A.D. 1792.] GROWING POWER OF THE REVOLUTIONISTS. 483 unreasonably dreaded; but he committed another error in recommending the King to depart for Compiègne, where, according to the plan suggested, he was to place himself at the head of the army, and whence he was to march on Paris, with a view to crushing the National Assembly, and arresting the popular leaders. The scheme was rejected, for both Louis and his consort distrusted Lafayette, and probably doubted whether the army would follow him, even if his sincerity were assured. It is obvious, moreover, that the Court was living on the hope of foreign intervention, to facilitate which was the great object of Mallet du Pan's mission. The chiefs of the Revolution were not wholly unaware of these intrigues, and the popular frenzy grew more intense and violent with each succeeding day. It was about this period that the celebrated revolutionary hymn, the Marseillaise, first became general in the democratic ranks. Both the words and the music are ascribed to Rouget de l'Isle, an officer of engineers, who composed it in 1791 for the conscripts assembled at Strasburg. In the following year, a body of troops from Marseilles marched into Paris playing the sonorous air—a circumstance from which it derived the name by which it was thenceforth known. From that time to the present, the revolutionary hymn has been a power in France. No small portion of the existing trouble was owing to the irregular and irresponsible action of the Jacobins and the Cordeliers. Lafayette, writing from his camp at Maubeuge, demanded of the Assembly the suppression of those mischievous bodies; but the step, though well meant, tended only to precipitate a crisis. The Girondists joined with the Jacobins in an appeal to the judgment of the streets; and on the 20th of June disorderly crowds proceeded to the hall of the Assembly, and afterwards to the Tuileries, where they produced general consternation by the violence of their demeanour. The rioters were armed; the emblems they carried were for the most part of a menacing character; and their cries included the celebrated phrases, long the watchwords of the Revolution, "Ça ira!" and "Vivent les sans-culottes !"* At the palace, they were met by the King, who behaved with great firmness and dignity, refused to do the bidding of the rabble, and said he should be guided by the Constitution. He, the Queen, and their youthful son, put on the red cap of the democracy, which was thrust towards Louis at the end of a pike; and this compliment to the feelings of the mob, hollow though it doubtless was, and the manifest result of compulsion, elicited shouts of applause. The ob ject of the demonstration was to force the King to sanction the recent decrees of the Assembly with respect to a more vigorous prosecution of the war, The armies of the German Coalition were now and a more complete adoption of revolutionary gathering on the frontiers under the command of principles, and to compel the recall of Roland, Du- the Duke of Brunswick, a prince who had gained mouriez, and the other Girondist Ministers. The his experience of war in association with Frederick design, however, failed; for Louis, while flattering the Great. the Great. The danger to revolutionary France the insurgents by theatrical concessions to their was extreme, for her armies were already disemotional susceptibilities, avoided committing him-couraged by defeat, and it was doubtful whether self to any definite promise. After a disturbance lasting more than two hours, the invaders of the Tuileries yielded to the persuasions of Pétion, the Mayor of Paris, and withdrew. Pétion had been elected to the Mayoralty by the influence of Louis, acting in a spirit of captious opposition to Lafayette, the rival candidate; but his revolutionary violence at this time was extreme, and he was certainly concerned in the movement of June 20th. He was afterwards suspended by royal order for having failed in his duty; but the National Assembly replaced him in his position. Lafayette had by this time completely turned against the Revolutionists, whose excesses he not The words "Ça ira" formed at this period part of the burden of a popular song, intimating that the Revolution would proceed, and that the aristocrats should be hung up to the street-lamps.-The "sans-culottes "-the people devoid of breeches, or, in other words, the poorest of the poor-were the demagogue's ideal of perfect virtue and disinterestedness. Lafayette's division would not go over to the the 25th of July by the Duke of Brunswick, who menaced the people of France with exemplary punishment if the lives or liberty of the royal family were assailed, and insultingly promised to obtain from Louis XVI. a pardon for their previous acts, should they heed the admonitions then addressed to them. In the event of violence being offered to the King or his family, Paris was to be abandoned to military execution and complete demolition; and a second declaration, two days later, threatened that if the King, or any of his relatives, were carried off from the capital, the road through which they had been conducted would be marked by a continued series of executions. It was impossible that a proud and spirited nation should. tamely endure such an outrage on its independence. The Duke of Brunswick himself is said to have disapproved of these addresses, the leading ideas in which are attributed to the exMinister Calonne, one of the advisers of the French monarch in the earlier part of his reign After the communication of the manifestoes to the French Assembly, Louis found it necessary to transmit a letter to that body, in which he protested that he would never receive the law at the hands of foreigners, and that he would maintain the national freedom with his last breath. But the good faith of such professions may not ungenerously be doubted when we reflect that the King was at that very moment in communication with the leaders of the Coalition. Pétion and his friends were not to be deceived by words. The same day, they appeared at the bar of the Assembly, and demanded the abdication of the monarch. This was on the 3rd of August: the contemplated insurrection followed a week later. Vigorous measures were taken to defend the Tuileries from an attack which was hourly expected. Mandat, who had been recently entrusted with the command of the National Guards, was a man of courage and resource. He planted guns round the palace, and on the Pont Neuf; and the Swiss soldiers, numbering about nine hundred and fifty men, were tried and faithful servants of the Crown. In this moment of suspense, Mandat was summoned by the insurrectionary leaders to appear before them at the Hôtel de Ville. Here he was accused of acting as a traitor to the nation, and, without further investigation, was hurried from the chamber, and shot down on the outer steps. His death was fatal to the cause of the Royalists; yet Louis might even now have put himself at their head, and restored confidence to the troops, had he possessed sufficient energy and strength of character. Unfortunately, his attempt to address the soldiers was made in so desponding and agitated a manner, that it took from them the little courage and energy that remained. Some of the National Guard saluted him with "Vive le Roi!" But by far the greater number went over to the insurgents; and the artillerymen, shouting "Vive la Nation!" turned their guns upon the Tuileries. It was evident that all was lost. The insurgents, in great numbers, were pressing on with furious yells; and the King, acting on the advice of the Girondist, Roederer, ProcureurGénéral of the department of the Seine, resolved to quit the palace, and, with his family, to take refuge in the Assembly. This measure, which was in fact a virtual abdication of the throne, seemed the only chance left of saving the lives of the royal family. Escorted by a small force, and by a few faithful friends and dependents, the King, the Queen, and their children, crossed the gardens of the Tuileries, and presented themselves in the hall of the Legislative Assembly. On entering, the King said, "I have come hither. to avoid a great crime, and I think, gentlemen, that I can nowhere be safer than among you." In reply, Vergniaud, the President, answered, "Sire, you can rely upon the firmness of the National Assembly. Its members have sworn to die in support of the people, and of the constituted authorities." In the meantime, however, the flight of the King had completed the despair of the Royalists remaining at the Tuileries. The Swiss alone remained firm, and were nearly all massacred at their posts. On came the infuriated mob, with frantic cries of vengeance. The palace being defended by only a handful of brave Swiss, who sold their lives as dearly as a hopeless defence would permit, the staircases and vestibules were heaped up with the slain, and the Place du Carrousel was filled with corpses. By eleven o'clock in the morning, the insurrection was triumphant, and its leaders proceeded to the Legislative Assembly, to dictate terms to that body. This was done in the presence of the King, and it was announced that he was to be suspended from his functions, and relegated to the Luxembourg Palace as a residence, while a National Convention should be formed in order to secure the sovereignty of the people, and the reign of "liberty, equality, and fraternity." The new Ministry, formed after these events, was of course more extreme in its views than any which had preceded it. The Minister of Justice was Danton, who, though wanting in personal courage, was a demagogue of the most uncompromising type. The Legislative Assembly was losing its A.D. 1792.] VIOLENCE OF THE JACOBINS. 485 hold upon the people, and the most powerful body | department of La Vendée threatened an insurrec. in Paris was the new municipality, which had procured its own election by violence, and which called itself the Commune. The inspiring genius of this revolutionary committee was Maximilian Robespierre, who, while acting with the utmost circumspection and craft, was gradually rising to the position of baleful eminence which he ultimately attained. Marat was another of the leading members, and the most active functions of government speedily passed into their hands. The Assembly recognised an authority greater than its own, and on the 12th of August surrendered the King and his family into the charge of the ComOn the 13th they were conducted by Pétion to the Temple, where the King was lodged in a gloomy apartment, lighted by a single window. The royal prisoners were placed in the custody of the Mayor (Pétion), and the revolutionary leader, Santerre, by trade a brewer, but now commandant of the National Guards. The captivity was of a very rigorous description, the King and his family being even deprived of necessaries, and denied communication with one another. At the same time, a Committee of General Safety was appointed under the directions of Marat, who organised a system of domiciliary visits which spread terror through all ranks except the lowest. For the trial mune. of persons accused of sharing in the royal projects, a criminal tribunal was instituted, which proceeded by martial law, and gave decisions wherefrom there was no appeal. The Revolution was rapidly approaching the crisis which many had anticipated from the first, and the unhappy prisoners in the Temple can hardly have doubted that their lives would soon pay the penalty of their errors. Before the events of August 10th, the army of the Allies had entered France. The frontier was crossed on the 30th of July, and the invaders moved on Longwy, which capitulated on the 23rd of August. The three divisions of the French army were under the command of Luckner, Lafayette, and Dumouriez; but the second of these officers was disinclined to obey the orders of the Assembly after the insurrection which had resulted in the imprisonment of the King. He was therefore declared a traitor to his country, and orders were issued that he should be impeached. Dumouriez and his regiments pronounced unequivocally for the Revolution, and on the 20th of August Lafayette fled to the camp of the allies, whence he was sent to the Austrian fortress of Olmutz. The capture of Verdun spread consternation throughout France, for the army of defence was ill-disciplined, and divided in its political sympathies. The loyalist tion against the power of the Assembly, and Paris was torn by internal factions, which neither the moderate nor the extreme revolutionists could for the moment control. The habit of insurrection had now acquired a hold on the Parisians, always too well inclined to violent demonstrations; and when Danton declared that it was necessary to strike the Royalists with terror, the utterance was equivalent to an order for a fresh rising. The Committee of Public Safety determined on a general massacre of all who might be considered hostile to the Revolution. The barriers were closed on the night of August 30th, so that no one should escape from Paris. Vast numbers of persons were arrested the following day; on the 2nd of September, a terrible slaughter of the Royalists commenced; more than two hundred priests were assassinated in cold blood, and the work of murder proceeded with frightful rapidity. Four days of massacre resulted in a number of deaths which cannot be precisely stated; and amongst the victims was the Princess de Lamballe (a confidential friend of Marie Antoinette), whose body was savagely mangled after her life had been destroyed. By these atrocious acts, which were unaccompanied by any trial or investigation, the prisons were relieved of their occupants, and similar murders were at the same time committed in several of the provincial cities. The massacre was not the work of the Assembly; but that body was either powerless to prevent it, or indifferent to its commission. The Revolution had, in truth, fallen under the control of an irresponsible committee of Parisian demagogues, possessing not the smallest right to act in the name of the French people, by whom they had never been elected, and who, had they dared, would have repudiated both their objects and their measures. While Paris was thus disgracing itself by acts of furious massacre, the army of Dumouriez on the frontier was presenting a bold face to the enemy, and gradually checking the tide of invasion, which at one time seemed likely to reach Paris itself. The Austrians and Prussians attacked the French with spirit, but, though successful at some points, were driven back at others, especially at Valmy. After a while, the Allies lost heart, and the Prussians failed to take advantage of an opportunity of marching on Paris when the road was open to them. Towards the end of September, their general made overtures for negotiation, but was told that the Republic (for the Government was now called by that name) could listen to no propositions until the Prussian forces had entirely |