THE 5TH OF OCTOBER

This was the signal for the insurrection to begin, and as early as six o’clock bands of rioters, led by harridans of ferocious aspect, started out to collect recruits. Now, according to the history books that enlightened our youth, the women thus assembled and induced to march on Versailles were principally fishwives, ragged and dishevelled furies, endowed, like their counterparts in our own old Billingsgate, with a peculiar talent for invective. Rivarol, however, in a passage which we shall find later on confirmed by unquestionable evidence, shatters this time-honoured legend. “ The women who went from Paris to Versailles are always designated by the name of poissardes. This is unfortunate for those who sell fish and fruit in the streets and markets ; truth compels one to say that, far from joining forces with the sham poissardes who came to recruit them, they asked at the guard-house at the point of SaintEustache for help in driving them back.”[84] Why, indeed, should the poissardes wish to march on Versailles ? In the past the King and Queen had no more loyal subjects than the women whom the Old Régime courteously designated “ the Ladies of the Market.” Was it not their privilege to present themselves before their Majesties and express in prose or verse their congratulations or condolences on every event of importance ?

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Moreover, the gala dress of black silk and diamonds they wore on these occasions [85]

proclaimed them to be no wretched victims of want and misery, such as we have seen depicted riding on the cannons to Versailles, but prosperous “ citizenesses ” who took a truly Parisian pride in their appearance. What wonder, then, that the “ Ladies of the Market ” indignantly refused to join the motley crowd that had collected on the Place de Grève for the purposes of insurrection ?

Indeed, it was obvious to all onlookers that this crowd was not what it pretended to be—a gathering of hungry women driven by desperation to revolt. “ The first women who presented themselves at the Hôtel de Ville were powdered, coiffées, and dressed in white, with an air of gaiety, and gave evidence of no evil intentions ; gradually their numbers increased ; some rang the tocsin, others laughed, sang, and danced in the courtyard,” [86] which proves, as Mounier says, “ that amongst these women a large number were not suffering from want, but were only sent to stir up the others.” [87]

Moreover, the aspect of certain of the harridans and socalled poissardes who led the movement struck observers as peculiar, for it was noticed that beneath ragged skirts there peeped forth trousers, that shaven chins appeared above muslin fichus, and that large heavily-shod feet presented an odd contrast to rouged and powdered faces. In a word, it became apparent that a number of these “ hungry women ” were not women at all but men in women’s clothes, [88] and it was said that amongst them were recognized several of the Orléaniste leaders—Laclos, Chamfort, Latouche, Sillery, Barnave, and one of the Lameths [89]—whilst one “ monstrously fat ” poissarde was declared by the people to be the Duc d’Aiguillon. [90] According to certain contemporaries these

gentlemen—notably Laclos and Chamfort—were accompanied by their mistresses, and Taine adds that their number was swelled by a quantity of deserters from the Gardes Françaises with the women of the Palais Royal, to whom they acted as souteneurs, and from whom they may have borrowed their disguises. [91]

These, then, were the elements that formed the nucleus of the expedition, and it will therefore be understood why the first contingent of women presented so gay and prosperous an appearance. But in order to give a popular air to the rising it was necessary to secure the cooperation of as many “ women of the people ” as could be induced to join the procession, accordingly shops, workrooms, and private houses were entered, and cooks, seamstresses, mothers of families were bribed or forced to follow—threatened with violence if they refused. A washerwoman on the Seine described to the Chevalier d’Estrées the efforts made to enlist working-women in the movement. “ What ! ” the Chevalier had said ironically to this woman on the 5th of October, “ you are not at Versailles ? ” to which the washerwoman indignantly replied, “ http://yamaguchy.netfirms.com/webster/frenchrev/fr_rev_03.html (20 of 58)5.4.2006 10:39:58

 

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Monsieur le Chevalier, you are mistaken, like every one else, in imagining that it is laundresses and other women of the same kind who have gone to Versailles. Some one certainly came to my boat and made the proposal to myself and my companions, and it was a woman who offered us six and twelve francs, but that woman is no more a woman than you are ; I recognized her distinctly as a seigneur living at the Palais Royal or near it, whose valet I wash for.” [92]

But if the honest and industrious women of the people showed themselves unwilling, there lurked nevertheless a terrible element of violence in the underworld of Paris that even another century of civilization has never robbed of its ferocity, and that once its passions are aroused knows neither reason nor pity. From this underworld there now poured forth bands of wastrels and degenerates, drink-sodden women clutching broomsticks, above all, street-walkers inflamed with the easily-roused passions of their kind, reckless, abandoned, shrieking foul invectives—all these assembled on the Place de Grève and proceeded to attack the Hôtel de Ville. With a hail of stones they drove back the mounted guards defending the entrance, and battering down the doors swarmed into the building, pillaged the armoury, carried off two cannons, eight hundred guns, as well as munitions and silver, attempted to hang a luckless priest they discovered in the belfry, shouting the while, “ The men have no courage, they dare not take revenge ! We will act for them ! The representatives of the Commune are traitors and bad citizens, they deserve death, M. Bailly and Lafayette first of all—they must be hanged to the lantern.”

These imprecations again show very clearly the influences at work amongst the crowd, for both Bailly and Lafayette were the idols of the people, but had rendered themselves odious to the agitators—Bailly by his indefatigable efforts to provide the capital with bread, and Lafayette by his steady opposition to the Orléaniste conspiracy. So once again we see the power of the mob turned against the people.

Meanwhile the men who had carried out the attack on the Bastille—known as the volontaires de la Bastille—were summoned and now arrived on the Place de Grève led by Maillard, who seized a drum, beat a roll-call, and invited the women to follow him to Versailles. This heterogeneous army of women, of men in women’s clothes, and brigands from the Faubourgs, armed with pistols, scythes, pikes, and muskets, mustered in the Champs Élysées, and at one o’clock set forth for Versailles with Maillard at their head. As usual, the organizers of the movement had been careful to expose themselves to no danger, those who joined in the procession prudently sheltering themselves behind petticoats from the possible fire of the King’s troops, whilst the men whose eloquence had stirred up popular agitation—Danton, Marat, Santerre, Camille Desmoulins, Gonchon—took no part in the day’s proceedings, but kept away altogether from the http://yamaguchy.netfirms.com/webster/frenchrev/fr_rev_03.html (21 of 58)5.4.2006 10:39:58

 

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scene of action. [93] The only prominent Orléanistes who ventured forth on this occasion without the safeguard of an incognito were Maillard, the “ Generalissimo of the Brigands,” and Théroigne de Méricourt, who now appeared on a black horse, dressed in a scarlet riding-habit and black hat, and escorted by a jockey in the same colours, which were the racing colours of the Duc d’Orléans. [94]

Again, as at the siege of the Bastille, it was mainly on a few obscure ruffians that the conspirators depended for the execution of their designs—Desnot, the “ cook out of place,” who had joined in the murder of De Launay and of Foullon, and Mathieu Jourdan, alias Jouve, in turn butcher, blacksmith, smuggler, and artist’s model—“ the man with the long beard ” of whom eyewitnesses speak shudderingly, and who on this famous day was to earn the name of “ Coupe-Tête.”

So in the wind and rain the ten-mile march to Versailles began, and if in this setting out we can detect no element of heroism as in the start for the Bastille, there is yet a poignant note of pathos to be found amongst the working-women dragged from their peaceful labours and forced to embark on the hazardous enterprise of which they could not dimly understand the purpose. Several of these women—poor patient tools of the conspirators—afterwards described the methods employed to goad them onwards as, shivering in the cold drizzle, they started on the weary journey. The imprecations of the sham poissardes against the Royal Family increased their disenchantment. “ Yes, yes ! ” cried one of the furies, a notorious demi-mondaine, armed with a sword, “ we are going to Versailles to bring back the Queen’s head on the point of a sword.” But the other women silenced her. [95]

Many of the crowd were bribed ; barefooted women drew from their pockets six-écu pieces wrapped in paper, ragged men tossed gold and silver coins in the air, and the hope of further gain still drove them onwards. [96] Others trudged patiently, lured by the

promise of bread which the good King was to give them, and, indeed, amongst the marching multitude food was sorely needed. By the time they reached Sèvres the pangs of hunger had become acute, and the terrified inhabitants having closed their shops and barricaded themselves behind doors and windows, the women flung themselves upon the restaurants, battered down the shutters, and after feasting on all the food and wine that lay at hand proceeded to Versailles, which they entered about four o’clock in the afternoon, shouting “ Vive le Roi ! ” tumultuously as they marched. [97]

 

Whilst these scenes had been taking place in Paris the calm of Versailles continued undisturbed. Every one knows that the King went hunting, for no historian has forgotten to mention the fact, but few, if any, have remembered to add that he knew nothing http://yamaguchy.netfirms.com/webster/frenchrev/fr_rev_03.html (22 of 58)5.4.2006 10:39:58

 

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whatever about the tumult in Paris.[98] It was certainly known to many deputies of the Assembly, but no one seems to have thought it necessary to inform the King, and he was allowed to start for Meudon serenely unconscious of the coming danger. Moreover, such was the detachment of “ the representatives of the people ” from the troubles of the capital that, whilst the revolutionary mob was mustering, they continued tranquilly discussing the new criminal code.

Mirabeau afterwards admitted that he was warned in the morning of “ the increasing agitation of the people,” and “ the nature of things ” told him that Paris was marching on Versailles, yet he had spent the afternoon with La Marck studying maps of Brabant.[99]

This confession, intended to prove his non-complicity with the movement, certainly testified to the amount of sympathy he entertained for the people. The King’s apparent unconcern is therefore less singular than it has been made to appear. But though the Assembly had omitted to tell the King of the disturbances in Paris, they had not forgotten to reiterate their demand for his sanction to the first principles of the Constitution and the Declaration of the Rights of Man. Before starting for the hunt Louis XVI. sent his reply to this request.[100]

The principles of the Constitution he frankly admitted did not “ present indiscriminately to his mind the idea of perfection,” and could only be judged on their completion. “If, however,” he added, “ they will fulfil the wishes of my people and assure the tranquillity of the kingdom, I accord, in conformity to your wishes, my consent to these articles, but on the express condition, from which I shall never depart, that in accordance with the result of your deliberations the executive power shall reside wholly with the monarch ( ait son entier effet entre les mains du monarque).” In other words, the King stipulated that he should not be called upon to renounce the Power accorded him by the Constitution itself.[101]

The Declaration of the Rights of Man he confessed that he found difficult to understand—doubtless it contained excellent maxims, but could only be “ justly appreciated when its real meaning had been defined by the laws to which it must serve as the basis.”

Louis XVI. was a disciple not of Rousseau but of Fenelon ; the tangible needs of the people he could comprehend, but vague theorizing on equality and universal happiness simply bewildered him.

The King’s reply provoked a fresh outburst of fury from the revolutionary factions in the Assembly. Robespierre declared it to be destructive of the Constitution, “ contrary to the rights of the nation ” ; Pétion, taking advantage of the ensuing tumult, arose to denounce the banquet of the bodyguard. Cries broke out on all sides—“ Orgies—threats—the http://yamaguchy.netfirms.com/webster/frenchrev/fr_rev_03.html (23 of 58)5.4.2006 10:39:58

 

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patriotic cockade trampled underfoot.” [102] The Orléanistes, Sillery, Mirabeau, the

Lameths, called out in furious tones, “ The nation must have victims ! ” [103] The Comte

de Barbantane, seated in a tribune with Madame de Genlis and the two sons of the Duc d’Orléans—the Duc de Chartres and the Duc de Montpensier—cried threateningly, “ It is evident that these gentlemen want more lanterns ; well, they shall have them ! ” and the voice of the Duc de Chartres was heard to add, “ Yes, yes, messieurs, we must have more lanterns ! ”

At this the Marquis de Raigecourt and the Marquis de Beauharnais rose indignantly exclaiming, “ It is abominable that any one should dare to express such sentiments here !

” [104]

Monsieur de Monspey demanded that Pétion should substantiate his charges against the bodyguard, but Mirabeau interposed. “ Let the Assembly declare that in France every one except the King is inviolable, and I will make the denunciation myself ! ” and turning to the deputies around him he added these terrible words : “ I will denounce the Queen and the Duc de Guiche ! ”

Again a voice was heard from the tribune occupied by Madame de Genlis and the sons of the Duc d’Orléans : “ What the Queen ? ” And another voice in the same tribune replied, “ The Queen as much as any one else if she is guilty ! ” [105]

Whether Mounier heard these words or not it is evident that, like all other witnesses of the scene, he realized that Mirabeau’s declaration to the Assembly was directed against the Queen, [106] and might prove the signal for her assassination by the occupants of the gallery if the denunciation were proceeded with ; accordingly he closed the discussion.

Mounier at this crisis had no further doubts as to Mirabeau’s complicity with the criminal plot against the Royal Family. During the scene that had just taken place Mirabeau had left his seat, and going round to the President’s chair had whispered to Mounier under cover of the tumult :

“ Monsieur le Président, 40,000 men are arriving from Paris ; hurry the discussion, close the sitting—be taken ill—say you are going to the King ! ”

“ And why, Monsieur ? ”

“ Here is a letter, M. le Président, announcing the arrival of 40,000 men from Paris.” [107]

“ All the more reason,” answered Mounier, “ for the Assembly to remain at its post.” “ But, Monsieur le Président, you will be killed ! ”

“ So much the better,” Mounier said with bitter irony, “ if they kill us all, but all, you understand, without exception ; public affairs will go the better ( les affaires de la république en iront mieux).” [108]

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“ Monsieur le Président, the phrase is neat ( le mot est joli) ! ” But whilst this dialogue was taking place the advance guard of “ women ” from Paris had marched down the Avenue de Paris that faces the Château of Versailles, and were now collected at the door of the Assembly clamouring for admittance. Maillard, in a shabby black coat with a naked sword in his hand, at the head of twenty women, was permitted to enter, and at once began in furious tones to denounce the “ monopolizers of grain ”; “ The aristocrats wish to make us die of hunger ; to-day they have sent a miller a note of two hundred livres telling him not to grind.”

“ Name them ! Name them ! ” cried the Royalists of the Assembly.

But before this direct appeal both revolutionary deputies and delegates of the people were dumb. At last Maillard, or according to other accounts the women, answered, “ It is the Archbishop of Paris ! ” [109]

At this monstrous calumny even the Assembly rose indignantly, and with one voice declared, “ The Archbishop of Paris is incapable of such an atrocity ! ” [110]

Maillard, once more urged by Mounier to substantiate his charges, could only murmur with an air of embarrassment that “ a lady he had met in a carriage on the road to Versailles ” had assured him of the fact.

To this, then, were the accusations of the revolutionary leaders against the “ aristocrats ” of monopolizing grain reduced !

In order to satisfy the demands of the women, the Assembly finally decided to send several of their number as a deputation to the King, who had now returned from the hunt.

Not until several bands of women and brigands (who had marched ahead of the revolutionary mob) were actually in Versailles had Louis XVI. been informed of the insurrection. De Cubières, an equerry, rode out to Meudon with a note from the Comte de St. Priest ; the King read it, and turning to his gentlemen said, “ Messieurs, Monsieur de St. Priest writes that the women of Paris are coming to ask me for bread.” His eyes filled with tears. “ Alas ! if I had any I should not wait for them to come and ask me for it. Let us go and speak to them.”

Nothing was further from his mind than the idea of a hostile demonstration ; it was to him, the father of his people, these “ hungry women ” had turned in their distress, and his only concern was to help them.

A stranger present, M. de la Devèze, seeing his emotion, mistook it for fear. “ Sire, I beg your Majesty not to be afraid.”

“ Afraid, Monsieur ? ” the King answered proudly. “ I have never been afraid in my life ! ” and mounting his horse he rode off to the Château at a gallop. The Comte de Luxembourg was waiting for him and asked for orders to be given to the bodyguard.

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“ Orders ? ” said the King with a laugh. “ Orders of war against women ? You must be joking, Monsieur de Luxembourg ! ”

The ruse of the Orléanistes had succeeded, and by the advance guard of socalled women the King’s defenders were disarmed.

From the windows of the Chambre de Conseil Louis XVI. looked out on the armed mob advancing through the wind and rain along the Avenue de Paris towards the Château ; before long the Place des Armes had become a sea of pikes and muskets. Amidst this raging multitude Mounier, at the head of his deputation, was advancing on foot through the mud, and during the quarter of an hour of waiting for admittance at the grille of the Château was obliged to endure the insults of the mob, who cried out that “ the deputies of the Assembly with their 18 francs a day enjoyed good cheer, whilst they allowed the poor to die of hunger ” ; that “ when they had only one King they had bread, but since they had 1200 they perished in misery.” [111]

The deputation, consisting of six deputies with six women clinging to their arms, was increased by six more women before their admission to the Salle de Conseil. Louis XVI. received them with his customary benevolence.

“ Sire,” said Louison Chabry, a pretty flower-seller of seventeen from the Palais Royal, “ we want bread.”

“ You know my heart,” answered the King ; “ I will order all the bread in Versailles to be collected and given to you.” Whereat Louison, overcome by the King’s goodness, fell fainting to the ground. Smelling salts were brought ; Louison revived and begged to be allowed to kiss the King’s hand.

“ She deserves better than that ! ” said Louis XVI., embracing her.

Louison departed with the other women, enchanted by their visit, crying out, “ Long live the King ! Long live our good King ! Now we shall have bread ! ”

But one of their number still displayed resentment. The Chevalier de la Serre attempted to reason with her, pointing out that they had to do with a good King, a good father, that their condition greatly distressed him ; but the woman replied, “ Our father is the Duc d’Orléans ! ”

Her companions interrupted her by repeating, “ Vive le Roi ! ”

“ Non, f… .,” she retorted, “ it is ‘ Vive le Duc d’Orléans ! ’ ”[112]

It is evident, therefore, that certain of the women had been primed by the Orléanistes, but the greater proportion were, as Ferrières says, “ acting in all good faith : they did not know the plans of the conspirators. Dragged by force to Versailles, hearing it incessantly repeated that the people were dying of hunger, and that the only way to stop http://yamaguchy.netfirms.com/webster/frenchrev/fr_rev_03.html (26 of 58)5.4.2006 10:39:58

 

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the famine was by appealing to the King and the National Assembly, they thought they had achieved the object of their journey by obtaining a decree of the Assembly and getting it sanctioned by the King.” [113] What, then, was their dismay when they returned

triumphantly to the waiting multitude with the King’s promise to find themselves received by howls of execration : “ They are cheats, they have been given money !

They have received no written order, they must be hanged ! ” A fury in the crowd, tearing off her garter, dragged one of the women towards a lamp-post, and would have hanged her there had not an officer of the bodyguard rushed to her rescue and brought her with the rest of the deputation into safety, inside the Cour Royale. These women then begged to be allowed to return to the King and ask for his order in writing, and the request having been granted they reappeared once more waving the royal signature aloft. Their accounts of the King’s goodness had the effect of temporarily calming the excitement of the crowd ; cries of “ Vive le Roi ! ” went up on all sides ; for the moment the King’s defenders thought the situation saved.

The women who had formed the deputation, now realizing that they had been the dupes of the conspirators, insisted on returning to Paris in order to tell the Commune of their reception at Versailles, and Louis XVI., informed of their intention, ordered royal carriages to be provided for the journey. Lest, however, too glowing an account of the King’s benevolence should be conveyed to Paris, Maillard was deputed by the leaders of the insurrection to accompany the women and counteract their influence.

In all probability, if the tumult had been, as it is habitually represented, the spontaneous rising of a hungry multitude driven by want to beg the King for bread, the matter would have ended there, and the people having accomplished their purpose would have returned peacefully to their homes. But the conspirators had determined otherwise.

Immediately on the arrival of the armed mob every effort had been made to provoke a quarrel with the bodyguard, but these gallant men, true to their orders not to use force against the people, endured insults and threats without replying. When at last a man of the Paris militia attempted, sword in hand, to break through the regiment, the Marquis de Savonnières, followed by three other officers, pursued the insurgent and struck him with the flat of his sword, but a shot fired by Charpentier of the Versailles militia broke the arm of Savonnières and inflicted injuries from which he died some weeks later.

This affray provided the signal for battle ; on all sides the cry went up that the Guards were charging the people ; the militia hastily advanced their cannons in the Avenue de Paris towards the grille of the Château, and the mob, closing around the bodyguard, attacked them with pikes and stones and fired into their ranks, fortunately with so little certainty of aim that the men escaped with slight injuries. Still the bodyguard refrained http://yamaguchy.netfirms.com/webster/frenchrev/fr_rev_03.html (27 of 58)5.4.2006 10:39:58

 

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from retaliation, and Lecointre—he who had denounced their “ orgy ” four days earlier—seeing this, and fearing that no pretext would be provided for further violence, rushed forward and overwhelmed them with reproaches. [114] It was at this crisis that the King, informed of the cries of “ Vive le Roi ! ” and the momentary cessation of hostilities produced by the deputation of women, and concluding that peace was now restored, sent his fatal message to the bodyguard to retire. The militia of Versailles, taking advantage of the movement, immediately opened a volley of musketry fire on the retreating troops, whilst brigands armed with guns and pikes pursued them with shots and blows. It was said afterwards by the Orléanistes that the bodyguard now returned the fire of the insurgents and treated the people with harshness, thrusting them aside with their sabres, but of these acts only two eyewitnesses could be produced, the Orléaniste, De Liancourt, [115] and again Lecointre, [116] the inveterate enemy of the bodyguard who was brought forward at every turn by the conspirators to prove their charges against the King’s defenders. On the other hand, reliable contemporaries speak only of the patience and forbearance of these gallant men who, in obedience to orders, refrained from using the weapons at their command.[117] So once again the arm of law and order was

paralysed, and the people who should have been protected were left to become the victims of the conspirators.

Whilst these scenes were taking place in the Place d’Armes, Mounier, imagining that reforms in the government would satisfy the multitude who were calling out for bread, continued to importune the King for his sanction to the principles of the Constitution and the Declaration of the Rights of Man. Louis XVI., whose sound common sense showed him the absurdity of according the royal sanction to philosophical axioms, repeated his opinion that at this stage his acceptance would be premature, but, on the assurance of Mounier that nothing else would allay the tumult, finally appended his signature to the words : “ I accept purely and simply the articles of the Constitution and the Declaration of the Rights of Man.” Then, confident that he had done all that lay within his power to restore public tranquillity, he awaited events with calmness. In response to the entreaties of the Comte d’Estaing that measures should be taken for the defence of the Château, he wrote at seven o’clock on this terrible evening, after the departure of Mounier and his fellow-deputies, these astounding words :

“ You wish, my cousin, that I should express my opinion on the critical circumstances in which I find myself, and that I should take a violent course, that I should make use of legitimate means of defence, or that I should leave Versailles. Whatever may be the audacity of my enemies they will not succeed ; the Frenchman is incapable of regicide…. I dare to believe that this danger is not as urgent as my friends are persuaded.

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prudence…. If I succumb at least I shall have no cause to reproach myself. I have just seen several members of the Assembly and I am satisfied…. God grant that public tranquillity may be restored—but no aggression, no action that could let it be believed that I think of avenging or even of defending myself.”

Meanwhile Mounier, returning triumphantly to the Assembly with the royal sanction, found the wildest scene of confusion taking place. A mob of women, [118] of brigands, and of men in women’s clothes, had invaded the hall and taken possession of the seats of the deputies, where they regaled themselves with ham sandwiches, pies, and wine brought in from a neighbouring restaurant. The brigands, ragged and of ferocious aspect, adopted a threatening attitude, but the filles de joie were enjoying themselves immensely. It was a situation that appealed irresistibly to their mocking humour ; true gamines of Paris, they found it exquisitely funny to chaff these solemn legislators and dance on the platform of the President, to overwhelm the unhappy bishop of Langres—occupying the President’s chair in the absence of Mounier—with obscene pleasantries. “ Now you must kiss us, calotin ! ” And the bishop, amidst screams of laughter, was obliged, sighing deeply, to submit to their vinous embraces.

Mounier, arriving in the midst of this pandemonium with his precious document, fondly imagined that the announcement of the “ royal sanction ” would act as oil upon the troubled waters, and profiting by a lull in the tumult read the King’s message aloud. But to the women of Paris, as to the King himself, these vague formulas conveyed but little meaning, and Mounier’s announcement was greeted by the hungry elements amongst them with the cry, “ Will that give bread to the poor people of Paris ? ” The President, realizing the impossibility of continuing the debate—most of the deputies indeed had already left the hall—broke up the Assembly. But the women had no intention of being done out of their evening’s entertainment, and imperiously demanded the return of the deputies. The President’s bell was rung, members were fetched from their beds, the Assembly resumed its sitting. Once again the message containing the royal sanction was read aloud, only to be met with the same cry of “ Bread ! Give us bread ! ”

Nothing is more amazing in the history of the Revolution than the total inability of the “ representatives of the people ” to understand the people’s mind. The King, appealed to by the hungry women, could readily enter into their sufferings, but the Assembly, in response to their cries for bread, offered them the foundation-stone of the Constitution.

For at this supreme moment these socalled democrats, actually surrounded by the clamouring multitude, calmly resumed their discussion on the criminal code.

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Assembly was peremptorily ordered to discuss the question of food-supply. The voice of a deputy addressing the House was drowned by shouts of “ Bread ! bread ! not so many long speeches ! ” and “ Shut up that babbler. It doesn’t matter about all that—it is bread that matters ! ” Some of the women clamoured for Mirabeau, whose grotesque appearance amused them : “ Where is our Comte de Mirabeau—our little mother Mirabeau ? ” A man in the tribune next to the President exclaimed loudly that the deputies should concern themselves with the people.

At this Mirabeau, who had no intention of allowing the canaille to command, arose and thundered, “ I should like to know by what right any one should dictate to us the course of our debates ? Let the tribunes remember the respect they owe to the National Assembly ! ”

The women, enchanted at this display of authority, noisily clapped their hands and cried “ Bravo ! ”

Whilst this tumult raged in the Assembly scenes far more terrible were taking place outside on the Place d’Armes. The wild autumn day had faded into a wet and cheerless night, and the immense multitude, unable to find shelter, gathered round huge fires they had lit at intervals about the square, and at one of which a horse of the bodyguard, massacred in the fray, was being cooked and eaten. On such a scene of misery and squalor did the great Château of the Roi Soleil look down that dreadful evening ! The women, wet to the skin, caked with mud after the long march from Paris, wandered round the courtyards sobbing pitifully, crying out that “ they had been forced to march and did not know what they had come for ” ;[119] others, savage with hunger and fatigue,

danced round the bonfires shrieking furious imprecations against the Queen, Lafayette, Mounier, the Abbé Maury, the Archbishop of Paris. “ Marie Antoinette has danced for her pleasure, now she shall dance for ours ! ” “ Yes, let the jade skip, we will throw her head from the windows ! We will have the drunkard for our king no longer, it is the Duc d’Orléans that we must have for king ! ”

Thus the furies of the underworld, revolting enough in truth, but surely less revolting than the Duc d’Orléans, skulking through the crowd in the Avenue de Paris, “ endeavouring to escape detection but unable to flee from his conscience,” [120] less revolting far than the petticoated roues of the Palais Royal, stirring up a poor and hungry populace to commit crimes they dared not undertake themselves. It was said by many witnesses, and never disproved by any conclusive alibi, that all through that fearful night, and again the following morning, the members of the conspiracy were at work distributing money and inciting the people to violence ; that Mirabeau, brandishing a naked sword, was seen in the ranks of the Régiment de Flandre exhorting them to http://yamaguchy.netfirms.com/webster/frenchrev/fr_rev_03.html (30 of 58)5.4.2006 10:39:58

 

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defection ; [121] that Théroigne in her scarlet habit went from group to group giving the names of deputies to be massacred, and distributing money done up in paper packets ; [122] that fine gentlemen in embroidered waistcoats “ slipped coins concealed in cockades

into the hands of the women ”; [123] that Laclos, Sillery, Barnave, the Duc d’Aiguillon, dressed as women, were again recognized mingling with the crowd, fanning up the flame of popular fury in preparation for the massacres of the morrow. [124]

Suddenly at midnight, when the frenzy of the populace had reached its height, the roll of drums and the red glare of torches announced the arrival of Lafayette at the head of the Gardes Françaises in the Avenue de Paris.

 

How did Lafayette come to be leading this second army of insurgents to Versailles ?

The fact has provided Orléaniste writers with the pretext for shifting the blame of the insurrection on to their opponent, and it was precisely in order to be able to do this that they had contrived to implicate Lafayette in the movement. As a matter of fact Lafayette had held out for hours against the entreaties of his men, who, prompted by the Orléanistes, insisted on his leading them to Versailles. At the Hôtel de Ville that morning, whilst Lafayette was occupied in sending off despatches to warn Versailles of the approaching invasion, six grenadiers had entered and accosted him with these words : “ General, we are deputed by six companies of grenadiers : we do not think you are a traitor, but we think that the Government is betraying us. It is time all this ended… . The people are wretched ; the source of the evil is at Versailles ; we must go to fetch the King and bring him to Paris ; we must exterminate the Régiment de Flandre and the bodyguard who dare to trample on the national cockade. If the King is too weak to wear his crown, let him renounce it. We will crown his son, a council of regency will be nominated, and all will go well.”

As this was precisely the plan of the Orléaniste conspiracy Lafayette immediately realized that the men were merely repeating their lesson, and, recognizing the trap laid for him, he attempted to dissuade them from marching on Versailles.

“ What ! ” he said, “ you mean then to make war on the King and force him to abandon us ? ” The use of the final pronoun is significant ; even the Republican Lafayette was obliged in his more honest moments to admit that Louis XVI. was on the side of the people, and the soldiers, thus appealed to, momentarily forgot their lesson and readily concurred :

“ General, indeed we should be very sorry, for we love him well, but if he left us we have Monsieur le Dauphin.”

In vain Lafayette continued to remonstrate ; the men once more took up the refrain : “ http://yamaguchy.netfirms.com/webster/frenchrev/fr_rev_03.html (31 of 58)5.4.2006 10:39:58

 

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The source of the evil is at Versailles ; we must go and fetch the King and bring him to Paris ; all the people wish it.” Finally Lafayette went out on to the Place de Grève and, with Bailly, attempted to address the crowd collected there. But the people, he had begun to discover, were easier to rouse than to pacify, and the spirit of insubordination he had openly encouraged at the beginning of the Revolution was now turning against himself. In vain he strove to make himself heard ; an angry uproar arose ; one voice was heard above the others crying, “ It is strange that M. de Lafayette should wish to command the people when it is for the people to command him ! ”

Then Lafayette, reluctantly mounting his white charger, placed himself at the head of the troops, whose numbers were now being rapidly increased by the lowest rabble of the Faubourgs, which, armed with pikes and pitchforks, with cutlasses and hatchets, poured into the Place de Grève crying out, “ Bread ! bread ! To Versailles ! ” At the sight of this terrible army Lafayette once again hesitated, and, seeing this, the crowd broke into fury ; howls of rage, threats of death rose from a thousand throats ; for the first time Lafayette, idol of the people, heard the voice of the people raised against himself. At that he grew first red, then pale, made a movement as if he would dismount, but a dozen hands gripped his bridle : “ No, General, you shall not escape us !

” While he temporized a message from the Commune was slipped into his hand ordering him to march. Lafayette glanced at the paper, grew paler still, then gathered up his reins, and with a set countenance gave the word of command to march. “ He rode at the head of his troops,” says Montjoie, “ like a criminal led to execution ”; and that in all probability he was going to his death Lafayette well knew, but, bitterer thought still, this was to be death with dishonour !

So it came to pass that at midnight, after an eight hours’ march, Lafayette entered Versailles. Calling a halt at the turning of the road leading to the National Assembly he demanded of his army to take the oath of fidelity to the nation, the law, and the King ; then entering the Assembly filled with the drunken crowd he made his way through the turmoil to the President’s chair and assured Mounier that he could answer for the loyalty of his troops.

Although so exhausted that he was hardly able to drag himself up the staircase, Lafayette afterwards presented himself at the Château and administered the same soothing assurances. “ I was without apprehension,” he wrote later ; “ the people had promised me to remain quiet.”

But the Queen, who had no confidence in the benevolence of revolutionary mobs or in generals who marched at their heads, received Lafayette coldly. She realized, as he with his foolish optimism could not, the frightful danger that confronted them that night. “ I http://yamaguchy.netfirms.com/webster/frenchrev/fr_rev_03.html (32 of 58)5.4.2006 10:39:58

 

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know,” she said, “ that they have come to demand my head, but I learnt from my mother not to fear death, and I can await it with calmness.”

All around her in the Château terror and confusion prevailed ; women ran hither and thither, peeping forth fearfully from the windows at the dull glare beyond the railings, where by fire and torchlight that raging sea of humanity tossed tumultuously, listening with beating hearts to the hoarse murmurs, broken now and again with savage howls and fiendish laughter ; others, helpless and distracted, paced the great Galerie des Glaces, the scene of so much splendour, and in all minds one question arose—was this night to be their last ?

Amidst these scenes Marie Antoinette alone was calm, and with undisturbed serenity continued to rouse the fainting spirits of those around her. When a number of her gentlemen came to her door to beg for permission to order out the horses from the royal stables and mount them in defence of the Royal Family, the Queen returned only this reply : “ I consent to give you the order for which you wish on the condition that if the life of the King is in danger you should make immediate use of it, but if I alone am imperilled you will not use it.”

Her women, realizing that she was the chief victim designated by the conspirators, threw themselves at her feet and begged her to escape. “ No,” she answered, “ never, never will I abandon the King or my children ; whatever fate awaits them, I will share it.” Then dismissing her attendants she remained alone, waiting for death. At this moment a note was brought to her ; she opened it, and read these terrible words : “ I warn her Majesty that she will be murdered to-morrow morning at six o’clock.” She knew then that she had still six hours of life, and, placing the note in her pocket, quietly announced her intention of retiring to bed. In vain her gentlemen begged to be allowed to remain and protect her. “ No, Messieurs,” she answered without a trace of emotion, “ take your leave, I beg you ; to-morrow will prove to you that you had need of rest to-night.” With these words she left them and slept an untroubled sleep until the frightful dawn of the morrow.