Chapter IV: , VII (60)

"Hostilities followed close upon the declaration of war. At
this time the forces destined to come into collision were
posted as follows: Austria had 40,000 men in Belgium, and
25,000 on the Rhine. These numbers might easily have been
increased to 80,000, but the Emperor of Austria did no more
than collect 7,000 or 8,000 around Brisgau, and some 20,000
more around Rastadt. The Prussians, now bound into a close
alliance with Austria, had still a great distance to traverse
from their base to the theatre of war, and could not hope to
undertake active operations for a long time to come. France,
on the other hand, had already three strong armies in the
field. The Army of the North, under General Rochambeau, nearly
50,000 strong, held the frontier from Philippeville to
Dunkirk; General Lafayette commanded a second army of about
the same strength in observation from Philippeville to the
Lauter; and a third army of 40,000 men, under Marshal Luckner,
watched the course of the Rhine from Lauterbourg to the
confines of Switzerland. The French forces were strong,
however, on paper only. The French army had been mined, as it
seemed, by the Revolution, and had fallen almost to pieces.
The wholesale emigration of the aristocrats had robbed it of
its commissioned officers, the old experienced leaders whom
the men were accustomed to follow and obey. Again, the passion
for political discussion, and the new notions of universal
equality had fostered a dangerous spirit of license in the
ranks. … While the regular regiments of the old
establishment were thus demoralised, the new levies were still
but imperfectly organised, and the whole army was unfit to
take the field. It was badly equipped, without transport, and
without those useful administrative services which are
indispensable for mobility and efficiency. Moreover, the
prestige of the French arms was at its lowest ebb. A long and
enervating peace had followed since the last great war, in
which the French armies had endured only failure and
ignominious defeat. It is not strange, then, that the foes
whom France had so confidently challenged, counted upon an
easy triumph over the revolutionary troops. The earliest
operations fully confirmed these anticipations. … France
after the declaration of war had at once assumed the
initiative, and proceeded to invade Belgium. Here the Duke
Albert of Saxe-Teschen, who commanded the Imperialist forces,
held his forces concentrated in three principal corps: one
covered the line from the sea to Tournay; the second was at
Leuze; the third and weakest at Mons. The total of these
troops rose to barely 40,000, and Mons, the most important
point in the general line of defence, was the least strongly
held. All able strategist gathering together 30,000 men from
each of the French armies of the Centre and North, would have
struck at Mons with all his strength, cut Duke Albert's
communications with the Rhine, turned his inner flank, and
rolled him up into the sea. But no great genius as yet
directed the military energies of France. … By Dumouriez's
advice, the French armies were ordered to advance against the
Austrians by several lines. Four columns of invasion were to
enter Belgium; one was to follow the sea coast, the second to
march on Tournay, the third to move from Valenciennes on Mons,
and the fourth, under Lafayette, on Givet or Namur.
{1276}
Each, according to the success it might achieve, was to
reinforce the next nearest to it, and all, finally, were to
converge on Brussels. At the very outset, however, the French
encountered the most ludicrous reverses. Their columns fled in
disorder directly they came within sight of the enemy.
Lafayette alone continued his march boldly towards Namur; but
he was soon compelled to retire by the news of the hasty
flight of the columns north of him. The French troops had
proved as worthless as their leaders were incapable; whole
brigades turned tail, crying that they were betrayed, casting
away their weapons as they ran, and displaying the most abject
cowardice and terror. Not strangely, after this pitiful
exhibition, the Austrians—all Europe, indeed—held the
military power of France in the utmost contempt. … But now
the national danger stirred France to its inmost depths.
French spirit was thoroughly roused. The country rose as one
man, determined to offer a steadfast, stubborn front to its
foes. Stout-hearted leaders, full of boundless energy and
enthusiasm, summoned all the resources of the nation to stem
and roll back the tide of invasion. Immediate steps were taken
to put the defeated and disgraced armies of the frontier upon
a new footing. Lafayette replaced Rochambeau, with charge from
Longwy to the sea, his main body about Sedan; Luckner took the
line from the Moselle to the Swiss mountains, with
head-quarters at Metz. A third general, destined to come
speedily to the front, also joined the army as Lafayette's
lieutenant. This was Dumouriez, who, wearied and baffled by
Parisian politics, sought the freedom of the field."

_A. Griffiths,
French Revolutionary Generals,
chapter 1._

FRANCE: A. D. 1792 (June-August).
The King's dismissal of Girondist ministers.
Mob demonstration of June 20.
Lafayette in Paris.
His failure.
The Country declared to be in Danger.
Gathering of volunteers in Paris.
Brunswick's manifesto.
Mob attack on the Tuileries, August 10.
Massacre of the Swiss.

"Servan, the minister of war, proposed the formation of an
armed camp for the protection of Paris. Much opposition was,
however, raised to the project, and the Assembly decreed (June
6) that 20,000 volunteers, recruited in the departments,
should meet at Paris to take part in the celebration of a
federal festival on July 14, the third anniversary of the fall
of the Bastille. The real object of those who supported the
decree was to have a force at Paris with which to maintain
mastery over the city should the Allies penetrate into the
interior. Louis left the decree unsanctioned, as he had the
one directed against nonjurors. The agitators of the sections
sought to get up an armed demonstration against this exercise
of the King's constitutional prerogative. Though armed
demonstrations were illegal, the municipality offered but a
perfunctory and half-hearted resistance. … Louis, irritated
at the pressure put on him by Roland, Clavière, and Servan, to
sanction the two decrees, dismissed the three ministers from
office (June 13). Dumouriez, who had quarreled with his
colleagues, supported the King in taking this step, but in
face of the hostility of the Assembly himself resigned office
(June 15). Three days later a letter from Lafayette was read
in the Assembly. The general denounced the Jacobins as the
authors of all disorders, called on the Assembly to maintain
the prerogatives of the crown, and intimated that his army
would not submit to see the constitution violated (June 18).
Possibly the dismissal of the ministers and the writing of
this letter were measures concerted between the King and
Lafayette. In any case the King's motive was to excite
division between the constitutionalists and the Girondists, so
as to weaken the national defence. The dismissal of the ministers
was, however, regarded by the Girondists as a proof of the
truth of their worst suspicions, and no measures were taken to
prevent an execution of the project of making an armed, and
therefore illegal, demonstration against the royal policy. On
June 20, thousands of persons, carrying pikes or whatever
weapon came to hand, and accompanied by several battalions of
the national guard, marched from St. Antoine to the hall of
the Assembly. A deputation read an address demanding the
recall of the ministers. Afterwards the whole of the
procession, men, women and children, dancing, singing, and
carrying emblems, defiled through the chamber. Instigated by
their leaders they broke into the Tuileries. The King, who
took his stand on a window seat, was mobbed for four hours. To
please his unwelcome visitors, he put on his head a red cap,
such as was now commonly worn at the Jacobins as an emblem of
liberty, in imitation of that which was once worn by the
emancipated Roman slave. He declared his intention to observe
the constitution, but neither insult nor menace could prevail
on him to promise his sanction to the two decrees. The Queen,
separated from the King, sat behind a table on which she
placed the Dauphin, exposed to the gaze and taunts of the
crowds which slowly traversed the palace apartments. At last,
but not before night, the mob left the Tuileries without doing
further harm, and order was again restored. This insurrection
and the slackness, if not connivance, of the municipal
authorities, excited a widespread feeling of indignation
amongst constitutionalists. Lafayette came to Paris, and at
the bar of the Assembly demanded in person what he had before
demanded by letter (June 28). With him, as with other former
members of the constituent Assembly, it was a point of honour
to shield the persons of the King and Queen from harm. Various
projects for their removal from Paris were formed, but policy
and sentiment alike forbade Marie Antoinette to take advantage
of them. … The one gleam of light on the horizon of this
unhappy Queen was the advance of the Allies. 'Better die,' she
one day bitterly exclaimed, 'than be saved by Lafayette and
the constitutionalists.' There was, no doubt, a possibility of
the Allies reaching Paris that summer, but this enormously
increased the danger of the internal situation. … To rouse
the nation to a sense of peril the Assembly [July 11] caused
public proclamation to be made in every municipality that the
country was in danger. The appeal was responded to with
enthusiasm, and within six weeks more than 60,000 volunteers
enlisted. The Duke of Brunswick, the commander-in-chief of the
allied forces, published a manifesto, drawn up by the
emigrants. If the authors of this astounding proclamation had
deliberately intended to serve the purpose of those Frenchmen
who were bent on kindling zeal for the war, they could not
have done anything more likely to serve their purpose.
{1277}
The powers required the country to submit unconditionally to
Louis's mercy. All who offered resistance were to be treated
as rebels to their King, and Paris was to suffer military
execution if any harm befell the royal family. … Meanwhile,
a second insurrection, which had for its object the King's
deposition, was in preparation. The Assembly, after declaring
the country in danger, had authorised the sections of Paris,
as well as the administrative authorities throughout France,
to meet at any moment. The sections had, in consequence, been
able to render themselves entirely independent of the
municipality. In each of the sectional or primary assemblies
from 700 to 3,000 active citizens had the right to vote, but
few cared to attend, and thus it constantly happened that a
small active minority spoke and acted in the name of an
apathetic constitutional majority. Thousands of volunteers
passed through Paris on their way to the frontier, some of
whom were purposely retained to take part in the insurrection.
The municipality of Marseilles, at the request of Barbaroux, a
young friend of the Rolands, sent up a band of 500 men, who
first sung in Paris the verses celebrated as the
'Marseillaise' [see MARSEILLAISE]. The danger was the greater
since every section had its own cannon and a special body of
cannoneers, who nearly to a man were on the side of the
revolutionists. The terrified and oscillating Assembly made no
attempt to suppress agitation, but acquitted (August 8)
Lafayette, by 406 against 280 votes, of a charge of treason
made against him by the left, on the ground that he had sought
to intimidate the Legislature. This vote was regarded as
tantamount to a refusal to pass sentence of deposition on
Louis. On the following night the insurrection began. Its
centre was in the Faubourg of St. Antoine, and it was
organised by but a small number of men. Mandat, the
commander-in-chief of the national guard, was an energetic
constitutionalist, who had taken well-concerted measures for
the defence of the Tuileries. But the unscrupulousness of the
conspirators was more than a match for his zeal. Soon after
midnight commissioners from 28 sections met together at the
Hotel de Ville, and forced the Council-General of the
Municipality to summon Mandat before it, and to send out
orders to the officers of the guard in contradiction to those
previously given. Mandat, unaware of what was passing, obeyed
the summons, and on his arrival was arrested and murdered.
After this the commissioners dispersed the lawful council and
usurped its place. At the Tuileries were about 950 Swiss and
more than 4,000 national guards. Early in the morning the
first bands of insurgents appeared. On the fidelity of the
national guards it was impossible to rely; and the royal
family, attended by a small escort, left the palace, and
sought refuge with the Assembly [which held its sessions in
the old Riding-School of the Tuileries, not far from the
palace, at one side of the gardens]. Before their departure
orders had been given to the Swiss to repel force by force,
and soon the sound of firing spread alarm through Paris. The
King sent the Swiss instructions to retire, which they
punctually obeyed. One column, passing through the Tuileries
gardens, was shot down almost to a man. The rest reached the
Assembly in safety, but several were afterwards massacred on
their way to prison. For 24 hours the most frightful anarchy
prevailed. Numerous murders were committed in the streets. The
assailants, some hundreds of whom had perished, sacked the
palace, and killed all the men whom they found there."

_B. M. Gardiner,
The French Revolution,
chapter 5._

"Terror and fury ruled the hour. The Swiss, pressed on from
without, paralysed from within, have ceased to shoot; but not
to be shot. What shall they do? Desperate is the moment.
Shelter or instant death: yet How, Where? One party flies out
by the Rue de l'Echelle; is destroyed utterly, 'en entier.' A
second, by the other side, throws itself into the Garden;
'hurrying across a keen fusillade'; rushes suppliant into the
National Assembly; finds pity and refuge in the back benches
there. The third, and largest, darts out in column, 300
strong, towards the Champs Elysées: 'Ah, could we but reach
Courbevoye, where other Swiss are!' Wo! see, in such fusillade
the column 'soon breaks itself by diversity of opinion,' into
distracted segments, this way and that;—to escape in holes,
to die fighting from street to street. The firing and
murdering will not cease: not yet for long. The red Porters of
Hotels are shot at, be they 'Suisse' by nature, or Suisse only
in name. The very Firemen, who pump and labour on that smoking
Carrousel [which the mob had fired]; are shot at; why should
the Carrousel not burn? Some Swiss take refuge in private
houses; find that mercy too does still dwell in the heart of
man. The brave Marseillese are merciful, late so wroth; and
labour to save. … But the most are butchered, and even
mangled. Fifty (some say Fourscore) were marched as prisoners,
by National Guards, to the Hôtel-de-Ville: the ferocious
people bursts through on them, in the Place-de-Greve;
massacres them to the last man. 'O Peuple, envy of the
universe!' Peuple, in mad Gaelic effervescence! Surely few
things in the history of carnage are painfuler. What
ineffaceable red streak, flickering so sad in the memory, is
that, of this poor column of red Swiss, 'breaking itself in
the confusion of opinions'; dispersing, into blackness and
death! Honour to you, brave men; honourable pity, through long
times! Not martyrs were ye; and yet almost more. He was no
King of yours, this Louis; and he forsook you like a King of
shreds and patches: ye were but sold to him for some poor
sixpence a-day; yet would ye work for your wages, keep your
plighted word: The work now was to die; and ye did it. Honour
to you, O Kinsmen; and may the old Deutsch 'Biederkeit' and'
Tapferkeit,' and Valour which is Worth and Truth, be they
Swiss, be they Saxon, fail in no age!"

_T. Carlyle,
The French Revolution,
volume 2, book 6, chapter 7._

ALSO IN:
_A. Thiers,
History of the French Revolution
(American edition), volume 1, pages 266-330._

_Madame Campan,
Memoirs of Marie Antoinette,
volume 2, chapters 9-10._

_J. Claretie,
Camille Desmoulins and his Wife,
chapter 3, sections 4-5._

_A. F. Bertrand de Moleville,
Annals of the French Revolution,
part 2, chapters 18-28 (volumes 6-7)._

_Duchess de Tourzel,
Memoirs,
volume 2, chapters 8-10._

_Count M. Dumas,
Memoirs,
chapter 4 (volume 1)._

{1278}

FRANCE: A. D. 1792 (August).
Power seized by the insurrectionary Commune of Paris.
Dethronement and imprisonment of the King.
Conflict between the Girondins of the Assembly and the
Jacobins of the Commune.
Alarm at the advance of the Prussians.
The searching of the city for suspects.
Arrest of 3,000.

"While the Swiss were being murdered, the Legislative Assembly
were informed that a deputation wished to enter. At the head
of this deputation appeared Huguenin, who announced that a new
municipality for Paris had been formed, and that the old one
had resigned. This was, indeed, the fact. On the departure of
Santerre the commissioners of the sections had given orders to
the legitimate council-general of the municipality to resign,
and the council-general, startled by the events which were
passing, consented. The commissioners then called themselves
the new municipality, and proceeded, as municipal officers, to
send a deputation to the Assembly. The deputation almost
ordered that the Assembly should immediately declare the
king's dethronement, and, in the presence of the unfortunate
monarch himself, Vergniaud mounted the tribune, and proposed,
on behalf of the Committee of Twenty-one, that the French
people should be invited to elect a National Convention to
draw up a new Constitution, and that the chief of the
executive power, as he called the king, should be
provisionally suspended from his functions until the new
Convention had pronounced what measures should be adopted to
establish a new government and the reign of liberty and
equality. The motion was carried, and was countersigned by one
of the king's ministers, De Joly; and thus the old monarchy of
the Bourbons in France came to an end. But the Assembly had
not yet completed its work. The ministry was dismissed, as not
having the confidence of the people, and the Minister of War,
d'Abancourt, was ordered to be tried by the court at Orleans
for treason, in having brought the Swiss Guards to Paris. The
Assembly then prepared to elect new ministers. Roland,
Clavière, and Servan were recalled by acclamation to their
former posts. … Danton was elected Minister of Justice by
222 votes against 60; Gaspard Monge, the great mathematician,
was elected Minister of Marine, on the nomination of
Condorcet; and Lebrun-Tondu, a friend of Brissot and
Dumouriez, and a former abbé, to the department of Foreign
Affairs. At the bidding of the self-elected municipality of
Paris the king had been suspended, and a new ministry
inaugurated, and this new municipality, which, it must be
remembered, only represented 28 sections of Paris, next
proceeded to send its decrees all over France. It was joined
on this very day by some of the extreme men who hoped through
its means to force a republic on France—notably by Camille
Desmoulins and Dubois-Dubais; and on the 11th it was still
further reinforced by the presence of Robespierre,
Billaud-Varenne, and Marat. The Legislative Assembly had
become a mere instrument in the hands of the Committee of
Twenty-one [a committee specially charged with watchfulness
over the safety of the public, and which foreshadowed the
later famous Committee of Public Safety]. The majority of the
deputies either left Paris, or, if they belonged to the right,
hid themselves, while those of the left had to obey every
order of their leaders, and left the transaction of temporary
business to the Committee of Twenty-one. This committee
practically ruled France for forty days, until the meeting of
the Convention; the Assembly always accepted its propositions
and sent the deputies it nominated on important missions; its
only rival was the insurrectionary commune, and the
internecine warfare between the Jacobins and the Girondins was
foreshadowed in the struggle between this Commune and the
Committee of Twenty-one. For, while the extreme Jacobins
filled the new Commune of Paris, the Committee of Twenty-one
consisted of Girondins and Feuillants, Brissot was its
president, Vergniaud its reporter, and Gensonné, Condorcet,
Lasource, Guadet, Lacépède, Lacuèe, Pastoret, Muraire, Delmas,
and Guyton-Morveau were amongst its members. On the evening of
August 10 the Assembly decreed that the difference between
active and passive citizens should be abolished, and that
every Frenchman of the age of 25 should have a vote for the
Convention. … The last sight the king might have seen on the
night of August 10 was his palace of the Tuileries in flames,
where, for mischief, fire had been set to the stables. It
spread from building to building, and the Assembly only took
steps to check it when it threatened to spread to the houses
of the Rue Saint Honoré. … On the day after this terrible
night the king was informed that rooms had been found for him
in the Convent of the Feuillants; and to four monastic cells,
which had not been inhabited since the dissolution of the
monastery two years before, the royal family was led, and
round them was placed a strong guard. Yet they were no more
prisoners in the Convent of the Feuillants than they had been
in the splendid palace of the Tuileries. … The king's
nominal authority was annihilated; but though the course of
events left him a prisoner, it cannot be said that his
influence was diminished, for he had none left to diminish. It
was to the Girondins, rather than to the king, that the
results of August 10 brought unpleasant surprises. … The
real power had gone to the Commune of Paris, and this was very
clearly perceived by Robespierre and by Marat. … Though
Marat was received with the loudest cheers by the
insurrectionary commune, Robespierre was the man who really
became its leader. He had long expected the shock which had
just taken place, and had prepared himself for the crisis. The
first requisition was, of course, for a Convention. This had
been granted on the very first day. The second demand of the
Commune was the safe custody of the king, so that he should
not be able to escape to the army. This was conceded by the
Assembly on August 12, when they ordered that the king and
royal family should be taken to the old tower of the Temple,
and there strictly guarded under the superintendence of the
insurrectionary commune. Lafayette's sudden flight greatly
strengthened the position of the Commune of Paris. …
Relieved from the fear of Lafayette's turning against them,
both the Girondins in the Legislative Assembly and the
Jacobins in the insurrectionary commune turned to the pursuit
of their own special plans, and naturally soon came into
violent collision. … The Girondins were, above all things,
men of ideas; the Jacobins, above all things, practical men:
and of the issue of a struggle between them there could be
little doubt, though, at this period the Girondins had the
advantage of the best position. On August 15 the final blow
was struck at the unfortunate Feuillants, or
Constitutionalists. The last ministers of the king, as well
Duport du Tertre, Bertrand de Moleville, and Duportail, were
all ordered to be arrested, with Barnave and Charles de
Lameth. The Assembly followed up this action by establishing
the special tribunal of August 17, which held its first
sitting on the same evening at the Hotel de Ville.
{1279}
Robespierre was elected president, and refused the office. …
The new tribunal was too slow to satisfy the leaders of the
Commune of Paris, for its first prisoner, Laporte, the old
intendant of the civil list, was not judged until August 21,
and then acquitted. This news made the Commune lose all
patience, and they determined to urge the Assembly to more
energetic measures. Under the pressure of the Commune the
Assembly took vigorous measures indeed. All the leaders of the
émigrés were sequestrated; all ecclesiastics who would not
take the oath were to be transported to French Guiana, and it
was decreed that the National Guard should enlist every man,
whether an active or a passive citizen. Much of this vigour on
the part of the Assembly was due, not only to the pressure of
the Commune, but to the rapid advance of the Prussians. …
The Assembly … decreed that an army of 30,000 men should be
raised in Paris, and that every man who had a musket issued to
him should be punished with death if he did not march at once.
… On August 28, on the motion of Danton, now Minister of
Justice, a general search for arms and suspects was ordered.
The gates of the city were closed on August 30; every street
was ordered to be illuminated; bodies of national guards
entered each house and searched it from top to bottom. Barely
1,000 muskets were seized, but more than 8,000 prisoners were
taken and shut up, not only in the prisons, but in all the
largest convents of Paris, which were turned into houses of
detention. Who should be arrested as a suspect depended
entirely on the municipal officer who happened to examine the
house, and these men acted under the orders of a special
committee established by the Commune, at the head of which sat
Marat. … The residents in Paris at the time of the
Revolution seem to have been more struck by this
house-to-house visitation than by many other events which were
far more horrible."

_H. M. Stephens,
History of the French Revolution,
volume 2, chapter 4._

ALSO IN:
_Grace D. Elliot,
Journal of My Life during the French Revolution,
chapter 4._

_Gouverneur Morris,
Life and Correspondence.,
edited by Sparks, volume 2, pages 203-217._

_G. Long,
France and its Revolutions,
chapter 29._

FRANCE: A. D. 1792 (August).
Lafayette's unsuccessful resistance to the Jacobins.
His withdrawal from France.

"The news of the 10th of August was carried to Lafayette by
one of his own officers who happened to be in Paris on
business. He learned that the throne was overturned and the
Assembly in subjection, but he could not believe that the
cause of the constitutional monarchy was abandoned without a
struggle. He announced to the army the events that had taken
place, and conjured the men to remain true to the king and
constitution. The commissioners despatched by the Commune of
Paris to announce to the different armies the change of
government and to exact oaths of fidelity to it soon arrived
at Sedan within Lafayette's command. The general had them
brought before the municipality of Sedan and interrogated
regarding their mission. Convinced, from their own account,
that they were the agents of a faction which had unlawfully
seized upon power, he ordered their arrest and had them
imprisoned. Lafayette's moral influence in the army and the
country was still so great that the Jacobins knew that they
must either destroy him or win him over to their side. The
latter course was preferred. … The imprisoned commissioners,
therefore, requested a private conference with Lafayette, and
offered him, on the part of their superiors in Paris, whatever
executive power he desired in the new government. It is
needless to say that Lafayette, whose sole aim was to
establish liberty in his country, refused to entertain the
idea of associating himself with the despotism of the mob. He
caused his own soldiers to renew their oath of fidelity to the
king, and communicated with Luckner on the situation. …
Meanwhile, emissaries from the Commune were sent to Sedan to
influence the soldiers by bribes and threats to renounce their
loyalty to their commander. All the other armies and provinces
to which commissioners had been sent had received them and
taken the new oaths. Lafayette found himself alone in his
resistance. His attitude acquired, every day, more the
appearance of rebellion against authorities recognized by the
rest of France. New commissioners arrived, bringing with them
his dismissal from command. The army was wavering between
attachment to their general and obedience to government. On
the 19th of August, the Jacobins, seeing that they could not
win him over, caused the Assembly to declare him a traitor.
Lafayette had now to take an immediate resolution. France had
declared for the Paris Commune. The constitutional monarchy
was irretrievably destroyed. For the general to dispute with
his appointed successor the command of the army was to provoke
further disorders in a cause that had ceased to be that of the
nation and become only his own. Three possible courses
remained open to him,—to accept the Jacobin overtures and
become a part of their bloody despotism; to continue his
resistance and give his head to the guillotine; to leave the
country. He resolved to seek an asylum in a neutral territory
with the hope, as he himself somewhat naively expressed it,
'some day to be again of service to liberty and to France.'
Lafayette made every preparation for the safety of his troops,
placing them under the orders of Luckner until the arrival of
Dumouriez, the new general in command. He publicly
acknowledged responsibility for the arrest of the
commissioners and the defiance of Sedan to the Commune, in
order that the municipal officers who had supported him might
escape punishment. He included in his party his
staff-officers, whose association with him would have
subjected them to the fury of the Commune, and some others who
had also been declared traitors on account of obedience to his
orders. He then made his way to Bouillon, on the extreme
frontier. There, dismissing the escort, and sending back final
orders for the security of the army, he rode with his
companions into a foreign land."

_B. Tuckerman,
Life of Lafayette,
volume 2, chapter 3._

{1280}

FRANCE: A. D. 1792 (August-September).
The September Massacres in the Paris prisons.

The house-to-house search for suspects was carried on during
the night of August 29 and the following day. "The next
morning, at daybreak, the Mairie, the sections, the ancient
prisons of Paris, and the convents that had been converted
into prisons, were crowded with prisoners. They were summarily
interrogated, and half of them, the victims of error or
precipitation, were set at liberty, or claimed by their
sections. The remainder were distributed in the prisons of the
Abbaye Saint Germain, the Conciergerie, the Châtelet, La
Force, the Luxembourg, and the ancient monasteries of the
Bernardins, Saint Firmin, and the Carmes; Bicêtre and the
Salpêtrière also opened their gates to receive fresh inmates.
The three days that followed this night were employed by the
commissaries in making a selection of the prisoners. Already
their death was projected. … "We must purge the prisons, and
leave no traitors behind us when we hasten to the frontiers.'
Such was the cry put into the mouth of the people by Marat and
Danton. Such was the attitude of Danton on the brink of these
crimes. As for the part of Robespierre, it was the same as in
all these crises—on the debate concerning war, on the 20th of
June, and on the 10th of August. He did not act, he blamed;
but he left the event to itself, and when once accomplished he
accepted it as a progressive step of the Revolution. … On
Sunday, the 2d of September, at three o'clock in the
afternoon, the signal for the massacre was given by one of
those accidents that seem so perfectly the effect of chance.
Five coaches, each containing six priests, started from the
Hôtel-de-Ville to the prison of the Abbaye … escorted by
weak detachments of Avignonnais and Marseillais, armed with
pikes and sabers. … Groups of men, women and children
insulted them as they passed, and their escort joined in the
invective threats and outrages of the populace. … The
émeute, increasing in number at every step across the Rue
Dauphine, was met by another mob, that blocked up the
Carrefour Bussy, where municipal officers received enrolments
in the open air. The carriages stopped; and a man, forcing his
way through the escort, sprung on the step of the first
carriage, plunged his saber twice into the body of one of the
priests, and displayed it reeking with blood: the people
uttered a cry of horror. 'This frightens you, cowards!' said
the assassin, with a smile of disdain; 'You must accustom
yourselves to look on death.' With these [words] he again
plunged his saber into the carriage and continued to strike.
… The coaches slowly moved on, and the assassin, passing
from one to the other, and clinging with one hand to the door,
stabbed at random at all he could reach; while the assassins
of Avignon, who formed part of their escort, plunged their
bayonets into the interior; and the pikes, pointed against the
windows, prevented any of the priests from leaping into the
street. The long line of carriages moving slowly on, and
leaving a bloody trace behind them, the despairing cries and
gestures of the priests, the ferocious shouts of their
butchers, the yells of applause of the populace, announced
from a distance their arrival to the prisoners of the Abbaye.
The cortège stopped at the door of the prison, and the
soldiers of the escort dragged out by the feet eight dead
bodies. The priests who had escaped, or who were only wounded,
precipitated themselves into the prison; four of them were
seized and massacred on the threshold. … The prisoners …
cooped up in the Abbaye heard this prelude to murder at their
gates. … The internal wickets were closed on them, and they
received orders to return to their chambers, as if to answer
the muster-roll. A fearful spectacle was visible in the outer
court: the last wicket opening into it had been transformed
into a tribunal; and around a large table—covered with
papers, writing materials, the registers of the prisons,
glasses, bottles, pistols, sabers, and pipes—were seated
twelve judges, whose gloomy features and athletic proportions
stamped them men of toil, debauch or blood. Their attire was
that of the laboring classes. … Two or three of them
attracted attention by the whiteness of their hands and the
elegance of their shape; and that betrayed the presence of men
of intellect, purposely mingled with these men of action to
guide them. A man in a gray coat, a saber at his side, pen in
his hand, and whose inflexible features seemed as though they
were petrified, was seated at the center of the table, and
presided over the tribunal. This was the Huissier Maillard,
the idol of the mobs of the Faubourg Saint Marceau … an
actor in the days of October, the 20th of June, and the 10th
of August. … He had just returned from the Carmes, where he
had organized the massacre. It was not chance that had brought
him to the Abbaye at the precise moment of the arrival of the
prisoners, and with the prison registers in his hand. He had
received, the previous evening, the secret orders of Marat,
through the members of the Comité de Surveillance. Danton had
sent for the registers to the prison, and gone through them;
and Maillard was shown those he was to acquit and condemn. If
the prisoner was acquitted, Maillard said, 'Let this gentleman
be set at liberty'; if condemned, a voice said, 'A la Force.'
At these words the outer door opened, and the prisoner fell
dead as he crossed the threshold. The massacre commenced with
the Swiss, of whom there were 150 at the Abbaye, officers and
soldiers. … They fell, one after another, like sheep in a
slaughter-house. The tumbrils were not sufficient to carry
away the corpses, and they were piled up on each side of the
court to make room for the rest to die: their commander, Major
Reding, was the last to fall. … After the Swiss, the king's
guards, imprisoned in the Abbaye, were judged en masse. …
Their massacre lasted a long time, for the people, excited by
what they had drank—brandy mingled with gun-powder-and
intoxicated by the sight of blood, prolonged their tortures.
… The whole night was scarcely enough to slay and strip
them."

_A. de Lamartine,
History of the Girondists,
book 25 (volume 2)._

"To moral intoxication is added physical intoxication, wine in
profusion, bumpers at every pause, revelry over corpses. …
They dance … and sing the 'carmagnole'; they arouse the
people of the quarter 'to amuse them,' and that they may have
their share of 'the fine fête.' Benches are arranged for
'gentlemen' and others for 'ladies': the latter, with greater
curiosity, are additionally anxious to contemplate at their
ease 'the aristocrats' already slain; consequently, lights are
required, and one is placed on the breast of each corpse.
Meanwhile, slaughter continues, and is carried to perfection.
A butcher at the Abbaye complains that 'the aristocrats die
too quick, and that those only who strike first have the
pleasure of it'; henceforth they are to be struck with the
backs of the swords only, and made to run between two rows of
their butchers, like soldiers formerly running a gauntlet. …
{1281}
All the unfettered instincts that live in the lowest depths of
the heart start from the human abyss at once, not alone the
heinous instincts with their fangs, but likewise the foulest
with their slaver, while both packs fall furiously on women
whose noble or infamous repute brings them before the world;
on Madame de Lamballe, the Queen's friend; on Madame Desrues,
widow of the famous prisoner; on the flower-girl of the
Palais-Royal, who, two years before, had mutilated her lover,
a French guardsman, in a fit of jealousy. Ferocity here is
associated with lubricity to add profanation to torture, while
life is attacked through attacks on modesty. In Madame de
Lamballe, killed too quickly, the libidinous butchers could
only outrage a corpse, but for the widow, and especially the
flower-girl, they imagine the same as a Nero the fire-circle
of the Iroquois. … At La Force, Madame de Lamballe is cut to
pieces. I cannot transcribe what Charlot, the hair-dresser,
did with her head. I merely state that another wretch, in the
Rue Saint-Antoine, bore off her heart and 'ate it.' They kill
and they drink, and drink and kill again. … As the prisons
are to be cleaned out, it is as well to clean them all out,
and do it at once. After the Swiss, priests, the aristocrats,
and the 'white-skin gentlemen,' there remain convicts and
those confined through the ordinary channels of justice,
robbers, assassins, and those sentenced to the galleys in the
Conciergerie, in the Châtelet, and in the Tour St. Bernard,
with branded women, vagabonds, old beggars and boys confined
in Bicêtre and the Salpétrière. They are good for nothing,
cost something to feed, and, probably, cherish evil designs.
… This time, as the job is more foul, the broom is wielded
by fouler hands. … At the Salpétrière, 'all the bullies of
Paris, former spies, … libertines, the rascals of France and
all Europe, prepare beforehand for the operation,' and rape
alternates with massacre. … At Bicêtre, however, it is crude
butchery, the carnivorous instinct alone satisfying itself.
Among other prisoners are 43 youths of the lowest class, from
17 to 19 years of age, placed there for correction by their
parents, or by those to whom they are bound. … These the
band falls on, beating them to death with clubs. … There are
six days and five nights of uninterrupted butchery, 171
murders at the Abbaye, 169 at La Force, 223 at the Châtelet,
328 at the Conciergerie, 73 at the Tour-Saint-Bernard, 120 at
the Carmelites, 79 at Saint-Firmin, 170 at Bicêtre, 35 at the
Salpétrière; among the dead, 250 priests, 3 bishops or
archbishops, general officers, magistrates, one former
minister, one royal princess, belonging to the best names in
France, and, on the other side, one negro, several low class
women, young scape-graces, convicts, and poor old men. …
Fournier, Lazowski, and Bécard, the chiefs of robbers and
assassins, return from Orleans with 1,500 cut-throats. On the
way they kill M. de Brissac, M. de Lessart, and 42 others
accused of 'lèse-nation,' whom they arrested from their
judges' hands, and then, by way of surplus, 'following the
example of Paris,' 21 prisoners taken from the Versailles
prisons. At Paris the Minister of Justice thanks them, the
Commune congratulates them, and the sections feast them and
embrace them. … All the journals approve, palliate, or keep
silent; nobody dares offer resistance. Property as well as
lives belong to whoever wants to take them. … Like a man
struck on the head with a mallet, Paris, felled to the ground,
lets things go; the authors of the massacre have fully
attained their ends. The faction has fast hold of power, and
will maintain its hold. Neither in the Legislative Assembly
nor in the Convention will the aims of the Girondists be
successful against its tenacious usurpation. … The Jacobins,
through sudden terror, have maintained their illegal
authority; through a prolongation of terror they are going to
establish their legal authority. A forced suffrage is going to
put them in office at the Hotel-de-Ville, in the tribunals, in
the National Guard, in the sections, and in the various
administrations."

_H. A. Taine,
The French Revolution,
book 4, chapter 9 (volume 2)._

ALSO IN:
_A. Thiers,
History of the French Revolution,
(American edition.), volume 1, pages 350-368._

_Sergent Marceau,
Reminiscences of a Regicide,
chapter 9._

_A. Dobson,
The Princess de Lamballe
("Four Frenchwomen," chapter 3)._

_The Reign of Terror: A collection of Authentic
Narratives, volume 2._

_J. B. Cléry,
Journal of Occurrences at the Temple._

_Despatches of Earl Gower,
pages 225-229._

FRANCE: A. D. 1792 (September-November).
Meeting of the National Convention.
Abolition of royalty.
Proclamation of the Republic.
Adoption of the Era of the Republic.
Establishment of absolute equality.
The losing struggle of the Girondists with the Jacobins of the
Mountain.

"It was in the midst of these horrors [of the September
massacres] that the Legislative Assembly approached its
termination. … The National Convention began [September 22]
under darker auspices. … The great and inert mass of the
people were disposed, as in all commotions, to range
themselves on the victorious side. The sections of Paris,
under the influence of Robespierre and Marat, returned the
most revolutionary deputies; those of most other towns
followed their example. The Jacobins, with their affiliated
clubs, on this occasion exercised an overwhelming influence
over all France. … At Paris, where the elections took place
on the 2d September, amidst all the excitement and horrors of
the massacres in the prisons, the violent leaders of the
municipality, who had organized the revolt of August 10th,
exercised an irresistible sway over the citizens. Robespierre
and Danton were the first named, amidst unanimous shouts of
applause; after them Camille Desmoulins, Tallien, Osselin,
Freron, Anacharsis Clootz, Fabre d'Eglantine, David, the
celebrated painter, Collot d'Herbois, Billaud Varennes,
Legendre, Panis, Sergent, almost all implicated in the
massacres in the prisons, were also chosen. To these was added
the Duke of Orleans, who had abdicated his titles, and was
called Philippe Égalité. … The most conservative part of the
new Assembly were the Girondists who had overturned the
throne. From the first opening of the Convention, the
Girondists occupied the right, and the Jacobins the seats on
the summit of the left; whence their designation of 'The
Mountain' was derived. The former had the majority of votes,
the greater part of the departments having returned men of
comparatively moderate principles. But the latter possessed a
great advantage, in having on their side all the members of
the city of Paris, who ruled the mob, … and in being
supported by the municipality, which had already grown into a
ruling power in the state, and had become the great centre of
the democratic party.
{1282}
A neutral body, composed of those members whose principles
were not yet declared, was called the Plain, or, Marais; it
ranged itself with the Girondists, until terror compelled its
members to coalesce with the victorious side. … The two
rival parties mutually indulged in recriminations, in order to
influence the public mind. The Jacobins incessantly reproached
the Girondists with desiring to dissolve the Republic; to
establish three-and-twenty separate democratic states, held
together, like the American provinces, by a mere federal
union. … Nothing more was requisite to render them in the
highest degree unpopular in Paris, the very existence of which
depended on its remaining, through all the phases of government,
the seat of the ruling power. The Girondists retorted upon
their adversaries charges better founded, but not so likely to
inflame the populace. They reproached them with endeavouring
to establish in the municipality of Paris a power superior to
the legislature of all France, with overawing the
deliberations of the Convention by menacing petitions, or the
open display of brute force; and secretly preparing for their
favourite leaders, Danton, Robespierre, and Marat, a
triumvirate of power, which would speedily extinguish all the
freedom which had been acquired. The first part of the
accusation was well-founded even then; of the last, time soon
afforded an ample confirmation. The Convention met at first in
one of the halls of the Tuileries, but immediately adjourned
to the Salle du Ménage, where its subsequent sittings were
held. Its first step was, on the motion of the Abbé Gregoire,
and amidst unanimous transports, to declare Royalty abolished
in France, and to proclaim a republic; and by another decree
it was ordered, that the old calendar taken from the year of
Christ's birth should be abandoned, and that all public acts
should be dated from the first year of the French republic.
This era began on the 22d September 1792. [See, also, below:
A. D. 1793 (OCTOBER).] … A still more democratic
constitution than that framed by the Constituent and
Legislative Assemblies was at the same time established. All
the requisites for election to any office whatever were, on
the motion of the Duke of Orleans, abolished. It was no longer
necessary to select judges from legal men, nor magistrates
from the class of proprietors. All persons, in whatever rank,
were declared eligible to every situation; and the right of
voting in the primary assemblies was conferred on every man
above the age of 21 years. Absolute equality, in its literal
sense, was universally established. Universal suffrage was the
basis on which government rested." The leaders of the
Girondists soon opened attacks upon Robespierre and Marat,
accusing the former of aspiring to a dictatorship, and also
holding him responsible, with Marat and Danton, for the
September massacres; but Louvet and others who made the attack
were feebly supported by their party. Louvet "repeatedly
appealed to Pétion, Vergniaud, and the other leaders, to
support his statements; but they had not the firmness boldly
to state the truth. Had they testified a fourth part of what
they knew, the accusation must have been instantly voted, and
the tyrant crushed at once. As it was, Robespierre, fearful of
its effects, demanded eight days to prepare for his defence.
In the interval, the whole machinery of terror was put in
force. The Jacobins thundered out accusations against the
intrepid accuser, and all the leaders of the Mountain were
indefatigable in their efforts to strike fear into their
opponents. … By degrees the impression cooled, fear resumed
its sway, and the accused mounted the tribune at the end of
the week with the air of a victor. … It was now evident that
the Girondists were no match for their terrible adversaries.
The men of action on their side, Louvet, Barbaroux, and
Lanjuinais, in vain strove to rouse them to the necessity of
vigorous measures in contending with such enemies. Their
constant reply was, that they would not be the first to
commence the shedding of blood. Their whole vigour manifested
itself in declamation, their whole wisdom in abstract
discussion. They had now become humane in intention, and
moderate in counsel, though they were far from having been so
in the earlier stages of the Revolution. … They were too
honourable to believe in the wickedness of their opponents,
too scrupulous to adopt the measures requisite to disarm, too
destitute of moral courage to be able to crush them. … The
Jacobins … while they were daily strengthening and
increasing the armed force of the sections at the command of
the municipality, … strenuously resisted the slightest
approach towards the establishment of any guard or civic force
for the defence of the Convention. … Aware of their weakness
from this cause, the Girondists brought forward a proposal for
an armed guard for the Convention. The populace was
immediately put in motion," and the overawed Convention
abandoned the measure. "In the midst of these vehement
passions, laws still more stringent and sanguinary were passed
against the priests and emigrants. … First, it was decreed
that every Frenchman taken with arms in his hands against
France should be punished with death; and soon after, that
'the French emigrants are forever banished from the territory
of France, and those who return shall be punished with death.'
A third decree directed that all their property, movable and
immovable, should be confiscated to the service of the state.
These decrees were rigidly executed: and though almost
unnoticed amidst the bloody deeds which at the same period
stained the Revolution, ultimately produced the most lasting
and irremediable effects. At length the prostration of the
Assembly before the armed sections of Paris had become so
excessive, that Buzot and Barbaroux, the most intrepid of the
Girondists, brought forward two measures which, if they could
have been carried, would have emancipated the legislature from
this odious thraldom. Buzot proposed to establish a guard,
specially for the protection of the Convention, drawn from
young men chosen from the different departments. Barbaroux at
the same time brought forward four decrees. … By the first,
the capital was to cease to be the seat of the legislature,
when it lost its claim to their presence by failing to protect
them from insult. By the second, the troops of the Fédérés and
the national cavalry were to be charged, along with the armed
sections, with the protection of the legislature. By the
third, the Convention was to constitute itself into a court of
justice, for the trial of all conspirators against its
authority. By the fourth, the Convention suspended the
municipality of Paris. … The Jacobins skilfully availed
themselves of these impotent manifestations of distrust, to
give additional currency to the report that the Girondists
intended to transport the seat of government to the southern
provinces. This rumour rapidly gained ground with the
populace, and augmented their dislike at the ministry. … All
these preliminary struggles were essays of strength by the two
parties, prior to the grand question which was now destined to
attract the eyes of Europe and the world. This was the trial
of Louis XVI."

_Sir A. Alison,
History of Europe,
chapter 8 (volume 3)._

ALSO IN:
_G. H. Lewes,
Life of Robespierre,
chapter 16._

_A. de Lamartine,
History of the Girondists,
books 29-31._

_C. D. Yonge,
History of France under the Bourbons,
chapter 43 (volume 4)._

_J. Moore,
Journal in France, 1792,
volume 2._

{1283}

FRANCE: A. D. 1792 (September-December).
The war on the northern frontier.
Battle of Valmy.
Retreat of the invading army.
Custine in Germany and Dumouriez in the Netherlands.
Annexation of Savoy and Nice.
The Decree of December 15.
Proclamation of a republican crusade.