do little damage, were suddenly overcome with panic, and all at once the vast mass of people that filled the courtyards and the Carrousel wavered, drew back, and finally stampeded.[69] The scene that followed was indescribable—hardy Bretons, brave Marseillais, red-capped Sans-Culottes armed with pikes, female “ patriots ” dragging terrified children by the hand, all running madly for their lives, and even springing over the parapet into the river ; mounted police tearing away at full gallop, crushing passers-by beneath their horses’ feet, and all “ pale as spectres,” all screaming as they fled, “To arms, citizens, to arms ! they slaughter your parents, your brothers, your sons ! ” [70] Through every exit from the Carrousel they
rushed frantically, falling over each other in the struggle ; on through the streets they ran, nor did some stop running until they reached the Faubourg Saint-Antoine, where they bolted themselves within their doors for safety.[71]
The Château had now scored a complete victory ; the only insurgents who remained to carry on the siege took refuge behind the buildings at the other side of the Carrousel, from which point they continued to discharge their cannons spasmodically at the palace, and, by way of variation, set fire to the buildings surrounding the courtyard. The Swiss, seeing that the whole front of the Château was now cleared of assailants, triumphantly descended to the courtyards, and carried off some of the cannons left behind by the Marseillais in their flight.
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the gallant Swiss ? But that malignant fate which ordained that at every crisis of the Revolution the King should fall a victim to treacherous counsels still pursued him, and a lying message was brought to the Assembly that the Swiss were “ massacring the people,” and also that the Château was about to be forced. Panic-stricken deputies gathered around him, entreating him to intervene on behalf of his people. Louis XVI., who knew nothing beyond what he was told, which seemed to be confirmed by the roar of battle and the crashing of cannon-balls on the roof of the Assembly, concluded that his orders not to fire on the mob had been wantonly disobeyed, and therefore allowed himself to be persuaded to write the fatal message to the Swiss, commanding them to cease fire and join him at the hall of the Assembly.
“ This order,” says Beaulieu, “ may be regarded as the last blow dealt at the monarchy. I have reason to believe, on account of all I observed, that if the King’s defenders had made the most of their advantage the King would, in the course of the day, have been on his throne again. I know that several battalions were on the march to defend the Château, and amongst them those of the Champs Élysées and the Pont Neuf. If only one of these had arrived in time it would have sufficed to ensure victory and give courage to the Swiss, who till then had acted alone, but when these battalions saw that all had been abandoned they joined themselves to those they had wished to repulse against those they intended to defend ; this is what has always been seen and always will be seen to happen in all revolutions.”
This disastrous act which sealed the fate of the monarchy was quickly noised abroad, and put fresh heart into the revolutionary legions. The Swiss had been forbidden by the King to fire on them—therefore they might with impunity return to the charge and massacre the Swiss ! [72]
When, in obedience to the King’s order, two columns of Swiss abandoned their posts and marched through the garden of the Tuileries, a hail of musketry fire was directed on them by insurgents concealed behind the trees. One column succeeded in reaching the Assembly in safety, and these men, together with their comrades who had accompanied the King to the Assembly, were deposited in the Church of the Feuillants and survived the massacre. But the other column, which had marched on towards the swing bridge leading to the Place Louis XV., were pitilessly butchered ; many fell beneath the chestnut trees of the garden ; the rest having reached the statue of Louis XV. in the centre of the great square, formed themselves into a phalanx and prepared for defence, but the mounted police charged them with their sabres and cut them down almost to a man. Napoleon, who passed through the garden at this moment, declared at the end of his life that none of his battlefields had given him the idea of so many corpses as the Tuileries on this August morning strewn with the bodies of the Swiss.
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The entire garrison, however, had not evacuated the palace ; 300 to 400 Swiss, who had either not heard or not obeyed the order to retire,[73] still remained in the King’s apartments, where a cannon-ball, bursting in amongst them, had killed or wounded a great number. [74] These soldiers, a few nobles and ladies of the Court, and about one hundred servants were, therefore, the sole occupants of the Château, which after the King’s order to cease fire put up no further defence. The insurgents behind the Carrousel, finding that their fire now met with no reply, ventured at last timorously forward across the courtyards, and finally entered the hall of the palace, evacuated five minutes earlier by the two columns of Swiss. The impunity with which this manœuvre was executed reassured the crowd that lingered at a distance ; stragglers poured in from all sides, and before long an immense tumultuous mob burst into the hall of the Château.
So they had burst into this same hall seven weeks earlier ; so they had stormed up the great staircase breathing threatenings and slaughter, only to be brought to bay when they reached their goal ; now, with the ferocious Marseillais at their head, there was to be no pause, no relenting, and like a devastating torrent they swept onwards and spread themselves all over the palace.
A mad rage for destruction possessed them ; everything animate or inanimate fell beneath the blows of their pikes and muskets, furniture was flung from the windows, the great mirrors in which “ Médicis-Antoinette had studied the hypocritical airs she showed in public ”[75] flew into a thousand fragments ; treasures of art, clocks, pictures,
porcelain, silver, jewels, were pillaged or destroyed. All the Swiss—the soldiers who had remained at their posts, even the wounded lying helpless on the floors and the doctors bending over them to dress their wounds—were barbarously butchered ; rivers of blood flowed over the shining parquet of the great apartments. Everywhere the savage horde pursued their victims, the grey-haired porters were dragged forth from their lodges, fugitives were tracked down to the deepest cellars, up to the remotest attics, and put to death. In the Queen’s bedroom women of the town tore open the wardrobes and dressed themselves in the Queen’s gowns ; one throwing herself on the bed cried out that some one was concealed beneath the bedding, and the mattress being torn off amidst drunken laughter, a trembling Swiss was discovered and massacred. The scenes that took place were so unspeakably hideous that one would thankfully draw a veil over what followed, but if we are to understand the French Revolution as it really was, if we are to see this 10th of August, so vaunted by revolutionary writers, in its true colours, we must look facts in the face. And in full justice to the people one circumstance must not be forgotten—the mob that committed these atrocities was literally mad with drink. For in that first wild onrush a band of insurgents had found their way down to the cellars and http://yamaguchy.netfirms.com/webster/frenchrev/fr_rev_05.html (28 of 39)5.4.2006 10:40:20
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gorged themselves with wine and liqueurs.[76] No less than two hundred, says Prudhomme, died of the effects. Then, whilst some remained lying in helpless stupor on the cellar floors, others bore supplies to their comrades up above—the contents of 10,000 bottles were distributed amongst the mob ;[77] the garden and courtyards around
the Château became a sea of broken glass. The effect of this indiscriminate carousing on unaccustomed liquors wildly mingled was to produce in the people a condition of complete dementia, and it is as creatures deprived of all reasoning faculty, of all semblance to humanity, no more responsible for their actions than Bedlam suddenly turned loose, that we must regard them.
For on this dreadful 10th of August, alone amongst all the great days of the Revolution in Paris, it was by “ the people ” that these atrocities were committed. The savage Marseillais showed themselves less ferocious. All the ladies of the Court were spared by order of their leaders, the word being given, “ We do not kill women.” [78]
Fifty or sixty of the flying Swiss were also saved by them ; [79] stranger still, the warlike
old Maréchal de Mailly succeeded in disarming his assailants. “ The face of the Maréchal,” says Soulavie, “ having arrested the hand of a confederate who had raised his arm to kill him, this man asks who he is, seizes him, pretends to ill-treat him, tells him to keep silence, pushes aside the crowd, and leads him back safe and sound to his house.” [80]
The King’s doctor, Lemonnier, was likewise led home in triumph. During the invasion of the Château he had remained quietly seated in his study; suddenly “ men with blood-stained arms ” battered on the panels of the door. The old man opened to them. “ What are you doing here ? ” they said. “ You are very quiet.”
“ I am at my post.”
“ What are you at the Château ? ”
“ Do you not see by my coat ? I am the King’s doctor.”
“ And are you not afraid ? ”
“ Of what ? I am unarmed. Does one injure a man who does no injury ? ” “ You are a good fellow. Listen ; it is not well for you here ; others less reasonable than us might confound you with the rest. You are not safe. Where would you like to be taken ? ”
“ To the Palace of the Luxembourg.”
“ Come, follow us and fear nothing.”
“ I have already told you I have no fear of those to whom I have done no harm.” Then they led him through the serried ranks of bayonets and loaded guns, crying out before him as they went, “ Comrades, let this man pass. He is the King’s doctor, but he http://yamaguchy.netfirms.com/webster/frenchrev/fr_rev_05.html (29 of 39)5.4.2006 10:40:20
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is not afraid ; he is a good fellow.”[81]
It is not, then, to the Marseillais that the greatest atrocities of the day must be attributed, but to the people, or rather to the populace of Paris—above all to the women, and, as in all the revolutionary outbreaks, it was “ the people ” themselves who fared worst at their hands.
To the servants in particular the mob showed no mercy. They, poor souls, had not thought of flying ; many, indeed, were imbued with revolutionary doctrines,[82] and,
little dreaming that the rage of the populace would be turned against themselves, remained calmly at their work, in the midst of which the drunken mob surprised them.
The kitchens, like the gilded apartments up above, became a shambles ; every man from the head chefs to the humblest scullions perished—“ the cooks’ heads fell into the saucepans, where they were preparing the viands.”[83]
“ Oh ! height of barbarism ! ” cries Mercier, “ a wretched undercook, who had not had time to escape, was seized by these tigers, thrust into a copper, and in this state exposed to the heat of the furnace. Then falling on the provisions every one seizes what he can lay hands on. One carries off chickens on a spit ; another a turbot ; that one a carp from the Rhine as large as himself … monsters with human faces collected in hundreds under the porch of the Escalier du Midi, and danced amidst torrents of blood and wine. A murderer played the violin beside the corpses, and thieves, with their pockets full of gold, hanged other thieves on the banisters.” [84] Still worse horrors took place that cannot be written, nameless indecencies, hideous debaucheries, ghastly mutilations of the dead,[85] and again, as after the siege of the Bastille, cannibal orgies. Before great fires, hastily kindled in the apartments, “ cutlets of Swiss ” were grilled and eaten ; [86]
the actor Grammont—one of the earliest hirelings of the Duc d’Orléans, and the last man to insult the Queen on her way to the scaffold—in a fit of revolutionary frenzy drank down a glass of blood.[87]
Outside, in the garden of the Château, ghastly scenes met the eye ; on the lifeless bodies of the Swiss women perched like vultures, gloating over their victims ; a young girl of eighteen was seen plunging a sabre into the corpses. [88]
Needless to say, the mass of the true people took no part in these atrocities. “ Peaceful citizens,” says Mercier, “ whom curiosity had attracted to the Tuileries to discover whether the Château still existed, wandered slowly, struck with gloomy stupor, along the terrace covered with broken bottles. They did not weep, they seemed petrified, dumbfounded ; they shrank with horror at each footstep at the odour and the aspect of these bleeding corpses… .”
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THE RÔLE OF THE LEADERS
But whilst the true people shuddered, the authors of the day knew no pity. To them the 10th of August was a “ glorious day,” for which each one was now eager to claim the responsibility. Directly the Château had fallen and the mob had proved victorious, every patriot came bravely to the fore. “ Danton,” says Louvet, “ who had concealed himself during the battle, appeared after the victory armed with a huge sabre, and marching at the head of a battalion of Marseillais as if he had been the hero of the day.” The other “ great revolutionaries ” had all remained likewise in their hiding-places until the danger was past. What, asks Prudhomme, were the leading Jacobins doing during the attack on the Château ? “ They knew everything ; none of them appeared in arms at the siege of the Tuileries. Marat, Robespierre, [89] Danton, not one of them dared to show
himself. All these people invariably displayed the greatest bravery, but only in the tribune ; the tongue was their favourite weapon. The few Jacobins who came out prudently placed themselves at the tail of the bands of Marseillais and Bretons. There is nothing more cowardly than a revolutionary from speculation ! ” [90]
But if it was not to the efforts of these men that the 10th of August owed its triumph, the excesses of the day lie at their door alone. Is not the instigator of a crime infinitely more criminal than the wretched instrument who commits it ? And were not the orators and writers—Marat, Danton, Desmoulins, Brissot, Carra, Madame Roland—more truly the authors of these excesses than the crazed and drunken populace who put their precepts into practice ? For the cannibals of the Tuileries, the horrible women of the Paris Faubourgs plunging their knives into the bodies of their victims, had not evolved such deeds from their own inner consciousness ; for months they had been trained for the part at the Sociétés Fraternelles of the Jacobins, where murder and violence were systematically preached, and every means employed to excite their passions. It will be urged that they themselves must have been inherently evil to respond in so atrocious a manner to the suggestions of their leaders ; the old theory of “ Parisian ferocity ” will be brought forward to explain the phenomenon. But we have only to study the memoirs of the period to discover that it was not the women of Paris alone on whom these doctrines produced the same dehumanizing effect.
Thus, for example, Thiébault, himself an ardent democrat, relates that soon after the 10th of August he dined with certain Prussian friends of his, Monsieur and Madame Bitaube, and amongst the guests were Chamfort, the Orléaniste, and an English authoress, Helen Maria Williams. Chamfort delighted Miss Williams with his revolutionary verses, and http://yamaguchy.netfirms.com/webster/frenchrev/fr_rev_05.html (31 of 39)5.4.2006 10:40:20
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Thiébault adds : “ The thing that struck me most was the political exaggeration of Miss Williams, who showed herself an enthusiast for our Revolution, even for its excesses, which in my opinion damned it.” Still more amazing was the attitude of the two good Germans. “ That M. and Mme. Bitaube,” says Thiebault, “ who were both over sixty, who were all that is best on this earth, who were distinguished, he for his merit, she for her fine and gentle wit, should have shown themselves more revolutionary than their two guests, that they should have become apologists of the 10th of August, that astounded me ! But it is not the only example I could quote of this kind of aberration.” [91]
In order to appreciate the attitude of Miss Williams and her worthy German friends, we must refer to a description of the state of Paris at this moment given by Mr. Burges in a letter to Lord Auckland, dated September 4. “ The English messenger, Morley,” Burges writes, “ has just returned from Paris, where he relates that pestilence is now expected.
It was found easier to kill than to bury the victims of the 10th. Those who were amused by shedding blood soon grew tired of digging graves ; of course great numbers were put out of the way somewhat carelessly, and the cellars and other subterraneous places were found convenient receptacles for the dead bodies ; into these immense numbers were thrown, and when they were full they were shut up in the best way the hurry of the operation would permit. The natural consequences of interment now began to manifest themselves pretty strongly. Morley says that, being obliged, the last day or two he continued in Paris, to run about the town a good deal for his passports, he was saluted in several streets with such whiffs of putrefaction as to be obliged to cover his face and run off as fast as he could.”[92]
Under these circumstances it was not possible for a moment to forget the recent massacres, whilst the chaotic state of the capital made it evident that the atrocities, which had just taken place, were but the prelude to others still more dreadful. “ Ah ! how fortunate you are not to inhabit this town,” writes a Parisian to a friend in the country on August 16. “ People who think know no rest night or day. Every day, on rising, one hears of the death of neighbours or friends. So far these are only roseleaves—the end of the month provides us with greater dangers.”[93]
“ You think,” write two other contemporaries, “ that one can see these horrors without shuddering ? One would be almost a barbarian ! ” [94]
Yet it is no barbarian but an educated Englishwoman, an “ intellectual ” and a sentimentalist, that we find dining out amidst these ghastly scenes and enthusiastically applauding them. Let us have done, then, with the futile theory of “ Parisian ferocity ” by which panegyrists of the Revolution would explain its crimes ; these crimes were not accidental to the Revolution, they were not the outcome of the Latin temperament, but http://yamaguchy.netfirms.com/webster/frenchrev/fr_rev_05.html (32 of 39)5.4.2006 10:40:20
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the direct result of those doctrines which produced in men and women of all nations, whether English, French, or German, a ferocity that knew no relenting.
THE RÔLE OF THE INTRIGUES
Helen Maria Williams was not unique amongst her race, for although the great mass of the English people shuddered at the atrocities of August 10, and the Court of St. James’s withdrew its ambassador from Paris, the “ English Jacobins ” accorded their whole-hearted approval to their French allies. We shall reserve their congratulatory letters and addresses, however, till the end of the next chapter, for it was not until the massacres of September that their admiration was roused to its fullest pitch.
Prussia, needless to say, found likewise cause for rejoicing in the attack on the Tuileries and the subsequent imprisonment of the Royal Family in the Temple “ The most splendid dream a king can dream,” Frederick the Great had been known to say, “ is to dream that he is King of France.” The 10th of August had removed all cause for envy from Frederick’s successor.
As to the Girondins and Orléanistes who had engineered the movement, their triumph was destined to be short-lived. True, the throne was now vacant, and thus the first step had been taken towards a change of dynasty. But the laying of the mine had proved unskilful ; too much dynamite had been employed, and the charge by which they had intended to blast their way to power had produced an explosion so terrific as to involve the whole existing order of things in chaos.
The effect of the 10th of August was to paralyse France. “ The terror that it spread,” says Hua, “ was almost universal. In a few places there was an attempt at resistance, but nowhere could it be organized. All action to be powerful must emanate from a centre ; the Revolution proved a thousand times that the fate of the departments is decided in Paris : those same authorities that had protested so energetically against the day of June the 20th were silent before that of August the 10th.” [95]
Lafayette alone dared to raise his voice in remonstrance ; and as soon as the news of the events in Paris reached him on the frontier, he issued a proclamation to the army asking them, “ as good citizens and brave soldiers, to rally around the Constitution that they had sworn to defend to the death.” But although the troops immediately under his orders “ showed by their cries of indignation that they shared the sentiments of their general,”[96]
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owing to the opposition of his fellow-generals—Lückner, hitherto loyal to the King, prudently went over to the stronger side, the Jacobins ; Dumouriez resumed his Orléaniste intrigues ; Dillon, who at first had seconded the protests of Lafayette, grew panic-stricken and recanted.
The power of the Jacobins carried all before it. The mayor of Sedan and the administrators of the Ardennes were arrested ; and on the 19th of August the Assembly, trembling beneath the dictates of the Commune, issued a writ against “ Motier Lafayette, heretofore general of the army of the North, convicted of the crime of rebellion against the law, of conspiracy against liberty, and of treachery to the nation.” Then Lafayette, once the gaoler of his King, himself tasted the pleasures of captivity.
Reduced to the same expedient as the unfortunate Louis XVI.—flight to the frontier—he was arrested by the Austrians and imprisoned in the fortress of Magdeburg, where he had leisure to reconsider his earlier dictum that “ insurrection is the most sacred of duties.”
The insurrection of August 10 appeared, at any rate to Lafayette, an immeasurable disaster ; it was not, however, the final destruction of the Old Régime, but the destruction of new-found liberty he deplored.
“ I know well,” he wrote to the Duc de Rochefoucauld on the 25th of August, “ that they will have talked about plots at the Château, collusion with the enemy, follies of all kinds committed by the Court ; I am not its confidant nor its apologist ; but the constitutional act is there, and it is not the King who has violated it ; the Château did not go to attack the Faubourgs, nor were the Marseillais summoned by him. The preparations that have been made during the last three weeks were denounced by the King. It was not he who had women and children massacred, who gave over to execution all those who were known for their attachment to the Constitution, who in one day destroyed the liberty of the press, of the posts, judgement by jury … in a word, everything that assures the liberty of men and of nations.”
Lafayette had not overstated the case ; in the chaos that followed on the 10th of August the cause of liberty perished utterly, and the people, ostensibly the victors of the day, lost everything they had gained by the Revolution.
At first the rage for destruction that had held the mob under its sway during the attack on the Tuileries, and that continued throughout the weeks that followed, gave to the people some semblance of power. Whilst overthrowing the splendid statues of the kings in all the squares of Paris, the populace were able to imagine themselves indeed the “ Sovereign people,” but already their new masters were at work forging the chains that were to bind them in a servitude such as they had never known before.
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On the 17th of August, at the instigation of Robespierre, the “ Tribunal Criminel,” precursor to the Revolutionary Tribunal of the Terror, was inaugurated by the Commune. Five days later Dr. Moore records that “ a new kind of lettres de cachet are being issued by the Commune of Paris in great profusion,” and “ what makes this more dreadful is … that a man when arrested and sent to prison does not know how long he may be confined before he has an opportunity of proving his innocence.” More sinister still was the appearance on the Place du Carrousel of that new instrument, the guillotine—symbol of the new era that was to dawn on France. For although revolutionary factions and populace alike rejoiced at their supposed victory, the 10th of August inaugurated the reign of neither Orléanistes, Girondins, nor “ Sovereign people,” but of one intrigue only, the intrigue that from the beginning of the Revolution had been slowly gaining force, and that in sweeping away king, nobles, and clergy was to destroy not only the throne itself, but all government, all religion, and establish in their place—the reign of Anarchy.
1. Albert Sorel has thus admirably explained the policy of the King of Prussia in marching to the rescue of Louis XVI. “ Conquests having escaped him,” Frederick William “ perceived that he had great duties to fulfil towards the world, towards kings, towards Germany. He forgot the Hungarians he had stirred up ; the Belgians to whom he had promised independence ; the Turks, the Swedes, and the Poles he had goaded into war… . Goltz provided the arguments necessary to convince … Frederick William. This perfect Prussian who had been employing himself in Paris … in shaking the throne, recognized that it would be at the same time more praiseworthy, more expedient, and more profitable to raise it up again.” Goltz further calculated that France would have to compensate Austria by giving up to her Alsace or Flanders, and Austria should then, in order to maintain the balance of power, give up to Prussia equivalent territory in Bohemia and Moldavia ( L’Europe et la Révolution Française, ii. 72).
2. Le Comte de Fersen et ta Cour de France, ii. 25.
3. Beaulieu, iv. 172.
4. Mémoires de Barère, ii. 45.
5. Correspondance secrète, p. 614, date of August 10, 1792.
6. Révolutions de Paris, by Prudhomme, xiii. 139.
7. Histoire de la Terreur, by Mortimer Ternaux, ii. 104.
8. Mémoires de Barbaroux, p. 44.
9. Beaulieu, iii. 409. Note the wording of one of these petitions where the fédérés describe themselves as Scaevolas ! (Buchez et Roux, xvi. 250).
10. Pièces importantes pour l’Histoire, quoted by Buchez et Roux, xvi. 189-192 ; Mortimer Ternaux, ii. 129.
11. Letter from M. Lefebvre d’Arcy to M. Vanlerberghe in Lettres d’Aristocrates, by Pierre de Vaissière, p. 469.
See also Ferrières, iii. 153 : “ The people of Paris, tired of being continually tossed about, … remained in apathetic repose.”
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12. Mémoires de Barbaroux, p. 57.
13. See also Crimes de la Révolution, by Prudhomme, vi. 115, and Mémoires de Hua, p. 153, note : “ This horde of bandits . . was a collection of foreign adventurers : Genoese, Maltese, Piedmontais, Corsicans, Greeks, vagabonds, having for their principal leaders one named Fournier dit l’Américain and the Pole Lazowski.” “ Fifty Genoese,” says Beaulieu, “ were lodged together in the Rue Sainte-Marguerite, Faubourg Saint-Antoine. Many others could be cited ; the most furious revolutionaries, those who committed murders, were to a great extent foreigners, and the famous battalion from Marseilles included a great number of them ; I heard their accent, their bad jargon, and can certify this.”
14. Taine, La Révolution, v. 272 ; Crimes de la Révolution, by Prudhomme, iv. 96 ; Adolphus, ii. 346.
15. The mother of Rouget de l’Isle wrote to him at this moment the following words : “ What is this revolutionary hymn which is sung by a horde of brigands on their way across France and with which your name is associated ? ” Rouget de l’Isle was imprisoned later under the Terror and the mayor Dietrich was guillotined. Thus did the Revolution reward the authors of the “ Marseillaise.”
16. Mémoires de Thiébault, i. 296.
17. Beaulieu, iii. 428.
18. This statement was made by Carra in the Annales Patriotiques on the 28th of July before the appeal to the sections had been made, and was therefore a pure invention.
19. Mortimer Ternaux, ii. 441.
20. Address from the section of the Arsenal (Buchez et Roux, xvi. 330). See also the protests of the sections of the “ Thermes de Jullien ” and “ Henri IV.” (Buchez et Roux, xvi. 374).
Even the fourteen sections who nominally voted their support were far from representative of the wishes of the districts in question, for, as usual, every kind of trickery was employed. A citizen of the section of Mauconseil appeared at the Assembly and declared that “ the address of this section for the dethronement of the King had been secured by intrigue and that many of the signatures were forged ; he was able even to give names and addresses that had been fraudulently introduced into the petition.” (Buchez et Roux, xvi. 344).
21. Buchez et Roux, xvi. 323.
22. Séance du 3 Juillet, Moniteur, xiii. 32.
23. Moniteur, xiii. 86.
24. Ibid. xiii. 242.
25. Ibid. xiii. 279.
26. Deux Amis, viii. 94.
27. Crimes de la Révolution, by Prudhomme, iv. 213 ; Mémoires de Hua, p. 141. Boze was arrested for this by order of Tallien on January 3, 1793 ( La Demagogie à Paris en 1993, by C.A. Dauban, p. 8).
28. Beaulieu, iii. 408.
29. Crimes de la Révolution, by Prudhomme, iv. 212.
30. Mémoires de Barbaroux, p. 60.
31. Beaulieu, iv. 17.
32. Mémoires de Lafayette, iii. 85 ; Mémoires de Hua, p. 149.
33. Crimes de la Révolution, iv. 216.
34. Histoire des Causes de la Révolution Française, by Granier de Cassagnac, iii. 456 ; Journal d’un Bourgeois de http://yamaguchy.netfirms.com/webster/frenchrev/fr_rev_05.html (36 of 39)5.4.2006 10:40:20
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Paris, by Edmond Bire, i. 290.
35. Mémoires de Mme. Roland, i. 157 ; Mémoires du Chancelier Pasquier, p. 81.
36. Ferrières, iii. 204 ; Robespierre, Défenseur de la Constitution, No. 12.
37. Beaulieu, iii. 448. This manœuvre is described in almost the same words by Montjoie, Conjuration de d’Orléans, iii. 189. See also the Histoire de la Conspiration du 10 Août, by Bigot de Sainte-Croix, p. 21, and the Révolution du 10 Août, by Peltier, i. 73 : “ The fatal hour strikes, the tocsin makes itself heard, the générale is sounded, 300 rebels assemble the sham sections. All the citizens were with their battalions. At the section of the Lombards only eight people are to be found to name five commissioners.” The researches of Mortimer Ternaux confirm these statements : “ At the Arsenal six people who happen to be in the hall of the committee name three amongst them to represent 1400 ‘ active citizens ’ ( i.e. citizens who had the right to vote). Things happen much in the same way at the Louvre, the Observatoire, and the Roi de Sicile ” ( Histoire de la Terreur, ii. 234). 2
38. For example, the sections of Montreuil, the Roi de Sicile, the Invalides and Sainte-Geneviève (Mortimer Ternaux, ii. 427, 431, 434, 437).
39. Buchez et Roux, xvi. 423 ; Mortimer Ternaux, ii. 240, 444.
40. Crimes de la Révolution, by Prudhomme, iv. 73.
41. Marat wrote three times to Barbaroux on this subject. “ On the evening of the 9th,” says Barbaroux, “ he informed me that nothing was more urgent, and again proposed to me that he should disguise himself as a jockey ” ( Mémoires de Barbaroux, pp. 61, 62).
42. Mortimer Ternaux, ii. 241. See also Marat’s placard issued from his “ subterranean retreat ” ( Marat, by A.
Bougeart, ii. 36).
43. Ferrières, iii. 201 ; Barbaroux, p. 82 ; Maton de la Varenne, p. 228.
44. Danton admitted this in his trial : “ I drew up the death-warrant of Mandat who had been ordered to fire on the people.” See Notes de Topino Lebrun sur le procès de Danton.
45. Récit du 10 Août par Pétion, maire de Paris.
46. Peltier, Révolution du 10 Août, i. 83, 84 ; Montjoie, Conjuration de d’Orléans, iii. 197 ; Journal of Dr. John Moore, i. 151.
47. Mémoires de Mme. Campan, p. 342 ; Mémoires de Malouet, ii. 141.
48. See Pétion’s own naive account of this manœuvre in reply to Robespierre’s accusation later on that he had not contributed to the 10th of August : “ To reconcile my official position as mayor with my fixed resolution to forward the movement, it had been arranged that I should be arrested, so as not to be able to oppose any legal authority to it ; but in the hurry and agitation of the moment this was forgotten … Who do you think sent several times to urge the execution of this plan ? It was I, yes, I myself ; because as soon as I knew that the movement was general, far from thinking of arresting it I was resolved to facilitate it ” ( Observations de J. Pétion sur la Lettre de Robespierre).
49. Histoire de la Conspiration du 10 Août, by Bigot de Sainte-Croix, p. 40.
50. Procès verbal de J.J. Leroux, officier municipal.
51. Procès verbal de J.J. Leroux, officier municipal.
52. Mémoires de Mme. Campan, p. 348.
53. Roederer, whose Chronique des Cinquante Jours contains the most detailed account of June 20 and August 10, is a far from unbiassed witness, for his sympathies are all with the authors of these days. Croker during Roederer’s lifetime frankly accused him of Orléanism : “ M. Roederer—a courtier of the son of Égalité—will not now be http://yamaguchy.netfirms.com/webster/frenchrev/fr_rev_05.html (37 of 39)5.4.2006 10:40:20
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offended at our saying that we have always considered him as of the Orléans party, to which Brissot and others of the Gironde originally belonged… .” ( Essays on the French Revolution, p. 211).
54. Déclaration de Leroux.
55. This lie was repeated by Danton with additions a week later—“ whilst his oldest courtiers shielded with their bodies the door of his room where they believed him to be, he (Louis XVI.) fled by a back door with his family to the National Assembly …” (“Lettre de Danton aux Tribunaux,” August 18, 1792, published in Buchez et Roux, xvii. 294). Louis XVI. and his family, as everybody knew, left the Château publicly by the main staircase whilst all the courtiers looked on. See, besides the above account by Roederer, the Mémoires de Mme. Campan, p. 350.
56. Ferrières, iii. 189.
57. Article on Suleau by L. Meister.
58. Philippe d’Orléans Égalité, by Auguste Ducoin, p. 170.
59. See Séances des Jacobins, date of April 23, 1792, where “ M. Collot rises to congratulate himself on the fact that Mlle. Théroigne has withdrawn her friendship from him as from M. Robespierre.” At this Mlle. Théroigne flew at Collot with clenched fists and was removed from the hall amidst tumult.
60. Article on Suleau in the Biographie Michaud ; Beaulieu, iii. 470 ; Deux Amis, viii. 168 ; Peltier, i. 104.
61. Beaulieu, iii. 471.
62. This order was given directly the King left the Château ; see account of August 10 given by M. Victor Constant de Rebecqui, officier aux gardes suisses du Roi, Auckland MSS. in British Museum : “ The King and his family retire to the Assembly accompanied by a part of the regiment and our commanders ; we are all made to retire into the interior of the apartments and to abandon the outer posts ; then the assailants break down the gate of the courtyard and enter at the same moment ; the gunners placed there for the defence of the Château abandon their cannons, which fall into the hands of those ( i.e. the gunners) of the Faubourgs.” 63. Beaulieu, iii. 474 ; Deux Amis, viii. 180 ; Peltier, i. 111.
64. Mortimer Ternaux, ii. 314.
65. Montjoie, Conjuration de d’Orléans, iii. 195 ; Peltier, i. 111 ; Beaulieu, 474.
66. Deux Amis, viii. 180.
67. “ Fragments des Mémoires de d’Ossonville,” published in Documents pour servir à l’Histoire de la Révolution Française, by Charles d’Héricault and Gustave Bord, vol. ii. p. 2.
68. On the supposed treachery of the Swiss see also the account given by the minister Bigot de Sainte-Croix, Histoire de la Conspiration du 10 Août, p. 58 : “ When the troops posted in the courtyards had heard for certain of the departure of their Majesties they looked at each other, and whether the King’s words had reached them or not, said to one another, ‘ There is nothing more to be done here ; why should we come to blows ? Why should we slaughter each other ? ’ A deputation is sent to the confederates to bring the words of peace, and one of their detachments comes back with the deputation to ratify the agreement. The scoundrels ! They are no sooner in the middle of the courtyard than they make signs to their cohorts to follow them, they advance amidst insulting and ferocious laughter, and all at once dashing forward to the foot of the great staircase where the Swiss are standing, ‘
Where are the Swiss ? ’ they cry in bloodthirsty tones, Swiss are the Swiss ? ’ And five of these sentinels have fallen beneath their blows. Then, yes, then the Swiss companies and the National Guards fell on the assassins ; then they opposed force with force, they fought for their lives and not for the defence of a palace in which the King was no longer ; but the rage of the maniacs saw in the palace men to massacre and walls to destroy. This, then, was the treachery of the defenders of the Court, these were the wishes of conciliation brought by the confederates ; this faith violated by signs of friendship and these fraternal embraces… .” http://yamaguchy.netfirms.com/webster/frenchrev/fr_rev_05.html (38 of 39)5.4.2006 10:40:20
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69. Mortimer Ternaux, ii. 316 ; Beaulieu, iii. 475 ; Ferriéres, iii. 195. “ The Swiss and the National Guards drove back the insurgents beyond the Rue Niçaise ” (D’Ossonville, op. cit.).
70. Révolutions de Paris, by Prudhomme, xiii. 234 ; Journal of Dr. John Moore, i. 41.
71. Mortimer Ternaux, ii. 316 ; Deux Amis, viii. 182.
72. “ The Swiss,” said Napoleon, who was an eyewitness of the affray, “ plied their artillery vigorously ; the Marseillais were driven back as far as the Rue de l’Échelle and only came back when the Swiss had retired by order of the King.” See also Mortimer Ternaux, ii. 325.
73. Mortimer Ternaux, ii. 330.
74. “ I was then in the King’s apartments with 300 to 400 of our men ” a cannon-ball had thrown us into disorder and killed a great number ; (evidence of M. Victor Constant de Rebecqui).
75. Prudhomme, Révolutions de Paris.
76. Mercier, Le Nouveau Paris, i. 209.
77. Le Comte de Fersen et la Cour de France, ii. 348.
78. Beaulieu, iii. 483 ; Mémoires de Mme. Campan, p. 351.
79. Journal of Dr. John Moore, i. 60.
80. Another contemporary, the Comte d’Aubarède ( Lettres d’Aristocrates, by Pierre de Vaissière, p. 538), says it was by a poor artisan that the Maréchal was saved. But the revolutionaries did not spare him ; he was guillotined under Joseph Lebon, at the age of eighty-seven. His last words on the scaffold were “ Vive le Roi ! I say it as did my ancestors ! ”
81. Crimes de la Révolution, by Prudhomme, iv. 70.
82. Beaulieu, iii. 482.
83. Montjoie, Conjuration de d’Orléans, iii. 196 ; Révolutions de Paris, by Prudhomme, xiii. 236.
84. Mercier, Le Nouveau Paris, i. 210.
85. Crimes de la Révolution, by Prudhomme, iv. 69 ; Montjoie, Conjuration de d’Orléans, iii. 195 ; Histoire particulière, etc., by Maton de la Varenne, p. 139.
86. Crimes de la Révolution, by Prudhomme, iv. 68.
87. Beaulieu, iii. 482 ; Révolution du 10 Août, by Peltier.
88. Montjoie, Conjuration de d’Orléans, iii. 196.
89. Tallien, who took part in the siege, later, in the Electoral Assembly, accused Robespierre to his face of having “ gone to earth for three days and three nights in his cellar and of having come out only in order to profit by the turn of events ” (Notes d’Alexandre, published in the Revue de la Révolution, by Gustave Bord, viii. 175).
90. Crimes de la Révolution, by Prudhomme, iv. 67.
91. Mémoires de Thiébault, i. 313.
92. Correspondence of Lord Auckland, ii. 438.
93. M. Rochet à Mme. de Thomassin Mandat, Lettres d’Aristocrates, by Pierre de Vaissière, p. 533.
94. MM. Simon et Pierre N. à M. Lhoste, ibid. p. 537.
95. Mémoires de Hua, p. 164.
96. Ibid. p. 165.
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