VI. 1791. approached." Few probably will dispute that these CHAP. are the proper principles of criminal jurisprudence; the difficulty is to render them effectual in repressing crime. But what renders this debate chiefly remarkable, is the strong opinion expressed by Robespierre in the course of it against the punishment of death. "The news," said he, "having been brought to Athens that some citizens at Argos had been condemned to death, the people ran to the temple, and prayed the gods to turn aside the Argives from such cruel and fatal thoughts. I am about to pray, not the gods, but the legislators, who should be the interpreters of the eternal laws which the Deity has imprinted in the human heart, to efface from the code of the French those laws of blood which command judicial murders, and which our feelings and the new constitution alike repel. I undertake to prove that the punishment of death is essentially unjust; that it has no tendency to repress crimes; and that it multiplies offences much more than it x. 55, 67. diminishes them. 1 "Before society is formed and the force of law established, if I am attacked by an assassin or a robber, I must kill him, or I will be killed myself. But in civilised society, when the power of all is concentrated against one alone, what principle either of justice or necessity can authorise the punishment of death? A conqueror who kills his prisoners in cold blood is justly stigmatised as a barbarian. A grown man who murders a child, whom he can disarm and punish, appears a monster. An accused person, whom law has condemned, is neither more nor less than a vanquished and powerless enemy; he is more at your mercy than a child before a grown man. In the eyes of truth and justice, therefore, those death-scenes which are got up with so much solemnity are nothing but base assassinations, solemn crimes, committed not by individuals, but by entire nations, and of which every individual must bear the responsibility. "The punishment of death is necessary, say the par 1 Hist. Parl. VI. 1791. CHAP. tisans of ancient barbarity; without it, there can be no adequate security against crime. Have those who say so duly estimated the springs which really move the human heart? Is death the most terrible of all things? Alas! to how many things does the catalogue of human woes tell you it is a relief? The love of life yields to pride, the most injurious of all the passions which sway the human heart. It is often sought after as a cessation from pain by the lover, the bankrupt, the drunkard. The punishment which is really overwhelming is opprobrium the general expression of public execration. No one secks it as a refuge from the ills of life. When the legislator can strike the guilty in so many ways-merciful yet terrible, bloodless yet efficacious-why should he ever recur to the hazard of a public execution? The legislature which prefers death to the milder chastisements within its power, outrages public feeling and brutalises the minds of the people. Such a legislator resembles the cruel preceptor who, by the frequent use of savage punishments, degrades and hardens the mind of his pupil. The judgments of human tribunals are never sufficiently certain of being based on justice to warrant the inflicting of a punishment which can never be recalled." The Assembly, however, was not carried away by this eloquent reasoning, but decreed that the punishment of x. 55, 69. death should be preserved, but should be inflicted only by beheading without any previous torture.1 1 Hist. Parl. 76. the royal family to effect their escape. The death of Mirabeau did not arrest the plans which Designs of he had formed for the escape of the King. His state of thraldom was too obvious to be disguised: coerced at every step by hostile guards, deprived of the liberty of even visiting his own palaces; restrained by the mob, whom even Lafayette could not control; without power, without money, without consideration, it was mere mockery to talk of the throne as forming a constituent part of the government. The experiment of constitutional monarchy had been tried and failed; the president of a : VI. 1791. republic would have had more real authority: his palace CHAP. was nothing but a splendid prison. M. de Bouillé was the person on whom the royal family depended in their distress, and Breteuil the counsellor who directed their steps. The noble and intrepid character of the former, and the great reputation he had acquired by the successful suppression of the revolt at Nancy, as well as his position in command of the principal army on the frontier, naturally suggested him as the person to prepare the means of escape. For some time past he had arranged everything for this purpose; and, under cover of a military movement on the frontier, had drawn together the most faithful of his troops, to a camp at Montmedy. Detach-Bouillé, ments were placed along the road to protect the journey, Bert. de under the pretext of securing the safe passage of the mili- 55. Mig. i. tary chest, containing a considerable treasure, which was i. 287. expected from Paris.1 1 229, 236. 'Moll. v. 53, 132. Th. 77. Bouille's arrange the journey. M. de Bouille's dispositions to receive and protect the august fugitives had been made with his wonted ability, M. de had been submitted to and approved of by the King, and promised entire success. Forty hussars of Lauzun, under ments for M. Boudet, an approved Royalist, received orders to proceed on the 19th June to St Menehould, and early on the following morning to Pont de Sommeville, on the road to Châlons, and await there the King's coming up from Paris-escort him to St Menehould, and return, after depositing the royal family, to Sommeville, and allow no one to pass the bridge for eighteen hours. The Duc de Choiseul and M. de Goguelat, of the état major, who were both known to their majesties, and were in the secret, were to accompany this detachment. M. Dandoins, captain of the royal dragoons, was to be at St Menehould on the 20th, and escort the carriage with his troops to Clermont, where a hundred dragoons of the regiment of Monsieur, and sixty of the royal dragoons, under Count Charles de Damas, were to be on the 19th, and accompany the royal carriage to Varennes, VI. 1791. CHAP. where sixty hussars of Lauzun's regiment were to be stationed. Since the 19th a hundred hussars of the same regiment were at Dun, which lay on their road to the Meuse a very important station, on account of the bridge over that river, and the narrow street which leads to it. At Mouza, a little village between Dun and Stenay, M. de Bouillé stationed fifty horsemen of the regiment Royal Allemand, who could be entirely relied on; while that devoted chief himself was to be with the remainder of the regiment between these two towns, ready to give orders and succour any point which might require it. M. de Goguelat himself was previously instructed to reconnoitre the whole road to Paris, and repair there in person to inform the King of the whole details of the road and arrangements, which he did to their majesties' entire satisfaction.1 1 Weber, ii. 78, 79. Bouillé, 255. 78. Prepara tions at the escape of the royal family. A Every precaution on their side had been taken by the royal family to secure their departure from Paris under Paris for feigned names, and with the most profound secresy. They committed, however, one grievous mistake. military gentleman of known courage had been selected by M. de Bouillé to accompany the royal fugitives in the carriage, and take the general charge of the expedition; but Madame de Tourzel insisted that she should not be separated from the children-no precedent could be found for their travelling without their gouvernante, and she accordingly took the place of the soldier. It was at first proposed that the Princess Elizabeth, the Dauphin, and his sister, should proceed separately to Flanders, and the Queen warmly supported this plan but nothing could bring the King to sever himself from his children, to whom he was tenderly attached. The event proved that the Queen was right. Monsieur, his brother, with Madame, who set out at the same time, arrived safe at Brussels. Passports were obtained for the royal family under feigned names: Madame de Tourzel, the governess of the children, was the Baronne de Korff; the Queen VI. 1791. was her gouvernante; the King her valet de chambre; CHAP. the Princess Elizabeth, a young lady of the party; the Dauphin and the Duchess d'Angoulême, the two daughters of the Baroness, under the names of Amelia and Agläe. Three gardes du corps, under feigned names, were to accompany the carriage; two seated on the outside, one riding as a courier to provide horses. An unlucky accident, arising from the illness of the Dauphin's maid, who was a faithful Royalist, which had occasioned another, who had a leaning to the Revolution, to take her place, caused the departure, after every thing had been arranged for the 19th at midnight, to be delayed until the 20th at the same hour; but M. de Bouillé was warned of the change, and the detachments on the road were kept back accordingly. The important duty of driving the carriage which was first to convey the royal fugitives from Paris was intrusted to the tried fidelity of M. de Fersen,* a gallant Swedish 1 Bouillé, nobleman, whom the Queen, from confidence in his 255, 257. fidelity, had suggested for the hazardous charge, and who, 57, 59, 80. on being informed of her choice, instantly repaired from la Duchesso Sweden, where he was at the time, to peril his life in lême, p. 34. performing the duty assigned to him.1 Weber, ii. D'Angou Court. Their design, known to few, was betrayed by none; 79. their manner indicated more than usual confidence; and Plans of the at length, on the 20th June, at eleven at night, the June 20. King, with the Dauphin and the Duchess d'Angoulême, the Princess Elizabeth, and Madame de Tourzel, after sup *M. Le Comte de Fersen was a young Swedish nobleman of high rank, elegant figure, and a very romantic character, who, when in France several years before, had been much at Versailles, and admitted to the Queen's private circle at Trianon, for whom he conceived an ardent, but respectful and distant admiration. This feeling, as is generally the case with profound attachments in generous minds, was increased by absence, and wrought up to a devout worship by the misfortunes in which the royal family of France was involved. His skill and address were well known; and when the attempt to escape was resolved on, the Queen, with the instinctive knowledge of women, where they have awakened a real attachment, and on whom in a crisis they may rely, immediately suggested him as the person who was to take charge of their flight from Paris: a perilous commission, which he at once and honourably accepted. See LAMARTINE, Histoire des Girondins, i. 93. |