MARAT PLANS THE MASSACRES

Directly after the 10th of August Marat began to incite the populace to massacre the Royalists and Swiss, who had been imprisoned after the siege of the Château. “ What folly,” he wrote, “ to bring them to trial ! ” And again he launched into the history of imaginary persecutions :

“ How much longer will you slumber, friends of the country, whilst your ruin is being planned with more fury than ever ? Shudder at the fate that awaits you ! Thirty-seven amongst you, in which number the ‘ Friend of the People’ (Marat himself) had the honour to be included, were destined to be fried in boiling oil if the monsters of the Tuileries had been the victors, as certain valets of Antoinette have admitted, and 30,000

citizens would have been barbarously massacred. Let us hope for no other fate if we allow the victory to be taken from us… . Up, Frenchmen, you who wish to live freely ; up, up, and may the blood of traitors begin to flow. It is the only way to save the country ! ” [16]

But already Marat had realized that the people were not to be depended on to carry out these schemes, and had consulted with Danton on the best method for “ clearing out the prisons.” Two days after Danton was made Minister of justice, that is to say on the 14th of August, Prudhomme relates, Marat said to Danton, “ Foutre ! Would you like to have all the rascals who are in the prisons judicially punished ? ”

“ Why ?” Danton asked him.

“ Because if you do not despatch them as in the Glacière d’Avignon, those ruffians will http://yamaguchy.netfirms.com/webster/frenchrev/fr_rev_06.html (6 of 61)5.4.2006 10:40:30

 

Nesta Webster, The French Revolution, ch 6

succeed in butchering us all ; there is a heap of nobles we must get rid of as well as priests.”

Danton answered him, “ I know quite well that a St. Barthélemy is necessary, but the means for carrying it out seem to be difficult.” Marat replied, “ Leave it to me ; on your account prepare the deputies with whom you are acquainted : we have hairy ruffians ( bougres à poil) in Paris who will give us a hand.”

The next day they circulated the rumour of a great conspiracy on the part of the prisoners to massacre the patriots. Camille Desmoulins was in the secret, as also Fabre d’Églantine and Robert, all three secretaries of Danton.[17]

Danton was then deputed to confide the plan to Robespierre. But Robespierre, still at this period opposed to violent measures, demurred. “ You must not trust absolutely to Marat,” he said, “ he is too hot-headed ( c’est une mauvaise tête).” It was not the first time Robespierre had objected to the bloodthirsty schemes of Marat. Already a year earlier he had reproached Marat with having destroyed the immense influence of his journal by “ dipping his pen in the blood of the enemies of liberty, in talking of ropes and daggers.” To these remonstrances Marat replied by reiterating his demand for wholesale massacres.

“ Robespierre,” wrote Marat in his account of the incident, “ listened to me with consternation ; he grew pale and was silent for some time. This interview confirmed me in the opinion I had always entertained of him, namely, that he combined the enlightened views of a wise senator with the integrity of a virtuous man and the zeal of a true patriot, but he lacked equally the views and the audacity of a statesman.”[18]

To Robespierre the massacre in the prisons proposed by Marat seemed then too audacious, yet it is impossible to concur with his panegyrists in absolving him from all complicity. Robespierre knew of the projected crime, and never offered any serious opposition ; according to Prudhomme and Proussinalle he was even present at two meetings of the leaders ; afterwards he justified all that had taken place ; Robespierre must therefore be regarded as an accomplice, if not actually an author, of the massacres.

[19]