The Countess De Charny - Volume II (21 page)

THE SANGUINARY REVOLUTION.

The Eevolution of 1789, that is to say, the Revolution of Necker, Sieyès, and Bailly ended in 1790. The Revolution of Barnave, Mirabeau, and Lafayette ended in 1792. The great Revolution, — the bloody Revolution of Danton, Marat, and Robesj^ierre had but just begun.

When we unite these names the reader is not to suppose we class the owners of them in one and the same category. On the contrary, each man possessed an entirely distinct individuality in our opinion, and faithfully represented the three successive years which were to follow. For instance, Danton was the embodiment of the year 1792, Marat of 1793, and Robespierre of 1794.

As so many important events followed one another in quick succession, suppose we glance at these events, and note the means by which the National Assembly and Commune endeavoured to accelerate or prevent them.

Besides, we feel more and more inclined to encroach upon the domain of history, now that so many of the leading personages of our story have gone down in the sea of revolution.

The three Charnj^s — George, Isidore and Oliver — are dead. The queen and Andrée are prisoners ; and Lafayette is in exile.

On August 17th Lafayette, in an address, called upon the army to march upon Paris, re-establish the Constitution, and restore the king. Lafayette, a thoroughly loyal, honest man, lost his head with the rest of them. He even wanted to lead the Prussians and Austrians straight to

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Paris, but the army rejected his proposal exactly as it rejected that of Dumouriez eight months afterwards.

History would have linked — we were about to have said chained — the names of these two men together had not Lafayette — detested as he was by the queen — had the good fortune to be arrested by the Austrians and sent to Olmutz, — his subsequent imprisonment thus causing his desertion to be forgotten.

On August 18th Lafayette crossed the frontier; on the 21st the Austrians invested the town of Longwy, which surrendered after a bombardment of only twenty-four hours.

On the day preceding this capitulation there was a revolt in the Vendée, where the required ecclesiastical oath furnished a pretext for frequent disturbances.

The Assembly endeavoured to provide for this emergency by appointing Dumouriez commander of the forces in the east, and ordering the arrest of Lafayette. The Assembly likewise decreed that as soon as Longwy should again be under the control of the French government all the buildings except those belonging to the government should be levelled to the ground. A law was also passed, banishing every priest who had not taken the oath to support the Constitution. Domiciliary visits were also authorised, and it was likewise ordered that the property of refugees should be confiscated and sold.

Meanwhile, what was the Common Council doing? Marat, as we have before remarked, was its oracle, so it is needless to say that the Commune was giving its undivided attention to the guillotine on Carrousel Square. They furnished it with one head a day. Tliis seems very little; but in a book by Fouquier Tinville, published the latter part of August, tlie members of the Tribunal describe the enormous amount of labour they were compelled to perform to secure even this meagre supply. They were lioping for better times, however, and we shall see, by and by, that these hopes were abundantly realised.

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Ou the twenty-tliird of August the Commune made its desires known in a very forcible manner. Attended by a mob made up of the scum of the faubourgs and the markets, a deputation from the Commune presented itself before the Assembly, about midnight, to demand that the Orleans prisoners should be brought to Paris to be executed.

That the Orleans prisoners had not yet been tried mattered very little. A trial was a formality with which the Commune was very willing to dispense. Besides, the memorial services in honour of the patriots who perished on the tenth of August were certain to strengthen the power of the Commune still more.

Sargent, to whom the preparations for this lugubrious ceremonial had been entrusted, surpassed himself upon this occasion. The object to be accomplished, of course, was to fill the hearts of those who had lost any loved one on the tenth of August with even more poignant sorrow, and a still more frenzied longing for revenge.

In front of the guillotine on the Place du Carrousel, Sargent erected a gigantic pyramid covered from top to bottom with black. Upon each side were inscribed the names of the massacres for which the Royalists could be held accountable, — the massacres of Nancy, Nismes, Mon-tauban, and the Champs de Mars.

The guillotine seemed to say : ” I am killing ! ” The pyramid seemed to answer: “Keep on killing.”

The ceremonial took place one Sunday night five days after the insurrection in Vendée, and four days after the surrender of Longwy.

Through the clouds of incense burning all along the route of the procession, walked, first, the widows and orphans made by the massacre of August tenth. They were dressed in white, with black sashes, and carried, in a sort of casket, made in the shape of an ark, the petition dictated by Madame Eoland, and copied on the patriot altar by Mademoiselle de Kéralio. These bloody sheets scattered over the Champs de Mars had been collected, and had been

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calling loudly for a republic ever since that eventful day in July, 1791.

Then came a long line of big black coffins, recalling those corpse-laden wagons which rolled out of the Tuileries court -yards on their way to the faubourgs.

Next came the mourning banners, with vengeful devices, demanding life for life; then a colossal statue of the Law, with a sword in her hand, and followed by the judges of the courts. At their head marched the Eevolutionary Tribunal, the Tribunal which begged to be excused for causing but one head to fall each day.

Then came the Commune, the cruel mother of this cruel Tribunal, and in its midst a statue of Liberty, of the same size as the statue of Law.

Last came the members of the Assembly, bearing the civic crowns, which may, perhaps, console the dead, but which are so utterly powerless to console the living. The entire procession advanced slowly and solemnly, with measured tread, to the wailing strains of Chenier’s chants and Gossec’s funeral march. A great part of the night was spent in these expiatory ceremonies, during which the people shook their fists at the empty Tuileries, and at the prisons, — places of refuge which had been given to the king and the Royalists in exchange for their castles.

It was not until the last lamp had been extinguished and the last torch burned out that the crowd dispersed, and the twin statues of Law and Liberty were left alone to guard the immense sarcophagus.

On August 28th the Assembly passed the law authoris-ing domiciliary visits. That same day a rumour became current of a union between the Prussian and Austrian armies. It was also stated that the allies would reach Paris in about six days of forced marches. So Bouille’s famous prediction, which had once excited so much ridicule, might, indeed, become a reality, and not one stone be left above another.

There was much talk — as of something sure to come —

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of a great and terrible judgment day in wliicli the city itself would not only be doomed to destruction, but its inhabi-tants be exterminated as well. But the bloodstained hand of the Commune is apparent in this legend of the future. The fact is evident from the following paragraph contained in a letter found in the Tuileries, on the tenth of August, and which we, ourselves, have read in the public archives, where it may still be seen : —

“Persecution follows in the wake of the allied armies. Courts instituted by emigres along the route, and in the camp of the King of Prussia, are already arraigning the Jacobins and preparing gibbets for them.”

And as if to confirm the above statement, the following paragraph appeared in an official bulletin issued by the War Department : —

“The Austrian cavalry near SaiTelouis have made all the patriot mayors and prominent Republicans prisoners ; and some Uhlans, hav-iug captured a number of municipal officers, cut off their ears and nailed them to their foreheads.”

If such outrages were committed in the inoffensive provinces, how would the conquerors treat revolutionary Paris?

Report said that a throne was to be erected for the allied sovereigns upon the heap of ruins where Paris had once stood, and the entire population was to be driven to the foot of this throne, where, as on the Day of Judgment, there was to be a separation of the good from the bad : that is to say, the Royalists, nobility, and priests would be yjlaced upon the right hand of the allied sovereigns, and France be restored to them for them to do whatever they pleased with it, while the bad, that is, the Revolutionists, would be sent to the left, where the guillotine awaited them, — that instrument of death invented by the Revolution, but through which the Revolution was eventually to perish. The Revolution, that is to say, France; and not France

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alone — for nations are made to serve as holocausts — and not France alone, but the ideal of France.

Ah ! why had France been the first to utter the word liberty ? She had believed she was proclaiming something that was indeed sacred, — light for the eyes and life for the soul. She had cried : ” Liberty for France ! Liberty for Europe ! Liberty for all men ! ” She had fancied she was acting nobly in endeavouring to emancipate the world, but it seemed that she had been mistaken.

Heaven was evidently against her. Believing herself innocent and sublime, she was, nevertheless, culpable and infamous. Intent on performing a noble act, she had committed a crime, so she was about to be tried and condemned, and the universe, for whose sake she died, would applaud her doom. So Christ, crucified for the salvation of the world, died amid the jeers and insults of that world.

And had this unfortunate nation no one to aid her in her extremity? Those whom she had adored, and whom she had enriched, would they not help to defend her in her hour of need? No!

Her king was in league with the enemy. Even in the Temple where he was imprisoned, he continued to correspond with the Prussians and Austrians. Her nobility, organised by her princes, had taken up arms against her, and her priests were constantly instigating her peasants to revolt. In the depths of the prisons the Royalists clapped their hands with joy at the reverses of France. The news of the Prussian victory at Longwy elicited cries of rapturous delight in the Temple and in the Abbaye prison.

It is little wonder, therefore, that Danton entered the Assembly like a roaring lion. The Minister of Justice, believing justice to be powerless, came to ask that justice be backed by force.

Ascending the rostrum, and shaking the hair back from his brow, he exclaimed : —

“A national convulsion can alone compel these despots to retreat. So far, we have only been playing at war;

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now, the people must hurl themselves upon the enemy and exterminate them with a single blow. At the same time, it is absolutely necessary to imprison all conspirators and prevent them from doing any further mischief.

Danton advocated a general levy, domiciliary visits, and the infliction of the death penalty upon any person who placed obstacles in the way of the provisional government.

The Assembly granted all Danton asked. Had he demanded much more it would have been conceded.

” Never was any nation so near death,” says Michelet. ” When Hollauil, beholding Louis XIV. at her doors had no resource but iuuudatiou, she was in much less peril, for she had Europe on her side. When Athens, seeing Xerxes enthroned upon Salamis, plunged into the sea, spurning the earth, and taking water as her home, she was in less danger, for she had her powerful fleet in command of the great Themistocles. Besides, more fortunate than France, she had no traitors in her midst.”

France was demoralised, betrayed, sold, and delivered up into the hands of the executioner ! France was lying like Iphigenia under the knife of Calchas. The surrounding kings were only awaiting her death for the wind of despotism to fill their sails, and she extended her arms imploringly to the gods for aid; but the gods were mute.

At last, when she felt the chill hand of Death upon her she aroused herself by a terrible effort, and like a live vol-cano sent forth from her very vitals the flame which was to illuminate the whole world for half a century.

True ! there is a bloodstain upon the face of this brilliant sun, — the bloodstain of September 2d. We shall soon come to that, and then see who really caused that blood to flow, and whether France can be justly held accountable for it.

Before beginning this investigation let us once again borrow from Michelet, and close this chapter with two of his pages. We realise our powerlessness in the presence of this gigantic theme, and, like Danton, summon strength to our aid.

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” Paris had the appearance of a military stronghold, and reminded one of Lille or Strasburg. Regulations, sentinels, and military precautions were encountered on every side. But most impressive of all, was the feeling of solidarity which manifested itself everywhere.

” Every man became a recruiting officer, and went about from house to house offering a uniform, arms, or anything he possessed to any person who would enlist. Every man became an orator, too, and preached, and talked, and sang patriotic songs.

“Who did not become an author, too, at that time? Who did not write ? Who did not print ? Who did not publish ?

” There were songs and shouts, and tears of enthusiasm or of farewell everywhere. But above all these voices, there was one which resounded in the depths of every heart, — a voice that was all the more potent for being silent, — the voice of France herself of which the flag was the symbol — that sacred and terrible flag streaming in the wind, from the windows of the Hôtel de Ville, and seeming to implore the nation’s legions to march in hot haste from the Pyrenees to the Scheldt, from the Seine to the Rhine !