222 THE COUNTRY IN DANGER-THE MARSEILLAIS. [1792. resignation of a Christian; but nothing hitherto shows the enterprising courage and intrepidity of a hero, capable of great and astonishing resolutions, executed with that energy which strikes his enemies with terror, and ensures success to his cause."* General La Fayette, on hearing of the atrocious proceedings of the 20th of June, arrived in Paris from his army, and appeared at the bar of the Legislative Assembly, to urge an inquiry into the cause of these excesses, and to denounce their instigators. La Fayette was received with honour at the Assembly. The Jacobins in their Club called for his impeachment. He left Paris in time to preserve his own life; and the Jacobins had only the satisfaction of burning him in effigy. On the frontier there is inaction in the German army and in the French. But events are ripening. On the 11th of July, it is resolved by the Assembly to proclaim "The Country in Danger." On the 14th of July there is a festival in the Champ de Mars-another feast of the Federation, when the king again takes the National oath. But there are no shouts for the king. The popular idol of this day is the mayor of Paris, Pétion, who had been suspended from his functions by the Directory of the Department, for his conduct on the 20th of June. " Pétion, or death," is the shout at the Feast of the Federation. On the 22nd of July there is a civic procession to proclaim" The country in danger." The ominous words are inscribed on an enormous flag which is fixed on the Pont-Neuf; and a similar flag is hoisted on the top of the Hôtel de Ville. Each section is headed by its municipal officer; and he is ready to inscribe the names of those who will go forth to fight for their country. Young men of Paris are going out to do battle against the foreigner. Other young men are marching into Paris, from the extreme south of France-how called together no one knows, with what object few can guess. They have travelled six hundred miles from the city of Marseilles, singing that stirring song of the Marseillais, whose chorus was an expression of the patriotism which exalted and the ferocity which disgraced the revolution. "Aux armes, citoyens! formez vos bataillons! Marchons qu'un sang impur abreuve nos sillons !" These five hundred tired and travel-stained patriots have entered Paris on the 30th of July, and on that same day are fighting with the National Guards. Who has brought these men of the south to Paris; and why are they fighting with the troops who are there to defend the constitution? A few days will show. They began their career in Paris by taking part with a rabble against the sworn defenders of the law. Barbaroux, a fierce republican, who came from Marseilles, had gone out from the city to meet these adventurers, and he was fully competent to give them their instructions in the duty of patriots. The capital of France was in this state of excitement, when a proclamation of the duke of Brunswick, dated the 25th of July, from Coblentz, arrived; and was immediately printed in the journals. It is impossible to read this. declaration without regarding it either as an act of insanity; or an atrocious attempt to render the most violent instruments of the Revolution more desperate, and thus to deliver up France, torn to pieces by civil war, an easy prey "Speeches of Huskisson," vol. i.-Introductory Memoir. 1792.] PROCLAMATION OF THE DUKE OF BRUNSWICK. 223 to those who would partition her, as they had partitioned Poland. We must regard it as the madness of the emigrant princes and their besotted followers. The declaration of the duke of Brunswick, in the name of the emperor and the king of Prussia, disavows any intention to make conquests, or to meddle with the internal government of France; but announces that they intend to deliver the king and the royal family from their captivity, and to enable him to make such convocations as he shall judge proper, and to labour in security The National Guards are called upon to for the welfare of his subjects. The Duke of Brunswick. preserve order till the arrival of the troops of the emperor and the king of Prussia; those who fight against these troops shall be punished as rebels to their king: the members of departments, districts, and municipalities, are held responsible, under pain of losing their heads, for all crimes which they shall suffer to take place; if the inhabitants of the towns and villages shall dare to defend themselves against the troops of their imperial and royal majesties, they shall be punished according to the most rigorous rules of war. The inhabitants of Paris are called upon to submit instantly to their king; "to set that prince at full liberty, and to ensure to him and to all royal persons that inviolability and respect which are due, by the laws of nature and of nations, to sovereigns; their imperial and royal majesties making personally responsible for all events, on pain of losing their heads, pursuant to military trials, without hopes of pardon, all the members of the National Assembly, of the department, of the district, of the municipality, and of the National Guards of Paris, justices of peace, and others whom it may concern; and their imperial and royal majesties further declare, on their faith and word of emperor and king, that if the palace of the Tuileries be forced or insulted -if the least violence be offered, the least outrage done, to their majesties the king, the queen, and the royal family-if they be not immediately placed in safety, and set at liberty, they will inflict on those who shall deserve it the most exemplary and ever memorable avenging punishments, by giving up the city of Paris to military execution, and exposing it to total destruction." There was a Scotch physician of some celebrity, Dr. John Moore, the author of a popular novel, "Zeluco," travelling, in company with the earl of Lauderdale, to Paris, at the beginning of August, 1792. He saw the 224 PETITION FOR THE KING'S DEPOSITION. [1792. peasants dancing on a green plain, without any fear of Austrians or Prussians. He met people in carriages flying from Paris, who seemed to be impressed with a notion that some important event was about to happen; and one person said that a conspiracy would break out on the 9th of the month. Moore and his friend laughed at the notion of a conspiracy so well known beforehand. There were certainly grounds for apprehension; for Pétion had been, on the 3rd of August, at the bar of the Assembly, at the head of a deputation of the Commune, who demanded the deposition of the king. Louis had sent a message to the Assembly, disavowing the proclamation of the duke of Brunswick, and expressing doubts of its authenticity. The friends of the king were in serious alarm, and were concerting measures for his flight. The Court apprehended an attack upon the Tuileries, and were bribing Danton, Santerre, and others of the Jacobin faction, to avert the dreaded insurrection. The decrees of the Assembly were wholly in the power of the Girondins, who desired a Republic, and of the Mountain, who would not scruple to destroy the Monarchy whatever amount of butchery the attempt might involve. The real hope of the Court was that the duke of Brunswick might be able to reach Paris before any serious outbreak. There were men there who had the absolute command of a fierce multitude, who would do their bidding with terrible promptitude, whilst the allied troops were slowly advancing towards the French frontier. There was an insurrectional Committee ready to strike a blow whenever the time came. The faubourg Saint Marceau, and the faubourg Saint Antoine, and the Club of the Cordeliers, were their three centres of action. On the evening of the 9th of August, Danton was crying "to arms." The Marseillais were forming their ranks at the entrance of that Club of which Danton was the leading mover. The Sections assembled, and sent their Commissioners to assume the municipal authority at the Hôtel de Ville, and to displace the Council. At midnight the tocsin was sounded in every quarter. Drums were beating to arms. The National Guards were rushing to the posts of their several departments. The streets were illuminated by order of the *"Journal of 1792," August 6. 1792.] INSURRECTION OF THE TENTH OF AUGUST. 225 municipality. It was a night of terror; but it was more especially terrible to the king and the royal family, who had heard the dreadful note of the tocsin. They were surrounded by faithful servants who were resolved to share their perils. The National Guards, who were bound to defend the palace, had assembled very slowly at the beat of the rappel. The protection of the king almost wholly fell upon the Swiss guards. Mandat, a constitutionalist, then commanding the National Guard, made the best preparations in his power to resist an attack. He had given orders to the gendarmerie about the Tuileries, and at the Hôtel de Ville; which had the sanction of the Council that had been superseded in the night by the Sections. Mandat was sent for to the Hôtel de Ville, as the morning was approaching. He went, and was murdered. There was now no plan of defence for the Tuileries, which, as the sun rose, was surrounded by thousands of insurgents. There were National Guards sufficient to have driven back the multitude, if the men had done the duty to which they had been sworn. The king was advised to go into the courts and the gardens of the palace and review these troops. He was received with cries of "Down with the Veto." Battalions left their positions, and joined the assailants in the Place du Carrousel. The Assembly had hastily met during the night; and continued their sitting whilst this hurricane of popular violence was raging around them. They were debating some unimportant law, having no reference to the crisis whose development they were quietly expecting. The king and his family were strongly urged to place themselves under the protection of the Assembly. They at last consented; and when he entered the Hall, Louis said, “I am come here to prevent a great crime. I believe myself in safety in the midst of you, gentlemen." It was then about nine o'clock. The royal family were placed in the logographe, a small box used by the reporters. Soon the sound of cannon was heard. No orders were given when the king left the palace. It was known to the leaders of the insurgents that he was gone. The great crime, the murder of the royal family, was averted by their leaving the Tuileries; but a wholesale butchery was to manifest the devotion to liberty and patriotism of the mobs of Paris. All the troops in the courts were received into the interior of the palace. Domestics, male and female; gentlemen of the household; priests; National Guards and Swiss guards, filled the apartments. The king had told the Assembly that he had given orders to the Swiss not to fire. The insurgents had obtained possession of the Cour Royale, and they called to the Swiss at the windows to deliver up the palace. The Swiss manifested no disposition to fire upon them. Some of the most furious of the rabble reached the vestibule. There was a barricade at the foot of the stairs; and when it was attempted to be forced, a combat began. The insurgents were driven back. The Swiss, boldly headed by two officers, marched into the court, and drove out the crowd. They even penetrated to the Carrousel, and the multitude fled before them. Had they been supported by the gendarmerie, the contest might have ended differently. An order had been sent by the king that the Swiss should repair to the Assembly. About two hundred marched thither, fired upon by the National Guards. The insurgents returned to the attack; obtained possession of the vestibule; rushed up the staircase, which was defended by eighty Swiss against the furious Marseillais and the pikemen of 226 ATTACK ON THE TUILERIES. [1792. the faubourgs, till not a Swiss on the staircase was left alive. A general massacre of all within the walls, with the exception of the women, then ensued. A large number of the Swiss and National Guards, who were in the courts, attempted to make their way to the Hall of the Assembly, but the Swiss were all picked out and murdered. By eleven o'clock on that morning of the 10th of August, the Tuileries was in the complete possession of the rabble of Paris; the greater number of its inmates slaughtered; all its luxurious furniture, and works of art, broken to pieces or burnt. For sixteen hours the king sat in the logographe; and he and his family witnessed those proceedings of the Assembly which accomplished another Revolution. There was no constitutional party here now to control the Jacobins and the Girondins. A body of citizens appeared at the bar to demand the deposition of the king. Vergniaud retired; and soon returned with the draft of a decree by which a National Convention was to be formed; and the chief of the Executive was suspended, until the decision of the Convention. The decree was put and adopted without disA new ministry was appointed. Roland, Clavière, and Servan resumed their offices. Danton was chosen minister of justice. The Assembly sate till one o'clock in the morning, the royal family continuing in their close box all the time. A lodging was provided for them. The next morning they were brought back to the Assembly, to listen to other decrees of their masters. Dr. Moore has described the scene, at which he was present: "From the place in which I sat I could not see the king, but I had a full view of the queen, and the rest of the royal family. Her beauty is gone |