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[1]An expression of Lafayette's in his address to the Assembly.
[2]Lafayette, "Mémoires," I. 452. -- Malouet (II. 213) states that
there were seventy.
[3]Cf., for example, "Archives Nationales," A.F. II.116. Petition of
228 notables of Montargis.
[4] Petition of the 20,000, so-called, presented by Messrs. Guillaume
and Dupont de Nemours. - Cf.. Mortimer-Ternaux, I. 278. -- According
to Buchez et Roux, the petition containing only 7,411 names.
[5] Mortimer-Ternaux, I.277.
[6] Moniteur, XIII. 89. The act (July 7) is drawn up with admirable
precision and force. On comparing it with the vague, turgid
exaggerations of their adversaries, it seems to measure the
intellectual distance between the two parties.
[7] 339 against 224 -- Rœderer ("Chronique des cinquante jours,"
p.79). "A strong current of opinion by a majority of the inhabitants
of Paris sets in favor of the King." - C. Desmoulins; "That class of
petty traders and shopkeepers, who are more afraid of the
revolutionaries than of so many Uhlans. . . "
[8] Mortimer-Ternaux, I. 236. Letter of Rœderer to the president of
the National Assembly, June 25. "Mr. President, I have the honor to
inform the Assembly that an armed mob is marching towards the
Château."
[9] Mortimer-Ternaux, I. 245, 246. - II. 81, 131, 148, 170.
[10] The murder of M. Duhamel, sub-lieutenant of the national guard.
[11] Letter of Vergniaud and Guadet to the painter Boze (in the
"Mémoires de Dumouriez"). -- Rœderer, "Chronique des cinquante jours,"
295. -- Bertrand de Molleville, "Mémoires," III. 29.
[12] Moniteur, XIII. 155 (session of July 16). -- Mortimer-Ternaux,
II. 69. "Favored by you," says Manuel, "all citizens are entitled to
visit the first functionary of the nation. . . The prince's dwelling
should be open, like a church. Fear of the people is an insult to the
people. If Louis XVI. possessed the soul of a Marcus Aurelius, he
would have descended into his gardens and tried to console a hundred
thousand beings, on account of the slowness of the Revolution. . .
Never had there been fewer thieves in the Tuileries than on that day;
for the courtiers had fled. . .The red cap was an honor to Louis XVI.s
head, and ought to be his crown." At this solemn moment the
fraternization of the king with the people took place, and "the next
day the same king betrayed, calumniated, and disgraced the people!"
Manuel's rigmarole surpasses all that can be imagined. "After this
there arises in the panelings of the Louvre, at the confluence of the
civil list, another channel, which leads through the shades below to
Pétion's dungeon. . . The department, in dealing a blow at the
municipality, explains how, at the banquet of the Law, it represents
the Law in the form of a crocodile, etc."
[13] Moniteur, XIII. 93 (session of July 9); -- 27 (session of July
2).
[14] Moniteur, XII. 751 (session of June 24); XIII.33 (session of July
3).
[15] Moniteur, XIII. 224 (session of July 23). Two unsworn priests had
just been massacred at Bordeaux and their heads carried through the
streets on pikes. Ducos adds: "Since the executive power has put its
veto on laws repressing fanaticism, popular executions begin to be
repeated. If the courts do not render justice, etc." -- Ibid., XIII.
301 (session of July 31).
[16] Moniteur, XIII. 72 (session of July 7). The king's speech to the
Assembly after the Lamourette kiss. "I confess to you, M. President,
that I was very anxious for the deputation to arrive, that I might
hasten to the Assembly."
[17] Moniteur, XIII. 313 (session of Aug. 3). The declaration read in
the king's name must be weighed sentence by sentence; it sums up his
conduct with perfect exactness and thus ends: "What are personal
dangers to a king, from whom they would take the love of his people?
This is what affects me most. The day will come, perhaps, when the
people will know how much I prize its welfare, how much this has
always been my concern and my first need. What sorrows would disappear
at the slightest sign of its return!"
[18] Moniteur, XIII. 33, 56 bis 85, 97 (sessions of July 3, 5, 6 and
9).
[19] Moniteur, XIII. 26, 170, 273 (sessions of July 12, 17, 28). -
Mortimer-Ternaux, II. 122 (session of July 23): Addresses of the
municipal council of Marseilles, of the federates, of the Angers
petitioners, of the Charente volunteers, etc. "A hereditary monarchy
is opposed to the Rights of Man. Pass the act of dethronement and
France is saved. . . Be brave, let the sword of the law fall on a
perjured functionary and conspirator! Lafayette is the most
contemptible, the guiltiest, . . . the most infamous of the assassins
of the people," etc.
[20] Mortimer-Ternaux, II. 126. -- Bertrand de Molleville, III. 294.
[21] Moniteur, XIII. 325 (session of Aug. 3).
[22] Moniteur, XII. 738; XII. 340.
[23] Moniteur, XIII. 170, 171, 187, 208, 335 (sessions of July 17, 18,
and 23, and Aug. 5).
[24] Moniteur, XIII. 187 (session of July 18). "The galleries applaud.
The Assembly murmurs." -- 208 (July 21). "Murmuring, shouts, and cries
of Down with the speaker! from the galleries. The president calls the
house to order five times, but always fruitlessly." -- 224 (July 23).
"The galleries applaud; long continued murmurs are heard in the
Assembly."
[25] Buzot, "Mémoires" (Ed. Dauban, 83 and 84). "The majority of the
French people yearned for royalty and the constitution of 1790. . . It
was at Paris particularly that this desire governed the general plan,
the discussion of it being the least feared in special conversations
and in private society. There were only a few noble-minded, superior
men that were worthy of being republicans. . . The rest desired the
constitution of 1791, and spoke of the republicans only as one speaks
of very honest maniacs."
[26] Duvergier, "Collection des lois et décrets," May 29, 1792; July
15, 16, and 18; July 6-20.
[27] Moniteur, XIII. 25 (session of July 1). Petition of 150 active
citizens of the Bonne-Nouvelle section.
[28] Mortimer-Ternaux, II. 194. Buchez et Roux, XVI. 253. The decree
of dismissal was not passed until the 12th of August, but after the
31St of July the municipality demanded it and during the following
days several Jacobin grenadiers go to the National Assembly, trample
on their bearskin hats and put on the red cap of liberty.
[29] Mortimer-Ternaux, II. 192 (municipal action of Aug. 5).
[30] Decree of July 2.
[31] Mortimer-Ternaux, II. 129. -- Buchez et Roux, XV. 458. According
to the report of the Minister of War, read the 30th of July, at the
evening session, 5,314 department federates left Paris between July 14
and 30. Pétion wrote that the levy of federates then in Paris amounted
to 2,960, "of which 2,032 were getting ready to go to the camp at
Soissons." -- A comparison of these figures leads to the approximate
number that I have adopted
[32] Buchez et Roux, XVI. 120, 133 (session of the Jacobins, Aug. 6).
The federates "resolved to watch the Château, each taking a place in
the battalions respectively of the sections in which they lodge, and
many incorporated themselves with the battalions of the faubourg St
Antoine."
[33] Mercure de France, April 14, 1793.-- " The Revolution," I. p.
332.
[34] Barbaroux, "Mémoires," 37-40. -- Lauront-Lautard, "Marseilles
depuis 1789 jusqu'à 1815," I. 134. "The mayor, Mourdeille," who had
recruited them, "was perhaps very glad to get rid of them." -- On the
composition of this group and on the previous rôle of Rebecqui, see
chapter VI.
[35] Buchez et Roux, XVI. 197 and following pages. -- Mortimer-
Ternaux, II. 148 (the grenadiers numbered only 166). -- Moniteur,
XIII. 310 (session of Aug. 1). Address of the grenadiers: "They swore
on their honor that they did not draw their swords until after being
threatened for a quarter of an hour, then insulted and humiliated,
until forced to defend their lives against a troop of brigands armed
with pistols, and some of them with carbines." -- " The reading of
this memorandum is often interrupted by hooting from the galleries, in
spite of the president's orders." -- Hooting again, when they file out
of the chamber.
[36] The lack of men of action greatly embarrassed the Jacobin party.
("Correspondance de Mirabeau et du Comte de la Marck,2 II. 326.)
Letter of M. de Montmorin, July 13, 1792. On the disposition of the
people of Paris, wearied and worn out "to excess." "They will take no
side, either for or against the king. . . They no longer stir for any
purpose; riots are wholly factitious. This is so right that they are
obliged to bring men from the South to get them up. Nearly all of
those who forced the gates of the Tuileries, or rather, who got inside
of them on the 20th of June, were outsiders or onlookers, got together
at the sight of such a lot of pikes and red caps, etc. The cowards ran
at the slightest indication of presenting arms, which was done by a
portion of the national guard on the arrival of a deputation from the
National Assembly, their leaders being obliged to encourage them by
telling them that they were not to be fired at."
[37] Buchez et Roux, XVI. 447. "Chronique des cinquante jours," by
Rœderer.
[38] Mortimer-Ternaux, II. 378.-127 Jacobins of Arras, led by
Geoffroy and young Robespierre, declare to the Directory that they
mean to come to its meetings and follow its deliberations. "It is time
that the master should keep his eye on his agents." The Directory,
therefore, resigns (July 4, 1792). - Ibid., 462 (report of Leroux,
municipal officer). The Paris municipal council, on the night of
August 9-10 deliberates under threats of death and the furious shouts
of the galleries.
[39] Duvergier's "Collection of Laws and Decrees," July 4, 5-8, 11-12,
25-28. -- Buchez et Roux, XVI. 250. The section of the Theatre
Français (of which Danton is president and Chaumette and Momoro
secretaries) thus interpret the declaration of the country being in
danger. "After a declaration of the country being in danger by the
representatives of the people, it is natural that the people itself
should take back its sovereign supervision."
[40] Schmidt, "Tableaux de la Révolution," I. 99-100. Report to
Roland, Oct. 29, 1792.
[41] Mortimer-Ternaux, II. 199. - Buchez et Roux, XVI. 320. -
Moniteur, XIII. 336 (session of Aug. 5). Speech by Collot d'Herbois.
[42] Moniteur, XI. 20, session of Feb. 4. At this meeting Gorguereau,
reporter of the committee on legislation, had already stated that "The
authors of these multiplied addresses seem to command rather than
demand. . . It is ever the same sections or the same individuals who
deceive you in bringing to you their own false testimony for that of
the capital." - "Down with the reporter! From the galleries." -
Ibid., XIII. 93, session of July 11. M. Gastelier: "Addresses in the
name of the people are constantly read to you, which are not even the
voice of one section. We have seen the same individual coming three
times a week to demand something in the name of sovereignty." (Shouts
of down! down! in the galleries. Ibid., 208, session of July 21. M.
Dumolard: "You must distinguish between the people of Paris and these
subaltern intriguers . . . these habitual oracles of the cafés and
public squares, whose equivocal existence has for a long time occupied
the attention and claimed the supervision of the police." (Down with
the speaker! murmurs and hooting in the galleries).-Mortimer-Ternaux,
II. 398. Protests of the arsenal section, read by Lavoisier (the
chemist): "The caprice of a knot of citizens (thus) becomes the
desire of an immense population."
[43] Buchez et Roux, XVI. 251. - Mortimer-Ternaux, II. 239 and 243.
The central bureau is first opened in "the building of the Saint-
Esprit, in the second story, near the passage communicating with the
common dwelling." Afterwards the commissioners of the section occupy
another room in the Hôtel-de-ville, nearly joining the throne-room,
where the municipal council is holding its sessions. During the night
of August 9-10 both councils sit four hours simultaneously within a
few steps of each other.
[44] Robespierre, "Seventh letter to his constituents," says: "The
sections. . . have been busy for more than a fortnight getting ready
for the last Revolution."
[45] Robespierre, "Seventh letter to his constituents" -- Malouet, II.
233, 234. -- Rœderer, "Chronique des cinquante jours."
[46] Moniteur, XIII. 318, 319. The petition is drawn up apparently by
people who are beside themselves. "If we did not rely on you, I would
not answer for the excesses to which our despair would carry us! We
would bring on ourselves all the horrors of civil war, provided we
could, on dying, drag along with us some of our cowardly assassins!" -
- The representatives, it must be noted, talk in the same vein. La
Source exclaims: "The members here, like yourselves, call for
vengeance!" - Thuriot: "The crime is atrocious!"
[47] Taine is describing a basic trait of human nature, something we
see again and again whether our ancestors attacked small, harmless
neighboring nations, witches, renegades, Jews, or religious people of
another faith .(SR).
[48] Buchez et Roux, XIX 93, session of Sept. 23, 1792. Speech by
Panis: "Many worthy citizens would like to have judicial proof; but
political proofs satisfy us" -- Towards the end of July the Minister
of the Interior had invited Pétion to send two municipal officers to
examine the Tuileries; but this the council refused to do, so as to
keep up the excitement.
[49] Mallet du Pan, "Mémoires," 303. Letter of Malouet, June 29. --
Bertrand de Molleville, "Mémoires," II. 301. -- Hua, 148. -- Weber,
II. 208. -- Madame Campan, "Mémoires," II. 188. Already, at the end of
1791, the king was told that he was liable to be poisoned by the
pastry-cook of the palace, a Jacobin. For three or four months the
bread and pastry he ate were secretly purchased in other places. On
the 14th of July, 1792, his attendants, on account of the threats
against his life, put a breastplate on him under his coat.
[50] member of the 1789 Constituent Assembly. (SR).
[51] Moniteur, VIII. 271, 278. A deputy, excusing his assailants,
pretends that d'Ésprémesnil urged the people to enter the Tuileries
garden. It is scarcely necessary to state that during the Constituent
Assembly d'Espréménil was one of the most conspicuous members of the
extreme "Right." - Duc de Gaëte, "Mémoires," I. 18.
[52] Lafayette, "Mémoires," I. 465.
[53] Moniteur, XIII. 327, -- Mortimer-Ternaux, II. 176.
[54] Moniteur, XIII. 340. -- The style of these petitions is highly
instructive. We see in them the state of mind and degree of education
of the petitioners: sometimes a half-educated writer attempting to
reason in the vein of the Contrat Social; sometimes, a schoolboy
spouting the tirades of Raynal; and sometimes, the corner letter-
writer putting together the expressions forming his stock in trade.
[55] Carra, "Précis historique sur l'origine et les véritables auteurs
de l'insurrection du 10 Août." -- Barbaroux, "Mémoires, 49. The
executive directory, appointed by the central committee of the
confederates, held its first meeting in a wine-shop, the Soleil d'or,
on the square of the Bastille; the second at the Cadran bleu, on the
boulevard; the third in Antoine's room, who then lodged in the same
house with Robespierre. Camille Desmoulins was present at this latter
meeting. Santerre, Westermann, Fournier the American, and Lazowski
were the principal members of this Directory. Another insurrectionary
plan was drawn up on the 30th of July in a wine-shop at Charenton by
Barbaroux, Rebecqui, Pierre Bayle, Heron, and Fournier the American. -
Cf. J. Claretie, "Camille Desmoulins," p. 192. Desmoulins wrote, a
little before the 10th of August: "If the National Assembly thinks
that it cannot save the country, let it declare then, that, according
to the Constitution, and like the Romans, it hands this over to each
citizen. Let the tocsin be rung forthwith, the whole nation assembled,
and every man, as at Rome, be invested with the power of putting to
death all well-known conspirators!"
[56] Mortimer-Ternaux, II. 182. Decision of the Quinze-Vingt Section,
Aug. 4. - Buchez et Roux, XVI. 402-410. History of Quinze-Vingt
Section.
[57] Moniteur. XIII. 367, session of Aug. 8. - Ibid., 369 and
following pages. Session of Aug. 9. Letters and speeches of maltreated
deputies.
[58] Moniteur, 371. Speech of M. Girardin: "I am convinced that most
of those who insulted me were foreigners." -- Ibid., 370. Letter of M.
Frouvières: "Many of the citizens, coming out of their shops,
exclaimed: How can they insult the deputies in this way? Run away! run
off!" -- M. Jolivet, that evening attending a meeting of the Jacobin
Club, states "that the Jacobin tribunes were far from sharing in this
frenzy." He heard "one individual in these tribunes exclaim, on the
proposal to put the dwellings of the deputies on the list, that it was
outrageous." -- Countless other details show the small number and
character of the factions. - Ibid., 374. Speech of Aubert-Dubacet: "I
saw men dressed in the coats of the national guard, with countenances
betraying everything that is most vile in wickedness." There are "a
great many evil-disposed persons among the federates."
[59] Moniteur, XIII. 170 (letter of M. de Joly, Minister of Justice).
- Ibid., 371, declaration of M. Jolivet. - Buchez et Roux, XVI. 370
(session of the Jacobin Club, Aug. 8, at evening). Speech by
Goupilleau.
[60] One may imagine with what satisfaction Lenin, must have read
this description agreeing: "Yes, open voting by a named and identified
count, that is how a leader best can control any assembly." (SR).
[61] Moniteur, XIII. 37o. - Cf. Ibid., the letter of M. Chapron. --
Ibid., 372. Speech by M. A. Vaublanc. -- Moore, "Journal during a
Residence in France," I. 25 (Aug. 10). The impudence of the people in
the galleries was intolerable. There was "a loud and universal peal of
laughter from all the galleries" on the reading of a letter, in which
a deputy wrote that he was threatened with decapitation. -- " Fifty
members were shouting at the same time; the most boisterous night I
ever was witness to in the House of Commons was calmness itself
alongside of this."
[62] Moniteur, Ibid., p. 371. - Lafayette, I. 467. "On the 9th of
August, as can be seen in the unmutilated editions of the Logographe,
the Assembly, almost to a man, arose and declared that it was not
free." Ibid., 478. "On the 9th of August the Assembly had passed a
decree declaring that it was not free. This decree was torn up on the
10th. But it is no that it was passed."
[63] Moniteur, XIII. 370, 374, 375. Speech by Rœderer, letter of M. de
Joly, and speech by Pétion.
[64] Mathieu Dumas, "Mémoires," II. 461.
[65] "Chronique des cinquante jours," by Rœderer. - Mortimer-Ternaux,
II. 260. - Buchez et Roux, XVI. 458. - Towards half-past seven in the
morning there were only from sixty to eighty members present.
(Testimony of two of the Ministers who leave the Assembly.)
[66] Mortimer-Ternaux, II. 205. At the ballot of July 12, not counting
members on leave of absence or delegated elsewhere, and the dead not
replaced, there were already twenty-seven not answering the call,
while after that date three others resigned. -- Buchez et Roux, XVIL
340 (session of Sept. 2, 1792). Hérault de Séchelles is elected
president by 248 out of 257 voters. -- Hua, 164 (after Aug. 10). "We
attended the meetings of the House simply to show that we had not
given them up. We took no part in the discussions, and on the vote
being taken, standing or sitting, we remained in our seats. This was
the only protest we could make."
[67] Mortimer-Ternaux, II. 229, 233, 417 and following pages. M.
Mortimer-Ternaux is the first to expose, with documents to support him
and critical discussion, the formation of the revolutionary commune. -
The six sections referred to are the Lombards, Gravilliers,
Mauconseil, Gobelins, Théatre-Français, and Faubourg Poissonnière.
[68] For instance, the Enfants Rouges, Louvre, Observatoire,
Fontaine-Grenelle, Faubourg Saint-Denis, and Thermes de Julien..
[69] For example, at the sections of Montreuil, Popincourt, and Roi de
Sicile..
[70] For example, Ponceau, Invalides, Sainte-Geneviève.
[71] Mortimer-Ternaux, II. 240.
[72] Mortimer-Ternaux, 446 (list of the commissioners who took their
seats before 9 o'clock in the morning). "Le Tableau général des
Commisaires des 48 sections qui ont composé le conseil général de la
Commune de Paris, le 10 Août, 1792," it must be noted, was not
published until three or four months later, with all the essential
falsifications. It may be found in Buchez et Roux, XVI. 450. --
"Relation de l'abbé Sicard." "At that time a lot of scoundrels, after
the general meeting of the sections was over, passed acts in the name
of the whole assemblage and had them executed, utterly unknown to
those who had done this, or by those who were the unfortunate victims
of these proceedings " (supported by documents).
[73] Mortimer-Ternaux, II. 270, 273. (The official report of Mandat's
examination contains five false statements, either through omission or
substitution.)
[74] Claretie, "Camille Desmoulins," p.467 (notes of Topino-Lebrun on
Danton's trial). Danton, in the pleadings, says: "I left at 1 o'clock
in the morning. I was at the revolutionary commune and pronounced
sentence of death on Mandet, who had orders to fire op the people."
Danton in the same place says: "I had planned the 10th of August." It
is very certain that from 1 to 7 o'clock in the morning (when Mandat
was killed) he was the principal leader of the insurrectional commune.
Nobody was so potent, so overbearing, so well endowed physically for
the control of such a conventicle as Danton. Besides, among the new-
comers he was the best known and with the most influence through his
position as deputy of the syndic-attorney. Hence his prestige after
the victory and appointment as Minister of Justice. His hierarchical
superior, the syndic-attorney Manuel, who was there also and signed
his name, showed himself undoubtedly the pitiful fellow he was, an
affected, crazy, ridiculous loud-talker. For this reason he was
allowed to remain syndic-attorney as a tool and servant. -- Beaulieu,
"Essais sur la Révolution Française," III. 454. "Rossignal boasted of
having committed this assassination himself."
[75] "Pièces intéressantes pour l'histoire," by Pétion, 1793. "I
desired the insurrection, but I trembled for fear that it might not
succeed. My position was a critical one. I had to do my duty as a
citizen without sacrificing that of a magistrate; externals had to be
preserved without derogating from forms. The plan was to confine me in
my own house; but they forgot or delayed to carry this out. Who do you
think repeatedly sent to urge the execution of this measure? Myself;
yes, myself!"
[76] In "Histoire de la Révolution Française" by Ferrand & Lamarque,
Cavaillés, Paris 1851, vol. II. Page 225 we may read the following
footnote: "This very evening, a young artillery lieutenant observed,
from a window of a house in the rue de l'Echelle, the preparations
which were being undertaken in the château des Tuileries: that was
Napoleon Bonaparte. "-Well, right, asked the deputy Pozze di Borgo,
his compatriot, what do you think of what is going on? This evening
they will attack the château. Do you think the people will succeed? -
I don't know, answered the future emperor, but what I can assure you
is that if they gave me the command of two Swiss battalions and one
hundred good horsemen, I should repel the insurgents in a manner which
would for ever rid them of any desire to return." (SR)
[77] Napoleon, at this moment, was at the Carrousel, in the house of
Bourrienne's brother. "I could see conveniently," he says, "all that
took place during the day. . . The king had at least as many troops in
his defense as the Convention since had on the 13th Vendémaire, while
the enemies of the latter were much more formidable and better
disciplined. The greater part of the national guard showed that they
favored the king; this justice must be done to it." (It might be
helpful to some readers to know that when Napoleon refers to the 13th
Vendémaire, (5th Oct. 1795) that was when he, as a young officer was
given the task to defend the Convention against a royalist uprising.
He was quick-witted and got hold of some guns in time, loaded them
with grape-shot, placed them in front of the Parisian church of Saint-
Roch and completely eliminated the superior royalist force. SR.)
[78] Official report of Leroux. On the side of the garden, along the
terrace by the river, and then on the return were "a few shouts of
Vive le roi! many for Vive la nation! Vivent les sans-culottes! Down
with the king! Down with the veto! Down with the old porker! etc. --
But I can certify that these insults were all uttered between the
Pont-Turnant and the parterre, and by about a dozen men, among which
were five or six gunners following the king, the same as flies follow
an animal they are bent on tormenting."
[79] Mortimer-Ternaux, III. 223, 273 -- Letter of Bonnaud, chief of
the Sainte-Marguerite battalion: "I cannot avoid marching at their
head under any pretext . . . Never will I violate the Constitution
unless I am forced to." -- The Gravilliers section and that of the
Faubourg Poissonnière cashiered their officers and elected others.
[80] Mortimer-Ternaux, IV. 342. Speech of Fabre d'Eglantine at the
Jacobin Club, Nov. 5, 1792. "Let it be loudly proclaimed that these
are the same men who captured the Tuileries, broke into the prisons of
the Abbaye, of Orleans and of Versailles."
[81] In this respect the riot of the Champ-de-Mars (July 17, 1791),
the only one that was suppressed, is very instructive: "As the militia
would not as usual ground their arms on receiving the word of command
from the mob, this last began, according to custom, to pelt them with
stones. To be deprived of their Sunday recreational activities, to be
marching through the streets under a scorching sun, and then be remain
standing like fools on a public holiday, to be knocked out with
bricks, was a little more than they had patience to bear so that,
without waiting for an order, they fired and killed a dozen or two of
the raggamuffins. The rest of the brave chaps bolted. If the militia
had waited for orders they might, I fancy, have been all knocked down
before they received any. . . Lafayette was very near being killed in
the morning; but the pistol failed to go off at his breast. The
assassin was immediately secured, but he arranged to be let free"
(Gouverneur Morris, letter of July 20, 1791). Likewise, on the 29th of
August, 1792, at Rouen, the national guard, defending the Hôtel-de-
ville, is pelted with stones more than an hour while many are wounded.
The magistrates make every concession and try every expedient, the
mayor reading the riot act five or six times. Finally the national
guard, forced into it, exclaim: "If you do not allow us to repel force
with force we shall leave." They fire and four persons are killed and
two wounded, and the crowd breaks up. ("Archives Nationales," F7,
2265, official report of the Rouen municipality, Aug. 29; addresses of
the municipality, Aug. 28; letter of the lieutenant-colonel of the
gendarmerie, Aug. 30, etc.).
[82] Official report of Leroux. -- "Chronique des cinquante jours," by
Rœderer. -- "Détails particuliers sur la journée du 10 Aout," by a
bourgeois of Paris, an eye-witness (1822).
[83] Barbaroux, "Mémoires," 69. "Everything betokened victory for the
court if the king had never left his post . . . If he had shown
himself, if he had mounted on horseback the battalions of Paris would
have declared for him."
[84] "Révolution de Paris," number for Aug. 11, 1792. "The 10th of
August, 1792, is still more horrible than the 24th of August, 1572,
and Louis XVI. a greater monster than Charles IX. " -- "Thousands of
torches were found in cellars, apparently placed there to burn down
Paris at a signal from this modern Nero." In the number for Aug.18:
"The place for Louis Nero and for Medicis Antoinette is not in the
towers of the Temple; their heads should have fallen from the
guillotine on the night of the 10th of August." (Special details of a
plan of the king to massacre all patriot deputies, and intimidate
Paris with a grand pillaging and by keeping the guillotine constantly
at work.) "That crowned ogre and his Austrian panther."
[85] Narrative of the Minister Joly (written four days after the
event). The king departs about half-past eight. -- Cf. Madame Campan,
"Mémoires," and Moniteur, XIII. 378.
[86] Révolution de Paris," number for Aug. 18. On his way a sans-
culotte steps out in front of the rows and tries to prevent the king
from proceeding. The officer of the guard argues with him, upon which
he extends his hand to the king, exclaiming: "Touch that hand,
bastard, and you have shaken the hand of an honest man! But I have no
intention that your bitch of a wife goes with you to the Assembly; we
don't want that whore." -- "Louis XVI," says Prudhomme, "kept on his
way without being upset by the with this noble impulse." -- I regard
this as a masterpiece of Jacobin interpretation.
[87] Mortimer-Ternaux, II. 311, 325. The king, at the foot of the
staircase, had asked Rœderer: "what will become of the persons
remaining above? "Sire," he replies, "they seem to be in plain dress.
Those who have swords have merely to take them off, follow you and
leave by the garden." A certain number of gentlemen, indeed, do so,
and thus depart while others escape by the opposite side through the
gallery of the Louvre.
[88] Mathon de la Varenne, "Histoire particulière," etc., 108.
(Testimony of the valet-de-chambre Lorimier de Chamilly, with whom
Mathon was imprisoned in the prison of La Force.
[89] De Lavalette, "Mémoires," I. 81. "We there found the grand
staircase barred by a sort of beam placed across it, and defended by
several Swiss officers, who were civilly disputing its passage with
about fifty mad fellows, whose odd dress very much resembled that of
the brigands in our melodramas. They were intoxicated, while their
coarse language and queer imprecations indicated the town of
Marseilles, which had belched them forth."
[90] Mortimer-Ternaux, II. 314, 317 (questioning of M. de Diesbach).
"Their orders were not to fire until the word was given, and not
before the national guard had set the example."
[91] Buchez et Roux, XVI, 443. Narration by Pétion. - Peltier,
"Histoire du 10 août.
[92] M. de Nicolay wrote the following day, the 11th of August: "The
federates fired first, which was followed by a sharp volley from the
château windows." (Le Comte de Fersen et la cour de France. II. 347.)
[93] Mortimer-Ternaux, II. 491. The abandonment of the Tuileries is
proved by the small loss of the assailants. (List of the wounded
belonging to the Marseilles corps and of the killed and wounded of the
Brest corps, drawn up Oct. 16, 1792. -- Statement of the aid granted
to wounded Parisians, to widows, to orphans, and to the aged, October,
1792, and then 1794.) -- The total amounts to 74 dead and 54 severely
wounded The two corps in the hottest of the fight were the Marseilles
band, which lost 22 dead and 14 wounded, and the Bretons, who lost 2
dead and 5 wounded. The sections that suffered the most were the
Quinze-Vingts (4 dead and 4 wounded), the Faubourg-Montmartre (3
dead), the Lombards (4 wounded), and the Gravilliers (3 wounded). --
Out of twenty-one sections reported, seven declare that they did not
lose a man. -- The Swiss regiment, on the contrary, lost 760 men and
26 officers.
[94] Napoleon's narrative.
[95] Pétion's account.
[96] Prudhomme's "Révolution de Paris," XIII. 236 and 237. -
Barbaroux, 73. - Madame Campan, II. 250.
[97] Mortimer-Ternaux, II. 258. -- Moore, I. 59. Some of the robbers
are killed. Moore saw one of them thrown down the grand staircase.
[98] Michelet, III. 289.
[99] Mercier, "Le Nouveau Paris," II. 108. -- "The Comte de Fersen et
la Cour de France," II. 348. (Letter of Sainte-Foix, Aug. 11). "The
cellars were broken open and more than 10,000 bottles of wine of which
I saw the fragments in the court, so intoxicated the people that I
made haste to put an end to an investigation imprudently begun amidst
2,000 sots with naked swords, handled by them very carelessly."
[100] Napoleon's narrative. -- Memoirs of Barbaroux.
[101] Moniteur, XIII. 387. -- Mortimer-Ternaux, II. 340.
[102] Mortimer-Ternaux, II. 303. Words of the president Vergniaud on
receiving Louis XVI. - Ibid. 340, 342, 350.
[103] Mortimer-Ternaux, 356, 357.
[104] Mortimer-Ternaux, 337. Speech of Huguenin, president of the
Commune, at the bar of the National Assembly: "The people by whom we
are sent to you have instructed us to declare to you that they invest
you anew with its confidence; but they at the same time instruct us to
declare to you that, as judge of the extraordinary measures to which
they have been driven by necessity and resistance to oppression, they
k now no other authority than the French people, your sovereign and
ours, assembled in its primary meetings."
[105] Duvergier, "Collection des lois et décrets," (between Aug. 10
and Sept. 20).
[106] Duvergier, "Collection des lois et décrets," Aug. 11-12. "The
natgional Assembly considering that it has not the right to subject
sovereignty in the formation of a national Convention to imperative
regulations, . . . invites citizens to conform to the following
rules."
[107] August 11 (article 8)
[108] Aug. 10-12 and Aug. 28.
[109] Ibid., Aug. 10, Aug. 13. - Cf. Moniteur, XIII. 399 (session of
Aug. 12).
[110] Ibid., Aug. 18.
[111] Aug. 23 and Sep. 3. After the 11th of August the Assembly
passes a decree releasing Saint-Huruge and annulling the warrant
against Antoine.
[113] Ibid., Aug. 14. Decree for dividing the property of the émigrés
into lots of from two to four arpents, in order to "multiply small
proprietors." -- Ibid., Sept. 2. Other decrees against the émigrés
and their relations, Aug. 14, 23, 30, and Sept. 5 and 9.
[114] Ibid., Aug. 26. Other decrees against the ecclesiastics or the
property of the church, Aug. 17, 18, 19, and Sept. 9 and 19.
[115] Ibid., Sept. 20.
[116] Imagine the impression these last lines may have upon any
ardent, ambitious and arrogant young man who, like Lenin in 1907,
would have read this between 1893 and 1962, date of the last English
reprinting of Taine's once widely know work. They summed up both what
had to be done and who would be the primary beneficiaries of the
revolution. Lenin, Hitler, Mussolini and countless other young hopeful
political men. Read it once more and ask yourself if much of this
program has not been more or less surreptitiously carried out in most
western countries after the second world war? (SR).
[117] Malouet, II. 241.
[118] Mercure de France, July 21, 1792.
[119] "Révolutions de Paris," XIII. 137.
[120] Mallet du Pan. "Mémoires," I. 322. Letters to Mallet du Pan.
Aug. 4 and following days.
[121] Buchez et Roux, XVI. 446. Pétion's narrative. -- Arnault,
"Souvenirs d'un sexagénaire," I. 342. (An eye-witness on the 10th of
August.) "The massacre extended but little beyond the Carrousel, and
did not cross the Seine. Everywhere else I found a population as quiet
as if nothing had happened. Inside the city the people scarcely
manifested any surprise; dancing went on in the public gardens. In the
Marais, where I lived then, there was only a suspicion of the
occurrence, the same as at Saint-Germain; it was said that something
was going on in Paris, and the evening newspaper was impatiently
looked for to know what it was."
[122] Moore, I. 122. -- The same thing is observable at other crises
in the Revolution. On the 6th of October, 1789 (Sainte-Beuve,
"Causeries du Lundi," XII. 461), Sénac de Meilhan at an evening
reception hears the following conversations: "'Did you see the king
pass?' asks one. 'No, I was at the theater.' 'Did Molé play?' -- 'As
for myself; I was obliged to stay in the Tuileries; there was no way
of getting out before 9 o'clock.' 'You saw the king pass then?' 'I
could not see very well; it was dark.' -- Another says: 'It must have
taken six hours for him to come from Versailles.' -- Others coolly add
a few details. -- To continue: 'Will you take a hand at whist?' 'I
will play after supper, which is just ready.' Cannon are heard, and
then a few whisperings, and a transient moment of depression,. 'The
king is leaving the Hôtel-de-ville. They must be very tired.' Supper
is taken and there are snatches of conversation. They play trente et
quarante and while walking about watching the game and their cards
they do some talking: 'What a horrid affair!' while some speak
together briefly and in a low tone of voice. The clock strikes two and
they all leave or go to bed. -- These people seem to you insensible.
Very well; there is not one of them who would not accept death at the
king's feet." -- On the 23d of June, 1791, at the news of the king's
arrest at Varennes, "the Bois de Boulogne and the Champs Elysées were
filled with people talking in a frivolous way about the most serious
matters, while young men are seen, pronouncing sentences of death in
their frolics with courtesans." (Mercure de France, July 9, 1791. It
begins with a little piece entitled Dépit d'un Amant.) - See ch. XI.
for the sentiment of the population in May and June, 1793.
[123] Moniteur, XIII. 290 (July 29) and 278 (July 30).
[124] "Archives Nationales," F7, 145. Letter of Santerre to the
Minister of the Interior, Sept. 16, 1792, with the daily list of all
the men that have left Paris between the3rd and 15th of September, the
total amounting to 18,635, of which 15,504 are volunteers. Other
letters from the same, indicating subsequent departures: Sept. 17,
1,071 men; none the following days until Sept. 21, 243; 22nd 150; up
to the 26th, 813; on Oct. 1st, 113; 2nd and 3rd, 1,088 ; 4th, 1620;
16th, 196, etc. -- I believe that amongst those who leave, some are
passing through Paris coming from the provinces; this prevents an
exact calculation of the number of Parisian volunteers. M. de
Lavalette, himself a volunteer, says 60,000; but he furnishes not
proofs of this.
[125] Mortimer-Ternaux, II. 362.
[112] Ibid., Aug. 14.