Page images
PDF
EPUB

СНАР.

VI.

1789.

6.

Fresh tumults. Oct. 23.

But notwithstanding this enactment, the people, who never thought it could be carried into execution, would not relinquish without a struggle the agreeable office of public executioners. Two robbers were seized by them, under pretence that the tribunals were too slow in executing justice, and hung upon the spot; a third was on the point of being strangled, when Lafayette arrived with his grenadiers, and inflicted a summary chastisement on those self-constituted authorities. Shortly after, he suppressed, with equal vigour and courage, a dangerous revolt of the armed guard of Paris, which was already beginning to form a nucleus to the disaffected. Yet, even at the time that he was daily exposing his life in his efforts to restore the force of the laws, he was proclaiming, from the tribunal of the National Assembly, the dangerous doctrine, that "when the people are oppressed, insurrection Amis, iii. becomes the most sacred of duties." How often do expressions, incautiously used, produce consequences which life bravely exposed is unable to prevent! With profound Buzot, 174. wisdom Homer styled words "winged:"* deeds are limited to a spot; expressions make the circuit of the globe.1

1 Deux

324, 326.

Lac. vii. 263, 267,

269. Th.

i. 192.

7.

Virtual

captivity

insults to

are exposed.

The King, Queen, and whole royal family, were no sooner settled at the Tuileries than they received convinof the royal cing proof, not only that they were state prisoners, but family, and that they were liable to the most humiliating insults which they from the lowest of the populace. On the morning after their arrival, the same impassioned viragoes who had bestridden the cannon in the frightful procession of the preceding day, assembled under the Queen's windows, and insisted that she should show herself. No sooner did she appear than they overwhelmed her with reproaches, to which she answered with such gentleness and dignity that an involuntary burst of applause was elicited from the multitude. Aware, however, to what a degree she was the object of jealousy to the popular leaders, a committee of the constitutionalists, or middle party in the * “Έπεα πτερόεντα.”

VI.

1789.

Assembly, suggested to the Queen, by means of the CHAP. Duchess de Luynes, that, till the constitution at least was formed, she should retire from France. But Marie Antoinette immediately answered-"I am well aware of your motives, but I will never separate myself from my husband; if necessary, I would willingly sacrifice my life in his behalf; but the throne is what they seek to destroy, and therefore my departure, when he remained, would be an act of cowardice on my part without benefiting him." The royal family were watched by the national guard and Gardes Françaises, who were entirely in the interest of the Revolutionists, and night and day they were so closely observed, and such a crowd surrounded the Tuileries, that they never attempted to go out, and all thoughts of escape were out of the question. On one subsequent occasion, when the King endeavoured to go to St Cloud April 17, to hunt, the populace assembled at the gates of the gardens of the Tuileries, and cut the traces of the carriage, without Lafayette, who was present, either venturing or being able to interfere. So gross were the insults to which the Queen was exposed, when she went to the windows to take the 1 Campan, air, that she soon ceased to do so, and occupied herself ii. 87, 93. entirely with the education of her children, to which she Vie de Marie paid the most unremitting attention; or, like Queen Mary i. 241. at Lochleven, in large pieces of needle-work, one of which 1, 7. long adorned an apartment in the palace.1

1791.

Montjoye,

Antoinette,

Weber, ii.

of the Dau

the Queen.

The dauphin, who was now of an age to receive im- 8. pressions of external things, and who was of a serene, Anecdotes contemplative character, was profoundly afflicted by the phin, and sudden change which the royal family experienced on serenity of their removal to Paris. The ancient dilapidated furniture of the rooms, which had not been inhabited for a very long period; the absence of all their wonted comforts; above all, the disappearance of the body guard, and the substitution of entirely new faces in the service of the palace, filled him with astonishment. He repeatedly asked its cause. "My son," said the Queen, "the

On

CHAP. King has now no other guards but the hearts of the VI. French!" Louis one day took him on his knee, and 1789. explained to his infant mind the history of the Revolution in terms so clear, and yet just, that no account of equal value, in a similar space, has yet been given.* another occasion, one of the ladies of the court having observed that some one was as happy as a queen; the dauphin said, “Surely it is not mamma that you mean when you speak thus." Why," said Madame de Neuville, "is the mamma of your Royal Highness not happy?" Looking then carefully around him, to see that he was not overheard, he said, "No, she is not happy, she weeps all the night." This first explained to the ladies in the palace the cause of the red and inflamed eyes of the Queen; for such was her strength of mind ii. 89, 90. that she was never seen during the day but with a serene countenance, and generally a smile on her lips.1

1 Weber,

ii. 7, 8. Campan,

9.

the Assem

the Jacobin

The Assembly, after its translation to Paris, at first Meeting of held its sittings in one of the halls of the Archbishop's bly and of palace. The first meeting there took place on the 19th club in their October, the Assembly having been adjourned in the new halls. intervening period. Imposing ceremonies attended its installation in its new place of meeting: deputations from the municipality of Paris, headed by Bailly, and from the national guard, by Lafayette, presented themselves to congratulate the Assembly on its arrival in the capital; and the deputies, in a body, waited on the King to renew their protestations of fidelity. The

* Louis le prit sur ses génoux, et lui dit, à peu de mots près, ce qui suit :— "Mon enfant, j'ai voulu rendre le peuple encore plus heureux qu'il ne l'était; j'ai eu besoin d'argent pour payer les dépenses occasionnées par les guerres. J'en ai demandé à mon peuple, comme l'ont toujours fait mes prédécesseurs : des magistrats qui composent le parlement s'y sont opposés, et ont dit que mon peuple avait seul le droit d'y consentir. J'ai assemblé à Versailles les premiers de chaque ville par leur naissance, leur fortune, ou leurs talens; voilà ce qu'on appelle les Etats-Généraux. Quand ils ont été assemblés, ils m'ont demandé des choses que je ne puis faire, ni pour moi, ni pour vous, qui serez mon successeur; il s'est trouvé des méchans qui ont fait soulever le peuple; et les excès où il s'est porté les jours derniers, sont leur ouvrage ; il ne faut pas en vouloir au peuple."-MADAME CAMPAN, ii. 89, 90.

VI.

1789.

Queen, with the Dauphin in her arms, went through their CHAP. ranks many tears were shed at the touching spectacle. But an ominous event occurred on the same day. The club Breton, which, as already noticed, contained all the extreme revolutionary characters,* hitherto however confined to members of the States-general, followed the Assembly from Versailles, and established its sittings in the library of the convent of the JACOBINS, in the Rue St Honoré, which thenceforward gave its name, since become imperishable, to the club. From this time admission was given to all persons who were recommended by two members of the society as fit to belong to it. 1 Moniteur, Their sittings were so far secret, that no one could be Oct. 15 and admitted but by tickets of admission; but they were 308. Hist. freely given to all persons of known republican principles, 188, 189. especially if distinguished by their talents for writing or iii. 304, 305. public speaking.1

19, 1789, p.

Parl. iii.

Deux Amis,

10.

execution

Favras.

The Baron de Besenval, in whose favour M. Necker had so generously interfered on his return to Paris, was Trial and shortly after tried before the High Court of Châtelet, and of the Maracquitted. In preparing for his defence, his counsel had quis de urged him to make use of a document signed by the hand of the King, which authorised him to repel force by force. "God forbid," said he, "that I should purchase life by endangering so excellent a monarch!" and tore the writing in pieces. The Marquis de Favras was some time after brought before the same tribunal, and the indignation of the people at the former acquittal was such, that from the beginning of the trial his fate was apparent. The crime laid to his charge was of the most absurd and incredible description-that of having entered into a conspiracy to overturn the constitution -and it was unsupported by any adequate evidence. But he was condemned by a tribunal which was intimidated by a ferocious multitude, who never ceased exclaiming, even in the hall of justice, "A la lanterne! A la

* Ante, chap. iv. § 38.

VI.

1790. Feb. 19, 1790.

CHAP. lanterne!" On the day of his execution he was conducted at three in the morning, clothed in a white shirt, to the Place de Grève, where, with a torch in his hand, he read with a firm voice his sentence of death, and died with heroic firmness, protesting his innocence to the last -the first victim of JUDICIAL INIQUITY which the Revolution had produced. He admitted having received a hundred louis from a nobleman of high rank,* but refused to divulge his name, and uniformly declared that he was no further implicated in any conspiracy. So evident was the injustice practised in this trial that it attracted the notice, and excited the fear, even of the supporters of the Revolution, by whom it was justly regarded as of sinister augury thus to sacrifice an innocent man to a supposed state necessity. The people assembled in vast crowds, and with savage joy, to witness his punishment, though it was conducted at midnight Feb. 20, by torchlight. The unusual spectacle of a marquis being 1789. Prud. hanged, a punishment unknown for persons of that rank la Rév. iii. heretofore, was a visible proof of the equality in condition which the Revolution had occasioned; and, after it was over, brutal jests and innumerable parodies on the mode of his execution were heard in every strect.1

1 Moniteur,

Crimes de

187, 188.

Th. i. 210,

211. Lac.vii. 271, 275.

11.

departments

The first great legislative measure of the Assembly Division of was directed against the rising jealousies of the provinces. France into These little states, proud of their ancient privileges, had and muni beheld with profound regret the extinction of their rights lishments, and importance in the increasing sovereignty of the National Assembly, and were in some places taking measures to counteract its influence. To put a stop to their

cipal estab

Jan. 9, 1790.

* He was afterwards understood to have been Monsieur the Comte d'Artois. -See MICHELET, Histoire de la Révolution, i. 64.

"Votre vie est un sacrifice nécessaire à la tranquillité publique,' furent les expressions sorties de la bouche du rapporteur Quatremère, et adressés au Marquis. Le supplice du Marquis de Favras fut regardé comme le plus sinistre augure pour une révolution naissante, et ce pressentiment fut trop vérifié dans le temps. Les bons citoyens frémirent de voir la cour et l'Assemblée Constituante laisser naître un crime juridique, et le crime justifier par les circonstances."-PRUDHOMME, iii. 156; and Révolutions de Paris, No. 32, pp. 31, 32.

« PreviousContinue »