XI. 1793. their curule chairs, defending to the last extremity the CHAP. sacred character with which they were invested. Pétion, Buzot, and Gensonné, supported that mournful and magnanimous resolution. Barbaroux, consulting only his impetuous courage, was desirous to brave his enemies by his presence in the Convention. Others, among whom was Louvet, strenuously maintained that they should instantly abandon the Convention, where their deliberations were no longer free, and the majority were intimidated by the daggers of the Jacobins, and retire each into his own department, to return to Paris with such a force as should avenge the cause of the national representation. The deliberation was still going forward, when the clang of the tocsin and the rolling of the drums warned them that the Buzot, 74, insurrection had commenced; and they broke up without 128. having come to any determination.1 1 Th. iv. 260. 80. Garat, At eight o'clock, Henriot put himself at the head of the 61. the Conven June 2. immense columns of armed men assembled round the Attack on Hotel de Ville, presented himself before the council of the tion. municipality, and declared, in the name of the insurgent people, that they would not lay down their arms till they had obtained the arrest of the obnoxious deputies. The forces assembled on this occasion were most formidable. One hundred and sixty pieces of cannon, with tumbrils, and waggons of balls complete, furnaces to heat them redhot, lighted matches, and drawn swords in the hands of the gunners, resembled rather the preparations for the siege of a powerful fortress than demonstrations against a pacific legislature. In addition to this, several battalions, who had marched that morning for la Vendée, received counter-orders, and re-entered Paris in a state of extreme 2 Deux irritation. They were instantly supplied with assignats, 317, 318. worth five francs each, and ranged themselves round Hen- Mig i. 269. riot, ready to execute his commands, even against the 415, 424. Convention. The whole battalions of the national guard 262. Hist. which were suspected of leaning to the Convention were 390, 391. removed to distant parts of the city, so that the legislature 2 Amis, X. Toul. iii. Th. iv. 261, Parl. xxvii. CHAP. XI. 1793. 62. debate in the was surrounded only by its most inveterate enemies. After haranguing them in the Place de Grève, Henriot proceeded to the other insurgents, put himself at their head, and marched to the Carrousel. By ten o'clock the whole of the avenues to the Tuileries were blockaded by dense columns and artillery; and eighty thousand armed men surrounded the defenceless representatives of the people. Few only of the proscribed deputies were present at Vehement this meeting. The intrepid Lanjuinais was among the Assembly. number; from the tribune he drew a picture, in true and frightful colours, of the state of the Assembly, deliberating for three days under the poniards of assassins, threatened without by a furious multitude, domineered over within by a faction which wielded at will the violence of that multitude, descending from degradation to degradation, rewarded for its condescension with arrogance, for its submission by outrage. "As long as I am permitted to raise my voice in this place," said he, "I will never suffer the national representation to be degraded in my person. Hitherto you have done nothing; you have only suffered; you have sanctioned everything required of you. An insurrection assembles, and names a committee to organise a revolt, with a commander of the armed force to direct it; and you tolerate the insurrection, the committee, the commander.” At these words, the cries of the Mountain drowned his voice, and the Jacobins rushed forward to drag him from the tribune but he held fast, and the president at length succeeded in restoring silence. "I demand," he concluded, "that all the revolutionary authorities of Paris be instantly dissolved; that everything done during the last three days be annulled; that all who arrogate to themselves an illegal authority be declared out of the pale of the law." He had hardly concluded when the insurgent petitioners entered, and demanded his own arrest, and that of the other Girondists. Their XI. 1793. language was brief and decisive. "The citizens of CHAP. Paris," said they, "have been four days under arms; for four days they have demanded from their mandatories redress of their rights so scandalously violated; and for four days their mandatories have done nothing to satisfy them. The conspirators must instantly be placed under arrest you must forthwith save the people, or they will take their safety into their own hands."-" Save the people!" exclaimed the Jacobins; "save your colleagues, by agreeing to their provisional arrest." Barère and the neutral party urged the proscribed deputies to have the generosity to give in their resignations, in order to tranquillise the public mind. Isnard, Lanthenas, and others, complied with the request; Lanjuinais positively refused. "Hitherto," said he, "I have shown some courage; I shall not fail at the last extremity. You need not expect from me either suspension or resignation." Being violently interrupted by the left, he added-" When the ancients prepared a sacrifice, they crowned the victim with flowers and garlands when they conducted him to the altar; the priest sacrificed him, but added not insult or injury. But you, more cruel than they, commit outrages on the victim who is making no efforts to avert his fate." "I have sworn to die at my post," said Bar- xxvii. 383, baroux; "I shall keep my oath. Bend, if you please, teur, 3d before the municipality, you who refused to arrest its wickedness; or rather imitate us, whom its fury immediately demands. Wait, and brave its fury. You may h. iv. 264, compel me to sink under its daggers: you shall not make 265. me fall at its feet."1 1 Hist. Parl. 397. Moni June. Mig. 270, 271. Lac. ii. 72, 73. Toul. iii. 430, 434. 63. out of the driven back While the Assembly was in the utmost agitation, and swayed alternately by terror and admiration, Lacroix, They move an intimate friend of Danton's, entered with a haggard hall, but are air, and announced that he had been stopped at the by the armed gate, and that the Convention was imprisoned within its multitude. walls. The secret of the revolt became now evident; it was not conducted by Danton and the Mountain, but by 1793. CHAP. Robespierre, Marat, and the municipality. We must XI. instantly avenge," said Danton, "this outrage on the national representation. Let us go forth, and awe the rebels by the majesty of the legislature." Headed by its president, the Convention set out, and moved in a body, with the signs of distress, to the principal gate leading to the Place de Carrousel. They were there met by Henriot on horseback, sword in hand, at the head of the most devoted battalions of the faubourgs. "What do the people demand?" said the president, Hérault de Séchelles; "the Convention is occupied with nothing but their welfare."-"Hérault," replied Henriot, "the people are not to be deceived with fine words: they demand that the twenty-four culpable deputies be given up." "Demand rather that we should all be given up!" exclaimed those who surrounded the president. "Cannoneers, to your pieces!" replied Henriot. Two 1 Hist. Parl. guns, charged with grape-shot, were pointed against the 401. Deux members of the Convention, who involuntarily fell back; Amis, x. and after in vain attempting to find the means of escape Lac. i. 76 at the other gates of the garden, returned in dismay to 268, 272. the Hall. Marat followed them, at the head of a body of brigands," I order you, in the name of the people, to enter, to deliberate, and to obey."1* xxvii. 400, 319, 321. 77. Mig. i. Th. iv. 268, 270. 64. Girondists and impri When the members were seated, Couthon rose. "You The thirty have now had convincing evidence," said he, "that the are given up Convention is perfectly free. The indignation of the soned. people is only pointed against certain unworthy members we are surrounded by their homage and affection : let us obey alike our own conscience and their wishes. I propose that Lanjuinais, Vergniaud, Sillery, Gensonné, Le Hardi, Guadet, Pétion, Brissot, Boileau, Birotteau, Valazé, Gomaire, Bertrand, Gardien, Kervélegan, Mollevaut, Bergoing, Barbaroux, Lydon, Buzot, La Source, So sensible were the Revolutionists themselves of the violence done on this occasion to the Convention, that no mention is made of this event in the Moniteur. See Moniteur, 4 Juin 1793, p. 671. XI. 1793. 1 Hist Parl. Rabaut St Etienne, Salles, Chambon, Gorsas, Grange- CHAP. neuve, le Sage, Vigée, Louvet, and Henri Larivière, be immediately put under arrest." With the dagger at their throats, the Convention passed the decree: a large body had the courage to protest against the violence, and refuse to vote. This suicidal measure was carried wholly by the voters of the Mountain, and a few adherents: the great Moniteur. majority refused to have any share in it. The multitude p.661. Mig. gave tumultuous cheers, and dispersed their victory was Lac. ii. 78, complete; the municipality of Paris had overthrown the 272. National Assembly.1 xxvii. 401. i. 272, 273. 79. Th. iv. 65. tion of the power of The political career of the Girondists was terminated by this day; thenceforward they were known only as Terminaindividuals, by their heroic conduct in adversity and political death. Their strife with the Jacobins was a long strug-the Girongle between two classes, which invariably succeed each dists. other in the lead of revolutionary convulsions. The rash and reckless, but able and generous party, which trusted to the force of reason in popular assemblies, perished because they strove to arrest the torrent they had let loose, to avenge the massacres of September, avoid the execution of the King, resist the institution of the Revolutionary Tribunal, and of the Committee of Public Salvation. With the excitement of more vehement passions, with the approach of more pressing dangers, with the advent of times when moderation seemed a crime, they perished. Thereafter, when every legal form was violated, every appeal against violence stifled by the imprisonment of the Girondists, democratic despotism marched on in its career without an obstacle; and the terrible dictatorship, composed of the Committee of Public Salvation and the Revolutionary Tribunal, was established in resistless sovereignty. The proscribed members were at first put under arrest in their own houses. Several found the means of escape before the order for their imprisonment was issued. Barbaroux, Pétion, Lanjuinais, and Henri Larivière, arrived at Caen, VOL. II. 20 |