\<ï?^*!SS¥SSS}*î»SN»!i5^^^ THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA RIVERSIDE THE HISTORY FEENCH REVOLUTION THE HISTORY OF THK FlIENOH REVOLUTION 1789-1800 BY l.oriS ADOLPIII^: THIERS TRANSLATED, WITH NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS, FROM THK HOST AUTHENTIC SOURCES, BY FREDERICK SHOBERL NEW EDITION, WITH UPWARDS OF FORTY ILLUSTRATIONS ON STEEL ENGRAVED BY WILLfAM GREATBATCH IN FIVE VOLUMES VOL. III. LONDON RirilARD BKNTLEY AND SoX ^ublisfjets in ©rbinari) to P?er fHajrstg tfje ©ueen 1895 [All rights reserved] y. 3 ILLUSTRATIONS VOLUME III. Assassination of Marat Portrait op Charlotte Corday . Portrait of Camille-Desmoumns Condemnation op Marie Antoinette . Portrait op Bailly (Mayor op Paris) Trial op Danton, Camille-Desmoulins, &c Portrait op Danton ..... Portrait op IMadame Elizabeth Carrier at Nantes Portrait op Robespierre . . . . to fare Title 46 60 310 224 352 360 450 454 490 THE HISTORY OF THE 4^ FRENCH REVOLUTION. THE NATIONAL CONVENTION {conti7iued) STATE OF FRANCE AFTER THE 31ST OF MAY— INSURRECTION OF THE DEPARTMENTS— INVASION OF THE FRONTIERS. THE decree passed on the 2nd of June against the twenty- two deputies o£ the right side, and the members of the Commission of Twelve, enacted that they should be confined at their own homes, and closely guarded by gendarmes. Some voluntarily submitted to this decree, and constituted them- selves in a state of arrest, to prove their obedience to the law, and to provoke a judgment which should demonstrate their innocence. Gensonné and Valazé might easily have withdrawn themselves from the vigilance of their guards ; but they firmly refused to seek safety in flight. They remained prisoners with their colleagues, Guadet, Petion, Vergniaud, Biroteau, Gardien, Boileau, Bertrand, Mollevaut, and Gomaire. Some others, conceiving that they owed no obedience to a law extorted by force, and having no hope of justice, quitted Paris, or concealed themselves there till they should be able to get away. Their intention was to repair to the departments, and excite them to rise against the capital. Those who took this resolution were Brissot, Gorsas, Salles, Louvet, Chambon, Buzot, Lydon, Kabaut St. Etienne, Lasource, Grangeneuve, Lesage, Vigé, La- rivière, and Bergoing. An order of arrest was issued by the commune against the two ministers Lebrun and Clavières, dis- missed after the 2nd of June. Lebrun found means to evade VOL. III. 57* 2 HISTORY OF JUNE 1793 it. The same measure was taken against Roland, who had been removed from office on the 2 1 st of January, and begged in vain to be permitted to render his accounts. He escaped the search made for him by the commune, and concealed him- self at Rouen. Madame Roland, against whom also proceedings were instituted, had no other anxiety than that of favouring the escape of her husband ; then committing her daughter to the care of a trusty friend, she surrendered with noble indiffer- ence to the committee of her section, and was thrown into prison with a multitude of other victims of the 3 1 st of May. Great was the joy at the Jacobins. Its members congratu- lated themselves on the energy of the people, on their late admirable conduct, and on the removal of all those obstacles which the right side had not ceased to oppose to the progress of the Revolution. According to the custom after all great events, they agreed upon the manner in which the last insur- rection should be represented. " The people," said Robe- spierre, " have confounded all their calumniators by their conduct. Eighty thousand men have been under arms for nearly a week, yet no property has been violated, not a drop of blood has been spilled, and they have thus proved whether it was their aim, as it has been alleged, to profit by the disorder for the commission of murder and plunder. Their insurrection was spontaneous, because it was the effect of the general conviction ; and the Mountain itself, weak and astonished at this movement, has proved that it did not concur to produce it. Thus this insurrection has been loholly moral and wholly popular." This was at once giving a favourable colour to the insurrec- tion, addressing an indirect censure to the Mountain, which had shown some hesitation on the 2nd of June, repelling the charge of conspiracy preferred against the leaders of the left side, and agreeably flattering the popular party which had behaved so well and done everything of itself. After this interpretation, received with acclamation by the Jacobins, and afterwards repeated by all the echoes of the victorious party, no time was lost in calling Marat to account for an expression which excited considerable sensation. Marat, who could never find more than one way of putting an end to the revolutionary hesitations, namely, the dictatorship, on seeing some tergiver- sation on the 2nd of June, had repeated on that day, as he did on every other. We must have a chief. Being called upon to explain this expression, he justified it after his usual fashion, and the Jacobins were easily satisfied, conceiving that they had sufficiently proved their scruples and the severity of their JUNE 1793 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 3 republican principles. Some observations were also made on the Inkewarmness of Danton, who seemed to be much softened since the suppression of the Commission of Twelve, and whose resolution, kept up till the 31st of May, had not lasted till the 2nd of June. Danton was absent. His friend Camille- Desmoulins defended him warmly, and an end was speedily put to this explanation, out of delicacy for so important a personage, and to avoid too delicate discussions ; for, though the insurrection was consummated, it was far from being universally approved of by the victorious party. It was in fact well known that the committee of public welfare, and many of the Mountaineers, had beheld this popular political manoeuvre with alarm. The thing being done, it was necessary to profit by it without subjecting it to discussion. It became, therefore, immediately a matter of consideration how to turn the victory to a speedy and profitable account. To this end there were different measures to be taken. To renew the committees, in which were included all the partisans of the right side, to secure by means of the committees the direction of affairs, to change the ministers, to keep a vigilant eye upon the correspondence, to stop dangerous publications at the post-office, to suffer only such as were ascertained to be useful to be despatched to the provinces (for, said Robespierre, the liberty of the j^ress ought to be complete, no doubt ; but it should not be employed to ruin liberty), to raise forthwith the revolutionary army, the institution of which was decreed, and the intervention of which was urgent for cariying the decrees of the Convention into execution in the interior, to effect the forced loan of one thousand millions from the rich — such were the means proposed and unanimously adopted by the Jacobins. But a last measure was deemed more necessary than all the others, that was the framing of a republican constitution within a week. It was of importance to prove that the opposition of the Girondins had alone prevented the accomplishment of this great task, to restore confidence to France by good laws, and to present it with a compact of union around which it might rally wholly and entirely. Such was the wish expressed at once by the Jacobins, the Cordeliers, the sections, and the commune. The Convention, acceding to this irresistible wish repeated in so many forms, renewed all its committees of general safety, of finances, of war, of legislation, &c. The committee of public welfare, which was already overloaded with business, and not yet sufficiently suspected to permit all its members to be abruptly dismissed, was alone retained. Lebrun was succeeded 4 HISTORY OF JUNE1793 in the foreign affairs by Def orgues,* and Clavières in the finances by Destonrnelles. The sketch of a constitution pre- sented by Condorcet, agreeably to the views of the Girondins, was considered as not received ; and the committee of pubhc welfare was to present another within a week. Five members were added to it for this duty. Lastly, it received orders to prepare a plan for carrying the forced loan into effect, and another for the organization of the revolutionary army. The sittings of the Convention had an entirely new aspect after the 31st of May. They were silent, and almost all the decrees were passed without discussion. The right side and part of the centre did not vote ; they seemed to protest by their silence against all the decisions taken since the 2nd of June, and to be waiting for news from the departments. Marat had, in his justice, thought fit to suspend himself till his adversaries, the Girondins, should be brought to trial. Meanwhile, he said, he renounced his functions, and was content to enlighten the Convention by his paper. The two deputies Doulcet j and Fonfrède of Bordeaux alone broke the silence of the Assembly. Doulcet denounced the committee of insurrection, which had not ceased to meet at the Evêché, and which, stopping packets at the post-office, broke the seals and sent them open to their address, marked with its own stamp bearing these words. Revolution of the T,ist of May. The Convention passed to the order of the day. Fonfrède, a member of the Commission of Twelve, but excepted from the decree of arrest, because he had opposed the measures of that commission, ascended the tribune, and moved the execution of * " Defoi'gues was at first a member of the municipality which established itself at Paris in 1792; he afterwards made a figure in the committee of public safety of that commune, to which have been attributed the September massacres. By the influence of Herault-Sechelles, lie was made minister for foreign affairs ; but having been suspected of moderatism, he was apprehended in 1794. He recovered liis liberty, however, in the same year ; and in 1799 was sent as ambassador to Holland, and recalled after tlie Revolution of the i8th Brumaire. He then became commissioner-general of police at Nantes ; and in 1804 was appointed French consul at New Orleans." — Biographie Moderne. \ " G. Doulcet, Marquis de Pontecoulant, son of the major-general of the Kind's body-guards, in 1792 was appointed deputy to the Convention. In the following year he declared Louis guilty of high treason, voted for his banishment at a peace, and his confinement till that period. Soon afterwards a decree of accusation was passed against him as an accomplice of Brissot, and he was compelled to fly. He owed his safety to Madame Lejay, a bookseller, who kept him concealed in her house, and whom he married, in gratitude for this signal service. In 1794 Doulcet re-entered the Convention, and in the following year was chosen president. He was afterwards elected into the Council of Five Hundred. In the year 1805 he was summoned to take a seat in the Conservative Senate, and was appointed commander of the Legion of Honour." — Biographic Moderne. JUNE 1793 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 5 the decree which directed a report concerning the prisoners to be presented within three days. This motion caused some tumult. "It is necessary," said Fonfrède, "to prove as speedily as possible the innocence of our colleagues. I have remained here for no other purpose than to defend them, and I declare to you that an armed force is advancing from Bor- deaux to avenge the violence offered to them." Loud cries followed these words. The motion of Fonfrède was set aside by the order of the day, and the Assembly immediately sank back into profovmd silence. These, said the Jacobins, were the last croakings of the toads of the fen. The threat thrown out by Fonfrède from the tribune was not an empty one, for not only the people of Bordeaux, but the inhabitants of almost all the departments, were ready to take up arms against the Convention. Their discontent had certainly preceded the 2nd of June, and had begun with the quarrels between the Mountaineers and the Girondins. It ought to be recollected that throughout all France the muni- cipalities and the sections were divided. The partisans of the Mountaineer system occupied the municipalities and the clubs ; the moderate republicans, who, amidst the crises of the Revo- lution, were desirous of preserving the ordinary equity, had. on the contrary, all withdrawn into the sections. In several cities a rupture had already taken place. At Marseilles the sections had stripped the municipality of its powers, and trans- ferred them to a central committee ; they had, moreover, in- stituted of their own motion a popular tribunal for trying the patriots accused of revolutionary excesses. Bayle and Boisset, the commissioners, had in vain annulled this committee and this tribunal ; their authority was contemned, and the sections had continued in permanent insurrection against the Revolu- tion. At Lyons a bloody battle had been fought. The point in dispute was, whether a municipal resolution of the 14th of July, directing the institution of a revolutionary army, and the levy of a war-tax upon the rich, should be executed or not. The sections which opposed it had declared themselves permanent : the municipality had attempted to dissolve them ; but, aided by the directory of the department, they had re- sisted. On the 29th of May they had come to blows, not- withstanding the presence of the two commissioners of the Convention, who had made ineffectual efforts to jDrevent the conflict. The victorious sections had stormed the arsenal and the town-hall, turned out the municipality, shut up the Jacobin Club, where Chalier excited the most violent storms, and assumed the sovereignty of Lyons. In this contest some 6 HISTORY OF JUNE1793 hundreds had been killed. Nioche and Gauthier, the re- presentatives, had been confined for a whole day ; being afterwards delivered, they had retired to their colleagues, Albite and Dubois-Crancé, with whom they Avere engaged in a mission to the army of the Alps. Such was the state of Lyons and of the South towards the end of May. Bordeaux did not present a more cheering aspect. That city, with all those of the West, of Bretagne, and of Normandy, waited until the threats so long repeated against the deputies of the provinces should be realized before they took any active measures. It was while thus hesitating that the departments learned the events of the end of May. Those of the 27th, when the Commission of Twelve had been for the first time suppressed, had already caused considerable irrita- tion ; and on all sides it was proposed to pass resolutions condemnatory of the proceedings in Paris. The 31st of May and the 2nd of June raised the indignation to its highest pitch. Rumour, which magnifies everything, exaggerated the circum- stances. It was reported that thirty-two deputies had been murdered by the commune ; that the public coffers had been plundered ; that the brigands of Paris had seized the supreme power, and were going to transfer it either to the foreign enemy, or to Marat, or Orleans. People met to draw up petitions, and to make preparations for arming themselves against the capital. At this moment the fugitive deputies arrived, to report themselves what had happened, and to give more consistency to the movements which were breaking out in all quarters. Besides those who had at first fled, several made their escape from the gendarmes, and others even quitted the Convention for the purpose of fomenting the insurrection. Gensonné, Valazé, and Vergniaud persisted in remaining, saying that if it was useful for one portion of them to go to rouse the zeal of the departments, it was also useful for the others to remain as hostages in the hands of their enemies, in order to prove by a trial, and at the risk of their lives, the innocence of all their party. Buzot, who never would submit to the decree of the 2nd of June, repaired to his department, that of the Eure, to excite a movement among the Normans. Gorsas followed him with a similar intention. Meilhan, who had not been arrested, but who had given an asylum to his colleagues on the nights between the 31st of May and the 2nd of June; Duchatel, called by the Mountaineers the spectre of the 2ist of January, because he had risen from a sick bed to vpte in favour of Louis XVI., quitted the Convention for the purpose of rousing Bre- J uw E 1 7 9 3 THE FRENCH RE VOL UTION. 7 tagne. Biroteau escaped from the gendarmes, and went with Chasset to direct the movements of the Lyonnese. Rebecqui, as the precursor of Barbaroiix, who was still detained, repaired to the Bouches-dii-Rhone. Rabant St. Etienne hastened to Nîmes, to persuade Languedoc to concur in the general move- ment against the oppressors of the Convention. So early as the 13th of June the department of the Eure assembled, and gave the first signal of insurrection. The Con- vention, it alleged, being no longer free, it became the duty of all good citizens to restore it to liberty. It therefore resolved that a force of four thousand men should be raised for the purpose of marcliing to Paris, and that commissioners should be sent to all the neighbouring departments to exhort them to follow this example, and to concert their operations. The department of Calvados, sitting at Caen, caused the two deputies Rome and Prieur, of the Côte-d'Or, sent by the Con- vention to accelerate the organization of the army of the coast near Cherbourg, to be arrested. It was agreed that the de- partments of Normandy should hold an extraordinary meeting at Caen, in order to form themselves into a federation. All the departments of Bretagne, such as those of the Côtes-du- Nord, Finistère, Morbihan, Ile-et-Vilaine, Mayenne, and the Loire-Inférieure, passed similar resolutions, and despatched commissioners to Rennes, for the purpose of establishing there the central authority of Bretagne. The departments of the basin of the Loire, excepting those occupied by the Vendeans, followed the general example, and even proposed to send commissioners to Bourges, in order to form there a Convention composed of two deputies of each department, with the inten- tion of going to destroy the usurping or oppressed Convention sitting at Paris. At Bordeaux the excitement was extreme. All the con- stituted authorities met in an assembly called the Popular Commission of Public Welfare, and declared that the Conven- tion was no longer free, and that it ought to be set at liberty. They resolved, in consequence, that an armed force should be forthwith raised, and that in the meantime a petition should be addressed to the National Convention, praying it to furnish some explanation, and to acquaint them with the truth respect- ing the proceedings which took place in June. They then despatched commissioners to all the departments, to invite them to a general coalition. Toulouse, an old parliamentary city, where many partisans of the late government were con- cealed behind the Girondins, had already instituted a depart- mental force of a thousand men. Its authorities declared, in 8 HISTORY OF JUNE1793 the presence of the commissioners sent to the army of the Pyrenees, that they no longer recognized the Convention ; they liberated many persons who had been imprisoned, confined many others accused of being Mountaineers, and openly de- clared that they were ready to form a federation with the departments of the South. The upper departments of the Tarn, Lot, and Garonne, Aveyron, Cantal, Puy-de-Dôme, and l'Hérault followed the example of Toulouse and Bordeaux. Nîmes proclaimed itself in a state of resistance ; Marseilles drew up an exciting jjetition, again set its popular tribunal to work, commenced proceedings against the killers, and prepared a force of six thousand men. At Grenoble the sections were convoked, and their presidents, in conjunction with the con- stituted authorities, took all the powers into their own hands, sent deputies to Lyons, and ordered Dubois-Crancé and Gau- thier, commissioners of the Convention to the army of the Alps, to be arrested. The department of the Ain adopted the same course. That of the Jura, which had already raised a corps of cavalry and a departmental force of eight hundred men, protested, on its part, against the authority of the Con- vention. Lastly, at Lyons, where the sections reigned supreme ever since the battle of the 29th of May,* deputies were re- ceived and despatched for the purpose of concerting with Marseilles, Bordeaux, and Caen ; proceedings were immediately instituted against Chalier, president of the Jacobin Club, and against several other Mountaineers. Thus the departments of the North, and those composing the basin of the Seine, were all that remained vmder the authority of the Convention. The insurgent departments amounted to sixty or seventy, and Paris had, with fifteen or twenty, to resist all the others, and to continue the war with Europe. In Paris opinions differed respecting the measures that ought to be adopted. The members of the committee of public welfare — Cambon, Barrère, Bréard, Treilhard, and Mathieu, accredited patriots — though they had disapproved of the 2nd of June, were for resorting to conciliatory measures. It was requisite, in their opinion, to prove the liberty of the Conven- tion by energetic measures against the agitators, and instead * " The city of Lyons was warmly attaclied to freedom, but it was that regulated freedom which provides for the protection of all, not that which subjects the better classes to the despotism of the lower. Its armed population soon amounted to thirty thousand men. A military chest was formed ; a paper currency, guaranteed by the principal mcrcliants, issued ; cannon in great numbers cast at a foundry within the walls ; and fortiiications, under the directions of an able engineer, erected upon all the beautiful heights which encircle the city." — Alison. JUNE 1793 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. g of exasperating the departments by severe decrees, to regain them by representing the danger of civil war in the presence of the foreign foe. Barrère proposed, in the name of the committee of public welfare, a projet of a decree conceived precisely in this spirit. According to this projet, the revolu- tionary committees, which had rendered themselves so formi- dable by their numerous arrests, were to be dissolved throughout France, or to be confined to the purpose of their institu- tion, which was the surveillance of suspected foreigners ; the primary assemblies were to meet in Paris to appoint another commandant of the armed force instead of Henriot, who had been nominated by the insurgents ; lastly, thirty deputies were to be sent to the departments as hostages. These measures seemed likely to calm and to satisfy the departments. The suppression of the revolutionary committee would put an end to the inquisition exercised against suspected persons ; the election of a good commandant would ensure order in Paris ; the thirty deputies would serve at once as hostages and instruments of reconciliation. The Mountain was not at all disposed to negotiate. Exercising with a high hand what it called the national authority, it rejected all conciliatory measures. Kobespierre caused the consideration of the jjrq;'ci! of the committee to be adjourned. Danton, again raising his voice in this perilous conjuncture, took a survey of the famous crises of the Revolution ; the dangers of September at the moment of the invasion of Champagne and the capture of Verdun ; the dangers of January, before the condemnation of the late King was decided upon ; lastly, the much greater dangers of April, while Dumouriez was marching upon Paris, and La Vendée was rising. The Revolution had, he said, sur- mounted all these perils. It had come forth victorious from all these crises, and it would again come forth victorious from the last. "It is," exclaimed he, "at the moment of a grand convulsion thait political bodies, like physical bodies, appear always to be threatened with speedy destruction, What then ? The thunder rolls, and it is amidst the tempest that the grand work which shall establish the prosperity of twenty-four millions of men will be produced." Danton proposed that one general decree should be launched against all the departments, and that they should be required to retract their proceedings within twenty-four hours after its reception, upon penalty of being outlawed. The powerful voice of Danton, which had never been raised in gTeat dangers with- out infusing new courage, produced its wonted effect. The Convention, though it did not adopt exactly the measures which I o H IS TOR Y OF J une 1 7 9 3 he proposed, passed, nevertheless, the most energetic decrees. In the first place, it declared that, as to the 31st of May and the 2nd of June, the people of Paris had, by their insurrection, deserved well of the country ; that the deputies who were at first to be put under arrest at their own homes, and some of whom had escaped, should be transferred to a prison, to be there detained like ordinary prisoners ; that there should be a call of all the deputies, and that those absent without com- mission or authority should forfeit their seats, and others be elected in their stead ; that the departmental or municipal authorities could neither quit their places nor remove from one place to another ; that they could not correspond together, and that all the commissioners sent from department to depart- ment for the purpose of forming a coalition, were to be imme- diately seized by the good citizens and sent to Paris under escort. After these general measures, the Convention annulled the resolution of the department of the Eure ; it put under accusation the members of the department of Calvados, who had arrested two of its commissioners ; it did the same in re- gard to Buzot, the instigator of the revolt of the Normans ; it despatched two deputies, Mathieu and Treilhard, to the depart- ments of the Gironde, Dordogne, and Lot and Garonne, to require them to explain themselves before they rose in insur- rection. It summoned before it the authorities of Toulouse, dissolved the tribunal of the central committee of Marseilles, passed a decree against Barbaroux, and placed the imprisoned patriots u.nder the safeguard of the law. Lastly, it sent Robert Lindet to Lyons, with directions to make an inquiry into the occurrences there, and to report on the state of that city. These decrees, successively issued in the course of June, much daunted the departments, unused to combat with the central authority. Intimidated and wavering, they resolved to await the example set them by those departments which were stronger or more deeply implicated in the quarrel than themselves. The administrations of Normandy, excited by the presence of the deputies who had joined Buzot, such as Barbaroux, Guadet, Louvet, Salles, Petion, Bergoing, Lesage, Cussy, and Kervelegan, followed up their first proceedings, and fixed at Caen the seat of a central committee of the departments. The Eure, the Calvados, and the Orne sent their commissioners to that city. The departments of Bretagne, which had at first confederated at Rennes, resolved to join the central assembly at Caen, and to send commissioners to it. Accordingly, on the JUNE 1793 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. ii 30th of June, the deputies of Morbihan, Finistère, the Côtes- du-Nord, Mayenne, Ile-et-Vilaine, and the Loire-Inférieure, conjointly with those of Calvados, the Eure, and the Orne, constituted themselves the Central Assemhly of Resistance to Op- pression, promised to maintain the equality, the unity, and the indivisibility of the republic, but vowed hatred to anarchists, and engaged to employ their powers solely to ensure respect for person, property, and the sovereignty of the people. After thus constituting themselves, they determined that each de- partment should furnish its contingent, for the purpose of composing an armed force that was to proceed to Paris to re-establish the national representation in its integrity. Felix Wimpfen,* general of the army that was to have been organized along the coast about Cherbourg, was appointed commander of the departmental army. Wimpfen accepted the appointment, and immediately assumed the title that had been conferred on him. Being summoned to Paris by the minister at war, he replied that there was but one way to make peace, and that was to revoke the decrees passed since the 3 1 st of May ; that on this condition the departments would fraternize with the capital ; but that in the contrary case he could only go to Paris at the head of sixty thousand Normans and Bretons. The minister, at the same time that he summoned Wimpfen to Paris, ordered the regiment of dragoons of La Manche, stationed in Normandy, to set out immediately for Versailles. On this intelligence all the confederates already assembled at Evreux drew up in order of battle ; the national guard joined them, and they cut off the dragoons from the road to Versailles. The latter, wishing to avoid hostilities, promised not to set out, and fraternized apparently with the confederates. Their officers wrote secretly to Paris that they could not obey with- out commencing a civil war ; and they were then permitted to remain. The assembly of Caen decided that the Breton battalions which had already arrived should march from Caen for Evi'eux, the general rendezvous of all the forces. To this point were * "Felix Wimpfen, born in 1745, of a family distinguished but poor, was the youngest of eighteen children, and quitted his father's house at the age of eleven. He served in the Seven Years' War, and distinguished himself on several occasions. He was a major-general in 1789, and embraced the revolu- tionary party. In 1793 he declared with warmth in favour of the Girondins, who were proscribed by the Mountain, and took the command of the depart- mental forces assembled by those proscribed deputies. A price was consequently set on his head ; but he concealed himself during the Reign of Terror. In 1806 he was mayor of a little commune of which he was formerly lord." — Biographie Moderne. 12 HISTORY OF JULY 1793 despatched provisions, arms, ammunition, and money taken from the public colïers. Thither, too, were sent officers won over to the cause of federalism, and many secret royalists, who made themselves conspicuous in all the commotions, and assumed the mask of republicanism, to oppose the Revolution. Among the counter-revolutionists of this stamp was one named Puisaye,* who affected extraordinary zeal for the cause of the Girondins, and whom Wimpfen, a disguised royalist, appointed general of brigade, giving him the command of the advanced guard already assembled at Evreux. This advanced guard amounted to five or six thousand men, and was daily reinforced by new contingents. The brave Bretons hastened from all parts, and reported that other battalions were to follow them in still greater number. One circumstance prevented them from all coming in a mass, that was, the necessity for guarding the coasts of the ocean against the English squadrons, and for sending battalions against La Vendée, which had already reached the Loire, and seemed ready to cross that river. Though the Bretons residing in the country were devoted to the clergy, yet those of the towns were sincere republicans ; and while preparing to oppose Paris, they were not the less determined to wage obstinate war with La Vendée. Such was the state of affairs in Bretagne and Normandy early in July. In the departments bordering on the Loire the first zeal had cooled. Commissioners of the Convention who were on the spot for the purpose of directing the levies against La Vendée, had negotiated with the local authorities, and prevailed upon them to await the issue of events before they compromized themselves any further. There, for the moment, the intention of sending deputies to Bourges was relinquished, and a cautious reserve was kept up. At Bordeaux the insurrection was permanent and energetic. Treilhard and Mathieu, the deputies, were closely watched * " Comte Joseph de Puisaye was destined, as the youngest of four brothers, for the Church, but at the age of eighteen preferred entering tlie army. In 1788 he married the only daughter of the Martpiis de Menilles, a man of Large property in Normandy. He was nominated deputy from the noblesse of Perche to the States-general ; and in 1 793 declared against the Convention, and became head of the lederal army under Wimpfen. Proscribed by the Convention, he took refuge in Bretagne, made several excursions to England, attached himself to the interests of that power, and ruined his reputation by the expedition to Quiberon. It has been said that Puisaye only wanted military talents to be the first party chief the royalists ever had. In 1797 England granted him a great extent of land in Canada, whither he went, and formed an estab- lishment equally brilliant and advantageous. After the peace of Amiens he returned to England and published papers in justification of his conduct." — Biographie Moderne. He died at Hammersmith in 1827. JULY 1793 THE FRENCH RE VOL UTION. 1 3 from the moment of their arrival, and it was at first proposed to seize them as hostages. There was a rehictance, however, to proceed to this extremity, and they were summoned to appear before the popular commission, where they experienced a most unfavourable reception from the citizens, who considered them as Maratist emissaries. They were questioned concern- ing the occurrences in Paris, and after hearing them, the com- mission declared that, according to their own deposition, the Convention was not free on the 2nd of June, neither had it been so since that time ; that they were only the envoys of an assembly without legal character, and that consequently they must leave the department. They were accordingly conducted back to its boundaiy ; and immediately afterwards the measures taken at Caen were repeated at Bordeaux. Stores of provisions and arms were formed ; the public funds were diverted, and an advanced guard was pushed forward to Langon, till the main body, which was to start in a few days, should be ready. Such were the occurrences at the end of June and the commencement of July. Mathieu and Treilhard, the deputies, meeting with less resistance, and finding means to make themselves better understood in the departments of the Dordogne, Vienne, and Lot-et-Garonne, succeeded by their conciliatory disposition in soothing the public mind, in preventing hostile measures, and in gaining time, to the advantage of the Convention. But in the more elevated departments, in the mountains of the Haute-Loire, on their backs, in the Hérault and the Gard, and all along the banks of the Rhone, the insurrection was general. The Gard and the Hérault marched off their battalions and sent them to Pont-St. -Esprit, to secure the passes of the Rhone, and to form a junction with the Marseillais who were to ascend that river. The Marseillais, in fact, refusing to obey the decrees of the Convention, maintained their tribunal, would not liberate the imprisoned patriots, and even caused some of them to be executed. They formed an army of six thousand men, which advanced from Aix upon Avignon, and which, joined by the forces of Languedoc at Pont-St.-Esprit, was to raise the borders of the Rhone, the Isère, and the Drome, in its march, and finally form a junction with the Lyonnese and with the mountaineers of the Ain and the Jura. At Grenoble the federalized administrations were struggling with Dubois-Crance, and even threatened to arrest him. Not yet daring to raise troops, they had sent deputies to fraternize with Lyons. Dubois-Crance, with the disorganized army of the Alps, was in the heart of an all but revolted city, which 1 4 H IS TOR Y OF july 1793 told him every day that the South could do without the North. He had to retain Savoy, where the illusions excited by liberty and French domination were dispelled, where people were dissatisfied with the levies of men and with the assignats, and where they had no notion of the so much boasted Revolution, so different from what it had at first been conceived to be. On his fiank, Dubois-Orancé had Switzerland, where the emi- grants were busy, and where Berne was preparing to send a new garrison to Geneva ; and in his rear, Lyons, which in- tercepted all correspondence with the committee of public welfare. Robert Lindet had arrived at Lyons ; but before his face the federalist oath had been taken : Unity, Indivisibility, of the Republic ; hatred to the Anarchists ; and the Repre- sentation WHOLE and entire. Instead of sending the arrested patriots to Paris, the authorities had continued the proceed- ings instituted against them. A new authority, composed of deputies of the communes and members of the constituted bodies, had been formed, with the title of Popular and Re- publican Commission of Public Welfare of the Rhone and Loire. This assembly had just decreed the organization of a depart- mental force for the purpose of coalescing with their brethren of the Jura, the Isère, the Bouches-du-Rhone, the Gironde, and the Calvados. This force was already completely organized ; the levy of a subsidy had, moreover, been decided upon ; and people were only waiting, as in all the other departments, for the signal to put themselves in motion. In the Jura, the two deputies, Bassal and Garnier of Troyes, had been sent to re- establish obedience to the Convention. On the news that fifteen hundred troops of the line had been collected at Dol, more than fourteen thousand mountaineers had flown to arms, and were preparing to surround them. If we consider the state of France early in July 1793, we shall see that a column, marching from Bretagne and Nor- mandy, had advanced to Evreux, and was only a few leagues distant from Paris ; that another was approaching from Bor- deaux, and was likely to carry along with it all the yet waver- ing departments of the basin of the Loire ; that six thousand Marseillais, posted at Avignon, waiting for the force of Lan- guedoc at the Pont-St.-Esprit; was about to form a junction at Lyons with all the confederates of Grenoble, of the Ain, and of the Jura, with the intention of dashing on, through Bur- gundy, to Paris. Meanwhile, until this general junction should be effected, the federalists were taking all the money from the public coffers, intercepting the provisions and ammunition sent JULY 1793 THE FRENCH RE VOL UTIOK 1 5 to the armies, and throwing again into circulation the assignats withdrawn by the sale of the national domains.* A remarkable circumstance, and one which furnishes a striking proof of the spirit of the parties, is, that the two factions preferred the self-same charges against each other, and attributed to one another the self-same object. The party of Paris and the Mountain alleged that the federalists designed to ruin the re- public by dividing it, and to arrange matters with the English for the purpose of setting up a king, who was to be the Due d'Orleans, or Louis XVII., or the Duke of York. On the other hand, the party of the departments and the federalists accused the Mountain of an intention to effect a counter-revolution by means of anarchy, and asserted that Marat, Robespierre, and Danton were sold either to England or to Orleans. Thus it was the republic which both sides professed a solicitude to save, and the monarchy with which they considered themselves to be waging deadly warfare. Such is the deplorable and usual infatuation of parties ! But this was only one portion of the dangers which threatened our unhappy country. The enemy within was to be feared, only because the enemy without was more formidable than ever. While armies of Frenchmen were advancing from the provinces towards the centre, armies of foreigners were again surrounding France, and threatening an almost inevitable invasion. Ever since the battle of Neerwinden and the defection of Dumouriez, an alarming series of reverses had wrested from us our conquests and our northern frontier. It will be recollected that Dampierre, appointed commander-in-chief, had rallied the army under the walls of Bouchain, and had there imparted to it some degree of unity and courage. Fortunately for the Revolution, the Allies, adhering to the methodical plan laid down at the opening of the campaign, would not push forward on any one point, and determined not to penetrate into France until the King of Prussia, after taking Mayence, should be enabled to advance, on his part, into the heart of our provinces. Had there been any genius or any union among the generals of the coalition, the cause of the Revolution would have been undone. After Neerwinden and the defection of Dumouriez, they ought to have pushed on and given no rest to that beaten, divided, and betrayed army. In this case, whether they made it prisoner, or drove it back into the fortresses, our open country would have been at the mercy of the * Cambon's Report of the proceedings of the committee of public welfare from the loth of April to the lotli of July. 1 6 HISTOBY OF JULY1793 victorious enemy. But the Allies held a congress at Antwerp, to agree upon the ulterior operations of the war. The Duke of York, the Prince of Coburg, the Prince of Orange, and several generals settled among them what course was to be pursued. It was resolved to reduce Conde and Valenciennes, in order to put Austria in possession of the new fortresses in the Netherlands, and to take Dunkirk, in order to secure to England that so much coveted port on the continent. These points being arranged, the operations were resumed. The English and Dutch had come into line. The Duke of York commanded twenty thousand Austrians and Hanoverians ; the Prince of Orange, fifteen thousand Dutch ; the Prince of Coburg, forty-five thousand Austrians and eight thousand Hessians. The Prince of Hohenlohe, with thirty thousand Austrians, occupied Namur and Luxemburg, and connected the allied army in the Netherlands with the Prussian army engaged in the siege of Mayence. Thus the North was threatened by eighty or ninety thousand men. The Allies had already formed the blockade of Conde, and the great ambition of the French government was to raise that blockade. Dampierre, brave, but not having confidence in his soldiers, durst not attack those formidable masses. Urged, however, by the commissioners of the Convention, he led back our army to the camp of Famars, close to Valenciennes, and on the ist of May attacked, in several columns, the Austrians. who were entrenched in the woods of Vicogne and St. Amant. Military operations were still timid. To form a mass, to attack the enemy's weak point, and to strike him boldly, were tactics to which both parties were strangers. Dampierre rushed with intrepidity, but in small masses, upon an enemy who was himself divided, and whom it would have been easy to overwhelm on one point. Punished for his faults, he was repulsed, after an obstinate conflict. On the 9th of May he renewed the attack ; he was less divided than the first time ; but the enemy, being forewarned, was less divided too ; and while he was making- heroic efforts to carry a redoubt, on the taking of which the junction of two of his columns depended, he was struck by a cannon-ball, and mortally wounded. General Lamarche, invested with the temporary command, ordered a retreat, and led back the army to the camp of Famars. This camp, situated beneath the walls of Valenciennes, and connected with that fortress, prevented the laying siege to it. The Allies therefore determined upon an attack on the 23rd of May. They scattered their troops, according to their usual JULY 1793 THE FRENCH RE VOL UTION. 1 7 practice, uselessly dispersed part of them over a multitude of points, all which Austrian prudence was desirous of keeping-, and did not attack the camp with the whole force which they might have brought to bear. Checked for a whole day by the artillery, the glory of the French army, it was not till evening that they passed the Konelle, which protected the front of the camp. Lamarche retreated in the night in good order, and posted himself at Caesar's Camp, which is connected with the fortress of Bouchain, as that of Famars is with Valenciennes. Hither the enemy ought to have pursued and to have dispersed us ; but egotism and adherence to method fixed the Allies aronnd Valenciennes. Part of their army, formed into corps of observation, placed itself between Valen- ciennes and Bouchain, and faced Cœsar's Camp. Another division undertook the siege of Valenciennes, and the re- mainder continued the blockade of Condé, which ran short of provisions, and which the enemy hoped to reduce in a few days. The regular siege of Valenciennes was begun. One hundred and eighty pieces of cannon were coming from Vienna, and one hundred from Holland ; and ninety-three mortars were already prepared. Thus, in June and July, Condé was starved, Valenciennes set on fire, and our generals occupied Ceesar's Camp with a beaten and disorganized army. If Condé and Valenciennes were reduced, the worst con- sequences might be apprehended. The command of the army of the Moselle, after Beurnon- ville had been appointed minister at war, was transferred to Ligneville. This army was opposed to Prince Hohenlohe, and had nothing to fear from him, because, occupying at the same time Namur, Luxemburg, and Treves, with thirty thousand men at most, and having before him the fortresses of Metz and Thionville, he could not attempt anything dangerous. He had just been weakened still more by detaching seven or eight thousand men from his corps to join the Prussian army. It now became easier and more desirable than ever to unite the active army of the Moselle with that of the Upper Rhine, in order to attempt important operations. On the Rhine the preceding campaign had terminated at Mayence. Custine, after his ridiculous demonstration about Frankfort, had been forced to fall back, and shut himself up in Mayence, where he had collected a considerable artillery, brought from our fortresses, and especially from Strasburg. There he formed a thousand schem.es ; sometimes he resolved to take the offensive, sometimes to keep Mayence, sometimes even to abandon that fortress. At last he determined to retain VOL. III. 58 * 1 8 HISTORY OF .TULY1793 it, and even contributed to persuade the executive council to adopt this determination. The King of Prussia then found himself obliged to lay siege to it ; and it was the resistance that he met with at this point which prevented the Allies from advancing in the North. The King of IVussia passed the Rhine at Bacharach, a little below Mayence ; Wurmser, with fifteen thousand Austrians, and some thousands under Conde, crossed it a little above ; the Hessian corps of Schonfeld remained on the right bank, before the suburb of Cassel. The Prussian army was not yet so strong as it ought to have been, according to the engage- ments contracted by Frederick William. Having sent a con- siderable corps into Poland, he had but fifty thousand men left, including the different Hessian, Saxon, and Bavarian contingents. Thus, including the seven or eight thousand Austrians detached by Hohenlohe, the fifteen thousand Aus- trians under Wurmser, the five or six thousand emigrants under Conde, and the fifty-five thousand under the King of Prussia, the army which threatened the eastern frontier might be computed at about eighty thousand fighting men. Our fortresses on the Bhine contained about thirty-eight thousand men in garrison ; the active army amounted to forty or forty- five thousand men ; that of the Moselle, to thirty ; and if the two latter had been united under a single commander, and with a point of support like that of Ma3'ence, they might have gone to seek the King of Prussia himself, and found employ- ment for him on the other side of the Ehine. The two generals of the Moselle and the Rhine ought at least to have had an understanding with one another, and they might have had it in their power to dispute, nay, perhaps to prevent the passage of the river ; but they did nothing of the sort. In the course of the month of JNIarch the King of Prussia crossed the Rhine with impunity, and met with no- thing in his course but advanced guards, which he repulsed without difficulty. Custine was meanwhile at Worms. He had been at no pains to defend .either the banks of the Rhine or the banks of the Vosges, which form the en\^rons of May- ence, and might have stopped the march of the Prussians. He hastened up, but panic-struck at the repulses experienced by his advanced guards, he fancied that he had to cope with one hundred and fifty thousand men ; he imagined, above all, that Wurmser, who was to debouch by the Palatinate, and above Mayence, was in his rear, and about to cut him off from Alsace. He applied for succour to Jignevillo, who, ti'embliiig for himself, durst not detach a répriment. He then betook liim- JULY 1793 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 19 self to flight, never stopping till he reached Landan, and then Weissenburg, and he even thought of seeking protection under the cannon of Strasburg. This inconceivable retreat opened all the passes to the Prussians, who assembled before Mayence, and invested it on both banks. Twenty thousand men were shut up in that fortress ; and if this was a great number for the defence, it was far too great for the state of the provisions, which were not adequate to the supply of so large a garrison. The uncertainty of our military plans had prevented any precautionary measures for provisioning the place. Fortunately it contained two repre- sentatives of the people — Reubel and the heroic Merlin of Thionville — the generals Kleber* and Aubert-Dubay et, Meunier the engineer, and lastly, a garrison possessing all the military virtues — bravery, sobriety, perseverance. The investment com- menced in April ; General Kalkreuth formed the siege with a Prussian corps. The King of Prussia and Wurmser were in observation at the foot of the Vosges, and faced Custine. The garrison made frecpient sallies, and extended its defence to a great distance. The French government, sensible of the blunder which it had committed by separating the two armies of the Moselle and the Khine, united them under Custine. That general, at the head of sixty or seventy thousand men, having the Prussians and Austrians scattered before them, and beyond them Mayence, defended by twent}^ thousand Frenchmen, never conceived the idea of dashing upon the corps of observation, dispersing it, and then joining the brave garrison which was extending its hand to him. About the * " Jean Baptiste Kleber, a French general, distinguished not less for his humanity and integrity than for his courage, activity, and coolness, was one of the ablest soldiers whona the Revolution produced. His father was a common labourer, and he himself was occupied as an architect when the troubles in France broke out. He was born at Strasburg in 1754, and had received some military education in the academy at Munich. Having entered a French volunteer corps as a grenadier in 1792, his talents soon procured him notice, and after the capture of Mayence he was made general of brigade. Although he openly expressed his horror of the atrocious policy of the revolutionary government, yet his services were too valuable to be lost, and he distinguished himself as a general of division in 1795 ^n'^ ^79^- In 1797, dissatisfied with the Directory, Kleber retired from the service ; but Bonaparte prevailed on him to join the expedition to Egypt, and left him the supreme command when he himself returned to France. Though his position was a difficult one, yet he maintained it successfully, and was making preparations for securing the pos- session of the country when he was assassinated by a Turkish fanatic in the 3''ear 1800." — Encyclopœdia Americana. " Of all the generals I ever had under me, said Bonaparte, Dessaix and Kleber possessed the greatest talents ; but Kleber only loved glory inasmuch as it was the means of procuring him riches and pleasures. He was an irreparable loss to France." — A Voice from St. Helena. 20 HIS TOBY OF .TULY1793 middle of May, aware that he had committed an error in remaining inactive, he made an attempt, ill-combined, ill- seconded, which degenerated into a complete rout. He com.- plained, as usual, of the subordinate officers, and was removed to the army of the North, to carry organization and courage to the troops entrenched in Cœsar's Camp. Thus the coalition, which was besieging Valenciennes and Mayence, would, after the reduction of those two fortresses, have nothing to hinder it from advancing upon our centre, and effecting an invasion. From the Rhine to the Alps and the Pyrenees, a chain of insurrections threatened the rear of our armies, and interrupted their communications. The Vosges, the Jura, Auvergne, La Lozère, formed between the Rhine and the Pyrenees an almost continvious mass of mountains of different extent and various elevations. Mountainous countries are peculiarly favourable for the preservation of institutions, habits, and manners. Li almost all those which we have mentioned, the population retained a relic of attachment to the old order of things, and without being so fanatic as that of La Vendée, it was nevertheless strongly disposed to insurrection. The Vosges, half German, were excited by the nobles and by the priests, and as the army of the Rhine betrayed indecision, the more threatening was the aspect it assumed. The whole of the Jura had been roused to insurrection by the Gironde. If in its rebellion it displayed more of the spirit of liberty, it was not the less dangerous, for between fifteen and twenty thousand mountaineers were in motion around Lons-le-Saulnier, and in communication with the revolt of the Ain and the Rhone. We have already seen what was the state of Lyons. The mountains of the Lozère, which separate the Upper Loire from the Rhone, were full of insurgents of the same stamp as the Vendeans. '^riiey had for their leader an ex-constituent named Charrier ; they amounted already to about thirty thousand men, and had it in their power to join La Vendée by means of the Loire. Next came the federalist insurgents of the South. Thus one vast revolt, differing in object and in principle, but equally formidable, threatened the rear of the armies of the Rhine, the Alps, and the Pyrenees. Along the Alps the Piedmontese were in arms, for the purpose of recovering Savoy and the county of Nice. The snow prevented the commencement of hostilities along the St. Bernard, and each kept his posts in the three valleys of Sallenche, the Tarentaise, and the Maurienne. At the Mari- time Alps, and with the army called tlie array of Italy, the case was different. There hostilities had been resumed early, JULY 1793 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 21 and the possession of the very important post of Saorgio, on which depended the quiet occupation of Nice, had begun to be disputed in the month of May. In fact the French, could they but gain that post, would be masters of the Col de Tende, and have in their hands the key of the great chain. The Pied- montese had therefore displayed great energy in defending, and the French in attacking it. The Piedmontese had, both in Savoy and towards Nice, forty thousand men, reinforced by eight thousand Austrians. Their troops, divided into several corps of equal force from the Col de Tende to the Great St. JJernard, had followed, like all those of the Allies, the system of cordons, and guarded all the valleys. The French army of Italy was in the most dej^lorable state. Consisting of fifteen thousand men at the utmost, destitute of everything, badly officered, it was not possible to obtain great efforts from it. General Biron, who had been sent for a moment to command it, had reinforced it with five thousand men, but had not been able to supply it with all that it wanted. Had one of those grand ideas which would have ruined us in the North been conceived in the South, our ruin in that quarter also would have been certain. The Piedmontese could, by favour of the frost, which rendered inaction on the side towards the High Alps compulsory, have transferred all their forces to the Southern Alps, and debouching upon Nice with a mass of thirty thousand men, have overwhebiied our army of Italy, driven it back upon the insurgent departments, entirely dis- persed it, promoted the rising on both banks of the Rhone, advanced perhaps as far as Grenoble and Lyons, taken our army penned in the valleys of Savoy in the rear, and thus overrun a considerable portion of France. But there was no more an Amadeus among them than a Eugene among the Austrians, or a Marlborough among the English. They confined themselves, therefore, to the defence of Saorgio. On our side Brunet had succeeded Anselme, and had made the same attempts upon the post of Saorgio as Dampierre had done about Conde. After several fruitless and sanguinary engagements a last battle was fought on the 1 2tli of June, and terminated in a complete rout. Even then, if the enemy had deiived some boldness from success, he might have dispersed us, and compelled us to evacuate Nice and to recross the Var. Kellermann had hastened from his headquarters in the Alps, rallied the army at the camp of Donjon, established defensive positions, and enjoined absolute inaction until reinforcements should arrive. One circumstance rendered the situation of this army still more dangerous — that was, the appearance in 2 2 HIST OB. Y OF JULY I 7 9 3 the Mediterranean of the English admiral. Hood,* who had come from (.libraltar with thirty-seven sail, and of Admiral Langara, who had brought an almost equal force from the ports of Spain. Troops might be landed, occupy the line of the Var, and take the French in the rear. The presence of these squadrons, moreover, prevented the arrival of supplies by sea, favoured the revolt in the South, and encouraged Corsica to throw herself into the arms of the English. Our fleet was repairing in Toulon the damage which it had sustained in the most unfortunate expedition against vSardinia, and durst scarcely protect the coasters which brought corn from Italy. The Mediterranean was no longer ours, and the trade of the Levant passed from Marseilles to the Greeks and the English. Thus the army of Italy had in front the Piedmontese, victorious in several actions, and in its rear the revolt of the South and two hostile squadrons. At the Pyrenees the war with Spain, declared on the 7th of March, in consequence of the death of Louis XVI., had scarcely begun. The preparations had been long on both sides, because Spain — slow, indolent, and wretchedly administered — was incapable of promptitude, and because France had upon her hands other enemies who engaged all her attention. Servan, who commanded at the Pyrenees, had spent several months in organizing his army, and in accusing Pache with as much acrimony as ever Dumouriez had done. The aspect of things was not changed under Bouchotte ; and when the campaign opened, the general was still complaining of the minister, who, he said, left him in want of everything. The two countries communicate with one another by two points — Perpignan and Bayonne. To push an invading corps vigorously forward upon Bayonne and Bordeaux, and thus proceed to La Vendée, was still too bold an attempt for those times ; besides, our means of resistance were supposed to be greater in that quarter. It would have been necessary to cross the Landes, the Garonne, and the Dordogne, and such difficulties would have been suf- ficient to cause this plan to be relinquished, if it had ever been entertained. The Court of Madrid preferred an attack by Perpignan, because it had in that quarter a more solid base in fortresses, because it reckoned, according to the report of emigrants, upon the royalists of the South, and lastly, because * "Samuel, Lord Viscount Hood, in the year 1793, commanded against the French in the Mediterranean, when he signalized liiniself by the taking of Toulon, and afterwards Corsica, in reward of which achievements he was made a viscount, and governor of Greenwich ITospital. He was horn in the year 1724, and died at Batli in l8i6." — Encyclopwdla Americana. JULY 1793 THE FBENCH REVOLUTION. 23 it had not forgotten its ancient claims to lionssillon. Four or five thousand men were left to guard Aragon ; fifteen or eighteen thousand, half regular troops and half militia, were to act under General Caro in the Western Pyrenees ; while General Eicardos, with twenty-four thousand, was to make a serious attack on Roussillon. Two principal valleys, the Tech and the Tet, run off from the chain of the ]?yrenees, and terminating towards Perpignan, form our two first defensive lines. Perpignan is situated on the second, that of the Tet. Ricardos, apprized of the feeble- ness of our means, conceived at liis outset a bold idea. Mask- ing the forts of Bellegarde and Les Bains, he daringly advanced with the intention of cutting off all our detachments scattered in the valleys, by turning them. This attempt proved suc- cessful. He debouched on the 15th of April, beat the detach- ments sent under General Willot to stop him, and struck a panic-terror into the whole of the frontier. Had he pushed on with ten thousand men, he might have been master of Perpignan ; but he was not daring enough ; besides, all his preparations were not made, and he left the French time to recover themselves. The command, which appeared to be too extensive, was divided. Servan was given the Western Pyrenees, and General de Fiers, who had been employed in the expedi- tion against Holland, was appointed to the Eastern Pyrenees. He rallied the army in advance of Perpignian in a position called the Mas d'Eu. On the içtli of May, Ricardos, having collected eighteen thousand men, attacked the French camp. The action was bloody. The brave General Dagobert, retain- ing in advanced age all the fire of youth, and combining great intelligence with intrepidity, maintained his position on the field of battle. De Fiers arrived with a reserve of eighteen hundred men, and the ground was preserved. The day declined, and a favourable termination of the combat was anticipated ; but about nightfall our soldiers, exhausted by long resistance, suddenly gave up the ground, and fled in confusion beneath the walls of Pei']^Dignan. The affrighted garrison closed the gates, and fired upon our troops, mistaking them for Spaniards. Here was another opportunity for mak- ing a bold dash upon Perpignan and gaining possession of that place, which would not have resisted ; but Ricardos, who had merely masked Bellegarde and Les Bains, did not deem it prudent to venture further, and returned to besiege those two little fortresses. He reduced them towards the end of June, and again came in presence of our troops, which had 2 4 HlSrORY OF JULY 1793 rallied in nearly the same positions as before. Thus in July the loss of a battle might have entailed the loss of Konssillon. Calamities thicken as we approach another theatre of war, more sanguinary and more terrible than any that we have yet visited. La Vendée, all fire and blood, was about to vomit forth a formidable column to the other side of the Loire. We left the Vendeans inflamed by unhoped-for successes, masters of the town of Thouars, which they had taken from Quetinault, and beginning to meditate more important enterprises. Li- stead of marching upon Doué and Saumur, they had turned off to the south of the theatre of war, and endeavoured to clear the country towards Fontenay and Niort. Messieurs de Lescure and de Larochejaquelein, who were appointed to this expedition, had made an attack upon Fontenay on the i6th of May. Repulsed at first by General Sandos, they fell back to some distance ; but presently, profiting by the blind con- fidence derived by the republican general from a first success, they again made their appearance, to the number of fifteen or twenty thousand, took Fontenay, in spite of the exti'aordinary efforts made on that day by young Marceau, and forced Chalbos and Sandos to retreat to Niort in the greatest disorder. There they found arms and ammunition in great quantity, and en- riched themselves with new resources, which, added to those that had fallen into their hands at Thouars, enabled them to prosecute the war with still greater success. Lesciire addressed a proclamation to the inhabitants, and threatened them with the severest punishments if they furnished assistance to the republicans. After this the Vendeans separated, according to their custom, in order to return home to the labours of the harvest, and a rendezvous was fixed for the 1st of June in the environs of Doué. Li the Lower Vendée, where Charette commanded alone, without as yet combining his operations with those of the other chiefs, the success had been balanced. Canclaux, com- manding at Nantes, had maintained his ground at Machecoul, though with difficulty; General 13oulard, who commanded at Sabh\s, had been enabled, by the excellent dispositions and the discipline of his troops, to occupy Lower Vendée for two months, and he had even kept up very advanced posts as far as the environs of Palluau. On the 17th of May, however, he was obliged to retreat to La Motte-A chart, very near Sables, and he found himself in the greatest embarrassment, because his two best battalions, all composed of citizens of Bordeaux, wanted to return home to attend to their own affairs, which they had left on the first report of the success of the Vendeans. J ULY 1 7 9 3 'J'TIE FEE NCR RE VOL UTIOK 2 5 The labours of ag'ricnltiire had occasioned a degree of quiet in Lower as in Upper Vendée, and for a few days the war was somewhat less active, its operations being deferred until the commencement of June. General Berruyer, whose command extended originally over the whole theatre of the war, had been superseded, and his command divided among several generals. Saumur, Niort, the Sables, composed what was called the army of the coast of La Kochelle, which was entrusted to Biron ; Angers, Nantes, and the Loire-Inférieure composed that called the army of the coast of Brest, to which Canclaux, commandant of Nantes, was appointed ; lastly, the coast of Cherbourg had been given to Wimpfen, who, as we have seen, had become general of the insurgents of the Calvados. Biron, removed from the frontier of the Ehine to that of Italy, and from the latter to La Vendée, proceeded with great repugnance to that theatre of devastation. His dislike to par- ticipate in the horrors of civil war was destined to prove his ruin. He arrived, on the 27th of May, at Niort, and found the army in the utmost disorder. It was composed of levies en masse, raised by force or by persuasion in the neighbouring provinces, and confusedly thrown into La Vendée, without training, without discipline, without supplies. These levies, consisting of peasants and industrious tradesmen of the towns, who had quitted their occupations with regret, were ready to disperse on the first accident. It would have been much better to have sent most of them away ; for they committed blunders both in the country and in the towns, encumbered the insur- gent districts to no purpose, famished them by their number, spread disorder and panic among them, and frequently hur- ried along in their flight organized battalions, which would have made a much more effective resistance had they been left to themselves. All these bands arrived with their leader, appointed in the place to which they belonged, who called himself general, talked of Ms army, refused to obey, and thwarted all the dispositions of the superior officers. Towards Orleans battalions were foi'med, known in this war by the name of hattalions of Orleans. They were composed of clerks, shop- men, and footmen, in short, of all the young men collected in the sections of Paris, and sent off in the train of Santerre. They were blended with the troops which had been taken from the army of the North by drafting fifty men from each bat- talion. But it was necessary to associate these heterogeneous elements, and to find arms and clothing. They were destitute of everything ; the very pay could not be furnished ; and as it 2 6 HISTORY OF JULY1793 was unequal between the troops of the line and the volunteers, it occasioned frequent mutinies. The Convention had despatched commissioners after com- missioners for the purpose of organizing this multitude. Some had been sent to Tours, others to Saumur, Niort, La Rochelle, and Nantes. They thwarted one another, and they thwarted the generals. The executive council had also its agents ; and Bouchotte, the minister, had inundated the country with his creatures, all selected from among the Jacobins and the Cor- deliers. These crossed the representatives, conceived that they proved their zeal by loading the country with requisitions, and accused the generals who would have checked the insubor- dination of the troops, or prevented useless oppressions, of despotism and treason. From this conflict of authorities a crude mass of accusations and a confusion of command re- sulted that were truly frightful. Biron could not enforce obedience, and he durst not make his army march, for fear that it should disband itself on the first movement, or plunder all before it. Such is a correct picture of the forces which the republic had at this period in La Vendée. Biron repaired to Tours, and arranged an eventual plan with the representatives, which consisted, as soon as this confused multitude could be somewhat reorganized, in directing four columns, of ten thousand men each, from the circumference to the centre. The four starting-points were the bridges of Ce, Saumur, Chinon, and Niort. Meanwhile he went to inspect Lower Vendée, where he supposed the danger to be greater than in any other quarter. Biron justly feared that communi- cations might be established between the Vendeans and the English. Arms and troops landed in the Marais might aggra- vate the evil, and render the war interminable. A squadron of ten sail had been perceived, and it was known that the Breton emigrants had been ordered to repair to the islands of Jersey and Guernsey. Thus everything justified the appre- hensions of Biron and his visit to Lower Vendée. Meanwhile, the Vendeans had reassembled on the ist of June. They had introduced some regularity among them- selves ; a council had been appointed to govern the country occupied by their armies. An adventurer, who gave himself out to be Bishop of Agra* and envoy from the Pope, was * "While the army was at Thonars, the soldiers found in a liouse a man in the uniform of a volunteer. He told them he was a priest, who had been forced to enrol in a republican battalion at Poitiers, and requested to speak to M. de Villeneuve du Cazcau, who had been his nnller^e companion. That person re- cojfuized him as tlie Abbé Guyot de FoUeville. Soon after he said that he was .1 u LY 1 7 9 3 THE FEE NCR RE VOL UTION. 2 7 president of this council, and by blessing the colours and performing solemn masses, excited the enthusiasm of the Vendeans, and thus rendered his imposture very serviceable to them. They had not yet chosen a Commander-in-Chief ; but each chief commanded the peasants of his district, and it was agreed that they should act in concert in all their operations. They had issued a proclamation in the name of Louis XVII., and of the Comte de Provence, regent of the kingdom during the minority of the young Prince, and called themselves com- manders of the royal and catholic armies. Theii* intention was to occupy the line of the Loire, and to advance upon Doué and Saumur. The enterprise, though bold, was easy in the existing state of things. They entered Doué on the 7tli, and arrived on the 9th before Saumur. As soon as their march was known, General Salomon, who was at Thouars with three thousand men, was ordered to march upon their rear. Salomon obeyed, but found them in too great force. He could not attack them without certain destruction to himself ; he there- fore returned to Thouars, and thence to Niort. The troops of Saumur had taken a position in the environs of the town, on the road to Fontevrault, in the entrenchments of Nantilly and on the heights of Bournan. The Vendeans approached, at- tacked Berthier's column, were repulsed by a well-directed artillery, but returned in force, and obliged Berthier,* who was wounded, to fall back. The foot gendarmes, two bat- talions of Orleans, and the cuirassiers still resisted, but the latter lost their colonel. The defeat then began, and all Bishop of Agra, and that the noiijuring bishops had consecrated him in secret at St. Germain. M. de Villeneuve communicated all this to the Benedictine, M. Pierre Jagault, whoso knowledge and judgment were much esteemed. Both proposed to the Bishop of Agra that he should join the army ; but he hesitated much, alleging his bad health. At last they prevailed, and then introduced him to the general ofEcers. No one conceived a doubt of what he told. He said that the Pope had appointed four apostolic vicars for France ; and that the dioceses of the West had been committed to his charge. He had a line figure, with an air of gentleness and humility, and good manners. The generals saw with great pleasure an ecclesiastic of such high rank and appearance supporting their cause, and an influence likely to prove very powerful. It was agreed that he should go to Chatillon, and be received there as bishop. Thus first appeared in La Vendée the Bishop of Agra, who played so important a part, and became so celebrated in the history of the war. It appeared in the sequel that all this singular personage had said of himself was false ! He deceived the whole army and country without any apparent motive. An absurd vanity seems to have been the only one. The bishop arrived as such among us the very day of the overthrow of Chatillon. On his arrival the bells were rung ; crowds followed him, on whom he bestowed benedictions ; he officiated pontitically, and the peasants were intoxicated with joy. The happiness of having a bishop among tliem made them forget their reverses, and restored all their ardour." — Memoirs of the Marchioness de Larochejaquclein. ^ * 6'ee Appendix A. 2 8 HISTORY OF JULY1793 were taken back to the town, which the Vendeans entered at their heels. General Coiistard, who commanded the battalions posted on the heights of Bournan, still remained outside. Finding himself separated from the republican troops which had been drawn back into Saumur, he formed the bold re- solution of returning thither and taking the Vendeans in the rear. He had to pass a bridge where the victorious Vendeans had just placed a battery. The brave Coustard ordered a corps of cuirassiers under his command to charge the battery. " Whither are you sending us ? " asked they. " To death ! " replied Coustard; "the welfare of the republic requires it." The cuirassiers dashed away ; but the Orleans battalion dis- persed, and deserted the general and the cuirassiers, who charged the battery. The cowardice of the one frustrated the heroism of the others ; and General Coustard, unable to get back into Saumur, retired to Angers. Saumur was taken on the 9th of Jmie, and the next day the citadel surrendered.* The Vendeans, being masters of the course of the Loire, had it now in their power to march either upon Nantes or upon La Flèche, La Mans, and Paris. Terror preceded, and everything must have given way before them. Biron was meanwhile in Lower Vendée, where, by directing his attention to the coasts, he conceived that he was warding off more real and more serious dangers. * " Three assaults on Saumur by the Vendeans began nearly at the same time on the morning of the 9th of June. The redoubts were turned, and the bridge passed, wlien suddenly, a ball having wounded M. de Lescure in the arm, the peasants who saw him covered with blood, began to slacken their pace. Lescure, binding up the wound with a handkerchief, endeavoured to lead on his men again ; but a charge of republican cuirassiers frightened them. M. de Dommaigué endeavoured to make a stand at the head of the Yendean cavalry ; but he was struck down by a discharge of case-shot, and his troop overthrown. The rout became general ; but a singular chance redeemed the fortune of the day. Two waggons overturned on the bridge Fouchard, stopped the cuirassiers, and enabled Lescure to rally the soldiers. The brave Loizeau, placing himself at the head of some foot-soldiers, fired through the wheels of the waggons at the faces of the cuirassiers and their horses ; while M. de Marigny directed some Hying artil- lery upon them, which turned the scale in favour of the Vendeans. M. de Larochejaquelein attacked the republican camp and turned it ; the ditch was crossed, a wall beyond it thrown down, and the post carried. Larochejaquelein, throwing his hat into the entrenchment, called out, ' AVho will go and fetch it?' and darting forward himself, was followed by a great number of peasants. Soon afterwards the Vendeans entered the town, and saw the whole army of the Blues flying in disorder across the great bridge of the Loire. Night coming on, the republicans evacuated the place. The capture of Saumur gave to the Vendeans an important post, the passage of the Loire, eighty pieces of cannon, muskets innumerable, and a great quantity of powder and saltpetre. In the course of five days they had taken eleven thousand prisoners : these they shaved, and then sent most of them away. Our loss in this last affair was sixty men killed, and four hundred wounded." — Memoirs of the Marchioness dc Laruchcjaquclcin. JULY 1793 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 29 Perils of every kind threatened iis at once. The Allies, besieging Valenciennes, Conde, and Mayence, were on the point of taking those fortresses, the bulwarks of our frontiers. The Vosges in commotion, the Jura in revolt, the easiest access to invasion was opened on the side next to the Rhine. The army of Italy, repulsed by the Piedmontese, had in its rear the rebellion of the South and the English fleet. The Spaniards, in presence of the French camp under Perpignan, threatened to carry it by an attack, and to make themselves masters of Roussillon. The insurgents of La Lozère were ready to unite with the Vendeans along the Loire, and this was the design of the leader who had excited that revolt. The Vendeans, masters of Saumur and of the course of the Loire, had only to act, for they possessed all the means of executing the boldest attempts upon the interior. Lastly, the federalists, marching from Caen, Bordeaux, and Marseilles, were preparing to excite France to insurrection in their progress. Our situation in the month of July 1793 was the more desperate, inasmuch as a mortal blow might have been struck at France on every point. Li the North the Allies had but to neglect the fortresses and to march upon Paris, and they would have driven the Convention upon the Loire, where it would have been received by the Vendeans. The Austrians and the Piedmontese could have executed an invasion by the Maritime Alps, annihilated our army, and overrun the whole of the South as conquerors. The Spaniards were in a position to advance by Bayonne and to join La Vendée, or if they pre- ferred Roussillon, to march boldly towards La Lozère, not far distant from the frontiers, and to set the South in flames. Lastly, the English, instead of cruising in the Mediterranean, possessed the means of landing troops in La Vendee, and conducting them from Saumur to Paris. But the external and internal enemies of the Convention had not that which ensures victory in a war of revolution. The Allies acted without union, and under the disguise of a holy war concealed the most selfish views. The Austrians wanted Valenciennes ; the King of Prussia, Mayence ; the English, Dunkirk ; * the Piedmontese aspired to recover Chambery and * " If the conduct of tlie Allies had been purposely intended to develop the formidable military strength which had grown upon the French republic, they could not have adopted measures better calculated to ettect their object than were actually pursued. Four mouths of success, which might have been rendered decisive, had been wasted in blâmable inactivity. After having broken the fi'ontier line of French fortresses, the Allies thought fit to separate their forces, and instead of pushing on to the centre of the republican power, to pursue independent plans of aggrandizement. The English, with their allies, moved 30 HISTORY OF JULY1793 Nice ; the Spaniards, the least interested of all, had neverthe- less some thoughts of lloiissillon ; lastly, the English were more solicitous to cover the Mediterranean with their fleets and to gain some port there, than to afford useful succour to La Vendée. Besides this universal selfishness, which prevented the Allies from extending their views beyond their immediate profit, they were all methodical and timid in war, and defended Avith the old military routine the old political routine for which they had armed themselves. As for the Vendeans, rising untrained against the genius of the Revolution, they fought like brave but ignorant marks- men. The federalists, spread over the whole surface of France, having to communicate from great distances for the purpose of concerting operations, rising but timidly against the central authority, and being animated by only moderate passions, could not act without tardiness and uncertainty. They more- over secretly reproached themselves with compromi^iing their country by a culpable diversion. They began to feel that it was criminal to discuss whether they ought to be Revolutionists such as Petion and Vergniaud, or such as Danton and Robe- spierre, at a moment when all Europe was in arms against France ; and they perceived that under such circumstances there was but one course to pursue, and that was, the most eîiergetic. Indeed all the factions, already rearing their heads, around them, apprized them of their fault. It was not only the constituents, it was the agents of the old Court, the re- tainers of the old clergy — in short, all the partisans of absolute power, who were rising at once ; and it became evident to them that all opposition to the Revolution would turn to the advantage of the enemies to all liberty and to all nationality. 8uch were the causes which rendered the Allies so awkward and so timid, the Vendeans so shallow, the federalists so wavering, and which were destined to ensure the triumph of the Convention over internal revolt and over Europe. The Mountaineers, animated alone by a strong passion, by a single idea, the welfare of the Revolution, under the influence of that towards Dunkirk, so long the object of tlieir maritime jealousy, while the remainder of the ai'my of the imperialists was broken up into detachments to preserve the communications. From this ruinous division may be dated all the subsequent disasters of the eumpaitrn. Had they held together, and pushed on vigorously against the masses of the enemy's forces, there cannot be a doubt that the object of the war would have been gained. It was a resolution of the English Cabinet wliich occasioned this fatal division. The impartial historian must confess with a sigh that it was British interests which hero interfered with the great objects of the war ; and that by compelling the English contingent to separate for the siege of Dunkirk, England contributed to postpone for twenty years its glorious termination." — Alison. JULY 1793 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 31 exaltation of mind in which men discover tlie newest and the boldest means, in which they never think them either too hazardous or too costly if they are but salutary, could not fail to disconcert, by an unexpected and sublime defence, slow- motioned enemies, wedded to the old routine, and held to- gether by no general bond of union, and to stifle factions which wanted the ancient system of all degrees, the revolution of all degrees, and which had neither concord nor determinate object.* "For all the advantages they gained, the Convention were indebted to the energy of their measures, the ability of their councils, and the enthusiasm of their subjects. If history has nothing to show comparable to the crimes which they committed, it has few similar instances of undaunted resolution to com- memorate. Impartial justice requires that this praise should be bestowed on the committee of public safety : if the cruelty of their internal administration exceeded the worst despotism of the emperors, the dignity of their external conduct rivalled the noblest instances of Roman heroism." — Alison. THE NATIONAL CONVENTION (continued) MEANS EMPLOYED BY THE CONVENTION AGAINST THE FEDERALISTS — CONSTITUTION OF THE YEAR IIL— CHECK OF VERNON — DE- LIVERANCE OF NANTES— SUBMISSION OF THE DEPARTMENTS- DEATH OF MARAT. THE Convention, amidst the extraordinary circumstances in which it found itself placed, was not for an instant sliaken. While fortresses or entrenched camps detained the enemy for the moment on the different frontiers, the committee of public welfare laboured night and day to reorganize the armies, to complete them by means of the levy of three hundred thousand men decreed in March, to transmit instructions to the generals, and to despatch money and stores. It remonstrated with all the local administrations which purposed to withhold, for the benefit of the federalist cause, the supplies destined for the armies, and prevailed upon them to desist out of consideration for the public welfare. While these means were employed in regard to the external enemy, the Convention resorted to others not less efficacious in regard to the enemy at home. The best resource against an adversary who doubts his rights and his strength is not to doubt one's own. Such was the course jDursued by the Con- vention. We have already seen the energetic decrees which it passed on the first movement of revolt. Though many towns would not yield, yet it never had for a moment the idea of treating with those which assumed the decided char- acter of rebellion. The Lyonnese having refused to obey, and to send the imprisoned patriots to l^aris, it ordered its commissioners with the army of the Alps to employ force, unconcerned about either the difficulties or the dangers in- curred b}^ those commissioners at Grenoble, where they had tlie Piedmontese in front, and all the insurgents of the Isère and the lihone in their rear. It enjoined them to compel Marseilles to return to its duty. It allowed all the local authorities only three days to retract their ef(uivocal resolutions J u LY 1793 THE FRENCH RE VOL UTION. 3 3 {arrêtés) ; and lastly, it sent to Vernon some gendarmes and several thousand citizens of Paris, in order to quell forthwith the insurgents of the Calvados, the nearest to the capital. The most important affair of all, the framing of a constitu- tion, had not been neglected, and a week had been sufficient for the completion of that work, which was rather a rallying-point than a real plan of legislation. It was the composition of Hérault de Séchelles.* Every Frenchman having attained the age of twenty-one was to be a citizen, and to exercise his political rights, without any condition as to fortune or pro- perty. The assembled citizens were to elect one deputy for every fifty thousand souls. The deputies, composing a single assembly, were to sit for only one year. They were to issue decrees for everything concerning the urgent wants of the State, and these decrees were to be carried into immediate execution. They were to make laws for everything that con- cerned matters of a general and less urgent interest, and these laws were not to be sanctioned unless, after allowing a certain delay, the primary assemblies had not remonstrated against them. On the ist of May the primary assemblies were to meet as a matter of right and without convocation, to elect new deputies. The piimary assemblies were to have the right to demand conventions for modifying the constitutional act. The executive power was to be vested in twenty-four members appointed by the electors, and this was to be the only mediate election. The primary assemblies were to nominate the electors, these electors were to nominate the candidates, and the Legis- lative Body was to reduce the candidates to twenty-four by striking out the others. These twenty-four members of the council were to appoint the generals, the ministers, the agents of all sorts, but were not to take them from among their own bod}^. They were to direct, to keep a watchful eye over them, and they were to be continually responsible. One-half of the executive council was to be renewed every year. Lastly, this constitution, so short, so democratic, which reduced the govern- ment to a mere temporary commission, spared, nevertheless, the only relic of the ancient system, the communes, and made "Hérault de Séchelles was the leç;islatov of the Mountain, as Condoicet had been of the Gironde. With the ideas which prevailed at this period, the nature of the new constitution may be easily conceived. It established the pure govern- ment of the multitude ; not only were the people acknowledged to be the source of all power, but the exercise of that power was delegated to them. As the constitution thus made over the government to the multitude, as it placed the power in a disorganized body, it would have been at all times impracticable ; but at a period of general warfare it was peculiarly so. Accordingly it was no sooner made than suspended." — Mvput. VOL. HI. Ô9 3 4 HISTOB Y OF j uly 1793 no cluiiige either in their circumscription or their powers. The resohition of vvliich they had given proofs procured them tlie distinction of being retained on this tabula rasa upon which was left no other trace of the past. In a week, and ahnost without discussion, this constitution was adopted, and at the moment when it was voted in its entire form the guns proclaimed its adoption in Paris, and shouts of joj^s arose on all sides. Thousands of copies of it were printed for the j)urpose of being circulated throughout France. It met with only a single contradiction, and that was from the agitators who had prepared the 3 1 st of May. The reader will recollect young Varlet haranguing in the public places ; young Leclerc, of Lyons, so violent in his speeches at the Jacobins, and susqected even by Marat on account of his vehemence ; and Jacques Roux,* so brutal to- wards the unfortunate Louis XVI., who begged him to take charge of his will — all these had made themselves conspicuous in the late insurrection, and possessed considerable influence in the committee of the Evêché and at the Cordeliers. They found fault with the constitution, because it contained no pro- vision against forestallers ; they drew up a petition, which they hawked about the streets for signatures, and went to rouse the Cordeliers, saying that the constitution was incomplete, since it contained no clause against the greatest enemies of the people. Legendre, who was present, strove in vain to oppose this movement. He was called a moderate ; and the petition, adopted by the society, was presented by it to the Convention. The whole Mountain was indignant at this proceeding. Robe- spierre and Collot-d'Herbois spoke warmly, caused the petition to be rejected, and went to the Jacobins, to expose the danger of these perfidioiis exaggerations, which merely tended, they said, to mislead the people, and could only be the work of men paid by the enemies of the republic. " The most popular con- stitution that ever was," said Robespierre, " has just emanated from an Assembly, formerly counter-revolutionary, but now purged from the men who obstructed its progress and impeded its operations. This Assembly, now pure, has produced the most perfect, the most popular work that was ever given to * "Jacques Roux was a priest, a iuunici[)al ofiicer at Paris, and a furious Revolutionist. He called himself the preacher of the sans-culottcs, and being entrusted with the care of the Temple while the King and his family were confined there, treated tliem with the greatest brutality, lie boasted of being the Marat of the municipality, and even preaclied up theft and libertinism. In 1794 he was brought before the revolutionary tribunal ; and at the moment when he heard his sentence pronounced, lie gave liimself live wounds with a knife, and died in iirison." — BiograplUe Moderne. JULY 1793 THE FBENCH RE FOL UT ION. 3 5 men ; and an individual, covered with the garb of patriotism, who boasts that lie loves the people more than we do, stirs up the citizens of all classes, and pretends to prove that a constitu- tion, which ought to rally all France, is not adapted to them ! Beware of such manœuvi'es ! Beware of ci-devant priests leagued with the Austrians ! Beware of the new mask under which the aristocrats are disguising themselves ! I discover a new crime in preparation, and which may not be long before it breaks forth ; but let us unveil it, let us crush the enemies of the people under whatever form they may present them- selves." Collot-d'Herbois spoke as warmly as Robespierre. He declared that the enemies of the republic wished to have a pretext for saying to the departments. You see, Paris approves the lanfjuage of Jacques Roux ! The two speakers were greeted with unanimous acclama- tions. The Jacobins, who piqued themselves upon combining policy with revolutionary passion, prudence with energy, sent a deputation to the Cordeliers. Collot-d'Herbois was its spokesman. He was received at the Cordeliers with all the consideration due to one of the most distinguished members of the Jacobins and of the Mountain. Profound respect was professed for the society which sent him. The petition was withdrawn ; Jacques Roux and Leclerc were expelled, Varleb was pardoned only on account of his youth, and an apolog}^ was made to Legendre for the unwarranted expressions ap- plied to him in the preceding sitting. The constitution, thus avenged, was sent forth to France for the purpose of being- sanctioned by all the primary assemblies. Thus the Convention held out to tlie departments with one hand the constitution, with the other the decree which allowed them only three days for their decision. The constitution cleared the Mountain from any plan of usurpation, and furnished a pre- text for rallying round a justified authority ; and the decree of the three days gave no time for hesitation, and enforced the choice of obedience in preference to any other course. Many of the departments, in fact, yielded, while others per- sisted in their former measures. But these latter, exchanging addresses, sending deputations to one another, seemed to be waiting for each other to act. The distances did not permit them to correspond rapidly or to form one whole. The lack of revolutionary spirit, moreover, prevented them from finding the resources necessary for success. How well-disposed soever masses may be, they are never ready to make all sacrifices, unless men of impassioned minds oblige them to do so. It would have required violent means to raise the moderate 36 HISTORY OF july 1793 inhabitants of the towns, to obhge them to march, and to con- tribute. But the Girondins condemned all those means in the Mountaineers, and could not themselves have recourse to them. The traders of Bordeaux conceived that they had done a great deal when they had expressed themselves somewhat warmly in the sections ; but they had not gone beyond their own walls. The Marseillais, rather more prompt, had sent six thousand men to Avignon ; but they had not themselves composed this little army, but hired soldiers as their substitutes. The Lyon- nese were waiting for the junction of the men of Provence and Languedoc ; the Normans had cooled a little ; the Bretons alone had remained stanch, and filled up their battalions out of their own number. Considerable agitation had prevailed at Caen, the principal centre of the insurrection. The columns that had set out from this point would first fall in with the troops of the Convention, and this first engagement would of course be of great importance. The proscribed deputies who were col- lected about Wimpfen complained of his slowness, and con- ceived that they could discover in him the disguised royalist. Urged on all sides, Wimpfen at length ordered Puisaye to push on his advanced guard to Vernon on the 13th of July, and apprized him that he was himself about to march with all his force. xlccordingty, on the 13th, Puisaye advanced toward Pacy, and fell in with the Paris levies, accompanied by a few hundred gendarmes. A few musket-shots were fired on both sides in the woods. Next day, the 14th, the federalists occu- pied Pacy, and seemed to have a slight advantage. But on the following da}^ the troops of the Convention appeared with cannon. At the first discharge, terror seized the ranks of the federalists. They dispersed and fled in confusion to Evreux. The Bretons, possessing more firmness, retired in less dis- order, but were hurried along in the retrograde movement of the others. At this intelligence consternation pervaded the Calvados, and all the authorities began to repent of their im- prudent proceedings. As soon as this rout was known at Caen, Wimpfen assembled the deputies, and proposed that they should entrench themselves in that city, and make an obstinate resistance. Entering further into the exposition of his sentiments, he told them that he saw but one way of main- taining this conflict, which was, to obtain a powerful ally, and that, if they wished it, he would procure them one ; he even threw out hints that this was the English Cabinet. He added that he considered the re])nblic impossible, and that in his opinion the restoration of the monarchy would not be a calamity. JULY 1793 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 37 The Girondins peremptorily rejected every offer of this kind, and expressed the sincerest indignation. Some of them then began to be sensible of the imprudence of their attempt, and of the danger of raising any standard whatever, since all the factions would rally round it for the purpose of overthrowing the republic. They did not, however, relinquish all hope, and thought of retiring to Bordeaux, where some of them con- ceived it possible to excite a movement sincerely republican in spirit, and which might be more successful than that of the Calvados and Bretagne. They set out, therefore, with the Breton battalions which were returning home, intending to embark at Brest. They assumed the dress of common soldiers, and were intermingled in the ranks of the battalion of Finistère. After the check at Vernon it was necessary for them to conceal themselves, because all the local authorities, eager to submit and to give proofs of zeal to the Convention, would have had it in their jDOwer to cause them to be arrested. In this manner they traversed part of Normandy and Bretagne, amidst con- tinual dangers and extreme hardships, and at length concealed themselves in the environs of Brest, whence they designed to proceed to Bordeaux. Barbaroux, Petion, Salles, Louvet, Meilhan, Guadet, Kervelegan, Gorsas, Girey-Dupre, an assis- tant of Brissot, Marchenna, a young Spaniard, who had come to seek liberty in France, Riouffe, a young man attached from enthusiasm to the Girondins, composed this band of illustrious fugitives, persecuted as traitors to their country, yet all ready to lay down their lives for it, and even conceiving that they were serving while they were compromizing it by the most dangerous diversion. In Bretagne, and in the departments of the West, and of the upper basin of the Loire, the authorities were eager to retract, in order to avoid being outlawed. The constitution, transmitted to every part, was the j^i'stext for universal sub- mission. The Convention, every one said, had no intention to perpetuate itself, or to seize the supreme power, since it gave a constitution ; this constitution would soon put an end to the reign of the factions, and appeared to contain the simplest government that had ever been seen. Meanwhile the Moun- taineer municipalities and the Jacobin clubs redoubled their energy, and the honest partisans of the Gironde gave way to a revolution which they had not been strong enough to combat, and which they would not have been strong enough to defend. From that moment Toulouse strove to justify itself. The people of Bordeaux, more decided, did not formally sub- mit ; but they called in their advanced guard, and ceased to 3 8 HISTOB Y OF jui .y 1793 talk of their march to Paris. Two other important events served to terminate the dangers of the Convention in the West and South : these were, the defence of Nantes, and the dispersion of the rebels of La Lozère. We have seen the Vendeans at Saumur, masters of the course of the Loire, and having it in their power, if they had duly appreciated their position, to make an attempt iipon Paris, which might ]ierhaps have succeeded, for La Flèche and Le Mans were destitute of means of resistance. Young J^onchamps, who alone extended his views bej'ond La Vendée, proposed that they should make an incursion into Bretagne, for the purpose of securing a seaport, and then marching upon Paris ; but his colleagues were not sufficiently intelligent to iinderstand him. The real capital upon which they ought to march was, in their opinion, Nantes. Neither their wishes nor their genius aspired to anything beyond that. There were, nevertheless, many reasons for adopting this course ; for Nantes would open a communi- cation with the sea, ensure the possession of the whole country, and after the capture of that city, there would be nothing to prevent the Vendeans from attempting the boldest enter- prises. Besides, they could keep their soldiers at home — an important consideration with the peasants, who never liked to lose sight of their church-steeple. Charette, master of Lower Vendée, after a false demonstration upon Les Sables, liad taken Machecoul, and was at the gates of Nantes. He had never concerted with the chiefs of Upper Vendée ; but on this occasion he offered to act in unison with them. He promised to attack Nantes on the left bank, while the grand army should attack it on the right, and with such a con- currence of means it seemed scarcely possible that they should not succeed. The Vendeans therefore evacuated Saumur, descended to Angers, and ])repared to march from Angers to Nantes, along the right bank. Their army was much diminished, because the peasants were unwilling to undertake so long an expedition. Still it amounted to nearly thirty thousand men. The}' appointed a Commander-in-Chief, and made choice of Catlielineau, the carrier, in order to flatter the peasants, and to attach them more strongly to themselves.* M. de Lescure, who had been * " After the taking of Saumur, Jf. de Lescure became feverish from fatigue and sutfering, liaving been seven hours on horseback after his wound, and having lost much bh)od. He was therefore prevailed on to retire to Boulaye till he should recover. Before setting out he assembhul the officers, and said to them, 'Gentlemen, the insurrection has now become so iin]iortant, and our J r I, Y I 7 9 3 THE FRENCH RE VOL UTION. 3 9 wounded, was to remain in the interior of the country, in order to raise new levies, to keep the troops at Niort in check, and to prevent any obstruction being given to the siege of Nantes. Meanwhile the commission of the representatives sitting at Tours applied for succours in all quarters, and urged JBiron, who was inspecting the coast, to march with the utmost despatch upon the rear of the Vendeans. Not content with recalling Biron, it went so far as to order movements in his absence, and sent off for Nantes all the troops that could be collected at Saumur. Biron immediately replied to the im- portunities of the commission. He assented, he said, to the movement executed without his orders, but he was obliged to guard Les Sables and La Rochelle, towns of much greater importance, in his opinion, than Nantes. The battalions of the Gironde, the best in the ai'my, were on the point of leaving him, and he was obliged to replace them ; it was impossible for him to move his army, lest it should disperse and give itself up to pillage, such was its want of discipline : the utmost he could do, therefore, was to detach from it about three thou- sand troops, and it would be nothing short of madness, he added, to march upon Saumur, and to penetrate into the country with so inconsiderable a force. Biron wrote at the same time to the committee of public welfare, tendering his resignation, since the representatives thought fit thus to arrogate the command to themselves. The committee replied that he was perfectly right ; that the representatives were authorized to advise or propose certain operations, but not to order them ; and that it was for him alone to take such measures as he deemed proper for preserving Nantes, La Rochelle, and Niort. Hereupon Biron made all possible efforts to compose a small and more movable army, with which he might be able to proceed to the succour of the besieged city. The Vendeans, meanwhile, quitted Angers on the 27th, and were in sight of Nantes on the 28th. They sent a threatening successes so promising, that we ought to appoint a general -in -chief; and altliough, from several officers being absent, the present nomination can only be provisional, I give my vote for Cathelineau.' The choice was universally applauded, except by the good Cathelineau, who was astonished at the honour done him. His appointment was desirable in all respects. It was he that first raised the covintry, and gained the first victories. He had extraordinary courage and great judgment. In addition to all these recommendations, it was good policy to have for general-in-chief a common peasant, at a moment when the spirit of equality, and a keen jealousy of the noblesse, had become so general. The necessity of attending to this general spirit was so much felt that the gentlemen took particular care to treat the peasant officers as perfectly their equals. Equality indeed prevailed much more in the Vendean than in the republican armies." — Memoirs of the Marchioness de Larochcjaquclein. 4 o HISTOR Y OF jul y 1793 sLiinnions. which was not even listened to. and prepared for the attack. It was intended to take place on both banks at two in the morning of the 29th. To guard an immense tract, intersected by several arms of the Loire, Canclaux had no more than about five thousand regular troops, and nearly a similar number of national guards. He made tlie best dispositions, and communicated tlie greatest courage to the garrison. On the 29th, Charette attacked at the preconcerted hour on the side where the bridges are situated ; but Cathe- lineau, who acted on the right bank, and had the most difficult part of the enterprise, was stopped by the post of Niort, where a few hundred men made the most heroic resistance. The attack, thus delayed on that side, became so much the more difficult. The Vendeans. however, dispersed behind the hedges and in the gardens, and hemmed in the town very closely. (Janclaux, the general-in- chief, and Beysser, commandant of tlie place, kept the republican troops everywhere firm. Gathe- lineau, on his part, redoubled his exertions. He had already penetrated far into a suburb, when he was mortally wounded by a ball. His men retired in dismay, bearing him off upon their shoulders. From that moment the attack slackened. After a combat of eighteen hours, the Vendeans dispersed, and the place was saved.* On this day every man had done his duty. The national guard had vied with the troops of the line, and the mayor himself was wounded. Next day the Vendeans threw them- selves into boats and returned into the interior of the country. The opportunity for important enterprises was from that moment lost for them : thenceforth they could not aspire to accomplish anything of consecpience ; they could hope at most to occupy their own country. Just at this instant, Biron, anxious to succour Nantes, arrived at Angers with all the troops that he had been able to collect, and Westermann was repairing to La Vendée with the (Jermanic legion. * "The Veiuleaii army took the road from Au,i;ers to Nantes; but it was neither very numerous nor very animated. Lescure and Larochejaquelein were absent, as well as many of their officers. In short, Cathelineau was said not to have eight thousand men when lie arrived before the town. The Vendeans showed in the attack more perseverance than could have been expected. The battle lasted eighteen hours ; but at last, General Cathelineau having been mor- tally wounded by a ball in his breast, the elder ]\I. Fleuriot, who commanded the division of lionchanip, and several other ofKcers disabled likewise, dis- couragement and fatigue caused the soldiers to retire at the close of the day. 'I'hc army was dissolved ; officers and soldiers repassed the Loire ; and the right bank was entirely abandoned. Few soldiers were lost; but the death of Cathelineau was a very groat misfortune." — Memoirs: of the Marchionrsx inion, which might have overturned the government, strove to bind the Jacobins to the Convention, to the com- mittees, and to the old patriots. All was profit for him in this praiseworthy and useful policy. In paving the way to the power of the committees, he paved the way to his own ; in defending the patriots of the same date and the same energy as himself, he secured his own safety, and prevented opinion from striking victims by his side ; he placed very far be- neath him those to whom he lent his protection ; lastly, he caused himself to be adored by the Jacobins for his very severity, and gained a high reputation for wisdom. In this Robespierre was actuated by no other ambition than that of all the revolutionary chiefs who had endeavoured to hold fast the Revolution for themselves ; and tliis policy, which had deprived them all of their popularity, was not destined to render him unpopular, because the Revolution was approaching the term of its dangers and of its excesses. The detained de]5uties had been placed under accusation immediately after the death of Marat, and preparations were made for their trial. It was already said tliat the heads of the remaining Bourbons ought to fall, though those heads were the heads of two women, one the wife, the other the sister, of the late King, and that of the Due d'Orleans, so faithful to the JULY 1793 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 67 Kevoliition, and now imprisoned at Marseilles as a reward for his services. A festival had been ordered for the acceptance of the con- stitution. All the primary assemblies were to send deputies to express their wishes, and to meet for the purpose of holding a solemn festival in the field of the federation. The day fixed upon was not the 14th of July, as formerly, but the lOth of August, for the taking of the Tuileries had founded the republic, whereas the taking of the Bastille had only abolished feudalism, and left the monarchy standing. Thus the republicans and the constitutional royalists differed on this point, that the one celebrated the loth of August, the others the 14th of July. Federalism was expiring, and the acceptance of the constitu- tion was general. Bordeaux still maintained the greatest re- serve, doing no act either of submission or hostility ; but it accepted the constitution. Lyons continued the proceedings which it had been ordered to transfer to the revolutionary tribunal ; but rebellious on this point, it submitted in respect to the others, and adhered also to the constitution. Marseilles alone refused its adhesion ; but its little army, already separated from that of Languedoc, had, towards the end of July, been driven from Avignon, and had recrossed the Durance. Thus federalism was vanquished, and the constitution triumphant. But the danger had increased on the frontiers ; it became urgent in La Vendee, on the Rhine, and in the North ; new victories made the Yendeans amends for their check before Nantes ; and Ma3^ence and Valenciennes were more closely pressed than ever. We left the Vendeans returning to their own country after the expedition against Nantes. Biron arrived at Angers after Nantes was delivered, and concerted a plan with General Canclaux. Westermann had meanwhile proceeded to Niort with the Germanic legion, and had obtained permission from Biron to advance into the interior of the country. Wester- mann was the same Alsatian who had distinguished himself on the loth of August, and had decided the success of that day ; who had served with glory under Dumouriez, connected him- self with that general and with Danton, been accused by Marat, and even caned him, it was said, for his abusive language. He was one of those patriots whose eminent services were acknowledged, but whom people began to reproach for the pleasures in which they had indulged during the Revolution, and with whom they began already to be disgusted, because they required discipline in the armies, and knowledge in the officers, and were not for turning out every noble general, or calling every beaten general a traitor. 6 8 RTS TOR Y F JULY 1793 Westermann had formed a legion called the Germanic, of four or five thousand men, com])rehending infantry, cavalry, and artillery. At the head of this little army, of which he had made himself master, and in which he maintained strict discipline, he had displayed the greatest daring, and performed brilliant exploits. Transferred to La Vendée with his legion, he had organized it anew, and driven from it the cowards who had denounced him. He manifested a sovereign contempt for those untrained battalions which pillaged and laid waste the country. He professed the same sentiments as Biron, and was classed with him among the military aristocrats. Bouchotte, the minister at war, had, as we have seen, sent his agents, Jacobins and Cordeliers, into La Vendée. There they placed themselves on an equality with the representatives and the generals, authorized plunder and extortion under the name of military requisitions, and insubordination under the pretext of defending the soldier against the despotism of the officers. The chief clerk in the war department under Bouchotte was Vincent, a young frantic Cordelier, the most dangerous and the most turbulent spirit of that period. He governed Bouchotte, selected persons for all appointments, and perse- cuted the generals with extreme severity. Ronsin, the com- missary sent to Dumouriez, when his contracts were annulled, was a friend of Vincent and of Bouchotte, and the principal of their agents in La Vendée, with the title of assistant minister. Under him were Momoro, a printer, Clrammont, a comedian, and several others, who acted in the same spirit and with the same violence. Westermann, already not on good terms with them, made them his decided enemies by an act of energy. One Rossignol,* formerly a working goldsmith, who had distinguished himself on the 20th of June and the loth of August, and who was chief of one of the Orleans battalions, * "Rossignol, a journeyman goldsmith at Paris, a man of naturally violent passions, which were increased by want of education, was one of the heroes of the Bastille, and one of the actors in the September massacres. In 1 793 he was made lieutenant-colonel of a regiment of gendarmerie, and employed against the Vendeans ; but Biron ordered him to be imprisoned at Niort for extortion and atrocity. He was soon afterwards released, but forwarded the war of La Vendée but little, being seldom victorious, and revenging himself for liis want of suc- cess by carrying fire and sword wherever he went. Having obtained the chief command of the army of the coasts of lirest, he became more cruel tlian ever, and issued a proclamation that he would pay ten livres for every pair of ears of Vendeans that were brought him. Rossignol gloried in liis barbarity, and one day at a supper at Saumur, said, ' Look at this arm ; it has despatched sixty- three Carmelite priests at Paris.' Having escaped the scaffold, with which he was several times threatened, he was trans])orted in 1800, and being carried to one of the islands of the Indian Archipelago, died there in the year 1803."^ Bio^/raphie Moderne. JULY 1793 TEE FBENCH REVOLUTION. 69 was among the new officers favoured by the Cordelier ministry. Drinking one day in company with some of Westermann's soldiers, he said that the men ought not to be the slaves of the officers, that Biron was a ci-devant, a traitor, and that the citizens ought to be driven out of their houses to make room for the troops. Westermann ordered him to be arrested, and gave him up to the military tribunals. Konsin immediately claimed him. and lost no time in transmitting to Paris a denunciation against Westermann. Westermann. giving himself no concern about the matter, marched with his legion for the purpose of penetrating into the very heart of La Vendée. Starting from the side opposite to the Loire, that is to say, from the south of the theatre of the war, he first took possession of Parthenay, then entered Amaillou, and set fire to the latter village, by way of reprisal towards M. de Lescure. The latter, on entering Parthenay, had exercised severities against the inhabitants, who were accused of revolutionary sentiments. Westermann ordered all the inhabitants of Amaillou to be collected, and sent them to those of Parthenay, as an indemnification ; he then burned the château of Clisson, belonging to Lescure,* and everywhere struck terror by his rapid march, and the exaggerated reports of his military executions. Westermann was not cruel, f but he began those disastrous reprisals which ruined the neutral districts, accused by each party of having favoured its adver- saries. All had fled to Chatillon, and there the families of the * " General Westennaun entered Parthenay with about ten thousand men. From thence he went to Amaillou, and set fire to the village. This was the beginning of the republican burnings. Westermann then marched on Clisson. He knew that it was the château of M. de Lescure, and imagining that he must find there a numerous garrison, and experience an obstinate resistance, he ad- vanced with all his men, and not without great precautions, to attack this chief of the brigands. He arrived about nine o'clock at night. Some concealed peasants fired a few shots from the wood and garden, which friglitened the republicans very much ; but they seized some women, and learned that there was nobody at Clisson. Westermann then entered, and wrote from thence a triumphant letter to the Convention, which was published in the newspapers, sending the will and the picture of M. de Lescure, and relating that, after having crossed many ravines, ditches, and covered ways, he had at last reached the den of that monster 'vomited from hell,' and was going to set fire to it. In fact he had straw and faggots brought into the rooms, the garrets, the stables, and the farm, and took all his measures that nothing should escape the fire. The furniture was consumed, immense quantities of corn and hay were not spared. It was the same everywhere. Afterwards the republican armies burnt even provisions, though the rest of France was suffering from famine." — Memoirs of the Marchioness de Larochejaquelein. t "Westermann delighted in carnage. M. Beauchamp says that he would throw off his coat, tuck up his sleeves, and then, with his sabre, rush into the crowd, and hew about him to the right and left ! He boasted that he had himself destroyed the last of the Vendeans — that chiefs, officers, soldiers, priests, 70 HISTORY OF JULY1793 Vendean chiefs, and the wrecks of their armies, had assembled. On the 3rd of July, Westermann, fearlessly venturing into the very heart of the insurgent country, entered Chatillon, and ex|3elled from it the superior council and the staff, which sat there as in their capital. The report of this bold exploit spread far and wide ; but Westermann's position was precarious. The Vendean chiefs had fallen back, rung the tocsin, collected a considerable army, and were preparing to surprise Wester- mann from a side where he least expected it. In a mill, out of Chatillon, he had placed a post which commanded all the environs. The Vendeans, advancing by stealth, according to their usual tactics, surrounded this post, and attacked it on all sides. Westermann, apprized rather late of the circumstance, instantly sent detachments to its support ; but they were re- pulsed, and returned to Chatillon. Alarm then seized the republican army ; it abandoned Chatillon in disorder ; and Westermann himself, after performing prodigies of valour, was obliged to make a precipitate retreat, leaving behind him a great number of dead or prisoners. This check caused a degree of discouragement ecpial to that of the presumption and hope which the temerity and success of the expedition had excited. During these occurrences at Chatillon, Biron had agreed upon a plan with Canclaux.* They were both to descend to Nantes, to sweep the left bank of the Loire, then turn towards Machecoul, unite with Boulard, who was to set out from Sables, and after having thus separated the Vendeans from the sea, to march towards Upper Vendée, for the purpose of reducing the whole country. The representatives disapproved of this plan ; they pretended that he ought to start from the very point where he was to penetrate into the country, and march, in consequence, upon the bridges of Ce, with the troops collected at Angers ; and that a column should be ordered to advance from Niort to support him on the opposite side. and nobles had all perished by the sword, the fire, or water. But when his own fate was decided, then his eyes were purged ; from the moment that he apprehended death his dreams were of the horrors which he had perpetrated ; he fancied himself beset by the spirits of the murdered, and his hell began on earth !" — Quarterly Revieio. * "From principle and feeling Canclaux was a royalist. Rigid in his own conduct, and indulgent towards others, unaffectedly pious, and singularly amiable in all the relations of life, he was beloved by all who knew him, and by all who were under his command. He entered the army, having, as Puisayo believes, the example of Monk in his mind. He was employed to fight against the truest friends of the monarchy ; he was surroundecl by spies and execu- tioners ; and tliis man, made by his education, his principles, and the habits of a long life, to set an examjjle to his fellows of the practice of every virtue, ended in becoming the deplorable instrument of every crime ! " — Quarterly Review. JULY 1793 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 71 Biron, finding his plans thwarted, resigned tlie command. At this very moment news arrived of the defeat at Châtillon, and the whole was imputed to Biron. He was reproached with having suffered Nantes to be besieged, and with not having seconded Westermann. On the denunciation of Ronsin and his agents, he was summoned to the bar.* Westermann was put upon his trial, and Rossignol immediately liberated. Such was the fate of the generals of La Vendée amidst the Jacobin agents. General Labarolière took the command of the troops which Biron had left at Angers, and prepared, agreeably to the wishes of the representatives, to advance into the country by the bridges of Ce. After having left fourteen hundred men at Saumur. and fifteen hundred at the bridges of Ce, he pro- ceeded to Brissac, where he placed a post to secure his com- munications. This undisciplined army committed the most frightful devastations f in a country devoted to the republic. On the I5tli of July it was attacked in the camp of Fline by twenty thousand Vendeans. The advanced guard, composed of regular troops, made a resolute resistance. The main body, however, was on the point of yielding, when the Vendeans, more prompt at running away, retired in disorder. The new battalions then showed somewhat more ardour, and in order to encourage them, those praises were bestowed on them which had been deserved by the advanced guard alone. On the 17th the army advanced nearly to Vihiers, and a new attack, re- ceived and supported with the same vigour by the advanced guard, and with the same hesitation by the main body, was anew repulsed. In the course of the day the army arrived at Vihiers. Several generals, thinking that the Orleans battalions were too ill-organized to keep the field, and that it would be impossible to remain in the country with such an army, were of opinion that they ought to retire. Labarolière decided on * "Biron was accused at the bar of the Convention, and the arrest of Rossignol was one of his crimes. An ex-noble could expect no mercy, and he was delivered over to the revolutionary tribunal. His words ujion the scaffold were, ' I liave been false to my God, my order, and my King — I die full of faith and repent- ance.' " — Quarterly Revicio. t "The land was utterly laid waste, and nothing left in some parts of this perfidious country but heaps of dead bodies, of ruins, and of ashes — the frightful monuments of national vengeance ! " — Turrcau. " One might almost say that the Vendeans were no longer human beings in the eyes of the republicans ; the pregnant women, the paralytic of fourscore, the infant in the cradle, nay, even the beasts, the houses, the stores, the very soil, appeared to them so many enemies, worthy of total exterininatioii. I do not doubt that if the republicans had possessed the power, they would have launclied the thunder against this unhappy country, and reduced it to a chaos ! " — Berthre de Bourniseaux. 72 niSTOBY OF JULY 1793 waiting at Vihiers, and defending liinisell" in case he should be attacked. On the i8th. at one in the afternoon, the Vendeans made their appearance. The republican advanced guard behaved with the same valom* as before ; but the rest of the army wavered at sight of the enemy, and fell back in spite of the efforts of the generals. The battalions of Paris,* much more ready to raise the outcry of treason than to fight, retired in disorder. The confusion became general. Santerre, who had thrown himself most courageously into the thick of the fray, narrowly escaped being taken. Bourbotte,! the representative, was in the like danger ; and the army lied in such haste that in a few hours it was at Saumiu*. The divi- sion of Niort, which was about to march, remained where it was ; and on the 20th it was decided that it should wait for the reorganization of the column at Saumur. As it was necessary that some one should be made responsible for the defeat, lionsin and his agents denounced Berthier, the chief of the staff, and General Menou, both of whom were reputed to be aristocrats, because they recommended discipline. Berthier and Menou | were immediately summoned to Paris, as Biron and Westermann had been. Such up to this period was the state of the war in La Vendée. * "The battalions raised in Paris displayed great courage in this war; but unfortunately these intrepid Revolutionists had a most unbridled appetite for jnllage. It might have been said that they came less for the sake of fighting than of plundering : the rich man was always in their eyes an aristocrat, whom they might strip without ceremony ; so that the Paris carriers returned laden with booty, the fruit of their robberies." — Beauchamp. t "The representative Bourbotte was one of those stern Jacobins who, when condemned to de^th under the Directory, stabbed themselves at the bar, and handed the bloody knife one to another." — Quarterly Review. Î "Baron Jacques Franvois de ]\Ienou, deputy from the nobility of the baili- wick of Touraine to the States-general, was one of the first members of that order who joined the chamber of the tiers-état. In 1790 he was president of the Assembly, and proved himself the open enemy of the clergy, and was one of the commissioners appointed to dispose of their jiroperty. In 1793 he was employed in the Vendean war, and appointed commander-in-chief; but being once or twice defeated, his command was taken from him. In 1 795 he defended the National Convention against the Jacobins, for which he was rewarded by the gift of a complete suit of ai'mour, and the post of commander-in-chief of the army of the interior. In 1798 JMenou, as general of a division, accompanied Bonaparte to Egy])t, where he displayed great valour and ability. He there embraced Mahometanism, took the turban, assumed the name of Abdallah, attended the mosques, and married a rich young Egyptian woman, daughter to the keeper of the baths at Alexandria. When Napoleon left, Menou remained with Kleber, after whose assassination he took the command of the army of the East. When General Aliercromby landed before Alexandria, Menou marched to attack him, but was repulsed with great loss. Shortly after his return to France he was sent to Piedmont to direct the administration there. In 1803 he had the title of grand ofiicer of the Legion of Honour conferred on him, and in 1805 was again confirmed in the general government of Piedmont." — Biographic Moderne. JULY 1793 THE FRENCH RE VOL UTION. 7 3 The Vendeans, rising on a sudden in April and May, had taken Thoiiars, Loudun, Doué, and Saumur, in consequence of the bad quality of the troops composed of the new recruits. Descending to Nantes in June, they had been repulsed from that city by Canclaux, and from Les Sables by Boulard, two generals who had found means to introduce order and dis- cipline among their troops. Westermann, acting with boldness and with a body of good troops, had penetrated to Châtillon in the beginning of June ; but betrayed by the inhabitants, and surprised by the insurgents, he had sustained a defeat ; and lastly, the column of Tours, in attempting to advance into the country with the Orleans battalions, had met with the fate that usually befalls disorganized armies. At the end of July, therefore, the Vendeans were masters of the whole extent of their territory. As for the brave and unfortunate Biron, accused of not being at Nantes while he was inspecting Lower Vendée, and of not being with Westermann while he was arranging a plan with Canclaux, thwarted, interrupted in all his operations, he had been removed from his army before he had time to act, and had only joined it to be con- tinually accused. Canclaux remained at Nantes ; but the brave Boulard no longer commanded at Les Sables, and the two battalions of the Gironde had just retired. Such is the picture of La Vendée in July : all the columns in the upper country were routed ; the ministerial agents denounced the generals reputed to be aristocrats ; and the generals complained of the disorganizers sent by the ministry and the Jacobins. Li the East and the North the sieges of Mayence and Valenciennes made alarming progress. Mayence, seated on the left bank of the Ehine, on the French side, and opposite to the mouth of the Mayn, forms a large arc of a circle, of which the Rhine may be considered as the chord. A considerable suburb, that of Cassel, on the other bank, communicates with the fortress by a bridge of boats. The island of Petersau, situated below Mayence, stretches upward, and its point advances high enough to batter the bridge of boats, and to take the defences of the place in the rear. On the side next to the river, Mayence is protected only "by a brick wall ; but on the land side it is very strongly fortified. On the left bank, beginning opposite to the point of Petersau, it is defended by an enclosure and a ditch, into which runs the rivulet of Zahlbach, in its way to the Rhine. At the extremity of this ditch a fort, that of Hauptstein, commands the whole length of the ditch, and adds the protection of its fire to that afforded by the water. 7 4 HIS TOE r OF july 1793 From this point the enclosure continues till it rejoins the upper channel of the Khine ; but the ditch ceases, and in its stead there is a second enclosure parallel with the first. Thus, in this part, two lines of wall require a double siege. The citadel, connected with this double enclosure, serves to increase its strength. Such was Mayence in 1793, even before its fortifications had been improved. The garrison amounted to twenty thousand men, because General Schaal, who was to have retired with a division, had been driven back into the place, and was thus prevented from joining the army of Custine. The provisions were not adequate to this garrison. In the uncertainty whether Mayence should be kept or not, but little pains had been taken to lay in supplies. Custine had at length ordered the place to be provisioned. The Jews had come forward ; but they wanted to drive a profitable bargain. They insisted on being paid for all convoys intercepted on the way by the enemy. Eewbel and Merlin refused these terms, apprehensive lest the Jews might themselves cause the convoys to be captured. There was no want of corn, however ; but if the mills situated on the river should chance to be destroyed, it would be im- possible to get it ground. Of butcher's meat there was but a small quantity ; and the forage in particular was absolutely insufficient for the three thousand horses of the garrison. The artillery consisted of one hundred and thirty pieces of brass, and sixty of iron, which had been found there, and were very bad ; the French had brought eighty in good condition. Thus the ramparts were lined by a considerable number of guns ; but there was not a suflScient supply of powder. The skilful and heroic Meunier, who had executed the works at Cher- bourg, was directed to defend Cassel and the posts on the right bank ; Doyré superintended the works in the body of the place; Aubert-Dubayet and Kleber* commanded the troops ; and Merlin and Rewbel, the representatives, animated the garrison by their presence. This garrison was encamped in the interval between the two enclosures, and occupied in the distance very advanced posts. It was animated by the best spirit, had great confidence in the place, in its commanders, and in its own strength ; and besides this, it was determined to defend a point of the utmost importance to the welfare of France. * " Kleber, who was a sincere republican, and a cool, reflectinfj man, was what might be called a grumbler by nature ; yet he never evinced discon- tent in the discharge of his duties as a soldier. He swore and stormed, but marched bravely to the cannon's mouth. He was indeed courage personified." — Bcnirrienne. JULY 1793 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 7 5 General Schonfeld, encamped on the right bank, hemmed in Cassel with ten thousand Hessians. The united Austrians and Prussians made the principal attack on Mayence. The Austrians occupied the right of the besieging force. Facing the double enclosure, the Prussians formed the centre of Marienburg. There were the headquarters of the King of Prussia. The left, likewise composed of Prussians, was en- camped facing Hauptstein and the ditch filled by the water of the Zahlbach rivulet. The besieging army was composed of nearly fifty thousand men, under the direction of old Kalkreuth. Brunswick commanded the corps of observation towards the Vosges, where he concerted with Wurmser for the protection of this important operation. The Allies were yet unprovided with heavy artillery fit for a siege ; they were in treaty with the states of Holland, which again emptied part of their arsenals to assist the progress of their most formidable neighbours. The investment commenced in April. Till the convoys of artillery could arrive, the offensive belonged to the garrison, which was continually making the most vigorous sorties. On the nth of April, a few days after the investment, our generals resolved to attempt a surprise against the ten thou- sand Hessians, who had extended themselves too much on the right bank. In the night of the nth they sallied from Cassel in three columns. Meunier marched straight forward upon Hochheim ; the two other columns descended the right bank towards Biberich ; but a musket-shot fired unawares in General Schaal's column produced confusion. The trooj^s, still quite raw, had not that steadiness which they soon acquire under their generals. It was necessary to retire, and Kleber with his column protected the retreat in the most effective manner. By this sortie the besieged gained forty oxen and cows, which were killed and salted. On the 1 6th the enemy's generals attempted to take the post of Weissenau. which, situated close to the Rhine, and on the right of their attack, considerably annoyed them. Though the village was burned, the French entrenched themselves in a cemetery. Merlin, the representative, placed himself there with them, and by prodigies of valour they preserved the post. On the 26th the Prussians despatched a flag of truce, the bearer of which was directed to say, falsely, that he was sent by the general of the army of the Rhine to persuade the garrison to surrender. The generals, the representatives, the soldiers, already attached to the place, and convinced that they were rendering an important service by detaining the 7rosecution of the siege. The firing was suspended till four in the afternoon, and then renewed with extreme violence. Preparations were about to be made for the assault, when a deputation came to treat on behalf of the Lyonnese. It appears that the object of this negotiation was to give time to Précy and two thousand of the inhabitants, who were most dee]-)ly compromized, to escape in close column. They actually did avail themselves of this OCT. 1793 THE FRENCH BE VOLUTION. a-jj interval, and left the place by the suburb of Devaise, with the intention of retiring towards Switzerland. Scarcely had the parley commenced, when a republican column penetrated to the suburb of St. Just. It was no longer time to make conditions, and besides, the Convention would grant none. On the Qtli the army entered, headed by the representatives. The inhabitants had concealed them- selves ; but all the persecuted Mountaineers came forth in a body to meet the victorious army, and composed for it a sort of popular triumph. General Doppet made his troops observe the strictest discipline, and left to the representatives the exercise of the revolutionary vengeance upon that unfortu- nate city. Meanwhile Précy, with his two thousand fugitives, was marching towards Switzerland. But Dubois-Crancé, fore- seeing that this would be his only resource, had for a long time caused all the passes to be guarded. The unfortunate Lyonnese were therefore pursued, dispersed, and killed by the peasants. Not more than eighty of them, with Précy, reached the Helvetic territory. No sooner had Couthon entered the city than he re-estab- lished the old Mountaineer municipality, and commissioned it to seek and point out the rebels. He instituted a popular commission to try them according to martial law. He then wrote to Paris that there were three classes of inhabitants : (i) the guilty rich; (2) the selfish rich; (3) the ignorant artisans, who were of no party whatever, and alike incapable of good and evil. The first should be guillotined and their houses destroyed ; the second forced to contribute their whole fortune ; and the third be displaced, and a republican colony planted in their stead. The capture of Lyons produced the greatest rejoicing in Paris, and compensated for the bad news of the end of Sep- tember. Still, notwithstanding the result, complaints were made of the dilatoriness of Dubois-Crancé, and to him was imputed the flight of the Lyonnese by the suburb of Devaise, a flight, however, which had only saved eighty of them. Cou- thon, in particular, accused him of having made himself abso- lute general in his army, of having more frequently appeared in the dress of a superior officer than in that of represen- tative of the people, of having affected the superciliousness of a tactician ; lastly, of having preferred the system of regular sieges to that of attacks en masse. An outcry was immediately raised by the Jacobins against Dubois-Crancé, whose activity and vigour had nevertheless rendered such VOL. III. 68 * 1 7 8 HIS TOE Y OF oct. 1793 important services at Grenoble, in the South, and before Lyons. At the same time the committee of public welfare prepared terrible decrees, with a view to make the authority of the Convention more formidable and more implicitly obeyed. The decree submitted by Barrère, and immediately adopted, was as follows : — Art. I. There shall be appointed by the National Conven- tion, on the presentation of the committee of public welfare, a commission of five representatives of the people, who shall proceed to Lyons without delay, and cause all the counter- revolutionists who have taken up arms in that city to be apprehended and tried according to martial law. 2. All the Lyonnese shall be disarmed : the arms shall be given to those who shall be acknowledged to have had no hand in the revolt, and to the defenders of the country. 3. The city of Lyons shall be destroyed. 4. No part of it shall be preserved but the poor-house, the manufactories, the workshops of the arts, the hospitals, the public buildings, and those of instruction. 5. That city shall cease to be called Lyons. It shall be called Commune- Aj[)'ra7ichic. 6. On the ruins of Lyons shall be erected a monument, on which shall be inscribed these words : Lyons MADE WAii UPON LIBERTY — LyONS IS NO MORE ! * The intelligence of the capture of Lyons was immediately communicated to the two armies of the North and of La Vendée, where the decisive blows were to be struck, and a proclamation invited them to imitate the army of Lyons. The army of the North was thus addressed : " The standard of liberty waves over the walls of Lyons, and purifies them. Behold there the omen of victory : victory belongs to courage. It is yours : strike, exterminate the satellites of the tyrants ! The eyes of the country are fixed on you ; the Convention seconds your generous devotedness ; a few days longer, and the tyrants will be no more, and the republic will owe to you its happiness and its glory." To the soldiers of La Vendée it was said, '" And you, too, brave soldiers, you, too, will gain a victory. Too long has La Vendée annoyed the * " The practice of all goveniiiients being to establish their continuance as a right, those who attack them are enemies while they fight, and conspirators when they are conquered ; consequently they are killed both by means of war and of the law. All these motives inlluenced at the same time the policy of the revolutionary government — a policy of vengeance, of terror, and of self- preservation. These are the maxims according to which they acted with respect to the insurgent towns, more especially Lyons, which was denounced in a terrible spirit." — Mifjnet. OCT 1793 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 179 republic. March, strike, finish ! All our enemies must fall at once. Every army must conquer. Would you be the last to gather laurels, to earn the glory of having exter- minated the rebels, and saved the country ? " The committee, as we see, spared no pains to make the most of the reduction of Lyons. That event was, in fact, of the utmost imjjortance. It delivered the east of France from the last remains of insurrection, and took all hope from the emigTants intriguing in Switzerland, and from the Piedmontese, who could not henceforth reckon upon any diversion. It quelled the Jura, secured the rear of the army of the Rhine, permitted the succours in men and stores, which had become indispensable, to be despatched to Toulon and the Pyrenees ; and lastly, it intimidated all the towns which still felt disposed to insurrection, and ensured their definitive submission. It was in the North that the committee was particularly desirous to display the greatest energy, and that it expected generals and soldiers to show that quality most conspicuously. Scarcely had Custine's head been struck off on the scaffold, when Houchard was sent to the revolutionary tribunal for not having done all that he might have done before Dunkirk. The recent complaints addressed to the committee in September had obliged it to renew all the staffs. It had just recomposed them entirely, and raised junior officers to the highest com- mands. Houchard, colonel at the beginning of the campaign, general-in-chief before it was finished, and now accused before the revolutionary tribunal ; Hoche, a mere officer at the siege of Dunkirk, and now promoted to the command of the army of the Moselle ; Jourdan, chef de bataillon, then commandant of the centre at the battle of Hondtschoote, and at length appointed general-in-chief of the army of the North — were striking examples of the vicissitudes of fortune in the repub- lican armies. These sudden promotions did not allow soldiers, officers, or generals time to become acquainted, and to gain each other's confidence ; but they conveyed a terrible idea of that will which thus struck at every one, not only in case of a proved treason, but for a suspicion, for insufficient zeal, or for a half victory ; and thence resulted an absolute devotion on the part of the armies, and unbounded hopes in spirits daring- enough to defy the dangerous chances of the generalship. To tliis period must be referred the first advances of the art of war. The principles of that art had indeed been known and practised in all ages, by captains combining bold- ness of mind with boldness of character. In very recent times I So HISTORY OF oct. 1793 Frederick had furnished an example of the most admirable strategical combinations. But as soon as the man of genius disappears, and gives place to ordinary men, the art of war falls back into circumspection and routine. Generals fight everlastingly for the defence or the attack of a line ; they acquire skill in calculating the advantages of ground, in adapt- ing to it each kind of arm ; but with all these means, they dispute for whole years the possession of a province which a bold captain would be able to gain by one manoeuvre ; and this prudence of mediocrity sacrifices more blood than the temerity of genius, for it consumes men without producing adequate results. Such had been the course pursued by the skilful tacticians of the coalition. To each battalion they opposed another ; they guarded all the routes threatened by the enemy, and while with one bold march they might have destroyed the Revolution, they durst not take a step for fear of uncovering themselves. The art of war was yet to be regenerated. To form a compact mass, to fill it with confidence and daring, to carry it rapidly beyond a river or a chain of mountains, to strike an enemy unawares, by dividing his force, by separating him from his resources, by taking his capital, was a difficult and a grand art, which required the presence of genius, and which could develop itself only amidst the revolutionary agitation. The Revolution, by setting the public mind in motion, pre- pared the epoch of great military combinations. At first it raised in its cause enormous masses of men, masses consider- able in a very different way from all those that were ever raised for the cause of kings. It then excited an extraordinary impatience of success, and a disgust of slow and methodical combats, and suggested the idea of sudden and numerous attacks on one and the same point. On all sides it was said, We must fight en masse. This was the cry of the soldiers on the frontiers, and of the Jacobins in the clubs. Couthon, arriving at Lyons, had replied to all the arguments of Dubois- Crancé that the assault ought to be made en masse. . Lastly, Barrère had presented an able and ]3rofound report, in which he showed that the cause of our reverses la}^ in combats of detail. Thus, in forming masses, in inspiring them with new courage, in abrogating the old system of military routine, the Revolution laid the foundation for the revival of warfare on a large scale. This change could not be effected without dis- order. Peasants and artisans, taken directly to fields of battle, carried with them on the first day nothing but ignorance of OCT. 1793 THE FRENCH BE VOL UTION. i 8 1 discipline, and panic-terror, the consequence of disorganiza- tion. Representatives, who were sent to fan the revohitionary passions in the camps, frequently required impossibilities, and were guilty of injustice to brave generals. Dumouriez, Cus- tine, Houchard, Brunet, Canclaux, Jourdan, perished or retired before this torrent ; but in a month the labourers became Jacobin declaimers, docile and intrepid soldiers ; the repre- sentatives communicated an extraordinary energy to the armies ; and by dint of exigencies and changes, they at length found out the bold spirits that were suitable to the circumstances. Lastly, there came forward a man to give regularity to this great movement — this was Carnot. Formerly an officer of engineers, afterwards member of the Convention and of the committee of public welfare, sharing in some measvire its inviolability, he could with impunity introduce order into too disjointed operations, and above all, command a unity which no minister before him had been sufficiently powerful to impose upon them. One of the principal causes of our preceding re- verses was the confusion which accompanies a great agitation. The committee once established and become irresistible, and Carnot being invested with all the power of that committee, obedience was paid to the intelligence of the skilful mind, which, calculating from a general view of the whole, prescribed movements perfectly harmonizing together, and tending to one and the same end. A general could no longer, as Dumouriez and Cnstine had formerly done, act each in his own way, by drawing the whole war and all the means to himself. Representatives could no longer command some manœuvres, or thwart others, or modify the superior orders. Both were obliged to obey the supreme will of the committee, and to adhere to the uniform plan which it had prescribed. Placed thus at the centre, soaring over all the frontiers, the mind of Cai'not became enlarged as it rose. He conceived widely extended plans, in which prudence was united with boldness.* The instructions sent to Houchard afford a proof of this. His plans, it is true, had sometimes the inconvenience of plans * "The roj'alists and tlieir foreign allies have never been able to forgive Carnot's signal military exploits during the war of the French Révolution ; and affected to confound him with Robespierre, as if lie liad been the accomplice of that monster in the Reign of Terror. Situated as Carnot then was, he had but one alternative — either to continue in the committee of public safety, co-operating with men whom he abhorred, and lending his name to their worst deeds, while he was fain to close his eyes upon their details ; or to leave the tremendous war which France was then waging for her existence in the hands of men so utterly unfit to conduct the machine an instant, that immediate 1 82 HISTORY OF oct. 1793 formed in offices. When his orders arrived, they were not always either adapted to the places, or practicable at the moment ; bat they redeemed by their harmony the incon- venience of the details, and secured for us in the following year universal triumphs. Carnot had hastened to the northern frontier to Jourdan. It had been resolved to attack the enemy boldly, though he appeared formidable. Carnot asked the general for a plan, that he might judge of his views and reconcile them with those of the committee, that is, with his own. The Allies, returning from Dunkirk, towards the middle of the line, had collected between the Scheldt and the Meuse, and composed there a formidable mass capable of striking decisive blows. We have already described the theatre of the war. Several lines divide the space comprized between the Meuse and the sea, namely, the Lys, the Scarpe, the Scheldt, and the Sambre. The Allies, in taking Condé and Valenciennes, had secured two important points on the Scheldt. Le Quesnoy, which they had just reduced, gave them a support between the Scheldt and the Sambre ; but they had none upon the Sambre itself. They thought of Maubeuge, which, by its position on the Sambre, would have made them almost masters of the space comprized between that river and the Meuse. At the opening of the next campaign, Valenciennes and Maubeuge would furnish them with an excellent base of operations, and their campaign of 1793 would not have been entirely useless. Their last pro- ject consisted, therefore, in occupying Maubeuge. On the part of the French, among whom the spirit of com- bination began to develop itself, it was the intention to act, by Lille and Maubeuge, on the two wings of the enemy, and in thus attacking him on both Hanks, it was hoped that they would make his centre fall. In this manner they would be under the liability of meeting his whole force on one or other of the wings, and they would leave him all the advantage of his mass ; but there was certainly more originality in this conception than in those which had preceded it. Meanwhile the most urgent point was to succour Maubeuge. Jourdan, leaving nearly fifty thousand men in the camps of Gavarelle, Lille, and Cassel, to form his left wing, collected as many troops as possible at Guise. He had composed a mass of about defeat, in its worst shape, must have been the consequence of his desertion. There may be many an honest man who woukl have preferred death to any place in Robespierre's committee ; but it is fair to state that in all probability Carnot saved his country by perseverint; in the management of the war." — Edinburgh lieview. OCT. 1793 THE FRENCH BE VOL UTION. 1 8 3 forty-five thousand men, already organized, and he caused the new levies proceeding from the permanent requisition to be formed into regiments with the utmost despatch. These levies, however, were in such disorder that he was obliged to leave detachments of troops of the line to guard them. Jourdan therefore fixed upon Guise as the rendezvous of all the recruits, and advanced in five columns to the relief of Maubeuge. The enemy had already invested that place. Like Valen- ciennes and Lille, it was supported by an entrenched camp, situated on the right bank of the Sambre, on the very side upon which the French were advancing. Two divisions, those of Generals Desjardins and Mayer, guarded the course of the Sambre, one above, the other below Maubeuge. The enemy, instead of advancing in two close masses, driving back Desjardins upon Maubeuge. and Mayer beyond Charleroi, where he would have been lost, passed the Sambre in small masses, and allowed the two divisions of Desjardins and Mayer to unite in the entrenched camp of Maubeuge. It was wise enough to have separated Desjardins from Jourdan, and to have thus prevented him from strengthening the active army of the French ; but in suffering Mayer to join Desjardins, the Allies had permitted those two generals to form under Maubeuge a corps of twenty thousand men. which could play something more than the part of a mere garrison, especially on the approach of the main army under Jourdan. The difficulty, however, of feeding this numerous assemblage was a most serious inconvenience to Maubeuge, and might in some measure excuse the enemy's generals for having permitted the junction. The Prince of Coburg placed the Dutch, to the number of twelve thousand, on the left bank of the Sambre, and endeavoured to set fire to the granaries of Maubeuge, in order to increase the dearth. He sent General Colloredo upon the right bank, and charged him to invest the entrenched camp. In advance of Colloredo, Clairfayt, with three divisions, formed the corps of observation, and was directed to oppose the march of Jourdan. The Allies numbered nearly sixty-five thousand men. The Prince of Coburg, had he possessed boldness and genius, would have left fifteen or twenty thousand men at most to overawe Maubeuge ; he would then have marched with forty- five or fifty thousand upon General Jourdan, and would have infallibly beaten him, for, with the advantage of the offensive, and in equal number, his troops must have beaten ours, which 1 84 HISTORY OF oct. 1793 were still badly organized. Instead of this, however, the Prince of Coburg left about thirty-five thousand men round the place, and remained in observation with about thirty thousand, in the positions of Dourlers and Watignies. In this state of things it was not impossible for General Jourdan to break at one point through the line occupied by the corps of observation, to march upon Colloredo, who was investing the entrenched camp, to place him between two fires, and after overwhelming him, to unite the whole ai'my of Maubeuge with himself, to form with it a mass of sixty thousand men, and to beat all the Allies placed on the right bank of the Sambre. For this purpose he must have directed a single attack upon Watignies, the weakest point ; but by moving exclusively to that side he would have left open the road of Avesnes, leading to Guise, where our base was, and the rendezvous of all our depots. The French general preferred a more prudent though less brilliant plan, and attacked the corps of observation on four points, so as still to keep the road to Avesnes and Guise. On his left he detached Fromentin's division upon St. Wast, with orders to march between the Sambre and the enemy's right. General Ballaud, with several batteries, was to place himself in the centre, facing Dourlers, and to keep Clairfayt in check by a heavy cannonade. General Ducpiesnoy was to advance with the right upon Watignies, which formed the left of the enemy, somewhat behind the central position of Dourlers. This point was occupied by onl}^ a weak corps. A fourth division, that of General Beauregard, placed beyond the right, was to second Duquesnoy in his attack on Watignies. These various movements were not very closely connected, nor did they bear upon the decisive points. They were executed on the morning of the 15th of October. General Fromentin made himself master of St. Wast ; but not having taken the precaution to keep close to the woods, in order to shelter himself from the enemy's cavalry, he was attacked and thrown back into the ravine of St. Remi. At the centre, where Fromentin was supposed to be in possession of St. Wast, and where it was known that the right had succeeded in approach- ing Watignies, General Ballaud resolved to advance further, and instead of cannonading Dourlers, he thought of taking it. It appears that this was the suggestion of Carnot, who decided the attack in spite of General Jourdan. Our infantry threw itself into the ravine which separated it from Dourlers, ascended the height under a destructive fire, and reached a plateau where it had formidable batteries in front, and in Hank a numerous OCT. 1 7 9 3 THE FRENCH BE VOL UTION. i 8 5 cavalry ready to charge. At the same moment a fresh corps which had just contributed to put Fromentin to the rout, threatened to fall upon it on the left. General Jourdan exposed himself to the greatest danger in order to maintain it ; but it gave way, threw itself in disorder into the ravine, and very fortunately resumed its positions without being pur- sued. We had lost nearly a thousand men in this attempt, and our left, under Fromentin, had lost its artillery. General Duquesnoy, on the right, had alone succeeded, and approached Watignies according to his instructions. After this attempt the French were better acquainted with the position. They had found that Dourlers was too strongly defended for the principal attack to be directed on that point ; that Watignies, which was scarcely guarded by General Tercy, and situated behind Dourlers, might be easily carried ; and that this place once occupied by our main force, the position of Dourlers must necessarily fall. Jourdan therefore detached six or seven thousand men towards his right, to reinforce General Duquesnoy ; he ordered General Beauregard, too far off with his fourth column, to fall back from Eule upon Obrechies, so as to make a concentric effort upon Watignies conjointly with General Duquesnoy ; but he persisted in con- tinuing his demonstration on the centre, and making Fromentin march towards the left, in order still to embrace the whole front of the enemy. Next day, the i6th, the attack commenced. Our infantry, debouching by the three villages of Dinant, Demichaux, and Choisy, attacked Watignies. The Austiùan grenadiers, who connected Watignies with Dourlers, were driven into the woods. The enemy's cavalry was kept in check by the light artillery placed for the purpose, and Watignies was carried. General Beauregard, less fortunate, was surprised by a brigade which the Austrians had detached against him. His troops, exaggerating the force of the enemy, dispersed, and gave up part of the ground. At Dourlers and St. Wast the two armies had kept each other in check ; but Watignies was occupied, and that was an essential point. Jourdan, in order to ensure the possession of it, reinforced his right there with five or six thousand more men. Coburg, too ready to give way to danger, retired, notwithstanding the success obtained over Beauregard, and the arrival of the Duke of York, who came by a forced march from the other side of the Sambre. It is probable that the fear of seeing the French unite with the twenty thousand men in the entrenched camp prevented him from persisting to occupy the left bank of the Sambre. It is certain that if the 1 86 HISTORY OF oct. 1793 army of Maubeuge, on hearing the cannon at Watignies, had attacked the weak investing cor])s, and endeavoured to march towards Jourdan, the Allies might have been overwhelmed. The soldiers demanded this with loud cries, but General Fer- rand opposed the measure ; and Grsneral Chancel, to whom this refusal was erroneously attributed, was sent before the revolu- tionar}^ tribunal. The successful attack of Watignies decided the raising of the siege of Maubeuge, as that of Hondtschoote had decided the raising of the siege of Dunkirk. It was called the victory of Watignies, and produced the strongest impression on the public mind.* The Allies were thus concentrated between the Scheldt and the Sambre. The committee of public welfare, anxious to profit without loss of time by the victory of Watignies, by the discouragement which it had produced in the enemy, and by the energy which it had infused into our army, resolved to try a last effort for driving the Allies before winter out of the French territory, and leaving them with the dishearten- ing conviction of a cam]oaign entirely lost. The opinion of Jourdan and Carnot was against that of the committee. They thought that the rains, already very abundant, the bad state of the roads, and the fatigue of the troops, were sufficient reasons for entering into winter quarters, and they conceived that the unfavourable season should be employed in training the troops and organizing the army. The committee never- theless insisted that the territory should be cleared, alleging that at this season a defeat could not have any great results. Agreeably to the idea recently suggested of acting upon the wings, the committee gave orders for marching by Maubeuge and Charleroi on the one hand, and by Cysaing, Maulde, and Tournay on the other, and thus enveloping the enemy on the territory which he had invaded. The ordinance {ctrrêté) was signed on the 22nd of October. Orders were issued in consequence ; the army of the Ardennes was to join Jourdan ; the garrisons of the fortresses were to march out, and to be replaced by the new requisitions. The war in La Vendée had jnst been resumed with new * "At daybreak Jourdan assailed tlie village of AVatignies witli three columns, while a concentric lire of artillery scattered the troops who defended it. In the midst of the roar of cannon, which were discharged with uncommon vigour, the republican songs which rose from the French lines could be distinctly heard by the Austrians. The village was speedily carried, while at the same time the appearance of the reserve of Jourdan on the left ilank of the Allies completed the discouragement of Coburg, and induced a general retreat, with a loss of six thousand inen. This victory allayed a dangerous ferment which was commencing in the French capital." — Alison. OCT. 1793 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 187 activity. We have seen that Canclaux had fallen back to Nantes, and that the columns of Upper Vendée had returned to Angers and kSaumur. Before the decrees which united the two armies of La Rochelle and Brest into one, and con- ferred the command of it on General Lechelle, were known, Canclaux was preparing a new offensive movement. The garrison of Mayence was already reduced by war and disease to nine or ten thousand men. The division of Brest, beaten under Beysser, was almost disorganized. Canclaux neverthe- less resolved upon a very bold march into the heart of La Vendée, and at the same time he solicited Rossignol to second him with his army. Rossignol immediately summoned a council of war at Saumur, on the 2nd of October, and pre- vailed on it to decide that the columns of Saumur, Thouars, and Chataigneraye should join on the 7th at Bressuire, and thence march to Chatillon to make their attack concurrently with that of Canclaux. At the same time he directed the two columns of Luçon and Les Sables to keep the defen- sive, on account of their late reverses, and the dangers which threatened them from the side of Lower Vendée. Meanwhile Canclaux had advanced on the ist of October to Montaigu, pushing reconnoitring parties as far as St. Ful- gent, with a view to connect himself by his right with the column of Luçon, if it were capable of resuming the offensive. Emboldened by the success of his march, he ordered the advanced guard, still commanded by Kleber, to proceed to Tiffauges. Four thousand Mayençais fell in with the army of d'Elbée and Bonchamps at St. Symphorien, put it to the rout after a sanguinary action, and drove it back to a great distance. The same evening the decree arrived which dis- missed Canclaux, Aubert-Dubayet, and Grouchy. It produced very great discontent in the column of Mayence ; and Philip- peaux, Gillet, Merlin, and Rewbel, who saw the army deprived of an excellent general at the moment when it was exposed in the heart of La Vendée, were indignant at it. It was no doubt an excellent measure to confer the general command of the West upon a single person ; but some other individual ought to have been selected to bear the burden. Lechelle was ignorant and cowardly, says Kleber in his memoirs, and never once showed himself in the front. A mere officer in the army of La Rochelle, he was suddenly advanced, like Rossignol, on account of his reputation for patriotism ; but it was not known that, possessing neither the natural talent of Rossignol, nor his bravery, he was as bad a soldier as he was a general. Till he should arrive, Kleber assumed the 1 88 HISTORY OF oct. 1793 command. The army remained in the same positions between Montaigu and Tili'auges. At length, on the 8th of October, Léchelle arrived, and a council was held in his presence. Intelligence had just been received of the march of the columns of Saumur, Thouars, and Ohataigneraye upon Bressuire ; it was then agreed that the army should continue its march upon Cholet, where it should form a junction with the three columns united at Bressuire ; and at the same time orders were given to the rest of the Luçon division to advance towards the general rendezvous. Léchelle comprehended none of the reasoning of the generals, and approved everything, saying : We must march majestically, and en masse. Kleber folded up his map contemptuously. Merlin declared that the most ignorant of men had been selected to command the most critically situated army. From that moment Kleber was authorized by the representatives to direct the operations alone, merely, for form's sake, reporting them to Léchelle. The latter profited by this arrangement to keep at a great distance from the field of battle. Aloof from danger, he hated the brave men who were fighting for him ; but at least he allowed them to fight when and as much as they pleased. At this moment Charette, perceiving the dangers which threatened the chiefs of Upper Vendée, separated himself from them, assigning false reasons of dissatisfaction, and repaired to the coast with the intention of seizing the island of Noir- moutiers. He actually made himself master of it on the 1 2th, by a surprise and by the treachery of the officer who had the command there. He was thus sure of saving his division, and being able to enter into communication with the English ; but he left the party in Upper Vendee exposed to almost inevitable destruction. He might have acted in a manner much more beneficial to the common cause. He might have attacked the column of Mayence in the rear, and perhaps have destroyed it. The chiefs of the grand army sent him letters upon letters commanding him to do so, but they never received any answer. Those unfortunate chiefs of Upper Vendée were pressed on all sides. The republican columns which were to meet at Bressuire were there by the specified time, and marched on the 9th from Bressuire for Chritillon. By the way they fell in with the army of M. de Lescure, and threw it into disorder. Westermann, reinstated in his command, was always with the advanced guard, at the head of a few hundred men. He was the first to enter Châtillon. on the evening of the 9th. The OCT. 1793 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 189 whole ai-my arrived there on the loth. Meanwhile Lescure and Larochejaqiielein had called to their aid the grand army, which was not far from them ; for being already cooped up in the centre of the country, they were fighting at no great distance from one another. All the generals resolved to pro- ceed to Chatillon. They marched on the iith. Westermann was already advancing from Chatillon upon Mortagne, with five hundred men of the advanced guard. At first, not sup- posing that he had to do with a whole army, he did not apply for any great succours to his general ; but being suddenly enveloped, he was obliged to make a hasty retreat, and re- turned to Chatillon with his troops. The town was in an uproar, and the republican army precipitately quitted it. Westermann joined Chalbos, the general-in-chief, and collect- ing around him a few brave men, put a stop to the flight, and even advanced again very nearly to Chatillon. At nightfall he said to some of the soldiers who had fled, " You lost your honour to-day; you must try to recover it." He then took a hundred horse, made a hundred grenadiers mount behind them, and at night, while the Vendeans, crowded together in Chatillon, were asleep or intoxicated, he had the hardihood to enter the town, and to throw himself amidst a whole army. The utmost confusion and a frightful carnage ensued. The Vendeans, in mistake, fought one another, and amidst hor- rible disorder, women, children, and old men were slaughtered. Westermann retired at daybreak with the thirty or forty men whom he had left, and rejoined the main body of the army, a league from the city. On the 1 2th a tremendous sight struck the Vendeans ; they themselves quitted Chatillon, drenched with blood and a prey to flames,* and proceeded towards Cholet, whither the Mayencais were marching. Chalbos, after he had restored order in his division, returned the day after * "Our victory at Chatillon was complete, and the enemy was pursued in all directions. General Westermann had fled ; but seeing himself pursued by only a small detachment, he stopped, repulsed vigorously our dragoons, and conceived the bold project of returning to Chatillon. He ordered a hundred hussars to take each of them a grenadier behind and follow him, reaching thus in the night the gates of the town, where there were neither guards nor sentinels. The peasants, having found brandy, were for the most part drunk. The dragoons who had at first pursued Westermann, endeavoured to stop him, and fought courageously. But Westermann had already entered Chatillon, and was fighting in the streets, where a horrible slaughter began. The hussars were almost all as drunk as our people, and the darkness of the night added to the horror and confusion. The republicans massaci-ed women and children in the houses, and set fire to everything. The Vendean officers despatched numbers of them who were so intent on killing as not to think of their own defence. The Prince de Talmont, coming out of a house, was thrown down by some hussars, who did him no other injury, but went in and slaughtered his landlady and her I90 HI8T0RY OF ogt. 1793 the next, the 14th, to Chatillon, and prepared to march for- ward again, to form a pinction with the army of Nantes. All the Vendean chiefs — d'Elbée, Bonchamps, Lescure, Larochejaqiielein — were assembled with their forces in the environs of Cholet. The Mayencais, who had marched on the 14th, approached them ; the column of Chatillon was now not far distant ; and the Liiçon division, which had been sent for, was also advancing, and was to place itself between the columns of Mayence and Chatillon. The moment of the general junc- tion was therefore near at hand. On the 15th the army of Mayence marched in two masses towards Mortagne, which had just been evacuated. Kleber, with the main body, formed the left, and Beaiipuy the right. At the same moment the Luçon cohnnn drew near Mortagne, hoping to find a battalion of direction which Lechelle was to have placed upon its route. But that general, who did nothing, had not even acquitted himself of this accessory duty. The column was immediately surprised by Lescure, and was attacked on all sides. Luckily, Beaupuy, who was very near it from his position towards Mortagne, hastened to its succour, disposed his troops with judgment, and succeeded in extricating it. The Vendeans were repulsed. The unfortunate Lescure received a ball above the eyebrow, and fell into the arms of his men, who bore him away, and betook themselves to flight.* The Lucon column then joined that of Beaupuy. Young Marceau had just as- sumed the command of it. On the left, at the same moment, Kleber had sustained a combat towards St. Christophe, and had repulsed the enemy. On the evening of the 15 th all the republican troops bivouacked in the fields before Cholet, whither the Vendeans had retreated. The Luçon division consisted of (laughter, who were in reality democrats. Many wives of the republican soldiers were involved in the promiscuous massacre. In four or five hours Westermann withdrew ; but darkness prevented Ids being pursued. The chief's who were without the town waited for day to re-enter it. Then it was that the horrors of the night were displayed. Houses on tire — streets strewn with dead bodies — • wounded men, women, and children — in short, with wrecks of everything!" — Memoirs of the Marchioness de Larochejaquelcin. * "Lescure was some way before the troops, when, on reaching the top of a rising ground, he discovered at twenty paces from liim a republican i)0st. ' Forward ! ' he called out to his troops ; but at that moment a ball struck liim above the left eye, and came out behind his ear. He instantly dropped lifeless. The peasants having rushed forward, passed over the body of their general with- out seeing him, and repulsed the republicans. Young lîeauvolliers, however, throwing away his sword, called out weeping, ' He is dead — he is dead ! ' This alarm diffusing itself among the Vendeans, a reserve of Mayencais returned upon them and j)ut them to ilight. Meantime Lescure's servant had found his master bathed in l)lood, but still breathing, lie placed him on a horse, sujiported by two soldiers, and in this manner he was conveyed to l»eaupreau." — Manoirs of the Marchioness de Larochej((qucIcin. OCT 1793 THE FRENCH BE VOL UTION. 1 9 1 about three thousand men, and formed with the Mayence column a force of nearly twelve or thirteen thousand men. Next morning, the 1 5th, the Vendeans, after a few cannon- shot, evacuated Cholet and fell back upon Beaupréau. Kleber entered the place immediately, and prohibiting pillage upon pain of death, enforced the strictest order. The Luron column had done the same at Mortagne ; so that all the historians who have asserted that Cholet and Mortagne were burned, have committed an error or pronounced a falsehood. Kleber immediately made all the necessary dispositions, for Léchelle was two leagues behind. The river Moine runs before Cholet ; beyond it is an unequal, hilly ground, forming a semi- circle of heights. On the left of this semicircle is the wood of Cholet, in the centre Cholet itself, and on the right an elevated chateau. Kleber placed Beaupiiy, with the advanced guard, before the wood ; Haxo, with the reserve of the Mayençais, behind the advanced guard, and in svich a manner as to support it ; he posted the Luçon column, commanded by Marceau, in the centre, and Vimeux, with the rest of the Mayencais on the right, upon the heights. The column of Châtillon arrived in the night between the i6th and 17th. It consisted of about nine or ten thousand men, which made the total force of the republicans amount to about twenty-two thousand. On the morning of the 17th a council was held. Kleber did not like his position in advance of Cholet, because it had only one retreat, namely, the bridge over the river Moine, which led to the town. He proposed, therefore, to march forward, in order to turn Beaupréau, and to separate the Vendeans from the Loire. The representatives opposed his opinion, because the column which had come from Châtillon needed a day's rest. Meanwhile the Vendean chiefs were deliberating at Beau- préau. amidst a horrible confusion. The peasants, taking with them their wives, their children, and their cattle, formed an emigration of more than one hundred thousand souls. Laroche- jaquelein and d'Elbée proposed that they should fight to the last extremity on the left bank ; but Talmont and d'Autichamp, who had great influence in Bretagne, impatiently desired that the insurgent force should be transferred to the right bank. Bonchamps, who saw in an excursion to the north coast an opportunity for a great enterprise, and who, it is said, enter- tained some scheme connected with England, was for crossing the Loire. He was nevertheless willing enough to attempt a last effort, and to try the issue of a general engagement before Cholet. Before commencing the action he sent off a detach- 192 HISTORY OF oct. 1793 ment of four thousand men to Varades, to secure a passage over the Loire in case of defeat. The battle was resolved upon. The Vendeans advanced to the number of forty thousand men upon Cholet, at one in the afternoon of the 15th of October. The republican general, not expecting to be attacked, had granted a day of rest. The Vendeans formed in three columns : one directed upon the left, under Beaupuy and Haxo ; the second on the centre, commanded by Marceau ; the third on the right, entrusted to Vimeux. The Vendeans marched in line, and in ranks like regular troops. All the wounded chiefs who could sit their horses were amidst their peasants, and encouraged them on that day, which was to decide their existence and the posses- sion of their homes. Between Beaupreau and the Loire, in every commune that was yet left them, mass was celebrated, and prayers were offered up to Heaven for that cause, so hapless and so imminently endangered. The Vendeans advanced and came up with Beaupuy's ad- vanced guard, which, as we have said, was placed in a plain in advance of the wood of Cholet. One portion of them moved forward in a close mass, and charged in the same manner as troops of the line ; another was scattered as riflemen, to turn the advanced guard and even the left wing by penetrating into the wood of Cholet. The republicans, overwhelmed, were forced to fall back. Beaupuy had two horses killed under him. He fell, entangled by his spur, and had very nearly been taken, when he threw himself behind a baggage-waggon, seized a third horse, and rejoined his column. At this moment Kleber hastened towards the threatened wing. He ordered the centre and the right not to stir, and sent to desire Chalbos to despatch one of his columns from Cholet to the assistance of the left. Placing himself near Haxo, he infused new con- fidence into his battalions, and led back into the fire those which had given way to overpowering numbers. The Ven- deans, repulsed in their tm-n, again charged with fury, and were again repulsed. Meanwhile the centre and the right were attacked with the same impetuosity. On the right, Vimeux was so advantageously posted that all the efforts of the enemy against him proved unavailing. At the centre, however, the Vendeans advanced more ]5ros- perously than on the two wings, and penetrated to the hollow where young Marceau was placed. Kleber flew thither to support the column of Luçon. Just at this moment one of the divisions of Chalbos, to the number of four thousand men, for which Kleber had applied, left Cholet. This reinforce- OCT. 1 7 9 3 THE FEE NCR HE VO L UTION. i g 3 ment would have been of great importance at a moment when the fight was most obstinate ; but at sight of the plain en- veloped in fire, that division, ill-organized, like all those of the army of La Rochelle, dispersed, and returned in disorder to Cholet. Kleber and Marceau remained in the centre with the Luçon column alone. Young Marceau, who commanded it, was not daunted. He suffered the enemy to approach within musket- shot, then suddenly unmasking his artillery, he stopped and overwhelmed the A'endeans by his unexpected fire. They resisted for a time, rallied, and closed their ranks under a shower of grape-shot ; but they soon gave way, and fled in disorder. At this moment their rout became general in the centre, on the right, and on the left. Beaupuy, more- over, having rallied his advanced guard, closely pursued them. The columns of Mayence and Lucon alone had taken any share in the battle. Thus thirteen thousand men had beaten forty thousand. On both sides the greatest valour had been dis- played ; but regularity and discipline had decided the advantage in favour of the republicans. Marceau, Beaupuy, Merlin, who pointed the pieces himself, had displayed the greatest heroism. Kleber had shown his usual skill and energy on the field of battle. On the part of the Vendeans, d'Elbée and Bonchamps, after performing prodigies of valour, were mortally wounded ; Larochejaquelein alone was left out of all their chiefs, and he had omitted nothing to be a partaker of their glorious wounds. The battle lasted from two o'clock till six.* It was by this time dark. The Vendeans fled in the utmost haste, throwing away their wooden shoes upon the roads. Beaupuy followed close at their heels. He had been joined by Westermann, who, unwilling to share the inaction of the troops under Chalbos, had taken a corps of cavalry, and followed the fugitives at full gallop. After pursuing the enemy for a very long time, Beaupuy and Westermann halted, and thought of * "On the morning of the 17th all the Vendean chiefs marched upon Cholet, at the head of forty thousand men. The republicans had formed a junction with the divisions of Bressuire, and were forty-five thousand strong. It was upon the ground before Cholet that the armies met. De Larochejaquelein and StofHet led on a furious attack. For the first time the Vendeans marched in close columns, like troops of the line. They broke furiously upon the centre of the enemy ; General Beaupuy, who commanded the republicans, was twice thrown from his horse in endeavouring to rally his soldiers, and nearly taken. Disorder was spreading among the Blues, when a reserve of Mayençais arrived. The Vendeans supported the first shock, and repulsed them ; but by repeated attacks, they were at last thrown into disorder. All our chiefs performed pro- digies of valour ; but Messieurs d'Elbée and Bonchamps were mortally wounded, and the rout became general. The republicans returned to Cholet, set fire to the town, and abandoned themselves during the night to all their accustomed atrocities." — Memoirs of the Marchioness de Larochejaquelein. VOL. III. 69 194 HISTORY OF oct. 1793 allowing their troops some rest. But, said they, we are more likely to find bread at Beaupréau than at Cholet ; and they had the boldness to march upon Beaupréau. whither it was supposed that the Vendeans must have retired en masse. So rapid, how- ever, had been their flight that one part of them, was already at St. Florent, on the banks of the Loire. The rest, on the approach of the republicans, evacuated Beaupréau in disorder, and gave up to them a post where they might have defended themselves. Next morning, the i8th, the whole army marched from Cholet to Beaupréau. The advanced guards of Beaupuy, placed on the road to St. Florent, perceived a great number of people approaching, with shouts of The repuhlic for ever ! Bonchamiis for ever ! On being questioned, they replied by proclaiming Bonchamps their deliverer. That young hero, extended on a mattress, and ready to expire from the effect of a musket-shot in the abdomen, had demanded the lives of four thousand prisoners whom the Vendeans had hitherto dragged along with them, and whom they threatened to shoot. He had obtained their release, and they were going to rejoin the republican army. At this moment eighty thousand persons, women and chil- dren, aged men and armed men, were on the banks of the Loire, with the wrecks of their property, disputing the posses- sion of about a score of vessels to cross to the other side. The superior council, composed of the chiefs who were still capable of giving an opinion, deliberated whether they ought to separate, or to carry the war into Bretagne. Some of them proposed that they should disperse in La Vendée, and there conceal themselves and wait for better times. Larochejaquelein was of this number, and he would have preferred dying on the left bank to crossing over to the right. The contrary opinion, however, prevailed, and it was decided to keep together and to pass the river. But Bonchamps had just expired, and there was no one capable of executing the plans which he had formed relative to Bretagne.* D'Elbée was sent, dying, to Noirmou- tiers. Lescure, mortally wounded, was carried on a hand- barrow. Eighty thousand persons quitted their homes, and went to ravage the neighbouring country, and to seek extermi- nation there — and, gracious (-Jod! for what object? — for an absurd cause, a cause deserted on all sides, or hy]oocritically defended ! While these unfortunate peo])le were thus gene- rously exposing themselves to so many calamities, the coalition * See Appendix F. OCT. 1793 THE FRENCH RE VOL UTION. 1 9 5 bestowed scarcely a thought upon them, the emigrants were intriguing in Courts, some only were fighting bravely on the Rhine, but in foreign armies ; and nobody had yet thought of sending either a soldier or a livre to that hapless La Vendee, already distinguished by twenty heroic battles, and now van- quished, fugitive, and laid waste. The re]3ublican generals collected their forces at Beaupreau, and there they resolved to separate, and to proceed partly to Nantes and partly to Angers, to prevent a coup de main on those two towns. The notion of the representatives, not that of Kleber, immediately was, that La Vendée was destroyed. La Vendée is no more, wrote they to the Convention. The army had been allowed time till the 20th to finish the business, and they had brought it to a close on the i8th. That of the North had on the same day won the battle of Watignies, and closed the campaign by raising the blockade of Maubeuge. Thus the Convention seemed to have nothing to do but to decree victory, in order to ensure it in all quarters. Enthusiasm was at its height in Paris and in all France, and people began to believe that before the end of the season the republic would be victo- rious over all the thrones that were leagued against it. There was but one event that tended to disturb this joy, namely, the loss of the lines of Weissenburg on the Rhine, which had been forced on the 13th and 14th of October. After the check at Pirmasens, we left the Prussians and the Austrians in presence of the lines of the Sarre and the Lauter, and threatening them every moment with an attack. The Prussians, having annoyed the French on the banks of the Sarre, obliged them to fall back. The corps of the Vosges, driven beyond Hornbach, retired to a great distance behind Bitche, in the heart of the mountains ; the army of the Moselle, thrown back to Sarreguemines, was separated from the corps of the Vosges and the army of the Rhine. In this position it became easy for the Prussians, who had on the western slope passed beyond the general line of the Sarre and the Lauter, to turn the lines of Weissenburg by their extreme left. These lines must then necessarily fall. This was what actually happened on the 13th of October. Prussia and Austria, which we have seen disagreeing, had at length come to a better understanding. The King of Prussia had set out for Poland, and left the command to Brunswick, with orders to concert operations with Wurmser. From the 13th to the 14th of October, while the Prussians marched along the line of the Vosges to Bitche, considerably beyond 196 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. oct. 1793 the height of Weissenbnrg, Wiirmser was to attack the lines of the Lauter in seven cohimns. The first, under the Prince of Waldeck, encountered insurmountable obstacles in the nature of the ground, and the courage of a demi-battalion of the Pyrenees ; the second, after passing the lines below Lauterburg, was repulsed ; the others, after gaining, above and aroinid AVeissenburg, advantages balanced by the vigorous resistance of the French, nevertheless made themselves masters of Weissenburg. Our troops fell back on the post of the Geisberg, situated a little in rear of Weissenburg, and much more difficult to carry. Still, the lines of Weissenburg could not be considered as lost ; but the tidings of the march of the Prussians on the western slope obliged the French general to fall back upon Haguenau and the lines of the Lauter, and thus to yield a portion of the territory to the Allies. On this point, then, the frontier was invaded ; but the successes in the North and in La Vendée counteracted the effect of this unpleasant intelligence. St. Just and Lebas were sent to Alsace, to repress the movements which the Alsatian nobility and the emigrants were exciting at Strasburg. Numerous levies were directed towards that quarter, and the government consoled itself with the resolution to conquer on that point as on every other. The fearful apprehensions which had been conceived in the month of August, before the battles of Hondtschoote and Watignies, before the reduction of Lyons and the retreat of the Piedmontese beyond the Alps, and before the successes in La Vendée, were now dispelled. At this moment the country saw the northern frontier, the most important and the most threatened, delivered from the enemy ; Lyons re- stored to the republic ; La Vendée subdued ; all rebellion stifled in the interior, excepting on the Italian frontier, where Toulon still resisted, it is true, but resisted singly. One more success at the Pyrenees, at Toulon, on the Rhine, and the republic would be completely victorious, and this triple success would not be more difficult than those which had just been gained. The task, to be sure, was not yet finished. l3ut it might be by a continuance of the same efforts and of the same means. The government had not yet wholly recovered its assurance ; but it no longer considered itself in danger of speedy death. THE NATIONAL CONVENTION (continued) EFFECTS OF THE REVOLUTIONARY LAWS— PROSCRIPTION AT LYONS, MARSEILLES, AND BORDEAUX — INTERIOR OF THE PRISONS OF PARIS — TRIAL AND DEATH OF MARIE ANTOINETTE AND THE GIRONDINS— GENERAL TERROR— SECOND LAW OF THE MAXIMUM —IMPRISONMENT OF FOUR DEPUTIES FOR FORGING A DECREE- ESTABLISHMENT OF THE NEW METRICAL SYSTEM AND OF THE REPUBLICAN CALENDAR— ABOLITION OF THE FORMER RELIGIOUS WORSHIP— ESTABLISHMENT OF THE NEW WORSHIP OF REASON, rpHE revolutionary measures decreed for the welfare of France i- were executed throughout its whole extent with the utmost rigour. Conceived by the most enthusiastic minds, they were violent in their principle ; executed at a distance from the chiefs who had devised them, in a lower region, where the passions, less enlightened, were more brutal, they became still more violent in the application. The government obliged one part of the citizens to leave their homes, imprisoned another part of them as suspected persons, caused provisions and com- modities to be seized for the supply of the armies, imposed services for their accelerated transport, and gave, in exchange for the articles or services required, nothing but assignats, or a credit upon the State which inspired no confidence. The assessment of the forced loan was rapidly prosecuted, and the assessors of the commune said to one, " You have an income of ten thousand livres;" to another, " You have twenty thousand;" and all, without being permitted to reply, were obliged to fur- nish the sum required. Great vexations were the result of this most arbitrary system ; but the armies were filled with men, provisions were conveyed in abundance towards the depots, and the thousand millions in assignats which were to be withdrawn from circulation began to come in. It is not without great oppression that such rapid operations can be executed, and that a State which is threatened can be saved. In all those places where more imminent danger had re- quired the presence of the commissioners of the Convention, the 1 9 8 HIS TOR Y OF oct. i 7 9 3 revolutionary measures had become more severe. Near the frontiers, and in all the departments suspected of royalism or federalism, those commissioners had levied the population en masse. They had put everything in requisition ; they had raised revolutionary taxes on the rich, besides the general tax resulting from the forced loan ; they had accelerated the im- prisonment of suspected persons ; and lastly, they had some- times caused them to be tried by revolutionary commissioners instituted by themselves. Laplanche, sent into the department of the Cher, said on the 29th of Vendémiaire to the Jacobins, " I have everywhere made terror the order of the day ; I have everywhere imposed contributions on the wealthy and on the aristocrats. Orleans furnished me with fifty thousand livi'es ; and at Bourges it took me but two days to raise two millions. As I could not be everywhere, my deputies supplied my place : a person named Mamin, worth seven millions, and taxed by one of the two at forty thousand livres, complained to the Convention, which applauded my conduct ; and had the tax been imposed by myself, he should have paid two millions. At Orleans I made my deputies render a public account. It was in the bosom of the popular society that they rendered it, and this account was sanctioned by the people. I have every- where caused the bells to be melted, and have united several parishes. I have removed all federalists from office, imprisoned suspected persons, put the sans-culoftcs in power. Priests had all soi'ts of conveniences in the houses of detention ; the sans- culottes were lying upon straw in the prisons ; the former fur- nished me with mattresses for the latter. I have everywhere caused the priests to be married. I have everywhere electrified the hearts and minds of men. I have organized manufactories of arms, visited the workshops, the hospitals, and the prisons. I have sent off several battalions of the levy en masse. I have reviewed a great number of the national guards, in order to republicanize them, and I have caused several royalists to be guillotined. In short, I have fulfilled m}^ imperative commis- sion. I have everywhere acted like a warm Mountaineer, like a revolutionary representative." It was in the three principal federalist cities, Lyons, Mar- seilles, and Bordeaux, that the representatives struck especial terror. The formidable decree issued against Lyons enacted that the rebels and their accomplices should be tried by a military commission ; that the sans-culoUcs should be main- tained at the expense of the aristocrats ; that the houses of the wealthy should be destroyed, and that the name of the city should be changed. The execution of this decree was OCT. 1793 THE FRENCH RE VOL UTION. 1 9 9 entrusted to Collot-d'Herbois, Maribon-Montaut, and Fonche, of Nantes.* They had repaired to Commune - Affranchie, taking with them forty Jacoljins, to organize a new club, and to propagate the principles of the mother society. Ronsin had followed them with two thousand men of the revolutionary army, and they had immediately let loose their fury. The representatives had struck the first stroke of a pickaxe upon one of the houses destined to be demolished, and eight hun- dred labourers had instantly fallen to work to destroy the finest streets. The ])roscriptions had begun at the same time. The Lyonnese suspected of having borne arms were guillotined or shot, to the number of fifty or sixty a day. Terror reigned in that unfortunate city. The commissioners sent to punish it, intoxicated with the blood which they spilt, fancying, at every shriek of anguish, that they beheld rebellion springing again into life, wrote to the Convention that the aristocrats were not yet reduced, that they were only awaiting an opportunity to rebel again, and that, to remove all further ground for apprehension, it was necessary to displace one part of the population, and to destroy the other. As the means employed did not appear to be sufficiently expeditious, Collot-d'Herbois conceived the idea of resorting to mining for the purpose of destroying the buildings, and to grape-shot for sacrificing the proscribed ; and he wrote to the Convention that he should soon adopt more speedy and more efficacious means for punish- ing the rebel city.f At Marseilles, several victims had already fallen. But the utmost wrath of the representatives was directed against Toulon, the siege of which they were carrying on. In the Gironde, vengeance was exercised with the greatest fury. Isabeau and Tallien had stationed themselves at La Reole ; there they were engaged in forming the nucleus of a revolutionary army, for the purpose of penetrating into Bor- deaux ; meanwhile they endeavoured to disorganize the sections of that city. To this end they made use of one section, which was wholly Mountaineer, and which, contriving to frighten the others, had successively caused the federalist club to be shut up, and the departmental authorities to be displaced. They had then entered Bordeaux in triumph, and re-established the municipality and the Mountaineer authorities. Immedi- ately afterwards, they had passed an ordinance declaring that the government of Bordeaux should be military, that all the inhabitants should be disarmed, that a commission should * See Appendix G. t See Appendix H. 200 HISTORY OF oct. 1793 be established to try the aristocrats and the f ederahsts, and that an extraordinary tax should be immediately levied upon the rich, to defray the expenses of the revolutionary army. This ordinance was forthwith put in execution ; the citizens were . disarmed ; and a great number perished on the scaffold.* It was precisely at this time that the fugitive deputies who had embarked in Bretagne for the Gironde arrived at Bordeaux. They all went and sought an asylum with a feraiale relative of Guadet in the caverns of St. Emilion. There was a vague rumour that they were concealed in that quarter, and Tallien made all possible efforts to discover them.t He had not yet succeeded, but he had unfortunately seized Biroteau, who had come from Lyons to embark at Bordeaux. This latter had been outlawed. Tallien immediately caused his identity to be verified, and his execution to be consummated. Duchatel was also discovered. As he had not been outlawed, he was sent to Paris to be tried by the revolutionary tribunal. He was accompanied by the three young friends, Riouffe, Giray- * "The greatest atrocities were committed at Bordeaux. A woman was charged with tlie heinous crime of having cried at the execution other husband; she was condemned, in consequence, to sit several hours under the suspended Idade, which shed upon her, drop by drop, the blood of the deceased, whose corpse was above her on the scaffold, before she was released by death from her agony." — Louvet's Memoirs. t "Guadet found a place of safety for some of his Girondin friends in the house of one of his female relations, whose name was Bouquet. The news of this unexpected relief being carried to three companions of those proscribed deputies, they determined to beg this courageous woman to permit them to share the retreat of their friends. She consented, and they reached her house at midnight, where they found their companions lodged thirty feet under ground, in a large, well-concealed vault. A few days after, Buzot and Petion informed Guadet, by letter, that having within fifteen days changed their place of retreat seven times, they were now reduced to the greatest distress. ' Let them come too,' said Madame Bouquet, and they came accordingly. The difficulty to provide for them all was now great, for provisions were extremely scarce in the department. Madame Bouquet's house was allowed by the municipality only one pound of bread daily ; but fortunately she had a stock of potatoes and dried kidney-beans. To save breakfast, it was agreed that her guests should not rise till noon. Vegetable soup was their sole dinner. Sometimes a morsel of lieef, procured with great difficulty, an egg or two, some vegetables, and a little milk, formed their supper, of wliich the generous hostess ate but little, the better to support her guests. One of the circumstances which adds infinite value to this extraordinary event was, that Madame Bouquet concealed as long as she could from her guests the uneasiness which consumed her, occasioned by one of her relations, formerly the friend of Guadet. This man, having learned what passed in Madame ]»0U(juet's house, put in action every means his mind could suggest to induce her to Ijanish the fugitives. Every day he came to her with stories more terrible one than the other. At length, fearing that he would take some desperate measure, she was compelled to lay her situation before her guests, who, resolved not to be outdone in generosity, instantly (piitted lier house. Shortly after, Mndame Bouquet and the whole family of Guadet were arrested, ami ])erish(;d on the scaffold." — Anecdotes of the licvoliition. OCT. 1793 THE FRENCH B EVOLUTION. 201 Du pré, and Marchenna, who were, as we have seen, attached to the fortune of the Girondins. Thus all the great cities of France experienced the vengeance of the Mountain. But Paris, full of illustrious victims, was soon to become the theatre of much greater cruelties. While preparations were being made for the trial of Marie Antoinette, of the Girondins, of the Due d'Orleans, of Bailly, and of a great number of generals and ministers, the prisons were being filled with suspected persons. The commune of I'aris had arrogated to itself, as we have said, a sort of legisla- tive authority over all matters of police, provisions, commerce, and religion ; and with every decree it issued an explanatory ordinance to extend or limit the enactments of the Convention. On the requisition of Chaumette, it had singularly extended the definition of suspected person given by the law of the 17th of September. Chaumette had, in a municipal instruc- tion, enumerated the characters by which they were to be re- cognized. This instruction, addressed to the sections of ]^aris, and soon afterwards to all those of the republic, was couched in these terms : — "The following are to be considered as suspected persons: (i) Those who, in the assemblies of the people, check their energy by crafty addresses, turbulent cries, and threats ; (2) those who, more prudent, talk mysteriously of the disasters of the republic, deplore the lot of the people, and are always ready to propagate bad news with affected grief; (3) those who have changed their conduct and language according to events ; who, silent respecting the crimes of the royalists and the federalists, declaim with emphasis against the slight faults of the patriots, and in order to appear republicans, affect a studied austerity and severity, and who are all indulgence in whatever concerns a moderate or an aristocrat ; (4) those who pity the farmers and the greedy shopkeepers, against whom the law is obliged to take measures; (5) those who, though they have the words liberty, republic, and country continually in their mouths, associate with ci-devant nobles, priests, counter- revolutionists, aristocrats, Feuillans, and moderates, and take an interest in their fate ; (6) those who have not taken an active part in anything connected with the Revolution, and who, to excuse themselves from doing so, plead the payment of their contributions, their patriotic donations, their services in the national guard, by substitute or otherwise ; (7) those who have received the republican constitution with indiffer- ence, and have expressed false fears concerning its establish- ment and its duration ; (8) those who, though they have done 202 HISTOBY OF ncr. 1793 nothing against liberty, have done nothing for it ; (9) those who do not attend their sections, and allege in excuse that they are no speakers, or that they are prevented by busi- ness ; (10) those who speak contemptuously of the constituted authorities, of the signs of the law, of the popular societies, of the defenders of liberty ; (ii) those who have signed counter- revolutionary petitions, or frequented anti-civic societies and clubs; (12) those who are known to have been insincere, par- tisans of Lafayette, and of those who marched to the charge in the Champ de Mars." With such a definition the number of the suspected could not fail to be unlimited, and it soon rose in the prisons of Paris from a few hundred to three thousand. They had at first been confined in the Mairie, in La Force, in the Concier- gerie, in the Abbaye, at St. Pélagie, at the Madelonettes, in all the ordinary prisons of the State ; but these vast depots prov- ing insufficient, it became necessary to provide new places of confinement, specially appropriated to political prisoners. As these prisoners were required to pay all the expenses of their maintenance, houses were hired at their cost. One was selected in the Rue d'Enfer, which was known by the name of Maison de Port-Libre, and another in the Rue de Sèvi'es, called Maison Lazare. The college of Duplessis was converted into a place of confinement ; lastly, the palace of the Luxembourg, at first destined to receive the twenty-two Girondins, was filled with a great number of prisoners,* and there were huddled together pell-mell all that were left of the brilliant society of the Fau- bourg St. Germain. These sudden arrests having caused the prisons to be exceedingly crowded, the prisoners were at first badly lodged. Mingled with malefactors, and having to lie upon straw, they suffered most cruelly during the first moments * "At this period the f^ardens of tlie Luxembourt,' every day offered a scene as interesting as it is possible to imagine. A multitude of married women from the various quarters of Paris crowded together, in the hope of seeing their husbands for a moment at the windows of the prison, to offer or receive from them a look, a gesture, or some other testimony of their affection. No weather banislied these women from the gardens — neither the excess of heat or cold, nor tempests of wind or rain. Some almost appeared to be changed into statues ; others, worn out with fatigue, have been seen, when their husbands at length appeared, to fall senseless to the ground. One would present herself with an infant in her arms, bathing it witii tears in her husband's sight ; another would disguise her- self in the dress of a beggar, and sit the whole day at the foot of a tree, where she could be seen by her husband. The miseries of these wretched women were greatly enhanced when a high fence was thrown round the prison, and they were forbidden to remain stationary in any spot. Then were they seen wandering like shades through the dark and melancholy avenues of the garden, and casting the most anxious looks at the impenetrable walls of the palace." — Du Broca. OCT. 1793 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 203 of their detention.* Time soon brought better order and more indulgence. They were allowed to have communication with persons outside the prisons ; they had the consolation to em- brace their relatives, and liberty to procure money for them- selves. They then hired or had beds brought to them ; they no longer slept upon straw ; and they were separated from the criminals. All the accommodations which could render their condition more endurable were granted to them, for the decree permitted them to have anjiihing they wanted brought into the houses of confinement. Those who inhabited the houses recently established were treated still better. At Port-Libre, in the Maison Lazare, and at the Luxembourg, where wealthy prisoners were confined, cleanliness and abundance prevailed. The tables were supplied with delicacies, upon payment of certain fees demanded by the gaolers. As, however, the con- course of visitors became too considerable, and the intercourse with persons outside appeared to be too great a favour, this consolation was prohibited ; the prisoners could only communi- cate by writing, and they were obliged to have recourse to the same method for procuring such things as they needed. From that moment the unfortunate persons doomed to associate ex- clusively together seemed to be bound to each other by much closer ties than before. Each sought intimates of correspond- ing character and tastes, and little societies were formed. Regulations were established ; the domestic duties were divided among them, and each performed them in his turn. A sub- scription was opened for the expenses of lodging and board, and thus the rich contributed for the poor. After attending to their household affairs, the inmates of the different rooms assembled in the common halls. Groups were formed around a table, a stove, or a fire]:)lace. Some employed themselves in writing, others in reading or con versation. Poets, thrown into prison with all those who excited distrust by any superiority whatever, recited verses. Musicians gave concerts, and admirable music was daily * "Hardly ever does daylight penetrate into some of these gloomy prisons. The straw which composes the litter of the captives soon becomes rotten, from want of air and the ordure with which it is covered. The dungeons in the worst of the prisons are seldom opened but for inspection, or to give food to the tenants. The superior class of chambers, called the straw apartments, differ little from the dungeons, except that their inhabitants are permitted to go out at eight in the morning, and to remain out till an hour before sunset. During the intervening period they are allowed to walk in the court, or huddle together in the galleries which surround it, where they are suffocated by infectious odours. The cells for the women are as horrid as those for the men, equally dark — damp — filthy — crowded — and it was there that all the rank and beauty of Paris was assembled." — History of the Convention. 204 RISTORY OF oct. 1793 heard in these places of proscription. Luxury soon became the companion of pleasure. The females indulged in dress ; ties of friendship and of love were formed,* and all the scenes of ordinary life were reproduced here till the very day that the scaffold was to pvit an end to them — singular example of the French character, of its thoughtlessness, its gaiety, its aptitude to pleasure, in all the situations of life ! Delightful poems, romantic adventures, acts of beneficence, a singular confusion of ranks, fortune, and opinion, marked these first three months of the detention of the suspected. A sort of voluntary equality realized in these places that chimerical equality which its heated votaries wished to intro- duce everywhere, and which they succeeded in establishing nowhere but in the prisons. It is true that the pride of cer- tain prisoners withstood this equality of misfortune. While men very unequal in regard to fortune and education were seen living on the best terms together, and rejoicing with admirable disinterestedness in the victories of that republic which persecuted them, some ci-devant nobles and their wives, found by chance in the deserted mansions of the Faubourg St. Germain, lived apart, still called themselves by the pro- scribed titles of count and marquis, and manifested their mortification when the Austrians had fled at Watignies, or when the Prussians had not crossed the Vosges. Affliction, however, brings back all hearts to nature and to humanity ; and soon, when Fou quier-Tin ville, knocking daily at these abodes of anguish, continually demanded more lives,! when friends, relatives, were every day parted by death, those who were left mourned and took comfort together, and learned to entertain one and the same feeling amidst the same misfortunes. All the prisons, however, did not exhibit the same scenes. The Conciergerie, adjoining the Palace of Justice, and for this reason containing the ])risoners destined for the revo- lutionary tribunal, presented the painful spectacle of some hundreds of unfortunate beings who never had more than * " The affections continually called forth llowed with uncommon warmth ; their mutual fate excited among the prisoners the strongest feelings of com- miseration ; and nothing astonished the few who escaped from confinement so much as the want of sym]iathy for tlie sufferings of mankind wliich generally prevailed in the world." — Alison. t "On one occasion the committee of public safety ordered me to increase the executions to one hundred and fifty a day ; but the proposal filled my mind with such horror, that, as I returned from the Seine, the river appeared to lun red with blood." — Fouquicr-TinviUcs Speech un hix Trial. OCT. 1793 THE FRENCH RE VOL UTION. 2 o 5 three or four days to live.* They were removed thither the day before their trial, and they remained there only during the interval between their trial and execution. There were confined the Girondins, who had been taken from their first prison, the Luxembourg ; Madame Koland, who, after assisting her husband to escape, had suffered herself to be apprehended without thinking of fiight ; the young Riouffe, Giray-Dupré, and Bois-Guion, attached to the cause of the proscribed de- puties, and transferred from Bordeaux to Paris, to be tried conjointly with them ; Bailly, who had been arrested at Melun ; Clavières, ex-minister of the finances, who had not succeeded in escaping, like Lebrun ; the Due d'Orleans, transferred from the prisons of Marseilles to those of Paris ; the Generals Houchard and Brunet — all reserved for the same fate ; and lastly, the unfortunate Marie Antoinette, who was destined to precede all these illustrious victims to the scaffold. There the inmates never thought of procuring for themselves those conveniences which soothed the lot of the persons confined in the other prisons. They dwelt in dull, dreary cells, to which neither light, nor consolation, nor pleasure ever pene- trated. Scarcely were the prisoners allowed the privilege of sleeping on beds instead of straw. Unable to avoid the sight of death, like the merely suspected, who imagined that they should only be detained till the peace, tliey strove to amuse themselves, and produced the most extraordinary parodies of the revolutionary tribunal and of the guillotine. The Girondins, in their prison, made extempore, and performed, singular and terrible dramas, of which their destiny and the Revolution were the subject. It was at midnight, when all the gaolers had retired to rest, that they commenced these doleful amuse- ments. One of those which they devised was as follows : Seated each upon a bed, they personated the judges and the jury of the revolutionary tribunal, and Fouquier-Tinville him- self. Two of them, placed face to face, represented the accused and his defender. According to the custom of that sangui- nary tribunal, the accused was always condemned. Extended * " lu the prison of the Conciergerie, among a multitude that hourly expected their trial, was a young man wlio was accompanied by his wife, a youn^' and beautiful woman. One day while they were walking in the court with the other prisoners, the wife heard her husband called to the outer gate of tlie prison. Comprehending that it was the signal of his death, she ran after him, resolved to share his fate. The gaoler refused to let her pass. With unusual strength, derived from despair, she made her way, threw herself into her husband's arms, and besought them to suffer her to die with him. She was torn away by the guards, and at the same moment dashed her head violently against the prison gate, and in a few minutes expired." — Du Broca. 2o6 HISTORY OF oct. 1793 immediately on a bedstead turned upside down, he underwent the semblance of the punishment even to its minutest details. After many executions, the accuser became the accused, and fell in his turn. Returning then covered with a sheet, he described the torments which he was enduring in hell, fore- told their destiny to all these unjust judges, and, seizing them with frightful cries, dragged them with him to the infernal regions. "It was thus," said Riouffe,* "that we sported with death, and told the truth in our prophetic diversions amidst spies and executioners." Since the death of Custine the public began to be accus- tomed to those political trials, in which mere errors in judgment were crimes worthy of death. People began to be accustomed by a sanguinary practice to dismiss all scruples, and to consider it as natural to send every member of an adverse party to the scaffold. The Cordeliers and the Jacobins had obtained a decree for bringing to trial the Queen, the Girondins, several generals, and the Due d'Orleans. They peremptorily insisted that the promise should be fulfilled, and it was with the Queen that they were particularly anxious to commence this long series of immolations. One would think that a woman ought to have disarmed political fury ; but Marie Antoinette was hated more cordially than Louis XVI. himself. To her were attributed the treasons of the Court, the waste of the public money, and above all, the inveterate hostility of Austria. Louis XVI., it was said, had suffered everything to be done ; but it was Marie Antoinette who had done everything, and it was upon her that punishment for it ought to fall. We have already seen what reforms had been made in the Temple. Marie Antoinette had been separated from her sister, her daughter, and her son,t by virtue of a decree which ordered the trial or exile of the last members of the family of the Bourbons. She had been removed to the Conciergerie ; and there, alone, in a narrow prison, she was reduced to what was stiictly necessary, like the other prisoners. The impru- * "Honoré Riouffe, a man of letters, escaped from Paris in 1793, and went to Bordeaux. Tallien had liim arrested in that town, and sent him to the prisons in the capital, where he remained till after the fall of Robespierre. In 1799 he was appointed a member of the tribunate, and in 1806 obtained the prefecture of the Côte-d'Or. Rioull'e published an account of the prisons of Paris during the Reign of Terror, which was read with great eagerness." — Bloyrinilde Moderiic. + "The Queen's separation from her son, for whose sake alone she had con- sented to endure the burden of existence, was so touching, so heartrending, that the very gaolers who witnessed the scene confessed, when giving an account of it to the authorities, that they could not refrain from tears."— Weber's Memoirs of Marie Antoinette. OCT. 1793 TEE FRENCH RE VOL UTION. 207 dence of a devoted friend had rendered her situation still more irksome. Michonnis, a member of the municipality, in whom she had excited a warm interest, was desirous of introducing to her a person who, he said, wished to see her out of curiosity. This man, a courageous emigi'ant, threw to her a carnation, in which was enclosed a slip of very fine paper, with these words : Your friends are ready — false hope, and equally dangerous for her who received, and for him who gave it ! Michonnis and the emigrant were detected, and forthwith apprehended ; and the vigilance exercised in regard to the unfortunate prisoner became from that day more rigorous than ever.* Gendarmes were to mount guard incessantly at the door of her prison, and they were expressh^ forbidden to answer anything that she might say to them. That wretch Hébert, the deputy of Chaumette, and editor of the disgusting paper of Père Duchêne, a writer of the party of which Vincent, Ronsin, Varlet, and Leclerc were the leaders — Hébert had made it his particular business to torment the unfortunate remnant of the dethroned family. He asserted that the family of the tyrant ought not to be better treated than any sans-culotte family ; and he had caused a resolution to be passed, by which the sort of luxury in which the prisoners in the Temple were maintained was to be suppressed. They were no longer to be allowed either poultry or pastry ; they were reduced to one sort of aliment for breakfast, and to sou^), or broth, and a single dish, for dinner, to two dishes for supper, and half a bottle of wine apiece. Tallow candles were to be furnished instead of wax, pewter instead of silver plate, and delf ware instead of porcelain. The wood and water carriers alone were permitted to enter their room, and that only ac- companied by two commissioners. Their food was to be in- troduced to them by means of a turning box. The numerous establishment was reduced to a cook and an assistant, two men-servants, and a woman-servant to attend to the linen. As soon as this resolution was passed, Hébert had repaired * "The Queen was lodged in a room called the council-chamber, which was considered as the most unwholesome apartment in the Conciergerie, on account of its dampness, and the bad smells by which it was continually affected. Under pretence of giving her a person to wait upon her, they placed near her a spy — a man of a horrible countenance, and hollow, sepulchral voice. This wretch, whose name was Barassin, was a robber and murderer by profession. Such was the chosen attendant on the Queen of France I A few days before her trial this wretch was removed, and a gendarme placed in her chamber, who watched over her night and day, and from whom she was not separated, even when in bed, but by a ragged curtain. In this melancholy abode Marie Antoinette had no other dress than an old black gown, stockings with holes which she was forced to mend every day ; and she was entirely destitute of shoes." — Du Broca. 2 o 8 H IS TO B Y OF oct. 1793 to the Temple and inliumauly taken away from the unfor- tunate prisoners even the most tritJiug articles to which they attached a high value. Eighty louis which Madame Jillizabeth had in reserve, and which she had received from Madame de Lamballe, were also taken away. No one is more dangerous, more cruel, than the man without acquirements, without education, clothed with a recent authority. If, above all, he possess a base nature, if, like Hébert, who was check-taker at the door of a theatre, and embezzled money out of the receipts, he be destitute of natural morality, and if he leap all at once from the mud of his condition into power, he is as mean as he is atrocious. Such was Hébert in his conduct at the Temple. He did not confine himself to the annoyances which we have mentioned. He and some others conceived the idea of separating the young Prince from his aunt and sister. A shoemaker named Simon and his wife were the instructors to whom it was deemed right to consign him, for the purpose of giving him a sans-culottc education. Simon and his wife were shut up in the Temple, and becoming prisoners with the unfortunate child, were directed to bring him up in their own way.* Their food was better than that of the Princesses, and they shared the table of the municipal commissioners who were on duty. Simon was permitted to go down, accompanied by two commissioners, to the court of the Temple, for the purpose of giving him a little exercise. Hébert conceived the infamous idea of wringing from this boy revelations to criminate his unhappy mother. Whether this wretch imputed to the child false revelations, or abused his tender age and his condition to extort from him what admissions soever he pleased, he obtained a revolting depo- sition ; and as the youth of the Prince did îiot admit of his being brought before the tribunal. Hébert appeared and * " Simon, who was entrusted with the bringing up of the Dauphin, had had the cruelty to leave the poor child absolutely alone. Unexampled barbarity, to leave an unhappy and sickly infant eight years old in a great room, locked and bolted in, with no other resource than a broken bell, which lie never rang, so greatly did he dread the people whom its sound would have brought to him 1 He preferred wanting everytliing to the siglit of his persecutors. His bed had not been touched for six months, and he had not strength to make it himself ; it was alive with bugs, and vermin still more disgusting. His linen and liis person were covered with them. For more than a year he had had no cliange of shirt or stockings. Every kind of tilth was allowed to accumulate in his room. His window was never opened, and the infectious smell of this horrid apartment was so dreadful that no one could bear it. He passed his days wholly without occupation. They did not even allow him light in the evening. This situation affected his mind as well as his body ; and he fell into a frightful atrophy." — Duchesse d'A nyoulême. OCT. 1793 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 209 detailed the infamous particulars which he had himself either dictated or invented. It was on the 14th of October that Marie Antoinette ap- peared before her judges. Dragged before the sanguinary tribunal by inexorable revolutionary vengeance, she appeared there without any chance of acquittal, for it was not to obtain her acquittal that the Jacobins had brought her before it. It was necessary, however, to make some charges. Fouquier therefore collected the rumours current among the populace ever since the arrival of the Princess in France, and in the act of accusation he charged her with having plundered the exchequer, first for her pleasures, and afterwards in order to transmit money to her brother the EmjJeror. He insisted on the scenes of the 5th and 6th of October, and on the dinners of the life-guards, alleging that she had at that period framed a plot, which obliged the people to go to Versailles to frustrate it. He afterwards accused her of having governed her hus- band, interfered in the choice of ministers, conducted the intrigues with the deputies gained by the Court, prepared the journey to Varennes, provoked the war, and transmitted to the enemy's generals all our plans of campaign. He further accused her of having prepared a new conspiracy on the loth of August, of liaving on that day caused the people to be fired upon, of having induced her husband to defend himself by taxing him with cowardice ; lastly, of having never ceased to plot and correspond with foreigners since her captivity in the Temple, and of having there treated her young son as King. We here observe how, on the terrible day of long- deferred vengeance, when subjects at length break forth and strike such of their princes as have not deserved the blow, everything is distorted and converted into crime. We see how the profusion and fondness for pleasure, so natural to a young princess, how her attachment to her native country, her influence over her husband, her regrets, always more indiscreet in a woman than in a man, nay, even her bolder courage, appeared to their inflamed or malignant imagi- nations. It was necessary to produce witnesses. Lecointre, deputy of Versailles, who had seen what had passed on the 5tli and 6tli of October, Hébert, who had frequently visited the Temple, various clerks in the ministerial offices, and several domestic servants of the old Court, Avere summoned. Admiral d'Estaing, formerly commandant of the guard of Versailles ; Manuel, the ex-pro- cureur of the commune ; Latour-du-Pin, minister at war in 1789; the venerable Bailly, who, it was said, had been, with VOL. III. " 70 * 2IO HISTORY OF oct. 1793 Lafayette, an accomplice in tlie journey to Varennes ; lastly, Valaze. one of the Girondins, destined to the scaffold, were taken from their prisons and compelled to give evidence. No precise fact was elicited. Some had seen the Queen in high spirits when the life-guards testified their attachment ; others had seen her vexed and dejected while being conducted to Paris, or brought back from V^arennes ; these had been pre- sent at splendid festivities which must have cost enormous sums ; those had heard it said in the ministerial offices that the Queen was adverse to the sanction of tlie decrees. An ancient waiting-woman of the Queen had heard the Due de Coigny say, in 1788, that the Emperor had already received two hundred millions from France to make war upon the Tui'ks. The cynical Hébert, being brought before the unfortunate Queen, dared at length to prefer the charges wrung from the young Prince. He said that Charles (/apet had given Simon an account of the journey to Varennes, and mentioned Lafayette and Pailly as having co-operated in it. He then added that this boy was addicted to odious and very premature vices for his age ; that he had been surprised by Simon, who, on ques- tioning him, learned that he derived from his mother the vices in which he indulged. Hébert said that it was no doubt the intention of Marie Antoinette, by weakening thus early the physical constitution of her son, to secure to herself the means of ruling him, in case he should ever ascend the throne. The rumours which had been whispered for twenty years by a malicious Court had given the people a most unfavourable opinion of the morals of the Queen. That audience, however, though wholly Jacobin, was disgusted at the accusations of Hébert.* He nevertheless persisted in supporting them. The unhappy mother made no reply. Urged anew tt) explain her- self, she said with extraordinary emotion, '' I thought that human nature would excuse me from answering such an im- putation, but I appeal from it to the heart of every mother here present." This noble and simple reply affected all who heard it. In the depositions of the witnesses, however, all was not so bitter for Marie Antoinette. The brave d'Estaing, whose enemy she had been, would not say anything to inculpate her, and spoke only of the courage which she had shown on the 5th and 6th of Octobei-, and of the noble resolution which * "Can there be a more infernal invention than that made as^ainst the Queen by Hébert, namely, that she had liad an iniproj)er intimacy with her own son? He made use of this sublime idea of which he boasted, in order to prejudice the women against the (^uecn, and to prevent her execution from exciting pity. It had, liowever, no otlier effect than that of disgusting all parties." — Prudlwmme. OCT. 1793 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 211 she had expressed, to die beside her husband rather than fly. Manuel, in spite of his enmity to the Court during the time of the Legislative Assembly, declared that he could not say any- thing against the accused. When the venerable Bailly was brought forward, who formerly had so often predicted to the Court the calamities which its imprudence must produce, he appeared painfully affected ; and when he was asked if he knew the wife of Capet, "Yes," said he, bowing respectfully, " I have known Madame.''^ He declared that he knew nothing, and maintained that the declarations extorted from the young Prince relative to the journey to Varennes were false. In re- compense for his deposition, he was assailed with outrageous reproaches, from which he might jndge what fate would soon be awarded to himself. In the whole of the evidence there appeared but two serious facts, attested by Latour-du-Pin and Valazé, who deposed to them because they could not help it. Latour-du-Pin declared that Marie Antoinette had applied to him for an accurate statement of the armies while he was minister at war. Valazé, always cold, but respectful towards misfortune, would not say anything to incriminate the accused ; yet he could not help declaring that, as a member of the commission of twenty-four, being charged with his colleagues to examine the papers found at the house of Septeuil, treasurer of the civil list, he had seen bonds for various sums signed Antoinette, which was very natural ; but he added that he had also seen a letter in which the minister requested the King to transmit to the Queen the copy of the plan of campaign which he had in his hands. The most unfavourable construction was immediately put upon these two facts — the application for a statement of the armies, and the communication of the plan of campaign ; and it was concluded that they could not be wanted for any other purpose than to be sent to the enemy ; for it was not supposed that a young princess should turn her attention, merely for her own satisfaction, to matters of administration and military plans. After these depositions, several others were received respecting the ex]:)enses of the Court, the influence of the Queen in public affairs, the scene of the lotli of August, and what had passed in the Temple ; and the most vague rumours and most trivial circumstances were eagerly caught at as proofs. JMarie Antoinette frequently repeated with presence of mind and firmness that there was no precise fact against her ; ''' that, * "At first the Queen, consulting only her own sense of dignity, had re- solved, on her trial, to make no other reply to the questions of her judges than, 212 HISTORY OF OCT. 1793 besides, though the wife of Louis XVI., she was not answer- able for any of the acts of his reign. Fonqnier nevertheless declared her to be sufficiently con\àcted ; Chaveau-Lagarde made unavailing efforts to defend her ; and the unfortunate Queen was condemned to suffer the same fate as her husband. Conveyed back to the Conciergerie, she there passed in tolerable composure the night preceding her execution, and on the morning of the following day, the 1 6th of October,* she was conducted, amidst a great concourse of the populace, to the fatal spot where, ten months before, Louis XVI. had perished. She listened with calmness to the exhortations of the ecclesiastic who accompanied her, and cast an indifferent look at the people who had so often applauded her beauty and her grace, and who now as warmly applauded her execu- tion. On reaching the foot of the scaffold she perceived the Tuileries, and appeared to be moved ; but she hastened to ascend the fatal ladder, and gave herself up with courage to the executioner. t The infamous wretch exhibited her head to the people, as he was accustomed to do when he had sacrificed an illustrious victim. The Jacobins were overjoyed. " Let these tidings be carried to Austria." said they; " the Romans sold the ground occupied by Annibal ; we strike off the heads that are dearest to the sovereigns who have invaded our territory." But this was only the commencement of vengeance. Im- mediately after the trial of Marie Antoinette, the tribunal ' Assassinate me, as you have already assassinated my husband ! ' Afterwards, however, she determined to follow the example of the King, exert herself in her defence, and leave her judges without any excuse or pretext for putting her to death." — Weber's Memoirs of Marie Antoinette. * " At four o'clock in the morning of the day of her execution, the Queen wrote a letter to the Princesse Elizabeth. 'To you, my sister,' said she, 'I address myself for the last time. I have been condemned, not to an ignominious death — it is so only to the guilty — but to rejoin your brother. I weep only for my children ; I hope that one day, when they have regained their rank, they may be reunited to you, and feel the blessing of your tender care. ]\Iay my son never forget the last words of his father, which I now repeat from myself — Never attempt to revenge our death. I die true to the Catholic religion. Deprived of all spiritual consolation, I can only seek for \ ardon from Heaven. I ask forgiveness of all who know me. I pray for forgiveness to all my enemies.' " — Alison. t " Sorrow had blancheil the (^Hieen's once beautiful hair ; but her features and air still commanded the admiration of all who beheld her. Her cheeks, pale and emaciated, were occasionally tinged with a vivid colour at the mention of those she had lost. AVhen led out to execution, she was dressed in white ; she had cut off her hair with her own hands. Placed in a tumbrel, with her arms tied behind her, she was taken by a circuitous route to the Place de la Révolu- tion ; and she ascended the scaffold with a firm and dignified step, as if she had been about to take her place ou a throne by the side of her husband." — Lacretelle. OCT. 1793 THE FRENCH RE VOL UTION. 2 1 3 was to proceed to that of the Girondins confined in the Conciergerie. Before the revolt of the South, nothing could be laid to their charge but opinions. It was said, to be sure, that they were accomplices of Dumouriez, of La Vendée, of Orleans ; but this connection, which it was easy to impute in the tribune, it was imjjossible to prove, even before the revolu- tionary tribunal. On the contrary, ever since the day that they raised the standard of civil war, and when positive facts could be adduced against them, it was easy to condemn them. The imprisoned deputies, it is true, were not those who had excited the insurrection of Calvados and of the South, but they were members of the same party, supporters of the same cause. People were thoroughly convinced that they had corresponded with one another, and though the letters which had been intercepted did not sufiiciently prove intrigues, they proved enough for a tribunal instituted for the purpose of consenting itself with probability. All the moderation of the Girondins was therefore transformed into a vast conspiracy, of which civil war had been the upshot. Their tardiness in the time of the Legislative Assembly to rise against the throne, their opposition to the project of the lOth of August, their struggle with the commune from the loth of August to the 20tli of September, their energetic protestations against the massacres, their pity for Louis XVL, their resistance to the inquisitorial system which disgusted the generals, their opposition to the extraordinary tribunal, to the maximum, to the forced loan, in short, to all the revolutionary measures ; lastly, their efforts to create a repressive authority by insti- tuting the commission of twelve, their despair after their defeat in Paris — a despair which caused them to have recourse to the provinces — all this was construed into a conspiracy, in which every fact was inseparable. The opinions which had been uttered in the tribune were merely the symptoms, the preparations for the civil war which had ensued ; and who- ever had expressed, in the Assembly and the Convention, the same sentiments as the deputies who had assembled at Caen, Bordeaux, Lyons, and Marseilles, was as guilty as they. Though there was no proof of concert, yet it was found in their com- munity of opinion, in the friendship which had united most of them together, and in their habitual meetings at Eoland's and at Valazé's. The Girondins, on the contrary, conceived that, if people would but discuss the point with them, it would be impossible to condemn them. Their opinions, they said, had been free. 2 1 4 H IS TOR Y OF oct. 1793 They might have differed from the Mountaineers respecting the choice of revohitionary means, without being culpable. Their opinions proved neither personal ambition nor pre- meditated plot. They attested, on the contrary, that on a great number of ])oints they had differed from one another. Lastly, their connection with the revolted deputies was but supposed ; and their letters, their friendship, their habit of sitting on the same benches, were by no means sufficient to demonstrate that. " If we are only suffered to speak," said the Girondins, "we shall be saved." Fatal idea, which, with- out ensuring their salvation, caused them to lose a portion of that dignity which is the only compensation for an unjust death ! If parties had more frankness, they would at least be much more noble. The victorious party might have said to the vanquished party, " You have carried attachment to your system of moderate means so far as to make war upon us, as to bring the republic to the brink of destruction by a disastrous diversion : you are conquered — you must die." The Girondins, on their part, would have had a fine speech to make to their conquerors. They might have said to them, "We look upon you as villains who convulse the republic, who dishonour while pretending to defend it, and we were determined to fight and to destroy you. Yes, we are all equally guilty. We are all accom])lices of Buzot. Barbaroux, Petion, and Guadet. They are great and virtuous citizens, whose virtues we proclaim to your face. While they went to avenge the republic, we have remained here to proclaim it in presence of the executioners. You are conquerors — put us to death." But the mind of man is not so constituted as to seek to simplify everything by frankness. The conquering party wishes to convince, and it uses deception. A shadow of hope induces the vanquished party to defend itself, and by the same means ; and in civil dissensions we see those shameful trials, at which the stronger party listens ]3re-determined not to believe, at which the weaker speaks without the chance of persuading. It is not till sentence is pronounced, not till all hope is lost, that human dignity recovers itself, and it is at the sight of the fatal axe that we see it bui-st forth again in all its force. The Girondins were resolved, therefore, to defend themselves, and they were then obliged to have recourse to concessions, to concealments. Their adversaries determined to prove their crimes, and in order to convict them, sent to the revolu- tionaiy tribunal all their enemies — Pache, Hébert, Chaumette, OCT. 1793 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 215 Chabot, and many others, either equally false or equally base. The concourse was considerable, for it was still a new sight to see so many republicans condemned on account of the re- public. The accused numbered twenty-one, in the flower of their age, in the prime of their talents, some in all the brilliancy of youth and manly beauty. The mere recapitulation of their names and ages had something touching. Brissot, Gardien, and Lasource were thirty-nine ; Vergniaud, Gensonne, and Lehardy, thirty-five ; Mainvielle and Ducos, twenty-eight ; Boyer-Fonfrède and Duchastel, twenty-seven ; Duperret, forty-six ; Carra, fifty ; Valazé and Lacase, forty- two ; Duprat, thirty-three ; Sillery, fifty-seven ; Fauchet, forty- nine ; Lesterpt-Beauvais, forty - three ; Boileau, forty - one ; Attiboul, forty ; Vigée, thirty-six. Gensonné was calm and cold ; Valazc indignant and contemptuous ; Vergniaud more agitated than usual. Young Ducos was merry, and Fonfrède, who had been spared on the 2nd of June, because he had not voted for the arrests ordered by the commission of twelve, but who, by his reiterated remonstrances in favour of his friends, had since deserved to share their fate — Fonfrède seemed for so noble a cause to relinquish cheerfully both his young wife, his large fortune, and his life. Amar * had drawn up the act of accusation in the name of the committee of general safety. Pache was the first witness heard in support of it. Cautious and prudent as he always was, he said that he had long perceived a faction adverse to the Revolution ; but he adduced no fact proving a premeditated plot. He merely said that, when the Convention was threat- ened by Dumouriez, he went to the committee of finance to obtain funds and to provision Paris, and that the committee refused them. He added that he had been maltreated in the committee of general safety, and that Guadet had threatened him to demand the arrest of the municipal authorities. Cliau- mette recounted all the struggles of the commune with the right side, just as they had been related in the newspapers. He added only one particular fact, namely, that Brissot had obtained the appointment of Santonax as commissioner of the colonies, and that Brissot was consequently the author of all the calamities of the New World. The wretch Hébert detailed the circumstances of his apprehension by the commission of * "Amar was a barrister in the court of Grenoble. In 1792 he was appointed deputy to the Convention, where he voted for tlie Kinj^'s death. He was con- nected with the most violent chiefs of the Mountain, and in 1793 drew up the act of accusation against the Girondins. In 1795 he was appointed president of the Convention, and soon afterwards retired into obscurity. Amar was a man of a gloomy and melancholy temperament." — Bioijraphie Moderne. 2 1 6 H IS TOR Y OF oct. 1793 twelve, and said that Roland bribed all the public writers, for Madame Roland had wished to buy liis paper of Père Duchêne. Destom-nelles, minister of justice, and formerly clerk to the commune, gave his deposition in an extremely vague manner, and repeated what everybody knew, namely, that the accused had opposed the commune, inveighed against the massacres, proposed the institution of a departmental guard, &c. The witness whose deposition was the longest, for it lasted several hours, as well as the most hostile, was Chabot, the ex-Capuchin, a hot-headed, weak, and base-minded man. Chabot had always been treated by the Girondins as an extra- vagant person, and he never forgave their disdain. He was proud of having contributed to the loth of August, contrary to their advice ; he declared that, if they had consented to send him to the prisons, lie would have saved the prisoners, as he had saved the Swiss. He was desirous, therefore, of re- venging himself on the Girondins, and above all, to recover, by calumniating them, his popularity, which was on the wane at the Jacobins, because he was accused of having a hand in stockjobbing transactions. He invented a long and malicious accusation, in which he represented the Girondins seeking first to make a tool of Narbonne, the ministei" ; then, after ejecting Narbonne, occupying three ministerial departments at once ; bringing about the 20tli of June to encourage their creatures ; opposing the lotli of August, because they were hostile to the republic : lastly, pursuing invariably a preconcerted plan of ambition, and what was more atrocious than all the rest, suffering the massacres of September, and the robbery of the Garde Meuble, for the purpose of ruining the repiitation of the patriots. " If they had consented," said Chabot, " I would have saved the prisoners. Petion gave the murderers money for drink, and Brissot would not suffer them to be stopped, because in one of the prisons there was an enemy of his, Morande." Such are the vile wretches who calumniate good men as soon as power has given them the signal to do so. The moment the leaders have cast the first stone, all the reptiles that crawl in the mud rise and overwhelm the victim. Fabre d'Eglantine, who, like Chabot, had become suspected of stock- jobbing,* and was anxious to regain his popularity, made a more * " Fabrn d'Eglantine was an ardent promoter and panegyrist of tiie revolu- tionary system, and the friend, tlie coini)anion, tlie adviser of the pro-consuls, who carried througliout France lire and swoi'd, devastation and dcatli. I do not know whether his hands were stained by the lavishing of money not his own ; hut I know that he was a promoter of assassinations. Poor before the 2nd of September 1792, he had afterwards an hotel and carriages and servants and women ; liis friend L:icroix assisted liim to procure tliis retinue." — Mercier. OCT. 1793 THE FRENCH RE VOL UTION. 2 1 7 cautious but likewise a more perfidious deposition, in which he insinuated that the intention of suffering the massacres and the robbery of tlie Garde Meuble to be perpetrated had most pro- bably entered into the ]:)olicy of the Girondins. Vergniaud, ceasing to defend himself, exclaimed with indignation, " I am not bound to justify myself against the charge of being the accomplice of robbers and murderers." No precise fact, however, was alleged against the accused. They were charged with nothing but opinions publicly main- tained, and they replied that these opinions might have been erroneous, l)ut that they had a right to think as they pleased. It was objected to them that their doctrines were not the result of an involuntary and therefore an excusable error, but of a plot hatched at Eoland's and at Valaze's. Again they replied, that so far were these doctrines from being the effect of any concert among them, that they were not even agreed upon every point. One said, I did not vote for the appeal to the people ; another, I did not vote for the departmental guard ; a third, I was against the course pursued by the commission of twelve ; I disapproved the arrest of Hébert and Chaumette. All this was true enough ; but then the defence was no longer common. The accused seemed almost to abandon one another, and to condemn those measures in which they had taken no part. Boileau carried his anxiety to clear himself to extreme weakness. He even covered himself with disgrace. He ad- mitted that there had existed a conspiracy against the unity and the indivisibility of the republic ; that he was now con- vinced of this, and declared it to justice ; that he could not point out the guilty persons, but that he wished for their punishment ; and he proclaimed himself a stanch Mountaineer. Gardien had also the weakiiess to disavow completely the com- mission of twelve. However, Gensonnu, Brissot, Vergniaud, and more especially Valaze, corrected the bad effect of the conduct of their two colleagues. They admitted, indeed, that they had not always thought alike, and that consequently their opinions Avere not preconcerted ; but they disavowed neither their friendship nor their doctrines. Valazo frankly confessed that meetings had been held at his house ; and maintained that they had a right to meet and to enlighten each other with their ideas, like any other citizens. When, lastly, their connivance with the fugitives was objected to them they denied it. "What!" exclaimed Hébert; "the accused deny the con- spiracy ! When the Senate of Home had to pronounce upon the conspiracy of Catiline, if it had questioned each conspirator and been content with a denial, they would all have escaped 2 1 8 TTTSTOR Y OF oct. 1793 the punishment which awaited them ; but the meetings at Cati- line's, the hight of the latter, and the arms found at Lecca's were material proofs, and they were sufficient to determine the judgment of the Senate." " Very well," replied Brissot ; "I accept the comparison made between us and Catiline. Cicero said to him, ' Arms have been found at thy house ; the ambassadors of the Allobroges accuse thee ; tlie signatures of Lentulus, of Cethegus, and of Statilius, thy accomplices, prove thy infamous projects.' Here the Senate accuses us, it is true ; but have arms been found upon us ? Are there signatures to produce against us ? " Unfortunately there had been discovered letters sent to Bordeaux by Vergniaud, which expressed the strongest indig- nation. A letter from the cousin of Lacase had also been found, in which the preparations for the insurrection were mentioned ; and lastly, a letter from Duperret to Madame Eoland had been intercepted, in which he stated that he had heard from Ikizot and Barbaroux, and tliat they were prepar- ing to punish the outrages committed in Paris. Vergniaud, on being questioned, replied, " Were I to acquaint you with the m.otives which induced me to write, perhaps I should appear to you more to be pitied than censured. Judging from the plots of the loth of March, I could not help thinking that a design to murder us was connected with the plan for dissolving the national representation. Marat wrote to this effect on the iith of March. The petitions since drawn up against us w4tli such acrimonj^ have confirmed me in this opinion. It was under these circumstances that my soul was wrung with anguish, and that I wrote to my fellow-citizens that I was under the knife. I exclaimed against the tyranny of Marat. He was the only person whom I mentioned. I respect the opinion of the people concerning Marat ; but to me Marat was a tyrant." At these words one of the jury rose and said, " Vergniaud complains of having been persecuted by ]\larat. I shall observe that Marat has been assassinated, and that Vergniaud is still here." This silly observation was applauded by part of the auditory, and all the frankness, all the sound reasoning of Vergniaud were thrown away upon the blind multitude. Vergniaud, however, had succeeded in gaining attention, and recovered all his eloquence in expatiating on the conduct of his friends, on their devotedness. and on their sacrifices to the republic. The whole audience had been moved ; and this condemnation, though commanded, no longer seemed to be irrevocable. The trial had lasted several days. The Jacobins, OCT. 1793 THE FRENCH RE VOL ITT ION. 2 1 9 enraged at the tardiness of the tribunal, addressed to the Convention a fresh petition, praying it to accelerate the pro- ceedings. Eobespierre caused a decree to be passed, authoriz- ing the jury, after three days' discussion, to declare themselves sufficiently enlightened, and to proceed to judgment without hearing anything further. And to render the title more con- formable with the thing, it was moreover decided on his motion, that the name of extraordinary tribunal should be changed to that of REVOLUTIONARY TiiiBUNAL. Though this decree was passed, the jury durst not avail themselves of it immediately, and declared that they were not satisfied. But on the following day they made use of their new power to cut short the discussions, and insisted that they should be closed. The accused had already lost all hope, and were resolved to die nobly. They repaired with serene aspect to the last sitting of the tribunal. While they were being searched at the door of the Conciergerie, to ascertain that they had about them no implements of destruction with which they might ])ut an end to their lives, Valaze, giving a pair of scissors to liiouffe, in the presence of the gendarmes, said, " Here, my friend, is a prohibited weapon. We must not make any attempts on our lives." On the 30th of CJctober, at midnight, the jury entered to pronounce their verdict. The countenance of Antonelle, their foreman, bespoke the violence of his feelings. Camille- Desmoulins, on hearing the verdict pronounced, cried out, "Ah! 'tis I who am the death of them; 'tis my Brissot Dévoilé ! * Let me begone ! " he added, and rushed out in despair. The accused were brought in. On hearing the fatal word pronounced, Brissot dropped his arms, and his head suddenly drooped upon his breast. Censonné would have said a few words on the application of the law, but could not obtain a hearing. Sillery, letting fall his crutches, exclaimed, " This is the most glorious day of my life ! " Some hopes had been conceived for the two young brothers, Diicos and Fonfrède, who had appeared to be less compromized, and who had attached themselves to the Girondins, not so much from conformity of opinion, as from admiration of their character and their talents. They were nevertheless condemned like the others. Fonfrède embraced Ducos, saying, •' Brother, it is I who am the cause of your death." " Be of good cheer," replied Ducos, "we shall die together." The Abbé Fauchet, with downcast look, seemed to pray ; Carra retained his un- * The title of a pamphlet which he wrote against the Girondins. 2 20 HISTORY OF oct. 1793 feeling air ; Vergniaiid's whole figure wore an expression of pride and disdain ; Lasource repeated the saying of one of the ancients : "I die on the day w4ien the people have lost their reason. Yon will die on that when they sliall have recovered it." The weak i3oileau and the weak Cardien were not spared. The former, throwing his hat into the air, exclaimed, " I am innocent." " We are innocent," repeated all the accnsed ; " people, they are deceiving yon ! " Some of them had the imprudence to throw some assignats about, as if to induce the multitude to take their part ; Ibnt it remained unmoved. The gendarmes then surrounded tliem for the pui'pose of conducting them back to their prison. One of the condemned suddenly fell at their feet. They lifted him up streaming with blood. It was Valazé, who, when giving his scissors to Rionffe. had kept a dagger, with which he had stabbed himself. The tribunal immediately decided that his body should be carried in a cart after the condemned.* As they left the court, they struck up all together, by a spontaneous movemeiit, the hymn of the Marseillais — " Contre nous de la tyramiie Le coiiteau sanglant est levé." Their last night was sublime. A^ergniaud was provided with poison. He threw it away, that he might die with his friends. They took a last meal together, at which they were by turns merry, serious, and elocpient. Brissot and Gensonné were grave and pensive ; Vergniaud spoke of expiring liberty in the noblest terms of regret, and of the destination of man with persuasive eloquence. Duces repeated verses Avhich he liad composed in prison, and they all joined in singing hymns to France and liberty. Next day, the 3 1 st of October, an immense crowd collected to see them pass. On their way to the scaffold they repeated that hymn of the Marseillais which our soldiers sang when marching against the enemy. On reaching the Place de la Kévolution, having alighted from their carts, they embraced one another, shouting " Vive la liépuhliqitc ! " Sillery first mounted the scaffold, and after gravely bowing to the people, in whom he still respected frail and misguided humanity, he received the fatal stroke. All of them followed Sillery's example, and died witli the same dignity. In thirty-one minutes the executioner had despatched these illustrious * " The court ordered that the bloody corpse of the suicide Valazc should be borne on a tumbrel to the place of execution, and beheaded with the other prisoners." — Lacrctellc. OCT. 1793 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 221 ^dctims, and thus destroyed in a few moments, youth, beauty, virtue, talents ! Such was the end of those noble and courageous citizens, who fell a sacrifice to their generous Utopia. Comprehending neither human nature, nor its vices, nor the means of guiding it in a revolution, they were indignant because it would not be better, and in persisting to thwart it, they caused it to devour themselves. Kespect to their memory ! Never were such virtues, such talents, displayed in the civil wars ; and to their glory be it said, if they did not comprehend the necessity of violent means for saving the cause of France, most of their adversaries who preferred those means decided from passion rather than from genius. Above them could be placed only such of the Mountaineers as had decided in favour of revolutionar}- means out of policy alone, and not from the impulse of hatred. No sooner had the Girondins expired than fresh victims were sacrificed. The sword rested not for a moment. On the 2nd of November the unfortunate Olympe de Gouges was executed for writings called counter-revolutionary, and Adam Luxe, deputy of ]\Iayence, accused of the same crime. On the 6th, the hapless J3uc d'Orleans, transferred from Mar- seilles to Paris, was brought before the revolutionary tribunal, and condemned on account of the suspicions which he had excited in all the parties. Odions to the emigrants, suspected by the Girondins and the Jacobins, he inspired none of those regrets which afford some consolation for an unjust death. More hostile to the Court than enthusiastic in favour of the republic, he felt not that conviction which gives support at the critical moment ; and of all the victims he was the one least compensated and most to be pitied. A universal disgust, an absolute scepticism, were his last sentiments, and he went to the scaffold with extraordinaiy composure and indifference. As he was drawn along the Kue St. Honoré, he beheld his palace with a diy eye, and never belied for a moment his disgust of men and of life.* Coustard. his aide-de-camp, a deputy like himself, shared his fate. * "The Due d'Orleans ilemaiuled only one favour, which was granted, namely, that his execution should be postponed for twenty-four hours. In the interval he had a repast prepared with care, on which he feasted with more than usual avidity. "When led out to execution, he gazed for a time, with a smile on his countenance, on the Palais Roya], tlie scene of his former orgies; he Avas detained above a quarter of an hour in front of that palace, b}^ order of Robe- spierre, who had in vain asked his daughter's hand in marriage, and had pro- mised, if he would relent in that extremity, to excite a tumult which should save his life. Depraved as he was, he had too much lionourable feeling left to 222 HISTORY OF NOV. 1793 Two days afterwards, Eoland's interesting and courageous wife followed tliem to the scaffold. Combining the heroism of a Roman matron with the graces of a Frenchwoman, Madame Roland had to endure all sorts of afflictions. She loved and reverenced her husband as a father. She felt for one of the proscribed Girondins a vehement passion, which she had always repressed. She left a young and orphan daughter to the care of friends. Trembling for so many and such dear objects, she considered the cause of liberty to which she was enthusiastically attached, and for which she had made such great sacrifices, as for ever ruined. Thus she suffered in all her affections at once. Condemned as an accomplice of the Girondins, she heard her sentence with a sort of enthusiasm, seemed to be inspired from the moment of her condemnation to that of her execution, and excited a kind of religious admiration in all who saw her.* She went to the scaffold dressed in white. She exerted her- self the whole way to cheer the spirits of a companion in mis- fortune who was to perish with her, and who had not the same courage ; and she even succeeded so far as twice to draw from him a smile. On reaching the place of execution she bowed to the statue of Liberty, exclaiming, " Liberty, what crimes are they committing in thy name ! " She then underwent her fate with indomitable courage.f Tlius perished that charming consent to such a sacrifice ; and remained in expectation of dcatli, without giving the expected signal of acquiescence, for twenty minutes, when he was permitted to continue his journey to the scaffold. He met his death with stoical fortitude. The multitude applauded his execution." — Alison. * " AVhen Madame Rolaiid arrived at the Conciergerie, the blood of the twenty-two deputies still flowed on the spot. Though she well knew the fate which awaited her, her firmness did not forsake her. Altliough past the prime of life, she was a fine woman, tall, and of an elegant form ; an expression in- finitely superior to what is usually found in women was seen in her large black eyes, at once forcible and mild. She frequently spoke from lier window to those without, with the magnanimity of a man of the first order of talent. Some- times, however, the susceptibility of her sex gained the ascendant, and it was seen that she had been weeping, no doubt at the remembrance of lier daughter and husband. As she passed to her examination, we saw her with that firmness of deportment which usually marked her character ; as she returned, her eyes were moistened with tears, but they were tears of indignation. She had been treated with the grossest rudeness, and questions had been put insulting to her lionour. The day on which she was condemned she had dressed lierself in white, and with peculiar care ; her long black hair hung down loosii to her waist. After her condemnation she returned to her prison with an alacrity which was little sliort of pleasure. By a sign, that was not mistaken, she gave us all to understand slie was to die." — Memoirs of a Prisoner. t "Madame Roland's defence, composed by herself the night before lier trial, is one of the most eloquent and touching monuments of tlie Revolution. Her answers to the interrogatories of her judges, the dignity of her manner, and the beauty of her figure, melted even the revolutionary audience. She was conveyed to the scaffold in the same car with a man whose firmness was not equal to lier own. While passing along the streets, her whole anxiety appeared to be to y ov. 1793 THE FRENCH RE VOL UTION. 223 and spirited woman, who deserved to share the destiny of her friends, but who, more modest, and more resigned to the passive part allotted to her sex, wished not to avoid the death due to her talents and her virtues, but to spare her husband and herself ridicule and calumnies. Her husband had lied towards Rouen. On receiving intelli- gence of her tragic end, he resolved not to survive her. He quitted the hospitable house which had afforded him an asylum. and to avoid compromizing any friend, put an end to his life on the highroad. He was found pierced to the heart by a sword, and lying against the foot of the tree against which he had placed the hilt of the destructive weapon. In his pocket was a paper relative to his life and to his conduct as a minister. Thus, in that frightful delirium which had rendered genius and vii'tue and courage suspected, all that was most noble and most generous in France was perishing either by suicide or by the blade of the executioner.* Among so many illustrious and courageous deaths there was one still more lamentable and more sublime than any of the others ; it was that of Bailly. From the manner in which he had been treated during the Queen's trial, it might easily be inferred how he was likely to be received before the revolu- tionary tribunal. The scene in the Champ de Mars, the pro- clamation of martial law, and the fusillade which followed, were the events with which the constituent ]iarty were most frequently and most bitterly reproached. Bailly, the friend of Lafayette, and the magistrate who had ordered the red flag to support his coura<^c. She did this with so mucli simplicit}' and efl'ect that she frequently brought a smile to the lips that were about to perish. When they arrived at the foot of the scalFold she had the generosity to renounce, in favour of her companion, the jirivilege of being first executed. ' Ascend first,' said she ; 'let me at least spare you the ]iain of seeing my blood flow.' Turning to the executioner, she asked if he would consent to that arrangement. He replied that his orders were, that she should die the first. 'You cannot,' said she with a smile, 'you cannot, I am sure, refuse a woman her last request.' Undismayed by the spectacle which immediately ensued, she calmly bent her head under tiie guillotine, and perished with the serenity she had evinced ever since her imprisonment. " — Alison. * "The whole of the country seemed one vast conflagration of revolt and vengeance. The shrieks of death were blended with the yell of tlie assassin and the laughter of buifoons. Never were the finest affections more warmly excited, or pierced with more cruel wounds. Whole families were led to the scaffold for no other crime than their relationship ; sisters for shedding tears over the death of their brothers in the emigrant armies ; wives for lamenting the fate of their husbands ; innocent peasant-girls for dancing with the Prussian soldiers ; and a woman giving suck, and whose milk spouted in the face of her executioner at the fatal stroke, for merely saying, as a group were being conducted to slaughter, ' Here is much blood shed for a trifling cause ! ' "— Mazlitt's Life of Napoleon, 2 24 H 1ST OR Y OF nov. 1793 be unfurled, was the victim selected to atone for all the alleged offences of the Constituent Assembly. He was condemned, and was to be executed in the Champ de Mars, the theatre of what was termed his crime. His execution took place on the nth of November. The weather was cold and rainy. Con- ducted on foot, he manifested the utmost composure and serenity, amidst the insults of a barbarous populace, which he had fed while he was mayor. During the long walk from the Conciergerie to the Champ de Mars, the red flag, which had been found at the mairie, enclosed in a mahogany box, was shaken in his face. On reaching the foot of the scaffold it might be supposed that his sufferings were nearly over ; but one of the wretches who had persecuted him so assiduously, cried out that the field of the federation ought not to be polluted by his blood. The people instantly rushed upon the guillotine, took it down, bore it off with the same enthusiasm as they had formerly shown in labouring in that same field of the federation, and erected it again upon a dunghill on the bank of the Seine, and opposite to the quarter of Chaillot, where Bailly had passed his life, and com]')Osed his works. This operation lasted some hours. Meanwhile he was obliged to walk several times round the Champ de Mars. Bareheaded, and with his hands pinioned behind him, he could scarcely drag hiïnself along. Some pelted him with mud, others kicked and struck him with sticks. He fell exhausted. They lifted him up again. Eain and cold had communicated to his limbs an involuntary shivering. " Thou tremblest ! " said a soldier to him. "My friend," replied the old man, "it is cold." After he had been thus tormented for several hours, the red flag was burned under his nose ; at length he was delivered over to the executioner, and another illustrious scholar, and one of the most virtuous men who ever honoured our country, was then taken from it.* Since the time that Tacitus saw the vile populace applaud the crimes of emperors, it has not changed. Always sudden in its movements, at one time it erects an altar to the country, * " Among the virtuous inenibers of the first Assembly, there was no one who stood higher than ]^)ailly. As a scliolar and a man of science, he had long been in the very first rank of celebrity ; his ]irivate morals were not only irreproach- able, but exemplary ; and his character and disposition had always been remark- able for gentleness, moderation, and ]>hilanthropy. His popularity was at one time e((ual to that of any of the idols of the day ; and if it was gained by some degree of culjjable indulgence and unjustilialjle zeal, it was forfeited at least by a resolute opposition to disorder, and a meritorious perseverance in tlie discharge of his duty. There is not perliaps a name in the whole annals of the Revolution with which the praise of unaffected philanthropy may be more safely associated," — Jïdinhurr/h Jicviev. ARIL LTo Lonaon , Publis"b ed "by RicTiara. Bentley &Son . 1895. NOV. 1793 THE FRENCH RE VOL UTION. 2 2 5 at miutlier scalïolds, and it exhibits a beautiful and a noble spectacle only when, incorporated with the armies, it rushes upon the hostile battalions. Let not despotism impute its crimes to liberty, for under despotism it was always as guilty as under the republic ; but let us continually invoke enlighten- ment and instruction* for those barbarians swarming in the lowest classes of society, and always ready to stain it with any crime, to obey the call of any power, and to disgrace any cause. On the 25tli of November the unfortunate Manuel was also put to death. From being procureur of the commune, he had become deputy to the Convention, and had resigned his seat at the time of the trial of Louis XVI., because he had been accused of liaving purloined the list of votes. He was charged before the tribunal witli having favoured the massacres of September, for the purpose of raising the departments against Paris. It was Fouquier-Tinville who was commissioned to devise these atrocious calumnies, more atrocious even than the condemnation. On the same day was condemned the unfortu- nate Cleneral Brunet, because he had not sent off part of his army from Nice to Toulon ; and on the following day, the 26th, sentence of death was pronounced upon the victorious Houchard, because he had not understood the plan laid down for him, and had not moved rapidly upon the causeway of Fumes so as to take the whole English army. His was an egregious fault, but not deserving of death. These executions began to spread general terror, and to render the supreme authority formidable. Dismay pervaded not only the prisons, the hall of the revolutionary tribunal, and the Place de la Revolution ; it prevailed everywhere, in the markets, in the shops, where the maximum and the laws against forestalling had recently been enforced. We have already seen how the discredit of the assignats and the in- creased price of commodities had led to the decree of the maximum, for the purpose of restoring the balance between merchandise and money. The first effects of this maximum had been most disastrous, and had occasioned the shutting up of a great number of shops. By establishing a tariff for articles of primary necessity, the government had reached only those goods which had been delivered to the retail dealer, and were ready to pass from the hands of the latter into those * "To inform a people of tlieir rights, before instructing them and making them familiar witli their duties, leads naturally to the abuse of liberty and the usurpation of individuals. It is like opening a passage for the torrent, before a channel has been prepared to receive, or banks to direct it." — Baillys Memoirs, VOL. III. 71 2 26 EISTOBY OF nov. 1793 of the consumer. .13ut the retailer who had bought them of the wholesale trader before the maximum, and at a higher price than that of the new tariff, suffered enormous losses, and complained bitterly. Even when he had bought after the maximum, the loss sustained by him was not the less. In fact, in the tariff of commodities, called goods of primary necessity, they were not s]iecified till wrought and ready to be consumed, and it was not till they had arrived at this latter state that their price was fixed. But it was not said what price they should bear in their raw form, what price should be paid to the woi-kman who wrought them, to the carrier or the navigate]' who transported them ; consequently the re- tailer, who was obliged to sell to the consumer according to the tariff, and who could not treat with the workman, the manufacturer, the wholesale dealer, according to that same tariff, could not possibly continue so disadvantageous a trade. Most of the tradesmen shut up their shops, or evaded the law by fraud. They sold only goods of the worst quality at the maximum, and reser\'ed the best for those who came secretly to pay for them at their proper value. The populace, perceiving these frauds, and seeing a great number of shops shut up, was seized with fury, and assailed the commune with complaints. It insisted that all the dealers should be obliged to kee]) their shops open and to continue their trade, whether they wished to do so or not. The butchers and porkmen who bought diseased animals, or such as had died accidentally, were denounced, and so were those who, in order that the meat might weigh heavier, did not bleed the carcasses sufficiently. The bakers, who reserved the best flour for the rich, sold the worst to the ]ioor, and did not bake their bread enough that it might weigh the more ; the wine merchants, who mixed the most deleterious drugs with their wines ; the dealers in salt, who, to increase the weight of that commodity, deteriorated the quality ; the grocers, and in short, all the retail dealers who adulterated commodities in a thousand ways, were also unsjiaringly accused. Of these abuses, some were perpetual, others peculiar to the actual crisis ; but when the impatience of wrong seizes the minds of the people, they complain of everything, they endeavour to reform everything, to punish everything. On this subject Chaumette, the j^oaireur-f/encral, made a flaming speech against the traders. "It will be recollected," said he, " that in '89 all these men carried on a great trade, but with whom ? with foreigners. It is well known that it was they who caused the fall of the assignats, and that it was NOV. 1793 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 227 by jobbing in paper-money that they enriched themselves. What have they done since they made their fortune ? They have retired from business ; they have threatened the people with a dearth of commodities ; but if they have gold and assignats, the republic has something still more valuable — it has arms. Arms, not gold, are wanted to move our fabrics and manufactures. If then these individuals relinquish fabrics and manufactures, the republic will take them in hand, and put in requisition all the raw materials. Let them remember that it depends on the republic to reduce, whenever it pleases, to dust and ashes, the gold and the assignats which are in their hands. That giant, the people, must crush the mercantile speculators. " We feel the hardships of the people, because we belong ourselves to the people. The entire council is composed of sans-culottes. This is the legislating people. It is of little consequence if our heads fall, provided posterity takes the trouble to pick up our skulls. I shall quote, not the Gospel, but Plato. ' He who shall strike with the sword,' says that philosopher, ' shall perish by the sword ; he who shall destroy by poison, shall ]')erish by poison ; famine shall ])ut an end to him who would famish the people.' If commodities and pro- visions run short, whom shall the people call to account for it ? The constituted authorities ? No. The Convention ? No. It will call to account the merchants and the contractors. Rousseau, who was also one of the people, said, When tlic people shall have nothing more to eat, they will cat the rich." * Forced means lead to forced means, as we have elsewhere observed. In the first laws attention had been paid only to wrought goods. It was now necessary to consider the subject of the raw material ; nay, the idea of seizing the raw material and the workman for the account of the government began to fioat in some minds. It is a formidable obligation, that of doing violence to nature, and attempting to regulate all her movements. The commune and the Convention were obliged to take new measures, each according to its respective competence. The commune of Paris obliged every dealer to declare the quantity of goods in hand, the orders which he had given to procure more, and the expectations which he had of their arrival. Every shopkeeper who had been in business for a year, and either relinquished it or suffered it to languish, was declared suspected, and imprisoned as such. To prevent the * Speech at the commune on the 14th of October. 2 28 HISTORY OF noy. 1793 confusion and tlie accumulation arising from an anxiety to lay in a stock, tiie commune also decided that the consumer should apply only to the retailer, and the retailer only to the wholesale dealer ; and it Iixed the (juantities which each should be allowed to order. Thus the retail grocer could not order more than twenty-five pounds of sugar at a time of the wholesale dealer, and the tavern-keeper not more than twelve. It was the revolutionary committees that delivered the tickets for purchasing, and fixed the quantities.* The commune did not confine itself to these regulations. As the throng about the doors of the bakers still continued the same, as there was still the same tumult there, and many people were waiting part of the night to be served, it was decided, at the sugges- tion of Chaumette, that those who had com.e last should be first served ; but this regulation diminished neither the tumult nor eagerness of the customers. As the people complained that the worst flour was reserved for them, it was resolved that in the city of Paris there should be made in future but one sort of bread, composed of three -fourths wheaten flour and one -fourth rye. Lastly, a commission of inspection for provisions was instituted, to ascertain the state of commodities, to take cognizance of frauds, and to punish them. These measures, imitated by the other communes, and frequently even converted into decrees, immediately became general laws ; and thus, as we have already observed, the commune exercised an immense influence in everything connected with the internal administration and the police. The Convention, urged to reform the law of the jnaximum, devised a new one. which went back to the raw material. It required that a statement should be made out of the cost price of goods in 1790, on the spot where they were produced. To this price were to be added, in the first place, one-third on ac- count of circumstances ; secondly, a fixed sum for carriage from the place of production to the place of consumption ; thirdly and lastly, five per cent, for the ]irofit of the wholesale dealer, and ten for the retailer. Out of all these elements was to * " The state of France is perfectly simple. It consists of two classes — the oppressors and the oppressed. The lirst have the wliole aiitliority of State in tlieir hands, the direction of trade, the revenues of tiie ]nihlic, the conliscations of individuals and corporations. The other description — the opjjressed — arc people of some property; they are the small relics of the ])ersecuted landed interest ; the burghers, the farmers, the small tradesmen. The revolutionary committees exercise over these a most severe and scrutinizing inquisition. At Paris, and in most otlier towns, the bread the peoide buy is a daily dole, which they cannot obtain without a daily ticket delivered to them by their masters." — Burke on the Policy of the Allies. N ov. 1 7 9 3 THE FRENCH RE VO L UTTON. 229 be composed, for the future, the jDrice of articles of the first necessity. The local administrations were directed to take this task upon themselves, each directing that which was produced and consumed within it. An indemnity was granted to every retail dealer who, possessing a capital of less than ten thousand francs, could prove that he had lost that capital by the maximum. The communes were to judge of the case by actual inspection, a method always adopted in times of dictator- ship. Thus this law, without yet going back to the production, to the raw material, to workmanship, fixed the price of merchan- dise on leaving the manufactory, the price of carriage, and the profit of the wholesale and retail dealer, and by absolute rules made compensation for the fickleness of nature in at least half of the social operations. But all this, we repeat, proceeded inevitably from the first maximum, the first maximum from the assignats, and the assignats from the imperative wants of the Revolution. To superintend this system of government introduced into commerce, a commission of provisions and articles of subsist- ence was appointed, whose authority extended over the whole republic. This was composed of three members appointed by the Convention, enjoying nearly the importance of the ministers themselves, and having voices in the council. The commission thus formed was charged to carry the tariffs into execution, to superintend the conduct of the communes on this point, to cause the statement of the articles of provision and subsistence throughout all France to be forthwith completed, to order their transfer from one dej^artment to another, and to fix the re- quisitions for the armies, agreeably to the celebrated decree which instituted the revolutionary government. The financial situation of the country was not less extra- ordinary than all the rest. The two loans — the one forced, the other voluntary- — filled with rapidity. People were par- ticularly eager to contribute to the second, because the advan- tages which it held out rendered it far preferable, and thus the moment approached when one thousand millions of assignats would be withdrawn from circulation. There were in the exchequer for current expenses nearly four hundred millions remaining from the former creations, and five hundred millions of royal assignats, called in by the decree which divested them of the character of money, and converted into a like sum in republican assignats. These made, therefore, a sum of about nine hundred millions for the public service. It will appear extraordinary that the assignat, which had fallen three-fourths, and even four-fifths, had risen to a par 2 30 HISTORY OF no v. 1793 with specie. In this rise there was something real and something fictitious. The gradual suppression of a floating thousand millions, the success of the first levy, which had produced six hundred thousand men in the space of a month, and the recent victories of the republic, which almost ensured its existence, had accelerated the sale of the national pos- sessions, and restored some confidence to the assignats, but still not sufficient to place them on an equality with money. The causes which put them apparently on a par with specie were the following : — It will be recollected that a law forbade, under very heavy penalties, the traffic in specie, that is, the exchange at a loss of the assignat against money ; that another law decreed very severe penalties against those who, in pur- chases, should bargain for different prices according as payment was to be made in paper or in cash. In this manner specie could not maintain its real value either against the assignat or against merchandise, and people had no other resource but to hoard it. But by a last law it was enacted, that hidden gold, silver, or jewels should belong partly to the State, partly to the informer. Thenceforth people could neither employ specie in trade nor conceal it — it became troublesome ; it exposed the holders to the risk of being considered as suspected persons ; they began to be afraid of it, and to find the assignat pre- ferable for daily use. This it was that had re-established the par, which had never really existed for paper, even on the first day of its creation. Many communes, adding their laws to those of the Convention, had even prohibited the circula- tion of specie, and ordered that it should be brought in chests to be exchanged for assignats. The Convention, it is true, had abolished all these particular decisions of the communes ; but the general laws which it had passed had nevertheless rendered specie useless and dangerous. Many people paid it away in taxes, or to the loan, or to foreigners who carried on a great traffic in it, and came to the frontier towns to receive it in exchange for merchandise. The Italians and the Genoese, in ])articular, who brought us great quantities of corn, frequented the southern ports, and bought u]) gold and silver at low prices. S])ecie had therefore made its appearance again, owing to the effect of these terrible laws ; and the party of ardent Revolutionists, fearing lest its appearance should again prove prejudicial to the paper-money, were desirous that specie, which hitherto had not been excluded from circulation, and had only been condemned to ])ass for the same as tlic assignat, should be absolutely ])i'ohibited ; they ])roposed that its circula- tion should be forbidden, and that all who possessed it should NOV. 1793 THE FRENCH RE VOL UTION. 2 3 1 be ordered to bring it to the public coffers to be exchanged for assignats. Terror had almost put a stop to stockjobbing. Speculations upon specie had, as we have just seen, become impossible. Foreign paper, branded with reprobation, no longer circulated as it did two months before ; and the bankers, accused on all sides of being agents of the emigrants, and addicting them- selves to stockjobbing, were in the utmost consternation. For a moment, seals had been put upon their effects ; but govern- ment had soon become aware of the danger of interrupting banking operations, and thus checking the circulation of all capitals, and the seals were removed. The alarm was never- theless so great that nobody thought of engaging in any kind of speculation. The India Company was at length abolished. We have seen what an intrigue had been formed by certain deputies to speculate in the shares of that company. The Jiaron de Batz, in concert with Julien of Toulouse, Delaunay of Angers, and Chabot, proposed by publishing alarming rumours to make shares fall, then to buy them up, and afterwards by milder reports to produce a rise, when they would sell again, and make a profit by this fraudulent fluctuation. The Abbé d'Espagnac, whom Julien recommended to the committee of contracts, was to furnish the funds for these specidations. These wretches actually succeeded in sinking the shares from four thousand five hundred to six hundred and fifty livres, and made con- siderable profits. The suppression of the company, however, could not be prevented. They then began to treat with it for a mitigation of the decree of suppression. Delamiay and Julien discussed the matter with the directors. "'If," said they, "you will give us such a sum, we will move for such a decree ; if not, we will bring forward such a one." It was agreed that they should be paid the sum of five hundred thousand francs, for which they were, when proposing the suppression of the company, which was inevitable, to cause the business of its liquidation to be assigned to itself, which might prolong its duration for a considerable time. This sum was to be divided among Delaunay, Julien, Chabot, and Bazire, whom his friend Chabot had acquainted with the intrigue, but who refused to take any part in it. Delaunay presented the decree of suppression on the 17th of Vendémiaire. He proposed to suppress the com])any, to oblige it to refund the sums which it owed to the State, and above all, to make it pay the duty on transfers, which it had evaded by changing its shares into inscriptions in its 232 HISTORY OF nov. 1793 books. Finally, he proposed to leave the business of winding up its affairs to itself. Fabre d'Eglantine, who was not yet in the secret, and who speculated, as it appeared, in a contrary sense, immediately opposed this motion, saying, that to permit the company to wind up its affairs itself was perpetuating it, and that upon this pretext it might continue to exist for an indefinite period. He proposed, therefore, to transfer to the government the business of this liquidation. Cambon moved, as a siib-amendment, that the vState, in undertaking the liquida- tion, should not be charged with the debts of the company if they exceeded its assets. The decree and the two amendments were adopted, and referred to the commission to be definitively drawn up. The members in the plot immediately agreed that they ought to gain Fabre, in order to obtain, in the drawing up, some modifications to the decree. Chabot was despatched to Fabre with one hundred thousand francs, and secured his assistance. They then proceeded in tliis manner. The decree was drawn up as it had been adopted by the Convention, and submitted for signature to Cambon and the members of the commission who were not accomplices in the scheme. To this authentic copy were then added certain words, which totally altered the sense. On the subject of the transfers which had evaded the duty, but which were to pay it, were added these words, cxccytinrj those frmidulentl/j made, which tended to revive all the pretensions of the company in regard to the exemption from the duty. On the subject of the liqui- dation these words were added, Agrecahhj to the statutes and rerjidatioois of the company, which gave to the latter an inter- vention in the li(:|uidation. These interpolations materially changed the natur(^ of the decree, ('habot, Fabre, Delainiay, and Julien of Toulouse afterwards signed it, and delivered the falsified copy to the commission for the circulation of the laws, which caused it to be printed and pi'omulgated as an authentic decree. 'J'hey hoped that the members who had signed before these slight alterations were made would either not recollect or not perceive them, and tlu^y divided among themselves the sum of five liundred thousand francs. Bazire alone refused his share, saying that he would have no hand in such dis- graceful transactio7is. Meanwliile Chabot, whose hixurious style of living began to be denounced, was sorely afraid lest he should find him- self compromized. He had expended the hundred thousand francs which he had received as his share in private expenses ; and as his accomplices saw tliat he was ready to betray them, they threatened to be beforehand with him. and to denounce NOV. 1 7 9 3 THE FRENCH BE VOL UTIOK 233 the whole affair if he abandoned them. Such had been the issue of this scandalous intrigue between the Baron de Batz and three or four deputies.* The general terror which threatened every life, however innocent, had seized them, and they were apprehensive of being detected and punished. For the moment, therefore, all speculations were suspended, and nobody now thought of engaging in stockjobbing. It was precisely at this time, when the government was not afraid to do violence to all received ideas, to all established customs, that the plan for introducing a new system of weights and measures, and changing the calendar, was carried into execution. A fondness for regularity, and a contempt for obstacles, could scarcely fail to mark a Revolution which was at once philosophical and political. It had divided the country into eighty-three equal portions ; it had given uniformity to the civil, religious, and military administration ; it had equal- ized all the parts of the public debt ; it could not avoid regu- lating weights, measures, and the division of time. It is true that this fondness for uniformity, degenerating into a spirit of system, nay, even into a mania, caused the necessary and attractive varieties of nature to be too often forgotten ; but it is only in paroxysms of this kind that the human mind effects great and difficult regenerations. The new system of weights and measures, one of the most admirable creations of the age, was the result of this audacious spirit of innovation. The idea was conceived of taking for the unit of weights, and for the unit of measures, natural and invariable quantities in every country. Thus, distilled water was taken for the unit of weight, and a part of the meridian for the u.nit of measure. These units, multiplied or divided by ten, ad infinitum, formed that beautiful system known by the name of the decimal system. The same regularity was to be applied to tht> division of time ; and the difficulty of changing the habits of a peoj^le in those points where they are most invincible was not capable of deterring men so determined as those who then presided over the destinies of France. They had already changed the Gre- gorian era into a republican era, and dated the latter from the first year of liberty. They made the year and the new era begin with the 22nd of September 1792, a day which, by a fortunate coincidence, was that of the institution of the re- public and of the autumnal equinox. The year would have * "Some writings found anient,^ Robespierre's papers after his death fully justify these charges against Chabot and his colleagues, for which they were afterwards arrested and brought to the scaffold." — Biographie Moderne. 2 34 HISTOB Y OF Nov. 1 7 9 3 been divided into ten parts, conformably with tlie decimal system ; but in taking for the division of the months the twelve revolutions of the moon round the earth, it became absolutely necessary to admit twelve months. Nature here commanded the infraction of the decimal system. The month consisted of thirty days ; it was divided into three portions of ten days each, called decades, instead of the four weeks. The tenth day of each decades was dedicated to rest, and superseded the former Sunday. Thus there was one day of rest less in the month. The Catholic religion had multiplied holidays to infinity. The Revolution, preaching up industry, deemed it right to reduce them as much as possible. The months were named after the seasons to which they belonged. As the year commenced with autumn, the first three belonged to that season, and were called Vendémiaire, Brumaire, Frimaire ; the three following were those of winter, and were called Nivose, Pluviôse, Yentose ; the next three, answering to spring, were named (terminal, Floreal, Prairial ; and the last three, com- prising summer, were denominated Messidor, Thermidor, Fruc- tidor. These twelve months, of thirty days each, formed a total of only three hundred and sixty days. There remained five days for completing the year. These were called com- plementary days, and by a happy idea they were to be set a])art for national festivals by the name of Sans-culottides — a name which must be granted to the time, and which is not more absurd than many others adopted by nations. The first was to be that of genius ; the second, that of laboiLr ; the third, that of 7iohle actions ; the fourth, that of reioards ; the fifth and last, that of opinion. This last festival, absolutely original, and perfectly adapted to the French character, was to be a sort of political carnival of twenty-four hours, during which people should be allowed to say or to write with impunity whatever they pleased concerning every public man. It was for opinion to do justice upon opinion itself ; and it behoved all magistrates to defend themselves by their virtues against the truths and the calumnies of that day. Nothing could be more grand or more moral than this idea. If a more mighty destiny has swept away the thoughts and the institutions of that period, its vast and bold conceptions ought not to be made the butt of ridicule. The Romans have not been held ridiculous because on the day of triumph the soldier, ])laced behind the car of the trinm])her, was at liberty to utter whatever his hatred or his mii'tli suggested. As in every four years the leap-year brought six com])lementary days instead of five, this sixth tSans-culoUide was to be called tlie festival of the llevoliUion, A CONCORDANCE OF THE REPUBLICS [Compiled fur the English Editini of^wi EEPUBLICAN YKAi; GREGOPaAN YEAR Vendémiaire 1 .. Vendéniiaire 8 Vendémiaire 9 Vendémiaire 10 Brumaire 1 . . . Brumaire 9. Brumaire 10, Brumaire 11 . Frimaire 1 .. Frimaire 9 Frimaire 10 Frimaire 11 Nivose 1 — Nivôse 10 Nivôse 11 Nivôse 12 Pluviôse 1 — Pluviôse 11 . Pluviôse 12 . Pluviôse 13 . Ventôse 1 . . . Ventôse 10 Ventôse 11 Germinal 1 Germinal 11 . Germinal 12 . Floréal 1 . . Floréal 11 . Floréal 12 Prairial 1 . . Prairial 12 Prairial Vi Messidor 1 . . Messidor 12 Messidor l.'i Thermidor 1 — Thermidor l.-î 'I'licrmidnr 14 Fructidor 1 . . . Fructidor 14 Fructidor 15 0) te £ lois. In 1792 lie was appointed deiiuty to the Convention, and was soon afterwaids chosen presitlcnt. He voted for the King's death. When Gobel, the constitutional Bishop of Paris, came to the bar to abjure the Catholic religion and the episcojjal functions, Grégoire withstood the example, and even ventured to condemn his conduct. In 1794 he made several reports on the irreparable injury which Terrorism had done to the arts and to letters. In 1799 he entered into the newly-created Legislative Body, and in the following year was apjjointed president of it. Grégoire deserved well of the sciences by the energy with which he pleaded the cause of men of letters and of artists during the revolutionary reginie. He published several works, and in 1803 travelled into England, and afterwards into CJermany." — Jiio(jraphic Moderne. NOV. 1793 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 241 proceeded to the Hôtel de Ville, to receive the congratulations of the commune. This example once given, it was no difficult matter to excite all the sections of Paris and all the communes of the republic to follow it. The sections soon met, and came one after another to declare that they renounced the errors of supersti- tion, and that they acknowledged no other worship) than that of reason. The section of l'Homme-Armé declared that it acknowledged no other worship than that of truth and reason, no other fanaticism than that of liberty and equality, no other doctrine than that of fraternity and of the republican laws decreed since the 31st of May 1793. The section of La Ké- union intimated that it would make a bonfire of all the con- fessionals and of all the books used by the Catholics, and that it would shut up the church of St. Mery. That of William Tell renounced for ever the worship of error and imposture. That of Mutius Sceevola abjured the Catholic religion, and declared that next Décadi it should celebrate at the high altar of St. Sulpice the inauguration of the busts of Marat, Lepel- letier, and Mutius Scîevola ; that of Les Piques, that it would adore no other God than the God of liberty and equality ; and that of the Arsenal also renounced the Catholic religion. Thus the sections, taking the initiative, abjured the Catholic faith as the established religion, and seized its edifices and its treasures, as pertaining to the communal domains. The deputies on mission in the departments had already incited a great number of communes to seize the movable property of the churches, which, they said, was not necessary for religion, and which, moreover, like all public property, belonged to the State, and might therefore be applied to its wants. Fouché had sent several chests of plate from the department of the Allier. A great quantity had arrived from other departments. This example, followed in Paris and the environs, soon brought piles of wealth to the bar of the Convention. All the churches were stripped, and the communes sent deputations with the gold and silver accumulated in the shrines of saints or in places consecrated by ancient devotion. They went in procession to the Convention, and the rabble, indulging their fondness for the burlesque, caricatured in the most ludicrous manner the ceremonies of religion, and took as much delight in profaning as they had formerly done in celebrating them. Men, wearing surplices and copes, came singing Hallelujahs, and dancing the Carmagnole, to the bar of the Convention ; there they deposited the host, the crucifixes, and the statues of gold and silver ; they made burlesque speeches, and sometimes VOL. III. 72 * 242 HISTORY OF nov. 1793 addressed the most singular apostrophes to the saints them- selves. " you ! " exclaimed a deputation from St. Denis, " O you, instruments of fanaticism, blessed saints of all kinds, be at length patriots, rise en tnasse, serve the country by going to the Mint to be melted, and give us in this world that felicity which you wanted to obtain for us in the other ! " These scenes of merriment were followed all at once by scenes of reverence and devotion. The same persons who trampled under foot the saints of Christianity bore an awning ; the curtains were thrown back, and pointing to the busts of Marat and Lepelletier, "These," said they, "are not gods made by men, but the images of worthy citizens assassinated by the slaves of kings." They then filed off before the Convention, again singing Hallelujahs, and dancing the Carmagnole ; carried the rich spoils of the altars to the Mint, and placed the revered busts of Marat and Lepelletier in the churches, which thence- forth became the temples of a new worship. At the requisition of Chaumette, it was resolved that the metropolitan church of Nôtre-Dame should be converted into a republican edifice, called the Temple of Reason. A festival was instituted for all the Décadi, to supersede the Catholic ceremonies of Sunday. The mayor, the municipal officers, the public functionaries, repaired to the Temple of Keason, where they read the declaration of the rights of man and the consti- tutional act, analyzed the news from the armies, and related the brilliant actions which had been performed during the decade. A mouth of truth, resembling the mouths of denun- ciation which formerly existed at Venice, was placed in the Temple of Reason, to receive opinions, censures, advice, that might be useful to the public. These letters were examined and read every Décadi, a moral discourse was delivered, after which pieces of music were performed, and the ceremonies concluded with the singing of republican hymns. There were in the temple two tribunes — one for aged men, the other for pregnant women, with these inscriptions : Resj)cct for old age — Respect and attention for pregnant wotnen. The first festival of Reason was held with pomp on the 20th of Rrumaire (the loth of November). It was attended by all the sections, together with the constituted authorities. A young woman represented the goddess of Reason. She was the wife of Momoro, the printer, one of the friends of Vincent, Ronsin, Chaumette, Hébert, and the like. She was dressed in a white drapery ; a mantle of azure blue hung from her shoulders ; her flowing hair was covered with the cap of liberty. She sat upon an anticpie seat, entwined with ivy, and borne by NOV. 1793 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 243 four citizens. Young gii'ls dressed in white, and crowned with roses, preceded and followed the goddess. Then came the busts of Lepelletier and Marat, musicians, troops, and all the armed sections. Speeches were delivered and hymns sung in the Temple of Reason ; * they then proceeded to the Conven- tion, and Chaumette spoke in these terms : — "Legislators! — Fanaticism has given way to reason. Its bleared eyes could not endure the brilliancy of the light. This day an immense concourse has assembled beneath those Gothic vaults, which for the first time re-echoed the truth. There the French have celebrated the only true worship, that of liberty, that of reason. There we have formed wishes for the prosperity of the arms of the republic. There we have abandoned inanimate idols for reason, for that animated image, the masterpiece of Nature." As he uttered these words, Chaumette pointed to the living goddess of Reason. The young and beautiful woman descended from her seat and went up to the president, who gave her the fraternal kiss amidst universal bravoes and shouts of The republic for ever ! Reaso7i for ever ! Down with fanaticism ! The Convention, which had not yet taken any part in these representations, was hurried away, and obliged to follow the procession, which returned to the Temple of Reason, and there sang a patriotic hymn. An important piece of intelligence, that of the retaking of Noir- moutiers from Charette.f increased the general joy, and furnished a more real motive for it than the abolition of fanaticism. It is impossible to view with any other feeling than disgust these scenes without devotion, without sincerity, exhibited by a nation which changed its worship, without comprehending either the old system, or that which they substituted for it. Wben is the populace sincere ? When is it capable of com- prehending the dogmas which are given to it to believe ? * "Beauty without modesty was seen usurping the place of the Holy of Holies." — Beauregard. t "When the republicans retook Noirmoutiers they found M. d'Elbee at death's door from his wounds. His wife might have got away, but she would not leave him. When the republicans entered his chamber, they said, 'So, this is d'Elbee!' 'Yes,' replied he, 'you see your greatest enemy; and had I strength to fight, you should not have taken Noirmoutiers, or at least you should have purchased it dearly.' They kept him five days, and loaded him with insults. At length, exhausted by suffering, he said, ' Gentlemen, it is time to conclude your examination — let me die.' As he was unable to stand, they placed him in an arm-chair, where he was shot. His wife, on seeing him carried to execution, fainted away. A republican officer, showing some pity, supported her ; but he also was threatened to be shot if he did not leave her. She was put to death the next day. The republicans then filled a street with fugitives and suspected inhabitants, and massacred the whole,"— Memoirs of the Marchioness do Laruchejaquelein. 244 HISTORY OF Nov. 1793 What does it in general want ? Large assemblages, which gratify its fondness for public meetings ; symbolic spectacles, which incessantly remind it of a power superior to its own ; lastly, festivals in which homage is paid to those who have made the nearest approach to the good, the fair, the great — in short, temples, ceremonies, and saints. Here were temples, Reason, Marat, and Lepelletier ! * It was assembled, it adored a mysterious power, it celebrated those two men. All its wants were satisfied, and it gave way to them on this occasion as it always gives way. If, then, we survey the state of France at this period, we shall see that never were more restraints imposed at once on that inert and patient part of the population on which political experiments are made. People dared no longer ex])ress any opinion. They were afraid to visit their friends, lest they might be compromized with them, and lose liberty and even life. A hundred thousand arrests, and some hundreds of condemnations, rendered imprisonment and the scaffold ever present to the minds of twenty-five millions of French. They had to bear heavy taxes. If, by a perfectly arbitrary classifica- tion, they were placed on the list of the rich, they lost for that year a portion of their income. Sometimes, at the requisition of a representative or of some agent or other, they were obliged to give up their crops, or their most valuable effects in gold and silver. They durst no longer display any luxury, or indulge in noisy pleasures. They were no longer permitted to use metallic money, but obliged to take and give a depre- ciated paper, with which it was difficult to procure such things as they needed. They were forced, if shopkeepers, to sell at a fictitious price, if buyers, to put up with the worst commodities, because the best shunned the maximum and the assignats : sometimes, indeed, they had to do without either, because good and bad were alike concealed. They had but one sort of black bread, common to the rich as to the poor, for which they were obliged to contend at the doors of the bakers after waiting for several hours. Lastly, the names of the weights and measures, the names of the months and days, were changed ; there were but three Sundays instead of four ; and the women * "Every tenth day a revolutiouary leader ascended tlie ])ulpit, and preached atheism to the bewildered audience. Marat was universally deified, and even the instrument of death was sanctified by the name of the Holy Guillotine ! On all the public cemeteries this inscrijition was placed ^' Death is an eternal sleej).' The comedian Monert, in the church of St. Roche, carried impiety to its height. ' God, if you exist,' said he, ' avenge your injured name ! I bid you defiance. You remain silent. You dare not launch your thunders. Who after this will believe in your existence ? ' " — Alison, NOV. 1793 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 245 and the aged men were deprived of those religious ceremonies which they had been accustomed to attend all their lives.* Never had power overthrown with greater violence the habits of a people. To threaten all lives, to decimate all fortunes, to hx compulsorily the standard of the exchanges, to give new names to all things, to abolish the ceremonies of religion, is indisputably the most atrocious of tyrannies, if we do not take into account the danger of the State, the inevitable crisis of commerce, and the spirit of system inseparable from the spirit of innovation. * '''I'^e services of reliji^ion were now universally abandoned. The milnits rvle'w"*'^ throughout the revolutionary districts ; baptisms ceased theŒî slfnn TK ^"^?'' ^''',"\f *^' ^'"^ '""'^^^^^^ "'^ communion, the dying no con- Pntplp^Vl ^^^y'''«f bells were silent. Sunday was obliterated. Infancy entered the world witliout a blessing ; age quitted it without a ho^e."-Alùon THE NATIONAL CONVENTION {(•jmtimied) RETURN OF DANTON— PART OF THE MOUNTAINEERS TAKE PITY ON THE PROSCRIBED, AND DECLARE AGAINST THE NEW WORSHIP — DANTONISTS AND HEBERTISTS — POLICY OF THE COMMITTEE OF PUBLIC WELFARE — ROBESPIERRE DEFENDS DANTON, AND CARPJES A MOTION FOR THE ABOLITION OF THE NEW WORSHIP —LAST IMPROVEMENTS MADE IN THE DICTATORIAL GOVERNMENT —ENERGY OF THE COMMITTEE AGAINST ALL THE PARTIES — ARREST OF RONSIN, HEBERT, THE FOUR DEPUTIES WHO FABRI- CATED THE SPURIOUS DECREE, AND THE ALLEGED AGENTS OF THE FOREIGN POWERS. SINCE the fall of the Girondins, the Mountaineer party, left alone and victorious, had begun to be disunited. The daily increasing excesses of the Revolution tended to complete this division, and an absolute rupture was near at hand. Many deputies had been moved by the fate of the Girondins, of Bailly, of Brunet, and of Houchard. Others censured the violence committed in regard to religion, and deemed it impolitic and dangerous. They said that new superstitions would start up in the place of those which people were anxious to destroy ; that the pretended worship of reason was no better than atheism ; that atheism could not be adapted to a nation ; and that these extra- vagances must be instigated and rewarded by the foreign enemy. On the contrary, the party which held sway at the Cordeliers and at the commune, which had Hébert for its writer, Ronsin and Vincent for its leaders, Chaumette and Clootz for its apostles, insisted that its adversaries meant to resuscitate a moderate faction, and to produce fresh dissensions in the republic. Danton had returned from his retirement. He did not ex- press his sentiments, but the leader of a party would in vain attempt to conceal them. They pass from mouth to mouth, and soon become manifest to all minds. It was well known that he would fain have prevented the execution of the Girondins, and tliat he had been deeply moved by their tragic end. It was well known that, tliough a partisan and an in- ventor of revolutionary means, he began to condemn the blind 246 NOV. 1793 THE FRENCH BE VOL UTION. 247 and ferocious employment of them ; that he was of opinion that violence ought not to be prolonged beyond the existence of danger ; and that, at the close of the current campaign, and after the entire exj^ulsion of the enemy, it was his intention to endeavour to re-establish the reign of mild and equitable laws. None dared yet attack him in the tribunes of the clubs. Hébert dared not insult him in his paper of Pcrc Duchene ; but the most insidious rumours were orally circulated ; in- sinuations were thrown out against his integrity ; the pecula- tions in Belgium were referred to with more boldness than ever ; and some had even gone so far as to assert, during his seclusion at Arcis-sur-Aube, that he had emigrated and carried his wealth along with him. Witli him were associated, as no better than himself, his friend Camille-Desmoulins, who had participated in his pity for the Girondins, and defended Dillon and Philippeaux, who had just returned from La Vendée, en- raged against the disorganizers, and quite ready to denounce Ronsin and Rossignol. In his party were likewise classed all those who had in any way displeased the ardent Revolutionists, and their number began to be very considerable. Julien of Toulouse, who was already strongly suspected on account of his connection with d'Espagnac and the contractors, had completely committed himself by a report on the federalist administrations, in which he strove to palliate the faults of most of them. No sooner was it delivered than the indignant Cordeliers and Jacobins obliged him to retract it. They made inquiries concerning his private life ; they discovered that he lived with stockjobbers, and cohabited with a ci-devant countess, and they declared him to be at once dissolute and a moderate. Fabre d'Eglantine had all at once changed his situation, and lived in a higher style than he had ever before been known to do. The Capuchin, Chabot, who, on espousing the cause of the Revolution, had nothing but his ecclesiastical pension, had also lately begun to display expensive furniture, and married the young sister of the two Freys, with a dower of two hundred thousand livres. This sudden change of fortune excited suspicions against these recently enriched deputies, and it was not long before a proposition which they made to the Convention completed their ruin. Osselin, a deputy, had just been arrested, on a charge of having concealed a female emigrant ; Fabre, Chabot, Julien, and Delaunay, who were not easy on their own account ; Bazire and Thuriot, who had nothing wherewith to reproach themselves, but who perceived with alarm that even members of the Convention were not spared, proposed a decree purporting that no deputy could 248 HISTORY OF NOV. 1793 be arrested till he had been first heard at the bar. This decree was adopted ; but all the clubs and the Jacobins in- veighed against it, and alleged that it was an attempt to .renew the inviolahiliiy. They caused a report to be made upon it, and commenced the strictest inquiry concerning those who had proposed it, their conduct, and the origin of their sudden wealth. Jiilien, Fabre, Chabot, Delaunay, Bazire, Thuriot, strij^ped of their jiopularity in a few days, were classed among the party of equivocal and moderate men. Hébert loaded them with the grossest abuse in his paper, and delivered them up to the lowest of the populace. Four or five other persons shared the same fate, though hitherto acknowledged to be excellent patriots. They were Proly, Pereyra, Gusman, Dubuisson, and Desfieux. Natives almost all of them of foreign countries, they had come, like the two Freys and Clootz, and thrown themselves into the French Revolution, out of enthusiasm, and probably also from a desire to make their fortune. Nobody cared who or what they were, so long as they appeared to be zealous votaries of the Revolution. Proly, who was a native of Brussels, had been sent with Pereyra and Desfieux to Du- mouriez, to discover his intentions. They drew from him an explanation of them, and then went, as we have related, and denounced him to the Convention and to the Jacobins. So far all was right ; but they had also been employed by Lebrun, because, being foreigners and well-informed men, they were capable of rendering good service in the foreign department. In their intercourse with Lebrun they had learned to esteem him, and they had defended him. Proly had been well ac- quainted with Dumouriez, and notwithstanding the defection of that general, he had persisted in extolling his talents, and asserting that he might have been retained for the republic. Lastly, almost all of them, possessing a better knowledge of the neighbouring countries, had censured the application of the Jacobin system to Belgium and to the provinces united with France. Their expressions were noted, and when a general distrust led to the notion of the secret interference of a foreign faction, people began to suspect them, and to call to mind the language which they had held. It was known that Proly was a natural son of Kaunitz ; he was supposed to be the prin- cipal leader, and they were all metamorphosed into spies of Pitt and Coburg. Rage soon knew no bounds, and the very exaggeration of their patriotism, which they deemed likely to justify them, only served to compromise them still more. They were confounded with the party of the equivocal men, the NOV. 1793 THE FRENCH B.EVOLUTION. 249 moderates. Whenever Danton or his friends had any remark to make on the fauh,s of the ministerial agents, or on the violence exercised against religion, the party of Hébert, Vin- cent, and Ronsin replied by crying out against moderation, corruption, and the foreign faction. As usual, the moderates flung back this accusation to their adversaries, saying, " It is you who are the accomplices of these foreigners ; your connection with them is proved, as well by the common violence of your language, as by the determi- nation to overturn everything, and to carry matters to ex- tremities. Look," added they, " at that commune, which arrogates to itself a legislative authority, and passes laws under the modest title of resolutions ; which regulates every- thing, the police, the markets, and public worship ; which, at its own good pleasure, substitutes one religion for another, supersedes ancient superstitions by new superstitions, preaches up atheism, and causes its example to be followed by all the municipalities of the republic ; look at those offices of the war department, whence issue a multitude of agents, who spread themselves over the provinces, to vie with the representatives, to practise the greatest oppressions, and to decry the Revolu- tion by their conduct ; look at that commune, at those offices — what do they mean but to usurp the legislative and executive authority, to dispossess the Convention and the committees, and to dissolve the government? Who can urge them on to this goal but the foreign enemy ? " Amidst these agitations and these quarrels, it behoved authority to pursue a vigorous course. Robespierre thought, with the whole committee, that these reciprocal accusations were extremely dangerous. His policy, as we have already seen, had consisted, ever since the 3 1 st of May, in preventing a new revolutionary outbreak, in rallying opinion around the Convention, and the Convention around the committee, in order to create an energetic power ; and to this end he had made use of the Jacobins, who were all-powerful upon public opinion. These new charges against accredited patriots, such as Danton and Camille-Desmoulins, appeared to him very dangerous. He was afraid that no reputation would be able to stand agaiîist men's imaginations when once let loose ; he was apprehensive lest the violence done to religion might alienate part of France, and cause the Revolution to be re- garded as atheistical ; lastly, he fancied that he beheld the hand of the foreign foe in tliis vast confusion. He therefore took good care to seize the opportunity which Hébert soon afforded him to explain his sentiments on this subject to the Jacobins. 2 5G HISTORY OF nov. 1793 The intentions of Robespierre had transpired. It was whispered about that he was going to attack Pache,* Hébert, Chaiimette, and Clootz, the author of the movement against religion. Proly, Desfieux, and Pereyra, already compromized and threatened, resolved to unite their cause with that of Pache, Chaumette, and Hébert. They called upon them, and told them that there was a conspiracy against the best patriots; that they were all equally in danger ; that they ought to support and reciprocally defend each other. Hébert then went to the Jacobins, on the ist of Frimaire (November 21, 1793), and complained of a plan of disunion tending to divide the patriots. " Wherever I go," said he, " I meet with people who congratulate me on not being yet arrested. It is reported that Robespierre intends to denounce me, Chaumette, and Pache. As for me, who put myself forward every day for the interest of the country, and say everything that comes into my head, the rumour may have some foundation ; but Pache! . . . I know the high esteem which Robespierre has for him, and I fling far from me such an idea. It has been said, too, that Danton has emigrated, that he has gone to Switzerland, laden with the spoils of the people. ... I met him this morning in the Tuileries, and since he is in Paris he ought to come to the Jacobins and explain himself in a brotherly manner. It is a duty which all the jiatriots owe to themselves to contradict the injurious reports which are circulated respecting them." Hébert then stated that he learned part of these reports from Dubuisson, who insisted on revealing to him a conspiracy against the patriots ; and according to the usual custom of throwing all blame upon the vanquished, he added that the cause of the troubles was in the accomplices of Brissot, who were still living, and in the Bourbons, who were still in the Temple. Robespierre immediately mounted the tribune. " Is it true," said lie, " that our most dangerous enemies are the impure remnants of the race of our tyrants ? I vote in my heart that the race of tyrants disappear from the earth ; but can I shut my eyes to the state of my country so completely as to believe that this event would suffice to extinguish the liâmes of those conspiracies which are consuming us ? Whom shall we persuade that the punishment of the despicable sister of Capet would awe our enemies, more than that of Capet himself and of his guilty partner ? " Is it true that another cause of our calamities is fanaticism? Fanaticism ! — it is dying ; nay, I may say it is dead. In direct- * " Pache was a man wlio was more fatal to France than even a hostile army." — Mercier. NOV. 1793 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 251 ing for some days past all our energy against it, are not we diverting our attention from real dangers ? You are afraid of the priests, and they are eagerly abdicating their titles, and exchanging them for those of municipals, of administrators, and even of presidents of popular societies. Formerly they were strongly attached to their ministry, when it produced them an income of seventy thousand livres ; they abdicated it when it yielded them no more than six thousand. Yes ; fear not their fanaticism, but their ambition ; not the dress which they did wear, but the new hide which they have put on. Fear not the old superstition, but the new and false superstition, which men feign to embrace in order to rain us ! " Grappling at once the question of religion, Kobespierre thus proceeded : — " Let citizens animated by a pure zeal deposit on the altar of the country the useless and pompous monuments of supersti- tion, that they may be rendered subservient to the triumphs of liberty : the country and reason smile at these offerings ; but what right have aristocracy and hypocrisy to mingle their influence with that of civism ? What right have men, hitherto unknown in the career of the Revolution, to seek amidst all these events the means of usui^Ding a false popularity, of hurrying the very patriots into false measures, and of throwing disturbance and discord among us ? What right have they to violate the liberty of religion in the name of liberty, and to attack fanaticism with a new fanaticism ? What right have they to make the solemn homage paid to pure truth degenerate into wearisome and ridiculous farces ? "It has been supposed that, in accepting the civic offerings, the Convention has proscribed the Catholic worship. No, the Convention has taken no such step, and never will take it. Its intention is to uphold the liberty of worship, which it has pro- claimed, and to repress at the same time all those who shall abuse it to disturb public order. It will not allow the peaceful ministers of the different religions to be persecuted ; and it will punish them severely whenever they shall dare to avail them- selves of their functions to mislead the citizens, and to arm prejudice or royalism against the republic. "There are men who would fain go further — who, upon pretext of destroying superstition, would fain make a sort of religion of atheism itself. Every philosopher, every individual, is at liberty to adopt on that subject what opinion he pleases. Whoever would make a crime of this is a madman ; but the public man, the legislator, would be a hundred times more insane who should adopt such a system. The National Con- 252 HISTORY OF nov. 1793 ventioii abhors it. The Convention is not a maker of books and of systems. It is a poHtical and popular body. Atheism is aristocratic. The idea of a great Being-, who watches over oppressed innocence, and who punishes triumphant guilt, is quite popular. The people, the unfortunate, applaud me. If there are any who censure, they must belong to the rich and to the guilty. I have been from my college years a very in- different Catholic ; but I have never been a cold friend or an unfaithful defender of humanity. I am on that account only the more attached to the moral and political ideas which I have here expounded to you. If God did not exist, it would heJiove man to invent Him." * Robespierre, after making this profession of faith, imputed to the foreign foe the persecutions exercised against religion, and the calumnies circulated against the best patriots. Robe- spierre, who was extremely distrustful, and who had supposed the Girondins to be royalists, was a firm believer in a foreign faction, which, as we have observed, consisted at most of a few spies sent to the armies, certain bankers who were the agents of stockjobbers and correspondents of the emigrants. " The foreigners," said he, "have two sorts of armies: the one on our frontiers is powerless and nearly ruined ; the other, the more dangerous of the two, is in the midst of us. It is an army of spies, of hireling knaves, who introduce themselves everywhere, even into the bosom of the popular societies. It is this faction which has persuaded Hébert that I meant to cause Pache, Chaumette, Hébert, the whole commune to be arrested. I persecute Pache, whose simple and modest virtue I have always admired and defended ! — I, who have fought for him against a Brissot and his accomplices ! " Robespierre praised Pache, but took no notice of Hébert. He merely said that he had not forgotten the services of the commune in the days when liberty was in danger. Then launching out against what he called the foreign faction, he hurled the bolts of the Jacobins at ]^roly, Dubuisson, Perep'a, and Desfieux. He re- lated their history ; he depicted them as the agents of Lebrun and of the foreign powers, employed to embitter animosities, to divide the patriots, and to inflame them against one another. From the manner in which he exrjDressed himself, it was obvious * " Robespierre, with all liis fanaticism in favour of democracy, felt the necessity as strongly as any man in France, both of some religious impressions to form a curb upon the passions of the people, and of a strong central govern- ment to check their excesses. He early felt a horror of the intidel atrocities of the municipalitj' ; and saw that such principles, if persisted in, would utterly disorganize society throughout France. AVitli the sanguinary spirit of the times, he resolved to effect it bv their extermination." — Alison. NOV. 1793 THE FRENCH RE VOL UTION. 2 5 3 that the hatred which he felt for old friends of Lebrun had no small share in producing his distrust. On his motion, all four were expelled from the society, amidst the most tumultuous applause, and he joroposed a purifying scrutiny for all the Jacobins. Thus Robespierre had hurled an anathema at the new wor- ship, given a severe lesson to all the firebrands, said nothing very consolatory to Hébert, not committed himself so far as to praise that filthy writer, and directed the whole fury of the storm upon foreigners who had the misfortune to be friends of Lebrun, to admire Dumouriez, and to censure our political system in the conquered countries. Lastly, he had arrogated to himself the recomposition of the society, by obtaining the adoption of his motion for a purifying scrutiny. During the succeeding days Robespierre followed up his system, and read letters to the Jacobins, some anonymous, others intercepted, proving that foreigners, if they did not produce, at least rejoiced at, the extravagances in regard to religion, and the calumnies in regard to the best patriots. Danton had received from Hébert a sort of challenge to ex- plain himself. He would not do so at first, lest it should appear as though he were obeying a summons ; but a fortnight afterwards he seized a favourable occasion for addressing the Assembly. A proposition had been brought forward that all the popular societies should be furnished with a place for meeting at the expense of the State. On this subject he made various observations, and thence took occasion to say that if the constitution ought to be lulled to sleeji while the people struck and terrified the enemies of its revolutionary operations, it was nevertheless right to beware of those who would urge that same people beyond the bounds of the Revo- lution, Coupé, of the Oise, replied to Danton, and distorted, whilst opposing, his ideas. Danton immediately reascended the tribune, amidst some murmurs. He then challenged those who had anything to allege against him to bring forward their charges, that he might reply to them publicly. He complained of the disapprobation which was expressed in his presence. "Have I then lost," he exclaimed, "those features which characterize the face of a free man." As he uttered these words he shook that head which had been so often seen, so often encountered, amid the storms of the Revolution, and which had always encouraged the daring of the republicans, and struck terror into the aristocrats. "Am I no longer," he continued, " the same man who was at your side in every critical moment ? Am I no longer that man so persecuted, so 2 54 HISTORY OF nov. 1793 well known to yon — that man whom you have so often em- braced as yoni' friend, and with whom you have sworn to die in the same dangers ? " He then reminded the Assembly that he was the defender of Marat, and was thus obliged to cover himself, as it were, with the shade of that creature whom he had formerly protected and disdained. " You will be surprised," said he, "when I shall make you acquainted with my private conduct, to see that the prodigious fortune which my enemies and yours have attributed to me is dwindled down to the very small portion of property which I have always possessed. I defy malice to furnish any proof against me. Its utmost efforts will not be able to shake me. I will take my stand in face of the people. You shall judge me in its presence. I will no more tear the leaf of my history than you will tear yours." In conclusion, Danton demanded a com- mission to investigate the accusations preferred against him. Robespierre then rushed in the utmost haste to the tribune. " Danton," he exclaimed, " demands of you a commission to investigate his conduct. I consent to it if he thinks that this measure will prove serviceable to him. He wishes the crimes with which he is charged to be specified. Well, I will specify them. Danton, thou art accused of having emigrated. It has been said that thou hadst gone to Switzerland ; that thy indisposition was feigned, to disguise thy flight from the people : it has been said that it was thy ambition to be regent under Louis XVII. ; that everything was prepared for pro- claiming, at a fixed time, this shoot of the Capets ; that thou wert at the head of the conspiracy ; that neither Pitt, nor Coburg, nor England, nor Austria, nor Prussia was our real enemy, but thyself alone ; that the Mountain was composed of thine accomplices ; that it was silly to bestow a thought on agents sent by the foreign powers ; that their conspiracies were fables worthy only of contempt ; in short, that it was thou, and thou alone, who oughtest to be put to death ! " Universal applause drowned the voice of Robespierre. He resumed : " Knowest thou not, Danton, that the more courage and patriotism a man possesses, the more intent are the enemies of the public weal upon his destruction ? Knowest thou not, and know ye not all, citizens, that this method is infallible ? Ah ! if the defender of liberty were not slandered, this would be a proof that we had no nobles or priests to combat ! " Then alluding to Hebert's ]5aper, in which he, Robespierre, was highly praised, he added : " The enemies of the country seem to overwhelm me exclusively with ]iraises ; but I spurn them. It is supposed that, beside these praises which are repeated in NOV. 1793 TEE FRENCH RE VOL UTION. 2 5 5 certain papers, I do not perceive the knife with which they would fain slaughter the country.* The cause of the patriots is like that of the tyrants. They are all security for one another. I may be mistaken respecting Danton, but I have seen him in his family ; he deserves nothing but praise. In his political relations I have watched him ; a difference of opinion led me to study him with attention, frequently with anger ; he was slow, I admit, to suspect Dumouriez ; he did not hate Brissot and his accomplices cordially enough ; but if he was not always of the same sentiments as myself, am I thence to conclude that he betrayed the country ? No, I always saw him serve it with zeal. Danton wishes to be tried. He is right. Let me be tried too ! Let them produce men more patriotic than we are. I would wager that they are nobles, privileged persons, priests. You will there find a marquis, and you will have the exact measure of the patriotism of those who accuse us." Robespierre then called upon all those who had anything to allege against Danton to come forward. No one durst speak. Moraoro, himself a friend of Hebert's, was the first to remark that, as no person came forward, this was a proof that there was nothing to be alleged against Danton. A member then proposed that the president should give him the fraternal embrace. It was agreed to, and Danton, stepping up to the bureau, received the embi-ace amidst universal applause. The conduct of Robespierre on this occasion was generous and clever. The danger common to all the old patriots, the in- gratitude with which Danton's services were repaid, and lastly, a decided superiority, had lifted Robespierre above his habitual egotism ; and for this time full of right sentiments, he was more eloc)uent than it was given to his nature to be. But the service which he had rendered Danton had been more useful to the cause of the government, and of the old patriots who composed it, than to Danton himself, whose popularity was gone. Extinct enthusiasm cannot easily be rekindled ; and there was no reason to presume that there would again be public dangers great enough to afford Danton, by his courage, the means of retrieving his influence. Robespierre, prosecuting his work, did not fail to attend every sitting of purification. When it came to Clootz's turn, he was accused of connections with Vandeniver, the foreign banker. He attempted to justify himself; but Robespierre * " Hebert's municipal faction contained many obscure foreigners, who were supposed, and not without some appearance of truth, to be the agents of England, for the purpose of destroying the republic, by driving it to excess and anarchy." — Mignct, 2 5 6 n IS TOR Y OF noy. 1793 addressed tlie society. He reminded it of Clootz's connections with the Girondins, his rupture with them, owing to a pamphlet entitled '■'■Neither Roland nor Marat,''^ a pamphlet in which he attacked the Mountain as strongly as the Gironde ; his extra- vagant exaggerations, his perseverance in talking of a universal republic, in exciting a rage for conquests, and in compromizing France with all Europe. " And how," continued Robespierre, "could M. Clootz interest himself in the welfare of France, when he took so deep an interest in the welfare of Persia and Monomotapa? There is a recent crisis, indeed, of which he may boast. I allude to the movement against the established worship — a movement which, conducted rationally and delibe- rately, might have produced excellent effects, but the violence of which was liable to do the greatest mischief. M. Clootz had a conference one night with Bishop Gobel. Gobel gave him a promise, and next day suddenly changing language and dress, he gave up his letters of ordination. M. Clootz imagined that we should be dupes of these masquerades. No, no ; the Jacobins will never regard as a friend of the people this pre- tended sans-culottc, who is a Prussian and a baron, who pos- sesses an income of one hundred thousand livres, who dines with conspirator bankers, and who is the orator, not of the French people, but of the human race." Clootz was immediately excluded from the society, and on the motion of Robespierre it was decided that all nobles, priests, bankers, and foreigners, without distinction, should be excluded. At the next sitting it came to the turn of Camille-Desmou- lins. He was reproached with his letter to Dillon, and feelings of compassion for the Girondins. " I thought Dillon a brave and a clever man," said Camille, " and I defended him. As for the Girondins, I was peculiarly situated in regard to them. I have always loved and served the republic ; but I have fre- quently been wrong in my notions of those who served it. I adored Mirabeau, I loved Barnave and the Lameths, I admit ; but I sacrificed my friendship and my admiration as soon as I knew that tliey had ceased to be Jacobins. A most extra- ordinary fatality decreed that out of sixty Revolutionists who signed my marriage contract, only two friends, Danton and Robespierre, are now left. All the others have emigrated or been guillotined. Of this number were seven of the twenty- two. An emotion of sympathy was therefore very pardonable on this occasion. I have said," added Desmoulins, "that they died as republicans, but as federalist republicans ; for I assure you that I believe there were not many royalists among them." NOV. 1793 THE FRENCH RE VOL UTION. 2 5 7 Camille-Desmoiilins was beloved for his easy disposition and his natural and original turn of mind. " Camille has made a bad choice of his friends," said a Jacobin; "let us prove to him that we know better how to choose ours, by receiving him with open arms." Robespierre, ever the protector of his old colleagues, but assuming at the same time a tone of superiority, defended Camille-Desmoulins. " He is weak," said he, " and confiding, but he has always been a republican. He loved Mirabeau, Lameth, Dillon, but he has broken his idols as soon as he was undeceived. Let him pursue his career, and be more cautious in future." After this exhortation, Camille was admitted amidst much applause. Danton was then admitted without any observation, and Fabre d'Eglantine in his turn, but he had to submit to some questions concerning his fortune, which he was allowed to attribute to his literary talents. This purification was continued, and occupied a long time. It was begun in November 1793, and lasted several months. The policy of Robespierre and the government was well known. The energy with which this policy had been mani- fested intimidated the restless promoters of the new worship, and they began to think of retracting, and of retracing their steps.* Chaumette, who had the eloquence of a speaker at a club or at a commune, but who had neither the ambition nor the courage of a party-leader, did not by any means pretend to vie with the Convention, and to set himself up for the creator of a new worship. He was anxious, therefore, to seize an occasion for repairing his fault. He resolved to obtain an explanation of the resolution which shut up all the places of worship, and proposed to the commune to declare that it had no intention to cramp religious liberty, and meant not to de- prive the professors of any religion of the right to meet in places paid for by them, and maintained at their cost. " Let it not be alleged," said he, "that it is weakness or policy that * The municipal faction of Chaumette and Hébert had not only struck at the root of religious worship, but they liad attempted also to alter the whole existing social code. "The most sacred relations of life," says Mr. Alison, "were at the same period placed on a new footing, suited to the extravagant ideas of the times. Marriage was declared a civil contract, binding only during the pleasure of the contracting parties. Divorce immediately became general ; and the corruption of manners reached a height unknown during the worst days of the monarchy. So indiscriminate did concubinage become, that, by a decree of the Convention, bastards were declared entitled to an equal share of the succession with legitimate children. The divorces in Paris in the first three months of 1793 were 562, while the marriages were only 1785 — a proportion probably unexampled among mankind ! The consequences soon became appa- rent. Before the era of the Consulate, one-half of the whole births in Paris were illegitimate." VOL. III. 73 2 5 8 HIS TOE Y OF not. 1793 actuates me. I am equally incapable of tlie one and the other. It is the conviction that onr enemies would fain abuse our zeal, to urge it beyond bounds, and to hurry us into false steps ; it is the conviction that, if we prevent the Catholics from exer- cising their worship publicly and witli the permission of the law, bilious wretches will go and inflame their imaginations, or conspire in caverns. It is this conviction alone that inspires me and induces me to speak." The resolution proposed by Chaumette, and sti'ongly seconded by Pache, the mayor, was at length adopted, with some murmurs, which were soon drowned by general applause. The Convention declared, on its part, that it had never intended by its decrees to shackle religious liberty, and it forbade the plate still remaining in the chxn'ches to be touched, since the exchecjuer had no further need of that kind of aid. From that day the indecent farces performed by the people ceased in Paris, and the ceremonies of the worship of Reason, which had afforded them so much amusement, were abolished. Amidst this great confusion, the committee of public welfare felt more keenly every day the necessity of giving increased vigour and promptness, and enforcing more ready obedience, to the supreme authority. From day to day the experience of obstacles rendered it more skilful, and it kept adding fresh pieces to that revolutionary machine created for the duration of the war. It had already ])revented the transfer of power to new and inexperienced hands, by proroguing the Convention, and by declaring the government revolutionary till the peace. At the same time, it had concentrated this power in its hands, by making the revolutionary tribunal, the police, the military operations, and the very distribution of the articles of consump- tion, dependent on itself. Two months' experience had made it acquainted with the obstacles by which the local authorities, either from excess or want of zeal, clogged the action of the superior authority. The transmission of the decrees was fre- quently interrupted or delayed, and their promulgation neglected in certain departments. There still remained many of those federalist administrations which had risen in insurrection, and the power of coalescing was not yet forbidden them. If, on the one hand, the departmental administrations exhibited some danger of federalism, the communes, on the other, acting in a contrary spirit, exercised, after the example of that of Paris, a vexatious authority, issued laws, and imposed taxes ; the revolutionary committees wielded an arbitrary and inquisi- torial power against persons ; revolutionary armies, instituted in different localities, completed these particular, tyrannical, DEC. 1 7 9 3 THE FRENCH RE VOL UTION. 2 5 9 petty governments, disunited among themselves, and embar- rassing to the superior government. Lastly, the authority of the representatives, added to all the others, increased the confusion of the sovereign powers, for they imposed taxes and issued penal laws, like the communes and the Convention itself. Billaud-Varennes, in an ill-written but able report, detailed these inconveniences, and caused the decree of the 14th of Frimaire (Dec. 4) to be a model for a provisional, energetic, and absolute government. Anarchy, said the reporter, threatens republics at their birth and in their old age. Let us endeavour to secure ourselves from it. This decree instituted the Bulletin des Lois, an admirable invention, the idea of which was per- fectly new ; for the laws, sent by the Assembly to the ministers, and by the ministers to the local authorities, without any fixed term, without minutes to guarantee their transmission or their arrival, were frequently issued a long time before they were either promulgated or known. According to the new decree, a commission, a printing-ofiice, and a particular kind of paper were exclusively devoted to the printing and circulation of the laws. The commission, composed of four persons, independent of all authority, free from all other duties, received the law, caused it to be printed, and sent it by post within fixed and invariable terms. The transmission and the delivery were ascertained by the ordinary means of the post ; and these movements, thus reduced to a regular system, became in- fallible. The Convention was afterwards declared the cc7itral point of the government. Under these words was disguised the sovereignty of the committees, which did everything for the Con- vention. The departmental authorities were in some measure abolished ; all their political privileges were takeii from them, and the only duties left to them, as to the depax'tment of Paris on the occasion of the lotli of August, consisted in the assess- ment of the contributions, the maintenance of the roads, and the superintendence of purely economical matters. Thus these intermediate and too powerful agents between the people and the supreme authority were suppressed. The district and communal administrations alone were suffered to exist, with all their pri\dleges. Every local administration was forbidden to unite itself with others, to remove to a new place, to send out agents, to issue ordinances extending or admitting decrees, or to levy taxes or men. All the revolutionary armies estab- lished in the departments were disbanded, and there was to be left only the single revolutionary army established at Paris, for the service of the whole republic. The revolutionary 2 6 o H I ST OR Y OF dec. 1 7 9 3 committees were obliged to correspond witli the districts charged to watch them, and with the committee of general safety. Those of Paris were allowed to correspond only with the committee of general safety, and not with the commune. Representatives were forbidden to levy taxes unless they were approved by the Convention ; they were also forbidden to issue penal laws. Thus all the authorities were brought back to their proper sphere. Any conflict or coalition between them was rendered impossible. They received the laws in an infallible manner. They could neither modify them nor defer their execution. The two committees still retained their sway. That of public welfare, besides its supremacy over that of general safety, con- tinued to have the diplomatic and the war department, and the universal superintendence of all affairs. It alone could hence- forward call itself committee of public welfare. No committee in the communes could assume that title. This new decree concerning the institution of the revolu- tionary government, though restrictive of tlie authority of the communes, and even directed against their abuse of power, was received in the commune of Paris with great demonstra- tion of obedience. Chaumette, who affected docility as well as patriotism, made a long speech in praise of the decree. By his awkward eagerness to enter into the system of the supreme authority, he even drew down a reprimand upon himself, and he had the art to disobey in striving to be too obedient. The new decree placed the revolutionary committees of Paris in direct and exclusive communication with the committee of general safet}^ In their fiery zeal, they had ventured to arrest people of all sorts. It was alleged that a great number of patriots had been imprisoned by them, and they were said to be filled with what began to be called ultra-revolutionists. Chaumette complained to the council-general of their conduct, and proposed to summon them before the commune, in order to give them a severe admonition, Chaumette's motion was adopted. But with his ostentation of obedience, he had for- gotten that, according to the new decree, the revolutionary committees of Paris were to correspond with the committee of general safety alone. The committee of public welfare, no more desiring an exaggerated obedience than disobedience, not allowing, above all, the commune to presume to give lessons, even good ones, to committees placed under the superior authority, caused Chaumette's resolution to be annulled, and the committees to be forbidden to meet at the commune. Cliaumette received this correction with perfect submission. DEC. 1793 THE FRENCH RE VOL UTION. 2 6 1 "Every man," said he to the commune, "is liable to error. I candidly confess that I was wrong. The Convention has annulled my requisition and the resolution adopted on my motion ; it has done justice upon the fault which I committed ; it is our general mother ; let us unite ourselves with it." With such energy the committee was likely to succeed in putting a stop to all the disorderly movements either of zeal or of resistance,* and to produce the greatest possible precision in the action of the government. The ultra-revolutionists, com- promized and repressed since the movement against religion, received a new check, more severe than any that had preceded it. lionsin had returned from Lyons, whither he had accom- panied Collot-d'Herbois with a detachment of the revolutionary army. He had arrived in Paris at the moment when the report of the sanguinary executions committed in Lyons had excited pity. Ronsin had caused a bill to be posted, which disgusted the Convention. He there stated that, out of the one hundred and forty thousand inhabitants of Lyons, fifteen hundred only were not implicated in the rebellion ; that before the end of Frimaire all the guilty would have perished, and that the Rhône would have carried their bodies to Toulon. Other atrocious expressions of his were mentioned. People talked a great deal of the despotism of Vincent in the war-ofiice, and of the conduct of his ministerial agents in the provinces, and their rivalry with the representatives. They repeated various expressions dropped by some of them, indicating a design to cause the executive power to be constitutionally organized. The energy which Robespierre and the committee had re- cently displayed, encouraged people to speak out against these agitators. In the sitting of the 27th of Frimaire a beginning was made by complaints of certain revolutionary committees. Lecointre denounced the arrest of a courier of the committee * "In liis well-known pamphlet entitled the 'Old Cordelier,' Camille- Desmoulins, under the pretence of describing the state of Rome under the Emperors, gives the following accurate and spirited sketch of the despotism which subdued all France at this period : — ' Everything under that terrible government was made the groundwork of suspicion. Does a citizen avoid society, and live retired by his fireside ? That is to ruminate in private on sinister designs. Is he rich ? That renders the danger the greater that lie will corrupt the citizens by his largesses. Is he poor 'I None so dangerous as those who have nothing to lose. Is he thoughtful and melancholy ? He is revolving what he calls the calamities of his country. Is he gay and dissipated ? He is concealing, like Cœsar, ambition under the mask of pleasure. The natural death of a celebrated man is become so rare, that historians transmit it as a matter worthy of record to future ages. Every day the accuser makes his triumphal entry into the palace of Death, and reaps the rich harvest which is presented to his hands. The tribunals, once the jjrotectors of life and property, have become the mere organs of butchery.' " 262 HISTORY OF dec. 1793 of public welfare by one of the agents of the ministry. Bonr- sault said that, in passing through Longjnmeau, he had been stopped by the commune, that he had made known his quality of deputy, and that the commune nevertheless insisted that his passport should be legalized by the agent of the executive council then on the spot, Fabre d'Eglantine denounced Mail- lard, the leader of the murderers of September, who had been sent to Bordeaux by the executive council, and who was charged with a mission whilst he ought to be expelled from every place ; he denounced Eonsin and his placard, at which everybody had shuddered ; lastly, he denounced Vincent, who had usurped the entire control of the war-office, and declared that he would blow up the Convention, or force it to organize the executive power, as he was determined not to be the valet of the committees. The Convention immediately placed in a state of arrest Vincent, secretary-general at war ; Ronsin, general of the revolutionary army ; Maillard, on a mission at Bordeaux ; three agents of the executive power whose conduct at St. Girons was complained of; and lastly, one Mazuel, adjutant in the revolu- tionary army, who had said that the Convention was conspiring, and that he would spit in the faces of the deputies. The Con- vention then decreed the penalty of death against the officers of the revolutionary armies illegally formed in the provinces, who should not separate immediately ; and lastly, it ordered the executive council to come the following day to justify itself. This act of energy was a severe mortification to the Corde- liers, and provoked explanations at the Jacobins. The latter had not yet spoken out respecting Vincent and Ronsin, but they demanded an inquiry to ascertain the nature of their misdemeanours. The executive council justified itself most humbly to the Convention. It declared that it never intended to set itself up as a rival to the national representation, and that the arrest of the courier, and the difficulties experienced by Boursault, the deputy, were occasioned solely by an order of the committee of pviblic welfare itself, an order which directed all passports and all despatches to be verified. While Vincent and Ronsin were imprisoned as ultra-revolu- tionists, the committee pursued severe measures against the party of the equivocals and the stockjobbers. It placed under arrest Rroly, Dubuisson, Desfieux, and Pereyra, accused of being agents of the foreign powers, and accomplices of all the parties. Lastly, it ordered the four deputies, Bazire, Chabot, Delaunay of Angers, and Julien of Toulouse, accused of being moderates and of having made sudden fortunes, to be appre- hended in the middle of the night. DEC. 1793 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 263 We have already seen the history of their clandestine association, and of the forgery which had been the conse- quence of it. We have seen that Chabot, already shaken, was preparing to denounce his colleagues, and to throw the whole blame upon them. The reports circulated respecting his marriage, and the denunciations which Hébert was daily repeating, completely intimidated him, and he hastened to reveal the whole affair to Robespierre. He pretended that he had entered into the plot with no other intention than that of following and denouncing it. He attributed this plot to the foreign powers, which, he said, strove to corrupt the deputies in order to debase the national representation, and which then employed Hébert and his accomplices to defame them after they had corrupted them. Thus there were, according to him, two branches in the conspiracy, the corrupting branch and the defamatory branch, which concerted together with a view to dishonour and to dissolve the Convention. The participation of the foreign bankers in this intrigue ; the language used by Julien and Delaunay, who said that the Convention would soon finish by devouring itself, and that it was right to make a for- tune as speedily as possible ; and some intercourse between Hebert's wife and the mistresses of Julien and Delaunay, served Chabot for the groundwork of this fable of a con- spiracy with two branches, in which the corrupters and de- famers were secretly leagued for the attainment of the same object. Chabot had, however, some scruples left, and justified Bazire. As it was, he himself, who had bribed Fabre, and would have incurred a denunciation from the latter had he accused him, pretended that his overtures had been rejected, and that the hundred thousand francs in assignats, suspended by a thread in the privy, were those destined for Fabre and refused by him. These fables of Chabot had no semblance of truth ; for it would have been much more natural, had he entered into the conspiracy for the purpose of divulging it, to communicate it to some of the members of one or the other committee, and to deposit the money in their hands. Robe- spierre sent Chabot to the committee of general welfare, which gave orders in the night for the arrest of the deputies already mentioned. Julien contrived to escape. Bazire, Delaunay, and Chabot only were apprehended. Tlie discovery of this disgraceful intrigue caused a great sensation, and confirmed all the calumnies which the parties levelled at each other. People circulated, with more assurance than ever, the rumour of a foreign faction, which bribed the patriots, and excited them to obstruct the march of the Révolu- 264 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. dec. 1793 tion, some by an unseasonable moderation, others by a wild exaggeration, by continued defamations, and by an odious pro- fession of atheism. And yet what reality was there in all these suppositions? On the one hand, men less fanatic, more dis- posed to pity the vanquished, and for that very reason more susceptible to the allurements of pleasure and corruption ; on the other, men more violent and more blind, taking the lowest of the people for their assistants, persecuting with their re- proaches those who did not share their fanatical insensibility, and profaning the ancient rites of religion without reserve, without decency ; between these two parties bankers, taking advantage of every crisis to engage in stockjobbing specula- tions ; foiir deputies out of seven hundred and fifty yielding to the influence of corruptiou, and becoming the accomplices of these stockjobbers ; lastly, a few sincere Kevolutionists, but foreigners, and suspected as such, compromizing themselves by that very exaggeration, by favour of which they hoped to cause their origin to be forgotten — ^this it was that was real, and in this we tind nothing but w^hat was very ordinary, nothing that justified the supposition of a ]n-ofound machination. The committee of public welfare, anxious to place itself above the parties, resolved to strike and to brand them all, and to this end it sought to show that they were all accomplices of the foreign foe. Robespierre had already denounced a foreign faction, in the existence of which his mistrustful dis]30sition led him to believe. The turbulent faction, thwarting the superior authority, and disgracing the Revolution, was immediately ac- cused by it of being the accomplice of the foreign faction ; * but it made no such charge against the moderate faction, nay, it even defended the latter, as we have seen in the case of Danton. If it still spared it, this was because it had thus far done nothing that could obstruct the progress of the Revolution, because it did not form a numerous and obstinate party, like the old Girondins, and because it consisted only of a few individuals who condemned the ultra-revolutionary extravagances. Such was the state of parties and the policy of the committee of public welfare in regard to them in l^Vimaire, year 2 (December 1793). While it exercised the authority with such vigour, and was engaged in completing the interior of the machine of revolutionary power, it displayed not less energy abroad, and ensured the prosperity of the Revolution by signal victories. * " Hébert, the head of this turbulent and atrocious faction, is a miserable intriguer — a caterer for the guillotine — a traitor paid by Pitt — a tliief and robber who had been expelled from his office of check-taker at a theatre for theft." — Le Vieux Cordelier. THE NATIONAL CONVENTION {continued) END OF THE CAMPAIGN OF 1793-MANŒUVRE OF HOCflE IN THE VOSGES— RETREAT OF THE AUSTRIANS AND PRUSSIANS-RAISING OF THE BLOCKADE OF LANDAU— OPERATIONS OF THE ARMY OF ITALY— SIEGE AND TAKING OF TOULON-LAST ENGAGEMENT AT THE PYRENEES— EXCURSION OF THE YENDEANS BEYOND THE LOIRE, AND THEIR DESTRUCTION AT SAVENAY. THE campaign of 1793 terminated on all the frontiers in the most brilliant and successful manner. In Belgium it had been at length deemed preferable to go into winter quarters, in despite of the plan of the committee of public welfare, which had been anxious to profit by the victory of Watignies, to en- close the enemy between the Scheldt and the Sambre. Thus at this point the aspect of affairs had not changed, and the advantages of Watignies were still ours. On the Rhine the campaign had been greatly prolonged bv the loss of the lines of Weissenburg on the 22nd of Vendémiaire (October 13). The committee of public welfare determined to recover them at any cost, and to raise the blockade of Landau, as it had done that of Dunkirk and Maubeuge. The state of our departments of the Rhine was a reason for losing no time in removing the enemy from that quarter. The Vosges were singularly imbued with the feudal spirit ; the priests and the nobles had there retained a powerful influence ; the French language being not much spoken, the new revolutionary ideas had scarcely penetrated thither ; there were great numbers of communes where the decrees of the Convention were unknown, where there were no revolutionary committees, and in which the emigrants circulated opinions with impunity. The nobles of Alsace had followed the army of Wurmser in throngs, and were spread from Weissenburg to the environs of Strasburg. A plot had been formed in the latter city for delivering it up to Wurmser. The committee of public welfare immediately sent thither Lebas and St. Just, to exercise the ordinary dic- tatorship of commissioners of the Convention. It appointed 265 2 66 HISTORY OF dec. 1793 young Hoche, who had so eminently distingiiished himself at the siege of Dunkirk, to the command of the army of the Moselle ; it detached a strong division from the idle army of the Ardennes, which was divided between the two armies of the Moselle and the Ehine ; lastly, it caused levies en masse to be raised in all the contiguous departments, and directed upon Besanc^on. These new levies occupied the fortresses, and the garrisons were transferred to the line. At Strasburg, St. Just displayed the utmost energy and intelligence. He struck terror into the ill-disposed, sent those who were suspected of the design to betray Strasburg before a commission, and thence to the scaffold. He communicated new vigour to the generals and to the soldiers. He insisted on daily attacks along the whole line, in order to exercise our raw conscripts. Equally brave and pitiless, he exposed himself to the fire, and shared all the dangers of warfare. An extraordinary enthusiasm seized the army ; and the shout of the soldiers, who were inflamed with the hope of recovering the lost ground, was " Landau or death ! " The proper manoeuvre to execute on this part of the frontiers would still have been to unite the two armies of the Khine and of the Moselle, and to operate en masse on one of the slopes of the Vosges. For this purpose it would have been necessary to recover the passes w^iich crossed the line of the mountains, and which we had lost when Brunswick advanced to the centre of the Vosges, and Wurmser to the walls of Strasburg. The plan of the committee was formed, and it resolved to seize the chain itself, with a view to separate the Austrian s and the Prussians. Young Hoche, full of ardour and talent, was charged with the execution of this plan, and his first movements at the head of the army of the Moselle induced a hope of the most decided results. The Prussians, to give security to their position, had at- tempted to take by surprise the castle of Bitche, situated in the very heart of the Vosges. This attempt was thwarted by the vigilance of the garrison, which hastened in time to the ramparts ; and Jh-unswick, whether he was disconcerted by this failure, whether he dreaded the acti\'ity and energy of Hoche, or whether he was dissatisfied with Wurmser, with whom he was not on good terms, retired first to Bisingen, on the line of the Erbacli, and then to Kaiserslautern, in the centre of the Vosges, lie had not given Wurmser notice of this retrograde movement ; and while the latter was upon the eastern slope, nearly as high as Strasburg, Jîrunswick, on the western, was beyond Weissenburg. and nearly on a line with Landau. Hoche had followed Brunswick very closely in his DEC. 1793 THE FRENCH RE VOL UTION. 267 retrograde movement ; and after he had in vain attempted to surround him at Bisingen, and even to reach Kaiserslautern before him, he formed the plan of attacking him at Kaiser- slautern itself, in spite of the difficulties j^resented by the position. Hoche had about thirty thousand men. He fought on the 28th, 29th, and 30th of November ; but the country was imperfectly known, and scarcely practicable. On the first day General Ambert, who commanded the left, was engaged, while Hoche, with the centre, was seeking his way. On the next, Hoche found himself alone opposed to the enemy, while Ambert had lost himself in the mountains. Owing to the nature of the ground, to his force, and to the advantage of his position, Brunswick was completely successful. He lost but about a dozen men. Hoche was obliged to retire with the loss of about three thousand ; but he was not disheartened, and proceeded to rally his troops at Pirmasens, Hornbach, and Deux-1'onts. Hoche,* though unfortunate, had nevertheless displayed a boldness and a resolution which struck the repre- sentatives and the army. The committee of public welfare, which, since the accession of Carnot, was enlightened enough to be just, and which was severe towards want of zeal alone, wrote him the most encouraging letters, and for the first time bestowed praise on a beaten general. Hoche, without being for a moment daunted by his defeat, immediately formed the resolution of joining the army of the Ehine, with a view to overwhelm Wurmser. The latter, who had remained in Alsace, while Brunswick had retired to Kaiserslautern, had his right flank vincovered. Hoche directed General Taponnier with twelve thousand men upon Werdt, to cut the line of the Vosges, and to throw himself on the flank of Wurmser, while the army of the Rhine should make a general attack upon the front of the latter. Owing to the presence of St. Just, continual combats had taken place at the end of November and the beginning of December between the army of the Ehine and the Austrians. By going every day into the fire, it began to be familiarized with war. Pichegru commanded it.f The corps sent by Hoche into the Vosges had many difficulties to surmount in penetrating into them ; but it at length succeeded, and seriously alarmed Wurmser's right by its presence. On the 22nd of December * " Hoche was a gallant man in every sense of the word ; but though lie distinguished himself greatly in battle, he had not the good fortune to die there. He was deservedly esteemed among the first of France's earlier generals before Bonaparte monopolized her triumphs." — Lord Byron. t See Appendix I. 268 HISTORY OF dec. 1793 (2nd Nivose), Hoche marched across the mountains, and ap- peared at Werdt, on the summit of the eastern sk)pe. He over- whelmed Wurmser's right, took many pieces of cannon and a great number of prisoners. The Austrians were then obliged to quit the line of the Motter, and to move first to Sultz, and afterwards, on the 24th, to Weissenburg, on the very lines of the Lauter. The retreat was effected with disorder and con- fusion. The emigrants and the Alsatian nobles who had flocked to join Wurmser fled with the utmost precipitation. The roads were covered by whole families seeking to escape. The two armies, Prussian and Austrian, were dissatisfied with one another, and lent each other little assistance against a foe full of ardour and enthusiasm. The two armies of the Rhine and the Moselle had joined. The representatives gave the chief command to Hoche, and he immediately made dispositions for retaking Weissenburg. The Prussians and the Austrians, now concentrated by their retro- grade movement, were better able to support one another if they pleased. They resolved, therefore, to take the offensive on the 26th of December (6th Nivose), the very day on which the French general was preparing to rush upon them. The Prussians were in the Vosges and around Weissenburg. The Austrians were spread, in advance of the Lauter, from Weissen- burg to the Rhine. Had they not been determined to take the offensive, they would most assuredly not have received the attack in advance of the lines, and having the Lauter at their back ; but they had resolved to attack first ; and the French, in advancing upon them, found their advanced guards in march. General Dessaix, who commanded the right of the army of the Rhine, marched upon Lauterburg ; General Michaud was directed upon Schleithal ; the centre attacked the Austrians, drawn up on the Geisberg ; and the left penetrated into the Vosges, to turn the Prussians. Dessaix carried Lauterburg ; Michaud occupied Schleithal ; and the centre, driving in the Austrians, made them fall back from the Geisberg to Weissen- burg itself. The occupation of AVeissenburg was likely to prove disastrous to the Allies, and it was in imminent danger ; but Brunswick, who was at Pigeonnier, hastened to this point, and kept the French in check with great firmness. The retreat of the Austrians was then effected with less disorder ; but next day the French occupied the lines of Weissenburg. The Austrians fell back upon Germersheim, the Prussians upon Bergzabern. The French soldiers still advanced, shouting, " T^andau or death ! " '^Phe Austrians hastened to recross the Rhine, without attempting to remain another day on the left DEC. 1793 TEE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 269 bank, and without giving the Prussians time to arrive from Mayence. The blockade of Landau was raised, and the French took up their winter quarters in the Palatinate. Immediately afterwards the two allied generals found that they were unable to agree, and Brunswick sent his resignation to Frederick William. Thus, on this part of the theatre of the war, we had gloriously recovered our frontiers, in spite of the united forces of Prussia and Austria. The army of Italy had undertaken nothing of importance, and since its defeat in the month of June it had remained upon the defensive. In the month of September the Pied- montese, seeing Toulon attacked by the English, thought at length of profiting by this circumstance, which might occasion the loss of the French army. The King of Sardinia repaired in person to the theatre of war, and a general attack of the French camp was resolved upon for the 8th of September. The surest way of operating against the French would have been to occupy the line of the Var, which separated Nice from their territory. In so doing, the enemy would have made himself master of all the positions which they had taken beyond the Yar. He would have obliged them to evacuate the county of Nice, and perhaps even to lay down their arms. An immediate attack on their camp was preferred. This attack, executed with detached corps, operating by several valleys at once, was not successful ; and the King of Sardinia, dissatis- fied with the result, immediately retired to his own dominions. Nearly at the same time the Austrian general de Vins at length thought of operating upon the Var ; but he executed his movement with no more than three or four thousand men, advanced no further than Isola, and, suddenly stopped by a slight check, he again ascended the High Alps, without follow- ing up this attempt. Such had been the insignificant operations of the army of Italy. A more serious interest fixed the whole attention on Toulon. That place, occupied by the English and the Spaniards, secured to them a footing in the south, and a position favourable for an attempt at invasion. It therefore behoved France to recover Toulon as speedily as possible. The committee had issued the most urgent orders on this point ; but the means of siege were utterly wanting. Carteaux, after reducing Marseilles, had debouched with seven or eight thousand men by the gorges of Ollioules, had made himself master of them after a slight action, and had established himself at the very outlet of these gorges, in presence of Toulon. General Lapojqie, detached from the ai'my of Italy with nearly four thousand men, had 2/0 HISTORY OF dec. 1793 placed himself on the opiiosile side to that on which Carteanx was, towards Sollies and Lavalette. The two French corps thus posted, the one on the west, the other on the east, were so far apart that they conld scarcely perceive one another, and could not lend each other any assistance. The besieged, with a little more activity, might have attacked them singly, and overwhelmed them one after another. Luckily, they thought of nothing but fortifying the place, and manning it with troops. They landed eight thousand Spaniards, Nea- politans, and ]?iedmontese, and two English regiments from Gibraltar, and thus raised the force of the garrison to fourteen or fifteen thousand men. They strengthened all the defences, and armed all the forts, especially those on the coast which protected the road where their srpiadrons lay at anchor. They were particularly solicitous to render Foi"t Eguillette, situated at the extremity of the promontory which encloses the inner or little road, inaccessible. So difficult did they make the approach to it that it was called in the army Little Gibraltar. The Marseillais, and all the people of Provence who had taken refuge in Toulon, laboured themselves at the works, and mani- fested the greatest zeal. The union, however, could not last in the interior of the place, for the reaction against the Mountain had caused the revival of all sorts of factions. There were republicans and royalists of all degrees. The Allies themselves did not agree. The Spaniards were offended at the su]ieriority affected by the English, and harboured a distrust of their intentions. Lord Hood, taking advantage of this disunion, said that, since they could not agree, it would be best for the moment not to proclaim any authority. He even prevented the de- parture of a deputation which the inhabitants would have sent to the Comte de Provence, to induce that Prince to come to their city in quality of regent. From that moment it was easy to account for the conduct of the English, and to perceive how blind and how culpable those had been who had delivered Toulon to the most cruel enemies of the French na\y. The republicans could not hope, with such means as they then possessed, to retake Toulon. The representatives even recommended that the army should fall back beyond the Durance, and wait for the following season. The reduction of Lyons, however, having placed fresh forces at their disposal, troops and matériel were directed upon Toulon. General Doppet, to whom was attributed the taking of Lyons, was appointed to supersede Carteaux. Doppet himself was soon PEC. 1 7 9 3 THE F HE NCR RE VOL UTTON. 2 7 i displaced, und succeeded by Dugonimier,* a very brave officer, and possessing much more experience. Twenty-eight or thirty thousand men were collected, and orders were given to terminate the siege before the conclusion of the camjmign. The French began by closely hemming in the place, and establishing batteries against the forts. General Lapoype, detached from the army of Italy, was still to the east, and Dugommier, the commander-in-chief, to the west, in advance of Ollioules. The latter was charged with the principal attack. The committee of public welfare had caused a regular plan of attack to be drawn up by the committee of fortifica- tions. The general summoned a council of war to discuss the plan sent from Paris. This plan was ably conceived ; but there was one better adapted to circumstances, and which could not fail to produce more speedy results. In the council of war there was a young man who com- manded the artillery in the absence of the superior officer of that arm. His name was Bonaparte, and he was a native of Corsica, t Faithful to France, in which he had been educated, he fought in Corsica for the cause of the Convention against Paoli and the English. He had then joined the army of Italy, and served before Toulon. He displayed extraordinary intelligence and extreme activity, and slept by the side of his guns. This young officer, on surveying the place, was struck with an idea, which he communicated to the council of war. Fort Eguillette, called Little Gibraltar, closed the road where the allied squadrons were moored. If this fort were taken, the squadrons could no longer lie in the road without run- ning the risk of being burned ; neither could they evacuate it and leave behind a garrison of fifteen thoiisand men, without communication, without succour, without any other prospect than that of being obliged, sooner or later, to lay down their arms. There was therefore every reason to presume that if Fort Eguillette were once in the possession of the republicans, the squadrons and the garrison would evacuate Toulon. Thus the key of the place was Fort Eguillette ; but it was almost impregnable. Young Bonaparte strongly supported this idea as best adapted to circumstances, and at length caused it to be adopted. * "Dugommier was a native of Martinique, in the West Indies, where he possessed a large estate previous to the Revolution. He embraced the popular party, and in 1793 was employed as general of brigade, and next as com- mander-in-chief of the army of Italy. In the same year he took Toulon, after a sanguinary contest. In 1794, after gaining several victories, he was killed in battle at St. Sebastian." — Gortons Biographical Dictionary. t Sec Appendix K. 272 HISTORY OF dec. 1793 The French continued hemming in the place more closely than ever. Bonaparte, favoured by a few olive trees, which masked his artillerymen, placed a battery very near Fort Malbosquet, one of the most important of those surrounding Toulon. One morning this battery suddenly opened and sur- prised the besieged, who did not conceive it possible to place guns so near to the fort. The English general, O'Hara, who commanded the garrison, resolved to make a sortie for the purposing of destroying . the battery and spiking the guns. On the 30th of November (loth Frimaire) he sallied forth at the head of six thousand men, penetrated unawares to the republican posts, gained possession of the battery, and im- mediately began to spike the guns. Fortunately young Bona- parte was not far off with a battalion. A trench led to the battery. Bonaparte threw himself into it with liis battalion, advanced without noise among the English, then all at once gave the order to fire, and threw them, by his sudden appear- ance, into the greatest surprise. General O'Hara, in astonish- ment, imagined that it was his own soldiers who were firing in mistake upon one another. He then advanced towards the republicans, to ascertain if that were not the case, but was wounded in the hand, and taken in the trench itself by a sergeant. At the same moment Dugommier, who had ordered the f/énérale to be beaten in the camp, brought up his soldiers to the attack, and pushed on between the battery and the city. The English, finding themselves in danger of being cut off, then retired, after losing their general, and failing to rid themselves of this dangerous battery. This success singularly encouraged the besiegers, and in a like degree dispirited the besieged. So great were the appre- hensions of the latter that they said that General O'Hara had purposely suffered himself to be taken, to sell Toulon to the republicans. Meanwhile the republicans, who were determined to conquer the place, and who had not the means of purchasing it, prepared for the extremely perilous attack of the Eguillette. They had thrown into it a great number of bombs, and strove to demolish its defences with twenty-four pounders. On the 1 8th of December (28th Frimaire) it was resolved to make the assault at midnight. A simultaneous attack was to be made by General Ijapoype on Fort Faron. At midnight, while a tremendous storm was raging, the republicans set themselves in motion. The soldiers who guarded the fort kept themselves in general out of sight, in order to screen themselves from the bombs and balls. The French hoped to reach it unper- ceived, but at the foot of the height they found some of the DEC. 1793 THE FRENCH BEVOLUTION. 273 enemy's riflemen. An action commenced. On the report of the musketry, the garrison of the fort ran to the ramparts and fired upon the assailants, who alternately fell back and advanced. A young captain of artillery, named Muiron, taking advantage of the inequalities of the ground, succeeded in ascending the height without losing many of his men. On reaching the foot of the fort, he got in by an embrasure. The soldiers followed him, penetrated into the battery, made themselves masters of the guns, and in a short time of the fort itself. In this action, General Dugommier, the representatives Salicetti* and Robespierre the younger, and Bonaparte, the commandant of artillery, had been present in the fire, and communicated the greatest courage to the troops. On the part of General Lapoype the attack had not been so successful, though one of the redoubts of Fort Faron had been carried. As soon as Fort Eguillette was occupied, the republicans lost no time in disposing the guns so as to play upon the ships. But the English did not wait till they had completed their pre- parations. They immediately resolved to evacuate the place, that they might no longer run the risks of a difficult and perilous defence. Before they withdrew, they determined to burn the arsenal, the dockyard, and all the ships that they could not take away. On the i8tli and 19th, without apprizing the Spanish admiral, without forewarning the compromized inhabitants that they were about to be delivered up to the victorious Mountaineers, orders were issued for the evacuation. Every English ship came in turn to the arsenal to supply her- self with such stores as she was in want of. The forts were then all evacuated, excepting Fort Lamalgue, which was to be abandoned the last. This evacuation was effected with such despatch that the Spaniards, apprized of it too late, were left outside the walls, and escaped only by a miracle. Lastly, orders were given to set fire to the arsenal. Twenty ships of the line and frigates suddenly appeared in flames in the midst of the road, and ex- cited despair in the unfortunate inhabitants, and indignation in the republicans, who saw the squadron burning without having * " I never liked Salicetti. There was something about him which to me was always repulsive. When I read the story of the Vampire, I associated that ideal character with the recollection of Salicetti. His pale, jaundiced complexion — his dark, glaring eyes — his lips, which turned deadly white whenever he was agitated by any powerful emotion — all seemed ]n'esent to me. On one memo- rable occasion his face became so frightfully pallid, and his whole appearance — it was when he was under the fear of arrest— affected me to such a degree, that it haunted me in dreams a long time after," — Duchesse (VAhrantès. VOL. IIT. 74 * 2 74 HISTORY OF dec. 1793 the power to save it. Presently, more than twenty thousand persons, men, women, and children, carrying- their most valuable effects, poured upon the quays, extending their hands towards the squadrons, and imploring an asylum to screen them from the victorious army. These were all the Provençal families who had committed themselves in the sectionary movement at Aix, Marseilles, and Toulon. Not a single boat put off to the succour of these imprudent French, who had placed their con- fidence in foreigners, and delivered up to them the principal seaport of their country. Admiral Langara, however, with more humanity, ordered out his boats, and received on board the Spanish squadron all the fugitives that they could bring- away. Lord Hood dared not resist this example and the im- precations that were poured forth against him. He issued orders, in his turn, but very late, that the people of Toulon should be received on board his squadron. Those unfortunate creatures hurried with fury into the boats. In this confusion, some fell into the sea, others were separated from their fami- lies. Mothers might be seen looking for their children, wives, daughters, seeking their husbands or their fathers, and wander- ing upon the quays by the light of the contlagration. At this dreadful moment, thieves, taking advantage of the confusion to plunder, rushed among the unhappy wretches crowded together upon the quays, and fired, shouting, "Here are the republicans !" Terror seized the multitude. Hurrying away pell-mell, it left its property to the villains, the contrivers of this stratagem. At length the republicans entered, and found the city half deserted, and great part of the naval stores destroyed. Foi-tu- nately, the galley-slaves had extinguished the fire, and pre- vented it from spreading. Out of fifty-six sail of the line and frigates, only seven ships and eleven frigates remained. The others had been carried off or burnt by the English. The hor- rors of the siege and of the evacuation were soon succeeded by those of revolutionary vengeance. We shall relate in another place the sequel of the disasters of this guilty and unfortunate city. The taking of Toulon* caused extraordinary joy, and produced as strong an impression as the \dctories of Watignies. the reduction of i^yons, and the raising of the blockade of Landau. Thenceforward there Avas no reason to ap]n-eliend that the Knglish. support hig themselves on Toulon, would again produce devastation and rebellion in the South. The campaign had terminated less successfully in the Pyre- nees. Still, notwithstanding numerous reverses, and great want * Sec Aj)peiidix L. DEC. 1793 THE FRENCH BE VOL UTION. 2 7 5 of skill on the part of the generals, we had lost nothing but the line of the Tech, and still retained that of the Tet. After the unfortunate action at Truillas, on the 22nd of September ( I st Vendémiaire), against the Spanish camp, in which Dagobert had displayed such coolness and intrepidity, Eicardos, instead of marching forward, had fallen back upon the Tech. The retakingf of Villefranche. and a reinforcement of fifteen thou- sand men received by the republicans, had decided him to this retrograde movement. He had raised the blockade of Collioure and Port- Vendre, proceeded to the camp of Boulon, between Ceret and Ville Longue, and secured his communications by guarding the highroad to Bellegarde. The representatives Fabre and Gaston, full of fire, insisted on attacking the camp of the Spaniards, in order to drive them beyond the Pyrenees ; but the attack was unsuccessful, and ended only in a useless effusion of blood. Fabre, impatient to attempt an important enterprise, had long meditated a march to the other side of the Pyrenees, with a view to force the Spaniards to retreat. He had been per- suaded that the fort of Roses might be taken by a coup de main. At his desire, but contrary to the opinion of the generals, three columns were pushed beyond the Pyrenees, with orders to unite at Espola. But too weak, too far apart, they could not join one another, were beaten, and driven back upon the great chain, after sustaining a considerable loss. This happened in October. In November, thunderstorms, unusual at that season, swelled the torrents, interrupted the communications of the different Spanish camps with one another, and placed them in the greatest danger. This was the time for revenging ourselves upon the Spaniards for the reverses which we had experienced. They had no other means left for recrossing the Tech but the bridge of Ceret, and they were left, inundated and famished, on the left bank, at the mercy of the French. But nothing that ought to have been done was done. General Dagobert had been suc- ceeded by General Turreau, and the latter by General Doppet. The army was disorganized. It fought faintly in the environs of Ceret. It lost even the camp of St. Ferreol, and Ricardos escaped from the dangers of his position. It was not long before he revenged himself much more ably for the danger in which he had been involved, and rushed, on the 7th of November (17th Brumaire), on a French column which was cooped up at Ville Longue, on the right bank of the Tech, between that river, the sea, and the Pyrenees. He defeated this column, ten thousand strong, and threw it into such 2 76 H IS TOR Y OF dec. 1793 disorder, that it could not rally before it reached Argelès. Im- mediately afterwards Ricardos ordered Delatre's division to be attacked at Collioure, took possession of Collionre, Port-Vendre, and St. Elme, and drove us completely beyond the Tech. Thus finished the campaign towards the end of December. The Spaniards took up their winter quarters on the banks of the Tech. The French encamped around Perpignan and on the banks of the Tet. We had lost some ground, but less than might have been apprehended, after the disasters which we had sustained. It was, at any rate, the only frontier on which the campaign had not terminated gloriously for the arms of the republic. At the Western Pyrenees a reciprocal defensive had been maintained. In La Vendée new and terrible battles had been fought, with great advantage to the republic, but with great injury to France, which there beheld Frenchmen ai'rayed against and slaughtering one another. The Vendeans, beaten at Cholet on the 1 7th of October (26th Vendémiaire), had thrown themselves upon the bank of the Loire, to the number of eighty thousand persons — men, women, and children. Not daring to return to their country, occupied by the republicans, and unable to keep the field in the presence of a victorious army, they thought of proceeding to Bretagne, and following up the ideas of Bonchamps, when that young hero was dead, and could no longer direct their melancholy destinies. We have seen that, the day before the battle of Cholet, he sent a detachment to occupy the post of Varade, on the Loire. That post, negligently guarded by the republicans, was taken in the night between the i6th and 17th. The battle being lost, the Vendeans were then able to cross the river mi- molested, by means of some boats left on the bank, and out of reach of the republican cannon. The danger having been hitherto on the left bank, the government had not thought of defending the right bank. All the towns in Bretagne were ill guarded. Some detachments of the national guard, dis- persed here and there, were incapable of checking the pro- gress of the Vendeans, and could only retreat on their approach. The latter advanced, therefore, without impediment, and arrived successively at Candc, Chateau-Gonthier, and Laval, without encountering any resistance. Meanwhile, the republican army was uncertain of their course, their number, and their plans ; nay, for a moment it had believed that they were destroyed, and so the repre- sentatives had written to the C/onvention. Kleber alone, who still commanded the army in the name of l'Echelle, DEC. 1793 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 277 had held a contrary opinion, and endeavoured to moderate a dangerous sense of security. It was not long, in fact, before intelligence was received that the Vendeans were far from ex- terminated, that in the fugitive column there were still left thirty or forty thousand armed men capable of fighting. A council of war was immediately held, and as it was not known whether the fugitives intended to proceed towards Angers or Nantes, to march for Bretagne, or to make for the Lower Loire to join Charette, it was resolved that the army should divide, and that one part, under General Haxo, should keep Charette in check and retake Noirmoutiers ; that another division, under Kleber, should occupy the camp of St. George, near Nantes ; and that the rest should remain at Angers, to cover that town and to observe the march of the enemy. Had the republican generals been better informed, they would no doubt have continued together, and marched without intermission in pursuit of the Vendeans. In the state of dis- order and dismay in which they were, it would have been easy to disperse and entirely destroy them ; but the direction which they had taken was not known, and amidst this doubt, the course pursued was, after all, the wisest. Precise intel- ligence, however, soon arrived, and it was learned that the Vendeans had marched upon Cande, Château-Gonthier, and Laval. It was then resolved to pursue them immediately, and to overtake them before they could inflame Bretagne, and make themselves masters of any great town or seaport. Generals Vimeux and Haxo were left at Nantes and in Lower Vendée ; all the rest of the army proceeded towards Cande and Château- Conthier. Westermann and Beaupuy formed the advanced guard ; Chalbos, Kleber, and Canuel each commanded a divi- sion ; and l'Echelle, keeping at a distance from the field of battle, left the operations to be directed by Kleber, who enjoyed the confidence and the admiration of the army. In the evening of the 25th of October (4th Brumaire) the republican advanced guard arrived at Château-Gonthier. The main body was a day's march behind. Westermann, though his troops were extremely fatigued, though it was almost dark, and he was yet six leagues from Laval, determined to march thither immediately. Beaupuy, quite as brave but more pru- dent than Westermann, strove in vain to convince him of the danger of attacking the Vendean mass in the middle of the night, so far in advance of the main body of the army, and with troops harassed by fatigue. Beaupuy was obliged to give way to the senior in command. They commenced their 2 78 HISTOB Y OF dec. 1793 march without delay. Arriving in the middle of the night at Laval, Westermann sent an oilicer to reconnoitre the enemy ; the latter, hurried away by his ardour, made a charge instead of a recoiniaissance, and quickly drove in the first posts. The alarm was given in Laval ; the tocsin rang, the whole hostile mass was presently astir, and came to make head against the republicans. Beaupuy, behaving with his usual firmness, courageously sustained the attack of the Vendeans. Wester- mann displayed all his intrepidity. The combat was one of the most obstinate, and the darkness of the night rendered it still more sanguinary.* The republican advanced guard, though very inferior in number, would nevertheless have maintained its ground to the last, had not Westermann's cavalry, which was not always as brave as its commander, suddenly dispersed and obliged him to retreat. Owing to the efforts of Beaupuy, the retreat was effected upon Chriteau-Gonthier in tolerable order. The main body arrived there on the following day. Thus the whole army was again collected on the 26tli — the advanced guard exhausted by a useless and destructive action, the main body fatigued by a long march, performed without pi'ovisions, without shoes, and through the mud of autumn. Westermann and the representatives were for moving forward again. Kleber strongly opposed this advice, and at his sug- gestion it was decided not to advance further than Villiers, half-way between Clmteau-CTonthier and Laval. The next point was to form a plan for the attack of Laval. This town is seated on the Mayenne. To march directly by the left bank, which the army occupied, would be imprudent, as was judiciously observed by a highly distinguished officer, Savary, who was perfectly acquainted with that part of the country. It would be easy for the Vendeans to occupy the bridge of Laval, and to maintain themselves there against all attacks. They might then, while the republican army was uselessly crowded together on the left bank, file along the right bank, cross the Mayenne in its rear, and attack it unawares. He pro])osed, therefore, to divide the attack, and to throw part of the army upon the riglit bank. On tliis side there would be no bridge to cross, and the occupation * " The republicans supported !Ui instant the sliock of our army, whose numbers and movements were liidden by ni