\<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 Gensonné and Valazé might easily have withdrawn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 <lc
L(i rorh'jdquelciii.
JULY 1793 THE FRENCH BE VOL UTION. 4 1
jN'o sooner was Nantes delivered, tlian the authorities, strongly
disposed in favour of the Girondins, purposed to join the in-
surgents of the Calvados. It actually passed a hostile resolu-
tion against the Convention. Canclaux opposed this proceeding
with all his might, and succeeded in his efforts to bring back
the people of Nantes to order.
The most serious dangers were thus surmounted in this
quarter. An event of not less importance had just taken place
in La Lozère : this was the submission of thirty thousand in-
surgents, who could have communicated either with the Ven-
deans, or with the Spaniards by Roussillon.
It was a most fortunate circumstance that Fabre, the deputy
sent to the army of the Eastern Pyrenees, happened to be on
the spot at the moment of the revolt. He there displayed
that energy which subsequently caused him to seek and find
death at the Pyrenees. He secured the authorities, put the
whole population under arms, collected all the gendarmerie
and regular troops in the environs, raised the Cantal, the
Upper Loire, and the Puy-de-Dôme ; and the insurgents, at-
tacked at the very outset, pursued on all sides, were dispersed,
driven into the woods, and their leader, the ex-constituent
Charrier, fell into the hands of the conquerors. Proofs were
obtained from his papers that his design was connected with
the great conspiracy discovered six months before in Bretagne,
the chief of which, La Rouarie, had died without being- able to
realize his projects. In the mountains of the centre and the
South, tranquillity was therefore restored, the rear of the army
of the Pyrenees was secured, and the valley of the Rhone no
longer had one of its flanks covered by mountains bristling
with insurgents.
An unexpected victory over the Spaniards in Roussillon
completely ensured the submission of the South. We have
seen them, after their first march into the valleys of the Tech
and the Tet. falling back to reduce Rellegarde and Les Bains,
and then returning and taking a position in front of the French
camp. Having observed it for a considerable time, they at-
tacked it on the 1 7th of July. The French had scarcely twelve
thousand raw soldiers ; the Spaniards, on the contrary, num-
bered fifteen or sixteen thousand men, ]3erfectly inured to war.
Ricardos, with the intention of surrounding us, had divided his
attack too much. Our brave volunteers, supported by General
Barbantane and the brave Dagobert, remained firm in their
entrenchments, and after unparalleled efforts, the Sjsaniards
had determined to retire. Dagobert, who w^as waiting for this
moment, rushed upon them ; but one of his battalions suddenly
4 2 EISTOR Y OF july 1793
fell into confusion, and was brought back in disorder. Fortu-
nately, at this sight, de Fiers and Barbantane hastened to the
succonr of Dagobert, and all dashed forward with such im-
petuosity that the enemy was overthrown and driven to some
distance. This action of the 17th of July raised the courage
of our soldiers, and according to the testimony of an historian,
it produced at the Pyrenees the effect which Valmy had pro-
duced in Champagne in the preceding year.
Towards the Alps, Dubois-Crancé, placed between discon-
tented Savoy, wavering Switzerland, and revolted Grenoble
and Lyons, behaved with equal energy and judgment. While
the sectionary authorities were taking before his face the
federalist oath, he caused the opposite oath to be taken at
the club and in his army, and awaited the first favourable
moment for acting. Having seized the correspondence of the
authorities, he there found proofs that they were seeking to
coalesce with Lyons. He then denounced them to the people
of Grenoble as designing to effect the dissolution of the
republic by a civil war ; and taking advantage of a moment
of excitement, he caused them to be displaced, and restored
all the powers to the old municipality. From this moment,
being at ease respecting Grenoble, he occupied himself in re-
organizing the army of the Alps, in order to ]oreserve Savoy,
and to carry into execution the decrees of the Convention
against Lyons and Marseilles. He changed all the staffs,
restored order in his battalions, incorporated the recruits fur-
nished by the levy of the three hundred thousand men ; and
though the departments of La Lozère and Haute Loire had
employed their contingent in quelling the insurrection in their
mountains, he endeavoured to supply its place by requisitions.
After these first arrangements he sent off General Carteaux
with some thousand infantry and with the legion raised in
Savoy, by the name of legion of the Allobroges, with instruc-
tions to proceed to Valence, to occupy the course of the Rhone,
and to prevent the junction of the Marseillais with the Lyon-
nese. Carteaux, setting out early in July, marched rapidly
upon Valence, and from Valence upon St. Esprit, where he
took up the corps of the people of Nîmes, dispersed some,
incorporated others with his own troops, and secured both
banks of the Rhone. He proceeded immediately afterwards
to Avignon, where the Marseillais had some time before estab-
lished themselves.
During these occurrences at Grenoble, Lyons, still affecting
the greatest fidelity to the republic, promising to maintain its
unity, its indivisibility, nevertheless paid no obedience to the
JULY 1793 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 43
decree of the Convention which referred the proceedings com-
menced against several patriots to the revohitionary tribunal
in Paris. Its commission and its staff were full of concealed
royalists. liambaud, president of the commission, Précy,
commandant of the departmental force, were secretly de-
voted to the cause of the emigration. Misled by dangerous
suggestions, the iinfortunate Lyonnese were on the point of
compromizing themselves with the Convention, which, hence-
forward obeyed and victorious, was about to inflict on the last
city that continued in rebellion the full chastisement reserved
for vanquished federalism. Meanwhile they armed themselves
at St. Etienne, collected deserters of all sorts ; but still seeking
to avoid the appearance of revolt, they allowed convoys destined
for the frontier to pass, and ordered Noël-Pointe. Santeyra,
and Lesterpt-Beauvais, the deputies, who had been arrested by
the neighbouring communes, to be set at liberty.
The Jura was somewhat quieted : Passai and Garnier, the
representatives, whom we have there seen with fifteen hundred
men surrounded by fifteen thousand, had withdrawn their too
inadequate force, and endeavoured to negotiate. They had
been successful, and the revolted authorities had promised
to put an end to this insurrection by the acceptance of the
constitution.
Nearly two months had elapsed since the 2nd of June (it
was now near the end of July) ; Valenciennes and Mayence
were still threatened ; but Normandy, Bretagne, and almost
all the departments of the West had returned to obedience.
Nantes had been delivered from the Vendeans ; the people of
Bordeaux durst not venture beyond their own walls ; La Lozère
had submitted ; the Pyrenees were secured for the moment ;
Grenoble was pacified. Marseilles was cut off from Lyons by
the success of Carteaux ; and Lyons, though refusing to obey
the decrees, durst not declare war. The authority of the
Convention was therefore nearly re-established in the interior.
On the one hand, the dilatoriness of the federalists, their want
of unity, and their half-measures ; on the other, the energy of
the Convention, the unity of its power, its central position, its
habit of command, its policy, by turns subtle and vigorous, had
decided the triumph of the Mountain over this last effort of
the Girondins. Let us congratulate ourselves on this result ;
for at a moment when France was attacked, the more worthy
to command was the stronger. The vanquished federalists
condemned themselves by their own words : " Honest men,"
said they, "never knew how to have energy."
But while the federalists were succumbing on all sides, a
44 H 1ST OB Y OF JULY1793
last accident served to excite the most violent rage against
them.
At this period there lived in the Calvados a young woman,
about twenty-five years of" age. combining with great personal
beauty a resolute and independent character. Her name was
Charlotte Corday, of Armans.* Her morals were irreproach-
able ; but her mind was active and restless. She had left her
paternal home to live with more liberty at the house of a
female friend at Caen. Her father had formerly insisted in
certain publications on the privileges of his province, at a
time when France could still do no more than insist upon the
privileges of towns and provinces. Young Corday was an
enthusiast for the cause of the Eevolution, like many other
women of her time ; and, like Madame Roland, she was in-
toxicated with the idea of a republic submissive to the laws,
and fertile in virtues. The Girondins appeared to her desirous
to realize her scheme ; the Mountaineers alone seemed to
throw obstacles in its way; and on the tidings of the 31st of
May, she determined to avenge her favourite orators. The war
of the Calvados commenced. She conceived that the death of
the leader of the anarchists, concurring with the insurrection
of the departments, would ensure victory to the latter ; she
therefore resolved to perform a great act of self-devotion,
and to consecrate to her country a life of which a husband,
children, family, constituted neither the employment nor the
delight. She wrote to her father, intimating that, as the
troubles in France were daily becoming more alarming, she
was going to seek quiet and safety in England ; and imme-
diately after thus writing she set out for Paris. Before her
departure she was solicitous to see at Caen the deputies who
were the object of her enthusiasm and devotion. She devised
a pretext for introducing herself to them, and applied to
Barbaroux for a letter of recommendation to the minister of
the interior, having, she said, some papers to claim for a friend,
formerly a canoness. Barbaroux gave her one to Duperret,t
the deputy, a friend of Carat. His colleagues, who saw her
as well as he, and who. like him, heard her express her ]iati;ed
■■• Sec Appendix B.
t "Claude Romain Laiis Duperret, a farmer, deputy to the Legislative^
/ Assembly, and afterwards to the Convention, voted for the confinement of the
/ King, and his banishment at a ])eace. Attached to the tiironde party, he
/ nevertheless escaped the proscription directed ar;ainst them. Having received
a visit from Cliarlotte Corday, he conducted her to the house of the minister
of the interior, and was denounced by Chabot as being implicated witli her in
the assassination of Marat — a charge which he satisfactorily refuted. Pie was,
however, condemned to death in the autumn of 1793, in the forty-.sixth yeari
'of his age." — Bioyra/phie Moderne.
JULY 1793 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 45
of the Mountaineers, and lier entlmsiasni for a pure and regular
republic, were struck by her beauty, and touched by her senti-
ments. All were utterly ignorant of her intentions.
On reaching Paris, Charlotte Corday began to think of
selecting her victim. Danton and Robespierre were suffi-
ciently celebrated members of the Mountain to merit the
blow ; but Marat was the man who had appeared most for-
midable to the provinces, and who was considered as the leader
of the anarchists. She meant at first to strike Marat on the
very top of the Mountain, and when surrounded by his friends ;
but this she could not now do, for Marat was in a state that
prevented his attendance at the Convention. The reader will
no doubt recollect that he had withdrawn of his own accord
for a fortnight; but seeing that the Cirondins could not yet
be brought to trial, he put an end to this ridiculous farce, and
appeared again in his place. One of those inflammatory com-
plaints which in revolutions terminate those stormy lives that
do not end on the scaffold, soon obliged him to retire, and to
stay at home. There nothing could diminish his restless
activity. He spent part of the day in his bath, with pens
and paper beside him, writing, constantly engaged upon his
journal, addressing letters to the Convention, and complaining
that proper attention was not paid to them. He wrote one
more, saying that, if it were not read, he would cause himself
to be cari'ied, ill as he was, to the tribune, and read it himself.
In this letter he denounced two generals, Custine and Biron.
■'Custine," he said, ■'•removed from the Rhine to the North,
was playing the same game there that Dumouriez had done :
he was slandering the anarchists, composing his stafi^s accord-
ing to his fancy, arming some battalions, disarming others, and
distributing them agreeably to his plans, which no doubt were
those of a conspirator." It will be recollected that Custine
was profiting by the siege of Valenciennes, to reorganize the
army of the North in Ca3sar's Camp. ''As for Eiron," Marat
continued, " he was a former valet of the Court ; he affected
a great fear of the English as a pretext for remaining in
Lower Vendée, and leaving the enemy in possession of Upper
Vendée. He was evidently waiting oidy for the landing of
the English, that he might join them, and deliver our army
into their hands. The war in La Vendée ought by this time
to be finished. A man of any judgment, after seeing the
Vendeans fight once, would be able to find means for destroy-
ing them. As for himself, who also possessed some military
knowledge, he had devised an infallible manoeuvre, and if his
state of health had not been so bad, he would have travelled
4 6 RTS TOE Y OF .tu ly 1 7 9 3
to the banks of the Loire, for the piir])Ose of putting this
plan in execution himself. Oustine and liiron were the two
Dumouriezes of the moment ; and after they were arrested,
it wovild be necessary to take a final measure, which would
furnish a reply to all calumnies, and bind all the deputies
irrevocably to the Kevolutioii — that was, to put to death the
liourbon prisoners, and to set a price on the heads of the
fugitive Bourbons. Then there would be no pretext for
accusing some of an intention to seat Orleans on the throne,
while the others would be prevented from making their peace
with the Capet family."
Here were shown, as we see, the same vanity, the same
ferocity, and the same promptness in anticipating popular
apprehensions, as ever. Oustine and Biron were actually
destined to become the two objects of the general fury, and
it was Marat who, ill and dying, had in this instance also
the honour of the initiative.
In order to come at him Charlotte Corday was therefore
obliged to seek him at his own home. She first delivered the
letter which she had for Duperret, execu.ted her commission
in regard to the minister of the interior, and prepared to con-
summate her design. She incpiired for Marat's residence of
a hackney-coachman, called at his house, but was not allowed
to see him. She then wrote, informing him that, having just
arrived from the Calvados, she had important matters to com-
municate. This was quite sufficient to procure an introduction
to him. Accordingly she called on the 13th of July, at eight
in the evening. Marat's housekeeper, a young woman of
twenty-seven, with whom he cohabited, made some difficulties.
Marat, who was in his bath, hearing Charlotte Corday, desired
that she might be admitted. JBeing left alone with him, she
related what she had seen at Caen ; then listened to, and
looked earnestly at him. Marat eagerly inquired the names
of the deputies then at Caen. She mentioned them ; and he,
snatching up a pencil, began to write them down, adding.
^-^Very good 3 ^they, shall all go to the guillotine. '^^^ " To. the
g nilTot jne f" exclaimed young Oorclay, witTi indignaticjiiK^, At
t lie s ame moment slie took a knife from lier bosom, struck
" Uarat ^Below the^ left breast, and plunged the blade iiJïaJjiS
^;;;iââS:ir:i^IH£lp.I-' ' . lie rcTiedj: .'• ', helpj. ,;..my. .„deaj:.!.'.',_ His house-
_kÊepiiij^:an_toJiim_.at his call. A messenger, who was Tolling
news])ap(M's, also hastened ïônïïs''assistance. They foundTilarat
levered -with blood, aud youn^^ Corday calllT; serene,--?^
les¥._ The.-iu^.s«euger kiiocked her down witli a chair; th^
^Jboiisgk©«per trampled upon her. The tumult attractecl a
/^^^^
•ITTE , ©©RaDATo
1 by Ttichai-a
1S95
JULY 1793 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 47
crowd, and presently the whole quarter was in an nproar.
Young Corday rose, and bore with dignity the rage and ill-
usage of those around her. Members of the section, hearing
of the circumstance, hastened to the spot ; and struck by her
beauty, her courage, and the composure with which she avowed
the deed, prevented her from being torn in pieces ; and con-
ducted her to prison, where she continued to confess every-
thing with the same composure.
This murder, like that of Lepelletier, caitsed an extraordinary
sensation. A report was immediately circulated that it was
the Girondins who had armed Charlotte Corday. The same
thing had been said relative to Lepelletier, and it will be re-
peated on all similar occasions.
Their enemies were puzzled to discover crimes in the de-
tained deputies : the insurrection of the departments afforded
a first pretext for sacrificing them, by declaring them accom-
plices of the fugitive deputies ; the death of Marat furnished
the complement to their supposed crimes, and to the reasons
that were wanted for sending them to the scaffold.
The Mountain, the Jacobins, and the Cordeliers, in par-
ticular, who gloried in having been the first to possess Marat,
in ha\dng always continued to be more intimately connected
with him, and in having never disavowed him, manifested
profound grief. It was agreed that he should be buried in
their garden, and under those very trees at the foot of which
he was accustomed in the evening to read his paper to the
people. The Convention resolved to attend his funeral in a
bodj^. At the Jacobins it was proposed to decree to him
extraordinary honours. It was projoosed to bury him in the
Pantheon, though the law did not permit the remains of any
individual to be deposited there till twenty years after his
death. It was further proposed that the whole society should
follow him in a body to the grave ; that the presses of the
" People's Friend " should be bought by the society, that they
might not pass into unworthy hands ; that his journals should
be continued by successors capable, if not of equalling, at least
of reminding the public of his energy, and of making some
amends for the loss of his vigilance.
Robespierre, who was always anxious to give greater im-
portance to the Jacobins, though he opposed all their extrava-
gances, and who was desirous, moreover, of diverting to himself
that attention which was too strongly fixed on the martyr,
made a speech on this occasion. "If I speak this day," said
he. " it is because I have a right to do so. You talk of daggers
— they are waiting for me. I have merited them ; and it is
48 HISTORY OF JULY 1793
but the ellect of chance that Marat has been struck before me.
I have therefore a right to interfere in tlie discussion, and I do
so to express my astonishment that your energy should here
waste itself in empty declamations, and that you should think
of nothing but vain pomp. The best way of avenging Marat
is to prosecute his enemies without mercy. The vengeance
which seeks to satisfy itself by empty honour is soon appeased,
and never thinks of employing itself in a more real and more
useful manner. Desist, then, from useless discussions, and
avenge Marat in a manner more worthy of him ! " This address
put a stop to all discussion, and the propositions which had been
made were no more thought of. Nevertheless the Jacobins,
the Convention, the Cordeliers, all the societies and the sections,
prepared to decree him magnificent honours. His body was
exhibited for several days. It was uncovered, and the wound
which he had received was exposed to view. The popular
societies and the sections came in procession, and strewed
flowers upon his cofSn. Each president delivered a speech.
The section of the republic came first. '• He is dead ! " ex-
claimed the president, " the Friend of the People is dead.
He died by the hand of the assassin ! Let us not pronounce
his panegyric Over his inanimate remains ! His paneg}a'ic is his
conduct, his writings, his bleeding wound, and his death ! . . .
Fair citizens (citoyennes), strew flowers on the pale corpse of
Marat ! Marat was our friend, he was the friend of the people ;
for the people he lived, for the people he has died !" At these
words young women walked round the coffin, and threw
flowers upon the body of Marat. The speaker resumed : " But
enough of lamentation ! Listen to the great spirit of Marat,
which awakes and says to you, ' Republicans, put an end to
your tears. . . . Republicans ought to shed but one tear, and
then think of their country. It was not I whom they meant
to assassinate, but the republic. It is not I whom you must
avenge — it is the republic, the people, yourselves ! ' "
All the societies, all the sections, came in this manner, one
after another, to the coffin of Marat ; and if history records
such scenes, it is to teach men to consider the effect of the
preoccupations of the moment, and to induce them to enter
into a strict examination of themselves when they mourn over
the powerful, or curse the vanquished of the day.
Meanw^iile the trial of young Corday was proceeding with
all the rapidity of the revolutionary forms. Two deputies had
been implicated in the affair: one was Duperret, to whom she
had brought a letter, and who had taken her to the minister of
the interior ; the other was Fauchet, formerly a bishop, who
JULY 1793 THE FB.ENCH REVOLUTION. 49
had become suspected on account of his connection with the
rio-ht side, and whom a woman, either from madness or
malice, falsely declared she had seen in the tribunes with
the accused.
Charlotte Corday, when brought before the tribunal, retained
the same composure as ever. The act of accusation was read
to her, and the witnesses were then examined. Corday inter-
rupted the first witness, and before he had time to commence
his deposition said, '■ It was I who killed Marat." " What in-
duced you to commit this murder ?" " His crimes." "■ What
do you mean by his crimes?" "The calamities which he has
occasioned ever since the Kevolution." "Who instigated you
to this action?" "Myself alone," proudly replied the young
woman. " I had long resolved upon it, and I should not have
taken counsel of others for such an action. I was anxious to
give peace to my country." " But do you think that you have
killed all the Marats? " " No," answered the accused sorrow-
fully, "no." She then suffered the witnesses to finish, and
after each she repeated, "It is true ; the deponent is right."
^ She^ defen ded. , herself on one point only^ and that , waiS,, hftc.
alleged connection witli TlieTGfîroiïdîns. She contradicted onlv
a single witness, namely, the woinan who implicated Duperret
^nd Faucliet, Slie then sat down again and listened to tlu'
rest of the proceedings with perfect serenity. " You see/" said
tier advocate, Chauveau-Lagarde, as the only defence he could
J^|jei..<^iQC..,ker,, ''the accused confesses ever}i:hing with un-
shaken, assurance. This composure, this self-denial, sublime
~ln one respect, can only be accounted for by the most exalted
"^pioKtlcaT fanaticism. It is for you to judge, what weiglit
"this "moral consideration ought to hayja^^^ifl,, Jllfii,3alance of
lusfice.
^Uliarlotte Corday was condemned to the penalty of death.
Her beautiful face betrayed no emotion at this sentence ; she
returned to her prison with a smile upon her lips ; she wrote
to her father imploring him to forgive her for having disposed
of her life ;* she wrote to Barbaroux and gave him an account
of her journey and of the deed she had perpetrated, in a letter
"Pardon me, my dear father," wrote Charlotte Corday, ''for having
disposed of my life without your permission. I have avenged many victims
— prevented others. The people will one day acknowledge the service I have
rendered my country. For your sake I wished to remain incognito ; but it
was impossible. I ov\y trust you will not be injured by what I have done.
Farewell, my beloved father ! Forget me, or rather rejoice at my fate, for it
has sprung from a noble cause. Embrace my sister for me, whom I love with
all my heart. Never forget the words of Corneille — the crime makes the shame,
and not the scaffold." — Alison.
VOL. TIT. 00 *
5 o HTSTOR Y OF july 1793
full of grace, mind, and lofty sentiment ; she told him that her
friends ought not to regret her loss, for a warm imagination
and a tender heart promise but a very stormy life to those who
are endowed with them. She added that she had well revenged
herself on Petion, who at Caen for a moment suspected her
political sentiments. Lastly, she begged him to tell Wimpfen
that she had assisted him to gain more than one battle. She
concluded with these words : " What paltry people to found
a republic ! Peace ought at least to be founded : let the
government come as it can."
On the 1 5th, Charlotte Corday underwent her sentence with
that calmness which had never forsaken her. She replied to
the abuse of the rabble by the most modest and the most
dignified demeanour. All, however, did not abuse her : many
deplored that victim, so young, so beautiful, so disinterested
in her deed, and accompanied her to the scaffold with looks of
pity and admiration.*
Marat's body was conveyed with great pomp to the garden
of the Cordeliers. '"That pomp." said the report of the com-
mune, "had in it nothing but what was simple and patriotic.
The people, assembled under the banners of the sections,
followed quietly. A disorder that might be called imposing,
a respectful silence, a general consternation, presented a most
touching spectacle. The procession lasted from six in the
evening till midnight. It consisted of citizens of all the
sections, the members of the Convention, those of the com-
mune and of the department, the electors and the popular
societies. On its arrival at the garden of the Cordeliers, the
body of Marat was set down under the trees, whose slightly
agitated foliage reflected and multiplied a mild, faint light.
The people surrounded the coffin in silence. The president
of the Convention first delivered an eloquent speech, in which
he declared that the time would soon come when Marat would
be avenged ; but that it behoved them not to incur, by hasty
and inconsiderate measures, the reproaches of the enemies of
the country. He added that liberty could not perish, ant
* " On her way to the scallbkl Charlotte Corday heard nothing but applau.se
and acclamation, yet by a smile alone she discovered what she felt. When she had
ascended the place of execution, her face still glowed with the hue of ])lcasure ;
and even in her last moments, the handkerchief which covered her bosom having
been removed, her cheeks were suffused with the blush of modesty. At the
time of her death she wanted three months of her twenty-fifth year. She waâ
/descended from Peter Corneille." — Paria Journal, 1797. ^
" "Wlien the axe had terminated Charlotte Corday's life, the executioner held
up her head, which was lovely even in death, and gave it several bulfets ; the
spectators shuddered at his atrocity ! " — Lacrctclle.
JULY 1793 THE FRENCH lŒVOLUTION. 51
that the death of Marat would only serve to consolidate it.
After several other speeches, which were warmly applauded,
the body of Marat was deposited in the grave. Tears flowed,
and all retired with hearts wrung with grief."
The heart of Marat, disputed by several societies, was left
with the Cordeliers. His bust circulated everywhere, and
along with those of Lepelletier and of Brutus, figured in all the
assemblies and public places. The seals put upon his papers
were removed. Nothing was found in his possession but a
five-franc assignat, and his poverty afforded a fresh theme
for admiration. His housekeeper, whom, according to the
words of Chaumette, he had taken to wife " one fine day,
before the face of the sun," was called his widow, and main-
tained at the expense of the State.
Such was the end of that man, the most singular of a
period so fertile in characters. Thrown into the career of
science, he had endeavoured to overt.hrow all systems ; launched
into the political troubles, he conceived at the very outset a
horrible idea, an idea which revolutions daily realize as their
dangers increase, but which they never avow — the destruction
of all their adversaries.* Marat, observing that the Eevolution,
though it condemned his counsels, nevertheless followed them ;
that the men whom he had denounced were stripped of their
popularity, and immolated on the day that he had predicted ;
considered himself as the greatest politician of modern times,
was filled with extraordinary pride and daring, and was always
horrible to his adversaries, and even to his friends themselves
at least strange. He came to his end by an accident as
singular as his life, and fell at a moment when the chiefs
of the republic, concentrating themselves for the purpose of
forming a cruel and gloomy government, could no longer put
up with a mad, systematic, and daring colleague, who would
have deranged all their plans by his vagaries. Incapable, in
* "When Marat mounted the tribune with the list of proscribed patriots in
his hand, and dictated to the astonished Convention what names to insert, and
what names to strike out, it was not that poor, distorted scarecrow figure, and
maniac countenance, which inspired awe, and silenced opposition ; but he was
hemmed in, driven on, sustained in the height of all his malevolence, folly, and
presumption by eighty thousand foreign bayonets, that sharpened his worthless
sentences, and pointed his frantic gestures. Paris, threatened with destruction,
thrilled at his accents. Paris, dressed in her robe of flames, seconded his
incendiary zeal. A thousand hearts were beating in his bosom, which writhed
like the sibyl's — a thousand daggers were whetted on his stony words. Had he
not been backed by strong necessity and strong opinion, he would have been
treated as a madman ; but when his madness arose out of the sacred cause and
impending fate of a whole people, he who denounced the danger was a ' seer
blest ' — he who pointed out a victim was the high-priest of freedom ! " — HazUtL's
Life of Napoleon.
52 THE FBENCH REVOLUTION. JTTLY1793
fact, of being an active and persuasive leader, he became the
apostle of the Revolution ; and when there was no longer
need of any apostleship, but only of energy and perseverance,
the dagger of an indignant woman came most opportunely to
make a martyr of him, and to give a saint to the people, who,
tired of their old images, felt the necessity of creating new
ones for themselves.
THE NATIONAL CONVENTION
{continued)
DISTRIBUTION OF THE POWERS, AND MARCH OF PUBLIC OPINION
SINCE THE 31ST OP MAY— DISCREDIT OF DANTON — POLITICS OF
ROBESPIERRE— DEFEATS OF WESTERMANN AND LABAROLIÈRE IN
LA VENDÉE— SIEGE AND REDUCTION OF MAYENCE AND VALEN-
CIENNES—EXTREME DANGER— STATE OF THE PUBLIC SUPPLIES-
DISCREDIT OF ASSIGNATS— MAXIMUM— STOCKJOBBING.
OF the so famed triumvirs, only Robespierre and Danton were
now left. In order to form an idea of their influence, we
must see how the powers were distributed, and what course
public opinion had taken since the suppression of the right side.
From the very day of its institution, the Convention was in
reality possessed of all the powers. It disliked, however, to
keep them ostensibly in its own hands, as it wished to avoid
the appearance of despotism. It therefore suffered a phantom
of executive power to exist out of its bosom, and retained
ministers. Dissatisfied with their administration, the energy
of which was not proportionate to circumstances, it established,
immediately after the defection of Dumouriez, a committee of
public welfare, which entered upon its functions on the loth of
April, and which exercised a superior influence over the govern-
ment. It was empowered to suspend the execution of the
measures taken by the ministers, to supply deficiencies when
it deemed them inadequate, or to revoke them when it found
them bad. It drew up the instructions for representatives
sent on missions, and was alone authorized to correspond with
them. Placed in this manner above the ministers and the
representatives, who were themselves placed above the func-
tionaries of all kinds, it had in its hands the entire govern-
ment. Though, according to its title, this authority was but
a mere inspection, it became in reality action itself ; for the
chief of a State never does anything himself : it is his province
to see that things are done according to his orders, to select
agents, and to direct operations. Now, by the mere right of
inspection, the committee was empowered to do all this, and it
5 4 RISTOE Y OF july 1793
did this. It directed the military operations, ordered supplies,
commanded measures of safety, appointed the generals and the
agents of all kinds, and each trembling minister was too happy
to get rid of all responsibility by confining himself to the part
of a mere clerk. The members who composed the committee
of public welfare were Barrère, Delmas,* Bréard, Cambon,
Robert Lindet, Danton, Guyton-Morveau, Mathieu, and Ramel.
They were known to be able and laborious men, and though
they were suspected of some degree of moderation, they were
not yet suspected so much as to be considered, like the Giron-
dins, accomplices of the foreign powers.
In a short time they accumulated in their hands all the
affairs of the State, and though they had been appointed for
a month only, yet, from an unwillingness to interrupt their
labours, the duration of the committee was extended from
month to month, from the loth of April to the lOth of May,
from the loth of May to the loth of June, and from the loth
of June to the lotli of July. Under the committee of public
welfare, the committee of general safety superintended the high
police — a point of great importance in times of distrust ; but
in its very functions it was dependent on the committee of
public welfare, which, charged generally with everything that
concerned the welfare of the State, became competent to in-
vestigate plots that were likely to compromise the republic.
Thus by its decrees the Convention had the supreme will ;
by its representatives and its committee it had the execution ;
and though intending not to unite all the powers in its own
hands, it had been irresistibly urged to do so by circumstances,
and by the necessity for causing that to be executed under
its own eyes, and by its own members, which it would have
deemed ill done by other agents.
Nevertheless, though all the authority was exercised in its
bosom, it was only by the approbation of the government that
it participated in the operations of the latter, and it never
discussed them. The great questions of social organization
were resolved by the constitution, which established pure
democracy. The question whether its partisans should resort
* " J. F. B. Delmas, originally a militia officer, and deput}' to the Legislature,
was sent in 1792 to the army of the North, to announce the King's dethrone-
ment ; but no sooner had he become a member of the Convention than he
presided in the Jacobin Society, and voted for the death of Louis. In 1793
he was chosen a member of the committee of public safety ; and in the follow-
ing year was joined with Barras in the direction of the armed force against
Robespierre's partisans. He was afterwards appointed a member of the Council
of Ancients, who chose him for their secretary and president. In the year 1798
a fit of decided madness terminated his political career." — Biographie Moderne.
JULY 1793 THE FRENCH BE VOL UTIOK 5 5
to the most revolutionary means in order to sa^•e themselves,
and if they should obey all that passion could dictate, was
resolved by the 31st of May. Thus the constitution of the
State and the moral policy were fixed. Nothing, therefore,
but the administrative, financial, and military measures re-
mained to be examined. Now, subjects of this nature can
rarely be comprehended by a numerous assembly, and are
consigned to the decision of men who make them their special
study. The Convention cheerfully referred on this point to
the committees appointed for the management of affairs. It
had no reason to suspect either their integrity, tlieir intelli-
gence, or their zeal. It was therefore obliged to be silent ;
and the last revolution, while taking from it the courage, had
also deprived it of the occasion, for discussion. It was now no
more than a council of State, whose committees, charged with
certain labours, came every day to submit reports which were
always applauded, and to propose decrees which were uniformly
adopted. The sittings, become tranquil, dull, and very short,
did not now last, as formerly, whole days and nights.
Below the Convention, which attended to general matters
of government, the commune superintended the municipal
system, in which it made a real revolution. No longer think-
ing, since the 31st of May, of conspiring, and of employing
the local force of Paris against the Convention, it directed its
attention to the police, the supply of provisions, the markets,
the Church, the theatres, and even to the public prostitutes,
and framed regulations on all these objects of internal and
private government, which soon became models for all France.
Chaumette, its 'procureur-général, always listened to and ap-
plauded by the people, was the reporter of this municipal
legislature. Seeking constantly new subjects for regulating,
continually encroaching upon private liberty, this legislator
of the halles and of the markets became every day more
annoying and more formidable. Pache, cold as ever, suffered
everything to be done before his face, gave his approbation to
the measures proposed, and left to Chaumette the honours of
the municipal tribune.
The Convention, leaving its committees to act, and the com-
mune being exclusively engaged with its duties, the discussion
of matters of government rested with the Jacobins. They
alone investigated, with their wonted boldness, the operations
of the government and the conduct of each of its agents. They
had long since acquired, as we have seen, very great importance
by their number, by the celebrity and the high rank of most of
their members, by the vast train of their branch societies, and
56 HISTORY OF .whx 1797,
lastly, by their old standing and long influence upon the
Revolution. But the 31st of May having silenced the right
side of the Assembly, and given predominance to the system
of unbounded energy, they had recently gained an immense
power of opinion, and inherited the right of speaking, abdi-
cated in some measure by the Convention. They persecuted
the committees with a continual superintendence, discussed
their conduct and that of the representatives, ministers, and
generals, with that rage for personality which was peculiar
to them ; and they exercised over all the agents an inexorable
censorship, frequently unjust, but always beneficial, on account
of the terror which it excited, and the assiduity which it created
in them all. The other popular societies had likewise their
liberty and their influence, but yet submitted to the authority
of the Jacobins. The Cordeliers, for instance, more turbulent,
more prompt in acting, deferred, nevertheless, to the superiority
of reason of their elder brethren, and suffered themselves to
be guided by their counsels, whenever they happened, from
excess of revolutionary impatience, to anticipate the proper
moment for a proposition. The petition of -Jacques Roux,
withdrawn by the Cordeliers, on the recommendation of the
Jacobins, was a proof of this deference.
Such was, since the 31st of May, the distribution of powers
and influence. There were seen at once a governing com-
mittee, a commune attending to municipal regulations, and
the Jacobins keeping a strict and continual watch upon the
government.
Two months had not elapsed before the public opinion
began to animadvert severely upon the existing administra-
tion. Men's minds could not dwell upon the 31st of May;;
they were impelled to go beyond it, and it was natural that
they should constantly demand more energy, more celerity, and
more results. In the general reform of the committees re-
quired on the 2nd of June, the committee of ]iublic welfare,
composed of industrious men, strangers to all the parties, and
engaged in labours which it would be dangerous to interrupt,
had been spared ; but it was remembered that it had hesitated
from the 31st of May to the 2nd of June, that it had proposed
to negotiate with the departments and to send them hostages,
and it had thence been concluded that it was inadequate to the
circumstances. Having been instituted in the most difficult
moment, defeats were imputed to it which were occasioned by
our unfortunate situation, and not by any fault on its part.
As the centre of all operations, it was overwhelmed with
business, and it was accused of burying itself in papers, or
.1TTLYI793 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 57
suffering itself to be engrossed by details — of being, in short,
worn out and incapable. Established, nevertheless, at the
moment of the defection of Dumouriez, when all the armies
were disorganized, when La Vendée began the insurrection,
when Spain was beginning the war, it had reorganized the
army of the North and that of the Rhine ; it had created the
armies of the Pyrenees and La Vendée, which did not exist,
and provisioned one hundred and twenty- six fortresses or
forts ; and though much yet remained to be done in order to
place our forces upon the requisite footing, still it was a great
thing to have accomplished so much in so short a time, and
amidst the obstacles of the insurrection in the departments.
But public impatience required still more than had been done,
nay, even than could be done, and it was precisely in this
manner that it j^roduced an energy so extraordinary and pro-
portionate to the danger. To increase the strength of the
committee, and to infuse into it fresh revolutionary energy,
St. Just, Jean-Bon-St.-André, and Couthon were added to it.
Still people were not satisfied. They admitted that the new
members were certainly excellent men, but declared that their
influence was neutralized by the others.
Opinion was not less severe upon the ministers. Garat,
minister of the interior, who was at first viewed with some
favour, on account of his neutrality between the Girondins and
the Jacobins, was nothing but a moderate after the 2nd of
June. Having been directed to draw up a paper to enlighten
the departments on the recent events, he had composed a long
dissertation, in which he explained and balanced all the faults
of all the parties, with an impartiality, no doubt, highly philo-
sophic, but not at all adapted to the feelings of the moment.
Robespierre, to whom he communicated this far too discreet
paper, condemned it. The Jacobins were soon apprized of the
circumstance, and charged Garat with having done nothing to
counteract the poison diffused by Roland. D'Albarade, minister
of the marine, was in nearly the same predicament. He was
accused of leaving all the old aristocrats in the higher ranks of
the navy. It was true enough that he had retained many of
them, as the events at Toulon soon afterwards proved ; but it
was much more difiicult to clear the naval than the military
force, because the peculiar acquirements and experience de-
manded by the navy do not permit old oflScers to be superseded
by new ones, or a peasant to be transformed in six months
Into a sailor, a petty officer, or an admiral. Bouchotte, the
minister at war, had alone remained in favour, because, after
the example of Pache, his predecessor, he had thrown open
5 8 H IS TOR Y OF july 1793
his office to the Jacobins and the Cordeliers, and had hilled
their distrust by appointing them to places in his department.
Almost all the generals were accused, and especially the
nobles ; but there were two in particular who had become the
bugbears of the day : these were Custine, in the North, and
Biron, in the West. Marat, as we have seen, had accused
them a few days before his death ; and ever since that accu-
sation everybody was asking why Custine tarried in Cœsar's
Camp without raising the blockade of Valenciennes — why
Biron, inactive in Lower Vendée, had allowed Saumur to be
taken and Nantes to be besieged.
The same distrust pervaded the interior. Calumny alighted
upon all heads, and misled the best patriots. As there Avas now
no right side to which everything could be attributed, as there
was now no Roland, no Brissot, no Guadet, to whom treason
could be imputed on every alarm, accusation threatened the
most decided republicans. An incredible mania of suspicion
and accusation prevailed. The longest and the most steady
revolutionary life was now no security, and a person was liable
to be assimilated in a day, in an hour, to the greatest enemies
of the republic. The imagination could not so soon break the
spell in which it was held by Danton, whose daring and whose
eloquence had infused new courage in all decisive circum-
stances ; but Danton carried into the Revolution a most
vehement passion for the object, without any hatred against
persons, and this was not enough. The spirit of revolution is
composed of passion for the object, and hatred against those
who throw obstacles in its way. Danton had but one of these
sentiments. In regard to revolutionary measures tending to
strike the rich, to rouse the indifferent to activity, and to
develop the resources of the nation, he had gone all lengths,
and had devised the boldest and the most violent means ; but
easy and forbearing towards individuals, he did not discover
enemies in all ; he saw among them men differing in character
and in intellect, whom it behoved him to gain or to take, with
the degree of their energy, such as it was. He had not con-
sidered Dumouriez as a traitor, but as a discontented man
driven to extremity. He had not regarded the Girondins as
accomplices of Pitt, but as upright though incapable men ; and
he would have wished them to be removed — not sacrificed. It
was even said that he was offended at the order given by
Henriot on the 2nd of June. He shook hands with noble
generals, dined with contractors, conversed familiarly with
men of all parties, sought ])leasure, and had drunk dee]3ly of
it din-ing the Revolution.
JULY 1793 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 59
All this was well known, and the most equivocal rumours
were circulated relative to his energy and his integrity. On
one day it was said that Danton had ceased to attend at the
Jacobins ; his indolence, his fondness for pleasure, were talked
of; and it was asserted that the Revolution had not been to
him a career devoid of gratification. On another day a
Jacobin said in the tribune, " Danton left me to go and shake
hands with a general." Sometimes complaints were made of
the persons whom he had recommended to the ministers.
Not daring to attack him personally, people attacked his
friends. Legendre, the butcher, his colleague in the deputa-
tion of Paris, his lieutenant in the streets and the faubourgs.
and the copyist of his coarse and wild eloquence, was treated
as a moderate by Hébert and the other turbulent spirits at
the Cordeliers. "la moderate ! " exclaimed Legendre, at
the Jacobins, "when I am always reproaching myself with
exaggeration ; when they write from Bordeaux that I knocked
down Guadet ; when it is stated in all the papers that I col-
lared Lanjuinais, and dragged him along the floor ! "
Another friend of Danton, an equally well-known and tried
patriot, Camille-Desmoulins,* at once the most natural, the
most comic, and the most eloquent writer produced by the
Revolution, was also accused of being a moderate. Camille
was well acquainted with General Dillon, who, placed by
Dumouriez at the post of the Islettes in the Argonne, had
there displayed equal firmness and intrepidity. Camille had
convinced himself that Dillon was nothing but a brave man,
without any political opinion, but endowed with great military
genius, and sincerely desirous to serve the republic. All at
once, owing to that unaccountable distrust which prevailed,
it was reported that Dillon was going to put himself at the
head of a conspiracy for the purpose of seating Louis XVII.
on the throne. Tlie committee of public welfare immediately
issued orders for his arrest. Camille, certain, from his own
knowledge, that such a report was a mere fable, began to
defend Dillon before the Convention. From all quarters he
* "This brilliant but headstrong young man had followed every early move-
ment of the Revolution, approving of all its measures and all its excesses. His
heart, however, was kind and gentle, although his opinions had been violent,
and his pleasantries often cruel. He had approved of the revohitionary govern-
ment, because he conceived it indispensable to lay the foundation of the re-
public ; he had co-operated in the ruin of the Gironde, because he feared the
dissensions of the republic. The republic ! it was to this he had sacrificed even
his scruples and his sympathies, his justice and his humanity. He had given
everything to his party, thinking he had given it to his country. In his Old
Cordelier he spoke of liberty with the profound sense of Machiavel ; and of men,
with the wit of Voltaire. " — Mignet.
6o HISTORY OF JULY1793
was assailed with cries of, " You dine with the aristocrats."
" Don't let Camille disgrace himself," exclaimed Eillaud-Va-
rennes, interrupting him. "You won't let me speak, then?"
rejoined Camille. " Well, I have my inkstand left ; " and he
immediately wrote a pamphlet entitled " Letter to Dillon," full
of energy and reason, in which he dealt his blows on all sides
and at all persons. To the committee of j^nblic welfare he
says, " You have usurped all the powers, taken all affairs into
your hands, and bring none of them to a conclusion. Three
of you were charged with the war department ; one is absent,
the other ill, and the third knows nothing about it. You
leave at the head of our armies the Custines, the Birons, the
Menons, the Berthiers, all aristocrats, or Fayettists, or in-
capables." To Cambon he says, " I comprehend nothing of
thy system of finance ; but thy paper is very like Law's, and
passes as quickly from hand to hand." He says to Billaud-
Varennes, " Thou hast a grudge against Arthur Dillon, because
he led thee, when commissioner to his army, into the fire ; "
and to St. Just, "Thou hast a high opinion of thyself, and
boldest up thy head like a St. Sacrament ; " * to Bréard, to
Delmas, to Barrère, and others, " You wanted to resign on
the 2nd of June, because you could not look coolly at that
Revolution, so frightful did it appear to you." He adds, that
Dillon is neither republican, federalist, nor aristocrat ; that he
is a soldier, and solicitous only to serve ; that, in point of
patriotism, he is worth the committee of public welfare and
all the staffs retained at the head of the armies put together ;
that at any rate he is an excellent officer ; that the country is
but too fortmiate to be able to keep a few such, and that it
must not be imagined that every sergeant can make a general.
" Since," he added, " an unknown officer, Dumouriez, con-
quered, in spite of himself, at Jemappes, and took possession
of all Belgium and Breda, like a quartermaster luith his chalk,
the success of the republic has thrown us into the same
kind of intoxication as the success of his reign imparted to
Louis XIV. He picked up his generals in his antechamber,
and we fancy we can pick up ours in the streets. We have
even gone so far as to assert that we have three millions of
generals."
It is obvious, from this language and from these cross-fires,
that confusion prevailed in the Mountain. This situation is
* "In speaking of St. Just on one occasion, Camillc-Dcsmoulins had said,
' He considers himself, so long as he carries his head respectably on his shoulders,
as a St. Sacrament.' 'And I,' replied St. Just, 'will soon make him carry his
like a St. Denis.' " — Mir/net.
^^^^iLiLm mm'^mémTLE^i.
18 9 5.
J ULY 1793 THE FEE NCR RE VOL UTION. 6 1
usually that of every party which has just been victorious, that
is splitting, but whose fractions are not yet completely de-
tached. There was not yet any new party formed among the
conquerors. The epithet of modéré or exagéré hovered over
every head, but did not yet alight upon any. Amidst all
this tumult of opinion the reputation of one man continued
inaccessible to attack — that was Bobespierre's. He was not
reproached with indulgence for any person whatever. He had
never shown affection for any proscribed individual ; he had
never associated with any general, financier, or deputy. He
could not be charged with having indulged in pleasure during
the Eevolution, for he lived obscurely at a cabinetmaker's,
and kept up an entirely unknown connection with one of
his daughters. Austere, reserved, upright, he was. and was
reputed to be incorruptible.* Nothing could be laid to his
charge but pride, a kind of vice which does not stain like
corruption, but which does great mischief in civil dissensions,
and becomes terrible in austere men, in religious or political
devotees, because, being their only passion, it is indulged by
them without distraction and without pity.
Robespierre was the only man who could repress certain
movements of revolutionaiy impatience without causing his
moderation to be imputed to ties of pleasure or interest. His
resistance, whenever he opposed, was never attributed to any-
thing but reason. He felt this position, and he began for the
first time to form a system for himself. Wholly intent up
to this time on the gratification of his hatred, he had studied
only how to drive the Revolution over the Girondins. Now per-
ceiving danger to the patriots in a new excitement of opinion,
he thought that it was right to keep up respect for the Con-
vention and the committee of public welfare, because the
whole authority resided in them, and could not be transferred
to other hands without tremendous confusion. Besides, he
* "Robespierre, observed Napoleon, was by no means the worst character
who figured in the Revolution. He was a fanatic, a monster ; but he was
incorruptible, and incapable of robbing, or of causing the deaths of others,
either from personal enmity, or a desire of enriching himself. He was an
enthusiast, but one who really believed that he was acting rightly, and died
not worth a sou. In some respects Robespierre may be said to have been an
honest man. All the crimes committed by Hébert, Chaumette, CoUot-d'Herbois,
and others were imputed to him. It was truly astonishing to see those fanatics,
who, bathed up to the elbows in blood, would not for the world have taken a
piece of money or a watch from the victims they were butchering ! Such was
the power of fanaticism that they actually believed they were acting well at
a time when a man's life was no more regarded by them than that of a fly ! At
the very time when Marat and Robespierre were committing those massacres, if
Pitt had offered them two hundred millions of money, they would have refused
it with indignation." — Voice from St. Helena.
6 2 H IS TOR Y OF july 1793
was a member of that Convention ; he could not fail to be soon
in the committee of public welfare, and he defended at one
and the same time an indispensable authority, of wliich he was
about to form a part. As every opinion was first formed at
the Jacobins, he strove to secure them more and more, to bind
them to the Convention and the committees, calculating that
he could sever them again whenever he should think fit.
Constant in his attendance, but constant to them alone, he
flattered them by his presence ; and speaking but seldom in
the Convention, where, as we have said, there was now scarcely
any speaking, he frequently delivered his sentiments from
their tribune, and never suffered any important motion to
pass without discussing, modifying, or opposing it.
On this point liis conduct was much more ably calculated
than that of Danton. Nothing offends men, and favours
equivocal reports, more than absence. Danton, careless, like
men of ardent and impassioned genius, was too little at the
Jacobins. When he did appear there, he was obliged to
justify himself, to declare that he was still a good patriot, to
say that "if he sometimes showed a certain degree of indul-
gence for the purpose of bringing back weak but excellent
minds, they might be assured that his energy was not on that
account diminished ; that he still watched with the same zeal
over the interests of the republic, and that it would be vic-
torious." Vain and dangerous excuses ! As soon as a man is
obliged to explain and justify himself, he is controlled by those
whom he addresses. Robespierre, on the contrary, always
present, always ready to repel insinuations, was never reduced
to the necessity of justifying himself. He assumed, on his
part, an accusing tone ; he scolded his trusty Jacobins ; and
he had skilfully seized that point when the passion that one
excites is so decided as to be only increased by severity.
We have seen how he treated Jacques Roux, who had pro-
posed a petition against the constitutional act. He pursued
the same course on all occasions when matters relating to the
Convention were discussed. It was purified, he said ; it now
deserved nothing but respect ; whoever accused it was a bad
citizen. The committee of public welfare had. to be sure, not
done all that it ought to have done (for. while defending them,
Robespierre never failed to censure those whom he defended) ;
but this committee was in a better train ; to attack it was to
destroy the necessary centre of all the authorities, to weaken
the energy of the government, and to compromise the republic.
When a disposition was shown to pester the Convention or the
committee with too many petitions, he opposed it, saying, that
JULY 1793 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 63
it was wasting the influence of the Jacobins, and the time
of the depositaries of power. One day it was proposed that
the sitting's of the committee should be public : he inveighed
against this motion, saying, that they were concealed enemies,
who, under the mask of patriotism, brought forward the most
inflammatory propositions ; and he began to maintain that
foreigners kept in their pay two classes of conspirators in
France — the exaggerates, who urged everything on to disorder,
and the 7iioderatcs, who wanted to paralyze everything by their
effeminacy.
The committee of public welfare had been thrice prorogued.
On the lOth of July it was to be prorogued a fourth time, or
renewed. On the 8th there was a full meeting at the Jacobins.
On all sides it was said that the members of the committee
ought to be changed, and that it ought not to be again pro-
rogued, as it had been for three successive months. " The
committee," said Bourdon, " has, no doubt, good intentions.
I mean not to lay anything to its charge ; but it is a mis-
fortune incident to human nature to profess energy for a few
days only. The present members of the committee have
already passed that period. They are worn out. Let us
change them. We want nowadays revolutionary men — men
to whom we can commit the fate of the republic, and who will
answer for it with their lives."
The fiery Chabot succeeded Bourdon. " The committee,"
said he, " ought to be renewed. We must not suffer a new
prorogation. To add to it a few more members, known to be
good patriots, will not be sufficient ; for this has been proved
by what has just happened." Couthon, St. Just, and Jean-
Bon-St.-André, recently appointed, had been ousted by their
colleagues. " Neither ought the committee to be renewed by
secret ballot, for the new one would be no better than the old
one, Avhich was good for nothing. I have heard Mathieu,"
continued Chabot, '"make the most incivic speeches at the
society of the female Revolutionists. Ramel * has written to
Toulouse that the landed proprietors alone could save the
commonwealth, and that care must be taken not to put arms
into the hands of the sans-culottes. Cambon is a dolt, who sees
all objects magnified, and is frightened at them when a hundred
* "Ramel served in the army from the age of fifteen, passed through all the
ranks, and at the end of 1792 obtained the post of adjutant-general. He had
seen but little service, and had never distinguished himself until he obtained
the command of the grenadiers of the guard of the Legislative Body, when he
brought himself into public notice for a short time. It was his favourite boast
that he was equally odious to the royalists and the anarchists." — Biographic
Moderne.
6 4 H IS TOR Y OF july 1793
paces off. Guyton-Morveau is an honest man, but a quaker,
who is always trembling. Delmas, to whom some of the
appointments were left, has made a bad choice, and filled the
army with counter-revokitionists. Lastly, this committee was
friendly towards Lebrun, and it is hostile to Bouchotte."
Robespierre was eager to answer Chabot. " I feel," said he,
" that every sentence, every word of Chabot's speech breathes
the purest patriotism ; but I perceive in it also that over-
heated patriotism which is angry because everything does not
turn out according to its wishes, which is irritated because the
committee of public welfare has not attained in its operations
an impossible perfection, and which Chabot will nowhere find.
" Like him, I am of opinion that this committee is not com-
posed of men all equally enlightened, equally virtuous ; but
what body will he find that is so composed ? Can he prevent
men from being liable to error? Has he not seen the Con-
vention, since it vomited forth from its bosom the traitors who
dishonoured it, assuming new energy, a grandeur which had
been foreign to it until this day, and a more august character
in its representation ? Is not this example sufficient to prove
that it is not always necessary to destroy, and that it is some-
times more prudent to do more than to reform ?
" Yes, indeed, there are in the committee of public welfare
men capable of readjusting the machine, and giving new power
to its means. In this they ought to be encouraged. Who will
forget the services which this committee has rendered to the
public cause, the numerous plots which it has discovered, the
able reports for which we are indebted to it, the judicious and
profound views which it has unfolded to us ?
" The Assembly has not created a committee of public
welfare with the intention of influencing it, or itself directing
its decrees ; but this committee has been serviceable to it in
separating that which was good in the measures proposed from
that which, presented in an attractive form, might have led
to the most dangerous consequences. It has given the Hrst
impulse to several essential determinations which have perhaps
saved the country ; but it has spared it the inconveniences of
an arduous and frecjuently uiqiroductive toil, by submitting
to it the results, already happily discovered, of a labour with
which it was not sufficiently familiar.
" All this is enough to prove that the committee of public
welfare has not been of so little benefit as people affect to
believe. It has its faults, no doubt ; it is not for me to deny
them. Is it likely that I should incline to indulgence — I,
who think that nothing has been done for the country while
JULY 1793 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 65
anything remains inidone ? Yes, it has its faults, and I am
willing to join you in charging it with them ; but it would be
impolitic at this moment to draw the disfavour of the people
upon a committee which needs to be invested with all their
confidence, which is charged with important interests, and from
which the country expects great services ; and though it has not
the approbation of the revolutionary republican female citizens,
I deem it to be not less adapted to its important operations."
After this speech of Robespierre the discussion was dropped.
Two days afterwards the committee was renewed, and reduced
to nine members, as at first. These new members were
Barrère, Jean -Bon- St. -André, Gasparin, Couthon, Hérault-
Séchelles, St. Just, Thuriot, Robert Lindet, and Prieur of La
Marne. All the members accused of weakness were dismissed,
excepting Barrère, whose extraordinary talent for drawing up
reports, and whose facility in bending to circumstances, had
obtained him forgiveness for the past. Robespierre was not
yet there ; but a few days later, when there was somewhat
more danger on the frontiers and terror in the Convention, he
was destined to become a member of this committee.
Robespierre had several other occasions to employ his new
policy. The navy began to excite some uneasiness. Constant
complaints were made against d'Albarade, the minister, and
Monge, his predecessor, on account of the deplorable state of
our squadrons, which, after their return from Sardinia to the
dockyard of Toulon, were not repaired, and which were
commanded by old officers, almost all of them aristocrats.
Complaints were likewise made of some new appointments
in the navy office. A man, named Peyron, who had been
sent to reorganize the army at Toulon, was accused among
others. He had not done, it was alleged, what he ought to
have done ; the minister was held responsible, and the minis-
ter had shifted the responsibility to an eminent patriot by
whom Peyron had been recommended to him. The desig-
nation of eminent patriot was significantly employed by the
speaker, who did not venture to name him. " Name, name ! "
cried several voices. "Well, then," rejoined the denouncer,
"that eminent patriot is Danton." Murmurs burst forth at
these words. Robespierre hastened to the tribune. " I pro-
pose," said he, " that the farce should cease, and the sitting
begin. . . . D'Albarade is accused ; I know nothing of him
but by public report, which proclaims him a patriot minister.
But what is he charged with here ? — an error. And what man
is exempt from error? A choice that he has made has not
answered the general expectation ! Bouchotte and Pache have
VOL. TII. 61
66 HISTORY OF JULY1793
also made faulty selections, and yet they are two genuine
republicans, two sincere friends of the country. A man is in
place : that is enough — he is calumniated. Ah ! when shall
we cease to believe all the absurd or perfidious tales that pour
in upon us from all quarters !
" I have perceived that to this rather general denunciation
of the minister has been appended a particular denunciation
against Danton. And is it of him that people want to make
you suspicious ? But if instead of discouraging patriots from
seeking with such care after crimes where scarcely a slight
error exists, you were to take a little pains to facilitate their
operations, to render their path clearer and less thorny, that
would be more honourable, and the country would benefit by it.
Bouchotte has been denoiinced, Pache has been denounced, for
it is decreed that the best patriots should be denounced. It
is time to put an end to these ridiculous and afflicting scenes.
I should rejoice if the society of Jacobins would confine them-
selves to a series of matters which they could discuss with
advantage, and if they would check the great number of those
which excite agitation in their bosom, and which are for the
most part equally futile and dangerous."
Thus Robespierre, perceiving the danger of a new excite-
ment of o]>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
7<S HISTORY OF july 1793
army of the Rhine on the frontier, would not listen to the
proposition. On the 3rcl of May the King of Prussia attempted
to take a post on the right bank opposite to Cassel — that of
Kostheim. It was defended by Meunier. The attack made
on the 3rd with great obstinacy, and repeated on the 8th, was
repulsed with considerable loss to the besiegers. Meunier, on
his part, attempted an attack on the islands situated at the
mouth of the Mayn, took them, lost them again, and displayed
on every occasion the greatest daring.
On the 30th of May the French resolved on a general sortie
on Marienburg, the headquarters of King Frederick William.
Under favour of the night six thousand men penetrated through
the enemy's line, took their entrenchments, and pushed on
to the headquarters. Meanwhile the alarm that was raised
brought the whole army upon them, and they returned, after
losing many of their brave fellows. The King of Prussia,
nettled at this surprise, caused the next day a brisk fire to be
kept up on the place. The same day Meunier made a new
attempt on one of the islands in the Mayn. Wounded in the
knee, he expired, in consequence, not so much of the wound,
as of the irritation which he felt at being obliged to abandon
the operations of the siege. The whole garrison attended his
funeral ; the King of Prussia ordered the firing to be suspended
while the last honours were paid to this hero, and a salute of
artillery to be discharged for him. The body was deposited at
the point of the bastion of Cassel, which had been constructed
under his direction.
The great convoys had arrived from Holland. It was high
time to commence the operations of the siege. A Prussian
officer proposed to take the island of Petersau, the point of
which runs up between Cassel and Mayence, to erect batteries
there, to destroy the bridge of boats and the mills, and to make
an assault on Cassel, which would then be cut off from the
fortress, and could not receive succour from it. He then pro-
posed that the assailants should advance towards the ditch into
which the Zahlbach ran, throw themselves into it under the
protection of the batteries of Petersau, which would enfilade
this ditch, and attem])t an assault on that front, which was
formed of only a single enclosure. The plan was bold and
perilous, for it would be necessary to land on Petersau, and
afterwards to plunge into the water of the ditch under the fire
of the Hauptstein ; but then the results must be very speedy.
It was thought better to open the trenches facing the double
enclosure and opposite to the citadel, though that course would
entail the necessity for a double siege.
JULY 1793 THE FRENCH RE VOL UTION. 7 7
On the 1 6th of June a first parallel was traced at the distance
of eight hundred paces from the first enclosure. The besieged
threw the works into disorder, and the enemy was forced to
fall back. On the i8th another parallel was traced at a much
greater distance, namely, fifteen hundred paces ; and this dis-
tance excited the sneers of those who had proposed the bold
attack by the isle of Petersau. From the 24th to the 25th
closer approaches were made ; the besiegers established them-
selves at the distance of eight hundred paces, and erected
batteries. The besieged again interrupted the works and
spiked the guns ; but they were at length repulsed, and over-
whelmed with an incessant fire. On the i8th and 19th two
hundred pieces played upon the fortress, and covered it with
projectiles of every kind. Floating batteries, placed upon the
Rhine, set fire to the interior of the town on the most exposed
side, and did considerable damage.
Still the first parallel was not yet opened, the first enclosure
was not yet won, and the garrison, full of ardour, had no
thoughts of surrendering. In order to rid themselves of the
floating batteries, some of the brave French swam off, and cut
the cables of the enemy's boats. One was seen swimming and
towing a boat containing twenty-four soldiers, who were made
prisoners.
But the distress was at its height. The mills had been
burned, and the besieged had been obliged to resort to mills
wrought by men for the purpose of grinding their corn. But
nobody would work at them, because the enemy, apprized of
the circumstance, kept up a continual fire of howitzers on the
spot where they were situated. Moreover, there was scarcely
any corn left. Horse-flesh had long been the only meat that
the garrison had ; the soldiers ate rats, and went to the banks
of the Rhine to pick up the dead horses which the current
brought down with it. This kind of food proved fatal to
several of them : it was found necessary to forbid it, and even
to prevent their seeking it by placing guards on the banks of
the river. A cat sold for six francs, and horse-flesh at the
rate of forty-five sous per pound. The officers fared no better
than the soldiers ; and Aubert-Dubayet, having invited his staff
to dinner, set before it, by way of a treat, a cat flanked by a
■dozen mice.
But the most annoying circumstance to this unfortunate
garrison was the absolute privation of all news. The com-
munications were so completely intercepted that for three
•months it was wholly ignorant of what was passing in France.
It had endeavoured to convey intelligence of its distress, at
78 HISTORY OF JULY1793
one time by a lady who was going to travel in Switzerland, at
another by a priest proceeding to the Netherlands, and at
another by a spy who was to pass through the enemy's camp.
Jiut none of these despatches had reached their destination.
Hoping that the idea might perhaps occur of sending intelli-
gence from the Upper Rhine by means of bottles thrown into
the river, the besiegers placed nets across it. These were
taken up every day, but nothing arrived. The Prussians, who
had practised all sorts of stratagems, had got false Moniteurs
printed at Frankfort, stating that Dumouriez had overthrown
the Convention, and that Louis XVII. was reigning with a
regency. The Prussians placed at the advanced posts trans-
mitted these false Moniteurs to the soldiers of the garrison.
The reading of these statements always excited the greatest
uneasiness, and to the sufferings which they were already en-
during, added the mortification of defending perhaps a ruined
cause. Nevertheless they waited, saying to one another, "The
army of the Rhine will soon arrive." Sometimes the cry was,
" It is come ! " One night a very brisk cannonade was heard
at a great distance from the town. The men started up with
joy, ran to arms, and prepared to march towards the French
cannon, and to place the enemy between two fires. Vain hope !
The noise ceased, and the army that was to deliver them never
appeared. At length the distress became so intolerable that
two thousand of the inhabitants solicited permission to depart.
Aubert-Dubayet granted it ; but not being received by the be-
siegers, they remained between two fires, and partly perished
under the walls of the place. In the morning the soldiers were
seen bringing in wounded infants wrapped in their cloaks.
Meanwhile the army of the Rhine and of the Moselle was
not advancing. Custine had commanded it till the month of
June. vStill quite dis]jirited on account of his retreat, he had
never ceased wavering during the montlis of April and May.
He said that he was not strong enough ; that he must have
more cavalry to enable him to cope with the enemy's cavalry
in the plains of the Palatinate ; that he had no forage for his
horses ; that it was necessary for him to wait till the rye was
forward enough to be cut for fodder ; and that then he would
march to the relief of Mayence.* Beauharnais.f his successor,
* See Custine's Trial.
t Vicomte Alexander Reauhariiais, l)orii in 1760 at Martinicjue, served with
distinction as major in the French forces nnilor Kochambcau which aided the
United States in the revolntionary war. He married Josejiliine Tascher de la
Pagerie, who was afterwards the wife of r)ona)iarte. At tlie breaking out of
the French llevohitiou he was chosen a member of the National Assembly, of
which he was for some time president. In 1793 ho was general of the army
JULY 1793 THE FRENCH llEVOLUTION. 79
hesitating like him, lost the opportunity of saving that fortress.
The line of the Vosges runs, as every one knows, along the
Rhine, and terminates not far from Mayence. By occupying
the two slopes of the chain and its principal passes, you gain an
immense advantage, because you have it in your power to direct
vour force either all on one side or all on the other, and to
overwhelm the enemy by your united masses. Such was the
position of the French. The army of the Rhine occupied the
eastern slope, and that of the Moselle the western ; Brunswick
and Wurmser were spread out at the termination of the chain
into a very extensive cordon. Masters of the passes, the two
French armies had it in their power to unite on one slope or
the other, to crush Brunswick or Wurmser, to take the besiegers
in the rear, and to save Mayence. Beauharnais, a brave but not
an enterprising man, made only indecisive movements, without
succouring the garrison.
The representatives and the generals shut up in Mayence,
thinking that matters ought not to be pushed to extremity,
that if they waited another week they might be destitute of
everything, and be obliged to give up the garrison as prisoners ;
that, on the contrary, by capitulating they should obtain free
egress with the honours of war, and that they should thus
preserve twenty thousand men, who had become the bravest
soldiers in the world under Kleber and Dubaj^et — determined
to surrender the place. In a few days more, it is true, Beau-
harnais might have been able to save them ; but after waiting
so long, it was natural to conclude that they would not be
relieved, and the reasons for surrendering were decisive. The
King of Prussia was not severe about the conditions. He
allowed the garrison to march out with arms and baggage, and
imposed but one condition, that it should not serve for a year
against the Allies. But there were still enemies enough in the
interior for the iTseful employment of these admirable soldiers,
since called Mayençais. So attached were they to their post
that they would not obey their generals when the}^ were obliged
to evacuate the fortress — a singular instance of the e^jprit de
C07JJS which settles upon one point, and of that attachment
which men form for a place which they have defended for
several months ! The garrison, however, yielded, and as it
filed off, the King of Prussia, filled with admiration of its
of tlie Rhine, and was afterwards minister of war. In consequence of the decree
removing men of noble birtli from the army, lie retired to his country seat.
Having been falsely accused of promoting the surrender of Mentz, he was sen-
tenced to death in 1794, in the thirty-fourth year of his age." — Encyclopœdia
Americana.
8o HISTORY OF JULY1793
valour, called by their names the officers who had distinguished
themselves during the siege, and complimented them with
chivalrous courtesy. The evacuation took place on the 25th
of July.
We have seen the Austrians blockading Oonde, and laying
regular siege to Valenciennes. These operations, carried on
simultaneously with those of the Rhine, were drawing near
to a close. The Prince of Coburg, at the head of the corps
of observation, faced Cœsar's Camp ; the Duke of York com-
manded the besieging corps. The attack, at first projected
upon the citadel, was afterwards directed between the suburbs
of Marly and the Mons gate. This front presented much more
development ; but it was not so strongly defended, and was
preferred as being more accessible. It was agreed to batter
the works during the day, and to set fire to the town in the
night, in order to increase the distress of the inhabitants, and
to shake their resolution the sooner. The place was summoned
on the 14th of June. General Ferrand, and Cochon* and
Briest,t the representatives, replied with great dignity. They
had collected a garrison of seven tliousand men ; they had
infused the best spirit into the inhabitants, and oi'ganized
part of them into companies of gunners, who rendered the
gi-eatest services.
Two parallels were successively opened in the nights of the
14th and 19th of -June, and armed with formidable batteries.
They made frightful havoc in the place. The inhabitants and
the garrison defended themselves with a vigour equal to that
of the attack, and several times destroyed all the works of the
besiegers. The enemy fired upon the place till noon, without
its making any reply ; but at that hour a tremendous fire from
the ram]3arts was poured into the trenches, where it produced
the confusion, terror, and death which had prevailed in the
town. On the 28th of June a third parallel was traced, and
* "Cochon de Lapparent, a counsellor at Fontenay, was in 1789 a member
of the States-general. In 1792 he was de])Uted to the National Convention,
where he voted for the King's death. In the same year he was chosen com-
missary to the army of the North. He was at Valenciennes when that town
was besieged, contributed to its defence, and long opposed any capitulation. In
1794 he entered into the committee of public safety, and in the following year
was again sent on a mission. In 1796 the Directory appointed him to the
administration of the police. In 1800 he was appointed prefect of Vienne,
and decorated in 1804 with the cross of the Legion of Honour." — Biographic
Moderne.
t Briest, deputy to the Convention, voted there for the death of Louis. Being
at Valenciennes during the siege, he behaved with great courage. After the fall
of Robespierre, Briest was despatched, for the second time, to the army of the
North, but soon fell a victim to his excesses." — Biographie Moderne.
JULY 1793 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 8i
the courage of the inhabitants began to be shaken. Part of
that wealthy city was ah-eady burned down. The children,
the old men, and the women had been put into cellars. The
surrender of Conde, which had been taken by famine, tended
still more to dishearten the besieged. Emissaries had been
sent to work upon them. Assemblages began to form, and
demand a capitulation. The municipality participated in the
dispositions of the inhabitants, and was in secret understand-
ing with them. The representatives and General Ferrand
replied with the greatest vigour to the demands which were
addressed to them; and with the aid of the garrison, whose
courage was excited to the highest enthusiasm, they dispersed
the discontented assemblages.
On the 25th of July the besiegers prepared their mines,
and made ready for the assault of the covered way. Luckily
for them, three shells burst at the moment when the mines
of the garrison were about to be fired in order to destroy
their works. They then pushed on in three columns, cleared
the palisade, and penetrated into the covered way. The
garrison fled in disorder, and was already abandoning its
batteries ; but General Ferrand led it back to the ramparts.
The artillery, which had performed prodigies during the whole
siege, again made great havoc among the assailants, and
stopped them almost at the very gates of the place. Next
day, the 26th, the Duke of York summoned General Ferrand
to surrender. He gave him notice that after that day he
would listen to no proposal, and that the garrison and the
inhabitants would be put to the sword. At this threat the
people assembled in gi-eat numbers. A mob, among which
were many men armed with pistols and daggers, surrounded
the municipality. Twelve persons spoke for the whole, and
made a formal requisition to surrender the place. A council
of war was held amidst the tumult ; none of its members was
allowed to quit it, and guards were placed over them until they
should decide upon surrender. Two breaches, the unfavour-
able disposition of the inhabitants, and a vigorous besieger,
admitted of no longer resistance. The place was surrendered
on the 28th of July.* The garrison marched out with the
honours of war, was obliged to lay down its arms, but was at
liberty to return to France, upon the single condition of not
" Had the Duke of York been detached by Coburg against the Camp of
Caesar with half his forces, the siege of Valenciennes might have been continued
with the other half, and the fate of France sealed in that position." — Dumouricz's
Memoirs.
"In the darkest days of Louis XIV., France was never placed in such peril
as after the capture of Valenciennes." — Alison.
VOL. III. 62*
8 2 HISTOR Y OF july 1793
serving for a year against the Allies.- It still consisted of
seven thousand brave soldiers, capable of rendering important
services against the enemies in the interior. Valenciennes
had sustained a bombardment of forty-one days, during which
eighty thousand cannon-balls, twenty thousand howitzer-shot,
and forty-eight thousand bombs had been thrown into it. The
general and the garrison had done their duty, and the artillery
had covered itself with glory.
At this same moment the war of federalism was reduced to
its two real calamities — the revolt of Lyons on the one hand,
and that of Marseilles and Toulon on the other.
Lyons soon consented to acknowledge the Convention, but
refused to obey two decrees — that which transferred to Paris
the proceedings commenced against the ]3atriots, and that
which dissolved the authorities, and enjoined the formation of
a new provisional municipality. The aristocrats concealed in
Lyons excited alarm in that city lest the old Mountaineer
municipality should be re-established; and by the appre-
hension of uncertain dangers, led it into real dangers — those
of open rebellion. On the 15th of July the Lyonnese caused
the two patriots, Chalier and Picard, to be put to death, and
from that day they were declared to be in a state of rebellion.
The two Girondins, Chasset and Biroteau, seeing royalism
triumphant, withdrew. Meanwhile the president of the popu-
lar commission, who was devoted to the emigrants, having been
superseded, the determinations had become somewhat less hos-
tile. The people of Lyons acknowledged the constitution,
and offered to submit to it, but still on condition that the two
principal decrees should not be executed. During this interval
the chiefs were founding cannon and purchasing stores ; and
there seemed to be no other way of terminating the difficulties
than that of arms.
Marseilles was much more formidable. Its battalions, driven
beyond the Durance by Cartaux, could not oppose a long re-
sistance ; but it had communicated its rebellious spirit to Toulon,
hitherto a thorough republican city. That port, one of the
best in the world, and the very best in the Mediterranean, was
coveted by the English, who were cruising off it. Emissaries of
England were secretly intriguing there, and planning shameful
treachery. The sections had assembled on the 13th of July,
and proceeding like all those of the South, had displaced the
municipality, and shut up the Jacobin Club. The authority,
transferred to the hands of the federalists, was liable to pass
successively from faction to faction, to the emigrants and to
the English. The ai'my of Nice, in its weak state, was unable
AUG. 1793 THE FRENCH RE VOL UTJON. 8 3
to prevent such a misfortune. Eveiything, therefore, was to be
feared ; and that vast storm spread over the southern horizon
had concentrated itself on two points, Lyons and Toulon.
During the last two months, therefore, the aspect of things
had somewhat cleared up ; but if the danger was less universal,
less astounding, it was more settled, more serious. In the
West was the cankering sore of La Vendée ; at Marseilles, an
obstinate sedition ; at Toulon, a secret treason ; at Lyons, an
open resistance and a siege. On the Rhine and in the North
there was the loss of two bulwarks, which had so long checked
the progress of the Allies, and prevented them from marching
upon the capital. In September 1792, when the Prussians
were marching towards Paris, and had taken Longwy and
Verdun; in April 1793, after the retreat from Belgium, the
defeat at Neerwinden, the defection of Dumouriez, and the
first rising in La Vendée; on the 31st of May 1793, after
the general insurrection of the departments, the invasion of
Roussillon by the Spaniards, and the loss of the camp of
Famars — at these three epochs the dangers had been alarming,
it is true, but never perhaps so real as at this fourth epoch in
August 1793. It was the fourth and last crisis of the Revo-
lution. France was less ignorant and less new to war than
in September 1792, less dismayed by treasons than in April
1793, less embarrassed by insurrections than after the 31st of
May and the 2nd of June ; but if she was more inured to war
and better obeyed, she was invaded on all sides at once — in the
North, on the Rhine, at the Alps, and at the Pyrenees.
But we shall not be aware of all the calamities which then
afflicted the republic, if we limit our view to the five or six
fields of battle which were drenched with human blood. The
interior presented a spectacle quite as deplorable. Corn was
still dear and scarce. People had to knock at the doors of the
bakers to obtain a small quantity of bread. They disputed in
vain with the shopkeepers to make them take assignats in pay-
ment for articles of primary necessity. The distress was at its
height. The populace com]ilained of the forestallers who kept
back their goods ; of stockjobbers who occasioned the rise in
the prices of them, and threw discredit on the assignats by their
traffic. Government, quite as unfortunate as the people, had no
means of existence but the assignats, of which it was| obliged
to give three or four times the c(uantity in payment for the
same services, and of which it durst not make any further
issues for fear of depreciating them still more. It became,
therefore, a puzzling question how to enable either the people
or the government to subsist.
84 HISTOB.Y OF aug. 1793
The general production, however, had not diminished. Though
the night of the 4th of August had not yet produced its im-
mense effects, France was in no want either of grain or of raw
or wrought materials ; but the equal and peaceable distribution
of them had become impossible, owing to the effect of the
paper-money. The Revolution, which, in abolishing monarchy,
nevertheless purposed to pay its debts ; which, in destroying
the venality of offices, nevertheless engaged to make compen-
sation for their value ; which, lastly, in defending the new
order of things against coalesced Europe, was obliged to bear
the expense of a general war, had, to defray it, the national
property taken from the clergy and the emigrants. To put
into circulation the value of that property, it had devised
assignats which were the representation of it, and which by
means of purchases were to return to the exchequer and be
burned. But as people felt doubtful of the success of the
Revolution and the stability of the sales, they did not purchase
those possessions. The assignats remained in circulation like
unaccepted bills of exchange, and became depreciated from
doubt and the quantity issued.
Specie continued to be regarded as the real standard of
value ; and nothing is more hurtful to a doubtful money than
the rivalry of a money of which the value is undisputed. The
one is hoarded and kept back from circulation, while the other
offers itself in abundance, and is thus discredited. Such was
the predicament in which assignats stood in regard to specie.
The Revolution, doomed to violent measures, was no longer
able to stop. It had put into forced circulation the anticipated
value of the national domains ; it could not help trying to
keep it up hj forced means. On the nth of April, in spite
of the Girondins, who struggled generously but imprudently
against the fatality of that revolutionary situation, the Con-
vention decreed the penalty of six j^ears' imprisonment against
any person who should sell specie, that is to say, who should
exchange a certain quantity of gold or silver for a more con-
siderable quantity of assignats. It enacted the same punish-
ment for every one who should stipulate a different price for
commodities according as the payment was to be made in
specie or in assignats.
These measures did not prevent the difference from being
rapidly manifested. In June a metal franc was worth three
francs in assignats ; and in August, two months afterwards,
a silver franc was worth six francs in assignats. Tfie ratio of
diminution, which was as one to three, had tlierefore increased
in the proportion of one to six.
AUG. 1793 THE FRENCH BE VOL UTION. 8 5
In this situation the shopkeepers refused to sell their goods
at the former price, because the money offered to them was
not worth more than a fifth or a sixth of its nominal value.
They held them back, therefore, and refused them to pur-
chasers. This depreciation of value, it is true, would have
been in regard to the assignats no inconvenience whatever,
had everybody, taking them only at their real value, received
and paid them away at the same rate. In this case they
might still have continued to perform the office of a sign in
the exchanges, and to serve for a circulating medium like any
other money ; but the capitalists who lived upon their income,
the creditors of the State who received an annuity or a com-
pensation for an office, were obliged to take the paper at its
nominal value. All debtors were eager to pay off their en-
cumbrances ; and creditors, forced to take a fictitious value, got
back but a fourth, a fifth, or a sixth of their capital.* Lastly,
the working people, always obliged to offer their services, and
to give them to any one who will accept them, not knowing how
to act in concert, in order to obtain a twofold or threefold
increase of wages in proportion to the depreciated value of the
assignats, were paid only part of what was necessary to obtain
in exchange such things as they needed. The capitalist, half
ruined, was silent and discontented ; but the enraged populace
called those tradesmen who would not sell at the old prices
forestallers, and loudly demanded that forestallers should be
sent to the guillotine.
All this resulted from the assignats, as the assignats had
resulted from the necessity of paying old debts, making com-
pensation for offices, and defraying the expenses of a ruinous
war : in like manner the maximum was destined to result
from the assignats. It was, in fact, to little purpose that a
forced circulation had been given to this money, if the trades-
man, by raising his prices, could evade the necessity of taking
it. Let a forced rate then be fixed for commodities as well as
for money. The moment the law said, Such a piece of paper
shall be worth six francs — it ought also to say. Such a com-
modity shall be sold for no more than six francs — otherwise
the dealer, by raising the price to twelve, would escape the
exchange.
It had therefore been absolutely necessary, in spite of the
Girondins, who had given excellent reasons deduced from the
"Debtors of every description hastened to discharge their obligations ; and
the creditors, compelled to accept paper at par, which was not worth a fifth, or
a tenth, and at last, not a hundredth of its nominal value, were defrauded of
the greater part of their property." — Alison.
86 HISTORY OF aug. 1793
ordinary economy of things,' to fix a maximum for grain. The
greatest hardship for the lower classes is the want of bread.
The crops were not deficient ; but the farmers, who would not
confront the tumult of the markets, or sell their corn at the
rate of the assignats, kept away with their goods. The little
corn that did appear was quickly bought up by the com^munes
and by individuals induced by fear to lay in stocks of pro-
visions. The dearth was more severely felt in Paris than at
any town in France, because the supply of that immense city
was more difficult, because its markets were more tumultuous,
and the farmers were more afraid to attend them. On the 3rd
and 4th of May the Convention could not help passing a
decree by which all farmers and corn-dealers were obliged to
declare the quantity of corn in their possession, to thresh out
what was still in ear, to carry it to the markets and to the
markets only, to sell it at a mean price fixed by each commune,
according to the prices which had prevailed between the ist of
January and the ist of May. No person was allowed to lay in
a supply for more than a month. Those who sold or bought at
a price above the maximum, or who made false declarations,
were to be punished with confiscation, and a fine of three
hundred to one thousand francs. Domiciliary visits were
ordered to ascertain the truth. Lastly, a statement of all
the declarations was to be sent by the municipalities to the
minister of the interior, in order to furnish a general statis-
tical sui'vey of the supplies of France. The commune of Paris,
adding its police resolutions to the decrees of the Conven-
tion, had moreover regulated the distribution of bread at the
bakers' shops. No one was allowed to go to them without
safety tickets. On these tickets, delivered by the revolutionary
committees, was specified the quantity of bread which the
bearers had a right to ask for, and this quantity was propor-
tionate to the number of persons of which each family was
composed. Even the mode of getting served at the bakers'
shops was regulated. A cord was to be fastened to their door ;
each customer was to lay hold of it so as not to lose his turn,
and to avoid confusion. Malicious women frequently cut this
cord ; a frightful tumult ensued, and the armed force was
required to restore order. We here see to what drudgery,
most laborious to itself, and vexatious to those for whom it
legislates, a government is doomed as soon as it is obliged to
see everything, in order to regulate everything. Jiut in this
situation each circumstance was the result of another. The
forced currency of assignats led to the forcing of sales, the
forcing of prices, the forcing even of the quantity, the hour,
AUG. 1793 THE FBENCH REVOLUTION. 87
the mode of purchases ; the last fact resulted from the first,
and the first had been inevitable, like the Kevolution itself.
Meanwhile, the rise in the price of articles of consumption,
which had led to the maximum, was general for all com-
modities of the first necessity. Butchers' meat, vegetables,
fruit, groceries, candles, fuel, liquors, articles of clothing, and
shoe-leather had all risen in price in proportion as assignats
had fallen ; and the popidace were daily more and more bent
on finding forestallers where there were only dealers who re-
fused a money that had lost its value. It will be recollected
that in February it had plundered the grocers' shops, at the
instigation of Marat. In July it had plundered boats laden
with soap coming up the Seine to Paris. The indignant com-
mune had passed the most severe resolutions, and Pache had
printed this simple and laconic warning : —
" Pache, Mayor, to his Fellow-Citizens.
" Paris contains seven hundred thousand inhabitants : the
soil of Paris produces nothing for their food, their clothing,
their subsistence ; it is therefore necessary for Paris to obtain
everything from the departments and from abroad.
" When provisions and merchandise come to Paris, if the
inhabitants rob the owners of them, supplies will cease to be
sent.
" Paris will then have no food, no clothing, nothing for the
subsistence of its numerous inhabitants.
" And seven hundred thousand persons, destitute of every-
thing, will devour one another."
The people had not committed any further depredations,
but they still demanded severe measures against the dealers ;
and we have seen the priest Jaccfues Roux exciting the Cor-
deliers, with a view to obtain the insertioîi of an article against
forestallers in the constitution. They also inveighed bitterly
against the stockjobbers, who, they said, raised the prices of
goods by speculating in assignats, gold, silver, and foreign
paper.
The popular imagination created monsters, and everywhere
discovered inveterate enemies, where there were only eager
gamblers, profiting by the evil, but not producing it, and most
certainly not having the power to produce it. The deprecia-
tion of the assignats had a great number of causes : their con-
siderable quantity ; the uncertainty of their pledge, which
would be swept away if the Revolution were to fall ; their
comparison with specie, which did not lose its reality, and
8 8 HISTORY OF AUG. 1793
with commodities, which, retaining their value, refused to ex-
change themselves for a money that had lost its value. In this
state of things the capitalists would not keep their funds in
the form of assignats, because under that form they were
wasting from day to day. At first they had endeavoured to
procure money ; but six years of annoyance had scared the
sellers and the buyers of specie. They had then thought of
purchasing commodities ; but these offered only a temporary
employment of capital, because they would not keep long, and
a dangerous employment, because the rage against forestallers
was at its height. They sought, therefore, securities in foreign
countries.* All those who had assignats were eager to buy
bills of exchange on London, Amsterdam, Hamburg, Geneva,
or on any place in Europe. To obtain these foreign values
they gave enormous national values, and thus lowered the
assignats by parting with them. Some of these bills of ex-
change were realized out of France, and the amount of them
paid over to emigrants. Splendid furniture, the spoils of
ancient luxury, consisting of cabinetmakers' work, clocks,
mirrors, gilt bronzes, porcelain, paintings, valuable editions
of books, paid for these bills of exchange, which were turned
into guineas or ducats. But it was only the smallest portion
of them that the holders endeavoured to realize. Sought after
by the alarmed capitalists, who had no intention to emigrate,
but merely wished to give a solid guarantee to their fortune,
they remained almost all on the spot, where the alarmed trans-
ferred them from one to another. There is reason to believe
that Pitt had induced the English bankers to sign a great
quantity of this paper, and had even opened for them a con-
siderable credit, for the purpose of increasing the mass, and
contributing still more to the discredit of the assignats.
Great eagerness was also shown to obtain shares in the stocks
of the financial companies, which seemed to be beyond the
reach of the Revolution and of the counter-revolution, and to
offer, moreover, an advantageous employment of capital. Those
of the ComjMgnie (V Escompte were in high favour ; but those of
the East India Company were sought after with the greatest
avidity, because they rested in some measure on a pledge
that could not be laid hold of, consisting in ships and store-
* "Terrified by the continuai recurrence of disorders, the ca])italists declined
investing their money in purchases of any sort ; and the sliares in foreign
mercantile companies rose rapidly from the increased demand for them, as the
only investments atlbrding a tolerable degree of security — a striking proof of the
consequences of the disorders attendant on po])nlar ambition, and their tendency
to turn from the people the reservoirs by which their industry is maintained."
— Alison.
AUG. 1793 THE FRENCH RE VOL UTION. 8 9
houses situated all over the globe. To no purpose had they
been subjected to a heavy transfer duty. The directors had
evaded the law by abolishing the transfers, and replacing
them by an entry in the registers of the Comj)any, which took
place without any formality. They thus defrauded the vState
of a considerable revenue, for there were several thousand
transfers per day, and they frustrated the precautions taken to
prevent stockjobbing. To no purpose had a duty of five per
cent, been imposed on the produce of these shares, in order to
lessen their attraction. The dividends were paid to the share-
holders, as a compensation for part of their capital ; and by
this stratagem the directors again evaded the law. Thus shares
of 600 francs rose to lOOO, 1200, and even 2000 francs. These
were so many values opposed to the revolutionary money, and
which served to discredit it still more.
Not only were all these kinds of funds opposed to the
assignats, but also certain parts of the public debt, and certain
assignats themselves. There existed, in fact, loans subscribed
for at all periods, and under all forms. There were some that
dated so far back as the reign of Louis XIII. Among the
later ones subscribed for under Louis XIV., there were stocks
of different creations. Those which were anterior to the
constitutional monarchy were preferred to such as had been
opened for the wants of the Revolution. All, in short, were
opposed to the assignats founded on the spoliation of the clergy
and of the emigrants. Lastly, differences were made between
the assignats themselves. Out of about five thousand millions
which had been issued since their creation, one thousand
million had been returned by the sale of national possessions ;
nearly four thousand millions remained in circulation, and
in these four thousand millions there were about five hundred
millions issued under Louis XVI. and bearing the royal effigy.
These latter, it was argued, would be better treated in case of
a counter-revolution, and admitted for at least part of their
value. Thus they were worth ten or fifteen per cent, more
than the others. The republican assignats, the only resource
of the government, the only money of the people, were there-
fore wholly discredited, and had to contend at one and the
same time with specie, merchandise, foreign paper, the shares
in financial companies, the different stocks of the State, and
lastly, the royal assignats.
The compensation made for offices, the payment for the
large supplies furnished to the State for the war department,
the eagerness of many debtors to pay off their liabilities, had
produced a great accumulation of capital in certain hands.
90 HIS TOBY OF aug. 1793
The war, and the fear of a terrible revohition, had interrupted
many commercial operations, and fm-ther increased the mass
of stagnant capitals that were seeking securities. These
capitals, thus accumulated, were employed in perpetual specu-
lations at the Stock Exchange of Paris, and were converted
alternately into gold, silver, merchandise, bills of exchange,
companies' shares, old government stocks, &c. Thither resorted,
as usual, those adventurous gamblers who plunge into every
kind of hazard, who speculate on the accidents of commerce,
the supply of armies, the good faith of governments. Placing
themselves on the watch at the Exchange, they made a profit
by all the rises occasioned by the constant fall of the assignats.
The fall of the assignat first began at the Exchange, with
reference to specie and to all movable values. It took place
afterwards with reference to commodities, which rose in price
in the shops and in the markets. Commodities, however, did
not rise so rapidly as specie, because the markets are at a
distance from the Exchange, because they are not so easily
affected, and moreover, because the dealers cannot give the
word so rapidly to one another as stockjobbers assembled in
one and the same building. The difference pronounced at the
Exchange was not felt in other places till after a longer or
shorter time : thus, when the five-franc assignat was worth no
more than two francs at the Exchange, it was passing for
three in the markets, and the stockjobbers had sufficient time
for speculating. Having their capitals quite ready, they pro-
cured specie before the rise ; as soon as it had risen in com-
parison with assignats, they exchanged it for the latter ; they
had, of course, a greater quantity, and as merchandise had not
yet had time to rise too, with this greater quantity of assignats
they bought a greater quantity of merchandise, and sold it
again when the balance between them was restored. Their
part had consisted in holding cash or merchandise while one
or the other rose in reference to the assignat. It was therefore
the constant profit of the rise of everything in comparison with
the assignat which they had made, and it was natural that they
should be grudged this profit, invariably founded on a public
calamity. Their speculations extended to the variation of all
kinds of securities, such as foreign paper, companies' shares,
&c. They profited by all the accidents that could produce
these fluctuations — a defeat, a motion, a false report. They
formed a very considerable class. Among them were included
foreign bankers, contractors, usurers, ancient priests or nobles,
revolutionary upstarts, and certain deputies, who, to the honour
of the Convention, were but five or six, and who possessed
AUG. 1793 THE FRENCH RE VOL UTIOK 9 1
the perfidious advantage of contributing to the fluctuation of
securities by seasonable motions. They led a dissolute life
with actresses, and ci-devant nuns, or countesses, who, after
performing the part of mistresses, sometimes took up that
of women of business.* The two principal deputies engaged
in these intrigues were Julien of Toulouse, who lived with
the Comtesse de Beaufort, and Delaunay of Angers, who was
intimate with Descoings, the actress. It is asserted that
Chabot, dissolute as an ex-Capuchin, and occasionally turning
his attention to financial questions, was engaged in this kind
of stockjobbing, in company with two brothers named Frey,
expelled from Moravia for their revolutionary opinions, and
who had come to Paris to carry on the banking business
there. Fabre d'Eglantine also dabbled in it ; and Danton
was accused, but without any proof, of having had a hand
in it too.
The most shameful intrigiie was that which connected Baron
de Batz, an able banker and financier, with Julien of Toulouse,
and Delaunay of Angers, two men most intent on making
money. Their scheme was to charge the East India Com-
pany with malversations, to reduce the price of its shares, to
buy them up immediately, and then to raise them by means
of milder motions, and thus to make a profit by the rise.
D'Espagnac, that dissolute abbé, who had been commissary to
Dumouriez in Belgium, and had since obtained the general
contract for carts and waggons, and whose interests Julien
patronized in the Convention, was, out of gratitude, to furnish
the funds for this speculation, into which Julien proposed to
draw Fabre, Chabot, and others, who were likely to be useful
as members of various committees.
Most of these men were attached to the Revolution, and had
no intention to do it ill service ; but, at any rate, they were
desirous of securing pleasures and wealth. All their secret
artifices were not known ; but, as they speculated on the dis-
credit of the assignats, the evil by which they profited was
imputed to them. As they comprised in their ranks many
foreign bankers, they were said to be agents of Pitt and of the
coalition ; and here, too, people fancied that they discovered
that mysterious and so much dreaded influence of the English
minister. In short, they were equally incensed against the
* " The Bourse was crowded with adventurers of every description, who
sometimes made enormous gains, and passed a life of debauchery with abandoned
women of all sorts. Such was the universal dissoluteness of manners, arising
from the dread of popular jealousy, that almost all the members of the Convention
lived publicly with mistresses, who became possessed of much of tlie influence in
the State." — Alison.
92 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. aug. 1793
stockjobbers and the forestallers, and called out foi* the pame
punishment against both.
Thus, while the North, the Khine, the South, were assailed
by our enemies, our financial means consisted of a money that
was not accepted, the security of which was uncertain as the
Revolution, and which, on every accident, sunk in a ratio pro-
portionate to the danger. Such was this singular situation : as
the danger increased, the means ought to have increased along
with it, but they, on the contrary, diminished ; supplies were
beyond the reach of the government, and necessaries beyond
that of the people. It was recpiisite, therefore, at one and
the same time to create soldiers, arms, and a currency for
the State and for the people, and after all this to secure
victories.
i
THE NATIONAL CONVENTION
{continued)
ANNIVERSARY OF THE ioth OF AUGUST, AND FESTIVAL FOR THE
ACCEPTANCE OF THE CONSTITUTION— EXTRAORDINARY DECREES
—GENERAL ARREST OF SUSPECTED PERSONS— LEVY EN MASSE
—INSTITUTION OF THE GREAT BOOK— FORCED LOAN— MAXIMUM
—DECREES AGAINST LA VENDÉE.
THE deputies sent by the primaiy assemblies to accelerate the
anniversary of the lOth of August 1792, and to accept the
constitution in the name of all France, had by this time arrived
at Paris. It was determined to seize this occasion for exciting
a movement of enthusiasm, reconciling the provinces with the
capital, and calling forth heroic resolutions. A brilliant recep-
tion was prepared. Considerable stores of articles of consump-
tion were amassed, that no dearth might disturb this festival,
and that the deputies might enjoy at once the spectacle of
peace, abundance, and order. So far was attention to them
carried that all the administrations of the public conveyances
were ordered to give them places, even though they had been
already bespoken by other travellers. The administration of
the department, which rivalled that of the commune in the
austerity of its language and its proclamations, made an address
to its brethren of the primary assemblies. "Here," it said to
them, " men covered with the mask of patriotism will talk to
you with enthusiasm about liberty, equality, and the republic
one and indivisible, while, in the bottom of their hearts, they
aspire and labour only to re-establish royalty, and to tear their
country in pieces. Those are the rich ; and the rich have at
all times abhorred virtue, and poisoned morals. There you will
find perverse women, too seductive by their charms, who will
join with them to lead you into vice. . . . Beware ! above
all, beware of that ci-devant Palais Royal. It is in that garden
that you will meet with those perfidious persons. That famous
garden, the cradle of the Revolution, once the asylum of the
friends of liberty and equality, is at this day, in spite of our
active vigilance, but the filthy drain of society, the haunt
94 HISTORY OF aug. 1793
of villains, the den of all the conspirators. . . . Shiin that
poisoned spot ; prefer to the dangeroiis spectacle of luxury
and debauchery the useful pictures of laborious virtue ; visit
the faubourgs, the founders of our liberty ; enter the workshops
where men, active, simple, and virtuous, like yourselves, like you,
ready to defend the country, have long been waiting to unite
themselves to you by the bonds of fraternity. Come, above
all, to our popular societies. Let us unite ! let us arm ourselves
with fresh courage to meet the new dangers of the country ! let
us swear, for the last time, death and destriTction to tyrants ! "
The first step was to take them to the Jacobins, who gave
them the warmest welcome, and offered them their hall to
meet in. The deputies accepted this offer, and it was agreed
that they should deliberate in the very bosom of the society,
and mingle with it during their stay. Thus all the differ-
ence was, that there were now four hundred more Jacobins in
Paris, The society, which sat every second day, resolved to
meet every day for the purpose of conferring with the envoys
of the departments on measures of public welfare. It was said
that some of these envoys leaned to the side of indulgence, and
that they were commissioned to demand a general amnesty on
the day of the acceptance of the constitution. Some persons
had in fact thovight of this expedient for saving the imprisoned
Girondins and all others who were detained for political causes.
But the Jacobins would not hear of any composition, and de-
manded at once energy and vengeance. The envoys of the
primary assemblies, says Hassenfratz, were slandered by a
report that they meant to propose an amnesty ; they were in-
capable of such a thing, and were ready to unite with the
Jacobins in demanding not only urgent measures of public
welfare, but also the punishment of all traitors. The envoys
took the hint, and if some few of them really thought of an
amnesty, none of them ventured to propose it.
On the morning of the 7th of August they were conducted
to the commune, and from the commune to the Evêché, where
the club of the electors was held, and where the 31st of May
was prepared. It was there that the reconciliation of the
departments with Paris was to take place, since it was thence
that the attack upon the national representation had proceeded.
Pache, the mayor, Chaumette, the procureur, and the whole
municipality, walking before them, ushered them into the Evêché.
Speeches were made on both sides ; the Parisians declared that
they never meant either to violate or to usurp the rights of the
departments ; the envoys acknowledged, in their turn, that
Paris had been calumniated ; they then embraced one another,
AUG. 1793 THE FRENCH BE VOL UTION. 9 5
and abandoned themselves to the warmest enthusiasm. All
at once they bethought them to repair to the Convention, to
communicate to it the reconciliation which had just been
effected. Accordingly they repaired thither, and were im-
mediately introduced. The discussion was suspended. One
of the envoys addressed the Assembly. " Citizens, representa-
tives," said he, "we are come to acquaint you with the affect-
ing scene which has just occurred in the hall of the electors,
whither we went to give the kiss of peace to our brethren of
Paris. Soon, we hope, the heads of the calumniators of this
republican city will fall beneath the sword of the law. We are
all Mountaineers. The Mountain for ever ! " Another begged
the rejoresentatives to give the envoys the fraternal embrace.
The members of the Assembly immediately left their places,
and threw themselves into the arms of the envoys of the
departments. A scene of emotion and enthusiasm ensued.
The envoys then filed off through the hall, shouting " The
Mountain for ever ! the Republic for ever ! " and singing —
" La Montagne nous a sauvés
En congédiant Gensonné ;
La Montagne nous a sauvés
En congédiant Gensonné ;
Au diable les Buzot,
Les Vei'gniaud, les Brissot !
Dansons la Carmagnole." *
They then proceeded to the Jacobins, where they prepared,
in the name of all the envoys of the primary assemblies, an
address, assuring the depai'tments that Paris had been calum-
niated. "Brethren and friends," they wrote, "calm your
uneasiness. We have all here but one sentiment. All our
soitIs are blended together, and triumphant liberty looks around
on none but Jacobins, brethren, and friends. The Marais no
longer exists. We form here but one enormous and terrible
Mountain, which will soon pour forth its fire upon all the
royalists and the partisans of tyranny. Perish the infamous
libellers who have calumniated Paris ! . . . We are all watch-
ing here, night and day, and labouring in concert with our
brethren of the capital for the public welfare. . . . We shall
not return to our homes till we can proclaim to you 1 hat France
is free, and that the country is saved." This address was read,
enthusiastically applauded, and sent to the Convention to be
* "Carmacniole was the name applied in the early period of the Revolution
to a certain dance and the song connected with it. It was afterwards given to
the French soldiers who first engaged in the cause of republicanism, and who
wore a dress of a peculiar cut." — Scott's Life of Napoleon.
g6 HISTOB.Y OF auCx. 1793
inserted forthwith in the minutes of the sitting. The excite-
ment became general. A multitude of speakers rushed to the
tribune of the club ; many imaginations began to be intoxicated.
Robespierre, perceiving this agitation, immediately begged leave
to speak. Every one cheerfully gave way to him. Jacobins,
envoys, all applauded the celebrated orator, whom some of
them had not yet either seen or heard.
He congratulated the departments, which had just saved
France. "They saved it," said he, '"the first time in '89, by
arming themselves spontaneously ; a second time, by repairing
to Paris to execute the 10th of August 1792 ; a third time, by
coming to exhibit in the heart of the capital a spectacle of
union and general reconciliation. At this moment untoward
events have afflicted the republic and endangered its existence ;
but republicans ought never to be afraid, and it is their duty
to beware of an emotion which might lead them to excesses.
It is the design of some at this moment to create a factitious
dearth, and to produce a tumult ; they would urge the people
to attack the arsenal, to disperse the stores there, and to set
it on fire, as has been done in many other towns ; lastly, they
have not yet renounced the intention of causing another event
in the prisons, for the purpose of calumniating Paris, and
breaking the union which has just been sworn. Beware of
all these snares," added Robespierre ; "be calm, be firm ; look
the calamities of the country in the face without fear, and let
us all labour to save it ! "
These words restored calmness to the Assembly, and it
broke up, after greeting the sagacious speaker with reiterated
plaudits.
During the following days Paris was not disturbed by
any commotion ; but nothing was omitted to work upon the
imagination, and to dispose it to a generous enthusiasm. No
danger was concealed ; no unfavourable intelligence was kept
secret from the people. The public was informed successive^
of the discomfitures in La Vendée, of the daily more and more
alarming occurrences at Toulon, of the retrograde movement
of the army of the Rhine, which was falling back before the
conquerors of Mayence, and lastly, of the extremely perilous
situation of the army of the North, which had retired to
Ceesar's Camp, and which the imperialists, the English and
the Dutch, masters of Condc and Valenciennes, and forming a
double mass, might capture by a coup de main. The distance
between Caesar's Camp and Paris was at most but forty leagues,
and there was not a regiment, not an obstacle, to impede the
progress of the enemy. The army of the North broken down,
AUG. 1793 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 97
all would be lost, and the slightest rumour from that frontier
was caught up with anxiety.
These apprehensions were well founded. At this moment
Ccesar's Camp was actually in the greatest danger. On the
evening of the 7th of August, the Allies having arrived before
it, threatened it on all sides. A line of heights extends
between Cambrai and Eouchain. The Scheldt protects by
running along them. This is what is called Caesar's Camp,
supported upon two fortresses, and bordered by a stream of
water. On the evening of the 7th, the Duke of York, being
charged to turn the French, debouched in front of Cambrai,
which formed the right of Cassar's Camp. He called upon the
garrison to surrender. The commandant replied by closing
the gates and burning the suburbs. The same evening Coburg,
with a mass of forty thousand men, arrived in two columns
on the banks of the Scheldt, and bivouacked facing our camp.
An intense heat paralyzed the strength of men and horses.
Several soldiers, struck by the sun's rays, died in the course
of the day. Kilmaine, appointed to succeed Custine, but
who would only accept the command ad interim, deemed it
impossible to maintain his ground in so perilous a position.
Threatened on his right by the Duke of York, having scarcely
thirty-five thousand disheartened men to oppose to seventy
thousand elated with victory, he conceived it most prudent to
think of retreating, and to gain time by going in quest of
another position. The line of the Scarpe, situated behind
that of the Scheldt, appeared to him a good one to occupy.
Between Arras and Douai, heights, bordered by the Scarpe,
form a camp similar to Cœsar's Camp, and like that, it is
supported by two fortresses, and protected by a stream of
water. Kilmaine prepared to retreat on the morning of the
following day. His main body was to cross the Cense, a small
river, bordering the rear of the ground which he occupied ;
and he himself was to proceed with a strong rear-guard
towards the right, where the Duke of York was on the point
of debouching.
Accordingly, next morning, the 8th, at daybreak, the heavy
artillery and the baggage of the infantry moved off, crossed
the Cense, and destroyed all the bridges. An hour afterwards,
Kilmaine, with some batteries of light artillery and a strong
division of cavalry, proceeded towards the right, to protect
the retreat against the English. He could not have arrived
more opportunely. Two battalions, having lost their way, had
strayed to the little village of Marquion, and were making
an obstinate resistance against the English. In spite of
VOL. III. G3
98 HISTORY OF aug. 1793
their efforts, they were on the point of being overwhelmed.
Kilmaine, on his arrival, immediately placed his light artillery
on the enemy's flank, pushed forward his cavalry upon him,
and forced him to retire. The battalions, being then extri-
cated, were enabled to join the rest of the army. At this
moment the English and the imperialists, debouching at the
same time on the right and on the front of Caesar's Camp,
found it completely evacuated. At length, towards the close
of day, the French were reassembled in the camp of Gavarelle,
supported upon Arras and Douai, and having the Scai'pe in
front of them.
Thus, on the 8th of August, Cfesar's Camp was evacuated,
as that of Famars had been ; and Cambrai and Bouchain were
left to their own strength, like Valenciennes and Conde. The
line of the vScarpe, running behind that of the Scheldt, is not,
of course, between Paris and the Scheldt, but between the
Scheldt and the sea. Kilmaine, therefore, had marched on
one side instead of falling back ; and thus part of the frontier
was left uncovered.
The Allies had it in their power to overrun the whole depart-
ment of the Nord. What should they do ? Should they,
making another day's march, attack the camp of Gavarelle
and overwhelm the enemy who had escaped them ? Should
they march upon Paris ? or should they resume their old
design upon Dunkirk ? Meanwhile they pushed on parties
to Peronne and St. Quentin, and the alarm spread to Paris,*
where it was reported with dismay that Ceesar's Camp was
lost, like that of Famars ; that Cambrai was abandoned, like
Valenciennes. People inveighed everywhere against Kilmaine,
unmindful of the important service that he had rendered by
his masterly retreat.
The preparations for the solemn festival of the lOth of
August, destined to electrify all minds, were made amidst
sinister rumours. On the 9th the report on the result of
the votes was presented to the Convention. The forty-four
thousand municipalities had accepted the constitution. In the
* "The Allies, in fjreat force, were now grouped within one hundreil and
sixty miles of I'aris ; fifteen days' march would liave hrought them to its gates.
A camp was formed between Peronne and St. (iHientin, and the light troops
pushed on to Peronne and Bapaunie. Irresolution prevailed in the French
army, dismay in the li'rench capital, everywhere tlui republican authorities
were taking to flight ; the Austrian generals, encouraged by such extraordinary
success, were at length urgent to advance ami improve their successes before the
enemy recovered from their consternation ; and if they had been jiermitted to
do so, what incalculable disasters would Europe have been spared ! Everything
promised success to vigorous o})erations ; but the Allies were paralyzed by intestine
divisions. The Prussians were chieily to blame for this torpor." — Alison.
AUG. 1793 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 99
number of the votes none were missing but those of Marseilles,
Corsica, and La Vendée. A single commune, that of St. Ton-
nant, in the department of the Cotes-du-Nord, had dared to
demand the re-establishment of the Bourbons on the throne.
On the loth the festival commenced with the dawn. David,
the celebrated painter,* had been appointed to superintend
the arrangements. At four in the morning the persons who
were to compose the procession assembled in the Place de
la Bastille. The Convention, the envoys of the primary
assemblies, the eighty-six oldest of whom had been selected
to represent the eighty-six departments, the popular societies,
and all the armed sections, were ranged around a large foun-
tain called the Fountain of Regeneration. It was formed by a
large statue of Nature, who poured forth the water from her
breasts into a spacious basin. As soon as the sun had gilded
the tops of the buildings he was saluted by some stanzas which
were sung to the tune of the Marseillaise. The president of
the Convention took a goblet, poured some of the water of
regeneration on the ground, then drank of it, and handed the
goblet to the seniors of the departments, each of whom drank
in his turn. After this ceremony the procession moved along
the Boulevards. The j^opular societies, bearing a banner on
which was painted the eye of vigilance, advanced first. Next
came the whole of the Convention. Each of its members held
a bunch of ears of corn, and eight of them, in the centre, bore
upon an ark the constitutional act and the rights of man.
The senior envoys formed a chain round the Convention, and
walked united by a tricoloured cord. Each held in his hands
an olive-branch, in token of the reconciliation of the provinces
with Paris, and a pike destined to form part of the national
fasces which were composed of the eighty-six departments.
After this portion of the procession, came groups of people
* " The fine arts, which David studied, had not produced on his mind the
softening and humanizing effect ascribed to them. Frightfully ugly in his
exterior, his mind seemed to correspond with the harshness of his looks. 'Let
us grind enough of the red,' was the professional phrase of which he made use
when sitting down to the bloody work of the day. He held a seat in the
committee of public security. David is allowed to have jJossessed great merit
as a draughtsman. Foreigners, however, do not admire his composition and
colouring so much as his countrymen." — Scott's Life of Napoleon.
"While in Paris, in the year 1815, Sir Walter Scott was several times
entertained at dinners by distinguished individuals in the French capital ; but
the last of these dinners at which he was present was thoroughly poisoned by
a preliminary circumstance. The poet, on entering the salon, was introduced
to a stranger, whose physiognomy struck him as the most hideous he had ever
seen ; nor was his disgust lessened when he found, a few minutes afterwards, that
he had undergone the accolade of David, the painter — him ' of the bloodstained
brush.' "—Lockhart's Life of Scott.
lOo HISTORY OF aug. 1793
with the implements of their trades, and in the midst of them
was a plough, upon which were an aged couple, drawn by
their young sons. This plough was immediately followed by
a war-chariot, containing the urn of the soldiers who had died
for their country. The procession was closed by tumbrels laden
with sceptres, crowns, coats of arms, and tapestry sprinkled
with fleurs-de-lis.
The procession passed along the Boulevards, and pursued
its way towards the Place de la Révolution. In passing the
Boulevard Poissonnière, the president of the Convention handed
a laurel bough to the heroines of the 5tli and 6th of October,
seated on their guns. In the Place de la Révolution he again
halted, and set fire to all the insignia of royalty and nobility
drawn thither in the tumbrels. He then tore off a veil thrown
over a statue, which, exposed to the view of all, exhibited the
features of Liberty. Salutes of artillery marked the moment
of its inauguration ; and at the same moment thousands of
birds bearing light flags were let loose, and seemed, while
darting into the air, to proclaim that the earth was set free.
They then proceeded to the Champ de Mars by the I'lace
des Invalides, and filed past a colossal figure representing the
French people, which had struck down federalism, and was
stifling it in the mud of a marsh. At length the procession
arrived at the field of the Federation. There it divided into
two columns, which walked round the altar of the country.
The president of the Convention and the eighty-six elders
occupied the summit of the altar ; the members of the Con-
vention, and the mass of the envoys of the primary assemblies,
covered the steps. Each group of the people came in turn,
and deposited on the altar the produce of its trade, stuffs,
fruit, articles of every kind. The president then collected the
papers on which the primary assemblies had inscribed their
votes, and laid them on the altar of the country. A general
discharge of artillery was then made, an immense concourse
of people mingled their shouts with the sound of the cannon,
and the oath to defend the constitution was sworn with the
same enthusiasm as on the 14th of July 1790 and 1792 — a
vain oath if we consider the letter of the constitution, but
highly heroic and admirably kept if we consider only the soil
and the Revolution itself. The constitutions, in fact, passed
away, but the soil and the Revolution were defended with
heroic firmness.
After this ceremony each of the eighty-six elders handed
his pike to tlie ])resident. who made a bundle of them, and de-
livered it, together with the constitutional act, to the deputies
AUG. 1793 THE FRENCH RE VOL UTION. i o i
of the primary assemblies, exhorting them to rally all their
forces around the ark of the new covenant. The company
then separated ; one part of the procession accompanied the
cinerary urn of the French who had fallen for their country to
a temple prepared for its reception ; another went to deposit
the ark of the constitution in a place where it was to remain
till the following day, when it was to be carried to the hall of
the Convention. A large representation of the siege and bom-
bardment of Lille and the heroic resistance of its inhabitants
occupied the rest of the day, and disposed the imagination of
the people to warlike scenes.
Such was the third Federation of republican France. We
do not there behold, as in 1790. all the classes of a great
nation, rich and poor, noble and simple, mingled for a moment
in one and the same intoxication, and, weary of mutual hate,
forgiving one another for a few hours their differences of rank
and of opinion : here was seen an immense people, no longer
talking of pardon, but of danger, of devotion, of desperate
resolutions, and feasting itself on that gigantic pomp till the
morrow should call it away to the field of battle. One cir-
cumstance heightened the character of this scene, and covered
what contemptuous or hostile minds might deem ridiculous in
it, namely, the danger and the enthusiasm with which it was
met. On the first 14th of July 1790 the Revolution was still
innocent and benevolent ; but it could not be serious, and might
have ended, like a ridiculous farce, in foreign bayonets. In
August 1793 it was tragic, but grand, marked by victories and
defeats, and serious as an irrevocable and heroic resolution.
The moment for taking great measures was arrived. The
most extraordinary ideas were fermenting everywhere. It was
proposed to exclude all the nobles from public employments ;
to decree the general imprisonment of suspected persons,
against whom there existed as yet no precise law ; to raise the
population en masse; to seize all ai'ticles of consumption, to
remove them to the magazines of the republic, which should
itself distribute them to each individual ; and people felt the
need of some expedient for sup]3lying immediately sufficient
funds, without being able to devise one. It was particularly
desired that the Convention should retain its functions, that it
should not give up its powers to the new legislature which was
to succeed it, and that the constitution should be veiled, like
the statue of the law, till the general defeat of the enemies of
the republic.
It was at the Jacobins that all these ideas were successively
proposed. Robespierre, striving no longer to repress the
I02 HISTORY OF aug 1793
energy of opinion, but, on the contrary, to excite it, insisted
particularly on the necessity for maintaining the National
Convention in its functions ; and in this he gave a piece of
excellent advice. To dissolve in a moment an assembly pos-
sessed of the entire government, in whose bosom dissensions
were extinguished, and to replace it by a new, inexperienced
assembly, which would be again torn by factions, would have
been a most disastrous project. The deputies of the provinces,
surrounding Robespierre, exclaimed that they had sworn to
continue assembled till the Convention had taken measures of
public welfare, and they declared that they would oblige it to
retain its functions. Audoin, Pache's son-in-law, then spoke,
and proposed to demand the levy en masse, and the general
apprehension of suspected persons. The envoys of the primary
assemblies immediately drew up a petition, which, on the
following day, the 12th, they presented to the Convention.
They demanded that the Convention should take upon itself
the duty of saving the country, that no amnesty should be
granted, that suspected persons should be apprehended, that
they should be sent off first to meet the enemy, and that the
people raised en tuasse should march behind. Some of these
suggestions were adopted. The apprehension of suspected
persons was decreed in principle ; but the project of a levy
en masse, which appeared too violent, was referred to the com-
mittee of public welfare. The Jacobins, dissatisfied, insisted on
the proposed measure, and continued to repeat in their club,
that it was not a i:)artial but a general movement which was
needed.
In the following days the committee made its report, and
proposed too vague a decree, and proclamations much too
cold, "The committee," exclaimed Danton, "has not said
everything ; it has not said that, if France is vanquished, if
she is torn to pieces, the rich will be the first victims of the
rapacity of the tyrants ; it has not said that the vanquished
patriots will rend and burn this republic, rather than see it
pass into the hands of their insolent conquerors ! Such is the
lesson that those rich egotists must be taught ! . . . What
do you hope ? " added Danton ; " you will not do anything to
save the republic. Consider what would be your lot if liberty
should fall. A regency directed by an idiot, an infant king
whose minority would be long, and lastly, our provinces par-
celled out — a frightful dismemberment ! Yes, ye rich, they
would tax you, they would squeeze out of you more, and a
thousand times more, than you will have to spend to save your
country and to perpetuate liberty ! . . . The Convention," he
ATTG. 1793 THE French: re vol ution. i o 3
continued, " has in its hands the popular thunderbolts. Let it
make use of them, let it hurl them at the heads of the tyrants.
It has the envoys of the primary assemblies, it has its own
members ; let it send both to effect a general arming."
The irrojtU de loi were again referred to the committee.
On the following day the Jacobins once more despatched the
envoys of the primary assemblies to the Convention. They
came to repeat the demand, not of a partial recruiting, but of
the levy en masse, because, say they, half-measures are fatal,
because it is easier to move the whole nation than part of its
citizens.* " If," added they, "you demand one hundred thou-
sand soldiers, they will not come forward ; but millions of men
will respond to a general appeal. Let there be no exemption
for the citizen physically constituted for arms, be his occupa-
tion what it may ; let agriculture alone retain the hands that
are indispensable for raising the alimentary productions from
the earth ; let the course of trade be temporarily suspended ;
let all business cease ; let the grand, the only, the universal
business of the French be to save the republic."
The Convention could no longer withstand so ])ressing a
summons. Sharing itself the excitement of the petitioners, it
directed its committee to retire, and draw up instantly the
'projet of the levy en masse. The committee returned in a few
minutes and presented the following projet, which was adopted
amidst universal transport : —
"Art. I. The French people declares, by the organ of its
representatives, that it will rise one and all, for the defence
of its liberty and of its constitution, and for the final deliver-
ance of its territory from its enemies.
" 2. The committee of public welfare will to-morrow
present the mode of organization of this great national
movement."
By other articles, eighteen representatives were appointed
* "The representatives of forty thousand municipalities came to accept the
new constitution. Having, when admitted to the bar of the Assembly, signified
the consent of the people, they demanded the arrest of all suspected persons,
and a general rising of the people. 'Very well,' exclaimed Danton ; 'let us
consent to their wish. The deputies of the primary assemblies have begun to
exercise among us the system of terror. I demand that the Convention, by a
decree, invest the commissioners of the primary assemblies with the right to
make an appeal to the people, to excite the energy of the people, and to put
four hundred thousand men into requisition. It is by the sound of our cannon
that we must make our constitution known to our enemies ! This is tlie time
to take that great and last oath, that we will die, or annihilate the tyrants! '
The oath was immediately taken by every one of the deputies and citizens in
the hall. Soon after this the republic had forty armies and twelve hundred
thousand soldiers. France became, on the one hand, a camp and a workshop
for the republicans ; and, on the other, a prison for the disaffected." — 3Iigjiet.
I o 4 HIS TOE Y OF aug. 1793
for the purpose of travelling over all i'rance, and directing the
envoys of the primary assemblies in their requisitions of men,
horses, stores, and provisions. This grand impulse once given,
everything would be possible. When it was once declared
that all France, men and things, belonged to the government,
that government, according to the danger, its own understand-
ing, and its growing energy, could do whatever it deemed useful
and indispensable. It was not expedient, it is true, to raise
the population en masse, and to interrupt production, and even
the labours necessary for nutrition ; but it was expedient that
the government should possess the power of demanding every-
thing, save and except that which was required by the wants of
the moment.
The month of August was the epoch of the grand decrees
which set all France in motion, all resources in activity, and
which terminated to the advantage of the Revolution — its last
and its most terrible crisis.
It was requisite at once to set the population afoot, to pro-
vide it with arms, and to supply by some new financial mea-
sure the expense of this mighty movement. It was requisite to
place the paper-money in proportion with the price of articles
of consumption ; it was requisite to distribute the armies and
the generals in a manner suitable to each theatre of war, and
lastly, to appease the revolutionary indignation by great and
terrible executions. We shall presently see what the govern-
ment did to satisfy at once these urgent wants and those bad
passions, to which it was obliged to submit, because they were
inseparable from the energy which saves a people in danger.
To impose upon each locality a contingent in men was not a
proceeding adapted to the circumstances, nor was it worthy of
the enthusiasm which it was necessaiy to suppose the French
to possess, in order to inspire them with it. This German
method of laying upon each country a tax in men, like money,
was moreover in contradiction with the principle of the levy
en masse. A general recruiting by lot was equally unsuitable.
As every one was not called, every one would then have thought
how to get exempted, and would have cursed the lot wliich had
obliged him to serve. The levy eii masse would throw France
into one universal confusion, and excite the sneers of the
moderates and of the counter-revolutionists. The committee
of public welfare therefore devised the expedient that was best
adapted to circumstances. This was to make the whole popula-
tion disposable, to divide it into generations, and to send off
those generations in the order of age, as they were wanted.
The decree of August the 23rd ran thus : — " From this moment
AUCx. 1793 THE FBENCH RE VOL TJTION. i o 5
till that when the enemy shall be driven from the territory
of the French republic, all the French shall be in permanent
requisition for the service of the armies. The young men
shall go forth to fight ; the married men shall forge the arms
and transport the supplies ; the women shall make tents and
clothes, and attend on the hospitals ; the children shall make
lint out of rags ; the old men shall cause themselves to be
carried to the public j'iaces, to excite the courage of the
warriors, to preach hatred of kings and love of the republic."
All the young unmarried men or widowers without children,
from the age of eighteen to that of twenty-five years, were to
compose the first levy, called the first i^equisition. They were to
assemble immediately, not in the chief towns of departments, but
in those of districts ; for, since the breaking out of federalism,
there was a dread of those large assemblages by departments,
whicli gave them a feeling of their strength and an idea of
revolt. There was also another motive for adopting this
course, namely, the difficulty of collecting in the chief towns
sufficient stores of provisions and supplies for large masses.
The battalions formed in the chief towns of districts were to
commence their military exercises immediately, and to hold
themselves in readiness to set out on the very first day. The
generation between twenty-five and thirty had notice to pre-
pare itself, and meanwhile it had to do the duty of the interior.
Lastly, the remainder, between thirty and sixty, was disposable
at the will of the representatives sent to effect this gradual
levy. Notwithstanding these dispositions, the instantaneous
levy en masse of the whole population was ordered in certain
parts where the danger was most urgent, as La Vendée, Lyons,
Toulon, the Eliine, &c.
The means employed for arming, lodging, and subsisting
the levies, were adapted to the circumstances. All the horses
and beasts of burden which were not necessary for agriculture
or manufactures were required, and placed at the disposal of
the army commissaries. Muskets were to be given to the
generation that was to march : the fowling-pieces and pikes
were reserved for the duty of the interior. In the depart-
ments where manufactures of arms could be established, the
public places and promenades, and the large houses com-
prehended in the national possessions, were to serve for
the erection of workshops. The principal establishment was
placed at Paris. The forges were to be erected in the gardens
of the Luxembourg, and the machines for boring cannon on
the banks of the Seine. All the journeymen gunsmiths were
put into requisition, as were also the watch and clock makers.
I o 6 HIS TOE Y OF auCx. 1 7 9 3
who had very little work at the moment, and who were capable
of executing certain parts in the manufacture of arms. For
this manufacture alone, thirty millions were placed at the dis-
posal of the minister of war. These extraordinary means were
to be employed till the quantity produced should amount to
one thousand muskets per day. This great establishment was
placed at Paris, because there, under the eyes of the govern-
ment and the Jacobins, negligence became utterly impossible,
and all the prodigies of expedition and energy were ensured.
Accordingly this manufacture very soon fulfilled its destination.
As there was a want of saltpetre, an idea occurred to extract
it from the mould of cellars. Directions were issued to examine
them all, to ascertain whether the soil in which they were sunk
contained any portion of that substance or not. In consequence
every person was obliged to suffer his cellar to be inspected
and dug up, that the mould might be lixiviated when it con-
tained saltpetre.
The houses which had become national property were
destined to serve for barracks and magazines. In order to
procure supplies for these large armed masses, various mea-
sures, not less extraordinary than the preceding, were adopted.
The Jacobins proposed that the republic should have a general
statement of the articles of consumption drawn up, that it
should buy them all, and then undertake the task of distribut-
ing them, either by giving them to the soldiers armed for its
defence, or by selling them to the other citizens at a moderate
price. This propensity to attempt to do everything, to make
amends for nature herself when her course is not according to
our wishes, was not so blindly followed as the Jacobins would
have desired. In consequence it was ordered that the state-
ments of the articles of consumption already demanded from
the municipalities should be forthwith completed and sent to
the office of the minister of the interior, in order to furnish a
general statistical view of the wants and the resources of the
country ; that all the corn should be threshed where that had
not yet been done, and that the municipalities themselves
should cause it to be threshed where individuals refused to
comply ; that the farmers or proprietors of corn should pay
the arrears of their contributions, and two-thirds of those
for the year 1793, in kind ; lastly, that the farmers and
managers of the national domains should pay the rents of
them in kind.*
* "This system of forced requisitions <s;ave the government the command
of a large proportion of tlie agricultural ])ro(luce of the kingdom, and it was
enforced with merciless severity. Not only grain, but horses, carriages, and
AUG. 1793 THE FRENCH BE VOL UTION. i o 7
The execution of these extraordinary measures could not
be otherwise than extraordinary also. Limited powers con-
fided to local authorities, which would have been stopped
every moment by resistance and by remonstrances, who,
moreover, feeling a greater or a less degree of zeal, would
have acted with very unequal energy, would not have been
adapted either to the nature of the measures decreed or to
their urgency. In this case, therefore, the dictatorship of the
commissioners of the Convention was the only engine that
could be made use of. They had been employed for the first
levy of three hundred thousand men, decreed in March, and
they had speedily and completely fulfilled their mission. Sent
to the armies, they narrowly watched the generals and their
operations, sometimes thwarted consummate commanders, but
everyAvhere kindled zeal and imparted great vigour. Shut up
in fortresses, they had sustained heroic sieges in Valenciennes
and Mayence ; spread through the interior, they had power-
fully contributed to cjuell federalism. They were therefore
again employed in this instance, and invested with unlimited
poAvers for executing this requisition of men and matériel.
Having under their orders the envoys of the primary assem-
blies, being authorized to direct them at pleasure, and to
commit to them a portion of their powers, they had at hand
devoted men, perfectly acquainted with the state of each dis-
trict, and possessing no authority but what they themselves
gave them for the necessities of that extraordinary service.
Several representatives had already been sent into the in-
terior, both to La Vendée, and to Lyons and Grenoble, for
the purpose of destroying the relics of federalism ; eighteen
more were appointed, with directions to divide France among
them, and to take, in concert with those previously in commis-
sion, the needful steps for calling out the young men of the
first requisition, for arming them, for supplying them with
provisions, and for despatching them to the most suitable
points, according to the advice and demands of the generals.
They were instructed, moreover, to effect the complete sub-
mission of the federalist administrations.
With these military plans it was necessary to combine
financial measures, in order to defray the expenses of the war.
We have seen what was the state of France in this respect. A
public debt in disorder, composed of debts of all sorts, of all
conveyances of every sort were forcibly taken from the cultivators. These
exactions excited the most violent discontent, but no one ventured to give
it vent ; to have expressed dissatisfaction would have put the complainer in
imminent hazard of his life." — Alison.
io8 HISTORY OF aug. 1793
dates, and which were opposed to the debts contracted under
the republic ; discredited assignats, to which were opposed
specie, foreign paper, the shares of the financial companies,
and which were no longer available to the government for
paying the public services, or the people for purchasing the
commodities which they needed — such was then our situation.
What was to be done in such a conjuncture ? — resort to a loan,
or issue assignats? To borrow would be impossible, in the
disorder in which the public debt then was, and with the little
confidence which the engagements of the republic inspired.
To issue assignats would be easy enough ; for this nothing
more was required than the national printing-office. But in
order to defray the most trifling expenses it would be necessary
to issue enormous quantities of jîaper, that is to say, five or six
times its nominal value, and this would serve to increase the
great calamity of its discredit, and to cause a fresh rise in
the prices of commodities. We shall see what the genius
of necessity suggested to the men who had undertaken the
salvation of France.
The first and the most indispensable measure was to estab-
lish order in the debt, and to prevent its being divided into
contracts of all forms and of all periods, and which, by their
differences of origin and nature, gave rise to a dangerous and
counter-revolutionary stockjobbing. The knowledge of these
old titles, their verification, and their classification, required a
particular study, and occasioned a frightful complication in
the accounts. It was only in Paris that every stockholder
could obtain payment of his dividends, and sometimes the
division of his credit into several portions obliged him to apply
to twenty difl^erent paymasters. There was the constituted
debt, the debt demandable at a fixed period, the demandable
debt proceeding from the liquidation, and in this manner the
exchequer was daily liable to demands, and obliged to procure
funds for the payment of sums thus falling due. "The debt
must be made uniform and reintblicanized,'" said Cambon, and
he proposed to convert all the contracts of the creditors of the
State into an inscription in a great book, which should be
called the Great Book of the Public Deht. This inscription, and
the extract from it which should be delivered to the creditors,
were thenceforward to constitute their only titles. To prevent
any alarm for the safety of this book, a duplicate was to be
deposited in the archives of the treasury ; and besides, it was
not in greater danger from fire or other accidents than the
registers of the notaries. The creditors were therefore within
a certain time to transmit their titles, that they might be in-
AUG. 1793 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 109
scribed and then burned. The notaries were ordered to deliver
up all the titles deposited in their hands, and to be punished
with ten years' imprisonment if before they gave them up
they kept or furnished any copies. If the creditor suffered
six months to elapse without applying to have his debt in-
scribed he was to lose his interest ; if he allowed a year to
pass away he was to forfeit the principal. " In this manner,"
said Cambon, " it will no longer be possible to distinguish the
debt contracted by despotism from that which has been con-
tracted since the Revolution ; and I would defy Monseigneur
le Despotisme, if he were to rise from his grave, to recognize
his old debt when it shall be blended with the new one. This
operation effected, you will see the capitalist, who wishes for
a king because he has a king for his debtor, and who is appre-
hensive of losing his credit if his debtor is not re-established,
Avishing well to the republic which will have become his debtor,
because he will be afraid of losing his capital in losing it."
This was not the only advantage of that institution ; it had
others ecpially great, and it commenced the system of the
public credit. The capital of each credit was converted into
a perpetual annuity at the rate of five per cent. Thus the
creditor of a sum of one thousand francs was inscribed in the
Great Book for an annuity of fifty francs. In this manner
the old debts, some of which bore an usurious interest, while
others were liable to unjust deductions, or burdened with cer-
tain taxes, would be brought back to a uniform and equi-
table interest. Then, too, the State, changing its debt into a
perpetual annuity, would be no longer liable to repayments,
and could not be obliged to refund the capital, provided it
paid the interest. It would find, moreover, an easy and
advantageous mode of acquitting itself, namely, to redeem
the annuity at once whenever it hap])ened to fall below its
value. Thus when an annuity of fifty livres, arising from
a capital of one thousand francs, should be worth but nine
hundred or eight hundred livi*es, the State would gain, said
Cambon, one-tenth or one-fifth of the capital by redeeming
it at once. This redemption was not yet organized by means
of a fixed sinking-fund ; but the expedient had suggested itself,
and the science of public credit began to be formed.
Thus the inscription in the Great Book would simplify the
form of titles, bind the existence of the debt to the existence
of the republic, and change the credits into a perpetual annuity,
the capital of which should not be repayable, and the interests
of which should be alike for all portions of the inscriptions.
This idea was simple, and in part borrowed from the English ;
1 1 o HISTOR Y OF aug. 1793
but it required great courage of execution to apply it to
France, and it possessed the merit of being peculiarly season-
able at that moment. There was something forced, to be
sure, in thus changing the nature of the titles and the credits,
in reducing the interest to a uniform rate, and in punishing
with forfeiture those creditors who would not submit to this
conversion ; but for a State, justice is the best possible order ;
and this grand and energetic plan for giving uniformity to
the debt was befitting a bold and complete devolution, which
aimed at regulating everything by the standard of the public
right.*
With this boldness Cambon's plan combined a scrupulous
regard for engagements made with foreigners, who had been
promised repayment at fixed periods. It provided that, as the
assignats were not current out of France, the foreign creditors
should be paid in specie, and at the promised periods. More-
over, the communes having contracted particular debts, expos-
ing their creditors to great inconvenience by not paying them,
the State was to take upon itself their debts, but not to seize
their property till the sums for which it should have engaged
were paid. This plan was adopted entire, and it was as
well executed as conceived. The capital of the debt thus re-
duced to uniformity was converted into a mass of annuities of
two hundred millions per annum. It was deemed right, by
way of compensating for the old taxes of different kinds with
which it was burdened, to impose a general duty of one-fifth,
which reduced the amount of interest to one hundred and
sixty millions. In this manner everything was simplified and
rendered perfectly clear, a great source of stockjobbing was
destroyed, and confidence was restored ; because a partial
bankru]3tcy in regard to this or that kind of stock could
no longer take place, and it was not to be supposed in regard
to the whole debt.
From this moment it became more easy to have recourse
to a loan. We shall presently see in what manner that
expedient was employed to support the assignats.
The value which the devolution disposed of in order to
defray its extraordinary expenses still consisted in national
domains. This value, represented by the assignats, floated
* "The wliole of the creditors, both royal and republican, were paid only in
assignats, which progressively fell to a fifth, a tenth, a hundredth, and at last,
in 1797, to a two hundred and fiftieth i)art of their nominal value ; so that
in the space of a few years the payment was entirely illusory, and a national
bnnkrnptcy had in fact existed many years before it was formally declared by
the Directory." — Alison.
AUG. 1793 Ti^E FRENCH REVOLUTION. i i 1
in the circulation. It was necessary to favour sales for the
purpose of bringing back the assignats, and to raise their
value by rendering them more scarce. Victories were the
best but not the readiest means of promoting sales. Various
expedients had been devised to make amends for the want
of them. The purchasers had for instance been allowed to
pay in several yearly instalments. But this measure, designed
to favour the peasants, and to render them proprietors, was
more likely to encourage sales than to bring back the assignats.
In order to diminish their circulating quantity with greater
certainty, it was resolved to make the compensation for offices
partly in assignats and partly in achnowlcdgments of liquidation.
The compensations amounting to less than three thousand
francs were to be paid in assignats ; the others, in acknowledg-
ments of liquidation, which could not be divided into smaller
sums than ten thousand livres, which were not to circulate
as money, were to be transferable only like any other efiPects
to bearer, and were to be taken in payment for national
domains. In this manner the portion of the national domains
converted into forced money would be diminished — all that
would be transformed into acknowledgments of liquidation
would consist of sums not minutely divided, transferable with
difficulty, fixed in the hands of the rich, withdrawn from
circulation and from stockjobbing.
In order to promote still more the sale of the national
domains, it was decided, in creating the Great Book, that
the inscriptions of annuities in that book should be taken
for one-half the amount in payment for those possessions.
This facility could not fail to produce new sales and new
returns of assignats.
But all these schemes were insufficient, and the mass of
paper-money was still far too considerable. The Constituent
Assembly, the Legislative Asseinbly, and the Convention had
decreed the creation of five thousand one hundred millions of
assignats : four hundred and eighty-four millions had not yet
been issued, and remained in the exchequer ; consequently
four thousand six hundred and sixteen million only had been
thrown into circulation. Part had come back by means of
sales ; the purchasers being allowed to pay by instalments,
from twelve to fifteen millions were due upon sales effected,
and eight hundred and forty millions had been returned and
burnt. Thus the amount in circulation, in the month of
August 1793, was three thousand seven hundred and seventy-
six millions.
The first step was to take the character of money from the
112 HISTORY OF AUG. 1793
assignats with the royal effigy, which were hoarded, and injured
the repubhcan assignats by the superior confidence which they
enjoyed. Though deprived of their monetary character, they
ceased not to have a vahie ; they were transformed into paper
payable to bearer, and they retained the faculty of being taken
in payment either of contributions or for national property,
till the 1st of January ensuing. After that period they were
not to have any sort of value. These assignats amounted to
five hundred and fifty-eight millions. This measure ensured
their withdraAval from circulation in less than four months ;
and as it was well known that they were all in the hands of
counter-revolutionary speculators, the government exhibited a
proof of justice in not annulling them, and in merely obliging
the holders to return them to the exchequer.
It will be recollected that, in the month of May, when it
was declared in principle that there should be armies called
revolutionary, it was decreed also that a forced loan of one
thousand millions should be raised from the rich, in order
to defray the expenses of a war of which they, as aristocrats,
were reputed to be the authors, and to which they would
not devote either their persons or their fortunes. This loan,
assessed, as we shall presently see, was destined, according
to Oambon's plan, to be employed in taking one thousand
millions of assignats out of circulation. To leave the option
to the well-disposed citizens, and to ensure them some advan-
tages, a voluntary loan was opened ; those who came forward
to fill it received an inscription of annuity at the rate already
decreed, of five per cent., and thus obtained interest for their
capital. This inscription was to exempt them from their con-
tribution to the forced loan, or at least from a portion of it
equivalent to the amount invested in the voluntary loan. The
ill-disposed people of wealth, who waited for the forced loan,
were to receive a title bearing no interest, and which was, like
the inscription of annuity, but a republican title with a deduc-
tion of five per cent. Lastly, as it had been settled that the
inscriptions should be taken for half the amount in payment
for national property, those who contributed to the voluntary
loan, receiving an inscription of annuity, had the faculty of
reimbursing themselves in national property : on the contrary,
the certificates of the forced loan were not to be taken, till
two years after the peace, in payment for purchased domains.
It was requisite, so said the jjvojet, to interest the rich in
the speedy conclusion of the war, and in the pacification of
Europe.
By means of the forced voluntary loan one thousand millions
AUG. 1793 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 113
of assignats were to be returned to the exchequer. These
were destined to be burned. There would be returned by
the contributions which yet remained to be paid seven hun-
dred millions, five hundred and fifty-eight millions of which
were in royal assignats, already deprived of their mone-
tar}^ value, and no longer possessing the faculty of paying
for the taxes. It was certain, therefore, that in two or three
months, in the first place the thousand millions from the loan,
and in the next, seven hundred millions in contributions,
would be withdrawn from circulation. The floating sum of
three thousand seven hundred and seventy-six millions would
thus be reduced to two thousand and seventy-six millions.
It was to be presumed that the faculty of changing the inscrip-
tions of the debt into national projjerty would lead to new
purchases, and that in this way five or six hundred millions
might be returned. The amount then would be further re-
duced to fifteen or sixteen hundred millions. Thus, for the
moment, by reducing the floating mass more than one-half,
the assignats would be restored to their value ; and the four
hundred and eighty-four millions in the exchequer might be
employed to advantage. The seven hundred millions returned
by taxes, five hundred and fifty-eight of which were to receive
the republican effigy and to be thrown into circulation again,
would thus recover their value, and might be employed in the
following year. The assignats would thus be raised for the
moment, and that was the essential point. If the republic
should be successful, and save itself, victory would completely
establish their value, allow new issues to be made, and the
remainder of the national domains to be realized — a remainder
that was still considerable, and that was daily increasing by
emigration.
The manner in which this forced loan was to be executed
was in its nature prompt and necessarily arbitrary. How is it
possible to estimate property without error, without injustice,
even in periods of tranquillity, taking the necessary time, and
consulting all probabilities ? Now, that which is not possible
even with the most propitious circumstances, could still less
be hoped for in a time of violence and hurry. But when the
government was compelled to injure so many families, to strike
so many indi^dduals, could it care much about a mistake in
regard to fortune or any little inaccuracy in the assessment ?
It therefore instituted, for the forced loan, as for the requisi-
tions, a sort of dictatorship, and assigned it to the communes.
Every person was obliged to give in a statement of his income.
In every commune the general council a^jpointed examiners,
VOL. III. 64 *
114 EISTOBY OF auo. 1793
and these decided from their knowledge of the localities if
those statements were probable ; and if tliey snpjjosed them
to be false, they had a right to double them. Out of the in-
come of each family the sum of looo francs was set aside for
each individual — husband, wife, and children : all beyond this
was deemed surplus income, and as such, liable to taxation.
For a taxable income of lOOO to 10,000 francs the tax was
one-tenth; a surplus of lOOO francs paid 100 ; a surplus of
2000 paid 200, and so on. All surplus income exceeding
10,000 francs was charged a sum of equal amount. In this
manner every family which, besides the lOOO francs allowed
per head, and the surplus income of 10,000 francs which had
to pay a tax of one-tenth, possessed a still larger income, was
obliged to give the whole excess to the loan. Thus a family
consisting of five persons, and enjoying an income of 50,000
livres, had 5000 francs reputed to be necessary, 10,000 francs
taxed one-tenth, which reduced it to 9000, making in the
whole, 14,000; and was obliged to give up for this year the
remaining 36,000 to the forced or voluntary loan. To take
one year's surplus from all the opulent classes was certainly
not so very harsh a proceeding, when so many individuals
were going to sacrifice their lives in the field of battle ; and
this sum, which, moreover, the government might have taken
irrevocably, and as an indispensable war-tax, might be changed
for a republican title, convertible either into State annuities or
into portions of the national property.
This grand operation consisted, therefore, in withdrawing
from circulation one thousand millions in assignats, by taking
it from the ricli ; in divesting that sum of its quality of money
and of circulating medium, and turning it into a mere charge
upon the national property, which the rich might change or
not into a corresponding portion of that property. In this
manner they were obliged to become purchasers, or at least to
furnish the same sum in assignats as they would have furnished
had they become so. It was, in short, one thousand millions
in assignats, the forced placing of which was effected.
To the measures for supporting paper-money were added
others. After destroying the rivalry between the old con-
tracts of the State and that of the assignats with the royal
effigy, it became necessary to destroy the rivalry of the shares
in the financial companies. A decree was thei'efore passed
abolishing the life insurance company, the com2')agnie dc la
caisse d'escompte, and in short, all those whose funds consisted
in shares payable to bearer, in iiegotiable effects, or inscriptions
transferable at pleasure. It was decided that they should
AUG. 1793 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 1 1 5
wind up their accounts within a short period, and that in
future the government alone should have a right to establish
institutions of that kind. A speedy report concerning the
East India Company was ordered ; that company, from its
importance, requiring a separate examination. It was im-
possible to prevent the existence of bills of exchange upon
foreign countries ; but those Frenchmen were declared traitors
to their country who should place their funds in the banks or
counting-houses of countries with which the republic was at
war. Lastly, new severities were enacted against specie and
the traffic carried on with it. Six years' imprisonment had
already been awarded to any one who should buy or sell specie,
that is, who should receive or give it for a different sum in
assignats ; in like manner all buyers and sellers of goods who
should bargain for a different price according as payment
might be stipulated for in specie or in assignats, had been
subjected to a fine ; such facts were difficult to come at, and
the Legislature made itself amends by increasing the penalty.
Every person convicted of having refused to take assignats in
payment, or of having received or paid them away at a certain
loss, was sentenced to a fine of three thousand livres and six
months' imprisonment for the first offence, and to a fine of
double the amount and twenty years' imprisonment for the
second. Lastly, as metallic money was indispensable in the
markets, and a substitute for it could not easily be found, it
was enacted that the bells should be used for making décimes,
demi-decimes, &c., equivalent to two sous, one sou, &c.
But what means soever might be employed for raising the
value of assignats, and destroying the rivalry which was so
prejudicial to them, no hope could be entertained of restoring
them to a level Avith the price of commodities ; and the
forced reduction of the latter became, therefore, a measure
of necessity. Besides, the people were impressed with a be-
lief that a bad spirit prevailed among the dealers, and that
they were guilty of forestalling ; and whatever might be the
opinion of the legislators, they could not bridle on this par-
ticular point a populace which in all other respects they were
obliged to let loose. It was therefore requisite to do for
commodities in general what had already been done in regard
to corn. A decree was issued which placed forestalling among
the number of capital crimes, and attached to it the punish-
ment of death. He was considered as a forestaller who sJiould
withhold from eirculatio7i commodities of first necessity without
placing them publicly on sale. The articles and commodities
declared of first necessity were bread, wine, butchers' meat, corn,
ii6 HISTOBY OF aug. 1793
flour, vegetables, fruit, charcoal, wood, butter, tallow, hemp,
flax, salt, leather, drinkables, salted meat, cloth, wool, and all
stuffs, excepting silks. The means of execution for such a
decree were necessarily inquisitorial and vexatious. Every
dealer was required to render a statement of the stock in his
possession. These declarations were to be verified by means
of domiciliary visits. Any fraud was, like the crime itself, to
be punished with death. Commissioners ajDpointed by the
communes were authorized to inspect the invoices, and from
these invoices to fix a price which, while it left a moderate
profit to the dealer, should not exceed the means of the people.
If, however, added the decree, the high price of the invoices
should render it impossible for the dealers to make any profit,
the sale must nevertheless take place at such a price as the
purchaser could afford. Thus, in this decree, as in that which
ordered a declaration respecting corn and a maximum, the
Legislature left to the communes the task of fixing the prices
according to the state of things in each locality. It was soon
led to generalize these measures still more, and in generalizing
them more, to render them more violent.*
The military, financial, and administrative operations of this
epoch were therefore as ably conceived as the situation per-
mitted, and as vigorous as the danger required. The whole
population, divided into generations, was at the disposal of the
representatives, and might be called out either to fight or to
manufacture arms, or to nurse the wounded. All the old debts,
converted into a single republican debt, were made liable
to one and the same fate, and to be worth no more than
the assignats. The numerous rivalships of the old contracts,
of the royal assignats, of the shares in companies, were de-
stroyed ; the government prevented capital from being thus
locked up by assimilating them all ; as the assignats did not
come back, it took one thousand millions from the rich, and
made it pass from the state of money to the state of a mere
charge upon the national property. Lastly, in order to estab-
lish a forced relation between the circulating medium and the
commodities of first necessity, it invested the communes with
authority to seek out all articles of consumption, all merchan-
dise, and to cause them to be sold at a price suited to each
* "These extravagant measures had not been long in operation before they
produced the most disastrous effects. A great proportion of the shops in Paris
and all the ]n'incii)al towns were .shut; business of every sort was at a stand;
the laws of the maximum and against forestallers had spread terror and distrust
as much among the middling classes who had commenced the Revolution as the
guillotine had among nobles and priests who had been its earliest victims."
— Alison,
AUG, 1793 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 117
locality. Never did a government adopt at once measures
more vast or more boldly conceived ; and before we can make
their violence a subject of reproach against their authors, we
must forget the danger of a universal invasion, and the
necessity of living upon the national domains without pur-
chasers. The whole system of forced means sprang from
these two causes. At the present day a superficial and un-
grateful generation finds fault with these operations, condemns
some as violent, others as contrary to right principles of
economy, and adds the vice of ingratitude to ignorance of the
time and of the situation. Let us revert to the facts, and let
us at length be just to those whom it cost such efforts and
such perils to save us !
After these general measures of finance and administration,
others were adopted with more particular reference to each
theatre of the war. The extraordinary means long resolved
upon in regard to La Vendée were at length decreed. The
character of that war was now well known. The forces of the
rebellion did not consist in organized troops which it might be
possible to destroy by victories, but in a population wliich,
apparently peaceable and engaged in agricultural occupations,
suddenly rose at a given signal, overwhelmed by its numbers,
surprised by its unforeseen attack the republican troops, and
if defeated, concealed itself in its woods, in its fields, and
resumed its labours, without it being possible to distinguish
him who had been a soldier from him who had never ceased to
be a peasant. An obstinate struggle of more than six months,
insurrections which had sometimes amounted to one hundred
thousand men, acts of the greatest temerity, a renown inspir-
ing terror, and the established opinion that the greatest danger
to the Revolution lay in this destructive civil war, could not
but call the whole attention of the government to La Vendée,
and provoke the most violent and angry measures in regard to it.
It had long been asserted that the only way to reduce that
unfortunate country was, not to fight, but to destroy it, since
its armies were nowhere and yet everywhere. These views
were adopted in a violent decree, in which La Vendée, the
Bourbons, the foreigners, were all at once doomed to exter-
mination. In consequence of this decree the minister at war
was ordered to send into the disturbed departments com-
bustible matters for setting fire to the woods, the copses, and
the bushes.* " The forests," it was there said. " shall be cut
* " I did not see a single male being at the towns of St. Hermand, Chantonnay,
or Herbiers. A few women alone had escaped the sword. Country-seats, cot-
tages, habitations of whichever kind, were burnt. The herds and "flocks were
1 1 8 HISTOR Y OF aug. 1793
down, the haunts of the rebels shall be destroyed, the crops
shall be cut by companies of labourers, the cattle seized, and
the whole carried out of the country. The old men, the women,
and the children shall be removed from the country, and pro-
vision shall be made for their subsistence with the care due to
humanity." The generals and the representatives on mission
were moreover enjoined to collect around La Vendée the
supplies necessary for the subsistence of large masses, and
immediately afterwards to raise in the surrounding depart-
ments not a gradual levy, as in the other parts of France, but
a sudden and general levy, and thus pour one whole population
on another.
The choice of the men corresponded with the nature of these
measures. We have seen Biron, Berthier, Menou, Westermann,
compromized and stripped of their command, for having sup-
ported the system of discipline, and Rossignol, who infringed
that discipline, taken out of prison by the agents of the ministry.
The triumph of the Jacobin system was complete. Rossignol,
from merely chef de bataillon, was at once appointed general
and commander of the army of the coasts of La Rochelle.
Ronsin, the principal of those agents of the ministry who
carried into La Vendée all the passions of the Jacobins, and
asserted that it was not experienced generals, but stanch
republican generals, who were wanted ; that it was not a
regular war, but a war of extermination which ought to be
waged ; that every man of the new levy was a soldier, and that
every soldier might be a general — Ronsin, the principal of
these agents, was made, in four days, captain, chef d'escadron,
general of brigade, and assistant to Rossignol, with all the
powers of the minister himself, for the purpose of presiding
over the execution of this new system of warfare. Orders
were issued, at the same time, that the garrison of Mayence
should be conveyed post from the Rhine to La Vendée.
So great was the prevailing distrust that the generals of
that brave garrison had been put under arrest for having
capitulated. Fortunately the brave Merlin, who was always
wandering in terror around their usual places of shelter, now smokins; in ruins.
I was surprised by night ; Ijut tlie wavering and dismal blaze of the conllagration
afforded light over the country. To the bleating of the disturbed Hocks, and
bellowing of the terrified cattle, were joined the deep lioarse notes of carrion
crows, and the yells of wild animals coming from the recesses of tlie woods to
prey on the carcasses of the slain. At length a distant column of fire, widening
and increasing as I apjiroached, served me as a beacon. It was the town of
Mortagne in flames. When I arrived there, no living creatures were to be seen,
save a few wretched women, who were striving to save some remnants of their
property from the general conflagration." — Memoirs of a Reiyuhlican Officer.
AUG. 1793 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. i 19
listened to with the respect due to an heroic character, came
forward and bore testimony to their devotedness and intre-
pidity. Kleber and Aiibert-Dubayet were restored to their
soldiers, who had resolved to liberate them by force, and they
repaired to La Vendée, where they were destined by their
ability to retrieve the disasters caused by the agents of
the ministry. There is a truth which cannot be too often
repeated : Passion is never either judicious or enlightened ; but
it is passion alone that can save nations in great extremities.
The appointment of Rossignol was a strange boldness ; but it
indicated a course firmly resolved upon. It admitted of no
more half-measures in that disastrous war in La A'endee, and
it obliged all the local administrations that were still waver-
ing to speak out. Those fiery Jacobins, dispersed among the
armies, frequently excited agitation in them ; but they imparted
to them that energy of resolution without which there would
have been no equipping, no provisioning, no means of any
kind. They were most iniquitously unjust towai'ds the generals ;
but they permitted none of them to falter or to hesitate. We
shall soon see that their frantic ardour when combined with
the prudence of more sedate men produced the grandest and
the most glorious results.
Kilmaine. after effecting that admirable retreat which had
saved the army of the North, was immediately superseded by
Houchard, formerly commander of the army of the Moselle,
who possessed a high reputation for bravery and zeal. In the
committee of public welfare some changes had taken place.
Thuriot and Gasparin had resigned on account of illness. One
of them was succeeded by Robespierre, who at last made his
way to the government, and whose immense power was thus
acknowledged and submitted to by the Convention, which
hitherto had not appointed him upon any committee. The
other was replaced by the celebrated Carnot,* who had pre-
viously been sent to the army of the North, where he had
obtained the character of an able and intelligent officer.
To all these administrative and military measures were
added measures of vengeance, agreeably to the usual custom
of following up acts of energy with acts of cruelty. We have
already seen that, on the demand of the envoys of the primary
assemblies, a law against suspected persons had been resolved
upon. The projet of it was yet to be presented. It was called
for every day, on the ground that the decree of the 27th of
March, which put the aristocrats out of the pale of the law,
* See Appendix C.
1 2 o BISTOR Y OF aug. 1793
did not gt) tar enough. That decree required a trial ; but
people wanted one which should permit the imprisonment
without trial of the citizens suspected on account of their
opinions, merely to secure their persons. While this decree
was pending, it was decided that the property of all those who
were outlawed should belong to the republic. More severe
measures against foreigners were next demanded. They had
already been placed under the surveillance of the committees
styled revolutionary ; but something more was required. The
idea of a foreign conspiracy, of which Pitt was supposed to be
the prime mover, filled all minds more than ever. A pocket-
book found on the walls of one of our frontier towns contained
letters written in English, and which English agents in France
addressed to one another. In these letters mention was made
of considerable sums sent to secret agents dispersed in our
camps, in our fortresses, and in our principal towns. Some
were charged with contracting an intimacy with our generals,
in order to seduce them, and to obtain accurate information
concerning the state of our forces, of our fortified places, and
of our supplies ; others were commissioned to penetrate into
our arsenals and our magazines with phosphoric matches and
to set them on fire. " Make the exchange," it was also said
in these letters, " rise to two hundred livres for one pound
sterling. The assignats must be discredited as much as possible,
and all those which have not the royal effigy must be refused.
Make the price of all articles of consumption rise too. Give
orders to all your merchants to buy up all the articles of first
necessity. If you can persuade Cott — to buy up the tallow
and the candles, no matter at what price, make the public pay
five francs per pound for them. His lordship is highly pleased
with the way in which B — t — z has acted. We hope that the
murders will be prudently committed. Disguised priests and
women are fittest for this operation."
These letters merely proved that England had some military
spies in our armies, some agents in our commercial towns for
the purpose of aggravating there the distress occasioned by
the dearth, and that some of them might perliaps take money
upon the pretext of committing seasonable murders.* But all
* We need scarcel)'^ point out to our readers the utter absurdity of the
supposition tliat tlie Kn,t,disli {government employed agents in France to recom-
mend that "seasonable murders" should be "prudently committed," and to
reward those who perpetrated them ! We are surprised that an historian
so temperate and sagacious as M. Thiers should have thought it worth his
while to insinuate even a ([ualifunl belief in such a preposterous rumour. His
cautious introduction of the word "perhaps" does not much mend the matter.
But granting that there were the slightest foundation for such a supposition,
AUG. 1 7 9 3 THE FR ENCH RE VOL UTION. i 2 1
these means were far from formidable, and they were certainly
exaggerated by the usual boasting of the agents employed in
this kind of manœuvre. It is true that fires had broken out at
Douai, at Valenciennes, in the sailmakers' building at Lorient,
at Bayonne, and in the parks of artillery near Chemillé and
Saumiir. It is possible that these agents might have been the
authors of those fires ; but assuredly they had not pointed
either the dagger of Paris, the life-guardsman, against Lepel-
letier, or the knife of Charlotte Corday against Marat ; and if
they were engaged in stockjobbing speculations upon foreign
paper and assignats, if they bought some goods by means of
the credits opened in London by Pitt, they had but a very
slight influence on our commercial and financial situation,
which was the effect of causes far more general and of far
greater magnitude than these paltry intrigues. These letters,
however, concurring with several fires, two murders, and the
jobbing in foreign paper, excited universal indignation. The
Convention, by a decree, denounced the British government
to all nations, and declared Pitt the enemy of mankind. At
the same time it ordered that all foreigners domiciled in France
since the I4tli of July 1789 should be immediately put in a
state of arrest.
Lastly, it was directed by a decree that the proceedings
against Custine should be speedily brought to a conclusion.
Biron and Lamarche were put upon trial. The act of accu-
sation of the Girondins was pressed afresh, and orders were
given to the revolutionary tribunal to take up the proceedings
against them with the least possible delay. The wrath of the
Assembly was again directed against the remnant of the
Bourbons and that unfortunate family which was deploring
in the tower of the Temple the death of the late King. It
was decreed that all the Bourbons who were still in France
should be exiled, excepting those who were under the sword
of the law ; that the Due d'Orleans, who had been trans-
ferred in the month of May to Marseilles, and whom the
federalists were against bringing to trial, should be conveyed
back to Paris, and delivered over to the revolutionary tribunal.
His death would stop the mouths of those who accused the
Mountain of an intention to set up a king. The unhappy
was it for France to take fright at, and be filled with a virtuous abhorrence
of, murder — that same France which had winked at the wholesale slaughter
of the Swiss guards, and the still more indefensible and atrocious massacre of
upwards of eight thousand persons in the dungeons of Paris ? When a nation
has not hesitated to " swallow the camel," it is sheer affectation in it to " strain
at the gnat."
122 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. aug. 1793
Marie Antoinette, notwithstanding her sex, was, like her
husband, devoted to the scaffold. She was reputed to have
instigated all the plots of the late Court, and was deemed
much more culpable than Louis XVI. Above all, she was a
daughter of Austria, which was at this moment the most
formidable of all the hostile powers. According to the custom
of most daringly defying the most dangerous enemy, it was
determined to send Marie Antoinette to the scaffold, at the
very moment when the imperial armies were advancing towards
our territory. She was therefore transferred to the Concier-
gerie, to be tried, like any ordinary accused person, by the
revolutionary tribunal. The Princesse Elizabeth, destined to
banishment, was detained as a witness against her sister. The
two children were to be maintained and educated by the
republic, which would judge, at the return of peace, what was
fitting to be done in regard to them. Up to this time the
family imprisoned in the Temple had been supplied with a
degree of luxury consistent with its former rank. The
Assembly now decreed that it should be reduced to what was
barely necessary. Lastly, to crown all these acts of revolu-
tionary vengeance, it was decreed that the royal tombs at St.
Denis should be destroyed.*
Such were the measures which the imminent dangers of the
month of August 1793 provoked for the defence and for the
vengeance of the Revolution.
* "The royal tombs at St. Denis near Paris, the ancient cemetery of the
Bourbons, the Valois, and all the long line of French monarchs, were not only
defaced on the outside, but utterly broken down, the bodies exposed, and the
bones dispersed. The first vault opened was that of Turenne. The body was
found dry like a mummy, and the features perfectly resembling the portrait of
this distinguished general. Relics were sought after with eagerness, and Camille-
Desmoulins cut off one of the little lingers. The features of Henry IV. were
also perfect. A soldier cut olf a lock of tiie beard with his sabre. The body
was placed upright on a stone for the rabble to divert themselves with it; and
a woman, reproaching the dead Henry with the crime of having been a king,
knocked down the corjtse by giving it a l)low in the face. Two large pits had
been dug in front of the north entrance of the church, and quicklime laid in
them ; into those pits the bodies were thrown promiscuously ; the leaden coffins
were then carried to a furnace which had been erected in the cemetery, and
cast into balls, destined to punish the enemies of the republic."— «Scot's Life of
Napoleon.
THE NATIONAL C0NVENT1(3N
{continued)
MOVEMENT OF THE ARMIES IN AUGUST AND SEPTEMBER 1793—
INVESTMENT OF LYONS— TREASON OF TOULON— PLAN OF CAM-
PAIGN AGAINST LA VENDÉE — VICTORY OF HONDTSCHOOTE —
GENERAL REJOICING— FRESH REVERSES— DEFEAT AT MENIN, AT
PIRMASENS, AT PERPIGNAN, AND AT TORFOU — RETREAT OF
CANCLAUX UPON NANTES.
AFTER the retreat of the French from Cœsar's Camp to the
il. camp of Gavarelle, it was again the moment for the Allies
to follow lip a demoralized army, which had been uniformly un-
fortunate ever since the opening of the campaign. Since the
month of March, in fact, beaten at Aix-la-Chapelle and at
Neerwinden, it had lost Dutch Flanders, Belgium, the camp
of Famars, Cassar's Camp, and the fortresses of Condé and
Valenciennes. One of its generals had gone over to the
enemy ; another had been killed. Thus, ever since the battle
of Jemappes, it had been making only a series of retreats,
highly meritorious, it is true, but by no means encouraging.
Without even entertaining the too bold design of a direct march
to Paris, the Allies had it in their power to destroy this nucleus
of an army, and then they might take at their leisure all the
places which it might suit their selfishness to occupy. But as
soon as Valenciennes had surrendered, the English, in virtue
of the agreement made at Antwerp, insisted on the siege of
Dunkirk. Then, while the Prince of Coburg, remaining in the
environs of his camp at Herin, between the Scarpe and the
Scheldt, meant to occupy the French, and thought of taking
Le Quesnoy, the Duke of York, marching with the English and
Hanoverian army by Orches, Menin, Dixmude, and Furnes,
sat down before Dunkirk, between the Langmoor and the sea.
Two sieges to be carried on would therefore give us a little
more time. Houchard sent to Gavarelle, hastily collected there
all the disposable force, in order to fly to the relief of Dunkirk.
To prevent the English from gaining a seaport on the continent,
to beat individually our greatest enemy, to deprive him of all
124 HISTORY OF aug. 1793
advantage from this war, and to furnish the Jllnghsh Opposition
with new weapons against Pitt — such were the reasons that
caused Dunkirk to be considered as the most important point of
the whole theatre of war. " The salvation of the republic is
there," wrote the committee of public welfare to Houchard ;
and at the instance of Carnot, who was perfectly sensible that
the troops collected between the northern frontier and that of
the Bhine, that is, on the Moselle, were useless there, it was
decided that a reinforcement should be drawn from them and
sent to Flanders. Twenty or twenty-five days were thus
spent in preparations, a delay easily conceivable on the part of
the French, who had to reassemble their troops dispersed at
considerable distances, but inconceivable on the part of the
English, who had only four or five marches to make, in order
to be under the walls of Dunkirk.
We left the two French armies of the Moselle and of the
Rhine endeavouring to advance, but too late, towards Mayence,
and without preventing the reduction of that place. They
had afterwards fallen back upon Saarbruck, Hornbach, and
Weissenburg. We must give the reader a notion of the
theatre of war, to enable him to comprehend these movements.
The French frontier is of a singular conformation to the North
and East. The Scheldt, the Meuse, the Moselle, the chain of
the Vosges, and the Rhine, run towards the North, forming
nearly parallel lines. The Rhine, on reaching the extremity of
the Vosges, makes a sudden bend, ceases to run in a parallel
direction with those lines, and terminates them by turning the
foot of the Vosges, and receiving in its course the Moselle and
the Meuse. On the northern frontier the Allies had advanced
as far as between the Scheldt and the Meuse. Between the
Meuse and the Moselle they had not made any progress,
because the weak corps left by them between Luxemburg and
Treves had not been able to attempt anything ; but they were
stronger between the Moselle, the Vosges, and the Rhine.
We have seen that they placed themselves à cheval at the
Vosges, partly on the eastern and partly on the western slope.
The plan to be pursued was, as we have before observed,
extremely simple. Considering the backbone of the Vosges
as a river, all the passages of wliich you ought to occupy, you
might throw all your masses upon one bank, overwhelm the
enemy on that side, and then return and crush him on the
other. This idea had not occurred either to the French or
to the Allies ; and ever since the capture of Mayence, the
Prussians, ]^laced on the western slope, faced the army of the
Rhine. We had retired within the celebrated lines of AVeissen-
AUG. 1793 THE FRENCH RE VOL UTION. i 2 5
burg. The army of the Moselle, to the number of twenty
thousand men, was posted at Saarbruck, on the Sarre ; the
corps of the Vosges, twelve thousand in number, was at
Hornbach and Kettrick, and was connected in the mountains
with the extreme left of the army of the Rhine ; the army of
the Rhine, twenty thousand strong, guarded the Lauter from
Weissenburg to Lauterburg. Such are the lines of Weissen-
burg. The Sarre runs from the Vosges to the Moselle, the
Lauter from the Vosges to the Rhine, and both form a single
line, which almost perpendicularly intersects the Moselle, the
Vosges, and the Rhine. You make yourself master of it by
occupying Saarbruck, Hornbach, Kettrick, Weissenburg, and
Lauterburg. This we had done ; we had scarcely sixty thou-
sand men on this whole frontier, because it had been necessary
to send succours to Houchard. The Prussians had taken two
months to approach us, and had at length arrived at Pirmasens.
Reinforced by the forty thousand men who had just brought
the siege of Mayence to a conclusion, and united with the
Austrians, they might have overwhelmed us on one or the
other of the two slopes ; but discord prevailed between Prussia
and Austria, on account of the partition of Poland. Frederick
William, who was still at the camp of the Vosges, did not
second the impatient ardour of Wurmser. The latter, full of
fire, notwithstanding his age,* made every day fresh attempts
ujDon the lines of Weissenburg ; but his partial attacks had
proved unsuccessful, and served only to slaughter men to no
purpose. Such was still, early in September, the state of
things on the Rhine.
In the South, events had begun to develop themselves. The
long uncertainty of the Lyonnese had at length terminated in
open resistance, and the siege of their city had become inevi-
table. We have seen that they offered to submit and to
acknowledge the constitution, but without explaining them-
selves respecting the decrees which enjoined them to send the
imprisoned patriots to Paris, and to dissolve the new sectionary
authority ; nay, it was not long before they infringed those
decrees in the most signal manner, by sending Chalier and
Riard to the scaffold, making daily preparations for war, taking
money from the public coffers, and detaining the convoys
* " Wurmser, observed Bonaparte, was very old, brave as a lion, but so
extremely deaf that he could not hear the balls whistling about him. Wurmser
saved my life on one occasion. "When I reached Rimini, a messenger overtook
me with a letter from him, containing an account of a plan to poison me, and
where it was to have been put into execution. It would in all probability
have succeeded, had it not been for this information. Wurmser, like Fox, acted
a noble part." — A Voice from St, Helena.
126 HISTORY OF aitg. 1793
destined for the armies. Many partisans of the emigration
had gained admittance among them, and alarmed them about
the re-establishment of the old Mountaineer municipality.
They flattered them, moreover, with the arrival of the Marseil-
lais, who, they said, were ascending the Ehone, and with the
march of the Piedmontese, who were about to debouch from
the Alps with sixty thousand men. Though the Lyonnese,
stanch federalists, bore an equal enmity to the foreign powers
and to the emigrants, yet they felt such a horror of the Moun-
tain and the old municipality that they were ready to expose
themselves to the danger and the infamy of a foreign alliance
rather than to the vengeance of the Convention.
The Saône, running between the Jura and the Cote-d'Or,
and the Rhone, coming from the Valais between the Jura and
the Alps, unite at Lyons. That wealthy city is seated at their
confluence. Up the Saône, towards Macon, the country was
entirely republican, and Laporte and Reverchond, the deputies,
having collected some thousands of the requisitionary force,
cut off the communication with the Jura. Dubois-Crance was
approaching on the side next to the Alps, and guarding the
upper course of the Rhone. But the Lyonnese were com-
pletely masters of the lower course of the Rhone, and of its
right bank as far as the mountains of Auvergne. They were
masters also of the whole Forez, into which they made frequent
incursions, and supplied themselves with arms at St. Etienne.
A skilful engineer had erected excellent fortifications around
their city ; and a foreigner had founded cannon for the ram-
parts. The population was divided into two portions. The
young men accompanied Precy, the commandant, in his excur-
sions ; the married men, the fathers of families, guarded the
city and its entrenchments.
At length, on the 8th of August, Dubois-Crance, who had
quelled the federalist revolt at Grenoble, prepared to march
upon Lyons, agreeably to the decree which enjoined him to
reduce that rebellious city to obedience. The army of the
Alps amounted at the utmost to twenty-five thousand men,
and it was soon likely to have on its hands the Piedmontese,
who, pi'ofiting at length by the month of August, made pre-
parations for debouching by the great chain. This army had
lately been weakened, as we have seen, by two detachments —
the one to reinforce the army of Italy, and the other to reduce
the Marseillais. The Puy-de-Dôme, which was to send its
recruits, had kept them to stifle the revolt of La Lozère, of
which we have already treated. llouchard had retained the
legion of the Rhine, which was destined for the Alps ; and the
AUG. 1793 THE FRENCH RE VOL UTION. i 2 7
minister was continually promising a reinforcement of one
thousand horse, which did not arrive. Dubois-Crancé never-
theless detached five thousand regular troops, and added to
them seven or eight thousand young requisitionaries. He
came with his forces and placed himself between the Saône
and the Ehone in such a manner as to occupy their upper
course, to intercept the supplies coming to Lyons by water,
to remain in communication with the army of the Alps, and to
cut off all communication with Switzerland and Savoy. By
these dispositions he still left the Forez and the still more
important heights of Fourvières to the Lyonnese ; but in his
situation he could not act otherwise. The essential point was
to occupy the courses of the two rivers, and to cut off Lyons
from Switzerland and Piedmont. Dubois-Crancé awaited, in
order to complete the blockade, the fresh forces which had been
promised him, and the siege artillery which he was obliged to
fetch from our fortresses near the Alps. The transport of
this artillery required five thousand horses.
On the 8th of August he called upon the city to yield. The
conditions on which he insisted were the absolute disarming of
all the citizens, the retirement of each to his own house, the
surrender of the arsenal, and the formation of a provisional
municipality. But at this moment the secret emigrants in
the commission and the staff continued to deceive the Lyonnese,
and to alarm them about the return of the Mountaineer muni-
cipality, telling them at the same time that sixty thousand
Piedmontese were ready to debouch ujDon their city. An
action which took place between two advanced posts, and
which terminated in favour of the Lyonnese, excited them to
the highest pitch, and decided their resistance and their mis-
fortunes. Dubois-Crancé opened his fire upon the quarter of
the Croix Eousse, between the two rivers, where he had taken
position, and on the very first day his artillery did great mis-
chief. Thus one of our most important manufacturing cities
was involved in the horrors of bombardment, and we had to
execute this bombardment in presence of the Piedmontese,
who were ready to descend from the Alps.
Meanwhile Cartaux * had marched upon Marseilles, and had
crossed the Durance in the month of August. The Marseillais
* "General Cartaux, originally a painter, had become an adjutant in the
Parisian corps ; he was afterwards employed in the army ; and having been
successful against the Marseillais, the deputies of the Mountain had on the same
day obtained him the appointments of brigadier-general and general of division.
He was extremely ignorant, and had nothing military about him ; otherwise he
was not ill-disposed, and committed no excesses at Marseilles on the taking of
that city." — Bourricnnc.
128 HISTORY OF auCx. 1793
had retired from Aix towards their own city, and had resolved
to defend the gorges of Septème, through which the road from
Aix to Marseilles runs. On the 24th, General Doppet attacked
them with the advanced guard of Cartaux. The action was
very brisk ; but a section, which had always been in opposition
to the others, went over to the side of the republicans, and
turned the combat in their favour. The gorges were carried, and
on the 25th, Cartaux entered Marseilles with his little army.
This event decided another, the most calamitous that had
yet afflicted the republic. The city of Toulon, which had
always appeared to be animated with the most violent re-
publicanism while the municipality had been maintained
there, had changed its spirit under the new authority of the
sections, and was soon destined to change masters. The
Jacobins, jointly with the municipality, inveighed against the
aristocratic officers of the navy ; they never ceased to complain
of the slowness of the repairs done to the squadron, and of its
loitering in port ; and they loudly demanded the punishment
of the officers to whom they attribiited the unfavourable result
of the expedition against Sardinia. The moderate republicans
replied there, as everywhere else, that the old officers alone
were capable of commanding squadrons ; that the ships could
not be more expeditiously repaired ; that it would be the
height of imprudence to insist on their sailing against the
combined Spanish and English fleet ; and lastly, that the
officers whose punishment was called for were not traitors, but
warriors whom the fortune of war had not favoured. The
moderates predominated in the sections. A multitude of
secret agents, intriguing on behalf of the emigrants aiad the
English, immediately introduced themselves into Toulon, and
induced the inhabitants to go farther than they intended.
These agents communicated with Admiral Lord Hood, and
made sure that the allied squadrons would be off the harbom-,
ready to make their appearance at the first signal. In the
first place, after the example of the Lyonnese, they caused the
president of the Jacobin Club, named Sevestre, to be tried and
executed. They then restored the refractory priests to their
functions. They dug up and carried about in triumph the
bones of some unfortunate persons who had perished in the
disturbances in behalf of the royalist cause.
The committee of public welfare ha\dng ordered the squadron
to stop the shi]is bound to Marseilles, for the purpose of re-
ducing that city, they caused the execution of this order to be
refused, and made a merit of it with the sections of Marseilles.
They then began to talk of the dangers to which the city
AUG. 1793 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 129
was exposed by resisting the Convention, of the necessity for
securing aid against its fury, and of the propriety of obtaining
that of England by proclaiming Louis XVII. The commis-
sioner of the navy was, as it appears, the principal instrument
of the conspiracy. He seized the money in the coffers, sent
by sea in quest of funds as far as the department of the
Hérault, and wrote to Genoa desiring the supplies of pro-
visions to be withheld, that the situation of Toulon might be
rendered more critical. The staffs had been changed ; a naval
officer compromized in the expedition to Sardinia was taken
out of prison and appointed commander of the place ; an old
life-guardsman was put at the head of the national guard ;
and the forts were entrusted to returned emigraiits ; lastly,
Admiral Trogoff, a foreigner whom France had loaded with
favours, was secured. A negotiation was opened with Lord
Hood, under pretext of an exchange of prisoners, and at the
moment when Cartaux had just entered Marseilles, when terror
was at its height in Toulon, and when eight or ten thousand
Provencals, the most counter-revolutionary in the country, had
taken refuge there, the conspirators ventured to submit to the
sections the disgraceful proposal to receive the English, who
were to take possession of the place in trust for Louis XVII.
The marine, indignant at the treachery, sent a deputation to
the sections to oppose the infamy that was preparing. But
the Toulonnese and Marseillais counter- revolutionists, more
daring than ever, rejected the remonstrances of the marine,
and caused the proposal of the 29th of August to be adopted.
The signal was immediately given to the P]nglish. Admiral
Trogofï, putting himself at the head of those who were for
delivering up the port, called the squadron around him and
hoisted the white flag. The brave Rear-admiral Julien, de-
claring Trogoff a traitor, hoisted the flag of commander-in-
chief on board his own ship, and endeavoured to rally round
him such of the squadron as remained faithful. But at this
moment the traitors, already in possession of the forts,
threatened to burn St. Julien and his ships. He was then
obliged to fly with a few officers and seamen ; the others were
hurried away withovit knowing precisely what was going to be
done with them ; and Lord Hood, who had long hesitated, at
length appeared, and upon pretext of receiving the port of
Toulon in trust for Louis XVII., took possession of it for the
pui^jose of burning and destroying it.*
* The following is Lord Hood's proclamation on taking possession of Toulon,
which certainly does not warrant M. Thiers's assumption that he entered " for
the purpose oi burning and destroying" the town :—" Considering that the
VOL. III. 65
I30 HISTORY OF aug. 1793
During this interval no movement had taken place in the
Pyrenees. In the West, preparations were made to carry into
execution the measures decreed by the Convention.
We left all the columns of Upper Vendée reorganizing
themselves at Angers, Saumur, and Niort. The Vendeans
had meanwhile gained possession of the Ponts-de-Oe, and in
consequence of the terror which they excited, Saumur was
placed in a state of siege. The column of Luçon and Les
Sables was the only one capable of acting on the offensive.
It was commanded by a general named Tuncq, one of those
who were repiited to belong to the military aristocracy, and
whose dismissal had been solicited of the minister by Ronsin.
He had with him the two representatives. Bourdon of the
Oise, and Goupilleau of Fontenay, whose sentiments were
similar to his own, and who were adverse to Ronsin and
Rossignol. Goupilleau, in particular, being a native of the
country, was inclined, from the ties of consanguinity and
friendship, to treat the inhabitants with indulgence, and to
spare them the severities which Ronsin and his partisans would
fain have inflicted upon them.
The Vendeans, in whom the column of Luçon excited some
apprehensions, resolved to direct against it their forces, which
had been everywhere victorious. They wished more especially
to succour the division of M. de Roïrand, which, placed before
Luçon, and between the two great armies of Upper and Lower
Vendée, acted with its own unaided resources, and deserved
to be seconded in its efforts. Accordingly, early in August,
they directed some jiarties against Luçon, but were completely
repulsed by General Tuncq. They then resolved to make a
more decisive effort. MM. d'Elbee, de Lescure, de Laroche-
jaquelein, and Oharette, joined with forty thousand men, pro-
ceeded on the 14th of August to the environs of Luçon.
Tuncq had scarcely six thousand. M. de Lescure, confident
in the superiority of number, gave the fatal advice to attack
the republican army on open ground. MM. de Lescure and
sections of Toulon have, by the coininissioiiers whom they have sent to me,
made a solemn declaration in favour of Louis XVII. and a monarchical govern-
ment ; and that they will use their utmost efforts to break the chains which
fetter their country, and re-establish the constitution as it was accepted by
their defunct sovereii^n in 1789; I repeat, by this present declaration, that I
take possession of Toulon, and shall keep it solely as a deposit for Louis XVII.,
and that only till peace is re-established in France." In another jiroclamation
his lordshij) is still more (explicit. "I declare," says he, "that property and
persons in Toulon shall be held sacred : we wish only to re-establish peace."
Surely Lord Hood could never have dreamed of cnterinf; Toulon ''for the
purpose of burning and destroying it," after publicly pledging himself to
sentiments like these !
AUG. 1793 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 131
Cliarette took the command of the left, M. d'Elbée that of the
centre, M. de Larochejaquelein that of the right. MM. de
Lescure and Charette acted with great vigour on the right ;
but in the centre, tlie men, obliged to meet regular troops
on open ground, manifested hesitation ; and M. de Laroche-
jaquelein, having missed his way, did not arrive in time on
the left. General Tuncq, seizing the favourable moment for
directing his light artillery against the staggered centre, threw
it into confusion, aiid in a few moments put to flight all the
Yendeans, forty thousand in number. Never had the latter
experienced such a disaster. They lost the whole of their
artillery, and returned home stricken with consternation.*
At this moment the order for the dismissal of General
Tuncq, demanded by Konsin, arrived. Bourdon and Goupil-
leau, indignant at this procedure, retained him in his com-
mand, wrote to the Convention to obtain the revocation of the
minister's decision, and made fresh complaints against the
disorganizing party of Saumur, which, they said, produced
nothing but confusion, and would fain turn out all the experi-
enced generals to make room for ignorant demagogues. At
this moment Rossignol, who was inspecting the different
columns under his command, arrived at Lueon. His inter-
view with Tuncq, Goupilleau, and Bourdon was but an inter-
change of reproaches. Notwithstanding two victories, he was
dissatisfied because battles had been fought without his appro-
bation ; for he thought, and indeed with reason, that any en-
gagement ought to be avoided before the general reorganization
* "The Vendeans had to fight in an open plain, a new and difficult thing to
them. Lescure proposed arranging the divisions behind each other, in such a
manner that they could successively support, and warmly urged the advantages
of this plan, which was adopted. The Blues fell back at the first, and the left
wing had already taken five cannon, when they perceived that the centre did
not follow the movement. M. d'Elbée had given no instructions to his officers ;
and his soldiers, intending to fight according to their usual custom, by running
upon the enemy, M. d'Elbée stopped them, and called repeatedly, 'Form your
lines, my friends, by my horse.' M. Herbauld, who commanded a part of the
centre, and who knew nothing of this circumstance, led his soldiers forward,
without suspecting that the others did not follow. The republican general,
seizing the moment of this disorder, made a manœuvre with the light artillery,
which entirely separated M. d'Elbée's division ; and this being followed by a
charge of cavalry, the rout became complete. M. de Larochejaquelein suc-
ceeded in covering the retreat, and saved many lives by the timely removal of
an overturned waggon from the bridge of Bessay. In the midst of this rout
of the centre, forty peasants of Courlay, with crossed bayonets, sustained the
whole charge of cavalry without losing ground. This unfortunate affair, the
most disastrous that had yet taken place, cost many lives. The light artillery
acted with great effect on the level plain ; and the peasants had never taken
flight in so much terror and disorder." — Memoirs of the Marchioness de Laroche-
jaqudeiii.
1 3 2 HIS TOR Y OF aug. 1793
of the different armies. The Generals separated, and imme-
diately afterwards Bourdon and Goupilleau, being informed
of certain acts of severity exercised by liossignol in the
countiy, had the boldness to issue an order for displacing him.
The representatives who were at Saumur, Merlin, Bourbotte,
Choudieu, and Kewbel, immediately cancelled the order of
Goupilleau and Bourdon, and reinstated Rossignol. The affair
was referred to the Convention. Rossignol, again confirmed,
triumphed over his adversaries. Bourdon and Goupilleau
were recalled, and Tuncq was susjDended.
Such was the state of things when the garrison of Mayence
arrived in La Vendée. It became a question what plan should
be adopted, and in what quarter this brave garrison was to act.
Should it be attached to the army of La Rochelle, and placed
under the command of Rossignol, or to the army of Brest,
under Canclaux ? * Each was desirous of having it, because it
could not fail to ensure success wherever it might act. It was
agreed to overwhelm the country by simultaneous attacks,
which, directed from all the points of the circumference,
should meet at the centre. But as the column to which the
men of Mayence should be attached would necessarily act
upon a more decidedly offensive plan, and drive back the
Vendeans upon the others, it became a subject for considera-
tion on which point it would be most advantageous to repel
the enemy. Rossignol and his partisans maintained that the
best plan would be to let the men of Mayence march by
Saumur, in order to drive back the Vendeans upon the sea
and the Upper Loire, where they might be entirely destroyed ;
that the columns of Saumur and Angers, being too weak,
needed the support of the men of Mayence to act ; that, left
to themselves, it would be impossible for them to advance in
the field, and to keep pace with the other columns of Niort
and Luçon ; that they would not even be able to stop the
Vendeans when driven back, and prevent them from spread-
ing over the interior ; that, lastly, by letting the ^Mayençais
march b}^ Saumur, no time would be lost, whereas in making
them march by Nantes they would be obliged to take a con-
siderable circuit, and would lose ten or fifteen days.
Canclaux, on the contrary, was struck by the danger of
leaving the sea open to the Vendeans. An English squadron
* " General Canclaux, the heroic defender of Nantes, was a man of military
skill and high courage. He was born at Paris in 1740. After the Revolution of
the 1 8th Brumaire, Na})oleon gave him the command of a military division, and
made him a senator. At the restoration he was created a peer. Canclaux died
in the year 18 17." — Scott's Life of Napoleon,
Auc^. 1793 THE FRENCH RE VOL UTION. i 3 3
had just been discovered off the west coast, and it was im-
possible to doubt that the English meditated a landing in the
Marais. Such was at the time the general notion, and though
it was erroneous, it was the general topic of conversation.
The English, however, had only just sent an emissary into La
Vendée. He had arrived in disguise, and had inquired the
names of the chiefs, the number of their forces, their inten-
tions, and their precise object : so ignorant was Europe of the
occurrences in the interior of France ! The Vendeans replied
by a demand of money and ammunition, and by a promise
to send fifty thousand men to any point where it might be
resolved upon to effect a landing. Any oiDcration of this kind,
therefore, was still far distant ; but it was everywhere supposed
to be on the point of execution. It was consequently necessary,
said Canclaux, that the Mayençais should act by Nantes, and
thus cut off the Vendeans from the sea, and drive them back
towards the upper country. If they were to spread themselves
in the interior, added Canclaux, they would soon be destroyed ;
and as for loss of time, that was a consideration which ought
not to have any weight, for the army of Saumur was in such a
state as not to be able to act in less than ten or twelve days,
even with the Mayençais. One reason, which was not assigned,
was that the army of Mayence, ready trained to the business
of war, would rather serve with professional men ; and pre-
ferred Canclaux, an experienced general, to Rossignol, an
ignorant general ; and the army of Brest, signalized by
glorious deeds, to that of Saumur, known only by its defeats.
The representatives, attached to the cause of discipline, were
also of this opinion, and were afraid of compromizing the army
of Mayence by placing it amidst the unruly Jacobin soldiers
of Saumur.
Philippeaux,* the most zealous of the representatives against
Ronsin's party, repaired to Paris and obtained an order of the
committee of ]3ublic welfare in favour of Canclaux's plan.
Ronsin obtained the revocation of the order ; and it was then
agreed that a council of war, to be held at Saumur, should
decide on the employment of the forces. The council was
held on the 2nd of September. Among its members were
many representatives and generals. Opinions were divided.
* "Pierre Philippeaux, a lawyer, deputy to the Convention, voted for the
King's death. He was afterwards sent into La Vendée to reorganize the ad-
ministration of Nantes, where he was involved in a contention with some of
the representatives sent into the same country, which ended in his recall to
Paris. He was condemned to death by the revolutionary tribunal, in the thirty-
fifth year of his age. Philippeaux was an honest, enthusiastic republican." —
Biographie Moderne.
134 HIS TOR Y OF sept. 1793
Rossignol, who was perfectly sincere in his, offered to resign
the command to Canclanx if he would suffer the Mayençais to
act by Saumur. The opinion of Canclanx, however, prevailed.
The Mayençais were attached to the army of Brest, and the
principal attack was to be directed from Lower upon Upper
Vendée. The plan of campaign was signed, and it was agreed
to start on a given day from Saumur, Nantes, Les Sables, and
Niort.
The greatest mortification prevailed in the Saumur party.
Rossignol possessed zeal, sincerity, bat no military knowledge.
He had ill health, and though stanch in principle, he was
incapable of serving in a useful manner. He felt less resent-
ment on account of the decision adopted than his partisans
themselves, Ronsin, Momoro, and all the ministerial agents.
They wrote forthwith to Paris, complaining of the injudicious
course which had been taken, of the calumnies circulated
against the sans-culotte generals, and of the prejudices which
had been infused into the army of Mayence ; and by so
doing they showed dispositions which left no room to hope for
much zeal on their part in seconding the plan agreed iipon
at Saumur. Ronsin even carried his ill-will to such a length
as to interrupt the distribution of provisions to the Mayence
troops, because, as they were transferred from the army of La
Rochelle to that of Brest, it was the duty of the administrators
of the latter to furnish them with supplies. The Mayençais
set out immediately for Nantes, and Canclavix made all the
necessary arrangements for executing the plan agreed upon
early in September. We must now follow the grand operations
which succeeded these preparations.
The Duke of York had arrived before Dunkirk with twenty-
one thousand English and Hanoverians, and twelve thousand
Austrians. Marshal Freytag was at Ost Capelle with sixteen
thousand men ; the Prince of Orange at Menin with fifteen
thousand Dutch. The two latter corps were placed there as
an ai'my of observation. The rest of the Allies, dispersed
around Le Quesnoy and as far as the Moselle, amounted to
about one hundred thousand men. Thus one hundred and
sixty or one hundred and seventy thousand men were spread
over that immense line, engaged in sieges and in guarding all
the passes. Carnot, who began to direct the operations of the
French, had already perceived that their principal object ought
to be, not to fight at every point, but to employ a mass oppor-
tunely on one decisive point. He had therefore recommended
the removal of thirty -five thousand men from the Moselle
and the Rhine to the North. His advice had been adopted ;
SEPT. 1793 THE FRENCH RE VOL UTION. i 3 5
but only twelve thousand of them had been able to reach
Flanders. With this reinforcement, however, and with the
different camps at Gavarelle, at Lille, and at Cassel, the
French could have formed a mass of sixty thousand men, and
struck severe blows in the state of dispersion in which the
enemy then was. To convince himself of this, the reader
need but cast his eye on the theatre of the war. In following
the coast of Flanders to enter France, you first come to Furnes,
and then to Dunkirk. These two towns, bathed on the one
hand by the ocean, on the other by the extensive marshes of
the Grande-Moer, have no communication with each other
but by a narrow strip of land. The Duke of York, arriving
by Furnes, which is the first town you come to on entering
France, had placed himself on this strip of land between
the Grande-Moer and the ocean, for the purpose of besieging
Dunkirk. Freytag's corps of observation was not at Furnes,
so as to protect the rear of the besieging army, but at a great
distance in advance of the marshes and of Dunkirk, so as to
intercept any succours that might come from the interior of
France. The Dutch troops of the Prince of Orange posted at
Menin, three days' march from this point, became wholly use-
less. A mass of sixty thousand men, marching rapidly between
the Dutch and Freytag, might push on to Furnes, in the rear
of the Duke of York, and manoeuvring thus between the three
hostile corps, successively overwhelm Freytag, the Duke of
York, and the Prince of Orange. For this purpose a single
mass and rapid movements were required. But then, nothing
further was contemplated than to push on in front, by oppos-
ing to each detachment a similar force. The committee of
public safety, however, had very nearly hit upon this plan.
It had ordered a single corps to be formed and marched upon
Furnes. Houchard seized the idea for a moment, but did not
adhere to it, and thought of merely marching against Freytag,
driving him back upon the rear of the Duke of York, and then
endeavouring to disturb the operations of the siege.
While Houchard was hastening his preparations, Dunkirk
made a vigorous resistance. General Souham, seconded by
young Hoche,* who behaved in an heroic manner at this siege,
had already repulsed several attacks. The besiegers could not
easily open the trenches in a sandy soil beneath which they
came to water at the depth of only three feet. The flotilla
which was to sail from the Thames to bombard the place had not
arrived ; and on the other hand a French flotilla which liad come
* 6'cc Appendix D»
I 3 6 RIS TOE Y OF sept. 1793
from Dunkirk, and lay broadside-to along the coast, annoyed
the besiegers, hemmed in on their narrow neck of land, desti-
tute of water fit to drink, and ex^Dosed to all sorts of dangers.
It was a case that called for despatch and for decisive blows.
Houchard arrived towards the end of August. Agreeably to
the tactics of the old school, he began by a demonstration upon
Menin, which led to nothing but a sanguinary and useless
action. Having given this preliminaiy alarm, he advanced by
several roads towards the line of the Yser, a small stream
which separated him from Freytag's corps of observation.
Instead of placing liimself between the coqîs of observation
and the besieging corps, he directed Hedouville to march upon
Rousbrugghe, merely to harass the retreat of Freytag upon
Furnes, and went himself to meet Freytag in front, by march-
ing with his whole army by Houtkerke, Herseele, and Bambeke.
Freytag had disposed his coqis in a very extended line, and he
had but part of it around him when he received Houchard's
first attack. He resisted at Herseele ; but after a very warm
action he was obliged to recross the Yser, and to fall back
upon Bambeke, and successively from Bambeke upon Rex-
poede and Killem. In thus falling back beyond the Yser he
left his wings compromized in advance. Walmoden's division
was thrown to a great distance from him on his right, and his
own retreat was threatened near Rousbrugghe by Hedouville.
Freytag then resolved on the same day to advance again and
to retake Rexpoede, with a view to rally Walmoden's division
to him. He arrived there at the moment when the French
were entering the place. A most obstinate action ensued.
Freytag was wounded and taken prisoner. Meanwhile evening
came on. Houchard, apprehensive of a night attack, retired
from the village, leaving there only three battalions. Wal-
moden, who was falling back with his compromized division,
arrived at this moment, and resolved to make a brisk attack
upon Rexpoede, in order to force a passage. A bloody action
was fought at midnight. The passage was cleared, Freytag
delivered, and the enemy retired en masse upon the village
of Hondtschoote. This village, situated between the Grande-
Moer and the Furnes road, was one of the points which must
be passed in retiring upon Furnes. Houchard had relinquished
the essential idea of manoeuvring towards Furnes, between the
besieging corps and the corps of observation ; he had there-
fore nothing to do but to continue to push Marshal Freytag
in front, and to throw himself against the village of Hondt-
schoote. The 7th was spent in observing the enemy's positions,
defended by very ]iowerful artillery, and on the Stli the decisive
SEPT. 1793 TEE FRENCH RE VOL UTIOK i 3 7
attack was resolved upon. In the morning the French army-
advanced upon the whole line to attack the front. The right,
under the command of Hedouville, extended between Killem
and Beveren ; the centre, under Jourdan,* marched direct from
Killem upon Hondtschoote ; the left attacked between Killem
and the canal of Furnes. The action commenced in the copses
which covered the centre. On both sides the principal force
was directed upon this same point. The French returned
several times to the attack of the positions, and at length made
themselves masters of them. While they were victorious in
the centre, the entrenchments were carried on the right, and
the enemy determined to retreat upon Furnes by the Houtliem
and Hoghestade roads.
During these transactions at Hondtschoote the garrison of
Dunkirk, under the conduct of Hoche, made a vigorous sortie,
and placed the besiegers in the greatest danger. Next day
they actually held a council of war : finding themselves
threatened on the rear, and seeing that the naval armament
which was to be employed in bombarding the place had not
arrived, they resolved to raise the siege and to retii'e upon
Furnes, where Freytag had just arrived. They joined there
in the evening of the 9th of September.
Such were those three actions, the result of which had been
to oblige the corps of observation to fall back upon the rear
of the besieging coqjs, by following a direct march. The last
conflict gave name to this operation, and the battle of Hondt-
* "Jean Baptiste Jourdan, born in 1762 at Limoges, where his father practised
as a surgeon, entered the army in 1778, and fought in America. After the peace
lie employed himself in commerce. In 1793 he was appointed general of division,
and in the battle of Hondtschoote mounted the enemy's works at the head of
his troops, and afterwards received the command of the army in the place of
Houchard. In 1794 he gained the victory of Fleurus, by which he became
master of Belgium, and drove the Allies behind the Rhine. In 1796 he under-
took the celebrated invasion of the right bank of the Rhine, in which he con-
quered Franconia, and pressed forward towards Bohemia and Ratisbon. The
Archduke Charles, however, defeated him, and his retreat became a disorderly
flight, whereui)on Beurnonville took the command, and Jourdan retired to
Limoges as a private individual. In 1797 he was chosen a member of the
Council of Five Hundred, and was twice their president, remaining a stanch
friend to the republic. After the Revolution of the i8th Brumaire, which he
opposed, lie received the command of Piedmont. In the year 1803 Napoleon
named him general-in-chief of the army of Italy, and in the following year,
marshal of France, and grand cross of the Legion of Honour. In 1808 he went
with King Joseph, as major-general, to Spain, and after the decisive battle of
Vittoria, lived in retirement at Rouen. In 181 5 he took the oath of allegiance
to Louis, and when the latter left France, retired to his seat. Napoleon then
made him a peer, and entrusted him with the defence of Besançon. After the
return of Louis, Jourdan was one of the first to declare for him ; and in 18 19
the King raised him to the peerage. Jourdan belonged to the party of liberal
constitutionalists," — Encyclopœdia Americana.
1 3 8 HISTOB Y OF sept. 1793
schoote was considered as the salvation of Dunkirk. This
operation indeed broke the long chain of our reverses in the
North, gave a personal check to the English, disappointed
their fondest wishes, saved the republic from the misfortune
which it would have felt the most keenly, and gave great
encouragement to France.
The victory of Hondtschoote produced great joy in Paris,
inspired all our youth with greater ardour, and excited hopes
that our energy might prove successful. Reverses are, in
fact, of little consequence, provided that success be mingled
with them, and impart hope and courage to the vanquished.
The alternative has bu.t the effect of increasing the energy,
and exalting the enthusiasm of the resistance.
While the Duke of York was occupied with Dunkirk,
Coburg had resolved to attack Le Quesnoy. That fortress
was in want of all the means necessary for its defence, and
Coburg pressed it very closely. The committee of public
welfare, not neglecting that portion of the frontier any more
than the others, had immediately issued orders that columns
should march from Landrecies, Cambrai, and Maubeuge. Un-
luckily these columns could not act at the same time. One
of them was shut up in Landrecies ; another, surrounded in
the plain of Avesne, and formed into a square battalion, was
broken, after a most honourable resistance. At length, on
the nth of September, Le Quesnoy was obliged to capitulate.
This loss was of little importance compared with the deliver-
ance of. Dunkirk ; but it mixed up some bitterness with the
joy which the latter event had just produced.
Houchard, after obliging the Duke of York to concentrate
himself at Furnes with Freytag, could not make any further
successful attempt on that point. All that he could do was
to throw himself with equal forces on soldiers more inured
to war, without any of those circumstances, either favourable
or urgent, which induce a commander to hazard a doubtful
battle. In this situation the best step he could take was to
fall upon the Dutch, divided into several detachments round
Menin, Halluin, Roncq, Werwike, and Ypres. Houchard,
acting prudently, ordered the camp at Lille to make a sortie
upon Menin, while he should himself act by Ypres. The
advanced posts of Werwike. Roncq, and Halluin were con-
tested for two days. On both sides great intrepidity was dis-
played, with a moderate degree of intelligence. The Prince
of Orange, though pressed on all sides, and having lost his
advanced post, made an obstinate resistance, because he had
been apprized of the surrender of Le Quesnoy and the approach
SEPT. T 7 9 3 THE FRENCH RE VOL UTION i 3 9
of Beatilien, who was bringing him succour. At length, on
the 13th of September, he was obliged to evacuate Menin,
after losing in these different actions two or three thousand
men and forty pieces of cannon. Though our army had not
derived from its position all the advantages that it might have
done, and though, contrary to the instructions of the committee
of public welfare, it had operated in two divided masses, it
nevertheless occupied Menin. On the i6th it left Menin
and marched upon Courtray. At Bisseghem it fell in with
Beaulieu. The battle began with advantage on our side ;
but all at once the appearance of a corps of cavalry on the
wings spread an alarm which was not founded on any real
danger. The whole army was thrown into confusion, and fled
to Menin. This inconceivable panic did not stop there. It
was communicated to all the camps, to all the posts, and the
army en masse sought refuge under the guns of Lille. This
terror, the example of which was not new, which was owing
to the youth and inexperience of our troops, perhaps also
to a perfidious Sauve qui feut, occasioned us the loss of the
greatest advantages, and brought us back beneath the walls
of Lille. The tidings of this event, on reaching Paris, pro-
duced the most gloomy impression, deprived Houchard of the
fruit of his victory, and excited the most violent invectives
against him, some of which even recoiled upon the committee
of public welfare itself. A fresh series of checks immediately
followed, and threw us into the same perilous position from
which we had been extricated for a moment by the victory of
Hondtschoote.
The Prussians and Austrians, placed on the two slopes of
the Vosges, facing our two armies of the Moselle and the
Rhine, began at length to make some serious attempts. Old
Wurmser, more ardent than the Prussians, and aware of the
advantage of the passes of the Vosges, resolved to occupy the
important post of Bodenthal, towards the Upper Lauter. He
hazarded, however, a corps of four thousand men, which, after
traversing frightful mountains, took possession of Bodenthal.
The representatives, with the army of the Rhine, yielding on
their part to the general impulse which everywhere stimulated
the troops to redoubled energy, resolved upon a general sortie
from the lines of Weissenburg, for the 12th of September.
The three generals — Desaix,* Dubois, and Michaud — pushed
* "Louis Charles Antoine Desaix de Voygoux was born in 1768, of a noble
family, and entered the regiment of Bretagne in 1784 as sub-lieutenant. He
contributed in 1793 to the capture of the Haguenau lines, which the left wing,
where he was stationed, first broke through. In the year 1795 he served in the
1 40 HISTOR Y OF SEPT. 1793
at once against the Austrians, made useless efforts, and were
obliged to return to the lines. The attempts directed in
particular against the Austrian corps at Bodenthal were com-
pletely repulsed. Preparations were nevertheless made for a
new attack on the I4tli. While General Ferrette was to march
upon Bodenthal, the army of the Moselle, acting upon the
other slope, was to attack Pirmasens, which corresponds with
Bodenthal, and where Brunswick was posted with part of the
Prussian army. The attack of General Ferrette was completely
successful. The soldiers assaulted the Austrian positions with
heroic temerity, took them, and recovered the important defile
of Bodenthal. But on the opposite slope fortune was not
equally favourable. Brunswick was sensible of the importance
of Pirmasens, which closed the defiles ; he possessed consider-
able forces, and was in excellent position. While the army of
the Moselle was making head upon the Savre against the rest
of the Prussian army, twelve thousand men were thrown
from Hornbach upon Pirmasens. The only hope of the
French was to take Pirmasens by sui'prise ; but being per-
ceived and fired upon with grape-shot at their first approach,
the best thing they could do was to retire. So thought the
generals ; but the representatives opposed that intention, and
ordered an attack in three columns and by three ravines,
terminating at the height on which Pirmasens is seated. Our
soldiers, urged on by their bravery, had already far advanced ;
the column on the right was indeed on the point of clearing
the ravine and turning Pirmasens, when a double fire, poured
upon both flanks unexpectedly, stopped it. Our soldiers at
first resisted ; but the fire became more fierce, and they were
forced to return through the ravine which they had entered.
army of the North under Pichegru, and repeatedly distinguished himself. In
1798 he accompanied Bona])arte to Egypt ; and on his return to France, hastened
to join the First Consul in Italy, where he contributed to the victory of Marengo,
in which battle lie was mortally wounded." — Encyclopadia Americana.
" Desaix, said Bonaparte, was wholly wrapped up in war and glory. To him
riches and pleasure were valueless. He was a little black-looking man, about
an inch shorter than I am, always badly dressed, sometimes even ragged,
and despising comfort and convenience. Wrapped up in his cloak, he would
throw himself under a gun, and sleep as contentedly as if he were in a palace.
Upright and honest in all his ])roceedings, he was called by the Arabs the
.Tust Sultan. Desaix was intended by nature for a great general."— A Voice
fravi St. Helena.
" Desaix was a man for whom the First Consul had a high esteem, and whose
talents and character afforded the fairest promise of what might one day be ex-
pected from him. Napoleon was jealous of some generals, but Desaix gave him
no uneasiness ; e((ually reinarkable for his unassuming disposition, his talent, and
his information, he proved by his conduct that he loved glory for its own sake.
Bonaparte's friendshij) for liim was enthusiastic." — Bourriennc.
SEPT. 1793 THE FRENCH BEVOLUTION. 141
The other cohimns fell back in like manner, and all fled along
the valleys in the utmost disorder. The army was obliged to
return to the post from which it had started. Very fortu-
nately the Prussians did not think of pursuing it, nor even of
occupying its camp at Hornbach, which it had quitted to march
upon Pirmasens. In this affair we lost twenty-two pieces of
cannon, and four thousand men killed, wounded, or prisoners.
This check of the 14th of September was likely to be of great
importance. The Allies, encouraged by success, began to
think of using all their forces, and prepared to march upon the
Sarre and the Lauter, and thus to drive us out of the lines of
Weissenburg.
The siege of Lyons was proceeding slowly. The Piedmontese,
in debouching by the High Alps into the valleys of Savoy,
had made a diversion, and obliged Dubois-Crancé and Keller-
mann to divide their forces. Kellermann had marched into
Savoy. Dubois-Crancé, continuing before Lyons, with in-
sufficient means, poured in vain showers of iron and of fire
upon that unfortunate city, which, resolved to endure all
extremities, was no longer to be reduced by the horrors of
blockade and bombardment, but only by assault.
At the Pyi'enees we had just received a sanguinary check.
Our troops had remained since the late events in the environs
of PerjDignan. The Spaniards were in their camp at Mas-d'Eu.
In considerable force, inured to war, and commanded by an
able general, they were full of ardour and hope. We have
already described the theatre of the war. The two nearly
parallel valleys of the Tech and of the Tet run off from the
great chain and terminate near the sea. Perpignan is in the
second of these valleys. Ricardos had passed the first line,
that of the Tech, since he was at Mas-d'Eu, and he had resolved
to pass the Tet considerably above Perpignan, so as to turn
that place and to force our army to abandon it. For this
purpose he proposed first to take Villefranche. This little
fortress, situated on the upper course of the Tet, would secure
his left wing against the brave Dagobert, who, with three
thousand men, was gaining advantages in Cerdagne. Ac-
cordiïfgly, early in August, he detached General Orespo with
some battalions. The latter had only to make his appearance
before Villefranche ; the commandant, in a cowardly manner,
abandoned the fortress to him. Crespo, having left a gar-
rison there, rejoined Ricardos. Meanwhile Dagobert, with a
very small corps, overran the whole Cerdagne, compelled the
Spaniards to fall back as far as the Seu-d'Urgel, and even
thought of driving them to Campredon. Owing, however, to
142 inSTORY OF SEPT. 1793
the weakness of the detachment and the fortress of Ville-
franche, Kicardos felt no uneasiness about the advantages
obtained over his left wing. He persisted, therefore, in the
offensive. On the 31st of August he threatened the French
camp under Perpignan, and crossed the Tet above the Soler,
driving before him our right wing, which fell back to Salces,
a few" leagues in the rear of Perpignan, and close to the sea.
In this position the French, some shut up in Perpignan, the
others backed upon Salces, having the sea behind them, were
in a most dangerous situation. Dagobert, it is true, was gain-
ing fresh advantages in the Cerdagne. but too unimportant to
alarm Ricardos. The representatives — Fabre and Cassaigne
— who had retired with the army to Salces, resolved to call
Dagobert to supersede Barbantanes, with a view to bring for-
tune back to our arms. Whilst awaiting the arrival of the new
general, they planned a combined movement between Salces
and Perpignan, for the purpose of extricating themselves from
the unfortunate situation in which they were. They ordered
a column to advance from Perpignan and to attack the
Spaniards in the rear, while they would leave their positions
and attack them in front. Accordingly, on the 15th of Sep-
tember, General Davoust * marched from Perpignan with six
or seven thousand men, while l^erignon advanced from Salces
upon the Spaniards. At a concerted signal they fell on both
sides upon the enemy's camp. The Spaniards, pressed on all
quarters, were obliged to fly across the Tet, leaving behind
them twenty-six pieces of cannon. They immediately returned
to the camp at Mas-d'Eu, whence they had set out for these
bold but unfortunate operations.
During these occurrences Dagobert arrived ; and that officer,
possessing at the age of seventy-five the fire of a young man,
together with the consummate prudence of a veteran general,
* "Louis Nicholas Davoust was born in 1770, of a noble family, and studied
with Bonaparte in the military school of Brienne. He distinguished himself
under Dumouriez, and in the year 1793 was made general. In the Italian
campaigns under Napoleon he zealously attached liimself to the First Consul,
whom he accompanied to Egypt. After the battle of Marengo, Davoust was
made chief of the grenadiers of the consular guard. When Najioleon ascended
the throne in 1804, he created Davoust marshal of the empire, and grand cross
of the Legion of Honour. In 1806 he created liiin Due d'Auerstadt, and after
tlie peace of Tilsit, commander-in-chief of the army of tlie Rhine. Having liad
an important share in tlie victories of Eckmuhl and Wagram, Davoust was
created prince of tlie former place. He aei^ompanied Napoleon to Russia ;
and in 1813 was besieged in Ilamburg, where he lost eleven thousand men,
and was accused of great cruelty. On the Emperor's return to Paris, in 18 15,
he was appointed minister of war. After the battle of Waterloo he submitted
to Louis X\'III., and was subsequently employed by the Court. Davoust died
in the year 1823, leaving a son and two daugliters." — Encyclopœdia Americana.
SEPT. 1793 THE FRENCH RE VOL UTION. 1 4 3
lost no time in marking his arrival by an attempt on the camp
of Mas-d'Eu. He divided his attack into three columns : one
starting from our right, and marching by Thuir to St. Colombe,
was to tm-n the Spaniards ; the second, acting in the centre,
was ordered to attack them in front, and drive them back ; and
the third, operating on the left, was to place itself in a wood,
and to cut off their retreat. This last, commanded by Davoust,
had scarcely attacked before it fled in disorder. The Spaniards
were then able to direct all their forces against the two other
columns of the centre and of the right. Eicardos, judging
that all the danger was on the right, opposed his main force
to it, and repulsed the French on that side. In the centre
alone, Dagobert, animating all by his presence, carried the
entrenchments which were before him, and was even on the
point of deciding the victory, when Ricardos, returning with
the troops victorious on the right and left, overwhelmed his
enemy with his whole united force. Dagobert nevertheless
made a brave resistance, when a battalion threw down its arms,
shouting Vive le Roi ! The enraged Dagobert ordered two
pieces of cannon to be turned upon the traitors, and while
these were playing upon them, he rallied round him some of
the brave fellows who yet remained faithful, and retired with
a few hundred men ; the enemy, intimidated by his bold front,
not daring to pursue him.
This gallant general had assuredly deserved laurels only by
his firmness amidst such a reverse ; for, had his left column
behaved better, and his centre battalions not disbanded them-
selves, his dispositions would have been attended with complete
success. The jealous distrust of the representatives, neverthe-
less, imputed to him this disaster. Indignant at this injus-
tice, he returned to resume the subordinate command in the
Cerdagne. Our army was therefore again driven back to Per-
pignan, and likely to lose the important line of the Tet.
The plan of campaign of the 2nd of September was carried
into execution in La Vendée. The division of Mayence was,
as we have seen, to act by Nantes. The committee of public
welfare, which had received alarming intelligence concerning
the designs of the English upon the West, entirely approved
of the idea of directing the principal force towards the coast.
Rossignol and hi§ party were extremely mortified at this, and
the letters which they wrote to the minister afforded no hope
of any great zeal on their part in seconding the plan agreed
upon. The division of Mayence marched to Nantes, where it
was received with great demonstrations of joy and festivities.
An entertainment was prepared, and before the troops went
144 HISTORY OF sept. 1793
to partake of it, a prelude was made by a sharp skirmish
with the hostile parties spread over the banks of the Loire.
If the division of Nantes was glad to be united to the cele-
brated army of Mayence, the latter was not less delighted to
serve under the brave Canclaux, and with his division, which
had already signalized itself by the defence of Nantes and by
a great number of honourable feats. According to the adopted
plan, columns starting from all the points of the theatre of
war were to unite in the centre, and to crush the enemy there.
Canclaux, commanding the army of Brest, was to march from
Nantes, to descend the left bank of the Loire, to turn round
the extensive lake of Grand-Lieu, to sweep Lower Vendée,
and then to ascend again towards Machecoul, and to be at
Léger between the i ith and the 13th. His arrival at the latter
point was to be the signal for the departure of the columns
of the army of La Rochelle, destined to assail the country
from the South and East.
It will be recollected that the army of La Rochelle, of which
Rossignol was commander-in-chief, was composed of several
divisions : that of Les Sables was commanded by Mieszkousky,
that of Luçon by BefFroy, that of Niort by Chalbos, that of
Saumur by Santerre, that of Angers by Duhoux. The column
of Les Sables had orders to move the moment Canclaux should
be at Léger, and to arrive on the 13th at St. Fulgent, on the
t4th at Herbiers, and on the i6th to join Canclaux at Mortagne.
The columns of Luçon and Niort were to advance, supporting
one another, towards Bressuire and Argenton, and to reach
those parts on the 14th. Lastly, the columns of Saumur and
Angers, quitting the Loire, were to arrive also on the 14th in
the environs of Vihiers and Chemille. Thus, according to this
plan, the whole country was to be scoured from the 14th to
the 1 6th, and the rebels were to be enclosed by the republican
columns between Mortagne, Bressuire, Argenton, Vihiers, and
Cheminé. Their destruction would then be inevitable.
We have already seen that, having been twice repulsed from
Luçon with considerable loss, the Vendeans had it much at
heart to take their revenge. They collected in force before
the republicans had time to carry their plans into execution,
and while Charette * attacked the camp of Les Naudières
* " Charette was the only individual to whom Napoleon attached particular
importance. 'I have read a history of La Vendée,' said he to me, 'and if the
details and portraits are correct, Charette was the only <;;reat character — the
true hero of that remarkable e))is()de in our Revolution. He impressed me with
the idea of a (jreat man. He betrayed f,'enius.' I replied, that I had known
Charette very well in my youth, and that his brilliant exploits astonished all
SEPT. 1793 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 145
towards Nantes, they attacked the division of Luçon. which
had advanced to Chantonay. These two attempts were made
on the 5th of September. That of Oharette on Les Naudières
was repulsed ; but the attack on Chantonay, unforeseen and
well directed, threw the republicans into the greatest disorder.*
The young and gallant Marceau performed prodigies to pre-
vent a disaster ; but his division, after losing its baggage and
its artiller3^ retired in confusion to Luçon. This check was
likely to derange the projected plan, because the disorganiza-
tion of one of the columns would leave a chasm between the
division of Les Sables and that of Niort ; but the representa-
tives made the most active efforts for reorganizing it, and
couriers were despatched to Eossignol to apprize him of the
event.
All the Vendeans were at this moment collected at Les
Herbiers around the generalissimo d'Elbée. Discord pre-
vailed among them as among their adversaries, for the human
heart is everywhere the same, and Nature does not reserve
disinterestedness and the virtues for one party, leaving pride,
selfishness, and the vices to the other. The Vendean chiefs
had their mutual jealousies as well as the republican chiefs.
The generals paid but little deference to the superior coun-
cil, which affected a sort of sovereignty. Possessing the real
strength, they were by no means disposed to yield the command
who had formerly been acquainted with him. We looked on him as a common-
place sort of man, devoid of information, ill-tempered, and extremely indolent.
When, however, he began to rise into celebrity, his early friends recollected a
circumstance which certainly indicated decision of character. When Charette
was lirst called into service during the American War, he sailed out of lîrest
on board a cutter during the winter. The cutter lost her mast, and to a vessel
of that description such an accident was equivalent to certain destruction. The
weather was stormy — death seemed inevitable — and the sailors, throwing them-
selves on their knees, lost all presence of mind, and refused to exert themselves.
At this crisis, Charette, notwithstanding his extreme youth, killed one of the
men, in order to compel the rest to do their duty. This dreadful example had
the desired effect, and the ship was saved. Ay, said the Emperor, here was the
spark that distinguished the hero of La Vendée. Men's dispositions are often
misunderstood. There are sleepers whose waking is terrible. Charette was one
of these." — Las Cases.
* "The Blues again occupied Chantonay. We were much distressed at seeing
them thus established in the Bocage. A new plan was concerted with M. de
Royrand. He made a false attack towards the four roads, while the grand army,
making a great cii-cuit, assailed the republican rear-guard towards the bridge
of Charron. The victory was due to Bonchamps' division, which, with great
intrepidity, carried the entrenchments. Thus surrounded, the defeat of the
Blues was terrible. The great roads were intercepted, and their columns be-
wildered in the Bocage. They lost both their cannon and baggage, and seldom
had suffered so great a loss of men. A battalion that had assumed the name of
the 'Avenger,' and had never given quarter to any Vendean, was wholly exter-
minated." — Memoirs of the Marchioness de Larochcjaquelein.
VOL. III. 66 *
146 HISTORY OF sept. 1793
to a power which owed to themselves its factitious existence.
They were, moreover, envious of d'Elbee, the generalissimo,
and alleged that Bonchamps was much better qualified for the
supreme command. Charette, for his part, wished to remain
sole master of Lower Vendée. There was consequently but
little disposition among them to unite and to concert a plan in
opposition to that of the republicans. An intercepted despatch
had made them acquainted with the intentions of their ene-
mies. Bonchamps was the only one who projîosed a bold pro-
ject, and which indicated comprehensive views. He was of
opinion that it would not be possible to resist much longer
the forces of the republic collected in La Vendée ; that it
behoved them to quit their woods and ravines, in which they
would be everlastingly buried, without knowing their allies, or
being known by them ; he insisted, consequently, that, instead
of exposing themselves to the risk of being destroyed, it would
be better to march in close column from La Vendée, and to
advance into Bretagne, where they were desired, and where
the republic did not expect to be struck. He proposed that
they should proceed to the coast, and secure a seaport, com-
municate with the English, receive an emigrant prince there,
then start for Paris, and thus carry on an offensive and decisive
war. This advice, which is attributed to Bonchamps, was not
followed by the Vendeans, whose views were still so narrow,
and whose repugnance to leave their own country was still so
strong. Their chiefs thought only of dividing that country
into four parts, that they might reign over them individually.
Charette was to have Lower Vendée, M. de Bonchamps the
banks of the Loire towards Angers, M. de Larochejaquelein
the remainder of Up])er Anjou, M. de Lescure the whole
insurgent portion of Poitou. M. d'Elbée was to retain his
useless title of generalissimo, and the superior council its
factitious authority.
On the 9th, Canclaux put himself in motion, leaving
a strong reserve under the command of Grouchy * and
* " Emauuel, Comte de Grouchy, born in 1766, entered the army at the age
of I'ourteen. On the breaking out of the Revohition he .showed his attachment
to liberal principles, and served in the campaign of 1792 as commander of a
regiment of dragoons. He was afterwards sent into La Vendee, where he
distinguished himself on several occasions. In 1797 he was appointed second
in command of the army destined for the invasion of Ireland, l)ut was compelled
to return to France without effecting anytliing. In 1799 he contributed to
Moreau's victories in Germany, and the battle of Hohenlinden was gained
chiefly by his skill and courage. During the campaign in Russia, Grouchy
commanded one of the three cavalry corps of the grand army, and was rewarded
with the marshal's baton for his brilliant services in the campaign of 1814.
After the restoration, lie joined Napoleon on his return from I^'llia, and was
SEPT. 1793 THE FB.ENCH REVOLUTION. 147
Haxo,* for the protection of Nantes, and despatched the
Mayence column towards Léger. Meanwhile the former
army of Brest, under Beysser, making the circuit of Lower
Vendée by Pornic, Bourneuf, and Machecoul, was to rejoin
the Mayence column at Léger.
These movements, directed by Canctaux, were executed with-
out impediment. The Mayence column, its advanced guard
commanded by Kleber, and the main body by Aubert-Dubayet,
drove all its enemies before it. Kleber, with the advanced
guard, equally humane and heroic, encamped his troops out
of the villages to prevent devastations. " In passing the
beautiful lake of Grand- Lieu," said he, "we had delight-
ful landscapes and scenery equally pleasing and diversified.
In an immense pasture strolled at random numerous herds
left entirely to themselves. I could not help lamenting
the fate of those unfortunate inhabitants, who, led astray
and imbued with fanaticism by their priests, refused the
benefits offered by a new order of things, to run into
certain destruction." Kleber made continual efforts to
protect the country against the soldiers, and most fre-
quently with success. A civil commission had been added
to the staff, to carry into execution the decree of the ist
of August, which directed that the country should be laid
waste, and the inhabitants removed to other places. The
soldiers were forbidden ever to burn anything, and it was
only by the orders of the generals and of the civil
commission that the means of destruction were to be
employed.
On the 14th the Mayence column arrived at Léger, and
was there joined by that of Brest, under the command
of Beysser. Meanwhile the column of Les Sables, under
Mieszkousky, had advanced to kSt. Fulgent, according to
the concerted plan, and already given a hand to the army
of Canclaux. That of Lucon, delayed for a moment by
its defeat at Chantonay, was behind its time ; but thanks
to the zeal of the representatives, who had given it a new
general, Befïroy, it was again advancing. That of Niort
accused by him of being the author of the defeat at Waterloo, by permitting
two divisions of the Prussian army under Blucher to join the English forces.
Grouchy was afterwards ordered to be arrested by the ordinance of 1815, in
consequence of which he retired to the United States, where he remained until
he received permission to return to France." — Eneydopœdia Americana.
* "The republican general, François Haxo, was a man of great military talent.
He distinguished himself in the Vendean war, but in the year 1794 shot himself
through the head, when he saw his army defeated by the insurgents, rather than
encounter the vengeance of the Convention." — Scott's Life of Napoleon.
148 HISTORY OF sept. 1793
had reached La Châtaigneraie. 'J^hns. though the general
movement had been retarded for a day or two on all the
points, and though Oanclaux had not arrived till the 14th
at Léger, where he ought to have been on the 12th, still
the delay was common to all the columns, their unity was
not destroyed, and there was nothing to prevent the prose-
cution of the plan of campaign. But in this interval of
time the news of the defeat sustained by the Luçon division
had reached Saumur ; Eossignol. Ronsin, and the whole of
the staff had taken alarm ; and apprehensive that similar
accidents might befall the two other columns of Niort and
Les Sables, whose force they suspected, they determined
to order them to return immediately to their first posts.
This order was most imprudent ; yet it was not issued with
the wilful design of uncovering Canclaux and exposing his
wings ; but those from whom it emanated had little con-
fidence in his plan ; they were well disposed, on the slightest
obstacle, to deem it impossible, and to give it up. It was,
no doubt, this feeling that determined the staff of Saumur
to order the retrograde movement of the columns of Niort,
Luçon, and Les Sables.
Canclaux, pursuing his march, had made fresh progress ;
he had attacked Montaigu on three points. Kleber by the
Nantes road, Aubert-Dubayet by that of Roche-Servière,
and Beysser by that of St. Fulgent, had fallen upon it all
at once, and had soon dislodged the enemy. On the 17th,
Canclaux took Clisson, and not perceiving that Rossignol
was yet acting, he resolved to halt, and to confine himself
to reconnaissances till he should receive further intelligence.
Canclaux therefore established himself in the environs
of Clisson, left Beysser at Montaigu, and pushed forward
Kleber with the advanced guard to Torfou. Such was the
state of things on the iSth. The counter-orders given from
Saumur had reached the Niort division, and been communi-
cated to the two other divisions of Luçon and Les Sables ;
they had immediately turned back, and by their retrograde
movement, thrown the Vendeans into astonishment, and
Canclaux into the greatest embarrassment. The Vendeans
were about a hundred thousand men under arms. There
was an immense number of them towards Vihiers and
Chemillé, facing the columns of Saumur and Angers. There
was a still greater number about Clisson and Montaigu, on
Canclaux's hands. The columns of Angers and Saumur,
seeing them so numerous, said that it was the Mayence
armv which threw them upon their hands, and inveighed
SEPT. 1793 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 149
against the plan wliich exposed them to the attack of so
formidable an enemy. This, however, was not the case.
The Vendeans were on foot in sufficient number to tind
employment for the republicans in every quarter. On the
same day, instead of throwing themselves upon Rossignol's
columns, they advanced upon Canclaux ; and d'Elbée and
Lescure quitted Upper Vendée with the intention of march-
ing against the army of Mayence.
Ey a singular complication of circumstances, Rossignol, on
learning the success of Canclaux, who had penetrated into the
very heart of La Vendée, countermanded his first orders for
I'etreat, and directed his columns to advance. The columns
of Saumur and Angers, being nearest to him, acted first, and
skirmished, the one at Doué, the other at the Ponts-de-Cé.
The advantages were equal. On the i8th the column of
Saumur, commanded by Santei-re, attempted to advance from
Vihiers to a small village called Coron. Owing to faulty
dispositions, artillery, cavalry, and infantry were confusedly
crowded together in the streets of this village. Santerre
endeavoured to repair this blunder, and ordered the troops
to fall back, with the intention of drawing them up in order
of battle on a height. But Ronsin, who, in the absence of
Rossignol, arrogated to himself a superior authority, found
fault with Santerre for ordering the retreat, and opposed it.
At this moment the Vendeans rushed upon the republicans,
and the whole division was thrown into the most frightful
disorder.* It contained many men of the new contingent
* "M. de Piron opposed Santerre at the head of twelve thousand men. Tlie
Blues marched from Coron upon Vihiers, and their army, forty thousand strong,
the most part from levies en masse, occupied a line of four leagues along the
great road. M. de Piron, observing the eiTor of this disposition, attacked with
vigour the centre of the republicans, and after an hour and a half's fighting,
succeeded in cutting their line and throwing them into disorder. Their artillery
filing otf at that moment through a long and narrow street of Coron, M. de
Piron instantly secured it by placing troops at each end of the village, and the
rout became complete. The enemy were followed for four miles, and lost
eighteen cannon and their waggons. It was somewhere about this period that
the republicans found the dead body of a woman, about whom a great deal was
said in the newspapers. A short time previously to the engagement at Coron, a
soldier accosted me at Boulaye, saying he had a secret to confide to me. It was
a woman, who said her name was Jeanne Robin, and that she was from Courlay.
The vicar of that parish, to whom I wrote, answered, that she was a very good
girl, but that he had been unable to dissuade her from being a soldier. The
evening before one of our battles she sought for M. de Lescure, and addressing
him, said, ' General, I am a woman. To-morrow there is to be a battle ; let me
but have a pair of shoes ; I am sure I shall fight so that you will not send me
away.' She indeed fought uuder Lescure's eye, and called to him, 'General,
you must not pass me ; I shall always be nearer the Blues than yon ! ' She
was wounded in the hand ; but this only animated her the more, and rushing
1 5 o HISTOR Y OF sept. 1793
raised with the tocsin ; these dispersed : all were hurried
away, and Hed in confusion from Coron to Vihiers, Doué,
and tSaumur. On the following day, the 19th, the Vendeans
advanced against the Angers division, commanded by Duhoux.
As fortunate as the day before, they drove back the repub-
licans beyond Erigne, and once more possessed themselves of
the Ponts-de-Ce.
In the quarter where Canclaux was, the fighting was not
less brisk. On the same day twenty thousand Vendeans,
posted in the environs of Torfou, rushed upon Kleber's
advanced guard, consisting at most of two thousand men.
Kleber placed himself in the midst of his soldiers, and sup-
ported them against this host of assailants. The ground on
which the action took place was a road commanded by
heights ; in spite of the disadvantage of the position, he re-
tired with order and firmness. Meanwhile a piece of artillery
was dismounted ; some confusion then ensued in his battalions,
and those brave fellows were giving way for the first time.
At this sight, Kleber, in order to stop the enemy, placed an
officer with a few soldiers at a bridge, saying, " My lads,
defend this passage to your last gasp." This order they
executed with admirable heroism. In the meantime the
main body came up and renewed the combat. The Vendeans
were at length repulsed, driven to a great distance, and
punished for their transient advantage.*
All these events had occurred on the 19th. The order to
advance, which had so ill succeeded with the two divisions of
furiously into the thick of the conflict, she perished. There were in other
divisions a few women who also fought disguised as men. I saw two sisters,
fourteen and fifteen years old, who were very courageous. In the army of
M. de Bonchamps, a young woman became a dragoon, to avenge the death of
her father, and during the war performed prodigies of valour." — Memoirs of the
Marchioness de Larochejaquelein.
* "At the head of three thousand men, M. de Lescure succeeded in maintain-
ing the Ijattle of Torfou for two hours. This part of the country, the most
unequal and woody of the Bocage, did not allow the Mayençais to observe how
weak a force was opposed to them before Bonchamps' division arrived, and
Charette and the otlier chiefs had succeeded in rallying those who had tied
on the first onset. They then spread themselves round the left of the re-
publicans, whose columns, entangled in deep and intricate roads, were exposed
to the fire of the Vendeans. The courage of the republican officers would
scarcely have saved them, had not Kleber, after a retreat of about a league,
placed two pieces of cannon on the bridge of Boussay, and .said to a colonel,
' You and yoiu" battalion must die here.' ' Yes, general,' replied the brave man,
and perished on the spot. This allowed Kleber time to rally the Mayençais,
so as to stop the cai'eer of the Vendeans, who proceeded no further. The next
day Charette and Lescure attacked General Bey.sser at Montaigu, to prevent his
junction witli the Mayençais, and com])letely defeated him. The panic of the
republicans was such that they could not be rallied nearer than Nantes." —
Memoirs of the Marchioness dc Larochejaquelein.
SEPT. 1793 TUE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 1 5 1
Saumur and Angers, had not yet reached the columns of
Lnçon and Niort, on account oi" the distance. Beysser was
still at Montaigu, forming the right of Canclaux, and finding
himself uncovered. Canclaux, with a view to place Beysser
under cover, ordered him to leave Montaigu and to draw
nearer to the main body. He directed Kleber to advance
towards Beysser, in order to protect his movement. Beysser.
too negligent, had left his column ill-guarded at Montaigu.
Messieurs de Lescure and Charette had proceeded thither ; they
surprised and would have annihilated it but for the intrepidity
of two battalions, which b}^ their firmness checked the rapidity
of the pursuit and of the retreat. The artillery and the
baggage were lost, and the wrecks of this column fled to
Nantes, where they were received by the brave reserve left
to protect the place. Canclaux then resolved to fall back,
that he might not be left alone c/i flèche in the country,
exposed to all the attacks of the Vendeans. Accordingly he
retreated upon Nantes with his brave Mayençais, who had not
suffered, owing to their imposing attitude, and to the refusal
of Charette to join Messieurs d'Elbee and Bonchamps in the
pursuit of the republicans.
The cause which had prevented the success of this new
expedition against La Vendée is evident. The staff of Saumur
had been dissatisfied with a plan which allotted the Mayence
column to Canclaux. The check of the 5th of September
furnished it with a sufficient pretext for being disheartened,
and relinquishing that plan. A counter-order was immedi-
ately issued to the columns of Les Sables, Luçon, and La
Rochelle. Canclaux, who had successfully advanced, found
himself thus uncovered, and the check at Torfou rendered
his position still more difficult. Meanwhile the army of
Saumur, on receiving intelligence of his progress, marched
from Saumur and Angers to Vihiers and Chemillé. and had
it not so suddenly dispersed, it is probable that the retreat
of the wings would not have prevented the success of the
enterjOTse. Thus, too great promptness in relinquishing the
proposed plan, the defective organization of the new levies,
and the great force of the Vendeans, who amounted to more
than one hundred thousand under arms, were the causes of
these new reverses. But there was neither treason on the
part of the staff' of Saumur, nor folly in the plan of Canclaux.
The effect of these reverses was disastrous, for the new resist-
ance of La Vendée awakened all the hopes of the counter-
revolutionists, and exceedingly aggravated the perils of the
republic. Lastly, if the armies of Brest and Mayence had not
1 5 2 THE mENCII RE VOL UTION. skft. 1793
been shaken by them, that of La Rochelle was once more dis-
organized, and all the contingents proceeding from the levy
en masse had returned to their homes, carrying the deepest
discouragement along with them.
The two parties in the army lost no time in accusing one
another. Philippeaux, always the most ardent, sent to the
committee of public welfare a letter full of indignation, in
which he attributed to treason the counter-order given to
the columns of the army of La Rochelle. Choudieu and
Richard, commissioners at Saumur, wrote answers equally
vehement ; and Ronsin went to the minister and to the com-
mittee of public welfare, to denounce the faults of the plan of
campaign. Canclaux, he said, by causing too strong masses
to act by Lower Vendée, had driven the whole insurgent
population into Upper Vendée, and occasioned the defeat of
the columns of fSaumur and Angers. Lastly, Ronsin, return-
ing calumnies with calumnies, replied to the charge of treason
by that of aristocracy, and denounced at once the two armies
of Brest and Mayence as full of suspicious and evil-disposed
men. Thus the quarrel of the Jacobin party with that which
was in favour of discipline and regular warfare became more
and more acrimonious.
THE NATIONAL CONVENTION
{('onthmed)
ATTACKS ON THE COMMITTEE OF PUBLIC WELFARE— INSTITUTION
OF THE REVOLUTIONARY GOVERNMENT— ORDER TO THE ARMIES
TO CONQUER BEFORE THE 20TH OF OCTOBER— TRIAL AND DEATH
OF CUSTINE — ARREST OF SEVENTY-THREE MEMBERS OF THE
CONVENTION.
THE inconceivable rout at Menin, the useless and sangui-
nary attempt on Pirmasens, the defeats in the Eastern
Pyrenees, the disastrous issue of the new expedition against
La Vendée, were known in Paris almost all at the same time,
and produced a most painful impression there. The tidings
of these events arrived in succession from the iStli to the
25th of September, and, as usual, fear excited violence. We
have already seen that the most vehement agitators met at
the Cordeliers, the members of which society imposed less
reserve upon themselves than the Jacobins, and that they
governed the war department under the weak Bouchotte.
Vincent was their head in Paris, as Ronsin was in La Vendée ;
and they seized this occasion to renew their customary com-
plaints. Placed beneath the Convention, they would fain have
got rid of its inconvenient authority, which they encountered
in the armies in the person of the representatives, and in
Paris in the committee of public welfare. The representatives
on mission did not allow them to carry the revolutionary
measures into execution with all the violence that they could
have wished. The committee of public welfare, directing
with sovereign authority all operations agreeably to the most
lofty and the most impartial views, continually thwarted them,
and of all the obstacles with which they met, this annoyed
them most : hence they frequently thought of effecting the
establishment of the new executive power, as it was organized
by the constitution.
The enforcing of the constitution, repeatedly and maliciously
demanded by the aristocrats, would have been attended with
great dangers. It would have required new elections, super-
154 HISTORY OF sept. 1793
seded the Convention by anothei' assembly, necessarily inex-
perienced, unknown, and comprehending all the factions at
once. The enthusiastic Revolutionists, aware of this danger,
did not demand the renewal of the representation, but claimed
the execution of the constitution in so far as it chimed in with
their views. Being almost all of them placed in the public
offices, they merely desired the formation of the constitutional
ministry, which was to be independent of the legislative power,
and consequently of the committee of public welfare. Vincent
had therefore the boldness to cause a petition to be addressed
to the Cordeliers, demanding the organization of the constitu-
tional ministry, and the recall of the deputies on mission. The
agitation was extreme. Legendre, the friend of Danton, and
already ranked among those whose energy seemed to relax, in
vain opposed this petition, which was adopted, with the excep-
tion of one clause, that which demanded the recall of the repre-
sentatives on mission. The utility of these representatives was
so evident, and there was in this demand something so personal
against the members of the Convention, that those who brought
it forward dared not persist in it. This petition produced great
tumult in Paris, and seriously compromized the nascent autho-
rity of the committee of public welfare.
Besides these violent adversaries, this committee had others,
namely, the new moderates, who were accused of reviving the
system of the Girondins and thwarting the revolutionary energy.
Decidedly hostile to the Cordeliers, the Jacobins, and the dis-
organizers of the armies, they were constantly preferring their
complaints to the committee, and even reproached it for not
declaring itself forcibly enough against the anarchists.
The committee had therefore against it the two new parties
that began to be formed. As usual, these parties took advan-
tage of misfortunes to blame it, and both, joining to condemn
its operations, criticised them each in its own way.
The rout of the 1 5th at JSIenin was already known ; confused
accounts of the late reverses in La Vendée began to be received.
There were vague rumours of defeats at Coron, Torfou, aiid
Montaigu. Thuriot, who had refused to be a member of the
committee of public welfare, and who was accused of being one
of the new moderates, inveighed, at the commencement of the
sitting, against the intriguers, the disorganizers, who had just
made new and extremely \aolent pro]iositions relative to articles
of consumption. " Our committees and the executive council,"
said he, " are harassed, surrounded by a gang of intriguers,
who make pretensions to extraordinary patriotism, solely be-
cause it is productive to them. Yes, it is high tinier to drive
SEPT. 1793 THE FRENCH BE VOL UTION. i 5 5
out those men of rapine and of conflagration, who conceive that
the Revohition was made for them, while the upright and the
pure uphold it solely for the welfare of mankind." The pro-
positions attacked by Thuriot were rejected. Briez, then one
of the commissioners to Valenciennes, read a critical memorial
on the militar}^ operations ; he insisted that the war hitherto
carried on had been slow, and ill-suited to the French character ;
that the operations had always been upon a small scale and
executed by small masses, and that in this system was to be
sought the cause of the reverses which had been sustained.
Then, without openly attacking the committee of public wel-
fare, he appeared to insinuate that this committee had not
communicated all that it knew to the Convention, and that,
for instance, there had been near Douai a corps of six thousand
Austrians which might have been taken.
The Convention, after hearing Briez, added him to the com-
mittee of public welfare. At this moment detailed accounts
arrived from La Vendée, contained in a letter from Montaigu.
These alarming particulars produced a general excitement.
" Instead of being intimidated," cried one of the members,
" let us swear to save the republic !" At these words the
whole Assembly rose, and once more swore to save the republic,
be the perils that threatened it what they might. The members
of the committee of public welfare, who had not yet arrived,
entered at this moment. Barrère, the ordinary rej^orter, ad-
dressed the Assembly. " Every suspicion directed against the
committee of public welfare," said he, "would be a victory
won by Pitt. It is not right to give our enemies the too great
advantage of throwing discredit ourselves on the power insti-
tuted to save us." Barrère then communicated the measures
adopted by the committee. "For some days past," continued
he, "the committee has had reason to suspect that serious
blunders were committed at Dunkirk, where the English might
have been exterminated to the last man, and at Menin, where
no effort was made to check the disastrous effects of panic.
The committee has removed Houchard, as well as the divi-
sionary general, Hedouville, who did not behave as he ought to
have done at Menin. The conduct of those two generals will
be immediately investigated ; the committee will then cause
all the staffs and all the administrations of the armies to be
purified ; it has placed our fleets on such a footing as will
enable them to cope with our enemies ; it has just raised
eighteen thousand men ; it has ordered a new system of attack
en masse ; lastly, it is in Rome itself that it purposes to attack
Rome, and one hundred thousand men, landing in England,
156 HISTORY OF sept. 1793
will march to London and strangle the system of I'itt. The
committee of public welfare, then, is wrongfully accused. It
has never ceased to merit the confidence which the Convention
has hitherto testified towards it." Robespierre then spoke.
"For a long time," said he, "people have been intent on
defaming the Convention, and the committee, the depository
of its power. Briez, who ought to have died at Valenciennes,
left the place like a coward, to come to Paris to serve Pitt
and the coalition, by throwing discredit upon the government.
It is not enough," added he, "that the Convention continues to
repose confidence in us : it is requisite that it should solemnly
proclaim this, and that it should make known its decision in
regard to Briez, whom it has just added to our number."
This demand was greeted with applause ; it was decided that
Briez should not be joined to the committee of public welfare,
and it was declared by acclamation that this committee still
possessed the entire confidence of the National Convention.
The moderates were in the Convention, and they had just
been defeated; but the most formidable adversaries of the
committee, that is, the ardent Revolutionists, were among the
Jacobins and the Cordeliers. It was against the latter in
particular that it behoved the committee to defend itself.
Robespierre repaired to the Jacobins, and exercised his
ascendency over them. He explained the conduct of the
committee : he justified it against the twofold attacks of the
moderates and the enthusiasts, and expatiated on the danger of
petitions tending to demand the formation of the constitutional
ministry. " A government of some sort," said he, " must suc-
ceed that which we have destroyed. The system of organiz-
ing, at this moment, the constitutional ministry, is no other
than that of ousting the Convention itself, and breaking up
the supreme power in presence of the hostile armies. Pitt
alone can be the author of that idea: his agents have pro-
pagated it ; they have seduced the sincere patriots ; and the
credulous and suffering people, always inclined to complain of
the government, which is not able to remedy all these evils,
have become the faithful echo of their calumnies and their
propositions. You Jacobins," exclaimed Robespierre, " too
sincere to be gained, too enlightened to be seduced, will
defend the Mountain, which is attacked ; you will support the
committee of public welfare, which men strive to calumniate,
in order to ruin you, and thus with you it will triumph over
all the secret intrigues of the enemies of the people."
Robespierre was applauded, and the whole committee in
his person. The Cordeliers were brouglit back to order, their
OCT. 1793 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 157
petition was forgotten, and the attack of Vincent, victoriously
repelled, had no result.
It became a matter of urgent necessity, however, to adopt
some course in regard to the new constitution. To give up
the place to new Revolutionists, equivocal, unknown, pro-
bably divided, because they would be the offspring of all the
factions subsisting below the Convention, would be dangerous.
It was therefore necessary to declare to all the parties that
the government would retain the supreme power, and that
before it left the republic to itself, and to the effect of the laws
which had been given to it, it should be governed revolution-
arily till it should be saved. Numerous petitions had already
prayed the Convention to continue at its post. On the loth of
October, St. Just, speaking in the name of the committee of
public welfare, proposed new measures of government. He
drew a most melancholy picture of France ; he overspread this
picture with the sombre colours of his gloomy imagination ;
and by means of his rare talent, and facts otherwise perfectly
authentic, he produced a sort of terror in the minds of his
auditors. He presented, therefore, and procured the adoption
of a decree containing the following resolutions. By the first
clause the government of France was declared revolutionary
till the peace ; which signified that the constitution was tem-
porarily suspended, and that an extraordinary dictatorship
should be instituted till the expiration of all dangers. This
dictatorship was conferred on the Convention and on the
committee of public welfare. " The executive council," said
the decree, " the ministers, the generals, the constituted bodies,
are placed under the superintendence of the committee of
public welfare, which will render an account of it eveiy week
to the Convention."
We have already explained how the superintendence was
transformed into supreme authority, because the ministers,
the generals, the functionaries, obliged to submit their opera-
tions to the committee, had at length no longer dared to act on
their own initiative, but waited for the orders of the committee
itself. It was then said, " The revolutionary laws ought to be
rapidly executed. The inertness of the government being the
cause of the reverses, the periods for the execution of these
laws shall be fixed. The violation of these terms shall be
punished as a crime against liberty." Measures relative to
articles of consumption were added to these measures of
government, for bread is the right of the people, observed St.
Just. The general statement of articles of consumption, when
definitively completed, was to be sent to all the authorities.
I s 8 HISTOR Y OF oct. 1793
The stock of necessaries in the departments was to be approxi-
mately estimated and guaranteed ; as to the surphis of each
of them, it was subjected to requisitions either for the armies,
or for the provinces which had not sufficient for their sub-
sistence. These requisitions had been regulated by a com-
mittee of maintenance. Paris was to be provisioned, like a
fortress, for a year from the ist of the ensuing March. Lastly,
it was decreed that a tribunal should be instituted to investi-
gate the conduct and the property of all those who had had
the management of the public money.
By this grand and important declaration the government,
composed of the committee of public welfare, the committee
of general safety, and the extraordinary tribunal, found itself
com])leted and maintained while the danger lasted. It was
declaring the Revolution in a state of siege, and applying to
it the extraordinary laws of that state during the whole time
that it should last. To this government were added various
institutions, which had long been called for, and had become
inevitable. A revolutionary army, that is, a force specially
charged with carrying into execution the orders of the govern-
ment in the interior, was demanded. It had long since been
decreed ; it was at length organized by a new decree. It was
to consist of six thousand men and twelve hundred artillery ;
to repair from Paris to any town where its presence might be
necessary, and to remain there in garrison at the cost of the
wealthiest inhabitants. The Cordeliers wanted to have one in
each department ; but this was opposed, on the ground that it
would be reverting to federalism to give an individual force
to each department. The same Cordeliers desired, moreover,
that the detachments of the revolutionary army should be ac-
companied by a movable guillotine upon wheels. All sorts of
ideas float in the mind of the populace when it gains the upper
hand. The Convention rejected all these suggestions, and
adhered to its decree. Bouchotte, who was directed to raise
this army, composed it of the greatest vagabonds in Paris, and
those who were ready to become the satellites of the ruling
power. He filled the staff with Jacobins, and more especially
with Cordeliers ; he took lionsin away from Rossignol and La
Vendée, to put him at the head of this revolutionary army.
He submitted the list of this staff to the Jacobins, and made
each officer undergo the test of the ballot. None of them, in
fact, was confirmed by the minister until he had been approved
b}^ the society.
To the institution of the revolutionary army was at length
added the law against suspected ]iersons, so frequently de-
OCT T793 THE FRENCH BE VOLUTION. 159
manded, and resolved upon in principle on the same day as
the levy en masse. The extraordinary tribiTnal, though insti-
tuted in such a manner as to strike upon mere probabilities,
was not sufficiently satisfactory to the revolutionary imagina-
tion. It desired the power of confining those who could not
be sent to death, and demanded decrees which should permit
their persons to be secured. The decree which outlawed the
aristocrats was too vague, and required a trial. It was desired
that on the mere denunciation of the revolutionary commit-
tees, a person declared suspected might be immediately thrown
into prison. The provisional detention till the peace of all
suspected persons was at length decreed. As such were con-
sidered, firstly, those who, either by their conduct or by
their connections, or by their language or their writings, had
shown themselves partisans of tyranny and of federalism, and
enemies of liberty ; secondly, those who could not certify,
in the manner prescribed by the law of the 20th of March
last, their means of subsistence and the performance of their
civic duties ; thirdly, those to whom certificates of civism had
been refused ; fourthly, the public functionaries suspended
or removed from their functions by the National Convention
and by its commissioners ; fifthly, the ci-devant nobles, the
husbands, wives, fathers, mothers, sons or daughters, brothers
or sisters, and agents of emigrants who had not constantly
manifested their attachment to the Revolution ; sixthly, those
who had emigrated in the interval between the ist of July
1789 and the publication of the law of the 8th of April
1792, though they might have returned to France within the
specified time.
The detained persons were to be confined in the national
houses, and guarded at their own cost. They were allowed
to remove to these houses such furniture as they needed.
The committees authorized to issue orders for apprehension
could only do so by a majority, and on condition of trans-
mitting to the committee of general safety the list of persons
and the motives of each apprehension. Their functions, becom-
ing from that moment extremely arduous and almost incessant,
constituted a sort of profession which it was requisite to pay.
A salary was therefore allowed them by way of indemnity.
To these resolutions was added a last, which rendered this
law against suspected persons still more formidable, and which
was adopted on the urgent demand of the commune of Paris ;
this was, to revoke the decree which forbade domiciliary visits
during the night. From that moment every citizen who
was sought after was threatened at all hours, and had not a
i6o H IS TOBY OF oct. 1793
moment's rest. By shutting themselves up in the daytime
in very narrow places of concealment, ingeniously contrived
at the suggestion of necessity, suspected persons had at least
enjoyed the faculty of breathing during the night ; but from
this moment they could no longer do so, and arrests, multi-
plied day and night, soon filled all the prisons of France.
The sectional assemblies were held daily ; but people of
the lower classes had no time to attend them, and in their
absence the revolutionary motions were no longer supported.
It was decided, at the express proposition of the Jacobins
and of the commune, that these assemblies should be held
only twice a week, and that every citizen who attended them
should be paid forty sous per sitting. The surest way of
having the people was not to call them together too often,
and to pay them for their presence. The ardent Revolutionists
were angry, because bounds were set to their zeal by this limi-
tation of the meetings of sections to two in a week. They
therefore drew up a very urgent petition, complaining that
attacks were made on the rights of the sovereign people,
inasmuch as they were prevented from assembling as often
as they pleased. Young Varlet was the author of this new
petition, which was rejected, and no more attention paid to
it than to all the demands suggested by the revolutionary
ferment.
Thus the machine was complete in the two points most
necessary to a threatened State — war and police. In the Con-
vention, a committee directed the military operations, ap-
pointed the generals, and the agents of all kinds, and was
empowered by the decree of permanent requisition to dispose
alike of men and things. All this it did, either of itself, or
by the representatives sent on missions. This committee had
under it another, that of general safety, which superintended
the police, and caused it to be directed by the revolutionary
committees* instituted in each commune. Persons slightly
suspected of hostility, or even of indifference, were confined ;
those who were more seriously compromized were punished
by the extraordinary tribunal, but, fortunately as yet, in small
number, for that tribunal had up to this time pronounced but
few condemnations. A special army, a real movable column
or gendarmerie of this system, enforced the execution of the
orders of government ; and lastly, the populace, paid for attend-
* •' The revolutionary committees were declared the judges of the persons
liable to arre.st. Their number increased with frightful rapidity. Paris had
soon forty-eight. Every village throughout the country followed its example.
Fifty thousand were soon in operation from Calais to Bayonne." — Alison.
OCT. 1793 THE FRENCH RE VOL UTION. 1 6 1
ing at the sections, was always ready to support it. Thus war
and police both centred in the committee of public welfare.
Absolute master, having the means of putting in requisition
all the wealth of the country, being empowered to send the
citizens either to the field of battle, to the scaffold, or to
prison, it possessed for the defence of the Revolution a sove-
reign and terrible dictatorship. It was indeed obliged to ren-
der a weekly account of its proceedings to the Convention ;
but this account was always approved, for critical opinion
was expressed only at the Jacobins, and of them it had been
master ever since Eobespierre had become one of its mem-
bers. There was nothing in opposition to this power but the
moderates, who did not go so far, and the new enthusiasts,
who went farther, but who were neither of them much to be
feared.
We have already seen that Robespierre and Carnot had been
attached to the committee of public welfare as successors to
Gasparin and Thuriot, who were both ill. Robespierre had
brought with him his powerful influence, and Carnot his military
science. The Convention would have joined with Robespierre,
Danton, his colleague, and his rival in renown ; but the latter,
weary of toil, little qualified for the details of administration,
disgusted, moreover, by the calumnies of the parties, had re-
solved not to be on any committee. He had already done a
gi-eat deal for the Revolution; he had supported flagging courage
on all the days of danger ; he had furnished the first idea of the
revolutionary tribunal, of the revolutionary army, of the jDer-
manent requisition, of the tax on the rich, and of the allowance
of forty sous per sitting to the members of the sections ; he
was, in short, the author of all the measures which, though
cruel in the execution, had nevertheless imparted to the Re-
volution the energy that saved it. At this period he began
to be no longer so necessary, for, since the first invasion of
the Prussians, people had become in a manner habituated to
danger. He disapproved of the vengeance preparing against the
Girondins ; he had just married a young wife, of whom he was
deeply enamoured, and on whom he had settled the gold of
Belgium, said his enemies, and the compensation for his place
of advocate to the council, said his friends ; he was attacked,
like Mirabeau and Marat, by an inflammatory disorder; and
lastly, he needed rest, and solicited leave of absence, that he
might go to Arcis-sur-Aube, his native place, to enjoy the
country, of which he was passionately fond. He had been
advised to adopt this mode of putting an end to calumnies
by a temporary retirement. The victory of the Revolution
voi, iiT. " " 67
1 6 2 RIS TOE Y OF oc,t. 1793
might thenceforward be accomplished without him ; two
months of war and energy would sufhce ; and he purposed
to return when the victory was achieved, to raise his mighty
voice in favour of the vanquished and of a better order of
things. Vain illusion of indolence and discouragement ! To
abandon so rapid a revolution for two months, nay, for one
only, was making himself a stranger to it, impotent, and
mortal.
Danton then declined the appointment, and obtained leave
of absence. Billaud-Varennes and Collot-d'Herbois were added
to the committee, and carried with them, the one his cold, im-
placable disposition, the other, his fire and his influence over
the turbulent Cordeliers. The committee of general safety was
reformed. From eighteen members it was reduced to nine,
known to be the most severe.
While the government was thus organizing itself in the
strongest manner, redoubled energ)^ was apparent in all the
resolutions. The great measures adopted in the month of
August had not yet produced their results. La Vendée, though
attacked upon a regular plan, had resisted ; the check at Menin
had nearly occasioned the loss of all the advantages of the
victory of Hondtschoote ; new efforts were required. Revolu-
tionary enthusiasm suggested this idea — that in war, as in
everything else, the will has a decisive influence ; and for the
first time an army was enjoined to conquer within a given
term.
All the dangers of the republic in La Vendée were fully
appreciated. •' Destroy La Vendee," said Barrère, " and
Valenciennes and Condé will be no longer in the hands of
the Austrians. Destroy La Vendée, and the English will
think no more of Dunkirk. Destroy La Vendée, and the
Rhine will be delivered from the Prussians. Destroy La
Vendée, and Spain will find herself harassed, conquered
by the southerns, united with the victorious soldiers of
Mortagne and Cholet. Destroy La Vendée, and part of the
army of the interior may reinforce that courageous army of
the North, so often betrayed and so often disorganized.
Destroy La Vendée, and Lyons will cease to resist, Toulon
will rise against the Spaniards and the English, and the spirit
of Marseilles will again mount to the height of the republican
Revolution. In short, every blow that you strike at La Vendée
will ]-esound in the rebellious towns, in the federalist depart-
ments, on the invaded frontiers ! La Vendée is still La
Vendée ! It is there that you must strike between this day
and the 20th of October, before the winter, before the roads
OCT. 1793 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 163
become impassable, before the brigands * find impunity in the
climate and in the season.
"The committee, in one comprehensive and rapid glance,
has discovered in these few words all the vices of La Vendée : —
•' Too many representatives ;
" Too much moral division ;
" Too many military divisions ;
" Too much want of discipline in success ;
" Too many false reports in the relation of events ;
" Too much avidity, too much love of money in a portion of
the chiefs and of the administrators."
In accordance with these views, the Convention reduced the
number of the representatives on mission, united the armies
of La Rochelle and Brest into one, called the army of the
West, and gave the command of it, not to Rossignol, not to
Canclaux, but to Lechelle, general of brigade in the division
of Luçon. Lastly, it fixed the day in which the war of La
Vendée was to be finished, and that day was the 20th of
October. The proclamation which accompanied the decree
was as follows : —
" The National Convention to the Army of the West.
" Soldiers of liberty, the brigands of La Vendée must be
exterminated before the end of October. The welfare of the
country requires this ; the impatience of the French people
commands it ; their courage ought to accomplish it. The
national gratitude awaits at that period all those whose valour
and patriotism shall have irrevocably established liberty and
the republic ! "
Measures not less prompt and not less energetic were
adopted in regard to the army of the North, for the pui-^^ose
of repairing the check at Menin, and deciding new successes.
Houchard, removed from the command, was arrested. Jour-
dan, who had commanded the centre at Hondtschoote, was
appointed general-in-chief of the army of the North and
that of the Ardennes. He was directed to collect consider-
able masses at Guise for the purpose of attacking the enemy.
* "The Vendean officers wore, for distinction, a sort of chequered red
handkerchief, knotted round their heads, with others of the same colour tied
round their waists, by way of sash, in which they stuck their pistols. The
adoption of this \vild costume procured them the name of brigands, from its
fantastic singularity. It originated in the whim of Henri do Larochejaquelein,
who first used the attire." — Scott's Life of Napoleon,
i64 HISTORY OF oct. 1793
There was a unanimous outcry against attacks in detail. With-
out considering either the plan or the operations of Houchard
around Dunkirk, it was alleged that he had not fought en
■masse, and people insisted exclusively on this kind of combat,
asserting that it was more appropriate to the impetuosity of
the French character. Carnot had set out for Cluise, to join
Jourdan, and to put in execution a new and wholly revolu-
tionary system of warfare. Three new commissioners had been
appointed to assist Dubois-Crancé in raising levies en masse,
and directing them against Lyons. Orders were issued to
relinquish the sj^stem of methodical attacks, and to assault the
rebellious city. Thus redoubled efforts were making in every
quarter to bring the campaign to a victorious conclusion.
But severity is always the companion of energy. The trial
of Custine, too long deferred, in the opinion of the Jacobins,
was at length commenced, and it was conducted with all the
violence and barbarity of the new judicial forms. No general-
in-chief had yet ascended the scaffold. People were impatient
to strike an elevated head, and to make the commanders of
armies bend to the popular authority ; they desired, above
all, to make one of the generals atone for the defection of
Dumouriez, and they chose Custine, whose opinions and senti-
ments caused him to be considered as aiiother Dumouriez. He
had been arrested at the moment when, holding the command
of the army of the North, he had repaired to Paris to concert
operations with the ministry. He was at first thrown into
prison, and a decree for transferring him to the revolutionary
tribunal was soon demanded and obtained.
The reader Avill recollect Custine's campaign on the Rhine.
Commanding a division of the army, he had found Spire
and Worms weakly guarded, because the Allies, in their hurry
to march upon Champagne, had neglected everything on their
wings and in their rear. German patriots, flocking from all
quarters, offered him their towns ; he advanced, took Spire ;
Worms was delivered up to him ; neglected Mannheim, which
was in his route, out of respect to the neutrality of the Elector-
Palatine, and also out of fear that he should not easily enter it.
At length he arrived at Mayence, made himself master of it,
rejoiced France by his unexpected conquests, and obtained a
command which rendered him independent of Biron. At this
moment Dumouriez had repulsed the Prussians, and driven
them beyond the Rhine. Kellermann was near Treves.
Custine was then to descend the Rhine to Coblentz, to join
Kellermann, and thus make himself master of the banks of
that river. All reasons concurred to favour this plan. The
OCT. 1793 THE FRENCH BEVOLUTION. 165
inhabitants of Coblentz called for Custine, those of St. Uoar
and Rheinfels also called for him : it is impossible to tell how
far he might have gone had he followed the course of the
Rhine. Perhaps he might even have descended to Holland.
But from the interior of Germany other patriots called for him
too ; people fancied, on seeing him advance so boldly, that
he had one hundred thousand men. To penetrate into the
enemy's territory and beyond the Rhine was more gratifying
to the imagination and the vanity of Custine. He made an
incursion to Frankfort, to lev}^ contributions and to exercise
impolitic vexations. There he was again beset with solicita-
tions. Madmen invited him to come to Cassel, in the heart
of electoral Hesse, and seize the Elector's treasures. The
wiser counsels of the French government advised him to
return to the Rhine and to march towards Coblentz. But
he would not listen to them, and dreamt of a revohition in
Germany.
Meanwhile Custine became sensible of the dangers of his
position. Seeing clearly that if the Elector were to break
the neutrality, his rear would be threatened by Mannheim,
he would fain have taken that place, which was offered to
him, but durst not. Threatened to be attacked at Frank-
fort, where he could not maintain himself, still he would
not abandon that city and return to the line of the Rhine,
that he might not abandon his pretended conquests, and not
involve himself in the operations of others by descending
towards Coblentz. In this situation he was surprised by
the Prussians, lost Frankfort, was dnven back upon Mayence,
remained undecided whether he should keep that place or
not, threw into it some artillery brought from Strasbnrg,
issued not till very late the order to provision it, was again
surprised amidst his vacillation by the Prussians, withdrew
from Mayence, smitten with terror, and fancying that he
was pursued by one hundred and fifty thousand men, re-
treated to Upper Alsace, almost under the cannon of Stras-
bnrg. Placed on the Upper Rhine with a considerable army,
he might have marched upon Mayence, and put the besiegers
between two fires, but he durst not. At length, ashamed of
his inactivity, he made an unsuccessful attack on the 1 5th of
May, was beaten, and went with regret to the army of the
North, where he completed his ruin by moderate language,
and by a very prudent piece of advice, namely, that the
army should be allowed to reorganize itself in Ceesar's Cam]),
instead of being made to fight uselessly for the relief of
Valenciennes.
1 6 6 HISTOB Y OF oct. 1793
Such had been the career of Custine. Thei'e were many
faults in it, but no treason. His trial began, and representa-
tives on mission, agents of the executive power, bitter enemies
of the generals, discontented officers, members of the clubs
of Strasburg, Mayence, and Cambrai, and lastly, the terrible
Vincent, the tyrant of the war office under Bouchotte, were
brought forward as witnesses. There was a host of accusers,
accumulating unjust and contradictory charges, charges not
founded on genuine military criticism, but on accidental
misfortunes, of which the general was not guilty, and which
could not be imputed to him. Custine replied with a certain
military vehemence to all these accusations ; but he was over-
Avhelmed. Jacobins of Strasburg told him that he wovild not
take the gorges of Porentruy when Luckner ordered him to do
so ; and he proved, to no pui'pose. that it was impossible. He
was reproached by a German with not having taken Mannheim,
which he offered to him. Custine excused himself by alleging
the neutrality of the Elector and the difficulties of the project.
The inhabitants of Coblentz, Rheinfels, Darmstadt, Hanau, of
all the towns which had wanted to give themselves up to him,
and which he had not consented to occupy, accused him at
once. Against the charge of not marching to Coblentz, he
made a weak defence, and calumniated Kellermann, who', he
said, had refused to second him. As to his refusal to take the
other places, he alleged with reason that all the German en-
thusiasts called for him. and that to satisfy them he must have
occupied a hundred leagues of country. By a singular con-
tradiction, while he was blamed for not taking this town, or
not levying contributions on that, it was urged against him
as a crime that he had taken Frankfort, plundered the inhabi-
tants, not made the necessary dispositions there for resisting
the Prussians, and exposed the French garrison to the risk of
being slaughtered. The brave Merlin de Thionville, who gave
evidence against him. justified him in this instance with equal
generosity and reason. Had he left twenty thousand men at
Frankfort, said Merlin, he could not have kept that city ; it
was absolutely necessary to retire to Mayence, and he was only
wrong in not having done so sooner. But at Mayence, added
a multitude of other witnesses, he had not made any of the
necessary preparations ; he had not collected either provisions
or ammunition, but merely crowded together there the artillery
of which he had stripped Strasburg, for the purpose of putting
it into the hands of the Prussians, with a garrison of twenty
thousand men, and two deputies. Custine proved that he had
given orders for provisioning the place, that the artillery was
OCT. 1793 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 167
scarcely sufficient, and that it had not been uselessly accumu-
lated there merely to be given up. Merlin supported all these
assertions of Custine ; but he could not forgive his piTsillani-
mous retreat and his inactivity on the Upper Rhine, while
the garrison of Mayence was performing prodigies. On these
points Custine had nothing to reply. He was then charged
with having burned the magazines of Spire on retiring — an
absurd charge, for when once the retreat became imjDerative, it
was better to burn the magazines than to leave them to the
enemy. He was accused of having caused some volunteers to
be shot at Spire on account of pillage ; to this he replied that
the Convention had approved of his conduct. He was further
accused of having particularly spared the Prussians ; of having
voluntarily exposed his army to be beaten on the 15th of May ;
of having tarried long before he repaired to his command in
the North ; of having attempted to strip Lille of its artillery,
for the purpose of taking it to Caesar's Camp ; of having
prevented Valenciennes from being succoured ; of not having
opposed any obstacle to the landing of the English — charges
which were each more absurd than the other. Lastly, it was
said to him, "You pitied Louis XVI.; you were sad on the
31st of May; you wanted to hang Dr. Hoffmann, president of
the Jacobins at Mayence ; you prevented the circulation of the
journal of Père Duchesne, and the journal of the Mountain, in
your army ; you said that Marat and Robespierre were dis-
turbers ; you surrounded yourself with aristocratic officers ;
you never had at your table good republicans." These charges
were fatal. They comprehended the real crimes for which he
was prosecuted.
The trial had been long ; all the imputations were so vague
that the tribunal hesitated. Custine's daughter, and several
persons who interested themselves on his behalf, had ventured
to take some steps ; for at this period, though the terror was
already great, still persons durst yet testify some interest for
the victims. The revolutionary tribunal itself was immedi-
ately denounced at the Jacobins. " It is painful to me," said
Hébert, addressing that society, "to have to denounce an
authority which was the hope of the patriots, which at first
deserved their confidence, and which will before long become
their bane. The revolutionary tribunal is on the point of
acquitting a villain, in whose favour, it is true, the handsomest
women in Paris are soliciting everybody. Custine's daughter,
as clever a comedian in this city as was her father at the head
of armies, is calling upon everybody, and promising everything
to obtain his pardon." Robespierre, on his part, denounced
1 68 HISTORY OF oct. 1793
the spirit of cliicaneiy and the fondness for formalities which
liad seized the tribunal ; and maintained that, if it were only
for the attempt to strip Lille of its artillery, Custine deserved
death.
Vincent, one of the witnesses, had ransacked the portfolios
of the war office, and brought the letters and orders for which
Custine was accused, and which assuredly did not constitute
crimes. Fouquier-Tin ville * drew a comparison between Custine
and Dumouriez, which was the ruin of the unfortunate general.
Dumouriez, he said, had advanced rapidly into Belgium, to
abandon it afterwards as rapidly, and to deliver up to the
enemy, soldiers, magazines, and representatives themselves.
In like manner Custine had advanced rapidly into Germany,
had abandoned our soldiers at Frankfort and at Mayence.
and meant to deliver up with the latter city twenty thousand
men, two representatives, and all our artillery, which he had
maliciously removed from Strasburg. Like Dumouriez, he
slandered the Convention and the Jacobins, and caused brave
volunteers to be shot upon the pretext of maintaining dis-
cipline. After this parallel, the tribunal ceased to hesitate.
Custine defended his military operations in a speech of two
hours ; and Tronçon-Decoudray defended his administrative
and civil conduct, but to no purpose. The tribunal declared
the general guilty, to the great joy of the Jacobins and
Cordeliers, who filled the hall, and gave tumultuous demon-
strations of their satisfaction. Custine, however, had not
been unanimously condemned. On the three questions, he
had successively had against him ten, nine, eight voices out
of eleven. The president asked if he had anything further
to say. He looked around, and not seeing his counsel, he
replied. '' I have no longer any defenders ; I die calm and
innocent."
He was executed on the following morning. This warrior,
a man of acknowledged intrepidity, was staggered at the
sight of the scaffold. He nevertheless knelt down at the
foot of the ladder, offered up a short prayer, recovered him-
self, and received death with courage. f Such was the end
of this unfortunate general, who lacked neither intelligence
* See Appendix E.
t "Custine's beautiful and gifted daughtci-in-law iu vain sat daily by his
side, and exerted herself to the utmost in his l)elialf ; her grace and the ob-
vious injustice of the accusation produced some impression on the judges, and a
few were inclined to an acquittal ; but immediately the revolutionnry tribunal
itself was complained of, and Custine was found guilty. When he ascended the
scafibld the crowd murmured because he appeared witli a minister of religion by
his side." — Alison,
OCT. 1793 THl'J FRENCH RE VOL UTION. 1 69
nor firmness, but who combined inconsistency with presump-
tion, and who committed three capital faults : the first, in
leaving- his jjroper line of operation and marching to Frank-
fort ; the second, in not returning to it when exhorted to do
so ; and the third, in remaining in the most timid inaction
during the siege of Mayence. None of these faults, however,
was deserving of death ; but he suffered the punishment
which covild not be inflicted on Dumouriez, and which he
had not merited, like the latter, by great and guilty projects.
His death was a terrible example for all the generals, and
a signal to them for absolute obedience to the orders of the
revolutionary government.
This act of rigour was destined to be followed up by execu-
tions without intermission. The order for hastening the trial
of Marie Antoinette was renewed. The act of accusation of
the Girondins, so long demanded and never prepared, was
presented to the Convention. It was drawn up by St. Just.
Petitions came from the Jacobins to oblige the Convention
to adopt it. It was directed not only against the twenty-two
and the commission of twelve, but also against seventy-three
members of the right side who had maintained an absolute
silence since the victory of the Mountain, and who had drawn
up a well-known protest against the events of the 3 1 st of May
and the 2nd of June. Some furious Mountaineers insisted
on the accusation, that is, death, against the twenty-two, the
twelve, and the seventy-three ; but Eobespierre opposed this,
and suggested a middle course, namely, to send the twenty-
two and the twelve to the revolutionary tribunal, and to put
the seventy-three under arrest. His proposal was adopted.
The doors of the hall were immediately secured, the seventy-
three were apprehended, and Foucpiier-Tinville was ordered
to take into his hands the unfortunate Girondins. Thus the
Convention, becoming more and more docile, suffered the
order for sending part of its colleagues to execution to be
extorted from it. In truth it could no longer delay issuing
it, for the Jacobins had sent five petitions, each more im-
perative than the other, in order to obtain these last decrees
of accusation.
THE NATION A T. CONVENTION
[contirmed)
SIEGE AND REDUCTION OF LYONS— VICTORY OF WATIGNIES— THE
BLOCKADE OF MAUBEUGE RAISED— JUNCTION OF THE REPUBLICAN
ARMIES IN THE CENTRE OF LA VENDEE— VICTORY OF CHOLET—
FLIGHT OF THE VENDEANS BEYOND THE LOIRE.
EVERY reverse roused the revolutionary energy, and that
energy produced success. It had always been thus dur-
ing that memorable campaign. A continual series of disasters,
from the defeat of Neerwinden till the month of August, had
at length stimulated to desperate efforts. The annihilation of
federalism, the defence of Nantes, the victory of Hondtschoote,
the raising of the blockade of Dunkirk, had been the conse-
quence of these efforts. Fresh reverses at Menin, Pirmasens,
the Pyrenees, and at Torfou and Coron. in La Vendée, had just
given fresh excitement to energy, and decisive successes on all
the theatres of the war were destined to be the result of it.
Of all the operations, the siege of Lyons was that the end
of which was awaited with the greatest impatience. We left
Dubois-Crancé encamped before that city, with five thousand of
the requisitionary force. He was threatened with soon having
on his rear the Sardinians, whom the weak army of the great
Alps was no longer able to keep in check. As we have already
observed, he had placed himself to the North, between the
Saône and the Rhone, facing the redoubts of Croix-Rousse, and
not on the heights of St. Poy and Fourvières situated to the
West, from which the attack ought by rights to have been
directed. The motive for this preference was founded on
more than one reason. It was, above all, important to keep in
communication with the frontier of the Alps, where the main
body of the republican army was, and whence the Piedmontese
con Id come to succour the Lyonnese. In this position he also
had the advantage of occupying the upper course of the two
rivers, and of intercepting any provisions which might have
been descending the Saône and the Rhone. It is true that the
OCT. 1793 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 171
West was thus left open to the Lyonnese, and they could also
make continual excursions towards St. Etienne and Mont-
Brison ; but the arrival of the contingents of the Puy-de-Dôme
was daily expected, and when these new requisitions had once
joined, Dubois-Crancé would be enabled to complete the blockade
of the west side, and then to choose the real point of attack.
Meanwhile he contented himself with pressing the enemy
closely, with cannonading the Croix-Rousse to the North, and
with commencing his lines on the East, before the bridge of La
Guillotière. The transport of ammunition was difficult and
slow. It had to be brought from Grenoble, Fort Barreaux,
Briançon, and Embrun, and thus to travel over sixty leagues
of mountains. These extraordinary convoys could be effected
only by way of forced requisition, and by putting in motion
five thousand horses ; for they had to transport before Lyons
fourteen thousand bombs, thirty-four thousand cannon-balls,
three hundred thousand pounds of gunpowder, eight hundred
thousand cartridges, and one hundred and thirty j^ieces of
artillery.
Very early in the siege, the march of the Piedmontese, who
were debouching from the Little St. Bernard and from Mont-
Cenis, was announced. At the urgent solicitations of the de-
partment of the Isère, Kellermann immediately set out. and
left General Dumuy to succeed him at Lyons. Dumuy. how-
ever, was his successor only in appearance, for Dubois-Crancé,
a representative and an able engineer, directed alone all the
operations of the siege. To hasten the levy of the requisitions
of the Puy-de-Dôme, Dubois-Crancé detached General Nicolas,
with a small corps of cavalry ; but it was taken in the Forez,
and delivered up to the Lyonnese. Dubois-Crancé then sent
thither a thousand good troops with Javognes,* the representa-
tive. The mission of the latter was more fortunate ; he repressed
the aristocrats of Mont-Brison and St. Etienne, and levied seven
or eight thousand peasants, whom he brought before Lyons.
Dubois-Crancé placed them at the bridge of Oullins. situated
to the north-west of Lyons, so as to cramp the communi-
cations of Lyons with the Forez. He ordered Reverchon, the
deputy, who had collected some thousand requisitionaries at
Maçon, to draw nearer, and placed him up the Saône, quite
* " Javognes was iamous for his cruelties and rapine at Lyons. He traversed
the departments of Ain and Loire at the head of a revoUitionary army, and began
by establishing at Feurs a tribunal composed of ignorant and profligate men, to
one of whom he said, ' The sans-culottes must profit by this opportunity to do
their own business ; so send all the rich men to the guillotine, and you will
ipuckly become rich yourself.' With such tools he quickly organized death and
])illage in all the towns which he visited." — Prudhomme.
172 HISTORY OF oct. 1793
to the North. In this manner the blockade began to be rather
strict ; but the operations were slow, and attacks by main force
impossible. The fortifications of La (Jroix-Kousse, between the
Rhone and the Loire, before which the principal corps lay,
could not be carried by assault. On the east side and on the
left bank of the Rhone, the bridge of Morand was defended by
a semi-circular redoubt, very skilfully constructed. On the
West the decisive heights of St. Foy and Fourvières could not
be taken without a strong army, and for the moment nothing
further was to be thought of than intercepting provisions,
pressing the city, and setting it on fire.
From the commencement of August to the middle of
September, Dubois-Crancé had not been able to do more ;
and in Paris people complained of his slowness without
making allowance for its motives. He had nevertheless done
great damage to the unfortunate city. Conflagrations had
consumed the magnificent square of Bellecour, the arsenal,
the quarter of St. Clair, and the port of the Temple, and
damaged in particular that fine building the Hospital, which
rises so majestically on the bank of the Rhone. The Lyonnese,
however, still continiied to resist with the utmost obstinacy.
A report was circulated among them that fifty thousand Pied-
montese were approaching their city ; the emigrants loaded
them with promises, but without throwing themselves into
the midst of them ; and those worthy manufacturers, sincere
republicans, were by their false position forced to desire the
baneful and ignominious succour of emigrants and foreigners.
Their sentiments had more than once burst forth in an un-
equivocal manner. Précy had proposed to hoist the white
flag, but had soon perceived the impossibility of doing so.
An obsidional paper having been created to supply the wants
of the siege, and there being fieurs-de-lis in the water-mark
of this paper, it had been found necessary to destroy it and
to make another. Thus the sentiments of the Lyonnese were
republican ; but the fear of the vengeance of the Convention.
and the false promises of Marseilles, Bordeaux, Caen, and
more especially of the emigrants, had hurried them into an
abyss of faults and calamities.
While they were feeding themselves with hopes of the
arrival of fifty thousand Sardinians, the Convention liad
ordered the representatives Couthon, Maignet, and Chateau-
neuf-Randon, to repair to Auvergne and the neighbouring
departments, to raise a levy en masse there, and Keller-
mann was hastening to the valleys of the Alps to meet the
Piedmontese,
OCT. 1793 THE FRENCH RE VOL UTION. 1 7 3
A fair occasion here again offered itself to the Piedmontese
for making a grand and bold attempt, which conld not have
failed to prove successful : this was, to concentrate their prin-
cipal force on the Little St. Bernard, and to debouch on
Lyons with fifty thousand men. It is well known that the
three valleys of Sallenche, the Tarentaise, and the Maurienne
wind in a kind of spiral form, and that, commencing at the
Little St. Bernard, they debouch upon Geneva, Chambery,
Lyons, and Grenoble. Small French corps were scattered in
these valleys. To descend rapidly by one of them and to take
post at their outlets would have been a sure way, according
to all the principles of the art, to cut off the detachments
in the mountains, and to make them lay down their arms.
There was little reason to fear any attachment of the Savoyards
for the French, for the assignats and requisitions had as yet
taught them to know nothing of liberty but its extortions and
its rigour. The Due de Montferrat, placed at the head of the
expedition, took with him but twenty or twenty-five thousand
men, threw a corps on his right into the valley of the Sallenche,
descended with his main body into the Tarentaise, and left
General Gordon to pass through the Maurienne with his left
wing. So dilatory was his movement, that, though commenced
on the 14th of August, it lasted till September. The French,
though far inferior in number, made an energetic resistance,
and prolonged the retreat to eighteen days. On reaching
Moustier, the Due de Montferrat sought to place himself in
connection with Gordon, on the chain of the Grand-Loup,
wliich parts the two valleys of the Tarentaise and the Mauri-
enne, and never thought of marching rapidly upon Conflans,
the point where the three valleys meet. This dilatoriness and
his twenty-five thousand men prove sufficiently whether he
had any intention of proceeding to Lyons.
Meanwhile Kellermann, hastening from Grenoble, had called
out the national guard of the Isère and of the surrounding de-
partments. He had encouraged the Savoyards, who began to
fear the vengeance of the Piedmontese government, and had
contrived to collect about twelve thousand men. He then rein-
forced the corps in the valley of Sallenche, and marched towards
Conflans, at the outlet of the two valleys of the Tarentaise and
the Maurienne. This was about the loth of September. At
this moment orders to advance had reached the Due de
Montferrat. But Kellermann, anticipating the Piedmontese,
ventured to attack them in the position of Espierre, which
they had taken up on the chain of the Grand-Loup, for the
purpose of communicating between the two valleys. As he
174 HISTORY OF oct. 1793
conld not approach this position in front, he caused it to be
turned by a detached corps. This corps, composed of half-
naked soldiers, nevertheless made heroic efforts, and lifted the
guns by main strength up almost inaccessible heights. All
at once the French artillery unexpectedly opened over the
heads of the Piedmontese, who were dismayed by it. Gordon
immediately retired in the valley of Maurienne on St. Michel,
and the Due de ]\Iontferrat moved back to the middle of the
valley of the Tarentaise. Kellermann, having annoyed the latter
on his flanks, soon obliged him to return to St. Maurice and
St. Germain, and at length drove him, on the 4th of October,
beyond the Alps. Thus the short and successful campaign
which the Piedmontese might have made by debouching with
twice the mass, and descending by a single valley upon
Chambery and Lyons, failed here for the same reasons that
had caused all the attempts of the Allies to miscarry, and
saved France.
While the Sardinians were thus dnven back beyond the
Alps, the three deputies sent into the Puy-de-Dôme to
eft'ect a levy e7i masse there, raised the country people by
preaching up a kind of crusade, and persuading them that
Lyons, so far from defending the republican cause, was the ren-
dezvous of the factions, of the emigration, and of foreigners.
The paralytic Couthon, full of an activity which his infir-
mities could not relax, excited a general movement. He
despatched Maignet and Chateauneuf with a first column of
twelve thousand men, and remained behind himself for the
purpose of bringing another of twenty-five thousand, and col-
lecting the necessary supplies of provisions. Dubois-Crancé
placed the new levies on the west side, towards St. Foy, and
thus completed the blockade. He received at the same time
a detachment of the garrison of Valenciennes, which, like that
of Mayence, could not serve anywhere but in the interior ; he
placed detachments of regular troops in advance of the new
levies, so as to form good heads of columns. His army was
thus composed of about twenty-five thousand requisitionaries.
and eight or ten thousand men inured to war.
On the 24th, at midnight, he carried the redoubt of the
bridge of Oullins, which led to the foot of the heights of
St. Foy. Next day, General Doppet, a Savoyard,* who had
distinguished himself, under Carteaux, in the war against
* " General Doppet was a Savoyard, a physiciau, and an xuiprincipled man.
He was entirely governed by interested motives. He was a decided enemy
to all who possessed talent, had no idea of war, and was anything but brave." —
Bourrienve.
OCT. 1793 THE FRENCH RE VOL UTION. 1 7 5
the Marseillais, arrived to supersede Kellermann. The latter
had been removed on account of the lukewarraness of his
zeal, and he had been suffered to retain his command for a
few days merely that he might bring his expedition against
the Piedmontese to a conclusion. General Doppet then con-
certed with Dubois-Crance for the assault of the heights of
St. Foy. All the preparations were made for the night
between the 28th and 29th of September. Simultaneous
attacks were directed on the North near La Croix-Rousse, on
the East facing the bridge of Morand, and on the South by
the bridge of La Mulatière, which is situated below the city,
at the contlux of the Saône and the Rhone. The serious
attack was to be made by the bridge of Oullins on vSt. Foy.
This was not begun till five in the morning of the 29th, an
hour or two after the three others. Doppet, inflaming tlie
soldiers, rushed with them upon a first redoubt, and hurried
them on to a second, with the utmost vivacity. Great and
Little St. Foy were carried. Meanwhile the column sent to
attack the bridge of La Mulatière made itself master of it,
and peneti'ated to the isthmus at the point of which the
two rivers join. It was about to enter Lyons, when Precy,
hastening up with his cavalry, repulsed it, and saved the
place. Meanwhile Vaubois, commandant of artillery, who had
made a very brisk attack upon the bridge of Morand, had
penetrated into the horse-shoe redoubt, but had been obliged
to leave it again.
Of all these attacks one only had completely succeeded,
but this was the principal attack, that of St. Foy. The
assailants had now to pass from the heights of St. Foy to
those of Fourvières, which were much more regularly en-
trenched, and m.uch more difiicult to carry. Dubois-Crance,
who acted systematically and like a skilful soldier, was of
opinion that he ought not to expose himself to the risks
of a new assault, for the following reasons : He knew that
the Lyonnese, who were compelled to eat pea-flour, had
provisions for only a few days longer, and that they would
very soon be obliged to surrender. He had found them
extremely brave in the defence of La Mulatière and the
bridge of Morand ; he was fearful that an attack on the
heights of Fourvières might not succeed, and that a check
might disorganize the army and compel him to raise the
siege. "The greatest favour," said he, "that we could do
to the brave and desperate besieged, is to furnish them with
an opportunity to save themselves by fighting. Let us leave
them to perish in a few days by famine."
1 7 6 m S TOE Y OF oct. 1793
At this moment, on the 2nd of October, Coiithon arrived
with a new levy of twenty-five thousand peasants of the
Auvergne. "I am coming," he wrote, "with my rocks of
the Auvergne, and I shall hurl them upon the suburb of
Devaise." He found Dubois-Crancé amidst an army of which
he was the absolute chief, in which he had established the
rules of military subordination, and among which he more
commonly wore the unifoi-m of a superior officer than that
of a representative of the people. Oouthon was irritated
to see a representative superseding ecpiality by the military
hierarchy, and above all, would not listen to a word about
regular warfare. "' I know nothing of tactics," said he ;
" I bring with me the people, whose holy rage will conquer
everything. We must overwhelm Lyons with our masses and
take it by main force. Besides. I have promised my peasants
leave of absence next Monday, for they must go home and
attend to their vintage." It was then Tuesday. Dubois-
Crancé, who thoroughly understood his profession, and was
accustomed to regular troops, expressed some contempt for
this ill-armed mob of peasants. He proposed to pick out the
youngest, to incorporate them into the battalions already
organized, and to dismiss the others. Couthon would not
listen to any of these prudent suggestions, and caused it to
be immediately decided that Lyons should be attacked on all
points with the sixty thousand men of whom the army now
consisted, in consequence of the junction of the new levy.
He wrote at the same time to the committee of public welfare,
urging it to recall Dubois-Crancé. It was resolved in the
council of war that the attack should take place on the 8th
of October.
The recall of Dubois-Crancé and of his colleague Gauthier
arrived in the meantime. The Lyonnese had a great horror
of Dubois-Crancé, whom they had seen for two months so
inveterate against their city, and they declared that they
would not surrender to him. On the 7th, Couthon sent them
a last summons, and wrote to them that it was he, Couthon,
and the representatives, Maignet and Laporte, who were
charged by the Convention with the ]>rosecution 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 £
<u"a
1. Génie
2. Travail
3. Belles Actions
4. Récompenses
5. Opinion
6. Jiéoolution
REPUBLICAN YEAR
GREGORIAN YEAR
1792 3
1793 4
III.
1794 5
IV.
1795 6
1796-7
VI.
1797-8
VII.
1798-S
September 22 September 23
September 22
October 1
October 1 October 1
October 22 October 23 October 22
November 1
November 1 November 1
November 21 November 22
November 21
December 1
December 1 December 1
December 21 December 22
December 21
January 1
January 1 January 1
January 20 .January 21
January 20
February 1
February 1 February 1
Feljruary 19 February 20 .
February 19 .
March 1 March 1
March 1
April 1.
April 20.
May 1
May 20
June 1
June 19 .
July 1
July 19
August 1
August IS
September 1
H
September 17
September IS
September 19
Septemlier 20
September 21
Nil.
September 17
September 18
Septeml)er 19
September 20
September 21
September 22
September 17
September IS
September 19
September 20
September 21
Nil.
/.
1792 3
1793 4
III.
1794 5
IV.
1795 6
1796 7
VI.
1797 8
Septemb
Septemb'
Septemb
Septemb
Septemb
Septemb
VI]
1798
'I'his arrangement is|
The Year I. of the Freiirli. Republic was retrospective only, in the use of the H&pvMkii^
An whl it tonal daij {Fetiruarij 29) 06rMi|l|;si|
NOTi:.— The Binder will place thisi
?%.
N AND THE GREGORIAN CALENDARS.
■rs' •' History of the French Revolution
[R W.P.
VIII.
IX.
X.
XI.
XII.
XIII.
XIV. KEPUBLICAN YEAR
1799-1800 I 1800-1
1801-2
1802-3
1803-4
1804^5
1805 GREGORIAN YEAR
t^
5 00 Sh
1- S
VIII.
September 23 September 24 September 23
October 1
October 1 October l . .
October 23 October 24 October 23 . . .
November 1
November 1 November 1
November 22 Novemlier 23 November 22
December 1
December 1 December 1
December 22 December 23 December 22
January 1
January 1 January 1 .
January 21
, January 21 .Tanuary 22 ....
' February 1
February 1 February 1
February 20 February 21 February 20 .
Marcb 1 March 1 March 1 . .
March 22
April 1..
April 21 .
May 1 .
May 21 ,
June 1
June 20
July 1
July 20 . . .
August 1
August 19 ....
September 1
September 18
September 19
September 20
September 21
September 22
Nil.
September IS
September 19
September 20
September 21
September 22
September 23
September IS
September 19
September 20
September 21
September 22
Nil.
Vendémiaire 1
Vendémiaire 8
Vendémiaire 9
Vendémiaire 10
Brumaire 1
. . . Brumaire 9
. . . Brumaire 10
. . . Brumaire 11
Frimaire 1
. . . Frimaire 9
. . . Frimaire 10
. . . Frimaire 11
Nivôse 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
. . . i'Ioréal 12
Prairial 1
. . . Prairial 12
. . . Prairial 13
Messidor 1
. . Messidor 12
. . . Messidor 13
Thermidor 1
. . . 'rhernnd<ir 13
. . . Tliermidor 14
Fructidor 1
. . . Fructidor 14
. . . Fructidor 15
1. Vertu
2. Génie
3. Travail
4. Opinion
5. Récompenses
6. République
C5_0 C
ago
S o5
IX.
799-1800
1800 1
X.
1801-2
XL
1802 3
XII.
1803-4
XIII.
1804 5
XIV.
REPUBLICAN YEAR
1805
GREGORIAN YEAR
[Copyright, January 1SS4.
^lendar. The Gregoria)/, Calendar teas re-estahlished in France on \st January 1806.
1792, 1796, and 1804, hui vot in 1800.
J(l led, following page 233 of Volume III.
i
NOV. 1793 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION, 235
and to be dedicated to a grand solemnity, in which the French
should celebrate the period of their enfranchisement, and the
institution of the republic.
The day was divided, according to the decimal system, into
ten parts or hours, these into ten others, and so on. New
dials were ordered for the purpose of putting in practice this
new method of calculating time ; but not to attempt too much
at once, this latter reform was postponed for one year.
The last revolution, the most difficult, the most accused
of tyranny, was that attempted in regard to religion. The
revolutionary laws relative to religion had been left just as
they were framed by the Constituent Assembly. It will be re-
collected that this first assembly, desirous of introducing into
the ecclesiastical administration a uniformity with the civil
administration, determined that the extent of every diocese
should be the same as that of the departments, that the
bishop should be elective like all the other functionaries, and
that, in short, without touching the doctrines of the Church,
its discipline slujuld be regulated, as all the parts of the
political organization had just been. Such was the civil con-
stitution of the clergy, to which the ecclesiastics were obliged
to bind themselves by oath. From that day, it will be recol-
lected, a schism had taken place. Those who adhered to the
new institution were called constitutional or sworn priests,
and those who refused to do so, refractory priests. The latter
were merely deprived of their functions, and had a pension
allowed them. The Legislative Assembly, seeing that they
were taking great pains to excite opinion against the new
system, placed them under the surveillance of the authorities
of the departments, and even decreed that, upon the decision
of those authorities, they inight be banished from the territory
of France. Lastly, the Convention, more severe in propor-
tion as their conduct became more seditious, condemned all
the refractory priests to exile.
As minds became daily more and more excited, people
began to ask, why. when all the old monarchical superstitions
were abolished, there should yet be retained a phantom of
religion, in which scarcely any one continued to believe, and
which formed a most striking contrast with the new institu-
tions and the new manners of republican France. Laws had
already been demanded for favouring married priests, and for
protecting them against certain local administrations which
wanted to deprive them of their functions. The Convention,
extremely reserved on this point, would not make any new
enactments relative to them, and by this course it had autlio-
236 HISTORY OF NOV. 1793
rized them to retain their functions and their salaries. It had
been solicited, moreover, in certain petitions, to cease to allot
salaries to any religion, to leave each sect to pay its own
ministers, to forbid outward ceremonies, and to oblige all the
religions to confine themselves to their own places of worship.
All that the Convention did was to reduce the bishops to the
maximum of six thousand francs, since there were some of them
whose income amounted to seventy thousand. On every other
point it refused to interfere, and kept silence, leaving France
to take the initiative in the abolition of religious worship.
It was fearful lest, by meddling itself with creeds, it should
alienate part of the population, still attached to the Catholic
religion. The commune of Paris, less reserved, seized this
important occasion for a great reform, and was anxious to set
the first exam])le of the abjuration of Catholicism.
While the patriots of the Convention and of the Jacobins,
while Robespierre, St. Just, and the other revolutionary leaders,
stopped short at deism, Chaumette, Hébert, all the notables of
the commune and of the Cordeliers, placed lower by their
functions and their knowledge, could not fail, agreeably to the
ordinary law, to overstep that limit, and to proceed to atheism.
They did not openly profess that doctrine, but there were
grounds for imputing it to them. In their speeches and in
their writings the name of God was never mentioned, and they
were incessantly repeating that a nation ought to be governed
by reason alone, and to allow no other worship but that of
reason. Chaumette was neither vulgar, nor malignant, nor
ambitious, like Hébert. He did not seek, by exaggerating the
prevailing opinions, to supplant the actual leaders of the Re-
volution ; but destitute of political views, full of a common-
place philosophy, possessed with an extraordinary propensity
for declamation, he preached up, with the zeal and the devout
pride of a missionary, good morals, industry, the ])atriotic vir-
tues, and lastly, reason, always abstaining from the mention
of the name of God. He had inveighed with vehemence
against the plunder of the shops ; he had severely reprimanded
the women who neglected their household concerns to take a
part in political commotions, and he had had the courage to
order their club to be sliut up ; he had provoked the abolition
of mendicity, and the establishment of public workshops for the
purpose of giving employment to the poor ; he had thundered
against prostitution, and prevailed on tlu^ commune to pro-
hibit the profession of women of the town, usually tolerated
as inevitable. These unfortunate creatures were forbidden to
appear in public, or even to carry on their deplorable trade in
NOV. 1793 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 237
the interior of houses. (Jhaumette said that they belonged
to monarchical and Catholic countries, where there were idle
citizens and unmarried priests, and that industry and marriage
ought to expel them from republics.
Chauinette, taking therefore the initiative in the name of
that system of reason, launched out at the commune against
the publicity of the Catholic worship.* He insisted that this
was a privilege which that communion ought no more to enjoy
than any other, and that, if each sect had that faculty, the
streets and jmblic places would soon become the theatre of the
most ridiculous farces. As the commune was invested with
the local police, he obtained a resolution, on the 23rd of A^en-
demiaire (October the I4tli) that the ministers of no religion
should be allowed to exercise their worship out of the temples
appropriated to it. He caused new funeral ceremonies for the
purpose of paying the last duties to the dead to be instituted.
The friends and relatives alone were to accompany the coffin.
All the religious signs were suppressed in cemeteries, and to
be replaced by a statue of sleep, after the example of what
Fouché had done in the department of the Allier. Instead
of cypress and doleful shrubs, the burial-grounds were to be
planted with such as were more cheerful and more fragrant.
" Let the beauty and the perfume of the flowers," said
Chaumette, " excite more soothing ideas. I would fain, if it
were possible, be able to inhale in the scent of the rose the
spirit of my father ! " All the outward signs of religion were
entirely abolished. It was also decided in the same resolu-
tion, and likewise at the instigation of Chaumette, that there
should not be sold in the streets " any kinds of jugglery,
such as holy napkins, St. Veronica's handkerchiefs, Ecce
Homos, crosses, Agnus Deis, Virgins, bodies and rings of
St. Hubert, or any powders, medicinal waters, or other adul-
terated di'ugs." The image of the Virgin was everywhere
suppressed, and all the Madonnas in niches at the corners
of streets were taken down to make room for busts of Marat
and Lepelletier.
Anacharsis Clootz,f the same Prussian baron who, possessing
an income of one hundred thousand livres, had left his own
* " Pache, Heliert, and Chauinette, the leaders of the imuiicipality, ])ublicly
expressed their deteriinnatioii to dethrone the King of Heaven, as well as the
kings of the earth." — Lacrctclle.
t " This personage, whose brain was none of the soundest by nature, disgusted
with his baptismal name, had adopted that of the Scythian philosopher, and
uniting it with his own Teutonic family appellation, entitled himself — Anachar.sis
Clootz, Orator of the liuman race ! He was, in point of absurdity, one of the
4nost inimitable characters in the Revolution." — ScoU'n Life of Napoleon.
238 II IS TORT OF Nov. 1793
country to come to Paris, as the representative, he said, of
the human race ; who had figured at tlie first federation in
1790 at the head of the self-styled envoys of all nations; and
who had afterwards been elected deputy to the National Con-
vention — Anacharsis C'lootz incessantly preached up a universal
republic and the worship of reason. Full of these two ideas,
he was continually developing them in his writings, and hold-
ing them forth to all nations, sometimes in manifestoes, at
others in addresses. To him deism appeared as culpable as
Catholicism itself. He never ceased to propose the destruction
of tyrants and of all sorts of gods, and insisted that, among
mankind enfranchised and enlightened, nothing ought to be
left but •i)ure reason, and its beneficent and immortal worship.
To the Convention he said, " I had no other way of escaping
from all the tyrants, sacred and profane, but continual travel :
I was in Rome when they would have imprisoned me in Paris,
and in London when they would have burnt me in Lisbon. It
was by thus running hither and thither, from one extremity of
Europe to the other, that I escaped the police and the spies,
all the masters and all the servants. My emigrations ceased
when the emigration of villains commenced. The metropolis
of the globe, Paris, was the proper post for the orator of the
human race. I have not quitted it since 1789. It was then
that I redoubled my zeal against the pretended sovereigns of
earth and heaven. I boldly preached that there is no other
God but Nature, no other sovereign but the human race, the
people-god. The people is sufficient for itself. It will subsist
for ever. Nature kneels not before herself. Judge of the
majesty of the free human race by that of the French people,
which is but a fraction of it. Judge of the infallibility of the
whole by the sagacity of a portion, wliich singly makes the
enslaved world tremble. The committee of surveillance of the
universal republic will have less to do than the committee of
the smallest section of Paris. A general confidence will suc-
ceed a universal distrust. In my commonwealth there will be
few public offices, few taxes, and no executioner. Reason will
unite all men into a single representative bundle, without any
other tie than epistolary correspondence. Citizens, religion is
the only obstacle to this Utopia. It is high time to destroy it.
The human race has burnt its swaddling-clothes. ' The people
have no vigour,' said one of the ancients, ' but on the day that
follows a bad reign.' Let us profit by this first day, which
we will prolong till the morrow for the deliverance of the
world."
Tlie requisitions of Chaumette revived all the hopes of Clootz,
NOV. 1793 TUE FBENGH REVOLUTION. 239
He called upon Gobel,* an intriguer of Porentruy, who had
become constitutional bishop of the department of Paris, by
that rapid movement which had elevated Chaumette, Hébert,
and so many others to the highest municipal functions. He
persuaded him that the moment had arrived for abjuriiig, in
the face of France, the Catholic religion, of which he was the
chief pontiff ; that his example would be followed by all the
ministers of that communie)]! ; that it would enlighten the
nation, produce a general abjuration, and thus oblige the Con-
vention to decree the abolition of all religions. Gobel would
not precisely abjure his creed, and thereby declare that he
had been deceiving men all his life ; but he consented to go
and abdicate the episcopacy. Gobel then prevailed upon the
majority of his vicars to follow his example. It was agreed with
C'haumette and the members of the dej^artment that all the
constituted authorities of Paris should accompany Gobel, and
form part of the deputation, to give it the more solemnity.
On the 17th of Brumaire (November 7, 1793), Momoro,
Pache, I'Huillier, Chaumette, Gobel, and all the vicars re-
paired to the Convention. Chaumette and I'Huillier, both
jjrocurcurs, one of the commune, the other of the department,
informed it that the clergy of ]*aris had come to pay a signal
and sincere homage to reason. They then introduced Gobel.
With a red cap on his head, and holding in his hand his mitre,
his crosier, his cross, and his ring, he thus addressed the As-
sembly. " Born a plebeian, curé of l^orentruy, sent by my
clerg}" to the first Assembl}^, then raised to the Archbishopric
of Paris, I have never ceased to obey the people. I accepted
the functions which that people formerly bestowed on me, and
now, in obedience to it, I am come to resign them. I suffered
myself to be made a bishop when the people wanted bishops.
I cease to be so now when the people no longer desire to have
* "Jean Bajitiste Joseph Gobel, lîisliop of LyJda, sufl'ragan of the Bishop of
Bale, and deputy to the Htates-general, embraced the popular party, and became
odious and often ridiculous during the Revolution. Though born with some
abilities, his age and his weak character made him the mere tool of conspirators.
In 1791 he was appointed constitutional Bishop of Paris, and was the consecrator
of the new bishops. Being admitted into the Jacobin Club, he distinguished him-
self by his violent motions, and was one of the first to assume the dress of a saiis-
culotte. He did not even fear, at tlie age of seventy, to declare at the bar of the
Convention, that the religion which he had jn'ofessed from his youth was founded
on error and falsehood. He was one of the first wdio sacrificed to the goddess of
Reason, and lent his church for this absurd festival. Tliis farce soon became the
pretext for his ruin. He was arrested as an accomplice of the faction of the
atheists, and condemned to death in 1794. Gobel was born at Hanne, in the
department of the Upper Rhine. During his confinement he devoted himself
again to his former religious exercises, and on liis road to the scatTold, earnestlv
recited the prayers of the dying." — Biographic Moderne.
240 HISTOR Y OF Nov. 1793
any." Gobel added that all his clergy, actuated by the same
sentiments, charged him to make the like declaration for them.
As he finished s])eaking, he laid down his mitre, his crosier, and
his ring. His clergy ratified his declaration.* The president
replied with great tact, that the Convention had decreed free-
dom of religion, that it had left it unshackled to each sect, that
it had never interfered in their creeds, but that it applauded
those who, enlightened by reason, came to renounce their super-
stitions and their errors.
Gobel had not abjured either the priesthood or Catholicism.
He had not dared to declare himself an impostor who had
come to confess his lies ; but others stretched this declaration
for him. " Ivenouncing," said the curé of Aaugirard, "the
prejudices which fanaticism had infused into my heart and my
mind, I lay down my letters of ordination." Several bishops
and curés, members of the Convention, followed this example,
and laid down their letters of ordination, or abjured Catholi-
cism. Julien of Toulouse abdicated also his quality of l*rotes-
tant minister. These abdications were hailed with tumultuous
applause by the Assembly and the tribunes. At this moment
Grégoire,! Bishop of Blois, entered the hall. He was in-
formed of what had passed, and was exhorted to follow the
example of his colleagues. "Is it," said he, "the income at-
tached to the episcopal functions that you wish me to resign ?
I resign it without regret. Is it my ((uality of priest and
bishop ? I cannot strip myself of that ; my religion forbids
me. 1 appeal to the freedom of religion." The words of
Grégoire finished amidst tumult ; but they did not check the
explosion of joy which this scene had excited. The deputation
quitted the Assembly, attended by an immense concourse, and
* "Terrified by a night-scene, whicli David, Clootz, and Peraud, ex-member for
the department, and a professional athei.st, had ])layed off in his apartment,
Gobel went to the Assembly at the head of his stall' — that is to say, of his grand
vicars — to abjure the Catholic worship. Gobel at heart was certainly nothing
less than a freethinker.'" — Prudhommc.
t " Henri Grégoire was born in 1750, aiul was one of the lirst of his order who
went to tlie liall of the tiers-état. He was also the first ecclesiastic who took the
constitutional oath, and was elected Bisiiop of ]>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 theΔ
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<fbt; but tlicy were soon turned, and
the disorder became such that our people took cartridges from their caissons,
and they from ours. This confusion was favourable to the Vendeans, who lost
few men, and killed a fçreat many of the enemy. The darkness was so great that
M. Keller gave his hand to a republican to help him out of a ditch, thinking
him one of us. The flashes of tlio cannon showed him at once the uniform, and
— he killed him." — Memoirs of the Marchioness de Larochejaquelein.
DEC. 1 7 9 3 THE FRENCH RE VOL UTIOK 279
of Laval would not present any obstacle. This plan, approved
by the generals, was adopted by l'Echelle. Next day, how-
ever, l'Echelle, who sometimes threw off his nullity to commit
blunders, sent an order the most stupid and the most contrary
to the course agreed upon the day before. He directed that
the army should march, according to his favourite expression,
majestically and en masse, upon Laval, filing upon the left bank.
Ivleber and all the generals were indignant. Nevertheless they
were obliged to obey. Beaupuy advanced first ; Kleber immedi-
ately followed. The whole Vendean army was deployed on the
heights of Entrâmes. Beaupuy attacked ; Kleber deployed on
the right and left of the road, so as to extend himself as much
as possible. Sensible, however, of the disadvantage of this
position, he sent to desire l'Echelle to direct Chalbos's division
upon the enemy's flank, a movement which wovdd have shaken
him. But this column, composed of those battalions formed
at Orleans and Niort, which had so often run away, dispersed
before they had begun their march. L'Echelle was the first
to scamper off at full gallop. A full half of the ax-my, which
was not engaged, fled with the utmost precipitation, with
l'Echelle at its head, and ran to Château-donthier, and from
Chuteau-Gonthier to Angers. The brave Mayençais, who had
never yet flinched, dispersed for the first time. The rout then
became general. Beaupuy, Kleber, Marceau, and Merlin and
Turreau, the representatives, made incredible but useless efforts
to stop the fugitives.* Beau])uy received a ball in the middle
of the chest. On being carried into a hut, he cried, " Leave
* "The battle began at eleven o'clock in the morning. The repnblicans had
two pieces of cannon on a rising ground in front. M. Stoftiet, who was by the
side of an emigrant, said to him, ' You shall see how we take cannon.' At
the same time he ordered M. Martin, surgeon, to charge on tlie pieces with
a dozen horsemen. Martin set olf at a galloj). The cannoniers were killed,
and the two pieces carried away. They turned them immediately against the
republicans, and M. de la Marsonnierre was charged to point them. A spent
ball struck him so violently as to bury his shirt in his flesh. M. de Bangé
supplied his place. This battery was important. It was exposed to the hottest
fire of the enemy. M. de Larochejaquelein was almost continually with M. de
Bangé, making the pieces always advance in front of the republicans, who were
retreating. Tlie drivers were so frightened that they were obliged to whip them
on. For a moment cartouches were wanting. M. de Royrand galloped oft' for
some. Coming back, a ball struck him on the head ; he died of his wound some
time after. The perseverance of this attack decided the success of the battle.
The republicans gave way, and fled in disorder to Château-Gonthier. They
wanted to form again in the town, and placed two cannon on the bridge to
defend it. M. de Larochejaquelein, who had pursued them briskly, said to his
soldiers, ' What, my friends, shall the conquerors sleep out of doors, and the
conquered in the town ? ' The Vendeans had never had so much ardour. They
rushed on the bridge, and the cannon were taken. The Mayençais tried a
moment to resist. They were overthrown, and our people entered Château-
Gonthier." — Memoirs of the Marchloness de Larochejaquelein.
2 8o HISTORY OF dec. 1793
me here, and sliow my bloody shirt to my sokliers." The
gallant Bloss, who commanded the grenadiers, and was noted
for extraordinaiy intrepidity, fell at the head of them. At
length, one part of the army halted at Lyon-d' Angers ; the
other fled to Angers itself. General indignation was excited
by the cowardly example set by l'Echelle, who had been the
first to run away. The soldiers mnrmnred loudly. On the
following day, during the review, the small number of brave
men who had stuck to their colours, and these were the
Mayençais, shouted, " Down with l'Echelle ! Kleber and
Dubayet for ever ! Let them give us back Dubayet ! "
L'Echelle, who heard these shouts, conceived a stronger dis-
like than ever for the army of Mayence, and for the generals
whose bravery put him to shame. The representatives, seeing
that the soldiers would no longer obey l'Echelle, resolved to
suspend him, and offered the command to Kleber. The latter
refused it, because he was not fond of the situation of a
general-in-chief, an everlasting butt to the representatives,
to the minister, to the committee of public welfare, and con-
sented merely to direct the army in the name of another.
The command was therefore given to Chalbos, who was one
of the oldest generals in the army. L'Echelle, anticipating
the resolution of the representatives, resigiied, saying that
he was ill, and retired to Nantes, where he died some time
afterwards.
Kleber, seeing the army in a deplorable state, dispersed
partly at Angers, and partly at Lyon-d'Angers, proposed to
assemble the whole of it at Angers itself, then to allow it a
few days' rest, to furnish it with shoes and clothes, and to
reorganize it in a complete manner. This suggestion was
adopted, and all the troops were collected at Angers. L'Echelle,
on sending in his resignation, had not failed to denounce the
army of Mayence, and to attribute to brave men a rout which
was owing solely to liis own cowardice. A distrust had long
been felt of that army, of its esprit de corps, of its attach-
ment to its generals, and of its opposition to the staff of Sau-
mur. The recent shouts of "Dubayet for ever! Down with
l'Echelle ! " completely compromized it in the opinion of the
government. Accordingly, the committee of public welfare soon
issued an ordinance commanding that it should be dissolved,
and incorporated with the other corps. Kleber was charged
with this o]ieration. Though this measure was taken against
himself and his companions-in-arms, he cheerfully obeyed,
for he felt the danger of the spirit of rivalry and animosity
which subsisted between the garrison of Mayence and the rest
DEC. 1 7 9 3 THE FRENCH RE VOL UTION. 2 8 1
of the troops, and he saw, moreover, a great advantage in
forming good heads of cohimns, which, skilfully distributed,
might communicate their own energy to the whole army.
During these transactions at Angers, the Vendeans, delivered
at Laval from the republicans, and seeing nothing that opposed
their march, considered what course they had to pursue. Two,
alike advantageous, presented themselves. They had to choose
between the extremity of Bretagne and that of Normandy.
In the farthest part of Bretagne a strong spirit of fanaticism
had been excited by the priests and the nobles ; the popula-
tion would receive them with joy ; and the country, hilly and
extremely intersected, would furnish them with very easy
means of resistance ; lastly, they would be on the sea-coast,
and in communication with the English. The extremity of
Normandy, or the peninsula of Cotentin, was rather more
distant, but much easier to guard ; for by making themselves
masters of Port-Beil and St. Cosme they could close it com-
pletely. They Avould there find the important town of Cher-
bourg easily accessible to them on the land side, full of supplies
of all kinds, and above all, well adapted for communication
with the English. The road to Bretagne was guarded only
by the army of Brest, under Rossignol, consisting at most of
live or six thousand men, and badly organized. The road to
Normandy was defended by the army of Cherbourg, composed
of levies en masse, ready to disperse at the first musket-shot,
and of a few thousand regular troops, which had not yet
quitted Caen. Thus neither of these two armies was to be
dreaded by the Vendean force. With a little celerity it would
even be easy to avoid a meeting with them. But the Ven-
deans were ignorant of the nature of the localities. They
had not among them a single ofiicer who could tell them what
Bretagne and Normandy were, what were their military advan-
tages and their fortresses. They conceived, for instance, that
Cherbourg was defended on the land side : they were incap-
able of making haste, of gaining information during their
march, of executing anything, in short, with any degree of
vigour and precision.
Their army, though numerous, was in a deplorable state.
All the principal chiefs were either dead or wounded. Bon-
champs had expired on the left bank ; d'Elbee had been
conveyed wounded to Noirmoutiers ; Lescure, struck by a ball
on the forehead, was drawn dying after the army.* Laroche-
* " We quitted Laval without having determined if we should go to Rennes.
Stofflet, on his own authority, took the road to Fougères. In the evening we
stopped at Mayenne ; the next day we continued our disastrous journey. The
282 HISTORY OF dec. 1793
jaquelein alone was left, and to him the chief command had
been assigned. iStofflet commanded under him. The army,
now obliged to move, and to abandon its own country, ought
to have been organized ; but it marched pell-mell, like a
mob, having the women, the children, and the waggons in the
centre. In a regular army, the brave, the weak, the coward
are so dovetailed, as it were, that they must perforce hold to-
gether, and mutually support one another. A few courageous
men are sufficient to impart their energy to the whole mass.
Here, on the contrary, no ranks were kept, no division
into companies, into battalions, was observed. Each marched
where he pleased : the bravest men had ranged themselves
together and formed a corps of five or six thousand, always
ready to be the first to advance ; next to them came a troop,
consisting of those who were disposed to decide an advantage
by throwing themselves on the flanks of an enemy already
broken ; after these two bands slowly followed that confused
mass which was ever ready to run away on the firing of the
first shot.
Thus the thirty or forty thousand armed men were reduced
to a few thousand brave fellows, who were always disposed to
fight from temperament. The want of subdivisions prevented
them from forming detachments, directing a corps to this or
that point, or making any disposition whatever. Some followed
Larochejaquelein. others Stofilet, and would follow nobody else.
It was impossible to give orders. All that could be obtained
by the officers was to get their people to follow at a given
signal. Stofflet had merely a few trusty peasants who went
to communicate his directions to their comrades. They had
army, after a skirmish, in wliicli it succeeded, entered Ernée. AVe passed the
night there. I was overwiielnied with fiitigue, so threw myself on a mattress
by Lescure, and went to sleep. Daring the night they perceived all at once that
the patient liad lost his strengtli, and was dying. They put on blisters, but an
instant after he lost his speech. At one o'clock in the morning, sleep left me,
and I passed twelve hours in a state of distraction impossible to paint. Toward
noon we were forced to continue our journey. I got first into the carriage, on
the mattress, by Lescure. Agatha was on the other side. Our friends represented
to me that the surgeon would be more useful than I, and made me get out of
the carriage, and put me on horseback. I saw nothing. I had lost all power
of thinking. I distinguished no objects. I knew not what I felt. A dark cloud,
a frightful void, surrounded me. I will own that, finding on the road the bodies
of many re[)ublicans, a sort of involuntary rage made me push on my horse so as
to trample under foot those who had killed Lescure 1 \\\ about an hour I heard
some noise in the carriage, and sobs — I wanted to rush in. I suspected my
misfortune ; but they drew me oil", and I dared not persist. Li reality, the time
when I had heard a noise in the carriage had been the last of J\L de Lescure.
Agatha wished to get out, but thinking that I should then know the worst, slie
had tlie courage to ])ass seven hours beside the dead body." — Memoirs of the
Marchioness de Larochejaquelein.
DEC. 1793 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 283
scarcely two hinidred wretched cavalry, and about thirty pieces
of cannon, ill-served and ill-kept. The baggage encumbered
the march ; the women and the old men strove, for the sake
of greater safety, to burrow amidst the foremost troop of
fighters, and filled their ranks and embarrassed their move-
ments. The men began to conceive a distrust of the officers.
They said that the latter were anxious to reach the coast, only
that they might embark, and abandon to their fate the un-
fortunate peasants whom they had torn from their homes.
The council, whose authority had become almost illusory, was
divided ; the priests were dissatisfied with the military chiefs ;
nothing, in short, would have been easier than to destroy such
an army, even if the utmost disorder of command had not
prevailed among the republicans.
The A'endeans were therefore incapable alike of conceiving
and executing any plan whatever. It was twenty-six days
since they quitted the Loire, and in so long a space of time
they had done nothing at all. After this prolonged indecision,
they at last came to a determination. On the one hand, they
were told that Rennes and St. Malo were guarded by con-
siderable numbers of troops ; on the other, that Cherbourg
was strongly defended on the land side. They resolved,
therefore, to besiege Granville, seated on the coast between
the point of Bretagne and that of Normandy. This plan had
the especial advantage of bringing them near to Normandy,
which had been described to them as extremely fertile, and
abounding in provisions. They marched, in consequence, upon
Fougères. Fifteen or sixteen thousand men of the levy en
masse had been collected upon the road which they were pur-
suing ; but these dispersed without striking a blow. They
reached Dol on the loth of November, and Avranches on
the 1 2th.
On the 14th of November (24th Brumaire) they marched for
Granville, leaving half their men and all their baggage at
Avranches. The garrison having attempted to make a sortie,
they repulsed it, and penetrated in pursuit of it into the suburb.
The garrison had time to enter and to secure the gates ; biit
the suburb was in their possession, and they had thus great
facilities for the attack. They advanced from the suburb to
the palisades which had recently been erected, and without
thinking of pulling them down, they merely kept up a fire of
musketry against the ramparts, whilst they were answered with
grape-shot and cannon-balls. At the same time they placed
some pieces on the surrounding heights, and fired to no purpose
against the top of the walls and on the houses of the town. At
284 HISTOR Y OF dec. 1793
night they dispersed, and left the suburb, where the lire of the
place allowed them no rest. They went beyond the reach of
the cannon to seek lodging, provisions, and above all, fire, for
the weather began to be extremely cold. The chiefs could
scarcely retain a few hundred men in the suburb, to keep up a
fire of musketry from that quarter.
On the following day their inability to take a walled town
was still more clearly demonstrated to them. They made
another trial of their batteries, but without success. They again
opened a fire of musketry along the palisades, but were soon
completely disheartened. One of them all at once conceived
the idea of taking advantage of the ebb-tide to cross the beach
and to attack the town on the side next to the harbour. They
were preparing for this new attempt when the suburb was set
on fire by the representatives shut up in Granville. They were
then obliged to evacuate it, and to think of retreat. The pro-
posed attempt on the side towards the sea was entirely relin-
quished, and on the following day they all retiirned to Avranches
to rejoin the rest of their force and the baggage. From this
moment their discouragement was extreme. They complained
more bitterly than ever of the chiefs who had torn them from
their country and now wanted to abandon them, and insisted,
with loud shouts, on returning to the Loire. In vain did
Larochejaquelein, at the head of the bravest of their force,
make a new attempt to lead them into Normandy ; in vain did
he march to Ville-Dieu, which he took ; he was followed by
scarcely a thousand men. The rest of the column, marching
upon Pont-Orson, took the road through Bretagne, by which
it had come. It made itself master of the bridge at Beaux,
across the Selune, the possession of which was indispensable
for reaching Pont-Orson.
During these occurrences at Granville the republican army
had been reorganized at Angers. Scarcely had the time
necessary for giving it a little rest and order elapsed, when it
was conducted to Rennes, to be there joined by six or seven
thousand men of the Brest army, commanded by Eossignol.
There a council of war was held, and the measures to be taken
for continuing the pursuit of the Vendean column were deter-
mined upon. Chalbos, being ill, had obtained permission to
retire upon the rear, to recruit his health ; and Rossignol had
been invested by the representatives with the chief command
of the army of the West and that of Brest, forming a total of
twenty or twenty-one thousand men. It had been resolved
that these two armies should ]iroceed forthwith to Antrain ;
that General Tribout, who was at Dol with three or four
DEC. 1 7 9 3 77/^^ FRENCH RE VOL UTION. 2 8 5
thousand men, should march to Pont-Orson ; and that General
Sepher, who had six thousand soldiers of the army of Cher-
bourg, should follow the rear of the Vendean column. Thus,
placed between the sea, the post of Pont-Orson, and the army
at Antrain and Sepher, which was coming from Avranches, this
column could not fail to be enveloped and destroyed.
All these dispositions had been executed at the very moment
when the Vendeans were leavijig Avranches and taking posses-
sion of the bridge at Beaux, with the intention of proceeding
to Pont-Orson. It was the i8th of November (28th Brumaire).
General Tribout, a declaimer without any knowledge of war,
had, in order to guard Pont-Orson, merely to occupy a narrow
pass across a marsh which covered the town and could not be
turned. With so advantageous a position, he had it in his
power to prevent the Vendeans from stirring a single step.
But as soon as he perceived the enemy, he abandoned the
defile and moved forward. The Vendeans, encouraged by the
taking of the bridge at Beaux, charged him vigorously, obliged
him to fall back, and profiting by the disorder of his retreat,
threw themselves into the pass which crosses the marsh, and
thus made themselves masters of Pont-Orson, which they ought
not to have been suffered to approach.
Owing to this unpardonable blunder, an unexpected route
was opened to the Vendeans. They might march upon Dol ;
but from Dol they would be obliged to go to Antrain, and
to encounter the republican main army. They nevertheless
evacuated Pont-Orson, and advanced towards Dol. Westermann
hastened in pursuit of them. Impetuous as ever, he hurried
Marigny and his grenadiers along with him, and had the hardi-
hood to follow the Vendeans as far as Dol with a mere advanced
guard. He actually overtook them, and drove them confusedly
into the town ; but soon recovering themselves, they sallied
forth from Dol, and by that destructive fire which they directed
so well, they obliged the republican advanced guard to retire to
a great distance.
Kleber, who still directed the army by his counsels, though
it was commanded by another, proposed, in order to complete
the destruction of the Vendean column, to blockade it, and thus
cause it to perish by famine, disease, and want. Dispersions
were so frequent among the republican troops that an attack
by main force might be attended with dangerous risks. On the
contrary, by fortifying Antrain, I'ont-Orson, and Dinan, they
would enclose the Vendeans between the sea and three en-
trenched points ; and by harassing them every day with the
troops under Westermann and Marigny they could not fail to
286 HISTORY OF dec. 1793
destroy them. The representatives approved this plan ; and
orders were issued accordingly. But all at once an officer
arrived from Westermann. He said that if the main body
of the army would second his general, and attack Dol on the
Antrain side, while he would attack it from the Pont-Orson
side, it would be all over with the Catholic army, which must
be utterly destroyed. The representatives took fire at this
proposal. Prieur of La Marne, not less impetuous than Wester-
mann, caused the plan at first adopted to be changed, and it
was decided that Marceau, at the head of a column, should
march upon Dol simultaneously with Westermann.
On the morning of the 21st, Westermann advanced iipon
Dol. In his impatience he did not think of ascertaining if
Marceau's column, which was to come from Antrain, had
already reached the field of battle, and he attacked forthwith.
The enemy replied to his attack by their formidable fire.
Westermann deployed his infantry and gained ground ; but
cartridges began to fail ; he was then obliged to make a
retrograde movement, and fell back to a plateau, where he
established himself.* Taking advantage of this situation, the
Vendeans fell ujjon his column and dispersed it. Meanwhile
Marceau at length came in sight of Dol ; the victorious Ven-
deans united against him ; he resisted with heroic firmness
for a whole day, and successfully maintained his ground on
the field of battle. But his position was extremely perilous ;
he sent to Kleber soliciting advice and succour. Kleber
hastened to him, and advised him to beat a retreat, indeed,
* "The republicans tried to defend Pont-Orson, but were beaten. I arrived
in a carriage at night, just as the fighting was over. The coach passed every
moment over dead bodies. The jolting, and the cracking of bones broken by
the wheels, was horrible. When alighting, a corpse was before the door of the
carriage. I was going to step on it, when they took it away. Soon after we
arrived at Dol, fatigued, and in want of provisions. At nine o'clock at night the
town was alarmed, the drum beat to arms, and the patrol came galloping towards
us, and announced that we must prepare for the attack of a numerous army,
which had been marching all day, and was now fast approaching Dol. The
moment the Vendeans had formed themselves at the entrance of the town the
attack began. The cries of the sohliers — the roll of the drums — the lire of the
howitzers casting a transient gleam over the town — the noise of the musketry —
the thunder of the cannon — all contributed to the impression made on those
who expected life or death from the issue of this battle. In the midst of this
we kept profound silence. Suddenly we he:u(l, at the entrance of the town,
'Advance cavalry ! ' ' Vive Ic Roi!' A humlretl thousand voices, men, women,
and children, repeated the cry, which told us that our brave protectors had saved
us from massacre. The liorsemen went oil' at full gallop, crying 'Vivclc Roil'
The light of the firing made their sabres shine through the darkness. All the
rest of the night we listened to the cannon, the noise of which grew gradually
fainter. Towards morning the republicans had retreated two leagues." — Memoirs
of the Marchioness dc liarochejwiudein.
DEC. 1793 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 287
but to a very strong position in the environs of Trans. Some
hesitation was felt in following the ad\4ce of Kleber, when the
presence of the Yendean riflemen made the troops fall back.
They were at first thrown into disorder, but sooîi rallied on
the position pointed out by Kleber. That general then again
brought forward the first plan which he had proposed, and
which consisted in fortifying Antrain. It was adopted ; but it
was resolved that the troops should not return to Antrain, but
remain at Trans, and fortify themselves there, in order to be
nearer to Dol. A\'ith that fickleness which governed all deter-
minations, this plan was once more relinquished, and it was
again resolved to take the offensive, notwithstanding the ex-
perience of the preceding day. A reinforcement was sent to
Westermann, with orders to attack on his side at the same
time that the main army should attack on the side next to
Trans.
Kleber in vain objected that Westermann's troops, dis-
heartened by the event of the preceding day, would not stand
firm. The representatives insisted, and the attack was fixed for
the following day. Next day the movement was accordingly
executed. Westermann and Marigny were anticipated and
attacked by the enemy. Their troops, though supported by a
reinforcement, dispersed. They made incredible efforts to stop
them ; to no purpose they rallied around them a few brave
men, who were soon hurried along by the rest. The victorious
Vendeans abandoned that point, and moved upon their right
towards the army which was advancing from Trans.
While they had just obtained this advantage and were pre-
paring to gain a second, the report of the artillery had struck
terror into the town of Dol, and among such of them as had
not yet come forth to fight. The women, the aged men, the
children, and the cowards ran off on all sides and fled towards
Dinan and the sea. Their priests, with crucifixes in their
hands, made useless efforts to bring them back. Stofflet and
Larochejaquelein ran everywhere to stop them and lead them
again into action. At length they succeeded in rallying them
and making them take the road to Trans, after the brave
fellows who had preceded them.
Not less confusion prevailed in the princijDal camp of the
republicans. Rossignol and the representatives, commanding-
all at once, could neither agree together nor act. Kleber and
Marceau, devoured by vexation, had advanced to reconnoitre
the ground and to withstand the effort of the Vendeans.
Arrived in presence of the enemy, Kleber would have deployed
the advanced guard of the army of Brest, but it ran away at
2 88 HISTORY OF dec. 1793
the first fire. He then ordered Canuel's brigade to advance.
This brigade was in great part composed of Mayence bat-
talions, which, with their wonted bravery, resisted during the
whole day, and were left alone on the field of battle, forsaken
by the rest of the troops. But the Vendean band which had
beaten Westermann took them in flank, and they were forced to
retreat. The Vendeans, profiting by this movement, pursued
them to Antrain itself. At length it became imperative to quit
Antrain, and the whole republican army retired to Eennes.
It was then that the prudence of Kleber's advice was fully
appreciated. Eossignol, in one of those generous impulses of
which he was capable, notwithstanding his resentment against
the generals of the Mayence troops, appeared at the council
of war with a paper containing his resignation. " I am not
qualified," said he, " to command an army. Let me have a
battalion, and I will do my duty ; but I am not fit for the chief
command. Here is my resignation, and they who refuse it are
enemies of the republic." " No resignation ! " cried Prieur of
La Marne ; '' thou art the eldest son of the committee of public
welfare. We will give thee generals who shall advise thee,
and who shall be responsible in thy stead for the events of the
war." Kleber, however, mortified at seeing the army so un-
skilfully directed, proposed a plan which could alone re-estab-
lish the state of affairs, but was far from agreeing with the
proposition of the representatives. " You ought," said he to
them, "if you allow Rossignol to retain the generalship, to
appoint a commander-in-chief of the infantry, a commander of
the cavalry, and one of the artillery." His suggestion was
adopted. He then had the boldness to propose Marceau as
commander-in-chief of the infantry, Westermann of the cavalry,
and Debilly of the artillery, all three suspected as members of
the Mayence faction. A momentary dispute ensued respecting
the individuals ; but the opponents at length yielded to the
ascendency of that able and generous ofiicer, who loved the
republic, not from an excited imagination, but from tempera-
ment, who served with admirable sincerity and disinterested-
ness, who was passionately fond of his profession, and imbued
with the spirit of it in a very rare degree. Kleber had recom-
mended Marceau, because that brave young soldier was at his
disposal, and he reckoned upon his entire devotedness. He
was sure, if Rossignol remained the cipher he was, to direct
everything himself, and to bring the war to a successful
termination.
The Cherbourg division, which had come from Normandy,
was united with the armies of Brest and the West, which
DPX'. 1793 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 289
then quitted Rennes and proceeded towards Angers, where
the Vendeans were endeavonrhig to cross the Loire. The
latter, after securing the means of return by their twofold
victor}^ on the road to Pont-Orson and on that of Antrain,
thought of retiring to their own country. They passed, without
striking a blow, through Fougères and Laval, and designed to
make themselves masters of Angers, with the intention of
crossing the Loire at the bridge of Oé. Tlie last experiment
which they had made at (Jranville had not wholly convinced
them of their inability to take walled towns. On the 3rd of
December they threw themselves into the suburbs of Angers,
and began to fire upon the front of the place. They continued
on the following day ; but anxious as they were to open for
themselves a passage to their own country, from which they
were now separated only by the Loire, they soon despaired
of succeeding. The arrival of Westermann's advanced guard
on the same day, the 4th, completely disheartened them, and
caused them to relinquish their enterprise. They then marched
off, ascending the Loire, and not knowing where they should
be able to cross it. Some advised that they should go on to
Saumur, others to Blois ; but at the moment when they were
deliberating, Kleber came up with his division, along the
Saumur road, and obliged them to fall back into Bretagne.
Thus these unfortunate creatures, destitute of provisions, of
shoes, of vehicles to convey their families, afflicted by an
epidemic disease, were again wandering in Bretagne, without
finding either an asylum or outlet whereby to escape.* The
roads were covered with the sad vestiges of their disastrous
retreat ; and at the bivouac before Angers were found women
and children who had died of hunger and cold. They began
already to believe that the Convention meant no harm to any
but their chiefs, and many of them threw away their arms and
fled clandestinely across the country. At length the reports
made to them concerning Mans, the abundance which they should
* " No words can possibly give an idea of our despair. Hunger, fatigue, and
grief had transformed us all. Everybody was in rags, even our chiefs. I will
attempt a sketch of our costume. Besides my peasant-dress, I had on my head
a flannel hood, an old blanket about me, and a large piece of blue cloth tied
round my neck with twine. I wore three pair of yellow worsted stockings, and
green slippers fastened to my feet with cord. My horse had an hussar saddle
with a sheepskin. M. de Mouliniers had a turban and a Turkish dress which he
had taken from the playhouse at La Flèche. The Chevalier de BeauvoUiers was
wrapped up in a lawyer's gown, and had a woman's hat over a flannel niglitcap.
Madame d'Armaille and her children were covered with pieces of yellow damask.
M. de Verteuil had been killed in battle with two petticoats on, one fastened
round his neck, and the other to his waist. He fought thus equipped." — Memoirs
of the Marchioness de Larochejaquelein.
VOL. III. 75
2 90 mSTOR Y OF dec. 1793
find there, and the dispositions of the inhabitants, induced
them to proceed thither. They passed through La Flèche, of
which they made themselves masters, and entered Mans after
a slight skirmish.
The republican army followed them. Fresh disputes had
taken place among the generals. Kleber had intimidated the
quarrelsome by his firmness, and obliged the representatives
to send back Rossignol to Rennes with his division of the
Brest army. An ordinance of the committee of public welfare
then conferred on Marceau the title of commander-in-chief,
and dismissed all the Mayence generals, but allowed Marceau
to avail himself temporarily of Kleber's services. Marceau
declared that he would not command if Kleber were not at
his side to direct everything. '' In accepting the title," said
Marceau to Kleber, " I take the annoyance and the responsi-
bility upon myself, and I shall leave thee the actual com-
mand and the means of saving the army." " Be easy, my
friend," said Kleber ; " we will fight and we will be guillotined
together."
The army marched immediately, and from that moment
everything was conducted with unity and firmness. Wester-
mann's advanced guard arrived on the 1 2th at Mans, and
instantly charged the Vendeans. Confusion seized them ;
but some thousand brave men, headed by Larochejaquelein,
formed before the town, and obliged AVestermann to fall back
upon Marceau, who was coming up with a di\àsion. Kleber
was still behind with the rest of the army. Westermann was
for attacking immediately, though it was dark. Marceau, im-
pelled by his impetuous temperament, but fearing the censure
of Kleber, whose cool, calm energy never suffered itself to be
hurried away, at first hesitated ; but overcome by Westermann,
he made up his mind, and attacked Mans. The tocsin rang,
and dismay pervaded the town. Westermann and Marceau
dashed forward in the dark, overturning all before them ; and
in spite of a galling fire from the houses, they drove back the
greater number of the Vendeans to the great square of the
town. Marceau directed the streets running into this square on
his right and left to be cut off, and thus kept the Vendeans
blockaded. His position was nevertheless hazardous ; for,
having ventured into a town in the middle of the night, he
was liable to be turned and surrounded. He therefore sent
a message to Kleber, urging him to come up as speedily as
possible with his division. The latter arrived at daybreak.
Most of the Vendeans had fled ; the bravest of them only
remained to protect the retreat ; they were charged with
J
DEC. 1793 THE FRENCH BE VOL UTION. 2 9 1
the bayonet, broken, disjiersed, and a liorrible carnage began
all over the town.
Never had rout been so disastrous. A considerable number
of women, left behind, were made prisoners. Marceau saved
a young woman who had lost her relatives, and who, in her
despair, begged to be put to death. She was modest and
beautiful. Marceau, full of kindness and delicacy, took her
into his carriage, treated her with respect, and caused her to
be conveyed to a place of safety. The country was covered to
a considerable distance by this great disaster. The indefati-
gable Westermann harassed the fugitives, and strewed the roads
with dead bodies. The unfortunate Vendeans, not knowing
whither to flee, entered Laval for the third time, and left it
again immediately to proceed once more towards the Loire.
They purposed to cross at Ancenis. Larochejaquelein and
Stofflet threw themselves on the other bank, with the inten-
tion, it was said, of procuring boats, and bringing them to the
right bank. They did not come back. Indeed, it is asserted
that it was impossible for them to return. The passage could
not be effected. The Vendean column, deprived of the presence
and support of its two leaders, continued to descend the Loire,
still pursued, and still vainly seeking a passage. At length,
reduced to despair, not knowing which way to turn, it resolved
to flee to the extreme point of Bretagne, to the Morbihan. It
proceeded to Blain, where its rearguard obtained an advantage ;
and from Blain to Savenai, whence it hoped to be able to throw
itself into the Morbihan.
The republicans had followed the Vendean column without
intermission, and they arrived at Savenai on the evening of
the same day that it had entered that place. Savenai had
the Loire on the left, marshes on the right, and a wood in
front. Kleber felt the importance of occupying the wood the
same day, and of making himself master of all the heights, in
order to crush the Vendeans on the following day in Savenai,
before they had time to leave it. Accordingly he directed
his advanced guard upon them ; and he himself seizing the
moment when the Vendeans were debouching from the wood,
to repulse tliis advanced guard, bodily threw himself into it
with a corps of infantry, and completely cleared it of them.
They then fled to Savenai, and shut themselves up there,
keeping up, however, a continual fire all night. Westermann
and the representatives proposed to attack immediately, and
to consummate the destruction that very night. Kleber, de-
termined that no fault of his should deprive him of a certain
victory, declared positively that he would not attack ; and
292 mSTOR Y OF DEC. 1793
then assuming an imperturbable indifference, he suffered them
to say what they pleased, withoiit replying to any provocation.
He thus prevented every sort of movement.
Next morning, December the 23rd, before it was light, he
was on horseback with Marceau, passing along his line, when
the Vendeans, driven to desperation, and determined not to sur-
vive that battle, rushed first upon the republicans. Marceau
marched with the centre, Canuel with the right, Kleber with
the left. All of them fell upon and drove back the Vendeans.
Marceau and Kleber joined in the town, and taking all the
cavalry they could find, went in pursuit of the enemy. The
Loire and the marshes forbade all retreat to the unfortunate
Vendeans. A great nuinber perished by the bayonet ; * others
were made prisoners ; and very few found means to escape.
On that day the column was utterly destroyed, and the great
war of La Vendée was truly brought to a close. f
Thus this unfortunate population, drawn from its own country
through the imprudence of its chiefs, and reduced to the ne-
cessity of seeking a port as a place of refuge within reach of
the English, had in vain set foot in the waters of the ocean.
Granville had proved inaccessible to it. It had been led back
to the Loire ; unable to cross that river, it had been a second
time driven back into Bretagne, and from Ih-etagne again
to the Loire. At length, finding it impossible to pass that
fatal barrier, it had gone to perish in a body between Savenai,
the Loire, and the marshes. Westermann was despatched with
his cavalry to pursue the fugitive wrecks of La Vendée. Kleber
and Marceau returned to Nantes. Received on the 24th by the
people of that city, they obtained a sort of triumph, and were
presented by the Jacobin Club with a civic crown.
If we take a general view of this memorable campaign of
1793, we cannot help considering it as the greatest effort that
was ever made by a nation threatened with civil war. In the
year 1792, the coalition, which was not yet complete, had acted
without unity and without vigour. The Prussians had attempted
a ridiculous invasion in Champagne ; the Austrians had con-
* "On this occasion between five and six thousand Vendeans perished with
arms in their hands. The work of fusilhiding was carried on during eight days
at Savenai, till the walls were scaled with blood, and the ditches tilled with
human bodies." — Quarterly Review.
f " I have seen and observed well these desperate heroes of Savenai ; and I
swear to you that they wanted nothing of soldiers but the dress. I know not if
I am mistaken, but this war of brigands and peasants, on which so much ridicule
lias been thrown, and which people have affected to treat as desi)icab]e, has
always appeared to me the one of the greatest importance to the republic." —
Letter from a Repuhlican General to Merlin de Tkionville.
DEC. 1793 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 293
fined themselves in the Netherlands to the bombardment of the
fortress of Lille ; the French, in their first excitement, drove
back the Prussians beyond the Rhine, the Austrians beyond
the Meuse, conquered the Netherlands, Mayence, Savoy, and
the county of Nice. The important year 1793 opened in a very
different manner. The coalition was strengthened by three
powers which had hitherto been neutral. Spain, provoked to
the utmost by the event of the 21st of January, had at length
sent fifty thousand men to the Pyrenees ; France had obliged
Pitt to declare himself ; and England and Holland had entered
at once into the coalition, which was thus doubled, and which,
better informed of the means of the enemy with which it had
to cope, augmented its forces, and prepared for a decisive effort.
Thus, as in the time of Louis XIV., France had to sustain the
attack of all Europe ; and she had not drawn upon herself this
combination of enemies by her ambition, but by the just indig-
nation which the interference of the powers in her internal
affaii's had awakened in her.
So early as the month of March, Dumoariez set out on a
rash enterprise, and proposed to invade Holland by crossing
over in boats. Meanwhile Coburg surprised the lieutenants of
that general, drove them beyond the Meuse, and even obliged
him to return and put himself at the head of his army.
Dumouriez was forced to fight the battle of Neerwinden. That
terrible battle was won, when the left wing gave way and re-
crossed the Gette. It became necessary to beat a retreat, and
we lost the Netherlands in a few days. Our reverses then
soured the public mind ; Dumouriez broke with his govern-
ment, and went over to the Austrians. At the same time
Custine, beaten at Frankfort, driven back upon the Rhine, and
separated from Mayence, left the Prussians to blockade and to
commence the siege of that famous fortress ; the Piedmontese
repulsed us at Saorgio ; the Spaniards crossed the Pyrenees ;
and lastly, tlie provinces of the West, already deprived of their
priests, and provoked to the utmost by the levy of the three
hundred thousand men, rose in insurrection in the name of the
throne and of the altar.
It was at this moment that the Mountain, exasperated by
the desertion of Dumouriez, the defeat sustained in the Nether-
lands, on the Rhine, at the Alps, and more especially by the
insurrection of the West, throwing off all restraint, tore the
Girondins by force from the bosom of the Convention, and thus
removed all those who could still have talked to it of modera-
tion. This new outrage created it new enemies. Sixty-seven
departments out of eighty-three rose against the government,
294 ff IS TOBY OF dec. 1793
which had then to struggle with Europe, royalist La Vendée,
and three-fourths of federalized France. It was at this epoch
that we lost the camp of Famars and the brave Dampierre,
that the blockade of Valenciennes was completed, that Mayence
was closely pressed, that the Spaniards crossed the Tech and
threatened Perpignan, that the Vendeans took Saumur and
besieged Nantes, and that the federalists made preparations
for proceeding from Lyons, Marseilles, Bordeaux, and Caen,
upon Paris.
From all these points a bold march upon the capital might
have been attempted. The Revolution might have been ter-
minated in a few days, and European civilization suspended
for a long time. Fortunately the insurgents laid siege to
fortresses. The reader will recollect with what firmness the
Convention reduced the departments to submission, by merely
showing its authority, and dispersing the imprudent people
who had advanced as far as Vernon ; and with what success
the Vendeans were repulsed from Nantes, and stopped in their
victorious career. But while the Convention was triumphing
over the federalists, its other enemies were making alarming
progress. Valencieniies and Mayence were taken after memo-
rable sieges ; the war of federalism was attended with two
deplorable events — the siege of Lyons and the treason at
Toulon. Lastly, La Vendée itself, notwithstanding the suc-
cessful resistance of Nantes, enclosed by the Loire, the sea,
and Poitou, had repulsed the columns of Westermann and
Labarolière, which had attempted to penetrate into its bosom.
Never had situation been more perilous. The Allies were no
longer detained in the North and on the Rhine by sieges ;
Lyons and Toulon offered solid supports to the Piedmontese ;
La Vendée appeared invincible, and offered a footing to the
English. It was then that the Convention summoned to Paris
the deputies of the primary assemblies, gave them the constitu-
tion of the year 3 to swear to and to defend, and decided with
them that entire France, men and tilings, should be at the
disposal of the government. Then were decreed the levy en
masse, generation by generation, and the power of requisitioning
whatever was needed for the war. Then were instituted the
Great Book, and the forced loan from the rich, in order to with-
draw part of the assignats from circulation, and to effect the
forced sale of the national domains. Then were two large
armies despatched to La Vendée ; the garrison of Mayence was
conveyed thither by carriages travelling post ; it was resolved
that that unfortunate country should be laid waste, and that
its population should be transferred to other parts. Lastly,
DEC. 1793 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 295
Carnot became a member ol" the committee of public welfare,
and introduced order and unity into the military operations.
We had lost Caesar's Camp, and Kilmaine had, by a lucky
retreat, saved the remains of the army of the North. The
English advanced to Dunkirk and laid siege to that town,
while the Austrians attacked Le Quesnoy. A force was rapidly
moved from Lille upon the rear of the Duke of York. Had
Houchard, who on this occasion commanded sixty thousand
French, comprehended Carnot's plan, and proceeded to Furnes,
not an Englishman would have escaped. Instead of advancing
between the corps of observation and the besieging corps, he
pursued a direct course, and at least caused the siege to
be raised, by fighting the successful battle of Hondtschoote.
This was our first victory, which saved Dunkirk, deprived the
English of all the fruits of the war, and restored to us joy
and hope.
Fresh reverses soon converted this joy into new alarms.
Le Quesnoy was taken by the Austrians ; Houchard's army
was seized with panic at Menin, and disjDersed; the Prussians
and the Austrians, whom there was nothing to stop after the
reduction of Mayence, advanced upon the two slopes of the
Vosges, threatened the lines of Weissenburg, and beat us in
several encounters. The Lyonnese made a vigorous resistance ;
the Piedmontese had recovered Savoy, and descended towards
Lyons, to place our army between two fires. Kicardos had
crossed the Tet and advanced beyond Perpignan. Lastly, the
division of the troops in the West into two armies, that of
La Rochelle and that of Brest, had prevented the success of
the plan of cam]3aign agreed upon at Saumur on the 2nd
of September. Canclaux, badly seconded by Rossignol, had
found himself alone, in advance, in the heart of La Vendée,
and had fallen back upon Nantes. New efforts were then
required. The dictatorship was completed and proclaimed by
the institution of the revolutionary government ; the power
of the committee of public welfare was proportioned to the
danger ; the levies were effected, and the armies swelled by
a multitude of recruits ; the newcomers filled the garrisons,
and permitted the organized troops to be transferred to the
line ; lastly, the Convention ordered the armies to conquer
within a given time.
The means which it had employed produced their inevitable
effects. The armies of the North, being reinforced, concen-
trated themselves at Lille and at Guise. The Allies had pro-
ceeded to Maubeuge, and purposed taking it before the end
of the campaign. Jourdan, marching from Guise, fought the
296 HISTORY OF DEC. 1793
Austrians at Watignies, and forced them to raise the siege
of Maubeiige, as Houchard had obliged the English to raise
that of Dunkirk. The Piedmontese were driven back beyond
the St. Bernard by Kellermann ; Lyons, inundated by levies
en masse, was carried by assault ; Ricardos was driven beyond
the Tet ; lastly, the two armies of La Kochelle and Brest,
united under one commander, l'Echelle, who suffered Kleber
to act for him, crushed the Vendeans at Cholet, and obliged
them to cross the Loire in disorder.
A single reverse disturbed the joy which such events could
not fail to produce. The lines of Weissenburg were lost. But
the committee of public welfare resolved not to terminate the
campaign before they were retaken. Young Hoche, general
of the army of the Moselle, unsuccessful, yet brave, at Kaiser-
slautern, was encouraged though beaten. Unable to get at
Brunswick, he threw himself on the flank of Wurmser. From
that moment the united armies of the llhine and of the Moselle
drove the Austrians before them beyond Weissenburg, obliged
Brunswick to follow the retrogi'ade movement, raised the
blockade of Landau, and encamped in the Palatinate. Toulon
was retaken, in consequence of a happy idea, and by a prodigy
of boldness. Lastly, the Vendeans, who were supposed to be
destroyed, but who, in their despair, had to the number of
eighty thousand crossed the Loire and sought a seaport, with
the intention of throwing themselves into the arms of the
English — the Vendeans were driven back alike from the coast
and from the banks of the Loire, and annihilated between
these two barriers, which they never could pass. At the
Pyrenees alone our arms had been unfortunate ; but we had
lost the line of the Tech only, and were still encamped before
Perpignan.
Thus this grand and awful year showed us l<]urope pressing
the Revolution with its whole weight, and making it atone for
its first successes in 1792, driving back its armies, penetrating
by all the frontiers at once, and part of France rising in insur-
rection, and adding its efforts to those of the hostile powers.
The Révolution then took fire. Hurling its indignation on the
31st of May, it created by that day new enemies, and appeared
on the point of succumbing again to Europe and three-fourths
of its revolted provinces. But it soon reduced its internal
enemies to their duty, raised a million of men at once, beat
the English at Hondtschoote, was beaten in its turn, but
immediately redoubled its ell'orts, won a victory at Watignies,
recovered the lines of Weissenburg, drove the I'iedmontese
beyond the Alps, took T^yons and Toulon, and twice crushed
DEC. 1793 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 297
the Vendeans, the first time in La Vendée, and, for the last
time, in Bretagne. Never was there a grander spectacle, or
one more worthy to be held forth to the admiration and the
imitation of nations. France had recovered all that she had
lost, excepting Conde, Valenciennes, and some forts in Rous-
sillon. The powers of Europe, on the contrary, which had all
combated her single-handed, had gained nothing, were accus-
ing one another, and throwing upon each other the disgrace
of the campaign. France was completing the organization of
her means, and preparing to appear still more formidable in
the following year.
THE NATIONAL CONVENTION
{continued)
STRUGGLE BETWEEN THE HEBERTISTS AND DANTONISTS — THE
COMMITTEE OF PUBLIC WELFARE PLACES ITSELF BETWEEN
THE TWO PARTIES, AND STRIVES ESPECIALLY TO REPRESS THE
HEBERTISTS — MOVEMENT ATTEMPTED BY THE HEBERTISTS —
ARREST AND DEATH OF RONSIN, VINCENT, HEBERT, MOMORO, &c.
—THE COMMITTEE OF PUBLIC WELFARE SUBJECTS THE DAN-
TONISTS TO THE SAME FATE— DEATH OF DANTON, CAMILLE-
DESMOULINS, LACROIX, FABRE D'EGLANTINE, CHABOT, &c.
THE Convention had begun to exercise some severities against
the turbulent faction of the Cordeliers and of the minis-
terial agents. Ronsin and Vincent were in prison. Their
partisans were bestirring themselves without. Momoro at the
Cordeliers, Hébert at the Jacobins, were striving to excite the
interest of the hot Revolutionists in favour of their friends.
The Cordeliers drew up a petition, and asked, in a tone that
was anything but respectful, if it was intended to punish
Vincent and Ronsin for having courageously attacked Du-
mouriez, Custine, and Brissot. They declared that they con-
sidered those two citizens as excellent patriots, and that they
should still retain them as members of their society. The
Jacobins presented a more measured petition, and merely
prayed that the report concerning Vincent and Ronsin should
be accelerated, in order that they might be punished if guilty,
or restored to liberty if they were innocent.
The committee of public welfare still kept silence. Collot-
d'Herbois alone, though a member of the committee, and a
compulsory partisan of the government, displayed the warmest
zeal in behalf of Ronsin. The motive of this was natural.
The cause of Vincent was almost foreign to him ; but that of
Ronsin, who was sent with liim to Lyons, and who, more-
over, carried his sanguinary ordinances into execution, con-
cerned him very nearly. Collot-d'Herbois had maintained,
with Ronsin, that not more than a hundredth part of the
Lyonnese were patriots ; that it was necessary to carry away
298
DEC. 1793 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 299
or to sacrifice the rest, and to consign their carcasses to the
Rhone, in order to dismay the whole of the South by this spec-
tacle, and to strike terror into the rebellious city of Toulon.
Ronsin was in prison for having repeated these horrible ex-
pressions in a posting-bill. Collot-d'Herbois, now summoned
to render an account of his mission, was deeply interested in
justifying the conduct of Ronsin, that he might gain approba-
tion for his own.
At this moment there arrived a petition signed by some
citizens of Lyons, who presented a most distressing picture
of the calamities inflicted on their city. They represented
discharges of grape-shot succeeding the executions by the
guillotine, an entire population threatened with extermination,
and a wealthy manufacturing city demolished, not with the
hammer, but by mining. This petition, which four citizens
had had the courage to sign, produced a painful impression
upon the Convention. Collot-d'Herbois hastened to make his
report, and in his revolutionary intoxication * he exhibited
those awful executions as they appeared to his imagina-
tion, that is, as indispensable and perfectly natm'al. " The
Lyonnese," said he in substance, "were conquered; but they
openly declared that they would soon have their revenge.
It was necessary to strike terror into these yet unsubdued
rebels, and with them into all those who were disposed to
imitate them. A prompt and a terrible example was required.
The ordinary instrument of death did not act with sufficient
despatch — the hammer demolished but slowly. Gra]ie-shot
has destroyed the men, mining has destroyed the buildings.
Those who have suffered had all imbrued their hands in the
blood of the patriots. A popular commission selected them
with prompt and unerring eye from among the multitude of
prisoners ; and there was no reason to regret any of those
who had suffered." Collot-d'Herbois obliged the Convention
to approve of what appeared so natural to himself. He then
proceeded to the Jacobins, to complain to them of the difficulty
he had had to justify his conduct, and of the compassion which
the Lyonnese had excited. " This morning," said he, " I was
forced to employ circumlocutions in order to cause the death
of traitors to be approved of. People shed tears. They
inquired whether they had died at the first stroke ! Counter-
revolutionists ? At the first stroke ! And did Chalier die at
* "In the year 1792 this flaiiiiiif,' patriot and republican published a tract in
favour of a constitutional monarchy, which, it seems, he expected would induce
the King to employ him. Being disappointed of his object, he became the
decided enemy of royalty, and joined the party of Robespierre." — Gorton.
300 HISTORY OF dec. 1793
the first stroke !*...' You inquire,' said I to the Convention,
' how those men died who were covered with the blood of our
brethren ! If they were not dead you would not be deliberat-
ing here ! ' . . . Well, they could scarcely understand this lan-
guage ; they could not bear to hear talk of dead men ; they
knew not how to defend themselves from shadows." Then
turning to Ronsin, Collot-d'Herbois added that this general
had shared all dangers with the patriots in the South ; that he
had there defied with him the daggers of the aristocrats, and
displayed the greatest firmness in enforcing respect for the
authority of the republic ; that at this moment all the aristo-
crats were rejoicing at his arrest, which they regarded as a
source of hope for themselves. "What, then, has Konsin done
to be arrested ? " exclaimed Collot. '' I have asked everybody
this question — none could tell me." On the day which followed
this sitting, the 3rd Nivose (December 23), Collot, returning to
the charge, communicated the death of Caillard the patriot, who,
seeing that the Convention disapproved of the energy displayed
at Lyons, had committed suicide. '• Was I wrong," exclaimed
Collot, '■ when I told you that the patriots would be driven to
despair if the public spirit were to sink on this occasion ? "
Thus, while the two leaders of the ultra- revolutionists were
imprisoned, their partisans were bestirring themselves in their
behalf. The clubs, the Convention, were annoyed by remon-
strances in their favour, and a member of the committee of
]5ublic welfare itself, compromized in their sanguinary system,
defended them, in order to defend himself. Their adversaries
began on their part to throw the greatest energy into their
attacks. Philippeaux, returned from La Vendée, and full of
indignation against the staff of Saumur, was solicitous that
the committee of public welfare, sharing that indignation,
should prosecute Rossignol, Ronsin, and others, and discovered
treason in the failure of the plan of campaign of the 2nd of
September. We have already seen what blunders, what mis-
conceptions, and what incompatibilities of character there were
in the conduct of that war. Rossignol and the staff of Saumur
had been actuated by spleen, but not by treason. The com-
mittee, tliough disapproving of their conduct, could not visit
them with a condemnation which would have been neither just
nor politic. Robespierre recommended an amicable explana-
tion ; but Philippeaux, becoming impatient, wrote a virulent
pamphlet, in which he gave a narrative of the whole war, and
* At the executioi) of this Moiintaiiiecv, coiulcinnod by tho Lyonnesc federalists,
the executioner liad lieeii so awkwanl at liis business tliat he was obliged to
make three attempts before the victim's head was struck oiL
DEC. 1793 THE FRENCH RE VOL UTION. 3 o i
mixed up many errors with many trviths. This publication
coukl not fail to produce the strongest sensation, for it at-
tacked the most decided Eevolutionists, and charged them with
the most odious treasons. " What has Ronsin done ? " said
Philippeaux. " Intrigued a great deal, robbed a great deal,
lied a great deal ! His onl}^ expedition is that of the 1 8th of
September, when he caused forty-five thousand patriots to be
beaten by three thousand brigands. It is that fatal day of
Coron, when, after placing our artillery in a gorge, at the head
of a column having a flank of six leagues, he kept himself con-
cealed in a stable, like a cowardly rascal, two leagues from the
field of battle, where our unfortunate comrades were mowed
down by their own guns." We see that in this pamphlet
Philippeaux was not very choice in his expressions. Unfor-
tunately the committee of public welfare, which he ought to
have contrived to get on his side, was itself not treated with
much respect. Philippeaux. dissatisfied at seeing his own
indignation not sufficiently shared, seemed to impute to the
committee part of the faults with which he reproached Ronsin,
and even made use of this offensive expression : if yon have
heen nothing more than mistaken.
This pamphlet, as we have observed, loroduced a great sensa-
tion. Oamille-Desmoulins was not acquainted with Philippeaux;
but pleased to find that in La Vendée the ultra-revolutionists
had committed as many faults as in Paris, and not suspecting
that anger had so blinded Philippeaux as to convert faults into
treason, he read his pamphlet with avidity, admired his courage,
and with his wonted naïveté he said to everybody, "Have you
read Philippeaux ? " . . . "You must read Philippeaux." Every-
body, in his opinion, ought to read that publication, which
proved the dangers incurred by the republic through the fault
of the revolutionary exaggerators.
Camille was very fond of Danton, and Danton of him. Both
thought that, as the republic was saved by the late victories, it
was time to put an end to cruelties thenceforth useless, that
their longer continuance would only serve to compromise the
Revolution, and that the foreign enemy alone could desire and
instigate their prolongation. Camille conceived the idea of
commencing a new journal, which he entitled "The Old Corde-
lier," for he and Danton were the elders of that celebrated club.
His shafts were aimed at all tlie new Revolutionists who wished
to overthrow and to outstrip the oldest and most tried Revolu-
tionists. Never had this writer — the most remarkable writer
of the Revolution, and one of the most natural and witty in
our language — displayed such grace, originality, and even
302 HISTORY OF dec. 1793
eloquence. His first number, r5th Frimaire (December 5),
commenced thus : " Pitt ! I pay homage to thy genius ! What
new arrivals from France in England have given thee such
excellent advice, and furnished thee with such sure means of
ruining my country. Thou hast seen that thou shouldst
everlastingly fail against her, if thou didst not strive to ruin
in the public opinion those who for these five years have been
thwarting all thy projects. Thou hast discovered that it is those
who have conquered thee that it behoves thee to conquer ; that
it behoves thee to accuse of corruption precisely those whom
thou hast never been able to corrupt, and of lukewarmness
those whom thou never couldst render lukewarm ! I have
opened my eyes," added Desmoulins ; " I have seen the number
of our enemies ; their multitude tears me from the Hôtel des
Invalides, and hurries me back to the fight. I am forced to
write ; I must throw aside the slow pencil of the history of the
Revolution, which I was tracing by the fireside, to take up the
rapid and panting pen of the journalist, and to follow at full
gallop the revolutionary torrent. A consulting deputy, whom
nobody has consulted since the 3rd of June, I sally forth from
my closet and my arm-chair, where I have had abundant leisure
to follow minutely the new system of our enemies."
Camille extolled Robespierre to the skies for his conduct at
the Jacobins, and for the generous services which he had ren-
dered to the old patriots ; and he expressed himself as follows
relative to religion and the proscriptions : —
"The human mind when ill," said he, "needs the dreamy
bed of superstition ; and to see the festivals and the processions
that are instituted, the altars and the shrines that are raised, it
seems as if it were only the bed of the patient that is changed,
as if merely the pillow of the hope of another life were taken
away from him. . . . For my part, I said the same thing on the
very day that I saw Gobel come to the bar, with his crucifix
and his crosier, which were borne in triumph before Anaxa-
goras,* the philosopher. If it were not a crime of ^t^se-mountain
to suspect a president of the Jacobins and a 2irocureur of the
commune, like Clootz and Chaumette, I should be tempted to
believe that, at this expression of Barrère, La Vendée has ceased
to exist ! the King of Prussia exclaimed with sorrow, ' All our
efforts then will fail against the republic, since the kernel of La
Vendée is destroyed,' and that the crafty Lucchesini,t in order
* The name assumed by Chaumette.
t " Lucchesini, Marquis of Girolaino, formerly Prussian minister of State, and
descended from a patrician family of Lucca, was born in 1752. In the year 1791
he was present at the congress of Keichenbach, in the capacity of a plenipo-
DEC. 1793 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 303
to console him, made this reply : ' Invincible hero, I have hit
upon an expedient. Let me act. I will pay some priests to
call themselves charlatans. I will inflame the patriotism of
others to make a similar declaration. There are in Paris two
famous patriots who will be well adapted, by their talents, their
exaggeration, and their well-known religious system, to second
us and to receive our impressions. All that need be done is
to make our friends in France act in concert with the two great
philosophers, Anacharsis and Anaxagoras ; to stir up their bile,
and to dazzle their civism by the rich spoil of the sacristies.
[I hope that Chaumette will not complain of this number ; the
Marquis de Lucchesini could not speak of him in more honour-
able terms.] Anacharsis and Anaxagoras will imagine that
they are pushing the wheel of reason, whereas it will be that
of counter-revolution ; and presently, instead of leaving Popery,
ready to draw its last breath, to expire in France of old age
and inanition, I promise you, by the aid of persecution and
intolerance against those who are determined to mass and to
be massed, to seîid off abundance of recruits to Lescure and
Larochejaquelein.' "
Camille, then relating what occurred in the time of the Roman
Emperors, and pretending to give a mere translation of Tacitus,
made a terrific allusion to the law of the suspected. " In
ancient times," said he, "there was at Rome, according to
Tacitus, a law which specified the crimes of State and of lèse-
majesty, and decreed capital punishment. These crimes of
/cW-majesty, under the republic, were reduced to four kinds :
if an army had been abandoned in an enemy's country ; if
seditions had been excited ; if the members of the constituted
bodies had mismanaged the public business or the public
money ; or if the majesty of the Roman people had been de-
graded. The Emperors needed but a few additional articles to
this law to involve the citizens and whole cities in proscrijjtion.
Augustus was the first to extend this law of /t^se-majesty, by
including in it writings which he called counter-revolutionary.
The extensions had soon no limits. As soon as words had
become crimes of State, it needed but one step more to change
mere looks, sorrow, compassion, sighs, even silence itself, into
crimes.
tentiary, for effecting, in conjunction with the English and Dutch nunisters,
a peace between the Turks and the Emperor. In 1793 the King of Prussia
appointed him his ambassador to Vienna ; he, however, accom]ianied his majesty
during the greater part of liis campaign against France. He was afterwards
chamberlain to Napoleon's sister, the Princesse de Lucca. Lucchesini died at
Florence in the year 1825." — Encydopa'dia Americava.
304 HISTORY OF dec. 1793
'" Presently it was a crime of /c'sc-majesty or of couiiter-
revolntioii in the city of Niirsia to have erected monuments to
its inhabitants who liad fallen during the siege of Modena ; a
crime of counter-revolution in Libo Urusus to have asked the
fortune-tellers if he should not some day possess great wealth ;
a crime of counter-revolution in Cremuntius Cordus, the
journalist, to have called Brutus and Cassius the last of the
iiomans ; a crime of counter-revolution in one of the descen-
dants of Oassius to have in his house a portrait of his ancestor ;
a crime of counter-revolution in ]\Jarcus Scaurus to have
written a tragedy containing a certain verse to which two
meanings mig-ht be given ; a crime of counter-revolution in
Torquatus 8iJanus to live in an expensive style; a crime of
counter-revolution in Petreius to have dreamt of Claudius ; a
crime of counter-revolution in Pomponius because a friend of
Sejanus had sought an asylum in one of his country-houses ;
a crime of counter-revolution to complain of the calamities of
the time, for that was equivalent to the condemnation of the
government ; a crime of counter-revolution not to invoke the
divine spirit of Caligula. For having so failed, a great number
of citizens were Hogged, condemned to the mines, or to be
thrown to wild beasts, and some even were sawn asunder.
Lastly, it was a crime of counter-revolution in the mother of
Fusius Germinus, the consul, to have wept for the melancholy
death of her son.
" It was absolutely necessary to manifest joy at the death of
a friend or a relative, if a person would not run the risk of
perishing himself.
" Everything gave umbrage to the tyrant. If a citizen
possessed popularity, he was a rival of the prince, and might
stir up civil war. Studia civium in se verteret, et si multi idem
audeant, helium csset. Suspected.
" If, on the contrary, a man shunned popularity, and stuck
close to his chimney-corner, this secluded life made him an
object of notice. It gave him consideration. Suspected.
" Were you rich — there was imminent danger that the people
might be bribed by your largesses. Suspected.
"Were you poor — what then, invincible Emperor? That
man must be the more closely watched. None is so enter-
prising as the man who has nothing. Syllam inopem, unde
prœcipuam audaciam. Suspected.
" Were you of a gloomy, melancholy disposition, or care-
lessly dressed — you were fretting because public affairs were
prosperous. Homincm puhlicis bonis mœstuni. SUSPECTED,"
Camille- Desmoulins proceeded in this manner with this
DEC. 1 7 9 3 THE FRENCH RE VOL UTION. 3 o 5
masterly enumeration of suspected persons, and sketched a
horrible picture of what was doing at Paris, by what had been
done in Rome. If the letter of Philippeaux had produced a
great sensation, the journal of Oamille-Desmoulins produced
a much greater. Fifty thousand copies of each of his numbers
were sold in a few days. The provinces took large quantities
of them. The prisoners procured them by stealth, and read
with delight, and with somewhat of hope, that Revolutionist
who had formerly been so hateful to them. Camille, without
wishing the prisons to be opened, or the Revolution to be
thrown back, demanded the institution of a committee, to be
called the committee of clemency, to investigate the cases of
the prisoners, to liberate the citizens confined without suffi-
cient cause, and to stanch the blood where it had flowed too
freely.
The publications of Philippeaux and Desmoulins irritated
the zealous Revolutionists in the highest degree, and were dis-
a])proved of by the Jacobins. Hébert denounced them there
with fury. He even moved that their authors should be erased
from the list of the society. He mentioned, moreover, Bour-
don of the Oise, and Fabre d'Eglantine, as the accomplices
of Camille-Desmoulins and Philippeaux. We have seen that
Bourdon had attempted, in concert with Goupilleau, to remove
Rossignol ; he had quarrelled with the staff of Saumur, and
had never ceased to inveigh in the Convention against Ron-
sin's party. It was this that caused him to be coupled with
Philippeaux. Fabre was accused of having had a hand in the
affair of the fabricated decree, and people were disposed to
believe this, though he had been justified by Chabot. Aware
of his perilous situation, and having everything to fear from
a system of too great severity, he had spoken twice or thrice
in favour of a system of indulgence, broken com])letely with
the ultra-revolutionists, and been treated as an intriguer by
Father Duchesne. The Jacobins, without adopting the violent
motions of Hébert, decided that Philippeaux, Camille-Des-
moulins, Bourdon of the Oise, and Fabre d'Eglantine, should
be summoned to the bar of the society, to give explanations
concerning their works and their speeches in the Convention.
The sitting at which they were to appear had drawn an un-
usually full attendance. People contended with violence for
seats, and some were even sold at twenty-five francs each.
Philippeaux, though he waS' not a member of the society, did
not refuse to appear at its bar, and repeated the charges which
he had already made, either in his correspondence with the
committee of public welfare, or in his pamphlet. He spared
VOL, HI. 76 *
3 o 6 HISTOR Y OF dec. 1 7 9 3
persons no more than he had done before, and twice or three
times formally and insultingly gave Hébert the lie. These
bold personalities of Philippeanx began to agitate the society,
and the sitting was becoming stormy, when Danton observed
that it required the closest attention and the greatest composure
to jndge of so serious a question ; that he had not formed any
opinion concerning Philippeaux and the truth of his accusations ;
that he had already said to him himself, " Thou must either
prove thy charges, or lay down thy head on the scaffold ; " that
perhaps there was nothing in fault here but circumstances ;
but that, at any rate, it was right that every one should be
heard, and above all, listened to.
Kobespierre, who spoke after Danton, said that he had not
read Philippeaux's pam]îhlet, and merely knew that the com-
mittee was in that ])amphlet rendered responsible for the loss
of twenty thousand men ; that the committee had no time to
answer libels and to engage in a paper war ; that he neverthe-
less did not conceive Philippeaux to be guilty of any bad in-
tentions, but to be hurried away by passion. " I pretend not,"
said Robespierre, "to impose silence on the conscience of my
colleague ; but let him examine his heart, and judge whether
it does not harbour vanity or some other petty passion. I dare-
say he is swayed as much by patriotism as passion ; but let
him reflect ! let him consider the conflict that is commencing !
He will see that the moderates will take up his defence ; that
the aristocrats will range themselves on his side ; that the
Convention itself will be divided ; that there wdll perhaps arise
an opposition party, which would be a disastrous circumstance,
and renew the combat that is just over, and the conspiracies
which it has cost so much trouble to put down ! " He therefore
exhort^ed Philippeaux to examine his secret motives, and the
Jacobins to listen to him in silence.
Nothing could be more reasonable and more suitable than
Robespierre's observations, with the exception of the tone,
which was always emphatic and magisterial, especially since he
ruled at the Jacobins. Philip]ieaux again spoke, launched out
into the same personalities, and excited the same disturbance
as before. Danton angrily exclaimed that the best way would
be to cut short such quarrels, and to appoint a commission to
examine the papers in support of the charges. Couthon said
that, even before resorting to that measure, it would be well
to ascertain if the question was worth the trouble, and whether
it might not be merely a rjuestion between man and man ; and
he proposed to ask Philip]:)eaux if in his soul and conscience
he believed that there had been treason. He then addressed
DEC. 1793 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 307
Philippeaux. " Dost thou believe," said he, " in thy sonl and
conscience that there has been treason ? " " Yes," imprudently
replied Philippeaux. " In that case," rejoined Couthon, " there
is no other way. A commission ought to be appointed to hear
the accused and the accusers, and to make its report to the
society." The motion was adopted, and the commission ap-
pointed to investigate not only the charges of Philippeaux, but
also the conduct of Bourdon of the Oise, of Fabre d'Eglantine,
and of Camille-Desmoulins.
This was the 3rd of Nivose (December 23). While the com-
mission was engaged in drawing up its report, the paper war
and the recriminations continued without interruption. The
Cordeliers excluded Camille-Desmoulins from their society.
They prepared fresh petitions in behalf of Eonsin and Vincent,
and submitted them to the Jacobins, for the purpose of inducing
the latter to support them in the Convention. That host of
adventurers and men of bad character with whom the revo-
lutionary army had been filled, appeared everywhere, in the
promenades, the taverns, the coffee-houses, the theatres, with
worsted epaulettes and moustaches, and made a great noise in
favour of Ronsin, their general, and Vincent, their minister.
They were called the épauletiers, and were much dreaded in
Paris. Since the enactment of the law which forbade the
sections to assemble oftener than twice a week, they had
transformed themselves into very turbulent popular societies.
There were even two of these societies to each section, and it
was to them that all the parties which had any interest in
producing a movement sent their agents. The épauletiers had
not failed to attend them, and through their means tumult
prevailed in almost all these assemblies.
Robespierre, always firm at the Jacobins, caused the petition
of the Cordeliers to be rejected, and also the affiliation to be
withdrawn from all the popular societies formed since the 31st
of May. These were acts of a prudent and laudable energy.
It behoved the committee, however, at the same time that it was
making the greatest efforts to repress the turbulent faction,
to beware of giving itself the apjiearance of weakness and
moderation. In order that it might retain its popularity and
its strength, it was necessary that it should display the same
vigour. Hence it was that, on the 5th Nivose, Robespierre
was directed to make a new report- on the principles of the
revolutionary government, and to propose measures of severity
against certain illustrious prisoners. Always making a point,
from policy, and perhaps, too, from error, to throw the blame
of all disorders upon the supposed foreign faction, he imputed
3o8 HISTORY OF dec. 1793
to it the faults both of the moderates and of the ultra-revolu-
tionists. "The foreign Courts," said he, "have vomited forth
upon France the clever scoundrels whom they keep in their
pay. They deliberate in our administration, introduce them-
selves into our sectional assemblies and our clubs ; they have
even sat in the national representation ; they direct and will
for ever direct the counter-revolution upon the same plan.
They hover round us, they acquire our secrets, they flatter our
passions, nay, they seek to dictate our very opinions." Robe-
spierre, proceeding with this delineation, exhibited them as
instigating by turns to exaggeration and weakness ; exciting
religious persecution in Paris, and the resistance of fanaticism
in La Vendée ; sacrificing Lepelletier and Marat, and then
mingling among the groups which proposed to decree divine
honours to them, in order to render them odious and ridicu-
lous ; giving to or taking away bread from the people ; causing
specie to appear or disappear ; taking advantage, in short, of
all accidents, with a view to turn them against the Revolution
and France.
After presenting this general summary of all our calamities,
Robespierre determined not to consider them as inevitable, im-
puted them to the foreign enemy, who, no doubt, had reason to
congratulate himself upon them, but who, to produce them,
reckoned upon the vices of human nature, and could not have
attained the same end by means of plots. Robespierre, con-
sidering all the illustrious prisoners still in confinement as ac-
complices of the coalition, proposed to send them immediately
to the revolutionary tribunal. Thus Dietrich, mayor of Sti*as-
burg, Custine junior, Biron, and all the oflicers who were friends
of Dumouriez, of Custine, and of Houchard, were to be forth-
with brought to trial. Most certainly there was no need of
a decree of the Convention to authorize the sacrifice of these
victims by the revolutionary tribunal ; but this solicitude to
hasten their execution was a proof that the government was not
growing feeble. Robespierre proposed, moreover, to increase
by one-third the rewards in land promised to the defenders of
the country.
After this report. Barrère was directed to ]irepare another
on the arrests, which were said to be more and more numerous
every day, and to propose means for verifying the motives
of these arrests. The object of this repoi-t was to reply,
without appearing to do so, to the Vieux Cordelier of Camille-
Desmoulins, and to his proposal for a committee of clemency.
Barrère was severe upon the Translations of the Ancient Orators,
and nevertheless suggested the appointment of a commission to
DEC. 1793 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 309
verify the arrests, which very nearly resembled the committee
of clemency devised by Camille. However, on the observations
of some of its members, the Convention deemed it right to
adhere to its previous decrees, which required the revolu-
tionary committees to furnish the committee of general wel-
fare with the motives of the arrests, and allowed prisoners to
complain to the latter committee.
The government thus steered its course between the two
parties that were forming, secretly inclining to the moderate
party, but still fearful of suffering this disposition to be too
perceptible. Meanwhile Camille published a number more
severe than any which had preceded it, and which was
addressed to the Jacobins. It was entitled his defence, and
it was the boldest and most terrible recrimination against his
adversaries.
On the subject of his exclusion from the Cordeliers, he said,
" Forgive me, brethren and friends, if I still presume to take
the title of Old Cordelier, after the resolution of the club,
which forbids me to deck myself with that name. But, in
truth, it is a piece of insolence so unheard-of, that of grand-
children revolting against their grandsire, and forbidding him
to use his own name, that I must plead this cause against those
ungrateful sons. I should like to know to whom the name
ought to belong, whether to the grandpapa or to the children
whom he has begotten, not a tenth part of whom he has ever
acknowledged or even known, and who pretend to drive him
from the paternal home ! "
He then enters into an explanation of his opinions. " The
vessel of the republic is steering between two shoals, the rock
of exaggeration, and the sandbank of moderatism. Seeing
that Father Duchesne and almost all the patriotic sentinels
were on deck, spying-glass in hand, wholly engaged in shout-
ing, ' Beware, lest you get aground upon moderatism ! ' I
thought it iitting that I, an old Cordelier, and senior of the
Jacobins, should assume a difficult duty, and which none of
the young men would undertake, lest tliey should injure their
popularity — that of crying, ' Beware, lest you strike upon
exaggeration ! ' And this is the obligation which all my col-
leagues in the Convention ought to feel that they owe me,
namely, that of having risked my popularity itself, in order to
save the ship in which my cargo was not larger than their
own."
He then justified himself for this expression, for which he
had been so vehemently reproached, Vincent Pitt governs George
Boucliotte. " I certainly did," said he, " in 1787, call Louis XVI.
3IO HISTORY OF dec. 1793
my fat booby of a king, without being sent to the Bastille for
it. Is Bouchotte a more illustrious personage ? "
He then reviewed his adversaries. To Collot-d'Herbois he
said that if he, Desmoulins, had his ])illon, he, Collot, had
his Brunet, his Proly, both of whom he had defended. He
said to Barrère, " People no longer know one another at the
Mountain. If it had been an old Cordelier, like myself, a
rectilinear patriot, Billaud-Varennes, for example, who had
scolded me so severely, sustinuissem uiiquc — I would have
said, It is the box on the ear given by the impetuous St.
Paul to the good St. Peter, who has done something wrong!
But thou, my dear Barrère, thou, the happy guardian of
Pamela ! * thou, the president of the Feuillans ! thou, who
proposedst the committee of twelve ! thou, who, on the 2nd of
June, didst submit for deliberation in the committee of public
welfare the question whether Danton should be arrested ! thou,
many more of whose faults I could reveal if I were to rum-
mage the old sac {le vieux sacj) — -that thou shouldst all at
once out-Robespierre Robespierre, and that I should be so
severely apostrophized by thee ! "
"All this is but a family quarrel," adds Camille, "with
my friends, the patriots Collot and Barrère ; but I shall in
my turn put myself into a thundering passion (boiu/rement
en colère I) with Father Duchesne, who calls me a paltry in-
triguer, a scoundrel Jit for the guillotine, a conspirator who
wishes the prisons to he opened in order to make a new Vendée
with them, a knave in the pay of Pitt, a long-eared donkey.
Wait for me, Hébert, and I will be at thee in a moment.
Here it is not with coarse abuse and mere words that I will
attack thee, but with facts."
Camille, who had been accused by Hébert of having married
a wealthy woman, and of dining with aristocrats, then entered
into the history of his marriage, which brought him an income
of four thousand livres, and he drew a picture of his simple,
modest, and indolent life. Then passing to Hébert, he re-
minded him of his old trade of check-taker, of his thefts, which
caused his expulsion from the theatre, of his sudden and well-'
known fortune, and covered him with the most deserved in-
famy. He related and proved that Bouchotte had given
Hébert out of the funds of the war department, first one
* This is an allusion to the ])lay of Pamela, the representation of wliich had
been prohibited.
t Barrère's name when a noble was de Vieux-Sac.
î An expression of the hawkers who, in selling the papers of Father Duchesne,
cried in the streets, /I est hougrcnicnt en colère le Père Duchesne.
DEC. 1793 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 311
hundred and twenty thousand francs, then ten, then sixty,
for the copies of Father Duchesne distributed among the
armies, though those copies were not worth more than six-
teen thousand fi'ancs, and that consequently the nation had
been robbed of the surpkis.
'' Two hundred thousand francs," exclaims Camille, "to that
poor sans-culotte Hébert, to support the motions of Proly and
of Clootz ! — two hundred thousand francs to calumniate Dan-
ton, Lindet, Cambon, Thuriot, Lacroix, Philippeaux, Bourdon of
the Oise, Barras, Fréron, d' Eglantine, Legendre, Camille-Des-
moulins, and almost all the commissioners of the Convention !
— to inundate France with his writings, so proper for forming
the mind and the heart ! — two hundred thousand francs from
Bouchotte ! . . . After this can any one be surprised at
Hebert's filial exclamation in the sitting of the Jacobins, To
dare to attack Bouchotte! — Bouchotte, who has placed sans-
culotte generals at the head of armies ! — Bouchotte, so pure a
patriot ! I am only astonished that, in the transport of his
gratitude. Father Duchesne did not exclaim, ' Bouchotte, who
has given me two hundred thousand livres since the month
of June ! '
" Thou talkest to me," proceeds Camille, " of the company
I keep ; biit is it not known that it is with Kock the banker,
the intimate of Dumouriez, with the woman llochechouart,
agent of the emigrants, that the stanch patriot Hébert, after
calumniating in his paper the purest men of the republic,
goes in his great joy, he and his Jacqueline, to spend the
tine days of summer, in the country, to swallow Pitt's wine,
and to drink bumpers to the ruin of the reputation of the
founders of liberty."
Camille then reproaches Hébert with the style of his paper.
" Knowest thou not, Hébert, that when the tyrants of Europe
wish to make their slaves believe that France is covered with
darkness and barbarism, that this Paris, so extolled for its
Attic wit and its taste, is peopled with Vandals — knowest
thou not, wretch, that it is scraps of thy papers which they
insert in their gazettes ? as if the people were as ignorant
as thou wouldst make Pitt believe ; as if they could not be
talked to but in so coarse a language ; as if that were the
language of the Convention and of the committee of public
welfare ; as if thy obscenities were those of the nation ; as
if a sewer of I'aris were the Seine."
Camille then accuses him of having added by his numbers
to the scandals of the worship of reason, and afterwards
exclaims : '"Is it, then, this base sycophant, who pockets two
3 1 2 H 18 TOR Y OF dec. 1793
hundred thousand francs, that shall reproach me with my
wife's income of four thousand livres ? Is it this intimate
friend of the Kocks, the Rochechouarts, that shall reproach
me with the company I keep ? Is it this insensate or per-
fidious scribbler that shall reproach me with my aristocratic
writings — he whose papers I will prove to be the delight of
Coblentz, and the only hoi^e of Pitt ! that man. struck out of
the list of the servants of the theatre for thefts, to pretend
to get deputies, the immortal founders of the republic, struck
out of the list of the Jacobins, for their opinions ? This writer
for the shambles to be the arbiter of opinion — the Mentor of
the French people !
" Let them despair," adds Camille -Desmoulins, " of in-
timidating me by the terrors and the rumours of my arrest,
which they are circulating around me ! We know that the
villains are meditating a 31st of May against the most
energetic men of the Mountain. Oh, my colleagues, I shall
say to you, like Brutus and Cicero : ' We are too much
afraid of death, and exile, and poverty ! ' nimium tiviemus
mortem et cxilium et paupertatem. . . . What ! when twelve
hundred thousand Frenchmen are daily storming redoubts
which are bristling with the most formidable artillery, and
flying from victory to victory, shall we, deputies to the Con-
vention — we who can never fall like the soldier, in the
obscurity of night, shot in the dark, and without witnesses
of his valour — we, whose death for the sake of liberty cannot
but be glorious, solemn, and in presence of the whole nation,
of Europe, and of posterity — shall we be more cowardly than
our soldiers ? shall we be afraid to look Bouchotte in the
face ? shall we not dare to encounter the vehement wrath of
Father Duchesne, in order, likewise, to gain the victory which
the people expect of us, the victory over the ultra-revolu-
tionists as well as over the counter-revolutionists ; the vic-
tory over all the intriguers, over all the rogues, over all the
ambitious, over all the enemies of the public welfare !
" Will any one suppose that even upon the scaffold, sup-
ported by the deep feeling that I have passionately loved
my country and the reiîublic, crowned with the esteem and
the regret of all genuine republicans, I would exchange my
lot for the fortune of that wretch, Ilebert, who in his paper
drives twenty classes of citizens to revolt and to despair ;
who, to smother his remorse and the memory of his calumnies,
needs an intoxication more profound than that of wine, and
must be incessantly lapping blood at the foot of the guillotine !
AVhat is then the scaffold for a patriot but the pedestal of a
JAN. 1794 THE FRENCH BE VOL UTION. 3 1 3
Sidney, and of a John de Witt ! * What is — in this time of
war, in which I have had my two brothers cut in pieces for
liberty — what is the guillotine but the stroke of a sabre, and
the most glorious of all for a deputy, the victim of his courage
and of his republicanism ! "
These pages will convey an idea of the manners of the
time. The rouglniess, the sternness, the eloquence of Rome
and Athens had reappeared among us along with democratic
liberty.
This new number of Camille-Desmoulins' paper produced
a still stronger sensation than its predecessors. Hébert did
not cease to denounce him at tlie Jacobins, and to demand
the report of the commission. At length, on the i6th Nivose,
Collot-d'Herbois rose to make that report. The concourse
was as considerable as on the day when the discussion began,
and seats were sold at a high price. Collot showed more
impartiality than could have been expected from a friend
of Ronsin. He reproached l^hilippeaux for implicating the
committee of public welfare in his accusations ; for showing
the most favourable dispositions towards susjîected persons ;
for speaking of Biron with commendation, while he loaded
Rossignol with abuse ; and lastly, for expressing ^^recisely
the same preference as the aristocrats. He brought forward
another reproach against him, which, under the circumstances,
had some weight — namely, that in his last publication he had
withdrawn the accusations at first preferred against General
Fabre-Fond, the brother of Fabre d'Eglantine. Philippeaux,
who was not acquainted either with Fabre or Camille, had in
fact denounced the brother of the former, whom he conceived
that he had found in fault in La Vendée. When brought
into contact with Fabre by his position, and accused with
him, he had, from a very natural delicacy, suppressed the
censures passed upon his brother. This alone proved that
they had been led separately, and without knowing one an-
other, to act as they had done, and that they formed no real
faction. But party-spirit judged otherwise ; and Collot in-
sinuated that there existed a secret intrigue, a concert between
the persons accused of moderation. He ransacked the past,
and reproached Philippeaux with his votes upon Louis XVI.
and upon Marat. As for Camille, he treated him much
more favourably. He represented him as a good patriot led
astray by bad company, who ought to be forgiven, but, at
the same time, exhorted not to indulge in future in such
* "John de Witt, the able statesman, and grand pensioner of Holland, was
torn to pieces by a factious mob in the year 1672."
314 HISTORY OF jan. 1794
mental debauclieries. He therefore proposed the exclusion
of Philippeaux, and the mere reprimand of Camille.
At this moment Camille, who was present at the sitting,
caused a letter to be handed to the president, declaring that
his defence was inserted in his last number, and begging that
the society would permit it to be read. On this proposition,
Hébert, who dreaded the reading of that number, in which the
disgraceful transactions of his life were revealed, addressed
the society, and said that there was an evident intention to
complicate the discussion by slandering him, and that, to
divert attention, it had been alleged that he had robbed the
Treasury, which was an atrocious falsehood. ..." I have the
documents in my hands," exclaimed Camille. These words
caused a great agitation. Robespierre the younger then said
that the society ought to put a stop to all personal discussions ;
that it had not met for the interest of private character, and
that if Hébert had been a thief, that was of no consecpience
to it ; that those who had reason to reproach themselves ought
not to interrupt the general discussion. At these far from
satisfactory expressions, Hébert exclaimed, " I have nothing
to reproach myself with !" " The disturbances in the depart-
ments," resumed Robespierre the younger, '' are thy work.
It is thou who hast contributed to excite them by attacking
the freedom of worship." To this charge Hébert made no
reply. Robespierre the elder then spoke, and being more
guarded than his brother, but not more favourable to Hébert,
said that Collot had presented the question in its proper point
of view ; that an unfortunate incident had disturbed the
dignity of the discussion ; that all had been in the wrong —
Hébert, and those who had replied to him. " What I am
about to say," added he, "is not levelled at any individual.
He complains with an ill grace of calumny who has himself
calumniated. Those should not complain of injustice who
have judged others with levity, precipitation, and fury. Let
every one question his own conscience, and apply these reflec-
tions to himself. It was my wish to prevent the present dis-
cussion. I wished that, in private interviews, in friendly
conferences, each should explain himself, and acknowledge
his mistakes. Then harmony might have been restored, and
scandal spared. But no such thing — pamphlets have been
circulated on the morrow, and people have been anxious to
produce effect. Now, all that is of importance to us in these
personal cjuarrels is not to know whether passions and injustice
have been everywhere mingled with them, but whether the
charges preferred by Philip])eaux against the men who direct
JAN. 1794 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 315
the most important of our wars are well-founded. This is
what ought to be ascertained for the benefit, not of the in-
dividuals, but of the republic."
Eobespierre actually thought that it was useless to discuss
the accusations of Camille against Hébert, for everybody
knew that they were true ; that, besides, they contained
nothing that the republic had an interest in verifying ; but
that, on the contrary, it was of great importance to investigate
the conduct of the generals in La Vendée. The discussions
relative to Philippeaux were accordingly continued. The whole
sitting was devoted to the examination of a great number of
eye-witnesses ; but amidst these contradictory affirmations,
Danton and Robespierre declared that they could not discover
anything, and that they knew not what to think of the matter.
The discussion, which was already too long, was adjourned to
the next sitting.
On the iStli the subject was resumed. Philippeaux was
absent. Weary of the discussion relative to him, and which
led to no éclaircissement, the society then proceeded to the in-
vestigation concerning Camille-Desmoiilins. He was rec[uired
to explain himself on the subject of the praises which he had
bestowed on Philippeaux, and his relations with him. Camille
declared that he did not know him ; circumstances affirmed
by Goupilleau and Bourdon had at first persuaded him that
Philippeaux told the truth ; but now, perceiving from the dis-
cussion that Philippeaux had distorted the truth (which began,
in fact, to be everywhere apparent), he retracted his praise,
and declared that he had no longer any opinion on this
subject.
Robespierre, again addressing the society on the question
relative to Camille, repeated wliat lie had already said con-
cerning him — that his character was excellent, but that this
well-known character did not give him a right to employ his
pen against the patriots ; that his writings were the delight of
the aristocrats, by whom they were devoured, and circulated in
all the departments ; that he had translated Tacitus without
understanding him ; that he ought to be treated like a thought-
less child, which has played with dangerous weapons and made
a mischievous use of them ; that he must be exhorted to for-
sake the aristocrats and the bad company that corrupted him ;
and that, in pardoning him, they ought to burn his numbers.
Camille, iinmindful of the forms of respect which it behoved
him to observe towards the proud Robespierre, then exclaimed
from his place, "Burning is not, answering." "Well, then,"
resumed the irritated Robespierre, " let us not burn, but answer.
3i6 HISTORY OF jan. 1794
Let Camille's numbers be immediately read. Since he will have
it so, let him be covered with ignominy ; let not the society
restrain its indignation, since he persists in defending his
diatribes and his dangerous principles. The man who clings
so tenaciously to perlidious writings is perhaps more than
misled. Had he been sincere, he would have written in the
simplicity of his heart ; he would not have dared to support
any longer works condemned by the patriots, and sought after
by the counter-revolutionists. His is but a borrowed courage.
It reveals the hidden persons under whose dictation Camille
has written his journal ; it reveals that he is the organ of a
villainous faction, which has borrowed his pen to circulate its
poison with greater boldness and certainty."
Camille in v^ain begged permission to speak, that he might
pacify Kobespierre ; the society refused to hear him, and im-
mediately proceeded to the reading of his papers. Whatever
delicacy individuals are resolved to observe towards one another
in party quarrels, it is difficult to prevent pride from very soon
interfering. With the susceptibility of Kobespierre, and the
natural waywardness of Camille, the division of opinions could
not fail soon to change into a division of self-love and into
hatred. Robespierre felt too much contempt for Hébert and
his partisans to quarrel with them ; but he could quarrel with
a writer so celebrated in the Revolution as Camille-Desmou-
lins ; and the latter did not use sufficient address to avoid a
rupture.
The reading of Camille's numbers occupied two whole sittings.
The society then passed on to Fabre. He was questioned, and
urged to say what hand he had had in the new publications
which had been circulated. He replied that he had not written
a syllable for them ; and as for l^hilippeaux and Bourdon of the
Oise, he could declare that he was not acquainted with them.
It was proposed to come to some decision relative to the four
denounced persons. Robespierre, though no longer disposed to
spare Camille, moved that the discussion should drop there,
and that the society should pass to a more important subject —
a subject more worthy of its attention, and more useful to the
public mind, namely, the vices and the crimes of the English
government. "That atrocious government," said he, "dis-
guises, under some appearance of liberty, an atrocious principle
of despotism and Machiavelism. It behoves us to denounce it
to its own people, and to reply to its calumnies by ])roving its
vices of organization and its misdeeds." The Jacobins were
well pleased with this subject, which opened so vast a field to
their accusing imagination ; but some of them wished first to
JAN. 1794 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 317
strike out Philippeaux, Camille, Bourdon, and Fabre. One voice
even accused Robespierre of arrogating to himself a sort of
dictatorship. "My dictatorship," he exclaimed, "is that of
Marat and Lepelletier. It consists in being exposed every day
to the daggers of the tyrants. But I am weary of the disputes
which are daily arising in the bosom of the society, and which
are productive of no beneficial result. Our real enemies are
the foreigners — it is they whom we ought to follow up, and
whose plots it behoves us to unveil." Robespierre, in con-
sequence, repeated his motion ; and it was decided, amidst
applause, that the society, setting aside the disputes which
had arisen between individuals, should devote the succeeding
sittings, without interruption, to the discussion of the vices of
the English government.
This was throwing out a seasonable diversion to the restless
imagination of the Jacobins, and directing it towards a party
that was likely to occupy it for a long time. Philippeaux
had already retired without awaiting a decision. Camille and
Bourdon were neither excluded nor confirmed ; they were no
longer mentioned, and they merely ceased attending the meet-
ings of the society. As for Fabre d'Eglantine, though Chabot
had completely justified him, yet the facts which were daily
coming to the knowledge of the committee of general welfare
left no doubt whatever of his intrigues. It could therefore
do nothing but issue an order for his arrest, and connect him
with Chabot, Bazire, Delaunay, and Julien of Toulouse.
All these discussions produced an impression injurious to
the new moderates. There was no sort of unanimity among
them. Philippeaux, formerly almost a Girondin, was not ac-
quainted with either Camille, Fabre, or Bourdon ; Camille
alone was intimate with Fabre ; but as for Bourdon, he was
an utter stranger to the other three. But it was thencefor-
ward imagined that there was a secret faction, of which they
were either accomplices or dupes. The easy disposition and
the epicurean habits of Camille, and two or three dinners
which he had taken with the wealthy financiers of the time ;
the proved implication of Fabre with the stockjobbers, and
his recent opulence — caused it to be supposed that they were
connected with the so-called corrupting faction. People durst
not yet designate Danton as being its leader ; but if he was
not accused in a public manner — if Hébert in his paper, and
the Cordeliers in their tribune, spared this powerful Revolu-
tionist, they said to one another what they durst not publish.
Tlie person most injurious to the party was Lacroix, whose
peculations in Belgium were so clearly demonstrated that any
3i8 HISTORY OF .tan. 1794
one might impute tliera to him without being accused of
calumny, and without his daring to reply. People associated
him with the moderates, on account of his former connection
with Dantoîi ; and he caused them to share his shame.
The Cordeliers, dissatisfied that the Jacobins had passed
from the denounced persons to the order of the day, declared :
(i) That Philippeaux was a slanderer; (2) that Bourdon,
the pertinacious accuser of Eonsin, Vincent, and the war-
office, had lost their confidence, and was, in their estimation,
but an accomplice of Philippeaux ; (3) that Fabre, holding
the same sentiments as Bourdon and Philippeaux, was only a
more cunning intriguer ; (4) that Camille, already excluded
from their ranks, had also lost their confidence, though he
had formerly rendered important services to the Kevolution.
Ronsin and Vincent, having been confined for some time,
were set at liberty, as there was not sufficient cause for bring-
ing them to trial. It was impossible to prosecute Ronsin for
what he had done in La Vendée, for the events of that war
were covered by a thick veil ; or for what he had done at
Lyons, for that would be raising a dangerous question, and
accusing at the same time Collot-d'Herbois and the whole
existing system of government. It was just as impossible to
prosecute Vincent for certain despotic proceedings in the war-
office. It was to a political trial only that either of them
could have been brought ; and it was not yet politic to insti-
tute such a trial for them. They were therefore enlarged, to
the great joy of the Cordeliers and of all the épauletiers of
the revolutionary army.
Vincent was a young man of twenty and some odd years,
whose fanaticism amounted to disease, and in whom there was
more of insanity than of personal ambition. One day, when
his wife had gone to see him in his prison, and was relating
to him what had passed, irritated at what she told him, he
snatched up a piece of raw meat, and said, while chewing
it, " Thus would I devour all those villains ! " Ronsin, by
turns an indifferent ]3amphleteer. a contractor, and a general,
combined with considerable intelligence remarkable courage
and great activity. Naturally ambitious, he was the most
distinguished of those adventurers who had offered them-
selves as instruments of the new government. Commander
of the revolutionary army, he considered how that post might
be rendered available either for liis own benefit, or for the
triumph of his system and of his friends. In the prison of
the Luxembourg, in wliich he and Vincent were confined,
they had always talked like masters. They had never ceased
JAN. 1794 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 319
to say that they should triumph over intrigue ; that they
should be released by the aid of their jDartisans ; that they
would then go and enlarge the patriots who were in confine-
ment, and send all the other prisoners to the guillotine. They
had been a torment to all the unfortunate creatures shut up
with them, and had left them full of consternation.
No sooner were they liberated than they loudly declared
that they would be revenged, and that they would soon have
satisfaction on their enemies. The committee of public wel-
fare could scarcely have done otherwise than release them ;
but it soon perceived that it had let loose two furies, and
that it behoved it to take immediate steps to prevent them
from doing mischief. Four thousand men of the revolutionary
army were still left in Paris. Among these were adven-
turers, thieves, and Septembrizers, who assumed the mask of
patriotism, and who liked much better to make booty in the
interior than to go to the frontiers to encounter poverty,
hardship, and danger. These petty tyrants, with their
moustaches and their long swords, exercised the harshest
despotism in all the public places. Having artillery, ammu-
nition, and an enterprising commander, they might become
dangerous. With these associated the firebrands who filled
Vincent's office. The latter was their civil, as Eonsin was
their military chief. They were connected with the commune
through Hébert, the deputy of Chaumette, and through Pache,
the mayor, who was ever ready to welcome all parties, and
to court all formidable men. Momoro, one of the presidents
of the Cordeliers, was their faithful partisan and their
champion at the Jacobins. Thus Eonsin, Vincent, Hébert,
Chaumette, and Momoro were classed together ; and Pache
and Bouchotte Avere added to the list as complaisant func-
tionaries, who winked at their usurpation of two great
authorities.
These men had thrown off all restraint in their speeches
against those representatives who, they said, designed to
keep the supreme power for ever in their hands, and to
forgive the aristocrats. One day, when they were dining
at Pache's, they met Legendre, a friend of Danton, formerly
the imitator of his vehemence, now of his reserve, and the
victim of that imitation, for he had to endure the attacks
which people dared not make on Danton himself. Eonsin
and Vincent addressed offensive expressions to him. Vincent,
who had been under obligations to him, embraced him, saying,
that he embraced the old and not the new Legendre ; that
the new Legendre had become a moderate, and was unworthy
3 2 o HISTOR Y OF jan. 1794
of esteem. He then asked him ironically if when on mission
he had worn the costume of deputy. Legendre answered
that he had worn it when with the armies. Vincent rejoined
that this dress was very pompons, but unworthy of genuine
republicans. He declared that he would dress up a puppet
in that costume, call the people together, and say to them :
" Look here at the representatives that you have given your-
selves ; they preach equality to you, and cover themselves
with gold and feathers ; " and he added that he would then set
fire to it. Legendre replied that he was a seditious madman.
They were ready to proceed to blows, to the great alarm of
Pache. Legendre applied to Ronsin and begged him to
pacify Vincent. Ronsin answered that Vincent was indeed
rather warm, but that his character was suited to circum-
stances, and that such men were requisite for the times in
which they lived. " You have a faction in the bosom of the
Assembly," added Ronsin; "if you do not expel it, you shall
be called to account by us." Legendre retired full of indig-
nation, and repeated all he had seen and heard at this dinner.
The conversation became generally known, and furnished a new
proof of the audacity and frenzy of the two men who had just
been released from confinement.
They expressed the highest respect for Pache and for his
virtues, as the Jacobins had formerly done when Pache was
minister. It was Pache's luck to charm all the violent spirits
by his mildness and complaisance. They were delighted to
see their passions approved by a man who had all the semblance
of wisdom. The new Revolutionists meant, they said, to make
him a conspicuous personage in their government ; for, without
having any precise aim, without having yet the design of, or
the courage for, an insurrection, they talked a great deal, after
the example of all those plotters who make their first experi-
ments, and inflame themselves with words. Tliey everywhere
declared that France wanted other institutions. All that pleased
them in the actual organization of the government was the
revolutionary tribunal and army. They had therefore devised
a constitution, consisting of a supreme tribunal, having a chief
judge for president, and a military council directed by a gene-
ralissimo. Under this government, all matters, judicial or
admiîiistrative, were to be conducted militarily. The general-
issimo and the chief judge were to be the highest functionaries.
To the tribunal was to be attached a grand accuser, with the
title of censor, empowered to direct prosecutions. Thus, in
this scheme, framed in a moment of revolutionary ferment, the
two essential, nay, the only functions were to condemn and to
JAN. 1794 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 321
fight. It is not known whether this plan originated with a
single dreamer in a fit of delirium, or with several such per-
sons ; whether it had existence in their talk only, or whether
it had been committed to writing ; but so much is certain that
its model was to be found in the revolutionary commissions
established at Lyons, Marseilles, Toulon, Bordeaux, Nantes,
and that, with their imaginations full of what they had done
in these great cities, those terrible executioners proposed to
govern all France on the same plan, and to make the violence
of a day the model of a permanent government. As yet they
had designated but one of the persons destined for the highest
dignities. Tache was wonderfully fitted for the post of grand
judge ; the conspirators therefore said that he was to be and
that he should be so. Without knowing the nature of the
scheme or of the dignity, many people repeated as a piece of
news : " Pache is to be appointed grand judge." This report
circulated without being either explained or understood. As
for the dignity of generalissimo, Ronsin, though general of the
revolutionary army, durst not aspire to it, and his partisans
durst not propose him, as a much more distinguished name
was required for such a dignity. Chaumette was also men-
tioned by some as censor ; but his name had been veiy rarely
uttered. Only one of these reports was generally circulated,
namely, that Pache was to be grand judge.
Throughout the whole Revolution, when the long- excited
passions of a party were ready to explode, it was always a
defeat, a treason, a dearth, in short, some calamity or other,
that served them as a pretext for breaking forth. Such was
the case in this instance. The second law of the maximum,
which, going farther back than the retail shops, fixed the
value of commodities on the spot of their fabrication, deter-
mined the price of transport, regulated the profit of the whole-
sale dealer and that of the retail dealer, had been passed ; but
commerce still escaped the despotism of the law in a thou-
sand ways, and escaped it chiefly in a most disastrous way, by
suspending its operations. The stagnation of trade was as
great as before, and if goods were no longer refused to be
exchanged at the price of the assignat, they were concealed,
or ceased to move and to be transported to the places of
consumption. The dearth was therefore very great, owing to
this stagnation of commerce. The extraordinary efforts of
the government, and the care of the commission of articles of
consumption, had, however, partially succeeded in diminishing
the dearth of corn, and above all, in diminishing the fear of
it, not less formidable than dearth itself, on account of the
VOL. III. 77
3 2 2 niSTOB Y OF JAN. 1 7 9 4
derangement and disorder wliicli it produces in commercial rela-
tions. But a new calamity began to be felt, namely, the want of
butcher's meat. La Vendée had formerly sent a great quantity
of cattle to the neighbouring provinces. Since the insurrection
none had arrived. The departments of the Rhine had ceased to
send cattle too, since the war had fixed itself in that quarter.
There was, of course, a real diminution in the quantity. The
butchers, moreover, buying cattle at a high price, and selling
at the maximum price, sought to evade the law. The best
meat was reserved for the rich, or the citizens in easy circum-
stances, who paid well for it. A great number of clandestine
markets were established, especially in the environs of Paris,
and in the country ; and nothing but the offal was left for
the lower classes or the purchaser who went to the shops and
bought at the maximum price. Thus the butchers indemnified
themselves by the bad quality for the low price at which they
were obliged to sell. The people complained bitterly of the
weight, the quality, and the clandestine markets established
about Paris. There was a scarcity of cattle, so that it had
been found necessary to kill cows in calf. The populace had
immediately said that the aristocratic butchers intended to
destroy the species, and demanded the penalty of death
against those who should kill cows in calf and ewes in lamb.
But this was not all. Vegetables, fruit, eggs, butter, fish,
were no longer brought to market. A cabbage cost twenty
sous. People went to meet the carts on the road, surrounded
them, and bought their load at any price. Few of them
reached Paris, where the populace awaited them in vain.
Wherever there is anything to be done, hands enough are
soon found to undertake it. People were wanted to scour
the country, in order to procure meat, and to stop the farmers
bringing vegetables by the way. A great number of persons
of both sexes undertook this business, and bought up the
commodities on account of the rich, by paying for them more
than the maximum price. If there was a market better
supplied than the others, these agents hastened thither
and took off the commodities at a higher than the fixed
price. The lower classes were particularly incensed against
those who followed this profession. It was said that among
the number were many unfortunate women of the town,
who had been deprived by the measures adopted at the
instigation of Chaumette of their deplorable means of exist-
ence, and who followed this new trade, in order to earn a
livelihood.
To remedy all these inconveniences, the commune had
J AN. 1 7 9 4 THE FRENCH RE VOL UTION. 323
resolved, on the repeated petitions of the sections, that the
butchers should no longer meet the cattle, or go beyond the
ordinary markets ; that they should not kill anywhere but in
the authorized slaughter-houses ; that meat should be sold only
in the shambles ; that no person should any longer be per-
mitted to stop the farmers by the way ; that those who arrived
should be directed by the police, and equally distributed among
the different markets ; that people should not go to wait at the
butchers' doors before six o'clock, for it frequently happened
that they rose at three for this purjjose.
These multiplied regulations could not save the people from
the evils which they were enduring. The ultra-revolutionists
tortm-ed their imagination to devise expedients. A last idea had
occurred to them, namely, that the pleasure-grounds abounding
in the suburbs of Paris, and particularly in the Faubourg St.
Germain, might be brought into cultivation. The commune,
which refused them nothing, had immediately ordered a list
of these pleasure-grounds, and decided that, as soon as the
list was made out, they should be planted with potatoes and
culinary vegetables. They conceived, moreover, that, as vege-
tables, milk, poultry, were not brought to town as usual, the
cause of this was to be imputed to the aristocrats who had
retired to their seats around Paris. It was actually the case
that many persons had, in alarm, concealed themselves in their
country-houses. The sections came and proposed to the com-
mune to pass a resolution, or to demand a law, compelling them
to return. Chaumette, however, feeling that this would be too
odious a violation of individual liberty, contented himself with
making a threatening speech against the aristocrats who had
retired to their seats around Paris. He merely addressed to
them an invitation to return to the city, and exhorted the village
municipalities to watch them closely.
Meanwhile, impatience of the evil was at its height. The
disorder in the markets increased. Tumults were raised there
every moment. People crowded around the butchers' shops,
and in spite of the prohibition to go thither before a certain
hour, they were as eager as ever to get before one another.
They had there introduced a practice which had originated at
the doors of the bakers, namely, to fasten a cord to the door
of the shop ; each comer laid hold of it, in order to secure his
turn. But here, as at the bakers' doors, mischievous persons,
or those who had a bad place, cut the cord, a general confusion
ensued among the waiting crowd, and they were ready to come
to blows.
People knew no longer whom to blame. They could not
324 HISTORY OF j an. 1794
complain, as tliey had clone before the 31st of May, that
the Convention refused a law of maximum, tlie object of all
hopes, for the Convention granted everything. Unable to
devise any new expedient, they applied to it for nothing.
Still they could not help complaining. The épaulctiers,
Bouchotte's clerks, and the Cordeliers alleged that the
moderate faction in the Convention was the cause of the
dearth ; that Camille-Desmoulins, Philippeaux, Bourdon of
the Oise, and their friends were the authors of the prevail-
ing evils ; that it was impossible to exist any longer in that
manner, and that extraordinary means must be resorted to ;
and they added the old expression of all the insurrections —
we want a leader. They then mysteriously whispered one
another, Pache is to he grand judge.
However, though the new party had very considerable
means at its disposal, though it had the revolutionary army
and a dearth, it had neither the government nor public
opinion in its favour, for the Jacobins were adverse to it.
Konsin, Vincent, and Hébert were obliged to profess an ap-
parent respect for the established authorities, to keep their
designs secret, and to plot in the dark. On the contrary,
the conspirators of the loth of August and the 31st of May,
masters of the commune, of the Cordeliers, of the Jacobins,
and of all the clubs ; having numerous and energetic partisans
in the National Assembly and in the committees ; daring to
conspire in secret — could publicly draw the populace along
in their train, and employ masses for the execution of their
plots. But the party of the ultra-revolutionists was not in
the same predicament.
The reigning authority refused none of the extraordinary
means of defence, or even of vengeance. Treasons no longer
accused its vigilance ; victories on all the frontiers attested,
on the contrary, its energy, its abilities, and its zeal. Con-
sequently, those who attacked this authority, and promised
neither superior abilities nor superior zeal to those which it
displayed, were intriguers who aimed at some end, either of
disorder or ambition. Such was the public conviction, and
the conspirators could not flatter themselves that the people
would go along with them. Thus, though formidable, if they
were suffered to act, they were far from being so if timely
checked.
The committee watched them, and it continued, by a series
of reports, to throw discredit on the two opposite parties. In
the ultra-revolutionists it beheld conspirators to be destroyed ;
in the moderates, on the contrary, it only perceived old friends
JAN. 1794 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 325
who held the same opinions with itself, and whose patriotism
it could not suspect. But that it might avoid the appearance
of weakness, in striking the Eevolutionists, it was obliged to
condemn the moderates, and to appeal incessantly to terror.
The latter replied. Camille published fresh numbers. Danton
and his friends combated in conversation the reasons of the
committee, and a war of writings and words commenced,
Eancour ensued ; and St. Just, Robespierre, Barrère, Billaud,
who had at first discouraged the moderates from policy alone,
and that they might be stronger for it against the ultra-
revolutionists, began to persecute them from personal spleen
and from hatred. Camille had, as we have seen, already
attacked Collot and Barrère. In his letter to Dillon he had
addressed to the dogmatic fanaticism of St. Just, and to the
monastic harshness of Billaud, pleasantries which had deeply
wounded them. He had, lastly, irritated Robespierre at the
Jacobins, and though he had highly praised him, he had finished
by estranging himself from him entirely. Danton was far from
agreeable to all of them, on account of his high reputation ;
and now that he had retired from the direction of affairs,
that he remained in seclusion,* censuring the government, and
appearing to excite Camille's caustic and gossiping pen,t he
could not fail to become more odious to them every day ; and
it was not to be supposed that Robespierre would again run
any risk to defend him.
Robespierre and St. Just — who were accustomed to draw up
in the name of the committee the expositions of principles,
and who were charged in some measure with the moral de-
partment of the government, while Barrère, Carnot, Billaud,
and others directed the material and administrative depart-
ment — Robespierre and St. Just made two reports — one on
the moral principles which ought to guide the revolutionary
government, the other on the imprisonments of which Camille
had complained in the " Old Cordelier." We must show what
sort of conceptions those two gloomy spirits formed of the
revolutionary government, and of the means of regenerating
a State.
The principle of democratic government is virtue, said
Robespierre, and its engine, while establishing itself, is terror.
* It was by the advice of Robespierre himself that Danton retired into
seclusion. " A tempest is brewin^r," said he ; "the Jacobins have not forgotten
your relations with Dumouriez. They dislike your manners ; your voluptuous
and lazy habits are at variance with their energy. AVithdraw, tlieii, for a season ;
trust to a friend who will watch over your dangers, and warn you of the first
moment to return." — Larretdlc.
t Camille's own expression.
3 26 HISTORY OF jan. 1 794
We desire to substitute in our country morality for selfishness,
probity for honour, principles for usages, duties for decorums,
the empire of reason for the tyranny of fashion, the contempt
of vice for the contempt of poverty, pride for insolence, great-
ness of soul for vanity, the love of glory for the love of money,
good men for good company, merit for intrigue, genius for
wit, truth for show, the charm of genuine happiness for the
ennui of pleasure, the gi-eatness of man for the littleness of
the great, a magnanimous, powerful, and happy people for an
amiable, frivolous, and wretched people — that is to say, all the
virtues and all the miracles of the republic for all the vices and
all the absurdities of the monarchy.
To attain this aim there was required an austere, energetic
government, which should overcome resistance of all kinds.
There was, on the one hand, brutal, greedy ignorance, which
desired in the republic nothing but convulsions ; on the other,
base and cowardly corruption, which coveted all the gratifica-
tions of the ancient luxury, and which could not resolve to
embrace the energetic virtues of democracy. Hence there
arose two factions : the one striving to carry everything
beyond due bounds, and by way of attacking superstition,
to destroy the belief of God Himself, and to spill torrents
of blood, upon pretext of avenging the republic ; the other
which, weak and vicious, did not feel itself virtuous cnovgh
to he so tcrriUc, and softly deplored all the necessary sacri-
fices which the establishment of virtue demanded. One of
these factions, said St. Just, wanted to change Liherty into a
Bacchante, the other into a Prostitide.
Robespierre and St. Just recapitulated the follies of some
of the agents of the revolutionary government, and of two or
three procureurs of communes, who had pretended to renew
the energy of Marat, and in so doing they alluded to all
the extravagances of Hébert and his partisans. They then
enumerated all the faults of weakness, complaisance, and sen-
sibility, imputed to the new moderates. They reproached
them with their pity for widows of generals, for intriguing
women belonging to the old nobility, for aristocrats, and with
talking continually of the severities of the republic, far inferior
to the cruelties of monarchies. " You have one hundred
thousand prisoners," said St. Just, " and the revolutionary
tribunal has already condemned three hundred criminals.
]îut under the monarchy you had four hundred thousand
prisoners. Fifteen hundred smugglers were annually hanged,
three thousand persons were broken on the wheel, and at
this very day there are in Europe four millions of prisoners,
JAN. 1794 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 327
whose moans you do not hear, while your parricidal modera-
tion suffers all the enemies of your government to triumph !
We load ourselves with reproaches ; and kings, a thousand
times as cruel as we, sleep in crime."
Robespierre and St. Just, conformably with the concerted
system, added that these two factions, opposite in appearance,
had one common point — the foreigner, who instigated them to
act for the destruction of the republic.
We see how much there was at once of fanaticism, of policy,
and of animosity in the system of the committee. Camille
and his friends were attacked by allusions and even indirect
expressions. In his Vieux Cordelier he replied to the system
of virtue by the system of happiness. He said that he loved
the republic because it must add to the general felicity ;
because commei'ce, industry, and civilization were more con-
spicuously developed at Athens, Venice, Florence, than in
any monarchy, because the republic could alone realize the
lying wish of monarchy, the fowl in the pot. "What would
Pitt care," exclaimed Camille, "whether France were free, if
her liberty served only to carry us back to the ignorance of
the ancient Gauls, to the rude vest which formed their cloth-
ing, to their mistletoe, and to their houses, which were but
kennels of clay ? So far from mourning over it, I daresay
Pitt would give a great many guineas that such a liberty were
established among us. But it would make the English govern-
ment furious if people could say of France what Dicearchus
said of Attica : ' Nowhere in the world can one live more
agreeably than at Athens, whether one has money, or whether
one has none. Those who have acquired wealth by com-
merce or by their industry can there procure all imaginable
gratifications ; and as for those who are striving to do so,
there are so many workshops where they may earn where-
withal to amuse themselves and to lay by something besides,
that they cannot complain of poverty without reproaching
themselves with idleness.'
"I think, then, that liberty does not exist in an equality
of privations, and that the highest praise of the Convention
would be if it could bear this testimony to itself : * I found
the nation without breeches, and I leave it breeched.' *
"What a charming democracy,' adds Camille, "was that
of Athens ! Solon was not there considered as a coxcomb ;
he was not the less regarded as the model of legislators,
and proclaimed by the Oracle the first of the seven sages,
* A whimsical parody on the well-known saying applied to Augustus Ca'sar,
namely, that he found Rome of brick, and left it of marble.
32 8 H IS TOR Y OF feb. i 7 9 4
though he made no difficulty to confess his fondness for wine,
women, and music ; and he possesses so firmly established
a reputation for wisdom that at this day his name is never
pronounced in the Convention and at the Jacobins but as that
of the greatest of legislators. But how many are there among
us who have the character of aristocrats and Sybarites, who
have not published such a profession of faith !
" That divine Socrates, one day meeting Alcibiades gloomy
and thoughtful, apparently because he was vexed at a letter
of Aspasia, ' What ails you ? ' asked the gravest of Mentors.
'Have you lost your shield in battle ?^ — have you been van-
quished in the camp, in the race, or in the hall of arms?
Has any one surpassed you in singing or playing upon the
lyre at the table of the general ? ' This trait delineates
manners. What amiable republicans ! "
Camille then complained that to the manners of Athens
the rulers of France would not add the liberty of speech
which prevailed in that republic. Aristophanes there repre-
sented on the stage the generals, the orators, the philosophers,
and the people themselves ; and the people of Athens, some-
times personated by an old man, at others by a young one,
instead of being irritated, proclaimed Aristophanes conqueror
at the games, and encouraged him by plaudits and crowns.
Many of those comedies were directed against the ultra-
revolutionists of those times. The sarcasms in them were
most cutting. "And if, at this day," added Camille, "one
were to translate any of those pieces performed four hundred
and thirty years before Cln-ist, under vSthenocles the archon,
Hébert would maintain at the Cordeliers that it was a work
of yesterday, an invention of Fabre d'Eglantine against him-
self and Ronsin, and that the translator was the cause of the
dearth.
" I am, however, wrong," proceeded Camille, in a tone of
sadness, "when I say that men are changed — they have
always been the same ; libert}^ of speech enjoyed no more
impunity in the ancient than in the modern republics.
Socrates, accused of having spoken ill of the gods, drank
hemlock. Cicero, for having attacked Antony, was given
up to proscription."
Thus this unfortunate young man seemed to predict that
the liberty which he took would no more be forgiven him
than many others. His ]ileasantries and his eloquence exas-
perated the committee. While it kept an eye upon Ronsin,
Hébert, Vincent, and all the agitators, it conceived a violent
hatred against the amiable writer, who laughed at its systems ;
MAE. 1794 TEE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 329
against Danton, who was supposed to prompt that writer ; and
in short, against all those who were regarded as friends or
partisans of those two leaders.
In order not to deviate from its line, the committee pre-
sented two decrees, in consequence of the reports of Eobe-
spierre and St. Just, tending, it declared, to render the people
happy at the expense of their enemies. By these decrees
the committee of general welfare was alone invested with the
faculty of investigating the complaints of detained persons,
and liberating them if they were acknowledged patriots. All
those, on the contrary, who should be recognized as enemies
of the Revolution were to be kept in confinement till the
peace, and then banished for ever. Their property, seqiies-
trated ad interim, was to be divided among the indigent
patriots, a list of whom was to be drawn up by the communes.*
This, it is obvious, was the agrarian law applied to suspected
persons for the benefit of the patriots. These decrees, the
conceptions of St. Just, were destined to reply to the ultra-
revolutionists, and to continue to the committee its reputation
for energy.
Meanwhile the conspirators were bestirring themselves with
more violence than ever. There is no proof that their plans
were absolutely arranged, or that they had engaged Pache and
the commune in their plot. But they proceeded as before the
31st of May ; they excited the popular societies, the Cordeliers,
and the sections ; they circulated threatening rumours, and
sought to take advantage of the disturbances occasioned by
the deai'th, which every day increased and became more
severely felt.
All at once there ajipeared ]5osting-bills in the markets and
public places, and pamphlets, declaring that the Convention
was the cause of all the sufferings of the people, and that it
was necessary to rend from it that dangerous faction which
wanted to re-enact the Brissotins and their mischievous sys-
tem. Some of these writings even insisted that the whole
Convention ought to be renewed, that it behoved the people
to choose a chief, to organize the executive power, &c. All
the ideas, in short, which Viîicent, Ronsin, and Hébert had
been revolving in their heads filled these publications, and
seemed to betray their origin. At the same time the éjMuletiers,
more turbulent and blustering than ever, loudly threatened
to go to the prisons and slaughter the enemies whom the
bribed Convention persisted in sparing. They said that many
* Decrees of tlie 8tli and I3tli of Veutose (Februaiy 27 and March 3).
330 HISTORY OF mar. 1794
patriots were unjustly mingled in the prisons with aristocrats,
but that these patriots should be picked out, and liberty
and arms given to them at once. Ronsin, in full uniform
as general of the revolutionary army, with a tricoloured sash
and red plume, and accompanied by some of his officers, went
through the prisons, ordered the registers to be shown him,
and formed lists.
It was now the 15th of Ventose (March 5). The section of
Marat, the president of which was Momoro, assembled, and
indignant at the machinations of the enemies of the people,
it declared, en masse, that it was in motion, that it would
place a veil over the declaration of rights, and remain in
that state until provisions and liberty were ensured to the
people, and its enemies were punished. In the evening of
the same day the Cordeliers tumultuously assembled ; a
picture of the sufferings of the people was submitted to
them ; the persecutions recently undergone by the two great
patriots, Vincent and Ronsin, were detailed ; and it was said
that they were both ill at the Luxembourg, without being
able to procure the attendance of a physician. The country,
in consequence, was declared to be in danger, and a veil
was hung over the declaration of the rights of man. It was
in this manner that all the insurrections had begun with a
declaration that the laws were suspended, and that the people
had resumed the exercise of its sovereignty.
On the following day, the i6th, the section of Marat and
the Cordeliers waited upon the commune, to acquaint it with
their resolutions, and to prevail on it to take similar steps.
Pache had taken care not to be present. One Lubin pre-
sided at the general council. He replied to the deputation
with visible embarrassment. He said that, at the moment
when the Convention was taking such energetic measures
against the enemies of the Revolution, and for the succour
of the indigent patriots, it was sur]U'ising that a signal of
distress should be made, and that the declaration of rights
should be veiled. Then, affecting to justify the general
council, as though it had been accused, Lubin added that
the council had made all possible efforts to ensure supplies
of provisions, and to regulate their distribution. Chaumette,
in a speech equally vague, recommended peace, required the
report on the cultivation of the pleasure-grounds, and on the
supply of the capital, which, according to the decrees, was to
be provisioned like a fortress in time of war.
Thus the heads of the commune hesitated ; and the move-
ment, though tumultuous, was not strong enough to hurry
MAR. 1794 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 331
them away, and to inspire them with the courage to betray
the committee and the Convention. The disturbance was
nevertheless great. The insurrection began in the same
manner as all those which had previously occurred, and it
was calculated to excite not less alarm. By an unlucky acci-
dent the committee of public welfare was deprived at the
moment of its most influential members. Billaud-Varennes
and Jean Bon St. André were absent on official business -,
Couthon and Eobespierre were ill, and the latter could not
come to govern his faithful Jacobins. St. Just and Collot-
d'Herbois alone were left to thwart this attempt. They both
repaired to the Convention, the members of which were as-
sembling tumultuously, and trembling with fear. At their
suggestion, Fouquier - Tinville was immediately summoned,
and directed to make immediate search after the distributors
of the incendiary publications exhibited in the markets, the
agitators who were inflaming the popular societies, all the
conspirators, in short, who were threatening the public tran-
quillity. • He was enjoined by a decree to apprehend them
immediately, and in three days to present his report on the
subject to the Convention.
It was not doing much to obtain a decree of the Con-
vention, for it had never refused them against agitators,
and it had nevertheless left the Girondins without any
against the insurgent commune ; but it was requisite to en-
sure the execution of these decrees by gaining the public
opinion. Collot, who possessed great popularity at the Jaco-
bins and the Cordeliers by his club eloquence, and still
more by the well-known energy of his revolutionary senti-
ments, was charged with the duty of that day, and re-
paired in haste to the Jacobins. As soon as they were
assembled, he laid before them a picture of the factions which
threatened liberty, and the plots which they were preparing.
"A new campaign is about to open," said he; "the mea-
sures of the committee which so happily terminated the last
campaign were on the point of ensuring fresh victories to
the republic. Relying on your confidence and your appro-
bation, which it has always been its object to deserve, it was
devoting itself to its duties ; but all at once our enemies have
endeavoured to impede its operations. They have raised the
patriots around it for the purpose of opposing them to it, and
making them slaughter one another. They want to make us
soldiers of Cadmus. They want to immolate us by the hands
of each other. But no ! we will not be soldiers of Cadmus ;
thanks to your excellent spirit, we will continue friends, we
332 HISTORY OF mae. 1794
will be soldiers of liberty alone ! Supported by you, the com-
mittee will be enabled to resist with energy, to quell the
agitators, to expel them from the ranks of the patriots, and
after this indispensable sacrifice, to prosecute its labours and
your victories. The post in which you have placed us is
perilous," adds Collot ; " but none of us tremble before danger.
The committee of general safety accepts the arduous commis-
sion to watch and to prosecute all the enemies who are secretly
plotting against liberty ; the committee of public welfare spares
no pains for the performance of its immense task ; but both
need your sui^port. In these days of danger we are but few.
Billaud and Jean Eon are absent ; our friends Couthon and
Robespierre are ill. A small number of us only is therefore
left to combat the enemies of the public weal. You must
support us, or we must retire." " No, no ! " cried the Jacobins.
" Do not retire, we will support you." Numerous plaudits
accompanied these encouraging words. (JoUot proceeded, and
then related what had passed at the Cordeliers. "There are
men," said he, " who have not had the courage to suffer
during a few days of confinement, men who have undergone
nothing during the Revolution, men whose defence we under-
took when we deemed them oppressed, and who have attempted
to excite an insurrection in I'aris, because they had been im-
prisoned for a few moments. An insurrection, because two
men have suffered, because they had not a doctor to bleed
them when they were ill ! Woe be to those who demand an
insurrection ! " " Yes, yes, woe be to them ! " exclaimed all
the Jacobins together. " Marat was a Cordelier," resumed
Collot ; " Marat was a Jacobin ; he, too, was persecuted, and
assuredly much more than these men of a day ; he was
dragged before that tribunal at which aristocrats alone ought
to appear. Did he provoke an insurrection ? No. Sacred
insurrection, the insurrection which must deliver humanity
from all those who oppress it, is the offspring of more
generous sentiments than the ])etty sentiment into which an
attempt is now making to hurry us ; but we will not fall
into it. The committee of public welfare will not give way
to intriguers. It is taking strong and vigorous measures ;
and were it even doomed to perish, it will not recoil from
so glorious a task."
No sooner had Collot finished, than Momoro rose to justify
the section of Marat and the Cordeliers. He admitted that
a veil had been thrown over the declaration of rights, but
denied the other allegations. He • disavowed the scheme of
insurrection, and insisted that the section of Marat and the
MAiî. 1794 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION.
J 03
Cordeliers were animated by better sentiments. Conspirators
who justify themselves are undone. Whenever they dare
not avow the insurrection, and the mere announcement of
the object does not produce a burst of opinion in their
favour, they can effect nothing more. Momoro was heard
with marked disapprobation ; and Collot was commissioned
to go in the name of the Jacobins to fraternize with the
Cordeliers, and to bring back those brethren led astray by
jjerfidious suggestions.
The night was now far advanced. Collot could not repair
to the Cordeliers till the following day, the 17th ; but the
danger, though at first alarming, was no longer formidable.
It became evident that opinion was not favourably disposed
towards the conspirators, if that name may be given to them.
The commune had receded ; the Jacobins adhered to the
committee and to Robespierre, though absent and ill. The
Cordeliers, impetuous, but feebly directed, and above all,
forsaken by the commune and the Jacobins, coidd not fail
to yield to the eloquence of Collot-d'Herbois, and to the
honour of seeing among them so celebrated a member of the
government. Vincent, with his frenzy, Hébert, with his filthy
paper, at which he laboured as assiduously as ever, and
Momoro, with his resolutions of the section of Marat, could
not produce a decisive movement. Ronsin alone, with his
épauleticrs and considerable stores of ammunition, had it in
his power to attempt a coup dc main. Not for want of bold-
ness, however, but either because he did not find that bold-
ness in his friends, or because he could not entirely depend
on his troops, he refrained from acting ; and from the i6th
to the 17th of Ventose (March 7) all the demonstrations were
confined to agitation and threats. The épauletiers, mingling
with the popular societies, caused a great tumult among them,
but durst not have recourse to arms.
In the evening of the 17th, Collot went to the Cordeliers,
where he was at first received with great ap23lause. He told
them that secret enemies of the Revolution were striving to
mislead their patriotism ; that they had pretended to declare
the republic in a state of distress, whereas at the same moment
it was royalty and aristocracy alone that were at the last gasp ;
that they had endeavoured to divide the Cordeliers and the
Jacobins, who ought, on the contrary, to form but one family,
united in principles and intentions ; that this scheme of in-
surrection, this veil thrown over the declaration of rights,
rejoiced the aristocrats, who on the preceding night had all
followed this example and veiled in their salons the déclara-
3 34 HISTORY OF mar. 1794
tion of rights ; and that therefore, in order not to crown the
satisfaction of the enemy, they ought to lose no time in un-
veiling the sacred code of nature, which was nearer triumphing
over tyrants than ever. The Cordeliers could not withstand
these representations, though there were among them a great
number of Bouchotte's clerks ; they hastened to signify their
repentance, removed the crape thrown over the declaration of
rights, and delivered it to Oollot, charging him to assure the
Jacobins that they would always ])ursue the same course with
them.
Collot-d'Herbois hurried away to the Jacobins to proclaim
their victory over the Cordeliers and the ultra-revolutionists.
The conspirators * were thus forsaken by all. They had no
resource left but a cou}^ de main, which, as we have observed,
was almost impossible. The committee of public welfare re-
solved to prevent any movement on their part by causing the
ringleaders to be apprehended, and by sending them immedi-
ately before the revolutionary tribunal. It enjoined Fouquier
to search for facts that would bear out a charge of conspiracy,
and to prepare forthwith an act of accusation. St. Just was
directed, at the same time, to make a report to the Convention
against the united factions which threatened the tranquillity
of the State.
On the 23rd of Ventose (March 13), St. Just presented
his report. Agreeably to the adopted system, he represented
the foreign powers as inciting two factions : one composed of
seditious men, incendiaries, plunderers, defamers, and atheists,
who strove to effect the overthrow of the republic by exaggera-
tion ; the other consisting of corrupt men, stockjobbers, extor-
tioners, who, having suffered themselves to be seduced by the
allurements of pleasure, were endeavouring to enervate and to
dishonour the republic. He asserted that one of these factions
had begun to act ; that it had attenqrted to raise the standard
of rebellion ; but that it had been stopped short ; that he came,
in consequence, to demand a decree of death against those in
general who had meditated the subversion of the supreme
power, contrived the corruption of the public mind and of
republican manners, obstructed the arrival of articles of con-
sumption, and in any way contributed to the plan framed by
* "The case of these men was singular. The charge bore that they were
associates of Pitt and Coburg, and had combined against the sovereignty of the
people, and much more to the same purpose, consisting of allegations that were
totally unimportant and totally unproved. J3ut nothing was said of tlieir rivalry
to Robespierre, which was the true cause of their trial, and as little of their
revolutionary murders being the ground on which they really deserved their
fate." — Scott'n Life of Napoleon.
MAI^. 1794 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 335
the foreign foe. St. Just added that it behoved the Conven-
tion from that moment to make justice, irrobity, and all the
repîchlica7i virtues the order of the day.
In this report, written with a fanatical violence, all the
factions were equally threatened ; but the only persons ex-
plicitly devoted to the vengeance of the revolutionary tribunal
were the ultra-revolutionary conspirators, such as lionsin, Vin-
cent, Hébert, &c., and the corrupt members. Chabot, Bazire,
Fabre, and Julien, the fabricators of the forged decree. An
ominous silence was observed respecting those whom St. Just
called the indulgents and the moderates.
In the evening of the same day Robespierre went with
Couthon to the Jacobins, and both were received with applause.
The members surrounded them, congratulated them on their
recovery, and promised unbounded attachment to Robespierre.
He proposed an extraordinary sitting for the following day, in
order to elucidate the mystery of the conspiracy which had
been discovered. His suggestion was adopted. The acquies-
cence of the commune was equally ready. At the instigation
of Chaumette himself, it applied for the report which St. Just
had delivered to the Convention, and sent to the printing-
office of the republic for a copy, in order to read it. All sub-
mitted cheerfully to the triumphant authority of the committee
of public welfare. In the night between the 23rd and 24th,
Hébert, Vincent, Ronsin, Momoro, Mazuel, one of Ronsin's
officers, and lastly, Kock, the foreign banker, a stockjobber
and ultra-revolutionist, at whose house Hébert, Ronsin, and
Vincent frequently dined and formed all their plans, were
apprehended by direction of Fouquier-Tinville. Thus the
committee had two foreign bankers to persuade the world
that the two factions were set in motion by the coalition.
Baron de Batz was to serve to prove this against Chabot, Julien,
Fabre, and all the corrupt men and moderates ; while Kock
was to furnish the same evidence against Vincent, Ronsin,
Hébert, and the ultra-revolutionists.
The persons denounced, suffered themselves to be arrested
without resistance, and were sent on the following day to the
Luxembourg. The prisoners thronged with joy to witness the
arrival of those furious men who had filled them with such
alarm, and threatened them with a new September. Ronsin
displayed great firmness and indifference ; the cowardly Hébert
was downcast and dejected; Momoro, thunderstruck; Vincent
was in convulsions. The rumour of these arrests was im-
mediately circulated throughout Paris, and produced universal
joy. It was unluckily added that these were not all, and
336 HISTORY OF mar. 1794
that men belonging to all the factions were to be punished.
The same thing was repeated in the extraordinary sitting of
the Jacobins. After each had related what he knew of the
conspiracy, of its autliors, and of their projects, he added that
hap]nlv all their ])lots would be known, and that a report would
be made against other persons besides those who were actually
in custody.
The war-office, the revolutionary army, and the Cordeliers
were struck in the persons of Vincent, Ronsin, Hébert, Mazuel,
Momoro, and their assistants. It was deemed right to punish
the commune also. Nothing was talked of but the dignity of
grand judge reserved for j-'ache ; but he was well known to be
incapable of joining in a conspiracy, docile to the superior
authority, respected by the people ; and the committee would
not strike too severe a blow by associating him with the others.
It therefore preferred ordering the arrest of Chaumette, who
was neither bolder nor more dangerous than Pache, but who
from vanity and obstinate prejudice was the instigator of the
most imprudent determinations of the commune, and one of
the most zealous apostles of the worship of reason. The un-
fortunate Chaumette was therefore apprehended. He was sent
to the Luxembourg with Bishop Gobel, the author of the grand
scene of the abjuration, and with Anacharsis Clootz, already
excluded from the Jacobins and tlie Convention, on account of
his foreign origin, his noble birth, his fortune, his universal
republic, and his atheism.
When Chaumette arrived at the Luxembourg the suspected
persons ran to meet him and loaded him with sarcasm. With
a great fondness for declamation, Chaumette had none of
Ronsin's boldness or of Vincent's fury. His smooth hair and
his timid look gave him the appearance of a missionary ; and
such he had actually been of the new worship. He could not
withstand the raillery of the prisoners. They reminded him of
his motions against prostitutes, against the aristocrats, against
the famine, against the suspected persons, (hie prisoner said
to him, bowing, "Philosopher Anaxagoras, I am suspected,
thou art suspected, we are suspected." Chaumette excused
himself in an abject and tremulous tone ; but from that time
he did not venture to leave his cell, or appear in the court
among the other prisoners.
The committee, after it had caused these unfortunate men
to be apprehended, rerpiired the committee of general safety
to draw up the act of accusation against Chabot, Pazire,
Delaunay, Julien of Toulouse, and Fabre. All five were placed
under accusation, and delivered over to the revolutionary
MAR. 1794 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 337
tribunal. At the same moment it became known that a female
emigrant, under prosecution by a revolutionary committee, had
found an asylum at the house of Herault-Sechelles. This
celebrated deputy, who possessed a large fortune, together
with high birth, a handsome person, and a cultivated and
elegant mind, who was the friend of Danton, Camille-Des-
moulins, and Proly, and who had often shuddered to see him-
self in the ranks of those terrible Revolutionists, had become
suspected, and it was forgotten that he had been the principal
author of the Constitution. The committee lost no time in
ordering him to be arrested, in the first place because it dis-
liked him, and in the next, to prove that it would not fail
to jDunish moderates overtaken in a fault, and that it would
not be more indulgent to them than to other culprits.
Thus the shafts of this formidable committee fell at once
upon men of all ranks, of all opinions, and of every degree
of merit.
On the ist of Germinal (March 21) the proceedings against
the conspirators commenced. In the same accusation were
included Ronsin, Vincent, Hébert, Momoro, Mazuel, Kock
the banker, the young Lyonnese Leclerc, who had become
chef de division in Bouchotte's office, Ancar and Ducroquet,
commissaries of the victualling department, and some other
members of the revolutionary army and of the war-office. In
order to keep up the notion of a connivance between the ultra-
revolutionary faction and that called the foreign faction, Proly,
Dubuisson, Pereyra, and Desfieux were comprised in the same
accusation, though they had never had any connection with the
other accused persons. Chaumette was reserved to figure at a
future time with Gobel and the other authors of the scenes of
the worship of reason ; and lastly, if Clootz, who ought to have
been associated with these latter, was joined with Proly, it was
in his quality of foreigner. The accused were nineteen in
number. The boldest and firmest of them were Ronsin and
Clootz. "This," said Ronsin, to his co-accused, "is a political
process ; of what use are all your papers and your preparations
for justifying yourselves ? you will be condemned. When you
should have acted, you talked. Know how to die. For my
part, I swear that you shall not see me flinch. Strive to do
the same." The wretched Hébert and Momoro bewailed their
fate, and said that liberty was undone ! " Liberty undone ! "
exclaimed Ronsin, " because a few paltry fellows are about to
perish ! Liberty is immortal. Our enemies will fall in their
turn, and liberty will survive them all." As they accused
one another, Clootz exhorted them not to aggravate their mis-
voL. III. 78 *
338 HISTORY OF mar. 1794
fortunes by mutual invectives, and he recited the celebrated
ajjologne : —
Je rêvais cette nuit que, de mal consumé,
Côte à côte d'un gueux on m'avait inhumé.
This recitation had the desired effect, and they ceased to re-
proach one another with their misfortunes. Clootz, still full of
his philosophical opinions to the very scaffold, attacked the last
relics of deism that were left in them, and preached up nature
and reason with an ardent zeal and an extraordinary contempt
of death. They were carried to the tribunal amidst an im-
mense concourse of spectators. We have shown, in the account
of their conduct, in what their conspiracy consisted. Clubbists
of the lowest class, intriguers belonging to public offices,
ruffians attached to the revolutionary army — these conspirators
had the exaggeration of inferiors, of the bearers of orders, who
always exceed their commission. Thus they had wished to
push the revolutionary government so far as to make it a mere
military commission, the abolition of superstitious practices
to persecution of religion, republican manners to coarseness,
liberty of speech to the most disgusting vulgarity ; lastly, demo-
cratic jealousy and severity towards men to the most atrocious
defamation. Abusive expressions against the Convention and
the committee, plans of government in words, motions at the
Cordeliers and in the sections, filthy pamphlets, a visit of
Eonsin to the prisons to see whether patriots like himself were
not confined in them ; lastly, some threats, and an attempt at
commotion upon pretext of the dearth — such were their plots.
In all these there was nothing but the follies and the obsceni-
ties of loose characters. But a conspiracy deeply laid and
corresponding with foreign powers was far above the capacity
of these wretches. It was a perfidious supposition of the
committee, which the infamous Fouquier-Tinville was charged
to demonstrate to the tribunal, and which the tribunal had
orders to adopt.
The abusive expressions which Vincent and Ronsin had used
against Legendre when dining with him at Pache's, and their
reiterated propositions for organizing the executive power, were
alleged as attesting the design of annihilating the national
representation and the committee of public welfare. Their
dinners with Kock the banker were adduced in jjroof of
their correspondence with foreign powers. To this proof was
added another. Letters sent from Paris to London, and in-
serted in the English newspapers, intimated that, from the
agitation which prevailed, it was to be presumed that move-
MAK. 1794 THE FRENCH RE VOL UTION. 339
ments would take place. These letters, it was said to the
accused, demonstrate that foreigners were in your confidence,
since they predicted your plots beforehand. The dearth, the
blame of which they had attempted to throw on the govern-
ment, in order to excite the people against it, was impu^ted
to them alone ; and Fouquier-Tinville, returning calumny for
calumny, maintained that they were the cause of that dearth
by instigating the plunder of the carts with vegetables and
fruit by the way. The militaiy stores collected at Paris for
the revolutionary army were charged to their account as pre-
parations for conspiracy. Ronsin's visit to the prisons was
adduced as a proof of a design to arm the suspected persons
and to let them loose upon Paris. Lastly, the papers and
publications distributed in the markets, and the veil thrown
over the declaration of rights, were considered as a commence-
ment of execution.
Hébert was covered with infamy. His political acts and
his paper were scarcely noticed. It was deemed sufficient to
prove thefts of shirts and handkerchiefs. But let us quit those
disgraceful discussions between these base accused and the base
accuser, employed by a terrible government to consummate the
sacrifices which it had ordered. Retired within its elevated
sphere, this government pointed out the unfortunate creatures
who were an obstacle to it, and left Fouquier, its attorney-
general, to satisfy the forms of law with falsehoods. If, in
this vile herd of victims, sacrificed for the sake of the public
tranquillity, there are any that deserve to be set apart, they
are those unfortunate foreigners — Proly and Anacharsis Clootz
— condemned as agents of the coalition. Proly, as we have
said, being well acquainted with Belgium, his native country,
had censured the ignorant violence of the Jacobins in the
Netherlands. He had admired the talents of Dumouriez, and
this he confessed to the tribunal. His knowledge of foreign
Courts had, on two or three occasions, rendered him serviceable
to Lebrun, and this he also confessed. " Thou hast blamed," it
was urged against him, ''the revolutionary system in Belgium ;
thou hast admired Dumouriez ; thou hast been a friend of
Lebrun ; thou art therefore an agent of the foreign powers."
No other fact was alleged against him. As for Clootz, his
universal republic, his dogma of reason, his income of one
hundred thousand livres, and some efforts which he had
made to save a female emigrant, were sufficient for his
conviction.
No sooner were the proceedings resumed on the third day
than the jury declared that it was satisfied with the evidence
340 HISTORY OF mae. 1794
before it, and condemned pell-mell these intriguers, agitators,
and unfortunate foreigners to suffer deatli. One only was
acquitted, a man named Laboureau, wlio in this affair had
served as a spy for the committee of public welfare. On
the 4th of Germinal, at four in the afternoon, the condemned
persons were conveyed to the place of execution. The con-
course was as great as on any preceding occasion of the same
kind. Places were sold on carts and on tables around the
scaffold. Neither Ronsin nor Clootz tripped, to use their
own terrible expression. Hébert, overcome with shame,
disheartened by contempt, took no pains to conceal his
cowardice. He fell fainting every moment, and the popu-
lace, vile as himself, followed the fatal cart, repeating the
cry of the hawkers of his paper : II est h 1 en colère le
Père Duchêne.
Thus were sacrificed these wretched men to the indispen-
sable necessity of establishing a firm and vigorous goverimient ;
and here the necessity of order and obedience was not one of
those sophisms to which governments sacrifice their victims.
All Europe threatened France, all the agitators were grasping
at the supreme authority, and compromizing the common-
wealth by their quarrels. It was indispensable that some
more energetic men should seize this disputed authority,
should hold it to the exclusion of all others, and should thus
be enabled to use it for the purpose of withstanding all Europe.
If we feel any regret, it is to see falsehood employed against
these wretches ; to find among them a man of firm coiirage in
Ronsin, an inoffensive maniac in C-lootz, and at most an in-
triguer, but not a conspirator, and a foreigner of superior
merit, in the unfortunate Proly.
As soon as the Hebertists had suffered, the indulgents mani-
fested great joy, and said that they were not wrong in de-
nouncing Hébert, Ronsin, and Vincent, since the committee
of public welfare and the revolutionary tribunal had sent them
to the scaffold. Of what, then, can they accuse us ? said they.
We have done nothing more than re])roach those factious men
with a design to overthrow the republic, to destroy the National
Convention, to supplant the committee of public welfare, to
add the danger of religious to that of civil wars, and to pro-
duce a general confusion. This is precisely what St. Just and
Fouquier-Tinville have laid to their charge in sending them to
the scaffold. In what, then, can we be conspirators — enemies
of the republic ?
Nothing could be more just than these reflections ; and
the committee was of jirecisely the same opinion as Danton,
MAR. 1794 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 341
Camille-Desmoiilins, Philippeanx, and Fabre, respecting the
danger of that anarchical turbulence. In proof of this, liobe-
spierre had, since the 31st of May, never ceased defending
Danton and Camille, and accusing the anarchists. But, as we
have observed, in striking the latter, the committee ran the
risk of being set down as moderate, and it was therefore in-
cumbent on it to display the gTeatest energy on the other side,
lest it should compromise its revolutionary re]3utation.* It
behoved it, while thinking like Danton and Camille, to censure
their opinions, to sacrifice them in its speeches, and to appear
not to favour them more than the Hebertists themselves. In
the report against the two factions, St. Just had threatened
one as much as the other, and observed a menacing silence
respecting the indulgents. At the Jacobins, Collot had said
that the business was not finished, and that a report was pre-
paring against other persons besides those who were arrested.
These threats were accompanied by the apprehension of
Herault-Sechelles, a friend of Danton, and one of the most
esteemed men of that time. Such facts indicated no intention
of relaxing, and yet it was still said in all quarters that the
committee was about to retrace its steps — that it was going
to mitigate the revolutionary system, and to pursue severe
measures against the murderers of all kinds. Those who
wished for this return to a milder policy, the prisoners, their
families — in short, all the peaceful citizens persecuted under
the name of indifférents gave themselves up to indiscreet
hopes, and loudly asserted that the system of the laws of blood
was at length about to terminate. Such was soon the general
opinion. It spread to the departments, and especially to that
of the Rhône, where such terrible vengeance had for some
months past been exercised, and in which Ron sin had caused
such consternation. People breathed more freely for a moment
at Lyons. They dared look their oppressors in the face, and
seemed to predict to them that their cruelties were about to
have an end. These rumours, these hopes of the middle and
peaceful class, roused the indignation of the patriots. The
Jacobins of Lyons wrote to those of Paris, that aristocracy was
* "By favouring at first, or seeming to favour, the moderates, Robespierre
had prepared the ruin of the anarchists, and he thus accomplished two ends
which contributed to his domination or his pride : he ruined a formidable faction,
and he destroyed a revolutionary reputation, the rival of his own. Motives of
public safety required, it must be confessed, these combinations of parties. It
appeared impossible to the committee to continue the war without a dictator-
ship ; they considered the Hebertists as an obscene faction, who corrupted the
people and assisted the enemy ; and the Dantonists as a party whose political
moderation and private immorality compromized and dishonoured the republic. "
— Mignet.
342 HIST OR Y OF mar. 1794
raising its head again, that they should soon be unable to keep
it down, and that, unless force and encouragement were given
to them, they should be reduced to the necessity of taking
their own lives, like the patriot Gaillard, who had stabbed
himself at the time of the first arrest of Eonsin,
"I have seen," said Kobespierre to the Jacobins, "letters
from some of the Lyonnese patriots. They all express the
same despair, and if the most speedy remedy be not applied
to their disease they will not find relief from any recipe but
that of Oato and of Gaillard. The perfidious faction which,
affecting a perfidious patriotism, aimed at sacrificing the
patriots, has been exterminated ; but the foreign foe cares
little for that — he has another left. Had Hébert triumphed,
the Convention would have been overthrown, the republic
would have fallen into chaos, and tyranny would have been
delighted ; but with the moderates the Convention is losing
its energy, the crimes of the aristocracy are left unpunished,
and the tyrants triumph. The foreigner has therefore as
much hope with one as with the other of these factions,
and he must pay them all without attaching any of them
to himself. What cares he whether Hébert expires on the
scaffold, so that he has traitors of another kind left for the
accomplishment of his project ? You have done nothing, then,
if there is still left a faction for you to destroy ; and the
Convention is resolved to immolate all, even to the very last
of them."
Thus the committee had felt the necessity of clearing
itself from the reproach of moderation by a new sacrifice.
Eobespierre had defended Danton, when he had seen a
daring faction preparing to strike by his side one of the
most celebrated and most renowned of the patriots. Policy,
a common danger, everything then induced him to defend his
old colleague ; but now this bold faction no longer existed.
Were he to continue to defend this colleague, stripped of his
popularity, he would compromise himself. Besides, the con-
duct of Danton could not fail to excite many reflections
in his jealous mind. What was Danton about? Why did
he absent himself from the committee ? Associating with
Philippeaux and Camille-Desmoulins, he appeared to be the
instigator and the leader of that new opposition which was
assailing the government with cutting censures and sarcasms.
For some time past, seated opposite to that tribune where the
members of the committee took their places, Danton had
somewhat of a threatening and at the same time contemptuous
air. His attitude, his expressions, which ran from mouth to
MAR. 1794 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 343
month, and his connections, all proved that, after seceding
from the government, he had set np for its censor, and that
he kept himself aloof, as if for the puipose of obstructing it by
his great reputation. This was not all. Though Danton had
lost his popularity, he still retained a reputation for boldness
and for extraordinary political genius. If Danton were sacri-
ficed there would be left not one great name out of the
committee ; and in the committee there would remain only
men of secondary importance, such as St. Just, Couthon,
Collot-d'Herbois. By consenting to this sacrifice Robespierre
would at once destroy a rival, restore to the government its
reputation for energy, and above all, heighten his reputation-
for virtue, by striking a man accused of having sought money
and pleasure. He was. moreover, exhorted to this sacrifice
by all his colleagues, who were still more jealous of Danton
than he was himself. Couthon and Collot-d'Herbois were
aware that they were despised by that celebrated tribune.
Billaud — cold, vulgar, and sanguinary — found in him some-
thing grand and overwhelming. St. Just — dogmatic, austere,
and proud — felt an antipathy to an acting, generous, and easy
Revolutionist, and perceived that, if Danton were dead, he
should become the second personage of the republic. Lastly,
all of them knew that Danton, in his plan for renewing the
committee, proposed that Robespierre alone should be retained.
They therefore beset the latter, and no great efforts were
required to wring from him a determination so agreeable to
his pride. It is not known what explanations led to this
resolution, or on what day it was taken ; but all at once they
became threatening and mysterious. No further mention was
made of their projects. In the Convention, and at the Jacobins,
they maintained an absolute silence. But sinister rumours
began to be whispered about. It was said that Danton,
Camille, Philippeaux, and Lacroix were about to be appre-
hended and sacrificed to the authority of their colleagues.
Mutual friends of Danton and Robespierre, alarmed at these
reports, and seeing that, after such an act, the life of no man
whatever would be safe, and that Robespierre himself could
no longer be easy, were desirous of reconciling Robespierre
and Danton, and begged them to explain themselves. Robe-
spierre, entrenching himself in an obstinate silence, refused
to reply to these overtures, and maintained a distant reserve.*
* "After the first symptoms of a commencement of hostilities, Danton, who
had not yet terminated his connection with Robespierre, demanded an interview.
It took place at the house of the Latter. Danton corajilained violently ; but
Robespierre was reserved. ' I know,' said Danton, ' all the hatred which the
344 HISTORY OF mar. 1794
When reminded of the friendship that he had formerly testi-
fied for Danton, he hypocritically replied that he could not do
anything either for or against his colleague ; that justice was
there to defend innocence ; that for his part, his whole life
had been a continual sacrifice of his affections to his country ;
and that, if his friend were guilty, he should sacrifice him
with regret, but that he should sacrifice him, like all the others,
to the republic.
It is obvious that his mind was made up, that this hypo-
critical rival would not enter into any engagement relative
to Danton, and that he reserved to himself the liberty of
delivering him up to his colleagues. In consequence, the
rumours of the approaching arrest acquired more consistence.
Danton's friends surrounded him, urging him to rouse himself
from the kind of slumber which had come over him, to shake
oft" his indolence, and to show at length that revolutionary
front which amidst storms he had never yet shown in vain.
"I well know," said Danton, '-that they mean to arrest me.
But no," he added, "they will not dare." Besides, what could
he do ? To fly was impossible. What country would have
given an asylum to this formidable Revolutionist ? Was he
to authorize by his flight all the calumnies of his enemies ?
And then, he loved his country. "Does a man," he exclaimed,
"carry away his country on the soles of his shoes?" On the
other hand, if he remained in France, he would have but
slender means at his disposal. The Cordeliers belonged to
the ultra-revolutionists, the Jacobins to Robespierre. The
Convention was trembling. On what force could he lean?
These are points not duly considered by those who, having
seen this mighty man overturning the throne on the loth of
August, and raising the people against foreigners, have not
been able to conceive how he could have fallen without re-
sistance. Revolutionary genius does not consist in reviving
a lost popularity, in creating forces which do not exist, but
in boldly directing the affections of the people when once
in possession of them. The generosity of Danton, and his
committee bears me; but I do not fear it.' 'You are wrong,' replied Robe-
spierre ; ' they have no evil intentions against you ; but it is good to explain one-
self.' 'Kxplain oneself!' retorted Danton, 'for that good faitli is necessary;'
and observing Robespierre to assume a grave air at these words, ' Without
doubt,' added he, 'it is necessar}' to suppress the royalists ; but we ought only
to strike blows which are useful to the republic ; and it is not necessary to con-
found the innocent with the guilty. ' Ah, who has told you,' rejoined Robe-
spierre sharply, ' that we have caused an innocent person to perish ? ' Whereupon
Danton, turning to one of his friends who had accompanied him, asked with a
bitter smile, ' Wiiat sayest thou ? Not an innocent has perished ? ' After these
words they separated. All the bonds of friendship were broken." — Mlgnet,
MAR. 1794 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 345
secession from public affairs, had almost alienated the popular
favour from him, or at least had not left him enough of it
for overthrowing the reigning authority. In this conviction
of his impotence, he waited, and repeated to himself, They
ivill not dare. It was but fair to presume that before so
great a name and such great services his adversaries would
hesitate. He then sank back into his indolence, and into
the thoughtlessness of men conscious of their strength, who
await danger without taking much pains to screen themselves
from it.
The committee continued to maintain silence, and sinister
rumours continued to be circulated. Six days had elapsed since
the death of Hébert. It was the loth of Germinal (March 30).
All at once the peaceable men, who had conceived indiscreet
hopes from the fall of the furious party, said that they should
soon be delivered from the two saints, Marat and Chalier, and
that there had been found in their lives enough to change
them, as well as Hébert, from great patriots into villains.
This report, which originated in the idea of a retrograde
movement, spread with extraordinary rapidity, and it was
everywhere asserted that the busts of Marat and Chalier were
to be broken in pieces. Legendre denounced this language in
the Convention and at the Jacobins, by way of yjrotesting, in
the name of his friends, the moderates, against such a project.
" Be easy," exclaimed Collot at the Jacobins ; " these stories
will be contradicted. We have hurled the thunderbolt at the
infamous wretches who deluded the people ; we have torn the
mask from their faces ; but they are not the only ones ! We
will tear off all possible masks. Let not the indulgents
imagine that it is for them we have fought, that it is for
them we have here held glorious sittings. We shall soon
undeceive them."
Accordingly, on the following day the i ith Germinal
(March 31), the committee of public welfare summoned the
committee of general safety, and to give more authority to
its measures, the committee of legislation also. As soon as
all the members had assembled, St. Just addressed them,
and in one of those violent and perfidious reports which
he was so clever at drawing up, he denounced Danton,
Philippeaux, Desmoulins, and Lacroix, and proposed their
apprehension. The members of the two other committees,
awe-struck and trembling, durst not resist, and conceived
that they were removing the danger from their own persons
by giving their assent. Profound secrecy was enjoined, and
in the night between the loth and the nth of Germinal.
346 HISTORY OF mae. 1794
Danton, Lacroix, Philippeanx, and Camille-Desmonlins were
arrested unawares, and conveyed to the Luxembourg.
By morning the tidings had spread throughout Paris, and
produced there a kind of stupor. The members of the Con-
vention met, and preserved a silence, mingled with consterna-
tion. The committee, which always made the Assembly wait
for it, and which had already all the insolence of power, had
not yet arrived. Legendre, who was not of sufficient import-
ance to be apprehended with his friends, was eager to speak.
"Citizens," said he, "four members of this Assembly were
last night arrested. I know that Danton is one of them ;
the names of the others I know not ; but whoever they be,
I move that they be heard at the bar. Citizens, I declare
that I believe Danton to be as pure as myself, and I believe
that no one has anything to lay to my charge. I shall not
attack any member of the committees of public welfare and
of general safety, but I have a right to fear that personal
animosities and individual passions may wrest liberty from
men who have rendered it the greatest and the most beneficial
services. The man who, in September '92, saved France by
his energy, deserves to be heard, and ought to be allowed to
explain himself when he is accused of having betrayed the
country."
To procure for Danton the faculty of addressing the Con-
vention was the surest way to save him and to unmask his
adversaries. Many members, in fact, were in favour of his
being heard ; but at this moment Robespierre, arriving before
the committee in the midst of the discussion, ascended the
tribune, and in an angry and threatening tone, spoke in these
terms : " From the disturbance, for a long time unknown,
which prevails in this Assembly, from the agitation produced
by the preceding speaker, it is evident that the question under
discussion is one of great interest, that the point is to decide
whether a few men shall this day get the better of the country.
But how can you so far forget your principles as to propose to
grant this day to certain individuals what you have previously
refused to Chabot, Delaunay, and Fabre-d'Eglantine ? Why
this difference in favour of some men ? What care I for the
praise that people bestow on themselves and their friends !
Too much experience has taught us to distrust such praise.
The question is not whether a man has performed this or that
patriotic act, but what has been his whole career.
" Legendre pretends to be ignorant of the names of the
persons arrested. They are known to the whole Convention.
His friend Lacroix is one of them. Why does Legendre affect
APRIL 1794 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 347
ignorance of this? Because he knows that it is impossible,
without impudence, to defend Lacroix. He has mentioned
Danton, because he conceives, no doubt, that to his name is
attached a privilege. No, we will have no privileges. We
will have no idols ! "
At these words there was a burst of applause, and the
cowards, trembling at the same time before one idol, neverthe-
less applauded the overthrow of another, which was no longer
to be feared. Robespierre continued : " In what respect is
Danton superior to Lafayette, to Dumouriez, to Brissot, to
ï'abre, to Chabot, to Hébert? What is said of him that may
not be said of them ? And yet have you spared them ? Men
talk to you of the despotism of the committees, as if the confi-
dence which the people have bestowed on you, and which you
have transferred to these committees, were not a sure guarantee
of their patriotism. They affect doubts ; but I tell you, who-
ever trembles at this moment is guilty, for innocence never
dreads the public surveillance."
Fresh applause from the same trembling cowards, anxious
to prove that they were not afraid, accompanied these words.
" And in me, too," added Robespierre, ''they have endeavoured
to excite terror. They have endeavoured to make me believe
that, in meddling with Danton, the danger might reach myself.
They have written to me ; the friends of Danton have sent me
letters, have beset me with their speeches ; they conceived that
the remembrance of an old connection, that an ancient faith in
false virtues, would induce me to slacken my zeal and my pas-
sion for liberty. On the contrary, I declare that if Danton's
dangers were ever to become my own, that consideration would
not stop me for a moment. It is here that we all ought to
have some courage and some greatness of soul. Vulgar minds,
or guilty men, are always afraid to see their fellows fall,
because, having no longer a barrier of culprits before them,
they are left exposed to the light of truth ; but if there exist
vulgar spirits, there are heroic spirits also in this Assembly,
and they will know how to brave all false terrors. Besides,
the number of the guilty is not great. Crime has found but
few partisans among us, and by striking off a few heads the
country will be delivered."
Robespierre had acquired assurance and skill to say what
he meant, and never had he shown more skill or more perfidy
than on this occasion. To talk of the sacrifice which he made
in forsaking Danton, to make a merit of it, to take to himself
a share of the danger if there were any, and to cheer the
cowards by talking of the small number of the guilty, was
348 HISTOBY OF apeil 1794
the height of hyprocrisy and of address. Thus all his col-
leagues unanimously decided that the four deputies arrested
in the night should not be heard by the Convention. At this
moment St. Just arrived, and read his report. He was the de-
nouncer of the victims, because he combined an extraordinary
vehemence and vigour of style with the subtlety necessary
for distorting facts, and giving them a signification which
they had not. Never had he been more horribly eloquent
or more false ; for, intense as might have been his hatred,
it could not have persuaded him of all that he advanced.
Having at considerable length calumniated Philippeaux,
Camille- Desmoulins, and Hérault - vSechelles, and accused
Lacroix, he came at last to Danton, urging against him the
falsest allegations, and distorting known facts in the most
atrocious manner. According to him, Danton, greedy, in-
dolent, a liar, and even a coward, sold himself to Mirabeau,
and afterwards to the Lameths, and drew up with Brissot the
petition which led to the fusillade in the Champ de Mars,
not for the purpose of abolishing royalty, but to cause the
best citizens to be shot. He then went with impunity to
take his recreation, and to revel at Arcis-sur-Aube on the
produce of his perfidies. He kept concealed on the lOth of
August, and appeared again only to make himself a minister.
He then connected himself with the Orleans party, and got
Orleans and Fabre elected deputies. Leagued with Dumouriez,
bearing only an affected hatred to the Girondins, and keeping
up in reality a good understanding with them, he had entirely
opposed the events of the 31st of May, and wanted to have
Henriot arrested. When Dumouriez, Orleans, and the Girondins
had been punished, he treated with the party that was desirous
of setting up Louis XVII. Accepting money from any hand
— from Orleans, from the Bourbons, from foreigners dining
with bankers and aristocrats, mingling in all intrigues, prodigal
of hopes towards all parties, a real Catiline, in short, rapa-
cious, debauched, indolent, a corrupter of the ])ublic morals,
he went and secluded himself once more at Arcis-sur-Aube,
to enjoy the fruits of his rapine. He returned at length,
and recently connected himself with all the enemies of the
State, with Hébert and his accomplices, by the common tie
of the foreigner, for the purpose of attacking the com-
mittee and the men whom the Convention had invested with
its confidence.
When this most unjust report was finished, the Convention
decreed the accusation of Danton. Camille-Desmoulins, Philip-
peaux, Herault-Sechelles, and Lacroix.
APRIL 1794 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 349
These unfortunate men had been conveyed to the Luxem-
bourg. " Us ! arrest us ! " said Lacroix to Danton ; "I never
should have thought it ! " " Thou shouldst never have thought
it ? " replied Danton ; "I knew it ; I had been warned of it." *
" And knowing this, thou hast not acted ! " exclaimed Lacroix.
" This is the effect of thine accustomed indolence ; it has un-
done us." "I did not believe," replied Danton, "that they
would ever dare to execute their design."
All the prisoners thronged to the wicket to see the celebrated
Danton and the interesting Camille, who had thrown a ray of
hope into the prisons. Danton was, as usual, calm, proud, and
very jovial ; f Camille, astonished and depressed ; Philippeaux,
moved and elevated by the danger. Herault-Sechelles, who
had been sent to the Luxembourg some days before them, ran
out to meet his friends, and cheerfully embraced them. '• When
men do silly things," said Danton, "the best thing they can do
is to laugh at them." Then perceiving Thomas Paine, he said to
him, " What thou hast done for the happiness and the liberty
of thy Country, I have in vain attempted to do for mine ; I have
been less fortunate, but not more guilty. They are sending me
to the scaffold — well, my friends, we must go to it gaily ! "
On the next day, the 12th, the act of accusation was sent
to the Luxembourg, and the accused were transferred to the
Conciergerie, whence they were to go before the revolutionary
tribunal. On reading this act, full of atrocious falsehoods,
Camille became furious. Presently recovering his composure,
he said with affliction, " I am going to the scaffold for having
shed a few tears over the fate of so many unfortunate persons.
My only regret in dying is, that I had not the power to serve
them." All the prisoners, whatever might be their rank or
their opinion, felt a deep interest for him, and formed ardent
wishes in his behalf. Philippeaux said a few words about his
wife, and remained calm and serene. Herault-Sechelles retained
that gracefulness of mind and manners which distinguished him
even among persons of his own rank : he embraced his faithful
* " Danton's friends liad more than once warned him of his danger, and
implored him to rouse himself; but to all their entreaties he merely replied,
' I would rather be guillotined than guillotine. Besides, my life is not worth the
trouble, and I am weary of humanity. The members of the committee seek my
death ; well, if they effect their purpose, they will be execrated as tyrants ; their
houses will be razed ; salt will be sown there ; and upon the same spot a gibbet
dedicated to the punishment of crime will be planted. But my friends will say
of me that I have been a good father, a good friend, a good citizen. They will
not forget me. No ; I would rather be guillotined than guillotine.' " — Mignet.
t "On entering the prison, the first words uttered by Danton were, 'At
length I perceive that in revolutions the suprenie power ultimately rests with
the most abandoned.' " — Riouffe.
3 so HISTORY OF April 1794
attendant, who had accompanied him to the Luxembourg, but
was not allowed to follow him to the Conciergerie ; he cheered
him, and revived his courage. To the latter prison were trans-
ferred, at the same time, Fabre, Chabot, Bazire, and Delaunay,
who were to be tried conjointly with Danton, in order to throw
odium upon him by this association with forgery. Fabre was
ill and almost dying. Chabot, who, during his imprisonment,
had never ceased writing to Eobespierre, to implore his good
offices, and to lavish on him the basest flatteries, but without
moving him, saw that death was inevitable, and that disgrace
must as certainly be his lot as the scaffold. He resolved,
therefore, to poison himself. He swallowed corrosive subli-
mate ; but the agony which he suffered having forced him to cry
out, he confessed what he had done, accepted medical aid, and
was conveyed, as ill as Fabre, to the Conciergerie. A senti-
ment somewhat more noble seemed to animate him amidst his
torments, namely, a deep regret for having compromized his
friend Bazire, who had no hand in the crime. "Bazire," he
exclaimed, " my poor Bazire, what hast thou done ? "
At the Conciergei'ie the accused excited the same curiosity
as at the Luxembourg. They were put into the room that the
Girondins had occupied. Danton spoke with the same energy.
" It was on this very day," said he, " that I caused the revolu-
tionary tribunal to be instituted. I beg pardon for it of God
and of men. My object was to prevent a new September, and
not to let loose a scourge upon mankind." Then giving way to
contempt for his colleagues who were murdering him, " These
brother Cains," said he, "know nothing about government. I
leave everything in frightful disorder." To characterize the
impotence of the paralytic Couthon and the cowardly Robe-
spierre, he then employed some obscene but original expressions,
which indicated an extraordinary gaiety of mind. For a single
moment he showed a slight regret at having taken part in
the Revolution, saying that it was much better to be a poor
fisherman than to govern men. This was the only expression
of the kind that he uttered.
Lacroix appeared astonished at the number and the wretched
state of the prisoners. "What!" said one of them to him,
" did not cart-loads of victims teach you what was passing in
Paris ?" The astonishment of Lacroix was sincere ; and it is
a lesson for men who, pursuing a political object, have no con-
ception of the individual sufferings of the victims, and seem
not to believe because they do not see them.
On the following day, 13th of Germinal (April 2), the fif-
teen accused were taken away. The committee had associated
APRIL 1794 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 351
together the five moderate chiefs, Danton, Heraiilt-Sechelles,
Camille, Philippeaux, and Lacroix ; the four persons accused
of forgery. Chabot, Bazire, Delaunay, and Fabre-d'Eglantine ;
Chabot's two brothers-in-law, Julius and Emanuel Frey ;
d'Espagnac, the contractor ; the unfortunate Westermann,
charged with having participated in the corruption and plots
of Danton ; lastly, two foreigners, friends of the accused,
Gusman, the Spaniard, and Diederichs, the Dane. The object
of the committee in making this medley was to confound the
moderates with the corrupt deputies and with foreigners, by
way of jDroving that moderation proceeded at once from the
lack of republican virtue and the seduction of foreign gold.
The crowd collected to see the accused was immense. A s]3ark
of that interest which Danton had once excited was rekindled
at sight of him. Fouquier-Tinville, the judges, and the jurors,
all subaltern Eevolutionists raised from nothing by his mighty
hand, were embarrassed in his presence. His assurance, his
haughtiness, awed them, and he appeared rather to be the ac-
cuser than the accused.* Herman, the president, and Fouquier-
Tinville, instead of drawing the jurors by lot, as the law re-
quired, selected them, and took such as they called solid men.
The accused were then examined. When Danton was asked
the usual questions as to his age and his place of abode, he
proudly replied that he was thirty- four years old, and that his
name would soon be in the Pantheon, and himself nothing.
Camille replied that he was thirty-three, the age of the sans-
culotte Jesus Christ ivhcn He died I Bazire was twenty-nine ;
Herault-Sechelles and Philippeaux were thirty-four. Thus
talents, courage, patriotism, youth, were all again included in
this new holocaust, as in that of the Girondins.
Danton, Camille, Herault-Sechelles, and the others com-
plained on finding their cause blended with that of several
forgers. The proceedings, however, went on. The accusation
preferred against Chabot, Bazire, Delaunay, and d'Eglantine
was first examined. Chabot persisted in his statement, and
asserted that, if he had taken part in the conspiracy of the
stockjobbers, it was merely for the purpose of revealing it.
He convinced nobody ; for it appeared extraordinary that,
if he had entered into it with such a motive, he should not
have secretly forewarned some member of the committees,
that he should have revealed it so late, and that he should
have kept the money in his hands. Delaunay was convicted ;
Fabre, notwithstanding his clever defence, in which he alleged
* "Danton, calm and indifferent, amused himself during his trial by throwing
little paper-pellets at his judges."— //a2?/«.
352 H IS TOE Y OF apkil 1794
that, in making the erasures and interlineations in the copy
of the decree, he conceived that it was but the rough draft
{projet) which they had before them, was convicted by Cam-
bon, whose frank and disinterested deposition was overwhelm-
ing. He proved in fact to Fabre that the lorojcts of decrees
were never signed, that the copy which he had altered was
signed by all the members of the coinmission of five, and
that consequently he could not have supposed that he was
altering a mere projet. Bazire, whose connivance consisted,
in non-revelation, was scarcely heard in his defence, and was
assimilated to the others by the tribunal. It then passed to
d'Espagnac, who was accused of having bribed Julien of Tou-
louse to support his contracts, and of having had a hand in
the intrigue of the India ComjDany. In this case, letters
proved the facts, and against this evidence all d'Espagnac's
acuteness was of no avail. Herault-Sechelles was then ex-
amined. Bazire was declared guilty as a friend of Chabot ;
Hérault, for having been a friend of Bazire ; for having had
some knowledge through him of the intrigue of the stock-
jobbers ; for having favoured a female emigrant ; for having
been a friend of the moderates ; and for having caused it to
be supposed by his mildness, his elegance, his fortune, his
ill-disguised regrets, that he was himself a moderate. After
Hérault, came Danton's turn. Profound silence pervaded the
assembly when he rose to speak. " Danton," said the presi-
dent to him, " the Convention accuses you of having con-
spii-ed with Mirabeau, with Dumouriez, with Orleans, with
the Girondins, with foreigners, and with the faction which
wants to reinstate Louis XVII." "My voice," replied Dan-
ton with his powerful organ, "my voice which has so often
been raised for the cause of the people, will have no difficulty
to repel that calumny. Let the cowards who accuse me show
their faces, and I will cover them with infamy. Let the
committees come forward ; I will not answer but in their
presence : I need them for accusers and for witnesses. Let
them appear. For the rest, I care little for you and your
judgment. I have already told you that nothingness will
be soon my asylum. Life is a burden ; take it from me. I
long to be delivered from it." Danton uttered these words
burning with indignation. His heart revolted at having to
answer such men. His demand to be confronted with the
committees, and his declared determination not to reply but
in their presence, had intimidated the tribunal, and caused
great agitation. Such a confronting would in fact have been
cruel for them ; they would have been covered with con-
APRIL 1794 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 353
fusion, and condemnation would perhaps have been rendered
impossible. "Danton," said the president, "audacity is the
quality of guilt, calmness that of innocence." At this expres-
sion, Danton exclaimed, " Individual audacity ought, no doubt,
to be repressed ; but that national audacity of which I have
so often set the example, which I have so often shown in
the cause of liberty, is the most meritorious of all the virtues.
That audacity is mine. It is that which I have employed for
the republic against the cowards who accuse me. When I
find that I am so basely calumniated, how can I contain
myself ? It is not from such a Revolutionist as I that
you must expect a cold defence. Men of my temper are
inappreciable in revolutions. Upon their brow is impressed
the spirit of liberty." As he uttered these words, Danton
shook his head, and defied the tribunal. His formidable
countenance produced a profound impression. A murmur of
approbation escaped from the people, whom energy always
touches. " I," continued Danton, " I accused of having
conspired with Mirabeau, with Dumouriez, with Orleans, of
having crawled at the feet of vile despots ! * I that am
summoned to reply to inevitable, inflexible justice ! f And
thou, cowardly St. Just, wilt have to answer to posterity
for thy accusation against the firmest supporter of liberty !
In going through this catalogue of horrors," added Danton,
holding up the act of accusation, " I feel my whole frame
shudder." The president again exhorted him to be calm, and
reminded him of the example of Marat, who replied respect-
fully to the tribunal. Danton resumed, and said that, since
* " The following anecdote, which is related by M. Bonnet in his work entitled
L'Art de reridre les BévoliUions utiles, proves that the suspicions of the com-
mittee were not without some foundation, and that Danton, notwithstanding his
incessant boast of patriotism, was no better than a mere mercenary intriguer :
'Soon after the imprisonment of the King, Danton, wearied of his connection
with Robespierre, came to the resolution of saving the life of Louis on certain
conditions. With this view he sent a confidential emissary into England with
propositions for the King's deliverance ; but they were not listened to. His
agents then contrived to communicate his instructions in a more indirect manner
to a certain French nobleman, whom the King had always considered, with
justice, as one of those who were most attached to him. Those who were to save
the King would, of course, forfeit all influence in France, and be obliged to leave
the country. As the price of this double sacrifice, Danton proposed that a sum
of money, sufficient to secure the necessary votes, should be deposited in the
hands of a banker in London, payable to the persons whom he should specify,
under this express condition, that no part of it should be exigible till the King
was in safety in a neutral territory. The nobleman to whom this plan was
communicated was bound in honour to give it his countenance and support, and
accordingly he corresponded with several of his friends, with the view of recom-
mending it to the belligerent powers. All, however, was in vain.' "
+ Expressions of the act of accusation.
VOL. III. 79
3 5 4 RISTOR Y OF April 1794
it was desired, he would relate the history of his life. He
then related what difficulty he had had in attaining to the
municipal functions, the efforts made by the Constituents to
prevent him, the resistance which he opposed to the designs
of Mirabeau, and above all, what he did on that famous day
when, surrounding the royal carriage with an immense con-
course of people, he prevented the journey to St. Cloud. He
then referred to his conduct when he led the people to the
Champ de Mars to sign a petition against royalty, and the
motive of that celebrated petition ; to the boldness with which
he first proposed the overthrow of the throne in '92 ; to the
courage with which he proclaimed the insurrection on the
evening of the 9th of August ; and to the firmness which
he displayed during the twelve hours of that insurrection.
Choked with indignation at the thought of the allegation that
he had hid himself on the lOth of August, " Where," he
exclaimed, " are the men who had occasion to urge Danton
to show himself on that day ? Where are the privileged
beings from whom he borrowed energy ? Let my accusers
stand forward ! I am in my sober senses when I call for
them. I will expose the three downright knaves who have
surrounded and ruined Robespierre. Let them come forward
here, and I will plunge them into that nothingness from
which they ought never to have emerged." The president
would have again interrupted him, and rang his bell. Danton
drowned the sound of it with his terrible voice. " Do you
not hear me?" asked the president. "The voice of a man
who is defending his honour and his life," replied Danton,
"must overpower the sound of thy bell." Wearied, however,
from indignation, his voice began to falter. The president
then begged him respectfully to rest himself, that he might
resume his defence with more calmness and tranquillity.
Danton was silent, and the tribunal passed on to Camille,
whose Vieux Cordelier was read, and who remonstrated in vain
against the interpretation put upon his writings. Lacroix was
next brought forward. His conduct in Belgium was severely
animadverted on. Lacroix, after the example of Danton,
demanded the appearance of several members of the Conven-
tion, and made a formal application to obtain it.
This first sitting had excited a general sensation. The
concourse of people surrounding the Palace of Justice and
extending to the bridges had manifested extraordinary emo-
tion. The judges were frightened. Vadier,* Vouland, and
* "Vndicr, a lawyer, was an ardent Jacobin, but without abilities, and
ridiculous on account of his accent. In 1792 he was appointed deputy to the
APEIL 1 794 THE FB.ENCR BE VOL UTION. 3 5 5
Amar, the most malignant members of the committee of
general safety, had watched the proceedings, concealed in
the printing-office contiguous to the hall of the tribunal,
and communicating with it by means of a small loophole.
There they had witnessed with alarm the boldness of Danton
and the dispositions of the public. They began to doubt
whether condemnation were possible. Herman and Fouquier
had repaired, as soon as the court broke up, to the committee
of public welfare, and communicated to it the application
of the accused, who demanded the appearance of several
members of the Convention. The committee began to hesi-
tate. Eobespierre had gone home. Billaud and St. Just
alone were present. They forbade Fouquier to reply, en-
joined him to prolong the proceedings, to let the three days
elapse without coming to any explanation, and then to make
the jurors declare themselves sufficiently informed.
While these things were passing at the tribunal, at the
committee, and in Paris, there was not less commotion in
the prisons, where a deep interest was felt for the accused,
and where no hopes were seen for any one if such Revolu-
tionists were sacrificed. In the Luxembourg was confined the
unfortunate Dillon, the friend of Desmoulins, and defended
by him. He had learned from Chaumette, who, involved in
the same danger, made common cause with the moderates,
what had passed at the tribunal. Chaumette had heard it
from his wife. Dillon, a hot-headed man, and who, like an
old soldier, sometimes sought in wine a relief under his
troubles, talked inconsiderately to a man named Laflotte,
who was confined in the same prison. He said that it was
high time for the good republicans to raise their heads against
vile oppressors ; that the people seemed to be awaking ; that
Danton insisted on replying before the committees ; that his
condemnation was far from being ensured ; that the wife of
Camille-Desmoulins might raise the people by distributing
assignats ; and that, if he himself should contrive to escape,
he would collect resolute men enough to save the republicans
who were on the point of being sacrificed by the tribunal.
These were but empty words, uttered under the influence
of wine and vexation. There appears, however, to have been
an intention to send a thousand crowns and a letter to
Convention, where he voted for the King's death. In 1794 lie successively
defended and abandoned the party of Hébert and Danton. After the fall of
Robespierre, whom he denounced with severity, Vadier was condemned to trans-
portation, but contrived to make his escape. In 1799 the consular government
restored him to his rights as a citizen." — Biographie Moderne.
356 H IS TOR Y OF April 1794
Camille's wife. The base Laflotte, thinking to obtain his
life and liberty by denouncing the plot, hastened to the
keeper of the Luxembourg, and made a declaration in which
he alleged that a conspiracy was ready to break out within
and without the prisons, for the purpose of liberating the
accused, and murdering the members of the two committees.
We shall presently see what vise was made of this fatal
deposition.
On the following day the concourse at the tribunal was
as great as before. Danton and his colleagues, equally firm,
and obstinate, still insisted on the appearance of several
members of the Convention and of the two committees.
Fouquier. pressed to reply, said that he did not oppose the
summoning of necessary witnesses. But, added the accused,
it was not sufficient that he threw no obstacle in the way ;
he ought himself to summon them. He replied that he would
summon all who should be pointed out to him, excepting
those who belonged to the Convention, as it was for that
Assembly to decide whether its members could be cited.
The accused again complained that they were refused the
means of defending themselves. The tumult was at its
height. The president examined some more of the accused
— Westermann, the two Freys, and Gusman, and hastened
to put an end to the sitting.
Fouquier immediately wrote to the committee, to inform
it of what had passed, and to inquire in what way he
was to reply to the demands of the accused. The situation
was difficult, and every one began to hesitate. Robespierre
affected not to give any opinion. St. Just alone, more bold
and more decided, thought that they ought not to recede ;
that they ought to stop the mouths of the accused, and send
them to death. At this moment he received the deposition
of the prisoner Laflotte, addressed to the police by the keeper
of the Luxembourg. St. Just found in it the germ of a con-
spiracy hatched by the accused, and a pretext for a decree
that should put an end to the struggle between them and
the tribunal. Accordingly, on the following morning, he
addressed the Convention, and declared that a great danger
threatened the country, but that this was the last, and if
boldly met, it would soon be surmounted. " The accused,"
said he, " now before the revolutionary tribunal, are in
open revolt ; they threaten the tribunal ; they carry their
insolence so far as to throw balls made of crumbs of bread
in the faces of the judges ; they excite and may even mis-
lead the people. But this is not all. They have framed a
APKiL 1794 THE FRENCH BE VOL UTION. 3 5 7
conspiracy in the prisons. Camille's wife has been furnished
with money to provoke an insurrection ; General Dillon is
to break out of the Luxembourg, to put himself at the head
of a number of conspirators, to slaughter the two committees,
and to liberate the culprits." At this hypocritical and false
statement the complaisant portion of the Assembly cried
out that it was horrible, and the Convention unanimously
voted the decree proposed by St. Just. By virtue of this
decree, the tribunal was to continue, without breaking up,
the trial of Danton and his accomplices ; and it was authorized
to deny the privilege of pleading to such of the accused as
should show any disrespect to the court, or endeavour to
excite disturbance. A copy of the decree was immediately
despatched. Vouland and Vadier carried it to the tribunal,
where the third sitting had begun, and where the redoubled
boldness of the accused threw Fouquier into the greatest
embarrassment.
On the third day, in fact, the accused had resolved to
renew their application for summonses. They all rose at
once, and urged Fouquier to send for the witnesses whom
they had demanded. They required more. They insisted that
the Convention should appoint a commission to receive the
denunciations which they had to make against the scheme
of dictatorship which manifested itself in the committees.
Fouquier, perplexed, knew not what answer to give. At that
moment a messenger came to call him out. On stepping into
the adjoining room, he found Vadier and Vouland, who, still
quite out of breath, said to him, " We have the villains fast.
Here is what will relieve you from your embarrassment."
With these words, they put into his hands the decree just
passed at the instigation of St. Just. Fouquier took it with
joy, returned to the court, begged permission to speak, and
read the decree. Danton indignantly rose. " I call this
audience to witness," said he, "that we have not insulted the
tribunal." " That is true," cried several voices in the hall.
The whole assembly was astonished, nay, even indignant at
the denial of justice to the accused. The emotion was general.
The tribunal was intimidated. "The truth," added Danton,
"will one day be known. I see great calamities ready to burst
upon France. There is the dictatorship. It exhibits itself
without veil or disguise." Camille, on hearing what was said
concerning the Luxembourg, Dillon, and his wife, exclaimed
in despair, " The villains ! not content with murdering me,
they are determined to murder my wife ! " Danton perceived
at the farther end of the hall and in the corridor Vadier and
3 5 8 HISTOB Y OF april 1794
Voiiland, who were lurking about, to judge of the effect pro-
duced by the decree. He shook his fist at them. " Look,"
said he, "at those cowardly assassins; they follow us; they
will not leave us so long as we are alive ! " Vadier and
Vouland sneaked off in affright. The tribunal, instead of
replying, put an end to the sitting.
The next was the fourth day, and the jury was empowered
to put an end to the pleadings by declaring itself sufficiently
informed. Accordingly, without giving the accused time to
defend themselves, the jury demanded the closing of the pro-
ceedings. Camille was furious. He declared to the jury that
they were murderers, and called the people to witness this
iniquity. He and his companions in misfortune were then
taken out of the hall. He resisted, and was dragged away
by force. Meanwhile Vadier and Vouland talked warmly
to the jurors, who, however, needed no exciting. Herman,
the president, and Fouquier followed them into their hall.
Herman had the audacity to tell them that a letter going
abroad had been intercepted, proving that Danton was
implicated with the coalition. Three or four of the jurors
only durst support the accused, but they were overborne by
the majority. Trinchard, the foreman of the jury, returned
full of a ferocious joy, and with an exulting air pronounced
the unjust condemnation.
The court would not run the risk of a new explosion of the
condemned by bringing them back from the prison to the hall
of the tribunal to hear their sentence : a clerk therefore went
down to read it to them. They sent him away without suf-
fering him to finish, desiring to be led to death immediately.
When the sentence was once passed, Danton, before boiling
with indignation, became calm, and displayed all his former
contempt for his adversaries. Camille, soon appeased, shed
a few tears for his wife, and in his happy improvidence,
never conceived that she, too, was threatened with death, an
idea that would have rendered his last moments insupportable.
Hérault was gay as usual. All the accused were firm, and
Westermann proved himself worthy of the high reputation
which he had acquired for intrepidity.
They were executed on the i6th of Germinal (5th of April).*
* " Tims perished the tardy hut last defenders of hiunaiiity, of moderation ;
the last who wished for peace between the conquerors of the Revolution, and
mercy to the vanquished. After them, no voice was heard for some time against
the Dictatorship of Terror. It struck its silent and reiterated blows from one
end of France to the other. The Girondins had wished to prevent this violent
reign, the Dantonists to stop it ; all perished ; and the more enemies the rulers
counted, the more victims they had to despatch." — Mignct.
APRIL 1 794 THE FRENCH BEVOL UTION. 3 5 9
The infamous rabble, paid to insult the victims, followed the
carts. At this sight, Camille, filled with indignation, addressed
the multitude, and poured forth a torrent of the most vehement
imprecations against the cowardly and hypocritical Robe-
spierre. The wretches employed to insult him replied by gi-oss
abuse. In the violence of his action he had torn his shirt,
so that his shoulders were bare. Danton, casting a calm and
contemptuous look on the mob, said to Camille, "Be quiet-
take no notice of this vile rabble." On reaching the foot of
the scaffold Danton was going to embrace Herault-Sechelles,
who extended his arms towards him, but was prevented
by the executioner, to whom he addressed with a smile
these terrible expressions : " What ! canst thou then be more
cruel than death? At any rate, thou canst not prevent
our heads from embracing presently at the bottom of the
basket.
Such was the end of Danton, who had shed so great a lustre
upon the Revolution, and been so serviceable to it Bold
ardent, greedy of excitement and pleasure, he had eagerly
thrown himself into the career of disturbance, and he was
more especially qualified to shine in the days of terror*
Prompt and decisive, not to be staggered either by the
dilhculty or by the novelty of an extraordinary situation, he
was capable of judging of the necessary means, and had
neither iear nor scruple about any. He conceived that it
had become necessary to put an end to the struggle between
the monarchy and the Revolution, and he effected the loth
ot August. In presence of the Prussians, he deemed it neces-
sary to overawe France, and to engage her in the system of
the Revolution. He therefore, it is said, brought about the
horrible days of September,! and in so doing, saved a great
number of victims. At the beginning of the great year 1702,
when the Convention was alarmed at the sight of all Europe
m arms, he uttered these remarkable words, with a full
comprehension of all their depth: "A nation in revolution
* "Danton's revolutionary principles were well known. To abstain from a
crime necessary or barely useful, hi reputed weakness; but to pX. ciin es
eSd eoSv^hi"""; '' ?''\ the reward, and ever 'to continL the1r"laTe
but he tZn JS nf contempt and indignation. Terror, indeed, was his system
nwLnnwL '"'T'^f^ '*' effects with a sword suspended, not incessantly
mtf fT""' '"^ ^"' 'T^cT ^''^r^ °f P^"«'" ''^'^^"«'^s Danton of having pre-
hL ''nfen^v'Tp' "^ ^^rtember, and Prudhomn,e devotes twenty pa°^es^ of
frtbtf^ , ^ ^'\T' to conversations and papers which prove with what
36o HISTORY OF APKIL1794
is more likely to conquer its neighbours than to be conquered
by them." He was aware that twenty-five millions of men,
whom the government should dare to set in motion, would
have nothing to fear from the few hundred thousand armed
by the thrones. He proposed to raise the whole population,
and to make the rich pay. He devised, in short, all the
revolutionary measures which left such terrible mementoes,
but which saved France. This man, so mighty in action, fell
in the interval between dangers into indolence and dissipation,
which he had always been fond of. He sought, too, the most
innocent pleasures, such pleasures as the country, an adored
wife, and friends afforded. He then forgot the vanquished,
he ceased to hate them, he could even do them justice, pity
and defend them. But during these intervals of repose,
necessary for his ardent spirit, his rivals won by assiduity
the renown and the influence which he had gained in the
day of peril. The fanatics reproached him with his mildness
and his good-nature, forgetting that, in point of political
cruelty, he had equalled them all in the days of September.
While he trusted to his renown, while he delayed acting from
indolence, and was meditating noble plans for restoring mild
laws, for limiting the days of violence to the days of danger,
for separating the exterminators irrevocably steeped in blood
from the men who had only yielded to circumstances, finally,
for organizing France and reconciling her with Europe, he
was surprised by his colleagues to whom he had relinquished
the government. The latter, in striking a blow at the ultra-
revolutionists, deemed it incumbent on them, that they might
not appear to retrograde, to aim another at the moderates.
Policy demanded victims ; envy selected them, and sacri-
ficed the most celebrated and the most dreaded man of
the day. Danton fell, with his reputation and his services,
before the formidable government which he had contributed
to organize ; but, at least, by his boldness he rendered his
fall for a moment doubtful.
Danton had a mind uncultivated, indeed, but great, pro-
found, and above all, simple and solid. It was for emer-
gencies only that he employed it, and never for the purpose
of shining; he therefore spoke little, and disdained to write.
According to a contemporary, he had no pretension, not even
that of guessing what he was ignorant of — a pretension so
common with men of his mettle. He listened to Fabre-
d'Eglantine, and was never tired of hearing his young and
interesting friend Camille -Desmoulins, in whose wit he
delighted, and whom he had the pain to bear down in his
•r^ .r-af^
rd Bentley&Soii.
APRIL 1794 THE FRENCH RE VOL UTION. 3 6 1
fall. He died with his wonted fortitude, and communicated
it to his young companion. Like Mirabeau, he expired proud
of himself, and considering his faults and his life sufficiently
covered by his great sei'vices and his last projects.
The leaders of the two parties had now been sacrificed. The
remnant of these parties soon shared the same fate ; and men
of the most opposite sentiments were mingled and tried to-
gether, to give greater currency to the notion that they were
accomplices in one and the same plot. Chaumette and Gobel
appeared by the side of Arthur Dillon and Simon. The
Grammonts, father and son, the Lapallus, and other members
of the revolutionary army, were tried with General Beysser.
Lastly, Hebert's wife, formerly a nun, appeared beside the
young wife of Camille-Desmoulins, scarcely twenty-three years
of age, resplendent with beauty, grace, and youth. Chaumette,
whom we have seen so docile and so submissive, was accused of
having conspired at the commune against the government,
of having starved the people, and endeavoured to urge it
to insurrection by his extravagant requisitions. Gobel was
considered as the accomplice of Anacharsis Olootz and of
Chaumette. Arthur Dillon meant, it was said, to open the
prisons of Paris, and then to slaughter the Convention and the
tribunal, in order to save his friends. The members of the
revolutionary army were condemned as agents of Ronsin.
General Beysser, who had so powerfully contributed to save
Nantes along with Canclaux, and who was suspected of
federalism, was regarded as an accomplice of the ultra-
revolutionists. We well know what approximation could
exist between the staff of Nantes and that of Saumur.
Hebert's wife was condemned as an accomplice of her hus-
band. Seated on the same bench with the wife of Camille,
she said to the latter, " You, at least, are fortunate ; against
you there is no charge. You will be saved." In fact, all that
could be alleged against this young woman was, that she had
been passionately fond of her husband, that she had hovered
incessantly with her children about the prison to see their
father, and to point him out to them. Both were never-
theless condemned, and the wives of Hébert and Camille
perished as implicated in the same conspiracy. The unfor-
tunate Desmoulins died with a courage worthy of her husband
and of her virtue.* No victim since Charlotte Corday and
* "The widow of Camille-Desmoulins, youncf, amiable, and well-informed,
during the mock process which condemned her to death as an accomplice of
her husband, loathing life, and anxious to follow him, displayed a firmness of
mind that was seen with admiration even by her judges. When she heard the
362 TEE FRENCH RE VOL UTION. April 1794
Madame Roland had excited deeper sympathy and more pain-
ful regret.
sentence pronounced, she exclaimed, ' I shall then, in a few hours, again meet
my husband ! ' and then, turning to her judges, she added, ' In departing from
this world, in which notliing now remains to engage my affections, I ani far less
the object of pity than you are.' Pi'evious to going to the scaffold she dressed
herself with uncommon attention and taste. Her head-dress was peculiarly
elegant ; a white gauze handkerchief, ])artly covering her beautiful black hair,
added to the clearness and brilliancy of her complexion. Being come to the foot
of the scaffold, she ascended the steps with resignation, and even unatfected
pleasure. She received the fatal blow without appearing to have regarded what
the executioner was doing." — Du Broca.
THE NATIONAL CONVENTION
{continued)
CONCENTRATION OF ALL THE POWERS IN THE HANPS OF THE COM-
MITTEE—ABOLITION OF THE REVOLUTIONARY ARMY, OF THE
MINISTRIES, OF THE SECTIONARY SOCIETIES, &c.— RELIGIOUS
SYSTEM OF THE COMMITTEE — ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF THE
SUPREME BEING.
THE government had just sacrificed two parties at once.
The first, that of the ultra-revolutionists, was really formi-
dable, or likely to become so ; with the second, that of the new
moderates, this was not the case. Its destruction therefore
was not necessary, though it might prove serviceable, in order
to remove all appearance of moderation. The committee
struck it without conviction, from hypocrisy and envy. This
latter was a difficult blow to strike. The whole committee
hesitated, and Eobespierre withdrew to his home as on a day
of danger. But St. Just, supported by his courage and his
jealous hatred, remained firm at his post, cheered Herman
and Fouquier, affrighted the Convention, wrung from it the
decree of death, and caused the sacrifice to be consummated.
The last effort that any authority has to make in order to
become absolute is always the most difficult ; it is obliged to
exert all its strength to overcome the last resistance ; but
this resistance vanquished, everything gives way, everything
falls prostrate before it ; it has now but to reign without
obstacle. Then it is that it runs riot, expends its strength,
and ruins itself. While all mouths are closed, while sub-
mission is in every face, hatred conceals itself in the heart,
and the act of accusation of the conquerors is prepared amidst
their triumph.
The committee of public welfare, having successfully sacri-
ficed the two descriptions of persons, so different from each
other, who had presumed to oppose, or merely to find fault
with its power, had become irresistible. The winter was
past. The campaign of 1794 (Germinal, year 2) was about
363
364 HISTORY OF APIUL1794
to open with the spring. Formidable armies were to guard
all the frontiers, and to cause that terrible power to be felt
abroad which was so cruelly felt at home. Whoever had
made a show of resistance, or of feeling any sympathy with
those who had been put to death, had no alternative but to
hasten to offer their submission. Legendre, who had made
an effort, on the day that Danton, Lacroix, and Camille-
Desmoulins were arrested, and who had endeavoured to
influence the Convention in their favour — Legendre deemed
it right to lose no time in atoning for his imprudence, and
in clearing himself from his friendship for the late victims.
He had received several anonymous letters, the writers of
which exhorted him to strike the tyrants, who, they said,
had just thrown off the mask. Legendre repaired to the
Jacobins on the 21st of Germinal (April 10), denounced the
anonymous letters sent to him, and complained that people
took him for a Seïd, into whose hands they could put a
dagger. "Well then," said he, "since I am forced to it,
I declare to the people, who have always heard me speak
with sincerity, that I now consider it as proved that the
conspiracy, the leaders of which are no more, really existed,
and that I was the puppet of the traitors. I have found
proofs of this in various papers deposited with the committee
of public welfare, especially in the criminal conduct of the
accused before the national justice, and in the machinations
of their accomplices, who wish to arm an honest man with
the dagger of the murderer. Before the discovery of the
plot, I was the intimate friend of Danton. I would have
answered with my life for his principles and his conduct.
But now I am convinced of his guilt, I am persuaded that
he wished to plunge the people into a profound error. Perhaps
I should have fallen into it myself had I not been timely
enlightened. I declare to the anonymous scribblers who want
to persuade me to stab Robespierre, and to make me the
instrument of their machinations, that I was born in the
bosom of the people, that I glory in remaining there, and
that I will die rather than abandon its rights. They shall
not write me a single letter that I will not carry to the
committee of public welfare."
The submission of Legendre was soon generally imitated.
Addresses, pouring in from all parts of France, congratulated
the Convention and the committee of public welfare on their
energy. The number of these addresses, in every kind of
style, and under the most burlesque forms, is incalculable.
Each eagerly signified adherence to the acts of the govern-
APRIL 1 794 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 365
ment, and acknowledged their justice. Rhodez sent the fol-
lowing address : " Worthy representatives of a free people, it
is then in vain that the sons of the Titans have lifted their
proud heads ; the thunderbolt has overthrown them all !
What, citizens ! sell its liberty for base lucre ! The constitu-
tion which you have given us has shaken all thrones, struck
terror into all kings. Liberty advancing with giant step,
despotism crushed, superstition annihilated, the republic re-
covering its unity, the conspirators unveiled and punished,
unfaithful representatives, base and perfidious public func-
tionaries, falling under the axe of the law, the fetters of the
slaves in the New World broken — such are your trophies ! If
intriguers still exist, let them tremble ! let the death of the
conspirators attest your triumph ! As for you, representa-
tives, live happy in the wise laws which you have made for the
welfare of all nations, and receive the tribute of our love." *
It was not from horror of sanguinary means that the com-
mittee had struck the ultra-revolutionists, but with a view to
strengthen the hands of authority, and to remove the obstacles
that impeded its action. Accordingly it was afterwards seen
constantly tending to a twofold aim — to render itself more and
more formidable, and to concentrate power always in its own
hands, Collot, who had become the spokesman of the govern-
ment at the Jacobins, explained in the most energetic manner
the policy of the committee. In a violent speech, in which
he indicated to all the authorities the new track which they
ought to pursue, and the zeal which they ought to display
in their functions, he said, "The tyrants have lost their
strength ; their armies tremble before ours ; several of the
despots are already seeking to withdraw from the coalition.
In this state they have bat one hope left, that of internal
conspiracies. We must not cease, therefore, to keep a vigi-
lant eye on the traitors. Like our victorious brethren on the
frontiers, let us all present arms and fire all at once. While
our external enemies fall beneath the strokes of our soldiers,
let the internal enemies fall beneath the strokes of the people.
Our cause, defended by justice and energy, shall be trium-
phant. Nature is this year bountiful to the republicans. She
promises them a double harvest. The bursting buds proclaim
the fall of the tyrants. I repeat to you, citizens, let us watch
at home, while our warriors are fighting without ; let the func-
tionaries charged with the public concerns redouble their
attention and zeal ; let them thoroughly impress themselves
* Sitting of the 26th Germinal. Moniteur, No. 20S, of the year 2 (April
1794).
366 HISTOBY OF apeil 1794
with this idea, that there is perhaps not a street, not a crossing,
where there is not a traitor meditating a last plot. Let this
traitor find death, aye, and the speediest of deaths. If the
administrators, if the public functionaries, wish to find a place
in history, this is the favourable moment to think of doing so.
The revolutionary tribunal has already secured for itself a
distinguished place there. Let all the administrations imi-
tate its zeal and its inexorable energy ; let the revolutionary
committees, in particular, redouble their vigilance and their
activity ; and let them firmly withstand the importunities with
which they are beset, and which would hurry them into an
indulgence pernicious to liberty."
St. Just presented to the Convention a formidable report on
the general police of the republic. He therein repeated the
fabulous history of all the conspiracies ; he exhibited them
as the rising of all the vices against the austere system of
the republic ; he said that the government, instead of relax-
ing, ought to strike without ceasing, until it should have
sacrificed all the wretches whose corruption was an obstacle
to the establishment of virtue. He pronounced the customary
eulogy on severity, and sought in the usual way at that time,
by figures of all kinds, to prove that the origin of the great
institutions must be terrible. "What," said he, "would have
become of an indulgent republic? We have opposed sword
with sword, and the republic is founded. It has issued from
the bosom of storms. It has this origin in common with the
world arising out of chaos, and man weeping at the moment
of his birth." In consequence of these maxims, St. Just pro-
posed a general measure against the ex-nobles. It was the
first of the kind that was enacted. In the preceding year
Danton had, in a moment of irritation, caused all the aristo-
crats to be outlawed. This measure, impracticable on account
of its extent, had been changed into another, which con-
demned all suspected persons to provisional detention. But
no direct law against the ex-nobles had yet been passed.
St. Just held them forth as irreconcilable enemies of the
Eevolution. "Do what you will," said he, "you will never
be able to satisfy the enemies of the people, unless you
re-establish tyranny. Let them go elsewhere in search of
slavery and kings. They cannot make peace with you ;
you do not speak the same language ; you do not under-
stand one another. Drive them out, then ! The world is
not inhospitable, and with us the public welfare is the
supreme law. St. Just proposed a decree banishing all the
ex-nobles, all foreigners, from Paris, from the fortresses, and
APEIL 1794 THE FRENCH REVOL UTIOK 367
from the seaports, and declaring all those outlawed who
should not have obeyed the decree within the space of ten
days. Other clauses of this projet made it the duty of all
the authorities to redouble their zeal and activity. The
Convention applauded this proposition, as it always did, and
voted it by acclamation. Collot-d'Herbois, the reporter of
the decree to the Jacobins, added his own words to those
of St. Just. "We must," said he, "make the body politic
throw out the foul sweat of aristocracy. The more copiously
it perspires, the more healthy it will be."
We have seen what the committee did to manifest the
energy of its policy. We have now to show the course which
it pursued for the still greater concentration of power. In
the first place, it ordered the disbanding of the revolutionary
army. That army, a contrivance of Danton, had at first been
serviceable for carrying into execution the will of the Con-
vention when relics of federalism still existed ; but as it had
become the rallying-point of all the agitators and all the
adventurers, as it had served for a point of support to the
late demagogues, it was necessary to disperse it. Besides,
the government, being implicitly obeyed,* had no need of
these satellites to enforce the execution of its orders. In
consequence a decree was passed for disbanding it. The com-
mittee then proposed the abolition of the different ministries.
Ministers were powers still possessing too much importance
beside members of the committee of public welfare. Either
they left everything to be done by the committee, and in this
case they were useless ; or they insisted on acting themselves,
and then they were important competitors. The example
of Bouchotte, who, directed by Vincent, had caused the com-
mittee so much embarrassment, was pregnant with instruction.
The ministries were in consequence abolished, and in their stead
the twelve following commissions were instituted : —
1. Commission of civil administration, police, and the tri-
bunals.
2. Commission of public instruction.
3. Commission of agriculture and the arts.
4. Commission of commerce and articles of consumption.
* " One ouly power now remained — alone, terrible, irresistible. This was the
power of Death, wielded by a faction steeled against every feeling of humanity,
dead to every principle of justice. In their iron hands order resumed its sway
from the influence of terror ; obedience became universal from the extinction of
hope. Silent and unresisted, they led their victims to the scaffold, dreaded
alike by the soldiers, who crouched, the people, who trembled, and the victims,
who suffered. The history of the world has no parallel to the horrors of that
long night of suffering ! " — Alison.
368 HISTORY OF APKIL1794
5. Commission of public works.
6. Commission of public succours,
7. Commission of conveyance, posts, and public vehicles.
8. Commission of finances.
9. Commission of organization and superintendence of the
land forces.
10. Commission of the navy and the colonies.
11. Commission of arms, gunpowder, and mines.
12. Commission of foreign relations.
These commissions, dependent on the committee of public
welfare, were neither more nor less than twelve offices, among
which the business of the administration was divided. Herman,
who was president of the revolutionary tribunal at the time of
Danton's trial, was rewarded for his zeal by the appointment
of chief of one of these commissions. To him was given the
most important of them, that of civil administration, police,
and tribunals.
Other measures were adopted to effect more completely the
centralization of power. According to the institution of the
revolutionary committees, there was to be one for each com-
mune or section of a commune. The rural communes being
very numerous and inconsiderable, the number of committees
was too great, and their functions were almost null. There
was, moreover, a great inconvenience in their composition.
The peasants being very revolutionary, but generally illiterate,
the municipal functions had devolved upon proprietors who
had retired to their estates, and were not at all disposed to
exercise power in the spirit of the government. In conse-
quence a vigilant eye was not kept upon the country, and
especially upon the mansions. To remedy this inconvenience,
the revolutionary committees were abolished and reduced to
district committees. By these means the police, in becoming
more concentrated, became also more active, and passed into
the hands of the tradesmen of districts, who were almost all
stanch Jacobins, and very jealous of the old nobility.
The Jacobins were the principal society, and the only one
avowed by the government. It had invariably adopted the
princijDles and the interests of the latter, and like it, spoken
out against the Hebertists and Dantonists. The committee
of public welfare was desirous that it should absorb in itself
almost all the others, and concentrate all the power of opinion,
as it had concentrated in itself all the power of the govern-
ment. This wish was extremely flattering to the ambition of
the Jacobins, and they made the greatest efforts for its ac-
complishment. Since the meetings of the sections had been
APRIL 1794 THE FRENCH DEVOLUTION. 369
duced to two a week, in order that the people might be able
to attend them, and to secure the triumph of revolutionary
motions, the sections had formed themselves into popular
societies, and a great number of such societies had been estab-
lished in Paris. There were two or three of them in each
section. We have already mentioned the complaints preferred
against them. It was said that the aristocrats, that is, the
commercial clerks and the lawyers' clerks, dissatisfied with the
requisition, the old servants of the nobility — all those, in short,
who had any motive for resisting the revolutionary system,
met at these societies, and there showed the opposition which
they durst not manifest at the Jacobins or in the sections.
The number of these secondary societies prevented any super-
intendence of them, and opinions which would not have dared
to show themselves anywhere else were sometimes expressed
there. It had already been proposed to abolish them. The
Jacobins had not a right to do so, neither could the govern-
ment have taken such a step without appearing to infringe
the freedom of meeting and deliberating together, a freedom
so highly prized at that time, and which, it was held, ought to
be unlimited. On the motion of Collot, the Jacobins decided
that they would not receive any more deputations from societies
formed in Paris since the loth of August, and that the corres-
pondence with them should be discontinued. As to those
which had been formed in Paris before the loth of August,
and which enjoyed the privilege of correspondence, it was
decided that a report should be made upon each, to inquire
whether they ought to retain that privilege. This measure
particularly concerned the Cordeliers, already struck in their
leaders, Ronsin, Vincent, and Hébert, and considered as sus-
pected. Thus all the sectionary societies were condemned
by this declaration; and the Cordeliers were to undergo the
ordeal of a report.
It was not long before this measure produced the intended
effect. All the sectionary societies, forewarned or intimidated,
came one after another to the Convention and to the Jacobins,
to declare their voluntary dissolution. All congratulated alike
the Convention and the Jacobins, and declared that, formed
for the public benefit, they voluntarily dissolved themselves,
since their meetings had been deemed prejudicial to the cause
which they meant to serve. From that time there were left
in Paris only the parent society of the Jacobins, and in the
provinces the affiliated societies. That of the Cordeliers in-
deed still subsisted beside its rival. Instituted formerly by
Danton, ungrateful towards its founder, and since wholly
VOL. III. 80 *
370 HISTORY OF APPJL1794
devoted to Hébert, Ronsiii, and Vincent, it had given a
momentary uneasiness to the government, and vied with the
Jacobins. The wrecks of Vincent's office and of the revolu-
tionary army still assembled there. It could not well be
dissolved ; but the report was presented. This report stated,
that for some time past it corresponded but very rarely and
very negligently with the Jacobins, and that consequently it
might be said to be useless to continue to it the privilege of
correspondence. It was proposed on this occasion to inquire
whether more than one popular society was needed in Paris.
Some even ventured to assert that a single centre of opinion
ought to be established, and placed at the Jacobins. The
society passed to the order of the day on all these propositions,
and did not even decide whether the privilege of correspon-
dence should still be granted to the Cordeliers. But this once
celebrated club had terminated its existence. Entirely for-
saken, it was no longer of any account, and the Jacobins, wath
their train of affiliated societies, remained sole masters and
regulators of public opinion.
After centralizing opinion, if we ma}^ be allow^ed the term,
the next thing thought of was to give regulai'ity to the ex-
pression of it, to render it less tumultuous and less annoying
to the government. The continual observation and the de-
nunciation of the public functionaries, magistrates, deputies,
generals, administrators, had hitherto constituted the principal
occupation of the Jacobins. This mania for incessantly attack-
ing and persecuting the agents of authority, although it had
its inconveniences, possessed also its advantages, whilst any
doubt could be entertained of theii' zeal and their opinions.
But now that the committee had vigorously seized the supreme
power, that it watched its agents with great vigilance, and
selected them in the most revolutionary spirit, it would have
been prejudicial to the committee, nay, even dangerous to the
State, to ]iermit the Jacobins to indulge their wonted sus-
picions, and to annoy functionaries for the most part closely
watched and carefully chosen. It was on occasion of Gene-
rals Charbonnier and Dagobert being both calumniated, while
one was gaining advantages over the Austrians, and the
other expiring in the Cerdagne, oppressed with age and
wounds, that Collot-d'Herbois complained at the Jacobins of
this indisci'eet manner of condemning generals and function-
aries of all kinds. Tlirowing. as usual, all blame upon the
dead, he imputed this mania of denunciation to the relics
of Hebert's faction, and besought the Jacobins no longer to
permit these public denunciations, which, he said, wasted
MAY 1794 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 371
the valuable time of the society, and threw a stigma on
the agents selected by the government. He therefore pro-
posed that the society should appoint a committee to receive
denunciations, and to transmit them secretly to the com-
mittee of public welfare ; and this motion was adopted. In
this manner denunciations became less inconvenient and less
tumultuous, and demagogue disorder began to give way to
the regularity of administrative forms.
Thus, then, to declare in a more and more energetic manner
against the enemies of the Revolution, and to centralize the
administration, the police, and the public opinion, were the
first concerns of the committee, and the first-friiits of the
victory which it had gained over all the parties. Ambition
began, no doubt, to interfere in its determinations much more
than in the first moment of its existence, but not so much
as the great mass of power which it had acquired might lead
one to infer. Instituted at the commencement of 1793, and
amidst urgent dangers, it owed its existence to emergency
alone. Once instituted, it had gradually assumed a greater
share of power, in proportion as it needed more of it for the
service of the State, and it had thus attained the dictatorship
itself. Such had been its position amidst that universal
dissolution of all the authorities, that it could not reorganize
without gaining power, and act well without indulging am-
bition. The last measures which it had adopted were no
doubt profitable to it ; but they were prudent and useful.
Most of them had even been suggested to it, for in a society
which is reorganizing itself, everything comes to submit to
its creative authority. But the moment was at hand when
ambition was to reign paramoimt, and when the interest of
its own power Avas to supersede that of the State. Such is
man. He cannot long remain disinterested, and he soon adds
self to the object which he is pursuing.
The committee of public welfare had still one concern to
attend to — a concern which always preoccupies the founders
of a new society — namely, religion. It had already paid
homage to moral ideas, by making integrity, justice, and all
the virtues the order of the day ; it had now to direct its
attention to religious ideas.
Let us here remark the singular progress of their systems
among these sectaries. When they aimed at destroying the
Girondins, they represented them as moderates, as faint re-
publicans, talked of patriotic energy and public welfare, and
sacrificed them to these ideas. When two new parties were
formed, the one brutal, extravagant, striving to overthrow, to
-:,'J2 H IS TOR Y OF m ay 1 7 9 4
profane everything ; the other indulgent, easy, friendly to
gentle manners and pleasures — they passed from ideas of
patriotic energy to those of order and virtue. They no longer
beheld a fatal moderation undermining the strength of the
Eevolution ; they saw all the vices arrayed at once against the
severity of the republican system. They beheld, on the one
hand, anarchy rejecting all belief in God, effeminacy and cor-
ruption rejecting all idea of order, mental deliriu.m rejecting
all idea of morals. They then conceived the republic as virtue
assailed by all the bad passions at once. The word virtue was
everywhere : they placed justice and integrity upon the order
of the day. It yet remained for them to proclaim the belief
in God, the immortality of the soul, all the moral creeds; it
yet remained for them to make a solemn declaration — to
declare, in short, the religion of the State. They resolved,
therefore, to pass a decree on this subject.* In this manner
they should oppose order to the anarchists, faith in God to the
atheists, and morals to the dissolute. Their system of virtue
would be complete. They made it, above all, a particular
point to remove from the republic the stigma of impiety,
with which it was branded throughout all Europe. They re-
solved to say what is always said to priests who accuse you
of impiety because you do not believe their dogmas — We
BELIEVE IN God.
They had other motives for adopting a grand measure in
regard to religion. The ceremonies of reason had been
abolished ; festivals were required for the tenth days ; and it
was of importance, when attending to the moral and religious
wants of the people, to think of their wants of the imagi-
nation, and to furnish them with subjects of public meetings.
Besides, the moment waâ one of the most favourable. The
republic, victorious at the conclusion of the last campaign,
began to be so at the commencement of this. Instead of
the great destitution of means from which it was suffering
last year, it was, through the care of its government, pro-
vided with powerful military resources. From the fear of
being conquered, it passed to the hope of conquering. In-
stead of alarming insurrections, submission prevailed every-
* "The Dictators possessed in tlio highest degree tliat fanaticism which
distinguished certain social theories ; just as the Fifth-monarcliy men of the
English Revolution, to whom they may be compared, possessed that of certain
religious ideas. The first desired the most absolute political equality, as the
others did evangelical equality ; the former aspired to the reign of virtue, as
the other to the reign of the saints. In all affairs, human nature is apt to
run into extremes, and produces, in a religious age, evangelical democrats — in a
philosophic age, political democrats." — Miynct,
MAY 1794 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 373
where. Lastly, if owing to the assignats and the maximum
there was still some restraint upon the internal distribution
of productions, Nature seemed to have been pleased to load
France with all her bounties, in bestowing upon her the most
abundant crops. From all the provinces tidings arrived that
the harvest would be double, and the corn ripe a month
before the usual time. This was therefore the moment
for prostrating that republic — saved, victorious, and loaded
with favours — at the feet of the Almighty. The occasion was
grand and touching for those who believed ; it was seasonable
for those who merely complied with political ideas.
Let us remark one singular circumstance. Sectaries, for
whom there existed no human convention that was respectable,
who, from the extraordinary contempt in which they held all
other nations, and the esteem with which they were filled for
themselves, dreaded no opinion, and were not afraid of wound-
ing that of the world ; who in matters of government had
reduced everything to just what was absolutely necessary;
who had admitted no other authority but that of a few citizens
temporarily elected ; who had not hesitated to abolish the most
ancient and the most stubborn of all religions : such sectaries
paused before two ideas — morality and faith in God. After
rejecting all those from which they deemed it possible to
release man, they remained under the sway of the two latter,
and sacrificed a party to each of them. If some of them did
not believe, they nevertheless all felt a want of order among
men, and for the support of this human order, the necessity
of acknowledging in the universe a general and intelligent
order. This is the first time in the history of the world that
the dissolution of all the authorities left society a prey to the
government of purely systematic minds — for the English
believed in the Christian religion — and those minds which
had outstripped all the received ideas adopted, retained the
ideas of morality and faith in God. This example is un-
paralleled in the history of the world : it is singular, it
is grand, it is beautiful : history cannot help pausing to
remark it.
Robespierre was reporter on this solemn occasion ; and to
him alone it belonged to be so, according to the distribution
of the parts which had been made among the members of
the committee. Prieur,* Robert Lindet. and Carnot silently
superintended the administrative and the war departments.
* "Prieur was originally a barrister at Chalons. In 1792 he was deputed
to the Convention, where he voted for the King's death, and was afterwards
appointed a member of the committee of public safety. In 1794, after the fall
374 HISTORY OF may 1794
Barrère made most of the reports, particularly those which
related to the operations of the armies, and all those in general
which it was necessary to make extempore. Collot-d'Herbois,
the declaimer, was despatched to the clubs and the popular
meetings, to convey to them the messages of the com-
mittee. Couthon, though jsaralytic, likewise went everywhere,
harangued the Convention, the Jacobins, the people, and pos-
sessed the art of exciting interest by his infirmities, and by the
paternal tone which he assumed in saying the most violent
things. Billaud, less excitable, attended to the correspon-
dence, and sometimes discussed questions of general policy.
St. Just, young, daring, and active, went to and fro between
the fields of battle and the committee ; and when he had
impressed terror and energy on the armies, he returned to
make murderous reports against the parties whom it was
requisite to send to death. ^ Lastly, Kobespierre, the head
of them all, consulted on all matters, spoke only on impor-
tant occasions. For him were reserved the high moral and
political questions, as more worthy of his talents and his virtue.
The duty of reporter on the question which was about to be
discussed belonged to him by right. None had spoken out
more decidedly against atheism, none was so venerated, none
had so high a reputation for purity and virtue — none, in short,
was so well qualified by his ascendency and his dogmatism
for this sort of pontificate.
Never had so fair an occasion offered for imitating Rousseau,
whose opinions he professed, and whose style he made his
continual study. The talents of Robespierre had been singu-
larly developed dui-ing the long struggles of the Revolution.
That cold and heavy being began to speak extempore ; and
when he wrote, it was with purity, brilliancy, and energy.
In his style was to be found somewhat of the poignant and
gloomy humour of Rousseau ; but he had not been able to
borrow either the grand ideas or the generous and impassioned
soul of the author of Emile.
On the 1 8th of Floreal (May 7, 1794) he appeared in the
tribune, with a speech which he had composed with great
care. Profound attention was paid to him. " Citizens," said
he, in his exordium, "it is in prosperity that nations, like
of the Mountain, lie was appointed president of the Convention. Having been
engaged in the insurrection of 1795, he concealed himself for some time, and
was pardoned in the following yeai'. Prieur was a humane man, but not remark-
able for ability." — Biographic Moderne.
* In one of these " murderous reports" St. Just made use of the following
atrocious remark : "The vessel of the Revolution can only arrive safely in port
by ploughing its way boldly through a Red Sea of blood."
MAY 1794 THE FRENCH RE VOL UTION. 3 7 5
individuals, should pause to reflect and listen, in the silence
of the passions, to the voice of wisdom." He then developed
at length the system adopted. The republic, according to
him, was virtue ; and all the adversaries which it had en-
countered were but vices of all kinds, excited against it and
paid by kings. 'J^he anarchists, the corrupt men, the atheists,
had been but the agents of Pitt. " The tyrants," added he,
" satisfied with the hardihood of their emissaries, had been
anxious to exhibit to the view of their subjects the extra-
vagances which they had purchased, and affecting to believe
that they characterized the whole French nation, they seemed
to say to them, ' What will you gain by shaking off your yoke ?
The republicans, you see, are no better than ourselves ! ' "
Brissot, Danton, Hébert, figured by turns in Robespierre's
speech ; and while he was launching out into declamations
of hatred against the pretended enemies of virtue — declama-
tions already extremely trite — he excited but little enthu-
siasm. Presently relinquishing this portion of the subject,
he rose to ideas truly grand and moral, and expressed with
talent. He then obtained universal acclamations. He justly
observed that it was not as the authors of systems that the
representatives of the nation ought to discourage atheism and
to proclaim deism, but as legislators seeking what principles
are most suitable to man in a state of society. " What signify
to you, legislators ! " he exclaims — '• what signify to you
the various hypotheses by which certain philosophers explain
the phenomena of Nature ? You can leave all these subjects
to their everlasting disputes. Neither is it as metaphysicians
nor as theologians that you ought to view them. In the
eyes of the legislator, all that is beneficial to the world and
good in practice is truth. The idea of the Supreme Being
and of the immortality of the soul is a continual recall to
justice ; it is therefore social and republican. Who, then,"
exclaims Robespierre, " hath given thee the mission to pro-
claim to the people that the Deity hath no existence ?
thou who art in love with this sterile doctrine, and wast
never in love with thy country, what advantage dost thou
find in persuading man that a blind power presides over his
destinies, and strikes at random guilt and virtue ? that his
spirit is but a breath which is extinguished at the threshold
of the tomb ? Will the idea of his annihilation inspire purer
and more exalted sentiments than that of his immortality ?
Will it inspire him with more respect for his fellow-creatures
and for himself, more devotedness to his country, more
courage to defy tyranny, more contempt of death and of
376 HISTORY OF may 1794
sensual pleasure ? Ye who mourn a virtuous friend, who
love to think that the better part of him has escaped death
— ye who weep over the coffin of a son or of a wife, are
ye consoled by him who tells you that nothing but vile dust
is left of either ? Unfortunate mortal, who expirest by the
steel of the assassin, thy last sigh is an appeal to eternal
justice ! Innocence on the scaffold makes the tyrant turn
pale in his car of triumph. Would it possess this ascendency
if the grave equalled the oppressor and the oppressed ?" *
Kobespierre, still confining himself to the political side
of the question, adds these remarkable observations : " Let
us," said he, " here take a lesson from history. Take notice,
I beseech you, how the men who have exercised an influence
on the destinies of States have, been led into one or the other
of two opposite systems by their personal character and by
the very nature of their political views. Observe with what
profound art Cassar, pleading in the Roman Senate in behalf
of the accomplices of Catiline, deviates into a digression
against the dogma of the immortality of the soul ; so well
calculated do these ideas appear to him to extinguish in
the hearts of the judges the energy of virtue ; so intimately
does the cause of crime seem to be connected with that of
atheism. Cicero, on the contrary, invoked the sword of the
law and the thunderbolts of the gods against the traitors.
Leonidas, at Thermopylœ, supping with his companions in
arms, the moment before executing the most heroic design
that human virtue ever conceived, invited them for the next
day to another banquet in a new life. Cato did not hesitate
between Epicurus and Zeno. Brutus and the illustrious
conspirators who shared his dangers and his glory belonged
also to that sublime sect of the Stoics, which had such lofty
ideas of the dignity of man. which carried the enthusiasm of
virtue to such a height, and which was extravagant in heroism
only. Stoicism brought forth rivals of Brutus and of Cato,
even in those frightful ages which succeeded the loss of Roman
liberty. Stoicism saved the honour of human nature, degraded
by the vices of the successors of Cassar, and still more by the
patience of the people."
On the subject of atheism, Robespierre expresses himself
in a singular manner concerning the Encyclopedists. " In
* At the time when Robespierre was indulging in all this specious declama-
tion, he was making every efibrt to bring to maturity a sanguinary despotism
unparalleled in the annals of the world. Not less than thirty innocent indi-
viduals were daily led to the scatl'old at the very period when this canting
demagogue was solemnly and sentimentally proclaiming the last sigh of the
murdered victim to be "an appeal to eternal justice ! "
MAY 1794 THE FRENCH RE VOL UTIOK m
political matters," said he, " that sect always remained below
the rights of the peojDle ; in point of morality, it went far
beyond the destruction of religious prejudices ; its leaders
sometimes declaimed against despotism, and they were pen-
sioned by despots ; sometimes they wrote books against the
Court, at others dedications to kings, speeches for courtiers,
and madrigals for courtesans. They were proud in their works,
and cringing in the antechambers. This sect propagated with
great zeal the opinion of materialism, which prevailed among
the great and among the hcaux esprits. To it we owe in
part that kind of practical philosophy which, reducing selfish-
ness to a system, considers human society as a warfare of
trickery, success as the rule of right and wrong, integrity as
a matter of taste or decorum, the world as the patrimony of
clever scoundrels.
" Among those who, at the time of which I am speaking,
distinguished themselves in the career of letters and philo-
sophy, one man, by the loftiness of his character, proved
himself worthy of the office of preceptor of mankind. He
attacked tyranny with frankness ; he spoke with enthusiasm
of the Deity ; his manly and straightforward eloquence de-
scribed, in words that burn, the charms of virtue ; and de-
fended those consolatory dogmas which reason furnishes for
the support of the human heart. The purity of his doctrine,
derived from nature and from a profound hatred of vice, as
well as his invincible contempt for the intriguing sophists
who usurped the name of philosophers, drew upon him the
enmity and the persecution of his rivals and of his false
friends. Ah ! if he had witnessed this Revolution of which
he was the forerunner, who can doubt that his generous soul
would have embraced with transport the cause of liberty and
equality !" *
Robespierre then strove to counteract the idea that, in
proclaiming the worship of the Supreme Being, the govern-
ment was labouring for the benefit of the priests. " What
is there in common between the priests and God ? The
priests are to morality what quacks are to medicine. How
different is the God of Nature from the God of the priests !
I know nothing that so nearly resembles atheism as the re-
ligions which they have framed. By grossly misrepresenting
the Supreme Being, they have annihilated belief in Him as
far as lay in their power. They made Him at one time a
globe of fire, at another an ox, sometimes a tree, sometimes
* Robespierre here alludes to Rousseau, of whose sickly philosophy he was
throughout life an ardent admirer.
37^ HISTORY OF may 1794
a man, sometimes a king. The priests have created a God
after their own image ; they have made Him jealous, capri-
cious, greedy, cruel, and implacable ; they have treated Him
as the mayors of the palace formerly treated the descendants
of Clovis, in order to reign in His name and to put themselves
in His place ; they have confined Him in heaven as in a palace,
and have called Him to earth only to demand of Him for their
own interest tithes, wealth, honours, pleasures, and power.
The real temple of the Supreme Being is the universe ; His
worship, virtue ; His festivals, the joy of a great nation,
assembled in His presence, to knit closer the bonds of uni-
versal fraternity, and to pay Him the homage of intelligent
and pure hearts."
Robespierre then said that the people needed festivals.
"Man," he observed, "is the grandest object that exists in
nature ; and the most magnificent of all sights is that of a
great people assembled together." In consecpience he pro-
posed plans for public meetings on all the Décadi. He
finished his report amidst the warmest applause, and pro-
posed the following decree, which was adopted by accla-
mation : —
"Art. I. The French people acknowledges the existence of
the Supreme Being and the immortality of the soul.
" Art. 2. It acknowledges that the worship most worthy of
the Supreme Being is the practice of the duties of man."
Other articles purported that festivals should be instituted,
in order to remind man of the Deity and of the dignity of
his own nature. They were to borrow their names from the
events of the Revolution, or from the virtues most beneficial
to man. Besides the festivals of the 14th of July, the lOth
of August, the 2 1st of January, and the 31st of May, the
republic was to celebrate on all the Décadi the following
festivals : to the Supreme Being — to the human race — to
the French people — to the benefactors of mankind— to the
martyrs of liberty — to liberty and ecpiality — to the republic
— to the liberty of the world — to the love of country — to
hatred of tyrants and traitors — to truth — to justice — to
modesty — to glory — to friendship — to frugality — to courage
— to good faith — to heroism — to disinterestedness — to stoicism
— to love — to conjugal fidelity — to paternal affection — to filial
piety — to infancy — to youth — to manhood — to old age — to
misfortune — to agriculture — to industry — to our ancestors —
to posterity — to happiness.
A solemn festival was ordered for the 20th of Prairial
(June 8), and the plan of it was committed to David. It
MAY T 7 9 4 THE FRENCH RE VOL UTION. 3 7 9
is proper to add that in this decree freedom of religion was
anew proclaimed.
No sooner was this report finished than it was sent to be
printed. On the same day the commune and the Jacobins,
demanding that it should be i-ead, i-eceived it with applause,
and deliberated upon going in a body to the Convention to
present their thanks for the sublime decree which it had just
passed. It had been remarked that the Jacobins had been
silent after the immolation of the two parties, and had not
gone to congratulate the committee and the Convention. A
member had noticed this, and said that it was a fit occasion
for proving the union of the Jacobins with a government
which displayed such admirable conduct. An address was
accordingly drawn up and presented to the Convention by
a deputation of the Jacobins. That address concluded thus :
" The Jacobins come this day to thank you for the solemn
decree that you have just issued ; they will come and join
you in the celebration of that great day on which the festival
of the Supreme Being shall assemble the virtuous citizens
throughout all France to sing the hymn of virtue." The
president made a pompous reply to the deputation. " It is
worthy," said he, "of a society which fills the world with its
renown, which enjoys so great an influence upon the public
opinion, which has associated at all times with all the most
courageous of the defenders of the rights of man, to come
to the temple of the laws to pay homage to the Supreme
Being."
The president proceeded, and after a very long harangue
on the same subject, called upon Cou thon to sjDeak. The
latter made a violent speech against atheists and corrupt
men, and pronounced a pompous eulogy on the society. He
proposed on that solemn day of joy and gratitude to do the
Jacobins a justice which had long been due to them, namely,
to declare that, ever since the commencement of the Revolu-
tion, they had not ceased to deserve well of the country.
This suggestion was adopted amidst thunders of applause.
The Assembly broke up in transports of joy, nay, indeed, in
a sort of intoxication.
If the Convention had received numerous addresses after
the death of the Hebertists and the Dantonists, it received
many more after the decree proclaiming the belief in the
Supreme Being. The contagion of ideas and words spread
with extraordinary rapidity among the French. Among a
prompt and communicative people the idea that engages some
few minds soon engages the attention of the public generally ;
3 So THE FRENCH BE VOL UTION. may 1794
the word that is in some mouths is soon in all. Addresses
poured in from all parts, congratulating the Convention on
its sublime decrees, thanking it for having established virtue,
proclaimed the worship of the Supreme JBeing, and restored
hope to man. All the sections came, one after another, to
express similar sentiments. The section of Marat, appearing
at the bar, addressed the Mountain in these words : "
beneficent Mountain ! protecting Sinai ! accept also our ex-
pressions of gratitude and congratulation for all the sublime
decrees which thou art daily issuing for the happiness of
mankind. From thy boiling bosom darted the salutary
thunderbolt, which, in crushing atheism, gives us genuine
republicans the consolatory idea of living free, in the sight
of the Supreme Being, and in expectation of the immor-
tality of the soul. T]ic Coiivention for ever ! the republic for
ever ! the Mountain for ever ! " All the addresses besought
the Convention anew to retain the supreme power. There
was one even which called upon it to sit till the reign of
virtue should be established in the republic upon imperishable
foundations.
From that day the words Virtue and Supreme Being were
in every mouth. Instead of the inscription. To Reason,
placed upon the fronts of the churches, there was now in-
scribed, To THE Supreme Being. The remains of Rousseau
were removed to the Pantheon. His widow was presented
to the Convention, and a pension settled upon her.
Thus the committee of public welfare, triumphant over all
the different parties, invested with all the powers, placed at
the head of an enthusiastic and victorious nation, proclaiming
the reign of virtue and the worship of the Su^sreme Being,
was at the height of its authority, and at the last term of its
systems.
THE NATIONAL CONVENTION
{continued)
STATE OF EUROPE AT THE COMMENCEMENT OF 1794 (YEAR II.)—
GENERAL PREPARATIONS FOR WAR- PLANS OF THE ALLIES AND
OF THE FRENCH— OPENING OF THE CAMPAIGN— OCCUPATION OF
THE PYRENEES AND OF THE ALPS— OPERATIONS IN THE NETHER-
LANDS—ACTIONS ON THE SAMBRE AND THE LYS— BATTLE OF
TURCOING— OCCURRENCES IN THE COLONIES— SEA-FIGHT.
IN Europe and in France the winter had been spent in making
preparations for a new campaign. England was still the
soul of the coalition, and urged the continental powers to
advance and to destroy on the banks of the Seine a revolution
that alarmed her, and a rival who was hateful to her. The
implacable son of Chatham had this year made immense efforts
to crush France. It was, however, not without opposition that
he had obtained from the English Parliament means propor-
tionate to his vast projects — Lord Stanhope in the Upper
House, Fox and Sheridan * in the Lower, were still hostile to
the system of war. They refused all sacrifices demanded by
the ministers. They were for granting only just what was
necessary for the defence of the coast ; and above all, they
would not suffer this war to be termed just and necessary ; it
was, in their opinion, unjust, ruinous, and punished with just
reverses. The pretended motives deduced from the opening
of the Scheldt, the dangers of Holland, and the necessity of
defending the British constitution, were false. Holland had
not been endangered by the opening of the Scheldt, and the
* Fox and Sheridan observed that "the conduct of government since the
war commenced had been a total departure from the principles of moderation on
which they had so much prided themselves before it broke out. They then used
language which breathed only the strictest neutrality, and this continued even
after the King had been dethroned, and many of the worst atrocities of the
Revolution had been jjerpetrated ; but now, even though they did not alto-
gether reject negotiation, they issued declarations evidently calculated to render
it" impossible, and shake all faith in the national integrity." — Parliamentary
History,
381
382 HIS TOE Y OF may 1794
British constitution was not threatened. The aim of ministers
was to destroy a people who had determined to be free, and
to keep continually increasing their personal influence and
authority, upon pretext of resisting the machinations of the
French Jacobins. This struggle had been maintained by unfair
means. Civil war and massacre had been fomented ; but a
brave and generous nation had frustrated the attempts of its
adversaries by unexampled courage and efforts. Stanhope,
Fox, and Sheridan concluded that such a war was disgraceful
and ruinous to England. They were mistaken on one point.
The English Opposition may frequently reproach ministers
with waging unjust wars, but never disadvantageous ones.*
If the war carried on against France had no motive of justice,
it had excellent motives of policy, as we shall presently see,
and the Opposition, misled by generous sentiments, over-
looked the advantages that were about to result from it to
England.
Pitt affected alarm at the threats of invasion uttered in the
tribune of the Convention. He pretended that country-people
in Kent had said, " The French are coming to bring us the
rights of man." He made this language (]3aid for, it is said,
by himself) a pretext for asserting that the constitution was
threatened ! he had denounced the constitutional societies in
England, which had become rather more active, after the
example set them by the clubs of France ; and he insisted
that, under pretence of a parliamentary reform, their design
was to establish a Convention. In consequence he demanded
the suspension of the habeas corpiis, the seizure of the papers
of those societies, and the institution of proceedings against
some of their members.f He demanded, moreover, the privi-
lege of enrolling volunteers, and of maintaining them by
means of donations or subscriptions, of increasing the force
of the army and navy, and of raising a corps of forty thousand
foreigners, French emigrants and others. The Opposition
made a spirited resistance. It asserted that there was nothing
to warrant the suspension of the most valuable of the liberties
of Englishmen ; that the accused societies deliberated in public ;
that their wishes, openly expressed, could not be conspiracies,
and that they were the wishes of all England, since they
were confined to parliamentary reform ; that the immoderate
* M. Thiers seems to have forgotten Lord Nortli's "disadvantageous"
American War, whicli cost England so much blood and treasure, and was
attended with such humiliating results.
t An allusion to the various prosecutions of the reformers which took place
about this time in Scotland, and to the celebrated trial of Hardy, Thelwall, and
Home Tooke, in England, for treason.
MAY 1794 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 383
increase of the land forces was pregnant with danger to the
English people ; that if the volunteers covild be armed by
subscription, it would become allowable for the minister to
raise armies without the sanction of Parliament ; that the
maintenance of so great a number of foreigners would be
ruinous, and that it had no other object than to pay
Frenchmen for being traitors to their country. In spite
of the remonstrances of the Opposition, which had never
been either more eloquent or less numerous, for it com-
prehended no more than thirty or forty members, Pitt ob-
tained all that he desired, and carried all the bills which he
had presented.*
As soon as these demands were granted, he caused the
militia to be doubled ; he increased the land forces to sixty
thousand men, and the naval foi'ces to eighty thousand ; he
organized fresh corps of emigrants, and brought to trial
several members of the constitutional societies. An English
jury, a more solid guarantee than the Parliament, acquitted
the accused ; but this was of little consequence to Pitt,
who had in his hands all the means of repressing the
slightest political movement, and of wielding a colossal power
in Europe.
This was the moment for profiting by this general war to
crush France, to ruin her navy for ever, and to take her
colonies from her — a much more sure and enviable result, in
the estimation of Pitt, than the repression of certain political
and religious doctrines. He had succeeded in the preceding
year in arming against France the two maritime powers
which should always have continued in alliance with her —
Spain and Holland ; he was anxious to keep them in their
political error, and to turn it to the best account against the
French navy. England was able to send out of her ports at
least one hundred sail of the line, Spain forty, and Holland
twenty, exclusively of a multitude of frigates. How was
France, with the fifty or sixty ships left her since the confla-
gration at Toulon, to cope with such a force ? Thus, though
no naval action had yet been fought, the English flag was
paramount in the Mediterranean, in the Atlaiitic Ocean, and
in the Indian Seas. In the Mediterranean the English
squadrons threatened the Italian powers which were desirous
of remaining neutral, blockaded Corsica, with a view to wrest
that island from us, and awaited a favourable moment for
* "The House of Commons passed the bill for the suspension of the Habeas
Corpus Act by a majority of 261 to 42. In the House of Lords it was adopted
without a division," — Annual Register,
384 HISTORY OF MAY 1794
landing troops and stores in La Vendée. In America they
surrounded our Antilles, and sought to profit by the terrible
dissensions prevailing between the whites, the mulattoes, and
the blacks, to gain possession of them. In the Indian Seas
they completed the establishment of British power and the
ruin of Pondicherry. With another campaign our commerce
would be destroyed, whatever might be the fortune of arms
on the continent. Thus nothing could be more politic than
the war waged by Pitt with France, and the Opposition was
wrong to find fault with it on the score of advantages. It
would have been right in one case only, and that case has
not yet occurred ; if her debt, continually increasing, and now
become enormous, is really beyond her wealth, and destined
some day to overwhelm her, England will have exceeded her
means, and will have done wrong in struggling for an empire
which will have cost her her streng"th. But this is a mystery
of the future.
Pitt hesitated at no violence to augment his means and to
aggravate the calamities of France. The Americans, happy
under Washington, freely traversed the seas, and began to
engage in that vast carrying trade which has enriched them
during the long wars of the continent. Pitt subjected their
vessels to impressment. The British squadrons stopped
American ships, and took away men belonging to their crews.
More than five hundred vessels had already undergone this
violence, and it was the subject of warm remonstrances on
the part of the American government ; but they were not
listened to. This was not all. By favour of the neutrality,
the Americans, the Danes, the Swedes, frequented our ports,
bringing thither succours in corn, which the dearth rendered
extremely valuable, and many articles necessary for the navy ;
and took away in exchange the wines and other productions
with which the soil of France furnishes the world. Owing
to this intermediate agency of neutrals, commerce was not
entirely interrupted, and the most urgent wants were supplied.
England, considering France as a besieged place, which must
be famished and reduced to extremity, meditated the infrac-
tion of these rights of neutrals, and addressed notes full of
sophistry to the northern Courts, in order to enforce a viola-
tion of the rights of nations.
While England was employing these means of all kinds,
she had still forty thousand men in the Netherlands, under
the command of the Duke of York. Lord Moira, who had
been unable to reach Granville in time, was lying at Jersey
with his squadron and a land force of ten thousand men.
MAY 1794 THE FRENCH RE VOL UTION. 3 8 5
Lastly, the English Treasury held funds at the disposal of
all the belligerent powers.
On the continent the zeal was not so great. The powers
which had not the same interest in the war as England,
and which engaged in it for pretended principles alone,
prosecuted it neither with the same ardour nor with the
same activity. England strove to rouse the general zeal.
She still held Holland under her yoke by means of the
Prince of Orange, and obliged her to furnish her contin-
gent to the allied army of the North. Thus that unhappy
nation had its ships and its regiments in the service of
its most formidable enemy, and against its most steadfast
ally. Prussia, notwithstanding the mysticism of her King,
had in a great measure shaken off the illusions with which
she had been fed for two years past. The retreat of
Champagne in 1792, and that of the Vosges in 1793, had
nothing encouraging for her. Frederick William, who had
exhausted his exchequer, and weakened his army in a war
which could not have any favourable result for his king-
dom, and which could prove serviceable at most to the
house of Austria, would have been glad to relinquish it.
An object, moreover, of much greater interest to him called
him northward — namely, Poland, which was in motion, and
the dissevered members of which were tending to reunite.
England, surprising him amidst this indecision, prevailed
upon him to continue the war by the all-powerful means
of her gold. She concluded at the Hague, in her name
and in that of Holland, a treaty by which IVussia engaged
to furnish sixty-two thousand four hundred men for the
service of the coalition. This army was to be under a
Prussian commander, and all the conquests that it should
make were to belong jointly to the two maritime powers —
England and Holland. In return, those two powers pro-
mised to furnish the King of Prussia with j&fty thousand
pounds sterling per month for the maintenance of his troops,
and to pay him besides for bread and forage. Over and
above this sum, they granted three hundred thousand pounds
to defray the first expenses of taking the field, and one hun-
dred thousand for the return to the Prussian States. At
this price Prussia continued the impolitic war which she had
begun.*
The house of Austria had no longer any catastrophe to
* "The discontent of the Prussian troops was loudly proclaimed when it
transpired that they were to he transferred to the pay of Great Britain ; and
they openly murmured at the disgrace of having the soldiers of the Great
VOL. III. 81
386 RIS TOR Y OF may 1794
avert in France, since the I'rincess whom she had given to
Louis XVI. had expired on the scalïold. That power had
less to fear from the Revohition than any other country, since
the political discussions of the last thirty years have not yet
awakened the public mind in her dominions ; it was therefore
merely revenge to fulfil an engagement, a wish to gain some
fortresses in the Netherlands, perhaps, too, but this must have
been vague, the silly hope of having a share of our provinces,
that induced Austria to continue the war. She carried it on
with more ardour than Prussia, but not with much more
real activity ; for she merely completed and reorganized her
regiments without increasing their number. A great part of
her troops was in Poland, for she had, like Prussia, a power-
ful motive for looking back, and for thinking of the Vistula
as much as of the Rhine. Galicia occupied her attention not
less than the Netherlands and Alsace.
Sweden and Denmark maintained a wise neutrality, and
replied to the sophistries of England that the public right
was immutable, that there was no reason for violating it
towards France, and for extending to a whole country the
laws of blockade, laws applicable only to a besieged place ;
that Danish and Swedish vessels were well received in France,
that they found there not barbarians, as the French were
called, but a government which did justice to the demands
of commercial foreigners, and which paid all due respect to
the nations with which it was at peace ; that there was
therefore no reason for breaking off an advantageous inter-
com'se with it. In consequence, though Catherine, quite
favourable to the plans of the English, seemed to decide
against the rights of neutral nations, Sweden and Denmark
persisted in their resolutions, preserved a prudent and firm
neutrality, and concluded a treaty by which both engaged
to maintain the rights of neutrals, and to enforce the obser-
vance of a clause in the treaty of 1780, which closed the
Baltic against the armed ships of such powers as had no
port in that sea. France therefore had ground to hope
that she should still receive corn from the North, and the
timber and hemp requisite for her navy.
Russia, continuing to affect much indignation at the French
Revolution, and giving great hopes to the emigrants, thought
of nothing but Poland, and entered so far into the policy
of the English merely to obtain their adhesion to hers.
Frederick sold, like mercenaries, to a foreign power. The event soon demon-
strated that the succours stipulated from Prussia would prove of the most
inefficient description." — Alison.
MAY 1794 THE FRENCH RE VOL UTION. 387
This accounts for the silence of England on an event of not
less importance than the sweeping of a kingdom from the
political stage. At this moment of general spoliation, when
England was reaping so large a share of advantages in the
South of Europe and in every sea, it would not have become
her to talk the language of justice to the co-partitioners of
Poland. Thus the coalition, which accused France of having
fallen into barbarism, was committing in the North the most
impudent robbery that policy ever engaged in, meditating a
similar procedure against France, and contributing to destroy
for ever the liberty of the seas.
The German Princes followed the movements of the house
of Austria. Switzerland, protected by her mountains, and
freed by her institutions from engaging in a crusade on behalf
of monarchies, persisted in not espousing either party, and
covered by her neutrality the eastern provinces, the least de-
fended of all France. She pursued the same course upon
the continent which the Americans, the Swedes, and the
Danes followed at sea. She rendered the same services to
French commerce, and reaped the same benefit from her
conduct. She supplied us with the horses necessary for our
armies, and with cattle, of which we had been deficient since
the war had ravaged the Vosges and La Vendée. She ex-
ported the produce of our manufactures, and thus became
the intermediate agent of a most lucrative trafl!ic. Piedmont
continued the war, no doubt, with regret ; but she could not
consent to lay down her arms so long as she should lose two
])rovinces, Savoy and Nice, at this sanguinary and ill-played
game. The Italian powers wished to be neutral ; but they were
exceedingly annoyed on account of this intention. The re-
public of Genoa had seen the English resort to an unworthy
procedure in her port, and commit a real attack upon the
right of nations. They had seized a French frigate lying
there under shelter of the Genoese neutrality, and had
slaughtered the crew. Tuscany had been obliged to dismiss
the French resident. Naples, which had recognized the re-
public when the French squadrons threatened her coasts,
made great demonstrations against her since the English flag
was unfurled in the Mediterranean, and promised to succour
Piedmont with eighteen thousand men. Rome, fortunately
powerless, cursed us, and had allowed Basseville, the French
agent, to be murdered within its walls. Lastly, Venice, though
far from feeling flattered by the demagogue language of
France, would not on any account engage herself in a war,
and hoped, by favour of her distant position, to preserve her
388 H IS TOR Y OF m ay i 7 9 4
neutrality. Corsica was on the point of being wrested from
us, since Paoli had declared for the English.* The only
places that we had yet left there were Bastia and Calvi.
Spain, the most innocent of our enemies, continued an
impolitic war against us, and persisted in committing the
same blunder as Holland. The duties which the thrones pre-
tended to have then to perform against France, the victories
of Ricardos, and the English influence, decided her to try
another campaign, though she was greatly exhausted, in want
of soldiers, and still more of money. The celebrated Alcudia
caused d'Aranda to be disgraced for having advised peace.
Politics, therefore, had changed but little since the pre-
ceding year. Interests, errors, blunders, and crimes were the
same in 1794 as in 1793. England alone had increased her
forces. The Allies still had in the Netherlands one hundred
and fifty thousand men, Austrians, Germans, Dutch, and
English. Twenty-five or thirty thousand Austrians were at
Luxembourg ; sixty-five thousand Prussians and Saxons in
the environs of Mayence. Fifty thousand Austrians, inter-
mixed with some emigrants, lined the Rhine from Mannheim
to Basle. The Piedmontese army still consisted of forty thou-
sand men, and seven or eight thousand Austrian auxiliaries.
Spain had made some levies to recruit her battalions, and
demanded some pecuniary aid of her clergy ; but her army was
not more considerable than in the preceding year, being still
limited to about sixty thousand men, divided between the
Eastern and Western Pyrenees.
It was in the North that our enemies proposed to strike the
most decisive blows against us, by supporting themselves upon
Oondé, \^alenciennes, and Le Quesnoy. The celebrated Mack f
had drawn up in London a plan from which great results were
expected. This time the German tactician had been rather
more bold, and he had introduced into his plan a march to
Paris. Unluckily it was rather too late for any daring at-
tempt ; for the French could no longer be taken by surprise,
and their forces were immense. The plan consisted in taking
* "The crown of Corsica, wliicli had been offered by Paoli and the aristocrati-
cal party to the King of England, was accepted, and efforts immediately made
to confer upon the inhabitants a constitution similar to that of Great Britain."
— Annual Rc(jlstcr.
+ " Bonaparte, speaking to me of him one da)', said, ' Mack is a man of the
lowest mediocrity I ever saw in my life ; he is full of self-sufficiency and conceit,
and believes himself ec^ual to anything. He has no talent. I should like to see
him opposed some day to one of our good generals ; we should then see fine
work 1 He is a boaster, and that is all. He is really one of the most silly men
existing ; and besides that, he is unlucky.' " — Bourricnnc.
MAY 1794 THE FRENCH BEVOLUT ION. 389
another fortress, that of Landrecies, collecting in force at that
point, bringing the Prussians from the Vosges towards the
Sambre, and marching forward, leaving two corps on the
wings, one in Flanders, the other on the Sambre, At the
same time Lord Moira was to land troops in La Vendée, and
to increase our dangers by a double march ujDon Paris.
To take Landrecies, when in possession of Valenciennes,
Conde, and Le Quesnoy, was a puerile conceit ; to cover the
communications towards the Sambre was most judicious ; but
to place a corps to guard Flanders was absolutely useless,
when the intention was to form a powerful invading mass ;
to bring the Prussians upon the Sambre was a questionable
proceeding, as we shall presently see ; lastly, to make a
diversion in La Vendée was too late by a year, for the great
Vendée had perished. We shall soon perceive, from the
comparison of the project with the event, the vanity of all
these plans drawn up in London.*
The coalition had not, we say, brought into play great
resources. There were at this moment only three really
active powers in Europe — England, Russia, and France.
The reason of this is simple. England was anxious to make
herself mistress of the seas, Russia to secure Poland, and
France to save her existence and her liberty. There was
no natural energy except in these great powers ; there was
no purpose noble but that of France ; and in behalf of this
interest she made the greatest efforts that history has ever
recorded.
The permanent requisition, decreed in the month of August
in the preceding year, had already supplied the armies
with reinforcements, and contributed to the successes with
which the campaign concluded ; but this important measure
was not destined to produce its full effect till the ensuing
campaign. Owing to this extraordinary movement, twelve
hundred thousand men had left their homes, and covered
the frontiers or filled the depots of the interior. The
brigading of these fresh troops had been commenced. One
battalion of the line was incorporated with two battalions
of the new levy, and excellent regiments were thus formed.
On this plan seven hundred thousand men had been orga-
nized, and they were distributed on the frontiers and in the
fortresses. There were, including the garrisons, two hun-
dred and fifty thousand in the North ; forty thousand in the
* Those wlio wish to read the best political and military discussion on this
subject are referred to the critical memoir on that campaign written by General
Jomini, and appended to his great History of the Wars of the Revolution.
390 HISTORY OF may 1794
Ardennes ; two hundred thousand on the Rhine and the
Moselle ; one hundred thousand at the foot of the Alps ;
one hundred and twenty thousand at the Pyrenees ; and
eighty thousand between Cherbourg and La Rochelle. The
means for ec(uipping these forces had been neither less prompt
nor less extraordinary than those for assembling them. The
manufactures of arms established in Paris and in the pro-
vinces had soon attained the degree of activity which was
intended to be given to them, and produced great quantities
of cannon, swords, and muskets. The committee of public
welfare, skilfully turning the French character to account,
had contrived to bring into vogue the manufacture of
saltpetre. In the preceding year it had already ordered
an examination of all cellars for the purpose of extracting
from them the mould impregnated with saltpetre. It soon
adopted a still better method. It drew up directions, a
model of simplicity and clearness, to teach the citizens how
to lixiviate the mould of cellars. It also took into its pay a
number of operative chemists to instruct them in the mani-
pulation. The practice soon became generally introduced.
People imparted to others the instructions which they had
received, and each house furnished some pounds of this use-
ful salt. Some of the quarters of Paris assembled for the
purpose of carrying with pomp to the Convention the salt-
petre which they had fabricated. A festival was instituted,
on which each came to deposit his offering on the altar of
the country. Emblematic forms were given to this salt ;
all sorts of epithets were lavished upon it : some called it
the avenging salt, others the liberating salt. The people
amused themselves with it, but produced considerable quan-
tities ; and the government had attained its object. Some
inconveniences naturally arose out of all this. The cellars
were dug up, and the mould, after it had been lixiviated,
lay in the streets, which it encumbered and spoiled. An
ordinance of the committee of ]iublic welfare put an end to
this nuisance, and the lixiviated earth was replaced in the
cellars. Saline matters rail short ; the committee ordered
that all the herbage, not employed either as food for cattle
or for domestic or rural purposes, should be immediately
burned, in order to be employed in the making of saltpetre,
or converted into saline substances.
Government had the art to introduce another fashion that
was not less advantageous. It was easier'to raise men and
to manufacture arms than to find horses, of whicli the artillery
and the cavalry were deficient. The war had rendered them
MAY 1794 THE FRENCH RE VOL UTION. 391
scarce, and owing to the demand and the general rise in
the prices of all commodities, they were very dear. It was
absolutely necessary to recur to the grand expedient of re-
quisitions, that is to say, to take by force what an indispen-
sable necessity demanded. In each canton one horse out of
every twenty-five was taken, and paid for at the rate of nine
hundred francs. Mighty, however, as force may be, good-
will is much more effective. At the suggestion of the com-
mittee, a horse-soldier, fully equipped, was offered to it by
the Jacobins. The example was then universally followed.
Communes, clubs, sections, were eager to offer to the re-
public what were called Jacobin Jwrsemen, completely mounted
and equipped.
There were now soldiers, but officers were still wanting.
The committee acted in this respect with its accustomed
promptitude. '* The Revolution," said Barrère, " must accele-
rate all things for the supply of its wants. The Revolution
is to the human mind wliat the sun of Africa is to vegetation."
The school of Mars was re-established ; young men, selected
from all the provinces, repaired on foot, and in military order,
to Paris. Encamped iîi tents on the plain of Sablons, they
repaired thither to accjuire rapid instruction in all the de-
partments of the art of war, and then to be distributed among
the armies.
Efforts equally energetic were made to recompose our
navy. It consisted, in 1789, of fifty sail of the line and as
many frigates. The disorders of the Revolution, and the
disasters of Toulon, had reduced it to about fifty vessels, only
thirty of which at most were in a fit state to be sent to sea.
Men and officers were what they stood most in need of. The
navy required experienced men, and all the experienced men
were incompatible with the Revolution. The reform effected
in the staffs of the land forces was therefore still more inevi-
table in the staffs of the naval forces, and could not fail to
cause a much greater disorganization in the latter. The two
ministers, Monge and d'Albarade, had succumbed under these
difiiculties and been dismissed. The committee resolved, in
this instance also, to have recourse to extraordinary means.
Jean Bon St. André and Prieur of La Marne were sent to
Brest with the usual powers of commissioners of the Conven-
tion. The Brest squadron, after arduously cruising for four
months off the west coast to prevent communication between
the Vendeans and the English, had mutinied in consequence
of its long hardships. No sooner had it returned than Admiral
Morard de Gales was arrested by the representatives, and ren-
392 HISTORY OF may 1794
dered responsible for the disorderly conduct of the squadron.
The crews were entirely discharged and reorganized in the
prompt and violent manner of the Jacobins. Peasants, who
had never been at sea, were put on board the ships of the
republic, to manoeuvre against veteran English sailors. In-
ferior officers were raised to the highest ranks, and Captain
Villaret-Joyeuse * was promoted to the command of the
squadron. In a month a fleet of thirty ships was ready to
sail : it left the port full of enthusiasm, and amidst the ac-
clamations of the people of Brest ; not, indeed, to defy the
formidable squadrons of England, Holland, and Spain, but to
protect a convoy of two hundred sail, bringing a considerable
quantity of corn from America, and ready to fight to the last
extremity if the safety of the convoy required it. Meanwhile
Toulon was the theatre of not less rapid creations. The ships
which had escaped the flames were repaired, and new ones
built. The expenses were levied upon the propei'ty of the
Toulonnese who had contributed to surrender their port to the
enemy. For want of the large ships, which were under repair,
a multitude of privateers covered the sea, and made valuable
prizes. A bold and courageous nation which lacks the means
of carrying on war upon a large scale, may always resort to
petty warfare, and therein exert its intelligence and its valour :
by land, it wages the war of partisans ; at sea, that of privateers.
According to the report of Lord Stanhope, we had taken, from
1793 to 1794, four hundred and ten vessels, whereas the Eng-
lish had taken from us only three hundred and sixteen. The
government then did not renounce the task of re-establishing
even the naval portion of our forces.
Such prodigious efi:orts could not fail to produce their fruit,
and we were about to reap in 1794 the benefit of our exer-
tions in 1793.
The cam]3aign first opened on the Pyrenees and on the Alps.
Far from being active on the Western, it was destined to be
much more so on the Eastern Pyrenees, where the Spaniards
had conquered the line of the Tech, and still occupied the
famous camp of Boulou. Ricardos was dead, and that famous
* " Louis Tlionias Villaret-Joyeuse, a French vice-admiral, served at first in
the infantry. An allair of honour in which ho killed his adversary obliged him
to quit his corps, and he went to ])rest, entered into the navy, and made himself
known as a brave and intcUii^ent officer. In 1789 he declared for tlie Revolution,
and from 1793 to 1796 was employed at the head of the French fleets, but was
generally unsuccessful. In 1797 he quitted the navy, and was deputed to the
Council of Five Hundred, where ho spoke against tlie Terrorists. In the year
1802 he was appointed captain-general of Martinique, and in 1805 was decorated
with the rod ribbon." — Blorirapltic Moderne.
MAY 1794 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 393
general had been succeeded by one of his lieutenants, the
Comte de la Union, an excellent soldier, but an indifferent
commander. Not having yet received the fresh reinforcements
which he expected, La Union thought of nothing further than
keeping Boulou. The French were commanded by the brave
Dugommier, who had retaken Toulon. Part of the matériel
and of the troops employed in that service had been sent
before Perpignan, while the new levies were training in the
rear. Dugommier was enabled to bring thirty-five thousand
men into line, and to profit by the wretched state in which
the Spaniards then were. Dagobert. still enthusiastic in spite
of his age, proposed a plan of invasion by the Cerdagne, which,
carrying the French beyond the Pyrenees and upon the rear
of the Spanish army, would have obliged the latter to fall back.
It was deemed preferable to attempt, in the first instance, an
attack on the camp of Boulou ; and Dagobert, who was with his
division in the Cerdagne, was directed to await the result of
that attack. The camp of Boulou, situated on the banks of
the Tech, and with its back to the Pyrenees, had for outlet
the causeway of Bellegarde, which forms the highroad between
France and Spain. Dugommier, instead of attacking the enemy's
positions, which were extremely well fortified, in front, strove
by some means to penetrate between Boulou and the cause-
way of Bellegarde, so as to reduce the Spanish camp. His
plan was completely successful. La Union had pushed the
bulk of his forces to Ceret, and left the heights of St.
Christophe which command the Boulou insufficiently guarded.
Dugommier crossed the Tech, despatched part of his troops
towards St. Christophe, and attacked with the rest the front
of the Spanish positions, and after a brisk action, remained
master of the heights. From that moment the camp ceased
to be tenable. The enemy was obliged to retreat by the
causeway of Bellegarde ; but Dugommier took possession of
it, and left the Spaniards only a narrow and difiîcnlt track
across the Col de Porteil. Their retreat soon became a rout.
Being charged briskly and opportunely, they fled in con-
fusion, leaving us fifteen hundred prisoners, one hundred and
twenty pieces of cannon, eight hundred mules laden with their
baggage, and camp effects for twenty thousand men. This
victory, gained in the middle of Floreal (the beginning of
May), made us masters of the Tech, and carried us beyond
the Pyrenees. Dugommier immediately blockaded Collioure,
Port-Vendre, and St. Elme, with the intention of retaking
them from the Spaniards. At the moment of this important
victory, the brave Dagobert, attacked by a fever, closed his
394 H 1ST OR Y OF may 1794
long and glorious career. This noble veteran, aged seventy-
six years, carried with him the regret and the admiration of
the army.
Nothing could be more brilliant than the opening of the
campaign in the Eastern Pyrenees. In the Western we took
the valley of Bastan, and these triumphs over the Spaniards,
whom we had not yet conquered, occasioned universal joy.
Towards the Alps, we had yet to establish our line of
defence on the great chain. Towards Savoy, we had, in
the preceding year, driven back the I'iedmontese into the
valleys of Piedmont ; but we had to take the posts of the
Little St. Bernard and of Mont Cenis. Towards Nice, the
army of Italy was still encamped in sight of Saorgio, with-
out being able to force the formidable camp of the Fourches.
General Dugommier had been succeeded by old Dumerbion,
a brave officer, but almost always ill with the gout. For-
tunately, he suffered himself to be entirely directed by
young Bonaparte, who in the preceding year had decided
the reduction of Toulon by recommending the attack of
Little Gibraltar. This service had gained Bonaparte the
rank of general of brigade, and high consideration in the
army.* After reconnoitring the enemy's positions, and
ascertaining the impossibility of carrying the camp of the
Fourches, he was struck by an idea not less happy than
* The following is the Duchesse d'Abrantès's vivid and interesting description
of Bonaparte's personal appearance at this period of liis career, when he had just
been appointed general of brigade : " When Napoleon came to see us after our
return to Paris, his appearance made an impression on me which I shall never
forget. At this period of his life he was decidedly ugly ; he afterwards under-
went a total change. I do not speak of the illusive charm which his glory
spread around him, but I mean to say that a gradual physical change took place
in him in the space of seven years. His emaciated thinness was converted into
a fulness of face, and his complexion, which had been yellow and ajiparently
unhealthy, became clear and comparatively fresh ; his features, which were
angular and sharp, became round and tilled out. As to his smile, it was always
agreeable. The mode of dressing his haii', which had such a droll appearance, as
we see it in the prints of the passage of the bridge of Arcole, was then compara-
tively sim]ile ; for the young men of fashion, whom he used to rail at so loudly
at that time, wore their hair very long. But he was very careless of his personal
appearance ; and lus hair, which was ill-combed and ill-powdered, gave him the
look of a sloven. His little hands, too, underwent a great metamorphosis.
When I first saw him they were thin, long, and dark ; but he was subsequently
vain of their beauty, and with good reason. In short, when I recollect Napoleon
at the commencement of 1794, with a shabby round hat drawn over his forehead,
and his ill-powdered hair hanging over the collar of his grey great-coat, which
afterwards became as celebrated as the white plume of Henry IV., without
gloves, because he used to say they were a useless luxury, with boots ill-made
and ill-blacked, with his thinness and his sallow complexion — in fine, when I
recollect him at that time, and think what he was afterwards, I do not see the
same man in the two pictures."
MAY 1794 TEE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 395
that wliich, in the preceding year, had restored Toulon to
the republic. Saorgio is situated in the valley of the Koya.
Parallel with this valley is that of Oneglia, in which runs
the Taggia. Bonaparte conceived the idea of throwing a
division of fifteen thousand men into the valley of Oneglia,
making this division ascend to the sources of the Tanaro,
then pushing it forward to Mount Tanarello, which borders
the Upper Eoya, and thus intercepting the causeway of
Saorgio, between the camp of the Fourches and the Col di
Tenda. The camp of the Fourches, cut off by these means
from the High Alps, must necessarily fall. This plan was
liable but to one objection, namely, that it obliged the army
to encroach on the territory of Genoa. But the republic
had no need to make any scruple of this, for in the pre-
ceding year two thousand Piedmontese had passed through
the Genoese territory and embarked at Oneglia for Toulon ;
besides, the outrage committed by the English on the
frigate La Modeste, in tlie very port of Genoa, was the
most signal violation of a neutral country. There was,
moreover, an important advantage in extending the right
of the army of Italy to Oneglia, which consisted in covering
part of the Riviera of Genoa, in driving the privateers from
the little harbour of Oneglia, where they were accustomed
to take refuge, and thus giving security to the commerce of
Genoa with the South of France. This commerce, which
was carried on by coasters, was exceedingly annoyed by
English cruisers and squadrons, and it was important to
protect it, because it contributed to supply the South with
grain. There could therefore be no hesitation in adopting
the plan of Bonaparte. The representatives applied to the
committee of public welfare for the necessary authority, and
the execution of this plan was immediately ordered.
On the 17th of Germinal (April 6) a division of fourteen
thousand men, divided into five brigades, crossed the Koya.
General Massena* proceeded towards Mount Tanaro, and
Bonaparte, with three brigades, marched to Oneglia, drove
out an Austrian division, and entered the town. He found
in Oneglia twelve j^ieces of cannon, and cleared the port of
all the privateers which infested those parts. While Massena
was ascending the Tanaro to Tanarello, Bonaparte continued
his movement, and proceeded from Oneglia to Ormea in the
valley of the Tanaro. He entered it on the 28th of Germinal
(April 17), and there found some muskets, twenty pieces of
* See Appendix M.
396 HTSTOR Y OF m ay 1 7 9 4
cannon, and magazines full of cloth for the clothing of the
troops. As soon as the French brigades had joined in the
valley of the Tanaro, they marched for the Upper Roya, to
execute the prescribed movement on the left of the Piedmon-
tese. General Dumerbion attacked the Piedmontese positions
in front, while Massena fell upon their flanks and their rear.
After several very brisk actions the Piedmontese abandoned
Saorgio, and fell back on the Col di Tenda. They presently
abandoned the Col di Tenda itself, and fled to Limona beyond
the great chain.
During these occurrences in the valley of the Koya the
valleys of the Tinea and the Vesubia were scoured by the
left of the army of Italy ; and soon afterwards the army of
the High Alps, piqued with emulation, took by main force
the St. Bernard and Mont Cenis. Thus, from the middle of
Floreal (the beginning of May), we were victorious on the
whole chain of the Alps, and occupied the whole tract from
the first hills of the Apennines to Mont Blanc. Our right,
supported at Ormea, extended almost to the gates of Genoa,
covered great part of the Riviera di Ponente, and thus pro-
tected commerce from the ])iracies by which it had been
previously annoyed. We had taken three or four thousand
prisoners, fifty or sixty pieces of cannon, a great quantity of
clothing, and two fortresses. Our commencement therefore
was as fortunate at the Alps as at the Pyrenees, since on
both points it gave us a frontier and part of the resources
of the enemy.
The campaign opened rather later on the great theatre of
the war, that is, in the North. There five hundred thousand
men were coming into collision from the Vosges to the sea.
The French still had their principal force about Lille, Guise,
and Maubeuge. Pichegru had become their general. Com-
manding the army of the Rhine in the preceding year, he had
contrived to appropriate to himself the honour of raising the
blockade of Landau, which belonged to young Hoche. He had
wormed himself into the confidence of St. Just, and had ob-
tained the command of the army of the North, while Hoche was
thrown into prison. Jourdan, esteemed as a discreet general,
had not been considered as sufficiently energetic to retain
the chief command of the North, and had succeeded Hoche
at the army of the Moselle, as Michaud had done Pichegru
at that of the Rhine. Carnot still ]>resided over the military
operations, and directed them from his ofiice. St. Just and
Lebas had been sent to Guise to rouse the energy of the army.
The nature of the localities required a very simple plan of
MAY 1794 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 397
operations, and one which was likely to have very speedy and
very extensive results. It consisted in directing the great
mass of the French forces upon the Meuse, towards Namur,
and thus threatening the communications of the Austrians.
There was the key of the theatre of the war, and there it will
always be while Avar shall be carried on in the Netherlands
against Austrians coming from the Rhine. Any diversion
made in Flanders would be an imprudence ; for if the wing
thrown into Flanders were strong enough to make head
against the Allies, it would only contribute to repel them
in front, without compromizing their retreat ; and if it were
not considerable enough to obtain decisive results, the Allies
would only have occasion to let it advance into West Flanders,
and might then enclose and drive it back to the sea. Pichegru,
with acquirements, intelligence, and abundance of resolution,
but a very moderate military genius, formed a wrong notion
of the position ; and (Jarnot, prepossessed with his plan of
the preceding year, persisted in attacking the enemy directly
in the centre, and in harassing him on both his wings. Of
course the principal mass was to act from Guise upon the
centres of the Allies, while two strong divisions — the one
operating upon the Lys, the other upon the Sambre — were to
make a double diversion. Such was the plan opposed to the
offensive plan of Mack.
Coburg was still commander-in-chief of the Allies. The
Emperor of Germany had gone in person to the Nether-
lands to excite his army, and above all, to put an end by his
presence to the dissensions which were every moment arising
among the allied generals. Coburg collected a mass of about
one hundred thousand men in the plains of the Cateau, to
blockade Landrecies. This was the first act with which the
Allies meant to commence, till they could obtain the march
of the Prussians from the Moselle upon the Sambre.
The movements began about the end of Germinal. The
hostile mass, after repulsing the French divisions which had
dispersed before it, established itself around Landrecies. The
Duke of York was placed in observation near Cambrai, and
Coburg towards Guise. By the movement which the Allies
had just made, the French divisions of the centre, driven
backward, were separated from the divisions of Maubeuge,
which formed the right wing. On the 2nd of Floreal (April
21), an attempt was made to rejoin these Maubeuge divisions.
A sanguinary action was fought on the Helpe. Our columns,
still too much divided, were repulsed at all points, and driven
back to the positions from which they had started.
398 HISTORY OF may 1794
A new but general attack on the centre and on both wings
was resolved upon. Desjardins's division, which was towards
Maubenge, was to make a movement, in order to join Char-
bonnier's division, which was coming from the Ardennes. In
the centre, seven columns were to act at once and concentri-
cally on the whole hostile mass grouped around Landrecies.
Lastly, on the left, Souham and Moreau,* starting from Lille
with two divisions, forming a total of fifty thousand men,
were ordered to advance into Flanders and to take Menin
and Courtray before the face of Clairfayt. The left of the
French army operated without impedinu^nt ; for Prince Kaunitz,
with the division which he had on the Sambre, could not
prevent the junction of Charbonnier and Desjardins. The
columns of the centre broke up on the 7th of Floreal (April
26), and marched from seven different points on the Austrian
army. This system of simultaneous and disjointed attacks,
which had succeeded so ill with us last year, was not more
successful on this occasion. These columns, too far apart,
could not support each other, and gained no decisive ad-
vantage at any point. One of them, indeed, that of Gene-
ral Chappuis, was entirely defeated. This general, who had
marched from Cambrai, found himself o])posed to the Duke
of York, who, as we have stated, was covering Landrecies on
that side. He scattered his troops on different points, and
arrived before the entrenched positions of Trois- Ville with
an inadequate force. Overwhelmed by the fire of the English,
charged in flank by the cavalry, he was put to the rout, and
his dispersed division returned pell-mell to Cambrai. These
checks were owing less to the troops than to the injudicious
manner in which the operations were directed. Our young
soldiers, staggered at times by a fire to which they were not
yet accustomed, were nevertheless easy to lead and to be
carried to the attack, and they frequently displayed extra-
ordinary ardour and enthusiasm.
While the attempt on the centre had proved so unavail-
ing, the diversion o])erating in Flanders against Clairfayt had
completely succeeded. Souham and Moreau had started from
Lille and proceeded to Menin and Courtray on the 7th of
Floreal (April 26). It is well known that those two fortresses
are situated, one beyond the Lys, the other on its banks.
Moreau invested the first, Souham took the second. Clairfayt,
mistaken respecting the march of the French, sought them
where they were not ; but being soon apprized of the invest-
* Sec Appendix N.
MAY 1794 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 399
ment of Menin and the capture of Courtray, he endeavoured
to make us fall back by threatening our communications with
Lille. On the 9th of Floreal (April 28) he accordingly ad-
vanced to Moucroen with eighteen thousand men, and im-
prudently exposed himself to the attack of fifty thousand
French troops, who might have crushed him while falling
back. Moreau and Souliam, bringing up immediately a part
of their forces towards their threatened communications,
marched upon Moucroen, and resolved to give battle to Clair-
fayt. He was entrenched in a position accessible only by five
narrow defiles, defended by a formidable artillery. On the
lOth of Floreal (April 29) the attack was ordered. Our young
soldiers, most of whom saw fire for the first time, at first gave
way ; but generals and oflicers braved all dangers to rally
them : they succeeded, and the positions were carried. Clair-
fayt lost twelve hundred prisoners, eighty-four of whom were
officers, thirty-three pieces of cannon, four pair of colours,
and five hundred muskets. This was our first victory in the
North, and it served in an extraordinary degree to heighten
the courage of the army. Menin was taken immediately
afterwards. A division of emigrants which was shut up
in the place escajied by gallantly cutting their way sword
in hand.
The success of the left, and the reverse of the centre,
determined Pichegru and Carnot to abandon the centre
entirely, and to act exclusively on the wings. Pichegru sent
General Eonnaud with twenty thousand men to Sanghien,
near Lille, to secure the communications of Moreau and
Souham. He left at Guise only twenty thousand men under
General Fei'rand, and detached the rest towards Maubeuge,
to join Desjardins's and Charbonnier's division. These united
forces made the right wing, destined to act upon the Sambre,
amount to fifty-six thousand men. Carnot, judging much
more correctly than Pichegru of the state of affairs, gave
an order which decided the issue of the campaign. Beginning
to perceive that the point on wliich the Allies might be struck
to the greatest advantage was the Sambre and the Meuse,
and that, if beaten on that line, they would be separated
from their base, he ordered Jourdan to assemble fifteen
thousand men from the army of the Rhine, to leave on the
western slope of the Vosges as many troops as were indis-
pensable for covering that frontier, then to quit the Moselle
with forty-five thousand men, and proceed by forced marches
for the Sambre. Jourdan's army, united to that of Maubeuge,
was to form a mass of ninety or one hundred thousand men,
400 HISTORY OF may 1794
and to effect the defeat of the Allies on the decisive point.
This order, the most brilliant of the whole campaign, that to
which all its results are to be attributed, was issued on the
nth of Floreal (April 30) from the office of the committee
of public welfare.
Ooburg had meanwhile taken Landrecies. Regarding the
defeat of Olairfayt as less important than it really was, he
detached the Duke of York towards Lamain, between Tournay
and Lille.
Clairfayt had proceeded into West Flanders, between the
advanced left of the French and the sea : thus he was farther
than ever from the grand army, and from the succour which
the Duke of York was bringing him. The French, en échelon,
at Lille, Menin, and Courtray, formed in advanced column in
Flanders. Clairfayt, having arrived at Thielt, was between
the sea and this column ; and the Duke of York, posted at
Lamain, before Tournay, was between this column and the
grand allied army. Clairfayt determined to make an attempt
on Tournay, and attacked it on the 21st of Floreal (May 10).
Souham was at this moment in rear of Courtray. He promptly
made his dispositions, returned to Courtray to the succour
of Vandamme, and while ])reparing a sortie, he detached
Macdonald * and Malbranck upon Menin, with orders to cross
the Lys there and to turn Clairfayt. The action took place
on the 22nd (May 11). Clairfayt had made the best disposi-
tions on the causeway of Bruges and in the suburbs ; but our
young recruits boldly braved the fire from the houses and the
batteries, and after an obstinate conflict, obliged Clairfayt to
retire. Four thousand men belonging to both sides covered
* " Marshal ]\lacdonald is the son of a Highland gentleman of the Clanronald
sept, who was among the first to join tlie Pretender in 1745, ^.iid after the battle
of CuUoden, escaped to France, where he settled. His son was born in 1765,
and entered as lientenant into the Irish regiment of Dillon. On tlie breaking
out of the Revolution he embraced its principles, but with moderation. At the
battle of Jemappes he behaved with great gallantry, and led tlie van of the army
of the North as general of brigade. On the iSth Brumaire he took part with
Bonaparte ; but his favour with the First Consul ceased in 1803, and he remained
in obscurity till the year 1S09, wlien he was oll'ered a command in the army,
and at the battle of Wagram exhibited such skill and intrepidity that the
Emperor created liim a marshal on tlie held, and said to him, ' Henceforth,
Macdonald, let us be friends.' In Spain and Russia the marslial (now Due de
Tarentum) e([ualled the best of Napoleon's generals. He was also at Lutzen and
Bautzen, and rendered signal services at Leipsic. Macdonald faithfully adhered
to the Kmperor until his abdication at Fontainebleau. The new government
made him a peer of France, and loaded him witli honours. On the return of
Bonaparte from Elba, Macdonald endeavoured to make head against him, but in
vain ; and accordingly he accompanied Louis to the frontiers of the kingdom." —
Court and Camp of Bonaparte. Marshal ilacdouald died a natural death at
Courcelles-le-Roi, September 7, 1840.
MAY 1794 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 401
the field of battle ; and if, instead of turning the enemy on
the side next to Menin, he had been turned on the opposite
side, his retreat upon Flanders might have been cut off.
This was the second time that C'lairfayt had been beaten by
our \T.ctorious left wing. Our right wing, on the Sambre, was
not so fortunate. Commanded by several generals, who held
a council of war with St. Just and Lebas, the representatives,
it was not so judiciously directed as the two divisions u.nder
Souham and Moreau. Kleber and Marceau, who had been
removed to it from La Vendée, were capable of conducting
it to victory ; but their opinions were not attended to. The
movement prescribed to this right wing was to pass the Sambre
and to march upon Mons. A first passage was attempted on
the 20th of Floreal (May 9) ; but the necessary dispositions
not having been made on the other bank, the army could not
maintain itself there, and was obliged to recross the Sambre
in disorder. On the 22nd, St. Just resolved to make a second
attempt, notwithstanding the failure of the first. It would
have been much better to await the arrival of Jourdan, who,
mth his forty-five thousand men, must have rendered the suc-
cess of the right wing infallible. But St. Just would not admit
of hesitation or delay ; and the generals were forced to obey
this terrible proconsul. The new passage was not more lucky
than the first. The French army crossed the Sambre a second
time ; but again attacked on the other bank before it was
firmly established there, it would have been undone but for
the intrepidity of Marceau and the firmness of Kleber.
Thus for a month past the contending parties had been
fighting from Maubeuge to the sea with incredible obstinacy,
and without any decisive results. Successful on the left, we
were foiled on the right ; but our troops acquired discipline,
and the bold and skilful movement prescribed to Jourdan led
the way to important results.
Mack's plan had become impracticable. The Prussian gene-
ral Mollendorf refused to march to the Sambre, observing
that he had no orders to that effect from his Court. The
English negotiators had been demanding explanations of the
Prussian Cabinet relative to the treaty of the Hague, and
meanwhile Coburg, threatened on one of his wings, had been
obliged to dissolve his centre after the example of Pichegru.
He had reinforced Kaunitz towards the Sambre, and had
moved the main body of his army towards Flanders, to the
environs of Tournay. A decisive action was therefore about
to take place on the left, for the moment was at hand when
mighty masses must come into collision and fight one another,
VOL. III. S2 *
402 RIS TOBY OF may 1794
A plan, called the plan of destruction, was at this moment
conceived at the Austrian headquarters. Its object was to
separate the French army from Lille, to surround and to anni-
hilate it. Such an operation was possible, for the Allies could
bring nearly one hundred thousand men into action against
seventy thousand ; but they made singular dispositions for
attaining this object. The French were still distributed in
the following manner : Souham and Moreau at Menin and
Courtray with fifty thousand men, and Bonnaud in the
environs of Lille with twenty thousand. The Allies were still
divided upon the two flanks of this advanced line ; Clairfayt's
division on the left in West Flanders, and the mass of the
Allies on the right towards Tournay. The Allies resolved to
make a concentric efl^ort on Turcoing, which separates Menin
and Courtray from Lille. Clairfayt was to march thither from
West Flanders, passing through Werwick and Lincelles.
Generals de Busch, Otto, and the Duke of York were
ordered to march upon the same point from the opposite
side, that is, from Tournay. De Busch was to proceed to
Moucroen, Otto to Turcoing itself, and the Duke of York,
advancing to Eoubaix and Mou vaux, was to form a junction
with Clairfayt. By this latter junction Souham and Moreau
would be cut off from Lille. General Kinsky and the Arch-
duke Charles, with two strong columns, were directed to drive
Bonnaud back into Lille. These dispositions, in order to suc-
ceed, would have required a combination of movements which
was impossible. Most of these corps were to start from ex-
tremely distant points, and Clairfayt had to march through the
French army.
These movements were to be executed on the 28th of
Floreal (May 17). Pichegru had gone at that moment to
the left wing of the Sambre, to repair the checks which that
wing had experienced. Souham and Moreau directed the
army in the absence of Pichegru. The first intimation of
the designs of the Allies was given them by the march of
Clairfayt upon Werwick. They instantly moved towards that
quarter ; but on learning that the main army of the enemy
was approaching on the opposite side, and threatening their
communications, they formed a prompt and judicious resolu-
tion, namely, to make an attempt on Turcoing, with a view
to possess themselves of this decisive position between Menin
and Lille. Moreau remained with Vandamme's division before
Clairfayt, in order to retard his march ; and Souham marched
upon Turcoing with forty-five thousand men. Tlie commu-
nications with Lille were not yet interrupted ; the French
MAY 1794 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 403
general could therefore send orders to Bonnaud to advance
on his side to Turcoing, and to make a powerful effort to
maintain the communication between that position and Lille.
The dispositions of the French generals were attended
with complete success. Clairfayt could advance but slowly ;
retarded at Werwick, he could not reach Lincelles on the
prescribed day. General de Busch had at first possessed
himself of Moucroen, but had afterwards received a slight
check ; and Otto, having divided his troops to succour him,
had not left a sufficient force at Turcoing. Lastly, the Duke
of York had advanced to lioubaix and Mouvaux, without
seeing anything of Clairfayt, or being able to connect himself
with him. Kinsky and the Archduke Charles had not arrived
near Lille till late in the day on the 28th (May 17). Next
morning, the 29th (May 18), Souham marched briskly upon
Turcoing, defeating all that came in his way, and made
himself master of that important position. Bonnaud, on his
part, marching from Lille upon the Duke of York, who was
to interpose between Turcoing and Lille, found him spread
out upon an extended line. The English, though taken un-
awares, attempted to resist ; but our young recruits, marching
with ardour, obliged them to give way, and throwing away
their arms, to betake themselves to flight. The rout was such
that the Duke of York, riding off at full gallop, owed his escape
solely to the swiftness of his horse. From that moment the
confusion among the Allies became general, and from the
heights of Templeuve the Emperor of Austria witnessed the
flight of his whole army. Meanwhile the Archduke Charles,
ill supplied with intelligence, and ill placed, was inactive
below Lille ; and Clairfayt, stopped towards the Lys, was
compelled to retreat.* Such was the issue of this plan of
destntction. It gave us several thousand prisoners, a great
quantity of matériel, and the glory of a great victory, gained
with seventy thousand men over nearly one hundred thousand.
Pichegi'u arrived when the battle was won. All the allied
corps fell back upon Tournay ; and Clairfayt, returning to
Flanders, resumed his position at Thielt. Pichegru did not
* "So sudden was tlie rout that the Duke of York himself owed his safety to
the fleetness of his horse, a circumstance which he had the candour to admit in
his official despatch. Such was the defect of the combinations of Prince Coburg,
that, at the time when his central columns were overwhelmed, the two columns
on the left, amounting,' to not less than thirty tliousand men, under the Arch-
duke Charles and Kinsky, remained in a state of absolute inaction ; and Clairfayt,
who came up too late to take any active part in the engagement, was obliged to
retire. In this action, where the Allies lost three thousand men and sixty pieces
of cannon, the superiority of the French generalship was very apparent." — Alisoii.
404 HISTORY OF may 1794
make the best use of this important victory. The Allies were
grouped near Tournay, having their right supported on the
Scheldt. The French general resolved to intercept a quantity
of forage coming up the Scheldt for them, and made his whole
army fight for this puerile object. Approaching the Scheldt,
he closely pressed the Allies in their semicircular position of
Tournay. Presently, all his corps were successively engaged
on this semicircle. The action was hottest at Pont-a-Chin,
along the Scheldt. For twelve hours there was a most
frightful carnage, and without any possible result. From
seven to eight thousand men perished on both sides. The
French army fell back, after burning some boats, and losing
in part that superiority which the battle of Turcoing had
gained it.*
We might nevertheless consider ourselves as victorious in
Flanders, and the necessity to which Coburg was reduced of
sending succours elsewhere soon rendered our superiority
there more decided. On the Sambre, St. Just had deter-
mined to effect a third passage, and to invest Charleroi ;
but Kaunitz, being reinforced, had caused the siege to be
raised at the moment when, fortunately, Jourdan arrived
with the whole army of the Moselle. From that moment
ninety thousand men were about to act on the real line of
operations, and to put an end to the fluctuations of victory.
On the Rhine nothing of importance had occurred ; General
Mollendorf, profiting by the diminution of our forces on
that point, had merely taken from us the post of Kaiserslau-
tern, but had returned to his former inactivity immediately
after this advantage. Thus, from the month of Prairial (the
end of May), and along the whole line of the North, we had
not only withstood the coalition, but triumphed in several
actions. We had gained one great victory, and we were
advancing on the two wings into Flanders and on the
Sambre. The loss of Landrecies was nothing compared
with such advantages, and with those which our present
situation assured to us.
The war of La Vendée was not entirely finished by the
rout of Savenay. Three chiefs had escaped — Laroche] aquelein,
Stofflet, and Marigny. Besides these three chiefs, Charette,
who, instead of crossing the Loire, had taken the island of
* "The Emperor Francis of Austria was on horseback for twelve hours during
this sanguinary battle, constantly traversing the ranks, and exhorting his troops
to keep np their spirits. ' Courage, my friends,' said he, when they aj)peared
about to droop and give way ; ' let us but make a few more efforts, and the day
is our own.'" — Mevwirs of Prince JIardcnOery,
MAY 1794 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. . 405
Noirmoiitiers, remained in Lower Vendée. This war was, how-
ever, confined to mere skirmishes, and was not of a nature to
give the republic any uneasiness. General Turreau had been
appointed to the command of the West. He had divided the
disposable arm^^ into movable columns, which scoured the
counky, directing their course concentrically to one and the
same point. They fought the fugitive bands when they fell
in with them ; and when they had not to fight, they executed
the decree of the Convention. They burned the forests and
the villages, and carried away the inhabitants, and removed
them to other situations. Several actions had taken place, but
they had not been productive of any great results. Haxo, after
retaking the isles of Noirmoutiers and Bouin from Charette,
had several times hoped to take him too ; but this daring
partisan had always escaped, and appeared again soon after
the combat with a perseverance not less admirable than his
address. This unhappy war was thenceforward only a war of
devastation. General Turreau* had been constrained to adopt
a cruel measure, namely, to order the inhabitants of the villages
to quit the country, upon pain of being treated as enemies if
they remained in it. This measure compelled them either to
quit the soil on which they had all the means of existence, or
to submit to military executions.! Such are the inevitable
miseries of civil wars.
Bretagne had become the theatre of a new kind of war
— that of the Chouans. :t That province had already shown
* " General Turreau was the faitliful servant of the Convention in its bloodiest
days, and the faithful servant of Bonaparte after his return from Elba. He
hated the old government, and he hated the Bourbons, whatever government
they might establish. He was a man capable of forming military arrangements,
and merciless enough to act upon any system, however barbarous." — Quarterly
Reviexv.
t " The poor Vendean royalists were now reduced frequently to live on alms,
and forced every two or three days to shift their quarters, in the middle of the
night, from one wretched cabin to another. Such was the vindictive rigour of
the republican party, that the most unrelaxing search was made for fugitives
of all descriptions ; and every adherent of the insurgent faction who fell into
their hands was barbarously murdered, without the least regard to age, sex, or
individual innocence. While skulking about in this state of peril, they had
occasional rencounters with some of their former companions whom similar mis-
fortunes had driven upon similar schemes of concealment. In particular, a party
of Vendean fugitives twice saw the daring Marigny, who had wandered over the
whole country, and notwithstanding his gigantic form and remarkable features,
had contrived so to disguise himself as to avoid all detection. He could counter-
feit all ages and dialects, and speak in perfection the patois of every village. He
appeared before them in the character of an itinerant dealer in poultry, and
retired unsuspected by all but one or two of his old companions in arms."—
Edinburgh Review.
X " The Chouans were four brothers, who were originally smugglers, and named
Cottereau ; that of Chouan, which was given them, being merely a corruption
4o6 HISTORY OF may 1794
some disposition to imitate La Vendée ; but as the pro-
pensity to insurrection was not so general, some individuals
only, taking advantage of the nature of particular situations,
had engaged in separate acts of robbery and plunder. The
wrecks of the Vendean column which had proceeded into
Bretagne had soon afterwards increased the number of these
partisans. They had formed their principal establishment in
the forest of Perche, and scoured the country in bands of
forty or fifty, sometimes attacking the gendarmerie, levying
contributions on small communes, and committing these dis-
orders in the name of the royal and Catholic cause. But the
real war 'was over, and no more could now be done than
deplore the particular calamities by which these wretched
provinces were afflicted.
In the colonies and at sea the war was not less active than
on the continent. The wealthy settlement of St. Domingo had
been the theatre of the greatest horrors recorded in history.
The white population had embraced with enthusiasm the cause
of the Revolution, which they thought must lead to their
independence of the mother country. The mulattoes had
embraced it not less cordially ; but they hoped for something
more than the political independence of the colony, and
aspired to the rights of citizenship, which had always been
refused them. The Constituent Assembly had recognized
the rights of the mulattoes ; but the whites, who wanted to
keep the Revolution to themselves, had then revolted, and a
civil war had commenced between the old race of free men,
and those who had been just enfranchised.
Taking advantage of this war, the blacks had appeared upon
the stage, and fire and blood proclaimed their presence. They
murdered their masters and burned their property.* From
of chat-huant (screech-owl), because they imitated its cry in order to recognize
each other in the woods at night. In 1793 they collected troops near Laval,
which took their name ; and soon afterwards being reinforced by some remains
of the Vendean army, they made war under the command of the Comte de
Puisaye, in the name of Louis XVIIL Three of the four brothers fell in battle,
one of whom was John, celebrated for his courage and physical strength. The
Chouans, after the total defeat of La Vendée, made peace with the Directory ;
but about the end of 1799 revived with more energy than ever. Scattered
through the country, and almost always invisible, they attacked the patriot
posts, but disappeared before considerable bodies of men. Bonaparte put them
down effectually in the year 1800." — Biograpliie Moderne.
* "At midnight on the 30th of October 1791, the insurrection of the blacks
of St. Domingo broke forth. In an instant twelve hundred coffee and two
hundred sugar plantations were in liâmes ; the buildings, the macliinery, the
farmhouses, were reduced to ashes ; and the unfortunate proprietors were hunted
down, murdered, or tlirown into the flames by the infuriated negroes. The
horrors of a servile war universally appeared. The unchained African signalized
MAY 1794 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 407
tins moment the colony became the theatre of the most
horrible confusion. Each party reproached the other with
the new enemy that had just started up, and accused its
adversary of having supplied him with arms. The negroes,
without yet siding with either, ravaged the country. Excited,
however, by the emissaries of the Spanish party, it was not
long before they pretended to espouse the royal cause. To
add to the confusion, the English had interfered. One part
of the whites had applied to them in a moment of danger,
and had delivered to them the veiy important fort of St.
Nicholas. Santlionax,* the commissioner, assisted principally
by the mulattoes and part of the whites, had opposed the
invasion of the English, which he could at last find but
one expedient for repelling, and that was to recognize the
freedom of the blacks who should declare themselves in favour
of the republic. The Convention had confirmed this measure,
and by a decree, proclaimed all the negroes free. From that
moment a jDortion of them, who had espoused the royal cause,
had gone over to the party of the republicans ; and the English
his ingenuity by the discovery of new and unheard-of modes of torture. An
unhappy planter was sawed asunder between two boards. The horrors inflicted
on the women exceeded anything known, even in the annals of Christian ferocity.
The indulgent master was sacriticed equally with the inhuman. On all alike,
young and old, rich and poor, the wrongs of an oppressed race were indis-
criminately wreaked. Crowds of slaves traversed the country with the heads
of white children affixed on their pikes. These served as the standards of the
furious insurgents. Jean François, a slave of vast penetration, firm character,
and violent passions, not unmingled with generosity, was the leader of the
conspiracy. His lieutenants were Biasson and Toussaint. The former, of
gigantic stature and indomitable ferocity, was well fitted to assert his superiority ;
the latter, gifted with rare intelligence, dissimulation, boundless ambition, and
heroic firmness, was fitted to become at once the Numa and the Romulus of the
sable republic in the western hemisphere. The republican commissioners sent
out by the Convention contrived for a time partly to quell the insurrection ; but
in 1793 it broke out with redoubled fury. Three thousand insurgents penetrated
into Cape Town, and making straight for the prisons, delivered a large body of
slaves who were there in chains. Instantly the liberated captives spread them-
selves over the town, set it on fire in every quarter, and massacred the whites.
A scene of matchless horror ensued. Twenty thousand negroes burst into the
city, with the torch in one hand and the sword in the other. Neither age nor
sex was spared. The young were cut down in striving to defend their houses ;
the aged in the churches, where they had fled for protection. Virgins were
immolated on the altar ; infants hurled into the fires. The finest city in the
West Indies was reduced to ashes. Its splendid churches, its stately palaces,
were wrapt in flames, and thirty thousand human beings perished in the
massacre." — Alison.
* " L. F. Santhonax, deputy from Ain, was successively delegated to St.
Domingo by the constitutional King, by the Convention, and by the Direc-
tory. His administration was tyrannical and ineff'ective, and he was frequently
denounced to the government in Paris. On his final recall in 1797 he was
admitted into the Council of Five Hundred, and in the year 1S05 was living in
retirement at Fontainebleau." — Biographic Moderne.
4o8 HISTORY OF may 1794
entrenched in Fort St. Nicholas had no longer any hopes of
securing that rich settlement, which, after being long ravaged,
was destined at last to become independent of any foreign
power, Guadaloupe had been taken and retaken, and still
continued in our possession. Martinique was definitively lost.
Such were the disorders in the colonies. At sea an im-
portant event had occurred, namely, the arrival of that convoy
from America, so impatiently expected in our ports. The
Brest squadron had left that port, as we have stated, to the
number of thirty sail, with orders to cruise, and not to fight,
unless the safety of the convoy imperatively required it. We
have already said, that Jean Bon St. Andre was on board the
admiral's ship ; that Villaret-Joyeuse had been promoted from
captain to commander of the squadron ; that peasants who
had never been at sea had been placed among the crews ; and
that these sailors, ofiicers, and admirals of a day were sent
forth to fight the veteran English navy. Admiral Villaret-
Joyeuse weighed on the i st of Prairial (May 20), and made sail
for the isles of Coves and Flores, to wait for the convoy. He
took by the way a great number of Eîiglish merchantmen, the
captains of which said to him, " You are taking us retail, but
Lord Howe will soon take you wholesale." That admiral was
actually cruising off the coasts of Bretagne and Normandy
with thirty-three sail of the line and twelve frigates. On
the 9th of Prairial (May 28) the French squadron descried a
fleet. The impatient crews watched those black specks on
the horizon growing gradually larger and larger ; and when
they ascertained them to be the English, they set up shouts
of enthusiasm, and insisted on fighting, with that ardent
patriotism which has always distinguished the inhabitants of
our coasts. Though the instructions given to the admiral
forbade him to fight, unless to save the convoy, yet Jean Bon
St. André, himself hurried away by the universal enthusiasm,
assented to the general wish, and caused orders to be issued
to prepare for action. Towards evening a ship of the rear-
division. Le BévoluHonnaire, which had shortened sail, was
brought to action by the English, made an obstinate resistance,
lost her captain, and was obliged to steer for Rochefort to refit.
Night prevented the action from becoming general.
Next day, the loth (May 29), the two squadrons were
opposite to one another. The English admiral manoeuvred
against our rear. The movement which we made to protect
it brought on an action between the two fleets. The French,
not manœuvring so well, two of their ships — V Indomptable
and Le Tyrannicide — found themselves opposed to a very
MAY 1794 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 409
superior force, and fought with determined courage. Vil-
laret-Joyeuse ordered some of his squadron to go to the
rehef of the ships engaged ; but his orders being neither
clearly understood nor duly executed, he advanced alone, at
the risk of not being followed. This was done, however,
soon afterwards : our whole squadron bore down upon that
of the enemy, and obliged it to sheer off. Unfortunately
we had lost the advantage of the wind. We kept up a terrible
fire on the English, but were unable to pursue them. We
retained our two ships and the field of battle.
On the nth and 12th (May 30 and 31) a thick fog enve-
loped the two fleets. The French endeavoured to lead the
English to the north and to the west of the track which the
convoy was to pursue. On the 13th the fog dispersed, and
the sun shone brightly upon both squadrons. The French
had no more than twenty-six sail, while their adversaries
had thirty-six. They again insisted on fighting, and it was
agreed to indulge their ardour, for the purjîose of occupying
tlie English, and keeping them aloof from the track of the
convoy, which was to pass over the field of battle of the loth.
This action — one of the most memorable that ocean ever
witnessed — began about nine in the morning. Lord Howe
bore down to cut our line.* A false manoeuvre of our ship
La Montagne allowed him to accomplish his purpose, to cut
off our left wing, and to attack it with all his force. Our
* " Lord Howe signalled that he should attack the centre of the enemy,
consisting of twenty-six sail of the line, and that he should pass through the
enemy's line, and engage to leeward. The two fleets being now about four miles
apart, and the crews of the Bi'itish ships, after the fatigue of sitting up three
nights, needing some refreshment, Lord Howe hove to, and gave the men their
breakfast. This over, the British filled, and bore down on the enemy. In a few
minutes after a signal was thrown out for each ship to steer for, and indepen-
dently engage, the ship opposed to her in the enemy's line. The French fleet
was drawn up in a close head-and-stern line, bearing about east and west.
Between a quarter and half-past nine a.m. the French van ojiened its fire on the
British van. In about a quarter of an hour the fire of the enemy became general,
and Lord Howe, with his divisional flag-officers, bearing the signal for close
action at their mast-heads, commenced a heavy fire in return. A few of the
English ships cut through the French line, and engaged their opponents to
leeward ; the remainder hauled up to windward, and opened their iire, some at
a long and others at a shorter distance. At lo a.m., when the action was at its
height, the French admiral made sail ahead, followed by his second astern, and
afterwards by such other of his ships as had suff"ered little in their rigging and
sails. At about 1 1 A. M. the heat of the action was over, and the British were
left with eleven, and the French with twelve, more or less dismasted ships. At
about one o'clock the general firing ceased, the enemy's vessels for the most part
striving to escape under a spritsail, or some small sail set on the tallest stump
left to them. When the action commenced, the French fleet was, within one
ship, numerically equal to the British fleet opposed to it." — James's Naval
History.
4 I o THE FRENCH RE VOL UTION. june 1 7 9 4
right and onr van were left separated. The admiral would
have rallied them around him, with the intention of bearing
down upon the English squadron ; but he had lost the advan-
tage of the wind, and it was five hours before he was able
to approach the field of battle. ' Meanwhile, the ships en-
gaged fought with extraordinary heroism. The English, supe-
rior in manœuvring, lost their advantages ship to ship, and
had to encounter a tremendous fire and formidable boardings.
It was in the heat of this obstinate action that Le Vengeur
— dismasted, half destroyed, and ready to founder — refused to
strike her colours, at the peril of being sent to the bottom.*
The English first ceased firing, and retired in astonishment
at such a resistance. They had taken six of our shij)s. Next
day Villaret-Joyeuse, having collected his van and his right,
was for bearing down and wresting from them their prey.
The English, who had sustained great damage, would perhaps
have yielded the victory to us. Jean Bon St. Andre opposed
a new engagement, notwithstanding the enthusiasm of the
crews. The English could therefore regain their ports un-
molested. They returned to them, astounded at their victory,
and filled with admiration of the intrepidity of our young
seamen. But the essential object of this terrible conflict
was accomplished. Admiral A^enstabel had on that same day,
the 13th, sailed over the field of battle of the loth, which
he found covered with wrecks, and had entered without
accident the ports of France.
Thus victorious at the Pyrenees and the Alps, formidable
in the Netherlands, heroic at sea, and strong enough to dis-
pute a naval victory most obstinately with the English, we
commenced the year 1794 in the most brilliant and glorious
manner.
* " Tlic heroism of the crew of the Vengeur is worthy of eternal reinem-
brauce. Though sinking rapidly in tlie water, and after the lower-deck guns
were immersed, tliey continued vehemently to discharge the upper tier ; and at
length, wiien the ship went to the bottom, the crew continued to cheer, and the
cries, ' Vive la République ! ' ' Vive la France ! ' were heard as she was swallowed
up in the waves ! " — Aliwn.
THE NATIONAL CONVENTION
{continued)
INTERNAL SITUATION— ATTEMPT TO ASSASSINATE ROBESPIERRE AND
COLLOT-D'HERBOIS — FESTIVAL OF THE SUPREME BEING — DIS-
SENSION BETWEEN THE COMMITTEES — LAW OF THE 22ND OF
PRAIRIAL— GREAT EXECUTIONS— MISSIONS OF LEBON, CARRIER,
MAIGNET, &c.— LAST DAYS OF TERROR— RUPTURE BETWEEN THE
LEADING MEMBERS OF THE COMMITTEE— SECESSION OF ROBE-
SPIERRE—BATTLE OF FLEURUS— EVENTS OF THE 8th AND 9TH OF
THERMIDOR— EXECUTION OF COUTHON, ST. JUST, AND ROBE-
SPIERRE.
WHILE the republic was victorious against its foreign foes,
its internal state had not ceased to be greatly agitated.
The evils by which it was afflicted were still the same. These
were the assignats, the maximum, the scarcity of articles of
subsistence, the law regarding suspected persons, and the re-
volutionary tribunals.
The embarrassments resulting from the necessity for regu-
lating all the movements of commerce had only increased.
The Convention had been obliged constantly to modify the
law of the maximum. It had found it necessary to except
from it, at one time, spun thread, and to grant it ten per
cent, above the tariff ; at another, pins, linen, cambrics,
muslins, gauzes, laces of thread and silk, silks, and silken
goods. But while the Legislature was forced to except a
great number of commodities from the maximum, there were
others which it was expedient to subject to its provisions.
Thus, the price of horses having become excessive, it could
not avoid determining their value according to height and
quality. From these means the same inconvenience invariably
resulted. Commerce stood still and closed its markets, or
opened clandestine ones ; and in this case authority became
powerless. If by means of the assignats it had been enabled
to realize the value of the national domains, if by the maximum
it had been enabled to place assignats on a par with mer-
4 1 2 HISTOB Y OF june i 794
chandise, there was no way of preventing merchandise from
withdrawing and concealing itself from purchasers. Thus
there was no end to the complaints raised against tradesmen
who retired from business or shut up their shops.
Less uneasiness, however, was this year felt on account of
articles of consumption. The convoys arrived from America,
and an abundant harvest had furnished a sufficient quantity
of corn for the consumption of France. The committee, dis-
playing the same vigour in all matters of administration,
had ordered a general statement of the crops to be drawn
up by the commission of provisions, and part of the grain to
be threshed immediately for the supply of the markets. It
had been feared that the itinerant reapers, who leave their
homes and go to the corn countries, would demand extraordi-
nary wages ; the committee therefore declared that persons
of both sexes who were accustomed to do harvest work
were in forced requisition, and that their wages should be
determined by the local authorities. It was not long before,
the journeymen butchers and bakers having struck, the
committee adopted a more general measure, and put in
requisition workmen of all kinds who were employed in the
manipulation, the transport, and the sale of articles of the
first necessity.
The supply of meat was a business of much greater diffi-
culty, and caused much greater uneasiness. In Paris especially
it was scarce ; and from the moment when the Hebertists
attempted to make this scarcity a pretext for exciting com-
motion, the evil had only increased. It had been found
necessary to put the city of Paris upon an allowance of
meat. The commission of provisions had fixed the daily con-
sumption at seventy-five oxen, fifteen thousand pounds' weight
of veal and mutton, and two hundred hogs. It procured the
requisite cattle, and sent them to the Hospice de l'Humanité,
which was appointed as the common and only authorized
slaughter-house. The butchers named by each section came
there, and took away the meat which was destined for them,
and received a quantity proportioned to the population which
they had to supply. Every five days they were to distribute
to each family half a pound of meat per head. In this
instance recourse was had to tickets, such as were delivered
by the revolutionary committees for the distribution of bread,
stating the number of individuals of which each family was
composed. To prevent tumults and long waiting, people were
forbidden to go before six in the morning to the doors of the
butchers.
JUNE 1 794 THF. FRENCH RFVOL UTIOK 4 1 3
The insufficiency of these regulations soon became apparent.
Clandestine dealers had already set up, as we have elsewhere
observed. Their number daily increased. The cattle had not
time to reach the markets of ISTeubourg, Poissy, and Sceaux ;
the country butchers met them and bought them in the
pastures. Taking advantage of the less vigilant execution
of the laws in the rural communes, these butchers sold above
the maximum, and supplied all the inhabitants of the great
communes, and particularly those of Paris, who were not
content with the allowance of half a pound every five days.
In this manner the country butchers had run away with
all the business of the town butchers, who had scarcely any-
thing to do since they were confined to the distribution of
rations. Several of them even applied for a law authorizing
them to throw up the leases of their shops. It then became
necessary to make new regulations to prevent the stoppage of
cattle on their way to the markets ; and the proprietors of
pasture-grounds were subjected to declarations and to ex-
tremely annoying formalities. The government was obliged to
descend to still more minute details. As wood and charcoal
ceased to arrive on account of the maximum, and suspicions
of forestalling were excited, it was forbidden to have more
than four loads of wood, and more than two loads of charcoal
The new government exerted itself with singular activity
to surmount all the difficulties of the career upon which it
had entered. While it was issuing these numberless regu-
lations, it was engaged in reforming agriculture, changing
the legislation of farming, for the purpose of dividing the
tillage of lands, introducing new rotations of crops, artificial
meadows, and the rearing of cattle. It ordered the institu-
tion of botanic gardens in all the chief towns of departments,
for naturalizing exotic plants, forming nurseries of trees of
all kinds, and opening courses of lectures on agriculture for
the instruction, and adapted to the comprehension, of farmers.
It ordered the general draining of marshes, on a comprehen-
sive and well-conceived plan. It decreed that the State should
make the necessary advances for this great undertaking, and
that the owners whose lands should be drained and rendered
wholesome should pay a tax, or sell their lands at a certain
price. Lastly, it invited all the architects to furnish plans
for rebuilding the villages on demolishing the mansions ; it
ordered embellishments to render the garden of the Tuileries
more commodious for the public ; and it demanded plans from
artists for changing the Opera-house into a covered arena
where the people might assemble in winter.
4 1 4 HISTOR Y OF june 1794
Thus it executed, or at least attempted, almost every-
thing at once ; so true it is that the more business one has
to do, the more one is capable of doing. The department
of the finances was not the least difficult nor the least
perplexing. We have seen what resources were devised in
the month of August 1793 to restore the assignats to their
nominal value, by withdrawing part of them from circula-
tion. The one thousand millions withdrawn by the forced
loan, and the victories which terminated the campaign of
1793, raised them; and as we have elsewhere stated, they
rose almost to par, owing to the terrible laws which rendered
the possession of specie so dangerous. This apparent pros-
perity lasted, however, only for a short time. They soon
fell again, and the quantity of issues rapidly depreciated
them. Part of them indeed returned in consequence of
the sales of the national property ; but this return was
insufficient. These possessions were sold above the estimate ;
which was not surprising, for the estimate had been made
in money, and payment was made in assignats. Thus the
price, though apparently above, was really much below the
estimated value. Besides, this absorption of the assignats
could be but slow, while the issue was necessarily immense
and rapid. Twelve hundred thousand men to arm and to
pay, a matériel to create, a navy to build, with a depreciated
paper, required enormous quantities of that paper. This resource
having become the only one, and, moreover, the capital of
the assignats increasing daily by confiscations, the government
made up its mind to employ them so long as occasion required.
It abolished the distinction between the ordinary and the
extraordinary fund — the one arising from the produce of the
taxes, the other from the creation of assignats. The two
kinds of resources were blended, and whenever occasion
required, any deficit in the revenue was supplied by fresh
issues. At the beginning of 1794 (year 2) the sum total
of the issues was doubled. Nearly four thousand millions
had been added to the sum which previously existed, and
had raised it to about eight thousand millions. Deducting
the sums which had come back and been burned, and those
which had not yet been expended, there remained in actual
circulation five thousand five hundred and thirty-six millions.
In Messidor, year 2 (June 1794), the creation of a fresh
thousand millions of assignats was decreed, of all amounts,
from one thousand francs to fifteen sous. The committee
of the finances again had resource to a forced loan from the
rich. The lists of the preceding year were made use of,
JUNE 1794 TEE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 415
and upon those who were entered in those lists was imposed
an extraordinary war contribution of one-tenth of the forced
loan, that is to say, of ten millions. This sum was not
levied upon them as a loan repayable, but as a tax which
was to be paid by them without return.
To complete the establishment of the Great Book, and the
plan of giving uniformity to the public debt, it still remained
to capitalize the life annuities, and to convert them into an
inscription. These annuities, of all descriptions, and of all
forms, were the object of the most complicated stockjobbing.
They had the same inconvenience as the old contracts on
the State, that of reposing on a royal title, and obtaining a
marked preference to republican stocks ; for people were still
sure that, if the repulilic consented to pay the debts of the
monarchy, the monarchy would never consent to pay those
of the republic. Cambon therefore completed his grand work
of the regeneration of the debt, by proposing and obtaining
a law which capitalized the life annuities ; the titles were to
be delivered up by the notaries and burned, as the contracts
had been. The capital originally furnished by the annui-
tant was converted into an inscription, and bore a perpetual
interest at five per cent, instead of a life revenue. At the
same time, out of consideration for aged persons, and those of
very small fortune, who had meant to dou1:)le their resources
by investing them in annuities for life, those of moderate
amounts were preserved and proportioned to the age of the
parties. From forty to fifty, all annuities of fifteen hundred
to two thousand francs were suffered to exist ; from fifty to
sixty, all annuities of three to four thousand ; and so on to
the age of one hundred, and to the sum of ten thousand five
hundred francs. If the annuitant comprised in the cases
above mentioned had an annuity exceeding the fixed standard,
the surplus was capitalized. Certainly more consideration
could not well be shown for moderate fortunes and for old
age ; and yet no law ever gave rise to more remonstrances
and complaints, and the Convention incurred more censure
for a wise measure, and one conducted with humanity, than
for those terrible measures which daily marked its dictator-
ship.* The stockjobbers were grievously offended, because
the law, in order to recognize the credits, required certificates
* "So numerous was this class of life-annuitants in France, and so tenacious
are men of whatever touches their pecuniary interests, that there was no measure
at the time which excited such violent discontent, and the Convention were more
blamed for this retrenchment than all the sanguinary and terrible laws which
had stained their administration." — Alison,
4 1 6 HI8T0R Y OF june 1794
of life. The holders of titles of emigrants could not easily
procure these certificates ; hence the jobbers, who were sufferers
by this condition, complained loudly in the name of the aged
and the infirm : they declared that neither age nor indigence
was respected ; they persuaded the annuitants that they should
not be paid, because the operation and the formalities which
it required would be attended with endless delays. However,
that was not the case. Cambon caused some clauses of the
decree to be modified, and by his incessant superintendence
at the Treasury he carried its provisions into effect with
the greatest promptitude. The annuitants who did not job
in the titles of others, but lived upon their own income, were
speedily paid ; and as Barrère said, instead of waiting their
turn of payment in uncovered courts, exposed to the inclemency
of the weather, they waited in the warm and comfortable rooms
of the Treasury.
Along with these beneficial reforms cruelties continued to
run their course.* The law which expelled the ex-nobles
from Paris, the fortresses, and the seaports, gave rise to a
multitude of vexations. To distinguish the real nobles was
not easier now that nobility was a calamity than when it
had been a pretension. Females originally belonging to the
commonalty, who had married nobles and become widows,
the purchasers of offices who had taken the title of esquire,
claimed to be exempted from a distinction which formerly
they had so eagerly coveted. This law then opened a
new career to arbitrary power and to the most tyrannical
vexations.
The representatives on mission exercised their authority
with the utmost rigour, and some of them indulged in extra-
vagant and monstrous cruelties. In Paris the prisons daily
* " The sun of Liberty was in eclipse, wliile the crested liydra of the coalition
glared round the horizon. The atmosphere was dark and sultry. There was a
(lead pause — a stillness in the air, except as the silence was broken by a shout
like distant thunder, or the wild chant of patriotic songs. There was a fear, as
in the time of a plague — a fierceness as before and after a deadly strife. It was
a civil war raging in the heart of a great city as in a field of battle, and turning
it into a charnel-house. The eye was sleepless — the brain heated. Sights of
horror gi'ew familiar to the mind, which had no other choice than that of being
either the victini or the executioner. What at first was stern necessity or public
duty, became a habit and a sport ; and the arm inured to slaughter, struck at
random, sparing neither friend nor foe. The soul, harrowed up by the spectacle
of the most appalling cruelties, could not do without them, and nursed the
dreadful appetite for death. The habit of going to the place of execution re-
sembled that of visiting the theatre. Legal murder was the order of the day, a
holiday sight, till France became one scene of wild disorder, and the Revolution
a stage of blood. The chief actor in this tragic scene, the presiding demon of
the storm, was Robespierre." — llazliWs Life of Napoleon.
JUNE 1 794 THE FRENCH REVOL UTIOK 4 1 7
became more and more crowded. The committee of general
safety had instituted a police which spread terror everywhere.
At the head of it was a man named Heron, who had under
his direction a host of agents, all worthy of their chief. They
were what were called the messengers of the committees.
Some acted as spies, others were furnished with secret and
frequently even blank orders, and went to make arrests either
in Paris or in the provinces, A sum of money was allowed
them for each of their expeditions. They extorted more from
the prisoners, and thus added rapine to cruelty. All the
adventurers who had been disbanded with the revolutionary
army, or dismissed from Bouchotte's office, had taken up this
new trade, and become much more formidable for it. They
were everywhere, in the promenades, the coffee-houses, the
theatres. Every moment you fancied that you were watched
and overheard by one of these inquisitors. Owing to their
assiduity, the number of the suspected had increased in Paris
alone to seven or eight thousand.* The prisons no longer
exhibited the spectacle which they had at first presented ; the
rich were no longer seen there contributing to the support
of the poor, and men of all opinions, of all ranks, leading
at their joint cost a tolerably agreeable life, and consoling
themselves by the pleasures of the arts for the hardships
of captivity. This system had appeared too indulgent for
what were called aristocrats. It was alleged that the rich
were revelling in luxury and abundance, while the people
outside were reduced to rations; that the wealthy prisoners
wasted in riotous living those provisions which might have
served to feed the indigent citizens ; and it had been decided
that the system of the prisons should be changed. Eefectories
and common tables had in consequence been established : the
prisoners were supplied at fixed hours and in large halls with
an unpalatable and unwholesome food, for which they were
* "Seven thousand prisoners were soon accumulated in the different places
of confinement in Paris ; the number throughout France exceeded two hundred
thousand I The long nights of these wretched victims were frequently interrupted
by visits from the executioners, solely intended to excite alarm ; the few hours
of sleep allowed them were broken by the rattling of chains and unbarring of
doors, to induce the belief that their fellow-sufferers were about to be led to
the scaffold. From the farthest extremities of France crowds of prisoners daily
arrived at the gates of the Conciergerie, which successively sent forth its bands of
victims to the guillotine. Grey hairs and youthful forms, countenances blooming
with health, and faces worn with suffering, beauty and talent, rank and virtue,
were indiscriminately rolled together to the fatal doors. Sixty persons often
arrived in a day, and as many were, on the following morning, sent out to
execution. Night and day the cars incessantly discharged victims into the
prison." — Alison.
VOL. Ill, 83
41 8 HISTORY OF JUNE1794
obliged to pay at a very dear rate. Nor were they permitted
to procure their own provisions, instead of those which they
could not eat. They were searched; their assignats were
taken from them, and thus they were deprived of all means
of procuring themselves comforts of any kind. They were
no longer allowed the same liberty of seeing one another and
living together ; and to the liardship of seclusion were super-
added the terrors of death, which daily became more active
and more prompt. The revolutionary tribunal began, after
the trial of the Hebertists and the Dantonists, to sacrifice
victims in troops of twenty at a time.* It had condemned
the family of the Malesherbes and their relatives to the
number of fifteen or twenty persons. f The venerable head
* " Fifteen prisoners only were at first placed on the fatal chariot ; hut their
number M'as soon augmented to thirty, and gradually rose to eighty, who were
daily sent forth to execution. When the fall of RobespieiTe put a stop to the
murders, arrangements had been made for increasing them to one hundred and
fifty. An immense aqueduct to remove the gore had been dug as far as the
Place St. Antoine, and four men were daily employed in emptying the blood of
the victims into that reservoir. It was at three in the afternoon when the
melancholy procession set out from the Conciergerie. The higher orders in
general behaved with firmness and serenity, and silently marched to death.
The pity of the spectators was, in a peculiar manner, excited by the bands of
females led out together to execution. Fourteen young women of Verdun, of
the most attractive forms, were cut off together. 'The day after their execution,'
says Riouffe, ' the court of the prison looked like a garden bereaved of its flowers
by a tempest.' On anotlier occasion, twenty women of Poitou, chiefly the wives
of peasants, were placed together on the chariot ; some died on the way, and
the wretches guillotined their lifeless remains. One kept her infant in her
bosom till she reached the foot of the scaffold ; the executioners tore the baby
from her breast as she suckled it for the last time, and the screams of maternal
agony were only stifled with her life. In removing the prisoners from the gaol
of the Maison Lazare, one of the women declared herself with child, and on the
point of delivery. The hard-hearted gaolers compelled her to move on ; she did
so, uttering piercing shrieks, and at length fell on the ground, and was delivered
of a child in the j^resence of her persecutors ! Such accumulated horrors
annildlated all the charities and intercourse of life. Passengers hesitated to
address their most intimate friends on meeting. The extent of calamitj^ had
rendered men suspicious even of those they loved most. Every one assumed
the coarsest dress and the most squalid appearance. An elegant exterior Avould
have been the certain forerunner of destruction. Night came, but with it
no diminution of the anxiety of the people. Every fandly early assembled
its numbers. With trembling looks they gazed round the room, fearful that the
very walls might harljour traitors. The sound of a foot — the stroke of a hammer
— a voice in the street — froze all hearts with horror. If a knock was heard
at the door, every one, in agonizing suspense, expected his fate. Unable to
endure such protracted misery, numbers committed suicide." — Alison.
" Had the reign of Robespierre continued much longer, multitudes would have
thrown themselves under the guillotine. That first of all social aflections, the
love of life, was already extinguished in almost every breast." — Freron.
t " The intellects of Madame de Rozambeau, who was one of the daughters of
Maleslierbes, were unsettled by her grief for the death of her husband. Neither
the consoling influence of her father, nor the tender caresses of her daughter,
were able to calm the distraction of her mind. Yet when the act of accusation
JUNE 1794 THE FRENCH BE VOL UTION. 4 1 9
of that house had met death with the serenity and the cheer-
fuhiess of a sage. Happening to stumble as he was walking
to the scaffold, " This false step/' said he, " is a bad omen ; a
Eoman would go back to his home." To the family of Males-
herbes had been added twenty-two members of the parliament.
That of Toulouse had been almost entirely sacrificed. Lastly,
the farmers-general * were brought to trial on account of their
former contracts with the Treasury. It was proved that these
contracts had contained conditions prejudicial to the State,
and the revolutionary tribunal sent them to the scaffold for
exactions on tobacco, salt, &c. Among them was that illus-
trious votary of science, Lavoisier,! the chemist, who in vain
solicited a respite of a few days that he might commit to
paper a discovery which he had made.
The impulse was given : men administered, fought, slaugh-
tered with a horrible harmony. The committees placed at
the centre governed with the same vigour. The Convention,
still tranquil, decreed pensions to the widows or the children
of the soldiers who had died for their country, modified the
judgments of tribunals, interpreted decrees, regulated the ex-
change of certain domains ; attended, in short, to matters the
most trivial and the most subordinate. Barrère came every
day to read to it reports of victories. These reports he called
carmagnoles. At the end of every month he intimated, for
form's sake, that the powers of the committees had expired, and
that it was necessary to renew them. He was then answered,
amidst applause, that the committees had but to prosecute
their labours. Sometimes he even forgot this formality, and the
committees nevertheless continued to exercise their functions.
was presented which comprised Malesherbes, herself, and the rest of the family,
she appeared suddenly to call together her wandering faculties. She hastened
to find Mademoiselle Sombreuil, and addressing her in tones of rapture, said,
'Ah, Mademoiselle, you had once the happiness to save your father, and I am
going to die with mine ! ' This ray of reason was soon extinct for ever. She
went unconsciously to prison, and died upon the scaffold without appearing to
understand her fate." — Du Broca.
* "Among them was the farmer-general Fougeret, whose sole crime consisted
in his not being able to pay a revolutionary contribution to the amount of thirty
thousand livres." — Du Broca.
t "Anthony Lawrence Lavoisier was a celebrated French chemist, whose
name is connected with the antiphlogistic theory of chemistry, to the reception
of which he contributed by his writings and discoveries. He was born at Paris
in 1743, and was the son of opulent parents, who gave him a good education.
He had rendered many services to the arts and sciences, both in a public and
private capacity. In 1791 he was appointed one of the commissioners of the
National Treasury. He was executed in 1 794, on the charge of being a consjiirator,
and of having adulterated the tobacco with ingredients obnoxious to the health
of the citizens. Lavoisier married in 177 1 the daughter of a farmer-general, who
subsequently became the wife of Count Rumford." — Encydopœdia Americana.
420 HISTORY OF JUNE1794
It is at such moments of absolute submission that exaspe-
rated spirits burst forth, and that the despotic authorities
have to fear the dagger. There was a man, employed as
an attendant in the national lottery office, who had formerly
been in the service of several distinguished families, and who
was vehemently incensed against the prevailing system. His
name was Ladmiral ; * he was fifty years of age, and had
formed the design to assassinate one of the leading members
of the committee of public welfare, lîobespierre or Collot-
d'Herbois. For some time past he had lodged in the same
house as Collot-d'Herbois, in the Eue Favart, and hesitated
between Collot and Eobespierre. On the 3rd of Prairial (May
22), having made up his mind to despatch the latter, he had gone
to the committee of public welfare and waited for him the whole
day in the gallery adjoining the committee-room. Not meet-
ing with him there, he had returned home and posted himself
on the staircase, with the intention of striking Collot-d'Her-
bois. About midnight Collot came in and went upstairs, when
Ladmiral snapped a pistol at him when close to the muzzle.
The pistol missed fire. Ladmiral pointed it again ; but again
the weapon refused to second his design. A third time he
was more successful, but hit only the wall. A scuffle then
ensued. Collot-d'Herbois cried " Murder." Luckily for him,
a patrol was passing along the street, and hastened up on
hearing the noise. Ladmiral then ran upstairs to his room,
where he fastened himself in. He was followed by the patrol,
who threatened to break open the door. He declared that he
was armed, and that he would fire upon any one who should
dare to come near him. This threat did not intimidate the
patrol. The door was forced. A locksmith, named GefFroy,
advanced first, and received a musket-shot, which wounded
him almost mortally. Ladmiral was immediately secured and
conducted to prison. When examined by Fouquier-Tinville,
he related the circumstances of his life, his designs, and the
intention which he had to despatch Robespierre before he
thought of Collot-d'Herbois. He was asked who had insti-
gated him to commit this crime. He replied with firmness
that it was not a crime, that it was a service which he had
meant to render his country ; that he alone had conceived
* "Henri Ladmiral was originally a servant in the house of the minister
Bertin, and afterwards a lottery commissioner at Brussels. He was a short but
muscular man, and did not appear to have received a good education. He was
executed in 1794 for having attempted tlie life of Collot-d'Herbois. He ascended
the scaffold dressed in a red shii't, and met his fate with lirmness. " — Biographie
Moderne.
JUNE 1794 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 421
this design, without any suggestion from another; and that
his only regret was that it had not succeeded.
The rumour of this attempt spread with rapidity, and as
usual, it served to increase the power of those against whom
it was directed. Barrère went the very next day, the 4th of
Prairial (May 23), to the Convention to read his report of this
new machination of Pitt's. " The internal factions," said he, " do
not cease to correspond with that government which deals in
coalitions, which purchases nmrders, which persecutes liberty
as its bitterest enemy. While we make justice and vh'tue
the order of the day, the coalition places on the order of the
day crime and assassination. You will everywhere find the
baleful spirit of the Englishman — in our markets, in our
contracts, on our seas, on the continents, in the kinglings of
Europe, as well as in our cities. It is the same head that
directs the hands which murder Basseville at Eome, the
French sailors in the harbour of Genoa, the faithful French
in Corsica. It is the same head that directs the steel against
Lepelletier and Marat, the guillotine upon Chalier, and the
pistol at Collot-d'Herbois." Barrère then produced letters
from London and Holland which had been intercepted, and
which stated that the plots of Pitt were directed against
the committees, and particularly against Robespierre. One
of these letters said in substance, " We much fear Robe-
spierre's influence. The more concentrated the French repub-
lican government becomes, the more strength it will possess,
and the more difficult it will be to overthrow it."
This manner of exhibiting facts was well calculated to
excite a strong interest in favour of the committees, and
especially of Robespierre, and to identify their existence with
that of the republic. Barrère then related the fact, with all
its circumstances, spoke of the tender solicitude which the con-
stituted authorities had manifested for protecting the national
representation, and described in magnificent terms the con-
duct of citizen Geffroy, who had received a dangerous wound
in seizing the assassin. The Convention received Barrère's
report with applause. It ordered an investigation for the
purpose of ascertaining whether Ladmiral had any accom-
plices ; it decreed thanks to citizen Greffroy, and resolved
that, as some compensation, the bulletin of the state of his
wound should be read every day from the tribune. Couthon
then made a violent speech, to propose that Barrère's report
should be translated into all languages, and circulated in all
countries. " Pitt ! Coburg ! " he exclaimed, " and all of you,
cowardly and petty tyrants, who consider the world as your
42 2 HISTORY OF JUNE1794
heritage, and who, in the last moments of your agony, struggle
with such fury, whet, whet your daggers ; we despise you
too much to fear you, and you well know that we are too
great to follow your example." The hall rang with applause.
" But," continued Couthon, " the Law whose reign affrights
you has her sword uplifted over your heads. She will strike
you all. Mankind needs this example, and Heaven, which
you outrage, has commanded it."
Collot-d'Herbois then entered, as if to receive the congra-
tulations of the Assembly. He was hailed with redoubled
acclamations, and had difficulty in making himself heard.
Robespierre showed much more tact in staying away, and
affecting to withdraw himself from the homage that awaited
him.
On this same day, the 4tli, a young female, named Cécile
lienault,* called at Robespierre's door with a parcel under
* " Cécile Renault was nearly twenty years of age when she committed the
extraordinary act which conducted her to the scaffold. She had one of those
ligures which please without being beautiful. Her features were far from hand-
some ; yet, from the vivacity of her manners, her agreeable countenance, and
elegant deportment, she was called the finest girl of her neighbourhood. Her
father lived iu Paris, where he carried on the business of a paper-maker. He
had seven children, to all of whom he had given a good education. Two of his
sons served the republic in the army of the North. Various were the conjectures
at the time as to the motives for the conduct of this girl ; but none of them, far
from having any foundation in truth, had even probability on their side. We
can assign no reason for her conduct, except that which she herself declared on
her trial. On the 4th of Pi'airial, towards the close of the day, Cécile Renault
presented herself at the door of Robespierre's house ; but there seeming to be
something suspicious in her manner, she was seized, and brought before the
committee of public safety, by whom she was examined, but without ellect. The
committee then ordered a parcel to be produced before the young girl, contain-
ing the entire dress of a woman, which she had left with a seller of lemonade
immediately before her visit to Robespierre's house, and interrogated her on her
motives for providing herself with sucli apparel. She answered that, well know-
ing slie sliould be sent to prison and then to the guillotine, she wished to be
provided with a decent dress for the occasion. She was then asked, ' What use
did you propose to make of the two knives that were found on your person I '
She replied, ' None ; I never designed harm against any living being.' As she
continued to give the same sort of answers to every question put to her by
Fouquier-Tinville on her subse(juent exaTuinations, Ids ingenuity contrived a
species of torture for her. Perceiving that she loved dress, he gave orders to the
keeper of the prison to take her clothes from her, and ])ut iilthy rags on her. In
this condition they compelled her to appear again before the council ; but far from
being ashamed of her appearance, Cécile Renault jested with the public accuser on
the pettiness of his invention. It was then resolved to put her and her family
to death, and she was conducted before the revolutionary tribunal. As she
entered the box appropriated to the accused, she saw among the associates of her
misfortune her fatlier and an aunt by whom she had lieen educated. Her eyes
filled witli tears at the spectacle, but in a short time she regained her serenity.
Not less than eight carriages were prepared to conduct lier accomplices to the
scaffold. This sight of fifty-four condemned persons, each covered with a red
shirt, and surrounded by a strong guard, was contrived to gratify the jealousy of
JUNE 1794 THE FRENCH RE VOL UTION. 423
her arm. She asked to see him, and urgently insisted on
being admitted. She said that a public functionary ought
to be always ready to receive those who have occasion to
speak to him, and at last began to abuse the Duplaix family,*
with whom Eobespierre lodged, because they would not admit
her. From the perseverance and strange air of this young
woman, suspicions were conceived. She was seized and de-
livered over to the police. On opening her parcel, it was
found to contain some clothes and two knives. It was in-
stantly surmised that she intended to murder Kobespierre.
On being questioned, she answered with the same assurance
as Ladmiral. She was asked what was her business with
Eobespierre. She replied that she wanted to see how a tyrant
looked. She was asked what the clothes and the knives were
for. She answered that she had not intended to make any
particular use of the knives ; that, as for the clothes, she had
provided herself with them because she expected to be car-
ried to prison, and from prison to the guillotine. She added
that she was a royalist, because she would rather have one
king than fifty thousand. She was urged to answer further
Robespierre. All eyes sought for the young Renault. The approach of death
liad made no change in her countenance. During the long time occupied in the
march from the Conciergerie to the scafllbld she never betrayed one symptom of
fear. She was even seen to smile more than once. On reaeliing the place of
execution, she descended from the cart with tirmness, and embracing her father
and her aunt, exhorted them to die with constancy. When it was lier turn to
mount the scaffold, she ascended cheerfully, and even seemed eager to bow her
head beneath the axe. " — Du Broca.
* " Robespierre, on his arrival in Paris as a member of the Constituent
Assembly, had taken, in common with a young friend, a cheap lodging ; and on
the evening in which the massacre of the petitioning patriots took place in the
Champ de Mars (1791), he was returning thence in great agitation accompanied
by a crowd crying ' Vive Robespierre ! ' His situation at the moment was
dangerous, for the red flag was still flying. A carpenter of the name of Duplay,
his zealous admirer, invited him to take refuge in his house. Robespierre
accepted the ofl'er, and was persuaded not to return home that night. Duplay
had a wife and three daughters, who were all flattered by the presence of the
great popular leader ; and at length the carpenter proposed that Rol)espierre
should give up his lodgings, and become his inmate and his guest. Domiciled
in this family, Robespierre sought no other society, and gave all his private
hours to this humble circle. Duplay himself received his reward in being
appointed one of the jurors of the revolutionary tribunal, a place of power and
emolument — as was also, we believe, his son. Madame Duplay became con-
spicuous as one of the leaders of those ferocious women who sate daily at their
needlework round the scaff"old. The eldest daughter, Eleouore, who now assumed
the classic name of Cornelia, aspired to captivate Robespierre ; she endeavoured
to become his wife, and ended in passing, in the opinion of the neighbours, as his
mistress. She seems to have had much of her mother's ferocity, for she, with
her sisters and other companions, used to sit at their windows to see the batches
of victims who passed every day to the scafl"old. The second sister married
Lebas, a member of the Convention ; and the third married another member." —
Quarterly Review.
424 HISTORY OF JUNE1794
questions, but refused, and desired to be conducted to the
scaffold.
This evidence appeared sufficient to warrant the conclusion
that young Eenault was one of the assassins armed against
Eobespierre.* To this last circumstance was presently added
another. On the following day, at Choisy-sur- Seine, a citizen
was relating in a coftee-house the attempt to murder Collot-
d'Herbois, and rejoicing that it had not succeeded. A monk,
named St. Anax, who was listening to the account, replied
that it was unlucky that the scoundrels belonging to the
committee had escaped, but he hoped that sooner or later
they would be despatched. The unfortunate man was im-
mediately secured and carried the very same night to Paris.
These circumstances were more than enough to authorize
conjectures of vast ramifications. It was asserted that a band
of assassins was in readiness ; people eagerly thronged around
the members of the committee, begging them to be cautious,
and to take care of their lives, which were so valuable to the
country. The sections assembled, and sent fresh deputations
and addresses to the Convention. They said that, among the
miracles which Providence had wrought in favour of the re-
public, the manner in which Piobespierre and Collot-d'Herbois
had escaped the strokes of the assassins was not the least.
One of them even proposed to furnish a guard of twenty-
five men for the personal protection of the members of the
committee.
The day appointed for the meeting of the Jacobins was two
days afterwards. Eobespierre and Collot-d'Herbois attended,
* " It is rather a curious circumstance that, about the time of Cécile Renault's
adventure, there appeared, at a masked ball in London, a character dressed like
the spectre of Charlotte Corday, who came, as she said, to seek Robespierre, and
inflict on him the doom of Marat." — Scott's Life of Najjoleon.
" Some writers doubt whether there was any real design against Robespierre,
and imagine that, jealous of Collot-d'Herbois being selected as a worthier object
of assassination, he falsely represented himself as having been the first object of
Ladmiral, and got up the scene of Cécile Renault to counterbalance the popu-
larity which the former event was likely to confer on Collot. There is something
to countenance this opinion. Tlie possibility of an intention to assassinate turns
altogether on the fact of the knife or knives. Now, in all the early contempo-
raneous accounts there is no mention of any knife. It is remarkable, too, that,
while the attack on Collot was blazoned by the government in the Convention,
no mention was made of Cecile's attempt till a question was asked about it ; and
then lîarrère made a report in whicli the facts were stated, with, however, the
all-important omission of the knife. That seems to be an afterthought. The
earlier writers state distinctly that Cécile had no knife whatsoever. We think it
probable, nevertheless, that she had some vague intention of imitating Char-
lotte Corday ; she, however, seems to have been a weak-minded, ignorant girl,
who had not thought very distinctly of her object, and not at all of its means."
—Quarterly Review,
JUNE 1794 THE FRENCH BUVOLUTION. 425
and were received with the utmost enthusiasm. When power
has found means to ensure a general submission, it merely
needs that it should allow base minds to act ; and these com-
plete the work of its domination, and add to it divine worship
and honours. Eobespierre and Collot-d'Herbois were gazed
at with eager curiosity. " Look," it was said, " at those valu-
able men ! The God of freemen has saved them. He has
thrown His shield over them, and has preserved them for
the republic. It is right that they should share the honours
which France has decreed to the martyrs of liberty ; she
will thus have the satisfaction of honouring them without
having to weep over their funereal urns." * Collot first spoke
with his usual vehemence, and said that the emotion which
he felt at that moment proved to him how delightful it was
to serve the country even at the price of the greatest perils.
'■' He gathered from it," he said, " this truth, that he who has
incurred any danger for his country receives new strength
from the fraternal interest which he excites. That kind
applause is a new compact of union between all men of
strong minds. The tyrants, held at bay, and feeling their
end approaching, strive in vain to have recourse to daggers,
to poison, to stratagems ; the republicans are not to be daunted.
Are not the tyrants aware that, when one patriot expires
under their blows, all the patriots who survive him swear
upon his grave, vengeance for the crime and the eternity of
liberty ? "
Collot finished amidst applause. Bentabolle proposed that
the president should give Collot and Eobespierre the fraternal
embrace in the name of the whole society. Legendre, with
the eagerness of a man who had been the friend of Danton,
and who was forced to stoop to more than one meanness to
cause that friendship to be forgotten, said that the hand of
guilt was raised to strike virtue, but that the God of nature
had prevented the consummation of the crime. f He exhorted
all the citizens to form a guard around the members of the
committee, and he himself offered to be the first to protect
their invaluable lives. At this moment some sections solicited
admittance into the hall. The enthusiasm was extreme ; but
the concourse was so great that the society was forced to leave
them at the door.
* See the proceedings of the Jacobins on the 6th of Prairial (May 25).
+ " The clubs and the Convention rang with the most fulsome congratulations
on Robespierre's escape, which was openly attributed to the good Genius of the
republic, and to the interposition of the Supreme Being, in gratitude for Robe-
spierre having proclaimed His existence ! Such was the madness of those times ! "
—Hazlitt.
42 6 HISTORY OF JUNE1794
The insignia of supreme power were offered to the com-
mittee, and this was the fit moment for declining them. It
was sufficient for adroit chiefs to cause such marks of dis-
tinction to be offered to them, that they might have the merit
of a refusal. The members of the committee who were present
opposed with affected indignation the proposal for assigning
guards to them. Couthon immediately addressed the Assembly.
He was astonished, he said, at the proposal which had just
been made to the Jacobins, and which had already been sub-
mitted to the Convention. He was willing, indeed, to attri-
bute it to pure intentions ; but none but despots surrounded
themselves with guards, and the members of the committee
had no wish to place themselves on the same footing as despots.
They had no need of guards to defend them. Virtue, the
confidence of the people, and Providence were their protectors.
They needed no other guarantees for their safety. Besides,
they would always be ready to die at their post and for
liberty."
Legendre lost no time in defending his motion. He said
that he did not mean to give precisely an organized guard
to the members of the committee, but to induce the good
citizens to watch over their safety. At any rate, if he was
in the wrong, he would withdraw his motion. His inten-
tion was pure. Eobespierre succeeded him in the tribune.
It was the first time that he had risen to speak. He was
hailed with loud and prolonged applause. Silence was at
length obtained, and he was allowed to begin. " I am one
of those," said he, " whom the events which have just
occurred ought least to interest. Still, I cannot refrain from
a few reflections. If the defenders of liberty are exposed
to the poniards of tyranny, it is no more than might be
expected. I have already said, if we fight the enemy, if
we thwart the factions, we shall be assassinated. What I
foresaw has happened. The soldiers of tyranny have bitten
the dust, the traitors have perished on the scaffold, and
daggers have been whetted for us. I know not what impres-
sion these events make v^pon you ; but that which they have
produced upon me is this : I have felt that it was easier to
assassinate us than to conquer our principles and to subdue
our armies. I said to myself, that the more uncertain and
precarious the lives of the defenders of the people are, the
more anxious they ought to be to employ their last days
in performing actions serviceable to liberty. I, who do
not believe in the necessity of living, but only in virtue
and in Providence — I am placed in a state in which most
JUNE 1794 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 427
assuredly the assassins had no intention to place me. I
feel more independent than ever of the malice of men. The
crimes of tyrants and the weapons of assassins have rendered
me more free and more formidable to all the enemies of the
people. ]\Iy soul is more disposed than ever to unveil the
traitors, and to strip them of the mask with which they
presume to cover themselves. Frenchmen ! friends of equality,
commit with confidence to us the duty of employing the short
remainder of life that Providence may grant us, in combating
tlie enemies that surround you ! " These words were followed
by redoubled acclamations, and transports of enthusiasm burst
from all parts of the hall. Eobespierre, after enjoying this
homage for a few moments, again began to speak against a
member of the society who had moved that civic honours
should be paid to Geffroy. Coupling this motion with that
for_ assigning guards to the members of the committees, he
maintained that these motions were intended to excite calumny
and envy against the government, by loading it with super-
fluous honours. He in consequence proposed and carried
the rejection of that which had demanded civic honours for
Gefifroy.
At the degree of power which the committee had attained
it behoved it to avoid the appearances of sovereignty. It
exercised an absolute dictatorship; but it was not for its
interest that this should be too plainly perceived, and all
the external signs, all the parade of power, would but com-
promise it to no purpose. An ambitious soldier who is victor
by his sword, and who aspires to a throne, hastens to char-
acterize his authority as speedily as possible, and to add the
ensigns of power to power itself ; but the leaders of a party
who govern that party by their influence alone, and who wish
to remain masters of it, must continually flatter it, incessantly
refer to it the power which they exercise, and while governing,
appear only to obey it.
It behoved, therefore, the members of the committee of
public welfare, the chiefs of the Mountain, not to separate
themselves from it and from the Convention, but to repel, on
the contrary, whatever might seem to raise them too high
above their colleagues. People had already changed their
opinion, and the extent of their power struck even persons of
their own party. They already regarded them as dictators,
and it was Ptobespierre in particular whose high influence
began to dazzle all eyes. It was customary to say no longer.
The committee wills it, but Robespierre ivills it. Fouquier-
Tinville said to an individual whom he threatened with the
42 8 H IS TOR Y OF JUNE 1794
revolutionary tribunal, "If it please Eobespierre, thou shalt
go before it." The agents of power constantly named Robe-
spierre in their operations, and seemed to refer everything to
him as to the cause from which everything emanated. To
him the victims did not fail to impute their sufferings ; and
the inmates of the prisons recognized but one oppressor —
Robespierre. Foreigners themselves, in their proclamations,
called the French soldiers Robespierre's soldiers. This ex-
pression occurred in a proclamation of the Duke of York.
Sensible how dangerous the use made of his name was,
Robespierre lost no time in delivering a speech to the Con-
vention, for the purpose of repelling what he termed perfidious
insinuations, the object of which was to ruin him. He re-
peated it at the Jacobins, and there obtained the applause
which was usually bestowed on all his harangues. The Journal
de la Montagne and the Mo7iiteur having given, on the follow-
ing day, a report of this speech, and asserted that "it was
a masterpiece which was not susceptible of analysis, because
every word was equivalent to a sentence, every sentence to a
page," he took up the matter with great warmth, and com-
plained next day at the Jacobins of the journals, which affected
to bepraise the members of the committee, in order to ruin
them by giving them the appearance of being all-powerful.
The two journals were obliged to retract what they had said,
and to apologize for having praised Robespierre, by the assur-
ance that their intentions were pure.
Robespierre had vanity, but was not great enough to be
ambitious. Covetous of llattery and homage, he feasted upon
them,* and justified himself for receiving them by declaring
that he had no desire to be all-powerful. He had around him
a kind of Court, composed of a few men, but chiefly of a great
number of women, who paid him the most delicate attentions.
Thronging to his residence, they manifested the most constant
anxiety for his welfare. They were continually eulogizing
among themselves his virtue, his eloquence, and his genius.
They called him a divine, a superhuman mortal. An old
marquise was the principal of those females who waited, like
real devotees, on this proud and bloodthirsty pontiff. The
enthusiasm of the women is always the surest symptom of
public infatuation. It is they who, by their active atten-
tions, their language, and their solicitude, undertake the task
of throwing ridicule upon it.
With the women who adored Robespierre was associated a
* Sec Illustration 0.
JUNE 1794 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 429
ridiculous and absurd sect that had recently sprung up. It is
at the moment of the abolition of an established religion that
sects particularl}^ abound, because the absolute necessity for
believing something seeks to feed itself with other illusions
in lieu of those which have been destroyed. An old woman,
named Catherine Theot, whose brain was turned in the jirisons
of the Bastille, called herself the mother of God, and pro-
claimed the speedy coming of a new Messiah.* He was to
appear, according to her, amidst convulsions, and at the
moment of His appearance an eternal life was to begin for
the elect. These elect were to propagate their faith by all
means whatever, and to exterminate the enemies of the true
God. Dom Gerle, the Carthusian, who had figured under the
Constituent Assembly, and whose weak imagination had been
led astray by mystic dreams, was one of their true prophets.
Robespierre was the other. His deism had no doubt ob-
tained him this honour. Catherine Theot called him her
beloved son ; the initiated treated him with reverence, and
regarded him as a supernatural being, called to sublime and
mysterious destinies. He was probably apprized of their
follies, and without being their accomplice, he profited by
their error. It is certain that he had protected Dom Gerle,
that he was frequently visited by him, and that he had given
him a certificate of civism, signed by his own hand, to save
him from the persecution of a revolutionary committee. This
sect was widely spread ; it had its form of worship and its
practices, which contributed not a little to its propagation ;
it held its meetings at Catherine Theot's, in a remote quarter
of Paris, near the Pantheon. Here the reception of new
members took place, in the presence of the mother of God,
Dom Gerle, and the principal of the elect. This sect began
to be known, and it was also vaguely known that Robespierre
* " There lived, in an obscure quarter of Paris, an old woman of the name of
Catherine Theot, who had the same mania as our Johanna Southcott, of believing
that, at the age of seventy, she was to become the mother of the Saviour, who was
now to be born again, and to commence His final reign. With maniacs of this
description it was natural that the great name of Robespierre, wlio had made
himself the apostle of deism, should mingle itself with their visions. The
committee of general security heard of these bedlamites — which probably Robe-
spierre himself had never done — and they seized the favourable opportunity of
throwing on him all the ridicule and discredit of their fanaticism. There was
no proof whatever that he knew anything of his fanatic admirers ; the injury,
therefore, to his reputation was not great — but the insult was. His power was
at once too fearful and too fragile to tolerate levity. Its essence was terror and
silence ; and he wished to be spoken of neither en bien ni en mal. At this crisis,
as at all the former, his prudence seems to have made him desirous of withdrawing
from his recent prominence." — Quarterly Review.
430 HISTORY OF JUNE1794
was regarded by it as a prophet. Thus everything contributed
to exalt and to compromise him.
It was among his colleagues more especially that jealousies
began to arise. Divisions already manifested themselves,
and this was natural ; for the power of the committee being
established, rivalries had sprung up. The committee had
split into several distinct groups. The twelve members who
composed it were reduced to eleven by the death of Herault-
Sechelles. Jean Bon St. André and Prieur of La Marne
were still absent on missions. Carnot was exclusively
occupied with the war department, Prieur of the Cote-d'Or
with the army sujjplies, Robert Lindet with provisions.
These were called examiîiers. They took no part either in
politics or in rivalries. Robespierre, St. Just, and Couthon
were linked together. A sort of superiority of mind and
manners, the high opinion which they seemed to have of
themselves, and the contempt which they appeared to feel
for their other colleagues, had led them to form a knot by
themselves. They were called the men of the high hcmd.
Barrère was, in their estimation, but a weak and pusillanimous
creature, disposed by his suppleness to serve anybody ; Collot-
d'Herbois but a club declaimer ; Billaud-Varennes but a man
of moderate capacity — gloomy, and full of envy. These last
three could not forgive this secret disdain of their colleagues.
Barrère durst not speak out ; but Collot-d'Herbois, and par-
ticularly Billaud, whose temper was indomitable, could not
conceal the hatred which began to inflame them. They sought
to prop themselves upon their colleagues called the examiners,
and to gain them to their side. They had also reason to hope
for support from the committee of general safety, which began
to feel sore at the supremacy of the committee of public
welfare. Specially limited to the police, and frequently,
watched or controlled in its operations by the committee of
public welfare, the committee of general safety could ill brook
this dependence. Amar, Vadier, Vouland, Jagot, Louis of
the Bas-Rhin, the most cruel of its members, were at the
same time the most disposed to shake off the yoke. Two of
their colleagues, who were called tlie listeners, watched them
on Robespierre's behalf, and this kind of espionage they could
no longer endure. The discontented in both committees might
therefore unite and become dangerous to Robespierre, Couthon,
and St. Just. We ought particularly to observe that it was the
rivalry of pride and power which commenced the division, and
not a difference of political opinion ; for Billaud-Varennes,
Collot-d'IIerbois, Yadier, Vouland, Amar, Jagot, and Louis
JUNE 1794 TEE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 431
were not less formidable Eevoliitionists than the three adver-
saries whom they sought to overthrow.
Another circumstance tended to widen the breach between
the committee of general safety and the rulers of the com-
mittee of public welfare. Great complaints were made of
the arrests, which daily became more numerous, and which
were often unjust, as they were directed against a great
number of persons known to be excellent patriots. People
also complained of the rapine and vexations of the numerous
agents to whom the committee of general welfare had delegated
its inquisition. Robespierre, St. Just, and Couthon, not daring
to obtain either the abolition or the renewal of this committee,
devised a scheme for establishing an office of police in the
bosom of the committee of public welfare. This was, without
destroying the committee of general safety, to encroach upon
and strip it of its functions. St. Just was to have the direction
of this office, but having been sent to the army, he had not
been able to perform that duty, and Robespierre had under-
taken it in his stead. The office of police caused those who
had been apprehended by order of the committee of general
safety to be set at liberty, and the latter committee acted in the
same manner towards the other. This usurpation of functions
led to an open ru^oture. The disagreement transpired ; and not-
withstanding the secrecy which enveloped the government, it
was soon known that its members were at variance.
Other discontents not less serious arose in the Convention.
It was still very submissive ; but some of its members, who
had conceived fears on their own account, gained somewhat
more boldness from danger. These were old friends of Danton's,
who had compromized themselves by their connection with him,
and who were sometimes threatened as the relics of the party
of the cor7'uptcd and of the induhjcnts. Some had been guilty
of malversation in their functions, and dreaded the application
of the system of virtue. Others had appeared averse from the
exercise of the daily increasing severities. The most com-
promized among them was Tallien. It was said that he had
been guilty of malversation at the commune when he was a
member of it, and afterwards at Bordeaux when on mission
there. It was added that, while in the latter city, he had
suffered himself to be softened and conquered by a young
and beautiful female,* who had accompanied him to Paris,
* " Madame Tallien was above the middle height ; but a perfect harmony in
her whole pei'son took away all appearance of the awkwardness of too lofty a
stature. It was the Venus of the Capitol, but still more beautiful than the work
of Phidias ; for you perceived in her the same perfection of features, the same
432 HISTORY OF JUNE1794
and just been thrown into prison. Next to Tallien was
mentioned Bourdon of the Oise, who was compromized by
his quarrel with the Saumur party, and who had been expelled
from the Jacobins with Fabre, Camille, and I'hilippeanx ; like-
wise Thiiriot, who had also been excluded by the Jacobins ;
Legendre, who, notwithstanding his daily submissions, could
never obtain forgiveness for his former connection with Dan-
ton ; lastly, Fréron,* Barras,! Lecointe, Rovère,| Monestier,
symmetry in arms, hands, and feet ; and the whole animated by a benevolent
expression — a reflection of the magic mirror of the soul, which indicated all that
there was in that soul, and this was kindness. She might have become the
French Aspasia, with whom her wit, her beauty, and her political influence may
serve to establish a comparison, though neither of her husbands was a Pericles.
Madame Tallien was born in Spain, where her father, M. de Cabarrus, a French
banker, settled, and had ac(|uired a great reputation. At twelve years of age
Theresa Cabarrus was the loveliest of all the beauties of Cadiz. Her father sent
her from home at an early age, because he was still too young to take upon him-
self the superintendence of so lovely a daughter. She was seen about this period
by her uncle Jalabert, who could not escape the fascination which the lovely
Theresa, with a look and a smile, exercised upon every man who beheld her.
He wished to marry her, but she gave the preference to ]\I. de Fontenay, to
whom she was united some time after. With a cultivated mind and intellectual
powers of a high order, Lladame Tallien would have possessed, even without her
beauty, more than an ordinary share of attractions. She was always remark-
ably kind and obliging ; but such is the effect on the multitude of a name that
bears a stain, that her cause was never separated from that of her second
husband." — Buchcsse iV Abr antes.
* "Fréron was the earliest object of the affections of Napoleon's second sister
Pauline ; but neither the Emperor nor Josephine would hear of an alliance with
the friend of Robespierre, and ready instrument of his atrocities." — Scott's Life
of Napoleon.
t "Barras, of a good family of Provence, was an officer in the regiment of the
Isle of France. At the Revolution he was deputed to the Convention, but had
no talent for oi-atoiy, and no habits of business. On his return to Paris, after
having been appointed commissioner to the army of Italy, and to Provence, he
helped to oppose Robespierre, marched against the commune which had risen in
favour of the tyrant, and succeeded. Subsequent events brought him into the
Directory. He did not possess the qualifications required to iill that situation,
but he acted better than was expected from him by those who knew him. Ho
put his establishment on a splendid footing, kept a pack of hounds, and his
expenses were considerable. When he went out of the Directory, he had still a
large fortune, and did not attempt to conceal it ; but the manner in which it had
been acquired, by favouring the contractors, impaired the morality of the nation.
Barras was tall ; ho spoke sometimes in moments of agitation, and his voice filled
the house. His intellectual capacity, however, did not allow him to go beyond a
few sentences. He was not a man of resolution, and had no opinion of his own
on any part of the administration of public affairs." — Las Cases.
"Barras was born at Foix, in Provence, in the year 1755, of the family of
Barras, whose antiquity in that quarter had become a proverb. He died in
retirement in the year 1829." — Encydopadia Americana.
X "J. M. de Rovcre, deputy to the Convention, was the son of a very rich inn-
keeper in the country of Venassin. A good education and plausible address
furnished him with the means of introducing himself into the best society,
where he gave himself out as a descendant of the ancient family of Rovère de St.
Marc, which had long been extinct. A man named Pin, well known at Avignon
for his skill in forging titles, made him a genealogy, by means of wliich he found
jUxN E 1 7 94 THE FRENCH RE VOL UTION. 433
Pauls, &c., all either friends of Danton's, or disapprovers
of the system followed by the government. These personal
anxieties propagated themselves. The number of the dis-
contented daily increased, and they were ready to join the
members of one or the other committee who would give
them a hand.
The 20th of Prairial (June 8) approached. It was the day
fixed for the festival in honour of the Supreme Being. On
the 1 6th a president was to be appointed. The Convention
unanimously named Robespierre to occupy the arm-chair. This
was assigning to him the principal part on the 20th. His
colleagues, as we see, still strove to flatter and to soothe
him by dint of honours. Vast preparations had been made,
agreeably to the plan conceived by David. The festival was
to be magnificent. On the morning of the 20th the sun
shone forth in all its brightness. The multitude, ever ready
to attend sights given to it by power, had collected, Robe-
spierre kept it waiting a considerable time. At length he
appeared amidst the Convention. He was dressed with extra-
ordinary care. His head was covered with feathers, and in
his hand he held, like all the representatives, a bunch of
flowers, fruit, and ears of corn. In his countenance, usually
so gloomy, beamed a cheerfulness that was uncommon with
him. An amphitheatre was erected in the centre of the
garden of the Tuileries. This was occupied by the Conven-
tion ; and on the right and left were several groups of boys,
men, aged persons, and women. The boys wore wreaths of
violets, the youths of myrtle, the men of oak, the aged
people of ivy and olive. The women held their daughters
by the hand, and carried baskets of flowers. Opposite to
the amphitheatre were figures representing Atheism, Discord,
Selfishness. These were destined to be burned. As soon as
the Convention had taken its place, the ceremony was opened
with music. The president then delivered a first discourse
on the object of the festival. " Republican Frenchmen ! "
said he, " the ever fortunate day which the French people
dedicated to the Supreme Being is at length arrived. Never
himself grafted oa that illustrious house, and took the title of Marquis de
Foiiville, and soon obtained the hand of a Mademoiselle de Claret, a rich heiress,
whose fortune he afterwards dissipated. In 1791 Rovère figured under Jourdan
at the head of the army of Ruffians of Avignon. In 1793 he voted for the
King's death, and became one of the persecutors of the Girondins. In the ensu-
ing year he declared against Robespierre. In 1795 he presided in the Conven-
tion ; but having afterwards rendered himself obnoxious to the ruling powers,
was transported to Cayenne, where he died in the year 1798." — Biorjraphic
Moderne.
VOL. Ill, 84 *
434 HIS TOR Y OF june 1794
did the world which He created exhibit a spectacle so worthy
of His attention. He has beheld tyranny, crime, and im-
posture reigning on earth. He beholds at this moment a
whole nation, assailed by all the oppressors of mankind, sus-
pending the course of its heroic labours, to lift its thoughts
and its prayers towards the Supreme Being, who gave it the
mission to undertake, and the courage to execute them ! "
After proceeding in this manner for a few minutes, the
president descended from the amphitheatre, and seizing a
torch, set fire to the figures of Atheism, Discord, and Selfish-
ness. From amidst their ashes arose the statue of Wisdom ;
but it was remarked that it was blackened by the flames
from which it issued. Robespierre returned to his place,
and delivered a second speech on the extirpation of the vices
leagued against the republic. After this first ceremony the
assembly set out in procession for the Champ de Mars. The
pride of Robespierre seemed redoubled, and he affected to
walk very far before his colleagues. But some indignantly
approached, and lavislied on him the keenest sarcasms. Some
laughed at the new pontiff, and said, in allusion to the smoky
statue of Wisdom, that his wisdom was darkened. Others
uttered the word " Tyrant," and exclaimed that there were still
Brutuses. Bourdon of the Oise addressed to him these pro-
phetic words : " The T'arpeian rock is close to the Capitol."
The procession at length reached the Champ de Mars.
There, from amidst the old altar of the country, rose a lofty
mount. On the summit of this mount was a tree, beneath
the boughs of which the Convention seated itself. On each
side of the mount the different grou])s of boys, old men,
and women took their places. A symphony commenced ; the
groups then sang stanzas, alternately answering one another.
At length, on a given signal, the youths drew their swords,
and swore to the elders to defend the country ; the mothers
lifted their infants in their arms ; all present raised their
hands towards Heaven, and the oath to conquer was mingled
with the homage paid to the Supreme Being. They then
returned to the garden of the Tuileries, and the festival con-
cluded with public diversions.
Such was the famous festival celebrated in honour of the
Supreme Being. Robespierre had on that day attained the
summit of honours ; but he had attained the summit only to
be hurled from it.* Everybody had been hurt by his pride.
* "All looked forward to soinctliing extraordinary as the result of this im-
posing attitude and ostentatious display on the j)art of Rohespierre. His ene-
mies expected an attempt at usurpation ; the people in general, a relaxation of
JUNE 1794 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 435
The sarcasms had reached his ear, and he had observed in
some of his colleagues a boldness that was unusual in them.*
Next day he went to the committee of public welfare, and
expressed his indignation against the deputies avIio had in-
sulted him on the preceding day. He complained of those
friends of Danton's, those impure relics of the indulgent
and corrupted party, and demanded the sacrifice of them.
• Billaud-Varennes and Collot-d'Herbois, who were not less in-
dignant than their colleagues at the part which Robespierre
had performed the day before, appeared extremely cold, and
showed no disposition to avenge him. They did not defend
,the deputies of whom Robespierre complained ; but referring
to the festival itself, they expressed apprehensions concerning
its effects. It had, they said, alienated many minds. Besides
those ideas of the Supreme Being, of the immortality of the
soul, those pompous ceremonies looked like a return to the
superstitions of former times, and were likely to give a retro-
grade impulse to the Revolution. Robespierre was irritated
by these remarks. He insisted that he never meant to make
the Revolution retrograde — that, on the contrary, he had done
everything to accelerate its course. In proof of this, he
mentioned a 'projet de loi, which he had just drawn up with
Couthon, and which would tend to make the revolutionary
tribunal still more sanguinary. This projet was as follows :- —
For two months past some modifications in the organi-
zation of the revolutionary tribunal had been contemplated.
The defence made by Danton, Camille, Fabre, and Lacroix,
had shown the inconvenience of the remaining formalities
the system of severity. How little this was to understand the nature of the
passions ! The glossy sleekness of the panther's skin does not imply his tame-
ness, and his fawnintf eye dooms its prey while it glitters. Robespierre went on
as before. No ray of hope appeared in his harangue to the people, which was as
dull as it was dispiriting. 'To-day,' he cried, 'let us give ourselves up to the
transports of a pure enjoyment ; to-morrow we will combat vice and tyranny
anew.' These ideas had taken such strong possession of his mind that he was
haunted by them. He was no longer a voluntary agent, but the mere slave of
habitual and violent excitement." — Hazlilt's Life of Naj)oleon.
* " Lecointre of Versailles, stepping up to him, had had the boldness to say,
'I like your festival, Robes])ierre ; but you I detest mortally.' Many among the
crowd muttered the word 'Tyrant,' and when in the course of his speech he had
observed that it was the Great Eternal who had placed in the bosom of the
oppressor the sensation of remorse and terror, a powerful voice exclaimed, ' True,
Robespierre, most true ! " — LacreteUe.
"Robespierre conceived the idea of celebrating a festival in honour of the
Supreme Being, flattering himself, doubtless, w-ith being able to rest his political
ascendency on a religion arranged according to his own notions. But in the
procession of this impious festival he bethought himself of walking the first, in
order to mark his pre-eminence, and from that moment he was lost ! " — Madame
de Staël.
4 3 6 HIS TOE Y OF june 1794
that had been suffered to exist. Every day it was still
necessary to hear witnesses and advocates, and how brief
soever the examination of witnesses, how limited soever
the examination of the advocates, still they occasioned a
great loss of time, and were always attended by a certain
notoriety. The heads of this government, who wished every-
thing to be done promptly and without noise, were desirous
of suppressing these inconvenient formalities. Having accus-
tomed themselves to think that the devolution had a right
to destroy all its enemies, and that they were to be dis-
tinguished on the mere inspection, they conceived that the
revolutionary proceedings could not be rendered too expe-^
ditious. Robespierre, who was specially charged with the
superintendence of the tribunal, had prepared the law with
Couthon alone, for St. Just was absent. He had not deigiied
to consult his other colleagues of the committee of public
welfare, and he merely came to read the projet to them
before he presented it. Though Barrère and Collot-d'Herbois
were quite as willing to admit of its sanguinary dispositions,
they could not but receive it coldly, because it was drawn
up and digested without their participation. It was, however,
agreed that it should be proposed on the following day, and
that Couthon should report upon it ; but no satisfaction was
given to Robespierre for the affronts which he had received
on the preceding day.
The committee of general safety was no more consulted
upon this law than the committee of public welfare had
been. It knew that a law was preparing, but was not invited
to take any part in it. It wished at least, out of fifty jurors
who should be designated, to have the nomination of twenty ;
but Robespierre rejected them all, and chose none but his
own creatures. The proposition was submitted on the 22nd
of Prairial (June 10). Couthon was the reporter. After
the usual declamations on the inflexibility and promptitude
which ought to be the characteristics of revolutionary justice,
he read the projet, which was couched in terrific language.
The tribunal was to be divided into four sections, composed
of a president, three judges, and nine jurors. Twelve judges
and fifty jurors were appointed who were to succeed one
another in the exercise of their functions, so that the tribunal
might sit every day. The only punishment was to be death.
The tribunal, said the law, was instituted to punish the
enemies of the people. Then followed a most vague and com-
prehensive definition of the enemies of the people. In the
number were included dishonest contractors, and the alarmists
JUNE 1794 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 437
who circulated Lad news. The power of bringing citizens
before tlie revolutionary tribunal was assigned to the two com-
mittees, to the Convention, to the representatives on mission,
and to Fouquier-Tinville, the public accuser. If there existed
proofs, either material or moral, no witnesses were to be
examined. Lastly, there was a clause to this effect : To
caliimniated patriots the laiv gives patriot jurors as defenders;
to conspirators it grants none.
A law suppressing all guarantees, limiting the proceeding
to a mere nominal appeal, and which, in attributing to the
two committees the power of sending the citizens to the
revolutionary tribunal, gives them thus the right of life and
death, such a law could not but excite real alarm, especially
in those members of the Convention who were already
uneasy on their own account. It was not said whether the
committees were to have the power of bringing the repre-
sentatives before the tribunal without applying for a previous
decree of accusation : thenceforward the committees would
possess the power of sending their colleagues to death, with-
out any further trouble than that of pointing them out to
Fouquier-Tinville. The remnant of the faction of the so-called
indulgents was accordingly roused, and for the first time
during a considerable period an opposition was manifested in
the bosom of the Assembly. Ruamps moved for the printing
and adjournment of the projet, saying that, if this law were
adopted without adjournment, they would have no other
course left them than to blow out their brains.* Lecointre
of Versailles seconded the motion of adjournment. Robe-
spierre immediately came forward to combat this unexpected
resistance. "There are," said he, "two opinions as old as
our Revolution : one, which tends to punish conspirators in a
prompt and inevitable manner ; the other, which tends to
absolve the guilty : this latter has never ceased to show itself
on all occasions. It again manifests itself to-day, and I come
to put it down. For these two months the tribunal has been
complaining of the shackles which obstruct its progress ; it
complains of the lack of jurors ; a law therefore is required.
* "This decree sounded like a death-knell in the ears of the Convention. All
were at once made sensible that another decimation of the Legislative Body
approached. Ruamps, one of the deputies, exclaimed, in accents of despair, ' If
this decree is resolved oti, the friends of liberty will have no other course left
than to blow their own brains out.' From this moment there was mortal though
secret war between Robespierre and the most distinguished members of the
Assembly, who began to devise means of screening themselves from power which,
like the huge anaconda, enveloped in its coils, aud then crushed and swallowed,
whatever came in contact with it." — ScutVs Life of Napoleon.
438 HISTORY OF JUNE1794
Amidst the victories of the republic the conspirators are more
active and more ardent than ever. It behoves us to strike
them. This unexpected opposition wliich manifests itself is
not natural. You wish to divide the Convention ; you wish
to intimidate it." "No, no," cried several voices; "nobody
shall divide us." "It is not we," added Robespierre, "who
have always defended the Convention, it is not we that it will
have occasion to fear. At any rate we have now ai'rived at
the point where they may kill us, but where they shall not
prevent us from saving the country."
Robespierre never missed a single occasion to talk of daggers
and of assassins, as though he were still threatened. Bourdon
of the Oise replied to him, and said that, if the tribunal was
in need of jurors, it had but to adopt immediately the pro-
jDOsed list, for nobody had any wish to clog the march of
justice ; but that the rest of the projet ought to be adjourned.
Robespierre again ascended the tribune, and said that the
law was neither more complex nor more obscure than a
great many others which had been adopted without discussion,
and that, at a moment when the defenders of liberty were
threatened with the dagger, people ought not to strive to
retard the repression of the conspirators. He concluded with
proposing to discuss the whole law, article by article, and to
sit till midnight, if needful, that it might be decreed that very
day. The sway of Robespierre once more triumphed. The
law was read and adopted in a few moments.
Bourdon, Tallien, and all the members who entertained
personal apprehensions, were nevertheless alarmed at such
a law. As the committees were empowered to bring all the
citizens before the revolutionary tribunal, and not a single
exception was made in favour of the members of the national
representation, they were afraid of being some night appre-
hended and delivered u]i to Fouquier, before the Convention
should even be apprized of it. On the following day, the
23rd of Prairial, Bourdon begged leave to speak. " In giving,"
said he, "to the committees of public welfare and of general
safety the right to send the citizens before the revolutionary
tribunal, the Convention certainly could not mean that the
power of the committees should extend over all its members
without a previous decree." There were cries from all quarters
of "No, no." "I fully expected these murmurs," continued
Bourdon; "they prove to me that liberty is imperishable."
This remark caused a deep sensation. Bourdon proposed to
declare that members of the Convention could not be delivered
up to the tribunal without a decree of accusation. The com-
JUNE 1 794 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 439
mittees were absent ; Bourdon's motion was favourably received.
Merlin moved the previous question. Murmurs arose against
him ; but he explained and demanded the previous question
with a preamble to this effect, that the Convention could
not strip itself of the right of alone decreeing respecting its
own members. The preamble was adopted, to the general
satisfaction.
A scene which occurred in the evening gave still greater
notoriety to this novel opposition. Tallien and Bourdon,
walking in the Tuileries, were closely followed by spies of
the committee of public welfare. At length Tallien indig-
nantly turned round, provoked them, called them base spies
of the committee, and bade them go and tell their masters
what they had seen and heard. This scene caused a strong
sensation. Couthon and Robespierre were enraged. Next
day they went to the Convention, resolved to complain bitterly
of the resistance which they experienced. Delacroix and
Mallarmé furnished them with occasion to do so. Delacroix
desired that those whom the law called comtpters of morals
should be characterized in a more precise manner. Mallarmé
inquired what was meant by these words : The law gives
calumniated patriots no other defender than the coiiscience of
patriot jurors. Couthon then ascended the tribune, com-
plained of the amendments adopted on the preceding day.
and of those which were then proposed. " It was slandering
the committee of public welfare," he said, " to appear to sup-
pose that it wished to have the power of sending members of
the Convention to the scaffold. That tyrants should calum-
niate the committee was perfectly natural ; but that the Con-
vention itself should listen to the calumny — such an injustice
was insupportable, and he could not help complaining of it.
Yesterday a member prided himself on a lucky clamoair which
proved that liberty was imperishable, as if liberty had been
threatened. The moment when the members of the com-
mittee were absent was chosen for making this attack. Such
conduct,'' added Couthon, " is unmanly ; and I propose to
rescind the amendments adopted yesterday, and those which
have just been submitted to-day." Bourdon replied, that to
demand explanations concerning a law was not a crime ; that
if he prided himself on a clamour, it was because he was
pleased to find himself in unison with the Convention ; that,
if the same acrimony were to be shown on both sides, dis-
cussion would be impossible. "I am accused," said he, "of
talking like Pitt and Coburg. Were I to reply in the same
spirit, where should we be ? I esteem Couthon, I esteem
440 HISTORY OF JUNE1794
the committees, I esteem the Mountain, which has saved
liberty."
These explanations of Bourdon's were applauded ; but
they were excuses, and the authority of the dictators was
still too strong to be unreservedly defied. Robespierre then
addressed the Assembly in a prolix speech full of pride and
bitterness. "Mountaineers!" said he, "you will still be
the bulwark of the public liberty ; but you have nothing
in common with the intriguers and the perverse, whoever
they be. If they strive to thrust themselves among you,
they are not the less strangers to your principles. Suffer
not intriguers, each more despicable than the other, because
more hypocritical, to attempt to misguide a portion of you,
and to set themselves up as leaders of a party." Bourdon
of the Oise here interrupted Robespierre, saying that he
had never attempted to set himself up for the leader of a
party. Robespierre, without answering him, proceeded thus :
" It would be the height of disgrace if calumniators, leading
astray our colleagues — " Bourdon again interrupted him. " I
insist," said he, "that the sjseaker prove what he is advanc-
ing; he has asserted in plain terms that I am a villain."
"I have not named Bourdon," replied Robespierre; "woe
be to him who names himself ! Yes, the Mountain is pure,
it is sublime ; intriguers belong not to the Mountain." Robe-
spierre then expatiated at great length on the efforts Avhich
had been made to frighten the members of the Convention,
and to persuade them that they were in danger. He said
that it was the guilty only who were thus alarmed and who
strove to alarm others. He then related what had occurred
the preceding evening between Tallien and the spies, whom
he called the messengers of the committee. This recital drew
very warm explanations from Tallien, and brought upon the
latter abundance of abuse. At length all these discussions
terminated in the adoption of the demands made by Couthon
and Robespierre.* The amendments of the preceding day
were rescinded, those of that day rejected, and the horrible
law of the 22nd was left in its original state.
The leaders of the committee were once more triumphant.
Their adversaries trembled. Tallien, Bourdon, Ruamps, Dela-
croix, Mallarmé, and all those who had made objections to the
* "Robespierre had at this critical period a prodigious force at his disposal.
The lowest orders, who saw tlie Revolution in his person, supported him as the
best representative of their doctrines and interests ; the armed force of Paris
was at his beck ; he ruled with absolute sway at the Jacobins ; and all important
places were fdled with his creatures." — Mvjiiet.
JUNE 1794 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 441
law, gave themselves up for lost, and feared every moment
that they should be arrested. Though a previous decree
of the Convention was still necessary for placing a member
under accusation, it was still so intimidated that it was
likely to grant whatever might be demanded of it. It had
issued a decree against Danton ; it was to be presumed that
it would not hesitate to issue another against such of his
friends as survived him. A report was soon circulated that
the list was drawn up, and the number of the victims was
stated to be twelve, and afterwards eighteen. Their names
were mentioned. The alarm soon spread, and more than
sixty members of the Convention ceased to sleep at their
own homes. -,
There was, nevertheless, an obstacle which prevented their
lives from being disposed of so easily as they apprehended.
We have already seen that Billaud-Varennes, Collot, and
Barrère had replied coldly to the first complaints of Eobe-
spierre against his colleagues. The members of the commit-
tee of general safety were more adverse to him than ever, for
they were to be kept aloof from all co-operation in the law of
the 22nd, and it even appears that some of them were threat-
ened. Ilobespierre and Couthon carried their demands to a
great length. They were for sacrificing a great number of
deputies ; they talked of Tallien, Bourdon of the Oise, Thuriot,
Rovère, Lecointre, Panis, Monestier, Legendre, Fréron, Barras.
They wanted even Cambon, whose financial reputation annoyed
them, and who had seemed adverse to their cruelties. Lastly,
they meant to include in their vengeance several of the
stanchest members of the Mountain, as Duval, Audouin, and
Leonard Bourdon.* The members of the committee of public
welfare, Billaud, Collot, and Barrère, and all those of the
committee of general safety, refused their assent. The danger,
now extending to so great a number of lives, might very soon
threaten their own.
They were in this hostile position, with not the slightest
inclination to agree to a new sacrifice, when another circum-
stance produced a definitive rupture. The committee of general
safety had discovered the meetings that were held at the house
of Catherine Theot. They had learned that this extravagant
sect regarded Robespierre as a prophet, and that the latter
had given a certificate of civism to Dom Gerle. Vadier,
Vouland, Jagot, and Amar immediately resolved to revenge
themselves, by representing this sect as an assemblage of
* See the list given by Villate in his Memoirs.
442 HISTORY OF JUNE1794
dangerous conspirators, by denouncing it to the Convention,
and by thus throwing upon Robespierre a share of the ridicule
and odium which would attach to it. They sent an agent,
named Senart, who, pretending to be desirous of becoming a
member of the society, was admitted to one of its meetings.
In the midst of the ceremony he stepped to a window, gave a
signal to the armed force, and caused almost the whole sect
to be secured. Dom Clerle and Catherine Theot were appre-
hended. Upon Dom Cerle was found the certificate of civism
given him by Robespierre, and in the bed of the mother of
God was discovered a letter written by her to her beloved son,
to the chief prophet, to Robespierre.
When Robespierre learned that proceedings were about to
be instituted against the sect, he opposed that course, and
provoked a discussion on this subject in the committee of
public welfare. We have already seen that Billaud and Collot
were not very favourably disposed towards deism, and that
they viewed with umbrage the political use which Robe-
spierre wished to make of that creed. They were for the
prosecution. Upon Robespierre persisting in his endeavours
to prevent it, the discussion grew extremely warm. He had to
endure the most abusive language, failed to carry his point,
and retired weeping with rage. The quarrel had been so
vehement that, lest they should be overheard by persons
passing through the galleries, the members of the committee
resolved to adjourn their sitting to the floor above. The
report on the sect of Catherine Theot was presented to the
Convention. Barrère, in order to revenge himself in his own
way on Robespierre, had secretly drawn up the report, which
Vouland was to read. The sect was thus rendered equally
ridiculous and atrocious. The Convention, horror-stricken by
some parts of the report, at others diverted by the picture
drawn by Barrère, decreed the accusation of the principal
leaders of the sect, and sent them to the revolutionary
tribunal.
Robespierre, indignant at the resistance which he had
experienced, and the insulting language used towards him,
resolved to cease attending the committee, and to take no
further part in its deliberations. He withdrew towards the
end of Prairial (the middle of June). This secession proves
of what nature his ambition was. An ambitious man never
betrays ill-humour ; he is irritated by obstacles, seizes the
supreme power, and crushes those who have affronted him.
A weak and vain declaimer is pettish, and gives way when
he ceases to meet with either flattery or respect. Danton
JUNE 1/94 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 443
retired from indolence and disgust, Robespierre from wounded
vanity. His retirement proved as fatal to him as that of
Danton.* Couthon was left alone against J3illaud-Varennes,
Collot-d'IIerbois, and Barrére, and these latter were about to
seize the helm of affairs.
These divisions were not yet bruited abroad. People only
knew that the committees of public welfare and of general
safety were at variance. They were delighted at this mis-
understanding, and hoped that it would prevent fresh pro-
scriptions. Those who were threatened, courted, flattered,
implored the committee of general safety, and had even re-
ceived the most cheering promises from some of its members.
Elie Lacoste,t Moyse Bayle, Lavicomterie,J and Dubarran,
the best of the members of the committee of general safety,
had promised to refuse their signatures to any new list of
proscription.
Amidst these dissensions the Jacobins were still devoted to
Robespierre. They made as yet no distinction between the
* " Robespierre, now in liis retirement, began to sink beneath the weight of
a part greatly superior to his talents. New vices, foreign to his temper, but
superinduced by the perturbation of his mind, added to the perplexity that
bewildered him. That man whose heart was, 1 believe, never moved by the
voice or appearance of woman, latterly abandoned himself to debauchery. Often
stretched out in a park, the jiroprietor of which had been his victim, and sur-
rounded by the most degraded women, he sought the gratification of his sensual
appetites. How many torments surrounded Robespierre in his asylum, the
papers there found attest. He received a multitude of letters expressive of the
wildest adoration ; but others contained imprecations that must have congealed
his blood. Read these appalling words that were addressed to him ! ' This hand
that writes thy doom— this hand which thy bewildered eye seeks in vain — this
hand that presses thine with horror — this hand shall pierce thy heart ! Every
day I am with thee — every day I see thee — at every hour my uplifted arm seeks
thy breast. Vilest of men ! live still awhile to think of me. Sleep to dream of
me ! let my image and thy fear be tlie first prelude of thy punishment ! Fare-
well ! This very day, on beholding thee, I shall gloat over thy terrors ! ' " —
Lacrctelle.
t "Lacoste, minister of the marine in 1792, was, before the Revolution, head
clerk in the navy office. Having attached himself to the Jacobins, he gave great
displeasure to the royalists, who looked on him as a coarse aud violent man.
His enemies, however, confess that Lacoste was a worthy man, who, while
following the Revolution, detested its excesses. In the year 1800 Bonaparte
gave him a seat in the Council of Captures, which he still held in 1806." —
Biographie Modirnc.
X "Louis de Lavicointerie, a writer, was deputy to the Convention, where he
voted for the King's death. He was afterwards a member of the committee of
general safety during the Reign of Terror, and participated in tlie proceedings of
the members of the government. Some time after the fall of Robespierre he
presented a statement on morality considered as a calculation ; in this he insisted
that the idea of a retributive and avenging God was absurd, that the liuman
race would be eternal, and that men had no punishments to fear, no rewards
to hope, beyond the present world. In 1798 Lavicomterie obtained a place in
the office for regulating the registers, but was afterwards dismissed, and lived in
obscurity at Paris." — Biographie Moderne. He died in Paris in 1S09.
444 HISTORY OF JUNE1794
different members of the committee, between Coutlion, Robe-
spierre, and St. Just on the one hand, and Billaiid-Varennes,
Collot, and Barrère on the other. They saw only the revolu-
tionary government on one side, and on the other some relics
of the faction of the indulgents, some friends of Danton's, who,
on occasion of the law of the 22nd Prairial (June 10), had opposed
that salutary government. Robespierre, who had defended that
government in defending the law, Avas still in their estima-
tion the first and the greatest citizen of the republic ; all the
others were but intriguers, who must be completely destroyed.
Accordingly they did not fail to exclude Tallien from their
committee of correspondence, because he had not replied to
the accusations preferred against him on the sitting of the
24th. From that day Collot and Billaud-Varennes, aware of
Robespierre's influence, abstained from appearing at the Jaco-
bins. What could they have said ? They could not have
exposed their solely personal grievances, and made the public
judge between their pride and that of Robespierre. All they
could do was to be silent and to wait. Robespierre and
Couthon had therefore an open field.
The rumour of a new proscription having produced a
dangerous effect, Couthon hastened to disavow before the
society the designs imputed to them against twenty-four,
and even sixty, members of the Convention. " The spirits
of Danton, Hébert, and Chaumette still walk among us,"
said he ; " they still seek to perpetuate discord and division.
What passed in the sitting of the 24th is a striking instance
of this. People strive to divide the government, to discredit
its members, by painting them as Syllas and Neros ; they
deliberate in secret, they meet, they form pretended lists of
proscription, they alarm the citizens in order to make them
enemies to the public authority. A few days ago it was
reported that the committees intended to order the arrest
of eighteen members of the Convention ; nay, they were
even mentioned by name. Do not believe these perfidious
insinuations. Those who circulate such rumours are accom-
plices of Hébert and of Danton ; they dread the punish-
ment of their guilty conduct ; they seek to cling to pure
men, in the hope that, whilst hidden behind them, they may
easily escape the eye of justice. But be of good cheer ; the
number of the guilty is ha])pily very small ; it amounts but
to four or six perhaps ; and they shall be struck, for the time
is come for delivering the republic from the last enemies
who are conspiring against it. Rely for its salvation on the
energy and the justice of the committees."
JUNE 1794 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 445
It was judicious to reduce to a, small number the proscribed
persons whom Robespierre intended to strike. The Jacobins
applauded, as usual, the speech of Couthon ; but that speech
tended not to cheer any of the threatened victims, and those
who considered themselves in danger continued nevertheless
to sleep from home. Never had the terror been greater, not
only in the Convention, but in the prisons and throughout
France.
The cruel agents of Eobespierre, Fouquier-Tinville, the
accuser, and Dumas, the president, had taken up the law of
the 22nd of Prairial, and were preparing to avail themselves
of it for the purpose of committing fresh atrocities in the
prisons. Very soon, said Fouquier, there shall be put up
on their doors bills of This house to let. The plan was to get
rid of the greater part of the suspected persons. People
had accustomed themselves to consider these latter as irre-
concilable enemies, whom it was necessary to destroy for
the welfare of the republic. To sacrifice thousands of indi-
viduals, whose only fault was to think in a certain manner,
nay, whose opinions were frequently precisely the same as
those of their persecutors — to sacrifice them seemed a perfectly
natural thing, from the habit which people had acrjuired of
destroying one another. The facility with which they put
others to death, or encountered death themselves,* had become
extraordinary. In the field of battle, on the scaffold, thou-
sands perished daily, and nobody was any longer shocked
at it.f The first murders committed in 1793 proceeded from
a real irritation caused by danger. Such perils had now
ceased ; the re])ublic was victorious ; people now slaughtered
not from indignation, but from the atrocious habit which
they had contracted. That formidable machine, which they
had been obliged to construct in order to withstand enemies
of all kinds, began to be no longer necessary ; but once set
a-going, they knew not how to stop it. Every government
* " During the latter part of the French Revolution it became a fashion to
leave some mot as a legacy ; and the quantity of facetious last words spoken
during that period would form a melancholy jest-book of considerable size." —
Lord Byron.
"One prisoner alone raised piteous cries on the chariot, and struggled in
a perfect frenzy of terror with the executioners on the scaftbld — it was the
notorious Madame du Barri, the associate of the licentious pleasures of Louis
^Y ." — LacreteUe.
t " One of the most extraordinary features of these terrible times was the
universal disposition which the better classes both in Paris and the provinces
evinced to bury anxiety in the delirium of present enjoyment. The people who
had escaped death went to the opera daily, with equal unconcern whether thirty
or a hundred heads had fallen during the day." — Alison,
446 HISTORY OF june 1794
must have its excess, and does not perish till it has attained
that excess. The revolutionary government was not destined
to finish on the same day that all the enemies of the republic
should be sufficiently terrified ; it was destined to go beyond
that point, and to exercise itself till it had become generally
disgusting by its very atrocity. Such is the invariable course
of human affairs. Why had atrocious circumstances com-
pelled the creation of a government of blood, which was to
reign and vanquish solely by inflicting death ?
A still more frightful circumstance is that, when the signal
is given, when the idea is established that lives must be
sacrificed, all dispose themselves for this horrid purpose with
an extraordinary facility. Every one acts without remorse,
without repugnance. People accustom themselves to this,
like the judge who condemns criminals to death, like the
surgeon who sees beings writhing under his instrument, like
the general who orders the sacrifice of twenty thousand
soldiers. They frame a horrid language according to their
new operations ; they contrive even to render it gay ; they
invent striking words to express sanguinary ideas. Every
one, stunned and hurried along, keeps pace with the mass ;
and men who were yesterday engaged in the peaceful occu-
pations of the arts and commerce, are to-day seen applying
themselves with the same facility to the work of death and
destruction.
The committee had given the signal by the law of the 22nd.
Dumas and Fouquier had but too well understood it. It
was necessary, however, to find pretexts for immolating so
many victims. What crime could be imputed to them,
when most of them were peaceful, unknown citizens, who
had never given any sign of life to the State ? It was con-
ceived that, being confined in the prisons, they would think
how to get out of them, that their number was likely to
inspire them with a feeling of their strength, and to suggest
to them the idea of exerting it for their escape. The pre-
tended conspiracy of Dillon was the germ of this idea,
which was developed in an atrocious manner. Some
wretches among the prisoners consented to act the infamous
part of informers. They pointed out in the Luxembourg
one hundred and sixty prisoners, who, they said, had been
concerned in. Dillon's plot. Some of these list-makers were
procured in all the other places of confinement, and they
denounced in each one or two hundred persons as accom-
plices in the conspiracy of the prisons. An attempt at
escape made at La î'orçe served but to authorize this
JULY 1794 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 447
unworthy fable, and hundreds of unfortunate creatures
began immediately to be sent to the revolutionary tribunal.
They were transferred from the various prisons to the
Conciergerie, to be thence taken to the tribunal and to the
scaffold. In the night between the i8th and 19th of
Messidor (July 6), the one hundred and sixty persons
denounced at the Liixembourg were transferred. They
trembled at hearing themselves called : they knew not
what was laid to their charge ; but they regarded it as
most probable that death was reserved for them. The
odious Fouquier, since he had been furnished with the
law of the 22nd, had made great changes in the hall of the
tribunal. Instead of the seats for the advocates, and the
bench appropriated to the accused, and capable of holding
eighteen or twenty persons, an amphitheatre that would
contain one hundred or one hundred and fifty accused at
a time was by his order constrvicted. This he called his
little seats. Carrying his atrocious activity still further, he
had even caused a scaffold to be erected in the very hall
of the tribunal, and he proposed to have the one hundred
and sixty accused in the Luxembourg tried at one and the
same sitting.
The committee of public welfare, when informed of the
kind of mania which had seized its public accuser, sent for
him, ordered him to remove the scaffold from the hall in which
it was set up, and forbade him to bring sixty persons to trial
at once. " What ! " said Collot-d'Herbois in a transport of
indignation, " wouldst thou then demoralize death itself ? "
It should, however, be remarked that Fouquier asserted the
contrary, and maintained that it was he who demanded the
trial of the one hundred and sixty in three divisions. Every-
thing proves, on the contrary, that it was the committee which
was less extravagant than their minister, and checked his
mad proceedings. They were obliged to repeat the order to
Fouquier-Tinville to remove the guillotine from the hall of
the tribunal.
The one hundred and sixty were divided into three com-
panies, tried, and executed in three days. The proceedings
were as expeditious and as frightful as those adopted in the
Abbaye on the nights of the 2nd and 3rd of September.
Carts ordered for every day were waiting from the morning
in the court of the Palace of Justice, and the accused could
see them as they went upstairs to the tribunal. Dumas,
the president, sitting like a maniac, had a pair of pistols on
the table before him. He merely asked the accused their
448 HISTORY OF JULY1794
names, and added some very general question. In the exami-
nation of the one hundred and sixty, the president said to one
of them, Dorival, "Do you know anything of the conspiracy?"
" No." " I expected that you would give that answer ; but
it shall not avail you. Another." He addressed a person
named Champigny. "Are you not an ex-noble?" "Yes."
"Another." To Guedreville, "Are you a priest?" "Yes;
but I have taken the oath." "You have no right to speak.
Another." To a man named Menil, "Were you not servant
to the ex-constituent Menou ? " "Yes." "Another." To
Vely, "Were you not architect to Madame?" "Yes; but I
was dismissed in 1788." "Another." To Gondrecourt, "Had
you not your father-in-law at the Luxembourg ?" " Yes."
" Another." To Ditrfourt, " Were you not in the life-guards ? "
"Yes; but I was disbanded in 1789." "Another."
Such was the summary mode of proceeding with these
unfortunate persons.* According to law, the testimony of
witnesses was to be dispensed with only when there existed
material or moral proofs ; nevertheless no witnesses were
called, as it was alleged that proofs of this kind existed in
every case. The jurors did not take the trouble to retire to
the consultation-room. They gave their opinions before the
audience, and sentence was immediately pronounced. The
accused had scarcely time to rise and to mention their names.
One day there was a prisoner whose name was not on the
list of the accused, and who said to the court, " I am not
accused ; my name is not in your list." " What signifies
that," said Fouquier; "give it — quick!" He gave it, and
was sent to the scaffold like the others. The utmost negli-
gence prevailed in this kind of barbarous administration.
Sometimes, owing to the extreme precipitation, the acts of
accusation were not delivered to the accused till they were
before the tribunal. The most extraordinary blunders were
committed. A worthy old man, Loizerolles, heard along with
his own surname the Christian names of his son called over.
He forbore to remonstrate, and was sent to the scaffold.
Some time afterwards the son was brought to trial ; it was
found that he ought not to be alive, since a person answer-
ing to all his names had been executed : it was his father. He
was nevertheless put to death. More than once victims were
* " The judj^es of the revolutionary tribunal, many of whom came from the
fjalleys of Toulon, laboured incessantly at the work of extcrnunation, and
mingled indecent ribaldry and jests with their unrelenting cruelty to the crowds
of captives who were brought before them. An old man who had lost the use
of speech by a paralytic affection, being jilaced at the bar, the president ex-
claimed, ' No matter, it is not his tongue but his head that wo want.' " — Alison.
JULY 1794 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 449
called long after they had perished. There were hundreds
of acts of accusation c(uite ready, to which there was nothing
to add but the designation of the individuals. The trials
were conducted in like manner. The printing-office was con-
tiguous to the hall of the tribunal : the formes were kept
standing ; the title, the motives, were ready composed ; there
was nothing but the names to be added. These were handed
through a small loophole to the overseer. Thousands of copies
were immediately worked, and plunged families into mourn-
ing, and struck terror into the prisons. The hawkers came to
sell the bulletin of the tribunal under the prisoners' windows,
crying, '' Here are the names of those who have gained prizes
in the lottery of St. Guillotine." The accused were executed
on the breaking up of the court, or at latest on the morrow,
if the day was too far advanced.*
Ever since the passing of the law of the 22nd of Prairial,
victims perished at the rate of fifty or sixty a day. ''That
goes well," said Fouquier-Tinville ; "heads fall like tiles;"
and he added, " It must go better still next decade ; I
must have four hundred and fifty at least." f For this pur-
pose there were given what were called orders to the wretches
who undertook the office of spies upon the suspected. These
wretches had become the terror of the prisons. Confined as
suspected perso)is, it was not exactly known which of them
it was who undertook to mark out victims ; but it was
inferred from their insolence, from the preference shown
them by the gaolers, from the orgies which they held in the
lodges with the agents of the police. They frequently gave
intimations of their importance in order to traffic with it.
They were caressed, implored by the trembling prisoners ;
they even received sums of money not to put names upon
their lists. These they made up at random. They said of
one that he had used aristocratic language ; of another, that
* The following anecdote, recorded by Prudhomme, will serve to convey an
idea of the summary way in which people were tried and executed at this period.
M. de Fleury, who was confined in the Luxembourg in the year 1794, wrote
the following note to Dumas, president of the revolutionary tribunal: "Man
of blood, thou hast murdered my family ; thou wilt condemn to the scaffold
those who this day appear at thy tribunal ; thou mayest condemn me to the
same fate, for I declare to thee that I participate in their sentiments." Fouquier-
Tinville was with Dumas when he received this letter. "Here," said Dumas,
"is a billet-doux — read it." "This gentleman," replied Fouquier, "is in a
great hurry ; he must be satisfied." He immediately issued orders to bring him
from his prison. About noon M. de Fleury arrived at the tribunal, was tried,
condemned in an hour as the accomplice of persons he had never known, and
immediately sent to the scaffold, covered with a red shirt, like the man \vho '
had attempted to murder Collot-d'Herbois. .
t See the long trial of Fouquier-Tinville for these particulars. ' '
VOL. III. 85
4 5 o HISTOR Y OF j ul y 1794
he had drunk on a certain day when a defeat of the armies
was announced ; and their mere designation was equivalent
to a death-warrant. The names which they had furnished
were inserted in so many acts of accusation ; these acts were
notified in the evening to the prisoners, and they were re-
moved to the Conciergerie. This was called in the language
of the gaolers the evenincj journal. When those unfortunate
creatures heard the rolling of the tumbrels which came to
fetch them, they were in an agony as cruel as that of death.
They ran to the gates, clung to the bars to listen to the list,
and trembled lest their name should be pronounced by the
messenger. When they were named, they embraced their
companions in misfortune, and took a last leave of them.
Most painful separations were frequently witnessed — a father
parting from his children, a husband from his wife. Those
who survived were as wretched as those who were conducted
to the den of Fouquier-Tinville. They went back expecting
soon to rejoin their relatives. When the fatal list was finished,
the prisoners breathed more freely, but only till the following
day. Their anguish was then renewed, and the rolling of the
carts brought fresh terror along with it.
The public pity began to be expressed in a way that gave
some uneasiness to the exterminators. The shopkeepers in
the Hue St. Honoré, through which the carts passed every
day, shut up their shops. To deprive the victims of these
signs of mourning, the scaffold was removed to the Barrière
du Trône ; but not less pity was shown by the labouring people
in this quarter than by the inhabitants of the best streets in
Paris.* The populace, in a moment of intoxication, may have
* " It is evident that the better order of the people of Paris had begun to be
weary of, if not disgusted with, these scenes. The guillotine had been originally
placed in the Carrousel ; it Mas removed for the execution of the King to tlie
Place Louis XV. ; there, at the foot of a plaster statue of liberty, it continued
till a few weeks before Robespierre'.s fall. Around the scaffold were placed rows
of chairs, which the passengers hired, as at other places of public an)usenient,
to witness the operations of the ' holy guillotine.' But even of blood the
Parisians will tire, and the inhabitants of the adjoining streets, through which
the batches were daily trundled to execution, began to find that there might
be too much of a good thing. On this, Robespierre transported the guillotine
to the other extremity of Paris, where it was erected near tlie ruins of the l>as-
tille. Put by this time the people of the Faubourg St. Antoine had also become
satiated with massacre ; and after the revolutionary engine had occupied its
new position only four days, and dealt with only seventy-four victims, it was
again removed to an open .space near the Barrière du Trône. There it stood
little more than six busy weeks, in which it despatched fourteen hundred and
three victims ! It was finally conveyed — for Robespierre's own use — to its
original position, in order that he and his friends might die on the scene of their
most remarkable triumjdis. These movements of the guillotine are indicative
of the state of the public mind." — Qiutrlcrly Jiericw.
1
J'r'
; AID) AME EJLHl ABETM,
LoTiaon PiblisTi ed Tay Ricliard Bentle;y &Son,
18 9 5,
J ULY I 7 94 THE FllENCH BE VOL UTION. 4 5 1
no feeling for the victims whom it slaughters itself ; but when
it daily witnesses the death of h'fty or sixty unfortunate per-
sons against whom it is not excited by rage, it soon begins
to be softened. This pity, however, was still silent and timid.
All the distinguished persons confined in the prisons had
fallen ; the unfortunate sister of Louis XVI.* had been immo-
lated in her turn ; and death was already descending from the
upper to the lower classes of society. We find at this period
on the list of the revolutionary tribunal, tailors, shoemakers,
hairdressers, butchers, farmers, publicans, nay, even labouring
men, condemned for sentiments and language held to be
counter-revolutionary.f To convey, in short, an idea of the
number of executions at this period, it will be sufficient to
state that, between the month of March 1793, when the tribu-
nal commenced its operations, and the month of June 1794
(22nd Prairial, year 2), five hvnidred and seventy-seven persons
had been condemned ; and that from the loth of June (22nd
Prairial) to the 17th of July (9th Thermidor) it condemned
one thousand two hundred and eighty-five ; so that the total
number of victims up to the 9tli Thermidor amounts to one
thousand eight hundred and sixty-two.
The sanguinary agents of these executions, however, were
not easy. Dumas was perturbed, and Fouquier durst not go
out at night ; he beheld the relatives of his victims ever ready
to despatch him. In passing with Senard through the wickets
of the Louvre, he was alarmed by a slight noise ; it was caused
by a person passing close to him. "Had I been alone," said
he, ''some accident would have happened to me."
In the principal cities of France terror reigned as absolutely
as in Paris. Carrier % had been sent to Nantes to punish La
Vendee in that town. Carrier, still a young man, was one
of those inferior and violent spirits who in the excitement of
* "The Princesse Elizabeth appeared before her judges with a placid counte-
nance, and listened to the sentence of death with unabated tirniuess. As she
passed to the place of execution, her handkerchief fell from her neck, and
exposed her in this situation to the eyes of the multitude ; whereupon she said
to the executioner, ' In the name of :nodesty I entreat you to cover my bosom."
— Da Broca.
t See Api)endix P.
X "Jean Baptiste Carrier, born in 1756, and an obscure attorney at the
beginning of the Revolution, was deputed in 1792 to the Convention, aided in
the establishment of the revolutionary tribunal, and exhibited the wildest rar'e
for persecution. He voted for the King's death, and in 1793 was sent to Nantes
with a commission to suppress the civil war by severity, which he exercised in
the most atrocious manner. After the fall of Robespierre, Carrier was appre-
hended, and condemned to death in 1794." — Enajdoi^œd'm Americana.
"This Carrier might have summoned hell to match his cruelty without a
demon venturing to answer his challenge."— i'coii's Life of Napoleon.
4 5 2 mSTOR Y OF jul y 1794
civil Will's become monsters of cruelty and extravagance. He
declared, immediately after his arrival at Nantes, that, notwith-
standing the promise of pardon made to the Vendeans who
should lay down their arms, no quarter ought to be given to
them, but they must all be put to death. The constituted
authorities having hinted at the necessity of keeping faith
with the rebels. "You are /.../...." said Carrier to
them; "yovt don't understand your trade; I will send you
all to the guillotine ; " and he began by causing the wretched
creatures who surrendered to be mowed down by musketry and
grape-shot, in parties of one and two hundred. He appeared
at the popular society, sword in hand, abusive language pour-
ing from his lips, and always threatening with the guillotine.
It was not long before he took a dislike to that society, and
caused it to be dissolved. He intimidated the authorities to
such a degree that they durst no longer appear before him.
One day, when they came to consult him on the subject of
provisions, he replied to the municipal officers that that was no
affair of his ; that he had no time to attend to their fooleries ;
and that the first blackguard who talked to him about pro-
visions should have his head struck off. This frantic wretch
imagined that he had no other mission than to slaughter.
He resolved to punish at one and the same time the Vendean
rebels and the federalists of Nantes, who had attempted a
movement in favour of the Girondins after the siege of their
city. The unfortunate people who had escaped the disasters
of Mans and Savenai were daily arriving in crowds, driven by
the armies, which pressed them closely on all sides. Carrier
ordered them to be confined in the prisons of Nantes, and had
thus collected nearly ten thousand. He had then formed a
band of murderers, who. scoured the adjacent country, stopped
the Nantese families, and added rapine to cruelty. Carrier
had at first instituted a revolutionary commission for trying
the Vendeans and the Nantese. He caused the Vendeans to
be shot, and the Nantese suspected of federalism or royalism
to be guillotined. He soon found this formality too tedious,
and the expedient of shooting attended with inconveniences.
This mode of execution was slow ; it was troublesome to bury
the bodies. They were frequently left on the scene of carnage,
and infected the air to such a degree as to produce an epidemic
disease in the town. The Loire, which runs through Nantes,
suggested a horrible idea to Carrier, namely, to rid himself of
the prisoners by drowning them in that river. He made a
first trial, loaded a barge with ninety priests, upon pretext of
transporting them to some other place, and ordered it to be
JULY 1794 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 453
sunk when at some distance from the city. Having devised
this expedient, he resolved to employ it on a large scale.
He no longer employed the mock formality of sending the
prisoners before a commission : he ordered them to be taken
in the night out of the prisons in parties of one and two
hundred, and put into boats. By these boats they were car-
ried to small vessels prepared for this horrible purpose. The
miserable wretches were thrown into the hold ; the hatches
were nailed down ; the avenues to the deck were closed with
planks ; the executioners then got into the boats, and carpenters
cut holes with hatchets in the sides of the vessels, and sunk
them. In this frightful manner four or five thousand persons
were destroyed. Carrier rejoiced at having discovered a more
expeditious and more wholesome way to deliver the republic
from its enemies. He drowned not only men. but also a great
number of women and children.* When the Vendean fami-
lies were dispersed after the catastrophe of Savenai, a gi-eat
number of Nantese had taken children of theirs, with the
intention of bringing them up. " They are wolf-whelps," said
Carrier, and he ordered them to be restored to the republic.
Most of these unfortunate children were drowned.
The Loire was covered with dead bodies. Ships, in weigh-
ing anchor, sometimes raised boats filled with drowned persons.
Birds of prey flocked to the banks of the river, and gorged
* The Marchioness de Larochejaqnelein has given some striking details re-
specting these atrocious massacres, from which we extract the following tr—
" Madame de Bonchamps had prociu'ed a small boat, and attempted to cross the
Loire with her two children. The armed vessels fired upon her, and a cannon-
ball went througli thé boat ; yet she reached the other side, and some peasants
swam after and saved her. She then remained concealed on a farm, and was
often obliged to resort to a hollow tree for safety. In this forlorn situation the
smallpox attacked her and her cliildren, and her son died. At the end of three
months she was discovered, conveyed to Nantes, and condemned to death. She
had resigned herself to her fate, when she read on a slip of paper, handed to her
through the grate of her dungeon, these words — 'Say you are with child.' She
did so, and her execution was suspended. Her husband having been dead a
long time, she was obliged to say that the child belonged to a republican soldier.
She remained shut up, and every day saw some unfortunate woman go to execu-
tion who had been deposited the evening before in her dungeon after receiving
sentence. At the end of three months it being evident she was not pregnant,
she was ordered for execution, but obtained again two months and a lialf as a
last respite, when the death of Robespierre saved her.— Madame de Jourdain was
taken to the Loire to be drownerl witli her three daughters. A soldier wished
to save the youngest, wlio was very beautiful ; but she, determined to share her
mother's fate, threw herself into the water. The unfortunate girl, falling on
dead bodies, did not sink ; she cried out, ' Oh, push me in ; I have not water
enough ! ' and perished. — A horrible death was tliat of Madame de la Roche St.
André. As she was with child, they spared her till she should be delivered, and
then allowed her to nurse her inlant ; but it died, and the next day she was
executed."
454 H [STORY OF JULY1794
themselves with human flesh.''' The fish, feasting upon a
food whicli I'endered them unwholesome, were forbidden by
the municipality to be caught. To these horrors were added
those of a contagious disease and dearth. In this disastrous
situation, Carrier, still boiling with rage, forbade the slightest
emotion of pity, seized by the collar and threatened with his
sword those who came to speak to him, and caused bills to
be posted, stating that whoever presumed to solicit on behalf
of any person in confinement should be thrown into prison
himself. Fortunately he was superseded by the committee
of public welfare, which desired extermination, but without
extravagance. t The number of Carrier's victims is computed
at four or five thousand.]: Most of them were Vendeans.
Bordeaux, Marseilles. Toulon, atoned for their federalism.
At Toulon, Fréron and J3arras, the representatives, had caused
two hundred of the inhabitants to be shot, and had punished
them for a crime, the real authors of which had escaped in the
English squadron. I In the dejjartment of Vaucluse, Maignet
exercised a dictatorship as terrific as the other envoys of the
Convention. He had ordered the village of Bedoing to be
burned, on account of revolt ; and at his request the committee
of public welfare had instituted at Orange a revolutionary
tribunal, the jurisdiction of which extended to the whole of
the South. Tins tribunal was framed after the model of
the revolutionary tribunal of I^aris, with this difference, that
there were no jurors, and that five judges condemned, on what
were termed moral proofs, all the unfortunate persons whom
Maignet picked up in his excursions. At Lyons, the sangui-
nary executions ordered by Collot-d'Herbois had ceased. The
* Deposition of tlie captain of a sliip on Carrier's trial.
t " The Emperor did Robespierre tlie justice to saj^ that he had seen long
letters written by him to liis brother, wlio was then with tlie army in the
provinces, in which he warmly opposed and disavowed these excesses, declaring
that they would dis<:;race and ruin the Revolution." — Las Cases.
X See Appendix Q.
§ "Barras, Fréron, and Robesjiierre the youn.c;er were chosen to execute the
vengeance of the Convention on Toulon. Several thousand citizens of every age
and sex perished in a few weeks by the sword or the guillotine ; two hundred
were daily beheaded for a considerable time ; and twelve thousand labourers were
hired to demolish the buildin,2;s of the city. Among those who were struck
down in one of the fusillades was an old man, who was severely but not mortally
wounded. The executioners, conceiving him dead, retired from the scene of
carnage ; and in the darkness of the night he had strength enough left to raise
himself from the ground and move from the spot. His foot struck against a
bodv, which gave a groan, and stooping down, lie discovered that it was bis own
son ! After the first transpoits of joy were over, they crept aloug the ground,
and favoured by the night, and the inebriety of the guards, they had the good
fortune to escape, and lived to recount a tale which might well have passed for
fi ction . ' ' — A lison.
JULY 1794 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 455
revolutionary commission had just given an account of its
proceedings, and furnished the number of the acquitted and
of the condemned. One thousand six hundred and eighty-
four persons had been guillotined or shot. One thousand six
hundred and eighty-two had been set at liberty by the justice
of the commissioji.
The North had its proconsul, Joseph Lebon.* He had
been a priest, and confessed that in his youth he should
have carried religious fanaticism to such a length as to kill
his father and mother, had he been enjoined to do so. He
was a real lunatic, less ferocious perhaps than Carrier, but
more decidedly insane. From his language and from his
conduct it was evident that his mind was deranged. He
had fixed his principal residence at Arras, f established a
tribunal with the approbation of the committee of ])ublic
welfare, and ti'avelled through the departments of the North
with his judges and a guillotine. He had visited St. Pol,
St. Omer, Bethune, lîapeaume. Aire, and other places, and
had everywhere left bloody traces of his progress. The
Austrians having approached Cambrai, and St. Just, perceiv-
ing, as he thought, that the aristocrats of that town were
in secret correspondence with the enemy, summoned thither
* "Joseph Lebou, born at Arras, at tlio period of the Revohition, connected
himself with Robespierre. After the loth of August he was appointed mayor of
that town ; was then appointed attorney-general of the department, and after-
wards joined the Convention as supplementary deputy. In 1793 he was sent as
commissioner to Arras, where he perpetrated the most flagrant cruelties. In
tiie year 1795 ^^^ '^^^^ condemned to death as a Terrorist. At the time of his
execution he was thirty years of age." — Biographie Mcdcrne.
" Lebon prided himself on his apostacy, libertinism, and cruelty. Every day
after his dinner he presided at the execution of his victims. By his order an
orchestra was erected close to the guillotine. He used to be present at the trials,
and once gave notice of the death of those whom he chose to be sentenced to die.
He delighted in frightening women by firing off pistols close to their ears." —
Prudhomme.
"It is a curious fact, highly illustrative of the progress of revolutions, that
Lebon was at first humane and inoffensive in liis government, and it was not
till he had received repeated orders from Robespierre, with a hint of a dungeon
in case of refusal, that his atrocities commenced. Let no man, if he is not con-
scious of the utmost firmness of mind, be sure that he would not, under similar
circumstances, have done the same." — Duchesse dWbrantès.
t "In the city of Arras above two thousand persons perished by the guil-
lotine. Mingling treachery and seduction with sanguinary oppression, Lebon
turned the despotic powers with which he was invested into the means of
individual gratification. After having disgraced the wife of a nobleman, who
yielded to his embraces in order to save her husband's life, he put the man to
death before the eyes of his devoted consort. Children, whom he had corrupted,
were em])loyed by him as spies on their parents ; and so infectious did the cruel
example become, that the favourite amusement of this little band was putting
to death birds and small animals with little guillotines made for their use." —
Alison.
456 HISTORY OF JULY1794
Lebon, who in a few days sent to the scaffold a multitude
of unfortunate persons, and pretended that he had saved
Cambrai by his firmness. When Lebon had finished his
excursions, he returned to Arras. There he indulged in the
most disgusting orgies with his judges and various members
of the clubs. The executioner was admitted to his table,
and treated with the highest consideration. Lebon, stationed
in a balcony, attended the executions. He addressed the
people, and caused the Ça ira to be played while the blood of
his victims was flowing. One day, having received intelligence
of a victory, he hastened to his balcony and ordered the execu-
tions to be suspended, that the sufferers who were about to die
might be made acquainted with the successes of the republic.
Lebon's conduct had been so extravagant that he was
liable to accusation, even before the committee of public
welfare. Inhabitants of Arras who had sought refuge in
Paris took great pains to gain admittance to their fellow-
citizen, Robespierre, for the purpose of submitting their
complaints to him. Some of them had known, and even
conferred obligations on him in his youth. Still they could
not obtain an interview with him. Guffroy, the deputy,*
who was at Arras, and who was a man of great courage,
spared no efforts to call the attention of the committees to
the conduct of Lebon. He had even the noble hardihood to
make an express denunciation to the Convention. The
committee of public welfare took cognizance of it, and
could not help summoning Lebon. The committee, however,
was not willing either to disavow its agents, or to appear to
admit that it was possible to be too severe towards the
aristocrats. It sent Lebon back to Arras, and in writing
to him, made use of these expressions : " Pursue the good
course, and pursue it with the discretion and the dignity
which leave no handle for the calumnies of the aristocracy."
The complaints preferred in the Convention by Guffroy
against Lebon recpiired a report from the committee.
Barrère was commissioned to prepare it. " All complaints
against representatives," said he, " ought to be referred to
the committee, in order to spare discussions which would
* " Armand Benoit Joseph GutlVoy, an advocate, was deputy to tlie Convention,
wliere lie voted for the King's deatli. Ile was one of tlie most intemperate journalists
of his time. In 1793 lie became one of the committee of general safety. On the
downfall of Robespierre, whose encimy he had become, he joined the Thermidorian
party. In 1794 he denounced Lebon, with whom he had once been very intimate.
Guffroy was subsequently appointed chief assistant in the administration of
justice, and died in the year 1800, about lifty-six years of age." — BM'jraphir
Moderne.
JULY 1794 THE FRENCH RE VOL UTION. 4 5 7
annoy the government and the Convention. Such is the
course which has been followed on this occasion in regard to
Lebon. We have inquired into the motives of his conduct.
Are these motives pure ? — is the result useful to the Eevo-
lution ? — is it serviceable to liberty ? — are the complaints
merely recriminatory, or are they only the vindictive out-
cries of the aristocracy ? This is what the committee has
kept in view in this affair. Forms somewhat harsh have
been employed ; but these forms have destroyed the snares
of the aristocracy. The committee certainly has reason to
disapprove of them ; but Lebon has completely beaten the
aristocrats, and saved Cambrai. Besides, what is there that
ought not to be forgiven the hatred of a republican against
the aristocracy ! With how many generous sentiments has
not a patriot occasion to cover whatever there may be
acrimonious in the prosecution of the enemies of the people !
The Eevolution should not be mentioned but with respect,
nor revolutionary measures but with indulgence. Liberty is
a virgin whose veil it is culjiahle to lift up."
The result of all this was that Lebon was authorized to
proceed, and that Guffroy was classed among the trouble-
some censors of the revolutionary government, and became
liable to share their dangers. It was evident that the entire
committee was in favour of the system of terror. Robe-
spierre, Couthon, Billaud, Collot-d'Herbois, Vadier, Vouland,
Amar, might differ concerning their prerogatives, and con-
cerning their niimber and the selection of their colleagues
to be sacrificed ; but they perfectly agreed as to the system
of exterminating all those who formed obstacles to the Revo-
lution. They did not wish this system to be applied with
extravagance by the Lebons and the Carriers ; but they were
anxious to be delivered promptly, certainly, and with as little
noise as possible, after the example set in Paris, from the
enemies whom they supposed to have conspired against the
republic. While censuring certain insane cruelties, they had
the self-love of ]oower, which is always reluctant to disavow
its agents. They condemned what had been done at Arras
and at Nantes ; but they apjjroved of it in appearance, that
they might not acknowledge a fault in their government.
Hurried into this horrible career, they advanced blindly, not
knowing whither it was likely to lead them. Such is the
sad condition of the man engaged in evil, that he has not
the power to stop. As soon as he begins to conceive a doubt
as to the nature of his actions, as soon as he discovers that
he has lost his way, instead of tui-ning back, he rushes for-
4 5 8 HIS TOE Y OF july 1794
ward, as if to stun himself — as if to escape from the sights
which annoy him. Before he can stop he must be calm, he
must examine himself, he must pass a severe judgment upon
himself, which no man has the coiirage to do.
Nothing but a general rising could stop the authors of this
terrible system. It was requisite that in this rising the
members of the committees, jealous of the supreme power,
the threatened Mountaineers, the indignant Convention, and
all the hearts disgusted by this horrid effusion of blood,
should be associated. But to attain this alliance of jealousy,
fear, and indignation, it was requisite that jealousy should
make progress in the committees, that fear should become ex-
treme in the Mountain, that indignation should restore courage
to the Convention and to the public. It was requisite that
an occasion should cause all these sentiments to burst forth
at once ; and that the oppressors should give the first blows,
in oi'der that the oppressed might dare to return them.
Public opinion was disposed, and the moment had arrived
when a movement in behalf of humanity against revolutionary
violence was possible. The republic being victorious, and its
enemies daunted, people had passed from fear and fury to
confidence and pity. It was the first time during the Revolu-
tion that such a circumstance could have happened. When
the Girondins and the Dantonists perished, it was not yet
time to invoke humanity. The revolutionary government was
not yet discredited, neither had it become useless.
While waiting for the moment, the parties watched one an-
other, and resentments were accumulated in their hearts. Robe-
spierre had entirely seceded from the committee of public
welfare. He hoped to discredit the government of his col-
leagues by taking no further part in it : he appeared only
at the Jacobins, where Billaud and Collot durst no longer
show themselves, and where he was every day more and more
adored. He began to throw out observations there on the
intestine dissensions of the committee. " Formerly," said
he, " the hollow faction which has been formed out of the
relics of Danton and Camille-Desmoulins attacked the com-
mittees €71 masse ; now it prefers attacking certain members
in particular, in order to succeed in breaking the bundle.
Formerly it durst not attack the national justice ; now it
deems itself strong enough to calumniate the revolutionary
tribunal, and the decree concerning its organization ; it attri-
butes to a single individual what belongs to the whole govern-
ment ; it ventures to assert that the revolutionary tribunal has
been instituted for the purpose of slaughtering the National
JULY 1/94 THE FRENCH BE VOL UTION. 4 5 9
Convention, and unfortunately it has obtained but too much
credence. Its calumnies have been believed ; they have been
assiduously circulated ; a dictator has been talked of ; he has
been named ; it is I who have been designated, and you would
tremble v:e,re I to tell you in what 'place. Truth is my only
refuge against crime. These calumnies will most assuredly
not discourage me ; but they leave me undecided what course
to pursue. Till I can say more on this subject, I invoke the
virtues of the Convention, the virtues of the committees, the
virtues of all good citizens, and lastly, your virtues, which have
so often proved serviceable to the country."
We see by what perfidious insinuations Robespierre began
to denounce the committees, and to attach the Jacobins ex-
clusively to himself. For these tokens of confidence he was
repaid with unbounded adulation. The revolutionaiy system
being imputed to him alone, it was natural that all the
revolutionaiy authorities should be attached to him, and
warmly espouse his cause. With the Jacobins were of course
associated the commune, always united in principle and con-
duct with the Jacobins, and all the judges and jurors of the
revolutionary tribunal. This association formed a very con-
siderable force, and with more resolution and energy Robe-
spierre might have made himself extremely formidable. By
means of the ^Jacobins he swayed a turbulent mass, which
had hitherto represented and ruled the public opinion ; by
the commune he had the local authority, which had taken
the lead in all the insurrections, and what was of still more
consequence, the armed force of Paris. Pache, the mayor,
and Henriot,* the commandant, whom he had saved when
* "François Henriot was tlie ofTspring of parents who were poor, but maintained
an irreproachable character, residing in Paris. In his youth he was footman to a
counsellor of parliament. He made no conspicuous fif:;ure in the early period of
the Revolution, but rose by degrees to be commandant of his section, and dis-
tinguished himself bj' his cruelty in the September massacres. At the time of
the contest between the Mountain and the Girondins, Henriot, to serve the pur-
poses of his party, was raised to the command of the national guard. When
the fall of Robespierre was in agitation, he also was denounced, and after in vain
endeavouring to enlist the soldiers in his cause, he took refuge with the rest of
the faction at the Hôtel de Ville. The danger of their situation enraged
Cofinhal to such a degree that he threw Henriot out of a window into the
street, who, dreadfully bruised by liis fall, cre])t into a common sewer, where he
was discovered by some soldiers, who struck him with their bayonets, and thrust
out one of his eyes, which hung by the ligaments down his cheek. He was
executed the same day with Robespierre and the rest of his associates. He went
to the scaffold with no other dress than his under-waistcoat, all over filth from
the sewer, and blood from his own wounds. As he was about to ascend the
scaffold a bystander snatched out the eye which had been displaced from its
socket ! Henriot suffered at the age of thirty-live." — Adolphus.
" Henriot was clerk of the barriers, but was driven thence for theft. He was
46o HISTORY OF JULY1794
they were about to be coupled with Chaumette, were wholly-
devoted to him. Billaud and Collot had taken advantage,
it is true, of his absence, to imprison Pache ; but Fleuriot,
the new mayor, and Payen, the national agent, were just as
much attached to him ; and his adversaries had not dared
to take Henriot from him. Add to these persons, Dumas,
the president of the tribunal, Cofinhal, the vice-president, and
all the other judges and jurors, and we shall have some idea
of the influence which Robespierre possessed in Paris. If
the committees and the Convention did not obey him, he
had only to com])lain to the Jacobins, to excite a movement
among them, to communicate this movement to the commune,
to compel the municipal authority to declare that the people
resumed its sovereign powers, to set the sections in motion,
and to send Henriot to demand of the Convention sixty or
seventy deputies. Dumas, Cofinhal,* and the whole tribunal
would then be at his command, to put to death the deputies
whom Henriot should have obtained by main force. All the
means, in short, of such a day as the 31st of May, more
prompt and more certain than the former, were in his
hands.
Accordingly, his partisans, his parasites, surrounded and
urged him to give the signal for it. Henriot offered, more-
over, the assistance of his columns, and promised to be
more energetic than on the 2nd of June. Robespierre,
who preferred doing everything by words, and who imagined
that he could yet accomplish a great deal by such means,
resolved to wait. He hoped to make the committees un-
popular by his secession and by his speeches at the Jaco-
bins, and he then proposed to seize a favourable moment
for attacking them openly in the Convention. He con-
tinued, notwithstanding his seeming abdication, to direct the
tribunal, and to command an active police by means of an
office which he had established. He thus kept strict watch
over his adversaries, and informed himself of all their move-
ments. He now indulged in rather more relaxation than
formerly. He was observed to repair to a very handsome
then received by the police into the number of its spies, and was again sent to
the Bicetre, which he quitted only to be flogj^cd and branded ; at last, passing
over the piled corpses of September, where he drank of Madame de Lamballe's
blood, he made himself a way to the generalship of the 2nd of June, and finally
to the scaffold." — Prndhommr.
* "Jean Baptiste Cofinhal was born in the year 1746. lie it was who, when
Lavoisier requested that his death might be delayed a fortnight, in order that
he might finish some important experiments, made answer, that the republic
had no need of scholars or chemists." — Universal Biof/raph;/.
JULY 1 794 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 461
coimtry-seat, belonging to a family that was devoted to him,
at Maisons-Alfort, three leagues from Paris, Thither all his
partisans accompanied him. To this place, too, came Dumas,
Oofinhal, Payen, and Flenriot. Henriot also frequently went
thither with all his aides-de-camp ; they proceeded along the
road five abreast, and at full gallop, upsetting all who happened
to be in their way, and by their presence spreading terror
through the country. The entertainers and the friends of
Robespierre caused him by their indiscretion to be suspected
of many more plans than he meditated or had the courage
to prepare. In Paris he was always surrounded by the same
persons, and he was followed at certain distances by Jacobins
or jurors of the tribunal, men devoted to him, armed with
sticks and secret weapons, and ready to hasten to his assistance
in any emergency. They were called his life-guards.
Billaud-Varennes, Collot-d'Herbois, and Barrère, seized, on
their part, the direction of all affairs, and in the absence of
their rival they attached to themselves Carnot, Robert Lindet,
and Prieur of the (Jôte-d'Or. A common interest induced the
committee of general safety to join them. For the rest, they
maintained the most profound silence. They strove to dimi-
nish by degrees the power of their adversary, by reducing the
armed force of l^aris. There were forty-eight companies of
artillery belonging to the forty-eight sections, perfectly orga-
nized, and which had given proofs under all circumstances of
the most revolutionary spirit. From the lOth of August to
the 31st of May they had always ranged themselves on the
side of insurrection, A decree directed that half of them at
least should remain in Paris, but permitted the other part to
be removed. Billaud and Collot had ordered the chief of the
commission superintending the movements of the armies to
send them off successively to the frontiers, and this order had
already begun to be carried into effect. They concealed all
their operations as much as possible from Couthon, who, not
having withdrawn like Robespierre, watched them attentively,
and annoyed them much. During these proceedings, Billaud,
gloomy and splenetic, seldom quitted Paris ; but the witty and
voluptuous Barrère went to Passy with the principal members
of the committee of general safety, with old Vadier, Vouland,
and Amar. They met at the house of old Dupin, formerly
a farmer-general, famous under the late government for his
kitchen, and during the Revolution for the report which sent
the farmers-general to the scaffold. There they indulged in
all sorts of pleasures with beautiful women, and Barrère
exercised his wit against the pontiff of the Supreme Being,
462 HISTORY OF JULY 1794
the chief prophet, the beloved son of" the mother of God.
After amusing themselves, they quitted the arms of their
courtesans to return to Paris into the midst of blood and
rivalships.
The old members of the Mountain, who found themselves
threatened, met on their part in secret, and sought to come
to some arrangement. The generous woman who at Bor-
deaux had attached herself to Tallien,* and snatched from
him a multitude of victims, urged him from the recesses of
her prison to strike the tyrant. Tallien, Lecointre, Bourdon
of the Oise, Thuriot, Panis, Barras, Fréron, Monestier, were
joined by Guffroy, the antagonist of Lebon ; Dubois-Crancé,
compromized at the siege of Lyons, and detested by Couthon ;
Fouché of Nantes, who had quarrelled with Robespierre, and
who was reproached with having conducted himself in a
manner not sufficiently patriotic at Lyons.f Tallien and
Lecointre were the most daring and the most impatient.
Foucho was particularly feared, on account of his skill in con-
triving and conducting an intrigue, and it was against him
that the triumvirs were most embittered.
On occasion of a petition from the Jacobins of Lyons, in
which they complained to the Jacobins of Paris of their
existing situation, the whole history of that unfortunate city
came again under review. Couthon denounced Dubois-Crancé,
as he had done some months before, accused him of having
allowed Precy to escape, and obtained his erasure from the
list of Jacobins. Robespierre accused Fouché, and imputed
to him the intrigues which had caused Gaillard, the patriot,
to lay violent hands on himself. At his instigation it was
resolved that Fouché should be summoned before the society
to justify his conduct. It was not so much the intrigues of
Fouché at Lyons as his intrigues in Paris that Robespierre
dreaded, and was desirous of punishing. Fouché, aware of the
danger, addressed an evasive letter to the Jacobins, and be-
sought them to suspend their judgment till the committee, to
whom he had just submitted his conduct, and whom he had
* " The marriage of Madame Foiitenai witli Tallien was not a happy one.
On his return from E,£jypt a separation took place, and in 1805 she married M.
de Caraman, Prince of Cliimai." — Scott's Life of Napoleon.
t The following extract from a letter written by Foucho to Collot-d'IIerbois
will show the sort of treatment which this bloodthirsty Jacobin adopted towards
the unfortunate citizens of Lyons : " Let us show ourselves terrible ; let us anni-
hilate in our wrath, and at one blow, every conspirator, every traitor, that we
may not feel the pain, the long torture, of punishing them as kings would do.
We this evening send two hundred and thirteen rebels before the thunder of our
cannon ! Farewell, my friend; tears of joy stream from my eyes, and overflow
my heart ! " — Moniteur.
JULY 1794 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 463
furnished with all the documents in his favour, should have
pronounced its decision. " It is astonishing." said Robespierre,
" that Fouché should to-day implore the aid of the Convention
against the Jacobins. Does he shrink from the eyes and the
ears of the people ? Is he afraid lest his sorry face should
betray guilt? Is he afraid lest the looks of six thousand
persons fixed upon him should discover his soul in his eyes,
and read his thoughts there in despite of Nature, which has
concealed them ? The conduct of Fouché is that of a guilty
person ; you cannot keep him any longer in your bosom ; he
must be excluded." Fouché was accordingly excluded, as
Dubois-Crancé had been. Thus the storm roared daily more
and more vehemently against the threatened Mountaineers,
and the horizon on all sides became more overcast with
clouds.
Amidst this turmoil, the members of the committees, who
feared Robespierre, would rather have courted an explanation,
and conciliated his ambition, than commenced a dangerous
conflict. Robespierre had sent for his yoimg colleague, St.
Just, and the latter had immediately returned from the ai'my.
It was proposed that a meeting should take place for the pur-
pose of attempting to adjust theii* diff^erences. It was not
till after much entreaty that Robespierre consented to an in-
terview. He did at length comply, and the two committees
assembled. Both sides complained of each other with great
acrimom^ Robespierre spoke of himself with his usual pride,
denounced secret meetings, talked of conspirator deputies to be
punished, censured all the operations of the government, and
condemned everything — administration, war, and finances.
St. Just sup])orted Robespierre, pronounced a magnificent
panegyric upon him, and said that the last hope of foreigners
was to produce dissension in the government. He related
what had been said by an officer who had been made prisoner
before Maubeuge. The Allies were waiting, according to that
officer, till a more moderate party should overthrow the revolu-
tionary government, and cause other principles to predomi-
nate. St. Just took occasion from this fact to insist on the
necessity of conciliation and concord in future proceedings.
The antagonists of Robespierre entertained the same senti-
ments, and they were willing to arrange matters in order to
remain masters of the State ; but in order to effect such an
arrangement they must consent to all that Robespierre desired,
and such conditions could not suit them. The members of the
committee of general safety complained bitterly that they had
been deprived of their functions. Elie Lacoste had the bold-
464 HISTORY OF JULY 1794
ness to assert that Couthon, St. Just, and Robespierre formed
a committee in the committees, and even dared to utter the
word triumvirate. Some reciprocal concessions were neverthe-
less agreed upon. Robespierre consented to confine his office
of general police to the superintendence of the agents of the
committee of public welfare ; and his adversaries, in return,
agreed to direct St. Just to make a report to the Convention
concerning the interview that had taken place. In this report,
as may naturally be supposed, no mention was to be made of
the dissensions which had prevailed between the committees ;
but it was to treat of the commotions which public opinion had
of late experienced, and to fix the course which the govern-
ment proposed to pursue. Billaud and Collot insinuated that
too much should not be said in it about the Supreme Being,
for they still had Robespierre's pontificate before their eyes.
The former, nevertheless, with his gloomy and uncheering look,
told Robespierre that he had never been his enemy ; and the
parties separated without being really reconciled, but apparently
somewhat less divided than before. In such a reconciliation
there could not be any sincerity, for ambition remains the
same ; it resembled those attempts at negotiation which all
parties make before they come to blows ; it was a hollow
reconciliation, like the reconciliations pi'oposed between the
Constituents and the Girondins, between the Girondins and
the Jacobins, between Danton and Robespierre.
If, however, it failed to restore harmony among the members
of the committees, it greatly alarmed the Mountaineers. They
concluded that their destruction was to be the pledge of peace,
and they strove to ascertain what were the conditions of the
treaty. The members of the committee of general safety were
anxioiTS to dispel their fears. Elie Lacoste, Dubarran, and
Moyse Bayle, the best members of the committee, pacified
them, and told them that no sacrifice had been agreed upon.
This was true enough, and it was one of the reasons which
prevented the reconciliation from being complete. Barrère,
however, who was particularly desirous that the parties should
be on good terms, did not fail to repeat in his daily reports
that the members of the government were perfectly united,
that they had been unjustly accused of being at variance, and
that they were exerting their joint efforts to render the republic
everywhere victorious. He affected to sum up all the charges
preferred against the triumvirs, and he repelled those charges
as culpable calumnies, and common to the two committees.
'•Amid the shouts of victory," said he, "vague rumours are
heard, dark calumnies are circulated, subtle poisons are infused
JULY 1794 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 465
into the journals, mischievous plots are hatched, factitious dis-
contents are preparing, and the government is perpetually
annoyed, impeded in its operations, thwarted in its move-
ments, slandered in its intentions, and threatened in those who
compose it. Yet what has it done ? " Here Barrère added
the usual enumeration of the labours and services of the
government.
While Barrère was doing his best to conceal the discord
of the committees, St. Just, notwithstanding the report which
he had to present, had returned to the army, where important
events were occurring. The movements begun by the two
wings had continued. Pichegru had prosecuted his operations
on the Lys and the Scheldt ; Jourdan had begun his on the
Sambre. Profiting by the defensive attitude which Coburg
had assumed at Tournay since the battles of Turcoing and
Pont-a-Chin, Pichegru had in view to beat Clairfayt separately.
He durst not, however, advance as far as Thielt, and resolved
to commence the siege of Ypres, with the twofold object of
drawing Clairfayt towards him and taking that place, which
would consolidate the establishment of the French in West
Flanders. Clairfayt expected reinforcements, and made no
movement. Pichegru then pushed the siege of Ypres, and
he pushed it so vigorously that Coburg and Clairfayt deemed
it incumbent on them to quit their respective positions, and
to proceed to the relief of the threatened fortress. Pichegru,
in order to prevent Coburg from prosecuting this movement,
caused troops to march from Lille, and to make so serious
a demonstration on Orchies that Coburg was detained at
Tournay. At the same time he moved forward and hastened
to meet Clairfayt, who was advancing towards Rousselaer
and Hooglede. His prompt and well-conceived movements
afforded him an occasion of still fighting Clairfayt separately.
One division having unfortunately mistaken its way, Clairfayt
had time to return to his camp at Thielt, after sustaining a
slight loss. But three days afterwards, Clairfayt, reinforced
by the detachment for which he was waiting, deployed un-
awares in face of our columns, with thirty thousand men.
Our soldiers quickly ran to arms ; but the right division, being
attacked with great impetuosity, was thrown into confusion,
and the left remained uncovered on the plateau of Hooglede.
Macdonald commazided this left division, and found means
to maintain it against the repeated attacks in front and flank
to which it was long exposed. By this courageous resistance
he gave Devinthier's brigade time to rejoin him, and then
obliged Clairfayt to retire with considerable loss. This was
VOL. Ill, 86 *
466 HISTORY OF JULY1794
tlie fifth time that Clairfayt, ill seconded, was beaten by our
army of the North. This action, so honourable for Macdonald's
division, decided the surrender of the besieged fortress. Four
days afterwards, on the 29th of Prairial (June 17), Ypres
opened its gates, and a garrison of seven thousand men laid
down its arms. Coburg was going to the succour of Ypres
and Clairfayt, when he learned that it was too late. The
events which were occurring on the Sambre then obliged him
to move towards the opposite side of the theatre of war. He
left the Duke of York on the Scheldt, and Clairfayt at Thielt,
and marched with all the Austrian troops towards Charleroi.
It was an absolute separation of the principal powers, England
and Austria, which were on very bad terms, and the very
different interests of which were on this occasion most dis-
tinctly manifested. The English remained in Flanders near
the maritime provinces, and the Austrians hastened towards
their threatened communications. This separation increased
not a little their misunderstanding. The Emperor of Austria
had retired to Vienna, disgusted with this unsuccessful war-
fare ; and Mack, seeing his plans frustrated, had once more
quitted the Austrian staff.
We have seen Jourdan arriving from the Moselle at Char-
leroi at the moment when the French, repulsed for the third
time, were recrossing the Sambre in disorder. After a few
days' respite had been given to the troops, some of whom
were dispirited by their defeats, and others fatigued by their
rapid march, some change was made in their organization.
With Desjardins' and Charbonnier's divisions, and the divisions
which had arrived from the Moselle, a single army was com-
posed, which was called the army of Sambre and Meuse. It
amounted to about sixty-six thousand men, and was placed
under the command of Jourdan. A division of fifteen thou-
sand men, under Scherer, was left to guard the Sambre
between Thuin and Maubeuge.
Jourdan resolved immediately to recross the Sambre and
to invest Charleroi. Hatry's division was ordered to attack
the place, and the bulk of the army was disposed all around
to cover the siege. Charleroi is seated on the Sambre.
Beyond it there is a series of positions forming a semicircle,
the extremities of which are defended by the Sambre. These
positions are scarcely in any aspect advantageous, because
they form a semicircle ten leagues in extent, are too uncon-
nected, and have a river at their back. Kleber, with the
left, extended from the Sambre to Orchies and Trasegnies,
guarded the rivulet of Piéton, which ran through the field
JULY 1794 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 467
of battle and fell into the Sambre. At the centre, Morlot
guarded Gosselies ; Championnet advanced between Hepignies
and Wagné. Lefebvre * occupied Wagné, Fleurus, and Lam-
busart. Lastly, on the right, Marceau extended himself in
advance of the wood of Campinaire, and connected our line
with the Sambre. Jourdan, sensible of the disadvantage of
these positions, determined not to remain there, but to leave
them, and to take the initiative of the attack on the morning
of the 28th of Prairial (June 16). At this moment Coburg
had not yet moved towards that point. He was at Tournay,
looking on at the defeat of Clairfayt and the reduction of
Ypres. The Prince of Orange, sent towards Charleroi, com-
manded the army of the Allies. He resolved, on his part, to
prevent the attack with which he was threatened, and on
the morning of the 28th he deployed his troops so as to oblige
the French to fight on the ground which they occupied. Four
columns, directed against our right and our centre, had already
penetrated into the wood of Campinaire, where Marceau was,
taken Fleurus from Lefebvre, and Hepignies from Cham-
pionnet, and were driving Morlot from Pont-a-Migneloup upon
Gosselies, when Jourdan, seasonably arriving with a reserve
of cavalry, stopped the fourth column by a successful charge,
led Morlot's troops back to their positions, and restored the
combat at the centre. On the left, Wartensleben had • made
a similar progress towards Trasegnies. But Kleber, making
the most prompt and happy dispositions, retook Trasegnies,
and then, seizing the favourable moment, turned Wartens-
leben, drove him beyond the Piéton, and pursued him in two
columns. The combat had thus far been maintained with
advantage ; nay, victory was about to declare for the French,
when the Prince of Orange, uniting his first two columns
* "François Joseph Lefebvre, a native of Rufack, of an humble family, was
born in 1755. The Revolution, which found him a veteran sergeant, opened to
him the higher career of his profession. In 1793 he was raised from the rank of
captain to that of adjutant-general ; in December of the same year he was general
of brigade, and the month after, of division. He fought under Pichegru, Moreau,
Hoche, and Jourdan in the Netherlands, and in Germany, and on all occasions
with distinction. Lefebvre was of great use to Bonaparte in the revolution of
Brumaire, and when raised afterwards to the dignity of marshal, was one of
the best supports of the imperial fortunes. In the campaigns of 1805-6-7, he
showed equal skill and intrepidity. After the battle of Eylau, having distin-
guished himself by his conduct at Dantzic, which he was sent to invest, he was
created Due de Dantzic. In the German campaign of 1809 he maintained the
lionour of the French arms, and in 181 3 and 18 14 adhered faithfully to the
declining fortunes of his master. Louis XVIII. made him a peer ; but notwith-
standing this, he supported the Emperor on his return from Elba. In 1816 he
was coniirmed in his rank of marshal, and three years afterwards was recalled to
the Upper Chamber. Lefebvre died in 1820, leaving no issue." — Court and Camp
of Bonaparte.
468 HISTORY OF july 1794
towards Lambusart, on the point which connected the extreme
right of the French with the Sambre, threatened their com-
munications. The right and the centre were then obliged
to fall back. Kleber, giving np his victorious march, covered
the retreat with his troops : it was effected in good order.
Such was the first affair of the 28th (June 16). It was the
fourth time that the French had been forced to recross the
Sambre ; but this time it was in a manner much more honour-
able to their arms. Jourdan was not disheartened. He once
more crossed the Sambre a few days afterwards, resumed the
positions which he had occupied on the i6th, again invested
Oharleroi, and caused the bombardment to be pushed with the
utmost vigour.
Coburg, apprized of Jourdan's new operations, at length
approached the Sambre. It was of importance to the French
that they should take Oharleroi before the arrival of the re-
inforcements which the Austrian army was expecting. Mares-
cot, the engineer, pushed the operations so briskly that in
a week the guns of the fortress were silenced, and every
preparation was made for the assault. On the 7th of Mes-
sidor (June 25), the commandant sent an officer with a letter
to treat. St. Just, who still ruled in our camp, refused to
open the letter, and sent back the officer, saying, "It is
not a bit of paper, but the fortress that we want." The
garrison marched out of the place the same evening, just as
Ooburg was coming in sight of the French lines. The enemy
remained ignorant of the surrender of Oharleroi. By the
possession of the place our position was rendered more secure,
and the battle that was about to be fought, with a river be-
hind, less dangerous. Hatry's division, being left at liberty,
was marched to Kansart to reinforce the centre, and every
preparation was made for a decisive engagement on the fol-
lowing day, the 8th of Messidor (June 26).
Our positions were the same as on the 28th of Prairial
(June 16). Kleber commanded on the left, from the Sambre
to Trasegnies. Morlot, Ohampionnet, Lefebvre, and Marceau
formed the centre and the right, and extended from Gosselies
to the Sambre. Entrenchments had been made at Hepignies
to secure our centre. Ooburg caused us to be attacked along
the whole of this semicircle, instead of directing a concentric
effort upon one of our extremities, upon our right, for instance,
and taking from us all the passages of the Sambre.
The attack commenced on the morning of the 8th of Mes-
sidor (June 26). The Prince of Orange and General Latour, who
faced Kleber on the left, beat back our columns, and drove them.
JULY 1794 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 469
through the wood of Monceaux to Marchienne-au-Pont, on the
bank of the Sambre. Kleber, who was fortunately placed on
the left, for the purpose of directing all the divisions there,
immediately hastened to the threatened point, despatched
batteries to the heights, enveloped the Austrians in the wood
of Monceaux, and attacked them on all sides. The latter,
having perceived, as they approached the Sambre, that Char-
leroi was in possession of the French, began to show some
hesitation. Kleber, taking advantage of it, caused them to
be attacked with vigour, and obliged them to retire from
Marchienne-au-Pont. While Kleber was thus saving one of
our extremities, Jourdan was doing no less for the centre and
the right. Morlot, who was in advance of Gosselies, had long
made head against General Quasdanovich, and attempted
several manœuvres for the purpose of turning him ; but had
at length been turned himself, and fallen back upon Gosselies,
after the most honourable efforts. Championnet, supported
upon the redoubt of Hepignies, resisted with the same vigour ;
but the corps of Kaunitz had advanced to turn the redoubt at
the very moment of the arrival of false intelligence announcing
the retreat of Lefebvi'e on the right. Championnet, deceived
by this report, was retiring, and had already abandoned the
redoubt, when Jourdan, perceiving the danger, directed part
of Hatry's division, which were placed in reserve, upon that
point, retook Hepignies, and pushed his cavalry into the plain
upon the troops of Kaunitz.
While both sides were charging with great fuiy, the battle
was raging still more violently nearer to the Sambre, at Wagne
and Lambusart. Beaulieu, ascending along both banks of the
Sambre at once for the purpose of attacking our extreme right,
repulsed Marceau's division. That division fled in all haste
through the woods bordering the Sambre, and even crossed the
river in disorder. Marceau then collected some battalions, and
regardless of the rest of the fugitive division, threw himself
into Lambusart, to perish there rather than abandon that post
contiguous to the Sambre, which was an indispensable support
of our extreme right. Lefebvre, who was placed at Wagne,
Hepignies, and Lambusart, drew back his advanced posts from
Fleurus upon Wagne, and threw troops into Lambusart, to
support Marceau's effort. This spot became the decisive point
of the battle. Beaulieu, perceiving this, directed thither a
third column. Jourdan, attentive to the danger, despatched
the rest of his reserve to the spot. The combat was kept up
around the village of Lambusart with extraordinary obstinacy.
So brisk was the firing that the valleys could no longer be
470 HISTORY OF July 1794
distinguished. The corn and the huts of the camp took fire,
and the combatants were soon fighting amidst a conflagration.
The republicans at last remained masters of Lambusart.
At this moment the French, at first repulsed, had suc-
ceeded in restoring the battle at all points. Kleber had
covered the Sambre on the left ; Morlot, having fallen back
to Gosselies, maintained himself there ; Championnet had
retaken Hepignies ; and a furious combat at Lambusart had
ensured us that position. Night was now approaching.
Beaulieu had just learned, upon the Sambre, what the Prince
of Orange already knew — that Charleroi was in the possession
of the French. Daring no longer to persist, Coburg then
ordered a general retreat.
Such was this decisive engagement, one of the most san-
guinary in the whole campaign, fought along a semicircle of
ten leagues between two armies of nearly eighty thousand
men each. It was called the battle of Fleurus, though that
village acted but a secondary part, because the Due de
Luxembourg had already shed a lustre on that name in the
time of Louis XI\^ Though its results on the spot were
inconsiderable, and it was confined to a repulsed .attack, it
decided the retreat of the Austrians, and thereby produced
immense results."^ The Austrians could not fight a second
battle. To do this they must have formed a junction either
with the Duke of York or with Clairfayt, and these two
generals were occupied in the North by Pichegru. Being
threatened, moreover, upon the Meuse, it was expedient for
them to fall back, lest they should compromise their com-
munications. From that moment the retreat of the Allies
became general, and they resolved to concentrate themselves
towards Brussels, in order to cover that city.
The campaign was now evidently decided ; but owing
to an error of the committee of public welfare, results so
prompt and so decisive as there had been reason to hope for
were not obtained. Pichegru had formed a plan which was
the best of all his military ideas. The Duke of York was
on the Scheldt opposite to Tournay ; Clairfayt at a great
distance, at Thielt, in Flanders. Pichegru, persisting in his
])lan of destroying Clairfayt separately, proposed to cross the
Scheldt at Oudenarde, thus to cut oft" Clairfayt from the
* The great effect produced on public opinion by the battle of Fleurus has
been erroneously attributed to the influence of a faction. Robespierre's faction
had, on the contrary, the strongest interest to depreciate at the moment the
importance of victories, as we shall presently see. The battle of Fleurus opened
to us Brussels and Belgium ; and it was this that then gave it celebrity.
JULY 1794 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 471
Duke of Yoi'k, and to fight hira once more by himself. He
then meant, when the Duke of York, finding that he was
left alone, should think of joining Coburg, to fight him in
his turn, then to take Coburg in the rear, or to form a junction
with Jourdan. This plan, which was attended not only with
the advantage of attacking Clairfayt and the Duke of York
separately, but also with that of collecting all our forces on
the Meuse, was thwarted by a very silly idea of the committee
of public welfare. Carnot had been persuaded to despatch
Admiral Yenstable with troops to be landed in the island
of Walcheren, to excite insurrection in Holland. To second
this plan, Carnot directed Pichegru's army to march along the
coast and to take possession of all the ports of West Flanders ;
he also ordered Jourdan to detach sixteen thousand men from
his army, and to send them towards the sea. This latter order,
in particular, was not only most injudicious, but likewise most
dangerous. The generals demonstrated its absurdity to St.
Just, and it was not executed ; but Pichegru was nevertheless
obliged to move towards the sea, to take Bruges and Ostend,
while Moreau was reducing Nieuport.
The movements were continued upon the two wings.
Pichegru left Moreau, with part of the army, to lay siege
to Nieuport and Sluys, and with the other took possession
of Bruges, Ostend, and Ghent. He then advanced towards
Brussels. Jourdan, on his side, was also marching thither.
We had now only rearguard battles to fight, and at length,
on the 22nd of Messidor (July 10), our advanced guard entered
the capital of the Netherlands. A few days afterwards the two
armies of the North and of the Sambre and Meuse effected
a junction there. Nothing was of gi-eater importance than
this event. One hundred and fifty thousand French, collected
in the capital of the Netherlands, were enabled to dash from
that point on the armies of Europe, which, beaten on all sides,
were seeking, some to regain the sea, others to regain the
Rhine. The fortresses of Conde, Landrecies, Valenciennes,
and Le Quesnoy, which the Allies had taken from us, were
immediately invested ; and the Convention, pretending that
the deliverance of the territory conferred all rights, decreed
that, if the garrisons did not immediately surrender, they
should be put to the sword. It had passed another decree
enacting that no quarter should in future be given to the
English, by way of punishing all the misdeeds of Pitt against
France.* Our soldiers would not pay obedience to this decree.
* "To this inhuman decree of the Convention, the Duke of York replied by
the following order of the day: 'The National Convention has just passed a
472 mSTOR Y OF july 1794
A sergeant, having taken some English prisoners, brought
them to an officer. " Why hast thou taken them ? " asked the
officer. " Because it was saving so many shot," replied the
sergeant. "True," rejoined the officer; "but the repre-
sentatives will oblige us to shoot them." " It is not we,"
retorted the sergeant, " who will shoot them. Send them to
the representatives, and if they are barbarous enough, why
then let them e'en kill and eat them, if they like."
Thus our armies, which acted at first upon the enemy's
centre, but which they found too strong, had divided them-
selves into two wings, and had marched, the one half along the
Lys, the other along the Sambre. Pichegru had first beaten
Olairfayt at Moucroen and at Courtray, then Coburg and
the Duke of York at Turcoing, and lastly, had defeated
Clairfayt again at Hooglede. After several times crossing the
Sambre, but being as often driven back, Jourdan, brought by
a happy idea of Carnot's upon the Sambre, had decided the
success of our right wing at Fleurus. From that moment the
Allies, attacked on both wings, had abandoned the Netherlands
to us. Such was the campaign. Our astonishing successes
were everywhere extolled. The victory of Fleurus, the occu-
pation of Charleroi, Ypres, Tournay, Oudenarde, Ostend,
Bruges, Ghent, and Brussels, and lastly, the junction of our
armies in that capital, were vaunted as prodigies. These
advantages were anything but gratifying to Robespierre, who
saw the reputation of the committee increasing, and that of
Oarnot in particular, to whom, it must be confessed, the suc-
cess of the campaign was too much attributed. All the good
done by the committees, and all the glory gained by them in
the absence of Robespierre, could not but rise up against him
and constitute his condemnation. One defeat, on the contrary,
would have revived the revolutionary fury for his benefit, fur-
nished him with an opportunity for accusing the committees of
want of energy or treason, justified his secession for the last
four decades, excited an extraordinary idea of his foresight,
and raised his power to the highest pitch. He had therefore
decree that their sokliers shall give no fjuarter to the British or Hanoverian
troops. His Roj'al Highness anticipates tlie indignation and horror which has
naturally arisen in the minds of the brave troops whom he addresses, on receiving
this information. He desires, however, to remind them that mercy to the van-
quished is the brightest gem in a soldier's character, and exhorts them not to
sutfer their resentment to lead them to any precipitate act of cruelty on their
part which may sully the reputation they have acquired in the world. The
British and Hanoverian troops will not believe that the French nation, even
under their present infatuation, can so far forget their character as soldiers as
to pay any attention to a decree as injurious to themselves as it is disgraceful to
their government.'" — Annual Register.
JULY 1794 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 473
placed himself in the most melancholy position, that of wish-
ing for defeats ; and every circumstance proved that he did
wish for them. It did not become him either to give utter-
ance to this wish, or to suffer it to be perceived ; but it was
manifested in spite of himself in his speeches. He strove, in
his addresses to the Jacobins, to diminish the enthusiasm ex-
cited by the successes of the republic ; he insinuated that
the Allies were retiring before us as they had done before
Dumouriez, only to return very soon ; that in quitting our
frontiers for a time, they meant only to consign us to the
passions developed by prosperity. He added that at any rate
" victory over the enemy's armies was not that to which they
ought most ardently to aspire. The genuine victory," said
he, " is that which the friends of liberty gain over factions ;
it is this victory that restores to nations peace, justice, and
prosperity. A nation does not acquire glory by overthrowing
tyrants, or subjugating other nations. It was the lot of the
Eomans and of some other people : our destiny, far more sub-
lime, is to found upon earth the empire of wisdom, justice,
and virtue." *
Robespierre had absented himself from the committee
ever since the last days of Prairial. It was now the com-
mencement of Thermidor. It was nearly forty days since
he had seceded from his colleagues. It was high time to
adopt some resolution. His creatures declared openly that
another 31st of May was wanted: the Dumases, the Henriots,
the Payens,t urged him to give the signal for it. He had
not the same fondness for violent means as they had, and
could not share their brutal impatience. Accustomed to
accomplish everything by words, and having more respect
for the laws, he preferred trying the effect of a speech
denouncing the committees and demanding their renewal.
If he succeeded by this gentler method, he would become
absolute master, without danger and without commotion.
If he did not succeed, this pacific course would not exclude
violent means : on the contrary, it was right that it should
* Speech at the Jacobins, the 2ist of Messidor (July 9).
t The following letter, urging him to adopt decisive measures, was written to
Robespierre at tliis period by Payen, his zealous adherent in the municipality
of Paris : " Would you strike to the earth the refractory deputies, and obtain
great victories in the interior ; bring forward a report which may strike at once
all the disaffected ; pass salutary decrees to restrain the journals ; render all the
public functionaries responsible to you alone ; let tliem be continually occupied
in centralizing public opinion ; hitherto your efforts have been confined to the
centralizii^g of the physical government. I repeat it ; you require a vast report,
which may embrace at once all the conspirators, and blend them all together.
Commence the great work." — History of the Convention.
474 HISTORY OF JULY1794
precede tliem. The 31st of May had been preceded by
repeated speeches, by respectful applications, and it was
not till after soliciting without obtaining their wishes that
people had concluded with demanding them. He resolved,
therefore, to employ the same means as on the 31st of May :
to cause, in the first place, a petition to be presented by the
Jacobins ; to deliver, in the next, a flaming speech ; and lastly,
to make St. Just come forward with a report. If all these
means proved insufficient, he had with him the Jacobins,
the commune, and the armed force of Paris. But he hoped
at any rate not to have occasion to renew the scene of the
2nd of June. He was not bold enough, and had still too
much respect for the Convention to desire it.
For some time he had been preparing a voluminous speech,
in which he laboured to expose the abuses of the government,
and to throw all the evils which were imputed to it upon his
colleagues. He wrote to St. Just, desiring him to come back
from the army. He detained his brother, who ought to have
set out for the frontiers of Italy ; he attended daily at the
Jacobins, and made every arrangement for the attack. As
it always happens in extreme situations, various incidents
happened to increase the general agitation. A person named
Magenthies presented a ridiculous petition praying for the
punishment of death against all who should use oaths in which
the name of God was introduced. A revolutionary committee
ordered some labouring men who had got drunk to be im-
prisoned as suspected persons. These two circumstances gave
rise to many sarcastic observations against Bobespierre. It
was said that his Supreme Being was likely to prove a
greater oppressor than Christ, and that the Inquisition wou^ld
probably be soon re-established in favour of deism ! Sensible
of the danger of such accusations, he lost no time in de-
nouncing Magenthies at the Jacobins as an aristocrat paid
by foreigners to throw discredit on the creed adopted by the
Convention ; he even caused him to be delivered up to the
revolutionary tribunal. Setting to work his force of police,
he had all the members of the revolutionary committee of the
Indivisibilité apprehended.
The crisis approached, and it appears that the members of
the committee of public welfare, and Barrère in particular,
Avould have been glad to make peace with their formidable
colleague ; but he had become so greedy that it was impos-
sible to come to any arrangement with him. Barrère, re-
turning home one evening with one of his confidants, threw
himself into a chair, saying, " That Robespierre is insatiable.
JULY 1794 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 475
Let him demand Tallien, Bourdon of the Oise, Thuriot,
Guffroy, Rovère, Lecointre, Panis, Barras, Fréron, Legendre,
Monestier, Dubois-Crancé, Fouché, Cambon, and the whole
Dantonist tail — well and good ; but Duval, Audouin, Leonard
Bourdon, Yadier, Vouland — it is impossible to consent to
that." We see that Robespierre required even the sacrifice
of some members of the committee of general safety, and
thenceforward peace was wholly out of the question. They
could do nothing but break with him, and run the risks
of the struggle. None of Robespierre's adversaries, however,
would have dared to strike the first blow : the members of
the committees waited to be denounced; the proscribed
Mountaineers waited till their heads should be demanded ;
all meant to suffer themselves to be attacked before they
defended themselves — and they acted wisely. It was much
better to let Robespierre commence the engagement, and
compromise himself in the eyes of the Convention by the
demand of new proscriptions. They would then occupy the
position of men defending their lives, and even those of others,
for it was impossible to foresee any end to immolations if any
fresh one were allowed.
Every preparation was made, and the first movements com-
menced on the 3rd of Thermidor (July 21) at the Jacobins.
Among the creatures of Robespierre was one named Sijas, as-
sistant to the commission of movement of the armies. A grudge
was borne against this commission for having ordered the suc-
cessive departure of a great number of companies of artillery,
and for having thus diminished the armed force of Paris. Still
no one had ventured to prefer any direct charge against it,
Sijas began by complaining of the secrecy observed by Pyle, the
chief of the commission ; and all the reproaches which people
durst not address either to Carnot or to the committee of
public welfare were levelled at this chief of the commission.
Sijas pretended that there was but one way left, namely, to
address the Convention, and to denounce Pyle. Another
Jacobin denounced one of the agents of the committee of
general safety. Couthon then spoke, and said that it was
necessary to go still farther, and to present to the National
Convention an address on all the machinations which again
threatened liberty. "I exhort you," said he, "to submit to
it your reflections. It is pure ; it will not suffer itself to be
swayed by four or five villains. For my pai't, I declare that
they shall never control me." Couthon's suggestion was forth-
with adopted. The petition was drawn up, approved on the
5th of Thermidor, and presented on the 7th to the Convention.
4/6 HISTORY OF july 1794
The style of this petition was, as usual, respectful in manner,
but imperious in matter. It said that the Jacobins came to
pour forth the anxieties of the people into the bosom of the
Convention. It repeated the accustomed declamations against
foreigners and their accomplices, against the system of in-
dulgence, against the alarm excited for the purpose of dividing
the national representation, against the efforts that were made
to render the worship of God ridiculous, &c. It drew no pre-
cise conclusions, but said, in a general manner, " You will
strike terror into traitors, villains, intriguers ; you will cheer
the good ; you will maintain that union which constitutes your
strength ; you will preserve in all its purity that sublime re-
ligion of which every citizen is the minister, of which virtue
is the only practice ; and the people, trusting in you, will place
its duty and its glory in respecting and defending its repre-
sentatives to the last extremity." This was saying very plainly.
You must do what Robespierre dictates, or you will not be
either respected or defended. While this petition was read,
a dead silence prevailed. No answer was given to it. No
sooner was it finished than Dubois-Crancé mounted the tribune,
and without alluding to the petition or to the Jacobins, com-
plained of the mortifications to which for the last six months
he had been subjected ; of the injustice with which his services
had been repaid ; and desired that the committee of public wel-
fare might be directed to make a report on his conduct, though
he said there were in that committee two of his accusers, and
that this report should be presented in three days. The
Assembly assented to his demand, without adding a single
observation, and maintaining the same silence as before. Bar-
rère succeeded him in the tribune. He came to submit a long
report on the comparative state of France in July 1793, and
in July 1794. It is certain that the difference was immense,
and that, if people compared France, torn in pieces at once
by the royalists, the federalists, and the foreign enemy, with
France, victorious on all the frontiers, and mistress of the
Netherlands, they could not refrain from thanksgiving to the
government which had effected such a change in one year.
This eulogy of the committee was the only way in which
Barrère durst attack Robespierre ; nay, he even praised him
expressly in his report. With reference to the vague agita-
tions which prevailed, and the imprudent cries of certain dis-
turbers, who demanded another 31st of May, he said that "a
representative who enjoyed a patriotic reputation, earned by
five years of toil, and by his unshaken principles of indepen-
dence and liberty, had warmly refuted this counter-revolu-
JULY 1794 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. ^77
tionary language." The Convention listened to this report,
and broke up in expectation of some important event. Each
looked at the other in silence, and durst neither question nor
explain.
On the next day, the 8th of Thermidor (July 26), Kobespierre
resolved to deliver his famous speech. All his agents were
prepared, and St. Just arrived in the course of the day.
The Convention, seeing him in that tribune, where he ap-
peared so seldom,* expected a decisive scene. "Citizens,"
said he, "let others draw flattering pictures for you; I come
to tell you useful truths. I come not to realize the ridicu-
lous terrors excited by perfidy ; but I wish to extinguish, if
possible, the torch of discord by the mere force of truth. I
come to defend before you your outraged authority and vio-
lated liberty. I shall defend myself: you will not be sur-
prised at that ; you are not like the tyrants whom you are
combating. The cries of outraged innocence annoy not your
ears ; neither are you ignorant that this cause is not foreign
to you." Eobespierre then expatiated on the agitations which
had prevailed for some time, the fears which had been pro-
pagated, the designs imputed to the committee and to him
against the Convention. "We," exclaimed he, "attack the
Convention ! and what are we without it ? Who defended
it at the peril of his life? Who devoted himself to rescue
it from the hands of the factions?" To these questions
Robespierre replied that it was he ; and he called his having
torn from the bosom of the Convention Brissot, Vergniaud,
Gensonné, Petion, Barbaroux, Danton, Camille-Desmoulins,
&c., defending it against factions. He expressed his astonish-
ment that, after the proofs of devotedness which he had
given, sinister rumours should be circulated concerning him.
"Is it true," said he, " that odious lists have been handed
about, marking out for victims a certain number of members
of the Convention, which lists were alleged to be the work
of the committee of public welfare, and afterwards mine ?
Is it true that people have dared to suppose meetings of
* "About this time Robespierre received a deputation from the department of
Aisne, which came to him to complain of the operations of government, lamenting
also that he had been a stranger to them for upwards of a month, having seldom
or never attended the public sittings during that period. 'The Convention,'
replied Robespierre, ' gangrened as it is by corruption, has no longer the power
to save the republic. Both will perish. The proscription of the patriots is the
order of the day. For myself, I have already one foot in the grave ; in a few
days I shall have the other there. The rest is in the hands of Providence.' He
was a little unwell at this time, and he designedly exaggerated his own dis-
couragement and fears, and the danger of the republic, in order to inflame the
patriots, and to connect the destiny of the Revolution with his own." — Mignet.
478 HISTORY OF JULY1794
the committee, rigorous resolutions which never existed, and
arrests equally chimerical ? Is it true that pains have been
taken to persuade a certain number of irreproachable repre-
sentatives that their destruction was resolved upon ? — all those
who, by some error, had paid an inevitable tribute to the
fatality of circumstances and to human frailty, that they were
doomed to the fate of conspirators ? Is it true that imposture
has been propagated with such art and audacity, that a great
number of members ceased to sleep at their own homes ?
Yes, the facts are certain, and the proofs of them are before
the committee of public welfare ! "
He then complained that the accusation preferred en masse
against the committees came at length to be levelled at him
alone. He represented that his name had been given to all
the evil that had been done in the government ; that if
patriots were imprisoned instead of aristocrats, it was said,
It is Bohespierre who desires it ; that if some patriots had
fallen, it was said. It is Robespierre %olio ordered it; that if
numerous agents of the committee of general safety practised
everywhere their extortion and theii' rapine, it was said, It
is Bohespierre tvho sends them; and if a new law robbed the
stockholders, it was said. It is Robespierre who ruins them..
He then said that he was represented as the author of all
sorts of evils, for the purpose of ruining him ; that he had
been called a tyrant; and that, on the festival in honour of
the Supreme Being — that day when the Convention struck
to the earth atheism and priestly despotism with one blow,
when it attached all generous hearts to the Revolution —
that day, in short, of happiness and pure intoxication — the
president of the National Convention, while addressing the
assembled people, was insulted by guilty men, and that those
men were representatives ! He had been called a tyrant ! and
why ? because he had acquired some influence by speaking
the language of truth. "And what do ye pretend to," he
exclaimed, "ye who wish truth to be powerless in the mouths
of the representatives of the French people ? Truth assuredly
has her power, her anger, her despotism : she has her touching
and her terrible accents, which vibrate with force in pure
hearts as well as in guilty consciences, and which it is not
given to falsehood to imitate, any more than to Salmoneus to
imitate the lightning of heaven. But blame the nation for
this, blame the people, who feel and who love it. Who am I
— I, who am accused ? — a slave of liberty, a living martyr of
the republic, the victim as much as the enemy of crime.
Every scoundrel abuses me. The most indifferent, the most
JULY 1794 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 479
legitimate actions on the part of others are crimes in me. A
man is slandered as soon as it is known that he is acquainted
with me. Others are forgiven their misdeeds ; as for me, my
zeal is made a crime. Take from me my conscience, and I am
the most miserable of men ; I do not even enjoy the rights
of citizen ; nay, I am not even allowed to fulfil the duties of
a representative of the people."
Robespierre thus defended himself by subtle and diffuse
declamations, and for the first time he found the Convention
sullen, silent, and seemingly weary of the length of his
speech. At last he came to the pith of the question — he
proceeded to accuse others. Surveying all the departments of
the government, he first censured with iniquitous malice the
financial system. Author of the law of the 22nd of Prairial
(June 10), he expatiated with profound pity on the law con-
cerning life annuities ; there was nothing even to the maximum
but what he seemed to condemn, saying that intriguers had
hurried the Convention into violent measures. " In whose
hands are the finances ?" he exclaimed. " In the hands of
Feuillans, of known rogues, of the Cambons, the Mallarmes,
the Ramels." He then passed to the war department, spoke
with disdain of those victories, which had just been described
with academic levity, as though they had not cost either blood
or toil. " Keep an eye," cried he, " keep a vigilant eye on
victory ; keep a vigilant eye on Belgium. Your enemies are
retiring and leaving you to your intestine divisions ; think
of the end of the campaign. Division has been sown among
the generals ; the military aristocracy is protected ; the faith-
ful generals are persecuted ; the military administration wraps
itself up in a suspicious authority. These truths are certainly
as valuable as epigrams." He said no more of Carnot and
Barrère, leaving to St. Just * the task of censuring Carnot's
plans. We see that this wretched man flung over everything
the poison that was consuming him. He next expatiated on
the committee of general safety, on the multitude of its agents,
on their cruelties, their rapine ; he denounced Amar and Jagot
as having seized the police, and doing everything to discredit
the revolutionary government. He complained of the sneers
uttered in the tribune respecting Catherine Theot, and asserted
that men encouraged the belief of feigned conspiracies in order
to conceal real ones. He described the two committees as
* " St. Just, who had just arrived from the army, was no sooner apprized by
Robespierre of the state of aflairs than he perceived that no time was to be lost,
and urged Robespierre to act. His maxim was, to strike quietly and strongly.
'Dare ! ' said he ; 'that is the secret of revolutions.' " — Mignet.
48 o HISTORY OF JULY1794
addicted to intrigues, and engaged in some measure in the
designs of the anti-national faction. In the whole existing
system he found nothing good but the revohdio7iary govern-
ment, and in that only the principle, not the execution. The
principle was his : it was he who caused that government to
be instituted ; but it was his adversaries who spoiled it.
Such is the substance of Robespierre's voluminous declama-
tions. At length he concluded with this summary : " We
assert that there exists a conspiracy against the public liberty ;
that it owes its strength to a criminal coalition which intrigues
in the very bosom of the Convention ; that this coalition has
accomplices in the committee of general safety, and in the
bureaux of that committee which they govern ; that the
enemies of the republic have opposed this committee to the
committee of public welfare, and thus constituted two govern-
ments ; that members of the committee of public welfare are
engaged in this plot ; that the coalition thus formed is striving
to ruin the patriots and the country. What is the remedy
for this evil ? To punish the traitors, to renew the bureaux
of the committee of general safety ; to purify that committee
itself, and to render it subordinate to the committee of public
welfare ; to purify even the committee of public welfare ; to
constitute the government under the supreme authority of the
National Convention, which is the centre and the judge, and
thus to crush all the factions with the weight of the national
authority, in order to raise upon their ruins the power of
justice and liberty. Such are the principles. If it is im-
possible to claim them without passing for an ambitious man,
I shall conclude that princi]îles are proscribed, and that tyranny
reigns among us. But I shall not on that account be silent ;
for what can be objected to a man who is in the right, and
who is ready to die for his country ? I am made to combat
crime — not to govern it. The time is not yet arrived when
good men can serve their country with impunity."
In silence Robespierre began his speech, in silence he con-
cluded it.* In all parts of the hall the members continued
mute, with their eyes fixed on him. Those deputies, once
such warm admirers, were turned to ice. They expressed
nothing, and seemed to have the courage to remain cold,
since the tyrants, divided among themselves, took them for
* " The speech vvliich Robespierre addressed to the Convention was as menac-
ing as the first distant rnstle of the Imrricane, and dark and lurid as the eclipse
which announces its approach. Tlie haughty and sullen dictator saw in the
open slight which was put upon his measures and opinions, the sure mark of his
approaching fall." — Scott's Life of Napoleon.
JULY 1794 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 481
judges. All faces had become impenetrable. A faint mur-
mur gradually arose in the Assembly ; but for some time no
one durst speak. Lecointre of Versailles, one of the most
energetic of Eobespierre's enemies, was the first to address
the Assembly ; but it was to move that his speech should
be printed — such was still the hesitation, even of the boldest,
to commence the attack. Bourdon of the Oise ventured to
oppose the motion for printing, saying that the speech in-
volved questions too serious, and he proposed that it should
be referred to the two committees. Barrère, always prudent,
supported the motion for printing, alleging that in a free
country everything ought to be printed. Couthon rushed
to the tribune, indignant at witnessing a discussion instead
of a burst of enthusiasm, and insisted that the speech should
not only be printed, but be sent to all the communes and
all the armies. He could not forbear, he said, to pour
forth the feelings of his wounded heart, since, for some
time past, the deputies most faithful to the cause of the
people had been loaded with abuse ; they were accused of
shedding blood, and of desiring to shed more ; and yet, if
he believed that he had contributed to the destruction of
one innocent person, he should die of grief. The speech
of Couthon awakened all the submission that was left in
the Assembly. It voted that the speech should be printed
and sent to all the municipalities.
The adversaries of Robespierre seemed likely to have the
disadvantage ; but Vadier, Cambon, Billaud-Varennes, Panis,
Amar, desired to be heard in reply to Robespierre. Courage
revived with the danger, and the conflict commenced. All
wanted to speak at once. The turn of each was fixed. Vadier
was first permitted to explain. He justified the committee of
general safety, and maintained that the report concerning
Catherine Theot had for its object to reveal a real, a deep
conspiracy ; and he added, in a significant tone, that he
possessed documents proving its importance and its danger.
Cambon justified his financial laws and his integrity, which
was universally known and admired, in a jDost which offered
such strong temptations. He spoke with his usual impetu-
osity ; he proved that none but stockjobbers could be hurt
by his financial measures ; and then throwing off the reserve
which had been kept up thus far, " It is high time," he
exclaimed, "to tell the whole truth. Is it I who desei*ve
to be accused of having made myself master in any way ?
The man who had made himself master of everything, the
man who paralyzed your will, is the man who has just
VOL. III. 87
482 HISTORY OF JULY1794
spoken — is Kobespierre ! " This vehemence disconcerted
Robespierre. As if he had been accused of having played
the tyrant in financial matters, he declared that he had
never meddled with finances, that of course he could never
control the Convention in this matter, and that at any
rate, in attacking Cambon's plans, he meant not to attack
his intentions. He had nevertheless called him a rogue.
Billaud-Varennes, a no less formidable antagonist,* said that
it was high time to bring forward all truths in evidence.
He spoke of the absence of Robespierre from the committees,
of the removal of the companies of artillery, only fifteen of
which had been sent away, though the law allowed twenty-
four to be despatched. He added that he was determined
to tear off all masks, and he had rather that his dead
body should serve for a footstool to an ambitious man than
authorize his proceedings by his silence. He demanded the
report of the decree which ordered the printing of the speech.
Panis complained of the continual calumnies of Robespierre,
who wished to make him pass for the author of the massacres
of September ; and he challenged him and Couthon to speak
out respecting the five or six deputies, the sacrifice of whom
they had been for a month past incessantly demanding at
the Jacobins. On all sides this explanation was called for.
Robespierre replied with hesitation that he had come to un-
veil abuses, and had not undertaken to justify or accuse this
or the other person. "Name, name the individuals!" was
the cry. Robespierre still shuffled, and said that, " after
he had had the courage to communicate to the Convention
counsels which he deemed useful, he did not think — " He
was again interrupted. " You who pretend to have the
courage of virtue," cried Charlier, " have that of truth.
Name, name the individuals ! " The confusion increased. The
question of printing was resumed. Amar insisted on referring
the speech to the committee. Barrère, perceiving the advantage
of siding with those who were for referring to the committees,
made a sort of apology for having proposed a different course.
At last the Convention revoked its decision, and declared
that Robespierre's speech, instead of being printed, should
be referred to the consideration of the two committees.
* " Billaud-Varennes was the most formidable of Robespierre's antagonists.
Both were ambitious of reigning over the ruins and the tombs with which they
had covered France. But Robespierre had reached the point where his ambition
could no longer be concealed. Billaud was still able to dissemble his. The
tyrant was as lugubrious as death, which ever attended him in all his steps.
Such, and perhaps more gloomy still, was Billaud ; but he enveloped his projects
in deeper obscurity, and jirepared his blows with greater art." — Lacretdle.
JULY 1 7 9 4 THE FRENCH RE VOL UTIOK 483
This sitting was a truly extraordinary event. All the depu-
ties, habitually so submissive, had again taken courage. As
for Robespierre, who never had anything but superciliousness
without daring, he was surprised, vexed, and dejected. He
had need to recruit himself; he hurried to his trusty Jacobins,
to meet his friends, and to borrow courage from them. They
were already apprized of the event. He was impatiently ex-
pected. No sooner did he appear than he was greeted with
applause. Couthon followed him and shared the acclamations.
He was requested to read the speech. Eobespierre took up
two full hours in repeating it to them. They interrupted him
every moment by frenzied shouts and plaudits. As soon as
he had finished he added a few words of mortification and
grief. "This speech which you have just heard," said he, "is
my last will and testament. This I perceived to-day. The
league of the wicked is so strong that I cannot hope to escape
it. I fall without regret ; I leave you my memory ; it will be
dear to you, and you will defend it." At these words his
friends cried out that it was not time to give way to fear and
despair ; that, on the contrary, they would avenge the father
of the country on all the wicked united. Henriot, Dumas,
Cofinhal, and Payen surrounded him and declared that they
were quite ready to act. Henriot said that he still knew the
way to the Convention. " Separate the wicked from the
weak," said Robespierre to them ; " deliver the Convention
from the villains who oppress it ; render it the service which
it expects of you, as on the 31st of May and the 2nd of June.
March, and once more save liberty. If, in spite of all these
efforts, we must fall, why then, my friends, you shall see me
drink hemlock with composure." "Robespierre," exclaimed a
deputy, " I will drink it with thee ! " *
Couthon proposed to the society a new purificatory scrutiny,
and insisted on the instant expulsion of the deputies who had
voted against Robespierre ; he had a list of them, which he
immediately furnished. His motion was carried amidst fright-
ful uproar. Collot-d'Herbois came forward to make some
observations, but was received with yells. He spoke of his
* "The artist David caught Robespierre by the hand as he closed, exclaim-
ing, in rapture at his elocution, 'I will drink the cup with thee!' This dis-
tinguished painter has been reproached as having, on the subsequent day,
declined the pledge which he seemed so eagerly to embrace. But there were
many of his original opinion at the time he expressed it so boldly ; and had
Robespierre possessed either military talents or even decided courage, there was
nothing to have prevented him from placing himself that very night at the head
of a desperate insurrection of the Jacobins and their followers." — Scott's Life of
Napoleon,
484 HISTORY OF JULY 1794
services, of his dangers, of the attempt of Ladmiral. He was
sneered at, abused, and driven from the tribune. All the
deputies present, and pointed out by Couthon, were expelled,
some of them even with blows. Collot escaped from amidst
the knives pointed against him. The society was reinforced
on that day by all the acting men, who in moments of disturb-
ance gained admission either with false tickets or without any.
They added violence to words, and they were even quite ready
to add murder. Payen, the national agent, who was a man
of execution, proposed a bold plan. He said that all the
conspirators were in the two committees, that they were at
that moment assembled, and that they ought to go and secure
them ; the struggle might thus be terminated without combat
by a coup de main. Robespierre opposed this scheme ; he
disliked such prompt actions ; he thought that it would be
better to pursue the same course as on the 31st of May. A
solemn petition had already been presented ; he had made a
speech ; St. Just, who had lately arrived from the army, was
to make a report next morning ; he, Robespierre, would again
speak, and if they were unsuccessful, the magistrates of the
people, meanwhile assembled at the commune, and supported
by the armed force of the sections, would declare that the
people had resumed its sovereignty, and would proceed to
deliver the Convention from the villains who misled it. The
plan was thus fixed by precedents. The meeting broke up,
promising for the next day, Robespierre to be at the Conven-
tion, the Jacobins in their hall, the municipal magistrates at
the commune, and Henriot at the head of the sections. They
reckoned, moreover, upon the youths in the School of Mars,
the commandant of which, Labretèche, was devoted to the
cause of the commune.
Such were the proceedings on this 8tli of Thermidor (July 26),
the last day of the sanguin arj^ tyranny which had afflicted
France ; but on that day, too, the horrible revolutionary machine
did not cease acting. The tribunal had sat ; \actims had been
conveyed to the scaffold. In their number were two eminent
poets, Roucher, author of Les Mers, and André Chenier, who
left admirable compositions, and whom France will regret
as much as all the young men of genius, orators, writers,
generals, devoured by the scaffold and by the war.* These
two sons of the Muses cheered one another when in the
* "The son of Bulfon, the daughter of Vernet, perished without regard to
the illustrious names they bore. Roucher, an amiable poet, a few hours before
his death, sent his miniature to his children, accompanied by some touching
lines. Chenier, a young man, wliose elo(iuent writings poiuted liim out as
JULY 1794 TEE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 485
fatal cart, by reciting verses of Racine's. Young André, on
mounting the scaffold, uttered the cry of genius stopped
short in its career. " To die so young ! " he exclaimed,
striking his forehead ; " there was something there ! " *
During the night which followed, there was agitation in
all quarters, and every one thought of collecting his strength.
The two committees had met, and were deliberating on the
important events of the day, and on those likely to arise
on the morrow. What had passed at the Jacobins proved
that the mayor and Henriot were for the triumvirs, and that
on the next day they should have to combat the whole force
of the communes. To cause these two principal leaders to
be apprehended would have been the most prudent course ;
but the committees still hesitated ; they would and they
would not ; they seemed to feel a sort of regret that they
had begun the struggle. They were aware that if the Con-
vention were strong enough to vanquish Robespierre, it would
recover all its powers, and that they should be rescued from
the strokes of their rival, but dispossessed of the dictatorship.
It would no doubt have been much better to have come to
terms with him ; but it was now too late for that. Robespierre
had taken good care not to go near them after the sitting
at the Jacobins. St. Just, who had arrived from the army
a short time before, was watching them. He was silent ;
he had announced the report which he had been directed
to draw up at the time of the last interview. He was asked
for it ; the committees wished to hear it read. He replied
that he had it not with him, but had given it to one of his
colleagues to read. He was requested to state the conclu-
sion ; he refused that also. At this moment Collot entered,
incensed at the treatment which he had experienced at the
Jacobins. " What are they doing at the Jacobins '? " said
St. Just to him. "Canst thou ask?" replied Collot angrily.
" Art thou not the accomplice of Robespierre ? have you not
concerted your plans together ? I see clearly that you have
formed an infamous triumvirate, and that you design to
murder us ; but if we fall, you will not long enjoy the fruit
of your crimes." Then going up to St. Just with vehemence,
"Thou intendest," said he, "to denounce us to-morrow
morning ; thou hast thy pocket full of notes against us —
the future historian of the Revohition, and Champfort, one of its earliest and
ablest supporters, were executed at the same time. A few weeks longer would
have swept off the whole literary talent as well as dignified names of France."
— Alison.
* See Appendix R.
486 HISTORY OF JULY1794
produce them." St. Just emptied his pockets, and assured
Collot that he had nothing of the kind. Collot was appeased,
and St. Just was desired to come at eleven the following
day, to communicate his report before he read it to the
Assembly. The committees, before they separated, agreed
to solicit the Convention to remove Henriot, and to summon
the mayor and the national agent to the bar.
St. Just hastened away to prepare his report, which was
not yet written, and denounced, with greater brevity and
force than Eobespierre had done, the conduct of the com-
mittees towards their colleagues, their seizure of all affairs,
the pride of Billaud-Yarennes, and the false manœuvres of
Carnot, who had transported Pichegru's army to the coasts
of Flanders, and had meant to take sixteen thousand men
from Jourdan. This report was as perfidious and as clever,
though in a very different way, as that of Robespierre. St.
Just resolved to read it to the Convention without communi-
cating it to the committees.
While the conspirators were concerting together, the Moun-
taineers, who had hitherto gone no further than to communi-
cate their apprehensions to one another, but had formed no
plot, ran to each other's houses, and agreed to attack Robe-
spierre in a more formal manner on the following day, and to
obtain a decree against him if possible. For this they would
need the concurrence of the deputies of the Plain, whom they
had frequently threatened, and whom Robespierre, affecting
the character of moderator, had formerly defended. They had
therefore but slight claims to their favour. They called upon
Boissy-d'Anglas, Durand -Maillane, and Palasne-Champeaux,
who were all three Constituents, and whose example was likely to
decide the others. They told them that they would be account-
able for all the blood that Robespierre might yet spill if they did
not agree to vote against him . Repulsed at first, they returned
three times to the charge, and at length obtained the desired
promise. They ran about the whole of the morning of the 9th
(July 27). Tallien promised to make the first attack, and only
desired that others would have the courage to follow him.
Every one hastened to his post. Fleuriot, the mayor, and
Payen, the national agent, were at the commune. Henriot was
on horseback with his aides - de - camp, riding through the
streets of Paris. The Jacobins had commenced a permanent
sitting. The deputies, astir early in the morning, had gone
to the Convention before the usual hour. They paced the
passages tumultuously, and the Mountaineers addressed them
with vehemence to decide them in their favour. It was half-
JULY 1794 THE FRENCH RE VOL UTION. 487
past eleven o'clock. Tallien was speaking to some of his
colleagues at one of the doors of the hall when he saw St.
Just enter and ascend the tribune. "This is the moment!"
he exclaimed; " let us go in." They followed him; thé
benches filled ; and the Assembly awaited in silence the
opening of that scene, one of the grandest in our stormy
Revolution.
St. Just, who had broken the promise given to his col-
leagues, and not gone to read his report to them, was in
the tribune. The two Robespierres, Lebas, and Couthon
were seated beside one another.* Collot - d'Herbois occu-
pied the chair. St. Just said that he was commissioned by
the committees to make a report, and was permitted to
speak. He set out with asserting that he was of no
faction, and that he belonged only to truth ; that the
tribune might prove the Tarpeian rock to him, as to many
others, but that he should nevertheless give his opinion with-
out reserve concerning the dissensions which had broken
out. He had scarcely finished these preliminary sentences
when Tallien asked leave to speak on a motion of order,
and obtained it. "The republic," said he, "is in the most
unfortunate condition, and no good citizen can help shed-
ding tears over it. Yesterday a member of the government
separated himself and denounced his colleagues ; another is
doing the same to-day. This is only aggravating our calami-
ties. I desire that at length the veil may be entirely torn
off," Scarcely were these words uttered when a]3plause
burst forth. It was prolonged, and renewed again and again.
This was the premonitory signal of the fall of the triumvirs.
Billaud-Varennes, who took possession of the tribune after
Tallien, said that the Jacobins had the preceding evening
held a seditious sitting, which was attended by hired mur-
derers, who avowed a design of slaughtering the Conven-
tion. General indignation was manifested. " I see," added
Billaud-Varennes, " I see in the tribunes one of the men
who yesterday threatened the faithful deputies. Let him
be secured." He was immediately seized and given into
the custody of the gendarmes. Billaud then maintained that
St. Just had no right to speak in the name of the com-
mittees, because he had not communicated his report to them ;
* ' ' When St. Just mounted the tribune, Robespierre took his station on the
bench directly opposite, to intimidate his adversaries by his look. His knees
trembled ; the colour fled from his lips as he ascended to his seat ; the hostile
appearance of the Assembly already gave him an anticipation of his fate."—
A lison.
488 ins TOR r OF JULY 1794
that this was the moment for the Assembly to be firm, for
it must perish if it showed any weakness. "No, no," cried
the deputies, waving their hats; ''it will not be weak; it
shall not perish." Lebas insisted on speaking before Billaiid
had finished, and made a great noise to carry his point. At
the desire of all the deputies, he was called to order. He
renewed his demand to be heard. "To the Abbaye with
the seditious fellow ! " cried several voices of the Mountain.
Billaud continued, and throwing off all reserve, said that
Robespierre had always sought to control the committees ;
that he seceded when they resisted the law of the 22nd of
Prairial (June 10), and the use which he purposed to make of
it ; that he was for retaining the noble Lavalette, a conspirator
at Lille, in the national guard ; that he prevented the arrest
of Henriot, an accomplice of Hebert's, in order to make him
his creature ; that he moreover opposed the apprehension
of a secretary of the committee who had embezzled one
hundred and fourteen thousand francs ; that he had caused
the best revolutionary committee of Paris to be closed by
means of his office of jjolice ; that he always had done just
what he pleased, and designed to make himself absolute
master. Billaud added that he could adduce many other
facts ; but it would be sufficient to say that on the preceding
day Robespierre's agents at the Jacobins, the Dumases and
the Oofinhals, promised to decimate the National Convention.
AVhile Billaud was enumerating these grievances, bursts of
indignation at times escaped the Assembly. Robespierre, li\id
with rage, had left his seat and ascended the steps of the
tribune. Posted behind Billaud, he demanded of the president
with extreme violence permission to speak. He seized the
moment when Billaud had finished, to renew his demand with
still greater vehemence. " Down with the tyrant ! Down with
the tyrant ! " was shouted in all parts of the hall. Twice was
this accusing cry raised, and it proclaimed that the Assembly
dared at length to give him the name which he deserved.
While he was persisting, Tallien. who had darted to the
tribune, claimed permission to speak, and obtained it before
him. "Just now," said he, "I desired that the veil might be
entirely torn off ; I now perceive that it is. The conspirators
are unmasked. I knew that my life was threatened, and
hitherto I have kept silence ; but yesterday I attended the
sitting of the Jacobins, I saw the army of the new Cromwell
formed, I trembled for my country, and I armed myself with
à dagger, resolved to plunge it into his bosom if the Conven-
tion had not the courage to pass a decree of accusation." As
JULY 1794 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 489
he finished these words, Tallien exhibited his dagger, and the
Assembly covered him with applause. He then proposed the
arrest of Henriot, the chief of the conspirators. Billaud pro-
posed to add that of Dumas, the president, and of a man
named Boulanger, who had been the day before one of the
most violent agitators at the Jacobins. The apprehension of
those three culprits was immediately decreed.
At this moment Barrère entered to submit to the Assembly
the propositions upon which the committee had deliberated
in the night, before it broke uj?. Robespierre, who had not
quitted the tribune, took advantage of this interval again to
demand leave to speak. His adversaries were determined to
refuse it, lest any lurking relic of fear or servility should be
awakened by his voice. Placed, all of them, at the summit
of the Mountain, they raised fresh clamours, and while Robe-
spierre was turning first to the president, then to the Assembly,
shouted with voices of thunder, " Down ! down with the tyrant !"
At length Barrore was allowed to speak before Robespierre.
It is said that this man, who, out of vanity, was desirous of
playing a part, and now trembled from weakness at having
given himself one, had two speeches in his pocket — one in
favour of Robespierre, the other for the committees.* He
developed the proposition adopted the night before, namely,
to abolish the post of commandant-general, to re-establish
that old law of the Legislative Assembly by which each
chief of a legion commanded in turn the armed force of
Paris, and lastly, to summon to the bar the mayor and the
national agent, to answer there for the tranquillity of the
capital. This decree was forthwith passed, and a messenger
went to communicate it to the commune amidst the greatest
dangers.
When the decree proposed by Barrère had been adopted,
the enumeration of Robespierre's misdeeds was resumed.
Each came in turn to prefer his charge. Vadier, who
fancied that he had discovered an important conspiracy in
seizing Catherine Theot, stated what he had not done the
preceding day, that Dom Gerle f had a certificate of civism
* " Barrère was a sort of Belial in the Convention, the meanest, yet not the
least able, amongst those fallen spirits, who, with great adroitness and in-
genuity, as well as wit and eloquence, caught opportunities as they arose, and
was eminently dexterous in being always strong upon the strongest and safe
upon the safest side." — Scott's Life of Napoleon.
t "Catherine Theot died in the prison of the Conciergerie at the age of
seventy ; Dom Gerle, who was also imprisoned there, was afterwards liberated,
and employed, during the reign of Napoleon, in the office of the home depart-
ment."— -Scoii's Life (^Napoleon.
490 HISTORY OF July 1794
signed by Eobespierre, and tliat in Catherine's mattress had
been found a letter in which she called Robespierre her
beloved son. He then expatiated on the espionage with
which the committees were surromided, with the prolixity
of age and a slowness unsnited to the agitation of the
moment. Tallien, impatient, reascended the tribune and
again addressed the Assembly, saying that the question
ought to be brought back to its real drift. A decree had
in fact been passed against Henriot, Dumas, and Boulanger,
and Robespierre had been called a tyrant ; but no decisive
resolution had been taken. Tallien observed that it was not
a few circumstances in the life of that man, called a tyrant,
on which they ought to fasten, but that the whole of it
ought to be taken together. He then commenced an ener-
getic picture of the conduct of that cowardly, supercilious,
and bloodthirsty orator. Robespierre, choked with rage,
interrupted him with cries of fury. " Let us put an end to
this," said Louchet ; " arrest against Robespierre ! " " Accu-
sation against the denunciator ! " added Loseau. " Arrest !
Accusation ! " shouted a great number of deputies. Louchet
rose, and looking around him, asked if he was seconded.
" Yes, yes," replied a hundred voices. Robespierre the
younger said from his place, "I share the crimes of my
brother; let me share his fate." This devotedness was
scarcely noticed. " The arrest ! The arrest ! " was still
shouted. At this moment Robespierre, who had not ceased
to pass from his place to the bureau, and from the bureau to
his place, again went up to the president and demanded
leave to speak. But Thuriot, who had succeeded Collot-
d'Herbois in the chair, answered him only by ringing the
bell. Robespierre then turned towards the Mountain, where
he observed only cold friends or furious enemies. He next
turned his eyes towards the Plain. "To you," said he,
"pure men, virtuous men, I address myself, and not to
ruffians." They turned away their faces, or used threaten-
ing gestures. Once more he addressed the president. " For
the last time," he exclaimed, "president of assassins, I desire
to be heard."* He uttered the concluding words in a faint
* "While the vaults of the hall echoed with exclamations from those who
had hitherto been the accomplices, the flatterers, the followers, the timid and
overawed assentators to the dethroned demagogue — he himself, breathless,
foaming, exhausted, like the hunter of classical antiquity when on the point
of being torn to pieces by his own dogs, tried in vain to raise those screeching
notes by which the Convention had formerl}'' been terrified and put to silence.
We have been told that Robespierre's last audible words, contending against
the exclamations of hundreds, and the bell which the president was ringing
yr.ll"^
SFIEmmE
London. P>abli sTiei'by EicTiaxa Bentley &Soi
1895
JULY 1/94 THE FEE NCR RE VOL UTION. 4 9 1
and stifled voice. "The blood of Danton chokes thee!"*
said Garnier of the Aube. Impatient of this struggle, Duval
rose and said, " President, is this man to be master of the
Convention any longer?" "Ah!" added Fréron, "how hard
a tyi-ant is to beat down!" "To the vote! To the vote!"
cried Loseau. The arrest so generally called for was put
to the vote, and decreed amidst tremendous uproar. No
sooner was the decree passed than the members in all parts
of the hall rose, shouting, " Liberty for ever ! The republic
for ever ! The tyrants are no more ! "
A great number of members rose and said, that they
, meant to vote for the arrest of Robespierre's accomplices,
St. Just and Couthon. They were immediately included in
the decree. Lebas desired to be associated with them. His
wish was granted, as well as that of the younger Robespierre.
These men still excited such aj^prehension, that the ushers
of the hall had not dared to come forward to take them to
the bar. On seeing them retain their seats, some of the
members asked why they did not go down to the place of
the accused. The president replied that the ushers had not
been able to carry the order into execution. "To the bar!
To the bar ! " was the general cry. The five accused went
down, Robespierre furious, St. Just calm and contemptuous,
the others thunderstruck at this humiliation so new to them.
They were at length at that place to which they had sent
Vergniaud, Brissot, Petion, Camille-Desmoulins, Danton, and
so many others of their colleagues, full of virtue, genius, or
courage
It was now five o'clock. The Assembly had declared its
sitting permanent. But at that moment, worn out with
fatigue, it took the dangerous resolution to suspend the sitting
till seven, for the purjjose of refreshment. The deputies then
separated, leaving to the commune, if it had possessed any
incessantly, and uttered in the highest tones which despair could give to a
voice naturally shrill and discordant, dwelt long on the memory, and haunted
tlie dreams of many who heard him." — Scott's Life of Napoleon.
"Dispirited by so many repulses, Robespierre returned to his place, and
sunk back in his seat, exhausted with passion and fatigue. His mouth foamed
— his voice grew thick. He was arrested amid shouts of joy, and as he went
out, said, in the hollow accents of despair, ' The republic is lost ; the brigands
triumph ! ' " — Mignet.
* " In the height of the terrible conflict, when Robespierre seemed deprived
by rage of the power of articulation, a voice cried out, ' It is Danton's blood
that is choking you ! ' Robespierre, indignant, recovered his voice and his
courage to exclaim, ' Danton ! Is it then Danton you regret ? Cowards ! why
did not you defend him?' There was spirit, truth, and even dignity in this
bitter retort — the last words that Robespierre ever spoke in public." — Quarterly
Revicir.
492 HISTORY OF JULY1794
boldness, the opportunity of closing the place of its sittings,
and seizing the control of Paris. The five accused were
conducted to the committee of general safety, to be examined
by their colleagues before they were conveyed to prison.
While these important events were occurring in the Con-
vention, the commune had remained in suspense. Courvol,
the messenger, had gone to communicate to it the decree
which placed Henriot under arrest, and summoned the mayor
and the national agent to the bar. He had been very un-
favourably received. He asked for a receipt ; but the mayor
replied, " On such a day as this we give no receipts. Go to
the Convention, say that we shall find means to uphold it ;
and tell Robespierre not to be afraid, for we are here." The
mayor had afterwards expressed himself before the general
council in the most mysterious manner respecting the motive
of the meeting ; he had spoken to it only of the decree
ordering the commune to provide for the tranquillity of Paris ;
he had reminded it of the epochs when that commune had
displayed great courage, and had alluded very plainly to the
31st of May. Pay en, the national agent, speaking after the
mayor, had proposed to send two members of the council
to the Place de la Commune, where there was an immense
crowd, to harangue the people, and to invite them to join the
^magistrates in order to save the country. An address had
then been drawn up, in which it was said that villains were
oppressing " Robespierre, that virtuous citizen, who caused
the cheering worship of the Supreme Being and the im-
mortality of the soul to be decreed ; St. Just, that apostle
of virtue, who put an end to treason at the Rhine and in
the North ; Couthon, that virtuous citizen, whose body and
head alone were alive, but burning with patriotism."* Im-
mediately afterwards it was resolved that the sections should
be convoked, and that the presidents and the commandants
of the armed force should be summoned to the commune
to receive its orders. A deputation had been sent to the
Jacobins, to invite them to come and fraternize with the com-
mune, and to send to the general council the most energetic
of their members, and a good number of citizens and citizcnesscs
of the tribunes. Without yet mentioning insurrection, the
commune took all the requisite steps, and evidently had
* The following was the proclamation issued from the Hôtel de Ville :
" Brothers and friends, the country is in imminent danger ! The wicked
have mastered the Convention, where they hold in chains the virtuous Robe-
spierre. To arms ! To arms ! Let us not lose the fruits of the iSth of August
and the 2nd of June. Death to the traitors 1 " — History of the Convention.
JULY 1794 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 493
that object in view. It was not aware of the arrest of the
five deputies, and on this account it still maintained some
reserve.
Meanwhile Henriot had mounted his horse, and was riding
through the streets of Paris. Hearing, by the way, of the
arrest of five representatives, he strove to excite the people
to rise, crying out that villains were oppressing the faithful
deputies, and that they had arrested Couthon, St. Just, and
Eobespierre. This wretch was half drunk ; he rocked upon
his horse, and flourished his sword like a maniac. He first
proceeded to the Faubourg St. Antoine, to rouse the working
people of that faubourg, who scarcely comprehended what
he meant, and who had besides begun to pity the victims
whom they daily saw passing to the scaffold. By an unlucky
chance, Henriot met the carts. These were surrounded as
soon as the arrest of Robespierre was known ; and as Robe-
spierre was considered as the author of all the murders, it was
conceived that, he being apprehended, the executions would
cease. The people would have made them turn back with the
condemned. Henriot, who came up at the moment, opposed
this intention, and caused this last execution to be consum-
mated. He then returned, still at full gallop, to the Luxem-
bourg, and ordered the gendarmerie to assemble in the court-
yard of the communal house. Taking with him a detachment,
he then went along the quays, intending to proceed to the Place
du Carrousel, and to deliver the pi'isoners who were before
the committee of general safety. As he was galloping upon
the quays with his aides-de-camp, he threw down several
persons. A man, who had his wife on his arm, turned towards
the gendarmes and cried, " Gendarmes, arrest that rufiian !
he is no longer your general." An aide-de-camp replied by
a cut with his sword. Henriot proceeded, dashing through
the Rue St. Honoré ; and on reaching the Place of the Palais
Egalité (Palais Royal), perceiving Merlin of Thionville, he
made up to him, shouting, "Arrest that scoundrel! he is one
of those who persecute the faithful representatives." Merlin
was seized, maltreated, and taken to the nearest guard-house.
Henriot continued his course, and arrived at the courts of the
National Palace. Here he made his companions alight, and
endeavoured to penetrate into the building. The grenadiers
refused him admittance, and crossed their bayonets. At this
moment a messenger advanced and said, "Gendarmes, arrest
that rebel ! a decree of the Convention orders you to do so."
Henriot was immediately surrounded and disarmed, together
with several of his aides-de-camp : they were pinioned and
494 HISTORY OF july 1794
conducted to the liall of the committee of general safety, and
placed beside Eobespierre, Couthon, St. Just, and Lebas.
Thus far all went on well for the Convention. Its decrees,
boldly passed, were successfully executed ; but the commune
and the Jacobins, which had not openly proclaimed the in-
surrection, were now ready to break forth, and to realize their
plan for another 2nd of June. Fortunately, while the Con-
vention imprudently suspended its sitting, the commune did
the same, and thus the time was lost by both sides.
The council did not meet again till six o'clock. At this
resumption of the sitting the arrest of the five deputies and
of Henriot was known. The council could no longer abstain
from acting, and declared itself in insurrection against the
oppressors of the people, who were bent on the destruction
of its defenders. It ordered the tocsin to be rung at the
Hôtel de Ville and in all the sections. It sent one of its
members to each of them, to excite them to insurrection,
and to decide them to send their battalions to the commune.
It despatched gendarmes to close the barriers, and ordered
all the keepers of the prisons not to admit any prisoners who
should be brought to them. Lastly, it appointed a commis-
sion of twelve members, among whom were Payen and Cofinhal,
to direct the insurrection, and to exercise all the sovereign
powers of the people. At this moment some battalions of
the sections, several companies of artillery, and great part
of the gendarmerie, had already been collected in the Place
de la Commune. The oath was begun to be administered to
the commandants of the battalions assembled. Cofinhal was
then ordered to repair with a few hundred men to the Con-
vention to liberate the prisoners.
Eobespierre the elder had already been conveyed to the
Luxembourg, his brother to the house of Lazare ; Couthon
to Port-Libre, St. Just to the Ecossais, and Lebas to the
house of justice of the department. The order issued by the
commune to the keepers had been executed, and they re-
fused to admit the prisoners. The administrators of police
had taken charge of them and conveyed them in carriages to
the mairie. When Eobespierre appeared,* people embraced
him, loaded him with demonstrations of attachment, and
swore to die in his defence aiid that of the faithful deputies.
Meanwhile Henriot was left alone at the committee of general
* " Robespierre now appeared altogether confounded and overwhelmed with
what had passed and was passing around him ; and not one of all the victims
of the Reign of Terror felt its disabling influence so completely as he — the
despot — who had so long directed its sway." — Scott's Life of Napoleon.
J ULY 1794 THE FRENCH BE VOL UTION. 49 5
safety. Cofinhal, vice-president of the Jacobins, arrived there,
sword in hand, with some companies of the sections, took
possession of the rooms of the committee, expelled the
members, and released Henriot and his aides-de-camp.
Henriot, as soon as he was liberated, hastened to the Place
dii Carrousel, where he found his horses still waiting, leaped
upon one of them, and with great presence of mind, told
the companies of the sections, and the artillery about him,
that the committee had just declared him innocent, and
reinstated him in the command. The men rallied around
him ; and followed by a considerable force, he began to give
orders against the Convention, and to prepare for besieging
the hall.
It was now seven o'clock in the evening. The Convention
was only just reassembling ; and during the interval the
commune had gained great advantages. It had, as we have
seen, proclaimed the insurrection, collected around it many
companies of artillery and gendarmes, and released the
prisoners. It might, with boldness, march promptly upon
the Convention, and force it to revoke its decrees. It
reckoned, moreover, upon the School of Mars, the com-
mandant of which, Labretèche, was wholly devoted to it.
The deputies assembled tumultuously, and communicated
to each other with consternation the news of the evening.
The members of the committees, alarmed and undecided,
had met in a room next to the president's bureau. There
they were deliberating, undecided what course to pursue.
Several deputies successively occupied the tribune, and
related what was passing in Paris. It was stated that the
prisoners were liberated, that the commune had met at the
Jacobins, that it had already a considerable force at its dis-
posal, and that the Convention would soon be besieged.
Bourdon proposed to go out in a body and show themselves
to the people, in order to bring them over to their side.
Legendre strove to infuse confidence into the Assembly, say-
ing that it would everywhere find only pure and faithful
Mountaineers ready to defend it ; and in this danger he
displayed a courage which he had not shown against Robe-
spierre. Billaud mounted the tribune, and intimated that
Henriot was in the Place du Carrousel, that he had won the
artillery, caused the guns to be turned against the hall of
the Convention, and was about to commence the attack.
Collot-d'Herbois then went up to the chair, which, from
the arrangements of the hall, must have received the first
balls, and said, as he seated himself in it, " Representatives !
496 HISTORY OF july 1794
the moment is coming for dying at our post. Villains have
made themselves masters of the National Palace." At these
words all the deputies, some of whom were standing, others
strolling about in the hall, took their places, and remained
seated in majestic silence. All the citizens of the tribune
fled with a tremendous uproar, leaving behind them a cloud
of dust. The Convention, abandoned to itself, felt convinced
that it was about to be slaughtered, but was resolved to
perish rather than endure a Cromwell. Who can help ad-
miring on this occasion the influence of circumstances over
courage ? The very same men, so long submissive to the
orator who harangued them, now defied, with a sublime re-
signation, the cannon which he had caused to be pointed
against them. Members of the Assembly were seen con-
stantly going out and returning, bringing tidings of what
was passing at the Carrousel. Henriot was still issuing
orders there. " Outlaw him ! Outlaw the ruflian ! " was the
cry in the hall. A decree of outlawry was immediately
passed, and some of the deputies went to publish it before
the National Palace.
At this moment Henriot, who had misled the gunners,
and induced them to turn their pieces against the hall,
ordered them to fire ; but they hesitated to obey him. Some
of the deputies cried out, " Gunners ! will you disgrace
yourselves? that ruflian is outlawed." The gunners then re-
fused to obey Henriot. Abandoned by his men, he had but
time to turn his horse's head and to seek refuge at the
commune.
This danger over, the Convention outlawed the deputies
who had withdrawn themselves from its decrees, and all the
members of the commune who were engaged in the insurrec-
tion. But this was not enough. If Henriot was no longer
in the Place du Carrousel, the insurgents were yet at the
commune with all their forces, and they had still the resource
of a coup de main. It was incumbent on the Assembly to
obviate this great danger. It deliberated without acting. In
the room behind the bureau, where the committees had been
joined by many of the representatives, it was proposed to
appoint a commandant of the armed force taken from the
bosom of the Assembly. " Who shall it be ? " was the question.
"Barras," replied a voice; "he will have the courage to
accept the appointment." Vouland immediately hurried to
the tribune and proposed that Barras, the representative,
should be appointed to direct the armed force. The suggestion
was adopted ; Barras was appointed, and seven other deputies
JULY 1794 THE FRENCH B.EVOLTJTION. 497
were associated witli him to command under his orders —
i^Véron, Ferrand, Kovère, Dehnas, Boleti, Leonard Bourdon,
and Bourdon of the Oise. To this proposal a member added
another, which was not less important, namely, to appoint re-
presentatives to go and enlighten the sections, and to demand
the assistance of their battalions. This last measure was the
most important of all. for it was essential to decide the waver-
ing or misguided sections.
Barras hastened to the battalions already assembled, to
acquaint them with his powers, and to post them around the
Convention.* The deputies despatched to the sections went
to harangue them. At this moment most of them were
undecided ; very few were in favour of the commune and of
Robespierre. Every one had a horror of that atrocious system
which was imputed to Robespierre, and desired an event that
should deliver France from it. Fear nevertheless still para-
lyzed all the citizens. They durst not decide, nor give belief
to the reports that were circulated. The commune, which the
sections were accustomed to obey, had summoned them, and
some, not daring to resist, had sent commissioners, not to
adhere to the plan of insurrection, but to inform themselves
of what was passing. Paris was in a state of uncertainty and
anxiety. The relatives of the prisoners, their friends, and all
who were suffering from that cruel system, sallied from their
houses, approached nearer and nearer to the places where the
uproar prevailed, and strove to gain some intelligence. The
unfortunate prisoners, having from their barred windows per-
ceived a great bustle, and heard a great noise, expected that
something was about to happen, but trembled lest this new
event should only aggravate their lot. The dejection of the
gaolers, words whispered to the list-makers, and the consterna-
tion which succeeded, had tended, however, to diminish doubts.
It was soon known, from expressions which were dropped, that
Robespierre was in danger. Relatives had approached, placed
themselves under the windows of the prisons, and indicated by
signs what was passing ; the prisoners had then collected and
* " Barras did not choose to wait till all his succours should arrive. He
would uot lose the opportunity of the first onset with men who had always
been suffered to begin the attack. As soon as he had formed four or five
battalions, ' My friends,' he cried, ' the Convention is disposed to reward your
alacrity in coming first.' Applauses ensued — they marched. Barras arrived
with his battalions. He had so distributed them as to command every outlet
from the seat of the commune. Night concealed their small number. The vic-
tory, than which none more essential to nations was ever obtained, was not even
disputed. Of so many assassins, not one sought the honour of perishing in
battle. Robespierre had not even appeared in the midst of his revolutionary
bands." — Lacretelle.
VOL. III. 88 *
498 HISTORY OF JULY1794
given way to the wildest joy. The base informers, trembling
in their turn, had taken some of the suspected aside, en-
deavoured to justify themselves, and to convince them that
they were not the authors of the lists of proscription. Some
of them, admitting the fact, said that they had withdrawn
names from them. One had given but forty names instead
of two hundred which were required of him ; another had
destroyed entire lists. In their fright these wretches re-
ciprocally accused, and devoted one another to infamy.
The deputies dispersed among the sections had no difficulty
in getting the better of the obscure envoys of the commune.
Those who had sent off their battalions to the Hôtel de Ville
recalled them ; the others directed theirs towards the National
Palace. That building was already surrounded by a sufficient
force. Barras went to apprize the Assembly of this circum-
stance, and then hastened to the plain of Sablons to supersede
Labretèche, who was dismissed, and to bring the School of Mars
to the aid of the Convention.
The national representation was now safe from a coup de
main. This was the moment for marching against the com-
mune and taking the offensive, w^hich it neglected to do. It
was immediately resolved to march upon the Hôtel de Ville,
and to surround it.* Leonard Bourdon, who was at the
head of a great number of battalions, set out for the purpose.
When he intimated that he was just starting to attack the
rebels, " Go," said Tallien, who occupied the president's
chair, " and let the sun, when he rises, find no conspirators
alive." Leonard Bourdon debouched by the quays, and
arrived at the Place of the Hôtel de Ville. A great number
of gendarmes, artillerymen, and armed citizens of the sec-
tions were still there. An agent of the committee of public
* "The battalions of the national guards from all (juarters now marched
towards the Convention, and defiled through the hall in the midst of the most
enthusiastic applause. At midnight above three thousand men had arrived.
'The moments are precious,' said Fréron ; 'the time for action has come.
Let us instantly march against the rebels.' The order was promptly obeyed.
The night was dark ; a feeble moonlight only shone through the gloom ; but
the forced illumination of the houses sujjplied a vivid light, which shone on
the troops, who, in profound silence, marched from the Tuileries towards the
Place de Grève, the headquarters of the insurgents. There were about two
thousand men stationed in the Place de Grève with a powerful train of artillery,
when the light of the torches showed the heads of the columns of the national
guard appearing in all the avenues which led to the square. The moment
was terrible. Ten pieces of the artillery of the Convention were placed in
battery, while the cannoneers of the municipality, with their lighted matches
in their hands, stood beside their guns on the opposite side. But the authority
of the law prevailed. The decree of the Legislature was read by torchlight, and
the insurgent troops refused to resist it." — Alison.
JULY 1794 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 499
welfare, named Dulac, had the courage to slip into their
ranks, and to read to them the decree of the Convention
which outlawed the commune. The respect which people had
contracted for that Assembly, in whose name everything had
been done for two years past, respect for the words law
and republic, triumphed. The battalions sejaarated : some
returned to their homes, others joined Leonard Bourdon,
and the Place de la Commune was deserted. Those who
guarded, and those who came to attack it, drew up in the
neighbouring streets, in order to close all the outlets.
People had such an idea of the resolution of the conspira-
tors, and were so astonished to find them almost motionless
in the Hotel de Ville, that they were fearful of approaching.
Leonard Bourdon was apprehensive that they had under-
mined the Hôtel de Ville. This, however, was not the case.
They were deliberating tumultuously, and proposing to write
to the armies and to the provinces ; but they knew not in
whose name to write, and durst not take any decisive step.
Had Robespierre been a man of decision, had he ventured to
show himself and to march against the Convention, he would
have placed it in a dangerous predicament. But he was a
mere talker, and besides, he perceived, as did all his partisans
along with him, that public opinion was forsaking them. The
end of that frightful system had arrived. The Convention was
everywhere obeyed, and the outlawries produced a magical
effect. Had he been endowed with greater energj^, he must
have been discouraged by these circumstances, superior to any
individual force. The decree of outlawry struck all with
stupor, when it was communicated from the Place de la Com-
mune to the Hôtel de Ville. Payen, to whom it was delivered,
read it aloud, and with gi'eat presence of mind, added to the
list of the persons outlawed, the people in the tribunes, which
was not in the decree. Contrary to his expectation, the jDeople
in the tribunes hurried off in alarm, to avoid sharing in the
anathema hurled by the Convention. The greatest dismay
then seized the conspirators. Henriot went down to the Place
to harangue the gunners, but he found not a single man.
"What!" cried he, swearing, '"do those rascally gunners, who
saved me a few hours since, desert me now ? " He then went
back furious, to cany this new intelligence to the council.
Despair overwhelmed the conspirators. They found themselves
abandoned by their troops, and surrounded on all sides by those
of the Convention, and mutually accused each other of being
the cause of their unfortunate situation. Cofinhal, an ener-
getic man, who had been ill-seconded, enraged against Henriot,
500 HISTORY OF JULY1794
said to him, " It is thy cowardice, villain, that has undone us ! "
Rushing upon hira and seizing him round the waist, he threw
him out of a window. The wretched Henriot fell upon a heap
of filth, which broke the fall, and prevented it from proving
mortal. Lebas put an end to his life with a pistol ; the
younger Robespierre * tlu'ew himself out of a window ; St.
Just continued calm and immovable, holding a weapon in his
hand, but without using it. Robespierre at length decided to
terminate his career, and attempted to commit suicide. He
clapped a pistol to his head ; but the ball, entering above the
lip, merely pierced his cheek, and inflicted a wound that was
not dangerous. t
At this moment a few bold men, Dulac, Meda the gendarme,
and several others, leaving Bourdon Avith his battalions in
the Place de la Commune, went up, armed with swords and
pistols, and entered the hall of the council at the very instant
when the two reports of fire-arms were heard. The municipal
officers were going to take off their scarfs ; but Dulac threatened
to plunge his sword into the first who should attempt to divest
himself of that distinguished mark. Every one remained
motionless : all the municipal officers, Payen, Pleuriot, Dumas,
Oofinhal, &c., were secured ; the wounded were carried away
on hand-barrows ; and the prisoners were conducted in triumph
to the Convention. It was now three o'clock in the morning.
Shouts of victory ran around the hall, and penetrated into
it. Cries of " Liberty for ever ! The Constitution for ever !
Down with the tyrants ! " then arose from all parts. " Re-
presentatives," said the president, " Robes]")ierre and his ac-
complices are at the door of your hall ; will you have them
brought before you?" "No, no," was replied from all sides;
" to execution with the conspirators ! "
Robespierre was taken with his partisans to the hall of
the committee of public welfare. He was laid upon a table,
* "The younger Robespierre had only just returned from the army of Italy,
whither he had been sent by the Convention on a mission. He earnestly
pressed Bonaparte to accompany him to Paris. ' Had I followed young
Robespierre,' said Napoleon, 'how dillerent might have been my career! On
what trivial circumstances does human fate depend ! ' " — Las Cases.
f " When the national guard rushed into tlie room where the leaders of the
revolt were assembled, they found Robespierre sitting with his elbow on his
knees, and his head resting on his liand. St. Just implored Lebas to put
an end to his life. 'Coward! follow my example,' said he, and blew out
his brains. Couthon was seized under a table, feebly attempting to strike
with a knife, which he wanted the courage to plunge in his heart. Robe-
spierre and Couthon, being supposed to be dead, were dragged by the heels to
the Quai Pelletier, where it was proposed to throw them into the river ; but
it being discovered that they still breathed, they were stretched on a board,
and conveyed to the committee of general safety." — Alison.
JULY 1794 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 501
and some pieces of jDasteboard were placed under his head.
He had retained his presence of mind, and appeared uncon-
cerned. He had on a blue coat, the same that he wore at
the festival of the Supreme Being, nankeen breeches, and
white stockings, which, amidst the tumult, had dropped down
to his heels. The blood oozed from his wound, and he was
stanching it with the sheath of a pistol. Some persons
around him handed to him from time to time bits of paper
to wipe his face. In this state he remained several hours
exposed to the curiosity and the abuse of a crowd of people.
When the surgeon came to dress his wound, he i-aised himself
up, got down from the table, and seated himself in an arm-
chair. He underwent a painful dressing without a murmur.
With the insensibility and sullenness of humbled pride, he
made no reply to any observation. He was then conveyed,
with St. Just, Couthon, and the others, to the Conciergerie.
His brother and Henriot had been picked up half dead in the
streets close to the Hôtel de Ville.
The outlawry rendered a trial superfluous ; it was sufficient
to prove the identity. On the morning of the following day,
the loth of Thermidor (July 28), the culprits, to the number of
twenty-one, were brought before the tribunal to which they had
sent so many victims. Fouquier-Tinville produced evidence of
identity, and at four in the afternoon he caused them to be
conveyed to execution. The populace, which had long for-
saken scenes of this kind, hastened with extreme eagerness to
witness the execution on this day.
The scaffold had been erected in the Place de la Révolution.
An immense crowd filled the Rue St. Honoré, the Tuileries,
and the spacious Place. Numerous relatives of the victims
followed the carts, pouring forth imprecations upon them ;
many went up to them desiring to see Robespierre : the gen-
darmes pointed him out to them with their swords. When the
culprits had reached the scaffold the executioners showed
Robespierre to the populace ; they took off the bandage
fastened round his jaw, and extorted from him the first cry
that he had uttered. He suffered with the insensibility which
he had displayed for the last twenty-four hours.* St. Just
died with the courage which he had always exhibited. Cou-
thon was dejected ; Henriot and the younger Robespierre were
* " AVhen Robespierre ascended tlie fatal car his liead was enveloped in a
bloody cloth, his colour was livid, and his eyes sunk. When the procession
came opposite his liouse. it stopjied, nnd a group of women danced round the
bier of him whose chariot-wheels they would have dragged the day before
over a thousand victims. Robespierre mounted the scaffold last, and the
moment bis head fell, the applause was tremendous. In some cases the event
5 o 2 HISTOR Y OF july 1 7 9 4
nearly dead from the effects of their wounds. AppLinse ac-
companied every descent of the fatal blade, and the multitude
manifested extraordinary joy. General rejoicing prevailed
throughout Paris. The prisons rang with songs ; people em-
braced one another in a species of intoxication, and paid as
much as thirty francs for the newspapers containing an account
of the events which had just happened. Though the Conven-
tion had not declared that it abolished the system of terror,
though the victors themselves were either the authors or the
apostles of that system, it was considered as finished with
Eobespierre, to such a degree had he assumed to himself all
its horrors.*
Such was that happy catastrophe, which terminated the
ascending march of the Kevolution, and commenced its re-
trograde march. The Revolution had, on the 14th of July
1789, overthrown the ancient feudal constitution; it had on
the 5th and 6th of October snatched the King from his
Court to make sure of his person ; it had then framed a
constitution for itself, and had committed it to his keeping
in 1 79 1, as if by way of experiment. It soon regretted
having made this experiment, and despairing of ever con-
ciliating the Court with liberty, it had stormed the Tuileries
on the lOth of August, and placed Louis XVI. in confine-
ment. Austria and Prussia advanced to destroy it, when,
to use its own terrible language, it threw down, as the gage
of battle, the head of a king and the lives of six thousand
prisoners ; it entered in an irrevocable manner into that
struggle, and repulsed the Allies by a first effort. Its rage
redoubled the number of its enemies ; the increase of its
enemies and of its danger redoubled its rage, and changed it
into fury. It dragged forth violently from the temple of the
was announced to the prisoners by the waving of liandkerchiefs from the
tops of houses." — Hazlitt.
"Robespierre was executed on the spot where Louis XVI. and Marie An-
toinette had suffered. He shut his eyes, but could not close his ears against
the imprecations of the multitude. A woman, breaking from the crowd,
exclaimed, ' Murderer of all my kindred ! your agony fills me with joy.
Descend to hell covered with the curses of every mother in France ! ' When
he ascended the scaffold the executioner tore the bandage from his face ; the
lower jaw fell on his breast, and he uttered a )'ell which froze every heart
with horror. For some minutes the frightful figure was held up to the
multitude ; he was then placed under the axe. ' Yes, Robespierre, there is
a God !' said a poor man, as he api)roached the lifeless body of one so lately
the object of dread." — Alison.
* " On the very day of Robespierre's arrest, his adherent, Dumas, who was
executed with him, had signed the warrant for putting sixty persons to death.
In the confusion, no person thought of arresting the guillotine. They all
suffered." — Scott's Life of Napoleon.
JULY 1794 THE FRENCir REVOLUTION. 503
laws sincere republicans, but who, not comprehending these
extremities, sought to moderate it. Then it had to combat
one-half of France, La Vendée, and Europe. By the effect
of this continual action and reaction of obstacles upon its
will, and of its will upon obstacles, it arrived at the last
degi-ee of danger and exasperation. It erected scaffolds, and
sent a million of men to the frontiers. Then, sublime and
atrocious at the same time, it was seen destroying with a
blind fury, and directing the national energies with astonish-
ing promptness and profound prudence. Changed by the
necessity for energetic action from a turbulent democracy
to an absolute dictatorship, it became regular, silent, and
formidable. During the whole latter part of 1793, till the
beginning of 1 794, it moved onward, united by the imminence
of the danger which surrounded it. But when victory had
crowned its efforts, at the end of 1793, a disagreement
arose ; for strong and generous hearts, calmed by success,
cried, " Mercy to the vanquished ! " But all hearts were
not yet calmed ; the salvation of the Eevolution was not
evident to all ; the pity of some excited the fury of others,
and there were extravagant spirits who wished to supersede
all government by a tribunal of death. The dictatorship
struck down the two new parties which impeded its march.
Hébert, Ronsin, and Vincent perished with Danton and
Camille - Desmoulins. The Revolution thus continued its
career, covered itself with glory from the commencement of
1794, vanquished all Europe, and overwhelmed it with con-
fusion. The moment had at length arrived when pity was
to triumph over rage. But then happened what always
happens in such cases : out of the incident of a day the
heads of the government wanted to form a system. They
had systematized violence and cruelty, and when the dangers
and excitements were past, they still wished to continue the
work of slaughter. But public horror was everywhere roused.
To this opposition they would have replied by the accustomed
expedient — death. One and the same cry then arose from
their rivals in power and from their threatened colleagues,
and this cry was the signal for a general insurrection. It
required a few moments to shake off the stupor of fear ;
the effort soon proved successful, and the system of terror
was overthrown.*
It may be asked what would have happened if I^obespierre
had been victorious. The forsaken condition in which he
* Piudlioiiime has given the following appalling account of the victims of
the Revolution : —
504 JUS TOBY OF JULY1794
found himself proves that this was impossible.* But had
he been conqueror, he must either have yielded to the general
sentiment, or have fallen. Like usurpers, he would have
been forced to adopt a calm and mild system instead of the
horrors of factions. But it was not given to him to be that
usurper. Our Eevolution was too vast for the same man,
deputy to the Constituent Assembly in 1789, to be pro-
claimed emperor or protector in 1 804 in the church of Nôtre-
Dame. In a country less advanced and less extensive, as
England was, where the same person might be tribune and
general, and combine the two functions, a Cromwell might
be both a party man at the beginning, and a usurping soldier
Nobles 1,278
Noble women ...... 750
Wives of labourers aud artisans . . . 1,4^7
Religieuses 350
Priests i,i35
Common persons, not noble . . 13,623
Of whom
Guillotined by sentence of tlie Revolutionary ) c ^ -. tS fin-j
Tribunal \ ' ^ ' ^
Women died of premature childbirth . . . 3,400
In childbirth from grief ...... 348
Women killed in La Vendée ..... 15,000
Children killed in La Vendée 22,000
Men slain in La Vendée ...... 900,000
Victims under Carrier at Nantes .... 32,000
Children shot 500
Children drowned 1,500
Women shot ...... 264
Women drowned ..... 500
Priests shot ...... 300
Priests drowned ..... 460
Nobles drowned ..... 1,400
^Artisans drowned ..... 5, 300
Victims at Lyons 31,000
i
Total 1,022,351
In this enumeration are not comprehended the massacres at Versailles, at the
Abbaye, the Carmelites, or other prisons, on September 2nd, the victims of
the Glacière of Avignon, those shot at Toulon and Marseilles, or the persons
slain in the little town of Bedoin, the whole population of which perished.
* " In my opinion Robespierre's destruction was inevitable. He had no orga-
nized force ; his partisans, although numerous, were not enlisted and incorpo-
rated ; he possessed only the great power derived from jtublic opinion and the
principle of terror ; so that, not being able to surprise his enemies by violence,
like Cromwell, lie endeavoured to frighten them. Fear not succeeding, he tried
insurrection. But as the suj)port of the committees gave courage to the Con-
vention, so the sections, relying for support on the strength of tlie Convention,
naturally declared themselves against the insurgents. By attacking the govern-
ment Robespierre roused the Assembly, by rousing the Assembly he let loose the
people ; and this coalition ueces.sarily ruined him." — Miynct.
JULY 1794 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 505
at the conclusion. But in a revolution so extensive as ours,
in which the war was so terrible and so predominant, in
which the same individual could not occupy at one and the
same time the tribune and the camp, party men first de-
stroyed one another ; after them came the military men ; and
a soldier was finally left master.
Robespierre then could not perform among us the part of
a usurper. Why was it his fate to survive all those famous
Revolutionists who were so superior to him in genius and
in energy — Danton, for example ? Robespierre was a man
of integrity, and a good reputation is requisite for capti-
vating the crowd. He was without pity, which ruins those
who have it in revolutions. He had an obstinate and per-
severing pride, and this is the only means of keeping oneself
constantly present to people's minds. It was this that caused
him to survive all his rivals. But he was of the worst
species of men. A devotee without passions, without the
vices to which they lead, but yet without the courage, the
greatness, and the sensibility which usually accompany them
— a devotee living only by his pi'ide and his creed, hiding
himself in the day of danger, coming forth to claim adoration
after the victory won by others — is one of the most odious
beings that ever ruled over men, and one would say the very
vilest, if he had not possessed a strong conviction and acknow-
ledged integrity.*
* "Napoleon was of opinion that Robespierre had neither talent, force, nor
system ; that lie was the true emissary of the Revolution, who was sacrificed
the moment he attempted to arrest its course — the fate of all those who had
before himself engaged in the attempt ; but that he was by no means the
monster that was commonly believed. ' Robespierre,' said he, ' was at last
desirous to stop the public executions. Cambacérès, who is to be regarded
as an authority for that epoch, said to me in relation to the condemnation of
Robespierre, "Sire, that was a case in which judgment was pronounced without
hearing the accused." You may add to that, that his intentions were different from
what is generally supposed. His plan was, after having overturned the furious
factions which it was requisite for him to combat, to return to a system of
order and moderation.' "—Las Cases.
"The dictator, Robespierre, perished just at the very moment when he was
preparing to return to a system of justice and humanity." — Lcvasseur de la
Sarthe.
" Robespierre had been a studious youth, and a respectable man, and his char-
acter contributed not a little to the ascendency which he obtained over his rivals.
In the year 1785 he wrote an es.say against the Punishment of Death, which
gained the prize awarded by the Royal Society oî MeXz.'" —Quarterly Revk^v.
M. Dumont, in his " Recollections of Mirabeau," gives the following interesting
account of the tirst public speech delivered by Robespierre in the year 1789 :
" The clergy, for the purpose of surprising the tiers-état into a union of the Orders,
sent a deputation to invite the tiers to a conference on the distresses of the poor.
The tiers saw through the design, and not wishing to acknowledge the clergy as
a separate body, yet afraid to reject so popular a proposition, knew not what
5o6 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. JULY1794
answer to make, when one of the deputies rose, and thus addressed the ecclesi-
astical deputation : ' Go, tell your colleagues, if they are so anxious to relieve
the people, to hasten and unite themselves in this hall with the friends of the
people. Tell them no longer to try to carry their point by such stratagems as
this. Rather let them, as ministers of religion, renounce the splendour which
surrounds them, sell their gaudy equipages, and convert their superfluities into
food for the poor.' At this speech, which expressed so well the passions of the
moment, there arose a loud murmur of approbation. Every one asked, who was
the speaker ; he was not known ; but in a few minutes his name passed from
mouth to mouth ; it was one which afterwards made all France tremble — it was
Robespierre ! "
"When Robespierre first appeared in the world, he prefixed the aristocratical
particle de to his name. He was entered at college as de Robespierre ; he was
elected to the States-general as de Robespierre ; but after the abolition of all
feudal distinctions, he rejected the de, and called himself Robespierre." —
Quartcr/i/ Review.
APPENDICES.
APPENDICES.
A.
[Paye 27.]
Berthier.
" Louis Alexandre Berthier, Prince of Neufchatel and Waj^ram, mar-
shal, vice-constable of France, was born in Paris in 1753. He was the
son of a distinguished officer, and was, while yet young, employed in the
general staff, and fought with Lafayette for the liberty of the United
States. In 1 79 1 he was appointed chief of the general staff in Luckner's
army, marched against La Vendée in 1793, '^"*^^ joined the army of
Italy in 1796. In the year 1798 he received the chief command of the
army of Italy, and afterwards went to Egypt with Bonaparte, to whom
he was much attached, and who, on his return to Paris, appointed him
minister of war. Having, in 1806, accompanied the Emperor in his
campaign against Prussia, he signed the armistice of Tilsit in 1807.
Being appointed vice-constable of France, he married, in 1808, the
daughter of Duke William of Bavaria-Birkenfeld ; and having dis-
tinguished himself at Wagram in 1809, he received the title of Prince
of Wagram. In the following year, as proxy for Napoleon, he received
the hand of Maria Louisa, daughter of the Emperor of Austria, and
accompanied her to France. In 18 12 he accompanied the French army
to Russia. After Bonaparte's abdication he obtained the confidence of
Louis XVIII. , whom, on the Emperor's return, he accompanied to the
Netherlands, whence he repaired to his family at Bamberg. On his
arrival at this place he was observed to be sunk in profound melancholy,
and when the music of the Russian troops, on their march to the French
borders, was heard at the gates of the city, he put an end to his life
by throwing himself from a window of the third storey of his palace."^ —
Enciidojncdia Americana.
" Berthier was small and ill-shaped, without being actually deformed ;
his head was too large for his body ; his hair, neither light nor dark,
was rather frizzed than curled ; his forehead, eyes, nose, and chin, each
in the proper place, were, however, by no means handsome in the
aggregate ; his hands, naturally ugly, became frightful by a habit of
biting his nails ; add to this, that he stammered much in speaking ;
and that if he did not make grimaces, the agitation of his features was
so rapid as to occasion some amusement to those who did not take a
direct interest in his dignity. I must add, that he was an excellent
man, with a thousand good qualities, neutralized by weakness. Berthier
was good in every acceptation of the word." — Duchesse d'Ahrantès.
" Berthier was a man full of honour, courage, and probity, and
509
5IO APPENDICES.
exceedingly regular in the performance of his duties. Napoleon's
attachment to him arose more from habit than liking. Berthier did
not concede with affability, and refused with harshness. His manner
was abrupt, egotistic, and unpleasing. He was an excellent head of
the staff of an army ; but that is all the praise that can be given him,
and indeed he wished for no greater. He had such entire confidence in
the Emperor, and looked up to him with so much admiration, that he
never could have presumed to oppose his plans or offer him any advice.
Berthier's talent was liniited, and of a peculiar nature. His character
was one of extreme weakness." — Bourrieinie..
B.
[Page 44.]
Charlotte Corday.
^. " Charlotte Corday was born at St. Saturnin des Lignerets, in the \
f year 1768. Nature had bestowed on her a handsome person, wit, \
feeling, and a masculine understanding. „She received her education
in a convent, whei'e she laboured with constant assiduity to cultivate /
"^her own powers. The Abbé Raynal was her favourite modern author; J
and the Revolution found in her an ardent proselyte. Her love of
\/ study rendered her careless of the homage that her beauty attracted,^
7 though >_aL.a-was said to have formed an attachment to M. Belzunce, \
I ^mii^ox- ol the regiment of Bourbon, quartered at Caen. This young \
officer was massacred in 1789, after Marat in several successive numbers j
of his journal had denounced Belzimce as a counter-revolutionist. From |
this moment Charlotte Corday conceived a great liatred of Marat, /
which was increased after the overthrow of the Girondins, whose prin- /
ciples she reverenced ; and being resolved to gi'atify her vengeance, /
she left Caen in 1793, '^^^^^ arrived about noon on the third day at
Paris. Early on the second morning of her arrival she went into the
Palais Royal, bought a knife, hired a coach, and drove to the house of
Marat. Being denied admittance, she returned to her hotel, and wrote
the following letter: — 'Citizen, I have just arrived from Caen; your
love for your country inclines me to suppose you will listen with pleasure
to the secret events of that part of the republic. I will present myself
at your house ; have the goodness to give orders for my admission,
and grant me a moment's private conversation. I can point out the
means by which you may render an important service to France.' In
the fear that this letter might not produce the effect she desired, she
wrote another, still more pressing, which she took herself. On knock-
ing at the door, Mai'at, who was in his bath, ordered her to be instantly
admitted ; when, being left alone with him, she answered with perfect
self-possession all his inquiries respecting the proscribed deputies at
Caen. While he made memorandums of their conversation, Charlotte
Corday coolly measured with her eye the spot whereon to strike ; and
then snatching the weapon from her bosom, she buried the entire knife
right in his heart ! A single exclamation escaped Marat. ' Help ! '
he said, and expired. Having been tried and found guilty, Charlotte
Corday still maintained a noble and dignified deportment, welcoming
death, not as the expiation of a crime, but as the inevitable consequence
APPENDICES. 5 1 1
of a mighty effort to avenge the injuries of a nation. The hour of her
piuiishment drew immense crowds to the place of execution. When
she appeared alone with the executioner in the cart, in despite of the
constrained attitude in which she sat, and of the disorder of her dress,
she excited the silent admiration of those even who were hired to curse
her. One man alone had courage to raise his voice in her praise. His
name was Adam Lux, and he was a deputy from the city of Mentz,
' She._.is_.greater than Brutus ! ' he exclaimed. This sealed his death-
warrant. He was soon afterwards guillotined." — Du Broca.
C:
[Page 119.]
Lazare Nicolas Marguerite Carnot.
" Carnot was one of the first ofticers of the French army who embraced
cordially and enthusiastically the regenerating views of the National
Assembly. In 1791 he was in the garrison at St. Omer, where he
married Mademoiselle Dupont, daughter of a merchant there. His
political principles, the moderation of his conduct, and his varied know-
ledge procured for him soon after the honour of a seat in the Legislature,
from which period he devoted himself wholly to the imperative duties
imposed on him either by the clioice of his fellow-citizens, or by the
suffrages of his colleagues. The Convention placed in the hands of
Carnot the colossal and incoherent mass of the military requisition.
It was necessary to organize, discipline, and teach. He drew from it
fourteen anmes. He had to create able leaders. His penetrating eye
ranged through the most obscure ranks in search of talent united
with courage and disinterestedness ; and he promoted it rapidly to the
highest grades. In 1802, Carnot opposed the creation of the Legion
of Honour. He likewise opposed the institution of the consulate for
life ; but it was more especially at the period when it was proposed to
raise Bonaparte to the throne that he exerted all his energy. He stood
alone in the midst of the general defection. His conduct during the
Hundred Days appears to me summed up completely in the memorable
words which Napoleon addressed to him on entering the carriage when
he was going to Rochefort, ' Carnot, I have known you too late ! ' After
the catastrophe of the Hundred Days, Carnot was proscribed, and obliged
to expatriate himself. He died at Magdeburg in 1823, at the age of
seventy years. It is true he had ambition, but he has himself told
us its character — it was the ambition of the three hundred Spartans
going to defend Thermopyhe." — Arago.
" Carnot was a man laborious and sincere, but liable to the influence
of intrigues, and easily deceived. When minister of war he showed
but little talent, and had many quarrels with the ministers of finance
and the treasury, in all of which he was wrong. He left the govern-
ment, convinced that he could not fulfil his station for want of money.
He afterwards voted against the establishment of the Empire ; but as his
conduct was always upright, he never gave any umbrage to the govern-
ment. During the prosperity of the Empire he never asked for any-
thing ; but after the misfortunes of Russia he demanded employment,
and got the command of Antwerp, where he acquitted himself very
512 APPENDICES.
well. After Napoleon's return from Elba he was minister of the
interior, and the Emperor had every reason to be satisfied with his
conduct. He was faithful, and a man of trutli and probity." — A Voice
from St. Helena.
D.
[Paye 135.]
General Hoche.
" Lazare Hoche, general in the French revolutionary war, was born
in 1764 at Montreuil, near Versailles, where his father was keeper of
the King's hounds. He entered the army in his sixteenth year. At
the beginning of the Revolution he joined the popular party, and
studied military science with great diligence. He was not twenty-four
years old when he received the conmiand of the army of the Moselle.
He defeated Wurmser, and drove the Austrians t)ut of Alsace. His
frankness displeased St. Just, who deprived him of his connnand, and
sent him a prisoner to Paris. The Revolution of the 9th Thermidor
saved him from the guillotine. In 1795 Hoche was employed against
the royalists in the West, where he displayed great ability and
humanity. He was one of the chief pacificators of La Vendee. He
afterwards sailed for Ireland ; but his scheme of exciting a disturbance
there failed. On his return he received the command of the army of
the Sambre and Meuse, in which capacity he was frequently victorious
over the enemy. Hoche died suddenly in the year 1797, at Wetzlar, it
was supposed, at the time, of poison." — Encyclopœdia Americana.
" The death of Hoche may be regarded as an event in our Revolution.
With his military talent he combined extensive abilities of vai'ious
kinds ; and he was a citizen as well as a soldier. When his death was
made known, the public voice rose in an accusing outcry against the
Directory. I am satisfied that Hoche was the constant object of the
hatred of a party, then unfortunately powerful, tliough acting in the
shade. I entertain a firm conviction also that he died by assassination."
— Duchesse d'A bran tes.
" Hoche, said Bonaparte, was one of the first generals that ever
France produced. He was brave, intelligent, abounding in talent,
decisive, and penetrating. If he had landed in Ireland he would have
succeeded. He was accustomed to civil war, had pacified La Vendée,
and was well adapted for Ireland. He had a fine, handsome figure, a
good address, and was prepossessing and intriguing." — A Voice from
St. Helena.
E.
[Page 168.]
FOUQUIER-TINVILLK.
" Antoine Quentin Foucjuier-Tinville, the son of a farmer, was first an
attorney at the Chàtelet ; but having dissipated his property, he lost his
place, and became a bankrupt. In 1793 he was appointed head juryman
APPENDICES. .513
of the revolutionary tribunal, and caused the (jueen to be condemned to
death; but in the year 1795 '^^^ himself condemned and executed, for
having caused the destruction of an innumerable multitude of French
persons, under pretence of conspiracies ; for having caused between
sixty and eighty individuals to be tried in four hours ; for having
caused carts, which were ready beforehand, to be loaded with victims
whose very names were not mentioned, and against whom no deposi-
tions were made, and for having constituted a jury of his own adherents.
It would be impossible to detail all his atrocities, but a few instances
will convey an idea of his character. M. de Gamache was brought into
court, but the officer declared that he was not the person accused.
' Never mind,' said Fouquier ; ' bring him nevertheless.' A moment
after, the real Gamache appeared, and both were at once condemned
and executed. Sixty or eighty unhappy wretches were often con-
founded in the same accusation, though they had never seen each other,
and when Fouquier wished to despatch them in the mass he merely
said to the jury, ' I think, citizens, that you are convinced of the guilt
of the accused.' When this hint was thrown out, the jury would de-
clare themselves sufficiently enlightened, and condemn all the accused
in the gross, without hearing one of them. Fouquier-Tinville was ac-
customed to frequent a coffee-house in the Palace of Justice, where
the judges and jurymen of his tribunal met. There they reckoned
the number of heads which had fallen in the course of the decade.
' What do you think I have gained to-day for the republic ? ' Some
of the guests, to pay court to him, would answer, ' So many millions ; '
when he would immediately add, ' In the next decade I shall undress
three or four hundred,' meaning, guillotine them. A considerable
number of victims were one day met on their way home from the
tribunal by Fouquier, who had not been present at their trial ; he
asked the jury on what crime they had been pronouncing sentence.
They did not know, they said, but he might run after the condemned
persons and inquire, upon which they all burst into laughter. When
he was himself led to execution, after the fall of Robespierre, Fouquier-
Tinville's forehead, hard as marble, defied all the eyes of the multitude ;
he was even seen to smile and utter threatening words. He trembled,
however, as he ascended the scafibld, and seemed for the first time
to feel remorse. He had a round head, black straight hair, a narrow
and wan forehead, small round eyes, a full face marked with the small-
pox, a look sometimes fixed, sometimes oblique, a middling stature, and
thick legs." — Biographie Moderne.
" Fouquier-Tinville, who was excessively artful, quick in attributing
guilt, and skilled in controverting facts, showed immovable presence
of mind on his trial. While standing before the tribunal from which
he had condemned so many victims, he kept constantly writing ; but
like Argus, all eyes and ears, he lost not, while he wrote, one single word
uttered by the president, by an accused person, by a judge, by a witness,
or by a public accuser. He aflected to sleep during the public accuser's
recapitulation, as if to feign tranquillity, while he had liell in his heart.
No eye but must involuntarily fall before his steadfast gaze ; when he
prepared to speak, he frowned ; his brow was furrowed ; his voice was
rough, loud, and menacing ; he carried audacity to the utmost in his
denial ; and showed equal address in altering facts and rendering them
independent of each other, and especially in judiciously placing his
alibis." — Merrier.
" Fouquier-Tinville was the public accuser in the revolutionary tribunal,
VOL. III. 89
514 . APPENDIC]^:8.
and his name soon became as terrible as that of Robespierre to all
France. He was born in Picardy, and exhibited a combination of
qualities so extraordinary, that if it had not been established by un-
doubted testimony it would have been deemed fabulous. Justice in his
eyes consisted in condemnine; ; an acquittal was the source of profound
vexation ; he was never happy unless when he had secured the conviction
of all the accused. He re(juired no species of recreation ; women, the
pleasures of the table or of the theatre, Avere alike indifterent to him.
Sober and sjiai-ing in diet, he never indulf^ed in excess, exceptin<i; when
with the judges of the revolutionary triliunal, when he would at times
give way to intemperance. His power of underooini;- fatigue was un-
bounded. The sole recreation which he allowed himself was to behold
his victims perish on the scaffold. He confessed that that object had
great attractions for him. He might dux-ing the period of his power
have amassed an immense fortune ; he remained to the last poor, and
his wife is said to have died of famine. His lodgings Avere destitute
of every comfort ; their whole furniture, after his death, did not sell
for twenty pounds. No seduction coidd influence him. He was literally
a bar of iron against all the ordinary desires of men. Nothing roused
his mind but the prospect of inflicting death, and then his animation
was such that his countenance became radiant and expi'essive." — A lison.
F.
[Page 194.]
The War in La Vendée.
" By the last great battle fought near Cholet, the Vendean insurgents
were driven down into the low country on the banks of the Loire.
Not only the whole wreck of the army, but a great proportion of the
men, women, and children of the country, fl}'ing in consternation from
the burnings and butchery of the government forces, flocked down in
agony and despair to the banks of this great river. On gaining the
heights of St. Florent, one of the most mournful and at the same
time most magnificent spectacles burst upon the eye. These heights
form a vast semicircle, at the bottom of which a broad bare plain
extends to the water's edge. Near a hundred thousand unhappy souls
now blackened over that dreary expanse ! Old men, infants, and women
were mingled with the half-armed soldiery, caravans, crowded baggage-
waggons, and teams of oxen — all full of despair, impatience, anxiety,
and terror. Behind were the smoke of the burning villages, and the
thunder of the hostile artillery. Before was the broad stream of the
Loire, divided by a long, l()w island, also covered with the fugitives.
Twenty frail barks were plying in the stream ; and on the far banks were
seen the disorderly movements of those who had efiected their passage,
and were waiting to be rejoined by their companions. Such was the
tumult and terror of the scene, and so awful were the recollections
it inspii-ed, that many of its awe-struck spectators have concurred in
stating that it brought forcibly to their imaginations the unspeakable
terrors of the gi^eat Day of Judgment ! Through this bewildered
multitude Lescure's family made their way silently to the shore ; the
general himself, stretched almost insensible on a litter; his wife, three
APPENDICES. 5 i s
months gone with child, walking by his side ; and behind her the
nurse, with an infant in her arms. When they arrived on the beach
they with difBciilty got a crazy boat to carry them to the island ; but
the aged monk who steered it would not venture to cross the larger
branch of the stream, and the poor wounded man was obliged to submit
to the agony of another removal. At length they were landed on the
opposite liank, where wretchedness and desolation appeared still more
conspicuous. Thousands of helpless creatures were lying on the grassy
shore, or roaming about in search of the friends from whom they were
divided. There was a general complaint of cold and hunger ; yet no one
was in a condition to give directions, or administer relief. Lescure
suffered excruciating pain from the piercing air which blew upon his
feverish frame ; the poor infant screamed for food ; and the helpless
mother was left to minister to both ; while the nurse went among the
burnt and ruined villages to seek a drop of milk for the baby ! At
length they got again in motion for the adjoining village of Varades,
and with great difficulty procured a little room in a cottage swarming
with soldiers." — Edinburgh Review.
G.
[Page 199.]
FOUCHÉ.
"Joseph Fouché, born at Nantes in 1763, was intended for his father's
profession — a sea-captain ; but not being strong enough, was sent to
prosecute his studies at Paris. He then taught mathematics and
metaphysics at Arras and elsewhere, and at twenty-five years of ao-e
was placed at the head of the college of Nantes. In 1792 he was chosen
member of the Convention, where he voted for the King's death ; and
was soon after sent with Collot-d'Herbois on a mission to Lyons. On
the fall of Robespierre, Fouchc, having been denounced as a Terrorist
withdrew into obscurity until 1 798, when the Directory appointed him
French minister to the Cisalpine Republic. In the following year
he was made minister of police, and when Bonaparte returned from
Egypt, he continued him in his post, in order that he might detect
royalist and Jacobin conspiracies. In 1809 Fouché was entrusted with
the portfolio of the interior, as well as of the police, and created Due
d'Otranto. In the ensuing year, having given umbrage to Nai^oleon
by entering into negotiations for peace with the Marquis Wellesley,
he was sent into honourable exile as governor of Rome. He was
soon recalled to France, and banished to Aix, where he lived a whole
year retired. In 181 3 he was again emjiluyed by Napoleon, was sent on
a mission to Murat, and retui-ned to Paris a few days after the declara-
tion of the Senate that the Empei'or had lost his throne. During the
first restoration Fouché lived partly retired ; but on Napoleon's return
from Elba the King sent for him ; he preferred, however, to join the
Emperor, who a third time made him minister of police. After the
battle of Waterloo the French Chamber placed Fouché at the head of
a provisionary government, and he was afterwards reinstated in the
police by the King. He was soon, however, displaced, and having been
comprised in the law against regicides in 1816, retired to Trieste,"where
5i6 APPENDICES.
he died in 1820. Fouché's countenance was expressive of penetration
and decision. He was of the middle size, rather thin, of firm health and
strong nerves. The tones of his voice were somewhat hollow and harsh ;
in speech he was vehement and lively ; in his appearance, plain and
simple." — Encyclopcedia Americana.
" ' Fouchu is a miscreant of all colours, a priest, a Terrorist, and one
who took an active part in many bloody scenes of the Revolution. He
is a man,' continued Bonaparte, ' who can worm all your secrets out of
you with an air of calmness and unconcern. He is very rich, but his
riches have been badly acquired. He never was my confidant. Never
did he approach me without bending to the ground ; but I never had
esteem for him. I employed him merely as an instrument.'"—^ Voice
from St. Helena.
" Fouché never regarded a benefit in any other light than as a means
of injuring his benefactor. He had opinions, but he belonged to no
party, and his political success is explained by the readiness with which
he always served the party he knew must triumph, and which he himself
overthrew in its turn. It might be said that his ruling passion was the
desire of continual change. No man was ever characterized by greater
levity or inconstancy of mind." — Bourricnne.
H.
[Page 199.]
Collot-d' Herbois.
" Attended by a crowd of satellites, Couthon traversed the finest
quarters of Lyons with a silver hammer, and striking at the door of
the devoted houses, exclaimed, ' Rebellious house, I strike you in the
name of the law.' Instantly the agents of destruction, of whom
twenty thousand were in the pay of the Convention, levelled the
dwelling to the ground. But this was only a prelude to a more bloody
vengeance. Collot-d'Herbois was animated with a secret hatred to-
wards the Lyonnese ; for, ten years before, when an obscure actor, he
had been hissed oft' their stage. He now resolved at leisure to gratify
his revenge. Fouché, his worthy associate, published, before his
arrival, a proclamation in which he declared that the French people
could acknowledge no other worship than that of universal morality ;
that all religious emblems should be destroyed ; and that over the gates
of the churchyards should be written — Death is a a eternal sleep ! Pro-
ceeding on these atheistical principles, the first step of Collot-d'Herbois
and Fouché was to institute a f(*te in honour of Chalier, the republican
governor of Lyons, who had been put to death on the first insurrection.
His bust was carried through the streets, followed by an immense
crowd of assassins and prostitutes. After them came an ass bearing
the Gospel, the Cross, and the communion vases, which were soon com-
mitted to the fiâmes, while the ass was compelled to drink out oî the
communion-cup the ccmsecrated wine ! The executions meantime con-
tinued without the slightest relaxatit)n. Many women watched for the
hour when their husbands were to pass to the scaffold, precipitated
themselves upon the chariot, and voluntarily sufiered death by their side.
Daughters surrendered their honour to save their parents' lives ; but the
APPENDICES, 517
monsters who violated them, adding treachery to crime, led them out
to behold the execution of their relatives ! Deeming the daily execu-
tion of fifteen or twenty persons too tardy a display of republican
vengeance, CoUot-d'Herbois prepared a new and simultaneous mode of
punishment. Sixty captives of both sexes were led out together,
tightly bound in a tile, to the Place du Brotteaux ; they were arranged
in two liles, with a deep ditch on each side, which was to be their place
of sepulture, while gendarmes with uplifted sabres threatened with
instant death whoever moved from their position. At the extremity
of the tile, two cannon, loaded with grape, were so placed as to enfilade
the whole. The signal was then given, and the guns were fired.
Broken limbs, torn ofi" by the shot, were scattered in every direction ;
while the blood flowed in torrents into the ditches on either side the
line. A second and third discharge were insufficient to complete the
work of destruction, till, at length, the gendarmes, unable to witness
such protracted sufierings, rushed in, and despatched the survivors with
their sabres. On the following day this bloody scene was renewed on
a still greater scale. Two hundred and nine captives were brought
before the revolutionary judges, and with scarcely a hearing, con-
demned to be executed together. With such precipitance -was the
aftair conducted that two commissaries of the prison were led out along
with their captives ; their cries, their protestations, were alike disre-
garded. In passing the bridge Morand, the error was discovered on
the captives being counted ; and it was intimated to CoUot-d'Herbois
that there were too many. ' What signifies it,' said he, ' that there
are too many ? If they die to-day they cannot die to-morrow.' The
whole were brought to the place of execution, where they were attached
at stated intervals, with their liands tied behind their backs, to one cord
made fast to trees, and numerous pickets of soldiers disposed so as at
one discharge to destroy them all. At a given signal the fusillade
commenced ; but few were killed ; the greater part had only a jaw or a
limb broken ; and uttering the most piercing cries, they broke loose
in their agony from the rope, and were cut down by the gendarmes.
The great numbers who survived the discharge rendered the work of
destruction a most laborious operation, and several were still breathing
on the following day, when their bodies were mingled with quicklime,
and cast into a common grave. Collot-d'Herbois and Fouchc were
witnesses of this butchery from a distance, by means of telescopies which
they directed to the spot. All the other fusillades were conducted in
the same manner. One of them was executed under the windows of
an hotel on the Quay, where Fouché, with thirty Jacobins and twenty
courtesans, was engaged at dinner. They rose from table to enjoy the
bloody spectacle. The bodies of the slain were floated in such numbers
down the Rhone that the waters were poisoned. During the course of
five months upwards of six thousand persons suflered death, and more
than double that number were driven into exile." — Alison.
" One day during the bloody executions which took place at Lyons,
a young girl rushed into the hall where the revolutionary tribunal
was held, and throwing herself at the feet of the judges, said, ' There
remain to me of all my family only my brothers ! Mother — father —
sisters — uncles — you have butchered all ; and now you are going to
condemn my brothers. Ah, in mercy, ordain that I may ascend the
scatfold with them 1 ' Her prayer, accompanied as it was with all the
marks of frantic despair, was refused. She then threw herself into the
Rhone, where she perished." — Dti Broca.
5i8 APPENDICES.
I.
[Page 267.]
PiCHEGRU.
"Charles Pichogru, a French general, was born in 176 1, of a re-
spectable though poor family. In the year 1792 he was employed on
the staff of the army of the Rhine, rose rapidly through the ranks of
general of brigade and of division, and in 1793 assumed the chief
command of that same army. He was the inventor of the system of
sharpshooting, of Hying artillery, and of attacks perpetually repeated,
which rendered the enemy's cavalry almost useless. In 1794 the army
of the North was committed to Pichegru, who made a most victorious
campaign. In the following year the National Convention appointed
him commandant of Paris against the Terrorists, whose projects he
succeeded in overthrowing. He joined the army of the Rhine a short
time after, when he testified a desire to re-establish the house of
Bourbon on the throne, which coming to the knowledge of the Direc-
tory, they recalled him, on which he retired to his native place, Arbois,
where he spent several months in domestic retirement. In 1797 he
was chosen president of the Council of Five Hundred, and became
the hope of the Clichyan party. He was, however, arrested by the
troops of the directorial triumvirate, conveyed to the Temple, and con-
demned, together with fifty other deputies, to be transported to Guiana.
After some months' captivity in the pestilential deserts of Sinnimari,
Pichegru contrived to make his escape, and set sail for England, where
he was most warmly received. He then went to live in obscurity in
Germany, but in 1 804 came secretly to Paris with Georges and a great
number of conspirators, to try to overturn the consular government.
The plot being discovered, Pichegru was arrested and conducted to the
Temple, where he was one morning found dead in his bed. Several
physicians who met on the occasion asserted that he had strangled
himself with his cravat." — Uiogra^thie Moderne.
" ' Pichegru,' observed Napoleon, ' instructed me in mathematics at
Brienne, when I was about ten years old. He possessed considerable
knowledge in that science. As a general he was a man of no ordinary
talent, far superior to Moreau, though he had never done anything
extraordinary, as the success of his campaigns in Holland was in great
measure owing io the battle of Fleurus. Pichegru, after he had united
himself to the Bourbons, sacrificed the lives of upwards of twenty thousand
of his soldiers by throwing them purposely into the enemy's hands, whom
he had informed beforehand of his intentions.'" — Voice from St. Helena.
" Nature had made Pichegru a soldier. She had given him that
eagle eye which fixes victory on the field of battle, but she had denied
him the qualities of a statesman. He was a mere child in politics, and
took it into his head to conspire openly, before the face of the Direc-
tory, without once thinking that the Directors had it in their power
to stop him. I know for certain, that anumg the conditions which he
had made with the royal house was this, that a statue should be erected
to him in his lifetime as the restorer of the monarchy. Louis XVIII.
has faithfully executed this clause of the contract, not, it is true, during
the general's life, but since his death. I have seen in the court of the
Louvre this bronze without glory. The legitimacy of a cause never
rcsmoves the stain of treason." —j\Iei)ioir>> of a Peer of France.
APPENDICES. 519
K.
[Page 271.]
Napoleon Bonaparte.
"Napoleon Bonaparte was born at Ajaccio in Corsica, on the 15th
of August 1769, being the second of the five sons of Carlo Buonaparte,
by Letitia Ramolini (since so well known as Madame Mère), a lady of
great personal and mental attractions. Napoleon was early sent to
France and placed at the military school of Brienne, and thence in 1784
removed to that of Paris, in quality of king's scholar. Here he dis-
tinguished himself by his sti'ong desire to excel in mathematics and
military exercises. He very honourably passed his examination pre-
paratory to being admitted into the artillery, of which he was appointed
a second lieutenant in 1785. After serving a short time, he quitted
his regiment and retired to Corsica ; but returning to Paris in 1 790, he
became a captain in 1791 ; and at the siege of Toulon in 1793, having
the command of the artillery, his abilities began to develop themselves.
He was soon after made general of brigade, and supported by the
patronage of Barras, was appointed to command the conventional
troops at Paris, with which he defeated those of the sections in the
memorable struggle of the 5th of October 1794. At the desire of the
officers and soldiers of the army of Italy, he was appointed to the
command of that army, and three days before his departure for Nice,
in March 1 796, he married Josephine Beauharnais, widow of the Comte
de Beauharnais, who sutiered under Robespierre. The army opposed to
him consisted of 60,000 Austrians and Sardinians, commanded by the
Austrian general, Beaulieu. After several skirmishes he wholly out-
manoeuvred the enemy, and in the course of April won the battles of
Montenotte, Millesimo, and Mondovi, which obliged the King of Sar-
dinia to sign a treaty in his own capital. On tlie loth of May following
he gained the battle of Lodi. This memorable campaign terminated
in the treaty of Leoben, the preliminaries of which were signed on the
i6tli of April 1797. After making some arrangements in regulation
of the Cisalpine republic, which he had established at Milan, Bonaparte
signed the definitive treaty with the Austrians at Campo Formio, and
returned to Paris, where, of course, he was received with great respect
and rejoicing. He was now nominated general-in-chief of an expedition
against England, apparently a mere demonstration, as that against
Egypt was at this time in preparation. On the 19th of May 1798,
Bonaparte sailed from Toulon with Ji fieet of thirteen ships of the line,
as many frigates, and an immense number of transports, with 40,000
troops on board, the fiower of the French army. From this critical
field of action Bonaparte released himself with his usual decision and
activity: having received information of the disasters experienced by
the republican armies in Italy and Germany, as also of the disordered
state of parties in France, he took measures for secretly embarking in
August 1799, and accimipanied by a few officers entirely devoted to
him, he landed at Frejus in October following, and hastened to Paris.
He immediately addressed a letter to the Directory, justifying the
measures which he had pursued, and replying to the censures on the
Egyptian expedition. Courted by all parties, and l)y Sieyes and Barras,
at that time the leading men of the government, the latter, who seems
5 20 APPENDICES.
to have entertained an idea of restoring the monarch}', confided his
plan to Bonaparte, who, however, had other objects in view. After
many conferences with Sièyes and the leading members of the Council
of Ancients, on whom he could rely, he disclosed his own projects, the
consequence of which was the removal of the sitting of the Legislature
to St. Cloud, and the devolvement to Bonaparte of the command of
the troops of every description, in order to 'protect the national repre-
sentation. On the igth of November the meeting accordingly took
place at St. Cloud, when soldiers occupied all the avenues. The
Council of Ancients assembled in the galleries ; and that of the Five
Hundred, of whom Lucien Bonaparte was president, in the orangery.
Bonaparte entered into the Council of Ancients, and made an animated
speech in defence of his own character, and called upon them to exert
themselves in behalf of liberty and equality. In the meantime a violent
altercation took place in the Council of Five Hundred, where several
members insisted upon knowing why the meeting had been removed
to St. Cloud. Lucien Bonaparte endeavoured to allay the rising storm ;
but the removal had created great heat, and the cry was, ' Down with
the dictator ! No dictator ! ' At that moment Bonaparte himself
entered, followed by four grenadiers, on which several of the members
exclaimed, ' What does this mean ? No sabres here ! No armed men ! '
while others, descending into the hall, seized him, exclaiming, ' Outlaw
him, down with the dictator ! ' On this rough treatment, General
Lefebvre came to his assistance, and Bonaparte, retiring, mounted his
horse, and leaving Murat to observe what was going forward, sent a
picket of grenadiers into the hall. Protected by this force, Lucien
Bonaparte declared that the representatives who wished to assassinate
his brother were in the pay of England, and proposed a decree which
was immediately adopted, ' that General Bonaparte, and all those who
had seconded him, deserved well of their country ; that the Directory
was at an end ; and that the executive power should be placed in
the hands of three provisionary consuls, namely, Bonaparte, Sièyes,
and Roger Duces.' Such was the Cromwellian extinction of the
French Directory, which was followed by the constitution, called that
of the year eight ; in which Bonaparte was confirmed J'irst Consul,
and Cambaccrès and Le Brun assistant consuls. The same commission
ci'eated a Senate, a Council of State, a Tribunate, and a Legislative Body.
Leaving Paris in April 1800, Bonaparte proceeded with a well ap-
pointed army for Italy, passed the Great St. Bernard by an extra-
ordinary march, and bursting into that country like a torrent, utterly
defeated the Austrians under General Melas at Marengo, on the 14th
of the following June. This battle and that of Hohenlinden enabled
him a second time to dictate terms of peace to Austria, the result of
which was the treaty of Luneville with that power, and ultimately
that of Amiens with Great Britain, concluded in March 1802. All
these successes advanced him another step in his now evident march
to sovereignty, by securing him the consulate for life. The despair
of the friends of the Bourbons at the increasing progress of Bonaparte
towards sovereign sway at this time produced an endeavour at assassi-
nation by the explosion of a machine filled with combustibles, as he
passed in his carriage through the Rue St. Nicaise, from which danger
he very narrowly escaped. This plan failing, it as usual served the
intended victim, by enabling him to execute and transport several
personal enemies. Generals Pichegru and Moreau, Georges, the two
Comtes de Polignac, and forty-three more were arrested, of whom
APPENDICES. 521
Pichegru died in prison ; Georges and eleven more suffered on the
sciitibld, and Moreau was exiled and departed for America. On the
2nd of December 1804, Bonaparte was crowned Emperor of France
in the church of Nôtre-Dame in Paris, by the hands of Pope Pius VI.,
whom he obliged to come in person from Rome to perform the cere-
mony. He was immediately recognized by the Emperors of Austria
and Russia, and by the Kings of Prussia, Spain, and Denmark ; the
King of Sweden alone refusing. Great Britain being his sole enemy
of magnitude, on the 7th of August he published a manifesto, an-
nouncing an invasion of England, and assembling a numerous flotilla
at Boulogne, formed in the neighbourhood a camp of 200,000 men.
In less than six weeks the pretended army of England was on the
banks of the Danube, and the capitulation of General Mack at Ulm
was the rapid consequence. On the nth of November 1805 the
French army entered Vienna, which Francis II. had quitted a few
days before, to retire with a remnant of his army into Moravia, where
the Emperor Alexander joined him with a Russian army, which he
commanded in person. Napoleon encountered the two emperors on
the 2nd of December, on the plains of Austerlitz, where the great
military talents of the French leader again prevailed, and the treaty
of Presburg followed, which recognized him King of Italy, master of
Venice, of Tuscany, of Parma, of Placentia, and of Genoa. Prussia
also ceded the Grand Duchy of Berg, which he gave to Murat. The
Electors of Bavaria, of Wirtemberg, and Saxony, were transformed into
kings ; the crown of Naples was bestowed on his brother Joseph, that of
Holland on Louis, and that of Westphalia on Jerome ; the republican
Lucien declining every gift of this nature. In July 1806 he ratihed
at Paris the famous treaty of the Confederation of the Rhine, in which
he transferred to himself the preponderance previously enjoyed by the
house of Austria. In September following, a powerful Prussian army
was got together, and that wretched campaign ensued which ended in
the decisive battle of Jena, fought on the 14th of October 1806, the
consequence of which defeat was more fatal than the defeat itself. The
severe campaign against Russia succeeded, in which were fought the
battles of Pultusk and Friedland, and which ended in the treaty of
Tilsit. Napoleon now turned his attention to Spain, and affected to
meet the King and his son Ferdinand at Bayonne, to adjust their
family diilerences. The result was the abdication of Charles IV. and
the forced resignation of Ferdinand. On the 25th of October 1808,
Napoleon announced that he intended to crown his brother King of
Spain at Madrid, and to plant the eagles of France on the towers of
Lisbon. The Spaniards nevertheless tenaciously, if not skilfully, re-
sisted; and Napoleon, leaving the pursuit of the English army under
Sir John Moore to Marshal Soult, returned to Paris. Encouraged by
the occupation of a large French army in Spain, Austria ventured a
third time to declare war against France ; on which Napoleon quitted
Paris, and heading his army, fought the battles of Landshut, Eck-
niuhl, Ratisbon, and Neumark, and once more entered Vienna. The
decisive victory of Wagram was gained on the 5th and 6tli of July
1 809 ; on the 1 2th a suspension of arms was agreed upon, and on the
14th of the ensuing October a definitive treaty of peace was concluded,
one of the secret conditions of which soon became apparent by prepara-
tions commencing for the dissolution of the marriage of the conqueror
with Josephine. On the 2nd of April 18 10, Napoleon espoused the
Archduchess Maria Louisa, daughter of the Emperor Francis II. Soon
522 APPENDICES.
after this marriage he united to France the provinces situated on the
left bank of the Rhine, and by a decree of the 13th of December in
the same year, Holland, the three Hanseatic cities of Hamburg, Bremen,
and Lubeck, and a part of Westphalia, were added to the empire ; as also,
by another decree, the Valais. In March 181 1 a son was born to him,
whom he called King of Rome. Aware of the discontent of Russia, and
of her intention to resist on the first favourable opportunity, towards
the end of the year 181 1 he began those mighty preparations for the
invasion of that empire, which foi-med the nucleus of the greatest
array of disciplined and able soldiery which ever moved under one
command and in one direction. In May 181 2 he left Paris to review
the grand army, made up of all his auxiliaries and confederates, willing
and unwilling, assembled on the Vistula, and aniving at Dresden,
spent fifteen days in that capital, attended by the Emperor of Austria,
the King of Prussia, and nearly the whole of the princes of the conti-
nent, among whom he moved the primam mobile and the centre. On
the loth of September the famous battle of Borodino was fought, so
fatal to both parties, and in which 60,000 men are supposed to have
perished. Napoleon nevertheless pressed on to Moscow, from which
the Russians retreated, as also the greater part of the inhabitants, who
abandoned it by order of the governor. Count Rostopchin. When,
therefore, Napoleon entei^ed the celebrated capital, four days after the
battle, he found it for the greater part deserted and in flames. After
remaining thirty-live days in the ruins of this ancient metropolis, ex-
posed to every species of privation, retreat became necessary, and one
of the most striking scenes of human suffering ever produced by the ex-
travagances of ambition was experienced by the retiring army. Arriving
at Warsaw on the loth of December, on the 18th of the same month
Napoleon entered Paris at night, and on the following day a bulletin
disclosed his immense losses, with no great concealment of their extent.
Early the next month he presented to the Senate a decree for levying
350,000 men, which was unanimously agreed to, and he forthwith began
preparations to encounter the forces of Russia and Prussia, now once
more in combination. On the 2nd of May 18 13 he encountered the
armies of tliese allies at Lutzen, and forced them to retire, on which
Austria undertook to mediate ; but not succeeding, the battle of Bautzen
followed, in which the French were victorious. At length these con-
tests terminated in the famous battle of Leipsic, fought on the i6th,
1 8th, and 19th of October, which was decisive of the war as to Germany.
Napoleon returned to Paris, and interrupted the compliment of address,
by stating the fact, that * within the last year all Etirope marched with
us ; now all Europe is leagued against us.' He followed up this avowal
by another demand of 300,000 men. The levy was granted, and on the
26th of January 1814 he again headed his army, and the Allies having
passed the Rhine early in the same month, in the succeeding February
were fought the battles of Dizier, Brienne, Champaubert, and Mont-
mirail, with various success ; but now the advanced guard of the
Russians entered into action, and Napoleon was called to another
quarter. The sanguinary conflicts of Montereau and Nogent followed,
in which the allied forces suttered very severely, and were obliged to
retire upon Troyes. At length, however, their extensive array bore
on so many points, that, on the French being driven back on the
barriers of Paris, Marshal Marmont, who commanded there, sent a
flag of truce, and proposed to deliver up the city. Napoleon liastened
from Fontainebleau, but was apprized five leagues from Paris of the
APPENDICES. 523
result. He accordingly returned to Fontainebleau, where he com-
manded an army of 50,000 men, and the negotiation ensued which
terminated in his consignment to the island of Elba, with the title of
ex-emperor, and a pension of two millions of livres. It is unnecessary
to detail the events of his brief residence in this island, in which he
was visited by many curious Englishmen and others. It is probable
that he never meant to remain in that equivocal situation, or the Allies
to allow him. Be this as it may, secretly embarking in some hired
feluccas, accompanied by about 1200 men, on the night of the 25th
of February 181 5, he landed on the ist of March in the Gulf of Juan,
in Provence, at three o'clock in the afternoon. He immediately issued
a proclamation, announcing his intention to resume his crown, of which
' treason had robbed him,' and proceeding to Grenoble, was at once
welcomed by the commanding officer Labedoyere, and two days after-
wards he entered Lyons, where he experienced a similar reception.
Thus received and favoured, he reached Paris on the 20th of March,
without drawing a sword. In the capital he was received with loud
acclamations of ^ Vive V Empereur T and was joined by Marshal Ney,
and the Generals Drouet, Lallemand, and Lefebvre. On the i8th of
June occurred the signal and well-known victory of Waterloo. Napo-
leon immediately returned to Paris ; but the charm was now utterly
dissolved, and he resigned himself, on the 15th of July, into the hands
of Captain Maitland, of the Belleroplion, then lying at Rochefort, and
was exceedingly anxious to land in England. It is impossible to dwell
on the minutife of his conduct and reception, or on the circumstances
attendant on his consignment for safe custody to St. Helena, by the
joint determination of the Allies. For this his final destination he
sailed on the nth of August 181 5, and arrived at St. Helena on the
13th of the following October. It appears probable that mental afflic-
tion, added to unhealthy climate, began to operate fatally on the con-
stitution of Bonaparte from the hour of his arrival ; as nearly the whole
of the four years and upwards, while he remained there, he was sickly
and diseased. His ultimate complaint was a cancer in his breast, appa-
rently a disease to which he had a constitutional tendency, as his father
died of a similar malady. He bore the excruciating torture of his dis-
order, for six weeks, with great firmness, generally keeping his eyes
fixed on a porti'ait of his son, which was placed near liis bed. From the
beginning he refused medicine as useless ; and the last words, uttered
in a state of delirium, on the morning of his death, were * Mon fiU ! '
soon afterwards, ' Tête (Varme'e ! ' and lastly, ' France.' This event took
place on the 5th of May 1821, in the fifty-second year of his age. He
was interred, according to his own desire, near some willow-trees and a
spring of water at a place called Haine's Valley, his funeral being attended
by the highest military honours." — (Jordon's Biographical Dictionary .
L.
[Page 274.]
The Siege of Toulon.
The following is Bonaparte's own account of this memorable siege,
dictated at St. Helena : — " The commandant of artillery (Napoleon), who,
for the space of a month, had been carefully reconnoitring the ground.
524 APPENDICES.
proposed the plan of attack which occasioned the reduction of Toulon.
He declared that it was not necessary to march against the place, but only
to occupy a certain position which was to be found at the extreme point
of the promontory of Balaguier and rEguillette. If the general-in-chief
would occupy this position with three battalions, he would take Toulon
in four days. In conformity with this proposal, the French raised
five or six batteries against the position, which was called ' Little
Gibraltar,' and constructed platforms for fifteen mortars. A battery
had also been raised of eight twenty-four pounders and four mortars,
against Fort Malbosquet. The enemy were every day receiving rein-
forcements ; and the public watched with anxiety the progress of the
siege. They could not conceive why every ettbrt should be directed
against Little Gibraltar, quite in an opposite direction to the town.
All the popular societies made denunciation after denunciation on this
subject. Dugommier accordingly determined — his plans having been
completed — that a decisiv'e attack should be made on Little Gibraltar.
The commandant of artillery, in consequence, threw seven or eight
thousand shells into the fort, while thirty twenty-four pounders bat-
tered the works. On the i8th of December, at four in the afternoon,
the troops left their camp and marched towards the village of Seine.
The plan was, to attack at midnight, in order to avoid the fire of the
forts and the innnediate redoubts. The allied troops, to avoid the
efiect of the shells and balls which showered upon the fort, were
accustomed to occupy a station at a small distance in the rear of it.
The French had great hopes of reaching the works before them ; but
the enemy had placed a line of skirmishers in front of the fort, and
as the musketry commenced firing at the very foot of the hill, the
allied troops hastened to the defence of the fort, whence a brisk fire
was immediately opened. Case-shot showered all around. At length,
after a most furious attack, Dugommier, who headed the leading
column, was obliged to give way, and in the utm<ist despair he cried
out, ' I am a lost man ! ' Success was, indeed, indispensable in those
days, as the want of it conducted the unfortunate general to the scaf-
fold. The cannonading and musketry continued. Captain Muiron, of
the artillery, a young man full of bravery and resources, was detached
with a battalion of light infantry, and supported by the second column,
which followed them at tlie distance t)f a musket-shot. He was per-
fectly acquainted with the position, and availed liimself so well of the
windings of the ascent that he conducted his troops up it without
sustaining any loss. He debouched at the foot of the fort — rushed
through an embrasure — his soldiers followed him — and the fort was
taken. As soon as they were masters of the position the Fi'ench turned
the cannon against the enemy, and at daybreak marched on Balaguier
and I'Eguillette ; but the enemy had already evacuated those positions,
which Lord Hood was no sooner informed of, than he made signal to
weigh anchor and get out of the roads. He then went to Toulon, to
make it known that there was not a moment to be lost in getting out
to sea. The weather was dark and cloudy, and everything announced
the approach of the south-west wind, so terrible at this season. The
council of the combined forces met, and unanimously agreed that
Toulon was no longer tenable. They accordingly proceeded to take
measures, as well for the embarkation of the troops, as for destroying
such French vessels as they could not carry away with them, and firing
the marine establishments. They likewise gave notice to all the in-
habitants, that those who wished to leave the place might embark on
APPENDICES. 525
board the English and Spanish fleets. In the night, Fort Pone was
blown up by the English, and an hour afterwards, part of the French
squadron was set on fire. Nine 74-gun ships, and four frigates or cor-
vettes, fell a prey to the flames. The fire and smoke from the arsenal
resembled the eruption of a volcano, and the thirteen vessels which
were burning in the road were like so many magnificent displays of
fireworks. The masts and forms of the vessels were distinctly marked
by the blaze, which lasted many hours, and formed an unparalleled
spectacle. During all this time the batteries of I'Eguillette and Bala-
guier kept up an incessant fire on the vessels in the roads. Many of
the English ships were much damaged, and a great number of trans-
ports, with troops on board, were sunk. Thousands of the Toulonnese
had followed the English, so that the revolutionary tribunals found but
few of the guilty in the place. Nevertheless, above a hundred unfortu-
nate wretches were shot within the first fortnight."
M.
[Page 395.]
Masséna, Duc de Rivoli.
" André Masséna, Duc de Rivoli and Prince of Esslingen, Marshal
of France, was born in 1758 at Nice, and rose from a common soldier
to the rank of commander. In 1792, when the warriors of the republic
had ascended Mount Cenis, he joined their ranks ; distinguished him-
self by courage and sagacity ; and in 1 793 was made general of brigade.
In the ensuing year he took the conunand of the right wing of the
Italian army. He was the constant companion in arms of Bonaparte,
who used to call him the spoiled child of victory. In 1799 Masséna
displayed great ability as commander-in-chief in Switzerland. After
he had reconquered the Helvetian and Rhœtian Alps, he was sent to
Italy to check the victorious career of the Austrians. He hastened with
the small force he could muster to the support of Genoa, the defence of
which is among his most remarkable achievements. In 1804 he was
created marshal of the empire, and the year after, received the chief
command in Italy, where he lost the battle of Caldiero. After the
peace of Tilsit, war having broken out in Spain, Masséna took the field
with the title of Due de Rivoli ; but in 1 809 he was recalled to Gei'-
many. At Esslingen his firmness saved the French army from total
destruction, and Napoleon rewarded him with the dignity of Prince of
that place. After the peace he hastened to Spain, but being unsuccess-
ful against Wellington, was recalled. In 18 14 Masséna commanded at
Toulon, and declared for Louis XVIII. On the landing of Bonaparte in
181 5, he joined him, was created a peer, and commander of the national
guard at Paris. He lived afterwards in retirement, and his death was
hastened by chagrin at the conduct of the royalists. He died in the
year 1817." — Encydopœdia Americana.
" ' Masséna,' said Napoleon, ' was a man of superior talent. He
generally, however, made bad dispositions previously to a battle ; and
it was not until the dead began to fall about him that he began to act
with that judgment which he ought to have displayed before. In the
526 APPENDICES.
midst of the dying and the dead, and of balls sweeping away those
who encircled him, Masséna was himself, and gave his orders and made
his dispositions with the greatest sang-froid and judgment. It was
truly said of him, that he never began to act with skill until the
battle was going against him. He was, however, un voleur. He went
halves with the contractors and commissaries of the army. I signified
to him often that if he would discontinue his peculations I would
make him a present of eight hundred thousand or a million of francs;
but he had acquired such a habit, that he could not keep his hands
from money. On this account he was hated by the soldiers, who
mutinied against him three or four times. However, considering the
circumstances of the times, he was precious ; and had not his bright
parts been sullied by avarice, he would have been a great man.'" — A
Voice from St. Helena.
" Masséna was a very superior man, but by a strange peculiarity of
temperament, he possessed the desired equilibrium only in the midst
of the greatest dangers." — Las Cases.
N.
[Page 398.]
General Moreau.
" Jean Victor Moreau, one of the oldest and most celebrated generals
of the French republic, was born in Bretagne in 1763. His father
intended him for the law ; but he fled from his studies, and enlisted
in a regiment before he had attained his eighteenth year. In 1789 he
joined the army of the North, and subsequently favoured the Girondins,
whose fall greatly aSected him, and it was with much repugnance that
he accepted the constitution of 1793, when proposed to the army. In
1794 he was appointed general of division, and commanded the right
wing of Pichegru's army. He was soon after named commander-in-
chief of the troops of the Rhine, and commenced that course of opera-
tions which terminated in the celebrated retreat from the extremity of
Germany to the French frontier, in the face of a superior enemy, by
which his skill as a consummate tactician was so much exalted. In
1798 Moreau was sent to command the army in Italy, but after some
brilliant successes, was compelled to give way to the Russians under
Suwarrow. After Napoleon's return from Egypt, Moreau was appointed
to the command of the armies of the Danube and Rhine, and gained the
decisive victory of Hohenlinden. He was afterwards accused of parti-
cipating in the conspiracy of Pichegru and Georges, and sentenced to
banishment ; whereupon he went to America and lived in retirement
till 18 1 3, when he joined the allied armies, and was killed in the battle
of Dresden which was fought in that year." — Encydopa'dia Americana.
The following is a contemporary account of the death of this cele-
brated general, whose military fame once rivalled that of Bonaparte.
It is extracted from a letter written by a British officer, and dated
Toplitz, Sept. 4, 181 3: — "General Moreau died yesterday. He was in
the act of giving some opinion on military matters while passing with
the Emperor of Russia behind a Prussian battery to which two French
APPENDICES. 527
ones were answeriiif^, and Lord Cathcart and Sir R. Wilson were listen-
ing to him, when a ball struck his thigh and almost carried his leg off,
passed through his horse, and shattered his other leg to pieces. He
gave a deep groan at first ; but immediately after the first agony was
over, he spoke with the utmost tranquillity and called for a cigar.
They bore him off the field on a litter made of Cossacks' pikes, and
carried him to a cottage at a short distance, which, however, was so much
exposed to the fire, that they were obliged, after just binding up his
Avounds, to remove him further off to the Emperor's quarters, where one
leg was amputated, he smoking the whole time. When the surgeon
informed him he must deprive him of the other leg, he observed, in the
calmest manner, that had he known that before, he would have preferred
dying. The litter on which they had hitherto conveyed him was
covered with wet straw and a cloak drenched with rain, which con-
tinued in torrents the whole day. He was brought, however, safely to
Laun, where he seemed to be going on well, till a long conference which
took place between him and three or four of the allied generals com-
pletely exhausted him. Soon after this he became extremely sick, and
died at six o'clock yesterday morning."
" ' Moreau,' observed the Emperor, ' possesses many good qualities.
His bravery is undoubted ; but he has more courage than energy ; he is
indolent and efteminate. When with the army, he lived like a pasha ;
he smoked, was almost constantly in bed, and gave himself up to the
pleasures of the table. His dispositions are natui'ally good ; but he is
too lazy for study. He does not read, and since he has been tied to his
wife's apron-strings, he is fit for nothing. He sees only with the eyes
of his wife and her mother, who have had a hand in all his plots against
me ; and yet, strange to say, it was by my advice that he entered into
this union. You must remember, Bourrienne, my observing to you
more than two years ago, that Moreau would one day strike his head
against the gate of the Tinleries. Had lie remained faithful to me, I
would have conferred on him the title of first Marshal of the Empire.' "
— Bourrienne.
" ' I mentioned,' says Barry O'Meara, ' Moreau's famous retreat
through Germany, and asked him if he had not displayed great mili-
tary talents in it. ' That retreat,' replied Napoleon, ' was the greatest
blunder that ever Moreau committed. The Directory were jealous of
me, and wanted to divide, if possible, the military reputation ; and
as they could not give Moreau credit for a victory, they did for a
retreat, which they caused to be extolled in the highest terms, though
even the Austrian generals condemned him for having performed it.
Moreau was an excellent general of division, but not fit to command a
large army. Calm and cool in the field, he was more collected and
better able to give orders in the heat of action, than to make disposi-
tions prior to it. His death was not a little curious. In the battle
before Dresden, I ordered an attack to be made upon the Allies by both
flanks of my army. While the manœuvres for this purpose were
executing, at the distance of about a hundred yards, I observed a group
of persons on horseback. Concluding that they were watching my
manœuvres, I resolved to disturb them, and called out to a captain of
artillery. Throw a dozen bullets at once into that group ; perhaps there
are some little generals in it. It was done instantly, and one of the
balls mortally wounded Moreau. A moment before, the Emperor
Alexander had been speaking to him,'"^>4 Voice frovi St, Helena.
528 APPENDICES.
0.
[Paye 428.]
François Maximilien Joseph Isidore Robespierre.
" Robespierre was now (1794), and had been for some time, no longer
like the same man. A sort of delirium of vanity had seized him, and
it was at this period that, under the influence, no doubt, of this madness
of self-conceit, he put into my hands his Memoirs, of which I was thus
enabled to take a copy. He sought my company more than ever ; his
friendship was troublesome to me ; it was a weight upon my heart,
that I knew not how to get rid of. I never saw him but at night, and,
as it were, in secret ; sometimes in the garden of the Tuileries, some-
times at my lodgings, and very rarely at his own. He seemed to wish
that I should not meet with any of his usual companions. He chatted
with me on the most indifierent things, on the fine arts, and on litera-
ture, avoided all conversation on political matters, and stopped my
mouth by a bitter expression or an angry look whenever I ventured upon
that forbidden topic. The reader may figure to himself what I must have
felt when, téte-à-tHe with him after the horrors of the day, and there
was not one but was marked by sanguinary executions, I was obliged
to talk to him about Homer, Tasso, or Rousseau, or to analyze Cicero,
Montaigne, and Rabelais, with this man, whose hands were stained
with blood ! He was fond of novels, and took great delight in the
poems of Ossian. From a singular contrast, next to those sombre
and melancholy productions of the bard of the North, he liked nothing
so well as the buftboneries of Scarron. He knew by heart two entire
cantos of the burlesque translation of the ^neid, and I have heard him
laugh immoderately on repeating these lines, in which Scarron says
that, in the infernal regions, ^neas
" ' Rencontra l'ombre d'un cocher.
Qui, tenant l'ombre d'une brosse,
En frottait l'ombre d'un carrosse.'
But Robespierre's laughter, so far from communicating any hilarity to
me, made me profoundly sad. I fancied that I heard the howling of a
tiger, and even at this day, whenever the recollection of that laugh
recurs to my mind, I shudder involuntarily, as if a demon were venting
close to my ear the bursts of his satanic gaiety. Robespierre had habits
of excessive delicacy, especially at the period of which I am speaking,
and amid the men by whom he was surrounded. He was particular
about having his linen very fine and very white. The woman who
took care of it was frequently scolded on this account, and I have
witnessed some curious scenes between him and his laundress. He
would have his frills plaited with extreme neatness : he wore waistcoats
of delicate colours — pink, light blue, chamois, elegantly embroidered.
The dressing of his hair took liim a good deal of time ; and he was very
particular about the colour and the cut of his coats. He had two watches,
wore several costly rings on his fingers, and had a valuable collection
of snuff-boxes. His elegant appearance formed a singular contrast
with the studied squalidness of the other Jacobins. The populace
would have insulted a stranger who dressed with such care, and in
APPENDICES. 529
whom it would have been deemed aristocratic ; but in its favourite,
Robespierre, this was considered perfectly republican. From a singular
contrast, this man, so bold in speech, trembled with fear at the least
danger. He did not like to be left alone in the dark. The slightest
noise made him shudder, and terror was expressed in his eyes. I had in
my room a skull of which I made use to study anatomy. The sight of
it was so disagreeable to him that he at length begged me to put it
away, and not let him see it any more. I was confounded at such a
proof of weakness, which furnished occasion for profound reflections," —
Memoirs of a Peer of France.
The subjoined character of Robespierre gives us a better idea of his
personal peculiarities than any with which the i-evolutionary historians
have furnished us.
"Died, 28tli July 1794, at Paris, aged 35, under the guillotine (with
nearly seventy of his party, members of the Convention), Maximilien
Robespierre. This emulator of Cromwell was short in stature, being
only five feet two or three inches in height. His step was firm, and his
quick pace in walking announced great activity. By a kind of con-
traction of the nerves, he used often to fold and compress his hands in
each other ; and spasmodic contractions were perceived in his shoulders
and neck, the latter of which he moved convulsively from side to side.
In his dress he was neat and even elegant, never failing to have his
hair in the best order. His features had nothing remarkable about
them, unless that their general aspect was somewhat forbidding ; his
complexion was livid and bilious ; his eyes dull, and sunk in their
sockets. The constant blinking of the eyelids seemed to arise from
convulsive agitation ; and he was never without a remedy in his pocket.
He could soften his voice, which was naturally harsh and croaking, and
could give grace to his provincial accent. It was remarked of him that
he could never look a man full in the face. He was master of the talent
of declamation, and as a public speaker was not amiss at composition.
In his harangues he was extremely fond of the figure called antithesis,
but failed whenever he attempted irony. His diction was at times
harsh, at others harmoniously modulated, frequently brilliant, but often
trite, and was constantly blended with commonplace digressions on
virtue, crimes, and conspiracies. Even when prepared, he was but an
indiflerent orator. His logic was often replete with sophisms and
subtleties ; but he was in general sterile of ideas, with but a very limited
scope of thought, as is almost always the case with those who are too
much taken up with themselves. Pride formed the basis of his char-
acter ; and he had a great thirst for literary, but a still greater for
political, fame. He spoke with contempt of Mr. Pitt ; and yet, above
Mr. Pitt he could see nobody unless himself. The reproaches of the
English journalists were a high treat to his vanity : whenever he
denounced them his accent and expression betrayed how much his self-
love was flattered. It was delightful to him to hear the French armies
named the ' armies of Robespierre ; ' and he was charmed with being
included in the list of tjTants. Dai'ing and cowardly at the same time,
he threw a veil over his manœuvres, and was often imprudent in point-
ing out his victims. If one of the representatives made a motion which
displeased him, he suddenly turned round towards him, with a menacing
aspect, for some minutes. Weak and revengeful, sober and sensual,
chaste by temperament, and a libertine by the efi'ect of the imagina-
tion, he was fond of attracting the notice of the women, and had them
imprisoned, for the sole pleasure of restoring them their liberty. He
VOL. III. 90
5 30 APPENDICES.
made them shed tears, in order to wipe them from their cheeks. In
practising his delusions it was his particular aim to act on tender and
weak minds. He spared the priests, because they could forward his
plans ; and the superstitious and devotees, because he could convert
them into instruments to favour his power. His style and expression
were in a manner mystical ; and next to pride, subtlety was the most
marked feature of his character. He was surrounded by those only
whose conduct had been highly criminal, because he could, with one
word, deliver them over to the punishment of the law. He at once
protected and terrified a part of the Convention. He converted crimes
into errors, and eri'ors into crimes. He dreaded even the shades of the
martyrs of liberty, whose influence he weakened by substituting his
own. He was so extremely suspicious and distrustful that he could
have found it in his heart to guillotine the dead themselves. To enter
into a strict analysis of his character, Robespierre, born without genius,
could not create circumstances, but profited by them with address. To
the profound hypocrisy of Cromwell, he joined the cruelty of Sylla,
without possessing any of the great military and political qualities of
either of these ambitious adventurers. His pride and his ambition, far
above his means, exposed him to ridicule. To observe the emphasis
with which he boasted of having proclaimed the existence of the Supreme
Being, one might have said, that, according to his opinion, God would
not have existed without him. When, on the night of the 27th of July,
he found himself abandoned by his friends, he discharged a pistol in
his mouth, and at the same time a gendarme wounded him by the
discharge of another. Robespierre fell, bathed in blood ; and a sans-
culotte, approaching him, pronounced these words in his ear : ' There
is a Supreme Being ! ' Previously to his execution, the bandage being
taken ofl" his head, his jaw fell down, in consequence of the wound which
he had given himself." — Annual liegister, 1794.
" It is generally supposed that he attempted to shoot himself by dis-
charging a pistol into his mouth, which, however, only fractured the
lower left jaw, and left it hanging down by the flesh and ligaments ;
but a field officer in the French army, of the name of Meda, subse-
quently claimed the honour of having fired this shot, and he supported
his assertion by some plausible facts. Meda — who afterwards rose to
be a colonel, and was killed in that rank at the battle of Moskwa —
was at this period of the age of eighteen or nineteen, and a private
gendarme : as such he accompanied Leonard Boiirdon in his attack on
the Robespierrians in the Maison de Ville, and showed so much firm-
ness and courage, that when Boui'don returned to the Convention to
give an account of his success, he brought Meda with him, placed him
by his side in the tribune, stated that he had with his own hand frappe
(literally struck, but it probably means wounded or killed) two of the
conspirators, and obtained for him the honours of the sitting, honour-
able mention in the procès-verhal, and a promise of military promotion.
The next day there appears an order of the Convention to deliver to
Meda a pistol which had been placed on the bar the day before. All
this the frocès-verhal of the sittings and the report in the Moniteur
record. But, on the other hand, it is not stated that one of two struck
by Meda was Bohespierre. On the contrary. Bourdon says, that Meda
disarmed him of a knife, but does not say that he either struck or shot
HIM — a circumstance so transcendently important, that Bourdon could
have hardly omitted to state it, had it been so. Nor is it said that
the pistol delivered to Meda was his own, nor that it was tlie pistol by
APPENDICES. 531
which Robespierre was wounded ; nor is any reason given why he
should have shot Robespierre, whom, if his own acccjunt be correct, he
might have taken alive. Meda, there can be no doubt, accompanied
Bourdon (Bourdon says that he never quitted him), and distinguished
himself generally ; but neither in the procès-verhal nor in the Moniteur
is there any evidence of his having shot Robespierre ; and his own
statement is someAvhat at variance with Bourdon's, and not very intel-
ligible as to the position in which the alleged shot was fired. This would
of itself excite some doubts ; but these doubts are much strengthened
by the follomng facts: — (i) Barré- re, in the official report (made, not
like Bourdon's, verbally in the hurry and agitation of the moment, but
on the third day, and after the collection and examination of all the
facts), states distinctly that Robespierre clumsily wounded himself ;
(2) the surgeon who dressed the wound made a technical and official
report, that it must have been infiicted by the patient himself ; and
(3) it is stated that, as the poor wretch lay mangled on a table at the
Hôtel de Ville, he supported his broken jaw and endeavoured to absorb
the blood with a wnollen 'jmtnl-bag, which he had in his left hand.
This trifiing circumstance, which could hardly have been invented,
strongly corroborates the reports of Barrère and the surgeon, and the
general opinion. We suppose the truth to have been, that Robespierre
drew his pistol from the woollen bag, which he held in his left hand,
and on the approach of the gendarmes, shot himself with the right, and
fell — that Meda picked up the pistol and carried it to the Convention,
which next day restored it to him as a trophy to which he had the best
right. This conjecture seems to reconcile all the facts and all the
statements, except only the tardy assertion of Meda himself." — Quarterly
Review.
[Page 4Si-]
Victims during the Reign of Terror.
" Jean Julien, waggoner, having been sentenced to twelve years' hard
labour, took it into his head (■■<\tvisa) to cry Vive le Roi ! was brought back
before the tribunal and condemned to death, September 1792.
■ " Jean Baptiste Henry, aged eigJiteen, journeyman tailor, convicted of
having sawed a tree of liberty; executed the 6th September 1793.
" Bernard Augustin d'Absac, aged fifty-one, ex-noble, late captain
in the iith regiment, and formerly in the sea-service, convicted of
having betrayed several toivns and several ships into the hands of the
enemy, was condemned to death on the loth January 1794, and executed
the same day.
" Stephen Thomas Ogie Baulny, aged forty-six, ex-noble, convicted of
having entrusted his son, aged fourteen, to a garde du corps, in order
that he might emigi-ate. Condemned to death 31st January 1794, and
executed the same day.
" Henriette Françoise de Marbœuf, aged fifty-five, widow of the ci-
deva)it Marquis de Marbœuf, residing at No. 47 Rue St. Honore, in
Paris, convicted of having hoped for {de'sire) the arrival of the Austrians
and Prussians, and of heepdng provisions for them. Condemned to death
the 5th February 1794, and executed the same day.
5 32 APPENDICES.
"Jacques de Beaume, a Dutch merchant, convicted of being the
author and accomplice of a plot which existed in the month of June
1790, tending to encourage our external and internal enemies, by
negotiating, by way of loan, certain bonds of ;/^ioo each, beai'ing
interest at 5 per cent., of George Prince of Wales, Frederick Duke
of York, and William Henry Duke of Clarence. Executed the 14th
February 1794.
" Jacques Duchesne, aged sixty, formerly a servant, since a broker :
Jean Sauvage, aged thirty-four, gunsmith ; Françoise Loizelier, aged
forty-seven, milliner ; Melanie Cunosse, aged twenty-one, milliner ;
Marie Magdalene Virolle, aged twenty-five, female hairdresser — con-
victed of having, in the city of Paris, where they resided, composed
writings, stuck bills, and poussf de cris (the criminal code of England
has no corresponding name for this capital offence), were all condemned
to death the 5th May 1794, and executed the same day.
" Geneviève Gouvon, aged seventy-seven, sempstress, convicted of
having been the author or accomplice of vai'ious conspiracies formed
since the beginning of the Revolution by the enemies of the people and
of liberty, tending to create civil war, to paralyze the public, and to
annihilate the existing government. Condemned to death iith May
1793, '^"cl executed the same day.
" François Bertrand, aged thirty-seven, tinman, and publican at
Leure, in the department of the Cûte-d'Or, convicted of having fur-
nished to the defenders of the country so\ir uiine injurious to the health
of citizens, was condemned to death at Paris, 15th May 1793, and
executed the same day.
" Marie Angélique Plaisant, sempstress at Douai, convicted of having
exclaimed that she was an aristocrat, and ' A fig for the nation. ' Con-
demned to death at Paris, the 19th July 1794, and executed the same
day." — E.ttracts from tlie Liste Générale des Condamnés.
Numbers condemned by the Revolutionary Tribunal of Paris in each month,
from its first institution {17th of August 1792) to the fall of Robespierre
{27th of July 1794).
1792. August ..... 3 victims.
September .... 4
October ..... i
[Tribtonal remodelled in March 1793.]
1793. April 9
May 9
June . . . . 14
July 13
[^Robespierre elected into the Committee of Public Safety.']
August .... 5
September . . . 15
October . . . ^ . 60 including Brissot, &c.
November . . . -53
December . . . .73
APPENDICES.
533
794. January
. . . 83
February
75
March .
123 including He6e/-i, &c.
April .
263 including Danton, &c.
May
■ 324
June
. 672
July .
835 exclusive oi'Rdhes^xevre
and his accomplices.
To the foregoing astonishing account of the monthly executions, we
think it worth while to add the daily detail of the two last months : —
June.
Day.
Victims.
Day.
Victims.
Day.
Victims
I
• • 13
II .
. . 22
21 .
. . 25
2
• • 13
12 .
• ■ 17
22
■ • 15
3 •
• • 32
13 •
• • 23
23 •
• • 19
4 •
. . 16
14 .
■ . 38
24 .
. . 25
5 •
. . 6
15 ■
. . 19
25 •
• ■ 44
6 .
. . 20
16 .
. . 42
26 .
• • 47
7 •
. . 21
17 •
. . 61
27 ■
. . 30
8 .
JJecadi.
18 .
JJecadi.
28 .
Decadi.
9 •
. . 22
19 .
■ ■ 15
29 .
. . 20
10
■ • 13
20
• • 37
30 ■
. . 14
.Tilly.
ay.
Victims.
Day.
Victims.
Day.
V^ictims
I .... 23
10 .... 44
19 .... 28
2
• 30
II
3
20
14
3
• 19
12
28
21
28
4
• 27
13
37
22
46
5
. 28
14
23
55
6
• 29
15
29
24
36
7
• 67
16
30
25
38
8
Decadi.
17
40
26
54
9
. . 60
18
Decadi.
27
42
-Q
IMl
rtti
ly
Review
Q.
[Page 454.]
The Victims at Nantes.
" The miserable victims at Nantes," says Mr. Alison, " were either
slain with poniards in the prisons, or carried out in a vessel, and
drowned by wholesale in the Loire. On one occasion a hundred
priests were taken out together, stripped of their clothes, and preci-
pitated into the waves. Women big with child, infants, eight, nine,
5 34 APPENDICES.
and ten years of age, were thrown together into the stream, on the
sides of which men armed with sabres were placed to cvit oft" their heads
if the waves should throw them undrowned on the shore. On one
occasion, by orders of Carrier, twenty-three of the royalists — on another,
twenty-four, were guillotined together without any trial. The execu-
tioner remonstrated, but in vain. Among them were many children
of seven or eight years of age, and seven women ; the executioner died
two or three days after with horror of what he himself had done. So
great was the multitude of captives who were brought in on all sides
that the executioners declared themselves exhausted with fatigue, and
a new method of execution was devised. Two persons of difierent
sexes, generally an old man and an old woman, bereft of every species
of dress, were bound together and thrown into the i-iver. It was
ascertained by authentic documents that six hundred children had
perished by that inhuman species of death ; and such was the quantity
of corpses accumulated in the Loire, that the water became infected.
The scenes in the prisons which preceded these executions exceeded
all that romance had figured of the terrible. On one occasion the
inspector entered the prison to seek for a child, where, the evening
before, he had left above three hundred infants ; they were all gone in
the morning, having been drowned the preceding night. To all the
representations of the citizens in favour of these innocent victims,
Carrier only replied, ' They are all vipers ; let them be stifled.' Three
hundred young women of Nantes were drowned by him in one night ;
so far from having had any share in political discussions, they were of
the unfortunate class who live by the pleasures of others. On another
occasion five hundred children of both sexes, the eldest of whom was
not fourteen years old, were led out to the same spot to be shot. The
littleness of their stature caused most of the bullets at the first dis-
charge to fly over their heads ; they broke their bonds, rushed into the
ranks of the executioners, clung round their knees, and sought for
mercy. But nothing could soften the assassins. They put them to
death even when lying at their feet. One woman was delivered of an
infant on the quay ; hardly were the agonies of child-birth over, when
she was pushed, with the new-born innocent, into the fatal boat !
Fifteen thousand persons perished at Nantes under the hands of the
executioner, or of diseases in prison, in one month. The total num-
ber of victims of the Reign of Terror in that town exceeded thirty
thousand ! "
E.
[Page 485.]
Jean Antoink Nicholas Caritat Condorcet.
" Another celebrated victim of party violence who fell about this
time, though not by the guillotine, was Condorcet. Having attached
himself to the party of Brissot, he was involved in its ruin. At the
period of the arrest of the members of that party he escaped the search
of the victors, and secreted himself. He was received in Paris by a
woman who only knew him from reputation, and generously aff'orded
him an asylum. There he remained till the domiciliary visits in 1794,
APPENDICES. 5 3 5
when, in order, as it is believed, not to expose his hostess to danger, he
quitted his retreat, and succeeded in getting out of Paris without a
civic card, and with a white cap on his head. He had wandered about
for several days in the environs of Clamart and of Fontenay de Roses,
and in the woods of Verrière, two or three leagues from Paris.
M. Suard, who had been his intimate friend, in whose house he had
lodged, but who had ceased to see him after the death of the King,
had a house at Fontenay, consisting of two corps de logis, one of which
was let to M. de Monville, councillor to the parliament. Condorcet
knocked one morning at M. de Monville's door, conceiving that it was
that of M. Suard. It was opened by the footman. The unfortunate
fugitive looked like a pauper, having a long beard, a shabby dress,
being lame from a hurt in one foot, and ready to die of hunger after
passing several days in the woods. ' Good God, sir ! ' said the servant,
' how sorry I am to see you in this condition.' ' How do you know who
I am ? ' ' Oh, sir, I have waited on you many a time at M. Trudaine's.'
' Can you admit me ? ' ' Alas ! no, sir : my master is no friend of
yours.' ' Is not this M. Suard's ? ' * No, sir ; that is his door.' Con-
dorcet accordingly went to the house of Suard and met with him.
Suard sent his maid-servant out of the way, and Condorcet acquainted
him with his situation. He set bread, cheese, and wine before him.
Condorcet told him that in the retreat which he had just left in Paris
he had written an ' Historical Sketch of the Progress of the Human
Mind,' which he had committed to safe hands, and which was intended
for publication. He talked with much feeling of his daughter, and like-
wise of his wife, but with indifference ; and yet he would have given him
a sum of 600 livres for her. Suard durst not take it ; but he offered to
go immediately to Paris and strive to obtain for him an invalid's pass,
which might supply the place of a civic ticket ; and they agreed that
Condorcet should call the next day for this sort of safe-conduct. He
asked for a Horace and some snuff, of which he had felt very urgent
want. Some snuft' was put up in a paper for him, but unluckily he
went away without it. Suard hastened to Paris and obtained a sort of
old invalid's pass, such as used to be given to soldiers leaving the
hospital to enable them to go from one department to another. Suard
returned with this informal passport, and waited for Condorcet, who
was to be with him at eight o'clock in the evening of the following
day ; but he did not come, and it was not till the night of the third
day that he heard that a man had been apprehended at Clamart, whom
he supposed to be Condorcet ; and so it actually turned out. On
leaving Suard's, taking with him a piece of bread, he had returned to
the woods of Verrière, where he had passed the night. Next morning
he had gone to Clamart, and was greedily eating an omelette at a
public-house, when his long beard, his squalid appearance, and his
restless manner, attracted the notice of one of those voluntary spies
who then infested all France. This man inquired who he was, whence
he came, whither he was going, and where was his ticket of citizen.
Condorcet, at all times embarrassed to speak and give a direct answer,
said at first that he was servant to a councillor of the Court of Aids,
concerning whom he could give true particulars on account of his
intimacy with him. But his answer not appearing sufficient, the spy
took him to Bourg la Reine, the seat of the district, where, as he could
not give a satisfactory account of himself, he was thrown into prison.
Next morning he was found dead, having taken stramonium combined
with opium, which he always carried about him. Hence it was that on
536 APPENDICES.
parting from Suard he had said, ' If I have but one night before me, I do
not fear them ; but I will not be taken to Paris.' The poison which he
took seemed to have operated gently, without causing pain or conviilsion.
The surgeon employed to ascertain the cause of death declared in the
procès-verbal that this man, whose real name was not known, had died
of apoplexy. The blood was still issuing from his nose." — Memoirs of the
Abbe Jloi-etlet.
KND OF VOL. III.
Printed by Ballantvne, Hanson & Co.
Edinbura^k and London
J. D. & Co.
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