^»
 
 THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 RIVERSIDE 
 
 BEQUEST OF
 
 ij3%: 
 
 
 /■-:J"" -B^^^^ 
 
 i:uijK.si'ip:i!i:E. 
 Frnin a drawing attributed to Reranl.
 
 THE 
 
 FRENCH REVOLUTION 
 
 OF 17 8 9 
 
 AS VIEWED IN THE LIGHT OF REPUBLICAN INSTITUTIONS. 
 
 BY 
 
 JOHN S. C. ABBOTT. 
 Mitb IRumei'ous Engravings. 
 
 I2i TWO VOLUMES 
 Volume II. 
 
 NEW YORK : 
 HARPER & BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS, 
 
 FRANKLIN SQUARE.
 
 
 Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year one thousand eight hundred 
 
 and fifty-nine, by 
 
 HARPER & BROTHERS, 
 
 in the Clerk's OflBce of the District Court of the Southern District of New York- 
 
 Copyright, 1887, by Susan Abboii Mead.
 
 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 
 
 VOL. II.
 
 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 
 
 VOLUME II. 
 CHAPTER XXVIII. 
 
 THE ROYAL FAMILY IMPRISONED. 
 
 Tnmult and Dismay in the Assembl)'.— Storming the Tuileries.— Aspect of the Royal Family.— 
 The Decree of Suspension.— Night in the Cloister.— The Royal Family Prisoners. —The Temple. 
 —The Royal Family transferred to the Temple. 
 
 But few of the excited thousands who crowded all the approaches to the 
 Tuileries were conscious that the royal family had escaped from the palace. 
 The clamor rapidly increased to a scene of terrific uproar. First a few gun- 
 shots were heard, then volleys of musketry, then the deep booming of 
 artillery, while shouts of onset, cries of fury, and the shrieks of the wound- 
 ed and the dying filled the air. The hall of the Assembly was already 
 crowded to suffocation, and the deputies stood powerless and appalled. A 
 tumultuous mass pressed the door. Several bullets shattered the windows, 
 and one or two cannon-balls passed through the roof of the building. 
 Every one was exposed to fearful peril. 
 
 There was no longer any retreat for the king. By the side of the presi- 
 dent's chair there was a space inclosed by an iron railing, appropriated to 
 the reporters. Several of the members aided the king in tearing down a 
 portion of this railing, and all the royal family sought refuge there. At 
 this moment the door of the hall was attacked, and tremendous blows 
 seemed to shake the whole building. "We are stormed!" shouted one of 
 the deputies. There was, however, no escape for any one in any direction, 
 and for some moments there was witnessed a scene of confusion and terror 
 which no language can describe. 
 
 At the same time there was a frightful conflict raging in and around the 
 palace. Immediately upon the departure of the king, all the Swiss troops, 
 who were hated as foreign mercenaries hired to shoot down the French, 
 were drawn into the palace from the court-yard, and were mingled in confu- 
 sion through its apartments with the loyalist gentlemen, the officers, and the 
 domestics. Notwithstanding the vast dimensions of the palace, it was so 
 crowded that there was scarcely space to move. ' 
 
 The throng in the Carrousel attacked one of the gates, broke it down, 
 and rushed into the royal court, which was nearly vacated by the retire- 
 ment of the Swiss. The companies of the National Guard in the Carrousel, 
 instead of opposing, looked approvingly on, and were evidently quite dis' 
 posed to lend the assailants a helping hand. A large piece of timber wag 
 placed at the foot of the staiicase of the palace in the ibrm of a barrier, and
 
 TALLEYEAND.
 
 1792.] 
 
 THE ROYAL FAMILY IMPRISONED. 
 
 2S7 
 
 STORMING TnE TCTLERIER, AtTGrRT 10, 1792, 
 
 behind this were intrenched in disorder, crowding the steps, the Swiss and 
 Bome of the National Guard who adhered to the king.* 
 
 * "Napoleon se trouvait au lOieme Aoat a Paris; il avail e'te present a Taction. II m'ecrevit 
 line lettre tres detaille'e, que je lus a mcs collegues du dircctoire du de'partement ; voici Ics deux 
 traits principaux. ' Si Louis XVI. se fut niontre a cheval la victoire lui fat restec; e'est ce qui 
 ni'a paru, a I'esprit qui animait les proupes le matin. 
 
 " ' Apres la victoire dcs Marseillais, j'en vis un sur le point de tuer un garde du corps ; je lui dis, 
 
 " 'Homme du midi, sauvons ce malheureux ! 
 
 " 'Es tu du midi? 
 
 «"Oui! 
 
 " ' Eh, bien ! sauvons le !' " — M^moires du Rot Joseph, t. i., p. 47.
 
 288 
 
 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 
 
 [Chap. XXYIII. 
 
 Just then the whole Faubourg St. Antoine came marching along in solid 
 column. They marched through the Carrousel, entered the court, and 
 placed six pieces of cannon in battery to open a fire upon the palace. It 
 was to avoid, if possible, a conflict, that the guards had been withdrawn 
 from the court into the palace. The shouts of a countless multitude ap- 
 plauded this military movement of the mob. The Swiss had received com- 
 mand from the king not to fire. The crowd cautiously pressed nearer and 
 nearer to the door, and at length, emboldened by the forbearance of the 
 defenders of the palace, seized, with long poles to which hooks were at- 
 tached, one after another of the sentinels, and, with shouts, captured and 
 disarmed them. Thus five of the Swiss troops were taken prisoners. 
 
 At last a single shot was fired, no one can tell on which side. It was the 
 signal for blood. The Swiss, crowded upon the magnificent marble stairs, 
 
 UASSAOBB OF THE BOTAL aUABD, AUOUBT 10, 1792.
 
 j^g2 ] THE ROYAL FAMILY IMPRISONED. 289 
 
 rising one above another, occupied a very formidable position. They in- 
 Lntfy opened a deadly fire. Volley sueceeded volley, and every bullet 
 Sd vfpon^he dense mass crowding the eourt. At the same moment, from 
 Tvery window of the palaefr a storm of shot was showered down upon he 
 foe In a moment the pavement was red with blood, and covered w.th he 
 dying and the dead. The artillerymen abandoned their pieces and the 
 whole multitude rushed pell-mell, trampling the dead and wounded beneath 
 them in frantic endeavors to escape from the court into the Carrousel. n 
 a few moments the whole court was evacuated, and remained strewed with 
 pikes, muskets, grenadiers' caps, and gory bodies ,..,.., _,,, 
 
 The besiegers, however, soon rallied. Following the disciplined troops 
 from Marseilles, who were led by able officers, the multitude returned with 
 indescribable fury to the charge. Cannon-balls bullets, and grapeshot 
 dashed m the doors and the windows. Most of the loyalist gentlemen 
 escaped by a secret passage through the long gallery of the Louvre, as he 
 victorious rabble, with pike, bayonet, and sabre, poured resistlessly into the 
 palace and rushed through all its apartments. The Swiss threw down their 
 arms and begged for quarter. But the pitiless mob, exasperated by the 
 slaughter of their friends, knew no mercy. Indiscriminate massacre ensued, 
 accompanied with every conceivable act of brutality. For four hours the 
 butchery continued, as attics, closets, cellars, chimneys, and vaults were 
 searched, and the terrified victims were dragged out to die Some leaped 
 from the windows and endeavored to escape through the Garden, ihey 
 were pursued and mercilessly cut down. Some climbed the marble nionu- 
 ments. The assassins, unwilling to injure the statuary, pricked them down 
 with their bayonets and then slaughtered them at their feet. Seven hund- 
 red and fifty Swiss were massacred in that day of blood. 
 
 The Assembly during these hours were powerless, and they awaited m 
 intense anxiety the issue of the combat. Nothing can more impressively 
 show the weak and frivolous mind of the king than that, m such an hour, 
 seeing the painter David in the hall, he inquired of him, 
 
 " How soon shall you probably have my portrait completed / 
 David brutally replied, " I will never, for the future, pamt the portrait of 
 a tyrant until his head lies before me on the scaffold."* 
 
 The queen sat in haughty silence. Her compressed lip, burning eye, and 
 hectic cheek indicated the emotions of humiliation and of indignation with 
 which she was consumed. The young princess wept, and her fevered face 
 was stained with the dried current of her tears. The dauphin, too young to 
 appreciate the terrible significance of the scene, looked around m bewildered 
 
 '''' AteTeven o'clock reiterated shouts of victory, which rose from the Gar- 
 den the palace the Carrousel, and all the adjoining streets and places, pro- 
 claimed that the triumph of the people was complete. The Assembly, now 
 overawed, unanimously passed a decree suspending the king, dismissmg the 
 Royalist ministers, recalling the Girondist ministry, and convoking a Na- 
 tional Assembly for the trial of the king. As Vergniaud read, in accents of 
 grief, this decree to which the Assembly had been forced, the king listened 
 
 * History of the Girondists, by Lamartinc, vol. ii., p. 77. 
 T
 
 290 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. [ChaP. XXVIIL 
 
 intently, and then said satirically to M. Coustard, who was standing by his 
 side, 
 
 " This is not a very constitutional act." 
 
 "True," M. Coustard replied; "but it is the only means of saving your 
 majesty's life." 
 
 The Assembly immediately enacted the decrees, which the king had ve- 
 toed, banishing the refractory priests and establishing a camp near Paris. 
 Danton,* whose tremendous energies had guided the insurrection, was ap- 
 pointed Minister of Justice. Monge, the illustrious mathematician, by the 
 nomination of his equally illustrious friend Condorcet, was placed at the 
 head of the Marine. Lebrun, a man of probity and untiring energy, was 
 appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs. 
 
 Thus was the whole government effectually revolutionized and reorgan- 
 ized. During all the long hours of this day the royal family sat in the 
 crowded Assembly almost suffocated with heat, and enduring anguish which 
 no tongue can tell. The streets were filled with uproar, and the waves of 
 popular tumult dashed against the old monastery of the Feuillans, even 
 threatening to break in the doors. The regal victims listened to the decrees 
 which tore the crown from the brow of the king, and which placed his 
 sceptre in the hands of his most envenomed foes. In the -conflict with the 
 defenders of the palace, between three and four thousand of the populace 
 had perished, in revenge for which nearly eight hundred of the inmates of 
 the Tuileries had been massacred. The relatives of the slain citizens, ex- 
 asperated beyond measure, were clamorous for the blood of the king as the 
 cause of the death of their friends. There was no possible covert for the royal 
 family but in the Assembly. Fifty armed soldiers, with bayonets fixed, sur- 
 rounded them in their box, and yet it was every moment feared that the 
 populace would break in and satiate their rage with the blood of the monarch 
 and his family. 
 
 The king was ever famed for his ravenous appetite. Even in the midst 
 of these terrific scenes he was hmigry and called for food. Bread, wine, and 
 cold viands were brought to him. He ate and drank voraciously to the ex- 
 treme mortification of the queen, who could not but perceive how little re- 
 spect the conduct of the king inspired. Neither she, Madame Elizabeth, nor 
 the children could taste of any food. They merely occasionally moistened 
 their fevered lips with iced water. 
 
 It was now ten o'clock in the evening. The night was calm and beauti- 
 ful. The tumult of the day was over, but the terrific excitement of the scene 
 had brought the whole population of Paris out into the promenades. Fires 
 
 * Danton was one of the fiercest of the Jacobins. Madame Roland, a political opponent, thus 
 describes him: "I never saw any countenance that so strongly expressed the violence of brutal 
 passions, and the most astonishing audacity, half disguised by a jovial air, an affectation of frank- 
 ness, and a sort of simplicity, as Danton's. In 1778 he was a needy lawyer, more burdened with 
 debts than causes. He went to Belgium to augment his resources, and, after the 10th of August, 
 had the hardihood to avow a fortune of £ir)8,333 ($791,665), and to wallow in luxury while 
 preaching sans culottism and sleeping on heaps of slaughtered men." "Danton," says Mignet, 
 "was a gigantic revolutionist. He deemed no means censurable so they were useful. He has 
 been termed the Mirabeau of the populace. Mirabeau's vices were those of a patrician. Dan- 
 ton's those of a democrat. He was an absolute exterminator without being personally ferocious ; 
 inexorable toward masses, humane, generous even, toward individuals." — Mifjnet, p. 158.
 
 1792.] THE ROYAL FAMILY IMPRISONED. 291 
 
 were still blazing beneath the trees of the Tuileries, consuming the furniture 
 which had been thrown from the windows of the chateau. Lurid flames 
 flashed from the barracks of the Swiss in the court-yard, which had been set 
 on fire, streaming over the roof of the palace, and illuminated both banks 
 of the Seine. 
 
 The whole number slain during the day. Royalists and Revolutionists, 
 amounted to over four thousand. Many of the dead had been removed by 
 relatives, but the ground was still covered with the bodies of the slain, who 
 were entirely naked, having been stripped of their clothing by those wretches 
 who ever swarm in the streets of a great city, and who find their carnival 
 in deeds of violence and blood. By order of the insurrectional committee at 
 the Hotel de Ville, who had deposed the municipal government and usurped 
 its authority, these dead bodies were collected and piled in vast heaps in the 
 court-yards, in the Garden, in the Place Louis XV., and in the Elysian Fields. 
 Immense quantities of wood were thrown upon them, and the whole city was 
 illuminated by the glare of these funeral fires. The Swiss and the Marsel- 
 lais, the Royalists and the Jacobins, were consumed together, and the ashes 
 were swept clean from the pavement into the Seine. 
 
 As these scenes at midnight were transpiring in the streets, the Assembly 
 sent a summary of its decrees to be read by torchlight to the groups of the 
 people. It was hoped that these decrees would satisfy them, and put a stop 
 to any farther acts of violence on the morrow. It was two o'clock in the 
 morning before the Assembly suspended its sitting. For seventeen lioure 
 the royal family had sat in the reporters' box, enduring all of humiliation 
 and agony which human hearts can feel. 
 
 In the upper part of the old monastery, above the committee-rooms of 
 the Assembly, there was a spacious corridor, from which opened several 
 cells formerly iised by the monks. These cells, with walls of stone and 
 floors of brick, and entirely destitute of furniture, were as gloomy as the 
 dungeons of a prison. Here only could the king and his family find safety 
 for the night. Some articles of furniture were hastily collected from differ- 
 ent parts of the building, and four of these rooms were prepared for the 
 royal party. Five nobles, who had heroically adhered to the king in these 
 hours of }3eril, occupied one, where, wrapped in their cloaks and stretched 
 out upon the floor, they could still watch through the night over the mon- 
 arch. The king took the next. It was furnished with a table, and a plain 
 wooden bedstead. He bound a napkin around his head for a night-cap, 
 and threw himself, but partially undressed, upon his uncurtained bed. The 
 queen, with her two children, took the next cell, Madame Elizabeth, with 
 the governess of the children, Madame de Tourzel, and the Princess Lam- 
 balle, who had joined the royal flimily in the evening, took the fourth. 
 Thus, after thirty-six hours of sleeplessness and terror, the royal family 
 were left to such repose as their agitated minds could attain. 
 
 The sun had long arisen when the queen awoke from her fevered slum- 
 ber. She looked around her for a moment with an expression of anguish, 
 and then, covering her eyes with her hands, exclaimed, 
 
 " Oh, I hoped that it had all been a dream !" 
 
 The whole party soon met in the apartment of the king. As Madame
 
 292 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. [Chap. XXVIIL 
 
 Tourzel led in the two rojal children, Marie Antoinette looked at them 
 sadly, and said, 
 
 " Poor children ! how heart-rending it is, instead of handing down to 
 them so fine an inheritance, to say, it ends with us !" 
 
 " I still see, in imagination," writes Madame Campan, " and shall always 
 see, that narrow cell of the Feuillans, hung with green paper ; that wretch- 
 ed couch where the dethroned queen stretched out her arms to us, saying 
 that our misfortunes, of which she was the cause, aggravated her own. 
 There, for the last time, I saw the tears, I heard the sobs of her whom her 
 high birth, the endowments of nature, and, above all, the goodness of her 
 heart, had seemed to destine for the ornament of a throne and for the hap- 
 piness of her people." 
 
 The tumult of the streets still penetrated their cells, and warned them 
 that they had entered upon another day of peril. The excited populace 
 were still hunting out the aristocrats, and killing them pitilessly wherever 
 they could be found. At ten o'clock the royal family were conducted again 
 to the Assembly, probably as the safest place they could occupy, and there 
 they remained all day. Several of the Swiss had been taken prisoners on 
 the previous day, and by humane people had been taken to the Assembly 
 that their lives might be saved. The mob now clamored loudly at the door 
 of the hall, and endeavored to break in, demanding the lives of the Swiss 
 and of the escort of the king, calling them murderers of the people. Yerg- 
 niaud, the president, was so shocked by their ferocity that he exclaimed, 
 " Great God, what cannibals !" 
 
 At one time the doors were so nearly forced that the royal family were 
 hurried into one of the passages, to conceal them from the mob. The king, 
 fully convinced that the hour of his death had now come, entreated his 
 friends to provide for their safety by flight. Heroically, every one persisted 
 in sharing the fate of the king. Danton hastened to the Assembly, and ex- 
 erted all his rough and rude energy to appease the mob. They were at 
 length pacified by the assurance that the Swiss, and all others who had 
 abetted in the slaughter of the jieople on the preceding day, should be tried 
 by a court-martial and punished. With great difiiculty the Assembly suc- 
 ceeded in removing the Swiss and the escort of the king to the prison of 
 the Abbaye. 
 
 At the close of this day the king and his family were again conducted to 
 their cells, but they were placed under a strict guard, and their personal 
 friends were no longer permitted to accompany them. This last deprivation 
 was a severe blow to them all, and the king said bitterly, 
 
 " I am, then, a prisoner, gentlemen. Charles I. was more fortunate than 
 myself. His friends were permitted to accompany him to the scaffold." 
 
 Another morning dawned upon this unhappy family, and again they were 
 led to the hall of the Assembly, where they passed the weary hours of an- 
 other day in the endurance of all the pangs of martyrdom. 
 
 It was at length decided that the royal family, for safe keeping, should be 
 imprisoned in the tower of the Temple. This massive, sombre building, in 
 whose gloomy architecture were united the palace, the cloister, the fortress, 
 and the prison, was erected and inhabited by the Knights Templar of the
 
 1792.] 
 
 THE KOYAL FAMILY IMPRISONED. 
 
 293 
 
 Middle Ages. Having been long abandoned it was now cnimbling to decay. 
 It was an enormous pile wliich centuries had reared near the site of the 
 Bastille, and with its palace, donjon, towers, and garden, which was choked 
 with weeds and the debris of crumbling walls, covered a space of many acres. 
 
 THE TEMPIiE. 
 
 The main tower was one hundred and fifty feet high, nine feet thick at 
 the base, surrounded by a wide, deep ditch, and inclosed by an immensely 
 high wall. This tower was ascended by a very narrow flight of circular 
 stairs, and was divided into four stories, each containing a bare, dismal room 
 about thirty feet square. The iron doors to these rooms were so low and 
 narrow that it was necessary to stoop almost double to enter them. The 
 windows, which were but slits in the thick wall, were darkened by slanting 
 screens placed over them, and were also secured by stout iron bars. 
 
 Such were the apartments which were now assigned to the former occu- 
 pants of the Tuileries, Versailles, and Fontainebleau. It was a weary ride 
 for the royal captives through the Place Vendome and along the Boulevards 
 to the Temple. An immense crowd lined the road. All the royal family, 
 with Potion, the mayor, occupied one carriage, and the procession moved so 
 slowly that for two hours the victims were exposed to the gaze of the popu- 
 lace before the carriages rolled under the arches of the Temple. It was late
 
 294 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. [ChaP. XXVIII. 
 
 in the afternoon when they left the Assembly, and the shades of night dark- 
 ened the streets ere they reached the Temple. 
 
 The Assembly had surrendered the safe-keeping of the king to the Com- 
 mune of Paris, and appropriated one hundred thousand dollars to meet the 
 expenses of the royal family until the king should be brought to trial. Con- 
 scious that an army of nearly two hundred thousand men was within a few 
 days' march of Paris, hastening to rescue the king, and that there were thou- 
 sands of Eoyalists in the city, and tens of thousands in France, who were 
 ready at any moment to lay down their lives to secure the escape of the 
 monarch, and conscious that the escape of the king would not only re-en- 
 slave France, but consign every friend of the Ee volution to the dungeon or 
 the scaffold, they found it necessary to adopt the most effectual measures to 
 hold the king securely. They, therefore, would no longer allow the friends 
 of the king to hold free communication with him. 
 
 The Temple itself, by outworks, had been promptly converted into a for- 
 tress, and was strongly garrisoned by the National Guard. Twelve com- 
 missioners were without interruption to keep watch of the king's person. 
 No one was allowed to enter the tower of the Temple without permission 
 of the municipality. Four hundred dollars were placed in the hands of the 
 royal family for their petty expenses. They were not intrusted with more, 
 lest it might aid them to escape. A single attendant, the king's faithful 
 valet Clery,* was permitted to accompany the captives. It does not appear 
 that the authorities wished to add unnecessary rigor to the imprisonment. 
 Thirteen cooks were provided for the kitchen, that their table might be 
 abundantly supplied. One of these only was allowed to enter the prison 
 and aid Clery in serving at the table, the expenses of which for two months 
 amounted to nearly six thousand dollars, f 
 
 It was an hour after midnight when the royal family were led from the 
 apartments of the Temple to which they had first been conducted to their 
 prison in the tower. The night was intensely dark. Dragoons with drawn 
 sabres marched by the side of the king, while municipal officers with lanterns 
 guided their steps. Through gloomy and dilapidated halls, beneath massive 
 turrets, and along the abandoned paths of the garden, encumbered with 
 weeds and stones, they groped their way until they arrived at the portals of 
 the tower, whose summit was lost in the obscurity of night. As in perfect 
 silence the sad procession was passing through the garden, a valet-de-cham- 
 bre of the king inquired in a low tone of voice whither the king was to be 
 conducted. 
 
 "Thy master," was the reply, "has been used to gilded roofs. Now he 
 will see how the assassins of the people are lodged." 
 
 The three lower rooms of the tower were assigned to the captives. They 
 had been accompanied by several of their friends who adhered to them in 
 these hours of adversity. All were oppressed with gloom, and many shed 
 
 * "Clery we have seen and knowii, and the foiin and manncre of that model of pristine faith 
 and loyalty can never be forf^otten. Gentlemanlike and complaisant in his manners, his deep 
 gravity and melancholy features announced that the sad scenes in which he had acted a part so 
 honorable were never for a n)onicut out of his memory." — Scott's Life 0/ Napoleon. 
 
 + Thiers's Hkt. French llcvolutiou, vol. ii., p. 26.
 
 1792.] THE MASSACRE OF THE ROYALISTS. 295 
 
 bitter tear.«?. Still they were not in despair. Powerful armies were march- 
 ing for their rescue, and they thought it not possible that the French people, 
 all unprepared for war, could resist such formidable assailants. A week thus 
 passed away, when on the 19th the municipal officers entered and ordered 
 the immediate expulsion of all not of the royal family. This harsh measure 
 was deemed necessary in consequence of the conspiracies which were formed 
 by the Royalists for the rescue of the king. Unfeeling jailers were now 
 placed over them, and, totally uninformed of all that was passing in the world 
 without, they sank into the extreme of woe. 
 
 CHAPTER XXIX. 
 
 THE MASSACRE OF THE ROYALISTS. 
 
 Supremacy of the Jacobins. — Their energetic Measures. — The Assembly threatened. — Commis- 
 sioners sent to the Army. — Spirit of the Court Party in England.^Speech of Edmund Burke. 
 — Triumphant March of the Allies. — The Nation summoned en masse to resist the Foe. — Mur- 
 der of the Princess Lamballe.— Apology of the Assassins. — Robespierre and St. Just. — Views 
 of Napoleon. 
 
 The majestic armies of the Allies were now rapidly on the march toward 
 France, and there was no force on the frontiers which could present any ef- 
 fectual resistance. La Fayette was at Sedan, about one hundred and fifty 
 miles northwest of Paris, at the head of twenty thousand troops who were 
 devoted to him. His opposition to the Jacobins had already caused him to 
 be denounced as a traitor, and it was feared that he might go over to the 
 enemy, and by his strong influence carry not only his own troops, but those 
 of General Luckner with him. The condition of the Patriots was apparently 
 desperate. The Allies were confident of a triumphant and a rapid march to 
 Paris, where all who had sacrilegiously laid liands upon the old despotism 
 of France would be visited witii condign punishment. 
 
 The Jacobin Club was now the sovereign power in France. It was more 
 numerous than the Legislative Assembly, and its speakers, more able and im- 
 passioned, had perfect control of the populace. The Jacobins had, by the in- 
 surrection, or rather revolution, of the 10th of August, organized a new mu- 
 nicipal government. "Whatever measure the Jacobin Club decided to have 
 enforced it sent to the committee which the club had organized as the city gov- 
 ernment at the Hotel de Ville. This committee immediately demanded the 
 passage of the decree by the Legislative Assembly. If the Assembly mani- 
 fested any reluctance in obeying, they were informed that the tocsin would be 
 rung, the populace summoned, and the scenes of the 10th of August renewed, 
 to make them willing. Such was now the new government instituted in France. 
 The Coimmme of Paris, as this municipal body at the Hotel de Ville was 
 called, immediately entered upon the most vigorous measures to break up 
 the conspiracy of the Royalists, that they might not be able to rise and join 
 the invading armies of the Allies. The French Patriots had two foes equally 
 formidable to dread — the emigrants with the Allies marching upon the fron« 
 tiers, composing an army nearly two hundred thousand strong, and the Roy- 
 alists in France, who were readj-, as soon as the AUies entered the kingdom,
 
 296 THE FEENCH KEVOLUTION. [ChAP. XXIX. 
 
 to raise tlie standard of civil war, and to fall upon tlie Patriots with exterm- 
 inating hand. There was thus left for the leaders of the Kevolution only 
 the choice between killing and being killed. It was clear that they must 
 now either exterminate their foes or be exterminated by them. And it 
 must on all hands be admitted that the king and the court, by refusing to 
 accept constitutional liberty, had brought the nation to this direful alterna- 
 tive. 
 
 To prevent suspected persons from escaping, no one was allowed to leave 
 the gates of Paris without the most careful scrutiny of his passport. A list 
 was made out of every individual known to be unfriendly to the Eevolu- 
 tion, and all such were placed under the most vigilant surveillance. The 
 citizens were enjoined to denounce all who had taken any part in the slaugh- 
 ter of the citizens on the 10th of August. All writers who had supported 
 the Koyalist cause were ordered to be arrested, and their presses were given 
 to Patriotic writers. Commissioners were sent to the prisons to release all 
 who had been confined for offenses against the court. As it was feared that 
 the army, influenced by La Fayette, might manifest hostility to the revolu- 
 tionary movement in Paris, which had so effectually demolished the Consti- 
 tution, commissioners were sent to enlighten the soldiers and bring them 
 over to the support of the people. It was at first contemplated to assign 
 the palace of the Luxembourg as the retreat of the royal family. The Com- 
 mune of Paris, however, decided that the public safety required that they 
 should be held in custody where escape would be impossible, and that their 
 safe -keeping should be committed to the mayor, Petion, and to Santerre, 
 who had been appointed commander of the National Guards. 
 
 The Assembly, alarmed at the encroachments of the self-constituted Com- 
 mune of Paris, ordered a re-election of a municipal government to take the 
 place of that which the insurrection had dissolved. The Commune instantly 
 dispatched a committee to inform the Assembly that if they made any far- 
 ther move in that direction the tocsin should again be rung, and that the 
 populace, who had stormed the Tuileries, should be directed against their 
 hall. The deputies, overawed by the threat, left the Commune in undisput- 
 ed possession of its power. The Commune now demanded of the Assembly 
 the appointment of a special tribunal to punish the Eoyalists who had fired 
 upon the people from the Tuileries, and those who "as conspirators and 
 traitors" were ready to join the Allies as soon as they should enter France. 
 The Assembly hesitated. The Commune sent Eobespierre at the head of a 
 deputation to inform them in those emphatic terms which he ever had at his 
 command, that the country was in danger, that the Allies and emigrants were 
 on the march, that no delay could be tolerated, and that if the decree were 
 not immediately passed the tocsin should he rung. The appalling threat was 
 efficient, and the decree, though some heroically opposed, was passed.* Such 
 was the origin of the first revolutionary tribunal. 
 
 * " As a citizen, as a mapistrate of the people," said one of the deputation, " I come to inform 
 you that at twelve o'clock this niglit the tocsin will be rung and the alarm beaten. The people 
 are weary of not beinR avenged. Beware lest they do themselves justice. I demand that you 
 forthwith decree that a citizen be appointed by each section to form a criminal tribunal." — Thiers^ 
 i., 341.
 
 1792.] 
 
 THE MASSACRE OF THE ROYALISTS. 
 
 297 
 
 As soon as the commissioners from Paris arrived at the camp of La Fay- 
 ette they were by his orders arrested and imprisoned, and the soldiers took 
 anew the oath of fidelity to the law and the king. The news of their arrest 
 reached Paris on the 17th, and excited intense irritation. La Fayette was 
 denounced more vehemently than ever, and a fresh deputation was dispatch- 
 ed to the army. La Fayette was now ruined. The coui't was ready to hang 
 him for his devotion to liberty. The Jacobins thirsted for his blood because 
 he thwarted their plans. Every hour his situation became more desperate, 
 and it was soon evident that he could do no more for his country, and that 
 there was no refuge for him but in flight. On the 20th, accompanied by a 
 few friends, he secretly left his army, and took the road to the Netherlands. 
 When he reached the Austrian outposts at Rochefort, he was arrested as a 
 criminal in defiance of all law. With great secrecy he was taken into the 
 interior of Austria, and thrown into a dungeon in the impregnable fortress 
 of Olmutz. Ilis only crime was that he had wished to introduce constitu- 
 
 1.K FAYETTE IN PEISON AT OUtfUTZ. 
 
 tional liberty to his country. This, in the eye of despots, was an unpardon- 
 able sin. Here we must leave him to languish five years in captivity; de- 
 prived of every comfort. Many efforts were made in vain for his release. 
 Washington wrote directly to the Emperor of Austria in his behalf, but 
 without effect. It was not till Napoleon, thundering at the walls of Vienna 
 with his invincible legions, demanded the release of La Fayette, in 1797, that 
 the doors of his dungeon were thrown open.* 
 
 * " However irritated they mip;ht be by La Fayette's behavior at the outset of the Revolution, the 
 present conduct of the monarchs toward him was neither to be vindicated by morality, th« law of 
 Vol. IL— B
 
 298 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. [ChAP. XXIX. 
 
 The Britisti people sympathized deeply with La Fayette, but the British 
 government assailed him with unrelenting ferocity. On the 17th of March, 
 179-1, Greneral Fitzpatrick moved an address in the House of Commons, to his 
 majesty, requesting his interference with the King of Prussia in behalf of 
 La Fayette. Mr. Fox advocated the measure in a speech of great eloquence 
 and power. Nothing can more clearly show the spirit of the court party in 
 England at this time than the speeches made by them on this occasion. 
 William Pitt assailed La Fayette in the most unfeeling manner, declaring 
 that " he would never admit that La Fayette was a true friend of liberty or 
 deserved well of his country or of Europe." " He said," writes Prof. Smyth, 
 " every thing that it is painful to read — he was rendered insensible on this 
 occasion to all the better notions of his education and natural intuitions of 
 his understanding. There is no pleasure in reading the abstract of his 
 speech. It might have been made by the most vulgar minister that ever 
 appeared. Edmund Burke followed in a speech of unmeasured abuse. In 
 glowing colors he depicted all the scenes of violence which had occurred in 
 France, and, declaring La Fayette responsible for them all, concluded with 
 the words, " I would not debauch my humanity by supporting an application 
 like the present in behalf of such a horrid rufl&an."* Mr. Windham followed 
 in the same strain. He expressed exultation in view of the calamities which 
 had fallen upon this great patriot. "La Fayette," said he, ''has brought 
 himself into that state into which all fomenters of great and ruinous revolu- 
 tions must necessarily fall ; he has betrayed and ruined his country and his 
 king. I am not sorry. I rejoice to see such men drink deep of the cujo of 
 calamity which they have prepared for the lips of others ; and I never will 
 consent to do an act which will put a premium on revolution, and which 
 will give the example of sanction to treason, and of reward to rebellion." 
 
 Such was the spirit of the court of St. James at this time. These speeches 
 were made after La Fayette had been languishing for two years in the dun- 
 geons of Olmutz, exposed to almost every conceivable indignity, the partic- 
 ulars of which Mr. Fox had aflfectingly narrated. The debate was concluded 
 by ]\Ir. Dundas, who thanked Mr. Windham for his admirable speech. When 
 the vote was taken but fifty were found in sympathy with La Fayette, while 
 one hundred and thirty-two voted against him. 
 
 The two sovereigns of Prussia and Austria were now at Ma3'-ence. Sixty 
 thousand Prussians were marching in single column by Luxemburg upon 
 Longwy, flanked on the right by twenty thousand Austrians, and on the left 
 by twenty-six thousand Austrians and Hessians. This majestic force was 
 strengthened by several co-operating corps of French emigrants, destined to 
 attack exposed positions, and to afford rallying points for treason. The in- 
 
 nations, nor the rules of sound policy. Even if he had been amenable for a crime afjainst his own 
 country, we know not what right Austria or Prussia had to take cognizance of \t."—ScoWs Life 
 of Ntipohon. 
 
 * " Such were the reasonings and expressions of Mr. Burke on this striking occasion. So en- 
 tirely was the mind of this extraordinary man now over excited and overthrown ; so entirely es- 
 tranged from those elevated feelings and that spirit of philanthropic wisdom which have made his 
 speeches in the American contest, and many paragrajjhs of his Reflections on this Revolution of 
 France, so justly the admiration of mankind." — Prof. Smith's Lectures on the French Revolution, 
 vol. ii., p. 409.
 
 1792.] 
 
 THE MASSACRE OF THE ROYALISTS. 
 
 299 
 
 vaders crossed the frontiers unimpeded, and after a short and bloody strife 
 captured Longwy. Onward they rushed. The feeble, undisciplined patriots, 
 could make no resistance, and fled rapidly before them. Thionville and 
 Verdun were surrounded, and after a short but terrific storm of balls and 
 shells capitulated. There were many Royalists in each of these towns, and 
 they received the invaders with every demonstration of joy. Their daugh- 
 ters in congratulatory procession met the King of Prussia at the gates and 
 strewed his path with flowers. 
 
 The garrison of Verdun might have held out for several days, though they 
 would have eventually been compelled to surrender. General Beaurepaire 
 urged very strenuously that they should maintain the siege to the last pos- 
 sible moment. But the defensive council of the city, with whom rested the 
 decision, voted an immediate capitulation. 
 
 "Gentlemen," said Beaurepaire, "I have sworn never to surrender but 
 wath my life. You may live in disgrace, since you wish it ; but as for me, 
 faithful to my oath, behold my last words: I die freer 
 
 Immediately he discharged a pistol-shot through his brain, and fell dead 
 before them. The Convention decreed to him the honors of the Pantheon, 
 and granted a pension to his widow. 
 
 8UICIDE OF BKACKEPAIEE. 
 
 The victorious allies, having surmounted these first obstacles, now plunged 
 into the defiles of the Argonne, and in fierce and bloody assaults drove be- 
 fore them the troops of Damourie/5, who had hoped in these forest-encum- 
 bered passes to present effectual resistance to the foe. The invaders were
 
 300 THE FRENCH EEVOLUTION. [ChAP. XXIX. 
 
 now triumpliantly marcliing on the "high-road to Paris, and fugitives were 
 continually arriving in the metropolis, declaring that the army of the north 
 was destroyed, and that there was no longer any obstacle to the advance of 
 the enemy. No language can describe the consternation which pervaded 
 the capital. The exultation in the enemy's camp was immense. The "cob- 
 lers and tailors," as the emigrants contemptuously called the Patriots, were 
 running away, it was said, like sheep.* 
 
 As each day brought tidings of the fearful strides which the Allies were 
 making toward the capital, indescribable terror was enkindled. The Con- 
 stitutionalists and the Girondists were utterly paralyzed. But the leaders 
 of the Jacobins — Dan ton, Eobespierre, and Marat — resolved that, if they were 
 to perish, their Eoyalist enemies should perish with them. It was known 
 that the Koyalists intended, as soon as the Allies should be in Paris, to rise, 
 liberate the king, and with the immense moral force they would attain by 
 having the king at their head, join the invaders. Nothing would then re- 
 main for the Revolutionists but exile, death, and the dungeon.f 
 
 It was now with them but a desperate struggle for life. They must either 
 destroy or be destroyed. The first great peril to be apprehended was the 
 rising of the Royalists in Paris. The barriers were immediately ordered to 
 be closed, and guard-boats were stationed on the river that no one might 
 escape. At the beat of the drum every individual was enjoined to repair to 
 his home. Commissioners then, accompanied by an armed force, visited 
 every dwelling. Party lines were so distinctly drawn that the Royalists 
 could not easily escape detection. At the knock of the commissioners they 
 held their breath with terror. Many attempted concealment in chimneys, 
 in cellar-vaults, beneath the floors, and in recesses covered by pictures of 
 tapestry. But workmen, accustomed to all such arts, accompanied the com- 
 missioners. Chimneys were smoked, doors burst open, and cellars, floors, 
 and walls sounded. In one short night five thousand suspected persons 
 were torn from their homes and dragged to prison. Every man was deemed 
 guilty who could not prove his devotion to the popular cause.:}: 
 
 * Jean Debry, in the Assembly, exclaimed with fervor, "The most instant and vifrorous meas- 
 ures must be adopted in defense of our country. The expense must not be thoufijht of. "Within 
 fifteen days we shall enjoy freedom or meet with death. If we are conquered we shall have no 
 need of money, for we shall not exist. If we are victorious, still we shall not feel the want of 
 money, for we shall ha free." — Journal of John Moore, M. Z>., vol. i., p. 116. 
 
 t "The intelligence of the flight of La Fayette, the entry of the army of the coalition into the 
 French territory, the capture of Longwy, and the surrender of Verdun burst like thunder in Paris, 
 and filled every heart with consternation, for France had never approached more nearly those 
 sinister days which presage the decay of nations. Every thing was dead in her save the desire 
 of living ; the enthusiasm of the country and liberty survived. Abandoned by all, the country 
 did not abandon itself. Two things were required to save it — time and a dictatorship. Time? 
 The heroism of Dumouriez afforded it. The dictatorship? Danton assumed it in the name of 
 the Commune of Paris." — Lamartine, Hist. Gir., vol, ii., p. 119. 
 
 t Dr. John Moore, a very intelligent English physician, who, in company with Lord Lauder- 
 dale, was in Paris during all these scenes, writes in his journal, " This search was made accord- 
 ingly in the course of last night and this morning. The commissioners were attended with a 
 body of the National Guards, and all avenues of the section were watched to prevent any persons 
 from escaping. They did not come to our hotel till about six in the morning. I attended them 
 through every room, and opened every door of our a])artments. They behaved with great civility. 
 We had no arms but pistols, which lay openly on the chimney. They admired the nicety of the 
 workmanship of one pair, but never offered to take them." — Vol. i.,p. 116.
 
 3^792.1 THE MASSACRE OF THE ROYALISTS. 301 
 
 Still the enemy was approaching. " In three days," rumor said, " the 
 Prussians will be in Paris." The whole city was in a state of phrensy, and 
 ready for any deed of desperation which could rescue them from their peril. 
 Danton entered the Assembly and ascended the tribune with palHd face 
 and compressed lips. Silence, as of the grave, awaited his utterance. 
 
 "The enemy," said he, "threatens the kingdom, and the Assembly must 
 prove itself worthy of the nation. It is by a convulsion that we have over- 
 thrown despotism ; it is only by another vast national convulsion that we 
 shall drive back the despots. It is time to urge the people to precipitate 
 themselves en masse against their enemies. The French nation wills to be 
 free, and it shall be." 
 
 There was lurking beneath these words a terrible significance then little 
 dreamed of. Jacobins and Girondists were now united by the pressure of a 
 common and a terrible danger. A decree was immediately passed for every 
 citizen in Paris capable of bearing arms to repair to the Field of Mars, there 
 to be enrolled to march to repel the Allies. It was the morning of the Sab- 
 bath. The generale was beat, the tocsin rung, alarm-guns fired, and placards 
 upon the walls, and the voice of pubhc criers, summoned every able-bodied 
 man to the appointed rendezvous. The philosophic Vergniaud, in a word, 
 explained to Paris the necessity and the efficacy of the measure.* 
 
 " The plan of the enemy," said he, " is to march directly to the capital, 
 leaving the fortresses behind him. Let him do so. This course will be our 
 salvation and his ruin. Our armies, too weak to withstand him, will be 
 strong enough to harass him in the rear. When he arrives, pursued by our 
 battalions, he will find himself face to face with our Parisian army drawn 
 up in battle array under the walls of the capital. There, surrounded on all 
 sides, he will be swallowed up by the soil which he has profaned." 
 
 In the midst of the uproar of the multitudes surging through the streets, 
 as the bells were ringing, drums beating, and the armed citizens hurrying 
 to the Field of Mars, the rumor was widely circulated that the Eoyalists had 
 formed a conspiracy to strike down their jailers, break from their prisons, 
 hberate the king, take possession of the city, rally all their confederates around 
 them, and thus throw open the gates of Paris to the Prussians. It was mani- 
 fest to all that, in the confusion which then reigned, and when the thunders 
 of the Prussian and Austrian batteries were hourly expected to be heard 
 from the heights of Montmartre, this was far from an impracticable plan. 
 It was certain that the Royalists would attempt it, whether they had already 
 formed such a plan or not. 
 
 It is, however, probable that shrewd men, foreseeing this peril, had deliber- 
 ately resolved to hurl the mob of Paris upon the prisons for the assassmation 
 
 * " The people are told that there was a horrid plot between the Duke of Brunswick and cer- 
 tain traitors in Paris ; that as soon as all the new levies were completed, and all the men intend- 
 ed for the frontiers had marched out of Paris, then those same traitors were to take command 
 of a large body of men, now dispersed over the capital and its environs, who have been long in 
 the pay of the court, though they also are concealed ; that these concealed leaders at the head 
 of their concealed troops were to have thrown open the prisons and to arm the prisoners, then to 
 go to the Temple, set the royal family free, and proclaim the king ; to condemn to death all the 
 Patriots who remain in Paris, and most of the wives and children of those who have marched oat 
 of it against the enemies of their country." — Moore's Journal, vol. i., p. 144.
 
 302 
 
 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 
 
 [Chap. XXIX. 
 
 of all the Eoyalists, before emptying the city of its defenders to march to 
 meet the foe. While the bewildered masses were in this state of terrific ex- 
 citement, six hackney-coaches left the Hotel de Ville, conducting twenty- 
 four Royalist priests, who had refused to take the oath, to the prisons of the 
 Abbaye. The people crowding around and following the carriages began 
 to murmur, " Here are the traitors," said they, " who intend to murder our 
 wives and children while we are on the frontiers." 
 
 The first carriage reached the door of the jDrison. One priest alighted. 
 He was instantly seized, and fell pierced by a thousand poniards. It was 
 the signal for the slaughter of the whole. The murderers fell upon every 
 carriage, and in a few moments all but one, who miraculously escaped, were 
 slain. This hideous massacre roused the populace as the tiger is roused 
 when he has once lapped his tongue in blood. The cry was raised, " To the 
 Carmelites, to the Carmelites." In this prison two hundred priests were con- 
 fined. The mob broke in and butchered them all. 
 
 BUTOHEKY AT THE fARMEMTES. 
 
 A man by the name of Maillard headed this mob, which consisted of but 
 a few hundred men. Having finished the work at the Carmelites and gorged 
 themselves with wine, Maillard exclaimed, "Now to the Abbaye." The 
 blood-stained crew rushed after him through the streets, and dashed in the 
 doors of the prison. The Abbaye was filled with debtors and ordinary con- 
 victs as well as suspected aristocrats. As the mob rushed into the corridor 
 one of the jailers mounted a stool, and, addressing the assassins, said, " My 
 friends, you wish to destroy the aristocrats, who are the enemies of the peo- 
 ple, and who meant to murder your wives and children while you were at 
 the frontiers. You are right no doubt ; but you are good citizens ; you love 
 justice ; and you would be very sorry to steep your hands in innocent blood." 
 
 "Yes, certainly," one of the leaders replied. 
 
 "Well, then," continued the jailer, "when you are rushing like furious 
 tigers upon men who are strangers to you, are you not liable to confound 
 the innocent with the guilty V"
 
 1792.J THE iLiSSACRE OF THE ROYALISTS. 303 
 
 These thoughts seemed to impress them, and it was immediately decided 
 that Maillard should judge each prisoner, lie took his seat at a table ; the 
 prison list was placed in his hands, and the prisoners, one by one, were 
 brought before his prompt and terrible tribunal. It was agreed, in order to 
 spare unnecessary sullcrmg, that when the judge should say, "Sir, you must 
 go to the prison of La Force," as soon as the prisoner was led out into the 
 court-yard he should be cut down. 
 
 A Swiss officer was tirst brought forward. " It was you," said Maillard, 
 " w^ho murdered the people on the 10th of August." 
 
 "We were attacked," the unfortunate man replied, "and only obe3'ed our 
 superior officers." 
 
 "Very well," said Maillard, " we must send j-ou to the prison of La Force." 
 
 He was led into the court-yard and instantly slain. Every Swiss soldier 
 in the prison met the same fate. Thus the work went on with terrible ex- 
 pedition until one hundred and eighty were put to death. All the women 
 were left unharmed. Many who were brought before the tribunal were ac- 
 quitted, and the crowd manifested great joy in rescuing them as their friends. 
 Amid these horrid scenes there were some gleams of humanity. The Gov- 
 ernor of the Invalides was doomed to death. His daughter clasped her 
 father in her arms and clung to him so despairingly that the hearts of the 
 assassins were melted. One, in a strange freak, presented her with a cup of 
 blood, saying, "If you would save your father drink this blood of an aristo- 
 crat." She seized the cup and drained it. Shouts of applause greeted the 
 act, and her father was saved.* 
 
 All the night long these horrid scenes were continued. Every prison in 
 Paris witnessed the same massacres, accompanied with every conceivable 
 variety of horrors. 
 
 The unfortunate Princess Lamballe, bosom friend of Marie Antoinette, 
 was confined in the prison of La Force. She w^as brought before the revo- 
 lutionary judge, and after a brief interrogation she was ordered to "swear 
 to love liberty and equality ; to swear to hate the king, the queen, and roy- 
 alty." " I will take the first oath," the princess replied ; *Hhe second I can 
 not take ; it is not in my heart." One of the judges, wishing to save her, 
 whispered in her ear, " Swear every thing or you are lost." But the un- 
 happy princess was now utterly bewildered with terror, and could neither 
 see nor hear. Her youth and beauty touched the hearts even of many of 
 these brutal men. They desired her rescue, and endeavored to lead her 
 safely through the crowd. Cry out, said the}^, 'long live the nation,' and 
 you will not be harmed. But as she beheld the pavement strewn with 
 corpses of the slain, she could not utter a word. Her silence was taken for 
 defiance. A sabre blow struck her down. The murderers fell upon her 
 like famished wolves upon a lamb. Her body was cut into fragments, and 
 a band of wretches, with her head and heart upon pikes, shouted " Let us 
 camj them to the foot of the throne.'''' They rushed through the streets to the 
 
 * " Some inexplicable and consolatory acts astonish us amid those horrors. The compassion 
 of Maillard appeared to seek for the innocent with as much care as his venpeance soupht for the 
 guilty. He exposed his life to snatch victims from his executions," — Lamartine, History of the 
 Girondists, vol. ii., p. 140.
 
 304 THE FKENCH KEVOLUTION. [ChAP. XXIX. 
 
 Temple, and shouted for the king and queen to look out at the windows. 
 A humane officer, to shield them from the awful sight, informed them of the 
 horrors which were transpiring. The queen fainted. As the king and Mad- 
 ame Elizabeth bent over her, for hours they were appalled by the clamor 
 of the rabble around the walls of the Temple. 
 
 At last the prisons were emptied, and the murderers themselves became 
 weary of blood. It is impossible to ascertain the numbers who perished. 
 The estimate varies from six to twelve thousand. The Commune of Paris, 
 which was but the servant of the Jacobin Club, issued orders that no more 
 blood should be shed. Assuming that the assassination was demanded by 
 the public danger, and that the wretches who had perpetrated it had per- 
 formed a patriotic though a painful duty, they rewarded them for their work. 
 Nothing can more clearly show the terrible excitation of the public mind, 
 produced by a sense of impending danger, than that a circular should have 
 been addressed to all the communes of France, giving an account of the mas- 
 sacre as a necessary and a praiseworthy deed. In this extraordinary me- 
 morial, signed by the Administrators of the Committee of Surveillance, the 
 writers say, 
 
 " Brethren and Friends, — A horrid plot, hatched by the court, to mur- 
 der all the Patriots of the French empire, a plot in which a great number of 
 members of the National Assembly are implicated, having, on the ninth of 
 last month, reduced the Commune of Paris to the cruel necessity of em- 
 ploying the power of the people to save the nation, it has not neglected any 
 thing to deserve well of the country. 
 
 " Apprised that barbarous hordes are advancing against it, the Commune 
 of Paris hastens to inform its brethren in all the departments that part of 
 the ferocious conspirators confined in the prisons have been put to death by 
 the people — acts of justice which appear to it indispensable for repressing 
 by terror the legions of traitors encompassed by its walls, at the moment 
 when the people were about to march against the enemy ; and no doubt the 
 nation, after the long series of treasons which have brought it to the brink 
 of the abyss, will eagerly adopt this useful and necessary expedient ; and 
 all the French will say, like the Parisians, ' We are marching against the 
 enemy, and we will not leave behind us brigands to murder our wives and 
 children.' " 
 
 The instigators of these atrocious deeds defended the measure as one of 
 absolute necessity. " We must all go," it was said, " to fight the Prussians, 
 and we can not leave these foes behind us, to rise and take the city and as- 
 sail us in the rear." " If they had been allowed to live," others said, "in a 
 few days we should have been murdered. It was strictly an act of self-de- 
 fense." Danton ever avowed his approval of the measure, and said, " I 
 looked my crime steadfastly in the face and I did it." Marat is reproached 
 as having contributed to the deed.* Eobespierre appears to have given his 
 
 * M. Chabot, a patriotic orator, who had been a Franciscan friar, spoke in the Society of Jac- 
 obins as follows of Marat: "Marat is reproached with being of a sanguinary disposition; that 
 he contributed to the late massacres iu the prisons. But in so doing he acted iu the true spirit
 
 1792.] THE ALVSSACRE OF THE ROYALISTS. 305 
 
 assent to the massacre with reluctance, but it is in evidence that he walked 
 his chamber through the whole night in agony, unable to sleep. 
 
 At eleven o'clock at night of this 2d of September Eobespierre and St. 
 Just retired together from the Jacobin Club to the room of the latter. St. 
 Just threw himself upon the bed for sleep. Eobespierre exclaimed in aston- 
 ishment, 
 
 " What, can you think of sleeping on such a night ? Do you not hear 
 the tocsin? Do you not know that this night will be the last to perhaps 
 thousands of our fellow-creatures, who are men at the moment you fall asleep, 
 and when you awake will be lifeless corpses?" 
 
 "I know it," replied St. Just, "and deplore it; and I wish that I could 
 moderate the convulsions of society; but what am I?" then, turning in his 
 bed, he fell asleep. In the morning, as he awoke, he saw Eobespierre pac- 
 ing the chamber with hasty steps, occasionally stopping to look out of the 
 window, and listening to the noises in the streets. " What, have you not 
 slept?" asked St. Just. 
 
 " Sleep !" cried Eobespierre ; " sleep while hundreds of assassins murdered 
 thousands of victims, and their pure or impure blood runs like water down 
 the streets ! Oh no ! I have not slept. I have watched like remorse or 
 crime. I have had the weakness not to close my eyes, but Dantoii, he has 
 
 Paris was at this time in a state of such universal consternation, the gov- 
 ernment so disorganized, and the outbreak so sudden and so speedy in its 
 execution, that the Legislative Assembly, which was not in sympathy with 
 the mob, and which was already overawed, ventured upon no measures of 
 resistance.f 
 
 But there can be no excuse offered in palliation of such crimes. Language 
 is too feeble to express the horror with which they ever must be regarded 
 by every generous soul. But while we consign to the deepest infamy the 
 assassins of September, to equal infamy let those despots be consigned who, 
 in the fierce endeavor to rivet the chains of slavery anew upon twenty-five 
 millions of freemen, goaded a nation to such hideous madness. The allied 
 despots of Europe roused the people to a phrensj'- of despair, and thus drove 
 them to the deed. Let it never be forgotten that it was despotism, not liberty, 
 which planted the tree which bore this fruit. If the government of a coun- 
 try be such that there is no means of redress for the oppressed people but in 
 
 of the Revolution, for it was not to be expected that while our bravest patriots were on the front- 
 iers we should remain here exposed to the rape of the prisoners, who were jiromised arms and 
 the opportunity of assassinating us. It is well known that the plan of the aristocrats has always 
 been, and still is, to make a general carnage of the common people. Now, as the number of the 
 latter is to that of the former in the proportion of ninety-nine to one, it is evident that he who pro- 
 poses to kill one to prevent the killing of ninety-nine is not a blood-thirsty man." 
 
 * Lamartine, Ilistori/ oflhe Girondists, ii., 132. 
 
 t Dr. Moore, while denouncing in the strongest terms the bnitality of the populace, says, "In 
 such an abominable system of oppression as the French labored under before the Revolution, when 
 the will of one man could control the course of law, and his mandate tear any citizen from the 
 arms of his family and throw him into a dungeon for years or for life — in a country where such 
 a system of government prevails, insurrection, being the sole means of redress, is not only justifi- 
 able, but it is the duty of every lover of mankind and of his country, as soon as any occasion pre- 
 sents itself which promises success." 
 
 u
 
 306 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. [ChAP. XXIX. 
 
 the horrors of insurrection, that country must bide its doom, for, sooner or 
 later, an outraged people will rise. While, therefore, we contemplate with hor- 
 ror the outrages committed by the insurgent people, with still greater horror 
 must we contemplate the outrages perpetrated by proud oppressors during 
 long ages, con.signing the people to ignorance and degradation. They who 
 hrutalize a people should be the last to complain that, w^hen these people rise 
 in the terribleness of their might, they behave like brutes. There is no safety 
 for any nation but in the education, piety, and liberty of its masses."^ 
 
 The Duke of Brunswick, urging resistlessly on his solid columns, batter- 
 ing down fortresses, plunging through defiles, anticipated no check. But 
 on the 20th of September, to his great surprise, he encountered a formidable 
 army intrenched upon the heights of Yalmy, near Chalons, apparently pre- 
 pared for firm resistance. Here Dumouriez, with much military skill, had 
 rallied his retreating troops. All France had been roused and was rushing 
 eagerly to his support. Paris, no longer fearing a rise of the Royalists, was 
 dispatching several thousand thoroughly-armed men from the gates every 
 day to strenghthen the camp at Valmy, which was hardly a hundred miles 
 from Paris. Dumouriez, when first assailed, had less than forty thousand 
 troops in his intrenchments, but the number rapidly increased to over seven- 
 ty thousand. 
 
 These were nearly all inexperienced soldiers, but they were inspired with 
 intense enthusiasm, all struggling for national independence, and many con- 
 scious that defeat would but conduct them to the scaffold. Macdonald,f 
 who afterward so gloriously led the columns at Wagram, and Kellerman, 
 who subsequently headed the decisive charge at Marengo, were aids of Du- 
 mouriez. Louis Philippe also, then the Duke of Chartres and eldest son of 
 the Duke of Orleans, signalized himself on the patriot side at the stern strife 
 of Valmy. 
 
 The Duke of Brunswick brought forward his batteries and commenced a 
 terrific cannonade. Column after column was urged against the redoubts. 
 But the young soldiers of France, shouting Vive la Nation, bravely repulsed 
 every assault. The Prussians, to their inexpressible chagrin, found it im- 
 possible to advance a step. Here the storm of battle raged with almost in- 
 cessant fury for twenty days. The French were hurrying from all quarters 
 to the field ; the supplies of the invaders were cut off; dysentery broke out 
 in their camp ; autunmal rains drenched them ; winter was approaching ; and 
 
 * " Amid the disorders and sad events which have taken place in this country of late, it is impos- 
 sible not to admire the generous spirit which glows all over the nation in support of its independ- 
 ency. No country ever displayed a nobler or more patriotic enthusiasm than pervades France at 
 this period, and which glows with increasing ardor since the publication of the Duke of Bruns- 
 wick's manifesto, and the entrance of the Prussians into the country. None but those whose 
 minds are obscured by prejudice or per^'crted by selfishness will refuse this justice to the general 
 spirit displayed by the French in defense of their national independence. A detestation of the 
 excesses committed at Paris, not only is compatible with an admiration of this spirit, but it is 
 such well-informed minds alone as possess sufficient candor and sensibility to admire the one, who 
 can have a due horror of the other." — Journal of John Moore, M.D.,vo]. i., p. IfiO. 
 
 t "The young Macdonald, descended from a Scotch family transplanted to France, was aid- 
 de-camp to Dumouriez. He learned at the camp of Grandpre, under his commander, how to 
 save a country. Subsequently he learned, under Napoleon, how to illustrate it. A hero at his 
 first step, he became a marshal of Fraoce at the end of his Vde."—Lamartine, Bist. Gir., U., 168,
 
 1792.] THE MASSACRE OF THE ROYALISTS. 307 
 
 they were compelled, in discomfiture and humiliation, to turn upon their 
 track and retire. 
 
 On the 15th of October the Allies abandoned their camp and commenced 
 a retreat. They retired in good order, and rccrossed the frontier, leaving 
 behind them twenty -five thousand, who had perished by sickness, the bullet, 
 and the sword. Dumouriez did not pursue them with much vigor, for the 
 army of the Allies was infinitely superior in discipline to the raw troops un- 
 der his command. 
 
 Winter was now at hand, during which no external attack upon France 
 was to be feared. All government was disorganized, and the question which 
 agitated every heart was, " What shall be done with the king?" 
 
 The Duke of Chartres, subsequently Louis Philippe, King of the French, 
 then a young man but seventeen years of age, after vigorously co-operating 
 with Dumouriez in repelling the invaders, returned to Paris. lie presented 
 himself at the audience of Servan, Minister of War, to complain of some in- 
 justice. Danton was present, and, taking the young duke aside, said to him, 
 
 "What do you do here? Servan is but the shadow of a minister. He 
 can neither help nor harm you. Call on me to-morrow and I will arrange 
 your business." 
 
 The next day Danton, the powerful plebeian, received the young patrician 
 with an air of much affected superiority. " Well, young man," said he, " I 
 am informed that your language resembles murmurs ; that you blame the 
 great measures of government ; that you express compassion for the victims 
 and hatred for the executioners. Beware ; patriotism docs not admit of 
 lukewarmness, and you have to obtain pardon for your great name." 
 
 The young prince boldly replied, " The army looks with horror on blood- 
 shed any w^here but on the battle-field. The massacres of September seem in 
 their eyes to dishonor liberty," 
 
 " You are too young," Danton replied, " to judge of these events; to com- 
 prehend these you must be in our place. For the future be silent, lieturn 
 to the army; fight bravely; but do not rashly expose j^our life. France 
 does not love a republic ; she has the habits, the weaknesses, the need of a 
 monarchy. After our storms she will return to it, either through her vices 
 or necessities, and you will be king. Adieu, young man. Eemember the 
 prediction of Danton."* 
 
 In reference to these scenes Napoleon remarked at St. Helena, on the 3d 
 of September, 1816, " To-day is the anniversary of a hideous remembrance ; 
 of the massacres of September, the St. Bartholomew of the French Revolution. 
 The atrocities of the 8d of September were not committed under the sanc- 
 tion of government, which, on the contrary, used its endeavors to punish the 
 crime. The massacres were committed by the mob of Paris, and were the 
 result of fanaticism rather than of absolute brutality. The Scptembriseurs 
 did not pillage, they only wished to murder. They even hanged one of 
 their own party for having appropriated a watch which belonged to one of 
 their victims. 
 
 " This dreadful event arose out of the force of circumstances and the spirit 
 of the moment. We must acknowledge that there has been no political 
 * History- of the Girondists, by Laraartine, ii., 185,
 
 308 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. [ChAP. XXX 
 
 change unattended by popular fury, as soon as tlie masses enter into action. 
 The Prussian army had arrived within one hundred miles of Paris. The 
 famous manifesto of the Duke of Brunswick was placarded on all the walls 
 of the city. The people had persuaded themselves that the death of all the 
 Eoyalists in Paris was indispensable to the safety of the Eevolution. They 
 ran to the prisons and intoxicated themselves with blood, shouting Vive la 
 Bevolution. Their energy had an electric effect, from the fear with which it 
 inspired one party, and the example which it gave to the other. One hund- 
 red thousand volunteers joined the army, and the Eevolution was saved. 
 
 "I might have preserved my crown by turning loose the masses of the 
 people against the advocates of the restoration. You well recollect, Mon- 
 tholon, when, at the head of your fauhouriens, you wished to punish the 
 treachery of Fouche and proclaim my dictatorship. I did not choose to do 
 so. My whole soul revolted at the thought of being king of another mob. 
 As a general rule no social revolution can take place without terror. Every 
 revolution is in principle a revolt, which time and success ennoble and ren- 
 der legal, but of which terror has been one of the inevitable phases. How, 
 indeed, can we say to those who possess fortune and public situations, ' Be- 
 gone and leave us your fortunes and your situations,'' without first intimidating 
 them, and rendering any defense impossible. In France this point was ef- 
 fected by the lantern and the guillotine."* 
 
 CHAPTEE XXX. 
 
 THE KING LED TO TRIAL. 
 
 Assa-ssination of Royalists at Versailles. — Jacobin Ascendency. — The National Convention. — 
 Two Parties, the Girondists and the Jacobins. — Abolition of Royalty. — Madame Roland. — 
 Battle of Jemappes. — Mode of life in the Temple. — Insults to the Royal Family. — New Acts 
 of Rigor. — Trial of the King. — Separation of the Royal Family. — The Indictment. — The King 
 begs for Bread. 
 
 The massacre of the Eoyalists in Paris was not followed by any general 
 violence throughout the kingdom, for it was in Paris alone that the Patriots 
 were in imminent danger. In Orleans, however, there were a number of 
 Eoyalists imprisoned under the accusation of treason. These prisoners were 
 brought to Versailles on the night of the 9th of September to be tried. A 
 band of assassins from Paris rushed upon the carriages, dispersed the escort, 
 and most brutally murdered forty -seven out of fifty-three, f They then went 
 to the prison, where twelve were taken out, and, after a summary trial, as- 
 sassinated. 
 
 In the mean time elections were going on for the National Convention. 
 The Jacobin Clubs, now generally dominant throughout France, almost ev- 
 ery where controlled the elections. Some sober Patriots hoped that the Con- 
 vention would be disposed and able to check the swelling flood of anarchy. 
 But others, when they saw that the most violent Eevolutionists were chosen 
 as deputies, and that they would be able to overawe the more moderate 
 Patriots by the terrors of the mob, began to despair of their country. Paris 
 
 * Napoleon at St. Helena, 394. t Peltier.
 
 , THE KING LED TO TRIAL. 309 
 
 sent to the Convention Eobespierre, Danton, Marat, Chabot, and others ^vlK> 
 have attained terrible notoriety through scenes of eonsternation and blood. 
 The Girondists in the Convention, Vergniaud, Condorce, Barbaroux, Gen- 
 sonn4 though much in the minority, were heroic men, illustrious m intelli- 
 gence and virtue. There was no longer a Royalist party, not even a Con- 
 ftitutional Koyahst party, which dared to avow itself in i ranee. The court 
 and the Allies had driven France to the absolute necessity of a Republic. 
 
 On the 20th of September the Legislative Assembly was dissolved, and 
 at the same hour and in the same hall the National Convention commenced 
 its session. The spirit of the Girondists may be seen in their first mot on. 
 
 "Citizen representatives," said M. Manuel, "in this place every thing 
 ought to be stamped with a character of such dignity and grandeur as to fill 
 the world with awe. I propose that the President of the Assembly be lodged 
 n trTuileries, that in public he shall be preceded by ^ards, that the mem. 
 bei shall rise when he opens the Assembly. Cineas the embassador of 
 Pyrrhus, on being introduced to the Roman senate, said that they appeared 
 
 like an assembly of kings." , ., t i,- . r.,! 
 
 This proposition was contemptuously voted down by the Jacobms. Col- 
 lot d-Uerbois, one of the leading Jacobins, then proposed the immediate 
 abolition of royalty. " The word king," said he, "is still a talisman, whose 
 magic power ma/create many disorders. The abolition of royalty there- 
 S is necessary. Kings are in the moral world that which monsters are in 
 the natural. Courts are always the centre of corruption and the work-houses 
 
 of crime," 
 
 No one ventured to oppose this, and tlie president clcclared that by a 
 unanimous vote royalty was aholished. It was then voted the 22d of Sep- 
 tember 1792, should be considered the first day of the first year of the Re- 
 public, 'and that all documents should follow the date of this era It was on 
 the eve of this day that intelligence arrived of the cannonade of \ almy, m 
 which the Patriot armies had beaten back the foe. For one short night 
 
 Paris was radiant with joy. ■ • r\ ^ ^c 
 
 The most illustrious of the Girondists met that evening m the saloon of 
 Madame Roland, and celebrated, with almost religious enthusiasm the advent 
 of the Republic. Madame Roland, in the accomplishment of the most in- 
 tense desire of her heart, appeared radiant with almost supernatural bril- 
 iance and beauty. It was observed that M. Roland gazed upon her with a 
 peculiai expression of fondness. The noble and gifted Vergniaud conversed 
 but little, and pensive thoughts seemed to chasten his joy. 
 
 At the close of the entertainment he filled his glass, and proposed to drink 
 to the eternitv of the Republic. 
 
 "Permit me," said Madame Roland, "after the manner of the ancients, to 
 scatter some rose-leaves from my bouquet m your glass." 
 
 Vergniaud held out his glass, and some leaves were sea tt^ed on the wme. 
 He thfn said, in words strongly prophetic of their fate, "We sboukl qu ff, 
 not roses, but cypress-leaves, in our wine to-night. In drinking to a repub- 
 hc stained at it^birth with the blood of September, who knows tha we do 
 not drink to our own death ? No matter ; were this wme my blood I would 
 drain it to liberty and equality."
 
 310 
 
 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. [ChAP. XXX. 
 
 To this all responded witli the words Vive la Repuhlique. But a few 
 months elapsed ere almost every individual then present perished on the 
 
 scaffold 
 
 In the mean time Dumouriez, with thirty-five thousand men was pursumg 
 a division of the retreating Allies, consisting of twenty -five thousand Aus- 
 trians, under General Clairfayt, through Belgium On the 4th of November 
 he overtook them strongly intrenched upon the heights of Jemappes. One 
 
 m>^^i^^r'i 
 
 
 ~\ ^^
 
 1792.] THE KING LED TO TRIAL. 311 
 
 day was consumed in bringing up bis forces and arranging bis batteries for 
 tbe assault. Sixty tbousand men were now arrayed for a deadly strife. 
 One bundred pieces of cannon were in battery to burl into tbe dense ranks 
 destruction and deatb. On tbe morning of tbe 6tb tbe storm of war com- 
 menced. All tbe day long it raged witb pitiless fury. In tbe evening 
 ten tbousand of tbe dying and tbe dead covered tbe ground, and tbe Aus- 
 trians were every wbere retreating in dismay. Tbis new victory caused 
 great rejoicing in Paris, and inspired tbe revolutionary party witb new 
 courage. 
 
 — Tbe day at lengtb arrived for tbe trial of tbe king. It was tbe 11 tb of 
 December. For four montbs the royal family, witb ever-alternating bopes 
 and fears, wbicb bad been gradually deepening into despair, bad now en- 
 dured tbe rigors of captivity. Tbe king, witb tbat wonderful equanimity 
 wbicb distinguisbed bim tbrougb all tbese days of trial, immediately upon 
 taking possession of bis gloomy abode introduced system into tbe employ- 
 ment of bis time. 
 
 Ilis room was on tbe tbird story. He usually rose at six o'clock, sbaved 
 bimself, and carefully dressed bis bair. He tben entered a small room or 
 closet, wbicb opened from bis sleeping- room, and engaged in devotional 
 reading and prayer for an bour. He was not allowed to close tbe door, for 
 a municipal officer ever stationed in bis room was enjoined never to allow 
 tbe king to leave bis sigbt. He tben read till nine o'clock, during wbicb 
 time bis faitbful servant, Clery, put tbe room in order, and spread tbe table 
 for tbe breakfast of tbe royal family. At nine o'clock tbe queen, tbe chil- 
 dren, and Madame Elizabeth came up from the rooms which they occupied 
 below to breakfast. 
 
 The meal occupied an bour. Tbe royal family then all descended to tbe 
 queen's room, where they passed the day. The king employed bimself in 
 instructing his son, giving him lessons in geography, which was a favorite 
 study of the king ; teaching him to draw and color maps, and to recite choice 
 passages from Corneille and Eacine. The queen assumed the education of 
 her daughter, while her own hands and those of Madame Elizabeth were 
 busy in needle-work, knitting, and working tapestry. 
 
 At one o'clock, when the weather was fine, the roval family were con- 
 ducted by four municipal officers into the spacious but dilapidated garden 
 for exercise and the open air. The officials who guarded tbe king were fre- 
 quently changed. Sometimes they chanced to be men of humane character 
 who, though devoted to the disinthrallment of France from tbe terrible des- 
 potism of ages, still pitied tbe king as tbe victim of circumstances, and treat- 
 ed bim with kindness and respect. But more generally these men were 
 vulgar and rabid Jacobins, who exulted in tbe opportunity of wreaking upon 
 tbe king tbe meanest revenge. They chalked upon tbe walls of tbe prison, 
 " The guillotine is permanent and ready for the tyrant Louis." *' Madame 
 Veto shall swing." " The little wolves must be strangled." Under a gal- 
 lows, to which a figure was suspended, was inscribed tbe words, "Louis taking 
 an air-bath." From such ribald insults the monarch bad no protection. 
 
 A burly brutal wretch, named Rocher, was one of tbe keepers of tbe Tower. 
 He went swaggering about with a bunch of enormous keys clattering at bis
 
 312 
 
 THE FEENCH REVOLUTION. 
 
 , ■ ,11' l.Mllltllll!i|,|irffl^I!^|l,^v..^\\\. 
 
 [Chap. XXX. 
 
 LOUTB SVI. AND THE ROVAL FAMILY IN TIIK TEMPLE. 
 
 belt, seeming to glory in his power of annoying, by petty insults, a king and 
 a queen. When the royal family were going out into the garden he would 
 go before them to unlock the doors. Making a great demonstration in rat- 
 tling his keys, and affecting much difficulty in finding the right one, all the 
 party would be kept waiting while he made all possible delay and noise in 
 drawing the bolts and swinging open the ponderous doors. At the side of 
 the last door he not unfrequently stationed himself with his pipe in his 
 mouth, and pufted tobacco-smoke into the faces of the king, the queen, and 
 the children. Some of the guards stationed around would burst into insult- 
 ing laughter in view of these indignities, which the king endured with meek- 
 ness which seems supernatural. 
 
 The recital of such conduct makes the blood boil in one's veins, and leads 
 one almost to detest the very name of liberty. But then we must not for- 
 get that it was despotism which formed these hideous characters ; that, age 
 after age and century after century, kings and nobles had been trampling 
 upon the people, crushing their rights, lacerating their heart-strings, doom- 
 ing fathers and mothers, sons and daughters, by millions upon millions, to 
 beggary, degradation, and woe. It was time for the people to rise at every 
 hazard and break these chains. And while humanity must weep over the
 
 1792.] THE KING LED TO TRIAL. 313 
 
 woes of Louis XVI. and his unhappy household, humanity can not forget 
 that there are other families and other hearts who claim her sympathies, 
 and that this very Louis XVI. was at this very time doing every thing in 
 his power, by the aid of the armies of foreign despots, to bring the millions 
 of France again under the sway of the most merciless despotism. And it 
 can not be questioned that, had kings and nobles regained their power, they 
 would have wreaked a more terrible vengeance upon the re-enslaved people 
 than the people wreaked upon them. 
 
 For an hour the royal family continued walking in the garden. From the 
 roofs of the adjacent houses and the higher windows they could be seen. 
 Every day at noon these roofs and windows were crowded by those anxious 
 to obtain a view of the melancholy group of captives. Frequently they 
 were cheered by gestures of affection from unknown friends. Tender words 
 were occasionally unrolled in capital letters, or a flower to which a pebble 
 was attached would fall at their feet. These tokens of love, slight as they 
 were, came as a balm to their lacerated hearts. So highly did they prize 
 them, that regardless of rain, cold, and snow, and the intolerable insults of 
 their guards, they looked forward daily with eagerness to their garden walk. 
 They recognized particular localities as belonging to their friends, saying, 
 " such a house is devoted to us ; such a story is for us ; such a room is loyal ; 
 such a window friendly." 
 
 At two o'clock the royal family returned to the king's room, where din 
 ner was served. After dinner the king took a nap, while the queen, Mad- 
 ame Elizabeth, and the young princess employed themselves with their 
 needles, and the dauphin played some game with Clery, whose name should 
 be transmitted with honor to posterity as faithful in misfortune. When the 
 king awoke from his nap he usually read aloud to his family for an hour 
 or two until supper-time. Soon after supper, the queen, with her children 
 and Madame Elizabeth, retired to their rooms for the night. With hearts 
 bound together by these terrible griefs, they never parted but with a tender 
 and sorrowful adieu.* 
 
 Such was the monotonous life of the royal family during the four months 
 they occupied the Temple before the trial of the king. But almost every 
 day of their captivity some new act of rigor was enforced upon them. As 
 the armies of the Allies drew nearer, and city after city was falling before 
 their bombardments, and Paris was in a phrensy of terror, apprehensions of 
 a conspiracy of the king with the Royalists, and of their rising and aiding 
 the invaders with an outburst of civil war, led to the adoption of precautions 
 most irksome to the captives. 
 
 Municipal officers never allowed any member of the royal family to be out 
 of their sight, except when they retired to bed at night. They then locked 
 the doors, and placed a bed against the entrance to each apartment, and there 
 an officer slept, so as to prevent all possibility of egress. Every day San- 
 terre, commander of the National Guard, made a visit of inspection to all the 
 * The queen undressed the dauphin, when he repeated the followinp prayer, composed by the 
 queen and remembered and recorded by her daughter: " Almighty God, who created and re- 
 deemed me, I love you ! Treserve the days of my father and my family. Protect us against our 
 enemies. Give my mother, my aunt, my sister, the strength they need to support their troubles." 
 — Lamartine, History of the Girondists, vol. ii., p. 287. 
 Vol. XL— C
 
 314 THE PRENCH REVOLUTION. [ChAP. XXX. 
 
 rooms witTi his staff. At first the royal family had been allowed pen, ink, 
 and paper, but this privilege was soon withdrawn, and at last the cruel and 
 useless measure was adopted of taking from them all sharp instruments, such 
 as knives, scissors, and even needles, thus depriving the ladies not only of a 
 great solace, but of the power of repairing their decaying apparel. It was 
 not the intention of the Legislative Assembly that the royal family should 
 be exposed to needless suffering. Four hundred dollars were placed in their 
 hands at the commencement of their captivity for their petty expenses, and 
 the Grovernor of the Temple was ordered to purchase for them whatever 
 they might need, five hundred thousand francs ($100,000) having been ap- 
 propriated by the Convention for their expenses.* 
 
 They were not allowed to see the daily journals, which would have in- 
 formed them of the triumphant march of the Allies, but occasionally papers 
 were sent to them which recorded the victories of the Republic. Clery, 
 however, devised a very shrewd expedient to give them some information 
 of the events which were transpiring. He hired a newsman to pass daily 
 by the windows of the Temple, under the pretense of selling newspapers, 
 and to cry out the principal details contained in them. Clery, while appar- 
 ently busy about the room, was always sure to be near the window at the 
 appointed hour, listening attentively. At night, stooping over the king's 
 bed to adjust the curtains, he hastily whispered the news he had thus gath- 
 ered. All this required the greatest caution, for a municipal ofiicer was 
 always in the room, watching every movement. 
 
 Early in the morning of the 11th of December all Paris was in commo- 
 tion to witness the trial of the king, which was to commence on that day. 
 The beating of drums in the street, the mustering of military squadrons at 
 their appointed places of rendezvous, the clatter of hoofs, and the rumbling 
 of artillery over the pavements penetrated even the gloomy apartments of 
 the Temple, and fell appallingly upon the ears of the victims there. 
 
 The royal family were at breakfast as they heard these ominous sounds, 
 and they earnestly inquired the cause. After some hesitation the king was 
 informed that the Mayor of Paris would soon come to conduct him to his 
 trial, and that the troops gathering around the Temple were to form his es- 
 cort. He was also required immediately to take leave of his family, and 
 told that he could not be permitted to see them again until after his trial. 
 Expressions of heart-rending anguish and floods of tears accompanied this 
 cruel separation. The king jDleaded earnestly and with gushing eyes that, 
 at least, he might enjoy the society of his little son, saying, 
 
 * "We must not exaggerate the faults of human nature, and suppose that, adding an execrable 
 meanness to the fury of fana ieism, the keepers of the imprisoned family imposed on it unworthy 
 privations, with the intention of rendering the remembrance of its past greatness the more jiain- 
 ful. Distrust was the sole cau;?e cf certain refusals. Thus, while the dread of plots and secret 
 communications prevented them frou -"(Iniitting more than one attendant into the interior of the 
 prison, a numerous establishment was ompi lycd in preparing their food. Thirteen persons were 
 engaged in tiie duties of the kitchen, situated at some distance from the tower. The report of 
 the expenses of the Temjile, where the greatest decency is observed, where the prisoners are 
 mentioned with respect, where their sobriety is commended, where Louis XVI. is justified from 
 the low reproach of being too much addicted to wine — these reports, which are not liable to sus- 
 picion, make the total expenses of the table amount in two months to 28,745 livres ($5749)." — 
 Thiers, vol. ii., p. 26.
 
 1792.] THE KING LED TO TRIAL. 35^5 
 
 " What, gentlemen I deprive mc of even the presence of my son — a cliild 
 of seven years!" 
 
 But the commissioners were inexorable. " The Commune thinks," said 
 they, " that, since you are to be au secret during your trial, your son must 
 necessarily be confined either with you or his mother ; and it has imposed 
 xhe privation upon that parent who, from his sex and courage, was best able 
 to support it." 
 
 The queen, with the children and Madame Elizabeth, were conducted to 
 the rooms below. The king, overwhelmed with anguish, threw himself into 
 a chair, buried his ftice in his hands, and, without uttering a word, remained 
 immovable as a statue for two hours. At noon M. Chambon,* the Mayor of 
 Paris, with Santcrre, commander of the National Guard, and a group of 
 officers, all wearing the tricolored scarf, entered the king's chamber. 
 
 Chambon, with solemnity and with a fiiltering voice, informed the king 
 of the painful object of their mission, and summoned him, in the name of 
 the Convention, as Lo^ds Ccqxt, to appear before their bar. 
 
 " Gentlemen," replied the king, " Capet is not my name. It is the name 
 of one of my ancestors. I could have wished that my son, at least, had been 
 permitted to remain with me during the two hours I have awaited you. 
 However, this treatment is but a ])art of the sj^stem adopted toward me 
 throughout my captivity. I follow you, not in obedience to the orders of 
 the Convention, but because my enemies are more powerful than I." 
 
 Immediately rising, he put on his great-coat, took his hat, and, following 
 the mayor, and followed by the staff of ofl&cers, descended the stairs of the 
 tower. 
 
 Before the massive portal of the Temple the carriage of the mayor was 
 drawn up, surrounded by a guard of six hundred picked men. A numer- 
 ous detachment of cavalry, as an advance-guard, dragging six pieces of can- 
 non, led the melancholy procession which was conducting a monarch to the 
 judgment-bar and to death. A similar body of cavalry followed in the rear 
 with three pieces of cannon. These precautions were deemed necessary to 
 guard against any possible rescue by the Eoyalists. Every soldier was sup- 
 plied with sixteen rounds of cartridges, and the battalions marched in such 
 order that they could instantly form in line of battle. The National Guard 
 lined the streets through which they passed, one hundred thousand men be- 
 ing under arms in Paris that day. 
 
 The cavalcade passed slowly along the Boulevards. The house-tops, the 
 windows, the side-walks, were thronged with countless thousands. The 
 king, deprived of his razor, had been unable to shave, and his face was cov- 
 ered with shaggy hair; his natural corpulence, wasted away by imprison- 
 ment, caused his garments to hang loose and flabby about him ; his features 
 were wan through anxiety and suffering. Thus, unfortunately, every thing 
 
 * " M. Chambon, tho successor ofBailly and Pelion, was a learned and humane physician, 
 whom public esteem rather than Revolutionary favor had raised to the difjnity of the first mag- 
 istrate of Paris. 0( inodere j)rinciples, kind and warm-hearted, accustomed, by his profession, to 
 sympathize with tlie unfortunate, comi)ellcd to exei'ute orders repupiant to his feelings, the pitj 
 of the man was visible beneath the inflexibility of the magistrate." — Lamar tine, Hist, des Giro?!' 
 distes, vol. ii., p. 321.
 
 316 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. [ChaP. XXX. 
 
 in his personal appearance combined to present an aspect exciting disgust 
 and repulsion rather than sympathy. The procession passed down the Place 
 Yendome and thence to the Monastery of the Feuillants, The king alighted. 
 Santerre took his arm and led him to the bar of the Convention. There 
 was a moment of profound silence. All were awe-stricken by the solemnity 
 of the scene. The president, Barrere,* broke the silence, saying, 
 
 " Citizens ! Louis Capet is before you. The eyes of Europe are upon you. 
 Posterity will judge you with inflexible severity. Preserve, then, the dig- 
 nity and the dispassionate coolness befitting judges. You are about to give 
 a great lesson to kings, a great and useful example to nations. Recollect 
 the awful silence which accompanied Louis from Yarennes — a silence that 
 was the precursor of the judgment of kings by the people." Then, turning 
 to the king, Barrere said, "Louis, the French nation accuses you. Be seat- 
 ed, and listen to the Act of Accusation." It was then two o'clock in the 
 afternoon. 
 
 The formidable indictment was read. The king was held personally re- 
 sponsible for all the acts of hostility to popular liberty which had occurred 
 under his reign. A minute, truthful, impartial recapitulation of those acts, 
 which we have recorded in the previous pages, constituted the accusation. 
 The king listened attentively to the reading, and without any apparent emo- 
 tion. The accusation consisted of fifty-seven distinct charges. As they 
 were slowly read over, one by one, the president paused after each and said 
 to the king, " What have you to answer?" But two courses consistent with 
 kingly dignity were open for the accused. The one was to refuse any reply 
 and to take shelter in the inviolability with which the Constitution had in- 
 vested him. The other was boldly to avow that he had adopted the meas- 
 ures of which he was accused, believing it to be essential to tlic welfare of 
 France that the headlong progress of the Revolution should be checked. 
 Neither would have saved his life, but either would have rescued his mem- 
 ory from much reproach. But the king, cruelly deprived of all counsel 
 with his friends, dragged unexpectedly to his trial, and overwhelmed with 
 such a catalogue of accusations, unfortunately adopted the worst possible 
 course. The blame of some of the acts he threw upon his ministers ; some 
 facts he denied ; and in other cases he not only prevaricated but stooped to 
 palpable falsehood. When we reflect upon the weak nature of the king and 
 the confusion of mind incident to an hour of such terrible trial, we must 
 judge the unhappy monarch leniently. But when the king denied even the 
 existence of the iron chest which the Convention had already found, and 
 had obtained proof to demonstration that he himself had closed up, and 
 when he denied complicity with the Allies, proofs of which, in his own hand- 
 writing, were found in the iron safe, it is not strange that the effect should 
 have been exceedingly unfavorable to his defense.f 
 
 * ' ' Barrere escaped during the difi'crent ebullitions of the Revolution because he was a man, 
 without principle or character, who changed and adapted himself to every side. He had the rep- 
 utation of being a m.in of talent, but I did not find him such. I employed him to write, but he 
 displayed no ability. He used many flowers of rhetoric, but no solid argument." — Napoleon at 
 St. IJelena. 
 
 t Gamain, the locksmith, who for ten years had worked for and with the king, and who had 
 aided him in constructing this iron safe, basely betrayed the secret. The papers were all seized
 
 1792.] 
 
 THE KING LED TO TRIAL. 
 
 3i: 
 
 11. IRON SAFE. 
 
 This interrogation was continued for three hours, at the close of which 
 the king, who had eaten nothing since his interrupted breakfast, was so ex- 
 hausted that he could hardly stand. Santerre then conducted him into an 
 adjoining committee-room. Before withdrawing, however, the king de- 
 manded a copy of the accusation, and counsel to assist him in his defense. 
 In the committee-room the king saw a man eating from a small loaf of 
 bread. Faint with hunger, the monarch approached the man, and, in u 
 whisper, implored a morsel for himself. 
 
 "Ask aloud," said the man, retreating, "for what you want." He feared 
 that he should be suspected of some secret conspiracy with the king. 
 
 "I am hungry," said Louis XVI., "and ask for a piece of your bread." 
 
 " Divide it with me," said the man. " It is a Spartan breakfast. If I had 
 a root I would give you half" 
 
 The king entered the carriage eating his crust. The same cavalcade as 
 in the morning preceded and accompanied him. The same crowds thronged 
 the streets and every point of observation. A few brutal wretches, insult- 
 ing helplessness, shouted Vive la Revolution! and now and then a stanza 
 of the Marseillaise Hymn fell painfully upon his ear. Chambon, the mayor, 
 and Chaumette, the public prosecutor, were in the carriage with the king. 
 
 and intrusted by the Convention to a committee of twelve, who were to examine and report upon 
 them. This Judas received, as his reward from the Convention, a pension of two hundred and 
 furty dollars a year. See France and its Revolutions, by Geo. Long, Esq., p. 241.
 
 318 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. [ChAP. XXXL 
 
 Louis, having eaten as much of the half loaf of bread as he needed, had still 
 a fragment in his hand. 
 
 " What shall I do with it ?" inquired the simple-hearted monarch. Chau- 
 mette relieved him of his embarrassment by tossing it out of the window. 
 
 "Ah," said the king, "it is a pity to throw bread away when it is so 
 dear." 
 
 " True," replied Chaumette ; " my grandmother used to say to me, ' Lit- 
 tle boy, never waste a crumb of bread ; you can not make one.' "* 
 
 "Monsieur Chaumette," Louis rejoined, "your grandmother appears to 
 me to have been a woman of great good sense." 
 
 It was half-past six o'clock, and the gloom of night enveloped the Tem- 
 ple, when Louis was again conducted up the stairs of the tower to his dis- 
 mal cell. He piteously implored permission again to see his family. But 
 Chambon dared not grant his request in disobedience to the commands of 
 the Commune. 
 
 The most frivolous things often develop character. It is on record that 
 the toils and griefs of the day had not impaired the appetite of the king, and 
 that he ate for supper that night " six cutlets, a considerable portion of a 
 fowl, two eggs, and drank two glasses of white wine and one of Alicante 
 wine, and forthwith went to bed."f 
 
 During these dreadful hours the queen, with Madame Elizabeth and the 
 children, were in a state of agonizing suspense, not even knowing but that 
 the king was being led to his execution. Clery, however, late in the even- 
 ing, went to their room and informed them of all the details he had been 
 able to gather respecting the king's examination. 
 ' " Has any mention been made of the queen ?" asked Madame Elizabeth. 
 "Her name was not mentioned," Clery replied, "in the act of accusation." 
 
 " Ah," rejoined the princess, " perhaps they demand my brother's life as 
 necessary for their safety ; but the queen — these poor children — what obsta- 
 cle can their lives present to their ambition?"^ 
 
 CHAPTER XXXL 
 
 EXECUTION OF LOUIS XVI. 
 
 Close of the Examination. — The King's Counsel. — Heroism of Malesherbes. — Preparations for 
 Defense.— Gratitude of the King. — The Trial. — Protracted Vote. — The Result. — The King 
 solicits the Delay of Execution for three Days. — Last Interview with his Family. — Preparation 
 for Death. — The Execution. 
 
 As soon as the king had withdrawn from the Assembl}'', that body was 
 thrown into great tumult in consequence of the application of Louis for the 
 assistance of counsel. It was, however, after an animated debate, which 
 continued until the next day, voted that the request of the king should be 
 granted, and a deputation was immediately sent to inform the king of the 
 vote, and to ask what counsel he would choose. He selected two of the 
 most eminent lawyers of Paris — M. Tronchet and M. Target. Tronchet he- 
 
 * Hist. Pari., vol. xxi., p. 314. 
 
 t Re'sume du Rapport du Commissaire Albertier, Hist. Pari., vol. xxi., p. 319.
 
 1792.] EXECUTION OF LOUIS XVI. 319 
 
 roically accepted the perilous commission. Target, with pusillanimity which 
 has consigned his name to disgrace, wrote a letter to the Convention stating 
 that his principles would not allow him to undertake the defense of the 
 king,* The venerable Maleshcrbes, then seventy years of age, immediately 
 w^rote a letter to the president, imploring permission to assume the defense 
 of the monarch. This distinguished statesman, a friend of monarchy and a 
 personal friend of the monarch, had been living in the retirement of his 
 country-seat, and had taken no part in the Revolution. By permission of 
 the Commune he was conducted, after he had been carefully searched, to the 
 Temple. With a faltering step he entered the prison of the king. Louis 
 XVI. was seated reading Tacitus. The king immediately arose, threw his 
 arms around Malesherbes in a cordial embrace, and said, 
 
 " Ah, is it you, my friend ! In what a situation do 3^ou find me ! See to 
 w^hat my passion for the amelioration of the state of the people, w' horn we 
 have both loved so much, has reduced me ! Why do you come hither ? 
 Your devotion only endangers your life and can not save mine." 
 
 Malesherbes, with eyes full of tears, endeavored to cheer the king with 
 ■ words of hope. 
 
 " No !" replied the monarch, sadly. " They will condemn me, for they 
 possess both the power and the will. No matter ; let us occupy ourselves 
 with the cause as if we were to gain it. I shall gain it in fact, since I shall 
 leave no stain upon my memory." 
 
 The two defenders of the king were permitted to associate with them a 
 third, M. Deseze, an advocate who had attained much renown in his pro- 
 fession. For a fortnight they were employed almost night and day in pre- 
 paring for the defense. Malesherbes came every morning with the daily 
 papers, and prepared for the labors of the evening. At five o'clock Tron- 
 chet and Deseze came, and they all worked together until nine. 
 
 In the mean time the king wrote his will ; a very affecting document, 
 breathing in every line the spirit of a Christian. He also succeeded in so 
 far eluding the vigilance of his keepers as to open a slight correspondence 
 with his family. The queen pricked a message with a pin upon a scrap of 
 paper, and then concealed the paper in a ball of thread, which was dropped 
 into a drawer in the kitchen, where Clery took it and conveyed it to his 
 master. An answer was returned in a similar way. It was but an unsatis- 
 factory correspondence which could thus be carried on ; but even this was 
 an unspeakable solace to the captives. 
 
 At length the plan of defense was completed. Malesherbes and the king 
 had furnished the facts, Tronchet and Deseze had woven them all into an 
 exceedingly eloquent and affecting appeal. Desdze read it aloud to the 
 king and his associates. The pathetic picture he drew of the vicissitudes of 
 the royal family was so touching that even Malesherbes and Tronchet could 
 not refrain from weeping, and tears fell from the eyes of the king. At the 
 
 * Ono of Napoloon's first acts upon becoming First Consul was to show his appreciation of 
 the heroism of Tronchet by ])lacing him at the head of the Court of Cassation. "Tronchet," he 
 said, "was the soul of the civil code, as I was its demonstrator. He was piftcd with a singularly 
 profound and correct imderstanding, but he coiild not descend to dcvclo]inients. He spoke badly, 
 and could not defend what he proposed." — Napoleon at St. Helena, p. 192.
 
 320 
 
 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 
 
 [Chap. XXXI. 
 
 close of the reading, the king turned to Deseze, and, in the spirit of true 
 majesty of soul, said, 
 
 " I have to request of you to make a painful sacrifice. Strike out of your 
 pleading the peroration. It is enough for me to appear before such judges 
 and show my entire innocence. I will not move their feelings."* 
 
 Deseze was very reluctant to accede to this request, but was constrained 
 to yield. After Tronchet and Deseze had retired that night, the king, left 
 alone with Malesherbes, seemed to be troubled with some engrossing thought. 
 At last he said, 
 
 " I have now a new source of regret. Deseze and Tronchet owe me noth- 
 ing. They devote to me their time, exertions, and perhaps their life. How 
 can I requite them ? I possess nothing ; and were I to leave them a legacy 
 it would not be paid ; besides, what fortune could repay such a debt?" 
 
 LOUIS XVI. AND MALESHEEIiES. 
 
 " Sire," replied Malesherbes, " their consciences and posterity will reward 
 them. But it is in your power to grant them a favor they will esteem more 
 than all those you had it in your power to bestow upon them formerly." 
 
 "What is it?" added the king. 
 
 " Sire, embrace them," Malesherbes replied. 
 
 The next day, when they entered his chamber, the king approached them 
 and pressed each to his heart in silence. This touching testimonial of the 
 king's gratitude, and of his impoverishment, was to the noble hearts of these 
 noble men an ample remuneration for all their toil and peril. 
 
 The 26th of December had now arrived, the day appointed for the final 
 trial. At an early hour all Paris was in commotion, and the whole military 
 force of the metropolis was again marshaled. The sublimity of the occasion 
 seemed to have elevated the character of the king to unusual dignity. He 
 
 ♦ liacreteUe.
 
 1792.] EXECUTION OF LOUIS XVI. 321 
 
 was neatly dressed, bis beard sliavcd, and bis features were serene and al- 
 most majestic in tbeir expression of imperturbable resignation. As be rode 
 in tbe carriage witb Cbambon, tbe mayor, and Santerre, tbe commander of 
 tbe National Guard, be conversed cbeerfully upon a variety of topics. San- 
 terre, regardless of tbe etiquette wbicb did not allow a subject to wear bis 
 bat in tbe presence of bis monarcb, sat witb bis bat on, Tbe king turned 
 to bim, and said, witb a smile, 
 
 " Tbe last time, sir, you conveyed me to tbe Temple, in your burry you 
 forgot your bat ; and now, I perceive, you are determined to make up for 
 tbe omission." 
 
 On entering tbe Convention tbe king took bis seat by the side of bis coun- 
 sel, and listened witb intense interest to tbe reading of bis defense, watcbing 
 tbe countenances of bis judges to see tbe effect it was producing upon tbeir 
 minds. Occasionally be wbispered, and even witb a smile, to Malesberbes 
 and Troncbet. Tbe Convention received tbe defense in profound silence. 
 
 Tbe defense consisted of tbree leading divisions. First, it was argued 
 tbat by tbe Constitution tbe king was inviolable, and not responsible for tbe 
 acts of tbe crown — tbat tbe Ministers alone were responsible. He secondly 
 argued tbat tbe Convention bad no rigbt to try tbe king, for tbe Convention 
 were bis accusers, and, consequently, could not act as bis judges. Tbirdly, 
 wbile protesting, as above, tbe inviolability of tbe king, and tbe invalidity 
 of tbe Convention to judge bim, be tben proceeded to tbe discussion of tbe 
 individual cbarges. Some of tbe charges were triumphantly repelled, par- 
 ticularly tbat of shedding French blood on the lOtb of August. It was 
 clearly proved that the people, not Louis XVI., were tbe aggressors. As 
 soon as Deseze bad finished his defense, tbe king himself rose and said, in a 
 few words which he had w^ritten and committed to memory, 
 
 " You have heard the grounds of my defense. I shall not repeat them. 
 In addressing you, perhaps for tbe last time, I declare tbat my conscience 
 reproaches me witb nothing, and that my defenders have told you the truth. 
 I have never feared to have my public conduct scrutinized. But I am 
 grieved to find that I am accused of wishing to shed the blood of my people, 
 and that the misfortunes of the 10th of August are laid to my charge. I 
 confess tbat the numerous proofs I have always given of my love for the 
 people ought to have placed me above this reproach." 
 
 He resumed his seat. The President then asked if be bad any thing more 
 to say. He declared he had not, and retired with bis counsel fiom tbe ball. 
 As be was conducted back to tbe Temple, be conversed witb tbe same se- 
 renity be bad manifested throughout tbe whole day. It was five o'clock, 
 and tbe gloom of night was descending upon tbe city as be re-entered bis 
 prison. 
 
 No sooner bad the king left the ball than a violent tumult of debate com- 
 menced, which was continued, day after day, witb a constant succession of 
 eager, agitated speakers hurrying to the tribune, for twelve days. Some 
 were in ^vQr of an immediate judgment, some were for referring tbe ques- 
 ■^■on to me people ; some demanded the death of tbe king, others imprison- 
 ment or exile. On the 7th of January all seemed weary of these endless 
 speeches, and tbe endless repetition of tbe same arguments. Still, there 
 
 X
 
 322 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. [ChAP. XXXT, 
 
 were many clamorous to be heard ; and, after a violent contest, it was voted 
 that the decisive measure should be postponed for a week longer, and that 
 on the 14th of January the question should be taken. 
 
 The fatal day arrived. It was decreed that the subject should be pre- 
 sented to the Convention in the three following questions : First^ Is Louis 
 guilty?- Second, Shall the decision of the Convention be submitted to the 
 ratification of the people ? The whole of the 15th was occupied in taking 
 these two votes. Louis was unanimously pronounced to be guilty, with the 
 exception of ten who refused to vote, declaring themselves incapable of act- 
 ing both as accusers and judges. On the question of an appeal to the people^ 
 281 voices were for it, -123 against it.* And now came the third great and 
 solemn question, What shall be the sentence ? Each member was required 
 to write his vote, sign it, and then, before depositing it, to ascend the tribune 
 and give it audibly, with any remarks which he might wish to add. 
 
 The voting commenced at seven o'clock in the evening of the 16th, and 
 continued all night, and without any interruption, for twenty-four hours. 
 All Paris was during the time in the highest state of excitement, the gal- 
 leries of the Convention being crowded to suffocation. Some voted for 
 death, others for imprisonment until peace with allied Europe, and then 
 banishment. Others voted for death, with the restriction that the execution 
 should be delayed. They wished to save the king, and yet feared the accu- 
 sation of being Royalists if they did not vote for his death. The Jacobins 
 all voted for death. They had accused their opponents, the Girondists, of 
 being secretly in favor of royality, and as such had held them up to the exe- 
 cration of the mob. The Girondists wished to save the king. It was in 
 their power to save him. But it required more courage, both moral and 
 physical, than ordinary men possess, to brave the vengeance of the assassins 
 of September who were hovering around the hall. 
 
 It was pretty well understood in the Convention that the fate of the king 
 depended upon the Girondist vote, and it was not doubted that the party 
 would vote as did their leader. It was a moment of fearful solemnity when 
 Vergniaud ascended the tribune. Breathless silence pervaded the Assembly. 
 Every eye was fixed upon him. His countenance was jjallid as that of a 
 corpse. For a moment he paused, with downcast eyes, as if hesitating to 
 pronounce the dreadful word. Then, in a gloomy tone which thrilled the 
 hearts of all present, he said, Death.f Nearly all the Girondists voted for 
 death, with the restriction of delaying the execution. Many of the purest 
 
 * Lamartinc, History of the Girondists, vol. ii., p. 342. 
 
 t "The crowd in the galleries received with murmurs all votes that were not for death, and 
 they frequently addressed threatening gestures to the Assembly itself. The deputies replied to 
 them from the interior of the hall, and hence resulted a tumultuous exchange of menaces and 
 abusive epithets. This fearfully ominous scene had shaken all minds and changed many resolu- 
 tions. Vergniaud, who had appeared deeply affected by the fate of Louis XVI., and who had 
 declared to his friends that he never could condemn that unfortunate prince, Vergniaud, on be- 
 holding this tumultuous scene, imagined that he saw civil war kindled in France, and i)ronounced 
 sentence of death, with the addition, however, of Mailhe's amendment (which required that the 
 execution should be delayed). On being questioned res))ecting his change of opinion, he replied 
 that he thought he saw civil war on the jjoint of breaking out, and that he diu-st not balance the 
 life of an individual against the welfare of France." — Theim's History 0/ the French Revolution, 
 vol. ii., p. G8.
 
 -j^ygg ] EXECUTION OF LOUIS XVI. 323 
 
 men in the nation thus voted, with emotions of sadness which could not be 
 repressed. The noble Cainot gave his vote in the following terms : Death ; 
 and never did word weigh so heavily on my heart." 
 
 AVhen the Duke of Orleans was called, deep sUence ensued. He was 
 cousin of the king, and first prince of the blood. By birth and opulence he 
 stood on the highest pinnacle of aristocratic supremacy. Conscious ot peri^ 
 he had for a long time done every thing in his power to conciliate the mob 
 by adopting the most radical of Jacobin opinions. The Duke, bloated with 
 the debaucheries which had disgraced his life, ascended the steps slowly, un- 
 folded a paper, and read in heartless tones these words : 
 
 " Solely occupied with my duty, convinced that all who have attempted, 
 or shall attempt hereafter, the sovereignty of the people, merit death, I vote 
 
 ° The atrocity of this act excited the abhorrence of the Assembly, and loud 
 murmurs of disapprobation followed the prince to his seat. Even Kobes- 
 pierre despised his pusillanimity, and said, 
 
 "The miserable man was only required to listen to his own heart, and 
 make himself an exception. But he would not or dare not do so. The na- 
 tion would have been more magnanimous than he."'^ 
 
 At length the long scrutiny was over, and Vergniaud, who had presided, 
 rose to announce the result. He was pale as death, and it was observed that 
 not only his voice faltered, but that his whole frame trembled. 
 
 " Citizens," said he, " you are about to exercise a great act of justice, i 
 hope humanity will enjoin you to keep the most perfect silence. When jus- 
 tice has spoken humanity ought to be listened to m its turn." 
 
 He then read the results of the vote. There were seven hundred and 
 twenty-one voters in the Convention. Three hundred and thirty-four voted 
 for imprisonment or exile, three hundred and eighty-seven for death, mclud- 
 ino- those who voted that the execution should be delayed. Thus the ma- 
 iority for death was fifty-three; but as of these forty-six demanded a sus- 
 pension of the execution, there remained but a majority of seven for mime- 
 diate death. Having read this result, Vergniaud, in a sorrowful tone, said 
 " I declare, in the name of the Convention, that the pumshmcnt pronounced 
 against Louis Capet is death."t 
 
 * " Robespierre was bv no means the worst charactor who figured in the Tlovohxtion He op- 
 posed trying the queen. " He was not an atheist ; on the contrary, he had pub holy "->«^;-;d he 
 cxistenee o? a Supreme Being, in opposition to many of his colleagues. Nenher -- he «/ «P "- 
 ion that it was necessary to exterminate all priests and nobles, hke many others. Robespxerre 
 wanted to proclaim the king an outlaw, and not to go through the rulaulous mockery of try ng 
 him. Robespierre was a fanatic, a monster ; but he was incorruptible, and mcapab e of robb ng 
 or of causing the deaths of others, either from personal enmity or a desire of enmlnng himself 
 He was an enthusiast, but one who really belieyed that he was acting right, and died not «oith a 
 son. In some respects Robespierre may be said to have been an honest man. -i\aj,okon at bt. 
 
 t'^'^Of 'those who iudced the king many thought him willfully criminal ; many that his exist- 
 ence would keep the' nation in perpetual conflict with the horde of kings who would war against 
 a generation which might come home to themsehes, and that it were better that one should die 
 than all. I should not have yoted with this portion of the Legislature. I should have shut up 
 the queen in a convent, putting harm out of her power, and placed the king in hus station, mvest- 
 ing him with limited powers, which I verily believe he would honestly have exercised, according 
 to the measure of his understandiug."-77iomas Jefferson, Life by Randall, vol. i., p. 533. There 
 were obviously insuperable objections to the plan thus suggested by Mr. Jeflersoii.
 
 324 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. [ChAP. XXXI. 
 
 The counsel of Louis XVI., who, during the progress of the vote, had 
 urged permission to speak, but were refused, were now introduced. In the 
 name of the king, Deseze appealed to the people from the judgment of the 
 Convention, He urged the appeal from the very small majority which had 
 decided the penalty. Tronchet urged that the penal code required a vote 
 of two thirds to consign one to punishment, and that the king ought not to 
 be deprived of a privilege which every subject enjoyed. Malesherbes en- 
 deavored to speak, but was so overcome with emotion that, violently sob- 
 bing, he was unable to continue his speech, and was compelled to sit down. 
 His gray hairs and his tears so moved the Assembly that Vergniaud rose, 
 and, addressing the Assembly, said, " Will you decree the honors of the sit- 
 ting to the defenders of Louis XVI. ?" The unanimous response was, " Yes, 
 yes." 
 
 It was now late at night, and the Convention adjourned. The whole of 
 the 18th and the 19th were occupied in discussing the question of the appeal 
 to the people. On the 20th, at three o'clock in the morning, the final vote 
 was taken. Three hundred and ten voted to sustain the appeal ; three hund- 
 red and eighty for immediate death. All the efforts to save the king were 
 now exhausted, and his fate was sealed. A deputation was immediately ap- 
 pointed, headed by Garat, Minister of Justice, to acquaint Louis XVI. with 
 the decree of the Convention. 
 
 At two o'clock in the afternoon of the 20th, Louis heard the noise of a nu- 
 merous party ascending the steps of the tower. As they entered his apart- 
 ment he rose and stepped forward with perfect calmness and dignity to meet 
 them. The decree of the Convention was read to the king, declaring him to 
 be guilty of treason, that he was condemned to death, that the appeal to the 
 people was refused, and that he was to be executed within twenty -four hours. 
 
 The king listened to the reading unmoved, took the paper from the hands 
 of the secretary, folded it carefully, and placed it in his port-folio. Then 
 turning to Garat, he handed him a paper, saying, 
 
 "Monsieur Minister of Justice, I request you to deliver this letter to the 
 Convention." 
 
 Garat hesitated to take the paper, and the king immediately rejoined, " I 
 will read it to you," and read, in a distinct, unfaltering voice, as follows : 
 
 " I demand of the Convention a delay of three days, in order to prepare 
 myself to appear before God. I require, farther, to see freely the priest whom 
 I shall name to the commissaries of the Commune, and that he be protected 
 in the act of charity which he shall exercise toward me. I demand to be 
 freed from the perpetual surveillance which has been exercised toward me 
 for so many days. I demand, during these last moments, leave to see my 
 family, when I desire it, without witnesses. I desire most earnestly that the 
 Convention will at once take into consideration the fate of my family, and 
 that they be allowed immediately to retire unmolested whithersoever they 
 shall see fit to choose an asylum. I recommend to the kindness of the na- 
 tion all the persons attached to me. There are among them many old men, 
 and women, and children, who are entirely dependent upon me, and must 
 be in want." 
 
 The delegation retired. The king, with a firm step, walked two or three
 
 1793.] EXECUTION OF LOUIS XVI. 325 
 
 times up and down his chamber, and then called for his dinner. He sat 
 down and ate with his usual appetite ; but his attendants refused to let him 
 have either knife or fork, and he was furnished only with a spoon. This ex- 
 cited his indignation, and he said, warmly, 
 
 " Do they think that I am such a coward as to lay violent hands upon 
 myself? I am innocent, and I shall die fearlessly." 
 
 Having finished his repast, he waited patiently for the return of the an- 
 swer from the Convention. At six o'clock, Garat, accompanied by Santerre, 
 entered again. The Convention refused the delay of execution which Louis 
 XVI. had solicited, but granted the other demands. 
 
 In a few moments M. Edgeworth, the ecclesiastic who had been sent for, 
 arrived. He entered the chamber, and, overwhelmed with emotion, fell at 
 the monarch's feet and burst into tears. The king, deeply moved, also wept, 
 and, as he raised M. Edgeworth, said, 
 
 " Pardon me this momentary weakness. I have lived so long among my 
 enemies that habit has rendered me indifferent to their hatred, and my heart 
 has been closed against all sentiments of tenderness ; but the sight of a faith- 
 ful friend restores to me my sensibility, which I believed dead, and moves 
 me to tears in spite of myself" 
 
 The king conversed earnestly with his spiritual adviser respecting his will, 
 which he read, and inquired earnestly for kis friends, whose sufferings moved 
 his heart deeply. The hour of seven had now arrived, when the king was 
 to hold his last interview with his family. But even this could not be in 
 private. He was to be watched by his jailers, who were to hear every word 
 and witness every gesture. The door opened, and the queen, pallid and 
 woe-stricken, entered, leading her son by the hand. She threw herself into 
 the arms of her husband, and silently endeavored to draw him toward her 
 chamber. 
 
 "No, no," whispered the king, clasping her to his heart; "I can see you 
 only here.". 
 
 Madame Elizabeth, with the king's daughter, followed. A scene of an- 
 guish ensued which neither pen nor pencil can portray. The king sat down, 
 with the queen upon his right hand, his sister upon his left, their arms en- 
 circling his neck, and their heads resting upon his breast. The dauphin sat 
 upon his father's knee, with his arm around his neck. The beautiful prin- 
 cess, with disheveled hair, threw herself between her father's knees, and bur- 
 ied her face in his lap. More than half an hour passed during which not an 
 articulate word was spoken ; but cries, groans, and occasional shrieks of an- 
 guish, which pierced even the thick walls of the Temple and were heard in 
 the streets, rose from the group. 
 
 For two hours the agonizing interview was continued. As they gradual- 
 ly regained some little composure, in low tones they whispered messages of 
 tenderness and love, interrupted by sobs, and kisses, and blinding floods of 
 tears. It was now after nine o'clock, and in the morning the king was to be 
 led to the guillotine. The queen implored permission for them to remain 
 with him through the night. The king, through tenderness for his family, 
 declined, but promised to see them again at seven o'clock the next morning. 
 As the king accompanied them to the stair-case their cries were redoubled,
 
 326 
 
 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 
 
 [Chap. XXXI. 
 
 ''^iiilii;i[i!i!ll|i!'!:,„ 
 
 LAST INTERVIEW ItETWEEN LOUIS XVI. AND Ulb 1A.MILY. 
 
 and the princess fainted in utter unconsciousness at her father's feet. The 
 queen, Madame Ehzabeth, and Clery carried her to the stairs, and the king 
 returned to the room, and, burying his face in his hands, sank, exhausted, into 
 a chair. After a long silence he turned to M. Edgeworth and said, 
 
 " Ah ! monsieur, what an interview I have had ! Why do I love so fond- 
 ly ? Alas ! why am I so fondly loved ? But we have now done with time. 
 Let us occupy ourselves with eternity." 
 
 The king passed some time in religious conversation and prayer, and, hav- 
 ing arranged with M. Edgeworth to partake of the sacrament of the Lord's 
 Supper in the earliest hours of the morning, at midnight threw himself upon 
 his bed, and almost immediately fell into a calm and refreshing sleep. 
 
 The faithful Clery and M. Edgeworth watched at the bedside of the king. 
 At five o'clock they woke him. "lias it struck five?" inquired the king. 
 "Not yet by the clock of the tower," Clery replied; "but several of the 
 clocks of the city have struck." " I have slept soundly," remarked the king. 
 " I was much fatigued yesterday." 
 
 He immediately arose. An altar had been prepared in the middle of the 
 room composed of a chest of drawers, and the king, after engaging earnestly 
 in prayer, received the sacrament of the Lord's Supper. Then leading Clery 
 into the recess of a window, he detached from his watch a seal, and took 
 from his finger a wedding-ring, and handing them to Clery, said, 
 
 " After my death you will give this seal to my son, this ring to the queen. 
 Tell her I resign it with pain that it may not be profened with my body. 
 This small parcel contains locks of hair of all my family : that you will give 
 her. Say to the queen, my dear children, and my sister, that I had prom-
 
 1798.] EXECUTION OF LOUIS XVI. 327 
 
 ised to see them this morning, but that I desired to spare them the agony of 
 such a bitter separation twice over. IIow much it has cost me to depart 
 without receiving their last embraces !" 
 
 He could say no more, for sobs choked his utterance. Soon recovering 
 himself, he called for scissors, and cut off his long hair, that he might escape 
 the humiliation of having that done by the executioner. 
 
 A few beams of daylight began now to penetrate the gloomy prison 
 through the grated windows, and the beating of drums, and the rumbling 
 of the wheels of heavy artillery were heard in the streets. The king turned 
 to his confessor, and said, 
 
 " How happy I am that I maintained my faith on the throne ! Where 
 should I be this day but for this hope ? Yes, there is on high a Judge, in- 
 corruptible, who will award to mc that measure of justice which men refuse 
 to me here below." 
 
 Two hours passed away, while the king listened to the gathering of the 
 troops in the court-3'ard and around the Temple. At nine o'clock a tumult- 
 uous noise was heard of men ascending the stair-case. Santerre entered, with 
 twelve municipal officers and ten gens d'armes. The king, with command- 
 ing voice and gesture, pointed Santerre to the door, and said, 
 
 " You have come for me. I will be with you in an instant. Await me 
 there," 
 
 Falling upon his knees, he engaged a moment in prayer, and then, turn- 
 ing to M. Edgeworth, said, 
 
 " All is consummated. Give me your blessing, and pray to God to sus- 
 tain me to the end." 
 
 He rose, and taking from the table a paper which contained his last will 
 and testament, addressed one of the municipal guard, saying, "I beg of you 
 to transmit this paper to the queen." The man, whose name was Jacques 
 Eoux, brutally replied, " I am here to conduct you to the scaffold, not to per- 
 form 3'our commissions." 
 
 " True," said the king, in a saddened tone, but without the slightest ap- 
 pearance of irritation. Then carefully scanning the countenances of each 
 member of the guard, he selected one w^hose features expressed humanity, 
 and solicited him to take charge of the paper. The man, whose name was 
 Gobeau, took the paper. 
 
 The king, declining the cloak which Clery offered him, said, "Give me 
 only my hat." Then, taking the hand of Clery, he pressed it affectionately 
 in a final adieu, and, turning to Santerre, said, "Let us go." Descending 
 the stairs with a firm tread, followed by the armed escort, he met a turnkey 
 whom he had the evening before reproached for some impertinence. The 
 king approached him and said, in tones of kindness, 
 
 " Mathey, I was somewhat warm with you yesterday ; excuse me for the 
 sake of this hour." 
 
 As he crossed the court-yard, he twice turned to look up at the windows 
 of the queen's apartment in the tower, where those so dear to him were suf- 
 fering the utmost anguish which human hearts can endure. Two gens 
 d'armes sat upon the front scat of the carriage. The king and M. Edge- 
 worth took the back seat. The morning was damp and chill, and gloomy
 
 328 
 
 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 
 
 [Chap. XXXI. 
 
 clouds darkened the sky. Sixty drums were beating at the heads of the 
 horses, and an army of troops, with all the most formidable enginery of 
 war, preceded, surrounded, and followed the carriage. The noise of the 
 drums prevented any conversation," and the king sat in silence in the car- 
 riage, evidently engaged in prayer. The procession moved so slowly along 
 the Boulevards that it was two hours before they reached the Place de la 
 Kevolution. An immense crowd filled the place, above whom towered the 
 lofty platform and blood-red posts of the guillotine. 
 
 As the carriage stopped the king whispered to M. Edge worth, " We have 
 
 xxzoimoM OF Luum xvi.
 
 1793.] EXECUTION OF LOUIS XVI. 329 
 
 arrived, if I mistake not." The drums ceased beating, and the whole mul- 
 titude gazed in the most solemn silence. The two gens d'armes alighted. 
 The king placed his hand upon the knee of the heroic ecclesiastic, M. Edge- 
 worth, and said to the gens d'armes, 
 
 " Gentlemen, I recommend to your care this gentleman. Let him not be 
 insulted after my death. I entreat you to watch over him," 
 
 " Yes, yes," said one, contemptuously ; " make your mind easy, we will 
 take care of him. Let us alone." 
 
 Louis alighted. Two of the executioners came to the foot of the scaffold 
 to take off his coat. The king waved them away, and himself took off his 
 coat and cravat, and turned down the collar of his shirt, that his throat 
 might be presented bare to the knife. They then came with cords to bind 
 his hands behind his back. 
 
 " What do you wish to do?" said the king, indignantly. 
 
 "Bind you," they replied, as they seized his hands, and endeavored to 
 fasten them with the cords. 
 
 "Bind me!" replied the king, in tones of deepest feeling. "No, no; I 
 will never consent. Do your business, but 3-ou shall not bind me." 
 
 The executioners seized him rudely, and called for help. "Sire," said 
 his Christian adviser, "suffer this outrage, as a last resemblance to that 
 God who is about to be your reward." 
 
 "Assuredly," replied the king, "there needed nothing less than the ex- 
 ample of God to make me submit to such an indignity." Then, holding out 
 his hands to the executioners, he said, " Do as you will ! I will drink the 
 cup to the dregs." 
 
 With a firm tread he ascended the steep steps of the scaffold, looked for a 
 moment upon the keen and polished edge of the axe, and then, turning to 
 the vast throng, said, in a voice clear and untremulous, 
 
 " People, I die innocent of all the crimes imputed to me ! I pardon the 
 authors of my death, and pray to God that the blood you are about to shed 
 may not fall again on France." 
 
 He would have continued, but the drums were ordered to beat, and his 
 voice was immediately drowned. The executioners seized him, bound him 
 to the plank, the slide fell, and the head of Louis XVI. dropped into the 
 basket. 
 
 No one has had a better opportunity of ascertaining the true character of 
 tlie king than President Jefferson. Speaking of some of the king's measures 
 he said, " These concessions came from the very heart of the king. He 
 had not a wish but for the good of the nation ; and for that object no per- 
 sonal sacrifice would ever have cost him a moment's regret ; but his mind 
 was weakness itself, his constitution timid, his judgment null, and without 
 suffiicient firmness even to stand by the faith of his word. His queen, too, 
 haught}^ and bearing no contradiction, had an absolute ascendency over 
 him; and round her were rallied the king's brother, D'Artois, the court 
 generally, and the aristocratic part of his ministers, particularly Breteuil, 
 Broglio, Vauguyon, Foulon, Luzerne — men whose principles of government 
 were those of the age of Louis XFV. Against this host, the good counsels 
 of Necker, ^routniorin, St. Priest, although in unison with the wishes of 
 Vol. 11.— D
 
 330 
 
 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 
 
 [Chap. XXXI. 
 
 the king liimself, were of little avail. The resolutions of the morning, 
 formed under their advice, would be reversed in the evening by the influ- 
 ence of the queen and the court." 
 
 The Royalists were exceedingly exasperated by the condemnation of the 
 king. A noble, Lepelletier St. Fargeau, who had espoused the popular 
 cause, voted for the king's death. The Royalists were peculiarly excited 
 against him, in consequence of his rank and fortune. On the evening of 
 the 20th of January, as Louis was being informed of his sentence, a life- 
 guardsman of the king tracked Lepelletier into a restaurateur's in the Palais 
 Royal, and, just as he was sitting down to the table, stepped up to him and 
 said, 
 
 "Art thou Lepelletier, the villain who voted for the death of the king?" 
 
 "Yes," replied Lepelletier, "but I am not a villain. I voted according 
 to my conscience." 
 
 "There, then," rejoined the life-guardsman, "take that for thy reward," 
 and he plunged his sword to the hilt in his side. Lepelletier fell dead, and 
 his assassin escaped before they had time to arrest him. 
 
 This event created intense excitement, and increased the conviction that 
 the Royalists had conspired to rescue the king, by force of arms, at the foot 
 of the scaffold. 
 
 ASSABBXNATION OF LEFELLETHEB DK BT. FABOEAIT.
 
 1793.] THE KEIGN OF TERROR. 331 
 
 CHAPTER XXXn. 
 
 THE REIGN OF TERROR. 
 
 Charges against the Girondists. — Danton. — The French Embassador ordered to leave England. 
 — War declared against England. — Navy of England. — Internal War.— Plot to assassinate 
 the Girondists. — Bold Words of Vergniaud.— Insurrection in La Vende'e. — Conflict between 
 Dumouriez and the Assembly. — Flight of Dumouriez. — The Mob aroused and the Girondists 
 arrested. — Charlotte Corday.— France rises en masse to repel the Allies. — The treasonable 
 Surrender of Toulon. 
 
 The execution of the king roused all Europe against republican France. 
 The Jacobins had gained a decisive victory over the Girondists, and suc- 
 ceeded in turning popular hatred against them by accusing them of being 
 enemies of the people, because they opposed the excesses of the mob ; of 
 being the friends of royalty, because they had wished to save the life of the 
 king ; and of being hostile to the republic, because they advocated meas- 
 sures of moderation.* 
 
 Danton was now the acknowledged leader of the Jacobins. He had ob- 
 tained the entire control of the mob of Paris, and could guide their terrible 
 and resistless energies in any direction. With this potent weapon in his 
 hand he was omnipotent, and his political adversaries were at his mercy. 
 The Reign of Terror had now commenced. The Girondists made a heroic 
 attempt to bring to justice the assassins of September, but the Jacobins 
 promptly stopped the proceedings. 
 
 The aristocracy of birth was now effectually crushed, and the Jacobins 
 commenced a warfare against the aristocracy of wealth and character. An 
 elegant mansion, garments of fine cloth, and even polished manners, ex- 
 posed one to the charge of being an aristocrat, and turned against him the 
 insults of the rabble. Marat was particularly fierce, in his journal, against 
 the aristocracy of the burghers, merchants, and statesmen. 
 
 Upon the arrival of the courier in London conveying intelligence of the 
 execution of the king, M. Chauvelin, the French embassador, was ordered 
 to leave England within twenty-four hours. 
 
 "After events," said Pitt, "on which the imagination can only dwell 
 with horror, and since an infernal foction has seized on the supreme power 
 in France, we could no longer tolerate the presence of M. Chauvelin, who 
 has left no means untried to induce the people to rise against the govern- 
 ment and the laws of this country." 
 
 The National Convention at once declared war against England.f Pitt, 
 with almost superhuman energy, mustered the forces of England and Eu- 
 rope for the strife. In less than six months England had entered into a 
 
 * Mignet, p. 192. 
 
 t "The Convention, finding England already leagued with the coalition, and consequently all 
 its promises of netitrality vain and illusive, on the 1st of February, 1793, declared war against the 
 King of Great Britain and the Stadtholder of Holland, who had been entirely guided by the cabi- 
 net of St. James's since 1788."— ^fignet, vol. i., p. 195^
 
 332 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. [ChAP. XXXII. 
 
 treaty of alliance with Russia, Prussia, Austria, Naples, Spain, and Portu- 
 gal, for tlie prosecution of the war ; and had also entered into treaties by 
 which she promised large subsidies to Hesse Cassel, Sardinia, and Baden. 
 England thus became the soul of this coalition, which combined the whole 
 of Europe, with the exception of Venice, Switzerland, Sweden, Denmark, 
 and Turkey, against France. These combined armies were to assail the 
 Republic by land, while the invincible fleet of England was to hurl a storm 
 of shot and shells into all her maritime towns. 
 
 France, at this time, had but one hundred and fifty-nine vessels of war 
 all told. England had four hundred and fifteen, and her ally, Holland, one 
 hundred. Most of these were large ships, heavily armed ; and, consequent- 
 ly, England had but little fear that any French armies could reach her isles.* 
 Parliament voted an extraordinary supply of £3,200,000 ($16,000,000). 
 One hundred and thirty-one thousand Austrians, one hundred and twelve 
 thousand Prussians, and fifty thousand Spaniards were speedily on the 
 march to assail France at every point on the frontier.f 
 
 The Royalists in La Vendee rose in arms against the Republic, and un- 
 furled the white banner of the Bourbons. France was now threatened more 
 fearfully than ever before with external and internal war. The Conven- 
 tion, controlled by the Jacobins and appalled by the danger, decreed a levy 
 of three hundred thousand men to repel the assailants, and also organized 
 an extraordinary revolutionary tribunal, invested with unlimited powers to 
 arrest, judge, and punish any whom they should deem dangerous to the 
 Republic. Violence filled the land, terror reigned every where, and even 
 Robespierre was heard to exclaim, " I am sick of the Revolution." 
 
 Dumouriez had driven the Austrians out of Belgium and the Netherlands, 
 and was at the head of an army of about seventy -five thousand men. Dis- 
 gusted with the anarchy which reigned in France, he formed the bold de- 
 sign of marching upon Paris with his army, dispersing the Convention, 
 abolishing the Republic, reinstituting a constitutional monarchy by estab- 
 lishing the Constitution of 1791, and by placing a king, probably the son 
 of the Duke of Orleans, subsequently Louis Philippe, upon the throne. 
 The Jacobins, goaded by these accumulating dangers — all Europe assailing 
 France from without, and Royalists plotting within — were prepared for any 
 measures of desperation. The Girondists, with unavailing heroism, opposed 
 the frantic measures of popular violence, and the Jacobins resolved to get 
 rid of them all by a decisive blow. The assassins of September were ready 
 to ply the dagger, under the plea that murder was patriotism. A plan was 
 formed to strike them all down, in the Convention, on the night of the 10th 
 of March. But the Girondists, informed of the plot, absented themselves 
 from the meeting and the enterprise failed. The bold spirit of the Giron- 
 dists was avowed in the words of Vergniaud : 
 
 "We have witnessed," said he, "the development of that strange system 
 of liberty in which we are told ' You are free, but think with us, or we will 
 
 * Lamartinc, History of the Girondists, vol. ii., p. 395. 
 
 t "It was in Spain, more particularly, that Pitt set intripues at work to urge her to the great- 
 est blunder slie ever committed — that of joining England against France, her only maritime ally." 
 — Thiers, vol. ii., p. 82.
 
 1793.] THE REIGN OF TERROR. 333 
 
 denounce you to the vengeance of the people ; you are free, but bow down 
 your head to the idol we worship, or we will denounce you to the vengeance 
 of the people; you are free, but join us in persecuting the men whose prob- 
 ity and intelligence we dread, or we will denounce you to the vengeance of 
 the people.' Citizens ! we have reason to fear that the Revolution, like Sat- 
 urn, will devour successively all its children, and only engender despotism 
 and the calamities which accompany it." 
 
 The Province of La Vendee contained a population of about three hund- 
 red thousand. It was a rural district where there was no middle class. The 
 priests and the nobles had the unlettered peasantry entirely under their in- 
 fluence. Three armies were raised here against the Eepublic, of about 
 twelve thousand each. Royalists from various parts of the empire flocked 
 to this region, and emigrants were landed upon the coast to join the insur- 
 gents. For three years a most cruel and bloody war was here waged between 
 the Royalists and the Republicans, 
 
 The intelligence of this formidable insurrection increased the panic of the 
 Convention, A law was passed disarming all who had belonged to the 
 privileged class, and declaring those to be outlaws who should be found in 
 any hostile gathering against the Republic. The emigrants were forbidden 
 to land in France under the penalty of death. Every house in the kingdom 
 was to inscribe upon its door the names of all its inmates, and was to be 
 open at all times to the visits of the Vigilance Committee, 
 
 Dumouriez sullied his character by surrendering to the Austrians several 
 fortresses, and agreeing with them that he would march upon Paris and re- 
 store a monarchical government to France. The Austrians trusted that he 
 would place upon the throne the young son of Louis XVI., though it was 
 doubtless his intention to place there the young Duke of Chartres (Louis 
 Philippe), who would be the representative of popular ideas. 
 
 The Jacobin Club sent a deputation of three of its members to the camp, 
 to sound the views of Dumouriez, The general received them with cour- 
 tesy, but said, with military frankness, 
 ( " The Convention is an assembly of tyrants. While I have three inches 
 of steel by my side that monster shall not exist. As for the Republic, it is an 
 idle word. I had faith in it for three days. There is only one way to save 
 the country ; that is, to re-establish the Constitution of 1791 and a king." 
 
 " Can you think of it!" one of the deputation exclaimed ; " the French view 
 royalty with horror. The very name of Louis is an abomination." 
 
 *' What does it signify," replied Dumouriez, " whether the king be called 
 Louis, or Jacques, or Philippe ?" 
 
 " And what are your means to eflcct this revolution ?" they inquired. 
 
 " My army," Dumouriez proudly replied. " From my camp or from the 
 stronghold of some fortress they will express their resolve for a king," 
 
 " But your plan will peril the lives of the rest of the royal family in the 
 Temple," 
 
 " If every member of that family in France or at Coblentz should perish," 
 Dumouriez replied, " I can still find a chief. And if any farther barbarities 
 are practiced upon the Bourbons in the Temple I will surround Paris with 
 my army and starve the Parisians into subjection."
 
 334 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. [ChAP. XXXII. 
 
 The deputation returned to Paris with, their report, and four commission- 
 ers were immediately dispatched, accompanied by the Minister of War, to 
 summon Dumouriez to the bar of the Convention. Dumouriez promptly 
 arrested the commissioners and sent them off to the Austrians, to be retained 
 by them as hostages. 
 
 DUMOtmiEZ AKKESTING THE ENVOYS. 
 
 The Convention immediately offered a reward for the head of Dumouriez, 
 raised an army of forty thousand men to defend Paris, and arrested all the 
 relatives of the ofl&cers under Dumouriez as hostages. 
 
 Dumouriez now found that he had not a moment to lose. Perils were ac- 
 cumulating thick around him. There were many indications that it might 
 be difficult to carry the army over to his views. On the 4th of April, as he 
 was repairing to a place of rendezvous with the Austrian leaders, the Prince 
 of Coburg and General Mack, a battalion of soldiers, suspecting treachery, 
 endeavored to stop him. He put spurs to his horse and distanced pursuit, 
 while a storm of bullets whistled around his head. lie succeeded, after in- 
 numerable perils, in the circuitous ride of a whole day, in reaching the head- 
 quarters of the Austrians. They received him with great distinction, and 
 offered him the command of a division of their army. After two days' re- 
 flection, he said that it was with the soldiers of France he had hoped to re- 
 store a stable government to his country, accepting the Austrians only as 
 auxiliaries ; but that as a Frenchman he could not march against France at 
 the head of foreigners. He retired to Switzerland. The Duke of Chartres 
 (Louis Philippe), in friendlessness and poverty, followed him, and for some 
 time was obliged to obtain a support by teaching school. 
 
 The Jacobins now accused their formidable rivals, the Girondists, of being 
 implicated in the conspiracy of Dumouriez. Robespierre, in a speech of the 
 most concentrated and potent malignity, urged that France had relieved her- 
 self of the aristocracy of birth, but that there was another aristocracy, that 
 of wealth, equally to be dreaded, which must be crushed, and that the Gi- 
 rondists were the leaders of this aristocracy. This was most effectually pan-
 
 j^gj , THE BEIGN OF TEKROE. 335 
 
 derinc. to the passions of the mob, and directing their fury against the Gi. 
 rondiL. The Girondists were now in a state of ternble alarm. They knew 
 Z m.-a -nity of their foes, and eould see but little hope for escape They 
 had ovenurned the throne of despotism, hoping to establish eonst.tufonal 
 liberty : they had only introduced Jacobin phrensy and anarchy Immense 
 crowds of armed men paraded the streets of Pans, surrounded the Conven- 
 tion and demanded yengeanoe against the leaders of the Gironde. ^^ 
 The moderate Eepubtieans, enemies of these acts of v.olence, strmng to 
 stem the torrent, endeavored to carry an act of accusation against Marat. 
 He wis charged with having encouraged assassination and carnage of dis- 
 foWrngtt National Convention, and of having established a power destruc 
 
 '"Z"Sed to the accusation by summoning the mob to his aid. They 
 
 assanbledt vast, tumultuous throngs, ^-'^^f^^ ^'^^^'^^^^^Zttll^ 
 trial of a few moments, unanimously acquitted him. This was '•'e /4tn oi 
 Ap if The mob accompanied him back to his seat in the Convent on. He 
 w^ borne in"riumph into the hall in the arms of his confederates, his brow 
 encircled by a wreath of victory. ^, , , „i,„ i,„rA Mirat " we 
 
 " Citizen President," shouted one of the burly men who bore Marat, we 
 brinSZ the worth; Marat. Marat has always been the friend of he peo- 
 5™ln'° the people lill always be the friends of Marat. If Marat s head 
 
 "'tte'u^:2rther:o^ ^hl wished a batt,e.a.e aefi^-ly.^nd tho 
 mob in the aisles and crowded galleries vehement y appl^"d«d^ He to 
 
 bytXf agairr'a Vecree of aecusatiL. I have come oif victorious. 
 
 a-.* KotwPPn the Drivileced classes and the enslaved people, 
 * In reference to the temfic conflict between the privilege ^^^ 
 
 Prof. Smyth writes, " My --'l-""/^. ^^^' ""\'^^Ji^^^^ Temo Ible revolution. No histo- 
 
 est ri.ht to felicitate ^^^-^te'til^s^inTrott^^^^^^^^^ on the supposition that, while 
 
 rian, no commentator on these time, can rocee antagonistic faults of the other; 
 
 he is censuring the faults of the one h - l-[7^y,^j7^\7,.,,dful lesson of instn.ction both to 
 that each party is to take it^ urn ;^-^^^^^^^^^^^ 
 
 vol. iii., p. 245. , T. 1 ,f;nn hn^ too often been told in this spirit, veiling the atrocities 
 
 The story of the French Revolution ^^^Z';?^ 7/;" 7,^^ oppressed. While truth demands that 
 
 of the oppressors and magmfying the ^^^^^^fZ^ ^,,^., should be faithfiUly deUn- 
 
 all the violence of an enslaved people, "\f ^ '^''^ j;;'^;^^",;il,,,„ess of proud oppressors, crushing 
 
 tially described.
 
 336 
 
 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. [ChAP. XXXII. 
 
 MAKAT'S TBIDMPn. 
 
 The faction is humbled, but not crushed. Waste not your time in decree- 
 ing triumphs. Defend yourselves with enthusiasm." 
 
 Robespierre now demanded an act of accusation against the Girondists. 
 Resistance was hopeless. The inundation of popular fury was at its flood, 
 sweeping every thing before it. The most frightful scenes of tumult took 
 place in the Convention, members endeavoring by violence to pull each oth- 
 er from the tribune.* 
 
 * In the Convention, each one who addressed the body ascended to a desk on the platform, 
 called the tribune.
 
 1793."^ THE REIGN OF TERROR. 337 
 
 ■ The whole Convention was now in a state of dismay, eighty thousand in- 
 furiate men surrounding it with artillery and musketry, declaring that the 
 Convention should not leave its hall until the Girondists were arrested. 
 The Convention, in a body, attempted to leave and force its way through 
 the crowd, but it was ignominiously driven back. Under these circum- 
 stances it was voted that the leaders of the Girondists, twenty-two in num- 
 ber, should be put under arrest. This was the 2d of June, 1793.* 
 
 The Jacobins, having thus got rid of their enemies, and having the entire 
 control, immediately decided to adopt a new Constitution, still more demo- 
 cratic in its character ; and a committee was appointed to present one within 
 a week. But the same division which existed in the Convention between 
 the Jacobins and the Girondists existed all over France. In many of the 
 departments fierce battles rose between the two parties. 
 
 In the mean time the Allies were pressing France in all directions. The 
 Austrians and Prussians were advancing upon the north ; the Piedmontese 
 threading the passes of the maritime Alps ; the Spaniards were prepared to 
 rush from the defiles of the Pyrenees, and the fleet of England threatened 
 every where the coast of France on the Mediterranean and the Channel.f 
 
 With amazing energy the Convention aroused itself to meet these perils. 
 A new Constitution, exceedingly democratic, was framed and adopted. Ev- 
 ery Frenchman twenty -one years of age was a voter. Fifty thousand souls 
 were entitled to a deputy. There was but a single Assembly. Its decrees 
 were immediately carried into execution.:}: 
 
 Danton, Eobespicrre, and Marat were now the idols of the mob of Paris 
 and the real sovereigns of France. All who ventured opposition to them 
 were proscribed and imprisoned. Members of the Republican or Girondist 
 party every where, all over France, were arrested, or, where they were suffi- 
 ciently numerous to resist, civil war raged. 
 
 At Caen there was a very beautiful girl, Charlotte Corday, twenty-five 
 years of age, highly educated and accomplished. She was of spotless purity 
 of character, and, with the enthusiasm of Madame Roland, she had espoused 
 the cause of popular constitutional liberty. The principles of the Girondist 
 party she had embraced, and the noble leaders of that party she regarded 
 almost with adoration. 
 
 When she heard of the overthrow of the Girondists and their imprison- 
 ment, she resolved to avenge them, and hoped that, by striking down the 
 leader of the Jacobins, she might rouse the Girondists scattered over France 
 to rally and rescue liberty and their country. It was a three days' ride in 
 the diligence from Caen to Paris. Arriving at Paris on Thursday the 11th 
 of July, she carefully inspected the state of affairs, that she might select her 
 victim, but confided her design to no one. 
 
 * Thiers, vol. ii., p. 194. 
 
 t The Allies acted without union, and, under dispiiise of a holy war, concealed the most self- 
 ish views. The Austrians wanted Valenciennes : the Kinp of Prussia, Mayence ; the English, 
 Dunkirk ; the Piedmontese aspired to recover Chambery and Nice ; the Sj)aniards, the least in- 
 terested of all, had nevertheless some thoughts of Rouissillon. — r/«'c>-.s vol. ii., p. 217. 
 
 J " 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 imi)ractiiable, but at a period of general 
 warfare it was peculiarly so. Accordingly, it was no sooner made than suspended."— J%7jt/.
 
 338 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. [ChAP. XXXIL 
 
 Marat appeared to her the most active, formidable, and insatiable in his 
 proscription. She wrote him a note as follows : 
 
 " 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 Kepublic. 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 can render an im- 
 portant service to France." 
 
 She dispatched this note from her hotel, the Inn de la Providence in the 
 Kue des Vieux Augustins, went to the Palais Koyal and purchased a large 
 sheath knife, and, taking a hackney-coach, drove to the residence of Marat, 
 No. 4A Rue de I'Ecole de Medecine. It was Saturday night. Marat was 
 taking a bath and reading by a light which stood upon a three-footed stool. 
 He heard the rap of Charlotte, and called aloud to the woman who, as serv- 
 ant and mistress, attended him, and requested that she might be admitted. 
 
 Marat was a man of the most restless activity. Eagerly he inquired re- 
 specting the proscribed at Caen and of others who were opposed to Jacobin 
 rule. Charlotte, while repl3'ing coolly, measured with her eye the spot she 
 should strike with the knife. As she mentioned some names, he eagerly 
 seized a pencil and began to write them down, saying, 
 
 " They shall all go to the guillotine." 
 
 "To the guillotine?" exclaimed Charlotte, and, instantly drawing the 
 knife from her bosom, plunged it to the handle directly in his heart. 
 
 The miserable man uttered one frantic shriek of "Help!" and fell back 
 dead into the water. The paramour of Marat and a serving-man rushed in, 
 knocked Charlotte down with a chair, and trampled upon her. A crowd 
 soon assembled. Without the slightest perturbation she avowed the deed. 
 Her youth and beauty alone saved her from being torn in pieces. Soldiers 
 soon arrived and conveyed her to prison. 
 
 " The way to avenge Marat," exclaimed Robespierre from the tribune in 
 tones which caused France to tremble, "is to strike down his enemies with- 
 out mercy." 
 
 The remains of the wretched man, whom all the world now execrates, 
 were buried with the highest possible honors. His funeral at midnight, as 
 all Paris seemed to follow him to his grave in a torch-light procession, was 
 one of the most imposing scenes of the Revolution. 
 
 On Wednesday morning Charlotte was led to the Revolutionary Tribunal 
 in the Palace of Justice. She appeared there dignified, calm, and beautiful. 
 The indictment was read, and they were beginning to introduce their wit- 
 nesses, when Charlotte said, 
 
 " These delays are needless. It is I that killed Marat," 
 
 There was a moment's pause, and many deplored the doom of one so youth- 
 ful and lovely. At last the president inquired, " By whose instigation?" 
 
 " By that of no one," was the laconic reply. 
 
 "What tempted you?" inquired the president. 
 
 "His crimes," Charlotte answered; and then, continuing in tones of firm- 
 ness and intensity which silenced and overawed all present, she said, 
 
 "I killed one man, to save a hundred thousand; a villain, to save the
 
 1793.] 
 
 THE REIGN OF TERROR. 
 
 S39 
 
 CUAELOTTE OOEDAY AREESTKD. 
 
 innocent ; a savage "wild beast, to give repose to my country. I was a Re- 
 publican before tbe Revolution. I never wanted energy."* 
 
 She listened to her doom of immediate death with a smile, and was con- 
 ducted back to the prison, to be led from thence to the guillotine. A little 
 after seven o'clock on this same evening a cart issued from the Concierge- 
 rie, bearing Charlotte, in the red robe of a murderess, to the guillotine. A 
 vast throng crowded the streets, most of whom assailed her with howls and 
 execrations. She looked upon them with a serene smile, as if she were rid- 
 ing on an excursion of pleasure. She was bound to the plank. The gUt- 
 tering axe glided through the grove, and the executioner, lifting her severed 
 head, exhibited it to the people, and then brutally struck the cheek. 
 
 Robespierre and Danton, the idols of the mob, now divided the supreme 
 power between them. The organization of a revolutionary government was 
 simply the machine by means of which they operated. 
 
 On the 10th of August there was another magnificent festival in Paris to 
 commemorate the adoption of the Jacobin Constitution. The celebrated 
 painter David arranged the fete with great artistic skill, and again all 
 Paris, though on the verge of ruin, was in a blaze of illumination and in a 
 roar of triumph. The Austrian armies were now within fifteen days' march 
 of Paris, and there was no organized force which could effectually arrest 
 their progress. But the fear of the old Bourbon despotism rallied the 
 masses to maintain, in preference, even the horrors of Jacobin ferocity. 
 The aristocrats crushed the people; the Jacobins crushed the aristocrats. 
 The populace naturally preferred the latter rule. 
 
 * Proces de Charlotte Corday (Hist. Pari., vol. xxviii., p. 311, 338).
 
 340 
 
 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 
 
 [Chap. XXXII. 
 
 And now France rose, as a nation never rose before. At tlie motion of 
 Danton it was decreed on the 23rd of August, 
 
 " From this moment until when the enemy shall be driven from the ter- 
 ritory of the French Eepublic, all the French shall be in permanent requisi- 
 tion 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 places, to excite the courage of the warriors, to 
 preach hatred of kings and love of the Republic." 
 
 lUSOB OF TOLITNTSKSa.
 
 1793.] 
 
 THE REIGN OF TERROR. 
 
 341 
 
 All unmarried men or widowers without children, between the ages of 
 eighteen and twenty -five, were to assemble at appointed rendezvous and 
 march immediately. This act raised an army of one million two hundred 
 thousand men. The men between twenty-five and thirty were to hold them- 
 selves in readiness to follow. And those between thirty and sixty were to 
 be prepared to obey orders whenever they should be summoned to the 
 field. There is sublimity, at least, in such energy. 
 
 All France was instantly converted into a camp, resounding with prepa- 
 rations for war. In La Vendee the friends of the Bourbons had rallied. 
 The Convention decreed its utter destruction, the death of every man, con- 
 flagration of the dwellings, destruction of the crops, and the removal of the 
 women and children to some other province, where they should be support- 
 ed at the expense of the government. It was sternly resolved that no mercy 
 whatever should be shown to Frenchmen who were co-operating with for- 
 eigners to rivet anew upon France the chains of Bourbon despotism. These 
 decrees were executed with merciless fidelity. The illustrious Carnot, who, 
 to use his own words, " had the ambition of the three hundred Spartans, 
 going to defend Thermopyla3," organized and disciplined fourteen armies, 
 and selected for them able leaders. 
 
 
 m ^fliks^-V / t-'f1:V^4i^ ,11' 
 
 i <\: -^-^ 
 
 KXEOUnON IN LA VE>T)£k. 
 
 While matters were in this condition, the inhabitants of Marseilles, Lyons, 
 and Toulon rose, overpowered the Jacobins, and, raising the banner of the 
 Bourbons, invited the approach of the Allies. Toulon was the naval arsenal 
 of France, a large French fleet crowded its port, and its warehouses were 
 filled with naval stores. Lord Hood, with an English squadron, was cruis- 
 ing off the coast. The Royalists, Admiral Troyoff at their head, gave the 
 signal to the English, and basely surrendered to them the forts, shipping, 
 and stores. It was a fearful loss to the Revolutionists. Lord Hood, the 
 British admiral, immediately entered with his fleet took possession, and 
 issued a proclamation in which he said, 
 
 " Considering that the sections of Toulon have, bj^ the commissioners
 
 342 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. ^ [ChAP. XXXIl. 
 
 whom they have sent to me, made a solemn declaration in favor of Louis 
 XVII. and a monarchical government, 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 defanct sovereign 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-estab- 
 lished in France."* 
 
 An army of sixty thousand men was sent against rebellious Lyons. The 
 city, after a prolonged siege and the endurance of innumerable woes, was 
 captured. The Convention decreed that it should be utterly destroyed, 
 and that over its ruins should be reared a monument with the inscription, 
 " Lyons made ivar upon Liberty: Lyons is no moreP' The cruelties inflicted 
 upon the Koyalists of this unhappy city are too painful to contemplate. 
 The imagination can hardly exaggerate them. Fouche and Collot d'Her- 
 bois, the prominent agents in this bloody vengeance, were atheists. In 
 contempt of Christianity, they ordered the Bible and the Cross to be borne 
 through the streets on an ass ; the ass was compelled to drink of the conse- 
 crated wine from the communion-cup. Six thousand of the citizens of 
 Lyons perished in these sanguinary persecutions, and twelve thousand were 
 driven into exile. The Revolutionary Tribunal was active night and day 
 coiidemning to death. One morning a young girl rushed into the hall, ex- 
 claiming, 
 
 " There remain to me, of all our family, only my brothers. Mother, fath- 
 er, sisters, uncles — you have butchered all. And now you are going to con- 
 demn my brothers. In mercy ordain that I may ascend the scaffold with 
 them." 
 
 Her prayer of anguish was refused, and the poor child threw herself into 
 the Ehone. 
 
 The Eoyalist insurrection in La Vendee, after a long and terrible conflict, 
 was crushed out. No language can describe the horrors of vengeance which 
 ensued. The tale of brutality is too awful to be told. Demons could not 
 have been more infernal in mercilessness. 
 
 " Death by fire and the sword," writes Lamartine, " made a noise, scat- 
 tered blood, and left bodies to be buried and be counted. The silent waters 
 of the Loire were dumb and would render no account. The bottom of the 
 sea alone would know the number of the victims. Carrier caused mariners 
 to be brought as pitiless as himself He ordered them, without much mys- 
 tery, to pierce plug-holes in a certain number of decked vessels, so as to 
 sink them with their living cargoes in parts of the river. 
 
 " These orders were first executed secretly and under the color of acci- 
 dents of navigation. But soon these naval executions, of which the waves 
 of the Loire bore witness even to its mouth, became a spectacle for Carrier 
 and for his courtiers. He furnished a galley of pleasure, of which he made 
 a present to his accomplice Lambertye, under pretext of watching the banks 
 of the river. This vessel, adorned with all the delicacies of furniture, pro- 
 vided with all the wines and all the necessaries of feasting, became the most 
 
 * After the death of Louis XVI. the Royalists considered the young Dauphin, then imprisoned 
 in the tower, as the legitimate king, with the title of Louis XVII.
 
 1793.] 
 
 THE REIGN OF TERROR. 
 
 343 
 
 A68AORE8 IN LYONS. 
 
 aeneral theatre of these exeeutions. Carrier embarked berem sometimes 
 h m^Sf "is executioners and his courtesans to make tnps upon the 
 wate While he yielded himself up to the joys of love and wme on deek 
 rvietil ineloseJ in the hold ^ -a ^^^^^^^ZZ:^ 
 t r; tllt .Ss^o-?^": Sl^Utbld^ tbel last u^nder their feet. 
 Thev continued their orgies upon this floating sepulchre. 
 
 "Some mis Carrier, Lambertye, and their accomplices rejoiced in the 
 CTueKnrof this spectacle of agony. They caused victims of either sex 
 r^uplTto mount upon the deek. Stripped of their garments, they bound
 
 344 
 
 THE FKENCH REVOLUTION. 
 
 [Chap. XXXII. 
 
 them face to face, one to the other — a priest with a nun, a young man with 
 a young girl. They suspended them, thus naked and interlaced, by a cord 
 passed under the shoulders through a block of the vessel. They sported 
 with horrible sarcasms on this parody of marriage in death, and then flung 
 the victims into the river. This cannibal sport was termed ' Eepubhcan 
 Marriages.' " 
 
 DEOWTSING VICTIMS IN TUB LOIEE. 
 
 Eobespierre, informed of these demoniac deeds, recalled Carrier, but he 
 did not dare to bring an act of accusation against the wretch, lest he should 
 peril his own head by being charged with sympathy with the Eoyalists. It 
 is grateful to record that Carrier himself was eventually conducted, amid 
 the execrations of the community, to the scaffold.* 
 
 Q The prisons of Paris were now filled with victims. Municipal instruc- 
 tions, issued by Chaumette, catalogued as follows those who should be ar- 
 rested as suspected persons : 1. Those who, by crafty addresses, check the 
 energy of the people. 2. Those who mysteriously deplore the lot of the 
 people, and propagate bad news with affected grief. 3. Those who, silent 
 respecting the faults of the Eoyalists, declaim against the faults of the Patri- 
 ots. 4. Those who pity those against whom the law is obliged to take 
 measures. 5. Those who associate with aristocrats, priests, and moderates, 
 
 * Carrier was heard to say one clay, while hrcakfastiriR in a restaurant, that France was too 
 densely populated for a republic, and that it was necessary to kill off at least one third of the in- 
 habitants before they could have a good government. It is estimated that fifteen thousand were 
 massacred in La Vcude'c at his command.
 
 1793.] EXECUTION OF MARIE ANTOINETTE AND MADAME ELIZABETH. 345 
 
 and take an interest in their fate. 6. Those who have not taken an active 
 part in the Revolution. 7. Those who have received the Constitution with 
 indifference and have expressed fears njspecting its duration. 8. Those 
 who, though they have done nothing aganist liberty, have done nothing for 
 it. 9. Those who do not attend the sections. 10. Those who speak con- 
 temptuously of the constituted authorities. 11. Those who have signed 
 counter-revolutionary petitions. 12. The partisans of La Fayette, and those 
 who marched to the charge in the Champ de Mars. 
 
 There were but few persons in Paris who were not liable to be arrested, 
 by the machinations of any enem}'', upon some one of these charges. Many 
 thousands were soon incarcerated. The prisons of the Maire, La Force, the 
 Conciergerie, the Abba3^e, St. Pelagie, and the Madelonettes were crowded 
 to their utmost capacity. Then large private mansions, the College of Du- 
 plessis, and finally the spacious Palace of the Luxembourg were converted 
 into prisons, and were filled to suffocation with the suspected. In these 
 abodes, surrendered to filth and misery, with nothing but straw to lie upon, 
 the most brilliant men and women of Paris were huddled together with the 
 vilest outcasts. After a time, however, those who had property were per- 
 mitted to surround themselves with such comforts as their means would 
 command. From these various prisons those who were to be tried before 
 the Revolutionary Tribunal were taken to the Conciergerie, which adjoined 
 the Palace of Justice, where the tribunal held its session. A trial was al- 
 most certain condemnation, and the guillotine knew no rest. Miserable 
 France was now surrendered to the Reign of Terror, The mob had become 
 the sovereign. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIIL 
 
 EXECUTION OF MARIE ANTOINETTE AND MADAME ELIZABETH. 
 
 Marie Antoinette in the Temple. — Conspiracies for the Rescue of the Royal Family. — The young 
 Dauphin torn from his Mother. — Phrensy of the Queen. — She is removed to the Conciergerie. 
 — Indignities and Woes. — The Queen led to Trial. — Letter to her Sister. — The Execution of 
 the Queen. — Madame Elizabeth led to Trial and E.xecution. — Fate of the Princess and the 
 Dauphin. 
 
 The populace now demanded the head of Marie Antoinette, whom they 
 had long been taught implacably to hate.* "We left her on tlie 21st of 
 
 * Thomas Jefferson, during his residence in Paris, formed a very unfavorable opinion of Marie 
 Antoinette. Speaking of the good intentions of Louis XVI., he says, "But lie had a queen of 
 absolute sway over his weak mind and timid virtue, and of a character the reverse of his in ail 
 jioints. This angel, as gaudily ]iainted in the rliajisodies of Burke with some smartness of fancy 
 but no sound sense, was ])roud, disdainful of restraint, indignant at all obstacles to her will, eager, 
 in ])ursuit of pleasure, and firm enough to hold to her desires or perish in their wreck. Her inor- 
 dinate gamblings and dissipations, with those of the Count d'Artois and others of her clique, had 
 been a sensible item in the exhaustion of the treasuiy, which called into action the reforming 
 hand of the nation ; and her opposition to it, her inflexible perverseness and dauntless spirit led 
 herself to the guillotine, drew the king on with her, and ])Iunged the world into crimes and ca- 
 lamities which will for ever stain the pages of modern history. I have ever believed that had 
 there been no queen there would have been no revolution. The king woidd have gone hand in 
 hand with the wisdom of bis sounder counselors, who, guided by the increased lights of the age, 
 Vol. II.— E
 
 346 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. [CHAr. XXXIII. 
 
 Janaary in the Temple, overwlielmed with agony. Swoon succeeded swoon 
 as she listened to the clamor in the streets which accompanied her husband 
 to the guillotine. The rumbling of the cannon, on their return, and the 
 shouts of Vive la Repuhlique beneath her windows announced that the trag- 
 edy was terminated. The Commune cruelly refused to allow her any details 
 of the last hours of the king, and even Clery, his faithful servant, was im- 
 prisoned, so that he could not even place in her hands the lock of hair and 
 the marriage ring which the king had intrusted to him. 
 
 Many conspiracies were formed for the rescue of the royal family, which 
 led to a constant increase of the rigors of their captivity. The queen refused 
 to resume her walks in the garden as she could not endure to pass the door 
 of the king's apartment. But, after long seclusion, for the sake of the health 
 of her children she consented to walk with them each day, for a few mo- 
 ments, on the platform of the tower. The Commune immediately ordered 
 the platform to be surrounded with high boards, so that the captives might 
 not receive any tokens of recognition from their friends. 
 
 For four months Marie Antoinette, Madame Elizabeth, and the children 
 had the consolation of condoling with each other in their misery. But on 
 the night of the 4th of July the clatter of an armed band was heard ascend- 
 ing the tower, and some commissioners tumultuously entered her chamber. 
 They read to her a decree announcing that her son, the dauphin, was to be 
 taken from her and imprisoned by himself. The poor child, as he listened 
 to the reading of this cruel edict, was frantic with terror. He threw himself 
 into his mother's arms and shrieked out, 
 
 " Oh ! mother, mother, do not abandon me to those men. They will kill 
 me as they did papa." 
 
 The queen, in a delirium of agony, grasped her child and placing him 
 upon the bed behind her, with ej^es glaring like a tigress, bade defiance to 
 the officers, declaring that they should tear her in pieces before they should 
 take her boy. Even the officers were overcome by her heart-rending grief, 
 and for two hours refrained from taking the child by violence. The ex- 
 hausted mother at length fell in a swoon, and the child was taken, shrieking 
 with terror, from the room. She never saw her son again. 
 
 A few weeks of woe passed slowly away, when, early in August, she was 
 awakened from her sleep just after midnight by a band of armed men who 
 came to convey her to the prison of the Conciergerie, where she was to await 
 her trial. The queen had already drained the cup of misery to the dregs, 
 and nothing could add to her woe. She rose, in the stupor of despair, and 
 began to dress herself in the presence of the officers. Her daughter and 
 Madame Elizabeth threw themselves at the feet of the men, and implored 
 
 wished only, with the same pace, to advance the jirincijilos of thoir social Constitution. The deed 
 which closed the mortal course of these sovereijins I shall neither aj)prove nor condemn." — Life 
 of Jefferson, by Randall, vol i., j). 533. 
 
 As Jefferson was intimate with La Fayette and other jirominent jrapular leaders, it is evident 
 that these views were those which were generally entertained of the queen at that time. It is 
 deeply to be regretted that no subsequent develofjuients can lead one to doubt that they were es- 
 sentially correct. Wliile we weep over the woes of the queen we must not forpet that she was 
 endeavoring with all her energy to rivet the chains of unlimited despotism upon twenty-five mil- 
 lions of people.
 
 1793.] EXECUTION OF MARIE ANTOINETTE AND MADAME ELIZABETH. 347 
 
 them not to take the queen from them. They might as well have plead 
 with the granite blocks of their prison. 
 
 Pressing Ikt daughter for a moment convulsively to her heart, she cov- 
 ered her with kisses, spoke a few words of impassioned tenderness to her 
 sister, and then, as if fearing to cast a last look upon these objects of her af- 
 fection, hurried from the room. In leaving she struck her forehead against 
 the beam of the low door. 
 
 "Did you hurt yourself?" inquired one of the men. 
 
 " Oh no !" was her reply, " nothing now can farther harm me." 
 
 A carriage was waiting I'or her at the door. Escorted by fjcns cVarmes she 
 was conducted, through the gloom of midnight, to the dungeon where she 
 she was to await her condemnation. 
 
 The world-renowned prison of the Conciergerie consists of a series of sub- 
 terranean dungeons beneath the floor of the Palais de Justice. More gloomy 
 tombs the imagination can hardly conceive. Down the dripping and slimy 
 steps the queen was led, by the light of a tallow candle, until, through a 
 labyrinth of corridors, she approached the iron door of her dungeon. The 
 rusty hinges grated ;is \\\o. (looi- wiis opened, and she was thrust in. Two 
 
 ^^ \^^ ■ "II n|,IIW« MlUlllflll) ,|y. 
 
 MABIE ANTOINETTE IN THE OONOIEBOERIE, 
 
 soldiers accompanied her, with drawn swoids, and who were commanded, in 
 defiance of all the instincts of delicacy, not to allow her to be one moment 
 absent from their sight. The one candle gave just light enough to reveal 
 the horrors of her cell. The floor was covered with mud, and streams of 
 water trickled down the stone walls. A miserable pallet, with a dirty cov-
 
 348 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. [ChaP. XXXIII. 
 
 ering of coarse and tattered cloth, a small pine table, and a chair constituted 
 the only furniture. So deep was the fall from the saloons of Versailles, 
 
 Here the queen remained for two months, her misery being slightly alle- 
 viated by the kind-heartedness of Madame Eichard, the wife of the jailer, 
 who did every thing the rigorous rules would admit to mitigate her woes. 
 "With her own hand she prepared food for the queen, obtained for her a few 
 articles of furniture, and communicated to her daily such intelligence as she 
 could obtain of her sister and her children. The friends of the queen were 
 untiring in their endeavors, by some conspiracy, to effect her release. A 
 gentleman obtained admittance to the queen's cell, and presented her with a 
 rose, containing a note hidden among its petals. One of the ge7is cfarmes de- 
 tected the attempt; and the jailer and his wife, for their suspected conniv- 
 ance, were both arrested and thrown into the dungeons. 
 
 Other jailers were provided for the prison, M, and Madame Bault; but 
 they also had humane hearts, and wept over the woes of Marie Antoinette. 
 The queen's wardrobe consisted only of two robes, one white, one black, and 
 three chemises. From the humidity of her cell these rapidly decayed, with 
 her shoes and stockings, and fell into tatters. Madame Bault was permitted 
 to assist the queen in mending these, but was not allowed to furnish any 
 new apparel. Books and writing materials were also prohibited. With the 
 point of her needle she kept a brief memorandum of events on the stucco 
 of her walls, and also inscribed brief lines of poetry and sentences from 
 Scripture. 
 
 On the 14th of October the queen was conducted from her dungeon to the 
 halls above for trial. Surrounded by a strong escort, she was led to the 
 bench of the accused. Her accusation was that she abhorred the Eevolution 
 which had beheaded her husband and plunged her whole family into unut- 
 terable woe. 
 
 The queen was dressed in the garb of extreme poverty. Grief had whit- 
 ened her hair, and it was fast falling from her head. Her eyes were sunken, 
 and her features wan and wasted with woe. 
 
 " What is your name?" inquired one of the judges. 
 
 " I am called Marie Antoinette of Lorraine, in Austria," answered the 
 queen, 
 
 " What is your condition ?" was the next question. 
 
 "I am widow of Louis, formerly King of the French," was the reply. 
 
 " What is your age ?" 
 
 " Thirty-seven." 
 
 The long act of accusation was then read. Among other charges was the 
 atrocious one of attempting, by depravity and debauchery, to corrupt her 
 own son, "with the intention of enervating the soul and body of that child, 
 and of reigning, in his name, over the ruin of his understanding." 
 
 The queen recoiled from this charge with a gesture of horror, and, when 
 asked why she did not reply to the accusation, she said, 
 
 "I have not answered it because there are accusations to which nature re- 
 fuses to reply, I appeal to all mothers if such a crime be possible." 
 
 The trial continued for two days. When all the accusations had been 
 heard, the queen was asked if she had any thing to say. She replied.
 
 1793.] EXECUTION OF MARIE ANTOINETTE AND MADAME ELIZABETH. 349 
 
 » I was a queen, and you took away my crown; a wife, and you killed 
 my husband ; a mother, and you deprived me of my chddren. My blood 
 alone remains. Take it ; but do not make me suffer long. 
 
 TBIAL OF MAEIB ANTOtNETTE. 
 
 At four o'clock on the morning of tte 16th she listened to her sentence 
 condemning her to die. In the dignity of silence and without the tremor 
 of a Zcle she accepted her doom. As she was led from the court-room to 
 her cUnweon, to prepare for her execution, the brutal populace, with stamp- 
 ings and clampings, applauded the sentence. Being indulged with pen and 
 paper in these last hours, she wrote as follows to her sister: 
 
 "October 16th, half past four in the morning. 
 
 " I write you, my sister, for the last time. I have been condemned, not 
 ,0 an ignomhiio'us death-that only awaits eriminals-but to g" and rqoia 
 vour brother. Innocent as he, I hope to show the same Annness as he chd 
 in these last moments. I grieve bitterly at leaving my PO"-, •^'^''d, ^" • JJ 
 know that I existed but for them and you-you who have, by your friend- 
 ship, sacrificed all to be with us. In what a position do I leave you. I 
 have learned, by the pleadings on my trial, that my daughter was separated 
 fromvou. Alas! my poor child. I dare not wnte to her. She could not
 
 350 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. [ChAP. XXXIII. 
 
 receive my letter. I know not even if this may reacli you. Receive my 
 blessing for both. 
 
 " I hope one day, when they are older, they may rejoin you and rejoice in 
 liberty at your tender care. May their friendship and mutual confidence 
 form their happiness. May my daughter feel that, at her age, she ought al- 
 ways to aid her brother with that advice with which the greater experience 
 she possesses and her friendship should inspire her. May my son, on his 
 part, render to his sister every care and service which affection can dictate. 
 Let my son never forget the last words of his father. I repeat them to him 
 expressly. Let hirtx never attempt to avenge our deaths 
 
 Having finished the letter, which was long, she folded it and kissed it re- 
 peatedly, "as if she could thus transmit the warmth of her lips and the 
 moisture of her tears to her children." She then threw herself upon the 
 pallet and slept quietly for two or three hours. A few rays of morning 
 light were now struggling in through the grated bars of the window. The 
 daughter of Madame Bault came in to dress her for the guillotine. She put 
 on her white robe. A white handkerchief covered her shoulders, and a 
 white cap, bound around her temples by a black ribbon, covered her hair. 
 
 It was a cold autumnal morning, and a chill fog filled the streets of Paris. 
 At eleven o'clock the executioners led her from her cell. She cordially 
 embraced the kind-hearted daughter of the concierge, and, having with her 
 own hands cut off her hair, allowed herself to be bound, without a murmur, 
 and issued from the steps of the Conciergerie. Instead of a carriage, the 
 coarse car of the condemned awaited her at the gateway of the prison. For 
 a moment she recoiled from this unanticipated humiliation, but immediately 
 recoverinsf herself she ascended the cart. There was no seat in the car, 
 and, as her hands were bound behind her, she was unable to support her- 
 self from the jolting over the pavement. As she was jostled rudely to and 
 fro, in the vain attempt to preserve her equilibrium, the multitudes throng- 
 ing the streets shouted in derision. They had been taught to hate her, to 
 regard her not only as the implacable foe of popular liberty, which she was, 
 but as the most infamous of women, which she was not. " These," they 
 cried, "are not your cushions of Trianon." ' 
 
 It was a long ride to the scaffold, during which the queen suffered all 
 that insult, derision, and contumely can inflict. The procession crossed the 
 Seine by the Pont au Change^ and traversed the Rva St. Honore. Upon 
 reaching the Place of the Revolution the cart stopped for a moment near 
 the entrance of the garden of the Tuileries. Marie Antoinette for a few 
 moments contemplated in silence those scenes of former happiness and 
 grandeur. A few more revolutions of the wheels placed her at the foot 
 of the guillotine. She mounted to the scaffold, and inadvertently trod upon 
 the foot of the executioner. 
 
 •'Pardon me," said the queen, with as much courtesy as if she had been 
 in one of the saloons of Versailles. Kneeling, she uttered a brief prayer, 
 and then, turning her eyes to the distant towers of the Temple, she said, 
 
 " Adieu, once again, my children ; I go to rejoin your father." 
 
 She was bound to the plank, and as it sank to its place the gleaming axe
 
 1793.] EXECUTION OF MARIE ANTOINETTE AND MADAME ELIZABETH. 351 
 
 slid through the groove, and the head of the queen fell into the basket. The 
 executioner seized the gory trophy by the hair, and, walking around the 
 scaftbld, exhibited it to the crowd. One long cry of Vive la Repuhlique! 
 arose, and the crowd dispersed. 
 
 While these fearful scenes were passing, Madame Elizabeth and the 
 princess remained in the tower of the Temple. Their jailers were com- 
 manded to give them no information whatever. The young dauphin was 
 imprisoned by himself. 
 
 Six months of gloom and anguish which no pen can describe passed away, 
 when, on the night of the 9th of May, 1794, as Madame Elizabeth and the 
 young princess, Maria Theresa, were retiring to bed, a band of armed men, 
 with lanterns, broke into their room, and said to Madame Elizabeth, 
 
 " You must immediately go with us." 
 
 "And my niece?" anxiously inquired the meek and pious aunt, ever for- 
 getful of self in her solicitude for others, " Can she go too ?" 
 
 " We want you only now. We will take care of her by-and-by," was the 
 unfeeling answer. 
 
 The saint-like Madame Elizabeth saw that the long-dreaded hour of sep- 
 aration had come, and that her tender niece was to be left, unprotected and 
 alone, exposed to the brutality of her jailers. She pressed Maria Theresa 
 to her bosom, and wept in uncontrollable grief. But still, endeavoring to 
 comfort the heart-stricken child, she said, 
 
 " I shall probably soon return again, my dear Maria." 
 
 " No, you won't, citoyenne," rudely interrupted one of the officers. " You 
 will never ascend these stairs again. So take your bonnet, and come down." 
 
 The soldiers seized her, led her down the stairs, and thrust her into a 
 carriage. It was midnight. Driving violently through the streets, they 
 soon reached the gateway of the Conciergerie. The Revolutionary Tribu- 
 nal was, even at that hour, in session. The princess was dragged immedi- 
 ately to their bar. With twenty -four others of all ages and both sexes, she 
 was condemned to die. Her crime was that she was sister of the king, and 
 in heart hostile to the Revolution. She was led to one of the dungeons to 
 be dressed for the scaffold. In this hour Christian faith was triumphant. 
 Trusting in God, all her sorrows vanished, and her soul was in perfect 
 peace. 
 
 With her twenty-two companions, all of noble birth, she was placed in 
 the cart of the condemned, her hands bound behind her, and conducted to 
 the guillotine. Madame Elizabeth was reserved to the last. One by one 
 her companions were led up the scaffold before her, and she saw their heads 
 drop into the basket. She then peacefully placed her head upon the pillow 
 of death, and passed away, one of the purest and yet most suffering of 
 earthly spirits, to the bosom of her God. 
 
 The 3'oung dauphin lingered for eighteen months in his cell, suffering in- 
 conceivable cruelties from his jailer, a wretch by the name of Simon, until 
 he died on the 9th of June, 1795, in the tenth year of his age. Maria The- 
 resa now alone remained of the family of Louis XVI. She had now been 
 in prison more than two years. At length, so much sympathy was excited 
 in behalf of this suffering child, that the Assembly consented to exchange 
 her with the Austrian government for four French officers.
 
 362 
 
 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 
 
 [Chap. XXXllL 
 
 LOinS XVII. IN PRISON. 
 
 On the 19th of December, 1795, she was led from the Temple, and, ample 
 arrangements having been made for her journey, she was conducted, with 
 every mark of respect and sympatli}'', to the frontiers. In the Austrian 
 court, love and admiration encircled her. But this stricken child of grief 
 had received wounds which time could never entirely heal. A full year 
 passed before a smile could ever be won to visit her cheek. She subse- 
 quently married her cousin, the Duke of Angouleme, son of Charles X. 
 With the return of the Bourbons she returned to her ancestral halls of the 
 Tuileries and Versailles. But upon the second expulsion of the Bourbons 
 she fled with them, and died, a few years ago, at an advanced age, univer 
 sally respected. Such was the wreck of the royal family of France by the 
 storm of revolution.
 
 1793.] THE JACOBINS TRIUMPHANT. 353 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIY. 
 
 THE JACOBINS TRIUMPHANT. 
 
 Views of the Girondists. — Anecdote of Verpniaud. — Tlie Girondists brought to Trial. — Suicide 
 of Vahize'. — Anguisii of Dcsnioulins. — Fonfrcde and Ducos. — Last Sii])))er of the Girondists. — 
 Their Execution. — Tlie Duke of Oilcans; liis Execution. — Activity <.f the Guillotine. — Hu- 
 mane Legislation. — Testimony of Dcsodoards. — Ainicharsis Cloots. — The New Era. 
 
 The Jacobins now resolved to free themselves fiom all internal foes, that 
 they might more vigorously cope with all Euro})e in arms against them. 
 Marie Antoinette was executed the IGtli of October. On the 22d, the Gi- 
 rondists, twenty-two in number, were brought before the Revolutionary Tri- 
 bunal. They were the most illustrious men of the most noble party to which 
 the Revolution had given birth. I'hc}^ had demolished a despotic throne 
 that they might establish a constitutional monarchy upon the model of that 
 of England.* With great genei'osity thoy had placed Louis XVI. on that 
 throne, and he had feigned to acce})t the Constitution. But with hypocrisy 
 which even his subsequent woes can not obliterate, he secretly rallied his 
 nobles around him, or rather allowed them to use him as their leader, and 
 appealed to the armies of foreign despotisms to overthrow the free Consti- 
 tution and re-establish the old feudal tyranny. 
 
 "The question thenceforth wa.s, whether their sons should, as in times 
 past (as in Mr. Burke's splendid Age of Chivalry), be sent to manure Eu^ 
 rope with their bodies, in wars undertaken at the nod of a courtesan — ^\ 
 whether their wives and daughters, cursed with beauty enough to excite a 
 transient emotion of sensuality, should be lured and torn from them and de-, 
 bauched — whether every man who dared to utter a manly political thoughtN 
 or to assert his rights against rank should be imprisoned at pleasure without 
 a hearing — whether the toiling masses, for the purpose of supporting lasciv- 
 ious splendor, of building Pares avx Cerfs, of pt'usioning discarded mistresses,! 
 of swiftly enriching corrupt favorites and minions of every stamp, should be 
 so taxed that the light and air of heaven hardly came to them untaxed, and 
 that they should be so sunk by exactions of every kind in the dregs of indi- 
 gence that a short crop compelled them to live on food that the hounds, if 
 not the swine, of their task-masters would reject; and, finally, whether, when, 
 in the bloody sweat of their agony, they asked some mitigation of their hard 
 fate, they .should be answered by the bayonets of foreign mercenaries ; and a 
 people — stout manhood, gentle womanhood, gray-haired age, and tender in- 
 
 * La Fayette was an illustrious member of this party. Even Jefferson advised to make the 
 English Constitution the model for France. He was present at the opening of the Assembly of 
 Notables, and soon after wrote to La Fayette, "Keeping the good model of your neighboring 
 country before your eyes, yon may get on step by step toward a good Constitution. Though that 
 model is not perfect, yet, as it would unite more suffrages than any new one which could be pro- 
 posed, it is better to make that the object." — Life of Thomas Jefferson, by Henry S. Randall, 
 Tol. i., p. 406. 
 
 z
 
 354 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. [ChAP. XXXIV. 
 
 fancy, turned their pale faces upward and shrieked for food, fierce, licentious 
 nobles should scornfully bid them eat grass."* 
 
 In this terrible dilemma, the Girondists felt compelled to abandon the 
 newly-established Constitutional monarchy, which had proved treacherous 
 to its trust, and to fall back upon a republic, as their only asylum from de- 
 struction, and as the only possible refuge for French liberty. But the popu. 
 lace of France, ignorant and irreligious, were unfitted for a republic. Uni- 
 versal suffrage threw the power into the hands of millions of newly-emanci- 
 pated slaves. Violence and blood commenced their reign. The Girondists 
 in vain endeavored to stem the flood. They were overwhelmed. Such is 
 their brief history. 
 
 The Girondists had been for some time confined in the dungeons of the 
 Conciergerie. They were in a state of extreme misery. Vergniaud, one of 
 the most noble and eloquent of men, was their recognized leader. His 
 brother-in-law, M. Alluaud, came to the prison to bring him some money. 
 A child of M. Alluaud, ten years of age, accompanied his father. Seeing 
 his uncle with sunken eyes and haggard cheeks and disordered hair, and 
 with his garments falling in tatters around him, the child was terrified, and, 
 bursting into tears, clung to his father's knees. 
 
 "My child," said Vergniaud, taking him in his lap, "look well at me. 
 When 3'ou are a man you can say that you saw Vergniaud, the founder of 
 the Eepublic, at the most glorious period, and in the most splendid costume 
 he ever wore — that in which he suffered the persecution of wretches, and in 
 which he prepared to die for liberty." 
 
 The child remembered these words, and repeated them fifty years after to 
 Lamartine. At ten o'clock in the morning of the 26th of October the ac- 
 cused were brought before the Revolutionary Tribunal. Two files of gens 
 (Tarmes conducted them into the hall of audience and placed them on the 
 prisoners' bench. f The act of accusation^ drawn up by Eobespierre and St. 
 Just,:}: from an exceedingly envenomed pamphlet written by Camille Desmou- 
 lins, entitled History of the Faction of the Gironde, was long and bitter. The 
 trial lasted several days. 
 
 On the 30th of October, at eight o'clock in the evening, the debate was 
 closed. At midnight they were summoned to the bar to hear the verdict of 
 the jury. It declared them all guilty of treason, and condemned them to 
 die in the morning. One of the condemned, Valaze, immediately plunged a 
 concealed poniard into his heart, and fell dead upon the floor. Camille 
 Desmoulins, on hearing the verdict, was overwhelmed with remorse, and 
 cried out, 
 
 " It is my pamphlet which has killed them. "Wretch that I am, I can not 
 
 * Henry S. Randall, Life of Jefferson, vol. i., p. 529. 
 
 t " Never since the Knights Templar had a party appeared more numerous, more illustrious, 
 or more eloquent. The renown of tlic accused, their long possession of power, their present dan- 
 ger, and that love of vengeance which arises in men's hearts at the spectacle of mighty reverses 
 of fortune, had collected a crowd in the precincts of the Revolutionary Tribunal. A strong armed 
 force surrounded the gates of the Conciergerie and the Palais de Justice. The cannon, the uni- 
 forms, the sentinels, the gens darmes, the naked sabres, all announced one of those political crises 
 in which a trial is a battle and justice an execution." — Hist. Gir., Lamartine, vol. ii., p. 169. 
 
 X Such is the statement of Lamartine. Thiers, however, says that the act was drawn up by 
 Amar, a barrister of Grenoble.
 
 1793.] THE JACOBINS TRIUAIPHANT. 355 
 
 bear the sight of my work. I feel their blood fall on the hand that has de- 
 nounced them." 
 
 There were two brothers, Fonfrede and Ducos, among the condemned, sit- 
 ting side by side, both under twenty-eight years of age. Fonfrede threw his 
 afms around the neck of Ducos, and bursting into tears said, 
 
 " My dear brother,! cause your death ; but we shall die together." 
 Vergniaud sat in silence, with an expression of proud defiance and con- 
 tempt. Lasource repeated the sententious saying of one of the ancients, " I 
 die on the day when the people have lost their reason. You will die when 
 they have recovered it." As they left the court to return to their cells, there 
 to prepare for the guillotine, they spontaneously struck up together the hymn 
 of the Marseillais : 
 
 "Allons, onfans de la patrie, 
 Le jour de gloire est arriv^ ; 
 Centre nous de la tyrannic 
 
 L'etendard sanglant est leve."* 
 
 As they passed along the corridors of the prison, their sublime requiem 
 echoed along the gloomy vaults, and awoke the sleepers in the deepest dun- 
 geons. They were all placed in one large room opening into several cells. 
 The lifeless body of Valaze was deposited in one of the corners ; for, by a 
 decree of the Tribunal, his remains were to be taken in the cart of the con- 
 demned to be beheaded with the rest. A sumptuous banquet was sent in to 
 them by their friends as their last repast. The table was richly spread, dec- 
 orated with flowers, and supplied with all the delicacies which Paris could 
 furnish. A Constitutional priest, the Ahh6 Lambert, a friend of the Girond- 
 ists, had obtained admission to the prison, to administer to them the last sup- 
 ports of religion and to accompany them to the guillotine. To him we are 
 indebted for the record of these last scenes. 
 
 Vergniaud, thirty-five years of age, presided. He had but little to bind 
 him to life, having neither father nor mother, wife nor child. In quietness 
 and with subdued tones they partook of their repast. When the cloth was 
 removed, and the flowers and the wine alone remained, the conversation be- 
 came more animated. The young men attempted with songs and affected 
 gayety to disarm death of its terror ; but Vergniaud, rallying to his aid his 
 marvelous eloquence, endeavored to recall them to more worthy thoughts. 
 
 " My friends," said he, sorrowing more over the misfortunes of the Repub- 
 lic than over his own, " we have killed the tree by pruning it. It was too 
 aged. The soil is too weak to nourish the roots of civic liberty. This peo- 
 ple is too childish to wield its laws without hurting itself. It will return to 
 its kings as babes return to their toys. We were deceived as to the age in 
 which we were born and in which we die for the freedom of the world." 
 
 "What shall we be doing to-morrow at this time?" asked Ducos. Each 
 answered according to Lis skepticism or his faith. Vergniaud again spake. 
 "Never," says the Abbe Lambert, "had his look, his gesture, his language, 
 
 "Come, children of your country, come, 
 The day of plory dawns on high, 
 And tyranny has wide unfurl'd 
 
 Hor blood-stained banner in the sky."
 
 856 
 
 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 
 
 [Chap. XXXIV. 
 
 and his voice more profoundly affected his hearers." His discourse was of 
 the immortality of the soul, to which all listened deeply moved, and many 
 wept. 
 
 A few rays of morning light now began to struggle in at their dungeon 
 windows. The executioners soon entered to cut oft' their hair and robe them 
 for the scaffold. At ten o'clock they were marched in a column to the gate 
 of the prison, where carts, surrounded by an immense crowd, awaited them. 
 As they entered the carts they all commenced singing in chorus the Mar- 
 seilles Hymn, and continued the impassioned strains until they reached the 
 scaffold. One after another they ascended the scaffold. Sillery was the first 
 
 THK OIEONDISTS ON TUEIB WAY TO EXECUTION,
 
 1793.] THE JACOBINS TRIUMPHANT. 357 
 
 who ascended. He was bound to the phmk, but continued in a full, strong 
 voice to join in the song, till the glittering axe glided down the groove and 
 his head dropped into the basket. Each one followed his example. The 
 song grew fainter as head after head fell, till at last one voice only remained. 
 It was that of Vergniaud. As he was bound to the plank he commenced 
 anew the strain, 
 
 " Allons, cnfans do la patrie, 
 Le jour de gloirc est arrive." 
 
 The axe fell, and the lips of Vergniaud were silent in death. In thirty-one 
 minutes the executioner had beheaded them all. Their bodies were thrown 
 into one cart, and were cast into a grave by the side of that of Louis XVL* 
 
 On the 6th of November the Duke of Orleans was taken from prison and 
 led before the Tribunal. As there was no serious charge to be brought 
 against him, he had not apprehended condemnation. But he was promptly 
 doomed to die. As he was conducted back to his cell to prepare for imme- 
 diate death, he exclaimed, in the utmost excitement of indignation, 
 
 " The wretches ! I have given them all — rank, fortune, ambition, honor, 
 the future reputation of my house — and this is the recompense they reserve 
 for me !" 
 
 At three o'clock he was placed in the cart with three other condemned 
 prisoners. The prince was elegantly attired and all eyes were riveted upon 
 him. With an air of indifference he gazed upon the crowd, saying nothing 
 which could reveal the character of his thoughts. On mounting the scaffold 
 the executioner wished to draw off his boots. 
 
 "No, no," said the duke, "j^ou will do it more easily afterward," 
 
 He looked intently for a moment at the keen-edged axe, and, without a 
 word, submitted to his fate. Madame Roland and others of the most illus- 
 trious of the friends of freedom and of France soon followed to the scaffold. 
 And now every day the guillotine was active as the efficient agent of gov- 
 ernment, extinguishing all opposition and silencing every murmur. The 
 prisons were full, new arrests were every day made, and dismay paralyzed 
 all hearts. Four thousand six hundred in the prisons of Paris alone were 
 awaiting that trial which almost surely led to condemnation. 
 
 The Jacobin leaders, trembling before Europe in arms, felt that there was 
 no safety for France but in the annihilation of all internal foes. Danton, 
 Marat, Robespierre, were not men who loved blood and cruelty ; they were 
 resolute fanatics who believed it to be well to cut off the heads of many thou- 
 sand reputed aristocrats, that a nation of thirty millions might enjoy popu- 
 lar liberty. AYhile the Revolutionary Tribunal was thus mercilessly plying 
 the axe of the executioner, the National Convention, where these Jacobins 
 reigned supreme, were enacting many laws which breathed the spirit of lib- 
 
 * Edmund Burke, has most unpardonably calumniated these noble men. Even Prof. Sm'V'th, 
 who espous'.'S his ojiinions, says, "Burke was a man who, from the ardor of his temperament and 
 the vehemence of his eloquence, might be almost said to have ruined every cause and every party 
 that he espoused. No mind, however great, that will not buw to the superiority of his genius ; 
 yet no mind, however inferior, that will not occasionally feel itself entitled to look down upon 
 him, from the total want which he sometimes shows of all calmness and candor, and even, at par- 
 ticular moments, of all reasonableness and propriety of thought." — Lectures on the French Revolu- 
 tion, by Wm. Smyth, vol. iii., p. 4.
 
 358 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. [ChAP. XXXIY. 
 
 erty and humanity. The taxes were equally distributed in proportion to 
 property. Provision was made for the poor and infirm. All orphans were 
 adopted by the Republic. Liberty of conscience was proclaimed. Slavery 
 and the slave-trade were indignantly abolished. Measures were adopted for 
 a general system of popular instruction, and decisive efforts were made to 
 unite the rich and the poor in bonds of sympathy and alliance.* 
 
 We can not give a better account of the state of Paris at this time than in 
 the words of Desodoards, a calm philosophic writer, who had ardently es- 
 poused the cause of the Revolution, and who consequently will not be sus- 
 pected of exaggeration. 
 
 "What then," says he, "was this Revolutionary government? Every 
 right, civil and political, was destroyed. Liberty of the press and of thought 
 was at an end. The whole people were divided into two classes, the privi- 
 leged and the proscribed. Property was wantonly violated, leitres de cachet 
 re-established, the asylum of dwellings exposed to the most tyrannical inqui- 
 sition, and justice stripped of every appearance of humanity and honor. 
 France was covered with prisons ; all the excesses of anarchy and despotism 
 struggling amid a confused multitude of committees ; terror in every heart ; 
 the scaifold devouring a hundred every day, and threatening to devour a 
 still greater number ; in every house melancholy and mourning, and in ev- 
 ery street the silence of the tomb. 
 
 " War was waged against the tenderest emotions of nature. Was a tear 
 shed over the tomb of father, wife, or friend, it was, according to these Jac- 
 obins, a robbery of the Republic. Not to rejoice when the Jacobins rejoiced 
 was treason to freedom. All the mob of low officers of justice, some of 
 whom could scarcely read, sported with the lives of men without the slight- 
 est shame or remorse. Often an act of accusation was served upon one per- 
 son which was intended for another. The officer only changed the name on 
 perceiving his error, and often did not change it. Mistakes of the most in- 
 conceivable nature were made with impunity. The Duchess of Biron was 
 judged by an act drawn up against her agent. A young man of twenty was 
 guillotined for having, as it was alleged, a son bearing arms against France. 
 A lad of sixteen, by the name of Mallet, was arrested under an indictment 
 for a man of forty, named Bellay. 
 
 " ' What is your age T inquired the president, looking at him with some 
 surprise. 
 
 " ' Sixteen,' replied the youth. 
 
 " ' Well, you are quite forty in crime,' said the magistrate ; ' take him to 
 the guillotine.' 
 
 " From every corner of France victims were brought in carts to the Con- 
 ciergerie. This prison was emptied every day by the guillotine, and refilled 
 from other prisons. These removals were made in the dark, lest public 
 sympathy should be excited. Fifty or sixty poor creatures, strait bound, 
 conducted by men of ferocious aspect, a drawn sabre in one hand and a light- 
 ed torch in the other, passed in this manner through the silence of night. 
 The passenger who chanced to meet them had to smother his pity. A sigh 
 would have united him to the funeral train. 
 
 * History of the Girondists, Lamartine, vol. iii., p. 291.
 
 1793.] 
 
 THE JACOBINS TRIUMPHANT 
 
 359 
 
 " The prisons were the abode of every species of suffering. The despair 
 which reigned in these sepulchres was terrific : one finished his existence 
 by poison ; another dispatched hinmself by a nail ; another dasiied his head 
 against the walls of his cell ; some lost their reason. Those who had suffi- 
 cient fortitude waited patiently for the executioner. Every house of arrest 
 was required to furnish a certain number of victims. The turnkeys went 
 
 
 
 
 
 BEADtNO THE U8T OF TIIB TICTIM8 IN THE PEI80NS OF PAB18.
 
 360 ' THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. [ChAP. XXXIV. 
 
 with these mandates of accusation from chamber to chamber in the dead of 
 night. The prisoners, starting from their sleep at the voice of their Cerbe- 
 ruses, supposed their end had arrived. Thus warrants of death for thirty 
 threw hundreds into consternation.* 
 
 " At first the sheriffs ranged fifteen at a time in their carts, then thirty, 
 and about the time of the fall of Kobespierre preparations had been made 
 for the execution of one hundred and fifty at a time. An aqueduct had 
 been contrived to carry off the blood. In these batches, as they were called, 
 were often united people of the most opposite systems and habits. Some- 
 times whole generations were destroyed in a day. Malesherbes, at the age 
 of eighty, perished with his sister, his daughter, his son-in-law, his grand- 
 son, and his granddaughter. Forty young women were brought to the 
 guillotine for having danced at a ball given by the King of Prussia at 
 Verdun. Twenty-two peasant women, whose husbands had been executed 
 in La Vendee, were beheaded." 
 
 Such was the thraldom from which, at last, the empire of Napoleon res- 
 cued France. Nothing less than the strength of his powerful arm could 
 have wrought out the achievement. 
 
 In the midst of such scenes it is not strange that all respect should have 
 been renounced for the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The Jacobins of Paris 
 crowded the Convention, demanding the abjuration of all forms of religion 
 and all modes of worship. They governed the Convention with despotic 
 sway. The Commune of Paris, invested with the local police of the city, 
 passed laws prohibiting the clergy from exercising religious worship outside 
 the churches. None but friends and relatives were to be allowed to follow 
 the remains of the dead to the grave. All religious symbols were ordered 
 to be effaced from the cemeteries, and to be replaced by a statue of Sleep. 
 The following ravings of Anacharsis Cloots, a wealthy Prussian baron, who 
 styled himself the orator of the human race, and who was one of the most 
 conspicuous of the Jacobin agitators, forcibly exhibits the spirit of the times :f 
 
 " Paris, the metropolis of the globe, is the proper post for the orator of 
 the human race. I have not left Paris since 1789. It was then that I re- 
 doubled 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. 
 Nature kneels not before herself Religion is the only obstacle to universal 
 happiness. It is high time to destroy it." 
 
 The popular current in Paris now set very strongly against all religion. 
 Infidel and atheistic principles were loudly proclaimed. The unlettered 
 populace, whose fiith was but superstition, were easily swept along by the 
 current. The Convention made a feeble resistance, but soon yielded to the 
 general impulse. In the different sections of Paris, gatherings of the popu- 
 lace abjured all religion. The fanaticism spread like wild-fire to the distant 
 
 * " There were in the prisons of Paris on the 1st of September, 1793, .")07 ; October 1, 2400; 
 November 1, 3203; December 1, 4130; and in six months after, 11,400." — Hist. Phil, de hRev. 
 de France, par Ant. Fantin Desodoards. 
 
 t Cloots declared himself "the personal enemy of Jesus Christ." France adopted the athe- 
 istic principles of Cloots, and sent him to the guillotine. See article Cloots, Enc. Am.
 
 1793.] FALL OF THE HEBEKTISTS AND OF THE DANTONISTS. 361 
 
 departments. The churches were stripped of their baptismal plate and 
 other treasures, and the plunder was sent to the Convention. Processions 
 paraded the streets, singing, derisively, Hallelujahs, and proiaumg with sacri- 
 legious caricature all the ceremonies of religion. The sacrament of the 
 Lord's Supper was administered to an ass. n . ^i 
 
 The Convention had appointed a committee of twelve men, called the 
 Committee of Public Safety, and invested them with dictatorial power, i he 
 whole revolutionary power was now lodged in their hands. They appoint- 
 ed such sub-committees as they pleased, and governed France with terrific 
 energy The Revolutionary Tribunal was but one of their committees. 
 In all the departments they established their agencies. The Convention 
 itself became powerless before this appalling despotism. This dictatorship 
 was energetically supported by the mob of Paris; and the city government 
 of Paris was composed of the most violent Jacobms, who were m perfect 
 fraternity with the Committee of Public Safety. St. Just, who proposed in 
 the Convention the establishment of this dictatorship, said, 
 
 "You must no longer show any lenity to the enemies of the new order 
 of thino-s. Liberty must triumph at any cost. In the present circumstances 
 of the Republic the Constitution can not be established; it would guarantee 
 impunity to attacks on our liberty, because it would be deficient m the 
 violence necessary to restrain them." 
 
 This Committee, overawing the Convention, constrained the estabhshment 
 of a new era. To obliterate the Sabbath, they divided the year into twelve 
 months of thirty days each, each month to consist of three weeks often 
 days each. The tenth day was devoted to festivals. The five surplus days 
 were placed at the end of the year, and were consecrated to games and re- 
 ioicino- Thus energetically were measures adopted to obliterate entirely 
 all trances of the Sabbath. There were thousands in France who looked 
 upon these measures with unutterable disgust, but they were overwhelmed 
 by the powers of anarchy. Anxiously they waited for a deliverer In 
 Napoleon they found one, who was alike the foe of the despotism of the 
 Bourbons and the despotism of the mob. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXV. 
 
 FALL OF THE HEBERTISTS AND OF THE DANTONISTS. 
 Continued Persecution of the Gironclists.-Kobespiorre oppo^^s the A.heists.-Danton, Souber 
 bielle, and CainiUo Desmoulins.-Tl>e Vien. CordeUer-Th. Hebertists executed.-Danton 
 assailed -Litorview hctwc-en Danton and Kohespi-rre—Danton warned of Ins Peril.-Ca- 
 "me D;snK,«lins and others arrested. -Lucilo, the Wife of Desmoulins.-Letters.-Execut^on 
 of the Dantonists.-Arrest and Execution of Lucile.-Toulon recovered by Bonaparte. 
 
 The leaders of the Girondists were now destroyed, and the remnants of 
 the party were prosecuted with unsparing ferocity. On the 11th of Novem- 
 ber Bailly, the former mayor, the friend of La Fayette, the philanthropist 
 and the scholar, was dragged to the scaffold. The day was cold and rainy 
 His crime was having unfuried the red flag in the Field of Mars, to quell 
 Vol. n.-r^
 
 362 THE FKENCH REVOLUTION. [ChAP. XXXY. 
 
 the riot there, on the 17th of July, 1791. He was condemned to be exe- 
 cuted on the field which was the theatre of his alleged crime. Behind the 
 cart which carried him they affixed the flag which he had spread. A crowd 
 followed, heaping upon him the most cruel imprecations. On reaching the 
 scaffold, some one cried out that the field of the federation ought not to be 
 polluted with his blood. Immediately the mob rushed upon the guillotine, 
 tore it down, and erected it again upon a dunghill on the banks of the 
 Seine. They dragged Bailly from the tumbril, and compelled him to make 
 the tour of the Field of Mars on foot. Bareheaded, with his hands bound 
 behind him, and with no other garment than a shirt, the sleet glued his 
 hair and froze upon his breast. They pelted him with mud, spat in his 
 face, and whipped him with the flag, which they dipped in the gutters. 
 The old man fell exhausted. They lifted him up again, and goaded him 
 on. Blood, mingled with mire, streamed down his face, depriving him of 
 human aspect. Shouts of derision greeted these horrors. The freezing 
 wind and exhaustion caused an involuntary shivering. Some one cried 
 out, "You tremble, Bailly." "Yes, my friend," replied the heroic old man, 
 "but it is with cold."* After five hours of such a martyrdom, the axe re- 
 leased him from his sufferings. 
 
 Pdtion and Buzot wandered many days and nights in the forest. At 
 length their remains were found, half devoured by wolves. Whether they 
 perished of cold and starvation, or sought relief from their misery in volun- 
 tary death, is not known. 
 
 The illustrious Condorcet, alike renowned for his philosophical genius 
 and his eloquent advocacy of popular rights, had been declared an outlaw. 
 For several months he had been concealed in the house of Madame Yerney, 
 a noble woman, who periled her own life that she might save that of her 
 friend. At last Condorcet, learning from the papers that death was de- 
 nounced against all who concealed a proscribed individual, resolved, at 
 every hazard, to leave the roof of his benefactress. For some time he wan- 
 dered through the fields in disguise, until he was arrested and thrown into 
 prison. On the following morning, March 28, 1794, he was found dead on 
 the floor of his room, having swallowed poison, which for some time he 
 carried about with him. 
 
 " It would be difficult in that or any other age to find two men of more 
 active or, indeed, enthusiastic benevolence than Condorcet and La Fayette. 
 Besides this, Condorcet was one of the most profound thinkers of his time, 
 and will be remembered as long as genius is honored among us. La Fay- 
 ette was no doubt inferior to Condorcet in point of ability, but he was the 
 intimate friend of "Washington, on whose conduct he modeled his own, and 
 by whose side he had fought for the liberties of America; his integrity was, 
 and still is, unsullied, and his character had a chivalrous and noble turn 
 which Burke, in his better days, would have been the first to admire. 
 Both, however, were natives of that hated country whose liberties they 
 
 * "Few victims ever met with viler executioners; few executioners with so exalted a victim. 
 Shame at the foot of the scaflFold, glory above, and pity every where. One blushes to be a man 
 in contemplating tliis people. One glories in this title in contemplating Bailly." — Lamartine, 
 Hist. Gir., vol. iii., p. 282.
 
 1793.] FALL OF THE HEBERTISTS AND OF THE DANTONISTS. 363 
 
 DEATH OF CONDOEOET. 
 
 vainly attempted to acldeve. On this account Burke declared Condorcet 
 to be guilty of 'impious sophistry,' to be a 'fanatic atheist and furious dem- 
 ocratic republican,' and to be capable of the ' lowest as well as the highest 
 and most determined villainies.' As to La Fayette, when an attempt was 
 made to mitigate the. cruel treatment he was receiving from the Prussian 
 government, Burke not only opposed the motion made for that purpose in 
 the House of Commons, but took the opportunity of grossly insulting the 
 unfortunate captive, who was then languishing in a dungeon. So dead had 
 he become on this subject, even to the common instincts of our nature, that 
 in his place in parliament he could find no better way of speaking of this 
 injured and high-souled man than by calling him a ruffian. 'I would not,' 
 sa3^s Burke, ' debase"^ my humanity by supporting an application in behalf 
 of so horrid a ruffian.' "f 
 
 Madame Eoland was led to the guillotine, evincing heroism which the 
 world has never seen surpassed. Her husband, in anguish, unable to sur- 
 vive her, and hunted by those thirsting for his blood, anticipated the guillo- 
 tine by plunging a stiletto into his own heart. 
 
 Dan ton and Robespierre were both opposed to such cruel executions, and 
 especially to the establishment in France of that system of atheism which 
 degraded man into merely the reptile of an hour. When Eobespierre was 
 informed of the atrocities which attended the execution of Bailly, in shame 
 
 * In Pari. Hist., "I would not debauch my humanity." 
 
 t History of Civilization in England, by Henry Thomas Buckle, vol. i., p. 338.
 
 36"i THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. [ChAP. XXXV 
 
 and grief he shut himself up in his room, saying, with prophetic foresight, 
 to his host DupLaj, " It is thus that they will martyrize ourselves." 
 
 Hebert* and the atheists were now dominant in the Commune of Paris, 
 and Dan ton and Eobespierre organized a party to crush them, llebei't soon 
 saw indications of this movement, and began to tremble. He complained 
 in the Jacobin Club that Eobespierre and Danton were plotting against him. 
 Robespierre was present on the occasion, and, with his accustomed audacity, 
 immediately ascended the tribune and hurled his anathemas upon the heads 
 of these blood-crimsoned fimatics. 
 
 " There are men," said he, " who, under the pretext of destroying supersti- 
 tion, would fain make a sort of religion of atheism itself. Every man has a 
 right to think as he pleases ; w^hoever would make a crime of this is a mad- 
 man. But the legislator who should adopt the system of atheism would be 
 a hundred times more insane. The National Convention abhors such a 
 system. It is a political bodj-, not a maker of creeds. Atheism is aristocratic. 
 The idea of a great Being who watches over oppressed innocence and who 
 punishes triumphant guilt is quite pcpular. The people, the unfortunate, 
 ap{)laud me. If God did not exist, it ivould behoove man to invent himy 
 
 One of the last evenings in the month of January, Danton, Souberbielle, 
 one of the members of the Revolutionary Tribunal, and Camille Desmoulins 
 came from the Palace of Justice together. It was a cold gloomy winter's 
 night. It had been a day of blood. Fifteen heads had fallen upon the 
 guillotine and twenty-seven were condemned to die on the morrow. These 
 three men were all appalled by the progress of events, and for some time 
 walked along in silence. On reaching Pont Neuf, Danton turned suddenly 
 round to Souberbielle and said, 
 
 *' Do you know that, at the pace we are now going, there will speedily be 
 no safety for any person? The best patriots are confounded with traitors. 
 Generals who have shed their blood foi the Republic perish on the scaffold. 
 I am weary of living. Look there ; the very river seems to flow with 
 blood." 
 
 "True," replied Souberbielle, "the sky is red, and there are many show- 
 ers of blood behind those clouds. Those who were to be judges have be- 
 come but executioners. When I refuse an innocent head to their knife I 
 am accused of sympatliv with traitors. What can I do? I am but an ob- 
 scure patriot. Ah, if I were Danton !" 
 
 " All this," replied Danton, " excites horror in me. But be silent. Dan- 
 ton sleeps ; he will awake at the right moment. I am a man of revolution, 
 but not a man of slaughter. But you," he added, addressing Camille Des- 
 moulins, "why do you keep silence?" 
 
 * Hebert was a low fellow, impudent, ignorant, and corrupt, and connected with one of the 
 theatres in Paris. He was an ardent Jacobin, and established a paper called " Father Du- 
 chesne," which, from its ribaldry, was eagerly sought for by the populace. He was one of the 
 leaders of the prison massacres on the 10th of August. His ])aj)er was the zealous advocate of 
 atheism. He it was who brought the disgusting charge against the queen that she had endeav- 
 ored to pollute her own son, and had committed incest with him, a child of eight years. Robes- 
 pierre even was indignant at the foul accusation, and exclaimed, " Madman ! was it not enough 
 for him to have asserted that she was a Messalina, without also making an Agrippina of her?"— 
 Siographie Modeme.
 
 1794.] lALL OF THE HEBERTISTS AND OF THE DANTONISTS. 365 
 
 " I am weary of silence,." was Desmoulins's reply. " My hand weighs 
 heavily, and I have sometimes the impulse to sharpen my pen into a dagger 
 and stab these scoundrels. Let them beware. My ink is more indelible 
 than their blood. It stains for immortality." 
 
 " Bravo !" cried Danton. " Begin to-morrow. You began the Eevolution ; 
 be it you who shall now most thoroughly urge it. Be assured this hand 
 shall aid you. You know whether or not it be strong." 
 
 The three friends separated at Danton's door. The doom of the misera- 
 ble Hebert and his party was now sealed. Robespierre, Danton, and Camille 
 Desmoulins were against him. They could wield resistless influences. The 
 next day Camille Desmoulins commenced a series of papers called the Vieux 
 Cordelier. He took the first number to Danton and then to Robespierre. 
 They both approved, and the warfare against Hebert and his party was com- 
 menced. The conflict was short and desperate ; each party knew that the 
 guillotine was the doom of the vanquished.* Robespierre and Danton were 
 victors. Hebert, Cloots, and their friends, nineteen in number, were arrest- 
 ed and condemned to death. On the 24th of March, 1794, five carts laden 
 with the Hebertists proceeded from the Conciergerie to the guillotine. 
 Cloots died firmly. Hebert was in a paroxysm of terror, which excited the 
 contempt and derision of the mob. 
 
 The bold invectives against the Reign of Terror in the Vieux Cordelier, 
 written by Desmoulins, began to alarm the Committee of Public Safety. 
 Danton and Robespierre were implicated. They were accused of favoring 
 moderate measures, and of being opposed to those acts of bloody rigor which 
 were deemed necessary to crush the aristocrats. Danton and Desmoulins 
 were in favor of a return to mercy. Robespierre, though opposed to cruelty 
 and to needless carnage, was sternly for death as the doom of every one not 
 warmly co-operating with the Revolution. To save himself from suspicion 
 he became the accuser of his two friends. And now it came the turn of 
 Danton and Desmoulins to tremble. For five years Danton and Robespierre 
 had fought together to overthrow roj^alty and found the Republic. But 
 Danton was disgusted with carnage, and had withdrawn from the Committee 
 of Public Safety. 
 
 " Danton, do you know," said Eglantine to him one day, " of what j^ou are 
 accused ? They say that j^ou have only launched the car of the Revolution 
 to enrich yourself, while Robespierre has remained poor in the midst of the 
 monarchical treasures thrown at his feet." 
 
 * In this celebrated pamphlet, the "Old Cordelier." Desmoulins thus powerfully describes 
 France, while pretending to describe Rome under tiie emperors : "Every thing, under that ter- 
 rible povernmcnt, was made the groundwork of susjiicion. Does a oiiizen avoid society and live 
 retired by his fireside? That is to ruminate in private on sinister designs. Is he rich? That 
 renders the danger greater that he will corrupt the citizens by his largesses. Is he poor? None 
 so dangerous as those who have nothing to lose. Is he thoughtful and melancholy? He is re- 
 volving what he calls the calamities of his country. Is he gay and dissipated? He is conceal- 
 ing, liks Caesar, ambition under the mask of pleasure. T!ie natural death of a celebrated man 
 has become so rare that historians transmit it, as a matter worthy of record, to future ages. The 
 tribunals, once the protectors of life and property, have become the mere organs of butchery." 
 
 Speaking of Hebert, he said, "Hebert, the head of this turbulent and atrocious faction, is a 
 miserable intriguer, a caterer for the guillotine, a traitor paid by Pitt, a thief expelled for theft 
 from his office of check-taker at a theatre." — Le Vieux Cordelier.
 
 366 THE FEENCH REVOLUTION. [ChAP. XXXY 
 
 "Well," replied Danton, "do you know what tliat proves? that I love 
 gold, and that Robespierre loves blood. Robespierre is afraid of money lest 
 it should stain his hands." 
 
 Robespierre earnestly wished to associate Danton with him in all the rigor 
 of the Revolutionary government, for he respected the power of this bold, 
 indomitable man. They met at a dinner-party, through the agency of a mu- 
 tual friend, when matters were brought to a crisis. They engaged in a dis- 
 pute, Danton denouncing and reviling the acts of the Revolutionary Tribu- 
 nal, and Robespierre defending them, until they separated in anger. The 
 friends of Danton urged him either to escape by flight or to take advantage 
 of his popularity and throw himself upon the army. 
 
 " My life is not worth the trouble," said Danton. " Besides, I am weary 
 of blood. I had rather be guillotined than be a guillotiner. They dare not 
 attack me. I am stronger than they." 
 
 A secret meeting of the Committee of Public Safety was convened by 
 night, and Danton was accused of the "treason of clemency." A subaltern 
 door-keeper heard the accusation, and ran to Danton's house to warn him of 
 his peril and to offer him an asylum. The young and beautiful wife of Dan- 
 ton, with tears in her eyes, threw herself at his feet, and implored him, for 
 her sake and for that of their children, to accept the proffered shelter. Dan- 
 ton proudly refused, saying, 
 
 " They will deliberate long before they will dare to strike a man like me. 
 While they deliberate I will surprise them." 
 
 He dismissed the door-keeper and retired to bed. At six o'clock gens 
 cCarmes entered his room with the order for his arrest. 
 
 " They dare, then," said Danton, crushing the paper in his hand. " They 
 are bokler than I had thought them to be." 
 
 He dressed, embraced his wife convulsivel}^, and was conducted to prison. 
 At the same hour Camille Desmoulins and fourteen others, the supposed par- 
 tisans of Danton, were also arrested. It was the 31st of March. Danton was 
 taken to the Luxembourg. Here he found Desmoulins and his other friends 
 already incarcerated. As Danton entered the gloomy portals of the prison 
 he saici, 
 
 " At length I perceive that, in revolutions, the supreme power ultimately 
 rests with the most abandoned."* 
 
 A crowd of the detained immediately gathered around liim, amazed at that 
 freak of fortune which had cast the most distinguished leader of the Jaco- 
 bins into the dungeons of the accused. Danton was humiliated and annoyed 
 by the gaze, and endeavored to veil his embarrassment under the guise of 
 derision. 
 
 " Yes," said he, raising his head and forcing loud laughter, "it is Danton. 
 Look at him well. The trick is well played. We must know how to praise 
 our en(Mni(>s wlien they conduct adroitly. I would never have believed thnt 
 Robespierre could have juggled me thus." Then softening, and growing 
 more sincere^ he said, " Gentlemen, I hoped to have been the means of deliv- 
 ering you all from this place; l3ut here I am among you, and no one can 
 tell where this will end." 
 
 * Rioufle, p. 67.
 
 1794.] FALL OF THE HEBERTISTS AND OF THE DANTONISTS. 367 
 
 The accused Dantonists-accused of advocating moderate measures in tlie 
 treatment of the enemies of the Revolution-were soon shut up m separate 
 cells The report of the arrest of men of such acknowledged power, and 
 who* had been so popular as patriots, spread anxiety and gloom through 
 Paris. The warmest friends of the arrested dared not plead their cause ; it 
 would only have imperiled their own lives. _ 
 
 Even in the Assembly great excitement was produced by these important 
 arrests. The members gathered in groups and spoke to each other m whis- 
 pers, inquiring what all this meant and where it was to end. At last, L6- 
 gendre ventured to ascend the tribune, and said, 
 
 "Citizens, four members of this Assembly have been arrested during the 
 night Danton is one. I know not the others. Citizens, I declare that I 
 believe Danton to be as pure as myself; yet he is in a dungeon. They fear- 
 ed no doubt, that his replies would overturn the accusations brought against 
 him. I move, therefore, that, before you listen to any report, you send for 
 the prisoners and hear them." 
 
 Robespierre immediately ascended the tribune and replied, 
 "By the unusual agitation which pervades this Assembly— by the sensa- 
 tion the words of the speaker you have just heard have produced, it is man- 
 ifest that a question of great interest is before us— a question whether two 
 or three individuals shall be preferred to the country. The question to-day 
 is whether the interests of certain ambitious hypocrites shall prevail over 
 the interests of the French nation. Legendre appears not to know the names 
 of those who have been arrested. All the Convention knows them. His 
 friend Lacroix is among the prisoners. Why does he pretend to be ignorant 
 of it? Because he knows that he can not defend Lacroix without shame. 
 He has spoken of Danton, doubtless because he thinks that a privilege is at- 
 tached to this name. No! we will have no privilege. No! we will have 
 no idols We shall see to-day whether the Convention will break a lalse 
 idol, long since decayed, or whether in its fall it will crush the Convention 
 and the French people. . 
 
 "I say whoever now trembles is guilty, for never does innocence dread 
 public surveillance. Me, too, have they tried to alarm. It has been at- 
 tempted to make me believe that the danger which threatens Danton might 
 reach me. I have been written to. The friends of Danton have sent me 
 their letters ; have besieged me with their importunities. They have thought 
 that the remembrance of a former acquaintance, that a past belief m false 
 virtues might determine me to relax in my zeal and my passion for liberty 
 Well then I declare that none of these motives have touched my soul with 
 the slightest impression; my life is for my country, my heart is exempt 
 
 from fear. . . 
 
 " I have seen in the flattery which has been addressed to me, m the con- 
 cern of those who surrounded Danton, only signs of the terror which they 
 felt even before thev were threatened. And I, too, have been the fnend ot 
 Pdtion ; as soon as he was unmasked I abandoned him. I have also been 
 acquainted with Roland ; he became a traitor and I denounced him. Dan- 
 ton would take their place, and in my eyes he is but an enemy to his coun- 
 try."
 
 368 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. [ChaP. XXXV. 
 
 Ldgendre, appalled, immediately retracted, and trembling for his life, like a 
 whipped spaniel, crouched before the terrible dictator. At that moment St. 
 Just came in, and read a long report against the members under arrest. 
 The substance of the vague and rambling charges was that they had been 
 bought up by the aristocrats and were enemies to their country. The As- 
 sembly listened without a murmur, and then unanimously, and even with 
 applause, voted the impeachment of Danton and his friends. " Every one 
 sought to gain time with tyranny, and gave up others' heads to save his 
 own."* 
 
 The Dantonists were men of mark, and they now drank deeply of that 
 bitter chalice which they had presented to so many lips. Camille Desmou- 
 lins, young, brilliant, enthusiastic, was one of the most fascinating of men. 
 His youthful and beautiful wife, Lucile, he loved to adoration. They had 
 one infant child, Horace, their pride and joy. Camille was asleep in the 
 arms of his wife when the noise of the butt end of a musket on the threshold 
 of his door aroused him. As the soldiers presented the order for his arrest, 
 he exclaimed, in anguish, " This, then, is the recompense of the first voice 
 of the Revolution." 
 
 Embracing his wife for the last time, and imprinting a kiss upon the 
 cheek of his child asleep in the cradle, he was hurried to prison. Lucile, 
 frantic with grief, ran through the streets of Paris to plead with Robespierre 
 and others for her husband ; but her lamentations were as unavailing as the 
 moaning wind. In the following tender strain Camille wrote his wife : 
 
 " My prison recalls to my mind the garden where I spent eight years in 
 beholding you. A glimpse of the garden of the Luxembourg brings back 
 to me a crowd of remembrances of our loves. I am alone, but never have 
 I been in thought, imagination, feeling nearer to you, your mother, and to 
 my little Horace. I am going to pass all my time in prison in writing to 
 you. I cast myself at your knees ; I stretch out my arms to embrace you; 
 I find you no more. Send me the glass on which are our two names ; a 
 book, which I bought some days ago, on the immortality of the soul. I 
 have need of persuading myself that there is a God more just than man, and 
 that I can not fail to see you again. Do not grieve too much over my 
 thoughts, dearest ; I do not yet despair of men. Yes ! my beloved, we will 
 see ourselves again in the garden of the Luxembourg. Adieu, Lucile! 
 Adieu, Horace 1 I can not embrace you ; but in the tears which I shed it ap- 
 pears that I press you again to my bosom. Thy Camille." 
 
 Lucile, frantic with grief, made the most desperate eftbrts to gain access 
 to Robespierre, but she was sternly repulsed. She then thus imploringly 
 wrote to him, 
 
 " Can you accuse us of treason, you who have profited so much by the ef- 
 forts we have made for our country ? Camille has seen the birth of your 
 pride, th(^ path you desired to tread, but he has recalled your ancient fi'iend- 
 ship and shrunk from the idea of accusing a friend, a companion of his la* 
 
 * Mignet, p. 245.
 
 1794.] FALL OF THE HEBERTISTS AND OF THE DANTONISTS. 369 
 
 bors. That hand which has pressed yours has too soon abandoned the pen, 
 since it could no longer trace your i)raise; and you, you send him to'deatli. 
 But, Robespierre, will you really accomplish the deadly projects which doubt- 
 less the vile souls which surround you have inspired you with ? Have you 
 forgotten those bonds which Camille never recalls without grief? you who 
 prayed for our union, who joined our hands in yours, who have smiled upon 
 my son whose infantile hands have so often caressed you ? Can you, then, 
 reject my prayers, despise my tears, and trample justice under foot? For 
 you know it yourself, we do not merit the fate they are preparing for us, 
 and you can avert it. If it strike us, it is you who will have ordered it. 
 But what is, then, the crime of my Camille ? 
 
 " I have not his pen to defend him. But the voice of good citizens, and 
 your heart, if it is sensible, will plead for me. Do you believe that people 
 will gain confidence in you by seeing you immolate your best friends ? Do 
 you think that they will bless him who regards neither the tears of the 
 widow nor the death of the orphan ? Poor Camille ! in the simplicity of his 
 heart, how far was he from suspecting the fate which awaits him to-day ! 
 He thought to labor for your glory in pointing out to you what was still 
 wanting to our republic. He has, no doubt, been calumniated to you, Eobes- 
 pierre, for you can not believe him guilty. Consider that he has never re- 
 quired the death of any one — that he has never desired to injure by your 
 power, and that you were his oldest and his best friend. And you are about 
 to kill us both ! For to strike him is to kill me — " 
 
 The unfinished letter she intrusted to her mother, but it never reached 
 the hands of Eobespierre. The prisoners were soon taken to the Concier- 
 gerie and plunged into the same dungeon into which thi y had thrown the 
 Girondists. The day of trial was appointed without delay. It was the 3d 
 of April. As the prisoners, fourteen in number, were arrayed before the 
 Tribunal, the president, Hermann, inquired of Danton, in formal phrase, his 
 name, age, and residence. 
 
 "My name," was the proud and defiant reply, "is Danton, well enough 
 known in the Revolution. I am thirty-five years old. My residence will 
 soon be void, and my name will exist in the Pantheon of history." 
 
 To the same question Camille Desmoulins replied, " I am thirtj^-three, a 
 fatal age to revolutionists, — the age of the sans culoite Jesus when he died." 
 
 The trial lasted three days. Danton, in his defense, struggled like a lion 
 in the toils. An immense crowd filled the court and crowded the surround- 
 ing streets. The windows were open, and the thunders of his voice were 
 frequently heard even to the other side of the Seine. The people in the 
 streets, whom he doubtless meant to influence, caught up his words and 
 transmitted them from one to another. Some indications of popular sym- 
 pathy alarmed the Tribunal, and it was voted that the accused were wanting 
 in respect to the court, and should no longer be heard in their defense. 
 They were immediately condemned to die. 
 
 They were reconducted to their dungeon to prepare for the guillotine. 
 The fortitude of Camille Di^smoulins was weakened by the strength of his 
 domestic attachments. "Oh, my dear Lucile! Oh, my Horace I what will 
 
 Aa
 
 370 
 
 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 
 
 [Chap. XXXV 
 
 danton'b defenbe. 
 
 become of them !" lie incessantly cried, while tears flooded his eyes. Seiz- 
 ing a pen, he hastily wrote a few last words to Lucile, which remain one of 
 the most touching memorials of grief 
 
 " I have dreamed," he wrote, " of a republic which all the world would 
 have adored. I could not have believed that men were so cruel and unjust, 
 I do not dissimulate that I die a victim to my friendship for Danton. I
 
 1794.] FALL OF THE HEBERTISTS AND OF THE DANTONISTS. 371 
 
 thank my assassins for allowing me to die with Philippeaux. Pardon, my 
 dear friend, my true life which I lost from the moment they separated us. 
 I occupy myself with my memory. I ought much rather to cause you to 
 forget it, my Lucile. I conjure you do not call to me by your cries. They 
 would rend my heart in the depths of the tomb. Live for our child ; talk 
 to him of me ; you may tell him what he can not understand, that I should 
 have loved him much. Despite my execution, I believe there is a God. 
 My blood will wash out my sins, the weakness of my humanity ; and what- 
 ever I have possessed of good, my virtues and my love of liberty, God will 
 recompense it. I shall see you again one day. 
 
 " O my Lucile, sensitive as I was, the death which delivers me from the 
 sight of so much crime, is it so great a misfortune ? Adieu, my life, my 
 soul, my divinity upon earth ! Adieu, Lucile ! my Lucile ! my dear Lucile ! 
 Adieu, Horace ! Annette ! Ad^le ! Adieu, my father ! I feel the shore of 
 life, fly before me. I still see Lucile! I see her, my best beloved! my 
 Lucile! My bound hands embrace you, and my severed head rests still 
 upon you its dying eyes." 
 
 As Danton re-entered the gloomy corridor of the prison he said, "It was 
 just a year ago that I was instrumental in instituting the Revolutionary 
 Tribunal. I beg pardon of God and men. I intended it as a measure of 
 humanity, to prevent the renewal of the September massacres, and that no 
 man should suffer without trial. I did not mean that it should prove the 
 scourge of humanity." 
 
 Then, pressing his capacious brow between his hands, he, said, "They 
 think that they can do without me. They deceive themselves. I was the 
 statesman of Europe. They do not suspect the void which this head leaves." 
 
 " As to me," he continued, in cynical terms, " I have enjoyed my mo- 
 ments of existence well. I have made plenty of noise upon earth. I have 
 tasted well of life. Let us go to sleep," and he made a gesture with head 
 and arms as if about to repose his head upon a pillow. 
 
 After a short pause he resumed, " We are sacrificed to the ambition of a 
 few dastardly brigands. But tlic}^ will not long enjoy the fruit of their vil- 
 lainy. I drag Robespierre after mc. Robespierre follows me to the grave." 
 
 At four o'clock the executioners entered the Conciergerie to bind their 
 hands and cut off their hair. 
 
 "It will be very amusing," said Danton, "to the fools who will gape at 
 us in the streets, but we shall appear otherwise in the eyes of posterity." 
 
 When the executioners laid hold of Camille Desmoulins, he struggled in 
 the most desperate resistance. But he was speedily thrown upon the floor 
 and bound, while the prison resounded with his shrieks and imprecations. 
 The whole fourteen Dantonists were placed in one cart. Desmoulins seemed 
 frantic with terror. He looked imploringly upon the crowd, and incessantly 
 cried, 
 
 " Save me, generous people ! I am Camille Desmoulins. It was I who 
 called you to arms on the 14th of July. It was I who gave you the nation- 
 al cockade." 
 
 He so writhed and twisted in the convulsions of his agony that his clothes 
 were nearly torn from his back. Danton stood in moody silence, occasion- 
 ally endeavoring to appease the turbulence of Desmoulins.
 
 372 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. [ChaP. XXXV. 
 
 Herault de Sdchelles first ascended the scaffold. As he alighted from 
 the cart he endeavored to embrace Danton. The brutal executioner inter- 
 posed. 
 
 "Wretch," said Danton, "you will not, at least, prevent our heads from 
 kissing presently in the basket." 
 
 Desmoulins followed next. In his hand he held a lock of his wife's hair. 
 For an instant he gazed upon the blade, streaming with the blood of his 
 friend, and then said, turning to the populace, 
 
 " Look at the end of the first apostle of liberty. The monsters who mur- 
 der me will not survive me long." 
 
 The axe fell, and his head dropped into the basket. Danton looked 
 proudly, imperturbably on as, one after another, the heads of his thirteen 
 companions fell. He was the last to ascend the scaffold. For a moment 
 he was softened as he thought of his wife. 
 
 "Oh my wife, my dear wife," said he, "shall I never see you again?" 
 Then checking himself, he said, " But, Danton, no weakness." Turning to 
 the executioner, he proudly remarked, "You will show my head to the 
 people ; it will be well worth the display." 
 
 His head fell. The executioner, seizing it by the hair, walked around 
 the platform, holding it up to the gaze of the populace. A shout of ap- 
 plause rose from the infatuated people. "Thus," says Mignet, "perished 
 the last defenders of humanity and moderation, the last who sought to pro- 
 mote peace among the conquerors of the Ee volution and pity for the con- 
 quered. For a long time after them no voice was raised against the dicta- 
 torship of terror, and from one end of France to the other it struck silent 
 and redoubled blows. The Girondists had sought to prevent this violent 
 reign, the Dantonists to stop it. All perished, and the conquerors had the 
 more victims to strike, the more the foes arose around them." 
 
 The Robespierrians, having thus struck down the leaders of the moderate 
 party, pursued their victory, by crushing all of the advocates of moderation 
 from whom they apprehended the slightest danger. Day after day the 
 guillotine ran red with blood. Even the devot( d wife of Camille Desmou- 
 lins, but twenty-three years of age, was not spared. It was her crime that 
 she loved her husband, and that she might excite sympathy for his fate. 
 Resplendent with grace and beauty, she was dragged before the Revolution- 
 ary Tribunal. Little Horace was left an prphan, to cry in his cradle. Lu- 
 cile displayed heroism upon the scaffold unsurpassed by that of Charlotte 
 Corday or Madame Roland. When condemned to death she said calmly to 
 her judges, 
 
 " I shall, then, in a few hours, again meet my husband. In departing 
 from this world, in which nothing now remains to engage my affections, I 
 am far less the object of pity than are you." 
 
 Robespierre had been the intimate friend of Desmoulins and Lucile. He 
 had often eat of their bread and drunk of their cup in social converse. He 
 was a guest at their wedding. Madame Duplessis, the mother of Lucile, 
 was one of the most beautiful and accomplished women of France. In vain 
 she addressed herself to Rc^bcspicrre and all his friends, in almost frantic 
 endeavors to save her daughter.
 
 1794.J FALL OP THE HEBERTISTS AND OF THE DANTONISTS. 373 
 
 INTKUIOK OP TIIK UKVOLlTTIONAnT TUIUCNAI. 
 
 " Robespierre," she wrote to him, " is it not enougli to have assassinated 
 your best friend ; do you desire also the blood of his wife, of my daughter? 
 l^our niaster, Fouquier Tinville, has just ordered her to be led to the scaf. 
 lolcl. I wo hours more and she will not be in existence. Robespierre if 
 voii are not a tiger in human shape, if the blood of Camille has not inebri- 
 ated you to the pomt of losmg your reason entirely, if jou recall still our 
 evenmgs of mtimacy, if you recall to yourself the caresses you lavished upon
 
 374 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. [ChaP. XXXV. 
 
 the little Horace, and how you delighted to hold him upon your knees, and 
 if you remember that you were to have been my son-in-law, spare an inno- 
 cent victim ! But, if thy fury is that of a lion, come and take us also, my- 
 self. Ad^le [her other daughter], and Horace. Come and tear us away with 
 thy hands still reeking in the blood of Camille. Come, come, and let one 
 single tomb reunite us." 
 
 To this appeal Robespierre returned no reply. Lueile was left to her fate. 
 In the same car of the condemned with Madame Hebert she was conducted 
 to the guillotine. She had dressed herself for the occasion with remarkable 
 grace. A white gauze veil, partially covering her luxuriant hair, embel- 
 lished her marvelous beauty. With alacrity and apparent cheerfulness she 
 ascended the steps, placed her head upon tiie fatal plank, and a smile was 
 upon her lips as the keen-edged knife, with the rapidity of the lightning's 
 stroke, severed her head from her body. 
 
 While these cruel scenes were transpiring in Paris, and similar scenes in 
 all parts of France, the republican armies on the frontiers were struggling 
 to repel the invading armies of allied Europe. It was the fear that internal 
 enemies would rise and combine with the Ibreign foe which goaded the Rev- 
 okitionists to such measures of despei'ation. They knew that the triumph 
 of the Bourbons was their certain death. The English were now in posses- 
 sion of Toulon, the arsenal of the French navy, which had been treasonably 
 surrendered to an English fleet by the friends of the Bourbons. A republi- 
 can army had for some months been besieging the city, but had made no 
 progress toward the expulsion of the invaders. 
 
 Napoleon Bonaparte, then a young man about twenty-five years of age 
 and a lieutenant in the army, was sent to aid the besiegers. His genius soon 
 placed him in command of the artillery. With almost superhuman energy, 
 and skill never before surpassed, he pressed the siege, and, in one of the 
 most terrific midnight attacks which ever has been witnessed, drove the 
 British from the soil of France. This is the first time that Napoleon appears 
 as an actor in the drama of the Revolution. The achievement gave him 
 great renown in the army. On this occasion the humanity of Napoleon was 
 as conspicuous as his energy. He abhorred alike the tyrannic sway of the 
 Bourbons and the sanguinary rule of the Jacobins. One of the deputies of 
 the Convention wrote to Carnot, then Minister of War, " I send you a young 
 man who distinguished himself very much during the siege, and earnestly 
 recommend you to advance him speedily. If you do not, he will most as- 
 suredly advance himself." 
 
 At St. Helena Napoleon said, " I was a very warm and sincere Republi- 
 can ar, the commencement of the Revolution. I cooled by degrees, in pro- 
 portion as I acquired more just and solid ideas. My patriotism sank undei 
 the political absurdities and monstrous domestic excesses of our legisla- 
 tures. ''' 
 
 * Napoleon at St. Helena, p. 126.
 
 1794.] FALL OF ROBESFIERKE. 375 
 
 CHAPTER XXXVI. 
 
 FALL OF ROBESPIERRE. 
 
 Inexplicable Character of Robespierre— Ce'cilc Repnatilt.— Fete in honor of the Supreme Being. 
 — Increase of Victims. — The Triumvirate. — Suspicions of Robespierre. — StrupRle between 
 Robespierre and the Committee of rublic Safety. — Conspiracy against Robespierre. — Session 
 of the 27th of July. — Robespierre and his Friends arrested. — Ett'orts to save Robespierre. — 
 Peril of the Convention. — Execution of Robespierre and his Confederates. 
 
 Robespierre, who was now apparently at tlie height of his power, is one 
 of the most inexphcable of men. His moral character was irreproachable ; 
 no bribes could corrupt him ; he sincerely endeavored to establish a repub- 
 lic founded upon the basis of popular liberty and virtue ; and self-aggrand- 
 izement seems never to have entered into his aims. He was not a blood- 
 thirsty man ; but was ready, with frigid mercilessness, to crush any party 
 which stood in the way of his plans. His soul appears to have been almost 
 as insensible to any generous emotion as was the blade of the guillotine.* 
 He seems to have mourned the apparent necessity of beheading Danton. 
 Repeatedly he was heard to say, perhaps hypocritically, 
 
 " Oh, if Danton were but honest ! If he were but a true Republican ! 
 What would I not give for the lantern of Diogenes to read the heart of Dan- 
 ton, and learn if he be the friend or the enemy of the Republic?" 
 
 Robespierre would gladly have received the aid of Dan ton's powerful arm, 
 but, finding his old friend hostile to his measures, he pitilessly sent him to 
 the guillotine. And yet there is evidence that he at times was very weary 
 of that work of death which he deemed it necessary to prosecute.f 
 
 *' Death," said he, " always death ; and the scoundrels throw all the respon- 
 sibility upon me. What a memory shall I leave behind me if this lasts ! 
 Life is a burden to me." 
 
 On the 7th of May, 1794, Robespierre made a very eloquent speech in the 
 Convention advocating the doctrines of a Supreme Being and the immortal- 
 ity of the soul. He presented the following decrees, which were adopted by 
 acclamation : 
 
 ^^Art. 1. The French people recognize the existence of the Supreme Being 
 and the immortality of the soul. 
 
 * "Mr. Alison pives currency to an atrocious slander against Robespierre, for which he has 
 adduced no authority, and which is contradicted by the whole evidence of Robespierre's life. 
 'He (Phili])pe Epalite') was detained,' says Alison, '.above a quarter of an hour in front of the 
 Palais Royal, by order of Robespierre, who had asked in vain for the hand of his daughter in mar- 
 riage, and had promised, if he would relent in that extremity, to excite a tumult which would 
 save his life.' " — Life of Rohesjde.rre, bij G. II. Lcwea, p. 2C5. 
 
 t "Danton regarded the austere principles of Robespierre as folly. He thought that the Re- 
 publicans could not maintain their power but by surrounding themselves with the consideration 
 which wealth confers, and he consequently thought it necessary to close their eyes against the 
 sudden acquisition of wealth of certain Revolutionists. Robespierre, on the contraiy, flattered him- 
 self that he could establish a republic in France based on virtue, and when he was thoroughly per- 
 suaded that Danton was an obstacle to that system he abandoned him." — Bioyraphie Universelle,
 
 376 "THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. [ChaP. XXXYI. 
 
 '^Art 2. They acknowledge that the worship worthy of the Supreme Be- 
 ing is one of the duties of man." 
 
 There were some unavailing attempts now made to assassinate Eobespierre ; 
 one, very singular in its character, by a beautiful girl, Cecile Eegnault, but 
 seventeen years of age. She called at Robespierre's house and asked to see 
 him. Her appearance attracted suspicion, and she was arrested. In her 
 
 OECILE REGNAULT AUBE8TE1). 
 
 basket a change of clothes was found and two knives. She was led before 
 the Tribunal. 
 
 "What was the object of your visit to Robespierre?" the president in- 
 quired. 
 
 "I wished," she replied, "to see what a tyrant was like." 
 
 "Why did you provide yourself with the change of clothes?" 
 
 " Because," she calmly replied, " I expected to be sent to prison and then 
 to the guillotine." 
 
 "Did you intend to stab Robespierre?" 
 
 " No," she answered, " I never wished to hurt any one in my life." 
 
 "Why are you a Royalist?" the president continued. 
 
 "Because," she replied, "I prefer one king to sixty tyrants." 
 
 She was sent to the guillotine with all her family relations. The conduct 
 of this girl is quite inexplicable, and it is doubted whether she seriously con- 
 templated any crime. When she called to see Robespierre she left her knife 
 in her room in a hasht! Eight carts were filled with victims to avenge this 
 crime.* 
 
 Robespierre was now so popular with the multitude that all Paris rallied 
 around him with congratulations. 
 
 The 8th of May was a])pointed as a festival in honor of the Supreme Be- 
 ing. Robespierre, the originator of the movement, was chosen President of 
 the Convention, that he might take the most conspicuous part on the occa- 
 sion. The morning dawned with unusual splendor. For that one day the 
 
 * Du Broca.
 
 1794.] FALL OF ROBESPIERRE. 877 
 
 guillotine was ordered to rest. An amphitheatre was erected in the centre 
 of the garden of the Tuileries, and the spacious grounds were crowded with 
 a rejoicing concourse. The celebrated painter David had arranged the fete 
 with the highest embellishments of art. At twelve o'clock Eobespierre as- 
 cended a pavilion and delivered a discourse. 
 
 " Kepublican Frenchmen," said he, " the ever fortunate day which the 
 French people dedicated to the Supreme Being has at length arrived. Nev- 
 er did the world which he created exhibit a spectacle so worthy of his atten- 
 tion. He has beheld tyranny, crime, and imposture reigning on earth. He 
 beholds at this moment a whole nation, assailed by all the oppressors of 
 mankind, suspending the course of its heroic labors to lift its thoughts and 
 its prayers toward the Supreme Being who gave it the mission to undertake 
 and the courage to execute them." 
 
 Having finished his brief address, he descended and set fire to a colossal 
 group of figures representing Atheism, Discord, and Selfishness, which the 
 idea of a God was to reduce to ashes. As they were consumed, there ap- 
 peared in their place, emerging from the flames, the statue of Wisdom. After 
 music, songs, and sundry symbolic ceremonies, an immense procession was 
 formed, headed by Eobespierre, which proceeded from the Tuileries to the 
 Champ de Mars. Here, after the performance of pageants as imposing as 
 Parisian genius could invent and Parisian opulence execute, the procession 
 returned to the Tuileries, where the festival was concluded with public di- 
 versions.* 
 
 The pre-eminence which Eobespierre assumed on this occasion excited 
 great displeasure, and many murmurs reached his ears. Eobespierre, the 
 next day, entered complaints against those who had murmured, accused 
 them of being Dantonists and enemies of the Eevolution, and wished to send 
 them to the guillotine. Each member of the Convention began to feel that 
 his head was entirely at the disposal of Eobespierre, and gradually became 
 emboldened to opposition. 
 
 The legal process by which victims were arrested and sent to the guillo- 
 tine had now become simple and energetic in the extreme. Any man com- 
 plained to the Committee of Public Safety of whom he would, as suspected 
 of being unfriendly to the Eevolution, The committee immediately ordered 
 the arrest of the accused. The eighteen prisons of Paris were thus choked 
 with victims. Each evening Fouquier Tinville, the public accuser, received 
 from the Committee of Public Safety a list of those whom he was to take 
 the next day to the Eevolutionary Tribunal. If the committee, for any rea- 
 son, had not prepared a list, Fouquier Tinville was allowed to select whom 
 he pleased. To be suspected was almost certain death. From the commence- 
 ment of this year (1794) the executions had increased with frightful rapid- 
 ity. In January eighty-three were executed ; in February, seventy -five ; in 
 March, one hundred and twenty-three ; in April, two hundred and sixty- 
 
 * "Robespierre had a prodigious force at his disposal. The lowest orders, who saw the Rev- 
 olution in his person, supported him as the best representative of its doctrines and interests; the 
 armed force of Paris, commanded by Henriot, was at his command. He had entire sway over 
 the Jacobins, whom he admitted and ejected at pleasure ; all important posts were occupied by 
 his creatures; he had formed the Revolutionary Tribunal and the new committee himself."— 
 Mignet, p. 256. 
 Vol. II.— G
 
 378 THE FRENCH EEVOLUTION. [ChAP. XXX VT. 
 
 three ; in May, three hundred and twenty -four ; in June, six hundred and 
 seventy-two ; in July, eight hundred and thirty-five."^ 
 
 Carts were continually passing from the gates of the Conciergerie loaded 
 with prisoners, who were promptly condemned and sent immediately to the 
 scaffold. Malesherbes, the intrepid and venerable defender of Louis XVI., 
 living in retirement in the country, was dragged, with all his family, to the 
 scaffold. If a man were rich, he was suspected of aristocracy and was sent 
 to the guillotine. If he were learned, his celebrity exposed him to suspicion, 
 and his doom was death. If he were virtuous, he was accused of sympathy 
 for the victims of the guillotine, and was condemned to the scaffold. There 
 was no longer safety but in vice and degradation. The little girls who had 
 been led by their fathers to attend a ball given by the King of Prussia at 
 Verdun were all arrested, brought to Paris, and condemned and executed. 
 " The eldest," says Lamartine, " was eighteen. They were all clothed in 
 white robes. The cart which carried them resembled a basket of lilies 
 whose heads waved to the motion of the arm. The affected executioners 
 wept with them." Josephine Beauharnais, afterward the bride of Napoleon, 
 was at this time in one of the dungeons of Paris, sleeping upon a wretched 
 pallet of straw, and expecting daily to be led to execution. 
 
 Robespierre, St. Just, and Couthon were the three leading men in the 
 Committee of Public Safety, and were hence called the Triumvirate. All 
 began now to be weary of blood, and yet no one knew how to stem the tor- 
 rent or when the carnage would cease. The Reign of Terror had become 
 almost as intolerable as the tyranny of the old kings, but not fully so ; the 
 Reign of Terror crushed thousands who could make their woes heard ; des- 
 potism crushed millions who were dumb. There was no hope for France 
 but in some energetic arm which, assuming the dictatorship, should rescue 
 liberty from the encroachments of kings and from being degraded by the 
 mob. Robespierre was now the most prominent man in France and the 
 most popular with the multitude. His friends urged him to assume the 
 dictatorship. 
 
 Jealousy of Robespierre's ambition now began to arise, and his enemies 
 rapidly increased. Whispers that he had become a traitor to the Republic 
 and was seeking kingly power began to circulate. Popular applause is pro- 
 verbially fickle. Robespierre soon found that he could not carry his meas- 
 ures in the Committee of Public Safety, and, disgusted and humiliated, he 
 absented himself from the sittings. He attempted to check the effusion of 
 blood, but was overruled by those even more pitiless than himself He now 
 determined to crush the committee. Political defeat was death. He must 
 either send the committee to the scaffold or bow his own head beneatk the 
 knife. It was a death-struggle short and decisive. Pretended lists were 
 circulated of the heads Robespierre demanded. Many in the Convention 
 were appalled. Secret nightly councils were held to array a force against 
 him. The mob of Paris he could command. Ilenriot, the chief of the mil- 
 itary force, was entirely subservient to his will. He reigned supreme and 
 without a rival in the Jacobin Club. His power was apparently resistlesa 
 Bat despair nerved his foes. 
 
 * Thiers, vol. iii., p. 68, note from Quarterly Review.
 
 1794.] FALL OF ROBESPIERRE. 3^9 
 
 Three very able men, accustomed to command — Tallien, Barras, and Fr^- 
 ron — headed the conspiracy against Robespierre. The party thus organized 
 was called the Thennidorien, because it was in the month of Thermidor 
 (July) that they achieved their signal victory, and, trampling upon the 
 corpse of Robespierre and of his adherents, ascended to power. But nearly 
 all these men, of all these parties, seem to have had no sense whatever of 
 responsibility to God, or of Christianity as the rule of life. They had one 
 and all rejected the Gospel of our Savior, and had accepted human phi- 
 losophy alone as their guide. They were men, many of them, great in 
 ability, illustrious in many virtues, sincerely loving their country, and too 
 proud to allow themselves to be degraded by bribes or plunder. As the 
 general on the battle-field will order movements which will cut down thou- 
 sands of men, thus did these Revolutionists, without any scruples of con- 
 science, send hundreds daily to the guillotine, not from love of blood, but 
 because they believed that the public welfare demanded the sacrifice. And 
 yet there was a cowardly spirit impelling these massacres. No one dared 
 speak a word in behalf of mercy, lest he should be deemed in sympathy 
 with aristocrats. He alone was safe from suspicion who was merciless in 
 denunciation of the suspected. It is, however, remarkable that nearly all 
 the actors in these scenes of blood, even in the hour of death, protested their 
 conscientiousness and their integrity. 
 
 Robespierre was now involved in inextricable toils. He was weary of 
 blood. The nation was becoming disgusted with such carnage.* He was 
 universally recognized as the leading mind in the government, and every 
 act was deemed his act. His enemies in the Committee of Public Safety 
 plied the guillotine with new vigor, knowing that the public responsibility 
 would rest on Robespierre, Robespierre was strongly opposed to that reck- 
 less massacre, and yet dared not interfere to save the condemned. His own 
 dearest friends were arrested and dragged to the guillotine, and yet Robes- 
 pierre was compelled to be silent. Earnestly he was entreated to assume 
 
 * Prudhommc, a llepiihlican, who wrote durinf; this period of excitement, has left six vol- 
 umes of tlie details of the Rei;:n of Terror. Two of these contain an alphabetical list of all the 
 I)ersons put to death by the Revolutionary Tribunals. He gives the following appalling state- 
 ment of the victims : 
 
 Nobles 1,278 
 
 Noble women 750 
 
 Wives of laborers and artisans 1,4G7 
 
 Nuns 350 
 
 Priests 1,135 
 
 Men not noble 13,623 
 
 Total sent to the guillotine 18,003 18,603 
 
 Women who died of j)remature delivery 3 400 
 
 Women who died in childbirth from grief 343 
 
 Women killed in La Vende'^ 15,000 
 
 Children killed in La Vendc'e 22,000 
 
 Men slain in La Vendee 900,000 
 
 Victims under Carrier at Nantes 32,000 
 
 Victims at Lyons 31,000 
 
 Total 1,022,351 
 
 This list, appalling as it is, does not include those massacred in the prisons, or those shot at 
 Toulon or Marseilles.
 
 380 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. [ChAP. XXXVI. 
 
 the dictatorship, and rescue France from its measureless woe. Apparently 
 he could have done it with ease. He refused ; persistently and reiteratedly 
 refused. What were his motives none now can tell. Some say cowardice 
 prevented him ; others affirm that true devotion to the Republic forbade 
 him. The fact alone remains ; he refused the dictatorship, saying again 
 and again, " No ! no Cromwell ; not even I mj^self " 
 
 Robespierre retired for some weeks from the Committee of Public Safety, 
 while blood was flowing in torrents, and prepared a very elaborate dis- 
 course, to be delivered in the Convention, defending himself and assailing 
 his foes. 
 
 On the morning of the 26th of July Robespierre appeared in the Con- 
 vention, prepared to speak. His Jacobin friends, forewarned, crowded 
 around him, and his partisans thronged the galleries. His foes were ap- 
 palled, and trembled ; but they rallied all their friends. It was a decisive 
 hour, and life or death was suspended on its issues. The speech, which he 
 read from a carefully-prepared manuscript, was long and exceedingly elo- 
 quent. His foes felt that they were crushed, and a silence as of death for 
 a moment followed its delivery. The printing of the speech was then voted, 
 apparently by acclamation, and the order for its transmission to all the 
 Communes of the Republic. 
 
 The foes of Robespierre were now emboldened by despair. Their fate 
 seemed sealed, and consequently there was nothing to be lost by any vio- 
 lent struggle in self-defense. Cambon ventured an attack, boldly declaring, 
 "One single man paralyzes the National Convention, and that man is Rob- 
 espierre." Others followed with more and more vigorous blows. Robes- 
 pierre was amazed at the audacity. The charm of his invincibility was 
 gone. It soon appeared that there was a strong party opposed to Robes- 
 pierre, and by a large majority it was voted to revoke the resolution to 
 print the speech. 
 
 Robespierre, mute with alarm, left the Convention, and hastened to his 
 friends in the Club of Jacobins. He read to them the speech which the 
 Convention had repudiated. They received it with thunders of applause 
 and with vows of vengeance. Robespierre, fainting with exhaustion, said, 
 in conclusion, 
 
 " Brothers, you have heard my last will and testament. I have seen to- 
 day that the league of villains is so strong that I can not hope to escape 
 them. I yield without a murmur ! I leave to you my memory ; it will be 
 dear to you, and you will defend it." 
 
 Many were affected even to tears, and, crowding around him, conjured 
 him to rally his friends in an insurrection. Henriot declared his readiness 
 to march his troops against the Convention. Robespierre, knowing that 
 death was the inevitable doom of the defeated party, consented, saying, 
 
 "Well, then, let us separate the wicked from the weak. Free the Con- 
 vention from those who oppress it. Advance, and save the country. If in 
 these generous efforts we fail, then, my friends, you shall see me drink hem- 
 lock calmly." 
 
 David, grasping his hand, enthusiastically exclaimed, "Robespierre, if 
 you drink hemlock, I will drink it with you." " Yes," interrupted a mul-
 
 1794.] FALL OF ROBESPIERRE. 381 
 
 titude of voices, " all ! we all will perish with you. To die with you is 
 to die with the people." 
 
 One or two of Kobespierre's opponents had followed him from the Con- 
 vention to the Hall of the Jacobins. Couthon pointed them out and de- 
 nounced them. The Jacobins fell upon them and drove them out of the 
 house wounded and with rent garments. With difl&culty they escaped with 
 their lives. Robespierre witnessed this violence, and dreading the effects 
 of a general insurrection, withdrew his consent to adopt means so lawless 
 and desperate. He probably felt that, strongly supported as he was, he 
 would be able the next day to triumph in the Convention. 
 
 "At this refusal," says Lamartine, "honest, perhaps, but impolitic, Cof- 
 finghal, taking Payan by the arm and leading him out of the room, said, 
 
 " ' You see plainly that his virtue could not consent to insurrection. Well ! 
 since he will not be saved, let us prepare to defend ourselves and to avenge 
 him.' " 
 
 The night was passed by both parties in preparing for the decisive strife 
 of the next day. The friends of Eobespierre were active in concerting, in, 
 all the quarters of Paris, a rising of the people to storm the Convention. 
 Tallien, Barras, Frerou, Fouche, slept not. They were informed of all that 
 had passed at the Jacobins, and their emissaries brought them hourly intel- 
 ligence through the night of the increasing tumult of the people. They 
 made vigorous preparations for the debate within the walls and for the de- 
 fense of the doors against the forest of pikes with which it was about to be 
 assailed. Barras was intrusted with the military defense. It was resolved 
 that Robespierre should be cried down and denounced by internal tumult 
 and not permitted to spea]>:. Each party, not knowing the strength of its 
 opponents, was sanguine of success. 
 
 The morning of the 27th of July dawned, and as Robespierre entered the 
 Convention, attired with unusual care, and with a smile of triumph upon his 
 lips, silence and stillness reigned through the house. St. Just, in behalf of 
 Eobespierre, commenced the onset. A scene of tumult immediately ensued 
 of which no adequate description can be given. Robespierre immediately 
 saw that his friends were far outnumbered by his foes, and was in despair. 
 Pale and excited, he attempted to ascend the tribune. Tallien seized by the 
 coat and dragged him away, while cries of Doiun with the tyrant filled the 
 house.* 
 
 "Just now," shouted Tallien, taking the tribune from which he had 
 ejected Robespierre, " I demanded that the curtain should be withdrawn ; it 
 is so ; the conspirators are unmasked and liberty will triumph. Up to this 
 moment I had preserved utter silence because I was aware that the tyrant 
 had made a list of proscriptions. But I was present at the sitting of the 
 Jacobins. I beheld the formation of the army of this second Cromwell, and 
 I armed myself with this poniard, with which to pierce his heart if the Na- 
 tional Convention had not the courage to order his arrest." 
 
 * The full report of this terrible scene, as contained in the Moniteur of the 11th Thermidor, is 
 one of the most exciting narratives in history. In the conflict Robespierre appears immeasurably 
 superior to his opponents in dignity and argument. But he is overwhelmed and crushed by the 
 general clamor. He struggles valiantly, and falls like a strong man armed.
 
 382 
 
 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. [ChAP. XXXVI 
 
 E0BE8PIERRE ATTEMPTTNO ms DUTENSE. 
 
 With these words he drew a da.crger and pointed it menacingly at the breast 
 oi Kobespierre. At the same time he moved the arrest of Henriot and 
 otners ol the leadmg men of that party. The motion was tumultuoiisly car- 
 ">>; fV, ^''^'" Robespierre attempted to gain a hearing. Cries of "Down 
 with tlie tyrant" filled the house, and menaces, reproaches, and insults were
 
 1794.] FALL OF ROBESPIERRE. 333 
 
 heaped upon him without measure. The wretched man, overwhelmed by 
 the clamor, turned pale with indignation, and shouted " President of assas- 
 sins, will you hear me?" " No! no! no!" seemed to be the unanimous re- 
 sponse. In the midst of the uproar Louchet moved the arrest of Kobespierre. 
 The proposition was received with thunders of applause.* The brother of 
 Kobespierre, a young man of gentle, affectionate nature and many virtues, 
 who was universally esteemed, now rose, and said, 
 
 " I am as guilty as my brother. I have shared his virtues, I wish to 
 share his fate." 
 
 Robespierre instantly interposed, saying, " I accept my condemnation. 
 I have deserved your hatred. But, crime or virtue, my brother is not guilty 
 of that which you strike in me." 
 
 Shouts and stamping drowned his voice. As cries of Vive la Repuhlique 
 rose on all sides, Robespierre quietl}^ folded his arms, and, with a contempt- 
 uous smile, exclaimed, " The Republic ! it is destroyed ; for scoundrels tri- 
 umph." It was now three o'clock in the afternoon. The two Robespierres, 
 Couthon, St. Just, and Lebus were led by geiis crarmes from the Convention 
 across the Place du Carrousel to the Hotel de Brionne, where the Commit- 
 tee of General Stifet}^ were in session. A crowd followed the prisoners with 
 derision and maledictions. As Xh.Qj entered the Carrousel a procession of 
 carts, containing forty-five victims on their way to the guillotine, met them. 
 
 After a very brief examination Robespierre was sent to the Luxembourg. 
 His confederates w^cre distributed among the other prisons of Paris. The 
 Mayor of Paris and Hen riot were in the mean time active in endeavors to 
 excite an insurrection to rescue the prisoners. The following proclamation 
 was issued from the Hotel de Ville : 
 
 " Brothers and friends ! the country is in imminent danger I The wicked 
 have mastered the Convention, where they hold in chains the virtuous Rob- 
 espierre. To arms ! to arms ! Let us not lose the fruits of the 18th of Au- 
 gust and the 2d of June." 
 
 Henriot, waving his sword, swore that he would drag the scoundrels who 
 voted the arrest of Robespierre through the streets tied to the tail of his 
 horse. This brutal man was now in such a state of intoxication as to be in- 
 capable of decisive action. Flourishing a pistol, he mounted his horse, and, 
 with a small detachment of troops, galloped to the Luxembourg to rescue 
 his friend. He was met on the way by the troops of the Convention, who 
 had been ordered to arrest him. They seized him, dragged him from his 
 horse, bound him with their belts, and threw him into a guard-house, almost 
 dead-drunk. In tlie mean time the populace rescued all the prisoners, and 
 carried them in triumph to the mayor's room at the Hotel de Ville. Robes- 
 pierre, however, notwithstanding the most earnest entreaties of the Jacobins 
 and the municipal government, refused to encourage or to accept the insur- 
 rection, or to make escape from arrest. "Made prisoner," writes Lamar- 
 
 * "In tho heipht 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 ?'.•? choking you.'' Robespierre, 
 indignant, recovered his voice and courage to exclaim, ' Danton ! Is it, then, Danton you regret? 
 Cowards ! why did you not defend him ?' There was spirit, truth, and even dignity in this bitter 
 j^etort — the last words that Robespierre ever spoke in public." — Quarterly Review^
 
 384 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. [ChAP. XXXVI. 
 
 tine, " by command of his enemies, lie resolved either to triumph or fall 
 submissive to the law only ; added to which, he firmly believed the Kevolu- 
 tionary Tribunal would acquit him of all laid to his charge ; or, if not, and 
 if even condemned to death, ' the death of one just man,' said he, ' is less 
 hurtful to the Eepublic than the example of a revolt against the national 
 representation.' " 
 
 News was brought to the Hotel de Ville of the arrest of Henriot. CoflQ.n- 
 hal. Vice-president of the Eevolutionary Tribunal, immediately rallied the 
 mob, rushed to the Tuileries, released Henriot, who was by this time some- 
 what sobered, and brought him back to the Hotel de Ville. Henriot, exas- 
 perated by his arrest, placed himself at the head of his troops and marched 
 with a battery against the Convention. At this stage of the affair no one 
 could judge which party would be victorious. The city government, with 
 the populace at its disposal, was on one side ; the Convention, with its friends, 
 on the other.* 
 
 It was now seven o'clock in the evening, and the deputies of the Conven- 
 tion, fully conscious of their peril, seemed almost speechless with terror. 
 Eobespierre and his confederates were rescued and protected by the city 
 government; the mob was aroused, and the National Guard, under their 
 leader, Henriot, were marching against the Convention. The Revolutionary 
 Tribunal, which alone could condemn Robespierre, it was feared would ac- 
 quit him by acclamation. He would then be led back in triumph to the 
 Convention, and his foes would be speedily dragged to the guillotine. The 
 dismal tolling of the tocsin now was heard ; in the Jacobin Club the oath 
 was taken to live or die with Robespierre ; the rallying masses were crowd- 
 ing in from the faubourgs ; cannon were pointed against the Convention ; 
 and three thousand young students seized their arms and rendezvoused as a 
 body-guard for Robespierre. 
 
 In this critical hour the Convention, nerved by despair, adopted those 
 measures of boldness and energy which could alone save them from destruc- 
 tion. As they were deliberating, Henriot placed his artillery before their 
 doors and ordered them to be blown open. The deputies remained firmly 
 in their seats, saying, " Here is our post, and here we will die." The friends 
 of the Convention, who crowded the galleries, rushed out and spread them- 
 selves through the streets to rally defenders for the laws. Several of the 
 deputies also left the hall, threw themselves among the soldiers, and, remon- 
 strating with them, pointed to Henriot, and said, 
 
 " Soldiers ! look at that drunken man ! who but a drunkard would ever 
 point his arms against his country or its representatives? Will you, who 
 have ever deserved so much from your country, cast shame and dishonor 
 on her now ?" 
 
 The Convention had outlawed Henriot and appointed Barras to the com- 
 mand of the National Guard in his place. The soldiers began to waver. 
 Henriot, affrighted, put spurs to his horse and fled. Barras, an energetic 
 man, was now in command, and the tide had thus suddenly and strongly 
 
 * The state of the times is ilhistratcd by the fact that Barrere is reported to have gone to the 
 Convention with two speeches in his pocket, one assailing Robespierre and the other defending 
 him. He knew not which party would triumph, and he was prepared to join the strongest.
 
 1794.] 
 
 FALL OF ROBESPIERRE. 
 
 385 
 
 DEMONSTRATION AGAIN6T THE CONVENTION, HEADED BY HENEIOT, 
 
 turned in favor of the Convention. It was now night, and the gleam of ten 
 thousand torches was reflected from the multitudes surging through the 
 streets, Barras, on horseback, with a strong retinue, traversed the central 
 quarters of Paris, rallying the citizens to the defense of the Convention. 
 Eighteen hundred bold, well-armed men w^ere soon marshaled before the 
 doors. With two other bands he marched along parallel streets to the Place 
 de Gr^ve, where he drove off the disorderly crowd and secured all the ap- 
 
 Bb
 
 386 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. [ChAP. XXXVI. 
 
 proaches to the Hotel de Ville. Kobespierre was still in one of the rooms 
 of the Hotel de Ville, surrounded bj his confederates and by the members 
 of the city government. They implored him to authorize an insurrection, 
 assuring him that his name would rally the populace and rescue them all 
 from inevitable death. But Kobespierre persistently refused, declaring that 
 he would rather die than violate the laws established by the people. 
 
 A detachment of soldiers, sent by Barras, cautiously ascended the steps, 
 and entered the Salle de VEgalite to rearrest the rescued prisoners. As they 
 were ascending the stairs Lebas discharged a pistol into his heart and fell 
 dead. The younger Kobespierre leaped from the window into the court- 
 yard, breaking his leg by his fall. Coffinhal, enraged in contemplating the 
 ruin into which the drunken imbecility of Henriot had involved them, seized 
 him and threw him out of a window of the second story upon a pile of rub- 
 bish, exclaiming, 
 
 " Lie there, wretched drunkard ! You are not worthy to die on a scaf- 
 fold !" 
 
 Robespierre sat calmly at a table, awaiting his fate. One of the gens 
 cCarmes discharged a pistol at him. The ball entered his left cheek, fractur- 
 ing his jaw and carrying away several of his teeth. His head dropped upon 
 the table, deluging with blood the papers which were before him. The 
 troops of the Convention now filled the Hotel de Ville, arresting all its in- 
 mates. The day was just beginning to dawn as the long file of prisoners 
 were led out into the Place de Gr^ve to be conducted to the hall of the Con- 
 vention.* 
 
 First came Robespierre, borne by four men on a litter. His fractured 
 jaw was bound up by a handkerchief, which was steeped in blood. Couthon 
 was paralytic in his limbs. Unable to walk, he was also carried in the arms 
 of several men. They had carelessly let him fall, and his clothes were torn, 
 disarranged, and covered with mud. Robespierre the younger, stunned by 
 his fall and with his broken limb hanging helplessly down, was conveyed 
 insensible in the arms of two men. The corpse of Lebas was borne next in 
 this sad train, covered with a table-cloth spotted with his blood. Then fol- 
 lowed St. Just, bareheaded, with dejected countenance, his hands bound be- 
 hind him. Upward of eighty members of the city government, bound two 
 and two, completed the melancholy procession. 
 
 It was five o'clock in the morning when the captives were led to the Tuil- 
 eries. In the mean time Legendre had marched to the assembly-room of 
 the Jacobins, dispersed them, locked their doors, and brought the keys to the 
 President of the Convention.f 
 
 Robespierre was laid upon a table in an anteroom, while an interminable 
 crowd pressed in and around to catch a sight of the fallen dictator. The un- 
 happy man was overwhelmed with reproaches and insults, and feigned death 
 to escape this moral torture. The blood was freely flowing from his wound, 
 
 * Though it has penerally been represented that Robespierre attempted to commit suicide, the 
 evidence now seems to be conchisive that he did not. See Lamartine's History of the Girond- 
 ists, vol. iii., p. 527. 
 
 t Legendre, the butcher, was a deputy of the Convention. He was a man of extraordinary nerve, 
 and had been one of the most furious members of the society of Jacobins. — Biog.UniverselU,
 
 1794.] 
 
 FALL OF ROBESPIERRE. 
 
 387 
 
 BOmriEEEE IT.»0 WOUmEI. 0» Tm T«m.. ™ TI.E CTT EM..., 
 
 coaeuktii," in Ins ,,,....11,, and ctoking l.im as it trickled dmvn Ws tkroat 
 ThfrTmh.g was intcscl.y hot; not abreath of pure a.r could , be wound d 
 man "bale -insatiable thirst and a burning fever consumed h,m ; an bus 
 r en ah cd for more than an hour, enduring the nitensest pangs of bod ly 
 
 have consiened the Deputies to the gudlotme. . , , . » m,p 
 
 Tt five o'clock the carts of the cond.-mned received the prisoners.* The 
 
 * There is some confusion respecting the dates of these events; but we follow the dates as 
 given by Lamartine.
 
 388 
 
 THE FEENCH REVOLUTION. [ChAP. XXXYl. 
 
 and with broken bones, were thrown into the first cart with the corpse of 
 Lebas. As the cart jolted over the pavement shrieks of anguish were ex- 
 
 BOBEBPIEBBE AND FIS OOMFANIONS LED TO EZKOUTION. 
 
 torted from the victims. At six o'clock they reached the steps of the guil- 
 lotine. Eobespierre ascended the scaffold with a firm step ; but, as the exe- 
 cutioner brutally tore the bandage from his inflamed wound, he uttered a 
 shriek of torture which pierced every ear. The dull sullen sound of the 
 falling axe was heard, and the head of Robespierre fell ghastly into the bas- 
 ket. For a moment there was silence, and then the crowd raised a shout as 
 if a great victory had been achieved and the long-sought blessings of the 
 Revolution attained.* 
 
 Thus died Robespierre, in the thirty-fifth year of his age. His character 
 will probably ever remain a myster3\ " His death was the date and not the 
 cause of the cessation of terror. Deaths would have ceased by his triumphs, 
 as they did by his death. Thus did Divine justice dishonor his repentance, 
 
 * "Robespierre," said Napoleon, "was by no means the worst character who fifxured in the 
 Revolution. He opposed trying the queen. He was not an atheist ; on the contrary, he had 
 publicly maintained the existence of a Supreme Being in opposition to many of his colleagues. 
 Neither was he of opinion that it was necessary to exterminate all priests and nobles, like many 
 others. Marat, for example, maintained that it was necessary that six hundred thousand heads 
 should fall. Robespierre wanted to proclaim the king an outlaw, and not to go through the ri- 
 diculous mockery of trying him. Robespierre was a fanatic, a monster, but he was incorrupti- 
 ble, and incapable of robbing or causing the deaths of others either from personal enmity or a de- 
 sire of enriching himself. He was an enthusiast, but one who really believed that he was acting 
 right, and died not worth a sou. In some respects Robespierre maybe said to have been an hon- 
 est man." — Napoleon at St. Helena, p. 590.
 
 1794.] THE THERMIDORIANS AND THE JACOBINS. " 389 
 
 and cast misfortune on his good intentions, making of his tomb a gulf filled 
 up. It has made of his memory an enigma of which history trembles to pro- 
 nounce the solution, fearing to do him injustice if she brand it as a crime, or 
 to create horror if she should term it a virtue. This man was, and must 
 ever remain, shadowy and undefined."* 
 
 Twenty -two were beheaded with Robespierre. The next day seventy who 
 were arrested at the Hotel de Ville were sent to the guillotine. The follow- 
 ing day twelve more bled upon the scaffold. In three days one hundred 
 and fourteen perished, untried, by that tyranny which had supplanted the 
 tyranny of Eobespierre.f 
 
 CHAPTER XXXVII. 
 
 THE THERMIDORIANS AND THE JACOBINS. 
 
 The Reign of Committees. — The Jeunesse Dorde. — The Reaction. — Motion against Fouquier 
 Tinville. — Apotheosis of Rousseau. — Battle of Fleurus. — Brutal Order of the Committee of 
 Public Welfare. — Composition of the two Parties. — Speech of Billaud Varcnncs. — Speech of 
 Legendre. — The Club-house of the Jacobins closed. — Victories of Pichcgru. — Alliance between 
 Holland and France. — Advance of Kleber. — Peace with Prussia. — Quiberon. — Riot in Lyons. 
 
 The fall of Robespierre was hailed with general enthusiasm, for he was 
 believed to be the chief instigator of that carnage which, in reality, at the 
 time of his fall, he was struggling to repress. There were now in the Con- 
 vention the headless remains of four parties, the Girondists, Hebcrtists, Dan- 
 tonists, and Robespierrians. The able leaders of all these parties had, each 
 In their turn, perished upon the scaffold. There now arose from these ruins 
 a party, which was called, as we have before remarked, Thermidorians, from 
 the month Thermidor {July\ in which its supremacy commenced. A new 
 government was immediately and noiselessly evolved, the result of necessity. 
 The extreme concentration of power in the Committee of Public Safety, over 
 
 * History of the Girondists, by Lamartine, vol. iii., p. 535. 
 
 t " Mirabeau, Marat, Brissot, Danton, Robespien-e were all heads cut off in succession; and 
 all succeeding heads were saved only by having recourse to one head and one arm in the Em- 
 peror Napoleon." — Life and Works of John Adams, vol. vi., p. 547. 
 
 Though Mirabeau died a natural death, he would unquestionably have been guillotined had he 
 lived a few months longer. 
 
 Meda, the officer of the Convention who arrested Robespierre and his associates at the H6tel 
 de Ville, thus describes the event: "The head of my column moved fonvard ; a terrible noise 
 ensued; my ten pieces of artillery were brought forward and ready; those opposed to me in like 
 manner. I threw myself between the two lines. I flew to the cannoneers of the enemy. I spoke 
 to them of their countri' ; of the respect due to the national representation ; in short, I do not 
 well remember what I said, but the result was that they all came over to us. I instantly dis- 
 mounted, seized my pistols, addressed myself to my grenadiers, and made for the stair-case of 
 the Hotel de Ville." He describes the manner in which he forced his way up the stairs, broke 
 open the door, and found about fifty people assembled in the room in great confusion. Robes- 
 pierre was sitting at a table, his head leaning upon his hand. "I rushed upon him," he contin- 
 ues, in his narrative, "presented my sabre to his breast, 'Yield, traitor,' I cried. 'It is thou 
 art the traitor,' he replied, 'and I will have thee shot.' I instantly drew out one of my pistols, 
 and fired at him. I aimed at his breast, but the ball hit him about the chin, and shattered all 
 his left jaw. He fell from his chair. At the sound of the explosion his brother threw himself 
 through the window. The uproar was immense. I cried ' Vive la R^publique !' "
 
 390 
 
 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 
 
 [Chap. XXXVII. 
 
 which Eobespierre had been supposed to rule as a dictator, was now succeed- 
 ed by a dissemination of power, wide and ineffective. Sixteen committees 
 became the executive of France ; one Assembly its legislative power. These 
 committees were composed of members numbering from twelve to fifty. The 
 Committee of Public Welfare contained twelve, and superintended military 
 and diplomatic operations ; that of General Safety sixteen, and had the di- 
 rection of the police ; that of Finance forty-eight. Such was the new gov- 
 ernment, under which, after the fall of Eobespierre, the Republic struggled 
 along. 
 
 The horrors of the Reign of Terror were now producing a decided reac- 
 tion. Many of the young men of Paris, who abhorred the past scenes of vi- 
 olence, organized themselves into a band called the Jeunesse Doree, or Gilded 
 Youth, and commenced vigorous opposition to the Jacobins. They wore a 
 distinctive dress, and armed themselves with a short club loaded with lead. 
 Frequent conflicts took place in the streets between the two parties, in which 
 the Jeunesse Doree were generally victorious. The Terrorists having be- 
 come unpopular, and being in the decided minority, the guillotine was soon 
 allowed to rest. Mercy rapidly succeeded cruelty. The captives who crowd- 
 ed the prisons of Paris were gradually liberated, and even the Revolution- 
 ary Tribunal was first modified and then abolished. 
 
 The reaction was so strong, annulling past decrees, liberating suspected 
 Loyalists, and punishing violent Revolutionists, that even many of the tniy 
 
 ▲POTUSOBIB OF BOUSBEAU, OCTOIIEE 11, 1T94.
 
 1794.] 
 
 THE THERMIDORIANS AND THE JACOBINS. 
 
 391 
 
 friends of popular rights were alarmed lest the nation should drift back 
 again under the sway of old feudal despotism. M. Frdron, in the following 
 terms, moved, in the Convention, an act of accusation against the execrable 
 Fouquier Tinville, who had been public accuser: 
 
 " I demand that the earth be at length delivered from that monster, and 
 that Fouquier be sent to hell, there to wallow in the blood he has shed." 
 
 The decree was passed by acclamation. In the space of eight or ten days 
 after the fall of llobespiei-re, out of ten thousand suspected persons not one 
 remained in the prisons of Paris.* For many weeks nothing of moment oc- 
 curred in the Convention but the petty strife of fections. On the 11th of 
 October the remains of Rousseau were transferred to the Pantheon with all 
 the accompaniments of funeral pageantry. They were deposited by the side 
 of the remains of Voltaire. Upon his tomb were inscribed the words, " Here 
 reposes the man of nature and of truth." 
 
 About a month before the flill of Robespierre, on the 26th of June, the 
 celebrated battle of Fleurus was fought. The sanguinary engagement ex- 
 tended along a semicircle nearly thirty miles in extent. The French had 
 brought up about eighty thousand troops to oppose an equal number of the 
 Allies. The French, under Pichegru, were victorious at every point, and 
 the Allies were compelled to retreat. They rallied for a short time in the 
 
 BATTI^ OF FI.EntrS. 
 
 vicinity of Brussels, but were soon again compelled to letire, and all Bel- 
 gium fell into the hands of the Republicans. 
 
 * Lacretelle.
 
 392 • THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. [ChaP. XXXVii. 
 
 About the middle of July two armies of the French, amounting to one 
 hundred and fifty thousand, effected a junction in the city of Brussels. The 
 Committee of Public Safety had passed an inhuman decree that no quarter 
 should be given to the English. The soldiers refused obedience to this de- 
 cree. A sergeant, having taken some English prisoners, brought them to 
 an officer. 
 
 " Why did you spare their lives?" the ofl&cer inquired. 
 
 "Because," the sergeant replied, "it was saving so manj^ shots." 
 
 " True," rejoined the of&cer, " but the Kepresentatives will oblige us to 
 shoot them." 
 
 " It is not we," retorted the sergeant, " who will shoot them. Send them 
 to the Kepresentatives. If they are barbarous enough, why, let them kill and 
 eat them if they like."* 
 
 While the French armies were gaining these signal victories all along the 
 Ehine, war was raging with almost equal ferocity in the ravines of the Alps 
 and at the base of the Pyrenees, as the Republicans struggled to repel the 
 invading hosts of Austria, England, and Spain. 
 
 The Thermidorians and the Jacobins were now the two great parties 
 struggling for power all over France. The Thermidorians were the mod- 
 erate conservative party, and the Jacobins called them Aristocrats. The 
 Jacobins were the radical, progressive, revolutionary party, and the Ther- 
 midorians called them Terrorists. The more intelligent and reputable por- 
 tion of the community were with the Thermidorians ; the women, weary 
 of turmoil and blood, were very generally with them ; and the very efiicient 
 military band of young men called the Jeunesse Doree (gilded youth), who be- 
 longed to the rich and middle classes, were very efiicient supporters of this 
 party, hurling defiance upon the Jacobins, and ever ready for a street fray 
 with their clubs. The Jacobins were composed of the mob, generally head- 
 ed by those vigorous, reckless, determined men who usually form what 
 Thiers calls "the ferocious democracy." Freron's journal. The Orator of the 
 People, was the eloquent advocate of the Thermidorians, now rising rapidly 
 to power, and it lanched incessant and merciless anathemas against the rev- 
 oluiioiiary canaille. The females who advocated Jacobinism were called the 
 furies of the guillotine, because they had frequently formed circles around the 
 scafibld, assailing the victims with ribald abuse. These two parties were so 
 equally divided, and the strife was so fierce between them, that scenes of 
 fearful uproar frequently took place not only in the Convention but through- 
 out all France. The spirit of the Jacobins at this time may be seen in the 
 following brief extract from a speech of Billaud Varennes : 
 
 " People talk," said he, " of shootings and drownings, but they do not rec- 
 ollect that the individuals for whom they feel pity had furnished succors to 
 the banditti. They do not recollect the cruelties perpetrated on our volun- 
 teers, who were hanged upon trees and shot in files. If vengeance is de- 
 manded for the banditti, let the families of two hundred thousand Republic- 
 ans, mercilessly slaughtered, come also to demand vengeance. The course 
 of counter- revolutionists is known. When, in the time of the Constituent 
 Assembly, they wanted to bring the Revolution to trial, they called the Jac- 
 
 * Thiers, vol. iii., p. 84.
 
 1794.J THE THERMIDORIANS AND THE JACOBINS. 893 
 
 obins disorganizers and shot them in the Field of Mars. After the 2d of 
 September, when they wanted to prevent the establishment of the Republic, 
 they called them quaffers of blood and loaded them with atrocious calumnies. 
 They are now recommencing the same machinations ; but let them not ex- 
 pect to triumph. The Patriots have been able to keep silence for a moment, 
 but the lion is not dead when he slumbers, and when he awakes he exter- 
 minates all his enemies. The trenches are open, the Patriots are about to 
 rouse themselves and to resume all their energy. We have already risked 
 our lives a thousand times. If the scaffold awaits us, let us recollect that 
 it was the scaffold which covered the immortal Sidney with glory." 
 
 This speech, reported in the journal of the Jacobins, called the Journal de 
 la Moidagne, created great excitement, and gave rise to one of the stormiest 
 debates in the Convention. The Jacobins were accused of wishing to di- 
 rect the mob against the Convention. They, on the other hand, accused the 
 Thermidorians of releasing well-known Eoyalists from prison, and of thus 
 encouraging a counter-revolution. Legendre, speaking in behalf of the 
 Thermidorians, in reply to the Jacobins, said, 
 
 " What have you to complain of, you w^ho are constantly accusing us ? 
 Is it because citizens are no longer sent to prison by hundreds ? because the 
 guillotine no longer dispatches fifty, sixty, or eighty persons per day ? Ah ! 
 I must confess that in this point our pleasure differs from yours, and that 
 our manner of sweeping the prisons is not the same. We have visited them 
 ourselves ; we have made, as far as it was possible to do so, a distinction be- 
 tween the Aristocrats and the Patriots ; if we have done wrong, here are our 
 heads to answer for it. But while we make reparation for crimes, while we 
 are striving to make you forget that those crimes are your own, why do you 
 go to a notorious society to denounce us, and to mislead the people who at- 
 tend there, fortunately in no great numbers ? I move that the Convention 
 take measures to prevent its members from going and preaching up rebel- 
 lion at the Jacobins'." .^ 
 
 The conflict extended from the Convention into the streets, and for sever- 
 al days there were serious riots. Angry groups in hostile bands paraded 
 the gardens of the Tuileries and the Palais Royal — the partisans of the Ther- 
 midorians shouting ^'- Down with the Terrorists and Rohespierre^s tail." Their 
 opponents shouted " The Jacobins forever ! Down with the Aristocrats f" 
 
 On the 9th of November there was a battle between the two parties in 
 the Rue St. Honore, in and around the hall of the Jacobins, which lasted 
 for several hours. A number of the women, called Furies of the Guillotine, 
 who mingled in the fray, were caught by the Jeunesse Doree^ and, in defiance 
 of all the rules of chivalry, had their clothes stripped from their backs and 
 were ignominiously whipped. It was midnight before the disturbance was 
 quelled. A stormy debate ensued next day in the Convention. 
 
 " Wliero has tyranny," said Rewbel, " been organized ? At the Jacobins'. 
 Where has it found its supporters and satellites? At the Jacobins'. Who 
 have covered France with mourning, carried despair into fomilies, filled the 
 country with prisons, and rendered the Republic so odious that a slave, 
 pressed down by the weight of his irons, would refuse to live under it? 
 Tte Jacobins. Who regret the frightful government under which we have 
 Vol. II.— H
 
 594 
 
 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. [ChAP. XXXVII. 
 
 lived ? The Jacobins. If you have not now the courage to declare your- 
 selves, you have no longer a Republic, because you have Jacobins." 
 
 Influenced by such sentiments, the Convention passed a decree " to close 
 the door of places where factions arise and where civil war is preached." 
 
 THE CLUB-HOUSE OF THE JACOBINS CLOSET). 
 
 Thus terminated the long reign of the Jacobin Club. The act was greeted 
 with acclaim by the general voice of France.* 
 
 The French, who had twelve hundred thousand men under arms, were 
 now in possession of all the important points on the Rhine, and every where 
 ,held their assailants at bay.f The latter part of December, Pichegru, driv- 
 ing the allied Dutch, English, and Austrians before him, crossed the Meuse 
 on the ice and entered Holland. The Republican party in Holland was 
 numerous and detested their rulers. They immediately prepared to rise and 
 welcome their friends, the French. In this desperate situation the Stadt- 
 holder implored a truce, offering as a condition of peace neutrality and in- 
 demnification for the expenses of the war.:}: Pichegru refused the truce ; 
 but sent the terras of peace for the consideration of the government in Paris. 
 The proffered terms were refused, and Pichegru was ordered to press on and 
 restore the Dutch Republic. At the head of two hundred thousand troops 
 he spread, like a torrent, over all Holland. He was every where received 
 with open arms and as a deliverer. The Allies, with the emigrants, fled in 
 all directions, some by land and some by sea. A portion of the Dutch fleet, 
 at anchor near the Texel, was frozen in by the unparalleled severity of the 
 
 * "This popular body had powerfully served the Revolution when, in order to repel Europe, 
 it was necessary to place the government in the multitude, and to give tlie Republic all the en- 
 ergy of defense ; but now it only obstructed the new order of things." — Mignet, 282. 
 
 t "At one time France had seventeen hundred thousand fighters on foot." — Toulongeon, vol. 
 iii., p. 194. t Thiers, vol. iii., p. 186.
 
 1795.] 
 
 THE THERMIDORIANS AND THE JACOBINS. 
 
 395 
 
 winter. A squadron of horse-artillery galloped across the ice and sum- 
 moned it to surrender. The fleet was compelled to strike its flags to these 
 novel assailants. On the 20th of January, 1795, Pichegru entered Amster- 
 dam in triumph. The inhabitants crowded from the walls to meet him, 
 shouting " The French Republic forever ! Liberty forever T 
 
 THE FRENCH ENTEEING AMSTERDAM ON THE ICE. 
 
 Holland, organizing as the Republic of the United Provinces, on the 16th 
 of May entered into an alliance offensive and defensive with the French Re- 
 public, to be perpetual during the continuance of the war. The two mfant 
 republics needed mutual support to resist the combined monarchies of En- 
 gland and the Continent.* 
 
 While Pichegru was gaining such victories on the Lower Rhine and in 
 Holland, Kleber was also, on the Upper Rhine, driving the Austrians before 
 him. He boldly crossed the river in the impetuous pursuit, and carried the 
 horrors of war into the enemies' country. Soon, however, he was crowded 
 with such numbers of antagonists that he was compelled, in his turn, to 
 commence a retreat. Again, re-enforcements arriving, he assumed the offens- 
 ive. Thus the tide of war ebbed and flowed. 
 
 Prussia, alarmed by these signal victories of the Republican troops, and 
 threatened with invasion, was anxious to withdraw from the coalition. The 
 
 • «'The first act of the Representatives was to publish a i)roclaTnation, in which they declared 
 that they would respect all private property, excpptinn, however, that of the Stadtholder ; that 
 the latter, being the only foe of the French Republic, his property belonrrcd to the conquerors as 
 an indemnification for the expenses of the war ; that the French entered as friends of the Bata- 
 vian nation, not to impose upon it any religion or any form of frovernment whatever, but to deliver 
 it from its oppressors, and to confer upon it the means of exjjrcssing its wishes. This proclama- 
 tion, followed up by corresponding acts, produced a most favorable impression." — Thiers, vol. 
 iii., p. 184.
 
 396 
 
 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. [ChAP. XXX VII. 
 
 THE PKENCH OKOSSrNG THE EIIINE UNDEK KLEBEB. 
 
 king sent a commissioner to Pichegra's head-quarters to propose peace. 
 Tlie commissioners from the two countries met at Basle, and on the 5th of 
 April a treaty of peace was signed. The French agreed to evacuate the 
 Prussian provinces they had occupied on the right bank of the Rhine, and 
 the Prussian monarchy agreed that there should be peace, amity, and a 
 good understanding between the King of Prussia and the French Republic. 
 
 Spain, also, trembling in view of the triumphant march of Dugommier 
 through the defiles of the Pyrenees, made proposals of accommodation, 
 promising to acknowledge the Republic and to pay indemnities for the war. 
 Peace with the Peninsula was signed at Basle on the 12th of July. This 
 peace, which detached a Bourbon from the coalition, was hailed throughout 
 France with transports of joy.* 
 
 England, Austria, and Naples still remained firm in their determination 
 to crush the Republic. William Pitt led the ministry with his warlike 
 measures, and triumphed over the peaceful policy of Sheridan and Fox. 
 He thus, for a quarter of a century, converted all Europe into a field of 
 blood. Roused by the energies of Pitt, tlic English government organized 
 a very formidable expedition, to be landed in La Vendee, to rouse and rally 
 the Royalists all over France, and thus to reinvigorate the energies of civil 
 war. A squadron was fitted out, consisting of three 74-gun ships, two frig- 
 ates of 44 guns, four frigates of 30 to 36 guns, and several gun-boats and 
 
 * "Tuscany, forced, in spite of herself, to give up her neutrality by the English embassador, 
 who, threatening her with an English squadron, had allowed her but twelve hours to decide, 
 was impatient to resume her part, especially since the French were at the gates of Genoa. Good 
 understanding and friendship were re-established between the two states." — Thiers, vol. iii., p. 
 230.
 
 ;.795.] 
 
 THE THEKMIDOIUANS AND THE JACOBINS. 
 
 397 
 
 VICTORY OF QUlIiEKON. 
 
 transports. This was the first division, which, as soon as it was established 
 in Franco, was to be followed by another. The fleet came to anchor in the 
 Bay of Quiberon on the 25th of June. A motley mass of about seven 
 thousand men were speedily landed ; the Royalists soon joined them, mak- 
 ing an army of some thii-teen thousand. General Iloche, who had for some 
 time been valiantly and most humanely struggling for the pacification of 
 
 MA88AOBK IN LYON 8 LED BY TIIK FBIESTB.
 
 398 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. [ChAP. XXXVIII. 
 
 La Vendue, marched to repel them. A few bloody battles ensued, in which 
 the unhappy invaders were driven into a narrow penmsula, where, by a 
 midnight assault, they most miserably perished. A few only escaped to 
 the ships ; many were drowned, and a large number were mercilessly put 
 to the sword. The Convention had decreed the penalty of death to any 
 Frenchman who should enter France with arms in his hands. 
 
 At Lyons there was a general rising of the Royalists and the reactionary 
 party against the Revolutionists. The Royalists proved themselves not one 
 whit behind the Jacobins in the energy with which they could push their 
 Reign of Terror. Led by the priests, the Royalist mob broke into the pris- 
 ons and murdered seventy or eighty prisoners who were accused of revolu- 
 tionary violence. One prison was set on fire, and all its inmates perished 
 miserably in the flames. 
 
 The disturbances in Lyons were soon quelled, and Hoche, having anni- 
 hilated the force which the English had landed in the Bay of Quiberon, 
 gradually succeeded in introducing tranquillity into La Vendue. Many of 
 the Royalists came to his camp to seek terms of reconciliation with the Re- 
 public. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXVIII. 
 
 DISSOLUTION OF THE CONVENTION. 
 
 Famine in Paris. — Strife between the Jeunesse Doie? and the Jacobins. — Riots. — Scene in the 
 Convention. — War with the Allies. — A new Constitution. — Insurrection of the Sections. — 
 Energy of General Bona])arte. — Discomfiture of the Sections. — Narrative of the Duchess of 
 Abrantes. — Clemency of the Convention. — Its final Acts and Dissolution, and Establishment 
 of the Directory. 
 
 Let us return to Paris. The unprecedented severity of the winter had 
 caused fearful suffering among the populace of Paris. The troubled times 
 had broken up all the ordinary employments of peace. The war, which 
 had enrolled a million and a half of men under arms, had left the fields un- 
 cultivated and deserted. A cruel famine wasted both city and country. 
 The Jacobins, who, though their clubs were closed, still met at the corners 
 of the streets and in the coffee-houses, took advantage of this public misery 
 to turn popular indignation against the victorious Thermidorians. Tumults 
 were again renewed, and hostile partisans met in angry conflicts. The 
 young men of the two parties had frequent encounters in the pits of the 
 theatres, bidding each other defiance, and often proceeding to blows. 
 
 At the Theiltre Feydeau, as in many other places, there was a bust of Ma- 
 rat, who was still idolized by the Jacobins. The young men of the Jeunesse 
 Dorde, in expression of their detestation of Marat, and as an insult to the 
 Jacobins, climbed the balcony, threw down the bust, and with shouts of ex- 
 ecration dragged it through the mire of the streets. 
 
 The Jacobins, exasperated, swore to avenge the insult. Strongly armed, 
 they paraded the streets, carrying a bust of Marat in triumph, and swearing 
 bloody vengeance upon any who might attempt to disturb their march. The 
 firmness of the Convention alone averted a sanguinary conflict. The public
 
 1795.] 
 
 DISSOLUTION OF THE CONVENTION. 
 
 399 
 
 THE JEUNTO8E DOE^K TUROWINO TUB BUST OF MARAT INTO TUE GITTEE. 
 
 distress, intense and almost universal, embarrassed and overwhelmed the Con 
 vention with the most difficult questions in the endeavor to afford relief On 
 the loth of March the supply of food in Paris was so small that it was deemed 
 necessary to put the inhabitants upon rations, each individual beino- allowed 
 but one pound of bread per day. Agitation and tumults were now rapidly 
 increasmg, and there were daily riots. The Convention was continually be-
 
 400 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. [ChAP. XXXYIII. 
 
 sieged and insulted by haggard multitudes with, petitions which assumed 
 the tone of fiercest threats. Scenes of confusion ensued which bade defiance 
 to all law, and which there was no authority to repress. 
 
 On the 20th of May there was one of the most fearful tumults which the 
 Eevolution had yet witnessed. At five in the morning. the generale was 
 beating in the public squares and the tocsin ringing in the faubourgs. The 
 populace were rapidly mustering for any deeds of violence to which their 
 leaders might conduct them. At eleven o'clock the Convention commenced 
 its sitting. One of the members brought in a plan, which he had secretly 
 obtained, of a very efl&ciently-organized insurrection. A crowd, mostly of 
 women, filled the galleries. As the plan was read, which appalled the dep- 
 uties, the galleries vociferously applauded. The Convention passed a few 
 harmless decrees, such as, 1st, that the city government was responsible for 
 any attack upon the Convention ; 2d, that all the citizens were bound to re- 
 ceive orders from the Convention ; and 3d, that there should be no insar- 
 rection. These decrees but provoked the derision of the galleries. The 
 tumult now became so great, the women shouting "Bread!" and shaking 
 their fists at the president and the deputies, that all business was at a stand, 
 and not a word of debate could be heard. 
 
 At length, some soldiers were sent into the galleries with bayonets, and 
 the women were driven into the streets. They soon, however, returned, 
 aided by their friends. They battered down all the doors and broke in and 
 filled the hall with an armed, shouting, brutal mob. Some of the citizens 
 rallied for the defense of the Convention, and a fierce battle raged within 
 the hall and around the doors. Pistols and muskets were discharged, swords 
 clashed, bayonet crossed bayonet, while yells and shrieks and imprecations 
 deafened the ear. Drunken women strode over the benches and clambered 
 to the president's chair. A young deputy, Feraud, was stabbed, then shot ; 
 his head was cut off, and, pierced by a pike, was thrust into the face of th6 
 president, Boissy d'Anglas, who most heroically maintained his post and his 
 composure through all these perilous scenes. For six hours the tumult 
 raged unabated. It was now seven o'clock in the evening, and the mob 
 drove all the deputies, like a flock of sheep, into the centre of the hall, sur- 
 rounded them with bristling baj^onets and pikes, and ordered them to issue 
 decrees for the relief of the people. At length, near midnight, a detach- 
 ment of the National Guard arrived, dispersed the crowd around the palace, 
 and, entering the hall with fixed bayonets, scattered the rioters. Tranquil- 
 lity being restored, one of the members rose and said, 
 
 " It is then true that this Assembly, the cradle of the Eepublic, has once 
 more well nigh been its tomb. Fortunately, the crime of the conspirators is 
 prevented. But, Representatives, you would not be worthy of the nation if 
 you were not to avenge it in a signal manner." 
 
 The rest of the night was passed in devising schemes to crush the Jacobin 
 power which had organized this insurrection. The Duchess of Abrantes, 
 who was then in Paris, thus alludes to these events : " While the most 
 frightful scenes," she writes, " were passing in the Convention, the respect- 
 able inhabitants of Paris shut themselves up in their houses, concealed their 
 valuables, and awaited, with fearful anxiety, the result. Toward evening
 
 1795.] 
 
 DISSOLUTION OF THE CONVENTION. 
 
 401 
 
 60ENE IN THE NATIONAL CONVENTION. 
 
 my brotlier, whom we had not seen during the day, came home to get some- 
 thing to eat ; he was almost famished, not having tasted food since the morn- 
 ing. Disorder still raged, and we heard the most frightful noise in the 
 streets, mingled with the beating of drums. My brother had scarcely finished 
 his hasty repast when General Bonaparte arrived to make a similar claim 
 upon our hospitality. He also had tasted nothing since the morning, for all 
 the restaurateurs were closed. He soon dispatched what my brother had 
 left, and as he was eating he told us the news of the day. It was most ap- 
 
 Cc
 
 402 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. [ChAP. XXXVIII. 
 
 palling ; mj brother had informed us but of part. He did not know of the 
 assassination of the unfortunate Feraud, whose body had been cut almost 
 piecemeal. ' They took his head,' said Bonaparte, ' and presented it to poor 
 Boissy d'^Vnglas, and the shock of this fiend- like act was almost death to the 
 president in his chair. Truly,' added he, ' if we continue thus to sully our 
 Revolution, it will be a disgrace to be a Frenchman.' "* 
 
 Alarmed by the advance of anarchy, the Convention immediately insti- 
 tuted proceedings against several prominent Jacobin members, who were 
 known to be ringleaders of the insurrection. They were arrested and con- 
 signed to imprisonment in the Castle of Ham. Paris was declared to be in 
 a state of siege, and Pichegru, then in the full lustre of his glory, was ap- 
 pointed commander of the armed force. The carriages which conveyed tho 
 arrested deputies to the Castle of Ham had to pass through the Elysian 
 Fields. The Jacobins assembled in strong numbers and endeavored to res- 
 cue them. The energy of Pichegru repelled the attempt. A fight ensued, 
 with cannon and small arms, in which several lives were lost. 
 
 While these melancholy scenes were transpiring in Paris, the combined 
 fleets and armies of England, Austria, and Naples were fiercely assailing 
 the Republic at every vulnerable point. England, being undisputed mis- 
 tress of the sea, had nothing to fear from the conflagration which she was 
 kindling all over Europe. To stimulate impoverished Austria to the war, 
 the British government loaned her $23,000,000 (£4,600,000). She aug- 
 mented her own naval force to a hundred thousand seamen, put into com- 
 mission one hundred and eight ships of the line, and raised her land forces 
 to one hundred and fifty thousand men.f 
 
 The question to be decided was, whether France had a right to abolish 
 monarchy and establish a republic. It is in vain for the Allies to say that 
 they were contending against the outrages which existed in France, for 
 their hostile movements preceded these scenes of carnage, and were the effi- 
 cient cause of nearly all the calamities that ensued. And, deplorable as was 
 the condition of France during the Reign of Terror, even that reign was far 
 more endurable by the masses of the people than the domination of the old 
 feudal despotism. 
 
 Carlyle makes the following appalling statement, the truth of which will 
 not be denied by any careful student of the Old Regime : 
 
 " History, looking back over this France through long times — back to 
 Turgot's time, for instance, when dumb Drudgery staggered up to its king's 
 palace, and, in wide expanse of sallow faces, squalor, and winged ragged- 
 ness, presented hieroglyphically its petition of grievances, and, for answer, 
 got hanged on a new gallows forty feet high — confesses mournfully ^^that 
 there is no period in which the general tweiiUj-five millions of France suffered 
 less than in this period which they named the Reign of Terror ! 
 
 " But it was not the dumb millions that suffered here ; it was the speak- 
 ing thousands, and hundreds, and units, who shrieked and published, and 
 made the world ring with \\\o\r wail, as they could and should; that is the 
 grand peculiarity. The frightfulest births of time are never the loud- 
 
 * Memoirs of the Duchesse d'Abrantes, p. 90. 
 ■(• Thiers, vol. iii., p. 242. New Annual Register.
 
 ^795.] DISSOLUTION OF THE CONVENTION. 403 
 
 speaking ones, for these soon die; they are the sHent ones, which live from 
 
 century to century."* „ , , r .-u mv 
 
 The'^Koyalist emigrants, taking advantage of the clemency of the Ther- 
 midorians began now to return to France in great numbers, and were very 
 active every where in trying to promote a counter-revolution, and m forming 
 conspiracies to overthrow the Republic and re-establish the Bourbons. They 
 were sui^plied with immense sums of money to expend as bribes. 
 
 A new Constitution was formed to meet the new emergencies ot the 
 country Instead of one General Assembly, they had two legislative bodies 
 The Senate called the Council of the AncienU, consisted of two hundred and 
 fifty members, of at least forty years of age, and all were to be either 
 widowers or married; one third to be renewed every year. The lower 
 house called the CoancU of the Five Hundred, was to be composed ot mem- 
 bers of at least thirty years of age, to be renewed also annually by one 
 third Instead of an executive of sixteen committees, five Directors were 
 intru'sted with the executive power, to be renewed annually by one fifth. 
 Thus organized, the ship of state was again launched upon its stormy voy- 
 age, to encounter tempests without and mutiny within. This Constitution 
 w°as the work of the moderate Republican party, and restored the asccnd- 
 encv of the middle class. As such it was obnoxious to the Jacobms.t 
 France was now so rent by hostile parties that no Constitution could long 
 
 ^^^The old Constituent Assembly had, by a decree which was intended to 
 be very patriotic and self-denying, excluded itself from the Legislative As- 
 sembly which was to succeed it. This act, however, proved to be inju- 
 dicious and disastrous. The Legislative Assembly, wishing to secure a ma- 
 ioritv friendly to moderate Republicanism in the two bodies to be elected 
 under the new Constitution, d'M^eed that two thirds of their own members 
 should be elected to the two new legislative bodies. This decree, which wa^ 
 accepted with great unanimity by France as a whole, was exceedingly ob- 
 noxious to the Royalists and to the Jacobins of Pans, both of whom hoped 
 to obtain a majority under the new Constitution. These two extremes now 
 joined hands, and, as usual, appealed for support to msurrection and the 
 terrors of the mob. There was no excuse for this violence, for the Constitu- 
 tion was accepted almost unanimously by France, and the decrees by an im- 
 mense majority. It was in Paris alone that there was any opposition and 
 even there the opposition was only to the decrees. Still, Roj-^ilists and Jaco- 
 bins united to crush the will of the nation by a Parisian mob. 
 
 Paris was divided in forty-eight electoral sections or wards. The section 
 of Lepelletier was the focus of the gathering storm. The tocsin was rung, 
 drums beat, and armed bands collected. The Convention sent General Me- 
 nou a kind-hearted man, to surround this section and disarm it. Overawed 
 by the hio-h rank of the leaders, Menou parleyed with them, and, at length, 
 alarmed by their numbers, their strength, and their determination, by a sort 
 of capitulation disgracefully retreated. 
 
 * Carlvle's History of the French Revolution, vol. ii., p. 460. .^ ^ 
 
 t "This Constitution was the host, the wisest, the most liberal, and the most provident that 
 
 had as yet been established or projected ; it contained the result of six years' revolutionary and 
 
 legislative experience."— 3/t(7ncr, p. 301.
 
 404 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. [ChAP. XXXVIIL 
 
 Napoleon Bonaparte was then in Paris, out of employment, and was that 
 evening at the Theatre Feydeau. Some friends came and informed him of 
 the scenes which were transpiring. He immediately left the theatre and 
 hastened to the gallery of the Assembly, to witness the elSfect which would 
 be produced upon that body b}^ the tidings of the retreat of Menou.* 
 
 He found the Assembly in great commotion. Some one had moved the 
 arrest of Menou, and his trial for treason. It was a scene of tumult and 
 alarm, many speaking at once. Barras, who had acquired some reputation 
 for intrepiditv and energy, was appointed as chief of the forces in the place 
 of Menou. Barras, who was well acquainted with the energetic character 
 of Napoleon, and who probably saw him in the gallery, immediately re- 
 quested that General Bonaparte should be appointed as his second in com- 
 mand. Barras knew his man, and was willing to surrender to the young 
 brigadier-general the entire superintendence of the military arrangements to 
 quell the revolt. 
 
 The Convention had five thousand troops at its command. The sections 
 now, with clamor and tumult, were marching upon them with fortj'-five thou- 
 sand. Barras was a man of commanding stature and of powerful frame. 
 Napoleon, though he had acquired at Toulon a high reputation in the army, 
 was but little Known in Paris. When Barras introduced to the Convention 
 the young general, a small, slender, pale-faced, smooth-cheeked youth, who 
 seemed to be not more than eighteen years of age, all were surprised. 
 
 NAPOLEON BEFORE THE CONVENTION. 
 
 "Are you willing," inquired the president, "to undertake the defense of 
 the Convention ?" 
 
 " Yes," was the laconic reply. 
 
 * Las Casas.
 
 1795.] DISSOLUTION OF THE CONVENTION. 405 
 
 The president hesitated, and then continued, " But are you aware of the 
 magnitude of the undertaking ?" 
 
 Napoleon fixed that eagle eye upon him which few could meet without 
 quailing, and replied, " Perfectly ; and I am in the habit of accomplishing 
 that which I undertake. But one condition is indispensable. I must have 
 the unlimited command, entirely untrammeled by any orders from the Con- 
 vention." 
 
 There was no time for debate ; and even the most stupid could see that in 
 such an hour the public safety could only be secured by the prompt, concen- 
 trated action of a single mind, sufficiently powerful to meet the emergency. 
 The characteristic traits of Napoleon's character were perhaps never more 
 conspicuously displayed than on this occasion — his self-reliance, his skill in 
 the choice of agents, his careful preparation against the possibility of defeat, 
 and his fortitude in doing whatever might be necessary for the accomplish- 
 ment of his plans. 
 
 Not a moment was lost. At Sablons, a few miles from Paris, there was a 
 park of forty pieces of artillery. Napoleon dispatched a young soldier, 
 whom he well knew, of most chivalrous daring and impetuosity, Joachim 
 Murat, to secure the guns. At the head of three hundred horse he was al- 
 most instantly on the gallop, and arrived at Sablons just in time to rescue 
 the artillery from a smaller band of the insurrectionists, who had also been 
 dispatched to secure it. The guns were brought to the Tuileries. They 
 were promptly ranged to sweep all the avenues leading to the Tuileries. 
 The cavalry and a part of the infantry were placed in reserve in the garden 
 of the palace and in the Carrousel. The Convention awoke fully to a sense 
 of its danger and to the energy of its commander when soldiers brought 
 eight hundred muskets into the hall, with which the deputies were to arm 
 themselves and advance to battle if necessary. Detachments of troops were 
 dispatched to seize by surprise all the provisions and ammunition in Paris, 
 and convey them to a safe depot in the Tuileries. A hospital for the wound- 
 ed was established in the palace, provided with necessaries for every emerg- 
 ency. The troops of all kinds at Napoleon's disposal, variously estimated at 
 from five to eight thousand, were strongly posted in the leading streets, at 
 the bridges, in the Place Vendome, and in the Place de la Eevolution. A 
 strong detachment was sent to occupy the heights of Meudon, Napoleon in- 
 tending to retreat there, with the Convention, in case of defeat. One section 
 in Paris had voted with the immense majority of the nation for the decrees. 
 Chests of arms were sent to that section to arm the voters in defense of the 
 laws. A detachment was sent to the road to St. Germain, to intercept any 
 cannon from being brought from that direction. 
 
 All this was accomplished in one short night, the 4th of October, Napo- 
 leon seeming to infuse his own energy into every one around him. In the 
 mean time the sections, though by no means aware of the spirit they were 
 doomed to encounter, were not idle. They had organized a kind of insur- 
 rectionary government, outlawed the committees of the Convention, and had 
 established a tribunal to punish those who should resist its sovereignty- 
 Several energetic generals, Jacobins, and also Royalists, creeping from their 
 retreats, ofifered their services to lead the attack upon the Convention. Gen-
 
 406 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. [ChAP. XXXVIII. 
 
 eral Danican, a Royalist, who had been a general of brigade in the civil war 
 which had desolated La Vendee, was appointed commander-in-chief of the 
 forces of the insurrection. He had the National Guard, forty thousand strong, 
 well armed, officered, and disciplined, under his command. The morning 
 of the 5th dawned. 
 
 The alarm-bells were now ringing and the generale beating. The armed 
 hosts of the sections were mustering at their appointed rendezvous and pre- 
 paring to march upon the Convention. The members, in their seats, in si- 
 lence and awe awaited the assault,^ upon the issue of which their lives were 
 suspended. Napoleon, pale, solemn, and perfectly calm, was waiting, re- 
 solved that the responsibility of the first blow should fall upon his assail- 
 ants, and that he would take the responsibility of the second. 
 
 Soon the enemy were seen advancing from every direction, in masses 
 which filled the narrow streets of the city. With music and banners they 
 marched to attack the besieged on every side, confident, from their numbers, 
 of an easy victory. They did not believe that the few and feeble troops of 
 the Convention would dare to resist the populace of Paris, but cherished the 
 delusion that a few shots from their own side would put all opposition to 
 flight. Thus unhesitatingly they came within sweep of the grapeshot with 
 which Napoleon had charged his guns. The troops of the Convention stood 
 firm. The insurgents opened a volley of bullets upon them. It was the 
 signal for an instantaneous discharge, direct, sanguinary, merciless, from ev- 
 ery battery. A storm of grape swept the streets. The columns of the as- 
 sailants wavered, turned, fled, and still the storm pursued them. One of the 
 strongest battalions of the insurgents had posted itself on the steps of the 
 Church of Saint Roche, where it occupied a commanding position for firing 
 upon the gunners of the Convention. Napoleon directed his artillery to ad- 
 vance upon them by the cul de sac Dauphin, and immediately threw into 
 their crowded ranks a storm of grapeshot. The insurgents fought manfully 
 for a time, but were soon compelled to retreat, leaving the steps of the church 
 covered with the slain. As they fled. Napoleon pushed his artillery up the 
 street, and, wheeling to the right and the left, swept the whole length of the 
 Rue St. Honore. In two hours the victory was achieved, forty thousand men 
 were vanquished by five thousand, the streets were cleared, and Napoleon 
 returned in calm triumph to the Tuileries.* 
 
 It is interesting to catch a glimpse of Napoleon in his domestic life at this 
 time. The Duchess of Abrantes writes, " My parents arrived in Paris on 
 the 4th of September. Two days after my father was very ill. Bonaparte, 
 apprised by my brother, came immediately to see us. He appeared to be 
 affected by the state of my father, who, though in great pain, insisted on 
 seeing him. He came every day, and in the morning he sent or called him- 
 self to inquire how he had passed the night. I can not recollect his conduct 
 at that period without sincere gratitude. 
 
 * There is no cxapRcration in the following account of the condition of France at this time : 
 "Since France had become Republican every species of evil had accumulated upon its devoted 
 head. Famine, a total cessation of commerce, civil war, attended by its usual accomjianiments — 
 conflagration, robbery, pillage, and murder. Justice was interrupted; the sword of the law wield- 
 ed by iniquity ; projierty spoliated ; confiscation rendered the order of the day ; the scaffold per- 
 manently erected ; calumnious denunciations held in the highest estimation. Nothing was want- 
 ing to the general desolation." — Hist, de la Conw., vol. ii., p. 2J5, 216.
 
 1795.] 
 
 DISSOLUTION OF THE CONVENTION. 
 
 407 
 
 ^ - ~^'i:c£)^M?^^i)" 
 
 THE SECTIO.NS AT BAINT BOUUE. 
 
 " He inf(:»rmed us that Paris was in such a state as must necessarily lead 
 to a convulsion. The sections were in, if not open, at least almost avowed 
 insurrection. The section Lepelletier, which was ours, was the most turbu- 
 lent, and, in fact, the most to be dreaded. Its orators did not scruple to de- 
 liver the most incendiary speeches. They asserted that the power of the 
 assembled people was above the laws, ' Matters are getting from bad to 
 worse,' said Bonaparte ; ' the counter-revolution will shortly break forth, and 
 it will, at the same time, become the source of disasters.'
 
 408 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. [ChAP. XXXVIII. 
 
 " As I liave said, lie came every day ; he dined with us and passed the 
 evening in the drawing-room, talking in a low tone beside the easy-chair of 
 my mother, who, worn out with fatigue, dozed for a few moments to recruit 
 her strength, for she never quitted my father's pillow. I recollect that, one 
 evening, my father being very ill, my mother was weeping and in great 
 tribulation. It was ten o'clock. At that time it was impossible to induce 
 any of the servants of the hotel to go out after nine. Bonaparte said noth- 
 ing. He ran down stairs and posted away to Duchannais, whom he brought 
 back with him in spite of his objections. The weather was dreadful ; the 
 rain poured in torrents. Bonaparte had not been able to meet with a hack- 
 ney coach to go to M. Duchannais ; he was wet through. Yes, indeed, at 
 that period Bonaparte had a heart susceptible of attachment. 
 
 " Meanwhile we became more and more alarmed every day by the dan- 
 gers which manifested themselves around us. Paris rung with the tumult 
 of the factions, each of which drew the sword and hoisted its standard. 
 Against the Convention, then the only real authority, were arrayed the sec- 
 tions, which for some days past again declared war against it. Paris resem- 
 bled a garrison town. At night we heard the sentries calling to and an- 
 swering one another, as in a besieged town. The strictest search was made 
 for arms and ammunition. 
 
 " For some years my mother had been subject to nervous paroxysms. At 
 such times she disliked to have any body about her. On reaching the draw- 
 ing-room I found her all in tears and in one of the most violent spasms. 
 General Bonaparte was with her, endeavoring to soothe her. He told me 
 that on his arrival he found her on the point of attacking the adjunct of the 
 section to prevent his entering my father's chamber. ' I should be glad to 
 spare your mother such scenes,' said he ; ' I have not much influence, never- 
 theless I will go myself to the section. I wiU see the president if possible 
 and settle the business at once. Paris is all on fire, especially since this 
 morning. It is necessary to be very cautious in every thing one does and 
 in all one says. Your brother must not go out any more. Attend to all 
 this, for your mother is in a sad state.' 
 
 " This was a dreadful night for my father. The next morning the gene- 
 rale was beat. The streets were already very unsafe, though people were 
 still passing to and fro in Paris, as though they were not going to cut one 
 another's throats a few hours afterward. The tumult became very great at 
 dusk ; the theatres were nevertheless open. Indeed, we are a nation of lu- 
 natics ! 
 
 " On the morning of the 12th Vendemiaire (October 4) Bonaparte, who 
 had called according to custom, appeared to be lost in thought. He went 
 out, came back, went out again, and again returned when we were at our 
 dessert. ' I breakfasted very late,' said he, ' at Bourrienne's. They talked 
 politics there till I was quite tired of the subject. I will try to learn the 
 news, and if I have any thing interesting I will come and tell you.' 
 
 " We did not see him again. The night was tumultuous, especially in 
 our section. The whole Eue de la Loi was bristling with bayonets. Barri- 
 cades were already set up in our streets. On the morning of the 13th (Oc- 
 tober 5) my father was very ill. For some hours we flattered ourselves that
 
 1795.1 DISSOLUTION OF THE CONVENTION. 409 
 
 matters would be adjusted between the Convention and the rebels ; but 
 about half past four the firing of the cannon began. The effect on my poor 
 father was terrible. He gave a piercing shriek, calhng for assistance, and 
 was seized with the most violent delirium. All the scenes of the Revolution 
 passed in review before him, and every discharge that he heard was a blow 
 struck at hun personally. What a day ! what an evening! what a night ! 
 Every pane of glass was broken in pieces. Toward evening the section 
 fell back upon us. The fighting was continued almost under our window, 
 but when it had come to St. Roche we imagined that the house was tumbling 
 about our ears. 
 
 " My father was in the agonies of death ; he shouted, he wept. Never, 
 no, never, shall I suffer what I did during that terrible night. Next day 
 tranquillity was restored, we were told, in Paris. I can scarcely give any 
 account of the 14th. Toward evening Bonaparte came for a moment ; he 
 found me dissolved in tears. When he learned the cause his cheerful and 
 open countenance suddenly changed. My mother entered at that moment. 
 She knew no more than I how important a part Bonaparte had played on 
 that great day. ' Oh !' said my mother, ' they have killed my husband. 
 You, Napoleon, can feel for my distress. Do you recollect that on the first 
 Prairial, when you came to sup with me, you told me that you had just pre- 
 vented Barras from bombarding Paris ? Do you recollect it ? For my part 
 [ have not forgotten it.' 
 
 " Many persons have alleged that Napoleon always regretted that day. 
 Be that as it may, he was always exceedingly kind to my mother in these 
 moments of affliction, though himself in circumstances that could not but 
 outweigh all other interests. He was Hke a son — like a brother."* 
 
 The Convention treated the insurrectionists, who had thus been so severe- 
 ly punished, with the utmost clemency.f Napoleon received the thanks 
 of the Convention and a brilliant reception. The Convention united Bel- 
 gium with France; decreed that the punishment of death should be abolish- 
 ed as soon as a general peace with Europe could be effected ; changed the 
 name of the Place of the Revolution to the Place of Concord; pronounced 
 an amnesty for all acts connected with the Revolution, excepting one person 
 implicated in the last revolt; and then, on the 26th of October, 1795, the 
 President of the Convention pronounced these words, 
 
 " The National Convention declares that its mission is accomplished, and 
 its session is closed." 
 
 With one united shout— T'Ae Bepuhlic forever f— the deputies left the hall 
 and dispersed to their homes. 
 
 To the States-General fell the task, after a terrific struggle with king and 
 nobles, to create the Constituent Assembly, a great national congress, whose 
 function it was to moderate the despotism of the throne by conferring upon 
 
 * Memoirs of the Duchesse d'Abrantes, p. 118. 
 
 f " After this memorable conflict, when Bonaparte had been publicly received with enthusiasm 
 by the Convention, Avho declared that he and Barras deserved well of their country, a great 
 change took i>lace in him, and the change in regard to attention to his person was not the least 
 remarkable. He now never went out but in a handsome carriage, and he lived in a very respect- 
 able house, Kue des Capucines. In short, he had become an important, a necessary personage, 
 and all without noise, as if by magic." — Duchess o/Abrantes. 
 Vol. IT. -I
 
 410 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. [ChAP. XXXVIII, 
 
 a nation of twenty -five millions of people, after ages of oppression, constitU' 
 tional liberty. The. Constituent Assembly, which succeeded the States- 
 Greneral, abolished those old institutions of feudal servitude which had be^ 
 come utterly unendurable, and established a constitutional monarchy, taking 
 as a model, in the main, the British Constitution. The Legislative Assem- 
 bly then took the place of the Constituent, to enact laws in harmony with 
 this Constitution. It soon, however, found that the king was in league with 
 despotic Europe to overthrow constitutional liberty and restore the old des- 
 potism. It consequently suspended the king, and the Constitution with 
 which his power was inseparably interwoven, and dissolved itself.* The 
 National Convention, which succeeded, commenced its deliberations on the 
 21st of September, 1792. 
 
 "The Convention," says Thiers, "found a dethroned king, an annulled 
 Constitution, an administration entirely destroyed, a paper money discredit- 
 ed, old skeletons of regiments worn out and empty. Thus it was not lib- 
 erty that it had to proclaim in presence of an enfeebled and despised throne, 
 it was liberty that it had to defend against all Europe — a very difl&cult task. 
 Without being for a moment daunted, it proclaimed the Eepublic in the 
 face of the hostile armies ; it then sacrificed the king, to cut ofi" all retreat 
 from itself; it subsequently took all the powers into its own hands, and 
 constituted itself a dictatorship. Voices were raised in its bosom which 
 talked of humanity^ when it wished to hear of nothing but energy ; it stifled 
 them. This dictatorship, which the necessity of the general preservation 
 had obliged it to arrogate to itself over all France, twelve of its members 
 soon arrogated to themselves over it, for the same reason, and on account 
 of the same necessity. From the Alps to the sea, from the Pyrenees to the 
 Rhine, these twelve dictators seized upon all, both men and things, and 
 commenced the greatest and the most awful struggle with the nations of 
 Europe ever recorded in history. They spilt torrents of blood, till, having 
 become useless from victory, and odious by the abuse of strength, they fell. 
 
 " The Convention then took the dictatorship again into its own hands, 
 and began, by degrees, to relax the springs of that terrible administration. 
 Rendered confident by victory, it listened to humanity, and indulged its 
 spirit of regeneration. It aimed at every thing good and great, and pur- 
 sued this purpose for a year; but the parties crushed under its pitiless 
 authority revived under its clemency. Two factions, in which were blend- 
 ed, under infinite variety of shades, the friends and the foes of the Revolu- 
 tion, attacked it by turns. It vanquished the one and the other, and, till 
 the last day, showed itself heroic amid dangers. Lastly, it framed a Re- 
 publican Constitution, and, after a struggle of three years with Europe, with 
 the factions, with itself, mutilated and bleeding, it dissolved itself, and trans- 
 mitted the government of France to the Directory."f 
 
 * The States-General held its session from May 6, 1789. 
 t Thiers, Fr. Eev., vol. iii., p. 333.
 
 1795.] THE DIRECTORY. 411 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIX. 
 
 THE DIRECTORY. 
 
 Constitution of the Directory. — Distracted State of Public AflFairs. — New Expedition to LaVen- 
 de'e. — Death of the Daujihin. — Release of the Princess. — Pacification of La Vcnde'e. — Riots 
 in London. — Execution of Charette. — Napoleon takes command of the Army of Italy. — The 
 first Proclamation. — Triumphs in Italy. — Letter of General Hoclie. — Peace with Spain. — Es- 
 tablishment of the Cispadane Republic. — Negotiations with Entriand. — Contemplated Invasion 
 of Ireland. — Memorials of Wolfe Tone. — Deplorable State of Public Affairs. — Description of 
 Napoleon. — Composition of the Directory. 
 
 The government of tlie Directory went into operation on the 27th of Oc- 
 tober, 1795. The two legislative bodies, the Council of the Ancients and 
 the Council of the Five Hundred, met and chose for the five directors Lare- 
 veill^re Lepeaux, Lc Tourneur, Eewbel, Carnot, and Barras. "Among 
 these," says Thiers, "there was not a man of genius, nor even any man of 
 high reputation, excepting Carnot. But what was to be done at the end of 
 a sanguinary revolution which, in a few years, had devoured several genera- 
 tions of men of genius of every description ? In the Assemblies there was 
 not left one extraordinary orator ; in diplomacy there remained not one cele- 
 brated negotiator."* The state of public affairs at this time was deplorable 
 in the extreme. Innumerable factions disturbed the state. A very sanguin- 
 ary war was raging around the frontiers. The embers of civil war were still 
 smoldering and frequently bursting out into flame. Three powerful parties 
 were struggling almost with the energies of despair for the supremacy — the 
 old Royalists, the Thermidorians or moderate Rei)ublicans, and the Jaco- 
 bins, who wielded, as the great instrument of terror, the energies of the Pa- 
 risian mob. Many of the most intelligent men already foresaw that there 
 was no hope for distracted France but in the action of some mighty mind 
 which could mould the tumultuous elements and evolve order from the con- 
 fusion.f 
 
 The British government, undismayed by the disaster of Quiberon, now 
 sent another expedition to the shores of La Vendee to rouse the Royalists 
 to insurrection. The expedition consisted of two thousand English in- 
 fantry, five hundred horse, several regiments of French emigrants, a great 
 number of officers to take command of the marshaled peasantry, and arms, 
 ammunition, provisions, clothing, and gold in abundance. Should this ex- 
 pedition successfully land and rally around it the Royalist insurgents in 
 promising numbers, it was immediately to be followed by another still more 
 
 * Thiers, History of the French Revolution, vol. iii., p. 338. 
 
 + "France, exhausted by ever)' species of suff"erinp, had lost even the power of uttering a com- 
 I)laint ; and we had all arrived at such a point of dejiression that death, if unattended by pain, 
 would have been wished for even by the youngest human being, because it offered the prospect of 
 repose, and every one panted for that blessing at any price. But it was ordained that many days, 
 months, and years should still continue in that state of horrible agitation, the true foretaste of the 
 torments of hell." — Memoirs of the Duchess ofAbrantes, p. 296.
 
 412 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. [ChAP. XXXIX. 
 
 powerful. The Count d'Artois (Charles X.) was placed in command of this 
 force. Charette, a very intrepid Kojalist chieftain, had raised some ten 
 thousand peasants, and was in command of the coast to welcome the invad- 
 ers. But General Hoche fell upon the insurgent Vendeeans and scattered 
 them; and the English fleet, after hovering for some time along the coast, 
 being unable to effect a landing, and disappointed in the support they hoped 
 to have met, abandoned the enterprise and returned to England.* 
 
 While the coast of France was thus threatened the Allies on the Ehine 
 gained some very decisive victories, and drove the routed Eepublicans be- 
 fore them. There was no money in the treasury of the Directory. The 
 paper money, which had been freely issued, had become almost worthless, 
 and the armies were now in destitution and rags. Such were the difficulties 
 with which the new government had to grapple.f 
 
 On the 8th of June the dauphin died in the Temple. While he lived he 
 was considered by the Eoyalists the legitimate King of France, under the 
 title of Louis XVII. Upon his death the emigrants declared the Count of 
 Provence king, and he assumed the title of Louis XVIII. It will be re- 
 membered that the Convention sent some deputies to arrest Dumouriez, and 
 that he seized these commissioners and handed them over to the Austrians 
 as hostages. The Directory now exchanged the young princess, who still 
 survived in woeful captivity, for these commissioners and a few other distin- 
 guished prisoners held by the Austrians. It was the 19th of December 
 when this unhappy child left her cell, where she had endured agonies such 
 as few on earth had known, to be conveyed back to the palaces of her ma- 
 ternal ancestors. 
 
 The guns of Napoleon, quelling the insurgent sections, had established 
 the government of the Directory. To secure Paris and France from similar 
 scenes of violence, an imposing force was organized, called the Army of the 
 Interior, and Napoleon was placed in command. As by magic, under his 
 efficient command, this body was organized into the highest discipline and 
 efficiency, and, overawing the discontented, maintained public order, A 
 formidable camp of these troops was established at Grrenelle. But for Na- 
 
 * A Republican does not view this endeavor on the part of the British government to foment 
 civil war in France as sl Royalist views it. "It is paiu/hl,^' says Mr. Ahson, "to reflect how dif- 
 ferent might have been the issue of the campaign had Great Britain really put forth its strength 
 in the contest, and, instead of landing a few thousand men on a coast bristling with bayonets, 
 sent thirty thousand men to make head against the Republicans till the Royalist forces were so 
 organized as to be able to take the field with regular troops." It was this persistent determina- 
 tion, on the part of the British government and allied Europe, that France should not enjoy free 
 institutions, which led to nearly all the sanguinary scenes of the French Revolution, and which, 
 for nearly a quarter of a century, made Europe red with blood. 
 
 f "All these forces [of the RepuV)lic] were in a state of extreme penury, and totally destitute 
 of the equipments necessary for the cnrrying on of a campaign. They had neither caissons, nor 
 horses, nor magazines. The soldiers were almost naked and the generals, even, frequently in want 
 of the necessaries of life. Multitudes had taken advantage of the relaxation of authority follow- 
 ing the fall of Robespierre to desert and return to their homes, and the government, so far from 
 being able to bring them back to their colors, were not even able to levy conscripts in the interior 
 to supf)ly their place." — Alison, vol. i., p. 369. 
 
 Paper money had been issued to the almost incredible amount of 2,000,000,000 dollars, or 
 10,000,000,000 francs. This paper money had so depreciated that a pound of sugar cost eighty 
 dollars in paper money.
 
 1796.] THE DIRECTORY. 413 
 
 poleon the Directory could not have come into being. But for Napoleon it 
 could not have lived a year, struggling against the conspiracies which ever 
 crowded it.* General lloche, operating with singular wisdom and human- 
 ity, succeeded in the pacification of the inhabitants of La Vendue. They 
 surrendered their arms, and peace was restored to that distracted region. 
 Still William Pitt clamored for war against the French Kepublic. The En- 
 glish people were indignant at these unjust assaults against a neighboring 
 nation struggling to throw off the chains of intolerable servitude, and de- 
 manded peace with France. The liberty-loving Englishmen met in immense 
 gatherings in the open air, and denounced the war system in the most bold 
 and decisive resolves. As the king rode to Parliament the populace pur- 
 sued him, pelted his carriage with stones, broke the windows, and it was as- 
 serted that an air-gun was fired at him. Pitt, riding on horseback, was rec- 
 ognized by the populace, and with difficulty escaped from their hands cov- 
 ered with mud. Fox and Sheridan in Parliament were loud and eloquent 
 in the denunciation of the war measures of the ministry.f Pitt endeavored 
 to defend himself against the assaults of the opposition by saying that En- 
 glish blood had not been shed. " True," replied Sheridan, " English blood 
 has not been shed, but English honor has oozed from every pore." 
 
 The Allies, exhilarated by their successes on the Rhine, prepared to press 
 the war with new visror. Pitt obtained from Parliament a new loan of 
 thirty-five millions of dollars. General Bonaparte was promoted from the 
 command of the Army of the Interior to that of the Army of Italy. He im- 
 mediately entered upon that Italian campaign which gave him renown 
 throughout the world. 
 
 Though the Vendeeans had surrendered their arms and were rejoicing in 
 the enjoyment of peace, Charette wandered about the country, refusing all 
 overtures at reconciliation, and striving, with great energy, to rouse new 
 forces of insurrection. The entire pacification of La Vendee now depended 
 upon the capture of Charette. "With almost unparalleled energy and brav- 
 ery he succeeded for several months in eluding his foes. At last, on the 
 24th of March, 1796, he fell into an ambuscade. He was armed to the teeth, 
 and fought with the ferocity of a tiger at bay. He received several sabre- 
 blows before he fell and was secured. At his examination he with dignity 
 averred his detestation of n^publicanism and his devotion to royalty. He 
 had deluged the land with the blood of civil war, and, as a traitor, was 
 doomed to die. On the 30th of March he was led out to execution. A 
 platoon of soldiers was drawn up but a few paces before him. He stood 
 erect, with his eyes unbandaged, and, apparently without the tremor of a 
 nerve, gave the command to fire. He fell dead, pierced by many bullets. 
 He had displayed marvelous heroism in a bad cause. Refusing to submit 
 to laws established by the overwhelming majority of his countrymen, he 
 was deluging the land in blood in the endeavor to rivet again upon France 
 the chains of the most intolerable despotism. The Rovalists all over Eu- 
 rope mourned his death. But France rejoiced, for the fall of Charette ter- 
 minated the civil war. 
 
 One hundred thousand men had been under the command of General 
 
 * Thiers, Hist. French Rev., vol. iii., p. 353. t Ibid., vol. iii., p. 364.
 
 414 
 
 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 
 
 [Chap. XXXIJ. 
 
 l.A OlIARETTE TAKEN PEI80NKR. 
 
 Hoclie in the strife of La Vendee. These were now at liberty to march to 
 repel the foreign invader. Two powerful armies, of eighty thousand each, 
 were collected on the Ehine. But they could not hold their ground against 
 the outnumbering Austrians. In one of these engagements the distinguished 
 young general Marceau was killed. He was struck by a ball fired by a 
 Tyrolean marksman, and fell from his horse mortally wounded. His sol- 
 diers, on the rapid retreat, were unable to rescue him, and he was left in his 
 blood to the humanity of the victors. The Austrians generously did every 
 thing in their power for his relief, but he died, three days after, in the 
 twenty-seventh year of his age. 
 
 About thirty thousand French soldiers, in rags, destitute of the munitions 
 of war, and almost famished, were ineffectually struggling against their foes 
 on the southern slopes of the Apennines. Napoleon was placed in com- 
 mand of these starving troops, but the government was unable to supply 
 him with any funds for the prosecution of the war. On the 27th of March 
 he placed himself at the head of these enfeebled and discouraged battalions. 
 Young generals, who subsequently obtained great renown — Angereau, Mas- 
 sena, Laharpe, Serrurier, and Berthier — composed the officers of liis staff. The 
 levy en masse had filled the ranks with J^oung men from good families, well 
 informed, distinctly understanding the nature of the conflict, detesting the old 
 feudal despotism which allied Europe was striving to impose upon them 
 anew, and enthusiastically devoted to the princi})les of liberty and equal 
 rights which the Revolution was endeavoring to implant. Though most of 
 them were young, they had many of tlicin spent years in the field, had seen 
 many bloody battles, and, inured to the hardships of war, w(ire veteran 
 soldiers. Sixty thousand Piedmontese and Austrians, under Colli and Beau-
 
 1796.] 
 
 THE DIRECTORY. 
 
 415 
 
 E%» 
 
 DEATU OF Gt.NiitAI, MaUOEAU. 
 
 liea, crowded tlie northern slopes and the crest of the mountains, endeavoring 
 to force their way through the defiles upon France. Napoleon's first words 
 to his troops roused them as with electric fire. 
 
 "Soldiers," said he, "you are ill fed, almost naked. The government 
 owes you much, but can do nothing for you. Your patience, your courage, 
 do you honor, but procure you neither glory nor advantage. I am about 
 to lead you into the most fertile plains in the world. You will there find 
 large cities, rich provinces; you will there find honor, glory, and wealth. 
 Soldiers of Ital}^, will your courage fail you ?" 
 
 On the 12th of April bis troops were in motion. A series of desperate 
 battles and of resplendent victories ensued. At the close of two weeks 
 Napoleon issued the following proclamation : 
 
 " Soldiers, in a fortnight you have gained six victories, taken twenty -one 
 pairs of colors, fifty -five pieces of cannon, several fortresses, and conquered 
 the richest part of Piedmont. You have made fifteen thousand prisoners, 
 and killed or wounded more than ten thousand men. You had hitherto 
 been fighting for barren rocks, rendered glorious by your courage, but use- 
 less to the country. You now rival, by your services, the army of Holland 
 and the Rhine. Destitute of every thing, you have supplied all your wants. 
 You have gained battles without cannon, crossed rivers without bridges, 
 made forced marches without shoes, bivouacked without brandy and often 
 without bread. The Republican phalanxes, the soldiers of liberty alone, 
 could have endured what you have endured. Thanks be to you for it, sol- 
 diers. Your grateful country will owe to you its prosperity ; and if your 
 conquest at Toulon foreboded the glorious campaign of 1793, your present
 
 416 • THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. [ChaP. XXXIX. 
 
 victories forbode one still more glorious. The two armies which so lately 
 attacked you boldly, are fleeing affrighted before you. The perverse men 
 who laughed at your distress, and rejoiced in thought at the triumph of 
 your enemies, are confounded and trembling. 
 
 "But, soldiers, you have done nothing, since more remains to be done. 
 Neither Turin nor Milan is yours. The ashes of the conquerors of Tarquin 
 are still trampled upon by the murderers of Basseville."* 
 
 Napoleon now summoned all his energies to drive the Austrians out of 
 Italy. In two months the work was done ; and Paris, France, Europe was 
 electrified by the narrative of deeds of daring and success, such as war had 
 never recorded before. In all the towns and cities of Italy the French 
 armies were received as deliverers, for the subjugated Italians were eager to 
 throw off the hateful yoke of Austrian despotism. Napoleon, having un- 
 bounded confidence in himself, and but very little respect for the weak men 
 who composed the Directory, took all matters of diplomacy, as well as war, 
 into his own hands, and, sustained by the enthusiasm of his soldiers, settled 
 the affairs of Italy according to his own views of expediency. 
 
 The Royalists, hoping for the overthrow of the Eepublic and for the re- 
 turn of Louis XVIII., were exceedingly chagrined by these victories. They 
 left no means of calumny untried to sully the name of Napoleon. Europe 
 was filled with falsehoods respecting him, and reports were circulated that 
 General Hoche was to be sent from Paris to arrest him in the midst of his 
 army. These rumors assumed such importance that the government wrote 
 a letter to Napoleon contradicting them ; and General Hoche, with the 
 magnanimity of a man incapable of jealousy, over his own name published 
 a letter expressing his admiration of the commander of the Army of Italy. 
 
 " Men," he wrote, " who, concealed or unknown during the first years of 
 the foundation of the Republic, now think only of seeking the means of de- 
 stroying it, and speak of it merely to slander its firmest supporters, have, for 
 some days past, been spreading reports most injurious to the armies, and to 
 one of the general ofl&cers who commanded them. Can they, then, no longer 
 attain their object by corresponding openly with the horde of conspirators 
 resident at Hamburg? Must they, in order to gain the patronage of the 
 masters whom they are desirous of giving to France, vilify the leaders of the 
 armies ? Why is Bonaparte, then, the object of the wrath of these gentry ? 
 Is it because he beat themselves and their friends in Yend^miaire ?f Is it 
 because he is dissolving the armies of kings, and furnishing the Republic 
 with the means of bringing this honorable war to a glorious conclusion ? 
 Ah ! brave young man, where is the Republican soldier whose heart does 
 not burn with the desire to imitate thee ? Courage, Bonaparte ! lead our vic- 
 torious armies to Naples, to Vienna ; reply to thy personal enemies by hum- 
 bling kings, by shedding fresh lustre over our armies, and leave to us the 
 task of upholding thy glory." 
 
 Still the Royalists were busy with incessant plots and intrigues for the 
 overthrow of the government. The treasury was utterly bankrupt, paper 
 money, almost utterly worthless, flooded the land, and the finances were in a 
 
 * M. Basseville, an envoy of the French Republic at Rome, was attacked by a mob and cruelly 
 murdered. t Quelling the insurgent sections.
 
 1796.] 
 
 THE DIRECTORY. 
 
 417 
 
 state of inextricable embarrassment. The Jacobins and the Eoyalists were 
 equally eager to demolish the Directory by any conceivable measures of 
 treason and violence. Never was a nation in a more deplorable state, har- 
 assed by a foreign war which demanded all its energies, and torn by domes- 
 tic dissensions which no human wisdom seemed capable of healing. 
 
 The Jacobins adopted even the desperate measure to feign a Eoyalist in- 
 surrection ; to scatter white cockades, the emblem of Bourbon power ; to 
 shout Vive le Boil and to discharge musketry and throw petards into the 
 streets, that the people, alarmed by the peril of Bourbon restoration, might 
 throw themselves into the arms of the Jacobins for protection.* A mob of 
 nearly a thousand most determined men marched, in the night of the lOlh 
 of September, upon the camp at Grenelle, hoping to fraternize with the sol- 
 diers in this treasonable endeavor to overthrow the government. Several 
 hundreds fell dead or wounded in this frantic attempt. 
 
 NluUl' ot bhl'TKMJiKU lU, ITUli. 
 
 The Directory now attempted to enter into peaceful relations with other 
 powers, and effected a treaty of alliance, offensive and defensive, with Spam. 
 Envoys were also sent to the Ottoman Porte and to Venice for the same pur- 
 pose. Piedmont had sued for peace and obtained it. The Italians of Upper 
 Italy, exulting in their emancipation from the Austrians, under the protec- 
 tion of Napoleon established the Cispadane Ecpublic. Without the support 
 of his strong arm they could not for a day resist the encroachments of the 
 surrounding despotisms. The first National Assembly of this infant repub- 
 lic met at Modena, October 16, 1796. The people were electrified with de- 
 light at this unexpected achievement of freedom. The Assembly sent an 
 address to Napoleon, informing him of the principles of their new govern- 
 ment. 
 
 " Never forget," said Napoleon, in his reply, " that laws are mere nullities 
 without the force necessary to support them. Attend to your military or- 
 ganization, which you have the means of placing on a respectable footing. 
 
 * Thiers's French Revolution, vol. iv., p. 10. 
 
 Dd
 
 418 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. [ChAP. XXXTX 
 
 You will tlien be more fortunate than the people of France, for you will ar- 
 rive at liberty without passing through the ordeal of revolution." 
 
 The Directory had for some time been attempting to effect peace with En- 
 gland. On the 18th of December the British government stated on what 
 terms it would consent to sheathe the sword. M. Thiers expresses the feel- 
 ings of France in reference to this offer in the following terms : 
 
 " Thus France, having been iniquitously forced into war, after she had ex- 
 pended enormous sums, and from which she had come off victorious — France 
 was not to gain a single province, while the northern powers had just di- 
 vided a kingdom between them (Poland), and England had recently made 
 immense acquisitions in India. France, who still occupied the line of the 
 Ehine, and who was mistress of Italy, was to evacuate the Rhine and Italy 
 at the bare summons of England ! Such conditions were absurd and inad- 
 missible. The very proposal of them was an insult, and they could not be 
 listened to,"* 
 
 To conquer a peace, the Directory now meditated a direct attack upon En- 
 gland. The Catholic Irish, over three millions in number, hating implaca- 
 bly their English conquerors, were ardent to rise, under the guarantee of 
 France, and establish a republican government. They had sent secret agents 
 to Paris to confer with the Directory. Wolfe Tone, one of the leaders of the 
 Irish revolutionists, addressed memorials to the French Directory solicit- 
 ing aid. 
 
 " The Catholics of Ireland," said he, " are 8,150,000, all trained from their 
 infancy in an hereditary hatred and abhorrence of the English name. For 
 these five years they have fixed their eyes most earnestly oti France, whom 
 they look upon, with great justice, as fighting their battles, as well as that 
 of all mankind who are oppressed. Of this class I will stake my head there 
 are 500,000 who would fly to the standard of the Republic if they saw it 
 once displayed in the cause of liberty and their country. 
 
 " The Republic may also rely with confidence on the support of the Dis- 
 senters, actuated by reason and reflection, as well as the Catholics impelled 
 by misery and inflamed by detestation of the English name. In the year 
 1791 the Dissenters of Belfast first formed the Club of United Irishmen, so 
 called because in that club, for the first time. Dissenters and Catholics were 
 seen together in harmony and union. Corresponding clubs were rapidly 
 formed, the object of which was to subvert the tyranny of England, establish 
 the independence of Ireland, and frame a free republic on the broad basis of 
 liberty and equality. 
 
 " The Catholics also have an organization, commencing about the same time 
 with the clubs last mentioned, but composed of Catholics only. In June 
 last it embraced the whole peasantry of the provinces of Ulster, Leinster, 
 and Connaught, three fourths of the nation, and I have little doubt that it 
 has since extended into Munster, the remaining province. The eyes of this 
 whole body, which may be said, almost without a figure, to be the people of 
 Ireland, are turned with the most anxious expectation to France for assist- 
 ance and support. The oath of their union recites that they will be faithful 
 to the united nations of France and Ireland."f 
 
 * Thiers's French Revolution, vol. iv., p. GG. 
 
 t Wolfe Tone's First Memorial to the French Directory, vol. ii., p. 187.
 
 1796.] THE DIRECTORY. 419 
 
 An expedition to Ireland was secretly resolved upon. A fleet of fifteen 
 sail of the line, twenty frigates, six luggers, and fifty transports, containing 
 sixteen thousand troops, sailed on the 16th of December to land in Bantry 
 Bay, on the coast of Ireland. But the very night after the squadron left 
 port a heavy storm arose, in which one ship foundered and the fleet was 
 widely dispersed. A singular series of casualties ensued. Some of the 
 ships entered the bay, but not finding their companions, after waiting a 
 short time, returned to France. Other ships of the expedition soon after en- 
 tered, but, finding the bay deserted, they also returned. The expedition 
 thus proved a total failure.* 
 
 The inefiicient Directory was quite unable to rectif)^ the disorders into 
 which the internal affairs of the state were plunged. They uttered loud 
 complaints, which did but increase discontent and disgust. The press, being 
 entirely free, indulged in the utmost violence ; Eoyalists and Jacobins assail- 
 ing the feeble government without mercy and thwarting its operations in 
 every possible way. The army of Italy was triumphant — almost miracu- 
 lously so. Every where else the Republic was in disgrace. The Directory 
 endeavored to throw the blame of the public calamities upon the two Coun- 
 cils, and published the following message, which was as true as it was ill- 
 advised : 
 
 " All departments are distressed. The pay of the troops is in arrear ; 
 the defenders of the country, in rags and enervated by want, in disgust are 
 led to desertion. The hospitals are destitute of furniture, fire, and drugs. 
 The charitable institutions, utterly impoverished, repel the poor and infirm. 
 The creditors of the state, the contractors who supply the armies, with dif- 
 ficulty obtain but a small portion of the sums that are their due. Distress 
 keeps aloof men who could perform the same services better and cheaper. 
 The roads are cut up ; the communications interrupted. The public func- 
 tionaries are without salary; from one end of the Republic to the other 
 judges and administrators may be seen reduced to the horrible alternative 
 either of dragging on, with their families, a miserable existence, or of being 
 dishonored by selling themselves to intrigue. The evil-disposed are every 
 where busy. In many places murder is being organized, and the police, 
 without activity, wdthout energy, because it is without pecuniary means, can 
 not put a stop to these disorders." 
 
 All eyes were directed to the achievements of Napoleon, who, with super- 
 human energy, was destroj'ing army after army of the Allies, astounding 
 Europe by his exploits, and exciting the admiration of his countrymen. 
 Thiers thus describes the position he then occupied in the public mind : 
 
 " Sickness, together with the excessive fatigues of the campaign, had weak- 
 ened him extremely. He could scarcely sit on horseback ; his cheeks were 
 
 * " It is a onrious subject for speculation what might have been the result had Hoche suc- 
 ceeded in landin}; with sixteen thousand of his best troops on the Irish shores. To those who 
 consider, indeed, the patriotic sjiirit. indomitable valor, and persevering character of the Enj^lish 
 people, and the comjilete command they had of the sea, the final issue of such a contest can not 
 appear doubtful ; but it is equally evident that the addition of such a force and so able a com- 
 mander to the numerous bodies of Irish malcontents would have engendered a dreadful domes- 
 tic war, and that the whole energies of the emjiire might for a very long jieriod have been em- 
 ployed in saving itself from dismemberment." — A/ison''s History of Europe, vol. i., p. 444.
 
 420 THE FRENCH EEVOLUTION. [ChAP. XXXIX. 
 
 hollow and livid. His whole appearance was deplorable. His eyes alone, 
 still bright and piercing as ever, indicated that the fire of his soul was not 
 extinguished. His physical proportions formed a singular contrast with his 
 genius and his renown, a contrast amusing to soldiers at once jovial and en- 
 thusiastic. Notwithstanding the decline of his strength, his extraordinary 
 energy supported him and imparted an activity which was apphed to all 
 objects at once. 
 
 " He had begun what he called the war against robbers. Intriguers of all 
 kinds had thronged to Italy for the purpose of introducing themselves into 
 the administration of the armies and profiting by the wealth of that fine 
 country. While simplicity and indigence pervaded the armies of the Rhine, 
 luxury pervaded that of Italy — luxury as great as its glory. The soldiers, 
 well clothed and well fed, were every where cordially received, and lived 
 in pleasure and abundance. The ofiicers, the generals, participated in the 
 general opulence, and laid the foundations of their fortunes. 
 
 " Bonaparte, who had within him all the passions, but who, at that mo- 
 ment, was engrossed by one passion, that of glory, lived in a simple and aus- 
 tere manner, seeking relaxation only in the society of his wife, to whom he 
 was tenderly attached, and who had come, at his desire, to his head-quarters. 
 Indignant at tne disorders of the administration, he strictly scrutinized the 
 minutest details, verified by personal inspection the accounts of the compa- 
 nies, denounced the dishonest administrators without mercy, and caused 
 them to be prosecuted." 
 
 Among the Directors, Carnot was one of the noblest of men. The purity 
 of his character slander has never attempted to taint. Barras was a fearless 
 soldier and a shameless debauchee. He boasted of the profligacies in which 
 he openly indulged, and he rioted in boundless extravagance, which he sup- 
 ported through corruption and bribes. Rewbel was a lawyer, a man of 
 ability and integrity,* These three men had belonged to different political 
 parties during the Revolution, and each detested the others. Lareveill^re 
 was an honest man, but destitute of those commanding qualities so essential 
 to the post he occupied. Le Tourneur was a vain, good-natured man who 
 merely echoed the voice of Carnot. All the Directors but Barras occupied, 
 with their families, apartments in the Palace of the Luxembourg. In the 
 public mind this discordant Directory consisted of two parties, Barras, Rew- 
 bel, and Lareveill^re in the majority, and Carnot and Le Tourneur in the 
 opposition. 
 
 * "Carnot, Barras, Rewbel, and Lareveillere had been members of the Convention; and, 
 although none of them had been famous durinp the Reign of Terror for any atrocious act, still 
 the three first had voted the death of the king — a vote which, notwithstanding the fatal though 
 powerful considerations that may be presented in alleviation, placed them among the most furi- 
 ous Jacobins, and was prejudicial to the respect with which they ought to have been invested." 
 — Memoirs of Lavaktte.
 
 1797.] THE OVERTHROW OF THE DIRECTORY, ETC. 421 
 
 CHAPTER XL. 
 
 THE OVERTHROW OF THE DIRECTORY AND THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE 
 
 CONSULATE. 
 
 Proclamation of Napoleon. — March into Austria. — Letter to the Archduke Charles. — Prelimin- 
 aries of Peace. — Union of Parties ajjainst tlie Directory. — Triumph of the Directory. — A^eiuy 
 of Napoleon. — Severe Measures of the Directory. — Indignation of Najioleon. — Dictatorsiiip of 
 the Directory. — Dismay of the Royalists. — Treaty of Campo Formio. — Napoleon's Address to 
 the Cispadane Repuhlic. — Remarks of Napoleon. — Plan for the Invasion of India. — E.xpedi- 
 tion to Egypt. — New Coalition. — Rastadt. 
 
 It was now the month of March, 1797, and Napoleon, having driven the 
 Austrians out of Italy, is.sued the following proclamation, an unexaggerated 
 statement of facts which amazed and appalled hostile Europe : 
 
 " Soldiers ! the capture of Mantua has put an end to the war of Italy. 
 You have been victorious in fourteen pitched battles and seventy actions. 
 You have taken 100,000 prisoners, 500 field-pieces, 2000 heavy cannon, and 
 four pontoon trains. The contributions laid on the countries you have con- 
 quered have fed, maintained, and paid the army ; besides which, you have 
 sent thirty millions ($6,000,000) to the Minister of Finance for the use of 
 the public treasury. You have enriched the Museum of Paris with three 
 hundred master-pieces of ancient and modern Italy, which it had required 
 thirty centuries to produce. You have conquered for the Republic the fin- 
 est countries in Europe. The kings of Sardinia and Naples, the Pope, and 
 the Duke of Parma are separated from the coalition. You have expelled the 
 English from Leghorn, Genoa, and Corsica. Still higher destinies await you. 
 You will prove yourselves worthy of them. Of all the foes who combined 
 to stifle our Republic in its birth the emperor alone remains." 
 
 On the 16th of March the little army of Bonaparte crossed the Taglia- 
 mento to march upon Vienna, there to compel Austria to cease the iniqui- 
 tous war which now for six years had desolated Europe. Battle after battle 
 ensued, and the Austrians met the French only to be vanquished. On the 
 31st of March Napoleon wrote to the Archduke Charles, who was brother of 
 the emperor and commander-in-chief of the Austrian forces, as follows : 
 
 " General-in-Chief: brave soldiers make war and desire j)eace. Has not 
 this war lasted six years? Have we not slain men enough and inflicted ca- 
 lamities enough on suffering humanity ? It cries out on all sides. Europe, 
 which had taken up arms against the French Republic, has laid them down. 
 Your nation alone is left, and yet blood is about to be spilled more abund- 
 antly than ever. 
 
 "The Executive Directory of the French Republic communicated to his 
 majesty the emperor its desire to put an end to the war which afllicts both 
 nations. The intervention of the Court of London has opjwsed this wish. 
 Is there, then, no hope of arrangement? And must we continue to slaugh- 
 ter one another for the interests and the passions of a nation which knows 
 nothing of the calamities of war ? You, general, who are by birth so near
 
 422 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. [ChAP. XL. 
 
 to the throne, and above all the petty passions which so frequently actuate 
 ministers and governments, are you determined to merit the title of bene- 
 factor of the whole human race and the real savior of Grermany ? 
 
 " Imagine not, general, that I mean by this that it is not possible to save 
 her by the force of arms. But, even supposing that the chances of war 
 turn in your favor, Germany will not, on that account, be the less ravaged. 
 As for me, general, if the overture which I have the honor to make to you 
 can save the life of a single man, I shall be prouder of the civic crown 
 which I shall feel that I have deserved than of the melancholy glory which 
 can result from military successes."* 
 
 The archduke rephed that he was commanded to prosecute the war, and 
 had no authority to enter into conference upon terms of peace.f The war 
 was now prosecuted with renewed vigor, as the French drove the Austrians 
 through the defiles of the Tyrol, and entered the plains of Germany. But 
 a few days passed ere Napoleon arrived within sight of the steeples of Vi- 
 enna. The capital was in consternation ; the people demanded peace ; the 
 archduke urged it, declaring himself quite unable to protect the city. The 
 Austrian court now implored the clemency of the conqueror, and sent com- 
 missioners to Napoleon, at his head-quarters at Leoben, with full powers to 
 settle the basis of peace. The preliminaries were signed at Leoben on the 
 18th of April, which put a stop to the effusion of blood. 
 
 By the election in May of one third of the two legislative bodies, the 
 counter-revolutionists had obtained a majority in both chambers. This ex- 
 ceedingly elated the Eoyalists. The two Councils now commenced a furious 
 war against the Republican Directory, seeking to overthrow it, and to re- 
 establish, not the old Bourbon despotism, but the constitutional monarchy 
 of 1791. There were now four parties in the field. The old Bourbon 
 party, the friends of constitutional monarchy, the Eepublicans, and the Jac- 
 obins. Three of these parties united against the Directory, each hoping, 
 in the overthrow of the Directors, to establish its own principles. One of 
 the Directors was to leave. The Royalists succeeded in placing Barthelemy, 
 a counter-revolutionist, in his place. The conflict which now arose was 
 whether the Republican Directory should be abolished or maintained. A 
 stern conflict was evidently rising. The Directory headed one party, the 
 two Councils the other. In accordance with the disastrous temper of the 
 times, both parties began to count bayonets instead of votes, that the ques- 
 tion might be settled on a field of blood. The emigrants and the priests 
 returned in great numbers, forged passports being transmitted to them from 
 Paris. 
 
 The Councils had a legislative guard of fifteen hundred men, and hoped 
 
 * Memoires de Napoleon, diet, an Montholon et Gourgaud, vol. iv., p. 96, 97. 
 
 t " Unquestionably, sir," replied the duke, "I desire as much as you the attainment of peace 
 for the happiness of the people and of humanity. Considering, however, that in the situation 
 which I hold, it is no part of my business to inquire into and determine the quarrel of the bellig- 
 erent powers, and that I am not furnished, on the part of the emperor, with any ])letiipotcntiary 
 powers for treating, you will excuse me, general, if I do not enter into negotiation with you 
 touching a matter of the highest importance, but which does not lie within my department. 
 Whatever shall happen, either respecting the future chances of war or the prospects ofooace, I 
 request you to be equally convinced of my distinguished esteem."
 
 1797.] 
 
 THE OVERTHROW OF THE DIRECTORY, ETC. 
 
 423 
 
 to avail itself of the National Guard, not then fully reorganized. They also 
 placed great reliance on Pichegru, who was treasonably plotting the restora^ 
 tion of the Bourbons. The Constitution did not allow any of the standing 
 army to approach within thirty-six miles of Paris. In defiance of this pro^ 
 vision, the Director^-, under pretense of sending a fresh expedition to Ire^ 
 land, assembled twelve thousand veteran troops under the walls of the 
 metropolis. General Bonaparte, aware of the peril of the Directory, and 
 of the danger of the restoration of royalty, had sent the intrepid Augereau 
 to Paris to assist the Directory in any emergency. The Director}^ was the 
 established government of the nation, and, imbecile as it was, its overthrow 
 by violence at that time could only lead to anarchy and blood.* 
 
 At midnight on the 17th Fructidor (September 8d), twelve thousand 
 men, with forty pieces of cannon, were silently marched into the city, and 
 surrounded the Tuileries. A body of the Legislative Guard was stationed 
 at the Pont Tournant, the entrance-passage to the garden. Augereau ap- 
 proached them at the head of a numerous staff. " Are you Republicans?" 
 said he. The soldiers immediately lowered their arms, and shouted " Vive 
 Augereau/ Vive le Directoirer They fraternized at once with the troops 
 of the Directory. The victory was gained; no blood was shed. At six 
 
 
 AUOEBEAU AT THE PONT TOUENANT. 
 
 * "The Directory bocame alarmed for their own existence. It had already been ascertained 
 that 190 of the deputies had been enpajjed to restore the exiled royal family, while the Direct- 
 ory could only reckon on the support of 130; and the Ancients had resolved, by a large major- 
 ity, to transfer the seat of the Legislature to Rouen, on account of its proximity to the western 
 provinces, whose Royalist principles had always been so decided. The next election, it was ex- 
 pected, would nearly extinguish the Revolutionary party; and the Directory were aware that 
 the transition was easy, for regicides, as the greater part of them were, from the Luxembourg to 
 the scaffold." — Alison, vol. i., p. 491.
 
 424 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. [ChAP. XL. 
 
 o'clock in the morning, when the citizens awoke, they were surprised to 
 find that a revolution had taken place during the night. 
 
 The three victorious directors condemned to banishment their two col- 
 leagues, Carnot and Barthdlemy, forty-two members of the Council of Five 
 Hundred, eleven of the Council of Ancients, several Royalist agents, and 
 forty-two editors, publishers, and proprietors of counter-revolutionary jour- 
 nals. It is but a wretched extenuation for, these deeds of violence, to assert 
 that, had the Councils gained the victory, they would have treated the Di- 
 rectory in the same way. The Directory thus assumed the dictatorship 
 over unhappy, distracted France; but even that was better than anarchy, 
 and almost any thing was better than a return to the old Bourbon despot- 
 ism.* This signal defeat crushed the hopes of the Eoyalists. The minority 
 of the Councils, who were in the interests of the Directory, were reassembled 
 in the Odeon and the School of Medicine, and with this organization the 
 government attempted to carry on the distracted affairs of the nation.f 
 
 On the 12th of August Augereau had written to Greneral Bonaparte, 
 
 " Nothing is more certain than that, if the public mind is not essentially 
 changed before the approaching elections, every thing is lost, and a civil war 
 remains as our last resource." 
 
 On the 23d of September Napoleon wrote to Augereau, " The whole army 
 applauds the wisdom and energy which you have displayed in this crisis, 
 and has rejoiced sincerely at the success of the patriots. It is only to be 
 hoped, now, that moderation and wisdom will guide your steps. That is the 
 most ardent wish of my heart.":}: 
 
 But Napoleon was indignant when he heard of the excessive severity 
 adopted by the Directory. "It might have been right," he wrote, "to de- 
 prive Carnot, Barth^lemy, and the fifty deputies of their appointments, and 
 put them under surveillance in some cities in the interior. Pichegru, Wil- 
 lot, Imbert, Colonne, and one or two others might justly have expiated their 
 treason on the scaflfold.§ But to see men of great talent, such as Portalis, 
 Ducoudray, Fontanes ; tried patriots, such as Boissy d'Anglas, Dumolard, 
 Murinais ; supreme magistrates, such as Carnot and Barthelemy, condemned 
 without either trial or accusation, is frightful. What ! to punish with trans- 
 portation a number of writers of pamphlets, who deserved only contempt 
 and a trifling correction, was to renew the proscriptions of the Roman trium- 
 virs. It was to act more cruelly than Fouquier Tinville ; since he, at least, 
 put the accused on their trial, and condemned them only to death. All the 
 armies, all the people were for a Republic. State necessity could not be al- 
 
 * " We may say that, on the 18th Fructidor of the year V., it was necessary that the Directo- 
 ry should triumph over the counter-revolution, by dcoimatinf;; tlie Councils ; or that the Councils 
 should triuni])h over the Republic, by overthrowing the Directory. The question thus stated, it 
 remains to inquire, first, if the Directory could have conquered by any other moans than a coup 
 (Titat, and, secondly, whether it misused its victory." — Mignet, p. 3.S8. 
 
 t "Though France suffered extremely from the usurpation which overthrew its electoral gov- 
 ernment, and substituted the empire of force for the chimeras of democracy, there seems no 
 reason to believe that a more just or equitable government could, at that period, have been sub- 
 stituted in its room." — Alison, vol. i., p. 496. 
 
 X Bourrienne, vol. i., p. 2r)0. 
 
 § These men were in constant correspondence with the Bourbons, and were conspiring for 
 their restoration.
 
 1797.] THE OVERTHROW OF THE DIRECTORY, ETC. 425 
 
 leged in favor of so revolting an injustice, so flagrant a violation of the laws 
 and the rights of the citizens."* 
 
 The Royalists were dismayed by this sudden disaster. The priests and 
 emigrants, who had returned in great numbers, fled again to the frontiers. 
 Those who were advancing toward France retreated back to Switzerland 
 and Germany. M. Merlin and M. Frangois— the one a lawyer, the other a 
 man of letters, and both upright Republicans— were chosen in the place of 
 Carnot and Barthelemy. The guilt of Pichegru was fully established. Mo- 
 reau, in crossing the Rhine, had taken the papers of General Klinglin, in 
 which he had found the whole treasonable correspondence of Pichegru with 
 the Prince of Conde. 
 
 The Directors now pushed the measures of government with Revolution- 
 ary energy. The British government, finding themselves deprived of every 
 ally, sent Lord Malmesbury to Paris to negotiate for peace. The British 
 ministry were willing to give up the colonies which they had wrested from 
 France, but would not give up the colonies they had wrested from the allies 
 of France, Spain and Holland. It is difficult to see how the Directory, with 
 any sense of honor whatever, could, under such circumstances, have aban- 
 doned its allies. Upon this point there was a rupture, and war with En- 
 gland continued to rage.f 
 
 On the 28th of October the treaty of Campo Formio was signed, which 
 secured peace with the Emperor of Germany. The Directors had sent to 
 Napoleon an ultimatum which would have prevented the possibility of peace. 
 Napoleon boldly rejected their demands, and made peace on his own terms. 
 The nation hailed the peace with such joy, and Napoleon was now so 
 boundlessly popular, that the Directors did not dare to refuse their ratifica- 
 tion. Napoleon was now prepared to return to France. He had established 
 the Cisalpine Republic, and compelled its recognition by the only powers 
 which could endanger its existence. Before leaving Italy he thus addressed 
 this state in the infancy of its freedom : 
 
 "You are the first people in history who have become free without fac- 
 tions, without revolutions, without convulsions. We have given you free- 
 dom ; take care to preserve it. To be worthy of your destiny, make only 
 discreet and moderate laws ; cause them to be executed with energy ; favor 
 the diffusion of knowledge, and respect religion. Compose your army, not 
 of disreputable men, but of citizens imbued with the principles of the Re- 
 public and closely linked to its prosperity. You have, in general, need to 
 impress yourselves with the feeling of your strength, and with the dignity 
 which befits the freeman. Divided, and bowed down for ages by tyranny, 
 
 * Mcmoircs dc Napolpon, diet, an Montholon ot Gotirpaud, vol. iv., p. 233. 
 
 "The 18th Fructidor is the true era of the commencement of military despotism in France. 
 The subsequent government of the country was but a succession of illegal usurpations on the part 
 of the depositaries of jiower, in which the peojjle had no share, and by which their rights were 
 equally invaded, until tranquillity was restored by the vigorous hand of Napoleon." — Alison, vol. 
 i., p. 496. 
 
 + Mignet says, "The offers of Pitt not being sincere, the Directory did not allow itself to be 
 deceived by dijilomatic stratagems. The negotiations were twice broken off, and war continued 
 between the two powers. While England negotiated at Lille, she was preparing at St Peters- 
 burg the triple alliance or second coalition." — Migvet, |). 341. 
 Vol. II.— K
 
 426 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. [ChAP. XL. 
 
 you would not, unaided, have conquered your liberty. In a few years, if 
 left to yourselves, no power on earth will be strong enough to wrest it from 
 you. Till then France will protect you against the attacks of your neigh- 
 bors ; its political system will be united with yours."* 
 
 The blessings of the Italians were showered upon Napoleon as he depart- 
 ed. As he entered France he was every where greeted with love, admira- 
 tion, and enthusiasm. His progress through the departments was a tri- 
 umphal march. In Paris he was received with salvos of artillery, ringing 
 of bells, illuminations, and the huzzas of the multitude. In the laconic ad- 
 dress of Napoleon to the authorities of government in their grand reception, 
 he uttered sentiments in perfect accordance with his whole precedent and 
 subsequent career. 
 
 " The French people," said he, " in order to be free had kings to combat. 
 To obtain a Constitution founded on reason it had the prejudices of eighteen 
 centuries to overcome. The Constitution of the year III. and you have tri- 
 umphed over all obstacles. Eeligion, feudality, royalty, have successively, 
 for twenty centuries past, governed Europe. But from the peace which you 
 have just concluded dates the era of representative governments. You have 
 succeeded in organizing the great nation whose vast territory is circum- 
 scribed only because Nature herself has hxed its limits. You have done 
 more. The two finest countries in Europe, formerly so renowned for the 
 arts, the sciences, and the great men whose cradle they were, see with the 
 greatest hopes genius and freedom issuing from the tomb of their ancestors. 
 These are two pedestals on which destiny is about to place two powerful na- 
 tions. I have the honor to deliver to you the treaty signed at Campo For- 
 mio, and ratified by his majesty the emperor. Peace secures the liberty, the 
 prosperity, and the glory of the Republic. When the happiness of the 
 French people shall be seated on better organic laws, all Europe will become 
 free." 
 
 Napoleon, having returned to Paris, sought seclusion, laid aside his mili- 
 tary dress, and devoted himself with great assiduity to studies of natural and 
 political science. He was chosen a member of the Institute, and took his 
 seat between the distinguished philosophers Lagrange and Laplace. He 
 wrote the following note in acceptance of his election : — 
 
 " The suffrage of the distinguished men who compose the Institute honors 
 me. I feel sensibly that before I can become their equal I must long be 
 their pupil. The only true conquests, those which awaken no regret, are 
 those we obtain over ignorance. The most honorable, as the most useful 
 pursuit of nations, is that which contributes to the extension of the human 
 
 * Mem. de Napoleon, diet, au Month, et Gourpaud, vol. iv., p. 271. 
 
 The English Tory historians, such as Scott and Alison, denounce France vehemently for re- 
 fusing to abandon her allies, Spain and Holland, for the sake of ])eace with England. At the 
 same time they load Napoleon with epithets of infamy for refusing to continue a bloody war with 
 Austria for the sake of protecting an aristocratic and jjcrfidious enemy, Venice, from the rajjacity 
 of Austria, an ally with Venice in the unjust war upon France. The remarks of Alison upon 
 tliis subject arc a melancholy exhibitioTi of the power of prejudice to prevent the sense of justice. 
 "Austria," writes T.W. Redhead, "nefariously ai)proj)riated the possessions of a faithful and at- 
 tached ally, while France did but consent to the despoilment of a hostile government, ready to as- 
 sail her ujjon the least reverse." — The French Revolutions, vol. ii., p. 100.
 
 1798.] THE OVERTHROW OF THE DIRECTORY, ETC. 427 
 
 intellect. The real greatness of the French Republic ought henceforth to 
 consist in not permitting the existence of one new idea which has not been 
 added to the national stock." 
 
 When subsequently speaking of this period of his life he remarked, " Man- 
 kind are, in the end, always governed by superiority of intellectual quali- 
 ties, and none are more sensible of this than the military i)rofession. When, 
 on my return to Paris from Italy, I assumed the dress of the Institute and 
 associated with men of science, I knew what I was doing. I was sure of 
 not being misunderstood by the lowest drummer of the army." 
 
 lie was frequently consulted by the Directory on important questions. 
 He had no confidence in the government of the Directory, and only lent it 
 his support so far as to prevent the restoration of royalty. The Directory 
 wished him to take command of a new army, to try to conquer, on the shores 
 of England, a peace with that government which now alone continued the 
 war. With that object in view he visited the coast and carefully scrutinized 
 the resources at command for the invasion of England. He, however, pro- 
 nounced the project too hazardous, and convinced the Directory that the 
 only vulnerable point which England presented was in India. In accord- 
 ance with this suggestion a secret expedition was fitted out to invade India 
 by the way of Egypt. 
 
 On the 19th of Ma}^, 1798, the Egyptian expedition sailed from Toulon. 
 To settle innumerable minor affairs in reference to the Germanic States, a 
 Congress of Embassadors, from Austria, France, and Germany had now for 
 some months been in session at Rastadt. The British government in the 
 mean time vigorously commenced endeavors to ally the monarchies of Eu- 
 rope in a new war against France. It appealed to the fears of all the sover- 
 eigns by showing them that the toleration of any republican institutions in 
 Europe endangered all their thrones. 
 
 " England," says Thiers, " with a view to foment this fear had filled all 
 the courts with her emissaries. She urged the new king of Prussia to relin- 
 quish his neutrality, and to preserve Germany from the inundation. She 
 endeavored to work upon the wrong-headed and violent emperor Paul. She 
 strove to alarm Austria, and offered her subsidies if she would renew the 
 war. She excited the silly passions of the Queen of Naples."* 
 
 All over Europe war began again to menace France. While the com- 
 missioners were negotiating at Rastadt, the armies of the new coalition com- 
 menced their march. There was no alternative before them. Principles of 
 liberty were spreading rapidly through Europe ; and the despotic monarchs 
 could only maintain their thrones by quenching that spirit in blood. They 
 were compelled either to fight or to surrender. " The monarchs did right 
 to defend their thrones," say the Royalists. "The people did right to de- 
 fend their liberties," say the Republicans. So long as there are in the world 
 advocates of aristocratic assumption and advocates of popular rights so long 
 will these points be controverted. The Queen of Naples commenced hostili- 
 ties, without any declaration of war, by sending an army of fifty thousand 
 men to drive the French out of Italy, in November, 1798. The French ar- 
 mies now crossed the Rhine and entered Germany. The Russian and the 
 
 * Thiers, vol. iv., p. 334.
 
 428 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. [ChAP. XL. 
 
 Austrian armies were immediately on tlie move. The French embassadors 
 at Rastadt received orders to leave in twenty-four hours. At nine o'clock 
 in the evening of the 28th of April the three ministers, Debry, Bonnier, 
 and Roberjeot, set out with their families. They occupied three carriages. 
 They had hardly left the town, when, in the darkness, a troop of Austrian 
 hussars rushed upon them, and, dragging the helpless embassadors from 
 their coaches cut them down in the presence of their wives and children. 
 The ruffians plundered the" carriages and carried off all the papers. Debry, 
 though left senseless and supposed to be dead, revived, and, covered with 
 wounds and blood, crawled back to Rastadt. This execrable violation of 
 the law of nations, so unheard of among civilized people, excited the detest- 
 ation of Europe. War, ferocious and implacable, was agani renewed in all 
 its horrors.* 
 
 ASSASSINATION or THE EM liASSADORS AT EAaTADT. 
 
 Every thing was now in confusion, and universal discontent rose up around 
 the Directory. France was distracted by hostile parties, while triumphant 
 armies were crowding her frontiers. All social ties were dissolved. Un- 
 principled rapacity characterized the measures of government. Religion 
 
 * "Our plenipotentiaries were massacred at Rastadt, and notwithstandinR the indignation ex- 
 pressed by all France at that atrocity, vengeance was still very tardy in overtaking the assassins. 
 The two Councils were the first to render a melancholy tribute of honor to the victims. Who 
 that saw that ceremony ever forgot its solemnity? Who can recollect without emotion the re- 
 ligious silence which reigned throughout the hall and galleries when the vote was j.ut? The 
 president then turned toward the curule chairs of the victims, on which lay the official costume 
 of the assassinated representatives, covered with black crape, bent over them, pronounced the 
 names of Roberjeot and Bonnier, and added, in a voice the tone of which was always thrilling, 
 AssAssiNATF.n AT TiiK CoNORKSs OF Rastadt. Immediately nil the representatives responded, 
 'May their blood be upon the heads of their murderers: "—Duchess o/Abrantes, p. 206.
 
 1799.] THE OVERTHROW OF THE DIRECTORY, ETC. 429 
 
 was abolished and the administration of justice seemed a farce. The kiws 
 were disregarded ; violence reigned unchecked ; intriguing tactions succeed- 
 ed each other, while Jacobins, Royalists, and Kepubiicans were struggling 
 for the supremacy. The people, di.sgusted with this state of anarchy, were 
 longing for a deliverer who would rescue the government from disgrace and 
 at the same time save France from falling back under the despotism of the 
 Bourbons. 
 
 Napoleon, in Egypt, informed of this state of affairs, decided immediately 
 to return to France. He landed at Frejus on the 9th of October, 1799, and 
 traversed Franco, from the ^[cditerranean to Paris, through a constant scene 
 of rejoicing. Such universal enthusiasm awaited him, that without the 
 shedding of a drop of blood he overthrew the imbecile government of the 
 Directory and established the Consulate. The nation received this change 
 with almost universal ap])lause. For the narrative of these events and the 
 subsequent career of the Revolution the reader must be referred to the His- 
 tory of Napoleon Bonaparte.
 
 APPENDIX
 
 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES OF LEADING 
 
 CHARACTERS IN THE FRENCH 
 
 REVOLUTION. 
 
 AUGEREAU, Piekee Francois Charles, the son of a poor fruiterer 
 in one of the faubourgs in Paris, was born at Paris, November 11, 1757. 
 At an early age he entered the l^eapolitan service, but in 1787 was still 
 only a private soldier. Seeing little prospect of advancement, he quitted 
 the army in disgust and settled at Naples, where he taught fencing. In 
 1792, however, he returned to France, and became a volunteer in the re- 
 j^ublican army of the South. Owing to his daring intrepidity, his pro- 
 motion was rapid beyond all precedent. In 1794 he was brigadier-gen- 
 eral, and two years later general of division. In the year 1796 he 
 joined the army of Italy, and fought at Lodi and Castiglione, from which 
 place he afterwards derived his ducal title. In this campaign, Augereau, 
 who was as avaricious as he was cruel, amassed immense wealth. In 
 1799 he warmly espoused Bonaparte's cause, and on the establishment 
 of the empire was created marshal, and Duke of Castiglione. In 1806 
 he distinguished himself greatly at the battle of Jena, and, after the 
 Russian expedition, still more so in the campaigns in Germany. He 
 was one of the first to give in his adhesion to Louis XVIIL, for which 
 he was presented with the cross of St, Louis, and created a peer of 
 France. On Napoleon's return from Elba, however, he again offered 
 his services to the Emperor, who repulsed him as a traitor, and, being 
 neglected also by the Rourbons shortly after, he retired to his country- 
 seat, where he died in 1816. — Court and Camp of Bonaparte. 
 
 Augereau was a man wholly destitute of religious feeling. When Na- 
 poleon re-established religious worship in France, he insisted on all his 
 ministers and generals attending a solemn Te Deum, which was chanted 
 at the cathedral of Notre Dame. Lannes and Augereau wanted to 
 alight from the carriage, and it required an order from the First Consul 
 to prevent their doing so. They went, therefore, to Notre Dame, where 
 Augereau kept swearing, in no low whisper, during the whole of the 
 chanted mass. The next day Ronaparte asked him what he thought of 
 the ceremony. " Oh, it was all very fine," replied the general ; " there 
 was nothing wanting but the million of men who have perished in the 
 pulling down of what you are now setting up." — Bourrienne.
 
 434 BIOGKAPHICAL SKETCHES. 
 
 BABCETJF, Feancois Noel, born at St. Quentin in 1764, was the 
 son of a collector of the salt-tax, and, in 1777, entered into the service 
 of a gentleman, who gave him some sort of education, and made him his 
 confidential man of business. He soon afterwards married a chamber- 
 maid, made himself conspicuous by his revolutionary doctrines, and, in 
 1792, was appointed elector of the department of Somme. On the 
 overthrow of Robespierre, he turned journalist, styled himself Gracchus, 
 and wrote with severity against the Jacobins, to whom he gave the 
 title of Terrorists. lie afterwards attacked Tallien and the Ther- 
 midorians, and, on the establishment of the Directory, published his 
 Tribune of the People, in which he displayed the most extravagant de- 
 mocracy. Being brought before the minister of police, BabcEuf confessed 
 himself the author of a plan of insurrection, and showed great firmness, 
 refusing to name his accojnplices. He was condemned to death. May 25, 
 1797, and, on learning his sentence, stabbed himself, but his body was 
 nevertheless dragged to the scaffold and beheaded. — Biographie Moderne. 
 
 " Gracchus " Baboeuf, who called himself the " Tribune of the 
 People," was a bold man, of an excited imagination, and fantastically 
 attached to an extraordinary kind of democracy. This man, who 
 possessed great power over his party, prepared it by his journal for the 
 reign of what he called general happiness. — Mignet. 
 
 BAILLY, Jean Sylvain, was one of the forty of the French 
 Academy, and deputy of Paris to the States-General. Born in Paris on 
 September 15, 1736, nature had endowed him with all the talents 
 which fit men for the study of the sciences, and the meditations 
 of philosophy. After several essays, which were well received by the 
 public, he published a history of astronomy. When the Revolution broke 
 out in 1789, the electors of Paris chose him as secretary, and then as 
 deputy of the tiers-Hat to the States-General. He was president of this 
 assembly in its first session. On July 16th he was appointed 
 Mayor of Paris. When, after the flight of the King, the parties were 
 divided, and the more violent revolutionists wished to seize the op- 
 portunity of pronouncing the forfeiture of Louis, Bailly opposed the 
 ferments excited in Paris in favor of the party of the forfeiture. An 
 immense crowd having thronged to the Champ de Mars to frame an 
 address recommending the forfeiture, on July 17, 1791, Bailly 
 caused martial law to be proclaimed against this assembly, which was 
 dispersed by armed force. The National Assembly approved this step, 
 but from this time Bailly perceived that his credit was sinking. He 
 vacated the office of mayor early in November, and then went over to 
 England, whence he returned shortly after to Paris, trusting to spend the 
 rest of his days in retirement. He was, however, arrested in 1793, 
 and brought to trial in November before the revolutionary tribunal, 
 which condemned him to death. On the day after the passing of his 
 sentence, he was put into the fatal cart, and, while proceeding to 
 execution, was loaded with the insults of the people. It was resolved
 
 BIOGKAPllICAL SKETCHES'. 437i 
 
 that he should die on the Champ de Mars, in the very place where he had 
 caused the seditious people to be fired on. Here he fell down in a 
 fainting-fit. When he recovered, he demanded, haughtily, that an end 
 might be put to his miseries. " Dost thou tremble, Bailly ?" said one 
 of his executioners, seeing his limbs, weakened by age, quiver. 
 " Friend," answered he, calmly, " if I do tremble, it is with cold." 
 After having been subjected to every species of ignominy, he ran him- 
 self to the scaffold, which had been fixed upon a heap of dung. He 
 died with great courage. Bailly was tall, his face long and serious, 
 and his character by no means devoid of sensibility. — Biographic 
 Moderne. 
 
 Among the virtuous members of the first Assembly, there was no one 
 who stood higher than Bailly. As a scholar and a man of science, he 
 had long been in the very first rank of celebrity ; his private morals were 
 not only irreproachable, but exemplary ; and his character and disposi- 
 tion had always been remarkable for gentleness, moderation, and philan- 
 thropy. His popularity was at one time equal to that of any of the 
 idols of the day; and if it was gained by some degree of culpable in- 
 dulgence and unjustifiable zeal, it was forfeited at least by a resolute 
 opposition to disorder and a meritorious perseverance in the discharge 
 of his duty. There is not, perhaps, a name in the whole annals of the 
 Revolution with which the praise of unaffected philanthropy may be 
 more safely associated. — Edinburgh Bcvieiv. 
 
 BARBAROUX, Charles, deputy to the Convention, was born at 
 Marseilles, March 6, 1767. He eml)raced the cause of the Revolution 
 with uncommon ardor, and came to Paris in .luly, 1792, with a few 
 hundred Marseillais, to bring about a revolution against the court. He 
 had a considerable share in the insurrection of August 10th. He be- 
 longed to the party of the Girondins, and was guillotined in Bordeaux 
 in 1704. — Biograpliie Moderne. 
 
 Barbaroux's ingenuous disposition and ardent patriotism inspired us 
 with confidence. Discoursing on the bad situation of affairs, and of 
 our apprehensions of despotism in the North under Robespierre, we 
 fonned the conditional plan of a republic in the South. Barbaroux 
 was one whose features no painter would disdain to copy for the head 
 of an Antinous. — Madame Boland's Memoirs. 
 
 BARERE DE VIEUZAC, Bertrand, born at Tarbes, September 
 10, 1755; deputy to States-General in 1780; President of the National 
 Assembly, 1702 ; President of the Jacobins, July 14, 1702 ; arrested 
 March 23, 1705. He died January 15, 1841. 
 
 T used to meet Barcre at a table d'hote. I considered him of a 
 mild and amiable temper. He was very well bred, and seemed to love 
 the Revolution from a sentiment of benevolence. His association with 
 Robespierre and the court which he paid to the different parties he 
 successively joined, and afterwards deserted, were less the effect of an 
 evil disposition, than of a timid and versatile character, and the conceit
 
 438 BIOGEAPIIICAL SKETCHES. 
 
 which made it incumbent on him to appear as a public man. His talents 
 as an orator were by no means of the first order. He was afterwards 
 surnamed the Anacreon of the Guillotine; but when I knew him, he 
 was only the Anacreon of the Revolution, upon which, in his Point du 
 Jour, he wrote some very amorous strains. — Durmont. 
 
 Barere was a sort of Belial in the Convention, the meanest, yet not 
 the least able, among those fallen spirits, who, with great adroitness 
 and ingenuity, 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. 
 
 Barere was employed in obscure situations by ISTapoleon, and was 
 alive at Brussels, where he was living in great poverty in 1831. It was 
 one of his favorite positions at that time, that " the world could never 
 be civilized till the punishment of death was utterly abolished, for no 
 human being had the right to take away the life of another." This was 
 the man who said in 1792, " The tree of liberty cannot flourish, if 
 it is not watered by the blood of a king." — Falkners Travels in Ger- 
 many. 
 
 Barere escaped during the different ebullitions of the Revolution, be- 
 cause he was a man without principle or character, who changed and 
 adapted himself to every side. He had the reputation of being a man 
 of talent, but I did not find him so. I employed him to write, but he 
 displayed no ability. He used many flowers of rhetoric, but no solid 
 argument. — Napoleon s Conversations ivith O'Meara. 
 
 BARNAVE, Antoine Pierre Joseph Marie, born at Grenoble in 
 1Y61, was a barrister and deputy to the States-General. The son of a 
 very rich attorney, he warmly espoused the revolutionary party, and was 
 named by the tiers-etat deputy of that town to the States-General. He 
 there showed himself from the beginning one of the most implacable 
 enemies of the court. He warmly supported the Tennis-court oath, and 
 declared loudly in favor of the assertion of the rights of man. In 1790 
 he voted the abolition of religious orders. At the meeting of May 
 2 2d he was one of those who were decidedly of opinion that the king 
 should be deprived of the right of making war and peace, and opposed 
 Mirabeau on many great questions of policy. At the sitting of June 
 19th he demanded that the Assembly should, before it rose, decree the 
 suppression of all feudal titles and rights. In August he fought a duel 
 with M. de Oazales, and wounded him with a pistol-shot. Barnave had 
 before fought with the Viscount de Noailles ; he had fired first, and 
 missed his adversary, who discharged his pistol in the air; the difference 
 was then adjusted by their friends. At the time of Louis XVI.'s flight, 
 Barnave showed great presence of mind in the midst of the stupefaction 
 of the greatest part of the Assembly. On the news arriving of the king's 
 arrest, Barnave was appointed, together with Petion and Latour-Mau- 
 bourg, to bring the royal family back to Paris. In giving an account 
 of his mission, he spoke about the inviolability of the king's person, for
 
 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 439 
 
 which he was hooted by the Assembly. At the end of the session Barnave 
 was appointed mayor of Grenoble, where he married the only danghter 
 of a lawyer, who brought him a fortune of 700,000 livres. After the 
 events of August 10, 17i)2, certain documents having established 
 the connivance of Barnave with the court, he was brought before the 
 revolutionary tribunal of Paris and condemned to death, Novem- 
 ber 29, 1793. Barnave was a small but well-looking man, and 
 professed Protestantism. Few orators of his day possessed so much 
 grace of diction and sagacity of analj^sis. Mirabeau himself was aston- 
 ished that a young man should speak so long, so rapidly, and so elo- 
 quently, and said of him, " It is a young tree, which, however, will 
 mount high, if it be let to grow." — Biographie Moderne. 
 
 BAERAS, Paul Jean Francois Nicolas, Comte de, was born at 
 Foix, in Provence, June 30, 1755, of the family of Barras, whose 
 antiquity in that quarter had become a proverb. He died in retirement 
 in the 3'ear 1829. At the Revolution he was deputed to the Convention, 
 but had no talent for oratory 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 favor of the tyrant, and succeeded. Subse- 
 quent events brought him into the Directory. He did not possess the 
 qualiiicacions required to fill that situation, but he acted better than 
 was exjwcted from him by those who knew him. When he went out of 
 the -Directory he had still a large fortune, and did not attempt to con- 
 ceal it ; but the manner in which it had been acquired, by favoring the 
 contractors, impaired the morality of the nation. Barras was tall ; he 
 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 
 ircntcnces. 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 had formerly served in India, and had there displayed the 
 courage of a soldier. He was a fit man to mount his horse on occasion 
 of disturbances ; and it was in this manner, as we have seen, that he had 
 earned his place in the Directory. Hence, on all difficult occasions, he 
 would still talk of mounting his horse and putting to the sword the 
 enemies of the republic. In person he was tall and handsome ; but in 
 his countenance there M-as something dark and sinister, that harmonized 
 little with his disposition, which was rather passionate than wicked. 
 Though he belonged by birth to the higher ranks, his manners indicated 
 no superiority of breeding. They were blunt, bold, and vulgar. He was 
 endowed with a soimdness and a penetration of mind which, with study 
 and application, might have become highly distinguished faculties ; but, 
 indolent and ignorant, he knew at most only what is learned in a stormy 
 life, and in those matters upon which he was daily called to give his 
 opinion he manifested good sense enough to induce regret that he should 
 not have had a more careful education. In other respects, dissolute
 
 440 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 
 
 and rough, violent and false like the Southerns, who are apt to conceal 
 duplicity under the guise of bluntness, republican by sentiment and by 
 position, but a man without faith, admitting to his house the most violent 
 revolutionists of the faubourgs and all the emigrants wdio had returned 
 to France, pleasing the one by his trivial vehemence, and the other by 
 his spirit of intrigue, he was in reality a warm patriot, and in secret 
 he held out hopes to all parties. In himself alone he was the entire 
 Danton party, excepting the genius of its chief, which had not devolved 
 on his successors. — Thiers' Fr'ench Revolution. 
 
 BAETHELEMY, Fkancois, Makquis de, born at Aubagne in 1750, 
 nephew of the celebrated author of the Travels of Anacliarsis, was brought 
 up under the direction of his uncle, and at the commencement of the 
 Eevolution was sent as ambassador to England, to notify the court 
 that Louis XVI. had accepted the constitution. In 1791 he went to 
 Switzerland in the same character; in 1795 he negotiated and signed 
 a peace with Prussia, and in the same year a similar treaty with 
 Spain. In 1797 he was elected into the Directory, but was involved 
 in the downfall of the Clichyan party. After the Revolution of 
 the 18th Brumaire, Barthelemy became a member of the conservative 
 senate, and was soon afterwards called to the Institute. — Biographie 
 Moderne. 
 
 BEAUHAE:N'AIS, Alexander, Vicomte de, born in 1760, at Marti- 
 nique, served with distinction as Major in the French forces under 
 Rochambeau, which aided the United States in the revolutionary war. 
 He married Josephine Tascher de la Pagerie, who was afterwards the 
 wife of Bonaparte. At the breaking-out of the French Revolution, he 
 was chosen a member of the ISTational Assembly, of which he was for 
 some time president. In 1793 he was general of the army of the Rhine, 
 and was afterwards minister of war. In consequence of the decree re- 
 moving men of noble l)irth from the army, he retired to his country- 
 seat. Having been falsely accused of promoting the surrender of Mentz, 
 he was sentenced to death in 1794, in the thirty-fourth year of his age. — 
 Encyclopcedia Americana. 
 
 BEAUHARI^AIS, EuCxEne de, born September 3, 1780. After his 
 mother's marriage in 1796 with Napoleon, he accompanied him to Italy 
 and Egypt. He rapidly rose to the highest military rank, and in 1805 
 was made a prince of France and viceroy of Italy. In 1806 he married 
 the Princess Amelia Augusta of Bavaria (1788-1851), and in 1807 
 was created Prince of Venice, and declared by N'apoleon his adopted son, 
 and heir of the kingdom of Italy. Wise, honorable, and virtuous, he 
 showed great military talent in the Italian campaigns, in the wars 
 against Austria, and in the retreat from Moscow. In the Hundred Days 
 he took no part ; and he was allowed to retain his possessions in the 
 March of Ancona, large sums being granted him in compensation for 
 his other Italian possessions, with which he purchased the landgraviate 
 of Leuchtenburg and principality of Eichstadt, as Duke of Leuchten-
 
 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 443 
 
 burg, taking his place among the nobles of Bavaria. He died at Munich, 
 February 21, 1824. 
 
 Eugene Beauharnais was not more than fourteen or fifteen years of 
 age when he ventured to introduce himself to Bonaparte, for the purpose 
 of soliciting hi father's sword, of which he understood the general had 
 become possessed. The countenance and frank air of Eugene pleased 
 Napoleon, and he immediately granted him the boon he sought. As 
 soon as the sword was placed in the boy's hands he burst into tears, and 
 kissed it. This feeling of affection for his father's memory increased 
 Bonaparte's interest in his young visitor. His mother, Josephine, on 
 learning the kind reception which the general had given her son, thought 
 it her duty to call and thank him. Napoleon returned her visit, and the 
 acquaintance thus commenced, speedily led to their marriage. — Memoirs 
 of Constant. 
 
 BERNADOTTE, Jean Baptiste Jules, was born at Pan, January 
 26, 1764. His father was a lawyer. In 1780 the son entered the mili- 
 tary profession, and was still a sergeant in 1789. When the Revolution 
 broke out, he embraced its principles with enthusiasm, and obtained 
 quick promotion in the army. In 1794 he was general of division at the 
 battle of Eleurus; and in 1796 he served in Jourdan's army. He after- 
 wards led reinforcements to tliQ army of Italy, and shortly before the 
 18th Fructidor, Bonaparte chose him to carry to the Directory the 
 banners taken at the battle of Rivoli. After the treaty of Campo 
 Formio, Bernadotte was appointed ambassador of the French republic 
 to the court of Vienna. He was next placed in the ministry of war, but, 
 being speedily removed from office, retired into private life till the 
 18th Brumaire, when Napoleon called him to the council of state. In 
 1804, on the establishment of the Empire, Bernadotte was created a 
 marshal. He greatly distinguished himself at the battle of Austerlitz, 
 and, in the same year, the Emperor created him Prince of Ponte-Corvo. 
 From the close of 1807 to 1809 he commanded the French army which 
 remained in the north of Germany. At the battle of Wagram he led 
 the Saxon allies, who fought with great skill and bravery. In conse- 
 quence, however, of an altercation with the Emperor, he quitted the 
 service, and went to Paris. In 1810 he was appointed successor to the 
 Swedish throne, by the name of Charles John. In 1813 he issued a 
 formal declaration of war against Napoleon, placed himself at the head 
 of the Swedish army in Germany, and contributed greatly to the victory 
 of the allies at Leipsic. In the following year he obtained the cession 
 of Norway to Sweden. In 1818 he succeeded to the throne by the title 
 of Charles XIV. — Enci/rJnpcpdia Americanfi. 
 
 Bernadotte, said Napoleon, was ungrateful to me, as I was the 
 author of his greatness ; but I cannot say that he betrayed me ; he in a 
 manner became a Swede, and never promised that which he did not in- 
 tend to perform. I can accuse him of ingratitude, but not of treachery. 
 Neither Murat nor he would have declared against me, had they thought
 
 444 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 
 
 it would have lost me my throne. Their wish was, to diminish my 
 power, but not to destroy me altogether. Bernadotte is a Gascon, a little 
 inclined to boasting. — A Voice from St. Helena. 
 
 BERTHIER, Louis Alexandek, Prince of ISTeufchatel and Wagram, 
 marshal, vice-constable of France, was born at Versailles, November 20, 
 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 1791 he was appointed chief of the 
 general staff in Luckner's army, marched against La Vendee in 1793, 
 and joined the army of Italy in 1796. In the year 1798 he received 
 the chief command of the army of Italy, and afterwards, being much 
 attached to Bonaparte, followed him to Egypt, 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 apj)ointed vice-constable of France, he mar- 
 ried in 1808, the daughter of Duke William of Bavaria-Birkenf eld ; 
 and, having distinguished himself at Wagram, in 1809, he received the 
 title of Prince of Wagram. In the following year, as proxy for ISTa- 
 poleon, he received the hand of Maria Louisa, daughter of the Emperor 
 of Austria, and accompanied her to France. In 1812 he accompanied 
 the French army to Russia. After Bonaparte's abdication he obtained 
 tlie confidence of Louis XVIIL, whom, on the Emperor's return, he 
 accompanied to the l^etherlands, 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 l)orders, was heard at the gates of the city, 
 he put an end to his life by throwing liimself from a window of the 
 third story of his palace. — Encydopcedia Americana. 
 
 Berthier was small and ill-shaped, without being actually deformed; 
 liis 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, ^vith a 
 thousand good qualities, neutralized by weakness. Berthier was good in 
 every acceptation of the word. — Duchess d'Ahrantes. 
 
 BESSIERES, Jean Baptihte, Duke of Istria^ was born at Preissac, 
 August 6, 1768. His family was of humble origin. At an early age he 
 obtained admission into the Guard of Louis XVL, and on the dissolution 
 of that body was attached to the legion of the Pyrenees. In 1796 he 
 joined the army of Italy, and was noticed for his bravery by Bonaparte, 
 who intrusted him with the command of his guides, a corps which by 
 successive augmentations became in the sequel the famous Imperial
 
 BIOGKAnilCAL SKETCHES. 445 
 
 Guard, of which Bessicres retained the command till his death. He 
 fought at Jena, Friedland, and Eylau, exhibiting both valor and pru- 
 dence. He then went to Spain, and defeated Cuesta in a pitched battle, 
 which opened the way for the French to Madrid. At Wagram he led 
 the French horse against the Austrian flank, and in 1812 went through 
 the Russian campaign with honor. The opening of the next saw him 
 in the place of Murat — at the head of the cavalry of the whole army. 
 He was killed in the evening before the battle of Lutzen while forcing a 
 defile. Marshal Bessieres was an excellent soldier and a good man, and 
 did all in his power to mitigate the horrors of war. — Court and Camp 
 of Bonaparte. 
 
 Bessieres, Duke of Istria, always continued good, humane, and 
 generous; of antique loyalty and integrity; and, whether considered 
 as a citizen or a soldier, an honest, worthy man. He often made use of 
 the high favor in which he stood to do extraordinary acts of kindness, 
 even to people of very different ways of thinking from himself. He 
 was adored by the guards, in the midst of whom he passed his life. At 
 the battle of Wagram, a ball struck him off his horse, without doing him- 
 any further injury. A mournful cry arose from the whole battalion, 
 upon which iSTapoleon remarked, the next time he saw him, " Bessieres, 
 the ball which struck you drew tears from all my guard. Return thanks 
 to it. It ought to be very dear to you." After living like Bayard, Bes- 
 sieres died like Turenne. He was sincerely attached to the Emperor. 
 Indeed, he almost worshipped him ; and would certainly never have 
 abandoned his person or his fortunes. — Las Cases. 
 
 BILLAUD-VARET^NES, Jacques Nicolas, was born at Rochelle, 
 which place he quitted several years before the Revolution, at the age 
 of twenty-three, from vexation that the people there had hissed a the- 
 atrical piece of his composition. He then went to Paris, where he got 
 himself admitted a barrister, and married a natural daughter of M. de 
 Verdun, the only one of the farmers-general who was not guillotined. 
 In 1792, he was substitute for the attorney of the commune of Paris, 
 and became one of the directors of the September massacres. In 1795, 
 he was sentenced to banishment to Guiana, where he was looked upon 
 by the people as little better than a wild beast. His principal occupa- 
 tion, during his exile, was breeding parrots. Billaud-Varennes was 
 the author of many dull pamplilets. — Biograpliie Moderne. 
 
 Of all the sanguinary monsters, observed Xapoleon, who reigned in 
 the Revolution, Billaud de Varennes was the worst. — A Voice from St. 
 Helena. 
 
 Billaud-Varennes was the most formidable of Robespierre's antago- 
 nists. 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, 
 
 Vol. II.— L
 
 446 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 
 
 was Billaud ; but he enveloped his projects in deeper obscurity, and pre- 
 pared his blows with greater art. — Lacretelle. 
 
 After Billaud-Varennes reached his place of transportation at Cay- 
 enne, his life was a continued scene of romantic adventures. He 
 escaped to Mexico, and entered, under the name of Polycarpus Varennes, 
 the Dominican convent at Porto Rico. Being obliged to fly the continent 
 for the part he took in the disputes between the Spanish colonies and the 
 mother-country, Pethion, then president of Hayti, not only afforded 
 him an asylum, but made him his secretary. After Pethion's death, 
 Boyer refusing to employ him, he went to the United States, and died 
 at Philadelphia in 1819. — Universal Biographie. 
 
 BOISTAPARTE, Joseph, eldest brother of ITapoleon, was born in 
 Corsica, January 7, 1768 ; studied for the bar at Marseilles, and in 1800, 
 after he had filled several offices of state, was chosen by the First Consul 
 as plenipotentiary to the United States. He signed the treaty of Lune- 
 ville 1801, and that of Amiens 1802 ; and assisted in the concordat 
 negotiations. After the coronation of ISTapoleon, Joseph was made com- 
 mander-in-chief of the army of I^aples ; in 1805, ruler of the Two 
 Sicilies; and in 1806, king of Naples. A humane and accomplished 
 man, but an ineffective ruler, in 1808 he was summarily transferred by 
 his brother to the throne of Spain, but found himself unprepared to cope 
 with the Spanish insurgents, and after the defeat of the French at Vit- 
 toria in 1813 returned to his estate at Morfontaine. After Waterloo he 
 accompanied I^apoleon to Rochefort, and, himself taking ship to Amer- 
 ica, became an American citizen, lived for some years at Bordentown, 
 in ISTew Jersey, U. S., where he employed himself in agriculture, but 
 in 1832 returned to Europe, and died at Florence in 1844. 
 
 You would seldom see a better countenance than that of Joseph Bona- 
 parte. With masculine strength and expression, it combines a mild, 
 intelligent smile. Joseph is well read, not only in our literature, but in 
 that of Italy and England. He loves poetry and the belles-lettres, and 
 takes pleasure in surrounding himself with learned and scientific men. 
 It has been said that his character is weak and false. He has goodness 
 of heart, gentleness, clemency, and accuracy of judgment. His conduct, 
 during his unfortunate reign in Spain, was, on the whole, admirable. 
 He left France with great regret, and entreated his brother not to force 
 a crown on him. — Duchess d' Ahr antes. 
 
 BONAPARTE, Lucien, Prince of Canino, a younger brother of 
 Napoleon, was born at Ajaccio, in 1775, and was educated at Autun, 
 Brienne, and Aix. In 1798 he was made a member of the Council of 
 Five Hundred, and just before the 18th Brumaire he was elected its 
 president. He was successful as Minister of the Interior; and as am- 
 bassador to Madrid (1800) undermined British influences. On condi- 
 tion that he would divorce his second wife (the widow of a stockbroker), 
 the crowns of Italy and Spain were offered him ; but he refused them, and 
 lived on his estate of Canino, in the States of the Church, being created
 
 BIOGKAPllICAL SKETCHES. 447 
 
 by the pope Prince of Canino. He had never wholly shaken off his early 
 strong republicanism; and having denounced the arrogant policy of his 
 brother towards the court of Rome, he was " advised " to leave Roman 
 territory, and in IS 10 took ship for America, but fell into the hands of 
 the English, and was kept in honorable captivity at Ludlow and Thorn- 
 grove, Worcestershire, till 1S14. After Waterloo he advised his brother 
 to assume the place of absolute dictator. After the second restoration 
 Lucien lived in and near Rome, occupied with science and art, and died 
 at Viterbo in 1840. 
 
 Lucien Bonaparte, in the year 1797, was about twenty-two years of 
 age; he was tall, ill-shaped, having limbs like those of the field-spider, 
 and a small liead, which, with his tall stature, would have made him 
 unlike his brothers, had not his physiognomy attested their common 
 parentage. He was very near-sighted, which made him half-shut his 
 eyes and stoop his head. This defect would, therefore, have given him 
 an unpleasing air, if his smile, always in harmony with his features, 
 had not imparted something agreeable to his countenance. Thus, though 
 he was rather plain, he pleased generally. He had very remarkable 
 success with women who were themselves very remarkable, and that long 
 before his brother arrived at power. With respect to understanding and 
 talent, Lucien always displayed abundance of both. In early youth, 
 when he met with a subject he liked, he identified himself with it. He 
 lived at that time in an ideal world. Thus at eighteen, the perusal of 
 Plutarch carried him into the Forum and the Pyrseus, He was a Greek 
 with Demosthenes, a Roman with Cicero; he espoused all the ancient 
 glories, but he was intoxicated with those of our own time. Those who, 
 because they had no conception of this enthusiasm, alleged that he was 
 jealous of his brother, have asserted a wilful falsehood, if they have not 
 fallen into a most egregious error. — Duchess d'Ahrantes. 
 
 BOL^ILLE, The Marquis de, was a gentleman of Auvergne, and a 
 relative of Lafayette's. After having served in the dragoons, he be- 
 came colonel of the regiment of Vexin infantry. Having attained the 
 rank of major-general, the King appointed him Governor-general of the 
 Windward Islands. In 1778 he took Dominica, St. Eustatia, and soon 
 after St. Christopher's, Nevis, and Montserrat. On his return he was 
 made lieutenant-general. In 1789 he brought back to its duty the re- 
 volted garrison of Metz. On the 5th of September, in the same year, 
 Gregoire complained to the Assembly, that M. de Bouille had not ad- 
 ministered the civic oath individually, and obtained a decree that he 
 should be obliged to do it. In 1790 he was commissioned to bring under 
 subjection the garrison of Nancy. He advanced upon the town with 
 four thousand men, and succeeded in this enterprise, in which he showed 
 much bravery, and which at first gained him great praises from the 
 National Assembly, and afterwards as many reproaches. Being chosen 
 by the King to facilitate his escape from Paris in June, 1791, Bouille 
 marched at the head of a body of troops to protect the passage of the
 
 448 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCKES. 
 
 rojal family; but, by false advices or ill-executed orders, tbis enterprise 
 failed, and M. de Bouille bad great difficulty in leaving France. From 
 Luxembourg be wrote to tbe Assembly a letter full of tbreats, and con- 
 cluded by saying, tbat if a bair of Louis XVI.'s bead w^as toucbed, be 
 would not leave one stone on anotber in Paris. On tbe 13tb of July tbe 
 Assembly decreed tbat be sbould be tried for contumacy, and tbat tbe 
 papers relative to tbe King's escape sbould be sent to tbe bigb court 
 of tbe nation. Bouille passed to tbe court of Sweden, wbicb gave bim 
 emplojTQent, and in tbe name of wbicb be promised powerful assistance 
 to tbe Frencb princes. He died in London in 1803. — BiograpJiie 
 Mode me. 
 
 BEISSOT DE WAKVILLE, Jean Pieree, was born January 14, 
 1754, at a village near Cbartres. His fatber kept a cook's sbop, wbicb 
 occasioned tbe saying tbat tbe son bad all the beat of bis father's stoves. 
 After passing four years in an attorney's office, be turned author, and, at 
 twenty years of age, bad already published several works, one of wbicb 
 occasioned bis imprisonment in tbe Bastille in 1784. He married a per- 
 son attached to the household of Madame d' Orleans, and afterwards went 
 to England. He lived there on pay as a spy from tbe lieutenant of police 
 at Paris. At the same time be employed himself in literature, and en- 
 deavored to form an academy in London ; but, this speculation proving 
 unsuccessful, be returned to France, and distinguished himself greatly 
 during tbe Revolution. He was elected a member of the Commune, 
 Paris, in July 1789, and in connection with Laclos drew up the petition 
 of tbe Champ de Mars in 1791. He was elected a deputy to tbe Legisla- 
 tive Assembly in October, 1791, and to the Convention in September, 
 1792. At tbe time of the trial of Louis XVI. be strove to bring the 
 subject of bis condemnation before the people, and afterwards voted 
 for bis death, though be was anxious to obtain a reprieve. Being de- 
 nounced, together with the rest of the Girondins, by the Jacobins, be 
 was guillotined, October 31, 1793. Brissot was thirty-nine years of age, 
 of middle stature, slightly formed, and pale. He was so passionate an 
 admirer of the Americans, that he adopted the appearance of a Quaker, 
 and was pleased to be mistaken for one. — Biographie Moderne. 
 
 Tbe following is the opinion entertained of Brissot by Lafayette, who 
 knew bim well : " It is impossible not to be struck with various con- 
 trasts in tbe life of Brissot: a clever man, undoubtedly, and a skilful 
 journalist, but whose talents and influence have been greatly overrated 
 both by friends and enemies. In other times, before be became a repub- 
 lican, be bad made tbe old regime a subject of eulogy. It seems pretty 
 well proved tbat, a few days before tbe lOtb of August, be, and some 
 agitators of bis party, had been intriguing with tbe valets-de-cbambre of 
 tbe Tuileries ; even after tbis insurrection, their only desire was to govern 
 m tbe name of tbe prince royal. Brissot, on tbe very eve of denouncing 
 Lafayette, told tbe Abbe Duvernet, then member of the society of 
 Jaeobins, tbat tbe person be was going to accuse, was tbe man of all
 
 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 451 
 
 others whom he esteemed ^d revered the most. Even while meditating 
 the massacres of September, he saved all who came to him; and, of his 
 own accord, discharged from prison Duport, Barnave, and Charles La- 
 meth, who were in some measure his personal antagonists." — Mignet. 
 
 BRUNE, GuiLLAUME MAiiiE Anne, born May 13, 1763, like all 
 natives of the South, was ardent, active, fond of literature, poetry, and 
 the tine arts; he possessed much information, and betook himself to 
 composition. Brune was young; his head and heart confessed but one 
 idea — glory and his country. He soon cast away pen, ink, and paper, 
 and took to the sword. None of our marshals have been so falsely repre- 
 sented in public opinion as Brune. He was not in Paris in the autumn 
 of 1792, but at Radmack; so, of course, could have had no share in the 
 September massacres. He advanced rapidly to an elevated rank in the 
 army; distinguished himself in the campaign of Italy; was aftrwards 
 named general-in-chief of the army in Helvetia. On the establishment 
 of the Consulate, Brune was appointed to the army of Italy, when, with 
 the assistance of Suchet and Davoust, he nearly destroyed the Austrian 
 army. In 1804, he was one of tlic sixteen marshals whom Bonaparte ap- 
 pointed when he ascended the imperial throne. He was afterwards, for 
 many years, in disgrace; but on Napoleon's return in 1815, he accepted 
 the command of the eiglith military division. On the restoration of 
 Louis, Brune went to Toulon, to restore the white flag there ; after which 
 he was summoned to Paris. On his way thither, at Avignon, he was 
 warned that much agitation prevailed in the town, particularly directed 
 against him, but turning a deaf ear to all remonstrance, he commanded 
 his postilions to drive to the post-house. Here an armed mob, calling 
 themselves royalists, besieged him in a room; the mayor and a few 
 gendarmes succeeded in protecting him for some time, while three 
 thousand citizens looked on with apathy. All resistance, however, was at 
 length overpowered, and, under tlie pretext that Brune had been the 
 murderer of the Princess Lamballe, he was put to death by the mob; 
 his lacerated corpse, after being dragged through the mud, was thrown 
 into the Rhone, and the river refusing to retain it, it lay two- days un- 
 buried on the strand. — Duchess d'Ahrantes. 
 
 BUZOT, Francois Nicol.xs Leonard, was born at Evreux, Septem- 
 ber 23, 1760, and was an advocate in that city at the time of the Revolu- 
 tion, which he embraced with ardor. In 1792 he was deputed by the 
 Eure to the National Assembly. At the time of the King's trial he voted 
 for his death, though not for his immediate execution, and he was even 
 one of those who most warmly solicited a reprieve for him. In the 
 March following, he more than once gave warning of the despotism of 
 the mob of Paris, and ended one of his speeches by tlireatcning that city 
 with the sight of the grass growing in the streets if confusion should 
 reign there much longer. In April he contended against the Jacobins, 
 who, ho said, were influenced by men of blood. Having been denounced 
 as a Girondin, he made his escape from Paris, and after wandering
 
 452 BIOGRAPUICAL SKETCHES. 
 
 about some time, was found, together with Petion, dead in a field, and 
 half-eaten bj wolves. — Biographie Moderne. 
 
 CADOUDAL, George, a Chonan chief, born at Auraj in 1Y69, was 
 the son of a village miller. When Bretagne took up arms, he entered 
 the service as a common horseman, and in 1795 was considered the head 
 of the plebeian party. In 1Y96 and the three ensuing years he continued 
 in arms, and was the only general-in-chief who was not noble. His 
 division was that most frequently sent against the republicans. In 1800 
 he concluded peace with the French government. He afterwards went 
 to Paris, on the invitation of Bonaparte; and then to London, where he 
 was favorably received by the English ministers. The idea of the in- 
 fernal machine is said to have originated with him, though he denied 
 it. In 1803 George and Pichegru landed on the coast of l^ormandy to 
 execute a plan of assassinating the First Consul. The conspiracy, how- 
 ever, was frustrated, and George was condemned and executed at Paris 
 in 1804. He was thirty-five years old, and showed during his trial the 
 greatest coolness. — Encyclopcedia Americana. 
 
 One day I asked Napoleon's opinion of George Cadoudal. " George," 
 said he, " had courage, and that was all. After the peace with the 
 Chouans I endeavored to gain him over, as then he would have been 
 useful to me, and I was anxious to calm all parties. I sent for, and 
 spoke to him a long time. His father was a miller, and he was an 
 ignorant fellow himself. I asked him. Why do you want to restore the 
 Bourbons ? If you were even to succeed in placing them on the throne, 
 you would still be only a miller's son in their eyes. They would hold 
 you in contempt because you were not of noble birth. But I found that 
 he had no heart — in fact, that he was not a Frenchman." — A Voice from 
 St. Helena. 
 
 CAMBACEEES, Jean Jacques Eegis, was born in 1753, at Mont- 
 pellier, of an ancient family of lawyers. At the commencement of the 
 Revolution, he received several public ofiices, and in 1792 became a 
 member of the Convention. In 1793 he declared Louis XVI. guilty, 
 but disputed the right of the Convention to judge him, and voted for his 
 provisory arrest, and in case of a hostile invasion, for his death. As a 
 member of the committee of public safety, Cambaceres reported the 
 treason of Dumouriez. After the fall of the Terrorists, he entered into 
 the council of Five Hundred, where he presented a new plan for a civil 
 code, which became subsequently the foundation of the Code l^apoleon. 
 On the 18th Brumaire, he was chosen second consul, and after Bonaparte 
 had ascended the throne, was appointed arch-chancellor of the Empire. 
 In 1808 he was created Duke of Parma. On the approach of the allies 
 in 1814, he followed the government, whence he sent his consent to the 
 Emperor's abdication. On the return of ISTapoleon, in the following 
 year, he was made president of the House of Peers, and on the Em- 
 peror's second downfall, was banished, and went to live at Brussels. 
 In 1818 the King permitted him to return to Paris, where he lived
 
 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 453 
 
 afterwards as a private individual, and died in 1824. — Encyclopcedia 
 Americana. 
 
 The Consul Cambaceres received company every Tuesday and Satur- 
 day, and no other house in Paris could stand a comparison with his hotel. 
 He was a consummate epicure, had ^reat conversational powers, and the 
 incidents of his narratives acquired novelty and grace from the turn 
 of his language. I may be allowed to call him an honest man, for, 
 looking round on all his equals in power, I have never found one of such 
 absolu<-e good faith and probity. His figure was extraordinarily ugly, 
 as well as unique. The slow and regular step, the measured cadence of 
 accentuation, the very look, which was three times as long as another's 
 to arrive at its object — all was in admirable keeping with the long 
 person, long nose, long chin, and the yellow skin, which betrayed not the 
 smallest symptoms that any matter inclining to sanguine circulated be- 
 neath its cellular texture. The same consistency pervaded his dress; 
 and when demurely promenading the galleries of the Palais Royal, then 
 the Palais Egalite, the singular cut and color of his embroidered coat; 
 his ruffles, at that time so uncommon ; his short breeches, silk stockings, 
 shoes polished with English blacking, and fastened with gold buckles, 
 his old-fashioned wig and queue, and his well-appointed and well-placed 
 three-cornered hat, produced altogether a most fantastic effect. — 
 Duchess d'Ahrantes. 
 
 CARXOT, Lazare Nicolas Marguerite, born at ISTolay, May 13, 
 1753, was one of the first officers 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 mar- 
 ried Mademoiselle Dupont, daughter of a merchant there. His political 
 principles, the moderation of his conduct, and his varied knowledge pro- 
 cured for him soon after the honor of a seat in the legislature, from which 
 period he devoted himself wholly to the imperative duties imposed on 
 him either by the choice 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 armies. He 
 had to create able leaders. His penetrating eye ranged through the most 
 obscure ranks in search of talent united with courage and disinterested- 
 ness; and he promoted it rapidly to the highest grades. In 1802, Carnot 
 opposed the creation of the Legion of Honor. He likewise opposed the 
 erection of the consulate for life; but it was most 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 defec- 
 tion. 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
 
 454 BIOGKAPinCAL SKETCHES. 
 
 Magdeburg in 1823, at the age of seventy years. It is true, he had ambi- 
 tion, but he has himself told us its character — it was the ambition of the 
 three hundred Spartans going to defend Thermopylte. — Arago. 
 
 Carnot was a man laborious and sincere, but liable to the influence of 
 intrigues, and. easily deceived. When minister oi 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 government, 
 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 anything ; 
 but, after the misfortunes of Russia, he demanded employment and got 
 the command of Antwerp, where he acquitted himself very well. After 
 iNTapoleon's return from Elba, he was minister of the interior, and the 
 emperor had every reason to be satisfied with liis conduct. He was 
 faithful, and a man of truth and probity. — A Voice from St. Helena. 
 
 The royalists and their foreign allies have never been able to forgive 
 Carnot's signal military exploits during the war of the French Revolu- 
 tion ; and affected to confound him with Robespierre, as if he had 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 conquest, in its worst 
 shape, must have been the consequence of his desertion. There may be 
 many an honest man who would 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 persevering in the management of the wari 
 — Edinburgh Review. 
 
 CARRA, Jean Louis, was born at Pont-du-Vesle in 1743. He called 
 himself a man of letters before the Revolution, because he had written 
 some bad articles in the Encyclopaedia. At the beginning of the troubles, 
 he went to Paris ; made himself remarkable among the most violent 
 revolutionists, and, in 1789, proposed the formation of the municipality 
 of Paris, and of the city guard. It was Carra who thought of arming 
 the people with pikes. Always preaching up murder and pillage in his 
 writings, he was one of the chiefs of the revolt of August 10, 1792 ; and 
 in his journal, he gloried in having traced out the plan of that day. 
 Being denounced by Robespierre, he was condemned to death, and 
 executed October 31, 1793. — Biographie Moderne. 
 
 CARRIER, Jean Baptiste, born in Auvergne 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 rage for persecution. He voted for
 
 
 
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 BIOOKAPHICAL SKETCHES. ' 457 
 
 tlie 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 December, 1794. — Encyclopccdia 
 A mericana. 
 
 Out of 500 members, 498 voted in favor of the sentence of death 
 against Carrier, the remaining two were also in favor of it, but condi- 
 tionally. — Ilazlitt. 
 
 It is my plan to carry off from that accursed country. La Vendee, all 
 manner of subsistence or provisions for man or beast: all forage — in a 
 word, everything — give all the buildings to the flames, and exterminate 
 the inhabitants. Oppose their being relieved by a single grain of corn 
 for their subsistence. I give you the most positive — the most imperious 
 orders. You are answerable for the execution from this moment. In a 
 word, leave nothing in that proscribed country — let, the means of sub- 
 sistence, provisions, forage, everything — positively everything, be re- 
 moved to ISTantes. — Extract from Carrier's Letter to General Haxo. 
 
 CATHELINEAU, Jacques, born near St. Flaurent, January 5, 1759, 
 was a wool-dealer of the village of Pin en Mauges, who took the resolu- 
 tion of standing up for his king and country, facing the evils which were 
 not to be avoided, and doing his duty manfully in arms. His wife en- 
 treated him not to form this perilous resolution ; but this was no time for 
 such humanities ; so, leaving his work, he called the villagers about him, 
 and succeeded in inducing them to take up arms. He was killed, during 
 the attack on ISTantes, June 29, 1793. — Quarterly Review. 
 
 CHABOT, Francois, a Capuchin, born in the department of Aveyron 
 in 1759, eagerly profited by the opportunity of breaking his vows, 
 which the decree of the Constituent iVssembly offered him. In 1792 he 
 was appointed deputy of Loire-et-Chcr to the legislature. In the same 
 year, he went so far as to cause himself to be slightly wounded by six 
 confidential men, in order that he might accuse the King of being the 
 author of this assassination. It is asserted that he even pressed Merlin 
 and Bazire to murder him, and then to carry his bloody corpse into the 
 faubourg, to hasten the. insurrection of the people, and the destruction 
 of the monarch. Chabot was one of the chief instigators of the events 
 of August 10th, and voted afterAvards for the death of the King. He was 
 condemned to death by Bobespierre as a partisan of the Dantonist faction. 
 When he knew what his fate was to be, he poisoned himself with corrosive 
 sublimate of mercury ; but the dreadful pain he suffered having extorted 
 shrieks from him, he was conveyed to the infirmary, and his life pro- 
 longed till April 5, 1794, when he was guillotined. Chabot died with 
 IRrmness at the age of thirty-five. — Biographie Moderne. 
 
 CHARETTE DE LA CONTRIE^ Francois Athanase, born near 
 Ancenis, April 21, 1763, was the only individual to whom !N"apoleon 
 attached particular importance. I have read a history of La Vendee, 
 said he to me, and if the details and portraits are correct, Charette was
 
 458 BIOGRAPllICAT. SKETCHES. 
 
 the only great character — the true hero of that remarkable episode in 
 our revolution. He impressed me with the idea of a great man. He 
 betrayed genius. I replied, that I had known Charette very well in my 
 youth, and that his brilliant exploits astonished all who had formerly 
 been acquainted with him. We looked on him as a commonplace sort 
 of man, devoid of information, ill-tempered, and extremely indolent. 
 When, however, he began to rise into celebrity, his early friends recol- 
 lected a circumstance which certainly indicated decision of character. 
 When Charette was first called into service during the American war, 
 he sailed out of Brest 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 seem- 
 ed inevitable — and the sailors, throwing themselves 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 Vendee. Men's dispositions 
 are often misunderstood. There are sleepers whose waking is terrible. 
 Charette was one of these. — Las Cases. 
 
 After his capture, Charette entered into l^antes preceded by a nu- 
 merous escort, closely guarded by gendarmes, and generals glittering in 
 gold and plumes ; himself on foot, with his clothes torn and bloody, pale 
 and attenuated; yet more an object of interest than all the splendid 
 throng by whom he was surrounded. Such was his exhaustion from loss 
 of blood, that he fainted on leaving the Quarter of Commerce; but no 
 sooner was his strength revived by a glass of water, than he marched on, 
 enduring for two hours, with heroic constancy, the abuse of the populace. 
 He was conducted to the military commission, and sentenced to be shot. 
 On the following morning he was brought out on the scaffold. The roll 
 of drums, the assemblage of all the troops and national guard, and a 
 countless multitude of spectators, announced the great event which was 
 approaching. At length the hero appeared, descended with a firm step 
 the prison stairs, and walked to the place where his execution was to take 
 place. A breathless silence prevailed. Charette advanced to the ap- 
 pointed place, bared his breast, and himself gave the command, uttering, 
 with his last breath, the words " Vive le Roi !" — Alison. 
 
 CHAUMETTE, Pierre Gaspard, attorney of the commune of Paris, 
 was born at I'J'evers, May 24, 1763. His father was a shoemaker. After 
 having been a cabin-boy, a steersman, a transcriber, and an attorney's 
 clerk at Paris, he worked under the journalist Prudhomme, who describes 
 him as a very ignorant fellow. He soon acquired great power in the 
 capital, and in 1793 proposed the formation of a revolutionary tribunal 
 without appeal, and a tax on the rich. At the same time, he contrived 
 the Festivals of Reason, and the orgies and profanations which polluted 
 all the churches in Paris, and even proposed that a moving guillotine
 
 BIOGKAPHICAL SKETCHES. 459 
 
 mounted on four wheels, should follow the revolutionary army " to shed 
 blood in profusion !" Chaumette also proposed the cessation of public 
 worship, and the equality of funerals ; and procured an order for the 
 demolition of all monuments of religion and royalty. He was executed, 
 by order of Robespierre, April 13, 1794, twenty days after Hebert, to 
 whose party he had attached himself. — Biographie Moderne. 
 
 The municipal faction of Chaumette and Hebert had not only struck at 
 the root of religious worship, but they had 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 con- 
 tract, binding only during the pleasure of the contracting parties. Di- 
 vorce immediately became gene'ral ; and the corruption of manners 
 reached a height unknowm during the worst days of the monjirchy. So 
 indiscriminate did concubinage become, that, by a decree of the Con- 
 vention, bastards were declared entitled to an equal share of the succes- 
 sion with legitimate children. The divorces in Paris in the first three 
 months of 1792 were 562, while the marriages were only 1785 — a pro- 
 portion probably unexampled among mankind ! The consequences soon 
 became apparent. Before the era of the Consulate, one-half of the whole 
 births in Paris were illegitimate." 
 
 CLOOTZ, Jean Baptiste du Val-de-Grace, a Prussian baron, as- 
 sumed the name of Anacharsis Clootz. He was born at Cleves, on June 
 24, 1755, and became the possessor of a considerable fortune, which he 
 dissipated by his misconduct. He was not destitute of ability, but M^as 
 half-crazed by his fanatical love of liberty, and his constant habit of 
 poring over the works of German metaphysicians. As he was the nephew 
 of Cornelius Parr, author of several works, he thought he must also be 
 a writer. He travelled in dilferent parts of Europe, and particularly 
 cultivated the society of Burke, who was then a member of the opposition 
 in the English Parliament. During the French Revolution, Clootz made 
 himself notorious by the absurd extravagance of his conduct. The mas- 
 querade, kno\vn by the name of the " Embassy of the Human Race," 
 was the first scene in which he attracted attention. He appeared on 
 June 19, 1790, at the bar of the National Assembly, followed by a con- 
 siderable body of Parisian porters in foreign dresses, whom he presented 
 as deputies from all nations. He styled himself the " Orator of the 
 human race," and requested to be admitted to the Federation, which 
 was agreed to. On January 22, 1792, he wrote a letter to the Legisla- 
 tive Assembly, beginning thus : " The orator of the human race to the 
 legislature of the human race sends greeting." On April 21st he de- 
 livered a ridiculous tirade at the bar relative to the declaration of war 
 against the King of Hungary and Bohemia ; proposed to the Assembly 
 to adhere for a year to a strict regimen ; and ended by offering, what he 
 called, a patriotic gift of 12,000 livres. He in consequence obtained the 
 honor of a seat among the members. On August 12th he came to con-
 
 460 BIOGEAPniCAL SKETCHES. 
 
 gratulate the Assembly on the events of the 10th, and offered to raise a 
 Prussian legion. On the 27th, he begged the Assembly to set a price on 
 the heads of the King of Prussia and the Duke of Brunswick, and de- 
 livered a long speech, in which the following expressions occurred: 
 "Charles IX. had a successor; Louis will have none." "You know 
 how to value the heads of philosophers ; a price yet remains to be set on 
 those of tyrants." " My heart is French, and my soul sans-culotte." 
 The hatred of this fanatic against the Christian religion was as fervent 
 as that which he entertained against the monarchy. In September, 1792, 
 he was deputed from the Oise to the Convention, where he voted for the 
 death of Louis XVI. in the name of the human race ! In the same year 
 he published a work entitled The Universal Eepuhlic, wherein he laid 
 it down as a principle " that the people was the sovereign of the world — 
 nay, that it was God !" — " that fools alone believed in a Supreme Being!" 
 etc. He soon afterwards fell under the suspicion of Robespierre, was 
 arrested as a Hebertist, and condemned to death on March 24, 1794. 
 He died with great firmness, and, on his way to execution, lectured He- 
 bert on materialism, " to prevent him," as he said, " from yielding to 
 religious feelings in his last moments." He even asked to be executed 
 after all his accomplices, in order that he might have time " to establish 
 certain principles during the fall of their heads." — Biographie Moderne. 
 COLLOT-D'HEPBOIS, Jean Marie, born at Paris about 1753, first 
 appeared on the stage, and had little success. He played at Geneva, at 
 the Hague, and at Lyons, where, having been often liissed, he vowed the 
 most cruel vengeance against that town. The line of acting in which 
 he played best was that of tyrants in tragedies. He went to Paris at 
 the beginning of the Iievolution, and embraced the popular cause. Pos- 
 sessed of a fine face, a powerful voice, and great boldness, he became one 
 of the oracles at the Jacobin Club. He was no stranger to the September 
 massacres. During tlio king's trial he sat at the top of the Mountain, by 
 Robespierre's side, and voted for the monarch's death. It has been said 
 of this man, who was surnamed the Tiger, that he was the most sangui- 
 nary of the Terrorists. In 1793 he took his departure for Lyons, protest- 
 ing that the South should soon be purified. It is from the time of this 
 mission that his horril)le celebrity takes its rise. He sent for a column of 
 the revolutionary army, and organized the demolitions and the employ- 
 ment of cannon in order to make up for the slowness of the guillotine 
 at Lyons. The victims, when about to be shot, Avere bound to a cord fixed 
 to trees, and a picket of infantry marched round the place, firing suc- 
 cessively on the condemned. The mitraiUades, the executions by artil- 
 lery, took place in the Brotteaux. Those who were destined for this 
 punishment were ranged two by two on the edge of th^. ditches that had 
 been dug to receive their bodies, and cannons, loaded tvith small bits of 
 metal, were fired upon them; after which, some troops of the revolu- 
 tionary army despatched the wounded with swords or bayonets. Two 
 women and a young girl having solicited the pardon of their husbands
 
 AXACITARSTS CI.OOTZ.
 
 BIOGllArillCAI. SKETCHES. 
 
 463 
 
 and brothers, Collot-d'IIerbois had them bound on the scaffold where their 
 relations expired, and their blood spouted out on them. On his return 
 to Paris, being denounced to the National Convention by petitioners 
 from Lyons, he answered, that " the cannon had been fired but once on 
 sixty of the most guilty, to destroy them with a single stroke." The 
 Convention approved of his measures, and ordered that his speech should 
 be printed. In the year 1794, returning home at one o'clock in the 
 morning, Collot was attacked by Admiral, who fired at him twice with a 
 pistol, but missed his aim. The importance which this adventure gave 
 him, both in the Convention of which he was nominated president, and 
 elsewhere, irritated the self-love of Robespierre, whom Collot afterwards 
 denounced. In 1795 he was transported to Guiana, where he endeavored 
 to stir up the blacks against the whites. — Biographie Modeme. 
 
 Collot-d'Herbois died in exile at Cayenne. He was found one day 
 lying on the ground, with his face exposed to a burning sun, in a raging 
 fever. The negroes who were appointed to carry him from Kouron to 
 Cayenne, had thrown him down to perish. He expired, vomiting froth 
 and blood, and calling upon that God whom he had so often renounced. — 
 Pitons Voyage to Cayenne. 
 
 COISTDE, Louis Joseph de Bourbon, Prince of, was born at Chan- 
 tilly, August 9, 1736. He was the only son of the Duke of Bourbon and 
 the Princess of Hesse-Rheinfels. In 1753 he married the Princess of 
 Rohan-Soubise, who in 1756 bore him the Prince of Bourbon-Conde. 
 In the seven years' war he distinguished himself by his skill and 
 courage and in 1762 gained a victory at Johannisberg over the heredi- 
 tary Prince of Brunswick. In the Revolution he emigrated in 1789, to 
 Brussels, and thence to Turin. He afterwards formed* a little corps of 
 emigrant nobility, which joined the Austrian army under Wurmser. In 
 1795 he entered with his corps into the English service. In 1797 he 
 entered the Russian service, and marched with his corps to Russia, where 
 he was hospitably received by Paul I. In 1800, after the separation of 
 Russia from the coalition, he re-entered the English service. He re- 
 turned to Paris in 1814; and the next year fled with the king to Ghent. 
 He died at Paris in 1818. His grandson was the unfortunate Duke 
 d'Enghien. — Cyclopcpdia Americana. 
 
 CONDORCET, Marie Jean Antoine Nicolas de Caritat, Mar- 
 quis de, was born at St. Quentin, in Picardy, September 17, 1743. His 
 was one of the oldest families in Dauphine. He was educated in the col- 
 lege of Navarre, at Paris, and from early youth devoted himself to the 
 study of the exact sciences. The Duke of Rochefoucault was his patron ; 
 and introduced him into the world at the age of nineteen. With astonish- 
 ing facility Condorcet treated the most difficult problems in mathematics, 
 and gained such celebrity as a man of science, that, in 1777, he was made 
 secretary to the Academy of Sciences. He contributed several articles 
 to the Encyclopcedia, and was intimate with most of the ^vriters of that 
 great work. Under a cold exterior, Condorcet concealed the most violent
 
 464 BIOGEAPHICAL SKETCHES. 
 
 passions. D'Alembert compared him to a volcano covered with snow. 
 On the intelligence of the king's flight, he defined the royal dignity as an 
 anti-social institution. In 1792 he was appointed President of the As- 
 sembly, and composed the proclamation addressed to the French and to 
 Enrope, which announced the abolition of royalty. On the trial of Louis 
 he voted for the severest sentence not capital ; at the same time he voted 
 for the abolition of capital punishments, except in crimes against the 
 state. In 1793 he was accused of being an accomplice with Brissot, 
 and, to save his life, concealed himself in the house of Madame Verney, 
 where he remained eight months, during which period, though in con- 
 stant fear of discovery, he wrote one of his best philosophical treatises. 
 Having at length learned that death was denounced against all who 
 harbored a proscribed individual, he left his generous hostess, and 
 fled in disguise from Paris. He wandered about for some time, until, 
 driven by hunger, he entered a small inn at Clamar, where he was arrest- 
 ed as a suspicious person, and thrown into prison. On the following 
 morning, March 28, 1794, he was found dead on the floor of his room, 
 having apparently swallowed poison, which he always carried about him, 
 and which nothing but his love for his wife and daughter prevented him 
 using before. — Encyclopcedia Americana. 
 
 CORDAY D'ARMANS, Charlotte, was born at St. Saturnin des 
 Lignerets, in the year 1768. ISTature had bestowed on her a handsome 
 person, wit, feeling, and a masculine understanding. She received her 
 education in a convent, where she labored with constant assiduity to culti- 
 vate her own powers. The Abbe Raynal was her favorite modern author ; 
 and the Revolution found in her an ardent proselyte. Her love of study 
 rendered her careless of the homage that her beauty attracted, though 
 she was said to have formed an attachment to M. Belzunce, major of the 
 regiment of Bourbon, quartered at Caen. This young officer was mas- 
 sacred in 1789, after Marat in several successive numbers of his journal 
 had denounced Belzunce as a counter-revolutionist. From this moment 
 Charlotte Corday conceived a great hatred of Marat, which was in- 
 creased after the overthrow of the Girondins, whose principles she 
 reverenced ; and, being resolved to gratify her vengeance, she left Caen 
 in 1793, and 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 in- 
 clines 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. T can point out the means by w^hich 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 knocking at the door, Marat, who
 
 CHAUI.OTTE COUOAY.
 
 BIOQKAPHICAL, SKETCHES. 467 
 
 was in his bath, ordered her to be instantly admitted ; when, being left 
 alone with him, she answered with perfect self-possession all his in- 
 quiries 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 of a mighty effort to avenge the 
 injuries of a nation. The hour of her punishment 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. 
 
 " 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 only 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. Em- 
 brace 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 scaf- 
 fold." — Alison. 
 
 On her way to the scaffold, Charlotte Corday heard nothing but 
 applause 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 pleasure; and even in her last moments, the handker- 
 chief 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 was descended from Peter 
 Corneille. — Paris Journal, 1797. 
 
 COUTHOX, J., surnamed Cato during the Reign of Terror, was born 
 at Orsay in 175G, and was an advocate at Clerrnont. He was deputed 
 to the legislature and the Convention. Before this period he enjoyed 
 in his own country a reputation for gentleness and integrity; yet he 
 embraced the revolutionary principles with astonishing eagerness, and, 
 during the sitting of the Convention, showed himself the most ardent 
 partisan of sanguinary measures. Prudhomme says, that it was in his 
 chamber at Paris that the Duke of Orleans, Danton, Marat, Petion, 
 Robespierre, and others, assembled to arrange the insurrection of August
 
 468 BIOGKAPHICAL SKETCHES. 
 
 10, 1792. In the following year Couthon voted for the king's death, and 
 eagerly opposed delay. He soon afterwards attacked the Girondins, and 
 became the favorite tool of Robespierre. Being sent to Lyons, he pre- 
 sided at the execution of the rebel chiefs, and began to put in force the 
 decree which ordered the demolition of that city. Being afterwards 
 implicated with the party of Bobespierre, the armed force came to seize 
 him; when he perceived they were going to lay hold of him, he struck 
 himself slightly with a dagger, and feigned himself dead. In the year 
 1794- he was executed, and suffered horribly before he died ; his singular 
 conformation, and the dreadful contraction of his limbs at that time, so 
 incommoded the executioner while fastening him on the plank of the 
 guillotine, that he was obliged to lay him on his side to give the fatal 
 blow; his torture lasted longer than that of fourteen other sufferers. — 
 Biographie Moderne. 
 
 Couthon was a decrepit being, whose lower extremities were paralyzed 
 — whose benevolence of feeling seemed to pour itself out in the most 
 gentle expressions uttered in the most melodious tones — whose sensibility 
 led him constantly to foster a favorite spaniel in his bosom that he might 
 have something on which to bestow kindness and caressfes — but who was 
 at heart as fierce as Danton, and as pitiless as Kobespierre. — Scott's Life 
 of Napoleon. 
 
 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, '" Bebellious 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. — Alisoji. 
 
 CTJSTINE, Count Adam Bhilippe, born at Metz, February 4, 1740, 
 served as captain in the seven years' war. Through the influence of the 
 Duke of Choiseul, he obtained, in 1762, a regiment of dragoons, which 
 was called by his name. In 1780 he exchanged this for the regiment of 
 Saintonge, which was on the point of going to America, to the aid of the 
 colonies. On his return, he was appointed marechal de camp. In 1789 
 he was deputy of the nobility of Metz, and was one of the first who de- 
 clared for the popular party. He subsequently entered the army of the 
 INorth, and, 1792, made himself master of the pass of Borentruy. He 
 then received the command of the army of the Lower Bhine, and opened 
 the campaign by taking possession of Spire. He next took Worms, then 
 the fortress of Mentz, and then Frankfort-on-the-Main, on which he laid 
 heavy contributions. In 1793 he was denounced, and received his dis- 
 missal, but the Convention afterwards invested him with the command 
 of the N'orthern army. But he had hardly time to visit the posts. INlarat 
 and Varennes were unceasing in their accusations against him, and the 
 revolutionary tribunal soon afterwards condemned him to death. He 
 was guillotined August 28, 1793. — Encyclopcedia Americana. 
 
 DANTON", Georges Jacques, an advocate by profession, was born
 
 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 469 
 
 at Arcissur-Arbe, October 20, 1759, and beheaded April 5, 1794. His 
 external appearance was striking. His stature was colossal; his frame 
 athletic ; his features harsh, large, and disagreeable ; his voice shook the 
 Assembly; his eloquence was- vehement ; and his imagination as gigantic 
 as his person, which made every one recoil, and at which, says St. Just, 
 " Freedom herself trembled." He was one of the founders of the club 
 of the Cordeliers. His importance increased in 1792, when he became 
 one of the instigators of the events of June 20th, and a leader on August 
 10th. After the fall of- Louis XVI. Danton was made minister of justice, 
 and usurped the appointments of officers in the army and departments. 
 He thus raised up a great number of creatures wholly devoted to his 
 views. Money flowed from all sides into his hands, and was profusely 
 squandered on his partisans. His violent measures led to the September 
 massacres. The invasion of Champagne by the Prussians spread con- 
 sternation through Paris ; and Danton alone preserved his courage. He 
 assumed the administration of the state ; prepared measures of defence ; 
 called on all Frenchmen capable of bearing arms to march against the 
 enemy; and prevented the removal of the Assembly beyond the Loire. 
 From this time forward he was hated by Robespierre, who could never 
 pardon the superiority which Danton had shown on this occasion. On 
 the occasion of the Festival of Reason, in which the Hebertists acted a 
 conspicuous part, Danton declared himself against the attack on the 
 ministers of religion, and subsequently united with Robespierre to bring 
 Hebert and his partisans to the scaffold. But their connection was not 
 of long duration. Danton wished to overthrow the despotism of Robes- 
 pierre, who, in his turn, was anxious to get rid of a dangerous rival. 
 Danton was accordingly denounced to the committee of safety by St. 
 Just, and imprisoned with his adherents in the Luxembourg. When he 
 was transferred thence to the Conciergerie, he appeared deeply mortified 
 at having been duped by Robespierre. On his trial, he said, composedly, 
 " T am Danton, sufficiently well kno^^Ti in the Revolution ; I shall soon 
 pass to nothingness ; but my name will live in the Pantheon of history." 
 He was condemned to death by the revolutionary tribunal as an accom- 
 plice in a conspiracy for the restoration of monarchy, and his large prop- 
 erty was confiscated. He mounted the car with courage; his head was 
 elevated, his look commanding and full of pride. On ascending the 
 scaffold, he was for a moment softened. '' Oh, my wife, my dear wife, 
 shall I never see you again ?" he said, but checked himself hastily, and 
 exclaimed, " Courage, Danton! no weakness." He was thirty-five years 
 old at the time of his death. — Encjjclopwdia Americana. 
 
 During the short period that elapsed before his execution, Danton's 
 mind, in a distracted state, reverted to the innocence of his earlier years. 
 He spoke incessantly about trees, flowers, and the country. Then giving 
 way to unavailing regret, he exclaimed, " It was just a year ago that I 
 was the means of instituting the revolutionary tribunal ; may God and 
 man forgive me for what I then did ; but it was not that it might become 
 
 Vol. II.— M
 
 470 BIOGRAPHICAL, SKETCHES. 
 
 the scourge of humanity." When his sentence was read to him in his 
 cell, " We are sacrificed," said Danton, " to a few dastardly brigands, but 
 I drag Robespierre after me in my fall." — Alison. 
 
 Danton was sometimes denominated the Mirabeau, sometimes the 
 Alcibiades of the rabble. He may be said to have resembled both (mth 
 the differences only of the patrician order and the populace) — in his 
 tempestuous passions, popular eloquence, dissijDation, and debts, like the 
 one ; his ambition, his daring and inventive genius, like the other. He 
 exerted his faculties, and indulged his voluptuary indolence alternately 
 and by starts. His conceptions were isolated, but complete in themselves, 
 and of terrific efficacy as practical agents in revolutions. Danton's 
 ambition was not personal. He would freely sacrifice himself for the 
 republic or his party. He was inhuman, not so much from instinctive 
 cruelty, as from a careless prodigality of blood. He viewed the Revolu- 
 tion as a great game, in which men played for their lives. He took those 
 he won as freely as he would have paid those he lost. — British and 
 Foreign Review. 
 
 I never saw any countenance tliat so strongly expressed the violence 
 of brutal passions, and the most astonishing audacity, half-disguised by a 
 jovial air, an affectation of frankness, and a sort of simplicity, as 
 Danton's. In 1789 he was a needy lawyer, more burdened with debts 
 than causes. He went to Belgium to augment his resources, and, after 
 August 10, had the hardihood to avow a fortune of £158,333, and to 
 wallow in luxury, while preaching sans-culottism, and sleeping on heaps 
 of slaughtered men. — Madame Boland's Memoirs. 
 
 DAVID, Jacques Louis, born at Paris in 1741, a celebrated painter, 
 elector of Paris in 1792, was one of the warmest friends of Robespierre. 
 He voted for the death of Louis XVI. He contrived the Mountain on 
 which Robespierre gave a public festival in the Field of Mars. In 1794 
 he presided in the Convention. In 1800 the consuls made him the na- 
 tional artist, when he painted for the Hospital of the Invalids a picture 
 of General Bonaparte. In 1805 he was appointed to paint the scene 
 of the Emperor's coronation. David was unquestionably the first French 
 painter of the modern school ; and this consideration had some weight 
 in obtaining his pardon in 1794, when he had been accused of being a 
 Terrorist. A swelling which David had in his cheeks rendered his 
 features hideous. — BiograpMe Moderne. 
 
 DAVOUST, Louis T^icolas, was born at Annoux, May 10, 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 himself 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 Napoleon ascended the throne 
 in 1804 he created Davoust marshal of the empire. In 1806 he created 
 him Duke of Auerstadt, and after the peace of Tilsit, commander-in-
 
 DAXTON.
 
 BIOGEAPHICAL SKETCHES. 473 
 
 chief of the army of the Rhine. Having had an important share in 
 the victories of Eckmuhl and Wagram, Davoust was created prince 
 of the former place. He accompanied Napoleon to Kussia; and 
 in 1813 was besieged in Hamburg, where he lost eleven thousand men, 
 and was accused of great cruelty. On the Emperor's return to Paris, 
 in 1815, he was appointed Minister of War. After the battle of Water- 
 loo he submitted to Louis XVIII., and was subsequently employed by 
 the court. Davoust died in the year 1823, leaving a son and two daugh- 
 ters. — Encyclopcedia Americana. 
 
 DESMOULINS, Camille, a lawyer, born at Guise, in Picardy, in 
 1762, was the son of the lieutenant-general of the bailiwick of Guise. 
 His appearance was vulgar, his complexion swarthy, and his looks un- 
 prepossessing. He made his first appearance at the bar to plead against 
 his OMTi father, whom he wanted to make him a greater allowance than 
 he could afford. At the very commencement of the Revolution he 
 formed an intimate acquaintance with Robespierre. In July, 1789, 
 he harangued a large mob in the Palais Royal with a brace of pistols 
 in his hand, and assumed the appellation of attorney -general of the 
 lamp-post. The same year he began his journal Les Revolutions de 
 France et de Brabant, which exercised great influence on the mob of 
 Paris. With Danton he joined the club of the Cordeliers in 1790. He 
 married Lucille Duplessis, December 29, 1790. In 1792 he was ap- 
 pointed secretary to Danton, and organized with him the September 
 massacres. He asserted frequently that society consisted of two classes 
 of men — gentlemen and sans-culottes ; and that, in order to save the 
 republic, it was necessary to take the purses of the one, and put arms 
 into the hands of the other. His connection with Danton was his ruin; 
 and his sentence of death, the word " clemency," which he recommended 
 in his journal of the " Old Cordelier." He was arrested in 1794, and 
 during his imprisonment he gave himself up alternately to rage and 
 despair. His favorite studies were the works of Young and Hervey. 
 When led to execution, at the age of thirty-three, he made the most vio- 
 lent efforts to avoid getting into the cart. His shirt was in tatters, and 
 his shoulders bare ; his eyes glared, and he foamed at the mouth, crying 
 out while he ascended the scaffold : " This, then, is the reward reserved 
 for the first apostle of liberty! The monsters who assassinate me will 
 not survive me long." His wife, whom he adored, and by whom he 
 was as warmly beloved, beautiful, courageous, and sensible, begged to 
 share his fate, and ten days afterwards Robespierre sent her to the scaf- 
 fold, where she exhibited much more firmness than her husband. — 
 Biographie Moderne. 
 
 Camille Desmoulins had natural abilities, some education, but an ex- 
 travagant imagination. He stammered in his speech, and yet he 
 harangued the mob without appearing ridiculous, such was the influ- 
 ence which the vehemence of his language had over it. He was fond of 
 pleasure and of amusements of all kinds, and professed a sincere ad-
 
 474 BIOGKAPHICAL SKETCHES. 
 
 miration of Robespierre, who then seemed to feel a friendship for him. — 
 Memoirs of a Peer of France. 
 
 This brilliant, but headstrong young man had followed every early 
 movement of the Revolution, approving of all its measures and all its 
 excesses. His heart, however, was kind and gentle, although his opin- 
 ions had been violent, and his pleasantries often cruel. lie had ap- 
 proved of the revolutionary government, because he had conceived it 
 indispensable to lay the foundation of the republic ; 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 liis 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 
 Machiavelli ; and of men, with the wit of Voltaire. — Mignet. 
 
 DROUET, Jean Baptiste, postmaster at St. Menehould, was born 
 in 1763. It wa^ he who recognized the King in his flight, and caused 
 him to be arrested at Varennes. In 1792 he was chosen member of 
 the Convention and voted for the death of Louis. In the autumn of 
 the following year he was sent to the army of the l^orth, was taken 
 prisoner, and carried to Moravia. In 1795 he obtained his liberty, and 
 entered the council of Five Hundred. Dissatisfied with the moderate 
 system which then prevailed in France, he became, with Baboeuf, one 
 of the leaders of the Jacobin conspiracy, on which account he was ar- 
 rested, but made his escape into Switzerland. He Avas finally acquitted, 
 and returned to France. During the Hundred Days he was a mem- 
 ber of the chamber of deputies, but, in 1816, was banished from France 
 as a regicide. — Encyclopwdia Americana. 
 
 DUBOIS-CRANCE, Edmond Louis Alexis, born at Charleville in 
 1747, entered the King's musketeers, and became lieutenant of the 
 marshals of France. In 1792 he was chosen deputy to the Convention, 
 and on the King's trial, opposed the appeal to the people, and voted for 
 his death. In the following year he was chosen president of the Con- 
 vention, and entered into the committee of public safety. He contributed 
 to the fall of the Girondins, and afterwards to that of Robespierre and the 
 Terrorists. In 1799 the Directory raised him to the administration of 
 the war department, in the place of Bernadotte. He died in 1805 at 
 an estate to which he had retired. — Bioqrapliie Moderne. 
 
 DUMONT, Andiie, deputy to the Convention, voted for the King's 
 death without appeal. He persecuted the Girondins with the utmost 
 severity. Being sent to the department of the Somme, he caused two 
 hundred persons, sixty-four of whom were priests, to be thrown into the 
 river. In 1794 he declared violently against Robespierre, and was 
 afterwards president of the Convention, and member of the committee 
 of public safety. In the December of 1794, he proposed that the pun- 
 ishment of death should no longer be inflicted, except on royalists. In 
 the year 1796 he was elected to the council of Five Hundred, and, after
 
 Df;sM(ur.ixs.
 
 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 477 
 
 the 18th Brumaire, was appointed sub-prefect of Abbeville. — Biogra- 
 phie Modenie. 
 
 DUMOUKIEZ, Charles Francois Duperier, was born at Cam- 
 bray, January 25, 1739, and descended from a Provencal family en- 
 gaged in the law. lie was fifty years of age at the commencement of 
 the Revolution. Up to that time lie had lived amid intrigues, which he 
 was but too fond of engaging in. The first part of his political life 
 was spent in discovering those by whose help he might rise ; and the 
 second, in discovering those who were able to support his elevation. 
 A courtier before 1789; a Constitutional under the first Assembly; a 
 Girondin under the second; and a Jacobin under the republic, he was 
 eminently the creature of the time. But he had all the resources of 
 great men; an enterprising disposition, indefatigable activity, and 
 prompt, accurate, and extended views ; extraordinary impetuosity in 
 action, and unbounded confidence in success. He was, besides, frank, 
 ingenious, clever, bold, equally fitted for the council and the field ; full 
 of expedients, and knowing how to submit to the misfortune of a difficult 
 'position until he could change it. It must be admitted, however, that 
 these fine qualities were injured by several defects. Dumouriez was 
 rash, thoughtless, and extremely capricious, in consequence of his con- 
 tinual thirst for action. But his great fault was want of all political prin- 
 ciple. He died at Turville Park, England, iMarch 14, 1823. — Mign&t 
 
 DUSSAULX, Jean, born at Chartres, December 28, 1728, was the 
 son of a lawyer. He served in the campaign of Hanover, under Mar- 
 shal Richelieu, and gained the esteem of King Stanislaus. Returning 
 to Paris, he brought out a translation of Juvenal, and in 177G was 
 made a member of the Academy of Inscriptions. Becoming a member 
 of the Convention, he voted for the King's detention and his banishment 
 on a peace. In 1796 he was appointed president of the Council of 
 Ancients. He died in 1799 after a long and afflicting illness. — Biogra- 
 phie Modcrne. 
 
 EDGEWORTH DE EIRMONT, Henry Essex, father -confessor of 
 Louis XVI., was born in Ireland in 1745, in the village of Edgeworths- 
 town. His father, an Episcopalian clergyman, adopted the Catholic 
 faith with his family, and went to France. His piety and good conduct 
 obtained him the confidence of the Princess Elizabeth, who chose him for 
 her confessor, and made him knoA^m to Louis, who, after his condemna- 
 tion, sent for him to attend him in his last moments. M. Edgeworth 
 accompanied the King to the place of execution ; and, having succeeded 
 in escaping from France, arrived in England in 1790. Pitt offered him 
 a pension, which he declined. He soon after followed Louis XYIII. 
 to Blankenburg, in Brunswick, and thence to Mittau. M. Edgeworth 
 died, in 1807, of a contagious fever, caught in attending to some sick 
 French emigrants. The Duchess d'Angouleme waited on him in his 
 last moments: the royal family followed him to the tomb; and Louis 
 XVIII. wrote his epitaph. — Encyclopedia Americana.
 
 478 BIOGKAPHICAL SKETCHES. 
 
 ELIZABETH, Philippine Marie Helene^ Madame^ sister to Louis 
 XVL, was born at Versailles in the year 1764, She was the young- 
 est child of Louis, Dauphin of France, and Marie Josephine of Saxony. 
 At the commencement of the Kevolution, Madame Elizabeth saw with 
 terror the convocation of the States-General ; but when it was found to 
 be inevitable, she devoted herself from that moment entirely to the 
 w^elfare of her brother and the royal family. She was condemned to 
 death in 1794, and ascended the scaftold wath twenty-four other vic- 
 tims, not one of whom she knew. She was thirty years old at the time 
 of her execution, and demeaned herself throughout with courage and 
 resignation. — Biographie Moderne. 
 
 FABKE-D'EGLAKTINE, Philippe Francois :Nazaire, born De- 
 cember 28, 1755, was a native of Carcassone. He was known at the 
 commencement of the Revolution by works which had little success, and 
 since that time, by comedies not destitute of merit ; but, above all, by 
 criminal conduct both as a public and a private man. Of low birth, he 
 possessed a vanity which rendered him intolerable. He could not endure 
 the nobility. While he was obliged to bend before it, he was content 
 with abusing it, as he could do no more ; but when the course of events 
 had placed him in a position to crush those he hated, he rushed on them 
 with the rage of a tiger, and tore them to pieces with delight. I have 
 heard him say, nearly like Caligula, that he wished the nobles had but 
 one head, that he might strike it off at a single blow. In 1793, during 
 the trial of Louis XVL, he was solicited to be favorable to that un- 
 fortunate prince. " You will enjoy the pleasure of doing a good action," 
 said the applicant. " I know a pleasure far superior to that," replied 
 Fabre ; " it is the pleasure felt by a commoner in condemning a king to 
 death." — Memoirs of a Peer of France. 
 
 Fabre-d'Eglantine was an ardent promoter and panegyrist of the 
 revolutionary system, and the friend, the companion, the adviser of the 
 proconsuls, who carried throughout France, fire and sword, devastation- 
 and death. I do not know whether his hands were stained by the lavish- 
 ing of money not his own, but I know that he was a promoter of assassina- 
 tions. Poor before September 2, 1792, he had afterwards a hotel and 
 carriages and servants and women ; his friend Lacroix assisted him to 
 procure this retinue. — Mercier. 
 
 FAVRAS, Marquis be, formerly lieutenant of Monsieur's Swiss 
 guards, was condemned by the Chatelet of Paris, on February 18, 1790, 
 for having endeavored to excite a counter-revolutionary project, and for 
 having intended to attempt the life of Lafayette, Bailly, and Necker, 
 and to carry off the King and the royal family. He was born at Blois ; 
 devoted himself from his earliest youth to the service, and went into the 
 musketeers in 1755. In 1701 he obtained a company of dragoons in the 
 regiment of Belsunce ; and served with distinction in the campaigns of 
 17fi2 and 1708, after which he was appointed adjutant. In 1772 he ac- 
 quired the office of first lieutenant of Monsieur's Swiss, which conferred
 
 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 4Y9 
 
 the rank of colonel. In 1786 he went to Vienna to get his wife legitima- 
 tized, as only daughter of the Prince of Anhalt-Schaumberg. In 1787 
 he commanded a legion in Holland, at the time of the insurrection against 
 the Stadtholder. In 1790 he was accused of having plotted, at Paris, 
 against the Revolution ; of having wanted to introduce armed men into 
 Paris by night, in order to destroy the three principal heads of the 
 administration ; of attacking the King's guard ; of taking away the seals 
 of the state ; and even of carrying off the King and his family to Veronne. 
 He was summoned before the Chatelet, and repelled all the accusations 
 brought against him ; but his denials did not prevent the judges from con- 
 demning him. The announcement of his sentence did not shake his 
 fortitude; he dictated his will with calmness, and paid great attention 
 to the style of it. Favras was executed on February 11, 1790. — Biogra- 
 phic Modcrne. 
 
 FEEAUD, deputy to the Convention, voted for the death of Louis 
 XVI. ; and when the commune of Paris desired that the Girondins should 
 be tried, he proposed declaring that they had not forfeited the confidence 
 of the Assembly. These sentiments would have involved him in their 
 ruin, had he not been saved by a mission to the army of the Western 
 Pyrenees, where he received a wound in charging at the head of the 
 columns. Being returned again to the Convention, he became a partisan 
 of Barras, and assisted him in turning the armed force against Robes- 
 pierre and his faction. When the revolt happened in 1795, he showed 
 more courage than any of the other depaties, in opposing the Terrorists 
 at the moment wdien they forced the entrance of the hall ; but he became 
 the victim of his valor, for after having been abused by the crowd, he 
 received a pistol-shot in his breast, at the time when he was endeavoring 
 to repulse several men who were making towards the president. His 
 body was immediately seized and dragged into an adjoining passage, 
 where his head was cut off, fixed on the top of a pike, and brought into 
 the hall to the president, Boissy d'Anglas, to terrify him as well as the 
 rest of the representatives. Feraud was born in the valley of the Daure, 
 
 FOUCHE, Josicpir, born at Nantes, May 29, 1763, was intended for 
 his father's profession — a sea captain; but, not being strong enough, 
 at the foot of the Pyrenees. — Biogvaphie Modcrne. 
 
 was sent to prosecute his studies at Paris. He then taught mathematics 
 and metaphysics at Arras and elsewhere; and, at twenty-five years of 
 age, was placed at the head of the college of Xantes. 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, Fouche, having been denounced as a Ter- 
 rorist, withdrew into obscurity until 1798, when the Directory appoint- 
 ed him French minister to the Cisalpine republic. In the following 
 year he was made minister of police, and joined Bonaparte on his re- 
 turn from Egypt, who continued him in his post, in order that he might 
 detect Royalist and Jacobin conspiracies. In 1809, Fouche was in-
 
 480 BIOGEAPHICAL SKETCHES. 
 
 trusted with the portfolio of the Interior, as well as of the police, and 
 created Duke of Otranto. In the ensuing year, having given umbrage 
 to l^apoleon by entering into negotiations for peace with the Marquis 
 Welleslev, he was sent into honorable exile as governor of Rome. He 
 was soon recalled to France, and banished to Aix, where he lived a 
 whole year retired. In 1813, he was again employed by Napoleon, 
 was sent on a mission to Murat, and returned to Paris a few days after 
 the declaration of the senate that the Emperor had lost his throne. 
 During the first restoration Fouche lived partly retired ; but, on I^apo- 
 leon'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 Eouche at 
 the head of a provisionary government, and he was afterwards rein- 
 stated in the police by the King. He was soon, however, displaced; 
 and, having been compromised in the law against regicides in 1816, 
 retired to Trieste, where he died in 1820. Fouche'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. 
 
 Fouche is a miscreant of all colors, 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. ISTever did he 
 approach me without bending to the ground; but I never had esteem 
 for him. I employed him merely as an instrument. — A Voice from 
 St. Helena. 
 
 Fouche never regarded a benefit in any otlier 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. N^o man was ever characterized by 
 greater levity or inconstancy of mind. — Bourrienne. 
 
 FOUQUIER-TINVILLE, Antoine Quentin, born at St. Quentin 
 in 1Y47, the son of a farmer, was first an attorney at the Chatelet, but 
 having dissipated his property, he lost his place, and became a bank- 
 rupt. In 1793 he was appointed head juryman of the revolutionary 
 tribunal, and caused the Queen to be condemned to death; but in the 
 year 1795 was 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 depositions were made, and
 
 KOrQUIEU-TTXVILLE.
 
 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 483 
 
 for having constituted a jury of his own adherents. It would be impos- 
 sible to detail all his atrocities, but a few instances will convey an idea 
 of his character. At. 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 confounded in the same accusa- 
 tion, though they had never seen one another, and when Fouquier w^ished 
 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 declare themselves sufficiently 
 enlightened, and condemn all the accused in the gross, without hearing 
 one of them. Fouquier-Tinville was accustomed 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. " ^^^lat 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. "Wlien he was himself led to execution, after the fall of 
 Eobespierre, Fouquier-Tinville's forehead, hard as marble, defied all 
 the eyes of the multitude ; he was even seen to smile and utter threaten- 
 ing W'Ords. He trembled, however, as he ascended the scaffold, 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 wit- 
 ness, or by a public accuser. He affected to sleep during the public 
 accuser's recapitulation, as if to feign tranquillity, while he had hell 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. — Mercier.
 
 484: BIOGKAPIIICAL SKETCHES. 
 
 Fouquier-Tinville was the public accuser in the revolutionary tri- 
 bunal, and his name soon became as terrible as that of Robespierre 
 to all France. He was born in Picardj, and exhibited a combination 
 of qualities so extraordinary that if it had not been established by 
 undoubted testimony, it would have been deemed fabulous. Justice in 
 his eyes consisted in condemning; an acquittal was the source of pro- 
 found vexation ; he was never happy unless when he had secured the 
 conviction of all the accused. He required no species of recreation; 
 women, the pleasures of the table or of the theatre, were alike indiffer- 
 ent to him. Sober and sparing in diet, he never indulged in excess, 
 excepting when with the judges of the revolutionary tribunal, when he 
 would at times give way to intemperance. His power of undergoing 
 fatigue was unbounded. 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 during 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 were 
 destitute of every comfort; their whole furniture, after his death, did 
 not sell for twenty pounds. ISTo seduction could 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 anima- 
 tion v/as such that his countenance became radiant and expressive. — 
 Alison. 
 
 FKERON, Louis Stanislas, born at Paris in 1757, was son of the 
 journalist Freron, the antagonist of Voltaire and of the philosophic 
 sect. Brought up at the college Louis-le-Grand with Robespierre, he 
 becaine in the Revolution his friend, his emulator, and, at last, his de- 
 nouncer. In 1789 he began to edit the Orator of the People, and became 
 the coadjutor of Marat. Being sent with Barras on a mission to the 
 South, he displayed extreme cruelty and activity. On their arrival at 
 ^larseilles, in 1793, they published a proclamation announcing that 
 Terror was the order of the day, and that to save Marseilles, and to 
 raze Toulon, were the aims of their labors. " Things go on well here," 
 v/rote Freron to Moses Bayle ; '' we have required twelve thousand 
 masons to raze the town ; every day since our arrival we have caused 
 two hundred heads to fall, and already eight hundred Toulonese have 
 been shot. All the great measures have been neglected at Marseilles ; 
 if they had only shot eight hundred conspirators, as has been done 
 here, and had appointed a committee to condemn the rest, we should 
 not have been in the condition we now are." It was at first intended 
 to put to death all who had accepted any office, or borne arms, in the 
 town during the siege. Freron consequently signified to them that they 
 must all go, under pain of death, to the Champ de Mars. The Toulon- 
 ese, thinking to obtain pardon by their submission, obeyed, and eight 
 thousand persons were assembled at the appointed place. All the rep- 
 resentatives (Barras, Salicetti, Ricord, Robespierre the younger, etc.)
 
 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCILES. 
 
 485 
 
 were shocked at the siglit of this multitude; Freron himself, surrounded 
 by a formidable train, saw these numerous victims with terror; at last, 
 by the advice of Barras, a jury was appointed, and a great number of 
 the most guilty instantly shot. The shooting with muskets being in- 
 sufFjcient, they" had afterwards recourse to the mitraillade; and it was 
 in another execution of this nature that Freron, in order to despatch 
 the victims who had not perished by the first discharge, cried out, " Let 
 those who are still living, rise; the republic pardons them." Sonie un- 
 hai)py creatures trusting to this promise, he caused them to be imme- 
 diately fired upon. On quitting Toulon, Freron went with his coadjutors 
 to finish the depopulation of Marseilles, which they declared a coni- 
 inune without a name, and where they destroyed more than 400 indi- 
 viduals, by means of a criminal tribunal, and afterwards of a military 
 committee. At the same time they caused the finest edifices of the city 
 to be destroyed. Eeturning from his proconsnlship, Freron soon be- 
 came an object of suspicion to Kobespierre, whom he attacked in return, 
 and contributed greatly to his ruin. From this period he showed him- 
 self the enemy of the Terrorists, and pursued them with a fury worthy 
 of a former companion. Tie proposed in the Convention that death 
 should no longer be inflicted for revolutionary crimes, except for emi- 
 gration, promotion of the royal cause, and military treason, and that 
 transportation should be substituted instead. At the time of the expe- 
 dition to St. Domingo in 1802, Freron was appointed prefect of the 
 South, and went with General Leclerc ; but he sank under the influence of 
 the climate, after an illness of six days. — Biorjraphie Moderne. 
 
 GARAT, Dominique Joseph, the younger, born at Bayonne, Septem- 
 ber 8, 1749, was a man of letters, a member of the institute, and pro- 
 fessor of history in the Lyceum of Paris. In 1792 he was appointed 
 minister of justice, and commissioned to inform Louis of his con- 
 demnation. In the following year he became ministei of the interior. 
 Garat survived all the perils of the Revolution, and, in 1806, he pro- 
 nounced in the senate one of the most eloquent speeches that were ever 
 made on the victories of the Emperor Napoleon. Garat published sev- 
 eral works on the Revolution. lie died December 9, -[S^iS.— Biographic 
 Moderne. 
 
 GOBEL, J. B., Bishop of Lydda, suffragan of the Bishop of Bale, 
 and deputy to the States-Oonornl, embraced the popular party, and be- 
 came odious and often ridiculous during the Revolution. Though born 
 Avith some abilities, his age and his weak eharacter made him the mere 
 tool of the 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 himself by his vio- 
 lent motions, and was one of the first to assume the dress of a sans- 
 culotte. IFe did not even fear, at the age of seventy, to declare at the 
 bar of the Convention, that the religion wliidi ho had professed from 
 his youth was founded on error and falsehood, lie was one of the first
 
 486 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 
 
 who sacrificed to the goddess of Reason, and lent his church for this 
 absurd festival. This farce soon became the pretext for his ruin. He 
 Avas arrested as an accomplice of the faction of the atheists, and con- 
 demned 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 his road to the scaffold, earnest- 
 ly recited the praj'ers of the dying. — Biographie Moderne. 
 
 Terrified by a night-scene, which David, Clootz, and Peraud, ex-mem- 
 ber for the department, and a professed atheist, had played off in his 
 apartment, Gobel went to the Assembly at the head of his staff — that is 
 to say, of his grand vicars — to abjure the Catholic worship. Gobel at 
 heart was certainly nothing less than a freethinker. — Prudhomme. 
 
 GROUCHY, Emanuel, Count de, born at Paris, October 23, 1769, 
 entered the army at the age of fourteen. On the breaking out of the 
 Revolution, 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 to 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, but was compelled to return 
 to France without effecting anything. In 1799 he contributed to Mo- 
 reau'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, he joined N^apoleon on 
 his return from Elba, and was accused by him of being the author of 
 the defeat at Waterloo, by permitting two divisions of the Prussian army 
 under Bliicher 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 per- 
 mission to return to France. He died May 29, 1847. — Encyclopcedia 
 Americana. 
 
 GUADET, Marguerite Elie, born at St. Emilion in 1758, a lawyer, 
 president of the criminal tribunal of the Gironde, was deputed by that 
 department to the legislature, and was looked up to by the Girondists 
 as one of their leaders. He voted for the death of Louis, but for de- 
 laying his execution. Involved in the fall of his party, he was executed 
 at Bordeaux,. July 17, 1794, in the thirty-fifth year of his age. Wlien 
 he was led to the scaffold, he wanted to harangue the people, but the 
 roll of the drums drowned his voice, and nothing could be heard but the 
 words, " People, behold the sole resource of tyrants ! They drown the 
 voices of free men that they may commit their crimes." — Biographie 
 Moderne. 
 
 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
 
 BIOGKAPIIICAL SKETCHES. 487 
 
 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, wliere tliey 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 munici- 
 pality only one pound of bread daily; but, fortunately, she had a stock 
 of potatoes and dried kidney-beans. 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 Bouquet's house, put in 
 action every means his mind could suggest to induce her to banish 
 the fugitives. Every day he came to her with stories more terrible one 
 than the other. At length, fearing that he would take some desper- 
 ate measure, she was compelled to lay her situation before her guests, 
 who, resolved not to be outdone in generosity, instantly quitted her 
 house. Shortly after, Madame Bouquet and the whole family of 
 Guadet were arrested, and perished on the scaffold. — Anecdotes of the 
 Revolution. 
 
 HEBERT, Jacques Rene, born at Alen§on about 1755, was naturally 
 of an active disposition and an ardent imagination, but wholly without 
 information. Before the Revolution, he lived in Paris by intrigue and 
 imposture. Being employed at the theatre of the Varietes as receiver 
 of the checks, he was dismissed for dishonesty, and retired to the house 
 of a physician whom he robbed. In 1789, he embraced with ardor the 
 popular party, and soon made himself known by a journal entitled 
 " Father Duchesne," which had the greatest success among the people 
 on account of the violence of its ju-inciples. On August 10th, Ilebert be- 
 came one of the members of the insurrectional municipality, and after- 
 wards, in September, contributed to the prison massacres. He was one 
 of the first to preach atlieism, and organize the Festivals of Reason. His 
 popularity, however, was brief, for he was brought to the scaffold, to- 
 gether with his whole faction, by Robespierre, ^Tareh 24, 1704. He died 
 with the greatest marks of weakness, and fainted several times on his 
 road to execution. On all sides he heard, " Father Duchesne is very 
 uneasy, and will be very angry when Samson (the executioner) makes 
 him tipsy." A young man, whose entire family he had destroyed, called 
 out to him, " To-day is the great anger of Father Duchesne!" On the 
 occasion of the Queen's trial, Hebert cast an imputation on her, of so 
 atrocious and extravagant a nature, that even Robespierre was disgusted 
 with it, and exclaimed, " ]\radman ! Avas it not enough for him to have 
 asserted that she was a Messalina, without also making an Agrippina of
 
 488 BIOGKAPHICAL SKETCHES. 
 
 her ?" Hebert married a nun, who was guillotined with Chaumette and 
 the rest of the faction of the commune. — Biographie Modeme. 
 
 HEXRIOT, Francois^ born at Nanterre in 1761, was the offspring 
 of parents who were poor, but maintained an irreproachable character, 
 residing in Paris. In his youth he was footman to a counsellor of parlia- 
 ment. Pie made no conspicuous figure in the early period of the Revolu- 
 tion, but rose by degrees to be commandant of his section, and distin- 
 guished himself by his cruelty in the September massacres. At the 
 time of the contest between the Mountain and the Girondins, Henriot, 
 to serve the purposes 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 endeavoring to enlist the soldiers 
 in his cause, he took refuge with the rest of the faction at the Hotel 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 his fall, crept 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 exe- 
 cuted 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- 
 five. — Adolphus. 
 
 Henriot was clerk of the Barriers, but was driven thence for theft. 
 He was then received by the police into the number of its spies, and was 
 again sent to the Bicetre, which he quitted only to be flogged 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 June 2d, and finally to the scaffold. — Prudhomme. 
 
 HERAULT DE SECHELLES, Marie Jean, born at Paris in 1760, 
 began his career at the bar by holding the office of the King's advocate 
 at the Chatelet. In the house of Madame de Polignac, where he visited, 
 he met the Queen, who, delighted with his conversation, promised to be- 
 friend him. Having eagerly embraced revolutionary notions, he was 
 appointed commissioner of government to the tribunal of cassation, and 
 was afterwards deputed to the original legislature, as also to the Con- 
 vention, on becoming a member of which, he joined the revolutionary 
 part of that body with uncommon ardor. Herault was absent from Paris 
 during the King's trial, but wrote a letter to the Convention declaring 
 that he deserved death. In the contest that afterwards took place be- 
 tween the Mountain and the Gironde, Herault figured in the Convention 
 among the most conspicuous and zealous supporters of the former faction. 
 Having made himself obnoxious to Robespierre, he was sentenced to 
 death, April 5, 1794. He then gave himself up for a time to gloomy re- 
 flections, walked for above two hours with the other captives in the
 
 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 491 
 
 prison, while waiting the moment of execution, and took leave of them 
 with great tranquillity. Herault enjoyed a very considerable fortune ; 
 his figure was elegant, his countenance pleasing, and his dress studied, 
 which, during the reign of sans-culuttism, drew on him many sarcasms 
 from his colleagues. In the midst of the blood and tears which drenched 
 France in 1793, he still found leisure for gallantry and poetry, which 
 made no slight impression on the young and beautiful wife of Camille- 
 Desmoulins. — Blogniphie Modcrne. 
 
 Herault de Sechelles was the legislator of the Mountain, as Condorcet 
 had been of the Gironde. With the ideas whicli prevailed at this period, 
 the nature of the ncAV constitution may be easily conceived. It estab- 
 lished the pure government 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. — Mignet. 
 
 HOCITE, Lazare^ general in the French revolutionary war, was born 
 February 24, 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 Kevolution he joined the popular party, and 
 studied military science Math great diligence. lie was not twenty-four 
 years old when he received the command of the army of the Moselle. He 
 defeated "Wurmser, and drove the xVustrians out of Alsace. His frank- 
 ness displeased St. Just, who deprived him of his command, 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 the chief pacificator 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, September IS, 1797, at Wetzlar, it was supposed at the 
 time of poison. — Encyclopcedia Americana. 
 
 The death of Hoche may be regarded as an event in our Revolution. 
 With his military talent he combined extensive abilities of various 
 kinds ; and 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, though acting in the shade. I 
 entertain a firm conviction also that he died by assassination. — Duchess 
 d'Ahrantes. 
 
 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.
 
 492 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 
 
 He was accustomed to civil war, had pacified La Vendee 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. 
 
 Young Hoclie was every way qualified for the important but difficult 
 duty with which he was charged — the pacification of La Vendee. En- 
 dowed by nature with a clear judgment, an intrepid character, and an 
 unconquerable resolution, firm, sagacious, and humane, he was eminently 
 fitted for that mixture of gentleness and resolution which is necessary 
 to heal the wounds and subdue the passions of civil war. This rare 
 combination of civil and military qualities might have rendered him a 
 formidable rival of Napoleon, and possibly endangered the public peace, 
 had he not united to these shining parts a patriotic heart and a love of 
 liberty, which rendered him superior to all temptation ; and more likely, 
 had he lived, to have followed the example of Washington, than the foot- 
 steps of Ca?sar or Cromwell. — Alison. 
 
 It is a curious subject for speculation what might have been the result, 
 had Hoche succeeded in landing with 16,000 of his best troops on the 
 Irish shores. To those who consider indeed the patriotic spirit, in- 
 domitable valor, and persevering character of the English people, and 
 the complete command they had of the sea, the final issue of such a con- 
 quest cannot appear doubtful ; but it is equally evident that the addition 
 of such a force and so able a commander to the numerous bodies of Irish 
 malcontents would have engendered a dreadful domestic war, and that 
 the whole energies of the Empire might for a very long period have been 
 employed in saving itself from dismemberment. — Alison. 
 
 ISNARD, M., a wholesale perfumer at Draguignan, was deputed from 
 Var to the legislature, and afterwards to the Convention. His father, 
 who was rich, had taken great pains with his education. In 1793 he 
 voted for the King's death, observing, that " were the lightnings of 
 heaven in his hands, he would blast with them all those who should attack 
 the sovereignty of the people." Isnard was outlawed as a Girondin, 
 on the fall of that party, but succeeded in making his escape, and, after 
 the overthrow of the Mountaineers, resumed his seat in the Convention. 
 Being then sent to the department of the Benches du Rhone, he there 
 declaimed vehemently against the Terrorists, who afterwards accused 
 him of having encouraged the bloody reprisals made on them in the 
 South, and of having addressed the people as follows: "If you meet 
 any Terrorists, strike them, if you have not arms, you have sticks, if you 
 have not sticks, dig up your parents, and with their bones knock down 
 the monsters!" In 1796, Isnard became a member of the council of 
 Five Hundred. — Biographie Moderne. 
 
 JOUBERT, Bartiielemy Catherine, born at Pont-de-Vaux, April 
 14, 1767, had studied for the bar, but at the Revolution he was induced 
 to adopt the profession of arms. He was tall, thin, and naturally of a 
 weak constitution, but he had strengthened his frame amid fatigues, 
 camps, and mountain warfare. He was intrepid, vigilant, and active.
 
 BIOGEAPHICAL SKETCHES. 493 
 
 In 1796 he was made a general of division. He was much attached to 
 Napoleon. He fell gloriously at the battle of Novi, August 1 5, 1799. — 
 Ilazlitt. 
 
 JOURDAN, Jean Baptiste, born April 2, 1762, at Limoges, where 
 his father practised as a surgeoD, entered the army in 1778, and fought 
 in America. After the peace he employed himself in commerce. In 
 1793 lie was appointed general of division, and, in the battle of Hondt- 
 schoote, mounted the enemy's works at the head of his troops, and after- 
 wards received the command of the army in the place of Houchard. 
 In 1794 he gained the victory of the Fleurus, by which he became mas- 
 ter of Belgium, and drove the allies behind the Rhine. In 1796 he 
 undertook the celebrated invasion of the right bank of the Rhine, in 
 wbiVli he conquered Franconia, and pressed forward towards Bohemia 
 and Ratisbon. The Archduke Charles, however, defeated him, and 
 his retreat became a disorderly flight, whereupon 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 ISth Brumaire, which he opposed, he received 
 the command of Piedmont. In the year 1803 Napoleon named him gen- 
 eral-in-chief of the army of Italy, and, in the following year, marshal 
 of France, and grand cross of the Legion of Honor. 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 1815 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 intrusted him with the 
 defence of Besancon. After the return of Louis, Jourdan was one of 
 the first to declare for him; and in 1819 the King raised him to the 
 peerage. Jourdan belonged to the party of liberal constitutionalists. — 
 Encyclo'pccdia Americana. 
 
 JOURDAN, Matthieu Jouve, entitled the " Beheader," was bom at 
 St. Just in 1749. He was successively a butcher, a blacksmith's journey- 
 man, a smuggler, a servant, general of the army of Vaucluse in 1791, 
 and finally leader of a squadron of national gendarmerie. In the 
 massacres of Versailles he cut off the heads of two of the King's body- 
 guards. Pie boasted also of having torn out the hearts of Foulon and 
 Bertier, and called on the National Assembly to reward him for this 
 deed with a civic medal ! He was also one of the chief instigators of the 
 massacres of Avignon. In 1794 he was condemned to death as a federal- 
 ist and guillotined [May 27, 1794. Jourdan was remarkable for wearing 
 a long beard, which was often besprinkled with blood. — Biographie 
 Moderns. 
 
 JUNOT, Andoche, was born of humble parents, October 24, 1771. 
 At a very early period he enlisted in the array ; but of his military ex- 
 ploits nothing is known until the siege of Toulon, when he was a sim- 
 ple grenadier. Here he was fortunate enough to attract the notice of 
 
 Vol. II.— N
 
 494 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 
 
 the young commandant of the artillery. During a heavy cannonade, 
 Bonaparte, having occasion to dictate a despatch, inquired if any one 
 near him could write. Junot stepped out of the ranks, and, while pen- 
 ning the despatch, a shot struck the ground close by his side, and cov- 
 ered both with dust. " This is fortunate, sir," observed the grenadier, 
 laughing, " I was in want of sand." " You are a brave fellow," said 
 ITapoleon ; " how can I serve you ?" '" Give me promotion ; I will not 
 disgrace it." He was immediately made a sergeant ; not long afterwards 
 he ol^tained a commission; and, in 1796, was nominated aide-de-camp 
 to his benefactor. In the campaign of Italy, Junot exhibited daring 
 courage, and, it is said, great rapacity. In Egypt he served with dis- 
 tinction as general of brigade, and soon after his return was placed over 
 a division. He entered Portugal at the head of a powerful army in 
 1807, levied oppressive contributions, punished all who ventured to 
 speak against his measures, and allayed partial revolts by bloody exe- 
 cutions. About this time he was created Duke d'x\brantes, but being 
 soon defeated by Sir Arthur Wellesley at the battle of Vimeria, he was 
 compelled to evacuate Portugal, and remained until 1812 in complete 
 disgrace. In the Russian campaign he headed a division. He died at 
 his father's house, July 28, 1813. — Court and Camp of Bonaparte. 
 
 Of the considerable fortunes which the Emperor had bestowed, that 
 of Junot, he said, was one of the most extravagant. The sums he had 
 given him almost exceeded belief, and yet he was always in debt; he 
 had squandered treasures without credit to himself, without discern- 
 ment or taste, and too frequently, the Emperor added, in gross de- 
 bauchery. The frequent incoherences which had been observed in 
 Junot's behavior, towards the close of his life, arose from the excesses 
 in which he had indulged, and broke out at last into complete insanity. 
 They were obliged to convey him to his father's house, where he 
 died miserably, having mutilated his person with his own hands. — Las 
 Cases. 
 
 KELLERMAlS'lSr, Francois Christophe, born at Strasburg, May 
 30, 1735, a French general, began life as a private hussar, but was 
 soon promoted for his skill and good conduct. In 1792 he obtained the 
 command of the army of the Moselle, and distinguished himself at the 
 battle of Valmy. In 1794 he was brought before the revolutionary tri- 
 bunal, but acquitted. In 1799 he became a member of the consular 
 senate; in 1802 he obtained the title of grand officer of the Legion of 
 Honor; and, soon afterwards, Avas raised to the rank of marshal of 
 the Empire. He was father of the celebrated Kellermann, whose glori- 
 ous charge decided the battle of Marengo. He died September 12, 
 1820. — Biographie Modcrne. 
 
 The following are the terms in which l^apoleon addressed Carnot 
 on one occasion : " Kellermann would command the army as well as I ; 
 for no one is more convinced than I am of the courage and audacity of 
 the soldiers; but to unite us together would ruin everything. I will
 
 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 4^5 
 
 not serve with a man wlii» considers himself the first general in Europe; 
 and it is better to have one bad general than two good ones. War is, 
 like government, decided in a great degree by tact." 
 
 KLE13ER, Jea.n Bai'tiste, distinguislied not less for his humanity 
 and integrity, than for his courage, activity, and coolness, was one of 
 llie ablest soldiers whom the Revolution produced. His father was a 
 c'ummon laborer, and he himself was occupied as an architect when the 
 troubles in France broke out. lie was born at Strasburg in 1754, and 
 had received some military education in the academy of ^lunich. Hav- 
 ing 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 179.5 and 179G. 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 se- 
 curing the possession of the country, when he was assassinated by a 
 Turkish fanatic in the year 1800. — Encyclopccdia Americana. 
 
 Of all the generals I ever had under me, said Bonaparte, Desaix and 
 Kleber possessed the greatest talents ; but Kleber only loved glory in- 
 asmuch as it was the means of procuring him riches and pleasures. 
 He M'as an irreparable loss to France. — A Voice from St. Helena. 
 
 LAFAYETTE, ^{xmn Paul Jean Roch Yves Gilbert Motier, 
 Marquis de, was born in Auvergne (Chavagnac), September, 1757, of 
 one of the most ancient families of that province. He married the grand- 
 daughter of the Duke of Noailles in 1774. He was employed, when 
 still young, in the American army under Washington, which won the 
 independence of the English colonics of North America. He served as 
 a major-general, 1777-83, without pay, was wounded at the battle of the 
 Brandywine, and fought with honor at Ifonmouth, and conducted the 
 campaign in Virginia which ended in the surrender of Cornwallis at 
 Yorktown. He returned to France full of ideas of liberty. Being ap- 
 pointed by the noblesse of his province, deputy to the States-General, he 
 voted that the examination of the powers should take place in common. 
 After the union of the three orders, he insisted, with Mirabeau, on the 
 removal of the troops whom the court was marching towards Paris. 
 Being appointed vice-president, he presented his well-known declaration 
 of rights. In July, 1789, he was appointed commander of the Parisian 
 national guard. A few days after the famous October 5th, Lafayette, 
 in a conference very imperious on the one side, and very timid on the 
 other, gave the Duke of Orleans to understand that his name was the 
 pretext for all commotions, and that he must leave the kingdom; an 
 apparent mission was given to this prince, and he set out for England.
 
 496 BIOGRAPHICAL, SKETCHES. 
 
 In February, 1790, Lafayette, in the Assembly, solicited measures for 
 repressing the disturbers of the provinces, and indemnifying the pro- 
 prietors of burned houses ; these excesses he attributed to the counter- 
 revolutionary spirit. He afterwards voted for the suppression of titles 
 of honor and nobility, refusing even to admit of an exception in favor 
 of the princes. At the Federation in July, he presented the national 
 guards, who were collected from every part of the kingdom, to the As- 
 sembly and the King. At the time of Louis's flight, he was accused 
 by the Jacobins of having assisted in it, and by the Royalists of having 
 contrived the arrest of his sovereign. When the King's fate was debated 
 in the Assembly, Lafayette was among those who objected to the motion 
 for bringing him to trial, and declaring him deposed. When the Con- 
 stitution was accepted, Lafayette voted for the amnesty demanded by 
 the King, and resigned his office of commander of the guard, upon which 
 the municipality ordered a gold medal to be struck in his honor. In 
 1792 Lafayette went to Metz, Avhere he took the command of the central 
 army. At first he encamped under the walls of Givet, but his advanced 
 guard, posted near Philippsburg, met with a slight check, upon which he 
 removed to the intrenched camp at Maubeige, and placed his advanced 
 guard at Grisnelles, under the command of Gouvion, where it was sur- 
 prised and cut to pieces, and its leader killed by a cannon-ball. Shortly 
 afterwards Lafayette's army received accounts of the attempt made on 
 June 20th, and, in different addresses, declared its disapprobation of 
 the outrage offered on that day to Louis. Proud of such support, 
 Lafayette went to Paris, and appeared at the bar of the legislative body, 
 where he complained of these outrages, and accused the Jacobins. For 
 one moment the Assembly seemed intimidated by this step, but the fac- 
 tion soon took courage: and Lafayette returned to his army, after hav- 
 ing in vain urged Louis to leave Paris, and come among his troops, who 
 were then faithful. Soon after, commissions having been sent from 
 Paris to insist on his removal from his command, he addressed his 
 troops in a proclamation, in which he called on them to choose between 
 the Constitution and Petion for a king. The whole army exclaimed, 
 " Long live the King !" " Long live the Constitution !" but Lafayette, 
 placing little dependence on this burst of enthusiasm, fled with several 
 officers of his staff. He was then declared an emigrant. On his arrival 
 at the Austrian advanced posts he was made prisoner. He was after- 
 wards delivered up to the King of Prussia, who caused him to be re- 
 moved to Magdeburg, where he remained a year in a dungeon; but 
 when Prussia made peace with France, he was restored to the Austrians, 
 who sent him to Olmutz. After a rigorous imprisonment of three years 
 and five months, he obtained his liberty at the request of Bonaparte. 
 He then withdrew to Hamburg, and after the 1 8th Brumaire, returned to 
 France. From this period Lafayette remained in comparative retirement 
 till the breaking out of the second Revolution, in 1830, when he was again 
 appointed commander of the national guards, which, however, he re-
 
 I.AKAYKTTi:.
 
 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 499 
 
 signed, shortly after the accession of Louis-Philippe to the throne. He 
 died in the year 1834, at the age of 76. — Biographie Moderne. 
 
 Lafayette was under the necessity of observing the greatest secrecy 
 in his departure, in order to avoid increasing the number of his com- 
 panions in exile, who consisted only of Latour-Maubourg and his two 
 brothers. Bureaux de Puzy, his aides-de-camp, and staff ofiicers in the 
 Parisian national guard, and some friends, exposed to certain death 
 in consequence of their participation in his last efforts against anarchy. 
 Fifteen officers of different ranks accompanied him. On arriving at 
 Rochefort, where the party (considerably reduced in number) were 
 stopped, Bureaux de Puzy was compelled to go forward and obtain a 
 pass from General Moitelle, in command at Namur. He set out ac- 
 cordingly, but, before he could utter a syllable of explanation, that 
 general exclaimed, '* What, Lafayette ? Lafayette ? — Bun instantly and 
 inform the Duke of Bourbon of it — Lafayette? — Set out this moment," 
 addressing one of his officers, " and carry this news to his royal highness 
 at Brussels," and on he went, muttering to himself the word " Lafayette." 
 It was not until he had given orders to write to all the princes and 
 generals he could think of, that Puzy could put in his request for a pass, 
 which was of course refused. — Lafayette's Memoirs. 
 
 However irritated they might be by Lafayette's behavior at the outset 
 of the Revolution, the present conduct of the monarchs towards him was 
 neither to be vindicated by morality, the law of nations, nor the rules of 
 sound policy. Even if he had been amenable for a crime against his own 
 country, we know not what right Austria or Prussia had to take cogni- 
 zance of it. To them he was a mere prisoner of war, and nothing further. 
 It is very seldom that a petty, vindictive line of policy accords with the 
 real interest, either of great princes or of private individuals. — Scott's 
 Life of Napoleon. 
 
 LAMBALLE, Marie Tiiekese Louise de Savoie Carignan, widow 
 of Louis Alexander Joseph Stanislas de Bourbon Penthiere, Prince de 
 Lamballe, was born at Turin, September 8, 1749, and was mistress 
 of the household to the Queen of France, to whom she was united by 
 bonds of the tenderest affection. — Bior/raphie Moderne. 
 
 The Princess de Lamballe, having been spared on the night of Sep- 
 tember 2, 1792, flung herself on her bed, oppressed with every species 
 of anxiety and horror. She closed her eyes, but only to open them in 
 an instant, startled with frightful dreams. About eight o'clock next 
 morning, two national guards entered her room, to inform her that 
 she was going to be removed to the Abbaye. She slipped on her gown, 
 and went down-stairs into the sessions-room. When she entered this 
 frightful court, the sight of weapons stained with blood, and of exe- 
 cutioners whose hands, faces, and clothes were smeared over with the 
 same red dve, gave her such a shock that she fainted several times. At 
 length she was subjected to a mock examination, after which, just as 
 she was stepping across the threshold of the door, she received on the
 
 500 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 
 
 back of her head a blow with a hanger, which made the blood spout. 
 Two men then laid fast hold of her, and obliged her to walk over dead 
 bodies, while she was fainting every instant. They then completed her 
 murder by running her through with their spears on a heap of corpses. 
 She was afterwards stripped, and her naked body exposed to the insults 
 of the populace. In this state it remained more than two hours. When 
 any blood gushing from its wounds stained the skin, some men, placed 
 there for the purpose, immediately washed it off, to make the spectators 
 take more particular notice of its whiteness. I must not venture to de- 
 scribe the excesses of barbarity and lustful indecency with which this 
 corpse was defiled. I shall only say that a cannon was charged with 
 one of the legs ! Towards noon, the murderers determined to cut off 
 her head, and carry it in triumph round Paris. Her other scattered 
 limbs were also given to troops of cannibals who trailed them along the 
 streets. The pike that supported the head was planted under the very 
 windows of the Duke of Orleans. He was sitting down to dinner at the 
 time, but rose from his chair, and gazed at the ghastly spectacle without 
 discovering the least symptom of uneasiness, terror, or satisfaction. — 
 Peltier. 
 
 One day when my brother came to pay us a visit, he perceived, as he 
 came along, groups of people whose sanguinary drunkenness was hor- 
 rible. Many were naked to the waist, and their arms and breasts were 
 covered with blood. Their countenances were inflamed, and their eyes 
 haggard; in short, they looked hideous. My brother, in his uneasiness 
 about us, determined to come to us at all risks, and drove rapidly along 
 the Boulevard, until he arrived opposite the house of Beaumarchais. 
 There he was stopped by an immense mob, composed also of half-naked 
 people, besmeared with blood, and who had the appearance of demons. 
 They vociferated, sang, and danced. It was the Saturnalia of Hell! 
 On perceiving Albert's cabriolet, they cried out, " Let it be taken to 
 him ; he is an aristocrat." In a moment, the cabriolet was surrounded 
 by the multitude, and from the middle of the crowd an object seemed 
 to arise and approach. My brother's troubled sight did not at first enable 
 him to perceive long auburn tresses clotted with blood, and a countenance 
 still lovely. The object came nearer and nearer, and rested upon his 
 face. My unhappy brother uttered a piercing cry. He had recognized 
 the head of the Princess de Lamballe ! — Duchess d'Ahrantes. 
 
 LANJUIT^AIS, Jean Denis, born at Kennes, March 12, 1753, an 
 advocate and professor of civil law, was one of the original founders 
 of the Breton club, which afterwards became the Jacobin society. In 
 1792 he was deputed to the Convention; but, in proportion to the in- 
 creasing horrors of the Pevolution, he became more moderate in his 
 principles. On the King's trial, he declared that his majesty was guilty, 
 and voted for his imprisonment, and his exile when a peace should 
 take place. In 1794 the Convention outlawed him, but, having evaded 
 all research, he solicited to be reinstated in the legislative body, and
 
 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 501 
 
 was recalled in 1795. In the year 1800, Lanjuinais became a member 
 of the conservative senate, and showed himself, on several occasions, 
 the inflexible defender of the true principles of morality and justice. 
 He died at Paris, January 13, 1827. — Biographie Modeme. 
 
 LAX!XP\S, Jean, Avho for his impetuous valor was called the Rolando 
 and the Ajax of the French camp, was born in 17G9. His parents 
 were poor, and intended him for some mechanical pursuit, but he was 
 resolved to be a soldier. One of the first actions in which he was en- 
 gaged was tliat of Millesimo, where he distinguished himself so highly 
 that he was made a colonel on the field. At the bridge of Lodi he ex- 
 hibited equal intrepidity. He had taken one ensign, and was about 
 to seize a second from the Austrians, when his horse fell under him, 
 and twelve cuirassiers raised their sabres to cut him down. Lannes in- 
 stantly sprang on the horse of an Austrian officer, killed the rider, and 
 fought his way through the cuirassiers, killing two or three and wound- 
 ing more. Soon afterwards he was made general of division. In the 
 Eg^'ptian expedition he was always foremost in danger. He returned 
 to France with iSTapoleon, whom he assisted to overthrow the Directory. 
 He accompanied the First Consul over St. Bernard, and fought nobly 
 at Montebello, which afterwards gave him his title, and at Marengo. 
 Lannes was afterwards sent ambassador to Portugal, and, on his return, 
 was made marshal of France, and then Duke of Montebello. He was 
 not very successful in Spain ; he took indeed Saragossa, but stained 
 his. character there by perfidy, as well as cruelty. After the fall of this 
 place, he retired to an estate which he had purchased near Paris, but, 
 being recalled to the field, a cannon-ball at the battle of Essling carried 
 away his right leg and the foot and ankle of the left. Napoleon showed 
 great grief upon the occasion. On the ninth day of his wound, Lannes, 
 grasping the Emperor's hand, said, " Another liour and your majesty 
 will have lost one of your most zealous and faithful friends." And so 
 indeed it proved. Lannes possessed dauntless courage, but was vulgar, 
 and even coarse in his manners. — Court arid Camp of Bonaparte. 
 
 Violent and hasty in his expressions, sometimes even in my presence, 
 he was ardently attached to me. In the midst of his anger, he would 
 not suffer any one to join him in his remarks. On that account, when 
 he was in a choleric mood it was dangerous to speak to him, as he used 
 to come to me in his rage, and say, such and such persons were not to 
 be trusted. As a general, he was greatly superior to Moreau or to 
 Soult. — A Voice from St. Jlehna. 
 
 LAREVEILLIERE-LEPEAUX, born in Poitou, August 23, 1752, 
 studied at Angers, and afterwards went to Paris, intending to become 
 an advocate there. Instead of this, however, he returned to his native 
 place, devoted himself to botany, and became professor of that science 
 at Angers, where he established a botanic garden. Being deputed to 
 the States-General, he excited attention by the hatred he showed to the 
 higher orders. On being appointed a member of the Convention, he
 
 502 BIOGEAPHICAL, SKETCHES. 
 
 voted for the King's death. Though attached to the Gironde, he man- 
 aged to escape the proscription of that party, and lay concealed during 
 the whole Reign of Terror. He afterwards became one of the council 
 of the Ancients, and then of the Directory. He was unwearied in labor, 
 but his want of decision always excluded him from any influence in 
 important affairs, and he made himself ridiculous by his whim of be- 
 coming the chief of the sect of the Theojohilanthropists. In 1799 he 
 was driven from the Directory, and returned again to his favorite books 
 and plants. — BiograpJiie Moderne. 
 
 It was well known that the fear of being hanged was Lareveilliere- 
 Lepeaux's ruling sentiment. — Lacarriere. 
 
 LAEOCHEJAQUELEI^, Hexei de, was twenty years old at the 
 breaking out of the war in La Vendee. He had lived little in the world, 
 and his manners and laconic expressions had something in them remark- 
 ably simple and original. There was much sweetness as well as eleva- 
 tion in his countenance. Although bashful, his eyes were quick and 
 animated. He was tall and elegant, had fair hair, an oval face, and 
 the contour rather English than French. He excelled in all exercises, 
 particularly in horsemanship. When he first put himself at the head 
 of the insurrection, he said to his soldiers : " My friends, I am but a 
 boy, but by my courage I shall show myself worthy of commanding you. 
 Follow me, if I go forward; kill me, if I fly; avenge me, if I fall." 
 He fell at the battle of Nouaille, March 4, 1794. — Memoirs of the 
 Marchioness de Larochejaquelein. 
 
 LAVOISIER, Antohste Laurent, 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, August 16, 1743, and was the son of opulent 
 pairents, 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 May 8, 1794, on the charge of being a con- 
 spirator, and of having adulterated the tobacco with ingredients obnox- 
 ious to the health of the citizens. Lavoisier married in 1771 the daugh- 
 ter of a farmer-general, who subsequently became the wife of Count 
 Rumford. — Encyclopaedia Americana. 
 
 When Lavoisier requested that his death might be delayed a fort- 
 night, in order that he might finish some important experiments, Cofinhal 
 made answer, that the republic had no need of scholars or chemists. — 
 Universal Biographic. 
 
 LEBOIST, Joseph, born at Arras in 1765, at the period of the Revo- 
 lution connected himself with Robespierre. After August 10th he was 
 appointed mayor of that town; was then appointed attorney-general of 
 the department, and afterwards joined the Convention as supple- 
 mentary deputy. In 1793 he was sent as commissioner to Arras, where 
 he perpetrated the most flagrant cruelties. In October, 1795, he was
 
 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 503 
 
 condemned to death as a Terrorist. At the time of his execution he 
 was thirty years of age. — Biographie Modeme. 
 
 Lebon prided himself on his apostacy, libertinism, and cruelty. Ev- 
 ery 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. lie 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 his govermnent, 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 conscious of the utmost firmness of mind, be 
 sure that he would not, under similar circumstances, have done the 
 same. — Duchess d'A hrantes. 
 
 In the city of Arras above two thousand persons perished by the guillo- 
 tine. Mingling treachery and seduction with sanguinary oppression, 
 Lebon turned the despotic powers with which he was invested into the 
 means of individual gratification. — Alison. 
 
 Lebon was accused before the Convention by a deputation from Cam- 
 bray. On his trial, tlie monster acknowliHlged that, an aristocrat being 
 condemned to the guillotine, he had kept him lying in the usual posture 
 on his back, with his eyes turned up to the axe, which was suspended 
 above his throat — in short, in all the agonies which can agitate the human 
 mind — until he had read to him at length the Gazette, which had just 
 arrived, giving an account of a victory gained by the republican armies. 
 — Scott's Life of Napoleon. 
 
 LECLERC, Charles Emanuel, entered the army while yet very 
 young, and soon proved successful. Intrepid in the field and judicious 
 in the council, he was employed in 1793 as adjutant-general in the army 
 which besieged Toulon. In the armies of the Xorth and the Rhine he 
 increased his reputation ; and in the campaign of Italy, in 1796, he 
 reaped fresh laurels. He next accompanied tlie ex]iedition to Egypt, 
 returned to France in 1799, and greatly contributed to the revolution 
 of the 18th Bruraaire. Leclerc was afterwards commissioned to re- 
 unite St. Domingo to the French government, but in 1802 he fell a 
 victim to the plague, which had carried off many of his men. Napo- 
 leon held his character in such esteem that he gave him his own sister 
 in marriage. — Biographic Modeme. 
 
 LEFEBVRE, Francois JosEPir, 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 De- 
 cember of the same year he was general of brigade, and the month after, 
 of division. He fought under Pichegru, ^foreau, Hoche, and Jourdan 
 in the Netherlands and in Germany, and on all occasions with distinc-
 
 504 BIOGEAPllICAL SKETCHES. 
 
 tion. Lefebvre was of great use to Bonaparte in the revolution of Bru- 
 maire, 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, and 7, he showed equal skill and intrepidity. After the battle of 
 Eylau, having distinguished himself by his conduct at Dantzic which he 
 was sent to invest, he was created Duke of Dantzic. In the German cam- 
 paign of 1809 he maintained the honor of the French arms, and in 1813 
 and 1814 adhered faithfully to the declining fortunes of his master. 
 Louis XVIII. made him a peer, but notwithstanding this, he supported 
 the Emperor on his return from Elba. In 1816 he was confirmed in his 
 rank of marshal, and three years afterwards was recalled to the upper 
 chamber. Lefebvre died in 1820, leaving no issue. — Court and Carnp of 
 Bonaparte. 
 
 LEGEISTDRE, Louis, was ten years a sailor, and afterwards a butcher 
 at Paris. At the breaking out of the Revolution he was one of the earliest 
 and most violent leaders of the mob. In 1791 he was deputed by the 
 city of Paris to the Convention. In 1793 he voted for the King's death, 
 and, the day before his execution, proposed to the Jacobins to cut him 
 into eighty-four pieces, and send one to each of the eighty-four depart- 
 ments ! He was one of the chief instigators of the atrocities of Lyons ; 
 and at Dieppe, when some persons complained of the want of bread, he 
 answered, " Well, eat the aristocrats !" Legendre died at Paris in 1797, 
 aged forty-one, and bequeathed his body to the surgeons, " in order to be 
 useful to mankind after his death." — Biographic Moderne. 
 
 The revolutionary life of Legendre is more original than one would 
 suppose, when considered from the time of his connection with the La- 
 meths. His drinking tea at the house of Mirabeau and Robert of Paris, 
 with Orleans; the twenty or thirty soldiers whom he received at his 
 house ; his intimacy with Marat and Danton ; his behavior on the death 
 of the latter; the part he played in the Mountaineer faction and the 
 Jacobin society,- the defence he would have afforded Robespierre by 
 interposing his own body ; and his fetching the keys to shut up the hall 
 of the Jacobins — form a string of events which show a man not wholly 
 incapable, and of singular versatility of character. — Prudhomme. 
 
 LOUIS XVI. was the grandson of Louis XV., and the second son of 
 the dauphin by his second wife, Marie Josephine, daughter of Frederick 
 Augustus, King of Poland and Elector of Saxony. Louis was born in 
 1754, and in 1770 married Marie Antoinette of Austria. With the best 
 intentions, but utterly inexperienced in government, he ascended the 
 throne in 1774, when he was hardly twenty years of age. In his coun- 
 tenance, which was not destitute of dignity, were delineated the promi- 
 nent features of his character — integrity, indecision, and weakness. He 
 was somewhat stiff in demeanor; and his manners had none of the 
 grace possessed by almost all the princes of the blood. He was fond of 
 reading, and endowed with a most retentive memory. He translated 
 some parts of Gibbon's history. It was the fault of this unfortunate
 
 i.oris XVI.
 
 BIOORAPinCAL SKETCILES. 507 
 
 monarch to yield too easily to the extravagant tastes of the Queen and 
 the court. The latter years of his reign were one continued scene of 
 tumult and confusion; and he was guillotined January 21, 1793, m the 
 thirtv-ninth year of his age. He was buried in the Magdalen church- 
 yard^ Paris, between the graves of those who were crushed to death^in 
 the crowd at the Louvre, on the anniversary of his marriage in 1774, 
 and of the Swiss who fell on August 10, 11d2.—Encyclopa^dm Ameri- 
 cana. • u 1 • 
 
 The Revolution was an inheritance bequeathed to Louis by his an- 
 cestors He was more fitted than any of those who preceded him, to pre- 
 vent or terminate it; for he was capable of being a reformer before it 
 broke out, or of being a constitutional monarch after it. He is perhaps 
 the only prince who, destitute of passions, had not even that of power. 
 With a Httle more strength of mind, Louis would have been a model of a 
 
 king. — Mignet. •• • ^ j • 
 
 The errors of Louis XVI. may truly be said to have originated m a 
 virtuous principle. As to his weaknesses, I shall not endeavor to con- 
 ceal them I have more than once had occasion to lament the indecision 
 of this unfortunate prince; his repugnance to adopt the bold measures 
 which might have saved him; and his want of that energy of character, 
 and self-confidence which impose on the multitude, who are ever prone 
 to believe that he who commands with firmness and an air of authority 
 possesses the means of enforcing obedience. But I will venture to say 
 that the very faults above enumerated did not belong to his natural 
 character, but were ingrafted on it by the selfish indolence of M. de 
 Maurepas.-Fni;a^6 Memoirs of Bertrand de MoIlevtUe. 
 
 MACBOKALD, Marshai. the son of a Highland gentleman of^the 
 Clanronald sept, who was among the first to join the Tretender m 1 . 45, 
 and, after the battle of Culloden, escaped to F-^^' fnnnt into t^^^^ 
 His son was born November 23, 1765, and entered ^^ l-^tenan nto the 
 Irish regiment of Dillon. On the breaking out of the I^^ volution, he 
 embraced its principles, but with moderation At the ^at^e o J- 
 mappes, he behaved with great gallantry, and led the van of tl e -m^ of 
 the North as general of brigade. On the 1 Sth Brumaire he took part^. ith 
 Bonaparte, but his favor with the First Consul ceased m 1803 and he 
 remained in obscurity till the year 1809, when H^^f^^^ ^^, ^„7;, 
 mand in the army, and at the battle of ^Yagram exhibited such sk^^^ and 
 intrepidity that the Emperor created him a marsluil on t e field and
 
 508 BIOGEAPHICAL SKETCHES. 
 
 tiers of the kingdom. He died at Paris, September 24, 1840. — Court 
 and Camp of Bonaparte. 
 
 MAILLARD, Stanislas, a runner belonging to the Chatelet at Paris, 
 began, from the opening of the States-General, to signalize himself in 
 all the tumults of the metropolis. In September, 1792, he presided 
 in the meeting at the Abbaye to regulate the massacre of the prisoners; 
 and it has been said that he seized on the spoils of those who were mur- 
 dered by his order. He afterwards became one of the denunciators of 
 the prisons, and, during the Reign of Terror, appeared several times 
 at La Force, to mark the victims who were to be condemned by the revo- 
 lutionary tribunal. — Biographie Moderne. 
 
 MALESHERBES, Christian William de Lamoignon de, an emi- 
 nent French statesman, was the son of the Chancellor of France, and 
 was born at Paris, December 6, 1Y21. In the year 1Y50 he succeeded 
 his father as president of the court of aids, and was also made super- 
 intendent of the press, in both of which offices he displayed a liberal 
 and enlightened policy. On the banishment of the parliaments and 
 the suppression of the court of aids, Malesherbes was exiled to his coun- 
 try seat. In 17Y5 he was appointed minister of state. He took no 
 part in the proceedings which led to the overthrow of the monarchy; 
 but on the decree of the Convention for the King's trial, he emerged 
 from his retreat to become the voluntary advocate of his sovereign. 
 Malesherbes was guillotined April 22, 1794, and almost his whole fam- 
 ily were extirpated by their merciless persecutors. — Encydopoedia 
 Americana. 
 
 When M. de Malesherbes went to the Temple to announce the result 
 of the vote, he found Louis with his forehead resting on his hands, 
 and absorbed in a deep reverie. W^ithout inquiring concerning his fate, 
 he said : " For two hours I have been considering whether, during my 
 whole reign, I have voluntarily given any cause of complaint to my 
 subjects ; and with perfect sincerity I declare that I deserve no reproach 
 at their hands, and that I have never formed a wish but for their 
 happiness." — Lacretelle. 
 
 Louis was fully prepared for his fate. During the calling of the 
 votes he asked M. de Malesherbes, " Have you not met, near the Tem- 
 ple, the White Lady ?" " What do you mean ?" replied he. " Do you 
 not know," resumed the King, with a smile, " that when a prince of our 
 house is about to die, a female, dressed in white, is seen wandering 
 about the palace ? My friends," added he to his defenders, " I am about 
 to depart before you for the land of the just, but there, at least, we 
 shall be reunited." — Alison. 
 
 MARAT, Jean Paul, born May 24, 1744, at E'eufchatel, of Cal- 
 vinist parents, was not five feet high; his face was hideous, and his 
 head monstrous for his size. From nature he derived a daring mind, 
 an ungovernable imagination, a vindictive temper, and a ferocious heart. 
 He studied medicine before he settled in Paris, where he was long in.
 
 
 
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 BIOGKAPHICAL SKETCHES. 511 
 
 indigence. At last he obtained the situation of veterinary surgeon to 
 the Count d'Artois. At the period of the Revolution, his natural en- 
 thusiasm rose to delirium, and he set up a journal entitled The People's 
 Friend, in which he preached revolt, murder, and pillage. In 1790 
 Lafayette laid siege to his house, but he found an asylum in that of 
 an actress who. was induced by her husband to admit him. In the dif- 
 ferent searches made after him, the cellars of his partisans, and the 
 vaults of the Cordeliers' church successively gave him shelter, and 
 thence he continued to send forth his journal. In August ^farat be- 
 came a member of the municipality ; was one of the chief instigators 
 of the September massacres, and even proposed to Danton to set the 
 prisons on fire. Several deputies pressed the Assembly to issue a war- 
 rant for his arrest, but they could not obtain it, for Danton and Robes- 
 pierre were his supporters. On one occasion Marat said to the people, 
 '' Massacre 270,000 partisans of the former order of things !" Soon 
 afterwards he was made president of the Jacobin society. Marat was 
 stabbed to the heart, while in the bath, by Charlotte Corday. He had 
 some talent ; wrote and spoke with facility, in a diffuse, incoherent, 
 but bold and impassioned manner. After his death, honors almost 
 divine were paid him ; and in the Place du Carrousel a sort of pyramid 
 was raised in celebration of him, within which were placed his bust, 
 his bathing-tub, his writing-desk, and lamp; and a sentinel was posted 
 there, who one night died either of cold or horror. Eventually, how- 
 ever, France indignantly broke his bust, tore his remains from the 
 Pantheon, and dragged them through the mud. — Biographie Moderns. 
 
 The following description of Marat by Sir Walter Scott is full of 
 graphic energy : " Marat's political exhortations began and ended like 
 the howl of a bloodhound for murder. If a wolf could have written a 
 journal, the gaunt and famished wretch could not have ravened more 
 eagerly for slaughter. It was blood which was Marat's constant de- 
 mand; not in drops from the breast of an individual, not in puny 
 streams from the slaughter of families; but blood in the profusion of 
 an ocean. We are inclined to believe that there was a touch of insanity 
 in this unnatural ferocity; and the wild and squalid features of the 
 wretch appear to have intimated a degree of alienation of mind. Dan- 
 ton murdered to glut his rage ; Robespierre, to avenge his injured vanity, 
 or to remove a rival whom he hated ; Marat, from the same instinctive 
 love of blood which induces a wolf to continue his ravages of the flocks 
 long after his hunger is appeased." 
 
 " Give me," said Marat, " two hundred Neapolitans, the knife in 
 their right hand, in their left a mujf, to serve for a target, and with these 
 I will traverse France and complete the Revolution." He also made 
 an exact calculation, showing in what manner 200,000 men might be 
 put to death in one day. — Barharoux's Memoirs. 
 
 When ^Afarat mounted the tribune with the list of proscribed patriots 
 in his hand, and dictated to the astonished Convention what names to
 
 512 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 
 
 insert, and what names to strike out, it was not that poor, distorted 
 scarecrow figure and maniac countenance which inspired awe and si- 
 lenced 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 a 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. — Ilazlitt's Life of Napoleon. 
 
 MAKIE ANTOINETTE, Josephe Jeanne, Princess, of Lor- 
 raine, Archduchess of Austria, and Queen of France, born at Vienna, 
 November 2, 1755, was daughter of the Emperor Francis I. and of 
 Maria Theresa. She received a careful education, and nature had be- 
 stowed on her an uncommon share of grace and beauty. Her marriage 
 with the dauphin (afterwards Louis XVI.) at Versailles, in 1770, had 
 all the appearance of a triumph. It was, subsequently remarked that 
 immediately after the ceremony, a fearful thunder-storm, such as had 
 scarcely ever before been witnessed, took place at Versailles. Anxious 
 minds indulged in yet more fearful forebodings, when, at the festivity 
 which the city of Paris prepared in celebration of the royal nuptials, 
 through the want of judicious arrangements, a great number of people 
 in the Rue Royale were trodden down in the crowd. Fifty-three per- 
 sons were found dead, and about three hundred dangerously Avounded. 
 In 1788, Marie Antoinette drew upon herself the hatred of the court 
 party, who used every means to make her odious to the nation. Her 
 lively imagination often gave her the appearance of levity, and some- 
 times of intrigue and dissimulation. A national restlessness, too, led 
 her on a constant search after novelty, which involved her in heavy ex- 
 penses. It was still more to her disadvantage that she injured her dig- 
 nity by neglecting the strict formality of court manners. About this 
 time her enemies spread a report about that she was still an Austrian 
 at heart. When Louis XVI. informed her of his condemnation to 
 death, she congratulated him on the approaching termination of an ex- 
 istence so painful. After his execution, she asked nothing of the Con- 
 vention but a mourning dress, which she wore for the remainder of her 
 days. Her behavior during the whole term of her imprisonment was 
 exemplary in the highest degree. On October 3, 1798, she was brought 
 before the revolutionary tribunal, and replied to all the questions of 
 her judges satisfactorily, and with decision. She heard her sentence 
 with perfect calmness, and the next day ascended the scaffold. The 
 beauty for which she was once so celebrated was gone; grief had dis-
 
 MARIE AXTOTXETTE.
 
 BIOGEAPHICAL SKETCHES. 515 
 
 torted her features, and in the damp, unhealthy prison, she had almost 
 lost one of her eyes. When she reached the place of execution, she 
 cast back one fond, lingering look at the Tuileries, and then mounted the 
 scaffold. When she came to the top, she flung herself on her knees, and 
 exclaimed, " Farewell, my dear children, forever — I go to your father!" 
 Thus died the Queen of France, October 16, 1794, towards the close of 
 the thirty-eighth year of her age. — Encyclopcedia Americana. 
 
 MARM02^T, AuGUSTE Fredekique Louis Viesse de, was born at 
 Chatillon, July 20, 1774. From his earliest infancy he was designed 
 for the army, and at Toulon attracted the notice of Bonaparte, who, 
 when appointed general of the army of the interior, appointed him 
 his aide-de-camp. Throughout the campaigns of Italy, Egypt, and 
 Syria, i\Iarmont was at the side of l^Tapoleon, and was one of the few 
 selected to return with him to France. In the passage of Mont St. Ber- 
 nard he greatly distinguished himself, and commanded the artillery at 
 Marengo. In the wars of 1S05-1807, he served with equal honor, and in 
 the course of the German campaign of 1809 obtained the marshal's 
 truncheon and the title of Duke of Kagusa. He was afterwards ordered 
 to replace ^lassena in the command of the army of Portugal, but this 
 was a situation above his abilities. Soon after his arrival in Spain, 
 Marmont effected a junction with the army of Soult, and pursued Wel- 
 lington towards Salamanca. For a time they watched each other, but a 
 blunder of Marmont threw the initiative into the hands of Welling- 
 ton ; he was at dinner in his tent when information was brought him 
 that the French were extending their wing, probably to outflank him. 
 " Marmont's good genius has forsaken him," said W^ellington, and, 
 mounting his horse, attacked and defeated the French at the great bat- 
 tle of Salamanca, where IMarmont lost his arm. He afterwards fought at 
 Lutzen, Bautzen, and Leipsic, and on the entrance of the allies into 
 France was intrusted with the defence of Paris, which, however, he was 
 compelled to surrender to the enemy. He afterwards entered into a 
 treaty with the allies, and marched his troops within their canton- 
 ments, stipulating, however, for the freedom of Napoleon's person. Louis 
 made Marmont a peer, and when Napoleon returned from Elba he de- 
 nounced him as a traitor, for the part he had played in the abdication. In 
 I 1817 he quelled an insurrection at Lyons. — Court and Camp of Bona- 
 parte. 
 
 In 1830 "Marmont took part with Charles X, against the people, and 
 was driven into exile. He died at Venice, March 2, 1852. 
 
 MASSENA, Andre. Duke of Pivoli and Prince of Esslingen, Marshal 
 of France, was born May 8, 1758, at Nice, and rose from a common 
 soldier to the rank of commander. In 1792, when the warriors of the 
 republic had ascended ^font Cenis, he joined their ranks; distinguished 
 himself by courage and sagacity; and in 1793 was made general of 
 brigade. In the ensuing year he took the command of the right wing of 
 the Italian army. He was the constant companion in arms of Bonaparte,
 
 516 BIOGKAPHICAL SKETCHES. 
 
 who used to call him the spoiled child of victory. In 1799 Massena dis- 
 played great ability as commander-in-chief in Switzerland. After he 
 had reconquered the Helvetian and Rhsetian 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 com- 
 mand in Italy. After the peace of Tilsit, war having broken out in 
 Spain, Massena took the field with the title of Duke of Rivoli ; but in 
 1809 he was recalled to Germany. At Esslingen his firmness saved the 
 French army from total destruction, and l^apoleon rewarded him with 
 the dignity of prince of that place. After the peace he hastened to 
 Spain, but, being unsuccessful against Wellington, was recalled. In 
 1814 Massena commanded at Toulon, and declared for Louis XVIII. 
 On the landing of Bonaparte in 1815, 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. — Encyclopcedia Americana. 
 
 Massena, said ISTapoleon, was a man of superior talent. He generally, 
 however, made bad dispositions previous 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 midst of the 
 dying and the dead, and of balls sweeping away those who encircled him, 
 Massena was himself, and gave his orders and made his dispositions 
 with the greatest sangfroid 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 hun- 
 dred 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. 
 
 MENOU, Jacques Feancois, Baron de, deputy from the nobility 
 of the bailiwick of Touraine to the States-General, was one of the first 
 members of that order who joined the chamber of the tiers-etat. 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 property. In 1798 he was employed in the Vendean war, and ap- 
 pointed commander-in-chief; but, being once or twice defeated, his com- 
 mand was taken from him. In 1795 he defended the National Conven- 
 tion against the Jacobins, for which he was rewarded by the gift of a 
 complete suit of armor, and the post of commander-in-chief of the army 
 of the interior. In 1798 Menou, as general of a division, accompanied
 
 BIOGEAPHICAL SKETCHES. 517 
 
 Bonaparte to Egypt, where he displayed great valor and ability. He 
 there embraced Mohammedanism, 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 Na- 
 poleon left, Menou remained with Kleber, after whose assassination he 
 took the command of the army of the East. When General Abercromby 
 landed before Alexandria, Menou marched to attack him, but was re- 
 pulsed 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 officer of the Legion of Honor conferred on him, and in 1805 
 was again confirmed in the general government of Piedmont. — Bio- 
 graphie Moderne. 
 
 MIRABEAU, HoNOKE Gabriel Riquetti, Comte de, was born at 
 Bignon, ]\[arch 9, 1749. Youthful impetuosity and ungoverned pas- 
 sions made the early part of his life a scene of disorder and misery. 
 After having been some time in the army, he married Mademoiselle de 
 Marignane, a rich heiress in the city of Aix; but the union was not 
 fortunate, and his extravagant expenses deranging his affairs, he con- 
 tracted debts to the amount of 300,000 livres, in consequence of which 
 his father obtained from the Chatelet an act of lunacy against him. 
 Enraged at this, he went to settle at Manosque; whence he was, on ac- 
 count of a private quarrel, some time afterwards removed, and shut up 
 in the castle of If; he was then conveyed to that of Joux, in Franche 
 Comte, and obtained permission to go occasionally to Pontarlier, where 
 he met Sophia de Ruffey, Marchioness of Monmir, wife of a president 
 in the parliament of Besan^on. Her wit and beauty inspired Mirabeau 
 with a most violent passion, and he soon escaped to Holland with her, 
 but was for this outrage condemned to lose his head, and would prob- 
 ably have ended his days far from his country, had not an agent of 
 police seized him in 1777, and carried him to the castle of Vincennes, 
 where he remained till December, 1780, when he recovered his liberty. 
 The French Revolution soon presented a vast field for his activity; 
 and, being rejected at the time of the elections by the nobility of Pro- 
 vence, he hired a warehouse, put up this inscription, " Mirabeau, woollen- 
 draper," and was elected deputy from the ticrs-etat of Aix; from that 
 time the court of Versailles, to whom he was beginning to be formidable, 
 called him the Plebeian Count. On the day when the States-General 
 opened, he looked at the King, who was covered with jewels, and 
 said to those near him, " Behold the victim already adorned !" He 
 soon took possession of the tribune, and there discussed the most im- 
 portant matters in the organization of society. He had never at that 
 time conceived the possibility of establishing a democracy in so im- 
 mense a state as France. His motive for seeking popularity was solely 
 that he might regulate a court which he caused to tremble, but the 
 court committed the fault of not seeking to seduce his ambition. He 
 then connected himself with the Duke of Orleans, from whom he ob- 
 
 VOL. 11.— O
 
 518 BIOGKAPHICAL SKETCHES. 
 
 tained certain sums that he wanted; but soon perceiving that it was 
 impossible to make anything of such a clod, he broke off the intimacy 
 in October, 1789. If he was not one of the principal causes of the 
 events which took place on the 5th and 6th of that month, the words 
 he made use of before and during that time, give reason to suppose 
 he was no stranger to them. The next day he made the King new over- 
 tures, and repeated them shortly after, but they were invariably re- 
 jected; and he then considered how he should, by new blows, com- 
 pel the sovereign and his council to have recourse to him. ISTot, how- 
 ever, till the end of the session did this take place; and then, by the 
 intervention of Madame de Mercy and M. de Montmorin, his debts were 
 paid, and a pension was granted him. From that time he devoted him- 
 self to strengthening the monarchy, and addressed to the King a state- 
 ment on the causes of the Revolution, and the methods of putting 
 a stop to it. It may be doubted whether he could have succeeded in this 
 undertaking; but it is now certain that, at the moment of his sudden 
 death, he was busied in a project for dissolving an assembly which 
 he could no longer direct. On January 16, 1791, he was appointed 
 a member of the department of Paris, and on the 31st, president of the 
 JSTational Assembly. This being the period of his closest connection with 
 the court, he wished as president to acquire new celebrity, and show 
 himself capable of directing the Assembly; a design which he executed 
 with a degree of address admired even by his enemies. On March 28th 
 he was taken ill, and died on April 2d, at half-past eight in the morn- 
 ing, aged forty-two. So short an illness excited a suspicion at first that 
 he had been poisoned, and all parties mutually accused each other of 
 the crime; but when his body was opened, there appeared, as the 
 physicians asserted, no marks of violence. When on his death-bed, 
 he said openly to his friends, " I shall carry the monarchy with me, 
 and a few factious spirits will share what is left." At the moment of 
 his death he retained all his fortitude and self-possession; on the very 
 morning he wrote these words, " It is not so difficult to die ;" and at 
 the instant when his eyes were closing he wrote, " To sleep." His 
 loss seemed to be considered as a public calamity, and it is remarkable 
 that all parties believing him to be in their interests, joined in re- 
 gretting him. His obsequies were celebrated with great pomp; all the 
 theatres were shut ; the deputies, the ministers, the members of all the 
 authoritative assemblies, formed a procession which extended above a 
 league, and which was four hours marching; and his body was placed 
 in the Pantheon beside that of Descartes. In November, 1793, his 
 ashes were, by order of the Convention, removed thence, and scattered 
 abroad by the people, who at the same time burned his bust in the 
 I'lace de Greve, as an enemy to the republic, and one who had corre- 
 sponded with the royal family. Thus did Mirabeau verify what he had 
 himself said, " That the capitol was close to the Tarpeian rock, and 
 that the same people who flattered him would have had equal pleasure
 
 MIKAREAU.
 
 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 521 
 
 in seeing him hanged." !Mirabeau was of middle stature; his face was 
 disfigured by the marks of small-pox; and the enormous quantity of 
 hair on his head gave him some resemblance to a lion. He was of a 
 lofty character, and had talents which were extraordinary, and some 
 which were sublime; his felicity of diction was unrivalled, and his 
 knowledge of the human heart profound; but he was essentially a des- 
 pot, and, had he governed an empire, he would have surpassed Riche- 
 lieu in pride, and Mazarin in policy. Naturally violent, the least re- 
 sistance inflamed him; when he appeared most irritated, his expression 
 had most eloquence ; and being a consummate actor, his voice and gest- 
 ures lent a new interest to all he said. Ilis chief passion was pride; 
 and though his love of intrigue was unbounded, it can be ascribed only 
 to his pecuniary necessities. In the last year of his life he paid im- 
 mense debts, bought estates, furniture, the valuable library of Buffon, 
 and lived in a splendid style. — Biographie Moderne. 
 
 MIRABEAU, Viscount de Boniface de Riquetti^ was a younger 
 brother of Mirabeau, and served with distinction in America, 
 1777-79. He was born near Nemours in 1754. His cele- 
 brated relative said of him one day, " In any other family the 
 viscount would be a good-for-nothing fellow and a genius ; in ours, he 
 is a blockhead and a worthy man." In 1789 the younger Mirabeau 
 was deputed to the States-General, and defended his order with an 
 energy equal to that with which his brother attacked it. On one occa- 
 sion, when he had kept possession of the tribune above an hour, the 
 latter, after the sitting was concluded, went to his house, and gently re- 
 proached him with often drinking to excess, which led him into un- 
 pleasant embarrassments. " What do you complain of ?" answered the 
 viscount, laughing; "this is the only one of all the family vices that 
 you have left me." In 1790 the younger ^lirabeau emigrated, levied 
 a legion, and served under the Prince of Conde. His singular con- 
 formation had gained him the nickname of " Hogshead " ; and indeed 
 he was almost as big as he was tall, but his countenance was full of in- 
 telligence. In the beginning of the Revolution he wrote a satire en- 
 titled the " Magic Lantern," and left behind him a collection of tales 
 the versification of which is sprightly and graceful. — Biographie 
 Moderne. 
 
 MOXCEY, Bon Adrien Jeannot, was born in 1754. His father 
 was an advocate, and he was intended for the same profession, but he 
 took an invincible repugnance to it, and entered the army as a private 
 soldier. In 1700, at the age of thirty-six, he was but a sub-lieutenant 
 of dragoons. Soon afterwards, however, he was draughted into a 
 battalion of light infantry, and thenceforward his promotion was rapid. 
 In the course of the ensuing two years, he had risen to be general of 
 division, and received the command of the eleventh military division 
 at Bayonne. On the formation of the consular government Moncey took 
 part in the war of Italy, and was present at the famous battle of Ma-
 
 522 BIOGKAPHICAL SKETCHES. 
 
 rengo. In the .year 1804 he became marshal of the empire, and subse- 
 quently Duke of Conegliano. In 1808 he was engaged in the Spanish 
 campaigns, but his operations were by no means brilliant. He was 
 also present in the Russian expedition, and in the subsequent struggles 
 in Germany. When ISTapoleon abdicated, Moncey sent in his adhesion 
 to the royal government ; he refused, however, to preside on the trial 
 of Marshal jSTey, for which he was degraded from his honors and con- 
 fined. In 1823 he accompanied the Duke d'Angouleme in his inva- 
 sion of Spain. Moncey was humane by nature, honorable in conduct, 
 and a cautious rather than a bold general. — Court and Camp of Bona- 
 parte. 
 
 MONTMORIF ST. HEREM, Akmand Marc, Count de, minister 
 of finance and secretary of state, was one of the Assembly of Notables 
 held at Versailles, and had the administration of foreign affairs at the 
 time when the States-General opened. He was dismissed in 1789 with 
 ISTecker, but was immediately recalled by order of the National Assem- 
 bly. In September, 1790, when all his colleagues were dismissed, he 
 retained his place, and even the portfolio of the interior was for a time 
 confided to him. In' April, 1791, he sent a circular letter to all the 
 ministers at foreign courts, assuring their sovereigns that the King was 
 wholly unrestrained, and sincerely attached to the new constitution. 
 In the beginning of June, he was struck from the list of Jacobins, and . 
 was afterwards summoned to the bar for giving the King's passport 
 when he fled to Varennes ; but he easily cleared himself from this charge 
 by proving that the passport had been taken out under a supposititious 
 name. M. de Montmorin soon after this tendered his resignation ; yet 
 though withdrawn from public life, he continued near the King, and, 
 together with Bertrand de MoUeville, Mallouet, and a few others, 
 formed a kind of privy council, which suggested and prepared various 
 plans for strengthening the monarchy. This conduct drew on him the 
 inveterate hatred of the Jacobins, who attacked him and Bertrand as 
 members of the Austrian committee. M. de Montmorin was one of the 
 first victims who fell in the massacres of September. — Biographie 
 Moderne. 
 
 The unfortunate M. de Montmorin had taken refuge on August 10th 
 at the house of a washerwoman in the faubourg St. Antoine. He was 
 diseov^ered in the early part of September by the imprudence of his 
 hostess, who bought the finest fowls and the best fruit she could find, 
 and carried them to her house, without taking any precautions to elude 
 the observation of her neighbors. They soon suspected her of harbor- 
 ing an aristocrat. This conjecture spread among the populace of the 
 fauburg, who were almost all of them spies and agents of the Jacobins. 
 M. de Montmorin was in consequence arrested, and conducted to the bar 
 of the National Assembly. He answered the questions put to him in 
 the most satisfactory manner; but his having concealed himself, and a 
 bottle of laudanum having been found in his pocket, formed, said his
 
 BIOGRArUICAL SKETCHES, 523 
 
 enemies, a strong presumption that he was conscious. of some crime. 
 After being detained two days in the coiumittee, he was sent a prisoner 
 to the Abbaye ; and a few days afterwards was murdered in a manner 
 too shocking to mention ; and his mangled body carried in triumph 
 to the National Assembly. — Privair Memoirs of Bcrtrand de MoUeville. 
 
 MOREAU, Jean Victok, one of the oldest and most celebrated gen- 
 erals of the French Tfepublic, was born in Bretagne, August 11, 1703. 
 Ilis father intended him for the law, but he fled from his studies, and en- 
 listed in a regiment before he had attained his eighteenth year. In 
 17S9 he joined the army of the North, and subsequently favored the 
 Girondins, whose fall greatly affected him, and it was with much re- 
 pugnance that he accepted the constitution of 1793, when proposed to 
 the army. In 1794 he was appointed general of division, and com- 
 manded the right wing of Pichegru's army. lie was soon after named 
 commander-in-chief of the troops on the Rhine, and commenced that 
 course of operations which terminated in the celebrated retreat from 
 the extremity of Germany to the French frontier, in the face of a su- 
 perior 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 Ilohenlinden. lie was after- 
 wards accused of participating in the conspiracy of Piehegru and 
 Georges, and sentenced to banishment, whereupon he went to America 
 and lived in retirement till 1813, when he joined the allied armies, 
 and was killed in the battle of Dresden, which was fought in that year. — 
 Encyclopedia Americana. 
 
 " Moreau," observed the Emperor, " possesses many good qualities. 
 His bravery is undoubted, but he has more courage than energy; he is 
 indolent and effeminate. When with the army, he lived like a pacha; 
 he smoked, was almost constantly in bed, and gave himself up to the 
 pleasures of the table. His dispositions are naturally 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 en- 
 tered 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 Tuileries. Had he remained faithful to me, 
 I would have conferred on him the title of First ^farshal of the Em- 
 pire." — Bourrienne. 
 
 MORTIER, ^fARSiiAL, was born at Cateau-Cambresis, February 13, 
 1768. In 1791 he obtained the rank of captain in a volunteer regiment; 
 and under Piehegru, ^^foreau, and ^lassena, fought his way to the com- 
 mand of a division. He was a favorite with Napoleon, who created
 
 624 BIOGKAPHICAL SKETCHES. 
 
 him a marshal for the zeal with which he seized Hanover at the rupture 
 of the peace of Amiens. Being afterwards created Duke of Treviso, 
 Mortier went to Spain, but met with no success. He took part in the 
 Russian expedition, but distinguished himself only by blowing up the 
 Kremlin. In 1814 he submitted to Louis, and was confirmed in his 
 honors and posts ; but he turned traitor on the return of Bonaparte, 
 and was, therefore, on the second restoration, shut out from the cham- 
 ber of peers. In 1819, however, he was restored to his peerage. He was 
 killed by an infernal machine, July 28, 1835, during Fieschi's attempt 
 to assassinate King Louis Philippe. — Court and Camp of Bonaparte. 
 
 MURAT, Joachim, was born at Cahors, March 25, 1767. His father 
 was the keeper of a humble country inn, who had once been steward 
 to the wealthy family of the Talleyrands. From early youth, Murat 
 was distinguished by his daring courage and his skill in horsemanship. 
 He was originally intended for the church, but having, in his twentieth 
 year, run away with, and fought a duel for, a pretty girl of the neigh- 
 borhood, all his ecclesiastical hopes were •crushed by the notoriety which 
 this affair brought upon him. He therefore entered the army, made 
 himself conspicuous by his revolutionary enthusiasm, and in one month 
 fought not less than six duels ! He soon gained promotion, and, in the 
 aifair of the sections, made himself so useful to Bonaparte, that, when 
 appointed to the command of the army of Italy, that general placed 
 him on his personal staff. Shortly afterwards Murat was promoted to 
 the rank of general of brigade ; accompanied JSTapoleon in his Egyptian 
 expedition ; and returned with him to Paris, where he married Caro- 
 line Bonaparte, his patron's youngest sister. On the establishment of 
 the empire, he was created marshal of France, and, in 1806, invested 
 with the grand duchy of Berg and Cleves. In 1808 he entered Madrid 
 with a formidable army, and sullied his reputation by his exactions 
 and cruelties. He was afterwards appointed to the throne of ^Naples, 
 but was rendered constantly uneasy by the system of jealous espionage 
 pursued towards him by ISTapoleon. In 1812 he joined the Emperor in 
 his Russian expedition, and was placed over the whole cavalry of the 
 grand army, in which position he rendered himself so conspicuous by 
 his daring that the very Cossacks held him in respect and admiration. 
 When Napoleon quitted Russia, Murat was left in command, but he 
 was unequal to his trying duties, and retnrned dispirited to Naples, 
 greatly to the Emperor's dissatisfaction. In the German campaign of 
 1813 he fought nobly at Dresden and Leipsic, but immediately after 
 this last battle, deserted the imperial standard. On Napoleon's escape 
 from Elba, Mnrat put an army of 50,000 men in motion, in order, as 
 he said, to secure the independence of Italy, but was defeated by the 
 Austrians and English. After the battle of Waterloo, he wandered about 
 for some months as a fugitive; bnt, lioing discovered, was seized, tried, 
 and ordered to be shot, by Ferdinand, the then reigning King of Naples. 
 When the fatal moment arrived, ^furat walked with a firm step to the
 
 BIOGIIAPIIICAL SKETCHES. 525 
 
 place of execution. He would not accept a chair, nor suffer his eyes 
 to be bound. He stood upright, with his face towards the soldiers, and 
 ■when all was ready, kissed a carnelian on which the head of his wife 
 "was engraved, and gave the word thus : '* Save my face — aim at my 
 heart — fire!" !Murat left two daughters and two sons; the elder of 
 his sons is a citizen of the United States, and said to be a youth of very 
 superior promise. — Court and Camp of Bonaparte. 
 
 " ^lurat," said Napoleon, " is a good soldier — one of the most brilliant 
 men I ever saw on a field of battle. Of no superior talents, without 
 much moral courage, timid even in forming his plan of operations; 
 but the moment he saw the enemy, all that vanished — his eye was the 
 most sure, and the most rapid, his courage truly chivalrous. ^loreover, 
 he is a fine man, tall, and well dressed, though at times rather fan- 
 tastically — in short, a niagnifient lazzarone. It was really a magnificent 
 sight to see him in battle heading the cavalry." — Lord Ebringtons Ac- 
 count of his Conversation with Napoleon at Elba. 
 
 NECKER, Jacques, was the son of a tutor in the college of Geneva. 
 He was born at Geneva, September 30, 1732, and began life as a clerk 
 to M. Thellusson, a banker at Paris, whose partner he afterwards be- 
 came, and in the course of twelve or fourteen years his fortune sur- 
 passed that of the first bankers. He then thought of obtaining some place 
 tinder government, but he at first aimed only at the office of first com- 
 missioner of finance, to attain which he endeavored to acquire a literary 
 reputation, and published a panegyric on Colbert. Necker was begin- 
 ning to enjoy some degree of reputation when Turgot was disgraced, 
 and anxious to profit by the dissipation in which the new minister, 
 Clugny, lived, he presented statements to M. de Maurepas in which he 
 exaggerated the resources of the state. The rapid fortune of Necker 
 induced a favorable opinion of his capacity, and after Clugny died he 
 was united with his successor, M. Taboureau des Reaux, an appointment 
 which he obtained partly by the assistance of the Marquis de Pczay. 
 After eight months' administration, Necker, on July 2, 1777, compelled 
 his colleague to resign, and presented his accounts in 1781. Shortly 
 after, he endeavored to take advantage of the public favor, and aspired 
 to a place in the council. He insisted on it, and threatened to resign ; 
 but he was the dupe of his own presumption, and was suffered to retire. 
 In 1787 he returned to France, and wrote against Calonne, who had ac- 
 cused him as the cause of the deficiency in the finances; this dispute 
 ended in the exile of Necker; but, in 17S8, when the general displeasure 
 against Brienne terrified the court, he was again appointed comptroller- 
 general, but, feeling himself supported by the people, he refused to ac- 
 cept the post, unless on the condition of not laboring in conjunction with 
 the prime mini^;ter. Eager for popular applause, Necker hoped to govern 
 everything by leading the King to hope for an increase of power, and the 
 people for a speedy democracy, by the debasement of the higher orders 
 and the parliaments. The report which he made to the council on Decem-
 
 526 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 
 
 ber 27, 1788, respecting the formation of the States-General, proved the 
 first spark which lighted the combustible matter that had long been pre- 
 pared. On July 11th, when the court thought fit to declare against the 
 factions, l^ecker, who had become absolutely their sentinel in the very 
 council of the King was dismissed; but on the 10th the Assembly wrote 
 him a letter, expressing their regret at his withdrawal, and informed him 
 that they had obtained his recall. His return from Basle to Paris was 
 one continued triumph. During the remainder of the year he was con- 
 stantly presenting new statements on the resources of the revenue; but 
 he soon perceived that his influence was daily diminishing. At last, the 
 famous Red Book appeared, and completely put an end to his popularity ; 
 so that in the month of December he determined to fly, after having seen 
 the populace tear from the gate of his house, the inscription, " To the 
 adored minister." He died at Geneva, April 9, 1804, after a short but 
 painful illness. — Biographie Moderne. 
 
 'N'EY, Michael^ Duke of Elchingen, Prince of Moskva, marshal and 
 peer of France; born at Saarlouis, January 10, 1769; entered the 
 French army in 1788 ; made a brigadier-general in 1797 after the battle 
 of JSTeuwied, general of division in 1799, after the capture of Mannheim, 
 and marshal in 1804. He commanded in the Austrian, Prussian, and 
 Spanish campaigns, and distinguished himself at Elchingen, Jena, Eylau 
 and Friedland. He was ordered to Spain in 1808, and was successful 
 in maintaining French rule over Galicia, but in 1810 he met with re- 
 verses in Portugal, especially during the retreat from Torres Vedras. 
 His most celebrated exploits were the battle of Borodino while the grand 
 army crossed the Moskva, and his command of the rear guard during the 
 retreat from Moscow. After the abdication of l^apoleon he submitted to 
 the Bourbons, and was well received by Louis XVIII. When Napoleon 
 returned from Elba, ISTey assured the King of his fidelity, and received 
 the command of a corps of 4000 men, with which he marched against the 
 Emperor, but when he saw the enthusiasm with which Napoleon was re- 
 ceived everywhere he yielded to the demands of his soldiers and went 
 over to the side of the Emperor. In the Waterloo campaign Ney fought 
 the battle of Quatre Bras on the same day that Napoleon defeated the 
 Prussians at Ligny, and at Waterloo he commanded the centre. After 
 the second restoration he was captured, arraigned for high treason, be- 
 fore the Chamber of Peers, which by a large majority condemned him to 
 death. He was shot December 7, 1815, in the garden of the Luxem- 
 bourg. 
 
 At eight o'clock, on the morning of December 7th, the marshal, with 
 a firm step, and an air as calm as if he had been on a field of battle, de- 
 scended the steps leading to the court of the Luxembourg, and entered 
 a coach, which conveyed him to the place of execution, outside the garden 
 gates. He alighted, and advanced towards the file of soldiers drawn up 
 to despatch him. To an officer who proposed to bandage his eyes he re- 
 plied, " Are you ignorant that for twenty-five years I have been accus-
 
 BIOQEAPHICAL, SKETCHES. 527 
 
 tomed to face both ball and bullet ?" He took off his hat, raised it above 
 his head, and said, with a firm voice, " I declare, before God and man, 
 that I have never betrayed mj country : may my death render her happy ! 
 Vive la France ! Then, turning to the men, and striking his other hand 
 on his heart, he gave the word, " Soldiers — fire!" 
 
 Thus, in his forty-seventh year, did '' the Bravest of the Brave " ex- 
 piate one great error, alike alien from his natural character and un- 
 worthy of the general course of his life. If he was sometimes a stern, 
 he was never an implacable enemy. He was sincere, honest, blunt even : 
 so far from flattering, he often contradicted him on whose nod his 
 fortunes depended. He was, with few exceptions, merciful to the van- 
 quished; and while so many of his brother marshals dishonored them- 
 selves by rapine and extortion, Michael ^ey lived and died poor. 
 
 " This extraordinary man," says Colonel Xapier, " was notoriously 
 indoTent, and unlearned in the abstract science of war; it was necessary 
 for him to see in order to act; his character seemed to be asleep, until 
 some imminent danger aroused all the marvellous energy and fortitude 
 wdth which nature had endowed him. He who had fought 500 battles 
 for France — not one against her — was shot as a traitor !" — Court and 
 Camp of Bonaparte. 
 
 ORLEANS, Louis Philippe Joseph, Duke of, great-great-grand- 
 son of Louis XIII. and cousin of Louis XVI., the first prince of the 
 blood, was born at St. Cloud, April 13, 1747, and rendered the title of 
 Due de Chartres, w^hich he bore till his father's death, celebrated by 
 his depravity. He was in stature below the middle size, but very well 
 made, and his features were regular and pleasing, till libertinism and 
 debauchery covered them with red, inflamed pustles. He was very early 
 bald ; was skilled in all bodily exercises ; kind and compassionate in his 
 domestic relations, and endowed with good natural abilities, though igno- 
 rant and credulous. In 1787 his father died, and he then took the 
 title of Duke of Orleans, and sought to render himself popular. By 
 the advice of his creatures he opposed the King in the royal meeting on 
 November 19, 1787, and was exiled to Villers-Cotterets ; but in return 
 for the sums he lavished on the journalists, he soon became the idol of 
 the populace. Another method wliich he successfully put in practice 
 to obtain the favor of the people, was to buy up corn, and then relieve 
 those who were languishing under the artificial scarcity. In 1788-89, 
 public tables were spread and fires lighted, by his order, for the paupers 
 of the metropolis, and sums of money were likewise distributed among 
 them. In the very earliest meetings, he protested against the proceed- 
 ings of his chamber, and joined that of the tiers-etat, witli the dissentient 
 members of his order. On July 3d he was nominated president of tlie 
 National Assembly ; but he refused the post, and busied himself in cor- 
 rupting the regiment of French guards, and in preparing the events 
 of July 14th. Lafayette having menaced him with the tribunals if he 
 did not leave France, he went over to England; but at the end of
 
 528 BIOGEAPHICAL SKETCHES. 
 
 eight months returned, and was received with transport by the Jacobins. 
 In 1791 M. Thevenard, before he resigned the administration of the 
 marine, caused the duke to be appointed admiral of France, for which 
 the latter went to thank the King in person, and to assure him how gross- 
 ly he had been misrepresented. When, however, he appeared at the 
 levee, all the courtiers insulted him in the most outrageous manner, 
 to which he would never be persuaded that their majesties were not 
 privy, and this excited his irreconcilable enmity against them. On Sep- 
 tember 15, 1792, the commune of Paris authorized him to assume the 
 name of Egalite for himself and his descendants, and deputed him to 
 the ISTational Convention. When the King's trial took place, the Duke of 
 Orleans voted for the death of his cousin Avith a degree of coolness 
 which irritated the majority of the Jacobins themselves, and excited 
 murmurs throughout the Assembly. On the fatal day he came to the 
 Place de Louis XV., and was present during the execution, in an open 
 carriage; as soon as the body was removed, he returned to the Palais 
 Royal, and went in a carriage drawn by six horses to revel at Kaincy 
 with his accomplices. Towards the end of April, Robespierre caused 
 his name to be erased from the list of Jacobins, though Egalite had 
 sworn to the Convention, on the 4th of the same month, that if his son, 
 who had just fled with Dumouriez, was guilty, the image of Brutus, 
 which was before his eyes, would remind him of his duty. Soon after- 
 wards a warrant was issued for his arrest ; he was removed to the prison 
 of Marseilles, and, after six months' captivity, sent to take his trial at 
 Paris. As a matter of course, the revolutionary tribunal found him 
 guilty, and he was guillotined on j^ovember 6, 1793, when he was 
 forty-six years of age. He shrugged his shoulders on hearing the 
 people hiss and curse him as he was led to death, and cried out, 
 " They used to applaud me." — From an article in the Biographie 
 Moderne. 
 
 OUDINOT, Charles ISTicholas, was born at Bar-sur-Ornain, April 
 25, 1767. From early youth he expressed a wish to becom.e a soldier, 
 obtained a commission, and rose rapidly through the subordinate ranks, 
 to be general of division. Oudinot distinguished himself under Hoche, 
 Pichegru, ]\Ioreau, Massena, and Bonaparte, on the Rhine, in Switzer- 
 land, and in Italy, and in 1804 was made count of the empire. His 
 valor at Wagram procured him the liigher title of Duke of Reggio, 
 and in 1809 he at length obtained the baton. In the Russian expedition 
 he received many severe wounds, and greatly distinguished himself at 
 Bautzen. On the Emperor's abdication he offered his services to Louis, 
 Avho made him colonel-general of the grenadiers, and military governor 
 of Metz. During the Hundred Days he resisted all Bonaparte's over- 
 tures, and on the second restoration of the Bourbons was rewarded by 
 the chief command of the Parisian national guard, a peerage, and a 
 seat in the cabinet. Oudinot's last military service was in the inva- 
 sion of Spain in 1823, where he exerted himself to arrest the fanatic
 
 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 529 
 
 course of the advocates of despotism. lie died at Paris, September 13, 
 1847. — Cuurt and Camp of Bonaparte. 
 
 PAG ERIE, JosKi'iiiXE Rose Tascher de la, Empress of the 
 French, Quccu of Italv, was burn in Martinique in 1763. While very 
 voung, her father took her to France to marry her to the \ iscouni 
 Beauharnais. She was then in the prime of her beauty, and met witU 
 great success at court. She bore her husband two children Eugene 
 and Hortanse, an<l in 1TS7 returned to Martini.iuc to attend the bed- 
 side of her invalid mother. She took her daughter with her and passed 
 three vears in that island. The troubles, however, which then sud- 
 denly broke out, compelled her to return to France, where she arrived, 
 after narrowlv escaping great perils. A singular prophecy had been 
 made to her when a child, which she used to mention, when it was 
 apparentlv fulfilled in her high destiny. During the Reign of Terror, 
 her husband, who had defended France at the head of its armies, was 
 thrown into prison and execute^]. .Josephine also was imprisoned, but, 
 on the death of Robespierre, she was liberated by Tallien, and was in- 
 debted to Barras for the restoration of a part of her husband's property. 
 At his house she became acquainted with Bonaparte, who married her 
 in 1796. She exerted her great influence over him, invariably on the side 
 of mercv; protected many emigrants, and encouraged arts and industry. 
 Xapoleon used often to say to her, " If I win battles, you win hearts. 
 When he ascended the imperial throne, Josephine was crowned with 
 him both at Paris and at ^lilan. She loved pomp and magnifaeence, 
 and'was very extravagant in her tastes. A few years after her corona- 
 tion, the Emperor divorced her, when she retired to Ma maison. She 
 was soon afterwards doomed to see the destruction of that throi^ on 
 which she had sat. The Emperor Alexander and the King of Prus- 
 sia paid her frequent visits at ^lalmaison, but the fate of Napoleon 
 undermined hc-r strength, and, having exposed herself, while in a feeble 
 .tate of health, bv walking out with Alexander, she caught co d, and 
 died in the arms of her children, May 29, ISU. - Encyclopa^dm 
 
 Josephine was reallv an amiable woman— the best woman m France 
 She was the greatest patroness of the fine arts which that country had 
 known for vears. She was grace personified. Everything she did was 
 with peculiar elegance and delicacy. I never saw her act otherwise 
 than gracefullv during the whole time we lived together Her toilet 
 was n perfect arsenal, and she effectually defended herself against the 
 assaults of time.— -4 Voice from St. Helena. 
 
 Josephine possessed personal graces and many good qualities. Benevo- 
 lence was natural to her, but she was not always prudent in its exercise. 
 Her ta.te for splendor and expense was excessive. This proneness to 
 luxury became a habit, which seemed constantly indulged without any 
 motive. ^Tiat scenes have I not witnessed when the moment for pay- 
 ing the tradesmen's bills arrived! She always kept back one-half of
 
 530 BIOGEAPHICAL SKETCHES. 
 
 their claims, and the discovery of this exposed her to new reproaches. — 
 Bourrienne. 
 
 At the period of her marriage with Bonaparte, Josephine was still a 
 fine woman. Her teeth, it is true, were already frightfully decayed; 
 but when her mouth was closed she looked, especially at a little dis- 
 tance, both young and pretty. — Duchess d' Ahrantes. 
 
 PETION (or PETHION) DE VILLEIvTEUVE, Jerome, was born 
 at Chartres in 1753, became an advocate in his native city, and was 
 elected by the third estate as a member of the States-General, 1789, and 
 distinguished himself by a thorough zeal for the revolutionary party. 
 Endowed with a pleasing address and a disposition ever enterprising, 
 although weak in danger, he became, in spite of the mediocrity of his 
 talents, one of the prime movers in the Revolution. On October 5th, he 
 denounced the banquets of the body-guards, and seconded the designs of 
 the faction of Orleans, to which he was then entirely devoted. On the 
 8th, he proposed giving to the King the title of " King of the French by 
 the consent of the Nation," and suppressing the form of " by the Grace 
 of God." In the course of 1790, he supported the revolutionary party 
 with considerable zeal. On December 4th, the National Assembly elected 
 him their president. In June following, he was appointed president of 
 the Criminal Tribunal of Paris. When the Assembly was informed of 
 the departure of Louis XVI., he was one of the three commissioners ap- 
 pointed to go to Varennes after this prince. At the end of September, the 
 Duke of Orleans sent him to England ; and on his return he obtained the 
 situation of mayor, of which he took possession on November 18th. It 
 is from this period that his real influence may be dated, as well as the 
 outrages with which he did not cease to overwhelm the King, sometimes 
 by handbills, and sometimes through the means of insurrections. On 
 August 3d, he formally demanded of the Assembly, in the name of the 
 Commune, the deposition of Louis. On the 10th, he took care to be con- 
 fined at home by the insurgents under his orders, at the very time that 
 his adherents were preparing to attack the palace. It is doubtful whether 
 Petion were privy to the massacres of September, although Prudhomme 
 declares that the mayor, the ministers, etc., were agreed. Being ap- 
 pointed Deputy of Eure-et-Loir to the Convention, he was the first 
 president of that assembly, which, at its first meeting on September 21, 
 1792, decreed the abolition of royalty. From that time, until the death 
 of Louis XVI., Petion ascended the tribune almost every day to urge 
 the monarch's execution ; and at this period he also labored in the in- 
 terests of the Duke of Orleans, to whose party he appeared very con- 
 stantly attached. In November, however, a hatred which was in the 
 end fatal to him, began to break out between Petion and Robespierre, 
 although up to that time they had been called the two fingers of the hand. 
 In January, 1793, he voted for the death of Louis XVI. ; and on March 
 25th he was appointed a member of the first committee of public safety, 
 and of general defence. From the declarations of General Miaczinski,
 
 BIOGEAPIIICAL SKETCHES. 533 
 
 who had asserted that Petion was concerned in the projects of Dumouriez, 
 occasion was taken — through the means of Robespierre, Danton, and 
 that party — to form a committee for examining into his conduct. On 
 June 2d, a decree of accusation was passed against Petion, and on July 
 25th he was outlawed because he had succeeded in escaping from his 
 own house. In 1794 he was found dead of hunger, or assassinated, and 
 half devoured by beasts, in a field in tlie department of Gironde. Petion 
 is said to have had an air of haughtiness, a fine face, and an affable look. 
 — Biographie Moderne. 
 
 PHILIPPE, Louis, eldest son of the Duke of Orleans (Egalite) and 
 of Marie Adelaide de Bourbon Penthievre, grand-daughter of a natural 
 son of Louis XIV. by Madame Montespan, was born at Paris in 1773. 
 The line of Bourbon-Orleans was founded by Philippe, brother of the 
 Grand Monarque, who conferred on him the duchy of Orleans. In 1782, 
 the Duke de Chartres's education was intrusted to the Countess de 
 Genlis. In 1792, he fought under Dumouriez at Valmi, and displayed 
 great bravery and judgment. He also distinguished himself highly at 
 the battle of Jemappes. Shortly afterwards, having frankly expressed 
 his horror of the revolutionary excesses in France, a decree of arrest was 
 issued against him. He then quitted the army and his country, and ob- 
 tained passports for Switzerland, but received notice that no part of the 
 Cantons was safe for him. Alone, however, and on foot, and almost 
 without money, he began his travels in the interior of Switzerland and 
 the Alps ; and at length obtained the situation of professor at the college 
 of Reichenau, where he taught geography, history, and the French and 
 English langaiages, and mathematics, for four months, without having 
 been discovered. It was here he learned the tragical end of his father. 
 On quitting Reichenau, the Duke de Chartres, now become Duke of Or- 
 leans, retired to Bremgarten, where he remained, under the name of 
 Corby, till the end of 1794, when, his retreat being discovered, he re- 
 solved on going to America; but, being unable to obtain the necessary 
 pecuniary means, he travelled instead through Norway and Sweden, 
 journeyed on foot with the Laplanders, and reached the Xorth Cape in 
 1795. In the following year he set out for America, and paid a visit to 
 General Washington at Blount Vernon. He afterwards went to Eng- 
 land, and established himself, with his brothers, at Twickenham. In 
 1809 the duke was married at Palermo, to the Princess Amelia, daughter 
 of the King of Sicily. After the fall of Napoleon he returned to Paris ; 
 and, in 1815, was ordered by Louis to take the command of the army of 
 the North. He soon, however, resigned it, and fixed his residence, with 
 his family, again at Twickenham. After the Hundred Days he went 
 back to Paris, took his seat in the Chamber of Peers, but manifested 
 such liberal sentiments, as to render himself obnoxious to the adminis- 
 tration. In consequence of the memorable events of July, 1830, he was 
 proclaimed lieutenant-general of the kingdom, and finally, on the abdica- 
 tion of Charles X., King of the French. — Encyclopaedia Americana.
 
 534 BIOGKAPIIICAL SKETCHES. 
 
 PHILIPPEATJX, Pierre, ji lawyer, deputy to the Convention, voted 
 for the King's death. He was afterwards sent into La Vendee to reor- 
 ganize the administration of jSTantes, where he was involved in a conten- 
 tion with some of the representatives sent into the same country, which 
 ended in his recall to Paris. He was condemned to death by the revolu- 
 tionary tribunal, in the thirty-fifth year of his age. Philippeaux was an 
 honest, enthusiastic republican. — Biographie Moderne. 
 
 PICHEGRU, Charles, a French general, was born at Arbois, Febru- 
 ary 16, 1761, of a respectable 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 sharp-shooting, of flying 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 vic- 
 torious campaign. In the following year the National Convention ap- 
 pointed 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 Directory, they re- 
 called 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 Himdred, and became the hope of the 
 Clichyan party. He was, how^ever, arrested by the troops of the direc- 
 torial triumvirate, conveyed to the Temple, and condemned, together 
 with fifty other deputies, to be transported to Guiana. After some 
 months' captivity in the pestilential deserts of Sinnimari, Pichegru con- 
 trived 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 1804, came secretly to Paris with Georges and a great number of con- 
 spirators, 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. — 
 Biographie 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 ex- 
 traordinary, as the success of his campaigns in Holland was in a great 
 measure owing to the battle of Fluerus. 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. — A Voice 
 from St. Helena. 
 
 Nature had made Pichegru a soldier. She had given him that eagle
 
 BIOOBAPHICAL. SKETCHES. 535 
 
 eye which fixes victory on the field of battle, but she had denied him the 
 qualities of a statesman, lie was a mere child in politics, and took it 
 into his head to conspire openly, before the face of the Directory, without 
 once thinking that the Directors liad it in their power to stop him. I 
 know, for certain, that among 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 removes the 
 stain of treason. — Memoirs of a Peer of France. 
 
 KABAUT ST. ETIEXNE, Jean Paul, born at Nismes, April, 1843, 
 a lawyer, a man of letters, and a minister of the reformed religion, was 
 an ardent convert of the Revolution, and a sworn enemy to the Catholic 
 clergy. He was one of those whose sectarian spirit added greatly to the 
 Revolutionary enthusiasm. When, however, he had only monarchy to 
 contend against, he became more moderate. On the occasion of the King's 
 trial, he forcibly combated the opinion of those who desired that the 
 Convention should itself try Louis. At the time of the nominal appeal 
 concerning the punishment to be inflicted on the King, St. Etienne voted 
 for his confinement, and his banishment in the event of a peace, as well 
 as for the appeal to the people to confirm the sentence. In 1793, he was 
 president of the Xational Convention ; but, opposing the Terrorist party, 
 a decree of outlawry was passed against him, and he was executed at 
 Paris, having been delivered up by an old friend, of whom he went to beg 
 an asylum. — Biorirnphie Modeme. 
 
 REWBEL, Jeax Baptiste, born at Colmar, October 8, 1746, chief of 
 the barristers in the supreme council of Alsace, was long the agent of 
 several Gorman princes who had possessions in Alsace, and afterwards 
 undertook <lifi"orent causes against them, which, at the time of the Revolu- 
 tion, he represented as a mark of patriotism. In 1791 he presided in 
 the Xational Assembly, and next to Robespierre, was the member who 
 most plainly showed his desire for a republic. In the following year he 
 earnestly pressed the King's trial, and demanded that the Queen should 
 be included in the same decree of accusation. Rewbel took care to keep 
 in the background during the stormiest period of Robespierre's reign, 
 and after his fall, declared loudly against the Jacobins. lie was a 
 violent man, and terminated his legislative career at the overthrow of 
 the Directory, under which his eldest son was adjutant-general. — Biogra- 
 phie Modeme. 
 
 Rewbel, who inveighed bitterly against the Jacobins, said, " Where 
 has tyranny been organized? At the Jacobins. Where has it found its 
 supporters and its satellites ? At the elacobins. Who have covered 
 France with mourning, carried despair into families, filled the country 
 with prisons, and rendered the republic so odious that a slave pressed 
 down by the weight of his irons would refuse to live under it? The
 
 536 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 
 
 Jacobins. Who regret a change in the frightful government iinder 
 which we have lived ? The Jacobins. If you have not now the courage 
 to declare yourselves, you have no longer a republic, because you have 
 Jacobins. — Mignef. 
 
 " Rewbel," said ^Napoleon, " born in Alsace, was one of the best 
 lawyers in the town of Colmar. He possessed that kind of intelligence 
 which denotes a man skilled in the practice of the bar. His influence 
 was always felt in deliberations ; he was easily inspired with prejudices ; 
 did not believe much in the existence of virtue ; and his patriotism was 
 tinged with a degree of enthusiasm. He bore a particular hatred to the 
 Germanic system ; displayed great energy in the Assemblies, both before 
 and after the period of his being a magistrate ; and was fond of a life 
 of application and activity. He had been a member of the Constituent 
 Assembly and of the Convention. Like all lawyers he had imbibed from 
 his profession a prejudice against the army." — Las Cases. 
 
 ROBESPIERRE, Maximilieist Ekancois Isidore, was bom in 
 Arras in 1759. His father, a barrister in the superior coimcil of Artois, 
 having ruined himself by his prodigality, left Erance long before the 
 Revolution, established a school for the Erench at Cologne, and went 
 to England, and thence to America, where he suffered his friends to 
 remain ignorant of his existence. His mother, whose name was Josepha 
 Carreau, was the daughter of a brewer; she soon died, leaving her son, 
 then nine years of age, and a brother, who shared his fate. The Bishop 
 of Arras contributed to send Robespierre to the college of Louis-le- 
 Grand, where he got him admitted on the foundation. One of the pro- 
 fessors there, an admirer of the heroes of Rome, contributed greatly to 
 develop the love of republicanism in him ; he surnamed him the Roman, 
 and continually praised his vaunted love of independence and equality. 
 Assiduous and diligent, he went through his studies with considerable 
 credit, and gave promise of talent that he never realized. In 1Y75, when 
 Louis XVI. made his entry into Paris, he was chosen by his fellow 
 students to present to that prince the homage of their gratitude. The 
 political troubles of 1788 heated his brain; he was soon remarked in 
 the revolutionary meetings in 1789 ; and the tiers-etat of the province 
 of Artois appointed him one of their deputies to the States-General. 
 On his arrival at the Assembly he obtained very little influence there ; 
 however, though the want of eloquence did not permit him to vie with 
 the orators who then shone in the tribune, he began to acquire great 
 power over the populace. Eor some time he paid court to Mirabeau, 
 who despised him, yet he accompanied him so assiduously in the streets 
 and public squares that he was at last surnamed Mirabeau's ape. In 
 1790 he continued to gain power over the rabble, and frequently spoke 
 in the Assembly. On the King's departure for Varennes he was dis- 
 concerted; but as soon as that prince had been arrested, his hopes of 
 overturning the monarchy increased, and he labored hard to bring on 
 the insurrections which took place in the Champ de Mars. He had been
 
 BIOQEAPHICAL SILETCHES. 537 
 
 for some time connected with Marat and Danton, and by their help 
 he exercised great authority over the Jacobins, and through them, over 
 the capital. He was, in consequence, denounced by the Girondists, 
 who accused him of aspiring to the dictatorship. He was one of the 
 most strenuous advocates for the King's trial, and voted for his execu- 
 tion. After overthrowing tlie party of the Gironde, he turned against 
 his old allies, the Dantonists, whom he brought, together with their 
 chief leader, to the scaffold, from which time, till his fall, he reigned 
 without rivals. He restored tlie worship of the Supreme Being, which 
 tJie atheist faction of the Ilebertists had succeeded in abolishing. After 
 ruling France for some months with a rod of iron, he was arrested, to- 
 gether with his partisans, by the Convention, in consequence of having 
 excited the fear and distrust of some of his colleagues (Billaud-Varennes 
 among the number). At the moment when he saw that he was going 
 to be seized, he tried to destroy himself with a pistol-shot, but he only 
 shattered his under-jaw. He was immediately led into the lobby of 
 the meeting-hall, then shut up in the Conciergerie, and executed on 
 July 28, 1794. As he was proceeding to execution, the prisoners ob- 
 structing the passage, the jailer cried out, " Make way ! make way ! I 
 say, for the incorruptible man!" — for Robespierre was always vaunt- 
 ing his disinterestedness. He was carried in a cart placed between 
 Ilenriot and Couthon ; the shops, the windows, the roofs, were filled with 
 spectators as he passed along, and cries of joy accompanied him all the 
 way. His head was wrapped up in a bloody cloth, which supported his 
 under-jaw, so that his pale and livid countenance was but half seen. 
 The horsemen who escorted him showed him to the spectators with the 
 point of their sabres. The mob stopped him before the house where 
 he had lived ; some women danced before the cart ; and one of them 
 cried out, " Descend to hell, with the curses of all wives and of all 
 mothers!" The executioner, when about to put him to death, roughly 
 tore the dressing off his wound ; upon which he uttered a horrible cry ; 
 his under-jaw separated from the other; the blood spouted out; and his 
 head presented a most hideous spectacle. He died at the age of thirty- 
 five. The following epitaph was written for him, " Passenger, lament 
 not his fate, for were he living, thou wouldst be dead." Eobespierre 
 had not any of those accomplishments or brilliant advantages which 
 seems to command success. He was hard and dry, without imagination 
 and without courage; neither could his feeble constitution, his gloomy 
 countenance, his weak sight, and almost inaudible voice, prepossess or 
 seduce the multitude; and although, in public speaking, he had by long 
 habit attained some degree of facility, he could never contend with the 
 principal orators of the Convention ; but nature seemed to supply all 
 the resources that she denied him, by granting him the art of profiting 
 at the same time by the talents of others, and by the faults which they 
 might commit. Strong in his integrity in pecuniary matters, he always 
 took care to open the path of honors, and especially of riches, to his
 
 538 BIOGEAPHICAL, SKETCHES, 
 
 rivals, that lie might be furnished with additional means of ruining 
 them, when they became obnoxious to him. Of all the men whom the 
 Eevolution brought into notice, none has left a name so generally ab- 
 horred as Robespierre. — Biographie Moderne. 
 
 Robespierre, observed l^apoleon, was by no means the worst char- 
 acter 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 Hebert, 
 Chaumette, Collot-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. — A Voice from 
 St Helena. 
 
 ROLAND DE LA PLATIERE, Jean Maeie, born at Yillefranche, 
 near Lyons, February 18, 1734, of a family distinguished in the law for 
 its integrity, was the youngest of five brothers, left orphans and without 
 fortune. In order to avoid entering into the church, like his elder 
 brother, he left home at the age of nineteen ; went to Rouen, engaged in 
 the direction of the manufactories, distinguished himself by his love of 
 study and his taste for commercial subjects, and obtained the place of 
 inspector-general, first at Amiens, and then at Lyons. He married 
 ]\Ianon Jeanne Philipon, Eebruary 4, 1Y80. He travelled through a 
 great part of Europe, and during the Revolution sided with the 
 Girondins. He made great efforts, but in vain, to stop the September 
 massacres. In 1793 he signed the order for the King's execution, and 
 was soon afterwards involved in the fall of his party. He, however, 
 contrived to escape to Rouen, but, as soon as he heard of his wife's exe- 
 cution, he resolved not to survive her; and, having left his asylimi in 
 the evening, he went along the road to Paris, sat do^vn against a tree, 
 and stabbed himself with a sword that he had brought with him in a 
 cane. He killed himself so quietly that he did not change his attitude ; 
 and the next day the people who passed by thought he was asleep. A 
 paper was found about him couched in these terms : " Whoever you may 
 be that find me lying here, respect my remains; they are those of a 
 man who devoted all his life to being useful, and who died as he lived, 
 virtuous and honest. ITot fear, but indignation, has made me quit my 
 retreat ; when I learned that my wife had been massacred, I would not 
 remain any longer in a world stained with crimes." Roland was of an
 
 BIOGEAPllICAL SKETCHES. 539 
 
 irascible temper, and deeply versed in the ancient and most of the mod- 
 ern languages. — Biographie Moderne. 
 
 ROLAND, Manon Jeanne Philipon, Madame, was born at Paris, 
 March 17, 1754. She was the daughter of a distinguished engraver 
 who had ruined his fortune by dissipation. At nine years old she made 
 an analysis of Plutarch. In 1780, she married Roland, then inspector of 
 the manufactories. In 1792, having appeared at the bar of the National 
 Convention, to give information concerning a denunciation, she spoke 
 with remarkable grace and dignity, and was admitted to the honors of 
 the sitting. In 1793, she was condemned to death together with other 
 of the Girondins. She went to execution with irony and disdain on her 
 lips ; and on reaching the Place de la Revolution, she bowed to the statue 
 of liberty, exclaiming, " O Liberty, how many crimes are committed in 
 thy name !" She was thirty-nine years of age. Without being beautiful, 
 she had a sweet and artless countenance, and elegant figure. Her large 
 black eyes were full of expression ; her voice was musical ; and her con- 
 versation peculiarly attractive. Her mind was well stored with knowl- 
 edge, but she was too much addicted to satire. — Biographie Moderne. 
 
 Condorcet, alluding to Madame Roland's influence over her husband, 
 used to say, " When I wish to see the minister of the interior, I can never 
 get a glimpse of anything but the petticoats of his wife." — History of 
 the Convention. 
 
 When Madame Roland 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. Although past 
 the prime of life, she was a fine woman, tall, and of an elegant form; 
 an expression infinitely superior to what is usually found in women was 
 seen in her large black eyes, at once forcible and mild. She frequently 
 spoke from her window to those witliout, M'ith the magnanimity of a 
 man of the first order of talent. Sometimes, however, the susceptibility 
 of her sex gained the ascendant, and it was seen that she had been weep- 
 ing, no doubt at the remembrance of her daughter and husband. As she 
 passed to the 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 honor. The day on which she was condenmed, she had dressed her- 
 self in white, and with peculiar care; her long black hair hung down 
 loose 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 she was to die. — Memoirs of 
 a Prisoner. 
 
 Madame Roland's defence, composed by herself the night before her 
 trial, is one of the most eloquent and touching monuments of the Revolu- 
 tion. Her answers to the interrogatories of her judges, the dignity of her 
 manner, and the beauty of her figure, melted even the revolutionary
 
 540 PIOGBAFHICAL SKETCHES.' 
 
 audience. She was conveyed to the scaffold in the same car with a man 
 whose firmness was not equal to her own. While passing along the 
 streets, her whole anxiety appeared to be to support his courage. She 
 did this with so much simplicity and effect that she frequently brought 
 a smile on the lips that were about to perish. When they arrived at the 
 foot of the scaffold, she had the generosity to renounce, in favor of her 
 companion, the privilege of being first executed. " Ascend first," said 
 she, " let me at least spare you the pain of seeing my blood flow." Turn- 
 ing 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 can- 
 not," said she with a smile — " you cannot, I am sure, refuse a woman 
 her last request." Undismayed by the spectacle which immediately en- 
 sued, she calmly bent her head under the guillotine, and perished with 
 the serenity she had evinced ever since her imprisonment. — Alison. 
 
 ROMME, G., a farmer at Gimeaux, and at one time professor of 
 mathematics and philosophy, was born in 1750, and was deputed to the 
 Convention, where he voted for the death of Louis, and showed himself 
 a violent Jacobin. On the overthrow of the Mountain, he dissembled his 
 principles for some time, but could not help showing, in the affair of 
 Carrier, his disapprobation of the system of retribution which then pre- 
 vailed. In the year 1795 Romme devoted himself more than ever to the 
 cause of the Jacobins, and when the faubourgs rose in insurrection he 
 showed himself one of their most ardent chiefs, and loudly demanded a 
 return to the system of terror. For this, a decree of arrest was passed 
 against him, and a military council condemned him to death. At the 
 moment, however, when his sentence was read, he stabbed himself, and 
 was supposed to be dead, Avhich was the reason why he was not sent to 
 the scaffold. It has since been believed that his friends, having taken 
 him to some retreat, their cares restored him to life, and that he then 
 went secretly into Russia, where he lived in utter obscurity. At the time 
 of his condemnation Romme was forty-five years of age. — Biograpliie 
 Moderne. 
 
 One day my brother returned home dreadfully agitated. He had wit- 
 nessed an awful scene. Romme, Soubrany, Duroi, Duquesnoi, Goujon, 
 and Bourbotte, were condemned. During their trial they had exhibited 
 the most admirable fortitude, feeling, and patriotism. The conduct of 
 Romme in particular, is said to have been sublime. When sentence was 
 pronounced on them, they surveyed each other calmly ; and on descending 
 the staircase which was lined with spectators, Romme looked about, as if 
 seeking somebody. Probably the person who had promised to be there 
 had not the courage to attend. " 'No matter," said he, " with a firm 
 hand this will do. Vive la Liberte !" Then drawing from his pocket a 
 very large penknife, or perhaps it might more properly be called a small 
 poniard, he plunged it into his heart, and, drawing it out again, gave it 
 to Goujon, who in like manner, passed it to Duquesnoi. All three fell 
 dead instantly, without uttering a groan. The weapon of deliverance,
 
 MADAMF. ROLAND.
 
 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 543 
 
 transmitted to Soubranj by the trembling bands of Duquesnoi, found its 
 way to the noble hearts of the rest; but they were not so fortunate as 
 their three friends. Grievously wounded, but yet alive, they fell at the 
 foot of the scaffold, which the executioner made them ascend, bleeding 
 and mutilated as they were. Such barbarity would scarcely have been 
 committed by savages. My brother stood so near to Romme, to whom he 
 wished to address a few words of friendship and consolation, that the 
 blood of the unfortunate man spouted on him. Yes, my brother's coat 
 was stained with the scarcely cold blood of a man who, only a few days 
 before, was seated in the very chamber, perhaps in the very chair, in 
 which Albert was then sitting. — Duchess d'Ahrantes. 
 
 R0:N^SI:N", C. p., was born at Soissons in 1752. He figured in the 
 early scenes of the Revolution, and in 1789 brought out a tragedy which, 
 though despicable in point of style, had a considerable run. He associ- 
 ated with Hebert and Clootz, and became a general in the army. Be- 
 ing denounced by Robespierre, he was guillotined in 1794. His dramatic 
 pieces were collected, and published after his death. — Scott's Life of 
 Napoleon. 
 
 ROSSIGNOL, Jean P., a 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 1793 he was made lieutenant-colonel of a regiment of 
 gendarmerie, and employed against the Vendeans, but Biron ordered 
 him to be imprisoned at ISTiort for extortion and atrocity. He was 
 soon afterwards released, but forwarded the war of La Vendee but 
 little, being seldom victorious, and revenging himself for his want of 
 success by carrying fire and sword wherever he went. Having obtained 
 the chief command of the army of the coasts of Brest, he became more 
 cruel than 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 his 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 transported in 1800, and being carried to one of the 
 islands of the Indian Archipelago, died there in the year 1803. — 
 Biographie Moderne. 
 
 ROVERE, J. M. DE, deputy to the Convention, was the son of a 
 very rich innkeeper in the country of Venaissin. 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 Rovere de St. Marc, which had long been extinct. 
 A man named Pin, well kno\vn at Avignon for his skill in forging titles, 
 made him a genealogy, by means of which he found himself grafted 
 on that illustrious house, and took the title of Marquis de Fonville, and 
 soon obtained the hand of a Mademoiselle de Claret, a rich heiress, 
 whose fortune he afterwards dissipated. In 1791 Bovere figured under
 
 544: BIOGEAPHICAL SKETCHES. 
 
 Jourdan at the head of the army of ruffians of Avignon. In 1Y93 he 
 voted for the King's death, and became one of the persecutors of the 
 Girondins. In the ensuing year he declared against Robespierre. In 
 1Y95 he presided in the Convention; but, having afterwards rendered 
 himself obnoxious to the ruling powers, was transported to Cayenne, 
 where he died in the year 1798. — Biographie Moderne. 
 
 ST. CYE, Gouvioi^, was born at Toul, April 13, 1764. In his youth 
 he was designed for a painter, and he even travelled through Italy to 
 perfect himself in his art. But his predilection for the profession of 
 arms was irresistible ; so that when the Revolution broke out he en- 
 tered into a company of volunteers, and was soon sent to join the French 
 armies on the Rhine. In 1795 he commanded a. division, and fought 
 under Pichegru, ]\Ioreau, and Massena, by all of whom he was esteemed, 
 not only for his extensive knowledge of tactics, but for his virtues. 
 With Bonaparte, however, he was never a favorite. There was, in fact, 
 a downright simplicity about him, and as for flattery, he knew not what 
 it meant. The Legion of Honor w^as open to him, and he was apiDointed 
 colonel-general of the cuirassiers, but, though one of the ablest officers 
 in the army, he was not for many years made a marshal. He expected 
 that dignity as a reward for reducing some fortresses in Spain, but 
 he was soon afterwards superseded by Augereau, and punished with tw^o 
 'years' exile from the imperial presence. At the close of the Russian 
 campaign, St. Cyr, at length marshal, commanded the corps of Oudinot, 
 who had been severely wounded. He fought at the battle of Dresden, 
 and was left in that city when ISTapoleon fell back on Leipsic. On the 
 restoration, Louis received him favorably, and raised him to the cham- 
 ber of peers. — Court and Camp of Bonaparte. 
 
 ST. JUST, Antoine, was born in the ISTivernais in 1768. He, with 
 Robespierre and Couthon, formed the triumvirate in May, 1793. He 
 was guillotined, July 28, 1794. A cold and austere fanatic, who at the 
 age of twenty was devising a perfectly ideal state of society, in w^hich 
 absolute equality, simplicity, austerity, and an indestructible force 
 should reign. Long before August 10th, he had brooded in the re- 
 cesses of his gloomy mind over this supernatural society, and he had 
 arrived through fanaticism at that extremity of human opinions, to 
 which Robespierre had arrived solely by dint of hatred. 'New to the 
 Revolution, upon wdiich he had scarcely entered, as yet a stranger to all 
 its struggles, to all its wrongs, to all its crimes, ranged in the party of 
 the Mountain by the violence of his opinions, delighting the Jacobins 
 by the boldness of his sentiments, captivating the Convention by his 
 talents, still he had not yet acquired popular reputation. His ideas, 
 always favorably received, but not always comprehended, had not their 
 full effect till they had become, through the plagiarisms of Robespierre, 
 more common, more clear, and more declamatory. — Thiers' French 
 Revolution. 
 
 St. Just was austere in manners, like Robespierre, but more enthusi-
 
 J.. 

 
 BIOGEAPHICAL SKETCHES, 547 
 
 astic; and the image of a thousand religions or political fanatics, who, 
 being of a gloomy temperament, and full of visionary aspirations, 
 think that good is always to be worked out of evil, and are ready to sac- 
 rifice themselves and the whole world to any scheme they have set their 
 minds upon. St. JTust was nicknamed the Apocalyptic. — Hazlitt's Life 
 of Napoleon. 
 
 St. Just exhibited the true features of gloomy fanaticism; a regular 
 visage, dark and lank hair, a penetrating and severe look, a melancholy 
 expression of countenance, revived the image of those desperate Scottish 
 enthusiasts of whom modern genius has draA\Ti so graphic a picture. Sim- 
 ple and unostentatious in his habits, austere in private, and indefatiga- 
 ble in public, St. Just was the most resolute, because the most sincere, 
 of the Decemvirs. Enthusiastic in his passion for the multitude, he 
 disdained to imitate its vices, or pander to its desires. Steeled against 
 every sentiment of pity, he demanded the execution of victims in the 
 same manner as the supply of armies. — Alison. 
 
 SAMSO]Sr. Two brothers of this name officiated at the death of 
 Louis XVI., Marie Antoinette, Hebert, Danton, Robespierre, etc. ; they 
 were the official executioners. 
 
 Mercier speaks of the elder brother in his Nouveau Tableau de Paris: 
 " What a man is that Samson ! Insensible to suffering, he has always 
 been identified with the axe of execution. He has beheaded the most 
 powerful monarch in Europe, his queen, Couthon, Brissot, Robespierre, 
 — and all this with a composed countenance ! He cuts off the head that 
 is brought to him, no matter whose. What does he say ? What does he 
 think? I should like to know what passes in his head, and whether 
 he considers his terrible functions only as a trade. The more I medi- 
 tate on this man, the president of the great massacre of the human species, 
 overthrowing crowned heads like that of the purest republican, without 
 moving a muscle, the more my ideas are confounded. How did he 
 sleep, after receiving the last words, the last looks, of all those sev- 
 eral heads? I really would give a trifle to be in the soul of this man 
 for a few hours. He sleeps, it is said, and very likely his conscience 
 may be at perfect rest. The guillotine has respected him, as making 
 one body with itself. He is sometimes present at the Vaudeville. He 
 laughs — looks at me — my head has escaped him — he knows nothing about 
 it; and as that is very indifferent to him, I never grow weary of con- 
 templating in him the indifference with which he has sent a crowd of 
 men to the other world." 
 
 SANTERRE, Antonio Joseph, was born at Paris in 1752. He be- 
 came a brewer in the faubourg St. Antoine, at Paris. He possessed 
 a boldness and energy which gave him great weight in his own neigh- 
 borhood. Though ignorant, he knew well how to address a mob, which 
 made him courted by the Orleanists. On the taking of the Bastille he 
 distinguished liimself at the head of the forces of his faubourg, and 
 when the national guard was formed, he was appointed commander
 
 548 BIOGKAPHICAL SKETCHES. 
 
 of a battalion. In 1793 he began to obtain decided influence with the 
 people, and on August 10th, becoming commander of the national guard, 
 he conducted the King to the Temple. Yet, notwithstanding his demo- 
 cratic zeal, he was not considered fit to direct the massacres in the 
 prisons. Marat said of him, that he was a man without any decided 
 character. On December 11th he conducted the King to the bar of the 
 National Convention, on the occasion of his trial; and in January, 
 1793, commanded the troops who superintended his execution. It was 
 Santerre who interrupted the unfortunate monarch when he attempted 
 to address the people, by ordering the drums to be beat. Wishing to fig- 
 ure as a warrior, Santerre departed, with 14,000 men, to fight the royal- 
 ists in La Vendee ; he was, however, continually unsuccessful ; and on one 
 occasion, it having been reported that he was killed, this epitaph was 
 made on him : " Here lies General Santerre, who had nothing of Mars 
 but his beer." Santerre survived the troubles of the Revolution, and 
 died at Paris, February 6, 1809. — BiograpMe Modeme. 
 
 SIEYES, Emanuel Joseph, Count, was born at Frejus, May 3, 1748, 
 deputy to the States-General, president of the !Rational Assembly, mem- 
 ber of the Convention, and of the council of Five Hundred, was elected 
 a Director, May 16, 1799, and was Consul from liovember 9 to Decem- 
 ber 24, 1799. He died in Paris, June 20, 1836. 
 
 Sieyes, observed N^apoleon, before the Revolution was almoner to 
 one of the princesses. One day, when he was performing mass in the 
 chapel before herself, her attendants, and a large congregation, some- 
 thing occurred which made the princess get up and retire. Her exam- 
 ple was followed by her ladies-in-waiting, and by the whole of the 
 nobility, officers, and others, who attended more out of complaisance to 
 her than from any true sense of religion. Sieyes was very busy reading 
 his breviary, and for some time did not perceive the general desertion. 
 Lifting up his eyes, however, from his book, lo ! he observed that the 
 princess, nobles, and all their retainers, had disappeared. With an 
 air of contempt, displeasure, and haughtiness, he shut the book, hastily 
 descended from the pulpit, exclaiming, " I do not say mass for the 
 canaille," and went out of the chapel, leaving the service half-finished. — 
 A Voice from 8t. Helena. 
 
 The Abbe Sieyes rendered himself remarkable on the occasion of the 
 King's trial. When his turn came to ascend the tribune, he pronoimced 
 the words " Death, sans phrase/' This expression was afterwards paro- 
 died in a cutting manner by a minister of the King of Prussia, whom 
 Caillard, the French minister, had requested to pay some attention to 
 Sieyes, who was going as ambassador to Berlin. " ISTo," replied he ; 
 " and sans phrase." — Memoirs of a Peer of France. 
 
 Bonaparte said to me one day, " That fool Sieyes is as credulous as 
 a Cassandra." In the intercourse, not very frequent certainly, which 
 I had with him, he appeared to be far beneath the reputation which 
 be had acquired. He reposed a blind confidence in a multitude of
 
 BIOGEAPIIICAL SKETCHES. 549 
 
 agents, wliom lie had sent into all parts of France. Sioyes had written 
 in his countenance, '' Give me money." I recollect that I one day 
 alluded to this expression in the anxious face of Sieyes to the First Con- 
 sul. " You are right," observed he to me, smiling, " when money is 
 in question, Sieyes is quite a matter-of-fact man. He sends his ideology 
 to the right about, and thus becomes easily manageable. He readily 
 abandons his constitutional dreams for a good round sum, and that is 
 very convenient." M. de Talleyrand, who is so capable of estimating 
 men, and whose admirable sayings well deserve to occupy a place in 
 history, had long entertained an indifferent opinion of Sieyes. One 
 day, when he was conversing with the second consul concerning him, 
 Cambaccres said, " Sieyes, however, is a very profound man." " Pro- 
 found !" said Talleyrand, " yes, he is a cavity, a perfect cavity, as you 
 would say." — Bourriennes Memoirs of Napoleon. 
 
 Sieyes had acquired a high reputation, not only by the acuteness of 
 his metapliysical talent, but by a species of mystery in which he involved 
 himself and his opinions. He was certainly possessed of great knowledge 
 and experience in the affairs of France, was an adept in the composi- 
 tion of new constitutions of all kinds ; and had got a high character, as 
 possessed of secrets peculiarly his own, for conducting the vessel of the 
 state amid the storms of revolution. He managed, in fact, his reputa- 
 tion, as a prudent trader does his stock. A temper less daring in action 
 than bold in metapliysical speculation, and a considerable regard for 
 his OAvn personal safety, accorded well with his affected air of mystery 
 and reserve. — Scott's Life of Napoleon. 
 
 SOULT, l^icoLAs Jean de Dieu, was born at St. Amans, March 29, 
 1769, and entered the army in his sixteenth year. Under Hoche, and 
 then under Jourdan, he distinguished himself by his skill and bravery; 
 and at the battle of Fleurus, in particular, he exhibited talents of the 
 highest order. In 1794 he was made general of brigade, and, four years 
 afterwards, of division. The First Consul knew Soult by report, and one 
 day inquired of Massena whether he deserved his reputation. " Both 
 for judgment and courage," replied the veteran, " I can recommend him 
 as one who, in my opinion, has scarcely a superior." In consequence of 
 this praise Soult was intrusted with the command of the chasseurs of the 
 consular guard. When the invasion of England was resolved on, he was 
 placed over the army encamped from Boulogne to Calais, where he 
 established the severest discipline. In 1804 he was presented with the 
 marshal's truncheon. When his generals surrounded Xapoleon to receive 
 his final instructions at Austerlitz, all that he said to Soult was, " To 
 you, marshal, I have only to observe — act as you always do." In the heat 
 of this celebrated battle an aide-de-camp arrived with an order that he 
 should instantly take the heights of Pratzen. " I will obey the Emperor's 
 commands as soon as I can," replied the marshal ; " but this is not the 
 proper time." This kindled the Emperor's rage, who despatched another 
 aide-de-camp with a more peremptory mandate. He arrived just as Soult
 
 550 BIOGKAPHICAL SKETCHES. 
 
 was putting his column in motion. The manoeuvre had been delayed only 
 because the Russians were extending their line to the left, and so weaken- 
 ing their centre, which was in possession of the heights. Complete suc- 
 cess attended the marshal's attack. ISTapoleon from his eminence per- 
 ceived at once the reason of the delay and the brilliancy of the movement. 
 He rode up to Soult, and, in presence of the whole staff, told him that he 
 accounted him the ablest tactician in the empire. For his behavior at 
 Eylau he was created Duke of Dalmatia, and soon afterwards sent to 
 Spain, where he was defeated by Sir John Moore at Corunna, to whose 
 memory he erected a statue near the spot where he had fallen. He next 
 invaded Portugal, where he met with no better success. After remaining 
 two years in the Peninsula, defeated in every action he fought with 
 Wellington, Soult was called to Germany, and was present at the battle 
 of Bautzen. While at Dresden, news arrived of the defeat of the French 
 at Vittoria, on which he was again hurried off to Spain to check the 
 advance of Wellington. But he was as unsuccessful as on the former 
 occasion, and received his final defeat under the walls of Toulouse. On 
 the restoration of the Bourbons he received the portfolio of the ministry 
 of war, but on the escape of ]!^apoleon from Elba he sided with him, and 
 fought at Waterloo. In 1816 he was banished from Prance, but in three 
 years he received permission to return, and in 1821 his marshal's staff 
 was restored to him. — Court and Camp of Bonaparte. 
 
 Soult, by a show of superior piety, had the art to ingratiate himself 
 with Charles X. and his priestly advisers. On the do%vnfall of that 
 dynasty in 1830, Louis Philippe appointed him to a place in the ministry, 
 which he held for some time, and then resigned. The marshal, a shrewd, 
 worldly man, a skilful soldier, and a consummate courtier, was appoint- 
 ed ambassador to England in 1838. He died at Soultberg, ISTovember 
 26, 1851. 
 
 STAEL-HOLSTEIN", Baeoitess de, born at Paris, April 22, 1786, 
 was the daughter of the well-known !N"ecker. Her birth, her tastes, 
 her principles, the reputation of her father, and above all, her conduct in 
 the Revolution, brought her prominently before the world ; and the po- 
 litical factions, and the literary circles with which she has been con- 
 nected, have by turns disputed with each other for her fame. After the 
 death of Robespierre, she returned to Paris, and became an admirer of 
 Bonaparte, with whom she afterwards quarrelled, and who banished her 
 from Prance. She went to live at Coppet, where she received the last 
 sighs of her father, and where she herself died. She published many 
 works, the best of which is her novel of Corinne. When in England, in 
 1812, she was much courted by the higher classes. — Biographie Moderne. 
 
 Madame de Stael, said ISTapoleon, was a woman of considerable 
 talent and great ambition ; but so extremely intriguing and restless, as 
 to give rise to the observation that she would throw her friends into the 
 sea, that, at the moment of drowning, she might have an opportunity of 
 saving them. Shortly after my return from the conquest of Italy, I was
 
 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES, 551 
 
 accosted by her in a large company, though at that time I avoided going 
 out much in public. She followed me everywhere, and stuck so close that 
 I could not shake her off. At last she asked me, " Who is at this moment 
 the first woman in the world ?" intending to pay a compliment to me, and 
 thinking that I would return it. I looked at her, and coldly replied, 
 " She who has borne the greatest number of children — an answer which 
 greatly confused her." The Emperor concluded by observing that he 
 could not call her a wicked woman, but that she was a restless intriguante, 
 possessed of considerable talent and influence. — A Voice from St. Helena. 
 
 STOFFLET, one of the Vendean generals, was at the head of the 
 parishes on the side of Maulevrier. He was from Alsace, and had served 
 in a Swiss regiment. He was a large and muscular man, forty years of 
 age. The soldiers did not like him, as he was harsh and absolutely 
 brutal ; but they obeyed him better than any other officer, which rendered 
 him extremely useful. lie was active, intelligent, and brave, and the 
 generals had great confidence in him. — Memoirs of the Marchioness de 
 Larochejaquelein. 
 
 That intrepid Vendean chief, Stofflet, pressed by the forces of the re- 
 public, after braving and escaping a thousand dangers, was, at length, 
 betrayed by one of his own followers, at the farm of Pegrimaud, where 
 he was seized, gagged, conducted to Angers, and executed. — Jomini. 
 
 SUCHET, Louis Gabriel, born at Lyons, March 2, 17Y0, fought in 
 Italy, and rose by 1798 to be general of brigade. He added to his reputa- 
 tion in Egypt and again in Italy, served as general of division under 
 Joubert in 1799, and in 1800 was second in command to Massena. He 
 checked an Austrian invasion of the south of France (1800), took part 
 in the campaigns against Austria (1805) and Prussia (1806), and as 
 generalissimo of the French army in Aragon reduced the province to 
 submission, securing a marshal's baton. In 1812 he destroyed Blake's 
 army at Sagunto, and by his capture of Valencia earned the title of 
 Duke of Albufera. He was created a peer of France by Louis XVIII. , 
 but joined l^apoleon on his return from Elba. Deprived of his peerage 
 after Waterloo, it was restored to him in 1822. He died at Marseilles, 
 January 3, 1826. 
 
 TALLEYRA:N'D-PERIG0RD, Charles Maurice, minister for 
 foreign affairs, ci-devant bishop of Autun, Abbe of Celles and St. Denis, 
 was born at Paris, January 13, 1754, and as deputy from the clergy of 
 the bailiwick of Autun, joined the meeting of the commons on the open- 
 ing of the States-General. He combined with natural ability a great 
 facility of labor and application. His name, his dignities, and his 
 example, operated on a great number of deputies, who were wholly 
 guided by his counsels. On August 20, 1789, Talleyrand procured the 
 adoption of an article concerning the admission of all citizens, without 
 distinction, to all offices. Three days afterwards, he opposed the men- 
 tion of divine worship in the declaration of the rights of man, and main- 
 tained that it was in the constitutional act that the holy name of the
 
 552 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 
 
 Catholic religion ought to be pronounced. In August, October, and No- 
 vember, he made speeches on the finances, in one of which he recom- 
 mended the sale of church property. In February, 1Y90, he composed 
 the famous address to the French, to remind them of what the National 
 Assembly had already done for them, and still intended to do; and on 
 July 14th he celebrated the mass of the Federation. On December 29th, 
 he published an address to the clergy, giving an account of the motives 
 which had induced him to take the constitutional oath, and exhorting 
 them to follow his example. In March and November, 1791, he joined 
 the Abbe Sieyes in defending the non-juring priests. Having been very 
 intimate with Mirabeau, he, in the tribune in March, 1791, read a long 
 discourse on Inheritances, which that great statesman had intrusted to 
 him on his death-bed, in order that he should communicate it to the 
 Assembly. Assisted by the Bishops of Lydia and Babylon, Talleyrand 
 consecrated the first bishops who were called constitutional, an act which 
 drew upon him the displeasure of the court of Rome. After the session 
 he was sent to England as private negotiator, in order to conclude a treaty 
 of peace between the two nations, but failed in his negotiation. Terrified 
 at the blood which was so lavishly poured forth in France, and informed 
 also that after August 10, 1792, papers had been found at the Tuileries 
 which might compromise him, he retired to the United States. After the 
 9th Thermidor, 1794, he returned to Paris, became a member of the Na- 
 tional Institute, and in 1797 he entered on the administration of foreign 
 affairs. From that time he began to acquire great influence in the gov- 
 ernment, and was one of those who contrived the events of the 18th Bru- 
 maire. In 1802, after the re-establishment of Catholic worship in France, 
 the First Consul obtained for Talleyrand a brief from the Pope, which 
 restored him to a secular and lay life, and authorized his marriage with 
 Mrs. Grant. — Biographie Moderne. 
 
 Talleyrand remained in the administration of foreign affairs, up to the 
 period of the disastrous Russian campaign, when he began to make secret 
 overtures — at least so it is reported of him by Napoleon's biographers — 
 to the Bourbons. On the Emperor's downfall, he held office for a time 
 under Louis XVIII. as minister of foreign affairs, 1814; assisted at the 
 Congress of Vienna, 1814-15; made grand chamberlain September 28, 
 1815, and on the expulsion of Charles X. was appointed ambassador to 
 England by Louis Philippe, serving from September 5, 1830, to Janu- 
 ary 7, 1835. He died at Paris, May 17, 1838. 
 
 TALLIEN, Jean Lambert, born at Paris in 1769, son to the porter 
 of a nobleman, became afterwards an attorney's clerk, and, lastly, cor- 
 rector of the press in the Moniteur office. On August 10, 1792, he was 
 named secretary-general for the commune, and, from that time, began 
 to play a conspicuous part in the Revolution. He warmly urged the 
 trial of Louis XVI., and opposed the granting him counsel. During the 
 year 1793 he was out on missions, and everywhere conducted himself 
 like a zealous partisan of revolutionary measures. Love, however, ap-
 
 BIOQEAPHICAL SKETCHES, S53 
 
 peared all at once to change his character. Madame de Fontenai, whose 
 maiden name was Cabarrus, had come to Bordeaux in order to embark 
 for Spain, whither she was going to join her husband; she was im- 
 prisoned, and, fearing to increase the number of victims, she, in order 
 to save her life, flattered the violent passion with which she had in- 
 spired Tallien, who, from that time, entirely given up to luxury and 
 pleasure, not only ceased to persecute, but, in 171)4, dissolved the mil- 
 itary and revolutionary tribunals in Bordeaux. In the same year he 
 was one of those who materially assisted in bringing Kobespierre to 
 tlie scaffold. In 180G Tallien was commissioner of the board of trade at 
 Alicant. He died at Paris in 1820. — Biographie Modcrne, 
 
 TALLIEIST, Madame, was above the middle height, but a perfect har- 
 mony in her whole person 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 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 wdt, her beauty, and her political influence, may serve 
 to establish a comj^arison, 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 acquired a great reputation. At 
 twelve years of age, Theresa Cabarrus was the loveliest of all the beau- 
 ties of Cadiz. Her father sent her from home at an early age, because 
 he was still too young to take upon himself the superintendence of so 
 lovely a daughter. She was seen about this time 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 ]M. de Fontenai, to whom 
 she was united some time after. With a cultivated mind and intellectual 
 powers of a high order, Madame Tallien would have possessed, even with- 
 out her beauty, more than an ordinary share of attractions. She was 
 always remarkably kind and obliging, but such is the effect on the mul- 
 titude, of a name that bears a stain, that her cause was never separated 
 from that of her second husband. — Duchess d'Ahrantes. 
 
 VADIER, a lawyer, was an ardent Jacobin, but without abilities, 
 and ridiculous on account of his accent. In 1792 he was appointed 
 deputy to the Convention, where he voted for the King's death. In 1791 
 he successively defended and abandoned the party of Hebert and Dan- 
 ton. After the fall of Robespierre, whom he denounced with severity, 
 Vadier was condemned to transportation, but contrived to make his 
 escape. In 1799 the consular government restored him to his rights as 
 a citizen. — Biographie Moderne. 
 
 VANDAMME, Dominique Joseph, born at Cassel, !N"ovember 5, 
 1771, was one of the bravest men in the world, but fiery and passionate.
 
 554 BIOGEAPHICAL. SKETCHES. 
 
 A nobler figure tlian lie possessed cannot well be imagined. He had a 
 finely formed head, regular features, beautiful curly hair, glistening eyes 
 which, when angry, seemed to flash fire, and an exquisitely turned hand. 
 — Duchess d'Ahrantes. 
 
 The Emperor related the following anecdote, as highly characteristic 
 of General Vandamme: When made prisoner by the Russians, he was 
 lu'ought before the Emperor Alexander, who reproached him in bitter 
 terms with being a robber, a plunderer, and a murderer; adding that 
 no favor could be granted to such an execrable character. This was 
 followed by an order that he should be sent to Siberia, while the other 
 prisoners were sent to a much less northern destination. Vandamme re- 
 plied with great sang-froid, " It may be, sire, that I am a robber and a 
 plunderer ; but at least I have not to reproach myself with having soiled 
 my hands with the blood of a father," — A Voice from St. Helena. 
 
 VERG:ivriAUD, PiERKE ViCTOETEi.', born at Limoges, May 31, 1759 
 (guillotined October 31, 1793), was the most eloquent speaker of the 
 Gironde, but he had not the vigor requisite for the leader of a party in 
 troubled times. Passion, in general, had little influence over his mind. 
 He was humane, gentle, and benevolent ; difficult to rouse to exertion, 
 and still more to be convinced of the wickedness, either of his adversa- 
 ries or a large part of his supporters. But when great occasions arose, 
 he poured forth his generous thoughts in streams of eloquence which 
 never have been equalled in the Erench Assembly. It was not like that 
 of Mirabeau, broken and emphatic, but uniformly elegant, sonorous, 
 and flowing, swelling at times into the highest strains of impassioned 
 oratory. — A lison. 
 
 In Parliamentary eloquence no Erenchman of that time can be con- 
 sidered equal to Vergniaud. ISTo man, we are inclined to believe, ever 
 rose so rapidly to such a height of oratorical excellence. His whole 
 public life lasted barely two years. In a foreign country, and after the 
 lapse of half a century, some parts of his speeches are still read with 
 mournful admiration. — Macaulay. 
 
 Vergniaud was an indolent man, and required to be stimulated; but 
 when once fairly excited, his eloquence was true, forcible, penetrating, 
 and sincere. — Dumont. 
 
 I do not like Vergniaud, because he disdains men, does not put any 
 restraint on himself in his intercourse with them, and has not employed 
 his talents with the ardor of a soul devoted by the love of the public 
 good, and with the tenacity of a diligent mind. — Madame Boland's 
 Memoirs. 
 
 Vergniaud projected the decree which pronounced the suspension of 
 the King, and the formation of the ISTational Convention. He filled the 
 chair on the day of Louis's sentence, and voted for his death. He was 
 condemned to death as a Girondist, in 1793, and spent the night be- 
 fore his execution in discoursing ^vith his friends upon revolutions and 
 governments. His speeches were always carefully prepared beforehand.
 
 BIOGEAPHICAIi SKETCHES. 555 
 
 VEYGOUX, Louis Charles Antoine Desaix de, was born at St. Hi- 
 laire, August 17, 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 army 
 of the North under Pichegru, and repeatedly distinguished himself. In 
 1798 he accompanied Bonaparte 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 he was mortally wounded. — Encyclo- 
 paedia 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 proceedings, he 
 Avas called by the Arabs the Just Sultan. Desaix was intended by nature 
 for a great general. — A Voice from St. Helena. 
 
 Desaix was a man for whom the First Consul had a high esteem, and 
 whose talents and character aiforded the fairest promise of what might 
 one day be expected from him. Napoleon was jealous of some generals, 
 but Desaix gave him no uneasiness ; equally remarkable for his unassum- 
 ing disposition, his talent, and his information, he proved by his conduct 
 that he loved glory for its own sake. Bonaparte's friendship for him 
 was enthusiastic. The tomb of Desaix, said Napoleon, shall have the 
 Alps for its pedestal, and tlie monks of St. Bernard for its guardians. — 
 Bourrienne. 
 
 VICTOR, Perein^ was born at IMarche, in 1766. In his fifteenth 
 year he entered the army as a private soldier, and by his good conduct 
 at Toulon obtained the rank of general of brigade. From the breaking 
 out of the Revolution to the battle of Friedland he was almost constantly 
 in the field, and his gallantry in that great action procured him his 
 marshal's baton. On the peace of Tilsit, Victor was appointed governor 
 of Berlin, but he had been only fifteen months there when he was sent to 
 Spain, where he remained from 1808 to 1812, while his troops on more 
 than one occasion disgraced themselves by shameful excesses. At the 
 battle of Talavera, Victor was defeated by Sir Arthur Wellesley with the 
 loss of about ten thousand men. After an unsuccessful siege of Cadiz, 
 the marshal, whom the Emperor had now created Duke of Belluno, was 
 summoned to the Russian campaign. At the Beresina, Dresden, Leipsic, 
 and Hanau, Victor fought nobly, and equally so on the invasion of 
 France by the allies in 1814. After incredible efforts at Nangis and 
 Villeneuve, and seeing his son-in-law killed before his face, he took a few 
 hours' rest at Salins. This greatly enraged Napoleon, who had com- 
 manded him to pursue the allies to Montereau without intermission, and 
 he told him that his command was given to another, and that he might
 
 566 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES, 
 
 go about his business. The tears streamed down the marshal's cheeks as 
 he replied, " 'No, sire, I will not leave the service. Victor was once a 
 grenadier, and has not forgotten how to use the musket. I will take my 
 place in the ranks with the soldiers of the guard." The Emperor, affected 
 by this proof of fidelity, stretched out his hand to the marshal, and said, 
 " I cannot return you your command, since another has it, but you may 
 head two brigades of my guard." The veteran did so, and throughout 
 the remainder of the campaign, fought with the most determined bravery. 
 On the return of ISTapoleon from Elba, Victor followed Louis to Ghent, 
 and on the second restoration was made a French peer, and minister of 
 war in 1821. At a subsequent period, he was sent as ambassador to 
 Vienna. — Court and Camp of Bonaparte. 
 
 WESTEKMA^N'N, Francois Joseph, born at Molslieim, in Alsace, 
 September 5, 1751, was an officer under the monarchy, but embraced the 
 revolutionary party with ardor. On August 10th, he was the first who 
 forced the Tuileries at the head of the Brest battalions. In 1792, and 
 the following year, he distinguished himself by his bravery at the head 
 of the Legion du ISTord, of which he had obtained the command. He was 
 afterwards transferred, with the rank of general of brigade, to the army 
 which Biron then commanded in La Vendee. . At Chatillon, however, 
 he was completely defeated ; his infantry was cut to pieces ; and he him- 
 self escaped with difficulty. Being attached to the party of the Corde- 
 liers, he was denounced with them, and executed in 1794, in the fortieth 
 year of his age. — BiograpJiie Moderne. 
 
 Westermann ran from massacre to massacre, sparing neither adver- 
 saries taken in arms, nor even the peaceful inhabitants of the country. — 
 Prudliomme. 
 
 General Westermann entered Parthenay with about ten thousand 
 men. From thence he went to Amaillou, and set fire to the vil- 
 lage. This was the beginning of the republican burnings. Westermann 
 then marched on Clisson ; he knew that it was the chateau of M. de 
 Lescure, and, imagining that he must there find a numerous garrison, and 
 experience an obstinate resistance, he advanced with all his men, and not 
 without great precautions, to attack this chief of the brigands. He ar- 
 rived at nine o'clock at night. Some concealed peasants fired a few shots 
 from the wood and garden, which frightened the republicans very much ; 
 but they seized some women, and learned that there was nobody at Clis- 
 son. 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 fagots 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. After-
 
 BIOQEAPHICAL SKETCHES. 557 
 
 wards, the republican armies burned even provisions, though the rest of 
 France was suffering from famine. — Memoirs of the Marchioness de 
 Laroch eja que lein. 
 
 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, offi- 
 cers, soldiers, priests, 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 Review. 
 
 Vol. II.— Q
 
 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY 
 CALENDAR. 
 
 THIS CALENDAR (DECREED NOVEMBER 24, 1793) COMMENCES FROM 
 SEPTEMBER 22, 1792, THE FOUNDATION OF THE REPUBLIC. 
 
 The following Table will be found serviceable for approximate purposes, but. the dates 
 do not absolutely correspond, as shown below, on account of the Gregorian leap 
 year not coinciding with that of the Revolutionary Calendar. 
 
 Autumn Months. 
 
 DAYS 
 
 Vendemiaire (Vintage) 30 
 
 Brum AIRE (Foggy) . . 30 
 
 Frimaire (Sleety) . . 30 
 
 Winter Months. 
 
 NivosE (Snowy) . . 30 
 
 Pluviose (Rainy) . . 30 
 
 Ventose (Windy) . . 30 
 
 Spring Months. 
 
 Germinal (Budding) . 30 
 
 Floreal (Blooming) . 30 
 
 Prairial (Pastoral) . 30 
 
 Summer Months. 
 
 Messidor (Harvest) . 30 
 
 Thermidor (Heat) . . 30 
 
 Fructidor (Fruit) . . 30 
 
 Extending 
 
 FROM TO 
 
 September 22 October 21 
 October 22 November 20 
 November 21 December 20 
 
 December 21 January 19 
 January 20 February 18 
 February 19 March 20 
 
 March 21 
 April 20 
 May 20 
 
 June 19 
 July 19 
 August 18 
 
 April 19 
 ]\Iay 19 
 June 18 
 
 July 18 
 August 17 
 September 16 
 
 THE YEAR 
 OF THE A.D. 
 
 I. 
 
 n. 
 ni. 
 
 IV. 
 
 V. 
 
 VI. 
 
 VII. 
 
 VIII. 
 
 IX. 
 
 X. 
 
 XI. 
 
 XII. 
 
 XIII. 
 
 XIV. 
 
 1792-1793 
 1793-1794 
 1794-1795 
 1795-1796 
 1796-1797 
 1797-1798 
 1798-1799 
 1799-1800 
 1800-1801 
 1801-1802 
 1802-1803 
 1803-1804 
 1804-1805 
 1805- 
 
 In 1806 the old Gre- 
 gorian Calendar was re- 
 verted to. 
 
 The five days over ("sansculottides") were 
 appropriated as follows : — 
 
 Sept. 17 The Festival of Le Genie. 
 " 18 " Le Travail. 
 
 " 19 " Les Belles Actions. 
 
 " 20 " Les Recompenses. 
 
 " 21 " L'Opinion. 
 
 Every fourth year ("every Franciade") a 
 sixth festival was added, that of the Revolu- 
 tion, 
 
 Each month was divided 
 into three decades of ten 
 days each, which repeated 
 themselves as follows: — 
 
 Prim^di. 
 
 Duodi. 
 
 Tridi. 
 
 Quartidi. 
 
 Quintidi. 
 
 6 Sextidi. 
 
 7 Septidi. 
 
 8 Octidi. 
 
 9 Nonidi. 
 10 Decadi. 
 
 The day of 
 rest. 
 
 Each day was to have been divided into ten hours, and each hour again into ten parts; but 
 it was found inconvenient to carry this out.
 
 FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY DATES. 
 
 In contemporary Memoirs on the French Kevolution, the reader of 
 modern days is often puzzled by the French habit of referring to occur- 
 rences by date only, especially when the date is that of the Republican 
 Calendar. The following table will give some assistance in identifying 
 the references : 
 
 20 Brumaire An II.— l^ovember 10, 1793.— The Feast of Reason. 
 (The Worship of Reason was almost immediately abolished.) 
 4 Germinal An II.— March 23, 1794.— The " Ilebertistes " or ex- 
 treme revolutionary party ; Hebert (editor of the Pere Duchesne 
 paper), Ronsin (general of the revolutionary army), Vincent, etc., 
 are executed by the Comite de Salut Public. 
 
 10 Germinal An II. — March 31, 1794. — The Moderes or Indulgents; 
 Danton, Camille Desmoulins (writer of le Vieux Cordelier 
 paper), Lacroix, Philippeaux, Herault de Sechelles, etc., are ar- 
 rested by the Comite de Salut Public, and are executed 16 Germi- 
 nal — April 5, 1794. The Cordelier party and club are practically 
 broken up. 
 
 22 Peairial An II. — June 10, 1794. — Law of, increases the rapidity 
 of proceeding of the revolutionary tribunal. 
 9 Thermidor An II. — July 27. 1794. — Overthrow of the Terrorists ; 
 Robespierre, Saint Just, Couthon, Henriot, etc., are arrested and 
 executed next day by their colleagues of the Comite de Salut Pub- 
 lic (Collot d'Herbois, Billaud-Varennes, and Barere), assisted 
 by Tallien, Barras, Legendre, Freron, Merlin de Thionville, 
 Thuriot, Bourdon de I'Oise, Dubois de Crance, Lecointre de 
 Versailles. 
 
 12 Germinal An III.— April 1, 1795.— The Jacobins invade the As- 
 sembly, but are dispersed without bloodshed by General Pichegru. 
 Remainder of old Comite de Salut Public, Barere, Collot d'Her- 
 bois, Billaud-Varennes, are deported ; other deputies of the Moun- 
 ■ tain sent to Ham, etc. 
 1 Prairial An III.— May 20, 1795.— The last insurrection of the 
 Jacobins against Moderate party or Thermidoriens. The Jacobins 
 seize the hall of the representatives, kill the deputy Feraud, and 
 present his head to the president, Boissy d'Anglas, who, unmoved, 
 salutes it j but they are driven put.
 
 562 TEENCn EEVOLUTIONAKY DATES. 
 
 4 Peaieial An III. — May 23, 1795. — The Jacobins are disarmed by 
 
 General Menou. Almost all the members of the old Comite de 
 Saint Public, and of the Mountain, except Carnot, are arrested ; 
 and the Mountain and the Jacobin party are completely broken 
 up. Power falls into the hands of the Thermidoriens, Tallien, 
 and the Girondists. 
 
 5 Peuctidoe An III. — August 22, 1795.-^Convention decrees that 
 
 instead of entirely free elections for the new Corps Legislatif, 
 two-thirds of both councils of the Ancients and of the Five Hun- 
 dred must, the first year, be members of the then Convention. 
 This and the follomng decree are intended to preserve the ascend- 
 ency of the republican party, it being feared that the Koyalist 
 party may obtain a majority in the elections. 
 
 13 Feuctidoe An III. — August 30, 1795. — The convention decrees 
 that two-thirds of the members of the old convention to serve in 
 the new assembly, are to be selected by the electoral assemblies. 
 These decrees of Fructidor drive the Royalist party to arms. 
 
 13 Yendemiaiee An IV. — October 4, 1795. — " Jour des sections." The 
 Royalists, anxious to get a majority in the new assembly about to 
 be elected, and stopped by the decrees of 5 and 13 Fructidor (see 
 above), revolt; they are put down by the forces of the Convention 
 directed by General Bonaparte, nominally under Barras. 
 
 3 Beumaiee An IV. — October 24, 1795. — Law of, exclusion of all 
 
 emigres and of their relations from all civil, municipal, and 
 military functions, till the general peace. Permission granted to 
 all who do not wish to live under the Republic to leave France, 
 taking with them their property. Dismissal of all officers who 
 have not served during the revolutionary period — i.e., since Au- 
 gust 10, 1792 (sack of Tuileries) ; many of whom had been re- 
 stored by Aubry, a reactionary in charge of the War Office. This 
 is gradually allowed to drop till 18 Fructidor — September 4, 1797, 
 (see on). Several decrees, actually passed on 4 Brumaire, are 
 generally taken as part of those of 3 Brumaire (see next date). 
 
 4 Beumaiee An IV. — October 25, 1795. — Decrees of punishment of 
 
 death to be abolished after the general peace. The Place de la 
 Revolution renamed Place de la Concorde. Amnesty for all acts 
 connected with the Revolution, except for the 13 Vendemiaire — • 
 October 4, 1795 (see above) ; this exception is repealed on 14 
 Frimaire — December 4, 1796 (see below). 
 
 5 Beumaiee An IV. — October 27, 1795. — Constitution of An III. put 
 
 in force. 
 
 20 Floeeal An IV. — May 9, 1796. — The conspiracy of Babceuf (a 
 Communistic and Jacobin one) is detected, and Baboeuf, Vadier, 
 Armar, etc., are arrested. 
 
 12 Feuctidoe An IV. — August 29, 1796. — Attempted rising of Jaco- 
 bins and of the Baboeuf party.
 
 I-EENOH EEVOLUTIONAEY DATES. S6S( 
 
 22 Feuctidoe An IV. — September 8, 1Y96. — Rising of the Jacobins 
 and of the Baboeuf party, which is easily put down. 
 
 14 Fkimaire An V. — December 4, 1796. — The amnesty of 3 Bru- 
 maire (October, 1795), which excepted the acts of Vendemiaire, 
 is now made complete. 
 
 18 Feuctidor An V. — September 4, 1797. — " Second Emigration." — 
 A strong Royalist party having been returned at the recent elec- 
 tions of one-third of the Councils, the majority (Barras, La 
 Reveillere Lepeaux, and Rewbell) of the directors, supported by 
 the Jacobins, place Augereau (hence called "Fructidor General") 
 at the head of their forces, occupy the halls of the Councils, accuse 
 many of the deputies, Pichegru, etc., of a Royalist conspiracy, get 
 the Councils to vote the deportation, to Guiana, of Barthelemey, 
 Pichegru, Willot, etc. (Carnot escapes to Switzerland) ; and to 
 cancel the elections made by forty-eight departments. The law 
 of 3 Brumaire is put in full force, and even extended, the emigres 
 who have returned having again to leave. The power of the 
 directors over journals, priests, etc., is made fuller, and the staff 
 of forty-two journals are sentenced to be deported. 
 
 22 Floeeal An VI. — May 11, 1798. — The directors annul many of the 
 elections of the " Patriotes " to the Councils. 
 
 80 Peaikial An VII.— June 18, 1799.— The " Patriotes," or extreme 
 party, discontented with the directorate, which has been dis- 
 credited by the defeat of the Trebbia, etc., change by agitation 
 the majority of the directors. Sieyes and Barras remain. The 
 election of Le Tourneur is annulled; La Reveillere Lepeaux 
 and Merlin de Douai are induced to resign; and Gohier, Roger- 
 Ducos, and General Moulins replace them. A more vigorous 
 prosecution of the war is intended, and more violent measures 
 are adopted, such as the law of hostages, by which, on any dis- 
 turbance in any district, the authorities may imprison relations 
 of emigres as hostages for order. This law was repealed in '^o- 
 vember, 1799. 
 
 18 and 19 Beumaiee An VIII. — IN'ovember 8 and 9, 1799. — iN'apoleon 
 returned from Egypt, finding the country disgusted with the weak- 
 ness and ill-success of the Directorial Government which has lost 
 Italy, and, being supported by the party desiring a stronger and 
 less democratic government, overthrows the directorate and the 
 Constitution of An III. Of the five directors, Sieyes and Roger- 
 Ducos support him; Barras resigns; Gohier and Moulins only 
 formally resist. Almost all the generals, except Augereau, Ber- 
 nadotte, and Jourdan, support him, Moreau even guarding Gohier 
 and Moulins. A " Consulat Provisoire " formed of ^N'apoleon, 
 Sieyes, and Roger-Ducos, which lasts till December 25, 1799, 
 when the Constitution of An VIII. is in force, and the Consulate 
 is composed of ISTapoleon, Cambaceres, and Lebrun.
 
 664 FEENCH EEVOLUTIOITAEY DATES* 
 
 28 Pluviose & III. — February 16, 1800. — Law of, settling interior 
 organization of France. Prefet over each department, sous-pref et 
 over each arrondissement or group of from sixty to a hundred 
 communes, each with a council ; while the prefet has a small legal 
 tribunal, replacing the former smaller divisions. 
 
 27 Ventose An VIII. — March 17, 1800. — Law of, reforming the 
 judicial organization. Tribunal of first instance for each arron- 
 dissement and twenty-nine courts of appeal. The court of cassa- 
 tion, above all, to determine the sense of the law, not to re-try the 
 cases. 
 
 18 Vendemiaiee An IX. — October 10, 1800. — Plot of Jacobins — 
 Joseph Arena, Cerrachi, Demerville, and Topino Lebrun — to 
 assassinate Napoleon in his opera-box. Betrayed by Harrel. 
 3 NrvosE An IX. — December 24, 1800. — Infernal machine, or plot of 
 Rue St. Nicaise; plot of Royalists — St. Rejant, Carbon, and Li- 
 moelan — to assassinate Napoleon on his way to the opera in his 
 carriage. Machine explodes too late. 
 6 Floreal An X. — April 26, 1802. — Amnesty of emigrants by Napo- 
 leon.
 
 THE REVOLUTIONARY CLUBS AND 
 JOURNALS. 
 
 These clubs were at first private meetings, where people^ of similar 
 political views met together to talk over the events of the nation. 
 
 The first and most celebrated was that of the Breton deputies, held at 
 the ancient convent of the Jacobins, and hence called the Jacobin Club. 
 It acquired, in a short time, an amazing infiuence, and established aSili- 
 . ated clubs in every province of France. Its moral power was so great in 
 the palmy days of the Revolution, that the people, the magistracy, and 
 even the N'ational Assembly, were swayed by it. 
 
 Strange as it may seem, it is nevertheless true, that the Jacobins were 
 Eoyalists at first. They wished to depose Louis XVI., but they would 
 have placed the Duke of Orleans on the throne, with abridged powers and 
 prerogatives. As the Revolution advanced, their political views became 
 more and more democratic, till, at last, the word Jacobin became synony- 
 mous with red-republican. 
 
 To the Jacobins belonged Chenier, the author of "" Charles IX.'' the 
 poets Cubieres and Chamfort,Laharpe — as violent as Diderot in his ha- 
 tred of the Supreme Being — Sedaine, and the good Andrieux. David the 
 painter was one of the same clique, Vernet, Larive, and Talma the great 
 actor. Lai's, the famous vocalist, and Louis-Philippe, the future King, 
 were the door-keepers of the Paris club. 
 
 Such were the leading members ; but, from first to last, Robespierre was 
 its living unity ; and this man, simply by the force of circumstances, with- 
 out genius, oratorical power, or even a daring spirit, rose to be master, 
 not only of the Jacobins, but of Paris and all France. The Jacobin clubs 
 were finally closed on November 11, 1794. 
 
 A branch of the Jacobins, first called the Club of '89, and then the 
 Journalists' Club, held its meetings in a part of the Palais Royal. 
 Lafayette, Bailly the mayor, the Abbe Sieyes, and Mirabeau were mem- 
 bers of this club. Though called " the Club of '89," it was not founded 
 till 1790. 
 
 Another branch society was the Feuillant's Club, held in the convent of 
 the Feuillantes near the Tuileries, and composed of the most moderate of 
 the republicans. 
 
 When Barnave was sent to Varennes to convey the King and royal 
 family to Paris after their flight, he was so touched by their misfortunes 
 that he resolved to befriend them ; and when he found the Assembly bent
 
 666 
 
 EEVOLUTIONAEY CLUBS AND JOUENALS. 
 
 on death, induced Dupont, Lameth, and others, to separate from the 
 Jacobins, by way of protest against their regicidal intentions. 
 
 The Cordeliers, so called from the convent of the Cordeliers where 
 their meetings were held, was another very important club, but its influ- 
 ence was limited to Paris. 
 
 Its leading members were Danton ; Camille Desmoulins, who gave the 
 signal for the attack on the Bastille ; Hebert, a check-taker at one of the 
 theatres, and editor of the infamous journal called " Fere Duchesne," and 
 Marat. 
 
 The Cordeliers were generally opposed to the Jacobins. It was this 
 club that plotted the insurrection, Avhich marked the close of the Reign 
 of Terror. It was this club also which first demanded the abolition of 
 royalty, and the institution of a free republic. 
 
 The Cordeliers affected extreme poverty and meanness. Their room of 
 meeting was miserably lighted with a few wretched candles ; and all the 
 members dressed in the most squalid attire. This club was nicknamed 
 the Pandemonium, and Danton the arch fiend. 
 
 At first, the Cordeliers went further than the Jacobins in their republi- 
 can principles ; but, after a time, they were left so far behind, that they 
 were looked upon as lukewarm, and even traitors to the popular cause. 
 The Cordeliers lost all their influence when Danton was led to execution ; 
 and the club was finally closed by the Convention. 
 
 Journals. Akin to the clubs were the journals of the day, the enor- 
 mous increase of which was one of the most striking features of the 
 Revolution. Some of them were published daily, and others weekly or 
 more often. Some of the more violent of the weekly journals appeared 
 in red wrappers. 
 
 In ITYY, there was but one daily paper in all France; some twenty- 
 three years later, there were as many as 900. The following list gives 
 the names of the most prominent : 
 
 The Acts des Apotres. 
 Ami du Peuple. 
 Annales Patriotiques, by Mer- 
 
 cier and Carra. 
 Annales Politiques et Litter- 
 
 aires, by Linguet. 
 Babillard. 
 Bonnet Rouge. 
 Chronique de Paris, by Con- 
 
 dorcet, the best written of 
 
 all. 
 Communes de Paris. 
 Courrier !N'ational. 
 „ „ Provence. 
 
 „ de Paris a Versailles. 
 
 The Journal de la Republique. 
 
 ,, des Revolutions de 
 Paris, the most extensively 
 read of all. 
 
 Journal Universe. 
 
 „ des Versailles. 
 
 London Journal of the Ly- 
 ceum, published in London, 
 by Brissot. 
 
 Mercure Politique. 
 
 Moniteur, first published ISTo- 
 vember 24, 1789. 
 
 Observateur. 
 
 Patriot. 
 
 Patriot Frangais, by Brissot.
 
 EEVOIiTJTIONAKY CLUBS AND JOUKNALS. 
 
 56Y 
 
 Courrier de Versailles a Paris. 
 
 Esprit des Gazettes. 
 „ des Journaiix. 
 etc., etc., etc. 
 
 Gazette de Paris. 
 
 General Journal d'Europe. 
 
 Heraut de la Xation. 
 
 Journal de la Cour et da la 
 Villc. 
 
 Journal des Debats and des 
 Decrets. 
 
 Journal Ecclesiastique. 
 
 „ des Etats Generaux, 
 by Mirabeau, which existed 
 only one week, when it was 
 suppressed by the King for 
 a most intemperate attack 
 upon ITecker. It afterwards 
 appeared as Le Courrier de 
 Provence. 
 
 Journal General de France. 
 
 Pere Duchesne, by Hebert, 
 containing the most exag- 
 gerated republican senti- 
 ments, and circulating the 
 most horrible innuendoes 
 against the Queen. 
 
 Point de Jour. 
 
 Publiciste Parisien, by the 
 bloodthirsty Marat. This 
 was one of the most formi- 
 dable of all the journals. 
 Its name was twice changed, 
 first into L'Ami du Peuple, 
 and then into Le Journal de 
 la Republique. 
 
 Eevolutions de Paris, by Prud- 
 homme and Tournon. 
 
 Sappeur dans le Bataillon de 
 Carmes. 
 
 Sentinelle du Peuple. 
 
 Spectateur. 
 
 Vieux Cordelier. 
 
 etc., etc., etc.
 
 GOVERNMENTS, CONSTITUTIONS AND 
 PARLIAMENTS OF FRANCE. 
 
 GOVERNMENTS OF FEANCE. 
 
 The following forms of government have been tried in France: 
 (1.) The Ancient Monarchy, with the King absolute. 
 (2.) A Limited Monarchy, under Louis XVI. and the first National 
 
 Assembly (May 5, 1789). 
 (3.) A Republic governed by the Convention (September 21, 1792). 
 (4.) An Oligarchy of five Directors (October 5, 1795). 
 (5.) A Consulate with the ofiice limited to a term of years (De- 
 cember 24, 1799). 
 (6.) The same, with the ofiice held for life (August 2, 1802). 
 (7.) A Military Empire (May 18, 1804). 
 (8.) A Constitutional Monarchy, represented by King, lords, 
 
 and commons (April 24, 1814). 
 (9.) The Empire restored for a hundred days (March 27, 1815). 
 (10.) The Constitutional Monarchy restored for fifteen years 
 
 (July 8, 1815). 
 (11.) A Royal Republic, with an elective King, called the King of 
 the French people and not the King of France. This is called 
 the Government of July (August 9, 1830, to February 24, 
 1848). 
 (12.) A Democracy governed by a National Assembly (February 26, 
 
 1848). 
 (13.) A Democratic Presidency, with the office of President limited 
 
 to four years (December 11, 1848). 
 (14.) A Monarchical Presidency, under a President holding office 
 for ten years, a Senate, a Corps Legislatif, and a Council of 
 State (December 2, 1851). 
 (15.) An Elective Empire, with the Emperor absolute, and the 
 
 crown hereditary in the male line (December 2, 1852). 
 (10.) The Government of the National Defence (September 2, 
 
 1870). 
 (17.) A Presidential Republic with a National Assembly (Febru- 
 ary 13, 1871). 
 (18.) The Republican Constitution (March, 1875).
 
 COITSTITUTIOKS OF FE'Al^CE. 
 
 (1.) The Ancient regime. 
 
 (2.) The Constitution Francaise decreed by the ^National or Con- 
 stituent Assembly, and accepted by Louis XVI. This con- 
 stitution was monarchical and representative (September 30, 
 1791). 
 
 (3.) The Acte Constitutionnel presented to the nation by the Conven- 
 tion, and based on the sovereignty of the people and indi- 
 visibility of the Eepublic (June 24, 1793). 
 
 (4.) The Constitution of Year III., which created an executive Di- 
 rector and two councils (June 24, l795). 
 
 (5.) The Constitution of Year VIIL, naming three Consuls, a Con- 
 servative Senate, a Legislative Assembly, and a Tribunate 
 (December 24, 1799). 
 
 (6.) The Senatus-consulte organique de la Constitution (Year X.), 
 modifying the preceding, and appointing l^apoleon Consul 
 for life (August 2, 1802). 
 
 (7.) The Senatus-consulte organique de I'empire Frangaise (Year 
 XII.), conferring on ISTapoleon I. the title of Emperor (May 
 18, 1804). 
 
 (8.) The Charter Constitutionnelle granted by Louis XVIIL, and 
 abolished in 1830 (June 4, 1814). 
 
 (9.) The Ordinance of September 5th, reducing the number of depu- 
 ties from 459 to 260, and declaring that no article of the 
 charter should be revised (September 5, 1815). 
 (10.) The Constitution de la Republique (February 26, 1848). 
 (11.) The Constitution put forth by the President (January 14, 
 
 1852). 
 (12.) The same modified by a Senatus-consultum (E^ovember 7, 
 
 1852). 
 (13.) The Plebiscit of January 21, 22, 1852. 
 (14.) The Second Empire (December 2, 1852). 
 (15.) The Constitution de la Republique, 1871 and 1875.
 
 fee:n^cii parliaments. 
 
 The Legislative bodies of France, their nTimbers, powers, and qualifi- 
 cations, have been frequently changed. 
 
 (1.) Before the Revolution were the Provincial States, the IN'otables, 
 and the States-General. 
 
 The Assembly of I^otables was purely consultative, and consisted of 
 the royal princes, nobles, chief magistrates, and upper clergy. It was 
 convoked by the King; and the two most celebrated were those held at 
 Versailles, between ISTovember 6 and December 17, 1780, and between 
 February 22 and May 25, 1787. 
 
 The States-General was a deliberative assembly, consisting of depu- 
 ties from the nobility, clergy, and commonalty. The first was convoked 
 by Philippe IV., in 1302, and the last by Louis XVI., in 1789, the num- 
 ber of deputies being 1145. 
 
 (2.) The National Assembly. The clergy and nobles having re- 
 fused to sit in the same chamber with the commonalty, the deputies of 
 the tiers-etat withdrew, constituted themselves into a deliberative body, 
 and assmned the name of the National Assembly (June 17, 1789). 
 
 The Constituent Assembly was another name given to the first Na- 
 tional Assembly, because it took an oath never to separate till it had 
 given France a constitution. 
 
 (3.) The Legislative iVssembly succeeded the Constituent Assem- 
 bly, and contained 745 representatives, who were delegated to conform 
 the laws to the new constitution (October 1, 1791). 
 
 (4.) The National Convention was the governing body at the sup- 
 pression of royalty. It consisted of 721 members (September 21, 1792). 
 The number was reduced to 500 in Year III., and to 300 in Year VIII. 
 
 (5.) The Two Councils, one called the Conseil des Anciens and the 
 other the Conseil des Cinq-cents. The former, consisting of 250 mem- 
 bers, ratified or rejected the resolutions of the latter, which consisted of 
 500 members (September 23, 1795). 
 
 (6.) The Corps Legislatif and Tribunal were substituted by Na- 
 poleon for the Two Councils of the Directory. The former was com- 
 posed of 300 deputies, and the latter of 50. The Tribunal was a legisla- 
 tive Grand Jury, whose duty was to decide what laAvs and bills were to 
 be laid before the Deliberative body (December 24, 1799). 
 
 (7.) The Corps Legislatif and Conseil d'Etat, (1807).
 
 672 FEENCH PAELIAMENTS. 
 
 (8.) The Chamber of Deputies and Chamber of Peeks, like the 
 English Commons and Lords. The former consisted at first of 430 mem- 
 bers ; it was increased in " the monarchy of July " to 459 deputies, but 
 on September 5th, the number was reduced to 260 (June 4, 1814). 
 
 (9.) Another National Assembly of 900 members; every French- 
 man in France who had attained the age of twenty-one was an elector, 
 and every one who was twenty-five years old was eligible for a deputy. 
 This was the most democratic form of government ever devised. There 
 was but one single electoral assembly and that by universal suffrage 
 (May 4, 1848). 
 
 (10.) Another Coeps Legislatif of 750 deputies (1849). 
 
 (11.) The legislature of the Second Empire consisted of an Empeeok, 
 a Senate^ and a Legislative Chamber. The Senate consisted of 150 
 members chosen by the Emperor; each member had a stipend of $6000 
 a year. The deputies of the Corps Legislatif were elected for six years 
 by universal suffrage, and received a salary of $500 a month during the 
 time of session. In case of a dissolution of the assembly, it was necessary 
 to convoke a new one within six months. The number of members fluctu- 
 ated with the population, each department had one representative for 
 every 35,000 inhabitants. In 1869-70 the deputies numbered 283, and 
 the number of electors 10,104,023. There was besides a Council of 
 State composed of the Emperor, all members of the Imperial family, a 
 president, vice-president, and about 150 councillors. This was not a 
 legislative body, but partly justiciary and partly executive, acting as a 
 high court of appeal. In 1870 the Emperor resigned the right of pro- 
 posing the laws and made himself a constitutional emperor (January 14, 
 1852). 
 
 (12.) Another !N'ational Assembly with M. Thiers President. It 
 consisted nominally of 700 members, but as one member might represent 
 more than one constituency, the number did not exceed 670. After the 
 battle of Sedan (September 2, 1870) certain persons arrogated to them- 
 selves the offices of government under the title of The Goveenment of 
 the I^ational Defence, but they resigned their office to the National 
 Assembly, February 13, 1871. 
 
 The Government of Defence was succeeded by a Republic, with M. 
 Thiers as President and minister of war. In March, 1875, the Republi- 
 can Constitution was created, consisting of a President, a Senate, and a 
 Chamber of Deputies. The Senate and Chamber of Deputies, both 
 elective, meet in National Assembly for two purposes, either to elect a 
 new President septennially, or to introduce any new changes in the Con- 
 stitution, agreed on by both Chambers. The President is elected for seven 
 years. He appoints and dismisses ministers. The President may dis- 
 solve the Chamber with the Senate's consent. The Senate is elected for 
 nine years; one-third of its members retire every three years, but are 
 eligible for re-election by the vote of an electorate in the chief town of 
 each department. The Deputies to the Chamber are elected for four
 
 FRENCH PARLIAMENTS. 573 
 
 years hy universal suffrage. Parliament sits from the second Tuesday in 
 January, for at least five months in every year ; it may be summoned to 
 an extraordinary session by the chief of the state. The Parliament and 
 President together initiate all laws. No treaties of commerce or declara- 
 tions of war can be carried Avithout consent of Parliament. 
 Vol. II.— r
 
 THE RULERS OF FRANCE. 
 
 FIRST RACE OF KINGS. The Merovingians. 
 
 Name. 
 
 Pharamond ? 
 Clodion? 
 MEROVEE 
 Childeric I. . . 
 
 Clovis I 
 
 Childebert I. 
 Clodomir . . . 
 Thierry .... 
 Theodehert I. 
 Th^odebald . 
 
 7 Clotaire 
 
 8 Caribert .... 
 Gontran .... 
 
 Sijiebert . . 
 Childebert 
 
 * Theodebcrt II. 
 Thierry II. .. 
 
 9 Chilpdric I. . . 
 
 10 Clotaire II. . . 
 
 11 Dagobert I. . . 
 
 Aribert . . . 
 Les Rnis Faineants 
 12 Clovis II. . . 
 
 Sigebert II. . . 
 
 13 Clotaire III. . 
 
 14 Childeric II. . 
 Dagobcrt II. . 
 
 15 Thierry III. . 
 
 16 Clovis III. ... 
 
 17 Childebert III. 
 
 18 Dagobert III. 
 
 19 Chilperic II. . 
 
 20 Clotaire IV. . . 
 Chilperic rest'd 
 
 21 Thierry IV. . 
 Interregnum . 
 
 22 Childeric III. 
 
 Relationship. 
 
 Founder 
 
 Son of Merov^e . . 
 Son of Childeric I 
 Son of Clovis I. . . 
 
 ditto 
 
 ditto 
 
 Son of Thierry . . 
 Son of Theodebert 
 Son of Clovis .... 
 Son of Clotaire . . 
 
 ditto 
 
 ditto 
 
 Son of Sigebert . . 
 
 Son of Childebert 
 ditto 
 
 Son of Clotaire I. 
 
 Son of Chilperic I. 
 Son of Clotaire II. 
 
 ditto 
 
 Son of Danobert 
 
 ditto 
 
 Son of Clovis II . 
 
 ditto 
 
 Son of Sigebert II. . . 
 
 Son of Clovis II 
 
 Son of Thierry III. . . 
 
 ditto 
 
 Son of Childebert III. 
 Son of Childeric II. . 
 
 ditto 
 
 Son of Dagobert III. 
 Son of Chilperic II. 
 
 Kingdom. 
 
 Tournay 
 Tournay 
 Tournay 
 Paris . . . 
 
 Orleans 
 
 Metz 
 
 Metz 
 
 Metz 
 
 Soissons 
 
 Paris 
 
 Orleans and 
 
 Burgundy . . . 
 
 Austrasia 
 
 .\ustrasia 
 
 Burgundy also.. 
 
 Austrasia 
 
 Orleans and 
 
 Burgundy . . . 
 Austrasia also . . 
 
 Soissons 
 
 Paris also 
 
 Soissons 
 
 Austra.sia 
 
 Soissons also. . . 
 Aquitaine . . . . 
 
 Neustria and 
 Burgundy . . . 
 
 Austrasia 
 
 Neustria and 
 Burgundy . . . 
 
 Austrasia 
 
 Austrasia 
 
 Neustria 
 
 Date. 
 
 448-458 
 458-481 
 481-508 
 511-558 
 511-524 
 511-534 
 534-548 
 548-555 
 511-558 
 561-567 
 
 561-593 
 561-575 
 575-593 
 593-596 
 596-612 
 
 596-612 
 612-613 
 561-567 
 567-584 
 584-613 
 622-628 
 628-63S 
 628-631 
 
 638-656 
 638-656 
 
 656-670 
 656-670 
 ()73-679 
 673-679 
 
 Sole 
 
 Age 
 
 at 
 
 Death. 
 
 King. 
 
 
 50 
 
 
 44 
 
 508-511 
 
 45 
 
 
 60 
 
 
 28 
 
 
 39 
 
 558-561 
 
 04 
 
 
 48 
 
 
 70 
 
 
 51 
 
 
 26 
 
 
 26 
 
 
 27 
 
 
 26 
 
 
 26 
 
 
 47 
 
 613-628 
 
 45 
 
 628-638 
 
 36 
 
 628-638 
 
 36 
 
 
 23 
 
 
 IS 
 
 670-673 
 
 20 
 
 679-691 
 
 39 
 
 691-695 
 
 15 
 
 69.5-711 
 
 28 
 
 711-715 
 
 15 
 
 715-717 
 
 
 717-719 
 
 20 
 
 719-720 
 
 12 
 
 720-737 
 
 25 
 
 737-742 
 
 
 742-752 
 
 
 delhroned. 

 
 576 
 
 THE KULEKS OF FRANCE. 
 SECOND RACE OF KINGS. The Carlovingians. 
 
 Name. 
 
 Pepin of Heristal, duke 
 
 of Austrasia 678-714 
 
 Theodoald 714, 715 
 
 Charles Martel 715-741 
 
 Carloman {abdicates) . 741-746 
 
 23 Pepin the Short (fe 
 
 Bref) 746-752 
 
 Carloman and Charlemagne 
 
 24 Charlemagne alone 
 
 25 Louis I. the Bland (le Dibonnaire) 
 
 26 Charles II. (le Chauve) 
 
 27 Louis II. {le Bcgue) 
 
 28 Louis III. and Carloman II 
 
 29 Carloman II. alone 
 
 Charles le Gros (Regent) 
 
 30 Eudes or Odo {1st Capetian King) 
 
 31 Charles III. {le Simple) 
 
 32 Robert (2d Capetian King) . . . 
 
 33 Raoul (Father of the Capetians 
 
 34 Louis IV. (d'Outre-Mer) 
 
 35 Lothaire 
 
 36 Louis V. {le Faineant) 
 
 Relationship. 
 
 Grandson of Pepin. . . 
 Natural son of Pepin 
 Son of Chas. Martel . . 
 
 ditto 
 
 Son of Pepin le Bref. 
 Son of Charlemagne 
 
 Son of Louis I 
 
 Son of Charles II. . . 
 Son of Louis II 
 
 Grandson of Louis I. 
 
 Usurper 
 
 Son of Louis II 
 
 Son of Charles II. 
 
 Son of Louis IV. . 
 
 I Son of Lothaire . 
 
 Began to 
 
 Length 
 
 of 
 Reign. 
 
 Reign. 
 
 752 
 
 16 
 
 768 
 
 3 
 
 771 
 
 43 
 
 814 
 
 26 
 
 840 
 
 37 
 
 877 
 
 9 
 
 879 
 
 3 
 
 882 
 
 2 
 
 884 
 
 4 
 
 888 
 
 10 
 
 898 
 
 2.5 
 
 922-923 
 
 
 923 
 
 13 
 
 936 
 
 18 
 
 954 
 
 32 
 
 986 
 
 1 
 
 THIRD RACE OF KINGS. The Capetians. 
 
 1 HUGUES CAPET 
 
 2 Robert {le Pieux) 
 
 3 Henri I 
 
 4 PhiHppe I. {VAmoureux) 
 
 5 Louis VI. {le Gros) 
 
 6 Louis VII. {le Jeune). . . 
 
 7 Phihppe II. {Avguste). . 
 
 8 Louis VIII. {le Lion). . . 
 
 9 Louis IX. {St. Louis) . . . 
 
 Founder 
 
 Son of Hugues , 
 
 Son of Robert , 
 
 Son of Henri I 
 
 Son of PhiHppe I. . . 
 Son of Louis VI. ... 
 Son of Louis VII. . . 
 Son of Phihppe II. . 
 Son of Louis VIII. . 
 
 987 
 
 9 
 
 996 
 
 35 
 
 1031 
 
 29 
 
 1060 
 
 48 
 
 1108 
 
 29 
 
 1137 
 
 43 
 
 1180 
 
 43 
 
 1223 
 
 3 
 
 1226 
 
 44 
 
 I. From the Oldest Surviving Son of St. Louis. 
 
 10 PhiHppe III. {le Hardi) 1 Eldest Son ] 1270 | 15 
 
 Elder Branch of Philippe III. 
 
 11 Philippe IV. {le Bel) 
 
 12 Louis X. {le Hutin) . 
 
 13 Philippe V. {le Long). 
 
 14 Charles IV. {le Bel) . 
 
 Eld. Son of Louis IX. I 1285 
 
 Son of PhiHppe IV. . . 1314 
 
 ditto 1316 
 
 ditto 1322 
 
 Elder Branch of Philippe III., Charles de Valois. 
 
 15 Philippe VI. {de Valois) 
 
 16 Jean {le Bon) 
 
 17 Charles V. {le Sage) 
 
 Valois. 
 
 Cousin of Charles IV. 
 Son of Philippe VI. . . 
 Son of Jean 
 
 (1) Elder Branch op Charles V. (Valois-Hne) 
 
 29 
 2 
 6 
 6 
 
 18 Charles VI. {le Bien aimi) . . 
 
 19 Charles VII. {le Victorieux) 
 
 20 Louis XI 
 
 21 Charles VIII. {V Affable)... . 
 
 Eldest son of Chas. V 
 Son of Charles VI. . . . 
 Son of Charles VII. . . 
 Son of Louis XI 
 
 1328 
 
 22 
 
 1350 
 
 14 
 
 1364 
 
 16 
 
 1380 
 
 42 
 
 1422 
 
 39 
 
 1461 
 
 22 
 
 1483 
 
 15
 
 THE EULEES OF FRANCE. 
 
 6V7 
 
 (2) Cadet Branch of Charles V. (Elder Stock). 
 
 {That is, by Limis due d'Orleans, second son of Charles V.) 
 
 Valois-Orleans. 
 22 Louis XII. {le Plre du Peuple). . \ Gt. gds. of Chas. V. . . | 1498 \ 
 
 (3) Cadet Branch of Charles V. (Cadet Stock). 
 
 {TluU is, from Jean Comte WAngnuleine.) 
 
 17 
 
 Name. 
 
 Valois-Angouleme. 
 Relationship. 
 
 23 Francois I 
 
 24 Henri II. {le Belliqueux). 
 
 25 Franrois II 
 
 26 Charles IX 
 
 27 Henri III. (le Mignon) . 
 
 j Second cousin of } 
 
 / Louis XII ) 
 
 Son of Fran(,-ois I.. . 
 Son of Henri II 
 
 ditto 
 
 ditto 
 
 Began to 
 
 Length 
 
 of 
 Reign . 
 
 Reign. 
 
 1515 
 
 32 
 
 1549 
 
 12 
 
 1.559 
 
 1 
 
 1560 
 
 14 
 
 1574 
 
 15 
 
 II. From Robert de Bourbon, Fourth Son of St. Louis.* 
 
 Bourbons. 
 
 28 Henri IV. (le Grand) I Founder I 1589 
 
 29 Louis XIII. (le Juste) | Son of H enri IV | 
 
 Elder Branch of Louis XIII. 
 
 30 Louis XIV. (le Grand Monarquc) 
 
 31 Louis XV. (le Bien airne) 
 
 32 Louis XVI. (le Martyr) 
 
 33 Louis XVII. (never reigned) .... 
 
 Son of Louis XIII. . 
 G.gds. of Loui.s XIV. 
 G'dson of Louis XV. 
 Son of Louis XVI. . . 
 
 Republic. 
 
 Republic proclaimed, September 21st 
 
 Convention 
 
 Directoire 
 
 Consulate , 
 
 Empire. 
 
 34 NAPOLEON I | 1804 
 
 Bourbons. 
 
 35 Louis XVIII. (le Desire) brother of Louis XVI | 1814 
 
 Empire. 
 
 Empire Restored, from March 20th to June 24tli 
 Napoleon II. (never reigned) 
 
 18L5 
 
 I 10 
 
 10 
 
 100 
 
 Bourbons. 
 
 36 Charles X., brother of Lou^s XVIII. and Louis XVI | 1824 | 6 
 
 Bourbon Revolution of 1830. 
 
 Cadet Branch of Louis XIII. 
 
 {Thai I'.s', /com Philippe dttc d'Orleans, younger brother nf Louis XIV.) 
 
 37 Louis-Philippe, King of the Barricades (le Roi Citoyen) . . \ 1830 | 18 
 
 Empire Restored 
 
 38 NAPOLEON III., Nephew of Napoleon I., born 1808, I 1 
 
 died 1873.. 18.52 18 
 
 Age 
 
 at 
 
 Death. 
 
 53 
 
 40 
 16 
 24 
 38 
 
 1589 
 
 21 
 
 57 
 
 1610 
 
 33 
 
 42 
 
 1643 
 
 72 
 
 77 
 
 1715 
 
 59 
 
 64 
 
 1774 
 
 19 
 
 39 
 10 
 
 1792 
 
 12 
 
 
 1792 
 
 2 
 
 
 1794 
 1799 
 
 5 
 5 
 
 
 52 
 
 69 
 
 days 
 
 73 
 
 77 
 
 64 
 
 * Antoine do Boiirhnn. a linoal desrendant of Robert, married Marguerite, a Bister ol Franpois I.
 
 578 
 
 THE EULEKS OF FRANCE 
 
 Republic Restored. 
 Name. 
 
 Adolphe Thiers, president, born 1797 
 
 Marshal MacMahon, president, born 1808 
 
 Jules Grevy, president, born 1813 
 
 M. Carnot, president, born 1837 (assassinated) 
 
 Casimir-Perier 
 
 Felix Faure 
 
 Emile Loubet 
 
 Began to 
 Reign. 
 
 Length 
 
 of 
 Reign . 
 
 Age 
 
 at 
 
 Death 
 
 1871 
 
 2 
 
 80 
 
 1873 
 
 5 
 
 85 
 
 1879 
 
 8 
 
 78 
 
 1887 
 
 7 
 
 50 
 
 1894 
 
 1 
 
 
 1895 
 
 4 
 
 
 1899 
 

 
 INDEX. 
 
 Abbate, butchery at the, 302. 
 
 Abrantes (Duchess of), statement of, 400. 
 
 Allies, condition and force of the, 295 ; van- 
 quished at Valmy, 30G. 
 
 American War, its influence upon France, CI. 
 
 Amnesty, a general, obtained by Necker, 139 ; 
 opposed by Mirabeau, 139. 
 
 Anecdote of Verginaud in the prison, 354. 
 
 Anne (of Austria), her regency, 27. 
 
 Anniversary of destruction of Bastille, prepara- 
 tion for the, 181. 
 
 Aristocracy, destroyed by universal education, 
 46; of wealth warred against, 331. 
 
 Arms taken by the ])eople, 119. 
 
 Army, desertion of tiie officers of the, 241; (of 
 the interior), formation of the, 412. 
 
 Arrangement between king and exiled Parlia- 
 ment, 69. 
 
 Arrest of the royal family in their flight, 202. 
 
 Assembly (of Notables) meet and overthrow Ca- 
 lonne, 67 ; dissolution of the, 68 ; National, 
 the name chosen, 91 ; hall of the, closed, 93 ; 
 shut out of tennis-court, 96 ; ordered by the 
 king to dissolve, 98; good advice of, to the 
 people, 105 ; petition to the, for a removal of 
 the foreign troops, 112; declares itself perma- 
 nent, 113; reconciliation of, to the king, 125; 
 recognized government of France, 127; three 
 parties in the, 144; Marat's opinion of the, 
 146; members of the, threatened, 149; change 
 of name, 167; (Constituent), vote themselves 
 the Church treasures, 1 70 ; resolve of, con- 
 cerning the king's escape, 210; preparations 
 for defense by the, 211; address of, to the 
 French nation, 215; threatened by Marquis 
 Bouille', 222 ; decree of, declaring journey of 
 the king faultless, 224 ; influence of the, de- 
 clining, 226 ; denounced as traitors, 226 ; re- 
 ceives the mandate of the Jacobins, 228 ; Con- 
 stitution completed by the, 230 ; decree of, 
 dissolving itself, 234 ; dissolution of the, 235 ; 
 (Legislative), sends forces to the frontier, 247 ; 
 sends the king's troops to the frontier, 276 ; 
 unpopularity of, 280; the king seeks refuge 
 with the, 285; the, stormed by the mob, 2S6; 
 decrees the suspension of tiie king, 289; over- 
 awed by the Jacobins, 295; decree of, that 
 two thirds of their own number should be 
 elected to the new legislative bodies, 403. 
 Sec also Convkntion. 
 
 Assignats, how secured,. 170. 
 
 Augereau, bloodless nctory of, 423. 
 
 Austria, reply of, to the French embassador, 
 245; Francis II. ascends the throne of, 246; 
 demands of, that France should restore des- 
 potic power, 249. 
 
 Autun (Bishop of), answer of Napoleon to the, 
 231. 
 
 Bagatelle, pleasure-house of the Count d'Artois, 
 72. 
 
 Bailly (Mons.), attempt to eject him from As- 
 sembly, 101 ; resigns presidency of the As- 
 sembly, 105 ; testimony of, regarding the 
 king. 111; resigns his post as Mayor of Paris, 
 243 ; execution of, 362. 
 
 Banishment of Parliament to Troyes, 69 ; re- 
 sult of, in Paris, 69. 
 
 Bank, establishment of a, 36. 
 
 Bankruptcy in France, 36; the national, de- 
 scribed, 63 ; a partial, 76. 
 
 Barnave, character of, 216; influence of con- 
 versation of, on queen, 217; speech of, on 
 governments, 225 ; his last interview with the 
 queen, 252. 
 
 Baronial times, France during the, 22. 
 
 Barras, assumes the command of the National 
 Guard, 384 ; nominates Napoleon as com- 
 mander of the army, 404. 
 
 Barry (Madam du), character of, 43. 
 
 Bastille, storming of the, decided upon, 118 ; at- 
 tack on the, 120; surrendered by its garri- 
 son, 121; garrisoned by the people, 123; in- 
 fluence of the fall of, upon the court, 123; 
 the, ordered to be demolished, 1 30 ; descrip- 
 tion of the, 53 ; anniversary of destruction of, 
 182; site of the, converted into a ball-room, 
 186. 
 
 Beaurepaire (General), suicide of, 299. 
 
 Bed of justice, the custom, 68. 
 
 Beggary now becoming universal, 169. 
 
 Bensenval exhorts De Latiney to be firm, 120. 
 
 Bcrthicr, character of, 1,'?."); death of, 137. 
 
 Bertrand dc Moleville, interview of, with the 
 king, 236. 
 
 Bible, how used by the Pajiists, 48 ; reason cf 
 its rejection by corrupt men, 49. 
 
 Bill of Kiglits and Constitution, 145. 
 
 Billaud Varennes, sjieech of, .^92. 
 
 Birth, in the minds of the nol)ility, sujjcrior even 
 to genius, 45. 
 
 Bohemia, war declared against, by France, 249.
 
 580 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Boissy d'Anglas, heroism of, 400, 
 
 Bonaparte (Napoleon), his boyhood, 76 ; elo- 
 quence of, 230; opinion of, touching disci- 
 pline of troops, 231 ; confers the cross of the 
 Legion of Honor upon a tragedian, 178; re- 
 marks of, upon the riot, 301 ; his first action 
 in the Revolution, 374 ; intrusted with the 
 defense of Paris, 405 ; receives the thanks of 
 the Convention, 409 ; his support of the Di- 
 rectory, 413; ill health of, 420; letter of, to 
 Archduke Charles, 421 ; reply to the same, 
 422 ; return of, to Paris, 426 ; return of, from 
 Egypt, 429. 
 
 Bouille' (Marquis de), plans and executes the 
 escape of the royal family, 196; attempt of, 
 to rescue the king, 209 ; letter of, to the As- 
 sembly, 222. 
 
 Bourrienne, statement of, in regard to the mob 
 of 20th of June, 260, 
 
 Bread, scarcity of, 152. 
 
 Bre'ze, his attempt to enforce orders of the king, 
 99 ; receives orders not to neglect the Assem- 
 hly, 100. 
 
 Brienne (Archbishop), succeeds Calonne, 67 ; 
 his measure for the preservation of the na- 
 tional credit, 68 ; dissolves the Assembly of 
 Notables, 68 ; his fall, 68 ; his perplexity, 73 ; 
 determines to break down Parliament, 73 ; 
 his plan, 73 ; desires Necker to take control- 
 lership of finances, 76 ; resigns and goes to 
 Italy, 77. 
 
 Brissot (Mons.), speech of, against the king, 270, 
 
 Broglie (Marshal) commands in Versailles, 103 ; 
 letter of, to Prince of Conde, 111. 
 
 Brunswick (Duke of), proclamation of the, 279. 
 
 Burke (Edmund), "Reflections" by, 187; his 
 speech on the imprisonment of La Payette, 
 298, 
 
 Buzot, death of, 362. 
 
 Caesar, subjugation of Gaul by, 1 7. 
 
 Calonne, his appointment as minister of finance, 
 
 65; his measures, popularity, and success, 
 
 65 ; recommends an assembly of notables, 66 ; 
 
 his banishment from office, 67. 
 Camille Desmoulins. See Desmoulins. 
 Campan (Madame), her account of the queen's 
 
 troubles, 72 ; statement of, concerning the 
 
 king, 238. 
 Capetian dynasty, extent of the, 24. 
 Carlovingian dynasty (the), 20; end of the, 24. 
 Carlyle, statement of, 402, 
 Carmelites, butchery at the, 302, 
 Carnot, energy of, in organizing armies, 341 ; 
 
 purity of, 420; banishment of, 424. 
 Carrier, horrible brutality of, 342. 
 Catalan (Monsieur), in)i)risonment of, in the 
 
 Bastille, 56. 
 Catherine (of Russia), letter of, to Lcojiold, 245. 
 Catholics incited by the ecclesiastics against tlie 
 
 Protestants, 174. 
 
 Ce'cile Regnault arrested on suspicion of being 
 an assassin, 376. 
 
 Champagne (Count of), generosity of the, 23. 
 
 Champs de Mai, change of the name of Champs 
 de Mars to, 20. 
 
 Champs de Mars, meetings on the, 19. 
 
 Charette, arrest and execution of, 413. 
 
 Charlemagne, policy of the government of, 20 ; 
 Christianity during the reign of, 21. 
 
 Charles X. &ee D'Artois. 
 
 Charles Martel, power and death of, 20. 
 
 Charlotte Corday, character of, 337 ; assassin- 
 ates Marat, 338 ; execution of, 339. 
 
 Chateauroux (Duchess of), death of, 39. 
 
 Chatelet, convicts of, driven into cells by the 
 people, 115. 
 
 Choiseul (Duke de), boldness of, 205. 
 
 Christianity, corruptions of the Catholic Church 
 imputed to, 47; confounded with its corrup- 
 tions, 47 ; the corner-stone of democracy, 48 ; 
 two classes of assailants, 49 ; decrees advo- 
 cating the existence of the Suj)reme Being, 
 375; state of, during Charlemagne's reign, 
 21 ; renunciation of, 360. See also Sopremb 
 Being. 
 
 Church, decrepitude of the, invites attack, 48 ; 
 its protection of vice in high places, 48 ; the, 
 deprived of its property by the vote of the 
 Assembly, 170; members of the, deprived of 
 their position for refusing to take the oath, 
 191 ; the, affected by the Constitution, 242. 
 
 Cispadane Republic, the fii'st Assembly of the, 
 417. 
 
 Citizens of Paris placed under surveillance, 296. 
 
 Citizens' Guard organized, 1 1 6. See also Guard. 
 
 Clergy, their oj)position to Calonne's measures, 
 67 ; character of the, 23 ; endeavor of the, to 
 use religion against the Revolution, 173 ; 
 vast wealth of the, 170. 
 
 Clermont, danger of the king at, 200. 
 
 Clery, his faithful devotion to the royal family, 
 313; shrewd expedient of, to ascertain news, 
 314. 
 
 Clovis, character of, illustrated, 18; the reign 
 of, 19. 
 
 Coblentz, preparations for war at, 241. 
 
 Cockade of the Revolution chosen, 117; ac- 
 cepted by Louis XVI., 130; the queen's idea 
 of its meaning, 132 ; the tricolor, the uniform 
 of France, 138. 
 
 Committee of Public Safety, establishment of 
 the, 361. 
 
 Commune of Paris, efforts of the, to break up 
 the conspiracy of the Royalists, 295. 
 
 "Compte Rendu au Roi," effect of the ]iublica- 
 tion of, 63. 
 
 Condorcet, death ff, 362, 
 
 Cons])iracy of nobles to overturn Assembly, 102. 
 
 Constitution, assent of tlie king to the, 232 ; no- 
 tice of the, by the European powers, 240 ; ac- 
 cej)ted by the king, 175; and Bill of Rights,
 
 INDEX. 
 
 581 
 
 145 ; a new Jacobin, enacted, 337 ; proclama- 
 tion of the, '2:y.i ■ presentation of the, to the 
 king, 231 ; forniatiun of, by the Assembly, 
 230, 
 
 Constitutional l)arty, cause of the decline of the, 
 268. 
 
 Convention (National), the, declares war against 
 England, 331 ; liberal laws esacted by the, 
 358 ; attack on the, by Henriot, 384 ; stormy 
 meeting at the, between the Jacobins and 
 Thermidorians, 393 ; decrees of, against the 
 insurrection, 400 ; session of the, 409 ; re- 
 marks of Thiers on the, 410; elections for 
 the, 508 ; spirit of tho, 509. 
 
 Corn-dealers, attack upon the, 134. 
 
 Council (of the Ancients), formation of the, 403; 
 (of Five Hundred), the, 403. 
 
 Count d'Artois (Charles X.) placed in command 
 of an army from England, 412; letter of Na- 
 poleon to, 421 ; his reply, 422. 
 
 Court, extravagance of the, 49 ; haste of, to 
 leave Versailles, 58 ; more feared by the ])eo- 
 ple than tho Parliament, 71 ; the, driven to 
 the importation of Swiss troops, 104; how 
 affected by cajiture of the Bastille, 123; em- 
 ploys emissaries to buy up and destroy the 
 bread, 152; its plans, 150; exultation of, at 
 the arrival of the Flanders regiment, 157; 
 the, prosecutes Mirabeaii and the Duke of 
 Orleans, 188. 
 
 Courtiers' reasons for unbelief, 49. 
 
 Credit, public, condition of, in France at this 
 time, G5. 
 
 Crown, policy of the officers of the, in keeping 
 the nobles poor, 4G; salary of the, fixed, 
 177. 
 
 Currency, recoining of the, 35. 
 
 D'Agoust (Captain) turns the Parliament of 
 Paris into the street, 75. 
 
 D'Aguillon (Duke), services of the, 139. 
 
 D'Artois (Count), accused of adultery with the 
 queen, 72. 
 
 D'Aumont (Duke), defense of, by La Fayette, 
 211. 
 
 D'Espremcnil obtains the edict establishing the 
 courts, 73 ; discovers Brienne's plan to the 
 Parliament, 74. 
 
 D'Estaing (Admiral), commander of the Na- 
 tional Guards of Versailles, 15G; letter of, to 
 Marie Antoinette, 157. 
 
 Danton appointed minister of justice, 290; re- 
 markable prediction of, to Louis Philii)iie, 
 307 ; arrested and executed, 3fiG. 
 
 Dauphin, imprisonment of the, 351 ; death of 
 the, 412. 
 
 De Launey, conduct of, at the storming of the 
 Bastille, 119; attem]its tc blow up the Bas- 
 tille, 121 ; death ol, 'l22. 
 
 De Tocquevillc, his reasons for the bad odor of 
 Christianity, 48 ; explanation of, concerning 
 
 E 
 
 the blindness of the ruling classes to their 
 danger, 49. 
 
 Death, how regarded by revolutionary writers, 
 47. 
 
 Debts of France at the death of Louis XIV.. 35. 
 
 Decisions (judicial), bought and sold, 49. 
 
 Declaration of Louis XVI. of the object of his 
 leaving Paris, 221. 
 
 Decree establishing the courts a perfect failure, 
 75, 7G. 
 
 Deseze, appeal of, for the king, 324. 
 
 Desmoulins (Camille), incites to rebellion, 108; 
 his oratory, 149; speech of, on the ten dollar 
 decree, 1 72 ; interview of, with La Fayette, 
 213; remorse of, on the condemnation of the 
 Girondists, 354 ; letter of, to his wife, 3G8 ; 
 terror of, at the prospect of death, 371 ; exe- 
 cution of, 372. 
 
 Desmoulins (Lucile), letter of, to Robespierre, 
 3G8; heroism and condemnation of, 371 ; ex- 
 ecution of, 373. 
 
 Desodoards, his description of the state of Par- 
 Is, 358. 
 
 Despotism of the Court more oppressive than 
 that of the Parliament, 71. 
 
 Dessault, his ^^ crime" and sufferings, 55; years 
 of, in ])rison, 50. 
 
 Diamond Necklace- the, 72. 
 
 Diderot, his connection with the "Encyclope- 
 dia," 48; commences by attacking Christian- 
 ity, 48 ; imprisonment of, 48. 
 
 Directory, formation of the, 411; Napoleon's 
 agency in supj)orting the, 413; message of 
 the, 419; the two parties in the, 420. 
 
 Drouet discovers the king, 200 ; arrests the roy- 
 al family at Varennes, 201. 
 
 Dubois, character of, 36. 
 
 Duke of Orleans regent, 34 ; character of the 
 regencj', 35 ; death of the, 36 ; insult of, at 
 the Tuileries, 240. 
 
 Dumont, description of aftairs by, 114; account 
 of Mirabcau's influence, 149. 
 
 Dumouriez, interview of, with the queen, 247; 
 entreats the king to sanction the decree of the 
 Assembly, 253 ; his traitorous surrender of 
 fortresses to the Austrians, 333 ; retires to 
 Switzerland, 334. 
 
 Ecclesiastics superseded in office for refusing the 
 oath, 191. 
 
 Edgeworth (Monsieur), visits the king at the 
 Temple, 325. 
 
 Edict of Nantes, proclamation of, by Henry IV., 
 31 ; revocation of, by Louis XIV., 31. 
 
 Edicts issued against Protestants by Louis 
 XIV., 29. 
 
 Education removes the superiority of the he- 
 reditary nobility, 46. 
 
 Electors of Paris solicit the organization of Cit- 
 izens' Guard, 112; dcjiutation of, 115; by 
 their acts become a new government, 117. 
 
 E
 
 582 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Elizabeth (Madame, sister of the queen), exe- 
 cution of, 351. 
 
 England, war declared against, by the National 
 Convention, 331 ; determination of, to crush 
 the Republic, 39G ; energy of, in prosecuting 
 the war against France, 402 ; expedition from, 
 to rouse the Royalists, 411; her price for 
 peace, 418. 
 
 Enthusiasm in France awakened by American 
 Revolution, 60. 
 
 Equality, universal, origin of inquiry into, 47. 
 
 Etiquette, want of, on the part of the Assembly 
 toward the king, 238. 
 
 Europe, reply of the powers of, to the French 
 Constitution, 240. 
 
 Executions, rapid increase of, 377. 
 
 Extravagance of Court, effect of, on nation, 49. 
 
 Famine in Paris, 398. 
 
 Fanaticism excited by the ecclesiastics, 174. 
 
 Fauchet (Abbe), sermon of, 144. 
 
 Favorites of the king accustomed to obtain blank 
 and sealed lettres de cachet, 53. 
 
 Favrus (Marquis of), accused of attempt to as- 
 sassinate La Fayette and Bailly, 175 ; trial 
 and sentence of, 179. 
 
 Fersen (Count), aids the royal family in their 
 flight, 199. 
 
 Feudal system, rise of the, from the remains of 
 Charlemagne's empire, 22 ; period of the, 24 ; 
 state of society to which it is adapted, 46; 
 like darkness before light, is dispersed by pop- 
 ular intelligence, 46; its decline, 46; privi- 
 leges of the, surrendered, 140. 
 
 Field of Mars, assemblage of the people at the, 
 301. 
 
 Flesselles (Mayor), cheats the people, 118 ; death 
 of, 122. 
 
 Fleurus, battle of, 391 
 
 Food, want of, begins to be felt, 133. 
 
 Foulon, account of, 1 35 ; death of, 136. 
 
 Fouquier Tinville, fall of, 391. 
 
 France, origin of the name of, 18; condition of, 
 during reign of Louis XIV., 34 ; the sources 
 of peril of, 264 ; the three parties in, 267 ; in- 
 vaded by the Allies in 1792, 276; utter con- 
 fusion in, 428. 
 
 Francis II. ascends the throne of Austria, 246. 
 
 Fran9ois, a baker, hung by the mob, 167. 
 
 Franklin (Benjamin), effect of his simplicity 
 upon the French, 61. 
 
 Fraternity the watchword of the masses, 47; 
 this principle the soul of the Revolution, 47. 
 
 Frederick II. of Prussia, friendship of, for Vol- 
 taire, 49. 
 
 Free institutions supported by education, 46. 
 
 French Academy established, 27. 
 
 Gamin, master blacksmith to the king, 65 ; ac- 
 count by, of the king's character, 65. 
 Garde du Corps, conflict of, with the people, 161. 
 
 Gaul, its appearance in ancient times, 17 ; sub- 
 jugation of, by Caesar, 17 ; the home of war 
 and tumult, 18. 
 
 Generosity of the king and others, 152. 
 
 Genius, inability of, to efface ignoble birth, 45. 
 
 Girondists, cause of the name of, 246 ; joy of 
 the, on the Republic being proclaimed, 309 ; 
 plot to assassinate the, 332 ; the, arrested, 
 337 ; brought before the Revolutionary tri- 
 bunal, 353 ; condemnation of the, 354 ; last 
 supper of the, 355 ; execution of the, 356. 
 
 Goguelat (M. de), shot by the National Guard, 
 206. 
 
 "Golden age of kings," the, 29. 
 
 Government, its desire to keep the people poor, 
 50 ; the, of the National Assembly establish- 
 ed, 127. 
 
 Crenelle, attack on the camp at, 417. 
 
 Grenoble, Parliament at, refuses to surrender to 
 the lettres de cac/iet, 75. 
 
 Guard, National, formed and placed under com- 
 mand, 126. 
 
 Guards, the French, protect the people, 110; 
 refuse to accept /mrc/o??, 128. 
 
 Guillotin (Dr.), proposes the use of his instru- 
 ment, 173. 
 
 Gustavus III. (of Sweden), assassination of, 
 247. 
 
 Hebert, the leader in Paris, 364 ; downfall and 
 
 death of, 365. 
 Hcbcrtists, execution of the, 365. 
 Henriot, arrest of, 383. 
 Henry (of Bourbon), death of, 27. 
 Henry III., the last of the Valois, death of, 
 
 27. 
 Henry IV. ascends the throne, 27; character 
 
 of his reign, 27; death of, 27. 
 Holland, the Allies driven from, 394. 
 Hugh Capet seizes the French throne, 24. 
 Hungary, war declared against, by France, 249. 
 
 Imprisonment, horrors of, in the Bastille, 54. 
 
 Infidel writers during reign of Louis XV., 42. 
 
 Infidelity becomes the fashion, and why, 48. 
 
 Insult to the deputies of the people, 86. 
 
 Insurrection, cause of failure of the, 46 ; reason 
 for, 46 ; planned against the National Con- 
 vention, 400. 
 
 Intellect, if of the lower class, thought lightly of, 
 45. 
 
 Invasion, the fear of, arms France, 142. 
 
 Ireland, hatred of the people of, against En- 
 gland, 418; expedition to, 419. 
 
 Iron chest, building of the, 252. 
 
 Isnard (Monsieur), speech of, on the Austrian 
 war, 249. 
 
 Italian campaign, the victories of the, 421. 
 
 Italy, the campaign in, 415. 
 
 Jacobin Club, demand of, for the deposition of
 
 INDEX, 
 
 583 
 
 the kinp, 227 ; present their mandate to the 
 Assembly, 228 ; their, resolve to dethrone the 
 king, 277 ; beeome the dominant power in 
 France, 2!)5 ; club-house of the, closed, 394, 
 
 Jacobins, origin of the, 75 ; arrive at the sum- 
 mit of their power, 214 ; the intiuence of the, 
 225. 
 
 Jacquerie, insurrection of the, 26. 
 
 Jefferson (Thomas), opinion of, on the condition 
 of the French, 52 ; letter of, to Mr. Jay, on 
 the States -General, 81; probably aided in 
 composition of Bill of Rights, 107; assists in 
 preparing the Ueclaration of Kights, 147 ; re- 
 marks of, upon the questions of tiie day, 154 ; 
 opinion of, concerning Louis XVI., 329. 
 
 Jemappes, battle of, 310. 
 
 Jeunesse Dore'e, rise of the band of, 390. 
 
 Joseph II. of Austria, rejjly of, upon the sub- 
 ject of the American War of Independence, 
 61. 
 
 Josephine Beauharnais imprisoned in Paris, 
 378. 
 
 Judges bought their offices and sold their deci- 
 sions, 49. 
 
 King. See Louis XVL 
 
 Kleber, victories of, on the Upper Rhine, 395. 
 
 Laclos, editor of the Jacobin Journal, 225. 
 
 La Fayette (Marquis de), advocates the Amer- 
 ican War of Independence, 01 ; his boldness 
 at the Assembly of Notables, 67 ; joins the 
 National Assembly, 101 ; vice-president of 
 National Assembly, 106 ; presents the As- 
 sembly with the Bill of Rights, 107; made 
 commander of the National Guard, 126; in- 
 forms the Parisians of the king's speech, 126; 
 attempt of, to save Foulon, 136; makes the 
 Declaration of Rights, 147; danger of, 150; 
 popularity of, declines, 155; his knowledge 
 of the royalist plots, 156; saves the palace 
 from destruction, 161 ; presents atul recon- 
 ciles the queen to the ]ieople, 103; ensui-es 
 the safety of the queen's guard, 163 ; confi- 
 dence of, in the people, 183; takes the oath 
 of fidelity, 183; accused by the people of 
 treason, 210; issues an order for arrest of the 
 king, 210; assumption of power by, 210; 
 boldness of, in rescuing d'Aumont, 211; in- 
 terview of, with Desmoulins, 213; insult to, 
 by the queen, 220 ; unpopularity of, 226 ; dis- 
 persion of the Jacobin mob by, 228 ; aversion 
 of the queen toward, 240 ; resigns the com- 
 mand of the National Guard, 243 ; his speech 
 to the Assembly on the outrages of 20th of 
 June, 263 ; burned in effigy, 264 ; his plan 
 for saving the king, 271 ; calumniated by or- 
 ders of the queen, 273 ; denounced as a trai- 
 tor, 280 ; arrested and imprisoned at Olmutz, 
 , 297^ 
 
 La Force, prison of, broken open, 115, 
 
 La Perousc, instructions for his voyage framed, 
 58. 
 
 La Vendee, rise of the Royalists in, 332 ; insur- 
 rection at, crushed, 342 ; horrible executions 
 in, 343. 
 
 Lamballc (Princess), trial and execution of, 303, 
 
 Lamottc, Comtesse, 72. 
 
 Land, projjortion owned by the tax-payers, 50 ; 
 difficulty of jiurchasing, 52. 
 
 Latude, his imprisonment, 56 ; account of his 
 captivity, 57. 
 
 Launey (M. de), character of, 118. 
 
 Lebrun appointed minister of foreign affairs, 
 290. 
 
 Lefebvre (Abbe'), distributes powder to the peo- 
 ple, 117. 
 
 Legendre, attempt of, to save Danton, 367. 
 
 Legislative Assembly, formation of the, 237 ; 
 measures of the, against the non-conforming 
 priests, 243. See also Assembly. 
 
 Legislature, how should it be constituted ? 148, 
 
 Leopold, death of, 246. See also Austria. 
 
 Lepelletier, assassination of, 330. 
 
 Letters, anon}Tnous, to Louis XV., 41 ; men of, 
 regarded as curiosities, 46. 
 
 Lettres de cachet, blank, filled up by the king's 
 favorites, 53 ; number issued during the reign 
 of Louis XV., 55; ease with which they were 
 obtained, 55 ; abolished by the National As- 
 sembly, 236. 
 
 Liancourt (Duke of), midnight interview of, 
 with the king, 123. 
 
 Libertines still infidels, but not openly, 47. 
 
 Literature and art, state of, during reign of 
 Louis XIV., 33. 
 
 Loan, one hundred millions of dollars on peo- 
 ple alone, 69. 
 
 Louis Cajiet. See Lons XVI. 
 
 Louis Philippe, poverty cf, 334; prediction of 
 Danton to, 507. 
 
 Louis XIII., his reign, 27. 
 
 Louis XIV., death of, 33; state of society dar- 
 ing his reign, 25 ; character of, 29. 
 
 Louis XV., marriage of, 38; length of the reign 
 of, 38;. political reasons of, for countenancing 
 Voltaire, 49 ; one hundred and fifty thousand 
 kttres de cachet during the reign of, 55 ; 
 death of, 57. 
 
 Louis XVI., absolute power of, 53; character 
 of, 58 ; commencement of, as king, 58 ; ap- 
 pointment of his ministers, 59 ; love of, for 
 blacksmiths' work, 65 ; orders Parliament to 
 register decree taxing all lands alike, 68 ; 
 banishes Parliament to Troves, 69 ; banishes 
 the Duke d'Orleans, 70; decrees an equal 
 representation in States-General, 79 ; orders 
 Bre'ze not to molest the National Assembly, 
 100; character of, by M. Bailly, 111; mid- 
 night interview of Duke of Liancourt with, 
 123; visits and explains himself to the As- 
 sembly, 124; conducted in triumph to the
 
 '584 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 palace, 125; his loss of power, 127; recalls 
 Necker, 128; visits the Parisians, 129; ac- 
 cepts the acts of the people, 130; accepts the 
 tricolored cockade, 130 ; reception of, by the 
 French people, 131 ; gives money to the poor, 
 133 ; decides to obey the people, 162 ; walks 
 alone among the people, 166; rumors of at- 
 tempts to carry off, 175 ; visit of, to the As- 
 sembly, 175 ; speech of, at the Assembly, 176 ; 
 takes the oath to the people, 184; effect of 
 the death of Mirabeau upon, 195 ; intentions 
 of, relating to flight, 196; surrounded by the 
 National Guards, 197; flight of, 198; discov- 
 ered by Drouet, 200 ; arrested at Varennes, 
 201 ; appearance of, after arrest, 204 ; influ- 
 ence of the appearance of, 207 ; carried back 
 to Paris, 208 ; prophetical exclamation of, 
 208 ; injudicious memorial of, 212 ; return of, 
 to Paris from Varennes, 215; entrance of, 
 into Paris, 218; offers a declaration of the 
 object of his leaving Paris, 221 ; presentation 
 of the Constitution to, 231 ; cordial assent of, 
 to the Constitution, 232 ; takes the oath to 
 support the Constitution, 232 ; reception of, 
 by the Assembly, 234 ; experience of, in the 
 variableness of the mob, 234 ; remarks of, to 
 Bertrand de Moleville, 236 ; the Assembly 
 addressed by, 238 ; proclamation of, to the 
 emigrants at Coblentz, 242 ; letter of, to Louis 
 Stanislas Xavier, 242 ; his protection of the 
 non-conforming priests, 243 ; speech of, to the 
 Assembly, 244 ; declares war against Austria, 
 246 ; speech of, to the Assembly on the de- 
 mands of Austria, 249 ; deplorable dejection 
 of, 254 ; character of, described by the queen, 
 267; plans for the escape of, 271; his silk 
 breast-plate, 275 ; petitions for his dethrone- 
 ment, 280 ; insulted in the garden, 283 ; takes 
 refuge with the National Assembly, 285 ; sus- 
 pended by the National Assembh', 289 ; a 
 prisoner, 292 ; taken to the Temple, 294 ; in- 
 sults of, at the Temple, 311 ; summoned to ap- 
 pear before the Revolutionary Tribunal, 315 ; 
 trial of, 316; anecdote concerning, 317; in- 
 formed of his condemnation, 324 ; his last in- 
 ten'iew with his family, 325 ; his bequests, 
 826 ; his execution, 329. 
 
 Louis XVIL See DArrPHiN. 
 
 Louis XVIII. (Count of Provence), reply of, to 
 the letter of the king to, 242. 
 
 Lourtalot (Monsieur), incites to the rescue of 
 the soldiers, 104. 
 
 Lyons captured by the Eevolutionists, 342 ; ris- 
 ing of the Royalists at, 398. 
 
 Maillard, his judicial labors at the prison of Ab- 
 
 baye, 303. 
 Mailly (Madame de), favorite of Louis XV., 38. 
 Malesherbos, execution of, 360. 
 Marat (Jean Paul), his advice to the people, 
 
 105 ; opinion of, concerning National Assem- 
 
 bly, 146; desires to abrogate the death pen- 
 alty, 173; speech of, to the Jacobin Club, 
 214; trial and victory of, 335; assassination 
 of, 338 ; bust of, thrown into the mud, 398. 
 
 Marceau, death of, 414. 
 
 Maria, wife of Louis XV., 38. 
 
 Maria Theresa a prisoner, 292 ; taken to the 
 Temple, 294 ; liberation of, 351 ; marriage 
 and death of, 352. 
 
 Marie Antoinette, education of, 58; her posi- 
 tion, 71 ; at Trianon, her troubles, 72 ; ac- 
 cused of adultery with the Count d'Artois, 
 72 ; involved with Comtesse Lamotte in the 
 public estimation, 72 ; intrusts her son to the 
 nobility, 100 ; effect of seeing the tricolor 
 worn by the king, 132; takes the oath of 
 fidelity, 185; plans the escape of the king, 
 197; flight of, 198, 199; arrested at Va- 
 rennes, 201 ; indignation of, at the disrespect 
 shown to the king, 203 ; pleads with the may- 
 or's wife, 206 ; insult of, to La Fayette, 220 ; 
 respect of, for popular rights, 234; anguish 
 of, at the disrespect shown the king, 238 ; her 
 hatred of La Fayette, 240 ; attempt to assas- 
 sinate, 266 ; her opinion of the king's char- 
 acter, 267 ; adventures of, in the mob of 20th 
 of June, 287 ; the dauphin ordered to be taken 
 from, 346 ; taken to the Conciergerie, 347 ; 
 trial of, 348 ; condemnation and letter of, to 
 her sister, 349 ; execution of, 350. 
 
 Marly, palace of, 35. 
 
 Massat, imprisonment of, in the Bastille, 56. 
 
 Masses, wretchedness of the, 47; their condi- 
 tion during the reign of Louis XV., 52. 
 
 Memorial of the king on leaving Paris, 212. 
 
 Mercenaries, foreign, collected in Paris, 104. 
 
 Merovingian dynasty, the, 18. 
 
 Mirabeau, his course to identify himself with 
 the people, 80 ; character of, 80 ; his expul- 
 sion from the Parliament, 80; his aspect at 
 the States-General, 86; his formal "Letters 
 to my Constituents," 87; speech of, upon the 
 dissolution, 99 ; compares American and En- 
 glish revolutions with that of France, 102 ; 
 speech of, concerning the movements of the 
 army, 106 ; his position in the Assembly, 107 ; 
 instruction to, of the deputy to the king, 124 ; 
 opposes the amnesty, 139; how regarded by 
 the Parisians, 149 ; his motives explained, 
 152 ; supports the confiscation of church prop- 
 erty, 171; defends the Convention from the 
 charge of usurpation, 174; physical condition 
 of, 189; interview of, with the queen, 189 
 plans of, to overturn the Constitution, 190 
 opposition of, to law against emigration, 191 
 plot of, for the king's escape, 192; death of, 
 193; funeral of, 194. 
 
 Mob becomes fast and furious, 168; actions of 
 the, on the 20th of June, 1792, 255. 
 
 Moleville (Bertrand de), remarks of, on the As- 
 sembly, 235.
 
 INDEX. 
 
 585 
 
 Moli^re, his reception at the Courtiers' table, 
 
 45. 
 Monarchy supported by the Papacy, 48. 
 Monge ai)pointed minister of the marine, 290. 
 Monopolists, hatred of the people against, 1^4. 
 Montesquieu explains the national policy to the 
 
 people, 47. 
 Moors, incursions of the, into France, 20. 
 
 Napoleon. See Bonaparte. 
 
 National bankruptcy described, G3. 
 
 National Guard formed, 12G; losing influence, 
 
 150; disj)ersion of a mob by the, 229. 
 Necker, appointment of, as minister of finance, 
 60 ; policy of, GO ; his position and struggles, 
 62 ; his " Compte rendu au Roi" and its effect, 
 63 ; recommends fornuition of provincial par- 
 liaments, G3 ; his measures and their recep- 
 tion, G4 ; recalled, 77 ; effects upon the peo- 
 ple of his recall, 77; applauded by the people 
 for refusing to attend the royal sitting, 100; 
 remarks of, on the conspiracy of the nobles 
 against the National Assembly, 102; his ad- 
 vice disregarded, 107; dismissal of, 108; re- 
 called, 128 ; return of, to Paris, 138 ; resig- 
 nation of, 189. 
 Nemours (Duke of), his accusation and punish- 
 ment, 54. 
 Noailles (Viscount de), ser^'ices of, 139 ; arm of 
 
 the, rejected by the queen, 220. 
 Nobility, their doctrine regarding the lower 
 class, 45 ; hereditary, state of society which 
 abolishes, 4G ; much dissatisfied with the de- 
 cree of equality of representation, 79; tri- 
 umph of the, 9G, 97 ; ordered by the king to 
 join the National Assembly, 101 ; dissatisfac- 
 tion of the, with the Assembly, 101 ; conspir- 
 acy of the, to overturn Assembly, 102; yield 
 their feudal rights, 140; plots ofthc, 15G; re- 
 ligion of the, 170; plans of the, 191. See 
 also Nobles. 
 Nobles obliged to unite with the king, and to 
 promise to submit to all the taxes, 90; aban- 
 donment of their chateaux for a metropolitan 
 residence, 45 ; income of, in province of Li- 
 mousin, according to Turgot, 45 ; position of 
 the, in the days of feudal grandeur, 4G ; now 
 hated by the peasants, 46 ; all taxation stead- 
 ily opposed by the, 65-68 ; every where resist 
 the decree of Brienne, 75; their plan for man- 
 aging the States-General, 84 ; exult in their 
 supposed victory, 100; forty-seven join the 
 National Assembly, 101 ; obstruct tlie action 
 of the Assembly, 105; plan of, to regain their 
 ascendency, 141. 
 Normandy, revolt in, 24. 
 
 Notables (Assembly of), recommended by Ca- 
 lonne, G6 ; the meeting, 67 ; meeting of, call- 
 ed to settle questions about the States-Gen- 
 eral, 78. 
 
 Oath of fidelity taken, 184. 
 
 Orleans (Duke of), enters his protest in Parlia- 
 ment against the king's commands, 70; ban- 
 ished by the king, 70 ; contemplates usur])a- 
 tion, 71 ; joins the National Assembly, 101. 
 
 Orleans, massacre of the Koyalists'of, 308. 
 
 Oubliettes, description of, 55. 
 
 Paine (Thomas), one of the Jacobins, 224. 
 Papacy the right arm of monarchy, 48. 
 Pare aux Cei/s, institution of, 40. 
 Paris, from what it s])rung, 19 ; state of, on July 
 1 2, 1 789, 111; garrisoned by the people, 124 ; 
 municijjal government of, arrogates supreme 
 power, 145; events at, on the king's escape, 
 209 ; a new mayor of, chosen, 243 ; mob in, 
 on the 9th of August, 1792, 281; arrest of 
 tlie Royalists of, 300; festival in, to celebrate 
 the Jacobin Constitution, 339 ; famine in, 398. 
 Parliament asserts that it has no power to reg- 
 ister decrees, 68 ; custom of, to register king's 
 decrees, 68 ; passes resolution concerning 
 States-General, 69 ; its desire to obtain feudal 
 privileges, 73 ; forced to surrender D'Espre'me'- 
 nil and De Monsabert, 74 ; meets and declares 
 its session permanent, 74 ; method of the, in 
 receiving the king's commissioners, 76; its 
 condemnation of La Fayette, 298; of the 
 provinces abolished, 172. 
 Parties, number of, in France, 190, 
 Patronage of men of letters by nobility, nature 
 
 of, 46. 
 Paupers, numbers of, 169. 
 
 Peasants, their hatred of the nobility and crowd, 
 46; call them "vultures," 46; their fear of 
 tax-collectors, 50 ; their difficulties, 52. 
 "Pensees Phihsophiques" burned by execution, 
 
 48. 
 People side with the Pariiament, 71; support 
 their enemies, the Parliaments, 73; enjoined 
 to send in account of grievances to the States- 
 General, 79 ; condition of the, 83 ; send in re- 
 quests to the Assembly, 105; bear the busts 
 of Necker and Orleans in triumph, 109; sack 
 the convents for wine and wheat, 115; arm 
 and garrison the Bastille, 123; escort the 
 king to the palace, 125; of Paris desire the 
 king to visit them, 129; becoming soldiers 
 from fear of invasion, 142; demand of the, 
 that the king shall go lo Paris, 162; influ- 
 ence of the king's appearance upon the, 207; 
 enthusiasm of the, at the reading of the Con- 
 stitution, 234. 
 Pepin ascends the throne, 20. 
 Persecution of Protestants renewed, 37; the ar- 
 gument of the Church, 48. 
 Pe'tion chosen Mayor of Paris, 244 ; dilatory con- 
 duct of, in the mob of 20th of June, 259 ; his 
 dismissal from the Tuileries, 2G2; petitions 
 the Assembly for the dethronement of tho 
 king, 280 ; found dead in the forest, 362.
 
 586 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Pharamond, chief of the Franks, 18 ; obtains 
 
 supremacy over Gaul, 18. 
 Pliilip (the Fair) establishes his Parliament in 
 
 Paris, 24. 
 Philip VI. crowned at Kheims, 25 ; luxury of 
 
 the court of, 25. 
 Philosophy, of the writers on, 47 ; of Eevolu- 
 
 tionary writers, results of, 47. 
 Pichegru appointed commander of the Parisian 
 
 forces, 401. 
 Piety, its rarity forms an admirable foil to show 
 
 up the corruption surrounding, 48. 
 Pitt (William), his approval of Burke's book, 
 
 187 ; statement of, to the French envoy, 240 ; 
 
 his opinion of La Fayette, 298. 
 Political economy simjilified for the masses, 47. 
 Politics superior in influence to religion over 
 
 Louis XV., 49. 
 Pompadour (Madame de), character of, 39 ; 
 
 death of, 43. 
 Popular sovereignty, when legitimated in 
 
 France, 62. 
 PoA'erty of nobles in every thing but pride, 45. 
 Power of France in the hands of nobility, 64 ; 
 
 aid of foreign, to the noblesse, 196. 
 Priests, attempts of, to rouse the populace, 177. 
 Prisons, for what purposes used by Jesuits, 55 ; 
 
 number of, in Pai-is, 55 ; terrible suffering in 
 
 the, 359. 
 Privileged class, number of, in France during 
 
 the reign of Louis XV., 45; dissatisfied with 
 
 Turgot's measures, 60 ; calculation of numer- 
 ical strength of, 64. 
 Privileges (feudal). See Feudal. 
 Protestants, persecution of, by Louis XIV., 29 ; 
 
 number of, in France, 30; "dragooned into 
 
 Catholic faith," 30; escape of, from France, 
 
 32 ; persecution of, renewed, 37. 
 Province of Vende'e, religious troubles in, 243. 
 
 See La Vendee. 
 Provinces, France divided into, 171. 
 Provincial Parliaments, formation of, recom- 
 mended by Necker, 63. See also Paelia- 
 
 MENT. 
 
 Prussia, desire of, to withdraw from the coali- 
 tion, 396. 
 Public credit, condition of, in France now, 65. 
 
 Rastadt, assassination of the embassadors at, 
 428. 
 
 Rebellion, people incited to, by Camille Des- 
 moulins, 108. 
 
 "Reflections," by Edmund Burke, 187. 
 
 Reform, few of the nobility in favor of, 79. 
 
 Reign of Terror, France surrendered to the, 
 345 ; more endurable than the old dominion, 
 402. 
 
 Religion, how represented by Revolutionary 
 writers, 47 ; becomes the policy of the nobles, 
 170; the aid of, brought to be.nr, by the cler- 
 gy, 173. See also Christianity. 
 
 Renville (Constant de), confinement of, in the 
 Bastille, 53. 
 
 Republicans, increase of the, 246. 
 
 Revolution, its outbreak and failure explained, 
 46 ; list of the victims of the, 379. 
 
 Revolutionary Tribunal, origin of the, 296; trial 
 of the king before the, 322. 
 
 Richelieu (Cardinal), his character and influ- 
 ence as a politician, 27; his death, 27; cru- 
 elty of, to Dessault, 55 ; iron-hearted firm- 
 ness of, 56. 
 
 Riot, description of the first, 82 ; fomented to 
 prevent meeting of the States - General, 
 82. 
 
 Robespierre (Maximilian), first appearance cf, 
 88 ; desires to abolish the death ])cnalty, 173 ; 
 demands an act of accusation against the Gi- 
 rondists, 336; turns against Danton and Des- 
 moulins, 365 ; speech of, against Danton, 
 367 ; inexj)licabl3 character of, 375 ; decrees 
 of, in favor of the existence of the Suitreme 
 Being, 375 ; supposed attempt to assassinate, 
 396 ; dawning opposition to, 377 ; urged to 
 assume the dictatorship, 378 ; defeat of, in 
 the Convention, 380 ; arrest of, with his broth- 
 er, 383 ; assanation and rearrest of, 386 ; con- 
 demnation of, 387 ; execution of, 388. 
 
 Roederer (Monsieur), interview of, Avith the roy- 
 al family, 284. 
 
 Rohan (Cardinal), involved with Comtesse La- 
 motte, 72. 
 
 Roland (Monsieur), dismissal of, from the of- 
 fice of minister of the interior, 254 ; death of, 
 363. 
 
 Roland (Madame), her letter to the king, 254 ; 
 anecdote concerning, 309 ; death of, 363. 
 
 Rollo, an incident related of, 23. 
 
 Roman empire, decline of the, 17. 
 
 Romeuf (M. de), arrest of the king by, 208. 
 
 Rousseau employs his eloquence for Revolution, 
 47. 
 
 Royal decree, customs regarding it, 68. 
 
 Royal family, flight of the, 198; their mode of 
 life in the Temple, 311. See also Louis 
 XVI. and Maeie Antoinette. 
 
 Sabbath, attempts to obliterate the, 361. 
 
 Salt, duty on, abolished, 172. 
 
 Santerre ajjpointed to the command of the Na- 
 tional Guard, 296. 
 
 Sausse (Madame), answer of, to the applica- 
 tions of the queen, 206. 
 
 Schools established by Charlemagne, 21. 
 
 Sermon of the Bishop of Nancy, 86 ; of Abbe 
 Fauchct, 144. 
 
 Sheriff obliged to have a guard, 50. 
 
 Sieves (Abbe), his pamphlet, 78 ; his motion in 
 the States-General, 89 ; its success, 90 ; sec- 
 ond pamphlet of, 90. 
 
 Societies, the jealousy with which they were re- 
 garded, 46.
 
 INDEX. 
 
 587 
 
 Society, state of, during the reign of Louis XIV., 
 28; state of, at the death of Louis XIV., 33. 
 
 Soldiers, brutal conduct of, 30; become discon- 
 tented, 103; coalesce with the peoitle, 103; 
 arrested for their oath, 10-t ; scatter the first 
 mob, 109; a loyal regiment from Flanders 
 ordered to Paris, 157. 
 
 Sombrueii, governor of Hotel des Invalidcs, 
 character of, 1 1 D. 
 
 Spain, treaty of France with, 396. 
 
 Speech of Marat to the Jacobin Club, 215. 
 
 St. Etienne, curate of, heads the people, 119. 
 
 St. Huruge, account of him, 150. 
 
 States-General convened for May, 7G ; debates 
 wliich arose upon the summoning of, 78; roj)- 
 reseutation in, how to be determined, 79 ; 
 equal re])resentation in, decreed by tlie king, 
 79 ; the people enjoined to send in account 
 of their grievances to the, 79 ; number of 
 members of, 81 ; convened, 83 ; delegates to, 
 received by the king, 83 ; opening of the, 85, 
 86 ; boldness of the thii-d estate, 87; Necker's 
 i-eception at the, 87 ; attempt of, to ensnare 
 the third estate, 87; the conflict in the, 88. 
 See also Assembly and Convention. 
 
 Supreme Being, decrees in favor of the, 375 ; 
 festival in honor of the, 376. 
 
 Suspected persons, schedule of those liable to 
 arrest, 344. 
 
 Suspensive veto, the, approved, 151. 
 
 Swiss, the, refuse to fire upon their comrades, 
 110. 
 
 Talleyrand, his remark concerning the diamond 
 necklace, 72. 
 
 Tallien, speech of, against Robespierre, 381 . 
 
 Talma, incident connected with the marriage 
 of, 178. 
 
 Taxation so universal that the inventor of a 
 new one was regarded as a man of genius, 
 49; the burden of, fell upon unprivileged 
 classes solely, 49 ; artifices used by the peas- 
 ants to elude, 50 ; proportion of land owned 
 by the payers of, 50 ; expedients of the col- 
 lector of, to obtain the, 50 ; burden of, com- 
 puted, 51 ; equality of, when nobles would 
 permit it, 98. 
 
 Temple, description of the, 293. 
 
 Tennis - court, celebration of the meeting at, 
 255. 
 
 Texel, capture of the fleet at, 395. 
 
 Theatre, Jacobin riot in the, 239. 
 
 Thermidorians, origin of the, 379 ; supremacy 
 of the, 389. 
 
 Thiers, remarks of, on the National Conven- 
 tion, 410. 
 
 Third estate triumphant, 101. 
 
 Thouret (Monsieur), presents Constitution to the 
 king, 231. 
 
 Thuriot (Monsieur), summons Bastille to sur- 
 render, 120. 
 
 Title-deeds destroyed by the peasantry, 143. 
 
 Titles of noble blood sold, 50. 
 
 Tollendal, Lally, speech of, 126. 
 
 Toulon surrendered to the Allies, 341. 
 
 Tree of feudalism, burning of the, 275. 
 
 Trials ordered to be public, 172. 
 
 Tribune, a military, advised by Marat, 215. 
 
 Tricolor worn by the king, 132. 
 
 Tuileries besieged, 286. 
 
 Turgot (Monsieur), his appointment and career 
 as minister of finance, 59, 60; his measures, 
 how accepted, 60. 
 
 Unbelief among the courtiers, reasons for, 49. 
 United States, Revolution of, compared \vith 
 that of France, 46. 
 
 Valmy, battle of, 306. 
 
 Valois, history of the house of, 26. 
 
 Varcnnes (the), king and royal family arrived 
 at, 201 ; municipality of, request the king to 
 wait, 205. 
 
 Vaublanc (M. de), speech of, to the king, 
 244. 
 
 Vergniaud (Monsieur), charges of, against the 
 king, 269 ; prophetic solicitude of, 309 ; sen- 
 tences the king to death, 323 ; spirit of the 
 Girondists avowed by, 332 ; remark of, in the 
 prison to the son of M. Alluaud, 354. 
 
 Versailles, chateau of, commenced by Riche- 
 lieu, 27 ; palace of, 35. 
 
 Veto, struggle on the part of the nobility to 
 make it absolute, 149. 
 
 Vice protected by the Church, 48. 
 
 Victims, list of the, of the Revolution, 379. 
 
 Vienne, Archbishop of, president of National 
 Assembly, 106. 
 
 Vincennes, brilliant festivities and spectacles at, 
 25. 
 
 Voltaire applies his force to assailing the cor- 
 ruption of the Church, 47; unfairness of his 
 criticisms on Christianity, 47 ; befriended by 
 Frederick II. of Prussia, 49 ; revisits Paris, 
 62 ; his reception, 62 ; his death, 62 ; removed 
 to the Pantheon in Paris, 222. 
 
 Voting for the deputies in Pai'is, 79. 
 
 Wars, why waged by princes, 51. 
 
 Women of Paris, their march to Versailles, 159 ; 
 deputation of, to the king, 160. 
 
 Writers, revolutionary, views of, on religion, 
 47; their influence in brutalizing the people, 
 47 ; the leading, were infidels, 47. 
 
 Xavier (Louis Stanislas), letter of the king to, 
 242. 
 
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