CHAP. will not endure that this new tribunal should VIII. 1792. 1 Hist. Parl. preserve the forms hitherto observed. The appeal from one jurisdiction to another occasions an intolerable delay; it is absolutely xvii. 76, 80. necessary that the tribunal should be composed of deputies Aug. 16. chosen from the sections, and that it should have the Moniteur, Th. iii. 26. Lac. i. 281. power of decreeing, without appeal, the last punishment of the law."1 13. of the Revo lutionary Tribunal. Aug. 17. The Assembly in vain strove to resist these sanguinary Institution demands. As they continued to temporise, the Commune sent them the most menacing messages, threatening to sound the tocsin at night if the public vengeance was any longer delayed. "I demand," said the orator of the municipality, "that before separating you appoint a citizen for each section of Paris, to form a criminal tribunal. I demand that it shall hold its sittings at the Chateau of the Tuileries. I demand that Louis XVI. and Marie Antoinette, who thirst so for blood, be satiated by seeing it flow from their infamous satellites. The people are tired of the delay of vengeance: beware of their taking the sword into their own hands. If within two hours the jury is not ready to convict, the most terrible calamities await Paris." Intimidated by these menaces, the Assembly appointed a tribunal for the trial of these offenders, the first model of the court afterwards so well known under the name of the Revolutionary Tribunal. Its composition was such as at once threw the entire direction of the proceedings into the hands of the extreme Jacobin faction. It was decreed that the court should consist of two chambers, each of four judges, with a public accuser and other officers; the decisions to be Mig. i. 201. by the verdict of a jury. The court was to punish by and the judges, jury, public 2 Decree, Aug. 17. Lac. Pr. Hist. i. 277. death, and without appeal: Th. iii. 27. xvii. 91, 94, Hist. Parl. accusers, and all the officers, were to be appointed by the 96. universal suffrage of the whole electors of the forty-eight sections of Paris.2 the Such was the vehemence of revolutionary passion, and energy of revolutionary action at this period, that VIII. 1792. 14. and first pro ceedings of Revolu tionary Tri this terrible tribunal was appointed, constituted, and in CHAP. complete activity in a few days. The forty sections of Paris met, and chose the judges, accusers, and juries, in terms of the decree of the 17th August. Robespierre was Formation offered the situation of president: he refused it, and it was bestowed on Pepin Desgrouettes, an attorney of the the Revi most abandoned character, and a worthy head of such bunal. a tribunal. Osselin, d'Aubigny, Dubail, Coffinhal, Lullier, and Cailler de l'Estaing, were the judges or public accusers with him-all of them men as notorious for the former profligacy or cupidity of their lives, as they and their successors became afterwards for the insatiable thirst for blood by which their dreadful career was distinguished. The mode by which this court succeeded in convicting and executing so many persons, was by sustaining vague charges of a conspiracy against the state, or the sovereign power of the people, and admitting, as 1 Deux evidence of accession to such a conspiracy, the slightest Amis, viii. words or deeds indicating a wish to revert to constitu- Bert. de tional government, or withstand the self-constituted des- 215, 216. potism of the multitude.1 276, 278. Moll. ix. victims, and tine. The revolutionary tribunal was organised on the 19th 15. August, and instantly entered on the discharge of its Its first functions. The public accusers sent a municipal officer option of at the head of a battalion of the national guard, and the guilloanother of Marseillais, who, under pretext of searching for the Swiss and the rebels against the sovereign power of the people on the 10th August, made domiciliary visits over all Paris, Versailles, and for six leagues round, searching every house, every office, every wood. numbers of persons were arrested, and the first person brought to trial was D'Anglermont, accused of being an agent of the court, who died with heroic courage on the Place du Carrousel on the 21st August. * The next was Great * He was the first victim of the Revolution who suffered by the guillotine. It was from that time made use of for all the executions in France.-Histoire de la Guillotine, i. 94. VIII. 1792. CHAP. the venerable Laporte, intendant of the civil list, charged with having placarded and distributed anti-popular handbills. He was quickly condemned, and turning to the people, he said "I die innocent. Citizens, may my death restore peace to the empire, and terminate your intestine divisions. May the sentence which deprives me of life be the last unjust sentence this tribunal is ever to pronounce!" He then turned aside, and a few tears fell from his eyes; but instantly regaining his Amis, viii. composure, he ascended the scaffold with a firm step, and died, says the Republican historian, "with the 221, 222. serenity of one who had never loved life but to communicate happiness to all around him."1 1 Deux 178, 180. Bert, de Moll. ix. 16. Death of Bachman and Durosoi. The next victim was M. Le Baron Bachman, commandant of the Swiss Guard, which had combated in the Carrousel, and he was, of course, condemned amidst shouts of savage exultation from the multitude who thronged the court. His noble figure, martial air, and undaunted manner, commanded, however, respect even in that den of assassins" My death will be avenged," were his last words. He died with a heroism worthy of his station as leader of that noble band. History must assign him a place by the side of Leonidas. Durosoi, editor of the Gazette de Paris, a Royalist journal, was the next victim. He heard with firmness his sentence, which ordered him to be executed on the 25th August, and left the court exclaiming- I glory in dying on the day of St Louis, for my religion and my king." To render the punishment more impressive, he was led by torchlight, at nine at night, to the place of execution in the Place of the Carrousel. On reaching the foot of the scaffold, a letter was put into his hands from a young woman to whom he was attached, which said,-"My friend, you are conAmis, viii. demned! Prepare for death. My soul is torn; but you know what I have promised you." On reading these words, tears fell from his eyes. "Alas!" said he, Aug. 25. 2 Weber, ii. 250, 251, and 571, 572. Deux 279, 280. Bert, de Moll. ix. 202, 204. 2 "she will suffer under it more than I." She did not long survive him within twenty-four hours she died of CHAP. grief. VIII. 17. tion pro of the Prussians, and plan for a massacre in the prisons. Although, however, the revolutionary tribunal thus daily presented to the people the spectacle of executions of the ConsternaRoyalists, varied in form and manner, to render them duced by more impressive or attractive, yet its proceedings were far the advance from satisfying the dreadful thirst for blood, and they were generally complained of as undecided and desultory. A more wholesale and expeditious method of disposing of the Royalists was conceived by Danton and the municipality of Paris, and, from the extremely excited state of the public mind, met with too ready a reception. The advance of the Prussians had occasioned the greatest agitation in the capital, and eminently favoured the savage designs of the demagogues. On the 20th August, Longwy was invested; on the 21st it capitulated; on the 30th the enemy appeared before Verdun, and the bombardment immediately commenced. Terror, the greatest instigator to cruelty, seized the minds of the populace of Paris; the executive council, composed of the ministers of state, met with the committee of general defence, to deliberate on the measures which should be pursued. Some proposed to await the enemy under the walls of Paris; others to retire to Saumur. "Are you not aware," said Danton, when his turn to speak came, "that France is governed by Paris, and that if you abandon the capital, you abandon yourselves and your country to the stranger? We must at all hazards maintain our position in this city. The project of fighting under its walls is equally inadmissible; the 10th August has divided the country into two parties, and the ruling force is too inconsiderable to give us any chance of success. My advice is, that to disconcert their measures, and arrest the enemy, we must strike terror into the Royalists." These words were accompanied by a horizontal movement of his hand across his throat, which too well explained his meaning. The committee, who well understood the meaning of these CHAP. VIII. 1792. Subse ominous words, expressed their consternation-" Yes,” said he, "I repeat it; we must strike terror." quently he justified what he had done when charged by the Girondists with it in the Convention,-"I looked,” said he, "my crime in the face, and committed it." The Committee of Twelve declined to adopt the project; but Danton immediately laid it before the municipality, by whom it was readily embraced. He wished to impress the enemy with a sense of the energy of the Republicans, and to engage the multitude in such sanguinary measures, as, by rendering retreat impossible, gave them no chance of safety but in victory. The Assembly, panic-struck, was incapable of arresting the measures which were in progress. The Girondists, who had so often ruled its decisions when the object was to assail the court, found themselves weak and unsupported when the end was to restrain the people. Their benches were deserted; the Amis, viii. energy of victory, the prestige consequent on success, had passed over to the other side. Incessantly speaking of Molix 237, restraining the municipality, they never attempted anyPr. Hist. i. thing; their leaders were already threatened with proi. 202. Lam. scription; Roland, the minister of the interior, Vergniaud, Gir. iii. 321. Gaudet, and Brissot, were in hourly expectation of an accusation.1 1 Deux 284, 286. Bert. de 249. Lac. 285. Mig. Hist. des 18. closed, and bly dissolves pality. Aug. 29. At Preparations on a great scale, and of the most frightful The barriers kind, were immediately made for the approaching massacre. the Assem- Never had wholesale murder been so deliberately prethe munici- pared, so systematically arranged. Maillard, one of the leaders of the revolt on the 6th October, was first sent for, and desired to get ready his band of assassins. daybreak on the 28th August two commissioners of the municipality wakened the grave-digger of the parish of St James, and ordered him to follow them. By his assistance, and the aid of a map they brought with them, they discovered the entrance of the catacombs-vast subterraneous quarries, originally excavated for stone used in the buildings of Paris, and since employed as a place |