XI. 1793. left to the seductions of the Jacobins, who found in CHAP. them the willing instruments of their ambitious designs. Dumourier, as he himself admits, had not the qualities requisite for the leader of a party; but, even if he had possessed the energy of Danton, the firmness of Bouillé, or the ambition of Napoleon, the current of the Revolution was then too strong to be arrested by any single arm. Like Lafayette and Pichegru, he was destined to experience the truth of the saying of Tacitus, "Bellis civilibus plus militibus quam ducibus licere."* His power, great while wielding the force of the demo- 256, and 56. cracy, crumbled when applied to coerce its fury; and Toul. ii.294, the leader of fifty thousand men speedily found himself 258. Deux deserted and proscribed in the midst of the troops whom 232, 234. he had recently commanded with despotic authority.1 1 Lac. ii. 306. Mig. i. Amis, x. 23. imprudence. The first intimation which the Convention received of his designs, was from the general himself. Three deter- His extreme mined Jacobins, Proly, Pereira, and Dubuisson, had been sent to headquarters to obtain authentic accounts of his intentions. In a long and animated discussion with them, he openly avowed his views, and threatened the Convention with the vengeance of his army. "No peace," he exclaimed, "can be made for France, if we do not destroy the Convention; as long as I have a sword to wield, I shall strive to overturn its rule, and the sanguinary tribunal which it has recently created. The Republic is a mere chimera; I was only deceived by it for three days; we must save our country, by re-establishing the throne, and the constitution of 1791. Ever since the battle of Jemappes, I have never ceased to regret the triumphs obtained in so bad a cause. What signifies it whether Deux the king is named Louis, James, or Philip? If the lives 223, 224. of the prisoners in the Temple are endangered, France iv. 125, 130. Mig. i. 256. will still find a sovereign, and I shall instantly march to Lac. ii. 57. Paris to avenge their death."" To the imprudence of this "In civil war the soldiers have more power than the generals."-TACITUS, Hist. ii. 44. 2 Amis, x. Dum. Mém. 1793. CHAP. premature declaration, Dumourier, with that mixture of XI. warmth and facility which distinguished his character, added the still greater fault of letting the commissioners, thus possessed of his intentions, depart for Paris, where they lost no time in informing the Convention of the danger which threatened them. 24. arrests the ers of the Convention. April 2. Instant measures were taken to counteract the designs Dumourier of so formidable an opponent. Proceeding with the decicommission- sion and rapidity which in civil dissensions are indispensable to success, they summoned him to appear at their bar, and, on his failure to obey, despatched four commissioners, with instructions to bring him before them, or arrest him in the middle of his army. Dumourier received these representatives in the midst of his staff; they read to him the decree of the Assembly, commanding his instant attendance at their bar: he refused to comply, alleging, as an excuse, the important duties with which he was intrusted, and promising to render an account of his proceedings at some future time. The representatives urged, as a reason for his submission, the example of the Roman generals. "We deceive ourselves," replied he, "in alleging as an apology for our crimes the virtues of the ancients. The Romans did not murder Tarquin; they established a republic, governed by wise laws; they had neither a Jacobin Club nor a Revolutionary Tribunal. We live in the days of anarchy; tigers demand my head; I will not give it them." Citizen-General," said Carnier, the leading representative, "will you obey the decree of the Convention, and repair to Paris?"-"Not at present," replied Deux Amis, Dumourier. "I declare you then suspended from your Lac. ii. 57. functions, and order the soldiers to arrest your person." Mig. i. 257. 258. Toul." This is too much!" exclaimed the general; and calling in Th.118,119. his hussars, he arrested the representatives of the Conven 1 Dum. iv. Mém. i 156, 159. x. 225, 226. iii. 311, 312. 66 tion, and delivered them as hostages to the Austrian general.1 The die being now cast, Dumourier prepared to follow up his design of establishing a constitutional monarchy. Public opinion in his army was strongly divided: the XI. 1793. 25. corps attached to his person were ready to go all lengths CHAP. in his support; those of an opposite tendency regarded him as a traitor; the majority, as in all civil convulsions, were indifferent, and ready to side with the victorious His failure party. But the general wanted the firm hand requisite to and flight. guide a revolutionary movement, and the feelings of the most energetic of his soldiers were hostile to his designs. He set out for Condé, with the intention of delivering it to the Austrians, according to agreement, as a pledge of his sincerity; but having encountered a body of troops, headed by a young officer destined to future celebrity, DAVOUST, adverse to his designs, who opposed his progress, he was compelled to take to flight, and only escaped by abandoning his horse, which refused to leap a ditch. With heroic courage he endeavoured, the following day, with an escort of Austrian hussars, attended by a few faithful officers, among whom were the daughters of M. Fernig, in uniform and male attire, to regain his camp; but the sight of the foreign uniforms roused the patriotic feelings of the 162, 170. French soldiers; the artillery first abandoned his cause, and, 313, 316, soon after, their example was followed by the whole infantry.. 258. L. Dumourier with difficulty regained the Austrian lines, where ii. 61, 62, fifteen hundred followers only joined his standard. The Biog. Univ. remainder of the army collected in an intrenched camp Lam. Hist. at Famars, where, shortly after, General Dampierre, by 347. authority of the Convention, assumed the command.1 1 Dum. iv. Toul. iii. 320. Mig. Th. 120,126. (Davoust.) des Gir. vi. between the bins. The failure of this, as of every other conspiracy, added 26. to the strength of the ruling party in the French capital. Contests Terror, often greatest when the danger is past, prepared Girondists the people to take the most desperate measures for the and Jacopublic safety; the defection of Dumourier to the Austrians March 10. gave the violent revolutionists the immense advantage of representing their adversaries as, in reality, enemies to the cause of France. During the first fervour of the alarm, the Jacobins denounced their old enemies, the Girondists, as the authors of all the public calamities, and actually fixed the 10th March for a general attack upon XI. 1793. CHAP. the leaders of that party in the bosom of the legislature. The Convention had declared its sittings permanent, on account of the public dangers; and on the evening of the 9th it was determined at the secret committees, the club of the Jacobins, and the Cordeliers, on the following day, to close the barriers, to sound the tocsin, and march in two columns with the forces of the faubourgs upon the Convention. The agitation was unparalleled at the former great centre of insurrection. Night and day they sat debating in their vast and gloomy hall; but such was the vehemence of the members, and the burst of indignation against Dumourier, that scarce any orator could be heard at the tribune, and the debates exhibit only a series of passionate exclamations and vehement interruptions. At the appointed hour, the leaders of the insurrection repaired to their posts; but the Girondists, informed of their danger, abstained from joining the Convention at the dangerous period; the sections and national guard hesitated to join the insurgents; Beurnonville, minister of war, marched against the faubourgs at the head of a faithful battalion of troops from Brest, and a heavy rain cooled the revolutionary ardour of the multitude. Pétion, looking at the watery sky, exclaimed-" It will come to nothing; 1 Journ. des there will be no insurrection to-night." The plot failed, 9th to 13th and its failure postponed, for a few weeks, the commence1.251. Lac. ment of the Reign of Terror. By such slender means Th. iv. 76. was it possible, at that period, to have arrested the disx. 23, 24, orders of the Revolution; and on such casual incidents did the most momentous changes depend.1 Jacobins, March. Mig. ii. 62, 65. Deux Amis, 27. Abortive March 13. The conspirators, astonished at the absence of the Girondists from the Convention during the critical period, conspiracy broke out into the loudest invectives against them for cobins. their defection. They were constantly at their posts," they exclaimed, "when the object was to save Louis Capet, but they hid themselves when the country was at stake." On the following day, all Paris resounded with the failure of the conspiracy; and Vergniaud, taking XI. 1793. advantage of the general consternation, denounced in the CHAP. Convention the Committee of Insurrection which had supported the intended massacre, and moved that the papers of the club should be seized, and the members of the committee arrested. "We march," he exclaimed, "from crimes to amnesties, and from amnesties to crimes. The great body of citizens are so blinded by their frequent occurrence, that they confound these seditious disturbances with the grand national movement in favour of freedom, regard the violence of brigands as the efforts of energetic minds, and consider robbery itself as indispensable for public safety. You are free, say they; but unless you think like us, we will denounce you as victims to the vengeance of the people. You are free; but unless you bow before the idol which we worship, we will deliver you up to their violence. You are free; but unless you join with us in persecuting those whose probity or talents we dread, we will abandon you to their fury. Citizens, there is too much reason to dread, that the Revolution, like Saturn, will successively devour all its progeny, and finally leave only despotism, with all the calamities which it produces." These prophetic words produced some impression; but, as usual, the Convention did nothing March 10. adequate to arrest the evils which it anticipated. of the conspirators were apprehended on charges sedition; but their trials led to no result unfavourable to xxv. 86, 88. the violence of democracy.1 " 1 Moniteur, Some Mig.. 252. Th. iv. 78, of Lac. ii. 64. Hist. Parl. 28. the Revolu bunal. Danton and the Jacobins made an immediate use of the agitation produced by these events, to urge the Proposal for establishment of a REVOLUTIONARY TRIBUNAL, "in order tionary Trito defend from internal enemies the relations of those March 9. who were combating foreign aggression on the frontiers." The former tribunal established under this name had been suppressed, as too dilatory in its proceedings, after "Bella per Emathios plusquam civilia campos, Jusque datum sceleri, canimus, populumque potentem In suâ victrici conversum viscera dextrâ.” LUCAN, Pharsalia, i. 1. |