The French Revolution - Volume 2

2427 (return)
[ "Archives Nationales." Official report of the municipal officers of Arles on the insurrection of the Mint band, Sept. 2, 1791.—Dispatch of Ripert, royal commissioner, Oct. 2 and 8.—Letter of M. d'Antonelle, to the Friends of the Constitution, Sept.22. "I cannot believe in the counter-orders with which we are threatened. Such a decision in the present crisis would be too inhuman and dangerous. Our co-workers, who have had the courage to devote themselves to the new law, would be deprived of their bread and shelter... The king's proclamation has all the appearance of having been hastily prepared, and every sign of having been secured unawares."]

2428 (return)
[ De Dampmartin (an eye-witness), II. 60-70.—" Archives Nationales," F7, 3196.—Dispatch of the two delegated commissioners to the Minister, Nimes, March 25, 1792.—Letter of M. Wittgenstein to the Directory of the Bouche-du—Rhône, April 4, 1792.—Reply and act passed by the Directory, April 5.—Report of Bertin and Rebecqui to the administrators of the department, April 3.—Moniteur, XII. 379. Report of the Minister of the Interior to the National Assembly, April 4.]

2429 (return)
[ Moniteur, XII. 408 (session of May 16). Petition of M. Fossin, deputy from Arles.—"Archives Nationales," F7, 3196. Petition of the Arlesians to the Minister, June 28.—Despatches of M. Lombard, provisional royal commissioner, Arles, July 6 and 10. "Neither persons nor property have been respected for three months by those who wear the mask of patriotism."]

2430 (return)
[ "Archives Nationales," F7, 3196. Letter of M. Borelly, vice-president of the Directory, to the Minister, Aix, April 30, 1792. "The course pursued by the sieur: Bertin and Rébecqui is the cause of all the disorders committed in these unhappy districts... Their sole object is to levy contributions, as they did at Aries, to enrich themselves and render the Comtat-Venaisson desolate."]

2431 (return)
[ "Archives Nationales," F7, 3196. Deposition of one of the keepers of the sieur Coye, a proprietor at Mouriez-les-Baux, April 4.—Petition of Peyre, notary at Maussane, April 7.—Statement by Manson, a resident of Mouriez-les-Baux, March 27.—Petition of Andrieu, March 30.—Letter of the municipality of Maussane, April 4: "They watch for a favorable opportunity to devastate property and especially country villas."]

2432 (return)
[ "Archives Nationales," Claim of the national guard presented to the district administrators of Tarascon by the national guard of Château-Renard, April 6.—Petition of Juliat d'Eyguières, district administrator of Tarascon, April 2 (in relation to a requisition of 30,000 francs by Camoïn on the commune of Eyguières).—Letter of M. Borelly, April 30. "Bertin and Rébecqui have openly protected the infamous Camoïn, and have set him free. "—Moniteur, XII. 408. Petition of M. Fossin, deputy from Arles.]

2433 (return)
[ "Archives Nationales," F7, 3195. Dispatch of M. Mérard, royal commissioner at the district court of Apt, Apt, March 15, 1792 (with official report of the Apt municipality and debates of the district, March 13).—Letter of M. Guillebert, syndic-attorney of the district March 5.. (He has fled. )—Dispatches of the district Directory, March 23 and 28. "It must not be supposed for a moment that either the court or the juge-de-paix will take the least notice of this circumstance. One step in this direction would, in a week, bring 10,000 men on our hands."]

2434 (return)
[ "Archives Nationales," F7, 3195. Letter of the district Directory of Apt, March 28. "On the 26th of March 600 armed men, belonging to the communes of Apt, Viens, Rustrel, etc. betook themselves to St.-Martin-de-Castillon and, under the pretense of restoring order, taxed the inhabitants, lodging and feeding themselves at their charge"—The expeditions extend even to the neighboring departments, one of them March 23, going to Sault, near Forcalquier, in the Upper-Alps.]

2435 (return)
[ Ib., F7, 3195. On the demand of a number of petitioning soldiers who went to Aries on the 22d of March, 1792, the department administration passes an act (September, 1793) granting them each forty-five francs indemnity. There are 1,916 of them, which makes 86,200 francs "assessed on the goods and property of individuals for the authors, abettors, and those guilty of the disturbances occasioned by the party of Chiffonists in the commune of Arles." The municipality of Aries designates fifty-one individuals, who pay the 86,200 livres, plus 2,785 francs exchange, and 300 francs for the cost of sojourn and delays.—Petition of the ransomed, Nov.21, 1792.]

2436 (return)
[ Ib., F7, 3165. Official report of the Directory on the events which occurred in Aix, April 27, 28, and 29, 1792.]

2437 (return)
[ Michelet, "Histoire de la Révolution Française," III.56 (according to the narratives of aged peasants).—Mercure de France, April 30, 1791 (letter from an inhabitant of the Comtat).—All public dues put together (octrois and interest on the debt) did not go beyond 800,000 francs for 126,684 inhabitants. On the contrary, united with France, it would pay 3,793,000 francs.—André, "Histoire de la Révolution Avignonaise," I. 61.—The Comtat possessed representative institutions, an armed general assembly, composed of three bishops, the elected representative of the nobility, and thirteen consuls of the leading towns.—Mercure de France, Oct. 15, 1791 (letter from an inhabitant of the Comtat).—There were no bodies of militia in the Comtat; the privileges of nobles were of little account. Nobody had the exclusive right to hunt or fish, while people without property could own guns and hunt anywhere.]

2438 (return)
[ "Archives Nationales," F7, 3272. Letter of M. Pelet de la Lozère, prefect of Vaucluse; to the Minister, year VIII. Germinal 30.—Ibid., DXXIV. 3. Letter of M. Mulot, one of the mediating commissioners, to the Minister, Oct. 10, 1791. "What a country you have sent me to! It is the land of duplicity. Italianism has struck its roots deep here, and I fear that they are very hardy."]

2439 (return)
[ The details of these occurrences may be found in André and in Soulier, "Histoire de la Révolution Avignonaise." The murder of their seven principal opponents, gentlemen, priests and artisans, took place June 11, 1790.—"Archives Nationales," DXXIV. 3. The starting-point of the riots is the hostility of the Jansenist Camus, deputy to the Constituent Assembly. Several letters, the first from April, 1790, may be found in this file, addressed to him from the leading Jacobins of Avignon, Mainvielle, Raphel, Richard, and the rest, and among others the following (3 July, 1790): "Do not abandon your work, we entreat you. You, sir, were the first to inspire us with a desire to be free and to demand our right to unite with a generous nation, from which we have been severed by fraud."—As to the political means and enticements, these are always the same. Cf., for instance, this letter of a protégé, in Avignon, of Camus, addressed to him July 13, 1791: "I have just obtained from the commune the use of a room inside the Palace, where I can carry on my tavern business.. My fortune is based on your kindness... what a distance between you and myself!"]

2440 (return)
[ "Archives Nationales," DXXIV. 3. Report on the events of Oct.10, 1791.—Ibid., F7, 3197. Letter of the three commissioners to the municipality of Avignon, April 21, and to the Minister, May 14, 1791. "The deputies of Orange certify that there were at least 500 French deserters in the Avignon army. "—In the same reports, May 21 and June 8: "It is not to be admitted that enrolled brigands should establish in a small territory, surrounded by France on all sides, the most dangerous school of brigandage that ever disgraced or preyed upon this human species. "—Letter of M. Villardy, president of the Directory of the Bouches-du-Rhône May 21. "More than two millions of the national property is exposed to pillage and total destruction by the new Mandrins who devastate this unfortunate country. "—Letter of Méglé, recruiting sergeant of the La Mark regiment, arrested along with two of his comrades. "The corps of Mandrins which arrested us set us at liberty... We were arrested because we refused to join them, and on our refusal we were daily threatened with the gallows."]

2441 (return)
[ Mortimer-Ternaux, I. 379 (note on Jourdan, by Faure, deputy).—Barbaroux, "Mémoires"(Ed. Dauban), 392. "After the death of Patrix a general had to be elected. Nobody wanted the place in an army that had just shown so great a lack of discipline. Jourdan arose and declared that as far as he was concerned, he was ready to accept the position. No reply was made. He nominated himself, and asked the soldiers if they wanted him for general. A drunkard is likely to please other drunkards; they applauded him, and he was thus proclaimed."]

2442 (return)
[ After a famous brigand in Dauphiny, named Mandrin.—TR. Mandrin, (Louis) (Saint Étienne-de—Saint-Geoirs, Isère, 1724—Valence, 1755). French smuggler who, after 1750, was active over an enormous territory with the support of the population; hunted down by the army, caught, condemned to death to be broken alive on the wheel. See also Taine's explanation in Ancient Régime page 356 app. (SR).]

2443 (return)
[ Cf. André, passim, and Soulier, passim.—Mercure de France, June 4, 1791.—"Archives Nationales," F7, 3197. Letter of Madame de Gabrielli, March 14, 1791. (Her house is pillaged Jan. 10, and she and her maid escape by the roof.)—Report of the municipal officers of Tarascon, May 22. "The troop which has entered the district pillages everything it can lay its hands on."—Letter of the syndic-attorney of Orange, May 22. "Last Wednesday, a little girl ten years of age, on her way from Châteauneuf to Courtheson, was violated by one on of them, and the poor child is almost dead. "—Dispatch of the three commissioners to the Minister, May 21. "It is now fully proved by men who are perfectly reliable that the pretended patriots, said to have acted so gloriously at Sarrians, are cannibals equally execrated both at Avignon and Carpentras."]

2444 (return)
[ "Archives Nationales," letter of the Directory of the Bouches-du-Rhône, May 21, 1791.—Deliberations of the Avignon municipality, associated with the notables and the military committee, May 15: "The enormous expense attending the pay and food for the detachments.. .forced contributions... What is most revolting is that those who are charged with the duty arbitrarily tax the inhabitants, according as they arc deemed bad or good patriots... The municipality, the military committee, and the club of the Friends of the Constitution dared to make a protest; the proscription against them is their reward for their attachment to the French constitution.]

2445 (return)
[ Letter of M. Boulet, formerly physician in the French military hospitals and member of the electoral assembly, May 21.]

2446 (return)
[ "Archives Nationales," DXXIv. 16-23, No.3. Narrative of what took place yesterday, August 21, in the town of Avignon.—Letters by the mayor, Richard, and two others, Aug. 21.—Letter to the president of the National Assembly, Aug.22 (with five signatures, in the name of 200 families that had taken refuge in the Ile de la Bartelasse).]

2447 (return)
[ "Archives Nationales," DXXIV. 3.—Letter of M. Laverne, for M. Canonge, keeper of the Mont-de-Piété. (The electoral assembly of Vaucluse and the juge-de-paix had forbidden him to give this box into any other hands.)—Letters of M. Mulot, mediating commissioner, Gentilly les Sorgues, Oct. 14, 15, 16, 1791.—Letter of M. Laverne, mayor, and the municipal officers, Avignon, Jan. 6, 1792.—Statement of events occurring at Avignon, Oct. 16, 17, and 18 (without a signature, but written at once on the spot).—Official rapport of the provisional administrators of Avignon, Oct. 16.—Certified copy of the notice found posted in Avignon in different places this day, Oct. 16 (probably written by one of the women of the lower class and showing what the popular feeling was).—A letter written to M. Mulot, Oct. 13' already contains this phrase: "Finally, even if they delay stopping their robberies and pillage, misery and the miserable will still remain "—Testimony of Joseph Sauton, a chasseur in the paid guard of Avignon, Oct. 17 (an eye-witness of what passed at the Cordeliers).]

2448 (return)
[ André. II.62. Deposition of la Ratapiole.—Death of the girl Ayme and of Mesdames Niel et Crouzet.—De Dampmartin, II. 2.]

2449 (return)
[ "Archives Nationales," DXXIV, 3. Report on the events of Oct. 16: "Two sworn priests were killed, which proves that a counter-revolution had nothing to do with it,.. Six of the municipal officers were assassinated. They had been elected according to the terms of the decree; they were the fruit of the popular will at the outbreak of the Revolution; they were accordingly patriots."—Buchez et Roux, XII. 420.—Official report of the Commune of Avignon, on the events of Oct. 16.]

2450 (return)
[ "Archives Nationales," DXXIV. 3. Dispatch of the civil Commissioners deputized by France (Messrs. Beauregard, Lecesne, and Champion) to the Minister Jan. 8, 1792. (A long and admirable letter, in which the difference between the two parties is exhibited, supported by facts, in refutation of the calumnies of Duprat. The oppressed party is composed not of royalists, but of Constitutionalists.)]

2451 (return)
[ "Archives Nationales," F7, 3177. Dispatches of the three commissioners, April 27, May 4, 18, and 21.]

2452 (return)
[ Three hundred and thirty-five witnesses testified during the trial.—De Dampmartin, I.266. Entry of the French army into Avignon, Nov. 16, 1791: "All who were rich, except a very small number, had taken flight or perished. The best houses were all empty or closed."——Elections for a new municipality were held Nov.26, 1791. Out of 2,287 active citizens Mayor Levieux de Laverne obtains 2,227 votes, while the municipal officer lowest on the list 1,800. All are Constitutionalists and conservatives.]

2453 (return)
[ "Archives Nationales," F7, 3196. Official report of Augier and Fabre, administrators of the Bouches-du-Rhône, Avignon, May 11, 1792.—Moniteur, XII. 313. Report of the Minister of Justice, May 5.—XII. 324. Petition of forty inhabitants of Avignon, May 7.—XII 334. Official report of Pinet, commissioner of the Drôme, sent to Avignon.—XII. 354 Report of M. Chassaignac and other papers, May 10.—XI. 741 Letter of the civil commissioners, also of the Avignon municipality, March 23.]

2454 (return)
[ "The French Revolution," vol. I. pp. 344-352, on the sixth jacquerie, everywhere managed by the Jacobins. Two or three traits show its spirit and course of action. ("Archives Nationales," F7, 3202. Letter of the Directory of the district of Aurillac, March 27, 1792, with official reports.) "On the 20th of March, about forty brigands, calling themselves patriots and friends of the constitution, force honest and worthy but very poor citizens in nine or ten of the houses of Capelle-Viscamp to give them money, generally five francs each person, and sometimes ten, twenty, and forty francs." Others tear down or pillage the châteaux of Rouesque, Rode, Marcolès, and Vitrac and drag the municipal officers along with them. "We, the mayor and municipal officers of the parish of Vitrac, held a meeting yesterday, March 22, following the example of our neighboring parishes on the occasion of the demolition of the châteaux. We marched at the head of our national guard and that of Salvetat to the said châteaux. We began by hoisting the national flag and to demolish... The national guard of Boisset, eating and drinking without stint, entered the château and behaved in the most brutal manner; for whatever they found in their way, whether clocks, mirrors, doors, closets, and finally documents, all were made way with. They even sent off forty of the men to a patriotic village in the vicinity. They forced the inmates of every house to give them money, and those who refused were threatened with death." Besides this the national guard of Boisset carried off the furniture of the château.—There is something burlesque in the conflicts of the municipalities with the Jacobin expeditions (letter of the municipal officers of Cottines to the Directory of St. Louis, March 26). "We are very glad to inform you that there is a crowd in our parish, amongst which are many belonging to neighboring parishes; and that they have visited the house of sieur Tossy and a sum of money of which we do not know the amount is demanded, and that they will not leave without that sum so that they cam have something to live on, these people being assembled solely to maintain the constitution and give greater éclat to the law."]

2455 (return)
[ Mercure de France, numbers for Jan. 1 and 14, 1792 (articles by Mallet du Pan).—" Archives Nationales," F7, 3185, 3186. Letter of the president of the district of Laon (Aisne) to the Minister, Feb. 8, 1792: "With respect to the nobles and priests, any mention of them as trying to sow discord among us indicates a desire to spread fear. All they ask is tranquility and the regular payment of their pensions."—De Dampmartin, II. 63 (on the evacuation of Arles, April, 1792). On the illegal approach of the Marseilles army, M. de Dampmartin, military commander, orders the Arlesians to rise in a body. Nobody comes forward. Wives hide away their husbands' guns in the night. Only one hundred volunteers are found to act with the regular troops.]

2456 (return)
[ "Archives Nationales," F7, 3224. Speech of M. Saint-Amans, vice-president of the Directory of Lot-et-Garonne, to the mayor of Tonneins, April 20 and the letter of the syndic-attorney-general to M. Roland, minister, April 22: "According to the principles of the mayor of Tonneins, all resistance to him is aristocratic, his doctrine being that all property-owners are aristocrats. You can readily perceive, sir, that he is not one of them."—Dubois, formerly a Benedictine and now a Protestant minister.—Act of the Directory against the municipality of Tonneins, April 13. The latter appeals to the Legislative Assembly. The mayor and one of the municipal counselors appear in its name (May 19) at the bar of the Assembly.]

2457 (return)
[ "Archives Nationales," F7, 3198. Letter of M. Debourges, one of the three commissioners sent by the National Assembly and the king, Nov. 2, 1791 (apropos of the Marseilles club). "This club has quite recently obtained from the Directory of the department, on the most contemptible allegation, an order requiring of M. de Coincy, lieutenant-general at Toulon, to send the admirable Ernest regiment out of Marseilles, and M. de Coincy has yielded."]

2458 (return)
[ For instance (Guillon de Montléon, "Mémoires pour servir à l'histoire de Lyon," I. 109), the general in command of the national guard of this large town in 1792 is Juillard, a poor silk-weaver of the faubourg of the Grande Côte, a former soldier.]

2459 (return)
[ "Archives Nationales," F7, 3215, affair of Plabennec (very curious, showing the tyrannical spirit of the Jacobins and the good disposition at bottom of the Catholic peasantry)—The commune of Brest dispatches against that of Plabennec 400 men, with two cannon and commissioners chosen by the club.—Many documents, among them: Petition of 150 active citizens of Brest, May 16, 1791. Deliberations of the council-general and commune of Brest, May 17. Letter of the Directory of the district, May 17 (very eloquent). Deliberations of the municipality of Plabennec, May 20. Letter of the municipality of Brest to the minister, May 21. Deliberations of the department Directory, June 13.]

2460 (return)
[ Mortimer-Ternaux, II. 376 (session of the Directory of the Pas-du-Calais, July 4, 1792). The petition, signed by 127 inhabitants of Arras, is presented to the Directory by Robespierre the younger and Geoffroy. The administrators are treated as impostors, conspirators, etc., while the president, listening to these refinements, says to his colleagues: "Gentlemen, let us sit down; we can attend to insults sitting as well as standing."]

2461 (return)
[ "Archives Nationales," F7, 3223. Letter of M. Valéry, syndic-attorney of the department, April 4, 1792.]

2462 (return)
[ "Archives Nationales," F7, 3220. Extract from the deliberations of the department Directory and letter to the king, Jan.28, 1792.—Letter of M. Lafiteau, president of the Directory, Jan. 30. (The mob is composed of from five to six hundred persons. The president is wounded on the forehead by a sword-cut and obliged to leave the town.) Feb. 20, following this, a deputy of the department denounces the Directory as unpatriotic.]

2463 (return)
[ "Archives Nationales," F7, 3223. Letter of M. de Riolle, colonel of the gendarmerie, Jan. 19, 1792.—"One hundred members of the club Friends of Liberty" come and request the brigadier's discharge. On the following day, after a meeting of the same club, "four hundred persons move to the barracks to send off or exterminate the brigadier."]

2464 (return)
[ "Archives Nationales," F7, 3219. Letter of M. Sainfal, Toulouse, March 4, 1792.—Letter of the department Directory, March 14.]

2465 (return)
[ "Archives Nationales," F7, 3229. Letter of M. de Narbonne, minister, to his colleague M. Cahier, Feb. 3, 1792.—"The municipality of Auch has persuaded the under-officers and soldiers of the 1st battalion that their chiefs were making preparation to withdraw."—The same with the municipality and club of the Navarreins. "All the officers except three have been obliged to leave and send in their resignations."—F7, 3225. The same to the same, March 8.—The municipality of Rennes orders the arrest of Col. de Savignac, and four other officers. Mercure de France, Feb. 18, 1792. De Dampmartin, I. 230; II. 70 (affairs of Landau, Lauterbourg, and Avignon).]

2466 (return)
[ "'The French Revolution," I. 344 and following pages. Many other facts could be added to those cited in this volume.—"Archives Nationales," F7, 3219. Letter of M. Neil, administrator of Haute-Garonne, Feb. 27, 1792. "The constitutional priests and the club of the canton of Montestruc suggested to the inhabitants that all the abettors of unsworn priests and of aristocrats should be put to ransom and laid under contribution."—Cf. 7, 3193, (Aveyron), F7, 3271 (Tarn), etc.]

2467 (return)
[ "Archives Nationales," F7, 3200. Letter of the syndic-attorney of Bayeux, May 14, 1792, and letter of the Bayeux Directory, May 21. "The dubs should be schools of patriotism; they have become the terror of it. If this scandalous struggle against the law and legitimate authority does not soon cease liberty, a constitution, and safeguards for the French people will no longer exist"]

2468 (return)
[ "Archives Nationales," F7, 3253. Letter, of the Directory of the Bas-Rhin, April 26, 1792, and of Dietrich, Mayor of Strasbourg, May 8. (The Strasbourg club had publicly invited the citizens to take up arms, "to vigorously pursue priests and administrators." )—Letter of the Besançon club to M. Dietrich, May 3. "If the constitution depended on the patriotism or the perfidy of a few magistrates in one department, like that of the Bas-Rhin, for instance, we might pay you some attention, and all the freemen of the empire would then stoop to crush you. "—Therefore the Jacobin clubs of the Upper and Lower Rhine send three deputies to the Paris club.]

2469 (return)
[ Moniteur, XII. 558, May 19, 1792. "Letter addressed through patriotic journalists to all clubs of the Friends of the Constitution by the patriotic central society, formed at Clermont-Ferrand." (there is the same centralization between Lyons and Bordeaux.)]

2470 (return)
[ "Archives Nationales," F7, 3198. Report of Commissioners Bertin and Rebecqui, April 3, 1792.—Cf. Dumouriez, book II. ch. V. The club at Nantes wants to send commissioners to inspect the foundries of the Ile d'Indrette.]

2471 (return)
[ Moniteur, X. 420. Report of M. Cahier, Minister of the Interior, Feb. 18, 1792. "In all the departments freedom of worship has been more or less violated... Those who hold power are cited before the tribunals of the people as their enemies."—On the radical and increasing powerlessness of the King and his ministers, Cf. Moniteur, XI. 11 (Dec. 31, 1791).—Letter of the Minister of Finances.—XII. 200 (April 23, 1792), report of the Minister of the Interior.—XIII. 53 (July 4, 1792), letter of the Minister of Justice.]

2472 (return)
[ Mortimer-Ternaux, II. 369. Letter of the Directory of the Basses-Pyrénées, June 25, 1792.—"Archives Nationales," F7, 3200. Letter of the Directory of Calvados to the Minister of the Interior, Aug. 3. "We are not agents of the king or his ministers."—Moniteur, XIII. 103. Declaration of M. de Joly, minister, in the name of his colleagues (session of July 10, 1792).]

CHAPTER V. PARIS.

I.—Pressure of the Assembly on the King.

Previous to this the tree was so shaken as to be already tottering at its base.—Reduced as the King's prerogative is, the Jacobins still continue to contest it, depriving him of even its shadow. At the opening session they refuse to him the titles of Sire and Majesty; to them he is not, in the sense of the constitution, a hereditary representative of the French people, but "a high functionary," that is to say, a mere employee, fortunate enough to sit in an equally good chair alongside of the president of the Assembly, whom they style "president of the nation."2501 The Assembly, in their eyes, is sole sovereign, "while the other powers," says Condorcet, "can act legitimately only when specially authorized by a positive law;2502 the Assembly may do anything that is not formally prohibited to it by the law," 'in other words, interpret the constitution, then change it, take it to pieces, and do away with it. Consequently, in defiance of the constitution, it takes upon itself the initiation of war, and, on rare occasions, on the King using his veto, it sets this aside, or allows it to be set aside.2503 In vain he rejects, as he has a legal right to do, the decrees which sanction the persecution of unsworn ecclesiastics, which confiscate the property of the émigrés, and which establish a camp around Paris. At the suggestion of the Jacobin deputies,2504 the unsworn ecclesiastics are interned, expelled, or imprisoned by the municipalities and Directories; the estates and mansions of the émigrés and of their relatives are abandoned without resistance to the jacqueries; the camp around Paris is replaced by the summoning of the Federates to Paris. In short, the monarch's sanction is eluded or dispensed with.—As to his ministers, "they are merely clerks of the Legislative Body decked with a royal leash."2505 In full session they are maltreated, reviled, grossly insulted, not merely as lackeys of bad character, but as known criminals. They are interrogated at the bar of the house, forbidden to leave Paris before their accounts are examined; their papers are overhauled; their most guarded expressions and most meritorious acts are held to be criminal; denunciations against them are provoked; their subordinates are incited to rebel against them;2506 committees to watch them and calumniate them are appointed; the perspective of a scaffold is placed before them in every relation, acts or threats of accusation being passed against them, as well as against their agents, on the shallowest pretexts, accompanied with such miserable quibbling,2507 and such an evident falsification of facts and texts that the Assembly, forced by the evidence, twice reverses its hasty decision, and declares those innocent whom it had condemned the evening before.2508 Nothing is of any avail, neither their strict fulfillment of the law, their submission to the committees of the Assembly, nor their humble attitude before the Assembly itself; "they are careful now to treat it politely and avoid the galleys."2509—But this does not suffice. They must become Jacobins; otherwise the high court of Orleans will be for them as for M. Delessart, the ante-room to the prison and the guillotine. "Terror and dismay," says Vergniaud, pointing with his finger to the Tuileries, "have often issued in the name of despotism in ancient times from that famous palace; let them to-day go back to it in the name of law."2510

Even with a Jacobin Minister, terror and dismay are permanent. Roland, Clavières, and Servan not only do not shield the King, but they give him up, and, under their patronage and with their connivance, he is more victimized, more harassed, and more vilified than ever before. Their partisans in the Assembly take turns in slandering him, while Isnard proposes against him a most insolent address.2511 Shouts of death are uttered in front of his palace. An abbé or soldier is unmercifully beaten and dragged into the Tuileries basin. One of the gunners of the Guard reviles the queen like a fish woman, and exclaims to her, "How glad I should be to clap your head on the end of my bayonet!"2512 They supposed that the King is brought to heel under this double pressure of the Legislative Body and the street; they rely on his accustomed docility, or at least, on his proven lethargy; they think that they have converted him into what Condorcet once demanded, a signature machine.2513 Consequently, without notifying him, just as if the throne were vacant, Servan, on his own authority, proposes to the Assembly the camp outside Paris.2514 Roland, for his part, reads to him at a full meeting of the council an arrogant, pedagogical remonstrance, scrutinizing his sentiments, informing him of his duties, calling upon him to accept the new "religion," to sanction the decree against unsworn ecclesiastics, that is to say, to condemn to beggary, imprisonment, and transportation2515 70,000 priests and nuns guilty of orthodoxy, and authorize the camp around Paris, which means, to put his throne, his person, and his family at the mercy of 20,000 madmen, chosen by the clubs and other assemblages expressly to do him harm;2516 in short, to discard at once his conscience and his common sense.—Strange enough, the royal will this time remains staunch; not only does the King refuse, but he dismisses his ministers. So much the worse for him, for sign he must, cost what it will; if he insists on remaining athwart their path, they will march over him.—Not because he is dangerous, and thinks of abandoning his legal immobility. Up to the 10th of August, through a dread of action, and not to kindle a civil war, he rejects all plans leading to an open rupture. Up to the very last day he resigns himself even when his personal safety and that of his family is at stake, to constitutional law and public common sense. Before dismissing Roland and Servan, he desires to furnish some striking proof of his pacific intentions by sanctioning the dissolution of his guard and disarming himself not only for attack but for defense; henceforth he sits at home and awaits the insurrection with which he is daily menaced; he resigns himself to everything, except drawing his sword; his attitude is that of a Christian in the amphitheatre.2517—The proposition of a camp outside Paris, however, draws out a protest from 8,000 Paris National Guards. Lafayette denounces to the Assembly the usurpations of the Jacobins; the faction sees that its reign is threatened by this reawakening and union of the friends of order. A blow must be struck. This has been in preparation for a month past, and to renew the days of October 5th and 6th, the materials are not lacking.

II.—The floating and poor population of Paris.

Paris always has its interloping, floating population. A hundred thousand of the needy, one-third of these from the departments, "beggars by race," those whom Rétif de la Bretonne had already seen pass his door, Rue de Bièvre, on the 13th of July, 1789, on their way to join their fellows on the suburb of St. Antoine,2518 along with them "those frightful raftsmen," pilots and dock-hands, born and brought up in the forests of the Nièvre and the Yonne, veritable savages accustomed to wielding the pick and the ax, behaving like cannibals when the opportunity offers,2519 and who will be found foremost in the ranks when the September days come. Alongside these stride their female companions "barge-women who, embittered by toil, live for the moment only," and who, three months earlier, pillaged the grocer-shops.2520 All this "is a frightful crowd which, every time it stirs, seems to declare that the last day of the rich and well-to-do has come; tomorrow it is our turn, to-morrow we shall sleep on eiderdown."—Still more alarming is the attitude of the steady workmen, especially in the suburbs. And first of all, if bread is not as expensive as on the 5th of October, the misery is worse. The production of articles of luxury has been at a standstill for three years, and the unemployed artisan has consumed his small savings. Since the ruin of St. Domingo and the pillaging of grocers' shops colonial products are dear; the carpenter, the mason, the locksmith, the market-porter, no longer has his early cup of coffee,2521 while they grumble every morning at the thought of their patriotism being rewarded by an increase of deprivation.

But more than all this they are now Jacobins, and after nearly three years of preaching, the dogma of popular sovereignty has taken deep root in their empty brains. "In these groups," writes a police commissioner, "the Constitution is held to be useless and the people alone are the law. The citizens of Paris on the public square think themselves the people, populus, what we call the universality of citizens."2522—It is of no use to tell them that, alongside of Paris, there is a France. Danton has shown them that the capital "is composed of citizens belonging one way or another to the eighty-three departments; that is has a better chance than any other place to appreciate ministerial conduct; that it is the first sentinel of the nation," which makes them confident of being right.2523—It is of no use to tell them that there are better-informed and more competent authorities than themselves. Robespierre assures them that "in the matter of genius and public-spiritedness the people are infallible, whilst every one else is subject to mistakes,"2524 and here they are sure of their capacity.—In their own eyes they are the legitimate, competent authorities for all France, and, during three years, the sole theme their courtiers of the press, tribune, and club, vie with each other in repeating to them, is the expression of the Duc de Villeroy to Louis XIV. when a child: "Look my master, behold this great kingdom! It is all for you, it belongs to you, you are its master!"—Undoubtedly, to swallow and digest such gross irony people must be half-fools or half-brutes; but it is exactly their capacity for self-deception which makes them different from the sensible or passive crowd and casts them into a band whose ascendancy is irresistible. Convinced that a street mob is entitled to absolute rule and that the nation expresses its sovereignty through its gatherings, they alone assemble the street mobs, they alone, by virtue of their conceit and lack of judgment, believe themselves kings.

Such is the new power which, in the early months of the year 1792, starts up alongside of the legal powers. It is not foreseen by the Constitution; nevertheless it exists and declares itself; it is visible and its recruits can be counted.2525 On the 29th of April, with the Assembly consenting, and contrary to the law, three battalions from the suburb of St. Antoine, about 1500 men,2526 march in three columns into the hall, one of which is composed of fusiliers and the other two of pikemen, "their pikes being from eight to ten feet long," of formidable aspect and of all sorts, "pikes with laurel leaves, pikes with clover leaves, pikes à carlet, pikes with turn-spits, pikes with hearts, pikes with serpents tongues, pikes with forks, pikes with daggers, pikes with three prongs, pikes with battle-axes, pikes with claws, pikes with sickles, lance-pikes covered with iron prongs." On the other side of the Seine three battalions from the suburb of St. Marcel are composed and armed in the same fashion. This constitutes a kernel of 3,000 more in other quarters of Paris. Add to these in each of the sixty battalions of the National guard the gunners, almost all of them blacksmiths, locksmiths and horse-shoers, also the majority of the gendarmes, old soldiers discharged for insubordination and naturally inclined to rioting, in all an army of about 9,000 men, not counting the usual accompaniment of vagabonds and mere bandits; ignorant and eager, but men who do their work, well armed, formed into companies, ready to march and ready to strike. Alongside of the talking authorities we have the veritable force that acts, for it is the only one which does act. As formerly the praetorian guard of the Caesars in Rome, or the Turkish guards of the Caliphs of Baghdad, it is henceforth master of the capital, and through the capital, of the Nation.