Chapter II: Part 2

To this description an English physician, who likewise saw it, adds, "It must have had two brains, as motion and sensation were equal, and apparently perfect, in each head and chest, and in all the four arms. It had two hearts, and two sets of lungs; it had also two passages into the stomach, but, as was supposed, only one set of _abdominal viscera_, as the belly was not larger than that of a common child of that age usually is. The hearts and arteries beat more strongly than was consistent with a long continuance of health. The action of the arteries was plainly seen under the skin."

Mr. Buffon, in the Supplement to his Natural History, has given the figure and description of a monster something similar to this, part of which description I shall give in a note, as a parallel to that of the living child.[15]

[Note 15: "In 1701 there were born in Hungary two Girls who were joined together by the loins; they lived above twenty-one years. At seven years old they were shown almost all over Europe; at nine years of age a priest purchased them, and placed them in a convent at Petersburg, where they remained till their death, which happened in 1723. An account of them was found among the papers of the surgeon who attended the convent, and was sent to the Royal Society of London in 1757. In this account we are told, that one of these twins was called _Helen_, the other _Judith_. _Helen_ grew up and was very handy, _Judith_ was smaller and a little hump-backed. They were joined together by the reins, and in order to see each other they could turn their heads only. There was one common _anus_, and of course there was only one common need of going to stool, but each had her separate urinary passage, and separate wants, which occasioned quarrels, because when the weakest was obliged to evacuate, the strongest, who sometimes would not stand still, pulled her away; they perfectly agreed in every thing else, and appeared to love each other. When they were seen in front, they did not differ apparently from other women. At six years old _Judith_ lost the use of her left side by a paralytick stroke; she never was perfectly cured, and her mind remained feeble and dull; on the contrary, _Helen_ was handsome, intelligent and even witty. They had the small-pox and the measles at the same time, but all their other sicknesses indispositions happened to each separately. _Judith_ was subject to a cough and a fever, whereas _Helen_ was generally in good health. When they had almost attained the age of twenty-two _Judith_ caught a fever, fell into a lethargy and died. Poor _Helen_ was forced to follow her fate; three minutes before the death of _Judith_ she fell into an agony, and died nearly at the same time. When they were dissected it was found, that each had her own entrails perfect, and even, that each had a separate excretory conduit, which however terminated at the same _anus_." _Linnæus_ has likewise described this monster. Many figures of double children of different kinds may be seen in _Licetus de Monstris_, 4to. 1665; and in the _Medical Miscellanies_, which were printed in Latin at Leipzig, in several quarto volumes, in 1673.]

I went several times to the National Assembly; the _Tribunes_, or _Galleries_, (of which there are three) entered warmly, by applauses and by murmurs and hisses, into the affairs which were treated of.

Letters are franked by the assembly as far as the frontiers, by being stamped with red printers ink, _Ass. Nationale._

About this time many hundreds of folio volumes of heraldry, and of the registers of the nobility, were publicly burnt in _la Place Vendôme_, after due notice had been given of the time and place by advertisements pasted against the walls. A wicked wag observed, that it was a pity all their books of divinity, and almost all those of law and physic, were not added to the pile but he comforted himself with reflecting that _ça viendra_.

All the coats of arms which formerly decorated the gates of _Hôtels_ are taken away, and even seals are at present engraven with cyphers only.

_The Chevaliers de St. Louis_ still continue to wear the cross, or the ribband, at the button-hole; all other orders of knighthood are abolished. No liveries are worn by servants, that badge of slavery is likewise abolished; and also all corporation companies, as well as every other monopolizing society; and there are no longer any _Royal_ tobacco nor salt shops.

I went once to the _Café de la Regence_,[16] with the intention of playing a game at chess, but I found the chess-men so very little different in colour, that I could not distinguish them sufficiently to be able to play. It seems it is the fashion for chess-men at present to be made of box-wood, and all nearly of the same colour. I then went to another coffee-house frequented by chess-players, and here the matter was worse; they had, in addition to the above-mentioned fashion, substituted the _cavalier_, or _knight_, for the _fou_, or _bishop_, and the _bishop_ for the _knight_, so that I left them to fight their own battles.

[Note 16: Rousseau used to play at chess here almost every day, which attracted such crowds of people to see him, that the _Lieutenant de Police_ was obliged to place a sentinel at the door.]

Books of all sorts are printed without any _approbation_ or _privilêge_. Many are exposed on stalls, which are very improper for the public eye. One of these was called the _Private Life of the Queen_, in two volumes, with obscene prints. The book itself is contemptible and disgusting, and might as well have been called the _Woman of Pleasure_. Of books of this sort I saw above thirty, with plates. Another was on a subject not fit even to be mentioned.

I read a small pamphlet, entitled "_le Christ-Roi_, or a Parallel of the Sufferings of Lewis XVI. &c." I can say nothing in favor of it.

I found no new deistical books, the subject has already been exhausted, and every Frenchman is a philosopher now; it may be necessary here to recollect, that there are gradations in philosophy.

Since the Revolution, monarchs and courts are not quite so respectfully mentioned in books as they were formerly. The following few examples are taken from _Mr. du Laure's_ Curiosities of Paris, in two volumes, 1791, third edition. [17] "Louis XIV. has his bust in almost every street in Paris. After the most trifling reparation of a street it was customary to place his great wig-block (_tête à perruque_) there. The saints have never obtained such multiplied statues. That bully (_Fanfaron_) as _Christina_, Queen of Sweden, used to call him, wanted to be adored even in turn-again alleys (_culs-de-Sac._") Courtiers are here termed _canaille de la cour_ (the rabble of the court;) the former aldermen of Paris (_echevins_) _machines à complimens_ (complimenting machines;) and monks _des bourreaux encapuchonnés_ (cowled executioners.)

[Note 17: The same author has likewise published, _Historical Singularities_ of Paris, in a single volume, and a Description of the Environs, in two volumes, 1790.]

All the following articles of information are taken from the same work: The colossal statue of _St. Christopher_ is no longer in the church of _Notre-Dame_; "He was, without doubt, the greatest _Saint Christopher_ in all France. This ridiculous monument of the taste and devotion of our ancestors has lately been demolished."

"The court before the porch of this church was considerably enlarged in 1748, and at the same time a fountain was destroyed, against which leaned an old statue, which had successively been judged to be that of _Esculapius_, of _Mercury_, of a Mayor, and of a Bishop of Paris, and lastly, that of J.C."

"Entering the street which leads to the _Pont-rouge_, by the cloisters of this church, the last house on the right, under the arcades, stands where the canon _Fulbert_, uncle to _Eloisa_, lived. Although it has been several times rebuilt during 600 years, there are still preserved two stone medallions, in _basso-relievo_, which are said to be the busts of _Abelard_ and _Eloisa_."

The number of inhabitants in Paris is computed at one million, one hundred and thirty thousand, (including one hundred and fifty thousand strangers) two hundred thousand of which are, through poverty, exempt from the poll-tax, and two hundred thousand others are servants.

In 1790 there were in Paris forty-eight convents of monks, containing nine hundred and nine men; the amount of their revenue was estimated at two millions, seven hundred and sixty thousand livres; five abbeys or priories, estimated at six hundred and twelve thousand livres; seventy-four convents of nuns, containing two thousand, two hundred and ninety-two women, their income two millions and twenty-eight thousand livres. When to these we add the revenue of the archbishoprick, and of the fifteen collegiate churches, of one million, six thousand and five hundred livres, we shall have a total of upwards of seven millions of livres for the former ecclesiastical revenue in Paris only.[18]

[Note 18: Almost £300,000 sterling, about a tenth part of the Church income of the whole kingdom. The establishment for the Royal Family, or Civil List, is said to have been forty millions of livres. Thus the Religion and the Monarch cost one hundred and ten millions of livres annually (about five millions sterling) the greater part of which sum is now appropriated to other uses. The convents are converted, or perverted, into secular useful buildings, and their inhabitants have been suffered to spend the remainder of their lives in their former idleness, or to marry and mix with society. Annuities have been granted to them from thirty-five to sixty louis per annum, according to their age.]

There are about six hundred coffee-houses in Paris.

In the saloon of the _Louvre_ every other year is an exhibition of pictures, in the months of August and September.

The Pont-neuf is one hundred toises in length and twelve in breadth.[19]

[Note 19: 1020 feet by 72. Westminster-bridge is 1220 feet long, but only 44 feet wide.]

The cupola of the _Halle au Bled_, or corn and flour market, is one hundred and twenty feet in diameter; it forms a perfect half circle, whose centre is on a level with the cornice, forty feet from the ground. The vault or dome is composed merely of deal boards, four feet long, one foot broad and an inch thick.[20]

[Note 20: The inner diameter of the dome of St. Peter's, at Rome, 138 feet, which is the same size as that of the pantheon in Rome. St. Paul's in London 108. The Invalids in Paris 50.]

Describing the church of _St. John of the Minstrels_, so called, because it was founded by a couple of fidlers, in 1330. _M. du Laure_ says, "Among the figures of saints with which the great door is decorated, one is distinguished who would play very well on the fiddle, if his fiddle-stick were not broken."

There is a parcel-post as well as a letter penny-post in Paris.

The salary of the executioner was eighteen thousand livres _per annum_; [21] his office was to break criminals on the wheel, and to inflict every punishment on them which they were sentenced to undergo.

[Note 21: £750 sterling; I know not the present salary.]

There are no longer any _Espions de Police_, or spies, employed by government. "That army of thieves, of cut-throats, and rascals, kept in pay by the ancient police, was perhaps a necessary evil in the midst of the general evil of our old administration. A body of rogues and traitors could be protected by no other administration than such a one as could only subsist by crimes and perfidy. Those were the odious resources of despotism. Liberty ought to make use of simple and open means, which justice and morality will never disavow."

There is a school at the point of the isle of St. Louis, in the river _Seine_, to teach swimming; persons who chuse to learn in private pay four _louis_, those who swim among others, half that sum, or half-crown a lesson; if they are not perfect in that art in a season, (five summer months) they may attend the following season _gratis_.

DRESS. INNS.

THE common people are in general much better clothed than they were before the Revolution, which may be ascribed to their not being so grievously taxed as they were. An English Gentleman who has gone for many years annually from Calais to Paris, remarks, that they are almost as well dressed on working days at present, as they were on Sundays and holidays formerly.

All those ornaments which three years ago were worn of silver, are now of gold. All the women of the lower class, even those who sit behind green-stalls, &c. wear gold ear-rings, with large drops, some of which cost two or three _louis_, and necklaces of the same. Many of the men wear plain gold ear-rings; those worn by officers and other gentlemen are usually as large as a half-crown piece. Even children of two years old have small gold drops in their ears. The general dress of the women is white linen or muslin gowns, large caps which cover all their hair, excepting just a small triangular piece over the forehead, pomatumed, or rather plaistered and powdered, without any hats: neither do they wear any stays, but only _corsets_ (waistcoats or jumps.) Tight lacing is not known here, nor yet high and narrow heeled shoes. Because many of the ladies _ci-devant_ of quality have emigrated or ran away, and that those which remain in Paris, keep within doors, I saw no face that was painted, excepting on the stage. Most of the men wear coats made like great-coats, or in other words, long great-coats, without any coat: this in fine weather and in the middle of summer made them appear to me like invalides. There is hardly any possibility of distinguishing the rank of either man or woman by their dress at present, or rather, there are no ranks to distinguish.

The nation in general is much improved in cleanliness, and even in politeness. The French no longer look on every Englishman as a lord, but as their equal.

The inns on the road from _Calais_ to _Paris_, are as well furnished, and the beds are as clean at present as almost any in England. At _Flixcourt_ especially, the beds are remarkably excellent, the furniture elegant, and there is a profusion of marble and of looking-glasses in this inn. The plates, dishes, and basons which I saw in cupboards, and on shelves in the kitchen, and which are not in constant use, were all of silver, to which being added the spoons and forks of the same metal, of which the landlord possesses a great number; the ladies and gentlemen who were with me there, going to and returning from Paris, estimated the value at, perhaps, a thousand pounds sterling. Now, if we allow only half this sum to be the value, it is, notwithstanding, considerable. Every inn I entered was well supplied with silver spoons, of various sizes, and with silver four pronged forks; even those petty eating-houses in Paris, which were frequented by soldiers and _sans-culottes_.

There are no beggars to be seen about the streets in Paris, and when the chaise stopped for fresh horses, only two or three old and infirm people surrounded it and solicited charity, whereas formerly the beggars used to assemble in hundreds. I did not see a single pair of _sabôts_ (wooden-shoes) in France this time. The table of the peasants is also better supplied than it was before the revolution.

ASSIGNATS.

EXCEPTING the coins which I purchased at the mint in Paris, I did not see a piece of gold or silver of any kind; a few brass sols and two sols were sometimes to be found in the coffee-houses, and likewise _Mouneron's_ tokens.

The most common _assignats_ or bills, are those of five _livres_, which are printed on sheets; each sheet containing twenty of such _assignats_, or a hundred _livres_; they are cut out occasionally, when wanted for change. I do not know that there are any of above a thousand _livres_. The lowest in value which I saw were of five _sols_, and these were of parchment. Those of five _livres_ and upwards, have the king's portrait stamped on them, like that on the coins.

Besides the national _assignats_, which are current all over France, every town has its own _assignats_, of and under, but not above five _livres_; these are only current in such town and its neighbourhood.

The _assignats_ of and above five _livres_ are printed on white paper, those which are under, are for the convenience of the lower class of people, of which few can read, printed on different coloured paper according to their value; for instance, those of ten _sols_ on blue paper, those of thirty on red, &c. though this method is not correctly adhered to.

I had projected many excursions in the neighbourhood of Paris, which were all put a stop to, in consequence of the events of the tenth of August, of which I shall give a true and impartial narrative, carefully avoiding every word which may appear to favour either party, and writing not as a politician, but as a spectator.

I had written many anecdotes, as well aristocratical as democratical, but as I was unable properly to authenticate some of them, and that others related to excesses which were inevitable, during such a time of anarchy, I thought it not proper to prejudice the mind of the public, and have accordingly expunged them all. I have only recounted facts, and the readers may form their own opinion.

Some particulars relative to the massacre in August, 1572, are inserted to corroborate the description of the similar situation of Paris, in August, 1792, though not from similar causes. The execrable massacre above-mentioned was committed by raging fanatics, cutting the throats of their defenceless fellow-creatures, merely for difference in religious opinion.

BATTLE AND MASSACRE AT THE TUILERIES.

ON Thursday, the 9th of August, the legislative body completed the general discontent of the people, (which had been raised the preceding day, by the discharge of every accusation against _la Fayette_) by appearing to protract the question relative to the king's _déchéance_ (forfeiture) at a time when there was not a moment to lose, and by not holding any assembly in the evening.

The fermentation increased every minute, in a very alarming manner. The mayor himself had declared to the representatives of the nation, that he could not answer for the tranquillity of the city after midnight. Every body knew that the people intended at that hour to ring the alarm-bell; and to go to the _château_ of the _Tuileries_, as it was suspected that the Royal Family intended to escape to Rouen, and it is said many trunks were found, packed up and ready for taking away, and that many carriages were seen that afternoon in the court-yard of the _Tuileries_.

At eight in the evening the _generale_,(a sort of beat of drum) was heard in all the sections, the _tocsin_ was likewise rung, (an alarm, by pulling the bells of the churches, so as to cause the clappers to give redoubled strokes in very quick time. Some bells were struck with large hammers.)

All the shops were shut, and also most of the great gates of the hotels; lights were placed in almost every window, and few of the inhabitants retired to their repose: the night passed however without any other disturbance; many of the members of the National Assembly were sitting soon after midnight, and the others were expected. _Mr. Petion_, the mayor, had been sent for by the king, and was then in the _château_; the number of members necessary to form a sitting, being completed, the _tribunes_ (galleries) demanded and obtained a decree to oblige the _château_ to release its prey, the mayor; he soon after appeared at the bar, and from thence went to the _commune_ (mansion-house.)

It was now about six o'clock on Friday morning (10th) the people of the _fauxbourgs_ (suburbs) especially of _St. Antoine_ and _St. Marcel_, which are parted by the river, assembled together on the _Place de la Bastille_, and the crowd was so great that twenty-five persons were squeezed to death.[22] At seven the streets were filled with-armed citizens, that is to say, with _federates_ (select persons sent from the provinces to assist at the _Federation_, or confederacy held last July 14) from _Marseille_, from _Bretagne_, with national guards, and Parisian _sans-culottes_, (_without breeches_, these people have _breeches_, but this is the name which has been given to the mob.) The arms consisted of guns, with or without bayonets, pistols, sabres, swords, pikes, knives, scythes, saws, iron crows, wooden billets, in short of every thing that could be used offensively.

[Note 22: According to the _Journal de la seconde legislature_, _seance de la nuit_ II _Août_.]

A party of these met a false patrol of twenty-two men, who, of course, did not know the watch-word. These were instantaneously put to death, their heads cut off and carried about the streets on pikes (_on promena leurs têtes sur des piques._) This happened in _la Place Vendôme_; their bodies were still lying there the next day. Another false patrol, consisting of between two and three hundred men, with cannon, wandered all night in the neighbourhood of the _theatre français_: it is said they were to join a detachment from the battalion of Henri IV. on the _Pont-neuf_, to cut the throats of _Petion_ and the _Marseillois_, who were encamped on the _Pont St. Michel_ (the next bridge to the _Pont-neuf_) which caused the then acting parish assemblies to order an honorary guard of 400 citizens, who were to be answerable for the liberty and the life of that magistrate, then in the council-chamber. _Mandat_, commander-general of the National Guard, had affronted _M. Petion_, when he came from the _château_ of the _Tuileries_, to go to the National Assembly; he was arrested and sent to prison immediately.

The insurrection now became general; the _Place du Carrousel_ (square of the _Carousals_, a square in the _Tuileries_, so called from the magnificent festival which Lewis XIV. in 1662, there gave to the queen and the queen-mother) was already filled; the king had not been in bed; all the night had probably been spent in combining a plan of defence, if attacked, or rather of retreat; soon after seven the king, the queen, their two children (the dauphin, seven years old, and his sister fourteen) Princess Elizabeth, (the queen's sister, about 50 years old) and the Princess _de Lamballe_, crossed the garden of the _Tuileries_, which was still shut, escorted by the National Guard, and by all the Swiss, and took refuge in the National Assembly, when the Swiss returned to their posts in the _château_.

The alarm-bells, which were incessantly ringing, the accounts of the carrying heads upon pikes, and of the march of almost all Paris in arms; the presence of the king, throwing himself, as it were, on the mercy of the legislative body; the fierce and determinate looks of the _galleries_; all these things together had such an effect on the National Assembly, that it immediately decreed the suspension of Lewis XVI. which decree was received with universal applause and clapping.

At this moment a wounded man rushed into the Assembly, crying, "We are betrayed, to arms, to arms, the Swiss are firing on the citizens; they have already killed a hundred Marseillois."

This was about nine o'clock. The democrats, that is to say, the armed citizens, as beforementioned, had dragged several pieces of cannon, six and four pounders, into the _carousel_ square, and were assembled there, on the _quais_, the bridges, and neighbouring streets, in immense numbers, all armed; they knew the king was gone to the National Assembly, and came to insist on his _déchéance_ (forfeiture) or resignation of the throne. All the Swiss (six or seven hundred) came out to them, and permitted them to enter into the court-yard of the Tuileries, to the number of ten thousand, themselves standing in the middle, and when they were peaceably smoking their pipes and drinking their wine, the Swiss turned back to back, and fired a volley on them, by which about two hundred were killed;[23] the women and children ran immediately into the river, up to their necks, many jumping from the parapets and from the bridges, many were drowned, and many were shot in the water, and on the balustrades of the _Pont-royal_, from the windows of the gallery of the _Louvre_.

[Note 23: This is asserted on the authority of all the French newspapers, and of several eye-witnesses. It will never be possible to know the exact truth, for the people here said to be the aggressors are all slain.--These Swiss had trusted that they would have been backed by the National Guard, who, on the contrary, took the part of the people, and fired on the Swiss (who ran into the château as soon as they had discharged their pieces) by which several were killed.]

The populace now became, as it were, mad, they seized on five cannon they found in the court yard, and turned them against the château; they planted some more cannon on the _Pont-royal_ and in the garden, twenty-two pieces in all, and attacked the château on three sides at once. The Swiss continued their fire, and it is said they fired seven times to the people's once; the Swiss had 36 rounds of powder, whereas the people had hardly three or four. Expresses were sent several miles to the powder-mills, for more ammunition, even as far as _Essonne_, about twenty miles off, on the road to _Fontainebleau_. The people contrived however to discharge their twenty-two cannon nine or ten times.[24] From nine to twelve the firing was incessant; many waggons and carts were constantly employed in carrying away the dead to a large excavation, formerly a stone quarry, at the back of the new church _de la Madeleine de la ville l'Eveque_ (part of the _Fauxbourg St. Honoré_, thus called.)

[Note 24: The balls did no other damage to the palace than breaking the windows, and leaving impressions in the stones, perhaps an inch in depth.]

Soon after noon the Swiss had exhausted all their powder, which the populace perceiving, they stormed the _château_, broke open the doors, and put every person they found to the sword, tumbling the bodies out of the windows into the garden, to the amount, it is supposed, of about two thousand, having lost four thousand on their own side. Among the slain in the _château_, were, it is asserted, about two hundred noblemen and three bishops: all the furniture was destroyed, the looking-glasses broken, in short, nothing left but the bare walls.

Sixty of the Swiss endeavoured to escape through the gardens, but the horse (_gendarmerie nationale_) rode round by the street of _St. Honoré_, and met them full butt at the end of the gardens; the Swiss fired, killed five or six and twenty horses and about thirty men, and were then immediately cut to pieces; the people likewise put the Swiss porters at the _pont-tournant_ (turning bridge) to death, as well as all they could find in the gardens and elsewhere: they then set fire to all the _casernes_ (barracks) in the _carousel_, and afterwards got at the wine in the cellars of the château, all of which was immediately drank; many citizens were continually bringing into the National Assembly jewels, gold, louis d'ors, plate, and papers, and many thieves were, as soon as discovered, instantly taken to lamp irons and hanged by the ropes which suspend the lamps. This timely severity, it is supposed, saved Paris from an universal pillage. Fifty or sixty Swiss were hurried by the populace to the _Place de Grêve_, and there cut to pieces.

At about three o'clock in the afternoon every thing was tolerably quiet, and I ventured out for the first time that day.[25]

[Note 25: The whole of the foregoing account is taken from verbal information, and from all the French papers that could be procured.]

The _quais_, the bridges, the gardens, and the immediate scene of battle were covered with bodies, dead, dying, and drunk; many wounded and drunk died in the night; the streets were filled with carts, carrying away the dead, with litters taking the wounded to hospitals; with women and children crying for the loss of their relations, with men, women, and children walking among and striding over the dead bodies, in silence, and with apparent unconcern; with troops of the _sans-culottes_ running about, covered with blood, and carrying, at the end of their bayonets, rags of the clothes which they had torn from the bodies of the dead Swiss, who were left stark naked in the gardens.[26]

[Note 26: Although I was not an eye-witness, I was however an ear-witness of the engagement, being only half a mile distant from it.]

One of these _sans-culottes_ was bragging that he had killed eight Swiss with his own hand. Another was observed lying wounded, all over blood, asleep or drunk, with a gun, pistols, a sabre, and a hatchet by him.

The courage and ferocity of the women was this day very conspicuous; the first person that entered the _Tuileries_, after the firing ceased, was a woman, named _Teroigne_, she had been very active in the riots at _Brussels_, a few years ago; she afterwards was in prison a twelvemonth at _Vienna_, and when she was released, after the death of the Emperor, went to _Geneva_, which city she was soon obliged to leave; she then came to _Paris_, and headed the _Marseillois_; she began by cleaving the head of a Swiss, who solicited her protection, and who was instantaneously cut in pieces by her followers. She is agreeable in her person, which is small, and is about twenty-eight years of age.

Many men, and also many women, as well of the order of _Poissardes_ (which are a class almost of the same species and rank with our fishwomen, and who are easily distinguished by their red cotton bibs and aprons) as others, ran about the gardens, ripping open the bellies, and dashing out the brains of several of the naked dead Swiss.[27]

[Note 27: At the taking of the Bastille, on the day of which only eighty-three persons were killed on the spot, though fifteen died afterwards of their wounds, these _Poissardes_ were likewise foremost in bravery and in cruelty, so much, that the Parisians themselves ran away from them as soon as they saw them at a distance. They are armed, some with sabres and others with pikes.]

At six in the evening I saw a troop of national guards and _sans-culottes_ kill a Swiss who was running away, by cleaving his skull with a dozen sabres at once, on the _Pont-royal_, and then cast him into the river, in less time than it takes to read this, and afterwards walk quietly on.

The shops were shut all this day, and also the theatres; no coaches were about the streets, at least not near the place of carnage; the houses were lighted up, and patroles paraded the streets all night. Not a single house was pillaged.

The barracks were still in flames, as well as the houses of the Swiss porters at the end of the gardens; these last gave light to five or six waggons which were employed all night in carrying away the dead carcases.

STATUES PULLED DOWN. NEW NAMES.

THE next day, Saturday the 11th, about an hundred Swiss who had not been in the palace placed themselves under the protection of the National Assembly. They were sent to the _Palais Bourbon_ escorted by the Marseillois, with _Mr. Petion_ at their head, in order to be tried by a court-martial.

The people were now employed, some in hanging thieves, others with _Mademoiselle_ _Teroigne_ on horseback at their head, in pulling down the statues of the French Kings.

The first was the equestrian one in bronze of Lewis XV. in the square of the same name, at the end of the _Tuileries_ gardens; this was the work of _Bouchardon_, and was erected in 1763. At the corners of the pedestal were the statues, also in bronze, of strength, peace, prudence, and justice, by _Pigalle_. Many smiths were employed in filing the iron bars within the horse's legs and feet, which fastened it to the marble pedestal, and the _sans-culottes_ pulled it down by ropes, and broke it to pieces; as likewise the four statues above-mentioned, the pedestal, and the new magnificent balustrade of white marble which surrounded it.

The next was the equestrians statue of _Lewis XIV._ in the _Place Vendôme_, cast in bronze, in a single piece, by Keller, from the model of Girardon; twenty men might with ease have sat round a table in the belly of the horse; it stood on a pedestal of white marble of thirty feet in height, twenty-four in length, and thirteen in breadth. This statue crushed a man to pieces by falling on him, which must be attributed to the inexperience of the _pullers-down_.

The third was a pedestrian statue of _Lewis XIV._ in the _Place Victoire_, of lead, gilt, on a pedestal of white marble; a winged figure, representing victory, with one hand placed a crown of laurels on his head, and in the other held a bundle of palm and olive branches. The king was represented treading on _Cerberus_ and the whole group was a single cast. There were formerly four bronze slaves at the corners of the pedestal, each of twelve feet high; these were removed in 1790. The whole monument was thirty-five feet high, and was erected in 1689, at the expence of the Duke _de la Feuillade_, who likewise left his duchy to his heirs, on condition that they should cause the whole group to be new gilt every twenty-five years; and who was buried under the pedestal.

On Sunday the 12th, at about noon, the equestrian statue, in bronze, of _Henry IV._ which was on the _Pont-neuf_, was pulled down; this was erected in 1635, and was the first of the kind in Paris. The horse was begun at Florence, by _Giovanni Bologna_, a pupil of _Michael Angelo_, finished by _Pietro Tacca_, and sent as a present to _Mary of Medicis_, widow of _Henry IV._ Regent. It was shipped at _Leghorn_, and the vessel which contained it was lost on the coast of Normandy, near _Havre de Grace_, the horse remained a year in the sea, it was, however, got out and sent to Paris in 1614.

This statue used to be the idol of the Parisians; immediately after the revolution it was decorated with the national cockade; during three evenings after the federation, in 1790, magnificent festivals were celebrated before it.

It was broken in many pieces by the fall; the bronze was not half an inch thick, and the hollow part was filled up with brick earth.

The fifth and last was overthrown in the afternoon of the same day; it was situated in the _Place Royale_; it was an equestrian statue in bronze, of Lewis XIII. on a vast pedestal of white marble; it was erected in 1639. The horse was the work of _Daniel Volterra_; the figure of the king was by _Biard_.

The people were several days employed in pulling down all the statues and busts of kings and queens they could find. On the Monday I saw a marble or stone statue, as large as the life, tumbled from the top of the _Hôtel de Ville_ into the _Place de Grêve_, at that time full of people, by which two men were killed, as I was told, and I did not wish to verify the assertion myself, but retired.

They then proceeded to deface and efface every crown, every _fleur de lis_, every inscription wherein the words king, queen, prince, royal, or the like, were found. The hotels and lodging-houses were compelled to erase and change their names, that of the _Prince de Galles_ must be called _de Galles_ only; that of _Bourbon_ must have a new name; a sign _au lys d'or_ (the golden lily) was pulled down; even billiard tables are no longer _noble_ or _royal_.

The _Pont-royal_, the new bridge of _Lewis XVI._ the _Place des Victoires_, the _Place Royal_, the _Rue d'Artois, &c._ have all new names, which, added to the division of the kingdom into eighty-three departments, abolishing all the ancient noble names of _Bourgogne, Champagne, Provence, Languedoc, Bretagne, Navarre, Normandie, &c._ and in their stead substituting such as these: _Ain, Aube, Aude, Cher, Creuse, Doubs, Eure, Gard, Gers, Indre, Lot, Orne, Sarte, Tarne, Var, &c._ which are the names of insignificant rivers; to that of Paris into forty-eight new sections, and to all titles being likewise abolished, makes it very difficult for a stranger to know any thing about the geography of the kingdom, nor what were the _ci-devant_ titles of such of the nobility as still remain in France, and who are at present only known by their family names.

BEHEADING. DEAD NAKED BODIES.

BUT to return to those "active citizens, whom aristocratic insolence has stiled _sans-culottes, brigands_."[28]

[Note 28: These are the words of a French newspaper, called, _Journal universel, ou Revolutions des Royaumes, par J. P. Audarin_. No. 994, for Sunday, 12 August, 4th year of Liberty, under the motto of Liberty, Patriotism and Truth.]

On Sunday, they dragged a man to the _Hôtel de Ville_, before a magistrate, to be tried, for having stolen something in the _Tuileries_ as they said. He was accordingly tried, searched, and nothing being found on him, was acquitted; _n'importe_, said these citizens, we must have his head for all that, for we caught him in the act of stealing. They laid him on his back on the ground, and in the presence of the judge, who had acquitted him, they sawed off his head in about a quarter of an hour, with an old notched scythe, and then gave it to the boys to carry about on a pike, leaving the carcase in the justice-hall.[29]

[Note 29: This is inserted on the authority of a lady, a native of the French West-India isles, who resided in the same hotel with me, and who, with two gentlemen who attended her, were witnesses to this transaction, which they told to whoever chose to listen.]

At the corner of almost every chief street is a black marble slab, inserted in the wall about ten feet high, on which is cut in large letters, gilt, _Loix et actes de l'autorité publique_ (laws and acts of the public authority) and underneath are pasted the daily and sometimes hourly decrees and notices of the National Assembly. One of these acquainted the citizens, that _Mandat_ (the former commander-general of the national guards) had yesterday undergone the punishment due to his crimes; that is to say, the people had cut off his head.

During several days, after _the day I_ procured all the Paris newspapers, about twenty, but all on the same side, as the people had put the editors of the aristocratic papers, _hors d'état de parler_ (prevented their speaking) by beheading one or two of them, and destroying all their presses.

They, about this time, hanged two money changers (people who gave paper for _louis d'or_, crowns, and guineas) under the idea that the money was sent to the emigrants.

On the Saturday morning, at seven, I was in the _Tuileries_ gardens; only thirty-eight dead naked bodies were still lying there; they were however covered where decency required; the people who stript them on the preceding evening, having cut a gash in the belly, and left a bit of the shirt sticking to the carcase by means of the dried blood. I was told, that the body of a lady had just been carried out of the _Carousel_ square; she was the only woman killed, and that probably by accident. Here I had the pleasure of seeing many beautiful ladies (and ugly ones too as I thought) walking arm in arm with their male friends, though so early in the morning, and forming little groups, occupied in contemplating the mangled naked and stiff carcases.

The fair sex has been equally courageous and curious, in former times, in this as well as in other countries; and of this we shall produce a few instances, as follows:

COURAGE AND CURIOSITY OF THE FAIR SEX. MASSACRE IN 1572.

ON the 24th of August, St. Bartholemew's day, 1572, the massacre of the Hugonots or or Calvinists, began by the murder of Admiral _Coligni_ the signal was to have been given at midnight; but _Catherine of Medicis_, mother to the then King Charles IX. (who was only two and twenty years of age) _hastened the signal more than an hour_, and endeavoured to encourage her son, by quoting a passage from a sermon: "What pity do we not shew in being cruel? what cruelty would it not be to have pity?"

In _Mr. Wraxall's_ account of this massacre, in his _Memoirs of the Kings of France of the Race of Valois_, compiled from all the French historians, he says, _Soubise_, covered with wounds, after a long and gallant defence, was finally put to death under the queen-mother's windows. The ladies of the court, from a savage and horrible curiosity, went to view his naked body, disfigured and bloody.

"An Italian first cut off _Coligni's_ head, which was presented to _Catherine of Medicis_. The populace then exhausted all their brutal and unrestrained fury on the trunk. They cut off the hands, after which it was left on a dunghill; in the afternoon they took it up again, dragged it three days in the dirt, then on the banks of the _Seine_, and lastly carried it to _Montfaucon_ (an eminence between the _Fauxbourg St. Martin_ and the _Temple_, on which they erected a gallows.) It was here hung by the feet with an iron chain, and a fire lighted under it, with which it was half roasted. In this situation the King and several of the courtiers went to survey it. These remains were at length taken down privately in the night, and interred at _Chantilly_."

"During seven days the massacre did not cease, though its extreme fury spent itself in the two first."

"Every enormity, every profanation, every atrocious crime, which zeal, revenge, and cruel policy are capable of influencing mankind to commit, stain the dreadful registers of this unhappy period. More than five thousand persons of all ranks perished by various species of deaths. The _Seine_ was loaded with carcases floating on it, and _Charles_ fed his eyes from the windows of the _Louvre_, with this unnatural and abominable spectacle of horror. A butcher who entered the palace during the heat of the massacre, boasted to his sovereign, baring his bloody arm, that he himself had dispatched an hundred and fifty."

"_Catherine of Medicis_, the presiding demon, who scattered destruction in so many shapes, was not melted into pity at the view of such complicated and extensive misery; she gazed with savage satisfaction on the head of _Coligni_ which was brought her."

_Sully_ only slightly mentions this massacre of which he was notwithstanding an eye-witness, because he was but twelve years of age.

_Mezeray_ gives the most circumstantial account of it; he says, "The streets were paved with dead or dying bodies, the _portes-cochêres_, (great gates of the hotels) were stopped up with them, there were heaps of them in the public squares, the street-kennels overflowed with blood, which ran gushing into the river. Six hundred houses were pillaged at different times, and four thousand persons were massacred with all the inhumanity and all the tumult than can be imagined."

"Among the slain was _Charles de Quelleue Pontivy_, likewise called _Soubise_, because he had married _Catherine_, only daughter and heiress of _Jean de Partenay_ Baron _de Soubise_: this Lady had entered an action against him for impotence; His naked dead body being among others dragged before the _Louvre_, there were ladies curious enough to examine leisurely, if they could discover the cause or the marks of the defeat of which he had been accused."

_Brantome_, in his memoirs of _Charles IX._ says, "As soon as it was day the king looked out of the window, and seeing that many people were running away in the _fauxbourg St. Germain_, he took a large hunting _arquebuse_, and shot at them many times, but in vain, for the gun did not carry so far."[30]

[Note 30: The king was shooting from the _Louvre_, and the _Fauxbourg_ St. _Germain_ is on the other side of the river.]

"He took great pleasure in seeing floating in the river, under his windows, more than four thousand dead bodies."

A French writer, _Mr. du Laure_, in a Description of Paris, just published, says, "About thirty thousand persons were killed on that night in Paris and in the country; few of the citizens but were either assassins or assassinated. Ambition, the hatred of the great, of a woman, the feebleness and cruelty of a king, the spirit of party, the fanaticism of the people, animated those scenes of horror, which do not depose so much against the French nation, at that time governed by strangers, as against the passions of the great, and the ill-directed zeal of the religion of an ignorant populace."

A few more modern instances of female fortitude are given in a note.[31]

[Note 31: On the 28th of March, 1757, _Damiens_, who stabbed _Lewis_ XV. was executed in the _Place de Grêve_, four horses were to pull his arms and legs from his body: they were fifty minutes pulling in vain, and at last his joints were obliged to be cut: he supported these torments patiently, and expired whilst the tendons of his shoulders were cutting, though he was living after his legs and thighs had been torn from his body; his right hand had previously been cut off. I was in Paris in 1768, and then, and at various times since have been assured by eye-witnesses, that almost all the windows of the square where the execution was performed were hired by ladies, at from two to ten _louis_ each.

Mr. Thicknesse in his "_Year's journey through France and Part of Spain_," in a letter dated _Dijon_,_ in Burgundy_, 1776, mentions a man whom he saw broke alive on the wheel by, "the executioner and _his mother_, who assisted at this horrid business, these both seemed to enjoy the deadly office."

I have formerly given an account of the Spanish ladies enjoying the barbarities of the bull-fights.]

MISCELLANIES. NUMBER OF SLAIN.

ON that same Saturday morning the dead Swiss, the broken furniture of the palace, and the burning woodwork of the barracks, were all gathered together in a vast heap, and set fire to. I saw this pile at twenty or thirty yards distance, and I was told that some of the women who were spectators took out an arm or a leg that was broiling, to taste: this I did _not see_, but I see no reason for _not believing it_.

On the afternoon of this day, the coffee-houses were, as usual, filled with idle people, who amused themselves with playing at the baby-game of _domino_.

No coaches except fiacres (hackney-coaches) were now to be seen about the streets; the theatres continued on the following mornings to advertise their performances, and in the afternoon fresh advertisements were pasted over these, saying, there would be _relâche au theatre_ (respite, intermission.) A few days after, some of the theatres advertised to perform for the benefit of the families of the slain, but few persons attended the representation, through fear; because the _sans-culottes_ talked of pulling down all the theatres, which, they said, _gataient les moeurs_, (corrupted the morals) of the people.

Ever since the 10th, I knew the barriers had been guarded, to prevent any person from leaving Paris, but I now was informed that that had been the case, three days previous to that day, which may seem to imply that some apprehensions were formed, that violent measures would take place somewhere.

About this time the officers were obliged by the _sans-culottes_ to wear worsted instead of gold or silver shoulder-knots; and no more _cloudy_ carriages were to be seen in the streets.

Portraits of the king, with the body of a hog, and of the queen, with that of a tygress were engraven and publicly sold. A book was published, entitled, _Crimes of Louis_ XVI. the author of which advertised that he was then printing a book of the _Crimes of the Popes_, after which he intended to publish the crimes of all the potentates in Europe.

As I could not get out of Paris, to make any little excursions to nursery and other gardens, to _Vincennes_, to _Montreuil_, and as the inhabitants of Paris were too much alarmed to retain any relish for society, (public places out of the question,) I was desirous of getting away as soon as possible, and applied first to the usual officers for a pass, which was refused. That of _Lord Gower_ (the ambassador) was at this time of no use, but it became so afterwards, as shall be mentioned.

On the Monday (13th August) I wrote a letter of about ten lines to the President of the National Assembly, soliciting a pass. This I carried myself, and sent it in by one of the clerks. The President immediately read the letter, and the Assembly decreed a pass for me; but the next day, when I applied for it to the _comité de surveillance_, (committee of inspection) it, or they, knew nothing of the matter. I then went to the _mairie_ (mayoralty house) but in vain.

Here an officer of the national guard who had been present during the whole of the battle of the 10th, said to me, "La journeé a _eté un peu forte, nous avons eu plus de quinze cens des notres de tués_," (the day was rather warm; we have had more than fifteen hundred of our own people killed.) This was confirmed by many more of the officers there, with whom I had a quarter of an hour's conversation, and they all estimated the number of the slain at above six thousand, which may probably be accounted for in the following manner, but a demonstration is impossible.

Some assert that there were eight hundred Swiss soldiers in the _château_ of the _Tuileries_; others but five hundred: let us take the medium of six hundred and fifty. They had, as every one allows, six and thirty charges each, and they fired till their ammunition was expended. This makes above three and twenty thousand shot, every one of which must have taken place, on a mob as thick as hailstones after a shower: but allowing for the Swiss themselves, who were killed during the engagement, which diminishes the number of shot, and then allowing likewise, that of two thousand persons who were in the palace, we here say nothing of the remaining thirteen or fourteen hundred, most of whom were firing as well as they could, perhaps it may not appear exaggerated to say, that out of above twenty thousand shot, four thousand must have taken place mortally; and this includes the fifteen hundred of the national guard, which were _certainly_ known to be missing. Of the other two thousand five hundred slain, the number could not so correctly be ascertained, as they consisted of citizens without regimentals or uniform, and of _sans-culottes_, none of whom were registered. All the persons in the palace were killed; of these, few, if any, were taken away immediately, whereas when any of the adverse party were killed, there were people enough who were glad of the opportunity of escaping from this slaughter, by carrying away the corpse. We must then reflect on the number of waggons and carts employed all night in the same offices, and then we shall see great reason to double the number of the slain, as has been done in various publications.

No idea of this number could be formed by seeing the field of battle, because several bodies were there lying in heaps, and of the others not above two or three could be seen at a time, as the streets were after the engagement filled with spectators, who walked among and over the carcases.

Of the feelings of these spectators, I judge by my own: I might perhaps have disliked seeing a single dead body, but the great number immediately reconciled me to the sight.

BREECHES. PIKES. NECESSARY PASSPORTS.

ANOTHER particular relative to the _sans-culottes_ is their standard, being an old pair of breeches, which they carry on the top of a pike, thrust through the waistband: the _poissardes_ likewise use the same standard, though it so happened that I never saw it. On the memorable 20th of June last, a pike-man got on the top of the Tuileries, where he waved the ensign, or rather shook the breeches to the populace.

The pike-staves for the army are of different lengths; of six, nine, and twelve feet: by this means three ranks of pike-bearers can use their arms at once, with the points of the three rows of pikes evenly extended.