VIII.

1792.

perform. A dethroned king in a republic is fit for nothing CHAP. but one of two objects—either to trouble the public tranquillity and endanger the freedom of the state, or to confirm the one and the other. The punishment of death is in general an evil, for this plain reason, that, by the unchangeable laws of nature, it can only be justified by absolute necessity with regard to individuals or to the social body; and in ordinary cases it can never be necessary, because the government has ample means of preventing the guilty person from injuring his fellow-citizens. But a dethroned king in the midst of an ill-cemented republic

-a king whose name alone is sufficient to rekindle the flames of civil war-can never be an object of indifference to the public safety; and that cruel exception from ordinary rules is owing to nothing but the nature of his crimes. I pronounce with regret the fatal truth; Louis must die, that France may live. Louis was once a king; he is now dethroned: the momentous question before you is decided by these simple considerations. Louis cannot be tried; his trial is over, his condemnation recorded, 1 Hist. Parl. or the formation of the republic is unjustifiable. 163. Monidemand that the Convention shall declare the King teur, Dec. 4. Mig. i. 232, traitor towards France, criminal towards human nature, 233. Th. and instantly condemn him in virtue of the right of 321, 322. insurrection."1

iii. 300, 303,

71.

termine he

By these extreme propositions, which they did not expect to carry, the Jacobins in a manner insured the con- Majority dedemnation of Louis. When such doctrines were once may be tried. abroad, the moderate party had no chance of success with the multitude, but in adopting measures of inferior severity. To have contended for an absolute exemption from punishment, would have appeared tantamount to aban- Dec. 3. doning the whole principles of the Revolution. Every Hist. Parl. man felt that he could not do so without endangering his Moniteur, own safety, and exposing himself to the imminent hazard Mig. i. 233. of shortly changing places with his dethroned sovereign.2 34. Actuated by these motives, the majority of the Conven

2

4th Dec.

Lac. ii. 30,

CHAP. tion, composed of the Girondists and neutral party, VIII. decided that the King should be put on his trial before

1792.

of the

72.

Temple.

it.

The prison of the Temple, which has been rendered Description immortal by the last imprisonment of Louis XVI. and his family, no longer exists. It was situated in the Rue du Temple, in the heart of Paris, and consisted of two towers enclosed within a high exterior wall, and placed adjoining each other. They were called the little and the great towers. In the former, the whole royal family were first immured; to the last the King alone was subsequently removed, when he was separated from his wife. and children. The little tower consisted of a small square, flanked with turrets, consisting of four stories. In the first were a small library, parlour, and guard-room; in the second was the bedroom of the King and Queen, in which the Dauphin also slept. The Princess Elizabeth and Princess-Royal were lodged in an adjoining apartment, entering from the former. During the day, the royal family sat in a large room in the third story, adjoining which was a little one in the turret, where the King's books were kept; and in a room entering from it, Cléry and Hue, the faithful attendants of the fallen sovereign, slept. On the right of the towers, enclosed within high walls, was a small garden, in which the royal family were permitted to walk. It had no flowers or shrubs to give variety to the scene a few plots of withered grass, and three stunted bushes of arbutus, rendered half leafless by the winds of autumn, constituted the only ornaments of the gloomy enclosure. Such was the last abode of those to whom Cléry, 447. the splendour of Versailles once seemed scarcely a fitting habitation.1

73.

Since his imprisonment in the Temple, the unfortunate Conduct of monarch had been successively curtailed of his comforts, family dur- and the severity of his detention increased. At first the captivity. royal family were permitted to spend their time together;

the royal

ing their

and, disengaged from the cares of government, they expe

VIII.

1792.

rienced the sweetness of domestic affection and parental CHAP. tenderness. Attended by their faithful servants, Cléry and afterwards Hue, the King spent his time in teaching the Dauphin the elements of education, the Queen in discharging with the princesses the most humble duties; or, like Mary in Lochleven castle, in large works of tapestry. The royal party breakfasted at nine in the apartment of the Queen; at one, if the day was fair, they walked for an hour in the garden, strictly watched by the officers of the municipality, from whom they often experienced cruel insults. Their son evinced the most engaging sweetness of disposition, as well as aptitude for study: bred up in the school of adversity, he promised to grace the throne by the virtues and energy of a humble station. The Princess-Royal, in the intervals of instruction, played with her brother, and softened, by every possible attention, the severity of her parents' captivity; while the Princess Elizabeth bore the horrors of her prison with the same celestial equanimity with which she had formerly withstood the seductions and corruptions of a dissipated court. The virtues and graces of the Queen won the heart and vanquished the fanaticism of one of the guards, placed over the royal family by the Convention, named Toulan. He was a native of Toulouse, and inherited the warmth and ardour of a southern imagination. To such a disposition the transition was easy-from the enthusiasm of liberty to that of love. Like George Douglas at Lochleven, he devoted himself in secret to the rescue of the royal captives, and engaged one of his colleagues, named Lepitre, in the attempt. The secret countersign given to Toulan by the Queen was the words,-" He who fears to Moll. x. 107. die, knows not how to love." But though several persons 135. Cléry, in Paris, and even in the national guard, were engaged in 40, 43. Th. the attempt, the generous design failed, from the frequent 282. Lam. change of guards, which the Commissioners' jealousy had Gir. iv. 336. ordered.1

The long evenings of winter were chiefly spent in

1 Bert. de

Lac. x. 133,

iii. 228, 280,

Hist. des

1792.

74.

family in the

CHAP. reading aloud. Racine and Corneille, or historical comVIII. positions, were the favourite study of the royal family.* The King perused, again and again, the history of the Occupations English Rebellion by Hume, and sought, by reflections on of the royal the fate of Charles, to prepare his mind for the catasTemple. trophe which he was well aware awaited himself. His firmness seemed to increase with the approach of danger; the irresolution and timidity, by which he was formerly distinguished, totally disappeared when his subjects' fate was not bound up with his own. The Queen herself took an example from his resolution. After dinner, the King and his family slept peaceably for a short time—a touching spectacle, standing as they did on the verge of eternity. At night the Queen undressed the Dauphin, and put him to bed with her own hands. He said his prayers to his mother; he petitioned for his parents' life, and for the Princess Lamballe, with whose death he was unacquainted, and for his instructress, the Marquise de Tourzel. they had been some time in the Temple, the Queen taught her son another prayer, which she whispered in his ear as she stooped down to kiss him when lying in his bed before retiring to rest. The prayer has been preserved by the Duchess d'Angoulême, and was as follows :-" All-powerful God, who hath created and redeemed me, I love you; preserve my father and mother, and our family. Defend 1 Lam. Hist. us against our enemies. Give to my mother, my aunt, my sister, strength to endure their trials."1 When the Commissioners of the Commune were near, he took the precaution, of his own accord, to utter the last supplications in an inaudible voice. The members of the muni2 Cléry, 52, cipality, who alternately visited the royal family during 53, 58, 59, their captivity, at times displayed the most insolent bar283. Lac. barity, at others a delicate forbearance.

des Gir. iv.

320.

Th. iii. 282,

x. 138, 142.

Th. iii. 281. with his inspectors on every occasion,

After

Louis conversed and in the most familiar manner, on the subject of their different trades,

*

They afterwards occupied the winter evenings of Napoleon at St Helena. -LAS CASES and O'MEARA.

VIII.

1792.

and frequently surprised them by the extent and accuracy CHAP. of his practical information. "Are you not afraid," said he to a mason, Mizareau, "that these pillars will give way?""They stand firmer than the throne of kings," was the reply of the hard-hearted republican.

75.

severity of

lican autho

By degrees, however, the precautions of the municipality became more vexatious. Their officers never for Increasing an instant lost sight of the royal family; and when they the repubretired to rest, a bed was placed at the door of each room, rities." where the guards slept. They seemed to take a savage pleasure in all acts which might shock the royal captives, and remind them of their fallen condition.* Santerre, with his brutal staff, every day made them a visit; and a permanent council of civic authorities was held in the lower apartments of the prison. Writing materials were first taken away soon after, the knives, scissors, needles, and bodkins of the princesses were seized, after the most rigorous search; a cruel deprivation, as it not only prevented them from relieving the tedious hours by needlework, but rendered it impossible for them any longer to mend their garments. Rigorously excluded from all communication with the city, it was with the utmost difficulty that they could receive any intelligence as to the events which were going on there. But the ingenuity of the faithful Cléry discovered a method, to a certain degree, of satisfying their desires in this particular, by means of a public crier, with whom he opened a communication, and who placed himself under the windows of the King, and, under pretence of selling the journals, recounted their leading articles with as loud a voice as he could.1 Cléry Cléry, 62, at the appointed hour placed himself at the window, and 284, 286. eagerly listened to the details, which in the evening, after

:

"Rocher (c'était le geolier) chantait devant nous la Carmagnole et d'autres horreurs sachant que ma mère craignait l'odeur de la pipe, il lui en soufflait, ainsi qu'à mon père, une bouffée quand ils passaient. Il était toujours couché quand nous allions souper; quelquefois même il était dans son lit quand nous allions diner."-Journal du Temple, par Madame la DUCHESSE D'ANGOULEME, 43, 44.

1

79. Th. iii.