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If you - don't derive profits, no royalty is due. Royalties are - payable to "Project Gutenberg Association/Carnegie-Mellon - University" within the 60 days following each - date you prepare (or were legally required to prepare) - your annual (or equivalent periodic) tax return. - -WHAT IF YOU *WANT* TO SEND MONEY EVEN IF YOU DON'T HAVE TO? -The Project gratefully accepts contributions in money, time, -scanning machines, OCR software, public domain etexts, royalty -free copyright licenses, and every other sort of contribution -you can think of. Money should be paid to "Project Gutenberg -Association / Carnegie-Mellon University". - -*END*THE SMALL PRINT! FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.04.29.93*END* - - - - - -THE FRENCH REVOLUTION - -A HISTORY - -by - -THOMAS CARLYLE - - - - - -CONTENTS. - - -VOLUME I. - -THE BASTILLE - - -BOOK 1.I. - -DEATH OF LOUIS XV. - -Chapter 1.1.I. Louis the Well-Beloved - -Chapter 1.1.II. Realised Ideals - -Chapter 1.1.III. Viaticum - -Chapter 1.1.IV. Louis the Unforgotten - - -BOOK 1.II. - -THE PAPER AGE - -Chapter 1.2.I. Astraea Redux - -Chapter 1.2.II. Petition in Hieroglyphs - -Chapter 1.2.III. Questionable - -Chapter 1.2.IV. Maurepas - -Chapter 1.2.V. Astraea Redux without Cash - -Chapter 1.2.VI. Windbags - -Chapter 1.2.VII. Contrat Social - -Chapter 1.2.VIII. Printed Paper - - -BOOK 1.III. - -THE PARLEMENT OF PARIS - -Chapter 1.3.I. Dishonoured Bills - -Chapter 1.3.II. Controller Calonne - -Chapter 1.3.III. The Notables - -Chapter 1.3.IV. Lomenie's Edicts - -Chapter 1.3.V. Lomenie's Thunderbolts - -Chapter 1.3.VI. Lomenie's Plots - -Chapter 1.3.VII. Internecine - -Chapter 1.3.VIII. Lomenie's Death-throes - -Chapter 1.3.IX. Burial with Bonfire - - -BOOK 1.IV. - -STATES-GENERAL - -Chapter 1.4.I. The Notables Again - -Chapter 1.4.II. The Election - -Chapter 1.4.III. Grown Electric - -Chapter 1.4.IV. The Procession - - -BOOK 1.V. - -THE THIRD ESTATE - -Chapter 1.5.I. Inertia - -Chapter 1.5.II. Mercury de Breze - -Chapter 1.5.III. Broglie the War-God - -Chapter 1.5.IV. To Arms! - -Chapter 1.5.V. Give us Arms - -Chapter 1.5.VI. Storm and Victory - -Chapter 1.5.VII. Not a Revolt - -Chapter 1.5.VIII. Conquering your King - -Chapter 1.5.IX. The Lanterne - - -Book 1.VI. - -CONSOLIDATION - -Chapter 1.6.I. Make the Constitution - -Chapter 1.6.II. The Constituent Assembly - -Chapter 1.6.III. The General Overturn - -Chapter 1.6.IV. In Queue - -Chapter 1.6.V. The Fourth Estate - - -BOOK 1.VII. - -THE INSURRECTION OF WOMEN - -Chapter 1.7.I. Patrollotism - -Chapter 1.7.II. O Richard, O my King - -Chapter 1.7.III. Black Cockades - -Chapter 1.7.IV. The Menads - -Chapter 1.7.V. Usher Maillard - -Chapter 1.7.VI. To Versailles - -Chapter 1.7.VII. At Versailles - -Chapter 1.7.VIII. The Equal Diet - -Chapter 1.7.IX. Lafayette - -Chapter 1.7.X. The Grand Entries - -Chapter 1.7.XI. From Versailles - - - -VOLUME II. - -THE CONSTITUTION - - -BOOK 2.I. - -THE FEAST OF PIKES - -Chapter 2.1.I. In the Tuileries - -Chapter 2.1.II. In the Salle de Manege - -Chapter 2.1.III. The Muster - -Chapter 2.1.IV. Journalism - -Chapter 2.1.V. Clubbism - -Chapter 2.1.VI. Je le jure - -Chapter 2.1.VII. Prodigies - -Chapter 2.1.VIII. Solemn League and Covenant - -Chapter 2.1.IX. Symbolic - -Chapter 2.1.X. Mankind - -Chapter 2.1.XI. As in the Age of Gold - -Chapter 2.1.XII. Sound and Smoke - - -BOOK 2.II. - -NANCI - -Chapter 2.2.I. Bouille - -Chapter 2.2.II. Arrears and Aristocrats - -Chapter 2.2.III. Bouille at Metz - -Chapter 2.2.IV. Arrears at Nanci - -Chapter 2.2.V. Inspector Malseigne - -Chapter 2.2.VI. Bouille at Nanci - - -BOOK 2.III. - -THE TUILERIES - -Chapter 2.3.I. Epimenides - -Chapter 2.3.II. The Wakeful - -Chapter 2.3.III. Sword in Hand - -Chapter 2.3.IV. To fly or not to fly - -Chapter 2.3.V. The Day of Poniards - -Chapter 2.3.VI. Mirabeau - -Chapter 2.3.VII. Death of Mirabeau - - -BOOK 2.IV. - -VARENNES - -Chapter 2.4.I. Easter at Saint-Cloud - -Chapter 2.4.II. Easter at Paris - -Chapter 2.4.III. Count Fersen - -Chapter 2.4.IV. Attitude - -Chapter 2.4.V. The New Berline - -Chapter 2.4.VI. Old-Dragoon Drouet - -Chapter 2.4.VII. The Night of Spurs - -Chapter 2.4.VIII. The Return - -Chapter 2.4.IX. Sharp Shot - - -BOOK 2.V. - -PARLIAMENT FIRST - -Chapter 2.5.I. Grande Acceptation - -Chapter 2.5.II. The Book of the Law - -Chapter 2.5.III. Avignon - -Chapter 2.5.IV. No Sugar - -Chapter 2.5.V. Kings and Emigrants - -Chapter 2.5.VI. Brigands and Jales - -Chapter 2.5.VII. Constitution will not march - -Chapter 2.5.VIII. The Jacobins - -Chapter 2.5.IX. Minister Roland - -Chapter 2.5.X. Petion-National-Pique - -Chapter 2.5.XI. The Hereditary Representative - -Chapter 2.5.XII. Procession of the Black Breeches - - -BOOK 2.VI. - -THE MARSEILLESE - -Chapter 2.6.I. Executive that does not act - -Chapter 2.6.II. Let us march - -Chapter 2.6.III. Some Consolation to Mankind - -Chapter 2.6.IV. Subterranean - -Chapter 2.6.V. At Dinner - -Chapter 2.6.VI. The Steeples at Midnight - -Chapter 2.6.VII. The Swiss - -Chapter 2.6.VIII. Constitution burst in Pieces - - - -VOLUME III. - -THE GUILLOTINE - - -BOOK 3.I. - -SEPTEMBER - -Chapter 3.1.I. The Improvised Commune - -Chapter 3.1.II. Danton - -Chapter 3.1.III. Dumouriez - -Chapter 3.1.IV. September in Paris - -Chapter 3.1.V. A Trilogy - -Chapter 3.1.VI. The Circular - -Chapter 3.1.VII. September in Argonne - -Chapter 3.1.VIII. Exeunt - - -BOOK 3.II. - -REGICIDE - -Chapter 3.2.I. The Deliberative - -Chapter 3.2.II. The Executive - -Chapter 3.2.III. Discrowned - -Chapter 3.2.IV. The Loser pays - -Chapter 3.2.V. Stretching of Formulas - -Chapter 3.2.VI. At the Bar - -Chapter 3.2.VII. The Three Votings - -Chapter 3.2.VIII. Place de la Revolution - - -BOOK 3.III. - -THE GIRONDINS - -Chapter 3.3.I. Cause and Effect - -Chapter 3.3.II. Culottic and Sansculottic - -Chapter 3.3.III. Growing shrill - -Chapter 3.3.IV. Fatherland in Danger - -Chapter 3.3.V. Sansculottism Accoutred - -Chapter 3.3.VI. The Traitor - -Chapter 3.3.VII. In Fight - -Chapter 3.3.VIII. In Death-Grips - -Chapter 3.3.IX. Extinct - - -BOOK 3.IV. - -TERROR - -Chapter 3.4.I. Charlotte Corday - -Chapter 3.4.II. In Civil War - -Chapter 3.4.III. Retreat of the Eleven - -Chapter 3.4.IV. O Nature - -Chapter 3.4.V. Sword of Sharpness - -Chapter 3.4.VI. Risen against Tyrants - -Chapter 3.4.VII. Marie-Antoinette - -Chapter 3.4.VIII. The Twenty-two - - -BOOK 3.V. - -TERROR THE ORDER OF THE DAY - -Chapter 3.5.I. Rushing down - -Chapter 3.5.II. Death - -Chapter 3.5.III. Destruction - -Chapter 3.5.IV. Carmagnole complete - -Chapter 3.5.V. Like a Thunder-Cloud - -Chapter 3.5.VI. Do thy Duty - -Chapter 3.5.VII. Flame-Picture - - -BOOK 3.VI. - -THERMIDOR - -Chapter 3.6.I. The Gods are athirst - -Chapter 3.6.II. Danton, No weakness - -Chapter 3.6.III. The Tumbrils - -Chapter 3.6.IV. Mumbo-Jumbo - -Chapter 3.6.V. The Prisons - -Chapter 3.6.VI. To finish the Terror - -Chapter 3.6.VII. Go down to - - -BOOK 3.VII. - -VENDEMIAIRE - -Chapter 3.7.I. Decadent - -Chapter 3.7.II. La Cabarus - -Chapter 3.7.III. Quiberon - -Chapter 3.7.IV. Lion not dead - -Chapter 3.7.V. Lion sprawling its last - -Chapter 3.7.VI. Grilled Herrings - -Chapter 3.7.VII. The Whiff of Grapeshot - - - -THE FRENCH REVOLUTION A HISTORY - -By - -THOMAS CARLYLE - - -VOLUME I.--THE BASTILLE - - -BOOK 1.I. - -DEATH OF LOUIS XV. - - -Chapter 1.1.I. - -Louis the Well-Beloved. - -President Henault, remarking on royal Surnames of Honour how difficult it -often is to ascertain not only why, but even when, they were conferred, -takes occasion in his sleek official way, to make a philosophical -reflection. 'The Surname of Bien-aime (Well-beloved),' says he, 'which -Louis XV. bears, will not leave posterity in the same doubt. This Prince, -in the year 1744, while hastening from one end of his kingdom to the other, -and suspending his conquests in Flanders that he might fly to the -assistance of Alsace, was arrested at Metz by a malady which threatened to -cut short his days. At the news of this, Paris, all in terror, seemed a -city taken by storm: the churches resounded with supplications and groans; -the prayers of priests and people were every moment interrupted by their -sobs: and it was from an interest so dear and tender that this Surname of -Bien-aime fashioned itself, a title higher still than all the rest which -this great Prince has earned.' (Abrege Chronologique de l'Histoire de -France (Paris, 1775), p. 701.) - -So stands it written; in lasting memorial of that year 1744. Thirty other -years have come and gone; and 'this great Prince' again lies sick; but in -how altered circumstances now! Churches resound not with excessive -groanings; Paris is stoically calm: sobs interrupt no prayers, for indeed -none are offered; except Priests' Litanies, read or chanted at fixed money- -rate per hour, which are not liable to interruption. The shepherd of the -people has been carried home from Little Trianon, heavy of heart, and been -put to bed in his own Chateau of Versailles: the flock knows it, and heeds -it not. At most, in the immeasurable tide of French Speech (which ceases -not day after day, and only ebbs towards the short hours of night), may -this of the royal sickness emerge from time to time as an article of news. -Bets are doubtless depending; nay, some people 'express themselves loudly -in the streets.' (Memoires de M. le Baron Besenval (Paris, 1805), ii. 59- -90.) But for the rest, on green field and steepled city, the May sun -shines out, the May evening fades; and men ply their useful or useless -business as if no Louis lay in danger. - -Dame Dubarry, indeed, might pray, if she had a talent for it; Duke -d'Aiguillon too, Maupeou and the Parlement Maupeou: these, as they sit in -their high places, with France harnessed under their feet, know well on -what basis they continue there. Look to it, D'Aiguillon; sharply as thou -didst, from the Mill of St. Cast, on Quiberon and the invading English; -thou, 'covered if not with glory yet with meal!' Fortune was ever -accounted inconstant: and each dog has but his day. - -Forlorn enough languished Duke d'Aiguillon, some years ago; covered, as we -said, with meal; nay with worse. For La Chalotais, the Breton -Parlementeer, accused him not only of poltroonery and tyranny, but even of -concussion (official plunder of money); which accusations it was easier to -get 'quashed' by backstairs Influences than to get answered: neither could -the thoughts, or even the tongues, of men be tied. Thus, under disastrous -eclipse, had this grand-nephew of the great Richelieu to glide about; -unworshipped by the world; resolute Choiseul, the abrupt proud man, -disdaining him, or even forgetting him. Little prospect but to glide into -Gascony, to rebuild Chateaus there, (Arthur Young, Travels during the years -1787-88-89 (Bury St. Edmunds, 1792), i. 44.) and die inglorious killing -game! However, in the year 1770, a certain young soldier, Dumouriez by -name, returning from Corsica, could see 'with sorrow, at Compiegne, the old -King of France, on foot, with doffed hat, in sight of his army, at the side -of a magnificent phaeton, doing homage the--Dubarry.' (La Vie et les -Memoires du General Dumouriez (Paris, 1822), i. 141.) - -Much lay therein! Thereby, for one thing, could D'Aiguillon postpone the -rebuilding of his Chateau, and rebuild his fortunes first. For stout -Choiseul would discern in the Dubarry nothing but a wonderfully dizened -Scarlet-woman; and go on his way as if she were not. Intolerable: the -source of sighs, tears, of pettings and pouting; which would not end till -'France' (La France, as she named her royal valet) finally mustered heart -to see Choiseul; and with that 'quivering in the chin (tremblement du -menton natural in such cases) (Besenval, Memoires, ii. 21.) faltered out a -dismissal: dismissal of his last substantial man, but pacification of his -scarlet-woman. Thus D'Aiguillon rose again, and culminated. And with him -there rose Maupeou, the banisher of Parlements; who plants you a refractory -President 'at Croe in Combrailles on the top of steep rocks, inaccessible -except by litters,' there to consider himself. Likewise there rose Abbe -Terray, dissolute Financier, paying eightpence in the shilling,--so that -wits exclaim in some press at the playhouse, "Where is Abbe Terray, that he -might reduce us to two-thirds!" And so have these individuals (verily by -black-art) built them a Domdaniel, or enchanted Dubarrydom; call it an -Armida-Palace, where they dwell pleasantly; Chancellor Maupeou 'playing -blind-man's-buff' with the scarlet Enchantress; or gallantly presenting her -with dwarf Negroes;--and a Most Christian King has unspeakable peace within -doors, whatever he may have without. "My Chancellor is a scoundrel; but I -cannot do without him." (Dulaure, Histoire de Paris (Paris, 1824), vii. -328.) - -Beautiful Armida-Palace, where the inmates live enchanted lives; lapped in -soft music of adulation; waited on by the splendours of the world;--which -nevertheless hangs wondrously as by a single hair. Should the Most -Christian King die; or even get seriously afraid of dying! For, alas, had -not the fair haughty Chateauroux to fly, with wet cheeks and flaming heart, -from that Fever-scene at Metz; driven forth by sour shavelings? She hardly -returned, when fever and shavelings were both swept into the background. -Pompadour too, when Damiens wounded Royalty 'slightly, under the fifth -rib,' and our drive to Trianon went off futile, in shrieks and madly shaken -torches,--had to pack, and be in readiness: yet did not go, the wound not -proving poisoned. For his Majesty has religious faith; believes, at least -in a Devil. And now a third peril; and who knows what may be in it! For -the Doctors look grave; ask privily, If his Majesty had not the small-pox -long ago?--and doubt it may have been a false kind. Yes, Maupeou, pucker -those sinister brows of thine, and peer out on it with thy malign rat-eyes: -it is a questionable case. Sure only that man is mortal; that with the -life of one mortal snaps irrevocably the wonderfulest talisman, and all -Dubarrydom rushes off, with tumult, into infinite Space; and ye, as -subterranean Apparitions are wont, vanish utterly,--leaving only a smell of -sulphur! - -These, and what holds of these may pray,--to Beelzebub, or whoever will -hear them. But from the rest of France there comes, as was said, no -prayer; or one of an opposite character, 'expressed openly in the streets.' -Chateau or Hotel, were an enlightened Philosophism scrutinises many things, -is not given to prayer: neither are Rossbach victories, Terray Finances, -nor, say only 'sixty thousand Lettres de Cachet' (which is Maupeou's -share), persuasives towards that. O Henault! Prayers? From a France -smitten (by black-art) with plague after plague, and lying now in shame and -pain, with a Harlot's foot on its neck, what prayer can come? Those lank -scarecrows, that prowl hunger-stricken through all highways and byways of -French Existence, will they pray? The dull millions that, in the workshop -or furrowfield, grind fore-done at the wheel of Labour, like haltered gin- -horses, if blind so much the quieter? Or they that in the Bicetre -Hospital, 'eight to a bed,' lie waiting their manumission? Dim are those -heads of theirs, dull stagnant those hearts: to them the great Sovereign -is known mainly as the great Regrater of Bread. If they hear of his -sickness, they will answer with a dull Tant pis pour lui; or with the -question, Will he die? - -Yes, will he die? that is now, for all France, the grand question, and -hope; whereby alone the King's sickness has still some interest. - - - -Chapter 1.1.II. - -Realised Ideals. - -Such a changed France have we; and a changed Louis. Changed, truly; and -further than thou yet seest!--To the eye of History many things, in that -sick-room of Louis, are now visible, which to the Courtiers there present -were invisible. For indeed it is well said, 'in every object there is -inexhaustible meaning; the eye sees in it what the eye brings means of -seeing.' To Newton and to Newton's Dog Diamond, what a different pair of -Universes; while the painting on the optical retina of both was, most -likely, the same! Let the Reader here, in this sick-room of Louis, -endeavour to look with the mind too. - -Time was when men could (so to speak) of a given man, by nourishing and -decorating him with fit appliances, to the due pitch, make themselves a -King, almost as the Bees do; and what was still more to the purpose, -loyally obey him when made. The man so nourished and decorated, -thenceforth named royal, does verily bear rule; and is said, and even -thought, to be, for example, 'prosecuting conquests in Flanders,' when he -lets himself like luggage be carried thither: and no light luggage; -covering miles of road. For he has his unblushing Chateauroux, with her -band-boxes and rouge-pots, at his side; so that, at every new station, a -wooden gallery must be run up between their lodgings. He has not only his -Maison-Bouche, and Valetaille without end, but his very Troop of Players, -with their pasteboard coulisses, thunder-barrels, their kettles, fiddles, -stage-wardrobes, portable larders (and chaffering and quarrelling enough); -all mounted in wagons, tumbrils, second-hand chaises,--sufficient not to -conquer Flanders, but the patience of the world. With such a flood of loud -jingling appurtenances does he lumber along, prosecuting his conquests in -Flanders; wonderful to behold. So nevertheless it was and had been: to -some solitary thinker it might seem strange; but even to him inevitable, -not unnatural. - -For ours is a most fictile world; and man is the most fingent plastic of -creatures. A world not fixable; not fathomable! An unfathomable Somewhat, -which is Not we; which we can work with, and live amidst,--and model, -miraculously in our miraculous Being, and name World.--But if the very -Rocks and Rivers (as Metaphysic teaches) are, in strict language, made by -those outward Senses of ours, how much more, by the Inward Sense, are all -Phenomena of the spiritual kind: Dignities, Authorities, Holies, Unholies! -Which inward sense, moreover is not permanent like the outward ones, but -forever growing and changing. Does not the Black African take of Sticks -and Old Clothes (say, exported Monmouth-Street cast-clothes) what will -suffice, and of these, cunningly combining them, fabricate for himself an -Eidolon (Idol, or Thing Seen), and name it Mumbo-Jumbo; which he can -thenceforth pray to, with upturned awestruck eye, not without hope? The -white European mocks; but ought rather to consider; and see whether he, at -home, could not do the like a little more wisely. - -So it was, we say, in those conquests of Flanders, thirty years ago: but -so it no longer is. Alas, much more lies sick than poor Louis: not the -French King only, but the French Kingship; this too, after long rough tear -and wear, is breaking down. The world is all so changed; so much that -seemed vigorous has sunk decrepit, so much that was not is beginning to -be!--Borne over the Atlantic, to the closing ear of Louis, King by the -Grace of God, what sounds are these; muffled ominous, new in our centuries? -Boston Harbour is black with unexpected Tea: behold a Pennsylvanian -Congress gather; and ere long, on Bunker Hill, DEMOCRACY announcing, in -rifle-volleys death-winged, under her Star Banner, to the tune of Yankee- -doodle-doo, that she is born, and, whirlwind-like, will envelope the whole -world! - -Sovereigns die and Sovereignties: how all dies, and is for a Time only; is -a 'Time-phantasm, yet reckons itself real!' The Merovingian Kings, slowly -wending on their bullock-carts through the streets of Paris, with their -long hair flowing, have all wended slowly on,--into Eternity. Charlemagne -sleeps at Salzburg, with truncheon grounded; only Fable expecting that he -will awaken. Charles the Hammer, Pepin Bow-legged, where now is their eye -of menace, their voice of command? Rollo and his shaggy Northmen cover not -the Seine with ships; but have sailed off on a longer voyage. The hair of -Towhead (Tete d'etoupes) now needs no combing; Iron-cutter (Taillefer) -cannot cut a cobweb; shrill Fredegonda, shrill Brunhilda have had out their -hot life-scold, and lie silent, their hot life-frenzy cooled. Neither from -that black Tower de Nesle descends now darkling the doomed gallant, in his -sack, to the Seine waters; plunging into Night: for Dame de Nesle how -cares not for this world's gallantry, heeds not this world's scandal; Dame -de Nesle is herself gone into Night. They are all gone; sunk,--down, down, -with the tumult they made; and the rolling and the trampling of ever new -generations passes over them, and they hear it not any more forever. - -And yet withal has there not been realised somewhat? Consider (to go no -further) these strong Stone-edifices, and what they hold! Mud-Town of the -Borderers (Lutetia Parisiorum or Barisiorum) has paved itself, has spread -over all the Seine Islands, and far and wide on each bank, and become City -of Paris, sometimes boasting to be 'Athens of Europe,' and even 'Capital of -the Universe.' Stone towers frown aloft; long-lasting, grim with a -thousand years. Cathedrals are there, and a Creed (or memory of a Creed) -in them; Palaces, and a State and Law. Thou seest the Smoke-vapour; -unextinguished Breath as of a thing living. Labour's thousand hammers ring -on her anvils: also a more miraculous Labour works noiselessly, not with -the Hand but with the Thought. How have cunning workmen in all crafts, -with their cunning head and right-hand, tamed the Four Elements to be their -ministers; yoking the winds to their Sea-chariot, making the very Stars -their Nautical Timepiece;--and written and collected a Bibliotheque du Roi; -among whose Books is the Hebrew Book! A wondrous race of creatures: these -have been realised, and what of Skill is in these: call not the Past Time, -with all its confused wretchednesses, a lost one. - -Observe, however, that of man's whole terrestrial possessions and -attainments, unspeakably the noblest are his Symbols, divine or divine- -seeming; under which he marches and fights, with victorious assurance, in -this life-battle: what we can call his Realised Ideals. Of which realised -ideals, omitting the rest, consider only these two: his Church, or -spiritual Guidance; his Kingship, or temporal one. The Church: what a -word was there; richer than Golconda and the treasures of the world! In -the heart of the remotest mountains rises the little Kirk; the Dead all -slumbering round it, under their white memorial-stones, 'in hope of a happy -resurrection:'--dull wert thou, O Reader, if never in any hour (say of -moaning midnight, when such Kirk hung spectral in the sky, and Being was as -if swallowed up of Darkness) it spoke to thee--things unspeakable, that -went into thy soul's soul. Strong was he that had a Church, what we can -call a Church: he stood thereby, though 'in the centre of Immensities, in -the conflux of Eternities,' yet manlike towards God and man; the vague -shoreless Universe had become for him a firm city, and dwelling which he -knew. Such virtue was in Belief; in these words, well spoken: I believe. -Well might men prize their Credo, and raise stateliest Temples for it, and -reverend Hierarchies, and give it the tithe of their substance; it was -worth living for and dying for. - -Neither was that an inconsiderable moment when wild armed men first raised -their Strongest aloft on the buckler-throne, and with clanging armour and -hearts, said solemnly: Be thou our Acknowledged Strongest! In such -Acknowledged Strongest (well named King, Kon-ning, Can-ning, or Man that -was Able) what a Symbol shone now for them,--significant with the destinies -of the world! A Symbol of true Guidance in return for loving Obedience; -properly, if he knew it, the prime want of man. A Symbol which might be -called sacred; for is there not, in reverence for what is better than we, -an indestructible sacredness? On which ground, too, it was well said there -lay in the Acknowledged Strongest a divine right; as surely there might in -the Strongest, whether Acknowledged or not,--considering who made him -strong. And so, in the midst of confusions and unutterable incongruities -(as all growth is confused), did this of Royalty, with Loyalty environing -it, spring up; and grow mysteriously, subduing and assimilating (for a -principle of Life was in it); till it also had grown world-great, and was -among the main Facts of our modern existence. Such a Fact, that Louis -XIV., for example, could answer the expostulatory Magistrate with his -"L'Etat c'est moi (The State? I am the State);" and be replied to by -silence and abashed looks. So far had accident and forethought; had your -Louis Elevenths, with the leaden Virgin in their hatband, and torture- -wheels and conical oubliettes (man-eating!) under their feet; your Henri -Fourths, with their prophesied social millennium, 'when every peasant -should have his fowl in the pot;' and on the whole, the fertility of this -most fertile Existence (named of Good and Evil),--brought it, in the matter -of the Kingship. Wondrous! Concerning which may we not again say, that in -the huge mass of Evil, as it rolls and swells, there is ever some Good -working imprisoned; working towards deliverance and triumph? - -How such Ideals do realise themselves; and grow, wondrously, from amid the -incongruous ever-fluctuating chaos of the Actual: this is what World- -History, if it teach any thing, has to teach us, How they grow; and, after -long stormy growth, bloom out mature, supreme; then quickly (for the -blossom is brief) fall into decay; sorrowfully dwindle; and crumble down, -or rush down, noisily or noiselessly disappearing. The blossom is so -brief; as of some centennial Cactus-flower, which after a century of -waiting shines out for hours! Thus from the day when rough Clovis, in the -Champ de Mars, in sight of his whole army, had to cleave retributively the -head of that rough Frank, with sudden battleaxe, and the fierce words, "It -was thus thou clavest the vase" (St. Remi's and mine) "at Soissons," -forward to Louis the Grand and his L'Etat c'est moi, we count some twelve -hundred years: and now this the very next Louis is dying, and so much -dying with him!--Nay, thus too, if Catholicism, with and against Feudalism -(but not against Nature and her bounty), gave us English a Shakspeare and -Era of Shakspeare, and so produced a blossom of Catholicism--it was not -till Catholicism itself, so far as Law could abolish it, had been abolished -here. - -But of those decadent ages in which no Ideal either grows or blossoms? -When Belief and Loyalty have passed away, and only the cant and false echo -of them remains; and all Solemnity has become Pageantry; and the Creed of -persons in authority has become one of two things: an Imbecility or a -Macchiavelism? Alas, of these ages World-History can take no notice; they -have to become compressed more and more, and finally suppressed in the -Annals of Mankind; blotted out as spurious,--which indeed they are. -Hapless ages: wherein, if ever in any, it is an unhappiness to be born. -To be born, and to learn only, by every tradition and example, that God's -Universe is Belial's and a Lie; and 'the Supreme Quack' the hierarch of -men! In which mournfulest faith, nevertheless, do we not see whole -generations (two, and sometimes even three successively) live, what they -call living; and vanish,--without chance of reappearance? - -In such a decadent age, or one fast verging that way, had our poor Louis -been born. Grant also that if the French Kingship had not, by course of -Nature, long to live, he of all men was the man to accelerate Nature. The -Blossom of French Royalty, cactus-like, has accordingly made an astonishing -progress. In those Metz days, it was still standing with all its petals, -though bedimmed by Orleans Regents and Roue Ministers and Cardinals; but -now, in 1774, we behold it bald, and the virtue nigh gone out of it. - -Disastrous indeed does it look with those same 'realised ideals,' one and -all! The Church, which in its palmy season, seven hundred years ago, could -make an Emperor wait barefoot, in penance-shift; three days, in the snow, -has for centuries seen itself decaying; reduced even to forget old purposes -and enmities, and join interest with the Kingship: on this younger -strength it would fain stay its decrepitude; and these two will henceforth -stand and fall together. Alas, the Sorbonne still sits there, in its old -mansion; but mumbles only jargon of dotage, and no longer leads the -consciences of men: not the Sorbonne; it is Encyclopedies, Philosophie, -and who knows what nameless innumerable multitude of ready Writers, profane -Singers, Romancers, Players, Disputators, and Pamphleteers, that now form -the Spiritual Guidance of the world. The world's Practical Guidance too is -lost, or has glided into the same miscellaneous hands. Who is it that the -King (Able-man, named also Roi, Rex, or Director) now guides? His own -huntsmen and prickers: when there is to be no hunt, it is well said, 'Le -Roi ne fera rien (To-day his Majesty will do nothing). (Memoires sur la -Vie privee de Marie Antoinette, par Madame Campan (Paris, 1826), i. 12). -He lives and lingers there, because he is living there, and none has yet -laid hands on him. - -The nobles, in like manner, have nearly ceased either to guide or misguide; -and are now, as their master is, little more than ornamental figures. It -is long since they have done with butchering one another or their king: -the Workers, protected, encouraged by Majesty, have ages ago built walled -towns, and there ply their crafts; will permit no Robber Baron to 'live by -the saddle,' but maintain a gallows to prevent it. Ever since that period -of the Fronde, the Noble has changed his fighting sword into a court -rapier, and now loyally attends his king as ministering satellite; divides -the spoil, not now by violence and murder, but by soliciting and finesse. -These men call themselves supports of the throne, singular gilt-pasteboard -caryatides in that singular edifice! For the rest, their privileges every -way are now much curtailed. That law authorizing a Seigneur, as he -returned from hunting, to kill not more than two Serfs, and refresh his -feet in their warm blood and bowels, has fallen into perfect desuetude,-- -and even into incredibility; for if Deputy Lapoule can believe in it, and -call for the abrogation of it, so cannot we. (Histoire de la Revolution -Francaise, par Deux Amis de la Liberte (Paris, 1793), ii. 212.) No -Charolois, for these last fifty years, though never so fond of shooting, -has been in use to bring down slaters and plumbers, and see them roll from -their roofs; (Lacretelle, Histoire de France pendant le 18me Siecle (Paris, -1819) i. 271.) but contents himself with partridges and grouse. Close- -viewed, their industry and function is that of dressing gracefully and -eating sumptuously. As for their debauchery and depravity, it is perhaps -unexampled since the era of Tiberius and Commodus. Nevertheless, one has -still partly a feeling with the lady Marechale: "Depend upon it, Sir, God -thinks twice before damning a man of that quality." (Dulaure, vii. 261.) -These people, of old, surely had virtues, uses; or they could not have been -there. Nay, one virtue they are still required to have (for mortal man -cannot live without a conscience): the virtue of perfect readiness to -fight duels. - -Such are the shepherds of the people: and now how fares it with the flock? -With the flock, as is inevitable, it fares ill, and ever worse. They are -not tended, they are only regularly shorn. They are sent for, to do -statute-labour, to pay statute-taxes; to fatten battle-fields (named 'Bed -of honour') with their bodies, in quarrels which are not theirs; their hand -and toil is in every possession of man; but for themselves they have little -or no possession. Untaught, uncomforted, unfed; to pine dully in thick -obscuration, in squalid destitution and obstruction: this is the lot of -the millions; peuple taillable et corveable a merci et misericorde. In -Brittany they once rose in revolt at the first introduction of Pendulum -Clocks; thinking it had something to do with the Gabelle. Paris requires -to be cleared out periodically by the Police; and the horde of hunger- -stricken vagabonds to be sent wandering again over space--for a time. -'During one such periodical clearance,' says Lacretelle, 'in May, 1750, the -Police had presumed withal to carry off some reputable people's children, -in the hope of extorting ransoms for them. The mothers fill the public -places with cries of despair; crowds gather, get excited: so many women in -destraction run about exaggerating the alarm: an absurd and horrid fable -arises among the people; it is said that the doctors have ordered a Great -Person to take baths of young human blood for the restoration of his own, -all spoiled by debaucheries. Some of the rioters,' adds Lacretelle, quite -coolly, 'were hanged on the following days:' the Police went on. -(Lacretelle, iii. 175.) O ye poor naked wretches! and this, then, is your -inarticulate cry to Heaven, as of a dumb tortured animal, crying from -uttermost depths of pain and debasement? Do these azure skies, like a dead -crystalline vault, only reverberate the echo of it on you? Respond to it -only by 'hanging on the following days?'--Not so: not forever! Ye are -heard in Heaven. And the answer too will come,--in a horror of great -darkness, and shakings of the world, and a cup of trembling which all the -nations shall drink. - -Remark, meanwhile, how from amid the wrecks and dust of this universal -Decay new Powers are fashioning themselves, adapted to the new time and its -destinies. Besides the old Noblesse, originally of Fighters, there is a -new recognised Noblesse of Lawyers; whose gala-day and proud battle-day -even now is. An unrecognised Noblesse of Commerce; powerful enough, with -money in its pocket. Lastly, powerfulest of all, least recognised of all, -a Noblesse of Literature; without steel on their thigh, without gold in -their purse, but with the 'grand thaumaturgic faculty of Thought' in their -head. French Philosophism has arisen; in which little word how much do we -include! Here, indeed, lies properly the cardinal symptom of the whole -wide-spread malady. Faith is gone out; Scepticism is come in. Evil -abounds and accumulates: no man has Faith to withstand it, to amend it, to -begin by amending himself; it must even go on accumulating. While hollow -langour and vacuity is the lot of the Upper, and want and stagnation of the -Lower, and universal misery is very certain, what other thing is certain? -That a Lie cannot be believed! Philosophism knows only this: her other -belief is mainly that, in spiritual supersensual matters no Belief is -possible. Unhappy! Nay, as yet the Contradiction of a Lie is some kind of -Belief; but the Lie with its Contradiction once swept away, what will -remain? The five unsatiated Senses will remain, the sixth insatiable Sense -(of vanity); the whole daemonic nature of man will remain,--hurled forth to -rage blindly without rule or rein; savage itself, yet with all the tools -and weapons of civilisation; a spectacle new in History. - -In such a France, as in a Powder-tower, where fire unquenched and now -unquenchable is smoking and smouldering all round, has Louis XV. lain down -to die. With Pompadourism and Dubarryism, his Fleur-de-lis has been -shamefully struck down in all lands and on all seas; Poverty invades even -the Royal Exchequer, and Tax-farming can squeeze out no more; there is a -quarrel of twenty-five years' standing with the Parlement; everywhere Want, -Dishonesty, Unbelief, and hotbrained Sciolists for state-physicians: it is -a portentous hour. - -Such things can the eye of History see in this sick-room of King Louis, -which were invisible to the Courtiers there. It is twenty years, gone -Christmas-day, since Lord Chesterfield, summing up what he had noted of -this same France, wrote, and sent off by post, the following words, that -have become memorable: 'In short, all the symptoms which I have ever met -with in History, previous to great Changes and Revolutions in government, -now exist and daily increase in France.' (Chesterfield's Letters: -December 25th, 1753.) - - - -Chapter 1.1.III. - -Viaticum. - -For the present, however, the grand question with the Governors of France -is: Shall extreme unction, or other ghostly viaticum (to Louis, not to -France), be administered? - -It is a deep question. For, if administered, if so much as spoken of, must -not, on the very threshold of the business, Witch Dubarry vanish; hardly to -return should Louis even recover? With her vanishes Duke d'Aiguillon and -Company, and all their Armida-Palace, as was said; Chaos swallows the whole -again, and there is left nothing but a smell of brimstone. But then, on -the other hand, what will the Dauphinists and Choiseulists say? Nay what -may the royal martyr himself say, should he happen to get deadly worse, -without getting delirious? For the present, he still kisses the Dubarry -hand; so we, from the ante-room, can note: but afterwards? Doctors' -bulletins may run as they are ordered, but it is 'confluent small-pox,'--of -which, as is whispered too, the Gatekeepers's once so buxom Daughter lies -ill: and Louis XV. is not a man to be trifled with in his viaticum. Was -he not wont to catechise his very girls in the Parc-aux-cerfs, and pray -with and for them, that they might preserve their--orthodoxy? (Dulaure, -viii. (217), Besenval, &c.) A strange fact, not an unexampled one; for -there is no animal so strange as man. - -For the moment, indeed, it were all well, could Archbishop Beaumont but be -prevailed upon--to wink with one eye! Alas, Beaumont would himself so fain -do it: for, singular to tell, the Church too, and whole posthumous hope of -Jesuitism, now hangs by the apron of this same unmentionable woman. But -then 'the force of public opinion'? Rigorous Christophe de Beaumont, who -has spent his life in persecuting hysterical Jansenists and incredulous -Non-confessors; or even their dead bodies, if no better might be,--how -shall he now open Heaven's gate, and give Absolution with the corpus -delicti still under his nose? Our Grand-Almoner Roche-Aymon, for his part, -will not higgle with a royal sinner about turning of the key: but there -are other Churchmen; there is a King's Confessor, foolish Abbe Moudon; and -Fanaticism and Decency are not yet extinct. On the whole, what is to be -done? The doors can be well watched; the Medical Bulletin adjusted; and -much, as usual, be hoped for from time and chance. - -The doors are well watched, no improper figure can enter. Indeed, few wish -to enter; for the putrid infection reaches even to the Oeil-de-Boeuf; so -that 'more than fifty fall sick, and ten die.' Mesdames the Princesses -alone wait at the loathsome sick-bed; impelled by filial piety. The three -Princesses, Graille, Chiffe, Coche (Rag, Snip, Pig, as he was wont to name -them), are assiduous there; when all have fled. The fourth Princess Loque -(Dud), as we guess, is already in the Nunnery, and can only give her -orisons. Poor Graille and Sisterhood, they have never known a Father: -such is the hard bargain Grandeur must make. Scarcely at the Debotter -(when Royalty took off its boots) could they snatch up their 'enormous -hoops, gird the long train round their waists, huddle on their black cloaks -of taffeta up to the very chin;' and so, in fit appearance of full dress, -'every evening at six,' walk majestically in; receive their royal kiss on -the brow; and then walk majestically out again, to embroidery, small- -scandal, prayers, and vacancy. If Majesty came some morning, with coffee -of its own making, and swallowed it with them hastily while the dogs were -uncoupling for the hunt, it was received as a grace of Heaven. (Campan, i. -11-36.) Poor withered ancient women! in the wild tossings that yet await -your fragile existence, before it be crushed and broken; as ye fly through -hostile countries, over tempestuous seas, are almost taken by the Turks; -and wholly, in the Sansculottic Earthquake, know not your right hand from -your left, be this always an assured place in your remembrance: for the act -was good and loving! To us also it is a little sunny spot, in that dismal -howling waste, where we hardly find another. - -Meanwhile, what shall an impartial prudent Courtier do? In these delicate -circumstances, while not only death or life, but even sacrament or no -sacrament, is a question, the skilfulest may falter. Few are so happy as -the Duke d'Orleans and the Prince de Conde; who can themselves, with -volatile salts, attend the King's ante-chamber; and, at the same time, send -their brave sons (Duke de Chartres, Egalite that is to be; Duke de Bourbon, -one day Conde too, and famous among Dotards) to wait upon the Dauphin. -With another few, it is a resolution taken; jacta est alea. Old -Richelieu,--when Beaumont, driven by public opinion, is at last for -entering the sick-room,--will twitch him by the rochet, into a recess; and -there, with his old dissipated mastiff-face, and the oiliest vehemence, be -seen pleading (and even, as we judge by Beaumont's change of colour, -prevailing) 'that the King be not killed by a proposition in Divinity.' -Duke de Fronsac, son of Richelieu, can follow his father: when the Cure of -Versailles whimpers something about sacraments, he will threaten to 'throw -him out of the window if he mention such a thing.' - -Happy these, we may say; but to the rest that hover between two opinions, -is it not trying? He who would understand to what a pass Catholicism, and -much else, had now got; and how the symbols of the Holiest have become -gambling-dice of the Basest,--must read the narrative of those things by -Besenval, and Soulavie, and the other Court Newsmen of the time. He will -see the Versailles Galaxy all scattered asunder, grouped into new ever- -shifting Constellations. There are nods and sagacious glances; go- -betweens, silk dowagers mysteriously gliding, with smiles for this -constellation, sighs for that: there is tremor, of hope or desperation, in -several hearts. There is the pale grinning Shadow of Death, ceremoniously -ushered along by another grinning Shadow, of Etiquette: at intervals the -growl of Chapel Organs, like prayer by machinery; proclaiming, as in a kind -of horrid diabolic horse-laughter, Vanity of vanities, all is Vanity! - - - -Chapter 1.1.IV. - -Louis the Unforgotten. - -Poor Louis! With these it is a hollow phantasmagory, where like mimes they -mope and mowl, and utter false sounds for hire; but with thee it is -frightful earnest. - -Frightful to all men is Death; from of old named King of Terrors. Our -little compact home of an Existence, where we dwelt complaining, yet as in -a home, is passing, in dark agonies, into an Unknown of Separation, -Foreignness, unconditioned Possibility. The Heathen Emperor asks of his -soul: Into what places art thou now departing? The Catholic King must -answer: To the Judgment-bar of the Most High God! Yes, it is a summing-up -of Life; a final settling, and giving-in the 'account of the deeds done in -the body:' they are done now; and lie there unalterable, and do bear their -fruits, long as Eternity shall last. - -Louis XV. had always the kingliest abhorrence of Death. Unlike that -praying Duke of Orleans, Egalite's grandfather,--for indeed several of them -had a touch of madness,--who honesty believed that there was no Death! He, -if the Court Newsmen can be believed, started up once on a time, glowing -with sulphurous contempt and indignation on his poor Secretary, who had -stumbled on the words, feu roi d'Espagne (the late King of Spain): "Feu -roi, Monsieur?"--"Monseigneur," hastily answered the trembling but adroit -man of business, "c'est une titre qu'ils prennent ('tis a title they -take)." (Besenval, i. 199.) Louis, we say, was not so happy; but he did -what he could. He would not suffer Death to be spoken of; avoided the -sight of churchyards, funereal monuments, and whatsoever could bring it to -mind. It is the resource of the Ostrich; who, hard hunted, sticks his -foolish head in the ground, and would fain forget that his foolish unseeing -body is not unseen too. Or sometimes, with a spasmodic antagonism, -significant of the same thing, and of more, he would go; or stopping his -court carriages, would send into churchyards, and ask 'how many new graves -there were today,' though it gave his poor Pompadour the disagreeablest -qualms. We can figure the thought of Louis that day, when, all royally -caparisoned for hunting, he met, at some sudden turning in the Wood of -Senart, a ragged Peasant with a coffin: "For whom?"--It was for a poor -brother slave, whom Majesty had sometimes noticed slaving in those -quarters. "What did he die of?"--"Of hunger:"--the King gave his steed the -spur. (Campan, iii. 39.) - -But figure his thought, when Death is now clutching at his own heart- -strings, unlooked for, inexorable! Yes, poor Louis, Death has found thee. -No palace walls or life-guards, gorgeous tapestries or gilt buckram of -stiffest ceremonial could keep him out; but he is here, here at thy very -life-breath, and will extinguish it. Thou, whose whole existence hitherto -was a chimera and scenic show, at length becomest a reality: sumptuous -Versailles bursts asunder, like a dream, into void Immensity; Time is done, -and all the scaffolding of Time falls wrecked with hideous clangour round -thy soul: the pale Kingdoms yawn open; there must thou enter, naked, all -unking'd, and await what is appointed thee! Unhappy man, there as thou -turnest, in dull agony, on thy bed of weariness, what a thought is thine! -Purgatory and Hell-fire, now all-too possible, in the prospect; in the -retrospect,--alas, what thing didst thou do that were not better undone; -what mortal didst thou generously help; what sorrow hadst thou mercy on? -Do the 'five hundred thousand' ghosts, who sank shamefully on so many -battle-fields from Rossbach to Quebec, that thy Harlot might take revenge -for an epigram,--crowd round thee in this hour? Thy foul Harem; the curses -of mothers, the tears and infamy of daughters? Miserable man! thou 'hast -done evil as thou couldst:' thy whole existence seems one hideous abortion -and mistake of Nature; the use and meaning of thee not yet known. Wert -thou a fabulous Griffin, devouring the works of men; daily dragging virgins -to thy cave;--clad also in scales that no spear would pierce: no spear but -Death's? A Griffin not fabulous but real! Frightful, O Louis, seem these -moments for thee.--We will pry no further into the horrors of a sinner's -death-bed. - -And yet let no meanest man lay flattering unction to his soul. Louis was a -Ruler; but art not thou also one? His wide France, look at it from the -Fixed Stars (themselves not yet Infinitude), is no wider than thy narrow -brickfield, where thou too didst faithfully, or didst unfaithfully. Man, -'Symbol of Eternity imprisoned into 'Time!' it is not thy works, which are -all mortal, infinitely little, and the greatest no greater than the least, -but only the Spirit thou workest in, that can have worth or continuance. - -But reflect, in any case, what a life-problem this of poor Louis, when he -rose as Bien-Aime from that Metz sick-bed, really was! What son of Adam -could have swayed such incoherences into coherence? Could he? Blindest -Fortune alone has cast him on the top of it: he swims there; can as little -sway it as the drift-log sways the wind-tossed moon-stirred Atlantic. -"What have I done to be so loved?" he said then. He may say now: What -have I done to be so hated? Thou hast done nothing, poor Louis! Thy fault -is properly even this, that thou didst nothing. What could poor Louis do? -Abdicate, and wash his hands of it,--in favour of the first that would -accept! Other clear wisdom there was none for him. As it was, he stood -gazing dubiously, the absurdest mortal extant (a very Solecism Incarnate), -into the absurdest confused world;--wherein at lost nothing seemed so -certain as that he, the incarnate Solecism, had five senses; that were -Flying Tables (Tables Volantes, which vanish through the floor, to come -back reloaded). and a Parc-aux-cerfs. - -Whereby at least we have again this historical curiosity: a human being in -an original position; swimming passively, as on some boundless 'Mother of -Dead Dogs,' towards issues which he partly saw. For Louis had withal a -kind of insight in him. So, when a new Minister of Marine, or what else it -might be, came announcing his new era, the Scarlet-woman would hear from -the lips of Majesty at supper: "He laid out his ware like another; -promised the beautifulest things in the world; not a thing of which will -come: he does not know this region; he will see." Or again: "'Tis the -twentieth time I hear all that; France will never get a Navy, I believe." -How touching also was this: "If I were Lieutenant of Police, I would -prohibit those Paris cabriolets." (Journal de Madame de Hausset, p. 293, -&c.) - -Doomed mortal;--for is it not a doom to be Solecism incarnate! A new Roi -Faineant, King Donothing; but with the strangest new Mayor of the Palace: -no bow-legged Pepin now, but that same cloud-capt, fire-breathing Spectre -of DEMOCRACY; incalculable, which is enveloping the world!--Was Louis no -wickeder than this or the other private Donothing and Eatall; such as we -often enough see, under the name of Man, and even Man of Pleasure, -cumbering God's diligent Creation, for a time? Say, wretcheder! His Life- -solecism was seen and felt of a whole scandalised world; him endless -Oblivion cannot engulf, and swallow to endless depths,--not yet for a -generation or two. - -However, be this as it will, we remark, not without interest, that 'on the -evening of the 4th,' Dame Dubarry issues from the sick-room, with -perceptible 'trouble in her visage.' It is the fourth evening of May, year -of Grace 1774. Such a whispering in the Oeil-de-Boeuf! Is he dying then? -What can be said is, that Dubarry seems making up her packages; she sails -weeping through her gilt boudoirs, as if taking leave. D'Aiguilon and -Company are near their last card; nevertheless they will not yet throw up -the game. But as for the sacramental controversy, it is as good as settled -without being mentioned; Louis can send for his Abbe Moudon in the course -of next night, be confessed by him, some say for the space of 'seventeen -minutes,' and demand the sacraments of his own accord. - -Nay, already, in the afternoon, behold is not this your Sorceress Dubarry -with the handkerchief at her eyes, mounting D'Aiguillon's chariot; rolling -off in his Duchess's consolatory arms? She is gone; and her place knows -her no more. Vanish, false Sorceress; into Space! Needless to hover at -neighbouring Ruel; for thy day is done. Shut are the royal palace-gates -for evermore; hardly in coming years shalt thou, under cloud of night, -descend once, in black domino, like a black night-bird, and disturb the -fair Antoinette's music-party in the Park: all Birds of Paradise flying -from thee, and musical windpipes growing mute. (Campan, i. 197.) Thou -unclean, yet unmalignant, not unpitiable thing! What a course was thine: -from that first trucklebed (in Joan of Arc's country) where thy mother bore -thee, with tears, to an unnamed father: forward, through lowest -subterranean depths, and over highest sunlit heights, of Harlotdom and -Rascaldom--to the guillotine-axe, which shears away thy vainly whimpering -head! Rest there uncursed; only buried and abolished: what else befitted -thee? - -Louis, meanwhile, is in considerable impatience for his sacraments; sends -more than once to the window, to see whether they are not coming. Be of -comfort, Louis, what comfort thou canst: they are under way, those -sacraments. Towards six in the morning, they arrive. Cardinal Grand- -Almoner Roche-Aymon is here, in pontificals, with his pyxes and his tools; -he approaches the royal pillow; elevates his wafer; mutters or seems to -mutter somewhat;--and so (as the Abbe Georgel, in words that stick to one, -expresses it) has Louis 'made the amende honorable to God;' so does your -Jesuit construe it.--"Wa, Wa," as the wild Clotaire groaned out, when life -was departing, "what great God is this that pulls down the strength of the -strongest kings!" (Gregorius Turonensis, Histor. lib. iv. cap. 21.) - -The amende honorable, what 'legal apology' you will, to God:--but not, if -D'Aiguillon can help it, to man. Dubarry still hovers in his mansion at -Ruel; and while there is life, there is hope. Grand-Almoner Roche-Aymon, -accordingly (for he seems to be in the secret), has no sooner seen his -pyxes and gear repacked, then he is stepping majestically forth again, as -if the work were done! But King's Confessor Abbe Moudon starts forward; -with anxious acidulent face, twitches him by the sleeve; whispers in his -ear. Whereupon the poor Cardinal must turn round; and declare audibly; -"That his Majesty repents of any subjects of scandal he may have given (a -pu donner); and purposes, by the strength of Heaven assisting him, to avoid -the like--for the future!" Words listened to by Richelieu with mastiff- -face, growing blacker; answered to, aloud, 'with an epithet,'--which -Besenval will not repeat. Old Richelieu, conqueror of Minorca, companion -of Flying-Table orgies, perforator of bedroom walls, (Besenval, i. 159-172. -Genlis; Duc de Levis, &c.) is thy day also done? - -Alas, the Chapel organs may keep going; the Shrine of Sainte Genevieve be -let down, and pulled up again,--without effect. In the evening the whole -Court, with Dauphin and Dauphiness, assist at the Chapel: priests are -hoarse with chanting their 'Prayers of Forty Hours;' and the heaving -bellows blow. Almost frightful! For the very heaven blackens; battering -rain-torrents dash, with thunder; almost drowning the organ's voice: and -electric fire-flashes make the very flambeaux on the altar pale. So that -the most, as we are told, retired, when it was over, with hurried steps, -'in a state of meditation (recueillement),' and said little or nothing. -(Weber, Memoires concernant Marie-Antoinette (London, 1809), i. 22.) - -So it has lasted for the better half of a fortnight; the Dubarry gone -almost a week. Besenval says, all the world was getting impatient que cela -finit; that poor Louis would have done with it. It is now the 10th of May -1774. He will soon have done now. - -This tenth May day falls into the loathsome sick-bed; but dull, unnoticed -there: for they that look out of the windows are quite darkened; the -cistern-wheel moves discordant on its axis; Life, like a spent steed, is -panting towards the goal. In their remote apartments, Dauphin and -Dauphiness stand road-ready; all grooms and equerries booted and spurred: -waiting for some signal to escape the house of pestilence. (One grudges to -interfere with the beautiful theatrical 'candle,' which Madame Campan (i. -79) has lit on this occasion, and blown out at the moment of death. What -candles might be lit or blown out, in so large an Establishment as that of -Versailles, no man at such distance would like to affirm: at the same -time, as it was two o'clock in a May Afternoon, and these royal Stables -must have been some five or six hundred yards from the royal sick-room, the -'candle' does threaten to go out in spite of us. It remains burning -indeed--in her fantasy; throwing light on much in those Memoires of hers.) -And, hark! across the Oeil-de-Boeuf, what sound is that; sound 'terrible -and absolutely like thunder'? It is the rush of the whole Court, rushing -as in wager, to salute the new Sovereigns: Hail to your Majesties! The -Dauphin and Dauphiness are King and Queen! Over-powered with many -emotions, they two fall on their knees together, and, with streaming tears, -exclaim, "O God, guide us, protect us; we are too young to reign!"--Too -young indeed. - -Thus, in any case, 'with a sound absolutely like thunder,' has the Horologe -of Time struck, and an old Era passed away. The Louis that was, lies -forsaken, a mass of abhorred clay; abandoned 'to some poor persons, and -priests of the Chapelle Ardente,'--who make haste to put him 'in two lead -coffins, pouring in abundant spirits of wine.' The new Louis with his -Court is rolling towards Choisy, through the summer afternoon: the royal -tears still flow; but a word mispronounced by Monseigneur d'Artois sets -them all laughing, and they weep no more. Light mortals, how ye walk your -light life-minuet, over bottomless abysses, divided from you by a film! - -For the rest, the proper authorities felt that no Funeral could be too -unceremonious. Besenval himself thinks it was unceremonious enough. Two -carriages containing two noblemen of the usher species, and a Versailles -clerical person; some score of mounted pages, some fifty palfreniers; -these, with torches, but not so much as in black, start from Versailles on -the second evening with their leaden bier. At a high trot they start; and -keep up that pace. For the jibes (brocards) of those Parisians, who stand -planted in two rows, all the way to St. Denis, and 'give vent to their -pleasantry, the characteristic of the nation,' do not tempt one to slacken. -Towards midnight the vaults of St. Denis receive their own; unwept by any -eye of all these; if not by poor Loque his neglected Daughter's, whose -Nunnery is hard by. - -Him they crush down, and huddle under-ground, in this impatient way; him -and his era of sin and tyranny and shame; for behold a New Era is come; the -future all the brighter that the past was base. - - - -BOOK 1.II. - -THE PAPER AGE - - -Chapter 1.2.I. - -Astraea Redux. - -A paradoxical philosopher, carrying to the uttermost length that aphorism -of Montesquieu's, 'Happy the people whose annals are tiresome,' has said, -'Happy the people whose annals are vacant.' In which saying, mad as it -looks, may there not still be found some grain of reason? For truly, as it -has been written, 'Silence is divine,' and of Heaven; so in all earthly -things too there is a silence which is better than any speech. Consider it -well, the Event, the thing which can be spoken of and recorded, is it not, -in all cases, some disruption, some solution of continuity? Were it even a -glad Event, it involves change, involves loss (of active Force); and so -far, either in the past or in the present, is an irregularity, a disease. -Stillest perseverance were our blessedness; not dislocation and -alteration,--could they be avoided. - -The oak grows silently, in the forest, a thousand years; only in the -thousandth year, when the woodman arrives with his axe, is there heard an -echoing through the solitudes; and the oak announces itself when, with a -far-sounding crash, it falls. How silent too was the planting of the -acorn; scattered from the lap of some wandering wind! Nay, when our oak -flowered, or put on its leaves (its glad Events), what shout of -proclamation could there be? Hardly from the most observant a word of -recognition. These things befell not, they were slowly done; not in an -hour, but through the flight of days: what was to be said of it? This -hour seemed altogether as the last was, as the next would be. - -It is thus everywhere that foolish Rumour babbles not of what was done, but -of what was misdone or undone; and foolish History (ever, more or less, the -written epitomised synopsis of Rumour) knows so little that were not as -well unknown. Attila Invasions, Walter-the-Penniless Crusades, Sicilian -Vespers, Thirty-Years Wars: mere sin and misery; not work, but hindrance -of work! For the Earth, all this while, was yearly green and yellow with -her kind harvests; the hand of the craftsman, the mind of the thinker -rested not: and so, after all, and in spite of all, we have this so -glorious high-domed blossoming World; concerning which, poor History may -well ask, with wonder, Whence it came? She knows so little of it, knows so -much of what obstructed it, what would have rendered it impossible. Such, -nevertheless, by necessity or foolish choice, is her rule and practice; -whereby that paradox, 'Happy the people whose annals are vacant,' is not -without its true side. - -And yet, what seems more pertinent to note here, there is a stillness, not -of unobstructed growth, but of passive inertness, and symptom of imminent -downfall. As victory is silent, so is defeat. Of the opposing forces the -weaker has resigned itself; the stronger marches on, noiseless now, but -rapid, inevitable: the fall and overturn will not be noiseless. How all -grows, and has its period, even as the herbs of the fields, be it annual, -centennial, millennial! All grows and dies, each by its own wondrous laws, -in wondrous fashion of its own; spiritual things most wondrously of all. -Inscrutable, to the wisest, are these latter; not to be prophesied of, or -understood. If when the oak stands proudliest flourishing to the eye, you -know that its heart is sound, it is not so with the man; how much less with -the Society, with the Nation of men! Of such it may be affirmed even that -the superficial aspect, that the inward feeling of full health, is -generally ominous. For indeed it is of apoplexy, so to speak, and a -plethoric lazy habit of body, that Churches, Kingships, Social -Institutions, oftenest die. Sad, when such Institution plethorically says -to itself, Take thy ease, thou hast goods laid up;--like the fool of the -Gospel, to whom it was answered, Fool, this night thy life shall be -required of thee! - -Is it the healthy peace, or the ominous unhealthy, that rests on France, -for these next Ten Years? Over which the Historian can pass lightly, -without call to linger: for as yet events are not, much less performances. -Time of sunniest stillness;--shall we call it, what all men thought it, the -new Age of God? Call it at least, of Paper; which in many ways is the -succedaneum of Gold. Bank-paper, wherewith you can still buy when there is -no gold left; Book-paper, splendent with Theories, Philosophies, -Sensibilities,--beautiful art, not only of revealing Thought, but also of -so beautifully hiding from us the want of Thought! Paper is made from the -rags of things that did once exist; there are endless excellences in -Paper.--What wisest Philosophe, in this halcyon uneventful period, could -prophesy that there was approaching, big with darkness and confusion, the -event of events? Hope ushers in a Revolution,--as earthquakes are preceded -by bright weather. On the Fifth of May, fifteen years hence, old Louis -will not be sending for the Sacraments; but a new Louis, his grandson, with -the whole pomp of astonished intoxicated France, will be opening the -States-General. - -Dubarrydom and its D'Aiguillons are gone forever. There is a young, still -docile, well-intentioned King; a young, beautiful and bountiful, well- -intentioned Queen; and with them all France, as it were, become young. -Maupeou and his Parlement have to vanish into thick night; respectable -Magistrates, not indifferent to the Nation, were it only for having been -opponents of the Court, can descend unchained from their 'steep rocks at -Croe in Combrailles' and elsewhere, and return singing praises: the old -Parlement of Paris resumes its functions. Instead of a profligate bankrupt -Abbe Terray, we have now, for Controller-General, a virtuous philosophic -Turgot, with a whole Reformed France in his head. By whom whatsoever is -wrong, in Finance or otherwise, will be righted,--as far as possible. Is -it not as if Wisdom herself were henceforth to have seat and voice in the -Council of Kings? Turgot has taken office with the noblest plainness of -speech to that effect; been listened to with the noblest royal -trustfulness. (Turgot's Letter: Condorcet, Vie de Turgot (Oeuvres de -Condorcet, t. v.), p. 67. The date is 24th August, 1774.) It is true, as -King Louis objects, "They say he never goes to mass;" but liberal France -likes him little worse for that; liberal France answers, "The Abbe Terray -always went." Philosophism sees, for the first time, a Philosophe (or even -a Philosopher) in office: she in all things will applausively second him; -neither will light old Maurepas obstruct, if he can easily help it. - -Then how 'sweet' are the manners; vice 'losing all its deformity;' becoming -decent (as established things, making regulations for themselves, do); -becoming almost a kind of 'sweet' virtue! Intelligence so abounds; -irradiated by wit and the art of conversation. Philosophism sits joyful in -her glittering saloons, the dinner-guest of Opulence grown ingenuous, the -very nobles proud to sit by her; and preaches, lifted up over all -Bastilles, a coming millennium. From far Ferney, Patriarch Voltaire gives -sign: veterans Diderot, D'Alembert have lived to see this day; these with -their younger Marmontels, Morellets, Chamforts, Raynals, make glad the -spicy board of rich ministering Dowager, of philosophic Farmer-General. O -nights and suppers of the gods! Of a truth, the long-demonstrated will now -be done: 'the Age of Revolutions approaches' (as Jean Jacques wrote), but -then of happy blessed ones. Man awakens from his long somnambulism; chases -the Phantasms that beleagured and bewitched him. Behold the new morning -glittering down the eastern steeps; fly, false Phantasms, from its shafts -of light; let the Absurd fly utterly forsaking this lower Earth for ever. -It is Truth and Astraea Redux that (in the shape of Philosophism) -henceforth reign. For what imaginable purpose was man made, if not to be -'happy'? By victorious Analysis, and Progress of the Species, happiness -enough now awaits him. Kings can become philosophers; or else philosophers -Kings. Let but Society be once rightly constituted,--by victorious -Analysis. The stomach that is empty shall be filled; the throat that is -dry shall be wetted with wine. Labour itself shall be all one as rest; not -grievous, but joyous. Wheatfields, one would think, cannot come to grow -untilled; no man made clayey, or made weary thereby;--unless indeed -machinery will do it? Gratuitous Tailors and Restaurateurs may start up, -at fit intervals, one as yet sees not how. But if each will, according to -rule of Benevolence, have a care for all, then surely--no one will be -uncared for. Nay, who knows but, by sufficiently victorious Analysis, -'human life may be indefinitely lengthened,' and men get rid of Death, as -they have already done of the Devil? We shall then be happy in spite of -Death and the Devil.--So preaches magniloquent Philosophism her Redeunt -Saturnia regna. - -The prophetic song of Paris and its Philosophes is audible enough in the -Versailles Oeil-de-Boeuf; and the Oeil-de-Boeuf, intent chiefly on nearer -blessedness, can answer, at worst, with a polite "Why not?" Good old -cheery Maurepas is too joyful a Prime Minister to dash the world's joy. -Sufficient for the day be its own evil. Cheery old man, he cuts his jokes, -and hovers careless along; his cloak well adjusted to the wind, if so be he -may please all persons. The simple young King, whom a Maurepas cannot -think of troubling with business, has retired into the interior apartments; -taciturn, irresolute; though with a sharpness of temper at times: he, at -length, determines on a little smithwork; and so, in apprenticeship with a -Sieur Gamain (whom one day he shall have little cause to bless), is -learning to make locks. (Campan, i. 125.) It appears further, he -understood Geography; and could read English. Unhappy young King, his -childlike trust in that foolish old Maurepas deserved another return. But -friend and foe, destiny and himself have combined to do him hurt. - -Meanwhile the fair young Queen, in her halls of state, walks like a goddess -of Beauty, the cynosure of all eyes; as yet mingles not with affairs; heeds -not the future; least of all, dreads it. Weber and Campan (Ib. i. 100-151. -Weber, i. 11-50.) have pictured her, there within the royal tapestries, in -bright boudoirs, baths, peignoirs, and the Grand and Little Toilette; with -a whole brilliant world waiting obsequious on her glance: fair young -daughter of Time, what things has Time in store for thee! Like Earth's -brightest Appearance, she moves gracefully, environed with the grandeur of -Earth: a reality, and yet a magic vision; for, behold, shall not utter -Darkness swallow it! The soft young heart adopts orphans, portions -meritorious maids, delights to succour the poor,--such poor as come -picturesquely in her way; and sets the fashion of doing it; for as was -said, Benevolence has now begun reigning. In her Duchess de Polignac, in -Princess de Lamballe, she enjoys something almost like friendship; now too, -after seven long years, she has a child, and soon even a Dauphin, of her -own; can reckon herself, as Queens go, happy in a husband. - -Events? The Grand events are but charitable Feasts of Morals (Fetes des -moeurs), with their Prizes and Speeches; Poissarde Processions to the -Dauphin's cradle; above all, Flirtations, their rise, progress, decline and -fall. There are Snow-statues raised by the poor in hard winter to a Queen -who has given them fuel. There are masquerades, theatricals; beautifyings -of little Trianon, purchase and repair of St. Cloud; journeyings from the -summer Court-Elysium to the winter one. There are poutings and grudgings -from the Sardinian Sisters-in-law (for the Princes too are wedded); little -jealousies, which Court-Etiquette can moderate. Wholly the lightest- -hearted frivolous foam of Existence; yet an artfully refined foam; pleasant -were it not so costly, like that which mantles on the wine of Champagne! - -Monsieur, the King's elder Brother, has set up for a kind of wit; and leans -towards the Philosophe side. Monseigneur d'Artois pulls the mask from a -fair impertinent; fights a duel in consequence,--almost drawing blood. -(Besenval, ii. 282-330.) He has breeches of a kind new in this world;--a -fabulous kind; 'four tall lackeys,' says Mercier, as if he had seen it, -'hold him up in the air, that he may fall into the garment without vestige -of wrinkle; from which rigorous encasement the same four, in the same way, -and with more effort, must deliver him at night.' (Mercier, Nouveau Paris, -iii. 147.) This last is he who now, as a gray time-worn man, sits desolate -at Gratz; (A.D. 1834.) having winded up his destiny with the Three Days. -In such sort are poor mortals swept and shovelled to and fro. - - - -Chapter 1.2.II. - -Petition in Hieroglyphs. - -With the working people, again it is not so well. Unlucky! For there are -twenty to twenty-five millions of them. Whom, however, we lump together -into a kind of dim compendious unity, monstrous but dim, far off, as the -canaille; or, more humanely, as 'the masses.' Masses, indeed: and yet, -singular to say, if, with an effort of imagination, thou follow them, over -broad France, into their clay hovels, into their garrets and hutches, the -masses consist all of units. Every unit of whom has his own heart and -sorrows; stands covered there with his own skin, and if you prick him he -will bleed. O purple Sovereignty, Holiness, Reverence; thou, for example, -Cardinal Grand-Almoner, with thy plush covering of honour, who hast thy -hands strengthened with dignities and moneys, and art set on thy world -watch-tower solemnly, in sight of God, for such ends,--what a thought: -that every unit of these masses is a miraculous Man, even as thyself art; -struggling, with vision, or with blindness, for his infinite Kingdom (this -life which he has got, once only, in the middle of Eternities); with a -spark of the Divinity, what thou callest an immortal soul, in him! - -Dreary, languid do these struggle in their obscure remoteness; their hearth -cheerless, their diet thin. For them, in this world, rises no Era of Hope; -hardly now in the other,--if it be not hope in the gloomy rest of Death, -for their faith too is failing. Untaught, uncomforted, unfed! A dumb -generation; their voice only an inarticulate cry: spokesman, in the King's -Council, in the world's forum, they have none that finds credence. At rare -intervals (as now, in 1775), they will fling down their hoes and hammers; -and, to the astonishment of thinking mankind, (Lacretelle, France pendant -le 18me Siecle, ii. 455. Biographie Universelle, para Turgot (by -Durozoir).) flock hither and thither, dangerous, aimless; get the length -even of Versailles. Turgot is altering the Corn-trade, abrogating the -absurdest Corn-laws; there is dearth, real, or were it even 'factitious;' -an indubitable scarcity of bread. And so, on the second day of May 1775, -these waste multitudes do here, at Versailles Chateau, in wide-spread -wretchedness, in sallow faces, squalor, winged raggedness, present, as in -legible hieroglyphic writing, their Petition of Grievances. The Chateau -gates have to be shut; but the King will appear on the balcony, and speak -to them. They have seen the King's face; their Petition of Grievances has -been, if not read, looked at. For answer, two of them are hanged, 'on a -new gallows forty feet high;' and the rest driven back to their dens,--for -a time. - -Clearly a difficult 'point' for Government, that of dealing with these -masses;--if indeed it be not rather the sole point and problem of -Government, and all other points mere accidental crotchets, -superficialities, and beatings of the wind! For let Charter-Chests, Use -and Wont, Law common and special say what they will, the masses count to so -many millions of units; made, to all appearance, by God,--whose Earth this -is declared to be. Besides, the people are not without ferocity; they have -sinews and indignation. Do but look what holiday old Marquis Mirabeau, the -crabbed old friend of Men, looked on, in these same years, from his -lodging, at the Baths of Mont d'Or: 'The savages descending in torrents -from the mountains; our people ordered not to go out. The Curate in -surplice and stole; Justice in its peruke; Marechausee sabre in hand, -guarding the place, till the bagpipes can begin. The dance interrupted, in -a quarter of an hour, by battle; the cries, the squealings of children, of -infirm persons, and other assistants, tarring them on, as the rabble does -when dogs fight: frightful men, or rather frightful wild animals, clad in -jupes of coarse woollen, with large girdles of leather studded with copper -nails; of gigantic stature, heightened by high wooden-clogs (sabots); -rising on tiptoe to see the fight; tramping time to it; rubbing their sides -with their elbows: their faces haggard (figures haves), and covered with -their long greasy hair; the upper part of the visage waxing pale, the lower -distorting itself into the attempt at a cruel laugh and a sort of ferocious -impatience. And these people pay the taille! And you want further to take -their salt from them! And you know not what it is you are stripping barer, -or as you call it, governing; what by the spurt of your pen, in its cold -dastard indifference, you will fancy you can starve always with impunity; -always till the catastrophe come!--Ah Madame, such Government by -Blindman's-buff, stumbling along too far, will end in the General Overturn -(culbute generale). (Memoires de Mirabeau, ecrits par Lui-meme, par son -Pere, son Oncle et son Fils Adoptif (Paris, 34-5), ii.186.) - -Undoubtedly a dark feature this in an Age of Gold,--Age, at least, of Paper -and Hope! Meanwhile, trouble us not with thy prophecies, O croaking Friend -of Men: 'tis long that we have heard such; and still the old world keeps -wagging, in its old way. - - - -Chapter 1.2.III. - -Questionable. - -Or is this same Age of Hope itself but a simulacrum; as Hope too often is? -Cloud-vapour with rainbows painted on it, beautiful to see, to sail -towards,--which hovers over Niagara Falls? In that case, victorious -Analysis will have enough to do. - -Alas, yes! a whole world to remake, if she could see it; work for another -than she! For all is wrong, and gone out of joint; the inward spiritual, -and the outward economical; head or heart, there is no soundness in it. As -indeed, evils of all sorts are more or less of kin, and do usually go -together: especially it is an old truth, that wherever huge physical evil -is, there, as the parent and origin of it, has moral evil to a -proportionate extent been. Before those five-and-twenty labouring -Millions, for instance, could get that haggardness of face, which old -Mirabeau now looks on, in a Nation calling itself Christian, and calling -man the brother of man,--what unspeakable, nigh infinite Dishonesty (of -seeming and not being) in all manner of Rulers, and appointed Watchers, -spiritual and temporal, must there not, through long ages, have gone on -accumulating! It will accumulate: moreover, it will reach a head; for the -first of all Gospels is this, that a Lie cannot endure for ever. - -In fact, if we pierce through that rosepink vapour of Sentimentalism, -Philanthropy, and Feasts of Morals, there lies behind it one of the -sorriest spectacles. You might ask, What bonds that ever held a human -society happily together, or held it together at all, are in force here? -It is an unbelieving people; which has suppositions, hypotheses, and froth- -systems of victorious Analysis; and for belief this mainly, that Pleasure -is pleasant. Hunger they have for all sweet things; and the law of Hunger; -but what other law? Within them, or over them, properly none! - -Their King has become a King Popinjay; with his Maurepas Government, -gyrating as the weather-cock does, blown about by every wind. Above them -they see no God; or they even do not look above, except with astronomical -glasses. The Church indeed still is; but in the most submissive state; -quite tamed by Philosophism; in a singularly short time; for the hour was -come. Some twenty years ago, your Archbishop Beaumont would not even let -the poor Jansenists get buried: your Lomenie Brienne (a rising man, whom -we shall meet with yet) could, in the name of the Clergy, insist on having -the Anti-protestant laws, which condemn to death for preaching, 'put in -execution.' (Boissy d'Anglas, Vie de Malesherbes, i. 15-22.) And, alas, -now not so much as Baron Holbach's Atheism can be burnt,--except as pipe- -matches by the private speculative individual. Our Church stands haltered, -dumb, like a dumb ox; lowing only for provender (of tithes); content if it -can have that; or, dumbly, dully expecting its further doom. And the -Twenty Millions of 'haggard faces;' and, as finger-post and guidance to -them in their dark struggle, 'a gallows forty feet high'! Certainly a -singular Golden Age; with its Feasts of Morals, its 'sweet manners,' its -sweet institutions (institutions douces); betokening nothing but peace -among men!--Peace? O Philosophe-Sentimentalism, what hast thou to do with -peace, when thy mother's name is Jezebel? Foul Product of still fouler -Corruption, thou with the corruption art doomed! - -Meanwhile it is singular how long the rotten will hold together, provided -you do not handle it roughly. For whole generations it continues standing, -'with a ghastly affectation of life,' after all life and truth has fled out -of it; so loth are men to quit their old ways; and, conquering indolence -and inertia, venture on new. Great truly is the Actual; is the Thing that -has rescued itself from bottomless deeps of theory and possibility, and -stands there as a definite indisputable Fact, whereby men do work and live, -or once did so. Widely shall men cleave to that, while it will endure; and -quit it with regret, when it gives way under them. Rash enthusiast of -Change, beware! Hast thou well considered all that Habit does in this life -of ours; how all Knowledge and all Practice hang wondrous over infinite -abysses of the Unknown, Impracticable; and our whole being is an infinite -abyss, over-arched by Habit, as by a thin Earth-rind, laboriously built -together? - -But if 'every man,' as it has been written, 'holds confined within him a -mad-man,' what must every Society do;--Society, which in its commonest -state is called 'the standing miracle of this world'! 'Without such Earth- -rind of Habit,' continues our author, 'call it System of Habits, in a word, -fixed ways of acting and of believing,--Society would not exist at all. -With such it exists, better or worse. Herein too, in this its System of -Habits, acquired, retained how you will, lies the true Law-Code and -Constitution of a Society; the only Code, though an unwritten one which it -can in nowise disobey. The thing we call written Code, Constitution, Form -of Government, and the like, what is it but some miniature image, and -solemnly expressed summary of this unwritten Code? Is,--or rather alas, is -not; but only should be, and always tends to be! In which latter -discrepancy lies struggle without end.' And now, we add in the same -dialect, let but, by ill chance, in such ever-enduring struggle,--your -'thin Earth-rind' be once broken! The fountains of the great deep boil -forth; fire-fountains, enveloping, engulfing. Your 'Earth-rind' is -shattered, swallowed up; instead of a green flowery world, there is a waste -wild-weltering chaos:--which has again, with tumult and struggle, to make -itself into a world. - -On the other hand, be this conceded: Where thou findest a Lie that is -oppressing thee, extinguish it. Lies exist there only to be extinguished; -they wait and cry earnestly for extinction. Think well, meanwhile, in what -spirit thou wilt do it: not with hatred, with headlong selfish violence; -but in clearness of heart, with holy zeal, gently, almost with pity. Thou -wouldst not replace such extinct Lie by a new Lie, which a new Injustice of -thy own were; the parent of still other Lies? Whereby the latter end of -that business were worse than the beginning. - -So, however, in this world of ours, which has both an indestructible hope -in the Future, and an indestructible tendency to persevere as in the Past, -must Innovation and Conservation wage their perpetual conflict, as they may -and can. Wherein the 'daemonic element,' that lurks in all human things, -may doubtless, some once in the thousand years--get vent! But indeed may -we not regret that such conflict,--which, after all, is but like that -classical one of 'hate-filled Amazons with heroic Youths,' and will end in -embraces,--should usually be so spasmodic? For Conservation, strengthened -by that mightiest quality in us, our indolence, sits for long ages, not -victorious only, which she should be; but tyrannical, incommunicative. She -holds her adversary as if annihilated; such adversary lying, all the while, -like some buried Enceladus; who, to gain the smallest freedom, must stir a -whole Trinacria with it Aetnas. - -Wherefore, on the whole, we will honour a Paper Age too; an Era of hope! -For in this same frightful process of Enceladus Revolt; when the task, on -which no mortal would willingly enter, has become imperative, inevitable,-- -is it not even a kindness of Nature that she lures us forward by cheerful -promises, fallacious or not; and a whole generation plunges into the Erebus -Blackness, lighted on by an Era of Hope? It has been well said: 'Man is -based on Hope; he has properly no other possession but Hope; this -habitation of his is named the Place of Hope.' - - - -Chapter 1.2.IV. - -Maurepas. - -But now, among French hopes, is not that of old M. de Maurepas one of the -best-grounded; who hopes that he, by dexterity, shall contrive to continue -Minister? Nimble old man, who for all emergencies has his light jest; and -ever in the worst confusion will emerge, cork-like, unsunk! Small care to -him is Perfectibility, Progress of the Species, and Astraea Redux: good -only, that a man of light wit, verging towards fourscore, can in the seat -of authority feel himself important among men. Shall we call him, as -haughty Chateauroux was wont of old, 'M. Faquinet (Diminutive of -Scoundrel)'? In courtier dialect, he is now named 'the Nestor of France;' -such governing Nestor as France has. - -At bottom, nevertheless, it might puzzle one to say where the Government of -France, in these days, specially is. In that Chateau of Versailles, we -have Nestor, King, Queen, ministers and clerks, with paper-bundles tied in -tape: but the Government? For Government is a thing that governs, that -guides; and if need be, compels. Visible in France there is not such a -thing. Invisible, inorganic, on the other hand, there is: in Philosophe -saloons, in Oeil-de-Boeuf galleries; in the tongue of the babbler, in the -pen of the pamphleteer. Her Majesty appearing at the Opera is applauded; -she returns all radiant with joy. Anon the applauses wax fainter, or -threaten to cease; she is heavy of heart, the light of her face has fled. -Is Sovereignty some poor Montgolfier; which, blown into by the popular -wind, grows great and mounts; or sinks flaccid, if the wind be withdrawn? -France was long a 'Despotism tempered by Epigrams;' and now, it would seem, -the Epigrams have get the upper hand. - -Happy were a young 'Louis the Desired' to make France happy; if it did not -prove too troublesome, and he only knew the way. But there is endless -discrepancy round him; so many claims and clamours; a mere confusion of -tongues. Not reconcilable by man; not manageable, suppressible, save by -some strongest and wisest men;--which only a lightly-jesting lightly- -gyrating M. de Maurepas can so much as subsist amidst. Philosophism claims -her new Era, meaning thereby innumerable things. And claims it in no faint -voice; for France at large, hitherto mute, is now beginning to speak also; -and speaks in that same sense. A huge, many-toned sound; distant, yet not -unimpressive. On the other hand, the Oeil-de-Boeuf, which, as nearest, one -can hear best, claims with shrill vehemence that the Monarchy be as -heretofore a Horn of Plenty; wherefrom loyal courtiers may draw,--to the -just support of the throne. Let Liberalism and a New Era, if such is the -wish, be introduced; only no curtailment of the royal moneys? Which latter -condition, alas, is precisely the impossible one. - -Philosophism, as we saw, has got her Turgot made Controller-General; and -there shall be endless reformation. Unhappily this Turgot could continue -only twenty months. With a miraculous Fortunatus' Purse in his Treasury, -it might have lasted longer; with such Purse indeed, every French -Controller-General, that would prosper in these days, ought first to -provide himself. But here again may we not remark the bounty of Nature in -regard to Hope? Man after man advances confident to the Augean Stable, as -if he could clean it; expends his little fraction of an ability on it, with -such cheerfulness; does, in so far as he was honest, accomplish something. -Turgot has faculties; honesty, insight, heroic volition; but the -Fortunatus' Purse he has not. Sanguine Controller-General! a whole pacific -French Revolution may stand schemed in the head of the thinker; but who -shall pay the unspeakable 'indemnities' that will be needed? Alas, far -from that: on the very threshold of the business, he proposes that the -Clergy, the Noblesse, the very Parlements be subjected to taxes! One -shriek of indignation and astonishment reverberates through all the Chateau -galleries; M. de Maurepas has to gyrate: the poor King, who had written -few weeks ago, 'Il n'y a que vous et moi qui aimions le peuple (There is -none but you and I that has the people's interest at heart),' must write -now a dismissal; (In May, 1776.) and let the French Revolution accomplish -itself, pacifically or not, as it can. - -Hope, then, is deferred? Deferred; not destroyed, or abated. Is not this, -for example, our Patriarch Voltaire, after long years of absence, -revisiting Paris? With face shrivelled to nothing; with 'huge peruke a la -Louis Quatorze, which leaves only two eyes "visible" glittering like -carbuncles,' the old man is here. (February, 1778.) What an outburst! -Sneering Paris has suddenly grown reverent; devotional with Hero-worship. -Nobles have disguised themselves as tavern-waiters to obtain sight of him: -the loveliest of France would lay their hair beneath his feet. 'His -chariot is the nucleus of a comet; whose train fills whole streets:' they -crown him in the theatre, with immortal vivats; 'finally stifle him under -roses,'--for old Richelieu recommended opium in such state of the nerves, -and the excessive Patriarch took too much. Her Majesty herself had some -thought of sending for him; but was dissuaded. Let Majesty consider it, -nevertheless. The purport of this man's existence has been to wither up -and annihilate all whereon Majesty and Worship for the present rests: and -is it so that the world recognises him? With Apotheosis; as its Prophet -and Speaker, who has spoken wisely the thing it longed to say? Add only, -that the body of this same rose-stifled, beatified-Patriarch cannot get -buried except by stealth. It is wholly a notable business; and France, -without doubt, is big (what the Germans call 'Of good Hope'): we shall -wish her a happy birth-hour, and blessed fruit. - -Beaumarchais too has now winded-up his Law-Pleadings (Memoires); (1773-6. -See Oeuvres de Beaumarchais; where they, and the history of them, are -given.) not without result, to himself and to the world. Caron -Beaumarchais (or de Beaumarchais, for he got ennobled) had been born poor, -but aspiring, esurient; with talents, audacity, adroitness; above all, with -the talent for intrigue: a lean, but also a tough, indomitable man. -Fortune and dexterity brought him to the harpsichord of Mesdames, our good -Princesses Loque, Graille and Sisterhood. Still better, Paris Duvernier, -the Court-Banker, honoured him with some confidence; to the length even of -transactions in cash. Which confidence, however, Duvernier's Heir, a -person of quality, would not continue. Quite otherwise; there springs a -Lawsuit from it: wherein tough Beaumarchais, losing both money and repute, -is, in the opinion of Judge-Reporter Goezman, of the Parlement Maupeou, of -a whole indifferent acquiescing world, miserably beaten. In all men's -opinions, only not in his own! Inspired by the indignation, which makes, -if not verses, satirical law-papers, the withered Music-master, with a -desperate heroism, takes up his lost cause in spite of the world; fights -for it, against Reporters, Parlements and Principalities, with light -banter, with clear logic; adroitly, with an inexhaustible toughness and -resource, like the skilfullest fencer; on whom, so skilful is he, the whole -world now looks. Three long years it lasts; with wavering fortune. In -fine, after labours comparable to the Twelve of Hercules, our unconquerable -Caron triumphs; regains his Lawsuit and Lawsuits; strips Reporter Goezman -of the judicial ermine; covering him with a perpetual garment of obloquy -instead:--and in regard to the Parlement Maupeou (which he has helped to -extinguish), to Parlements of all kinds, and to French Justice generally, -gives rise to endless reflections in the minds of men. Thus has -Beaumarchais, like a lean French Hercules, ventured down, driven by -destiny, into the Nether Kingdoms; and victoriously tamed hell-dogs there. -He also is henceforth among the notabilities of his generation. - - - -Chapter 1.2.V. - -Astraea Redux without Cash. - -Observe, however, beyond the Atlantic, has not the new day verily dawned! -Democracy, as we said, is born; storm-girt, is struggling for life and -victory. A sympathetic France rejoices over the Rights of Man; in all -saloons, it is said, What a spectacle! Now too behold our Deane, our -Franklin, American Plenipotentiaries, here in position soliciting; (1777; -Deane somewhat earlier: Franklin remained till 1785.) the sons of the -Saxon Puritans, with their Old-Saxon temper, Old-Hebrew culture, sleek -Silas, sleek Benjamin, here on such errand, among the light children of -Heathenism, Monarchy, Sentimentalism, and the Scarlet-woman. A spectacle -indeed; over which saloons may cackle joyous; though Kaiser Joseph, -questioned on it, gave this answer, most unexpected from a Philosophe: -"Madame, the trade I live by is that of royalist (Mon metier a moi c'est -d'etre royaliste)." - -So thinks light Maurepas too; but the wind of Philosophism and force of -public opinion will blow him round. Best wishes, meanwhile, are sent; -clandestine privateers armed. Paul Jones shall equip his Bon Homme -Richard: weapons, military stores can be smuggled over (if the English do -not seize them); wherein, once more Beaumarchais, dimly as the Giant -Smuggler becomes visible,--filling his own lank pocket withal. But surely, -in any case, France should have a Navy. For which great object were not -now the time: now when that proud Termagant of the Seas has her hands -full? It is true, an impoverished Treasury cannot build ships; but the -hint once given (which Beaumarchais says he gave), this and the other loyal -Seaport, Chamber of Commerce, will build and offer them. Goodly vessels -bound into the waters; a Ville de Paris, Leviathan of ships. - -And now when gratuitous three-deckers dance there at anchor, with streamers -flying; and eleutheromaniac Philosophedom grows ever more clamorous, what -can a Maurepas do--but gyrate? Squadrons cross the ocean: Gages, Lees, -rough Yankee Generals, 'with woollen night-caps under their hats,' present -arms to the far-glancing Chivalry of France; and new-born Democracy sees, -not without amazement, 'Despotism tempered by Epigrams fight at her side. -So, however, it is. King's forces and heroic volunteers; Rochambeaus, -Bouilles, Lameths, Lafayettes, have drawn their swords in this sacred -quarrel of mankind;--shall draw them again elsewhere, in the strangest way. - -Off Ushant some naval thunder is heard. In the course of which did our -young Prince, Duke de Chartres, 'hide in the hold;' or did he materially, -by active heroism, contribute to the victory? Alas, by a second edition, -we learn that there was no victory; or that English Keppel had it. (27th -July, 1778.) Our poor young Prince gets his Opera plaudits changed into -mocking tehees; and cannot become Grand-Admiral,--the source to him of woes -which one may call endless. - -Woe also for Ville de Paris, the Leviathan of ships! English Rodney has -clutched it, and led it home, with the rest; so successful was his new -'manoeuvre of breaking the enemy's line.' (9th and 12th April, 1782.) It -seems as if, according to Louis XV., 'France were never to have a Navy.' -Brave Suffren must return from Hyder Ally and the Indian Waters; with small -result; yet with great glory for 'six non-defeats;--which indeed, with such -seconding as he had, one may reckon heroic. Let the old sea-hero rest now, -honoured of France, in his native Cevennes mountains; send smoke, not of -gunpowder, but mere culinary smoke, through the old chimneys of the Castle -of Jales,--which one day, in other hands, shall have other fame. Brave -Laperouse shall by and by lift anchor, on philanthropic Voyage of -Discovery; for the King knows Geography. (August 1st, 1785.) But, alas, -this also will not prosper: the brave Navigator goes, and returns not; the -Seekers search far seas for him in vain. He has vanished trackless into -blue Immensity; and only some mournful mysterious shadow of him hovers long -in all heads and hearts. - -Neither, while the War yet lasts, will Gibraltar surrender. Not though -Crillon, Nassau-Siegen, with the ablest projectors extant, are there; and -Prince Conde and Prince d'Artois have hastened to help. Wondrous leather- -roofed Floating-batteries, set afloat by French-Spanish Pacte de Famille, -give gallant summons: to which, nevertheless, Gibraltar answers -Plutonically, with mere torrents of redhot iron,--as if stone Calpe had -become a throat of the Pit; and utters such a Doom's-blast of a No, as all -men must credit. (Annual Register (Dodsley's), xxv. 258-267. September, -October, 1782.) - -And so, with this loud explosion, the noise of War has ceased; an Age of -Benevolence may hope, for ever. Our noble volunteers of Freedom have -returned, to be her missionaries. Lafayette, as the matchless of his time, -glitters in the Versailles Oeil-de-Beouf; has his Bust set up in the Paris -Hotel-de-Ville. Democracy stands inexpugnable, immeasurable, in her New -World; has even a foot lifted towards the Old;--and our French Finances, -little strengthened by such work, are in no healthy way. - -What to do with the Finance? This indeed is the great question: a small -but most black weather-symptom, which no radiance of universal hope can -cover. We saw Turgot cast forth from the Controllership, with shrieks,-- -for want of a Fortunatus' Purse. As little could M. de Clugny manage the -duty; or indeed do anything, but consume his wages; attain 'a place in -History,' where as an ineffectual shadow thou beholdest him still -lingering;--and let the duty manage itself. Did Genevese Necker possess -such a Purse, then? He possessed banker's skill, banker's honesty; credit -of all kinds, for he had written Academic Prize Essays, struggled for India -Companies, given dinners to Philosophes, and 'realised a fortune in twenty -years.' He possessed, further, a taciturnity and solemnity; of depth, or -else of dulness. How singular for Celadon Gibbon, false swain as he had -proved; whose father, keeping most probably his own gig, 'would not hear of -such a union,'--to find now his forsaken Demoiselle Curchod sitting in the -high places of the world, as Minister's Madame, and 'Necker not jealous!' -(Gibbon's Letters: date, 16th June, 1777, &c.) - -A new young Demoiselle, one day to be famed as a Madame and De Stael, was -romping about the knees of the Decline and Fall: the lady Necker founds -Hospitals; gives solemn Philosophe dinner-parties, to cheer her exhausted -Controller-General. Strange things have happened: by clamour of -Philosophism, management of Marquis de Pezay, and Poverty constraining even -Kings. And so Necker, Atlas-like, sustains the burden of the Finances, for -five years long? (Till May, 1781.) Without wages, for he refused such; -cheered only by Public Opinion, and the ministering of his noble Wife. -With many thoughts in him, it is hoped;--which, however, he is shy of -uttering. His Compte Rendu, published by the royal permission, fresh sign -of a New Era, shows wonders;--which what but the genius of some Atlas- -Necker can prevent from becoming portents? In Necker's head too there is a -whole pacific French Revolution, of its kind; and in that taciturn dull -depth, or deep dulness, ambition enough. - -Meanwhile, alas, his Fotunatus' Purse turns out to be little other than the -old 'vectigal of Parsimony.' Nay, he too has to produce his scheme of -taxing: Clergy, Noblesse to be taxed; Provincial Assemblies, and the -rest,--like a mere Turgot! The expiring M. de Maurepas must gyrate one -other time. Let Necker also depart; not unlamented. - -Great in a private station, Necker looks on from the distance; abiding his -time. 'Eighty thousand copies' of his new Book, which he calls -Administration des Finances, will be sold in few days. He is gone; but -shall return, and that more than once, borne by a whole shouting Nation. -Singular Controller-General of the Finances; once Clerk in Thelusson's -Bank! - - - -Chapter 1.2.VI. - -Windbags. - -So marches the world, in this its Paper Age, or Era of Hope. Not without -obstructions, war-explosions; which, however, heard from such distance, are -little other than a cheerful marching-music. If indeed that dark living -chaos of Ignorance and Hunger, five-and-twenty million strong, under your -feet,--were to begin playing! - -For the present, however, consider Longchamp; now when Lent is ending, and -the glory of Paris and France has gone forth, as in annual wont. Not to -assist at Tenebris Masses, but to sun itself and show itself, and salute -the Young Spring. (Mercier, Tableau de Paris, ii. 51. Louvet, Roman de -Faublas, &c.) Manifold, bright-tinted, glittering with gold; all through -the Bois de Boulogne, in longdrawn variegated rows;--like longdrawn living -flower-borders, tulips, dahlias, lilies of the valley; all in their moving -flower-pots (of new-gilt carriages): pleasure of the eye, and pride of -life! So rolls and dances the Procession: steady, of firm assurance, as -if it rolled on adamant and the foundations of the world; not on mere -heraldic parchment,--under which smoulders a lake of fire. Dance on, ye -foolish ones; ye sought not wisdom, neither have ye found it. Ye and your -fathers have sown the wind, ye shall reap the whirlwind. Was it not, from -of old, written: The wages of sin is death? - -But at Longchamp, as elsewhere, we remark for one thing, that dame and -cavalier are waited on each by a kind of human familiar, named jokei. -Little elf, or imp; though young, already withered; with its withered air -of premature vice, of knowingness, of completed elf-hood: useful in -various emergencies. The name jokei (jockey) comes from the English; as -the thing also fancies that it does. Our Anglomania, in fact , is grown -considerable; prophetic of much. If France is to be free, why shall she -not, now when mad war is hushed, love neighbouring Freedom? Cultivated -men, your Dukes de Liancourt, de la Rochefoucault admire the English -Constitution, the English National Character; would import what of it they -can. - -Of what is lighter, especially if it be light as wind, how much easier the -freightage! Non-Admiral Duke de Chartres (not yet d'Orleans or Egalite) -flies to and fro across the Strait; importing English Fashions; this he, as -hand-and-glove with an English Prince of Wales, is surely qualified to do. -Carriages and saddles; top-boots and redingotes, as we call riding-coats. -Nay the very mode of riding: for now no man on a level with his age but -will trot a l'Anglaise, rising in the stirrups; scornful of the old sitfast -method, in which, according to Shakspeare, 'butter and eggs' go to market. -Also, he can urge the fervid wheels, this brave Chartres of ours; no whip -in Paris is rasher and surer than the unprofessional one of Monseigneur. - -Elf jokeis, we have seen; but see now real Yorkshire jockeys, and what they -ride on, and train: English racers for French Races. These likewise we -owe first (under the Providence of the Devil) to Monseigneur. Prince -d'Artois also has his stud of racers. Prince d'Artois has withal the -strangest horseleech: a moonstruck, much-enduring individual, of Neuchatel -in Switzerland,--named Jean Paul Marat. A problematic Chevalier d'Eon, now -in petticoats, now in breeches, is no less problematic in London than in -Paris; and causes bets and lawsuits. Beautiful days of international -communion! Swindlery and Blackguardism have stretched hands across the -Channel, and saluted mutually: on the racecourse of Vincennes or Sablons, -behold in English curricle-and-four, wafted glorious among the -principalities and rascalities, an English Dr. Dodd, (Adelung, Geschichte -der Menschlichen Narrheit, para Dodd.)--for whom also the too early gallows -gapes. - -Duke de Chartres was a young Prince of great promise, as young Princes -often are; which promise unfortunately has belied itself. With the huge -Orleans Property, with Duke de Penthievre for Father-in-law (and now the -young Brother-in-law Lamballe killed by excesses),--he will one day be the -richest man in France. Meanwhile, 'his hair is all falling out, his blood -is quite spoiled,'--by early transcendentalism of debauchery. Carbuncles -stud his face; dark studs on a ground of burnished copper. A most signal -failure, this young Prince! The stuff prematurely burnt out of him: -little left but foul smoke and ashes of expiring sensualities: what might -have been Thought, Insight, and even Conduct, gone now, or fast going,--to -confused darkness, broken by bewildering dazzlements; to obstreperous -crotchets; to activities which you may call semi-delirious, or even semi- -galvanic! Paris affects to laugh at his charioteering; but he heeds not -such laughter. - -On the other hand, what a day, not of laughter, was that, when he -threatened, for lucre's sake, to lay sacrilegious hand on the Palais-Royal -Garden! (1781-82. (Dulaure, viii. 423.)) The flower-parterres shall be -riven up; the Chestnut Avenues shall fall: time-honoured boscages, under -which the Opera Hamadryads were wont to wander, not inexorable to men. -Paris moans aloud. Philidor, from his Cafe de la Regence, shall no longer -look on greenness; the loungers and losels of the world, where now shall -they haunt? In vain is moaning. The axe glitters; the sacred groves fall -crashing,--for indeed Monseigneur was short of money: the Opera Hamadryads -fly with shrieks. Shriek not, ye Opera Hamadryads; or not as those that -have no comfort. He will surround your Garden with new edifices and -piazzas: though narrowed, it shall be replanted; dizened with hydraulic -jets, cannon which the sun fires at noon; things bodily, things spiritual, -such as man has not imagined;--and in the Palais-Royal shall again, and -more than ever, be the Sorcerer's Sabbath and Satan-at-Home of our Planet. - -What will not mortals attempt? From remote Annonay in the Vivarais, the -Brothers Montgolfier send up their paper-dome, filled with the smoke of -burnt wool. (5th June, 1783.) The Vivarais provincial assembly is to be -prorogued this same day: Vivarais Assembly-members applaud, and the shouts -of congregated men. Will victorious Analysis scale the very Heavens, then? - -Paris hears with eager wonder; Paris shall ere long see. From Reveilion's -Paper-warehouse there, in the Rue St. Antoine (a noted Warehouse),--the new -Montgolfier air-ship launches itself. Ducks and poultry are borne skyward: -but now shall men be borne. (October and November, 1783.) Nay, Chemist -Charles thinks of hydrogen and glazed silk. Chemist Charles will himself -ascend, from the Tuileries Garden; Montgolfier solemnly cutting the cord. -By Heaven, he also mounts, he and another? Ten times ten thousand hearts -go palpitating; all tongues are mute with wonder and fear; till a shout, -like the voice of seas, rolls after him, on his wild way. He soars, he -dwindles upwards; has become a mere gleaming circlet,--like some Turgotine -snuff-box, what we call 'Turgotine Platitude;' like some new daylight Moon! -Finally he descends; welcomed by the universe. Duchess Polignac, with a -party, is in the Bois de Boulogne, waiting; though it is drizzly winter; -the 1st of December 1783. The whole chivalry of France, Duke de Chartres -foremost, gallops to receive him. (Lacretelle, 18me Siecle, iii. 258.) - -Beautiful invention; mounting heavenward, so beautifully,--so unguidably! -Emblem of much, and of our Age of Hope itself; which shall mount, -specifically-light, majestically in this same manner; and hover,--tumbling -whither Fate will. Well if it do not, Pilatre-like, explode; and demount -all the more tragically!--So, riding on windbags, will men scale the -Empyrean. - -Or observe Herr Doctor Mesmer, in his spacious Magnetic Halls. Long-stoled -he walks; reverend, glancing upwards, as in rapt commerce; an Antique -Egyptian Hierophant in this new age. Soft music flits; breaking fitfully -the sacred stillness. Round their Magnetic Mystery, which to the eye is -mere tubs with water,--sit breathless, rod in hand, the circles of Beauty -and Fashion, each circle a living circular Passion-Flower: expecting the -magnetic afflatus, and new-manufactured Heaven-on-Earth. O women, O men, -great is your infidel-faith! A Parlementary Duport, a Bergasse, -D'Espremenil we notice there; Chemist Berthollet too,--on the part of -Monseigneur de Chartres. - -Had not the Academy of Sciences, with its Baillys, Franklins, Lavoisiers, -interfered! But it did interfere. (Lacretelle, 18me Siecle, iii.258.) -Mesmer may pocket his hard money, and withdraw. Let him walk silent by the -shore of the Bodensee, by the ancient town of Constance; meditating on -much. For so, under the strangest new vesture, the old great truth (since -no vesture can hide it) begins again to be revealed: That man is what we -call a miraculous creature, with miraculous power over men; and, on the -whole, with such a Life in him, and such a World round him, as victorious -Analysis, with her Physiologies, Nervous-systems, Physic and Metaphysic, -will never completely name, to say nothing of explaining. Wherein also the -Quack shall, in all ages, come in for his share. (August, 1784.) - - - -Chapter 1.2.VII. - -Contrat Social. - -In such succession of singular prismatic tints, flush after flush suffusing -our horizon, does the Era of Hope dawn on towards fulfilment. -Questionable! As indeed, with an Era of Hope that rests on mere universal -Benevolence, victorious Analysis, Vice cured of its deformity; and, in the -long run, on Twenty-five dark savage Millions, looking up, in hunger and -weariness, to that Ecce-signum of theirs 'forty feet high,'--how could it -but be questionable? - -Through all time, if we read aright, sin was, is, will be, the parent of -misery. This land calls itself most Christian, and has crosses and -cathedrals; but its High-priest is some Roche-Aymon, some Necklace-Cardinal -Louis de Rohan. The voice of the poor, through long years, ascends -inarticulate, in Jacqueries, meal-mobs; low-whimpering of infinite moan: -unheeded of the Earth; not unheeded of Heaven. Always moreover where the -Millions are wretched, there are the Thousands straitened, unhappy; only -the Units can flourish; or say rather, be ruined the last. Industry, all -noosed and haltered, as if it too were some beast of chase for the mighty -hunters of this world to bait, and cut slices from,--cries passionately to -these its well-paid guides and watchers, not, Guide me; but, Laissez faire, -Leave me alone of your guidance! What market has Industry in this France? -For two things there may be market and demand: for the coarser kind of -field-fruits, since the Millions will live: for the fine kinds of luxury -and spicery,--of multiform taste, from opera-melodies down to racers and -courtesans; since the Units will be amused. It is at bottom but a mad -state of things. - -To mend and remake all which we have, indeed, victorious Analysis. Honour -to victorious Analysis; nevertheless, out of the Workshop and Laboratory, -what thing was victorious Analysis yet known to make? Detection of -incoherences, mainly; destruction of the incoherent. From of old, Doubt -was but half a magician; she evokes the spectres which she cannot quell. -We shall have 'endless vortices of froth-logic;' whereon first words, and -then things, are whirled and swallowed. Remark, accordingly, as -acknowledged grounds of Hope, at bottom mere precursors of Despair, this -perpetual theorising about Man, the Mind of Man, Philosophy of Government, -Progress of the Species and such-like; the main thinking furniture of every -head. Time, and so many Montesquieus, Mablys, spokesmen of Time, have -discovered innumerable things: and now has not Jean Jacques promulgated -his new Evangel of a Contrat Social; explaining the whole mystery of -Government, and how it is contracted and bargained for,--to universal -satisfaction? Theories of Government! Such have been, and will be; in -ages of decadence. Acknowledge them in their degree; as processes of -Nature, who does nothing in vain; as steps in her great process. -Meanwhile, what theory is so certain as this, That all theories, were they -never so earnest, painfully elaborated, are, and, by the very conditions of -them, must be incomplete, questionable, and even false? Thou shalt know -that this Universe is, what it professes to be, an infinite one. Attempt -not to swallow it, for thy logical digestion; be thankful, if skilfully -planting down this and the other fixed pillar in the chaos, thou prevent -its swallowing thee. That a new young generation has exchanged the Sceptic -Creed, What shall I believe? for passionate Faith in this Gospel according -to Jean Jacques is a further step in the business; and betokens much. - -Blessed also is Hope; and always from the beginning there was some -Millennium prophesied; Millennium of Holiness; but (what is notable) never -till this new Era, any Millennium of mere Ease and plentiful Supply. In -such prophesied Lubberland, of Happiness, Benevolence, and Vice cured of -its deformity, trust not, my friends! Man is not what one calls a happy -animal; his appetite for sweet victual is so enormous. How, in this wild -Universe, which storms in on him, infinite, vague-menacing, shall poor man -find, say not happiness, but existence, and footing to stand on, if it be -not by girding himself together for continual endeavour and endurance? -Woe, if in his heart there dwelt no devout Faith; if the word Duty had lost -its meaning for him! For as to this of Sentimentalism, so useful for -weeping with over romances and on pathetic occasions, it otherwise verily -will avail nothing; nay less. The healthy heart that said to itself, 'How -healthy am I!' was already fallen into the fatalest sort of disease. Is -not Sentimentalism twin-sister to Cant, if not one and the same with it? -Is not Cant the materia prima of the Devil; from which all falsehoods, -imbecilities, abominations body themselves; from which no true thing can -come? For Cant is itself properly a double-distilled Lie; the second-power -of a Lie. - -And now if a whole Nation fall into that? In such case, I answer, -infallibly they will return out of it! For life is no cunningly-devised -deception or self-deception: it is a great truth that thou art alive, that -thou hast desires, necessities; neither can these subsist and satisfy -themselves on delusions, but on fact. To fact, depend on it, we shall come -back: to such fact, blessed or cursed, as we have wisdom for. The lowest, -least blessed fact one knows of, on which necessitous mortals have ever -based themselves, seems to be the primitive one of Cannibalism: That I can -devour Thee. What if such Primitive Fact were precisely the one we had -(with our improved methods) to revert to, and begin anew from! - - - -Chapter 1.2.VIII. - -Printed Paper. - -In such a practical France, let the theory of Perfectibility say what it -will, discontents cannot be wanting: your promised Reformation is so -indispensable; yet it comes not; who will begin it--with himself? -Discontent with what is around us, still more with what is above us, goes -on increasing; seeking ever new vents. - -Of Street Ballads, of Epigrams that from of old tempered Despotism, we need -not speak. Nor of Manuscript Newspapers (Nouvelles a la main) do we speak. -Bachaumont and his journeymen and followers may close those 'thirty volumes -of scurrilous eaves-dropping,' and quit that trade; for at length if not -liberty of the Press, there is license. Pamphlets can be surreptititiously -vended and read in Paris, did they even bear to be 'Printed at Pekin.' We -have a Courrier de l'Europe in those years, regularly published at London; -by a De Morande, whom the guillotine has not yet devoured. There too an -unruly Linguet, still unguillotined, when his own country has become too -hot for him, and his brother Advocates have cast him out, can emit his -hoarse wailings, and Bastille Devoilee (Bastille unveiled). Loquacious -Abbe Raynal, at length, has his wish; sees the Histoire Philosophique, with -its 'lubricity,' unveracity, loose loud eleutheromaniac rant (contributed, -they say, by Philosophedom at large, though in the Abbe's name, and to his -glory), burnt by the common hangman;--and sets out on his travels as a -martyr. It was the edition of 1781; perhaps the last notable book that had -such fire-beatitude,--the hangman discovering now that it did not serve. - -Again, in Courts of Law, with their money-quarrels, divorce-cases, -wheresoever a glimpse into the household existence can be had, what -indications! The Parlements of Besancon and Aix ring, audible to all -France, with the amours and destinies of a young Mirabeau. He, under the -nurture of a 'Friend of Men,' has, in State Prisons, in marching Regiments, -Dutch Authors' garrets, and quite other scenes, 'been for twenty years -learning to resist 'despotism:' despotism of men, and alas also of gods. -How, beneath this rose-coloured veil of Universal Benevolence and Astraea -Redux, is the sanctuary of Home so often a dreary void, or a dark -contentious Hell-on-Earth! The old Friend of Men has his own divorce case -too; and at times, 'his whole family but one' under lock and key: he -writes much about reforming and enfranchising the world; and for his own -private behoof he has needed sixty Lettres-de-Cachet. A man of insight -too, with resolution, even with manful principle: but in such an element, -inward and outward; which he could not rule, but only madden. Edacity, -rapacity;--quite contrary to the finer sensibilities of the heart! Fools, -that expect your verdant Millennium, and nothing but Love and Abundance, -brooks running wine, winds whispering music,--with the whole ground and -basis of your existence champed into a mud of Sensuality; which, daily -growing deeper, will soon have no bottom but the Abyss! - -Or consider that unutterable business of the Diamond Necklace. Red-hatted -Cardinal Louis de Rohan; Sicilian jail-bird Balsamo Cagliostro; milliner -Dame de Lamotte, 'with a face of some piquancy:' the highest Church -Dignitaries waltzing, in Walpurgis Dance, with quack-prophets, pickpurses -and public women;--a whole Satan's Invisible World displayed; working there -continually under the daylight visible one; the smoke of its torment going -up for ever! The Throne has been brought into scandalous collision with -the Treadmill. Astonished Europe rings with the mystery for ten months; -sees only lie unfold itself from lie; corruption among the lofty and the -low, gulosity, credulity, imbecility, strength nowhere but in the hunger. -Weep, fair Queen, thy first tears of unmixed wretchedness! Thy fair name -has been tarnished by foul breath; irremediably while life lasts. No more -shalt thou be loved and pitied by living hearts, till a new generation has -been born, and thy own heart lies cold, cured of all its sorrows.--The -Epigrams henceforth become, not sharp and bitter; but cruel, atrocious, -unmentionable. On that 31st of May, 1786, a miserable Cardinal Grand- -Almoner Rohan, on issuing from his Bastille, is escorted by hurrahing -crowds: unloved he, and worthy of no love; but important since the Court -and Queen are his enemies. (Fils Adoptif, Memoires de Mirabeau, iv. 325.) - -How is our bright Era of Hope dimmed: and the whole sky growing bleak with -signs of hurricane and earthquake! It is a doomed world: gone all -'obedience that made men free;' fast going the obedience that made men -slaves,--at least to one another. Slaves only of their own lusts they now -are, and will be. Slaves of sin; inevitably also of sorrow. Behold the -mouldering mass of Sensuality and Falsehood; round which plays foolishly, -itself a corrupt phosphorescence, some glimmer of Sentimentalism;--and over -all, rising, as Ark of their Covenant, the grim Patibulary Fork 'forty feet -high;' which also is now nigh rotted. Add only that the French Nation -distinguishes itself among Nations by the characteristic of Excitability; -with the good, but also with the perilous evil, which belongs to that. -Rebellion, explosion, of unknown extent is to be calculated on. There are, -as Chesterfield wrote, 'all the symptoms I have ever met with in History!' - -Shall we say, then: Wo to Philosophism, that it destroyed Religion, what it -called 'extinguishing the abomination (ecraser 'l'infame)'? Wo rather to -those that made the Holy an abomination, and extinguishable; wo at all men -that live in such a time of world-abomination and world-destruction! Nay, -answer the Courtiers, it was Turgot, it was Necker, with their mad -innovating; it was the Queen's want of etiquette; it was he, it was she, it -was that. Friends! it was every scoundrel that had lived, and quack-like -pretended to be doing, and been only eating and misdoing, in all provinces -of life, as Shoeblack or as Sovereign Lord, each in his degree, from the -time of Charlemagne and earlier. All this (for be sure no falsehood -perishes, but is as seed sown out to grow) has been storing itself for -thousands of years; and now the account-day has come. And rude will the -settlement be: of wrath laid up against the day of wrath. O my Brother, -be not thou a Quack! Die rather, if thou wilt take counsel; 'tis but dying -once, and thou art quit of it for ever. Cursed is that trade; and bears -curses, thou knowest not how, long ages after thou art departed, and the -wages thou hadst are all consumed; nay, as the ancient wise have written,-- -through Eternity itself, and is verily marked in the Doom-Book of a God! - -Hope deferred maketh the heart sick. And yet, as we said, Hope is but -deferred; not abolished, not abolishable. It is very notable, and -touching, how this same Hope does still light onwards the French Nation -through all its wild destinies. For we shall still find Hope shining, be -it for fond invitation, be it for anger and menace; as a mild heavenly -light it shone; as a red conflagration it shines: burning sulphurous blue, -through darkest regions of Terror, it still shines; and goes sent out at -all, since Desperation itself is a kind of Hope. Thus is our Era still to -be named of Hope, though in the saddest sense,--when there is nothing left -but Hope. - -But if any one would know summarily what a Pandora's Box lies there for the -opening, he may see it in what by its nature is the symptom of all -symptoms, the surviving Literature of the Period. Abbe Raynal, with his -lubricity and loud loose rant, has spoken his word; and already the fast- -hastening generation responds to another. Glance at Beaumarchais' Mariage -de Figaro; which now (in 1784), after difficulty enough, has issued on the -stage; and 'runs its hundred nights,' to the admiration of all men. By -what virtue or internal vigour it so ran, the reader of our day will rather -wonder:--and indeed will know so much the better that it flattered some -pruriency of the time; that it spoke what all were feeling, and longing to -speak. Small substance in that Figaro: thin wiredrawn intrigues, thin -wiredrawn sentiments and sarcasms; a thing lean, barren; yet which winds -and whisks itself, as through a wholly mad universe, adroitly, with a high- -sniffing air: wherein each, as was hinted, which is the grand secret, may -see some image of himself, and of his own state and ways. So it runs its -hundred nights, and all France runs with it; laughing applause. If the -soliloquising Barber ask: "What has your Lordship done to earn all this?" -and can only answer: "You took the trouble to be born (Vous vous etes -donne la peine de naitre)," all men must laugh: and a gay horse-racing -Anglomaniac Noblesse loudest of all. For how can small books have a great -danger in them? asks the Sieur Caron; and fancies his thin epigram may be a -kind of reason. Conqueror of a golden fleece, by giant smuggling; tamer of -hell-dogs, in the Parlement Maupeou; and finally crowned Orpheus in the -Theatre Francais, Beaumarchais has now culminated, and unites the -attributes of several demigods. We shall meet him once again, in the -course of his decline. - -Still more significant are two Books produced on the eve of the ever- -memorable Explosion itself, and read eagerly by all the world: Saint- -Pierre's Paul et Virginie, and Louvet's Chevalier de Faublas. Noteworthy -Books; which may be considered as the last speech of old Feudal France. In -the first there rises melodiously, as it were, the wail of a moribund -world: everywhere wholesome Nature in unequal conflict with diseased -perfidious Art; cannot escape from it in the lowest hut, in the remotest -island of the sea. Ruin and death must strike down the loved one; and, -what is most significant of all, death even here not by necessity, but by -etiquette. What a world of prurient corruption lies visible in that super- -sublime of modesty! Yet, on the whole, our good Saint-Pierre is musical, -poetical though most morbid: we will call his Book the swan-song of old -dying France. - -Louvet's again, let no man account musical. Truly, if this wretched -Faublas is a death-speech, it is one under the gallows, and by a felon that -does not repent. Wretched cloaca of a Book; without depth even as a -cloaca! What 'picture of French society' is here? Picture properly of -nothing, if not of the mind that gave it out as some sort of picture. Yet -symptom of much; above all, of the world that could nourish itself thereon. - - - -BOOK 1.III. - -THE PARLEMENT OF PARIS - - -Chapter 1.3.I. - -Dishonoured Bills. - -While the unspeakable confusion is everywhere weltering within, and through -so many cracks in the surface sulphur-smoke is issuing, the question -arises: Through what crevice will the main Explosion carry itself? -Through which of the old craters or chimneys; or must it, at once, form a -new crater for itself? In every Society are such chimneys, are -Institutions serving as such: even Constantinople is not without its -safety-valves; there too Discontent can vent itself,--in material fire; by -the number of nocturnal conflagrations, or of hanged bakers, the Reigning -Power can read the signs of the times, and change course according to -these. - -We may say that this French Explosion will doubtless first try all the old -Institutions of escape; for by each of these there is, or at least there -used to be, some communication with the interior deep; they are national -Institutions in virtue of that. Had they even become personal -Institutions, and what we can call choked up from their original uses, -there nevertheless must the impediment be weaker than elsewhere. Through -which of them then? An observer might have guessed: Through the Law -Parlements; above all, through the Parlement of Paris. - - -Men, though never so thickly clad in dignities, sit not inaccessible to the -influences of their time; especially men whose life is business; who at all -turns, were it even from behind judgment-seats, have come in contact with -the actual workings of the world. The Counsellor of Parlement, the -President himself, who has bought his place with hard money that he might -be looked up to by his fellow-creatures, how shall he, in all Philosophe- -soirees, and saloons of elegant culture, become notable as a Friend of -Darkness? Among the Paris Long-robes there may be more than one patriotic -Malesherbes, whose rule is conscience and the public good; there are -clearly more than one hotheaded D'Espremenil, to whose confused thought any -loud reputation of the Brutus sort may seem glorious. The Lepelletiers, -Lamoignons have titles and wealth; yet, at Court, are only styled 'Noblesse -of the Robe.' There are Duports of deep scheme; Freteaus, Sabatiers, of -incontinent tongue: all nursed more or less on the milk of the Contrat -Social. Nay, for the whole Body, is not this patriotic opposition also a -fighting for oneself? Awake, Parlement of Paris, renew thy long warfare! -Was not the Parlement Maupeou abolished with ignominy? Not now hast thou -to dread a Louis XIV., with the crack of his whip, and his Olympian looks; -not now a Richelieu and Bastilles: no, the whole Nation is behind thee. -Thou too (O heavens!) mayest become a Political Power; and with the -shakings of thy horse-hair wig shake principalities and dynasties, like a -very Jove with his ambrosial curls! - -Light old M. de Maurepas, since the end of 1781, has been fixed in the -frost of death: "Never more," said the good Louis, "shall I hear his step -overhead;" his light jestings and gyratings are at an end. No more can the -importunate reality be hidden by pleasant wit, and today's evil be deftly -rolled over upon tomorrow. The morrow itself has arrived; and now nothing -but a solid phlegmatic M. de Vergennes sits there, in dull matter of fact, -like some dull punctual Clerk (which he originally was); admits what cannot -be denied, let the remedy come whence it will. In him is no remedy; only -clerklike 'despatch of business' according to routine. The poor King, -grown older yet hardly more experienced, must himself, with such no-faculty -as he has, begin governing; wherein also his Queen will give help. Bright -Queen, with her quick clear glances and impulses; clear, and even noble; -but all too superficial, vehement-shallow, for that work! To govern France -were such a problem; and now it has grown well-nigh too hard to govern even -the Oeil-de-Boeuf. For if a distressed People has its cry, so likewise, -and more audibly, has a bereaved Court. To the Oeil-de-Boeuf it remains -inconceivable how, in a France of such resources, the Horn of Plenty should -run dry: did it not use to flow? Nevertheless Necker, with his revenue of -parsimony, has 'suppressed above six hundred places,' before the Courtiers -could oust him; parsimonious finance-pedant as he was. Again, a military -pedant, Saint-Germain, with his Prussian manoeuvres; with his Prussian -notions, as if merit and not coat-of-arms should be the rule of promotion, -has disaffected military men; the Mousquetaires, with much else are -suppressed: for he too was one of your suppressors; and unsettling and -oversetting, did mere mischief--to the Oeil-de-Boeuf. Complaints abound; -scarcity, anxiety: it is a changed Oeil-de-Boeuf. Besenval says, already -in these years (1781) there was such a melancholy (such a tristesse) about -Court, compared with former days, as made it quite dispiriting to look -upon. - -No wonder that the Oeil-de-Boeuf feels melancholy, when you are suppressing -its places! Not a place can be suppressed, but some purse is the lighter -for it; and more than one heart the heavier; for did it not employ the -working-classes too,--manufacturers, male and female, of laces, essences; -of Pleasure generally, whosoever could manufacture Pleasure? Miserable -economies; never felt over Twenty-five Millions! So, however, it goes on: -and is not yet ended. Few years more and the Wolf-hounds shall fall -suppressed, the Bear-hounds, the Falconry; places shall fall, thick as -autumnal leaves. Duke de Polignac demonstrates, to the complete silencing -of ministerial logic, that his place cannot be abolished; then gallantly, -turning to the Queen, surrenders it, since her Majesty so wishes. Less -chivalrous was Duke de Coigny, and yet not luckier: "We got into a real -quarrel, Coigny and I," said King Louis; "but if he had even struck me, I -could not have blamed him." (Besenval, iii. 255-58.) In regard to such -matters there can be but one opinion. Baron Besenval, with that frankness -of speech which stamps the independent man, plainly assures her Majesty -that it is frightful (affreux); "you go to bed, and are not sure but you -shall rise impoverished on the morrow: one might as well be in Turkey." -It is indeed a dog's life. - -How singular this perpetual distress of the royal treasury! And yet it is -a thing not more incredible than undeniable. A thing mournfully true: the -stumbling-block on which all Ministers successively stumble, and fall. Be -it 'want of fiscal genius,' or some far other want, there is the palpablest -discrepancy between Revenue and Expenditure; a Deficit of the Revenue: you -must 'choke (combler) the Deficit,' or else it will swallow you! This is -the stern problem; hopeless seemingly as squaring of the circle. -Controller Joly de Fleury, who succeeded Necker, could do nothing with it; -nothing but propose loans, which were tardily filled up; impose new taxes, -unproductive of money, productive of clamour and discontent. As little -could Controller d'Ormesson do, or even less; for if Joly maintained -himself beyond year and day, d'Ormesson reckons only by months: till 'the -King purchased Rambouillet without consulting him,' which he took as a hint -to withdraw. And so, towards the end of 1783, matters threaten to come to -still-stand. Vain seems human ingenuity. In vain has our newly-devised -'Council of Finances' struggled, our Intendants of Finance, Controller- -General of Finances: there are unhappily no Finances to control. Fatal -paralysis invades the social movement; clouds, of blindness or of -blackness, envelop us: are we breaking down, then, into the black horrors -of NATIONAL BANKRUPTCY? - -Great is Bankruptcy: the great bottomless gulf into which all Falsehoods, -public and private, do sink, disappearing; whither, from the first origin -of them, they were all doomed. For Nature is true and not a lie. No lie -you can speak or act but it will come, after longer or shorter circulation, -like a Bill drawn on Nature's Reality, and be presented there for payment,- --with the answer, No effects. Pity only that it often had so long a -circulation: that the original forger were so seldom he who bore the final -smart of it! Lies, and the burden of evil they bring, are passed on; -shifted from back to back, and from rank to rank; and so land ultimately on -the dumb lowest rank, who with spade and mattock, with sore heart and empty -wallet, daily come in contact with reality, and can pass the cheat no -further. - -Observe nevertheless how, by a just compensating law, if the lie with its -burden (in this confused whirlpool of Society) sinks and is shifted ever -downwards, then in return the distress of it rises ever upwards and -upwards. Whereby, after the long pining and demi-starvation of those -Twenty Millions, a Duke de Coigny and his Majesty come also to have their -'real quarrel.' Such is the law of just Nature; bringing, though at long -intervals, and were it only by Bankruptcy, matters round again to the mark. - -But with a Fortunatus' Purse in his pocket, through what length of time -might not almost any Falsehood last! Your Society, your Household, -practical or spiritual Arrangement, is untrue, unjust, offensive to the eye -of God and man. Nevertheless its hearth is warm, its larder well -replenished: the innumerable Swiss of Heaven, with a kind of Natural -loyalty, gather round it; will prove, by pamphleteering, musketeering, that -it is a truth; or if not an unmixed (unearthly, impossible) Truth, then -better, a wholesomely attempered one, (as wind is to the shorn lamb), and -works well. Changed outlook, however, when purse and larder grow empty! -Was your Arrangement so true, so accordant to Nature's ways, then how, in -the name of wonder, has Nature, with her infinite bounty, come to leave it -famishing there? To all men, to all women and all children, it is now -indutiable that your Arrangement was false. Honour to Bankruptcy; ever -righteous on the great scale, though in detail it is so cruel! Under all -Falsehoods it works, unweariedly mining. No Falsehood, did it rise heaven- -high and cover the world, but Bankruptcy, one day, will sweep it down, and -make us free of it. - - - -Chapter 1.3.II. - -Controller Calonne. - -Under such circumstances of tristesse, obstruction and sick langour, when -to an exasperated Court it seems as if fiscal genius had departed from -among men, what apparition could be welcomer than that of M. de Calonne? -Calonne, a man of indisputable genius; even fiscal genius, more or less; of -experience both in managing Finance and Parlements, for he has been -Intendant at Metz, at Lille; King's Procureur at Douai. A man of weight, -connected with the moneyed classes; of unstained name,--if it were not some -peccadillo (of showing a Client's Letter) in that old D'Aiguillon- -Lachalotais business, as good as forgotten now. He has kinsmen of heavy -purse, felt on the Stock Exchange. Our Foulons, Berthiers intrigue for -him:--old Foulon, who has now nothing to do but intrigue; who is known and -even seen to be what they call a scoundrel; but of unmeasured wealth; who, -from Commissariat-clerk which he once was, may hope, some think, if the -game go right, to be Minister himself one day. - -Such propping and backing has M. de Calonne; and then intrinsically such -qualities! Hope radiates from his face; persuasion hangs on his tongue. -For all straits he has present remedy, and will make the world roll on -wheels before him. On the 3d of November 1783, the Oeil-de-Boeuf rejoices -in its new Controller-General. Calonne also shall have trial; Calonne -also, in his way, as Turgot and Necker had done in theirs, shall forward -the consummation; suffuse, with one other flush of brilliancy, our now too -leaden-coloured Era of Hope, and wind it up--into fulfilment. - -Great, in any case, is the felicity of the Oeil-de-Boeuf. Stinginess has -fled from these royal abodes: suppression ceases; your Besenval may go -peaceably to sleep, sure that he shall awake unplundered. Smiling Plenty, -as if conjured by some enchanter, has returned; scatters contentment from -her new-flowing horn. And mark what suavity of manners! A bland smile -distinguishes our Controller: to all men he listens with an air of -interest, nay of anticipation; makes their own wish clear to themselves, -and grants it; or at least, grants conditional promise of it. "I fear this -is a matter of difficulty," said her Majesty.--"Madame," answered the -Controller, "if it is but difficult, it is done, if it is impossible, it -shall be done (se fera)." A man of such 'facility' withal. To observe him -in the pleasure-vortex of society, which none partakes of with more gusto, -you might ask, When does he work? And yet his work, as we see, is never -behindhand; above all, the fruit of his work: ready-money. Truly a man of -incredible facility; facile action, facile elocution, facile thought: how, -in mild suasion, philosophic depth sparkles up from him, as mere wit and -lambent sprightliness; and in her Majesty's Soirees, with the weight of a -world lying on him, he is the delight of men and women! By what magic does -he accomplish miracles? By the only true magic, that of genius. Men name -him 'the Minister;' as indeed, when was there another such? Crooked things -are become straight by him, rough places plain; and over the Oeil-de-Boeuf -there rests an unspeakable sunshine. - -Nay, in seriousness, let no man say that Calonne had not genius: genius -for Persuading; before all things, for Borrowing. With the skilfulest -judicious appliances of underhand money, he keeps the Stock-Exchanges -flourishing; so that Loan after Loan is filled up as soon as opened. -'Calculators likely to know' (Besenval, iii. 216.) have calculated that he -spent, in extraordinaries, 'at the rate of one million daily;' which indeed -is some fifty thousand pounds sterling: but did he not procure something -with it; namely peace and prosperity, for the time being? Philosophedom -grumbles and croaks; buys, as we said, 80,000 copies of Necker's new Book: -but Nonpareil Calonne, in her Majesty's Apartment, with the glittering -retinue of Dukes, Duchesses, and mere happy admiring faces, can let Necker -and Philosophedom croak. - -The misery is, such a time cannot last! Squandering, and Payment by Loan -is no way to choke a Deficit. Neither is oil the substance for quenching -conflagrations;--but, only for assuaging them, not permanently! To the -Nonpareil himself, who wanted not insight, it is clear at intervals, and -dimly certain at all times, that his trade is by nature temporary, growing -daily more difficult; that changes incalculable lie at no great distance. -Apart from financial Deficit, the world is wholly in such a new-fangled -humour; all things working loose from their old fastenings, towards new -issues and combinations. There is not a dwarf jokei, a cropt Brutus'-head, -or Anglomaniac horseman rising on his stirrups, that does not betoken -change. But what then? The day, in any case, passes pleasantly; for the -morrow, if the morrow come, there shall be counsel too. Once mounted (by -munificence, suasion, magic of genius) high enough in favour with the Oeil- -de-Boeuf, with the King, Queen, Stock-Exchange, and so far as possible with -all men, a Nonpareil Controller may hope to go careering through the -Inevitable, in some unimagined way, as handsomely as another. - -At all events, for these three miraculous years, it has been expedient -heaped on expedient; till now, with such cumulation and height, the pile -topples perilous. And here has this world's-wonder of a Diamond Necklace -brought it at last to the clear verge of tumbling. Genius in that -direction can no more: mounted high enough, or not mounted, we must fare -forth. Hardly is poor Rohan, the Necklace-Cardinal, safely bestowed in the -Auvergne Mountains, Dame de Lamotte (unsafely) in the Salpetriere, and that -mournful business hushed up, when our sanguine Controller once more -astonishes the world. An expedient, unheard of for these hundred and sixty -years, has been propounded; and, by dint of suasion (for his light -audacity, his hope and eloquence are matchless) has been got adopted,-- -Convocation of the Notables. - -Let notable persons, the actual or virtual rulers of their districts, be -summoned from all sides of France: let a true tale, of his Majesty's -patriotic purposes and wretched pecuniary impossibilities, be suasively -told them; and then the question put: What are we to do? Surely to adopt -healing measures; such as the magic of genius will unfold; such as, once -sanctioned by Notables, all Parlements and all men must, with more or less -reluctance, submit to. - - - -Chapter 1.3.III. - -The Notables. - -Here, then is verily a sign and wonder; visible to the whole world; bodeful -of much. The Oeil-de-Boeuf dolorously grumbles; were we not well as we -stood,--quenching conflagrations by oil? Constitutional Philosophedom -starts with joyful surprise; stares eagerly what the result will be. The -public creditor, the public debtor, the whole thinking and thoughtless -public have their several surprises, joyful and sorrowful. Count Mirabeau, -who has got his matrimonial and other Lawsuits huddled up, better or worse; -and works now in the dimmest element at Berlin; compiling Prussian -Monarchies, Pamphlets On Cagliostro; writing, with pay, but not with -honourable recognition, innumerable Despatches for his Government,--scents -or descries richer quarry from afar. He, like an eagle or vulture, or -mixture of both, preens his wings for flight homewards. (Fils Adoptif, -Memoires de Mirabeau, t. iv. livv. 4 et 5.) - -M. de Calonne has stretched out an Aaron's Rod over France; miraculous; and -is summoning quite unexpected things. Audacity and hope alternate in him -with misgivings; though the sanguine-valiant side carries it. Anon he -writes to an intimate friend, "Here me fais pitie a moi-meme (I am an -object of pity to myself);" anon, invites some dedicating Poet or Poetaster -to sing 'this Assembly of the Notables and the Revolution that is -preparing.' (Biographie Universelle, para Calonne (by Guizot).) Preparing -indeed; and a matter to be sung,--only not till we have seen it, and what -the issue of it is. In deep obscure unrest, all things have so long gone -rocking and swaying: will M. de Calonne, with this his alchemy of the -Notables, fasten all together again, and get new revenues? Or wrench all -asunder; so that it go no longer rocking and swaying, but clashing and -colliding? - -Be this as it may, in the bleak short days, we behold men of weight and -influence threading the great vortex of French Locomotion, each on his -several line, from all sides of France towards the Chateau of Versailles: -summoned thither de par le roi. There, on the 22d day of February 1787, -they have met, and got installed: Notables to the number of a Hundred and -Thirty-seven, as we count them name by name: (Lacretelle, iii. 286. -Montgaillard, i. 347.) add Seven Princes of the Blood, it makes the round -Gross of Notables. Men of the sword, men of the robe; Peers, dignified -Clergy, Parlementary Presidents: divided into Seven Boards (Bureaux); -under our Seven Princes of the Blood, Monsieur, D'Artois, Penthievre, and -the rest; among whom let not our new Duke d'Orleans (for, since 1785, he is -Chartres no longer) be forgotten. Never yet made Admiral, and now turning -the corner of his fortieth year, with spoiled blood and prospects; half- -weary of a world which is more than half-weary of him, Monseigneur's future -is most questionable. Not in illumination and insight, not even in -conflagration; but, as was said, 'in dull smoke and ashes of outburnt -sensualities,' does he live and digest. Sumptuosity and sordidness; -revenge, life-weariness, ambition, darkness, putrescence; and, say, in -sterling money, three hundred thousand a year,--were this poor Prince once -to burst loose from his Court-moorings, to what regions, with what -phenomena, might he not sail and drift! Happily as yet he 'affects to hunt -daily;' sits there, since he must sit, presiding that Bureau of his, with -dull moon-visage, dull glassy eyes, as if it were a mere tedium to him. - -We observe finally, that Count Mirabeau has actually arrived. He descends -from Berlin, on the scene of action; glares into it with flashing sun- -glance; discerns that it will do nothing for him. He had hoped these -Notables might need a Secretary. They do need one; but have fixed on -Dupont de Nemours; a man of smaller fame, but then of better;--who indeed, -as his friends often hear, labours under this complaint, surely not a -universal one, of having 'five kings to correspond with.' (Dumont, -Souvenirs sur Mirabeau (Paris, 1832), p. 20.) The pen of a Mirabeau cannot -become an official one; nevertheless it remains a pen. In defect of -Secretaryship, he sets to denouncing Stock-brokerage (Denonciation de -l'Agiotage); testifying, as his wont is, by loud bruit, that he is present -and busy;--till, warned by friend Talleyrand, and even by Calonne himself -underhand, that 'a seventeenth Lettre-de-Cachet may be launched against -him,' he timefully flits over the marches. - -And now, in stately royal apartments, as Pictures of that time still -represent them, our hundred and forty-four Notables sit organised; ready to -hear and consider. Controller Calonne is dreadfully behindhand with his -speeches, his preparatives; however, the man's 'facility of work' is known -to us. For freshness of style, lucidity, ingenuity, largeness of view, -that opening Harangue of his was unsurpassable:--had not the subject-matter -been so appalling. A Deficit, concerning which accounts vary, and the -Controller's own account is not unquestioned; but which all accounts agree -in representing as 'enormous.' This is the epitome of our Controller's -difficulties: and then his means? Mere Turgotism; for thither, it seems, -we must come at last: Provincial Assemblies; new Taxation; nay, strangest -of all, new Land-tax, what he calls Subvention Territoriale, from which -neither Privileged nor Unprivileged, Noblemen, Clergy, nor Parlementeers, -shall be exempt! - -Foolish enough! These Privileged Classes have been used to tax; levying -toll, tribute and custom, at all hands, while a penny was left: but to be -themselves taxed? Of such Privileged persons, meanwhile, do these -Notables, all but the merest fraction, consist. Headlong Calonne had given -no heed to the 'composition,' or judicious packing of them; but chosen such -Notables as were really notable; trusting for the issue to off-hand -ingenuity, good fortune, and eloquence that never yet failed. Headlong -Controller-General! Eloquence can do much, but not all. Orpheus, with -eloquence grown rhythmic, musical (what we call Poetry), drew iron tears -from the cheek of Pluto: but by what witchery of rhyme or prose wilt thou -from the pocket of Plutus draw gold? - -Accordingly, the storm that now rose and began to whistle round Calonne, -first in these Seven Bureaus, and then on the outside of them, awakened by -them, spreading wider and wider over all France, threatens to become -unappeasable. A Deficit so enormous! Mismanagement, profusion is too -clear. Peculation itself is hinted at; nay, Lafayette and others go so far -as to speak it out, with attempts at proof. The blame of his Deficit our -brave Calonne, as was natural, had endeavoured to shift from himself on his -predecessors; not excepting even Necker. But now Necker vehemently denies; -whereupon an 'angry Correspondence,' which also finds its way into print. - -In the Oeil-de-Boeuf, and her Majesty's private Apartments, an eloquent -Controller, with his "Madame, if it is but difficult," had been persuasive: -but, alas, the cause is now carried elsewhither. Behold him, one of these -sad days, in Monsieur's Bureau; to which all the other Bureaus have sent -deputies. He is standing at bay: alone; exposed to an incessant fire of -questions, interpellations, objurgations, from those 'hundred and thirty- -seven' pieces of logic-ordnance,--what we may well call bouches a feu, -fire-mouths literally! Never, according to Besenval, or hardly ever, had -such display of intellect, dexterity, coolness, suasive eloquence, been -made by man. To the raging play of so many fire-mouths he opposes nothing -angrier than light-beams, self-possession and fatherly smiles. With the -imperturbablest bland clearness, he, for five hours long, keeps answering -the incessant volley of fiery captious questions, reproachful -interpellations; in words prompt as lightning, quiet as light. Nay, the -cross-fire too: such side questions and incidental interpellations as, in -the heat of the main-battle, he (having only one tongue) could not get -answered; these also he takes up at the first slake; answers even these. -(Besenval, iii. 196.) Could blandest suasive eloquence have saved France, -she were saved. - -Heavy-laden Controller! In the Seven Bureaus seems nothing but hindrance: -in Monsieur's Bureau, a Lomenie de Brienne, Archbishop of Toulouse, with an -eye himself to the Controllership, stirs up the Clergy; there are meetings, -underground intrigues. Neither from without anywhere comes sign of help or -hope. For the Nation (where Mirabeau is now, with stentor-lungs, -'denouncing Agio') the Controller has hitherto done nothing, or less. For -Philosophedom he has done as good as nothing,--sent out some scientific -Laperouse, or the like: and is he not in 'angry correspondence' with its -Necker? The very Oeil-de-Boeuf looks questionable; a falling Controller -has no friends. Solid M. de Vergennes, who with his phlegmatic judicious -punctuality might have kept down many things, died the very week before -these sorrowful Notables met. And now a Seal-keeper, Garde-des-Sceaux -Miromenil is thought to be playing the traitor: spinning plots for -Lomenie-Brienne! Queen's-Reader Abbe de Vermond, unloved individual, was -Brienne's creature, the work of his hands from the first: it may be feared -the backstairs passage is open, ground getting mined under our feet. -Treacherous Garde-des-Sceaux Miromenil, at least, should be dismissed; -Lamoignon, the eloquent Notable, a stanch man, with connections, and even -ideas, Parlement-President yet intent on reforming Parlements, were not he -the right Keeper? So, for one, thinks busy Besenval; and, at dinner-table, -rounds the same into the Controller's ear,--who always, in the intervals of -landlord-duties, listens to him as with charmed look, but answers nothing -positive. (Besenval, iii. 203.) - -Alas, what to answer? The force of private intrigue, and then also the -force of public opinion, grows so dangerous, confused! Philosophedom -sneers aloud, as if its Necker already triumphed. The gaping populace -gapes over Wood-cuts or Copper-cuts; where, for example, a Rustic is -represented convoking the poultry of his barnyard, with this opening -address: "Dear animals, I have assembled you to advise me what sauce I -shall dress you with;" to which a Cock responding, "We don't want to be -eaten," is checked by "You wander from the point (Vous vous ecartez de la -question)." (Republished in the Musee de la Caricature (Paris, 1834).) -Laughter and logic; ballad-singer, pamphleteer; epigram and caricature: -what wind of public opinion is this,--as if the Cave of the Winds were -bursting loose! At nightfall, President Lamoignon steals over to the -Controller's; finds him 'walking with large strides in his chamber, like -one out of himself.' (Besenval, iii. 209.) With rapid confused speech the -Controller begs M. de Lamoignon to give him 'an advice.' Lamoignon -candidly answers that, except in regard to his own anticipated Keepership, -unless that would prove remedial, he really cannot take upon him to advise. - -'On the Monday after Easter,' the 9th of April 1787, a date one rejoices to -verify, for nothing can excel the indolent falsehood of these Histoires and -Memoires,--'On the Monday after Easter, as I, Besenval, was riding towards -Romainville to the Marechal de Segur's, I met a friend on the Boulevards, -who told me that M. de Calonne was out. A little further on came M. the -Duke d'Orleans, dashing towards me, head to the wind' (trotting a -l'Anglaise), 'and confirmed the news.' (Ib. iii. 211.) It is true news. -Treacherous Garde-des-Sceaux Miromenil is gone, and Lamoignon is appointed -in his room: but appointed for his own profit only, not for the -Controller's: 'next day' the Controller also has had to move. A little -longer he may linger near; be seen among the money changers, and even -'working in the Controller's office,' where much lies unfinished: but -neither will that hold. Too strong blows and beats this tempest of public -opinion, of private intrigue, as from the Cave of all the Winds; and blows -him (higher Authority giving sign) out of Paris and France,--over the -horizon, into Invisibility, or uuter (utter, outer?) Darkness. - -Such destiny the magic of genius could not forever avert. Ungrateful Oeil- -de-Boeuf! did he not miraculously rain gold manna on you; so that, as a -Courtier said, "All the world held out its hand, and I held out my hat,"-- -for a time? Himself is poor; penniless, had not a 'Financier's widow in -Lorraine' offered him, though he was turned of fifty, her hand and the rich -purse it held. Dim henceforth shall be his activity, though unwearied: -Letters to the King, Appeals, Prognostications; Pamphlets (from London), -written with the old suasive facility; which however do not persuade. -Luckily his widow's purse fails not. Once, in a year or two, some shadow -of him shall be seen hovering on the Northern Border, seeking election as -National Deputy; but be sternly beckoned away. Dimmer then, far-borne over -utmost European lands, in uncertain twilight of diplomacy, he shall hover, -intriguing for 'Exiled Princes,' and have adventures; be overset into the -Rhine stream and half-drowned, nevertheless save his papers dry. -Unwearied, but in vain! In France he works miracles no more; shall hardly -return thither to find a grave. Farewell, thou facile sanguine Controller- -General, with thy light rash hand, thy suasive mouth of gold: worse men -there have been, and better; but to thee also was allotted a task,--of -raising the wind, and the winds; and thou hast done it. - -But now, while Ex-Controller Calonne flies storm-driven over the horizon, -in this singular way, what has become of the Controllership? It hangs -vacant, one may say; extinct, like the Moon in her vacant interlunar cave. -Two preliminary shadows, poor M. Fourqueux, poor M. Villedeuil, do hold in -quick succession some simulacrum of it, (Besenval, iii. 225.)--as the new -Moon will sometimes shine out with a dim preliminary old one in her arms. -Be patient, ye Notables! An actual new Controller is certain, and even -ready; were the indispensable manoeuvres but gone through. Long-headed -Lamoignon, with Home Secretary Breteuil, and Foreign Secretary Montmorin -have exchanged looks; let these three once meet and speak. Who is it that -is strong in the Queen's favour, and the Abbe de Vermond's? That is a man -of great capacity? Or at least that has struggled, these fifty years, to -have it thought great; now, in the Clergy's name, demanding to have -Protestant death-penalties 'put in execution;' no flaunting it in the Oeil- -de-Boeuf, as the gayest man-pleaser and woman-pleaser; gleaning even a good -word from Philosophedom and your Voltaires and D'Alemberts? With a party -ready-made for him in the Notables?--Lomenie de Brienne, Archbishop of -Toulouse! answer all the three, with the clearest instantaneous concord; -and rush off to propose him to the King; 'in such haste,' says Besenval, -'that M. de Lamoignon had to borrow a simarre,' seemingly some kind of -cloth apparatus necessary for that. (Ib. iii. 224.) - -Lomenie-Brienne, who had all his life 'felt a kind of predestination for -the highest offices,' has now therefore obtained them. He presides over -the Finances; he shall have the title of Prime Minister itself, and the -effort of his long life be realised. Unhappy only that it took such talent -and industry to gain the place; that to qualify for it hardly any talent or -industry was left disposable! Looking now into his inner man, what -qualification he may have, Lomenie beholds, not without astonishment, next -to nothing but vacuity and possibility. Principles or methods, acquirement -outward or inward (for his very body is wasted, by hard tear and wear) he -finds none; not so much as a plan, even an unwise one. Lucky, in these -circumstances, that Calonne has had a plan! Calonne's plan was gathered -from Turgot's and Necker's by compilation; shall become Lomenie's by -adoption. Not in vain has Lomenie studied the working of the British -Constitution; for he professes to have some Anglomania, of a sort. Why, in -that free country, does one Minister, driven out by Parliament, vanish from -his King's presence, and another enter, borne in by Parliament? -(Montgaillard, Histoire de France, i. 410-17.) Surely not for mere change -(which is ever wasteful); but that all men may have share of what is going; -and so the strife of Freedom indefinitely prolong itself, and no harm be -done. - -The Notables, mollified by Easter festivities, by the sacrifice of Calonne, -are not in the worst humour. Already his Majesty, while the 'interlunar -shadows' were in office, had held session of Notables; and from his throne -delivered promissory conciliatory eloquence: 'The Queen stood waiting at a -window, till his carriage came back; and Monsieur from afar clapped hands -to her,' in sign that all was well. (Besenval, iii. 220.) It has had the -best effect; if such do but last. Leading Notables meanwhile can be -'caressed;' Brienne's new gloss, Lamoignon's long head will profit -somewhat; conciliatory eloquence shall not be wanting. On the whole, -however, is it not undeniable that this of ousting Calonne and adopting the -plans of Calonne, is a measure which, to produce its best effect, should be -looked at from a certain distance, cursorily; not dwelt on with minute near -scrutiny. In a word, that no service the Notables could now do were so -obliging as, in some handsome manner, to--take themselves away! Their 'Six -Propositions' about Provisional Assemblies, suppression of Corvees and -suchlike, can be accepted without criticism. The Subvention on Land-tax, -and much else, one must glide hastily over; safe nowhere but in flourishes -of conciliatory eloquence. Till at length, on this 25th of May, year 1787, -in solemn final session, there bursts forth what we can call an explosion -of eloquence; King, Lomenie, Lamoignon and retinue taking up the successive -strain; in harrangues to the number of ten, besides his Majesty's, which -last the livelong day;--whereby, as in a kind of choral anthem, or bravura -peal, of thanks, praises, promises, the Notables are, so to speak, organed -out, and dismissed to their respective places of abode. They had sat, and -talked, some nine weeks: they were the first Notables since Richelieu's, -in the year 1626. - -By some Historians, sitting much at their ease, in the safe distance, -Lomenie has been blamed for this dismissal of his Notables: nevertheless -it was clearly time. There are things, as we said, which should not be -dwelt on with minute close scrutiny: over hot coals you cannot glide too -fast. In these Seven Bureaus, where no work could be done, unless talk -were work, the questionablest matters were coming up. Lafayette, for -example, in Monseigneur d'Artois' Bureau, took upon him to set forth more -than one deprecatory oration about Lettres-de-Cachet, Liberty of the -Subject, Agio, and suchlike; which Monseigneur endeavouring to repress, was -answered that a Notable being summoned to speak his opinion must speak it. -(Montgaillard, i. 360.) - -Thus too his Grace the Archbishop of Aix perorating once, with a plaintive -pulpit tone, in these words? "Tithe, that free-will offering of the piety -of Christians"--"Tithe," interrupted Duke la Rochefoucault, with the cold -business-manner he has learned from the English, "that free-will offering -of the piety of Christians; on which there are now forty-thousand lawsuits -in this realm." (Dumont, Souvenirs sur Mirabeau, p. 21.) Nay, Lafayette, -bound to speak his opinion, went the length, one day, of proposing to -convoke a 'National Assembly.' "You demand States-General?" asked -Monseigneur with an air of minatory surprise.--"Yes, Monseigneur; and even -better than that."--Write it," said Monseigneur to the Clerks. -(Toulongeon, Histoire de France depuis la Revolution de 1789 (Paris, 1803), -i. app. 4.)--Written accordingly it is; and what is more, will be acted by -and by. - - - -Chapter 1.3.IV. - -Lomenie's Edicts. - -Thus, then, have the Notables returned home; carrying to all quarters of -France, such notions of deficit, decrepitude, distraction; and that States- -General will cure it, or will not cure it but kill it. Each Notable, we -may fancy, is as a funeral torch; disclosing hideous abysses, better left -hid! The unquietest humour possesses all men; ferments, seeks issue, in -pamphleteering, caricaturing, projecting, declaiming; vain jangling of -thought, word and deed. - -It is Spiritual Bankruptcy, long tolerated; verging now towards Economical -Bankruptcy, and become intolerable. For from the lowest dumb rank, the -inevitable misery, as was predicted, has spread upwards. In every man is -some obscure feeling that his position, oppressive or else oppressed, is a -false one: all men, in one or the other acrid dialect, as assaulters or as -defenders, must give vent to the unrest that is in them. Of such stuff -national well-being, and the glory of rulers, is not made. O Lomenie, what -a wild-heaving, waste-looking, hungry and angry world hast thou, after -lifelong effort, got promoted to take charge of! - -Lomenie's first Edicts are mere soothing ones: creation of Provincial -Assemblies, 'for apportioning the imposts,' when we get any; suppression of -Corvees or statute-labour; alleviation of Gabelle. Soothing measures, -recommended by the Notables; long clamoured for by all liberal men. Oil -cast on the waters has been known to produce a good effect. Before -venturing with great essential measures, Lomenie will see this singular -'swell of the public mind' abate somewhat. - -Most proper, surely. But what if it were not a swell of the abating kind? -There are swells that come of upper tempest and wind-gust. But again there -are swells that come of subterranean pent wind, some say; and even of -inward decomposion, of decay that has become self-combustion:--as when, -according to Neptuno-Plutonic Geology, the World is all decayed down into -due attritus of this sort; and shall now be exploded, and new-made! These -latter abate not by oil.--The fool says in his heart, How shall not -tomorrow be as yesterday; as all days,--which were once tomorrows? The -wise man, looking on this France, moral, intellectual, economical, sees, -'in short, all the symptoms he has ever met with in history,'--unabatable -by soothing Edicts. - -Meanwhile, abate or not, cash must be had; and for that quite another sort -of Edicts, namely 'bursal' or fiscal ones. How easy were fiscal Edicts, -did you know for certain that the Parlement of Paris would what they call -'register' them! Such right of registering, properly of mere writing down, -the Parlement has got by old wont; and, though but a Law-Court, can -remonstrate, and higgle considerably about the same. Hence many quarrels; -desperate Maupeou devices, and victory and defeat;--a quarrel now near -forty years long. Hence fiscal Edicts, which otherwise were easy enough, -become such problems. For example, is there not Calonne's Subvention -Territoriale, universal, unexempting Land-tax; the sheet-anchor of Finance? -Or, to show, so far as possible, that one is not without original finance -talent, Lomenie himself can devise an Edit du Timbre or Stamp-tax,-- -borrowed also, it is true; but then from America: may it prove luckier in -France than there! - -France has her resources: nevertheless, it cannot be denied, the aspect of -that Parlement is questionable. Already among the Notables, in that final -symphony of dismissal, the Paris President had an ominous tone. Adrien -Duport, quitting magnetic sleep, in this agitation of the world, threatens -to rouse himself into preternatural wakefulness. Shallower but also -louder, there is magnetic D'Espremenil, with his tropical heat (he was born -at Madras); with his dusky confused violence; holding of Illumination, -Animal Magnetism, Public Opinion, Adam Weisshaupt, Harmodius and -Aristogiton, and all manner of confused violent things: of whom can come -no good. The very Peerage is infected with the leaven. Our Peers have, in -too many cases, laid aside their frogs, laces, bagwigs; and go about in -English costume, or ride rising in their stirrups,--in the most headlong -manner; nothing but insubordination, eleutheromania, confused unlimited -opposition in their heads. Questionable: not to be ventured upon, if we -had a Fortunatus' Purse! But Lomenie has waited all June, casting on the -waters what oil he had; and now, betide as it may, the two Finance Edicts -must out. On the 6th of July, he forwards his proposed Stamp-tax and Land- -tax to the Parlement of Paris; and, as if putting his own leg foremost, not -his borrowed Calonne's-leg, places the Stamp-tax first in order. - -Alas, the Parlement will not register: the Parlement demands instead a -'state of the expenditure,' a 'state of the contemplated reductions;' -'states' enough; which his Majesty must decline to furnish! Discussions -arise; patriotic eloquence: the Peers are summoned. Does the Nemean Lion -begin to bristle? Here surely is a duel, which France and the Universe may -look upon: with prayers; at lowest, with curiosity and bets. Paris stirs -with new animation. The outer courts of the Palais de Justice roll with -unusual crowds, coming and going; their huge outer hum mingles with the -clang of patriotic eloquence within, and gives vigour to it. Poor Lomenie -gazes from the distance, little comforted; has his invisible emissaries -flying to and fro, assiduous, without result. - -So pass the sultry dog-days, in the most electric manner; and the whole -month of July. And still, in the Sanctuary of Justice, sounds nothing but -Harmodius-Aristogiton eloquence, environed with the hum of crowding Paris; -and no registering accomplished, and no 'states' furnished. "States?" said -a lively Parlementeer: "Messieurs, the states that should be furnished us, -in my opinion are the STATES-GENERAL." On which timely joke there follow -cachinnatory buzzes of approval. What a word to be spoken in the Palais de -Justice! Old D'Ormesson (the Ex-Controller's uncle) shakes his judicious -head; far enough from laughing. But the outer courts, and Paris and -France, catch the glad sound, and repeat it; shall repeat it, and re-echo -and reverberate it, till it grow a deafening peal. Clearly enough here is -no registering to be thought of. - -The pious Proverb says, 'There are remedies for all things but death.' -When a Parlement refuses registering, the remedy, by long practice, has -become familiar to the simplest: a Bed of Justice. One complete month -this Parlement has spent in mere idle jargoning, and sound and fury; the -Timbre Edict not registered, or like to be; the Subvention not yet so much -as spoken of. On the 6th of August let the whole refractory Body roll out, -in wheeled vehicles, as far as the King's Chateau of Versailles; there -shall the King, holding his Bed of Justice, order them, by his own royal -lips, to register. They may remonstrate, in an under tone; but they must -obey, lest a worse unknown thing befall them. - -It is done: the Parlement has rolled out, on royal summons; has heard the -express royal order to register. Whereupon it has rolled back again, amid -the hushed expectancy of men. And now, behold, on the morrow, this -Parlement, seated once more in its own Palais, with 'crowds inundating the -outer courts,' not only does not register, but (O portent!) declares all -that was done on the prior day to be null, and the Bed of Justice as good -as a futility! In the history of France here verily is a new feature. Nay -better still, our heroic Parlement, getting suddenly enlightened on several -things, declares that, for its part, it is incompetent to register Tax- -edicts at all,--having done it by mistake, during these late centuries; -that for such act one authority only is competent: the assembled Three -Estates of the Realm! - -To such length can the universal spirit of a Nation penetrate the most -isolated Body-corporate: say rather, with such weapons, homicidal and -suicidal, in exasperated political duel, will Bodies-corporate fight! But, -in any case, is not this the real death-grapple of war and internecine -duel, Greek meeting Greek; whereon men, had they even no interest in it, -might look with interest unspeakable? Crowds, as was said, inundate the -outer courts: inundation of young eleutheromaniac Noblemen in English -costume, uttering audacious speeches; of Procureurs, Basoche-Clerks, who -are idle in these days: of Loungers, Newsmongers and other nondescript -classes,--rolls tumultuous there. 'From three to four thousand persons,' -waiting eagerly to hear the Arretes (Resolutions) you arrive at within; -applauding with bravos, with the clapping of from six to eight thousand -hands! Sweet also is the meed of patriotic eloquence, when your -D'Espremenil, your Freteau, or Sabatier, issuing from his Demosthenic -Olympus, the thunder being hushed for the day, is welcomed, in the outer -courts, with a shout from four thousand throats; is borne home shoulder- -high 'with benedictions,' and strikes the stars with his sublime head. - - - -Chapter 1.3.V. - -Lomenie's Thunderbolts. - -Arise, Lomenie-Brienne: here is no case for 'Letters of Jussion;' for -faltering or compromise. Thou seest the whole loose fluent population of -Paris (whatsoever is not solid, and fixed to work) inundating these outer -courts, like a loud destructive deluge; the very Basoche of Lawyers' Clerks -talks sedition. The lower classes, in this duel of Authority with -Authority, Greek throttling Greek, have ceased to respect the City-Watch: -Police-satellites are marked on the back with chalk (the M signifies -mouchard, spy); they are hustled, hunted like ferae naturae. Subordinate -rural Tribunals send messengers of congratulation, of adherence. Their -Fountain of Justice is becoming a Fountain of Revolt. The Provincial -Parlements look on, with intent eye, with breathless wishes, while their -elder sister of Paris does battle: the whole Twelve are of one blood and -temper; the victory of one is that of all. - -Ever worse it grows: on the 10th of August, there is 'Plainte' emitted -touching the 'prodigalities of Calonne,' and permission to 'proceed' -against him. No registering, but instead of it, denouncing: of -dilapidation, peculation; and ever the burden of the song, States-General! -Have the royal armories no thunderbolt, that thou couldst, O Lomenie, with -red right-hand, launch it among these Demosthenic theatrical thunder- -barrels, mere resin and noise for most part;--and shatter, and smite them -silent? On the night of the 14th of August, Lomenie launches his -thunderbolt, or handful of them. Letters named of the Seal (de Cachet), as -many as needful, some sixscore and odd, are delivered overnight. And so, -next day betimes, the whole Parlement, once more set on wheels, is rolling -incessantly towards Troyes in Champagne; 'escorted,' says History, 'with -the blessings of all people;' the very innkeepers and postillions looking -gratuitously reverent. (A. Lameth, Histoire de l'Assemblee Constituante -(Int. 73).) This is the 15th of August 1787. - -What will not people bless; in their extreme need? Seldom had the -Parlement of Paris deserved much blessing, or received much. An isolated -Body-corporate, which, out of old confusions (while the Sceptre of the -Sword was confusedly struggling to become a Sceptre of the Pen), had got -itself together, better and worse, as Bodies-corporate do, to satisfy some -dim desire of the world, and many clear desires of individuals; and so had -grown, in the course of centuries, on concession, on acquirement and -usurpation, to be what we see it: a prosperous social Anomaly, deciding -Lawsuits, sanctioning or rejecting Laws; and withal disposing of its places -and offices by sale for ready money,--which method sleek President Henault, -after meditation, will demonstrate to be the indifferent-best. (Abrege -Chronologique, p. 975.) - -In such a Body, existing by purchase for ready-money, there could not be -excess of public spirit; there might well be excess of eagerness to divide -the public spoil. Men in helmets have divided that, with swords; men in -wigs, with quill and inkhorn, do divide it: and even more hatefully these -latter, if more peaceably; for the wig-method is at once irresistibler and -baser. By long experience, says Besenval, it has been found useless to sue -a Parlementeer at law; no Officer of Justice will serve a writ on one; his -wig and gown are his Vulcan's-panoply, his enchanted cloak-of-darkness. - -The Parlement of Paris may count itself an unloved body; mean, not -magnanimous, on the political side. Were the King weak, always (as now) -has his Parlement barked, cur-like at his heels; with what popular cry -there might be. Were he strong, it barked before his face; hunting for him -as his alert beagle. An unjust Body; where foul influences have more than -once worked shameful perversion of judgment. Does not, in these very days, -the blood of murdered Lally cry aloud for vengeance? Baited, circumvented, -driven mad like the snared lion, Valour had to sink extinguished under -vindictive Chicane. Behold him, that hapless Lally, his wild dark soul -looking through his wild dark face; trailed on the ignominious death- -hurdle; the voice of his despair choked by a wooden gag! The wild fire- -soul that has known only peril and toil; and, for threescore years, has -buffeted against Fate's obstruction and men's perfidy, like genius and -courage amid poltroonery, dishonesty and commonplace; faithfully enduring -and endeavouring,--O Parlement of Paris, dost thou reward it with a gibbet -and a gag? (9th May, 1766: Biographie Universelle, para Lally.) The -dying Lally bequeathed his memory to his boy; a young Lally has arisen, -demanding redress in the name of God and man. The Parlement of Paris does -its utmost to defend the indefensible, abominable; nay, what is singular, -dusky-glowing Aristogiton d'Espremenil is the man chosen to be its -spokesman in that. - -Such Social Anomaly is it that France now blesses. An unclean Social -Anomaly; but in duel against another worse! The exiled Parlement is felt -to have 'covered itself with glory.' There are quarrels in which even -Satan, bringing help, were not unwelcome; even Satan, fighting stiffly, -might cover himself with glory,--of a temporary sort. - -But what a stir in the outer courts of the Palais, when Paris finds its -Parlement trundled off to Troyes in Champagne; and nothing left but a few -mute Keepers of records; the Demosthenic thunder become extinct, the -martyrs of liberty clean gone! Confused wail and menace rises from the -four thousand throats of Procureurs, Basoche-Clerks, Nondescripts, and -Anglomaniac Noblesse; ever new idlers crowd to see and hear; Rascality, -with increasing numbers and vigour, hunts mouchards. Loud whirlpool rolls -through these spaces; the rest of the City, fixed to its work, cannot yet -go rolling. Audacious placards are legible, in and about the Palais, the -speeches are as good as seditious. Surely the temper of Paris is much -changed. On the third day of this business (18th of August), Monsieur and -Monseigneur d'Artois, coming in state-carriages, according to use and wont, -to have these late obnoxious Arretes and protests 'expunged' from the -Records, are received in the most marked manner. Monsieur, who is thought -to be in opposition, is met with vivats and strewed flowers; Monseigneur, -on the other hand, with silence; with murmurs, which rise to hisses and -groans; nay, an irreverent Rascality presses towards him in floods, with -such hissing vehemence, that the Captain of the Guards has to give order, -"Haut les armes (Handle arms)!"--at which thunder-word, indeed, and the -flash of the clear iron, the Rascal-flood recoils, through all avenues, -fast enough. (Montgaillard, i. 369. Besenval, &c.) New features these. -Indeed, as good M. de Malesherbes pertinently remarks, "it is a quite new -kind of contest this with the Parlement:" no transitory sputter, as from -collision of hard bodies; but more like "the first sparks of what, if not -quenched, may become a great conflagration." (Montgaillard, i. 373.) - -This good Malesherbes sees himself now again in the King's Council, after -an absence of ten years: Lomenie would profit if not by the faculties of -the man, yet by the name he has. As for the man's opinion, it is not -listened to;--wherefore he will soon withdraw, a second time; back to his -books and his trees. In such King's Council what can a good man profit? -Turgot tries it not a second time: Turgot has quitted France and this -Earth, some years ago; and now cares for none of these things. Singular -enough: Turgot, this same Lomenie, and the Abbe Morellet were once a trio -of young friends; fellow-scholars in the Sorbonne. Forty new years have -carried them severally thus far. - -Meanwhile the Parlement sits daily at Troyes, calling cases; and daily -adjourns, no Procureur making his appearance to plead. Troyes is as -hospitable as could be looked for: nevertheless one has comparatively a -dull life. No crowds now to carry you, shoulder-high, to the immortal -gods; scarcely a Patriot or two will drive out so far, and bid you be of -firm courage. You are in furnished lodgings, far from home and domestic -comfort: little to do, but wander over the unlovely Champagne fields; -seeing the grapes ripen; taking counsel about the thousand-times consulted: -a prey to tedium; in danger even that Paris may forget you. Messengers -come and go: pacific Lomenie is not slack in negotiating, promising; -D'Ormesson and the prudent elder Members see no good in strife. - -After a dull month, the Parlement, yielding and retaining, makes truce, as -all Parlements must. The Stamp-tax is withdrawn: the Subvention Land-tax -is also withdrawn; but, in its stead, there is granted, what they call a -'Prorogation of the Second Twentieth,'--itself a kind of Land-tax, but not -so oppressive to the Influential classes; which lies mainly on the Dumb -class. Moreover, secret promises exist (on the part of the Elders), that -finances may be raised by Loan. Of the ugly word States-General there -shall be no mention. - -And so, on the 20th of September, our exiled Parlement returns: -D'Espremenil said, 'it went out covered with glory, but had come back -covered with mud (de boue).' Not so, Aristogiton; or if so, thou surely -art the man to clean it. - - - -Chapter 1.3.VI. - -Lomenie's Plots. - -Was ever unfortunate Chief Minister so bested as Lomenie-Brienne? The -reins of the State fairly in his hand these six months; and not the -smallest motive-power (of Finance) to stir from the spot with, this way or -that! He flourishes his whip, but advances not. Instead of ready-money, -there is nothing but rebellious debating and recalcitrating. - -Far is the public mind from having calmed; it goes chafing and fuming ever -worse: and in the royal coffers, with such yearly Deficit running on, -there is hardly the colour of coin. Ominous prognostics! Malesherbes, -seeing an exhausted, exasperated France grow hotter and hotter, talks of -'conflagration:' Mirabeau, without talk, has, as we perceive, descended on -Paris again, close on the rear of the Parlement, (Fils Adoptif, Mirabeau, -iv. l. 5.)--not to quit his native soil any more. - -Over the Frontiers, behold Holland invaded by Prussia; (October, 1787. -Montgaillard, i. 374. Besenval, iii. 283.) the French party oppressed, -England and the Stadtholder triumphing: to the sorrow of War-Secretary -Montmorin and all men. But without money, sinews of war, as of work, and -of existence itself, what can a Chief Minister do? Taxes profit little: -this of the Second Twentieth falls not due till next year; and will then, -with its 'strict valuation,' produce more controversy than cash. Taxes on -the Privileged Classes cannot be got registered; are intolerable to our -supporters themselves: taxes on the Unprivileged yield nothing,--as from a -thing drained dry more cannot be drawn. Hope is nowhere, if not in the old -refuge of Loans. - -To Lomenie, aided by the long head of Lamoignon, deeply pondering this sea -of troubles, the thought suggested itself: Why not have a Successive Loan -(Emprunt Successif), or Loan that went on lending, year after year, as much -as needful; say, till 1792? The trouble of registering such Loan were the -same: we had then breathing time; money to work with, at least to subsist -on. Edict of a Successive Loan must be proposed. To conciliate the -Philosophes, let a liberal Edict walk in front of it, for emancipation of -Protestants; let a liberal Promise guard the rear of it, that when our Loan -ends, in that final 1792, the States-General shall be convoked. - -Such liberal Edict of Protestant Emancipation, the time having come for it, -shall cost a Lomenie as little as the 'Death-penalties to be put in -execution' did. As for the liberal Promise, of States-General, it can be -fulfilled or not: the fulfilment is five good years off; in five years -much intervenes. But the registering? Ah, truly, there is the -difficulty!--However, we have that promise of the Elders, given secretly at -Troyes. Judicious gratuities, cajoleries, underground intrigues, with old -Foulon, named 'Ame damnee, Familiar-demon, of the Parlement,' may perhaps -do the rest. At worst and lowest, the Royal Authority has resources,-- -which ought it not to put forth? If it cannot realise money, the Royal -Authority is as good as dead; dead of that surest and miserablest death, -inanition. Risk and win; without risk all is already lost! For the rest, -as in enterprises of pith, a touch of stratagem often proves furthersome, -his Majesty announces a Royal Hunt, for the 19th of November next; and all -whom it concerns are joyfully getting their gear ready. - -Royal Hunt indeed; but of two-legged unfeathered game! At eleven in the -morning of that Royal-Hunt day, 19th of November 1787, unexpected blare of -trumpetting, tumult of charioteering and cavalcading disturbs the Seat of -Justice: his Majesty is come, with Garde-des-Sceaux Lamoignon, and Peers -and retinue, to hold Royal Session and have Edicts registered. What a -change, since Louis XIV. entered here, in boots; and, whip in hand, ordered -his registering to be done,--with an Olympian look which none durst -gainsay; and did, without stratagem, in such unceremonious fashion, hunt as -well as register! (Dulaure, vi. 306.) For Louis XVI., on this day, the -Registering will be enough; if indeed he and the day suffice for it. - -Meanwhile, with fit ceremonial words, the purpose of the royal breast is -signified:--Two Edicts, for Protestant Emancipation, for Successive Loan: -of both which Edicts our trusty Garde-des-Sceaux Lamoignon will explain the -purport; on both which a trusty Parlement is requested to deliver its -opinion, each member having free privilege of speech. And so, Lamoignon -too having perorated not amiss, and wound up with that Promise of States- -General,--the Sphere-music of Parlementary eloquence begins. Explosive, -responsive, sphere answering sphere, it waxes louder and louder. The Peers -sit attentive; of diverse sentiment: unfriendly to States-General; -unfriendly to Despotism, which cannot reward merit, and is suppressing -places. But what agitates his Highness d'Orleans? The rubicund moon-head -goes wagging; darker beams the copper visage, like unscoured copper; in the -glazed eye is disquietude; he rolls uneasy in his seat, as if he meant -something. Amid unutterable satiety, has sudden new appetite, for new -forbidden fruit, been vouchsafed him? Disgust and edacity; laziness that -cannot rest; futile ambition, revenge, non-admiralship:--O, within that -carbuncled skin what a confusion of confusions sits bottled! - -'Eight Couriers,' in course of the day, gallop from Versailles, where -Lomenie waits palpitating; and gallop back again, not with the best news. -In the outer Courts of the Palais, huge buzz of expectation reigns; it is -whispered the Chief Minister has lost six votes overnight. And from -within, resounds nothing but forensic eloquence, pathetic and even -indignant; heartrending appeals to the royal clemency, that his Majesty -would please to summon States-General forthwith, and be the Saviour of -France:--wherein dusky-glowing D'Espremenil, but still more Sabatier de -Cabre, and Freteau, since named Commere Freteau (Goody Freteau), are among -the loudest. For six mortal hours it lasts, in this manner; the infinite -hubbub unslackened. - -And so now, when brown dusk is falling through the windows, and no end -visible, his Majesty, on hint of Garde-des-Sceaux, Lamoignon, opens his -royal lips once more to say, in brief That he must have his Loan-Edict -registered.--Momentary deep pause!--See! Monseigneur d'Orleans rises; with -moon-visage turned towards the royal platform, he asks, with a delicate -graciosity of manner covering unutterable things: "Whether it is a Bed of -Justice, then; or a Royal Session?" Fire flashes on him from the throne -and neighbourhood: surly answer that "it is a Session." In that case, -Monseigneur will crave leave to remark that Edicts cannot be registered by -order in a Session; and indeed to enter, against such registry, his -individual humble Protest. "Vous etes bien le maitre (You will do your -pleasure)", answers the King; and thereupon, in high state, marches out, -escorted by his Court-retinue; D'Orleans himself, as in duty bound, -escorting him, but only to the gate. Which duty done, D'Orleans returns in -from the gate; redacts his Protest, in the face of an applauding Parlement, -an applauding France; and so--has cut his Court-moorings, shall we say? -And will now sail and drift, fast enough, towards Chaos? - -Thou foolish D'Orleans; Equality that art to be! Is Royalty grown a mere -wooden Scarecrow; whereon thou, pert scald-headed crow, mayest alight at -pleasure, and peck? Not yet wholly. - -Next day, a Lettre-de-Cachet sends D'Orleans to bethink himself in his -Chateau of Villers-Cotterets, where, alas, is no Paris with its joyous -necessaries of life; no fascinating indispensable Madame de Buffon,--light -wife of a great Naturalist much too old for her. Monseigneur, it is said, -does nothing but walk distractedly, at Villers-Cotterets; cursing his -stars. Versailles itself shall hear penitent wail from him, so hard is his -doom. By a second, simultaneous Lettre-de-Cachet, Goody Freteau is hurled -into the Stronghold of Ham, amid the Norman marshes; by a third, Sabatier -de Cabre into Mont St. Michel, amid the Norman quicksands. As for the -Parlement, it must, on summons, travel out to Versailles, with its -Register-Book under its arm, to have the Protest biffe (expunged); not -without admonition, and even rebuke. A stroke of authority which, one -might have hoped, would quiet matters. - -Unhappily, no; it is a mere taste of the whip to rearing coursers, which -makes them rear worse! When a team of Twenty-five Millions begins rearing, -what is Lomenie's whip? The Parlement will nowise acquiesce meekly; and -set to register the Protestant Edict, and do its other work, in salutary -fear of these three Lettres-de-Cachet. Far from that, it begins -questioning Lettres-de-Cachet generally, their legality, endurability; -emits dolorous objurgation, petition on petition to have its three Martyrs -delivered; cannot, till that be complied with, so much as think of -examining the Protestant Edict, but puts it off always 'till this day -week.' (Besenval, iii. 309.) - -In which objurgatory strain Paris and France joins it, or rather has -preceded it; making fearful chorus. And now also the other Parlements, at -length opening their mouths, begin to join; some of them, as at Grenoble -and at Rennes, with portentous emphasis,--threatening, by way of reprisal, -to interdict the very Tax-gatherer. (Weber, i. 266.) "In all former -contests," as Malesherbes remarks, "it was the Parlement that excited the -Public; but here it is the Public that excites the Parlement." - - - -Chapter 1.3.VII. - -Internecine. - -What a France, through these winter months of the year 1787! The very -Oeil-de-Boeuf is doleful, uncertain; with a general feeling among the -Suppressed, that it were better to be in Turkey. The Wolf-hounds are -suppressed, the Bear-hounds, Duke de Coigny, Duke de Polignac: in the -Trianon little-heaven, her Majesty, one evening, takes Besenval's arm; asks -his candid opinion. The intrepid Besenval,--having, as he hopes, nothing -of the sycophant in him,--plainly signifies that, with a Parlement in -rebellion, and an Oeil-de-Boeuf in suppression, the King's Crown is in -danger;--whereupon, singular to say, her Majesty, as if hurt, changed the -subject, et ne me parla plus de rien! (Besenval, iii. 264.) - -To whom, indeed, can this poor Queen speak? In need of wise counsel, if -ever mortal was; yet beset here only by the hubbub of chaos! Her dwelling- -place is so bright to the eye, and confusion and black care darkens it all. -Sorrows of the Sovereign, sorrows of the woman, think-coming sorrows -environ her more and more. Lamotte, the Necklace-Countess, has in these -late months escaped, perhaps been suffered to escape, from the Salpetriere. -Vain was the hope that Paris might thereby forget her; and this ever- -widening-lie, and heap of lies, subside. The Lamotte, with a V (for -Voleuse, Thief) branded on both shoulders, has got to England; and will -therefrom emit lie on lie; defiling the highest queenly name: mere -distracted lies; (Memoires justificatifs de la Comtesse de Lamotte (London, -1788). Vie de Jeanne de St. Remi, Comtesse de Lamotte, &c. &c. See -Diamond Necklace (ut supra).) which, in its present humour, France will -greedily believe. - -For the rest, it is too clear our Successive Loan is not filling. As -indeed, in such circumstances, a Loan registered by expunging of Protests -was not the likeliest to fill. Denunciation of Lettres-de-Cachet, of -Despotism generally, abates not: the Twelve Parlements are busy; the -Twelve hundred Placarders, Balladsingers, Pamphleteers. Paris is what, in -figurative speech, they call 'flooded with pamphlets (regorge de -brochures);' flooded and eddying again. Hot deluge,--from so many Patriot -ready-writers, all at the fervid or boiling point; each ready-writer, now -in the hour of eruption, going like an Iceland Geyser! Against which what -can a judicious friend Morellet do; a Rivarol, an unruly Linguet (well paid -for it),--spouting cold! - -Now also, at length, does come discussion of the Protestant Edict: but -only for new embroilment; in pamphlet and counter-pamphlet, increasing the -madness of men. Not even Orthodoxy, bedrid as she seemed, but will have a -hand in this confusion. She, once again in the shape of Abbe Lenfant, -'whom Prelates drive to visit and congratulate,'--raises audible sound from -her pulpit-drum. (Lacretelle, iii. 343. Montgaillard, &c.) Or mark how -D'Espremenil, who has his own confused way in all things, produces at the -right moment in Parlementary harangue, a pocket Crucifix, with the -apostrophe: "Will ye crucify him afresh?" Him, O D'Espremenil, without -scruple;--considering what poor stuff, of ivory and filigree, he is made -of! - -To all which add only that poor Brienne has fallen sick; so hard was the -tear and wear of his sinful youth, so violent, incessant is this agitation -of his foolish old age. Baited, bayed at through so many throats, his -Grace, growing consumptive, inflammatory (with humeur de dartre), lies -reduced to milk diet; in exasperation, almost in desperation; with -'repose,' precisely the impossible recipe, prescribed as the indispensable. -(Besenval, iii. 317.) - -On the whole, what can a poor Government do, but once more recoil -ineffectual? The King's Treasury is running towards the lees; and Paris -'eddies with a flood of pamphlets.' At all rates, let the latter subside a -little! "D'Orleans gets back to Raincy, which is nearer Paris and the fair -frail Buffon; finally to Paris itself: neither are Freteau and Sabatier -banished forever. The Protestant Edict is registered; to the joy of Boissy -d'Anglas and good Malesherbes: Successive Loan, all protests expunged or -else withdrawn, remains open,--the rather as few or none come to fill it. -States-General, for which the Parlement has clamoured, and now the whole -Nation clamours, will follow 'in five years,'--if indeed not sooner. O -Parlement of Paris, what a clamour was that! "Messieurs," said old -d'Ormesson, "you will get States-General, and you will repent it." Like -the Horse in the Fable, who, to be avenged of his enemy, applied to the -Man. The Man mounted; did swift execution on the enemy; but, unhappily, -would not dismount! Instead of five years, let three years pass, and this -clamorous Parlement shall have both seen its enemy hurled prostrate, and -been itself ridden to foundering (say rather, jugulated for hide and -shoes), and lie dead in the ditch. - -Under such omens, however, we have reached the spring of 1788. By no path -can the King's Government find passage for itself, but is everywhere -shamefully flung back. Beleaguered by Twelve rebellious Parlements, which -are grown to be the organs of an angry Nation, it can advance nowhither; -can accomplish nothing, obtain nothing, not so much as money to subsist on; -but must sit there, seemingly, to be eaten up of Deficit. - -The measure of the Iniquity, then, of the Falsehood which has been -gathering through long centuries, is nearly full? At least, that of the -misery is! For the hovels of the Twenty-five Millions, the misery, -permeating upwards and forwards, as its law is, has got so far,--to the -very Oeil-de-Boeuf of Versailles. Man's hand, in this blind pain, is set -against man: not only the low against the higher, but the higher against -each other; Provincial Noblesse is bitter against Court Noblesse; Robe -against Sword; Rochet against Pen. But against the King's Government who -is not bitter? Not even Besenval, in these days. To it all men and bodies -of men are become as enemies; it is the centre whereon infinite contentions -unite and clash. What new universal vertiginous movement is this; of -Institution, social Arrangements, individual Minds, which once worked -cooperative; now rolling and grinding in distracted collision? Inevitable: -it is the breaking-up of a World-Solecism, worn out at last, down even to -bankruptcy of money! And so this poor Versailles Court, as the chief or -central Solecism, finds all the other Solecisms arrayed against it. Most -natural! For your human Solecism, be it Person or Combination of Persons, -is ever, by law of Nature, uneasy; if verging towards bankruptcy, it is -even miserable:--and when would the meanest Solecism consent to blame or -amend itself, while there remained another to amend? - -These threatening signs do not terrify Lomenie, much less teach him. -Lomenie, though of light nature, is not without courage, of a sort. Nay, -have we not read of lightest creatures, trained Canary-birds, that could -fly cheerfully with lighted matches, and fire cannon; fire whole powder- -magazines? To sit and die of deficit is no part of Lomenie's plan. The -evil is considerable; but can he not remove it, can he not attack it? At -lowest, he can attack the symptom of it: these rebellious Parlements he -can attack, and perhaps remove. Much is dim to Lomenie, but two things are -clear: that such Parlementary duel with Royalty is growing perilous, nay -internecine; above all, that money must be had. Take thought, brave -Lomenie; thou Garde-des-Sceaux Lamoignon, who hast ideas! So often -defeated, balked cruelly when the golden fruit seemed within clutch, rally -for one other struggle. To tame the Parlement, to fill the King's coffers: -these are now life-and-death questions. - -Parlements have been tamed, more than once. Set to perch 'on the peaks of -rocks in accessible except by litters,' a Parlement grows reasonable. O -Maupeou, thou bold man, had we left thy work where it was!--But apart from -exile, or other violent methods, is there not one method, whereby all -things are tamed, even lions? The method of hunger! What if the -Parlement's supplies were cut off; namely its Lawsuits! - -Minor Courts, for the trying of innumerable minor causes, might be -instituted: these we could call Grand Bailliages. Whereon the Parlement, -shortened of its prey, would look with yellow despair; but the Public, fond -of cheap justice, with favour and hope. Then for Finance, for registering -of Edicts, why not, from our own Oeil-de-Boeuf Dignitaries, our Princes, -Dukes, Marshals, make a thing we could call Plenary Court; and there, so to -speak, do our registering ourselves? St. Louis had his Plenary Court, of -Great Barons; (Montgaillard, i. 405.) most useful to him: our Great Barons -are still here (at least the Name of them is still here); our necessity is -greater than his. - -Such is the Lomenie-Lamoignon device; welcome to the King's Council, as a -light-beam in great darkness. The device seems feasible, it is eminently -needful: be it once well executed, great deliverance is wrought. Silent, -then, and steady; now or never!--the World shall see one other Historical -Scene; and so singular a man as Lomenie de Brienne still the Stage-manager -there. - -Behold, accordingly, a Home-Secretary Breteuil 'beautifying Paris,' in the -peaceablest manner, in this hopeful spring weather of 1788; the old hovels -and hutches disappearing from our Bridges: as if for the State too there -were halcyon weather, and nothing to do but beautify. Parlement seems to -sit acknowledged victor. Brienne says nothing of Finance; or even says, -and prints, that it is all well. How is this; such halcyon quiet; though -the Successive Loan did not fill? In a victorious Parlement, Counsellor -Goeslard de Monsabert even denounces that 'levying of the Second Twentieth -on strict valuation;' and gets decree that the valuation shall not be -strict,--not on the privileged classes. Nevertheless Brienne endures it, -launches no Lettre-de-Cachet against it. How is this? - -Smiling is such vernal weather; but treacherous, sudden! For one thing, we -hear it whispered, 'the Intendants of Provinces 'have all got order to be -at their posts on a certain day.' Still more singular, what incessant -Printing is this that goes on at the King's Chateau, under lock and key? -Sentries occupy all gates and windows; the Printers come not out; they -sleep in their workrooms; their very food is handed in to them! (Weber, i. -276.) A victorious Parlement smells new danger. D'Espremenil has ordered -horses to Versailles; prowls round that guarded Printing-Office; prying, -snuffing, if so be the sagacity and ingenuity of man may penetrate it. - -To a shower of gold most things are penetrable. D'Espremenil descends on -the lap of a Printer's Danae, in the shape of 'five hundred louis d'or:' -the Danae's Husband smuggles a ball of clay to her; which she delivers to -the golden Counsellor of Parlement. Kneaded within it, their stick printed -proof-sheets;--by Heaven! the royal Edict of that same self-registering -Plenary Court; of those Grand Bailliages that shall cut short our Lawsuits! -It is to be promulgated over all France on one and the same day. - -This, then, is what the Intendants were bid wait for at their posts: this -is what the Court sat hatching, as its accursed cockatrice-egg; and would -not stir, though provoked, till the brood were out! Hie with it, -D'Espremenil, home to Paris; convoke instantaneous Sessions; let the -Parlement, and the Earth, and the Heavens know it. - - - -Chapter 1.3.VIII. - -Lomenie's Death-throes. - -On the morrow, which is the 3rd of May, 1788, an astonished Parlement sits -convoked; listens speechless to the speech of D'Espremenil, unfolding the -infinite misdeed. Deed of treachery; of unhallowed darkness, such as -Despotism loves! Denounce it, O Parlement of Paris; awaken France and the -Universe; roll what thunder-barrels of forensic eloquence thou hast: with -thee too it is verily Now or never! - -The Parlement is not wanting, at such juncture. In the hour of his extreme -jeopardy, the lion first incites himself by roaring, by lashing his sides. -So here the Parlement of Paris. On the motion of D'Espremenil, a most -patriotic Oath, of the One-and-all sort, is sworn, with united throat;--an -excellent new-idea, which, in these coming years, shall not remain -unimitated. Next comes indomitable Declaration, almost of the rights of -man, at least of the rights of Parlement; Invocation to the friends of -French Freedom, in this and in subsequent time. All which, or the essence -of all which, is brought to paper; in a tone wherein something of -plaintiveness blends with, and tempers, heroic valour. And thus, having -sounded the storm-bell,--which Paris hears, which all France will hear; and -hurled such defiance in the teeth of Lomenie and Despotism, the Parlement -retires as from a tolerable first day's work. - -But how Lomenie felt to see his cockatrice-egg (so essential to the -salvation of France) broken in this premature manner, let readers fancy! -Indignant he clutches at his thunderbolts (de Cachet, of the Seal); and -launches two of them: a bolt for D'Espremenil; a bolt for that busy -Goeslard, whose service in the Second Twentieth and 'strict valuation' is -not forgotten. Such bolts clutched promptly overnight, and launched with -the early new morning, shall strike agitated Paris if not into -requiescence, yet into wholesome astonishment. - -Ministerial thunderbolts may be launched; but if they do not hit? -D'Espremenil and Goeslard, warned, both of them, as is thought, by the -singing of some friendly bird, elude the Lomenie Tipstaves; escape -disguised through skywindows, over roofs, to their own Palais de Justice: -the thunderbolts have missed. Paris (for the buzz flies abroad) is struck -into astonishment not wholesome. The two martyrs of Liberty doff their -disguises; don their long gowns; behold, in the space of an hour, by aid of -ushers and swift runners, the Parlement, with its Counsellors, Presidents, -even Peers, sits anew assembled. The assembled Parlement declares that -these its two martyrs cannot be given up, to any sublunary authority; -moreover that the 'session is permanent,' admitting of no adjournment, till -pursuit of them has been relinquished. - -And so, with forensic eloquence, denunciation and protest, with couriers -going and returning, the Parlement, in this state of continual explosion -that shall cease neither night nor day, waits the issue. Awakened Paris -once more inundates those outer courts; boils, in floods wilder than ever, -through all avenues. Dissonant hubbub there is; jargon as of Babel, in the -hour when they were first smitten (as here) with mutual unintelligibilty, -and the people had not yet dispersed! - -Paris City goes through its diurnal epochs, of working and slumbering; and -now, for the second time, most European and African mortals are asleep. -But here, in this Whirlpool of Words, sleep falls not; the Night spreads -her coverlid of Darkness over it in vain. Within is the sound of mere -martyr invincibility; tempered with the due tone of plaintiveness. Without -is the infinite expectant hum,--growing drowsier a little. So has it -lasted for six-and-thirty hours. - -But hark, through the dead of midnight, what tramp is this? Tramp as of -armed men, foot and horse; Gardes Francaises, Gardes Suisses: marching -hither; in silent regularity; in the flare of torchlight! There are -Sappers, too, with axes and crowbars: apparently, if the doors open not, -they will be forced!--It is Captain D'Agoust, missioned from Versailles. -D'Agoust, a man of known firmness;--who once forced Prince Conde himself, -by mere incessant looking at him, to give satisfaction and fight; (Weber, -i. 283.) he now, with axes and torches is advancing on the very sanctuary -of Justice. Sacrilegious; yet what help? The man is a soldier; looks -merely at his orders; impassive, moves forward like an inanimate engine. - -The doors open on summons, there need no axes; door after door. And now -the innermost door opens; discloses the long-gowned Senators of France: a -hundred and sixty-seven by tale, seventeen of them Peers; sitting there, -majestic, 'in permanent session.' Were not the men military, and of cast- -iron, this sight, this silence reechoing the clank of his own boots, might -stagger him! For the hundred and sixty-seven receive him in perfect -silence; which some liken to that of the Roman Senate overfallen by -Brennus; some to that of a nest of coiners surprised by officers of the -Police. (Besenval, iii. 355.) Messieurs, said D'Agoust, De par le Roi! -Express order has charged D'Agoust with the sad duty of arresting two -individuals: M. Duval d'Espremenil and M. Goeslard de Monsabert. Which -respectable individuals, as he has not the honour of knowing them, are -hereby invited, in the King's name, to surrender themselves.--Profound -silence! Buzz, which grows a murmur: "We are all D'Espremenils!" ventures -a voice; which other voices repeat. The President inquires, Whether he -will employ violence? Captain D'Agoust, honoured with his Majesty's -commission, has to execute his Majesty's order; would so gladly do it -without violence, will in any case do it; grants an august Senate space to -deliberate which method they prefer. And thereupon D'Agoust, with grave -military courtesy, has withdrawn for the moment. - -What boots it, august Senators? All avenues are closed with fixed -bayonets. Your Courier gallops to Versailles, through the dewy Night; but -also gallops back again, with tidings that the order is authentic, that it -is irrevocable. The outer courts simmer with idle population; but -D'Agoust's grenadier-ranks stand there as immovable floodgates: there will -be no revolting to deliver you. "Messieurs!" thus spoke D'Espremenil, -"when the victorious Gauls entered Rome, which they had carried by assault, -the Roman Senators, clothed in their purple, sat there, in their curule -chairs, with a proud and tranquil countenance, awaiting slavery or death. -Such too is the lofty spectacle, which you, in this hour, offer to the -universe (a l'univers), after having generously"--with much more of the -like, as can still be read. (Toulongeon, i. App. 20.) - -In vain, O D'Espremenil! Here is this cast-iron Captain D'Agoust, with his -cast-iron military air, come back. Despotism, constraint, destruction sit -waving in his plumes. D'Espremenil must fall silent; heroically give -himself up, lest worst befall. Him Goeslard heroically imitates. With -spoken and speechless emotion, they fling themselves into the arms of their -Parlementary brethren, for a last embrace: and so amid plaudits and -plaints, from a hundred and sixty-five throats; amid wavings, sobbings, a -whole forest-sigh of Parlementary pathos,--they are led through winding -passages, to the rear-gate; where, in the gray of the morning, two Coaches -with Exempts stand waiting. There must the victims mount; bayonets -menacing behind. D'Espremenil's stern question to the populace, 'Whether -they have courage?' is answered by silence. They mount, and roll; and -neither the rising of the May sun (it is the 6th morning), nor its setting -shall lighten their heart: but they fare forward continually; D'Espremenil -towards the utmost Isles of Sainte Marguerite, or Hieres (supposed by some, -if that is any comfort, to be Calypso's Island); Goeslard towards the land- -fortress of Pierre-en-Cize, extant then, near the City of Lyons. - -Captain D'Agoust may now therefore look forward to Majorship, to -Commandantship of the Tuilleries; (Montgaillard, i. 404.)--and withal -vanish from History; where nevertheless he has been fated to do a notable -thing. For not only are D'Espremenil and Goeslard safe whirling southward, -but the Parlement itself has straightway to march out: to that also his -inexorable order reaches. Gathering up their long skirts, they file out, -the whole Hundred and Sixty-five of them, through two rows of unsympathetic -grenadiers: a spectacle to gods and men. The people revolt not; they only -wonder and grumble: also, we remark, these unsympathetic grenadiers are -Gardes Francaises,--who, one day, will sympathise! In a word, the Palais -de Justice is swept clear, the doors of it are locked; and D'Agoust returns -to Versailles with the key in his pocket,--having, as was said, merited -preferment. - -As for this Parlement of Paris, now turned out to the street, we will -without reluctance leave it there. The Beds of Justice it had to undergo, -in the coming fortnight, at Versailles, in registering, or rather refusing -to register, those new-hatched Edicts; and how it assembled in taverns and -tap-rooms there, for the purpose of Protesting, (Weber, i. 299-303.) or -hovered disconsolate, with outspread skirts, not knowing where to assemble; -and was reduced to lodge Protest 'with a Notary;' and in the end, to sit -still (in a state of forced 'vacation'), and do nothing; all this, natural -now, as the burying of the dead after battle, shall not concern us. The -Parlement of Paris has as good as performed its part; doing and misdoing, -so far, but hardly further, could it stir the world. - -Lomenie has removed the evil then? Not at all: not so much as the symptom -of the evil; scarcely the twelfth part of the symptom, and exasperated the -other eleven! The Intendants of Provinces, the Military Commandants are at -their posts, on the appointed 8th of May: but in no Parlement, if not in -the single one of Douai, can these new Edicts get registered. Not -peaceable signing with ink; but browbeating, bloodshedding, appeal to -primary club-law! Against these Bailliages, against this Plenary Court, -exasperated Themis everywhere shows face of battle; the Provincial Noblesse -are of her party, and whoever hates Lomenie and the evil time; with her -attorneys and Tipstaves, she enlists and operates down even to the -populace. At Rennes in Brittany, where the historical Bertrand de -Moleville is Intendant, it has passed from fatal continual duelling, -between the military and gentry, to street-fighting; to stone-volleys and -musket-shot: and still the Edicts remained unregistered. The afflicted -Bretons send remonstrance to Lomenie, by a Deputation of Twelve; whom, -however, Lomenie, having heard them, shuts up in the Bastille. A second -larger deputation he meets, by his scouts, on the road, and persuades or -frightens back. But now a third largest Deputation is indignantly sent by -many roads: refused audience on arriving, it meets to take council; -invites Lafayette and all Patriot Bretons in Paris to assist; agitates -itself; becomes the Breton Club, first germ of--the Jacobins' Society. (A. -F. de Bertrand-Moleville, Memoires Particuliers (Paris, 1816), I. ch. i. -Marmontel, Memoires, iv. 27.) - -So many as eight Parlements get exiled: (Montgaillard, i. 308.) others -might need that remedy, but it is one not always easy of appliance. At -Grenoble, for instance, where a Mounier, a Barnave have not been idle, the -Parlement had due order (by Lettres-de-Cachet) to depart, and exile itself: -but on the morrow, instead of coaches getting yoked, the alarm-bell bursts -forth, ominous; and peals and booms all day: crowds of mountaineers rush -down, with axes, even with firelocks,--whom (most ominous of all!) the -soldiery shows no eagerness to deal with. 'Axe over head,' the poor -General has to sign capitulation; to engage that the Lettres-de-Cachet -shall remain unexecuted, and a beloved Parlement stay where it is. -Besancon, Dijon, Rouen, Bourdeaux, are not what they should be! At Pau in -Bearn, where the old Commandant had failed, the new one (a Grammont, native -to them) is met by a Procession of townsmen with the Cradle of Henri -Quatre, the Palladium of their Town; is conjured as he venerates this old -Tortoise-shell, in which the great Henri was rocked, not to trample on -Bearnese liberty; is informed, withal, that his Majesty's cannon are all -safe--in the keeping of his Majesty's faithful Burghers of Pau, and do now -lie pointed on the walls there; ready for action! (Besenval, iii. 348.) - -At this rate, your Grand Bailliages are like to have a stormy infancy. As -for the Plenary Court, it has literally expired in the birth. The very -Courtiers looked shy at it; old Marshal Broglie declined the honour of -sitting therein. Assaulted by a universal storm of mingled ridicule and -execration, (La Cour Pleniere, heroi-tragi-comedie en trois actes et en -prose; jouee le 14 Juillet 1788, par une societe d'amateurs dans un Chateau -aux environs de Versailles; par M. l'Abbe de Vermond, Lecteur de la Reine: -A Baville (Lamoignon's Country-house), et se trouve a Paris, chez la Veuve -Liberte, a l'enseigne de la Revolution, 1788.--La Passion, la Mort et la -Resurrection du Peuple: Imprime a Jerusalem, &c. &c.--See Montgaillard, i. -407.) this poor Plenary Court met once, and never any second time. -Distracted country! Contention hisses up, with forked hydra-tongues, -wheresoever poor Lomenie sets his foot. 'Let a Commandant, a Commissioner -of the King,' says Weber, 'enter one of these Parlements to have an Edict -registered, the whole Tribunal will disappear, and leave the Commandant -alone with the Clerk and First President. The Edict registered and the -Commandant gone, the whole Tribunal hastens back, to declare such -registration null. The highways are covered with Grand Deputations of -Parlements, proceeding to Versailles, to have their registers expunged by -the King's hand; or returning home, to cover a new page with a new -resolution still more audacious.' (Weber, i. 275.) - -Such is the France of this year 1788. Not now a Golden or Paper Age of -Hope; with its horse-racings, balloon-flyings, and finer sensibilities of -the heart: ah, gone is that; its golden effulgence paled, bedarkened in -this singular manner,--brewing towards preternatural weather! For, as in -that wreck-storm of Paul et Virginie and Saint-Pierre,--'One huge -motionless cloud' (say, of Sorrow and Indignation) 'girdles our whole -horizon; streams up, hairy, copper-edged, over a sky of the colour of -lead.' Motionless itself; but 'small clouds' (as exiled Parlements and -suchlike), 'parting from it, fly over the zenith, with the velocity of -birds:'--till at last, with one loud howl, the whole Four Winds be dashed -together, and all the world exclaim, There is the tornado! Tout le monde -s'ecria, Voila l'ouragan! - -For the rest, in such circumstances, the Successive Loan, very naturally, -remains unfilled; neither, indeed, can that impost of the Second Twentieth, -at least not on 'strict valuation,' be levied to good purpose: 'Lenders,' -says Weber, in his hysterical vehement manner, 'are afraid of ruin; tax- -gatherers of hanging.' The very Clergy turn away their face: convoked in -Extraordinary Assembly, they afford no gratuitous gift (don gratuit),--if -it be not that of advice; here too instead of cash is clamour for States- -General. (Lameth, Assemb. Const. (Introd.) p. 87.) - -O Lomenie-Brienne, with thy poor flimsy mind all bewildered, and now 'three -actual cauteries' on thy worn-out body; who art like to die of inflamation, -provocation, milk-diet, dartres vives and maladie--(best untranslated); -(Montgaillard, i. 424.) and presidest over a France with innumerable actual -cauteries, which also is dying of inflammation and the rest! Was it wise -to quit the bosky verdures of Brienne, and thy new ashlar Chateau there, -and what it held, for this? Soft were those shades and lawns; sweet the -hymns of Poetasters, the blandishments of high-rouged Graces: (See Memoires -de Morellet.) and always this and the other Philosophe Morellet (nothing -deeming himself or thee a questionable Sham-Priest) could be so happy in -making happy:--and also (hadst thou known it), in the Military School hard -by there sat, studying mathematics, a dusky-complexioned taciturn Boy, -under the name of: NAPOLEON BONAPARTE!--With fifty years of effort, and -one final dead-lift struggle, thou hast made an exchange! Thou hast got -thy robe of office,--as Hercules had his Nessus'-shirt. - -On the 13th of July of this 1788, there fell, on the very edge of harvest, -the most frightful hailstorm; scattering into wild waste the Fruits of the -Year; which had otherwise suffered grievously by drought. For sixty -leagues round Paris especially, the ruin was almost total. (Marmontel, iv. -30.) To so many other evils, then, there is to be added, that of dearth, -perhaps of famine. - -Some days before this hailstorm, on the 5th of July; and still more -decisively some days after it, on the 8th of August,--Lomenie announces -that the States-General are actually to meet in the following month of May. -Till after which period, this of the Plenary Court, and the rest, shall -remain postponed. Further, as in Lomenie there is no plan of forming or -holding these most desirable States-General, 'thinkers are invited' to -furnish him with one,--through the medium of discussion by the public -press! - -What could a poor Minister do? There are still ten months of respite -reserved: a sinking pilot will fling out all things, his very biscuit- -bags, lead, log, compass and quadrant, before flinging out himself. It is -on this principle, of sinking, and the incipient delirium of despair, that -we explain likewise the almost miraculous 'invitation to thinkers.' -Invitation to Chaos to be so kind as build, out of its tumultuous drift- -wood, an Ark of Escape for him! In these cases, not invitation but command -has usually proved serviceable.--The Queen stood, that evening, pensive, in -a window, with her face turned towards the Garden. The Chef de Gobelet had -followed her with an obsequious cup of coffee; and then retired till it -were sipped. Her Majesty beckoned Dame Campan to approach: "Grand Dieu!" -murmured she, with the cup in her hand, "what a piece of news will be made -public to-day! The King grants States-General." Then raising her eyes to -Heaven (if Campan were not mistaken), she added: "'Tis a first beat of the -drum, of ill-omen for France. This Noblesse will ruin us." (Campan, iii. -104, 111.) - -During all that hatching of the Plenary Court, while Lamoignon looked so -mysterious, Besenval had kept asking him one question: Whether they had -cash? To which as Lamoignon always answered (on the faith of Lomenie) that -the cash was safe, judicious Besenval rejoined that then all was safe. -Nevertheless, the melancholy fact is, that the royal coffers are almost -getting literally void of coin. Indeed, apart from all other things this -'invitation to thinkers,' and the great change now at hand are enough to -'arrest the circulation of capital,' and forward only that of pamphlets. A -few thousand gold louis are now all of money or money's worth that remains -in the King's Treasury. With another movement as of desperation, Lomenie -invites Necker to come and be Controller of Finances! Necker has other -work in view than controlling Finances for Lomenie: with a dry refusal he -stands taciturn; awaiting his time. - -What shall a desperate Prime Minister do? He has grasped at the strongbox -of the King's Theatre: some Lottery had been set on foot for those -sufferers by the hailstorm; in his extreme necessity, Lomenie lays hands -even on this. (Besenval, iii. 360.) To make provision for the passing -day, on any terms, will soon be impossible.--On the 16th of August, poor -Weber heard, at Paris and Versailles, hawkers, 'with a hoarse stifled tone -of voice (voix etouffee, sourde)' drawling and snuffling, through the -streets, an Edict concerning Payments (such was the soft title Rivarol had -contrived for it): all payments at the Royal Treasury shall be made -henceforth, three-fifths in Cash, and the remaining two-fifths--in Paper -bearing interest! Poor Weber almost swooned at the sound of these cracked -voices, with their bodeful raven-note; and will never forget the effect it -had on him. (Weber, i. 339.) - -But the effect on Paris, on the world generally? From the dens of Stock- -brokerage, from the heights of Political Economy, of Neckerism and -Philosophism; from all articulate and inarticulate throats, rise hootings -and howlings, such as ear had not yet heard. Sedition itself may be -imminent! Monseigneur d'Artois, moved by Duchess Polignac, feels called to -wait upon her Majesty; and explain frankly what crisis matters stand in. -'The Queen wept;' Brienne himself wept;--for it is now visible and palpable -that he must go. - -Remains only that the Court, to whom his manners and garrulities were -always agreeable, shall make his fall soft. The grasping old man has -already got his Archbishopship of Toulouse exchanged for the richer one of -Sens: and now, in this hour of pity, he shall have the Coadjutorship for -his nephew (hardly yet of due age); a Dameship of the Palace for his niece; -a Regiment for her husband; for himself a red Cardinal's-hat, a Coupe de -Bois (cutting from the royal forests), and on the whole 'from five to six -hundred thousand livres of revenue:' (Weber, i. 341.) finally, his -Brother, the Comte de Brienne, shall still continue War-minister. Buckled- -round with such bolsters and huge featherbeds of Promotion, let him now -fall as soft as he can! - -And so Lomenie departs: rich if Court-titles and Money-bonds can enrich -him; but if these cannot, perhaps the poorest of all extant men. 'Hissed -at by the people of Versailles,' he drives forth to Jardi; southward to -Brienne,--for recovery of health. Then to Nice, to Italy; but shall -return; shall glide to and fro, tremulous, faint-twinkling, fallen on awful -times: till the Guillotine--snuff out his weak existence? Alas, worse: -for it is blown out, or choked out, foully, pitiably, on the way to the -Guillotine! In his Palace of Sens, rude Jacobin Bailiffs made him drink -with them from his own wine-cellars, feast with them from his own larder; -and on the morrow morning, the miserable old man lies dead. This is the -end of Prime Minister, Cardinal Archbishop Lomenie de Brienne. Flimsier -mortal was seldom fated to do as weighty a mischief; to have a life as -despicable-envied, an exit as frightful. Fired, as the phrase is, with -ambition: blown, like a kindled rag, the sport of winds, not this way, not -that way, but of all ways, straight towards such a powder-mine,--which he -kindled! Let us pity the hapless Lomenie; and forgive him; and, as soon as -possible, forget him. - - - -Chapter 1.3.IX. - -Burial with Bonfire. - -Besenval, during these extraordinary operations, of Payment two-fifths in -Paper, and change of Prime Minister, had been out on a tour through his -District of Command; and indeed, for the last months, peacefully drinking -the waters of Contrexeville. Returning now, in the end of August, towards -Moulins, and 'knowing nothing,' he arrives one evening at Langres; finds -the whole Town in a state of uproar (grande rumeur). Doubtless some -sedition; a thing too common in these days! He alights nevertheless; -inquires of a 'man tolerably dressed,' what the matter is?--"How?" answers -the man, "you have not heard the news? The Archbishop is thrown out, and -M. Necker is recalled; and all is going to go well!" (Besenval, iii. 366.) - -Such rumeur and vociferous acclaim has risen round M. Necker, ever from -'that day when he issued from the Queen's Apartments,' a nominated -Minister. It was on the 24th of August: 'the galleries of the Chateau, the -courts, the streets of Versailles; in few hours, the Capital; and, as the -news flew, all France, resounded with the cry of Vive le Roi! Vive M. -Necker! (Weber, i. 342.) In Paris indeed it unfortunately got the length -of turbulence.' Petards, rockets go off, in the Place Dauphine, more than -enough. A 'wicker Figure (Mannequin d'osier),' in Archbishop's stole, made -emblematically, three-fifths of it satin, two-fifths of it paper, is -promenaded, not in silence, to the popular judgment-bar; is doomed; shriven -by a mock Abbe de Vermond; then solemnly consumed by fire, at the foot of -Henri's Statue on the Pont Neuf;--with such petarding and huzzaing that -Chevalier Dubois and his City-watch see good finally to make a charge (more -or less ineffectual); and there wanted not burning of sentry-boxes, forcing -of guard-houses, and also 'dead bodies thrown into the Seine over-night,' -to avoid new effervescence. (Histoire Parlementaire de la Revolution -Francaise; ou Journal des Assemblees Nationales depuis 1789 (Paris, 1833 et -seqq.), i. 253. Lameth, Assemblee Constituante, i. (Introd.) p. 89.) - -Parlements therefore shall return from exile: Plenary Court, Payment two- -fifths in Paper have vanished; gone off in smoke, at the foot of Henri's -Statue. States-General (with a Political Millennium) are now certain; nay, -it shall be announced, in our fond haste, for January next: and all, as -the Langres man said, is 'going to go.' - -To the prophetic glance of Besenval, one other thing is too apparent: that -Friend Lamoignon cannot keep his Keepership. Neither he nor War-minister -Comte de Brienne! Already old Foulon, with an eye to be war-minister -himself, is making underground movements. This is that same Foulon named -ame damnee du Parlement; a man grown gray in treachery, in griping, -projecting, intriguing and iniquity: who once when it was objected, to -some finance-scheme of his, "What will the people do?"--made answer, in the -fire of discussion, "The people may eat grass:" hasty words, which fly -abroad irrevocable,--and will send back tidings! - -Foulon, to the relief of the world, fails on this occasion; and will always -fail. Nevertheless it steads not M. de Lamoignon. It steads not the -doomed man that he have interviews with the King; and be 'seen to return -radieux,' emitting rays. Lamoignon is the hated of Parlements: Comte de -Brienne is Brother to the Cardinal Archbishop. The 24th of August has -been; and the 14th September is not yet, when they two, as their great -Principal had done, descend,--made to fall soft, like him. - -And now, as if the last burden had been rolled from its heart, and -assurance were at length perfect, Paris bursts forth anew into extreme -jubilee. The Basoche rejoices aloud, that the foe of Parlements is fallen; -Nobility, Gentry, Commonalty have rejoiced; and rejoice. Nay now, with new -emphasis, Rascality itself, starting suddenly from its dim depths, will -arise and do it,--for down even thither the new Political Evangel, in some -rude version or other, has penetrated. It is Monday, the 14th of September -1788: Rascality assembles anew, in great force, in the Place Dauphine; -lets off petards, fires blunderbusses, to an incredible extent, without -interval, for eighteen hours. There is again a wicker Figure, 'Mannequin -of osier:' the centre of endless howlings. Also Necker's Portrait -snatched, or purchased, from some Printshop, is borne processionally, aloft -on a perch, with huzzas;--an example to be remembered. - -But chiefly on the Pont Neuf, where the Great Henri, in bronze, rides -sublime; there do the crowds gather. All passengers must stop, till they -have bowed to the People's King, and said audibly: Vive Henri Quatre; au -diable Lamoignon! No carriage but must stop; not even that of his Highness -d'Orleans. Your coach-doors are opened: Monsieur will please to put forth -his head and bow; or even, if refractory, to alight altogether, and kneel: -from Madame a wave of her plumes, a smile of her fair face, there where she -sits, shall suffice;--and surely a coin or two (to buy fusees) were not -unreasonable from the Upper Classes, friends of Liberty? In this manner it -proceeds for days; in such rude horse-play,--not without kicks. The City- -watch can do nothing; hardly save its own skin: for the last twelve-month, -as we have sometimes seen, it has been a kind of pastime to hunt the Watch. -Besenval indeed is at hand with soldiers; but they have orders to avoid -firing, and are not prompt to stir. - -On Monday morning the explosion of petards began: and now it is near -midnight of Wednesday; and the 'wicker Mannequin' is to be buried,-- -apparently in the Antique fashion. Long rows of torches, following it, -move towards the Hotel Lamoignon; but 'a servant of mine' (Besenval's) has -run to give warning, and there are soldiers come. Gloomy Lamoignon is not -to die by conflagration, or this night; not yet for a year, and then by -gunshot (suicidal or accidental is unknown). (Histoire de la Revolution, -par Deux Amis de la Liberte, i. 50.) Foiled Rascality burns its 'Mannikin -of osier,' under his windows; 'tears up the sentry-box,' and rolls off: to -try Brienne; to try Dubois Captain of the Watch. Now, however, all is -bestirring itself; Gardes Francaises, Invalides, Horse-patrol: the Torch -Procession is met with sharp shot, with the thrusting of bayonets, the -slashing of sabres. Even Dubois makes a charge, with that Cavalry of his, -and the cruelest charge of all: 'there are a great many killed and -wounded.' Not without clangour, complaint; subsequent criminal trials, and -official persons dying of heartbreak! (Histoire de la Revolution, par Deux -Amis de la Liberte, i. 58.) So, however, with steel-besom, Rascality is -brushed back into its dim depths, and the streets are swept clear. - -Not for a century and half had Rascality ventured to step forth in this -fashion; not for so long, showed its huge rude lineaments in the light of -day. A Wonder and new Thing: as yet gamboling merely, in awkward -Brobdingnag sport, not without quaintness; hardly in anger: yet in its -huge half-vacant laugh lurks a shade of grimness,--which could unfold -itself! - -However, the thinkers invited by Lomenie are now far on with their -pamphlets: States-General, on one plan or another, will infallibly meet; -if not in January, as was once hoped, yet at latest in May. Old Duke de -Richelieu, moribund in these autumn days, opens his eyes once more, -murmuring, "What would Louis Fourteenth" (whom he remembers) "have said!"-- -then closes them again, forever, before the evil time. - - - - -BOOK 1.IV. - -STATES-GENERAL - - -Chapter 1.4.I. - -The Notables Again. - -The universal prayer, therefore, is to be fulfilled! Always in days of -national perplexity, when wrong abounded and help was not, this remedy of -States-General was called for; by a Malesherbes, nay by a Fenelon; -(Montgaillard, i. 461.) even Parlements calling for it were 'escorted with -blessings.' And now behold it is vouchsafed us; States-General shall -verily be! - -To say, let States-General be, was easy; to say in what manner they shall -be, is not so easy. Since the year of 1614, there have no States-General -met in France, all trace of them has vanished from the living habits of -men. Their structure, powers, methods of procedure, which were never in -any measure fixed, have now become wholly a vague possibility. Clay which -the potter may shape, this way or that:--say rather, the twenty-five -millions of potters; for so many have now, more or less, a vote in it! How -to shape the States-General? There is a problem. Each Body-corporate, -each privileged, each organised Class has secret hopes of its own in that -matter; and also secret misgivings of its own,--for, behold, this monstrous -twenty-million Class, hitherto the dumb sheep which these others had to -agree about the manner of shearing, is now also arising with hopes! It has -ceased or is ceasing to be dumb; it speaks through Pamphlets, or at least -brays and growls behind them, in unison,--increasing wonderfully their -volume of sound. - -As for the Parlement of Paris, it has at once declared for the 'old form of -1614.' Which form had this advantage, that the Tiers Etat, Third Estate, -or Commons, figured there as a show mainly: whereby the Noblesse and -Clergy had but to avoid quarrel between themselves, and decide unobstructed -what they thought best. Such was the clearly declared opinion of the Paris -Parlement. But, being met by a storm of mere hooting and howling from all -men, such opinion was blown straightway to the winds; and the popularity of -the Parlement along with it,--never to return. The Parlements part, we -said above, was as good as played. Concerning which, however, there is -this further to be noted: the proximity of dates. It was on the 22nd of -September that the Parlement returned from 'vacation' or 'exile in its -estates;' to be reinstalled amid boundless jubilee from all Paris. -Precisely next day it was, that this same Parlement came to its 'clearly -declared opinion:' and then on the morrow after that, you behold it -covered with outrages;' its outer court, one vast sibilation, and the glory -departed from it for evermore. (Weber, i. 347.) A popularity of twenty- -four hours was, in those times, no uncommon allowance. - -On the other hand, how superfluous was that invitation of Lomenie's: the -invitation to thinkers! Thinkers and unthinkers, by the million, are -spontaneously at their post, doing what is in them. Clubs labour: Societe -Publicole; Breton Club; Enraged Club, Club des Enrages. Likewise Dinner- -parties in the Palais Royal; your Mirabeaus, Talleyrands dining there, in -company with Chamforts, Morellets, with Duponts and hot Parlementeers, not -without object! For a certain Neckerean Lion's-provider, whom one could -name, assembles them there; (Ibid. i. 360.)--or even their own private -determination to have dinner does it. And then as to Pamphlets--in -figurative language; 'it is a sheer snowing of pamphlets; like to snow up -the Government thoroughfares!' Now is the time for Friends of Freedom; -sane, and even insane. - -Count, or self-styled Count, d'Aintrigues, 'the young Languedocian -gentleman,' with perhaps Chamfort the Cynic to help him, rises into furor -almost Pythic; highest, where many are high. (Memoire sur les Etats- -Generaux. See Montgaillard, i. 457-9.) Foolish young Languedocian -gentleman; who himself so soon, 'emigrating among the foremost,' must fly -indignant over the marches, with the Contrat Social in his pocket,--towards -outer darkness, thankless intriguings, ignis-fatuus hoverings, and death by -the stiletto! Abbe Sieyes has left Chartres Cathedral, and canonry and -book-shelves there; has let his tonsure grow, and come to Paris with a -secular head, of the most irrefragable sort, to ask three questions, and -answer them: What is the Third Estate? All.--What has it hitherto been in -our form of government? Nothing.--What does it want? To become Something. - -D'Orleans,--for be sure he, on his way to Chaos, is in the thick of this,-- -promulgates his Deliberations; (Deliberations a prendre pour les Assemblees -des Bailliages.) fathered by him, written by Laclos of the Liaisons -Dangereuses. The result of which comes out simply: 'The Third Estate is -the Nation.' On the other hand, Monseigneur d'Artois, with other Princes -of the Blood, publishes, in solemn Memorial to the King, that if such -things be listened to, Privilege, Nobility, Monarchy, Church, State and -Strongbox are in danger. (Memoire presente au Roi, par Monseigneur Comte -d'Artois, M. le Prince de Conde, M. le Duc de Bourbon, M. le Duc d'Enghien, -et M. le Prince de Conti. (Given in Hist. Parl. i. 256.)) In danger -truly: and yet if you do not listen, are they out of danger? It is the -voice of all France, this sound that rises. Immeasurable, manifold; as the -sound of outbreaking waters: wise were he who knew what to do in it,--if -not to fly to the mountains, and hide himself? - -How an ideal, all-seeing Versailles Government, sitting there on such -principles, in such an environment, would have determined to demean itself -at this new juncture, may even yet be a question. Such a Government would -have felt too well that its long task was now drawing to a close; that, -under the guise of these States-General, at length inevitable, a new -omnipotent Unknown of Democracy was coming into being; in presence of which -no Versailles Government either could or should, except in a provisory -character, continue extant. To enact which provisory character, so -unspeakably important, might its whole faculties but have sufficed; and so -a peaceable, gradual, well-conducted Abdication and Domine-dimittas have -been the issue! - -This for our ideal, all-seeing Versailles Government. But for the actual -irrational Versailles Government? Alas, that is a Government existing -there only for its own behoof: without right, except possession; and now -also without might. It foresees nothing, sees nothing; has not so much as -a purpose, but has only purposes,--and the instinct whereby all that exists -will struggle to keep existing. Wholly a vortex; in which vain counsels, -hallucinations, falsehoods, intrigues, and imbecilities whirl; like -withered rubbish in the meeting of winds! The Oeil-de-Boeuf has its -irrational hopes, if also its fears. Since hitherto all States-General -have done as good as nothing, why should these do more? The Commons, -indeed, look dangerous; but on the whole is not revolt, unknown now for -five generations, an impossibility? The Three Estates can, by management, -be set against each other; the Third will, as heretofore, join with the -King; will, out of mere spite and self-interest, be eager to tax and vex -the other two. The other two are thus delivered bound into our hands, that -we may fleece them likewise. Whereupon, money being got, and the Three -Estates all in quarrel, dismiss them, and let the future go as it can! As -good Archbishop Lomenie was wont to say: "There are so many accidents; and -it needs but one to save us."--How many to destroy us? - -Poor Necker in the midst of such an anarchy does what is possible for him. -He looks into it with obstinately hopeful face; lauds the known rectitude -of the kingly mind; listens indulgent-like to the known perverseness of the -queenly and courtly;--emits if any proclamation or regulation, one -favouring the Tiers Etat; but settling nothing; hovering afar off rather, -and advising all things to settle themselves. The grand questions, for the -present, have got reduced to two: the Double Representation, and the Vote -by Head. Shall the Commons have a 'double representation,' that is to say, -have as many members as the Noblesse and Clergy united? Shall the States- -General, when once assembled, vote and deliberate, in one body, or in three -separate bodies; 'vote by head, or vote by class,'--ordre as they call it? -These are the moot-points now filling all France with jargon, logic and -eleutheromania. To terminate which, Necker bethinks him, Might not a -second Convocation of the Notables be fittest? Such second Convocation is -resolved on. - -On the 6th of November of this year 1788, these Notables accordingly have -reassembled; after an interval of some eighteen months. They are Calonne's -old Notables, the same Hundred and Forty-four,--to show one's impartiality; -likewise to save time. They sit there once again, in their Seven Bureaus, -in the hard winter weather: it is the hardest winter seen since 1709; -thermometer below zero of Fahrenheit, Seine River frozen over. (Marmontel, -Memoires (London, 1805), iv. 33. Hist. Parl, &c.) Cold, scarcity and -eleutheromaniac clamour: a changed world since these Notables were -'organed out,' in May gone a year! They shall see now whether, under their -Seven Princes of the Blood, in their Seven Bureaus, they can settle the -moot-points. - -To the surprise of Patriotism, these Notables, once so patriotic, seem to -incline the wrong way; towards the anti-patriotic side. They stagger at -the Double Representation, at the Vote by Head: there is not affirmative -decision; there is mere debating, and that not with the best aspects. For, -indeed, were not these Notables themselves mostly of the Privileged -Classes? They clamoured once; now they have their misgivings; make their -dolorous representations. Let them vanish, ineffectual; and return no -more! They vanish after a month's session, on this 12th of December, year -1788: the last terrestrial Notables, not to reappear any other time, in -the History of the World. - -And so, the clamour still continuing, and the Pamphlets; and nothing but -patriotic Addresses, louder and louder, pouting in on us from all corners -of France,--Necker himself some fortnight after, before the year is yet -done, has to present his Report, (Rapport fait au Roi dans son Conseil, le -27 Decembre 1788.) recommending at his own risk that same Double -Representation; nay almost enjoining it, so loud is the jargon and -eleutheromania. What dubitating, what circumambulating! These whole six -noisy months (for it began with Brienne in July,) has not Report followed -Report, and one Proclamation flown in the teeth of the other? (5th July; -8th August; 23rd September, &c. &c.) - -However, that first moot-point, as we see, is now settled. As for the -second, that of voting by Head or by Order, it unfortunately is still left -hanging. It hangs there, we may say, between the Privileged Orders and the -Unprivileged; as a ready-made battle-prize, and necessity of war, from the -very first: which battle-prize whosoever seizes it--may thenceforth bear -as battle-flag, with the best omens! - -But so, at least, by Royal Edict of the 24th of January, (Reglement du Roi -pour la Convocation des Etats-Generaux a Versailles. (Reprinted, wrong -dated, in Histoire Parlementaire, i. 262.)) does it finally, to impatient -expectant France, become not only indubitable that National Deputies are to -meet, but possible (so far and hardly farther has the royal Regulation -gone) to begin electing them. - - - -Chapter 1.4.II. - -The Election. - -Up, then, and be doing! The royal signal-word flies through France, as -through vast forests the rushing of a mighty wind. At Parish Churches, in -Townhalls, and every House of Convocation; by Bailliages, by Seneschalsies, -in whatsoever form men convene; there, with confusion enough, are Primary -Assemblies forming. To elect your Electors; such is the form prescribed: -then to draw up your 'Writ of Plaints and Grievances (Cahier de plaintes et -doleances),' of which latter there is no lack. - -With such virtue works this Royal January Edict; as it rolls rapidly, in -its leathern mails, along these frostbound highways, towards all the four -winds. Like some fiat, or magic spell-word;--which such things do -resemble! For always, as it sounds out 'at the market-cross,' accompanied -with trumpet-blast; presided by Bailli, Seneschal, or other minor -Functionary, with beef-eaters; or, in country churches is droned forth -after sermon, 'au prone des messes paroissales;' and is registered, posted -and let fly over all the world,--you behold how this multitudinous French -People, so long simmering and buzzing in eager expectancy, begins heaping -and shaping itself into organic groups. Which organic groups, again, hold -smaller organic grouplets: the inarticulate buzzing becomes articulate -speaking and acting. By Primary Assembly, and then by Secondary; by -'successive elections,' and infinite elaboration and scrutiny, according to -prescribed process--shall the genuine 'Plaints and Grievances' be at length -got to paper; shall the fit National Representative be at length laid hold -of. - -How the whole People shakes itself, as if it had one life; and, in -thousand-voiced rumour, announces that it is awake, suddenly out of long -death-sleep, and will thenceforth sleep no more! The long looked-for has -come at last; wondrous news, of Victory, Deliverance, Enfranchisement, -sounds magical through every heart. To the proud strong man it has come; -whose strong hands shall no more be gyved; to whom boundless unconquered -continents lie disclosed. The weary day-drudge has heard of it; the beggar -with his crusts moistened in tears. What! To us also has hope reached; -down even to us? Hunger and hardship are not to be eternal? The bread we -extorted from the rugged glebe, and, with the toil of our sinews, reaped -and ground, and kneaded into loaves, was not wholly for another, then; but -we also shall eat of it, and be filled? Glorious news (answer the prudent -elders), but all-too unlikely!--Thus, at any rate, may the lower people, -who pay no money-taxes and have no right to vote, (Reglement du Roi (in -Histoire Parlementaire, as above, i. 267-307.) assiduously crowd round -those that do; and most Halls of Assembly, within doors and without, seem -animated enough. - -Paris, alone of Towns, is to have Representatives; the number of them -twenty. Paris is divided into Sixty Districts; each of which (assembled in -some church, or the like) is choosing two Electors. Official deputations -pass from District to District, for all is inexperience as yet, and there -is endless consulting. The streets swarm strangely with busy crowds, -pacific yet restless and loquacious; at intervals, is seen the gleam of -military muskets; especially about the Palais, where Parlement, once more -on duty, sits querulous, almost tremulous. - -Busy is the French world! In those great days, what poorest speculative -craftsman but will leave his workshop; if not to vote, yet to assist in -voting? On all highways is a rustling and bustling. Over the wide surface -of France, ever and anon, through the spring months, as the Sower casts his -corn abroad upon the furrows, sounds of congregating and dispersing; of -crowds in deliberation, acclamation, voting by ballot and by voice,--rise -discrepant towards the ear of Heaven. To which political phenomena add -this economical one, that Trade is stagnant, and also Bread getting dear; -for before the rigorous winter there was, as we said, a rigorous summer, -with drought, and on the 13th of July with destructive hail. What a -fearful day! all cried while that tempest fell. Alas, the next anniversary -of it will be a worse. (Bailly, Memoires, i. 336.) Under such aspects is -France electing National Representatives. - -The incidents and specialties of these Elections belong not to Universal, -but to Local or Parish History: for which reason let not the new troubles -of Grenoble or Besancon; the bloodshed on the streets of Rennes, and -consequent march thither of the Breton 'Young Men' with Manifesto by their -'Mothers, Sisters and Sweethearts;' (Protestation et Arrete des Jeunes Gens -de la Ville de Nantes, du 28 Janvier 1789, avant leur depart pour Rennes. -Arrete des Jeunes Gens de la Ville d'Angers, du 4 Fevrier 1789. Arrete des -Meres, Soeurs, Epouses et Amantes des Jeunes Citoyens d'Angers, du 6 -Fevrier 1789. (Reprinted in Histoire Parlementaire, i. 290-3.)) nor -suchlike, detain us here. It is the same sad history everywhere; with -superficial variations. A reinstated Parlement (as at Besancon), which -stands astonished at this Behemoth of a States-General it had itself -evoked, starts forward, with more or less audacity, to fix a thorn in its -nose; and, alas, is instantaneously struck down, and hurled quite out,--for -the new popular force can use not only arguments but brickbats! Or else, -and perhaps combined with this, it is an order of Noblesse (as in -Brittany), which will beforehand tie up the Third Estate, that it harm not -the old privileges. In which act of tying up, never so skilfully set -about, there is likewise no possibility of prospering; but the Behemoth- -Briareus snaps your cords like green rushes. Tie up? Alas, Messieurs! -And then, as for your chivalry rapiers, valour and wager-of-battle, think -one moment, how can that answer? The plebeian heart too has red life in -it, which changes not to paleness at glance even of you; and 'the six -hundred Breton gentlemen assembled in arms, for seventy-two hours, in the -Cordeliers' Cloister, at Rennes,'--have to come out again, wiser than they -entered. For the Nantes Youth, the Angers Youth, all Brittany was astir; -'mothers, sisters and sweethearts' shrieking after them, March! The Breton -Noblesse must even let the mad world have its way. (Hist. Parl. i. 287. -Deux Amis de la Liberte, i. 105-128.) - -In other Provinces, the Noblesse, with equal goodwill, finds it better to -stick to Protests, to well-redacted 'Cahiers of grievances,' and satirical -writings and speeches. Such is partially their course in Provence; whither -indeed Gabriel Honore Riquetti Comte de Mirabeau has rushed down from -Paris, to speak a word in season. In Provence, the Privileged, backed by -their Aix Parlement, discover that such novelties, enjoined though they be -by Royal Edict, tend to National detriment; and what is still more -indisputable, 'to impair the dignity of the Noblesse.' Whereupon Mirabeau -protesting aloud, this same Noblesse, amid huge tumult within doors and -without, flatly determines to expel him from their Assembly. No other -method, not even that of successive duels, would answer with him, the -obstreperous fierce-glaring man. Expelled he accordingly is. - -'In all countries, in all times,' exclaims he departing, 'the Aristocrats -have implacably pursued every friend of the People; and with tenfold -implacability, if such a one were himself born of the Aristocracy. It was -thus that the last of the Gracchi perished, by the hands of the Patricians. -But he, being struck with the mortal stab, flung dust towards heaven, and -called on the Avenging Deities; and from this dust there was born Marius,-- -Marius not so illustrious for exterminating the Cimbri, as for overturning -in Rome the tyranny of the Nobles.' (Fils Adoptif, v. 256.) Casting up -which new curious handful of dust (through the Printing-press), to breed -what it can and may, Mirabeau stalks forth into the Third Estate. - -That he now, to ingratiate himself with this Third Estate, 'opened a cloth- -shop in Marseilles,' and for moments became a furnishing tailor, or even -the fable that he did so, is to us always among the pleasant memorabilities -of this era. Stranger Clothier never wielded the ell-wand, and rent webs -for men, or fractional parts of men. The Fils Adoptif is indignant at such -disparaging fable, (Memoires de Mirabeau, v. 307.)--which nevertheless was -widely believed in those days. (Marat, Ami-du-Peuple Newspaper (in -Histoire Parlementaire, ii. 103), &c.) But indeed, if Achilles, in the -heroic ages, killed mutton, why should not Mirabeau, in the unheroic ones, -measure broadcloth? - -More authentic are his triumph-progresses through that disturbed district, -with mob jubilee, flaming torches, 'windows hired for two louis,' and -voluntary guard of a hundred men. He is Deputy Elect, both of Aix and of -Marseilles; but will prefer Aix. He has opened his far-sounding voice, the -depths of his far-sounding soul; he can quell (such virtue is in a spoken -word) the pride-tumults of the rich, the hunger-tumults of the poor; and -wild multitudes move under him, as under the moon do billows of the sea: -he has become a world compeller, and ruler over men. - -One other incident and specialty we note; with how different an interest! -It is of the Parlement of Paris; which starts forward, like the others -(only with less audacity, seeing better how it lay), to nose-ring that -Behemoth of a States-General. Worthy Doctor Guillotin, respectable -practitioner in Paris, has drawn up his little 'Plan of a Cahier of -doleances;'--as had he not, having the wish and gift, the clearest liberty -to do? He is getting the people to sign it; whereupon the surly Parlement -summons him to give an account of himself. He goes; but with all Paris at -his heels; which floods the outer courts, and copiously signs the Cahier -even there, while the Doctor is giving account of himself within! The -Parlement cannot too soon dismiss Guillotin, with compliments; to be borne -home shoulder-high. (Deux Amis de la Liberte, i. 141.) This respectable -Guillotin we hope to behold once more, and perhaps only once; the Parlement -not even once, but let it be engulphed unseen by us. - -Meanwhile such things, cheering as they are, tend little to cheer the -national creditor, or indeed the creditor of any kind. In the midst of -universal portentous doubt, what certainty can seem so certain as money in -the purse, and the wisdom of keeping it there? Trading Speculation, -Commerce of all kinds, has as far as possible come to a dead pause; and the -hand of the industrious lies idle in his bosom. Frightful enough, when now -the rigour of seasons has also done its part, and to scarcity of work is -added scarcity of food! In the opening spring, there come rumours of -forestalment, there come King's Edicts, Petitions of bakers against -millers; and at length, in the month of April--troops of ragged Lackalls, -and fierce cries of starvation! These are the thrice-famed Brigands: an -actual existing quotity of persons: who, long reflected and reverberated -through so many millions of heads, as in concave multiplying mirrors, -become a whole Brigand World; and, like a kind of Supernatural Machinery -wondrously move the Epos of the Revolution. The Brigands are here: the -Brigands are there; the Brigands are coming! Not otherwise sounded the -clang of Phoebus Apollos's silver bow, scattering pestilence and pale -terror; for this clang too was of the imagination; preternatural; and it -too walked in formless immeasurability, having made itself like to the -Night (Greek.)! - -But remark at least, for the first time, the singular empire of Suspicion, -in those lands, in those days. If poor famishing men shall, prior to -death, gather in groups and crowds, as the poor fieldfares and plovers do -in bitter weather, were it but that they may chirp mournfully together, and -misery look in the eyes of misery; if famishing men (what famishing -fieldfares cannot do) should discover, once congregated, that they need not -die while food is in the land, since they are many, and with empty wallets -have right hands: in all this, what need were there of Preternatural -Machinery? To most people none; but not to French people, in a time of -Revolution. These Brigands (as Turgot's also were, fourteen years ago) -have all been set on; enlisted, though without tuck of drum,--by -Aristocrats, by Democrats, by D'Orleans, D'Artois, and enemies of the -public weal. Nay Historians, to this day, will prove it by one argument: -these Brigands pretending to have no victual, nevertheless contrive to -drink, nay, have been seen drunk. (Lacretelle, 18me Siecle, ii. 155.) An -unexampled fact! But on the whole, may we not predict that a people, with -such a width of Credulity and of Incredulity (the proper union of which -makes Suspicion, and indeed unreason generally), will see Shapes enough of -Immortals fighting in its battle-ranks, and never want for Epical -Machinery? - -Be this as it may, the Brigands are clearly got to Paris, in considerable -multitudes: (Besenval, iii. 385, &c.) with sallow faces, lank hair (the -true enthusiast complexion), with sooty rags; and also with large clubs, -which they smite angrily against the pavement! These mingle in the -Election tumult; would fain sign Guillotin's Cahier, or any Cahier or -Petition whatsoever, could they but write. Their enthusiast complexion, -the smiting of their sticks bodes little good to any one; least of all to -rich master-manufacturers of the Suburb Saint-Antoine, with whose workmen -they consort. - - - -Chapter 1.4.III. - -Grown Electric. - -But now also National Deputies from all ends of France are in Paris, with -their commissions, what they call pouvoirs, or powers, in their pockets; -inquiring, consulting; looking out for lodgings at Versailles. The States- -General shall open there, if not on the First, then surely on the Fourth of -May, in grand procession and gala. The Salle des Menus is all new- -carpentered, bedizened for them; their very costume has been fixed; a grand -controversy which there was, as to 'slouch-hats or slouched-hats,' for the -Commons Deputies, has got as good as adjusted. Ever new strangers arrive; -loungers, miscellaneous persons, officers on furlough,--as the worthy -Captain Dampmartin, whom we hope to be acquainted with: these also, from -all regions, have repaired hither, to see what is toward. Our Paris -Committees, of the Sixty Districts, are busier than ever; it is now too -clear, the Paris Elections will be late. - -On Monday, the 27th of April, Astronomer Bailly notices that the Sieur -Reveillon is not at his post. The Sieur Reveillon, 'extensive Paper -Manufacturer of the Rue St. Antoine;' he, commonly so punctual, is absent -from the Electoral Committee;--and even will never reappear there. In -those 'immense Magazines of velvet paper' has aught befallen? Alas, yes! -Alas, it is no Montgolfier rising there to-day; but Drudgery, Rascality and -the Suburb that is rising! Was the Sieur Reveillon, himself once a -journeyman, heard to say that 'a journeyman might live handsomely on -fifteen sous a-day?' Some sevenpence halfpenny: 'tis a slender sum! Or -was he only thought, and believed, to be heard saying it? By this long -chafing and friction it would appear the National temper has got electric. - -Down in those dark dens, in those dark heads and hungry hearts, who knows -in what strange figure the new Political Evangel may have shaped itself; -what miraculous 'Communion of Drudges' may be getting formed! Enough: -grim individuals, soon waxing to grim multitudes, and other multitudes -crowding to see, beset that Paper-Warehouse; demonstrate, in loud -ungrammatical language (addressed to the passions too), the insufficiency -of sevenpence halfpenny a-day. The City-watch cannot dissipate them; -broils arise and bellowings; Reveillon, at his wits' end, entreats the -Populace, entreats the authorities. Besenval, now in active command, -Commandant of Paris, does, towards evening, to Reveillon's earnest prayer, -send some thirty Gardes Francaises. These clear the street, happily -without firing; and take post there for the night in hope that it may be -all over. (Besenval, iii. 385-8.) - -Not so: on the morrow it is far worse. Saint-Antoine has arisen anew, -grimmer than ever;--reinforced by the unknown Tatterdemalion Figures, with -their enthusiast complexion and large sticks. The City, through all -streets, is flowing thitherward to see: 'two cartloads of paving-stones, -that happened to pass that way' have been seized as a visible godsend. -Another detachment of Gardes Francaises must be sent; Besenval and the -Colonel taking earnest counsel. Then still another; they hardly, with -bayonets and menace of bullets, penetrate to the spot. What a sight! A -street choked up, with lumber, tumult and the endless press of men. A -Paper-Warehouse eviscerated by axe and fire: mad din of Revolt; musket- -volleys responded to by yells, by miscellaneous missiles; by tiles raining -from roof and window,--tiles, execrations and slain men! - -The Gardes Francaises like it not, but have to persevere. All day it -continues, slackening and rallying; the sun is sinking, and Saint-Antoine -has not yielded. The City flies hither and thither: alas, the sound of -that musket-volleying booms into the far dining-rooms of the Chaussee -d'Antin; alters the tone of the dinner-gossip there. Captain Dampmartin -leaves his wine; goes out with a friend or two, to see the fighting. -Unwashed men growl on him, with murmurs of "A bas les Aristocrates (Down -with the Aristocrats);" and insult the cross of St. Louis? They elbow him, -and hustle him; but do not pick his pocket;--as indeed at Reveillon's too -there was not the slightest stealing. (Evenemens qui se sont passes sous -mes yeux pendant la Revolution Francaise, par A. H. Dampmartin (Berlin, -1799), i. 25-27.) - -At fall of night, as the thing will not end, Besenval takes his resolution: -orders out the Gardes Suisses with two pieces of artillery. The Swiss -Guards shall proceed thither; summon that rabble to depart, in the King's -name. If disobeyed, they shall load their artillery with grape-shot, -visibly to the general eye; shall again summon; if again disobeyed, fire,-- -and keep firing 'till the last man' be in this manner blasted off, and the -street clear. With which spirited resolution, as might have been hoped, -the business is got ended. At sight of the lit matches, of the foreign -red-coated Switzers, Saint-Antoine dissipates; hastily, in the shades of -dusk. There is an encumbered street; there are 'from four to five hundred' -dead men. Unfortunate Reveillon has found shelter in the Bastille; does -therefrom, safe behind stone bulwarks, issue, plaint, protestation, -explanation, for the next month. Bold Besenval has thanks from all the -respectable Parisian classes; but finds no special notice taken of him at -Versailles,--a thing the man of true worth is used to. (Besenval, iii. -389.) - -But how it originated, this fierce electric sputter and explosion? From -D'Orleans! cries the Court-party: he, with his gold, enlisted these -Brigands,--surely in some surprising manner, without sound of drum: he -raked them in hither, from all corners; to ferment and take fire; evil is -his good. From the Court! cries enlightened Patriotism: it is the cursed -gold and wiles of Aristocrats that enlisted them; set them upon ruining an -innocent Sieur Reveillon; to frighten the faint, and disgust men with the -career of Freedom. - -Besenval, with reluctance, concludes that it came from 'the English, our -natural enemies.' Or, alas, might not one rather attribute it to Diana in -the shape of Hunger? To some twin Dioscuri, OPPRESSION and REVENGE; so -often seen in the battles of men? Poor Lackalls, all betoiled, besoiled, -encrusted into dim defacement; into whom nevertheless the breath of the -Almighty has breathed a living soul! To them it is clear only that -eleutheromaniac Philosophism has yet baked no bread; that Patrioti -Committee-men will level down to their own level, and no lower. Brigands, -or whatever they might be, it was bitter earnest with them. They bury -their dead with the title of Defenseurs de la Patrie, Martyrs of the good -Cause. - -Or shall we say: Insurrection has now served its Apprenticeship; and this -was its proof-stroke, and no inconclusive one? Its next will be a master- -stroke; announcing indisputable Mastership to a whole astonished world. -Let that rock-fortress, Tyranny's stronghold, which they name Bastille, or -Building, as if there were no other building,--look to its guns! - -But, in such wise, with primary and secondary Assemblies, and Cahiers of -Grievances; with motions, congregations of all kinds; with much thunder of -froth-eloquence, and at last with thunder of platoon-musquetry,--does -agitated France accomplish its Elections. With confused winnowing and -sifting, in this rather tumultuous manner, it has now (all except some -remnants of Paris) sifted out the true wheat-grains of National Deputies, -Twelve Hundred and Fourteen in number; and will forthwith open its States- -General. - - - -Chapter 1.4.IV. - -The Procession. - -On the first Saturday of May, it is gala at Versailles; and Monday, fourth -of the month, is to be a still greater day. The Deputies have mostly got -thither, and sought out lodgings; and are now successively, in long well- -ushered files, kissing the hand of Majesty in the Chateau. Supreme Usher -de Breze does not give the highest satisfaction: we cannot but observe -that in ushering Noblesse or Clergy into the anointed Presence, he -liberally opens both his folding-doors; and on the other hand, for members -of the Third Estate opens only one! However, there is room to enter; -Majesty has smiles for all. - -The good Louis welcomes his Honourable Members, with smiles of hope. He -has prepared for them the Hall of Menus, the largest near him; and often -surveyed the workmen as they went on. A spacious Hall: with raised -platform for Throne, Court and Blood-royal; space for six hundred Commons -Deputies in front; for half as many Clergy on this hand, and half as many -Noblesse on that. It has lofty galleries; wherefrom dames of honour, -splendent in gaze d'or; foreign Diplomacies, and other gilt-edged white- -frilled individuals to the number of two thousand,--may sit and look. -Broad passages flow through it; and, outside the inner wall, all round it. -There are committee-rooms, guard-rooms, robing-rooms: really a noble Hall; -where upholstery, aided by the subject fine-arts, has done its best; and -crimson tasseled cloths, and emblematic fleurs-de-lys are not wanting. - -The Hall is ready: the very costume, as we said, has been settled; and the -Commons are not to wear that hated slouch-hat (chapeau clabaud), but one -not quite so slouched (chapeau rabattu). As for their manner of working, -when all dressed: for their 'voting by head or by order' and the rest,-- -this, which it were perhaps still time to settle, and in few hours will be -no longer time, remains unsettled; hangs dubious in the breast of Twelve -Hundred men. - -But now finally the Sun, on Monday the 4th of May, has risen;--unconcerned, -as if it were no special day. And yet, as his first rays could strike -music from the Memnon's Statue on the Nile, what tones were these, so -thrilling, tremulous of preparation and foreboding, which he awoke in every -bosom at Versailles! Huge Paris, in all conceivable and inconceivable -vehicles, is pouring itself forth; from each Town and Village come -subsidiary rills; Versailles is a very sea of men. But above all, from the -Church of St. Louis to the Church of Notre-Dame: one vast suspended-billow -of Life,--with spray scattered even to the chimney-pots! For on chimney- -tops too, as over the roofs, and up thitherwards on every lamp-iron, sign- -post, breakneck coign of vantage, sits patriotic Courage; and every window -bursts with patriotic Beauty: for the Deputies are gathering at St. Louis -Church; to march in procession to Notre-Dame, and hear sermon. - -Yes, friends, ye may sit and look: boldly or in thought, all France, and -all Europe, may sit and look; for it is a day like few others. Oh, one -might weep like Xerxes:--So many serried rows sit perched there; like -winged creatures, alighted out of Heaven: all these, and so many more that -follow them, shall have wholly fled aloft again, vanishing into the blue -Deep; and the memory of this day still be fresh. It is the baptism-day of -Democracy; sick Time has given it birth, the numbered months being run. -The extreme-unction day of Feudalism! A superannuated System of Society, -decrepit with toils (for has it not done much; produced you, and what ye -have and know!)--and with thefts and brawls, named glorious-victories; and -with profligacies, sensualities, and on the whole with dotage and -senility,--is now to die: and so, with death-throes and birth-throes, a -new one is to be born. What a work, O Earth and Heavens, what a work! -Battles and bloodshed, September Massacres, Bridges of Lodi, retreats of -Moscow, Waterloos, Peterloos, Tenpound Franchises, Tarbarrels and -Guillotines;--and from this present date, if one might prophesy, some two -centuries of it still to fight! Two centuries; hardly less; before -Democracy go through its due, most baleful, stages of Quackocracy; and a -pestilential World be burnt up, and have begun to grow green and young -again. - -Rejoice nevertheless, ye Versailles multitudes; to you, from whom all this -is hid, and glorious end of it is visible. This day, sentence of death is -pronounced on Shams; judgment of resuscitation, were it but far off, is -pronounced on Realities. This day it is declared aloud, as with a Doom- -trumpet, that a Lie is unbelievable. Believe that, stand by that, if more -there be not; and let what thing or things soever will follow it follow. -'Ye can no other; God be your help!' So spake a greater than any of you; -opening his Chapter of World-History. - -Behold, however! The doors of St. Louis Church flung wide; and the -Procession of Processions advancing towards Notre-Dame! Shouts rend the -air; one shout, at which Grecian birds might drop dead. It is indeed a -stately, solemn sight. The Elected of France, and then the Court of -France; they are marshalled and march there, all in prescribed place and -costume. Our Commons 'in plain black mantle and white cravat;' Noblesse, -in gold-worked, bright-dyed cloaks of velvet, resplendent, rustling with -laces, waving with plumes; the Clergy in rochet, alb, or other best -pontificalibus: lastly comes the King himself, and King's Household, also -in their brightest blaze of pomp,--their brightest and final one. Some -Fourteen Hundred Men blown together from all winds, on the deepest errand. - -Yes, in that silent marching mass there lies Futurity enough. No symbolic -Ark, like the old Hebrews, do these men bear: yet with them too is a -Covenant; they too preside at a new Era in the History of Men. The whole -Future is there, and Destiny dim-brooding over it; in the hearts and -unshaped thoughts of these men, it lies illegible, inevitable. Singular to -think: they have it in them; yet not they, not mortal, only the Eye above -can read it,--as it shall unfold itself, in fire and thunder, of siege, and -field-artillery; in the rustling of battle-banners, the tramp of hosts, in -the glow of burning cities, the shriek of strangled nations! Such things -lie hidden, safe-wrapt in this Fourth day of May;--say rather, had lain in -some other unknown day, of which this latter is the public fruit and -outcome. As indeed what wonders lie in every Day,--had we the sight, as -happily we have not, to decipher it: for is not every meanest Day 'the -conflux of two Eternities!' - -Meanwhile, suppose we too, good Reader, should, as now without miracle Muse -Clio enables us--take our station also on some coign of vantage; and glance -momentarily over this Procession, and this Life-sea; with far other eyes -than the rest do, namely with prophetic? We can mount, and stand there, -without fear of falling. - -As for the Life-sea, or onlooking unnumbered Multitude, it is unfortunately -all-too dim. Yet as we gaze fixedly, do not nameless Figures not a few, -which shall not always be nameless, disclose themselves; visible or -presumable there! Young Baroness de Stael--she evidently looks from a -window; among older honourable women. (Madame de Stael, Considerations sur -la Revolution Francaise (London, 1818), i. 114-191.) Her father is -Minister, and one of the gala personages; to his own eyes the chief one. -Young spiritual Amazon, thy rest is not there; nor thy loved Father's: 'as -Malebranche saw all things in God, so M. Necker sees all things in -Necker,'--a theorem that will not hold. - -But where is the brown-locked, light-behaved, fire-hearted Demoiselle -Theroigne? Brown eloquent Beauty; who, with thy winged words and glances, -shalt thrill rough bosoms, whole steel battalions, and persuade an Austrian -Kaiser,--pike and helm lie provided for thee in due season; and, alas, also -strait-waistcoat and long lodging in the Salpetriere! Better hadst thou -staid in native Luxemburg, and been the mother of some brave man's -children: but it was not thy task, it was not thy lot. - -Of the rougher sex how, without tongue, or hundred tongues, of iron, -enumerate the notabilities! Has not Marquis Valadi hastily quitted his -quaker broadbrim; his Pythagorean Greek in Wapping, and the city of -Glasgow? (Founders of the French Republic (London, 1798), para Valadi.) -De Morande from his Courrier de l'Europe; Linguet from his Annales, they -looked eager through the London fog, and became Ex-Editors,--that they -might feed the guillotine, and have their due. Does Louvet (of Faublas) -stand a-tiptoe? And Brissot, hight De Warville, friend of the Blacks? He, -with Marquis Condorcet, and Claviere the Genevese 'have created the -Moniteur Newspaper,' or are about creating it. Able Editors must give -account of such a day. - -Or seest thou with any distinctness, low down probably, not in places of -honour, a Stanislas Maillard, riding-tipstaff (huissier a cheval) of the -Chatelet; one of the shiftiest of men? A Captain Hulin of Geneva, Captain -Elie of the Queen's Regiment; both with an air of half-pay? Jourdan, with -tile-coloured whiskers, not yet with tile-beard; an unjust dealer in mules? -He shall be, in a few months, Jourdan the Headsman, and have other work. - -Surely also, in some place not of honour, stands or sprawls up querulous, -that he too, though short, may see,--one squalidest bleared mortal, -redolent of soot and horse-drugs: Jean Paul Marat of Neuchatel! O Marat, -Renovator of Human Science, Lecturer on Optics; O thou remarkablest -Horseleech, once in D'Artois' Stables,--as thy bleared soul looks forth, -through thy bleared, dull-acrid, wo-stricken face, what sees it in all -this? Any faintest light of hope; like dayspring after Nova-Zembla night? -Or is it but blue sulphur-light, and spectres; woe, suspicion, revenge -without end? - -Of Draper Lecointre, how he shut his cloth-shop hard by, and stepped forth, -one need hardly speak. Nor of Santerre, the sonorous Brewer from the -Faubourg St. Antoine. Two other Figures, and only two, we signalise there. -The huge, brawny, Figure; through whose black brows, and rude flattened -face (figure ecrasee), there looks a waste energy as of Hercules not yet -furibund,--he is an esurient, unprovided Advocate; Danton by name: him -mark. Then that other, his slight-built comrade and craft-brother; he with -the long curling locks; with the face of dingy blackguardism, wondrously -irradiated with genius, as if a naphtha-lamp burnt within it: that Figure -is Camille Desmoulins. A fellow of infinite shrewdness, wit, nay humour; -one of the sprightliest clearest souls in all these millions. Thou poor -Camille, say of thee what they may, it were but falsehood to pretend one -did not almost love thee, thou headlong lightly-sparkling man! But the -brawny, not yet furibund Figure, we say, is Jacques Danton; a name that -shall be 'tolerably known in the Revolution.' He is President of the -electoral Cordeliers District at Paris, or about to be it; and shall open -his lungs of brass. - -We dwell no longer on the mixed shouting Multitude: for now, behold, the -Commons Deputies are at hand! - -Which of these Six Hundred individuals, in plain white cravat, that have -come up to regenerate France, might one guess would become their king? For -a king or leader they, as all bodies of men, must have: be their work what -it may, there is one man there who, by character, faculty, position, is -fittest of all to do it; that man, as future not yet elected king, walks -there among the rest. He with the thick black locks, will it be? With the -hure, as himself calls it, or black boar's-head, fit to be 'shaken' as a -senatorial portent? Through whose shaggy beetle-brows, and rough-hewn, -seamed, carbuncled face, there look natural ugliness, small-pox, -incontinence, bankruptcy,--and burning fire of genius; like comet-fire -glaring fuliginous through murkiest confusions? It is Gabriel Honore -Riquetti de Mirabeau, the world-compeller; man-ruling Deputy of Aix! -According to the Baroness de Stael, he steps proudly along, though looked -at askance here, and shakes his black chevelure, or lion's-mane; as if -prophetic of great deeds. - -Yes, Reader, that is the Type-Frenchman of this epoch; as Voltaire was of -the last. He is French in his aspirations, acquisitions, in his virtues, -in his vices; perhaps more French than any other man;--and intrinsically -such a mass of manhood too. Mark him well. The National Assembly were all -different without that one; nay, he might say with the old Despot: "The -National Assembly? I am that." - -Of a southern climate, of wild southern blood: for the Riquettis, or -Arighettis, had to fly from Florence and the Guelfs, long centuries ago, -and settled in Provence; where from generation to generation they have ever -approved themselves a peculiar kindred: irascible, indomitable, sharp- -cutting, true, like the steel they wore; of an intensity and activity that -sometimes verged towards madness, yet did not reach it. One ancient -Riquetti, in mad fulfilment of a mad vow, chains two Mountains together; -and the chain, with its 'iron star of five rays,' is still to be seen. May -not a modern Riquetti unchain so much, and set it drifting,--which also -shall be seen? - -Destiny has work for that swart burly-headed Mirabeau; Destiny has watched -over him, prepared him from afar. Did not his Grandfather, stout Col. -d'Argent (Silver-Stock, so they named him), shattered and slashed by seven- -and-twenty wounds in one fell day lie sunk together on the Bridge at -Casano; while Prince Eugene's cavalry galloped and regalloped over him,-- -only the flying sergeant had thrown a camp-kettle over that loved head; and -Vendome, dropping his spyglass, moaned out, 'Mirabeau is dead, then!' -Nevertheless he was not dead: he awoke to breathe, and miraculous -surgery;--for Gabriel was yet to be. With his silver stock he kept his -scarred head erect, through long years; and wedded; and produced tough -Marquis Victor, the Friend of Men. Whereby at last in the appointed year -1749, this long-expected rough-hewn Gabriel Honore did likewise see the -light: roughest lion's-whelp ever littered of that rough breed. How the -old lion (for our old Marquis too was lion-like, most unconquerable, -kingly-genial, most perverse) gazed wonderingly on his offspring; and -determined to train him as no lion had yet been! It is in vain, O Marquis! -This cub, though thou slay him and flay him, will not learn to draw in -dogcart of Political Economy, and be a Friend of Men; he will not be Thou, -must and will be Himself, another than Thou. Divorce lawsuits, 'whole -family save one in prison, and three-score Lettres-de-Cachet' for thy own -sole use, do but astonish the world. - -Our Luckless Gabriel, sinned against and sinning, has been in the Isle of -Rhe, and heard the Atlantic from his tower; in the Castle of If, and heard -the Mediterranean at Marseilles. He has been in the Fortress of Joux; and -forty-two months, with hardly clothing to his back, in the Dungeon of -Vincennes;--all by Lettre-de-Cachet, from his lion father. He has been in -Pontarlier Jails (self-constituted prisoner); was noticed fording estuaries -of the sea (at low water), in flight from the face of men. He has pleaded -before Aix Parlements (to get back his wife); the public gathering on -roofs, to see since they could not hear: "the clatter-teeth (claque- -dents)!" snarles singular old Mirabeau; discerning in such admired forensic -eloquence nothing but two clattering jaw-bones, and a head vacant, -sonorous, of the drum species. - -But as for Gabriel Honore, in these strange wayfarings, what has he not -seen and tried! From drill-sergeants, to prime-ministers, to foreign and -domestic booksellers, all manner of men he has seen. All manner of men he -has gained; for at bottom it is a social, loving heart, that wild -unconquerable one:--more especially all manner of women. From the Archer's -Daughter at Saintes to that fair young Sophie Madame Monnier, whom he could -not but 'steal,' and be beheaded for--in effigy! For indeed hardly since -the Arabian Prophet lay dead to Ali's admiration, was there seen such a -Love-hero, with the strength of thirty men. In War, again, he has helped -to conquer Corsica; fought duels, irregular brawls; horsewhipped calumnious -barons. In Literature, he has written on Despotism, on Lettres-de-Cachet; -Erotics Sapphic-Werterean, Obscenities, Profanities; Books on the Prussian -Monarchy, on Cagliostro, on Calonne, on the Water Companies of Paris:--each -book comparable, we will say, to a bituminous alarum-fire; huge, smoky, -sudden! The firepan, the kindling, the bitumen were his own; but the -lumber, of rags, old wood and nameless combustible rubbish (for all is fuel -to him), was gathered from huckster, and ass-panniers, of every description -under heaven. Whereby, indeed, hucksters enough have been heard to -exclaim: Out upon it, the fire is mine! - -Nay, consider it more generally, seldom had man such a talent for -borrowing. The idea, the faculty of another man he can make his; the man -himself he can make his. "All reflex and echo (tout de reflet et de -reverbere)!" snarls old Mirabeau, who can see, but will not. Crabbed old -Friend of Men! it is his sociality, his aggregative nature; and will now be -the quality of all for him. In that forty-years 'struggle against -despotism,' he has gained the glorious faculty of self-help, and yet not -lost the glorious natural gift of fellowship, of being helped. Rare union! -This man can live self-sufficing--yet lives also in the life of other men; -can make men love him, work with him: a born king of men! - -But consider further how, as the old Marquis still snarls, he has "made -away with (hume, swallowed) all Formulas;"--a fact which, if we meditate -it, will in these days mean much. This is no man of system, then; he is -only a man of instincts and insights. A man nevertheless who will glare -fiercely on any object; and see through it, and conquer it: for he has -intellect, he has will, force beyond other men. A man not with logic- -spectacles; but with an eye! Unhappily without Decalogue, moral Code or -Theorem of any fixed sort; yet not without a strong living Soul in him, and -Sincerity there: a Reality, not an Artificiality, not a Sham! And so he, -having struggled 'forty years against despotism,' and 'made away with all -formulas,' shall now become the spokesman of a Nation bent to do the same. -For is it not precisely the struggle of France also to cast off despotism; -to make away with her old formulas,--having found them naught, worn out, -far from the reality? She will make away with such formulas;--and even go -bare, if need be, till she have found new ones. - -Towards such work, in such manner, marches he, this singular Riquetti -Mirabeau. In fiery rough figure, with black Samson-locks under the slouch- -hat, he steps along there. A fiery fuliginous mass, which could not be -choked and smothered, but would fill all France with smoke. And now it has -got air; it will burn its whole substance, its whole smoke-atmosphere too, -and fill all France with flame. Strange lot! Forty years of that -smouldering, with foul fire-damp and vapour enough, then victory over -that;--and like a burning mountain he blazes heaven-high; and, for twenty- -three resplendent months, pours out, in flame and molten fire-torrents, all -that is in him, the Pharos and Wonder-sign of an amazed Europe;--and then -lies hollow, cold forever! Pass on, thou questionable Gabriel Honore, the -greatest of them all: in the whole National Deputies, in the whole Nation, -there is none like and none second to thee. - -But now if Mirabeau is the greatest, who of these Six Hundred may be the -meanest? Shall we say, that anxious, slight, ineffectual-looking man, -under thirty, in spectacles; his eyes (were the glasses off) troubled, -careful; with upturned face, snuffing dimly the uncertain future-time; -complexion of a multiplex atrabiliar colour, the final shade of which may -be the pale sea-green. (See De Stael, Considerations (ii. 142); Barbaroux, -Memoires, &c.) That greenish-coloured (verdatre) individual is an Advocate -of Arras; his name is Maximilien Robespierre. The son of an Advocate; his -father founded mason-lodges under Charles Edward, the English Prince or -Pretender. Maximilien the first-born was thriftily educated; he had brisk -Camille Desmoulins for schoolmate in the College of Louis le Grand, at -Paris. But he begged our famed Necklace-Cardinal, Rohan, the patron, to -let him depart thence, and resign in favour of a younger brother. The -strict-minded Max departed; home to paternal Arras; and even had a Law-case -there and pleaded, not unsuccessfully, 'in favour of the first Franklin -thunder-rod.' With a strict painful mind, an understanding small but clear -and ready, he grew in favour with official persons, who could foresee in -him an excellent man of business, happily quite free from genius. The -Bishop, therefore, taking counsel, appoints him Judge of his diocese; and -he faithfully does justice to the people: till behold, one day, a culprit -comes whose crime merits hanging; and the strict-minded Max must abdicate, -for his conscience will not permit the dooming of any son of Adam to die. -A strict-minded, strait-laced man! A man unfit for Revolutions? Whose -small soul, transparent wholesome-looking as small ale, could by no chance -ferment into virulent alegar,--the mother of ever new alegar; till all -France were grown acetous virulent? We shall see. - -Between which two extremes of grandest and meanest, so many grand and mean -roll on, towards their several destinies, in that Procession! There is -Cazales, the learned young soldier; who shall become the eloquent orator of -Royalism, and earn the shadow of a name. Experienced Mounier, experienced -Malouet; whose Presidential Parlementary experience the stream of things -shall soon leave stranded. A Petion has left his gown and briefs at -Chartres for a stormier sort of pleading; has not forgotten his violin, -being fond of music. His hair is grizzled, though he is still young: -convictions, beliefs, placid-unalterable are in that man; not hindmost of -them, belief in himself. A Protestant-clerical Rabaut-St.-Etienne, a -slender young eloquent and vehement Barnave, will help to regenerate -France. There are so many of them young. Till thirty the Spartans did not -suffer a man to marry: but how many men here under thirty; coming to -produce not one sufficient citizen, but a nation and a world of such! The -old to heal up rents; the young to remove rubbish:--which latter, is it -not, indeed, the task here? - -Dim, formless from this distance, yet authentically there, thou noticest -the Deputies from Nantes? To us mere clothes-screens, with slouch-hat and -cloak, but bearing in their pocket a Cahier of doleances with this singular -clause, and more such in it: 'That the master wigmakers of Nantes be not -troubled with new gild-brethren, the actually existing number of ninety-two -being more than sufficient!' (Histoire Parlementaire, i. 335.) The Rennes -people have elected Farmer Gerard, 'a man of natural sense and rectitude, -without any learning.' He walks there, with solid step; unique, 'in his -rustic farmer-clothes;' which he will wear always; careless of short-cloaks -and costumes. The name Gerard, or 'Pere Gerard, Father Gerard,' as they -please to call him, will fly far; borne about in endless banter; in -Royalist satires, in Republican didactic Almanacks. (Actes des Apotres (by -Peltier and others); Almanach du Pere Gerard (by Collot d'Herbois) &c. &c.) -As for the man Gerard, being asked once, what he did, after trial of it, -candidly think of this Parlementary work,--"I think," answered he, "that -there are a good many scoundrels among us." so walks Father Gerard; solid -in his thick shoes, whithersoever bound. - -And worthy Doctor Guillotin, whom we hoped to behold one other time? If -not here, the Doctor should be here, and we see him with the eye of -prophecy: for indeed the Parisian Deputies are all a little late. -Singular Guillotin, respectable practitioner: doomed by a satiric destiny -to the strangest immortal glory that ever kept obscure mortal from his -resting-place, the bosom of oblivion! Guillotin can improve the -ventilation of the Hall; in all cases of medical police and hygiene be a -present aid: but, greater far, he can produce his 'Report on the Penal -Code;' and reveal therein a cunningly devised Beheading Machine, which -shall become famous and world-famous. This is the product of Guillotin's -endeavours, gained not without meditation and reading; which product -popular gratitude or levity christens by a feminine derivative name, as if -it were his daughter: La Guillotine! "With my machine, Messieurs, I whisk -off your head (vous fais sauter la tete) in a twinkling, and you have no -pain;"--whereat they all laugh. (Moniteur Newspaper, of December 1st, 1789 -(in Histoire Parlementaire).) Unfortunate Doctor! For two-and-twenty -years he, unguillotined, shall near nothing but guillotine, see nothing but -guillotine; then dying, shall through long centuries wander, as it were, a -disconsolate ghost, on the wrong side of Styx and Lethe; his name like to -outlive Caesar's. - -See Bailly, likewise of Paris, time-honoured Historian of Astronomy Ancient -and Modern. Poor Bailly, how thy serenely beautiful Philosophising, with -its soft moonshiny clearness and thinness, ends in foul thick confusion--of -Presidency, Mayorship, diplomatic Officiality, rabid Triviality, and the -throat of everlasting Darkness! Far was it to descend from the heavenly -Galaxy to the Drapeau Rouge: beside that fatal dung-heap, on that last -hell-day, thou must 'tremble,' though only with cold, 'de froid.' -Speculation is not practice: to be weak is not so miserable; but to be -weaker than our task. Wo the day when they mounted thee, a peaceable -pedestrian, on that wild Hippogriff of a Democracy; which, spurning the -firm earth, nay lashing at the very stars, no yet known Astolpho could have -ridden! - -In the Commons Deputies there are Merchants, Artists, Men of Letters; three -hundred and seventy-four Lawyers; (Bouille, Memoires sur la Revolution -Francaise (London, 1797), i. 68.) and at least one Clergyman: the Abbe -Sieyes. Him also Paris sends, among its twenty. Behold him, the light -thin man; cold, but elastic, wiry; instinct with the pride of Logic; -passionless, or with but one passion, that of self-conceit. If indeed that -can be called a passion, which, in its independent concentrated greatness, -seems to have soared into transcendentalism; and to sit there with a kind -of godlike indifference, and look down on passion! He is the man, and -wisdom shall die with him. This is the Sieyes who shall be System-builder, -Constitution-builder General; and build Constitutions (as many as wanted) -skyhigh,--which shall all unfortunately fall before he get the scaffolding -away. "La Politique," said he to Dumont, "Polity is a science I think I -have completed (achevee)." (Dumont, Souvenirs sur Mirabeau, p. 64.) What -things, O Sieyes, with thy clear assiduous eyes, art thou to see! But were -it not curious to know how Sieyes, now in these days (for he is said to be -still alive) (A.D. 1834.) looks out on all that Constitution masonry, -through the rheumy soberness of extreme age? Might we hope, still with the -old irrefragable transcendentalism? The victorious cause pleased the gods, -the vanquished one pleased Sieyes (victa Catoni). - -Thus, however, amid skyrending vivats, and blessings from every heart, has -the Procession of the Commons Deputies rolled by. - -Next follow the Noblesse, and next the Clergy; concerning both of whom it -might be asked, What they specially have come for? Specially, little as -they dream of it, to answer this question, put in a voice of thunder: What -are you doing in God's fair Earth and Task-garden; where whosoever is not -working is begging or stealing? Wo, wo to themselves and to all, if they -can only answer: Collecting tithes, Preserving game!--Remark, meanwhile, -how D'Orleans affects to step before his own Order, and mingle with the -Commons. For him are vivats: few for the rest, though all wave in plumed -'hats of a feudal cut,' and have sword on thigh; though among them is -D'Antraigues, the young Languedocian gentleman,--and indeed many a Peer -more or less noteworthy. - -There are Liancourt, and La Rochefoucault; the liberal Anglomaniac Dukes. -There is a filially pious Lally; a couple of liberal Lameths. Above all, -there is a Lafayette; whose name shall be Cromwell-Grandison, and fill the -world. Many a 'formula' has this Lafayette too made away with; yet not all -formulas. He sticks by the Washington-formula; and by that he will stick;- --and hang by it, as by sure bower-anchor hangs and swings the tight war- -ship, which, after all changes of wildest weather and water, is found still -hanging. Happy for him; be it glorious or not! Alone of all Frenchmen he -has a theory of the world, and right mind to conform thereto; he can become -a hero and perfect character, were it but the hero of one idea. Note -further our old Parlementary friend, Crispin-Catiline d'Espremenil. He is -returned from the Mediterranean Islands, a redhot royalist, repentant to -the finger-ends;--unsettled-looking; whose light, dusky-glowing at best, -now flickers foul in the socket; whom the National Assembly will by and by, -to save time, 'regard as in a state of distraction.' Note lastly that -globular Younger Mirabeau; indignant that his elder Brother is among the -Commons: it is Viscomte Mirabeau; named oftener Mirabeau Tonneau (Barrel -Mirabeau), on account of his rotundity, and the quantities of strong liquor -he contains. - -There then walks our French Noblesse. All in the old pomp of chivalry: -and yet, alas, how changed from the old position; drifted far down from -their native latitude, like Arctic icebergs got into the Equatorial sea, -and fast thawing there! Once these Chivalry Duces (Dukes, as they are -still named) did actually lead the world,--were it only towards battle- -spoil, where lay the world's best wages then: moreover, being the ablest -Leaders going, they had their lion's share, those Duces; which none could -grudge them. But now, when so many Looms, improved Ploughshares, Steam- -Engines and Bills of Exchange have been invented; and, for battle-brawling -itself, men hire Drill-Sergeants at eighteen-pence a-day,--what mean these -goldmantled Chivalry Figures, walking there 'in black-velvet cloaks,' in -high-plumed 'hats of a feudal cut'? Reeds shaken in the wind! - -The Clergy have got up; with Cahiers for abolishing pluralities, enforcing -residence of bishops, better payment of tithes. (Hist. Parl. i. 322-27.) -The Dignitaries, we can observe, walk stately, apart from the numerous -Undignified,--who indeed are properly little other than Commons disguised -in Curate-frocks. Here, however, though by strange ways, shall the Precept -be fulfilled, and they that are greatest (much to their astonishment) -become least. For one example, out of many, mark that plausible Gregoire: -one day Cure Gregoire shall be a Bishop, when the now stately are wandering -distracted, as Bishops in partibus. With other thought, mark also the Abbe -Maury: his broad bold face; mouth accurately primmed; full eyes, that ray -out intelligence, falsehood,--the sort of sophistry which is astonished you -should find it sophistical. Skilfulest vamper-up of old rotten leather, to -make it look like new; always a rising man; he used to tell Mercier, "You -will see; I shall be in the Academy before you." (Mercier, Nouveau Paris.) -Likely indeed, thou skilfullest Maury; nay thou shalt have a Cardinal's -Hat, and plush and glory; but alas, also, in the longrun--mere oblivion, -like the rest of us; and six feet of earth! What boots it, vamping rotten -leather on these terms? Glorious in comparison is the livelihood thy good -old Father earns, by making shoes,--one may hope, in a sufficient manner. -Maury does not want for audacity. He shall wear pistols, by and by; and at -death-cries of "The Lamp-iron;" answer coolly, "Friends, will you see -better there?" - -But yonder, halting lamely along, thou noticest next Bishop Talleyrand- -Perigord, his Reverence of Autun. A sardonic grimness lies in that -irreverent Reverence of Autun. He will do and suffer strange things; and -will become surely one of the strangest things ever seen, or like to be -seen. A man living in falsehood, and on falsehood; yet not what you can -call a false man: there is the specialty! It will be an enigma for future -ages, one may hope: hitherto such a product of Nature and Art was possible -only for this age of ours,--Age of Paper, and of the Burning of Paper. -Consider Bishop Talleyrand and Marquis Lafayette as the topmost of their -two kinds; and say once more, looking at what they did and what they were, -O Tempus ferax rerum! - -On the whole, however, has not this unfortunate Clergy also drifted in the -Time-stream, far from its native latitude? An anomalous mass of men; of -whom the whole world has already a dim understanding that it can understand -nothing. They were once a Priesthood, interpreters of Wisdom, revealers of -the Holy that is in Man: a true Clerus (or Inheritance of God on Earth): -but now?--They pass silently, with such Cahiers as they have been able to -redact; and none cries, God bless them. - -King Louis with his Court brings up the rear: he cheerful, in this day of -hope, is saluted with plaudits; still more Necker his Minister. Not so the -Queen; on whom hope shines not steadily any more. Ill-fated Queen! Her -hair is already gray with many cares and crosses; her first-born son is -dying in these weeks: black falsehood has ineffaceably soiled her name; -ineffaceably while this generation lasts. Instead of Vive la Reine, voices -insult her with Vive d'Orleans. Of her queenly beauty little remains -except its stateliness; not now gracious, but haughty, rigid, silently -enduring. With a most mixed feeling, wherein joy has no part, she resigns -herself to a day she hoped never to have seen. Poor Marie Antoinette; with -thy quick noble instincts; vehement glancings, vision all-too fitful narrow -for the work thou hast to do! O there are tears in store for thee; -bitterest wailings, soft womanly meltings, though thou hast the heart of an -imperial Theresa's Daughter. Thou doomed one, shut thy eyes on the -future!-- - -And so, in stately Procession, have passed the Elected of France. Some -towards honour and quick fire-consummation; most towards dishonour; not a -few towards massacre, confusion, emigration, desperation: all towards -Eternity!--So many heterogeneities cast together into the fermenting-vat; -there, with incalculable action, counteraction, elective affinities, -explosive developments, to work out healing for a sick moribund System of -Society! Probably the strangest Body of Men, if we consider well, that -ever met together on our Planet on such an errand. So thousandfold complex -a Society, ready to burst-up from its infinite depths; and these men, its -rulers and healers, without life-rule for themselves,--other life-rule than -a Gospel according to Jean Jacques! To the wisest of them, what we must -call the wisest, man is properly an Accident under the sky. Man is without -Duty round him; except it be 'to make the Constitution.' He is without -Heaven above him, or Hell beneath him; he has no God in the world. - -What further or better belief can be said to exist in these Twelve Hundred? -Belief in high-plumed hats of a feudal cut; in heraldic scutcheons; in the -divine right of Kings, in the divine right of Game-destroyers. Belief, or -what is still worse, canting half-belief; or worst of all, mere -Macchiavellic pretence-of-belief,--in consecrated dough-wafers, and the -godhood of a poor old Italian Man! Nevertheless in that immeasurable -Confusion and Corruption, which struggles there so blindly to become less -confused and corrupt, there is, as we said, this one salient point of a New -Life discernible: the deep fixed Determination to have done with Shams. A -determination, which, consciously or unconsciously, is fixed; which waxes -ever more fixed, into very madness and fixed-idea; which in such embodiment -as lies provided there, shall now unfold itself rapidly: monstrous, -stupendous, unspeakable; new for long thousands of years!--How has the -Heaven's light, oftentimes in this Earth, to clothe itself in thunder and -electric murkiness; and descend as molten lightning, blasting, if -purifying! Nay is it not rather the very murkiness, and atmospheric -suffocation, that brings the lightning and the light? The new Evangel, as -the old had been, was it to be born in the Destruction of a World? - -But how the Deputies assisted at High Mass, and heard sermon, and applauded -the preacher, church as it was, when he preached politics; how, next day, -with sustained pomp, they are, for the first time, installed in their -Salles des Menus (Hall no longer of Amusements), and become a States- -General,--readers can fancy for themselves. The King from his estrade, -gorgeous as Solomon in all his glory, runs his eye over that majestic Hall; -many-plumed, many-glancing; bright-tinted as rainbow, in the galleries and -near side spaces, where Beauty sits raining bright influence. -Satisfaction, as of one that after long voyaging had got to port, plays -over his broad simple face: the innocent King! He rises and speaks, with -sonorous tone, a conceivable speech. With which, still more with the -succeeding one-hour and two-hour speeches of Garde-des-Sceaux and M. -Necker, full of nothing but patriotism, hope, faith, and deficiency of the -revenue,--no reader of these pages shall be tried. - -We remark only that, as his Majesty, on finishing the speech, put on his -plumed hat, and the Noblesse according to custom imitated him, our Tiers- -Etat Deputies did mostly, not without a shade of fierceness, in like manner -clap-on, and even crush on their slouched hats; and stand there awaiting -the issue. (Histoire Parlementaire (i. 356). Mercier, Nouveau Paris, &c.) -Thick buzz among them, between majority and minority of Couvrezvous, -Decrouvrez-vous (Hats off, Hats on)! To which his Majesty puts end, by -taking off his own royal hat again. - -The session terminates without further accident or omen than this; with -which, significantly enough, France has opened her States-General. - - - -BOOK 1.V. - -THE THIRD ESTATE - - -Chapter 1.5.I. - -Inertia. - -That exasperated France, in this same National Assembly of hers, has got -something, nay something great, momentous, indispensable, cannot be -doubted; yet still the question were: Specially what? A question hard to -solve, even for calm onlookers at this distance; wholly insoluble to actors -in the middle of it. The States-General, created and conflated by the -passionate effort of the whole nation, is there as a thing high and lifted -up. Hope, jubilating, cries aloud that it will prove a miraculous Brazen -Serpent in the Wilderness; whereon whosoever looks, with faith and -obedience, shall be healed of all woes and serpent-bites. - -We may answer, it will at least prove a symbolic Banner; round which the -exasperating complaining Twenty-Five Millions, otherwise isolated and -without power, may rally, and work--what it is in them to work. If battle -must be the work, as one cannot help expecting, then shall it be a battle- -banner (say, an Italian Gonfalon, in its old Republican Carroccio); and -shall tower up, car-borne, shining in the wind: and with iron tongue peal -forth many a signal. A thing of prime necessity; which whether in the van -or in the centre, whether leading or led and driven, must do the fighting -multitude incalculable services. For a season, while it floats in the very -front, nay as it were stands solitary there, waiting whether force will -gather round it, this same National Carroccio, and the signal-peals it -rings, are a main object with us. - -The omen of the 'slouch-hats clapt on' shows the Commons Deputies to have -made up their minds on one thing: that neither Noblesse nor Clergy shall -have precedence of them; hardly even Majesty itself. To such length has -the Contrat Social, and force of public opinion, carried us. For what is -Majesty but the Delegate of the Nation; delegated, and bargained with (even -rather tightly),--in some very singular posture of affairs, which Jean -Jacques has not fixed the date of? - -Coming therefore into their Hall, on the morrow, an inorganic mass of Six -Hundred individuals, these Commons Deputies perceive, without terror, that -they have it all to themselves. Their Hall is also the Grand or general -Hall for all the Three Orders. But the Noblesse and Clergy, it would seem, -have retired to their two separate Apartments, or Halls; and are there -'verifying their powers,' not in a conjoint but in a separate capacity. -They are to constitute two separate, perhaps separately-voting Orders, -then? It is as if both Noblesse and Clergy had silently taken for granted -that they already were such! Two Orders against one; and so the Third -Order to be left in a perpetual minority? - -Much may remain unfixed; but the negative of that is a thing fixed: in the -Slouch-hatted heads, in the French Nation's head. Double representation, -and all else hitherto gained, were otherwise futile, null. Doubtless, the -'powers must be verified;'--doubtless, the Commission, the electoral -Documents of your Deputy must be inspected by his brother Deputies, and -found valid: it is the preliminary of all. Neither is this question, of -doing it separately or doing it conjointly, a vital one: but if it lead to -such? It must be resisted; wise was that maxim, Resist the beginnings! -Nay were resistance unadvisable, even dangerous, yet surely pause is very -natural: pause, with Twenty-five Millions behind you, may become -resistance enough.--The inorganic mass of Commons Deputies will restrict -itself to a 'system of inertia,' and for the present remain inorganic. - -Such method, recommendable alike to sagacity and to timidity, do the -Commons Deputies adopt; and, not without adroitness, and with ever more -tenacity, they persist in it, day after day, week after week. For six -weeks their history is of the kind named barren; which indeed, as -Philosophy knows, is often the fruitfulest of all. These were their still -creation-days; wherein they sat incubating! In fact, what they did was to -do nothing, in a judicious manner. Daily the inorganic body reassembles; -regrets that they cannot get organisation, 'verification of powers in -common, and begin regenerating France. Headlong motions may be made, but -let such be repressed; inertia alone is at once unpunishable and -unconquerable. - -Cunning must be met by cunning; proud pretension by inertia, by a low tone -of patriotic sorrow; low, but incurable, unalterable. Wise as serpents; -harmless as doves: what a spectacle for France! Six Hundred inorganic -individuals, essential for its regeneration and salvation, sit there, on -their elliptic benches, longing passionately towards life; in painful -durance; like souls waiting to be born. Speeches are spoken; eloquent; -audible within doors and without. Mind agitates itself against mind; the -Nation looks on with ever deeper interest. Thus do the Commons Deputies -sit incubating. - -There are private conclaves, supper-parties, consultations; Breton Club, -Club of Viroflay; germs of many Clubs. Wholly an element of confused -noise, dimness, angry heat;--wherein, however, the Eros-egg, kept at the -fit temperature, may hover safe, unbroken till it be hatched. In your -Mouniers, Malouets, Lechapeliers in science sufficient for that; fervour in -your Barnaves, Rabauts. At times shall come an inspiration from royal -Mirabeau: he is nowise yet recognised as royal; nay he was 'groaned at,' -when his name was first mentioned: but he is struggling towards -recognition. - -In the course of the week, the Commons having called their Eldest to the -chair, and furnished him with young stronger-lunged assistants,--can speak -articulately; and, in audible lamentable words, declare, as we said, that -they are an inorganic body, longing to become organic. Letters arrive; but -an inorganic body cannot open letters; they lie on the table unopened. The -Eldest may at most procure for himself some kind of List or Muster-roll, to -take the votes by, and wait what will betide. Noblesse and Clergy are all -elsewhere: however, an eager public crowds all galleries and vacancies; -which is some comfort. With effort, it is determined, not that a -Deputation shall be sent,--for how can an inorganic body send deputations?- --but that certain individual Commons Members shall, in an accidental way, -stroll into the Clergy Chamber, and then into the Noblesse one; and mention -there, as a thing they have happened to observe, that the Commons seem to -be sitting waiting for them, in order to verify their powers. That is the -wiser method! - -The Clergy, among whom are such a multitude of Undignified, of mere Commons -in Curates' frocks, depute instant respectful answer that they are, and -will now more than ever be, in deepest study as to that very matter. -Contrariwise the Noblesse, in cavalier attitude, reply, after four days, -that they, for their part, are all verified and constituted; which, they -had trusted, the Commons also were; such separate verification being -clearly the proper constitutional wisdom-of-ancestors method;--as they the -Noblesse will have much pleasure in demonstrating by a Commission of their -number, if the Commons will meet them, Commission against Commission! -Directly in the rear of which comes a deputation of Clergy, reiterating, in -their insidious conciliatory way, the same proposal. Here, then, is a -complexity: what will wise Commons say to this? - -Warily, inertly, the wise Commons, considering that they are, if not a -French Third Estate, at least an Aggregate of individuals pretending to -some title of that kind, determine, after talking on it five days, to name -such a Commission,--though, as it were, with proviso not to be convinced: -a sixth day is taken up in naming it; a seventh and an eighth day in -getting the forms of meeting, place, hour and the like, settled: so that -it is not till the evening of the 23rd of May that Noblesse Commission -first meets Commons Commission, Clergy acting as Conciliators; and begins -the impossible task of convincing it. One other meeting, on the 25th, will -suffice: the Commons are inconvincible, the Noblesse and Clergy -irrefragably convincing; the Commissions retire; each Order persisting in -its first pretensions. (Reported Debates, 6th May to 1st June, 1789 (in -Histoire Parlementaire, i. 379-422.) - -Thus have three weeks passed. For three weeks, the Third-Estate Carroccio, -with far-seen Gonfalon, has stood stockstill, flouting the wind; waiting -what force would gather round it. - -Fancy can conceive the feeling of the Court; and how counsel met counsel, -the loud-sounding inanity whirled in that distracted vortex, where wisdom -could not dwell. Your cunningly devised Taxing-Machine has been got -together; set up with incredible labour; and stands there, its three pieces -in contact; its two fly-wheels of Noblesse and Clergy, its huge working- -wheel of Tiers-Etat. The two fly-wheels whirl in the softest manner; but, -prodigious to look upon, the huge working-wheel hangs motionless, refuses -to stir! The cunningest engineers are at fault. How will it work, when it -does begin? Fearfully, my Friends; and to many purposes; but to gather -taxes, or grind court-meal, one may apprehend, never. Could we but have -continued gathering taxes by hand! Messeigneurs d'Artois, Conti, Conde -(named Court Triumvirate), they of the anti-democratic Memoire au Roi, has -not their foreboding proved true? They may wave reproachfully their high -heads; they may beat their poor brains; but the cunningest engineers can do -nothing. Necker himself, were he even listened to, begins to look blue. -The only thing one sees advisable is to bring up soldiers. New regiments, -two, and a battalion of a third, have already reached Paris; others shall -get in march. Good were it, in all circumstances, to have troops within -reach; good that the command were in sure hands. Let Broglie be appointed; -old Marshal Duke de Broglie; veteran disciplinarian, of a firm drill- -sergeant morality, such as may be depended on. - -For, alas, neither are the Clergy, or the very Noblesse what they should -be; and might be, when so menaced from without: entire, undivided within. -The Noblesse, indeed, have their Catiline or Crispin D'Espremenil, dusky- -glowing, all in renegade heat; their boisterous Barrel-Mirabeau; but also -they have their Lafayettes, Liancourts, Lameths; above all, their -D'Orleans, now cut forever from his Court-moorings, and musing drowsily of -high and highest sea-prizes (for is not he too a son of Henri Quatre, and -partial potential Heir-Apparent?)--on his voyage towards Chaos. From the -Clergy again, so numerous are the Cures, actual deserters have run over: -two small parties; in the second party Cure Gregoire. Nay there is talk of -a whole Hundred and Forty-nine of them about to desert in mass, and only -restrained by an Archbishop of Paris. It seems a losing game. - -But judge if France, if Paris sat idle, all this while! Addresses from far -and near flow in: for our Commons have now grown organic enough to open -letters. Or indeed to cavil at them! Thus poor Marquis de Breze, Supreme -Usher, Master of Ceremonies, or whatever his title was, writing about this -time on some ceremonial matter, sees no harm in winding up with a -'Monsieur, yours with sincere attachment.'--"To whom does it address -itself, this sincere attachment?" inquires Mirabeau. "To the Dean of the -Tiers-Etat."--"There is no man in France entitled to write that," rejoins -he; whereat the Galleries and the World will not be kept from applauding. -(Moniteur (in Histoire Parlementaire, i. 405).) Poor De Breze! These -Commons have a still older grudge at him; nor has he yet done with them. - -In another way, Mirabeau has had to protest against the quick suppression -of his Newspaper, Journal of the States-General;--and to continue it under -a new name. In which act of valour, the Paris Electors, still busy -redacting their Cahier, could not but support him, by Address to his -Majesty: they claim utmost 'provisory freedom of the press;' they have -spoken even about demolishing the Bastille, and erecting a Bronze Patriot -King on the site!--These are the rich Burghers: but now consider how it -went, for example, with such loose miscellany, now all grown -eleutheromaniac, of Loungers, Prowlers, social Nondescripts (and the -distilled Rascality of our Planet), as whirls forever in the Palais Royal;- --or what low infinite groan, first changing into a growl, comes from Saint- -Antoine, and the Twenty-five Millions in danger of starvation! - -There is the indisputablest scarcity of corn;--be it Aristocrat-plot, -D'Orleans-plot, of this year; or drought and hail of last year: in city -and province, the poor man looks desolately towards a nameless lot. And -this States-General, that could make us an age of gold, is forced to stand -motionless; cannot get its powers verified! All industry necessarily -languishes, if it be not that of making motions. - -In the Palais Royal there has been erected, apparently by subscription, a -kind of Wooden Tent (en planches de bois); (Histoire Parlementaire, i. -429.)-- most convenient; where select Patriotism can now redact -resolutions, deliver harangues, with comfort, let the weather but as it -will. Lively is that Satan-at-Home! On his table, on his chair, in every -cafe, stands a patriotic orator; a crowd round him within; a crowd -listening from without, open-mouthed, through open door and window; with -'thunders of applause for every sentiment of more than common hardiness.' -In Monsieur Dessein's Pamphlet-shop, close by, you cannot without strong -elbowing get to the counter: every hour produces its pamphlet, or litter -of pamphlets; 'there were thirteen to-day, sixteen yesterday, nine-two last -week.' (Arthur Young, Travels, i. 104.) Think of Tyranny and Scarcity; -Fervid-eloquence, Rumour, Pamphleteering; Societe Publicole, Breton Club, -Enraged Club;--and whether every tap-room, coffee-room, social reunion, -accidental street-group, over wide France, was not an Enraged Club! - -To all which the Commons Deputies can only listen with a sublime inertia of -sorrow; reduced to busy themselves 'with their internal police.' Surer -position no Deputies ever occupied; if they keep it with skill. Let not -the temperature rise too high; break not the Eros-egg till it be hatched, -till it break itself! An eager public crowds all Galleries and vacancies! -'cannot be restrained from applauding.' The two Privileged Orders, the -Noblesse all verified and constituted, may look on with what face they -will; not without a secret tremor of heart. The Clergy, always acting the -part of conciliators, make a clutch at the Galleries, and the popularity -there; and miss it. Deputation of them arrives, with dolorous message -about the 'dearth of grains,' and the necessity there is of casting aside -vain formalities, and deliberating on this. An insidious proposal; which, -however, the Commons (moved thereto by seagreen Robespierre) dexterously -accept as a sort of hint, or even pledge, that the Clergy will forthwith -come over to them, constitute the States-General, and so cheapen grains! -(Bailly, Memoires, i. 114.)--Finally, on the 27th day of May, Mirabeau, -judging the time now nearly come, proposes that 'the inertia cease;' that, -leaving the Noblesse to their own stiff ways, the Clergy be summoned, 'in -the name of the God of Peace,' to join the Commons, and begin. (Histoire -Parlementaire, i. 413.) To which summons if they turn a deaf ear,--we -shall see! Are not one Hundred and Forty-nine of them ready to desert? - -O Triumvirate of Princes, new Garde-des-Sceaux Barentin, thou Home- -Secretary Breteuil, Duchess Polignac, and Queen eager to listen,--what is -now to be done? This Third Estate will get in motion, with the force of -all France in it; Clergy-machinery with Noblesse-machinery, which were to -serve as beautiful counter-balances and drags, will be shamefully dragged -after it,--and take fire along with it. What is to be done? The Oeil-de- -Boeuf waxes more confused than ever. Whisper and counter-whisper; a very -tempest of whispers! Leading men from all the Three Orders are nightly -spirited thither; conjurors many of them; but can they conjure this? -Necker himself were now welcome, could he interfere to purpose. - -Let Necker interfere, then; and in the King's name! Happily that -incendiary 'God-of-Peace' message is not yet answered. The Three Orders -shall again have conferences; under this Patriot Minister of theirs, -somewhat may be healed, clouted up;--we meanwhile getting forward Swiss -Regiments, and a 'hundred pieces of field-artillery.' This is what the -Oeil-de-Boeuf, for its part, resolves on. - -But as for Necker--Alas, poor Necker, thy obstinate Third Estate has one -first-last word, verification in common, as the pledge of voting and -deliberating in common! Half-way proposals, from such a tried friend, they -answer with a stare. The tardy conferences speedily break up; the Third -Estate, now ready and resolute, the whole world backing it, returns to its -Hall of the Three Orders; and Necker to the Oeil-de-Boeuf, with the -character of a disconjured conjuror there--fit only for dismissal. -(Debates, 1st to 17th June 1789 (in Histoire Parlementaire, i. 422-478).) - -And so the Commons Deputies are at last on their own strength getting under -way? Instead of Chairman, or Dean, they have now got a President: -Astronomer Bailly. Under way, with a vengeance! With endless vociferous -and temperate eloquence, borne on Newspaper wings to all lands, they have -now, on this 17th day of June, determined that their name is not Third -Estate, but--National Assembly! They, then, are the Nation? Triumvirate -of Princes, Queen, refractory Noblesse and Clergy, what, then, are you? A -most deep question;--scarcely answerable in living political dialects. - -All regardless of which, our new National Assembly proceeds to appoint a -'committee of subsistences;' dear to France, though it can find little or -no grain. Next, as if our National Assembly stood quite firm on its legs,- --to appoint 'four other standing committees;' then to settle the security -of the National Debt; then that of the Annual Taxation: all within eight- -and-forty hours. At such rate of velocity it is going: the conjurors of -the Oeil-de-Boeuf may well ask themselves, Whither? - - - -Chapter 1.5.II. - -Mercury de Breze. - -Now surely were the time for a 'god from the machine;' there is a nodus -worthy of one. The only question is, Which god? Shall it be Mars de -Broglie, with his hundred pieces of cannon?--Not yet, answers prudence; so -soft, irresolute is King Louis. Let it be Messenger Mercury, our Supreme -Usher de Breze. - -On the morrow, which is the 20th of June, these Hundred and Forty-nine -false Curates, no longer restrainable by his Grace of Paris, will desert in -a body: let De Breze intervene, and produce--closed doors! Not only shall -there be Royal Session, in that Salle des Menus; but no meeting, nor -working (except by carpenters), till then. Your Third Estate, self-styled -'National Assembly,' shall suddenly see itself extruded from its Hall, by -carpenters, in this dexterous way; and reduced to do nothing, not even to -meet, or articulately lament,--till Majesty, with Seance Royale and new -miracles, be ready! In this manner shall De Breze, as Mercury ex machina, -intervene; and, if the Oeil-de-Boeuf mistake not, work deliverance from the -nodus. - -Of poor De Breze we can remark that he has yet prospered in none of his -dealings with these Commons. Five weeks ago, when they kissed the hand of -Majesty, the mode he took got nothing but censure; and then his 'sincere -attachment,' how was it scornfully whiffed aside! Before supper, this -night, he writes to President Bailly, a new Letter, to be delivered shortly -after dawn tomorrow, in the King's name. Which Letter, however, Bailly in -the pride of office, will merely crush together into his pocket, like a -bill he does not mean to pay. - -Accordingly on Saturday morning the 20th of June, shrill-sounding heralds -proclaim through the streets of Versailles, that there is to be a Seance -Royale next Monday; and no meeting of the States-General till then. And -yet, we observe, President Bailly in sound of this, and with De Breze's -Letter in his pocket, is proceeding, with National Assembly at his heels, -to the accustomed Salles des Menus; as if De Breze and heralds were mere -wind. It is shut, this Salle; occupied by Gardes Francaises. "Where is -your Captain?" The Captain shows his royal order: workmen, he is grieved -to say, are all busy setting up the platform for his Majesty's Seance; most -unfortunately, no admission; admission, at furthest, for President and -Secretaries to bring away papers, which the joiners might destroy!-- -President Bailly enters with Secretaries; and returns bearing papers: -alas, within doors, instead of patriotic eloquence, there is now no noise -but hammering, sawing, and operative screeching and rumbling! A -profanation without parallel. - -The Deputies stand grouped on the Paris Road, on this umbrageous Avenue de -Versailles; complaining aloud of the indignity done them. Courtiers, it is -supposed, look from their windows, and giggle. The morning is none of the -comfortablest: raw; it is even drizzling a little. (Bailly, Memoires, i. -185-206.) But all travellers pause; patriot gallery-men, miscellaneous -spectators increase the groups. Wild counsels alternate. Some desperate -Deputies propose to go and hold session on the great outer Staircase at -Marly, under the King's windows; for his Majesty, it seems, has driven over -thither. Others talk of making the Chateau Forecourt, what they call Place -d'Armes, a Runnymede and new Champ de Mai of free Frenchmen: nay of -awakening, to sounds of indignant Patriotism, the echoes of the Oeil-de- -boeuf itself.--Notice is given that President Bailly, aided by judicious -Guillotin and others, has found place in the Tennis-Court of the Rue St. -Francois. Thither, in long-drawn files, hoarse-jingling, like cranes on -wing, the Commons Deputies angrily wend. - -Strange sight was this in the Rue St. Francois, Vieux Versailles! A naked -Tennis-Court, as the pictures of that time still give it: four walls; -naked, except aloft some poor wooden penthouse, or roofed spectators'- -gallery, hanging round them:--on the floor not now an idle teeheeing, a -snapping of balls and rackets; but the bellowing din of an indignant -National Representation, scandalously exiled hither! However, a cloud of -witnesses looks down on them, from wooden penthouse, from wall-top, from -adjoining roof and chimney; rolls towards them from all quarters, with -passionate spoken blessings. Some table can be procured to write on; some -chair, if not to sit on, then to stand on. The Secretaries undo their -tapes; Bailly has constituted the Assembly. - -Experienced Mounier, not wholly new to such things, in Parlementary -revolts, which he has seen or heard of, thinks that it were well, in these -lamentable threatening circumstances, to unite themselves by an Oath.-- -Universal acclamation, as from smouldering bosoms getting vent! The Oath -is redacted; pronounced aloud by President Bailly,--and indeed in such a -sonorous tone, that the cloud of witnesses, even outdoors, hear it, and -bellow response to it. Six hundred right-hands rise with President -Bailly's, to take God above to witness that they will not separate for man -below, but will meet in all places, under all circumstances, wheresoever -two or three can get together, till they have made the Constitution. Made -the Constitution, Friends! That is a long task. Six hundred hands, -meanwhile, will sign as they have sworn: six hundred save one; one -Loyalist Abdiel, still visible by this sole light-point, and nameable, poor -'M. Martin d'Auch, from Castelnaudary, in Languedoc.' Him they permit to -sign or signify refusal; they even save him from the cloud of witnesses, by -declaring 'his head deranged.' At four o'clock, the signatures are all -appended; new meeting is fixed for Monday morning, earlier than the hour of -the Royal Session; that our Hundred and Forty-nine Clerical deserters be -not balked: we shall meet 'at the Recollets Church or elsewhere,' in hope -that our Hundred and Forty-nine will join us;--and now it is time to go to -dinner. - -This, then, is the Session of the Tennis-Court, famed Seance du Jeu de -Paume; the fame of which has gone forth to all lands. This is Mercurius de -Breze's appearance as Deus ex machina; this is the fruit it brings! The -giggle of Courtiers in the Versailles Avenue has already died into gaunt -silence. Did the distracted Court, with Gardes-des-Sceaux Barentin, -Triumvirate and Company, imagine that they could scatter six hundred -National Deputies, big with a National Constitution, like as much barndoor -poultry, big with next to nothing,--by the white or black rod of a Supreme -Usher? Barndoor poultry fly cackling: but National Deputies turn round, -lion-faced; and, with uplifted right-hand, swear an Oath that makes the -four corners of France tremble. - -President Bailly has covered himself with honour; which shall become -rewards. The National Assembly is now doubly and trebly the Nation's -Assembly; not militant, martyred only, but triumphant; insulted, and which -could not be insulted. Paris disembogues itself once more, to witness, -'with grim looks,' the Seance Royale: (See Arthur Young (Travels, i. 115- -118); A. Lameth, &c.) which, by a new felicity, is postponed till Tuesday. -The Hundred and Forty-nine, and even with Bishops among them, all in -processional mass, have had free leisure to march off, and solemnly join -the Commons sitting waiting in their Church. The Commons welcomed them -with shouts, with embracings, nay with tears; (Dumont, Souvenirs sur -Mirabeau, c. 4.) for it is growing a life-and-death matter now. - -As for the Seance itself, the Carpenters seem to have accomplished their -platform; but all else remains unaccomplished. Futile, we may say fatal, -was the whole matter. King Louis enters, through seas of people, all grim- -silent, angry with many things,--for it is a bitter rain too. Enters, to a -Third Estate, likewise grim-silent; which has been wetted waiting under -mean porches, at back-doors, while Court and Privileged were entering by -the front. King and Garde-des-Sceaux (there is no Necker visible) make -known, not without longwindedness, the determinations of the royal breast. -The Three Orders shall vote separately. On the other hand, France may look -for considerable constitutional blessings; as specified in these Five-and- -thirty Articles, (Histoire Parlementaire, i. 13.) which Garde-des-Sceaux is -waxing hoarse with reading. Which Five-and-Thirty Articles, adds his -Majesty again rising, if the Three Orders most unfortunately cannot agree -together to effect them, I myself will effect: "seul je ferai le bien de -mes peuples,"--which being interpreted may signify, You, contentious -Deputies of the States-General, have probably not long to be here! But, in -fine, all shall now withdraw for this day; and meet again, each Order in -its separate place, to-morrow morning, for despatch of business. This is -the determination of the royal breast: pithy and clear. And herewith -King, retinue, Noblesse, majority of Clergy file out, as if the whole -matter were satisfactorily completed. - -These file out; through grim-silent seas of people. Only the Commons -Deputies file not out; but stand there in gloomy silence, uncertain what -they shall do. One man of them is certain; one man of them discerns and -dares! It is now that King Mirabeau starts to the Tribune, and lifts up -his lion-voice. Verily a word in season; for, in such scenes, the moment -is the mother of ages! Had not Gabriel Honore been there,--one can well -fancy, how the Commons Deputies, affrighted at the perils which now yawned -dim all round them, and waxing ever paler in each other's paleness, might -very naturally, one after one, have glided off; and the whole course of -European History have been different! - -But he is there. List to the brool of that royal forest-voice; sorrowful, -low; fast swelling to a roar! Eyes kindle at the glance of his eye:-- -National Deputies were missioned by a Nation; they have sworn an Oath; -they--but lo! while the lion's voice roars loudest, what Apparition is -this? Apparition of Mercurius de Breze, muttering somewhat!--"Speak out," -cry several.--"Messieurs," shrills De Breze, repeating himself, "You have -heard the King's orders!"--Mirabeau glares on him with fire-flashing face; -shakes the black lion's mane: "Yes, Monsieur, we have heard what the King -was advised to say: and you who cannot be the interpreter of his orders to -the States-General; you, who have neither place nor right of speech here; -you are not the man to remind us of it. Go, Monsieur, tell these who sent -you that we are here by the will of the People, and that nothing shall send -us hence but the force of bayonets!" (Moniteur (Hist. Parl. ii. 22.).) -And poor De Breze shivers forth from the National Assembly;--and also (if -it be not in one faintest glimmer, months later) finally from the page of -History!-- - -Hapless De Breze; doomed to survive long ages, in men's memory, in this -faint way, with tremulent white rod! He was true to Etiquette, which was -his Faith here below; a martyr to respect of persons. Short woollen cloaks -could not kiss Majesty's hand as long velvet ones did. Nay lately, when -the poor little Dauphin lay dead, and some ceremonial Visitation came, was -he not punctual to announce it even to the Dauphin's dead body: -"Monseigneur, a Deputation of the States-General!" (Montgaillard, ii. 38.) -Sunt lachrymae rerum. - -But what does the Oeil-de-Boeuf, now when De Breze shivers back thither? -Despatch that same force of bayonets? Not so: the seas of people still -hang multitudinous, intent on what is passing; nay rush and roll, loud- -billowing, into the Courts of the Chateau itself; for a report has risen -that Necker is to be dismissed. Worst of all, the Gardes Francaises seem -indisposed to act: 'two Companies of them do not fire when ordered!' -(Histoire Parlementaire, ii. 26.) Necker, for not being at the Seance, -shall be shouted for, carried home in triumph; and must not be dismissed. -His Grace of Paris, on the other hand, has to fly with broken coach-panels, -and owe his life to furious driving. The Gardes-du-Corps (Body-Guards), -which you were drawing out, had better be drawn in again. (Bailly, i. -217.) There is no sending of bayonets to be thought of. - -Instead of soldiers, the Oeil-de-Boeuf sends--carpenters, to take down the -platform. Ineffectual shift! In few instants, the very carpenters cease -wrenching and knocking at their platform; stand on it, hammer in hand, and -listen open-mouthed. (Histoire Parlementaire, ii. 23.) The Third Estate -is decreeing that it is, was, and will be, nothing but a National Assembly; -and now, moreover, an inviolable one, all members of it inviolable: -'infamous, traitorous, towards the Nation, and guilty of capital crime, is -any person, body-corporate, tribunal, court or commission that now or -henceforth, during the present session or after it, shall dare to pursue, -interrogate, arrest, or cause to be arrested, detain or cause to be -detained, any,' &c. &c. 'on whose part soever the same be commanded.' -(Montgaillard, ii. 47.) Which done, one can wind up with this comfortable -reflection from Abbe Sieyes: "Messieurs, you are today what you were -yesterday." - -Courtiers may shriek; but it is, and remains, even so. Their well-charged -explosion has exploded through the touch-hole; covering themselves with -scorches, confusion, and unseemly soot! Poor Triumvirate, poor Queen; and -above all, poor Queen's Husband, who means well, had he any fixed meaning! -Folly is that wisdom which is wise only behindhand. Few months ago these -Thirty-five Concessions had filled France with a rejoicing, which might -have lasted for several years. Now it is unavailing, the very mention of -it slighted; Majesty's express orders set at nought. - -All France is in a roar; a sea of persons, estimated at 'ten thousand,' -whirls 'all this day in the Palais Royal.' (Arthur Young, i. 119.) The -remaining Clergy, and likewise some Forty-eight Noblesse, D'Orleans among -them, have now forthwith gone over to the victorious Commons; by whom, as -is natural, they are received 'with acclamation.' - -The Third Estate triumphs; Versailles Town shouting round it; ten thousand -whirling all day in the Palais Royal; and all France standing a-tiptoe, not -unlike whirling! Let the Oeil-de-Boeuf look to it. As for King Louis, he -will swallow his injuries; will temporise, keep silence; will at all costs -have present peace. It was Tuesday the 23d of June, when he spoke that -peremptory royal mandate; and the week is not done till he has written to -the remaining obstinate Noblesse, that they also must oblige him, and give -in. D'Espremenil rages his last; Barrel Mirabeau 'breaks his sword,' -making a vow,--which he might as well have kept. The 'Triple Family' is -now therefore complete; the third erring brother, the Noblesse, having -joined it;--erring but pardonable; soothed, so far as possible, by sweet -eloquence from President Bailly. - -So triumphs the Third Estate; and States-General are become National -Assembly; and all France may sing Te Deum. By wise inertia, and wise -cessation of inertia, great victory has been gained. It is the last night -of June: all night you meet nothing on the streets of Versailles but 'men -running with torches' with shouts of jubilation. From the 2nd of May when -they kissed the hand of Majesty, to this 30th of June when men run with -torches, we count seven weeks complete. For seven weeks the National -Carroccio has stood far-seen, ringing many a signal; and, so much having -now gathered round it, may hope to stand. - - - -Chapter 1.5.III. - -Broglie the War-God. - -The Court feels indignant that it is conquered; but what then? Another -time it will do better. Mercury descended in vain; now has the time come -for Mars.--The gods of the Oeil-de-Boeuf have withdrawn into the darkness -of their cloudy Ida; and sit there, shaping and forging what may be -needful, be it 'billets of a new National Bank,' munitions of war, or -things forever inscrutable to men. - -Accordingly, what means this 'apparatus of troops'? The National Assembly -can get no furtherance for its Committee of Subsistences; can hear only -that, at Paris, the Bakers' shops are besieged; that, in the Provinces, -people are living on 'meal-husks and boiled grass.' But on all highways -there hover dust-clouds, with the march of regiments, with the trailing of -cannon: foreign Pandours, of fierce aspect; Salis-Samade, Esterhazy, -Royal-Allemand; so many of them foreign, to the number of thirty thousand,- --which fear can magnify to fifty: all wending towards Paris and -Versailles! Already, on the heights of Montmartre, is a digging and -delving; too like a scarping and trenching. The effluence of Paris is -arrested Versailles-ward by a barrier of cannon at Sevres Bridge. From the -Queen's Mews, cannon stand pointed on the National Assembly Hall itself. -The National Assembly has its very slumbers broken by the tramp of -soldiery, swarming and defiling, endless, or seemingly endless, all round -those spaces, at dead of night, 'without drum-music, without audible word -of command.' (A. Lameth, Assemblee Constituante, i. 41.) What means it? - -Shall eight, or even shall twelve Deputies, our Mirabeaus, Barnaves at the -head of them, be whirled suddenly to the Castle of Ham; the rest -ignominiously dispersed to the winds? No National Assembly can make the -Constitution with cannon levelled on it from the Queen's Mews! What means -this reticence of the Oeil-de-Boeuf, broken only by nods and shrugs? In -the mystery of that cloudy Ida, what is it that they forge and shape?--Such -questions must distracted Patriotism keep asking, and receive no answer but -an echo. - -Enough of themselves! But now, above all, while the hungry food-year, -which runs from August to August, is getting older; becoming more and more -a famine-year? With 'meal-husks and boiled grass,' Brigands may actually -collect; and, in crowds, at farm and mansion, howl angrily, Food! Food! It -is in vain to send soldiers against them: at sight of soldiers they -disperse, they vanish as under ground; then directly reassemble elsewhere -for new tumult and plunder. Frightful enough to look upon; but what to -hear of, reverberated through Twenty-five Millions of suspicious minds! -Brigands and Broglie, open Conflagration, preternatural Rumour are driving -mad most hearts in France. What will the issue of these things be? - -At Marseilles, many weeks ago, the Townsmen have taken arms; for -'suppressing of Brigands,' and other purposes: the military commandant may -make of it what he will. Elsewhere, everywhere, could not the like be -done? Dubious, on the distracted Patriot imagination, wavers, as a last -deliverance, some foreshadow of a National Guard. But conceive, above all, -the Wooden Tent in the Palais Royal! A universal hubbub there, as of -dissolving worlds: their loudest bellows the mad, mad-making voice of -Rumour; their sharpest gazes Suspicion into the pale dim World-Whirlpool; -discerning shapes and phantasms; imminent bloodthirsty Regiments camped on -the Champ-de-Mars; dispersed National Assembly; redhot cannon-balls (to -burn Paris);--the mad War-god and Bellona's sounding thongs. To the -calmest man it is becoming too plain that battle is inevitable. - -Inevitable, silently nod Messeigneurs and Broglie: Inevitable and brief! -Your National Assembly, stopped short in its Constitutional labours, may -fatigue the royal ear with addresses and remonstrances: those cannon of -ours stand duly levelled; those troops are here. The King's Declaration, -with its Thirty-five too generous Articles, was spoken, was not listened -to; but remains yet unrevoked: he himself shall effect it, seul il fera! - -As for Broglie, he has his headquarters at Versailles, all as in a seat of -war: clerks writing; significant staff-officers, inclined to taciturnity; -plumed aides-de-camp, scouts, orderlies flying or hovering. He himself -looks forth, important, impenetrable; listens to Besenval Commandant of -Paris, and his warning and earnest counsels (for he has come out repeatedly -on purpose), with a silent smile. (Besenval, iii. 398.) The Parisians -resist? scornfully cry Messeigneurs. As a meal-mob may! They have sat -quiet, these five generations, submitting to all. Their Mercier declared, -in these very years, that a Parisian revolt was henceforth 'impossible.' -(Mercier, Tableau de Paris, vi. 22.) Stand by the royal Declaration, of -the Twenty-third of June. The Nobles of France, valorous, chivalrous as of -old, will rally round us with one heart;--and as for this which you call -Third Estate, and which we call canaille of unwashed Sansculottes, of -Patelins, Scribblers, factious Spouters,--brave Broglie, 'with a whiff of -grapeshot (salve de canons), if need be, will give quick account of it. -Thus reason they: on their cloudy Ida; hidden from men,--men also hidden -from them. - -Good is grapeshot, Messeigneurs, on one condition: that the shooter also -were made of metal! But unfortunately he is made of flesh; under his buffs -and bandoleers your hired shooter has instincts, feelings, even a kind of -thought. It is his kindred, bone of his bone, this same canaille that -shall be whiffed; he has brothers in it, a father and mother,--living on -meal-husks and boiled grass. His very doxy, not yet 'dead i' the spital,' -drives him into military heterodoxy; declares that if he shed Patriot -blood, he shall be accursed among men. The soldier, who has seen his pay -stolen by rapacious Foulons, his blood wasted by Soubises, Pompadours, and -the gates of promotion shut inexorably on him if he were not born noble,-- -is himself not without griefs against you. Your cause is not the soldier's -cause; but, as would seem, your own only, and no other god's nor man's. - -For example, the world may have heard how, at Bethune lately, when there -rose some 'riot about grains,' of which sort there are so many, and the -soldiers stood drawn out, and the word 'Fire!; was given,--not a trigger -stirred; only the butts of all muskets rattled angrily against the ground; -and the soldiers stood glooming, with a mixed expression of countenance;-- -till clutched 'each under the arm of a patriot householder,' they were all -hurried off, in this manner, to be treated and caressed, and have their pay -increased by subscription! (Histoire Parlementaire.) - -Neither have the Gardes Francaises, the best regiment of the line, shown -any promptitude for street-firing lately. They returned grumbling from -Reveillon's; and have not burnt a single cartridge since; nay, as we saw, -not even when bid. A dangerous humour dwells in these Gardes. Notable men -too, in their way! Valadi the Pythagorean was, at one time, an officer of -theirs. Nay, in the ranks, under the three-cornered felt and cockade, what -hard heads may there not be, and reflections going on,--unknown to the -public! One head of the hardest we do now discern there: on the shoulders -of a certain Sergeant Hoche. Lazare Hoche, that is the name of him; he -used to be about the Versailles Royal Stables, nephew of a poor herbwoman; -a handy lad; exceedingly addicted to reading. He is now Sergeant Hoche, -and can rise no farther: he lays out his pay in rushlights, and cheap -editions of books. (Dictionnaire des Hommes Marquans, Londres (Paris), -1800, ii. 198.) - -On the whole, the best seems to be: Consign these Gardes Francaises to -their Barracks. So Besenval thinks, and orders. Consigned to their -barracks, the Gardes Francaises do but form a 'Secret Association,' an -Engagement not to act against the National Assembly. Debauched by Valadi -the Pythagorean; debauched by money and women! cry Besenval and innumerable -others. Debauched by what you will, or in need of no debauching, behold -them, long files of them, their consignment broken, arrive, headed by their -Sergeants, on the 26th day of June, at the Palais Royal! Welcomed with -vivats, with presents, and a pledge of patriot liquor; embracing and -embraced; declaring in words that the cause of France is their cause! Next -day and the following days the like. What is singular too, except this -patriot humour, and breaking of their consignment, they behave otherwise -with 'the most rigorous accuracy.' (Besenval, iii. 394-6.) - -They are growing questionable, these Gardes! Eleven ring-leaders of them -are put in the Abbaye Prison. It boots not in the least. The imprisoned -Eleven have only, 'by the hand of an individual,' to drop, towards -nightfall, a line in the Cafe de Foy; where Patriotism harangues loudest on -its table. 'Two hundred young persons, soon waxing to four thousand,' with -fit crowbars, roll towards the Abbaye; smite asunder the needful doors; and -bear out their Eleven, with other military victims:--to supper in the -Palais Royal Garden; to board, and lodging 'in campbeds, in the Theatre des -Varietes;' other national Prytaneum as yet not being in readiness. Most -deliberate! Nay so punctual were these young persons, that finding one -military victim to have been imprisoned for real civil crime, they returned -him to his cell, with protest. - -Why new military force was not called out? New military force was called -out. New military force did arrive, full gallop, with drawn sabre: but -the people gently 'laid hold of their bridles;' the dragoons sheathed their -swords; lifted their caps by way of salute, and sat like mere statues of -dragoons,--except indeed that a drop of liquor being brought them, they -'drank to the King and Nation with the greatest cordiality.' (Histoire -Parlementaire, ii. 32.) - -And now, ask in return, why Messeigneurs and Broglie the great god of war, -on seeing these things, did not pause, and take some other course, any -other course? Unhappily, as we said, they could see nothing. Pride, which -goes before a fall; wrath, if not reasonable, yet pardonable, most natural, -had hardened their hearts and heated their heads; so, with imbecility and -violence (ill-matched pair), they rush to seek their hour. All Regiments -are not Gardes Francaises, or debauched by Valadi the Pythagorean: let -fresh undebauched Regiments come up; let Royal-Allemand, Salais-Samade, -Swiss Chateau-Vieux come up,--which can fight, but can hardly speak except -in German gutturals; let soldiers march, and highways thunder with -artillery-waggons: Majesty has a new Royal Session to hold,--and miracles -to work there! The whiff of grapeshot can, if needful, become a blast and -tempest. - -In which circumstances, before the redhot balls begin raining, may not the -Hundred-and-twenty Paris Electors, though their Cahier is long since -finished, see good to meet again daily, as an 'Electoral Club'? They meet -first 'in a Tavern;'--where 'the largest wedding-party' cheerfully give -place to them. (Dusaulx, Prise de la Bastille (Collection des Memoires, -par Berville et Barriere, Paris, 1821), p. 269.) But latterly they meet in -the Hotel-de-Ville, in the Townhall itself. Flesselles, Provost of -Merchants, with his Four Echevins (Scabins, Assessors), could not prevent -it; such was the force of public opinion. He, with his Echevins, and the -Six-and-Twenty Town-Councillors, all appointed from Above, may well sit -silent there, in their long gowns; and consider, with awed eye, what -prelude this is of convulsion coming from Below, and how themselves shall -fare in that! - - - -Chapter 1.5.IV. - -To Arms! - -So hangs it, dubious, fateful, in the sultry days of July. It is the -passionate printed advice of M. Marat, to abstain, of all things, from -violence. (Avis au Peuple, ou les Ministres devoiles, 1st July, 1789 (in -Histoire Parlementaire, ii. 37.) Nevertheless the hungry poor are already -burning Town Barriers, where Tribute on eatables is levied; getting -clamorous for food. - -The twelfth July morning is Sunday; the streets are all placarded with an -enormous-sized De par le Roi, 'inviting peaceable citizens to remain within -doors,' to feel no alarm, to gather in no crowd. Why so? What mean these -'placards of enormous size'? Above all, what means this clatter of -military; dragoons, hussars, rattling in from all points of the compass -towards the Place Louis Quinze; with a staid gravity of face, though -saluted with mere nicknames, hootings and even missiles? (Besenval, iii. -411.) Besenval is with them. Swiss Guards of his are already in the -Champs Elysees, with four pieces of artillery. - -Have the destroyers descended on us, then? From the Bridge of Sevres to -utmost Vincennes, from Saint-Denis to the Champ-de-Mars, we are begirt! -Alarm, of the vague unknown, is in every heart. The Palais Royal has -become a place of awestruck interjections, silent shakings of the head: -one can fancy with what dolorous sound the noon-tide cannon (which the Sun -fires at the crossing of his meridian) went off there; bodeful, like an -inarticulate voice of doom. (Histoire Parlementaire, ii. 81.) Are these -troops verily come out 'against Brigands'? Where are the Brigands? What -mystery is in the wind?--Hark! a human voice reporting articulately the -Job's-news: Necker, People's Minister, Saviour of France, is dismissed. -Impossible; incredible! Treasonous to the public peace! Such a voice -ought to be choked in the water-works; (Ibid.)--had not the news-bringer -quickly fled. Nevertheless, friends, make of it what you will, the news is -true. Necker is gone. Necker hies northward incessantly, in obedient -secrecy, since yesternight. We have a new Ministry: Broglie the War-god; -Aristocrat Breteuil; Foulon who said the people might eat grass! - -Rumour, therefore, shall arise; in the Palais Royal, and in broad France. -Paleness sits on every face; confused tremor and fremescence; waxing into -thunder-peals, of Fury stirred on by Fear. - -But see Camille Desmoulins, from the Cafe de Foy, rushing out, sibylline in -face; his hair streaming, in each hand a pistol! He springs to a table: -the Police satellites are eyeing him; alive they shall not take him, not -they alive him alive. This time he speaks without stammering:--Friends, -shall we die like hunted hares? Like sheep hounded into their pinfold; -bleating for mercy, where is no mercy, but only a whetted knife? The hour -is come; the supreme hour of Frenchman and Man; when Oppressors are to try -conclusions with Oppressed; and the word is, swift Death, or Deliverance -forever. Let such hour be well-come! Us, meseems, one cry only befits: -To Arms! Let universal Paris, universal France, as with the throat of the -whirlwind, sound only: To arms!--"To arms!" yell responsive the -innumerable voices: like one great voice, as of a Demon yelling from the -air: for all faces wax fire-eyed, all hearts burn up into madness. In -such, or fitter words, (Ibid.) does Camille evoke the Elemental Powers, in -this great moment.--Friends, continues Camille, some rallying sign! -Cockades; green ones;--the colour of hope!--As with the flight of locusts, -these green tree leaves; green ribands from the neighbouring shops; all -green things are snatched, and made cockades of. Camille descends from his -table, 'stifled with embraces, wetted with tears;' has a bit of green -riband handed him; sticks it in his hat. And now to Curtius' Image-shop -there; to the Boulevards; to the four winds; and rest not till France be on -fire! (Vieux Cordelier, par Camille Desmoulins, No. 5 (reprinted in -Collection des Memoires, par Baudouin Freres, Paris, 1825), p. 81.) - -France, so long shaken and wind-parched, is probably at the right -inflammable point.--As for poor Curtius, who, one grieves to think, might -be but imperfectly paid,--he cannot make two words about his Images. The -Wax-bust of Necker, the Wax-bust of D'Orleans, helpers of France: these, -covered with crape, as in funeral procession, or after the manner of -suppliants appealing to Heaven, to Earth, and Tartarus itself, a mixed -multitude bears off. For a sign! As indeed man, with his singular -imaginative faculties, can do little or nothing without signs: thus Turks -look to their Prophet's banner; also Osier Mannikins have been burnt, and -Necker's Portrait has erewhile figured, aloft on its perch. - -In this manner march they, a mixed, continually increasing multitude; armed -with axes, staves and miscellanea; grim, many-sounding, through the -streets. Be all Theatres shut; let all dancing, on planked floor, or on -the natural greensward, cease! Instead of a Christian Sabbath, and feast -of guinguette tabernacles, it shall be a Sorcerer's Sabbath; and Paris, -gone rabid, dance,--with the Fiend for piper! - -However, Besenval, with horse and foot, is in the Place Louis Quinze. -Mortals promenading homewards, in the fall of the day, saunter by, from -Chaillot or Passy, from flirtation and a little thin wine; with sadder step -than usual. Will the Bust-Procession pass that way! Behold it; behold -also Prince Lambesc dash forth on it, with his Royal-Allemands! Shots -fall, and sabre-strokes; Busts are hewn asunder; and, alas, also heads of -men. A sabred Procession has nothing for it but to explode, along what -streets, alleys, Tuileries Avenues it finds; and disappear. One unarmed -man lies hewed down; a Garde Francaise by his uniform: bear him (or bear -even the report of him) dead and gory to his Barracks;--where he has -comrades still alive! - -But why not now, victorious Lambesc, charge through that Tuileries Garden -itself, where the fugitives are vanishing? Not show the Sunday promenaders -too, how steel glitters, besprent with blood; that it be told of, and men's -ears tingle?--Tingle, alas, they did; but the wrong way. Victorious -Lambesc, in this his second or Tuileries charge, succeeds but in -overturning (call it not slashing, for he struck with the flat of his -sword) one man, a poor old schoolmaster, most pacifically tottering there; -and is driven out, by barricade of chairs, by flights of 'bottles and -glasses,' by execrations in bass voice and treble. Most delicate is the -mob-queller's vocation; wherein Too-much may be as bad as Not-enough. For -each of these bass voices, and more each treble voice, borne to all points -of the City, rings now nothing but distracted indignation; will ring all -another. The cry, To arms! roars tenfold; steeples with their metal storm- -voice boom out, as the sun sinks; armorer's shops are broken open, -plundered; the streets are a living foam-sea, chafed by all the winds. - -Such issue came of Lambesc's charge on the Tuileries Garden: no striking -of salutary terror into Chaillot promenaders; a striking into broad -wakefulness of Frenzy and the three Furies,--which otherwise were not -asleep! For they lie always, those subterranean Eumenides (fabulous and -yet so true), in the dullest existence of man;--and can dance, brandishing -their dusky torches, shaking their serpent-hair. Lambesc with Royal- -Allemand may ride to his barracks, with curses for his marching-music; then -ride back again, like one troubled in mind: vengeful Gardes Francaises, -sacreing, with knit brows, start out on him, from their barracks in the -Chaussee d'Antin; pour a volley into him (killing and wounding); which he -must not answer, but ride on. (Weber, ii. 75-91.) - -Counsel dwells not under the plumed hat. If the Eumenides awaken, and -Broglie has given no orders, what can a Besenval do? When the Gardes -Francaises, with Palais-Royal volunteers, roll down, greedy of more -vengeance, to the Place Louis Quinze itself, they find neither Besenval, -Lambesc, Royal-Allemand, nor any soldier now there. Gone is military -order. On the far Eastern Boulevard, of Saint-Antoine, the Chasseurs -Normandie arrive, dusty, thirsty, after a hard day's ride; but can find no -billet-master, see no course in this City of confusions; cannot get to -Besenval, cannot so much as discover where he is: Normandie must even -bivouac there, in its dust and thirst,--unless some patriot will treat it -to a cup of liquor, with advices. - -Raging multitudes surround the Hotel-de-Ville, crying: Arms! Orders! The -Six-and-twenty Town-Councillors, with their long gowns, have ducked under -(into the raging chaos);--shall never emerge more. Besenval is painfully -wriggling himself out, to the Champ-de-Mars; he must sit there 'in the -cruelest uncertainty:' courier after courier may dash off for Versailles; -but will bring back no answer, can hardly bring himself back. For the -roads are all blocked with batteries and pickets, with floods of carriages -arrested for examination: such was Broglie's one sole order; the Oeil-de- -Boeuf, hearing in the distance such mad din, which sounded almost like -invasion, will before all things keep its own head whole. A new Ministry, -with, as it were, but one foot in the stirrup, cannot take leaps. Mad -Paris is abandoned altogether to itself. - -What a Paris, when the darkness fell! A European metropolitan City hurled -suddenly forth from its old combinations and arrangements; to crash -tumultuously together, seeking new. Use and wont will now no longer direct -any man; each man, with what of originality he has, must begin thinking; or -following those that think. Seven hundred thousand individuals, on the -sudden, find all their old paths, old ways of acting and deciding, vanish -from under their feet. And so there go they, with clangour and terror, -they know not as yet whether running, swimming or flying,--headlong into -the New Era. With clangour and terror: from above, Broglie the war-god -impends, preternatural, with his redhot cannon-balls; and from below, a -preternatural Brigand-world menaces with dirk and firebrand: madness rules -the hour. - -Happily, in place of the submerged Twenty-six, the Electoral Club is -gathering; has declared itself a 'Provisional Municipality.' On the morrow -it will get Provost Flesselles, with an Echevin or two, to give help in -many things. For the present it decrees one most essential thing: that -forthwith a 'Parisian Militia' shall be enrolled. Depart, ye heads of -Districts, to labour in this great work; while we here, in Permanent -Committee, sit alert. Let fencible men, each party in its own range of -streets, keep watch and ward, all night. Let Paris court a little fever- -sleep; confused by such fever-dreams, of 'violent motions at the Palais -Royal;'--or from time to time start awake, and look out, palpitating, in -its nightcap, at the clash of discordant mutually-unintelligible Patrols; -on the gleam of distant Barriers, going up all-too ruddy towards the vault -of Night. (Deux Amis, i. 267-306.) - - - -Chapter 1.5.V. - -Give us Arms. - -On Monday the huge City has awoke, not to its week-day industry: to what a -different one! The working man has become a fighting man; has one want -only: that of arms. The industry of all crafts has paused;--except it be -the smith's, fiercely hammering pikes; and, in a faint degree, the -kitchener's, cooking off-hand victuals; for bouche va toujours. Women too -are sewing cockades;--not now of green, which being D'Artois colour, the -Hotel-de-Ville has had to interfere in it; but of red and blue, our old -Paris colours: these, once based on a ground of constitutional white, are -the famed TRICOLOR,--which (if Prophecy err not) 'will go round the world.' - -All shops, unless it be the Bakers' and Vintners', are shut: Paris is in -the streets;--rushing, foaming like some Venice wine-glass into which you -had dropped poison. The tocsin, by order, is pealing madly from all -steeples. Arms, ye Elector Municipals; thou Flesselles with thy Echevins, -give us arms! Flesselles gives what he can: fallacious, perhaps insidious -promises of arms from Charleville; order to seek arms here, order to seek -them there. The new Municipals give what they can; some three hundred and -sixty indifferent firelocks, the equipment of the City-Watch: 'a man in -wooden shoes, and without coat, directly clutches one of them, and mounts -guard.' Also as hinted, an order to all Smiths to make pikes with their -whole soul. - -Heads of Districts are in fervent consultation; subordinate Patriotism -roams distracted, ravenous for arms. Hitherto at the Hotel-de-Ville was -only such modicum of indifferent firelocks as we have seen. At the so- -called Arsenal, there lies nothing but rust, rubbish and saltpetre,-- -overlooked too by the guns of the Bastille. His Majesty's Repository, what -they call Garde-Meuble, is forced and ransacked: tapestries enough, and -gauderies; but of serviceable fighting-gear small stock! Two silver- -mounted cannons there are; an ancient gift from his Majesty of Siam to -Louis Fourteenth: gilt sword of the Good Henri; antique Chivalry arms and -armour. These, and such as these, a necessitous Patriotism snatches -greedily, for want of better. The Siamese cannons go trundling, on an -errand they were not meant for. Among the indifferent firelocks are seen -tourney-lances; the princely helm and hauberk glittering amid ill-hatted -heads,--as in a time when all times and their possessions are suddenly sent -jumbling! - -At the Maison de Saint-Lazare, Lazar-House once, now a Correction-House -with Priests, there was no trace of arms; but, on the other hand, corn, -plainly to a culpable extent. Out with it, to market; in this scarcity of -grains!--Heavens, will 'fifty-two carts,' in long row, hardly carry it to -the Halle aux Bleds? Well, truly, ye reverend Fathers, was your pantry -filled; fat are your larders; over-generous your wine-bins, ye plotting -exasperators of the Poor; traitorous forestallers of bread! - -Vain is protesting, entreaty on bare knees: the House of Saint-Lazarus has -that in it which comes not out by protesting. Behold, how, from every -window, it vomits: mere torrents of furniture, of bellowing and -hurlyburly;--the cellars also leaking wine. Till, as was natural, smoke -rose,--kindled, some say, by the desperate Saint-Lazaristes themselves, -desperate of other riddance; and the Establishment vanished from this world -in flame. Remark nevertheless that 'a thief' (set on or not by -Aristocrats), being detected there, is 'instantly hanged.' - -Look also at the Chatelet Prison. The Debtors' Prison of La Force is -broken from without; and they that sat in bondage to Aristocrats go free: -hearing of which the Felons at the Chatelet do likewise 'dig up their -pavements,' and stand on the offensive; with the best prospects,--had not -Patriotism, passing that way, 'fired a volley' into the Felon world; and -crushed it down again under hatches. Patriotism consorts not with thieving -and felony: surely also Punishment, this day, hitches (if she still hitch) -after Crime, with frightful shoes-of-swiftness! 'Some score or two' of -wretched persons, found prostrate with drink in the cellars of that Saint- -Lazare, are indignantly haled to prison; the Jailor has no room; whereupon, -other place of security not suggesting itself, it is written, 'on les -pendit, they hanged them.' (Histoire Parlementaire, ii. 96.) Brief is the -word; not without significance, be it true or untrue! - -In such circumstances, the Aristocrat, the unpatriotic rich man is packing- -up for departure. But he shall not get departed. A wooden-shod force has -seized all Barriers, burnt or not: all that enters, all that seeks to -issue, is stopped there, and dragged to the Hotel-de-Ville: coaches, -tumbrils, plate, furniture, 'many meal-sacks,' in time even 'flocks and -herds' encumber the Place de Greve. (Dusaulx, Prise de la Bastille, p. -20.) - -And so it roars, and rages, and brays; drums beating, steeples pealing; -criers rushing with hand-bells: "Oyez, oyez. All men to their Districts -to be enrolled!" The Districts have met in gardens, open squares; are -getting marshalled into volunteer troops. No redhot ball has yet fallen -from Besenval's Camp; on the contrary, Deserters with their arms are -continually dropping in: nay now, joy of joys, at two in the afternoon, -the Gardes Francaises, being ordered to Saint-Denis, and flatly declining, -have come over in a body! It is a fact worth many. Three thousand six -hundred of the best fighting men, with complete accoutrement; with -cannoneers even, and cannon! Their officers are left standing alone; could -not so much as succeed in 'spiking the guns.' The very Swiss, it may now -be hoped, Chateau-Vieux and the others, will have doubts about fighting. - -Our Parisian Militia,--which some think it were better to name National -Guard,--is prospering as heart could wish. It promised to be forty-eight -thousand; but will in few hours double and quadruple that number: -invincible, if we had only arms! - -But see, the promised Charleville Boxes, marked Artillerie! Here, then, -are arms enough?--Conceive the blank face of Patriotism, when it found them -filled with rags, foul linen, candle-ends, and bits of wood! Provost of -the Merchants, how is this? Neither at the Chartreux Convent, whither we -were sent with signed order, is there or ever was there any weapon of war. -Nay here, in this Seine Boat, safe under tarpaulings (had not the nose of -Patriotism been of the finest), are 'five thousand-weight of gunpowder;' -not coming in, but surreptitiously going out! What meanest thou, -Flesselles? 'Tis a ticklish game, that of 'amusing' us. Cat plays with -captive mouse: but mouse with enraged cat, with enraged National Tiger? - -Meanwhile, the faster, O ye black-aproned Smiths, smite; with strong arm -and willing heart. This man and that, all stroke from head to heel, shall -thunder alternating, and ply the great forge-hammer, till stithy reel and -ring again; while ever and anon, overhead, booms the alarm-cannon,--for the -City has now got gunpowder. Pikes are fabricated; fifty thousand of them, -in six-and-thirty hours: judge whether the Black-aproned have been idle. -Dig trenches, unpave the streets, ye others, assiduous, man and maid; cram -the earth in barrel-barricades, at each of them a volunteer sentry; pile -the whinstones in window-sills and upper rooms. Have scalding pitch, at -least boiling water ready, ye weak old women, to pour it and dash it on -Royal-Allemand, with your old skinny arms: your shrill curses along with -it will not be wanting!--Patrols of the newborn National Guard, bearing -torches, scour the streets, all that night; which otherwise are vacant, yet -illuminated in every window by order. Strange-looking; like some naphtha- -lighted City of the Dead, with here and there a flight of perturbed Ghosts. - -O poor mortals, how ye make this Earth bitter for each other; this fearful -and wonderful Life fearful and horrible; and Satan has his place in all -hearts! Such agonies and ragings and wailings ye have, and have had, in -all times:--to be buried all, in so deep silence; and the salt sea is not -swoln with your tears. - -Great meanwhile is the moment, when tidings of Freedom reach us; when the -long-enthralled soul, from amid its chains and squalid stagnancy, arises, -were it still only in blindness and bewilderment, and swears by Him that -made it, that it will be free! Free? Understand that well, it is the deep -commandment, dimmer or clearer, of our whole being, to be free. Freedom is -the one purport, wisely aimed at, or unwisely, of all man's struggles, -toilings and sufferings, in this Earth. Yes, supreme is such a moment (if -thou have known it): first vision as of a flame-girt Sinai, in this our -waste Pilgrimage,--which thenceforth wants not its pillar of cloud by day, -and pillar of fire by night! Something it is even,--nay, something -considerable, when the chains have grown corrosive, poisonous, to be free -'from oppression by our fellow-man.' Forward, ye maddened sons of France; -be it towards this destiny or towards that! Around you is but starvation, -falsehood, corruption and the clam of death. Where ye are is no abiding. - -Imagination may, imperfectly, figure how Commandant Besenval, in the Champ- -de-Mars, has worn out these sorrowful hours Insurrection all round; his men -melting away! From Versailles, to the most pressing messages, comes no -answer; or once only some vague word of answer which is worse than none. A -Council of Officers can decide merely that there is no decision: Colonels -inform him, 'weeping,' that they do not think their men will fight. Cruel -uncertainty is here: war-god Broglie sits yonder, inaccessible in his -Olympus; does not descend terror-clad, does not produce his whiff of -grapeshot; sends no orders. - -Truly, in the Chateau of Versailles all seems mystery: in the Town of -Versailles, were we there, all is rumour, alarm and indignation. An august -National Assembly sits, to appearance, menaced with death; endeavouring to -defy death. It has resolved 'that Necker carries with him the regrets of -the Nation.' It has sent solemn Deputation over to the Chateau, with -entreaty to have these troops withdrawn. In vain: his Majesty, with a -singular composure, invites us to be busy rather with our own duty, making -the Constitution! Foreign Pandours, and suchlike, go pricking and -prancing, with a swashbuckler air; with an eye too probably to the Salle -des Menus,--were it not for the 'grim-looking countenances' that crowd all -avenues there. (See Lameth; Ferrieres, &c.) Be firm, ye National -Senators; the cynosure of a firm, grim-looking people! - -The august National Senators determine that there shall, at least, be -Permanent Session till this thing end. Wherein, however, consider that -worthy Lafranc de Pompignan, our new President, whom we have named Bailly's -successor, is an old man, wearied with many things. He is the Brother of -that Pompignan who meditated lamentably on the Book of Lamentations: - - Saves-voux pourquoi Jeremie - Se lamentait toute sa vie? - C'est qu'il prevoyait - Que Pompignan le traduirait! - -Poor Bishop Pompignan withdraws; having got Lafayette for helper or -substitute: this latter, as nocturnal Vice-President, with a thin house in -disconsolate humour, sits sleepless, with lights unsnuffed;--waiting what -the hours will bring. - -So at Versailles. But at Paris, agitated Besenval, before retiring for the -night, has stept over to old M. de Sombreuil, of the Hotel des Invalides -hard by. M. de Sombreuil has, what is a great secret, some eight-and- -twenty thousand stand of muskets deposited in his cellars there; but no -trust in the temper of his Invalides. This day, for example, he sent -twenty of the fellows down to unscrew those muskets; lest Sedition might -snatch at them; but scarcely, in six hours, had the twenty unscrewed twenty -gun-locks, or dogsheads (chiens) of locks,--each Invalide his dogshead! If -ordered to fire, they would, he imagines, turn their cannon against -himself. - -Unfortunate old military gentlemen, it is your hour, not of glory! Old -Marquis de Launay too, of the Bastille, has pulled up his drawbridges long -since, 'and retired into his interior;' with sentries walking on his -battlements, under the midnight sky, aloft over the glare of illuminated -Paris;--whom a National Patrol, passing that way, takes the liberty of -firing at; 'seven shots towards twelve at night,' which do not take effect. -(Deux Amis de la Liberte, i. 312.) This was the 13th day of July, 1789; a -worse day, many said, than the last 13th was, when only hail fell out of -Heaven, not madness rose out of Tophet, ruining worse than crops! - -In these same days, as Chronology will teach us, hot old Marquis Mirabeau -lies stricken down, at Argenteuil,--not within sound of these alarm-guns; -for he properly is not there, and only the body of him now lies, deaf and -cold forever. It was on Saturday night that he, drawing his last life- -breaths, gave up the ghost there;--leaving a world, which would never go to -his mind, now broken out, seemingly, into deliration and the culbute -generale. What is it to him, departing elsewhither, on his long journey? -The old Chateau Mirabeau stands silent, far off, on its scarped rock, in -that 'gorge of two windy valleys;' the pale-fading spectre now of a -Chateau: this huge World-riot, and France, and the World itself, fades -also, like a shadow on the great still mirror-sea; and all shall be as God -wills. - -Young Mirabeau, sad of heart, for he loved this crabbed brave old Father, -sad of heart, and occupied with sad cares,--is withdrawn from Public -History. The great crisis transacts itself without him. (Fils Adoptif, -Mirabeau, vi. l. 1.) - - - -Chapter 1.5.VI. - -Storm and Victory. - -But, to the living and the struggling, a new, Fourteenth morning dawns. -Under all roofs of this distracted City, is the nodus of a drama, not -untragical, crowding towards solution. The bustlings and preparings, the -tremors and menaces; the tears that fell from old eyes! This day, my sons, -ye shall quit you like men. By the memory of your fathers' wrongs, by the -hope of your children's rights! Tyranny impends in red wrath: help for -you is none if not in your own right hands. This day ye must do or die. - -From earliest light, a sleepless Permanent Committee has heard the old cry, -now waxing almost frantic, mutinous: Arms! Arms! Provost Flesselles, or -what traitors there are among you, may think of those Charleville Boxes. A -hundred-and-fifty thousand of us; and but the third man furnished with so -much as a pike! Arms are the one thing needful: with arms we are an -unconquerable man-defying National Guard; without arms, a rabble to be -whiffed with grapeshot. - -Happily the word has arisen, for no secret can be kept,--that there lie -muskets at the Hotel des Invalides. Thither will we: King's Procureur M. -Ethys de Corny, and whatsoever of authority a Permanent Committee can lend, -shall go with us. Besenval's Camp is there; perhaps he will not fire on -us; if he kill us we shall but die. - -Alas, poor Besenval, with his troops melting away in that manner, has not -the smallest humour to fire! At five o'clock this morning, as he lay -dreaming, oblivious in the Ecole Militaire, a 'figure' stood suddenly at -his bedside: 'with face rather handsome; eyes inflamed, speech rapid and -curt, air audacious:' such a figure drew Priam's curtains! The message -and monition of the figure was, that resistance would be hopeless; that if -blood flowed, wo to him who shed it. Thus spoke the figure; and vanished. -'Withal there was a kind of eloquence that struck one.' Besenval admits -that he should have arrested him, but did not. (Besenval, iii. 414.) Who -this figure, with inflamed eyes, with speech rapid and curt, might be? -Besenval knows but mentions not. Camille Desmoulins? Pythagorean Marquis -Valadi, inflamed with 'violent motions all night at the Palais Royal?' -Fame names him, 'Young M. Meillar'; (Tableaux de la Revolution, Prise de la -Bastille (a folio Collection of Pictures and Portraits, with letter-press, -not always uninstructive,--part of it said to be by Chamfort).) Then shuts -her lips about him for ever. - -In any case, behold about nine in the morning, our National Volunteers -rolling in long wide flood, south-westward to the Hotel des Invalides; in -search of the one thing needful. King's procureur M. Ethys de Corny and -officials are there; the Cure of Saint-Etienne du Mont marches unpacific, -at the head of his militant Parish; the Clerks of the Bazoche in red coats -we see marching, now Volunteers of the Bazoche; the Volunteers of the -Palais Royal:--National Volunteers, numerable by tens of thousands; of one -heart and mind. The King's muskets are the Nation's; think, old M. de -Sombreuil, how, in this extremity, thou wilt refuse them! Old M. de -Sombreuil would fain hold parley, send Couriers; but it skills not: the -walls are scaled, no Invalide firing a shot; the gates must be flung open. -Patriotism rushes in, tumultuous, from grundsel up to ridge-tile, through -all rooms and passages; rummaging distractedly for arms. What cellar, or -what cranny can escape it? The arms are found; all safe there; lying -packed in straw,--apparently with a view to being burnt! More ravenous -than famishing lions over dead prey, the multitude, with clangour and -vociferation, pounces on them; struggling, dashing, clutching:--to the -jamming-up, to the pressure, fracture and probable extinction, of the -weaker Patriot. (Deux Amis, i. 302.) And so, with such protracted crash -of deafening, most discordant Orchestra-music, the Scene is changed: and -eight-and-twenty thousand sufficient firelocks are on the shoulders of so -many National Guards, lifted thereby out of darkness into fiery light. - -Let Besenval look at the glitter of these muskets, as they flash by! -Gardes Francaises, it is said, have cannon levelled on him; ready to open, -if need were, from the other side of the River. (Besenval, iii. 416.) -Motionless sits he; 'astonished,' one may flatter oneself, 'at the proud -bearing (fiere contenance) of the Parisians.'--And now, to the Bastille, ye -intrepid Parisians! There grapeshot still threatens; thither all men's -thoughts and steps are now tending. - -Old de Launay, as we hinted, withdrew 'into his interior' soon after -midnight of Sunday. He remains there ever since, hampered, as all military -gentlemen now are, in the saddest conflict of uncertainties. The Hotel-de- -Ville 'invites' him to admit National Soldiers, which is a soft name for -surrendering. On the other hand, His Majesty's orders were precise. His -garrison is but eighty-two old Invalides, reinforced by thirty-two young -Swiss; his walls indeed are nine feet thick, he has cannon and powder; but, -alas, only one day's provision of victuals. The city too is French, the -poor garrison mostly French. Rigorous old de Launay, think what thou wilt -do! - -All morning, since nine, there has been a cry everywhere: To the Bastille! -Repeated 'deputations of citizens' have been here, passionate for arms; -whom de Launay has got dismissed by soft speeches through portholes. -Towards noon, Elector Thuriot de la Rosiere gains admittance; finds de -Launay indisposed for surrender; nay disposed for blowing up the place -rather. Thuriot mounts with him to the battlements: heaps of paving- -stones, old iron and missiles lie piled; cannon all duly levelled; in every -embrasure a cannon,--only drawn back a little! But outwards behold, O -Thuriot, how the multitude flows on, welling through every street; tocsin -furiously pealing, all drums beating the generale: the Suburb Saint- -Antoine rolling hitherward wholly, as one man! Such vision (spectral yet -real) thou, O Thuriot, as from thy Mount of Vision, beholdest in this -moment: prophetic of what other Phantasmagories, and loud-gibbering -Spectral Realities, which, thou yet beholdest not, but shalt! "Que voulez -vous?" said de Launay, turning pale at the sight, with an air of reproach, -almost of menace. "Monsieur," said Thuriot, rising into the moral-sublime, -"What mean you? Consider if I could not precipitate both of us from this -height,"--say only a hundred feet, exclusive of the walled ditch! -Whereupon de Launay fell silent. Thuriot shews himself from some pinnacle, -to comfort the multitude becoming suspicious, fremescent: then descends; -departs with protest; with warning addressed also to the Invalides,--on -whom, however, it produces but a mixed indistinct impression. The old -heads are none of the clearest; besides, it is said, de Launay has been -profuse of beverages (prodigua des buissons). They think, they will not -fire,--if not fired on, if they can help it; but must, on the whole, be -ruled considerably by circumstances. - -Wo to thee, de Launay, in such an hour, if thou canst not, taking some one -firm decision, rule circumstances! Soft speeches will not serve; hard -grape-shot is questionable; but hovering between the two is unquestionable. -Ever wilder swells the tide of men; their infinite hum waxing ever louder, -into imprecations, perhaps into crackle of stray musketry,--which latter, -on walls nine feet thick, cannot do execution. The Outer Drawbridge has -been lowered for Thuriot; new deputation of citizens (it is the third, and -noisiest of all) penetrates that way into the Outer Court: soft speeches -producing no clearance of these, de Launay gives fire; pulls up his -Drawbridge. A slight sputter;--which has kindled the too combustible -chaos; made it a roaring fire-chaos! Bursts forth insurrection, at sight -of its own blood (for there were deaths by that sputter of fire), into -endless rolling explosion of musketry, distraction, execration;--and -overhead, from the Fortress, let one great gun, with its grape-shot, go -booming, to shew what we could do. The Bastille is besieged! - -On, then, all Frenchmen that have hearts in their bodies! Roar with all -your throats, of cartilage and metal, ye Sons of Liberty; stir -spasmodically whatsoever of utmost faculty is in you, soul, body or spirit; -for it is the hour! Smite, thou Louis Tournay, cartwright of the Marais, -old-soldier of the Regiment Dauphine; smite at that Outer Drawbridge chain, -though the fiery hail whistles round thee! Never, over nave or felloe, did -thy axe strike such a stroke. Down with it, man; down with it to Orcus: -let the whole accursed Edifice sink thither, and Tyranny be swallowed up -for ever! Mounted, some say on the roof of the guard-room, some 'on -bayonets stuck into joints of the wall,' Louis Tournay smites, brave Aubin -Bonnemere (also an old soldier) seconding him: the chain yields, breaks; -the huge Drawbridge slams down, thundering (avec fracas). Glorious: and -yet, alas, it is still but the outworks. The Eight grim Towers, with their -Invalides' musketry, their paving stones and cannon-mouths, still soar -aloft intact;--Ditch yawning impassable, stone-faced; the inner Drawbridge -with its back towards us: the Bastille is still to take! - -To describe this Siege of the Bastille (thought to be one of the most -important in history) perhaps transcends the talent of mortals. Could one -but, after infinite reading, get to understand so much as the plan of the -building! But there is open Esplanade, at the end of the Rue Saint- -Antoine; there are such Forecourts, Cour Avance, Cour de l'Orme, arched -Gateway (where Louis Tournay now fights); then new drawbridges, dormant- -bridges, rampart-bastions, and the grim Eight Towers: a labyrinthic Mass, -high-frowning there, of all ages from twenty years to four hundred and -twenty;--beleaguered, in this its last hour, as we said, by mere Chaos come -again! Ordnance of all calibres; throats of all capacities; men of all -plans, every man his own engineer: seldom since the war of Pygmies and -Cranes was there seen so anomalous a thing. Half-pay Elie is home for a -suit of regimentals; no one would heed him in coloured clothes: half-pay -Hulin is haranguing Gardes Francaises in the Place de Greve. Frantic -Patriots pick up the grape-shots; bear them, still hot (or seemingly so), -to the Hotel-de-Ville:--Paris, you perceive, is to be burnt! Flesselles is -'pale to the very lips' for the roar of the multitude grows deep. Paris -wholly has got to the acme of its frenzy; whirled, all ways, by panic -madness. At every street-barricade, there whirls simmering, a minor -whirlpool,--strengthening the barricade, since God knows what is coming; -and all minor whirlpools play distractedly into that grand Fire-Mahlstrom -which is lashing round the Bastille. - -And so it lashes and it roars. Cholat the wine-merchant has become an -impromptu cannoneer. See Georget, of the Marine Service, fresh from Brest, -ply the King of Siam's cannon. Singular (if we were not used to the like): -Georget lay, last night, taking his ease at his inn; the King of Siam's -cannon also lay, knowing nothing of him, for a hundred years. Yet now, at -the right instant, they have got together, and discourse eloquent music. -For, hearing what was toward, Georget sprang from the Brest Diligence, and -ran. Gardes Francaises also will be here, with real artillery: were not -the walls so thick!--Upwards from the Esplanade, horizontally from all -neighbouring roofs and windows, flashes one irregular deluge of musketry,-- -without effect. The Invalides lie flat, firing comparatively at their ease -from behind stone; hardly through portholes, shew the tip of a nose. We -fall, shot; and make no impression! - -Let conflagration rage; of whatsoever is combustible! Guard-rooms are -burnt, Invalides mess-rooms. A distracted 'Peruke-maker with two fiery -torches' is for burning 'the saltpetres of the Arsenal;'--had not a woman -run screaming; had not a Patriot, with some tincture of Natural Philosophy, -instantly struck the wind out of him (butt of musket on pit of stomach), -overturned barrels, and stayed the devouring element. A young beautiful -lady, seized escaping in these Outer Courts, and thought falsely to be de -Launay's daughter, shall be burnt in de Launay's sight; she lies swooned on -a paillasse: but again a Patriot, it is brave Aubin Bonnemere the old -soldier, dashes in, and rescues her. Straw is burnt; three cartloads of -it, hauled thither, go up in white smoke: almost to the choking of -Patriotism itself; so that Elie had, with singed brows, to drag back one -cart; and Reole the 'gigantic haberdasher' another. Smoke as of Tophet; -confusion as of Babel; noise as of the Crack of Doom! - -Blood flows, the aliment of new madness. The wounded are carried into -houses of the Rue Cerisaie; the dying leave their last mandate not to yield -till the accursed Stronghold fall. And yet, alas, how fall? The walls are -so thick! Deputations, three in number, arrive from the Hotel-de-Ville; -Abbe Fouchet (who was of one) can say, with what almost superhuman courage -of benevolence. (Fauchet's Narrative (Deux Amis, i. 324.).) These wave -their Town-flag in the arched Gateway; and stand, rolling their drum; but -to no purpose. In such Crack of Doom, de Launay cannot hear them, dare not -believe them: they return, with justified rage, the whew of lead still -singing in their ears. What to do? The Firemen are here, squirting with -their fire-pumps on the Invalides' cannon, to wet the touchholes; they -unfortunately cannot squirt so high; but produce only clouds of spray. -Individuals of classical knowledge propose catapults. Santerre, the -sonorous Brewer of the Suburb Saint-Antoine, advises rather that the place -be fired, by a 'mixture of phosphorous and oil-of-turpentine spouted up -through forcing pumps:' O Spinola-Santerre, hast thou the mixture ready? -Every man his own engineer! And still the fire-deluge abates not; even -women are firing, and Turks; at least one woman (with her sweetheart), and -one Turk. (Deux Amis (i. 319); Dusaulx, &c.) Gardes Francaises have come: -real cannon, real cannoneers. Usher Maillard is busy; half-pay Elie, half- -pay Hulin rage in the midst of thousands. - -How the great Bastille Clock ticks (inaudible) in its Inner Court there, at -its ease, hour after hour; as if nothing special, for it or the world, were -passing! It tolled One when the firing began; and is now pointing towards -Five, and still the firing slakes not.--Far down, in their vaults, the -seven Prisoners hear muffled din as of earthquakes; their Turnkeys answer -vaguely. - -Wo to thee, de Launay, with thy poor hundred Invalides! Broglie is -distant, and his ears heavy: Besenval hears, but can send no help. One -poor troop of Hussars has crept, reconnoitring, cautiously along the Quais, -as far as the Pont Neuf. "We are come to join you," said the Captain; for -the crowd seems shoreless. A large-headed dwarfish individual, of smoke- -bleared aspect, shambles forward, opening his blue lips, for there is sense -in him; and croaks: "Alight then, and give up your arms!" the Hussar- -Captain is too happy to be escorted to the Barriers, and dismissed on -parole. Who the squat individual was? Men answer, it is M. Marat, author -of the excellent pacific Avis au Peuple! Great truly, O thou remarkable -Dogleech, is this thy day of emergence and new birth: and yet this same -day come four years--!--But let the curtains of the future hang. - -What shall de Launay do? One thing only de Launay could have done: what -he said he would do. Fancy him sitting, from the first, with lighted -taper, within arm's length of the Powder-Magazine; motionless, like old -Roman Senator, or bronze Lamp-holder; coldly apprising Thuriot, and all -men, by a slight motion of his eye, what his resolution was:--Harmless he -sat there, while unharmed; but the King's Fortress, meanwhile, could, -might, would, or should, in nowise, be surrendered, save to the King's -Messenger: one old man's life worthless, so it be lost with honour; but -think, ye brawling canaille, how will it be when a whole Bastille springs -skyward!--In such statuesque, taper-holding attitude, one fancies de Launay -might have left Thuriot, the red Clerks of the Bazoche, Cure of Saint- -Stephen and all the tagrag-and-bobtail of the world, to work their will. - -And yet, withal, he could not do it. Hast thou considered how each man's -heart is so tremulously responsive to the hearts of all men; hast thou -noted how omnipotent is the very sound of many men? How their shriek of -indignation palsies the strong soul; their howl of contumely withers with -unfelt pangs? The Ritter Gluck confessed that the ground-tone of the -noblest passage, in one of his noblest Operas, was the voice of the -Populace he had heard at Vienna, crying to their Kaiser: Bread! Bread! -Great is the combined voice of men; the utterance of their instincts, which -are truer than their thoughts: it is the greatest a man encounters, among -the sounds and shadows, which make up this World of Time. He who can -resist that, has his footing some where beyond Time. De Launay could not -do it. Distracted, he hovers between the two; hopes in the middle of -despair; surrenders not his Fortress; declares that he will blow it up, -seizes torches to blow it up, and does not blow it. Unhappy old de Launay, -it is the death-agony of thy Bastille and thee! Jail, Jailoring and -Jailor, all three, such as they may have been, must finish. - -For four hours now has the World-Bedlam roared: call it the World- -Chimaera, blowing fire! The poor Invalides have sunk under their -battlements, or rise only with reversed muskets: they have made a white -flag of napkins; go beating the chamade, or seeming to beat, for one can -hear nothing. The very Swiss at the Portcullis look weary of firing; -disheartened in the fire-deluge: a porthole at the drawbridge is opened, -as by one that would speak. See Huissier Maillard, the shifty man! On his -plank, swinging over the abyss of that stone-Ditch; plank resting on -parapet, balanced by weight of Patriots,--he hovers perilous: such a Dove -towards such an Ark! Deftly, thou shifty Usher: one man already fell; and -lies smashed, far down there, against the masonry! Usher Maillard falls -not: deftly, unerring he walks, with outspread palm. The Swiss holds a -paper through his porthole; the shifty Usher snatches it, and returns. -Terms of surrender: Pardon, immunity to all! Are they accepted?--"Foi -d'officier, On the word of an officer," answers half-pay Hulin,--or half- -pay Elie, for men do not agree on it, "they are!" Sinks the drawbridge,-- -Usher Maillard bolting it when down; rushes-in the living deluge: the -Bastille is fallen! Victoire! La Bastille est prise! (Histoire de la -Revolution, par Deux Amis de la Liberte, i. 267-306; Besenval, iii. 410- -434; Dusaulx, Prise de la Bastille, 291-301. Bailly, Memoires (Collection -de Berville et Barriere), i. 322 et seqq.) - - - -Chapter 1.5.VII. - -Not a Revolt. - -Why dwell on what follows? Hulin's foi d'officer should have been kept, -but could not. The Swiss stand drawn up; disguised in white canvas smocks; -the Invalides without disguise; their arms all piled against the wall. The -first rush of victors, in ecstacy that the death-peril is passed, 'leaps -joyfully on their necks;' but new victors rush, and ever new, also in -ecstacy not wholly of joy. As we said, it was a living deluge, plunging -headlong; had not the Gardes Francaises, in their cool military way, -'wheeled round with arms levelled,' it would have plunged suicidally, by -the hundred or the thousand, into the Bastille-ditch. - -And so it goes plunging through court and corridor; billowing -uncontrollable, firing from windows--on itself: in hot frenzy of triumph, -of grief and vengeance for its slain. The poor Invalides will fare ill; -one Swiss, running off in his white smock, is driven back, with a death- -thrust. Let all prisoners be marched to the Townhall, to be judged!--Alas, -already one poor Invalide has his right hand slashed off him; his maimed -body dragged to the Place de Greve, and hanged there. This same right -hand, it is said, turned back de Launay from the Powder-Magazine, and saved -Paris. - -De Launay, 'discovered in gray frock with poppy-coloured riband,' is for -killing himself with the sword of his cane. He shall to the Hotel-de- -Ville; Hulin Maillard and others escorting him; Elie marching foremost -'with the capitulation-paper on his sword's point.' Through roarings and -cursings; through hustlings, clutchings, and at last through strokes! Your -escort is hustled aside, felled down; Hulin sinks exhausted on a heap of -stones. Miserable de Launay! He shall never enter the Hotel de Ville: -only his 'bloody hair-queue, held up in a bloody hand;' that shall enter, -for a sign. The bleeding trunk lies on the steps there; the head is off -through the streets; ghastly, aloft on a pike. - -Rigorous de Launay has died; crying out, "O friends, kill me fast!" -Merciful de Losme must die; though Gratitude embraces him, in this fearful -hour, and will die for him; it avails not. Brothers, your wrath is cruel! -Your Place de Greve is become a Throat of the Tiger; full of mere fierce -bellowings, and thirst of blood. One other officer is massacred; one other -Invalide is hanged on the Lamp-iron: with difficulty, with generous -perseverance, the Gardes Francaises will save the rest. Provost Flesselles -stricken long since with the paleness of death, must descend from his seat, -'to be judged at the Palais Royal:'--alas, to be shot dead, by an unknown -hand, at the turning of the first street!-- - -O evening sun of July, how, at this hour, thy beams fall slant on reapers -amid peaceful woody fields; on old women spinning in cottages; on ships far -out in the silent main; on Balls at the Orangerie of Versailles, where -high-rouged Dames of the Palace are even now dancing with double-jacketted -Hussar-Officers;--and also on this roaring Hell porch of a Hotel-de-Ville! -Babel Tower, with the confusion of tongues, were not Bedlam added with the -conflagration of thoughts, was no type of it. One forest of distracted -steel bristles, endless, in front of an Electoral Committee; points itself, -in horrid radii, against this and the other accused breast. It was the -Titans warring with Olympus; and they scarcely crediting it, have -conquered: prodigy of prodigies; delirious,--as it could not but be. -Denunciation, vengeance; blaze of triumph on a dark ground of terror: all -outward, all inward things fallen into one general wreck of madness! - -Electoral Committee? Had it a thousand throats of brass, it would not -suffice. Abbe Lefevre, in the Vaults down below, is black as Vulcan, -distributing that 'five thousand weight of Powder;' with what perils, these -eight-and-forty hours! Last night, a Patriot, in liquor, insisted on -sitting to smoke on the edge of one of the Powder-barrels; there smoked he, -independent of the world,--till the Abbe 'purchased his pipe for three -francs,' and pitched it far. - -Elie, in the grand Hall, Electoral Committee looking on, sits 'with drawn -sword bent in three places;' with battered helm, for he was of the Queen's -Regiment, Cavalry; with torn regimentals, face singed and soiled; -comparable, some think, to 'an antique warrior;'--judging the people; -forming a list of Bastille Heroes. O Friends, stain not with blood the -greenest laurels ever gained in this world: such is the burden of Elie's -song; could it but be listened to. Courage, Elie! Courage, ye Municipal -Electors! A declining sun; the need of victuals, and of telling news, will -bring assuagement, dispersion: all earthly things must end. - -Along the streets of Paris circulate Seven Bastille Prisoners, borne -shoulder-high: seven Heads on pikes; the Keys of the Bastille; and much -else. See also the Garde Francaises, in their steadfast military way, -marching home to their barracks, with the Invalides and Swiss kindly -enclosed in hollow square. It is one year and two months since these same -men stood unparticipating, with Brennus d'Agoust at the Palais de Justice, -when Fate overtook d'Espremenil; and now they have participated; and will -participate. Not Gardes Francaises henceforth, but Centre Grenadiers of -the National Guard: men of iron discipline and humour,--not without a kind -of thought in them! - -Likewise ashlar stones of the Bastille continue thundering through the -dusk; its paper-archives shall fly white. Old secrets come to view; and -long-buried Despair finds voice. Read this portion of an old Letter: -(Dated, a la Bastille, 7 Octobre, 1752; signed Queret-Demery. Bastille -Devoilee, in Linguet, Memoires sur la Bastille (Paris, 1821), p. 199.) 'If -for my consolation Monseigneur would grant me for the sake of God and the -Most Blessed Trinity, that I could have news of my dear wife; were it only -her name on card to shew that she is alive! It were the greatest -consolation I could receive; and I should for ever bless the greatness of -Monseigneur.' Poor Prisoner, who namest thyself Queret Demery, and hast no -other history,--she is dead, that dear wife of thine, and thou art dead! -'Tis fifty years since thy breaking heart put this question; to be heard -now first, and long heard, in the hearts of men. - -But so does the July twilight thicken; so must Paris, as sick children, and -all distracted creatures do, brawl itself finally into a kind of sleep. -Municipal Electors, astonished to find their heads still uppermost, are -home: only Moreau de Saint-Mery of tropical birth and heart, of coolest -judgment; he, with two others, shall sit permanent at the Townhall. Paris -sleeps; gleams upward the illuminated City: patrols go clashing, without -common watchword; there go rumours; alarms of war, to the extent of -'fifteen thousand men marching through the Suburb Saint-Antoine,'--who -never got it marched through. Of the day's distraction judge by this of -the night: Moreau de Saint-Mery, 'before rising from his seat, gave -upwards of three thousand orders.' (Dusaulx.) What a head; comparable to -Friar Bacon's Brass Head! Within it lies all Paris. Prompt must the -answer be, right or wrong; in Paris is no other Authority extant. -Seriously, a most cool clear head;--for which also thou O brave Saint-Mery, -in many capacities, from august Senator to Merchant's-Clerk, Book-dealer, -Vice-King; in many places, from Virginia to Sardinia, shalt, ever as a -brave man, find employment. (Biographie Universelle, para Moreau Saint- -Mery (by Fournier-Pescay).) - -Besenval has decamped, under cloud of dusk, 'amid a great affluence of -people,' who did not harm him; he marches, with faint-growing tread, down -the left bank of the Seine, all night,--towards infinite space. Resummoned -shall Besenval himself be; for trial, for difficult acquittal. His King's- -troops, his Royal Allemand, are gone hence for ever. - -The Versailles Ball and lemonade is done; the Orangery is silent except for -nightbirds. Over in the Salle des Menus, Vice-president Lafayette, with -unsnuffed lights, 'with some hundred of members, stretched on tables round -him,' sits erect; outwatching the Bear. This day, a second solemn -Deputation went to his Majesty; a second, and then a third: with no -effect. What will the end of these things be? - -In the Court, all is mystery, not without whisperings of terror; though ye -dream of lemonade and epaulettes, ye foolish women! His Majesty, kept in -happy ignorance, perhaps dreams of double-barrels and the Woods of Meudon. -Late at night, the Duke de Liancourt, having official right of entrance, -gains access to the Royal Apartments; unfolds, with earnest clearness, in -his constitutional way, the Job's-news. "Mais," said poor Louis, "c'est -une revolte, Why, that is a revolt!"--"Sire," answered Liancourt, "It is -not a revolt, it is a revolution." - - - -Chapter 1.5.VIII. - -Conquering your King. - -On the morrow a fourth Deputation to the Chateau is on foot: of a more -solemn, not to say awful character, for, besides 'orgies in the Orangery,' -it seems, 'the grain convoys are all stopped;' nor has Mirabeau's thunder -been silent. Such Deputation is on the point of setting out--when lo, his -Majesty himself attended only by his two Brothers, step in; quite in the -paternal manner; announces that the troops, and all causes of offence, are -gone, and henceforth there shall be nothing but trust, reconcilement, good- -will; whereof he 'permits and even requests,' a National Assembly to assure -Paris in his name! Acclamation, as of men suddenly delivered from death, -gives answer. The whole Assembly spontaneously rises to escort his Majesty -back; 'interlacing their arms to keep off the excessive pressure from him;' -for all Versailles is crowding and shouting. The Chateau Musicians, with a -felicitous promptitude, strike up the Sein de sa Famille (Bosom of one's -Family): the Queen appears at the balcony with her little boy and girl, -'kissing them several times;' infinite Vivats spread far and wide;--and -suddenly there has come, as it were, a new Heaven-on-Earth. - -Eighty-eight august Senators, Bailly, Lafayette, and our repentant -Archbishop among them, take coach for Paris, with the great intelligence; -benedictions without end on their heads. From the Place Louis Quinze, -where they alight, all the way to the Hotel-de-Ville, it is one sea of -Tricolor cockades, of clear National muskets; one tempest of huzzaings, -hand-clappings, aided by 'occasional rollings' of drum-music. Harangues of -due fervour are delivered; especially by Lally Tollendal, pious son of the -ill-fated murdered Lally; on whose head, in consequence, a civic crown (of -oak or parsley) is forced,--which he forcibly transfers to Bailly's. - -But surely, for one thing, the National Guard must have a General! Moreau -de Saint-Mery, he of the 'three thousand orders,' casts one of his -significant glances on the Bust of Lafayette, which has stood there ever -since the American War of Liberty. Whereupon, by acclamation, Lafayette is -nominated. Again, in room of the slain traitor or quasi-traitor -Flesselles, President Bailly shall be--Provost of the Merchants? No: -Mayor of Paris! So be it. Maire de Paris! Mayor Bailly, General -Lafayette; vive Bailly, vive Lafayette--the universal out-of-doors -multitude rends the welkin in confirmation.--And now, finally, let us to -Notre-Dame for a Te Deum. - -Towards Notre-Dame Cathedral, in glad procession, these Regenerators of the -Country walk, through a jubilant people; in fraternal manner; Abbe Lefevre, -still black with his gunpowder services, walking arm in arm with the white- -stoled Archbishop. Poor Bailly comes upon the Foundling Children, sent to -kneel to him; and 'weeps.' Te Deum, our Archbishop officiating, is not -only sung, but shot--with blank cartridges. Our joy is boundless as our wo -threatened to be. Paris, by her own pike and musket, and the valour of her -own heart, has conquered the very wargods,--to the satisfaction now of -Majesty itself. A courier is, this night, getting under way for Necker: -the People's Minister, invited back by King, by National Assembly, and -Nation, shall traverse France amid shoutings, and the sound of trumpet and -timbrel. - -Seeing which course of things, Messeigneurs of the Court Triumvirate, -Messieurs of the dead-born Broglie-Ministry, and others such, consider that -their part also is clear: to mount and ride. Off, ye too-loyal Broglies, -Polignacs, and Princes of the Blood; off while it is yet time! Did not the -Palais-Royal in its late nocturnal 'violent motions,' set a specific price -(place of payment not mentioned) on each of your heads?--With precautions, -with the aid of pieces of cannon and regiments that can be depended on, -Messeigneurs, between the 16th night and the 17th morning, get to their -several roads. Not without risk! Prince Conde has (or seems to have) 'men -galloping at full speed;' with a view, it is thought, to fling him into the -river Oise, at Pont-Sainte-Mayence. (Weber, ii. 126.) The Polignacs -travel disguised; friends, not servants, on their coach-box. Broglie has -his own difficulties at Versailles, runs his own risks at Metz and Verdun; -does nevertheless get safe to Luxemburg, and there rests. - -This is what they call the First Emigration; determined on, as appears, in -full Court-conclave; his Majesty assisting; prompt he, for his share of it, -to follow any counsel whatsoever. 'Three Sons of France, and four Princes -of the blood of Saint Louis,' says Weber, 'could not more effectually -humble the Burghers of Paris 'than by appearing to withdraw in fear of -their life.' Alas, the Burghers of Paris bear it with unexpected Stoicism! -The Man d'Artois indeed is gone; but has he carried, for example, the Land -D'Artois with him? Not even Bagatelle the Country-house (which shall be -useful as a Tavern); hardly the four-valet Breeches, leaving the Breeches- -maker!--As for old Foulon, one learns that he is dead; at least a -'sumptuous funeral' is going on; the undertakers honouring him, if no other -will. Intendant Berthier, his son-in-law, is still living; lurking: he -joined Besenval, on that Eumenides' Sunday; appearing to treat it with -levity; and is now fled no man knows whither. - -The Emigration is not gone many miles, Prince Conde hardly across the Oise, -when his Majesty, according to arrangement, for the Emigration also thought -it might do good,--undertakes a rather daring enterprise: that of visiting -Paris in person. With a Hundred Members of Assembly; with small or no -military escort, which indeed he dismissed at the Bridge of Sevres, poor -Louis sets out; leaving a desolate Palace; a Queen weeping, the Present, -the Past, and the Future all so unfriendly for her. - -At the Barrier of Passy, Mayor Bailly, in grand gala, presents him with the -keys; harangues him, in Academic style; mentions that it is a great day; -that in Henri Quatre's case, the King had to make conquest of his People, -but in this happier case, the People makes conquest of its King (a conquis -son Roi). The King, so happily conquered, drives forward, slowly, through -a steel people, all silent, or shouting only Vive la Nation; is harangued -at the Townhall, by Moreau of the three-thousand orders, by King's -Procureur M. Ethys de Corny, by Lally Tollendal, and others; knows not what -to think of it, or say of it; learns that he is 'Restorer of French -Liberty,'--as a Statue of him, to be raised on the site of the Bastille, -shall testify to all men. Finally, he is shewn at the Balcony, with a -Tricolor cockade in his hat; is greeted now, with vehement acclamation, -from Square and Street, from all windows and roofs:--and so drives home -again amid glad mingled and, as it were, intermarried shouts, of Vive le -Roi and Vive la Nation; wearied but safe. - -It was Sunday when the red-hot balls hung over us, in mid air: it is now -but Friday, and 'the Revolution is sanctioned.' An August National -Assembly shall make the Constitution; and neither foreign Pandour, domestic -Triumvirate, with levelled Cannon, Guy-Faux powder-plots (for that too was -spoken of); nor any tyrannic Power on the Earth, or under the Earth, shall -say to it, What dost thou?--So jubilates the people; sure now of a -Constitution. Cracked Marquis Saint-Huruge is heard under the windows of -the Chateau; murmuring sheer speculative-treason. (Campan, ii. 46-64.) - - - -Chapter 1.5.IX. - -The Lanterne. - -The Fall of the Bastille may be said to have shaken all France to the -deepest foundations of its existence. The rumour of these wonders flies -every where: with the natural speed of Rumour; with an effect thought to -be preternatural, produced by plots. Did d'Orleans or Laclos, nay did -Mirabeau (not overburdened with money at this time) send riding Couriers -out from Paris; to gallop 'on all radii,' or highways, towards all points -of France? It is a miracle, which no penetrating man will call in -question. (Toulongeon, (i. 95); Weber, &c. &c.) - -Already in most Towns, Electoral Committees were met; to regret Necker, in -harangue and resolution. In many a Town, as Rennes, Caen, Lyons, an -ebullient people was already regretting him in brickbats and musketry. But -now, at every Town's-end in France, there do arrive, in these days of -terror,--'men,' as men will arrive; nay, 'men on horseback,' since Rumour -oftenest travels riding. These men declare, with alarmed countenance, The -BRIGANDS to be coming, to be just at hand; and do then--ride on, about -their further business, be what it might! Whereupon the whole population -of such Town, defensively flies to arms. Petition is soon thereafter -forwarded to National Assembly; in such peril and terror of peril, leave to -organise yourself cannot be withheld: the armed population becomes -everywhere an enrolled National Guard. Thus rides Rumour, careering along -all radii, from Paris outwards, to such purpose: in few days, some say in -not many hours, all France to the utmost borders bristles with bayonets. -Singular, but undeniable,--miraculous or not!--But thus may any chemical -liquid; though cooled to the freezing-point, or far lower, still continue -liquid; and then, on the slightest stroke or shake, it at once rushes -wholly into ice. Thus has France, for long months and even years, been -chemically dealt with; brought below zero; and now, shaken by the Fall of a -Bastille, it instantaneously congeals: into one crystallised mass, of -sharp-cutting steel! Guai a chi la tocca; 'Ware who touches it! - -In Paris, an Electoral Committee, with a new Mayor and General, is urgent -with belligerent workmen to resume their handicrafts. Strong Dames of the -Market (Dames de la Halle) deliver congratulatory harangues; present -'bouquets to the Shrine of Sainte Genevieve.' Unenrolled men deposit their -arms,--not so readily as could be wished; and receive 'nine francs.' With -Te Deums, Royal Visits, and sanctioned Revolution, there is halcyon -weather; weather even of preternatural brightness; the hurricane being -overblown. - -Nevertheless, as is natural, the waves still run high, hollow rocks -retaining their murmur. We are but at the 22nd of the month, hardly above -a week since the Bastille fell, when it suddenly appears that old Foulon is -alive; nay, that he is here, in early morning, in the streets of Paris; the -extortioner, the plotter, who would make the people eat grass, and was a -liar from the beginning!--It is even so. The deceptive 'sumptuous funeral' -(of some domestic that died); the hiding-place at Vitry towards -Fontainbleau, have not availed that wretched old man. Some living domestic -or dependant, for none loves Foulon, has betrayed him to the Village. -Merciless boors of Vitry unearth him; pounce on him, like hell-hounds: -Westward, old Infamy; to Paris, to be judged at the Hotel-de-Ville! His -old head, which seventy-four years have bleached, is bare; they have tied -an emblematic bundle of grass on his back; a garland of nettles and -thistles is round his neck: in this manner; led with ropes; goaded on with -curses and menaces, must he, with his old limbs, sprawl forward; the -pitiablest, most unpitied of all old men. - -Sooty Saint-Antoine, and every street, mustering its crowds as he passes,-- -the Place de Greve, the Hall of the Hotel-de-Ville will scarcely hold his -escort and him. Foulon must not only be judged righteously; but judged -there where he stands, without any delay. Appoint seven judges, ye -Municipals, or seventy-and-seven; name them yourselves, or we will name -them: but judge him! (Histoire Parlementaire, ii. 146-9.) Electoral -rhetoric, eloquence of Mayor Bailly, is wasted explaining the beauty of the -Law's delay. Delay, and still delay! Behold, O Mayor of the People, the -morning has worn itself into noon; and he is still unjudged!--Lafayette, -pressingly sent for, arrives; gives voice: This Foulon, a known man, is -guilty almost beyond doubt; but may he not have accomplices? Ought not the -truth to be cunningly pumped out of him,--in the Abbaye Prison? It is a -new light! Sansculottism claps hands;--at which hand-clapping, Foulon (in -his fainness, as his Destiny would have it) also claps. "See! they -understand one another!" cries dark Sansculottism, blazing into fury of -suspicion.--"Friends," said 'a person in good clothes,' stepping forward, -"what is the use of judging this man? Has he not been judged these thirty -years?" With wild yells, Sansculottism clutches him, in its hundred hands: -he is whirled across the Place de Greve, to the 'Lanterne,' Lamp-iron which -there is at the corner of the Rue de la Vannerie; pleading bitterly for -life,--to the deaf winds. Only with the third rope (for two ropes broke, -and the quavering voice still pleaded), can he be so much as got hanged! -His Body is dragged through the streets; his Head goes aloft on a pike, the -mouth filled with grass: amid sounds as of Tophet, from a grass-eating -people. (Deux Amis de la Liberte, ii. 60-6.) - -Surely if Revenge is a 'kind of Justice,' it is a 'wild' kind! O mad -Sansculottism hast thou risen, in thy mad darkness, in thy soot and rags; -unexpectedly, like an Enceladus, living-buried, from under his Trinacria? -They that would make grass be eaten do now eat grass, in this manner? -After long dumb-groaning generations, has the turn suddenly become thine?-- -To such abysmal overturns, and frightful instantaneous inversions of the -centre-of-gravity, are human Solecisms all liable, if they but knew it; the -more liable, the falser (and topheavier) they are!-- - -To add to the horror of Mayor Bailly and his Municipals, word comes that -Berthier has also been arrested; that he is on his way hither from -Compiegne. Berthier, Intendant (say, Tax-levier) of Paris; sycophant and -tyrant; forestaller of Corn; contriver of Camps against the people;-- -accused of many things: is he not Foulon's son-in-law; and, in that one -point, guilty of all? In these hours too, when Sansculottism has its blood -up! The shuddering Municipals send one of their number to escort him, with -mounted National Guards. - -At the fall of day, the wretched Berthier, still wearing a face of courage, -arrives at the Barrier; in an open carriage; with the Municipal beside him; -five hundred horsemen with drawn sabres; unarmed footmen enough, not -without noise! Placards go brandished round him; bearing legibly his -indictment, as Sansculottism, with unlegal brevity, 'in huge letters,' -draws it up. ('Il a vole le Roi et la France (He robbed the King and -France).' 'He devoured the substance of the People.' 'He was the slave of -the rich, and the tyrant of the poor.' 'He drank the blood of the widow -and orphan.' 'He betrayed his country.' See Deux Amis, ii. 67-73.) Paris -is come forth to meet him: with hand-clappings, with windows flung up; -with dances, triumph-songs, as of the Furies! Lastly the Head of Foulon: -this also meets him on a pike. Well might his 'look become glazed,' and -sense fail him, at such sight!--Nevertheless, be the man's conscience what -it may, his nerves are of iron. At the Hotel-de-Ville, he will answer -nothing. He says, he obeyed superior order; they have his papers; they may -judge and determine: as for himself, not having closed an eye these two -nights, he demands, before all things, to have sleep. Leaden sleep, thou -miserable Berthier! Guards rise with him, in motion towards the Abbaye. -At the very door of the Hotel-de-Ville, they are clutched; flung asunder, -as by a vortex of mad arms; Berthier whirls towards the Lanterne. He -snatches a musket; fells and strikes, defending himself like a mad lion; is -borne down, trampled, hanged, mangled: his Head too, and even his Heart, -flies over the City on a pike. - -Horrible, in Lands that had known equal justice! Not so unnatural in Lands -that had never known it. Le sang qui coule est-il donc si pure? asks -Barnave; intimating that the Gallows, though by irregular methods, has its -own.--Thou thyself, O Reader, when thou turnest that corner of the Rue de -la Vannerie, and discernest still that same grim Bracket of old Iron, wilt -not want for reflections. 'Over a grocer's shop,' or otherwise; with 'a -bust of Louis XIV. in the niche under it,' or now no longer in the niche,-- -it still sticks there: still holding out an ineffectual light, of fish- -oil; and has seen worlds wrecked, and says nothing. - -But to the eye of enlightened Patriotism, what a thunder-cloud was this; -suddenly shaping itself in the radiance of the halcyon weather! Cloud of -Erebus blackness: betokening latent electricity without limit. Mayor -Bailly, General Lafayette throw up their commissions, in an indignant -manner;--need to be flattered back again. The cloud disappears, as -thunder-clouds do. The halcyon weather returns, though of a grayer -complexion; of a character more and more evidently not supernatural. - -Thus, in any case, with what rubs soever, shall the Bastille be abolished -from our Earth; and with it, Feudalism, Despotism; and, one hopes, -Scoundrelism generally, and all hard usage of man by his brother man. -Alas, the Scoundrelism and hard usage are not so easy of abolition! But as -for the Bastille, it sinks day after day, and month after month; its -ashlars and boulders tumbling down continually, by express order of our -Municipals. Crowds of the curious roam through its caverns; gaze on the -skeletons found walled up, on the oubliettes, iron cages, monstrous stone- -blocks with padlock chains. One day we discern Mirabeau there; along with -the Genevese Dumont. (Dumont, Souvenirs sur Mirabeau, p. 305.) Workers -and onlookers make reverent way for him; fling verses, flowers on his path, -Bastille-papers and curiosities into his carriage, with vivats. - -Able Editors compile Books from the Bastille Archives; from what of them -remain unburnt. The Key of that Robber-Den shall cross the Atlantic; shall -lie on Washington's hall-table. The great Clock ticks now in a private -patriotic Clockmaker's apartment; no longer measuring hours of mere -heaviness. Vanished is the Bastille, what we call vanished: the body, or -sandstones, of it hanging, in benign metamorphosis, for centuries to come, -over the Seine waters, as Pont Louis Seize; (Dulaure: Histoire de Paris, -viii. 434.) the soul of it living, perhaps still longer, in the memories of -men. - -So far, ye august Senators, with your Tennis-Court Oaths, your inertia and -impetus, your sagacity and pertinacity, have ye brought us. "And yet -think, Messieurs," as the Petitioner justly urged, "you who were our -saviours, did yourselves need saviours,"--the brave Bastillers, namely; -workmen of Paris; many of them in straightened pecuniary circumstances! -(Moniteur: Seance du Samedi 18 Juillet 1789 (in Histoire Parlementaire, -ii. 137.) Subscriptions are opened; Lists are formed, more accurate than -Elie's; harangues are delivered. A Body of Bastille Heroes, tolerably -complete, did get together;--comparable to the Argonauts; hoping to endure -like them. But in little more than a year, the whirlpool of things threw -them asunder again, and they sank. So many highest superlatives achieved -by man are followed by new higher; and dwindle into comparatives and -positives! The Siege of the Bastille, weighed with which, in the -Historical balance, most other sieges, including that of Troy Town, are -gossamer, cost, as we find, in killed and mortally wounded, on the part of -the Besiegers, some Eighty-three persons: on the part of the Besieged, -after all that straw-burning, fire-pumping, and deluge of musketry, One -poor solitary invalid, shot stone-dead (roide-mort) on the battlements; -(Dusaulx: Prise de la Bastille, p. 447, &c.) The Bastille Fortress, like -the City of Jericho, was overturned by miraculous sound. - - - - -BOOK VI. - -CONSOLIDATION - - -Chapter 1.6.I. - -Make the Constitution. - -Here perhaps is the place to fix, a little more precisely, what these two -words, French Revolution, shall mean; for, strictly considered, they may -have as many meanings as there are speakers of them. All things are in -revolution; in change from moment to moment, which becomes sensible from -epoch to epoch: in this Time-World of ours there is properly nothing else -but revolution and mutation, and even nothing else conceivable. -Revolution, you answer, means speedier change. Whereupon one has still to -ask: How speedy? At what degree of speed; in what particular points of -this variable course, which varies in velocity, but can never stop till -Time itself stops, does revolution begin and end; cease to be ordinary -mutation, and again become such? It is a thing that will depend on -definition more or less arbitrary. - -For ourselves we answer that French Revolution means here the open violent -Rebellion, and Victory, of disimprisoned Anarchy against corrupt worn-out -Authority: how Anarchy breaks prison; bursts up from the infinite Deep, -and rages uncontrollable, immeasurable, enveloping a world; in phasis after -phasis of fever-frenzy;--'till the frenzy burning itself out, and what -elements of new Order it held (since all Force holds such) developing -themselves, the Uncontrollable be got, if not reimprisoned, yet harnessed, -and its mad forces made to work towards their object as sane regulated -ones. For as Hierarchies and Dynasties of all kinds, Theocracies, -Aristocracies, Autocracies, Strumpetocracies, have ruled over the world; so -it was appointed, in the decrees of Providence, that this same Victorious -Anarchy, Jacobinism, Sansculottism, French Revolution, Horrors of French -Revolution, or what else mortals name it, should have its turn. The -'destructive wrath' of Sansculottism: this is what we speak, having -unhappily no voice for singing. - -Surely a great Phenomenon: nay it is a transcendental one, overstepping -all rules and experience; the crowning Phenomenon of our Modern Time. For -here again, most unexpectedly, comes antique Fanaticism in new and newest -vesture; miraculous, as all Fanaticism is. Call it the Fanaticism of -'making away with formulas, de humer les formulas.' The world of formulas, -the formed regulated world, which all habitable world is,--must needs hate -such Fanaticism like death; and be at deadly variance with it. The world -of formulas must conquer it; or failing that, must die execrating it, -anathematising it;--can nevertheless in nowise prevent its being and its -having been. The Anathemas are there, and the miraculous Thing is there. - -Whence it cometh? Whither it goeth? These are questions! When the age of -Miracles lay faded into the distance as an incredible tradition, and even -the age of Conventionalities was now old; and Man's Existence had for long -generations rested on mere formulas which were grown hollow by course of -time; and it seemed as if no Reality any longer existed but only Phantasms -of realities, and God's Universe were the work of the Tailor and -Upholsterer mainly, and men were buckram masks that went about becking and -grimacing there,--on a sudden, the Earth yawns asunder, and amid Tartarean -smoke, and glare of fierce brightness, rises SANSCULOTTISM, many-headed, -fire-breathing, and asks: What think ye of me? Well may the buckram masks -start together, terror-struck; 'into expressive well-concerted groups!' It -is indeed, Friends, a most singular, most fatal thing. Let whosoever is -but buckram and a phantasm look to it: ill verily may it fare with him; -here methinks he cannot much longer be. Wo also to many a one who is not -wholly buckram, but partially real and human! The age of Miracles has come -back! 'Behold the World-Phoenix, in fire-consummation and fire-creation; -wide are her fanning wings; loud is her death-melody, of battle-thunders -and falling towns; skyward lashes the funeral flame, enveloping all things: -it is the Death-Birth of a World!' - -Whereby, however, as we often say, shall one unspeakable blessing seem -attainable. This, namely: that Man and his Life rest no more on -hollowness and a Lie, but on solidity and some kind of Truth. Welcome, the -beggarliest truth, so it be one, in exchange for the royallest sham! Truth -of any kind breeds ever new and better truth; thus hard granite rock will -crumble down into soil, under the blessed skyey influences; and cover -itself with verdure, with fruitage and umbrage. But as for Falsehood, -which in like contrary manner, grows ever falser,--what can it, or what -should it do but decease, being ripe; decompose itself, gently or even -violently, and return to the Father of it,--too probably in flames of fire? - -Sansculottism will burn much; but what is incombustible it will not burn. -Fear not Sansculottism; recognise it for what it is, the portentous, -inevitable end of much, the miraculous beginning of much. One other thing -thou mayest understand of it: that it too came from God; for has it not -been? From of old, as it is written, are His goings forth; in the great -Deep of things; fearful and wonderful now as in the beginning: in the -whirlwind also He speaks! and the wrath of men is made to praise Him.--But -to gauge and measure this immeasurable Thing, and what is called account -for it, and reduce it to a dead logic-formula, attempt not! Much less -shalt thou shriek thyself hoarse, cursing it; for that, to all needful -lengths, has been already done. As an actually existing Son of Time, look, -with unspeakable manifold interest, oftenest in silence, at what the Time -did bring: therewith edify, instruct, nourish thyself, or were it but to -amuse and gratify thyself, as it is given thee. - -Another question which at every new turn will rise on us, requiring ever -new reply is this: Where the French Revolution specially is? In the -King's Palace, in his Majesty's or her Majesty's managements, and -maltreatments, cabals, imbecilities and woes, answer some few:--whom we do -not answer. In the National Assembly, answer a large mixed multitude: who -accordingly seat themselves in the Reporter's Chair; and therefrom noting -what Proclamations, Acts, Reports, passages of logic-fence, bursts of -parliamentary eloquence seem notable within doors, and what tumults and -rumours of tumult become audible from without,--produce volume on volume; -and, naming it History of the French Revolution, contentedly publish the -same. To do the like, to almost any extent, with so many Filed Newspapers, -Choix des Rapports, Histoires Parlementaires as there are, amounting to -many horseloads, were easy for us. Easy but unprofitable. The National -Assembly, named now Constituent Assembly, goes its course; making the -Constitution; but the French Revolution also goes its course. - -In general, may we not say that the French Revolution lies in the heart and -head of every violent-speaking, of every violent-thinking French Man? How -the Twenty-five Millions of such, in their perplexed combination, acting -and counter-acting may give birth to events; which event successively is -the cardinal one; and from what point of vision it may best be surveyed: -this is a problem. Which problem the best insight, seeking light from all -possible sources, shifting its point of vision whithersoever vision or -glimpse of vision can be had, may employ itself in solving; and be well -content to solve in some tolerably approximate way. - -As to the National Assembly, in so far as it still towers eminent over -France, after the manner of a car-borne Carroccio, though now no longer in -the van; and rings signals for retreat or for advance,--it is and continues -a reality among other realities. But in so far as it sits making the -Constitution, on the other hand, it is a fatuity and chimera mainly. Alas, -in the never so heroic building of Montesquieu-Mably card-castles, though -shouted over by the world, what interest is there? Occupied in that way, -an august National Assembly becomes for us little other than a Sanhedrim of -pedants, not of the gerund-grinding, yet of no fruitfuller sort; and its -loud debatings and recriminations about Rights of Man, Right of Peace and -War, Veto suspensif, Veto absolu, what are they but so many Pedant's- -curses, 'May God confound you for your Theory of Irregular Verbs!' - -A Constitution can be built, Constitutions enough a la Sieyes: but the -frightful difficulty is that of getting men to come and live in them! -Could Sieyes have drawn thunder and lightning out of Heaven to sanction his -Constitution, it had been well: but without any thunder? Nay, strictly -considered, is it not still true that without some such celestial sanction, -given visibly in thunder or invisibly otherwise, no Constitution can in the -long run be worth much more than the waste-paper it is written on? The -Constitution, the set of Laws, or prescribed Habits of Acting, that men -will live under, is the one which images their Convictions,--their Faith as -to this wondrous Universe, and what rights, duties, capabilities they have -there; which stands sanctioned therefore, by Necessity itself, if not by a -seen Deity, then by an unseen one. Other laws, whereof there are always -enough ready-made, are usurpations; which men do not obey, but rebel -against, and abolish, by their earliest convenience. - -The question of questions accordingly were, Who is it that especially for -rebellers and abolishers, can make a Constitution? He that can image forth -the general Belief when there is one; that can impart one when, as here, -there is none. A most rare man; ever as of old a god-missioned man! Here, -however, in defect of such transcendent supreme man, Time with its infinite -succession of merely superior men, each yielding his little contribution, -does much. Force likewise (for, as Antiquarian Philosophers teach, the -royal Sceptre was from the first something of a Hammer, to crack such heads -as could not be convinced) will all along find somewhat to do. And thus in -perpetual abolition and reparation, rending and mending, with struggle and -strife, with present evil and the hope and effort towards future good, must -the Constitution, as all human things do, build itself forward; or unbuild -itself, and sink, as it can and may. O Sieyes, and ye other Committeemen, -and Twelve Hundred miscellaneous individuals from all parts of France! -What is the Belief of France, and yours, if ye knew it? Properly that -there shall be no Belief; that all formulas be swallowed. The Constitution -which will suit that? Alas, too clearly, a No-Constitution, an Anarchy;-- -which also, in due season, shall be vouchsafed you. - -But, after all, what can an unfortunate National Assembly do? Consider -only this, that there are Twelve Hundred miscellaneous individuals; not a -unit of whom but has his own thinking-apparatus, his own speaking- -apparatus! In every unit of them is some belief and wish, different for -each, both that France should be regenerated, and also that he individually -should do it. Twelve Hundred separate Forces, yoked miscellaneously to any -object, miscellaneously to all sides of it; and bid pull for life! - -Or is it the nature of National Assemblies generally to do, with endless -labour and clangour, Nothing? Are Representative Governments mostly at -bottom Tyrannies too! Shall we say, the Tyrants, the ambitious contentious -Persons, from all corners of the country do, in this manner, get gathered -into one place; and there, with motion and counter-motion, with jargon and -hubbub, cancel one another, like the fabulous Kilkenny Cats; and produce, -for net-result, zero;--the country meanwhile governing or guiding itself, -by such wisdom, recognised or for most part unrecognised, as may exist in -individual heads here and there?--Nay, even that were a great improvement: -for, of old, with their Guelf Factions and Ghibelline Factions, with their -Red Roses and White Roses, they were wont to cancel the whole country as -well. Besides they do it now in a much narrower cockpit; within the four -walls of their Assembly House, and here and there an outpost of Hustings -and Barrel-heads; do it with tongues too, not with swords:--all which -improvements, in the art of producing zero, are they not great? Nay, best -of all, some happy Continents (as the Western one, with its Savannahs, -where whosoever has four willing limbs finds food under his feet, and an -infinite sky over his head) can do without governing.--What Sphinx- -questions; which the distracted world, in these very generations, must -answer or die! - - - -Chapter 1.6.II. - -The Constituent Assembly. - -One thing an elected Assembly of Twelve Hundred is fit for: Destroying. -Which indeed is but a more decided exercise of its natural talent for Doing -Nothing. Do nothing, only keep agitating, debating; and things will -destroy themselves. - -So and not otherwise proved it with an august National Assembly. It took -the name, Constituent, as if its mission and function had been to construct -or build; which also, with its whole soul, it endeavoured to do: yet, in -the fates, in the nature of things, there lay for it precisely of all -functions the most opposite to that. Singular, what Gospels men will -believe; even Gospels according to Jean Jacques! It was the fixed Faith of -these National Deputies, as of all thinking Frenchmen, that the -Constitution could be made; that they, there and then, were called to make -it. How, with the toughness of Old Hebrews or Ishmaelite Moslem, did the -otherwise light unbelieving People persist in this their Credo quia -impossibile ; and front the armed world with it; and grow fanatic, and even -heroic, and do exploits by it! The Constituent Assembly's Constitution, -and several others, will, being printed and not manuscript, survive to -future generations, as an instructive well-nigh incredible document of the -Time: the most significant Picture of the then existing France; or at -lowest, Picture of these men's Picture of it. - -But in truth and seriousness, what could the National Assembly have done? -The thing to be done was, actually as they said, to regenerate France; to -abolish the old France, and make a new one; quietly or forcibly, by -concession or by violence, this, by the Law of Nature, has become -inevitable. With what degree of violence, depends on the wisdom of those -that preside over it. With perfect wisdom on the part of the National -Assembly, it had all been otherwise; but whether, in any wise, it could -have been pacific, nay other than bloody and convulsive, may still be a -question. - -Grant, meanwhile, that this Constituent Assembly does to the last continue -to be something. With a sigh, it sees itself incessantly forced away from -its infinite divine task, of perfecting 'the Theory of Irregular Verbs,'-- -to finite terrestrial tasks, which latter have still a significance for us. -It is the cynosure of revolutionary France, this National Assembly. All -work of Government has fallen into its hands, or under its control; all men -look to it for guidance. In the middle of that huge Revolt of Twenty-five -millions, it hovers always aloft as Carroccio or Battle-Standard, impelling -and impelled, in the most confused way; if it cannot give much guidance, it -will still seem to give some. It emits pacificatory Proclamations, not a -few; with more or with less result. It authorises the enrolment of -National Guards,--lest Brigands come to devour us, and reap the unripe -crops. It sends missions to quell 'effervescences;' to deliver men from -the Lanterne. It can listen to congratulatory Addresses, which arrive -daily by the sackful; mostly in King Cambyses' vein: also to Petitions and -complaints from all mortals; so that every mortal's complaint, if it cannot -get redressed, may at least hear itself complain. For the rest, an august -National Assembly can produce Parliamentary Eloquence; and appoint -Committees. Committees of the Constitution, of Reports, of Researches; and -of much else: which again yield mountains of Printed Paper; the theme of -new Parliamentary Eloquence, in bursts, or in plenteous smooth-flowing -floods. And so, from the waste vortex whereon all things go whirling and -grinding, Organic Laws, or the similitude of such, slowly emerge. - -With endless debating, we get the Rights of Man written down and -promulgated: true paper basis of all paper Constitutions. Neglecting, cry -the opponents, to declare the Duties of Man! Forgetting, answer we, to -ascertain the Mights of Man;--one of the fatalest omissions!--Nay, -sometimes, as on the Fourth of August, our National Assembly, fired -suddenly by an almost preternatural enthusiasm, will get through whole -masses of work in one night. A memorable night, this Fourth of August: -Dignitaries temporal and spiritual; Peers, Archbishops, Parlement- -Presidents, each outdoing the other in patriotic devotedness, come -successively to throw their (untenable) possessions on the 'altar of the -fatherland.' With louder and louder vivats, for indeed it is 'after -dinner' too,--they abolish Tithes, Seignorial Dues, Gabelle, excessive -Preservation of Game; nay Privilege, Immunity, Feudalism root and branch; -then appoint a Te Deum for it; and so, finally, disperse about three in the -morning, striking the stars with their sublime heads. Such night, -unforeseen but for ever memorable, was this of the Fourth of August 1789. -Miraculous, or semi-miraculous, some seem to think it. A new Night of -Pentecost, shall we say, shaped according to the new Time, and new Church -of Jean Jacques Rousseau? It had its causes; also its effects. - -In such manner labour the National Deputies; perfecting their Theory of -Irregular Verbs; governing France, and being governed by it; with toil and -noise;--cutting asunder ancient intolerable bonds; and, for new ones, -assiduously spinning ropes of sand. Were their labours a nothing or a -something, yet the eyes of all France being reverently fixed on them, -History can never very long leave them altogether out of sight. - -For the present, if we glance into that Assembly Hall of theirs, it will be -found, as is natural, 'most irregular.' As many as 'a hundred members are -on their feet at once;' no rule in making motions, or only commencements of -a rule; Spectators' Gallery allowed to applaud, and even to hiss; (Arthur -Young, i. 111.) President, appointed once a fortnight, raising many times -no serene head above the waves. Nevertheless, as in all human Assemblages, -like does begin arranging itself to like; the perennial rule, Ubi homines -sunt modi sunt, proves valid. Rudiments of Methods disclose themselves; -rudiments of Parties. There is a Right Side (Cote Droit), a Left Side -(Cote Gauche); sitting on M. le President's right hand, or on his left: -the Cote Droit conservative; the Cote Gauche destructive. Intermediate is -Anglomaniac Constitutionalism, or Two-Chamber Royalism; with its Mouniers, -its Lallys,--fast verging towards nonentity. Preeminent, on the Right -Side, pleads and perorates Cazales, the Dragoon-captain, eloquent, mildly -fervent; earning for himself the shadow of a name. There also blusters -Barrel-Mirabeau, the Younger Mirabeau, not without wit: dusky d'Espremenil -does nothing but sniff and ejaculate; might, it is fondly thought, lay -prostrate the Elder Mirabeau himself, would he but try, (Biographie -Universelle, para D'Espremenil (by Beaulieu).)--which he does not. Last -and greatest, see, for one moment, the Abbe Maury; with his jesuitic eyes, -his impassive brass face, 'image of all the cardinal sins.' Indomitable, -unquenchable, he fights jesuitico-rhetorically; with toughest lungs and -heart; for Throne, especially for Altar and Tithes. So that a shrill voice -exclaims once, from the Gallery: "Messieurs of the Clergy, you have to be -shaved; if you wriggle too much, you will get cut." (Dictionnaire des -Hommes Marquans, ii. 519.) - -The Left side is also called the d'Orleans side; and sometimes derisively, -the Palais Royal. And yet, so confused, real-imaginary seems everything, -'it is doubtful,' as Mirabeau said, 'whether d'Orleans himself belong to -that same d'Orleans Party.' What can be known and seen is, that his moon- -visage does beam forth from that point of space. There likewise sits -seagreen Robespierre; throwing in his light weight, with decision, not yet -with effect. A thin lean Puritan and Precisian; he would make away with -formulas; yet lives, moves, and has his being, wholly in formulas, of -another sort. 'Peuple,' such according to Robespierre ought to be the -Royal method of promulgating laws, 'Peuple, this is the Law I have framed -for thee; dost thou accept it?'--answered from Right Side, from Centre and -Left, by inextinguishable laughter. (Moniteur, No. 67 (in Hist.Parl.).) -Yet men of insight discern that the Seagreen may by chance go far: "this -man," observes Mirabeau, "will do somewhat; he believes every word he -says." - -Abbe Sieyes is busy with mere Constitutional work: wherein, unluckily, -fellow-workmen are less pliable than, with one who has completed the -Science of Polity, they ought to be. Courage, Sieyes nevertheless! Some -twenty months of heroic travail, of contradiction from the stupid, and the -Constitution shall be built; the top-stone of it brought out with -shouting,--say rather, the top-paper, for it is all Paper; and thou hast -done in it what the Earth or the Heaven could require, thy utmost. Note -likewise this Trio; memorable for several things; memorable were it only -that their history is written in an epigram: 'whatsoever these Three have -in hand,' it is said, 'Duport thinks it, Barnave speaks it, Lameth does -it.' (See Toulongeon, i. c. 3.) - -But royal Mirabeau? Conspicuous among all parties, raised above and beyond -them all, this man rises more and more. As we often say, he has an eye, he -is a reality; while others are formulas and eye-glasses. In the Transient -he will detect the Perennial, find some firm footing even among Paper- -vortexes. His fame is gone forth to all lands; it gladdened the heart of -the crabbed old Friend of Men himself before he died. The very Postilions -of inns have heard of Mirabeau: when an impatient Traveller complains that -the team is insufficient, his Postilion answers, "Yes, Monsieur, the -wheelers are weak; but my mirabeau (main horse), you see, is a right one, -mais mon mirabeau est excellent." (Dumont, Souvenirs sur Mirabeau, p. -255.) - -And now, Reader, thou shalt quit this noisy Discrepancy of a National -Assembly; not (if thou be of humane mind) without pity. Twelve Hundred -brother men are there, in the centre of Twenty-five Millions; fighting so -fiercely with Fate and with one another; struggling their lives out, as -most sons of Adam do, for that which profiteth not. Nay, on the whole, it -is admitted further to be very dull. "Dull as this day's Assembly," said -some one. "Why date, Pourquoi dater?" answered Mirabeau. - -Consider that they are Twelve Hundred; that they not only speak, but read -their speeches; and even borrow and steal speeches to read! With Twelve -Hundred fluent speakers, and their Noah's Deluge of vociferous commonplace, -unattainable silence may well seem the one blessing of Life. But figure -Twelve Hundred pamphleteers; droning forth perpetual pamphlets: and no man -to gag them! Neither, as in the American Congress, do the arrangements -seem perfect. A Senator has not his own Desk and Newspaper here; of -Tobacco (much less of Pipes) there is not the slightest provision. -Conversation itself must be transacted in a low tone, with continual -interruption: only 'pencil Notes' circulate freely; 'in incredible numbers -to the foot of the very tribune.' (See Dumont (pp. 159-67); Arthur Young, -&c.)--Such work is it, regenerating a Nation; perfecting one's Theory of -Irregular Verbs! - - - -Chapter 1.6.III. - -The General Overturn. - -Of the King's Court, for the present, there is almost nothing whatever to -be said. Silent, deserted are these halls; Royalty languishes forsaken of -its war-god and all its hopes, till once the Oeil-de-Boeuf rally again. -The sceptre is departed from King Louis; is gone over to the Salles des -Menus, to the Paris Townhall, or one knows not whither. In the July days, -while all ears were yet deafened by the crash of the Bastille, and -Ministers and Princes were scattered to the four winds, it seemed as if the -very Valets had grown heavy of hearing. Besenval, also in flight towards -Infinite Space, but hovering a little at Versailles, was addressing his -Majesty personally for an Order about post-horses; when, lo, 'the Valet in -waiting places himself familiarly between his Majesty and me,' stretching -out his rascal neck to learn what it was! His Majesty, in sudden choler, -whirled round; made a clutch at the tongs: 'I gently prevented him; he -grasped my hand in thankfulness; and I noticed tears in his eyes.' -(Besenval, iii. 419.) - -Poor King; for French Kings also are men! Louis Fourteenth himself once -clutched the tongs, and even smote with them; but then it was at Louvois, -and Dame Maintenon ran up.--The Queen sits weeping in her inner apartments, -surrounded by weak women: she is 'at the height of unpopularity;' -universally regarded as the evil genius of France. Her friends and -familiar counsellors have all fled; and fled, surely, on the foolishest -errand. The Chateau Polignac still frowns aloft, on its 'bold and -enormous' cubical rock, amid the blooming champaigns, amid the blue -girdling mountains of Auvergne: (Arthur Young, i. 165.) but no Duke and -Duchess Polignac look forth from it; they have fled, they have 'met Necker -at Bale;' they shall not return. That France should see her Nobles resist -the Irresistible, Inevitable, with the face of angry men, was unhappy, not -unexpected: but with the face and sense of pettish children? This was her -peculiarity. They understood nothing; would understand nothing. Does not, -at this hour, a new Polignac, first-born of these Two, sit reflective in -the Castle of Ham; (A.D. 1835.) in an astonishment he will never recover -from; the most confused of existing mortals? - -King Louis has his new Ministry: mere Popularities; Old-President -Pompignan; Necker, coming back in triumph; and other such. (Montgaillard, -ii. 108.) But what will it avail him? As was said, the sceptre, all but -the wooden gilt sceptre, has departed elsewhither. Volition, determination -is not in this man: only innocence, indolence; dependence on all persons -but himself, on all circumstances but the circumstances he were lord of. -So troublous internally is our Versailles and its work. Beautiful, if seen -from afar, resplendent like a Sun; seen near at hand, a mere Sun's- -Atmosphere, hiding darkness, confused ferment of ruin! - -But over France, there goes on the indisputablest 'destruction of -formulas;' transaction of realities that follow therefrom. So many -millions of persons, all gyved, and nigh strangled, with formulas; whose -Life nevertheless, at least the digestion and hunger of it, was real -enough! Heaven has at length sent an abundant harvest; but what profits it -the poor man, when Earth with her formulas interposes? Industry, in these -times of Insurrection, must needs lie dormant; capital, as usual, not -circulating, but stagnating timorously in nooks. The poor man is short of -work, is therefore short of money; nay even had he money, bread is not to -be bought for it. Were it plotting of Aristocrats, plotting of d'Orleans; -were it Brigands, preternatural terror, and the clang of Phoebus Apollo's -silver bow,--enough, the markets are scarce of grain, plentiful only in -tumult. Farmers seem lazy to thresh;--being either 'bribed;' or needing no -bribe, with prices ever rising, with perhaps rent itself no longer so -pressing. Neither, what is singular, do municipal enactments, 'That along -with so many measures of wheat you shall sell so many of rye,' and other -the like, much mend the matter. Dragoons with drawn swords stand ranked -among the corn-sacks, often more dragoons than sacks. (Arthur Young, i. -129, &c.) Meal-mobs abound; growing into mobs of a still darker quality. - -Starvation has been known among the French Commonalty before this; known -and familiar. Did we not see them, in the year 1775, presenting, in sallow -faces, in wretchedness and raggedness, their Petition of Grievances; and, -for answer, getting a brand-new Gallows forty feet high? Hunger and -Darkness, through long years! For look back on that earlier Paris Riot, -when a Great Personage, worn out by debauchery, was believed to be in want -of Blood-baths; and Mothers, in worn raiment, yet with living hearts under -it, 'filled the public places' with their wild Rachel-cries,--stilled also -by the Gallows. Twenty years ago, the Friend of Men (preaching to the -deaf) described the Limousin Peasants as wearing a pain-stricken (souffre- -douleur) look, a look past complaint, 'as if the oppression of the great -were like the hail and the thunder, a thing irremediable, the ordinance of -Nature.' (Fils Adoptif: Memoires de Mirabeau, i. 364-394.) And now, if -in some great hour, the shock of a falling Bastille should awaken you; and -it were found to be the ordinance of Art merely; and remediable, -reversible! - -Or has the Reader forgotten that 'flood of savages,' which, in sight of the -same Friend of Men, descended from the mountains at Mont d'Or? Lank-haired -haggard faces; shapes rawboned, in high sabots; in woollen jupes, with -leather girdles studded with copper-nails! They rocked from foot to foot, -and beat time with their elbows too, as the quarrel and battle which was -not long in beginning went on; shouting fiercely; the lank faces distorted -into the similitude of a cruel laugh. For they were darkened and hardened: -long had they been the prey of excise-men and tax-men; of 'clerks with the -cold spurt of their pen.' It was the fixed prophecy of our old Marquis, -which no man would listen to, that 'such Government by Blind-man's-buff, -stumbling along too far, would end by the General Overturn, the Culbute -Generale!' - -No man would listen, each went his thoughtless way;--and Time and Destiny -also travelled on. The Government by Blind-man's-buff, stumbling along, -has reached the precipice inevitable for it. Dull Drudgery, driven on, by -clerks with the cold dastard spurt of their pen, has been driven--into a -Communion of Drudges! For now, moreover, there have come the strangest -confused tidings; by Paris Journals with their paper wings; or still more -portentous, where no Journals are, (See Arthur Young, i. 137, 150, &c.) by -rumour and conjecture: Oppression not inevitable; a Bastille prostrate, -and the Constitution fast getting ready! Which Constitution, if it be -something and not nothing, what can it be but bread to eat? - -The Traveller, 'walking up hill bridle in hand,' overtakes 'a poor woman;' -the image, as such commonly are, of drudgery and scarcity; 'looking sixty -years of age, though she is not yet twenty-eight.' They have seven -children, her poor drudge and she: a farm, with one cow, which helps to -make the children soup; also one little horse, or garron. They have rents -and quit-rents, Hens to pay to this Seigneur, Oat-sacks to that; King's -taxes, Statute-labour, Church-taxes, taxes enough;--and think the times -inexpressible. She has heard that somewhere, in some manner, something is -to be done for the poor: "God send it soon; for the dues and taxes crush -us down (nous ecrasent)!" (Ibid. i. 134.) - -Fair prophecies are spoken, but they are not fulfilled. There have been -Notables, Assemblages, turnings out and comings in. Intriguing and -manoeuvring; Parliamentary eloquence and arguing, Greek meeting Greek in -high places, has long gone on; yet still bread comes not. The harvest is -reaped and garnered; yet still we have no bread. Urged by despair and by -hope, what can Drudgery do, but rise, as predicted, and produce the General -Overturn? - -Fancy, then, some Five full-grown Millions of such gaunt figures, with -their haggard faces (figures haves); in woollen jupes, with copper-studded -leather girths, and high sabots,--starting up to ask, as in forest- -roarings, their washed Upper-Classes, after long unreviewed centuries, -virtually this question: How have ye treated us; how have ye taught us, -fed us, and led us, while we toiled for you? The answer can be read in -flames, over the nightly summer sky. This is the feeding and leading we -have had of you: EMPTINESS,--of pocket, of stomach, of head, and of heart. -Behold there is nothing in us; nothing but what Nature gives her wild -children of the desert: Ferocity and Appetite; Strength grounded on -Hunger. Did ye mark among your Rights of Man, that man was not to die of -starvation, while there was bread reaped by him? It is among the Mights of -Man. - -Seventy-two Chateaus have flamed aloft in the Maconnais and Beaujolais -alone: this seems the centre of the conflagration; but it has spread over -Dauphine, Alsace, the Lyonnais; the whole South-East is in a blaze. All -over the North, from Rouen to Metz, disorder is abroad: smugglers of salt -go openly in armed bands: the barriers of towns are burnt; toll-gatherers, -tax-gatherers, official persons put to flight. 'It was thought,' says -Young, 'the people, from hunger, would revolt;' and we see they have done -it. Desperate Lackalls, long prowling aimless, now finding hope in -desperation itself, everywhere form a nucleus. They ring the Church bell -by way of tocsin: and the Parish turns out to the work. (See Hist. Parl. -ii. 243-6.) Ferocity, atrocity; hunger and revenge: such work as we can -imagine! - -Ill stands it now with the Seigneur, who, for example, 'has walled up the -only Fountain of the Township;' who has ridden high on his chartier and -parchments; who has preserved Game not wisely but too well. Churches also, -and Canonries, are sacked, without mercy; which have shorn the flock too -close, forgetting to feed it. Wo to the land over which Sansculottism, in -its day of vengeance, tramps roughshod,--shod in sabots! Highbred -Seigneurs, with their delicate women and little ones, had to 'fly half- -naked,' under cloud of night; glad to escape the flames, and even worse. -You meet them at the tables-d'hote of inns; making wise reflections or -foolish that 'rank is destroyed;' uncertain whither they shall now wend. -(See Young, i. 149, &c.) The metayer will find it convenient to be slack -in paying rent. As for the Tax-gatherer, he, long hunting as a biped of -prey, may now get hunted as one; his Majesty's Exchequer will not 'fill up -the Deficit,' this season: it is the notion of many that a Patriot -Majesty, being the Restorer of French Liberty, has abolished most taxes, -though, for their private ends, some men make a secret of it. - -Where this will end? In the Abyss, one may prophecy; whither all Delusions -are, at all moments, travelling; where this Delusion has now arrived. For -if there be a Faith, from of old, it is this, as we often repeat, that no -Lie can live for ever. The very Truth has to change its vesture, from time -to time; and be born again. But all Lies have sentence of death written -down against them, and Heaven's Chancery itself; and, slowly or fast, -advance incessantly towards their hour. 'The sign of a Grand Seigneur -being landlord,' says the vehement plain-spoken Arthur Young, 'are wastes, -landes, deserts, ling: go to his residence, you will find it in the middle -of a forest, peopled with deer, wild boars and wolves. The fields are -scenes of pitiable management, as the houses are of misery. To see so many -millions of hands, that would be industrious, all idle and starving: Oh, -if I were legislator of France, for one day, I would make these great lords -skip again!' (Arthur Young, i. 12, 48, 84, &c.) O Arthur, thou now -actually beholdest them skip:--wilt thou grow to grumble at that too? - -For long years and generations it lasted, but the time came. Featherbrain, -whom no reasoning and no pleading could touch, the glare of the firebrand -had to illuminate: there remained but that method. Consider it, look at -it! The widow is gathering nettles for her children's dinner; a perfumed -Seigneur, delicately lounging in the Oeil-de-Boeuf, has an alchemy whereby -he will extract from her the third nettle, and name it Rent and Law: such -an arrangement must end. Ought it? But, O most fearful is such an ending! -Let those, to whom God, in His great mercy, has granted time and space, -prepare another and milder one. - -To women it is a matter of wonder that the Seigneurs did not do something -to help themselves; say, combine, and arm: for there were a 'hundred and -fifty thousand of them,' all violent enough. Unhappily, a hundred and -fifty thousand, scattered over wide Provinces, divided by mutual ill-will, -cannot combine. The highest Seigneurs, as we have seen, had already -emigrated,--with a view of putting France to the blush. Neither are arms -now the peculiar property of Seigneurs; but of every mortal who has ten -shillings, wherewith to buy a secondhand firelock. - -Besides, those starving Peasants, after all, have not four feet and claws, -that you could keep them down permanently in that manner. They are not -even of black colour; they are mere Unwashed Seigneurs; and a Seigneur too -has human bowels!--The Seigneurs did what they could; enrolled in National -Guards; fled, with shrieks, complaining to Heaven and Earth. One Seigneur, -famed Memmay of Quincey, near Vesoul, invited all the rustics of his -neighbourhood to a banquet; blew up his Chateau and them with gunpowder; -and instantaneously vanished, no man yet knows whither. (Hist. Parl. ii. -161.) Some half dozen years after, he came back; and demonstrated that it -was by accident. - -Nor are the authorities idle: though unluckily, all Authorities, -Municipalities and such like, are in the uncertain transitionary state; -getting regenerated from old Monarchic to new Democratic; no Official yet -knows clearly what he is. Nevertheless, Mayors old or new do gather -Marechaussees, National Guards, Troops of the line; justice, of the most -summary sort, is not wanting. The Electoral Committee of Macon, though but -a Committee, goes the length of hanging, for its own behoof, as many as -twenty. The Prevot of Dauphine traverses the country 'with a movable -column,' with tipstaves, gallows-ropes; for gallows any tree will serve, -and suspend its culprit, or 'thirteen' culprits. - -Unhappy country! How is the fair gold-and-green of the ripe bright Year -defaced with horrid blackness: black ashes of Chateaus, black bodies of -gibetted Men! Industry has ceased in it; not sounds of the hammer and saw, -but of the tocsin and alarm-drum. The sceptre has departed, whither one -knows not;--breaking itself in pieces: here impotent, there tyrannous. -National Guards are unskilful, and of doubtful purpose; Soldiers are -inclined to mutiny: there is danger that they two may quarrel, danger that -they may agree. Strasburg has seen riots: a Townhall torn to shreds, its -archives scattered white on the winds; drunk soldiers embracing drunk -citizens for three days, and Mayor Dietrich and Marshal Rochambeau reduced -nigh to desperation. (Arthur Young, i. 141.--Dampmartin: Evenemens qui se -sont passes sous mes yeux, i. 105-127.) - -Through the middle of all which phenomena, is seen, on his triumphant -transit, 'escorted,' through Befort for instance, 'by fifty National -Horsemen and all the military music of the place,'--M. Necker, returning -from Bale! Glorious as the meridian; though poor Necker himself partly -guesses whither it is leading. (Biographie Universelle, para Necker (by -Lally-Tollendal).) One highest culminating day, at the Paris Townhall; -with immortal vivats, with wife and daughter kneeling publicly to kiss his -hand; with Besenval's pardon granted,--but indeed revoked before sunset: -one highest day, but then lower days, and ever lower, down even to lowest! -Such magic is in a name; and in the want of a name. Like some enchanted -Mambrino's Helmet, essential to victory, comes this 'Saviour of France;' -beshouted, becymballed by the world:--alas, so soon, to be disenchanted, to -be pitched shamefully over the lists as a Barber's Bason! Gibbon 'could -wish to shew him' (in this ejected, Barber's-Bason state) to any man of -solidity, who were minded to have the soul burnt out of him, and become a -caput mortuum, by Ambition, unsuccessful or successful. (Gibbon's -Letters.) - -Another small phasis we add, and no more: how, in the Autumn months, our -sharp-tempered Arthur has been 'pestered for some days past,' by shot, -lead-drops and slugs, 'rattling five or six times into my chaise and about -my ears;' all the mob of the country gone out to kill game! (Young, i. -176.) It is even so. On the Cliffs of Dover, over all the Marches of -France, there appear, this autumn, two Signs on the Earth: emigrant -flights of French Seigneurs; emigrant winged flights of French Game! -Finished, one may say, or as good as finished, is the Preservation of Game -on this Earth; completed for endless Time. What part it had to play in the -History of Civilisation is played plaudite; exeat! - -In this manner does Sansculottism blaze up, illustrating many things;-- -producing, among the rest, as we saw, on the Fourth of August, that semi- -miraculous Night of Pentecost in the National Assembly; semi miraculous, -which had its causes, and its effects. Feudalism is struck dead; not on -parchment only, and by ink; but in very fact, by fire; say, by self- -combustion. This conflagration of the South-East will abate; will be got -scattered, to the West, or elsewhither: extinguish it will not, till the -fuel be all done. - - - -Chapter 1.6.IV. - -In Queue. - -If we look now at Paris, one thing is too evident: that the Baker's shops -have got their Queues, or Tails; their long strings of purchasers, arranged -in tail, so that the first come be the first served,--were the shop once -open! This waiting in tail, not seen since the early days of July, again -makes its appearance in August. In time, we shall see it perfected by -practice to the rank almost of an art; and the art, or quasi-art, of -standing in tail become one of the characteristics of the Parisian People, -distinguishing them from all other Peoples whatsoever. - -But consider, while work itself is so scarce, how a man must not only -realise money; but stand waiting (if his wife is too weak to wait and -struggle) for half days in the Tail, till he get it changed for dear bad -bread! Controversies, to the length, sometimes of blood and battery, must -arise in these exasperated Queues. Or if no controversy, then it is but -one accordant Pange Lingua of complaint against the Powers that be. France -has begun her long Curriculum of Hungering, instructive and productive -beyond Academic Curriculums; which extends over some seven most strenuous -years. As Jean Paul says, of his own Life, 'to a great height shall the -business of Hungering go.' - -Or consider, in strange contrast, the jubilee Ceremonies; for, in general, -the aspect of Paris presents these two features: jubilee ceremonials and -scarcity of victual. Processions enough walk in jubilee; of Young Women, -decked and dizened, their ribands all tricolor; moving with song and tabor, -to the Shrine of Sainte Genevieve, to thank her that the Bastille is down. -The Strong Men of the Market, and the Strong Women, fail not with their -bouquets and speeches. Abbe Fauchet, famed in such work (for Abbe Lefevre -could only distribute powder) blesses tricolor cloth for the National -Guard; and makes it a National Tricolor Flag; victorious, or to be -victorious, in the cause of civil and religious liberty all over the world. -Fauchet, we say, is the man for Te-Deums, and public Consecrations;--to -which, as in this instance of the Flag, our National Guard will 'reply with -volleys of musketry,' Church and Cathedral though it be; (See Hist. Parl. -iii. 20; Mercier, Nouveau Paris, &c.) filling Notre Dame with such noisiest -fuliginous Amen, significant of several things. - -On the whole, we will say our new Mayor Bailly; our new Commander -Lafayette, named also 'Scipio-Americanus,' have bought their preferment -dear. Bailly rides in gilt state-coach, with beefeaters and sumptuosity; -Camille Desmoulins, and others, sniffing at him for it: Scipio bestrides -the 'white charger,' and waves with civic plumes in sight of all France. -Neither of them, however, does it for nothing; but, in truth, at an -exorbitant rate. At this rate, namely: of feeding Paris, and keeping it -from fighting. Out of the City-funds, some seventeen thousand of the -utterly destitute are employed digging on Montmartre, at tenpence a day, -which buys them, at market price, almost two pounds of bad bread;--they -look very yellow, when Lafayette goes to harangue them. The Townhall is in -travail, night and day; it must bring forth Bread, a Municipal -Constitution, regulations of all kinds, curbs on the Sansculottic Press; -above all, Bread, Bread. - -Purveyors prowl the country far and wide, with the appetite of lions; -detect hidden grain, purchase open grain; by gentle means or forcible, must -and will find grain. A most thankless task; and so difficult, so -dangerous,--even if a man did gain some trifle by it! On the 19th August, -there is food for one day. (See Bailly, Memoires, ii. 137-409.) -Complaints there are that the food is spoiled, and produces an effect on -the intestines: not corn but plaster-of-Paris! Which effect on the -intestines, as well as that 'smarting in the throat and palate,' a Townhall -Proclamation warns you to disregard, or even to consider as drastic- -beneficial. The Mayor of Saint-Denis, so black was his bread, has, by a -dyspeptic populace, been hanged on the Lanterne there. National Guards -protect the Paris Corn-Market: first ten suffice; then six hundred. -(Hist. Parl. ii. 421.) Busy are ye, Bailly, Brissot de Warville, -Condorcet, and ye others! - -For, as just hinted, there is a Municipal Constitution to be made too. The -old Bastille Electors, after some ten days of psalmodying over their -glorious victory, began to hear it asked, in a splenetic tone, Who put you -there? They accordingly had to give place, not without moanings, and -audible growlings on both sides, to a new larger Body, specially elected -for that post. Which new Body, augmented, altered, then fixed finally at -the number of Three Hundred, with the title of Town Representatives -(Representans de la Commune), now sits there; rightly portioned into -Committees; assiduous making a Constitution; at all moments when not -seeking flour. - -And such a Constitution; little short of miraculous: one that shall -'consolidate the Revolution'! The Revolution is finished, then? Mayor -Bailly and all respectable friends of Freedom would fain think so. Your -Revolution, like jelly sufficiently boiled, needs only to be poured into -shapes, of Constitution, and 'consolidated' therein? Could it, indeed, -contrive to cool; which last, however, is precisely the doubtful thing, or -even the not doubtful! - -Unhappy friends of Freedom; consolidating a Revolution! They must sit at -work there, their pavilion spread on very Chaos; between two hostile -worlds, the Upper Court-world, the Nether Sansculottic one; and, beaten on -by both, toil painfully, perilously,--doing, in sad literal earnest, 'the -impossible.' - - - -Chapter 1.6.V. - -The Fourth Estate. - -Pamphleteering opens its abysmal throat wider and wider: never to close -more. Our Philosophes, indeed, rather withdraw; after the manner of -Marmontel, 'retiring in disgust the first day.' Abbe Raynal, grown gray -and quiet in his Marseilles domicile, is little content with this work; the -last literary act of the man will again be an act of rebellion: an -indignant Letter to the Constituent Assembly; answered by 'the order of the -day.' Thus also Philosophe Morellet puckers discontented brows; being -indeed threatened in his benefices by that Fourth of August: it is clearly -going too far. How astonishing that those 'haggard figures in woollen -jupes' would not rest as satisfied with Speculation, and victorious -Analysis, as we! - -Alas, yes: Speculation, Philosophism, once the ornament and wealth of the -saloon, will now coin itself into mere Practical Propositions, and -circulate on street and highway, universally; with results! A Fourth -Estate, of Able Editors, springs up; increases and multiplies; -irrepressible, incalculable. New Printers, new Journals, and ever new (so -prurient is the world), let our Three Hundred curb and consolidate as they -can! Loustalot, under the wing of Prudhomme dull-blustering Printer, edits -weekly his Revolutions de Paris; in an acrid, emphatic manner. Acrid, -corrosive, as the spirit of sloes and copperas, is Marat, Friend of the -People; struck already with the fact that the National Assembly, so full of -Aristocrats, 'can do nothing,' except dissolve itself, and make way for a -better; that the Townhall Representatives are little other than babblers -and imbeciles, if not even knaves. Poor is this man; squalid, and dwells -in garrets; a man unlovely to the sense, outward and inward; a man forbid;- --and is becoming fanatical, possessed with fixed-idea. Cruel lusus of -Nature! Did Nature, O poor Marat, as in cruel sport, knead thee out of her -leavings, and miscellaneous waste clay; and fling thee forth stepdamelike, -a Distraction into this distracted Eighteenth Century? Work is appointed -thee there; which thou shalt do. The Three Hundred have summoned and will -again summon Marat: but always he croaks forth answer sufficient; always -he will defy them, or elude them; and endure no gag. - -Carra, 'Ex-secretary of a decapitated Hospodar,' and then of a Necklace- -Cardinal; likewise pamphleteer, Adventurer in many scenes and lands,--draws -nigh to Mercier, of the Tableau de Paris; and, with foam on his lips, -proposes an Annales Patriotiques. The Moniteur goes its prosperous way; -Barrere 'weeps,' on Paper as yet loyal; Rivarol, Royou are not idle. Deep -calls to deep: your Domine Salvum Fac Regem shall awaken Pange Lingua; -with an Ami-du-Peuple there is a King's-Friend Newspaper, Ami-du-Roi. -Camille Desmoulins has appointed himself Procureur-General de la Lanterne, -Attorney-General of the Lamp-iron; and pleads, not with atrocity, under an -atrocious title; editing weekly his brilliant Revolutions of Paris and -Brabant. Brilliant, we say: for if, in that thick murk of Journalism, -with its dull blustering, with its fixed or loose fury, any ray of genius -greet thee, be sure it is Camille's. The thing that Camille teaches he, -with his light finger, adorns: brightness plays, gentle, unexpected, amid -horrible confusions; often is the word of Camille worth reading, when no -other's is. Questionable Camille, how thou glitterest with a fallen, -rebellious, yet still semi-celestial light; as is the star-light on the -brow of Lucifer! Son of the Morning, into what times and what lands, art -thou fallen! - -But in all things is good;--though not good for 'consolidating -Revolutions.' Thousand wagon-loads of this Pamphleteering and Newspaper -matter, lie rotting slowly in the Public Libraries of our Europe. Snatched -from the great gulf, like oysters by bibliomaniac pearl-divers, there must -they first rot, then what was pearl, in Camille or others, may be seen as -such, and continue as such. - -Nor has public speaking declined, though Lafayette and his Patrols look -sour on it. Loud always is the Palais Royal, loudest the Cafe de Foy; such -a miscellany of Citizens and Citizenesses circulating there. 'Now and -then,' according to Camille, 'some Citizens employ the liberty of the press -for a private purpose; so that this or the other Patriot finds himself -short of his watch or pocket-handkerchief!' But, for the rest, in -Camille's opinion, nothing can be a livelier image of the Roman Forum. 'A -Patriot proposes his motion; if it finds any supporters, they make him -mount on a chair, and speak. If he is applauded, he prospers and redacts; -if he is hissed, he goes his ways.' Thus they, circulating and perorating. -Tall shaggy Marquis Saint-Huruge, a man that has had losses, and has -deserved them, is seen eminent, and also heard. 'Bellowing' is the -character of his voice, like that of a Bull of Bashan; voice which drowns -all voices, which causes frequently the hearts of men to leap. Cracked or -half-cracked is this tall Marquis's head; uncracked are his lungs; the -cracked and the uncracked shall alike avail him. - -Consider further that each of the Forty-eight Districts has its own -Committee; speaking and motioning continually; aiding in the search for -grain, in the search for a Constitution; checking and spurring the poor -Three Hundred of the Townhall. That Danton, with a 'voice reverberating -from the domes,' is President of the Cordeliers District; which has already -become a Goshen of Patriotism. That apart from the 'seventeen thousand -utterly necessitous, digging on Montmartre,' most of whom, indeed, have got -passes, and been dismissed into Space 'with four shillings,'--there is a -strike, or union, of Domestics out of place; who assemble for public -speaking: next, a strike of Tailors, for even they will strike and speak; -further, a strike of Journeymen Cordwainers; a strike of Apothecaries: so -dear is bread. (Histoire Parlementaire, ii. 359, 417, 423.) All these, -having struck, must speak; generally under the open canopy; and pass -resolutions;--Lafayette and his Patrols watching them suspiciously from the -distance. - -Unhappy mortals: such tugging and lugging, and throttling of one another, -to divide, in some not intolerable way, the joint Felicity of man in this -Earth; when the whole lot to be divided is such a 'feast of shells!'-- -Diligent are the Three Hundred; none equals Scipio Americanus in dealing -with mobs. But surely all these things bode ill for the consolidating of a -Revolution. - - - - -BOOK VII. - -THE INSURRECTION OF WOMEN - - -Chapter 1.7.I. - -Patrollotism. - -No, Friends, this Revolution is not of the consolidating kind. Do not -fires, fevers, sown seeds, chemical mixtures, men, events; all embodiments -of Force that work in this miraculous Complex of Forces, named Universe,-- -go on growing, through their natural phases and developments, each -according to its kind; reach their height, reach their visible decline; -finally sink under, vanishing, and what we call die? They all grow; there -is nothing but what grows, and shoots forth into its special expansion,-- -once give it leave to spring. Observe too that each grows with a rapidity -proportioned, in general, to the madness and unhealthiness there is in it: -slow regular growth, though this also ends in death, is what we name health -and sanity. - -A Sansculottism, which has prostrated Bastilles, which has got pike and -musket, and now goes burning Chateaus, passing resolutions and haranguing -under roof and sky, may be said to have sprung; and, by law of Nature, must -grow. To judge by the madness and diseasedness both of itself, and of the -soil and element it is in, one might expect the rapidity and monstrosity -would be extreme. - -Many things too, especially all diseased things, grow by shoots and fits. -The first grand fit and shooting forth of Sansculottism with that of Paris -conquering its King; for Bailly's figure of rhetoric was all-too sad a -reality. The King is conquered; going at large on his parole; on -condition, say, of absolutely good behaviour,--which, in these -circumstances, will unhappily mean no behaviour whatever. A quite -untenable position, that of Majesty put on its good behaviour! Alas, is it -not natural that whatever lives try to keep itself living? Whereupon his -Majesty's behaviour will soon become exceptionable; and so the Second grand -Fit of Sansculottism, that of putting him in durance, cannot be distant. - -Necker, in the National Assembly, is making moan, as usual about his -Deficit: Barriers and Customhouses burnt; the Tax-gatherer hunted, not -hunting; his Majesty's Exchequer all but empty. The remedy is a Loan of -thirty millions; then, on still more enticing terms, a Loan of eighty -millions: neither of which Loans, unhappily, will the Stockjobbers venture -to lend. The Stockjobber has no country, except his own black pool of -Agio. - -And yet, in those days, for men that have a country, what a glow of -patriotism burns in many a heart; penetrating inwards to the very purse! -So early as the 7th of August, a Don Patriotique, 'a Patriotic Gift of -jewels to a considerable extent,' has been solemnly made by certain -Parisian women; and solemnly accepted, with honourable mention. Whom -forthwith all the world takes to imitating and emulating. Patriotic Gifts, -always with some heroic eloquence, which the President must answer and the -Assembly listen to, flow in from far and near: in such number that the -honourable mention can only be performed in 'lists published at stated -epochs.' Each gives what he can: the very cordwainers have behaved -munificently; one landed proprietor gives a forest; fashionable society -gives its shoebuckles, takes cheerfully to shoe-ties. Unfortunate females -give what they 'have amassed in loving.' (Histoire Parlementaire, ii. -427.) The smell of all cash, as Vespasian thought, is good. - -Beautiful, and yet inadequate! The Clergy must be 'invited' to melt their -superfluous Church-plate,--in the Royal Mint. Nay finally, a Patriotic -Contribution, of the forcible sort, must be determined on, though -unwillingly: let the fourth part of your declared yearly revenue, for this -once only, be paid down; so shall a National Assembly make the -Constitution, undistracted at least by insolvency. Their own wages, as -settled on the 17th of August, are but Eighteen Francs a day, each man; but -the Public Service must have sinews, must have money. To appease the -Deficit; not to 'combler, or choke the Deficit,' if you or mortal could! -For withal, as Mirabeau was heard saying, "it is the Deficit that saves -us." - -Towards the end of August, our National Assembly in its constitutional -labours, has got so far as the question of Veto: shall Majesty have a Veto -on the National Enactments; or not have a Veto? What speeches were spoken, -within doors and without; clear, and also passionate logic; imprecations, -comminations; gone happily, for most part, to Limbo! Through the cracked -brain, and uncracked lungs of Saint-Huruge, the Palais Royal rebellows with -Veto. Journalism is busy, France rings with Veto. 'I shall never forget,' -says Dumont, 'my going to Paris, one of these days, with Mirabeau; and the -crowd of people we found waiting for his carriage, about Le Jay the -Bookseller's shop. They flung themselves before him; conjuring him with -tears in their eyes not to suffer the Veto Absolu. They were in a frenzy: -"Monsieur le Comte, you are the people's father; you must save us; you must -defend us against those villains who are bringing back Despotism. If the -King get this Veto, what is the use of National Assembly? We are slaves, -all is done."' (Souvenirs sur Mirabeau, p. 156.) Friends, if the sky -fall, there will be catching of larks! Mirabeau, adds Dumont, was eminent -on such occasions: he answered vaguely, with a Patrician imperturbability, -and bound himself to nothing. - -Deputations go to the Hotel-de-Ville; anonymous Letters to Aristocrats in -the National Assembly, threatening that fifteen thousand, or sometimes that -sixty thousand, 'will march to illuminate you.' The Paris Districts are -astir; Petitions signing: Saint-Huruge sets forth from the Palais Royal, -with an escort of fifteen hundred individuals, to petition in person. -Resolute, or seemingly so, is the tall shaggy Marquis, is the Cafe de Foy: -but resolute also is Commandant-General Lafayette. The streets are all -beset by Patrols: Saint-Huruge is stopped at the Barriere des Bon Hommes; -he may bellow like the bulls of Bashan; but absolutely must return. The -brethren of the Palais Royal 'circulate all night,' and make motions, under -the open canopy; all Coffee-houses being shut. Nevertheless Lafayette and -the Townhall do prevail: Saint-Huruge is thrown into prison; Veto Absolu -adjusts itself into Suspensive Veto, prohibition not forever, but for a -term of time; and this doom's-clamour will grow silent, as the others have -done. - -So far has Consolidation prospered, though with difficulty; repressing the -Nether Sansculottic world; and the Constitution shall be made. With -difficulty: amid jubilee and scarcity; Patriotic Gifts, Bakers'-queues; -Abbe-Fauchet Harangues, with their Amen of platoon-musketry! Scipio -Americanus has deserved thanks from the National Assembly and France. They -offer him stipends and emoluments, to a handsome extent; all which stipends -and emoluments he, covetous of far other blessedness than mere money, does, -in his chivalrous way, without scruple, refuse. - -To the Parisian common man, meanwhile, one thing remains inconceivable: -that now when the Bastille is down, and French Liberty restored, grain -should continue so dear. Our Rights of Man are voted, Feudalism and all -Tyranny abolished; yet behold we stand in queue! Is it Aristocrat -forestallers; a Court still bent on intrigues? Something is rotten, -somewhere. - -And yet, alas, what to do? Lafayette, with his Patrols prohibits every -thing, even complaint. Saint-Huruge and other heroes of the Veto lie in -durance. People's-Friend Marat was seized; Printers of Patriotic Journals -are fettered and forbidden; the very Hawkers cannot cry, till they get -license, and leaden badges. Blue National Guards ruthlessly dissipate all -groups; scour, with levelled bayonets, the Palais Royal itself. Pass, on -your affairs, along the Rue Taranne, the Patrol, presenting his bayonet, -cries, To the left! Turn into the Rue Saint-Benoit, he cries, To the -right! A judicious Patriot (like Camille Desmoulins, in this instance) is -driven, for quietness's sake, to take the gutter. - -O much-suffering People, our glorious Revolution is evaporating in tricolor -ceremonies, and complimentary harangues! Of which latter, as Loustalot -acridly calculates, 'upwards of two thousand have been delivered within the -last month, at the Townhall alone.' (Revolutions de Paris Newspaper (cited -in Histoire Parlementaire, ii. 357).) And our mouths, unfilled with bread, -are to be shut, under penalties? The Caricaturist promulgates his -emblematic Tablature: Le Patrouillotisme chassant le Patriotisme, -Patriotism driven out by Patrollotism. Ruthless Patrols; long superfine -harangues; and scanty ill-baked loaves, more like baked Bath bricks,--which -produce an effect on the intestines! Where will this end? In -consolidation? - - - -Chapter 1.7.II. - -O Richard, O my King. - -For, alas, neither is the Townhall itself without misgivings. The Nether -Sansculottic world has been suppressed hitherto: but then the Upper Court- -world! Symptoms there are that the Oeil-de-Boeuf is rallying. - -More than once in the Townhall Sanhedrim; often enough, from those -outspoken Bakers'-queues, has the wish uttered itself: O that our Restorer -of French Liberty were here; that he could see with his own eyes, not with -the false eyes of Queens and Cabals, and his really good heart be -enlightened! For falsehood still environs him; intriguing Dukes de Guiche, -with Bodyguards; scouts of Bouille; a new flight of intriguers, now that -the old is flown. What else means this advent of the Regiment de Flandre; -entering Versailles, as we hear, on the 23rd of September, with two pieces -of cannon? Did not the Versailles National Guard do duty at the Chateau? -Had they not Swiss; Hundred Swiss; Gardes-du-Corps, Bodyguards so-called? -Nay, it would seem, the number of Bodyguards on duty has, by a manoeuvre, -been doubled: the new relieving Battalion of them arrived at its time; but -the old relieved one does not depart! - -Actually, there runs a whisper through the best informed Upper-Circles, or -a nod still more potentous than whispering, of his Majesty's flying to -Metz; of a Bond (to stand by him therein) which has been signed by Noblesse -and Clergy, to the incredible amount of thirty, or even of sixty thousand. -Lafayette coldly whispers it, and coldly asseverates it, to Count d'Estaing -at the Dinner-table; and d'Estaing, one of the bravest men, quakes to the -core lest some lackey overhear it; and tumbles thoughtful, without sleep, -all night. (Brouillon de Lettre de M. d'Estaing a la Reine (in Histoire -Parlementaire, iii. 24.) Regiment Flandre, as we said, is clearly arrived. -His Majesty, they say, hesitates about sanctioning the Fourth of August; -makes observations, of chilling tenor, on the very Rights of Man! -Likewise, may not all persons, the Bakers'-queues themselves discern on the -streets of Paris, the most astonishing number of Officers on furlough, -Crosses of St. Louis, and such like? Some reckon 'from a thousand to -twelve hundred.' Officers of all uniforms; nay one uniform never before -seen by eye: green faced with red! The tricolor cockade is not always -visible: but what, in the name of Heaven, may these black cockades, which -some wear, foreshadow? - -Hunger whets everything, especially Suspicion and Indignation. Realities -themselves, in this Paris, have grown unreal: preternatural. Phantasms -once more stalk through the brain of hungry France. O ye laggards and -dastards, cry shrill voices from the Queues, if ye had the hearts of men, -ye would take your pikes and secondhand firelocks, and look into it; not -leave your wives and daughters to be starved, murdered, and worse!--Peace, -women! The heart of man is bitter and heavy; Patriotism, driven out by -Patrollotism, knows not what to resolve on. - -The truth is, the Oeil-de-Boeuf has rallied; to a certain unknown extent. -A changed Oeil-de-Boeuf; with Versailles National Guards, in their tricolor -cockades, doing duty there; a Court all flaring with tricolor! Yet even to -a tricolor Court men will rally. Ye loyal hearts, burnt-out Seigneurs, -rally round your Queen! With wishes; which will produce hopes; which will -produce attempts! - -For indeed self-preservation being such a law of Nature, what can a rallied -Court do, but attempt and endeavour, or call it plot,--with such wisdom and -unwisdom as it has? They will fly, escorted, to Metz, where brave Bouille -commands; they will raise the Royal Standard: the Bond-signatures shall -become armed men. Were not the King so languid! Their Bond, if at all -signed, must be signed without his privity.--Unhappy King, he has but one -resolution: not to have a civil war. For the rest, he still hunts, having -ceased lockmaking; he still dozes, and digests; is clay in the hands of the -potter. Ill will it fare with him, in a world where all is helping itself; -where, as has been written, 'whosoever is not hammer must be stithy;' and -'the very hyssop on the wall grows there, in that chink, because the whole -Universe could not prevent its growing!' - -But as for the coming up of this Regiment de Flandre, may it not be urged -that there were Saint-Huruge Petitions, and continual meal-mobs? -Undebauched Soldiers, be there plot, or only dim elements of a plot, are -always good. Did not the Versailles Municipality (an old Monarchic one, -not yet refounded into a Democratic) instantly second the proposal? Nay -the very Versailles National Guard, wearied with continual duty at the -Chateau, did not object; only Draper Lecointre, who is now Major Lecointre, -shook his head.--Yes, Friends, surely it was natural this Regiment de -Flandre should be sent for, since it could be got. It was natural that, at -sight of military bandoleers, the heart of the rallied Oeil-de-Boeuf should -revive; and Maids of Honour, and gentlemen of honour, speak comfortable -words to epauletted defenders, and to one another. Natural also, and mere -common civility, that the Bodyguards, a Regiment of Gentlemen, should -invite their Flandre brethren to a Dinner of welcome!--Such invitation, in -the last days of September, is given and accepted. - -Dinners are defined as 'the ultimate act of communion;' men that can have -communion in nothing else, can sympathetically eat together, can still rise -into some glow of brotherhood over food and wine. The dinner is fixed on, -for Thursday the First of October; and ought to have a fine effect. -Further, as such Dinner may be rather extensive, and even the -Noncommissioned and the Common man be introduced, to see and to hear, could -not His Majesty's Opera Apartment, which has lain quite silent ever since -Kaiser Joseph was here, be obtained for the purpose?--The Hall of the Opera -is granted; the Salon d'Hercule shall be drawingroom. Not only the -Officers of Flandre, but of the Swiss, of the Hundred Swiss, nay of the -Versailles National Guard, such of them as have any loyalty, shall feast: -it will be a Repast like few. - -And now suppose this Repast, the solid part of it, transacted; and the -first bottle over. Suppose the customary loyal toasts drunk; the King's -health, the Queen's with deafening vivats;--that of the Nation 'omitted,' -or even 'rejected.' Suppose champagne flowing; with pot-valorous speech, -with instrumental music; empty feathered heads growing ever the noisier, in -their own emptiness, in each other's noise! Her Majesty, who looks -unusually sad to-night (his Majesty sitting dulled with the day's hunting), -is told that the sight of it would cheer her. Behold! She enters there, -issuing from her State-rooms, like the Moon from the clouds, this fairest -unhappy Queen of Hearts; royal Husband by her side, young Dauphin in her -arms! She descends from the Boxes, amid splendour and acclaim; walks -queen-like, round the Tables; gracefully escorted, gracefully nodding; her -looks full of sorrow, yet of gratitude and daring, with the hope of France -on her mother-bosom! And now, the band striking up, O Richard, O mon Roi, -l'univers t'abandonne (O Richard, O my King, and world is all forsaking -thee)--could man do other than rise to height of pity, of loyal valour? -Could featherheaded young ensigns do other than, by white Bourbon Cockades, -handed them from fair fingers; by waving of swords, drawn to pledge the -Queen's health; by trampling of National Cockades; by scaling the Boxes, -whence intrusive murmurs may come; by vociferation, tripudiation, sound, -fury and distraction, within doors and without,--testify what tempest-tost -state of vacuity they are in? Till champagne and tripudiation do their -work; and all lie silent, horizontal; passively slumbering, with meed-of- -battle dreams!-- - -A natural Repast, in ordinary times, a harmless one: now fatal, as that of -Thyestes; as that of Job's Sons, when a strong wind smote the four corners -of their banquet-house! Poor ill-advised Marie-Antoinette; with a woman's -vehemence, not with a sovereign's foresight! It was so natural, yet so -unwise. Next day, in public speech of ceremony, her Majesty declares -herself 'delighted with the Thursday.' - -The heart of the Oeil-de-Boeuf glows into hope; into daring, which is -premature. Rallied Maids of Honour, waited on by Abbes, sew 'white -cockades;' distribute them, with words, with glances, to epauletted youths; -who in return, may kiss, not without fervour, the fair sewing fingers. -Captains of horse and foot go swashing with 'enormous white cockades;' nay -one Versailles National Captain had mounted the like, so witching were the -words and glances; and laid aside his tricolor! Well may Major Lecointre -shake his head with a look of severity; and speak audible resentful words. -But now a swashbuckler, with enormous white cockade, overhearing the Major, -invites him insolently, once and then again elsewhere, to recant; and -failing that, to duel. Which latter feat Major Lecointre declares that he -will not perform, not at least by any known laws of fence; that he -nevertheless will, according to mere law of Nature, by dirk and blade, -'exterminate' any 'vile gladiator,' who may insult him or the Nation;-- -whereupon (for the Major is actually drawing his implement) 'they are -parted,' and no weasands slit. (Moniteur (in Histoire Parlementaire, iii. -59); Deux Amis (iii. 128-141); Campan (ii. 70-85), &c. &c.) - - - -Chapter 1.7.III. - -Black Cockades. - -But fancy what effect this Thyestes Repast and trampling on the National -Cockade, must have had in the Salle des Menus; in the famishing Bakers'- -queues at Paris! Nay such Thyestes Repasts, it would seem, continue. -Flandre has given its Counter-Dinner to the Swiss and Hundred Swiss; then -on Saturday there has been another. - -Yes, here with us is famine; but yonder at Versailles is food; enough and -to spare! Patriotism stands in queue, shivering hungerstruck, insulted by -Patrollotism; while bloodyminded Aristocrats, heated with excess of high -living, trample on the National Cockade. Can the atrocity be true? Nay, -look: green uniforms faced with red; black cockades,--the colour of Night! -Are we to have military onfall; and death also by starvation? For behold -the Corbeil Cornboat, which used to come twice a-day, with its Plaster-of- -Paris meal, now comes only once. And the Townhall is deaf; and the men are -laggard and dastard!--At the Cafe de Foy, this Saturday evening, a new -thing is seen, not the last of its kind: a woman engaged in public -speaking. Her poor man, she says, was put to silence by his District; -their Presidents and Officials would not let him speak. Wherefore she here -with her shrill tongue will speak; denouncing, while her breath endures, -the Corbeil-Boat, the Plaster-of-Paris bread, sacrilegious Opera-dinners, -green uniforms, Pirate Aristocrats, and those black cockades of theirs!-- - -Truly, it is time for the black cockades at least, to vanish. Them -Patrollotism itself will not protect. Nay, sharp-tempered 'M. Tassin,' at -the Tuileries parade on Sunday morning, forgets all National military rule; -starts from the ranks, wrenches down one black cockade which is swashing -ominous there; and tramples it fiercely into the soil of France. -Patrollotism itself is not without suppressed fury. Also the Districts -begin to stir; the voice of President Danton reverberates in the -Cordeliers: People's-Friend Marat has flown to Versailles and back again;- --swart bird, not of the halcyon kind! (Camille's Newspaper, Revolutions de -Paris et de Brabant (in Histoire Parlementaire, iii. 108.) - -And so Patriot meets promenading Patriot, this Sunday; and sees his own -grim care reflected on the face of another. Groups, in spite of -Patrollotism, which is not so alert as usual, fluctuate deliberative: -groups on the Bridges, on the Quais, at the patriotic Cafes. And ever as -any black cockade may emerge, rises the many-voiced growl and bark: A bas, -Down! All black cockades are ruthlessly plucked off: one individual picks -his up again; kisses it, attempts to refix it; but a 'hundred canes start -into the air,' and he desists. Still worse went it with another -individual; doomed, by extempore Plebiscitum, to the Lanterne; saved, with -difficulty, by some active Corps-de-Garde.--Lafayette sees signs of an -effervescence; which he doubles his Patrols, doubles his diligence, to -prevent. So passes Sunday, the 4th of October 1789. - -Sullen is the male heart, repressed by Patrollotism; vehement is the -female, irrepressible. The public-speaking woman at the Palais Royal was -not the only speaking one:--Men know not what the pantry is, when it grows -empty, only house-mothers know. O women, wives of men that will only -calculate and not act! Patrollotism is strong; but Death, by starvation -and military onfall, is stronger. Patrollotism represses male Patriotism: -but female Patriotism? Will Guards named National thrust their bayonets -into the bosoms of women? Such thought, or rather such dim unshaped raw- -material of a thought, ferments universally under the female night-cap; -and, by earliest daybreak, on slight hint, will explode. - - - -Chapter 1.7.IV. - -The Menads. - -If Voltaire once, in splenetic humour, asked his countrymen: "But you, -Gualches, what have you invented?" they can now answer: The Art of -Insurrection. It was an art needed in these last singular times: an art, -for which the French nature, so full of vehemence, so free from depth, was -perhaps of all others the fittest. - -Accordingly, to what a height, one may well say of perfection, has this -branch of human industry been carried by France, within the last half- -century! Insurrection, which, Lafayette thought, might be 'the most sacred -of duties,' ranks now, for the French people, among the duties which they -can perform. Other mobs are dull masses; which roll onwards with a dull -fierce tenacity, a dull fierce heat, but emit no light-flashes of genius as -they go. The French mob, again, is among the liveliest phenomena of our -world. So rapid, audacious; so clear-sighted, inventive, prompt to seize -the moment; instinct with life to its finger-ends! That talent, were there -no other, of spontaneously standing in queue, distinguishes, as we said, -the French People from all Peoples, ancient and modern. - -Let the Reader confess too that, taking one thing with another, perhaps few -terrestrial Appearances are better worth considering than mobs. Your mob -is a genuine outburst of Nature; issuing from, or communicating with, the -deepest deep of Nature. When so much goes grinning and grimacing as a -lifeless Formality, and under the stiff buckram no heart can be felt -beating, here once more, if nowhere else, is a Sincerity and Reality. -Shudder at it; or even shriek over it, if thou must; nevertheless consider -it. Such a Complex of human Forces and Individualities hurled forth, in -their transcendental mood, to act and react, on circumstances and on one -another; to work out what it is in them to work. The thing they will do is -known to no man; least of all to themselves. It is the inflammablest -immeasurable Fire-work, generating, consuming itself. With what phases, to -what extent, with what results it will burn off, Philosophy and -Perspicacity conjecture in vain. - -'Man,' as has been written, 'is for ever interesting to man; nay properly -there is nothing else interesting.' In which light also, may we not -discern why most Battles have become so wearisome? Battles, in these ages, -are transacted by mechanism; with the slightest possible developement of -human individuality or spontaneity: men now even die, and kill one -another, in an artificial manner. Battles ever since Homer's time, when -they were Fighting Mobs, have mostly ceased to be worth looking at, worth -reading of, or remembering. How many wearisome bloody Battles does History -strive to represent; or even, in a husky way, to sing:--and she would omit -or carelessly slur-over this one Insurrection of Women? - -A thought, or dim raw-material of a thought, was fermenting all night, -universally in the female head, and might explode. In squalid garret, on -Monday morning, Maternity awakes, to hear children weeping for bread. -Maternity must forth to the streets, to the herb-markets and Bakers'-- -queues; meets there with hunger-stricken Maternity, sympathetic, -exasperative. O we unhappy women! But, instead of Bakers'-queues, why not -to Aristocrats' palaces, the root of the matter? Allons! Let us assemble. -To the Hotel-de-Ville; to Versailles; to the Lanterne! - -In one of the Guardhouses of the Quartier Saint-Eustache, 'a young woman' -seizes a drum,--for how shall National Guards give fire on women, on a -young woman? The young woman seizes the drum; sets forth, beating it, -'uttering cries relative to the dearth of grains.' Descend, O mothers; -descend, ye Judiths, to food and revenge!--All women gather and go; crowds -storm all stairs, force out all women: the female Insurrectionary Force, -according to Camille, resembles the English Naval one; there is a universal -'Press of women.' Robust Dames of the Halle, slim Mantua-makers, -assiduous, risen with the dawn; ancient Virginity tripping to matins; the -Housemaid, with early broom; all must go. Rouse ye, O women; the laggard -men will not act; they say, we ourselves may act! - -And so, like snowbreak from the mountains, for every staircase is a melted -brook, it storms; tumultuous, wild-shrilling, towards the Hotel-de-Ville. -Tumultuous, with or without drum-music: for the Faubourg Saint-Antoine -also has tucked up its gown; and, with besom-staves, fire-irons, and even -rusty pistols (void of ammunition), is flowing on. Sound of it flies, with -a velocity of sound, to the outmost Barriers. By seven o'clock, on this -raw October morning, fifth of the month, the Townhall will see wonders. -Nay, as chance would have it, a male party are already there; clustering -tumultuously round some National Patrol, and a Baker who has been seized -with short weights. They are there; and have even lowered the rope of the -Lanterne. So that the official persons have to smuggle forth the short- -weighing Baker by back doors, and even send 'to all the Districts' for more -force. - -Grand it was, says Camille, to see so many Judiths, from eight to ten -thousand of them in all, rushing out to search into the root of the matter! -Not unfrightful it must have been; ludicro-terrific, and most unmanageable. -At such hour the overwatched Three Hundred are not yet stirring: none but -some Clerks, a company of National Guards; and M. de Gouvion, the Major- -general. Gouvion has fought in America for the cause of civil Liberty; a -man of no inconsiderable heart, but deficient in head. He is, for the -moment, in his back apartment; assuaging Usher Maillard, the Bastille- -serjeant, who has come, as too many do, with 'representations.' The -assuagement is still incomplete when our Judiths arrive. - -The National Guards form on the outer stairs, with levelled bayonets; the -ten thousand Judiths press up, resistless; with obtestations, with -outspread hands,--merely to speak to the Mayor. The rear forces them; nay, -from male hands in the rear, stones already fly: the National Guards must -do one of two things; sweep the Place de Greve with cannon, or else open to -right and left. They open; the living deluge rushes in. Through all rooms -and cabinets, upwards to the topmost belfry: ravenous; seeking arms, -seeking Mayors, seeking justice;--while, again, the better-cressed -(dressed?) speak kindly to the Clerks; point out the misery of these poor -women; also their ailments, some even of an interesting sort. (Deux Amis, -iii. 141-166.) - -Poor M. de Gouvion is shiftless in this extremity;--a man shiftless, -perturbed; who will one day commit suicide. How happy for him that Usher -Maillard, the shifty, was there, at the moment, though making -representations! Fly back, thou shifty Maillard; seek the Bastille -Company; and O return fast with it; above all, with thy own shifty head! -For, behold, the Judiths can find no Mayor or Municipal; scarcely, in the -topmost belfry, can they find poor Abbe Lefevre the Powder-distributor. -Him, for want of a better, they suspend there; in the pale morning light; -over the top of all Paris, which swims in one's failing eyes:--a horrible -end? Nay, the rope broke, as French ropes often did; or else an Amazon cut -it. Abbe Lefevre falls, some twenty feet, rattling among the leads; and -lives long years after, though always with 'a tremblement in the limbs.' -(Dusaulx, Prise de la Bastille (note, p. 281.).) - -And now doors fly under hatchets; the Judiths have broken the Armoury; have -seized guns and cannons, three money-bags, paper-heaps; torches flare: in -few minutes, our brave Hotel-de-Ville which dates from the Fourth Henry, -will, with all that it holds, be in flames! - - - -Chapter 1.7.V. - -Usher Maillard. - -In flames, truly,--were it not that Usher Maillard, swift of foot, shifty -of head, has returned! - -Maillard, of his own motion, for Gouvion or the rest would not even -sanction him,--snatches a drum; descends the Porch-stairs, ran-tan, beating -sharp, with loud rolls, his Rogues'-march: To Versailles! Allons; a -Versailles! As men beat on kettle or warmingpan, when angry she-bees, or -say, flying desperate wasps, are to be hived; and the desperate insects -hear it, and cluster round it,--simply as round a guidance, where there was -none: so now these Menads round shifty Maillard, Riding-Usher of the -Chatelet. The axe pauses uplifted; Abbe Lefevre is left half-hanged; from -the belfry downwards all vomits itself. What rub-a-dub is that? Stanislas -Maillard, Bastille-hero, will lead us to Versailles? Joy to thee, -Maillard; blessed art thou above Riding-Ushers! Away then, away! - -The seized cannon are yoked with seized cart-horses: brown-locked -Demoiselle Theroigne, with pike and helmet, sits there as gunneress, 'with -haughty eye and serene fair countenance;' comparable, some think, to the -Maid of Orleans, or even recalling 'the idea of Pallas Athene.' (Deux -Amis, iii. 157.) Maillard (for his drum still rolls) is, by heaven-rending -acclamation, admitted General. Maillard hastens the languid march. -Maillard, beating rhythmic, with sharp ran-tan, all along the Quais, leads -forward, with difficulty his Menadic host. Such a host--marched not in -silence! The bargeman pauses on the River; all wagoners and coachdrivers -fly; men peer from windows,--not women, lest they be pressed. Sight of -sights: Bacchantes, in these ultimate Formalized Ages! Bronze Henri looks -on, from his Pont-Neuf; the Monarchic Louvre, Medicean Tuileries see a day -not theretofore seen. - -And now Maillard has his Menads in the Champs Elysees (Fields Tartarean -rather); and the Hotel-de-Ville has suffered comparatively nothing. Broken -doors; an Abbe Lefevre, who shall never more distribute powder; three sacks -of money, most part of which (for Sansculottism, though famishing, is not -without honour) shall be returned: (Hist. Parl. iii. 310.) this is all the -damage. Great Maillard! A small nucleus of Order is round his drum; but -his outskirts fluctuate like the mad Ocean: for Rascality male and female -is flowing in on him, from the four winds; guidance there is none but in -his single head and two drumsticks. - -O Maillard, when, since War first was, had General of Force such a task -before him, as thou this day? Walter the Penniless still touches the -feeling heart: but then Walter had sanction; had space to turn in; and -also his Crusaders were of the male sex. Thou, this day, disowned of -Heaven and Earth, art General of Menads. Their inarticulate frenzy thou -must on the spur of the instant, render into articulate words, into actions -that are not frantic. Fail in it, this way or that! Pragmatical -Officiality, with its penalties and law-books, waits before thee; Menads -storm behind. If such hewed off the melodious head of Orpheus, and hurled -it into the Peneus waters, what may they not make of thee,--thee rhythmic -merely, with no music but a sheepskin drum!--Maillard did not fail. -Remarkable Maillard, if fame were not an accident, and History a -distillation of Rumour, how remarkable wert thou! - -On the Elysian Fields, there is pause and fluctuation; but, for Maillard, -no return. He persuades his Menads, clamorous for arms and the Arsenal, -that no arms are in the Arsenal; that an unarmed attitude, and petition to -a National Assembly, will be the best: he hastily nominates or sanctions -generalesses, captains of tens and fifties;--and so, in loosest-flowing -order, to the rhythm of some 'eight drums' (having laid aside his own), -with the Bastille Volunteers bringing up his rear, once more takes the -road. - -Chaillot, which will promptly yield baked loaves, is not plundered; nor are -the Sevres Potteries broken. The old arches of Sevres Bridge echo under -Menadic feet; Seine River gushes on with his perpetual murmur; and Paris -flings after us the boom of tocsin and alarm-drum,--inaudible, for the -present, amid shrill-sounding hosts, and the splash of rainy weather. To -Meudon, to Saint Cloud, on both hands, the report of them is gone abroad; -and hearths, this evening, will have a topic. The press of women still -continues, for it is the cause of all Eve's Daughters, mothers that are, or -that hope to be. No carriage-lady, were it with never such hysterics, but -must dismount, in the mud roads, in her silk shoes, and walk. (Deux Amis, -iii. 159.) In this manner, amid wild October weather, they a wild unwinged -stork-flight, through the astonished country, wend their way. Travellers -of all sorts they stop; especially travellers or couriers from Paris. -Deputy Lechapelier, in his elegant vesture, from his elegant vehicle, looks -forth amazed through his spectacles; apprehensive for life;--states eagerly -that he is Patriot-Deputy Lechapelier, and even Old-President Lechapelier, -who presided on the Night of Pentecost, and is original member of the -Breton Club. Thereupon 'rises huge shout of Vive Lechapelier, and several -armed persons spring up behind and before to escort him.' (Ibid. iii. 177; -Dictionnaire des Hommes Marquans, ii. 379.) - -Nevertheless, news, despatches from Lafayette, or vague noise of rumour, -have pierced through, by side roads. In the National Assembly, while all -is busy discussing the order of the day; regretting that there should be -Anti-national Repasts in Opera-Halls; that his Majesty should still -hesitate about accepting the Rights of Man, and hang conditions and -peradventures on them,--Mirabeau steps up to the President, experienced -Mounier as it chanced to be; and articulates, in bass under-tone: -"Mounier, Paris marche sur nous (Paris is marching on us)."--"May be (Je -n'en sais rien)!"--"Believe it or disbelieve it, that is not my concern; -but Paris, I say, is marching on us. Fall suddenly unwell; go over to the -Chateau; tell them this. There is not a moment to lose.'--"Paris marching -on us?" responds Mounier, with an atrabiliar accent" "Well, so much the -better! We shall the sooner be a Republic." Mirabeau quits him, as one -quits an experienced President getting blindfold into deep waters; and the -order of the day continues as before. - -Yes, Paris is marching on us; and more than the women of Paris! Scarcely -was Maillard gone, when M. de Gouvion's message to all the Districts, and -such tocsin and drumming of the generale, began to take effect. Armed -National Guards from every District; especially the Grenadiers of the -Centre, who are our old Gardes Francaises, arrive, in quick sequence, on -the Place de Greve. An 'immense people' is there; Saint-Antoine, with pike -and rusty firelock, is all crowding thither, be it welcome or unwelcome. -The Centre Grenadiers are received with cheering: "it is not cheers that -we want," answer they gloomily; "the nation has been insulted; to arms, and -come with us for orders!" Ha, sits the wind so? Patriotism and -Patrollotism are now one! - -The Three Hundred have assembled; 'all the Committees are in activity;' -Lafayette is dictating despatches for Versailles, when a Deputation of the -Centre Grenadiers introduces itself to him. The Deputation makes military -obeisance; and thus speaks, not without a kind of thought in it: "Mon -General, we are deputed by the Six Companies of Grenadiers. We do not -think you a traitor, but we think the Government betrays you; it is time -that this end. We cannot turn our bayonets against women crying to us for -bread. The people are miserable, the source of the mischief is at -Versailles: we must go seek the King, and bring him to Paris. We must -exterminate (exterminer) the Regiment de Flandre and the Gardes-du-Corps, -who have dared to trample on the National Cockade. If the King be too weak -to wear his crown, let him lay it down. You will crown his Son, you will -name a Council of Regency; and all will go better." (Deux Amis, iii. 161.) -Reproachful astonishment paints itself on the face of Lafayette; speaks -itself from his eloquent chivalrous lips: in vain. "My General, we would -shed the last drop of our blood for you; but the root of the mischief is at -Versailles; we must go and bring the King to Paris; all the people wish it, -tout le peuple le veut." - -My General descends to the outer staircase; and harangues: once more in -vain. "To Versailles! To Versailles!" Mayor Bailly, sent for through -floods of Sansculottism, attempts academic oratory from his gilt state- -coach; realizes nothing but infinite hoarse cries of: "Bread! To -Versailles!"--and gladly shrinks within doors. Lafayette mounts the white -charger; and again harangues and reharangues: with eloquence, with -firmness, indignant demonstration; with all things but persuasion. "To -Versailles! To Versailles!" So lasts it, hour after hour; for the space -of half a day. - -The great Scipio Americanus can do nothing; not so much as escape. -"Morbleu, mon General," cry the Grenadiers serrying their ranks as the -white charger makes a motion that way, "You will not leave us, you will -abide with us!" A perilous juncture: Mayor Bailly and the Municipals sit -quaking within doors; My General is prisoner without: the Place de Greve, -with its thirty thousand Regulars, its whole irregular Saint-Antoine and -Saint-Marceau, is one minatory mass of clear or rusty steel; all hearts -set, with a moody fixedness, on one object. Moody, fixed are all hearts: -tranquil is no heart,--if it be not that of the white charger, who paws -there, with arched neck, composedly champing his bit; as if no world, with -its Dynasties and Eras, were now rushing down. The drizzly day tends -westward; the cry is still: "To Versailles!" - -Nay now, borne from afar, come quite sinister cries; hoarse, reverberating -in longdrawn hollow murmurs, with syllables too like those of Lanterne! Or -else, irregular Sansculottism may be marching off, of itself; with pikes, -nay with cannon. The inflexible Scipio does at length, by aide-de-camp, -ask of the Municipals: Whether or not he may go? A Letter is handed out -to him, over armed heads; sixty thousand faces flash fixedly on his, there -is stillness and no bosom breathes, till he have read. By Heaven, he grows -suddenly pale! Do the Municipals permit? 'Permit and even order,'--since -he can no other. Clangour of approval rends the welkin. To your ranks, -then; let us march! - -It is, as we compute, towards three in the afternoon. Indignant National -Guards may dine for once from their haversack: dined or undined, they -march with one heart. Paris flings up her windows, claps hands, as the -Avengers, with their shrilling drums and shalms tramp by; she will then sit -pensive, apprehensive, and pass rather a sleepless night. (Deux Amis, iii. -165.) On the white charger, Lafayette, in the slowest possible manner, -going and coming, and eloquently haranguing among the ranks, rolls onward -with his thirty thousand. Saint-Antoine, with pike and cannon, has -preceded him; a mixed multitude, of all and of no arms, hovers on his -flanks and skirts; the country once more pauses agape: Paris marche sur -nous. - - - -Chapter 1.7.VI. - -To Versailles. - -For, indeed, about this same moment, Maillard has halted his draggled -Menads on the last hill-top; and now Versailles, and the Chateau of -Versailles, and far and wide the inheritance of Royalty opens to the -wondering eye. From far on the right, over Marly and Saint-Germains-en- -Laye; round towards Rambouillet, on the left: beautiful all; softly -embosomed; as if in sadness, in the dim moist weather! And near before us -is Versailles, New and Old; with that broad frondent Avenue de Versailles -between,--stately-frondent, broad, three hundred feet as men reckon, with -four Rows of Elms; and then the Chateau de Versailles, ending in royal -Parks and Pleasances, gleaming lakelets, arbours, Labyrinths, the -Menagerie, and Great and Little Trianon. High-towered dwellings, leafy -pleasant places; where the gods of this lower world abide: whence, -nevertheless, black Care cannot be excluded; whither Menadic Hunger is even -now advancing, armed with pike-thyrsi! - -Yes, yonder, Mesdames, where our straight frondent Avenue, joined, as you -note, by Two frondent brother Avenues from this hand and from that, spreads -out into Place Royale and Palace Forecourt; yonder is the Salle des Menus. -Yonder an august Assembly sits regenerating France. Forecourt, Grand -Court, Court of Marble, Court narrowing into Court you may discern next, or -fancy: on the extreme verge of which that glass-dome, visibly glittering -like a star of hope, is the--Oeil-de-Boeuf! Yonder, or nowhere in the -world, is bread baked for us. But, O Mesdames, were not one thing good: -That our cannons, with Demoiselle Theroigne and all show of war, be put to -the rear? Submission beseems petitioners of a National Assembly; we are -strangers in Versailles,--whence, too audibly, there comes even now sound -as of tocsin and generale! Also to put on, if possible, a cheerful -countenance, hiding our sorrows; and even to sing? Sorrow, pitied of the -Heavens, is hateful, suspicious to the Earth.--So counsels shifty Maillard; -haranguing his Menads, on the heights near Versailles. (See Hist. Parl. -iii. 70-117; Deux Amis, iii. 166-177, &c.) - -Cunning Maillard's dispositions are obeyed. The draggled Insurrectionists -advance up the Avenue, 'in three columns, among the four Elm-rows; 'singing -Henri Quatre,' with what melody they can; and shouting Vive le Roi. -Versailles, though the Elm-rows are dripping wet, crowds from both sides, -with: "Vivent nos Parisiennes, Our Paris ones for ever!" - -Prickers, scouts have been out towards Paris, as the rumour deepened: -whereby his Majesty, gone to shoot in the Woods of Meudon, has been happily -discovered, and got home; and the generale and tocsin set a-sounding. The -Bodyguards are already drawn up in front of the Palace Grates; and look -down the Avenue de Versailles; sulky, in wet buckskins. Flandre too is -there, repentant of the Opera-Repast. Also Dragoons dismounted are there. -Finally Major Lecointre, and what he can gather of the Versailles National -Guard; though, it is to be observed, our Colonel, that same sleepless Count -d'Estaing, giving neither order nor ammunition, has vanished most -improperly; one supposes, into the Oeil-de-Boeuf. Red-coated Swiss stand -within the Grates, under arms. There likewise, in their inner room, 'all -the Ministers,' Saint-Priest, Lamentation Pompignan and the rest, are -assembled with M. Necker: they sit with him there; blank, expecting what -the hour will bring. - -President Mounier, though he answered Mirabeau with a tant mieux, and -affected to slight the matter, had his own forebodings. Surely, for these -four weary hours, he has reclined not on roses! The order of the day is -getting forward: a Deputation to his Majesty seems proper, that it might -please him to grant 'Acceptance pure and simple' to those Constitution- -Articles of ours; the 'mixed qualified Acceptance,' with its peradventures, -is satisfactory to neither gods nor men. - -So much is clear. And yet there is more, which no man speaks, which all -men now vaguely understand. Disquietude, absence of mind is on every face; -Members whisper, uneasily come and go: the order of the day is evidently -not the day's want. Till at length, from the outer gates, is heard a -rustling and justling, shrill uproar and squabbling, muffled by walls; -which testifies that the hour is come! Rushing and crushing one hears now; -then enter Usher Maillard, with a Deputation of Fifteen muddy dripping -Women,--having by incredible industry, and aid of all the macers, persuaded -the rest to wait out of doors. National Assembly shall now, therefore, -look its august task directly in the face: regenerative Constitutionalism -has an unregenerate Sansculottism bodily in front of it; crying, "Bread! -Bread!" - -Shifty Maillard, translating frenzy into articulation; repressive with the -one hand, expostulative with the other, does his best; and really, though -not bred to public speaking, manages rather well:--In the present dreadful -rarity of grains, a Deputation of Female Citizens has, as the august -Assembly can discern, come out from Paris to petition. Plots of -Aristocrats are too evident in the matter; for example, one miller has been -bribed 'by a banknote of 200 livres' not to grind,--name unknown to the -Usher, but fact provable, at least indubitable. Further, it seems, the -National Cockade has been trampled on; also there are Black Cockades, or -were. All which things will not an august National Assembly, the hope of -France, take into its wise immediate consideration? - -And Menadic Hunger, impressible, crying "Black Cockades," crying Bread, -Bread," adds, after such fashion: Will it not?--Yes, Messieurs, if a -Deputation to his Majesty, for the 'Acceptance pure and simple,' seemed -proper,--how much more now, for 'the afflicting situation of Paris;' for -the calming of this effervescence! President Mounier, with a speedy -Deputation, among whom we notice the respectable figure of Doctor -Guillotin, gets himself forthwith on march. Vice-President shall continue -the order of the day; Usher Maillard shall stay by him to repress the -women. It is four o'clock, of the miserablest afternoon, when Mounier -steps out. - -O experienced Mounier, what an afternoon; the last of thy political -existence! Better had it been to 'fall suddenly unwell,' while it was yet -time. For, behold, the Esplanade, over all its spacious expanse, is -covered with groups of squalid dripping Women; of lankhaired male -Rascality, armed with axes, rusty pikes, old muskets, ironshod clubs (baton -ferres, which end in knives or sword-blades, a kind of extempore -billhook);--looking nothing but hungry revolt. The rain pours: Gardes-du- -Corps go caracoling through the groups 'amid hisses;' irritating and -agitating what is but dispersed here to reunite there. - -Innumerable squalid women beleaguer the President and Deputation; insist on -going with him: has not his Majesty himself, looking from the window, sent -out to ask, What we wanted? "Bread and speech with the King (Du pain, et -parler au Roi)," that was the answer. Twelve women are clamorously added -to the Deputation; and march with it, across the Esplanade; through -dissipated groups, caracoling Bodyguards, and the pouring rain. - -President Mounier, unexpectedly augmented by Twelve Women, copiously -escorted by Hunger and Rascality, is himself mistaken for a group: himself -and his Women are dispersed by caracolers; rally again with difficulty, -among the mud. (Mounier, Expose Justificatif (cited in Deux Amis, iii. -185).) Finally the Grates are opened: the Deputation gets access, with -the Twelve Women too in it; of which latter, Five shall even see the face -of his Majesty. Let wet Menadism, in the best spirits it can expect their -return. - - - -Chapter 1.7.VII. - -At Versailles. - -But already Pallas Athene (in the shape of Demoiselle Theroigne) is busy -with Flandre and the dismounted Dragoons. She, and such women as are -fittest, go through the ranks; speak with an earnest jocosity; clasp rough -troopers to their patriot bosom, crush down spontoons and musketoons with -soft arms: can a man, that were worthy of the name of man, attack -famishing patriot women? - -One reads that Theroigne had bags of money, which she distributed over -Flandre:--furnished by whom? Alas, with money-bags one seldom sits on -insurrectionary cannon. Calumnious Royalism! Theroigne had only the -limited earnings of her profession of unfortunate-female; money she had -not, but brown locks, the figure of a heathen Goddess, and an eloquent -tongue and heart. - -Meanwhile, Saint-Antoine, in groups and troops, is continually arriving; -wetted, sulky; with pikes and impromptu billhooks: driven thus far by -popular fixed-idea. So many hirsute figures driven hither, in that manner: -figures that have come to do they know not what; figures that have come to -see it done! Distinguished among all figures, who is this, of gaunt -stature, with leaden breastplate, though a small one; (See Weber, ii. 185- -231.) bushy in red grizzled locks; nay, with long tile-beard? It is -Jourdan, unjust dealer in mules; a dealer no longer, but a Painter's -Layfigure, playing truant this day. From the necessities of Art comes his -long tile-beard; whence his leaden breastplate (unless indeed he were some -Hawker licensed by leaden badge) may have come,--will perhaps remain for -ever a Historical Problem. Another Saul among the people we discern: -'Pere Adam, Father Adam,' as the groups name him; to us better known as -bull-voiced Marquis Saint-Huruge; hero of the Veto; a man that has had -losses, and deserved them. The tall Marquis, emitted some days ago from -limbo, looks peripatetically on this scene, from under his umbrella, not -without interest. All which persons and things, hurled together as we see; -Pallas Athene, busy with Flandre; patriotic Versailles National Guards, -short of ammunition, and deserted by d'Estaing their Colonel, and commanded -by Lecointre their Major; then caracoling Bodyguards, sour, dispirited, -with their buckskins wet; and finally this flowing sea of indignant -Squalor,--may they not give rise to occurrences? - -Behold, however, the Twelve She-deputies return from the Chateau. Without -President Mounier, indeed; but radiant with joy, shouting "Life to the King -and his House." Apparently the news are good, Mesdames? News of the best! -Five of us were admitted to the internal splendours, to the Royal Presence. -This slim damsel, 'Louison Chabray, worker in sculpture, aged only -seventeen,' as being of the best looks and address, her we appointed -speaker. On whom, and indeed on all of us, his Majesty looked nothing but -graciousness. Nay, when Louison, addressing him, was like to faint, he -took her in his royal arms; and said gallantly, "It was well worth while -(Elle en valut bien la peine)." Consider, O women, what a King! His words -were of comfort, and that only: there shall be provision sent to Paris, if -provision is in the world; grains shall circulate free as air; millers -shall grind, or do worse, while their millstones endure; and nothing be -left wrong which a Restorer of French Liberty can right. - -Good news these; but, to wet Menads, all too incredible! There seems no -proof, then? Words of comfort are words only; which will feed nothing. O -miserable people, betrayed by Aristocrats, who corrupt thy very messengers! -In his royal arms, Mademoiselle Louison? In his arms? Thou shameless -minx, worthy of a name--that shall be nameless! Yes, thy skin is soft: -ours is rough with hardship; and well wetted, waiting here in the rain. No -children hast thou hungry at home; only alabaster dolls, that weep not! -The traitress! To the Lanterne!--And so poor Louison Chabray, no -asseveration or shrieks availing her, fair slim damsel, late in the arms of -Royalty, has a garter round her neck, and furibund Amazons at each end; is -about to perish so,--when two Bodyguards gallop up, indignantly -dissipating; and rescue her. The miscredited Twelve hasten back to the -Chateau, for an 'answer in writing.' - -Nay, behold, a new flight of Menads, with 'M. Brunout Bastille Volunteer,' -as impressed-commandant, at the head of it. These also will advance to the -Grate of the Grand Court, and see what is toward. Human patience, in wet -buckskins, has its limits. Bodyguard Lieutenant, M. de Savonnieres, for -one moment, lets his temper, long provoked, long pent, give way. He not -only dissipates these latter Menads; but caracoles and cuts, or indignantly -flourishes, at M. Brunout, the impressed-commandant; and, finding great -relief in it, even chases him; Brunout flying nimbly, though in a pirouette -manner, and now with sword also drawn. At which sight of wrath and victory -two other Bodyguards (for wrath is contagious, and to pent Bodyguards is so -solacing) do likewise give way; give chase, with brandished sabre, and in -the air make horrid circles. So that poor Brunout has nothing for it but -to retreat with accelerated nimbleness, through rank after rank; Parthian- -like, fencing as he flies; above all, shouting lustily, "On nous laisse -assassiner, They are getting us assassinated?" - -Shameful! Three against one! Growls come from the Lecointrian ranks; -bellowings,--lastly shots. Savonnieres' arm is raised to strike: the -bullet of a Lecointrian musket shatters it; the brandished sabre jingles -down harmless. Brunout has escaped, this duel well ended: but the wild -howl of war is everywhere beginning to pipe! - -The Amazons recoil; Saint-Antoine has its cannon pointed (full of -grapeshot); thrice applies the lit flambeau; which thrice refuses to -catch,--the touchholes are so wetted; and voices cry: "Arretez, il n'est -pas temps encore, Stop, it is not yet time!" (Deux Amis, iii. 192-201.) -Messieurs of the Garde-du-Corps, ye had orders not to fire; nevertheless -two of you limp dismounted, and one war-horse lies slain. Were it not well -to draw back out of shot-range; finally to file off,--into the interior? -If in so filing off, there did a musketoon or two discharge itself, at -these armed shopkeepers, hooting and crowing, could man wonder? Draggled -are your white cockades of an enormous size; would to Heaven they were got -exchanged for tricolor ones! Your buckskins are wet, your hearts heavy. -Go, and return not! - -The Bodyguards file off, as we hint; giving and receiving shots; drawing no -life-blood; leaving boundless indignation. Some three times in the -thickening dusk, a glimpse of them is seen, at this or the other Portal: -saluted always with execrations, with the whew of lead. Let but a -Bodyguard shew face, he is hunted by Rascality;--for instance, poor 'M. de -Moucheton of the Scotch Company,' owner of the slain war-horse; and has to -be smuggled off by Versailles Captains. Or rusty firelocks belch after -him, shivering asunder his--hat. In the end, by superior Order, the -Bodyguards, all but the few on immediate duty, disappear; or as it were -abscond; and march, under cloud of night, to Rambouillet. (Weber, ubi -supra.) - -We remark also that the Versaillese have now got ammunition: all -afternoon, the official Person could find none; till, in these so critical -moments, a patriotic Sublieutenant set a pistol to his ear, and would thank -him to find some,--which he thereupon succeeded in doing. Likewise that -Flandre, disarmed by Pallas Athene, says openly, it will not fight with -citizens; and for token of peace, has exchanged cartridges with the -Versaillese. - -Sansculottism is now among mere friends; and can 'circulate freely;' -indignant at Bodyguards;--complaining also considerably of hunger. - - - -Chapter 1.7.VIII. - -The Equal Diet. - -But why lingers Mounier; returns not with his Deputation? It is six, it is -seven o'clock; and still no Mounier, no Acceptance pure and simple. - -And, behold, the dripping Menads, not now in deputation but in mass, have -penetrated into the Assembly: to the shamefullest interruption of public -speaking and order of the day. Neither Maillard nor Vice-President can -restrain them, except within wide limits; not even, except for minutes, can -the lion-voice of Mirabeau, though they applaud it: but ever and anon they -break in upon the regeneration of France with cries of: "Bread; not so -much discoursing! Du pain; pas tant de longs discours!"--So insensible -were these poor creatures to bursts of Parliamentary eloquence! - -One learns also that the royal Carriages are getting yoked, as if for Metz. -Carriages, royal or not, have verily showed themselves at the back Gates. -They even produced, or quoted, a written order from our Versailles -Municipality,--which is a Monarchic not a Democratic one. However, -Versailles Patroles drove them in again; as the vigilant Lecointre had -strictly charged them to do. - -A busy man, truly, is Major Lecointre, in these hours. For Colonel -d'Estaing loiters invisible in the Oeil-de-Boeuf; invisible, or still more -questionably visible, for instants: then also a too loyal Municipality -requires supervision: no order, civil or military, taken about any of these -thousand things! Lecointre is at the Versailles Townhall: he is at the -Grate of the Grand Court; communing with Swiss and Bodyguards. He is in -the ranks of Flandre; he is here, he is there: studious to prevent -bloodshed; to prevent the Royal Family from flying to Metz; the Menads from -plundering Versailles. - -At the fall of night, we behold him advance to those armed groups of Saint- -Antoine, hovering all-too grim near the Salle des Menus. They receive him -in a half-circle; twelve speakers behind cannons, with lighted torches in -hand, the cannon-mouths towards Lecointre: a picture for Salvator! He -asks, in temperate but courageous language: What they, by this their -journey to Versailles, do specially want? The twelve speakers reply, in -few words inclusive of much: "Bread, and the end of these brabbles, Du -pain, et la fin des affaires." When the affairs will end, no Major -Lecointre, nor no mortal, can say; but as to bread, he inquires, How many -are you?--learns that they are six hundred, that a loaf each will suffice; -and rides off to the Municipality to get six hundred loaves. - -Which loaves, however, a Municipality of Monarchic temper will not give. -It will give two tons of rice rather,--could you but know whether it should -be boiled or raw. Nay when this too is accepted, the Municipals have -disappeared;--ducked under, as the Six-and-Twenty Long-gowned of Paris did; -and, leaving not the smallest vestage of rice, in the boiled or raw state, -they there vanish from History! - -Rice comes not; one's hope of food is baulked; even one's hope of -vengeance: is not M. de Moucheton of the Scotch Company, as we said, -deceitfully smuggled off? Failing all which, behold only M. de Moucheton's -slain warhorse, lying on the Esplanade there! Saint-Antoine, baulked, -esurient, pounces on the slain warhorse; flays it; roasts it, with such -fuel, of paling, gates, portable timber as can be come at,--not without -shouting: and, after the manner of ancient Greek Heroes, they lifted their -hands to the daintily readied repast; such as it might be. (Weber, Deux -Amis, &c.) Other Rascality prowls discursive; seeking what it may devour. -Flandre will retire to its barracks; Lecointre also with his Versaillese,-- -all but the vigilant Patrols, charged to be doubly vigilant. - -So sink the shadows of Night, blustering, rainy; and all paths grow dark. -Strangest Night ever seen in these regions,--perhaps since the Bartholomew -Night, when Versailles, as Bassompierre writes of it, was a chetif chateau. -O for the Lyre of some Orpheus, to constrain, with touch of melodious -strings, these mad masses into Order! For here all seems fallen asunder, -in wide-yawning dislocation. The highest, as in down-rushing of a World, -is come in contact with the lowest: the Rascality of France beleaguering -the Royalty of France; 'ironshod batons' lifted round the diadem, not to -guard it! With denunciations of bloodthirsty Anti-national Bodyguards, are -heard dark growlings against a Queenly Name. - -The Court sits tremulous, powerless; varies with the varying temper of the -Esplanade, with the varying colour of the rumours from Paris. Thick-coming -rumours; now of peace, now of war. Necker and all the Ministers consult; -with a blank issue. The Oeil-de-Boeuf is one tempest of whispers:--We will -fly to Metz; we will not fly. The royal Carriages again attempt egress;-- -though for trial merely; they are again driven in by Lecointre's Patrols. -In six hours, nothing has been resolved on; not even the Acceptance pure -and simple. - -In six hours? Alas, he who, in such circumstances, cannot resolve in six -minutes, may give up the enterprise: him Fate has already resolved for. -And Menadism, meanwhile, and Sansculottism takes counsel with the National -Assembly; grows more and more tumultuous there. Mounier returns not; -Authority nowhere shews itself: the Authority of France lies, for the -present, with Lecointre and Usher Maillard.--This then is the abomination -of desolation; come suddenly, though long foreshadowed as inevitable! For, -to the blind, all things are sudden. Misery which, through long ages, had -no spokesman, no helper, will now be its own helper and speak for itself. -The dialect, one of the rudest, is, what it could be, this. - -At eight o'clock there returns to our Assembly not the Deputation; but -Doctor Guillotin announcing that it will return; also that there is hope of -the Acceptance pure and simple. He himself has brought a Royal Letter, -authorising and commanding the freest 'circulation of grains.' Which Royal -Letter Menadism with its whole heart applauds. Conformably to which the -Assembly forthwith passes a Decree; also received with rapturous Menadic -plaudits:--Only could not an august Assembly contrive further to "fix the -price of bread at eight sous the half-quartern; butchers'-meat at six sous -the pound;" which seem fair rates? Such motion do 'a multitude of men and -women,' irrepressible by Usher Maillard, now make; does an august Assembly -hear made. Usher Maillard himself is not always perfectly measured in -speech; but if rebuked, he can justly excuse himself by the peculiarity of -the circumstances. (Moniteur (in Hist. Parl. ii. 105).) - -But finally, this Decree well passed, and the disorder continuing; and -Members melting away, and no President Mounier returning,--what can the -Vice-President do but also melt away? The Assembly melts, under such -pressure, into deliquium; or, as it is officially called, adjourns. -Maillard is despatched to Paris, with the 'Decree concerning Grains' in his -pocket; he and some women, in carriages belonging to the King. Thitherward -slim Louison Chabray has already set forth, with that 'written answer,' -which the Twelve She-deputies returned in to seek. Slim sylph, she has set -forth, through the black muddy country: she has much to tell, her poor -nerves so flurried; and travels, as indeed to-day on this road all persons -do, with extreme slowness. President Mounier has not come, nor the -Acceptance pure and simple; though six hours with their events have come; -though courier on courier reports that Lafayette is coming. Coming, with -war or with peace? It is time that the Chateau also should determine on -one thing or another; that the Chateau also should show itself alive, if it -would continue living! - -Victorious, joyful after such delay, Mounier does arrive at last, and the -hard-earned Acceptance with him; which now, alas, is of small value. Fancy -Mounier's surprise to find his Senate, whom he hoped to charm by the -Acceptance pure and simple,--all gone; and in its stead a Senate of Menads! -For as Erasmus's Ape mimicked, say with wooden splint, Erasmus shaving, so -do these Amazons hold, in mock majesty, some confused parody of National -Assembly. They make motions; deliver speeches; pass enactments; productive -at least of loud laughter. All galleries and benches are filled; a strong -Dame of the Market is in Mounier's Chair. Not without difficulty, Mounier, -by aid of macers, and persuasive speaking, makes his way to the Female- -President: the Strong Dame before abdicating signifies that, for one -thing, she and indeed her whole senate male and female (for what was one -roasted warhorse among so many?) are suffering very considerably from -hunger. - -Experienced Mounier, in these circumstances, takes a twofold resolution: -To reconvoke his Assembly Members by sound of drum; also to procure a -supply of food. Swift messengers fly, to all bakers, cooks, pastrycooks, -vintners, restorers; drums beat, accompanied with shrill vocal -proclamation, through all streets. They come: the Assembly Members come; -what is still better, the provisions come. On tray and barrow come these -latter; loaves, wine, great store of sausages. The nourishing baskets -circulate harmoniously along the benches; nor, according to the Father of -Epics, did any soul lack a fair share of victual ((Greek), an equal diet); -highly desirable, at the moment. (Deux Amis, iii. 208.) - -Gradually some hundred or so of Assembly members get edged in, Menadism -making way a little, round Mounier's Chair; listen to the Acceptance pure -and simple; and begin, what is the order of the night, 'discussion of the -Penal Code.' All benches are crowded; in the dusky galleries, duskier with -unwashed heads, is a strange 'coruscation,'--of impromptu billhooks. -(Courier de Provence (Mirabeau's Newspaper), No. 50, p. 19.) It is exactly -five months this day since these same galleries were filled with high- -plumed jewelled Beauty, raining bright influences; and now? To such length -have we got in regenerating France. Methinks the travail-throes are of the -sharpest!--Menadism will not be restrained from occasional remarks; asks, -"What is use of the Penal Code? The thing we want is Bread." Mirabeau -turns round with lion-voiced rebuke; Menadism applauds him; but -recommences. - -Thus they, chewing tough sausages, discussing the Penal Code, make night -hideous. What the issue will be? Lafayette with his thirty thousand must -arrive first: him, who cannot now be distant, all men expect, as the -messenger of Destiny. - - - -Chapter 1.7.IX. - -Lafayette. - -Towards midnight lights flare on the hill; Lafayette's lights! The roll of -his drums comes up the Avenue de Versailles. With peace, or with war? -Patience, friends! With neither. Lafayette is come, but not yet the -catastrophe. - -He has halted and harangued so often, on the march; spent nine hours on -four leagues of road. At Montreuil, close on Versailles, the whole Host -had to pause; and, with uplifted right hand, in the murk of Night, to these -pouring skies, swear solemnly to respect the King's Dwelling; to be -faithful to King and National Assembly. Rage is driven down out of sight, -by the laggard march; the thirst of vengeance slaked in weariness and -soaking clothes. Flandre is again drawn out under arms: but Flandre, -grown so patriotic, now needs no 'exterminating.' The wayworn Batallions -halt in the Avenue: they have, for the present, no wish so pressing as -that of shelter and rest. - -Anxious sits President Mounier; anxious the Chateau. There is a message -coming from the Chateau, that M. Mounier would please return thither with a -fresh Deputation, swiftly; and so at least unite our two anxieties. -Anxious Mounier does of himself send, meanwhile, to apprise the General -that his Majesty has been so gracious as to grant us the Acceptance pure -and simple. The General, with a small advance column, makes answer in -passing; speaks vaguely some smooth words to the National President,-- -glances, only with the eye, at that so mixtiform National Assembly; then -fares forward towards the Chateau. There are with him two Paris -Municipals; they were chosen from the Three Hundred for that errand. He -gets admittance through the locked and padlocked Grates, through sentries -and ushers, to the Royal Halls. - -The Court, male and female, crowds on his passage, to read their doom on -his face; which exhibits, say Historians, a mixture 'of sorrow, of fervour -and valour,' singular to behold. (Memoire de M. le Comte de Lally- -Tollendal (Janvier 1790), p. 161-165.) The King, with Monsieur, with -Ministers and Marshals, is waiting to receive him: He "is come," in his -highflown chivalrous way, "to offer his head for the safety of his -Majesty's." The two Municipals state the wish of Paris: four things, of -quite pacific tenor. First, that the honour of Guarding his sacred person -be conferred on patriot National Guards;--say, the Centre Grenadiers, who -as Gardes Francaises were wont to have that privilege. Second, that -provisions be got, if possible. Third, that the Prisons, all crowded with -political delinquents, may have judges sent them. Fourth, that it would -please his Majesty to come and live in Paris. To all which four wishes, -except the fourth, his Majesty answers readily, Yes; or indeed may almost -say that he has already answered it. To the fourth he can answer only, Yes -or No; would so gladly answer, Yes and No!--But, in any case, are not their -dispositions, thank Heaven, so entirely pacific? There is time for -deliberation. The brunt of the danger seems past! - -Lafayette and d'Estaing settle the watches; Centre Grenadiers are to take -the Guard-room they of old occupied as Gardes Francaises;--for indeed the -Gardes du Corps, its late ill-advised occupants, are gone mostly to -Rambouillet. That is the order of this night; sufficient for the night is -the evil thereof. Whereupon Lafayette and the two Municipals, with -highflown chivalry, take their leave. - -So brief has the interview been, Mounier and his Deputation were not yet -got up. So brief and satisfactory. A stone is rolled from every heart. -The fair Palace Dames publicly declare that this Lafayette, detestable -though he be, is their saviour for once. Even the ancient vinaigrous -Tantes admit it; the King's Aunts, ancient Graille and Sisterhood, known to -us of old. Queen Marie-Antoinette has been heard often say the like. She -alone, among all women and all men, wore a face of courage, of lofty -calmness and resolve, this day. She alone saw clearly what she meant to -do; and Theresa's Daughter dares do what she means, were all France -threatening her: abide where her children are, where her husband is. - -Towards three in the morning all things are settled: the watches set, the -Centre Grenadiers put into their old Guard-room, and harangued; the Swiss, -and few remaining Bodyguards harangued. The wayworn Paris Batallions, -consigned to 'the hospitality of Versailles,' lie dormant in spare-beds, -spare-barracks, coffeehouses, empty churches. A troop of them, on their -way to the Church of Saint-Louis, awoke poor Weber, dreaming troublous, in -the Rue Sartory. Weber has had his waistcoat-pocket full of balls all day; -'two hundred balls, and two pears of powder!' For waistcoats were -waistcoats then, and had flaps down to mid-thigh. So many balls he has had -all day; but no opportunity of using them: he turns over now, execrating -disloyal bandits; swears a prayer or two, and straight to sleep again. - -Finally, the National Assembly is harangued; which thereupon, on motion of -Mirabeau, discontinues the Penal Code, and dismisses for this night. -Menadism, Sansculottism has cowered into guard-houses, barracks of Flandre, -to the light of cheerful fire; failing that, to churches, office-houses, -sentry-boxes, wheresoever wretchedness can find a lair. The troublous Day -has brawled itself to rest: no lives yet lost but that of one warhorse. -Insurrectionary Chaos lies slumbering round the Palace, like Ocean round a -Diving-bell,--no crevice yet disclosing itself. - -Deep sleep has fallen promiscuously on the high and on the low; suspending -most things, even wrath and famine. Darkness covers the Earth. But, far -on the North-east, Paris flings up her great yellow gleam; far into the wet -black Night. For all is illuminated there, as in the old July Nights; the -streets deserted, for alarm of war; the Municipals all wakeful; Patrols -hailing, with their hoarse Who-goes. There, as we discover, our poor slim -Louison Chabray, her poor nerves all fluttered, is arriving about this very -hour. There Usher Maillard will arrive, about an hour hence, 'towards four -in the morning.' They report, successively, to a wakeful Hotel-de-Ville -what comfort they can report; which again, with early dawn, large -comfortable Placards, shall impart to all men. - -Lafayette, in the Hotel de Noailles, not far from the Chateau, having now -finished haranguing, sits with his Officers consulting: at five o'clock -the unanimous best counsel is, that a man so tost and toiled for twenty- -four hours and more, fling himself on a bed, and seek some rest. - -Thus, then, has ended the First Act of the Insurrection of Women. How it -will turn on the morrow? The morrow, as always, is with the Fates! But -his Majesty, one may hope, will consent to come honourably to Paris; at all -events, he can visit Paris. Anti-national Bodyguards, here and elsewhere, -must take the National Oath; make reparation to the Tricolor; Flandre will -swear. There may be much swearing; much public speaking there will -infallibly be: and so, with harangues and vows, may the matter in some -handsome way, wind itself up. - -Or, alas, may it not be all otherwise, unhandsome: the consent not -honourable, but extorted, ignominious? Boundless Chaos of Insurrection -presses slumbering round the Palace, like Ocean round a Diving-bell; and -may penetrate at any crevice. Let but that accumulated insurrectionary -mass find entrance! Like the infinite inburst of water; or say rather, of -inflammable, self-igniting fluid; for example, 'turpentine-and-phosphorus -oil,'--fluid known to Spinola Santerre! - - - -Chapter 1.7.X. - -The Grand Entries. - -The dull dawn of a new morning, drizzly and chill, had but broken over -Versailles, when it pleased Destiny that a Bodyguard should look out of -window, on the right wing of the Chateau, to see what prospect there was in -Heaven and in Earth. Rascality male and female is prowling in view of him. -His fasting stomach is, with good cause, sour; he perhaps cannot forbear a -passing malison on them; least of all can he forbear answering such. - -Ill words breed worse: till the worst word came; and then the ill deed. -Did the maledicent Bodyguard, getting (as was too inevitable) better -malediction than he gave, load his musketoon, and threaten to fire; and -actually fire? Were wise who wist! It stands asserted; to us not -credibly. Be this as it may, menaced Rascality, in whinnying scorn, is -shaking at all Grates: the fastening of one (some write, it was a chain -merely) gives way; Rascality is in the Grand Court, whinnying louder still. - -The maledicent Bodyguard, more Bodyguards than he do now give fire; a man's -arm is shattered. Lecointre will depose (Deposition de Lecointre (in Hist. -Parl. iii. 111-115.) that 'the Sieur Cardaine, a National Guard without -arms, was stabbed.' But see, sure enough, poor Jerome l'Heritier, an -unarmed National Guard he too, 'cabinet-maker, a saddler's son, of Paris,' -with the down of youthhood still on his chin,--he reels death-stricken; -rushes to the pavement, scattering it with his blood and brains!--Allelew! -Wilder than Irish wakes, rises the howl: of pity; of infinite revenge. In -few moments, the Grate of the inner and inmost Court, which they name Court -of Marble, this too is forced, or surprised, and burst open: the Court of -Marble too is overflowed: up the Grand Staircase, up all stairs and -entrances rushes the living Deluge! Deshuttes and Varigny, the two sentry -Bodyguards, are trodden down, are massacred with a hundred pikes. Women -snatch their cutlasses, or any weapon, and storm-in Menadic:--other women -lift the corpse of shot Jerome; lay it down on the Marble steps; there -shall the livid face and smashed head, dumb for ever, speak. - -Wo now to all Bodyguards, mercy is none for them! Miomandre de Sainte- -Marie pleads with soft words, on the Grand Staircase, 'descending four -steps:'--to the roaring tornado. His comrades snatch him up, by the skirts -and belts; literally, from the jaws of Destruction; and slam-to their Door. -This also will stand few instants; the panels shivering in, like potsherds. -Barricading serves not: fly fast, ye Bodyguards; rabid Insurrection, like -the hellhound Chase, uproaring at your heels! - -The terrorstruck Bodyguards fly, bolting and barricading; it follows. -Whitherward? Through hall on hall: wo, now! towards the Queen's Suite of -Rooms, in the furtherest room of which the Queen is now asleep. Five -sentinels rush through that long Suite; they are in the Anteroom knocking -loud: "Save the Queen!" Trembling women fall at their feet with tears; -are answered: "Yes, we will die; save ye the Queen!" - -Tremble not, women, but haste: for, lo, another voice shouts far through -the outermost door, "Save the Queen!" and the door shut. It is brave -Miomandre's voice that shouts this second warning. He has stormed across -imminent death to do it; fronts imminent death, having done it. Brave -Tardivet du Repaire, bent on the same desperate service, was borne down -with pikes; his comrades hardly snatched him in again alive. Miomandre and -Tardivet: let the names of these two Bodyguards, as the names of brave men -should, live long. - -Trembling Maids of Honour, one of whom from afar caught glimpse of -Miomandre as well as heard him, hastily wrap the Queen; not in robes of -State. She flies for her life, across the Oeil-de-Boeuf; against the main -door of which too Insurrection batters. She is in the King's Apartment, in -the King's arms; she clasps her children amid a faithful few. The -Imperial-hearted bursts into mother's tears: "O my friends, save me and my -children, O mes amis, sauvez moi et mes enfans!" The battering of -Insurrectionary axes clangs audible across the Oeil-de-Boeuf. What an -hour! - -Yes, Friends: a hideous fearful hour; shameful alike to Governed and -Governor; wherein Governed and Governor ignominiously testify that their -relation is at an end. Rage, which had brewed itself in twenty thousand -hearts, for the last four-and-twenty hours, has taken fire: Jerome's -brained corpse lies there as live-coal. It is, as we said, the infinite -Element bursting in: wild-surging through all corridors and conduits. - -Meanwhile, the poor Bodyguards have got hunted mostly into the Oeil-de- -Boeuf. They may die there, at the King's threshhold; they can do little to -defend it. They are heaping tabourets (stools of honour), benches and all -moveables, against the door; at which the axe of Insurrection thunders.-- -But did brave Miomandre perish, then, at the Queen's door? No, he was -fractured, slashed, lacerated, left for dead; he has nevertheless crawled -hither; and shall live, honoured of loyal France. Remark also, in flat -contradiction to much which has been said and sung, that Insurrection did -not burst that door he had defended; but hurried elsewhither, seeking new -bodyguards. (Campan, ii. 75-87.) - -Poor Bodyguards, with their Thyestes' Opera-Repast! Well for them, that -Insurrection has only pikes and axes; no right sieging tools! It shakes -and thunders. Must they all perish miserably, and Royalty with them? -Deshuttes and Varigny, massacred at the first inbreak, have been beheaded -in the Marble Court: a sacrifice to Jerome's manes: Jourdan with the -tile-beard did that duty willingly; and asked, If there were no more? -Another captive they are leading round the corpse, with howl-chauntings: -may not Jourdan again tuck up his sleeves? - -And louder and louder rages Insurrection within, plundering if it cannot -kill; louder and louder it thunders at the Oeil-de-Boeuf: what can now -hinder its bursting in?--On a sudden it ceases; the battering has ceased! -Wild rushing: the cries grow fainter: there is silence, or the tramp of -regular steps; then a friendly knocking: "We are the Centre Grenadiers, -old Gardes Francaises: Open to us, Messieurs of the Garde-du-Corps; we -have not forgotten how you saved us at Fontenoy!" (Toulongeon, i. 144.) -The door is opened; enter Captain Gondran and the Centre Grenadiers: there -are military embracings; there is sudden deliverance from death into life. - -Strange Sons of Adam! It was to 'exterminate' these Gardes-du-Corps that -the Centre Grenadiers left home: and now they have rushed to save them -from extermination. The memory of common peril, of old help, melts the -rough heart; bosom is clasped to bosom, not in war. The King shews -himself, one moment, through the door of his Apartment, with: "Do not hurt -my Guards!"--"Soyons freres, Let us be brothers!" cries Captain Gondran; -and again dashes off, with levelled bayonets, to sweep the Palace clear. - -Now too Lafayette, suddenly roused, not from sleep (for his eyes had not -yet closed), arrives; with passionate popular eloquence, with prompt -military word of command. National Guards, suddenly roused, by sound of -trumpet and alarm-drum, are all arriving. The death-melly ceases: the -first sky-lambent blaze of Insurrection is got damped down; it burns now, -if unextinguished, yet flameless, as charred coals do, and not -inextinguishable. The King's Apartments are safe. Ministers, Officials, -and even some loyal National deputies are assembling round their Majesties. -The consternation will, with sobs and confusion, settle down gradually, -into plan and counsel, better or worse. - -But glance now, for a moment, from the royal windows! A roaring sea of -human heads, inundating both Courts; billowing against all passages: -Menadic women; infuriated men, mad with revenge, with love of mischief, -love of plunder! Rascality has slipped its muzzle; and now bays, three- -throated, like the Dog of Erebus. Fourteen Bodyguards are wounded; two -massacred, and as we saw, beheaded; Jourdan asking, "Was it worth while to -come so far for two?" Hapless Deshuttes and Varigny! Their fate surely -was sad. Whirled down so suddenly to the abyss; as men are, suddenly, by -the wide thunder of the Mountain Avalanche, awakened not by them, awakened -far off by others! When the Chateau Clock last struck, they two were -pacing languid, with poised musketoon; anxious mainly that the next hour -would strike. It has struck; to them inaudible. Their trunks lie mangled: -their heads parade, 'on pikes twelve feet long,' through the streets of -Versailles; and shall, about noon reach the Barriers of Paris,--a too -ghastly contradiction to the large comfortable Placards that have been -posted there! - -The other captive Bodyguard is still circling the corpse of Jerome, amid -Indian war-whooping; bloody Tilebeard, with tucked sleeves, brandishing his -bloody axe; when Gondran and the Grenadiers come in sight. "Comrades, will -you see a man massacred in cold blood?"--"Off, butchers!" answer they; and -the poor Bodyguard is free. Busy runs Gondran, busy run Guards and -Captains; scouring at all corridors; dispersing Rascality and Robbery; -sweeping the Palace clear. The mangled carnage is removed; Jerome's body -to the Townhall, for inquest: the fire of Insurrection gets damped, more -and more, into measurable, manageable heat. - -Transcendent things of all sorts, as in the general outburst of -multitudinous Passion, are huddled together; the ludicrous, nay the -ridiculous, with the horrible. Far over the billowy sea of heads, may be -seen Rascality, caprioling on horses from the Royal Stud. The Spoilers -these; for Patriotism is always infected so, with a proportion of mere -thieves and scoundrels. Gondran snatched their prey from them in the -Chateau; whereupon they hurried to the Stables, and took horse there. But -the generous Diomedes' steeds, according to Weber, disdained such -scoundrel-burden; and, flinging up their royal heels, did soon project most -of it, in parabolic curves, to a distance, amid peals of laughter: and -were caught. Mounted National Guards secured the rest. - -Now too is witnessed the touching last-flicker of Etiquette; which sinks -not here, in the Cimmerian World-wreckage, without a sign, as the house- -cricket might still chirp in the pealing of a Trump of Doom. "Monsieur," -said some Master of Ceremonies (one hopes it might be de Breze), as -Lafayette, in these fearful moments, was rushing towards the inner Royal -Apartments, "Monsieur, le Roi vous accorde les grandes entrees, Monsieur, -the King grants you the Grand Entries,"--not finding it convenient to -refuse them!" (Toulongeon, 1 App. 120.) - - - -Chapter 1.7.XI. - -From Versailles. - -However, the Paris National Guard, wholly under arms, has cleared the -Palace, and even occupies the nearer external spaces; extruding -miscellaneous Patriotism, for most part, into the Grand Court, or even into -the Forecourt. - -The Bodyguards, you can observe, have now of a verity, 'hoisted the -National Cockade:' for they step forward to the windows or balconies, hat -aloft in hand, on each hat a huge tricolor; and fling over their bandoleers -in sign of surrender; and shout Vive la Nation. To which how can the -generous heart respond but with, Vive le Roi; vivent les Gardes-du-Corps? -His Majesty himself has appeared with Lafayette on the balcony, and again -appears: Vive le Roi greets him from all throats; but also from some one -throat is heard "Le Roi a Paris, The King to Paris!" - -Her Majesty too, on demand, shows herself, though there is peril in it: -she steps out on the balcony, with her little boy and girl. "No children, -Point d'enfans!" cry the voices. She gently pushes back her children; and -stands alone, her hands serenely crossed on her breast: "should I die," -she had said, "I will do it." Such serenity of heroism has its effect. -Lafayette, with ready wit, in his highflown chivalrous way, takes that fair -queenly hand; and reverently kneeling, kisses it: thereupon the people do -shout Vive la Reine. Nevertheless, poor Weber 'saw' (or even thought he -saw; for hardly the third part of poor Weber's experiences, in such -hysterical days, will stand scrutiny) 'one of these brigands level his -musket at her Majesty,'--with or without intention to shoot; for another of -the brigands 'angrily struck it down.' - -So that all, and the Queen herself, nay the very Captain of the Bodyguards, -have grown National! The very Captain of the Bodyguards steps out now with -Lafayette. On the hat of the repentant man is an enormous tricolor; large -as a soup-platter, or sun-flower; visible to the utmost Forecourt. He -takes the National Oath with a loud voice, elevating his hat; at which -sight all the army raise their bonnets on their bayonets, with shouts. -Sweet is reconcilement to the heart of man. Lafayette has sworn Flandre; -he swears the remaining Bodyguards, down in the Marble Court; the people -clasp them in their arms:--O, my brothers, why would ye force us to slay -you? Behold there is joy over you, as over returning prodigal sons!--The -poor Bodyguards, now National and tricolor, exchange bonnets, exchange -arms; there shall be peace and fraternity. And still "Vive le Roi;" and -also "Le Roi a Paris," not now from one throat, but from all throats as -one, for it is the heart's wish of all mortals. - -Yes, The King to Paris: what else? Ministers may consult, and National -Deputies wag their heads: but there is now no other possibility. You have -forced him to go willingly. "At one o'clock!" Lafayette gives audible -assurance to that purpose; and universal Insurrection, with immeasurable -shout, and a discharge of all the firearms, clear and rusty, great and -small, that it has, returns him acceptance. What a sound; heard for -leagues: a doom peal!--That sound too rolls away, into the Silence of -Ages. And the Chateau of Versailles stands ever since vacant, hushed -still; its spacious Courts grassgrown, responsive to the hoe of the weeder. -Times and generations roll on, in their confused Gulf-current; and -buildings like builders have their destiny. - -Till one o'clock, then, there will be three parties, National Assembly, -National Rascality, National Royalty, all busy enough. Rascality rejoices; -women trim themselves with tricolor. Nay motherly Paris has sent her -Avengers sufficient 'cartloads of loaves;' which are shouted over, which -are gratefully consumed. The Avengers, in return, are searching for grain- -stores; loading them in fifty waggons; that so a National King, probable -harbinger of all blessings, may be the evident bringer of plenty, for one. - -And thus has Sansculottism made prisoner its King; revoking his parole. -The Monarchy has fallen; and not so much as honourably: no, ignominiously; -with struggle, indeed, oft repeated; but then with unwise struggle; wasting -its strength in fits and paroxysms; at every new paroxysm, foiled more -pitifully than before. Thus Broglie's whiff of grapeshot, which might have -been something, has dwindled to the pot-valour of an Opera Repast, and O -Richard, O mon Roi. Which again we shall see dwindle to a Favras' -Conspiracy, a thing to be settled by the hanging of one Chevalier. - -Poor Monarchy! But what save foulest defeat can await that man, who wills, -and yet wills not? Apparently the King either has a right, assertible as -such to the death, before God and man; or else he has no right. -Apparently, the one or the other; could he but know which! May Heaven pity -him! Were Louis wise he would this day abdicate.--Is it not strange so few -Kings abdicate; and none yet heard of has been known to commit suicide? -Fritz the First, of Prussia, alone tried it; and they cut the rope. - -As for the National Assembly, which decrees this morning that it 'is -inseparable from his Majesty,' and will follow him to Paris, there may one -thing be noted: its extreme want of bodily health. After the Fourteenth -of July there was a certain sickliness observable among honourable Members; -so many demanding passports, on account of infirm health. But now, for -these following days, there is a perfect murrian: President Mounier, Lally -Tollendal, Clermont Tonnere, and all Constitutional Two-Chamber Royalists -needing change of air; as most No-Chamber Royalists had formerly done. - -For, in truth, it is the second Emigration this that has now come; most -extensive among Commons Deputies, Noblesse, Clergy: so that 'to -Switzerland alone there go sixty thousand.' They will return in the day of -accounts! Yes, and have hot welcome.--But Emigration on Emigration is the -peculiarity of France. One Emigration follows another; grounded on -reasonable fear, unreasonable hope, largely also on childish pet. The -highflyers have gone first, now the lower flyers; and ever the lower will -go down to the crawlers. Whereby, however, cannot our National Assembly so -much the more commodiously make the Constitution; your Two-Chamber -Anglomaniacs being all safe, distant on foreign shores? Abbe Maury is -seized, and sent back again: he, tough as tanned leather, with eloquent -Captain Cazales and some others, will stand it out for another year. - -But here, meanwhile, the question arises: Was Philippe d'Orleans seen, -this day, 'in the Bois de Boulogne, in grey surtout;' waiting under the wet -sere foliage, what the day might bring forth? Alas, yes, the Eidolon of -him was,--in Weber's and other such brains. The Chatelet shall make large -inquisition into the matter, examining a hundred and seventy witnesses, and -Deputy Chabroud publish his Report; but disclose nothing further. (Rapport -de Chabroud (Moniteur, du 31 December, 1789).) What then has caused these -two unparalleled October Days? For surely such dramatic exhibition never -yet enacted itself without Dramatist and Machinist. Wooden Punch emerges -not, with his domestic sorrows, into the light of day, unless the wire be -pulled: how can human mobs? Was it not d'Orleans then, and Laclos, -Marquis Sillery, Mirabeau and the sons of confusion, hoping to drive the -King to Metz, and gather the spoil? Nay was it not, quite contrariwise, -the Oeil-de-Boeuf, Bodyguard Colonel de Guiche, Minister Saint-Priest and -highflying Loyalists; hoping also to drive him to Metz; and try it by the -sword of civil war? Good Marquis Toulongeon, the Historian and Deputy, -feels constrained to admit that it was both. (Toulongeon, i. 150.) - -Alas, my Friends, credulous incredulity is a strange matter. But when a -whole Nation is smitten with Suspicion, and sees a dramatic miracle in the -very operation of the gastric juices, what help is there? Such Nation is -already a mere hypochondriac bundle of diseases; as good as changed into -glass; atrabiliar, decadent; and will suffer crises. Is not Suspicion -itself the one thing to be suspected, as Montaigne feared only fear? - -Now, however, the short hour has struck. His Majesty is in his carriage, -with his Queen, sister Elizabeth, and two royal children. Not for another -hour can the infinite Procession get marshalled, and under way. The -weather is dim drizzling; the mind confused; and noise great. - -Processional marches not a few our world has seen; Roman triumphs and -ovations, Cabiric cymbal-beatings, Royal progresses, Irish funerals: but -this of the French Monarchy marching to its bed remained to be seen. Miles -long, and of breadth losing itself in vagueness, for all the neighbouring -country crowds to see. Slow; stagnating along, like shoreless Lake, yet -with a noise like Niagara, like Babel and Bedlam. A splashing and a -tramping; a hurrahing, uproaring, musket-volleying;--the truest segment of -Chaos seen in these latter Ages! Till slowly it disembogue itself, in the -thickening dusk, into expectant Paris, through a double row of faces all -the way from Passy to the Hotel-de-Ville. - -Consider this: Vanguard of National troops; with trains of artillery; of -pikemen and pikewomen, mounted on cannons, on carts, hackney-coaches, or on -foot;--tripudiating, in tricolor ribbons from head to heel; loaves stuck on -the points of bayonets, green boughs stuck in gun barrels. (Mercier, -Nouveau Paris, iii. 21.) Next, as main-march, 'fifty cartloads of corn,' -which have been lent, for peace, from the stores of Versailles. Behind -which follow stragglers of the Garde-du-Corps; all humiliated, in Grenadier -bonnets. Close on these comes the Royal Carriage; come Royal Carriages: -for there are an Hundred National Deputies too, among whom sits Mirabeau,-- -his remarks not given. Then finally, pellmell, as rearguard, Flandre, -Swiss, Hundred Swiss, other Bodyguards, Brigands, whosoever cannot get -before. Between and among all which masses, flows without limit Saint- -Antoine, and the Menadic Cohort. Menadic especially about the Royal -Carriage; tripudiating there, covered with tricolor; singing 'allusive -songs;' pointing with one hand to the Royal Carriage, which the illusions -hit, and pointing to the Provision-wagons, with the other hand, and these -words: "Courage, Friends! We shall not want bread now; we are bringing you -the Baker, the Bakeress, and Baker's Boy (le Boulanger, la Boulangere, et -le petit Mitron)." (Toulongeon, i. 134-161; Deux Amis (iii. c. 9); &c. -&c.) - -The wet day draggles the tricolor, but the joy is unextinguishable. Is not -all well now? "Ah, Madame, notre bonne Reine," said some of these Strong- -women some days hence, "Ah Madame, our good Queen, don't be a traitor any -more (ne soyez plus traitre), and we will all love you!" Poor Weber went -splashing along, close by the Royal carriage, with the tear in his eye: -'their Majesties did me the honour,' or I thought they did it, 'to testify, -from time to time, by shrugging of the shoulders, by looks directed to -Heaven, the emotions they felt.' Thus, like frail cockle, floats the Royal -Life-boat, helmless, on black deluges of Rascality. - -Mercier, in his loose way, estimates the Procession and assistants at two -hundred thousand. He says it was one boundless inarticulate Haha;-- -transcendent World-Laughter; comparable to the Saturnalia of the Ancients. -Why not? Here too, as we said, is Human Nature once more human; shudder at -it whoso is of shuddering humour: yet behold it is human. It has -'swallowed all formulas;' it tripudiates even so. For which reason they -that collect Vases and Antiques, with figures of Dancing Bacchantes 'in -wild and all but impossible positions,' may look with some interest on it. - -Thus, however, has the slow-moving Chaos or modern Saturnalia of the -Ancients, reached the Barrier; and must halt, to be harangued by Mayor -Bailly. Thereafter it has to lumber along, between the double row of -faces, in the transcendent heaven-lashing Haha; two hours longer, towards -the Hotel-de-Ville. Then again to be harangued there, by several persons; -by Moreau de Saint-Mery, among others; Moreau of the Three-thousand orders, -now National Deputy for St. Domingo. To all which poor Louis, who seemed -to 'experience a slight emotion' on entering this Townhall, can answer only -that he "comes with pleasure, with confidence among his people." Mayor -Bailly, in reporting it, forgets 'confidence;' and the poor Queen says -eagerly: "Add, with confidence."--"Messieurs," rejoins Bailly, "You are -happier than if I had not forgot." - -Finally, the King is shewn on an upper balcony, by torchlight, with a huge -tricolor in his hat: 'And all the "people," says Weber, grasped one -another's hands;--thinking now surely the New Era was born.' Hardly till -eleven at night can Royalty get to its vacant, long-deserted Palace of the -Tuileries: to lodge there, somewhat in strolling-player fashion. It is -Tuesday, the sixth of October, 1789. - -Poor Louis has Two other Paris Processions to make: one ludicrous- -ignominious like this; the other not ludicrous nor ignominious, but -serious, nay sublime. - - -END OF THE FIRST VOLUME. - - - - -VOLUME II. - -THE CONSTITUTION - - -BOOK 2.I. - -THE FEAST OF PIKES - - -Chapter 2.1.I. - -In the Tuileries. - -The victim having once got his stroke-of-grace, the catastrophe can be -considered as almost come. There is small interest now in watching his -long low moans: notable only are his sharper agonies, what convulsive -struggles he may take to cast the torture off from him; and then finally -the last departure of life itself, and how he lies extinct and ended, -either wrapt like Caesar in decorous mantle-folds, or unseemly sunk -together, like one that had not the force even to die. - -Was French Royalty, when wrenched forth from its tapestries in that -fashion, on that Sixth of October 1789, such a victim? Universal France, -and Royal Proclamation to all the Provinces, answers anxiously, No; -nevertheless one may fear the worst. Royalty was beforehand so decrepit, -moribund, there is little life in it to heal an injury. How much of its -strength, which was of the imagination merely, has fled; Rascality having -looked plainly in the King's face, and not died! When the assembled crows -can pluck up their scarecrow, and say to it, Here shalt thou stand and not -there; and can treat with it, and make it, from an infinite, a quite finite -Constitutional scarecrow,--what is to be looked for? Not in the finite -Constitutional scarecrow, but in what still unmeasured, infinite-seeming -force may rally round it, is there thenceforth any hope. For it is most -true that all available Authority is mystic in its conditions, and comes -'by the grace of God.' - -Cheerfuller than watching the death-struggles of Royalism will it be to -watch the growth and gambollings of Sansculottism; for, in human things, -especially in human society, all death is but a death-birth: thus if the -sceptre is departing from Louis, it is only that, in other forms, other -sceptres, were it even pike-sceptres, may bear sway. In a prurient -element, rich with nutritive influences, we shall find that Sansculottism -grows lustily, and even frisks in not ungraceful sport: as indeed most -young creatures are sportful; nay, may it not be noted further, that as the -grown cat, and cat-species generally, is the cruellest thing known, so the -merriest is precisely the kitten, or growing cat? - -But fancy the Royal Family risen from its truckle-beds on the morrow of -that mad day: fancy the Municipal inquiry, "How would your Majesty please -to lodge?"--and then that the King's rough answer, "Each may lodge as he -can, I am well enough," is congeed and bowed away, in expressive grins, by -the Townhall Functionaries, with obsequious upholsterers at their back; and -how the Chateau of the Tuileries is repainted, regarnished into a golden -Royal Residence; and Lafayette with his blue National Guards lies -encompassing it, as blue Neptune (in the language of poets) does an island, -wooingly. Thither may the wrecks of rehabilitated Loyalty gather; if it -will become Constitutional; for Constitutionalism thinks no evil; -Sansculottism itself rejoices in the King's countenance. The rubbish of a -Menadic Insurrection, as in this ever-kindly world all rubbish can and must -be, is swept aside; and so again, on clear arena, under new conditions, -with something even of a new stateliness, we begin a new course of action. - -Arthur Young has witnessed the strangest scene: Majesty walking unattended -in the Tuileries Gardens; and miscellaneous tricolor crowds, who cheer it, -and reverently make way for it: the very Queen commands at lowest -respectful silence, regretful avoidance. (Arthur Young's Travels, i. 264- -280.) Simple ducks, in those royal waters, quackle for crumbs from young -royal fingers: the little Dauphin has a little railed garden, where he is -seen delving, with ruddy cheeks and flaxen curled hair; also a little hutch -to put his tools in, and screen himself against showers. What peaceable -simplicity! Is it peace of a Father restored to his children? Or of a -Taskmaster who has lost his whip? Lafayette and the Municipality and -universal Constitutionalism assert the former, and do what is in them to -realise it. Such Patriotism as snarls dangerously, and shows teeth, -Patrollotism shall suppress; or far better, Royalty shall soothe down the -angry hair of it, by gentle pattings; and, most effectual of all, by fuller -diet. Yes, not only shall Paris be fed, but the King's hand be seen in -that work. The household goods of the Poor shall, up to a certain amount, -by royal bounty, be disengaged from pawn, and that insatiable Mont de Piete -disgorge: rides in the city with their vive-le-roi need not fail; and so -by substance and show, shall Royalty, if man's art can popularise it, be -popularised. (Deux Amis, iii. c. 10.) - -Or, alas, is it neither restored Father nor diswhipped Taskmaster that -walks there; but an anomalous complex of both these, and of innumerable -other heterogeneities; reducible to no rubric, if not to this newly devised -one: King Louis Restorer of French Liberty? Man indeed, and King Louis -like other men, lives in this world to make rule out of the ruleless; by -his living energy, he shall force the absurd itself to become less absurd. -But then if there be no living energy; living passivity only? King -Serpent, hurled into his unexpected watery dominion, did at least bite, and -assert credibly that he was there: but as for the poor King Log, tumbled -hither and thither as thousandfold chance and other will than his might -direct, how happy for him that he was indeed wooden; and, doing nothing, -could also see and suffer nothing! It is a distracted business. - -For his French Majesty, meanwhile, one of the worst things is that he can -get no hunting. Alas, no hunting henceforth; only a fatal being-hunted! -Scarcely, in the next June weeks, shall he taste again the joys of the -game-destroyer; in next June, and never more. He sends for his smith- -tools; gives, in the course of the day, official or ceremonial business -being ended, 'a few strokes of the file, quelques coups de lime. (Le -Chateau des Tuileries, ou recit, &c., par Roussel (in Hist. Parl. iv. 195- -219).) Innocent brother mortal, why wert thou not an obscure substantial -maker of locks; but doomed in that other far-seen craft, to be a maker only -of world-follies, unrealities; things self destructive, which no mortal -hammering could rivet into coherence! - -Poor Louis is not without insight, nor even without the elements of will; -some sharpness of temper, spurting at times from a stagnating character. -If harmless inertness could save him, it were well; but he will slumber and -painfully dream, and to do aught is not given him. Royalist Antiquarians -still shew the rooms where Majesty and suite, in these extraordinary -circumstances, had their lodging. Here sat the Queen; reading,--for she -had her library brought hither, though the King refused his; taking -vehement counsel of the vehement uncounselled; sorrowing over altered -times; yet with sure hope of better: in her young rosy Boy, has she not -the living emblem of hope! It is a murky, working sky; yet with golden -gleams--of dawn, or of deeper meteoric night? Here again this chamber, on -the other side of the main entrance, was the King's: here his Majesty -breakfasted, and did official work; here daily after breakfast he received -the Queen; sometimes in pathetic friendliness; sometimes in human -sulkiness, for flesh is weak; and, when questioned about business would -answer: "Madame, your business is with the children." Nay, Sire, were it -not better you, your Majesty's self, took the children? So asks impartial -History; scornful that the thicker vessel was not also the stronger; pity- -struck for the porcelain-clay of humanity rather than for the tile-clay,-- -though indeed both were broken! - -So, however, in this Medicean Tuileries, shall the French King and Queen -now sit, for one-and-forty months; and see a wild-fermenting France work -out its own destiny, and theirs. Months bleak, ungenial, of rapid -vicissitude; yet with a mild pale splendour, here and there: as of an -April that were leading to leafiest Summer; as of an October that led only -to everlasting Frost. Medicean Tuileries, how changed since it was a -peaceful Tile field! Or is the ground itself fate-stricken, accursed: an -Atreus' Palace; for that Louvre window is still nigh, out of which a Capet, -whipt of the Furies, fired his signal of the Saint Bartholomew! Dark is -the way of the Eternal as mirrored in this world of Time: God's way is in -the sea, and His path in the great deep. - - - -Chapter 2.1.II. - -In the Salle de Manege. - -To believing Patriots, however, it is now clear, that the Constitution will -march, marcher,--had it once legs to stand on. Quick, then, ye Patriots, -bestir yourselves, and make it; shape legs for it! In the Archeveche, or -Archbishop's Palace, his Grace himself having fled; and afterwards in the -Riding-hall, named Manege, close on the Tuileries: there does a National -Assembly apply itself to the miraculous work. Successfully, had there been -any heaven-scaling Prometheus among them; not successfully since there was -none! There, in noisy debate, for the sessions are occasionally -'scandalous,' and as many as three speakers have been seen in the Tribune -at once,--let us continue to fancy it wearing the slow months. - -Tough, dogmatic, long of wind is Abbe Maury; Ciceronian pathetic is -Cazales. Keen-trenchant, on the other side, glitters a young Barnave; -abhorrent of sophistry; sheering, like keen Damascus sabre, all sophistry -asunder,--reckless what else he sheer with it. Simple seemest thou, O -solid Dutch-built Petion; if solid, surely dull. Nor lifegiving in that -tone of thine, livelier polemical Rabaut. With ineffable serenity sniffs -great Sieyes, aloft, alone; his Constitution ye may babble over, ye may -mar, but can by no possibility mend: is not Polity a science he has -exhausted? Cool, slow, two military Lameths are visible, with their -quality sneer, or demi-sneer; they shall gallantly refund their Mother's -Pension, when the Red Book is produced; gallantly be wounded in duels. A -Marquis Toulongeon, whose Pen we yet thank, sits there; in stoical -meditative humour, oftenest silent, accepts what destiny will send. -Thouret and Parlementary Duport produce mountains of Reformed Law; liberal, -Anglomaniac, available and unavailable. Mortals rise and fall. Shall -goose Gobel, for example,--or Go(with an umlaut)bel, for he is of Strasburg -German breed, be a Constitutional Archbishop? - -Alone of all men there, Mirabeau may begin to discern clearly whither all -this is tending. Patriotism, accordingly, regrets that his zeal seems to -be getting cool. In that famed Pentecost-Night of the Fourth of August, -when new Faith rose suddenly into miraculous fire, and old Feudality was -burnt up, men remarked that Mirabeau took no hand in it; that, in fact, he -luckily happened to be absent. But did he not defend the Veto, nay Veto -Absolu; and tell vehement Barnave that six hundred irresponsible senators -would make of all tyrannies the insupportablest? Again, how anxious was he -that the King's Ministers should have seat and voice in the National -Assembly;--doubtless with an eye to being Minister himself! Whereupon the -National Assembly decides, what is very momentous, that no Deputy shall be -Minister; he, in his haughty stormful manner, advising us to make it, 'no -Deputy called Mirabeau.' (Moniteur, Nos. 65, 86 (29th September, 7th -November, 1789).) A man of perhaps inveterate Feudalisms; of stratagems; -too often visible leanings towards the Royalist side: a man suspect; whom -Patriotism will unmask! Thus, in these June days, when the question Who -shall have right to declare war? comes on, you hear hoarse Hawkers sound -dolefully through the streets, "Grand Treason of Count Mirabeau, price only -one sou;"--because he pleads that it shall be not the Assembly but the -King! Pleads; nay prevails: for in spite of the hoarse Hawkers, and an -endless Populace raised by them to the pitch even of 'Lanterne,' he mounts -the Tribune next day; grim-resolute; murmuring aside to his friends that -speak of danger: "I know it: I must come hence either in triumph, or else -torn in fragments;" and it was in triumph that he came. - -A man of stout heart; whose popularity is not of the populace, 'pas -populaciere;' whom no clamour of unwashed mobs without doors, or of washed -mobs within, can scarce from his way! Dumont remembers hearing him deliver -a Report on Marseilles; 'every word was interrupted on the part of the Cote -Droit by abusive epithets; calumniator, liar, assassin, scoundrel -(scelerat): Mirabeau pauses a moment, and, in a honeyed tone, addressing -the most furious, says: "I wait, Messieurs, till these amenities be -exhausted."' (Dumont, Souvenirs, p. 278.) A man enigmatic, difficult to -unmask! For example, whence comes his money? Can the profit of a -Newspaper, sorely eaten into by Dame Le Jay; can this, and the eighteen -francs a-day your National Deputy has, be supposed equal to this -expenditure? House in the Chaussee d'Antin; Country-house at Argenteuil; -splendours, sumptuosities, orgies;--living as if he had a mint! All -saloons barred against Adventurer Mirabeau, are flung wide open to King -Mirabeau, the cynosure of Europe, whom female France flutters to behold,-- -though the Man Mirabeau is one and the same. As for money, one may -conjecture that Royalism furnishes it; which if Royalism do, will not the -same be welcome, as money always is to him? - -'Sold,' whatever Patriotism thinks, he cannot readily be: the spiritual -fire which is in that man; which shining through such confusions is -nevertheless Conviction, and makes him strong, and without which he had no -strength,--is not buyable nor saleable; in such transference of barter, it -would vanish and not be. Perhaps 'paid and not sold, paye pas vendu:' as -poor Rivarol, in the unhappier converse way, calls himself 'sold and not -paid!' A man travelling, comet-like, in splendour and nebulosity, his wild -way; whom telescopic Patriotism may long watch, but, without higher -mathematics, will not make out. A questionable most blameable man; yet to -us the far notablest of all. With rich munificence, as we often say, in a -most blinkard, bespectacled, logic-chopping generation, Nature has gifted -this man with an eye. Welcome is his word, there where he speaks and -works; and growing ever welcomer; for it alone goes to the heart of the -business: logical cobwebbery shrinks itself together; and thou seest a -thing, how it is, how is may be worked with. - -Unhappily our National Assembly has much to do: a France to regenerate; -and France is short of so many requisites; short even of cash! These same -Finances give trouble enough; no choking of the Deficit; which gapes ever, -Give, give! To appease the Deficit we venture on a hazardous step, sale of -the Clergy's Lands and superfluous Edifices; most hazardous. Nay, given -the sale, who is to buy them, ready-money having fled? Wherefore, on the -19th day of December, a paper-money of 'Assignats,' of Bonds secured, or -assigned, on that Clerico-National Property, and unquestionable at least in -payment of that,--is decreed: the first of a long series of like financial -performances, which shall astonish mankind. So that now, while old rags -last, there shall be no lack of circulating medium; whether of commodities -to circulate thereon is another question. But, after all, does not this -Assignat business speak volumes for modern science? Bankruptcy, we may -say, was come, as the end of all Delusions needs must come: yet how -gently, in softening diffusion, in mild succession, was it hereby made to -fall;--like no all-destroying avalanche; like gentle showers of a powdery -impalpable snow, shower after shower, till all was indeed buried, and yet -little was destroyed that could not be replaced , be dispensed with! To -such length has modern machinery reached. Bankruptcy, we said, was great; -but indeed Money itself is a standing miracle. - -On the whole, it is a matter of endless difficulty, that of the Clergy. -Clerical property may be made the Nation's, and the Clergy hired servants -of the State; but if so, is it not an altered Church? Adjustment enough, -of the most confused sort, has become unavoidable. Old landmarks, in any -sense, avail not in a new France. Nay literally, the very Ground is new -divided; your old party-coloured Provinces become new uniform Departments, -Eighty-three in number;--whereby, as in some sudden shifting of the Earth's -axis, no mortal knows his new latitude at once. The Twelve old Parlements -too, what is to be done with them? The old Parlements are declared to be -all 'in permanent vacation,'--till once the new equal-justice, of -Departmental Courts, National Appeal-Court, of elective Justices, Justices -of Peace, and other Thouret-and-Duport apparatus be got ready. They have -to sit there, these old Parlements, uneasily waiting; as it were, with the -rope round their neck; crying as they can, Is there none to deliver us? -But happily the answer being, None, none, they are a manageable class, -these Parlements. They can be bullied, even into silence; the Paris -Parliament, wiser than most, has never whimpered. They will and must sit -there; in such vacation as is fit; their Chamber of Vacation distributes in -the interim what little justice is going. With the rope round their neck, -their destiny may be succinct! On the 13th of November 1790, Mayor Bailly -shall walk to the Palais de Justice, few even heeding him; and with -municipal seal-stamp and a little hot wax, seal up the Parlementary Paper- -rooms,--and the dread Parlement of Paris pass away, into Chaos, gently as -does a Dream! So shall the Parlements perish, succinctly; and innumerable -eyes be dry. - -Not so the Clergy. For granting even that Religion were dead; that it had -died, half-centuries ago, with unutterable Dubois; or emigrated lately, to -Alsace, with Necklace-Cardinal Rohan; or that it now walked as goblin -revenant with Bishop Talleyrand of Autun; yet does not the Shadow of -Religion, the Cant of Religion, still linger? The Clergy have means and -material: means, of number, organization, social weight; a material, at -lowest, of public ignorance, known to be the mother of devotion. Nay, -withal, is it incredible that there might, in simple hearts, latent here -and there like gold grains in the mud-beach, still dwell some real Faith in -God, of so singular and tenacious a sort that even a Maury or a Talleyrand, -could still be the symbol for it?--Enough, and Clergy has strength, the -Clergy has craft and indignation. It is a most fatal business this of the -Clergy. A weltering hydra-coil, which the National Assembly has stirred up -about its ears; hissing, stinging; which cannot be appeased, alive; which -cannot be trampled dead! Fatal, from first to last! Scarcely after -fifteen months' debating, can a Civil Constitution of the Clergy be so much -as got to paper; and then for getting it into reality? Alas, such Civil -Constitution is but an agreement to disagree. It divides France from end -to end, with a new split, infinitely complicating all the other splits;-- -Catholicism, what of it there is left, with the Cant of Catholicism, raging -on the one side, and sceptic Heathenism on the other; both, by -contradiction , waxing fanatic. What endless jarring, of Refractory hated -Priests, and Constitutional despised ones; of tender consciences, like the -King's, and consciences hot-seared, like certain of his People's: the -whole to end in Feasts of Reason and a War of La Vendee! So deep-seated is -Religion in the heart of man, and holds of all infinite passions. If the -dead echo of it still did so much, what could not the living voice of it -once do? - -Finance and Constitution, Law and Gospel: this surely were work enough; -yet this is not all. In fact, the Ministry, and Necker himself whom a -brass inscription 'fastened by the people over his door-lintel' testifies -to be the 'Ministre adore,' are dwindling into clearer and clearer nullity. -Execution or legislation, arrangement or detail, from their nerveless -fingers all drops undone; all lights at last on the toiled shoulders of an -august Representative Body. Heavy-laden National Assembly! It has to hear -of innumerable fresh revolts, Brigand expeditions; of Chateaus in the West, -especially of Charter-chests, Chartiers, set on fire; for there too the -overloaded Ass frightfully recalcitrates. Of Cities in the South full of -heats and jealousies; which will end in crossed sabres, Marseilles against -Toulon, and Carpentras beleaguered by Avignon;--such Royalist collision in -a career of Freedom; nay Patriot collision, which a mere difference of -velocity will bring about! Of a Jourdan Coup-tete, who has skulked -thitherward, from the claws of the Chatelet; and will raise whole -scoundrel-regiments. - -Also it has to hear of Royalist Camp of Jales: Jales mountain-girdled -Plain, amid the rocks of the Cevennes; whence Royalism, as is feared and -hoped, may dash down like a mountain deluge, and submerge France! A -singular thing this camp of Jales; existing mostly on paper. For the -Soldiers at Jales, being peasants or National Guards, were in heart sworn -Sansculottes; and all that the Royalist Captains could do was, with false -words, to keep them, or rather keep the report of them, drawn up there, -visible to all imaginations, for a terror and a sign,--if peradventure -France might be reconquered by theatrical machinery, by the picture of a -Royalist Army done to the life! (Dampmartin, Evenemens, i. 208.) Not till -the third summer was this portent, burning out by fits and then fading, got -finally extinguished; was the old Castle of Jales, no Camp being visible to -the bodily eye, got blown asunder by some National Guards. - -Also it has to hear not only of Brissot and his Friends of the Blacks, but -by and by of a whole St. Domingo blazing skyward; blazing in literal fire, -and in far worse metaphorical; beaconing the nightly main. Also of the -shipping interest, and the landed-interest, and all manner of interests, -reduced to distress. Of Industry every where manacled, bewildered; and -only Rebellion thriving. Of sub-officers, soldiers and sailors in mutiny -by land and water. Of soldiers, at Nanci, as we shall see, needing to be -cannonaded by a brave Bouille. Of sailors, nay the very galley-slaves, at -Brest, needing also to be cannonaded; but with no Bouille to do it. For -indeed, to say it in a word, in those days there was no King in Israel, and -every man did that which was right in his own eyes. (See Deux Amis, iii. -c. 14; iv. c. 2, 3, 4, 7, 9, 14. Expedition des Volontaires de Brest sur -Lannion; Les Lyonnais Sauveurs des Dauphinois; Massacre au Mans; Troubles -du Maine (Pamphlets and Excerpts, in Hist. Parl. iii. 251; iv. 162-168), -&c.) - -Such things has an august National Assembly to hear of, as it goes on -regenerating France. Sad and stern: but what remedy? Get the -Constitution ready; and all men will swear to it: for do not 'Addresses of -adhesion' arrive by the cartload? In this manner, by Heaven's blessing, -and a Constitution got ready, shall the bottomless fire-gulf be vaulted in, -with rag-paper; and Order will wed Freedom, and live with her there,--till -it grow too hot for them. O Cote Gauche, worthy are ye, as the adhesive -Addresses generally say, to 'fix the regards of the Universe;' the regards -of this one poor Planet, at lowest!-- - -Nay, it must be owned, the Cote Droit makes a still madder figure. An -irrational generation; irrational, imbecile, and with the vehement -obstinacy characteristic of that; a generation which will not learn. -Falling Bastilles, Insurrections of Women, thousands of smoking -Manorhouses, a country bristling with no crop but that of Sansculottic -steel: these were tolerably didactic lessons; but them they have not -taught. There are still men, of whom it was of old written, Bray them in a -mortar! Or, in milder language, They have wedded their delusions: fire -nor steel, nor any sharpness of Experience, shall sever the bond; till -death do us part! Of such may the Heavens have mercy; for the Earth, with -her rigorous Necessity, will have none. - -Admit, at the same time, that it was most natural. Man lives by Hope: -Pandora when her box of gods'-gifts flew all out, and became gods'-curses, -still retained Hope. How shall an irrational mortal, when his high-place -is never so evidently pulled down, and he, being irrational, is left -resourceless,--part with the belief that it will be rebuilt? It would make -all so straight again; it seems so unspeakably desirable; so reasonable,-- -would you but look at it aright! For, must not the thing which was -continue to be; or else the solid World dissolve? Yes, persist, O -infatuated Sansculottes of France! Revolt against constituted Authorities; -hunt out your rightful Seigneurs, who at bottom so loved you, and readily -shed their blood for you,--in country's battles as at Rossbach and -elsewhere; and, even in preserving game, were preserving you, could ye but -have understood it: hunt them out, as if they were wild wolves; set fire -to their Chateaus and Chartiers as to wolf-dens; and what then? Why, then -turn every man his hand against his fellow! In confusion, famine, -desolation, regret the days that are gone; rueful recall them, recall us -with them. To repentant prayers we will not be deaf. - -So, with dimmer or clearer consciousness, must the Right Side reason and -act. An inevitable position perhaps; but a most false one for them. Evil, -be thou our good: this henceforth must virtually be their prayer. The -fiercer the effervescence grows, the sooner will it pass; for after all it -is but some mad effervescence; the World is solid, and cannot dissolve. - -For the rest, if they have any positive industry, it is that of plots, and -backstairs conclaves. Plots which cannot be executed; which are mostly -theoretic on their part;--for which nevertheless this and the other -practical Sieur Augeard, Sieur Maillebois, Sieur Bonne Savardin, gets into -trouble, gets imprisoned, and escapes with difficulty. Nay there is a poor -practical Chevalier Favras who, not without some passing reflex on Monsieur -himself, gets hanged for them, amid loud uproar of the world. Poor Favras, -he keeps dictating his last will at the 'Hotel-de-Ville, through the whole -remainder of the day,' a weary February day; offers to reveal secrets, if -they will save him; handsomely declines since they will not; then dies, in -the flare of torchlight, with politest composure; remarking, rather than -exclaiming, with outspread hands: "People, I die innocent; pray for me." -(See Deux Amis, iv. c. 14, 7; Hist. Parl. vi. 384.) Poor Favras;--type of -so much that has prowled indefatigable over France, in days now ending; -and, in freer field, might have earned instead of prowling,--to thee it is -no theory! - -In the Senate-house again, the attitude of the Right Side is that of calm -unbelief. Let an august National Assembly make a Fourth-of-August -Abolition of Feudality; declare the Clergy State-servants who shall have -wages; vote Suspensive Vetos, new Law-Courts; vote or decree what contested -thing it will; have it responded to from the four corners of France, nay -get King's Sanction, and what other Acceptance were conceivable,--the Right -Side, as we find, persists, with imperturbablest tenacity, in considering, -and ever and anon shews that it still considers, all these so-called -Decrees as mere temporary whims, which indeed stand on paper, but in -practice and fact are not, and cannot be. Figure the brass head of an Abbe -Maury flooding forth Jesuitic eloquence in this strain; dusky d'Espremenil, -Barrel Mirabeau (probably in liquor), and enough of others, cheering him -from the Right; and, for example, with what visage a seagreen Robespierre -eyes him from the Left. And how Sieyes ineffably sniffs on him, or does -not deign to sniff; and how the Galleries groan in spirit, or bark rabid on -him: so that to escape the Lanterne, on stepping forth, he needs presence -of mind, and a pair of pistols in his girdle! For he is one of the -toughest of men. - -Here indeed becomes notable one great difference between our two kinds of -civil war; between the modern lingual or Parliamentary-logical kind, and -the ancient, or manual kind, in the steel battle-field;--much to the -disadvantage of the former. In the manual kind, where you front your foe -with drawn weapon, one right stroke is final; for, physically speaking, -when the brains are out the man does honestly die, and trouble you no more. -But how different when it is with arguments you fight! Here no victory yet -definable can be considered as final. Beat him down, with Parliamentary -invective, till sense be fled; cut him in two, hanging one half in this -dilemma-horn, the other on that; blow the brains or thinking-faculty quite -out of him for the time: it skills not; he rallies and revives on the -morrow; to-morrow he repairs his golden fires! The think that will -logically extinguish him is perhaps still a desideratum in Constitutional -civilisation. For how, till a man know, in some measure, at what point he -becomes logically defunct, can Parliamentary Business be carried on, and -Talk cease or slake? - -Doubtless it was some feeling of this difficulty; and the clear insight how -little such knowledge yet existed in the French Nation, new in the -Constitutional career, and how defunct Aristocrats would continue to walk -for unlimited periods, as Partridge the Alamanack-maker did,--that had sunk -into the deep mind of People's-friend Marat, an eminently practical mind; -and had grown there, in that richest putrescent soil, into the most -original plan of action ever submitted to a People. Not yet has it grown; -but it has germinated, it is growing; rooting itself into Tartarus, -branching towards Heaven: the second season hence, we shall see it risen -out of the bottomless Darkness, full-grown, into disastrous Twilight,--a -Hemlock-tree, great as the world; on or under whose boughs all the -People's-friends of the world may lodge. 'Two hundred and sixty thousand -Aristocrat heads:' that is the precisest calculation, though one would not -stand on a few hundreds; yet we never rise as high as the round three -hundred thousand. Shudder at it, O People; but it is as true as that ye -yourselves, and your People's-friend, are alive. These prating Senators of -yours hover ineffectual on the barren letter, and will never save the -Revolution. A Cassandra-Marat cannot do it, with his single shrunk arm; -but with a few determined men it were possible. "Give me," said the -People's-friend, in his cold way, when young Barbaroux, once his pupil in a -course of what was called Optics, went to see him, "Give me two hundred -Naples Bravoes, armed each with a good dirk, and a muff on his left arm by -way of shield: with them I will traverse France, and accomplish the -Revolution." (Memoires de Barbaroux (Paris, 1822), p. 57.) Nay, be brave, -young Barbaroux; for thou seest, there is no jesting in those rheumy eyes; -in that soot-bleared figure, most earnest of created things; neither indeed -is there madness, of the strait-waistcoat sort. - -Such produce shall the Time ripen in cavernous Marat, the man forbid; -living in Paris cellars, lone as fanatic Anchorite in his Thebaid; say, as -far-seen Simon on his Pillar,--taking peculiar views therefrom. Patriots -may smile; and, using him as bandog now to be muzzled, now to be let bark, -name him, as Desmoulins does, 'Maximum of Patriotism' and 'Cassandra- -Marat:' but were it not singular if this dirk-and-muff plan of his (with -superficial modifications) proved to be precisely the plan adopted? - -After this manner, in these circumstances, do august Senators regenerate -France. Nay, they are, in very deed, believed to be regenerating it; on -account of which great fact, main fact of their history, the wearied eye -can never be permitted wholly to ignore them. - -But looking away now from these precincts of the Tuileries, where -Constitutional Royalty, let Lafayette water it as he will, languishes too -like a cut branch; and august Senators are perhaps at bottom only -perfecting their 'theory of defective verbs,'--how does the young Reality, -young Sansculottism thrive? The attentive observer can answer: It thrives -bravely; putting forth new buds; expanding the old buds into leaves, into -boughs. Is not French Existence, as before, most prurient, all loosened, -most nutrient for it? Sansculottism has the property of growing by what -other things die of: by agitation, contention, disarrangement; nay in a -word, by what is the symbol and fruit of all these: Hunger. - -In such a France as this, Hunger, as we have remarked, can hardly fail. -The Provinces, the Southern Cities feel it in their turn; and what it -brings: Exasperation, preternatural Suspicion. In Paris some halcyon days -of abundance followed the Menadic Insurrection, with its Versailles grain- -carts, and recovered Restorer of Liberty; but they could not continue. The -month is still October when famishing Saint-Antoine, in a moment of -passion, seizes a poor Baker, innocent 'Francois the Baker;' (21st October, -1789 (Moniteur, No. 76).) and hangs him, in Constantinople wise;--but even -this, singular as it my seem, does not cheapen bread! Too clear it is, no -Royal bounty, no Municipal dexterity can adequately feed a Bastille- -destroying Paris. Wherefore, on view of the hanged Baker, -Constitutionalism in sorrow and anger demands 'Loi Martiale,' a kind of -Riot Act;--and indeed gets it, most readily, almost before the sun goes -down. - -This is that famed Martial law, with its Red Flag, its 'Drapeau Rouge:' in -virtue of which Mayor Bailly, or any Mayor, has but henceforth to hang out -that new Oriflamme of his; then to read or mumble something about the -King's peace; and, after certain pauses, serve any undispersing Assemblage -with musket-shot, or whatever shot will disperse it. A decisive Law; and -most just on one proviso: that all Patrollotism be of God, and all mob- -assembling be of the Devil;--otherwise not so just. Mayor Bailly be -unwilling to use it! Hang not out that new Oriflamme, flame not of gold -but of the want of gold! The thrice-blessed Revolution is done, thou -thinkest? If so it will be well with thee. - -But now let no mortal say henceforth that an august National Assembly wants -riot: all it ever wanted was riot enough to balance Court-plotting; all it -now wants, of Heaven or of Earth, is to get its theory of defective verbs -perfected. - - - -Chapter 2.1.III. - -The Muster. - -With famine and a Constitutional theory of defective verbs going on, all -other excitement is conceivable. A universal shaking and sifting of French -Existence this is: in the course of which, for one thing, what a multitude -of low-lying figures are sifted to the top, and set busily to work there! - -Dogleech Marat, now for-seen as Simon Stylites, we already know; him and -others, raised aloft. The mere sample, these, of what is coming, of what -continues coming, upwards from the realm of Night!--Chaumette, by and by -Anaxagoras Chaumette, one already descries: mellifluous in street-groups; -not now a sea-boy on the high and giddy mast: a mellifluous tribune of the -common people, with long curling locks, on bourne-stone of the -thoroughfares; able sub-editor too; who shall rise--to the very gallows. -Clerk Tallien, he also is become sub-editor; shall become able editor; and -more. Bibliopolic Momoro, Typographic Pruhomme see new trades opening. -Collot d'Herbois, tearing a passion to rags, pauses on the Thespian boards; -listens, with that black bushy head, to the sound of the world's drama: -shall the Mimetic become Real? Did ye hiss him, O men of Lyons? (Buzot, -Memoires (Paris, 1823), p. 90.) Better had ye clapped! - -Happy now, indeed, for all manner of mimetic, half-original men! Tumid -blustering, with more or less of sincerity, which need not be entirely -sincere, yet the sincerer the better, is like to go far. Shall we say, the -Revolution-element works itself rarer and rarer; so that only lighter and -lighter bodies will float in it; till at last the mere blown-bladder is -your only swimmer? Limitation of mind, then vehemence, promptitude, -audacity, shall all be available; to which add only these two: cunning and -good lungs. Good fortune must be presupposed. Accordingly, of all classes -the rising one, we observe, is now the Attorney class: witness Bazires, -Carriers, Fouquier-Tinvilles, Bazoche-Captain Bourdons: more than enough. -Such figures shall Night, from her wonder-bearing bosom, emit; swarm after -swarm. Of another deeper and deepest swarm, not yet dawned on the -astonished eye; of pilfering Candle-snuffers, Thief-valets, disfrocked -Capuchins, and so many Heberts, Henriots, Ronsins, Rossignols, let us, as -long as possible, forbear speaking. - -Thus, over France, all stirs that has what the Physiologists call -irritability in it: how much more all wherein irritability has perfected -itself into vitality; into actual vision, and force that can will! All -stirs; and if not in Paris, flocks thither. Great and greater waxes -President Danton in his Cordeliers Section; his rhetorical tropes are all -'gigantic:' energy flashes from his black brows, menaces in his athletic -figure, rolls in the sound of his voice 'reverberating from the domes;' -this man also, like Mirabeau, has a natural eye, and begins to see whither -Constitutionalism is tending, though with a wish in it different from -Mirabeau's. - -Remark, on the other hand, how General Dumouriez has quitted Normandy and -the Cherbourg Breakwater, to come--whither we may guess. It is his second -or even third trial at Paris, since this New Era began; but now it is in -right earnest, for he has quitted all else. Wiry, elastic unwearied man; -whose life was but a battle and a march! No, not a creature of Choiseul's; -"the creature of God and of my sword,"--he fiercely answered in old days. -Overfalling Corsican batteries, in the deadly fire-hail; wriggling -invincible from under his horse, at Closterkamp of the Netherlands, though -tethered with 'crushed stirrup-iron and nineteen wounds;' tough, minatory, -standing at bay, as forlorn hope, on the skirts of Poland; intriguing, -battling in cabinet and field; roaming far out, obscure, as King's spial, -or sitting sealed up, enchanted in Bastille; fencing, pamphleteering, -scheming and struggling from the very birth of him, (Dumouriez, Memoires, -i. 28, &c.)--the man has come thus far. How repressed, how irrepressible! -Like some incarnate spirit in prison, which indeed he was; hewing on -granite walls for deliverance; striking fire flashes from them. And now -has the general earthquake rent his cavern too? Twenty years younger, what -might he not have done! But his hair has a shade of gray: his way of -thought is all fixed, military. He can grow no further, and the new world -is in such growth. We will name him, on the whole, one of Heaven's Swiss; -without faith; wanting above all things work, work on any side. Work also -is appointed him; and he will do it. - -Not from over France only are the unrestful flocking towards Paris; but -from all sides of Europe. Where the carcase is, thither will the eagles -gather. Think how many a Spanish Guzman, Martinico Fournier named -'Fournier l'Americain,' Engineer Miranda from the very Andes, were flocking -or had flocked! Walloon Pereyra might boast of the strangest parentage: -him, they say, Prince Kaunitz the Diplomatist heedlessly dropped;' like -ostrich-egg, to be hatched of Chance--into an ostrich-eater! Jewish or -German Freys do business in the great Cesspool of Agio; which Cesspool this -Assignat-fiat has quickened, into a Mother of dead dogs. Swiss Claviere -could found no Socinian Genevese Colony in Ireland; but he paused, years -ago, prophetic before the Minister's Hotel at Paris; and said, it was borne -on his mind that he one day was to be Minister, and laughed. (Dumont, -Souvenirs sur Mirabeau, p. 399.) Swiss Pachc, on the other hand, sits -sleekheaded, frugal; the wonder of his own alley, and even of neighbouring -ones, for humility of mind, and a thought deeper than most men's: sit -there, Tartuffe, till wanted! Ye Italian Dufournys, Flemish Prolys, flit -hither all ye bipeds of prey! Come whosesoever head is hot; thou of mind -ungoverned, be it chaos as of undevelopment or chaos as of ruin; the man -who cannot get known, the man who is too well known; if thou have any -vendible faculty, nay if thou have but edacity and loquacity, come! They -come; with hot unutterabilities in their heart; as Pilgrims towards a -miraculous shrine. Nay how many come as vacant Strollers, aimless, of whom -Europe is full merely towards something! For benighted fowls, when you -beat their bushes, rush towards any light. Thus Frederick Baron Trenck too -is here; mazed, purblind, from the cells of Magdeburg; Minotauric cells, -and his Ariadne lost! Singular to say, Trenck, in these years, sells wine; -not indeed in bottle, but in wood. - -Nor is our England without her missionaries. She has her live-saving -Needham; to whom was solemnly presented a 'civic sword,'--long since rusted -into nothingness. Her Paine: rebellious Staymaker; unkempt; who feels -that he, a single Needleman, did by his 'Common Sense' Pamphlet, free -America;--that he can and will free all this World; perhaps even the other. -Price-Stanhope Constitutional Association sends over to congratulate; -(Moniteur, 10 Novembre, 7 Decembre, 1789.) welcomed by National Assembly, -though they are but a London Club; whom Burke and Toryism eye askance. - -On thee too, for country's sake, O Chevalier John Paul, be a word spent, or -misspent! In faded naval uniform, Paul Jones lingers visible here; like a -wine-skin from which the wine is all drawn. Like the ghost of himself! -Low is his once loud bruit; scarcely audible, save, with extreme tedium in -ministerial ante-chambers; in this or the other charitable dining-room, -mindful of the past. What changes; culminatings and declinings! Not now, -poor Paul, thou lookest wistful over the Solway brine, by the foot of -native Criffel, into blue mountainous Cumberland, into blue Infinitude; -environed with thrift, with humble friendliness; thyself, young fool, -longing to be aloft from it, or even to be away from it. Yes, beyond that -sapphire Promontory, which men name St. Bees, which is not sapphire either, -but dull sandstone, when one gets close to it, there is a world. Which -world thou too shalt taste of!--From yonder White Haven rise his smoke- -clouds; ominous though ineffectual. Proud Forth quakes at his bellying -sails; had not the wind suddenly shifted. Flamborough reapers, homegoing, -pause on the hill-side: for what sulphur-cloud is that that defaces the -sleek sea; sulphur-cloud spitting streaks of fire? A sea cockfight it is, -and of the hottest; where British Serapis and French-American Bon Homme -Richard do lash and throttle each other, in their fashion; and lo the -desperate valour has suffocated the deliberate, and Paul Jones too is of -the Kings of the Sea! - -The Euxine, the Meotian waters felt thee next, and long-skirted Turks, O -Paul; and thy fiery soul has wasted itself in thousand contradictions;--to -no purpose. For, in far lands, with scarlet Nassau-Siegens, with sinful -Imperial Catherines, is not the heart-broken, even as at home with the -mean? Poor Paul! hunger and dispiritment track thy sinking footsteps: -once or at most twice, in this Revolution-tumult the figure of thee -emerges; mute, ghost-like, as 'with stars dim-twinkling through.' And -then, when the light is gone quite out, a National Legislature grants -'ceremonial funeral!' As good had been the natural Presbyterian Kirk-bell, -and six feet of Scottish earth, among the dust of thy loved ones.--Such -world lay beyond the Promontory of St. Bees. Such is the life of sinful -mankind here below. - -But of all strangers, far the notablest for us is Baron Jean Baptiste de -Clootz;--or, dropping baptisms and feudalisms, World-Citizen Anacharsis -Clootz, from Cleves. Him mark, judicious Reader. Thou hast known his -Uncle, sharp-sighted thorough-going Cornelius de Pauw, who mercilessly cuts -down cherished illusions; and of the finest antique Spartans, will make -mere modern cutthroat Mainots. (De Pauw, Recherches sur les Grecs, &c.) -The like stuff is in Anacharsis: hot metal; full of scoriae, which should -and could have been smelted out, but which will not. He has wandered over -this terraqueous Planet; seeking, one may say, the Paradise we lost long -ago. He has seen English Burke; has been seen of the Portugal Inquisition; -has roamed, and fought, and written; is writing, among other things, -'Evidences of the Mahometan Religion.' But now, like his Scythian adoptive -godfather, he finds himself in the Paris Athens; surely, at last, the haven -of his soul. A dashing man, beloved at Patriotic dinner-tables; with -gaiety, nay with humour; headlong, trenchant, of free purse; in suitable -costume; though what mortal ever more despised costumes? Under all -costumes Anacharsis seeks the man; not Stylites Marat will more freely -trample costumes, if they hold no man. This is the faith of Anacharsis: -That there is a Paradise discoverable; that all costumes ought to hold men. -O Anacharsis, it is a headlong, swift-going faith. Mounted thereon, -meseems, thou art bound hastily for the City of Nowhere; and wilt arrive! -At best, we may say, arrive in good riding attitude; which indeed is -something. - -So many new persons, and new things, have come to occupy this France. Her -old Speech and Thought, and Activity which springs from those, are all -changing; fermenting towards unknown issues. To the dullest peasant, as he -sits sluggish, overtoiled, by his evening hearth, one idea has come: that -of Chateaus burnt; of Chateaus combustible. How altered all Coffeehouses, -in Province or Capital! The Antre de Procope has now other questions than -the Three Stagyrite Unities to settle; not theatre-controversies, but a -world-controversy: there, in the ancient pigtail mode, or with modern -Brutus' heads, do well-frizzed logicians hold hubbub, and Chaos umpire -sits. The ever-enduring Melody of Paris Saloons has got a new ground-tone: -ever-enduring; which has been heard, and by the listening Heaven too, since -Julian the Apostate's time and earlier; mad now as formerly. - -Ex-Censor Suard, Ex-Censor, for we have freedom of the Press; he may be -seen there; impartial, even neutral. Tyrant Grimm rolls large eyes, over a -questionable coming Time. Atheist Naigeon, beloved disciple of Diderot, -crows, in his small difficult way, heralding glad dawn. (Naigeon: -Addresse a l'Assemblee Nationale (Paris, 1790) sur la liberte des -opinions.) But, on the other hand, how many Morellets, Marmontels, who had -sat all their life hatching Philosophe eggs, cackle now, in a state -bordering on distraction, at the brood they have brought out! (See -Marmontel, Memoires, passim; Morellet, Memoires, &c.) It was so delightful -to have one's Philosophe Theorem demonstrated, crowned in the saloons: and -now an infatuated people will not continue speculative, but have Practice? - -There also observe Preceptress Genlis, or Sillery, or Sillery-Genlis,--for -our husband is both Count and Marquis, and we have more than one title. -Pretentious, frothy; a puritan yet creedless; darkening counsel by words -without wisdom! For, it is in that thin element of the Sentimentalist and -Distinguished-Female that Sillery-Genlis works; she would gladly be -sincere, yet can grow no sincerer than sincere-cant: sincere-cant of many -forms, ending in the devotional form. For the present, on a neck still of -moderate whiteness, she wears as jewel a miniature Bastille, cut on mere -sandstone, but then actual Bastille sandstone. M. le Marquis is one of -d'Orleans's errandmen; in National Assembly, and elsewhere. Madame, for -her part, trains up a youthful d'Orleans generation in what superfinest -morality one can; gives meanwhile rather enigmatic account of fair -Mademoiselle Pamela, the Daughter whom she has adopted. Thus she, in -Palais Royal saloon;--whither, we remark, d'Orleans himself, spite of -Lafayette, has returned from that English 'mission' of his: surely no -pleasant mission: for the English would not speak to him; and Saint Hannah -More of England, so unlike Saint Sillery-Genlis of France, saw him shunned, -in Vauxhall Gardens, like one pest-struck, (Hannah More's Life and -Correspondence, ii. c. 5.) and his red-blue impassive visage waxing hardly -a shade bluer. - - - -Chapter 2.1.IV. - -Journalism. - -As for Constitutionalism, with its National Guards, it is doing what it -can; and has enough to do: it must, as ever, with one hand wave -persuasively, repressing Patriotism; and keep the other clenched to menace -Royalty plotters. A most delicate task; requiring tact. - -Thus, if People's-friend Marat has to-day his writ of 'prise de corps, or -seizure of body,' served on him, and dives out of sight, tomorrow he is -left at large; or is even encouraged, as a sort of bandog whose baying may -be useful. President Danton, in open Hall, with reverberating voice, -declares that, in a case like Marat's, "force may be resisted by force." -Whereupon the Chatelet serves Danton also with a writ;--which, however, as -the whole Cordeliers District responds to it, what Constable will be prompt -to execute? Twice more, on new occasions, does the Chatelet launch its -writ; and twice more in vain: the body of Danton cannot be seized by -Chatelet; he unseized, should he even fly for a season, shall behold the -Chatelet itself flung into limbo. - -Municipality and Brissot, meanwhile, are far on with their Municipal -Constitution. The Sixty Districts shall become Forty-eight Sections; much -shall be adjusted, and Paris have its Constitution. A Constitution wholly -Elective; as indeed all French Government shall and must be. And yet, one -fatal element has been introduced: that of citoyen actif. No man who does -not pay the marc d'argent, or yearly tax equal to three days' labour, shall -be other than a passive citizen: not the slightest vote for him; were he -acting, all the year round, with sledge hammer, with forest-levelling axe! -Unheard of! cry Patriot Journals. Yes truly, my Patriot Friends, if -Liberty, the passion and prayer of all men's souls, means Liberty to send -your fifty-thousandth part of a new Tongue-fencer into National Debating- -club, then, be the gods witness, ye are hardly entreated. Oh, if in -National Palaver (as the Africans name it), such blessedness is verily -found, what tyrant would deny it to Son of Adam! Nay, might there not be a -Female Parliament too, with 'screams from the Opposition benches,' and 'the -honourable Member borne out in hysterics?' To a Children's Parliament -would I gladly consent; or even lower if ye wished it. Beloved Brothers! -Liberty, one might fear, is actually, as the ancient wise men said, of -Heaven. On this Earth, where, thinks the enlightened public, did a brave -little Dame de Staal (not Necker's Daughter, but a far shrewder than she) -find the nearest approach to Liberty? After mature computation, cool as -Dilworth's, her answer is, In the Bastille. (See De Staal: Memoires -(Paris, 1821), i. 169-280.) "Of Heaven?" answer many, asking. Wo that -they should ask; for that is the very misery! "Of Heaven" means much; -share in the National Palaver it may, or may as probably not mean. - -One Sansculottic bough that cannot fail to flourish is Journalism. The -voice of the People being the voice of God, shall not such divine voice -make itself heard? To the ends of France; and in as many dialects as when -the first great Babel was to be built! Some loud as the lion; some small -as the sucking dove. Mirabeau himself has his instructive Journal or -Journals, with Geneva hodmen working in them; and withal has quarrels -enough with Dame le Jay, his Female Bookseller, so ultra-compliant -otherwise. (See Dumont: Souvenirs, 6.) - -King's-friend Royou still prints himself. Barrere sheds tears of loyal -sensibility in Break of Day Journal, though with declining sale. But why -is Freron so hot, democratic; Freron, the King's-friend's Nephew? He has -it by kind, that heat of his: wasp Freron begot him; Voltaire's Frelon; -who fought stinging, while sting and poison-bag were left, were it only as -Reviewer, and over Printed Waste-paper. Constant, illuminative, as the -nightly lamplighter, issues the useful Moniteur, for it is now become -diurnal: with facts and few commentaries; official, safe in the middle:-- -its able Editors sunk long since, recoverably or irrecoverably, in deep -darkness. Acid Loustalot, with his 'vigour,' as of young sloes, shall -never ripen, but die untimely: his Prudhomme, however, will not let that -Revolutions de Paris die; but edit it himself, with much else,--dull- -blustering Printer though he be. - -Of Cassandra-Marat we have spoken often; yet the most surprising truth -remains to be spoken: that he actually does not want sense; but, with -croaking gelid throat, croaks out masses of the truth, on several things. -Nay sometimes, one might almost fancy he had a perception of humour, and -were laughing a little, far down in his inner man. Camille is wittier than -ever, and more outspoken, cynical; yet sunny as ever. A light melodious -creature; 'born,' as he shall yet say with bitter tears, 'to write verses;' -light Apollo, so clear, soft-lucent, in this war of the Titans, wherein he -shall not conquer! - -Folded and hawked Newspapers exist in all countries; but, in such a -Journalistic element as this of France, other and stranger sorts are to be -anticipated. What says the English reader to a Journal-Affiche, Placard -Journal; legible to him that has no halfpenny; in bright prismatic colours, -calling the eye from afar? Such, in the coming months, as Patriot -Associations, public and private, advance, and can subscribe funds, shall -plenteously hang themselves out: leaves, limed leaves, to catch what they -can! The very Government shall have its Pasted Journal; Louvet, busy yet -with a new 'charming romance,' shall write Sentinelles, and post them with -effect; nay Bertrand de Moleville, in his extremity, shall still more -cunningly try it. (See Bertrand-Moleville: Memoires, ii. 100, &c.) Great -is Journalism. Is not every Able Editor a Ruler of the World, being a -persuader of it; though self-elected, yet sanctioned, by the sale of his -Numbers? Whom indeed the world has the readiest method of deposing, should -need be: that of merely doing nothing to him; which ends in starvation! - -Nor esteem it small what those Bill-stickers had to do in Paris: above -Three Score of them: all with their crosspoles, haversacks, pastepots; nay -with leaden badges, for the Municipality licenses them. A Sacred College, -properly of World-rulers' Heralds, though not respected as such, in an Era -still incipient and raw. They made the walls of Paris didactic, suasive, -with an ever fresh Periodical Literature, wherein he that ran might read: -Placard Journals, Placard Lampoons, Municipal Ordinances, Royal -Proclamations; the whole other or vulgar Placard-department super-added,-- -or omitted from contempt! What unutterable things the stone-walls spoke, -during these five years! But it is all gone; To-day swallowing Yesterday, -and then being in its turn swallowed of To-morrow, even as Speech ever is. -Nay what, O thou immortal Man of Letters, is Writing itself but Speech -conserved for a time? The Placard Journal conserved it for one day; some -Books conserve it for the matter of ten years; nay some for three thousand: -but what then? Why, then, the years being all run, it also dies, and the -world is rid of it. Oh, were there not a spirit in the word of man, as in -man himself, that survived the audible bodied word, and tended either -Godward, or else Devilward for evermore, why should he trouble himself much -with the truth of it, or the falsehood of it, except for commercial -purposes? His immortality indeed, and whether it shall last half a -lifetime, or a lifetime and half; is not that a very considerable thing? -As mortality, was to the runaway, whom Great Fritz bullied back into the -battle with a: "R--, wollt ihr ewig leben, Unprintable Off-scouring of -Scoundrels, would ye live for ever!" - -This is the Communication of Thought: how happy when there is any Thought -to communicate! Neither let the simpler old methods be neglected, in their -sphere. The Palais-Royal Tent, a tyrannous Patrollotism has removed; but -can it remove the lungs of man? Anaxagoras Chaumette we saw mounted on -bourne-stones, while Tallien worked sedentary at the subeditorial desk. In -any corner of the civilised world, a tub can be inverted, and an -articulate-speaking biped mount thereon. Nay, with contrivance, a portable -trestle, or folding-stool, can be procured, for love or money; this the -peripatetic Orator can take in his hand, and, driven out here, set it up -again there; saying mildly, with a Sage Bias, Omnia mea mecum porto. - -Such is Journalism, hawked, pasted, spoken. How changed since One old -Metra walked this same Tuileries Garden, in gilt cocked hat, with Journal -at his nose, or held loose-folded behind his back; and was a notability of -Paris, 'Metra the Newsman;' (Dulaure, Histoire de Paris, viii. 483; -Mercier, Nouveau Paris, &c.) and Louis himself was wont to say: Qu'en dit -Metra? Since the first Venetian News-sheet was sold for a gazza, or -farthing, and named Gazette! We live in a fertile world. - - - -Chapter 2.1.V. - -Clubbism. - -Where the heart is full, it seeks, for a thousand reasons, in a thousand -ways, to impart itself. How sweet, indispensable, in such cases, is -fellowship; soul mystically strengthening soul! The meditative Germans, -some think, have been of opinion that Enthusiasm in the general means -simply excessive Congregating--Schwarmerey, or Swarming. At any rate, do -we not see glimmering half-red embers, if laid together, get into the -brightest white glow? - -In such a France, gregarious Reunions will needs multiply, intensify; -French Life will step out of doors, and, from domestic, become a public -Club Life. Old Clubs, which already germinated, grow and flourish; new -every where bud forth. It is the sure symptom of Social Unrest: in such -way, most infallibly of all, does Social Unrest exhibit itself; find -solacement, and also nutriment. In every French head there hangs now, -whether for terror or for hope, some prophetic picture of a New France: -prophecy which brings, nay which almost is, its own fulfilment; and in all -ways, consciously and unconsciously, works towards that. - -Observe, moreover, how the Aggregative Principle, let it be but deep -enough, goes on aggregating, and this even in a geometrical progression: -how when the whole world, in such a plastic time, is forming itself into -Clubs, some One Club, the strongest or luckiest, shall, by friendly -attracting, by victorious compelling, grow ever stronger, till it become -immeasurably strong; and all the others, with their strength, be either -lovingly absorbed into it, or hostilely abolished by it! This if the Club- -spirit is universal; if the time is plastic. Plastic enough is the time, -universal the Club-spirit: such an all absorbing, paramount One Club -cannot be wanting. - -What a progress, since the first salient-point of the Breton Committee! It -worked long in secret, not languidly; it has come with the National -Assembly to Paris; calls itself Club; calls itself in imitation, as is -thought, of those generous Price-Stanhope English, French Revolution Club; -but soon, with more originality, Club of Friends of the Constitution. -Moreover it has leased, for itself, at a fair rent, the Hall of the -Jacobin's Convent, one of our 'superfluous edifices;' and does therefrom -now, in these spring months, begin shining out on an admiring Paris. And -so, by degrees, under the shorter popular title of Jacobins' Club, it shall -become memorable to all times and lands. Glance into the interior: -strongly yet modestly benched and seated; as many as Thirteen Hundred -chosen Patriots; Assembly Members not a few. Barnave, the two Lameths are -seen there; occasionally Mirabeau, perpetually Robespierre; also the -ferret-visage of Fouquier-Tinville with other attorneys; Anacharsis of -Prussian Scythia, and miscellaneous Patriots,--though all is yet in the -most perfectly clean-washed state; decent, nay dignified. President on -platform, President's bell are not wanting; oratorical Tribune high-raised; -nor strangers' galleries, wherein also sit women. Has any French -Antiquarian Society preserved that written Lease of the Jacobins Convent -Hall? Or was it, unluckier even than Magna Charta, clipt by sacrilegious -Tailors? Universal History is not indifferent to it. - -These Friends of the Constitution have met mainly, as their name may -foreshadow, to look after Elections when an Election comes, and procure fit -men; but likewise to consult generally that the Commonweal take no damage; -one as yet sees not how. For indeed let two or three gather together any -where, if it be not in Church, where all are bound to the passive state; no -mortal can say accurately, themselves as little as any, for what they are -gathered. How often has the broached barrel proved not to be for joy and -heart effusion, but for duel and head-breakage; and the promised feast -become a Feast of the Lapithae! This Jacobins Club, which at first shone -resplendent, and was thought to be a new celestial Sun for enlightening the -Nations, had, as things all have, to work through its appointed phases: it -burned unfortunately more and more lurid, more sulphurous, distracted;--and -swam at last, through the astonished Heaven, like a Tartarean Portent, and -lurid-burning Prison of Spirits in Pain. - -Its style of eloquence? Rejoice, Reader, that thou knowest it not, that -thou canst never perfectly know. The Jacobins published a Journal of -Debates, where they that have the heart may examine: Impassioned, full- -droning Patriotic-eloquence; implacable, unfertile--save for Destruction, -which was indeed its work: most wearisome, though most deadly. Be thankful -that Oblivion covers so much; that all carrion is by and by buried in the -green Earth's bosom, and even makes her grow the greener. The Jacobins are -buried; but their work is not; it continues 'making the tour of the world,' -as it can. It might be seen lately, for instance, with bared bosom and -death-defiant eye, as far on as Greek Missolonghi; and, strange enough, old -slumbering Hellas was resuscitated, into somnambulism which will become -clear wakefulness, by a voice from the Rue St. Honore! All dies, as we -often say; except the spirit of man, of what man does. Thus has not the -very House of the Jacobins vanished; scarcely lingering in a few old men's -memories? The St. Honore Market has brushed it away, and now where dull- -droning eloquence, like a Trump of Doom, once shook the world, there is -pacific chaffering for poultry and greens. The sacred National Assembly -Hall itself has become common ground; President's platform permeable to -wain and dustcart; for the Rue de Rivoli runs there. Verily, at Cockcrow -(of this Cock or the other), all Apparitions do melt and dissolve in space. - -The Paris Jacobins became 'the Mother-Society, Societe-Mere;' and had as -many as 'three hundred' shrill-tongued daughters in 'direct correspondence' -with her. Of indirectly corresponding, what we may call grand-daughters -and minute progeny, she counted 'forty-four thousand!'--But for the present -we note only two things: the first of them a mere anecdote. One night, a -couple of brother Jacobins are doorkeepers; for the members take this post -of duty and honour in rotation, and admit none that have not tickets: one -doorkeeper was the worthy Sieur Lais, a patriotic Opera-singer, stricken in -years, whose windpipe is long since closed without result; the other, -young, and named Louis Philippe, d'Orleans's firstborn, has in this latter -time, after unheard-of destinies, become Citizen-King, and struggles to -rule for a season. All-flesh is grass; higher reedgrass or creeping herb. - -The second thing we have to note is historical: that the Mother-Society, -even in this its effulgent period, cannot content all Patriots. Already it -must throw off, so to speak, two dissatisfied swarms; a swarm to the right, -a swarm to the left. One party, which thinks the Jacobins lukewarm, -constitutes itself into Club of the Cordeliers; a hotter Club: it is -Danton's element: with whom goes Desmoulins. The other party, again, -which thinks the Jacobins scalding-hot, flies off to the right, and becomes -'Club of 1789, Friends of the Monarchic Constitution.' They are afterwards -named 'Feuillans Club;' their place of meeting being the Feuillans Convent. -Lafayette is, or becomes, their chief-man; supported by the respectable -Patriot everywhere, by the mass of Property and Intelligence,--with the -most flourishing prospects. They, in these June days of 1790, do, in the -Palais Royal, dine solemnly with open windows; to the cheers of the people; -with toasts, with inspiriting songs,--with one song at least, among the -feeblest ever sung. (Hist. Parl. vi. 334.) They shall, in due time be -hooted forth, over the borders, into Cimmerian Night. - -Another expressly Monarchic or Royalist Club, 'Club des Monarchiens,' -though a Club of ample funds, and all sitting in damask sofas, cannot -realise the smallest momentary cheer; realises only scoffs and groans;-- -till, ere long, certain Patriots in disorderly sufficient number, proceed -thither, for a night or for nights, and groan it out of pain. Vivacious -alone shall the Mother-Society and her family be. The very Cordeliers may, -as it were, return into her bosom, which will have grown warm enough. - -Fatal-looking! Are not such Societies an incipient New Order of Society -itself? The Aggregative Principle anew at work in a Society grown -obsolete, cracked asunder, dissolving into rubbish and primary atoms? - - - -Chapter 2.1.VI. - -Je le jure. - -With these signs of the times, is it not surprising that the dominant -feeling all over France was still continually Hope? O blessed Hope, sole -boon of man; whereby, on his strait prison walls, are painted beautiful -far-stretching landscapes; and into the night of very Death is shed holiest -dawn! Thou art to all an indefeasible possession in this God's-world: to -the wise a sacred Constantine's-banner, written on the eternal skies; under -which they shall conquer, for the battle itself is victory: to the foolish -some secular mirage, or shadow of still waters, painted on the parched -Earth; whereby at least their dusty pilgrimage, if devious, becomes -cheerfuller, becomes possible. - -In the death-tumults of a sinking Society, French Hope sees only the birth- -struggles of a new unspeakably better Society; and sings, with full -assurance of faith, her brisk Melody, which some inspired fiddler has in -these very days composed for her,--the world-famous ca-ira. Yes; 'that -will go:' and then there will come--? All men hope: even Marat hopes-- -that Patriotism will take muff and dirk. King Louis is not without hope: -in the chapter of chances; in a flight to some Bouille; in getting -popularized at Paris. But what a hoping People he had, judge by the fact, -and series of facts, now to be noted. - -Poor Louis, meaning the best, with little insight and even less -determination of his own, has to follow, in that dim wayfaring of his, such -signal as may be given him; by backstairs Royalism, by official or -backstairs Constitutionalism, whichever for the month may have convinced -the royal mind. If flight to Bouille, and (horrible to think!) a drawing -of the civil sword do hang as theory, portentous in the background, much -nearer is this fact of these Twelve Hundred Kings, who sit in the Salle de -Manege. Kings uncontrollable by him, not yet irreverent to him. Could -kind management of these but prosper, how much better were it than armed -Emigrants, Turin-intrigues, and the help of Austria! Nay, are the two -hopes inconsistent? Rides in the suburbs, we have found, cost little; yet -they always brought vivats. (See Bertrand-Moleville, i. 241, &c.) Still -cheaper is a soft word; such as has many times turned away wrath. In these -rapid days, while France is all getting divided into Departments, Clergy -about to be remodelled, Popular Societies rising, and Feudalism and so much -ever is ready to be hurled into the melting-pot,--might one not try? - -On the 4th of February, accordingly, M. le President reads to his National -Assembly a short autograph, announcing that his Majesty will step over, -quite in an unceremonious way, probably about noon. Think, therefore, -Messieurs, what it may mean; especially, how ye will get the Hall decorated -a little. The Secretaries' Bureau can be shifted down from the platform; -on the President's chair be slipped this cover of velvet, 'of a violet -colour sprigged with gold fleur-de-lys;'--for indeed M. le President has -had previous notice underhand, and taken counsel with Doctor Guillotin. -Then some fraction of 'velvet carpet,' of like texture and colour, cannot -that be spread in front of the chair, where the Secretaries usually sit? -So has judicious Guillotin advised: and the effect is found satisfactory. -Moreover, as it is probable that his Majesty, in spite of the fleur-de-lys- -velvet, will stand and not sit at all, the President himself, in the -interim, presides standing. And so, while some honourable Member is -discussing, say, the division of a Department, Ushers announce: "His -Majesty!" In person, with small suite, enter Majesty: the honourable -Member stops short; the Assembly starts to its feet; the Twelve Hundred -Kings 'almost all,' and the Galleries no less, do welcome the Restorer of -French Liberty with loyal shouts. His Majesty's Speech, in diluted -conventional phraseology, expresses this mainly: That he, most of all -Frenchmen, rejoices to see France getting regenerated; is sure, at the same -time, that they will deal gently with her in the process, and not -regenerate her roughly. Such was his Majesty's Speech: the feat he -performed was coming to speak it, and going back again. - -Surely, except to a very hoping People, there was not much here to build -upon. Yet what did they not build! The fact that the King has spoken, -that he has voluntarily come to speak, how inexpressibly encouraging! Did -not the glance of his royal countenance, like concentrated sunbeams, kindle -all hearts in an august Assembly; nay thereby in an inflammable -enthusiastic France? To move 'Deputation of thanks' can be the happy lot -of but one man; to go in such Deputation the lot of not many. The Deputed -have gone, and returned with what highest-flown compliment they could; whom -also the Queen met, Dauphin in hand. And still do not our hearts burn with -insatiable gratitude; and to one other man a still higher blessedness -suggests itself: To move that we all renew the National Oath. - -Happiest honourable Member, with his word so in season as word seldom was; -magic Fugleman of a whole National Assembly, which sat there bursting to do -somewhat; Fugleman of a whole onlooking France! The President swears; -declares that every one shall swear, in distinct je le jure. Nay the very -Gallery sends him down a written slip signed, with their Oath on it; and as -the Assembly now casts an eye that way, the Gallery all stands up and -swears again. And then out of doors, consider at the Hotel-de-Ville how -Bailly, the great Tennis-Court swearer, again swears, towards nightful, -with all the Municipals, and Heads of Districts assembled there. And 'M. -Danton suggests that the public would like to partake:' whereupon Bailly, -with escort of Twelve, steps forth to the great outer staircase; sways the -ebullient multitude with stretched hand: takes their oath, with a thunder -of 'rolling drums,' with shouts that rend the welkin. And on all streets -the glad people, with moisture and fire in their eyes, 'spontaneously -formed groups, and swore one another,' (Newspapers (in Hist. Parl. iv. -445.)--and the whole City was illuminated. This was the Fourth of February -1790: a day to be marked white in Constitutional annals. - -Nor is the illumination for a night only, but partially or totally it lasts -a series of nights. For each District, the Electors of each District, will -swear specially; and always as the District swears; it illuminates itself. -Behold them, District after District, in some open square, where the Non- -Electing People can all see and join: with their uplifted right hands, and -je le jure: with rolling drums, with embracings, and that infinite hurrah -of the enfranchised,--which any tyrant that there may be can consider! -Faithful to the King, to the Law, to the Constitution which the National -Assembly shall make. - -Fancy, for example, the Professors of Universities parading the streets -with their young France, and swearing, in an enthusiastic manner, not -without tumult. By a larger exercise of fancy, expand duly this little -word: The like was repeated in every Town and District of France! Nay one -Patriot Mother, in Lagnon of Brittany, assembles her ten children; and, -with her own aged hand, swears them all herself, the highsouled venerable -woman. Of all which, moreover, a National Assembly must be eloquently -apprised. Such three weeks of swearing! Saw the sun ever such a swearing -people? Have they been bit by a swearing tarantula? No: but they are men -and Frenchmen; they have Hope; and, singular to say, they have Faith, were -it only in the Gospel according to Jean Jacques. O my Brothers! would to -Heaven it were even as ye think and have sworn! But there are Lovers' -Oaths, which, had they been true as love itself, cannot be kept; not to -speak of Dicers' Oaths, also a known sort. - - - -Chapter 2.1.VII. - -Prodigies. - -To such length had the Contrat Social brought it, in believing hearts. -Man, as is well said, lives by faith; each generation has its own faith, -more or less; and laughs at the faith of its predecessor,--most unwisely. -Grant indeed that this faith in the Social Contract belongs to the stranger -sorts; that an unborn generation may very wisely, if not laugh, yet stare -at it, and piously consider. For, alas, what is Contrat? If all men were -such that a mere spoken or sworn Contract would bind them, all men were -then true men, and Government a superfluity. Not what thou and I have -promised to each other, but what the balance of our forces can make us -perform to each other: that, in so sinful a world as ours, is the thing to -be counted on. But above all, a People and a Sovereign promising to one -another; as if a whole People, changing from generation to generation, nay -from hour to hour, could ever by any method be made to speak or promise; -and to speak mere solecisms: "We, be the Heavens witness, which Heavens -however do no miracles now; we, ever-changing Millions, will allow thee, -changeful Unit, to force us or govern us!" The world has perhaps seen few -faiths comparable to that. - -So nevertheless had the world then construed the matter. Had they not so -construed it, how different had their hopes been, their attempts, their -results! But so and not otherwise did the Upper Powers will it to be. -Freedom by Social Contract: such was verily the Gospel of that Era. And -all men had believed in it, as in a Heaven's Glad-tidings men should; and -with overflowing heart and uplifted voice clave to it, and stood fronting -Time and Eternity on it. Nay smile not; or only with a smile sadder than -tears! This too was a better faith than the one it had replaced : than -faith merely in the Everlasting Nothing and man's Digestive Power; lower -than which no faith can go. - -Not that such universally prevalent, universally jurant, feeling of Hope, -could be a unanimous one. Far from that! The time was ominous: social -dissolution near and certain; social renovation still a problem, difficult -and distant even though sure. But if ominous to some clearest onlooker, -whose faith stood not with one side or with the other, nor in the ever- -vexed jarring of Greek with Greek at all,--how unspeakably ominous to dim -Royalist participators; for whom Royalism was Mankind's palladium; for -whom, with the abolition of Most-Christian Kingship and Most-Talleyrand -Bishopship, all loyal obedience, all religious faith was to expire, and -final Night envelope the Destinies of Man! On serious hearts, of that -persuasion, the matter sinks down deep; prompting, as we have seen, to -backstairs Plots, to Emigration with pledge of war, to Monarchic Clubs; nay -to still madder things. - -The Spirit of Prophecy, for instance, had been considered extinct for some -centuries: nevertheless these last-times, as indeed is the tendency of -last-times, do revive it; that so, of French mad things, we might have -sample also of the maddest. In remote rural districts, whither -Philosophism has not yet radiated, where a heterodox Constitution of the -Clergy is bringing strife round the altar itself, and the very Church-bells -are getting melted into small money-coin, it appears probable that the End -of the World cannot be far off. Deep-musing atrabiliar old men, especially -old women, hint in an obscure way that they know what they know. The Holy -Virgin, silent so long, has not gone dumb;--and truly now, if ever more in -this world, were the time for her to speak. One Prophetess, though -careless Historians have omitted her name, condition, and whereabout, -becomes audible to the general ear; credible to not a few: credible to -Friar Gerle, poor Patriot Chartreux, in the National Assembly itself! She, -in Pythoness' recitative, with wildstaring eye, sings that there shall be a -Sign; that the heavenly Sun himself will hang out a Sign, or Mock-Sun,-- -which, many say, shall be stamped with the Head of hanged Favras. List, -Dom Gerle, with that poor addled poll of thine; list, O list;--and hear -nothing. (Deux Amis, v. c. 7.) - -Notable however was that 'magnetic vellum, velin magnetique,' of the Sieurs -d'Hozier and Petit-Jean, Parlementeers of Rouen. Sweet young d'Hozier, -'bred in the faith of his Missal, and of parchment genealogies,' and of -parchment generally: adust, melancholic, middle-aged Petit-Jean: why came -these two to Saint-Cloud, where his Majesty was hunting, on the festival of -St. Peter and St. Paul; and waited there, in antechambers, a wonder to -whispering Swiss, the livelong day; and even waited without the Grates, -when turned out; and had dismissed their valets to Paris, as with purpose -of endless waiting? They have a magnetic vellum, these two; whereon the -Virgin, wonderfully clothing herself in Mesmerean Cagliostric Occult- -Philosophy, has inspired them to jot down instructions and predictions for -a much-straitened King. To whom, by Higher Order, they will this day -present it; and save the Monarchy and World. Unaccountable pair of visual- -objects! Ye should be men, and of the Eighteenth Century; but your -magnetic vellum forbids us so to interpret. Say, are ye aught? Thus ask -the Guardhouse Captains, the Mayor of St. Cloud; nay, at great length, thus -asks the Committee of Researches, and not the Municipal, but the National -Assembly one. No distinct answer, for weeks. At last it becomes plain -that the right answer is negative. Go, ye Chimeras, with your magnetic -vellum; sweet young Chimera, adust middle-aged one! The Prison-doors are -open. Hardly again shall ye preside the Rouen Chamber of Accounts; but -vanish obscurely into Limbo. (See Deux Amis, v. 199.) - - - -Chapter 2.1.VIII. - -Solemn League and Covenant. - -Such dim masses, and specks of even deepest black, work in that white-hot -glow of the French mind, now wholly in fusion, and confusion. Old women -here swearing their ten children on the new Evangel of Jean Jacques; old -women there looking up for Favras' Heads in the celestial Luminary: these -are preternatural signs, prefiguring somewhat. - -In fact, to the Patriot children of Hope themselves, it is undeniable that -difficulties exist: emigrating Seigneurs; Parlements in sneaking but most -malicious mutiny (though the rope is round their neck); above all, the most -decided 'deficiency of grains.' Sorrowful: but, to a Nation that hopes, -not irremediable. To a Nation which is in fusion and ardent communion of -thought; which, for example, on signal of one Fugleman, will lift its right -hand like a drilled regiment, and swear and illuminate, till every village -from Ardennes to the Pyrenees has rolled its village-drum, and sent up its -little oath, and glimmer of tallow-illumination some fathoms into the reign -of Night! - -If grains are defective, the fault is not of Nature or National Assembly, -but of Art and Antinational Intriguers. Such malign individuals, of the -scoundrel species, have power to vex us, while the Constitution is a- -making. Endure it, ye heroic Patriots: nay rather, why not cure it? -Grains do grow, they lie extant there in sheaf or sack; only that regraters -and Royalist plotters, to provoke the people into illegality, obstruct the -transport of grains. Quick, ye organised Patriot Authorities, armed -National Guards, meet together; unite your goodwill; in union is tenfold -strength: let the concentred flash of your Patriotism strike stealthy -Scoundrelism blind, paralytic, as with a coup de soleil. - -Under which hat or nightcap of the Twenty-five millions, this pregnant Idea -first rose, for in some one head it did rise, no man can now say. A most -small idea, near at hand for the whole world: but a living one, fit; and -which waxed, whether into greatness or not, into immeasurable size. When a -Nation is in this state that the Fugleman can operate on it, what will the -word in season, the act in season, not do! It will grow verily, like the -Boy's Bean in the Fairy-Tale, heaven-high, with habitations and adventures -on it, in one night. It is nevertheless unfortunately still a Bean (for -your long-lived Oak grows not so); and, the next night, it may lie felled, -horizontal, trodden into common mud.--But remark, at least, how natural to -any agitated Nation, which has Faith, this business of Covenanting is. The -Scotch, believing in a righteous Heaven above them, and also in a Gospel, -far other than the Jean-Jacques one, swore, in their extreme need, a Solemn -League and Covenant,--as Brothers on the forlorn-hope, and imminence of -battle, who embrace looking Godward; and got the whole Isle to swear it; -and even, in their tough Old-Saxon Hebrew-Presbyterian way, to keep it more -or less;--for the thing, as such things are, was heard in Heaven, and -partially ratified there; neither is it yet dead, if thou wilt look, nor -like to die. The French too, with their Gallic-Ethnic excitability and -effervescence, have, as we have seen, real Faith, of a sort; they are hard -bestead, though in the middle of Hope: a National Solemn League and -Covenant there may be in France too; under how different conditions; with -how different developement and issue! - -Note, accordingly, the small commencement; first spark of a mighty -firework: for if the particular hat cannot be fixed upon, the particular -District can. On the 29th day of last November, were National Guards by -the thousand seen filing, from far and near, with military music, with -Municipal officers in tricolor sashes, towards and along the Rhone-stream, -to the little town of Etoile. There with ceremonial evolution and -manoeuvre, with fanfaronading, musketry-salvoes, and what else the Patriot -genius could devise, they made oath and obtestation to stand faithfully by -one another, under Law and King; in particular, to have all manner of -grains, while grains there were, freely circulated, in spite both of robber -and regrater. This was the meeting of Etoile, in the mild end of November -1789. - -But now, if a mere empty Review, followed by Review-dinner, ball, and such -gesticulation and flirtation as there may be, interests the happy County- -town, and makes it the envy of surrounding County-towns, how much more -might this! In a fortnight, larger Montelimart, half ashamed of itself, -will do as good, and better. On the Plain of Montelimart, or what is -equally sonorous, 'under the Walls of Montelimart,' the thirteenth of -December sees new gathering and obtestation; six thousand strong; and now -indeed, with these three remarkable improvements, as unanimously resolved -on there. First that the men of Montelimart do federate with the already -federated men of Etoile. Second, that, implying not expressing the -circulation of grain, they 'swear in the face of God and their Country' -with much more emphasis and comprehensiveness, 'to obey all decrees of the -National Assembly, and see them obeyed, till death, jusqu'a la mort.' -Third, and most important, that official record of all this be solemnly -delivered in to the National Assembly, to M. de Lafayette, and 'to the -Restorer of French Liberty;' who shall all take what comfort from it they -can. Thus does larger Montelimart vindicate its Patriot importance, and -maintain its rank in the municipal scale. (Hist. Parl. vii. 4.) - -And so, with the New-year, the signal is hoisted; for is not a National -Assembly, and solemn deliverance there, at lowest a National Telegraph? -Not only grain shall circulate, while there is grain, on highways or the -Rhone-waters, over all that South-Eastern region,--where also if -Monseigneur d'Artois saw good to break in from Turin, hot welcome might -wait him; but whatsoever Province of France is straitened for grain, or -vexed with a mutinous Parlement, unconstitutional plotters, Monarchic -Clubs, or any other Patriot ailment,--can go and do likewise, or even do -better. And now, especially, when the February swearing has set them all -agog! From Brittany to Burgundy, on most plains of France, under most -City-walls, it is a blaring of trumpets, waving of banners, a -constitutional manoeuvring: under the vernal skies, while Nature too is -putting forth her green Hopes, under bright sunshine defaced by the -stormful East; like Patriotism victorious, though with difficulty, over -Aristocracy and defect of grain! There march and constitutionally wheel, -to the ca-ira-ing mood of fife and drum, under their tricolor Municipals, -our clear-gleaming Phalanxes; or halt, with uplifted right-hand, and -artillery-salvoes that imitate Jove's thunder; and all the Country, and -metaphorically all 'the Universe,' is looking on. Wholly, in their best -apparel, brave men, and beautifully dizened women, most of whom have lovers -there; swearing, by the eternal Heavens and this green-growing all- -nutritive Earth, that France is free! - -Sweetest days, when (astonishing to say) mortals have actually met together -in communion and fellowship; and man, were it only once through long -despicable centuries, is for moments verily the brother of man!--And then -the Deputations to the National Assembly, with highflown descriptive -harangue; to M. de Lafayette, and the Restorer; very frequently moreover to -the Mother of Patriotism sitting on her stout benches in that Hall of the -Jacobins! The general ear is filled with Federation. New names of -Patriots emerge, which shall one day become familiar: Boyer-Fonfrede -eloquent denunciator of a rebellious Bourdeaux Parlement; Max Isnard -eloquent reporter of the Federation of Draguignan; eloquent pair, separated -by the whole breadth of France, who are nevertheless to meet. Ever wider -burns the flame of Federation; ever wider and also brighter. Thus the -Brittany and Anjou brethren mention a Fraternity of all true Frenchmen; and -go the length of invoking 'perdition and death' on any renegade: moreover, -if in their National-Assembly harangue, they glance plaintively at the marc -d'argent which makes so many citizens passive, they, over in the Mother- -Society, ask, being henceforth themselves 'neither Bretons nor Angevins but -French,' Why all France has not one Federation, and universal Oath of -Brotherhood, once for all? (Reports, &c. (in Hist. Parl. ix. 122-147).) A -most pertinent suggestion; dating from the end of March. Which pertinent -suggestion the whole Patriot world cannot but catch, and reverberate and -agitate till it become loud;--which, in that case, the Townhall Municipals -had better take up, and meditate. - -Some universal Federation seems inevitable: the Where is given; clearly -Paris: only the When, the How? These also productive Time will give; is -already giving. For always as the Federative work goes on, it perfects -itself, and Patriot genius adds contribution after contribution. Thus, at -Lyons, in the end of the May month, we behold as many as fifty, or some say -sixty thousand, met to federate; and a multitude looking on, which it would -be difficult to number. From dawn to dusk! For our Lyons Guardsmen took -rank, at five in the bright dewy morning; came pouring in, bright-gleaming, -to the Quai de Rhone, to march thence to the Federation-field; amid wavings -of hats and lady-handkerchiefs; glad shoutings of some two hundred thousand -Patriot voices and hearts; the beautiful and brave! Among whom, courting -no notice, and yet the notablest of all, what queenlike Figure is this; -with her escort of house-friends and Champagneux the Patriot Editor; come -abroad with the earliest? Radiant with enthusiasm are those dark eyes, is -that strong Minerva-face, looking dignity and earnest joy; joyfullest she -where all are joyful. It is Roland de la Platriere's Wife! (Madame -Roland, Memoires, i. (Discours Preliminaire, p. 23).) Strict elderly -Roland, King's Inspector of Manufactures here; and now likewise, by popular -choice, the strictest of our new Lyons Municipals: a man who has gained -much, if worth and faculty be gain; but above all things, has gained to -wife Phlipon the Paris Engraver's daughter. Reader, mark that queenlike -burgher-woman: beautiful, Amazonian-graceful to the eye; more so to the -mind. Unconscious of her worth (as all worth is), of her greatness, of her -crystal clearness; genuine, the creature of Sincerity and Nature, in an age -of Artificiality, Pollution and Cant; there, in her still completeness, in -her still invincibility, she, if thou knew it, is the noblest of all living -Frenchwomen,--and will be seen, one day. O blessed rather while unseen, -even of herself! For the present she gazes, nothing doubting, into this -grand theatricality; and thinks her young dreams are to be fulfilled. - -From dawn to dusk, as we said, it lasts; and truly a sight like few. -Flourishes of drums and trumpets are something: but think of an -'artificial Rock fifty feet high,' all cut into crag-steps, not without the -similitude of 'shrubs!' The interior cavity, for in sooth it is made of -deal,--stands solemn, a 'Temple of Concord:' on the outer summit rises 'a -Statue of Liberty,' colossal, seen for miles, with her Pike and Phrygian -Cap, and civic column; at her feet a Country's Altar, 'Autel de la -Patrie:'--on all which neither deal-timber nor lath and plaster, with paint -of various colours, have been spared. But fancy then the banners all -placed on the steps of the Rock; high-mass chaunted; and the civic oath of -fifty thousand: with what volcanic outburst of sound from iron and other -throats, enough to frighten back the very Saone and Rhone; and how the -brightest fireworks, and balls, and even repasts closed in that night of -the gods! (Hist. Parl. xii. 274.) And so the Lyons Federation vanishes -too, swallowed of darkness;--and yet not wholly, for our brave fair Roland -was there; also she, though in the deepest privacy, writes her Narrative of -it in Champagneux's Courier de Lyons; a piece which 'circulates to the -extent of sixty thousand;' which one would like now to read. - -But on the whole, Paris, we may see, will have little to devise; will only -have to borrow and apply. And then as to the day, what day of all the -calendar is fit, if the Bastille Anniversary be not? The particular spot -too, it is easy to see, must be the Champ-de-Mars; where many a Julian the -Apostate has been lifted on bucklers, to France's or the world's -sovereignty; and iron Franks, loud-clanging, have responded to the voice of -a Charlemagne; and from of old mere sublimities have been familiar. - - - -Chapter 2.1.IX. - -Symbolic. - -How natural, in all decisive circumstances, is Symbolic Representation to -all kinds of men! Nay, what is man's whole terrestrial Life but a Symbolic -Representation, and making visible, of the Celestial invisible Force that -is in him? By act and world he strives to do it; with sincerity, if -possible; failing that, with theatricality, which latter also may have its -meaning. An Almack's Masquerade is not nothing; in more genial ages, your -Christmas Guisings, Feasts of the Ass, Abbots of Unreason, were a -considerable something: since sport they were; as Almacks may still be -sincere wish for sport. But what, on the other hand, must not sincere -earnest have been: say, a Hebrew Feast of Tabernacles have been! A whole -Nation gathered, in the name of the Highest, under the eye of the Highest; -imagination herself flagging under the reality; and all noblest Ceremony as -yet not grown ceremonial, but solemn, significant to the outmost fringe! -Neither, in modern private life, are theatrical scenes, of tearful women -wetting whole ells of cambric in concert, of impassioned bushy-whiskered -youth threatening suicide, and such like, to be so entirely detested: drop -thou a tear over them thyself rather. - -At any rate, one can remark that no Nation will throw-by its work, and -deliberately go out to make a scene, without meaning something thereby. -For indeed no scenic individual, with knavish hypocritical views, will take -the trouble to soliloquise a scene: and now consider, is not a scenic -Nation placed precisely in that predicament of soliloquising; for its own -behoof alone; to solace its own sensibilities, maudlin or other?--Yet in -this respect, of readiness for scenes, the difference of Nations, as of -men, is very great. If our Saxon-Puritanic friends, for example, swore and -signed their National Covenant, without discharge of gunpowder, or the -beating of any drum, in a dingy Covenant-Close of the Edinburgh High- -street, in a mean room, where men now drink mean liquor, it was consistent -with their ways so to swear it. Our Gallic-Encyclopedic friends, again, -must have a Champ-de-Mars, seen of all the world, or universe; and such a -Scenic Exhibition, to which the Coliseum Amphitheatre was but a stroller's -barn, as this old Globe of ours had never or hardly ever beheld. Which -method also we reckon natural, then and there. Nor perhaps was the -respective keeping of these two Oaths far out of due proportion to such -respective display in taking them: inverse proportion, namely. For the -theatricality of a People goes in a compound-ratio: ratio indeed of their -trustfulness, sociability, fervency; but then also of their excitability, -of their porosity, not continent; or say, of their explosiveness, hot- -flashing, but which does not last. - -How true also, once more, is it that no man or Nation of men, conscious of -doing a great thing, was ever, in that thing, doing other than a small one! -O Champ-de-Mars Federation, with three hundred drummers, twelve hundred -wind-musicians, and artillery planted on height after height to boom the -tidings of it all over France, in few minutes! Could no Atheist-Naigeon -contrive to discern, eighteen centuries off, those Thirteen most poor mean- -dressed men, at frugal Supper, in a mean Jewish dwelling, with no symbol -but hearts god-initiated into the 'Divine depth of Sorrow,' and a Do this -in remembrance of me;--and so cease that small difficult crowing of his, if -he were not doomed to it? - - - -Chapter 2.1.X. - -Mankind. - -Pardonable are human theatricalities; nay perhaps touching, like the -passionate utterance of a tongue which with sincerity stammers; of a head -which with insincerity babbles,--having gone distracted. Yet, in -comparison with unpremeditated outbursts of Nature, such as an Insurrection -of Women, how foisonless, unedifying, undelightful; like small ale palled, -like an effervescence that has effervesced! Such scenes, coming of -forethought, were they world-great, and never so cunningly devised, are at -bottom mainly pasteboard and paint. But the others are original; emitted -from the great everliving heart of Nature herself: what figure they will -assume is unspeakably significant. To us, therefore, let the French -National Solemn League, and Federation, be the highest recorded triumph of -the Thespian Art; triumphant surely, since the whole Pit, which was of -Twenty-five Millions, not only claps hands, but does itself spring on the -boards and passionately set to playing there. And being such, be it -treated as such: with sincere cursory admiration; with wonder from afar. -A whole Nation gone mumming deserves so much; but deserves not that loving -minuteness a Menadic Insurrection did. Much more let prior, and as it -were, rehearsal scenes of Federation come and go, henceforward, as they -list; and, on Plains and under City-walls, innumerable regimental bands -blare off into the Inane, without note from us. - -One scene, however, the hastiest reader will momentarily pause on: that of -Anacharsis Clootz and the Collective sinful Posterity of Adam.--For a -Patriot Municipality has now, on the 4th of June, got its plan concocted, -and got it sanctioned by National Assembly; a Patriot King assenting; to -whom, were he even free to dissent, Federative harangues, overflowing with -loyalty, have doubtless a transient sweetness. There shall come Deputed -National Guards, so many in the hundred, from each of the Eighty-three -Departments of France. Likewise from all Naval and Military King's Forces, -shall Deputed quotas come; such Federation of National with Royal Soldier -has, taking place spontaneously, been already seen and sanctioned. For the -rest, it is hoped, as many as forty thousand may arrive: expenses to be -borne by the Deputing District; of all which let District and Department -take thought, and elect fit men,--whom the Paris brethren will fly to meet -and welcome. - -Now, therefore, judge if our Patriot Artists are busy; taking deep counsel -how to make the Scene worthy of a look from the Universe! As many as -fifteen thousand men, spade-men, barrow-men, stone-builders, rammers, with -their engineers, are at work on the Champ-de-Mars; hollowing it out into a -natural Amphitheatre, fit for such solemnity. For one may hope it will be -annual and perennial; a 'Feast of Pikes, Fete des Piques,' notablest among -the high-tides of the year: in any case ought not a Scenic free Nation to -have some permanent National Amphitheatre? The Champ-de-Mars is getting -hollowed out; and the daily talk and the nightly dream in most Parisian -heads is of Federation, and that only. Federate Deputies are already under -way. National Assembly, what with its natural work, what with hearing and -answering harangues of Federates, of this Federation, will have enough to -do! Harangue of 'American Committee,' among whom is that faint figure of -Paul Jones 'as with the stars dim-twinkling through it,'--come to -congratulate us on the prospect of such auspicious day. Harangue of -Bastille Conquerors, come to 'renounce' any special recompense, any -peculiar place at the solemnity;--since the Centre Grenadiers rather -grumble. Harangue of 'Tennis-Court Club,' who enter with far-gleaming -Brass-plate, aloft on a pole, and the Tennis-Court Oath engraved thereon; -which far gleaming Brass-plate they purpose to affix solemnly in the -Versailles original locality, on the 20th of this month, which is the -anniversary, as a deathless memorial, for some years: they will then dine, -as they come back, in the Bois de Boulogne; (See Deux Amis, v. 122; Hist. -Parl. &c.)--cannot, however, do it without apprising the world. To such -things does the august National Assembly ever and anon cheerfully listen, -suspending its regenerative labours; and with some touch of impromptu -eloquence, make friendly reply;--as indeed the wont has long been; for it -is a gesticulating, sympathetic People, and has a heart, and wears it on -its sleeve. - -In which circumstances, it occurred to the mind of Anacharsis Clootz that -while so much was embodying itself into Club or Committee, and perorating -applauded, there yet remained a greater and greatest; of which, if it also -took body and perorated, what might not the effect be: Humankind namely, -le Genre Humain itself! In what rapt creative moment the Thought rose in -Anacharsis's soul; all his throes, while he went about giving shape and -birth to it; how he was sneered at by cold worldlings; but did sneer again, -being a man of polished sarcasm; and moved to and fro persuasive in -coffeehouse and soiree, and dived down assiduous-obscure in the great deep -of Paris, making his Thought a Fact: of all this the spiritual biographies -of that period say nothing. Enough that on the 19th evening of June 1790, -the Sun's slant rays lighted a spectacle such as our foolish little Planet -has not often had to show: Anacharsis Clootz entering the august Salle de -Manege, with the Human Species at his heels. Swedes, Spaniards, Polacks; -Turks, Chaldeans, Greeks, dwellers in Mesopotamia: behold them all; they -have come to claim place in the grand Federation, having an undoubted -interest in it. - -"Our ambassador titles," said the fervid Clootz, "are not written on -parchment, but on the living hearts of all men." These whiskered Polacks, -long-flowing turbaned Ishmaelites, astrological Chaldeans, who stand so -mute here, let them plead with you, august Senators, more eloquently than -eloquence could. They are the mute representatives of their tongue-tied, -befettered, heavy-laden Nations; who from out of that dark bewilderment -gaze wistful, amazed, with half-incredulous hope, towards you, and this -your bright light of a French Federation: bright particular day-star, the -herald of universal day. We claim to stand there, as mute monuments, -pathetically adumbrative of much.--From bench and gallery comes 'repeated -applause;' for what august Senator but is flattered even by the very shadow -of Human Species depending on him? From President Sieyes, who presides -this remarkable fortnight, in spite of his small voice, there comes -eloquent though shrill reply. Anacharsis and the 'Foreigners Committee' -shall have place at the Federation; on condition of telling their -respective Peoples what they see there. In the mean time, we invite them -to the 'honours of the sitting, honneur de la seance.' A long-flowing -Turk, for rejoinder, bows with Eastern solemnity, and utters articulate -sounds: but owing to his imperfect knowledge of the French dialect, -(Moniteur, &c. (in Hist. Parl. xii. 283).) his words are like spilt water; -the thought he had in him remains conjectural to this day. - -Anacharsis and Mankind accept the honours of the sitting; and have -forthwith, as the old Newspapers still testify, the satisfaction to see -several things. First and chief, on the motion of Lameth, Lafayette, -Saint-Fargeau and other Patriot Nobles, let the others repugn as they will: -all Titles of Nobility, from Duke to Esquire, or lower, are henceforth -abolished. Then, in like manner, Livery Servants, or rather the Livery of -Servants. Neither, for the future, shall any man or woman, self-styled -noble, be 'incensed,'--foolishly fumigated with incense, in Church; as the -wont has been. In a word, Feudalism being dead these ten months, why -should her empty trappings and scutcheons survive? The very Coats-of-arms -will require to be obliterated;--and yet Cassandra Marat on this and the -other coach-panel notices that they 'are but painted-over,' and threaten to -peer through again. - -So that henceforth de Lafayette is but the Sieur Motier, and Saint-Fargeau -is plain Michel Lepelletier; and Mirabeau soon after has to say huffingly, -"With your Riquetti you have set Europe at cross-purposes for three days." -For his Counthood is not indifferent to this man; which indeed the admiring -People treat him with to the last. But let extreme Patriotism rejoice, and -chiefly Anacharsis and Mankind; for now it seems to be taken for granted -that one Adam is Father of us all!-- - -Such was, in historical accuracy, the famed feat of Anacharsis. Thus did -the most extensive of Public Bodies find a sort of spokesman. Whereby at -least we may judge of one thing: what a humour the once sniffing mocking -City of Paris and Baron Clootz had got into; when such exhibition could -appear a propriety, next door to a sublimity. It is true, Envy did in -after times, pervert this success of Anacharsis; making him, from -incidental 'Speaker of the Foreign-Nations Committee,' claim to be official -permanent 'Speaker, Orateur, of the Human Species,' which he only deserved -to be; and alleging, calumniously, that his astrological Chaldeans, and the -rest, were a mere French tag-rag-and-bobtail disguised for the nonce; and, -in short, sneering and fleering at him in her cold barren way; all which, -however, he, the man he was, could receive on thick enough panoply, or even -rebound therefrom, and also go his way. - -Most extensive of Public Bodies, we may call it; and also the most -unexpected: for who could have thought to see All Nations in the Tuileries -Riding-Hall? But so it is; and truly as strange things may happen when a -whole People goes mumming and miming. Hast not thou thyself perchance seen -diademed Cleopatra, daughter of the Ptolemies, pleading, almost with bended -knee, in unheroic tea-parlour, or dimlit retail-shop, to inflexible gross -Burghal Dignitary, for leave to reign and die; being dressed for it, and -moneyless, with small children;--while suddenly Constables have shut the -Thespian barn, and her Antony pleaded in vain? Such visual spectra flit -across this Earth, if the Thespian Stage be rudely interfered with: but -much more, when, as was said, Pit jumps on Stage, then is it verily, as in -Herr Tieck's Drama, a Verkehrte Welt, of World Topsyturvied! - -Having seen the Human Species itself, to have seen the 'Dean of the Human -Species,' ceased now to be a miracle. Such 'Doyen du Genre Humain, Eldest -of Men,' had shewn himself there, in these weeks: Jean Claude Jacob, a -born Serf, deputed from his native Jura Mountains to thank the National -Assembly for enfranchising them. On his bleached worn face are ploughed -the furrowings of one hundred and twenty years. He has heard dim patois- -talk, of immortal Grand-Monarch victories; of a burnt Palatinate, as he -toiled and moiled to make a little speck of this Earth greener; of Cevennes -Dragoonings; of Marlborough going to the war. Four generations have -bloomed out, and loved and hated, and rustled off: he was forty-six when -Louis Fourteenth died. The Assembly, as one man, spontaneously rose, and -did reverence to the Eldest of the World; old Jean is to take seance among -them, honourably, with covered head. He gazes feebly there, with his old -eyes, on that new wonder-scene; dreamlike to him, and uncertain, wavering -amid fragments of old memories and dreams. For Time is all growing -unsubstantial, dreamlike; Jean's eyes and mind are weary, and about to -close,--and open on a far other wonder-scene, which shall be real. Patriot -Subscription, Royal Pension was got for him, and he returned home glad; but -in two months more he left it all, and went on his unknown way. (Deux -Amis, iv. iii.) - - - -Chapter 2.1.XI. - -As in the Age of Gold. - -Meanwhile to Paris, ever going and returning, day after day, and all day -long, towards that Field of Mars, it becomes painfully apparent that the -spadework there cannot be got done in time. There is such an area of it; -three hundred thousand square feet: for from the Ecole militaire (which -will need to be done up in wood with balconies and galleries) westward to -the Gate by the river (where also shall be wood, in triumphal arches), we -count same thousand yards of length; and for breadth, from this umbrageous -Avenue of eight rows, on the South side, to that corresponding one on the -North, some thousand feet, more or less. All this to be scooped out, and -wheeled up in slope along the sides; high enough; for it must be rammed -down there, and shaped stair-wise into as many as 'thirty ranges of -convenient seats,' firm-trimmed with turf, covered with enduring timber;-- -and then our huge pyramidal Fatherland's-Altar, Autel de la Patrie, in the -centre, also to be raised and stair-stepped! Force-work with a vengeance; -it is a World's Amphitheatre! There are but fifteen days good; and at this -languid rate, it might take half as many weeks. What is singular too, the -spademen seem to work lazily; they will not work double-tides, even for -offer of more wages, though their tide is but seven hours; they declare -angrily that the human tabernacle requires occasional rest! - -Is it Aristocrats secretly bribing? Aristocrats were capable of that. -Only six months since, did not evidence get afloat that subterranean Paris, -for we stand over quarries and catacombs, dangerously, as it were midway -between Heaven and the Abyss, and are hollow underground,--was charged with -gunpowder, which should make us 'leap?' Till a Cordelier's Deputation -actually went to examine, and found it--carried off again! (23rd December, -1789 (Newspapers in Hist. Parl. iv. 44).) An accursed, incurable brood; -all asking for 'passports,' in these sacred days. Trouble, of rioting, -chateau-burning, is in the Limousin and elsewhere; for they are busy! -Between the best of Peoples and the best of Restorer-Kings, they would sow -grudges; with what a fiend's-grin would they see this Federation, looked -for by the Universe, fail! - -Fail for want of spadework, however, it shall not. He that has four limbs, -and a French heart, can do spadework; and will! On the first July Monday, -scarcely has the signal-cannon boomed; scarcely have the languescent -mercenary Fifteen Thousand laid down their tools, and the eyes of onlookers -turned sorrowfully of the still high Sun; when this and the other Patriot, -fire in his eye, snatches barrow and mattock, and himself begins -indignantly wheeling. Whom scores and then hundreds follow; and soon a -volunteer Fifteen Thousand are shovelling and trundling; with the heart of -giants; and all in right order, with that extemporaneous adroitness of -theirs: whereby such a lift has been given, worth three mercenary ones;-- -which may end when the late twilight thickens, in triumph shouts, heard or -heard of beyond Montmartre! - -A sympathetic population will wait, next day, with eagerness, till the -tools are free. Or why wait? Spades elsewhere exist! And so now bursts -forth that effulgence of Parisian enthusiasm, good-heartedness and -brotherly love; such, if Chroniclers are trustworthy, as was not witnessed -since the Age of Gold. Paris, male and female, precipitates itself towards -its South-west extremity, spade on shoulder. Streams of men, without -order; or in order, as ranked fellow-craftsmen, as natural or accidental -reunions, march towards the Field of Mars. Three-deep these march; to the -sound of stringed music; preceded by young girls with green boughs, and -tricolor streamers: they have shouldered, soldier-wise, their shovels and -picks; and with one throat are singing ca-ira. Yes, pardieu ca-ira, cry -the passengers on the streets. All corporate Guilds, and public and -private Bodies of Citizens, from the highest to the lowest, march; the very -Hawkers, one finds, have ceased bawling for one day. The neighbouring -Villages turn out: their able men come marching, to village fiddle or -tambourine and triangle, under their Mayor, or Mayor and Curate, who also -walk bespaded, and in tricolor sash. As many as one hundred and fifty -thousand workers: nay at certain seasons, as some count, two hundred and -fifty thousand; for, in the afternoon especially, what mortal but, -finishing his hasty day's work, would run! A stirring city: from the time -you reach the Place Louis Quinze, southward over the River, by all Avenues, -it is one living throng. So many workers; and no mercenary mock-workers, -but real ones that lie freely to it: each Patriot stretches himself -against the stubborn glebe; hews and wheels with the whole weight that is -in him. - -Amiable infants, aimables enfans! They do the 'police des l'atelier' too, -the guidance and governance, themselves; with that ready will of theirs, -with that extemporaneous adroitness. It is a true brethren's work; all -distinctions confounded, abolished; as it was in the beginning, when Adam -himself delved. Longfrocked tonsured Monks, with short-skirted Water- -carriers, with swallow-tailed well-frizzled Incroyables of a Patriot turn; -dark Charcoalmen, meal-white Peruke-makers; or Peruke-wearers, for Advocate -and Judge are there, and all Heads of Districts: sober Nuns sisterlike -with flaunting Nymphs of the Opera, and females in common circumstances -named unfortunate: the patriot Rag-picker, and perfumed dweller in -palaces; for Patriotism like New-birth, and also like Death, levels all. -The Printers have come marching, Prudhomme's all in Paper-caps with -Revolutions de Paris printed on them; as Camille notes; wishing that in -these great days there should be a Pacte des Ecrivains too, or Federation -of Able Editors. (See Newspapers, &c. (in Hist. Parl. vi. 381-406).) -Beautiful to see! The snowy linen and delicate pantaloon alternates with -the soiled check-shirt and bushel-breeches; for both have cast their coats, -and under both are four limbs and a set of Patriot muscles. There do they -pick and shovel; or bend forward, yoked in long strings to box-barrow or -overloaded tumbril; joyous, with one mind. Abbe Sieyes is seen pulling, -wiry, vehement, if too light for draught; by the side of Beauharnais, who -shall get Kings though he be none. Abbe Maury did not pull; but the -Charcoalmen brought a mummer guised like him, so he had to pull in effigy. -Let no august Senator disdain the work: Mayor Bailly, Generalissimo -Lafayette are there;--and, alas, shall be there again another day! The -King himself comes to see: sky-rending Vive-le-Roi; 'and suddenly with -shouldered spades they form a guard of honour round him.' Whosoever can -come comes, to work, or to look, and bless the work. - -Whole families have come. One whole family we see clearly, of three -generations: the father picking, the mother shovelling, the young ones -wheeling assiduous; old grandfather, hoary with ninety-three years, holds -in his arms the youngest of all: (Mercier. ii. 76, &c.) frisky, not helpful -this one; who nevertheless may tell it to his grandchildren; and how the -Future and the Past alike looked on, and with failing or with half-formed -voice, faltered their ca-ira. A vintner has wheeled in, on Patriot truck, -beverage of wine: "Drink not, my brothers, if ye are not dry; that your -cask may last the longer;" neither did any drink, but men 'evidently -exhausted.' A dapper Abbe looks on, sneering. "To the barrow!" cry -several; whom he, lest a worse thing befal him, obeys: nevertheless one -wiser Patriot barrowman, arriving now, interposes his "arretez;" setting -down his own barrow, he snatches the Abbe's; trundles it fast, like an -infected thing; forth of the Champ-de-Mars circuit, and discharges it -there. Thus too a certain person (of some quality, or private capital, to -appearance), entering hastily, flings down his coat, waistcoat and two -watches, and is rushing to the thick of the work: "But your watches?" -cries the general voice.--"Does one distrust his brothers?" answers he; nor -were the watches stolen. How beautiful is noble-sentiment: like gossamer -gauze, beautiful and cheap; which will stand no tear and wear! Beautiful -cheap gossamer gauze, thou film-shadow of a raw-material of Virtue, which -art not woven, nor likely to be, into Duty; thou art better than nothing, -and also worse! - -Young Boarding-school Boys, College Students, shout Vive la Nation, and -regret that they have yet 'only their sweat to give.' What say we of Boys? -Beautifullest Hebes; the loveliest of Paris, in their light air-robes, with -riband-girdle of tricolor, are there; shovelling and wheeling with the -rest; their Hebe eyes brighter with enthusiasm, and long hair in beautiful -dishevelment: hard-pressed are their small fingers; but they make the -patriot barrow go, and even force it to the summit of the slope (with a -little tracing, which what man's arm were not too happy to lend?)--then -bound down with it again, and go for more; with their long locks and -tricolors blown back: graceful as the rosy Hours. O, as that evening Sun -fell over the Champ-de-Mars, and tinted with fire the thick umbrageous -boscage that shelters it on this hand and on that, and struck direct on -those Domes and two-and-forty Windows of the Ecole Militaire, and made them -all of burnished gold,--saw he on his wide zodiac road other such sight? A -living garden spotted and dotted with such flowerage; all colours of the -prism; the beautifullest blent friendly with the usefullest; all growing -and working brotherlike there, under one warm feeling, were it but for -days; once and no second time! But Night is sinking; these Nights too, -into Eternity. The hastiest Traveller Versailles-ward has drawn bridle on -the heights of Chaillot: and looked for moments over the River; reporting -at Versailles what he saw, not without tears. (Mercier, ii. 81.) - -Meanwhile, from all points of the compass, Federates are arriving: fervid -children of the South, 'who glory in their Mirabeau;' considerate North- -blooded Mountaineers of Jura; sharp Bretons, with their Gaelic suddenness; -Normans not to be overreached in bargain: all now animated with one -noblest fire of Patriotism. Whom the Paris brethren march forth to -receive; with military solemnities, with fraternal embracing, and a -hospitality worthy of the heroic ages. They assist at the Assembly's -Debates, these Federates: the Galleries are reserved for them. They -assist in the toils of the Champ-de-Mars; each new troop will put its hand -to the spade; lift a hod of earth on the Altar of the Fatherland. But the -flourishes of rhetoric, for it is a gesticulating People; the moral-sublime -of those Addresses to an august Assembly, to a Patriot Restorer! Our -Breton Captain of Federates kneels even, in a fit of enthusiasm, and gives -up his sword; he wet-eyed to a King wet-eyed. Poor Louis! These, as he -said afterwards, were among the bright days of his life. - -Reviews also there must be; royal Federate-reviews, with King, Queen and -tricolor Court looking on: at lowest, if, as is too common, it rains, our -Federate Volunteers will file through the inner gateways, Royalty standing -dry. Nay there, should some stop occur, the beautifullest fingers in -France may take you softly by the lapelle, and, in mild flute-voice, ask: -"Monsieur, of what Province are you?" Happy he who can reply, chivalrously -lowering his sword's point, "Madame, from the Province your ancestors -reigned over." He that happy 'Provincial Advocate,' now Provincial -Federate, shall be rewarded by a sun-smile, and such melodious glad words -addressed to a King: "Sire, these are your faithful Lorrainers." Cheerier -verily, in these holidays, is this 'skyblue faced with red' of a National -Guardsman, than the dull black and gray of a Provincial Advocate, which in -workdays one was used to. For the same thrice-blessed Lorrainer shall, -this evening, stand sentry at a Queen's door; and feel that he could die a -thousand deaths for her: then again, at the outer gate, and even a third -time, she shall see him; nay he will make her do it; presenting arms with -emphasis, 'making his musket jingle again': and in her salute there shall -again be a sun-smile, and that little blonde-locked too hasty Dauphin shall -be admonished, "Salute then, Monsieur, don't be unpolite;" and therewith -she, like a bright Sky-wanderer or Planet with her little Moon, issues -forth peculiar. (Narrative by a Lorraine Federate (given in Hist. Parl. -vi. 389-91).) - -But at night, when Patriot spadework is over, figure the sacred rights of -hospitality! Lepelletier Saint-Fargeau, a mere private senator, but with -great possessions, has daily his 'hundred dinner-guests;' the table of -Generalissimo Lafayette may double that number. In lowly parlour, as in -lofty saloon, the wine-cup passes round; crowned by the smiles of Beauty; -be it of lightly-tripping Grisette, or of high-sailing Dame, for both -equally have beauty, and smiles precious to the brave. - - - -Chapter 2.1.XII. - -Sound and Smoke. - -And so now, in spite of plotting Aristocrats, lazy hired spademen, and -almost of Destiny itself (for there has been much rain), the Champ-de-Mars, -on the 13th of the month is fairly ready; trimmed, rammed, buttressed with -firm masonry; and Patriotism can stroll over it admiring; and as it were -rehearsing, for in every head is some unutterable image of the morrow. -Pray Heaven there be not clouds. Nay what far worse cloud is this, of a -misguided Municipality that talks of admitting Patriotism, to the -solemnity, by tickets! Was it by tickets we were admitted to the work; and -to what brought the work? Did we take the Bastille by tickets? A -misguided Municipality sees the error; at late midnight, rolling drums -announce to Patriotism starting half out of its bed-clothes, that it is to -be ticketless. Pull down thy night-cap therefore; and, with demi- -articulate grumble, significant of several things, go pacified to sleep -again. Tomorrow is Wednesday morning; unforgetable among the fasti of the -world. - -The morning comes, cold for a July one; but such a festivity would make -Greenland smile. Through every inlet of that National Amphitheatre (for it -is a league in circuit, cut with openings at due intervals), floods-in the -living throng; covers without tumult space after space. The Ecole -Militaire has galleries and overvaulting canopies, where Carpentry and -Painting have vied, for the upper Authorities; triumphal arches, at the -Gate by the River, bear inscriptions, if weak, yet well-meant, and -orthodox. Far aloft, over the Altar of the Fatherland, on their tall crane -standards of iron, swing pensile our antique Cassolettes or pans of -incense; dispensing sweet incense-fumes,--unless for the Heathen Mythology, -one sees not for whom. Two hundred thousand Patriotic Men; and, twice as -good, one hundred thousand Patriotic Women, all decked and glorified as one -can fancy, sit waiting in this Champ-de-Mars. - -What a picture: that circle of bright-eyed Life, spread up there, on its -thirty-seated Slope; leaning, one would say, on the thick umbrage of those -Avenue-Trees, for the stems of them are hidden by the height; and all -beyond it mere greenness of Summer Earth, with the gleams of waters, or -white sparklings of stone-edifices: little circular enamel-picture in the -centre of such a vase--of emerald! A vase not empty: the Invalides -Cupolas want not their population, nor the distant Windmills of Montmartre; -on remotest steeple and invisible village belfry, stand men with spy- -glasses. On the heights of Chaillot are many-coloured undulating groups; -round and far on, over all the circling heights that embosom Paris, it is -as one more or less peopled Amphitheatre; which the eye grows dim with -measuring. Nay heights, as was before hinted, have cannon; and a floating- -battery of cannon is on the Seine. When eye fails, ear shall serve; and -all France properly is but one Amphitheatre: for in paved town and unpaved -hamlet, men walk listening; till the muffled thunder sound audible on their -horizon, that they too may begin swearing and firing! (Deux Amis, v. 168.) -But now, to streams of music, come Federates enough,--for they have -assembled on the Boulevard Saint-Antoine or thereby, and come marching -through the City, with their Eighty-three Department Banners, and blessings -not loud but deep; comes National Assembly, and takes seat under its -Canopy; comes Royalty, and takes seat on a throne beside it. And -Lafayette, on white charger, is here, and all the civic Functionaries; and -the Federates form dances, till their strictly military evolutions and -manoeuvres can begin. - -Evolutions and manoeuvres? Task not the pen of mortal to describe them: -truant imagination droops;--declares that it is not worth while. There is -wheeling and sweeping, to slow, to quick, and double quick-time: Sieur -Motier, or Generalissimo Lafayette, for they are one and the same, and he -is General of France, in the King's stead, for four-and-twenty hours; Sieur -Motier must step forth, with that sublime chivalrous gait of his; solemnly -ascend the steps of the Fatherland's Altar, in sight of Heaven and of the -scarcely breathing Earth; and, under the creak of those swinging -Cassolettes, 'pressing his sword's point firmly there,' pronounce the Oath, -To King, to Law, and Nation (not to mention 'grains' with their -circulating), in his own name and that of armed France. Whereat there is -waving of banners and acclaim sufficient. The National Assembly must -swear, standing in its place; the King himself audibly. The King swears; -and now be the welkin split with vivats; let citizens enfranchised embrace, -each smiting heartily his palm into his fellow's; and armed Federates clang -their arms; above all, that floating battery speak! It has spoken,--to the -four corners of France. From eminence to eminence, bursts the thunder; -faint-heard, loud-repeated. What a stone, cast into what a lake; in -circles that do not grow fainter. From Arras to Avignon; from Metz to -Bayonne! Over Orleans and Blois it rolls, in cannon-recitative; Puy -bellows of it amid his granite mountains; Pau where is the shell-cradle of -Great Henri. At far Marseilles, one can think, the ruddy evening witnesses -it; over the deep-blue Mediterranean waters, the Castle of If ruddy-tinted -darts forth, from every cannon's mouth, its tongue of fire; and all the -people shout: Yes, France is free. O glorious France that has burst out -so; into universal sound and smoke; and attained--the Phrygian Cap of -Liberty! In all Towns, Trees of Liberty also may be planted; with or -without advantage. Said we not, it is the highest stretch attained by the -Thespian Art on this Planet, or perhaps attainable? - -The Thespian Art, unfortunately, one must still call it; for behold there, -on this Field of Mars, the National Banners, before there could be any -swearing, were to be all blessed. A most proper operation; since surely -without Heaven's blessing bestowed, say even, audibly or inaudibly sought, -no Earthly banner or contrivance can prove victorious: but now the means -of doing it? By what thrice-divine Franklin thunder-rod shall miraculous -fire be drawn out of Heaven; and descend gently, life-giving, with health -to the souls of men? Alas, by the simplest: by Two Hundred shaven-crowned -Individuals, 'in snow-white albs, with tricolor girdles,' arranged on the -steps of Fatherland's Altar; and, at their head for spokesman, Soul's -Overseer Talleyrand-Perigord! These shall act as miraculous thunder-rod,-- -to such length as they can. O ye deep azure Heavens, and thou green all- -nursing Earth; ye Streams ever-flowing; deciduous Forests that die and are -born again, continually, like the sons of men; stone Mountains that die -daily with every rain-shower, yet are not dead and levelled for ages of -ages, nor born again (it seems) but with new world-explosions, and such -tumultuous seething and tumbling, steam half way to the Moon; O thou -unfathomable mystic All, garment and dwellingplace of the UNNAMED; O -spirit, lastly, of Man, who mouldest and modellest that Unfathomable -Unnameable even as we see,--is not there a miracle: That some French -mortal should, we say not have believed, but pretended to imagine that he -believed that Talleyrand and Two Hundred pieces of white Calico could do -it! - -Here, however, we are to remark with the sorrowing Historians of that day, -that suddenly, while Episcopus Talleyrand, long-stoled, with mitre and -tricolor belt, was yet but hitching up the Altar-steps, to do his miracle, -the material Heaven grew black; a north-wind, moaning cold moisture, began -to sing; and there descended a very deluge of rain. Sad to see! The -thirty-staired Seats, all round our Amphitheatre, get instantaneously -slated with mere umbrellas, fallacious when so thick set: our antique -Cassolettes become Water-pots; their incense-smoke gone hissing, in a whiff -of muddy vapour. Alas, instead of vivats, there is nothing now but the -furious peppering and rattling. From three to four hundred thousand human -individuals feel that they have a skin; happily impervious. The General's -sash runs water: how all military banners droop; and will not wave, but -lazily flap, as if metamorphosed into painted tin-banners! Worse, far -worse, these hundred thousand, such is the Historian's testimony, of the -fairest of France! Their snowy muslins all splashed and draggled; the -ostrich feather shrunk shamefully to the backbone of a feather: all caps -are ruined; innermost pasteboard molten into its original pap: Beauty no -longer swims decorated in her garniture, like Love-goddess hidden-revealed -in her Paphian clouds, but struggles in disastrous imprisonment in it, for -'the shape was noticeable;' and now only sympathetic interjections, -titterings, teeheeings, and resolute good-humour will avail. A deluge; an -incessant sheet or fluid-column of rain;--such that our Overseer's very -mitre must be filled; not a mitre, but a filled and leaky fire-bucket on -his reverend head!--Regardless of which, Overseer Talleyrand performs his -miracle: the Blessing of Talleyrand, another than that of Jacob, is on all -the Eighty-three departmental flags of France; which wave or flap, with -such thankfulness as needs. Towards three o'clock, the sun beams out -again: the remaining evolutions can be transacted under bright heavens, -though with decorations much damaged. (Deux Amis, v. 143-179.) - -On Wednesday our Federation is consummated: but the festivities last out -the week, and over into the next. Festivities such as no Bagdad Caliph, or -Aladdin with the Lamp, could have equalled. There is a Jousting on the -River; with its water-somersets, splashing and haha-ing: Abbe Fauchet, Te- -Deum Fauchet, preaches, for his part, in 'the rotunda of the Corn-market,' -a Harangue on Franklin; for whom the National Assembly has lately gone -three days in black. The Motier and Lepelletier tables still groan with -viands; roofs ringing with patriotic toasts. On the fifth evening, which -is the Christian Sabbath, there is a universal Ball. Paris, out of doors -and in, man, woman and child, is jigging it, to the sound of harp and four- -stringed fiddle. The hoariest-headed man will tread one other measure, -under this nether Moon; speechless nurselings, infants as we call them, -(Greek), crow in arms; and sprawl out numb-plump little limbs,--impatient -for muscularity, they know not why. The stiffest balk bends more or less; -all joists creak. - -Or out, on the Earth's breast itself, behold the Ruins of the Bastille. -All lamplit, allegorically decorated: a Tree of Liberty sixty feet high; -and Phrygian Cap on it, of size enormous, under which King Arthur and his -round-table might have dined! In the depths of the background, is a single -lugubrious lamp, rendering dim-visible one of your iron cages, half-buried, -and some Prison stones,--Tyranny vanishing downwards, all gone but the -skirt: the rest wholly lamp-festoons, trees real or of pasteboard; in the -similitude of a fairy grove; with this inscription, readable to runner: -'Ici l'on danse, Dancing Here.' As indeed had been obscurely foreshadowed -by Cagliostro (See his Lettre au Peuple Francais (London, 1786.) prophetic -Quack of Quacks, when he, four years ago, quitted the grim durance;--to -fall into a grimmer, of the Roman Inquisition, and not quit it. - -But, after all, what is this Bastille business to that of the Champs -Elysees! Thither, to these Fields well named Elysian, all feet tend. It -is radiant as day with festooned lamps; little oil-cups, like variegated -fire-flies, daintily illumine the highest leaves: trees there are all -sheeted with variegated fire, shedding far a glimmer into the dubious wood. -There, under the free sky, do tight-limbed Federates, with fairest newfound -sweethearts, elastic as Diana, and not of that coyness and tart humour of -Diana, thread their jocund mazes, all through the ambrosial night; and -hearts were touched and fired; and seldom surely had our old Planet, in -that huge conic Shadow of hers 'which goes beyond the Moon, and is named -Night,' curtained such a Ball-room. O if, according to Seneca, the very -gods look down on a good man struggling with adversity, and smile; what -must they think of Five-and-twenty million indifferent ones victorious over -it,--for eight days and more? - -In this way, and in such ways, however, has the Feast of Pikes danced -itself off; gallant Federates wending homewards, towards every point of the -compass, with feverish nerves, heart and head much heated; some of them, -indeed, as Dampmartin's elderly respectable friend, from Strasbourg, quite -'burnt out with liquors,' and flickering towards extinction. (Dampmartin, -Evenemens, i. 144-184.) The Feast of Pikes has danced itself off, and -become defunct, and the ghost of a Feast;--nothing of it now remaining but -this vision in men's memory; and the place that knew it (for the slope of -that Champ-de-Mars is crumbled to half the original height (Dulaure, -Histoire de Paris, viii. 25).) now knowing it no more. Undoubtedly one of -the memorablest National Hightides. Never or hardly ever, as we said, was -Oath sworn with such heart-effusion, emphasis and expenditure of joyance; -and then it was broken irremediably within year and day. Ah, why? When -the swearing of it was so heavenly-joyful, bosom clasped to bosom, and -Five-and-twenty million hearts all burning together: O ye inexorable -Destinies, why?--Partly because it was sworn with such over-joyance; but -chiefly, indeed, for an older reason: that Sin had come into the world and -Misery by Sin! These Five-and-twenty millions, if we will consider it, -have now henceforth, with that Phrygian Cap of theirs, no force over them, -to bind and guide; neither in them, more than heretofore, is guiding force, -or rule of just living: how then, while they all go rushing at such a -pace, on unknown ways, with no bridle, towards no aim, can hurlyburly -unutterable fail? For verily not Federation-rosepink is the colour of this -Earth and her work: not by outbursts of noble-sentiment, but with far -other ammunition, shall a man front the world. - -But how wise, in all cases, to 'husband your fire;' to keep it deep down, -rather, as genial radical-heat! Explosions, the forciblest, and never so -well directed, are questionable; far oftenest futile, always frightfully -wasteful: but think of a man, of a Nation of men, spending its whole stock -of fire in one artificial Firework! So have we seen fond weddings (for -individuals, like Nations, have their Hightides) celebrated with an -outburst of triumph and deray, at which the elderly shook their heads. -Better had a serious cheerfulness been; for the enterprise was great. Fond -pair! the more triumphant ye feel, and victorious over terrestrial evil, -which seems all abolished, the wider-eyed will your disappointment be to -find terrestrial evil still extant. "And why extant?" will each of you -cry: "Because my false mate has played the traitor: evil was abolished; I -meant faithfully, and did, or would have done." Whereby the oversweet moon -of honey changes itself into long years of vinegar; perhaps divulsive -vinegar, like Hannibal's. - -Shall we say then, the French Nation has led Royalty, or wooed and teased -poor Royalty to lead her, to the hymeneal Fatherland's Altar, in such -oversweet manner; and has, most thoughtlessly, to celebrate the nuptials -with due shine and demonstration,--burnt her bed? - - - - -BOOK 2.II. - -NANCI - -Chapter 2.2.I. - -Bouille. - -Dimly visible, at Metz on the North-Eastern frontier, a certain brave -Bouille, last refuge of Royalty in all straits and meditations of flight, -has for many months hovered occasionally in our eye; some name or shadow of -a brave Bouille: let us now, for a little, look fixedly at him, till he -become a substance and person for us. The man himself is worth a glance; -his position and procedure there, in these days, will throw light on many -things. - -For it is with Bouille as with all French Commanding Officers; only in a -more emphatic degree. The grand National Federation, we already guess, was -but empty sound, or worse: a last loudest universal Hep-hep-hurrah, with -full bumpers, in that National Lapithae-feast of Constitution-making; as in -loud denial of the palpably existing; as if, with hurrahings, you would -shut out notice of the inevitable already knocking at the gates! Which new -National bumper, one may say, can but deepen the drunkenness; and so, the -louder it swears Brotherhood, will the sooner and the more surely lead to -Cannibalism. Ah, under that fraternal shine and clangour, what a deep -world of irreconcileable discords lie momentarily assuaged, damped down for -one moment! Respectable military Federates have barely got home to their -quarters; and the inflammablest, 'dying, burnt up with liquors, and -kindness,' has not yet got extinct; the shine is hardly out of men's eyes, -and still blazes filling all men's memories,--when your discords burst -forth again very considerably darker than ever. Let us look at Bouille, -and see how. - -Bouille for the present commands in the Garrison of Metz, and far and wide -over the East and North; being indeed, by a late act of Government with -sanction of National Assembly, appointed one of our Four supreme Generals. -Rochambeau and Mailly, men and Marshals of note in these days, though to us -of small moment, are two of his colleagues; tough old babbling Luckner, -also of small moment for us, will probably be the third. Marquis de -Bouille is a determined Loyalist; not indeed disinclined to moderate -reform, but resolute against immoderate. A man long suspect to Patriotism; -who has more than once given the august Assembly trouble; who would not, -for example, take the National Oath, as he was bound to do, but always put -it off on this or the other pretext, till an autograph of Majesty requested -him to do it as a favour. There, in this post if not of honour, yet of -eminence and danger, he waits, in a silent concentered manner; very dubious -of the future. 'Alone,' as he says, or almost alone, of all the old -military Notabilities, he has not emigrated; but thinks always, in -atrabiliar moments, that there will be nothing for him too but to cross the -marches. He might cross, say, to Treves or Coblentz where Exiled Princes -will be one day ranking; or say, over into Luxemburg where old Broglie -loiters and languishes. Or is there not the great dim Deep of European -Diplomacy; where your Calonnes, your Breteuils are beginning to hover, -dimly discernible? - -With immeasurable confused outlooks and purposes, with no clear purpose but -this of still trying to do His Majesty a service, Bouille waits; struggling -what he can to keep his district loyal, his troops faithful, his garrisons -furnished. He maintains, as yet, with his Cousin Lafayette, some thin -diplomatic correspondence, by letter and messenger; chivalrous -constitutional professions on the one side, military gravity and brevity on -the other; which thin correspondence one can see growing ever the thinner -and hollower, towards the verge of entire vacuity. (Bouille, Memoires -(London, 1797), i. c. 8.) A quick, choleric, sharply discerning, -stubbornly endeavouring man; with suppressed-explosive resolution, with -valour, nay headlong audacity: a man who was more in his place, lionlike -defending those Windward Isles, or, as with military tiger-spring, -clutching Nevis and Montserrat from the English,--than here in this -suppressed condition, muzzled and fettered by diplomatic packthreads; -looking out for a civil war, which may never arrive. Few years ago Bouille -was to have led a French East-Indian Expedition, and reconquered or -conquered Pondicherri and the Kingdoms of the Sun: but the whole world is -suddenly changed, and he with it; Destiny willed it not in that way but in -this. - - - -Chapter 2.2.II. - -Arrears and Aristocrats. - -Indeed, as to the general outlook of things, Bouille himself augurs not -well of it. The French Army, ever since those old Bastille days, and -earlier, has been universally in the questionablest state, and growing -daily worse. Discipline, which is at all times a kind of miracle, and -works by faith, broke down then; one sees not with that near prospect of -recovering itself. The Gardes Francaises played a deadly game; but how -they won it, and wear the prizes of it, all men know. In that general -overturn, we saw the Hired Fighters refuse to fight. The very Swiss of -Chateau-Vieux, which indeed is a kind of French Swiss, from Geneva and the -Pays de Vaud, are understood to have declined. Deserters glided over; -Royal-Allemand itself looked disconsolate, though stanch of purpose. In a -word, we there saw Military Rule, in the shape of poor Besenval with that -convulsive unmanageable Camp of his, pass two martyr days on the Champ-de- -Mars; and then, veiling itself, so to speak, 'under the cloud of night,' -depart 'down the left bank of the Seine,' to seek refuge elsewhere; this -ground having clearly become too hot for it. - -But what new ground to seek, what remedy to try? Quarters that were -'uninfected:' this doubtless, with judicious strictness of drilling, were -the plan. Alas, in all quarters and places, from Paris onward to the -remotest hamlet, is infection, is seditious contagion: inhaled, propagated -by contact and converse, till the dullest soldier catch it! There is -speech of men in uniform with men not in uniform; men in uniform read -journals, and even write in them. (See Newspapers of July, 1789 (in Hist. -Parl. ii. 35), &c.) There are public petitions or remonstrances, private -emissaries and associations; there is discontent, jealousy, uncertainty, -sullen suspicious humour. The whole French Army, fermenting in dark heat, -glooms ominous, boding good to no one. - -So that, in the general social dissolution and revolt, we are to have this -deepest and dismallest kind of it, a revolting soldiery? Barren, desolate -to look upon is this same business of revolt under all its aspects; but how -infinitely more so, when it takes the aspect of military mutiny! The very -implement of rule and restraint, whereby all the rest was managed and held -in order, has become precisely the frightfullest immeasurable implement of -misrule; like the element of Fire, our indispensable all-ministering -servant, when it gets the mastery, and becomes conflagration. Discipline -we called a kind of miracle: in fact, is it not miraculous how one man -moves hundreds of thousands; each unit of whom it may be loves him not, and -singly fears him not, yet has to obey him, to go hither or go thither, to -march and halt, to give death, and even to receive it, as if a Fate had -spoken; and the word-of-command becomes, almost in the literal sense, a -magic-word? - -Which magic-word, again, if it be once forgotten; the spell of it once -broken! The legions of assiduous ministering spirits rise on you now as -menacing fiends; your free orderly arena becomes a tumult-place of the -Nether Pit, and the hapless magician is rent limb from limb. Military mobs -are mobs with muskets in their hands; and also with death hanging over -their heads, for death is the penalty of disobedience and they have -disobeyed. And now if all mobs are properly frenzies, and work -frenetically with mad fits of hot and of cold, fierce rage alternating so -incoherently with panic terror, consider what your military mob will be, -with such a conflict of duties and penalties, whirled between remorse and -fury, and, for the hot fit, loaded fire-arms in its hand! To the soldier -himself, revolt is frightful, and oftenest perhaps pitiable; and yet so -dangerous, it can only be hated, cannot be pitied. An anomalous class of -mortals these poor Hired Killers! With a frankness, which to the Moralist -in these times seems surprising, they have sworn to become machines; and -nevertheless they are still partly men. Let no prudent person in authority -remind them of this latter fact; but always let force, let injustice above -all, stop short clearly on this side of the rebounding-point! Soldiers, as -we often say, do revolt: were it not so, several things which are -transient in this world might be perennial. - -Over and above the general quarrel which all sons of Adam maintain with -their lot here below, the grievances of the French soldiery reduce -themselves to two, First that their Officers are Aristocrats; secondly that -they cheat them of their Pay. Two grievances; or rather we might say one, -capable of becoming a hundred; for in that single first proposition, that -the Officers are Aristocrats, what a multitude of corollaries lie ready! -It is a bottomless ever-flowing fountain of grievances this; what you may -call a general raw-material of grievance, wherefrom individual grievance -after grievance will daily body itself forth. Nay there will even be a -kind of comfort in getting it, from time to time, so embodied. Peculation -of one's Pay! It is embodied; made tangible, made denounceable; exhalable, -if only in angry words. - -For unluckily that grand fountain of grievances does exist: Aristocrats -almost all our Officers necessarily are; they have it in the blood and -bone. By the law of the case, no man can pretend to be the pitifullest -lieutenant of militia, till he have first verified, to the satisfaction of -the Lion-King, a Nobility of four generations. Not Nobility only, but four -generations of it: this latter is the improvement hit upon, in -comparatively late years, by a certain War-minister much pressed for -commissions. (Dampmartin, Evenemens, i. 89.) An improvement which did -relieve the over-pressed War-minister, but which split France still further -into yawning contrasts of Commonalty and Nobility, nay of new Nobility and -old; as if already with your new and old, and then with your old, older and -oldest, there were not contrasts and discrepancies enough;--the general -clash whereof men now see and hear, and in the singular whirlpool, all -contrasts gone together to the bottom! Gone to the bottom or going; with -uproar, without return; going every where save in the Military section of -things; and there, it may be asked, can they hope to continue always at the -top? Apparently, not. - -It is true, in a time of external Peace, when there is no fighting but only -drilling, this question, How you rise from the ranks, may seem theoretical -rather. But in reference to the Rights of Man it is continually practical. -The soldier has sworn to be faithful not to the King only, but to the Law -and the Nation. Do our commanders love the Revolution? ask all soldiers. -Unhappily no, they hate it, and love the Counter-Revolution. Young -epauletted men, with quality-blood in them, poisoned with quality-pride, do -sniff openly, with indignation struggling to become contempt, at our Rights -of Man, as at some newfangled cobweb, which shall be brushed down again. -Old officers, more cautious, keep silent, with closed uncurled lips; but -one guesses what is passing within. Nay who knows, how, under the -plausiblest word of command, might lie Counter-Revolution itself, sale to -Exiled Princes and the Austrian Kaiser: treacherous Aristocrats -hoodwinking the small insight of us common men?--In such manner works that -general raw-material of grievance; disastrous; instead of trust and -reverence, breeding hate, endless suspicion, the impossibility of -commanding and obeying. And now when this second more tangible grievance -has articulated itself universally in the mind of the common man: -Peculation of his Pay! Peculation of the despicablest sort does exist, and -has long existed; but, unless the new-declared Rights of Man, and all -rights whatsoever, be a cobweb, it shall no longer exist. - -The French Military System seems dying a sorrowful suicidal death. Nay -more, citizen, as is natural, ranks himself against citizen in this cause. -The soldier finds audience, of numbers and sympathy unlimited, among the -Patriot lower-classes. Nor are the higher wanting to the officer. The -officer still dresses and perfumes himself for such sad unemigrated soiree -as there may still be; and speaks his woes,--which woes, are they not -Majesty's and Nature's? Speaks, at the same time, his gay defiance, his -firm-set resolution. Citizens, still more Citizenesses, see the right and -the wrong; not the Military System alone will die by suicide, but much -along with it. As was said, there is yet possible a deepest overturn than -any yet witnessed: that deepest upturn of the black-burning sulphurous -stratum whereon all rests and grows! - -But how these things may act on the rude soldier-mind, with its military -pedantries, its inexperience of all that lies off the parade-ground; -inexperience as of a child, yet fierceness of a man and vehemence of a -Frenchman! It is long that secret communings in mess-room and guard-room, -sour looks, thousandfold petty vexations between commander and commanded, -measure every where the weary military day. Ask Captain Dampmartin; an -authentic, ingenious literary officer of horse; who loves the Reign of -Liberty, after a sort; yet has had his heart grieved to the quick many -times, in the hot South-Western region and elsewhere; and has seen riot, -civil battle by daylight and by torchlight, and anarchy hatefuller than -death. How insubordinate Troopers, with drink in their heads, meet Captain -Dampmartin and another on the ramparts, where there is no escape or side- -path; and make military salute punctually, for we look calm on them; yet -make it in a snappish, almost insulting manner: how one morning they -'leave all their chamois shirts' and superfluous buffs, which they are -tired of, laid in piles at the Captain's doors; whereat 'we laugh,' as the -ass does, eating thistles: nay how they 'knot two forage-cords together,' -with universal noisy cursing, with evident intent to hang the Quarter- -master:--all this the worthy Captain, looking on it through the ruddy-and- -sable of fond regretful memory, has flowingly written down. (Dampmartin, -Evenemens, i. 122-146.) Men growl in vague discontent; officers fling up -their commissions, and emigrate in disgust. - -Or let us ask another literary Officer; not yet Captain; Sublieutenant -only, in the Artillery Regiment La Fere: a young man of twenty-one; not -unentitled to speak; the name of him is Napoleon Buonaparte. To such -height of Sublieutenancy has he now got promoted, from Brienne School, five -years ago; 'being found qualified in mathematics by La Place.' He is lying -at Auxonne, in the West, in these months; not sumptuously lodged--'in the -house of a Barber, to whose wife he did not pay the customary degree of -respect;' or even over at the Pavilion, in a chamber with bare walls; the -only furniture an indifferent 'bed without curtains, two chairs, and in the -recess of a window a table covered with books and papers: his Brother -Louis sleeps on a coarse mattrass in an adjoining room.' However, he is -doing something great: writing his first Book or Pamphlet,--eloquent -vehement Letter to M. Matteo Buttafuoco, our Corsican Deputy, who is not a -Patriot but an Aristocrat, unworthy of Deputyship. Joly of Dole is -Publisher. The literary Sublieutenant corrects the proofs; 'sets out on -foot from Auxonne, every morning at four o'clock, for Dole: after looking -over the proofs, he partakes of an extremely frugal breakfast with Joly, -and immediately prepares for returning to his Garrison; where he arrives -before noon, having thus walked above twenty miles in the course of the -morning.' - -This Sublieutenant can remark that, in drawing-rooms, on streets, on -highways, at inns, every where men's minds are ready to kindle into a -flame. That a Patriot, if he appear in the drawing-room, or amid a group -of officers, is liable enough to be discouraged, so great is the majority -against him: but no sooner does he get into the street, or among the -soldiers, than he feels again as if the whole Nation were with him. That -after the famous Oath, To the King, to the Nation and Law, there was a -great change; that before this, if ordered to fire on the people, he for -one would have done it in the King's name; but that after this, in the -Nation's name, he would not have done it. Likewise that the Patriot -officers, more numerous too in the Artillery and Engineers than elsewhere, -were few in number; yet that having the soldiers on their side, they ruled -the regiment; and did often deliver the Aristocrat brother officer out of -peril and strait. One day, for example, 'a member of our own mess roused -the mob, by singing, from the windows of our dining-room, O Richard, O my -King; and I had to snatch him from their fury.' (Norvins, Histoire de -Napoleon, i. 47; Las Cases, Memoires (translated into Hazlitt's Life of -Napoleon, i. 23-31.) - -All which let the reader multiply by ten thousand; and spread it with -slight variations over all the camps and garrisons of France. The French -Army seems on the verge of universal mutiny. - -Universal mutiny! There is in that what may well make Patriot -Constitutionalism and an august Assembly shudder. Something behoves to be -done; yet what to do no man can tell. Mirabeau proposes even that the -Soldiery, having come to such a pass, be forthwith disbanded, the whole Two -Hundred and Eighty Thousands of them; and organised anew. (Moniteur, 1790. -No. 233.) Impossible this, in so sudden a manner! cry all men. And yet -literally, answer we, it is inevitable, in one manner or another. Such an -Army, with its four-generation Nobles, its Peculated Pay, and men knotting -forage cords to hang their quartermaster, cannot subsist beside such a -Revolution. Your alternative is a slow-pining chronic dissolution and new -organization; or a swift decisive one; the agonies spread over years, or -concentrated into an hour. With a Mirabeau for Minister or Governor the -latter had been the choice; with no Mirabeau for Governor it will naturally -be the former. - - - -Chapter 2.2.III. - -Bouille at Metz. - -To Bouille, in his North-Eastern circle, none of these things are -altogether hid. Many times flight over the marches gleams out on him as a -last guidance in such bewilderment: nevertheless he continues here: -struggling always to hope the best, not from new organisation but from -happy Counter-Revolution and return to the old. For the rest it is clear -to him that this same National Federation, and universal swearing and -fraternising of People and Soldiers, has done 'incalculable mischief.' So -much that fermented secretly has hereby got vent and become open: National -Guards and Soldiers of the line, solemnly embracing one another on all -parade-fields, drinking, swearing patriotic oaths, fall into disorderly -street-processions, constitutional unmilitary exclamations and hurrahings. -On which account the Regiment Picardie, for one, has to be drawn out in the -square of the barracks, here at Metz, and sharply harangued by the General -himself; but expresses penitence. (Bouille, Memoires, i. 113.) - -Far and near, as accounts testify, insubordination has begun grumbling -louder and louder. Officers have been seen shut up in their mess-rooms; -assaulted with clamorous demands, not without menaces. The insubordinate -ringleader is dismissed with 'yellow furlough,' yellow infamous thing they -call cartouche jaune: but ten new ringleaders rise in his stead, and the -yellow cartouche ceases to be thought disgraceful. 'Within a fortnight,' -or at furthest a month, of that sublime Feast of Pikes, the whole French -Army, demanding Arrears, forming Reading Clubs, frequenting Popular -Societies, is in a state which Bouille can call by no name but that of -mutiny. Bouille knows it as few do; and speaks by dire experience. Take -one instance instead of many. - -It is still an early day of August, the precise date now undiscoverable, -when Bouille, about to set out for the waters of Aix la Chapelle, is once -more suddenly summoned to the barracks of Metz. The soldiers stand ranked -in fighting order, muskets loaded, the officers all there on compulsion; -and require, with many-voiced emphasis, to have their arrears paid. -Picardie was penitent; but we see it has relapsed: the wide space bristles -and lours with mere mutinous armed men. Brave Bouille advances to the -nearest Regiment, opens his commanding lips to harangue; obtains nothing -but querulous-indignant discordance, and the sound of so many thousand -livres legally due. The moment is trying; there are some ten thousand -soldiers now in Metz, and one spirit seems to have spread among them. - -Bouille is firm as the adamant; but what shall he do? A German Regiment, -named of Salm, is thought to be of better temper: nevertheless Salm too -may have heard of the precept, Thou shalt not steal; Salm too may know that -money is money. Bouille walks trustfully towards the Regiment de Salm, -speaks trustful words; but here again is answered by the cry of forty-four -thousand livres odd sous. A cry waxing more and more vociferous, as Salm's -humour mounts; which cry, as it will produce no cash or promise of cash, -ends in the wide simultaneous whirr of shouldered muskets, and a determined -quick-time march on the part of Salm--towards its Colonel's house, in the -next street, there to seize the colours and military chest. Thus does -Salm, for its part; strong in the faith that meum is not tuum, that fair -speeches are not forty-four thousand livres odd sous. - -Unrestrainable! Salm tramps to military time, quick consuming the way. -Bouille and the officers, drawing sword, have to dash into double quick -pas-de-charge, or unmilitary running; to get the start; to station -themselves on the outer staircase, and stand there with what of death- -defiance and sharp steel they have; Salm truculently coiling itself up, -rank after rank, opposite them, in such humour as we can fancy, which -happily has not yet mounted to the murder-pitch. There will Bouille stand, -certain at least of one man's purpose; in grim calmness, awaiting the -issue. What the intrepidest of men and generals can do is done. Bouille, -though there is a barricading picket at each end of the street, and death -under his eyes, contrives to send for a Dragoon Regiment with orders to -charge: the dragoon officers mount; the dragoon men will not: hope is -none there for him. The street, as we say, barricaded; the Earth all shut -out, only the indifferent heavenly Vault overhead: perhaps here or there a -timorous householder peering out of window, with prayer for Bouille; -copious Rascality, on the pavement, with prayer for Salm: there do the two -parties stand;--like chariots locked in a narrow thoroughfare; like locked -wrestlers at a dead-grip! For two hours they stand; Bouille's sword -glittering in his hand, adamantine resolution clouding his brows: for two -hours by the clocks of Metz. Moody-silent stands Salm, with occasional -clangour; but does not fire. Rascality from time to time urges some -grenadier to level his musket at the General; who looks on it as a bronze -General would; and always some corporal or other strikes it up. - -In such remarkable attitude, standing on that staircase for two hours, does -brave Bouille, long a shadow, dawn on us visibly out of the dimness, and -become a person. For the rest, since Salm has not shot him at the first -instant, and since in himself there is no variableness, the danger will -diminish. The Mayor, 'a man infinitely respectable,' with his Municipals -and tricolor sashes, finally gains entrance; remonstrates, perorates, -promises; gets Salm persuaded home to its barracks. Next day, our -respectable Mayor lending the money, the officers pay down the half of the -demand in ready cash. With which liquidation Salm pacifies itself, and for -the present all is hushed up, as much as may be. (Bouille, i. 140-5.) - -Such scenes as this of Metz, or preparations and demonstrations towards -such, are universal over France: Dampmartin, with his knotted forage-cords -and piled chamois jackets, is at Strasburg in the South-East; in these same -days or rather nights, Royal Champagne is 'shouting Vive la Nation, au -diable les Aristocrates, with some thirty lit candles,' at Hesdin, on the -far North-West. "The garrison of Bitche," Deputy Rewbell is sorry to -state, "went out of the town, with drums beating; deposed its officers; and -then returned into the town, sabre in hand." (Moniteur (in Hist. Parl. -vii. 29).) Ought not a National Assembly to occupy itself with these -objects? Military France is everywhere full of sour inflammatory humour, -which exhales itself fuliginously, this way or that: a whole continent of -smoking flax; which, blown on here or there by any angry wind, might so -easily start into a blaze, into a continent of fire! - -Constitutional Patriotism is in deep natural alarm at these things. The -august Assembly sits diligently deliberating; dare nowise resolve, with -Mirabeau, on an instantaneous disbandment and extinction; finds that a -course of palliatives is easier. But at least and lowest, this grievance -of the Arrears shall be rectified. A plan, much noised of in those days, -under the name 'Decree of the Sixth of August,' has been devised for that. -Inspectors shall visit all armies; and, with certain elected corporals and -'soldiers able to write,' verify what arrears and peculations do lie due, -and make them good. Well, if in this way the smoky heat be cooled down; if -it be not, as we say, ventilated over-much, or, by sparks and collision -somewhere, sent up! - - - -Chapter 2.2.IV. - -Arrears at Nanci. - -We are to remark, however, that of all districts, this of Bouille's seems -the inflammablest. It was always to Bouille and Metz that Royalty would -fly: Austria lies near; here more than elsewhere must the disunited People -look over the borders, into a dim sea of Foreign Politics and Diplomacies, -with hope or apprehension, with mutual exasperation. - -It was but in these days that certain Austrian troops, marching peaceably -across an angle of this region, seemed an Invasion realised; and there -rushed towards Stenai, with musket on shoulder, from all the winds, some -thirty thousand National Guards, to inquire what the matter was. -(Moniteur, Seance du 9 Aout 1790.) A matter of mere diplomacy it proved; -the Austrian Kaiser, in haste to get to Belgium, had bargained for this -short cut. The infinite dim movement of European Politics waved a skirt -over these spaces, passing on its way; like the passing shadow of a condor; -and such a winged flight of thirty thousand, with mixed cackling and -crowing, rose in consequence! For, in addition to all, this people, as we -said, is much divided: Aristocrats abound; Patriotism has both Aristocrats -and Austrians to watch. It is Lorraine, this region; not so illuminated as -old France: it remembers ancient Feudalisms; nay, within man's memory, it -had a Court and King of its own, or indeed the splendour of a Court and -King, without the burden. Then, contrariwise, the Mother Society, which -sits in the Jacobins Church at Paris, has Daughters in the Towns here; -shrill-tongued, driven acrid: consider how the memory of good King -Stanislaus, and ages of Imperial Feudalism, may comport with this New acrid -Evangel, and what a virulence of discord there may be! In all which, the -Soldiery, officers on one side, private men on the other, takes part, and -now indeed principal part; a Soldiery, moreover, all the hotter here as it -lies the denser, the frontier Province requiring more of it. - -So stands Lorraine: but the capital City, more especially so. The -pleasant City of Nanci, which faded Feudalism loves, where King Stanislaus -personally dwelt and shone, has an Aristocrat Municipality, and then also a -Daughter Society: it has some forty thousand divided souls of population; -and three large Regiments, one of which is Swiss Chateau-Vieux, dear to -Patriotism ever since it refused fighting, or was thought to refuse, in the -Bastille days. Here unhappily all evil influences seem to meet -concentered; here, of all places, may jealousy and heat evolve itself. -These many months, accordingly, man has been set against man, Washed -against Unwashed; Patriot Soldier against Aristocrat Captain, ever the more -bitterly; and a long score of grudges has been running up. - -Nameable grudges, and likewise unnameable: for there is a punctual nature -in Wrath; and daily, were there but glances of the eye, tones of the voice, -and minutest commissions or omissions, it will jot down somewhat, to -account, under the head of sundries, which always swells the sum-total. -For example, in April last, in those times of preliminary Federation, when -National Guards and Soldiers were every where swearing brotherhood, and all -France was locally federating, preparing for the grand National Feast of -Pikes, it was observed that these Nanci Officers threw cold water on the -whole brotherly business; that they first hung back from appearing at the -Nanci Federation; then did appear, but in mere redingote and undress, with -scarcely a clean shirt on; nay that one of them, as the National Colours -flaunted by in that solemn moment, did, without visible necessity, take -occasion to spit. (Deux Amis, v. 217.) - -Small 'sundries as per journal,' but then incessant ones! The Aristocrat -Municipality, pretending to be Constitutional, keeps mostly quiet; not so -the Daughter Society, the five thousand adult male Patriots of the place, -still less the five thousand female: not so the young, whiskered or -whiskerless, four-generation Noblesse in epaulettes; the grim Patriot Swiss -of Chateau-Vieux, effervescent infantry of Regiment du Roi, hot troopers of -Mestre-de-Camp! Walled Nanci, which stands so bright and trim, with its -straight streets, spacious squares, and Stanislaus' Architecture, on the -fruitful alluvium of the Meurthe; so bright, amid the yellow cornfields in -these Reaper-Months,--is inwardly but a den of discord, anxiety, -inflammability, not far from exploding. Let Bouille look to it. If that -universal military heat, which we liken to a vast continent of smoking -flax, do any where take fire, his beard, here in Lorraine and Nanci, may -the most readily of all get singed by it. - -Bouille, for his part, is busy enough, but only with the general -superintendence; getting his pacified Salm, and all other still tolerable -Regiments, marched out of Metz, to southward towns and villages; to rural -Cantonments as at Vic, Marsal and thereabout, by the still waters; where is -plenty of horse-forage, sequestered parade-ground, and the soldier's -speculative faculty can be stilled by drilling. Salm, as we said, received -only half payment of arrears; naturally not without grumbling. -Nevertheless that scene of the drawn sword may, after all, have raised -Bouille in the mind of Salm; for men and soldiers love intrepidity and -swift inflexible decision, even when they suffer by it. As indeed is not -this fundamentally the quality of qualities for a man? A quality which by -itself is next to nothing, since inferior animals, asses, dogs, even mules -have it; yet, in due combination, it is the indispensable basis of all. - -Of Nanci and its heats, Bouille, commander of the whole, knows nothing -special; understands generally that the troops in that City are perhaps the -worst. (Bouille, i. c. 9.) The Officers there have it all, as they have -long had it, to themselves; and unhappily seem to manage it ill. 'Fifty -yellow furloughs,' given out in one batch, do surely betoken difficulties. -But what was Patriotism to think of certain light-fencing Fusileers 'set -on,' or supposed to be set on, 'to insult the Grenadier-club,' considerate -speculative Grenadiers, and that reading-room of theirs? With shoutings, -with hootings; till the speculative Grenadier drew his side-arms too; and -there ensued battery and duels! Nay more, are not swashbucklers of the -same stamp 'sent out' visibly, or sent out presumably, now in the dress of -Soldiers to pick quarrels with the Citizens; now, disguised as Citizens, to -pick quarrels with the Soldiers? For a certain Roussiere, expert in fence, -was taken in the very fact; four Officers (presumably of tender years) -hounding him on, who thereupon fled precipitately! Fence-master Roussiere, -haled to the guardhouse, had sentence of three months' imprisonment: but -his comrades demanded 'yellow furlough' for him of all persons; nay, -thereafter they produced him on parade; capped him in paper-helmet -inscribed, Iscariot; marched him to the gate of City; and there sternly -commanded him to vanish for evermore. - -On all which suspicions, accusations and noisy procedure, and on enough of -the like continually accumulating, the Officer could not but look with -disdainful indignation; perhaps disdainfully express the same in words, and -'soon after fly over to the Austrians.' - -So that when it here as elsewhere comes to the question of Arrears, the -humour and procedure is of the bitterest: Regiment Mestre-de-Camp getting, -amid loud clamour, some three gold louis a-man,--which have, as usual, to -be borrowed from the Municipality; Swiss Chateau-Vieux applying for the -like, but getting instead instantaneous courrois, or cat-o'-nine-tails, -with subsequent unsufferable hisses from the women and children; Regiment -du Roi, sick of hope deferred, at length seizing its military chest, and -marching it to quarters, but next day marching it back again, through -streets all struck silent:--unordered paradings and clamours, not without -strong liquor; objurgation, insubordination; your military ranked -Arrangement going all (as the Typographers say of set types, in a similar -case) rapidly to pie! (Deux Amis, v. c. 8.) Such is Nanci in these early -days of August; the sublime Feast of Pikes not yet a month old. - -Constitutional Patriotism, at Paris and elsewhere, may well quake at the -news. War-Minister Latour du Pin runs breathless to the National Assembly, -with a written message that 'all is burning, tout brule, tout presse.' The -National Assembly, on spur of the instant, renders such Decret, and 'order -to submit and repent,' as he requires; if it will avail any thing. On the -other hand, Journalism, through all its throats, gives hoarse outcry, -condemnatory, elegiac-applausive. The Forty-eight Sections, lift up -voices; sonorous Brewer, or call him now Colonel Santerre, is not silent, -in the Faubourg Saint-Antoine. For, meanwhile, the Nanci Soldiers have -sent a Deputation of Ten, furnished with documents and proofs; who will -tell another story than the 'all-is-burning' one. Which deputed Ten, -before ever they reach the Assembly Hall, assiduous Latour du Pin picks up, -and on warrant of Mayor Bailly, claps in prison! Most unconstitutionally; -for they had officers' furloughs. Whereupon Saint-Antoine, in indignant -uncertainty of the future, closes its shops. Is Bouille a traitor then, -sold to Austria? In that case, these poor private sentinels have revolted -mainly out of Patriotism? - -New Deputation, Deputation of National Guardsmen now, sets forth from Nanci -to enlighten the Assembly. It meets the old deputed Ten returning, quite -unexpectedly unhanged; and proceeds thereupon with better prospects; but -effects nothing. Deputations, Government Messengers, Orderlies at hand- -gallops, Alarms, thousand-voiced Rumours, go vibrating continually; -backwards and forwards,--scattering distraction. Not till the last week of -August does M. de Malseigne, selected as Inspector, get down to the scene -of mutiny; with Authority, with cash, and 'Decree of the Sixth of August.' -He now shall see these Arrears liquidated, justice done, or at least tumult -quashed. - - - -Chapter 2.2.V. - -Inspector Malseigne. - -Of Inspector Malseigne we discern, by direct light, that he is 'of -Herculean stature;' and infer, with probability, that he is of truculent -moustachioed aspect,--for Royalist Officers now leave the upper lip -unshaven; that he is of indomitable bull-heart; and also, unfortunately, of -thick bull-head. - -On Tuesday the 24th of August, 1790, he opens session as Inspecting -Commissioner; meets those 'elected corporals, and soldiers that can write.' -He finds the accounts of Chateau-Vieux to be complex; to require delay and -reference: he takes to haranguing, to reprimanding; ends amid audible -grumbling. Next morning, he resumes session, not at the Townhall as -prudent Municipals counselled, but once more at the barracks. -Unfortunately Chateau-Vieux, grumbling all night, will now hear of no delay -or reference; from reprimanding on his part, it goes to bullying,--answered -with continual cries of "Jugez tout de suite, Judge it at once;" whereupon -M. de Malseigne will off in a huff. But lo, Chateau Vieux, swarming all -about the barrack-court, has sentries at every gate; M. de Malseigne, -demanding egress, cannot get it, though Commandant Denoue backs him; can -get only "Jugez tout de suite." Here is a nodus! - -Bull-hearted M. de Malseigne draws his sword; and will force egress. -Confused splutter. M. de Malseigne's sword breaks; he snatches Commandant -Denoue's: the sentry is wounded. M. de Malseigne, whom one is loath to -kill, does force egress,--followed by Chateau-Vieux all in disarray; a -spectacle to Nanci. M. de Malseigne walks at a sharp pace, yet never runs; -wheeling from time to time, with menaces and movements of fence; and so -reaches Denoue's house, unhurt; which house Chateau-Vieux, in an agitated -manner, invests,--hindered as yet from entering, by a crowd of officers -formed on the staircase. M. de Malseigne retreats by back ways to the -Townhall, flustered though undaunted; amid an escort of National Guards. -From the Townhall he, on the morrow, emits fresh orders, fresh plans of -settlement with Chateau-Vieux; to none of which will Chateau-Vieux listen: -whereupon finally he, amid noise enough, emits order that Chateau-Vieux -shall march on the morrow morning, and quarter at Sarre Louis. Chateau- -Vieux flatly refuses marching; M. de Malseigne 'takes act,' due notarial -protest, of such refusal,--if happily that may avail him. - -This is end of Thursday; and, indeed, of M. de Malseigne's Inspectorship, -which has lasted some fifty hours. To such length, in fifty hours, has he -unfortunately brought it. Mestre-de-Camp and Regiment du Roi hang, as it -were, fluttering: Chateau-Vieux is clean gone, in what way we see. Over -night, an Aide-de-Camp of Lafayette's, stationed here for such emergency, -sends swift emissaries far and wide, to summon National Guards. The -slumber of the country is broken by clattering hoofs, by loud fraternal -knockings; every where the Constitutional Patriot must clutch his fighting- -gear, and take the road for Nanci. - -And thus the Herculean Inspector has sat all Thursday, among terror-struck -Municipals, a centre of confused noise: all Thursday, Friday, and till -Saturday towards noon. Chateau-Vieux, in spite of the notarial protest, -will not march a step. As many as four thousand National Guards are -dropping or pouring in; uncertain what is expected of them, still more -uncertain what will be obtained of them. For all is uncertainty, -commotion, and suspicion: there goes a word that Bouille, beginning to -bestir himself in the rural Cantonments eastward, is but a Royalist -traitor; that Chateau-Vieux and Patriotism are sold to Austria, of which -latter M. de Malseigne is probably some agent. Mestre-de-Camp and Roi -flutter still more questionably: Chateau-Vieux, far from marching, 'waves -red flags out of two carriages,' in a passionate manner, along the streets; -and next morning answers its Officers: "Pay us, then; and we will march -with you to the world's end!" - -Under which circumstances, towards noon on Saturday, M. de Malseigne thinks -it were good perhaps to inspect the ramparts,--on horseback. He mounts, -accordingly, with escort of three troopers. At the gate of the city, he -bids two of them wait for his return; and with the third, a trooper to be -depended upon, he--gallops off for Luneville; where lies a certain -Carabineer Regiment not yet in a mutinous state! The two left troopers -soon get uneasy; discover how it is, and give the alarm. Mestre-de-Camp, -to the number of a hundred, saddles in frantic haste, as if sold to -Austria; gallops out pellmell in chase of its Inspector. And so they spur, -and the Inspector spurs; careering, with noise and jingle, up the valley of -the River Meurthe, towards Luneville and the midday sun: through an -astonished country; indeed almost their own astonishment. - -What a hunt, Actaeon-like;--which Actaeon de Malseigne happily gains! To -arms, ye Carabineers of Luneville: to chastise mutinous men, insulting -your General Officer, insulting your own quarters;--above all things, fire -soon, lest there be parleying and ye refuse to fire! The Carabineers fire -soon, exploding upon the first stragglers of Mestre-de-Camp; who shrink at -the very flash, and fall back hastily on Nanci, in a state not far from -distraction. Panic and fury: sold to Austria without an if; so much per -regiment, the very sums can be specified; and traitorous Malseigne is fled! -Help, O Heaven; help, thou Earth,--ye unwashed Patriots; ye too are sold -like us! - -Effervescent Regiment du Roi primes its firelocks, Mestre-de-Camp saddles -wholly: Commandant Denoue is seized, is flung in prison with a 'canvass -shirt' (sarreau de toile) about him; Chateau-Vieux bursts up the magazines; -distributes 'three thousand fusils' to a Patriot people: Austria shall -have a hot bargain. Alas, the unhappy hunting-dogs, as we said, have -hunted away their huntsman; and do now run howling and baying, on what -trail they know not; nigh rabid! - -And so there is tumultuous march of men, through the night; with halt on -the heights of Flinval, whence Luneville can be seen all illuminated. Then -there is parley, at four in the morning; and reparley; finally there is -agreement: the Carabineers give in; Malseigne is surrendered, with -apologies on all sides. After weary confused hours, he is even got under -way; the Lunevillers all turning out, in the idle Sunday, to see such -departure: home-going of mutinous Mestre-de-Camp with its Inspector -captive. Mestre-de-Camp accordingly marches; the Lunevillers look. See! -at the corner of the first street, our Inspector bounds off again, bull- -hearted as he is; amid the slash of sabres, the crackle of musketry; and -escapes, full gallop, with only a ball lodged in his buff-jerkin. The -Herculean man! And yet it is an escape to no purpose. For the -Carabineers, to whom after the hardest Sunday's ride on record, he has come -circling back, 'stand deliberating by their nocturnal watch-fires;' -deliberating of Austria, of traitors, and the rage of Mestre-de-Camp. So -that, on the whole, the next sight we have is that of M. de Malseigne, on -the Monday afternoon, faring bull-hearted through the streets of Nanci; in -open carriage, a soldier standing over him with drawn sword; amid the -'furies of the women,' hedges of National Guards, and confusion of Babel: -to the Prison beside Commandant Denoue! That finally is the lodging of -Inspector Malseigne. (Deux Amis, v. 206-251; Newspapers and Documents (in -Hist. Parl. vii. 59-162.) - -Surely it is time Bouille were drawing near. The Country all round, -alarmed with watchfires, illuminated towns, and marching and rout, has been -sleepless these several nights. Nanci, with its uncertain National Guards, -with its distributed fusils, mutinous soldiers, black panic and redhot ire, -is not a City but a Bedlam. - - - - -Chapter 2.2.VI. - -Bouille at Nanci. - -Haste with help, thou brave Bouille: if swift help come not, all is now -verily 'burning;' and may burn,--to what lengths and breadths! Much, in -these hours, depends on Bouille; as it shall now fare with him, the whole -Future may be this way or be that. If, for example, he were to loiter -dubitating, and not come: if he were to come, and fail: the whole -Soldiery of France to blaze into mutiny, National Guards going some this -way, some that; and Royalism to draw its rapier, and Sansculottism to -snatch its pike; and the Spirit if Jacobinism, as yet young, girt with sun- -rays, to grow instantaneously mature, girt with hell-fire,--as mortals, in -one night of deadly crisis, have had their heads turned gray! - -Brave Bouille is advancing fast, with the old inflexibility; gathering -himself, unhappily 'in small affluences,' from East, from West and North; -and now on Tuesday morning, the last day of the month, he stands all -concentred, unhappily still in small force, at the village of Frouarde, -within some few miles. Son of Adam with a more dubious task before him is -not in the world this Tuesday morning. A weltering inflammable sea of -doubt and peril, and Bouille sure of simply one thing, his own -determination. Which one thing, indeed, may be worth many. He puts a most -firm face on the matter: 'Submission, or unsparing battle and destruction; -twenty-four hours to make your choice:' this was the tenor of his -Proclamation; thirty copies of which he sent yesterday to Nanci:--all -which, we find, were intercepted and not posted. (Compare Bouille, -Memoires, i. 153-176; Deux Amis, v. 251-271; Hist. Parl. ubi supra.) - -Nevertheless, at half-past eleven, this morning, seemingly by way of -answer, there does wait on him at Frouarde, some Deputation from the -mutinous Regiments, from the Nanci Municipals, to see what can be done. -Bouille receives this Deputation, 'in a large open court adjoining his -lodging:' pacified Salm, and the rest, attend also, being invited to do -it,--all happily still in the right humour. The Mutineers pronounce -themselves with a decisiveness, which to Bouille seems insolence; and -happily to Salm also. Salm, forgetful of the Metz staircase and sabre, -demands that the scoundrels 'be hanged' there and then. Bouille represses -the hanging; but answers that mutinous Soldiers have one course, and not -more than one: To liberate, with heartfelt contrition, Messieurs Denoue -and de Malseigne; to get ready forthwith for marching off, whither he shall -order; and 'submit and repent,' as the National Assembly has decreed, as he -yesterday did in thirty printed Placards proclaim. These are his terms, -unalterable as the decrees of Destiny. Which terms as they, the Mutineer -deputies, seemingly do not accept, it were good for them to vanish from -this spot, and even promptly; with him too, in few instants, the word will -be, Forward! The Mutineer deputies vanish, not unpromptly; the Municipal -ones, anxious beyond right for their own individualities, prefer abiding -with Bouille. - -Brave Bouille, though he puts a most firm face on the matter, knows his -position full well: how at Nanci, what with rebellious soldiers, with -uncertain National Guards, and so many distributed fusils, there rage and -roar some ten thousand fighting men; while with himself is scarcely the -third part of that number, in National Guards also uncertain, in mere -pacified Regiments,--for the present full of rage, and clamour to march; -but whose rage and clamour may next moment take such a fatal new figure. -On the top of one uncertain billow, therewith to calm billows! Bouille -must 'abandon himself to Fortune;' who is said sometimes to favour the -brave. At half-past twelve, the Mutineer deputies having vanished, our -drums beat; we march: for Nanci! Let Nanci bethink itself, then; for -Bouille has thought and determined. - -And yet how shall Nanci think: not a City but a Bedlam! Grim Chateau- -Vieux is for defence to the death; forces the Municipality to order, by tap -of drum, all citizens acquainted with artillery to turn out, and assist in -managing the cannon. On the other hand, effervescent Regiment du Roi, is -drawn up in its barracks; quite disconsolate, hearing the humour Salm is -in; and ejaculates dolefully from its thousand throats: "La loi, la loi, -Law, law!" Mestre-de-Camp blusters, with profane swearing, in mixed terror -and furor; National Guards look this way and that, not knowing what to do. -What a Bedlam-City: as many plans as heads; all ordering, none obeying: -quiet none,--except the Dead, who sleep underground, having done their -fighting! - -And, behold, Bouille proves as good as his word: 'at half-past two' scouts -report that he is within half a league of the gates; rattling along, with -cannon, and array; breathing nothing but destruction. A new Deputation, -Municipals, Mutineers, Officers, goes out to meet him; with passionate -entreaty for yet one other hour. Bouille grants an hour. Then, at the end -thereof, no Denoue or Malseigne appearing as promised, he rolls his drums, -and again takes the road. Towards four o'clock, the terror-struck Townsmen -may see him face to face. His cannons rattle there, in their carriages; -his vanguard is within thirty paces of the Gate Stanislaus. Onward like a -Planet, by appointed times, by law of Nature! What next? Lo, flag of -truce and chamade; conjuration to halt: Malseigne and Denoue are on the -street, coming hither; the soldiers all repentant, ready to submit and -march! Adamantine Bouille's look alters not; yet the word Halt is given: -gladder moment he never saw. Joy of joys! Malseigne and Denoue do verily -issue; escorted by National Guards; from streets all frantic, with sale to -Austria and so forth: they salute Bouille, unscathed. Bouille steps aside -to speak with them, and with other heads of the Town there; having already -ordered by what Gates and Routes the mutineer Regiments shall file out. - -Such colloquy with these two General Officers and other principal Townsmen, -was natural enough; nevertheless one wishes Bouille had postponed it, and -not stepped aside. Such tumultuous inflammable masses, tumbling along, -making way for each other; this of keen nitrous oxide, that of sulphurous -fire-damp,--were it not well to stand between them, keeping them well -separate, till the space be cleared? Numerous stragglers of Chateau-Vieux -and the rest have not marched with their main columns, which are filing out -by the appointed Gates, taking station in the open meadows. National -Guards are in a state of nearly distracted uncertainty; the populace, armed -and unharmed, roll openly delirious,--betrayed, sold to the Austrians, sold -to the Aristocrats. There are loaded cannon with lit matches among them, -and Bouille's vanguard is halted within thirty paces of the Gate. Command -dwells not in that mad inflammable mass; which smoulders and tumbles there, -in blind smoky rage; which will not open the Gate when summoned; says it -will open the cannon's throat sooner!--Cannonade not, O Friends, or be it -through my body! cries heroic young Desilles, young Captain of Roi, -clasping the murderous engine in his arms, and holding it. Chateau-Vieux -Swiss, by main force, with oaths and menaces, wrench off the heroic youth; -who undaunted, amid still louder oaths seats himself on the touch-hole. -Amid still louder oaths; with ever louder clangour,--and, alas, with the -loud crackle of first one, and then three other muskets; which explode into -his body; which roll it in the dust,--and do also, in the loud madness of -such moment, bring lit cannon-match to ready priming; and so, with one -thunderous belch of grapeshot, blast some fifty of Bouille's vanguard into -air! - -Fatal! That sputter of the first musket-shot has kindled such a cannon- -shot, such a death-blaze; and all is now redhot madness, conflagration as -of Tophet. With demoniac rage, the Bouille vanguard storms through that -Gate Stanislaus; with fiery sweep, sweeps Mutiny clear away, to death, or -into shelters and cellars; from which latter, again, Mutiny continues -firing. The ranked Regiments hear it in their meadow; they rush back again -through the nearest Gates; Bouille gallops in, distracted, inaudible;--and -now has begun, in Nanci, as in that doomed Hall of the Nibelungen, 'a -murder grim and great.' - -Miserable: such scene of dismal aimless madness as the anger of Heaven but -rarely permits among men! From cellar or from garret, from open street in -front, from successive corners of cross-streets on each hand, Chateau-Vieux -and Patriotism keep up the murderous rolling-fire, on murderous not -Unpatriotic fires. Your blue National Captain, riddled with balls, one -hardly knows on whose side fighting, requests to be laid on the colours to -die: the patriotic Woman (name not given, deed surviving) screams to -Chateau-Vieux that it must not fire the other cannon; and even flings a -pail of water on it, since screaming avails not. (Deux Amis, v. 268.) -Thou shalt fight; thou shalt not fight; and with whom shalt thou fight! -Could tumult awaken the old Dead, Burgundian Charles the Bold might stir -from under that Rotunda of his: never since he, raging, sank in the -ditches, and lost Life and Diamond, was such a noise heard here. - -Three thousand, as some count, lie mangled, gory; the half of Chateau-Vieux -has been shot, without need of Court Martial. Cavalry, of Mestre-de-Camp -or their foes, can do little. Regiment du Roi was persuaded to its -barracks; stands there palpitating. Bouille, armed with the terrors of the -Law, and favoured of Fortune, finally triumphs. In two murderous hours he -has penetrated to the grand Squares, dauntless, though with loss of forty -officers and five hundred men: the shattered remnants of Chateau-Vieux are -seeking covert. Regiment du Roi, not effervescent now, alas no, but having -effervesced, will offer to ground its arms; will 'march in a quarter of an -hour.' Nay these poor effervesced require 'escort' to march with, and get -it; though they are thousands strong, and have thirty ball-cartridges a -man! The Sun is not yet down, when Peace, which might have come bloodless, -has come bloody: the mutinous Regiments are on march, doleful, on their -three Routes; and from Nanci rises wail of women and men, the voice of -weeping and desolation; the City weeping for its slain who awaken not. -These streets are empty but for victorious patrols. - -Thus has Fortune, favouring the brave, dragged Bouille, as himself says, -out of such a frightful peril, 'by the hair of the head.' An intrepid -adamantine man this Bouille:--had he stood in old Broglie's place, in those -Bastille days, it might have been all different! He has extinguished -mutiny, and immeasurable civil war. Not for nothing, as we see; yet at a -rate which he and Constitutional Patriotism considers cheap. Nay, as for -Bouille, he, urged by subsequent contradiction which arose, declares -coldly, it was rather against his own private mind, and more by public -military rule of duty, that he did extinguish it, (Bouille, i. 175.)-- -immeasurable civil war being now the only chance. Urged, we say, by -subsequent contradiction! Civil war, indeed, is Chaos; and in all vital -Chaos, there is new Order shaping itself free: but what a faith this, that -of all new Orders out of Chaos and Possibility of Man and his Universe, -Louis Sixteenth and Two-Chamber Monarchy were precisely the one that would -shape itself! It is like undertaking to throw deuce-ace, say only five -hundred successive times, and any other throw to be fatal--for Bouille. -Rather thank Fortune, and Heaven, always, thou intrepid Bouille; and let -contradiction of its way! Civil war, conflagrating universally over France -at this moment, might have led to one thing or to another thing: -meanwhile, to quench conflagration, wheresoever one finds it, wheresoever -one can; this, in all times, is the rule for man and General Officer. - -But at Paris, so agitated and divided, fancy how it went, when the -continually vibrating Orderlies vibrated thither at hand gallop, with such -questionable news! High is the gratulation; and also deep the indignation. -An august Assembly, by overwhelming majorities, passionately thanks -Bouille; a King's autograph, the voices of all Loyal, all Constitutional -men run to the same tenor. A solemn National funeral-service, for the Law- -defenders slain at Nanci; is said and sung in the Champ de Mars; Bailly, -Lafayette and National Guards, all except the few that protested, assist. -With pomp and circumstance, with episcopal Calicoes in tricolor girdles, -Altar of Fatherland smoking with cassolettes, or incense-kettles; the vast -Champ-de-Mars wholly hung round with black mortcloth,--which mortcloth and -expenditure Marat thinks had better have been laid out in bread, in these -dear days, and given to the hungry living Patriot. (Ami du Peuple (in -Hist. Parl., ubi supra.) On the other hand, living Patriotism, and Saint- -Antoine, which we have seen noisily closing its shops and such like, -assembles now 'to the number of forty thousand;' and, with loud cries, -under the very windows of the thanking National Assembly, demands revenge -for murdered Brothers, judgment on Bouille, and instant dismissal of War- -Minister Latour du Pin. - -At sound and sight of which things, if not War-Minister Latour, yet 'Adored -Minister' Necker, sees good on the 3d of September 1790, to withdraw softly -almost privily,--with an eye to the 'recovery of his health.' Home to -native Switzerland; not as he last came; lucky to reach it alive! Fifteen -months ago, we saw him coming, with escort of horse, with sound of clarion -and trumpet: and now at Arcis-sur-Aube, while he departs unescorted -soundless, the Populace and Municipals stop him as a fugitive, are not -unlike massacring him as a traitor; the National Assembly, consulted on the -matter, gives him free egress as a nullity. Such an unstable 'drift-mould -of Accident' is the substance of this lower world, for them that dwell in -houses of clay; so, especially in hot regions and times, do the proudest -palaces we build of it take wings, and become Sahara sand-palaces, spinning -many pillared in the whirlwind, and bury us under their sand!-- - -In spite of the forty thousand, the National Assembly persists in its -thanks; and Royalist Latour du Pin continues Minister. The forty thousand -assemble next day, as loud as ever; roll towards Latour's Hotel; find -cannon on the porch-steps with flambeau lit; and have to retire -elsewhither, and digest their spleen, or re-absorb it into the blood. - -Over in Lorraine, meanwhile, they of the distributed fusils, ringleaders of -Mestre-de-Camp, of Roi, have got marked out for judgment;--yet shall never -get judged. Briefer is the doom of Chateau-Vieux. Chateau-Vieux is, by -Swiss law, given up for instant trial in Court-Martial of its own officers. -Which Court-Martial, with all brevity (in not many hours), has hanged some -Twenty-three, on conspicuous gibbets; marched some Three-score in chains to -the Galleys; and so, to appearance, finished the matter off. Hanged men do -cease for ever from this Earth; but out of chains and the Galleys there may -be resuscitation in triumph. Resuscitation for the chained Hero; and even -for the chained Scoundrel, or Semi-scoundrel! Scottish John Knox, such -World-Hero, as we know, sat once nevertheless pulling grim-taciturn at the -oar of French Galley, 'in the Water of Lore;' and even flung their Virgin- -Mary over, instead of kissing her,--as 'a pented bredd,' or timber Virgin, -who could naturally swim. (Knox's History of the Reformation, b. i.) So, -ye of Chateau-Vieux, tug patiently, not without hope! - -But indeed at Nanci generally, Aristocracy rides triumphant, rough. -Bouille is gone again, the second day; an Aristocrat Municipality, with -free course, is as cruel as it had before been cowardly. The Daughter -Society, as the mother of the whole mischief, lies ignominiously -suppressed; the Prisons can hold no more; bereaved down-beaten Patriotism -murmurs, not loud but deep. Here and in the neighbouring Towns, 'flattened -balls' picked from the streets of Nanci are worn at buttonholes: balls -flattened in carrying death to Patriotism; men wear them there, in -perpetual memento of revenge. Mutineer Deserters roam the woods; have to -demand charity at the musket's end. All is dissolution, mutual rancour, -gloom and despair:--till National-Assembly Commissioners arrive, with a -steady gentle flame of Constitutionalism in their hearts; who gently lift -up the down-trodden, gently pull down the too uplifted; reinstate the -Daughter Society, recall the Mutineer Deserter; gradually levelling, strive -in all wise ways to smooth and soothe. With such gradual mild levelling on -the one side; as with solemn funeral-service, Cassolettes, Courts-Martial, -National thanks,--all that Officiality can do is done. The buttonhole will -drop its flat ball; the black ashes, so far as may be, get green again. - -This is the 'Affair of Nanci;' by some called the 'Massacre of Nanci;'-- -properly speaking, the unsightly wrong-side of that thrice glorious Feast -of Pikes, the right-side of which formed a spectacle for the very gods. -Right-side and wrong lie always so near: the one was in July, in August -the other! Theatres, the theatres over in London, are bright with their -pasteboard simulacrum of that 'Federation of the French People,' brought -out as Drama: this of Nanci, we may say, though not played in any -pasteboard Theatre, did for many months enact itself, and even walk -spectrally--in all French heads. For the news of it fly pealing through -all France; awakening, in town and village, in clubroom, messroom, to the -utmost borders, some mimic reflex or imaginative repetition of the -business; always with the angry questionable assertion: It was right; It -was wrong. Whereby come controversies, duels, embitterment, vain jargon; -the hastening forward, the augmenting and intensifying of whatever new -explosions lie in store for us. - -Meanwhile, at this cost or at that, the mutiny, as we say, is stilled. The -French Army has neither burst up in universal simultaneous delirium; nor -been at once disbanded, put an end to, and made new again. It must die in -the chronic manner, through years, by inches; with partial revolts, as of -Brest Sailors or the like, which dare not spread; with men unhappy, -insubordinate; officers unhappier, in Royalist moustachioes, taking horse, -singly or in bodies, across the Rhine: (See Dampmartin, i. 249, &c. &c.) -sick dissatisfaction, sick disgust on both sides; the Army moribund, fit -for no duty:--till it do, in that unexpected manner, Phoenix-like, with -long throes, get both dead and newborn; then start forth strong, nay -stronger and even strongest. - -Thus much was the brave Bouille hitherto fated to do. Wherewith let him -again fade into dimness; and at Metz or the rural Cantonments, assiduously -drilling, mysteriously diplomatising, in scheme within scheme, hover as -formerly a faint shadow, the hope of Royalty. - - - - -BOOK 2.III. - -THE TUILERIES - - -Chapter 2.3.I. - -Epimenides. - -How true that there is nothing dead in this Universe; that what we call -dead is only changed, its forces working in inverse order! 'The leaf that -lies rotting in moist winds,' says one, 'has still force; else how could it -rot?' Our whole Universe is but an infinite Complex of Forces; -thousandfold, from Gravitation up to Thought and Will; man's Freedom -environed with Necessity of Nature: in all which nothing at any moment -slumbers, but all is for ever awake and busy. The thing that lies isolated -inactive thou shalt nowhere discover; seek every where from the granite -mountain, slow-mouldering since Creation, to the passing cloud-vapour, to -the living man; to the action, to the spoken word of man. The word that is -spoken, as we know, flies-irrevocable: not less, but more, the action that -is done. 'The gods themselves,' sings Pindar, 'cannot annihilate the -action that is done.' No: this, once done, is done always; cast forth -into endless Time; and, long conspicuous or soon hidden, must verily work -and grow for ever there, an indestructible new element in the Infinite of -Things. Or, indeed, what is this Infinite of Things itself, which men name -Universe, but an action, a sum-total of Actions and Activities? The living -ready-made sum-total of these three,--which Calculation cannot add, cannot -bring on its tablets; yet the sum, we say, is written visible: All that -has been done, All that is doing, All that will be done! Understand it -well, the Thing thou beholdest, that Thing is an Action, the product and -expression of exerted Force: the All of Things is an infinite conjugation -of the verb To do. Shoreless Fountain-Ocean of Force, of power to do; -wherein Force rolls and circles, billowing, many-streamed, harmonious; wide -as Immensity, deep as Eternity; beautiful and terrible, not to be -comprehended: this is what man names Existence and Universe; this -thousand-tinted Flame-image, at once veil and revelation, reflex such as -he, in his poor brain and heart, can paint, of One Unnameable dwelling in -inaccessible light! From beyond the Star-galaxies, from before the -Beginning of Days, it billows and rolls,--round thee, nay thyself art of -it, in this point of Space where thou now standest, in this moment which -thy clock measures. - -Or apart from all Transcendentalism, is it not a plain truth of sense, -which the duller mind can even consider as a truism, that human things -wholly are in continual movement, and action and reaction; working -continually forward, phasis after phasis, by unalterable laws, towards -prescribed issues? How often must we say, and yet not rightly lay to -heart: The seed that is sown, it will spring! Given the summer's -blossoming, then there is also given the autumnal withering: so is it -ordered not with seedfields only, but with transactions, arrangements, -philosophies, societies, French Revolutions, whatsoever man works with in -this lower world. The Beginning holds in it the End, and all that leads -thereto; as the acorn does the oak and its fortunes. Solemn enough, did we -think of it,--which unhappily and also happily we do not very much! Thou -there canst begin; the Beginning is for thee, and there: but where, and of -what sort, and for whom will the End be? All grows, and seeks and endures -its destinies: consider likewise how much grows, as the trees do, whether -we think of it or not. So that when your Epimenides, your somnolent Peter -Klaus, since named Rip van Winkle, awakens again, he finds it a changed -world. In that seven-years' sleep of his, so much has changed! All that -is without us will change while we think not of it; much even that is -within us. The truth that was yesterday a restless Problem, has to-day -grown a Belief burning to be uttered: on the morrow, contradiction has -exasperated it into mad Fanaticism; obstruction has dulled it into sick -Inertness; it is sinking towards silence, of satisfaction or of -resignation. To-day is not Yesterday, for man or for thing. Yesterday -there was the oath of Love; today has come the curse of Hate. Not -willingly: ah, no; but it could not help coming. The golden radiance of -youth, would it willingly have tarnished itself into the dimness of old -age?--Fearful: how we stand enveloped, deep-sunk, in that Mystery of TIME; -and are Sons of Time; fashioned and woven out of Time; and on us, and on -all that we have, or see, or do, is written: Rest not, Continue not, -Forward to thy doom! - -But in seasons of Revolution, which indeed distinguish themselves from -common seasons by their velocity mainly, your miraculous Seven-sleeper -might, with miracle enough, wake sooner: not by the century, or seven -years, need he sleep; often not by the seven months. Fancy, for example, -some new Peter Klaus, sated with the jubilee of that Federation day, had -lain down, say directly after the Blessing of Talleyrand; and, reckoning it -all safe now, had fallen composedly asleep under the timber-work of the -Fatherland's Altar; to sleep there, not twenty-one years, but as it were -year and day. The cannonading of Nanci, so far off, does not disturb him; -nor does the black mortcloth, close at hand, nor the requiems chanted, and -minute guns, incense-pans and concourse right over his head: none of -these; but Peter sleeps through them all. Through one circling year, as we -say; from July 14th of 1790, till July the 17th of 1791: but on that -latter day, no Klaus, nor most leaden Epimenides, only the Dead could -continue sleeping; and so our miraculous Peter Klaus awakens. With what -eyes, O Peter! Earth and sky have still their joyous July look, and the -Champ-de-Mars is multitudinous with men: but the jubilee-huzzahing has -become Bedlam-shrieking, of terror and revenge; not blessing of Talleyrand, -or any blessing, but cursing, imprecation and shrill wail; our cannon- -salvoes are turned to sharp shot; for swinging of incense-pans and Eighty- -three Departmental Banners, we have waving of the one sanguinous Drapeau- -Rouge.--Thou foolish Klaus! The one lay in the other, the one was the -other minus Time; even as Hannibal's rock-rending vinegar lay in the sweet -new wine. That sweet Federation was of last year; this sour Divulsion is -the self-same substance, only older by the appointed days. - -No miraculous Klaus or Epimenides sleeps in these times: and yet, may not -many a man, if of due opacity and levity, act the same miracle in a natural -way; we mean, with his eyes open? Eyes has he, but he sees not, except -what is under his nose. With a sparkling briskness of glance, as if he not -only saw but saw through, such a one goes whisking, assiduous, in his -circle of officialities; not dreaming but that it is the whole world: as, -indeed, where your vision terminates, does not inanity begin there, and the -world's end clearly declares itself--to you? Whereby our brisk sparkling -assiduous official person (call him, for instance, Lafayette), suddenly -startled, after year and day, by huge grape-shot tumult, stares not less -astonished at it than Peter Klaus would have done. Such natural-miracle -Lafayette can perform; and indeed not he only but most other officials, -non-officials, and generally the whole French People can perform it; and do -bounce up, ever and anon, like amazed Seven-sleepers awakening; awakening -amazed at the noise they themselves make. So strangely is Freedom, as we -say, environed in Necessity; such a singular Somnambulism, of Conscious and -Unconscious, of Voluntary and Involuntary, is this life of man. If any -where in the world there was astonishment that the Federation Oath went -into grape-shot, surely of all persons the French, first swearers and then -shooters, felt astonished the most. - -Alas, offences must come. The sublime Feast of Pikes, with its effulgence -of brotherly love, unknown since the Age of Gold, has changed nothing. -That prurient heat in Twenty-five millions of hearts is not cooled thereby; -but is still hot, nay hotter. Lift off the pressure of command from so -many millions; all pressure or binding rule, except such melodramatic -Federation Oath as they have bound themselves with! For 'Thou shalt' was -from of old the condition of man's being, and his weal and blessedness was -in obeying that. Wo for him when, were it on hest of the clearest -necessity, rebellion, disloyal isolation, and mere 'I will', becomes his -rule! But the Gospel of Jean-Jacques has come, and the first Sacrament of -it has been celebrated: all things, as we say, are got into hot and hotter -prurience; and must go on pruriently fermenting, in continual change noted -or unnoted. - -'Worn out with disgusts,' Captain after Captain, in Royalist moustachioes, -mounts his warhorse, or his Rozinante war-garron, and rides minatory across -the Rhine; till all have ridden. Neither does civic Emigration cease: -Seigneur after Seigneur must, in like manner, ride or roll; impelled to it, -and even compelled. For the very Peasants despise him in that he dare not -join his order and fight. (Dampmartin, passim.) Can he bear to have a -Distaff, a Quenouille sent to him; say in copper-plate shadow, by post; or -fixed up in wooden reality over his gate-lintel: as if he were no Hercules -but an Omphale? Such scutcheon they forward to him diligently from behind -the Rhine; till he too bestir himself and march, and in sour humour, -another Lord of Land is gone, not taking the Land with him. Nay, what of -Captains and emigrating Seigneurs? There is not an angry word on any of -those Twenty-five million French tongues, and indeed not an angry thought -in their hearts, but is some fraction of the great Battle. Add many -successions of angry words together, you have the manual brawl; add brawls -together, with the festering sorrows they leave, and they rise to riots and -revolts. One reverend thing after another ceases to meet reverence: in -visible material combustion, chateau after chateau mounts up; in spiritual -invisible combustion, one authority after another. With noise and glare, -or noisily and unnoted, a whole Old System of things is vanishing -piecemeal: on the morrow thou shalt look and it is not. - - - -Chapter 2.3.II. - -The Wakeful. - -Sleep who will, cradled in hope and short vision, like Lafayette, 'who -always in the danger done sees the last danger that will threaten him,'-- -Time is not sleeping, nor Time's seedfield. - -That sacred Herald's-College of a new Dynasty; we mean the Sixty and odd -Billstickers with their leaden badges, are not sleeping. Daily they, with -pastepot and cross-staff, new clothe the walls of Paris in colours of the -rainbow: authoritative heraldic, as we say, or indeed almost magical -thaumaturgic; for no Placard-Journal that they paste but will convince some -soul or souls of man. The Hawkers bawl; and the Balladsingers: great -Journalism blows and blusters, through all its throats, forth from Paris -towards all corners of France, like an Aeolus' Cave; keeping alive all -manner of fires. - -Throats or Journals there are, as men count, (Mercier, iii. 163.) to the -number of some hundred and thirty-three. Of various calibre; from your -Cheniers, Gorsases, Camilles, down to your Marat, down now to your -incipient Hebert of the Pere Duchesne; these blow, with fierce weight of -argument or quick light banter, for the Rights of man: Durosoys, Royous, -Peltiers, Sulleaus, equally with mixed tactics, inclusive, singular to say, -of much profane Parody, (See Hist. Parl. vii. 51.) are blowing for Altar -and Throne. As for Marat the People's-Friend, his voice is as that of the -bullfrog, or bittern by the solitary pools; he, unseen of men, croaks harsh -thunder, and that alone continually,--of indignation, suspicion, incurable -sorrow. The People are sinking towards ruin, near starvation itself: 'My -dear friends,' cries he, 'your indigence is not the fruit of vices nor of -idleness, you have a right to life, as good as Louis XVI., or the happiest -of the century. What man can say he has a right to dine, when you have no -bread?' (Ami du Peuple, No. 306. See other Excerpts in Hist. Parl. viii. -139-149, 428-433; ix. 85-93, &c.) The People sinking on the one hand: on -the other hand, nothing but wretched Sieur Motiers, treasonous Riquetti -Mirabeaus; traitors, or else shadows, and simulacra of Quacks, to be seen -in high places, look where you will! Men that go mincing, grimacing, with -plausible speech and brushed raiment; hollow within: Quacks Political; -Quacks scientific, Academical; all with a fellow-feeling for each other, -and kind of Quack public-spirit! Not great Lavoisier himself, or any of -the Forty can escape this rough tongue; which wants not fanatic sincerity, -nor, strangest of all, a certain rough caustic sense. And then the 'three -thousand gaming-houses' that are in Paris; cesspools for the scoundrelism -of the world; sinks of iniquity and debauchery,--whereas without good -morals Liberty is impossible! There, in these Dens of Satan, which one -knows, and perseveringly denounces, do Sieur Motier's mouchards consort and -colleague; battening vampyre-like on a People next-door to starvation. 'O -Peuple!' cries he oftimes, with heart-rending accent. Treason, delusion, -vampyrism, scoundrelism, from Dan to Beersheba! The soul of Marat is sick -with the sight: but what remedy? To erect 'Eight Hundred gibbets,' in -convenient rows, and proceed to hoisting; 'Riquetti on the first of them!' -Such is the brief recipe of Marat, Friend of the People. - -So blow and bluster the Hundred and thirty-three: nor, as would seem, are -these sufficient; for there are benighted nooks in France, to which -Newspapers do not reach; and every where is 'such an appetite for news as -was never seen in any country.' Let an expeditious Dampmartin, on -furlough, set out to return home from Paris, (Dampmartin, i. 184.) he -cannot get along for 'peasants stopping him on the highway; overwhelming -him with questions:' the Maitre de Poste will not send out the horses till -you have well nigh quarrelled with him, but asks always, What news? At -Autun, 'in spite of the rigorous frost' for it is now January, 1791, -nothing will serve but you must gather your wayworn limbs, and thoughts, -and 'speak to the multitudes from a window opening into the market-place.' -It is the shortest method: This, good Christian people, is verily what an -August Assembly seemed to me to be doing; this and no other is the news; - - 'Now my weary lips I close; - Leave me, leave me to repose.' - -The good Dampmartin!--But, on the whole, are not Nations astonishingly true -to their National character; which indeed runs in the blood? Nineteen -hundred years ago, Julius Caesar, with his quick sure eye, took note how -the Gauls waylaid men. 'It is a habit of theirs,' says he, 'to stop -travellers, were it even by constraint, and inquire whatsoever each of them -may have heard or known about any sort of matter: in their towns, the -common people beset the passing trader; demanding to hear from what regions -he came, what things he got acquainted with there. Excited by which -rumours and hearsays they will decide about the weightiest matters; and -necessarily repent next moment that they did it, on such guidance of -uncertain reports, and many a traveller answering with mere fictions to -please them, and get off.' (De Bello Gallico, iv. 5.) Nineteen hundred -years; and good Dampmartin, wayworn, in winter frost, probably with scant -light of stars and fish-oil, still perorates from the Inn-window! This -People is no longer called Gaulish; and it has wholly become braccatus, has -got breeches, and suffered change enough: certain fierce German Franken -came storming over; and, so to speak, vaulted on the back of it; and always -after, in their grim tenacious way, have ridden it bridled; for German is, -by his very name, Guerre-man, or man that wars and gars. And so the -People, as we say, is now called French or Frankish: nevertheless, does -not the old Gaulish and Gaelic Celthood, with its vehemence, effervescent -promptitude, and what good and ill it had, still vindicate itself little -adulterated?-- - -For the rest, that in such prurient confusion, Clubbism thrives and -spreads, need not be said. Already the Mother of Patriotism, sitting in -the Jacobins, shines supreme over all; and has paled the poor lunar light -of that Monarchic Club near to final extinction. She, we say, shines -supreme, girt with sun-light, not yet with infernal lightning; reverenced, -not without fear, by Municipal Authorities; counting her Barnaves, Lameths, -Petions, of a National Assembly; most gladly of all, her Robespierre. -Cordeliers, again, your Hebert, Vincent, Bibliopolist Momoro, groan audibly -that a tyrannous Mayor and Sieur Motier harrow them with the sharp tribula -of Law, intent apparently to suppress them by tribulation. How the Jacobin -Mother-Society, as hinted formerly, sheds forth Cordeliers on this hand, -and then Feuillans on that; the Cordeliers on this hand, and then Feuillans -on that; the Cordeliers 'an elixir or double-distillation of Jacobin -Patriotism;' the other a wide-spread weak dilution thereof; how she will -re-absorb the former into her Mother-bosom, and stormfully dissipate the -latter into Nonentity: how she breeds and brings forth Three Hundred -Daughter-Societies; her rearing of them, her correspondence, her -endeavourings and continual travail: how, under an old figure, Jacobinism -shoots forth organic filaments to the utmost corners of confused dissolved -France; organising it anew:--this properly is the grand fact of the Time. - -To passionate Constitutionalism, still more to Royalism, which see all -their own Clubs fail and die, Clubbism will naturally grow to seem the root -of all evil. Nevertheless Clubbism is not death, but rather new -organisation, and life out of death: destructive, indeed, of the remnants -of the Old; but to the New important, indispensable. That man can co- -operate and hold communion with man, herein lies his miraculous strength. -In hut or hamlet, Patriotism mourns not now like voice in the desert: it -can walk to the nearest Town; and there, in the Daughter-Society, make its -ejaculation into an articulate oration, into an action, guided forward by -the Mother of Patriotism herself. All Clubs of Constitutionalists, and -such like, fail, one after another, as shallow fountains: Jacobinism alone -has gone down to the deep subterranean lake of waters; and may, unless -filled in, flow there, copious, continual, like an Artesian well. Till the -Great Deep have drained itself up: and all be flooded and submerged, and -Noah's Deluge out-deluged! - -On the other hand, Claude Fauchet, preparing mankind for a Golden Age now -apparently just at hand, has opened his Cercle Social, with clerks, -corresponding boards, and so forth; in the precincts of the Palais Royal. -It is Te-Deum Fauchet; the same who preached on Franklin's Death, in that -huge Medicean rotunda of the Halle aux bleds. He here, this winter, by -Printing-press and melodious Colloquy, spreads bruit of himself to the -utmost City-barriers. 'Ten thousand persons' of respectability attend -there; and listen to this 'Procureur-General de la Verite, Attorney-General -of Truth,' so has he dubbed himself; to his sage Condorcet, or other -eloquent coadjutor. Eloquent Attorney-General! He blows out from him, -better or worse, what crude or ripe thing he holds: not without result to -himself; for it leads to a Bishoprick, though only a Constitutional one. -Fauchet approves himself a glib-tongued, strong-lunged, whole-hearted human -individual: much flowing matter there is, and really of the better sort, -about Right, Nature, Benevolence, Progress; which flowing matter, whether -'it is pantheistic,' or is pot-theistic, only the greener mind, in these -days, need read. Busy Brissot was long ago of purpose to establish -precisely some such regenerative Social Circle: nay he had tried it, in -'Newman-street Oxford-street,' of the Fog Babylon; and failed,--as some -say, surreptitiously pocketing the cash. Fauchet, not Brissot, was fated -to be the happy man; whereat, however, generous Brissot will with sincere -heart sing a timber-toned Nunc Domine. (See Brissot, Patriote-Francais -Newspaper; Fauchet, Bouche-de-Fer, &c. (excerpted in Hist. Parl. viii., -ix., et seqq.).) But 'ten thousand persons of respectability:' what a -bulk have many things in proportion to their magnitude! This Cercle -Social, for which Brissot chants in sincere timber-tones such Nunc Domine, -what is it? Unfortunately wind and shadow. The main reality one finds in -it now, is perhaps this: that an 'Attorney-General of Truth' did once take -shape of a body, as Son of Adam, on our Earth, though but for months or -moments; and ten thousand persons of respectability attended, ere yet Chaos -and Nox had reabsorbed him. - -Hundred and thirty-three Paris Journals; regenerative Social Circle; -oratory, in Mother and Daughter Societies, from the balconies of Inns, by -chimney-nook, at dinner-table,--polemical, ending many times in duel! Add -ever, like a constant growling accompaniment of bass Discord: scarcity of -work, scarcity of food. The winter is hard and cold; ragged Bakers'- -queues, like a black tattered flag-of-distress, wave out ever and anon. It -is the third of our Hunger-years this new year of a glorious Revolution. -The rich man when invited to dinner, in such distress-seasons, feels bound -in politeness to carry his own bread in his pocket: how the poor dine? -And your glorious Revolution has done it, cries one. And our glorious -Revolution is subtilety, by black traitors worthy of the Lamp-iron, -perverted to do it, cries another! Who will paint the huge whirlpool -wherein France, all shivered into wild incoherence, whirls? The jarring -that went on under every French roof, in every French heart; the diseased -things that were spoken, done, the sum-total whereof is the French -Revolution, tongue of man cannot tell. Nor the laws of action that work -unseen in the depths of that huge blind Incoherence! With amazement, not -with measurement, men look on the Immeasurable; not knowing its laws; -seeing, with all different degrees of knowledge, what new phases, and -results of event, its laws bring forth. France is as a monstrous Galvanic -Mass, wherein all sorts of far stranger than chemical galvanic or electric -forces and substances are at work; electrifying one another, positive and -negative; filling with electricity your Leyden-jars,--Twenty-five millions -in number! As the jars get full, there will, from time to time, be, on -slight hint, an explosion. - - - -Chapter 2.3.III. - -Sword in Hand. - -On such wonderful basis, however, has Law, Royalty, Authority, and whatever -yet exists of visible Order, to maintain itself, while it can. Here, as in -that Commixture of the Four Elements did the Anarch Old, has an august -Assembly spread its pavilion; curtained by the dark infinite of discords; -founded on the wavering bottomless of the Abyss; and keeps continual -hubbub. Time is around it, and Eternity, and the Inane; and it does what -it can, what is given it to do. - -Glancing reluctantly in, once more, we discern little that is edifying: a -Constitutional Theory of Defective Verbs struggling forward, with -perseverance, amid endless interruptions: Mirabeau, from his tribune, with -the weight of his name and genius, awing down much Jacobin violence; which -in return vents itself the louder over in its Jacobins Hall, and even reads -him sharp lectures there. (Camille's Journal (in Hist. Parl. ix. 366-85).) -This man's path is mysterious, questionable; difficult, and he walks -without companion in it. Pure Patriotism does not now count him among her -chosen; pure Royalism abhors him: yet his weight with the world is -overwhelming. Let him travel on, companionless, unwavering, whither he is -bound,--while it is yet day with him, and the night has not come. - -But the chosen band of pure Patriot brothers is small; counting only some -Thirty, seated now on the extreme tip of the Left, separate from the world. -A virtuous Petion; an incorruptible Robespierre, most consistent, -incorruptible of thin acrid men; Triumvirs Barnave, Duport, Lameth, great -in speech, thought, action, each according to his kind; a lean old Goupil -de Prefeln: on these and what will follow them has pure Patriotism to -depend. - -There too, conspicuous among the Thirty, if seldom audible, Philippe -d'Orleans may be seen sitting: in dim fuliginous bewilderment; having, one -might say, arrived at Chaos! Gleams there are, at once of a Lieutenancy -and Regency; debates in the Assembly itself, of succession to the Throne -'in case the present Branch should fail;' and Philippe, they say, walked -anxiously, in silence, through the corridors, till such high argument were -done: but it came all to nothing; Mirabeau, glaring into the man, and -through him, had to ejaculate in strong untranslatable language: Ce j--f-- -ne vaut pas la peine qu'on se donne pour lui. It came all to nothing; and -in the meanwhile Philippe's money, they say, is gone! Could he refuse a -little cash to the gifted Patriot, in want only of that; he himself in want -of all but that? Not a pamphlet can be printed without cash; or indeed -written, without food purchasable by cash. Without cash your hopefullest -Projector cannot stir from the spot: individual patriotic or other -Projects require cash: how much more do wide-spread Intrigues, which live -and exist by cash; lying widespread, with dragon-appetite for cash; fit to -swallow Princedoms! And so Prince Philippe, amid his Sillerys, Lacloses, -and confused Sons of Night, has rolled along: the centre of the strangest -cloudy coil; out of which has visibly come, as we often say, an Epic -Preternatural Machinery of SUSPICION; and within which there has dwelt and -worked,--what specialties of treason, stratagem, aimed or aimless endeavour -towards mischief, no party living (if it be not the Presiding Genius of it, -Prince of the Power of the Air) has now any chance to know. Camille's -conjecture is the likeliest: that poor Philippe did mount up, a little -way, in treasonable speculation, as he mounted formerly in one of the -earliest Balloons; but, frightened at the new position he was getting into, -had soon turned the cock again, and come down. More fool than he rose! To -create Preternatural Suspicion, this was his function in the Revolutionary -Epos. But now if he have lost his cornucopia of ready-money, what else had -he to lose? In thick darkness, inward and outward, he must welter and -flounder on, in that piteous death-element, the hapless man. Once, or even -twice, we shall still behold him emerged; struggling out of the thick -death-element: in vain. For one moment, it is the last moment, he starts -aloft, or is flung aloft, even into clearness and a kind of memorability,-- -to sink then for evermore! - -The Cote Droit persists no less; nay with more animation than ever, though -hope has now well nigh fled. Tough Abbe Maury, when the obscure country -Royalist grasps his hand with transport of thanks, answers, rolling his -indomitable brazen head: "Helas, Monsieur, all that I do here is as good -as simply nothing." Gallant Faussigny, visible this one time in History, -advances frantic, into the middle of the Hall, exclaiming: "There is but -one way of dealing with it, and that is to fall sword in hand on those -gentry there, sabre a la main sur ces gaillards la," (Moniteur, Seance du -21 Aout, 1790.) franticly indicating our chosen Thirty on the extreme tip -of the Left! Whereupon is clangour and clamour, debate, repentance,-- -evaporation. Things ripen towards downright incompatibility, and what is -called 'scission:' that fierce theoretic onslaught of Faussigny's was in -August, 1790; next August will not have come, till a famed Two Hundred and -Ninety-two, the chosen of Royalism, make solemn final 'scission' from an -Assembly given up to faction; and depart, shaking the dust off their feet. - -Connected with this matter of sword in hand, there is yet another thing to -be noted. Of duels we have sometimes spoken: how, in all parts of France, -innumerable duels were fought; and argumentative men and messmates, -flinging down the wine-cup and weapons of reason and repartee, met in the -measured field; to part bleeding; or perhaps not to part, but to fall -mutually skewered through with iron, their wrath and life alike ending,-- -and die as fools die. Long has this lasted, and still lasts. But now it -would seem as if in an august Assembly itself, traitorous Royalism, in its -despair, had taken to a new course: that of cutting off Patriotism by -systematic duel! Bully-swordsmen, 'Spadassins' of that party, go -swaggering; or indeed they can be had for a trifle of money. 'Twelve -Spadassins' were seen, by the yellow eye of Journalism, 'arriving recently -out of Switzerland;' also 'a considerable number of Assassins, nombre -considerable d'assassins, exercising in fencing-schools and at pistol- -targets.' Any Patriot Deputy of mark can be called out; let him escape one -time, or ten times, a time there necessarily is when he must fall, and -France mourn. How many cartels has Mirabeau had; especially while he was -the People's champion! Cartels by the hundred: which he, since the -Constitution must be made first, and his time is precious, answers now -always with a kind of stereotype formula: "Monsieur, you are put upon my -List; but I warn you that it is long, and I grant no preferences." - -Then, in Autumn, had we not the Duel of Cazales and Barnave; the two chief -masters of tongue-shot meeting now to exchange pistol-shot? For Cazales, -chief of the Royalists, whom we call 'Blacks or Noirs,' said, in a moment -of passion, "the Patriots were sheer Brigands," nay in so speaking, he -darted or seemed to dart, a fire-glance specially at Barnave; who thereupon -could not but reply by fire-glances,--by adjournment to the Bois-de- -Boulogne. Barnave's second shot took effect: on Cazales's hat. The -'front nook' of a triangular Felt, such as mortals then wore, deadened the -ball; and saved that fine brow from more than temporary injury. But how -easily might the lot have fallen the other way, and Barnave's hat not been -so good! Patriotism raises its loud denunciation of Duelling in general; -petitions an august Assembly to stop such Feudal barbarism by law. -Barbarism and solecism: for will it convince or convict any man to blow -half an ounce of lead through the head of him? Surely not.--Barnave was -received at the Jacobins with embraces, yet with rebukes. - -Mindful of which, and also that his repetition in America was that of -headlong foolhardiness rather, and want of brain not of heart, Charles -Lameth does, on the eleventh day of November, with little emotion, decline -attending some hot young Gentleman from Artois, come expressly to challenge -him: nay indeed he first coldly engages to attend; then coldly permits two -Friends to attend instead of him, and shame the young Gentleman out of it, -which they successfully do. A cold procedure; satisfactory to the two -Friends, to Lameth and the hot young Gentleman; whereby, one might have -fancied, the whole matter was cooled down. - -Not so, however: Lameth, proceeding to his senatorial duties, in the -decline of the day, is met in those Assembly corridors by nothing but -Royalist brocards; sniffs, huffs, and open insults. Human patience has its -limits: "Monsieur," said Lameth, breaking silence to one Lautrec, a man -with hunchback, or natural deformity, but sharp of tongue, and a Black of -the deepest tint, "Monsieur, if you were a man to be fought with!"--"I am -one," cries the young Duke de Castries. Fast as fire-flash Lameth replies, -"Tout a l'heure, On the instant, then!" And so, as the shades of dusk -thicken in that Bois-de-Boulogne, we behold two men with lion-look, with -alert attitude, side foremost, right foot advanced; flourishing and -thrusting, stoccado and passado, in tierce and quart; intent to skewer one -another. See, with most skewering purpose, headlong Lameth, with his whole -weight, makes a furious lunge; but deft Castries whisks aside: Lameth -skewers only the air,--and slits deep and far, on Castries' sword's-point, -his own extended left arm! Whereupon with bleeding, pallor, surgeon's- -lint, and formalities, the Duel is considered satisfactorily done. - -But will there be no end, then? Beloved Lameth lies deep-slit, not out of -danger. Black traitorous Aristocrats kill the People's defenders, cut up -not with arguments, but with rapier-slits. And the Twelve Spadassins out -of Switzerland, and the considerable number of Assassins exercising at the -pistol-target? So meditates and ejaculates hurt Patriotism, with ever- -deepening ever-widening fervour, for the space of six and thirty hours. - -The thirty-six hours past, on Saturday the 13th, one beholds a new -spectacle: The Rue de Varennes, and neighbouring Boulevard des Invalides, -covered with a mixed flowing multitude: the Castries Hotel gone -distracted, devil-ridden, belching from every window, 'beds with clothes -and curtains,' plate of silver and gold with filigree, mirrors, pictures, -images, commodes, chiffoniers, and endless crockery and jingle: amid -steady popular cheers, absolutely without theft; for there goes a cry, "He -shall be hanged that steals a nail!" It is a Plebiscitum, or informal -iconoclastic Decree of the Common People, in the course of being executed!- --The Municipality sit tremulous; deliberating whether they will hang out -the Drapeau Rouge and Martial Law: National Assembly, part in loud wail, -part in hardly suppressed applause: Abbe Maury unable to decide whether -the iconoclastic Plebs amount to forty thousand or to two hundred thousand. - -Deputations, swift messengers, for it is at a distance over the River, come -and go. Lafayette and National Guardes, though without Drapeau Rouge, get -under way; apparently in no hot haste. Nay, arrived on the scene, -Lafayette salutes with doffed hat, before ordering to fix bayonets. What -avails it? The Plebeian "Court of Cassation,' as Camille might punningly -name it, has done its work; steps forth, with unbuttoned vest, with pockets -turned inside out: sack, and just ravage, not plunder! With inexhaustible -patience, the Hero of two Worlds remonstrates; persuasively, with a kind of -sweet constraint, though also with fixed bayonets, dissipates, hushes down: -on the morrow it is once more all as usual. - -Considering which things, however, Duke Castries may justly 'write to the -President,' justly transport himself across the Marches; to raise a corps, -or do what else is in him. Royalism totally abandons that Bobadilian -method of contest, and the Twelve Spadassins return to Switzerland,--or -even to Dreamland through the Horn-gate, whichsoever their home is. Nay -Editor Prudhomme is authorised to publish a curious thing: 'We are -authorised to publish,' says he, dull-blustering Publisher, that M. Boyer, -champion of good Patriots, is at the head of Fifty Spadassinicides or -Bully-killers. His address is: Passage du Bois-de-Boulonge, Faubourg St. -Denis.' (Revolutions de Paris (in Hist. Parl. viii. 440).) One of the -strangest Institutes, this of Champion Boyer and the Bully-killers! Whose -services, however, are not wanted; Royalism having abandoned the rapier- -method as plainly impracticable. - - - -Chapter 2.3.IV. - -To fly or not to fly. - -The truth is Royalism sees itself verging towards sad extremities; nearer -and nearer daily. From over the Rhine it comes asserted that the King in -his Tuileries is not free: this the poor King may contradict, with the -official mouth, but in his heart feels often to be undeniable. Civil -Constitution of the Clergy; Decree of ejectment against Dissidents from it: -not even to this latter, though almost his conscience rebels, can he say -'Nay; but, after two months' hesitating, signs this also. It was on -January 21st,' of this 1790, that he signed it; to the sorrow of his poor -heart yet, on another Twenty-first of January! Whereby come Dissident -ejected Priests; unconquerable Martyrs according to some, incurable -chicaning Traitors according to others. And so there has arrived what we -once foreshadowed: with Religion, or with the Cant and Echo of Religion, -all France is rent asunder in a new rupture of continuity; complicating, -embittering all the older;--to be cured only, by stern surgery, in La -Vendee! - -Unhappy Royalty, unhappy Majesty, Hereditary (Representative), Representant -Hereditaire, or however they can name him; of whom much is expected, to -whom little is given! Blue National Guards encircle that Tuileries; a -Lafayette, thin constitutional Pedant; clear, thin, inflexible, as water, -turned to thin ice; whom no Queen's heart can love. National Assembly, its -pavilion spread where we know, sits near by, keeping continual hubbub. -From without nothing but Nanci Revolts, sack of Castries Hotels, riots and -seditions; riots, North and South, at Aix, at Douai, at Befort, Usez, -Perpignan, at Nismes, and that incurable Avignon of the Pope's: a -continual crackling and sputtering of riots from the whole face of France;- --testifying how electric it grows. Add only the hard winter, the famished -strikes of operatives; that continual running-bass of Scarcity, ground-tone -and basis of all other Discords! - -The plan of Royalty, so far as it can be said to have any fixed plan, is -still, as ever, that of flying towards the frontiers. In very truth, the -only plan of the smallest promise for it! Fly to Bouille; bristle yourself -round with cannon, served by your 'forty-thousand undebauched Germans:' -summon the National Assembly to follow you, summon what of it is Royalist, -Constitutional, gainable by money; dissolve the rest, by grapeshot if need -be. Let Jacobinism and Revolt, with one wild wail, fly into Infinite -Space; driven by grapeshot. Thunder over France with the cannon's mouth; -commanding, not entreating, that this riot cease. And then to rule -afterwards with utmost possible Constitutionality; doing justice, loving -mercy; being Shepherd of this indigent People, not Shearer merely, and -Shepherd's-similitude! All this, if ye dare. If ye dare not, then in -Heaven's name go to sleep: other handsome alternative seems none. - -Nay, it were perhaps possible; with a man to do it. For if such -inexpressible whirlpool of Babylonish confusions (which our Era is) cannot -be stilled by man, but only by Time and men, a man may moderate its -paroxysms, may balance and sway, and keep himself unswallowed on the top of -it,--as several men and Kings in these days do. Much is possible for a -man; men will obey a man that kens and cans, and name him reverently their -Ken-ning or King. Did not Charlemagne rule? Consider too whether he had -smooth times of it; hanging 'thirty-thousand Saxons over the Weser-Bridge,' -at one dread swoop! So likewise, who knows but, in this same distracted -fanatic France, the right man may verily exist? An olive-complexioned -taciturn man; for the present, Lieutenant in the Artillery-service, who -once sat studying Mathematics at Brienne? The same who walked in the -morning to correct proof-sheets at Dole, and enjoyed a frugal breakfast -with M. Joly? Such a one is gone, whither also famed General Paoli his -friend is gone, in these very days, to see old scenes in native Corsica, -and what Democratic good can be done there. - -Royalty never executes the evasion-plan, yet never abandons it; living in -variable hope; undecisive, till fortune shall decide. In utmost secresy, a -brisk Correspondence goes on with Bouille; there is also a plot, which -emerges more than once, for carrying the King to Rouen: (See Hist. Parl. -vii. 316; Bertrand-Moleville, &c.) plot after plot, emerging and -submerging, like 'ignes fatui in foul weather, which lead no whither. -About 'ten o'clock at night,' the Hereditary Representative, in partie -quarree, with the Queen, with Brother Monsieur, and Madame, sits playing -'wisk,' or whist. Usher Campan enters mysteriously, with a message he only -half comprehends: How a certain Compte d'Inisdal waits anxious in the -outer antechamber; National Colonel, Captain of the watch for this night, -is gained over; post-horses ready all the way; party of Noblesse sitting -armed, determined; will His Majesty, before midnight, consent to go? -Profound silence; Campan waiting with upturned ear. "Did your Majesty hear -what Campan said?" asks the Queen. "Yes, I heard," answers Majesty, and -plays on. "'Twas a pretty couplet, that of Campan's," hints Monsieur, who -at times showed a pleasant wit: Majesty, still unresponsive, plays wisk. -"After all, one must say something to Campan," remarks the Queen. "Tell M. -d'Inisdal," said the King, and the Queen puts an emphasis on it, "that the -King cannot consent to be forced away."--"I see!" said d'Inisdal, whisking -round, peaking himself into flame of irritancy: "we have the risk; we are -to have all the blame if it fail," (Campan, ii. 105.)--and vanishes, he and -his plot, as will-o'-wisps do. The Queen sat till far in the night, -packing jewels: but it came to nothing; in that peaked frame of irritancy -the Will-o'-wisp had gone out. - -Little hope there is in all this. Alas, with whom to fly? Our loyal -Gardes-du-Corps, ever since the Insurrection of Women, are disbanded; gone -to their homes; gone, many of them, across the Rhine towards Coblentz and -Exiled Princes: brave Miomandre and brave Tardivet, these faithful Two, -have received, in nocturnal interview with both Majesties, their viaticum -of gold louis, of heartfelt thanks from a Queen's lips, though unluckily -'his Majesty stood, back to fire, not speaking;' (Campan, ii. 109-11.) and -do now dine through the Provinces; recounting hairsbreadth escapes, -insurrectionary horrors. Great horrors; to be swallowed yet of greater. -But on the whole what a falling off from the old splendour of Versailles! -Here in this poor Tuileries, a National Brewer-Colonel, sonorous Santerre, -parades officially behind her Majesty's chair. Our high dignitaries, all -fled over the Rhine: nothing now to be gained at Court; but hopes, for -which life itself must be risked! Obscure busy men frequent the back -stairs; with hearsays, wind projects, un fruitful fanfaronades. Young -Royalists, at the Theatre de Vaudeville, 'sing couplets;' if that could do -any thing. Royalists enough, Captains on furlough, burnt-out Seigneurs, -may likewise be met with, 'in the Cafe de Valois, and at Meot the -Restaurateur's.' There they fan one another into high loyal glow; drink, -in such wine as can be procured, confusion to Sansculottism; shew purchased -dirks, of an improved structure, made to order; and, greatly daring, dine. -(Dampmartin, ii. 129.) It is in these places, in these months, that the -epithet Sansculotte first gets applied to indigent Patriotism; in the last -age we had Gilbert Sansculotte, the indigent Poet. (Mercier, Nouveau -Paris, iii. 204.) Destitute-of-Breeches: a mournful Destitution; which -however, if Twenty millions share it, may become more effective than most -Possessions! - -Meanwhile, amid this vague dim whirl of fanfaronades, wind-projects, -poniards made to order, there does disclose itself one punctum-saliens of -life and feasibility: the finger of Mirabeau! Mirabeau and the Queen of -France have met; have parted with mutual trust! It is strange; secret as -the Mysteries; but it is indubitable. Mirabeau took horse, one evening; -and rode westward, unattended,--to see Friend Claviere in that country -house of his? Before getting to Claviere's, the much-musing horseman -struck aside to a back gate of the Garden of Saint-Cloud: some Duke -d'Aremberg, or the like, was there to introduce him; the Queen was not far: -on a 'round knoll, rond point, the highest of the Garden of Saint-Cloud,' -he beheld the Queen's face; spake with her, alone, under the void canopy of -Night. What an interview; fateful secret for us, after all searching; like -the colloquies of the gods! (Campan, ii. c. 17.) She called him 'a -Mirabeau:' elsewhere we read that she 'was charmed with him,' the wild -submitted Titan; as indeed it is among the honourable tokens of this high -ill-fated heart that no mind of any endowment, no Mirabeau, nay no Barnave, -no Dumouriez, ever came face to face with her but, in spite of all -prepossessions, she was forced to recognise it, to draw nigh to it, with -trust. High imperial heart; with the instinctive attraction towards all -that had any height! "You know not the Queen," said Mirabeau once in -confidence; "her force of mind is prodigious; she is a man for courage." -(Dumont, p. 211.)--And so, under the void Night, on the crown of that -knoll, she has spoken with a Mirabeau: he has kissed loyally the queenly -hand, and said with enthusiasm: "Madame, the Monarchy is saved!"-- -Possible? The Foreign Powers, mysteriously sounded, gave favourable -guarded response; (Correspondence Secrete (in Hist. Parl. viii. 169-73).) -Bouille is at Metz, and could find forty-thousand sure Germans. With a -Mirabeau for head, and a Bouille for hand, something verily is possible,-- -if Fate intervene not. - -But figure under what thousandfold wrappages, and cloaks of darkness, -Royalty, meditating these things, must involve itself. There are men with -'Tickets of Entrance;' there are chivalrous consultings, mysterious -plottings. Consider also whether, involve as it like, plotting Royalty can -escape the glance of Patriotism; lynx-eyes, by the ten thousand fixed on -it, which see in the dark! Patriotism knows much: know the dirks made to -order, and can specify the shops; knows Sieur Motier's legions of -mouchards; the Tickets of Entree, and men in black; and how plan of evasion -succeeds plan,--or may be supposed to succeed it. Then conceive the -couplets chanted at the Theatre de Vaudeville; or worse, the whispers, -significant nods of traitors in moustaches. Conceive, on the other hand, -the loud cry of alarm that came through the Hundred-and-Thirty Journals; -the Dionysius'-Ear of each of the Forty-eight Sections, wakeful night and -day. - -Patriotism is patient of much; not patient of all. The Cafe de Procope has -sent, visibly along the streets, a Deputation of Patriots, 'to expostulate -with bad Editors,' by trustful word of mouth: singular to see and hear. -The bad Editors promise to amend, but do not. Deputations for change of -Ministry were many; Mayor Bailly joining even with Cordelier Danton in -such: and they have prevailed. With what profit? Of Quacks, willing or -constrained to be Quacks, the race is everlasting: Ministers Duportail and -Dutertre will have to manage much as Ministers Latour-du-Pin and Cice did. -So welters the confused world. - -But now, beaten on for ever by such inextricable contradictory influences -and evidences, what is the indigent French Patriot, in these unhappy days, -to believe, and walk by? Uncertainty all; except that he is wretched, -indigent; that a glorious Revolution, the wonder of the Universe, has -hitherto brought neither Bread nor Peace; being marred by traitors, -difficult to discover. Traitors that dwell in the dark, invisible there;-- -or seen for moments, in pallid dubious twilight, stealthily vanishing -thither! Preternatural Suspicion once more rules the minds of men. - -'Nobody here,' writes Carra of the Annales Patriotiques, so early as the -first of February, 'can entertain a doubt of the constant obstinate project -these people have on foot to get the King away; or of the perpetual -succession of manoeuvres they employ for that.' Nobody: the watchful -Mother of Patriotism deputed two Members to her Daughter at Versailles, to -examine how the matter looked there. Well, and there? Patriotic Carra -continues: 'The Report of these two deputies we all heard with our own -ears last Saturday. They went with others of Versailles, to inspect the -King's Stables, also the stables of the whilom Gardes du Corps; they found -there from seven to eight hundred horses standing always saddled and -bridled, ready for the road at a moment's notice. The same deputies, -moreover, saw with their own two eyes several Royal Carriages, which men -were even then busy loading with large well-stuffed luggage-bags,' leather -cows, as we call them, 'vaches de cuir; the Royal Arms on the panels almost -entirely effaced.' Momentous enough! Also, 'on the same day the whole -Marechaussee, or Cavalry Police, did assemble with arms, horses and -baggage,'--and disperse again. They want the King over the marches, that -so Emperor Leopold and the German Princes, whose troops are ready, may have -a pretext for beginning: 'this,' adds Carra, 'is the word of the riddle: -this is the reason why our fugitive Aristocrats are now making levies of -men on the frontiers; expecting that, one of these mornings, the Executive -Chief Magistrate will be brought over to them, and the civil war commence.' -(Carra's Newspaper, 1st Feb. 1791 (in Hist. Parl. ix. 39).) - -If indeed the Executive Chief Magistrate, bagged, say in one of these -leather cows, were once brought safe over to them! But the strangest thing -of all is that Patriotism, whether barking at a venture, or guided by some -instinct of preternatural sagacity, is actually barking aright this time; -at something, not at nothing. Bouille's Secret Correspondence, since made -public, testifies as much. - -Nay, it is undeniable, visible to all, that Mesdames the King's Aunts are -taking steps for departure: asking passports of the Ministry, safe- -conducts of the Municipality; which Marat warns all men to beware of. They -will carry gold with them, 'these old Beguines;' nay they will carry the -little Dauphin, 'having nursed a changeling, for some time, to leave in his -stead!' Besides, they are as some light substance flung up, to shew how -the wind sits; a kind of proof-kite you fly off to ascertain whether the -grand paper-kite, Evasion of the King, may mount! - -In these alarming circumstances, Patriotism is not wanting to itself. -Municipality deputes to the King; Sections depute to the Municipality; a -National Assembly will soon stir. Meanwhile, behold, on the 19th of -February 1791, Mesdames, quitting Bellevue and Versailles with all privacy, -are off! Towards Rome, seemingly; or one knows not whither. They are not -without King's passports, countersigned; and what is more to the purpose, a -serviceable Escort. The Patriotic Mayor or Mayorlet of the Village of -Moret tried to detain them; but brisk Louis de Narbonne, of the Escort, -dashed off at hand-gallop; returned soon with thirty dragoons, and -victoriously cut them out. And so the poor ancient women go their way; to -the terror of France and Paris, whose nervous excitability is become -extreme. Who else would hinder poor Loque and Graille, now grown so old, -and fallen into such unexpected circumstances, when gossip itself turning -only on terrors and horrors is no longer pleasant to the mind, and you -cannot get so much as an orthodox confessor in peace,--from going what way -soever the hope of any solacement might lead them? - -They go, poor ancient dames,--whom the heart were hard that does not pity: -they go; with palpitations, with unmelodious suppressed screechings; all -France, screeching and cackling, in loud unsuppressed terror, behind and on -both hands of them: such mutual suspicion is among men. At Arnay le Duc, -above halfway to the frontiers, a Patriotic Municipality and Populace again -takes courage to stop them: Louis Narbonne must now back to Paris, must -consult the National Assembly. National Assembly answers, not without an -effort, that Mesdames may go. Whereupon Paris rises worse than ever, -screeching half-distracted. Tuileries and precincts are filled with women -and men, while the National Assembly debates this question of questions; -Lafayette is needed at night for dispersing them, and the streets are to be -illuminated. Commandant Berthier, a Berthier before whom are great things -unknown, lies for the present under blockade at Bellevue in Versailles. By -no tactics could he get Mesdames' Luggage stirred from the Courts there; -frantic Versaillese women came screaming about him; his very troops cut the -waggon-traces; he retired to the interior, waiting better times. (Campan, -ii. 132.) - -Nay, in these same hours, while Mesdames hardly cut out from Moret by the -sabre's edge, are driving rapidly, to foreign parts, and not yet stopped at -Arnay, their august nephew poor Monsieur, at Paris has dived deep into his -cellars of the Luxembourg for shelter; and according to Montgaillard can -hardly be persuaded up again. Screeching multitudes environ that -Luxembourg of his: drawn thither by report of his departure: but, at -sight and sound of Monsieur, they become crowing multitudes; and escort -Madame and him to the Tuileries with vivats. (Montgaillard, ii. 282; Deux -Amis, vi. c. 1.) It is a state of nervous excitability such as few Nations -know. - - - -Chapter 2.3.V. - -The Day of Poniards. - -Or, again, what means this visible reparation of the Castle of Vincennes? -Other Jails being all crowded with prisoners, new space is wanted here: -that is the Municipal account. For in such changing of Judicatures, -Parlements being abolished, and New Courts but just set up, prisoners have -accumulated. Not to say that in these times of discord and club-law, -offences and committals are, at any rate, more numerous. Which Municipal -account, does it not sufficiently explain the phenomenon? Surely, to -repair the Castle of Vincennes was of all enterprises that an enlightened -Municipality could undertake, the most innocent. - -Not so however does neighbouring Saint-Antoine look on it: Saint-Antoine -to whom these peaked turrets and grim donjons, all-too near her own dark -dwelling, are of themselves an offence. Was not Vincennes a kind of minor -Bastille? Great Diderot and Philosophes have lain in durance here; great -Mirabeau, in disastrous eclipse, for forty-two months. And now when the -old Bastille has become a dancing-ground (had any one the mirth to dance), -and its stones are getting built into the Pont Louis-Seize, does this -minor, comparative insignificance of a Bastille flank itself with fresh- -hewn mullions, spread out tyrannous wings; menacing Patriotism? New space -for prisoners: and what prisoners? A d'Orleans, with the chief Patriots on -the tip of the Left? It is said, there runs 'a subterranean passage' all -the way from the Tuileries hither. Who knows? Paris, mined with quarries -and catacombs, does hang wondrous over the abyss; Paris was once to be -blown up,--though the powder, when we went to look, had got withdrawn. A -Tuileries, sold to Austria and Coblentz, should have no subterranean -passage. Out of which might not Coblentz or Austria issue, some morning; -and, with cannon of long range, 'foudroyer,' bethunder a patriotic Saint- -Antoine into smoulder and ruin! - -So meditates the benighted soul of Saint-Antoine, as it sees the aproned -workmen, in early spring, busy on these towers. An official-speaking -Municipality, a Sieur Motier with his legions of mouchards, deserve no -trust at all. Were Patriot Santerre, indeed, Commander! But the sonorous -Brewer commands only our own Battalion: of such secrets he can explain -nothing, knows nothing, perhaps suspects much. And so the work goes on; -and afflicted benighted Saint-Antoine hears rattle of hammers, sees stones -suspended in air. (Montgaillard, ii. 285.) - -Saint-Antoine prostrated the first great Bastille: will it falter over -this comparative insignificance of a Bastille? Friends, what if we took -pikes, firelocks, sledgehammers; and helped ourselves!--Speedier is no -remedy; nor so certain. On the 28th day of February, Saint-Antoine turns -out, as it has now often done; and, apparently with little superfluous -tumult, moves eastward to that eye-sorrow of Vincennes. With grave voice -of authority, no need of bullying and shouting, Saint-Antoine signifies to -parties concerned there that its purpose is, To have this suspicious -Stronghold razed level with the general soil of the country. Remonstrance -may be proffered, with zeal: but it avails not. The outer gate goes up, -drawbridges tumble; iron window-stanchions, smitten out with sledgehammers, -become iron-crowbars: it rains furniture, stone-masses, slates: with -chaotic clatter and rattle, Demolition clatters down. And now hasty -expresses rush through the agitated streets, to warn Lafayette, and the -Municipal and Departmental Authorities; Rumour warns a National Assembly, a -Royal Tuileries, and all men who care to hear it: That Saint-Antoine is -up; that Vincennes, and probably the last remaining Institution of the -Country, is coming down. (Deux Amis, vi. 11-15; Newspapers (in Hist. Parl. -ix. 111-17).) - -Quick, then! Let Lafayette roll his drums and fly eastward; for to all -Constitutional Patriots this is again bad news. And you, ye Friends of -Royalty, snatch your poniards of improved structure, made to order; your -sword-canes, secret arms, and tickets of entry; quick, by backstairs -passages, rally round the Son of Sixty Kings. An effervescence probably -got up by d'Orleans and Company, for the overthrow of Throne and Altar: it -is said her Majesty shall be put in prison, put out of the way; what then -will his Majesty be? Clay for the Sansculottic Potter! Or were it -impossible to fly this day; a brave Noblesse suddenly all rallying? Peril -threatens, hope invites: Dukes de Villequier, de Duras, Gentlemen of the -Chamber give tickets and admittance; a brave Noblesse is suddenly all -rallying. Now were the time to 'fall sword in hand on those gentry there,' -could it be done with effect. - -The Hero of two Worlds is on his white charger; blue Nationals, horse and -foot, hurrying eastward: Santerre, with the Saint-Antoine Battalion, is -already there,--apparently indisposed to act. Heavy-laden Hero of two -Worlds, what tasks are these! The jeerings, provocative gambollings of -that Patriot Suburb, which is all out on the streets now, are hard to -endure; unwashed Patriots jeering in sulky sport; one unwashed Patriot -'seizing the General by the boot' to unhorse him. Santerre, ordered to -fire, makes answer obliquely, "These are the men that took the Bastille;" -and not a trigger stirs! Neither dare the Vincennes Magistracy give -warrant of arrestment, or the smallest countenance: wherefore the General -'will take it on himself' to arrest. By promptitude, by cheerful -adroitness, patience and brisk valour without limits, the riot may be again -bloodlessly appeased. - -Meanwhile, the rest of Paris, with more or less unconcern, may mind the -rest of its business: for what is this but an effervescence, of which -there are now so many? The National Assembly, in one of its stormiest -moods, is debating a Law against Emigration; Mirabeau declaring aloud, "I -swear beforehand that I will not obey it." Mirabeau is often at the -Tribune this day; with endless impediments from without; with the old -unabated energy from within. What can murmurs and clamours, from Left or -from Right, do to this man; like Teneriffe or Atlas unremoved? With clear -thought; with strong bass-voice, though at first low, uncertain, he claims -audience, sways the storm of men: anon the sound of him waxes, softens; he -rises into far-sounding melody of strength, triumphant, which subdues all -hearts; his rude-seamed face, desolate fire-scathed, becomes fire-lit, and -radiates: once again men feel, in these beggarly ages, what is the potency -and omnipotency of man's word on the souls of men. "I will triumph or be -torn in fragments," he was once heard to say. "Silence," he cries now, in -strong word of command, in imperial consciousness of strength, "Silence, -the thirty voices, Silence aux trente voix!"--and Robespierre and the -Thirty Voices die into mutterings; and the Law is once more as Mirabeau -would have it. - -How different, at the same instant, is General Lafayette's street -eloquence; wrangling with sonorous Brewers, with an ungrammatical Saint- -Antoine! Most different, again, from both is the Cafe-de-Valois eloquence, -and suppressed fanfaronade, of this multitude of men with Tickets of Entry; -who are now inundating the Corridors of the Tuileries. Such things can go -on simultaneously in one City. How much more in one Country; in one Planet -with its discrepancies, every Day a mere crackling infinitude of -discrepancies--which nevertheless do yield some coherent net-product, -though an infinitesimally small one! - -Be this as it may. Lafayette has saved Vincennes; and is marching -homewards with some dozen of arrested demolitionists. Royalty is not yet -saved;--nor indeed specially endangered. But to the King's Constitutional -Guard, to these old Gardes Francaises, or Centre Grenadiers, as it chanced -to be, this affluence of men with Tickets of Entry is becoming more and -more unintelligible. Is his Majesty verily for Metz, then; to be carried -off by these men, on the spur of the instant? That revolt of Saint-Antoine -got up by traitor Royalists for a stalking-horse? Keep a sharp outlook, ye -Centre Grenadiers on duty here: good never came from the 'men in black.' -Nay they have cloaks, redingotes; some of them leather-breeches, boots,--as -if for instant riding! Or what is this that sticks visible from the -lapelle of Chevalier de Court? (Weber, ii. 286.) Too like the handle of -some cutting or stabbing instrument! He glides and goes; and still the -dudgeon sticks from his left lapelle. "Hold, Monsieur!"--a Centre -Grenadier clutches him; clutches the protrusive dudgeon, whisks it out in -the face of the world: by Heaven, a very dagger; hunting-knife, or -whatsoever you call it; fit to drink the life of Patriotism! - -So fared it with Chevalier de Court, early in the day; not without noise; -not without commentaries. And now this continually increasing multitude at -nightfall? Have they daggers too? Alas, with them too, after angry -parleyings, there has begun a groping and a rummaging; all men in black, -spite of their Tickets of Entry, are clutched by the collar, and groped. -Scandalous to think of; for always, as the dirk, sword-cane, pistol, or -were it but tailor's bodkin, is found on him, and with loud scorn drawn -forth from him, he, the hapless man in black, is flung all too rapidly down -stairs. Flung; and ignominiously descends, head foremost; accelerated by -ignominious shovings from sentry after sentry; nay, as is written, by -smitings, twitchings,--spurnings, a posteriori, not to be named. In this -accelerated way, emerges, uncertain which end uppermost, man after man in -black, through all issues, into the Tuileries Garden. Emerges, alas, into -the arms of an indignant multitude, now gathered and gathering there, in -the hour of dusk, to see what is toward, and whether the Hereditary -Representative is carried off or not. Hapless men in black; at last -convicted of poniards made to order; convicted 'Chevaliers of the Poniard!' -Within is as the burning ship; without is as the deep sea. Within is no -help; his Majesty, looking forth, one moment, from his interior -sanctuaries, coldly bids all visitors 'give up their weapons;' and shuts -the door again. The weapons given up form a heap: the convicted -Chevaliers of the poniard keep descending pellmell, with impetuous -velocity; and at the bottom of all staircases, the mixed multitude receives -them, hustles, buffets, chases and disperses them. (Hist. Parl. ix. 139- -48.) - -Such sight meets Lafayette, in the dusk of the evening, as he returns, -successful with difficulty at Vincennes: Sansculotte Scylla hardly -weathered, here is Aristocrat Charybdis gurgling under his lee! The -patient Hero of two Worlds almost loses temper. He accelerates, does not -retard, the flying Chevaliers; delivers, indeed, this or the other hunted -Loyalist of quality, but rates him in bitter words, such as the hour -suggested; such as no saloon could pardon. Hero ill-bested; hanging, so to -speak, in mid-air; hateful to Rich divinities above; hateful to Indigent -mortals below! Duke de Villequier, Gentleman of the Chamber, gets such -contumelious rating, in presence of all people there, that he may see good -first to exculpate himself in the Newspapers; then, that not prospering, to -retire over the Frontiers, and begin plotting at Brussels. (Montgaillard, -ii. 286.) His Apartment will stand vacant; usefuller, as we may find, than -when it stood occupied. - -So fly the Chevaliers of the Poniard; hunted of Patriotic men, shamefully -in the thickening dusk. A dim miserable business; born of darkness; dying -away there in the thickening dusk and dimness! In the midst of which, -however, let the reader discern clearly one figure running for its life: -Crispin-Cataline d'Espremenil,--for the last time, or the last but one. It -is not yet three years since these same Centre Grenadiers, Gardes -Francaises then, marched him towards the Calypso Isles, in the gray of the -May morning; and he and they have got thus far. Buffeted, beaten down, -delivered by popular Petion, he might well answer bitterly: "And I too, -Monsieur, have been carried on the People's shoulders." (See Mercier, ii. -40, 202.) A fact which popular Petion, if he like, can meditate. - -But happily, one way and another, the speedy night covers up this -ignominious Day of Poniards; and the Chevaliers escape, though maltreated, -with torn coat-skirts and heavy hearts, to their respective dwelling- -houses. Riot twofold is quelled; and little blood shed, if it be not -insignificant blood from the nose: Vincennes stands undemolished, -reparable; and the Hereditary Representative has not been stolen, nor the -Queen smuggled into Prison. A Day long remembered: commented on with loud -hahas and deep grumblings; with bitter scornfulness of triumph, bitter -rancour of defeat. Royalism, as usual, imputes it to d'Orleans and the -Anarchists intent on insulting Majesty: Patriotism, as usual, to -Royalists, and even Constitutionalists, intent on stealing Majesty to Metz: -we, also as usual, to Preternatural Suspicion, and Phoebus Apollo having -made himself like the Night. - -Thus however has the reader seen, in an unexpected arena, on this last day -of February 1791, the Three long-contending elements of French Society, -dashed forth into singular comico-tragical collision; acting and reacting -openly to the eye. Constitutionalism, at once quelling Sansculottic riot -at Vincennes, and Royalist treachery from the Tuileries, is great, this -day, and prevails. As for poor Royalism, tossed to and fro in that manner, -its daggers all left in a heap, what can one think of it? Every dog, the -Adage says, has its day: has it; has had it; or will have it. For the -present, the day is Lafayette's and the Constitution's. Nevertheless -Hunger and Jacobinism, fast growing fanatical, still work; their-day, were -they once fanatical, will come. Hitherto, in all tempests, Lafayette, like -some divine Sea-ruler, raises his serene head: the upper Aeolus's blasts -fly back to their caves, like foolish unbidden winds: the under sea- -billows they had vexed into froth allay themselves. But if, as we often -write, the submarine Titanic Fire-powers came into play, the Ocean bed from -beneath being burst? If they hurled Poseidon Lafayette and his -Constitution out of Space; and, in the Titanic melee, sea were mixed with -sky? - - - -Chapter 2.3.VI. - -Mirabeau. - -The spirit of France waxes ever more acrid, fever-sick: towards the final -outburst of dissolution and delirium. Suspicion rules all minds: -contending parties cannot now commingle; stand separated sheer asunder, -eying one another, in most aguish mood, of cold terror or hot rage. -Counter-Revolution, Days of Poniards, Castries Duels; Flight of Mesdames, -of Monsieur and Royalty! Journalism shrills ever louder its cry of alarm. -The sleepless Dionysius's Ear of the Forty-eight Sections, how feverishly -quick has it grown; convulsing with strange pangs the whole sick Body, as -in such sleeplessness and sickness, the ear will do! - -Since Royalists get Poniards made to order, and a Sieur Motier is no better -than he should be, shall not Patriotism too, even of the indigent sort, -have Pikes, secondhand Firelocks, in readiness for the worst? The anvils -ring, during this March month, with hammering of Pikes. A Constitutional -Municipality promulgated its Placard, that no citizen except the 'active or -cash-citizen' was entitled to have arms; but there rose, instantly -responsive, such a tempest of astonishment from Club and Section, that the -Constitutional Placard, almost next morning, had to cover itself up, and -die away into inanity, in a second improved edition. (Ordonnance du 17 -Mars 1791 (Hist. Parl. ix. 257).) So the hammering continues; as all that -it betokens does. - -Mark, again, how the extreme tip of the Left is mounting in favour, if not -in its own National Hall, yet with the Nation, especially with Paris. For -in such universal panic of doubt, the opinion that is sure of itself, as -the meagrest opinion may the soonest be, is the one to which all men will -rally. Great is Belief, were it never so meagre; and leads captive the -doubting heart! Incorruptible Robespierre has been elected Public Accuser -in our new Courts of Judicature; virtuous Petion, it is thought, may rise -to be Mayor. Cordelier Danton, called also by triumphant majorities, sits -at the Departmental Council-table; colleague there of Mirabeau. Of -incorruptible Robespierre it was long ago predicted that he might go far, -mean meagre mortal though he was; for Doubt dwelt not in him. - -Under which circumstances ought not Royalty likewise to cease doubting, and -begin deciding and acting? Royalty has always that sure trump-card in its -hand: Flight out of Paris. Which sure trump-card, Royalty, as we see, -keeps ever and anon clutching at, grasping; and swashes it forth -tentatively; yet never tables it, still puts it back again. Play it, O -Royalty! If there be a chance left, this seems it, and verily the last -chance; and now every hour is rendering this a doubtfuller. Alas, one -would so fain both fly and not fly; play one's card and have it to play. -Royalty, in all human likelihood, will not play its trump-card till the -honours, one after one, be mainly lost; and such trumping of it prove to be -the sudden finish of the game! - -Here accordingly a question always arises; of the prophetic sort; which -cannot now be answered. Suppose Mirabeau, with whom Royalty takes deep -counsel, as with a Prime Minister that cannot yet legally avow himself as -such, had got his arrangements completed? Arrangements he has; far- -stretching plans that dawn fitfully on us, by fragments, in the confused -darkness. Thirty Departments ready to sign loyal Addresses, of prescribed -tenor: King carried out of Paris, but only to Compiegne and Rouen, hardly -to Metz, since, once for all, no Emigrant rabble shall take the lead in it: -National Assembly consenting, by dint of loyal Addresses, by management, by -force of Bouille, to hear reason, and follow thither! (See Fils Adoptif, -vii. 1. 6; Dumont, c. 11, 12, 14.) Was it so, on these terms, that -Jacobinism and Mirabeau were then to grapple, in their Hercules-and-Typhon -duel; death inevitable for the one or the other? The duel itself is -determined on, and sure: but on what terms; much more, with what issue, we -in vain guess. It is vague darkness all: unknown what is to be; unknown -even what has already been. The giant Mirabeau walks in darkness, as we -said; companionless, on wild ways: what his thoughts during these months -were, no record of Biographer, not vague Fils Adoptif, will now ever -disclose. - -To us, endeavouring to cast his horoscope, it of course remains doubly -vague. There is one Herculean man, in internecine duel with him, there is -Monster after Monster. Emigrant Noblesse return, sword on thigh, vaunting -of their Loyalty never sullied; descending from the air, like Harpy-swarms -with ferocity, with obscene greed. Earthward there is the Typhon of -Anarchy, Political, Religious; sprawling hundred-headed, say with Twenty- -five million heads; wide as the area of France; fierce as Frenzy; strong in -very Hunger. With these shall the Serpent-queller do battle continually, -and expect no rest. - -As for the King, he as usual will go wavering chameleonlike; changing -colour and purpose with the colour of his environment;--good for no Kingly -use. On one royal person, on the Queen only, can Mirabeau perhaps place -dependance. It is possible, the greatness of this man, not unskilled too -in blandishments, courtiership, and graceful adroitness, might, with most -legitimate sorcery, fascinate the volatile Queen, and fix her to him. She -has courage for all noble daring; an eye and a heart: the soul of -Theresa's Daughter. 'Faut il-donc, Is it fated then,' she passionately -writes to her Brother, 'that I with the blood I am come of, with the -sentiments I have, must live and die among such mortals?' (Fils Adoptif, -ubi supra.) Alas, poor Princess, Yes. 'She is the only man,' as Mirabeau -observes, 'whom his Majesty has about him.' Of one other man Mirabeau is -still surer: of himself. There lies his resources; sufficient or -insufficient. - -Dim and great to the eye of Prophecy looks the future! A perpetual life- -and-death battle; confusion from above and from below;--mere confused -darkness for us; with here and there some streak of faint lurid light. We -see King perhaps laid aside; not tonsured, tonsuring is out of fashion now; -but say, sent away any whither, with handsome annual allowance, and stock -of smith-tools. We see a Queen and Dauphin, Regent and Minor; a Queen -'mounted on horseback,' in the din of battles, with Moriamur pro rege -nostro! 'Such a day,' Mirabeau writes, 'may come.' - -Din of battles, wars more than civil, confusion from above and from below: -in such environment the eye of Prophecy sees Comte de Mirabeau, like some -Cardinal de Retz, stormfully maintain himself; with head all-devising, -heart all-daring, if not victorious, yet unvanquished, while life is left -him. The specialties and issues of it, no eye of Prophecy can guess at: -it is clouds, we repeat, and tempestuous night; and in the middle of it, -now visible, far darting, now labouring in eclipse, is Mirabeau indomitably -struggling to be Cloud-Compeller!--One can say that, had Mirabeau lived, -the History of France and of the World had been different. Further, that -the man would have needed, as few men ever did, the whole compass of that -same 'Art of Daring, Art d'Oser,' which he so prized; and likewise that he, -above all men then living, would have practised and manifested it. -Finally, that some substantiality, and no empty simulacrum of a formula, -would have been the result realised by him: a result you could have loved, -a result you could have hated; by no likelihood, a result you could only -have rejected with closed lips, and swept into quick forgetfulness for -ever. Had Mirabeau lived one other year! - - - -Chapter 2.3.VII. - -Death of Mirabeau. - -But Mirabeau could not live another year, any more than he could live -another thousand years. Men's years are numbered, and the tale of -Mirabeau's was now complete. Important, or unimportant; to be mentioned in -World-History for some centuries, or not to be mentioned there beyond a day -or two,--it matters not to peremptory Fate. From amid the press of ruddy -busy Life, the Pale Messenger beckons silently: wide-spreading interests, -projects, salvation of French Monarchies, what thing soever man has on -hand, he must suddenly quit it all, and go. Wert thou saving French -Monarchies; wert thou blacking shoes on the Pont Neuf! The most important -of men cannot stay; did the World's History depend on an hour, that hour is -not to be given. Whereby, indeed, it comes that these same would-have- -beens are mostly a vanity; and the World's History could never in the least -be what it would, or might, or should, by any manner of potentiality, but -simply and altogether what it is. - -The fierce wear and tear of such an existence has wasted out the giant -oaken strength of Mirabeau. A fret and fever that keeps heart and brain on -fire: excess of effort, of excitement; excess of all kinds: labour -incessant, almost beyond credibility! 'If I had not lived with him,' says -Dumont, 'I should never have known what a man can make of one day; what -things may be placed within the interval of twelve hours. A day for this -man was more than a week or a month is for others: the mass of things he -guided on together was prodigious; from the scheming to the executing not a -moment lost.' "Monsieur le Comte," said his Secretary to him once, "what -you require is impossible."--"Impossible!" answered he starting from his -chair, Ne me dites jamais ce bete de mot, Never name to me that blockhead -of a word." (Dumont, p. 311.) And then the social repasts; the dinner -which he gives as Commandant of National Guards, which 'costs five hundred -pounds;' alas, and 'the Sirens of the Opera;' and all the ginger that is -hot in the mouth:--down what a course is this man hurled! Cannot Mirabeau -stop; cannot he fly, and save himself alive? No! There is a Nessus' Shirt -on this Hercules; he must storm and burn there, without rest, till he be -consumed. Human strength, never so Herculean, has its measure. Herald -shadows flit pale across the fire-brain of Mirabeau; heralds of the pale -repose. While he tosses and storms, straining every nerve, in that sea of -ambition and confusion, there comes, sombre and still, a monition that for -him the issue of it will be swift death. - -In January last, you might see him as President of the Assembly; 'his neck -wrapt in linen cloths, at the evening session:' there was sick heat of the -blood, alternate darkening and flashing in the eye-sight; he had to apply -leeches, after the morning labour, and preside bandaged. 'At parting he -embraced me,' says Dumont, 'with an emotion I had never seen in him: "I am -dying, my friend; dying as by slow fire; we shall perhaps not meet again. -When I am gone, they will know what the value of me was. The miseries I -have held back will burst from all sides on France."' (Dumont, p. 267.) -Sickness gives louder warning; but cannot be listened to. On the 27th day -of March, proceeding towards the Assembly, he had to seek rest and help in -Friend de Lamarck's, by the road; and lay there, for an hour, half-fainted, -stretched on a sofa. To the Assembly nevertheless he went, as if in spite -of Destiny itself; spoke, loud and eager, five several times; then quitted -the Tribune--for ever. He steps out, utterly exhausted, into the Tuileries -Gardens; many people press round him, as usual, with applications, -memorials; he says to the Friend who was with him: Take me out of this! - -And so, on the last day of March 1791, endless anxious multitudes beset the -Rue de la Chaussee d'Antin; incessantly inquiring: within doors there, in -that House numbered in our time '42,' the over wearied giant has fallen -down, to die. (Fils Adoptif, viii. 420-79.) Crowds, of all parties and -kinds; of all ranks from the King to the meanest man! The King sends -publicly twice a-day to inquire; privately besides: from the world at -large there is no end of inquiring. 'A written bulletin is handed out -every three hours,' is copied and circulated; in the end, it is printed. -The People spontaneously keep silence; no carriage shall enter with its -noise: there is crowding pressure; but the Sister of Mirabeau is -reverently recognised, and has free way made for her. The People stand -mute, heart-stricken; to all it seems as if a great calamity were nigh: as -if the last man of France, who could have swayed these coming troubles, lay -there at hand-grips with the unearthly Power. - -The silence of a whole People, the wakeful toil of Cabanis, Friend and -Physician, skills not: on Saturday, the second day of April, Mirabeau -feels that the last of the Days has risen for him; that, on this day, he -has to depart and be no more. His death is Titanic, as his life has been. -Lit up, for the last time, in the glare of coming dissolution, the mind of -the man is all glowing and burning; utters itself in sayings, such as men -long remember. He longs to live, yet acquiesces in death, argues not with -the inexorable. His speech is wild and wondrous: unearthly Phantasms -dancing now their torch-dance round his soul; the soul itself looking out, -fire-radiant, motionless, girt together for that great hour! At times -comes a beam of light from him on the world he is quitting. "I carry in my -heart the death-dirge of the French Monarchy; the dead remains of it will -now be the spoil of the factious." Or again, when he heard the cannon -fire, what is characteristic too: "Have we the Achilles' Funeral already?" -So likewise, while some friend is supporting him: "Yes, support that head; -would I could bequeath it thee!" For the man dies as he has lived; self- -conscious, conscious of a world looking on. He gazes forth on the young -Spring, which for him will never be Summer. The Sun has risen; he says: -"Si ce n'est pas la Dieu, c'est du moins son cousin germain." (Fils -Adoptif, viii. 450; Journal de la maladie et de la mort de Mirabeau, par -P.J.G. Cabanis (Paris, 1803).)--Death has mastered the outworks; power of -speech is gone; the citadel of the heart still holding out: the moribund -giant, passionately, by sign, demands paper and pen; writes his passionate -demand for opium, to end these agonies. The sorrowful Doctor shakes his -head: Dormir 'To sleep,' writes the other, passionately pointing at it! -So dies a gigantic Heathen and Titan; stumbling blindly, undismayed, down -to his rest. At half-past eight in the morning, Dr. Petit, standing at the -foot of the bed, says "Il ne souffre plus." His suffering and his working -are now ended. - -Even so, ye silent Patriot multitudes, all ye men of France; this man is -rapt away from you. He has fallen suddenly, without bending till he broke; -as a tower falls, smitten by sudden lightning. His word ye shall hear no -more, his guidance follow no more.--The multitudes depart, heartstruck; -spread the sad tidings. How touching is the loyalty of men to their -Sovereign Man! All theatres, public amusements close; no joyful meeting -can be held in these nights, joy is not for them: the People break in upon -private dancing-parties, and sullenly command that they cease. Of such -dancing-parties apparently but two came to light; and these also have gone -out. The gloom is universal: never in this City was such sorrow for one -death; never since that old night when Louis XII. departed, 'and the -Crieurs des Corps went sounding their bells, and crying along the streets: -Le bon roi Louis, pere du peuple, est mort, The good King Louis, Father of -the People, is dead!' (Henault, Abrege Chronologique, p. 429.) King -Mirabeau is now the lost King; and one may say with little exaggeration, -all the People mourns for him. - -For three days there is low wide moan: weeping in the National Assembly -itself. The streets are all mournful; orators mounted on the bournes, with -large silent audience, preaching the funeral sermon of the dead. Let no -coachman whip fast, distractively with his rolling wheels, or almost at -all, through these groups! His traces may be cut; himself and his fare, as -incurable Aristocrats, hurled sulkily into the kennels. The bourne-stone -orators speak as it is given them; the Sansculottic People, with its rude -soul, listens eager,--as men will to any Sermon, or Sermo, when it is a -spoken Word meaning a Thing, and not a Babblement meaning No-thing. In the -Restaurateur's of the Palais Royal, the waiter remarks, "Fine weather, -Monsieur:"--"Yes, my friend," answers the ancient Man of Letters, "very -fine; but Mirabeau is dead." Hoarse rhythmic threnodies comes also from -the throats of balladsingers; are sold on gray-white paper at a sou each. -(Fils Adoptif, viii. l. 19; Newspapers and Excerpts (in Hist. Parl. ix. -366-402).) But of Portraits, engraved, painted, hewn, and written; of -Eulogies, Reminiscences, Biographies, nay Vaudevilles, Dramas and -Melodramas, in all Provinces of France, there will, through these coming -months, be the due immeasurable crop; thick as the leaves of Spring. Nor, -that a tincture of burlesque might be in it, is Gobel's Episcopal Mandement -wanting; goose Gobel, who has just been made Constitutional Bishop of -Paris. A Mandement wherein ca ira alternates very strangely with Nomine -Domini, and you are, with a grave countenance, invited to 'rejoice at -possessing in the midst of you a body of Prelates created by Mirabeau, -zealous followers of his doctrine, faithful imitators of his virtues.' -(Hist. Parl. ix. 405.) So speaks, and cackles manifold, the Sorrow of -France; wailing articulately, inarticulately, as it can, that a Sovereign -Man is snatched away. In the National Assembly, when difficult questions -are astir, all eyes will 'turn mechanically to the place where Mirabeau -sat,'--and Mirabeau is absent now. - -On the third evening of the lamentation, the fourth of April, there is -solemn Public Funeral; such as deceased mortal seldom had. Procession of a -league in length; of mourners reckoned loosely at a hundred thousand! All -roofs are thronged with onlookers, all windows, lamp-irons, branches of -trees. 'Sadness is painted on every countenance; many persons weep.' -There is double hedge of National Guards; there is National Assembly in a -body; Jacobin Society, and Societies; King's Ministers, Municipals, and all -Notabilities, Patriot or Aristocrat. Bouille is noticeable there, 'with -his hat on;' say, hat drawn over his brow, hiding many thoughts! Slow- -wending, in religious silence, the Procession of a league in length, under -the level sun-rays, for it is five o'clock, moves and marches: with its -sable plumes; itself in a religious silence; but, by fits, with the muffled -roll of drums, by fits with some long-drawn wail of music, and strange new -clangour of trombones, and metallic dirge-voice; amid the infinite hum of -men. In the Church of Saint-Eustache, there is funeral oration by Cerutti; -and discharge of fire-arms, which 'brings down pieces of the plaster.' -Thence, forward again to the Church of Sainte-Genevieve; which has been -consecrated, by supreme decree, on the spur of this time, into a Pantheon -for the Great Men of the Fatherland, Aux Grands Hommes la Patrie -reconnaissante. Hardly at midnight is the business done; and Mirabeau left -in his dark dwelling: first tenant of that Fatherland's Pantheon. - -Tenant, alas, with inhabits but at will, and shall be cast out! For, in -these days of convulsion and disjection, not even the dust of the dead is -permitted to rest. Voltaire's bones are, by and by, to be carried from -their stolen grave in the Abbey of Scellieres, to an eager stealing grave, -in Paris his birth-city: all mortals processioning and perorating there; -cars drawn by eight white horses, goadsters in classical costume, with -fillets and wheat-ears enough;--though the weather is of the wettest. -(Moniteur, du 13 Juillet 1791.) Evangelist Jean Jacques, too, as is most -proper, must be dug up from Ermenonville, and processioned, with pomp, with -sensibility, to the Pantheon of the Fatherland. (Ibid. du 18 Septembre, -1794. See also du 30 Aout, &c. 1791.) He and others: while again -Mirabeau, we say, is cast forth from it, happily incapable of being -replaced; and rests now, irrecognisable, reburied hastily at dead of night, -in the central 'part of the Churchyard Sainte-Catherine, in the Suburb -Saint-Marceau,' to be disturbed no further. - -So blazes out, farseen, a Man's Life, and becomes ashes and a caput -mortuum, in this World-Pyre, which we name French Revolution: not the -first that consumed itself there; nor, by thousands and many millions, the -last! A man who 'had swallowed all formulas;' who, in these strange times -and circumstances, felt called to live Titanically, and also to die so. As -he, for his part had swallowed all formulas, what Formula is there, never -so comprehensive, that will express truly the plus and the minus, give us -the accurate net-result of him? There is hitherto none such. Moralities -not a few must shriek condemnatory over this Mirabeau; the Morality by -which he could be judged has not yet got uttered in the speech of men. We -shall say this of him, again: That he is a Reality, and no Simulacrum: a -living son of Nature our general Mother; not a hollow Artfice, and -mechanism of Conventionalities, son of nothing, brother to nothing. In -which little word, let the earnest man, walking sorrowful in a world mostly -of 'Stuffed Clothes-suits,' that chatter and grin meaningless on him, quite -ghastly to the earnest soul,--think what significance there is! - -Of men who, in such sense, are alive, and see with eyes, the number is now -not great: it may be well, if in this huge French Revolution itself, with -its all-developing fury, we find some Three. Mortals driven rabid we find; -sputtering the acridest logic; baring their breast to the battle-hail, -their neck to the guillotine; of whom it is so painful to say that they too -are still, in good part, manufactured Formalities, not Facts but Hearsays! - -Honour to the strong man, in these ages, who has shaken himself loose of -shams, and is something. For in the way of being worthy, the first -condition surely is that one be. Let Cant cease, at all risks and at all -costs: till Cant cease, nothing else can begin. Of human Criminals, in -these centuries, writes the Moralist, I find but one unforgivable: the -Quack. 'Hateful to God,' as divine Dante sings, 'and to the Enemies of -God, - - 'A Dio spiacente ed a' nemici sui!' - -But whoever will, with sympathy, which is the first essential towards -insight, look at this questionable Mirabeau, may find that there lay verily -in him, as the basis of all, a Sincerity, a great free Earnestness; nay -call it Honesty, for the man did before all things see, with that clear -flashing vision, into what was, into what existed as fact; and did, with -his wild heart, follow that and no other. Whereby on what ways soever he -travels and struggles, often enough falling, he is still a brother man. -Hate him not; thou canst not hate him! Shining through such soil and -tarnish, and now victorious effulgent, and oftenest struggling eclipsed, -the light of genius itself is in this man; which was never yet base and -hateful: but at worst was lamentable, loveable with pity. They say that -he was ambitious, that he wanted to be Minister. It is most true; and was -he not simply the one man in France who could have done any good as -Minister? Not vanity alone, not pride alone; far from that! Wild -burstings of affection were in this great heart; of fierce lightning, and -soft dew of pity. So sunk, bemired in wretchedest defacements, it may be -said of him, like the Magdalen of old, that he loved much: his Father the -harshest of old crabbed men he loved with warmth, with veneration. - -Be it that his falls and follies are manifold,--as himself often lamented -even with tears. (Dumont, p. 287.) Alas, is not the Life of every such -man already a poetic Tragedy; made up 'of Fate and of one's own -Deservings,' of Schicksal und eigene Schuld; full of the elements of Pity -and Fear? This brother man, if not Epic for us, is Tragic; if not great, -is large; large in his qualities, world-large in his destinies. Whom other -men, recognising him as such, may, through long times, remember, and draw -nigh to examine and consider: these, in their several dialects, will say -of him and sing of him,--till the right thing be said; and so the Formula -that can judge him be no longer an undiscovered one. - -Here then the wild Gabriel Honore drops from the tissue of our History; not -without a tragic farewell. He is gone: the flower of the wild Riquetti or -Arrighetti kindred; which seems as if in him, with one last effort, it had -done its best, and then expired, or sunk down to the undistinguished level. -Crabbed old Marquis Mirabeau, the Friend of Men, sleeps sound. The Bailli -Mirabeau, worthy uncle, will soon die forlorn, alone. Barrel-Mirabeau, -already gone across the Rhine, his Regiment of Emigrants will drive nigh -desperate. 'Barrel-Mirabeau,' says a biographer of his, 'went indignantly -across the Rhine, and drilled Emigrant Regiments. But as he sat one -morning in his tent, sour of stomach doubtless and of heart, meditating in -Tartarean humour on the turn things took, a certain Captain or Subaltern -demanded admittance on business. Such Captain is refused; he again -demands, with refusal; and then again, till Colonel Viscount Barrel- -Mirabeau, blazing up into a mere burning brandy barrel, clutches his sword, -and tumbles out on this canaille of an intruder,--alas, on the canaille of -an intruder's sword's point, who had drawn with swift dexterity; and dies, -and the Newspapers name it apoplexy and alarming accident.' So die the -Mirabeaus. - -New Mirabeaus one hears not of: the wild kindred, as we said, is gone out -with this its greatest. As families and kindreds sometimes do; producing, -after long ages of unnoted notability, some living quintescence of all the -qualities they had, to flame forth as a man world-noted; after whom they -rest as if exhausted; the sceptre passing to others. The chosen Last of -the Mirabeaus is gone; the chosen man of France is gone. It was he who -shook old France from its basis; and, as if with his single hand, has held -it toppling there, still unfallen. What things depended on that one man! -He is as a ship suddenly shivered on sunk rocks: much swims on the waste -waters, far from help. - - - - -BOOK 2.IV. - -VARENNES - - -Chapter 2.4.I. - -Easter at Saint-Cloud. - -The French Monarchy may now therefore be considered as, in all human -probability, lost; as struggling henceforth in blindness as well as -weakness, the last light of reasonable guidance having gone out. What -remains of resources their poor Majesties will waste still further, in -uncertain loitering and wavering. Mirabeau himself had to complain that -they only gave him half confidence, and always had some plan within his -plan. Had they fled frankly with him, to Rouen or anywhither, long ago! -They may fly now with chance immeasurably lessened; which will go on -lessening towards absolute zero. Decide, O Queen; poor Louis can decide -nothing: execute this Flight-project, or at least abandon it. -Correspondence with Bouille there has been enough; what profits consulting, -and hypothesis, while all around is in fierce activity of practice? The -Rustic sits waiting till the river run dry: alas with you it is not a -common river, but a Nile Inundation; snow melting in the unseen mountains; -till all, and you where you sit, be submerged. - -Many things invite to flight. The voice Journals invites; Royalist -Journals proudly hinting it as a threat, Patriot Journals rabidly -denouncing it as a terror. Mother Society, waxing more and more emphatic, -invites;--so emphatic that, as was prophesied, Lafayette and your limited -Patriots have ere long to branch off from her, and form themselves into -Feuillans; with infinite public controversy; the victory in which, doubtful -though it look, will remain with the unlimited Mother. Moreover, ever -since the Day of Poniards, we have seen unlimited Patriotism openly -equipping itself with arms. Citizens denied 'activity,' which is -facetiously made to signify a certain weight of purse, cannot buy blue -uniforms, and be Guardsmen; but man is greater than blue cloth; man can -fight, if need be, in multiform cloth, or even almost without cloth--as -Sansculotte. So Pikes continued to be hammered, whether those Dirks of -improved structure with barbs be 'meant for the West-India market,' or not -meant. Men beat, the wrong way, their ploughshares into swords. Is there -not what we may call an 'Austrian Committee,' Comite Autrichein, sitting -daily and nightly in the Tuileries? Patriotism, by vision and suspicion, -knows it too well! If the King fly, will there not be Aristocrat-Austrian -Invasion; butchery, replacement of Feudalism; wars more than civil? The -hearts of men are saddened and maddened. - -Dissident Priests likewise give trouble enough. Expelled from their Parish -Churches, where Constitutional Priests, elected by the Public, have -replaced them, these unhappy persons resort to Convents of Nuns, or other -such receptacles; and there, on Sabbath, collecting assemblages of Anti- -Constitutional individuals, who have grown devout all on a sudden, -(Toulongeon, i. 262.) they worship or pretend to worship in their strait- -laced contumacious manner; to the scandal of Patriotism. Dissident -Priests, passing along with their sacred wafer for the dying, seem wishful -to be massacred in the streets; wherein Patriotism will not gratify them. -Slighter palm of martyrdom, however, shall not be denied: martyrdom not of -massacre, yet of fustigation. At the refractory places of worship, Patriot -men appear; Patriot women with strong hazel wands, which they apply. Shut -thy eyes, O Reader; see not this misery, peculiar to these later times,--of -martyrdom without sincerity, with only cant and contumacy! A dead Catholic -Church is not allowed to lie dead; no, it is galvanised into the -detestablest death-life; whereat Humanity, we say, shuts its eyes. For the -Patriot women take their hazel wands, and fustigate, amid laughter of -bystanders, with alacrity: broad bottom of Priests; alas, Nuns too -reversed, and cotillons retrousses! The National Guard does what it can: -Municipality 'invokes the Principles of Toleration;' grants Dissident -worshippers the Church of the Theatins; promising protection. But it is to -no purpose: at the door of that Theatins Church, appears a Placard, and -suspended atop, like Plebeian Consular fasces,--a Bundle of Rods! The -Principles of Toleration must do the best they may: but no Dissident man -shall worship contumaciously; there is a Plebiscitum to that effect; which, -though unspoken, is like the laws of the Medes and Persians. Dissident -contumacious Priests ought not to be harboured, even in private, by any -man: the Club of the Cordeliers openly denounces Majesty himself as doing -it. (Newspapers of April and June, 1791 (in Hist. Parl. ix. 449; x, 217).) - -Many things invite to flight: but probably this thing above all others, -that it has become impossible! On the 15th of April, notice is given that -his Majesty, who has suffered much from catarrh lately, will enjoy the -Spring weather, for a few days, at Saint-Cloud. Out at Saint-Cloud? -Wishing to celebrate his Easter, his Paques, or Pasch, there; with -refractory Anti-Constitutional Dissidents?--Wishing rather to make off for -Compiegne, and thence to the Frontiers? As were, in good sooth, perhaps -feasible, or would once have been; nothing but some two chasseurs attending -you; chasseurs easily corrupted! It is a pleasant possibility, execute it -or not. Men say there are thirty thousand Chevaliers of the Poniard -lurking in the woods there: lurking in the woods, and thirty thousand,-- -for the human Imagination is not fettered. But now, how easily might -these, dashing out on Lafayette, snatch off the Hereditary Representative; -and roll away with him, after the manner of a whirlblast, whither they -listed!--Enough, it were well the King did not go. Lafayette is forewarned -and forearmed: but, indeed, is the risk his only; or his and all France's? - -Monday the eighteenth of April is come; the Easter Journey to Saint-Cloud -shall take effect. National Guard has got its orders; a First Division, as -Advanced Guard, has even marched, and probably arrived. His Majesty's -Maison-bouche, they say, is all busy stewing and frying at Saint-Cloud; the -King's Dinner not far from ready there. About one o'clock, the Royal -Carriage, with its eight royal blacks, shoots stately into the Place du -Carrousel; draws up to receive its royal burden. But hark! From the -neighbouring Church of Saint-Roch, the tocsin begins ding-donging. Is the -King stolen then; he is going; gone? Multitudes of persons crowd the -Carrousel: the Royal Carriage still stands there;--and, by Heaven's -strength, shall stand! - -Lafayette comes up, with aide-de-camps and oratory; pervading the groups: -"Taisez vous," answer the groups, "the King shall not go." Monsieur -appears, at an upper window: ten thousand voices bray and shriek, "Nous ne -voulons pas que le Roi parte." Their Majesties have mounted. Crack go the -whips; but twenty Patriot arms have seized each of the eight bridles: -there is rearing, rocking, vociferation; not the smallest headway. In vain -does Lafayette fret, indignant; and perorate and strive: Patriots in the -passion of terror, bellow round the Royal Carriage; it is one bellowing sea -of Patriot terror run frantic. Will Royalty fly off towards Austria; like -a lit rocket, towards endless Conflagration of Civil War? Stop it, ye -Patriots, in the name of Heaven! Rude voices passionately apostrophise -Royalty itself. Usher Campan, and other the like official persons, -pressing forward with help or advice, are clutched by the sashes, and -hurled and whirled, in a confused perilous manner; so that her Majesty has -to plead passionately from the carriage-window. - -Order cannot be heard, cannot be followed; National Guards know not how to -act. Centre Grenadiers, of the Observatoire Battalion, are there; not on -duty; alas, in quasi-mutiny; speaking rude disobedient words; threatening -the mounted Guards with sharp shot if they hurt the people. Lafayette -mounts and dismounts; runs haranguing, panting; on the verge of despair. -For an hour and three-quarters; 'seven quarters of an hour,' by the -Tuileries Clock! Desperate Lafayette will open a passage, were it by the -cannon's mouth, if his Majesty will order. Their Majesties, counselled to -it by Royalist friends, by Patriot foes, dismount; and retire in, with -heavy indignant heart; giving up the enterprise. Maison-bouche may eat -that cooked dinner themselves; his Majesty shall not see Saint-Cloud this -day,--or any day. (Deux Amis, vi. c. 1; Hist. Parl. ix. 407-14.) - -The pathetic fable of imprisonment in one's own Palace has become a sad -fact, then? Majesty complains to Assembly; Municipality deliberates, -proposes to petition or address; Sections respond with sullen brevity of -negation. Lafayette flings down his Commission; appears in civic pepper- -and-salt frock; and cannot be flattered back again;--not in less than three -days; and by unheard-of entreaty; National Guards kneeling to him, and -declaring that it is not sycophancy, that they are free men kneeling here -to the Statue of Liberty. For the rest, those Centre Grenadiers of the -Observatoire are disbanded,--yet indeed are reinlisted, all but fourteen, -under a new name, and with new quarters. The King must keep his Easter in -Paris: meditating much on this singular posture of things: but as good as -determined now to fly from it, desire being whetted by difficulty. - - - -Chapter 2.4.II. - -Easter at Paris. - -For above a year, ever since March 1790, it would seem, there has hovered a -project of Flight before the royal mind; and ever and anon has been -condensing itself into something like a purpose; but this or the other -difficulty always vaporised it again. It seems so full of risks, perhaps -of civil war itself; above all, it cannot be done without effort. -Somnolent laziness will not serve: to fly, if not in a leather vache, one -must verily stir himself. Better to adopt that Constitution of theirs; -execute it so as to shew all men that it is inexecutable? Better or not so -good; surely it is easier. To all difficulties you need only say, There is -a lion in the path, behold your Constitution will not act! For a somnolent -person it requires no effort to counterfeit death,--as Dame de Stael and -Friends of Liberty can see the King's Government long doing, faisant le -mort. - -Nay now, when desire whetted by difficulty has brought the matter to a -head, and the royal mind no longer halts between two, what can come of it? -Grant that poor Louis were safe with Bouille, what on the whole could he -look for there? Exasperated Tickets of Entry answer, Much, all. But cold -Reason answers, Little almost nothing. Is not loyalty a law of Nature? ask -the Tickets of Entry. Is not love of your King, and even death for him, -the glory of all Frenchmen,--except these few Democrats? Let Democrat -Constitution-builders see what they will do without their Keystone; and -France rend its hair, having lost the Hereditary Representative! - -Thus will King Louis fly; one sees not reasonably towards what. As a -maltreated Boy, shall we say, who, having a Stepmother, rushes sulky into -the wide world; and will wring the paternal heart?--Poor Louis escapes from -known unsupportable evils, to an unknown mixture of good and evil, coloured -by Hope. He goes, as Rabelais did when dying, to seek a great May-be: je -vais chercher un grand Peut-etre! As not only the sulky Boy but the wise -grown Man is obliged to do, so often, in emergencies. - -For the rest, there is still no lack of stimulants, and stepdame -maltreatments, to keep one's resolution at the due pitch. Factious -disturbance ceases not: as indeed how can they, unless authoritatively -conjured, in a Revolt which is by nature bottomless? If the ceasing of -faction be the price of the King's somnolence, he may awake when he will, -and take wing. - -Remark, in any case, what somersets and contortions a dead Catholicism is -making,--skilfully galvanised: hideous, and even piteous, to behold! -Jurant and Dissident, with their shaved crowns, argue frothing everywhere; -or are ceasing to argue, and stripping for battle. In Paris was scourging -while need continued: contrariwise, in the Morbihan of Brittany, without -scourging, armed Peasants are up, roused by pulpit-drum, they know not why. -General Dumouriez, who has got missioned thitherward, finds all in sour -heat of darkness; finds also that explanation and conciliation will still -do much. (Deux Amis, v. 410-21; Dumouriez, ii. c. 5.) - -But again, consider this: that his Holiness, Pius Sixth, has seen good to -excommunicate Bishop Talleyrand! Surely, we will say then, considering it, -there is no living or dead Church in the Earth that has not the -indubitablest right to excommunicate Talleyrand. Pope Pius has right and -might, in his way. But truly so likewise has Father Adam, ci-devant -Marquis Saint-Huruge, in his way. Behold, therefore, on the Fourth of May, -in the Palais-Royal, a mixed loud-sounding multitude; in the middle of -whom, Father Adam, bull-voiced Saint-Huruge, in white hat, towers visible -and audible. With him, it is said, walks Journalist Gorsas, walk many -others of the washed sort; for no authority will interfere. Pius Sixth, -with his plush and tiara, and power of the Keys, they bear aloft: of -natural size,--made of lath and combustible gum. Royou, the King's Friend, -is borne too in effigy; with a pile of Newspaper King's-Friends, condemned -numbers of the Ami-du-Roi; fit fuel of the sacrifice. Speeches are spoken; -a judgment is held, a doom proclaimed, audible in bull-voice, towards the -four winds. And thus, amid great shouting, the holocaust is consummated, -under the summer sky; and our lath-and-gum Holiness, with the attendant -victims, mounts up in flame, and sinks down in ashes; a decomposed Pope: -and right or might, among all the parties, has better or worse accomplished -itself, as it could. (Hist. Parl. x. 99-102.) But, on the whole, -reckoning from Martin Luther in the Marketplace of Wittenberg to Marquis -Saint-Huruge in this Palais-Royal of Paris, what a journey have we gone; -into what strange territories has it carried us! No Authority can now -interfere. Nay Religion herself, mourning for such things, may after all -ask, What have I to do with them? - -In such extraordinary manner does dead Catholicism somerset and caper, -skilfully galvanised. For, does the reader inquire into the subject-matter -of controversy in this case; what the difference between Orthodoxy or My- -doxy and Heterodoxy or Thy-doxy might here be? My-doxy is that an august -National Assembly can equalize the extent of Bishopricks; that an equalized -Bishop, his Creed and Formularies being left quite as they were, can swear -Fidelity to King, Law and Nation, and so become a Constitutional Bishop. -Thy-doxy, if thou be Dissident, is that he cannot; but that he must become -an accursed thing. Human ill-nature needs but some Homoiousian iota, or -even the pretence of one; and will flow copiously through the eye of a -needle: thus always must mortals go jargoning and fuming, - - And, like the ancient Stoics in their porches - With fierce dispute maintain their churches. - -This Auto-da-fe of Saint-Huruge's was on the Fourth of May, 1791. Royalty -sees it; but says nothing. - - - -Chapter 2.4.III. - -Count Fersen. - -Royalty, in fact, should, by this time, be far on with its preparations. -Unhappily much preparation is needful: could a Hereditary Representative -be carried in leather vache, how easy were it! But it is not so. - -New clothes are needed, as usual, in all Epic transactions, were it in the -grimmest iron ages; consider 'Queen Chrimhilde, with her sixty -semstresses,' in that iron Nibelungen Song! No Queen can stir without new -clothes. Therefore, now, Dame Campan whisks assiduous to this mantua-maker -and to that: and there is clipping of frocks and gowns, upper clothes and -under, great and small; such a clipping and sewing, as might have been -dispensed with. Moreover, her Majesty cannot go a step anywhither without -her Necessaire; dear Necessaire, of inlaid ivory and rosewood; cunningly -devised; which holds perfumes, toilet-implements, infinite small queenlike -furnitures: Necessary to terrestrial life. Not without a cost of some -five hundred louis, of much precious time, and difficult hoodwinking which -does not blind, can this same Necessary of life be forwarded by the -Flanders Carriers,--never to get to hand. (Campan, ii. c. 18.) All which, -you would say, augurs ill for the prospering of the enterprise. But the -whims of women and queens must be humoured. - -Bouille, on his side, is making a fortified Camp at Montmedi; gathering -Royal-Allemand, and all manner of other German and true French Troops -thither, 'to watch the Austrians.' His Majesty will not cross the -Frontiers, unless on compulsion. Neither shall the Emigrants be much -employed, hateful as they are to all people. (Bouille, Memoires, ii. c. -10.) Nor shall old war-god Broglie have any hand in the business; but -solely our brave Bouille; to whom, on the day of meeting, a Marshal's Baton -shall be delivered, by a rescued King, amid the shouting of all the troops. -In the meanwhile, Paris being so suspicious, were it not perhaps good to -write your Foreign Ambassadors an ostensible Constitutional Letter; -desiring all Kings and men to take heed that King Louis loves the -Constitution, that he has voluntarily sworn, and does again swear, to -maintain the same, and will reckon those his enemies who affect to say -otherwise? Such a Constitutional circular is despatched by Couriers, is -communicated confidentially to the Assembly, and printed in all Newspapers; -with the finest effect. (Moniteur, Seance du 23 Avril, 1791.) Simulation -and dissimulation mingle extensively in human affairs. - -We observe, however, that Count Fersen is often using his Ticket of Entry; -which surely he has clear right to do. A gallant Soldier and Swede, -devoted to this fair Queen;--as indeed the Highest Swede now is. Has not -King Gustav, famed fiery Chevalier du Nord, sworn himself, by the old laws -of chivalry, her Knight? He will descend on fire-wings, of Swedish -musketry, and deliver her from these foul dragons,--if, alas, the -assassin's pistol intervene not! - -But, in fact, Count Fersen does seem a likely young soldier, of alert -decisive ways: he circulates widely, seen, unseen; and has business on -hand. Also Colonel the Duke de Choiseul, nephew of Choiseul the great, of -Choiseul the now deceased; he and Engineer Goguelat are passing and -repassing between Metz and the Tuileries; and Letters go in cipher,--one of -them, a most important one, hard to decipher; Fersen having ciphered it in -haste. (Choiseul, Relation du Depart de Louis XVI. (Paris, 1822), p. 39.) -As for Duke de Villequier, he is gone ever since the Day of Poniards; but -his Apartment is useful for her Majesty. - -On the other side, poor Commandment Gouvion, watching at the Tuileries, -second in National Command, sees several things hard to interpret. It is -the same Gouvion who sat, long months ago, at the Townhall, gazing helpless -into that Insurrection of Women; motionless, as the brave stabled steed -when conflagration rises, till Usher Maillard snatched his drum. Sincerer -Patriot there is not; but many a shiftier. He, if Dame Campan gossip -credibly, is paying some similitude of love-court to a certain false -Chambermaid of the Palace, who betrays much to him: the Necessaire, the -clothes, the packing of the jewels, (Campan, ii. 141.)--could he understand -it when betrayed. Helpless Gouvion gazes with sincere glassy eyes into it; -stirs up his sentries to vigilence; walks restless to and fro; and hopes -the best. - -But, on the whole, one finds that, in the second week of June, Colonel de -Choiseul is privately in Paris; having come 'to see his children.' Also -that Fersen has got a stupendous new Coach built, of the kind named -Berline; done by the first artists; according to a model: they bring it -home to him, in Choiseul's presence; the two friends take a proof-drive in -it, along the streets; in meditative mood; then send it up to 'Madame -Sullivan's, in the Rue de Clichy,' far North, to wait there till wanted. -Apparently a certain Russian Baroness de Korff, with Waiting-woman, Valet, -and two Children, will travel homewards with some state: in whom these -young military gentlemen take interest? A Passport has been procured for -her; and much assistance shewn, with Coach-builders and such like;--so -helpful polite are young military men. Fersen has likewise purchased a -Chaise fit for two, at least for two waiting-maids; further, certain -necessary horses: one would say, he is himself quitting France, not without -outlay? We observe finally that their Majesties, Heaven willing, will -assist at Corpus-Christi Day, this blessed Summer Solstice, in Assumption -Church, here at Paris, to the joy of all the world. For which same day, -moreover, brave Bouille, at Metz, as we find, has invited a party of -friends to dinner; but indeed is gone from home, in the interim, over to -Montmedi. - -These are of the Phenomena, or visual Appearances, of this wide-working -terrestrial world: which truly is all phenomenal, what they call spectral; -and never rests at any moment; one never at any moment can know why. - -On Monday night, the Twentieth of June 1791, about eleven o'clock, there is -many a hackney-coach, and glass-coach (carrosse de remise), still rumbling, -or at rest, on the streets of Paris. But of all Glass-coaches, we -recommend this to thee, O Reader, which stands drawn up, in the Rue de -l'Echelle, hard by the Carrousel and outgate of the Tuileries; in the Rue -de l'Echelle that then was; 'opposite Ronsin the saddler's door,' as if -waiting for a fare there! Not long does it wait: a hooded Dame, with two -hooded Children has issued from Villequier's door, where no sentry walks, -into the Tuileries Court-of-Princes; into the Carrousel; into the Rue de -l'Echelle; where the Glass-coachman readily admits them; and again waits. -Not long; another Dame, likewise hooded or shrouded, leaning on a servant, -issues in the same manner, by the Glass-coachman, cheerfully admitted. -Whither go, so many Dames? 'Tis His Majesty's Couchee, Majesty just gone -to bed, and all the Palace-world is retiring home. But the Glass-coachman -still waits; his fare seemingly incomplete. - -By and by, we note a thickset Individual, in round hat and peruke, arm-and- -arm with some servant, seemingly of the Runner or Courier sort; he also -issues through Villequier's door; starts a shoebuckle as he passes one of -the sentries, stoops down to clasp it again; is however, by the Glass- -coachman, still more cheerfully admitted. And now, is his fare complete? -Not yet; the Glass-coachman still waits.--Alas! and the false Chambermaid -has warned Gouvion that she thinks the Royal Family will fly this very -night; and Gouvion distrusting his own glazed eyes, has sent express for -Lafayette; and Lafayette's Carriage, flaring with lights, rolls this moment -through the inner Arch of the Carrousel,--where a Lady shaded in broad -gypsy-hat, and leaning on the arm of a servant, also of the Runner or -Courier sort, stands aside to let it pass, and has even the whim to touch a -spoke of it with her badine,--light little magic rod which she calls -badine, such as the Beautiful then wore. The flare of Lafayette's -Carriage, rolls past: all is found quiet in the Court-of-Princes; sentries -at their post; Majesties' Apartments closed in smooth rest. Your false -Chambermaid must have been mistaken? Watch thou, Gouvion, with Argus' -vigilance; for, of a truth, treachery is within these walls. - -But where is the Lady that stood aside in gypsy hat, and touched the wheel- -spoke with her badine? O Reader, that Lady that touched the wheel-spoke -was the Queen of France! She has issued safe through that inner Arch, into -the Carrousel itself; but not into the Rue de l'Echelle. Flurried by the -rattle and rencounter, she took the right hand not the left; neither she -nor her Courier knows Paris; he indeed is no Courier, but a loyal stupid -ci-devant Bodyguard disguised as one. They are off, quite wrong, over the -Pont Royal and River; roaming disconsolate in the Rue du Bac; far from the -Glass-coachman, who still waits. Waits, with flutter of heart; with -thoughts--which he must button close up, under his jarvie surtout! - -Midnight clangs from all the City-steeples; one precious hour has been -spent so; most mortals are asleep. The Glass-coachman waits; and what -mood! A brother jarvie drives up, enters into conversation; is answered -cheerfully in jarvie dialect: the brothers of the whip exchange a pinch of -snuff; (Weber, ii. 340-2; Choiseul, p. 44-56.) decline drinking together; -and part with good night. Be the Heavens blest! here at length is the -Queen-lady, in gypsy-hat; safe after perils; who has had to inquire her -way. She too is admitted; her Courier jumps aloft, as the other, who is -also a disguised Bodyguard, has done: and now, O Glass-coachman of a -thousand,--Count Fersen, for the Reader sees it is thou,--drive! - -Dust shall not stick to the hoofs of Fersen: crack! crack! the Glass-coach -rattles, and every soul breathes lighter. But is Fersen on the right road? -Northeastward, to the Barrier of Saint-Martin and Metz Highway, thither -were we bound: and lo, he drives right Northward! The royal Individual, -in round hat and peruke, sits astonished; but right or wrong, there is no -remedy. Crack, crack, we go incessant, through the slumbering City. -Seldom, since Paris rose out of mud, or the Longhaired Kings went in -Bullock-carts, was there such a drive. Mortals on each hand of you, close -by, stretched out horizontal, dormant; and we alive and quaking! Crack, -crack, through the Rue de Grammont; across the Boulevard; up the Rue de la -Chaussee d'Antin,--these windows, all silent, of Number 42, were -Mirabeau's. Towards the Barrier not of Saint-Martin, but of Clichy on the -utmost North! Patience, ye royal Individuals; Fersen understands what he -is about. Passing up the Rue de Clichy, he alights for one moment at -Madame Sullivan's: "Did Count Fersen's Coachman get the Baroness de -Korff's new Berline?"--"Gone with it an hour-and-half ago," grumbles -responsive the drowsy Porter.--"C'est bien." Yes, it is well;--though had -not such hour-and half been lost, it were still better. Forth therefore, O -Fersen, fast, by the Barrier de Clichy; then Eastward along the Outward -Boulevard, what horses and whipcord can do! - -Thus Fersen drives, through the ambrosial night. Sleeping Paris is now all -on the right hand of him; silent except for some snoring hum; and now he is -Eastward as far as the Barrier de Saint-Martin; looking earnestly for -Baroness de Korff's Berline. This Heaven's Berline he at length does -descry, drawn up with its six horses, his own German Coachman waiting on -the box. Right, thou good German: now haste, whither thou knowest!--And -as for us of the Glass-coach, haste too, O haste; much time is already -lost! The august Glass-coach fare, six Insides, hastily packs itself into -the new Berline; two Bodyguard Couriers behind. The Glass-coach itself is -turned adrift, its head towards the City; to wander whither it lists,--and -be found next morning tumbled in a ditch. But Fersen is on the new box, -with its brave new hammer-cloths; flourishing his whip; he bolts forward -towards Bondy. There a third and final Bodyguard Courier of ours ought -surely to be, with post-horses ready-ordered. There likewise ought that -purchased Chaise, with the two Waiting-maids and their bandboxes to be; -whom also her Majesty could not travel without. Swift, thou deft Fersen, -and may the Heavens turn it well! - -Once more, by Heaven's blessing, it is all well. Here is the sleeping -Hamlet of Bondy; Chaise with Waiting-women; horses all ready, and -postillions with their churn-boots, impatient in the dewy dawn. Brief -harnessing done, the postillions with their churn-boots vault into the -saddles; brandish circularly their little noisy whips. Fersen, under his -jarvie-surtout, bends in lowly silent reverence of adieu; royal hands wave -speechless in expressible response; Baroness de Korff's Berline, with the -Royalty of France, bounds off: for ever, as it proved. Deft Fersen dashes -obliquely Northward, through the country, towards Bougret; gains Bougret, -finds his German Coachman and chariot waiting there; cracks off, and drives -undiscovered into unknown space. A deft active man, we say; what he -undertook to do is nimbly and successfully done. - -A so the Royalty of France is actually fled? This precious night, the -shortest of the year, it flies and drives! Baroness de Korff is, at -bottom, Dame de Tourzel, Governess of the Royal Children: she who came -hooded with the two hooded little ones; little Dauphin; little Madame -Royale, known long afterwards as Duchess d'Angouleme. Baroness de Korff's -Waiting-maid is the Queen in gypsy-hat. The royal Individual in round hat -and peruke, he is Valet, for the time being. That other hooded Dame, -styled Travelling-companion, is kind Sister Elizabeth; she had sworn, long -since, when the Insurrection of Women was, that only death should part her -and them. And so they rush there, not too impetuously, through the Wood of -Bondy:--over a Rubicon in their own and France's History. - -Great; though the future is all vague! If we reach Bouille? If we do not -reach him? O Louis! and this all round thee is the great slumbering Earth -(and overhead, the great watchful Heaven); the slumbering Wood of Bondy,-- -where Longhaired Childeric Donothing was struck through with iron; -(Henault, Abrege Chronologique, p. 36.) not unreasonably. These peaked -stone-towers are Raincy; towers of wicked d'Orleans. All slumbers save the -multiplex rustle of our new Berline. Loose-skirted scarecrow of an Herb- -merchant, with his ass and early greens, toilsomely plodding, seems the -only creature we meet. But right ahead the great North-East sends up -evermore his gray brindled dawn: from dewy branch, birds here and there, -with short deep warble, salute the coming Sun. Stars fade out, and -Galaxies; Street-lamps of the City of God. The Universe, O my brothers, is -flinging wide its portals for the Levee of the GREAT HIGH KING. Thou, poor -King Louis, farest nevertheless, as mortals do, towards Orient lands of -Hope; and the Tuileries with its Levees, and France and the Earth itself, -is but a larger kind of doghutch,--occasionally going rabid. - - - -Chapter 2.4.IV. - -Attitude. - -But in Paris, at six in the morning; when some Patriot Deputy, warned by a -billet, awoke Lafayette, and they went to the Tuileries?--Imagination may -paint, but words cannot, the surprise of Lafayette; or with what -bewilderment helpless Gouvion rolled glassy Argus's eyes, discerning now -that his false Chambermaid told true! - -However, it is to be recorded that Paris, thanks to an august National -Assembly, did, on this seeming doomsday, surpass itself. Never, according -to Historian eye-witnesses, was there seen such an 'imposing attitude.' -(Deux Amis, vi. 67-178; Toulongeon, ii. 1-38; Camille, Prudhomme and -Editors (in Hist. Parl. x. 240-4.) Sections all 'in permanence;' our -Townhall, too, having first, about ten o'clock, fired three solemn alarm- -cannons: above all, our National Assembly! National Assembly, likewise -permanent, decides what is needful; with unanimous consent, for the Cote -Droit sits dumb, afraid of the Lanterne. Decides with a calm promptitude, -which rises towards the sublime. One must needs vote, for the thing is -self-evident, that his Majesty has been abducted, or spirited away, -'enleve,' by some person or persons unknown: in which case, what will the -Constitution have us do? Let us return to first principles, as we always -say; "revenons aux principes." - -By first or by second principles, much is promptly decided: Ministers are -sent for, instructed how to continue their functions; Lafayette is -examined; and Gouvion, who gives a most helpless account, the best he can. -Letters are found written: one Letter, of immense magnitude; all in his -Majesty's hand, and evidently of his Majesty's own composition; addressed -to the National Assembly. It details, with earnestness, with a childlike -simplicity, what woes his Majesty has suffered. Woes great and small: A -Necker seen applauded, a Majesty not; then insurrection; want of due cash -in Civil List; general want of cash, furniture and order; anarchy -everywhere; Deficit never yet, in the smallest, 'choked or comble:'-- -wherefore in brief His Majesty has retired towards a Place of Liberty; and, -leaving Sanctions, Federation, and what Oaths there may be, to shift for -themselves, does now refer--to what, thinks an august Assembly? To that -'Declaration of the Twenty-third of June,' with its "Seul il fera, He alone -will make his People happy." As if that were not buried, deep enough, -under two irrevocable Twelvemonths, and the wreck and rubbish of a whole -Feudal World! This strange autograph Letter the National Assembly decides -on printing; on transmitting to the Eighty-three Departments, with exegetic -commentary, short but pithy. Commissioners also shall go forth on all -sides; the People be exhorted; the Armies be increased; care taken that the -Commonweal suffer no damage.--And now, with a sublime air of calmness, nay -of indifference, we 'pass to the order of the day!' - -By such sublime calmness, the terror of the People is calmed. These -gleaming Pike forests, which bristled fateful in the early sun, disappear -again; the far-sounding Street-orators cease, or spout milder. We are to -have a civil war; let us have it then. The King is gone; but National -Assembly, but France and we remain. The People also takes a great -attitude; the People also is calm; motionless as a couchant lion. With but -a few broolings, some waggings of the tail; to shew what it will do! -Cazales, for instance, was beset by street-groups, and cries of Lanterne; -but National Patrols easily delivered him. Likewise all King's effigies -and statues, at least stucco ones, get abolished. Even King's names; the -word Roi fades suddenly out of all shop-signs; the Royal Bengal Tiger -itself, on the Boulevards, becomes the National Bengal one, Tigre National. -(Walpoliana.) - -How great is a calm couchant People! On the morrow, men will say to one -another: "We have no King, yet we slept sound enough." On the morrow, -fervent Achille de Chatelet, and Thomas Paine the rebellious Needleman, -shall have the walls of Paris profusely plastered with their Placard; -announcing that there must be a Republic! (Dumont,c. 16.)--Need we add -that Lafayette too, though at first menaced by Pikes, has taken a great -attitude, or indeed the greatest of all? Scouts and Aides-de-camp fly -forth, vague, in quest and pursuit; young Romoeuf towards Valenciennes, -though with small hope. - -Thus Paris; sublimely calmed, in its bereavement. But from the Messageries -Royales, in all Mail-bags, radiates forth far-darting the electric news: -Our Hereditary Representative is flown. Laugh, black Royalists: yet be it -in your sleeve only; lest Patriotism notice, and waxing frantic, lower the -Lanterne! In Paris alone is a sublime National Assembly with its calmness; -truly, other places must take it as they can: with open mouth and eyes; -with panic cackling, with wrath, with conjecture. How each one of those -dull leathern Diligences, with its leathern bag and 'The King is fled,' -furrows up smooth France as it goes; through town and hamlet, ruffles the -smooth public mind into quivering agitation of death-terror; then lumbers -on, as if nothing had happened! Along all highways; towards the utmost -borders; till all France is ruffled,--roughened up (metaphorically -speaking) into one enormous, desperate-minded, red-guggling Turkey Cock! - -For example, it is under cloud of night that the leathern Monster reaches -Nantes; deep sunk in sleep. The word spoken rouses all Patriot men: -General Dumouriez, enveloped in roquelaures, has to descend from his -bedroom; finds the street covered with 'four or five thousand citizens in -their shirts.' (Dumouriez, Memoires, ii. 109.) Here and there a faint -farthing rushlight, hastily kindled; and so many swart-featured haggard -faces, with nightcaps pushed back; and the more or less flowing drapery of -night-shirt: open-mouthed till the General say his word! And overhead, as -always, the Great Bear is turning so quiet round Bootes; steady, -indifferent as the leathern Diligence itself. Take comfort, ye men of -Nantes: Bootes and the steady Bear are turning; ancient Atlantic still -sends his brine, loud-billowing, up your Loire-stream; brandy shall be hot -in the stomach: this is not the Last of the Days, but one before the -Last.--The fools! If they knew what was doing, in these very instants, -also by candle-light, in the far North-East! - -Perhaps we may say the most terrified man in Paris or France is--who thinks -the Reader?--seagreen Robespierre. Double paleness, with the shadow of -gibbets and halters, overcasts the seagreen features: it is too clear to -him that there is to be 'a Saint-Bartholomew of Patriots,' that in four- -and-twenty hours he will not be in life. These horrid anticipations of the -soul he is heard uttering at Petion's; by a notable witness. By Madame -Roland, namely; her whom we saw, last year, radiant at the Lyons -Federation! These four months, the Rolands have been in Paris; arranging -with Assembly Committees the Municipal affairs of Lyons, affairs all sunk -in debt;--communing, the while, as was most natural, with the best Patriots -to be found here, with our Brissots, Petions, Buzots, Robespierres; who -were wont to come to us, says the fair Hostess, four evenings in the week. -They, running about, busier than ever this day, would fain have comforted -the seagreen man: spake of Achille du Chatelet's Placard; of a Journal to -be called The Republican; of preparing men's minds for a Republic. "A -Republic?" said the Seagreen, with one of his dry husky unsportful laughs, -"What is that?" (Madame Roland, ii. 70.) O seagreen Incorruptible, thou -shalt see! - - - -Chapter 2.4.V. - -The New Berline. - -But scouts all this while and aide-de-camps, have flown forth faster than -the leathern Diligences. Young Romoeuf, as we said, was off early towards -Valenciennes: distracted Villagers seize him, as a traitor with a finger -of his own in the plot; drag him back to the Townhall; to the National -Assembly, which speedily grants a new passport. Nay now, that same -scarecrow of an Herb-merchant with his ass has bethought him of the grand -new Berline seen in the Wood of Bondy; and delivered evidence of it: -(Moniteur, &c. (in Hist. Parl. x. 244-313.) Romoeuf, furnished with new -passport, is sent forth with double speed on a hopefuller track; by Bondy, -Claye, and Chalons, towards Metz, to track the new Berline; and gallops a -franc etrier. - -Miserable new Berline! Why could not Royalty go in some old Berline -similar to that of other men? Flying for life, one does not stickle about -his vehicle. Monsieur, in a commonplace travelling-carriage is off -Northwards; Madame, his Princess, in another, with variation of route: -they cross one another while changing horses, without look of recognition; -and reach Flanders, no man questioning them. Precisely in the same manner, -beautiful Princess de Lamballe set off, about the same hour; and will reach -England safe:--would she had continued there! The beautiful, the good, but -the unfortunate; reserved for a frightful end! - -All runs along, unmolested, speedy, except only the new Berline. Huge -leathern vehicle;--huge Argosy, let us say, or Acapulco-ship; with its -heavy stern-boat of Chaise-and-pair; with its three yellow Pilot-boats of -mounted Bodyguard Couriers, rocking aimless round it and ahead of it, to -bewilder, not to guide! It lumbers along, lurchingly with stress, at a -snail's pace; noted of all the world. The Bodyguard Couriers, in their -yellow liveries, go prancing and clattering; loyal but stupid; unacquainted -with all things. Stoppages occur; and breakages to be repaired at Etoges. -King Louis too will dismount, will walk up hills, and enjoy the blessed -sunshine:--with eleven horses and double drink money, and all furtherances -of Nature and Art, it will be found that Royalty, flying for life, -accomplishes Sixty-nine miles in Twenty-two incessant hours. Slow Royalty! -And yet not a minute of these hours but is precious: on minutes hang the -destinies of Royalty now. - -Readers, therefore, can judge in what humour Duke de Choiseul might stand -waiting, in the Village of Pont-de-Sommevelle, some leagues beyond Chalons, -hour after hour, now when the day bends visibly westward. Choiseul drove -out of Paris, in all privity, ten hours before their Majesties' fixed time; -his Hussars, led by Engineer Goguelat, are here duly, come 'to escort a -Treasure that is expected:' but, hour after hour, is no Baroness de -Korff's Berline. Indeed, over all that North-east Region, on the skirts of -Champagne and of Lorraine, where the Great Road runs, the agitation is -considerable. For all along, from this Pont-de-Sommevelle Northeastward as -far as Montmedi, at Post-villages and Towns, escorts of Hussars and -Dragoons do lounge waiting: a train or chain of Military Escorts; at the -Montmedi end of it our brave Bouille: an electric thunder-chain; which the -invisible Bouille, like a Father Jove, holds in his hand--for wise -purposes! Brave Bouille has done what man could; has spread out his -electric thunder-chain of Military Escorts, onwards to the threshold of -Chalons: it waits but for the new Korff Berline; to receive it, escort it, -and, if need be, bear it off in whirlwind of military fire. They lie and -lounge there, we say, these fierce Troopers; from Montmedi and Stenai, -through Clermont, Sainte-Menehould to utmost Pont-de-Sommevelle, in all -Post-villages; for the route shall avoid Verdun and great Towns: they -loiter impatient 'till the Treasure arrive.' - -Judge what a day this is for brave Bouille: perhaps the first day of a new -glorious life; surely the last day of the old! Also, and indeed still -more, what a day, beautiful and terrible, for your young full-blooded -Captains: your Dandoins, Comte de Damas, Duke de Choiseul, Engineer -Goguelat, and the like; entrusted with the secret!--Alas, the day bends -ever more westward; and no Korff Berline comes to sight. It is four hours -beyond the time, and still no Berline. In all Village-streets, Royalist -Captains go lounging, looking often Paris-ward; with face of unconcern, -with heart full of black care: rigorous Quartermasters can hardly keep the -private dragoons from cafes and dramshops. (Declaration du Sieur La Gache -du Regiment Royal-Dragoons (in Choiseul, pp. 125-39.) Dawn on our -bewilderment, thou new Berline; dawn on us, thou Sun-chariot of a new -Berline, with the destinies of France! - -It was of His Majesty's ordering, this military array of Escorts: a thing -solacing the Royal imagination with a look of security and rescue; yet, in -reality, creating only alarm, and where there was otherwise no danger, -danger without end. For each Patriot, in these Post-villages, asks -naturally: This clatter of cavalry, and marching and lounging of troops, -what means it? To escort a Treasure? Why escort, when no Patriot will -steal from the Nation; or where is your Treasure?--There has been such -marching and counter-marching: for it is another fatality, that certain of -these Military Escorts came out so early as yesterday; the Nineteenth not -the Twentieth of the month being the day first appointed, which her -Majesty, for some necessity or other, saw good to alter. And now consider -the suspicious nature of Patriotism; suspicious, above all, of Bouille the -Aristocrat; and how the sour doubting humour has had leave to accumulate -and exacerbate for four-and-twenty hours! - -At Pont-de-Sommevelle, these Forty foreign Hussars of Goguelat and Duke -Choiseul are becoming an unspeakable mystery to all men. They lounged long -enough, already, at Sainte-Menehould; lounged and loitered till our -National Volunteers there, all risen into hot wrath of doubt, 'demanded -three hundred fusils of their Townhall,' and got them. At which same -moment too, as it chanced, our Captain Dandoins was just coming in, from -Clermont with his troop, at the other end of the Village. A fresh troop; -alarming enough; though happily they are only Dragoons and French! So that -Goguelat with his Hussars had to ride, and even to do it fast; till here at -Pont-de-Sommevelle, where Choiseul lay waiting, he found resting-place. -Resting-place, as on burning marle. For the rumour of him flies abroad; -and men run to and fro in fright and anger: Chalons sends forth -exploratory pickets, coming from Sainte-Menehould, on that. What is it, ye -whiskered Hussars, men of foreign guttural speech; in the name of Heaven, -what is it that brings you? A Treasure?--exploratory pickets shake their -heads. The hungry Peasants, however, know too well what Treasure it is: -Military seizure for rents, feudalities; which no Bailiff could make us -pay! This they know;--and set to jingling their Parish-bell by way of -tocsin; with rapid effect! Choiseul and Goguelat, if the whole country is -not to take fire, must needs, be there Berline, be there no Berline, saddle -and ride. - -They mount; and this Parish tocsin happily ceases. They ride slowly -Eastward, towards Sainte-Menehould; still hoping the Sun-Chariot of a -Berline may overtake them. Ah me, no Berline! And near now is that -Sainte-Menehould, which expelled us in the morning, with its 'three hundred -National fusils;' which looks, belike, not too lovingly on Captain Dandoins -and his fresh Dragoons, though only French;--which, in a word, one dare not -enter the second time, under pain of explosion! With rather heavy heart, -our Hussar Party strikes off to the left; through byways, through pathless -hills and woods, they, avoiding Sainte-Menehould and all places which have -seen them heretofore, will make direct for the distant Village of Varennes. -It is probable they will have a rough evening-ride. - -This first military post, therefore, in the long thunder-chain, has gone -off with no effect; or with worse, and your chain threatens to entangle -itself!--The Great Road, however, is got hushed again into a kind of -quietude, though one of the wakefullest. Indolent Dragoons cannot, by any -Quartermaster, be kept altogether from the dramshop; where Patriots drink, -and will even treat, eager enough for news. Captains, in a state near -distraction, beat the dusky highway, with a face of indifference; and no -Sun-Chariot appears. Why lingers it? Incredible, that with eleven horses -and such yellow Couriers and furtherances, its rate should be under the -weightiest dray-rate, some three miles an hour! Alas, one knows not -whether it ever even got out of Paris;--and yet also one knows not whether, -this very moment, it is not at the Village-end! One's heart flutters on -the verge of unutterabilities. - - - -Chapter 2.4.VI. - -Old-Dragoon Drouet. - -In this manner, however, has the Day bent downwards. Wearied mortals are -creeping home from their field-labour; the village-artisan eats with relish -his supper of herbs, or has strolled forth to the village-street for a -sweet mouthful of air and human news. Still summer-eventide everywhere! -The great Sun hangs flaming on the utmost North-West; for it is his longest -day this year. The hill-tops rejoicing will ere long be at their ruddiest, -and blush Good-night. The thrush, in green dells, on long-shadowed leafy -spray, pours gushing his glad serenade, to the babble of brooks grown -audibler; silence is stealing over the Earth. Your dusty Mill of Valmy, as -all other mills and drudgeries, may furl its canvass, and cease swashing -and circling. The swenkt grinders in this Treadmill of an Earth have -ground out another Day; and lounge there, as we say, in village-groups; -movable, or ranked on social stone-seats; (Rapport de M. Remy (in Choiseul, -p. 143.) their children, mischievous imps, sporting about their feet. -Unnotable hum of sweet human gossip rises from this Village of Sainte- -Menehould, as from all other villages. Gossip mostly sweet, unnotable; for -the very Dragoons are French and gallant; nor as yet has the Paris-and- -Verdun Diligence, with its leathern bag, rumbled in, to terrify the minds -of men. - -One figure nevertheless we do note at the last door of the Village: that -figure in loose-flowing nightgown, of Jean Baptiste Drouet, Master of the -Post here. An acrid choleric man, rather dangerous-looking; still in the -prime of life, though he has served, in his time as a Conde Dragoon. This -day from an early hour, Drouet got his choler stirred, and has been kept -fretting. Hussar Goguelat in the morning saw good, by way of thrift, to -bargain with his own Innkeeper, not with Drouet regular Maitre de Poste, -about some gig-horse for the sending back of his gig; which thing Drouet -perceiving came over in red ire, menacing the Inn-keeper, and would not be -appeased. Wholly an unsatisfactory day. For Drouet is an acrid Patriot -too, was at the Paris Feast of Pikes: and what do these Bouille Soldiers -mean? Hussars, with their gig, and a vengeance to it!--have hardly been -thrust out, when Dandoins and his fresh Dragoons arrive from Clermont, and -stroll. For what purpose? Choleric Drouet steps out and steps in, with -long-flowing nightgown; looking abroad, with that sharpness of faculty -which stirred choler gives to man. - -On the other hand, mark Captain Dandoins on the street of that same -Village; sauntering with a face of indifference, a heart eaten of black -care! For no Korff Berline makes its appearance. The great Sun flames -broader towards setting: one's heart flutters on the verge of dread -unutterabilities. - -By Heaven! Here is the yellow Bodyguard Courier; spurring fast, in the -ruddy evening light! Steady, O Dandoins, stand with inscrutable -indifferent face; though the yellow blockhead spurs past the Post-house; -inquires to find it; and stirs the Village, all delighted with his fine -livery.--Lumbering along with its mountains of bandboxes, and Chaise -behind, the Korff Berline rolls in; huge Acapulco-ship with its Cockboat, -having got thus far. The eyes of the Villagers look enlightened, as such -eyes do when a coach-transit, which is an event, occurs for them. -Strolling Dragoons respectfully, so fine are the yellow liveries, bring -hand to helmet; and a lady in gipsy-hat responds with a grace peculiar to -her. (Declaration de la Gache (in Choiseul ubi supra.) Dandoins stands -with folded arms, and what look of indifference and disdainful garrison-air -a man can, while the heart is like leaping out of him. Curled disdainful -moustachio; careless glance,--which however surveys the Village-groups, and -does not like them. With his eye he bespeaks the yellow Courier. Be -quick, be quick! Thick-headed Yellow cannot understand the eye; comes up -mumbling, to ask in words: seen of the Village! - -Nor is Post-master Drouet unobservant, all this while; but steps out and -steps in, with his long-flowing nightgown, in the level sunlight; prying -into several things. When a man's faculties, at the right time, are -sharpened by choler, it may lead to much. That Lady in slouched gypsy-hat, -though sitting back in the Carriage, does she not resemble some one we have -seen, some time;--at the Feast of Pikes, or elsewhere? And this Grosse- -Tete in round hat and peruke, which, looking rearward, pokes itself out -from time to time, methinks there are features in it--? Quick, Sieur -Guillaume, Clerk of the Directoire, bring me a new Assignat! Drouet scans -the new Assignat; compares the Paper-money Picture with the Gross-Head in -round hat there: by Day and Night! you might say the one was an attempted -Engraving of the other. And this march of Troops; this sauntering and -whispering,--I see it! - -Drouet Post-master of this Village, hot Patriot, Old Dragoon of Conde, -consider, therefore, what thou wilt do. And fast: for behold the new -Berline, expeditiously yoked, cracks whipcord, and rolls away!--Drouet dare -not, on the spur of the instant, clutch the bridles in his own two hands; -Dandoins, with broadsword, might hew you off. Our poor Nationals, not one -of them here, have three hundred fusils but then no powder; besides one is -not sure, only morally-certain. Drouet, as an adroit Old-Dragoon of Conde -does what is advisablest: privily bespeaks Clerk Guillaume, Old-Dragoon of -Conde he too; privily, while Clerk Guillaume is saddling two of the -fleetest horses, slips over to the Townhall to whisper a word; then mounts -with Clerk Guillaume; and the two bound eastward in pursuit, to see what -can be done. - -They bound eastward, in sharp trot; their moral-certainty permeating the -Village, from the Townhall outwards, in busy whispers. Alas! Captain -Dandoins orders his Dragoons to mount; but they, complaining of long fast, -demand bread-and-cheese first;--before which brief repast can be eaten, the -whole Village is permeated; not whispering now, but blustering and -shrieking! National Volunteers, in hurried muster, shriek for gunpowder; -Dragoons halt between Patriotism and Rule of the Service, between bread and -cheese and fixed bayonets: Dandoins hands secretly his Pocket-book, with -its secret despatches, to the rigorous Quartermaster: the very Ostlers -have stable-forks and flails. The rigorous Quartermaster, half-saddled, -cuts out his way with the sword's edge, amid levelled bayonets, amid -Patriot vociferations, adjurations, flail-strokes; and rides frantic; -(Declaration de La Gache (in Choiseul), p. 134.)--few or even none -following him; the rest, so sweetly constrained consenting to stay there. - -And thus the new Berline rolls; and Drouet and Guillaume gallop after it, -and Dandoins's Troopers or Trooper gallops after them; and Sainte- -Menehould, with some leagues of the King's Highway, is in explosion;--and -your Military thunder-chain has gone off in a self-destructive manner; one -may fear with the frightfullest issues! - - - -Chapter 2.4.VII. - -The Night of Spurs. - -This comes of mysterious Escorts, and a new Berline with eleven horses: -'he that has a secret should not only hide it, but hide that he has it to -hide.' Your first Military Escort has exploded self-destructive; and all -Military Escorts, and a suspicious Country will now be up, explosive; -comparable not to victorious thunder. Comparable, say rather, to the first -stirring of an Alpine Avalanche; which, once stir it, as here at Sainte- -Menehould, will spread,--all round, and on and on, as far as Stenai; -thundering with wild ruin, till Patriot Villagers, Peasantry, Military -Escorts, new Berline and Royalty are down,--jumbling in the Abyss! - -The thick shades of Night are falling. Postillions crack the whip: the -Royal Berline is through Clermont, where Colonel Comte de Damas got a word -whispered to it; is safe through, towards Varennes; rushing at the rate of -double drink-money: an Unknown 'Inconnu on horseback' shrieks earnestly -some hoarse whisper, not audible, into the rushing Carriage-window, and -vanishes, left in the night. (Campan, ii. 159.) August Travellers -palpitate; nevertheless overwearied Nature sinks every one of them into a -kind of sleep. Alas, and Drouet and Clerk Guillaume spur; taking side- -roads, for shortness, for safety; scattering abroad that moral-certainty of -theirs; which flies, a bird of the air carrying it! - -And your rigorous Quartermaster spurs; awakening hoarse trumpet-tone, as -here at Clermont, calling out Dragoons gone to bed. Brave Colonel de Damas -has them mounted, in part, these Clermont men; young Cornet Remy dashes off -with a few. But the Patriot Magistracy is out here at Clermont too; -National Guards shrieking for ball-cartridges; and the Village 'illuminates -itself;'--deft Patriots springing out of bed; alertly, in shirt or shift, -striking a light; sticking up each his farthing candle, or penurious oil- -cruise, till all glitters and glimmers; so deft are they! A camisado, or -shirt-tumult, every where: stormbell set a-ringing; village-drum beating -furious generale, as here at Clermont, under illumination; distracted -Patriots pleading and menacing! Brave young Colonel de Damas, in that -uproar of distracted Patriotism, speaks some fire-sentences to what -Troopers he has: "Comrades insulted at Sainte-Menehould; King and Country -calling on the brave;" then gives the fire-word, Draw swords. Whereupon, -alas, the Troopers only smite their sword-handles, driving them further -home! "To me, whoever is for the King!" cries Damas in despair; and -gallops, he with some poor loyal Two, of the subaltern sort, into the bosom -of the Night. (Proces-verbal du Directoire de Clermont (in Choiseul, p. -189-95).) - -Night unexampled in the Clermontais; shortest of the year; remarkablest of -the century: Night deserving to be named of Spurs! Cornet Remy, and those -Few he dashed off with, has missed his road; is galloping for hours towards -Verdun; then, for hours, across hedged country, through roused hamlets, -towards Varennes. Unlucky Cornet Remy; unluckier Colonel Damas, with whom -there ride desperate only some loyal Two! More ride not of that Clermont -Escort: of other Escorts, in other Villages, not even Two may ride; but -only all curvet and prance,--impeded by stormbell and your Village -illuminating itself. - -And Drouet rides and Clerk Guillaume; and the Country runs.--Goguelat and -Duke Choiseul are plunging through morasses, over cliffs, over stock and -stone, in the shaggy woods of the Clermontais; by tracks; or trackless, -with guides; Hussars tumbling into pitfalls, and lying 'swooned three -quarters of an hour,' the rest refusing to march without them. What an -evening-ride from Pont-de-Sommerville; what a thirty hours, since Choiseul -quitted Paris, with Queen's-valet Leonard in the chaise by him! Black Care -sits behind the rider. Thus go they plunging; rustle the owlet from his -branchy nest; champ the sweet-scented forest-herb, queen-of-the-meadows -spilling her spikenard; and frighten the ear of Night. But hark! towards -twelve o'clock, as one guesses, for the very stars are gone out: sound of -the tocsin from Varennes? Checking bridle, the Hussar Officer listens: -"Some fire undoubtedly!"--yet rides on, with double breathlessness, to -verify. - -Yes, gallant friends that do your utmost, it is a certain sort of fire: -difficult to quench.--The Korff Berline, fairly ahead of all this riding -Avalanche, reached the little paltry Village of Varennes about eleven -o'clock; hopeful, in spite of that horse-whispering Unknown. Do not all -towns now lie behind us; Verdun avoided, on our right? Within wind of -Bouille himself, in a manner; and the darkest of midsummer nights favouring -us! And so we halt on the hill-top at the South end of the Village; -expecting our relay; which young Bouille, Bouille's own son, with his -Escort of Hussars, was to have ready; for in this Village is no Post. -Distracting to think of: neither horse nor Hussar is here! Ah, and stout -horses, a proper relay belonging to Duke Choiseul, do stand at hay, but in -the Upper Village over the Bridge; and we know not of them. Hussars -likewise do wait, but drinking in the taverns. For indeed it is six hours -beyond the time; young Bouille, silly stripling, thinking the matter over -for this night, has retired to bed. And so our yellow Couriers, -inexperienced, must rove, groping, bungling, through a Village mostly -asleep: Postillions will not, for any money, go on with the tired horses; -not at least without refreshment; not they, let the Valet in round hat -argue as he likes. - -Miserable! 'For five-and-thirty minutes' by the King's watch, the Berline -is at a dead stand; Round-hat arguing with Churnboots; tired horses -slobbering their meal-and-water; yellow Couriers groping, bungling;--young -Bouille asleep, all the while, in the Upper Village, and Choiseul's fine -team standing there at hay. No help for it; not with a King's ransom: the -horses deliberately slobber, Round-hat argues, Bouille sleeps. And mark -now, in the thick night, do not two Horsemen, with jaded trot, come clank- -clanking; and start with half-pause, if one noticed them, at sight of this -dim mass of a Berline, and its dull slobbering and arguing; then prick off -faster, into the Village? It is Drouet, he and Clerk Guillaume! Still -ahead, they two, of the whole riding hurlyburly; unshot, though some brag -of having chased them. Perilous is Drouet's errand also; but he is an Old- -Dragoon, with his wits shaken thoroughly awake. - -The Village of Varennes lies dark and slumberous; a most unlevel Village, -of inverse saddle-shape, as men write. It sleeps; the rushing of the River -Aire singing lullaby to it. Nevertheless from the Golden Arms, Bras d'Or -Tavern, across that sloping marketplace, there still comes shine of social -light; comes voice of rude drovers, or the like, who have not yet taken the -stirrup-cup; Boniface Le Blanc, in white apron, serving them: cheerful to -behold. To this Bras d'Or, Drouet enters, alacrity looking through his -eyes: he nudges Boniface, in all privacy, "Camarade, es tu bon Patriote, -Art thou a good Patriot?"--"Si je suis!" answers Boniface.--"In that case," -eagerly whispers Drouet--what whisper is needful, heard of Boniface alone. -(Deux Amis, vi. 139-78.) - -And now see Boniface Le Blanc bustling, as he never did for the jolliest -toper. See Drouet and Guillaume, dexterous Old-Dragoons, instantly down -blocking the Bridge, with a 'furniture waggon they find there,' with -whatever waggons, tumbrils, barrels, barrows their hands can lay hold of;-- -till no carriage can pass. Then swiftly, the Bridge once blocked, see them -take station hard by, under Varennes Archway: joined by Le Blanc, Le -Blanc's Brother, and one or two alert Patriots he has roused. Some half- -dozen in all, with National Muskets, they stand close, waiting under the -Archway, till that same Korff Berline rumble up. - -It rumbles up: Alte la! lanterns flash out from under coat-skirts, bridles -chuck in strong fists, two National Muskets level themselves fore and aft -through the two Coach-doors: "Mesdames, your Passports?"--Alas! Alas! -Sieur Sausse, Procureur of the Township, Tallow-chandler also and Grocer is -there, with official grocer-politeness; Drouet with fierce logic and ready -wit:--The respected Travelling Party, be it Baroness de Korff's, or persons -of still higher consequence, will perhaps please to rest itself in M. -Sausse's till the dawn strike up! - -O Louis; O hapless Marie-Antoinette, fated to pass thy life with such men! -Phlegmatic Louis, art thou but lazy semi-animate phlegm then, to the centre -of thee? King, Captain-General, Sovereign Frank! If thy heart ever -formed, since it began beating under the name of heart, any resolution at -all, be it now then, or never in this world: "Violent nocturnal -individuals, and if it were persons of high consequence? And if it were -the King himself? Has the King not the power, which all beggars have, of -travelling unmolested on his own Highway? Yes: it is the King; and -tremble ye to know it! The King has said, in this one small matter; and in -France, or under God's Throne, is no power that shall gainsay. Not the -King shall ye stop here under this your miserable Archway; but his dead -body only, and answer it to Heaven and Earth. To me, Bodyguards: -Postillions, en avant!"--One fancies in that case the pale paralysis of -these two Le Blanc musketeers; the drooping of Drouet's under-jaw; and how -Procureur Sausse had melted like tallow in furnace-heat: Louis faring on; -in some few steps awakening Young Bouille, awakening relays and hussars: -triumphant entry, with cavalcading high-brandishing Escort, and Escorts, -into Montmedi; and the whole course of French History different! - -Alas, it was not in the poor phlegmatic man. Had it been in him, French -History had never come under this Varennes Archway to decide itself.--He -steps out; all step out. Procureur Sausse gives his grocer-arms to the -Queen and Sister Elizabeth; Majesty taking the two children by the hand. -And thus they walk, coolly back, over the Marketplace, to Procureur -Sausse's; mount into his small upper story; where straightway his Majesty -'demands refreshments.' Demands refreshments, as is written; gets bread- -and-cheese with a bottle of Burgundy; and remarks, that it is the best -Burgundy he ever drank! - -Meanwhile, the Varennes Notables, and all men, official, and non-official, -are hastily drawing on their breeches; getting their fighting-gear. -Mortals half-dressed tumble out barrels, lay felled trees; scouts dart off -to all the four winds,--the tocsin begins clanging, 'the Village -illuminates itself.' Very singular: how these little Villages do manage, -so adroit are they, when startled in midnight alarm of war. Like little -adroit municipal rattle-snakes, suddenly awakened: for their stormbell -rattles and rings; their eyes glisten luminous (with tallow-light), as in -rattle-snake ire; and the Village will sting! Old-Dragoon Drouet is our -engineer and generalissimo; valiant as a Ruy Diaz:--Now or never, ye -Patriots, for the Soldiery is coming; massacre by Austrians, by -Aristocrats, wars more than civil, it all depends on you and the hour!-- -National Guards rank themselves, half-buttoned: mortals, we say, still -only in breeches, in under-petticoat, tumble out barrels and lumber, lay -felled trees for barricades: the Village will sting. Rabid Democracy, it -would seem, is not confined to Paris, then? Ah no, whatsoever Courtiers -might talk; too clearly no. This of dying for one's King is grown into a -dying for one's self, against the King, if need be. - -And so our riding and running Avalanche and Hurlyburly has reached the -Abyss, Korff Berline foremost; and may pour itself thither, and jumble: -endless! For the next six hours, need we ask if there was a clattering far -and wide? Clattering and tocsining and hot tumult, over all the -Clermontais, spreading through the Three Bishopricks: Dragoon and Hussar -Troops galloping on roads and no-roads; National Guards arming and starting -in the dead of night; tocsin after tocsin transmitting the alarm. In some -forty minutes, Goguelat and Choiseul, with their wearied Hussars, reach -Varennes. Ah, it is no fire then; or a fire difficult to quench! They -leap the tree-barricades, in spite of National serjeant; they enter the -village, Choiseul instructing his Troopers how the matter really is; who -respond interjectionally, in their guttural dialect, "Der Konig; die -Koniginn!" and seem stanch. These now, in their stanch humour, will, for -one thing, beset Procureur Sausse's house. Most beneficial: had not -Drouet stormfully ordered otherwise; and even bellowed, in his extremity, -"Cannoneers to your guns!"--two old honey-combed Field-pieces, empty of all -but cobwebs; the rattle whereof, as the Cannoneers with assured countenance -trundled them up, did nevertheless abate the Hussar ardour, and produce a -respectfuller ranking further back. Jugs of wine, handed over the ranks, -for the German throat too has sensibility, will complete the business. -When Engineer Goguelat, some hour or so afterwards, steps forth, the -response to him is--a hiccuping Vive la Nation! - -What boots it? Goguelat, Choiseul, now also Count Damas, and all the -Varennes Officiality are with the King; and the King can give no order, -form no opinion; but sits there, as he has ever done, like clay on potter's -wheel; perhaps the absurdest of all pitiable and pardonable clay-figures -that now circle under the Moon. He will go on, next morning, and take the -National Guard with him; Sausse permitting! Hapless Queen: with her two -children laid there on the mean bed, old Mother Sausse kneeling to Heaven, -with tears and an audible prayer, to bless them; imperial Marie-Antoinette -near kneeling to Son Sausse and Wife Sausse, amid candle-boxes and treacle- -barrels,--in vain! There are Three-thousand National Guards got in; before -long they will count Ten-thousand; tocsins spreading like fire on dry -heath, or far faster. - -Young Bouille, roused by this Varennes tocsin, has taken horse, and--fled -towards his Father. Thitherward also rides, in an almost hysterically -desperate manner, a certain Sieur Aubriot, Choiseul's Orderly; swimming -dark rivers, our Bridge being blocked; spurring as if the Hell-hunt were at -his heels. (Rapport de M. Aubriot (Choiseul, p. 150-7.) Through the -village of Dun, he, galloping still on, scatters the alarm; at Dun, brave -Captain Deslons and his Escort of a Hundred, saddle and ride. Deslons too -gets into Varennes; leaving his Hundred outside, at the tree-barricade; -offers to cut King Louis out, if he will order it: but unfortunately "the -work will prove hot;" whereupon King Louis has "no orders to give." -(Extrait d'un Rapport de M. Deslons (Choiseul, p. 164-7.) - -And so the tocsin clangs, and Dragoons gallop; and can do nothing, having -gallopped: National Guards stream in like the gathering of ravens: your -exploding Thunder-chain, falling Avalanche, or what else we liken it to, -does play, with a vengeance,--up now as far as Stenai and Bouille himself. -(Bouille, ii. 74-6.) Brave Bouille, son of the whirlwind, he saddles Royal -Allemand; speaks fire-words, kindling heart and eyes; distributes twenty- -five gold-louis a company:--Ride, Royal-Allemand, long-famed: no Tuileries -Charge and Necker-Orleans Bust-Procession; a very King made captive, and -world all to win!--Such is the Night deserving to be named of Spurs. - -At six o'clock two things have happened. Lafayette's Aide-de-camp, -Romoeuf, riding a franc etrier, on that old Herb-merchant's route, -quickened during the last stages, has got to Varennes; where the Ten -thousand now furiously demand, with fury of panic terror, that Royalty -shall forthwith return Paris-ward, that there be not infinite bloodshed. -Also, on the other side, 'English Tom,' Choiseul's jokei, flying with that -Choiseul relay, has met Bouille on the heights of Dun; the adamantine brow -flushed with dark thunder; thunderous rattle of Royal Allemand at his -heels. English Tom answers as he can the brief question, How it is at -Varennes?--then asks in turn what he, English Tom, with M. de Choiseul's -horses, is to do, and whither to ride?--To the Bottomless Pool! answers a -thunder-voice; then again speaking and spurring, orders Royal Allemand to -the gallop; and vanishes, swearing (en jurant). (Declaration du Sieur -Thomas (in Choiseul, p. 188).) 'Tis the last of our brave Bouille. Within -sight of Varennes, he having drawn bridle, calls a council of officers; -finds that it is in vain. King Louis has departed, consenting: amid the -clangour of universal stormbell; amid the tramp of Ten thousand armed men, -already arrived; and say, of Sixty thousand flocking thither. Brave -Deslons, even without 'orders,' darted at the River Aire with his Hundred! -(Weber, ii. 386.) swam one branch of it, could not the other; and stood -there, dripping and panting, with inflated nostril; the Ten thousand -answering him with a shout of mockery, the new Berline lumbering Paris-ward -its weary inevitable way. No help, then in Earth; nor in an age, not of -miracles, in Heaven! - -That night, 'Marquis de Bouille and twenty-one more of us rode over the -Frontiers; the Bernardine monks at Orval in Luxemburg gave us supper and -lodging.' (Aubriot, ut supra, p. 158.) With little of speech, Bouille -rides; with thoughts that do not brook speech. Northward, towards -uncertainty, and the Cimmerian Night: towards West-Indian Isles, for with -thin Emigrant delirium the son of the whirlwind cannot act; towards -England, towards premature Stoical death; not towards France any more. -Honour to the Brave; who, be it in this quarrel or in that, is a substance -and articulate-speaking piece of Human Valour, not a fanfaronading hollow -Spectrum and squeaking and gibbering Shadow! One of the few Royalist -Chief-actors this Bouille, of whom so much can be said. - -The brave Bouille too, then, vanishes from the tissue of our Story. Story -and tissue, faint ineffectual Emblem of that grand Miraculous Tissue, and -Living Tapestry named French Revolution, which did weave itself then in -very fact, 'on the loud-sounding 'LOOM OF TIME!' The old Brave drop out -from it, with their strivings; and new acrid Drouets, of new strivings and -colour, come in:--as is the manner of that weaving. - - - -Chapter 2.4.VIII. - -The Return. - -So then our grand Royalist Plot, of Flight to Metz, has executed itself. -Long hovering in the background, as a dread royal ultimatum, it has rushed -forward in its terrors: verily to some purpose. How many Royalist Plots -and Projects, one after another, cunningly-devised, that were to explode -like powder-mines and thunderclaps; not one solitary Plot of which has -issued otherwise! Powder-mine of a Seance Royale on the Twenty-third of -June 1789, which exploded as we then said, 'through the touchhole;' which -next, your wargod Broglie having reloaded it, brought a Bastille about your -ears. Then came fervent Opera-Repast, with flourishing of sabres, and O -Richard, O my King; which, aided by Hunger, produces Insurrection of Women, -and Pallas Athene in the shape of Demoiselle Theroigne. Valour profits -not; neither has fortune smiled on Fanfaronade. The Bouille Armament ends -as the Broglie one had done. Man after man spends himself in this cause, -only to work it quicker ruin; it seems a cause doomed, forsaken of Earth -and Heaven. - -On the Sixth of October gone a year, King Louis, escorted by Demoiselle -Theroigne and some two hundred thousand, made a Royal Progress and Entrance -into Paris, such as man had never witnessed: we prophesied him Two more -such; and accordingly another of them, after this Flight to Metz, is now -coming to pass. Theroigne will not escort here, neither does Mirabeau now -'sit in one of the accompanying carriages.' Mirabeau lies dead, in the -Pantheon of Great Men. Theroigne lies living, in dark Austrian Prison; -having gone to Liege, professionally, and been seized there. Bemurmured -now by the hoarse-flowing Danube; the light of her Patriot Supper-Parties -gone quite out; so lies Theroigne: she shall speak with the Kaiser face to -face, and return. And France lies how! Fleeting Time shears down the -great and the little; and in two years alters many things. - -But at all events, here, we say, is a second Ignominious Royal Procession, -though much altered; to be witnessed also by its hundreds of thousands. -Patience, ye Paris Patriots; the Royal Berline is returning. Not till -Saturday: for the Royal Berline travels by slow stages; amid such loud- -voiced confluent sea of National Guards, sixty thousand as they count; amid -such tumult of all people. Three National-Assembly Commissioners, famed -Barnave, famed Petion, generally-respectable Latour-Maubourg, have gone to -meet it; of whom the two former ride in the Berline itself beside Majesty, -day after day. Latour, as a mere respectability, and man of whom all men -speak well, can ride in the rear, with Dame Tourzel and the Soubrettes. - -So on Saturday evening, about seven o'clock, Paris by hundreds of thousands -is again drawn up: not now dancing the tricolor joy-dance of hope; nor as -yet dancing in fury-dance of hate and revenge; but in silence, with vague -look of conjecture and curiosity mostly scientific. A Sainte-Antoine -Placard has given notice this morning that 'whosoever insults Louis shall -be caned, whosoever applauds him shall be hanged.' Behold then, at last, -that wonderful New Berline; encircled by blue National sea with fixed -bayonets, which flows slowly, floating it on, through the silent assembled -hundreds of thousands. Three yellow Couriers sit atop bound with ropes; -Petion, Barnave, their Majesties, with Sister Elizabeth, and the Children -of France, are within. - -Smile of embarrassment, or cloud of dull sourness, is on the broad -phlegmatic face of his Majesty: who keeps declaring to the successive -Official-persons, what is evident, "Eh bien, me voila, Well, here you have -me;" and what is not evident, "I do assure you I did not mean to pass the -frontiers;" and so forth: speeches natural for that poor Royal man; which -Decency would veil. Silent is her Majesty, with a look of grief and scorn; -natural for that Royal Woman. Thus lumbers and creeps the ignominious -Royal Procession, through many streets, amid a silent-gazing people: -comparable, Mercier thinks, (Nouveau Paris, iii. 22.) to some Procession de -Roi de Bazoche; or say, Procession of King Crispin, with his Dukes of -Sutor-mania and royal blazonry of Cordwainery. Except indeed that this is -not comic; ah no, it is comico-tragic; with bound Couriers, and a Doom -hanging over it; most fantastic, yet most miserably real. Miserablest -flebile ludibrium of a Pickleherring Tragedy! It sweeps along there, in -most ungorgeous pall, through many streets, in the dusty summer evening; -gets itself at length wriggled out of sight; vanishing in the Tuileries -Palace--towards its doom, of slow torture, peine forte et dure. - -Populace, it is true, seizes the three rope-bound yellow Couriers; will at -least massacre them. But our august Assembly, which is sitting at this -great moment, sends out Deputation of rescue; and the whole is got huddled -up. Barnave, 'all dusty,' is already there, in the National Hall; making -brief discreet address and report. As indeed, through the whole journey, -this Barnave has been most discreet, sympathetic; and has gained the -Queen's trust, whose noble instinct teaches her always who is to be -trusted. Very different from heavy Petion; who, if Campan speak truth, ate -his luncheon, comfortably filled his wine-glass, in the Royal Berline; -flung out his chicken-bones past the nose of Royalty itself; and, on the -King's saying "France cannot be a Republic," answered "No, it is not ripe -yet." Barnave is henceforth a Queen's adviser, if advice could profit: -and her Majesty astonishes Dame Campan by signifying almost a regard for -Barnave: and that, in a day of retribution and Royal triumph, Barnave -shall not be executed. (Campan, ii. c. 18.) - -On Monday night Royalty went; on Saturday evening it returns: so much, -within one short week, has Royalty accomplished for itself. The -Pickleherring Tragedy has vanished in the Tuileries Palace, towards 'pain -strong and hard.' Watched, fettered, and humbled, as Royalty never was. -Watched even in its sleeping-apartments and inmost recesses: for it has to -sleep with door set ajar, blue National Argus watching, his eye fixed on -the Queen's curtains; nay, on one occasion, as the Queen cannot sleep, he -offers to sit by her pillow, and converse a little! (Ibid. ii. 149.) - - - -Chapter 2.4.IX. - -Sharp Shot. - -In regard to all which, this most pressing question arises: What is to be -done with it? "Depose it!" resolutely answer Robespierre and the -thoroughgoing few. For truly, with a King who runs away, and needs to be -watched in his very bedroom that he may stay and govern you, what other -reasonable thing can be done? Had Philippe d'Orleans not been a caput -mortuum! But of him, known as one defunct, no man now dreams. "Depose it -not; say that it is inviolable, that it was spirited away, was enleve; at -any cost of sophistry and solecism, reestablish it!" so answer with loud -vehemence all manner of Constitutional Royalists; as all your Pure -Royalists do naturally likewise, with low vehemence, and rage compressed by -fear, still more passionately answer. Nay Barnave and the two Lameths, and -what will follow them, do likewise answer so. Answer, with their whole -might: terror-struck at the unknown Abysses on the verge of which, driven -thither by themselves mainly, all now reels, ready to plunge. - -By mighty effort and combination this latter course, of reestablish it, is -the course fixed on; and it shall by the strong arm, if not by the clearest -logic, be made good. With the sacrifice of all their hard-earned -popularity, this notable Triumvirate, says Toulongeon, 'set the Throne up -again, which they had so toiled to overturn: as one might set up an -overturned pyramid, on its vertex; to stand so long as it is held.' - -Unhappy France; unhappy in King, Queen, and Constitution; one knows not in -which unhappiest! Was the meaning of our so glorious French Revolution -this, and no other, That when Shams and Delusions, long soul-killing, had -become body-killing, and got the length of Bankruptcy and Inanition, a -great People rose and, with one voice, said, in the Name of the Highest: -Shams shall be no more? So many sorrows and bloody horrors, endured, and -to be yet endured through dismal coming centuries, were they not the heavy -price paid and payable for this same: Total Destruction of Shams from -among men? And now, O Barnave Triumvirate! is it in such double-distilled -Delusion, and Sham even of a Sham, that an Effort of this kind will rest -acquiescent? Messieurs of the popular Triumvirate: Never! But, after -all, what can poor popular Triumvirates and fallible august Senators do? -They can, when the Truth is all too-horrible, stick their heads ostrich- -like into what sheltering Fallacy is nearest: and wait there, a -posteriori! - -Readers who saw the Clermontais and Three-Bishopricks gallop, in the Night -of Spurs; Diligences ruffling up all France into one terrific terrified -Cock of India; and the Town of Nantes in its shirt,--may fancy what an -affair to settle this was. Robespierre, on the extreme Left, with perhaps -Petion and lean old Goupil, for the very Triumvirate has defalcated, are -shrieking hoarse; drowned in Constitutional clamour. But the debate and -arguing of a whole Nation; the bellowings through all Journals, for and -against; the reverberant voice of Danton; the Hyperion-shafts of Camille; -the porcupine-quills of implacable Marat:--conceive all this. - -Constitutionalists in a body, as we often predicted, do now recede from the -Mother Society, and become Feuillans; threatening her with inanition, the -rank and respectability being mostly gone. Petition after Petition, -forwarded by Post, or borne in Deputation, comes praying for Judgment and -Decheance, which is our name for Deposition; praying, at lowest, for -Reference to the Eighty-three Departments of France. Hot Marseillese -Deputation comes declaring, among other things: "Our Phocean Ancestors -flung a Bar of Iron into the Bay at their first landing; this Bar will -float again on the Mediterranean brine before we consent to be slaves." -All this for four weeks or more, while the matter still hangs doubtful; -Emigration streaming with double violence over the frontiers; (Bouille, ii. -101.) France seething in fierce agitation of this question and prize- -question: What is to be done with the fugitive Hereditary Representative? - -Finally, on Friday the 15th of July 1791, the National Assembly decides; in -what negatory manner we know. Whereupon the Theatres all close, the -Bourne-stones and Portable-chairs begin spouting, Municipal Placards -flaming on the walls, and Proclamations published by sound of trumpet, -'invite to repose;' with small effect. And so, on Sunday the 17th, there -shall be a thing seen, worthy of remembering. Scroll of a Petition, drawn -up by Brissots, Dantons, by Cordeliers, Jacobins; for the thing was -infinitely shaken and manipulated, and many had a hand in it: such Scroll -lies now visible, on the wooden framework of the Fatherland's Altar, for -signature. Unworking Paris, male and female, is crowding thither, all day, -to sign or to see. Our fair Roland herself the eye of History can discern -there, 'in the morning;' (Madame Roland, ii. 74.) not without interest. In -few weeks the fair Patriot will quit Paris; yet perhaps only to return. - -But, what with sorrow of baulked Patriotism, what with closed theatres, and -Proclamations still publishing themselves by sound of trumpet, the fervour -of men's minds, this day, is great. Nay, over and above, there has fallen -out an incident, of the nature of Farce-Tragedy and Riddle; enough to -stimulate all creatures. Early in the day, a Patriot (or some say, it was -a Patriotess, and indeed Truth is undiscoverable), while standing on the -firm deal-board of Fatherland's Altar, feels suddenly, with indescribable -torpedo-shock of amazement, his bootsole pricked through from below; he -clutches up suddenly this electrified bootsole and foot; discerns next -instant--the point of a gimlet or brad-awl playing up, through the firm -deal-board, and now hastily drawing itself back! Mystery, perhaps Treason? -The wooden frame-work is impetuously broken up; and behold, verily a -mystery; never explicable fully to the end of the world! Two human -individuals, of mean aspect, one of them with a wooden leg, lie ensconced -there, gimlet in hand: they must have come in overnight; they have a -supply of provisions,--no 'barrel of gunpowder' that one can see; they -affect to be asleep; look blank enough, and give the lamest account of -themselves. "Mere curiosity; they were boring up to get an eye-hole; to -see, perhaps 'with lubricity,' whatsoever, from that new point of vision, -could be seen:"--little that was edifying, one would think! But indeed -what stupidest thing may not human Dulness, Pruriency, Lubricity, Chance -and the Devil, choosing Two out of Half-a-million idle human heads, tempt -them to? (Hist. Parl. xi. 104-7.) - -Sure enough, the two human individuals with their gimlet are there. Ill- -starred pair of individuals! For the result of it all is that Patriotism, -fretting itself, in this state of nervous excitability, with hypotheses, -suspicions and reports, keeps questioning these two distracted human -individuals, and again questioning them; claps them into the nearest -Guardhouse, clutches them out again; one hypothetic group snatching them -from another: till finally, in such extreme state of nervous excitability, -Patriotism hangs them as spies of Sieur Motier; and the life and secret is -choked out of them forevermore. Forevermore, alas! Or is a day to be -looked for when these two evidently mean individuals, who are human -nevertheless, will become Historical Riddles; and, like him of the Iron -Mask (also a human individual, and evidently nothing more),--have their -Dissertations? To us this only is certain, that they had a gimlet, -provisions and a wooden leg; and have died there on the Lanterne, as the -unluckiest fools might die. - -And so the signature goes on, in a still more excited manner. And -Chaumette, for Antiquarians possess the very Paper to this hour, (Ibid. xi. -113, &c.)--has signed himself 'in a flowing saucy hand slightly leaned;' -and Hebert, detestable Pere Duchene, as if 'an inked spider had dropped on -the paper;' Usher Maillard also has signed, and many Crosses, which cannot -write. And Paris, through its thousand avenues, is welling to the Champ- -de-Mars and from it, in the utmost excitability of humour; central -Fatherland's Altar quite heaped with signing Patriots and Patriotesses; the -Thirty-benches and whole internal Space crowded with onlookers, with comers -and goers; one regurgitating whirlpool of men and women in their Sunday -clothes. All which a Constitutional Sieur Motier sees; and Bailly, looking -into it with his long visage made still longer. Auguring no good; perhaps -Decheance and Deposition after all! Stop it, ye Constitutional Patriots; -fire itself is quenchable, yet only quenchable at first! - -Stop it, truly: but how stop it? Have not the first Free People of the -Universe a right to petition?--Happily, if also unhappily, here is one -proof of riot: these two human individuals, hanged at the Lanterne. -Proof, O treacherous Sieur Motier? Were they not two human individuals -sent thither by thee to be hanged; to be a pretext for thy bloody Drapeau -Rouge? This question shall many a Patriot, one day, ask; and answer -affirmatively, strong in Preternatural Suspicion. - -Enough, towards half past seven in the evening, the mere natural eye can -behold this thing: Sieur Motier, with Municipals in scarf, with blue -National Patrollotism, rank after rank, to the clang of drums; wending -resolutely to the Champ-de-Mars; Mayor Bailly, with elongated visage, -bearing, as in sad duty bound, the Drapeau Rouge! Howl of angry derision -rises in treble and bass from a hundred thousand throats, at the sight of -Martial Law; which nevertheless waving its Red sanguinary Flag, advances -there, from the Gros-Caillou Entrance; advances, drumming and waving, -towards Altar of Fatherland. Amid still wilder howls, with objurgation, -obtestation; with flights of pebbles and mud, saxa et faeces; with crackle -of a pistol-shot;--finally with volley-fire of Patrollotism; levelled -muskets; roll of volley on volley! Precisely after one year and three -days, our sublime Federation Field is wetted, in this manner, with French -blood. - -Some 'Twelve unfortunately shot,' reports Bailly, counting by units; but -Patriotism counts by tens and even by hundreds. Not to be forgotten, nor -forgiven! Patriotism flies, shrieking, execrating. Camille ceases -Journalising, this day; great Danton with Camille and Freron have taken -wing, for their life; Marat burrows deep in the Earth, and is silent. Once -more Patrollotism has triumphed: one other time; but it is the last. - -This was the Royal Flight to Varennes. Thus was the Throne overturned -thereby; but thus also was it victoriously set up again--on its vertex; and -will stand while it can be held. - - - - -BOOK 2.V. - -PARLIAMENT FIRST - - -Chapter 2.5.I. - -Grande Acceptation. - -In the last nights of September, when the autumnal equinox is past, and -grey September fades into brown October, why are the Champs Elysees -illuminated; why is Paris dancing, and flinging fire-works? They are gala- -nights, these last of September; Paris may well dance, and the Universe: -the Edifice of the Constitution is completed! Completed; nay revised, to -see that there was nothing insufficient in it; solemnly proferred to his -Majesty; solemnly accepted by him, to the sound of cannon-salvoes, on the -fourteenth of the month. And now by such illumination, jubilee, dancing -and fire-working, do we joyously handsel the new Social Edifice, and first -raise heat and reek there, in the name of Hope. - -The Revision, especially with a throne standing on its vertex, has been a -work of difficulty, of delicacy. In the way of propping and buttressing, -so indispensable now, something could be done; and yet, as is feared, not -enough. A repentant Barnave Triumvirate, our Rabauts, Duports, Thourets, -and indeed all Constitutional Deputies did strain every nerve: but the -Extreme Left was so noisy; the People were so suspicious, clamorous to have -the work ended: and then the loyal Right Side sat feeble petulant all the -while, and as it were, pouting and petting; unable to help, had they even -been willing; the two Hundred and Ninety had solemnly made scission, before -that: and departed, shaking the dust off their feet. To such -transcendency of fret, and desperate hope that worsening of the bad might -the sooner end it and bring back the good, had our unfortunate loyal Right -Side now come! (Toulongeon, ii. 56, 59.) - -However, one finds that this and the other little prop has been added, -where possibility allowed. Civil-list and Privy-purse were from of old -well cared for. King's Constitutional Guard, Eighteen hundred loyal men -from the Eighty-three Departments, under a loyal Duke de Brissac; this, -with trustworthy Swiss besides, is of itself something. The old loyal -Bodyguards are indeed dissolved, in name as well as in fact; and gone -mostly towards Coblentz. But now also those Sansculottic violent Gardes -Francaises, or Centre Grenadiers, shall have their mittimus: they do ere -long, in the Journals, not without a hoarse pathos, publish their Farewell; -'wishing all Aristocrats the graves in Paris which to us are denied.' -(Hist. Parl. xiii. 73.) They depart, these first Soldiers of the -Revolution; they hover very dimly in the distance for about another year; -till they can be remodelled, new-named, and sent to fight the Austrians; -and then History beholds them no more. A most notable Corps of men; which -has its place in World-History;--though to us, so is History written, they -remain mere rubrics of men; nameless; a shaggy Grenadier Mass, crossed with -buff-belts. And yet might we not ask: What Argonauts, what Leonidas' -Spartans had done such a work? Think of their destiny: since that May -morning, some three years ago, when they, unparticipating, trundled off -d'Espremenil to the Calypso Isles; since that July evening, some two years -ago, when they, participating and sacreing with knit brows, poured a volley -into Besenval's Prince de Lambesc! History waves them her mute adieu. - -So that the Sovereign Power, these Sansculottic Watchdogs, more like -wolves, being leashed and led away from his Tuileries, breathes freer. The -Sovereign Power is guarded henceforth by a loyal Eighteen hundred,--whom -Contrivance, under various pretexts, may gradually swell to Six thousand; -who will hinder no Journey to Saint-Cloud. The sad Varennes business has -been soldered up; cemented, even in the blood of the Champ-de-Mars, these -two months and more; and indeed ever since, as formerly, Majesty has had -its privileges, its 'choice of residence,' though, for good reasons, the -royal mind 'prefers continuing in Paris.' Poor royal mind, poor Paris; -that have to go mumming; enveloped in speciosities, in falsehood which -knows itself false; and to enact mutually your sorrowful farce-tragedy, -being bound to it; and on the whole, to hope always, in spite of hope! - -Nay, now that his Majesty has accepted the Constitution, to the sound of -cannon-salvoes, who would not hope? Our good King was misguided but he -meant well. Lafayette has moved for an Amnesty, for universal forgiving -and forgetting of Revolutionary faults; and now surely the glorious -Revolution cleared of its rubbish, is complete! Strange enough, and -touching in several ways, the old cry of Vive le Roi once more rises round -King Louis the Hereditary Representative. Their Majesties went to the -Opera; gave money to the Poor: the Queen herself, now when the -Constitution is accepted, hears voice of cheering. Bygone shall be bygone; -the New Era shall begin! To and fro, amid those lamp-galaxies of the -Elysian Fields, the Royal Carriage slowly wends and rolls; every where with -vivats, from a multitude striving to be glad. Louis looks out, mainly on -the variegated lamps and gay human groups, with satisfaction enough for the -hour. In her Majesty's face, 'under that kind graceful smile a deep -sadness is legible.' (De Stael, Considerations, i. c. 23.) Brilliancies, -of valour and of wit, stroll here observant: a Dame de Stael, leaning most -probably on the arm of her Narbonne. She meets Deputies; who have built -this Constitution; who saunter here with vague communings,--not without -thoughts whether it will stand. But as yet melodious fiddlestrings twang -and warble every where, with the rhythm of light fantastic feet; long lamp- -galaxies fling their coloured radiance; and brass-lunged Hawkers elbow and -bawl, "Grande Acceptation, Constitution Monarchique:" it behoves the Son -of Adam to hope. Have not Lafayette, Barnave, and all Constitutionalists -set their shoulders handsomely to the inverted pyramid of a throne? -Feuillans, including almost the whole Constitutional Respectability of -France, perorate nightly from their tribune; correspond through all Post- -offices; denouncing unquiet Jacobinism; trusting well that its time is nigh -done. Much is uncertain, questionable: but if the Hereditary -Representative be wise and lucky, may one not, with a sanguine Gaelic -temper, hope that he will get in motion better or worse; that what is -wanting to him will gradually be gained and added? - -For the rest, as we must repeat, in this building of the Constitutional -Fabric, especially in this Revision of it, nothing that one could think of -to give it new strength, especially to steady it, to give it permanence, -and even eternity, has been forgotten. Biennial Parliament, to be called -Legislative, Assemblee Legislative; with Seven Hundred and Forty-five -Members, chosen in a judicious manner by the 'active citizens' alone, and -even by electing of electors still more active: this, with privileges of -Parliament shall meet, self-authorized if need be, and self-dissolved; -shall grant money-supplies and talk; watch over the administration and -authorities; discharge for ever the functions of a Constitutional Great -Council, Collective Wisdom, and National Palaver,--as the Heavens will -enable. Our First biennial Parliament, which indeed has been a-choosing -since early in August, is now as good as chosen. Nay it has mostly got to -Paris: it arrived gradually;--not without pathetic greeting to its -venerable Parent, the now moribund Constituent; and sat there in the -Galleries, reverently listening; ready to begin, the instant the ground -were clear. - -Then as to changes in the Constitution itself? This, impossible for any -Legislative, or common biennial Parliament, and possible solely for some -resuscitated Constituent or National Convention,--is evidently one of the -most ticklish points. The august moribund Assembly debated it for four -entire days. Some thought a change, or at least reviewal and new approval, -might be admissible in thirty years; some even went lower, down to twenty, -nay to fifteen. The august Assembly had once decided for thirty years; but -it revoked that, on better thoughts; and did not fix any date of time, but -merely some vague outline of a posture of circumstances, and on the whole -left the matter hanging. (Choix de Rapports, &c. (Paris, 1825), vi. 239- -317.) Doubtless a National Convention can be assembled even within the -thirty years: yet one may hope, not; but that Legislatives, biennial -Parliaments of the common kind, with their limited faculty, and perhaps -quiet successive additions thereto, may suffice, for generations, or indeed -while computed Time runs. - -Furthermore, be it noted that no member of this Constituent has been, or -could be, elected to the new Legislative. So noble-minded were these Law- -makers! cry some: and Solon-like would banish themselves. So splenetic! -cry more: each grudging the other, none daring to be outdone in self- -denial by the other. So unwise in either case! answer all practical men. -But consider this other self-denying ordinance, That none of us can be -King's Minister, or accept the smallest Court Appointment, for the space of -four, or at lowest (and on long debate and Revision), for the space of two -years! So moves the incorruptible seagreen Robespierre; with cheap -magnanimity he; and none dare be outdone by him. It was such a law, not so -superfluous then, that sent Mirabeau to the Gardens of Saint-Cloud, under -cloak of darkness, to that colloquy of the gods; and thwarted many things. -Happily and unhappily there is no Mirabeau now to thwart. - -Welcomer meanwhile, welcome surely to all right hearts, is Lafayette's -chivalrous Amnesty. Welcome too is that hard-wrung Union of Avignon; which -has cost us, first and last, 'thirty sessions of debate,' and so much else: -may it at length prove lucky! Rousseau's statue is decreed: virtuous -Jean-Jacques, Evangelist of the Contrat Social. Not Drouet of Varennes; -nor worthy Lataille, master of the old world-famous Tennis Court in -Versailles, is forgotten; but each has his honourable mention, and due -reward in money. (Moniteur (in Hist. Parl. xi. 473.) Whereupon, things -being all so neatly winded up, and the Deputations, and Messages, and royal -and other Ceremonials having rustled by; and the King having now -affectionately perorated about peace and tranquilisation, and members -having answered "Oui! oui!" with effusion, even with tears,--President -Thouret, he of the Law Reforms, rises, and, with a strong voice, utters -these memorable last-words: "The National Constituent Assembly declares -that it has finished its mission; and that its sittings are all ended." -Incorruptible Robespierre, virtuous Petion are borne home on the shoulders -of the people; with vivats heaven-high. The rest glide quietly to their -respective places of abode. It is the last afternoon of September, 1791; -on the morrow morning the new Legislative will begin. - -So, amid glitter of illuminated streets and Champs Elysees, and crackle of -fireworks and glad deray, has the first National Assembly vanished; -dissolving, as they well say, into blank Time; and is no more. National -Assembly is gone, its work remaining; as all Bodies of men go, and as man -himself goes: it had its beginning, and must likewise have its end. A -Phantasm-Reality born of Time, as the rest of us are; flitting ever -backwards now on the tide of Time: to be long remembered of men. Very -strange Assemblages, Sanhedrims, Amphictyonics, Trades Unions, Ecumenic -Councils, Parliaments and Congresses, have met together on this Planet, and -dispersed again; but a stranger Assemblage than this august Constituent, or -with a stranger mission, perhaps never met there. Seen from the distance, -this also will be a miracle. Twelve Hundred human individuals, with the -Gospel of Jean-Jacques Rousseau in their pocket, congregating in the name -of Twenty-five Millions, with full assurance of faith, to 'make the -Constitution:' such sight, the acme and main product of the Eighteenth -Century, our World can witness once only. For Time is rich in wonders, in -monstrosities most rich; and is observed never to repeat himself, or any of -his Gospels:--surely least of all, this Gospel according to Jean-Jacques. -Once it was right and indispensable, since such had become the Belief of -men; but once also is enough. - -They have made the Constitution, these Twelve Hundred Jean-Jacques -Evangelists; not without result. Near twenty-nine months they sat, with -various fortune; in various capacity;--always, we may say, in that capacity -of carborne Caroccio, and miraculous Standard of the Revolt of Men, as a -Thing high and lifted up; whereon whosoever looked might hope healing. -They have seen much: cannons levelled on them; then suddenly, by -interposition of the Powers, the cannons drawn back; and a war-god Broglie -vanishing, in thunder not his own, amid the dust and downrushing of a -Bastille and Old Feudal France. They have suffered somewhat: Royal -Session, with rain and Oath of the Tennis-Court; Nights of Pentecost; -Insurrections of Women. Also have they not done somewhat? Made the -Constitution, and managed all things the while; passed, in these twenty- -nine months, 'twenty-five hundred Decrees,' which on the average is some -three for each day, including Sundays! Brevity, one finds, is possible, at -times: had not Moreau de St. Mery to give three thousand orders before -rising from his seat?--There was valour (or value) in these men; and a kind -of faith,--were it only faith in this, That cobwebs are not cloth; that a -Constitution could be made. Cobwebs and chimeras ought verily to -disappear; for a Reality there is. Let formulas, soul-killing, and now -grown body-killing, insupportable, begone, in the name of Heaven and -Earth!--Time, as we say, brought forth these Twelve Hundred; Eternity was -before them, Eternity behind: they worked, as we all do, in the confluence -of Two Eternities; what work was given them. Say not that it was nothing -they did. Consciously they did somewhat; unconsciously how much! They had -their giants and their dwarfs, they accomplished their good and their evil; -they are gone, and return no more. Shall they not go with our blessing, in -these circumstances; with our mild farewell? - -By post, by diligence, on saddle or sole; they are gone: towards the four -winds! Not a few over the marches, to rank at Coblentz. Thither wended -Maury, among others; but in the end towards Rome,--to be clothed there in -red Cardinal plush; in falsehood as in a garment; pet son (her last-born?) -of the Scarlet Woman. Talleyrand-Perigord, excommunicated Constitutional -Bishop, will make his way to London; to be Ambassador, spite of the Self- -denying Law; brisk young Marquis Chauvelin acting as Ambassador's-Cloak. -In London too, one finds Petion the virtuous; harangued and haranguing, -pledging the wine-cup with Constitutional Reform Clubs, in solemn tavern- -dinner. Incorruptible Robespierre retires for a little to native Arras: -seven short weeks of quiet; the last appointed him in this world. Public -Accuser in the Paris Department, acknowledged highpriest of the Jacobins; -the glass of incorruptible thin Patriotism, for his narrow emphasis is -loved of all the narrow,--this man seems to be rising, somewhither? He -sells his small heritage at Arras; accompanied by a Brother and a Sister, -he returns, scheming out with resolute timidity a small sure destiny for -himself and them, to his old lodging, at the Cabinet-maker's, in the Rue -St. Honore:--O resolute-tremulous incorruptible seagreen man, towards what -a destiny! - -Lafayette, for his part, will lay down the command. He retires -Cincinnatus-like to his hearth and farm; but soon leaves them again. Our -National Guard, however, shall henceforth have no one Commandant; but all -Colonels shall command in succession, month about. Other Deputies we have -met, or Dame de Stael has met, 'sauntering in a thoughtful manner;' perhaps -uncertain what to do. Some, as Barnave, the Lameths, and their Duport, -will continue here in Paris: watching the new biennial Legislative, -Parliament the First; teaching it to walk, if so might be; and the Court to -lead it. - -Thus these: sauntering in a thoughtful manner; travelling by post or -diligence,--whither Fate beckons. Giant Mirabeau slumbers in the Pantheon -of Great Men: and France? and Europe?--The brass-lunged Hawkers sing -"Grand Acceptation, Monarchic Constitution" through these gay crowds: the -Morrow, grandson of Yesterday, must be what it can, as To-day its father -is. Our new biennial Legislative begins to constitute itself on the first -of October, 1791. - - - -Chapter 2.5.II. - -The Book of the Law. - -If the august Constituent Assembly itself, fixing the regards of the -Universe, could, at the present distance of time and place, gain -comparatively small attention from us, how much less can this poor -Legislative! It has its Right Side and its Left; the less Patriotic and -the more, for Aristocrats exist not here or now: it spouts and speaks: -listens to Reports, reads Bills and Laws; works in its vocation, for a -season: but the history of France, one finds, is seldom or never there. -Unhappy Legislative, what can History do with it; if not drop a tear over -it, almost in silence? First of the two-year Parliaments of France, which, -if Paper Constitution and oft-repeated National Oath could avail aught, -were to follow in softly-strong indissoluble sequence while Time ran,--it -had to vanish dolefully within one year; and there came no second like it. -Alas! your biennial Parliaments in endless indissoluble sequence; they, and -all that Constitutional Fabric, built with such explosive Federation Oaths, -and its top-stone brought out with dancing and variegated radiance, went to -pieces, like frail crockery, in the crash of things; and already, in eleven -short months, were in that Limbo near the Moon, with the ghosts of other -Chimeras. There, except for rare specific purposes, let them rest, in -melancholy peace. - -On the whole, how unknown is a man to himself; or a public Body of men to -itself! Aesop's fly sat on the chariot-wheel, exclaiming, What a dust I do -raise! Great Governors, clad in purple with fasces and insignia, are -governed by their valets, by the pouting of their women and children; or, -in Constitutional countries, by the paragraphs of their Able Editors. Say -not, I am this or that; I am doing this or that! For thou knowest it not, -thou knowest only the name it as yet goes by. A purple Nebuchadnezzar -rejoices to feel himself now verily Emperor of this great Babylon which he -has builded; and is a nondescript biped-quadruped, on the eve of a seven- -years course of grazing! These Seven Hundred and Forty-five elected -individuals doubt not but they are the First biennial Parliament, come to -govern France by parliamentary eloquence: and they are what? And they -have come to do what? Things foolish and not wise! - -It is much lamented by many that this First Biennial had no members of the -old Constituent in it, with their experience of parties and parliamentary -tactics; that such was their foolish Self-denying Law. Most surely, old -members of the Constituent had been welcome to us here. But, on the other -hand, what old or what new members of any Constituent under the Sun could -have effectually profited? There are First biennial Parliaments so -postured as to be, in a sense, beyond wisdom; where wisdom and folly differ -only in degree, and wreckage and dissolution are the appointed issue for -both. - -Old-Constituents, your Barnaves, Lameths and the like, for whom a special -Gallery has been set apart, where they may sit in honour and listen, are in -the habit of sneering at these new Legislators; (Dumouriez, ii. 150, &c.) -but let not us! The poor Seven Hundred and Forty-five, sent together by -the active citizens of France, are what they could be; do what is fated -them. That they are of Patriot temper we can well understand. Aristocrat -Noblesse had fled over the marches, or sat brooding silent in their unburnt -Chateaus; small prospect had they in Primary Electoral Assemblies. What -with Flights to Varennes, what with Days of Poniards, with plot after plot, -the People are left to themselves; the People must needs choose Defenders -of the People, such as can be had. Choosing, as they also will ever do, -'if not the ablest man, yet the man ablest to be chosen!' Fervour of -character, decided Patriot-Constitutional feeling; these are qualities: -but free utterance, mastership in tongue-fence; this is the quality of -qualities. Accordingly one finds, with little astonishment, in this First -Biennial, that as many as Four hundred Members are of the Advocate or -Attorney species. Men who can speak, if there be aught to speak: nay here -are men also who can think, and even act. Candour will say of this ill- -fated First French Parliament that it wanted not its modicum of talent, its -modicum of honesty; that it, neither in the one respect nor in the other, -sank below the average of Parliaments, but rose above the average. Let -average Parliaments, whom the world does not guillotine, and cast forth to -long infamy, be thankful not to themselves but to their stars! - -France, as we say, has once more done what it could: fervid men have come -together from wide separation; for strange issues. Fiery Max Isnard is -come, from the utmost South-East; fiery Claude Fauchet, Te-Deum Fauchet -Bishop of Calvados, from the utmost North-West. No Mirabeau now sits here, -who had swallowed formulas: our only Mirabeau now is Danton, working as -yet out of doors; whom some call 'Mirabeau of the Sansculottes.' - -Nevertheless we have our gifts,--especially of speech and logic. An -eloquent Vergniaud we have; most mellifluous yet most impetuous of public -speakers; from the region named Gironde, of the Garonne: a man -unfortunately of indolent habits; who will sit playing with your children, -when he ought to be scheming and perorating. Sharp bustling Guadet; -considerate grave Censonne; kind-sparkling mirthful young Ducos; Valaze -doomed to a sad end: all these likewise are of that Gironde, or Bourdeaux -region: men of fervid Constitutional principles; of quick talent, -irrefragable logic, clear respectability; who will have the Reign of -Liberty establish itself, but only by respectable methods. Round whom -others of like temper will gather; known by and by as Girondins, to the -sorrowing wonder of the world. Of which sort note Condorcet, Marquis and -Philosopher; who has worked at much, at Paris Municipal Constitution, -Differential Calculus, Newspaper Chronique de Paris, Biography, Philosophy; -and now sits here as two-years Senator: a notable Condorcet, with stoical -Roman face, and fiery heart; 'volcano hid under snow;' styled likewise, in -irreverent language, 'mouton enrage,' peaceablest of creatures bitten -rabid! Or note, lastly, Jean-Pierre Brissot; whom Destiny, long working -noisily with him, has hurled hither, say, to have done with him. A -biennial Senator he too; nay, for the present, the king of such. Restless, -scheming, scribbling Brissot; who took to himself the style de Warville, -heralds know not in the least why;--unless it were that the father of him -did, in an unexceptionable manner, perform Cookery and Vintnery in the -Village of Ouarville? A man of the windmill species, that grinds always, -turning towards all winds; not in the steadiest manner. - -In all these men there is talent, faculty to work; and they will do it: -working and shaping, not without effect, though alas not in marble, only in -quicksand!--But the highest faculty of them all remains yet to be -mentioned; or indeed has yet to unfold itself for mention: Captain -Hippolyte Carnot, sent hither from the Pas de Calais; with his cold -mathematical head, and silent stubbornness of will: iron Carnot, far- -planning, imperturbable, unconquerable; who, in the hour of need, shall not -be found wanting. His hair is yet black; and it shall grow grey, under -many kinds of fortune, bright and troublous; and with iron aspect this man -shall face them all. - -Nor is Cote Droit, and band of King's friends, wanting: Vaublanc, Dumas, -Jaucourt the honoured Chevalier; who love Liberty, yet with Monarchy over -it; and speak fearlessly according to that faith;--whom the thick-coming -hurricanes will sweep away. With them, let a new military Theodore Lameth -be named;--were it only for his two Brothers' sake, who look down on him, -approvingly there, from the Old-Constituents' Gallery. Frothy professing -Pastorets, honey-mouthed conciliatory Lamourettes, and speechless nameless -individuals sit plentiful, as Moderates, in the middle. Still less is a -Cote Gauche wanting: extreme Left; sitting on the topmost benches, as if -aloft on its speculatory Height or Mountain, which will become a practical -fulminatory Height, and make the name of Mountain famous-infamous to all -times and lands. - -Honour waits not on this Mountain; nor as yet even loud dishonour. Gifts -it boasts not, nor graces, of speaking or of thinking; solely this one gift -of assured faith, of audacity that will defy the Earth and the Heavens. -Foremost here are the Cordelier Trio: hot Merlin from Thionville, hot -Bazire, Attorneys both; Chabot, disfrocked Capuchin, skilful in agio. -Lawyer Lacroix, who wore once as subaltern the single epaulette, has loud -lungs and a hungry heart. There too is Couthon, little dreaming what he -is;--whom a sad chance has paralysed in the lower extremities. For, it -seems, he sat once a whole night, not warm in his true love's bower (who -indeed was by law another's), but sunken to the middle in a cold peat-bog, -being hunted out; quaking for his life, in the cold quaking morass; -(Dumouriez, ii. 370.) and goes now on crutches to the end. Cambon -likewise, in whom slumbers undeveloped such a finance-talent for printing -of Assignats; Father of Paper-money; who, in the hour of menace, shall -utter this stern sentence, 'War to the Manorhouse, peace to the Hut, Guerre -aux Chateaux, paix aux Chaumieres!' (Choix de Rapports, xi. 25.) -Lecointre, the intrepid Draper of Versailles, is welcome here; known since -the Opera-Repast and Insurrection of Women. Thuriot too; Elector Thuriot, -who stood in the embrasures of the Bastille, and saw Saint-Antoine rising -in mass; who has many other things to see. Last and grimmest of all note -old Ruhl, with his brown dusky face and long white hair; of Alsatian -Lutheran breed; a man whom age and book-learning have not taught; who, -haranguing the old men of Rheims, shall hold up the Sacred Ampulla (Heaven- -sent, wherefrom Clovis and all Kings have been anointed) as a mere -worthless oil-bottle, and dash it to sherds on the pavement there; who, -alas, shall dash much to sherds, and finally his own wild head, by pistol- -shot, and so end it. - -Such lava welters redhot in the bowels of this Mountain; unknown to the -world and to itself! A mere commonplace Mountain hitherto; distinguished -from the Plain chiefly by its superior barrenness, its baldness of look: -at the utmost it may, to the most observant, perceptibly smoke. For as yet -all lies so solid, peaceable; and doubts not, as was said, that it will -endure while Time runs. Do not all love Liberty and the Constitution? All -heartily;--and yet with degrees. Some, as Chevalier Jaucourt and his Right -Side, may love Liberty less than Royalty, were the trial made; others, as -Brissot and his Left Side, may love it more than Royalty. Nay again of -these latter some may love Liberty more than Law itself; others not more. -Parties will unfold themselves; no mortal as yet knows how. Forces work -within these men and without: dissidence grows opposition; ever widening; -waxing into incompatibility and internecine feud: till the strong is -abolished by a stronger; himself in his turn by a strongest! Who can help -it? Jaucourt and his Monarchists, Feuillans, or Moderates; Brissot and his -Brissotins, Jacobins, or Girondins; these, with the Cordelier Trio, and all -men, must work what is appointed them, and in the way appointed them. - -And to think what fate these poor Seven Hundred and Forty-five are -assembled, most unwittingly, to meet! Let no heart be so hard as not to -pity them. Their soul's wish was to live and work as the First of the -French Parliaments: and make the Constitution march. Did they not, at -their very instalment, go through the most affecting Constitutional -ceremony, almost with tears? The Twelve Eldest are sent solemnly to fetch -the Constitution itself, the printed book of the Law. Archivist Camus, an -Old-Constituent appointed Archivist, he and the Ancient Twelve, amid blare -of military pomp and clangour, enter, bearing the divine Book: and -President and all Legislative Senators, laying their hand on the same, -successively take the Oath, with cheers and heart-effusion, universal -three-times-three. (Moniteur, Seance du 4 Octobre 1791.) In this manner -they begin their Session. Unhappy mortals! For, that same day, his -Majesty having received their Deputation of welcome, as seemed, rather -drily, the Deputation cannot but feel slighted, cannot but lament such -slight: and thereupon our cheering swearing First Parliament sees itself, -on the morrow, obliged to explode into fierce retaliatory sputter, of anti- -royal Enactment as to how they, for their part, will receive Majesty; and -how Majesty shall not be called Sire any more, except they please: and -then, on the following day, to recal this Enactment of theirs, as too -hasty, and a mere sputter though not unprovoked. - -An effervescent well-intentioned set of Senators; too combustible, where -continual sparks are flying! Their History is a series of sputters and -quarrels; true desire to do their function, fatal impossibility to do it. -Denunciations, reprimandings of King's Ministers, of traitors supposed and -real; hot rage and fulmination against fulminating Emigrants; terror of -Austrian Kaiser, of 'Austrian Committee' in the Tuileries itself: rage and -haunting terror, haste and dim desperate bewilderment!--Haste, we say; and -yet the Constitution had provided against haste. No Bill can be passed -till it have been printed, till it have been thrice read, with intervals of -eight days;--'unless the Assembly shall beforehand decree that there is -urgency.' Which, accordingly, the Assembly, scrupulous of the -Constitution, never omits to do: Considering this, and also considering -that, and then that other, the Assembly decrees always 'qu'il y a urgence;' -and thereupon 'the Assembly, having decreed that there is urgence,' is free -to decree--what indispensable distracted thing seems best to it. Two -thousand and odd decrees, as men reckon, within Eleven months! -(Montgaillard, iii. 1. 237.) The haste of the Constituent seemed great; -but this is treble-quick. For the time itself is rushing treble-quick; and -they have to keep pace with that. Unhappy Seven Hundred and Forty-five: -true-patriotic, but so combustible; being fired, they must needs fling -fire: Senate of touchwood and rockets, in a world of smoke-storm, with -sparks wind-driven continually flying! - -Or think, on the other hand, looking forward some months, of that scene -they call Baiser de Lamourette! The dangers of the country are now grown -imminent, immeasurable; National Assembly, hope of France, is divided -against itself. In such extreme circumstances, honey-mouthed Abbe -Lamourette, new Bishop of Lyons, rises, whose name, l'amourette, signifies -the sweetheart, or Delilah doxy,--he rises, and, with pathetic honied -eloquence, calls on all august Senators to forget mutual griefs and -grudges, to swear a new oath, and unite as brothers. Whereupon they all, -with vivats, embrace and swear; Left Side confounding itself with Right; -barren Mountain rushing down to fruitful Plain, Pastoret into the arms of -Condorcet, injured to the breast of injurer, with tears; and all swearing -that whosoever wishes either Feuillant Two-Chamber Monarchy or Extreme- -Jacobin Republic, or any thing but the Constitution and that only, shall be -anathema marantha. (Moniteur, Seance du 6 Juillet 1792.) Touching to -behold! For, literally on the morrow morning, they must again quarrel, -driven by Fate; and their sublime reconcilement is called derisively Baiser -de L'amourette, or Delilah Kiss. - -Like fated Eteocles-Polynices Brothers, embracing, though in vain; weeping -that they must not love, that they must hate only, and die by each other's -hands! Or say, like doomed Familiar Spirits; ordered, by Art Magic under -penalties, to do a harder than twist ropes of sand: 'to make the -Constitution march.' If the Constitution would but march! Alas, the -Constitution will not stir. It falls on its face; they tremblingly lift it -on end again: march, thou gold Constitution! The Constitution will not -march.--"He shall march, by--!" said kind Uncle Toby, and even swore. The -Corporal answered mournfully: "He will never march in this world." - -A constitution, as we often say, will march when it images, if not the old -Habits and Beliefs of the Constituted; then accurately their Rights, or -better indeed, their Mights;--for these two, well-understood, are they not -one and the same? The old Habits of France are gone: her new Rights and -Mights are not yet ascertained, except in Paper-theorem; nor can be, in any -sort, till she have tried. Till she have measured herself, in fell death- -grip, and were it in utmost preternatural spasm of madness, with -Principalities and Powers, with the upper and the under, internal and -external; with the Earth and Tophet and the very Heaven! Then will she -know.--Three things bode ill for the marching of this French Constitution: -the French People; the French King; thirdly the French Noblesse and an -assembled European World. - - - -Chapter 2.5.III. - -Avignon. - -But quitting generalities, what strange Fact is this, in the far South- -West, towards which the eyes of all men do now, in the end of October, bend -themselves? A tragical combustion, long smoking and smouldering -unluminous, has now burst into flame there. - -Hot is that Southern Provencal blood: alas, collisions, as was once said, -must occur in a career of Freedom; different directions will produce such; -nay different velocities in the same direction will! To much that went on -there History, busied elsewhere, would not specially give heed: to -troubles of Uzez, troubles of Nismes, Protestant and Catholic, Patriot and -Aristocrat; to troubles of Marseilles, Montpelier, Arles; to Aristocrat -Camp of Jales, that wondrous real-imaginary Entity, now fading pale-dim, -then always again glowing forth deep-hued (in the Imagination mainly);-- -ominous magical, 'an Aristocrat picture of war done naturally!' All this -was a tragical deadly combustion, with plot and riot, tumult by night and -by day; but a dark combustion, not luminous, not noticed; which now, -however, one cannot help noticing. - -Above all places, the unluminous combustion in Avignon and the Comtat -Venaissin was fierce. Papal Avignon, with its Castle rising sheer over the -Rhone-stream; beautifullest Town, with its purple vines and gold-orange -groves: why must foolish old rhyming Rene, the last Sovereign of Provence, -bequeath it to the Pope and Gold Tiara, not rather to Louis Eleventh with -the Leaden Virgin in his hatband? For good and for evil! Popes, Anti- -popes, with their pomp, have dwelt in that Castle of Avignon rising sheer -over the Rhone-stream: there Laura de Sade went to hear mass; her Petrarch -twanging and singing by the Fountain of Vaucluse hard by, surely in a most -melancholy manner. This was in the old days. - -And now in these new days, such issues do come from a squirt of the pen by -some foolish rhyming Rene, after centuries, this is what we have: Jourdan -Coupe-tete, leading to siege and warfare an Army, from three to fifteen -thousand strong, called the Brigands of Avignon; which title they -themselves accept, with the addition of an epithet, 'The brave Brigands of -Avignon!' It is even so. Jourdan the Headsman fled hither from that -Chatelet Inquest, from that Insurrection of Women; and began dealing in -madder; but the scene was rife in other than dye-stuffs; so Jourdan shut -his madder shop, and has risen, for he was the man to do it. The tile- -beard of Jourdan is shaven off; his fat visage has got coppered and studded -with black carbuncles; the Silenus trunk is swollen with drink and high -living: he wears blue National uniform with epaulettes, 'an enormous -sabre, two horse-pistols crossed in his belt, and other two smaller, -sticking from his pockets;' styles himself General, and is the tyrant of -men. (Dampmartin, Evenemens, i. 267.) Consider this one fact, O Reader; -and what sort of facts must have preceded it, must accompany it! Such -things come of old Rene; and of the question which has risen, Whether -Avignon cannot now cease wholly to be Papal and become French and free? - -For some twenty-five months the confusion has lasted. Say three months of -arguing; then seven of raging; then finally some fifteen months now of -fighting, and even of hanging. For already in February 1790, the Papal -Aristocrats had set up four gibbets, for a sign; but the People rose in -June, in retributive frenzy; and, forcing the public Hangman to act, hanged -four Aristocrats, on each Papal gibbet a Papal Haman. Then were Avignon -Emigrations, Papal Aristocrats emigrating over the Rhone River; demission -of Papal Consul, flight, victory: re-entrance of Papal Legate, truce, and -new onslaught; and the various turns of war. Petitions there were to -National Assembly; Congresses of Townships; three-score and odd Townships -voting for French Reunion, and the blessings of Liberty; while some twelve -of the smaller, manipulated by Aristocrats, gave vote the other way: with -shrieks and discord! Township against Township, Town against Town: -Carpentras, long jealous of Avignon, is now turned out in open war with -it;--and Jourdan Coupe-tete, your first General being killed in mutiny, -closes his dye-shop; and does there visibly, with siege-artillery, above -all with bluster and tumult, with the 'brave Brigands of Avignon,' -beleaguer the rival Town, for two months, in the face of the world! - -Feats were done, doubt it not, far-famed in Parish History; but to -Universal History unknown. Gibbets we see rise, on the one side and on the -other; and wretched carcasses swinging there, a dozen in the row; wretched -Mayor of Vaison buried before dead. (Barbaroux, Memoires, p. 26.) The -fruitful seedfield, lie unreaped, the vineyards trampled down; there is red -cruelty, madness of universal choler and gall. Havoc and anarchy -everywhere; a combustion most fierce, but unlucent, not to be noticed -here!--Finally, as we saw, on the 14th of September last, the National -Constituent Assembly, having sent Commissioners and heard them; (Lescene -Desmaisons: Compte rendu a l'Assemblee Nationale, 10 Septembre 1791 (Choix -des Rapports, vii. 273-93).) having heard Petitions, held Debates, month -after month ever since August 1789; and on the whole 'spent thirty -sittings' on this matter, did solemnly decree that Avignon and the Comtat -were incorporated with France, and His Holiness the Pope should have what -indemnity was reasonable. - -And so hereby all is amnestied and finished? Alas, when madness of choler -has gone through the blood of men, and gibbets have swung on this side and -on that, what will a parchment Decree and Lafayette Amnesty do? Oblivious -Lethe flows not above ground! Papal Aristocrats and Patriot Brigands are -still an eye-sorrow to each other; suspected, suspicious, in what they do -and forbear. The august Constituent Assembly is gone but a fortnight, -when, on Sunday the Sixteenth morning of October 1791, the unquenched -combustion suddenly becomes luminous! For Anti-constitutional Placards are -up, and the Statue of the Virgin is said to have shed tears, and grown red. -(Proces-verbal de la Commune d'Avignon, &c. (in Hist. Parl. xii. 419-23.) -Wherefore, on that morning, Patriot l'Escuyer, one of our 'six leading -Patriots,' having taken counsel with his brethren and General Jourdan, -determines on going to Church, in company with a friend or two: not to -hear mass, which he values little; but to meet all the Papalists there in a -body, nay to meet that same weeping Virgin, for it is the Cordeliers -Church; and give them a word of admonition. Adventurous errand; which has -the fatallest issue! What L'Escuyer's word of admonition might be no -History records; but the answer to it was a shrieking howl from the -Aristocrat Papal worshippers, many of them women. A thousand-voiced shriek -and menace; which as L'Escuyer did not fly, became a thousand-handed hustle -and jostle; a thousand-footed kick, with tumblings and tramplings, with the -pricking of semstresses stilettos, scissors, and female pointed -instruments. Horrible to behold; the ancient Dead, and Petrarchan Laura, -sleeping round it there; (Ugo Foscolo, Essay on Petrarch, p. 35.) high -Altar and burning tapers looking down on it; the Virgin quite tearless, and -of the natural stone-colour!--L'Escuyer's friend or two rush off, like -Job's Messengers, for Jourdan and the National Force. But heavy Jourdan -will seize the Town-Gates first; does not run treble-fast, as he might: on -arriving at the Cordeliers Church, the Church is silent, vacant; L'Escuyer, -all alone, lies there, swimming in his blood, at the foot of the high -Altar; pricked with scissors; trodden, massacred;--gives one dumb sob, and -gasps out his miserable life for evermore. - -Sight to stir the heart of any man; much more of many men, self-styled -Brigands of Avignon! The corpse of L'Escuyer, stretched on a bier, the -ghastly head girt with laurel, is borne through the streets; with many- -voiced unmelodious Nenia; funeral-wail still deeper than it is loud! The -copper-face of Jourdan, of bereft Patriotism, has grown black. Patriot -Municipality despatches official Narrative and tidings to Paris; orders -numerous or innumerable arrestments for inquest and perquisition. -Aristocrats male and female are haled to the Castle; lie crowded in -subterranean dungeons there, bemoaned by the hoarse rushing of the Rhone; -cut out from help. - -So lie they; waiting inquest and perquisition. Alas! with a Jourdan -Headsman for Generalissimo, with his copper-face grown black, and armed -Brigand Patriots chanting their Nenia, the inquest is likely to be brief. -On the next day and the next, let Municipality consent or not, a Brigand -Court-Martial establishes itself in the subterranean stories of the Castle -of Avignon; Brigand Executioners, with naked sabre, waiting at the door, -for a Brigand verdict. Short judgment, no appeal! There is Brigand wrath -and vengeance; not unrefreshed by brandy. Close by is the Dungeon of the -Glaciere, or Ice-Tower: there may be deeds done--? For which language has -no name!--Darkness and the shadow of horrid cruelty envelopes these Castle -Dungeons, that Glaciere Tower: clear only that many have entered, that few -have returned. Jourdan and the Brigands, supreme now over Municipals, over -all Authorities Patriot or Papal, reign in Avignon, waited on by Terror and -Silence. - -The result of all which is that, on the 15th of November 1791, we behold -Friend Dampmartin, and subalterns beneath him, and General Choisi above -him, with Infantry and Cavalry, and proper cannon-carriages rattling in -front, with spread banners, to the sound of fife and drum, wend, in a -deliberate formidable manner, towards that sheer Castle Rock, towards those -broad Gates of Avignon; three new National-Assembly Commissioners following -at safe distance in the rear. (Dampmartin, i. 251-94.) Avignon, summoned -in the name of Assembly and Law, flings its Gates wide open; Choisi with -the rest, Dampmartin and the Bons Enfans, 'Good Boys of Baufremont,' so -they name these brave Constitutional Dragoons, known to them of old,--do -enter, amid shouts and scattered flowers. To the joy of all honest -persons; to the terror only of Jourdan Headsman and the Brigands. Nay next -we behold carbuncled swollen Jourdan himself shew copper-face, with sabre -and four pistols; affecting to talk high: engaging, meanwhile, to -surrender the Castle that instant. So the Choisi Grenadiers enter with him -there. They start and stop, passing that Glaciere, snuffing its horrible -breath; with wild yell, with cries of "Cut the Butcher down!"--and Jourdan -has to whisk himself through secret passages, and instantaneously vanish. - -Be the mystery of iniquity laid bare then! A Hundred and Thirty Corpses, -of men, nay of women and even children (for the trembling mother, hastily -seized, could not leave her infant), lie heaped in that Glaciere; putrid, -under putridities: the horror of the world. For three days there is -mournful lifting out, and recognition; amid the cries and movements of a -passionate Southern people, now kneeling in prayer, now storming in wild -pity and rage: lastly there is solemn sepulture, with muffled drums, -religious requiem, and all the people's wail and tears. Their Massacred -rest now in holy ground; buried in one grave. - -And Jourdan Coupe-tete? Him also we behold again, after a day or two: in -flight, through the most romantic Petrarchan hill-country; vehemently -spurring his nag; young Ligonnet, a brisk youth of Avignon, with Choisi -Dragoons, close in his rear! With such swollen mass of a rider no nag can -run to advantage. The tired nag, spur-driven, does take the River Sorgue; -but sticks in the middle of it; firm on that chiaro fondo di Sorga; and -will proceed no further for spurring! Young Ligonnet dashes up; the -Copper-face menaces and bellows, draws pistol, perhaps even snaps it; is -nevertheless seized by the collar; is tied firm, ancles under horse's -belly, and ridden back to Avignon, hardly to be saved from massacre on the -streets there. (Dampmartin, ubi supra.) - -Such is the combustion of Avignon and the South-West, when it becomes -luminous! Long loud debate is in the august Legislative, in the Mother- -Society as to what now shall be done with it. Amnesty, cry eloquent -Vergniaud and all Patriots: let there be mutual pardon and repentance, -restoration, pacification, and if so might any how be, an end! Which vote -ultimately prevails. So the South-West smoulders and welters again in an -'Amnesty,' or Non-remembrance, which alas cannot but remember, no Lethe -flowing above ground! Jourdan himself remains unchanged; gets loose again -as one not yet gallows-ripe; nay, as we transciently discern from the -distance, is 'carried in triumph through the cities of the South.' (Deux -Amis vii. (Paris, 1797), pp. 59-71.) What things men carry! - -With which transient glimpse, of a Copper-faced Portent faring in this -manner through the cities of the South, we must quit these regions;--and -let them smoulder. They want not their Aristocrats; proud old Nobles, not -yet emigrated. Arles has its 'Chiffonne,' so, in symbolical cant, they -name that Aristocrat Secret-Association; Arles has its pavements piled up, -by and by, into Aristocrat barricades. Against which Rebecqui, the hot- -clear Patriot, must lead Marseilles with cannon. The Bar of Iron has not -yet risen to the top in the Bay of Marseilles; neither have these hot Sons -of the Phoceans submitted to be slaves. By clear management and hot -instance, Rebecqui dissipates that Chiffonne, without bloodshed; restores -the pavement of Arles. He sails in Coast-barks, this Rebecqui, -scrutinising suspicious Martello-towers, with the keen eye of Patriotism; -marches overland with despatch, singly, or in force; to City after City; -dim scouring far and wide; (Barbaroux, p. 21; Hist. Parl. xiii. 421-4.)-- -argues, and if it must be, fights. For there is much to do; Jales itself -is looking suspicious. So that Legislator Fauchet, after debate on it, has -to propose Commissioners and a Camp on the Plain of Beaucaire: with or -without result. - -Of all which, and much else, let us note only this small consequence, that -young Barbaroux, Advocate, Town-Clerk of Marseilles, being charged to have -these things remedied, arrived at Paris in the month of February 1792. The -beautiful and brave: young Spartan, ripe in energy, not ripe in wisdom; -over whose black doom there shall flit nevertheless a certain ruddy -fervour, streaks of bright Southern tint, not wholly swallowed of Death! -Note also that the Rolands of Lyons are again in Paris; for the second and -final time. King's Inspectorship is abrogated at Lyons, as elsewhere: -Roland has his retiring-pension to claim, if attainable; has Patriot -friends to commune with; at lowest, has a book to publish. That young -Barbaroux and the Rolands came together; that elderly Spartan Roland liked, -or even loved the young Spartan, and was loved by him, one can fancy: and -Madame--? Breathe not, thou poison-breath, Evil-speech! That soul is -taintless, clear, as the mirror-sea. And yet if they too did look into -each other's eyes, and each, in silence, in tragical renunciance, did find -that the other was all too lovely? Honi soit! She calls him 'beautiful as -Antinous:' he 'will speak elsewhere of that astonishing woman.'--A Madame -d'Udon (or some such name, for Dumont does not recollect quite clearly) -gives copious Breakfast to the Brissotin Deputies and us Friends of -Freedom, at her house in the Place Vendome; with temporary celebrity, with -graces and wreathed smiles; not without cost. There, amid wide babble and -jingle, our plan of Legislative Debate is settled for the day, and much -counselling held. Strict Roland is seen there, but does not go often. -(Dumont, Souvenirs, p. 374.) - - - -Chapter 2.5.IV. - -No Sugar. - -Such are our inward troubles; seen in the Cities of the South; extant, seen -or unseen, in all cities and districts, North as well as South. For in all -are Aristocrats, more or less malignant; watched by Patriotism; which -again, being of various shades, from light Fayettist-Feuillant down to -deep-sombre Jacobin, has to watch itself! - -Directories of Departments, what we call County Magistracies, being chosen -by Citizens of a too 'active' class, are found to pull one way; -Municipalities, Town Magistracies, to pull the other way. In all places -too are Dissident Priests; whom the Legislative will have to deal with: -contumacious individuals, working on that angriest of passions; plotting, -enlisting for Coblentz; or suspected of plotting: fuel of a universal -unconstitutional heat. What to do with them? They may be conscientious as -well as contumacious: gently they should be dealt with, and yet it must be -speedily. In unilluminated La Vendee the simple are like to be seduced by -them; many a simple peasant, a Cathelineau the wool-dealer wayfaring -meditative with his wool-packs, in these hamlets, dubiously shakes his -head! Two Assembly Commissioners went thither last Autumn; considerate -Gensonne, not yet called to be a Senator; Gallois, an editorial man. These -Two, consulting with General Dumouriez, spake and worked, softly, with -judgment; they have hushed down the irritation, and produced a soft -Report,--for the time. - -The General himself doubts not in the least but he can keep peace there; -being an able man. He passes these frosty months among the pleasant people -of Niort, occupies 'tolerably handsome apartments in the Castle of Niort,' -and tempers the minds of men. (Dumouriez, ii. 129.) Why is there but one -Dumouriez? Elsewhere you find South or North, nothing but untempered -obscure jarring; which breaks forth ever and anon into open clangour of -riot. Southern Perpignan has its tocsin, by torch light; with rushing and -onslaught: Northern Caen not less, by daylight; with Aristocrats ranged in -arms at Places of Worship; Departmental compromise proving impossible; -breaking into musketry and a Plot discovered! (Hist. Parl. xii. 131, 141; -xiii. 114, 417.) Add Hunger too: for Bread, always dear, is getting -dearer: not so much as Sugar can be had; for good reasons. Poor Simoneau, -Mayor of Etampes, in this Northern region, hanging out his Red Flag in some -riot of grains, is trampled to death by a hungry exasperated People. What -a trade this of Mayor, in these times! Mayor of Saint-Denis hung at the -Lanterne, by Suspicion and Dyspepsia, as we saw long since; Mayor of -Vaison, as we saw lately, buried before dead; and now this poor Simoneau, -the Tanner, of Etampes,--whom legal Constitutionalism will not forget. - -With factions, suspicions, want of bread and sugar, it is verily what they -call dechire, torn asunder this poor country: France and all that is -French. For, over seas too come bad news. In black Saint-Domingo, before -that variegated Glitter in the Champs Elysees was lit for an Accepted -Constitution, there had risen, and was burning contemporary with it, quite -another variegated Glitter and nocturnal Fulgor, had we known it: of -molasses and ardent-spirits; of sugar-boileries, plantations, furniture, -cattle and men: skyhigh; the Plain of Cap Francais one huge whirl of smoke -and flame! - -What a change here, in these two years; since that first 'Box of Tricolor -Cockades' got through the Custom-house, and atrabiliar Creoles too rejoiced -that there was a levelling of Bastilles! Levelling is comfortable, as we -often say: levelling, yet only down to oneself. Your pale-white Creoles, -have their grievances:--and your yellow Quarteroons? And your dark-yellow -Mulattoes? And your Slaves soot-black? Quarteroon Oge, Friend of our -Parisian Brissotin Friends of the Blacks, felt, for his share too, that -Insurrection was the most sacred of duties. So the tricolor Cockades had -fluttered and swashed only some three months on the Creole hat, when Oge's -signal-conflagrations went aloft; with the voice of rage and terror. -Repressed, doomed to die, he took black powder or seedgrains in the hollow -of his hand, this Oge; sprinkled a film of white ones on the top, and said -to his Judges, "Behold they are white;"--then shook his hand, and said -"Where are the Whites, Ou sont les Blancs?" - -So now, in the Autumn of 1791, looking from the sky-windows of Cap -Francais, thick clouds of smoke girdle our horizon, smoke in the day, in -the night fire; preceded by fugitive shrieking white women, by Terror and -Rumour. Black demonised squadrons are massacring and harrying, with -nameless cruelty. They fight and fire 'from behind thickets and coverts,' -for the Black man loves the Bush; they rush to the attack, thousands -strong, with brandished cutlasses and fusils, with caperings, shoutings and -vociferation,--which, if the White Volunteer Company stands firm, dwindle -into staggerings, into quick gabblement, into panic flight at the first -volley, perhaps before it. (Deux Amis, x. 157.) Poor Oge could be broken -on the wheel; this fire-whirlwind too can be abated, driven up into the -Mountains: but Saint-Domingo is shaken, as Oge's seedgrains were; shaking, -writhing in long horrid death-throes, it is Black without remedy; and -remains, as African Haiti, a monition to the world. - -O my Parisian Friends, is not this, as well as Regraters and Feuillant -Plotters, one cause of the astonishing dearth of Sugar! The Grocer, -palpitant, with drooping lip, sees his Sugar taxe; weighed out by Female -Patriotism, in instant retail, at the inadequate rate of twenty-five sous, -or thirteen pence a pound. "Abstain from it?" yes, ye Patriot Sections, -all ye Jacobins, abstain! Louvet and Collot-d'Herbois so advise; resolute -to make the sacrifice: though "how shall literary men do without coffee?" -Abstain, with an oath; that is the surest! (Debats des Jacobins, &c. -(Hist. Parl. xiii. 171, 92-98.) - -Also, for like reason, must not Brest and the Shipping Interest languish? -Poor Brest languishes, sorrowing, not without spleen; denounces an -Aristocrat Bertrand-Moleville traitorous Aristocrat Marine-Minister. Do -not her Ships and King's Ships lie rotting piecemeal in harbour; Naval -Officers mostly fled, and on furlough too, with pay? Little stirring -there; if it be not the Brest Gallies, whip-driven, with their Galley- -Slaves,--alas, with some Forty of our hapless Swiss Soldiers of Chateau- -Vieux, among others! These Forty Swiss, too mindful of Nanci, do now, in -their red wool caps, tug sorrowfully at the oar; looking into the Atlantic -brine, which reflects only their own sorrowful shaggy faces; and seem -forgotten of Hope. - -But, on the whole, may we not say, in fugitive language, that the French -Constitution which shall march is very rheumatic, full of shooting internal -pains, in joint and muscle; and will not march without difficulty? - - - -Chapter 2.5.V. - -Kings and Emigrants. - -Extremely rheumatic Constitutions have been known to march, and keep on -their feet, though in a staggering sprawling manner, for long periods, in -virtue of one thing only: that the Head were healthy. But this Head of -the French Constitution! What King Louis is and cannot help being, Readers -already know. A King who cannot take the Constitution, nor reject the -Constitution: nor do anything at all, but miserably ask, What shall I do? -A King environed with endless confusions; in whose own mind is no germ of -order. Haughty implacable remnants of Noblesse struggling with humiliated -repentant Barnave-Lameths: struggling in that obscure element of fetchers -and carriers, of Half-pay braggarts from the Cafe Valois, of Chambermaids, -whisperers, and subaltern officious persons; fierce Patriotism looking on -all the while, more and more suspicious, from without: what, in such -struggle, can they do? At best, cancel one another, and produce zero. -Poor King! Barnave and your Senatorial Jaucourts speak earnestly into this -ear; Bertrand-Moleville, and Messengers from Coblentz, speak earnestly into -that: the poor Royal head turns to the one side and to the other side; can -turn itself fixedly to no side. Let Decency drop a veil over it: sorrier -misery was seldom enacted in the world. This one small fact, does it not -throw the saddest light on much? The Queen is lamenting to Madam Campan: -"What am I to do? When they, these Barnaves, get us advised to any step -which the Noblesse do not like, then I am pouted at; nobody comes to my -card table; the King's Couchee is solitary." (Campan, ii. 177-202.) In -such a case of dubiety, what is one to do? Go inevitably to the ground! - -The King has accepted this Constitution, knowing beforehand that it will -not serve: he studies it, and executes it in the hope mainly that it will -be found inexecutable. King's Ships lie rotting in harbour, their officers -gone; the Armies disorganised; robbers scour the highways, which wear down -unrepaired; all Public Service lies slack and waste: the Executive makes -no effort, or an effort only to throw the blame on the Constitution. -Shamming death, 'faisant le mort!' What Constitution, use it in this -manner, can march? 'Grow to disgust the Nation' it will truly, (Bertrand- -Moleville, i. c. 4.)--unless you first grow to disgust the Nation! It is -Bertrand de Moleville's plan, and his Majesty's; the best they can form. - -Or if, after all, this best-plan proved too slow; proved a failure? -Provident of that too, the Queen, shrouded in deepest mystery, 'writes all -day, in cipher, day after day, to Coblentz;' Engineer Goguelat, he of the -Night of Spurs, whom the Lafayette Amnesty has delivered from Prison, rides -and runs. Now and then, on fit occasion, a Royal familiar visit can be -paid to that Salle de Manege, an affecting encouraging Royal Speech -(sincere, doubt it not, for the moment) can be delivered there, and the -Senators all cheer and almost weep;--at the same time Mallet du Pan has -visibly ceased editing, and invisibly bears abroad a King's Autograph, -soliciting help from the Foreign Potentates. (Moleville, i. 370.) Unhappy -Louis, do this thing or else that other,--if thou couldst! - -The thing which the King's Government did do was to stagger distractedly -from contradiction to contradiction; and wedding Fire to Water, envelope -itself in hissing, and ashy steam! Danton and needy corruptible Patriots -are sopped with presents of cash: they accept the sop: they rise -refreshed by it, and travel their own way. (Ibid. i. c. 17.) Nay, the -King's Government did likewise hire Hand-clappers, or claqueurs, persons to -applaud. Subterranean Rivarol has Fifteen Hundred men in King's pay, at -the rate of some ten thousand pounds sterling, per month; what he calls 'a -staff of genius:' Paragraph-writers, Placard-Journalists; 'two hundred and -eighty Applauders, at three shillings a day:' one of the strangest Staffs -ever commanded by man. The muster-rolls and account-books of which still -exist. (Montgaillard, iii. 41.) Bertrand-Moleville himself, in a way he -thinks very dexterous, contrives to pack the Galleries of the Legislative; -gets Sansculottes hired to go thither, and applaud at a signal given, they -fancying it was Petion that bid them: a device which was not detected for -almost a week. Dexterous enough; as if a man finding the Day fast decline -should determine on altering the Clockhands: that is a thing possible for -him. - -Here too let us note an unexpected apparition of Philippe d'Orleans at -Court: his last at the Levee of any King. D'Orleans, sometime in the -winter months seemingly, has been appointed to that old first-coveted rank -of Admiral,--though only over ships rotting in port. The wished-for comes -too late! However, he waits on Bertrand-Moleville to give thanks: nay to -state that he would willingly thank his Majesty in person; that, in spite -of all the horrible things men have said and sung, he is far from being his -Majesty's enemy; at bottom, how far! Bertrand delivers the message, brings -about the royal Interview, which does pass to the satisfaction of his -Majesty; d'Orleans seeming clearly repentant, determined to turn over a new -leaf. And yet, next Sunday, what do we see? 'Next Sunday,' says Bertrand, -'he came to the King's Levee; but the Courtiers ignorant of what had -passed, the crowd of Royalists who were accustomed to resort thither on -that day specially to pay their court, gave him the most humiliating -reception. They came pressing round him; managing, as if by mistake, to -tread on his toes, to elbow him towards the door, and not let him enter -again. He went downstairs to her Majesty's Apartments, where cover was -laid; so soon as he shewed face, sounds rose on all sides, "Messieurs, take -care of the dishes," as if he had carried poison in his pockets. The -insults which his presence every where excited forced him to retire without -having seen the Royal Family: the crowd followed him to the Queen's -Staircase; in descending, he received a spitting (crachat) on the head, and -some others, on his clothes. Rage and spite were seen visibly painted on -his face:' (Bertrand-Moleville, i. 177.) as indeed how could they miss to -be? He imputes it all to the King and Queen, who know nothing of it, who -are even much grieved at it; and so descends, to his Chaos again. Bertrand -was there at the Chateau that day himself, and an eye-witness to these -things. - -For the rest, Non-jurant Priests, and the repression of them, will distract -the King's conscience; Emigrant Princes and Noblesse will force him to -double-dealing: there must be veto on veto; amid the ever-waxing -indignation of men. For Patriotism, as we said, looks on from without, -more and more suspicious. Waxing tempest, blast after blast, of Patriot -indignation, from without; dim inorganic whirl of Intrigues, Fatuities, -within! Inorganic, fatuous; from which the eye turns away. De Stael -intrigues for her so gallant Narbonne, to get him made War-Minister; and -ceases not, having got him made. The King shall fly to Rouen; shall there, -with the gallant Narbonne, properly 'modify the Constitution.' This is the -same brisk Narbonne, who, last year, cut out from their entanglement, by -force of dragoons, those poor fugitive Royal Aunts: men say he is at -bottom their Brother, or even more, so scandalous is scandal. He drives -now, with his de Stael, rapidly to the Armies, to the Frontier Towns; -produces rose-coloured Reports, not too credible; perorates, gesticulates; -wavers poising himself on the top, for a moment, seen of men; then tumbles, -dismissed, washed away by the Time-flood. - -Also the fair Princess de Lamballe intrigues, bosom friend of her Majesty: -to the angering of Patriotism. Beautiful Unfortunate, why did she ever -return from England? Her small silver-voice, what can it profit in that -piping of the black World-tornado? Which will whirl her, poor fragile Bird -of Paradise, against grim rocks. Lamballe and de Stael intrigue visibly, -apart or together: but who shall reckon how many others, and in what -infinite ways, invisibly! Is there not what one may call an 'Austrian -Committee,' sitting invisible in the Tuileries; centre of an invisible -Anti-National Spiderweb, which, for we sleep among mysteries, stretches its -threads to the ends of the Earth? Journalist Carra has now the clearest -certainty of it: to Brissotin Patriotism, and France generally, it is -growing more and more probable. - -O Reader, hast thou no pity for this Constitution? Rheumatic shooting -pains in its members; pressure of hydrocephale and hysteric vapours on its -Brain: a Constitution divided against itself; which will never march, -hardly even stagger? Why were not Drouet and Procureur Sausse in their -beds, that unblessed Varennes Night! Why did they not, in the name of -Heaven, let the Korff Berline go whither it listed! Nameless incoherency, -incompatibility, perhaps prodigies at which the world still shudders, had -been spared. - -But now comes the third thing that bodes ill for the marching of this -French Constitution: besides the French People, and the French King, there -is thirdly--the assembled European world? it has become necessary now to -look at that also. Fair France is so luminous: and round and round it, is -troublous Cimmerian Night. Calonnes, Breteuils hover dim, far-flown; -overnetting Europe with intrigues. From Turin to Vienna; to Berlin, and -utmost Petersburg in the frozen North! Great Burke has raised his great -voice long ago; eloquently demonstrating that the end of an Epoch is come, -to all appearance the end of Civilised Time. Him many answer: Camille -Desmoulins, Clootz Speaker of Mankind, Paine the rebellious Needleman, and -honourable Gallic Vindicators in that country and in this: but the great -Burke remains unanswerable; 'The Age of Chivalry is gone,' and could not -but go, having now produced the still more indomitable Age of Hunger. -Altars enough, of the Dubois-Rohan sort, changing to the Gobel-and- -Talleyrand sort, are faring by rapid transmutation to, shall we say, the -right Proprietor of them? French Game and French Game-Preservers did -alight on the Cliffs of Dover, with cries of distress. Who will say that -the end of much is not come? A set of mortals has risen, who believe that -Truth is not a printed Speculation, but a practical Fact; that Freedom and -Brotherhood are possible in this Earth, supposed always to be Belial's, -which 'the Supreme Quack' was to inherit! Who will say that Church, State, -Throne, Altar are not in danger; that the sacred Strong-box itself, last -Palladium of effete Humanity, may not be blasphemously blown upon, and its -padlocks undone? - -The poor Constituent Assembly might act with what delicacy and diplomacy it -would; declare that it abjured meddling with its neighbours, foreign -conquest, and so forth; but from the first this thing was to be predicted: -that old Europe and new France could not subsist together. A Glorious -Revolution, oversetting State-Prisons and Feudalism; publishing, with -outburst of Federative Cannon, in face of all the Earth, that Appearance is -not Reality, how shall it subsist amid Governments which, if Appearance is -not Reality, are--one knows not what? In death feud, and internecine -wrestle and battle, it shall subsist with them; not otherwise. - -Rights of Man, printed on Cotton Handkerchiefs, in various dialects of -human speech, pass over to the Frankfort Fair. (Toulongeon, i. 256.) What -say we, Frankfort Fair? They have crossed Euphrates and the fabulous -Hydaspes; wafted themselves beyond the Ural, Altai, Himmalayah: struck off -from wood stereotypes, in angular Picture-writing, they are jabbered and -jingled of in China and Japan. Where will it stop? Kien-Lung smells -mischief; not the remotest Dalai-Lama shall now knead his dough-pills in -peace.--Hateful to us; as is the Night! Bestir yourselves, ye Defenders of -Order! They do bestir themselves: all Kings and Kinglets, with their -spiritual temporal array, are astir; their brows clouded with menace. -Diplomatic emissaries fly swift; Conventions, privy Conclaves assemble; and -wise wigs wag, taking what counsel they can. - -Also, as we said, the Pamphleteer draws pen, on this side and that: -zealous fists beat the Pulpit-drum. Not without issue! Did not iron -Birmingham, shouting 'Church and King,' itself knew not why, burst out, -last July, into rage, drunkenness, and fire; and your Priestleys, and the -like, dining there on that Bastille day, get the maddest singeing: -scandalous to consider! In which same days, as we can remark, high -Potentates, Austrian and Prussian, with Emigrants, were faring towards -Pilnitz in Saxony; there, on the 27th of August, they, keeping to -themselves what further 'secret Treaty' there might or might not be, did -publish their hopes and their threatenings, their Declaration that it was -'the common cause of Kings.' - -Where a will to quarrel is, there is a way. Our readers remember that -Pentecost-Night, Fourth of August 1789, when Feudalism fell in a few hours? -The National Assembly, in abolishing Feudalism, promised that -'compensation' should be given; and did endeavour to give it. Nevertheless -the Austrian Kaiser answers that his German Princes, for their part, cannot -be unfeudalised; that they have Possessions in French Alsace, and Feudal -Rights secured to them, for which no conceivable compensation will suffice. -So this of the Possessioned Princes, 'Princes Possessiones' is bandied from -Court to Court; covers acres of diplomatic paper at this day: a weariness -to the world. Kaunitz argues from Vienna; Delessart responds from Paris, -though perhaps not sharply enough. The Kaiser and his Possessioned Princes -will too evidently come and take compensation--so much as they can get. -Nay might one not partition France, as we have done Poland, and are doing; -and so pacify it with a vengeance? - -From South to North! For actually it is 'the common cause of Kings.' -Swedish Gustav, sworn Knight of the Queen of France, will lead Coalised -Armies;--had not Ankarstrom treasonously shot him; for, indeed, there were -griefs nearer home. (30th March 1792 (Annual Register, p. 11). Austria -and Prussia speak at Pilnitz; all men intensely listening: Imperial -Rescripts have gone out from Turin; there will be secret Convention at -Vienna. Catherine of Russia beckons approvingly; will help, were she -ready. Spanish Bourbon stirs amid his pillows; from him too, even from -him, shall there come help. Lean Pitt, 'the Minister of Preparatives,' -looks out from his watch-tower in Saint-James's, in a suspicious manner. -Councillors plotting, Calonnes dim-hovering;--alas, Serjeants rub-a-dubbing -openly through all manner of German market-towns, collecting ragged valour! -(Toulongeon, ii. 100-117.) Look where you will, immeasurable Obscurantism -is girdling this fair France; which, again, will not be girdled by it. -Europe is in travail; pang after pang; what a shriek was that of Pilnitz! -The birth will be: WAR. - -Nay the worst feature of the business is this last, still to be named; the -Emigrants at Coblentz, so many thousands ranking there, in bitter hate and -menace: King's Brothers, all Princes of the Blood except wicked d'Orleans; -your duelling de Castries, your eloquent Cazales; bull-headed Malseignes, a -wargod Broglie; Distaff Seigneurs, insulted Officers, all that have ridden -across the Rhine-stream;--d'Artois welcoming Abbe Maury with a kiss, and -clasping him publicly to his own royal heart! Emigration, flowing over the -Frontiers, now in drops, now in streams, in various humours of fear, of -petulance, rage and hope, ever since those first Bastille days when -d'Artois went, 'to shame the citizens of Paris,'--has swollen to the size -of a Phenomenon of the world. Coblentz is become a small extra-national -Versailles; a Versailles in partibus: briguing, intriguing, favouritism, -strumpetocracy itself, they say, goes on there; all the old activities, on -a small scale, quickened by hungry Revenge. - -Enthusiasm, of loyalty, of hatred and hope, has risen to a high pitch; as, -in any Coblentz tavern, you may hear, in speech, and in singing. Maury -assists in the interior Council; much is decided on; for one thing, they -keep lists of the dates of your emigrating; a month sooner, or a month -later determines your greater or your less right to the coming Division of -the Spoil. Cazales himself, because he had occasionally spoken with a -Constitutional tone, was looked on coldly at first: so pure are our -principles. (Montgaillard, iii. 517; Toulongeon, (ubi supra).) And arms -are a-hammering at Liege; 'three thousand horses' ambling hitherward from -the Fairs of Germany: Cavalry enrolling; likewise Foot-soldiers, 'in blue -coat, red waistcoat, and nankeen trousers!' (See Hist. Parl. xiii. 11-38, -41-61, 358, &c.) They have their secret domestic correspondences, as their -open foreign: with disaffected Crypto-Aristocrats, with contumacious -Priests, with Austrian Committee in the Tuileries. Deserters are spirited -over by assiduous crimps; Royal-Allemand is gone almost wholly. Their -route of march, towards France and the Division of the Spoil, is marked -out, were the Kaiser once ready. "It is said, they mean to poison the -sources; but," adds Patriotism making Report of it, "they will not poison -the source of Liberty," whereat 'on applaudit,' we cannot but applaud. -Also they have manufactories of False Assignats; and men that circulate in -the interior distributing and disbursing the same; one of these we denounce -now to Legislative Patriotism: 'A man Lebrun by name; about thirty years -of age, with blonde hair and in quantity; has,' only for the time being -surely, 'a black-eye, oeil poche; goes in a wiski with a black horse,' -(Moniteur, Seance du 2 Novembre 1791 (Hist. Parl. xii. 212).)--always -keeping his Gig! - -Unhappy Emigrants, it was their lot, and the lot of France! They are -ignorant of much that they should know: of themselves, of what is around -them. A Political Party that knows not when it is beaten, may become one -of the fatallist of things, to itself, and to all. Nothing will convince -these men that they cannot scatter the French Revolution at the first blast -of their war-trumpet; that the French Revolution is other than a blustering -Effervescence, of brawlers and spouters, which, at the flash of chivalrous -broadswords, at the rustle of gallows-ropes, will burrow itself, in dens -the deeper the welcomer. But, alas, what man does know and measure -himself, and the things that are round him;--else where were the need of -physical fighting at all? Never, till they are cleft asunder, can these -heads believe that a Sansculottic arm has any vigour in it: cleft asunder, -it will be too late to believe. - -One may say, without spleen against his poor erring brothers of any side, -that above all other mischiefs, this of the Emigrant Nobles acted fatally -on France. Could they have known, could they have understood! In the -beginning of 1789, a splendour and a terror still surrounded them: the -Conflagration of their Chateaus, kindled by months of obstinacy, went out -after the Fourth of August; and might have continued out, had they at all -known what to defend, what to relinquish as indefensible. They were still -a graduated Hierarchy of Authorities, or the accredited Similitude of such: -they sat there, uniting King with Commonalty; transmitting and translating -gradually, from degree to degree, the command of the one into the obedience -of the other; rendering command and obedience still possible. Had they -understood their place, and what to do in it, this French Revolution, which -went forth explosively in years and in months, might have spread itself -over generations; and not a torture-death but a quiet euthanasia have been -provided for many things. - -But they were proud and high, these men; they were not wise to consider. -They spurned all from them; in disdainful hate, they drew the sword and -flung away the scabbard. France has not only no Hierarchy of Authorities, -to translate command into obedience; its Hierarchy of Authorities has fled -to the enemies of France; calls loudly on the enemies of France to -interfere armed, who want but a pretext to do that. Jealous Kings and -Kaisers might have looked on long, meditating interference, yet afraid and -ashamed to interfere: but now do not the King's Brothers, and all French -Nobles, Dignitaries and Authorities that are free to speak, which the King -himself is not,--passionately invite us, in the name of Right and of Might? -Ranked at Coblentz, from Fifteen to Twenty thousand stand now brandishing -their weapons, with the cry: On, on! Yes, Messieurs, you shall on;--and -divide the spoil according to your dates of emigrating. - -Of all which things a poor Legislative Assembly, and Patriot France, is -informed: by denunciant friend, by triumphant foe. Sulleau's Pamphlets, -of the Rivarol Staff of Genius, circulate; heralding supreme hope. -Durosoy's Placards tapestry the walls; Chant du Coq crows day, pecked at by -Tallien's Ami des Citoyens. King's-Friend, Royou, Ami du Roi, can name, in -exact arithmetical ciphers, the contingents of the various Invading -Potentates; in all, Four hundred and nineteen thousand Foreign fighting -men, with Fifteen thousand Emigrants. Not to reckon these your daily and -hourly desertions, which an Editor must daily record, of whole Companies, -and even Regiments, crying Vive le Roi, vive la Reine, and marching over -with banners spread: (Ami du Roi Newspaper (in Hist. Parl. xiii. 175).)-- -lies all, and wind; yet to Patriotism not wind; nor, alas, one day, to -Royou! Patriotism, therefore, may brawl and babble yet a little while: -but its hours are numbered: Europe is coming with Four hundred and -nineteen thousand and the Chivalry of France; the gallows, one may hope, -will get its own. - - - -Chapter 2.5.VI. - -Brigands and Jales. - -We shall have War, then; and on what terms! With an Executive -'pretending,' really with less and less deceptiveness now, 'to be dead;' -casting even a wishful eye towards the enemy: on such terms we shall have -War. - -Public Functionary in vigorous action there is none; if it be not Rivarol -with his Staff of Genius and Two hundred and eighty Applauders. The Public -Service lies waste: the very tax-gatherer has forgotten his cunning: in -this and the other Provincial Board of Management (Directoire de -Departmente) it is found advisable to retain what Taxes you can gather, to -pay your own inevitable expenditures. Our Revenue is Assignats; emission -on emission of Paper-money. And the Army; our Three grand Armies, of -Rochambeau, of Luckner, of Lafayette? Lean, disconsolate hover these Three -grand Armies, watching the Frontiers there; three Flights of long-necked -Cranes in moulting time;--wretched, disobedient, disorganised; who never -saw fire; the old Generals and Officers gone across the Rhine. War- -minister Narbonne, he of the rose-coloured Reports, solicits recruitments, -equipments, money, always money; threatens, since he can get none,- to -'take his sword,' which belongs to himself, and go serve his country with -that. (Moniteur, Seance du 23 Janvier, 1792; Biographie des Ministres para -Narbonne.) - -The question of questions is: What shall be done? Shall we, with a -desperate defiance which Fortune sometimes favours, draw the sword at once, -in the face of this in-rushing world of Emigration and Obscurantism; or -wait, and temporise and diplomatise, till, if possible, our resources -mature themselves a little? And yet again are our resources growing -towards maturity; or growing the other way? Dubious: the ablest Patriots -are divided; Brissot and his Brissotins, or Girondins, in the Legislative, -cry aloud for the former defiant plan; Robespierre, in the Jacobins, pleads -as loud for the latter dilatory one: with responses, even with mutual -reprimands; distracting the Mother of Patriotism. Consider also what -agitated Breakfasts there may be at Madame d'Udon's in the Place Vendome! -The alarm of all men is great. Help, ye Patriots; and O at least agree; -for the hour presses. Frost was not yet gone, when in that 'tolerably -handsome apartment of the Castle of Niort,' there arrived a Letter: -General Dumouriez must to Paris. It is War-minister Narbonne that writes; -the General shall give counsel about many things. (Dumouriez, ii. c. 6.) -In the month of February 1792, Brissotin friends welcome their Dumouriez -Polymetis,--comparable really to an antique Ulysses in modern costume; -quick, elastic, shifty, insuppressible, a 'many-counselled man.' - -Let the Reader fancy this fair France with a whole Cimmerian Europe -girdling her, rolling in on her; black, to burst in red thunder of War; -fair France herself hand-shackled and foot-shackled in the weltering -complexities of this Social Clothing, or Constitution, which they have made -for her; a France that, in such Constitution, cannot march! And Hunger -too; and plotting Aristocrats, and excommunicating Dissident Priests: 'The -man Lebrun by name' urging his black wiski, visible to the eye: and, still -more terrible in his invisibility, Engineer Goguelat, with Queen's cipher, -riding and running! - -The excommunicatory Priests give new trouble in the Maine and Loire; La -Vendee, nor Cathelineau the wool-dealer, has not ceased grumbling and -rumbling. Nay behold Jales itself once more: how often does that real- -imaginary Camp of the Fiend require to be extinguished! For near two years -now, it has waned faint and again waxed bright, in the bewildered soul of -Patriotism: actually, if Patriotism knew it, one of the most surprising -products of Nature working with Art. Royalist Seigneurs, under this or the -other pretext, assemble the simple people of these Cevennes Mountains; men -not unused to revolt, and with heart for fighting, could their poor heads -be got persuaded. The Royalist Seigneur harangues; harping mainly on the -religious string: "True Priests maltreated, false Priests intruded, -Protestants (once dragooned) now triumphing, things sacred given to the -dogs;" and so produces, from the pious Mountaineer throat, rough growlings. -"Shall we not testify, then, ye brave hearts of the Cevennes; march to the -rescue? Holy Religion; duty to God and King?" "Si fait, si fait, Just so, -just so," answer the brave hearts always: "Mais il y a de bien bonnes -choses dans la Revolution, But there are many good things in the Revolution -too!"--And so the matter, cajole as we may, will only turn on its axis, not -stir from the spot, and remains theatrical merely. (Dampmartin, i. 201.) - -Nevertheless deepen your cajolery, harp quick and quicker, ye Royalist -Seigneurs; with a dead-lift effort you may bring it to that. In the month -of June next, this Camp of Jales will step forth as a theatricality -suddenly become real; Two thousand strong, and with the boast that it is -Seventy thousand: most strange to see; with flags flying, bayonets fixed; -with Proclamation, and d'Artois Commission of civil war! Let some -Rebecqui, or other the like hot-clear Patriot; let some 'Lieutenant-Colonel -Aubry,' if Rebecqui is busy elsewhere, raise instantaneous National Guards, -and disperse and dissolve it; and blow the Old Castle asunder, (Moniteur, -Seance du 15 Juillet 1792.) that so, if possible, we hear of it no more! - -In the Months of February and March, it is recorded, the terror, especially -of rural France, had risen even to the transcendental pitch: not far from -madness. In Town and Hamlet is rumour; of war, massacre: that Austrians, -Aristocrats, above all, that The Brigands are close by. Men quit their -houses and huts; rush fugitive, shrieking, with wife and child, they know -not whither. Such a terror, the eye-witnesses say, never fell on a Nation; -nor shall again fall, even in Reigns of Terror expressly so-called. The -Countries of the Loire, all the Central and South-East regions, start up -distracted, 'simultaneously as by an electric shock;'--for indeed grain too -gets scarcer and scarcer. 'The people barricade the entrances of Towns, -pile stones in the upper stories, the women prepare boiling water; from -moment to moment, expecting the attack. In the Country, the alarm-bell -rings incessant: troops of peasants, gathered by it, scour the highways, -seeking an imaginary enemy. They are armed mostly with scythes stuck in -wood; and, arriving in wild troops at the barricaded Towns, are themselves -sometimes taken for Brigands.' (Newspapers, &c. (in Hist. Parl. xiii. -325).) - -So rushes old France: old France is rushing down. What the end will be is -known to no mortal; that the end is near all mortals may know. - - - -Chapter 2.5.VII. - -Constitution will not march. - -To all which our poor Legislative, tied up by an unmarching Constitution, -can oppose nothing, by way of remedy, but mere bursts of parliamentary -eloquence! They go on, debating, denouncing, objurgating: loud weltering -Chaos, which devours itself. - -But their two thousand and odd Decrees? Reader, these happily concern not -thee, nor me. Mere Occasional Decrees, foolish and not foolish; sufficient -for that day was its own evil! Of the whole two thousand there are not, -now half a score, and these mostly blighted in the bud by royal Veto, that -will profit or disprofit us. On the 17th of January, the Legislative, for -one thing, got its High Court, its Haute Cour, set up at Orleans. The -theory had been given by the Constituent, in May last, but this is the -reality: a Court for the trial of Political Offences; a Court which cannot -want work. To this it was decreed that there needed no royal Acceptance, -therefore that there could be no Veto. Also Priests can now be married; -ever since last October. A patriotic adventurous Priest had made bold to -marry himself then; and not thinking this enough, came to the bar with his -new spouse; that the whole world might hold honey-moon with him, and a Law -be obtained. - -Less joyful are the Laws against Refractory Priests; and yet no less -needful! Decrees on Priests and Decrees on Emigrants: these are the two -brief Series of Decrees, worked out with endless debate, and then cancelled -by Veto, which mainly concern us here. For an august National Assembly -must needs conquer these Refractories, Clerical or Laic, and thumbscrew -them into obedience; yet, behold, always as you turn your legislative -thumbscrew, and will press and even crush till Refractories give way,-- -King's Veto steps in, with magical paralysis; and your thumbscrew, hardly -squeezing, much less crushing, does not act! - -Truly a melancholy Set of Decrees, a pair of Sets; paralysed by Veto! -First, under date the 28th of October 1791, we have Legislative -Proclamation, issued by herald and bill-sticker; inviting Monsieur, the -King's Brother to return within two months, under penalties. To which -invitation Monsieur replies nothing; or indeed replies by Newspaper Parody, -inviting the august Legislative 'to return to common sense within two -months,' under penalties. Whereupon the Legislative must take stronger -measures. So, on the 9th of November, we declare all Emigrants to be -'suspect of conspiracy;' and, in brief, to be 'outlawed,' if they have not -returned at Newyear's-day:--Will the King say Veto? That 'triple impost' -shall be levied on these men's Properties, or even their Properties be 'put -in sequestration,' one can understand. But further, on Newyear's-day -itself, not an individual having 'returned,' we declare, and with fresh -emphasis some fortnight later again declare, That Monsieur is dechu, -forfeited of his eventual Heirship to the Crown; nay more that Conde, -Calonne, and a considerable List of others are accused of high treason; and -shall be judged by our High Court of Orleans: Veto!--Then again as to -Nonjurant Priests: it was decreed, in November last, that they should -forfeit what Pensions they had; be 'put under inspection, under -surveillance,' and, if need were, be banished: Veto! A still sharper turn -is coming; but to this also the answer will be, Veto. - -Veto after Veto; your thumbscrew paralysed! Gods and men may see that the -Legislative is in a false position. As, alas, who is in a true one? -Voices already murmur for a 'National Convention.' (December 1791 (Hist. -Parl. xii. 257).) This poor Legislative, spurred and stung into action by -a whole France and a whole Europe, cannot act; can only objurgate and -perorate; with stormy 'motions,' and motion in which is no way: with -effervescence, with noise and fuliginous fury! - -What scenes in that National Hall! President jingling his inaudible bell; -or, as utmost signal of distress, clapping on his hat; 'the tumult -subsiding in twenty minutes,' and this or the other indiscreet Member sent -to the Abbaye Prison for three days! Suspected Persons must be summoned -and questioned; old M. de Sombreuil of the Invalides has to give account of -himself, and why he leaves his Gates open. Unusual smoke rose from the -Sevres Pottery, indicating conspiracy; the Potters explained that it was -Necklace-Lamotte's Memoirs, bought up by her Majesty, which they were -endeavouring to suppress by fire, (Moniteur, Seance du 28 Mai 1792; Campan, -ii. 196.)--which nevertheless he that runs may still read. - -Again, it would seem, Duke de Brissac and the King's Constitutional-Guard -are 'making cartridges secretly in the cellars;' a set of Royalists, pure -and impure; black cut-throats many of them, picked out of gaming houses and -sinks; in all Six thousand instead of Eighteen hundred; who evidently gloom -on us every time we enter the Chateau. (Dumouriez, ii. 168.) Wherefore, -with infinite debate, let Brissac and King's Guard be disbanded. Disbanded -accordingly they are; after only two months of existence, for they did not -get on foot till March of this same year. So ends briefly the King's new -Constitutional Maison Militaire; he must now be guarded by mere Swiss and -blue Nationals again. It seems the lot of Constitutional things. New -Constitutional Maison Civile he would never even establish, much as Barnave -urged it; old resident Duchesses sniffed at it, and held aloof; on the -whole her Majesty thought it not worth while, the Noblesse would so soon be -back triumphant. (Campan, ii. c. 19.) - -Or, looking still into this National Hall and its scenes, behold Bishop -Torne, a Constitutional Prelate, not of severe morals, demanding that -'religious costumes and such caricatures' be abolished. Bishop Torne -warms, catches fire; finishes by untying, and indignantly flinging on the -table, as if for gage or bet, his own pontifical cross. Which cross, at -any rate, is instantly covered by the cross of Te-Deum Fauchet, then by -other crosses, and insignia, till all are stripped; this clerical Senator -clutching off his skull-cap, that other his frill-collar,--lest Fanaticism -return on us. (Moniteur, du 7 Avril 1792; Deux Amis, vii. 111.) - -Quick is the movement here! And then so confused, unsubstantial, you might -call it almost spectral; pallid, dim, inane, like the Kingdoms of Dis! -Unruly Liguet, shrunk to a kind of spectre for us, pleads here, some cause -that he has: amid rumour and interruption, which excel human patience; he -'tears his papers, and withdraws,' the irascible adust little man. Nay -honourable members will tear their papers, being effervescent: Merlin of -Thionville tears his papers, crying: "So, the People cannot be saved by -you!" Nor are Deputations wanting: Deputations of Sections; generally -with complaint and denouncement, always with Patriot fervour of sentiment: -Deputation of Women, pleading that they also may be allowed to take Pikes, -and exercise in the Champ-de-Mars. Why not, ye Amazons, if it be in you? -Then occasionally, having done our message and got answer, we 'defile -through the Hall, singing ca-ira;' or rather roll and whirl through it, -'dancing our ronde patriotique the while,'--our new Carmagnole, or Pyrrhic -war-dance and liberty-dance. Patriot Huguenin, Ex-Advocate, Ex-Carabineer, -Ex-Clerk of the Barriers, comes deputed, with Saint-Antoine at his heels; -denouncing Anti-patriotism, Famine, Forstalment and Man-eaters; asks an -august Legislative: "Is there not a tocsin in your hearts against these -mangeurs d'hommes!" (See Moniteur, Seances (in Hist. Parl. xiii. xiv.).) - -But above all things, for this is a continual business, the Legislative has -to reprimand the King's Ministers. Of His Majesty's Ministers we have said -hitherto, and say, next to nothing. Still more spectral these! Sorrowful; -of no permanency any of them, none at least since Montmorin vanished: the -'eldest of the King's Council' is occasionally not ten days old! -(Dumouriez, ii. 137.) Feuillant-Constitutional, as your respectable Cahier -de Gerville, as your respectable unfortunate Delessarts; or Royalist- -Constitutional, as Montmorin last Friend of Necker; or Aristocrat as -Bertrand-Moleville: they flit there phantom-like, in the huge simmering -confusion; poor shadows, dashed in the racking winds; powerless, without -meaning;--whom the human memory need not charge itself with. - -But how often, we say, are these poor Majesty's Ministers summoned over; to -be questioned, tutored; nay, threatened, almost bullied! They answer what, -with adroitest simulation and casuistry, they can: of which a poor -Legislative knows not what to make. One thing only is clear, That -Cimmerian Europe is girdling us in; that France (not actually dead, -surely?) cannot march. Have a care, ye Ministers! Sharp Guadet transfixes -you with cross-questions, with sudden Advocate-conclusions; the sleeping -tempest that is in Vergniaud can be awakened. Restless Brissot brings up -Reports, Accusations, endless thin Logic; it is the man's highday even now. -Condorcet redacts, with his firm pen, our 'Address of the Legislative -Assembly to the French Nation.' (16th February 1792 (Choix des Rapports, -viii. 375-92).) Fiery Max Isnard, who, for the rest, will "carry not Fire -and Sword" on those Cimmerian Enemies "but Liberty,"--is for declaring -"that we hold Ministers responsible; and that by responsibility we mean -death, nous entendons la mort." - -For verily it grows serious: the time presses, and traitors there are. -Bertrand-Moleville has a smooth tongue, the known Aristocrat; gall in his -heart. How his answers and explanations flow ready; jesuitic, plausible to -the ear! But perhaps the notablest is this, which befel once when Bertrand -had done answering and was withdrawn. Scarcely had the august Assembly -begun considering what was to be done with him, when the Hall fills with -smoke. Thick sour smoke: no oratory, only wheezing and barking;-- -irremediable; so that the august Assembly has to adjourn! (Courrier de -Paris, 14 Janvier, 1792 (Gorsas's Newspaper), in Hist. Parl. xiii. 83.) A -miracle? Typical miracle? One knows not: only this one seems to know, -that 'the Keeper of the Stoves was appointed by Bertrand' or by some -underling of his!--O fuliginous confused Kingdom of Dis, with thy Tantalus- -Ixion toils, with thy angry Fire-floods, and Streams named of Lamentation, -why hast thou not thy Lethe too, that so one might finish? - - - -Chapter 2.5.VIII. - -The Jacobins. - -Nevertheless let not Patriotism despair. Have we not, in Paris at least, a -virtuous Petion, a wholly Patriotic Municipality? Virtuous Petion, ever -since November, is Mayor of Paris: in our Municipality, the Public, for -the Public is now admitted too, may behold an energetic Danton; further, an -epigrammatic slow-sure Manuel; a resolute unrepentant Billaud-Varennes, of -Jesuit breeding; Tallien able-editor; and nothing but Patriots, better or -worse. So ran the November Elections: to the joy of most citizens; nay -the very Court supported Petion rather than Lafayette. And so Bailly and -his Feuillants, long waning like the Moon, had to withdraw then, making -some sorrowful obeisance, into extinction;--or indeed into worse, into -lurid half-light, grimmed by the shadow of that Red Flag of theirs, and -bitter memory of the Champ-de-Mars. How swift is the progress of things -and men! Not now does Lafayette, as on that Federation-day, when his noon -was, 'press his sword firmly on the Fatherland's Altar,' and swear in sight -of France: ah no; he, waning and setting ever since that hour, hangs now, -disastrous, on the edge of the horizon; commanding one of those Three -moulting Crane-flights of Armies, in a most suspected, unfruitful, -uncomfortable manner! - -But, at most, cannot Patriotism, so many thousands strong in this -Metropolis of the Universe, help itself? Has it not right-hands, pikes? -Hammering of pikes, which was not to be prohibited by Mayor Bailly, has -been sanctioned by Mayor Petion; sanctioned by Legislative Assembly. How -not, when the King's so-called Constitutional Guard 'was making cartridges -in secret?' Changes are necessary for the National Guard itself; this -whole Feuillant-Aristocrat Staff of the Guard must be disbanded. Likewise, -citizens without uniform may surely rank in the Guard, the pike beside the -musket, in such a time: the 'active' citizen and the passive who can fight -for us, are they not both welcome?--O my Patriot friends, indubitably Yes! -Nay the truth is, Patriotism throughout, were it never so white-frilled, -logical, respectable, must either lean itself heartily on Sansculottism, -the black, bottomless; or else vanish, in the frightfullest way, to Limbo! -Thus some, with upturned nose, will altogether sniff and disdain -Sansculottism; others will lean heartily on it; nay others again will lean -what we call heartlessly on it: three sorts; each sort with a destiny -corresponding. (Discours de Bailly, Reponse de Petion (Moniteur du 20 -Novembre 1791).) - -In such point of view, however, have we not for the present a Volunteer -Ally, stronger than all the rest: namely, Hunger? Hunger; and what -rushing of Panic Terror this and the sum-total of our other miseries may -bring! For Sansculottism grows by what all other things die of. Stupid -Peter Baille almost made an epigram, though unconsciously, and with the -Patriot world laughing not at it but at him, when he wrote 'Tout va bien -ici, le pain manque, All goes well here, victuals not to be had.' -(Barbaroux, p. 94.) - -Neither, if you knew it, is Patriotism without her Constitution that can -march; her not impotent Parliament; or call it, Ecumenic Council, and -General-Assembly of the Jean-Jacques Churches: the MOTHER-SOCIETY, namely! -Mother-Society with her three hundred full-grown Daughters; with what we -can call little Granddaughters trying to walk, in every village of France, -numerable, as Burke thinks, by the hundred thousand. This is the true -Constitution; made not by Twelve-Hundred august Senators, but by Nature -herself; and has grown, unconsciously, out of the wants and the efforts of -these Twenty-five Millions of men. They are 'Lords of the Articles,' our -Jacobins; they originate debates for the Legislative; discuss Peace and -War; settle beforehand what the Legislative is to do. Greatly to the -scandal of philosophical men, and of most Historians;--who do in that judge -naturally, and yet not wisely. A Governing power must exist: your other -powers here are simulacra; this power is it. - -Great is the Mother-Society: She has had the honour to be denounced by -Austrian Kaunitz; (Moniteur, Seance du 29 Mars, 1792.) and is all the -dearer to Patriotism. By fortune and valour, she has extinguished -Feuillantism itself, at least the Feuillant Club. This latter, high as it -once carried its head, she, on the 18th of February, has the satisfaction -to see shut, extinct; Patriots having gone thither, with tumult, to hiss it -out of pain. The Mother Society has enlarged her locality, stretches now -over the whole nave of the Church. Let us glance in, with the worthy -Toulongeon, our old Ex-Constituent Friend, who happily has eyes to see: -'The nave of the Jacobins Church,' says he, 'is changed into a vast Circus, -the seats of which mount up circularly like an amphitheatre to the very -groin of the domed roof. A high Pyramid of black marble, built against one -of the walls, which was formerly a funeral monument, has alone been left -standing: it serves now as back to the Office-bearers' Bureau. Here on an -elevated Platform sit President and Secretaries, behind and above them the -white Busts of Mirabeau, of Franklin, and various others, nay finally of -Marat. Facing this is the Tribune, raised till it is midway between floor -and groin of the dome, so that the speaker's voice may be in the centre. -From that point, thunder the voices which shake all Europe: down below, in -silence, are forging the thunderbolts and the firebrands. Penetrating into -this huge circuit, where all is out of measure, gigantic, the mind cannot -repress some movement of terror and wonder; the imagination recals those -dread temples which Poetry, of old, had consecrated to the Avenging -Deities.' (Toulongeon, ii. 124.) - -Scenes too are in this Jacobin Amphitheatre,--had History time for them. -Flags of the 'Three free Peoples of the Universe,' trinal brotherly flags -of England, America, France, have been waved here in concert; by London -Deputation, of Whigs or Wighs and their Club, on this hand, and by young -French Citizenesses on that; beautiful sweet-tongued Female Citizens, who -solemnly send over salutation and brotherhood, also Tricolor stitched by -their own needle, and finally Ears of Wheat; while the dome rebellows with -Vivent les trois peuples libres! from all throats:--a most dramatic scene. -Demoiselle Theroigne recites, from that Tribune in mid air, her -persecutions in Austria; comes leaning on the arm of Joseph Chenier, Poet -Chenier, to demand Liberty for the hapless Swiss of Chateau-Vieux. (Debats -des Jacobins (Hist. Parl. xiii. 259, &c.).) Be of hope, ye Forty Swiss; -tugging there, in the Brest waters; not forgotten! - -Deputy Brissot perorates from that Tribune; Desmoulins, our wicked Camille, -interjecting audibly from below, "Coquin!" Here, though oftener in the -Cordeliers, reverberates the lion-voice of Danton; grim Billaud-Varennes is -here; Collot d'Herbois, pleading for the Forty Swiss; tearing a passion to -rags. Apophthegmatic Manuel winds up in this pithy way: "A Minister must -perish!"--to which the Amphitheatre responds: "Tous, Tous, All, All!" But -the Chief Priest and Speaker of this place, as we said, is Robespierre, the -long-winded incorruptible man. What spirit of Patriotism dwelt in men in -those times, this one fact, it seems to us, will evince: that fifteen -hundred human creatures, not bound to it, sat quiet under the oratory of -Robespierre; nay, listened nightly, hour after hour, applausive; and gaped -as for the word of life. More insupportable individual, one would say, -seldom opened his mouth in any Tribune. Acrid, implacable-impotent; dull- -drawling, barren as the Harmattan-wind! He pleads, in endless earnest- -shallow speech, against immediate War, against Woollen Caps or Bonnets -Rouges, against many things; and is the Trismegistus and Dalai-Lama of -Patriot men. Whom nevertheless a shrill-voiced little man, yet with fine -eyes, and a broad beautifully sloping brow, rises respectfully to -controvert: he is, say the Newspaper Reporters, 'M. Louvet, Author of the -charming Romance of Faublas.' Steady, ye Patriots! Pull not yet two ways; -with a France rushing panic-stricken in the rural districts, and a -Cimmerian Europe storming in on you! - - - -Chapter 2.5.IX. - -Minister Roland. - -About the vernal equinox, however, one unexpected gleam of hope does burst -forth on Patriotism: the appointment of a thoroughly Patriot Ministry. -This also his Majesty, among his innumerable experiments of wedding fire to -water, will try. Quod bonum sit. Madame d'Udon's Breakfasts have jingled -with a new significance; not even Genevese Dumont but had a word in it. -Finally, on the 15th and onwards to the 23d day of March, 1792, when all is -negociated,--this is the blessed issue; this Patriot Ministry that we see. - -General Dumouriez, with the Foreign Portfolio shall ply Kaunitz and the -Kaiser, in another style than did poor Delessarts; whom indeed we have sent -to our High Court of Orleans for his sluggishness. War-minister Narbonne -is washed away by the Time-flood; poor Chevalier de Grave, chosen by the -Court, is fast washing away: then shall austere Servan, able Engineer- -Officer, mount suddenly to the War Department. Genevese Claviere sees an -old omen realized: passing the Finance Hotel, long years ago, as a poor -Genevese Exile, it was borne wondrously on his mind that he was to be -Finance Minister; and now he is it;--and his poor Wife, given up by the -Doctors, rises and walks, not the victim of nerves but their vanquisher. -(Dumont, c. 20, 21.) And above all, our Minister of the Interior? Roland -de la Platriere, he of Lyons! So have the Brissotins, public or private -Opinion, and Breakfasts in the Place Vendome decided it. Strict Roland, -compared to a Quaker endimanche, or Sunday Quaker, goes to kiss hands at -the Tuileries, in round hat and sleek hair, his shoes tied with mere riband -or ferrat! The Supreme Usher twitches Dumouriez aside: "Quoi, Monsieur! -No buckles to his shoes?"--"Ah, Monsieur," answers Dumouriez, glancing -towards the ferrat: "All is lost, Tout est perdu." (Madame Roland, ii. -80-115.) - -And so our fair Roland removes from her upper floor in the Rue Saint- -Jacques, to the sumptuous saloons once occupied by Madame Necker. Nay -still earlier, it was Calonne that did all this gilding; it was he who -ground these lustres, Venetian mirrors; who polished this inlaying, this -veneering and or-moulu; and made it, by rubbing of the proper lamp, an -Aladdin's Palace:--and now behold, he wanders dim-flitting over Europe, -half-drowned in the Rhine-stream, scarcely saving his Papers! Vos non -vobis.--The fair Roland, equal to either fortune, has her public Dinner on -Fridays, the Ministers all there in a body: she withdraws to her desk (the -cloth once removed), and seems busy writing; nevertheless loses no word: -if for example Deputy Brissot and Minister Claviere get too hot in -argument, she, not without timidity, yet with a cunning gracefulness, will -interpose. Deputy Brissot's head, they say, is getting giddy, in this -sudden height: as feeble heads do. - -Envious men insinuate that the Wife Roland is Minister, and not the -Husband: it is happily the worst they have to charge her with. For the -rest, let whose head soever be getting giddy, it is not this brave woman's. -Serene and queenly here, as she was of old in her own hired garret of the -Ursulines Convent! She who has quietly shelled French-beans for her -dinner; being led to that, as a young maiden, by quiet insight and -computation; and knowing what that was, and what she was: such a one will -also look quietly on or-moulu and veneering, not ignorant of these either. -Calonne did the veneering: he gave dinners here, old Besenval -diplomatically whispering to him; and was great: yet Calonne we saw at -last 'walk with long strides.' Necker next: and where now is Necker? Us -also a swift change has brought hither; a swift change will send us hence. -Not a Palace but a Caravansera! - -So wags and wavers this unrestful World, day after day, month after month. -The Streets of Paris, and all Cities, roll daily their oscillatory flood of -men; which flood does, nightly, disappear, and lie hidden horizontal in -beds and trucklebeds; and awakes on the morrow to new perpendicularity and -movement. Men go their roads, foolish or wise;--Engineer Goguelat to and -fro, bearing Queen's cipher. A Madame de Stael is busy; cannot clutch her -Narbonne from the Time-flood: a Princess de Lamballe is busy; cannot help -her Queen. Barnave, seeing the Feuillants dispersed, and Coblentz so -brisk, begs by way of final recompence to kiss her Majesty's hand; augurs -not well of her new course; and retires home to Grenoble, to wed an heiress -there. The Cafe Valois and Meot the Restaurateur's hear daily gasconade; -loud babble of Half-pay Royalists, with or without Poniards; remnants of -Aristocrat saloons call the new Ministry Ministere-Sansculotte. A Louvet, -of the Romance Faublas, is busy in the Jacobins. A Cazotte, of the Romance -Diable Amoureux, is busy elsewhere: better wert thou quiet, old Cazotte; -it is a world, this, of magic become real! All men are busy; doing they -only half guess what:--flinging seeds, of tares mostly, into the Seed-field -of TIME"' this, by and by, will declare wholly what. - -But Social Explosions have in them something dread, and as it were mad and -magical: which indeed Life always secretly has; thus the dumb Earth (says -Fable), if you pull her mandrake-roots, will give a daemonic mad-making -moan. These Explosions and Revolts ripen, break forth like dumb dread -Forces of Nature; and yet they are Men's forces; and yet we are part of -them: the Daemonic that is in man's life has burst out on us, will sweep -us too away!--One day here is like another, and yet it is not like but -different. How much is growing, silently resistless, at all moments! -Thoughts are growing; forms of Speech are growing, and Customs and even -Costumes; still more visibly are actions and transactions growing, and that -doomed Strife, of France with herself and with the whole world. - -The word Liberty is never named now except in conjunction with another; -Liberty and Equality. In like manner, what, in a reign of Liberty and -Equality, can these words, 'Sir,' 'obedient Servant,' 'Honour to be,' and -such like, signify? Tatters and fibres of old Feudality; which, were it -only in the Grammatical province, ought to be rooted out! The Mother -Society has long since had proposals to that effect: these she could not -entertain, not at the moment. Note too how the Jacobin Brethren are -mounting new symbolical headgear: the Woollen Cap or Nightcap, bonnet de -laine, better known as bonnet rouge, the colour being red. A thing one -wears not only by way of Phrygian Cap-of-Liberty, but also for convenience' -sake, and then also in compliment to the Lower-class Patriots and Bastille- -Heroes; for the Red Nightcap combines all the three properties. Nay -cockades themselves begin to be made of wool, of tricolor yarn: the -riband-cockade, as a symptom of Feuillant Upper-class temper, is becoming -suspicious. Signs of the times. - -Still more, note the travail-throes of Europe: or, rather, note the birth -she brings; for the successive throes and shrieks, of Austrian and Prussian -Alliance, of Kaunitz Anti-jacobin Despatch, of French Ambassadors cast out, -and so forth, were long to note. Dumouriez corresponds with Kaunitz, -Metternich, or Cobentzel, in another style that Delessarts did. Strict -becomes stricter; categorical answer, as to this Coblentz work and much -else, shall be given. Failing which? Failing which, on the 20th day of -April 1792, King and Ministers step over to the Salle de Manege; promulgate -how the matter stands; and poor Louis, 'with tears in his eyes,' proposes -that the Assembly do now decree War. After due eloquence, War is decreed -that night. - -War, indeed! Paris came all crowding, full of expectancy, to the morning, -and still more to the evening session. D'Orleans with his two sons, is -there; looks on, wide-eyed, from the opposite Gallery. (Deux Amis, vii. -146-66.) Thou canst look, O Philippe: it is a War big with issues, for -thee and for all men. Cimmerian Obscurantism and this thrice glorious -Revolution shall wrestle for it, then: some Four-and-twenty years; in -immeasurable Briareus' wrestle; trampling and tearing; before they can come -to any, not agreement, but compromise, and approximate ascertainment each -of what is in the other. - -Let our Three Generals on the Frontiers look to it, therefore; and poor -Chevalier de Grave, the Warminister, consider what he will do. What is in -the three Generals and Armies we may guess. As for poor Chevalier de -Grave, he, in this whirl of things all coming to a press and pinch upon -him, loses head, and merely whirls with them, in a totally distracted -manner; signing himself at last, 'De Grave, Mayor of Paris:' whereupon he -demits, returns over the Channel, to walk in Kensington Gardens; (Dumont, -c. 19, 21.) and austere Servan, the able Engineer-Officer, is elevated in -his stead. To the post of Honour? To that of Difficulty, at least. - - - -Chapter 2.5.X. - -Petion-National-Pique. - -And yet, how, on dark bottomless Cataracts there plays the foolishest -fantastic-coloured spray and shadow; hiding the Abyss under vapoury -rainbows! Alongside of this discussion as to Austrian-Prussian War, there -goes on no less but more vehemently a discussion, Whether the Forty or Two- -and-forty Swiss of Chateau-Vieux shall be liberated from the Brest Gallies? -And then, Whether, being liberated, they shall have a public Festival, or -only private ones? - -Theroigne, as we saw, spoke; and Collot took up the tale. Has not -Bouille's final display of himself, in that final Night of Spurs, stamped -your so-called 'Revolt of Nanci' into a 'Massacre of Nanci,' for all -Patriot judgments? Hateful is that massacre; hateful the Lafayette- -Feuillant 'public thanks' given for it! For indeed, Jacobin Patriotism and -dispersed Feuillantism are now at death-grips; and do fight with all -weapons, even with scenic shows. The walls of Paris, accordingly, are -covered with Placard and Counter-Placard, on the subject of Forty Swiss -blockheads. Journal responds to Journal; Player Collot to Poetaster -Roucher; Joseph Chenier the Jacobin, squire of Theroigne, to his Brother -Andre the Feuillant; Mayor Petion to Dupont de Nemours: and for the space -of two months, there is nowhere peace for the thought of man,--till this -thing be settled. - -Gloria in excelsis! The Forty Swiss are at last got 'amnestied.' Rejoice -ye Forty: doff your greasy wool Bonnets, which shall become Caps of -Liberty. The Brest Daughter-Society welcomes you from on board, with -kisses on each cheek: your iron Handcuffs are disputed as Relics of -Saints; the Brest Society indeed can have one portion, which it will beat -into Pikes, a sort of Sacred Pikes; but the other portion must belong to -Paris, and be suspended from the dome there, along with the Flags of the -Three Free Peoples! Such a goose is man; and cackles over plush-velvet -Grand Monarques and woollen Galley-slaves; over everything and over -nothing,--and will cackle with his whole soul merely if others cackle! - -On the ninth morning of April, these Forty Swiss blockheads arrive. From -Versailles; with vivats heaven-high; with the affluence of men and women. -To the Townhall we conduct them; nay to the Legislative itself, though not -without difficulty. They are harangued, bedinnered, begifted,--the very -Court, not for conscience' sake, contributing something; and their Public -Festival shall be next Sunday. Next Sunday accordingly it is. (Newspapers -of February, March, April, 1792; Iambe d'Andre Chenier sur la Fete des -Suisses; &c., &c. (in Hist. Parl. xiii, xiv.).) They are mounted into a -'triumphal Car resembling a ship;' are carted over Paris, with the clang of -cymbals and drums, all mortals assisting applausive; carted to the Champ- -de-Mars and Fatherland's Altar; and finally carted, for Time always brings -deliverance,--into invisibility for evermore. - -Whereupon dispersed Feuillantism, or that Party which loves Liberty yet not -more than Monarchy, will likewise have its Festival: Festival of -Simonneau, unfortunate Mayor of Etampes, who died for the Law; most surely -for the Law, though Jacobinism disputes; being trampled down with his Red -Flag in the riot about grains. At which Festival the Public again assists, -unapplausive: not we. - -On the whole, Festivals are not wanting; beautiful rainbow-spray when all -is now rushing treble-quick towards its Niagara Fall. National repasts -there are; countenanced by Mayor Petion; Saint-Antoine, and the Strong Ones -of the Halles defiling through Jacobin Club, "their felicity," according to -Santerre, "not perfect otherwise;" singing many-voiced their ca-ira, -dancing their ronde patriotique. Among whom one is glad to discern Saint- -Huruge, expressly 'in white hat,' the Saint-Christopher of the Carmagnole. -Nay a certain, Tambour or National Drummer, having just been presented with -a little daughter, determines to have the new Frenchwoman christened on -Fatherland's Altar then and there. Repast once over, he accordingly has -her christened; Fauchet the Te-Deum Bishop acting in chief, Thuriot and -honourable persons standing gossips: by the name, Petion-National-Pique! -(Patriote-Francais (Brissot's Newspaper), in Hist. Parl. xiii. 451.) Does -this remarkable Citizeness, now past the meridian of life, still walk the -Earth? Or did she die perhaps of teething? Universal History is not -indifferent. - - - -Chapter 2.5.XI. - -The Hereditary Representative. - -And yet it is not by carmagnole-dances and singing of ca-ira, that the work -can be done. Duke Brunswick is not dancing carmagnoles, but has his drill -serjeants busy. - -On the Frontiers, our Armies, be it treason or not, behave in the worst -way. Troops badly commanded, shall we say? Or troops intrinsically bad? -Unappointed, undisciplined, mutinous; that, in a thirty-years peace, have -never seen fire? In any case, Lafayette's and Rochambeau's little clutch, -which they made at Austrian Flanders, has prospered as badly as clutch need -do: soldiers starting at their own shadow; suddenly shrieking, "On nous -trahit," and flying off in wild panic, at or before the first shot;-- -managing only to hang some two or three Prisoners they had picked up, and -massacre their own Commander, poor Theobald Dillon, driven into a granary -by them in the Town of Lille. - -And poor Gouvion: he who sat shiftless in that Insurrection of Women! -Gouvion quitted the Legislative Hall and Parliamentary duties, in disgust -and despair, when those Galley-slaves of Chateau-Vieux were admitted there. -He said, "Between the Austrians and the Jacobins there is nothing but a -soldier's death for it;" (Toulongeon, ii. 149.) and so, 'in the dark stormy -night,' he has flung himself into the throat of the Austrian cannon, and -perished in the skirmish at Maubeuge on the ninth of June. Whom -Legislative Patriotism shall mourn, with black mortcloths and melody in the -Champ-de-Mars: many a Patriot shiftier, truer none. Lafayette himself is -looking altogether dubious; in place of beating the Austrians, is about -writing to denounce the Jacobins. Rochambeau, all disconsolate, quits the -service: there remains only Luckner, the babbling old Prussian Grenadier. - -Without Armies, without Generals! And the Cimmerian Night, has gathered -itself; Brunswick preparing his Proclamation; just about to march! Let a -Patriot Ministry and Legislative say, what in these circumstances it will -do? Suppress Internal Enemies, for one thing, answers the Patriot -Legislative; and proposes, on the 24th of May, its Decree for the -Banishment of Priests. Collect also some nucleus of determined internal -friends, adds War-minister Servan; and proposes, on the 7th of June, his -Camp of Twenty-thousand. Twenty-thousand National Volunteers; Five out of -each Canton; picked Patriots, for Roland has charge of the Interior: they -shall assemble here in Paris; and be for a defence, cunningly devised, -against foreign Austrians and domestic Austrian Committee alike. So much -can a Patriot Ministry and Legislative do. - -Reasonable and cunningly devised as such Camp may, to Servan and -Patriotism, appear, it appears not so to Feuillantism; to that Feuillant- -Aristocrat Staff of the Paris Guard; a Staff, one would say again, which -will need to be dissolved. These men see, in this proposed Camp of -Servan's, an offence; and even, as they pretend to say, an insult. -Petitions there come, in consequence, from blue Feuillants in epaulettes; -ill received. Nay, in the end, there comes one Petition, called 'of the -Eight Thousand National Guards:' so many names are on it; including women -and children. Which famed Petition of the Eight Thousand is indeed -received: and the Petitioners, all under arms, are admitted to the honours -of the sitting,--if honours or even if sitting there be; for the instant -their bayonets appear at the one door, the Assembly 'adjourns,' and begins -to flow out at the other. (Moniteur, Seance du 10 Juin 1792.) - -Also, in these same days, it is lamentable to see how National Guards, -escorting Fete Dieu or Corpus-Christi ceremonial, do collar and smite down -any Patriot that does not uncover as the Hostie passes. They clap their -bayonets to the breast of Cattle-butcher Legendre, a known Patriot ever -since the Bastille days; and threaten to butcher him; though he sat quite -respectfully, he says, in his Gig, at a distance of fifty paces, waiting -till the thing were by. Nay, orthodox females were shrieking to have down -the Lanterne on him. (Debats des Jacobins (in Hist. Parl. xiv. 429).) - -To such height has Feuillantism gone in this Corps. For indeed, are not -their Officers creatures of the chief Feuillant, Lafayette? The Court too -has, very naturally, been tampering with them; caressing them, ever since -that dissolution of the so-called Constitutional Guard. Some Battalions -are altogether 'petris, kneaded full' of Feuillantism, mere Aristocrats at -bottom: for instance, the Battalion of the Filles-Saint-Thomas, made up of -your Bankers, Stockbrokers, and other Full-purses of the Rue Vivienne. Our -worthy old Friend Weber, Queen's Foster-brother Weber, carries a musket in -that Battalion,--one may judge with what degree of Patriotic intention. - -Heedless of all which, or rather heedful of all which, the Legislative, -backed by Patriot France and the feeling of Necessity, decrees this Camp of -Twenty thousand. Decisive though conditional Banishment of malign Priests, -it has already decreed. - -It will now be seen, therefore, Whether the Hereditary Representative is -for us or against us? Whether or not, to all our other woes, this -intolerablest one is to be added; which renders us not a menaced Nation in -extreme jeopardy and need, but a paralytic Solecism of a Nation; sitting -wrapped as in dead cerements, of a Constitutional-Vesture that were no -other than a winding-sheet; our right hand glued to our left: to wait -there, writhing and wriggling, unable to stir from the spot, till in -Prussian rope we mount to the gallows? Let the Hereditary Representative -consider it well: The Decree of Priests? The Camp of Twenty Thousand?--By -Heaven, he answers, Veto! Veto!--Strict Roland hands in his Letter to the -King; or rather it was Madame's Letter, who wrote it all at a sitting; one -of the plainest-spoken Letters ever handed in to any King. This plain- -spoken Letter King Louis has the benefit of reading overnight. He reads, -inwardly digests; and next morning, the whole Patriot Ministry finds itself -turned out. It is the 13th of June 1792. (Madame Roland, ii. 115.) - -Dumouriez the many-counselled, he, with one Duranthon, called Minister of -Justice, does indeed linger for a day or two; in rather suspicious -circumstances; speaks with the Queen, almost weeps with her: but in the -end, he too sets off for the Army; leaving what Un-Patriot or Semi-Patriot -Ministry and Ministries can now accept the helm, to accept it. Name them -not: new quick-changing Phantasms, which shift like magic-lantern figures; -more spectral than ever! - -Unhappy Queen, unhappy Louis! The two Vetos were so natural: are not the -Priests martyrs; also friends? This Camp of Twenty Thousand, could it be -other than of stormfullest Sansculottes? Natural; and yet, to France, -unendurable. Priests that co-operate with Coblentz must go elsewhither -with their martyrdom: stormful Sansculottes, these and no other kind of -creatures, will drive back the Austrians. If thou prefer the Austrians, -then for the love of Heaven go join them. If not, join frankly with what -will oppose them to the death. Middle course is none. - -Or alas, what extreme course was there left now, for a man like Louis? -Underhand Royalists, Ex-Minister Bertrand-Moleville, Ex-Constituent -Malouet, and all manner of unhelpful individuals, advise and advise. With -face of hope turned now on the Legislative Assembly, and now on Austria and -Coblentz, and round generally on the Chapter of Chances, an ancient -Kingship is reeling and spinning, one knows not whitherward, on the flood -of things. - - - -Chapter 2.5.XII. - -Procession of the Black Breeches. - -But is there a thinking man in France who, in these circumstances, can -persuade himself that the Constitution will march? Brunswick is stirring; -he, in few days now, will march. Shall France sit still, wrapped in dead -cerements and grave-clothes, its right hand glued to its left, till the -Brunswick Saint-Bartholomew arrive; till France be as Poland, and its -Rights of Man become a Prussian Gibbet? - -Verily, it is a moment frightful for all men. National Death; or else some -preternatural convulsive outburst of National Life;--that same, daemonic -outburst! Patriots whose audacity has limits had, in truth, better retire -like Barnave; court private felicity at Grenoble. Patriots, whose audacity -has no limits must sink down into the obscure; and, daring and defying all -things, seek salvation in stratagem, in Plot of Insurrection. Roland and -young Barbaroux have spread out the Map of France before them, Barbaroux -says 'with tears:' they consider what Rivers, what Mountain ranges are in -it: they will retire behind this Loire-stream, defend these Auvergne -stone-labyrinths; save some little sacred Territory of the Free; die at -least in their last ditch. Lafayette indites his emphatic Letter to the -Legislative against Jacobinism; (Moniteur, Seance du 18 Juin 1792.) which -emphatic Letter will not heal the unhealable. - -Forward, ye Patriots whose audacity has no limits; it is you now that must -either do or die! The sections of Paris sit in deep counsel; send out -Deputation after Deputation to the Salle de Manege, to petition and -denounce. Great is their ire against tyrannous Veto, Austrian Committee, -and the combined Cimmerian Kings. What boots it? Legislative listens to -the 'tocsin in our hearts;' grants us honours of the sitting, sees us -defile with jingle and fanfaronade; but the Camp of Twenty Thousand, the -Priest-Decree, be-vetoed by Majesty, are become impossible for Legislative. -Fiery Isnard says, "We will have Equality, should we descend for it to the -tomb." Vergniaud utters, hypothetically, his stern Ezekiel-visions of the -fate of Anti-national Kings. But the question is: Will hypothetic -prophecies, will jingle and fanfaronade demolish the Veto; or will the -Veto, secure in its Tuileries Chateau, remain undemolishable by these? -Barbaroux, dashing away his tears, writes to the Marseilles Municipality, -that they must send him 'Six hundred men who know how to die, qui savent -mourir.' (Barbaroux, p. 40.) No wet-eyed message this, but a fire-eyed -one;--which will be obeyed! - -Meanwhile the Twentieth of June is nigh, anniversary of that world-famous -Oath of the Tennis-Court: on which day, it is said, certain citizens have -in view to plant a Mai or Tree of Liberty, in the Tuileries Terrace of the -Feuillants; perhaps also to petition the Legislative and Hereditary -Representative about these Vetos;--with such demonstration, jingle and -evolution, as may seem profitable and practicable. Sections have gone -singly, and jingled and evolved: but if they all went, or great part of -them, and there, planting their Mai in these alarming circumstances, -sounded the tocsin in their hearts? - -Among King's Friends there can be but one opinion as to such a step: among -Nation's Friends there may be two. On the one hand, might it not by -possibility scare away these unblessed Vetos? Private Patriots and even -Legislative Deputies may have each his own opinion, or own no-opinion: but -the hardest task falls evidently on Mayor Petion and the Municipals, at -once Patriots and Guardians of the public Tranquillity. Hushing the matter -down with the one hand; tickling it up with the other! Mayor Petion and -Municipality may lean this way; Department-Directory with Procureur-Syndic -Roederer having a Feuillant tendency, may lean that. On the whole, each -man must act according to his one opinion or to his two opinions; and all -manner of influences, official representations cross one another in the -foolishest way. Perhaps after all, the Project, desirable and yet not -desirable, will dissipate itself, being run athwart by so many -complexities; and coming to nothing? - -Not so: on the Twentieth morning of June, a large Tree of Liberty, -Lombardy Poplar by kind, lies visibly tied on its car, in the Suburb- -Antoine. Suburb Saint-Marceau too, in the uttermost South-East, and all -that remote Oriental region, Pikemen and Pikewomen, National Guards, and -the unarmed curious are gathering,--with the peaceablest intentions in the -world. A tricolor Municipal arrives; speaks. Tush, it is all peaceable, -we tell thee, in the way of Law: are not Petitions allowable, and the -Patriotism of Mais? The tricolor Municipal returns without effect: your -Sansculottic rills continue flowing, combining into brooks: towards -noontide, led by tall Santerre in blue uniform, by tall Saint-Huruge in -white hat, it moves Westward, a respectable river, or complication of -still-swelling rivers. - -What Processions have we not seen: Corpus-Christi and Legendre waiting in -Gig; Bones of Voltaire with bullock-chariots, and goadsmen in Roman -Costume; Feasts of Chateau-Vieux and Simonneau; Gouvion Funerals, Rousseau -Sham-Funerals, and the Baptism of Petion-National-Pike! Nevertheless this -Procession has a character of its own. Tricolor ribands streaming aloft -from pike-heads; ironshod batons; and emblems not a few; among which, see -specially these two, of the tragic and the untragic sort: a Bull's Heart -transfixed with iron, bearing this epigraph, 'Coeur d'Aristocrate, -Aristocrat's Heart;' and, more striking still, properly the standard of the -host, a pair of old Black Breeches (silk, they say), extended on cross- -staff high overhead, with these memorable words: 'Tremblez tyrans, voila -les Sansculottes, Tremble tyrants, here are the Sans-indispensables!' -Also, the Procession trails two cannons. - -Scarfed tricolor Municipals do now again meet it, in the Quai Saint- -Bernard; and plead earnestly, having called halt. Peaceable, ye virtuous -tricolor Municipals, peaceable are we as the sucking dove. Behold our -Tennis-Court Mai. Petition is legal; and as for arms, did not an august -Legislative receive the so-called Eight Thousand in arms, Feuillants though -they were? Our Pikes, are they not of National iron? Law is our father -and mother, whom we will not dishonour; but Patriotism is our own soul. -Peaceable, ye virtuous Municipals;--and on the whole, limited as to time! -Stop we cannot; march ye with us.--The Black Breeches agitate themselves, -impatient; the cannon-wheels grumble: the many-footed Host tramps on. - -How it reached the Salle de Manege, like an ever-waxing river; got -admittance, after debate; read its Address; and defiled, dancing and ca- -ira-ing, led by tall sonorous Santerre and tall sonorous Saint-Huruge: how -it flowed, not now a waxing river but a shut Caspian lake, round all -Precincts of the Tuileries; the front Patriot squeezed by the rearward, -against barred iron Grates, like to have the life squeezed out of him, and -looking too into the dread throat of cannon, for National Battalions stand -ranked within: how tricolor Municipals ran assiduous, and Royalists with -Tickets of Entry; and both Majesties sat in the interior surrounded by men -in black: all this the human mind shall fancy for itself, or read in old -Newspapers, and Syndic Roederer's Chronicle of Fifty Days. (Roederer, &c. -&c. (in Hist. Parl. xv. 98-194).) - -Our Mai is planted; if not in the Feuillants Terrace, whither is no ingate, -then in the Garden of the Capuchins, as near as we could get. National -Assembly has adjourned till the Evening Session: perhaps this shut lake, -finding no ingate, will retire to its sources again; and disappear in -peace? Alas, not yet: rearward still presses on; rearward knows little -what pressure is in the front. One would wish at all events, were it -possible, to have a word with his Majesty first! - -The shadows fall longer, eastward; it is four o'clock: will his Majesty -not come out? Hardly he! In that case, Commandant Santerre, Cattle- -butcher Legendre, Patriot Huguenin with the tocsin in his heart; they, and -others of authority, will enter in. Petition and request to wearied -uncertain National Guard; louder and louder petition; backed by the rattle -of our two cannons! The reluctant Grate opens: endless Sansculottic -multitudes flood the stairs; knock at the wooden guardian of your privacy. -Knocks, in such case, grow strokes, grow smashings: the wooden guardian -flies in shivers. And now ensues a Scene over which the world has long -wailed; and not unjustly; for a sorrier spectacle, of Incongruity fronting -Incongruity, and as it were recognising themselves incongruous, and staring -stupidly in each other's face, the world seldom saw. - -King Louis, his door being beaten on, opens it; stands with free bosom; -asking, "What do you want?" The Sansculottic flood recoils awestruck; -returns however, the rear pressing on the front, with cries of "Veto! -Patriot Ministers! Remove Veto!"--which things, Louis valiantly answers, -this is not the time to do, nor this the way to ask him to do. Honour what -virtue is in a man. Louis does not want courage; he has even the higher -kind called moral-courage, though only the passive half of that. His few -National Grenadiers shuffle back with him, into the embrasure of a window: -there he stands, with unimpeachable passivity, amid the shouldering and the -braying; a spectacle to men. They hand him a Red Cap of Liberty; he sets -it quietly on his head, forgets it there. He complains of thirst; half- -drunk Rascality offers him a bottle, he drinks of it. "Sire, do not fear," -says one of his Grenadiers. "Fear?" answers Louis: "feel then," putting -the man's hand on his heart. So stands Majesty in Red woollen Cap; black -Sansculottism weltering round him, far and wide, aimless, with in- -articulate dissonance, with cries of "Veto! Patriot Ministers!" - -For the space of three hours or more! The National Assembly is adjourned; -tricolor Municipals avail almost nothing: Mayor Petion tarries absent; -Authority is none. The Queen with her Children and Sister Elizabeth, in -tears and terror not for themselves only, are sitting behind barricaded -tables and Grenadiers in an inner room. The Men in Black have all wisely -disappeared. Blind lake of Sansculottism welters stagnant through the -King's Chateau, for the space of three hours. - -Nevertheless all things do end. Vergniaud arrives with Legislative -Deputation, the Evening Session having now opened. Mayor Petion has -arrived; is haranguing, 'lifted on the shoulders of two Grenadiers.' In -this uneasy attitude and in others, at various places without and within, -Mayor Petion harangues; many men harangue: finally Commandant Santerre -defiles; passes out, with his Sansculottism, by the opposite side of the -Chateau. Passing through the room where the Queen, with an air of dignity -and sorrowful resignation, sat among the tables and Grenadiers, a woman -offers her too a Red Cap; she holds it in her hand, even puts it on the -little Prince Royal. "Madame," said Santerre, "this People loves you more -than you think." (Toulongeon, ii. 173; Campan, ii. c. 20.)--About eight -o'clock the Royal Family fall into each other's arms amid 'torrents of -tears.' Unhappy Family! Who would not weep for it, were there not a whole -world to be wept for? - -Thus has the Age of Chivalry gone, and that of Hunger come. Thus does all- -needing Sansculottism look in the face of its Roi, Regulator, King or -Ableman; and find that he has nothing to give it. Thus do the two Parties, -brought face to face after long centuries, stare stupidly at one another, -This am I; but, Good Heaven, is that thou?--and depart, not knowing what to -make of it. And yet, Incongruities having recognised themselves to be -incongruous, something must be made of it. The Fates know what. - -This is the world-famous Twentieth of June, more worthy to be called the -Procession of the Black Breeches. With which, what we had to say of this -First French biennial Parliament, and its products and activities, may -perhaps fitly enough terminate. - - - - -BOOK 2.VI. - -THE MARSEILLESE - - -Chapter 2.6.I. - -Executive that does not act. - -How could your paralytic National Executive be put 'in action,' in any -measure, by such a Twentieth of June as this? Quite contrariwise: a large -sympathy for Majesty so insulted arises every where; expresses itself in -Addresses, Petitions 'Petition of the Twenty Thousand inhabitants of -Paris,' and such like, among all Constitutional persons; a decided rallying -round the Throne. - -Of which rallying it was thought King Louis might have made something. -However, he does make nothing of it, or attempt to make; for indeed his -views are lifted beyond domestic sympathy and rallying, over to Coblentz -mainly: neither in itself is the same sympathy worth much. It is sympathy -of men who believe still that the Constitution can march. Wherefore the -old discord and ferment, of Feuillant sympathy for Royalty, and Jacobin -sympathy for Fatherland, acting against each other from within; with terror -of Coblentz and Brunswick acting from without:--this discord and ferment -must hold on its course, till a catastrophe do ripen and come. One would -think, especially as Brunswick is near marching, such catastrophe cannot -now be distant. Busy, ye Twenty-five French Millions; ye foreign -Potentates, minatory Emigrants, German drill-serjeants; each do what his -hand findeth! Thou, O Reader, at such safe distance, wilt see what they -make of it among them. - -Consider therefore this pitiable Twentieth of June as a futility; no -catastrophe, rather a catastasis, or heightening. Do not its Black -Breeches wave there, in the Historical Imagination, like a melancholy flag -of distress; soliciting help, which no mortal can give? Soliciting pity, -which thou wert hard-hearted not to give freely, to one and all! Other -such flags, or what are called Occurrences, and black or bright symbolic -Phenomena; will flit through the Historical Imagination: these, one after -one, let us note, with extreme brevity. - -The first phenomenon is that of Lafayette at the Bar of the Assembly; after -a week and day. Promptly, on hearing of this scandalous Twentieth of June, -Lafayette has quitted his Command on the North Frontier, in better or worse -order; and got hither, on the 28th, to repress the Jacobins: not by Letter -now; but by oral Petition, and weight of character, face to face. The -august Assembly finds the step questionable; invites him meanwhile to the -honours of the sitting. (Moniteur, Seance du 28 Juin 1792.) Other honour, -or advantage, there unhappily came almost none; the Galleries all growling; -fiery Isnard glooming; sharp Guadet not wanting in sarcasms. - -And out of doors, when the sitting is over, Sieur Resson, keeper of the -Patriot Cafe in these regions, hears in the street a hurly-burly; steps -forth to look, he and his Patriot customers: it is Lafayette's carriage, -with a tumultuous escort of blue Grenadiers, Cannoneers, even Officers of -the Line, hurrahing and capering round it. They make a pause opposite -Sieur Resson's door; wag their plumes at him; nay shake their fists, -bellowing A bas les Jacobins; but happily pass on without onslaught. They -pass on, to plant a Mai before the General's door, and bully considerably. -All which the Sieur Resson cannot but report with sorrow, that night, in -the Mother Society. (Debats des Jacobins (Hist. Parl. xv. 235).) But what -no Sieur Resson nor Mother Society can do more than guess is this, That a -council of rank Feuillants, your unabolished Staff of the Guard and who -else has status and weight, is in these very moments privily deliberating -at the General's: Can we not put down the Jacobins by force? Next day, a -Review shall be held, in the Tuileries Garden, of such as will turn out, -and try. Alas, says Toulongeon, hardly a hundred turned out. Put it off -till tomorrow, then, to give better warning. On the morrow, which is -Saturday, there turn out 'some thirty;' and depart shrugging their -shoulders! (Toulongeon, ii. 180. See also Dampmartin, ii. 161.) -Lafayette promptly takes carriage again; returns musing on my things. - -The dust of Paris is hardly off his wheels, the summer Sunday is still -young, when Cordeliers in deputation pluck up that Mai of his: before -sunset, Patriots have burnt him in effigy. Louder doubt and louder rises, -in Section, in National Assembly, as to the legality of such unbidden Anti- -jacobin visit on the part of a General: doubt swelling and spreading all -over France, for six weeks or so: with endless talk about usurping -soldiers, about English Monk, nay about Cromwell: O thou Paris Grandison- -Cromwell!--What boots it? King Louis himself looked coldly on the -enterprize: colossal Hero of two Worlds, having weighed himself in the -balance, finds that he is become a gossamer Colossus, only some thirty -turning out. - -In a like sense, and with a like issue, works our Department-Directory here -at Paris; who, on the 6th of July, take upon them to suspend Mayor Petion -and Procureur Manuel from all civic functions, for their conduct, replete, -as is alleged, with omissions and commissions, on that delicate Twentieth -of June. Virtuous Petion sees himself a kind of martyr, or pseudo-martyr, -threatened with several things; drawls out due heroical lamentation; to -which Patriot Paris and Patriot Legislative duly respond. King Louis and -Mayor Petion have already had an interview on that business of the -Twentieth; an interview and dialogue, distinguished by frankness on both -sides; ending on King Louis's side with the words, "Taisez-vous, Hold your -peace." - -For the rest, this of suspending our Mayor does seem a mistimed measure. -By ill chance, it came out precisely on the day of that famous Baiser de -l'amourette, or miraculous reconciliatory Delilah-Kiss, which we spoke of -long ago. Which Delilah-Kiss was thereby quite hindered of effect. For -now his Majesty has to write, almost that same night, asking a reconciled -Assembly for advice! The reconciled Assembly will not advise; will not -interfere. The King confirms the suspension; then perhaps, but not till -then will the Assembly interfere, the noise of Patriot Paris getting loud. -Whereby your Delilah-Kiss, such was the destiny of Parliament First, -becomes a Philistine Battle! - -Nay there goes a word that as many as Thirty of our chief Patriot Senators -are to be clapped in prison, by mittimus and indictment of Feuillant -Justices, Juges de Paix; who here in Paris were well capable of such a -thing. It was but in May last that Juge de Paix Lariviere, on complaint of -Bertrand-Moleville touching that Austrian Committee, made bold to launch -his mittimus against three heads of the Mountain, Deputies Bazire, Chabot, -Merlin, the Cordelier Trio; summoning them to appear before him, and shew -where that Austrian Committee was, or else suffer the consequences. Which -mittimus the Trio, on their side, made bold to fling in the fire: and -valiantly pleaded privilege of Parliament. So that, for his zeal without -knowledge, poor Justice Lariviere now sits in the prison of Orleans, -waiting trial from the Haute Cour there. Whose example, may it not deter -other rash Justices; and so this word of the Thirty arrestments continue a -word merely? - -But on the whole, though Lafayette weighed so light, and has had his Mai -plucked up, Official Feuillantism falters not a whit; but carries its head -high, strong in the letter of the Law. Feuillants all of these men: a -Feuillant Directory; founding on high character, and such like; with Duke -de la Rochefoucault for President,--a thing which may prove dangerous for -him! Dim now is the once bright Anglomania of these admired Noblemen. -Duke de Liancourt offers, out of Normandy where he is Lord-Lieutenant, not -only to receive his Majesty, thinking of flight thither, but to lend him -money to enormous amounts. Sire, it is not a Revolt, it is a Revolution; -and truly no rose-water one! Worthier Noblemen were not in France nor in -Europe than those two: but the Time is crooked, quick-shifting, perverse; -what straightest course will lead to any goal, in it? - -Another phasis which we note, in these early July days, is that of certain -thin streaks of Federate National Volunteers wending from various points -towards Paris, to hold a new Federation-Festival, or Feast of Pikes, on the -Fourteenth there. So has the National Assembly wished it, so has the -Nation willed it. In this way, perhaps, may we still have our Patriot Camp -in spite of Veto. For cannot these Federes, having celebrated their Feast -of Pikes, march on to Soissons; and, there being drilled and regimented, -rush to the Frontiers, or whither we like? Thus were the one Veto -cunningly eluded! - -As indeed the other Veto, about Priests, is also like to be eluded; and -without much cunning. For Provincial Assemblies, in Calvados as one -instance, are proceeding on their own strength to judge and banish -Antinational Priests. Or still worse without Provincial Assembly, a -desperate People, as at Bourdeaux, can 'hang two of them on the Lanterne,' -on the way towards judgment. (Hist. Parl. xvi. 259.) Pity for the spoken -Veto, when it cannot become an acted one! - -It is true, some ghost of a War-minister, or Home-minister, for the time -being, ghost whom we do not name, does write to Municipalities and King's -Commanders, that they shall, by all conceivable methods, obstruct this -Federation, and even turn back the Federes by force of arms: a message -which scatters mere doubt, paralysis and confusion; irritates the poor -Legislature; reduces the Federes as we see, to thin streaks. But being -questioned, this ghost and the other ghosts, What it is then that they -propose to do for saving the country?--they answer, That they cannot tell; -that indeed they for their part have, this morning, resigned in a body; and -do now merely respectfully take leave of the helm altogether. With which -words they rapidly walk out of the Hall, sortent brusquement de la salle, -the 'Galleries cheering loudly,' the poor Legislature sitting 'for a good -while in silence!' (Moniteur, Seance du Juillet 1792.) Thus do Cabinet- -ministers themselves, in extreme cases, strike work; one of the strangest -omens. Other complete Cabinet-ministry there will not be; only fragments, -and these changeful, which never get completed; spectral Apparitions that -cannot so much as appear! King Louis writes that he now views this -Federation Feast with approval; and will himself have the pleasure to take -part in the same. - -And so these thin streaks of Federes wend Parisward through a paralytic -France. Thin grim streaks; not thick joyful ranks, as of old to the first -Feast of Pikes! No: these poor Federates march now towards Austria and -Austrian Committee, towards jeopardy and forlorn hope; men of hard fortune -and temper, not rich in the world's goods. Municipalities, paralyzed by -War-ministers are shy of affording cash: it may be, your poor Federates -cannot arm themselves, cannot march, till the Daughter-Society of the place -open her pocket, and subscribe. There will not have arrived, at the set -day, Three thousand of them in all. And yet, thin and feeble as these -streaks of Federates seem, they are the only thing one discerns moving with -any clearness of aim, in this strange scene. Angry buz and simmer; uneasy -tossing and moaning of a huge France, all enchanted, spell-bound by -unmarching Constitution, into frightful conscious and unconscious Magnetic- -sleep; which frightful Magnetic-sleep must now issue soon in one of two -things: Death or Madness! The Federes carry mostly in their pocket some -earnest cry and Petition, to have the 'National Executive put in action;' -or as a step towards that, to have the King's Decheance, King's Forfeiture, -or at least his Suspension, pronounced. They shall be welcome to the -Legislative, to the Mother of Patriotism; and Paris will provide for their -lodging. - -Decheance, indeed: and, what next? A France spell-free, a Revolution -saved; and any thing, and all things next! so answer grimly Danton and the -unlimited Patriots, down deep in their subterranean region of Plot, whither -they have now dived. Decheance, answers Brissot with the limited: And if -next the little Prince Royal were crowned, and some Regency of Girondins -and recalled Patriot Ministry set over him? Alas, poor Brissot; looking, -as indeed poor man does always, on the nearest morrow as his peaceable -promised land; deciding what must reach to the world's end, yet with an -insight that reaches not beyond his own nose! Wiser are the unlimited -subterranean Patriots, who with light for the hour itself, leave the rest -to the gods. - -Or were it not, as we now stand, the probablest issue of all, that -Brunswick, in Coblentz, just gathering his huge limbs towards him to rise, -might arrive first; and stop both Decheance, and theorizing on it? -Brunswick is on the eve of marching; with Eighty Thousand, they say; fell -Prussians, Hessians, feller Emigrants: a General of the Great Frederick, -with such an Army. And our Armies? And our Generals? As for Lafayette, -on whose late visit a Committee is sitting and all France is jarring and -censuring, he seems readier to fight us than fight Brunswick. Luckner and -Lafayette pretend to be interchanging corps, and are making movements; -which Patriotism cannot understand. This only is very clear, that their -corps go marching and shuttling, in the interior of the country; much -nearer Paris than formerly! Luckner has ordered Dumouriez down to him, -down from Maulde, and the Fortified Camp there. Which order the many- -counselled Dumouriez, with the Austrians hanging close on him, he busy -meanwhile training a few thousands to stand fire and be soldiers, declares -that, come of it what will, he cannot obey. (Dumouriez, ii. 1, 5.) Will a -poor Legislative, therefore, sanction Dumouriez; who applies to it, 'not -knowing whether there is any War-ministry?' Or sanction Luckner and these -Lafayette movements? - -The poor Legislative knows not what to do. It decrees, however, that the -Staff of the Paris Guard, and indeed all such Staffs, for they are -Feuillants mostly, shall be broken and replaced. It decrees earnestly in -what manner one can declare that the Country is in Danger. And finally, on -the 11th of July, the morrow of that day when the Ministry struck work, it -decrees that the Country be, with all despatch, declared in Danger. -Whereupon let the King sanction; let the Municipality take measures: if -such Declaration will do service, it need not fail. - -In Danger, truly, if ever Country was! Arise, O Country; or be trodden -down to ignominious ruin! Nay, are not the chances a hundred to one that -no rising of the Country will save it; Brunswick, the Emigrants, and Feudal -Europe drawing nigh? - - - -Chapter 2.6.II. - -Let us march. - -But to our minds the notablest of all these moving phenomena, is that of -Barbaroux's 'Six Hundred Marseillese who know how to die.' - -Prompt to the request of Barbaroux, the Marseilles Municipality has got -these men together: on the fifth morning of July, the Townhall says, -"Marchez, abatez le Tyran, March, strike down the Tyrant;" (Dampmartin, ii. -183.) and they, with grim appropriate "Marchons," are marching. Long -journey, doubtful errand; Enfans de la Patrie, may a good genius guide you! -Their own wild heart and what faith it has will guide them: and is not -that the monition of some genius, better or worse? Five Hundred and -Seventeen able men, with Captains of fifties and tens; well armed all, -musket on shoulder, sabre on thigh: nay they drive three pieces of cannon; -for who knows what obstacles may occur? Municipalities there are, -paralyzed by War-minister; Commandants with orders to stop even Federation -Volunteers; good, when sound arguments will not open a Town-gate, if you -have a petard to shiver it! They have left their sunny Phocean City and -Sea-haven, with its bustle and its bloom: the thronging Course, with high- -frondent Avenues, pitchy dockyards, almond and olive groves, orange trees -on house-tops, and white glittering bastides that crown the hills, are all -behind them. They wend on their wild way, from the extremity of French -land, through unknown cities, toward an unknown destiny; with a purpose -that they know. - -Much wondering at this phenomenon, and how, in a peaceable trading City, so -many householders or hearth-holders do severally fling down their crafts -and industrial tools; gird themselves with weapons of war, and set out on a -journey of six hundred miles to 'strike down the tyrant,'--you search in -all Historical Books, Pamphlets, and Newspapers, for some light on it: -unhappily without effect. Rumour and Terror precede this march; which -still echo on you; the march itself an unknown thing. Weber, in the back- -stairs of the Tuileries, has understood that they were Forcats, Galley- -slaves and mere scoundrels, these Marseillese; that, as they marched -through Lyons, the people shut their shops;--also that the number of them -was some Four Thousand. Equally vague is Blanc Gilli, who likewise murmurs -about Forcats and danger of plunder. (See Barbaroux, Memoires (Note in p. -40, 41.).) Forcats they were not; neither was there plunder, or danger of -it. Men of regular life, or of the best-filled purse, they could hardly -be; the one thing needful in them was that they 'knew how to die.' Friend -Dampmartin saw them, with his own eyes, march 'gradually' through his -quarters at Villefranche in the Beaujolais: but saw in the vaguest manner; -being indeed preoccupied, and himself minded for matching just then--across -the Rhine. Deep was his astonishment to think of such a march, without -appointment or arrangement, station or ration: for the rest it was 'the -same men he had seen formerly' in the troubles of the South; 'perfectly -civil;' though his soldiers could not be kept from talking a little with -them. (Dampmartin, ubi supra.) - -So vague are all these; Moniteur, Histoire Parlementaire are as good as -silent: garrulous History, as is too usual, will say nothing where you -most wish her to speak! If enlightened Curiosity ever get sight of the -Marseilles Council-Books, will it not perhaps explore this strangest of -Municipal procedures; and feel called to fish up what of the Biographies, -creditable or discreditable, of these Five Hundred and Seventeen, the -stream of Time has not yet irrevocably swallowed? - -As it is, these Marseillese remain inarticulate, undistinguishable in -feature; a blackbrowed Mass, full of grim fire, who wend there, in the hot -sultry weather: very singular to contemplate. They wend; amid the -infinitude of doubt and dim peril; they not doubtful: Fate and Feudal -Europe, having decided, come girdling in from without: they, having also -decided, do march within. Dusty of face, with frugal refreshment, they -plod onwards; unweariable, not to be turned aside. Such march will become -famous. The Thought, which works voiceless in this blackbrowed mass, an -inspired Tyrtaean Colonel, Rouget de Lille whom the Earth still holds, -(A.D. 1836.) has translated into grim melody and rhythm; into his Hymn or -March of the Marseillese: luckiest musical-composition ever promulgated. -The sound of which will make the blood tingle in men's veins; and whole -Armies and Assemblages will sing it, with eyes weeping and burning, with -hearts defiant of Death, Despot and Devil. - -One sees well, these Marseillese will be too late for the Federation Feast. -In fact, it is not Champ-de-Mars Oaths that they have in view. They have -quite another feat to do: a paralytic National Executive to set in action. -They must 'strike down' whatsoever 'Tyrant,' or Martyr-Faineant, there may -be who paralyzes it; strike and be struck; and on the whole prosper and -know how to die. - - - -Chapter 2.6.III. - -Some Consolation to Mankind. - -Of the Federation Feast itself we shall say almost nothing. There are -Tents pitched in the Champ-de-Mars; tent for National Assembly; tent for -Hereditary Representative,--who indeed is there too early, and has to wait -long in it. There are Eighty-three symbolical Departmental Trees-of- -Liberty; trees and mais enough: beautifullest of all these is one huge -mai, hung round with effete Scutcheons, Emblazonries and Genealogy-books; -nay better still, with Lawyers'-bags, 'sacs de procedure:' which shall be -burnt. The Thirty seat-rows of that famed Slope are again full; we have a -bright Sun; and all is marching, streamering and blaring: but what avails -it? Virtuous Mayor Petion, whom Feuillantism had suspended, was reinstated -only last night, by Decree of the Assembly. Men's humour is of the -sourest. Men's hats have on them, written in chalk, 'Vive Petion;' and -even, 'Petion or Death, Petion ou la Mort.' - -Poor Louis, who has waited till five o'clock before the Assembly would -arrive, swears the National Oath this time, with a quilted cuirass under -his waistcoat which will turn pistol-bullets. (Campan, ii. c. 20; De -Stael, ii. c. 7.) Madame de Stael, from that Royal Tent, stretches out the -neck in a kind of agony, lest the waving multitudes which receive him may -not render him back alive. No cry of Vive le Roi salutes the ear; cries -only of Vive Petion; Petion ou la Mort. The National Solemnity is as it -were huddled by; each cowering off almost before the evolutions are gone -through. The very Mai with its Scutcheons and Lawyers'-bags is forgotten, -stands unburnt; till 'certain Patriot Deputies,' called by the people, set -a torch to it, by way of voluntary after-piece. Sadder Feast of Pikes no -man ever saw. - -Mayor Petion, named on hats, is at his zenith in this Federation; Lafayette -again is close upon his nadir. Why does the stormbell of Saint-Roch speak -out, next Saturday; why do the citizens shut their shops? (Moniteur, -Seance du 21 Juillet 1792.) It is Sections defiling, it is fear of -effervescence. Legislative Committee, long deliberating on Lafayette and -that Anti-jacobin Visit of his, reports, this day, that there is 'not -ground for Accusation!' Peace, ye Patriots, nevertheless; and let that -tocsin cease: the Debate is not finished, nor the Report accepted; but -Brissot, Isnard and the Mountain will sift it, and resift it, perhaps for -some three weeks longer. - -So many bells, stormbells and noises do ring;--scarcely audible; one -drowning the other. For example: in this same Lafayette tocsin, of -Saturday, was there not withal some faint bob-minor, and Deputation of -Legislative, ringing the Chevalier Paul Jones to his long rest; tocsin or -dirge now all one to him! Not ten days hence Patriot Brissot, beshouted -this day by the Patriot Galleries, shall find himself begroaned by them, on -account of his limited Patriotism; nay pelted at while perorating, and 'hit -with two prunes.' (Hist. Parl. xvi. 185.) It is a distracted empty- -sounding world; of bob-minors and bob-majors, of triumph and terror, of -rise and fall! - -The more touching is this other Solemnity, which happens on the morrow of -the Lafayette tocsin: Proclamation that the Country is in Danger. Not -till the present Sunday could such Solemnity be. The Legislative decreed -it almost a fortnight ago; but Royalty and the ghost of a Ministry held -back as they could. Now however, on this Sunday, 22nd day of July 1792, it -will hold back no longer; and the Solemnity in very deed is. Touching to -behold! Municipality and Mayor have on their scarfs; cannon-salvo booms -alarm from the Pont-Neuf, and single-gun at intervals all day. Guards are -mounted, scarfed Notabilities, Halberdiers, and a Cavalcade; with -streamers, emblematic flags; especially with one huge Flag, flapping -mournfully: Citoyens, la Patrie est en Danger. They roll through the -streets, with stern-sounding music, and slow rattle of hoofs: pausing at -set stations, and with doleful blast of trumpet, singing out through -Herald's throat, what the Flag says to the eye: "Citizens, the Country is -in Danger!" - -Is there a man's heart that hears it without a thrill? The many-voiced -responsive hum or bellow of these multitudes is not of triumph; and yet it -is a sound deeper than triumph. But when the long Cavalcade and -Proclamation ended; and our huge Flag was fixed on the Pont Neuf, another -like it on the Hotel-de-Ville, to wave there till better days; and each -Municipal sat in the centre of his Section, in a Tent raised in some open -square, Tent surmounted with flags of Patrie en danger, and topmost of all -a Pike and Bonnet Rouge; and, on two drums in front of him, there lay a -plank-table, and on this an open Book, and a Clerk sat, like recording- -angel, ready to write the Lists, or as we say to enlist! O, then, it -seems, the very gods might have looked down on it. Young Patriotism, -Culottic and Sansculottic, rushes forward emulous: That is my name; name, -blood, and life, is all my Country's; why have I nothing more! Youths of -short stature weep that they are below size. Old men come forward, a son -in each hand. Mothers themselves will grant the son of their travail; send -him, though with tears. And the multitude bellows Vive la Patrie, far -reverberating. And fire flashes in the eyes of men;--and at eventide, your -Municipal returns to the Townhall, followed by his long train of volunteer -Valour; hands in his List: says proudly, looking round. This is my day's -harvest. (Tableau de la Revolution, para Patrie en Danger.) They will -march, on the morrow, to Soissons; small bundle holding all their chattels. - -So, with Vive la Patrie, Vive la Liberte, stone Paris reverberates like -Ocean in his caves; day after day, Municipals enlisting in tricolor Tent; -the Flag flapping on Pont Neuf and Townhall, Citoyens, la Patrie est en -Danger. Some Ten thousand fighters, without discipline but full of heart, -are on march in few days. The like is doing in every Town of France.-- -Consider therefore whether the Country will want defenders, had we but a -National Executive? Let the Sections and Primary Assemblies, at any rate, -become Permanent, and sit continually in Paris, and over France, by -Legislative Decree dated Wednesday the 25th. (Moniteur, Seance du 25 -Juillet 1792.) - -Mark contrariwise how, in these very hours, dated the 25th, Brunswick -shakes himself 's'ebranle,' in Coblentz; and takes the road! Shakes -himself indeed; one spoken word becomes such a shaking. Successive, -simultaneous dirl of thirty thousand muskets shouldered; prance and jingle -of ten-thousand horsemen, fanfaronading Emigrants in the van; drum, kettle- -drum; noise of weeping, swearing; and the immeasurable lumbering clank of -baggage-waggons and camp-kettles that groan into motion: all this is -Brunswick shaking himself; not without all this does the one man march, -'covering a space of forty miles.' Still less without his Manifesto, -dated, as we say, the 25th; a State-Paper worthy of attention! - -By this Document, it would seem great things are in store for France. The -universal French People shall now have permission to rally round Brunswick -and his Emigrant Seigneurs; tyranny of a Jacobin Faction shall oppress them -no more; but they shall return, and find favour with their own good King; -who, by Royal Declaration (three years ago) of the Twenty-third of June, -said that he would himself make them happy. As for National Assembly, and -other Bodies of Men invested with some temporary shadow of authority, they -are charged to maintain the King's Cities and Strong Places intact, till -Brunswick arrive to take delivery of them. Indeed, quick submission may -extenuate many things; but to this end it must be quick. Any National -Guard or other unmilitary person found resisting in arms shall be 'treated -as a traitor;' that is to say, hanged with promptitude. For the rest, if -Paris, before Brunswick gets thither, offer any insult to the King: or, -for example, suffer a faction to carry the King away elsewhither; in that -case Paris shall be blasted asunder with cannon-shot and 'military -execution.' Likewise all other Cities, which may witness, and not resist -to the uttermost, such forced-march of his Majesty, shall be blasted -asunder; and Paris and every City of them, starting-place, course and goal -of said sacrilegious forced-march, shall, as rubbish and smoking ruin, lie -there for a sign. Such vengeance were indeed signal, 'an insigne -vengeance:'--O Brunswick, what words thou writest and blusterest! In this -Paris, as in old Nineveh, are so many score thousands that know not the -right hand from the left, and also much cattle. Shall the very milk-cows, -hard-living cadgers'-asses, and poor little canary-birds die? - -Nor is Royal and Imperial Prussian-Austrian Declaration wanting: setting -forth, in the amplest manner, their Sanssouci-Schonbrunn version of this -whole French Revolution, since the first beginning of it; and with what -grief these high heads have seen such things done under the Sun: however, -'as some small consolation to mankind,' (Annual Register (1792), p. 236.) -they do now despatch Brunswick; regardless of expense, as one might say, of -sacrifices on their own part; for is it not the first duty to console men? - -Serene Highnesses, who sit there protocolling and manifestoing, and -consoling mankind! how were it if, for once in the thousand years, your -parchments, formularies, and reasons of state were blown to the four winds; -and Reality Sans-indispensables stared you, even you, in the face; and -Mankind said for itself what the thing was that would console it?-- - - - -Chapter 2.6.IV. - -Subterranean. - -But judge if there was comfort in this to the Sections all sitting -permanent; deliberating how a National Executive could be put in action! - -High rises the response, not of cackling terror, but of crowing counter- -defiance, and Vive la Nation; young Valour streaming towards the Frontiers; -Patrie en Danger mutely beckoning on the Pont Neuf. Sections are busy, in -their permanent Deep; and down, lower still, works unlimited Patriotism, -seeking salvation in plot. Insurrection, you would say, becomes once more -the sacredest of duties? Committee, self-chosen, is sitting at the Sign of -the Golden Sun: Journalist Carra, Camille Desmoulins, Alsatian Westermann -friend of Danton, American Fournier of Martinique;--a Committee not unknown -to Mayor Petion, who, as an official person, must sleep with one eye open. -Not unknown to Procureur Manuel; least of all to Procureur-Substitute -Danton! He, wrapped in darkness, being also official, bears it on his -giant shoulder; cloudy invisible Atlas of the whole. - -Much is invisible; the very Jacobins have their reticences. Insurrection -is to be: but when? This only we can discern, that such Federes as are -not yet gone to Soissons, as indeed are not inclined to go yet, "for -reasons," says the Jacobin President, "which it may be interesting not to -state," have got a Central Committee sitting close by, under the roof of -the Mother Society herself. Also, what in such ferment and danger of -effervescence is surely proper, the Forty-eight Sections have got their -Central Committee; intended 'for prompt communication.' To which Central -Committee the Municipality, anxious to have it at hand, could not refuse an -Apartment in the Hotel-de-Ville. - -Singular City! For overhead of all this, there is the customary baking and -brewing; Labour hammers and grinds. Frilled promenaders saunter under the -trees; white-muslin promenaderess, in green parasol, leaning on your arm. -Dogs dance, and shoeblacks polish, on that Pont Neuf itself, where -Fatherland is in danger. So much goes its course; and yet the course of -all things is nigh altering and ending. - -Look at that Tuileries and Tuileries Garden. Silent all as Sahara; none -entering save by ticket! They shut their Gates, after the Day of the Black -Breeches; a thing they had the liberty to do. However, the National -Assembly grumbled something about Terrace of the Feuillants, how said -Terrace lay contiguous to the back entrance to their Salle, and was partly -National Property; and so now National Justice has stretched a Tricolor -Riband athwart, by way of boundary-line, respected with splenetic -strictness by all Patriots. It hangs there that Tricolor boundary-line; -carries 'satirical inscriptions on cards,' generally in verse; and all -beyond this is called Coblentz, and remains vacant; silent, as a fateful -Golgotha; sunshine and umbrage alternating on it in vain. Fateful Circuit; -what hope can dwell in it? Mysterious Tickets of Entry introduce -themselves; speak of Insurrection very imminent. Rivarol's Staff of Genius -had better purchase blunderbusses; Grenadier bonnets, red Swiss uniforms -may be useful. Insurrection will come; but likewise will it not be met? -Staved off, one may hope, till Brunswick arrive? - -But consider withal if the Bourne-stones and Portable chairs remain silent; -if the Herald's College of Bill-Stickers sleep! Louvet's Sentinel warns -gratis on all walls; Sulleau is busy: People's-Friend Marat and King's- -Friend Royou croak and counter-croak. For the man Marat, though long -hidden since that Champ-de-Mars Massacre, is still alive. He has lain, who -knows in what Cellars; perhaps in Legendre's; fed by a steak of Legendre's -killing: but, since April, the bull-frog voice of him sounds again; -hoarsest of earthly cries. For the present, black terror haunts him: O -brave Barbaroux wilt thou not smuggle me to Marseilles, 'disguised as a -jockey?' (Barbaroux, p. 60.) In Palais-Royal and all public places, as we -read, there is sharp activity; private individuals haranguing that Valour -may enlist; haranguing that the Executive may be put in action. Royalist -journals ought to be solemnly burnt: argument thereupon; debates which -generally end in single-stick, coups de cannes. (Newspapers, Narratives -and Documents (Hist. Parl. xv. 240; xvi. 399.) Or think of this; the hour -midnight; place Salle de Manege; august Assembly just adjourning: -'Citizens of both sexes enter in a rush exclaiming, Vengeance: they are -poisoning our Brothers;'--baking brayed-glass among their bread at -Soissons! Vergniaud has to speak soothing words, How Commissioners are -already sent to investigate this brayed-glass, and do what is needful -therein: till the rush of Citizens 'makes profound silence:' and goes home -to its bed. - -Such is Paris; the heart of a France like to it. Preternatural suspicion, -doubt, disquietude, nameless anticipation, from shore to shore:--and those -blackbrowed Marseillese, marching, dusty, unwearied, through the midst of -it; not doubtful they. Marching to the grim music of their hearts, they -consume continually the long road, these three weeks and more; heralded by -Terror and Rumour. The Brest Federes arrive on the 26th; through hurrahing -streets. Determined men are these also, bearing or not bearing the Sacred -Pikes of Chateau-Vieux; and on the whole decidedly disinclined for Soissons -as yet. Surely the Marseillese Brethren do draw nigher all days. - - - -Chapter 2.6.V. - -At Dinner. - -It was a bright day for Charenton, that 29th of the month, when the -Marseillese Brethren actually came in sight. Barbaroux, Santerre and -Patriots have gone out to meet the grim Wayfarers. Patriot clasps dusty -Patriot to his bosom; there is footwashing and refection: 'dinner of -twelve hundred covers at the Blue Dial, Cadran Bleu;' and deep interior -consultation, that one wots not of. (Deux Amis, viii. 90-101.) -Consultation indeed which comes to little; for Santerre, with an open -purse, with a loud voice, has almost no head. Here however we repose this -night: on the morrow is public entry into Paris. - -On which public entry the Day-Historians, Diurnalists, or Journalists as -they call themselves, have preserved record enough. How Saint-Antoine male -and female, and Paris generally, gave brotherly welcome, with bravo and -hand-clapping, in crowded streets; and all passed in the peaceablest -manner;--except it might be our Marseillese pointed out here and there a -riband-cockade, and beckoned that it should be snatched away, and exchanged -for a wool one; which was done. How the Mother Society in a body has come -as far as the Bastille-ground, to embrace you. How you then wend onwards, -triumphant, to the Townhall, to be embraced by Mayor Petion; to put down -your muskets in the Barracks of Nouvelle France, not far off;--then towards -the appointed Tavern in the Champs Elysees to enjoy a frugal Patriot -repast. (Hist. Parl. xvi. 196. See Barbaroux, p. 51-5.) - -Of all which the indignant Tuileries may, by its Tickets of Entry, have -warning. Red Swiss look doubly sharp to their Chateau-Grates;--though -surely there is no danger? Blue Grenadiers of the Filles-Saint-Thomas -Section are on duty there this day: men of Agio, as we have seen; with -stuffed purses, riband-cockades; among whom serves Weber. A party of these -latter, with Captains, with sundry Feuillant Notabilities, Moreau de Saint- -Mery of the three thousand orders, and others, have been dining, much more -respectably, in a Tavern hard by. They have dined, and are now drinking -Loyal-Patriotic toasts; while the Marseillese, National-Patriotic merely, -are about sitting down to their frugal covers of delf. How it happened -remains to this day undemonstrable: but the external fact is, certain of -these Filles-Saint-Thomas Grenadiers do issue from their Tavern; perhaps -touched, surely not yet muddled with any liquor they have had;--issue in -the professed intention of testifying to the Marseillese, or to the -multitude of Paris Patriots who stroll in these spaces, That they, the -Filles-Saint-Thomas men, if well seen into, are not a whit less Patriotic -than any other class of men whatever. - -It was a rash errand! For how can the strolling multitudes credit such a -thing; or do other indeed than hoot at it, provoking, and provoked;--till -Grenadier sabres stir in the scabbard, and a sharp shriek rises: "A nous -Marseillais, Help Marseillese!" Quick as lightning, for the frugal repast -is not yet served, that Marseillese Tavern flings itself open: by door, by -window; running, bounding, vault forth the Five hundred and Seventeen -undined Patriots; and, sabre flashing from thigh, are on the scene of -controversy. Will ye parley, ye Grenadier Captains and official Persons; -'with faces grown suddenly pale,' the Deponents say? (Moniteur, Seances du -30, du 31 Juillet 1792 (Hist. Parl. xvi. 197-210.) Advisabler were instant -moderately swift retreat! The Filles-Saint-Thomas retreat, back foremost; -then, alas, face foremost, at treble-quick time; the Marseillese, according -to a Deponent, "clearing the fences and ditches after them like lions: -Messieurs, it was an imposing spectacle." - -Thus they retreat, the Marseillese following. Swift and swifter, towards -the Tuileries: where the Drawbridge receives the bulk of the fugitives; -and, then suddenly drawn up, saves them; or else the green mud of the Ditch -does it. The bulk of them; not all; ah, no! Moreau de Saint-Mery for -example, being too fat, could not fly fast; he got a stroke, flat-stroke -only, over the shoulder-blades, and fell prone;--and disappears there from -the History of the Revolution. Cuts also there were, pricks in the -posterior fleshy parts; much rending of skirts, and other discrepant waste. -But poor Sub-lieutenant Duhamel, innocent Change-broker, what a lot for -him! He turned on his pursuer, or pursuers, with a pistol; he fired and -missed; drew a second pistol, and again fired and missed; then ran: -unhappily in vain. In the Rue Saint-Florentin, they clutched him; thrust -him through, in red rage: that was the end of the New Era, and of all -Eras, to poor Duhamel. - -Pacific readers can fancy what sort of grace-before-meat this was to frugal -Patriotism. Also how the Battalion of the Filles-Saint-Thomas 'drew out in -arms,' luckily without further result; how there was accusation at the Bar -of the Assembly, and counter-accusation and defence; Marseillese -challenging the sentence of free jury court,--which never got to a -decision. We ask rather, What the upshot of all these distracted wildly -accumulating things may, by probability, be? Some upshot; and the time -draws nigh! Busy are Central Committees, of Federes at the Jacobins -Church, of Sections at the Townhall; Reunion of Carra, Camille and Company -at the Golden Sun. Busy: like submarine deities, or call them mud-gods, -working there in the deep murk of waters: till the thing be ready. - -And how your National Assembly, like a ship waterlogged, helmless, lies -tumbling; the Galleries, of shrill Women, of Federes with sabres, bellowing -down on it, not unfrightful;--and waits where the waves of chance may -please to strand it; suspicious, nay on the Left side, conscious, what -submarine Explosion is meanwhile a-charging! Petition for King's -Forfeiture rises often there: Petition from Paris Section, from Provincial -Patriot Towns; From Alencon, Briancon, and 'the Traders at the Fair of -Beaucaire.' Or what of these? On the 3rd of August, Mayor Petion and the -Municipality come petitioning for Forfeiture: they openly, in their -tricolor Municipal scarfs. Forfeiture is what all Patriots now want and -expect. All Brissotins want Forfeiture; with the little Prince Royal for -King, and us for Protector over him. Emphatic Federes asks the -legislature: "Can you save us, or not?" Forty-seven Seconds have agreed -to Forfeiture; only that of the Filles-Saint-Thomas pretending to disagree. -Nay Section Mauconseil declares Forfeiture to be, properly speaking, come; -Mauconseil for one 'does from this day,' the last of July, 'cease -allegiance to Louis,' and take minute of the same before all men. A thing -blamed aloud; but which will be praised aloud; and the name Mauconseil, of -Ill-counsel, be thenceforth changed to Bonconseil, of Good-counsel. - -President Danton, in the Cordeliers Section, does another thing: invites -all Passive Citizens to take place among the Active in Section-business, -one peril threatening all. Thus he, though an official person; cloudy -Atlas of the whole. Likewise he manages to have that blackbrowed Battalion -of Marseillese shifted to new Barracks, in his own region of the remote -South-East. Sleek Chaumette, cruel Billaud, Deputy Chabot the Disfrocked, -Huguenin with the tocsin in his heart, will welcome them there. Wherefore, -again and again: "O Legislators, can you save us or not?" Poor -Legislators; with their Legislature waterlogged, volcanic Explosion -charging under it! Forfeiture shall be debated on the ninth day of August; -that miserable business of Lafayette may be expected to terminate on the -eighth. - -Or will the humane Reader glance into the Levee-day of Sunday the fifth? -The last Levee! Not for a long time, 'never,' says Bertrand-Moleville, had -a Levee been so brilliant, at least so crowded. A sad presaging interest -sat on every face; Bertrand's own eyes were filled with tears. For, -indeed, outside of that Tricolor Riband on the Feuillants Terrace, -Legislature is debating, Sections are defiling, all Paris is astir this -very Sunday, demanding Decheance. (Hist. Parl. xvi. 337-9.) Here, -however, within the riband, a grand proposal is on foot, for the hundredth -time, of carrying his Majesty to Rouen and the Castle of Gaillon. Swiss at -Courbevoye are in readiness; much is ready; Majesty himself seems almost -ready. Nevertheless, for the hundredth time, Majesty, when near the point -of action, draws back; writes, after one has waited, palpitating, an -endless summer day, that 'he has reason to believe the Insurrection is not -so ripe as you suppose.' Whereat Bertrand-Moleville breaks forth 'into -extremity at one of spleen and despair, d'humeur et de desespoir.' -(Bertrand-Moleville, Memoires, ii. 129.) - - - -Chapter 2.6.VI. - -The Steeples at Midnight. - -For, in truth, the Insurrection is just about ripe. Thursday is the ninth -of the month August: if Forfeiture be not pronounced by the Legislature -that day, we must pronounce it ourselves. - -Legislature? A poor waterlogged Legislature can pronounce nothing. On -Wednesday the eighth, after endless oratory once again, they cannot even -pronounce Accusation again Lafayette; but absolve him,--hear it, -Patriotism!--by a majority of two to one. Patriotism hears it; Patriotism, -hounded on by Prussian Terror, by Preternatural Suspicion, roars tumultuous -round the Salle de Manege, all day; insults many leading Deputies, of the -absolvent Right-side; nay chases them, collars them with loud menace: -Deputy Vaublanc, and others of the like, are glad to take refuge in -Guardhouses, and escape by the back window. And so, next day, there is -infinite complaint; Letter after Letter from insulted Deputy; mere -complaint, debate and self-cancelling jargon: the sun of Thursday sets -like the others, and no Forfeiture pronounced. Wherefore in fine, To your -tents, O Israel! - -The Mother-Society ceases speaking; groups cease haranguing: Patriots, -with closed lips now, 'take one another's arm;' walk off, in rows, two and -two, at a brisk business-pace; and vanish afar in the obscure places of the -East. (Deux Amis, viii. 129-88.) Santerre is ready; or we will make him -ready. Forty-seven of the Forty-eight Sections are ready; nay Filles- -Saint-Thomas itself turns up the Jacobin side of it, turns down the -Feuillant side of it, and is ready too. Let the unlimited Patriot look to -his weapon, be it pike, be it firelock; and the Brest brethren, above all, -the blackbrowed Marseillese prepare themselves for the extreme hour! -Syndic Roederer knows, and laments or not as the issue may turn, that 'five -thousand ball-cartridges, within these few days, have been distributed to -Federes, at the Hotel-de-Ville.' (Roederer a la Barre (Seance du 9 Aout -(in Hist. Parl. xvi. 393.) - -And ye likewise, gallant gentlemen, defenders of Royalty, crowd ye on your -side to the Tuileries. Not to a Levee: no, to a Couchee: where much will -be put to bed. Your Tickets of Entry are needful; needfuller your -blunderbusses!--They come and crowd, like gallant men who also know how to -die: old Maille the Camp-Marshal has come, his eyes gleaming once again, -though dimmed by the rheum of almost four-score years. Courage, Brothers! -We have a thousand red Swiss; men stanch of heart, steadfast as the granite -of their Alps. National Grenadiers are at least friends of Order; -Commandant Mandat breathes loyal ardour, will "answer for it on his head." -Mandat will, and his Staff; for the Staff, though there stands a doom and -Decree to that effect, is happily never yet dissolved. - -Commandant Mandat has corresponded with Mayor Petion; carries a written -Order from him these three days, to repel force by force. A squadron on -the Pont Neuf with cannon shall turn back these Marseillese coming across -the River: a squadron at the Townhall shall cut Saint-Antoine in two, 'as -it issues from the Arcade Saint-Jean;' drive one half back to the obscure -East, drive the other half forward through 'the Wickets of the Louvre.' -Squadrons not a few, and mounted squadrons; squadrons in the Palais Royal, -in the Place Vendome: all these shall charge, at the right moment; sweep -this street, and then sweep that. Some new Twentieth of June we shall -have; only still more ineffectual? Or probably the Insurrection will not -dare to rise at all? Mandat's Squadrons, Horse-Gendarmerie and blue Guards -march, clattering, tramping; Mandat's Cannoneers rumble. Under cloud of -night; to the sound of his generale, which begins drumming when men should -go to bed. It is the 9th night of August, 1792. - -On the other hand, the Forty-eight Sections correspond by swift messengers; -are choosing each their 'three Delegates with full powers.' Syndic -Roederer, Mayor Petion are sent for to the Tuileries: courageous -Legislators, when the drum beats danger, should repair to their Salle. -Demoiselle Theroigne has on her grenadier-bonnet, short-skirted riding- -habit; two pistols garnish her small waist, and sabre hangs in baldric by -her side. - -Such a game is playing in this Paris Pandemonium, or City of All the -Devils!--And yet the Night, as Mayor Petion walks here in the Tuileries -Garden, 'is beautiful and calm;' Orion and the Pleiades glitter down quite -serene. Petion has come forth, the 'heat' inside was so oppressive. -(Roederer, Chronique de Cinquante Jours: Recit de Petion. Townhall -Records, &c. (in Hist. Parl. xvi. 399-466.) Indeed, his Majesty's -reception of him was of the roughest; as it well might be. And now there -is no outgate; Mandat's blue Squadrons turn you back at every Grate; nay -the Filles-Saint-Thomas Grenadiers give themselves liberties of tongue, How -a virtuous Mayor 'shall pay for it, if there be mischief,' and the like; -though others again are full of civility. Surely if any man in France is -in straights this night, it is Mayor Petion: bound, under pain of death, -one may say, to smile dexterously with the one side of his face, and weep -with the other;--death if he do it not dexterously enough! Not till four -in the morning does a National Assembly, hearing of his plight, summon him -over 'to give account of Paris;' of which he knows nothing: whereby -however he shall get home to bed, and only his gilt coach be left. -Scarcely less delicate is Syndic Roederer's task; who must wait whether he -will lament or not, till he see the issue. Janus Bifrons, or Mr. Facing- -both-ways, as vernacular Bunyan has it! They walk there, in the meanwhile, -these two Januses, with others of the like double conformation; and 'talk -of indifferent matters.' - -Roederer, from time to time, steps in; to listen, to speak; to send for the -Department-Directory itself, he their Procureur Syndic not seeing how to -act. The Apartments are all crowded; some seven hundred gentlemen in black -elbowing, bustling; red Swiss standing like rocks; ghost, or partial-ghost -of a Ministry, with Roederer and advisers, hovering round their Majesties; -old Marshall Maille kneeling at the King's feet, to say, He and these -gallant gentlemen are come to die for him. List! through the placid -midnight; clang of the distant stormbell! So, in very sooth; steeple after -steeple takes up the wondrous tale. Black Courtiers listen at the windows, -opened for air; discriminate the steeple-bells: (Roederer, ubi supra.) -this is the tocsin of Saint-Roch; that again, is it not Saint-Jacques, -named de la Boucherie? Yes, Messieurs! Or even Saint-Germain l'Auxerrois, -hear ye it not? The same metal that rang storm, two hundred and twenty -years ago; but by a Majesty's order then; on Saint-Bartholomew's Eve (24th -August, 1572.)--So go the steeple-bells; which Courtiers can discriminate. -Nay, meseems, there is the Townhall itself; we know it by its sound! Yes, -Friends, that is the Townhall; discoursing so, to the Night. Miraculously; -by miraculous metal-tongue and man's arm: Marat himself, if you knew it, -is pulling at the rope there! Marat is pulling; Robespierre lies deep, -invisible for the next forty hours; and some men have heart, and some have -as good as none, and not even frenzy will give them any. - -What struggling confusion, as the issue slowly draws on; and the doubtful -Hour, with pain and blind struggle, brings forth its Certainty, never to be -abolished!--The Full-power Delegates, three from each Section, a Hundred -and forty-four in all, got gathered at the Townhall, about midnight. -Mandat's Squadron, stationed there, did not hinder their entering: are -they not the 'Central Committee of the Sections' who sit here usually; -though in greater number tonight? They are there: presided by Confusion, -Irresolution, and the Clack of Tongues. Swift scouts fly; Rumour buzzes, -of black Courtiers, red Swiss, of Mandat and his Squadrons that shall -charge. Better put off the Insurrection? Yes, put it off. Ha, hark! -Saint-Antoine booming out eloquent tocsin, of its own accord!--Friends, no: -ye cannot put off the Insurrection; but must put it on, and live with it, -or die with it. - -Swift now, therefore: let these actual Old Municipals, on sight of the -Full-powers, and mandate of the Sovereign elective People, lay down their -functions; and this New Hundred and forty-four take them up! Will ye nill -ye, worthy Old Municipals, ye must go. Nay is it not a happiness for many -a Municipal that he can wash his hands of such a business; and sit there -paralyzed, unaccountable, till the Hour do bring forth; or even go home to -his night's rest? (Section Documents, Townhall Documents (Hist. Parl. ubi -supra).) Two only of the Old, or at most three, we retain Mayor Petion, -for the present walking in the Tuileries; Procureur Manuel; Procureur -Substitute Danton, invisible Atlas of the whole. And so, with our Hundred -and forty-four, among whom are a Tocsin-Huguenin, a Billaud, a Chaumette; -and Editor-Talliens, and Fabre d'Eglantines, Sergents, Panises; and in -brief, either emergent, or else emerged and full-blown, the entire Flower -of unlimited Patriotism: have we not, as by magic, made a New -Municipality; ready to act in the unlimited manner; and declare itself -roundly, 'in a State of Insurrection!'--First of all, then, be Commandant -Mandat sent for, with that Mayor's-Order of his; also let the New -Municipals visit those Squadrons that were to charge; and let the stormbell -ring its loudest;--and, on the whole, Forward, ye Hundred and forty-four; -retreat is now none for you! - -Reader, fancy not, in thy languid way, that Insurrection is easy. -Insurrection is difficult: each individual uncertain even of his next -neighbour; totally uncertain of his distant neighbours, what strength is -with him, what strength is against him; certain only that, in case of -failure, his individual portion is the gallows! Eight hundred thousand -heads, and in each of them a separate estimate of these uncertainties, a -separate theorem of action conformable to that: out of so many -uncertainties, does the certainty, and inevitable net-result never to be -abolished, go on, at all moments, bodying itself forth;--leading thee also -towards civic-crowns or an ignominious noose. - -Could the Reader take an Asmodeus's Flight, and waving open all roofs and -privacies, look down from the Tower of Notre Dame, what a Paris were it! -Of treble-voice whimperings or vehemence, of bass-voice growlings, -dubitations; Courage screwing itself to desperate defiance; Cowardice -trembling silent within barred doors;--and all round, Dulness calmly -snoring; for much Dulness, flung on its mattresses, always sleeps. O, -between the clangour of these high-storming tocsins and that snore of -Dulness, what a gamut: of trepidation, excitation, desperation; and above -it mere Doubt, Danger, Atropos and Nox! - -Fighters of this section draw out; hear that the next Section does not; and -thereupon draw in. Saint-Antoine, on this side the River, is uncertain of -Saint-Marceau on that. Steady only is the snore of Dulness, are the Six -Hundred Marseillese that know how to die! Mandat, twice summoned to the -Townhall, has not come. Scouts fly incessant, in distracted haste; and the -many-whispering voices of Rumour. Theroigne and unofficial Patriots flit, -dim-visible, exploratory, far and wide; like Night-birds on the wing. Of -Nationals some Three thousand have followed Mandat and his generale; the -rest follow each his own theorem of the uncertainties: theorem, that one -should march rather with Saint-Antoine; innumerable theorems, that in such -a case the wholesomest were sleep. And so the drums beat, in made fits, -and the stormbells peal. Saint-Antoine itself does but draw out and draw -in; Commandant Santerre, over there, cannot believe that the Marseillese -and Saint Marceau will march. Thou laggard sonorous Beer-vat, with the -loud voice and timber head, is it time now to palter? Alsatian Westermann -clutches him by the throat with drawn sabre: whereupon the Timber-headed -believes. In this manner wanes the slow night; amid fret, uncertainty and -tocsin; all men's humour rising to the hysterical pitch; and nothing done. - -However, Mandat, on the third summons does come;--come, unguarded; -astonished to find the Municipality new. They question him straitly on -that Mayor's-Order to resist force by force; on that strategic scheme of -cutting Saint-Antoine in two halves: he answers what he can: they think -it were right to send this strategic National Commandant to the Abbaye -Prison, and let a Court of Law decide on him. Alas, a Court of Law, not -Book-Law but primeval Club-Law, crowds and jostles out of doors; all -fretted to the hysterical pitch; cruel as Fear, blind as the Night: such -Court of Law, and no other, clutches poor Mandat from his constables; beats -him down, massacres him, on the steps of the Townhall. Look to it, ye new -Municipals; ye People, in a state of Insurrection! Blood is shed, blood -must be answered for;--alas, in such hysterical humour, more blood will -flow: for it is as with the Tiger in that; he has only to begin. - -Seventeen Individuals have been seized in the Champs Elysees, by -exploratory Patriotism; they flitting dim-visible, by it flitting dim- -visible. Ye have pistols, rapiers, ye Seventeen? One of those accursed -'false Patrols;' that go marauding, with Anti-National intent; seeking what -they can spy, what they can spill! The Seventeen are carried to the -nearest Guard-house; eleven of them escape by back passages. "How is -this?" Demoiselle Theroigne appears at the front entrance, with sabre, -pistols, and a train; denounces treasonous connivance; demands, seizes, the -remaining six, that the justice of the People be not trifled with. Of -which six two more escape in the whirl and debate of the Club-Law Court; -the last unhappy Four are massacred, as Mandat was: Two Ex-Bodyguards; one -dissipated Abbe; one Royalist Pamphleteer, Sulleau, known to us by name, -Able Editor, and wit of all work. Poor Sulleau: his Acts of the Apostles, -and brisk Placard-Journals (for he was an able man) come to Finis, in this -manner; and questionable jesting issues suddenly in horrid earnest! Such -doings usher in the dawn of the Tenth of August, 1792. - -Or think what a night the poor National Assembly has had: sitting there, -'in great paucity,' attempting to debate;--quivering and shivering; -pointing towards all the thirty-two azimuths at once, as the magnet-needle -does when thunderstorm is in the air! If the Insurrection come? If it -come, and fail? Alas, in that case, may not black Courtiers, with -blunderbusses, red Swiss with bayonets rush over, flushed with victory, and -ask us: Thou undefinable, waterlogged, self-distractive, self-destructive -Legislative, what dost thou here unsunk?--Or figure the poor National -Guards, bivouacking 'in temporary tents' there; or standing ranked, -shifting from leg to leg, all through the weary night; New tricolor -Municipals ordering one thing, old Mandat Captains ordering another! -Procureur Manuel has ordered the cannons to be withdrawn from the Pont -Neuf; none ventured to disobey him. It seemed certain, then, the old Staff -so long doomed has finally been dissolved, in these hours; and Mandat is -not our Commandant now, but Santerre? Yes, friends: Santerre henceforth,- --surely Mandat no more! The Squadrons that were to charge see nothing -certain, except that they are cold, hungry, worn down with watching; that -it were sad to slay French brothers; sadder to be slain by them. Without -the Tuileries Circuit, and within it, sour uncertain humour sways these -men: only the red Swiss stand steadfast. Them their officers refresh now -with a slight wetting of brandy; wherein the Nationals, too far gone for -brandy, refuse to participate. - -King Louis meanwhile had laid him down for a little sleep: his wig when he -reappeared had lost the powder on one side. (Roederer, ubi supra.) Old -Marshal Maille and the gentlemen in black rise always in spirits, as the -Insurrection does not rise: there goes a witty saying now, "Le tocsin ne -rend pas." The tocsin, like a dry milk-cow, does not yield. For the rest, -could one not proclaim Martial Law? Not easily; for now, it seems, Mayor -Petion is gone. On the other hand, our Interim Commandant, poor Mandat -being off, 'to the Hotel-de-Ville,' complains that so many Courtiers in -black encumber the service, are an eyesorrow to the National Guards. To -which her Majesty answers with emphasis, That they will obey all, will -suffer all, that they are sure men these. - -And so the yellow lamplight dies out in the gray of morning, in the King's -Palace, over such a scene. Scene of jostling, elbowing, of confusion, and -indeed conclusion, for the thing is about to end. Roederer and spectral -Ministers jostle in the press; consult, in side cabinets, with one or with -both Majesties. Sister Elizabeth takes the Queen to the window: "Sister, -see what a beautiful sunrise," right over the Jacobins church and that -quarter! How happy if the tocsin did not yield! But Mandat returns not; -Petion is gone: much hangs wavering in the invisible Balance. About five -o'clock, there rises from the Garden a kind of sound; as of a shout to -which had become a howl, and instead of Vive le Roi were ending in Vive la -Nation. "Mon Dieu!" ejaculates a spectral Minister, "what is he doing down -there?" For it is his Majesty, gone down with old Marshal Maille to review -the troops; and the nearest companies of them answer so. Her Majesty -bursts into a stream of tears. Yet on stepping from the cabinet her eyes -are dry and calm, her look is even cheerful. 'The Austrian lip, and the -aquiline nose, fuller than usual, gave to her countenance,' says Peltier, -(In Toulongeon, ii. 241.) 'something of Majesty, which they that did not -see her in these moments cannot well have an idea of.' O thou Theresa's -Daughter! - -King Louis enters, much blown with the fatigue; but for the rest with his -old air of indifference. Of all hopes now surely the joyfullest were, that -the tocsin did not yield. - - - -Chapter 2.6.VII. - -The Swiss. - -Unhappy Friends, the tocsin does yield, has yielded! Lo ye, how with the -first sun-rays its Ocean-tide, of pikes and fusils, flows glittering from -the far East;--immeasurable; born of the Night! They march there, the grim -host; Saint-Antoine on this side of the River; Saint-Marceau on that, the -blackbrowed Marseillese in the van. With hum, and grim murmur, far-heard; -like the Ocean-tide, as we say: drawn up, as if by Luna and Influences, -from the great Deep of Waters, they roll gleaming on; no King, Canute or -Louis, can bid them roll back. Wide-eddying side-currents, of onlookers, -roll hither and thither, unarmed, not voiceless; they, the steel host, roll -on. New-Commandant Santerre, indeed, has taken seat at the Townhall; rests -there, in his half-way-house. Alsatian Westermann, with flashing sabre, -does not rest; nor the Sections, nor the Marseillese, nor Demoiselle -Theroigne; but roll continually on. - -And now, where are Mandat's Squadrons that were to charge? Not a Squadron -of them stirs: or they stir in the wrong direction, out of the way; their -officers glad that they will even do that. It is to this hour uncertain -whether the Squadron on the Pont Neuf made the shadow of resistance, or did -not make the shadow: enough, the blackbrowed Marseillese, and Saint- -Marceau following them, do cross without let; do cross, in sure hope now of -Saint-Antoine and the rest; do billow on, towards the Tuileries, where -their errand is. The Tuileries, at sound of them, rustles responsive: the -red Swiss look to their priming; Courtiers in black draw their -blunderbusses, rapiers, poniards, some have even fire-shovels; every man -his weapon of war. - -Judge if, in these circumstances, Syndic Roederer felt easy! Will the kind -Heavens open no middle-course of refuge for a poor Syndic who halts between -two? If indeed his Majesty would consent to go over to the Assembly! His -Majesty, above all her Majesty, cannot agree to that. Did her Majesty -answer the proposal with a "Fi donc;" did she say even, she would be nailed -to the walls sooner? Apparently not. It is written also that she offered -the King a pistol; saying, Now or else never was the time to shew himself. -Close eye-witnesses did not see it, nor do we. That saw only that she was -queenlike, quiet; that she argued not, upbraided not, with the Inexorable; -but, like Caesar in the Capitol, wrapped her mantle, as it beseems Queens -and Sons of Adam to do. But thou, O Louis! of what stuff art thou at all? -Is there no stroke in thee, then, for Life and Crown? The silliest hunted -deer dies not so. Art thou the languidest of all mortals; or the mildest- -minded? Thou art the worst-starred. - -The tide advances; Syndic Roederer's and all men's straits grow straiter -and straiter. Fremescent clangor comes from the armed Nationals in the -Court; far and wide is the infinite hubbub of tongues. What counsel? And -the tide is now nigh! Messengers, forerunners speak hastily through the -outer Grates; hold parley sitting astride the walls. Syndic Roederer goes -out and comes in. Cannoneers ask him: Are we to fire against the people? -King's Ministers ask him: Shall the King's House be forced? Syndic -Roederer has a hard game to play. He speaks to the Cannoneers with -eloquence, with fervour; such fervour as a man can, who has to blow hot and -cold in one breath. Hot and cold, O Roederer? We, for our part, cannot -live and die! The Cannoneers, by way of answer, fling down their -linstocks.--Think of this answer, O King Louis, and King's Ministers: and -take a poor Syndic's safe middle-course, towards the Salle de Manege. King -Louis sits, his hands leant on knees, body bent forward; gazes for a space -fixedly on Syndic Roederer; then answers, looking over his shoulder to the -Queen: Marchons! They march; King Louis, Queen, Sister Elizabeth, the two -royal children and governess: these, with Syndic Roederer, and Officials -of the Department; amid a double rank of National Guards. The men with -blunderbusses, the steady red Swiss gaze mournfully, reproachfully; but -hear only these words from Syndic Roederer: "The King is going to the -Assembly; make way." It has struck eight, on all clocks, some minutes ago: -the King has left the Tuileries--for ever. - -O ye stanch Swiss, ye gallant gentlemen in black, for what a cause are ye -to spend and be spent! Look out from the western windows, ye may see King -Louis placidly hold on his way; the poor little Prince Royal 'sportfully -kicking the fallen leaves.' Fremescent multitude on the Terrace of the -Feuillants whirls parallel to him; one man in it, very noisy, with a long -pole: will they not obstruct the outer Staircase, and back-entrance of the -Salle, when it comes to that? King's Guards can go no further than the -bottom step there. Lo, Deputation of Legislators come out; he of the long -pole is stilled by oratory; Assembly's Guards join themselves to King's -Guards, and all may mount in this case of necessity; the outer Staircase is -free, or passable. See, Royalty ascends; a blue Grenadier lifts the poor -little Prince Royal from the press; Royalty has entered in. Royalty has -vanished for ever from your eyes.--And ye? Left standing there, amid the -yawning abysses, and earthquake of Insurrection; without course; without -command: if ye perish it must be as more than martyrs, as martyrs who are -now without a cause! The black Courtiers disappear mostly; through such -issues as they can. The poor Swiss know not how to act: one duty only is -clear to them, that of standing by their post; and they will perform that. - -But the glittering steel tide has arrived; it beats now against the Chateau -barriers, and eastern Courts; irresistible, loud-surging far and wide;-- -breaks in, fills the Court of the Carrousel, blackbrowed Marseillese in the -van. King Louis gone, say you; over to the Assembly! Well and good: but -till the Assembly pronounce Forfeiture of him, what boots it? Our post is -in that Chateau or stronghold of his; there till then must we continue. -Think, ye stanch Swiss, whether it were good that grim murder began, and -brothers blasted one another in pieces for a stone edifice?--Poor Swiss! -they know not how to act: from the southern windows, some fling -cartridges, in sign of brotherhood; on the eastern outer staircase, and -within through long stairs and corridors, they stand firm-ranked, peaceable -and yet refusing to stir. Westermann speaks to them in Alsatian German; -Marseillese plead, in hot Provencal speech and pantomime; stunning hubbub -pleads and threatens, infinite, around. The Swiss stand fast, peaceable -and yet immovable; red granite pier in that waste-flashing sea of steel. - -Who can help the inevitable issue; Marseillese and all France, on this -side; granite Swiss on that? The pantomime grows hotter and hotter; -Marseillese sabres flourishing by way of action; the Swiss brow also -clouding itself, the Swiss thumb bringing its firelock to the cock. And -hark! high-thundering above all the din, three Marseillese cannon from the -Carrousel, pointed by a gunner of bad aim, come rattling over the roofs! -Ye Swiss, therefore: Fire! The Swiss fire; by volley, by platoon, in -rolling-fire: Marseillese men not a few, and 'a tall man that was louder -than any,' lie silent, smashed, upon the pavement;--not a few Marseillese, -after the long dusty march, have made halt here. The Carrousel is void; -the black tide recoiling; 'fugitives rushing as far as Saint-Antoine before -they stop.' The Cannoneers without linstock have squatted invisible, and -left their cannon; which the Swiss seize. - -Think what a volley: reverberating doomful to the four corners of Paris, -and through all hearts; like the clang of Bellona's thongs! The -blackbrowed Marseillese, rallying on the instant, have become black Demons -that know how to die. Nor is Brest behind-hand; nor Alsatian Westermann; -Demoiselle Theroigne is Sybil Theroigne: Vengeance Victoire,ou la mort! -From all Patriot artillery, great and small; from Feuillants Terrace, and -all terraces and places of the widespread Insurrectionary sea, there roars -responsive a red whirlwind. Blue Nationals, ranked in the Garden, cannot -help their muskets going off, against Foreign murderers. For there is a -sympathy in muskets, in heaped masses of men: nay, are not Mankind, in -whole, like tuned strings, and a cunning infinite concordance and unity; -you smite one string, and all strings will begin sounding,--in soft sphere- -melody, in deafening screech of madness! Mounted Gendarmerie gallop -distracted; are fired on merely as a thing running; galloping over the Pont -Royal, or one knows not whither. The brain of Paris, brain-fevered in the -centre of it here, has gone mad; what you call, taken fire. - -Behold, the fire slackens not; nor does the Swiss rolling-fire slacken from -within. Nay they clutched cannon, as we saw: and now, from the other side, -they clutch three pieces more; alas, cannon without linstock; nor will the -steel-and-flint answer, though they try it. (Deux Amis, viii. 179-88.) -Had it chanced to answer! Patriot onlookers have their misgivings; one -strangest Patriot onlooker thinks that the Swiss, had they a commander, -would beat. He is a man not unqualified to judge; the name of him is -Napoleon Buonaparte. (See Hist. Parl. (xvii. 56); Las Cases, &c.) And -onlookers, and women, stand gazing, and the witty Dr. Moore of Glasgow -among them, on the other side of the River: cannon rush rumbling past -them; pause on the Pont Royal; belch out their iron entrails there, against -the Tuileries; and at every new belch, the women and onlookers shout and -clap hands. (Moore, Journal during a Residence in France (Dublin, 1793), -i. 26.) City of all the Devils! In remote streets, men are drinking -breakfast-coffee; following their affairs; with a start now and then, as -some dull echo reverberates a note louder. And here? Marseillese fall -wounded; but Barbaroux has surgeons; Barbaroux is close by, managing, -though underhand, and under cover. Marseillese fall death-struck; bequeath -their firelock, specify in which pocket are the cartridges; and die, -murmuring, "Revenge me, Revenge thy country!" Brest Federe Officers, -galloping in red coats, are shot as Swiss. Lo you, the Carrousel has burst -into flame!--Paris Pandemonium! Nay the poor City, as we said, is in -fever-fit and convulsion; such crisis has lasted for the space of some half -hour. - -But what is this that, with Legislative Insignia, ventures through the -hubbub and death-hail, from the back-entrance of the Manege? Towards the -Tuileries and Swiss: written Order from his Majesty to cease firing! O ye -hapless Swiss, why was there no order not to begin it? Gladly would the -Swiss cease firing: but who will bid mad Insurrection cease firing? To -Insurrection you cannot speak; neither can it, hydra-headed, hear. The -dead and dying, by the hundred, lie all around; are borne bleeding through -the streets, towards help; the sight of them, like a torch of the Furies, -kindling Madness. Patriot Paris roars; as the bear bereaved of her whelps. -On, ye Patriots: vengeance! victory or death! There are men seen, who -rush on, armed only with walking-sticks. (Hist. Parl. ubi supra. Rapport -du Captaine des Canonniers, Rapport du Commandant, &c. (Ibid. xvii. 300- -18).) Terror and Fury rule the hour. - -The Swiss, pressed on from without, paralyzed from within, have ceased to -shoot; but not to be shot. What shall they do? Desperate is the moment. -Shelter or instant death: yet How? Where? One party flies out by the Rue -de l'Echelle; is destroyed utterly, 'en entier.' A second, by the other -side, throws itself into the Garden; 'hurrying across a keen fusillade:' -rushes suppliant into the National Assembly; finds pity and refuge in the -back benches there. The third, and largest, darts out in column, three -hundred strong, towards the Champs Elysees: Ah, could we but reach -Courbevoye, where other Swiss are! Wo! see, in such fusillade the column -'soon breaks itself by diversity of opinion,' into distracted segments, -this way and that;--to escape in holes, to die fighting from street to -street. The firing and murdering will not cease; not yet for long. The -red Porters of Hotels are shot at, be they Suisse by nature, or Suisse only -in name. The very Firemen, who pump and labour on that smoking Carrousel, -are shot at; why should the Carrousel not burn? Some Swiss take refuge in -private houses; find that mercy too does still dwell in the heart of man. -The brave Marseillese are merciful, late so wroth; and labour to save. -Journalist Gorsas pleads hard with enfuriated groups. Clemence, the Wine- -merchant, stumbles forward to the Bar of the Assembly, a rescued Swiss in -his hand; tells passionately how he rescued him with pain and peril, how he -will henceforth support him, being childless himself; and falls a swoon -round the poor Swiss's neck: amid plaudits. But the most are butchered, -and even mangled. Fifty (some say Fourscore) were marched as prisoners, by -National Guards, to the Hotel-de-Ville: the ferocious people bursts -through on them, in the Place de Greve; massacres them to the last man. 'O -Peuple, envy of the universe!' Peuple, in mad Gaelic effervescence! - -Surely few things in the history of carnage are painfuller. What -ineffaceable red streak, flickering so sad in the memory, is that, of this -poor column of red Swiss 'breaking itself in the confusion of opinions;' -dispersing, into blackness and death! Honour to you, brave men; honourable -pity, through long times! Not martyrs were ye; and yet almost more. He -was no King of yours, this Louis; and he forsook you like a King of shreds -and patches; ye were but sold to him for some poor sixpence a-day; yet -would ye work for your wages, keep your plighted word. The work now was to -die; and ye did it. Honour to you, O Kinsmen; and may the old Deutsch -Biederheit and Tapferkeit, and Valour which is Worth and Truth be they -Swiss, be they Saxon, fail in no age! Not bastards; true-born were these -men; sons of the men of Sempach, of Murten, who knelt, but not to thee, O -Burgundy!--Let the traveller, as he passes through Lucerne, turn aside to -look a little at their monumental Lion; not for Thorwaldsen's sake alone. -Hewn out of living rock, the Figure rests there, by the still Lake-waters, -in lullaby of distant-tinkling rance-des-vaches, the granite Mountains -dumbly keeping watch all round; and, though inanimate, speaks. - - - -Chapter 2.6.VIII. - -Constitution burst in Pieces. - -Thus is the Tenth of August won and lost. Patriotism reckons its slain by -thousand on thousand, so deadly was the Swiss fire from these windows; but -will finally reduce them to some Twelve hundred. No child's play was it;-- -nor is it! Till two in the afternoon the massacring, the breaking and the -burning has not ended; nor the loose Bedlam shut itself again. - -How deluges of frantic Sansculottism roared through all passages of this -Tuileries, ruthless in vengeance, how the Valets were butchered, hewn down; -and Dame Campan saw the Marseilles sabre flash over her head, but the -Blackbrowed said, "Va-t-en, Get thee gone," and flung her from him -unstruck: (Campan, ii. c. 21.) how in the cellars wine-bottles were -broken, wine-butts were staved in and drunk; and, upwards to the very -garrets, all windows tumbled out their precious royal furnitures; and, with -gold mirrors, velvet curtains, down of ript feather-beds, and dead bodies -of men, the Tuileries was like no Garden of the Earth:--all this let him -who has a taste for it see amply in Mercier, in acrid Montgaillard, or -Beaulieu of the Deux Amis. A hundred and eighty bodies of Swiss lie piled -there; naked, unremoved till the second day. Patriotism has torn their red -coats into snips; and marches with them at the Pike's point: the ghastly -bare corpses lie there, under the sun and under the stars; the curious of -both sexes crowding to look. Which let not us do. Above a hundred carts -heaped with Dead fare towards the Cemetery of Sainte-Madeleine; bewailed, -bewept; for all had kindred, all had mothers, if not here, then there. It -is one of those Carnage-fields, such as you read of by the name 'Glorious -Victory,' brought home in this case to one's own door. - -But the blackbrowed Marseillese have struck down the Tyrant of the Chateau. -He is struck down; low, and hardly to rise. What a moment for an august -Legislative was that when the Hereditary Representative entered, under such -circumstances; and the Grenadier, carrying the little Prince Royal out of -the Press, set him down on the Assembly-table! A moment,--which one had to -smooth off with oratory; waiting what the next would bring! Louis said few -words: "He was come hither to prevent a great crime; he believed himself -safer nowhere than here.' President Vergniaud answered briefly, in vague -oratory as we say, about "defence of Constituted Authorities," about dying -at our post. (Moniteur, Seance du 10 Aout 1792.) And so King Louis sat -him down; first here, then there; for a difficulty arose, the Constitution -not permitting us to debate while the King is present: finally he settles -himself with his Family in the 'Loge of the Logographe' in the Reporter's- -Box of a Journalist: which is beyond the enchanted Constitutional Circuit, -separated from it by a rail. To such Lodge of the Logographe, measuring -some ten feet square, with a small closet at the entrance of it behind, is -the King of broad France now limited: here can he and his sit pent, under -the eyes of the world, or retire into their closet at intervals; for the -space of sixteen hours. Such quiet peculiar moment has the Legislative -lived to see. - -But also what a moment was that other, few minutes later, when the three -Marseillese cannon went off, and the Swiss rolling-fire and universal -thunder, like the Crack of Doom, began to rattle! Honourable Members start -to their feet; stray bullets singing epicedium even here, shivering in with -window-glass and jingle. "No, this is our post; let us die here!" They -sit therefore, like stone Legislators. But may not the Lodge of the -Logographe be forced from behind? Tear down the railing that divides it -from the enchanted Constitutional Circuit! Ushers tear and tug; his -Majesty himself aiding from within: the railing gives way; Majesty and -Legislative are united in place, unknown Destiny hovering over both. - -Rattle, and again rattle, went the thunder; one breathless wide-eyed -messenger rushing in after another: King's orders to the Swiss went out. -It was a fearful thunder; but, as we know, it ended. Breathless -messengers, fugitive Swiss, denunciatory Patriots, trepidation; finally -tripudiation!--Before four o'clock much has come and gone. - -The New Municipals have come and gone; with Three Flags, Liberte, Egalite, -Patrie, and the clang of vivats. Vergniaud, he who as President few hours -ago talked of Dying for Constituted Authorities, has moved, as Committee- -Reporter, that the Hereditary Representative be suspended; that a NATIONAL -CONVENTION do forthwith assemble to say what further! An able Report: -which the President must have had ready in his pocket? A President, in -such cases, must have much ready, and yet not ready; and Janus-like look -before and after. - -King Louis listens to all; retires about midnight 'to three little rooms on -the upper floor;' till the Luxembourg be prepared for him, and 'the -safeguard of the Nation.' Safer if Brunswick were once here! Or, alas, -not so safe? Ye hapless discrowned heads! Crowds came, next morning, to -catch a climpse of them, in their three upper rooms. Montgaillard says the -august Captives wore an air of cheerfulness, even of gaiety; that the Queen -and Princess Lamballe, who had joined her over night, looked out of the -open window, 'shook powder from their hair on the people below, and -laughed.' (Montgaillard. ii. 135-167.) He is an acrid distorted man. - -For the rest, one may guess that the Legislative, above all that the New -Municipality continues busy. Messengers, Municipal or Legislative, and -swift despatches rush off to all corners of France; full of triumph, -blended with indignant wail, for Twelve hundred have fallen. France sends -up its blended shout responsive; the Tenth of August shall be as the -Fourteenth of July, only bloodier and greater. The Court has conspired? -Poor Court: the Court has been vanquished; and will have both the scath to -bear and the scorn. How the Statues of Kings do now all fall! Bronze -Henri himself, though he wore a cockade once, jingles down from the Pont -Neuf, where Patrie floats in Danger. Much more does Louis Fourteenth, from -the Place Vendome, jingle down, and even breaks in falling. The curious -can remark, written on his horse's shoe: '12 Aout 1692;' a Century and a -Day. - -The Tenth of August was Friday. The week is not done, when our old Patriot -Ministry is recalled, what of it can be got: strict Roland, Genevese -Claviere; add heavy Monge the Mathematician, once a stone-hewer; and, for -Minister of Justice,--Danton 'led hither,' as himself says, in one of his -gigantic figures, 'through the breach of Patriot cannon!' These, under -Legislative Committees, must rule the wreck as they can: confusedly -enough; with an old Legislative waterlogged, with a New Municipality so -brisk. But National Convention will get itself together; and then! -Without delay, however, let a New Jury-Court and Criminal Tribunal be set -up in Paris, to try the crimes and conspiracies of the Tenth. High Court -of Orleans is distant, slow: the blood of the Twelve hundred Patriots, -whatever become of other blood, shall be inquired after. Tremble, ye -Criminals and Conspirators; the Minister of Justice is Danton! Robespierre -too, after the victory, sits in the New Municipality; insurrectionary -'improvised Municipality,' which calls itself Council General of the -Commune. - -For three days now, Louis and his Family have heard the Legislative Debates -in the Lodge of the Logographe; and retired nightly to their small upper -rooms. The Luxembourg and safeguard of the Nation could not be got ready: -nay, it seems the Luxembourg has too many cellars and issues; no -Municipality can undertake to watch it. The compact Prison of the Temple, -not so elegant indeed, were much safer. To the Temple, therefore! On -Monday, 13th day of August 1792, in Mayor Petion's carriage, Louis and his -sad suspended Household, fare thither; all Paris out to look at them. As -they pass through the Place Vendome Louis Fourteenth's Statue lies broken -on the ground. Petion is afraid the Queen's looks may be thought scornful, -and produce provocation; she casts down her eyes, and does not look at all. -The 'press is prodigious,' but quiet: here and there, it shouts Vive la -Nation; but for most part gazes in silence. French Royalty vanishes within -the gates of the Temple: these old peaked Towers, like peaked Extinguisher -or Bonsoir, do cover it up;--from which same Towers, poor Jacques Molay and -his Templars were burnt out, by French Royalty, five centuries since. Such -are the turns of Fate below. Foreign Ambassadors, English Lord Gower have -all demanded passports; are driving indignantly towards their respective -homes. - -So, then, the Constitution is over? For ever and a day! Gone is that -wonder of the Universe; First biennial Parliament, waterlogged, waits only -till the Convention come; and will then sink to endless depths. - -One can guess the silent rage of Old-Constituents, Constitution-builders, -extinct Feuillants, men who thought the Constitution would march! -Lafayette rises to the altitude of the situation; at the head of his Army. -Legislative Commissioners are posting towards him and it, on the Northern -Frontier, to congratulate and perorate: he orders the Municipality of -Sedan to arrest these Commissioners, and keep them strictly in ward as -Rebels, till he say further. The Sedan Municipals obey. - -The Sedan Municipals obey: but the Soldiers of the Lafayette Army? The -Soldiers of the Lafayette Army have, as all Soldiers have, a kind of dim -feeling that they themselves are Sansculottes in buff belts; that the -victory of the Tenth of August is also a victory for them. They will not -rise and follow Lafayette to Paris; they will rise and send him thither! -On the 18th, which is but next Saturday, Lafayette, with some two or three -indignant Staff-officers, one of whom is Old-Constituent Alexandre de -Lameth, having first put his Lines in what order he could,--rides swiftly -over the Marches, towards Holland. Rides, alas, swiftly into the claws of -Austrians! He, long-wavering, trembling on the verge of the horizon, has -set, in Olmutz Dungeons; this History knows him no more. Adieu, thou Hero -of two worlds; thinnest, but compact honour-worthy man! Through long rough -night of captivity, through other tumults, triumphs and changes, thou wilt -swing well, 'fast-anchored to the Washington Formula;' and be the Hero and -Perfect-character, were it only of one idea. The Sedan Municipals repent -and protest; the Soldiers shout Vive la Nation. Dumouriez Polymetis, from -his Camp at Maulde, sees himself made Commander in Chief. - -And, O Brunswick! what sort of 'military execution' will Paris merit now? -Forward, ye well-drilled exterminatory men; with your artillery-waggons, -and camp kettles jingling. Forward, tall chivalrous King of Prussia; -fanfaronading Emigrants and war-god Broglie, 'for some consolation to -mankind,' which verily is not without need of some. - - - -END OF THE SECOND VOLUME. - - - - -VOLUME III. - -THE GUILLOTINE - - -BOOK 3.I. - -SEPTEMBER - - -Chapter 3.1.I. - -The Improvised Commune. - -Ye have roused her, then, ye Emigrants and Despots of the world; France is -roused; long have ye been lecturing and tutoring this poor Nation, like -cruel uncalled-for pedagogues, shaking over her your ferulas of fire and -steel: it is long that ye have pricked and fillipped and affrighted her, -there as she sat helpless in her dead cerements of a Constitution, you -gathering in on her from all lands, with your armaments and plots, your -invadings and truculent bullyings;--and lo now, ye have pricked her to the -quick, and she is up, and her blood is up. The dead cerements are rent -into cobwebs, and she fronts you in that terrible strength of Nature, which -no man has measured, which goes down to Madness and Tophet: see now how ye -will deal with her! - -This month of September, 1792, which has become one of the memorable months -of History, presents itself under two most diverse aspects; all of black on -the one side, all of bright on the other. Whatsoever is cruel in the panic -frenzy of Twenty-five million men, whatsoever is great in the simultaneous -death-defiance of Twenty-five million men, stand here in abrupt contrast, -near by one another. As indeed is usual when a man, how much more when a -Nation of men, is hurled suddenly beyond the limits. For Nature, as green -as she looks, rests everywhere on dread foundations, were we farther down; -and Pan, to whose music the Nymphs dance, has a cry in him that can drive -all men distracted. - -Very frightful it is when a Nation, rending asunder its Constitutions and -Regulations which were grown dead cerements for it, becomes transcendental; -and must now seek its wild way through the New, Chaotic,--where Force is -not yet distinguished into Bidden and Forbidden, but Crime and Virtue -welter unseparated,--in that domain of what is called the Passions; of what -we call the Miracles and the Portents! It is thus that, for some three -years to come, we are to contemplate France, in this final Third Volume of -our History. Sansculottism reigning in all its grandeur and in all its -hideousness: the Gospel (God's Message) of Man's Rights, Man's mights or -strengths, once more preached irrefragably abroad; along with this, and -still louder for the time, and fearfullest Devil's-Message of Man's -weaknesses and sins;--and all on such a scale, and under such aspect: -cloudy 'death-birth of a world;' huge smoke-cloud, streaked with rays as of -heaven on one side; girt on the other as with hell-fire! History tells us -many things: but for the last thousand years and more, what thing has she -told us of a sort like this? Which therefore let us two, O Reader, dwell -on willingly, for a little; and from its endless significance endeavour to -extract what may, in present circumstances, be adapted for us. - -It is unfortunate, though very natural, that the history of this Period has -so generally been written in hysterics. Exaggeration abounds, execration, -wailing; and, on the whole, darkness. But thus too, when foul old Rome had -to be swept from the Earth, and those Northmen, and other horrid sons of -Nature, came in, 'swallowing formulas' as the French now do, foul old Rome -screamed execratively her loudest; so that, the true shape of many things -is lost for us. Attila's Huns had arms of such length that they could lift -a stone without stooping. Into the body of the poor Tatars execrative -Roman History intercalated an alphabetic letter; and so they continue Ta-r- -tars, of fell Tartarean nature, to this day. Here, in like manner, search -as we will in these multi-form innumerable French Records, darkness too -frequently covers, or sheer distraction bewilders. One finds it difficult -to imagine that the Sun shone in this September month, as he does in -others. Nevertheless it is an indisputable fact that the Sun did shine; -and there was weather and work,--nay, as to that, very bad weather for -harvest work! An unlucky Editor may do his utmost; and after all, require -allowances. - -He had been a wise Frenchman, who, looking, close at hand, on this waste -aspect of a France all stirring and whirling, in ways new, untried, had -been able to discern where the cardinal movement lay; which tendency it was -that had the rule and primary direction of it then! But at forty-four -years' distance, it is different. To all men now, two cardinal movements -or grand tendencies, in the September whirl, have become discernible -enough: that stormful effluence towards the Frontiers; that frantic -crowding towards Townhouses and Council-halls in the interior. Wild France -dashes, in desperate death-defiance, towards the Frontiers, to defend -itself from foreign Despots; crowds towards Townhalls and Election -Committee-rooms, to defend itself from domestic Aristocrats. Let the -Reader conceive well these two cardinal movements; and what side-currents -and endless vortexes might depend on these. He shall judge too, whether, -in such sudden wreckage of all old Authorities, such a pair of cardinal -movements, half-frantic in themselves, could be of soft nature? As in dry -Sahara, when the winds waken, and lift and winnow the immensity of sand! -The air itself (Travellers say) is a dim sand-air; and dim looming through -it, the wonderfullest uncertain colonnades of Sand-Pillars rush whirling -from this side and from that, like so many mad Spinning-Dervishes, of a -hundred feet in stature; and dance their huge Desert-waltz there!-- - -Nevertheless in all human movements, were they but a day old, there is -order, or the beginning of order. Consider two things in this Sahara-waltz -of the French Twenty-five millions; or rather one thing, and one hope of a -thing: the Commune (Municipality) of Paris, which is already here; the -National Convention, which shall in few weeks be here. The Insurrectionary -Commune, which improvising itself on the eve of the Tenth of August, worked -this ever-memorable Deliverance by explosion, must needs rule over it,-- -till the Convention meet. This Commune, which they may well call a -spontaneous or 'improvised' Commune, is, for the present, sovereign of -France. The Legislative, deriving its authority from the Old, how can it -now have authority when the Old is exploded by insurrection? As a floating -piece of wreck, certain things, persons and interests may still cleave to -it: volunteer defenders, riflemen or pikemen in green uniform, or red -nightcap (of bonnet rouge), defile before it daily, just on the wing -towards Brunswick; with the brandishing of arms; always with some touch of -Leonidas-eloquence, often with a fire of daring that threatens to outherod -Herod,--the Galleries, 'especially the Ladies, never done with applauding.' -(Moore's Journal, i. 85.) Addresses of this or the like sort can be -received and answered, in the hearing of all France: the Salle de Manege -is still useful as a place of proclamation. For which use, indeed, it now -chiefly serves. Vergniaud delivers spirit-stirring orations; but always -with a prophetic sense only, looking towards the coming Convention. "Let -our memory perish," cries Vergniaud, "but let France be free!"--whereupon -they all start to their feet, shouting responsive: "Yes, yes, perisse -notre memoire, pourvu que la France soit libre!" (Hist. Parl. xvii. 467.) -Disfrocked Chabot abjures Heaven that at least we may "have done with -Kings;" and fast as powder under spark, we all blaze up once more, and with -waved hats shout and swear: "Yes, nous le jurons; plus de roi!" (Ibid. -xvii. 437.) All which, as a method of proclamation, is very convenient. - -For the rest, that our busy Brissots, rigorous Rolands, men who once had -authority and now have less and less; men who love law, and will have even -an Explosion explode itself, as far as possible, according to rule, do find -this state of matters most unofficial unsatisfactory,--is not to be denied. -Complaints are made; attempts are made: but without effect. The attempts -even recoil; and must be desisted from, for fear of worse: the sceptre is -departed from this Legislative once and always. A poor Legislative, so -hard was fate, had let itself be hand-gyved, nailed to the rock like an -Andromeda, and could only wail there to the Earth and Heavens; miraculously -a winged Perseus (or Improvised Commune) has dawned out of the void Blue, -and cut her loose: but whether now is it she, with her softness and -musical speech, or is it he, with his hardness and sharp falchion and -aegis, that shall have casting vote? Melodious agreement of vote; this -were the rule! But if otherwise, and votes diverge, then surely -Andromeda's part is to weep,--if possible, tears of gratitude alone. - -Be content, O France, with this Improvised Commune, such as it is! It has -the implements, and has the hands: the time is not long. On Sunday the -twenty-sixth of August, our Primary Assemblies shall meet, begin electing -of Electors; on Sunday the second of September (may the day prove lucky!) -the Electors shall begin electing Deputies; and so an all-healing National -Convention will come together. No marc d'argent, or distinction of Active -and Passive, now insults the French Patriot: but there is universal -suffrage, unlimited liberty to choose. Old-constituents, Present- -Legislators, all France is eligible. Nay, it may be said, the flower of -all the Universe (de l'Univers) is eligible; for in these very days we, by -act of Assembly, 'naturalise' the chief Foreign Friends of humanity: -Priestley, burnt out for us in Birmingham; Klopstock, a genius of all -countries; Jeremy Bentham, useful Jurisconsult; distinguished Paine, the -rebellious Needleman;--some of whom may be chosen. As is most fit; for a -Convention of this kind. In a word, Seven Hundred and Forty-five -unshackled sovereigns, admired of the universe, shall replace this hapless -impotency of a Legislative,--out of which, it is likely, the best members, -and the Mountain in mass, may be re-elected. Roland is getting ready the -Salles des Cent Suisses, as preliminary rendezvous for them; in that void -Palace of the Tuileries, now void and National, and not a Palace, but a -Caravansera. - -As for the Spontaneous Commune, one may say that there never was on Earth a -stranger Town-Council. Administration, not of a great City, but of a great -Kingdom in a state of revolt and frenzy, this is the task that has fallen -to it. Enrolling, provisioning, judging; devising, deciding, doing, -endeavouring to do: one wonders the human brain did not give way under all -this, and reel. But happily human brains have such a talent of taking up -simply what they can carry, and ignoring all the rest; leaving all the -rest, as if it were not there! Whereby somewhat is verily shifted for; and -much shifts for itself. This Improvised Commune walks along, nothing -doubting; promptly making front, without fear or flurry, at what moment -soever, to the wants of the moment. Were the world on fire, one improvised -tricolor Municipal has but one life to lose. They are the elixir and -chosen-men of Sansculottic Patriotism; promoted to the forlorn-hope; -unspeakable victory or a high gallows, this is their meed. They sit there, -in the Townhall, these astonishing tricolor Municipals; in Council General; -in Committee of Watchfulness (de Surveillance, which will even become de -Salut Public, of Public Salvation), or what other Committees and Sub- -committees are needful;--managing infinite Correspondence; passing infinite -Decrees: one hears of a Decree being 'the ninety-eighth of the day.' -Ready! is the word. They carry loaded pistols in their pocket; also some -improvised luncheon by way of meal. Or indeed, by and by, traiteurs -contract for the supply of repasts, to be eaten on the spot,--too lavishly, -as it was afterwards grumbled. Thus they: girt in their tricolor sashes; -Municipal note-paper in the one hand, fire-arms in other. They have their -Agents out all over France; speaking in townhouses, market-places, highways -and byways; agitating, urging to arm; all hearts tingling to hear. Great -is the fire of Anti-Aristocrat eloquence: nay some, as Bibliopolic Momoro, -seem to hint afar off at something which smells of Agrarian Law, and a -surgery of the overswoln dropsical strong-box itself;--whereat indeed the -bold Bookseller runs risk of being hanged, and Ex-Constituent Buzot has to -smuggle him off. (Memoires de Buzot (Paris, 1823), p. 88.) - -Governing Persons, were they never so insignificant intrinsically, have for -most part plenty of Memoir-writers; and the curious, in after-times, can -learn minutely their goings out and comings in: which, as men always love -to know their fellow-men in singular situations, is a comfort, of its kind. -Not so, with these Governing Persons, now in the Townhall! And yet what -most original fellow-man, of the Governing sort, high-chancellor, king, -kaiser, secretary of the home or the foreign department, ever shewed such a -phasis as Clerk Tallien, Procureur Manuel, future Procureur Chaumette, here -in this Sand-waltz of the Twenty-five millions, now do? O brother -mortals,--thou Advocate Panis, friend of Danton, kinsman of Santerre; -Engraver Sergent, since called Agate Sergent; thou Huguenin, with the -tocsin in thy heart! But, as Horace says, they wanted the sacred memoir- -writer (sacro vate); and we know them not. Men bragged of August and its -doings, publishing them in high places; but of this September none now or -afterwards would brag. The September world remains dark, fuliginous, as -Lapland witch-midnight;--from which, indeed, very strange shapes will -evolve themselves. - -Understand this, however: that incorruptible Robespierre is not wanting, -now when the brunt of battle is past; in a stealthy way the seagreen man -sits there, his feline eyes excellent in the twilight. Also understand -this other, a single fact worth many: that Marat is not only there, but -has a seat of honour assigned him, a tribune particuliere. How changed for -Marat; lifted from his dark cellar into this luminous 'peculiar tribune!' -All dogs have their day; even rabid dogs. Sorrowful, incurable Philoctetes -Marat; without whom Troy cannot be taken! Hither, as a main element of the -Governing Power, has Marat been raised. Royalist types, for we have -'suppressed' innumerable Durosoys, Royous, and even clapt them in prison,-- -Royalist types replace the worn types often snatched from a People's-Friend -in old ill days. In our 'peculiar tribune' we write and redact: Placards, -of due monitory terror; Amis-du-Peuple (now under the name of Journal de la -Republique); and sit obeyed of men. 'Marat,' says one, 'is the conscience -of the Hotel-de-Ville.' Keeper, as some call it, of the Sovereign's -Conscience;--which surely, in such hands, will not lie hid in a napkin! - -Two great movements, as we said, agitate this distracted National mind: a -rushing against domestic Traitors, a rushing against foreign Despots. Mad -movements both, restrainable by no known rule; strongest passions of human -nature driving them on: love, hatred; vengeful sorrow, braggart -Nationality also vengeful,--and pale Panic over all! Twelve Hundred slain -Patriots, do they not, from their dark catacombs there, in Death's dumb- -shew, plead (O ye Legislators) for vengeance? Such was the destructive -rage of these Aristocrats on the ever-memorable Tenth. Nay, apart from -vengeance, and with an eye to Public Salvation only, are there not still, -in this Paris (in round numbers) 'thirty thousand Aristocrats,' of the most -malignant humour; driven now to their last trump-card?--Be patient, ye -Patriots: our New High Court, 'Tribunal of the Seventeenth,' sits; each -Section has sent Four Jurymen; and Danton, extinguishing improper judges, -improper practices wheresoever found, is 'the same man you have known at -the Cordeliers.' With such a Minister of Justice shall not Justice be -done?--Let it be swift then, answers universal Patriotism; swift and sure!- -- - -One would hope, this Tribunal of the Seventeenth is swifter than most. -Already on the 21st, while our Court is but four days old, Collenot -d'Angremont, 'the Royal enlister' (crimp, embaucheur) dies by torch-light. -For, lo, the great Guillotine, wondrous to behold, now stands there; the -Doctor's Idea has become Oak and Iron; the huge cyclopean axe 'falls in its -grooves like the ram of the Pile-engine,' swiftly snuffing out the light of -men?' 'Mais vous, Gualches, what have you invented?' This?--Poor old -Laporte, Intendant of the Civil List, follows next; quietly, the mild old -man. Then Durosoy, Royalist Placarder, 'cashier of all the Anti- -Revolutionists of the interior:' he went rejoicing; said that a Royalist -like him ought to die, of all days on this day, the 25th or Saint Louis's -Day. All these have been tried, cast,--the Galleries shouting approval; -and handed over to the Realised Idea, within a week. Besides those whom we -have acquitted, the Galleries murmuring, and have dismissed; or even have -personally guarded back to Prison, as the Galleries took to howling, and -even to menacing and elbowing. (Moore's Journal, i. 159-168.) Languid -this Tribunal is not. - -Nor does the other movement slacken; the rushing against foreign Despots. -Strong forces shall meet in death-grip; drilled Europe against mad -undrilled France; and singular conclusions will be tried.--Conceive -therefore, in some faint degree, the tumult that whirls in this France, in -this Paris! Placards from Section, from Commune, from Legislative, from -the individual Patriot, flame monitory on all walls. Flags of Danger to -Fatherland wave at the Hotel-de-Ville; on the Pont Neuf--over the prostrate -Statues of Kings. There is universal enlisting, urging to enlist; there is -tearful-boastful leave-taking; irregular marching on the Great North- -Eastern Road. Marseillese sing their wild To Arms, in chorus; which now -all men, all women and children have learnt, and sing chorally, in -Theatres, Boulevards, Streets; and the heart burns in every bosom: Aux -Armes! Marchons!--Or think how your Aristocrats are skulking into covert; -how Bertrand-Moleville lies hidden in some garret 'in Aubry-le-boucher -Street, with a poor surgeon who had known me;' Dame de Stael has secreted -her Narbonne, not knowing what in the world to make of him. The Barriers -are sometimes open, oftenest shut; no passports to be had; Townhall -Emissaries, with the eyes and claws of falcons, flitting watchful on all -points of your horizon! In two words: Tribunal of the Seventeenth, busy -under howling Galleries; Prussian Brunswick, 'over a space of forty miles,' -with his war-tumbrils, and sleeping thunders, and Briarean 'sixty-six -thousand' (See Toulongeon, Hist. de France. ii. c. 5.) right-hands,-- -coming, coming! - -O Heavens, in these latter days of August, he is come! Durosoy was not yet -guillotined when news had come that the Prussians were harrying and -ravaging about Metz; in some four days more, one hears that Longwi, our -first strong-place on the borders, is fallen 'in fifteen hours.' Quick, -therefore, O ye improvised Municipals; quick, and ever quicker!--The -improvised Municipals make front to this also. Enrolment urges itself; and -clothing, and arming. Our very officers have now 'wool epaulettes;' for it -is the reign of Equality, and also of Necessity. Neither do men now -monsieur and sir one another; citoyen (citizen) were suitabler; we even say -thou, as 'the free peoples of Antiquity did:' so have Journals and the -Improvised Commune suggested; which shall be well. - -Infinitely better, meantime, could we suggest, where arms are to be found. -For the present, our Citoyens chant chorally To Arms; and have no arms! -Arms are searched for; passionately; there is joy over any musket. -Moreover, entrenchments shall be made round Paris: on the slopes of -Montmartre men dig and shovel; though even the simple suspect this to be -desperate. They dig; Tricolour sashes speak encouragement and well-speed- -ye. Nay finally 'twelve Members of the Legislative go daily,' not to -encourage only, but to bear a hand, and delve: it was decreed with -acclamation. Arms shall either be provided; or else the ingenuity of man -crack itself, and become fatuity. Lean Beaumarchais, thinking to serve the -Fatherland, and do a stroke of trade, in the old way, has commissioned -sixty thousand stand of good arms out of Holland: would to Heaven, for -Fatherland's sake and his, they were come! Meanwhile railings are torn up; -hammered into pikes: chains themselves shall be welded together, into -pikes. The very coffins of the dead are raised; for melting into balls. -All Church-bells must down into the furnace to make cannon; all Church- -plate into the mint to make money. Also behold the fair swan-bevies of -Citoyennes that have alighted in Churches, and sit there with swan-neck,-- -sewing tents and regimentals! Nor are Patriotic Gifts wanting, from those -that have aught left; nor stingily given: the fair Villaumes, mother and -daughter, Milliners in the Rue St.-Martin, give 'a silver thimble, and a -coin of fifteen sous (sevenpence halfpenny),' with other similar effects; -and offer, at least the mother does, to mount guard. Men who have not even -a thimble, give a thimbleful,--were it but of invention. One Citoyen has -wrought out the scheme of a wooden cannon; which France shall exclusively -profit by, in the first instance. It is to be made of staves, by the -coopers;--of almost boundless calibre, but uncertain as to strength! Thus -they: hammering, scheming, stitching, founding, with all their heart and -with all their soul. Two bells only are to remain in each Parish,--for -tocsin and other purposes. - -But mark also, precisely while the Prussian batteries were playing their -briskest at Longwi in the North-East, and our dastardly Lavergne saw -nothing for it but surrender,--south-westward, in remote, patriarchal La -Vendee, that sour ferment about Nonjuring Priests, after long working, is -ripe, and explodes: at the wrong moment for us! And so we have 'eight -thousand Peasants at Chatillon-sur-Sevre,' who will not be ballotted for -soldiers; will not have their Curates molested. To whom Bonchamps, -Laroche-jaquelins, and Seigneurs enough, of a Royalist turn, will join -themselves; with Stofflets and Charettes; with Heroes and Chouan Smugglers; -and the loyal warmth of a simple people, blown into flame and fury by -theological and seignorial bellows! So that there shall be fighting from -behind ditches, death-volleys bursting out of thickets and ravines of -rivers; huts burning, feet of the pitiful women hurrying to refuge with -their children on their back; seedfields fallow, whitened with human -bones;--'eighty thousand, of all ages, ranks, sexes, flying at once across -the Loire,' with wail borne far on the winds: and, in brief, for years -coming, such a suite of scenes as glorious war has not offered in these -late ages, not since our Albigenses and Crusadings were over,--save indeed -some chance Palatinate, or so, we might have to 'burn,' by way of -exception. The 'eight thousand at Chatillon' will be got dispelled for the -moment; the fire scattered, not extinguished. To the dints and bruises of -outward battle there is to be added henceforth a deadlier internal -gangrene. - -This rising in La Vendee reports itself at Paris on Wednesday the 29th of -August;--just as we had got our Electors elected; and, in spite of -Brunswick's and Longwi's teeth, were hoping still to have a National -Convention, if it pleased Heaven. But indeed, otherwise, this Wednesday is -to be regarded as one of the notablest Paris had yet seen: gloomy tidings -come successively, like Job's messengers; are met by gloomy answers. Of -Sardinia rising to invade the South-East, and Spain threatening the South, -we do not speak. But are not the Prussians masters of Longwi -(treacherously yielded, one would say); and preparing to besiege Verdun? -Clairfait and his Austrians are encompassing Thionville; darkening the -North. Not Metz-land now, but the Clermontais is getting harried; flying -hulans and huzzars have been seen on the Chalons Road, almost as far as -Sainte-Menehould. Heart, ye Patriots, if ye lose heart, ye lose all! - -It is not without a dramatic emotion that one reads in the Parliamentary -Debates of this Wednesday evening 'past seven o'clock,' the scene with the -military fugitives from Longwi. Wayworn, dusty, disheartened, these poor -men enter the Legislative, about sunset or after; give the most pathetic -detail of the frightful pass they were in:--Prussians billowing round by -the myriad, volcanically spouting fire for fifteen hours: we, scattered -sparse on the ramparts, hardly a cannoneer to two guns; our dastard -Commandant Lavergne no where shewing face; the priming would not catch; -there was no powder in the bombs,--what could we do? "Mourir! Die!" -answer prompt voices; (Hist. Parl. xvii. 148.) and the dusty fugitives must -shrink elsewhither for comfort.--Yes, Mourir, that is now the word. Be -Longwi a proverb and a hissing among French strong-places: let it (says -the Legislative) be obliterated rather, from the shamed face of the Earth;- --and so there has gone forth Decree, that Longwi shall, were the Prussians -once out of it, 'be rased,' and exist only as ploughed ground. - -Nor are the Jacobins milder; as how could they, the flower of Patriotism? -Poor Dame Lavergne, wife of the poor Commandant, took her parasol one -evening, and escorted by her Father came over to the Hall of the mighty -Mother; and 'reads a memoir tending to justify the Commandant of Longwi.' -Lafarge, President, makes answer: "Citoyenne, the Nation will judge -Lavergne; the Jacobins are bound to tell him the truth. He would have -ended his course there (termine sa carriere), if he had loved the honour of -his country." (Ibid. xix. 300.) - - - -Chapter 3.1.II. - -Danton. - -But better than raising of Longwi, or rebuking poor dusty soldiers or -soldiers' wives, Danton had come over, last night, and demanded a Decree to -search for arms, since they were not yielded voluntarily. Let 'Domiciliary -visits,' with rigour of authority, be made to this end. To search for -arms; for horses,--Aristocratism rolls in its carriage, while Patriotism -cannot trail its cannon. To search generally for munitions of war, 'in the -houses of persons suspect,'--and even, if it seem proper, to seize and -imprison the suspect persons themselves! In the Prisons, their plots will -be harmless; in the Prisons, they will be as hostages for us, and not -without use. This Decree the energetic Minister of Justice demanded, last -night, and got; and this same night it is to be executed; it is being -executed, at the moment when these dusty soldiers get saluted with Mourir. -Two thousand stand of arms, as they count, are foraged in this way; and -some four hundred head of new Prisoners; and, on the whole, such a terror -and damp is struck through the Aristocrat heart, as all but Patriotism, and -even Patriotism were it out of this agony, might pity. Yes, Messieurs! if -Brunswick blast Paris to ashes, he probably will blast the Prisons of Paris -too: pale Terror, if we have got it, we will also give it, and the depth -of horrors that lie in it; the same leaky bottom, in these wild waters, -bears us all. - -One can judge what stir there was now among the 'thirty thousand -Royalists:' how the Plotters, or the accused of Plotting, shrank each -closer into his lurking-place,--like Bertrand Moleville, looking eager -towards Longwi, hoping the weather would keep fair. Or how they dressed -themselves in valet's clothes, like Narbonne, and 'got to England as Dr. -Bollman's famulus:' how Dame de Stael bestirred herself, pleading with -Manuel as a Sister in Literature, pleading even with Clerk Tallien; a pray -to nameless chagrins! (De Stael, Considerations sur la Revolution, ii. 67- -81.) Royalist Peltier, the Pamphleteer, gives a touching Narrative (not -deficient in height of colouring) of the terrors of that night. From five -in the afternoon, a great City is struck suddenly silent; except for the -beating of drums, for the tramp of marching feet; and ever and anon the -dread thunder of the knocker at some door, a Tricolor Commissioner with his -blue Guards (black-guards!) arriving. All Streets are vacant, says -Peltier; beset by Guards at each end: all Citizens are ordered to be -within doors. On the River float sentinal barges, lest we escape by water: -the Barriers hermetically closed. Frightful! The sun shines; serenely -westering, in smokeless mackerel-sky: Paris is as if sleeping, as if -dead:--Paris is holding its breath, to see what stroke will fall on it. -Poor Peltier! Acts of Apostles, and all jocundity of Leading-Articles, are -gone out, and it is become bitter earnest instead; polished satire changed -now into coarse pike-points (hammered out of railing); all logic reduced to -this one primitive thesis, An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth!-- -Peltier, dolefully aware of it, ducks low; escapes unscathed to England; to -urge there the inky war anew; to have Trial by Jury, in due season, and -deliverance by young Whig eloquence, world-celebrated for a day. - -Of 'thirty thousand,' naturally, great multitudes were left unmolested: -but, as we said, some four hundred, designated as 'persons suspect,' were -seized; and an unspeakable terror fell on all. Wo to him who is guilty of -Plotting, of Anticivism, Royalism, Feuillantism; who, guilty or not guilty, -has an enemy in his Section to call him guilty! Poor old M. de Cazotte is -seized, his young loved Daughter with him, refusing to quit him. Why, O -Cazotte, wouldst thou quit romancing, and Diable Amoureux, for such reality -as this? Poor old M. de Sombreuil, he of the Invalides, is seized: a man -seen askance, by Patriotism ever since the Bastille days: whom also a fond -Daughter will not quit. With young tears hardly suppressed, and old -wavering weakness rousing itself once more--O my brothers, O my sisters! - -The famed and named go; the nameless, if they have an accuser. Necklace -Lamotte's Husband is in these Prisons (she long since squelched on the -London Pavements); but gets delivered. Gross de Morande, of the Courier de -l'Europe, hobbles distractedly to and fro there: but they let him hobble -out; on right nimble crutches;--his hour not being yet come. Advocate -Maton de la Varenne, very weak in health, is snatched off from mother and -kin; Tricolor Rossignol (journeyman goldsmith and scoundrel lately, a risen -man now) remembers an old Pleading of Maton's! Jourgniac de Saint-Meard -goes; the brisk frank soldier: he was in the Mutiny of Nancy, in that -'effervescent Regiment du Roi,'--on the wrong side. Saddest of all: Abbe -Sicard goes; a Priest who could not take the Oath, but who could teach the -Deaf and Dumb: in his Section one man, he says, had a grudge at him; one -man, at the fit hour, launches an arrest against him; which hits. In the -Arsenal quarter, there are dumb hearts making wail, with signs, with wild -gestures; he their miraculous healer and speech-bringer is rapt away. - -What with the arrestments on this night of the Twenty-ninth, what with -those that have gone on more or less, day and night, ever since the Tenth, -one may fancy what the Prisons now were. Crowding and Confusion; jostle, -hurry, vehemence and terror! Of the poor Queen's Friends, who had followed -her to the Temple and been committed elsewhither to Prison, some, as -Governess de Tourzelle, are to be let go: one, the poor Princess de -Lamballe, is not let go; but waits in the strong-rooms of La Force there, -what will betide further. - -Among so many hundreds whom the launched arrest hits, who are rolled off to -Townhall or Section-hall, to preliminary Houses of detention, and hurled in -thither, as into cattle-pens, we must mention one other: Caron de -Beaumarchais, Author of Figaro; vanquisher of Maupeou Parlements and -Goezman helldogs; once numbered among the demigods; and now--? We left him -in his culminant state; what dreadful decline is this, when we again catch -a glimpse of him! 'At midnight' (it was but the 12th of August yet), 'the -servant, in his shirt,' with wide-staring eyes, enters your room:-- -Monsieur, rise; all the people are come to seek you; they are knocking, -like to break in the door! 'And they were in fact knocking in a terrible -manner (d'une facon terrible). I fling on my coat, forgetting even the -waistcoat, nothing on my feet but slippers; and say to him'--And he, alas, -answers mere negatory incoherences, panic interjections. And through the -shutters and crevices, in front or rearward, the dull street-lamps disclose -only streetfuls of haggard countenances; clamorous, bristling with pikes: -and you rush distracted for an outlet, finding none;--and have to take -refuge in the crockery-press, down stairs; and stand there, palpitating in -that imperfect costume, lights dancing past your key-hole, tramp of feet -overhead, and the tumult of Satan, 'for four hours and more!' And old -ladies, of the quarter, started up (as we hear next morning); rang for -their Bonnes and cordial-drops, with shrill interjections: and old -gentlemen, in their shirts, 'leapt garden-walls;' flying, while none -pursued; one of whom unfortunately broke his leg. (Beaumarchais' -Narrative, Memoires sur les Prisons (Paris, 1823), i. 179-90.) Those sixty -thousand stand of Dutch arms (which never arrive), and the bold stroke of -trade, have turned out so ill!-- - -Beaumarchais escaped for this time; but not for the next time, ten days -after. On the evening of the Twenty-ninth he is still in that chaos of the -Prisons, in saddest, wrestling condition; unable to get justice, even to -get audience; 'Panis scratching his head' when you speak to him, and making -off. Nevertheless let the lover of Figaro know that Procureur Manuel, a -Brother in Literature, found him, and delivered him once more. But how the -lean demigod, now shorn of his splendour, had to lurk in barns, to roam -over harrowed fields, panting for life; and to wait under eavesdrops, and -sit in darkness 'on the Boulevard amid paving-stones and boulders,' longing -for one word of any Minister, or Minister's Clerk, about those accursed -Dutch muskets, and getting none,--with heart fuming in spleen, and terror, -and suppressed canine-madness: alas, how the swift sharp hound, once fit -to be Diana's, breaks his old teeth now, gnawing mere whinstones; and must -'fly to England;' and, returning from England, must creep into the corner, -and lie quiet, toothless (moneyless),--all this let the lover of Figaro -fancy, and weep for. We here, without weeping, not without sadness, wave -the withered tough fellow-mortal our farewell. His Figaro has returned to -the French stage; nay is, at this day, sometimes named the best piece -there. And indeed, so long as Man's Life can ground itself only on -artificiality and aridity; each new Revolt and Change of Dynasty turning up -only a new stratum of dry rubbish, and no soil yet coming to view,--may it -not be good to protest against such a Life, in many ways, and even in the -Figaro way? - - - -Chapter 3.1.III. - -Dumouriez. - -Such are the last days of August, 1792; days gloomy, disastrous, and of -evil omen. What will become of this poor France? Dumouriez rode from the -Camp of Maulde, eastward to Sedan, on Tuesday last, the 28th of the month; -reviewed that so-called Army left forlorn there by Lafayette: the forlorn -soldiers gloomed on him; were heard growling on him, "This is one of them, -ce b--e la, that made War be declared." (Dumouriez, Memoires, ii. 383.) -Unpromising Army! Recruits flow in, filtering through Depot after Depot; -but recruits merely: in want of all; happy if they have so much as arms. -And Longwi has fallen basely; and Brunswick, and the Prussian King, with -his sixty thousand, will beleaguer Verdun; and Clairfait and Austrians -press deeper in, over the Northern marches: 'a hundred and fifty thousand' -as fear counts, 'eighty thousand' as the returns shew, do hem us in; -Cimmerian Europe behind them. There is Castries-and-Broglie chivalry; -Royalist foot 'in red facing and nankeen trousers;' breathing death and the -gallows. - -And lo, finally! at Verdun on Sunday the 2d of September 1792, Brunswick is -here. With his King and sixty thousand, glittering over the heights, from -beyond the winding Meuse River, he looks down on us, on our 'high citadel' -and all our confectionery-ovens (for we are celebrated for confectionery) -has sent courteous summons, in order to spare the effusion of blood!-- -Resist him to the death? Every day of retardation precious? How, O -General Beaurepaire (asks the amazed Municipality) shall we resist him? -We, the Verdun Municipals, see no resistance possible. Has he not sixty -thousand, and artillery without end? Retardation, Patriotism is good; but -so likewise is peaceable baking of pastry, and sleeping in whole skin.-- -Hapless Beaurepaire stretches out his hands, and pleads passionately, in -the name of country, honour, of Heaven and of Earth: to no purpose. The -Municipals have, by law, the power of ordering it;--with an Army officered -by Royalism or Crypto-Royalism, such a Law seemed needful: and they order -it, as pacific Pastrycooks, not as heroic Patriots would,--To surrender! -Beaurepaire strides home, with long steps: his valet, entering the room, -sees him 'writing eagerly,' and withdraws. His valet hears then, in a few -minutes, the report of a pistol: Beaurepaire is lying dead; his eager -writing had been a brief suicidal farewell. In this manner died -Beaurepaire, wept of France; buried in the Pantheon, with honourable -pension to his Widow, and for Epitaph these words, He chose Death rather -than yield to Despots. The Prussians, descending from the heights, are -peaceable masters of Verdun. - -And so Brunswick advances, from stage to stage: who shall now stay him,-- -covering forty miles of country? Foragers fly far; the villages of the -North-East are harried; your Hessian forager has only 'three sous a day:' -the very Emigrants, it is said, will take silver-plate,--by way of revenge. -Clermont, Sainte-Menehould, Varennes especially, ye Towns of the Night of -Spurs; tremble ye! Procureur Sausse and the Magistracy of Varennes have -fled; brave Boniface Le Blanc of the Bras d'Or is to the woods: Mrs. Le -Blanc, a young woman fair to look upon, with her young infant, has to live -in greenwood, like a beautiful Bessy Bell of Song, her bower thatched with -rushes;--catching premature rheumatism. (Helen Maria Williams, Letters -from France (London, 1791-93), iii. 96.) Clermont may ring the tocsin now, -and illuminate itself! Clermont lies at the foot of its Cow (or Vache, so -they name that Mountain), a prey to the Hessian spoiler: its fair women, -fairer than most, are robbed: not of life, or what is dearer, yet of all -that is cheaper and portable; for Necessity, on three half-pence a-day, has -no law. At Saint-Menehould, the enemy has been expected more than once,-- -our Nationals all turning out in arms; but was not yet seen. Post-master -Drouet, he is not in the woods, but minding his Election; and will sit in -the Convention, notable King-taker, and bold Old-Dragoon as he is. - -Thus on the North-East all roams and runs; and on a set day, the date of -which is irrecoverable by History, Brunswick 'has engaged to dine in -Paris,'--the Powers willing. And at Paris, in the centre, it is as we saw; -and in La Vendee, South-West, it is as we saw; and Sardinia is in the -South-East, and Spain is in the South, and Clairfait with Austria and -sieged Thionville is in the North;--and all France leaps distracted, like -the winnowed Sahara waltzing in sand-colonnades! More desperate posture no -country ever stood in. A country, one would say, which the Majesty of -Prussia (if it so pleased him) might partition, and clip in pieces, like a -Poland; flinging the remainder to poor Brother Louis,--with directions to -keep it quiet, or else we will keep it for him! - -Or perhaps the Upper Powers, minded that a new Chapter in Universal History -shall begin here and not further on, may have ordered it all otherwise? In -that case, Brunswick will not dine in Paris on the set day; nor, indeed, -one knows not when!--Verily, amid this wreckage, where poor France seems -grinding itself down to dust and bottomless ruin, who knows what miraculous -salient-point of Deliverance and New-life may have already come into -existence there; and be already working there, though as yet human eye -discern it not! On the night of that same twenty-eighth of August, the -unpromising Review-day in Sedan, Dumouriez assembles a Council of War at -his lodgings there. He spreads out the map of this forlorn war-district: -Prussians here, Austrians there; triumphant both, with broad highway, and -little hinderance, all the way to Paris; we, scattered helpless, here and -here: what to advise? The Generals, strangers to Dumouriez, look blank -enough; know not well what to advise,--if it be not retreating, and -retreating till our recruits accumulate; till perhaps the chapter of -chances turn up some leaf for us; or Paris, at all events, be sacked at the -latest day possible. The Many-counselled, who 'has not closed an eye for -three nights,' listens with little speech to these long cheerless speeches; -merely watching the speaker that he may know him; then wishes them all -good-night;--but beckons a certain young Thouvenot, the fire of whose looks -had pleased him, to wait a moment. Thouvenot waits: Voila, says -Polymetis, pointing to the map! That is the Forest of Argonne, that long -stripe of rocky Mountain and wild Wood; forty miles long; with but five, or -say even three practicable Passes through it: this, for they have -forgotten it, might one not still seize, though Clairfait sits so nigh? -Once seized;--the Champagne called the Hungry (or worse, Champagne -Pouilleuse) on their side of it; the fat Three Bishoprics, and willing -France, on ours; and the Equinox-rains not far;--this Argonne 'might be the -Thermopylae of France!' (Dumouriez, ii. 391.) - -O brisk Dumouriez Polymetis with thy teeming head, may the gods grant it!-- -Polymetis, at any rate, folds his map together, and flings himself on bed; -resolved to try, on the morrow morning. With astucity, with swiftness, -with audacity! One had need to be a lion-fox, and have luck on one's side. - - - -Chapter 3.1.IV. - -September in Paris. - -At Paris, by lying Rumour which proved prophetic and veridical, the fall of -Verdun was known some hours before it happened. It is Sunday the second of -September; handiwork hinders not the speculations of the mind. Verdun gone -(though some still deny it); the Prussians in full march, with gallows- -ropes, with fire and faggot! Thirty thousand Aristocrats within our own -walls; and but the merest quarter-tithe of them yet put in Prison! Nay -there goes a word that even these will revolt. Sieur Jean Julien, wagoner -of Vaugirard, (Moore, i. 178.) being set in the Pillory last Friday, took -all at once to crying, That he would be well revenged ere long; that the -King's Friends in Prison would burst out; force the Temple, set the King on -horseback; and, joined by the unimprisoned, ride roughshod over us all. -This the unfortunate wagoner of Vaugirard did bawl, at the top of his -lungs: when snatched off to the Townhall, he persisted in it, still -bawling; yesternight, when they guillotined him, he died with the froth of -it on his lips. (Hist. Parl. xvii. 409.) For a man's mind, padlocked to -the Pillory, may go mad; and all men's minds may go mad; and 'believe him,' -as the frenetic will do, 'because it is impossible.' - -So that apparently the knot of the crisis, and last agony of France is -come? Make front to this, thou Improvised Commune, strong Danton, -whatsoever man is strong! Readers can judge whether the Flag of Country in -Danger flapped soothing or distractively on the souls of men, that day. - -But the Improvised Commune, but strong Danton is not wanting, each after -his kind. Huge Placards are getting plastered to the walls; at two o'clock -the stormbell shall be sounded, the alarm-cannon fired; all Paris shall -rush to the Champ-de-Mars, and have itself enrolled. Unarmed, truly, and -undrilled; but desperate, in the strength of frenzy. Haste, ye men; ye -very women, offer to mount guard and shoulder the brown musket: weak -clucking-hens, in a state of desperation, will fly at the muzzle of the -mastiff, and even conquer him,--by vehemence of character! Terror itself, -when once grown transcendental, becomes a kind of courage; as frost -sufficiently intense, according to Poet Milton, will burn.--Danton, the -other night, in the Legislative Committee of General Defence, when the -other Ministers and Legislators had all opined, said, It would not do to -quit Paris, and fly to Saumur; that they must abide by Paris; and take such -attitude as would put their enemies in fear,--faire peur; a word of his -which has been often repeated, and reprinted--in italics. (Biographie des -Ministres (Bruxelles, 1826), p. 96.) - -At two of the clock, Beaurepaire, as we saw, has shot himself at Verdun; -and over Europe, mortals are going in for afternoon sermon. But at Paris, -all steeples are clangouring not for sermon; the alarm-gun booming from -minute to minute; Champ-de-Mars and Fatherland's Altar boiling with -desperate terror-courage: what a miserere going up to Heaven from this -once Capital of the Most Christian King! The Legislative sits in alternate -awe and effervescence; Vergniaud proposing that Twelve shall go and dig -personally on Montmartre; which is decreed by acclaim. - -But better than digging personally with acclaim, see Danton enter;--the -black brows clouded, the colossus-figure tramping heavy; grim energy -looking from all features of the rugged man! Strong is that grim Son of -France, and Son of Earth; a Reality and not a Formula he too; and surely -now if ever, being hurled low enough, it is on the Earth and on Realities -that he rests. "Legislators!" so speaks the stentor-voice, as the -Newspapers yet preserve it for us, "it is not the alarm-cannon that you -hear: it is the pas-de-charge against our enemies. To conquer them, to -hurl them back, what do we require? Il nous faut de l'audace, et encore de -l'audace, et toujours de l'audace, To dare, and again to dare, and without -end to dare!" (Moniteur (in Hist. Parl. xvii. 347.)--Right so, thou brawny -Titan; there is nothing left for thee but that. Old men, who heard it, -will still tell you how the reverberating voice made all hearts swell, in -that moment; and braced them to the sticking-place; and thrilled abroad -over France, like electric virtue, as a word spoken in season. - -But the Commune, enrolling in the Champ-de-Mars? But the Committee of -Watchfulness, become now Committee of Public Salvation; whose conscience is -Marat? The Commune enrolling enrolls many; provides Tents for them in that -Mars'-Field, that they may march with dawn on the morrow: praise to this -part of the Commune! To Marat and the Committee of Watchfulness not -praise;--not even blame, such as could be meted out in these insufficient -dialects of ours; expressive silence rather! Lone Marat, the man forbid, -meditating long in his Cellars of refuge, on his Stylites Pillar, could see -salvation in one thing only: in the fall of 'two hundred and sixty -thousand Aristocrat heads.' With so many score of Naples Bravoes, each a -dirk in his right-hand, a muff on his left, he would traverse France, and -do it. But the world laughed, mocking the severe-benevolence of a -People's-Friend; and his idea could not become an action, but only a fixed- -idea. Lo, now, however, he has come down from his Stylites Pillar, to a -Tribune particuliere; here now, without the dirks, without the muffs at -least, were it not grown possible,--now in the knot of the crisis, when -salvation or destruction hangs in the hour! - -The Ice-Tower of Avignon was noised of sufficiently, and lives in all -memories; but the authors were not punished: nay we saw Jourdan Coupe- -tete, borne on men's shoulders, like a copper Portent, 'traversing the -cities of the South.'--What phantasms, squalid-horrid, shaking their dirk -and muff, may dance through the brain of a Marat, in this dizzy pealing of -tocsin-miserere, and universal frenzy, seek not to guess, O Reader! Nor -what the cruel Billaud 'in his short brown coat was thinking;' nor Sergent, -not yet Agate-Sergent; nor Panis the confident of Danton;--nor, in a word, -how gloomy Orcus does breed in her gloomy womb, and fashion her monsters, -and prodigies of Events, which thou seest her visibly bear! Terror is on -these streets of Paris; terror and rage, tears and frenzy: tocsin-miserere -pealing through the air; fierce desperation rushing to battle; mothers, -with streaming eyes and wild hearts, sending forth their sons to die. -'Carriage-horses are seized by the bridle,' that they may draw cannon; 'the -traces cut, the carriages left standing.' In such tocsin-miserere, and -murky bewilderment of Frenzy, are not Murder, Ate, and all Furies near at -hand? On slight hint, who knows on how slight, may not Murder come; and, -with her snaky-sparkling hand, illuminate this murk! - -How it was and went, what part might be premeditated, what was improvised -and accidental, man will never know, till the great Day of Judgment make it -known. But with a Marat for keeper of the Sovereign's Conscience--And we -know what the ultima ratio of Sovereigns, when they are driven to it, is! -In this Paris there are as many wicked men, say a hundred or more, as exist -in all the Earth: to be hired, and set on; to set on, of their own accord, -unhired.--And yet we will remark that premeditation itself is not -performance, is not surety of performance; that it is perhaps, at most, -surety of letting whosoever wills perform. From the purpose of crime to -the act of crime there is an abyss; wonderful to think of. The finger lies -on the pistol; but the man is not yet a murderer: nay, his whole nature -staggering at such consummation, is there not a confused pause rather,--one -last instant of possibility for him? Not yet a murderer; it is at the -mercy of light trifles whether the most fixed idea may not yet become -unfixed. One slight twitch of a muscle, the death flash bursts; and he is -it, and will for Eternity be it;--and Earth has become a penal Tartarus for -him; his horizon girdled now not with golden hope, but with red flames of -remorse; voices from the depths of Nature sounding, Wo, wo on him! - -Of such stuff are we all made; on such powder-mines of bottomless guilt and -criminality, 'if God restrained not; as is well said,--does the purest of -us walk. There are depths in man that go the length of lowest Hell, as -there are heights that reach highest Heaven;--for are not both Heaven and -Hell made out of him, made by him, everlasting Miracle and Mystery as he -is?--But looking on this Champ-de-Mars, with its tent-buildings, and -frantic enrolments; on this murky-simmering Paris, with its crammed Prisons -(supposed about to burst), with its tocsin-miserere, its mothers' tears, -and soldiers' farewell shoutings,--the pious soul might have prayed, that -day, that God's grace would restrain, and greatly restrain; lest on slight -hest or hint, Madness, Horror and Murder rose, and this Sabbath-day of -September became a Day black in the Annals of Men.-- - -The tocsin is pealing its loudest, the clocks inaudibly striking Three, -when poor Abbe Sicard, with some thirty other Nonjurant Priests, in six -carriages, fare along the streets, from their preliminary House of -Detention at the Townhall, westward towards the Prison of the Abbaye. -Carriages enough stand deserted on the streets; these six move on,--through -angry multitudes, cursing as they move. Accursed Aristocrat Tartuffes, -this is the pass ye have brought us to! And now ye will break the Prisons, -and set Capet Veto on horseback to ride over us? Out upon you, Priests of -Beelzebub and Moloch; of Tartuffery, Mammon, and the Prussian Gallows,-- -which ye name Mother-Church and God! Such reproaches have the poor -Nonjurants to endure, and worse; spoken in on them by frantic Patriots, who -mount even on the carriage-steps; the very Guards hardly refraining. Pull -up your carriage-blinds!--No! answers Patriotism, clapping its horny paw on -the carriage blind, and crushing it down again. Patience in oppression has -limits: we are close on the Abbaye, it has lasted long: a poor Nonjurant, -of quicker temper, smites the horny paw with his cane; nay, finding -solacement in it, smites the unkempt head, sharply and again more sharply, -twice over,--seen clearly of us and of the world. It is the last that we -see clearly. Alas, next moment, the carriages are locked and blocked in -endless raging tumults; in yells deaf to the cry for mercy, which answer -the cry for mercy with sabre-thrusts through the heart. (Felemhesi -(anagram for Mehee Fils), La Verite tout entiere, sur les vrais auteurs de -la journee du 2 Septembre 1792 (reprinted in Hist. Parl. xviii. 156-181), -p. 167.) The thirty Priests are torn out, are massacred about the Prison- -Gate, one after one,--only the poor Abbe Sicard, whom one Moton a -watchmaker, knowing him, heroically tried to save, and secrete in the -Prison, escapes to tell;--and it is Night and Orcus, and Murder's snaky- -sparkling head has risen in the murk!-- - -From Sunday afternoon (exclusive of intervals, and pauses not final) till -Thursday evening, there follow consecutively a Hundred Hours. Which -hundred hours are to be reckoned with the hours of the Bartholomew -Butchery, of the Armagnac Massacres, Sicilian Vespers, or whatsoever is -savagest in the annals of this world. Horrible the hour when man's soul, -in its paroxysm, spurns asunder the barriers and rules; and shews what dens -and depths are in it! For Night and Orcus, as we say, as was long -prophesied, have burst forth, here in this Paris, from their subterranean -imprisonment: hideous, dim, confused; which it is painful to look on; and -yet which cannot, and indeed which should not, be forgotten. - -The Reader, who looks earnestly through this dim Phantasmagory of the Pit, -will discern few fixed certain objects; and yet still a few. He will -observe, in this Abbaye Prison, the sudden massacre of the Priests being -once over, a strange Court of Justice, or call it Court of Revenge and -Wild-Justice, swiftly fashion itself, and take seat round a table, with the -Prison-Registers spread before it;--Stanislas Maillard, Bastille-hero, -famed Leader of the Menads, presiding. O Stanislas, one hoped to meet thee -elsewhere than here; thou shifty Riding-Usher, with an inkling of Law! -This work also thou hadst to do; and then--to depart for ever from our -eyes. At La Force, at the Chatelet, the Conciergerie, the like Court forms -itself, with the like accompaniments: the thing that one man does other -men can do. There are some Seven Prisons in Paris, full of Aristocrats -with conspiracies;--nay not even Bicetre and Salpetriere shall escape, with -their Forgers of Assignats: and there are seventy times seven hundred -Patriot hearts in a state of frenzy. Scoundrel hearts also there are; as -perfect, say, as the Earth holds,--if such are needed. To whom, in this -mood, law is as no-law; and killing, by what name soever called, is but -work to be done. - -So sit these sudden Courts of Wild-Justice, with the Prison-Registers -before them; unwonted wild tumult howling all round: the Prisoners in -dread expectancy within. Swift: a name is called; bolts jingle, a -Prisoner is there. A few questions are put; swiftly this sudden Jury -decides: Royalist Plotter or not? Clearly not; in that case, Let the -Prisoner be enlarged With Vive la Nation. Probably yea; then still, Let -the Prisoner be enlarged, but without Vive la Nation; or else it may run, -Let the prisoner be conducted to La Force. At La Force again their formula -is, Let the Prisoner be conducted to the Abbaye.--"To La Force then!" -Volunteer bailiffs seize the doomed man; he is at the outer gate; -'enlarged,' or 'conducted,'--not into La Force, but into a howling sea; -forth, under an arch of wild sabres, axes and pikes; and sinks, hewn -asunder. And another sinks, and another; and there forms itself a piled -heap of corpses, and the kennels begin to run red. Fancy the yells of -these men, their faces of sweat and blood; the crueller shrieks of these -women, for there are women too; and a fellow-mortal hurled naked into it -all! Jourgniac de Saint Meard has seen battle, has seen an effervescent -Regiment du Roi in mutiny; but the bravest heart may quail at this. The -Swiss Prisoners, remnants of the Tenth of August, 'clasped each other -spasmodically,' and hung back; grey veterans crying: "Mercy Messieurs; ah, -mercy!" But there was no mercy. Suddenly, however, one of these men steps -forward. He had a blue frock coat; he seemed to be about thirty, his -stature was above common, his look noble and martial. "I go first," said -he, "since it must be so: adieu!" Then dashing his hat sharply behind -him: "Which way?" cried he to the Brigands: "Shew it me, then." They -open the folding gate; he is announced to the multitude. He stands a -moment motionless; then plunges forth among the pikes, and dies of a -thousand wounds.' (Felemhesi, La Verite tout entiere (ut supra), p. 173.) - -Man after man is cut down; the sabres need sharpening, the killers refresh -themselves from wine jugs. Onward and onward goes the butchery; the loud -yells wearying down into bass growls. A sombre-faced, shifting multitude -looks on; in dull approval, or dull disapproval; in dull recognition that -it is Necessity. 'An Anglais in drab greatcoat' was seen, or seemed to be -seen, serving liquor from his own dram-bottle;--for what purpose, 'if not -set on by Pitt,' Satan and himself know best! Witty Dr. Moore grew sick on -approaching, and turned into another street. (Moore's Journal, i. 185- -195.)--Quick enough goes this Jury-Court; and rigorous. The brave are not -spared, nor the beautiful, nor the weak. Old M. de Montmorin, the -Minister's Brother, was acquitted by the Tribunal of the Seventeenth; and -conducted back, elbowed by howling galleries; but is not acquitted here. -Princess de Lamballe has lain down on bed: "Madame, you are to be removed -to the Abbaye." "I do not wish to remove; I am well enough here." There -is a need-be for removing. She will arrange her dress a little, then; rude -voices answer, "You have not far to go." She too is led to the hell-gate; -a manifest Queen's-Friend. She shivers back, at the sight of bloody -sabres; but there is no return: Onwards! That fair hindhead is cleft with -the axe; the neck is severed. That fair body is cut in fragments; with -indignities, and obscene horrors of moustachio grands-levres, which human -nature would fain find incredible,--which shall be read in the original -language only. She was beautiful, she was good, she had known no -happiness. Young hearts, generation after generation, will think with -themselves: O worthy of worship, thou king-descended, god-descended and -poor sister-woman! why was not I there; and some Sword Balmung, or Thor's -Hammer in my hand? Her head is fixed on a pike; paraded under the windows -of the Temple; that a still more hated, a Marie-Antoinette, may see. One -Municipal, in the Temple with the Royal Prisoners at the moment, said, -"Look out." Another eagerly whispered, "Do not look." The circuit of the -Temple is guarded, in these hours, by a long stretched tricolor riband: -terror enters, and the clangour of infinite tumult: hitherto not regicide, -though that too may come. - -But it is more edifying to note what thrillings of affection, what -fragments of wild virtues turn up, in this shaking asunder of man's -existence, for of these too there is a proportion. Note old Marquis -Cazotte: he is doomed to die; but his young Daughter clasps him in her -arms, with an inspiration of eloquence, with a love which is stronger than -very death; the heart of the killers themselves is touched by it; the old -man is spared. Yet he was guilty, if plotting for his King is guilt: in -ten days more, a Court of Law condemned him, and he had to die elsewhere; -bequeathing his Daughter a lock of his old grey hair. Or note old M. de -Sombreuil, who also had a Daughter:--My Father is not an Aristocrat; O good -gentlemen, I will swear it, and testify it, and in all ways prove it; we -are not; we hate Aristocrats! "Wilt thou drink Aristocrats' blood?" The -man lifts blood (if universal Rumour can be credited (Dulaure: Esquisses -Historiques des principaux evenemens de la Revolution, ii. 206 (cited in -Montgaillard, iii. 205).)); the poor maiden does drink. "This Sombreuil is -innocent then!" Yes indeed,--and now note, most of all, how the bloody -pikes, at this news, do rattle to the ground; and the tiger-yells become -bursts of jubilee over a brother saved; and the old man and his daughter -are clasped to bloody bosoms, with hot tears, and borne home in triumph of -Vive la Nation, the killers refusing even money! Does it seem strange, -this temper of theirs? It seems very certain, well proved by Royalist -testimony in other instances; (Bertrand-Moleville (Mem. Particuliers, -ii.213), &c. &c.) and very significant. - - - -Chapter 3.1.V. - -A Trilogy. - -As all Delineation, in these ages, were it never so Epic, 'speaking itself -and not singing itself,' must either found on Belief and provable Fact, or -have no foundation at all (nor except as floating cobweb any existence at -all),--the Reader will perhaps prefer to take a glance with the very eyes -of eye-witnesses; and see, in that way, for himself, how it was. Brave -Jourgniac, innocent Abbe Sicard, judicious Advocate Maton, these, greatly -compressing themselves, shall speak, each an instant. Jourgniac's Agony of -Thirty-eight hours went through 'above a hundred editions,' though -intrinsically a poor work. Some portion of it may here go through above -the hundred-and-first, for want of a better. - -'Towards seven o'clock' (Sunday night, at the Abbaye; for Jourgniac goes by -dates): 'We saw two men enter, their hands bloody and armed with sabres; a -turnkey, with a torch, lighted them; he pointed to the bed of the -unfortunate Swiss, Reding. Reding spoke with a dying voice. One of them -paused; but the other cried Allons donc; lifted the unfortunate man; -carried him out on his back to the street. He was massacred there. - -'We all looked at one another in silence, we clasped each other's hands. -Motionless, with fixed eyes, we gazed on the pavement of our prison; on -which lay the moonlight, checkered with the triple stancheons of our -windows. - -'Three in the morning: They were breaking-in one of the prison-doors. We -at first thought they were coming to kill us in our room; but heard, by -voices on the staircase, that it was a room where some Prisoners had -barricaded themselves. They were all butchered there, as we shortly -gathered. - -'Ten o'clock: The Abbe Lenfant and the Abbe de Chapt-Rastignac appeared in -the pulpit of the Chapel, which was our prison; they had entered by a door -from the stairs. They said to us that our end was at hand; that we must -compose ourselves, and receive their last blessing. An electric movement, -not to be defined, threw us all on our knees, and we received it. These -two whitehaired old men, blessing us from their place above; death hovering -over our heads, on all hands environing us; the moment is never to be -forgotten. Half an hour after, they were both massacred, and we heard -their cries.' (Jourgniac Saint-Meard, Mon Agonie de Trente-huit heures -(reprinted in Hist. Parl. xviii. 103-135).)--Thus Jourgniac in his Agony in -the Abbaye. - -But now let the good Maton speak, what he, over in La Force, in the same -hours, is suffering and witnessing. This Resurrection by him is greatly -the best, the least theatrical of these Pamphlets; and stands testing by -documents: - -'Towards seven o'clock,' on Sunday night, 'prisoners were called -frequently, and they did not reappear. Each of us reasoned in his own way, -on this singularity: but our ideas became calm, as we persuaded ourselves -that the Memorial I had drawn up for the National Assembly was producing -effect. - -'At one in the morning, the grate which led to our quarter opened anew. -Four men in uniform, each with a drawn sabre and blazing torch, came up to -our corridor, preceded by a turnkey; and entered an apartment close to -ours, to investigate a box there, which we heard them break up. This done, -they stept into the gallery, and questioned the man Cuissa, to know where -Lamotte (Necklace's Widower) was. Lamotte, they said, had some months ago, -under pretext of a treasure he knew of, swindled a sum of three-hundred -livres from one of them, inviting him to dinner for that purpose. The -wretched Cuissa, now in their hands, who indeed lost his life this night, -answered trembling, That he remembered the fact well, but could not tell -what was become of Lamotte. Determined to find Lamotte and confront him -with Cuissa, they rummaged, along with this latter, through various other -apartments; but without effect, for we heard them say: "Come search among -the corpses then: for, nom de Dieu! we must find where he is." - -'At this time, I heard Louis Bardy, the Abbe Bardy's name called: he was -brought out; and directly massacred, as I learnt. He had been accused, -along with his concubine, five or six years before, of having murdered and -cut in pieces his own Brother, Auditor of the Chambre des Comptes at -Montpelier; but had by his subtlety, his dexterity, nay his eloquence, -outwitted the judges, and escaped. - -'One may fancy what terror these words, "Come search among the corpses -then," had thrown me into. I saw nothing for it now but resigning myself -to die. I wrote my last-will; concluding it by a petition and adjuration, -that the paper should be sent to its address. Scarcely had I quitted the -pen, when there came two other men in uniform; one of them, whose arm and -sleeve up to the very shoulder, as well as the sabre, were covered with -blood, said, He was as weary as a hodman that had been beating plaster. - -'Baudin de la Chenaye was called; sixty years of virtues could not save -him. They said, "A l'Abbaye:" he passed the fatal outer-gate; gave a cry -of terror, at sight of the heaped corpses; covered his eyes with his hands, -and died of innumerable wounds. At every new opening of the grate, I -thought I should hear my own name called, and see Rossignol enter. - -'I flung off my nightgown and cap; I put on a coarse unwashed shirt, a worn -frock without waistcoat, an old round hat; these things I had sent for, -some days ago, in the fear of what might happen. - -'The rooms of this corridor had been all emptied but ours. We were four -together; whom they seemed to have forgotten: we addressed our prayers in -common to the Eternal to be delivered from this peril. - -'Baptiste the turnkey came up by himself, to see us. I took him by the -hands; I conjured him to save us; promised him a hundred louis, if he would -conduct me home. A noise coming from the grates made him hastily withdraw. - -'It was the noise of some dozen or fifteen men, armed to the teeth; as we, -lying flat to escape being seen, could see from our windows: "Up stairs!" -said they: "Let not one remain." I took out my penknife; I considered -where I should strike myself,'--but reflected 'that the blade was too -short,' and also 'on religion.' - -Finally, however, between seven and eight o'clock in the morning, enter -four men with bludgeons and sabres!--'to one of whom Gerard my comrade -whispered, earnestly, apart. During their colloquy I searched every where -for shoes, that I might lay off the Advocate pumps (pantoufles de Palais) I -had on,' but could find none.--'Constant, called le Sauvage, Gerard, and a -third whose name escapes me, they let clear off: as for me, four sabres -were crossed over my breast, and they led me down. I was brought to their -bar; to the Personage with the scarf, who sat as judge there. He was a -lame man, of tall lank stature. He recognised me on the streets, and spoke -to me seven months after. I have been assured that he was son of a retired -attorney, and named Chepy. Crossing the Court called Des Nourrices, I saw -Manuel haranguing in tricolor scarf.' The trial, as we see, ends in -acquittal and resurrection. (Maton de la Varenne, Ma Resurrection (in -Hist. Parl. xviii. 135-156).) - -Poor Sicard, from the violon of the Abbaye, shall say but a few words; -true-looking, though tremulous. Towards three in the morning, the killers -bethink them of this little violon; and knock from the court. 'I tapped -gently, trembling lest the murderers might hear, on the opposite door, -where the Section Committee was sitting: they answered gruffly that they -had no key. There were three of us in this violon; my companions thought -they perceived a kind of loft overhead. But it was very high; only one of -us could reach it, by mounting on the shoulders of both the others. One of -them said to me, that my life was usefuller than theirs: I resisted, they -insisted: no denial! I fling myself on the neck of these two deliverers; -never was scene more touching. I mount on the shoulders of the first, then -on those of the second, finally on the loft; and address to my two comrades -the expression of a soul overwhelmed with natural emotions. (Abbe Sicard: -Relation adressee a un de ses amis (Hist. Parl. xviii. 98-103).) - -The two generous companions, we rejoice to find, did not perish. But it is -time that Jourgniac de Saint-Meard should speak his last words, and end -this singular trilogy. The night had become day; and the day has again -become night. Jourgniac, worn down with uttermost agitation, has fallen -asleep, and had a cheering dream: he has also contrived to make -acquaintance with one of the volunteer bailiffs, and spoken in native -Provencal with him. On Tuesday, about one in the morning, his Agony is -reaching its crisis. - -'By the glare of two torches, I now descried the terrible tribunal, where -lay my life or my death. The President, in grey coats, with a sabre at his -side, stood leaning with his hands against a table, on which were papers, -an inkstand, tobacco-pipes and bottles. Some ten persons were around, -seated or standing; two of whom had jackets and aprons: others were -sleeping stretched on benches. Two men, in bloody shirts, guarded the door -of the place; an old turnkey had his hand on the lock. In front of the -President, three men held a Prisoner, who might be about sixty' (or -seventy: he was old Marshal Maille, of the Tuileries and August Tenth). -'They stationed me in a corner; my guards crossed their sabres on my -breast. I looked on all sides for my Provencal: two National Guards, one -of them drunk, presented some appeal from the Section of Croix Rouge in -favour of the Prisoner; the Man in Grey answered: "They are useless, these -appeals for traitors." Then the Prisoner exclaimed: "It is frightful; -your judgment is a murder." The President answered; "My hands are washed -of it; take M. Maille away." They drove him into the street; where, -through the opening of the door, I saw him massacred. - -'The President sat down to write; registering, I suppose, the name of this -one whom they had finished; then I heard him say: "Another, A un autre!" - -'Behold me then haled before this swift and bloody judgment-bar, where the -best protection was to have no protection, and all resources of ingenuity -became null if they were not founded on truth. Two of my guards held me -each by a hand, the third by the collar of my coat. "Your name, your -profession?" said the President. "The smallest lie ruins you," added one -of the judges,--"My name is Jourgniac Saint-Meard; I have served, as an -officer, twenty years: and I appear at your tribunal with the assurance of -an innocent man, who therefore will not lie."--"We shall see that," said -the President: "Do you know why you are arrested?"--"Yes, Monsieur le -President; I am accused of editing the Journal De la Cour et de la Ville. -But I hope to prove the falsity"'-- - -But no; Jourgniac's proof of the falsity, and defence generally, though of -excellent result as a defence, is not interesting to read. It is long- -winded; there is a loose theatricality in the reporting of it, which does -not amount to unveracity, yet which tends that way. We shall suppose him -successful, beyond hope, in proving and disproving; and skip largely,--to -the catastrophe, almost at two steps. - -'"But after all," said one of the Judges, "there is no smoke without -kindling; tell us why they accuse you of that."--"I was about to do so"'-- -Jourgniac does so; with more and more success. - -'"Nay," continued I, "they accuse me even of recruiting for the Emigrants!" -At these words there arose a general murmur. "O Messieurs, Messieurs," I -exclaimed, raising my voice, "it is my turn to speak; I beg M. le President -to have the kindness to maintain it for me; I never needed it more."--"True -enough, true enough," said almost all the judges with a laugh: "Silence!" - -'While they were examining the testimonials I had produced, a new Prisoner -was brought in, and placed before the President. "It was one Priest more," -they said, "whom they had ferreted out of the Chapelle." After very few -questions: "A la Force!" He flung his breviary on the table: was hurled -forth, and massacred. I reappeared before the tribunal. - -'"You tell us always," cried one of the judges, with a tone of impatience, -"that you are not this, that you are not that: what are you then?"--"I was -an open Royalist."--There arose a general murmur; which was miraculously -appeased by another of the men, who had seemed to take an interest in me: -"We are not here to judge opinions," said he, "but to judge the results of -them." Could Rousseau and Voltaire both in one, pleading for me, have said -better?--"Yes, Messieurs," cried I, "always till the Tenth of August, I was -an open Royalist. Ever since the Tenth of August that cause has been -finished. I am a Frenchman, true to my country. I was always a man of -honour. - -'"My soldiers never distrusted me. Nay, two days before that business of -Nanci, when their suspicion of their officers was at its height, they chose -me for commander, to lead them to Luneville, to get back the prisoners of -the Regiment Mestre-de-Camp, and seize General Malseigne."' Which fact -there is, most luckily, an individual present who by a certain token can -confirm. - -'The President, this cross-questioning being over, took off his hat and -said: "I see nothing to suspect in this man; I am for granting him his -liberty. Is that your vote?" To which all the judges answered: "Oui, -oui; it is just!"' - -And there arose vivats within doors and without; 'escort of three,' amid -shoutings and embracings: thus Jourgniac escaped from jury-trial and the -jaws of death. (Mon Agonie (ut supra), Hist. Parl. xviii. 128.) Maton and -Sicard did, either by trial, and no bill found, lank President Chepy -finding 'absolutely nothing;' or else by evasion, and new favour of Moton -the brave watchmaker, likewise escape; and were embraced, and wept over; -weeping in return, as they well might. - -Thus they three, in wondrous trilogy, or triple soliloquy; uttering -simultaneously, through the dread night-watches, their Night-thoughts,-- -grown audible to us! They Three are become audible: but the other -'Thousand and Eighty-nine, of whom Two Hundred and Two were Priests,' who -also had Night-thoughts, remain inaudible; choked for ever in black Death. -Heard only of President Chepy and the Man in Grey!-- - - - -Chapter 3.1.VI. - -The Circular. - -But the Constituted Authorities, all this while? The Legislative Assembly; -the Six Ministers; the Townhall; Santerre with the National Guard?--It is -very curious to think what a City is. Theatres, to the number of some -twenty-three, were open every night during these prodigies: while right- -arms here grew weary with slaying, right-arms there are twiddledeeing on -melodious catgut; at the very instant when Abbe Sicard was clambering up -his second pair of shoulders, three-men high, five hundred thousand human -individuals were lying horizontal, as if nothing were amiss. - -As for the poor Legislative, the sceptre had departed from it. The -Legislative did send Deputation to the Prisons, to the Street-Courts; and -poor M. Dusaulx did harangue there; but produced no conviction whatsoever: -nay, at last, as he continued haranguing, the Street-Court interposed, not -without threats; and he had to cease, and withdraw. This is the same poor -worthy old M. Dusaulx who told, or indeed almost sang (though with cracked -voice), the Taking of the Bastille,--to our satisfaction long since. He -was wont to announce himself, on such and on all occasions, as the -Translator of Juvenal. "Good Citizens, you see before you a man who loves -his country, who is the Translator of Juvenal," said he once.--"Juvenal?' -interrupts Sansculottism: "who the devil is Juvenal? One of your sacres -Aristocrates? To the Lanterne!" From an orator of this kind, conviction -was not to be expected. The Legislative had much ado to save one of its -own Members, or Ex-Members, Deputy Journeau, who chanced to be lying in -arrest for mere Parliamentary delinquencies, in these Prisons. As for poor -old Dusaulx and Company, they returned to the Salle de Manege, saying, "It -was dark; and they could not see well what was going on." (Moniteur, -Debate of 2nd September, 1792.) - -Roland writes indignant messages, in the name of Order, Humanity, and the -Law; but there is no Force at his disposal. Santerre's National Force -seems lazy to rise; though he made requisitions, he says,--which always -dispersed again. Nay did not we, with Advocate Maton's eyes, see 'men in -uniform,' too, with their 'sleeves bloody to the shoulder?' Petion goes in -tricolor scarf; speaks "the austere language of the law:" the killers give -up, while he is there; when his back is turned, recommence. Manuel too in -scarf we, with Maton's eyes, transiently saw haranguing, in the Court -called of Nurses, Cour des Nourrices. On the other hand, cruel Billaud, -likewise in scarf, 'with that small puce coat and black wig we are used to -on him,' (Mehee, Fils (ut supra, in Hist. Parl. xviii. p. 189).) audibly -delivers, 'standing among corpses,' at the Abbaye, a short but ever- -memorable harangue, reported in various phraseology, but always to this -purpose: "Brave Citizens, you are extirpating the Enemies of Liberty; you -are at your duty. A grateful Commune, and Country, would wish to -recompense you adequately; but cannot, for you know its want of funds. -Whoever shall have worked (travaille) in a Prison shall receive a draft of -one louis, payable by our cashier. Continue your work." (Montgaillard, -iii. 191.)--The Constituted Authorities are of yesterday; all pulling -different ways: there is properly not Constituted Authority, but every man -is his own King; and all are kinglets, belligerent, allied, or armed- -neutral, without king over them. - -'O everlasting infamy,' exclaims Montgaillard, 'that Paris stood looking on -in stupor for four days, and did not interfere!' Very desirable indeed -that Paris had interfered; yet not unnatural that it stood even so, looking -on in stupor. Paris is in death-panic, the enemy and gibbets at its door: -whosoever in Paris has the heart to front death finds it more pressing to -do it fighting the Prussians, than fighting the killers of Aristocrats. -Indignant abhorrence, as in Roland, may be here; gloomy sanction, -premeditation or not, as in Marat and Committee of Salvation, may be there; -dull disapproval, dull approval, and acquiescence in Necessity and Destiny, -is the general temper. The Sons of Darkness, 'two hundred or so,' risen -from their lurking-places, have scope to do their work. Urged on by fever- -frenzy of Patriotism, and the madness of Terror;--urged on by lucre, and -the gold louis of wages? Nay, not lucre: for the gold watches, rings, -money of the Massacred, are punctually brought to the Townhall, by Killers -sans-indispensables, who higgle afterwards for their twenty shillings of -wages; and Sergent sticking an uncommonly fine agate on his finger ('fully -meaning to account for it'), becomes Agate-Sergent. But the temper, as we -say, is dull acquiescence. Not till the Patriotic or Frenetic part of the -work is finished for want of material; and Sons of Darkness, bent clearly -on lucre alone, begin wrenching watches and purses, brooches from ladies' -necks 'to equip volunteers,' in daylight, on the streets,--does the temper -from dull grow vehement; does the Constable raise his truncheon, and -striking heartily (like a cattle-driver in earnest) beat the 'course of -things' back into its old regulated drove-roads. The Garde-Meuble itself -was surreptitiously plundered, on the 17th of the Month, to Roland's new -horror; who anew bestirs himself, and is, as Sieyes says, 'the veto of -scoundrels,' Roland veto des coquins. (Helen Maria Williams, iii. 27.)-- - -This is the September Massacre, otherwise called 'Severe Justice of the -People.' These are the Septemberers (Septembriseurs); a name of some note -and lucency,--but lucency of the Nether-fire sort; very different from that -of our Bastille Heroes, who shone, disputable by no Friend of Freedom, as -in heavenly light-radiance: to such phasis of the business have we -advanced since then! The numbers massacred are, in Historical fantasy, -'between two and three thousand;' or indeed they are 'upwards of six -thousand,' for Peltier (in vision) saw them massacring the very patients of -the Bicetre Madhouse 'with grape-shot;' nay finally they are 'twelve -thousand' and odd hundreds,--not more than that. (See Hist. Parl. xvii. -421, 422.) In Arithmetical ciphers, and Lists drawn up by accurate -Advocate Maton, the number, including two hundred and two priests, three -'persons unknown,' and 'one thief killed at the Bernardins,' is, as above -hinted, a Thousand and Eighty-nine,--no less than that. - -A thousand and eighty-nine lie dead, 'two hundred and sixty heaped -carcasses on the Pont au Change' itself;--among which, Robespierre pleading -afterwards will 'nearly weep' to reflect that there was said to be one -slain innocent. (Moniteur of 6th November (Debate of 5th November, 1793).) -One; not two, O thou seagreen Incorruptible? If so, Themis Sansculotte -must be lucky; for she was brief!--In the dim Registers of the Townhall, -which are preserved to this day, men read, with a certain sickness of -heart, items and entries not usual in Town Books: 'To workers employed in -preserving the salubrity of the air in the Prisons, and persons 'who -presided over these dangerous operations,' so much,--in various items, -nearly seven hundred pounds sterling. To carters employed to 'the Burying- -grounds of Clamart, Montrouge, and Vaugirard,' at so much a journey, per -cart; this also is an entry. Then so many francs and odd sous 'for the -necessary quantity of quick-lime!' (Etat des sommes payees par la Commune -de Paris (Hist. Parl. xviii. 231).) Carts go along the streets; full of -stript human corpses, thrown pellmell; limbs sticking up:--seest thou that -cold Hand sticking up, through the heaped embrace of brother corpses, in -its yellow paleness, in its cold rigour; the palm opened towards Heaven, as -if in dumb prayer, in expostulation de profundis, Take pity on the Sons of -Men!--Mercier saw it, as he walked down 'the Rue Saint-Jacques from -Montrouge, on the morrow of the Massacres:' but not a Hand; it was a -Foot,--which he reckons still more significant, one understands not well -why. Or was it as the Foot of one spurning Heaven? Rushing, like a wild -diver, in disgust and despair, towards the depths of Annihilation? Even -there shall His hand find thee, and His right-hand hold thee,--surely for -right not for wrong, for good not evil! 'I saw that Foot,' says Mercier; -'I shall know it again at the great Day of Judgment, when the Eternal, -throned on his thunders, shall judge both Kings and Septemberers.' -(Mercier, Nouveau Paris, vi. 21.) - -That a shriek of inarticulate horror rose over this thing, not only from -French Aristocrats and Moderates, but from all Europe, and has prolonged -itself to the present day, was most natural and right. The thing lay done, -irrevocable; a thing to be counted besides some other things, which lie -very black in our Earth's Annals, yet which will not erase therefrom. For -man, as was remarked, has transcendentalisms in him; standing, as he does, -poor creature, every way 'in the confluence of Infinitudes;' a mystery to -himself and others: in the centre of two Eternities, of three -Immensities,--in the intersection of primeval Light with the everlasting -dark! Thus have there been, especially by vehement tempers reduced to a -state of desperation, very miserable things done. Sicilian Vespers, and -'eight thousand slaughtered in two hours,' are a known thing. Kings -themselves, not in desperation, but only in difficulty, have sat hatching, -for year and day (nay De Thou says, for seven years), their Bartholomew -Business; and then, at the right moment, also on an Autumn Sunday, this -very Bell (they say it is the identical metal) of St. Germain l'Auxerrois -was set a-pealing--with effect. (9th to 13th September, 1572 (Dulaure, -Hist. de Paris, iv. 289.) Nay the same black boulder-stones of these Paris -Prisons have seen Prison-massacres before now; men massacring countrymen, -Burgundies massacring Armagnacs, whom they had suddenly imprisoned, till as -now there are piled heaps of carcasses, and the streets ran red;--the Mayor -Petion of the time speaking the austere language of the law, and answered -by the Killers, in old French (it is some four hundred years old): "Maugre -bieu, Sire,--Sir, God's malison on your justice, your pity, your right -reason. Cursed be of God whoso shall have pity on these false traitorous -Armagnacs, English; dogs they are; they have destroyed us, wasted this -realm of France, and sold it to the English." (Dulaure, iii. 494.) And so -they slay, and fling aside the slain, to the extent of 'fifteen hundred and -eighteen, among whom are found four Bishops of false and damnable counsel, -and two Presidents of Parlement.' For though it is not Satan's world this -that we live in, Satan always has his place in it (underground properly); -and from time to time bursts up. Well may mankind shriek, inarticulately -anathematising as they can. There are actions of such emphasis that no -shrieking can be too emphatic for them. Shriek ye; acted have they. - -Shriek who might in this France, in this Paris Legislative or Paris -Townhall, there are Ten Men who do not shriek. A Circular goes out from -the Committee of Salut Public, dated 3rd of September 1792; directed to all -Townhalls: a State-paper too remarkable to be overlooked. 'A part of the -ferocious conspirators detained in the Prisons,' it says, 'have been put to -death by the People; and it,' the Circular, 'cannot doubt but the whole -Nation, driven to the edge of ruin by such endless series of treasons, will -make haste to adopt this means of public salvation; and all Frenchmen will -cry as the men of Paris: We go to fight the enemy, but we will not leave -robbers behind us, to butcher our wives and children.' To which are -legibly appended these signatures: Panis, Sergent; Marat, Friend of the -People; (Hist. Parl. xvii. 433.) with Seven others;--carried down thereby, -in a strange way, to the late remembrance of Antiquarians. We remark, -however, that their Circular rather recoiled on themselves. The Townhalls -made no use of it; even the distracted Sansculottes made little; they only -howled and bellowed, but did not bite. At Rheims 'about eight persons' -were killed; and two afterwards were hanged for doing it. At Lyons, and a -few other places, some attempt was made; but with hardly any effect, being -quickly put down. - -Less fortunate were the Prisoners of Orleans; was the good Duke de la -Rochefoucault. He journeying, by quick stages, with his Mother and Wife, -towards the Waters of Forges, or some quieter country, was arrested at -Gisors; conducted along the streets, amid effervescing multitudes, and -killed dead 'by the stroke of a paving-stone hurled through the coach- -window.' Killed as a once Liberal now Aristocrat; Protector of Priests, -Suspender of virtuous Petions, and his unfortunate Hot-grown-cold, -detestable to Patriotism. He dies lamented of Europe; his blood spattering -the cheeks of his old Mother, ninety-three years old. - -As for the Orleans Prisoners, they are State Criminals: Royalist -Ministers, Delessarts, Montmorins; who have been accumulating on the High -Court of Orleans, ever since that Tribunal was set up. Whom now it seems -good that we should get transferred to our new Paris Court of the -Seventeenth; which proceeds far quicker. Accordingly hot Fournier from -Martinique, Fournier l'Americain, is off, missioned by Constituted -Authority; with stanch National Guards, with Lazouski the Pole; sparingly -provided with road-money. These, through bad quarters, through -difficulties, perils, for Authorities cross each other in this time,--do -triumphantly bring off the Fifty or Fifty-three Orleans Prisoners, towards -Paris; where a swifter Court of the Seventeenth will do justice on them. -(Ibid. xvii. 434.) But lo, at Paris, in the interim, a still swifter and -swiftest Court of the Second, and of September, has instituted itself: -enter not Paris, or that will judge you!--What shall hot Fournier do? It -was his duty, as volunteer Constable, had he been a perfect character, to -guard those men's lives never so Aristocratic, at the expense of his own -valuable life never so Sansculottic, till some Constituted Court had -disposed of them. But he was an imperfect character and Constable; perhaps -one of the more imperfect. - -Hot Fournier, ordered to turn thither by one Authority, to turn thither by -another Authority, is in a perplexing multiplicity of orders; but finally -he strikes off for Versailles. His Prisoners fare in tumbrils, or open -carts, himself and Guards riding and marching around: and at the last -village, the worthy Mayor of Versailles comes to meet him, anxious that the -arrival and locking up were well over. It is Sunday, the ninth day of the -month. Lo, on entering the Avenue of Versailles, what multitudes, -stirring, swarming in the September sun, under the dull-green September -foliage; the Four-rowed Avenue all humming and swarming, as if the Town had -emptied itself! Our tumbrils roll heavily through the living sea; the -Guards and Fournier making way with ever more difficulty; the Mayor -speaking and gesturing his persuasivest; amid the inarticulate growling -hum, which growls ever the deeper even by hearing itself growl, not without -sharp yelpings here and there:--Would to God we were out of this strait -place, and wind and separation had cooled the heat, which seems about -igniting here! - -And yet if the wide Avenue is too strait, what will the Street de -Surintendance be, at leaving of the same? At the corner of Surintendance -Street, the compressed yelpings became a continuous yell: savage figures -spring on the tumbril-shafts; first spray of an endless coming tide! The -Mayor pleads, pushes, half-desperate; is pushed, carried off in men's arms: -the savage tide has entrance, has mastery. Amid horrid noise, and tumult -as of fierce wolves, the Prisoners sink massacred,--all but some eleven, -who escaped into houses, and found mercy. The Prisons, and what other -Prisoners they held, were with difficulty saved. The stript clothes are -burnt in bonfire; the corpses lie heaped in the ditch on the morrow -morning. (Pieces officielles relatives au massacre des Prisonniers a -Versailles (in Hist. Parl. xviii. 236-249).) All France, except it be the -Ten Men of the Circular and their people, moans and rages, inarticulately -shrieking; all Europe rings. - -But neither did Danton shriek; though, as Minister of Justice, it was more -his part to do so. Brawny Danton is in the breach, as of stormed Cities -and Nations; amid the Sweep of Tenth-of-August cannon, the rustle of -Prussian gallows-ropes, the smiting of September sabres; destruction all -round him, and the rushing-down of worlds: Minister of Justice is his -name; but Titan of the Forlorn Hope, and Enfant Perdu of the Revolution, is -his quality,--and the man acts according to that. "We must put our enemies -in fear!" Deep fear, is it not, as of its own accord, falling on our -enemies? The Titan of the Forlorn Hope, he is not the man that would -swiftest of all prevent its so falling. Forward, thou lost Titan of an -Enfant Perdu; thou must dare, and again dare, and without end dare; there -is nothing left for thee but that! "Que mon nom soit fletri, Let my name -be blighted:" what am I? The Cause alone is great; and shall live, and -not perish.--So, on the whole, here too is a swallower of Formulas; of -still wider gulp than Mirabeau: this Danton, Mirabeau of the Sansculottes. -In the September days, this Minister was not heard of as co-operating with -strict Roland; his business might lie elsewhere,--with Brunswick and the -Hotel-de-Ville. When applied to by an official person, about the Orleans -Prisoners, and the risks they ran, he answered gloomily, twice over, "Are -not these men guilty?"--When pressed, he 'answered in a terrible voice,' -and turned his back. (Biographie des Ministres, p. 97.) Two Thousand -slain in the Prisons; horrible if you will: but Brunswick is within a -day's journey of us; and there are Five-and twenty Millions yet, to slay or -to save. Some men have tasks,--frightfuller than ours! It seems strange, -but is not strange, that this Minister of Moloch-Justice, when any -suppliant for a friend's life got access to him, was found to have human -compassion; and yielded and granted 'always;' 'neither did one personal -enemy of Danton perish in these days.' (Ibid. p. 103.) - -To shriek, we say, when certain things are acted, is proper and -unavoidable. Nevertheless, articulate speech, not shrieking, is the -faculty of man: when speech is not yet possible, let there be, with the -shortest delay, at least--silence. Silence, accordingly, in this forty- -fourth year of the business, and eighteen hundred and thirty-sixth of an -'Era called Christian as lucus a non,' is the thing we recommend and -practise. Nay, instead of shrieking more, it were perhaps edifying to -remark, on the other side, what a singular thing Customs (in Latin, Mores) -are; and how fitly the Virtue, Vir-tus, Manhood or Worth, that is in a man, -is called his Morality, or Customariness. Fell Slaughter, one the most -authentic products of the Pit you would say, once give it Customs, becomes -War, with Laws of War; and is Customary and Moral enough; and red -individuals carry the tools of it girt round their haunches, not without an -air of pride,--which do thou nowise blame. While, see! so long as it is -but dressed in hodden or russet; and Revolution, less frequent than War, -has not yet got its Laws of Revolution, but the hodden or russet -individuals are Uncustomary--O shrieking beloved brother blockheads of -Mankind, let us close those wide mouths of ours; let us cease shrieking, -and begin considering! - - - -Chapter 3.1.VII. - -September in Argonne. - -Plain, at any rate, is one thing: that the fear, whatever of fear those -Aristocrat enemies might need, has been brought about. The matter is -getting serious then! Sansculottism too has become a Fact, and seems -minded to assert itself as such? This huge mooncalf of Sansculottism, -staggering about, as young calves do, is not mockable only, and soft like -another calf; but terrible too, if you prick it; and, through its hideous -nostrils, blows fire!--Aristocrats, with pale panic in their hearts, fly -towards covert; and a light rises to them over several things; or rather a -confused transition towards light, whereby for the moment darkness is only -darker than ever. But, What will become of this France? Here is a -question! France is dancing its desert-waltz, as Sahara does when the -winds waken; in whirlblasts twenty-five millions in number; waltzing -towards Townhalls, Aristocrat Prisons, and Election Committee-rooms; -towards Brunswick and the Frontiers;--towards a New Chapter of Universal -History; if indeed it be not the Finis, and winding-up of that! - -In Election Committee-rooms there is now no dubiety; but the work goes -bravely along. The Convention is getting chosen,--really in a decisive -spirit; in the Townhall we already date First year of the Republic. Some -Two hundred of our best Legislators may be re-elected, the Mountain bodily: -Robespierre, with Mayor Petion, Buzot, Curate Gregoire, Rabaut, some three -score Old-Constituents; though we once had only 'thirty voices.' All -these; and along with them, friends long known to Revolutionary fame: -Camille Desmoulins, though he stutters in speech; Manuel, Tallien and -Company; Journalists Gorsas, Carra, Mercier, Louvet of Faublas; Clootz -Speaker of Mankind; Collot d'Herbois, tearing a passion to rags; Fabre -d'Eglantine, speculative Pamphleteer; Legendre the solid Butcher; nay -Marat, though rural France can hardly believe it, or even believe that -there is a Marat except in print. Of Minister Danton, who will lay down -his Ministry for a Membership, we need not speak. Paris is fervent; nor is -the Country wanting to itself. Barbaroux, Rebecqui, and fervid Patriots -are coming from Marseilles. Seven hundred and forty-five men (or indeed -forty-nine, for Avignon now sends Four) are gathering: so many are to -meet; not so many are to part! - -Attorney Carrier from Aurillac, Ex-Priest Lebon from Arras, these shall -both gain a name. Mountainous Auvergne re-elects her Romme: hardy tiller -of the soil, once Mathematical Professor; who, unconscious, carries in -petto a remarkable New Calendar, with Messidors, Pluvioses, and such like;- --and having given it well forth, shall depart by the death they call Roman. -Sieyes old-Constituent comes; to make new Constitutions as many as wanted: -for the rest, peering out of his clear cautious eyes, he will cower low in -many an emergency, and find silence safest. Young Saint-Just is coming, -deputed by Aisne in the North; more like a Student than a Senator: not -four-and-twenty yet; who has written Books; a youth of slight stature, with -mild mellow voice, enthusiast olive-complexion, and long dark hair. -Feraud, from the far valley D'Aure in the folds of the Pyrenees, is coming; -an ardent Republican; doomed to fame, at least in death. - -All manner of Patriot men are coming: Teachers, Husbandmen, Priests and -Ex-Priests, Traders, Doctors; above all, Talkers, or the Attorney-species. -Man-midwives, as Levasseur of the Sarthe, are not wanting. Nor Artists: -gross David, with the swoln cheek, has long painted, with genius in a state -of convulsion; and will now legislate. The swoln cheek, choking his words -in the birth, totally disqualifies him as orator; but his pencil, his head, -his gross hot heart, with genius in a state of convulsion, will be there. -A man bodily and mentally swoln-cheeked, disproportionate; flabby-large, -instead of great; weak withal as in a state of convulsion, not strong in a -state of composure: so let him play his part. Nor are naturalised -Benefactors of the Species forgotten: Priestley, elected by the Orne -Department, but declining: Paine the rebellious Needleman, by the Pas de -Calais, who accepts. - -Few Nobles come, and yet not none. Paul Francois Barras, 'noble as the -Barrases, old as the rocks of Provence;' he is one. The reckless, -shipwrecked man: flung ashore on the coast of the Maldives long ago, while -sailing and soldiering as Indian Fighter; flung ashore since then, as -hungry Parisian Pleasure-hunter and Half-pay, on many a Circe Island, with -temporary enchantment, temporary conversion into beasthood and hoghood;-- -the remote Var Department has now sent him hither. A man of heat and -haste; defective in utterance; defective indeed in any thing to utter; yet -not without a certain rapidity of glance, a certain swift transient -courage; who, in these times, Fortune favouring, may go far. He is tall, -handsome to the eye, 'only the complexion a little yellow;' but 'with a -robe of purple with a scarlet cloak and plume of tricolor, on occasions of -solemnity,' the man will look well. (Dictionnaire des Hommes Marquans, -para Barras.) Lepelletier Saint-Fargeau, Old-Constituent, is a kind of -noble, and of enormous wealth; he too has come hither:--to have the Pain of -Death abolished? Hapless Ex-Parlementeer! Nay, among our Sixty Old- -Constituents, see Philippe d'Orleans a Prince of the Blood! Not now -d'Orleans: for, Feudalism being swept from the world, he demands of his -worthy friends the Electors of Paris, to have a new name of their choosing; -whereupon Procureur Manuel, like an antithetic literary man, recommends -Equality, Egalite. A Philippe Egalite therefore will sit; seen of the -Earth and Heaven. - -Such a Convention is gathering itself together. Mere angry poultry in -moulting season; whom Brunswick's grenadiers and cannoneers will give short -account of. Would the weather only mend a little! (Bertrand-Moleville, -Memoires, ii. 225.) - -In vain, O Bertrand! The weather will not mend a whit:--nay even if it -did? Dumouriez Polymetis, though Bertrand knows it not, started from brief -slumber at Sedan, on that morning of the 29th of August; with stealthiness, -with promptitude, audacity. Some three mornings after that, Brunswick, -opening wide eyes, perceives the Passes of the Argonne all seized; blocked -with felled trees, fortified with camps; and that it is a most shifty swift -Dumouriez this, who has outwitted him! - -The manoeuvre may cost Brunswick 'a loss of three weeks,' very fatal in -these circumstances. A Mountain-wall of forty miles lying between him and -Paris: which he should have preoccupied;--which how now to get possession -of? Also the rain it raineth every day; and we are in a hungry Champagne -Pouilleuse, a land flowing only with ditch-water. How to cross this -Mountain-wall of the Argonne; or what in the world to do with it?--there -are marchings and wet splashings by steep paths, with sackerments and -guttural interjections; forcings of Argonne Passes,--which unhappily will -not force. Through the woods, volleying War reverberates, like huge gong- -music, or Moloch's kettledrum, borne by the echoes; swoln torrents boil -angrily round the foot of rocks, floating pale carcasses of men. In vain! -Islettes Village, with its church-steeple, rises intact in the Mountain- -pass, between the embosoming heights; your forced marchings and climbings -have become forced slidings, and tumblings back. From the hill-tops thou -seest nothing but dumb crags, and endless wet moaning woods; the Clermont -Vache (huge Cow that she is) disclosing herself (See Helen Maria Williams. -Letters, iii. 79-81.) at intervals; flinging off her cloud-blanket, and -soon taking it on again, drowned in the pouring Heaven. The Argonne Passes -will not force: by must skirt the Argonne; go round by the end of it. - -But fancy whether the Emigrant Seigneurs have not got their brilliancy -dulled a little; whether that 'Foot Regiment in red-facings with nankeen -trousers' could be in field-day order! In place of gasconading, a sort of -desperation, and hydrophobia from excess of water, is threatening to -supervene. Young Prince de Ligne, son of that brave literary De Ligne the -Thundergod of Dandies, fell backwards; shot dead in Grand-Pre, the -Northmost of the Passes: Brunswick is skirting and rounding, laboriously, -by the extremity of the South. Four days; days of a rain as of Noah,-- -without fire, without food! For fire you cut down green trees, and produce -smoke; for food you eat green grapes, and produce colic, pestilential -dysentery, (Greek). And the Peasants assassinate us, they do not join us; -shrill women cry shame on us, threaten to draw their very scissors on us! -O ye hapless dulled-bright Seigneurs, and hydrophobic splashed Nankeens;-- -but O, ten times more, ye poor sackerment-ing ghastly-visaged Hessians and -Hulans, fallen on your backs; who had no call to die there, except -compulsion and three-halfpence a-day! Nor has Mrs. Le Blanc of the Golden -Arm a good time of it, in her bower of dripping rushes. Assassinating -Peasants are hanged; Old-Constituent Honourable members, though of -venerable age, ride in carts with their hands tied; these are the woes of -war. - -Thus they; sprawling and wriggling, far and wide, on the slopes and passes -of the Argonne;--a loss to Brunswick of five-and-twenty disastrous days. -There is wriggling and struggling; facing, backing, and right-about facing; -as the positions shift, and the Argonne gets partly rounded, partly -forced:--but still Dumouriez, force him, round him as you will, sticks like -a rooted fixture on the ground; fixture with many hinges; wheeling now this -way, now that; shewing always new front, in the most unexpected manner: -nowise consenting to take himself away. Recruits stream up on him: full -of heart; yet rather difficult to deal with. Behind Grand-Pre, for -example, Grand-Pre which is on the wrong-side of the Argonne, for we are -now forced and rounded,--the full heart, in one of those wheelings and -shewings of new front, did as it were overset itself, as full hearts are -liable to do; and there rose a shriek of sauve qui peut, and a death-panic -which had nigh ruined all! So that the General had to come galloping; and, -with thunder-words, with gesture, stroke of drawn sword even, check and -rally, and bring back the sense of shame; (Dumouriez, Memoires, iii. 29.)-- -nay to seize the first shriekers and ringleaders; 'shave their heads and -eyebrows,' and pack them forth into the world as a sign. Thus too (for -really the rations are short, and wet camping with hungry stomach brings -bad humour) there is like to be mutiny. Whereupon again Dumouriez 'arrives -at the head of their line, with his staff, and an escort of a hundred -huzzars. He had placed some squadrons behind them, the artillery in front; -he said to them: "As for you, for I will neither call you citizens, nor -soldiers, nor my men (ni mes enfans), you see before you this artillery, -behind you this cavalry. You have dishonoured yourselves by crimes. If -you amend, and grow to behave like this brave Army which you have the -honour of belonging to, you will find in me a good father. But plunderers -and assassins I do not suffer here. At the smallest mutiny I will have you -shivered in pieces (hacher en pieces). Seek out the scoundrels that are -among you, and dismiss them yourselves; I hold you responsible for them."' -(Ibid., Memoires iii. 55.) - -Patience, O Dumouriez! This uncertain heap of shriekers, mutineers, were -they once drilled and inured, will become a phalanxed mass of Fighters; and -wheel and whirl, to order, swiftly like the wind or the whirlwind: tanned -mustachio-figures; often barefoot, even bare-backed; with sinews of iron; -who require only bread and gunpowder: very Sons of Fire, the adroitest, -hastiest, hottest ever seen perhaps since Attila's time. They may conquer -and overrun amazingly, much as that same Attila did;--whose Attila's-Camp -and Battlefield thou now seest, on this very ground; (Helen Maria Williams, -iii. 32.) who, after sweeping bare the world, was, with difficulty, and -days of tough fighting, checked here by Roman Aetius and Fortune; and his -dust-cloud made to vanish in the East again!-- - -Strangely enough, in this shrieking Confusion of a Soldiery, which we saw -long since fallen all suicidally out of square in suicidal collision,--at -Nanci, or on the streets of Metz, where brave Bouille stood with drawn -sword; and which has collided and ground itself to pieces worse and worse -ever since, down now to such a state: in this shrieking Confusion, and not -elsewhere, lies the first germ of returning Order for France! Round which, -we say, poor France nearly all ground down suicidally likewise into rubbish -and Chaos, will be glad to rally; to begin growing, and new-shaping her -inorganic dust: very slowly, through centuries, through Napoleons, Louis -Philippes, and other the like media and phases,--into a new, infinitely -preferable France, we can hope!-- - -These wheelings and movements in the region of the Argonne, which are all -faithfully described by Dumouriez himself, and more interesting to us than -Hoyle's or Philidor's best Game of Chess, let us, nevertheless, O Reader, -entirely omit;--and hasten to remark two things: the first a minute -private, the second a large public thing. Our minute private thing is: -the presence, in the Prussian host, in that war-game of the Argonne, of a -certain Man, belonging to the sort called Immortal; who, in days since -then, is becoming visible more and more, in that character, as the -Transitory more and more vanishes; for from of old it was remarked that -when the Gods appear among men, it is seldom in recognisable shape; thus -Admetus' neatherds give Apollo a draught of their goatskin whey-bottle -(well if they do not give him strokes with their ox-rungs), not dreaming -that he is the Sungod! This man's name is Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. He -is Herzog Weimar's Minister, come with the small contingent of Weimar; to -do insignificant unmilitary duty here; very irrecognizable to nearly all! -He stands at present, with drawn bridle, on the height near Saint- -Menehould, making an experiment on the 'cannon-fever;' having ridden -thither against persuasion, into the dance and firing of the cannon-balls, -with a scientific desire to understand what that same cannon-fever may be: -'The sound of them,' says he, 'is curious enough; as if it were compounded -of the humming of tops, the gurgling of water and the whistle of birds. By -degrees you get a very uncommon sensation; which can only be described by -similitude. It seems as if you were in some place extremely hot, and at -the same time were completely penetrated by the heat of it; so that you -feel as if you and this element you are in were perfectly on a par. The -eyesight loses nothing of its strength or distinctness; and yet it is as if -all things had got a kind of brown-red colour, which makes the situation -and the objects still more impressive on you.' (Goethe, Campagne in -Frankreich (Werke, xxx. 73.) - -This is the cannon-fever, as a World-Poet feels it.--A man entirely -irrecognisable! In whose irrecognisable head, meanwhile, there verily is -the spiritual counterpart (and call it complement) of this same huge Death- -Birth of the World; which now effectuates itself, outwardly in the Argonne, -in such cannon-thunder; inwardly, in the irrecognisable head, quite -otherwise than by thunder! Mark that man, O Reader, as the memorablest of -all the memorable in this Argonne Campaign. What we say of him is not -dream, nor flourish of rhetoric; but scientific historic fact; as many men, -now at this distance, see or begin to see. - -But the large public thing we had to remark is this: That the Twentieth of -September, 1792, was a raw morning covered with mist; that from three in -the morning Sainte-Menehould, and those Villages and homesteads we know of -old were stirred by the rumble of artillery-wagons, by the clatter of -hoofs, and many footed tramp of men: all manner of military, Patriot and -Prussian, taking up positions, on the Heights of La Lune and other Heights; -shifting and shoving,--seemingly in some dread chess-game; which may the -Heavens turn to good! The Miller of Valmy has fled dusty under ground; his -Mill, were it never so windy, will have rest to-day. At seven in the -morning the mist clears off: see Kellermann, Dumouriez' second in command, -with 'eighteen pieces of cannon,' and deep-serried ranks, drawn up round -that same silent Windmill, on his knoll of strength; Brunswick, also, with -serried ranks and cannon, glooming over to him from the height of La Lune; -only the little brook and its little dell now parting them. - -So that the much-longed-for has come at last! Instead of hunger and -dysentery, we shall have sharp shot; and then!--Dumouriez, with force and -firm front, looks on from a neighbouring height; can help only with his -wishes, in silence. Lo, the eighteen pieces do bluster and bark, -responsive to the bluster of La Lune; and thunder-clouds mount into the -air; and echoes roar through all dells, far into the depths of Argonne Wood -(deserted now); and limbs and lives of men fly dissipated, this way and -that. Can Brunswick make an impression on them? The dull-bright Seigneurs -stand biting their thumbs: these Sansculottes seem not to fly like -poultry! Towards noontide a cannon-shot blows Kellermann's horse from -under him; there bursts a powder-cart high into the air, with knell heard -over all: some swagging and swaying observable;--Brunswick will try! -"Camarades," cries Kellermann, "Vive la Patria! Allons vaincre pour elle, -Let us conquer." "Live the Fatherland!" rings responsive, to the welkin, -like rolling-fire from side to side: our ranks are as firm as rocks; and -Brunswick may recross the dell, ineffectual; regain his old position on La -Lune; not unbattered by the way. And so, for the length of a September -day,--with bluster and bark; with bellow far echoing! The cannonade lasts -till sunset; and no impression made. Till an hour after sunset, the few -remaining Clocks of the District striking Seven; at this late time of day -Brunswick tries again. With not a whit better fortune! He is met by rock- -ranks, by shouts of Vive la Patrie; and driven back, not unbattered. -Whereupon he ceases; retires 'to the Tavern of La Lune;' and sets to -raising a redoute lest he be attacked! - -Verily so: ye dulled-bright Seigneurs, make of it what ye may. Ah, and -France does not rise round us in mass; and the Peasants do not join us, but -assassinate us: neither hanging nor any persuasion will induce them! They -have lost their old distinguishing love of King, and King's-cloak,--I fear, -altogether; and will even fight to be rid of it: that seems now their -humour. Nor does Austria prosper, nor the siege of Thionville. The -Thionvillers, carrying their insolence to the epigrammatic pitch, have put -a Wooden Horse on their walls, with a bundle of hay hung from him, and this -Inscription: 'When I finish my hay, you will take Thionville.' (Hist. -Parl. xix. 177.) To such height has the frenzy of mankind risen. - -The trenches of Thionville may shut: and what though those of Lille open? -The Earth smiles not on us, nor the Heaven; but weeps and blears itself, in -sour rain, and worse. Our very friends insult us; we are wounded in the -house of our friends: "His Majesty of Prussia had a greatcoat, when the -rain came; and (contrary to all known laws) he put it on, though our two -French Princes, the hope of their country, had none!" To which indeed, as -Goethe admits, what answer could be made? (Goethe, xxx. 49.)--Cold and -Hunger and Affront, Colic and Dysentery and Death; and we here, cowering -redouted, most unredoubtable, amid the 'tattered corn-shocks and deformed -stubble,' on the splashy Height of La Lune, round the mean Tavern de La -Lune!-- - -This is the Cannonade of Valmy; wherein the World-Poet experimented on the -cannon-fever; wherein the French Sansculottes did not fly like poultry. -Precious to France! Every soldier did his duty, and Alsatian Kellermann -(how preferable to old Luckner the dismissed!) began to become greater; and -Egalite Fils, Equality Junior, a light gallant Field-Officer, distinguished -himself by intrepidity:--it is the same intrepid individual who now, as -Louis-Philippe, without the Equality, struggles, under sad circumstances, -to be called King of the French for a season. - - - -Chapter 3.1.VIII. - -Exeunt. - -But this Twentieth of September is otherwise a great day. For, observe, -while Kellermann's horse was flying blown from under him at the Mill of -Valmy, our new National Deputies, that shall be a NATIONAL CONVENTION, are -hovering and gathering about the Hall of the Hundred Swiss; with intent to -constitute themselves! - -On the morrow, about noontide, Camus the Archivist is busy 'verifying their -powers;' several hundreds of them already here. Whereupon the Old -Legislative comes solemnly over, to merge its old ashes Phoenix-like in the -body of the new;--and so forthwith, returning all solemnly back to the -Salle de Manege, there sits a National Convention, Seven Hundred and Forty- -nine complete, or complete enough; presided by Petion;--which proceeds -directly to do business. Read that reported afternoon's-debate, O Reader; -there are few debates like it: dull reporting Moniteur itself becomes more -dramatic than a very Shakespeare. For epigrammatic Manuel rises, speaks -strange things; how the President shall have a guard of honour, and lodge -in the Tuileries:--rejected. And Danton rises and speaks; and Collot -d'Herbois rises, and Curate Gregoire, and lame Couthon of the Mountain -rises; and in rapid Meliboean stanzas, only a few lines each, they propose -motions not a few: That the corner-stone of our new Constitution is -Sovereignty of the People; that our Constitution shall be accepted by the -People or be null; further that the People ought to be avenged, and have -right Judges; that the Imposts must continue till new order; that Landed -and other Property be sacred forever; finally that 'Royalty from this day -is abolished in France:'--Decreed all, before four o'clock strike, with -acclamation of the world! (Hist. Parl. xix. 19.) The tree was all so -ripe; only shake it and there fall such yellow cart-loads. - -And so over in the Valmy Region, as soon as the news come, what stir is -this, audible, visible from our muddy heights of La Lune? (Williams, iii. -71.) Universal shouting of the French on their opposite hillside; caps -raised on bayonets; and a sound as of Republique; Vive la Republique borne -dubious on the winds!--On the morrow morning, so to speak, Brunswick slings -his knapsacks before day, lights any fires he has; and marches without tap -of drum. Dumouriez finds ghastly symptoms in that camp; 'latrines full of -blood!' (1st October, 1792; Dumouriez, iii. 73.) The chivalrous King of -Prussia, for he as we saw is here in person, may long rue the day; may look -colder than ever on these dulled-bright Seigneurs, and French Princes their -Country's hope;--and, on the whole, put on his great-coat without ceremony, -happy that he has one. They retire, all retire with convenient despatch, -through a Champagne trodden into a quagmire, the wild weather pouring on -them; Dumouriez through his Kellermanns and Dillons pricking them a little -in the hinder parts. A little, not much; now pricking, now negotiating: -for Brunswick has his eyes opened; and the Majesty of Prussia is a -repentant Majesty. - -Nor has Austria prospered, nor the Wooden Horse of Thionville bitten his -hay; nor Lille City surrendered itself. The Lille trenches opened, on the -29th of the month; with balls and shells, and redhot balls; as if not -trenches but Vesuvius and the Pit had opened. It was frightful, say all -eye-witnesses; but it is ineffectual. The Lillers have risen to such -temper; especially after these news from Argonne and the East. Not a Sans- -indispensables in Lille that would surrender for a King's ransom. Redhot -balls rain, day and night; 'six-thousand,' or so, and bombs 'filled -internally with oil of turpentine which splashes up in flame;'--mainly on -the dwellings of the Sansculottes and Poor; the streets of the Rich being -spared. But the Sansculottes get water-pails; form quenching-regulations, -"The ball is in Peter's house!" "The ball is in John's!" They divide -their lodging and substance with each other; shout Vive la Republique; and -faint not in heart. A ball thunders through the main chamber of the Hotel- -de-Ville, while the Commune is there assembled: "We are in permanence," -says one, coldly, proceeding with his business; and the ball remains -permanent too, sticking in the wall, probably to this day. (Bombardement -de Lille (in Hist. Parl. xx. 63-71).) - -The Austrian Archduchess (Queen's Sister) will herself see red artillery -fired; in their over-haste to satisfy an Archduchess 'two mortars explode -and kill thirty persons.' It is in vain; Lille, often burning, is always -quenched again; Lille will not yield. The very boys deftly wrench the -matches out of fallen bombs: 'a man clutches a rolling ball with his hat, -which takes fire; when cool, they crown it with a bonnet rouge.' Memorable -also be that nimble Barber, who when the bomb burst beside him, snatched up -a shred of it, introduced soap and lather into it, crying, "Voila mon plat -a barbe, My new shaving-dish!" and shaved 'fourteen people' on the spot. -Bravo, thou nimble Shaver; worthy to shave old spectral Redcloak, and find -treasures!--On the eighth day of this desperate siege, the sixth day of -October, Austria finding it fruitless, draws off, with no pleasurable -consciousness; rapidly, Dumouriez tending thitherward; and Lille too, black -with ashes and smoulder, but jubilant skyhigh, flings its gates open. The -Plat a barbe became fashionable; 'no Patriot of an elegant turn,' says -Mercier several years afterwards, 'but shaves himself out of the splinter -of a Lille bomb.' - -Quid multa, Why many words? The Invaders are in flight; Brunswick's Host, -the third part of it gone to death, staggers disastrous along the deep -highways of Champagne; spreading out also into 'the fields, of a tough -spongy red-coloured clay;--like Pharaoh through a Red Sea of mud,' says -Goethe; 'for he also lay broken chariots, and riders and foot seemed -sinking around.' (Campagne in Frankreich, p. 103.) On the eleventh -morning of October, the World-Poet, struggling Northwards out of Verdun, -which he had entered Southwards, some five weeks ago, in quite other order, -discerned the following Phenomenon and formed part of it: - -'Towards three in the morning, without having had any sleep, we were about -mounting our carriage, drawn up at the door; when an insuperable obstacle -disclosed itself: for there rolled on already, between the pavement-stones -which were crushed up into a ridge on each side, an uninterrupted column of -sick-wagons through the Town, and all was trodden as into a morass. While -we stood waiting what could be made of it, our Landlord the Knight of -Saint-Louis pressed past us, without salutation.' He had been a Calonne's -Notable in 1787, an Emigrant since; had returned to his home, jubilant, -with the Prussians; but must now forth again into the wide world, 'followed -by a servant carrying a little bundle on his stick. - -'The activity of our alert Lisieux shone eminent; and, on this occasion -too, brought us on: for he struck into a small gap of the wagon-row; and -held the advancing team back till we, with our six and our four horses, got -intercalated; after which, in my light little coachlet, I could breathe -freer. We were now under way; at a funeral pace, but still under way. The -day broke; we found ourselves at the outlet of the Town, in a tumult and -turmoil without measure. All sorts of vehicles, few horsemen, innumerable -foot-people, were crossing each other on the great esplanade before the -Gate. We turned to the right, with our Column, towards Estain, on a -limited highway, with ditches at each side. Self-preservation, in so -monstrous a press, knew now no pity, no respect of aught. Not far before -us there fell down a horse of an ammunition-wagon: they cut the traces, -and let it lie. And now as the three others could not bring their load -along, they cut them also loose, tumbled the heavy-packed vehicle into the -ditch; and, with the smallest retardation, we had to drive on, right over -the horse, which was just about to rise; and I saw too clearly how its -legs, under the wheels, went crashing and quivering. - -'Horse and foot endeavoured to escape from the narrow laborious highway -into the meadows: but these too were rained to ruin; overflowed by full -ditches, the connexion of the footpaths every where interrupted. Four -gentlemanlike, handsome, well-dressed French soldiers waded for a time -beside our carriage; wonderfully clean and neat: and had such art of -picking their steps, that their foot-gear testified no higher than the -ancle to the muddy pilgrimage these good people found themselves engaged -in. - -'That under such circumstances one saw, in ditches, in meadows, in fields -and crofts, dead horses enough, was natural to the case: by and by, -however, you found them also flayed, the fleshy parts even cut away; sad -token of the universal distress. - -'Thus we fared on; every moment in danger, at the smallest stoppage on our -own part, of being ourselves tumbled overboard; under which circumstances, -truly, the careful dexterity of our Lisieux could not be sufficiently -praised. The same talent shewed itself at Estain; where we arrived towards -noon; and descried, over the beautiful well-built little Town, through -streets and on squares, around and beside us, one sense-confusing tumult: -the mass rolled this way and that; and, all struggling forward, each -hindered the other. Unexpectedly our carriage drew up before a stately -house in the market-place; master and mistress of the mansion saluted us in -reverent distance.' Dexterous Lisieux, though we knew it not, had said we -were the King of Prussia's Brother! - -'But now, from the ground-floor windows, looking over the whole market- -place, we had the endless tumult lying, as it were, palpable. All sorts of -walkers, soldiers in uniform, marauders, stout but sorrowing citizens and -peasants, women and children, crushed and jostled each other, amid vehicles -of all forms: ammunition-wagons, baggage-wagons; carriages, single, -double, and multiplex; such hundredfold miscellany of teams, requisitioned -or lawfully owned, making way, hitting together, hindering each other, -rolled here to right and to left. Horned-cattle too were struggling on; -probably herds that had been put in requisition. Riders you saw few; but -the elegant carriages of the Emigrants, many-coloured, lackered, gilt and -silvered, evidently by the best builders, caught your eye. (See Hermann -and Dorothea (also by Goethe), Buch Kalliope.) - -'The crisis of the strait however arose further on a little; where the -crowded market-place had to introduce itself into a street,--straight -indeed and good, but proportionably far too narrow. I have, in my life, -seen nothing like it: the aspect of it might perhaps be compared to that -of a swoln river which has been raging over meadows and fields, and is now -again obliged to press itself through a narrow bridge, and flow on in its -bounded channel. Down the long street, all visible from our windows, there -swelled continually the strangest tide: a high double-seated travelling- -coach towered visible over the flood of things. We thought of the fair -Frenchwomen we had seen in the morning. It was not they, however, it was -Count Haugwitz; him you could look at, with a kind of sardonic malice, -rocking onwards, step by step, there.' (Campagne in Frankreich, Goethe's -Werke (Stuttgart, 1829), xxx. 133-137.) - -In such untriumphant Procession has the Brunswick Manifesto issued! Nay in -worse, 'in Negotiation with these miscreants,'--the first news of which -produced such a revulsion in the Emigrant nature, as put our scientific -World-Poet 'in fear for the wits of several.' There is no help: they must -fare on, these poor Emigrants, angry with all persons and things, and -making all persons angry, in the hapless course they struck into. Landlord -and landlady testify to you, at tables-d'hote, how insupportable these -Frenchmen are: how, in spite of such humiliation, of poverty and probable -beggary, there is ever the same struggle for precedence, the same -forwardness, and want of discretion. High in honour, at the head of the -table, you with your own eyes observe not a Seigneur but the automaton of a -Seigneur, fallen into dotage; still worshipped, reverently waited on, and -fed. In miscellaneous seats, is a miscellany of soldiers, commissaries, -adventurers; consuming silently their barbarian victuals. 'On all brows is -to be read a hard destiny; all are silent, for each has his own sufferings -to bear, and looks forth into misery without bounds.' One hasty wanderer, -coming in, and eating without ungraciousness what is set before him, the -landlord lets off almost scot-free. "He is," whispered the landlord to me, -"the first of these cursed people I have seen condescend to taste our -German black bread." (Ibid. 152.) (Ibid. 210-12.) - -And Dumouriez is in Paris; lauded and feasted; paraded in glittering -saloons, floods of beautifullest blond-dresses and broadcloth-coats flowing -past him, endless, in admiring joy. One night, nevertheless, in the -splendour of one such scene, he sees himself suddenly apostrophised by a -squalid unjoyful Figure, who has come in uninvited, nay despite of all -lackeys; an unjoyful Figure! The Figure is come "in express mission from -the Jacobins," to inquire sharply, better then than later, touching certain -things: "Shaven eyebrows of Volunteer Patriots, for instance?" Also "your -threats of shivering in pieces?" Also, "why you have not chased Brunswick -hotly enough?" Thus, with sharp croak, inquires the Figure.--"Ah, c'est -vous qu'on appelle Marat, You are he they call Marat!" answers the General, -and turns coldly on his heel. (Dumouriez, iii. 115.--Marat's account, In -the Debats des Jacobins and Journal de la Republique (Hist. Parl. xix. 317- -21), agrees to the turning on the heel, but strives to interpret it -differently.)--"Marat!" The blonde-gowns quiver like aspens; the dress- -coats gather round; Actor Talma (for it is his house), and almost the very -chandelier-lights, are blue: till this obscene Spectrum, or visual -Appearance, vanish back into native Night. - -General Dumouriez, in few brief days, is gone again, towards the -Netherlands; will attack the Netherlands, winter though it be. And General -Montesquiou, on the South-East, has driven in the Sardinian Majesty; nay, -almost without a shot fired, has taken Savoy from him, which longs to -become a piece of the Republic. And General Custine, on the North-East, -has dashed forth on Spires and its Arsenal; and then on Electoral Mentz, -not uninvited, wherein are German Democrats and no shadow of an Elector -now:--so that in the last days of October, Frau Forster, a daughter of -Heyne's, somewhat democratic, walking out of the Gate of Mentz with her -Husband, finds French Soldiers playing at bowls with cannon-balls there. -Forster trips cheerfully over one iron bomb, with "Live the Republic!" A -black-bearded National Guard answers: "Elle vivra bien sans vous, It will -probably live independently of you!" (Johann Georg Forster's Briefwechsel -(Leipzig, 1829), i. 88.) - - - - -BOOK 3.II. - -REGICIDE - - -Chapter 3.2.I. - -The Deliberative. - -France therefore has done two things very completely: she has hurled back -her Cimmerian Invaders far over the marches; and likewise she has shattered -her own internal Social Constitution, even to the minutest fibre of it, -into wreck and dissolution. Utterly it is all altered: from King down to -Parish Constable, all Authorities, Magistrates, Judges, persons that bore -rule, have had, on the sudden, to alter themselves, so far as needful; or -else, on the sudden, and not without violence, to be altered: a Patriot -'Executive Council of Ministers,' with a Patriot Danton in it, and then a -whole Nation and National Convention, have taken care of that. Not a -Parish Constable, in the furthest hamlet, who has said De Par le Roi, and -shewn loyalty, but must retire, making way for a new improved Parish -Constable who can say De par la Republique. - -It is a change such as History must beg her readers to imagine, -undescribed. An instantaneous change of the whole body-politic, the soul- -politic being all changed; such a change as few bodies, politic or other, -can experience in this world. Say perhaps, such as poor Nymph Semele's -body did experience, when she would needs, with woman's humour, see her -Olympian Jove as very Jove;--and so stood, poor Nymph, this moment Semele, -next moment not Semele, but Flame and a Statue of red-hot Ashes! France -has looked upon Democracy; seen it face to face.--The Cimmerian Invaders -will rally, in humbler temper, with better or worse luck: the wreck and -dissolution must reshape itself into a social Arrangement as it can and -may. But as for this National Convention, which is to settle every thing, -if it do, as Deputy Paine and France generally expects, get all finished -'in a few months,' we shall call it a most deft Convention. - -In truth, it is very singular to see how this mercurial French People -plunges suddenly from Vive le Roi to Vive la Republique; and goes simmering -and dancing; shaking off daily (so to speak), and trampling into the dust, -its old social garnitures, ways of thinking, rules of existing; and -cheerfully dances towards the Ruleless, Unknown, with such hope in its -heart, and nothing but Freedom, Equality and Brotherhood in its mouth. Is -it two centuries, or is it only two years, since all France roared -simultaneously to the welkin, bursting forth into sound and smoke at its -Feast of Pikes, "Live the Restorer of French Liberty?" Three short years -ago there was still Versailles and an Oeil-de-Boeuf: now there is that -watched Circuit of the Temple, girt with dragon-eyed Municipals, where, as -in its final limbo, Royalty lies extinct. In the year 1789, Constituent -Deputy Barrere 'wept,' in his Break-of-Day Newspaper, at sight of a -reconciled King Louis; and now in 1792, Convention Deputy Barrere, -perfectly tearless, may be considering, whether the reconciled King Louis -shall be guillotined or not. - -Old garnitures and social vestures drop off (we say) so fast, being indeed -quite decayed, and are trodden under the National dance. And the new -vestures, where are they; the new modes and rules? Liberty, Equality, -Fraternity: not vestures but the wish for vestures! The Nation is for the -present, figuratively speaking, naked! It has no rule or vesture; but is -naked,--a Sansculottic Nation. - -So far, therefore, in such manner have our Patriot Brissots, Guadets -triumphed. Vergniaud's Ezekiel-visions of the fall of thrones and crowns, -which he spake hypothetically and prophetically in the Spring of the year, -have suddenly come to fulfilment in the Autumn. Our eloquent Patriots of -the Legislative, like strong Conjurors, by the word of their mouth, have -swept Royalism with its old modes and formulas to the winds; and shall now -govern a France free of formulas. Free of formulas! And yet man lives not -except with formulas; with customs, ways of doing and living: no text -truer than this; which will hold true from the Tea-table and Tailor's -shopboard up to the High Senate-houses, Solemn Temples; nay through all -provinces of Mind and Imagination, onwards to the outmost confines of -articulate Being,--Ubi homines sunt modi sunt! There are modes wherever -there are men. It is the deepest law of man's nature; whereby man is a -craftsman and 'tool-using animal;' not the slave of Impulse, Chance, and -Brute Nature, but in some measure their lord. Twenty-five millions of men, -suddenly stript bare of their modi, and dancing them down in that manner, -are a terrible thing to govern! - -Eloquent Patriots of the Legislative, meanwhile, have precisely this -problem to solve. Under the name and nickname of 'statesmen, hommes -d'etat,' of 'moderate-men, moderantins,' of Brissotins, Rolandins, finally -of Girondins, they shall become world-famous in solving it. For the -Twenty-five millions are Gallic effervescent too;--filled both with hope of -the unutterable, of universal Fraternity and Golden Age; and with terror of -the unutterable, Cimmerian Europe all rallying on us. It is a problem like -few. Truly, if man, as the Philosophers brag, did to any extent look -before and after, what, one may ask, in many cases would become of him? -What, in this case, would become of these Seven Hundred and Forty-nine men? -The Convention, seeing clearly before and after, were a paralysed -Convention. Seeing clearly to the length of its own nose, it is not -paralysed. - -To the Convention itself neither the work nor the method of doing it is -doubtful: To make the Constitution; to defend the Republic till that be -made. Speedily enough, accordingly, there has been a 'Committee of the -Constitution' got together. Sieyes, Old-Constituent, Constitution-builder -by trade; Condorcet, fit for better things; Deputy Paine, foreign -Benefactor of the Species, with that 'red carbuncled face, and the black -beaming eyes;' Herault de Sechelles, Ex-Parlementeer, one of the handsomest -men in France: these, with inferior guild-brethren, are girt cheerfully to -the work; will once more 'make the Constitution;' let us hope, more -effectually than last time. For that the Constitution can be made, who -doubts,--unless the Gospel of Jean Jacques came into the world in vain? -True, our last Constitution did tumble within the year, so lamentably. But -what then, except sort the rubbish and boulders, and build them up again -better? 'Widen your basis,' for one thing,--to Universal Suffrage, if need -be; exclude rotten materials, Royalism and such like, for another thing. -And in brief, build, O unspeakable Sieyes and Company, unwearied! Frequent -perilous downrushing of scaffolding and rubble-work, be that an irritation, -no discouragement. Start ye always again, clearing aside the wreck; if -with broken limbs, yet with whole hearts; and build, we say, in the name of -Heaven,--till either the work do stand; or else mankind abandon it, and the -Constitution-builders be paid off, with laughter and tears! One good time, -in the course of Eternity, it was appointed that this of Social Contract -too should try itself out. And so the Committee of Constitution shall -toil: with hope and faith;--with no disturbance from any reader of these -pages. - -To make the Constitution, then, and return home joyfully in a few months: -this is the prophecy our National Convention gives of itself; by this -scientific program shall its operations and events go on. But from the -best scientific program, in such a case, to the actual fulfilment, what a -difference! Every reunion of men, is it not, as we often say, a reunion of -incalculable Influences; every unit of it a microcosm of Influences;--of -which how shall Science calculate or prophesy! Science, which cannot, with -all its calculuses, differential, integral, and of variations, calculate -the Problem of Three gravitating Bodies, ought to hold her peace here, and -say only: In this National Convention there are Seven Hundred and Forty- -nine very singular Bodies, that gravitate and do much else;--who, probably -in an amazing manner, will work the appointment of Heaven. - -Of National Assemblages, Parliaments, Congresses, which have long sat; -which are of saturnine temperament; above all, which are not 'dreadfully in -earnest,' something may be computed or conjectured: yet even these are a -kind of Mystery in progress,--whereby we see the Journalist Reporter find -livelihood: even these jolt madly out of the ruts, from time to time. How -much more a poor National Convention, of French vehemence; urged on at such -velocity; without routine, without rut, track or landmark; and dreadfully -in earnest every man of them! It is a Parliament literally such as there -was never elsewhere in the world. Themselves are new, unarranged; they are -the Heart and presiding centre of a France fallen wholly into maddest -disarrangement. From all cities, hamlets, from the utmost ends of this -France with its Twenty-five million vehement souls, thick-streaming -influences storm in on that same Heart, in the Salle de Manege, and storm -out again: such fiery venous-arterial circulation is the function of that -Heart. Seven Hundred and Forty-nine human individuals, we say, never sat -together on Earth, under more original circumstances. Common individuals -most of them, or not far from common; yet in virtue of the position they -occupied, so notable. How, in this wild piping of the whirlwind of human -passions, with death, victory, terror, valour, and all height and all depth -pealing and piping, these men, left to their own guidance, will speak and -act? - -Readers know well that this French National Convention (quite contrary to -its own Program) became the astonishment and horror of mankind; a kind of -Apocalyptic Convention, or black Dream become real; concerning which -History seldom speaks except in the way of interjection: how it covered -France with woe, delusion, and delirium; and from its bosom there went -forth Death on the pale Horse. To hate this poor National Convention is -easy; to praise and love it has not been found impossible. It is, as we -say, a Parliament in the most original circumstances. To us, in these -pages, be it as a fuliginous fiery mystery, where Upper has met Nether, and -in such alternate glare and blackness of darkness poor bedazzled mortals -know not which is Upper, which is Nether; but rage and plunge distractedly, -as mortals, in that case, will do. A Convention which has to consume -itself, suicidally; and become dead ashes--with its World! Behoves us, not -to enter exploratively its dim embroiled deeps; yet to stand with -unwavering eyes, looking how it welters; what notable phases and -occurrences it will successively throw up. - -One general superficial circumstance we remark with praise: the force of -Politeness. To such depth has the sense of civilisation penetrated man's -life; no Drouet, no Legendre, in the maddest tug of war, can altogether -shake it off. Debates of Senates dreadfully in earnest are seldom given -frankly to the world; else perhaps they would surprise it. Did not the -Grand Monarque himself once chase his Louvois with a pair of brandished -tongs? But reading long volumes of these Convention Debates, all in a foam -with furious earnestness, earnest many times to the extent of life and -death, one is struck rather with the degree of continence they manifest in -speech; and how in such wild ebullition, there is still a kind of polite -rule struggling for mastery, and the forms of social life never altogether -disappear. These men, though they menace with clenched right-hands, do not -clench one another by the collar; they draw no daggers, except for -oratorical purposes, and this not often: profane swearing is almost -unknown, though the Reports are frank enough; we find only one or two -oaths, oaths by Marat, reported in all. - -For the rest, that there is 'effervescence' who doubts? Effervescence -enough; Decrees passed by acclamation to-day, repealed by vociferation to- -morrow; temper fitful, most rotatory changeful, always headlong! The -'voice of the orator is covered with rumours;' a hundred 'honourable -Members rush with menaces towards the Left side of the Hall;' President has -'broken three bells in succession,'--claps on his hat, as signal that the -country is near ruined. A fiercely effervescent Old-Gallic Assemblage!-- -Ah, how the loud sick sounds of Debate, and of Life, which is a debate, -sink silent one after another: so loud now, and in a little while so low! -Brennus, and those antique Gael Captains, in their way to Rome, to Galatia, -and such places, whither they were in the habit of marching in the most -fiery manner, had Debates as effervescent, doubt it not; though no Moniteur -has reported them. They scolded in Celtic Welsh, those Brennuses; neither -were they Sansculotte; nay rather breeches (braccae, say of felt or rough- -leather) were the only thing they had; being, as Livy testifies, naked down -to the haunches:--and, see, it is the same sort of work and of men still, -now when they have got coats, and speak nasally a kind of broken Latin! -But on the whole does not TIME envelop this present National Convention; as -it did those Brennuses, and ancient August Senates in felt breeches? Time -surely; and also Eternity. Dim dusk of Time,--or noon which will be dusk; -and then there is night, and silence; and Time with all its sick noises is -swallowed in the still sea. Pity thy brother, O Son of Adam! The angriest -frothy jargon that he utters, is it not properly the whimpering of an -infant which cannot speak what ails it, but is in distress clearly, in the -inwards of it; and so must squall and whimper continually, till its Mother -take it, and it get--to sleep! - -This Convention is not four days old, and the melodious Meliboean stanzas -that shook down Royalty are still fresh in our ear, when there bursts out a -new diapason,--unhappily, of Discord, this time. For speech has been made -of a thing difficult to speak of well: the September Massacres. How deal -with these September Massacres; with the Paris Commune that presided over -them? A Paris Commune hateful-terrible; before which the poor effete -Legislative had to quail, and sit quiet. And now if a young omnipotent -Convention will not so quail and sit, what steps shall it take? Have a -Departmental Guard in its pay, answer the Girondins, and Friends of Order! -A Guard of National Volunteers, missioned from all the Eighty-three or -Eighty-five Departments, for that express end; these will keep -Septemberers, tumultuous Communes in a due state of submissiveness, the -Convention in a due state of sovereignty. So have the Friends of Order -answered, sitting in Committee, and reporting; and even a Decree has been -passed of the required tenour. Nay certain Departments, as the Var or -Marseilles, in mere expectation and assurance of a Decree, have their -contingent of Volunteers already on march: brave Marseillese, foremost on -the Tenth of August, will not be hindmost here; 'fathers gave their sons a -musket and twenty-five louis,' says Barbaroux, 'and bade them march.' - -Can any thing be properer? A Republic that will found itself on justice -must needs investigate September Massacres; a Convention calling itself -National, ought it not to be guarded by a National force?--Alas, Reader, it -seems so to the eye: and yet there is much to be said and argued. Thou -beholdest here the small beginning of a Controversy, which mere logic will -not settle. Two small well-springs, September, Departmental Guard, or -rather at bottom they are but one and the same small well-spring; which -will swell and widen into waters of bitterness; all manner of subsidiary -streams and brooks of bitterness flowing in, from this side and that; till -it become a wide river of bitterness, of rage and separation,--which can -subside only into the Catacombs. This Departmental Guard, decreed by -overwhelming majorities, and then repealed for peace's sake, and not to -insult Paris, is again decreed more than once; nay it is partially -executed, and the very men that are to be of it are seen visibly parading -the Paris streets,--shouting once, being overtaken with liquor: "A bas -Marat, Down with Marat!" (Hist. Parl. xx. 184.) Nevertheless, decreed -never so often, it is repealed just as often; and continues, for some seven -months, an angry noisy Hypothesis only: a fair Possibility struggling to -become a Reality, but which shall never be one; which, after endless -struggling, shall, in February next, sink into sad rest,--dragging much -along with it. So singular are the ways of men and honourable Members. - -But on this fourth day of the Convention's existence, as we said, which is -the 25th of September 1792, there comes Committee Report on that Decree of -the Departmental Guard, and speech of repealing it; there come -denunciations of anarchy, of a Dictatorship,--which let the incorruptible -Robespierre consider: there come denunciations of a certain Journal de la -Republique, once called Ami du Peuple; and so thereupon there comes, -visibly stepping up, visibly standing aloft on the Tribune, ready to speak, -the Bodily Spectrum of People's-Friend Marat! Shriek, ye Seven Hundred and -Forty-nine; it is verily Marat, he and not another. Marat is no phantasm -of the brain, or mere lying impress of Printer's Types; but a thing -material, of joint and sinew, and a certain small stature: ye behold him -there, in his blackness in his dingy squalor, a living fraction of Chaos -and Old Night; visibly incarnate, desirous to speak. "It appears," says -Marat to the shrieking Assembly, "that a great many persons here are -enemies of mine." "All! All!" shriek hundreds of voices: enough to drown -any People's-Friend. But Marat will not drown: he speaks and croaks -explanation; croaks with such reasonableness, air of sincerity, that -repentant pity smothers anger, and the shrieks subside or even become -applauses. For this Convention is unfortunately the crankest of machines: -it shall be pointing eastward, with stiff violence, this moment; and then -do but touch some spring dexterously, the whole machine, clattering and -jerking seven-hundred-fold, will whirl with huge crash, and, next moment, -is pointing westward! Thus Marat, absolved and applauded, victorious in -this turn of fence, is, as the Debate goes on, prickt at again by some -dexterous Girondin; and then and shrieks rise anew, and Decree of -Accusation is on the point of passing; till the dingy People's-Friend bobs -aloft once more; croaks once more persuasive stillness, and the Decree of -Accusation sinks, Whereupon he draws forth--a Pistol; and setting it to his -Head, the seat of such thought and prophecy, says: "If they had passed -their Accusation Decree, he, the People's-Friend, would have blown his -brains out." A People's Friend has that faculty in him. For the rest, as -to this of the two hundred and sixty thousand Aristocrat Heads, Marat -candidly says, "C'est la mon avis, such is my opinion." Also it is not -indisputable: "No power on Earth can prevent me from seeing into traitors, -and unmasking them,"--by my superior originality of mind? (Moniteur -Newspaper, Nos. 271, 280, 294, Annee premiere; Moore's Journal, ii. 21, -157, &c. (which, however, may perhaps, as in similar cases, be only a copy -of the Newspaper).) An honourable member like this Friend of the People -few terrestrial Parliaments have had. - -We observe, however, that this first onslaught by the Friends of Order, as -sharp and prompt as it was, has failed. For neither can Robespierre, -summoned out by talk of Dictatorship, and greeted with the like rumour on -shewing himself, be thrown into Prison, into Accusation;--not though -Barbarous openly bear testimony against him, and sign it on paper. With -such sanctified meekness does the Incorruptible lift his seagreen cheek to -the smiter; lift his thin voice, and with jesuitic dexterity plead, and -prosper: asking at last, in a prosperous manner: "But what witnesses has -the Citoyen Barbaroux to support his testimony?" "Moi!" cries hot -Rebecqui, standing up, striking his breast with both hands, and answering, -"Me!" (Moniteur, ut supra; Seance du 25 Septembre.) Nevertheless the -Seagreen pleads again, and makes it good: the long hurlyburly, 'personal -merely,' while so much public matter lies fallow, has ended in the order of -the day. O Friends of the Gironde, why will you occupy our august sessions -with mere paltry Personalities, while the grand Nationality lies in such a -state?--The Gironde has touched, this day, on the foul black-spot of its -fair Convention Domain; has trodden on it, and yet not trodden it down. -Alas, it is a well-spring, as we said, this black-spot; and will not tread -down! - - - -Chapter 3.2.II. - -The Executive. - -May we not conjecture therefore that round this grand enterprise of Making -the Constitution there will, as heretofore, very strange embroilments -gather, and questions and interests complicate themselves; so that after a -few or even several months, the Convention will not have settled every -thing? Alas, a whole tide of questions comes rolling, boiling; growing -ever wider, without end! Among which, apart from this question of -September and Anarchy, let us notice those, which emerge oftener than the -others, and promise to become Leading Questions: of the Armies; of the -Subsistences; thirdly, of the Dethroned King. - -As to the Armies, Public Defence must evidently be put on a proper footing; -for Europe seems coalising itself again; one is apprehensive even England -will join it. Happily Dumouriez prospers in the North;--nay what if he -should prove too prosperous, and become Liberticide, Murderer of Freedom!-- -Dumouriez prospers, through this winter season; yet not without lamentable -complaints. Sleek Pache, the Swiss Schoolmaster, he that sat frugal in his -Alley, the wonder of neighbours, has got lately--whither thinks the Reader? -To be Minister of war! Madame Roland, struck with his sleek ways, -recommended him to her Husband as Clerk: the sleek Clerk had no need of -salary, being of true Patriotic temper; he would come with a bit of bread -in his pocket, to save dinner and time; and, munching incidentally, do -three men's work in a day" punctual, silent, frugal,--the sleek Tartuffe -that he was. Wherefore Roland, in the late Overturn, recommended him to be -War-Minister. And now, it would seem, he is secretly undermining Roland; -playing into the hands of your hotter Jacobins and September Commune; and -cannot, like strict Roland, be the Veto des Coquins! (Madame Roland, -Memoires, ii. 237, &c.) - -How the sleek Pache might mine and undermine, one knows not well; this -however one does know: that his War-Office has become a den of thieves and -confusion, such as all men shudder to behold. That the Citizen -Hassenfratz, as Head-Clerk, sits there in bonnet rouge, in rapine, in -violence, and some Mathematical calculation; a most insolent, red- -nightcapped man. That Pache munches his pocket-loaf, amid head-clerks and -sub-clerks, and has spent all the War-Estimates: that Furnishers scour in -gigs, over all districts of France, and drive bargains;--and lastly that -the Army gets next to no furniture. No shoes, though it is winter; no -clothes; some have not even arms: 'In the Army of the South,' complains an -honourable Member, 'there are thirty thousand pairs of breeches wanting,'-- -a most scandalous want. - -Roland's strict soul is sick to see the course things take: but what can -he do? Keep his own Department strict; rebuke, and repress wheresoever -possible; at lowest, complain. He can complain in Letter after Letter, to -a National Convention, to France, to Posterity, the Universe; grow ever -more querulous indignant;--till at last may he not grow wearisome? For is -not this continual text of his, at bottom a rather barren one: How -astonishing that in a time of Revolt and abrogation of all Law but Cannon -Law, there should be such Unlawfulness? Intrepid Veto-of-Scoundrels, -narrow-faithful, respectable, methodic man, work thou in that manner, since -happily it is thy manner, and wear thyself away; though ineffectual, not -profitless in it--then nor now!--The brave Dame Roland, bravest of all -French women, begins to have misgivings: the figure of Danton has too much -of the 'Sardanapalus character,' at a Republican Rolandin Dinner-table: -Clootz, Speaker of Mankind, proses sad stuff about a Universal Republic, or -union of all Peoples and Kindreds in one and the same Fraternal Bond; of -which Bond, how it is to be tied, one unhappily sees not. - -It is also an indisputable, unaccountable or accountable fact that Grains -are becoming scarcer and scarcer. Riots for grain, tumultuous Assemblages -demanding to have the price of grain fixed abound far and near. The Mayor -of Paris and other poor Mayors are like to have their difficulties. Petion -was re-elected Mayor of Paris; but has declined; being now a Convention -Legislator. Wise surely to decline: for, besides this of Grains and all -the rest, there is in these times an Improvised insurrectionary Commune -passing into an Elected legal one; getting their accounts settled,--not -without irritancy! Petion has declined: nevertheless many do covet and -canvass. After months of scrutinising, balloting, arguing and jargoning, -one Doctor Chambon gets the post of honour: who will not long keep it; but -be, as we shall see, literally crushed out of it. (Dictionnaire des Hommes -Marquans, para Chambon.) - -Think also if the private Sansculotte has not his difficulties, in a time -of dearth! Bread, according to the People's-Friend, may be some 'six sous -per pound, a day's wages some fifteen;' and grim winter here. How the Poor -Man continues living, and so seldom starves, by miracle! Happily, in these -days, he can enlist, and have himself shot by the Austrians, in an -unusually satisfactory manner: for the Rights of Man.--But Commandant -Santerre, in this so straitened condition of the flour-market, and state of -Equality and Liberty, proposes, through the Newspapers, two remedies, or at -least palliatives: First, that all classes of men should live, two days of -the week, on potatoes; then second, that every man should hang his dog. -Hereby, as the Commandant thinks, the saving, which indeed he computes to -so many sacks, would be very considerable. A cheerfuller form of -inventive-stupidity than Commandant Santerre's dwells in no human soul. -Inventive-stupidity, imbedded in health, courage and good-nature: much to -be commended. "My whole strength," he tells the Convention once, "is, day -and night, at the service of my fellow-Citizens: if they find me -worthless, they will dismiss me; I will return and brew beer." (Moniteur -(in Hist. Parl. xx. 412).) - -Or figure what correspondences a poor Roland, Minister of the Interior, -must have, on this of Grains alone! Free-trade in Grain, impossibility to -fix the Prices of Grain; on the other hand, clamour and necessity to fix -them: Political Economy lecturing from the Home Office, with demonstration -clear as Scripture;--ineffectual for the empty National Stomach. The Mayor -of Chartres, like to be eaten himself, cries to the Convention: the -Convention sends honourable Members in Deputation; who endeavour to feed -the multitude by miraculous spiritual methods; but cannot. The multitude, -in spite of all Eloquence, come bellowing round; will have the Grain-Prices -fixed, and at a moderate elevation; or else--the honourable Deputies hanged -on the spot! The honourable Deputies, reporting this business, admit that, -on the edge of horrid death, they did fix, or affect to fix the Price of -Grain: for which, be it also noted, the Convention, a Convention that will -not be trifled with, sees good to reprimand them. (Hist. Parl. xx. 431- -440.) - -But as to the origin of these Grain Riots, is it not most probably your -secret Royalists again? Glimpses of Priests were discernible in this of -Chartres,--to the eye of Patriotism. Or indeed may not 'the root of it all -lie in the Temple Prison, in the heart of a perjured King,' well as we -guard him? (Ibid. 409.) Unhappy perjured King!--And so there shall be -Baker's Queues, by and by, more sharp-tempered than ever: on every Baker's -door-rabbet an iron ring, and coil of rope; whereon, with firm grip, on -this side and that, we form our Queue: but mischievous deceitful persons -cut the rope, and our Queue becomes a ravelment; wherefore the coil must be -made of iron chain. (Mercier, Nouveau Paris.) Also there shall be Prices -of Grain well fixed; but then no grain purchasable by them: bread not to -be had except by Ticket from the Mayor, few ounces per mouth daily; after -long swaying, with firm grip, on the chain of the Queue. And Hunger shall -stalk direful; and Wrath and Suspicion, whetted to the Preternatural pitch, -shall stalk;--as those other preternatural 'shapes of Gods in their -wrathfulness' were discerned stalking, 'in glare and gloom of that fire- -ocean,' when Troy Town fell!-- - - - -Chapter 3.2.III. - -Discrowned. - -But the question more pressing than all on the Legislator, as yet, is this -third: What shall be done with King Louis? - -King Louis, now King and Majesty to his own family alone, in their own -Prison Apartment alone, has been Louis Capet and the Traitor Veto with the -rest of France. Shut in his Circuit of the Temple, he has heard and seen -the loud whirl of things; yells of September Massacres, Brunswick war- -thunders dying off in disaster and discomfiture; he passive, a spectator -merely;--waiting whither it would please to whirl with him. From the -neighbouring windows, the curious, not without pity, might see him walk -daily, at a certain hour, in the Temple Garden, with his Queen, Sister and -two Children, all that now belongs to him in this Earth. (Moore, i. 123; -ii. 224, &c.) Quietly he walks and waits; for he is not of lively -feelings, and is of a devout heart. The wearied Irresolute has, at least, -no need of resolving now. His daily meals, lessons to his Son, daily walk -in the Garden, daily game at ombre or drafts, fill up the day: the morrow -will provide for itself. - -The morrow indeed; and yet How? Louis asks, How? France, with perhaps -still more solicitude, asks, How? A King dethroned by insurrection is -verily not easy to dispose of. Keep him prisoner, he is a secret centre -for the Disaffected, for endless plots, attempts and hopes of theirs. -Banish him, he is an open centre for them; his royal war-standard, with -what of divinity it has, unrolls itself, summoning the world. Put him to -death? A cruel questionable extremity that too: and yet the likeliest in -these extreme circumstances, of insurrectionary men, whose own life and -death lies staked: accordingly it is said, from the last step of the -throne to the first of the scaffold there is short distance. - -But, on the whole, we will remark here that this business of Louis looks -altogether different now, as seen over Seas and at the distance of forty- -four years, than it looked then, in France, and struggling, confused all -round one! For indeed it is a most lying thing that same Past Tense -always: so beautiful, sad, almost Elysian-sacred, 'in the moonlight of -Memory,' it seems; and seems only. For observe: always, one most -important element is surreptitiously (we not noticing it) withdrawn from -the Past Time: the haggard element of Fear! Not there does Fear dwell, -nor Uncertainty, nor Anxiety; but it dwells here; haunting us, tracking us; -running like an accursed ground-discord through all the music-tones of our -Existence;--making the Tense a mere Present one! Just so is it with this -of Louis. Why smite the fallen? asks Magnanimity, out of danger now. He -is fallen so low this once-high man; no criminal nor traitor, how far from -it; but the unhappiest of Human Solecisms: whom if abstract Justice had to -pronounce upon, she might well become concrete Pity, and pronounce only -sobs and dismissal! - -So argues retrospective Magnanimity: but Pusillanimity, present, -prospective? Reader, thou hast never lived, for months, under the rustle -of Prussian gallows-ropes; never wert thou portion of a National Sahara- -waltz, Twenty-five millions running distracted to fight Brunswick! Knights -Errant themselves, when they conquered Giants, usually slew the Giants: -quarter was only for other Knights Errant, who knew courtesy and the laws -of battle. The French Nation, in simultaneous, desperate dead-pull, and as -if by miracle of madness, has pulled down the most dread Goliath, huge with -the growth of ten centuries; and cannot believe, though his giant bulk, -covering acres, lies prostrate, bound with peg and packthread, that he will -not rise again, man-devouring; that the victory is not partly a dream. -Terror has its scepticism; miraculous victory its rage of vengeance. Then -as to criminalty, is the prostrated Giant, who will devour us if he rise, -an innocent Giant? Curate Gregoire, who indeed is now Constitutional -Bishop Gregoire, asserts, in the heat of eloquence, that Kingship by the -very nature of it is a crime capital; that Kings' Houses are as wild- -beasts' dens. (Moniteur, Seance du 21 Septembre, Annee 1er (1792).) -Lastly consider this: that there is on record a Trial of Charles First! -This printed Trial of Charles First is sold and read every where at -present: (Moore's Journal, ii. 165.)--Quelle spectacle! Thus did the -English People judge their Tyrant, and become the first of Free Peoples: -which feat, by the grace of Destiny, may not France now rival? Scepticism -of terror, rage of miraculous victory, sublime spectacle to the universe,-- -all things point one fatal way. - -Such leading questions, and their endless incidental ones: of September -Anarchists and Departmental Guard; of Grain Riots, plaintiff Interior -Ministers; of Armies, Hassenfratz dilapidations; and what is to be done -with Louis,--beleaguer and embroil this Convention; which would so gladly -make the Constitution rather. All which questions too, as we often urge of -such things, are in growth; they grow in every French head; and can be seen -growing also, very curiously, in this mighty welter of Parliamentary -Debate, of Public Business which the Convention has to do. A question -emerges, so small at first; is put off, submerged; but always re-emerges -bigger than before. It is a curious, indeed an indescribable sort of -growth which such things have. - -We perceive, however, both by its frequent re-emergence and by its rapid -enlargement of bulk, that this Question of King Louis will take the lead of -all the rest. And truly, in that case, it will take the lead in a much -deeper sense. For as Aaron's Rod swallowed all the other Serpents; so will -the Foremost Question, whichever may get foremost, absorb all other -questions and interests; and from it and the decision of it will they all, -so to speak, be born, or new-born, and have shape, physiognomy and destiny -corresponding. It was appointed of Fate that, in this wide-weltering, -strangely growing, monstrous stupendous imbroglio of Convention Business, -the grand First-Parent of all the questions, controversies, measures and -enterprises which were to be evolved there to the world's astonishment, -should be this Question of King Louis. - - - -Chapter 3.2.IV. - -The Loser pays. - -The Sixth of November, 1792, was a great day for the Republic: outwardly, -over the Frontiers; inwardly, in the Salle de Manege. - -Outwardly: for Dumouriez, overrunning the Netherlands, did, on that day, -come in contact with Saxe-Teschen and the Austrians; Dumouriez wide-winged, -they wide-winged; at and around the village of Jemappes, near Mons. And -fire-hail is whistling far and wide there, the great guns playing, and the -small; so many green Heights getting fringed and maned with red Fire. And -Dumouriez is swept back on this wing, and swept back on that, and is like -to be swept back utterly; when he rushes up in person, the prompt -Polymetis; speaks a prompt word or two; and then, with clear tenor-pipe, -'uplifts the Hymn of the Marseillese, entonna la Marseillaise,' (Dumouriez, -Memoires, iii. 174.) ten thousand tenor or bass pipes joining; or say, some -Forty Thousand in all; for every heart leaps at the sound: and so with -rhythmic march-melody, waxing ever quicker, to double and to treble quick, -they rally, they advance, they rush, death-defying, man-devouring; carry -batteries, redoutes, whatsoever is to be carried; and, like the fire- -whirlwind, sweep all manner of Austrians from the scene of action. Thus, -through the hands of Dumouriez, may Rouget de Lille, in figurative speech, -be said to have gained, miraculously, like another Orpheus, by his -Marseillese fiddle-strings (fidibus canoris) a Victory of Jemappes; and -conquered the Low Countries. - -Young General Egalite, it would seem, shone brave among the bravest on this -occasion. Doubtless a brave Egalite;--whom however does not Dumouriez -rather talk of oftener than need were? The Mother Society has her own -thoughts. As for the Elder Egalite he flies low at this time; appears in -the Convention for some half-hour daily, with rubicund, pre-occupied, or -impressive quasi-contemptuous countenance; and then takes himself away. -(Moore, ii. 148.) The Netherlands are conquered, at least overrun. -Jacobin missionaries, your Prolys, Pereiras, follow in the train of the -Armies; also Convention Commissioners, melting church-plate, -revolutionising and remodelling--among whom Danton, in brief space, does -immensities of business; not neglecting his own wages and trade-profits, it -is thought. Hassenfratz dilapidates at home; Dumouriez grumbles and they -dilapidate abroad: within the walls there is sinning, and without the -walls there is sinning. - -But in the Hall of the Convention, at the same hour with this victory of -Jemappes, there went another thing forward: Report, of great length, from -the proper appointed Committee, on the Crimes of Louis. The Galleries -listen breathless; take comfort, ye Galleries: Deputy Valaze, Reporter on -this occasion, thinks Louis very criminal; and that, if convenient, he -should be tried;--poor Girondin Valaze, who may be tried himself, one day! -Comfortable so far. Nay here comes a second Committee-reporter, Deputy -Mailhe, with a Legal Argument, very prosy to read now, very refreshing to -hear then, That, by the Law of the Country, Louis Capet was only called -Inviolable by a figure of rhetoric; but at bottom was perfectly violable, -triable; that he can, and even should be tried. This Question of Louis, -emerging so often as an angry confused possibility, and submerging again, -has emerged now in an articulate shape. - -Patriotism growls indignant joy. The so-called reign of Equality is not to -be a mere name, then, but a thing! Try Louis Capet? scornfully ejaculates -Patriotism: Mean criminals go to the gallows for a purse cut; and this -chief criminal, guilty of a France cut; of a France slashed asunder with -Clotho-scissors and Civil war; with his victims 'twelve hundred on the -Tenth of August alone' lying low in the Catacombs, fattening the passes of -Argonne Wood, of Valmy and far Fields; he, such chief criminal, shall not -even come to the bar?--For, alas, O Patriotism! add we, it was from of old -said, The loser pays! It is he who has to pay all scores, run up by -whomsoever; on him must all breakages and charges fall; and the twelve -hundred on the Tenth of August are not rebel traitors, but victims and -martyrs: such is the law of quarrel. - -Patriotism, nothing doubting, watches over this Question of the Trial, now -happily emerged in an articulate shape; and will see it to maturity, if the -gods permit. With a keen solicitude Patriotism watches; getting ever -keener, at every new difficulty, as Girondins and false brothers interpose -delays; till it get a keenness as of fixed-idea, and will have this Trial -and no earthly thing instead of it,--if Equality be not a name. Love of -Equality; then scepticism of terror, rage of victory, sublime spectacle of -the universe: all these things are strong. - -But indeed this Question of the Trial, is it not to all persons a most -grave one; filling with dubiety many a Legislative head! Regicide? asks -the Gironde Respectability: To kill a king, and become the horror of -respectable nations and persons? But then also, to save a king; to lose -one's footing with the decided Patriot; and undecided Patriot, though never -so respectable, being mere hypothetic froth and no footing?--The dilemma -presses sore; and between the horns of it you wriggle round and round. -Decision is nowhere, save in the Mother Society and her Sons. These have -decided, and go forward: the others wriggle round uneasily within their -dilemma-horns, and make way nowhither. - - - -Chapter 3.2.V. - -Stretching of Formulas. - -But how this Question of the Trial grew laboriously, through the weeks of -gestation, now that it has been articulated or conceived, were superfluous -to trace here. It emerged and submerged among the infinite of questions -and embroilments. The Veto of Scoundrels writes plaintive Letters as to -Anarchy; 'concealed Royalists,' aided by Hunger, produce Riots about Grain. -Alas, it is but a week ago, these Girondins made a new fierce onslaught on -the September Massacres! - -For, one day, among the last of October, Robespierre, being summoned to the -tribune by some new hint of that old calumny of the Dictatorship, was -speaking and pleading there, with more and more comfort to himself; till, -rising high in heart, he cried out valiantly: Is there any man here that -dare specifically accuse me? "Moi!" exclaimed one. Pause of deep silence: -a lean angry little Figure, with broad bald brow, strode swiftly towards -the tribune, taking papers from its pocket: "I accuse thee, Robespierre,"- --I, Jean Baptiste Louvet! The Seagreen became tallow-green; shrinking to a -corner of the tribune: Danton cried, "Speak, Robespierre, there are many -good citizens that listen;" but the tongue refused its office. And so -Louvet, with a shrill tone, read and recited crime after crime: -dictatorial temper, exclusive popularity, bullying at elections, mob- -retinue, September Massacres;--till all the Convention shrieked again, and -had almost indicted the Incorruptible there on the spot. Never did the -Incorruptible run such a risk. Louvet, to his dying day, will regret that -the Gironde did not take a bolder attitude, and extinguish him there and -then. - -Not so, however: the Incorruptible, about to be indicted in this sudden -manner, could not be refused a week of delay. That week, he is not idle; -nor is the Mother Society idle,--fierce-tremulous for her chosen son. He -is ready at the day with his written Speech; smooth as a Jesuit Doctor's; -and convinces some. And now? Why, now lazy Vergniaud does not rise with -Demosthenic thunder; poor Louvet, unprepared, can do little or nothing: -Barrere proposes that these comparatively despicable 'personalities' be -dismissed by order of the day! Order of the day it accordingly is. -Barbaroux cannot even get a hearing; not though he rush down to the Bar, -and demand to be heard there as a petitioner. (Louvet, Memoires (Paris, -1823) p. 52; Moniteur (Seances du 29 Octobre, 5 Novembre, 1792); Moore (ii. -178), &c.) The convention, eager for public business (with that first -articulate emergence of the Trial just coming on), dismisses these -comparative miseres and despicabilities: splenetic Louvet must digest his -spleen, regretfully for ever: Robespierre, dear to Patriotism, is dearer -for the dangers he has run. - -This is the second grand attempt by our Girondin Friends of Order, to -extinguish that black-spot in their domain; and we see they have made it -far blacker and wider than before! Anarchy, September Massacre: it is a -thing that lies hideous in the general imagination; very detestable to the -undecided Patriot, of Respectability: a thing to be harped on as often as -need is. Harp on it, denounce it, trample it, ye Girondin Patriots:--and -yet behold, the black-spot will not trample down; it will only, as we say, -trample blacker and wider: fools, it is no black-spot of the surface, but -a well-spring of the deep! Consider rightly, it is the apex of the -everlasting Abyss, this black-spot, looking up as water through thin ice;-- -say, as the region of Nether Darkness through your thin film of Gironde -Regulation and Respectability; trample it not, lest the film break, and -then--! - -The truth is, if our Gironde Friends had an understanding of it, where were -French Patriotism, with all its eloquence, at this moment, had not that -same great Nether Deep, of Bedlam, Fanaticism and Popular wrath and -madness, risen unfathomable on the Tenth of August? French Patriotism were -an eloquent Reminiscence; swinging on Prussian gibbets. Nay, where, in few -months, were it still, should the same great Nether Deep subside?--Nay, as -readers of Newspapers pretend to recollect, this hatefulness of the -September Massacre is itself partly an after-thought: readers of -Newspapers can quote Gorsas and various Brissotins approving of the -September Massacre, at the time it happened; and calling it a salutary -vengeance! (See Hist. Parl. xvii. 401; Newspapers by Gorsas and others -(cited ibid. 428.) So that the real grief, after all, were not so much -righteous horror, as grief that one's own power was departing? Unhappy -Girondins! - -In the Jacobin Society, therefore, the decided Patriot complains that here -are men who with their private ambitions and animosities, will ruin -Liberty, Equality, and Brotherhood, all three: they check the spirit of -Patriotism, throw stumbling-blocks in its way; and instead of pushing on, -all shoulders at the wheel, will stand idle there, spitefully clamouring -what foul ruts there are, what rude jolts we give! To which the Jacobin -Society answers with angry roar;--with angry shriek, for there are -Citoyennes too, thick crowded in the galleries here. Citoyennes who bring -their seam with them, or their knitting-needles; and shriek or knit as the -case needs; famed Tricoteuses, Patriot Knitters;--Mere Duchesse, or the -like Deborah and Mother of the Faubourgs, giving the keynote. It is a -changed Jacobin Society; and a still changing. Where Mother Duchess now -sits, authentic Duchesses have sat. High-rouged dames went once in jewels -and spangles; now, instead of jewels, you may take the knitting-needles and -leave the rouge: the rouge will gradually give place to natural brown, -clean washed or even unwashed; and Demoiselle Theroigne herself get -scandalously fustigated. Strange enough: it is the same tribune raised in -mid-air, where a high Mirabeau, a high Barnave and Aristocrat Lameths once -thundered: whom gradually your Brissots, Guadets, Vergniauds, a hotter -style of Patriots in bonnet rouge, did displace; red heat, as one may say, -superseding light. And now your Brissots in turn, and Brissotins, -Rolandins, Girondins, are becoming supernumerary; must desert the sittings, -or be expelled: the light of the Mighty Mother is burning not red but -blue!--Provincial Daughter-Societies loudly disapprove these things; loudly -demand the swift reinstatement of such eloquent Girondins, the swift -'erasure of Marat, radiation de Marat.' The Mother Society, so far as -natural reason can predict, seems ruining herself. Nevertheless she has, -at all crises, seemed so; she has a preternatural life in her, and will not -ruin. - -But, in a fortnight more, this great Question of the Trial, while the fit -Committee is assiduously but silently working on it, receives an unexpected -stimulus. Our readers remember poor Louis's turn for smithwork: how, in -old happier days, a certain Sieur Gamain of Versailles was wont to come -over, and instruct him in lock-making;--often scolding him, they say for -his numbness. By whom, nevertheless, the royal Apprentice had learned -something of that craft. Hapless Apprentice; perfidious Master-Smith! For -now, on this 20th of November 1792, dingy Smith Gamain comes over to the -Paris Municipality, over to Minister Roland, with hints that he, Smith -Gamain, knows a thing; that, in May last, when traitorous Correspondence -was so brisk, he and the royal Apprentice fabricated an 'Iron Press, -Armoire de Fer,' cunningly inserting the same in a wall of the royal -chamber in the Tuileries; invisible under the wainscot; where doubtless it -still sticks! Perfidious Gamain, attended by the proper Authorities, finds -the wainscot panel which none else can find; wrenches it up; discloses the -Iron Press,--full of Letters and Papers! Roland clutches them out; conveys -them over in towels to the fit assiduous Committee, which sits hard by. In -towels, we say, and without notarial inventory; an oversight on the part of -Roland. - -Here, however, are Letters enough: which disclose to a demonstration the -Correspondence of a traitorous self-preserving Court; and this not with -Traitors only, but even with Patriots, so-called! Barnave's treason, of -Correspondence with the Queen, and friendly advice to her, ever since that -Varennes Business, is hereby manifest: how happy that we have him, this -Barnave, lying safe in the Prison of Grenoble, since September last, for he -had long been suspect! Talleyrand's treason, many a man's treason, if not -manifest hereby, is next to it. Mirabeau's treason: wherefore his Bust in -the Hall of the Convention 'is veiled with gauze,' till we ascertain. -Alas, it is too ascertainable! His Bust in the Hall of the Jacobins, -denounced by Robespierre from the tribune in mid-air, is not veiled, it is -instantly broken to sherds; a Patriot mounting swiftly with a ladder, and -shivering it down on the floor;--it and others: amid shouts. (Journal des -Debats des Jacobins (in Hist. Parl. xxii. 296.) Such is their recompense -and amount of wages, at this date: on the principle of supply and demand! -Smith Gamain, inadequately recompensed for the present, comes, some fifteen -months after, with a humble Petition; setting forth that no sooner was that -important Iron Press finished off by him, than (as he now bethinks himself) -Louis gave him a large glass of wine. Which large glass of wine did -produce in the stomach of Sieur Gamain the terriblest effects, evidently -tending towards death, and was then brought up by an emetic; but has, -notwithstanding, entirely ruined the constitution of Sieur Gamain; so that -he cannot work for his family (as he now bethinks himself). The recompense -of which is 'Pension of Twelve Hundred Francs,' and 'honourable mention.' -So different is the ratio of demand and supply at different times. - -Thus, amid obstructions and stimulating furtherances, has the Question of -the Trial to grow; emerging and submerging; fostered by solicitous -Patriotism. Of the Orations that were spoken on it, of the painfully -devised Forms of Process for managing it, the Law Arguments to prove it -lawful, and all the infinite floods of Juridical and other ingenuity and -oratory, be no syllable reported in this History. Lawyer ingenuity is -good: but what can it profit here? If the truth must be spoken, O august -Senators, the only Law in this case is: Vae victis, the loser pays! -Seldom did Robespierre say a wiser word than the hint he gave to that -effect, in his oration, that it was needless to speak of Law, that here, if -never elsewhere, our Right was Might. An oration admired almost to ecstasy -by the Jacobin Patriot: who shall say that Robespierre is not a thorough- -going man; bold in Logic at least? To the like effect, or still more -plainly, spake young Saint-Just, the black-haired, mild-toned youth. -Danton is on mission, in the Netherlands, during this preliminary work. -The rest, far as one reads, welter amid Law of Nations, Social Contract, -Juristics, Syllogistics; to us barren as the East wind. In fact, what can -be more unprofitable than the sight of Seven Hundred and Forty-nine -ingenious men, struggling with their whole force and industry, for a long -course of weeks, to do at bottom this: To stretch out the old Formula and -Law Phraseology, so that it may cover the new, contradictory, entirely -uncoverable Thing? Whereby the poor Formula does but crack, and one's -honesty along with it! The thing that is palpably hot, burning, wilt thou -prove it, by syllogism, to be a freezing-mixture? This of stretching out -Formulas till they crack is, especially in times of swift change, one of -the sorrowfullest tasks poor Humanity has. - - - -Chapter 3.2.VI. - -At the Bar. - -Meanwhile, in a space of some five weeks, we have got to another emerging -of the Trial, and a more practical one than ever. - -On Tuesday, eleventh of December, the King's Trial has emerged, very -decidedly: into the streets of Paris; in the shape of that green Carriage -of Mayor Chambon, within which sits the King himself, with attendants, on -his way to the Convention Hall! Attended, in that green Carriage, by -Mayors Chambon, Procureurs Chaumette; and outside of it by Commandants -Santerre, with cannon, cavalry and double row of infantry; all Sections -under arms, strong Patrols scouring all streets; so fares he, slowly -through the dull drizzling weather: and about two o'clock we behold him, -'in walnut-coloured great-coat, redingote noisette,' descending through the -Place Vendome, towards that Salle de Manege; to be indicted, and judicially -interrogated. The mysterious Temple Circuit has given up its secret; which -now, in this walnut-coloured coat, men behold with eyes. The same bodily -Louis who was once Louis the Desired, fares there: hapless King, he is -getting now towards port; his deplorable farings and voyagings draw to a -close. What duty remains to him henceforth, that of placidly enduring, he -is fit to do. - -The singular Procession fares on; in silence, says Prudhomme, or amid -growlings of the Marseillese Hymn; in silence, ushers itself into the Hall -of the Convention, Santerre holding Louis's arm with his hand. Louis looks -round him, with composed air, to see what kind of Convention and Parliament -it is. Much changed indeed:--since February gone two years, when our -Constituent, then busy, spread fleur-de-lys velvet for us; and we came over -to say a kind word here, and they all started up swearing Fidelity; and all -France started up swearing, and made it a Feast of Pikes; which has ended -in this! Barrere, who once 'wept' looking up from his Editor's-Desk, looks -down now from his President's-Chair, with a list of Fifty-seven Questions; -and says, dry-eyed: "Louis, you may sit down." Louis sits down: it is -the very seat, they say, same timber and stuffing, from which he accepted -the Constitution, amid dancing and illumination, autumn gone a year. So -much woodwork remains identical; so much else is not identical. Louis sits -and listens, with a composed look and mind. - -Of the Fifty-seven Questions we shall not give so much as one. They are -questions captiously embracing all the main Documents seized on the Tenth -of August, or found lately in the Iron Press; embracing all the main -incidents of the Revolution History; and they ask, in substance, this: -Louis, who wert King, art thou not guilty to a certain extent, by act and -written document, of trying to continue King? Neither in the Answers is -there much notable. Mere quiet negations, for most part; an accused man -standing on the simple basis of No: I do not recognise that document; I -did not do that act; or did it according to the law that then was. -Whereupon the Fifty-seven Questions, and Documents to the number of a -Hundred and Sixty-two, being exhausted in this manner, Barrere finishes, -after some three hours, with his: "Louis, I invite you to withdraw." - -Louis withdraws, under Municipal escort, into a neighbouring Committee- -room; having first, in leaving the bar, demanded to have Legal Counsel. He -declines refreshment, in this Committee-room, then, seeing Chaumette busy -with a small loaf which a grenadier had divided with him, says, he will -take a bit of bread. It is five o'clock; and he had breakfasted but -slightly in a morning of such drumming and alarm. Chaumette breaks his -half-loaf: the King eats of the crust; mounts the green Carriage, eating; -asks now what he shall do with the crumb? Chaumette's clerk takes it from -him; flings it out into the street. Louis says, It is pity to fling out -bread, in a time of dearth. "My grandmother," remarks Chaumette, "used to -say to me, Little boy, never waste a crumb of bread, you cannot make one." -"Monsieur Chaumette," answers Louis, "your grandmother seems to have been a -sensible woman." (Prudhomme's Newspaper (in Hist. Parl. xxi. 314.) Poor -innocent mortal: so quietly he waits the drawing of the lot;--fit to do -this at least well; Passivity alone, without Activity, sufficing for it! -He talks once of travelling over France by and by, to have a geographical -and topographical view of it; being from of old fond of geography.--The -Temple Circuit again receives him, closes on him; gazing Paris may retire -to its hearths and coffee-houses, to its clubs and theatres: the damp -Darkness has sunk, and with it the drumming and patrolling of this strange -Day. - -Louis is now separated from his Queen and Family; given up to his simple -reflections and resources. Dull lie these stone walls round him; of his -loved ones none with him. In this state of 'uncertainty,' providing for -the worst, he writes his Will: a Paper which can still be read; full of -placidity, simplicity, pious sweetness. The Convention, after debate, has -granted him Legal Counsel, of his own choosing. Advocate Target feels -himself 'too old,' being turned of fifty-four; and declines. He had gained -great honour once, defending Rohan the Necklace-Cardinal; but will gain -none here. Advocate Tronchet, some ten years older, does not decline. Nay -behold, good old Malesherbes steps forward voluntarily; to the last of his -fields, the good old hero! He is grey with seventy years: he says, 'I was -twice called to the Council of him who was my Master, when all the world -coveted that honour; and I owe him the same service now, when it has become -one which many reckon dangerous.' These two, with a younger Deseze, whom -they will select for pleading, are busy over that Fifty-and-sevenfold -Indictment, over the Hundred and Sixty-two Documents; Louis aiding them as -he can. - -A great Thing is now therefore in open progress; all men, in all lands, -watching it. By what Forms and Methods shall the Convention acquit itself, -in such manner that there rest not on it even the suspicion of blame? -Difficult that will be! The Convention, really much at a loss, discusses -and deliberates. All day from morning to night, day after day, the Tribune -drones with oratory on this matter; one must stretch the old Formula to -cover the new Thing. The Patriots of the Mountain, whetted ever keener, -clamour for despatch above all; the only good Form will be a swift one. -Nevertheless the Convention deliberates; the Tribune drones,--drowned -indeed in tenor, and even in treble, from time to time; the whole Hall -shrilling up round it into pretty frequent wrath and provocation. It has -droned and shrilled wellnigh a fortnight, before we can decide, this -shrillness getting ever shriller, That on Wednesday 26th of December, Louis -shall appear, and plead. His Advocates complain that it is fatally soon; -which they well might as Advocates: but without remedy; to Patriotism it -seems endlessly late. - -On Wednesday, therefore, at the cold dark hour of eight in the morning, all -Senators are at their post. Indeed they warm the cold hour, as we find, by -a violent effervescence, such as is too common now; some Louvet or Buzot -attacking some Tallien, Chabot; and so the whole Mountain effervescing -against the whole Gironde. Scarcely is this done, at nine, when Louis and -his three Advocates, escorted by the clang of arms and Santerre's National -force, enter the Hall. - -Deseze unfolds his papers; honourably fulfilling his perilous office, -pleads for the space of three hours. An honourable Pleading, 'composed -almost overnight;' courageous yet discreet; not without ingenuity, and soft -pathetic eloquence: Louis fell on his neck, when they had withdrawn, and -said with tears, Mon pauvre Deseze. Louis himself, before withdrawing, had -added a few words, "perhaps the last he would utter to them:" how it pained -his heart, above all things, to be held guilty of that bloodshed on the -Tenth of August; or of ever shedding or wishing to shed French blood. So -saying, he withdrew from that Hall;--having indeed finished his work there. -Many are the strange errands he has had thither; but this strange one is -the last. - -And now, why will the Convention loiter? Here is the Indictment and -Evidence; here is the Pleading: does not the rest follow of itself? The -Mountain, and Patriotism in general, clamours still louder for despatch; -for Permanent-session, till the task be done. Nevertheless a doubting, -apprehensive Convention decides that it will still deliberate first; that -all Members, who desire it, shall have leave to speak.--To your desks, -therefore, ye eloquent Members! Down with your thoughts, your echoes and -hearsays of thoughts: now is the time to shew oneself; France and the -Universe listens! Members are not wanting: Oration spoken Pamphlet -follows spoken Pamphlet, with what eloquence it can: President's List -swells ever higher with names claiming to speak; from day to day, all days -and all hours, the constant Tribune drones;--shrill Galleries supplying, -very variably, the tenor and treble. It were a dull tune otherwise. - -The Patriots, in Mountain and Galleries, or taking counsel nightly in -Section-house, in Mother Society, amid their shrill Tricoteuses, have to -watch lynx-eyed; to give voice when needful; occasionally very loud. -Deputy Thuriot, he who was Advocate Thuriot, who was Elector Thuriot, and -from the top of the Bastille, saw Saint-Antoine rising like the ocean; this -Thuriot can stretch a Formula as heartily as most men. Cruel Billaud is -not silent, if you incite him. Nor is cruel Jean-Bon silent; a kind of -Jesuit he too;--write him not, as the Dictionaries too often do, Jambon, -which signifies mere Ham. - -But, on the whole, let no man conceive it possible that Louis is not -guilty. The only question for a reasonable man is, or was: Can the -Convention judge Louis? Or must it be the whole People: in Primary -Assembly, and with delay? Always delay, ye Girondins, false hommes d'etat! -so bellows Patriotism, its patience almost failing.--But indeed, if we -consider it, what shall these poor Girondins do? Speak their convictions -that Louis is a Prisoner of War; and cannot be put to death without -injustice, solecism, peril? Speak such conviction; and lose utterly your -footing with the decided Patriot? Nay properly it is not even a -conviction, but a conjecture and dim puzzle. How many poor Girondins are -sure of but one thing: That a man and Girondin ought to have footing -somewhere, and to stand firmly on it; keeping well with the Respectable -Classes! This is what conviction and assurance of faith they have. They -must wriggle painfully between their dilemma-horns. (See Extracts from -their Newspapers, in Hist. Parl. xxi. 1-38, &c.) - -Nor is France idle, nor Europe. It is a Heart this Convention, as we said, -which sends out influences, and receives them. A King's Execution, call it -Martyrdom, call it Punishment, were an influence! Two notable influences -this Convention has already sent forth, over all Nations; much to its own -detriment. On the 19th of November, it emitted a Decree, and has since -confirmed and unfolded the details of it. That any Nation which might see -good to shake off the fetters of Despotism was thereby, so to speak, the -Sister of France, and should have help and countenance. A Decree much -noised of by Diplomatists, Editors, International Lawyers; such a Decree as -no living Fetter of Despotism, nor Person in Authority anywhere, can -approve of! It was Deputy Chambon the Girondin who propounded this -Decree;--at bottom perhaps as a flourish of rhetoric. - -The second influence we speak of had a still poorer origin: in the -restless loud-rattling slightly-furnished head of one Jacob Dupont from the -Loire country. The Convention is speculating on a plan of National -Education: Deputy Dupont in his speech says, "I am free to avow, M. le -President, that I for my part am an Atheist," (Moniteur, Seance du 14 -Decembre 1792.)--thinking the world might like to know that. The French -world received it without commentary; or with no audible commentary, so -loud was France otherwise. The Foreign world received it with confutation, -with horror and astonishment; (Mrs. Hannah More, Letter to Jacob Dupont -(London, 1793); &c. &c.) a most miserable influence this! And now if to -these two were added a third influence, and sent pulsing abroad over all -the Earth: that of Regicide? - -Foreign Courts interfere in this Trial of Louis; Spain, England: not to be -listened to; though they come, as it were, at least Spain comes, with the -olive-branch in one hand, and the sword without scabbard in the other. But -at home too, from out of this circumambient Paris and France, what -influences come thick-pulsing! Petitions flow in; pleading for equal -justice, in a reign of so-called Equality. The living Patriot pleads;--O -ye National Deputies, do not the dead Patriots plead? The Twelve Hundred -that lie in cold obstruction, do not they plead; and petition, in Death's -dumb-show, from their narrow house there, more eloquently than speech? -Crippled Patriots hop on crutches round the Salle de Manege, demanding -justice. The Wounded of the Tenth of August, the Widows and Orphans of the -Killed petition in a body; and hop and defile, eloquently mute, through the -Hall: one wounded Patriot, unable to hop, is borne on his bed thither, and -passes shoulder-high, in the horizontal posture. (Hist. Parl. xxii. 131; -Moore, &c.) The Convention Tribune, which has paused at such sight, -commences again,--droning mere Juristic Oratory. But out of doors Paris is -piping ever higher. Bull-voiced St. Huruge is heard; and the hysteric -eloquence of Mother Duchesse: 'Varlet, Apostle of Liberty,' with pike and -red cap, flies hastily, carrying his oratorical folding-stool. Justice on -the Traitor! cries all the Patriot world. Consider also this other cry, -heard loud on the streets: "Give us Bread, or else kill us!" Bread and -Equality; Justice on the Traitor, that we may have Bread! - -The Limited or undecided Patriot is set against the Decided. Mayor Chambon -heard of dreadful rioting at the Theatre de la Nation: it had come to -rioting, and even to fist-work, between the Decided and the Undecided, -touching a new Drama called Ami des Lois (Friend of the Laws). One of the -poorest Dramas ever written; but which had didactic applications in it; -wherefore powdered wigs of Friends of Order and black hair of Jacobin heads -are flying there; and Mayor Chambon hastens with Santerre, in hopes to -quell it. Far from quelling it, our poor Mayor gets so 'squeezed,' says -the Report, and likewise so blamed and bullied, say we,--that he, with -regret, quits the brief Mayoralty altogether, 'his lungs being affected.' -This miserable Amis des Lois is debated of in the Convention itself; so -violent, mutually-enraged, are the Limited Patriots and the Unlimited. -(Hist. Parl. xxiii. 31, 48, &c.) - -Between which two classes, are not Aristocrats enough, and Crypto- -Aristocrats, busy? Spies running over from London with important Packets; -spies pretending to run! One of these latter, Viard was the name of him, -pretended to accuse Roland, and even the Wife of Roland; to the joy of -Chabot and the Mountain. But the Wife of Roland came, being summoned, on -the instant, to the Convention Hall; came, in her high clearness; and, with -few clear words, dissipated this Viard into despicability and air; all -Friends of Order applauding. (Moniteur, Seance du 7 Decembre 1792.) So, -with Theatre-riots, and 'Bread, or else kill us;' with Rage, Hunger, -preternatural Suspicion, does this wild Paris pipe. Roland grows ever more -querulous, in his Messages and Letters; rising almost to the hysterical -pitch. Marat, whom no power on Earth can prevent seeing into traitors and -Rolands, takes to bed for three days; almost dead, the invaluable People's- -Friend, with heartbreak, with fever and headache: 'O, Peuple babillard, si -tu savais agir, People of Babblers, if thou couldst but act!' - -To crown all, victorious Dumouriez, in these New-year's days, is arrived in -Paris;--one fears, for no good. He pretends to be complaining of Minister -Pache, and Hassenfratz dilapidations; to be concerting measures for the -spring campaign: one finds him much in the company of the Girondins. -Plotting with them against Jacobinism, against Equality, and the Punishment -of Louis! We have Letters of his to the Convention itself. Will he act -the old Lafayette part, this new victorious General? Let him withdraw -again; not undenounced. (Dumouriez, Memoires, iii. c. 4.) - -And still, in the Convention Tribune, it drones continually, mere Juristic -Eloquence, and Hypothesis without Action; and there are still fifties on -the President's List. Nay these Gironde Presidents give their own party -preference: we suspect they play foul with the List; men of the Mountain -cannot be heard. And still it drones, all through December into January -and a New year; and there is no end! Paris pipes round it; multitudinous; -ever higher, to the note of the whirlwind. Paris will 'bring cannon from -Saint-Denis;' there is talk of 'shutting the Barriers,'--to Roland's -horror. - -Whereupon, behold, the Convention Tribune suddenly ceases droning: we cut -short, be on the List who likes; and make end. On Tuesday next, the -Fifteenth of January 1793, it shall go to the Vote, name by name; and, one -way or other, this great game play itself out! - - - -Chapter 3.2.VII. - -The Three Votings. - -Is Louis Capet guilty of conspiring against Liberty? Shall our Sentence be -itself final, or need ratifying by Appeal to the People? If guilty, what -Punishment? This is the form agreed to, after uproar and 'several hours of -tumultuous indecision:' these are the Three successive Questions, whereon -the Convention shall now pronounce. Paris floods round their Hall; -multitudinous, many sounding. Europe and all Nations listen for their -answer. Deputy after Deputy shall answer to his name: Guilty or Not -guilty? - -As to the Guilt, there is, as above hinted, no doubt in the mind of Patriot -man. Overwhelming majority pronounces Guilt; the unanimous Convention -votes for Guilt, only some feeble twenty-eight voting not Innocence, but -refusing to vote at all. Neither does the Second Question prove doubtful, -whatever the Girondins might calculate. Would not Appeal to the People be -another name for civil war? Majority of two to one answers that there -shall be no Appeal: this also is settled. Loud Patriotism, now at ten -o'clock, may hush itself for the night; and retire to its bed not without -hope. Tuesday has gone well. On the morrow comes, What Punishment? On -the morrow is the tug of war. - -Consider therefore if, on this Wednesday morning, there is an affluence of -Patriotism; if Paris stands a-tiptoe, and all Deputies are at their post! -Seven Hundred and Forty-nine honourable Deputies; only some twenty absent -on mission, Duchatel and some seven others absent by sickness. Meanwhile -expectant Patriotism and Paris standing a-tiptoe, have need of patience. -For this Wednesday again passes in debate and effervescence; Girondins -proposing that a 'majority of three-fourths' shall be required; Patriots -fiercely resisting them. Danton, who has just got back from mission in the -Netherlands, does obtain 'order of the day' on this Girondin proposal; nay -he obtains further that we decide sans desemparer, in Permanent-session, -till we have done. - -And so, finally, at eight in the evening this Third stupendous Voting, by -roll-call or appel nominal, does begin. What Punishment? Girondins -undecided, Patriots decided, men afraid of Royalty, men afraid of Anarchy, -must answer here and now. Infinite Patriotism, dusky in the lamp-light, -floods all corridors, crowds all galleries, sternly waiting to hear. -Shrill-sounding Ushers summon you by Name and Department; you must rise to -the Tribune and say. - -Eye-witnesses have represented this scene of the Third Voting, and of the -votings that grew out of it; a scene protracted, like to be endless, -lasting, with few brief intervals, from Wednesday till Sunday morning,--as -one of the strangest seen in the Revolution. Long night wears itself into -day, morning's paleness is spread over all faces; and again the wintry -shadows sink, and the dim lamps are lit: but through day and night and the -vicissitude of hours, Member after Member is mounting continually those -Tribune-steps; pausing aloft there, in the clearer upper light, to speak -his Fate-word; then diving down into the dusk and throng again. Like -Phantoms in the hour of midnight; most spectral, pandemonial! Never did -President Vergniaud, or any terrestrial President, superintend the like. A -King's Life, and so much else that depends thereon, hangs trembling in the -balance. Man after man mounts; the buzz hushes itself till he have spoken: -Death; Banishment: Imprisonment till the Peace. Many say, Death; with what -cautious well-studied phrases and paragraphs they could devise, of -explanation, of enforcement, of faint recommendation to mercy. Many too -say, Banishment; something short of Death. The balance trembles, none can -yet guess whitherward. Whereat anxious Patriotism bellows; irrepressible -by Ushers. - -The poor Girondins, many of them, under such fierce bellowing of -Patriotism, say Death; justifying, motivant, that most miserable word of -theirs by some brief casuistry and jesuitry. Vergniaud himself says, -Death; justifying by jesuitry. Rich Lepelletier Saint-Fargeau had been of -the Noblesse, and then of the Patriot Left Side, in the Constituent; and -had argued and reported, there and elsewhere, not a little, against Capital -Punishment: nevertheless he now says, Death; a word which may cost him -dear. Manuel did surely rank with the Decided in August last; but he has -been sinking and backsliding ever since September, and the scenes of -September. In this Convention, above all, no word he could speak would -find favour; he says now, Banishment; and in mute wrath quits the place for -ever,--much hustled in the corridors. Philippe Egalite votes in his soul -and conscience, Death, at the sound of which, and of whom, even Patriotism -shakes its head; and there runs a groan and shudder through this Hall of -Doom. Robespierre's vote cannot be doubtful; his speech is long. Men see -the figure of shrill Sieyes ascend; hardly pausing, passing merely, this -figure says, "La Mort sans phrase, Death without phrases;" and fares onward -and downward. Most spectral, pandemonial! - -And yet if the Reader fancy it of a funereal, sorrowful or even grave -character, he is far mistaken. 'The Ushers in the Mountain quarter,' says -Mercier, 'had become as Box-openers at the Opera;' opening and shutting of -Galleries for privileged persons, for 'd'Orleans Egalite's mistresses,' or -other high-dizened women of condition, rustling with laces and tricolor. -Gallant Deputies pass and repass thitherward, treating them with ices, -refreshments and small-talk; the high-dizened heads beck responsive; some -have their card and pin, pricking down the Ayes and Noes, as at a game of -Rouge-et-Noir. Further aloft reigns Mere Duchesse with her unrouged -Amazons; she cannot be prevented making long Hahas, when the vote is not La -Mort. In these Galleries there is refection, drinking of wine and brandy -'as in open tavern, en pleine tabagie.' Betting goes on in all -coffeehouses of the neighbourhood. But within doors, fatigue, impatience, -uttermost weariness sits now on all visages; lighted up only from time to -time, by turns of the game. Members have fallen asleep; Ushers come and -awaken them to vote: other Members calculate whether they shall not have -time to run and dine. Figures rise, like phantoms, pale in the dusky lamp- -light; utter from this Tribune, only one word: Death. 'Tout est optique,' -says Mercier, 'the world is all an optical shadow.' (Mercier, Nouveau -Paris, vi. 156-59; Montgaillard, iii. 348-87; Moore, &c.) Deep in the -Thursday night, when the Voting is done, and Secretaries are summing it up, -sick Duchatel, more spectral than another, comes borne on a chair, wrapt in -blankets, 'in nightgown and nightcap,' to vote for Mercy: one vote it is -thought may turn the scale. - -Ah no! In profoundest silence, President Vergniaud, with a voice full of -sorrow, has to say: "I declare, in the name of the Convention, that the -Punishment it pronounces on Louis Capet is that of Death." Death by a -small majority of Fifty-three. Nay, if we deduct from the one side, and -add to the other, a certain Twenty-six, who said Death but coupled some -faintest ineffectual surmise of mercy with it, the majority will be but -One. - -Death is the sentence: but its execution? It is not executed yet! -Scarcely is the vote declared when Louis's Three Advocates enter; with -Protest in his name, with demand for Delay, for Appeal to the People. For -this do Deseze and Tronchet plead, with brief eloquence: brave old -Malesherbes pleads for it with eloquent want of eloquence, in broken -sentences, in embarrassment and sobs; that brave time-honoured face, with -its grey strength, its broad sagacity and honesty, is mastered with -emotion, melts into dumb tears. (Moniteur (in Hist. Parl. xxiii. 210). -See Boissy d'Anglas, Vie de Malesherbes, ii. 139.)--They reject the Appeal -to the People; that having been already settled. But as to the Delay, what -they call Sursis, it shall be considered; shall be voted for to-morrow: at -present we adjourn. Whereupon Patriotism 'hisses' from the Mountain: but -a 'tyrannical majority' has so decided, and adjourns. - -There is still this fourth Vote then, growls indignant Patriotism:--this -vote, and who knows what other votes, and adjournments of voting; and the -whole matter still hovering hypothetical! And at every new vote those -Jesuit Girondins, even they who voted for Death, would so fain find a -loophole! Patriotism must watch and rage. Tyrannical adjournments there -have been; one, and now another at midnight on plea of fatigue,--all Friday -wasted in hesitation and higgling; in re-counting of the votes, which are -found correct as they stood! Patriotism bays fiercer than ever; -Patriotism, by long-watching, has become red-eyed, almost rabid. - -"Delay: yes or no?" men do vote it finally, all Saturday, all day and -night. Men's nerves are worn out, men's hearts are desperate; now it shall -end. Vergniaud, spite of the baying, ventures to say Yes, Delay; though he -had voted Death. Philippe Egalite says, in his soul and conscience, No. -The next Member mounting: "Since Philippe says No, I for my part say Yes, -Moi je dis Oui." The balance still trembles. Till finally, at three -o'clock on Sunday morning, we have: No Delay, by a majority of Seventy; -Death within four-and-twenty hours! - -Garat Minister of Justice has to go to the Temple, with this stern message: -he ejaculates repeatedly, "Quelle commission affreuse, What a frightful -function!" (Biographie des Ministres, p. 157.) Louis begs for a -Confessor; for yet three days of life, to prepare himself to die. The -Confessor is granted; the three days and all respite are refused. - -There is no deliverance, then? Thick stone walls answer, None--Has King -Louis no friends? Men of action, of courage grown desperate, in this his -extreme need? King Louis's friends are feeble and far. Not even a voice -in the coffeehouses rises for him. At Meot the Restaurateur's no Captain -Dampmartin now dines; or sees death-doing whiskerandoes on furlough exhibit -daggers of improved structure! Meot's gallant Royalists on furlough are -far across the Marches; they are wandering distracted over the world: or -their bones lie whitening Argonne Wood. Only some weak Priests 'leave -Pamphlets on all the bournestones,' this night, calling for a rescue; -calling for the pious women to rise; or are taken distributing Pamphlets, -and sent to prison. (See Prudhomme's Newspaper, Revolutions de Paris (in -Hist. Parl. xxiii. 318).) - -Nay there is one death-doer, of the ancient Meot sort, who, with effort, -has done even less and worse: slain a Deputy, and set all the Patriotism -of Paris on edge! It was five on Saturday evening when Lepelletier St. -Fargeau, having given his vote, No Delay, ran over to Fevrier's in the -Palais Royal to snatch a morsel of dinner. He had dined, and was paying. -A thickset man 'with black hair and blue beard,' in a loose kind of frock, -stept up to him; it was, as Fevrier and the bystanders bethought them, one -Paris of the old King's-Guard. "Are you Lepelletier?" asks he.--"Yes."-- -"You voted in the King's Business?"--"I voted Death."--"Scelerat, take -that!" cries Paris, flashing out a sabre from under his frock, and plunging -it deep in Lepelletier's side. Fevrier clutches him; but he breaks off; is -gone. - -The voter Lepelletier lies dead; he has expired in great pain, at one in -the morning;--two hours before that Vote of no Delay was fully summed up! -Guardsman Paris is flying over France; cannot be taken; will be found some -months after, self-shot in a remote inn. (Hist. Parl. xxiii. 275, 318; -Felix Lepelletier, Vie de Michel Lepelletier son Frere, p. 61. &c. Felix, -with due love of the miraculous, will have it that the Suicide in the inn -was not Paris, but some double-ganger of his.)--Robespierre sees reason to -think that Prince d'Artois himself is privately in Town; that the -Convention will be butchered in the lump. Patriotism sounds mere wail and -vengeance: Santerre doubles and trebles all his patrols. Pity is lost in -rage and fear; the Convention has refused the three days of life and all -respite. - - - -Chapter 3.2.VIII. - -Place de la Revolution. - -To this conclusion, then, hast thou come, O hapless, Louis! The Son of -Sixty Kings is to die on the Scaffold by form of law. Under Sixty Kings -this same form of Law, form of Society, has been fashioning itself -together, these thousand years; and has become, one way and other, a most -strange Machine. Surely, if needful, it is also frightful this Machine; -dead, blind; not what it should be; which, with swift stroke, or by cold -slow torture, has wasted the lives and souls of innumerable men. And -behold now a King himself, or say rather Kinghood in his person, is to -expire here in cruel tortures;--like a Phalaris shut in the belly of his -own red-heated Brazen Bull! It is ever so; and thou shouldst know it, O -haughty tyrannous man: injustice breeds injustice; curses and falsehoods -do verily 'return always home,' wide as they may wander. Innocent Louis -bears the sins of many generations: he too experiences that man's tribunal -is not in this Earth; that if he had no Higher one, it were not well with -him. - -A King dying by such violence appeals impressively to the imagination; as -the like must do, and ought to do. And yet at bottom it is not the King -dying, but the Man! Kingship is a coat; the grand loss is of the skin. -The man from whom you take his Life, to him can the whole combined world do -more? Lally went on his hurdle, his mouth filled with a gag. Miserablest -mortals, doomed for picking pockets, have a whole five-act Tragedy in them, -in that dumb pain, as they go to the gallows, unregarded; they consume the -cup of trembling down to the lees. For Kings and for Beggars, for the -justly doomed and the unjustly, it is a hard thing to die. Pity them all: -thy utmost pity with all aids and appliances and throne-and-scaffold -contrasts, how far short is it of the thing pitied! - -A Confessor has come; Abbe Edgeworth, of Irish extraction, whom the King -knew by good report, has come promptly on this solemn mission. Leave the -Earth alone, then, thou hapless King; it with its malice will go its way, -thou also canst go thine. A hard scene yet remains: the parting with our -loved ones. Kind hearts, environed in the same grim peril with us; to be -left here! Let the Reader look with the eyes of Valet Clery, through these -glass-doors, where also the Municipality watches; and see the cruellest of -scenes: - -'At half-past eight, the door of the ante-room opened: the Queen appeared -first, leading her Son by the hand; then Madame Royale and Madame -Elizabeth: they all flung themselves into the arms of the King. Silence -reigned for some minutes; interrupted only by sobs. The Queen made a -movement to lead his Majesty towards the inner room, where M. Edgeworth was -waiting unknown to them: "No," said the King, "let us go into the dining- -room, it is there only that I can see you." They entered there; I shut the -door of it, which was of glass. The King sat down, the Queen on his left -hand, Madame Elizabeth on his right, Madame Royale almost in front; the -young Prince remained standing between his Father's legs. They all leaned -towards him, and often held him embraced. This scene of woe lasted an hour -and three-quarters; during which we could hear nothing; we could see only -that always when the King spoke, the sobbings of the Princesses redoubled, -continued for some minutes; and that then the King began again to speak.' -(Clery's Narrative (London, 1798), cited in Weber, iii. 312.)--And so our -meetings and our partings do now end! The sorrows we gave each other; the -poor joys we faithfully shared, and all our lovings and our sufferings, and -confused toilings under the earthly Sun, are over. Thou good soul, I shall -never, never through all ages of Time, see thee any more!--NEVER! O -Reader, knowest thou that hard word? - -For nearly two hours this agony lasts; then they tear themselves asunder. -"Promise that you will see us on the morrow." He promises:--Ah yes, yes; -yet once; and go now, ye loved ones; cry to God for yourselves and me!--It -was a hard scene, but it is over. He will not see them on the morrow. The -Queen in passing through the ante-room glanced at the Cerberus Municipals; -and with woman's vehemence, said through her tears, "Vous etes tous des -scelerats." - -King Louis slept sound, till five in the morning, when Clery, as he had -been ordered, awoke him. Clery dressed his hair. While this went forward, -Louis took a ring from his watch, and kept trying it on his finger; it was -his wedding-ring, which he is now to return to the Queen as a mute -farewell. At half-past six, he took the Sacrament; and continued in -devotion, and conference with Abbe Edgeworth. He will not see his Family: -it were too hard to bear. - -At eight, the Municipals enter: the King gives them his Will and messages -and effects; which they, at first, brutally refuse to take charge of: he -gives them a roll of gold pieces, a hundred and twenty-five louis; these -are to be returned to Malesherbes, who had lent them. At nine, Santerre -says the hour is come. The King begs yet to retire for three minutes. At -the end of three minutes, Santerre again says the hour is come. 'Stamping -on the ground with his right foot, Louis answers: "Partons, let us go."'-- -How the rolling of those drums comes in, through the Temple bastions and -bulwarks, on the heart of a queenly wife; soon to be a widow! He is gone, -then, and has not seen us? A Queen weeps bitterly; a King's Sister and -Children. Over all these Four does Death also hover: all shall perish -miserably save one; she, as Duchesse d'Angouleme, will live,--not happily. - -At the Temple Gate were some faint cries, perhaps from voices of pitiful -women: "Grace! Grace!" Through the rest of the streets there is silence -as of the grave. No man not armed is allowed to be there: the armed, did -any even pity, dare not express it, each man overawed by all his -neighbours. All windows are down, none seen looking through them. All -shops are shut. No wheel-carriage rolls this morning, in these streets but -one only. Eighty thousand armed men stand ranked, like armed statues of -men; cannons bristle, cannoneers with match burning, but no word or -movement: it is as a city enchanted into silence and stone; one carriage -with its escort, slowly rumbling, is the only sound. Louis reads, in his -Book of Devotion, the Prayers of the Dying: clatter of this death-march -falls sharp on the ear, in the great silence; but the thought would fain -struggle heavenward, and forget the Earth. - -As the clocks strike ten, behold the Place de la Revolution, once Place de -Louis Quinze: the Guillotine, mounted near the old Pedestal where once -stood the Statue of that Louis! Far round, all bristles with cannons and -armed men: spectators crowding in the rear; d'Orleans Egalite there in -cabriolet. Swift messengers, hoquetons, speed to the Townhall, every three -minutes: near by is the Convention sitting,--vengeful for Lepelletier. -Heedless of all, Louis reads his Prayers of the Dying; not till five -minutes yet has he finished; then the Carriage opens. What temper he is -in? Ten different witnesses will give ten different accounts of it. He is -in the collision of all tempers; arrived now at the black Mahlstrom and -descent of Death: in sorrow, in indignation, in resignation struggling to -be resigned. "Take care of M. Edgeworth," he straitly charges the -Lieutenant who is sitting with them: then they two descend. - -The drums are beating: "Taisez-vous, Silence!" he cries 'in a terrible -voice, d'une voix terrible.' He mounts the scaffold, not without delay; he -is in puce coat, breeches of grey, white stockings. He strips off the -coat; stands disclosed in a sleeve-waistcoat of white flannel. The -Executioners approach to bind him: he spurns, resists; Abbe Edgeworth has -to remind him how the Saviour, in whom men trust, submitted to be bound. -His hands are tied, his head bare; the fatal moment is come. He advances -to the edge of the Scaffold, 'his face very red,' and says: "Frenchmen, I -die innocent: it is from the Scaffold and near appearing before God that I -tell you so. I pardon my enemies; I desire that France--" A General on -horseback, Santerre or another, prances out with uplifted hand: -"Tambours!" The drums drown the voice. "Executioners do your duty!" The -Executioners, desperate lest themselves be murdered (for Santerre and his -Armed Ranks will strike, if they do not), seize the hapless Louis: six of -them desperate, him singly desperate, struggling there; and bind him to -their plank. Abbe Edgeworth, stooping, bespeaks him: "Son of Saint Louis, -ascend to Heaven." The Axe clanks down; a King's Life is shorn away. It -is Monday the 21st of January 1793. He was aged Thirty-eight years four -months and twenty-eight days. (Newspapers, Municipal Records, &c. &c. (in -Hist. Parl. xxiii. 298-349) Deux Amis (ix. 369-373), Mercier (Nouveau -Paris, iii. 3-8).) - -Executioner Samson shews the Head: fierce shout of Vive la Republique -rises, and swells; caps raised on bayonets, hats waving: students of the -College of Four Nations take it up, on the far Quais; fling it over Paris. -Orleans drives off in his cabriolet; the Townhall Councillors rub their -hands, saying, "It is done, It is done." There is dipping of -handkerchiefs, of pike-points in the blood. Headsman Samson, though he -afterwards denied it, (His Letter in the Newspapers (Hist. Parl. ubi -supra).) sells locks of the hair: fractions of the puce coat are long -after worn in rings. (Forster's Briefwechsel, i. 473.)--And so, in some -half-hour it is done; and the multitude has all departed. Pastrycooks, -coffee-sellers, milkmen sing out their trivial quotidian cries: the world -wags on, as if this were a common day. In the coffeehouses that evening, -says Prudhomme, Patriot shook hands with Patriot in a more cordial manner -than usual. Not till some days after, according to Mercier, did public men -see what a grave thing it was. - -A grave thing it indisputably is; and will have consequences. On the -morrow morning, Roland, so long steeped to the lips in disgust and chagrin, -sends in his demission. His accounts lie all ready, correct in black-on- -white to the uttermost farthing: these he wants but to have audited, that -he might retire to remote obscurity to the country and his books. They -will never be audited those accounts; he will never get retired thither. - -It was on Tuesday that Roland demitted. On Thursday comes Lepelletier St. -Fargeau's Funeral, and passage to the Pantheon of Great Men. Notable as -the wild pageant of a winter day. The Body is borne aloft, half-bare; the -winding sheet disclosing the death-wound: sabre and bloody clothes parade -themselves; a 'lugubrious music' wailing harsh naeniae. Oak-crowns shower -down from windows; President Vergniaud walks there, with Convention, with -Jacobin Society, and all Patriots of every colour, all mourning -brotherlike. - -Notable also for another thing, this Burial of Lepelletier: it was the -last act these men ever did with concert! All Parties and figures of -Opinion, that agitate this distracted France and its Convention, now stand, -as it were, face to face, and dagger to dagger; the King's Life, round -which they all struck and battled, being hurled down. Dumouriez, -conquering Holland, growls ominous discontent, at the head of Armies. Men -say Dumouriez will have a King; that young d'Orleans Egalite shall be his -King. Deputy Fauchet, in the Journal des Amis, curses his day, more -bitterly than Job did; invokes the poniards of Regicides, of 'Arras Vipers' -or Robespierres, of Pluto Dantons, of horrid Butchers Legendre and -Simulacra d'Herbois, to send him swiftly to another world than theirs. -(Hist. Parl. ubi supra.) This is Te-Deum Fauchet, of the Bastille Victory, -of the Cercle Social. Sharp was the death-hail rattling round one's Flag- -of-truce, on that Bastille day: but it was soft to such wreckage of high -Hope as this; one's New Golden Era going down in leaden dross, and -sulphurous black of the Everlasting Darkness! - -At home this Killing of a King has divided all friends; and abroad it has -united all enemies. Fraternity of Peoples, Revolutionary Propagandism; -Atheism, Regicide; total destruction of social order in this world! All -Kings, and lovers of Kings, and haters of Anarchy, rank in coalition; as in -a war for life. England signifies to Citizen Chauvelin, the Ambassador or -rather Ambassador's-Cloak, that he must quit the country in eight days. -Ambassador's-Cloak and Ambassador, Chauvelin and Talleyrand, depart -accordingly. (Annual Register of 1793, pp. 114-128.) Talleyrand, -implicated in that Iron Press of the Tuileries, thinks it safest to make -for America. - -England has cast out the Embassy: England declares war,--being shocked -principally, it would seem, at the condition of the River Scheldt. Spain -declares war; being shocked principally at some other thing; which -doubtless the Manifesto indicates. (23d March (Annual Register, p. 161).) -Nay we find it was not England that declared war first, or Spain first; but -that France herself declared war first on both of them; (1st February; 7th -March (Moniteur of these dates).)--a point of immense Parliamentary and -Journalistic interest in those days, but which has become of no interest -whatever in these. They all declare war. The sword is drawn, the scabbard -thrown away. It is even as Danton said, in one of his all-too gigantic -figures: "The coalised Kings threaten us; we hurl at their feet, as gage -of battle, the Head of a King." - - - - -BOOK 3.III. - -THE GIRONDINS - - -Chapter 3.3.I. - -Cause and Effect. - -This huge Insurrectionary Movement, which we liken to a breaking out of -Tophet and the Abyss, has swept away Royalty, Aristocracy, and a King's -life. The question is, What will it next do; how will it henceforth shape -itself? Settle down into a reign of Law and Liberty; according as the -habits, persuasions and endeavours of the educated, monied, respectable -class prescribe? That is to say: the volcanic lava-flood, bursting up in -the manner described, will explode and flow according to Girondin Formula -and pre-established rule of Philosophy? If so, for our Girondin friends it -will be well. - -Meanwhile were not the prophecy rather that as no external force, Royal or -other, now remains which could control this Movement, the Movement will -follow a course of its own; probably a very original one? Further, that -whatsoever man or men can best interpret the inward tendencies it has, and -give them voice and activity, will obtain the lead of it? For the rest, -that as a thing without order, a thing proceeding from beyond and beneath -the region of order, it must work and welter, not as a Regularity but as a -Chaos; destructive and self-destructive; always till something that has -order arise, strong enough to bind it into subjection again? Which -something, we may further conjecture, will not be a Formula, with -philosophical propositions and forensic eloquence; but a Reality, probably -with a sword in its hand! - -As for the Girondin Formula, of a respectable Republic for the Middle -Classes, all manner of Aristocracies being now sufficiently demolished, -there seems little reason to expect that the business will stop there. -Liberty, Equality, Fraternity, these are the words; enunciative and -prophetic. Republic for the respectable washed Middle Classes, how can -that be the fulfilment thereof? Hunger and nakedness, and nightmare -oppression lying heavy on Twenty-five million hearts; this, not the wounded -vanities or contradicted philosophies of philosophical Advocates, rich -Shopkeepers, rural Noblesse, was the prime mover in the French Revolution; -as the like will be in all such Revolutions, in all countries. Feudal -Fleur-de-lys had become an insupportably bad marching banner, and needed to -be torn and trampled: but Moneybag of Mammon (for that, in these times, is -what the respectable Republic for the Middle Classes will signify) is a -still worse, while it lasts. Properly, indeed, it is the worst and basest -of all banners, and symbols of dominion among men; and indeed is possible -only in a time of general Atheism, and Unbelief in any thing save in brute -Force and Sensualism; pride of birth, pride of office, any known kind of -pride being a degree better than purse-pride. Freedom, Equality, -Brotherhood: not in the Moneybag, but far elsewhere, will Sansculottism -seek these things. - -We say therefore that an Insurrectionary France, loose of control from -without, destitute of supreme order from within, will form one of the most -tumultuous Activities ever seen on this Earth; such as no Girondin Formula -can regulate. An immeasurable force, made up of forces manifold, -heterogeneous, compatible and incompatible. In plainer words, this France -must needs split into Parties; each of which seeking to make itself good, -contradiction, exasperation will arise; and Parties on Parties find that -they cannot work together, cannot exist together. - -As for the number of Parties, there will, strictly counting, be as many -Parties as there are Opinions. According to which rule, in this National -Convention itself, to say nothing of France generally, the number of -Parties ought to be Seven Hundred and Forty-Nine; for every unit entertains -his opinion. But now as every unit has at once an individual nature, or -necessity to follow his own road, and a gregarious nature or necessity to -see himself travelling by the side of others,--what can there be but -dissolutions, precipitations, endless turbulence of attracting and -repelling; till once the master-element get evolved, and this wild alchemy -arrange itself again? - -To the length of Seven Hundred and Forty-nine Parties, however, no Nation -was ever yet seen to go. Nor indeed much beyond the length of Two Parties; -two at a time;--so invincible is man's tendency to unite, with all the -invincible divisiveness he has! Two Parties, we say, are the usual number -at one time: let these two fight it out, all minor shades of party -rallying under the shade likest them; when the one has fought down the -other, then it, in its turn, may divide, self-destructive; and so the -process continue, as far as needful. This is the way of Revolutions, which -spring up as the French one has done; when the so-called Bonds of Society -snap asunder; and all Laws that are not Laws of Nature become naught and -Formulas merely. - -But quitting these somewhat abstract considerations, let History note this -concrete reality which the streets of Paris exhibit, on Monday the 25th of -February 1793. Long before daylight that morning, these streets are noisy -and angry. Petitioning enough there has been; a Convention often -solicited. It was but yesterday there came a Deputation of Washerwomen -with Petition; complaining that not so much as soap could be had; to say -nothing of bread, and condiments of bread. The cry of women, round the -Salle de Manege, was heard plaintive: "Du pain et du savon, Bread and -Soap." (Moniteur &c. (Hist. Parl. xxiv. 332-348.) - -And now from six o'clock, this Monday morning, one perceives the Baker's -Queues unusually expanded, angrily agitating themselves. Not the Baker -alone, but two Section Commissioners to help him, manage with difficulty -the daily distribution of loaves. Soft-spoken assiduous, in the early -candle-light, are Baker and Commissioners: and yet the pale chill February -sunrise discloses an unpromising scene. Indignant Female Patriots, partly -supplied with bread, rush now to the shops, declaring that they will have -groceries. Groceries enough: sugar-barrels rolled forth into the street, -Patriot Citoyennes weighing it out at a just rate of eleven-pence a pound; -likewise coffee-chests, soap-chests, nay cinnamon and cloves-chests, with -aquavitae and other forms of alcohol,--at a just rate, which some do not -pay; the pale-faced Grocer silently wringing his hands! What help? The -distributive Citoyennes are of violent speech and gesture, their long -Eumenides' hair hanging out of curl; nay in their girdles pistols are seen -sticking: some, it is even said, have beards,--male Patriots in petticoats -and mob-cap. Thus, in the streets of Lombards, in the street of Five- -Diamonds, street of Pullies, in most streets of Paris does it effervesce, -the livelong day; no Municipality, no Mayor Pache, though he was War- -Minister lately, sends military against it, or aught against it but -persuasive-eloquence, till seven at night, or later. - -On Monday gone five weeks, which was the twenty-first of January, we saw -Paris, beheading its King, stand silent, like a petrified City of -Enchantment: and now on this Monday it is so noisy, selling sugar! -Cities, especially Cities in Revolution, are subject to these alternations; -the secret courses of civic business and existence effervescing and -efflorescing, in this manner, as a concrete Phenomenon to the eye. Of -which Phenomenon, when secret existence becoming public effloresces on the -street, the philosophical cause-and-effect is not so easy to find. What, -for example, may be the accurate philosophical meaning, and meanings, of -this sale of sugar? These things that have become visible in the street of -Pullies and over Paris, whence are they, we say; and whither?-- - -That Pitt has a hand in it, the gold of Pitt: so much, to all reasonable -Patriot men, may seem clear. But then, through what agents of Pitt? -Varlet, Apostle of Liberty, was discerned again of late, with his pike and -his red nightcap. Deputy Marat published in his journal, this very day, -complaining of the bitter scarcity, and sufferings of the people, till he -seemed to get wroth: 'If your Rights of Man were anything but a piece of -written paper, the plunder of a few shops, and a forestaller or two hung up -at the door-lintels, would put an end to such things.' (Hist. Parl. xxiv. -353-356.) Are not these, say the Girondins, pregnant indications? Pitt -has bribed the Anarchists; Marat is the agent of Pitt: hence this sale of -sugar. To the Mother Society, again, it is clear that the scarcity is -factitious; is the work of Girondins, and such like; a set of men sold -partly to Pitt; sold wholly to their own ambitions, and hard-hearted -pedantries; who will not fix the grain-prices, but prate pedantically of -free-trade; wishing to starve Paris into violence, and embroil it with the -Departments: hence this sale of sugar. - -And, alas, if to these two notabilities, of a Phenomenon and such Theories -of a Phenomenon, we add this third notability, That the French Nation has -believed, for several years now, in the possibility, nay certainty and near -advent, of a universal Millennium, or reign of Freedom, Equality, -Fraternity, wherein man should be the brother of man, and sorrow and sin -flee away? Not bread to eat, nor soap to wish with; and the reign of -perfect Felicity ready to arrive, due always since the Bastille fell! How -did our hearts burn within us, at that Feast of Pikes, when brother flung -himself on brother's bosom; and in sunny jubilee, Twenty-five millions -burst forth into sound and cannon-smoke! Bright was our Hope then, as -sunlight; red-angry is our Hope grown now, as consuming fire. But, O -Heavens, what enchantment is it, or devilish legerdemain, of such effect, -that Perfect Felicity, always within arm's length, could never be laid hold -of, but only in her stead Controversy and Scarcity? This set of traitors -after that set! Tremble, ye traitors; dread a People which calls itself -patient, long-suffering; but which cannot always submit to have its pocket -picked, in this way,--of a Millennium! - -Yes, Reader, here is a miracle. Out of that putrescent rubbish of -Scepticism, Sensualism, Sentimentalism, hollow Machiavelism, such a Faith -has verily risen; flaming in the heart of a People. A whole People, -awakening as it were to consciousness in deep misery, believes that it is -within reach of a Fraternal Heaven-on-Earth. With longing arms, it -struggles to embrace the Unspeakable; cannot embrace it, owing to certain -causes.--Seldom do we find that a whole People can be said to have any -Faith at all; except in things which it can eat and handle. Whensoever it -gets any Faith, its history becomes spirit-stirring, note-worthy. But -since the time when steel Europe shook itself simultaneously, at the word -of Hermit Peter, and rushed towards the Sepulchre where God had lain, there -was no universal impulse of Faith that one could note. Since Protestantism -went silent, no Luther's voice, no Zisca's drum any longer proclaiming that -God's Truth was not the Devil's Lie; and the last of the Cameronians -(Renwick was the name of him; honour to the name of the brave!) sank, shot, -on the Castle Hill of Edinburgh, there was no partial impulse of Faith -among Nations. Till now, behold, once more this French Nation believes! -Herein, we say, in that astonishing Faith of theirs, lies the miracle. It -is a Faith undoubtedly of the more prodigious sort, even among Faiths; and -will embody itself in prodigies. It is the soul of that world-prodigy -named French Revolution; whereat the world still gazes and shudders. - -But, for the rest, let no man ask History to explain by cause-and-effect -how the business proceeded henceforth. This battle of Mountain and -Gironde, and what follows, is the battle of Fanaticisms and Miracles; -unsuitable for cause-and-effect. The sound of it, to the mind, is as a -hubbub of voices in distraction; little of articulate is to be gathered by -long listening and studying; only battle-tumult, shouts of triumph, shrieks -of despair. The Mountain has left no Memoirs; the Girondins have left -Memoirs, which are too often little other than long-drawn Interjections, of -Woe is me and Cursed be ye. So soon as History can philosophically -delineate the conflagration of a kindled Fireship, she may try this other -task. Here lay the bitumen-stratum, there the brimstone one; so ran the -vein of gunpowder, of nitre, terebinth and foul grease: this, were she -inquisitive enough, History might partly know. But how they acted and -reacted below decks, one fire-stratum playing into the other, by its nature -and the art of man, now when all hands ran raging, and the flames lashed -high over shrouds and topmast: this let not History attempt. - -The Fireship is old France, the old French Form of Life; her creed a -Generation of men. Wild are their cries and their ragings there, like -spirits tormented in that flame. But, on the whole, are they not gone, O -Reader? Their Fireship and they, frightening the world, have sailed away; -its flames and its thunders quite away, into the Deep of Time. One thing -therefore History will do: pity them all; for it went hard with them all. -Not even the seagreen Incorruptible but shall have some pity, some human -love, though it takes an effort. And now, so much once thoroughly -attained, the rest will become easier. To the eye of equal brotherly pity, -innumerable perversions dissipate themselves; exaggerations and execrations -fall off, of their own accord. Standing wistfully on the safe shore, we -will look, and see, what is of interest to us, what is adapted to us. - - - -Chapter 3.3.II. - -Culottic and Sansculottic. - -Gironde and Mountain are now in full quarrel; their mutual rage, says -Toulongeon, is growing a 'pale' rage. Curious, lamentable: all these men -have the word Republic on their lips; in the heart of every one of them is -a passionate wish for something which he calls Republic: yet see their -death-quarrel! So, however, are men made. Creatures who live in -confusion; who, once thrown together, can readily fall into that confusion -of confusions which quarrel is, simply because their confusions differ from -one another; still more because they seem to differ! Men's words are a -poor exponent of their thought; nay their thought itself is a poor exponent -of the inward unnamed Mystery, wherefrom both thought and action have their -birth. No man can explain himself, can get himself explained; men see not -one another but distorted phantasms which they call one another; which they -hate and go to battle with: for all battle is well said to be -misunderstanding. - -But indeed that similitude of the Fireship; of our poor French brethren, so -fiery themselves, working also in an element of fire, was not -insignificant. Consider it well, there is a shade of the truth in it. For -a man, once committed headlong to republican or any other -Transcendentalism, and fighting and fanaticising amid a Nation of his like, -becomes as it were enveloped in an ambient atmosphere of Transcendentalism -and Delirium: his individual self is lost in something that is not -himself, but foreign though inseparable from him. Strange to think of, the -man's cloak still seems to hold the same man: and yet the man is not -there, his volition is not there; nor the source of what he will do and -devise; instead of the man and his volition there is a piece of Fanaticism -and Fatalism incarnated in the shape of him. He, the hapless incarnated -Fanaticism, goes his road; no man can help him, he himself least of all. -It is a wonderful tragical predicament;--such as human language, unused to -deal with these things, being contrived for the uses of common life, -struggles to shadow out in figures. The ambient element of material fire -is not wilder than this of Fanaticism; nor, though visible to the eye, is -it more real. Volition bursts forth involuntary; rapt along; the movement -of free human minds becomes a raging tornado of fatalism, blind as the -winds; and Mountain and Gironde, when they recover themselves, are alike -astounded to see where it has flung and dropt them. To such height of -miracle can men work on men; the Conscious and the Unconscious blended -inscrutably in this our inscrutable Life; endless Necessity environing -Freewill! - -The weapons of the Girondins are Political Philosophy, Respectability and -Eloquence. Eloquence, or call it rhetoric, really of a superior order; -Vergniaud, for instance, turns a period as sweetly as any man of that -generation. The weapons of the Mountain are those of mere nature: -Audacity and Impetuosity which may become Ferocity, as of men complete in -their determination, in their conviction; nay of men, in some cases, who as -Septemberers must either prevail or perish. The ground to be fought for is -Popularity: further you may either seek Popularity with the friends of -Freedom and Order, or with the friends of Freedom Simple; to seek it with -both has unhappily become impossible. With the former sort, and generally -with the Authorities of the Departments, and such as read Parliamentary -Debates, and are of Respectability, and of a peace-loving monied nature, -the Girondins carry it. With the extreme Patriot again, with the indigent -millions, especially with the Population of Paris who do not read so much -as hear and see, the Girondins altogether lose it, and the Mountain carries -it. - -Egoism, nor meanness of mind, is not wanting on either side. Surely not on -the Girondin side; where in fact the instinct of self-preservation, too -prominently unfolded by circumstances, cuts almost a sorry figure; where -also a certain finesse, to the length even of shuffling and shamming, now -and then shews itself. They are men skilful in Advocate-fence. They have -been called the Jesuits of the Revolution; (Dumouriez, Memoires, iii. 314.) -but that is too hard a name. It must be owned likewise that this rude -blustering Mountain has a sense in it of what the Revolution means; which -these eloquent Girondins are totally void of. Was the Revolution made, and -fought for, against the world, these four weary years, that a Formula might -be substantiated; that Society might become methodic, demonstrable by -logic; and the old Noblesse with their pretensions vanish? Or ought it not -withal to bring some glimmering of light and alleviation to the Twenty-five -Millions, who sat in darkness, heavy-laden, till they rose with pikes in -their hands? At least and lowest, one would think, it should bring them a -proportion of bread to live on? There is in the Mountain here and there; -in Marat People's-friend; in the incorruptible Seagreen himself, though -otherwise so lean and formularly, a heartfelt knowledge of this latter -fact;--without which knowledge all other knowledge here is naught, and the -choicest forensic eloquence is as sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal. -Most cold, on the other hand, most patronising, unsubstantial is the tone -of the Girondins towards 'our poorer brethren;'--those brethren whom one -often hears of under the collective name of 'the masses,' as if they were -not persons at all, but mounds of combustible explosive material, for -blowing down Bastilles with! In very truth, a Revolutionist of this kind, -is he not a Solecism? Disowned by Nature and Art; deserving only to be -erased, and disappear! Surely, to our poorer brethren of Paris, all this -Girondin patronage sounds deadening and killing: if fine-spoken and -incontrovertible in logic, then all the falser, all the hatefuller in fact. - -Nay doubtless, pleading for Popularity, here among our poorer brethren of -Paris, the Girondin has a hard game to play. If he gain the ear of the -Respectable at a distance, it is by insisting on September and such like; -it is at the expense of this Paris where he dwells and perorates. Hard to -perorate in such an auditory! Wherefore the question arises: Could we not -get ourselves out of this Paris? Twice or oftener such an attempt is made. -If not we ourselves, thinks Guadet, then at least our Suppleans might do -it. For every Deputy has his Suppleant, or Substitute, who will take his -place if need be: might not these assemble, say at Bourges, which is a -quiet episcopal Town, in quiet Berri, forty good leagues off? In that -case, what profit were it for the Paris Sansculottery to insult us; our -Suppleans sitting quiet in Bourges, to whom we could run? Nay even the -Primary electoral Assemblies, thinks Guadet, might be reconvoked, and a New -Convention got, with new orders from the Sovereign people; and right glad -were Lyons, were Bourdeaux, Rouen, Marseilles, as yet Provincial Towns, to -welcome us in their turn, and become a sort of Capital Towns; and teach -these Parisians reason. - -Fond schemes; which all misgo! If decreed, in heat of eloquent logic, to- -day, they are repealed, by clamour, and passionate wider considerations, on -the morrow. (Moniteur, 1793, No. 140, &c.) Will you, O Girondins, parcel -us into separate Republics, then; like the Swiss, like your Americans; so -that there be no Metropolis or indivisible French Nation any more? Your -Departmental Guard seemed to point that way! Federal Republic? -Federalist? Men and Knitting-women repeat Federaliste, with or without -much Dictionary-meaning; but go on repeating it, as is usual in such cases, -till the meaning of it becomes almost magical, fit to designate all mystery -of Iniquity; and Federaliste has grown a word of Exorcism and Apage- -Satanas. But furthermore, consider what 'poisoning of public opinion' in -the Departments, by these Brissot, Gorsas, Caritat-Condorcet Newspapers! -And then also what counter-poisoning, still feller in quality, by a Pere -Duchesne of Hebert, brutallest Newspaper yet published on Earth; by a -Rougiff of Guffroy; by the 'incendiary leaves of Marat!' More than once, -on complaint given and effervescence rising, it is decreed that a man -cannot both be Legislator and Editor; that he shall choose between the one -function and the other. (Hist. Parl. xxv. 25, &c.) But this too, which -indeed could help little, is revoked or eluded; remains a pious wish -mainly. - -Meanwhile, as the sad fruit of such strife, behold, O ye National -Representatives, how between the friends of Law and the friends of Freedom -everywhere, mere heats and jealousies have arisen; fevering the whole -Republic! Department, Provincial Town is set against Metropolis, Rich -against Poor, Culottic against Sansculottic, man against man. From the -Southern Cities come Addresses of an almost inculpatory character; for -Paris has long suffered Newspaper calumny. Bourdeaux demands a reign of -Law and Respectability, meaning Girondism, with emphasis. With emphasis -Marseilles demands the like. Nay from Marseilles there come two Addresses: -one Girondin; one Jacobin Sansculottic. Hot Rebecqui, sick of this -Convention-work, has given place to his Substitute, and gone home; where -also, with such jarrings, there is work to be sick of. - -Lyons, a place of Capitalists and Aristocrats, is in still worse state; -almost in revolt. Chalier the Jacobin Town-Councillor has got, too -literally, to daggers-drawn with Nievre-Chol the Moderantin Mayor; one of -your Moderate, perhaps Aristocrat, Royalist or Federalist Mayors! Chalier, -who pilgrimed to Paris 'to behold Marat and the Mountain,' has verily -kindled himself at their sacred urn: for on the 6th of February last, -History or Rumour has seen him haranguing his Lyons Jacobins in a quite -transcendental manner, with a drawn dagger in his hand; recommending (they -say) sheer September-methods, patience being worn out; and that the Jacobin -Brethren should, impromptu, work the Guillotine themselves! One sees him -still, in Engravings: mounted on a table; foot advanced, body contorted; a -bald, rude, slope-browed, infuriated visage of the canine species, the eyes -starting from their sockets; in his puissant right-hand the brandished -dagger, or horse-pistol, as some give it; other dog-visages kindling under -him:--a man not likely to end well! However, the Guillotine was not got -together impromptu, that day, 'on the Pont Saint-Clair,' or elsewhere; but -indeed continued lying rusty in its loft: (Hist. Parl. xxiv. 385-93; xxvi. -229, &c.) Nievre-Chol with military went about, rumbling cannon, in the -most confused manner; and the 'nine hundred prisoners' received no hurt. -So distracted is Lyons grown, with its cannon rumbling. Convention -Commissioners must be sent thither forthwith: if even they can appease it, -and keep the Guillotine in its loft? - -Consider finally if, on all these mad jarrings of the Southern Cities, and -of France generally, a traitorous Crypto-Royalist class is not looking and -watching; ready to strike in, at the right season! Neither is there bread; -neither is there soap: see the Patriot women selling out sugar, at a just -rate of twenty-two sous per pound! Citizen Representatives, it were verily -well that your quarrels finished, and the reign of Perfect Felicity began. - - - -Chapter 3.3.III. - -Growing shrill. - -On the whole, one cannot say that the Girondins are wanting to themselves, -so far as good-will might go. They prick assiduously into the sore-places -of the Mountain; from principle, and also from jesuitism. - -Besides September, of which there is now little to be made except -effervescence, we discern two sore-places where the Mountain often suffers: -Marat and Orleans Egalite. Squalid Marat, for his own sake and for the -Mountain's, is assaulted ever and anon; held up to France, as a squalid -bloodthirsty Portent, inciting to the pillage of shops; of whom let the -Mountain have the credit! The Mountain murmurs, ill at ease: this -'Maximum of Patriotism,' how shall they either own him or disown him? As -for Marat personally, he, with his fixed-idea, remains invulnerable to such -things: nay the People's-friend is very evidently rising in importance, as -his befriended People rises. No shrieks now, when he goes to speak; -occasional applauses rather, furtherance which breeds confidence. The day -when the Girondins proposed to 'decree him accused' (decreter d'accusation, -as they phrase it) for that February Paragraph, of 'hanging up a -Forestaller or two at the door-lintels,' Marat proposes to have them -'decreed insane;' and, descending the Tribune-steps, is heard to articulate -these most unsenatorial ejaculations: "Les Cochons, les imbecilles, Pigs, -idiots!" Oftentimes he croaks harsh sarcasm, having really a rough rasping -tongue, and a very deep fund of contempt for fine outsides; and once or -twice, he even laughs, nay 'explodes into laughter, rit aux eclats,' at the -gentilities and superfine airs of these Girondin "men of statesmanship," -with their pedantries, plausibilities, pusillanimities: "these two years," -says he, "you have been whining about attacks, and plots, and danger from -Paris; and you have not a scratch to shew for yourselves." (Moniteur, -Seance du 20 Mai 1793.)--Danton gruffly rebukes him, from time to time: a -Maximum of Patriotism, whom one can neither own nor disown! - -But the second sore-place of the Mountain is this anomalous Monseigneur -Equality Prince d'Orleans. Behold these men, says the Gironde; with a -whilom Bourbon Prince among them: they are creatures of the d'Orleans -Faction; they will have Philippe made King; one King no sooner guillotined -than another made in his stead! Girondins have moved, Buzot moved long -ago, from principle and also from jesuitism, that the whole race of -Bourbons should be marched forth from the soil of France; this Prince -Egalite to bring up the rear. Motions which might produce some effect on -the public;--which the Mountain, ill at ease, knows not what to do with. - -And poor Orleans Egalite himself, for one begins to pity even him, what -does he do with them? The disowned of all parties, the rejected and -foolishly be-drifted hither and hither, to what corner of Nature can he now -drift with advantage? Feasible hope remains not for him: unfeasible hope, -in pallid doubtful glimmers, there may still come, bewildering, not -cheering or illuminating,--from the Dumouriez quarter; and how, if not the -timewasted Orleans Egalite, then perhaps the young unworn Chartres Egalite -might rise to be a kind of King? Sheltered, if shelter it be, in the -clefts of the Mountain, poor Egalite will wait: one refuge in Jacobinism, -one in Dumouriez and Counter-Revolution, are there not two chances? -However, the look of him, Dame Genlis says, is grown gloomy; sad to see. -Sillery also, the Genlis's Husband, who hovers about the Mountain, not on -it, is in a bad way. Dame Genlis has come to Raincy, out of England and -Bury St. Edmunds, in these days; being summoned by Egalite, with her young -charge, Mademoiselle Egalite, that so Mademoiselle might not be counted -among Emigrants and hardly dealt with. But it proves a ravelled business: -Genlis and charge find that they must retire to the Netherlands; must wait -on the Frontiers for a week or two; till Monseigneur, by Jacobin help, get -it wound up. 'Next morning,' says Dame Genlis, 'Monseigneur, gloomier than -ever, gave me his arm, to lead me to the carriage. I was greatly troubled; -Mademoiselle burst into tears; her Father was pale and trembling. After I -had got seated, he stood immovable at the carriage-door, with his eyes -fixed on me; his mournful and painful look seemed to implore pity;--"Adieu, -Madame!" said he. The altered sound of his voice completely overcame me; -not able to utter a word, I held out my hand; he grasped it close; then -turning, and advancing sharply towards the postillions, he gave them a -sign, and we rolled away.' (Genlis, Memoires (London, 1825), iv. 118.) - -Nor are Peace-makers wanting; of whom likewise we mention two; one fast on -the crown of the Mountain, the other not yet alighted anywhere: Danton and -Barrere. Ingenious Barrere, Old-Constituent and Editor from the slopes of -the Pyrenees, is one of the usefullest men of this Convention, in his way. -Truth may lie on both sides, on either side, or on neither side; my -friends, ye must give and take: for the rest, success to the winning side! -This is the motto of Barrere. Ingenious, almost genial; quick-sighted, -supple, graceful; a man that will prosper. Scarcely Belial in the -assembled Pandemonium was plausibler to ear and eye. An indispensable man: -in the great Art of Varnish he may be said to seek his fellow. Has there -an explosion arisen, as many do arise, a confusion, unsightliness, which no -tongue can speak of, nor eye look on; give it to Barrere; Barrere shall be -Committee-Reporter of it; you shall see it transmute itself into a -regularity, into the very beauty and improvement that was needed. Without -one such man, we say, how were this Convention bested? Call him not, as -exaggerative Mercier does, 'the greatest liar in France:' nay it may be -argued there is not truth enough in him to make a real lie of. Call him, -with Burke, Anacreon of the Guillotine, and a man serviceable to this -Convention. - -The other Peace-maker whom we name is Danton. Peace, O peace with one -another! cries Danton often enough: Are we not alone against the world; a -little band of brothers? Broad Danton is loved by all the Mountain; but -they think him too easy-tempered, deficient in suspicion: he has stood -between Dumouriez and much censure, anxious not to exasperate our only -General: in the shrill tumult Danton's strong voice reverberates, for -union and pacification. Meetings there are; dinings with the Girondins: -it is so pressingly essential that there be union. But the Girondins are -haughty and respectable; this Titan Danton is not a man of Formulas, and -there rests on him a shadow of September. "Your Girondins have no -confidence in me:" this is the answer a conciliatory Meillan gets from -him; to all the arguments and pleadings this conciliatory Meillan can -bring, the repeated answer is, "Ils n'ont point de confiance." (Memoires -de Meillan, Representant du Peuple (Paris, 1823), p. 51.)--The tumult will -get ever shriller; rage is growing pale. - -In fact, what a pang is it to the heart of a Girondin, this first withering -probability that the despicable unphilosophic anarchic Mountain, after all, -may triumph! Brutal Septemberers, a fifth-floor Tallien, 'a Robespierre -without an idea in his head,' as Condorcet says, 'or a feeling in his -heart:' and yet we, the flower of France, cannot stand against them; -behold the sceptre departs from us; from us and goes to them! Eloquence, -Philosophism, Respectability avail not: 'against Stupidity the very gods -fight to no purpose, - - 'Mit der Dummheit kampfen Gotter selbst vergebens!' - -Shrill are the plaints of Louvet; his thin existence all acidified into -rage, and preternatural insight of suspicion. Wroth is young Barbaroux; -wroth and scornful. Silent, like a Queen with the aspic on her bosom, sits -the wife of Roland; Roland's Accounts never yet got audited, his name -become a byword. Such is the fortune of war, especially of revolution. -The great gulf of Tophet, and Tenth of August, opened itself at the magic -of your eloquent voice; and lo now, it will not close at your voice! It is -a dangerous thing such magic. The Magician's Famulus got hold of the -forbidden Book, and summoned a goblin: Plait-il, What is your will? said -the Goblin. The Famulus, somewhat struck, bade him fetch water: the swift -goblin fetched it, pail in each hand; but lo, would not cease fetching it! -Desperate, the Famulus shrieks at him, smites at him, cuts him in two; lo, -two goblin water-carriers ply; and the house will be swum away in Deucalion -Deluges. - - - -Chapter 3.3.IV. - -Fatherland in Danger. - -Or rather we will say, this Senatorial war might have lasted long; and -Party tugging and throttling with Party might have suppressed and smothered -one another, in the ordinary bloodless Parliamentary way; on one condition: -that France had been at least able to exist, all the while. But this -Sovereign People has a digestive faculty, and cannot do without bread. -Also we are at war, and must have victory; at war with Europe, with Fate -and Famine: and behold, in the spring of the year, all victory deserts us. - -Dumouriez had his outposts stretched as far as Aix-la-Chapelle, and the -beautifullest plan for pouncing on Holland, by stratagem, flat-bottomed -boats and rapid intrepidity; wherein too he had prospered so far; but -unhappily could prosper no further. Aix-la-Chapelle is lost; Maestricht -will not surrender to mere smoke and noise: the flat-bottomed boats must -launch themselves again, and return the way they came. Steady now, ye -rapidly intrepid men; retreat with firmness, Parthian-like! Alas, were it -General Miranda's fault; were it the War-minister's fault; or were it -Dumouriez's own fault and that of Fortune: enough, there is nothing for it -but retreat,--well if it be not even flight; for already terror-stricken -cohorts and stragglers pour off, not waiting for order; flow disastrous, as -many as ten thousand of them, without halt till they see France again. -(Dumouriez, iv. 16-73.) Nay worse: Dumouriez himself is perhaps secretly -turning traitor? Very sharp is the tone in which he writes to our -Committees. Commissioners and Jacobin Pillagers have done such -incalculable mischief; Hassenfratz sends neither cartridges nor clothing; -shoes we have, deceptively 'soled with wood and pasteboard.' Nothing in -short is right. Danton and Lacroix, when it was they that were -Commissioners, would needs join Belgium to France;--of which Dumouriez -might have made the prettiest little Duchy for his own secret behoof! With -all these things the General is wroth; and writes to us in a sharp tone. -Who knows what this hot little General is meditating? Dumouriez Duke of -Belgium or Brabant; and say, Egalite the Younger King of France: there -were an end for our Revolution!--Committee of Defence gazes, and shakes its -head: who except Danton, defective in suspicion, could still struggle to -be of hope? - -And General Custine is rolling back from the Rhine Country; conquered Mentz -will be reconquered, the Prussians gathering round to bombard it with shot -and shell. Mentz may resist, Commissioner Merlin, the Thionviller, 'making -sallies, at the head of the besieged;'--resist to the death; but not longer -than that. How sad a reverse for Mentz! Brave Foster, brave Lux planted -Liberty-trees, amid ca-ira-ing music, in the snow-slush of last winter, -there: and made Jacobin Societies; and got the Territory incorporated with -France: they came hither to Paris, as Deputies or Delegates, and have -their eighteen francs a-day: but see, before once the Liberty-Tree is got -rightly in leaf, Mentz is changing into an explosive crater; vomiting fire, -bevomited with fire! - -Neither of these men shall again see Mentz; they have come hither only to -die. Foster has been round the Globe; he saw Cook perish under Owyhee -clubs; but like this Paris he has yet seen or suffered nothing. Poverty -escorts him: from home there can nothing come, except Job's-news; the -eighteen daily francs, which we here as Deputy or Delegate with difficulty -'touch,' are in paper assignats, and sink fast in value. Poverty, -disappointment, inaction, obloquy; the brave heart slowly breaking! Such -is Foster's lot. For the rest, Demoiselle Theroigne smiles on you in the -Soirees; 'a beautiful brownlocked face,' of an exalted temper; and -contrives to keep her carriage. Prussian Trenck, the poor subterranean -Baron, jargons and jangles in an unmelodious manner. Thomas Paine's face -is red-pustuled, 'but the eyes uncommonly bright.' Convention Deputies ask -you to dinner: very courteous; and 'we all play at plumsack.' (Forster's -Briefwechsel, ii. 514, 460, 631.) 'It is the Explosion and New-creation of -a World,' says Foster; 'and the actors in it, such small mean objects, -buzzing round one like a handful of flies.'-- - -Likewise there is war with Spain. Spain will advance through the gorges of -the Pyrenees; rustling with Bourbon banners; jingling with artillery and -menace. And England has donned the red coat; and marches, with Royal -Highness of York,--whom some once spake of inviting to be our King. -Changed that humour now: and ever more changing; till no hatefuller thing -walk this Earth than a denizen of that tyrannous Island; and Pitt be -declared and decreed, with effervescence, 'L'ennemi du genre humain, The -enemy of mankind;' and, very singular to say, you make an order that no -Soldier of Liberty give quarter to an Englishman. Which order however, the -Soldier of Liberty does but partially obey. We will take no Prisoners -then, say the Soldiers of Liberty; they shall all be 'Deserters' that we -take. (See Dampmartin, Evenemens, ii. 213-30.) It is a frantic order; and -attended with inconvenience. For surely, if you give no quarter, the plain -issue is that you will get none; and so the business become as broad as it -was long.--Our 'recruitment of Three Hundred Thousand men,' which was the -decreed force for this year, is like to have work enough laid to its hand. - -So many enemies come wending on; penetrating through throats of Mountains, -steering over the salt sea; towards all points of our territory; rattling -chains at us. Nay worst of all: there is an enemy within our own -territory itself. In the early days of March, the Nantes Postbags do not -arrive; there arrive only instead of them Conjecture, Apprehension, bodeful -wind of Rumour. The bodefullest proves true! Those fanatic Peoples of La -Vendee will no longer keep under: their fire of insurrection, heretofore -dissipated with difficulty, blazes out anew, after the King's Death, as a -wide conflagration; not riot, but civil war. Your Cathelineaus, your -Stofflets, Charettes, are other men than was thought: behold how their -Peasants, in mere russet and hodden, with their rude arms, rude array, with -their fanatic Gaelic frenzy and wild-yelling battle-cry of God and the -King, dash at us like a dark whirlwind; and blow the best-disciplined -Nationals we can get into panic and sauve-qui-peut! Field after field is -theirs; one sees not where it will end. Commandant Santerre may be sent -thither; but with non-effect; he might as well have returned and brewed -beer. - -It has become peremptorily necessary that a National Convention cease -arguing, and begin acting. Yield one party of you to the other, and do it -swiftly. No theoretic outlook is here, but the close certainty of ruin; -the very day that is passing over must be provided for. - -It was Friday the eighth of March when this Job's-post from Dumouriez, -thickly preceded and escorted by so many other Job's-posts, reached the -National Convention. Blank enough are most faces. Little will it avail -whether our Septemberers be punished or go unpunished; if Pitt and Cobourg -are coming in, with one punishment for us all; nothing now between Paris -itself and the Tyrants but a doubtful Dumouriez, and hosts in loose-flowing -loud retreat!--Danton the Titan rises in this hour, as always in the hour -of need. Great is his voice, reverberating from the domes:--Citizen- -Representatives, shall we not, in such crisis of Fate, lay aside discords? -Reputation: O what is the reputation of this man or of that? Que mon nom -soit fletri, que la France soit libre, Let my name be blighted; let France -be free! It is necessary now again that France rise, in swift vengeance, -with her million right-hands, with her heart as of one man. Instantaneous -recruitment in Paris; let every Section of Paris furnish its thousands; -every section of France! Ninety-six Commissioners of us, two for each -Section of the Forty-eight, they must go forthwith, and tell Paris what the -Country needs of her. Let Eighty more of us be sent, post-haste, over -France; to spread the fire-cross, to call forth the might of men. Let the -Eighty also be on the road, before this sitting rise. Let them go, and -think what their errand is. Speedy Camp of Fifty thousand between Paris -and the North Frontier; for Paris will pour forth her volunteers! Shoulder -to shoulder; one strong universal death-defiant rising and rushing; we -shall hurl back these Sons of Night yet again; and France, in spite of the -world, be free! (Moniteur (in Hist. Parl. xxv. 6).)--So sounds the Titan's -voice: into all Section-houses; into all French hearts. Sections sit in -Permanence, for recruitment, enrolment, that very night. Convention -Commissioners, on swift wheels, are carrying the fire-cross from Town to -Town, till all France blaze. - -And so there is Flag of Fatherland in Danger waving from the Townhall, -Black Flag from the top of Notre-Dame Cathedral; there is Proclamation, hot -eloquence; Paris rushing out once again to strike its enemies down. That, -in such circumstances, Paris was in no mild humour can be conjectured. -Agitated streets; still more agitated round the Salle de Manege! -Feuillans-Terrace crowds itself with angry Citizens, angrier Citizenesses; -Varlet perambulates with portable-chair: ejaculations of no measured kind, -as to perfidious fine-spoken Hommes d'etat, friends of Dumouriez, secret- -friends of Pitt and Cobourg, burst from the hearts and lips of men. To -fight the enemy? Yes, and even to "freeze him with terror, glacer -d'effroi;" but first to have domestic Traitors punished! Who are they -that, carping and quarrelling, in their jesuitic most moderate way, seek to -shackle the Patriotic movement? That divide France against Paris, and -poison public opinion in the Departments? That when we ask for bread, and -a Maximum fixed-price, treat us with lectures on Free-trade in grains? Can -the human stomach satisfy itself with lectures on Free-trade; and are we to -fight the Austrians in a moderate manner, or in an immoderate? This -Convention must be purged. - -"Set up a swift Tribunal for Traitors, a Maximum for Grains:" thus speak -with energy the Patriot Volunteers, as they defile through the Convention -Hall, just on the wing to the Frontiers;--perorating in that heroical -Cambyses' vein of theirs: beshouted by the Galleries and Mountain; -bemurmured by the Right-side and Plain. Nor are prodigies wanting: lo, -while a Captain of the Section Poissonniere perorates with vehemence about -Dumouriez, Maximum, and Crypto-Royalist Traitors, and his troop beat chorus -with him, waving their Banner overhead, the eye of a Deputy discerns, in -this same Banner, that the cravates or streamers of it have Royal fleurs- -de-lys! The Section-Captain shrieks; his troop shriek, horror-struck, and -'trample the Banner under foot:' seemingly the work of some Crypto- -Royalist Plotter? Most probable; (Choix des Rapports, xi. 277.)--or -perhaps at bottom, only the old Banner of the Section, manufactured prior -to the Tenth of August, when such streamers were according to rule! (Hist. -Parl. xxv. 72.) - -History, looking over the Girondin Memoirs, anxious to disentangle the -truth of them from the hysterics, finds these days of March, especially -this Sunday the Tenth of March, play a great part. Plots, plots: a plot -for murdering the Girondin Deputies; Anarchists and Secret-Royalists -plotting, in hellish concert, for that end! The far greater part of which -is hysterics. What we do find indisputable is that Louvet and certain -Girondins were apprehensive they might be murdered on Saturday, and did not -go to the evening sitting: but held council with one another, each -inciting his fellow to do something resolute, and end these Anarchists: to -which, however, Petion, opening the window, and finding the night very wet, -answered only, "Ils ne feront rien," and 'composedly resumed his violin,' -says Louvet: (Louvet, Memoires, p. 72.) thereby, with soft Lydian -tweedledeeing, to wrap himself against eating cares. Also that Louvet felt -especially liable to being killed; that several Girondins went abroad to -seek beds: liable to being killed; but were not. Further that, in very -truth, Journalist Deputy Gorsas, poisoner of the Departments, he and his -Printer had their houses broken into (by a tumult of Patriots, among whom -red-capped Varlet, American Fournier loom forth, in the darkness of the -rain and riot); had their wives put in fear; their presses, types and -circumjacent equipments beaten to ruin; no Mayor interfering in time; -Gorsas himself escaping, pistol in hand, 'along the coping of the back -wall.' Further that Sunday, the morrow, was not a workday; and the streets -were more agitated than ever: Is it a new September, then, that these -Anarchists intend? Finally, that no September came;--and also that -hysterics, not unnaturally, had reached almost their acme. (Meillan, pp. -23, 24; Louvet, pp. 71-80.) - -Vergniaud denounces and deplores; in sweetly turned periods. Section -Bonconseil, Good-counsel so-named, not Mauconseil or Ill-counsel as it once -was,--does a far notabler thing: demands that Vergniaud, Brissot, Guadet, -and other denunciatory fine-spoken Girondins, to the number of Twenty-two, -be put under arrest! Section Good-counsel, so named ever since the Tenth -of August, is sharply rebuked, like a Section of Ill-counsel; (Moniteur -(Seance du 12 Mars), 15 Mars.) but its word is spoken, and will not fall to -the ground. - -In fact, one thing strikes us in these poor Girondins; their fatal -shortness of vision; nay fatal poorness of character, for that is the root -of it. They are as strangers to the People they would govern; to the thing -they have come to work in. Formulas, Philosophies, Respectabilities, what -has been written in Books, and admitted by the Cultivated Classes; this -inadequate Scheme of Nature's working is all that Nature, let her work as -she will, can reveal to these men. So they perorate and speculate; and -call on the Friends of Law, when the question is not Law or No-Law, but -Life or No-Life. Pedants of the Revolution, if not Jesuits of it! Their -Formalism is great; great also is their Egoism. France rising to fight -Austria has been raised only by Plot of the Tenth of March, to kill Twenty- -two of them! This Revolution Prodigy, unfolding itself into terrific -stature and articulation, by its own laws and Nature's, not by the laws of -Formula, has become unintelligible, incredible as an impossibility, the -waste chaos of a Dream.' A Republic founded on what they call the Virtues; -on what we call the Decencies and Respectabilities: this they will have, -and nothing but this. Whatsoever other Republic Nature and Reality send, -shall be considered as not sent; as a kind of Nightmare Vision, and thing -non-extant; disowned by the Laws of Nature, and of Formula. Alas! Dim for -the best eyes is this Reality; and as for these men, they will not look at -it with eyes at all, but only through 'facetted spectacles' of Pedantry, -wounded Vanity; which yield the most portentous fallacious spectrum. -Carping and complaining forever of Plots and Anarchy, they will do one -thing: prove, to demonstration, that the Reality will not translate into -their Formula; that they and their Formula are incompatible with the -Reality: and, in its dark wrath, the Reality will extinguish it and them! -What a man kens he cans. But the beginning of a man's doom is that vision -be withdrawn from him; that he see not the reality, but a false spectrum of -the reality; and, following that, step darkly, with more or less velocity, -downwards to the utter Dark; to Ruin, which is the great Sea of Darkness, -whither all falsehoods, winding or direct, continually flow! - -This Tenth of March we may mark as an epoch in the Girondin destinies; the -rage so exasperated itself, the misconception so darkened itself. Many -desert the sittings; many come to them armed. (Meillan (Memoires, pp. 85, -24).) An honourable Deputy, setting out after breakfast, must now, besides -taking his Notes, see whether his Priming is in order. - -Meanwhile with Dumouriez in Belgium it fares ever worse. Were it again -General Miranda's fault, or some other's fault, there is no doubt whatever -but the 'Battle of Nerwinden,' on the 18th of March, is lost; and our rapid -retreat has become a far too rapid one. Victorious Cobourg, with his -Austrian prickers, hangs like a dark cloud on the rear of us: Dumouriez -never off horseback night or day; engagement every three hours; our whole -discomfited Host rolling rapidly inwards, full of rage, suspicion, and -sauve-qui-peut! And then Dumouriez himself, what his intents may be? -Wicked seemingly and not charitable! His despatches to Committee openly -denounce a factious Convention, for the woes it has brought on France and -him. And his speeches--for the General has no reticence! The Execution of -the Tyrant this Dumouriez calls the Murder of the King. Danton and -Lacroix, flying thither as Commissioners once more, return very doubtful; -even Danton now doubts. - -Three Jacobin Missionaries, Proly, Dubuisson, Pereyra, have flown forth; -sped by a wakeful Mother Society: they are struck dumb to hear the General -speak. The Convention, according to this General, consists of three -hundred scoundrels and four hundred imbeciles: France cannot do without a -King. "But we have executed our King." "And what is it to me," hastily -cries Dumouriez, a General of no reticence, "whether the King's name be -Ludovicus or Jacobus?" "Or Philippus!" rejoins Proly;--and hastens to -report progress. Over the Frontiers such hope is there. - - - -Chapter 3.3.V. - -Sansculottism Accoutred. - -Let us look, however, at the grand internal Sansculottism and Revolution -Prodigy, whether it stirs and waxes: there and not elsewhere hope may -still be for France. The Revolution Prodigy, as Decree after Decree issues -from the Mountain, like creative fiats, accordant with the nature of the -Thing,--is shaping itself rapidly, in these days, into terrific stature and -articulation, limb after limb. Last March, 1792, we saw all France flowing -in blind terror; shutting town-barriers, boiling pitch for Brigands: -happier, this March, that it is a seeing terror; that a creative Mountain -exists, which can say fiat! Recruitment proceeds with fierce celerity: -nevertheless our Volunteers hesitate to set out, till Treason be punished -at home; they do not fly to the frontiers; but only fly hither and thither, -demanding and denouncing. The Mountain must speak new fiat, and new fiats. - -And does it not speak such? Take, as first example, those Comites -Revolutionnaires for the arrestment of Persons Suspect. Revolutionary -Committee, of Twelve chosen Patriots, sits in every Township of France; -examining the Suspect, seeking arms, making domiciliary visits and -arrestments;--caring, generally, that the Republic suffer no detriment. -Chosen by universal suffrage, each in its Section, they are a kind of -elixir of Jacobinism; some Forty-four Thousand of them awake and alive over -France! In Paris and all Towns, every house-door must have the names of -the inmates legibly printed on it, 'at a height not exceeding five feet -from the ground;' every Citizen must produce his certificatory Carte de -Civisme, signed by Section-President; every man be ready to give account of -the faith that is in him. Persons Suspect had as well depart this soil of -Liberty! And yet departure too is bad: all Emigrants are declared -Traitors, their property become National; they are 'dead in Law,'--save -indeed that for our behoof they shall 'live yet fifty years in Law,' and -what heritages may fall to them in that time become National too! A mad -vitality of Jacobinism, with Forty-four Thousand centres of activity, -circulates through all fibres of France. - -Very notable also is the Tribunal Extraordinaire: (Moniteur, No. 70, (du 11 -Mars), No. 76, &c.) decreed by the Mountain; some Girondins dissenting, -for surely such a Court contradicts every formula;--other Girondins -assenting, nay co-operating, for do not we all hate Traitors, O ye people -of Paris?--Tribunal of the Seventeenth in Autumn last was swift; but this -shall be swifter. Five Judges; a standing Jury, which is named from Paris -and the Neighbourhood, that there be not delay in naming it: they are -subject to no Appeal; to hardly any Law-forms, but must 'get themselves -convinced' in all readiest ways; and for security are bound 'to vote -audibly;' audibly, in the hearing of a Paris Public. This is the Tribunal -Extraordinaire; which, in few months, getting into most lively action, -shall be entitled Tribunal Revolutionnaire, as indeed it from the very -first has entitled itself: with a Herman or a Dumas for Judge President, -with a Fouquier-Tinville for Attorney-General, and a Jury of such as -Citizen Leroi, who has surnamed himself Dix-Aout, 'Leroi August-Tenth,' it -will become the wonder of the world. Herein has Sansculottism fashioned -for itself a Sword of Sharpness: a weapon magical; tempered in the Stygian -hell-waters; to the edge of it all armour, and defence of strength or of -cunning shall be soft; it shall mow down Lives and Brazen-gates; and the -waving of it shed terror through the souls of men. - -But speaking of an amorphous Sansculottism taking form, ought we not above -all things to specify how the Amorphous gets itself a Head? Without -metaphor, this Revolution Government continues hitherto in a very anarchic -state. Executive Council of Ministers, Six in number, there is; but they, -especially since Roland's retreat, have hardly known whether they were -Ministers or not. Convention Committees sit supreme over them; but then -each Committee as supreme as the others: Committee of Twenty-one, of -Defence, of General Surety; simultaneous or successive, for specific -purposes. The Convention alone is all-powerful,-- especially if the -Commune go with it; but is too numerous for an administrative body. -Wherefore, in this perilous quick-whirling condition of the Republic, -before the end of March, we obtain our small Comite de Salut Public; -(Moniteur, No. 83 (du 24 Mars 1793) Nos. 86, 98, 99, 100.) as it were, for -miscellaneous accidental purposes, requiring despatch;--as it proves, for a -sort of universal supervision, and universal subjection. They are to -report weekly, these new Committee-men; but to deliberate in secret. Their -number is Nine, firm Patriots all, Danton one of them: Renewable every -month;--yet why not reelect them if they turn out well? The flower of the -matter is that they are but nine; that they sit in secret. An -insignificant-looking thing at first, this Committee; but with a principle -of growth in it! Forwarded by fortune, by internal Jacobin energy, it will -reduce all Committees and the Convention itself to mute obedience, the Six -Ministers to Six assiduous Clerks; and work its will on the Earth and under -Heaven, for a season. 'A Committee of Public Salvation,' whereat the world -still shrieks and shudders. - -If we call that Revolutionary Tribunal a Sword, which Sansculottism has -provided for itself, then let us call the 'Law of the Maximum,' a -Provender-scrip, or Haversack, wherein better or worse some ration of bread -may be found. It is true, Political Economy, Girondin free-trade, and all -law of supply and demand, are hereby hurled topsyturvy: but what help? -Patriotism must live; the 'cupidity of farmers' seems to have no bowels. -Wherefore this Law of the Maximum, fixing the highest price of grains, is, -with infinite effort, got passed; (Moniteur (du 20 Avril, &c. to 20 Mai, -1793).) and shall gradually extend itself into a Maximum for all manner of -comestibles and commodities: with such scrambling and topsyturvying as may -be fancied! For now, if, for example, the farmer will not sell? The -farmer shall be forced to sell. An accurate Account of what grain he has -shall be delivered in to the Constituted Authorities: let him see that he -say not too much; for in that case, his rents, taxes and contributions will -rise proportionally: let him see that he say not too little; for, on or -before a set day, we shall suppose in April, less than one-third of this -declared quantity, must remain in his barns, more than two-thirds of it -must have been thrashed and sold. One can denounce him, and raise -penalties. - -By such inextricable overturning of all Commercial relation will -Sansculottism keep life in; since not otherwise. On the whole, as Camille -Desmoulins says once, "while the Sansculottes fight, the Monsieurs must -pay." So there come Impots Progressifs, Ascending Taxes; which consume, -with fast-increasing voracity, and 'superfluous-revenue' of men: beyond -fifty-pounds a-year you are not exempt; rising into the hundreds you bleed -freely; into the thousands and tens of thousands, you bleed gushing. Also -there come Requisitions; there comes 'Forced-Loan of a Milliard,' some -Fifty-Millions Sterling; which of course they that have must lend. -Unexampled enough: it has grown to be no country for the Rich, this; but a -country for the Poor! And then if one fly, what steads it? Dead in Law; -nay kept alive fifty years yet, for their accursed behoof! In this manner, -therefore, it goes; topsyturvying, ca-ira-ing;--and withal there is endless -sale of Emigrant National-Property, there is Cambon with endless cornucopia -of Assignats. The Trade and Finance of Sansculottism; and how, with -Maximum and Bakers'-queues, with Cupidity, Hunger, Denunciation and Paper- -money, it led its galvanic-life, and began and ended,--remains the most -interesting of all Chapters in Political Economy: still to be written. - -All which things are they not clean against Formula? O Girondin Friends, -it is not a Republic of the Virtues we are getting; but only a Republic of -the Strengths, virtuous and other! - - - -Chapter 3.3.VI. - -The Traitor. - -But Dumouriez, with his fugitive Host, with his King Ludovicus or King -Philippus? There lies the crisis; there hangs the question: Revolution -Prodigy, or Counter-Revolution?--One wide shriek covers that North-East -region. Soldiers, full of rage, suspicion and terror, flock hither and -thither; Dumouriez the many-counselled, never off horseback, knows now no -counsel that were not worse than none: the counsel, namely, of joining -himself with Cobourg; marching to Paris, extinguishing Jacobinism, and, -with some new King Ludovicus or King Philippus, resting the Constitution of -1791! (Dumouriez, Memoires, iv. c. 7-10.) - -Is Wisdom quitting Dumouriez; the herald of Fortune quitting him? -Principle, faith political or other, beyond a certain faith of mess-rooms, -and honour of an officer, had him not to quit. At any rate, his quarters -in the Burgh of Saint-Amand; his headquarters in the Village of Saint-Amand -des Boues, a short way off,--have become a Bedlam. National -Representatives, Jacobin Missionaries are riding and running: of the -'three Towns,' Lille, Valenciennes or even Conde, which Dumouriez wanted to -snatch for himself, not one can be snatched: your Captain is admitted, but -the Town-gate is closed on him, and then the Prison gate, and 'his men -wander about the ramparts.' Couriers gallop breathless; men wait, or seem -waiting, to assassinate, to be assassinated; Battalions nigh frantic with -such suspicion and uncertainty, with Vive-la-Republique and Sauve-qui-peut, -rush this way and that;--Ruin and Desperation in the shape of Cobourg lying -entrenched close by. - -Dame Genlis and her fair Princess d'Orleans find this Burgh of Saint-Amand -no fit place for them; Dumouriez's protection is grown worse than none. -Tough Genlis one of the toughest women; a woman, as it were, with nine -lives in her; whom nothing will beat: she packs her bandboxes; clear for -flight in a private manner. Her beloved Princess she will--leave here, -with the Prince Chartres Egalite her Brother. In the cold grey of the -April morning, we find her accordingly established in her hired vehicle, on -the street of Saint-Amand; postilions just cracking their whips to go,-- -when behold the young Princely Brother, struggling hitherward, hastily -calling; bearing the Princess in his arms! Hastily he has clutched the -poor young lady up, in her very night-gown, nothing saved of her goods -except the watch from the pillow: with brotherly despair he flings her in, -among the bandboxes, into Genlis's chaise, into Genlis's arms: Leave her -not, in the name of Mercy and Heaven! A shrill scene, but a brief one:-- -the postilions crack and go. Ah, whither? Through by-roads and broken -hill-passes: seeking their way with lanterns after nightfall; through -perils, and Cobourg Austrians, and suspicious French Nationals; finally, -into Switzerland; safe though nigh moneyless. (Genlis, iv. 139.) The -brave young Egalite has a most wild Morrow to look for; but now only -himself to carry through it. - -For indeed over at that Village named of the Mudbaths, Saint-Amand des -Boues, matters are still worse. About four o'clock on Tuesday afternoon, -the 2d of April 1793, two Couriers come galloping as if for life: Mon -General! Four National Representatives, War-Minister at their head, are -posting hitherward, from Valenciennes: are close at hand,--with what -intents one may guess! While the Couriers are yet speaking, War-Minister -and National Representatives, old Camus the Archivist for chief speaker of -them, arrive. Hardly has Mon General had time to order out the Huzzar -Regiment de Berchigny; that it take rank and wait near by, in case of -accident. And so, enter War-Minister Beurnonville, with an embrace of -friendship, for he is an old friend; enter Archivist Camus and the other -three, following him. - -They produce Papers, invite the General to the bar of the Convention: -merely to give an explanation or two. The General finds it unsuitable, not -to say impossible, and that "the service will suffer." Then comes -reasoning; the voice of the old Archivist getting loud. Vain to reason -loud with this Dumouriez; he answers mere angry irreverences. And so, amid -plumed staff-officers, very gloomy-looking; in jeopardy and uncertainty, -these poor National messengers debate and consult, retire and re-enter, for -the space of some two hours: without effect. Whereupon Archivist Camus, -getting quite loud, proclaims, in the name of the National Convention, for -he has the power to do it, That General Dumouriez is arrested: "Will you -obey the National Mandate, General!" "Pas dans ce moment-ci, Not at this -particular moment," answers the General also aloud; then glancing the other -way, utters certain unknown vocables, in a mandatory manner; seemingly a -German word-of-command. (Dumouriez, iv. 159, &c.) Hussars clutch the Four -National Representatives, and Beurnonville the War-minister; pack them out -of the apartment; out of the Village, over the lines to Cobourg, in two -chaises that very night,--as hostages, prisoners; to lie long in Maestricht -and Austrian strongholds! (Their Narrative, written by Camus (in -Toulongeon, iii. app. 60-87).) Jacta est alea. - -This night Dumouriez prints his 'Proclamation;' this night and the morrow -the Dumouriez Army, in such darkness visible, and rage of semi-desperation -as there is, shall meditate what the General is doing, what they themselves -will do in it. Judge whether this Wednesday was of halcyon nature, for any -one! But, on the Thursday morning, we discern Dumouriez with small escort, -with Chartres Egalite and a few staff-officers, ambling along the Conde -Highway: perhaps they are for Conde, and trying to persuade the Garrison -there; at all events, they are for an interview with Cobourg, who waits in -the woods by appointment, in that quarter. Nigh the Village of Doumet, -three National Battalions, a set of men always full of Jacobinism, sweep -past us; marching rather swiftly,--seemingly in mistake, by a way we had -not ordered. The General dismounts, steps into a cottage, a little from -the wayside; will give them right order in writing. Hark! what strange -growling is heard: what barkings are heard, loud yells of "Traitors," of -"Arrest:" the National Battalions have wheeled round, are emitting shot! -Mount, Dumouriez, and spring for life! Dumouriez and Staff strike the -spurs in, deep; vault over ditches, into the fields, which prove to be -morasses; sprawl and plunge for life; bewhistled with curses and lead. -Sunk to the middle, with or without horses, several servants killed, they -escape out of shot-range, to General Mack the Austrian's quarters. Nay -they return on the morrow, to Saint-Amand and faithful foreign Berchigny; -but what boots it? The Artillery has all revolted, is jingling off to -Valenciennes: all have revolted, are revolting; except only foreign -Berchigny, to the extent of some poor fifteen hundred, none will follow -Dumouriez against France and Indivisible Republic: Dumouriez's -occupation's gone. (Memoires, iv. 162-180.) - -Such an instinct of Frenehhood and Sansculottism dwells in these men: they -will follow no Dumouriez nor Lafayette, nor any mortal on such errand. -Shriek may be of Sauve-qui-peut, but will also be of Vive-la-Republique. -New National Representatives arrive; new General Dampierre, soon killed in -battle; new General Custine; the agitated Hosts draw back to some Camp of -Famars; make head against Cobourg as they can. - -And so Dumouriez is in the Austrian quarters; his drama ended, in this -rather sorry manner. A most shifty, wiry man; one of Heaven's Swiss that -wanted only work. Fifty years of unnoticed toil and valour; one year of -toil and valour, not unnoticed, but seen of all countries and centuries; -then thirty other years again unnoticed, of Memoir-writing, English -Pension, scheming and projecting to no purpose: Adieu thou Swiss of -Heaven, worthy to have been something else! - -His Staff go different ways. Brave young Egalite reaches Switzerland and -the Genlis Cottage; with a strong crabstick in his hand, a strong heart in -his body: his Princedom in now reduced to that. Egalite the Father sat -playing whist, in his Palais Egalite, at Paris, on the 6th day of this same -month of April, when a catchpole entered: Citoyen Egalite is wanted at the -Convention Committee! (See Montgaillard, iv. 144.) Examination, requiring -Arrestment; finally requiring Imprisonment, transference to Marseilles and -the Castle of If! Orleansdom has sunk in the black waters; Palais Egalite, -which was Palais Royal, is like to become Palais National. - - - -Chapter 3.3.VII. - -In Fight. - -Our Republic, by paper Decree, may be 'One and Indivisible;' but what -profits it while these things are? Federalists in the Senate, renegadoes -in the Army, traitors everywhere! France, all in desperate recruitment -since the Tenth of March, does not fly to the frontier, but only flies -hither and thither. This defection of contemptuous diplomatic Dumouriez -falls heavy on the fine-spoken high-sniffing Hommes d'etat, whom he -consorted with; forms a second epoch in their destinies. - -Or perhaps more strictly we might say, the second Girondin epoch, though -little noticed then, began on the day when, in reference to this defection, -the Girondins broke with Danton. It was the first day of April; Dumouriez -had not yet plunged across the morasses to Cobourg, but was evidently -meaning to do it, and our Commissioners were off to arrest him; when what -does the Girondin Lasource see good to do, but rise, and jesuitically -question and insinuate at great length, whether a main accomplice of -Dumouriez had not probably been--Danton? Gironde grins sardonic assent; -Mountain holds its breath. The figure of Danton, Levasseur says, while -this speech went on, was noteworthy. He sat erect, with a kind of internal -convulsion struggling to keep itself motionless; his eye from time to time -flashing wilder, his lip curling in Titanic scorn. (Memoires de Rene -Levasseur (Bruxelles, 1830), i. 164.) Lasource, in a fine-spoken attorney- -manner, proceeds: there is this probability to his mind, and there is -that; probabilities which press painfully on him, which cast the Patriotism -of Danton under a painful shade; which painful shade he, Lasource, will -hope that Danton may find it not impossible to dispel. - -"Les Scelerats!" cries Danton, starting up, with clenched right-hand, -Lasource having done: and descends from the Mountain, like a lava-flood; -his answer not unready. Lasource's probabilities fly like idle dust; but -leave a result behind them. "Ye were right, friends of the Mountain," -begins Danton, "and I was wrong: there is no peace possible with these -men. Let it be war then! They will not save the Republic with us: it -shall be saved without them; saved in spite of them." Really a burst of -rude Parliamentary eloquence this; which is still worth reading, in the old -Moniteur! With fire-words the exasperated rude Titan rives and smites -these Girondins; at every hit the glad Mountain utters chorus: Marat, like -a musical bis, repeating the last phrase. (Seance du 1er Avril, 1793 (in -Hist. Parl. xxv. 24-35).) Lasource's probabilities are gone: but Danton's -pledge of battle remains lying. - -A third epoch, or scene in the Girondin Drama, or rather it is but the -completion of this second epoch, we reckon from the day when the patience -of virtuous Petion finally boiled over; and the Girondins, so to speak, -took up this battle-pledge of Danton's and decreed Marat accused. It was -the eleventh of the same month of April, on some effervescence rising, such -as often rose; and President had covered himself, mere Bedlam now ruling; -and Mountain and Gironde were rushing on one another with clenched right- -hands, and even with pistols in them; when, behold, the Girondin Duperret -drew a sword! Shriek of horror rose, instantly quenching all other -effervescence, at sight of the clear murderous steel; whereupon Duperret -returned it to the leather again;--confessing that he did indeed draw it, -being instigated by a kind of sacred madness, "sainte fureur," and pistols -held at him; but that if he parricidally had chanced to scratch the outmost -skin of National Representation with it, he too carried pistols, and would -have blown his brains out on the spot. (Hist. Parl. xv. 397.) - -But now in such posture of affairs, virtuous Petion rose, next morning, to -lament these effervescences, this endless Anarchy invading the Legislative -Sanctuary itself; and here, being growled at and howled at by the Mountain, -his patience, long tried, did, as we say, boil over; and he spake -vehemently, in high key, with foam on his lips; 'whence,' says Marat, 'I -concluded he had got 'la rage,' the rabidity, or dog-madness. Rabidity -smites others rabid: so there rises new foam-lipped demand to have -Anarchists extinguished; and specially to have Marat put under Accusation. -Send a Representative to the Revolutionary Tribunal? Violate the -inviolability of a Representative? Have a care, O Friends! This poor -Marat has faults enough; but against Liberty or Equality, what fault? That -he has loved and fought for it, not wisely but too well. In dungeons and -cellars, in pinching poverty, under anathema of men; even so, in such -fight, has he grown so dingy, bleared; even so has his head become a -Stylites one! Him you will fling to your Sword of Sharpness; while Cobourg -and Pitt advance on us, fire-spitting? - -The Mountain is loud, the Gironde is loud and deaf; all lips are foamy. -With 'Permanent-Session of twenty-four hours,' with vote by rollcall, and a -dead-lift effort, the Gironde carries it: Marat is ordered to the -Revolutionary Tribunal, to answer for that February Paragraph of -Forestallers at the door-lintel, with other offences; and, after a little -hesitation, he obeys. (Moniteur (du 16 Avril 1793, et seqq).) - -Thus is Danton's battle-pledge taken up: there is, as he said there would -be, 'war without truce or treaty, ni treve ni composition.' Wherefore, -close now with one another, Formula and Reality, in death-grips, and -wrestle it out; both of you cannot live, but only one! - - - -Chapter 3.3.VIII. - -In Death-Grips. - -It proves what strength, were it only of inertia, there is in established -Formulas, what weakness in nascent Realities, and illustrates several -things, that this death-wrestle should still have lasted some six weeks or -more. National business, discussion of the Constitutional Act, for our -Constitution should decidedly be got ready, proceeds along with it. We -even change our Locality; we shift, on the Tenth of May, from the old Salle -de Manege, into our new Hall, in the Palace, once a King's but now the -Republic's, of the Tuileries. Hope and ruth, flickering against despair -and rage, still struggles in the minds of men. - -It is a most dark confused death-wrestle, this of the six weeks. Formalist -frenzy against Realist frenzy; Patriotism, Egoism, Pride, Anger, Vanity, -Hope and Despair, all raised to the frenetic pitch: Frenzy meets Frenzy, -like dark clashing whirlwinds; neither understands the other; the weaker, -one day, will understand that it is verily swept down! Girondism is strong -as established Formula and Respectability: do not as many as Seventy-two -of the Departments, or say respectable Heads of Departments, declare for -us? Calvados, which loves its Buzot, will even rise in revolt, so hint the -Addresses; Marseilles, cradle of Patriotism, will rise; Bourdeaux will -rise, and the Gironde Department, as one man; in a word, who will not rise, -were our Representation Nationale to be insulted, or one hair of a Deputy's -head harmed! The Mountain, again, is strong as Reality and Audacity. To -the Reality of the Mountain are not all furthersome things possible? A new -Tenth of August, if needful; nay a new Second of September!-- - -But, on Wednesday afternoon, twenty-fourth day of April, year 1793, what -tumult as of fierce jubilee is this? It is Marat returning from -Revolutionary Tribunal! A week or more of death-peril: and now there is -triumphant acquittal; Revolutionary Tribunal can find no accusation against -this man. And so the eye of History beholds Patriotism, which had gloomed -unutterable things all week, break into loud jubilee, embrace its Marat; -lift him into a chair of triumph, bear him shoulder-high through the -streets. Shoulder-high is the injured People's-friend, crowned with an -oak-garland; amid the wavy sea of red nightcaps, carmagnole jackets, -grenadier bonnets and female mob-caps; far-sounding like a sea! The -injured People's-friend has here reached his culminating-point; he too -strikes the stars with his sublime head. - -But the Reader can judge with what face President Lasource, he of the -'painful probabilities,' who presides in this Convention Hall, might -welcome such jubilee-tide, when it got thither, and the Decreed of -Accusation floating on the top of it! A National Sapper, spokesman on the -occasion, says, the People know their Friend, and love his life as their -own; "whosoever wants Marat's head must get the Sapper's first." (Seance -(in Moniteur, No. 116 (du 26 Avril, An 1er).) Lasource answered with some -vague painful mumblement,--which, says Levasseur, one could not help -tittering at. (Levasseur, Memoires, i. c. 6.) Patriot Sections, -Volunteers not yet gone to the Frontiers, come demanding the "purgation of -traitors from your own bosom;" the expulsion, or even the trial and -sentence, of a factious Twenty-two. - -Nevertheless the Gironde has got its Commission of Twelve; a Commission -specially appointed for investigating these troubles of the Legislative -Sanctuary: let Sansculottism say what it will, Law shall triumph. Old- -Constituent Rabaut Saint-Etienne presides over this Commission: "it is the -last plank whereon a wrecked Republic may perhaps still save herself." -Rabaut and they therefore sit, intent; examining witnesses; launching -arrestments; looking out into a waste dim sea of troubles.--the womb of -Formula, or perhaps her grave! Enter not that sea, O Reader! There are -dim desolation and confusion; raging women and raging men. Sections come -demanding Twenty-two; for the number first given by Section Bonconseil -still holds, though the names should even vary. Other Sections, of the -wealthier kind, come denouncing such demand; nay the same Section will -demand to-day, and denounce the demand to-morrow, according as the -wealthier sit, or the poorer. Wherefore, indeed, the Girondins decree that -all Sections shall close 'at ten in the evening;' before the working people -come: which Decree remains without effect. And nightly the Mother of -Patriotism wails doleful; doleful, but her eye kindling! And Fournier -l'Americain is busy, and the two Banker Freys, and Varlet Apostle of -Liberty; the bull-voice of Marquis Saint-Huruge is heard. And shrill women -vociferate from all Galleries, the Convention ones and downwards. Nay a -'Central Committee' of all the Forty-eight Sections, looms forth huge and -dubious; sitting dim in the Archeveche, sending Resolutions, receiving -them: a Centre of the Sections; in dread deliberation as to a New Tenth of -August! - -One thing we will specify to throw light on many: the aspect under which, -seen through the eyes of these Girondin Twelve, or even seen through one's -own eyes, the Patriotism of the softer sex presents itself. There are -Female Patriots, whom the Girondins call Megaeras, and count to the extent -of eight thousand; with serpent-hair, all out of curl; who have changed the -distaff for the dagger. They are of 'the Society called Brotherly,' -Fraternelle, say Sisterly, which meets under the roof of the Jacobins. -'Two thousand daggers,' or so, have been ordered,--doubtless, for them. -They rush to Versailles, to raise more women; but the Versailles women will -not rise. (Buzot, Memoires, pp. 69, 84; Meillan, Memoires, pp. 192, 195, -196. See Commission des Douze (in Choix des Rapports, xii. 69-131).) - -Nay, behold, in National Garden of Tuileries,--Demoiselle Theroigne herself -is become as a brownlocked Diana (were that possible) attacked by her own -dogs, or she-dogs! The Demoiselle, keeping her carriage, is for Liberty -indeed, as she has full well shewn; but then for Liberty with -Respectability: whereupon these serpent-haired Extreme She-Patriots now do -fasten on her, tatter her, shamefully fustigate her, in their shameful way; -almost fling her into the Garden-ponds, had not help intervened. Help, -alas, to small purpose. The poor Demoiselle's head and nervous-system, -none of the soundest, is so tattered and fluttered that it will never -recover; but flutter worse and worse, till it crack; and within year and -day we hear of her in madhouse, and straitwaistcoat, which proves -permanent!--Such brownlocked Figure did flutter, and inarticulately jabber -and gesticulate, little able to speak the obscure meaning it had, through -some segment of that Eighteenth Century of Time. She disappears here from -the Revolution and Public History, for evermore. (Deux Amis, vii. 77-80; -Forster, i. 514; Moore, i. 70. She did not die till 1817; in the -Salpetriere, in the most abject state of insanity; see Esquirol, Des -Maladies Mentales (Paris, 1838), i. 445-50.) - -Another thing we will not again specify, yet again beseech the Reader to -imagine: the reign of Fraternity and Perfection. Imagine, we say, O -Reader, that the Millennium were struggling on the threshold, and yet not -so much as groceries could be had,--owing to traitors. With what impetus -would a man strike traitors, in that case? Ah, thou canst not imagine it: -thou hast thy groceries safe in the shops, and little or no hope of a -Millennium ever coming!--But, indeed, as to the temper there was in men and -women, does not this one fact say enough: the height SUSPICION had risen -to? Preternatural we often called it; seemingly in the language of -exaggeration: but listen to the cold deposition of witnesses. Not a -musical Patriot can blow himself a snatch of melody from the French Horn, -sitting mildly pensive on the housetop, but Mercier will recognise it to be -a signal which one Plotting Committee is making to another. Distraction -has possessed Harmony herself; lurks in the sound of Marseillese and ca- -ira. (Mercier, Nouveau Paris, vi. 63.) Louvet, who can see as deep into a -millstone as the most, discerns that we shall be invited back to our old -Hall of the Manege, by a Deputation; and then the Anarchists will massacre -Twenty-two of us, as we walk over. It is Pitt and Cobourg; the gold of -Pitt.--Poor Pitt! They little know what work he has with his own Friends -of the People; getting them bespied, beheaded, their habeas-corpuses -suspended, and his own Social Order and strong-boxes kept tight,--to fancy -him raising mobs among his neighbours! - -But the strangest fact connected with French or indeed with human -Suspicion, is perhaps this of Camille Desmoulins. Camille's head, one of -the clearest in France, has got itself so saturated through every fibre -with Preternaturalism of Suspicion, that looking back on that Twelfth of -July 1789, when the thousands rose round him, yelling responsive at his -word in the Palais Royal Garden, and took cockades, he finds it explicable -only on this hypothesis, That they were all hired to do it, and set on by -the Foreign and other Plotters. 'It was not for nothing,' says Camille -with insight, 'that this multitude burst up round me when I spoke!' No, -not for nothing. Behind, around, before, it is one huge Preternatural -Puppet-play of Plots; Pitt pulling the wires. (See Histoire des -Brissotins, par Camille Desmoulins (a Pamphlet of Camille's, Paris, 1793).) -Almost I conjecture that I Camille myself am a Plot, and wooden with -wires.--The force of insight could no further go. - -Be this as it will, History remarks that the Commission of Twelve, now -clear enough as to the Plots; and luckily having 'got the threads of them -all by the end,' as they say,--are launching Mandates of Arrest rapidly in -these May days; and carrying matters with a high hand; resolute that the -sea of troubles shall be restrained. What chief Patriot, Section-President -even, is safe? They can arrest him; tear him from his warm bed, because he -has made irregular Section Arrestments! They arrest Varlet Apostle of -Liberty. They arrest Procureur-Substitute Hebert, Pere Duchesne; a -Magistrate of the People, sitting in Townhall; who, with high solemnity of -martyrdom, takes leave of his colleagues; prompt he, to obey the Law; and -solemnly acquiescent, disappears into prison. - -The swifter fly the Sections, energetically demanding him back; demanding -not arrestment of Popular Magistrates, but of a traitorous Twenty-two. -Section comes flying after Section;--defiling energetic, with their -Cambyses' vein of oratory: nay the Commune itself comes, with Mayor Pache -at its head; and with question not of Hebert and the Twenty-two alone, but -with this ominous old question made new, "Can you save the Republic, or -must we do it?" To whom President Max Isnard makes fiery answer: If by -fatal chance, in any of those tumults which since the Tenth of March are -ever returning, Paris were to lift a sacrilegious finger against the -National Representation, France would rise as one man, in never-imagined -vengeance, and shortly "the traveller would ask, on which side of the Seine -Paris had stood!" (Moniteur, Seance du 25 Mai, 1793.) Whereat the -Mountain bellows only louder, and every Gallery; Patriot Paris boiling -round. - -And Girondin Valaze has nightly conclaves at his house; sends billets; -'Come punctually, and well armed, for there is to be business.' And -Megaera women perambulate the streets, with flags, with lamentable alleleu. -(Meillan, Memoires, p. 195; Buzot, pp. 69, 84.) And the Convention-doors -are obstructed by roaring multitudes: find-spoken hommes d'etat are -hustled, maltreated, as they pass; Marat will apostrophise you, in such -death-peril, and say, Thou too art of them. If Roland ask leave to quit -Paris, there is order of the day. What help? Substitute Hebert, Apostle -Varlet, must be given back; to be crowned with oak-garlands. The -Commission of Twelve, in a Convention overwhelmed with roaring Sections, is -broken; then on the morrow, in a Convention of rallied Girondins, is -reinstated. Dim Chaos, or the sea of troubles, is struggling through all -its elements; writhing and chafing towards some creation. - - - - -Chapter 3.3.IX. - -Extinct. - -Accordingly, on Friday, the Thirty-first of May 1793, there comes forth -into the summer sunlight one of the strangest scenes. Mayor Pache with -Municipality arrives at the Tuileries Hall of Convention; sent for, Paris -being in visible ferment; and gives the strangest news. - -How, in the grey of this morning, while we sat Permanent in Townhall, -watchful for the commonweal, there entered, precisely as on a Tenth of -August, some Ninety-six extraneous persons; who declared themselves to be -in a state of Insurrection; to be plenipotentiary Commissioners from the -Forty-eight Sections, sections or members of the Sovereign People, all in a -state of Insurrection; and further that we, in the name of said Sovereign -in Insurrection, were dismissed from office. How we thereupon laid off our -sashes, and withdrew into the adjacent Saloon of Liberty. How in a moment -or two, we were called back; and reinstated; the Sovereign pleasing to -think us still worthy of confidence. Whereby, having taken new oath of -office, we on a sudden find ourselves Insurrectionary Magistrates, with -extraneous Committee of Ninety-six sitting by us; and a Citoyen Henriot, -one whom some accuse of Septemberism, is made Generalissimo of the National -Guard; and, since six o'clock, the tocsins ring and the drums beat:--Under -which peculiar circumstances, what would an august National Convention -please to direct us to do? (Compare Debats de la Convention (Paris, 1828), -iv. 187-223; Moniteur, Nos. 152, 3, 4, An 1er.) - -Yes, there is the question! "Break the Insurrectionary Authorities," -answers some with vehemence. Vergniaud at least will have "the National -Representatives all die at their post;" this is sworn to, with ready loud -acclaim. But as to breaking the Insurrectionary Authorities,--alas, while -we yet debate, what sound is that? Sound of the Alarm-Cannon on the Pont -Neuf; which it is death by the Law to fire without order from us! - -It does boom off there, nevertheless; sending a sound through all hearts. -And the tocsins discourse stern music; and Henriot with his Armed Force has -enveloped us! And Section succeeds Section, the livelong day; demanding -with Cambyses'-oratory, with the rattle of muskets, That traitors, Twenty- -two or more, be punished; that the Commission of Twelve be irrecoverably -broken. The heart of the Gironde dies within it; distant are the Seventy- -two respectable Departments, this fiery Municipality is near! Barrere is -for a middle course; granting something. The Commission of Twelve declares -that, not waiting to be broken, it hereby breaks itself, and is no more. -Fain would Reporter Rabaut speak his and its last-words; but he is bellowed -off. Too happy that the Twenty-two are still left unviolated!--Vergniaud, -carrying the laws of refinement to a great length, moves, to the amazement -of some, that 'the Sections of Paris have deserved well of their country.' -Whereupon, at a late hour of the evening, the deserving Sections retire to -their respective places of abode. Barrere shall report on it. With busy -quill and brain he sits, secluded; for him no sleep to-night. Friday the -last of May has ended in this manner. - -The Sections have deserved well: but ought they not to deserve better? -Faction and Girondism is struck down for the moment, and consents to be a -nullity; but will it not, at another favourabler moment rise, still feller; -and the Republic have to be saved in spite of it? So reasons Patriotism, -still Permanent; so reasons the Figure of Marat, visible in the dim -Section-world, on the morrow. To the conviction of men!--And so at -eventide of Saturday, when Barrere had just got it all varnished in the -course of the day, and his Report was setting off in the evening mail-bags, -tocsin peals out again! Generale is beating; armed men taking station in -the Place Vendome and elsewhere for the night; supplied with provisions and -liquor. There under the summer stars will they wait, this night, what is -to be seen and to be done, Henriot and Townhall giving due signal. - -The Convention, at sound of generale, hastens back to its Hall; but to the -number only of a Hundred; and does little business, puts off business till -the morrow. The Girondins do not stir out thither, the Girondins are -abroad seeking beds. Poor Rabaut, on the morrow morning, returning to his -post, with Louvet and some others, through streets all in ferment, wrings -his hands, ejaculating, "Illa suprema dies!" (Louvet, Memoires, p. 89.) -It has become Sunday, the second day of June, year 1793, by the old style; -by the new style, year One of Liberty, Equality, Fraternity. We have got -to the last scene of all, that ends this history of the Girondin -Senatorship. - -It seems doubtful whether any terrestrial Convention had ever met in such -circumstances as this National one now does. Tocsin is pealing; Barriers -shut; all Paris is on the gaze, or under arms. As many as a Hundred -Thousand under arms they count: National Force; and the Armed Volunteers, -who should have flown to the Frontiers and La Vendee; but would not, -treason being unpunished; and only flew hither and thither! So many, -steady under arms, environ the National Tuileries and Garden. There are -horse, foot, artillery, sappers with beards: the artillery one can see -with their camp-furnaces in this National Garden, heating bullets red, and -their match is lighted. Henriot in plumes rides, amid a plumed Staff: all -posts and issues are safe; reserves lie out, as far as the Wood of -Boulogne; the choicest Patriots nearest the scene. One other circumstance -we will note: that a careful Municipality, liberal of camp-furnaces, has -not forgotten provision-carts. No member of the Sovereign need now go home -to dinner; but can keep rank,--plentiful victual circulating unsought. -Does not this People understand Insurrection? Ye, not uninventive, -Gualches!-- - -Therefore let a National Representation, 'mandatories of the Sovereign,' -take thought of it. Expulsion of your Twenty-two, and your Commission of -Twelve: we stand here till it be done! Deputation after Deputation, in -ever stronger language, comes with that message. Barrere proposes a middle -course:--Will not perhaps the inculpated Deputies consent to withdraw -voluntarily; to make a generous demission, and self-sacrifice for the sake -of one's country? Isnard, repentant of that search on which river-bank -Paris stood, declares himself ready to demit. Ready also is Te-Deum -Fauchet; old Dusaulx of the Bastille, 'vieux radoteur, old dotard,' as -Marat calls him, is still readier. On the contrary, Lanjuinais the Breton -declares that there is one man who never will demit voluntarily; but will -protest to the uttermost, while a voice is left him. And he accordingly -goes on protesting; amid rage and clangor; Legendre crying at last: -"Lanjuinais, come down from the Tribune, or I will fling thee down, ou je -te jette en bas!" For matters are come to extremity. Nay they do clutch -hold of Lanjuinais, certain zealous Mountain-men; but cannot fling him -down, for he 'cramps himself on the railing;' and 'his clothes get torn.' -Brave Senator, worthy of pity! Neither will Barbaroux demit; he "has sworn -to die at his post, and will keep that oath." Whereupon the Galleries all -rise with explosion; brandishing weapons, some of them; and rush out -saying: "Allons, then; we must save our country!" Such a Session is this -of Sunday the second of June. - -Churches fill, over Christian Europe, and then empty themselves; but this -Convention empties not, the while: a day of shrieking contention, of -agony, humiliation and tearing of coatskirts; illa suprema dies! Round -stand Henriot and his Hundred Thousand, copiously refreshed from tray and -basket: nay he is 'distributing five francs a-piece;' we Girondins saw it -with our eyes; five francs to keep them in heart! And distraction of armed -riot encumbers our borders, jangles at our Bar; we are prisoners in our own -Hall: Bishop Gregoire could not get out for a besoin actuel without four -gendarmes to wait on him! What is the character of a National -Representative become? And now the sunlight falls yellower on western -windows, and the chimney-tops are flinging longer shadows; the refreshed -Hundred Thousand, nor their shadows, stir not! What to resolve on? Motion -rises, superfluous one would think, That the Convention go forth in a body; -ascertain with its own eyes whether it is free or not. Lo, therefore, from -the Eastern Gate of the Tuileries, a distressed Convention issuing; -handsome Herault Sechelles at their head; he with hat on, in sign of public -calamity, the rest bareheaded,--towards the Gate of the Carrousel; wondrous -to see: towards Henriot and his plumed staff. "In the name of the -National Convention, make way!" Not an inch of the way does Henriot make: -"I receive no orders, till the Sovereign, yours and mine, has been obeyed." -The Convention presses on; Henriot prances back, with his staff, some -fifteen paces, "To arms! Cannoneers to your guns!"--flashes out his -puissant sword, as the Staff all do, and the Hussars all do. Cannoneers -brandish the lit match; Infantry present arms,--alas, in the level way, as -if for firing! Hatted Herault leads his distressed flock, through their -pinfold of a Tuileries again; across the Garden, to the Gate on the -opposite side. Here is Feuillans Terrace, alas, there is our old Salle de -Manege; but neither at this Gate of the Pont Tournant is there egress. Try -the other; and the other: no egress! We wander disconsolate through armed -ranks; who indeed salute with Live the Republic, but also with Die the -Gironde. Other such sight, in the year One of Liberty, the westering sun -never saw. - -And now behold Marat meets us; for he lagged in this Suppliant Procession -of ours: he has got some hundred elect Patriots at his heels: he orders -us in the Sovereign's name to return to our place, and do as we are bidden -and bound. The Convention returns. "Does not the Convention," says -Couthon with a singular power of face, "see that it is free?"--none but -friends round it? The Convention, overflowing with friends and armed -Sectioners, proceeds to vote as bidden. Many will not vote, but remain -silent; some one or two protest, in words: the Mountain has a clear -unanimity. Commission of Twelve, and the denounced Twenty-two, to whom we -add Ex-Ministers Claviere and Lebrun: these, with some slight extempore -alterations (this or that orator proposing, but Marat disposing), are voted -to be under 'Arrestment in their own houses.' Brissot, Buzot, Vergniaud, -Guadet, Louvet, Gensonne, Barbaroux, Lasource, Lanjuinais, Rabaut,--Thirty- -two, by the tale; all that we have known as Girondins, and more than we -have known. They, 'under the safeguard of the French People;' by and by, -under the safeguard of two Gendarmes each, shall dwell peaceably in their -own houses; as Non-Senators; till further order. Herewith ends Seance of -Sunday the second of June 1793. - -At ten o'clock, under mild stars, the Hundred Thousand, their work well -finished, turn homewards. This same day, Central Insurrection Committee -has arrested Madame Roland; imprisoned her in the Abbaye. Roland has fled, -no one knows whither. - -Thus fell the Girondins, by Insurrection; and became extinct as a Party: -not without a sigh from most Historians. The men were men of parts, of -Philosophic culture, decent behaviour; not condemnable in that they were -Pedants and had not better parts; not condemnable, but most unfortunate. -They wanted a Republic of the Virtues, wherein themselves should be head; -and they could only get a Republic of the Strengths, wherein others than -they were head. - -For the rest, Barrere shall make Report of it. The night concludes with a -'civic promenade by torchlight:' (Buzot, Memoires, p. 310. See Pieces -Justificatives, of Narratives, Commentaries, &c. in Buzot, Louvet, Meillan: -Documens Complementaires, in Hist. Parl. xxviii. 1-78.) surely the true -reign of Fraternity is now not far? - - - - -BOOK 3.IV. - -TERROR - - -Chapter 3.4.I. - -Charlotte Corday. - -In the leafy months of June and July, several French Departments germinate -a set of rebellious paper-leaves, named Proclamations, Resolutions, -Journals, or Diurnals 'of the Union for Resistance to Oppression.' In -particular, the Town of Caen, in Calvados, sees its paper-leaf of Bulletin -de Caen suddenly bud, suddenly establish itself as Newspaper there; under -the Editorship of Girondin National Representatives! - -For among the proscribed Girondins are certain of a more desperate humour. -Some, as Vergniaud, Valaze, Gensonne, 'arrested in their own houses' will -await with stoical resignation what the issue may be. Some, as Brissot, -Rabaut, will take to flight, to concealment; which, as the Paris Barriers -are opened again in a day or two, is not yet difficult. But others there -are who will rush, with Buzot, to Calvados; or far over France, to Lyons, -Toulon, Nantes and elsewhither, and then rendezvous at Caen: to awaken as -with war-trumpet the respectable Departments; and strike down an anarchic -Mountain Faction; at least not yield without a stroke at it. Of this -latter temper we count some score or more, of the Arrested, and of the Not- -yet-arrested; a Buzot, a Barbaroux, Louvet, Guadet, Petion, who have -escaped from Arrestment in their own homes; a Salles, a Pythagorean Valady, -a Duchatel, the Duchatel that came in blanket and nightcap to vote for the -life of Louis, who have escaped from danger and likelihood of Arrestment. -These, to the number at one time of Twenty-seven, do accordingly lodge -here, at the 'Intendance, or Departmental Mansion,' of the Town of Caen; -welcomed by Persons in Authority; welcomed and defrayed, having no money of -their own. And the Bulletin de Caen comes forth, with the most animating -paragraphs: How the Bourdeaux Department, the Lyons Department, this -Department after the other is declaring itself; sixty, or say sixty-nine, -or seventy-two (Meillan, p. 72, 73; Louvet, p. 129.) respectable -Departments either declaring, or ready to declare. Nay Marseilles, it -seems, will march on Paris by itself, if need be. So has Marseilles Town -said, That she will march. But on the other hand, that Montelimart Town -has said, No thoroughfare; and means even to 'bury herself' under her own -stone and mortar first--of this be no mention in Bulletin of Caen. - -Such animating paragraphs we read in this Newspaper; and fervours, and -eloquent sarcasm: tirades against the Mountain, frame pen of Deputy -Salles; which resemble, say friends, Pascal's Provincials. What is more to -the purpose, these Girondins have got a General in chief, one Wimpfen, -formerly under Dumouriez; also a secondary questionable General Puisaye, -and others; and are doing their best to raise a force for war. National -Volunteers, whosoever is of right heart: gather in, ye National -Volunteers, friends of Liberty; from our Calvados Townships, from the Eure, -from Brittany, from far and near; forward to Paris, and extinguish Anarchy! -Thus at Caen, in the early July days, there is a drumming and parading, a -perorating and consulting: Staff and Army; Council; Club of Carabots, -Anti-jacobin friends of Freedom, to denounce atrocious Marat. With all -which, and the editing of Bulletins, a National Representative has his -hands full. - -At Caen it is most animated; and, as one hopes, more or less animated in -the 'Seventy-two Departments that adhere to us.' And in a France begirt -with Cimmerian invading Coalitions, and torn with an internal La Vendee, -this is the conclusion we have arrived at: to put down Anarchy by Civil -War! Durum et durum, the Proverb says, non faciunt murum. La Vendee -burns: Santerre can do nothing there; he may return home and brew beer. -Cimmerian bombshells fly all along the North. That Siege of Mentz is -become famed;--lovers of the Picturesque (as Goethe will testify), washed -country-people of both sexes, stroll thither on Sundays, to see the -artillery work and counterwork; 'you only duck a little while the shot -whizzes past.' (Belagerung von Mainz (Goethe's Werke, xxx. 278-334).) -Conde is capitulating to the Austrians; Royal Highness of York, these -several weeks, fiercely batters Valenciennes. For, alas, our fortified -Camp of Famars was stormed; General Dampierre was killed; General Custine -was blamed,--and indeed is now come to Paris to give 'explanations.' - -Against all which the Mountain and atrocious Marat must even make head as -they can. They, anarchic Convention as they are, publish Decrees, -expostulatory, explanatory, yet not without severity; they ray forth -Commissioners, singly or in pairs, the olive-branch in one hand, yet the -sword in the other. Commissioners come even to Caen; but without effect. -Mathematical Romme, and Prieur named of the Cote d'Or, venturing thither, -with their olive and sword, are packed into prison: there may Romme lie, -under lock and key, 'for fifty days;' and meditate his New Calendar, if he -please. Cimmeria and Civil War! Never was Republic One and Indivisible at -a lower ebb.-- - -Amid which dim ferment of Caen and the World, History specially notices one -thing: in the lobby of the Mansion de l'Intendance, where busy Deputies -are coming and going, a young Lady with an aged valet, taking grave -graceful leave of Deputy Barbaroux. (Meillan, p.75; Louvet, p. 114.) She -is of stately Norman figure; in her twenty-fifth year; of beautiful still -countenance: her name is Charlotte Corday, heretofore styled d'Armans, -while Nobility still was. Barbaroux has given her a Note to Deputy -Duperret,--him who once drew his sword in the effervescence. Apparently -she will to Paris on some errand? 'She was a Republican before the -Revolution, and never wanted energy.' A completeness, a decision is in -this fair female Figure: 'by energy she means the spirit that will prompt -one to sacrifice himself for his country.' What if she, this fair young -Charlotte, had emerged from her secluded stillness, suddenly like a Star; -cruel-lovely, with half-angelic, half-demonic splendour; to gleam for a -moment, and in a moment be extinguished: to be held in memory, so bright -complete was she, through long centuries!--Quitting Cimmerian Coalitions -without, and the dim-simmering Twenty-five millions within, History will -look fixedly at this one fair Apparition of a Charlotte Corday; will note -whither Charlotte moves, how the little Life burns forth so radiant, then -vanishes swallowed of the Night. - -With Barbaroux's Note of Introduction, and slight stock of luggage, we see -Charlotte, on Tuesday the ninth of July, seated in the Caen Diligence, with -a place for Paris. None takes farewell of her, wishes her Good-journey: -her Father will find a line left, signifying that she is gone to England, -that he must pardon her and forget her. The drowsy Diligence lumbers -along; amid drowsy talk of Politics, and praise of the Mountain; in which -she mingles not; all night, all day, and again all night. On Thursday, not -long before none, we are at the Bridge of Neuilly; here is Paris with her -thousand black domes,--the goal and purpose of thy journey! Arrived at the -Inn de la Providence in the Rue des Vieux Augustins, Charlotte demands a -room; hastens to bed; sleeps all afternoon and night, till the morrow -morning. - -On the morrow morning, she delivers her Note to Duperret. It relates to -certain Family Papers which are in the Minister of the Interior's hand; -which a Nun at Caen, an old Convent-friend of Charlotte's, has need of; -which Duperret shall assist her in getting: this then was Charlotte's -errand to Paris? She has finished this, in the course of Friday;--yet says -nothing of returning. She has seen and silently investigated several -things. The Convention, in bodily reality, she has seen; what the Mountain -is like. The living physiognomy of Marat she could not see; he is sick at -present, and confined to home. - -About eight on the Saturday morning, she purchases a large sheath-knife in -the Palais Royal; then straightway, in the Place des Victoires, takes a -hackney-coach: "To the Rue de l'Ecole de Medecine, No. 44." It is the -residence of the Citoyen Marat!--The Citoyen Marat is ill, and cannot be -seen; which seems to disappoint her much. Her business is with Marat, -then? Hapless beautiful Charlotte; hapless squalid Marat! From Caen in -the utmost West, from Neuchatel in the utmost East, they two are drawing -nigh each other; they two have, very strangely, business together.-- -Charlotte, returning to her Inn, despatches a short Note to Marat; -signifying that she is from Caen, the seat of rebellion; that she desires -earnestly to see him, and 'will put it in his power to do France a great -service.' No answer. Charlotte writes another Note, still more pressing; -sets out with it by coach, about seven in the evening, herself. Tired day- -labourers have again finished their Week; huge Paris is circling and -simmering, manifold, according to its vague wont: this one fair Figure has -decision in it; drives straight,--towards a purpose. - -It is yellow July evening, we say, the thirteenth of the month; eve of the -Bastille day,--when 'M. Marat,' four years ago, in the crowd of the Pont -Neuf, shrewdly required of that Besenval Hussar-party, which had such -friendly dispositions, "to dismount, and give up their arms, then;" and -became notable among Patriot men! Four years: what a road he has -travelled;--and sits now, about half-past seven of the clock, stewing in -slipper-bath; sore afflicted; ill of Revolution Fever,--of what other -malady this History had rather not name. Excessively sick and worn, poor -man: with precisely elevenpence-halfpenny of ready money, in paper; with -slipper-bath; strong three-footed stool for writing on, the while; and a -squalid--Washerwoman, one may call her: that is his civic establishment in -Medical-School Street; thither and not elsewhither has his road led him. -Not to the reign of Brotherhood and Perfect Felicity; yet surely on the way -towards that?--Hark, a rap again! A musical woman's-voice, refusing to be -rejected: it is the Citoyenne who would do France a service. Marat, -recognising from within, cries, Admit her. Charlotte Corday is admitted. - -Citoyen Marat, I am from Caen the seat of rebellion, and wished to speak -with you.--Be seated, mon enfant. Now what are the Traitors doing at Caen? -What Deputies are at Caen?--Charlotte names some Deputies. "Their heads -shall fall within a fortnight," croaks the eager People's-Friend, clutching -his tablets to write: Barbaroux, Petion, writes he with bare shrunk arm, -turning aside in the bath: Petion, and Louvet, and--Charlotte has drawn -her knife from the sheath; plunges it, with one sure stroke, into the -writer's heart. "A moi, chere amie, Help, dear!" No more could the Death- -choked say or shriek. The helpful Washerwoman running in, there is no -Friend of the People, or Friend of the Washerwoman, left; but his life with -a groan gushes out, indignant, to the shades below. (Moniteur, Nos. 197, -198, 199; Hist. Parl. xxviii. 301-5; Deux Amis, x. 368-374.) - -And so Marat People's-Friend is ended; the lone Stylites has got hurled -down suddenly from his Pillar,--whither He that made him does know. -Patriot Paris may sound triple and tenfold, in dole and wail; re-echoed by -Patriot France; and the Convention, 'Chabot pale with terror declaring that -they are to be all assassinated,' may decree him Pantheon Honours, Public -Funeral, Mirabeau's dust making way for him; and Jacobin Societies, in -lamentable oratory, summing up his character, parallel him to One, whom -they think it honour to call 'the good Sansculotte,'--whom we name not -here. (See Eloge funebre de Jean-Paul Marat, prononce a Strasbourg (in -Barbaroux, p. 125-131); Mercier, &c.) Also a Chapel may be made, for the -urn that holds his Heart, in the Place du Carrousel; and new-born children -be named Marat; and Lago-de-Como Hawkers bake mountains of stucco into -unbeautiful Busts; and David paint his Picture, or Death-scene; and such -other Apotheosis take place as the human genius, in these circumstances, -can devise: but Marat returns no more to the light of this Sun. One sole -circumstance we have read with clear sympathy, in the old Moniteur -Newspaper: how Marat's brother comes from Neuchatel to ask of the -Convention 'that the deceased Jean-Paul Marat's musket be given him.' -(Seance du 16 Septembre 1793.) For Marat too had a brother, and natural -affections; and was wrapt once in swaddling-clothes, and slept safe in a -cradle like the rest of us. Ye children of men!--A sister of his, they -say, lives still to this day in Paris. - -As for Charlotte Corday her work is accomplished; the recompense of it is -near and sure. The chere amie, and neighbours of the house, flying at her, -she 'overturns some movables,' entrenches herself till the gendarmes -arrive; then quietly surrenders; goes quietly to the Abbaye Prison: she -alone quiet, all Paris sounding in wonder, in rage or admiration, round -her. Duperret is put in arrest, on account of her; his Papers sealed,-- -which may lead to consequences. Fauchet, in like manner; though Fauchet -had not so much as heard of her. Charlotte, confronted with these two -Deputies, praises the grave firmness of Duperret, censures the dejection of -Fauchet. - -On Wednesday morning, the thronged Palais de Justice and Revolutionary -Tribunal can see her face; beautiful and calm: she dates it 'fourth day of -the Preparation of Peace.' A strange murmur ran through the Hall, at sight -of her; you could not say of what character. (Proces de Charlotte Corday, -&c. (Hist. Parl. xxviii. 311-338).) Tinville has his indictments and tape- -papers the cutler of the Palais Royal will testify that he sold her the -sheath-knife; "all these details are needless," interrupted Charlotte; "it -is I that killed Marat." By whose instigation?--"By no one's." What -tempted you, then? His crimes. "I killed one man," added she, raising her -voice extremely (extremement), as they went on with their questions, "I -killed one man to save a hundred thousand; a villain to save innocents; a -savage wild-beast to give repose to my country. I was a Republican before -the Revolution; I never wanted energy." There is therefore nothing to be -said. The public gazes astonished: the hasty limners sketch her features, -Charlotte not disapproving; the men of law proceed with their formalities. -The doom is Death as a murderess. To her Advocate she gives thanks; in -gentle phrase, in high-flown classical spirit. To the Priest they send her -she gives thanks; but needs not any shriving, or ghostly or other aid from -him. - -On this same evening, therefore, about half-past seven o'clock, from the -gate of the Conciergerie, to a City all on tiptoe, the fatal Cart issues: -seated on it a fair young creature, sheeted in red smock of Murderess; so -beautiful, serene, so full of life; journeying towards death,--alone amid -the world. Many take off their hats, saluting reverently; for what heart -but must be touched? (Deux Amis, x. 374-384.) Others growl and howl. -Adam Lux, of Mentz, declares that she is greater than Brutus; that it were -beautiful to die with her: the head of this young man seems turned. At -the Place de la Revolution, the countenance of Charlotte wears the same -still smile. The executioners proceed to bind her feet; she resists, -thinking it meant as an insult; on a word of explanation, she submits with -cheerful apology. As the last act, all being now ready, they take the -neckerchief from her neck: a blush of maidenly shame overspreads that fair -face and neck; the cheeks were still tinged with it, when the executioner -lifted the severed head, to shew it to the people. 'It is most true,' says -Foster, 'that he struck the cheek insultingly; for I saw it with my eyes: -the Police imprisoned him for it.' (Briefwechsel, i. 508.) - -In this manner have the Beautifullest and the Squalidest come in collision, -and extinguished one another. Jean-Paul Marat and Marie-Anne Charlotte -Corday both, suddenly, are no more. 'Day of the Preparation of Peace?' -Alas, how were peace possible or preparable, while, for example, the hearts -of lovely Maidens, in their convent-stillness, are dreaming not of Love- -paradises, and the light of Life; but of Codrus'-sacrifices, and death well -earned? That Twenty-five million hearts have got to such temper, this is -the Anarchy; the soul of it lies in this: whereof not peace can be the -embodyment! The death of Marat, whetting old animosities tenfold, will be -worse than any life. O ye hapless Two, mutually extinctive, the Beautiful -and the Squalid, sleep ye well,--in the Mother's bosom that bore you both! - -This was the History of Charlotte Corday; most definite, most complete; -angelic-demonic: like a Star! Adam Lux goes home, half-delirious; to pour -forth his Apotheosis of her, in paper and print; to propose that she have a -statue with this inscription, Greater than Brutus. Friends represent his -danger; Lux is reckless; thinks it were beautiful to die with her. - - - -Chapter 3.4.II. - -In Civil War. - -But during these same hours, another guillotine is at work, on another: -Charlotte, for the Girondins, dies at Paris to-day; Chalier, by the -Girondins, dies at Lyons to-morrow. - -From rumbling of cannon along the streets of that City, it has come to -firing of them, to rabid fighting: Nievre-Chol and the Girondins triumph;- --behind whom there is, as everywhere, a Royalist Faction waiting to strike -in. Trouble enough at Lyons; and the dominant party carrying it with a -high hand! For indeed, the whole South is astir; incarcerating Jacobins; -arming for Girondins: wherefore we have got a 'Congress of Lyons;' also a -'Revolutionary Tribunal of Lyons,' and Anarchists shall tremble. So -Chalier was soon found guilty, of Jacobinism, of murderous Plot, 'address -with drawn dagger on the sixth of February last;' and, on the morrow, he -also travels his final road, along the streets of Lyons, 'by the side of an -ecclesiastic, with whom he seems to speak earnestly,'--the axe now -glittering high. He could weep, in old years, this man, and 'fall on his -knees on the pavement,' blessing Heaven at sight of Federation Programs or -like; then he pilgrimed to Paris, to worship Marat and the Mountain: now -Marat and he are both gone;--we said he could not end well. Jacobinism -groans inwardly, at Lyons; but dare not outwardly. Chalier, when the -Tribunal sentenced him, made answer: "My death will cost this City dear." - -Montelimart Town is not buried under its ruins; yet Marseilles is actually -marching, under order of a 'Lyons Congress;' is incarcerating Patriots; the -very Royalists now shewing face. Against which a General Cartaux fights, -though in small force; and with him an Artillery Major, of the name of-- -Napoleon Buonaparte. This Napoleon, to prove that the Marseillese have no -chance ultimately, not only fights but writes; publishes his Supper of -Beaucaire, a Dialogue which has become curious. (See Hazlitt, ii. 529-41.) -Unfortunate Cities, with their actions and their reactions! Violence to be -paid with violence in geometrical ratio; Royalism and Anarchism both -striking in;--the final net-amount of which geometrical series, what man -shall sum? - -The Bar of Iron has never yet floated in Marseilles Harbour; but the Body -of Rebecqui was found floating, self-drowned there. Hot Rebecqui seeing -how confusion deepened, and Respectability grew poisoned with Royalism, -felt that there was no refuge for a Republican but death. Rebecqui -disappeared: no one knew whither; till, one morning, they found the empty -case or body of him risen to the top, tumbling on the salt waves; -(Barbaroux, p. 29.) and perceived that Rebecqui had withdrawn forever.-- -Toulon likewise is incarcerating Patriots; sending delegates to Congress; -intriguing, in case of necessity, with the Royalists and English. -Montpellier, Bourdeaux, Nantes: all France, that is not under the swoop of -Austria and Cimmeria, seems rushing into madness, and suicidal ruin. The -Mountain labours; like a volcano in a burning volcanic Land. Convention -Committees, of Surety, of Salvation, are busy night and day: Convention -Commissioners whirl on all highways; bearing olive-branch and sword, or now -perhaps sword only. Chaumette and Municipals come daily to the Tuileries -demanding a Constitution: it is some weeks now since he resolved, in -Townhall, that a Deputation 'should go every day' and demand a -Constitution, till one were got; (Deux Amis, x. 345.) whereby suicidal -France might rally and pacify itself; a thing inexpressibly desirable. - -This then is the fruit your Anti-anarchic Girondins have got from that -Levying of War in Calvados? This fruit, we may say; and no other -whatsoever. For indeed, before either Charlotte's or Chalier's head had -fallen, the Calvados War itself had, as it were, vanished, dreamlike, in a -shriek! With 'seventy-two Departments' on one's side, one might have hoped -better things. But it turns out that Respectabilities, though they will -vote, will not fight. Possession is always nine points in Law; but in -Lawsuits of this kind, one may say, it is ninety-and-nine points. Men do -what they were wont to do; and have immense irresolution and inertia: they -obey him who has the symbols that claim obedience. Consider what, in -modern society, this one fact means: the Metropolis is with our enemies! -Metropolis, Mother-city; rightly so named: all the rest are but as her -children, her nurselings. Why, there is not a leathern Diligence, with its -post-bags and luggage-boots, that lumbers out from her, but is as a huge -life-pulse; she is the heart of all. Cut short that one leathern -Diligence, how much is cut short!--General Wimpfen, looking practically -into the matter, can see nothing for it but that one should fall back on -Royalism; get into communication with Pitt! Dark innuendoes he flings out, -to that effect: whereat we Girondins start, horrorstruck. He produces as -his Second in command a certain 'Ci-devant,' one Comte Puisaye; entirely -unknown to Louvet; greatly suspected by him. - -Few wars, accordingly, were ever levied of a more insufficient character -than this of Calvados. He that is curious in such things may read the -details of it in the Memoirs of that same Ci-devant Puisaye, the much- -enduring man and Royalist: How our Girondin National Forces, marching off -with plenty of wind-music, were drawn out about the old Chateau of -Brecourt, in the wood-country near Vernon, to meet the Mountain National -forces advancing from Paris. How on the fifteenth afternoon of July, they -did meet,--and, as it were, shrieked mutually, and took mutually to flight -without loss. How Puisaye thereafter, for the Mountain Nationals fled -first, and we thought ourselves the victors,--was roused from his warm bed -in the Castle of Brecourt; and had to gallop without boots; our Nationals, -in the night-watches, having fallen unexpectedly into sauve qui peut:--and -in brief the Calvados War had burnt priming; and the only question now was, -Whitherward to vanish, in what hole to hide oneself! (Memoires de Puisaye -(London, 1803), ii. 142-67.) - -The National Volunteers rush homewards, faster than they came. The -Seventy-two Respectable Departments, says Meillan, 'all turned round, and -forsook us, in the space of four-and-twenty hours.' Unhappy those who, as -at Lyons for instance, have gone too far for turning! 'One morning,' we -find placarded on our Intendance Mansion, the Decree of Convention which -casts us Hors la loi, into Outlawry: placarded by our Caen Magistrates;-- -clear hint that we also are to vanish. Vanish, indeed: but whitherward? -Gorsas has friends in Rennes; he will hide there,--unhappily will not lie -hid. Guadet, Lanjuinais are on cross roads; making for Bourdeaux. To -Bourdeaux! cries the general voice, of Valour alike and of Despair. Some -flag of Respectability still floats there, or is thought to float. - -Thitherward therefore; each as he can! Eleven of these ill-fated Deputies, -among whom we may count, as twelfth, Friend Riouffe the Man of Letters, do -an original thing. Take the uniform of National Volunteers, and retreat -southward with the Breton Battalion, as private soldiers of that corps. -These brave Bretons had stood truer by us than any other. Nevertheless, at -the end of a day or two, they also do now get dubious, self-divided; we -must part from them; and, with some half-dozen as convoy or guide, retreat -by ourselves,--a solitary marching detachment, through waste regions of the -West. (Louvet, pp. 101-37; Meillan, pp. 81, 241-70.) - - - -Chapter 3.4.III. - -Retreat of the Eleven. - -It is one of the notablest Retreats, this of the Eleven, that History -presents: The handful of forlorn Legislators retreating there, -continually, with shouldered firelock and well-filled cartridge-box, in the -yellow autumn; long hundreds of miles between them and Bourdeaux; the -country all getting hostile, suspicious of the truth; simmering and buzzing -on all sides, more and more. Louvet has preserved the Itinerary of it; a -piece worth all the rest he ever wrote. - -O virtuous Petion, with thy early-white head, O brave young Barbaroux, has -it come to this? Weary ways, worn shoes, light purse;--encompassed with -perils as with a sea! Revolutionary Committees are in every Township; of -Jacobin temper; our friends all cowed, our cause the losing one. In the -Borough of Moncontour, by ill chance, it is market-day: to the gaping -public such transit of a solitary Marching Detachment is suspicious; we -have need of energy, of promptitude and luck, to be allowed to march -through. Hasten, ye weary pilgrims! The country is getting up; noise of -you is bruited day after day, a solitary Twelve retreating in this -mysterious manner: with every new day, a wider wave of inquisitive -pursuing tumult is stirred up till the whole West will be in motion. -'Cussy is tormented with gout, Buzot is too fat for marching.' Riouffe, -blistered, bleeding, marching only on tiptoe; Barbaroux limps with sprained -ancle, yet ever cheery, full of hope and valour. Light Louvet glances -hare-eyed, not hare-hearted: only virtuous Petion's serenity 'was but once -seen ruffled.' (Meillan, pp. 119-137.) They lie in straw-lofts, in woody -brakes; rudest paillasse on the floor of a secret friend is luxury. They -are seized in the dead of night by Jacobin mayors and tap of drum; get off -by firm countenance, rattle of muskets, and ready wit. - -Of Bourdeaux, through fiery La Vendee and the long geographical spaces that -remain, it were madness to think: well, if you can get to Quimper on the -sea-coast, and take shipping there. Faster, ever faster! Before the end -of the march, so hot has the country grown, it is found advisable to march -all night. They do it; under the still night-canopy they plod along;--and -yet behold, Rumour has outplodded them. In the paltry Village of Carhaix -(be its thatched huts, and bottomless peat-bogs, long notable to the -Traveller), one is astonished to find light still glimmering: citizens are -awake, with rush-lights burning, in that nook of the terrestrial Planet; as -we traverse swiftly the one poor street, a voice is heard saying, "There -they are, Les voila qui passent!" (Louvet, pp. 138-164.) Swifter, ye -doomed lame Twelve: speed ere they can arm; gain the Woods of Quimper -before day, and lie squatted there! - -The doomed Twelve do it; though with difficulty, with loss of road, with -peril, and the mistakes of a night. In Quimper are Girondin friends, who -perhaps will harbour the homeless, till a Bourdeaux ship weigh. Wayworn, -heartworn, in agony of suspense, till Quimper friendship get warning, they -lie there, squatted under the thick wet boscage; suspicious of the face of -man. Some pity to the brave; to the unhappy! Unhappiest of all -Legislators, O when ye packed your luggage, some score, or two-score months -ago; and mounted this or the other leathern vehicle, to be Conscript -Fathers of a regenerated France, and reap deathless laurels,--did ye think -your journey was to lead hither? The Quimper Samaritans find them -squatted; lift them up to help and comfort; will hide them in sure places. -Thence let them dissipate gradually; or there they can lie quiet, and write -Memoirs, till a Bourdeaux ship sail. - -And thus, in Calvados all is dissipated; Romme is out of prison, meditating -his Calendar; ringleaders are locked in his room. At Caen the Corday -family mourns in silence; Buzot's House is a heap of dust and demolition; -and amid the rubbish sticks a Gallows, with this inscription, Here dwelt -the Traitor Buzot who conspired against the Republic. Buzot and the other -vanished Deputies are hors la loi, as we saw; their lives free to take -where they can be found. The worse fares it with the poor Arrested visible -Deputies at Paris. 'Arrestment at home' threatens to become 'Confinement -in the Luxembourg;' to end: where? For example, what pale-visaged thin -man is this, journeying towards Switzerland as a Merchant of Neuchatel, -whom they arrest in the town of Moulins? To Revolutionary Committee he is -suspect. To Revolutionary Committee, on probing the matter, he is -evidently: Deputy Brissot! Back to thy Arrestment, poor Brissot; or -indeed to strait confinement,--whither others are fared to follow. Rabaut -has built himself a false-partition, in a friend's house; lives, in -invisible darkness, between two walls. It will end, this same Arrestment -business, in Prison, and the Revolutionary Tribunal. - -Nor must we forget Duperret, and the seal put on his papers by reason of -Charlotte. One Paper is there, fit to breed woe enough: A secret solemn -Protest against that suprema dies of the Second of June! This Secret -Protest our poor Duperret had drawn up, the same week, in all plainness of -speech; waiting the time for publishing it: to which Secret Protest his -signature, and that of other honourable Deputies not a few, stands legibly -appended. And now, if the seals were once broken, the Mountain still -victorious? Such Protestors, your Merciers, Bailleuls, Seventy-three by -the tale, what yet remains of Respectable Girondism in the Convention, may -tremble to think!--These are the fruits of levying civil war. - -Also we find, that, in these last days of July, the famed Siege of Mentz is -finished; the Garrison to march out with honours of war; not to serve -against the Coalition for a year! Lovers of the Picturesque, and Goethe -standing on the Chaussee of Mentz, saw, with due interest, the Procession -issuing forth, in all solemnity: - -'Escorted by Prussian horse came first the French Garrison. Nothing could -look stranger than this latter: a column of Marseillese, slight, swarthy, -party-coloured, in patched clothes, came tripping on;--as if King Edwin had -opened the Dwarf Hill, and sent out his nimble Host of Dwarfs. Next -followed regular troops; serious, sullen; not as if downcast or ashamed. -But the remarkablest appearance, which struck every one, was that of the -Chasers (Chasseurs) coming out mounted: they had advanced quite silent to -where we stood, when their Band struck up the Marseillaise. This -Revolutionary Te-Deum has in itself something mournful and bodeful, however -briskly played; but at present they gave it in altogether slow time, -proportionate to the creeping step they rode at. It was piercing and -fearful, and a most serious-looking thing, as these cavaliers, long, lean -men, of a certain age, with mien suitable to the music, came pacing on: -singly you might have likened them to Don Quixote; in mass, they were -highly dignified. - -'But now a single troop became notable: that of the Commissioners or -Representans. Merlin of Thionville, in hussar uniform, distinguishing -himself by wild beard and look, had another person in similar costume on -his left; the crowd shouted out, with rage, at sight of this latter, the -name of a Jacobin Townsman and Clubbist; and shook itself to seize him. -Merlin drew bridle; referred to his dignity as French Representative, to -the vengeance that should follow any injury done; he would advise every one -to compose himself, for this was not the last time they would see him here. -(Belagerung von Maintz (Goethe's Werke, xxx. 315.) Thus rode Merlin; -threatening in defeat. But what now shall stem that tide of Prussians -setting in through the open North-East?' Lucky, if fortified Lines of -Weissembourg, and impassibilities of Vosges Mountains, confine it to French -Alsace, keep it from submerging the very heart of the country! - -Furthermore, precisely in the same days, Valenciennes Siege is finished, in -the North-West:--fallen, under the red hail of York! Conde fell some -fortnight since. Cimmerian Coalition presses on. What seems very notable -too, on all these captured French Towns there flies not the Royalist fleur- -de-lys, in the name of a new Louis the Pretender; but the Austrian flag -flies; as if Austria meant to keep them for herself! Perhaps General -Custines, still in Paris, can give some explanation of the fall of these -strong-places? Mother Society, from tribune and gallery, growls loud that -he ought to do it;--remarks, however, in a splenetic manner that 'the -Monsieurs of the Palais Royal' are calling, Long-life to this General. - -The Mother Society, purged now, by successive 'scrutinies or epurations,' -from all taint of Girondism, has become a great Authority: what we can -call shield-bearer, or bottle-holder, nay call it fugleman, to the purged -National Convention itself. The Jacobins Debates are reported in the -Moniteur, like Parliamentary ones. - - - -Chapter 3.4.IV. - -O Nature. - -But looking more specially into Paris City, what is this that History, on -the 10th of August, Year One of Liberty, 'by old-style, year 1793,' -discerns there? Praised be the Heavens, a new Feast of Pikes! - -For Chaumette's 'Deputation every day' has worked out its result: a -Constitution. It was one of the rapidest Constitutions ever put together; -made, some say in eight days, by Herault Sechelles and others: probably a -workmanlike, roadworthy Constitution enough;--on which point, however, we -are, for some reasons, little called to form a judgment. Workmanlike or -not, the Forty-four Thousand Communes of France, by overwhelming -majorities, did hasten to accept it; glad of any Constitution whatsoever. -Nay Departmental Deputies have come, the venerablest Republicans of each -Department, with solemn message of Acceptance; and now what remains but -that our new Final Constitution be proclaimed, and sworn to, in Feast of -Pikes? The Departmental Deputies, we say, are come some time ago;-- -Chaumette very anxious about them, lest Girondin Monsieurs, Agio-jobbers, -or were it even Filles de joie of a Girondin temper, corrupt their morals. -(Deux Amis, xi. 73.) Tenth of August, immortal Anniversary, greater almost -than Bastille July, is the Day. - -Painter David has not been idle. Thanks to David and the French genius, -there steps forth into the sunlight, this day, a Scenic Phantasmagory -unexampled:--whereof History, so occupied with Real-Phantasmagories, will -say but little. - -For one thing, History can notice with satisfaction, on the ruins of the -Bastille, a Statue of Nature; gigantic, spouting water from her two -mammelles. Not a Dream this; but a Fact, palpable visible. There she -spouts, great Nature; dim, before daybreak. But as the coming Sun ruddies -the East, come countless Multitudes, regulated and unregulated; come -Departmental Deputies, come Mother Society and Daughters; comes National -Convention, led on by handsome Herault; soft wind-music breathing note of -expectation. Lo, as great Sol scatters his first fire-handful, tipping the -hills and chimney-heads with gold, Herault is at great Nature's feet (she -is Plaster of Paris merely); Herault lifts, in an iron saucer, water -spouted from the sacred breasts; drinks of it, with an eloquent Pagan -Prayer, beginning, "O Nature!" and all the Departmental Deputies drink, -each with what best suitable ejaculation or prophetic-utterance is in him;- --amid breathings, which become blasts, of wind-music; and the roar of -artillery and human throats: finishing well the first act of this -solemnity. - -Next are processionings along the Boulevards: Deputies or Officials bound -together by long indivisible tricolor riband; general 'members of the -Sovereign' walking pellmell, with pikes, with hammers, with the tools and -emblems of their crafts; among which we notice a Plough, and ancient Baucis -and Philemon seated on it, drawn by their children. Many-voiced harmony -and dissonance filling the air. Through Triumphal Arches enough: at the -basis of the first of which, we descry--whom thinkest thou?--the Heroines -of the Insurrection of Women. Strong Dames of the Market, they sit there -(Theroigne too ill to attend, one fears), with oak-branches, tricolor -bedizenment; firm-seated on their Cannons. To whom handsome Herault, -making pause of admiration, addresses soothing eloquence; whereupon they -rise and fall into the march. - -And now mark, in the Place de la Revolution, what other August Statue may -this be; veiled in canvas,--which swiftly we shear off by pulley and cord? -The Statue of Liberty! She too is of plaster, hoping to become of metal; -stands where a Tyrant Louis Quinze once stood. 'Three thousand birds' are -let loose, into the whole world, with labels round their neck, We are free; -imitate us. Holocaust of Royalist and ci-devant trumpery, such as one -could still gather, is burnt; pontifical eloquence must be uttered, by -handsome Herault, and Pagan orisons offered up. - -And then forward across the River; where is new enormous Statuary; enormous -plaster Mountain; Hercules-Peuple, with uplifted all-conquering club; -'many-headed Dragon of Girondin Federalism rising from fetid marsh;'-- -needing new eloquence from Herault. To say nothing of Champ-de-Mars, and -Fatherland's Altar there; with urn of slain Defenders, Carpenter's-level of -the Law; and such exploding, gesticulating and perorating, that Herault's -lips must be growing white, and his tongue cleaving to the roof of his -mouth. (Choix des Rapports, xii. 432-42.) - -Towards six-o'clock let the wearied President, let Paris Patriotism -generally sit down to what repast, and social repasts, can be had; and with -flowing tankard or light-mantling glass, usher in this New and Newest Era. -In fact, is not Romme's New Calendar getting ready? On all housetops -flicker little tricolor Flags, their flagstaff a Pike and Liberty-Cap. On -all house-walls, for no Patriot, not suspect, will be behind another, there -stand printed these words: Republic one and indivisible, Liberty, -Equality, Fraternity, or Death. - -As to the New Calendar, we may say here rather than elsewhere that -speculative men have long been struck with the inequalities and -incongruities of the Old Calendar; that a New one has long been as good as -determined on. Marechal the Atheist, almost ten years ago, proposed a New -Calendar, free at least from superstition: this the Paris Municipality -would now adopt, in defect of a better; at all events, let us have either -this of Marechal's or a better,--the New Era being come. Petitions, more -than once, have been sent to that effect; and indeed, for a year past, all -Public Bodies, Journalists, and Patriots in general, have dated First Year -of the Republic. It is a subject not without difficulties. But the -Convention has taken it up; and Romme, as we say, has been meditating it; -not Marechal's New Calendar, but a better New one of Romme's and our own. -Romme, aided by a Monge, a Lagrange and others, furnishes mathematics; -Fabre d'Eglantine furnishes poetic nomenclature: and so, on the 5th of -October 1793, after trouble enough, they bring forth this New Republican -Calendar of theirs, in a complete state; and by Law, get it put in action. - -Four equal Seasons, Twelve equal Months of thirty days each: this makes -three hundred and sixty days; and five odd days remain to be disposed of. -The five odd days we will make Festivals, and name the five Sansculottides, -or Days without Breeches. Festival of Genius; Festival of Labour; of -Actions; of Rewards; of Opinion: these are the five Sansculottides. -Whereby the great Circle, or Year, is made complete: solely every fourth -year, whilom called Leap-year, we introduce a sixth Sansculottide; and name -it Festival of the Revolution. Now as to the day of commencement, which -offers difficulties, is it not one of the luckiest coincidences that the -Republic herself commenced on the 21st of September; close on the Vernal -Equinox? Vernal Equinox, at midnight for the meridian of Paris, in the -year whilom Christian 1792, from that moment shall the New Era reckon -itself to begin. Vendemiaire, Brumaire, Frimaire; or as one might say, in -mixed English, Vintagearious, Fogarious, Frostarious: these are our three -Autumn months. Nivose, Pluviose, Ventose, or say Snowous, Rainous, -Windous, make our Winter season. Germinal, Floreal, Prairial, or Buddal, -Floweral, Meadowal, are our Spring season. Messidor, Thermidor, Fructidor, -that is to say (dor being Greek for gift) Reapidor, Heatidor, Fruitidor, -are Republican Summer. These Twelve, in a singular manner, divide the -Republican Year. Then as to minuter subdivisions, let us venture at once -on a bold stroke: adopt your decimal subdivision; and instead of world-old -Week, or Se'ennight, make it a Tennight or Decade;--not without results. -There are three Decades, then, in each of the months; which is very -regular; and the Decadi, or Tenth-day, shall always be 'the Day of Rest.' -And the Christian Sabbath, in that case? Shall shift for itself! - -This, in brief, in this New Calendar of Romme and the Convention; -calculated for the meridian of Paris, and Gospel of Jean-Jacques: not one -of the least afflicting occurrences for the actual British reader of French -History;--confusing the soul with Messidors, Meadowals; till at last, in -self-defence, one is forced to construct some ground-scheme, or rule of -Commutation from New-style to Old-style, and have it lying by him. Such -ground-scheme, almost worn out in our service, but still legible and -printable, we shall now, in a Note, present to the reader. For the Romme -Calendar, in so many Newspapers, Memoirs, Public Acts, has stamped itself -deep into that section of Time: a New Era that lasts some Twelve years and -odd is not to be despised. Let the reader, therefore, with such ground- -scheme, help himself, where needful, out of New-style into Old-style, -called also 'slave-style, stile-esclave;'--whereof we, in these pages, -shall as much as possible use the latter only. - -(September 22nd of 1792 is Vendemiaire 1st of Year One, and the new months -are all of 30 days each; therefore: - -To the number of the We have the number of the -day in Add day in Days - - Vendemiaire 21 September 30 - Brumaire 21 October 31 - Frimaire 20 November 30 - - Nivose 20 December 31 - Pluviose 19 January 31 - Ventose 18 February 28 - - Germinal 20 March 31 - Floreal 19 April 30 - Prairial 19 May 31 - - Messidor 18 June 30 - Thermidor 18 July 31 - Fructidor 17 August 31 - -There are 5 Sansculottides, and in leap-year a sixth, to be added at the -end of Fructidor. - -The New Calendar ceased on the 1st of January 1806. See Choix des -Rapports, xiii. 83-99; xix. 199.) - -Thus with new Feast of Pikes, and New Era or New Calendar, did France -accept her New Constitution: the most Democratic Constitution ever -committed to paper. How it will work in practice? Patriot Deputations -from time to time solicit fruition of it; that it be set a-going. Always, -however, this seems questionable; for the moment, unsuitable. Till, in -some weeks, Salut Public, through the organ of Saint-Just, makes report, -that, in the present alarming circumstances, the state of France is -Revolutionary; that her 'Government must be Revolutionary till the Peace!' -Solely as Paper, then, and as a Hope, must this poor New Constitution -exist;--in which shape we may conceive it lying; even now, with an infinity -of other things, in that Limbo near the Moon. Further than paper it never -got, nor ever will get. - - - -Chapter 3.4.V. - -Sword of Sharpness. - -In fact it is something quite other than paper theorems, it is iron and -audacity that France now needs. - -Is not La Vendee still blazing;--alas too literally; rogue Rossignol -burning the very corn-mills? General Santerre could do nothing there; -General Rossignol, in blind fury, often in liquor, can do less than -nothing. Rebellion spreads, grows ever madder. Happily those lean -Quixote-figures, whom we saw retreating out of Mentz, 'bound not to serve -against the Coalition for a year,' have got to Paris. National Convention -packs them into post-vehicles and conveyances; sends them swiftly, by post, -into La Vendee! There valiantly struggling, in obscure battle and -skirmish, under rogue Rossignol, let them, unlaurelled, save the Republic, -and 'be cut down gradually to the last man.' (Deux Amis, xi. 147; xiii. -160-92, &c.) - -Does not the Coalition, like a fire-tide, pour in; Prussia through the -opened North-East; Austria, England through the North-West? General -Houchard prospers no better there than General Custine did: let him look -to it! Through the Eastern and the Western Pyrenees Spain has deployed -itself; spreads, rustling with Bourbon banners, over the face of the South. -Ashes and embers of confused Girondin civil war covered that region -already. Marseilles is damped down, not quenched; to be quenched in blood. -Toulon, terrorstruck, too far gone for turning, has flung itself, ye -righteous Powers,--into the hands of the English! On Toulon Arsenal there -flies a Flag,--nay not even the Fleur-de-lys of a Louis Pretender; there -flies that accursed St. George's Cross of the English and Admiral Hood! -What remnants of sea-craft, arsenals, roperies, war-navy France had, has -given itself to these enemies of human nature, 'ennemis du genre humain.' -Beleaguer it, bombard it, ye Commissioners Barras, Freron, Robespierre -Junior; thou General Cartaux, General Dugommier; above all, thou remarkable -Artillery-Major, Napoleon Buonaparte! Hood is fortifying himself, -victualling himself; means, apparently, to make a new Gibraltar of it. - -But lo, in the Autumn night, late night, among the last of August, what -sudden red sunblaze is this that has risen over Lyons City; with a noise to -deafen the world? It is the Powder-tower of Lyons, nay the Arsenal with -four Powder-towers, which has caught fire in the Bombardment; and sprung -into the air, carrying 'a hundred and seventeen houses' after it. With a -light, one fancies, as of the noon sun; with a roar second only to the Last -Trumpet! All living sleepers far and wide it has awakened. What a sight -was that, which the eye of History saw, in the sudden nocturnal sunblaze! -The roofs of hapless Lyons, and all its domes and steeples made momentarily -clear; Rhone and Saone streams flashing suddenly visible; and height and -hollow, hamlet and smooth stubblefield, and all the region round;--heights, -alas, all scarped and counterscarped, into trenches, curtains, redouts; -blue Artillery-men, little Powder-devilkins, plying their hell-trade there, -through the not ambrosial night! Let the darkness cover it again; for it -pains the eye. Of a truth, Chalier's death is costing this City dear. -Convention Commissioners, Lyons Congresses have come and gone; and action -there was and reaction; bad ever growing worse; till it has come to this: -Commissioner Dubois-Crance, 'with seventy thousand men, and all the -Artillery of several Provinces,' bombarding Lyons day and night. - -Worse things still are in store. Famine is in Lyons, and ruin, and fire. -Desperate are the sallies of the besieged; brave Precy, their National -Colonel and Commandant, doing what is in man: desperate but ineffectual. -Provisions cut off; nothing entering our city but shot and shells! The -Arsenal has roared aloft; the very Hospital will be battered down, and the -sick buried alive. A Black Flag hung on this latter noble Edifice, -appealing to the pity of the beseigers; for though maddened, were they not -still our brethren? In their blind wrath, they took it for a flag of -defiance, and aimed thitherward the more. Bad is growing ever worse here: -and how will the worse stop, till it have grown worst of all? Commissioner -Dubois will listen to no pleading, to no speech, save this only, 'We -surrender at discretion.' Lyons contains in it subdued Jacobins; dominant -Girondins; secret Royalists. And now, mere deaf madness and cannon-shot -enveloping them, will not the desperate Municipality fly, at last, into the -arms of Royalism itself? Majesty of Sardinia was to bring help, but it -failed. Emigrant Autichamp, in name of the Two Pretender Royal Highnesses, -is coming through Switzerland with help; coming, not yet come: Precy -hoists the Fleur-de-lys! - -At sight of which, all true Girondins sorrowfully fling down their arms:-- -Let our Tricolor brethren storm us, then, and slay us in their wrath: with -you we conquer not. The famishing women and children are sent forth: deaf -Dubois sends them back;--rains in mere fire and madness. Our 'redouts of -cotton-bags' are taken, retaken; Precy under his Fleur-de-lys is valiant as -Despair. What will become of Lyons? It is a siege of seventy days. (Deux -Amis, xi. 80-143.) - -Or see, in these same weeks, far in the Western waters: breasting through -the Bay of Biscay, a greasy dingy little Merchantship, with Scotch skipper; -under hatches whereof sit, disconsolate,--the last forlorn nucleus of -Girondism, the Deputies from Quimper! Several have dissipated themselves, -whithersoever they could. Poor Riouffe fell into the talons of -Revolutionary Committee, and Paris Prison. The rest sit here under -hatches; reverend Petion with his grey hair, angry Buzot, suspicious -Louvet, brave young Barbaroux, and others. They have escaped from Quimper, -in this sad craft; are now tacking and struggling; in danger from the -waves, in danger from the English, in still worse danger from the French;-- -banished by Heaven and Earth to the greasy belly of this Scotch skipper's -Merchant-vessel, unfruitful Atlantic raving round. They are for Bourdeaux, -if peradventure hope yet linger there. Enter not Bourdeaux, O Friends! -Bloody Convention Representatives, Tallien and such like, with their -Edicts, with their Guillotine, have arrived there; Respectability is driven -under ground; Jacobinism lords it on high. From that Reole landingplace, -or Beak of Ambes, as it were, Pale Death, waving his Revolutionary Sword of -sharpness, waves you elsewhither! - -On one side or the other of that Bec d'Ambes, the Scotch Skipper with -difficulty moors, a dexterous greasy man; with difficulty lands his -Girondins;--who, after reconnoitring, must rapidly burrow in the Earth; and -so, in subterranean ways, in friends' back-closets, in cellars, barn-lofts, -in Caves of Saint-Emilion and Libourne, stave off cruel Death. (Louvet, p. -180-199.) Unhappiest of all Senators! - - - -Chapter 3.4.VI. - -Risen against Tyrants. - -Against all which incalculable impediments, horrors and disasters, what can -a Jacobin Convention oppose? The uncalculating Spirit of Jacobinism, and -Sansculottic sans-formulistic Frenzy! Our Enemies press in on us, says -Danton, but they shall not conquer us, "we will burn France to ashes -rather, nous brulerons la France." - -Committees, of Surete or Salut, have raised themselves 'a la hauteur, to -the height of circumstances.' Let all mortals raise themselves a la -hauteur. Let the Forty-four thousand Sections and their Revolutionary -Committees stir every fibre of the Republic; and every Frenchman feel that -he is to do or die. They are the life-circulation of Jacobinism, these -Sections and Committees: Danton, through the organ of Barrere and Salut -Public, gets decreed, That there be in Paris, by law, two meetings of -Section weekly; also, that the Poorer Citizen be paid for attending, and -have his day's-wages of Forty Sous. (Moniteur, Seance du 5 Septembre, -1793.) This is the celebrated 'Law of the Forty Sous;' fiercely stimulant -to Sansculottism, to the life-circulation of Jacobinism. - -On the twenty-third of August, Committee of Public Salvation, as usual -through Barrere, had promulgated, in words not unworthy of remembering, -their Report, which is soon made into a Law, of Levy in Mass. 'All France, -and whatsoever it contains of men or resources, is put under requisition,' -says Barrere; really in Tyrtaean words, the best we know of his. 'The -Republic is one vast besieged city.' Two hundred and fifty Forges shall, -in these days, be set up in the Luxembourg Garden, and round the outer wall -of the Tuileries; to make gun-barrels; in sight of Earth and Heaven! From -all hamlets, towards their Departmental Town; from all their Departmental -Towns, towards the appointed Camp and seat of war, the Sons of Freedom -shall march; their banner is to bear: 'Le Peuple Francais debout contres -les Tyrans, The French People risen against Tyrants.' 'The young men shall -go to the battle; it is their task to conquer: the married men shall forge -arms, transport baggage and artillery; provide subsistence: the women -shall work at soldiers' clothes, make tents; serve in the hospitals. The -children shall scrape old-linen into surgeon's-lint: the aged men shall -have themselves carried into public places; and there, by their words, -excite the courage of the young; preach hatred to Kings and unity to the -Republic.' (Debats, Seance du 23 Aout 1793.) Tyrtaean words, which tingle -through all French hearts. - -In this humour, then, since no other serves, will France rush against its -enemies. Headlong, reckoning no cost or consequence; heeding no law or -rule but that supreme law, Salvation of the People! The weapons are all -the iron that is in France; the strength is that of all the men, women and -children that are in France. There, in their two hundred and fifty shed- -smithies, in Garden of Luxembourg or Tuileries, let them forge gun-barrels, -in sight of Heaven and Earth. - -Nor with heroic daring against the Foreign foe, can black vengeance against -the Domestic be wanting. Life-circulation of the Revolutionary Committees -being quickened by that Law of the Forty Sous, Deputy Merlin, not the -Thionviller, whom we saw ride out of Mentz, but Merlin of Douai, named -subsequently Merlin Suspect,--comes, about a week after, with his world- -famous Law of the Suspect: ordering all Sections, by their Committees, -instantly to arrest all Persons Suspect; and explaining withal who the -Arrestable and Suspect specially are. "Are Suspect," says he, "all who by -their actions, by their connexions, speakings, writings have"--in short -become Suspect. (Moniteur, Seance du 17 Septembre 1793.) Nay Chaumette, -illuminating the matter still further, in his Municipal Placards and -Proclamations, will bring it about that you may almost recognise a Suspect -on the streets, and clutch him there,--off to Committee, and Prison. Watch -well your words, watch well your looks: if Suspect of nothing else, you -may grow, as came to be a saying, 'Suspect of being Suspect!' For are we -not in a State of Revolution? - -No frightfuller Law ever ruled in a Nation of men. All Prisons and Houses -of Arrest in French land are getting crowded to the ridge-tile: Forty-four -thousand Committees, like as many companies of reapers or gleaners, -gleaning France, are gathering their harvest, and storing it in these -Houses. Harvest of Aristocrat tares! Nay, lest the Forty-four thousand, -each on its own harvest-field, prove insufficient, we are to have an -ambulant 'Revolutionary Army:' six thousand strong, under right captains, -this shall perambulate the country at large, and strike in wherever it -finds such harvest-work slack. So have Municipality and Mother Society -petitioned; so has Convention decreed. (Ibid. Seances du 5, 9, 11 -Septembre.) Let Aristocrats, Federalists, Monsieurs vanish, and all men -tremble: 'The Soil of Liberty shall be purged,'--with a vengeance! - -Neither hitherto has the Revolutionary Tribunal been keeping holyday. -Blanchelande, for losing Saint-Domingo; 'Conspirators of Orleans,' for -'assassinating,' for assaulting the sacred Deputy Leonard-Bourdon: these -with many Nameless, to whom life was sweet, have died. Daily the great -Guillotine has its due. Like a black Spectre, daily at eventide, glides -the Death-tumbril through the variegated throng of things. The variegated -street shudders at it, for the moment; next moment forgets it: The -Aristocrats! They were guilty against the Republic; their death, were it -only that their goods are confiscated, will be useful to the Republic; Vive -la Republique! - -In the last days of August, fell a notabler head: General Custine's. -Custine was accused of harshness, of unskilfulness, perfidiousness; accused -of many things: found guilty, we may say, of one thing, unsuccessfulness. -Hearing his unexpected Sentence, 'Custine fell down before the Crucifix,' -silent for the space of two hours: he fared, with moist eyes and a book of -prayer, towards the Place de la Revolution; glanced upwards at the clear -suspended axe; then mounted swiftly aloft, (Deux Amis, xi. 148-188.) -swiftly was struck away from the lists of the Living. He had fought in -America; he was a proud, brave man; and his fortune led him hither. - -On the 2nd of this same month, at three in the morning, a vehicle rolled -off, with closed blinds, from the Temple to the Conciergerie. Within it -were two Municipals; and Marie-Antoinette, once Queen of France! There in -that Conciergerie, in ignominious dreary cell, she, cut off from children, -kindred, friend and hope, sits long weeks; expecting when the end will be. -(See Memoires particuliers de la Captivite a la Tour du Temple (by the -Duchesse d'Angouleme, Paris, 21 Janvier 1817).) - -The Guillotine, we find, gets always a quicker motion, as other things are -quickening. The Guillotine, by its speed of going, will give index of the -general velocity of the Republic. The clanking of its huge axe, rising and -falling there, in horrid systole-diastole, is portion of the whole enormous -Life-movement and pulsation of the Sansculottic System!--'Orleans -Conspirators' and Assaulters had to die, in spite of much weeping and -entreating; so sacred is the person of a Deputy. Yet the sacred can become -desecrated: your very Deputy is not greater than the Guillotine. Poor -Deputy Journalist Gorsas: we saw him hide at Rennes, when the Calvados War -burnt priming. He stole afterwards, in August, to Paris; lurked several -weeks about the Palais ci-devant Royal; was seen there, one day; was -clutched, identified, and without ceremony, being already 'out of the Law,' -was sent to the Place de la Revolution. He died, recommending his wife and -children to the pity of the Republic. It is the ninth day of October 1793. -Gorsas is the first Deputy that dies on the scaffold; he will not be the -last. - -Ex-Mayor Bailly is in prison; Ex-Procureur Manuel. Brissot and our poor -Arrested Girondins have become Incarcerated Indicted Girondins; universal -Jacobinism clamouring for their punishment. Duperret's Seals are broken! -Those Seventy-three Secret Protesters, suddenly one day, are reported upon, -are decreed accused; the Convention-doors being 'previously shut,' that -none implicated might escape. They were marched, in a very rough manner, -to Prison that evening. Happy those of them who chanced to be absent! -Condorcet has vanished into darkness; perhaps, like Rabaut, sits between -two walls, in the house of a friend. - - - -Chapter 3.4.VII. - -Marie-Antoinette. - -On Monday the Fourteenth of October, 1793, a Cause is pending in the Palais -de Justice, in the new Revolutionary Court, such as these old stone-walls -never witnessed: the Trial of Marie-Antoinette. The once brightest of -Queens, now tarnished, defaced, forsaken, stands here at Fouquier -Tinville's Judgment-bar; answering for her life! The Indictment was -delivered her last night. (Proces de la Reine (Deux Amis, xi. 251-381.) -To such changes of human fortune what words are adequate? Silence alone is -adequate. - -There are few Printed things one meets with, of such tragic almost ghastly -significance as those bald Pages of the Bulletin du Tribunal -Revolutionnaire, which bear title, Trial of the Widow Capet. Dim, dim, as -if in disastrous eclipse; like the pale kingdoms of Dis! Plutonic Judges, -Plutonic Tinville; encircled, nine times, with Styx and Lethe, with Fire- -Phlegethon and Cocytus named of Lamentation! The very witnesses summoned -are like Ghosts: exculpatory, inculpatory, they themselves are all -hovering over death and doom; they are known, in our imagination, as the -prey of the Guillotine. Tall ci-devant Count d'Estaing, anxious to shew -himself Patriot, cannot escape; nor Bailly, who, when asked If he knows the -Accused, answers with a reverent inclination towards her, "Ah, yes, I know -Madame." Ex-Patriots are here, sharply dealt with, as Procureur Manuel; -Ex-Ministers, shorn of their splendour. We have cold Aristocratic -impassivity, faithful to itself even in Tartarus; rabid stupidity, of -Patriot Corporals, Patriot Washerwomen, who have much to say of Plots, -Treasons, August Tenth, old Insurrection of Women. For all now has become -a crime, in her who has lost. - -Marie-Antoinette, in this her utter abandonment and hour of extreme need, -is not wanting to herself, the imperial woman. Her look, they say, as that -hideous Indictment was reading, continued calm; 'she was sometimes observed -moving her fingers, as when one plays on the Piano.' You discern, not -without interest, across that dim Revolutionary Bulletin itself, how she -bears herself queenlike. Her answers are prompt, clear, often of Laconic -brevity; resolution, which has grown contemptuous without ceasing to be -dignified, veils itself in calm words. "You persist then in denial?"--"My -plan is not denial: it is the truth I have said, and I persist in that." -Scandalous Hebert has borne his testimony as to many things: as to one -thing, concerning Marie-Antoinette and her little Son,--wherewith Human -Speech had better not further be soiled. She has answered Hebert; a -Juryman begs to observe that she has not answered as to this. "I have not -answered," she exclaims with noble emotion, "because Nature refuses to -answer such a charge brought against a Mother. I appeal to all the Mothers -that are here." Robespierre, when he heard of it, broke out into something -almost like swearing at the brutish blockheadism of this Hebert; (Vilate, -Causes secretes de la Revolution de Thermidor (Paris, 1825), p. 179.) on -whose foul head his foul lie has recoiled. At four o'clock on Wednesday -morning, after two days and two nights of interrogating, jury-charging, and -other darkening of counsel, the result comes out: Sentence of Death. -"Have you anything to say?" The Accused shook her head, without speech. -Night's candles are burning out; and with her too Time is finishing, and it -will be Eternity and Day. This Hall of Tinville's is dark, ill-lighted -except where she stands. Silently she withdraws from it, to die. - -Two Processions, or Royal Progresses, three-and-twenty years apart, have -often struck us with a strange feeling of contrast. The first is of a -beautiful Archduchess and Dauphiness, quitting her Mother's City, at the -age of Fifteen; towards hopes such as no other Daughter of Eve then had: -'On the morrow,' says Weber an eye witness, 'the Dauphiness left Vienna. -The whole City crowded out; at first with a sorrow which was silent. She -appeared: you saw her sunk back into her carriage; her face bathed in -tears; hiding her eyes now with her handkerchief, now with her hands; -several times putting out her head to see yet again this Palace of her -Fathers, whither she was to return no more. She motioned her regret, her -gratitude to the good Nation, which was crowding here to bid her farewell. -Then arose not only tears; but piercing cries, on all sides. Men and women -alike abandoned themselves to such expression of their sorrow. It was an -audible sound of wail, in the streets and avenues of Vienna. The last -Courier that followed her disappeared, and the crowd melted away.' (Weber, -i. 6.) - -The young imperial Maiden of Fifteen has now become a worn discrowned Widow -of Thirty-eight; grey before her time: this is the last Procession: 'Few -minutes after the Trial ended, the drums were beating to arms in all -Sections; at sunrise the armed force was on foot, cannons getting placed at -the extremities of the Bridges, in the Squares, Crossways, all along from -the Palais de Justice to the Place de la Revolution. By ten o'clock, -numerous patrols were circulating in the Streets; thirty thousand foot and -horse drawn up under arms. At eleven, Marie-Antoinette was brought out. -She had on an undress of pique blanc: she was led to the place of -execution, in the same manner as an ordinary criminal; bound, on a Cart; -accompanied by a Constitutional Priest in Lay dress; escorted by numerous -detachments of infantry and cavalry. These, and the double row of troops -all along her road, she appeared to regard with indifference. On her -countenance there was visible neither abashment nor pride. To the cries of -Vive la Republique and Down with Tyranny, which attended her all the way, -she seemed to pay no heed. She spoke little to her Confessor. The -tricolor Streamers on the housetops occupied her attention, in the Streets -du Roule and Saint-Honore; she also noticed the Inscriptions on the house- -fronts. On reaching the Place de la Revolution, her looks turned towards -the Jardin National, whilom Tuileries; her face at that moment gave signs -of lively emotion. She mounted the Scaffold with courage enough; at a -quarter past Twelve, her head fell; the Executioner shewed it to the -people, amid universal long-continued cries of 'Vive la Republique.' (Deux -Amis, xi. 301.) - - - -Chapter 3.4.VIII. - -The Twenty-two. - - -Whom next, O Tinville? The next are of a different colour: our poor -Arrested Girondin Deputies. What of them could still be laid hold of; our -Vergniaud, Brissot, Fauchet, Valaze, Gensonne; the once flower of French -Patriotism, Twenty-two by the tale: hither, at Tinville's Bar, onward from -'safeguard of the French People,' from confinement in the Luxembourg, -imprisonment in the Conciergerie, have they now, by the course of things, -arrived. Fouquier Tinville must give what account of them he can. - -Undoubtedly this Trial of the Girondins is the greatest that Fouquier has -yet had to do. Twenty-two, all chief Republicans, ranged in a line there; -the most eloquent in France; Lawyers too; not without friends in the -auditory. How will Tinville prove these men guilty of Royalism, -Federalism, Conspiracy against the Republic? Vergniaud's eloquence awakes -once more; 'draws tears,' they say. And Journalists report, and the Trial -lengthens itself out day after day; 'threatens to become eternal,' murmur -many. Jacobinism and Municipality rise to the aid of Fouquier. On the -28th of the month, Hebert and others come in deputation to inform a Patriot -Convention that the Revolutionary Tribunal is quite 'shackled by forms of -Law;' that a Patriot Jury ought to have 'the power of cutting short, of -terminer les debats , when they feel themselves convinced.' Which pregnant -suggestion, of cutting short, passes itself, with all despatch, into a -Decree. - -Accordingly, at ten o'clock on the night of the 30th of October, the -Twenty-two, summoned back once more, receive this information, That the -Jury feeling themselves convinced have cut short, have brought in their -verdict; that the Accused are found guilty, and the Sentence on one and all -of them is Death with confiscation of goods. - -Loud natural clamour rises among the poor Girondins; tumult; which can only -be repressed by the gendarmes. Valaze stabs himself; falls down dead on -the spot. The rest, amid loud clamour and confusion, are driven back to -their Conciergerie; Lasource exclaiming, "I die on the day when the People -have lost their reason; ye will die when they recover it." (Greek,--Plut. -Opp. t. iv. p. 310. ed. Reiske, 1776.) No help! Yielding to violence, the -Doomed uplift the Hymn of the Marseillese; return singing to their dungeon. - -Riouffe, who was their Prison-mate in these last days, has lovingly -recorded what death they made. To our notions, it is not an edifying -death. Gay satirical Pot-pourri by Ducos; rhymed Scenes of Tragedy, -wherein Barrere and Robespierre discourse with Satan; death's eve spent in -'singing' and 'sallies of gaiety,' with 'discourses on the happiness of -peoples:' these things, and the like of these, we have to accept for what -they are worth. It is the manner in which the Girondins make their Last -Supper. Valaze, with bloody breast, sleeps cold in death; hears not their -singing. Vergniaud has his dose of poison; but it is not enough for his -friends, it is enough only for himself; wherefore he flings it from him; -presides at this Last Supper of the Girondins, with wild coruscations of -eloquence, with song and mirth. Poor human Will struggles to assert -itself; if not in this way, then in that. (Memoires de Riouffe (in -Memoires sur les Prisons, Paris, 1823), p. 48-55.) - -But on the morrow morning all Paris is out; such a crowd as no man had -seen. The Death-carts, Valaze's cold corpse stretched among the yet living -Twenty-one, roll along. Bareheaded, hands bound; in their shirt-sleeves, -coat flung loosely round the neck: so fare the eloquent of France; -bemurmured, beshouted. To the shouts of Vive la Republique, some of them -keep answering with counter-shouts of Vive la Republique. Others, as -Brissot, sit sunk in silence. At the foot of the scaffold they again -strike up, with appropriate variations, the Hymn of the Marseillese. Such -an act of music; conceive it well! The yet Living chant there; the chorus -so rapidly wearing weak! Samson's axe is rapid; one head per minute, or -little less. The chorus is worn out; farewell for evermore ye Girondins. -Te-Deum Fauchet has become silent; Valaze's dead head is lopped: the -sickle of the Guillotine has reaped the Girondins all away. 'The eloquent, -the young, the beautiful and brave!' exclaims Riouffe. O Death, what feast -is toward in thy ghastly Halls? - -Nor alas, in the far Bourdeaux region, will Girondism fare better. In -caves of Saint-Emilion, in loft and cellar, the weariest months, roll on; -apparel worn, purse empty; wintry November come; under Tallien and his -Guillotine, all hope now gone. Danger drawing ever nigher, difficulty -pressing ever straiter, they determine to separate. Not unpathetic the -farewell; tall Barbaroux, cheeriest of brave men, stoops to clasp his -Louvet: "In what place soever thou findest my mother," cries he, "try to -be instead of a son to her: no resource of mine but I will share with thy -Wife, should chance ever lead me where she is." (Louvet, p. 213.) - -Louvet went with Guadet, with Salles and Valady; Barbaroux with Buzot and -Petion. Valady soon went southward, on a way of his own. The two friends -and Louvet had a miserable day and night; the 14th of November month, 1793. -Sunk in wet, weariness and hunger, they knock, on the morrow, for help, at -a friend's country-house; the fainthearted friend refuses to admit them. -They stood therefore under trees, in the pouring rain. Flying desperate, -Louvet thereupon will to Paris. He sets forth, there and then, splashing -the mud on each side of him, with a fresh strength gathered from fury or -frenzy. He passes villages, finding 'the sentry asleep in his box in the -thick rain;' he is gone, before the man can call after him. He bilks -Revolutionary Committees; rides in carriers' carts, covered carts and open; -lies hidden in one, under knapsacks and cloaks of soldiers' wives on the -Street of Orleans, while men search for him: has hairbreadth escapes that -would fill three romances: finally he gets to Paris to his fair Helpmate; -gets to Switzerland, and waits better days. - -Poor Guadet and Salles were both taken, ere long; they died by the -Guillotine in Bourdeaux; drums beating to drown their voice. Valady also -is caught, and guillotined. Barbaroux and his two comrades weathered it -longer, into the summer of 1794; but not long enough. One July morning, -changing their hiding place, as they have often to do, 'about a league from -Saint-Emilion, they observe a great crowd of country-people;' doubtless -Jacobins come to take them? Barbaroux draws a pistol, shoots himself dead. -Alas, and it was not Jacobins; it was harmless villagers going to a village -wake. Two days afterwards, Buzot and Petion were found in a Cornfield, -their bodies half-eaten with dogs. (Recherches Historiques sur les -Girondins (in Memoires de Buzot), p. 107.) - -Such was the end of Girondism. They arose to regenerate France, these men; -and have accomplished this. Alas, whatever quarrel we had with them, has -not their cruel fate abolished it? Pity only survives. So many excellent -souls of heroes sent down to Hades; they themselves given as a prey of dogs -and all manner of birds! But, here too, the will of the Supreme Power was -accomplished. As Vergniaud said: 'The Revolution, like Saturn, is -devouring its own children.' - - - - -BOOK 3.V. - -TERROR THE ORDER OF THE DAY - - -Chapter 3.5.I. - -Rushing down. - -We are now, therefore, got to that black precipitous Abyss; whither all -things have long been tending; where, having now arrived on the giddy -verge, they hurl down, in confused ruin; headlong, pellmell, down, down;-- -till Sansculottism have consummated itself; and in this wondrous French -Revolution, as in a Doomsday, a World have been rapidly, if not born again, -yet destroyed and engulphed. Terror has long been terrible: but to the -actors themselves it has now become manifest that their appointed course is -one of Terror; and they say, Be it so. "Que la Terreur soit a l'ordre du -jour." - -So many centuries, say only from Hugh Capet downwards, had been adding -together, century transmitting it with increase to century, the sum of -Wickedness, of Falsehood, Oppression of man by man. Kings were sinners, -and Priests were, and People. Open-Scoundrels rode triumphant, bediademed, -becoronetted, bemitred; or the still fataller species of Secret-Scoundrels, -in their fair-sounding formulas, speciosities, respectabilities, hollow -within: the race of Quacks was grown many as the sands of the sea. Till -at length such a sum of Quackery had accumulated itself as, in brief, the -Earth and the Heavens were weary of. Slow seemed the Day of Settlement: -coming on, all imperceptible, across the bluster and fanfaronade of -Courtierisms, Conquering-Heroisms, Most-Christian Grand Monarque-isms. -Well-beloved Pompadourisms: yet behold it was always coming; behold it has -come, suddenly, unlooked for by any man! The harvest of long centuries was -ripening and whitening so rapidly of late; and now it is grown white, and -is reaped rapidly, as it were, in one day. Reaped, in this Reign of -Terror; and carried home, to Hades and the Pit!--Unhappy Sons of Adam: it -is ever so; and never do they know it, nor will they know it. With -cheerfully smoothed countenances, day after day, and generation after -generation, they, calling cheerfully to one another, "Well-speed-ye," are -at work, sowing the wind. And yet, as God lives, they shall reap the -whirlwind: no other thing, we say, is possible,--since God is a Truth and -His World is a Truth. - -History, however, in dealing with this Reign of Terror, has had her own -difficulties. While the Phenomenon continued in its primary state, as mere -'Horrors of the French Revolution,' there was abundance to be said and -shrieked. With and also without profit. Heaven knows there were terrors -and horrors enough: yet that was not all the Phenomenon; nay, more -properly, that was not the Phenomenon at all, but rather was the shadow of -it, the negative part of it. And now, in a new stage of the business, when -History, ceasing to shriek, would try rather to include under her old Forms -of speech or speculation this new amazing Thing; that so some accredited -scientific Law of Nature might suffice for the unexpected Product of -Nature, and History might get to speak of it articulately, and draw -inferences and profit from it; in this new stage, History, we must say, -babbles and flounders perhaps in a still painfuller manner. Take, for -example, the latest Form of speech we have seen propounded on the subject -as adequate to it, almost in these months, by our worthy M. Roux, in his -Histoire Parlementaire. The latest and the strangest: that the French -Revolution was a dead-lift effort, after eighteen hundred years of -preparation, to realise--the Christian Religion! (Hist. Parl. (Introd.), -i. 1 et seqq.) Unity, Indivisibility, Brotherhood or Death did indeed -stand printed on all Houses of the Living; also, on Cemeteries, or Houses -of the Dead, stood printed, by order of Procureur Chaumette, Here is -eternal Sleep: (Deux Amis, xii. 78.) but a Christian Religion realised by -the Guillotine and Death-Eternal, 'is suspect to me,' as Robespierre was -wont to say, 'm'est suspecte.' - -Alas, no, M. Roux! A Gospel of Brotherhood, not according to any of the -Four old Evangelists, and calling on men to repent, and amend each his own -wicked existence, that they might be saved; but a Gospel rather, as we -often hint, according to a new Fifth Evangelist Jean-Jacques, calling on -men to amend each the whole world's wicked existence, and be saved by -making the Constitution. A thing different and distant toto coelo, as they -say: the whole breadth of the sky, and further if possible!--It is thus, -however, that History, and indeed all human Speech and Reason does yet, -what Father Adam began life by doing: strive to name the new Things it -sees of Nature's producing,--often helplessly enough. - -But what if History were to admit, for once, that all the Names and -Theorems yet known to her fall short? That this grand Product of Nature -was even grand, and new, in that it came not to range itself under old -recorded Laws-of-Nature at all; but to disclose new ones? In that case, -History renouncing the pretention to name it at present, will look honestly -at it, and name what she can of it! Any approximation to the right Name -has value: were the right name itself once here, the Thing is known -thenceforth; the Thing is then ours, and can be dealt with. - -Now surely not realization, of Christianity, or of aught earthly, do we -discern in this Reign of Terror, in this French Revolution of which it is -the consummating. Destruction rather we discern--of all that was -destructible. It is as if Twenty-five millions, risen at length into the -Pythian mood, had stood up simultaneously to say, with a sound which goes -through far lands and times, that this Untruth of an Existence had become -insupportable. O ye Hypocrisies and Speciosities, Royal mantles, Cardinal -plushcloaks, ye Credos, Formulas, Respectabilities, fair-painted Sepulchres -full of dead men's bones,--behold, ye appear to us to be altogether a Lie. -Yet our Life is not a Lie; yet our Hunger and Misery is not a Lie! Behold -we lift up, one and all, our Twenty-five million right-hands; and take the -Heavens, and the Earth and also the Pit of Tophet to witness, that either -ye shall be abolished, or else we shall be abolished! - -No inconsiderable Oath, truly; forming, as has been often said, the most -remarkable transaction in these last thousand years. Wherefrom likewise -there follow, and will follow, results. The fulfilment of this Oath; that -is to say, the black desperate battle of Men against their whole Condition -and Environment,--a battle, alas, withal, against the Sin and Darkness that -was in themselves as in others: this is the Reign of Terror. -Transcendental despair was the purport of it, though not consciously so. -False hopes, of Fraternity, Political Millennium, and what not, we have -always seen: but the unseen heart of the whole, the transcendental -despair, was not false; neither has it been of no effect. Despair, pushed -far enough, completes the circle, so to speak; and becomes a kind of -genuine productive hope again. - -Doctrine of Fraternity, out of old Catholicism, does, it is true, very -strangely in the vehicle of a Jean-Jacques Evangel, suddenly plump down out -of its cloud-firmament; and from a theorem determine to make itself a -practice. But just so do all creeds, intentions, customs, knowledges, -thoughts and things, which the French have, suddenly plump down; -Catholicism, Classicism, Sentimentalism, Cannibalism: all isms that make -up Man in France, are rushing and roaring in that gulf; and the theorem has -become a practice, and whatsoever cannot swim sinks. Not Evangelist Jean- -Jacques alone; there is not a Village Schoolmaster but has contributed his -quota: do we not 'thou' one another, according to the Free Peoples of -Antiquity? The French Patriot, in red phrygian nightcap of Liberty, -christens his poor little red infant Cato,--Censor, or else of Utica. -Gracchus has become Baboeuf and edits Newspapers; Mutius Scaevola, -Cordwainer of that ilk, presides in the Section Mutius-Scaevola: and in -brief, there is a world wholly jumbling itself, to try what will swim! - -Wherefore we will, at all events, call this Reign of Terror a very strange -one. Dominant Sansculottism makes, as it were, free arena; one of the -strangest temporary states Humanity was ever seen in. A nation of men, -full of wants and void of habits! The old habits are gone to wreck because -they were old: men, driven forward by Necessity and fierce Pythian -Madness, have, on the spur of the instant, to devise for the want the way -of satisfying it. The wonted tumbles down; by imitation, by invention, the -Unwonted hastily builds itself up. What the French National head has in it -comes out: if not a great result, surely one of the strangest. - -Neither shall the reader fancy that it was all blank, this Reign of Terror: -far from it. How many hammermen and squaremen, bakers and brewers, washers -and wringers, over this France, must ply their old daily work, let the -Government be one of Terror or one of Joy! In this Paris there are Twenty- -three Theatres nightly; some count as many as Sixty Places of Dancing. -(Mercier. ii. 124.) The Playwright manufactures: pieces of a strictly -Republican character. Ever fresh Novelgarbage, as of old, fodders the -Circulating Libraries. (Moniteur of these months, passim.) The 'Cesspool -of Agio,' now in the time of Paper Money, works with a vivacity unexampled, -unimagined; exhales from itself 'sudden fortunes,' like Alladin-Palaces: -really a kind of miraculous Fata-Morganas, since you can live in them, for -a time. Terror is as a sable ground, on which the most variegated of -scenes paints itself. In startling transitions, in colours all intensated, -the sublime, the ludicrous, the horrible succeed one another; or rather, in -crowding tumult, accompany one another. - -Here, accordingly, if anywhere, the 'hundred tongues,' which the old Poets -often clamour for, were of supreme service! In defect of any such organ on -our part, let the Reader stir up his own imaginative organ: let us snatch -for him this or the other significant glimpse of things, in the fittest -sequence we can. - - - -Chapter 3.5.II. - -Death. - -In the early days of November, there is one transient glimpse of things -that is to be noted: the last transit to his long home of Philippe -d'Orleans Egalite. Philippe was 'decreed accused,' along with the -Girondins, much to his and their surprise; but not tried along with them. -They are doomed and dead, some three days, when Philippe, after his long -half-year of durance at Marseilles, arrives in Paris. It is, as we -calculate, the third of November 1793. - -On which same day, two notable Female Prisoners are also put in ward there: -Dame Dubarry and Josephine Beauharnais! Dame whilom Countess Dubarry, -Unfortunate-female, had returned from London; they snatched her, not only -as Ex-harlot of a whilom Majesty, and therefore suspect; but as having -'furnished the Emigrants with money.' Contemporaneously with whom, there -comes the wife of Beauharnais, soon to be the widow: she that is Josephine -Tascher Beauharnais; that shall be Josephine Empress Buonaparte, for a -black Divineress of the Tropics prophesied long since that she should be a -Queen and more. Likewise, in the same hours, poor Adam Lux, nigh turned in -the head, who, according to Foster, 'has taken no food these three weeks,' -marches to the Guillotine for his Pamphlet on Charlotte Corday: he 'sprang -to the scaffold;' said he 'died for her with great joy.' Amid such fellow- -travellers does Philippe arrive. For, be the month named Brumaire year 2 -of Liberty, or November year 1793 of Slavery, the Guillotine goes always, -Guillotine va toujours. - -Enough, Philippe's indictment is soon drawn, his jury soon convinced. He -finds himself made guilty of Royalism, Conspiracy and much else; nay, it is -a guilt in him that he voted Louis's Death, though he answers, "I voted in -my soul and conscience." The doom he finds is death forthwith; this -present sixth dim day of November is the last day that Philippe is to see. -Philippe, says Montgaillard, thereupon called for breakfast: sufficiency -of 'oysters, two cutlets, best part of an excellent bottle of claret;' and -consumed the same with apparent relish. A Revolutionary Judge, or some -official Convention Emissary, then arrived, to signify that he might still -do the State some service by revealing the truth about a plot or two. -Philippe answered that, on him, in the pass things had come to, the State -had, he thought, small claim; that nevertheless, in the interest of -Liberty, he, having still some leisure on his hands, was willing, were a -reasonable question asked him, to give reasonable answer. And so, says -Montgaillard, he lent his elbow on the mantel-piece, and conversed in an -under-tone, with great seeming composure; till the leisure was done, or the -Emissary went his ways. - -At the door of the Conciergerie, Philippe's attitude was erect and easy, -almost commanding. It is five years, all but a few days, since Philippe, -within these same stone walls, stood up with an air of graciosity, and -asked King Louis, "Whether it was a Royal Session, then, or a Bed of -Justice?" O Heaven!--Three poor blackguards were to ride and die with him: -some say, they objected to such company, and had to be flung in, neck and -heels; (Foster, ii. 628; Montgaillard, iv. 141-57.) but it seems not true. -Objecting or not objecting, the gallows-vehicle gets under way. Philippe's -dress is remarked for its elegance; greenfrock, waistcoat of white pique, -yellow buckskins, boots clear as Warren: his air, as before, entirely -composed, impassive, not to say easy and Brummellean-polite. Through -street after street; slowly, amid execrations;--past the Palais Egalite -whilom Palais-Royal! The cruel Populace stopped him there, some minutes: -Dame de Buffon, it is said, looked out on him, in Jezebel head-tire; along -the ashlar Wall, there ran these words in huge tricolor print, REPUBLIC ONE -AND INDIVISIBLE; LIBERTY, EQUALITY, FRATERNITY OR DEATH: National -Property. Philippe's eyes flashed hellfire, one instant; but the next -instant it was gone, and he sat impassive, Brummellean-polite. On the -scaffold, Samson was for drawing of his boots: "tush," said Philippe, -"they will come better off after; let us have done, depechons-nous!" - -So Philippe was not without virtue, then? God forbid that there should be -any living man without it! He had the virtue to keep living for five-and- -forty years;--other virtues perhaps more than we know of. Probably no -mortal ever had such things recorded of him: such facts, and also such -lies. For he was a Jacobin Prince of the Blood; consider what a -combination! Also, unlike any Nero, any Borgia, he lived in the Age of -Pamphlets. Enough for us: Chaos has reabsorbed him; may it late or never -bear his like again!--Brave young Orleans Egalite, deprived of all, only -not deprived of himself, is gone to Coire in the Grisons, under the name of -Corby, to teach Mathematics. The Egalite Family is at the darkest depths -of the Nadir. - -A far nobler Victim follows; one who will claim remembrance from several -centuries: Jeanne-Marie Phlipon, the Wife of Roland. Queenly, sublime in -her uncomplaining sorrow, seemed she to Riouffe in her Prison. 'Something -more than is usually found in the looks of women painted itself,' says -Riouffe, (Memoires (Sur les Prisons, i.), pp. 55-7.) 'in those large black -eyes of hers, full of expression and sweetness. She spoke to me often, at -the Grate: we were all attentive round her, in a sort of admiration and -astonishment; she expressed herself with a purity, with a harmony and -prosody that made her language like music, of which the ear could never -have enough. Her conversation was serious, not cold; coming from the mouth -of a beautiful woman, it was frank and courageous as that of a great men.' -'And yet her maid said: "Before you, she collects her strength; but in her -own room, she will sit three hours sometimes, leaning on the window, and -weeping."' She had been in Prison, liberated once, but recaptured the same -hour, ever since the first of June: in agitation and uncertainty; which -has gradually settled down into the last stern certainty, that of death. -In the Abbaye Prison, she occupied Charlotte Corday's apartment. Here in -the Conciergerie, she speaks with Riouffe, with Ex-Minister Claviere; calls -the beheaded Twenty-two "Nos amis, our Friends,"--whom we are soon to -follow. During these five months, those Memoirs of hers were written, -which all the world still reads. - -But now, on the 8th of November, 'clad in white,' says Riouffe, 'with her -long black hair hanging down to her girdle,' she is gone to the Judgment -Bar. She returned with a quick step; lifted her finger, to signify to us -that she was doomed: her eyes seemed to have been wet. Fouquier- -Tinville's questions had been 'brutal;' offended female honour flung them -back on him, with scorn, not without tears. And now, short preparation -soon done, she shall go her last road. There went with her a certain -Lamarche, 'Director of Assignat printing;' whose dejection she endeavoured -to cheer. Arrived at the foot of the scaffold, she asked for pen and -paper, "to write the strange thoughts that were rising in her;" (Memoires -de Madame Roland (Introd.), i. 68.) a remarkable request; which was -refused. Looking at the Statue of Liberty which stands there, she says -bitterly: "O Liberty, what things are done in thy name!" For Lamarche's -seek, she will die first; shew him how easy it is to die: "Contrary to the -order" said Samson.--"Pshaw, you cannot refuse the last request of a Lady;" -and Samson yielded. - -Noble white Vision, with its high queenly face, its soft proud eyes, long -black hair flowing down to the girdle; and as brave a heart as ever beat in -woman's bosom! Like a white Grecian Statue, serenely complete, she shines -in that black wreck of things;--long memorable. Honour to great Nature -who, in Paris City, in the Era of Noble-Sentiment and Pompadourism, can -make a Jeanne Phlipon, and nourish her to clear perennial Womanhood, though -but on Logics, Encyclopedies, and the Gospel according to Jean-Jacques! -Biography will long remember that trait of asking for a pen "to write the -strange thoughts that were rising in her." It is as a little light-beam, -shedding softness, and a kind of sacredness, over all that preceded: so in -her too there was an Unnameable; she too was a Daughter of the Infinite; -there were mysteries which Philosophism had not dreamt of!--She left long -written counsels to her little Girl; she said her Husband would not survive -her. - -Still crueller was the fate of poor Bailly, First National President, First -Mayor of Paris: doomed now for Royalism, Fayettism; for that Red-Flag -Business of the Champ-de-Mars;--one may say in general, for leaving his -Astronomy to meddle with Revolution. It is the 10th of November 1793, a -cold bitter drizzling rain, as poor Bailly is led through the streets; -howling Populace covering him with curses, with mud; waving over his face a -burning or smoking mockery of a Red Flag. Silent, unpitied, sits the -innocent old man. Slow faring through the sleety drizzle, they have got to -the Champ-de-Mars: Not there! vociferates the cursing Populace; Such blood -ought not to stain an Altar of the Fatherland; not there; but on that -dungheap by the River-side! So vociferates the cursing Populace; -Officiality gives ear to them. The Guillotine is taken down, though with -hands numbed by the sleety drizzle; is carried to the River-side, is there -set up again, with slow numbness; pulse after pulse still counting itself -out in the old man's weary heart. For hours long; amid curses and bitter -frost-rain! "Bailly, thou tremblest," said one. "Mon ami, it is for -cold," said Bailly, "c'est de froid." Crueller end had no mortal. (Vie de -Bailly (in Memoires, i.), p. 29.) - -Some days afterwards, Roland hearing the news of what happened on the 8th, -embraces his kind Friends at Rouen, leaves their kind house which had given -him refuge; goes forth, with farewell too sad for tears. On the morrow -morning, 16th of the month, 'some four leagues from Rouen, Paris-ward, near -Bourg-Baudoin, in M. Normand's Avenue,' there is seen sitting leant against -a tree, the figure of rigorous wrinkled man; stiff now in the rigour of -death; a cane-sword run through his heart; and at his feet this writing: -'Whoever thou art that findest me lying, respect my remains: they are -those of a man who consecrated all his life to being useful; and who has -died as he lived, virtuous and honest.' 'Not fear, but indignation, made -me quit my retreat, on learning that my Wife had been murdered. I wished -not to remain longer on an Earth polluted with crimes.' (Memoires de -Madame Roland (Introd.), i. 88.) - -Barnave's appearance at the Revolutionary Tribunal was of the bravest; but -it could not stead him. They have sent for him from Grenoble; to pay the -common smart, Vain is eloquence, forensic or other, against the dumb -Clotho-shears of Tinville. He is still but two-and-thirty, this Barnave, -and has known such changes. Short while ago, we saw him at the top of -Fortune's Wheel, his word a law to all Patriots: and now surely he is at -the bottom of the Wheel; in stormful altercation with a Tinville Tribunal, -which is dooming him to die! (Foster, ii. 629.) And Petion, once also of -the Extreme Left, and named Petion Virtue, where is he? Civilly dead; in -the Caves of Saint-Emilion; to be devoured of dogs. And Robespierre, who -rode along with him on the shoulders of the people, is in Committee of -Salut; civilly alive: not to live always. So giddy-swift whirls and spins -this immeasurable tormentum of a Revolution; wild-booming; not to be -followed by the eye. Barnave, on the Scaffold, stamped his foot; and -looking upwards was heard to ejaculate, "This then is my reward?" - -Deputy Ex-Procureur Manuel is already gone; and Deputy Osselin, famed also -in August and September, is about to go: and Rabaut, discovered -treacherously between his two walls, and the Brother of Rabaut. National -Deputies not a few! And Generals: the memory of General Custine cannot be -defended by his Son; his Son is already guillotined. Custine the Ex-Noble -was replaced by Houchard the Plebeian: he too could not prosper in the -North; for him too there was no mercy; he has perished in the Place de la -Revolution, after attempting suicide in Prison. And Generals Biron, -Beauharnais, Brunet, whatsoever General prospers not; tough old Luckner, -with his eyes grown rheumy; Alsatian Westermann, valiant and diligent in La -Vendee: none of them can, as the Psalmist sings, his soul from death -deliver. - -How busy are the Revolutionary Committees; Sections with their Forty -Halfpence a-day! Arrestment on arrestment falls quick, continual; followed -by death. Ex-Minister Claviere has killed himself in Prison. Ex-Minister -Lebrun, seized in a hayloft, under the disguise of a working man, is -instantly conducted to death. (Moniteur, 11 Decembre, 30 Decembre, 1793; -Louvet, p. 287.) Nay, withal, is it not what Barrere calls 'coining money -on the Place de la Revolution?' For always the 'property of the guilty, if -property he have,' is confiscated. To avoid accidents, we even make a Law -that suicide shall not defraud us; that a criminal who kills himself does -not the less incur forfeiture of goods. Let the guilty tremble, therefore, -and the suspect, and the rich, and in a word all manner of culottic men! -Luxembourg Palace, once Monsieur's, has become a huge loathsome Prison; -Chantilly Palace too, once Conde's:--and their Landlords are at -Blankenberg, on the wrong side of the Rhine. In Paris are now some Twelve -Prisons; in France some Forty-four Thousand: thitherward, thick as brown -leaves in Autumn, rustle and travel the suspect; shaken down by -Revolutionary Committees, they are swept thitherward, as into their -storehouse,--to be consumed by Samson and Tinville. 'The Guillotine goes -not ill, ne va pas mal.' - - - -Chapter 3.5.III. - -Destruction. - -The suspect may well tremble; but how much more the open rebels;--the -Girondin Cities of the South! Revolutionary Army is gone forth, under -Ronsin the Playwright; six thousand strong; in 'red nightcap, in tricolor -waistcoat, in black-shag trousers, black-shag spencer, with enormous -moustachioes, enormous sabre,--in carmagnole complete;' (See Louvet, p. -301.) and has portable guillotines. Representative Carrier has got to -Nantes, by the edge of blazing La Vendee, which Rossignol has literally set -on fire: Carrier will try what captives you make, what accomplices they -have, Royalist or Girondin: his guillotine goes always, va toujours; and -his wool-capped 'Company of Marat.' Little children are guillotined, and -aged men. Swift as the machine is, it will not serve; the Headsman and all -his valets sink, worn down with work; declare that the human muscles can no -more. (Deux Amis, xii. 249-51.) Whereupon you must try fusillading; to -which perhaps still frightfuller methods may succeed. - -In Brest, to like purpose, rules Jean-Bon Saint-Andre; with an Army of Red -Nightcaps. In Bourdeaux rules Tallien, with his Isabeau and henchmen: -Guadets, Cussys, Salleses, may fall; the bloody Pike and Nightcap bearing -supreme sway; the Guillotine coining money. Bristly fox-haired Tallien, -once Able Editor, still young in years, is now become most gloomy, potent; -a Pluto on Earth, and has the keys of Tartarus. One remarks, however, that -a certain Senhorina Cabarus, or call her rather Senhora and wedded not yet -widowed Dame de Fontenai, brown beautiful woman, daughter of Cabarus the -Spanish merchant,--has softened the red bristly countenance; pleading for -herself and friends; and prevailing. The keys of Tartarus, or any kind of -power, are something to a woman; gloomy Pluto himself is not insensible to -love. Like a new Proserpine, she, by this red gloomy Dis, is gathered; -and, they say, softens his stone heart a little. - -Maignet, at Orange in the South; Lebon, at Arras in the North, become -world's wonders. Jacobin Popular Tribunal, with its National -Representative, perhaps where Girondin Popular Tribunal had lately been, -rises here and rises there; wheresoever needed. Fouches, Maignets, -Barrases, Frerons scour the Southern Departments; like reapers, with their -guillotine-sickle. Many are the labourers, great is the harvest. By the -hundred and the thousand, men's lives are cropt; cast like brands into the -burning. - -Marseilles is taken, and put under martial law: lo, at Marseilles, what -one besmutted red-bearded corn-ear is this which they cut;--one gross Man, -we mean, with copper-studded face; plenteous beard, or beard-stubble, of a -tile-colour? By Nemesis and the Fatal Sisters, it is Jourdan Coupe-tete! -Him they have clutched, in these martial-law districts; him too, with their -'national razor,' their rasoir national, they sternly shave away. Low now -is Jourdan the Headsman's own head;--low as Deshuttes's and Varigny's, -which he sent on pikes, in the Insurrection of Women! No more shall he, as -a copper Portent, be seen gyrating through the Cities of the South; no more -sit judging, with pipes and brandy, in the Ice-tower of Avignon. The all- -hiding Earth has received him, the bloated Tilebeard: may we never look -upon his like again!--Jourdan one names; the other Hundreds are not named. -Alas, they, like confused faggots, lie massed together for us; counted by -the cartload: and yet not an individual faggot-twig of them but had a Life -and History; and was cut, not without pangs as when a Kaiser dies! - -Least of all cities can Lyons escape. Lyons, which we saw in dread -sunblaze, that Autumn night when the Powder-tower sprang aloft, was clearly -verging towards a sad end. Inevitable: what could desperate valour and -Precy do; Dubois-Crance, deaf as Destiny, stern as Doom, capturing their -'redouts of cotton-bags;' hemming them in, ever closer, with his Artillery- -lava? Never would that Ci-devant d'Autichamp arrive; never any help from -Blankenberg. The Lyons Jacobins were hidden in cellars; the Girondin -Municipality waxed pale, in famine, treason and red fire. Precy drew his -sword, and some Fifteen Hundred with him; sprang to saddle, to cut their -way to Switzerland. They cut fiercely; and were fiercely cut, and cut -down; not hundreds, hardly units of them ever saw Switzerland. (Deux Amis, -xi. 145.) Lyons, on the 9th of October, surrenders at discretion; it is -become a devoted Town. Abbe Lamourette, now Bishop Lamourette, whilom -Legislator, he of the old Baiser-l'Amourette or Delilah-Kiss, is seized -here, is sent to Paris to be guillotined: 'he made the sign of the cross,' -they say when Tinville intimated his death-sentence to him; and died as an -eloquent Constitutional Bishop. But wo now to all Bishops, Priests, -Aristocrats and Federalists that are in Lyons! The manes of Chalier are to -be appeased; the Republic, maddened to the Sibylline pitch, has bared her -right arm. Behold! Representative Fouche, it is Fouche of Nantes, a name -to become well known; he with a Patriot company goes duly, in wondrous -Procession, to raise the corpse of Chalier. An Ass, housed in Priest's -cloak, with a mitre on its head, and trailing the Mass-Books, some say the -very Bible, at its tail, paces through Lyons streets; escorted by -multitudinous Patriotism, by clangour as of the Pit; towards the grave of -Martyr Chalier. The body is dug up and burnt: the ashes are collected in -an Urn; to be worshipped of Paris Patriotism. The Holy Books were part of -the funeral pile; their ashes are scattered to the wind. Amid cries of -"Vengeance! Vengeance!"--which, writes Fouche, shall be satisfied. -(Moniteur (du 17 Novembre 1793), &c.) - -Lyons in fact is a Town to be abolished; not Lyons henceforth but 'Commune -Affranchie, Township Freed;' the very name of it shall perish. It is to be -razed, this once great City, if Jacobinism prophesy right; and a Pillar to -be erected on the ruins, with this Inscription, Lyons rebelled against the -Republic; Lyons is no more. Fouche, Couthon, Collot, Convention -Representatives succeed one another: there is work for the hangman; work -for the hammerman, not in building. The very Houses of Aristocrats, we -say, are doomed. Paralytic Couthon, borne in a chair, taps on the wall, -with emblematic mallet, saying, "La Loi te frappe, The Law strikes thee;" -masons, with wedge and crowbar, begin demolition. Crash of downfall, dim -ruin and dust-clouds fly in the winter wind. Had Lyons been of soft stuff, -it had all vanished in those weeks, and the Jacobin prophecy had been -fulfilled. But Towns are not built of soap-froth; Lyons Town is built of -stone. Lyons, though it rebelled against the Republic, is to this day. - -Neither have the Lyons Girondins all one neck, that you could despatch it -at one swoop. Revolutionary Tribunal here, and Military Commission, -guillotining, fusillading, do what they can: the kennels of the Place des -Terreaux run red; mangled corpses roll down the Rhone. Collot d'Herbois, -they say, was once hissed on the Lyons stage: but with what sibilation, of -world-catcall or hoarse Tartarean Trumpet, will ye hiss him now, in this -his new character of Convention Representative,--not to be repeated! Two -hundred and nine men are marched forth over the River, to be shot in mass, -by musket and cannon, in the Promenade of the Brotteaux. It is the second -of such scenes; the first was of some Seventy. The corpses of the first -were flung into the Rhone, but the Rhone stranded some; so these now, of -the second lot, are to be buried on land. Their one long grave is dug; -they stand ranked, by the loose mould-ridge; the younger of them singing -the Marseillaise. Jacobin National Guards give fire; but have again to -give fire, and again; and to take the bayonet and the spade, for though the -doomed all fall, they do not all die;--and it becomes a butchery too -horrible for speech. So that the very Nationals, as they fire, turn away -their faces. Collot, snatching the musket from one such National, and -levelling it with unmoved countenance, says "It is thus a Republican ought -to fire." - -This is the second Fusillade, and happily the last: it is found too -hideous; even inconvenient. They were Two hundred and nine marched out; -one escaped at the end of the Bridge: yet behold, when you count the -corpses, they are Two hundred and ten. Rede us this riddle, O Collot? -After long guessing, it is called to mind that two individuals, here in the -Brotteaux ground, did attempt to leave the rank, protesting with agony that -they were not condemned men, that they were Police Commissaries: which two -we repulsed, and disbelieved, and shot with the rest! (Deux Amis, xii. -251-62.) Such is the vengeance of an enraged Republic. Surely this, -according to Barrere's phrase, is Justice 'under rough forms, sous des -formes acerbes.' But the Republic, as Fouche says, must "march to Liberty -over corpses." Or again as Barrere has it: "None but the dead do not come -back, Il n'y a que les morts qui ne reviennent pas." Terror hovers far and -wide: 'The Guillotine goes not ill.' - -But before quitting those Southern regions, over which History can cast -only glances from aloft, she will alight for a moment, and look fixedly at -one point: the Siege of Toulon. Much battering and bombarding, heating of -balls in furnaces or farm-houses, serving of artillery well and ill, -attacking of Ollioules Passes, Forts Malbosquet, there has been: as yet to -small purpose. We have had General Cartaux here, a whilom Painter elevated -in the troubles of Marseilles; General Doppet, a whilom Medical man -elevated in the troubles of Piemont, who, under Crance, took Lyons, but -cannot take Toulon. Finally we have General Dugommier, a pupil of -Washington. Convention Representans also we have had; Barrases, -Salicettis, Robespierres the Younger:--also an Artillery Chef de brigade, -of extreme diligence, who often takes his nap of sleep among the guns; a -short taciturn, olive-complexioned young man, not unknown to us, by name -Buonaparte: one of the best Artillery-officers yet met with. And still -Toulon is not taken. It is the fourth month now; December, in slave-style; -Frostarious or Frimaire, in new-style: and still their cursed Red-Blue -Flag flies there. They are provisioned from the Sea; they have seized all -heights, felling wood, and fortifying themselves; like the coney, they have -built their nest in the rocks. - -Meanwhile, Frostarious is not yet become Snowous or Nivose, when a Council -of War is called; Instructions have just arrived from Government and Salut -Public. Carnot, in Salut Public, has sent us a plan of siege: on which -plan General Dugommier has this criticism to make, Commissioner Salicetti -has that; and criticisms and plans are very various; when that young -Artillery Officer ventures to speak; the same whom we saw snatching sleep -among the guns, who has emerged several times in this History,--the name of -him Napoleon Buonaparte. It is his humble opinion, for he has been gliding -about with spy-glasses, with thoughts, That a certain Fort l'Eguillette can -be clutched, as with lion-spring, on the sudden; wherefrom, were it once -ours, the very heart of Toulon might be battered, the English Lines were, -so to speak, turned inside out, and Hood and our Natural Enemies must next -day either put to sea, or be burnt to ashes. Commissioners arch their -eyebrows, with negatory sniff: who is this young gentleman with more wit -than we all? Brave veteran Dugommier, however, thinks the idea worth a -word; questions the young gentleman; becomes convinced; and there is for -issue, Try it. - -On the taciturn bronze-countenance, therefore, things being now all ready, -there sits a grimmer gravity than ever, compressing a hotter central-fire -than ever. Yonder, thou seest, is Fort l'Eguillette; a desperate lion- -spring, yet a possible one; this day to be tried!--Tried it is; and found -good. By stratagem and valour, stealing through ravines, plunging fiery -through the fire-tempest, Fort l'Eguillette is clutched at, is carried; the -smoke having cleared, wiser the Tricolor fly on it: the bronze- -complexioned young man was right. Next morning, Hood, finding the interior -of his lines exposed, his defences turned inside out, makes for his -shipping. Taking such Royalists as wished it on board with him, he weighs -anchor: on this 19th of December 1793, Toulon is once more the Republic's! - -Cannonading has ceased at Toulon; and now the guillotining and fusillading -may begin. Civil horrors, truly: but at least that infamy of an English -domination is purged away. Let there be Civic Feast universally over -France: so reports Barrere, or Painter David; and the Convention assist in -a body. (Moniteur, 1793, Nos. 101 (31 Decembre), 95, 96, 98, &c.) Nay, it -is said, these infamous English (with an attention rather to their own -interests than to ours) set fire to our store-houses, arsenals, warships in -Toulon Harbour, before weighing; some score of brave warships, the only -ones we now had! However, it did not prosper, though the flame spread far -and high; some two ships were burnt, not more; the very galley-slaves ran -with buckets to quench. These same proud Ships, Ships l'Orient and the -rest, have to carry this same young Man to Egypt first: not yet can they -be changed to ashes, or to Sea-Nymphs; not yet to sky-rockets, O Ship -l'Orient, nor became the prey of England,--before their time! - -And so, over France universally, there is Civic Feast and high-tide: and -Toulon sees fusillading, grape-shotting in mass, as Lyons saw; and 'death -is poured out in great floods, vomie a grands flots' and Twelve thousand -Masons are requisitioned from the neighbouring country, to raze Toulon from -the face of the Earth. For it is to be razed, so reports Barrere; all but -the National Shipping Establishments; and to be called henceforth not -Toulon, but Port of the Mountain. There in black death-cloud we must leave -it;--hoping only that Toulon too is built of stone; that perhaps even -Twelve thousand Masons cannot pull it down, till the fit pass. - -One begins to be sick of 'death vomited in great floods.' Nevertheless -hearest thou not, O reader (for the sound reaches through centuries), in -the dead December and January nights, over Nantes Town,--confused noises, -as of musketry and tumult, as of rage and lamentation; mingling with the -everlasting moan of the Loire waters there? Nantes Town is sunk in sleep; -but Representant Carrier is not sleeping, the wool-capped Company of Marat -is not sleeping. Why unmoors that flatbottomed craft, that gabarre; about -eleven at night; with Ninety Priests under hatches? They are going to -Belle Isle? In the middle of the Loire stream, on signal given, the -gabarre is scuttled; she sinks with all her cargo. 'Sentence of -Deportation,' writes Carrier, 'was executed vertically.' The Ninety -Priests, with their gabarre-coffin, lie deep! It is the first of the -Noyades, what we may call Drownages, of Carrier; which have become famous -forever. - -Guillotining there was at Nantes, till the Headsman sank worn out: then -fusillading 'in the Plain of Saint-Mauve;' little children fusilladed, and -women with children at the breast; children and women, by the hundred and -twenty; and by the five hundred, so hot is La Vendee: till the very -Jacobins grew sick, and all but the Company of Marat cried, Hold! -Wherefore now we have got Noyading; and on the 24th night of Frostarious -year 2, which is 14th of December 1793, we have a second Noyade: -consisting of 'a Hundred and Thirty-eight persons.' (Deux Amis, xii. 266- -72; Moniteur, du 2 Janvier 1794.) - -Or why waste a gabarre, sinking it with them? Fling them out; fling them -out, with their hands tied: pour a continual hail of lead over all the -space, till the last struggler of them be sunk! Unsound sleepers of -Nantes, and the Sea-Villages thereabouts, hear the musketry amid the night- -winds; wonder what the meaning of it is. And women were in that gabarre; -whom the Red Nightcaps were stripping naked; who begged, in their agony, -that their smocks might not be stript from them. And young children were -thrown in, their mothers vainly pleading: "Wolflings," answered the -Company of Marat, "who would grow to be wolves." - -By degrees, daylight itself witnesses Noyades: women and men are tied -together, feet and feet, hands and hands: and flung in: this they call -Mariage Republicain, Republican Marriage. Cruel is the panther of the -woods, the she-bear bereaved of her whelps: but there is in man a hatred -crueller than that. Dumb, out of suffering now, as pale swoln corpses, the -victims tumble confusedly seaward along the Loire stream; the tide rolling -them back: clouds of ravens darken the River; wolves prowl on the shoal- -places: Carrier writes, 'Quel torrent revolutionnaire, What a torrent of -Revolution!' For the man is rabid; and the Time is rabid. These are the -Noyades of Carrier; twenty-five by the tale, for what is done in darkness -comes to be investigated in sunlight: (Proces de Carrier (4 tomes, Paris, -1795.) not to be forgotten for centuries,--We will turn to another aspect -of the Consummation of Sansculottism; leaving this as the blackest. - -But indeed men are all rabid; as the Time is. Representative Lebon, at -Arras, dashes his sword into the blood flowing from the Guillotine; -exclaims, "How I like it!" Mothers, they say, by his order, have to stand -by while the Guillotine devours their children: a band of music is -stationed near; and, at the fall of every head, strikes up its ca-ira. -(Les Horreures des Prisons d'Arras (Paris, 1823).) In the Burgh of -Bedouin, in the Orange region, the Liberty-tree has been cut down over -night. Representative Maignet, at Orange, hears of it; burns Bedouin Burgh -to the last dog-hutch; guillotines the inhabitants, or drives them into the -caves and hills. (Montgaillard, iv. 200.) Republic One and Indivisible! -She is the newest Birth of Nature's waste inorganic Deep, which men name -Orcus, Chaos, primeval Night; and knows one law, that of self-preservation. -Tigresse Nationale: meddle not with a whisker of her! Swift-crushing is -her stroke; look what a paw she spreads;--pity has not entered her heart. - -Prudhomme, the dull-blustering Printer and Able Editor, as yet a Jacobin -Editor, will become a renegade one, and publish large volumes on these -matters, Crimes of the Revolution; adding innumerable lies withal, as if -the truth were not sufficient. We, for our part, find it more edifying to -know, one good time, that this Republic and National Tigress is a New -Birth; a Fact of Nature among Formulas, in an Age of Formulas; and to look, -oftenest in silence, how the so genuine Nature-Fact will demean itself -among these. For the Formulas are partly genuine, partly delusive, -supposititious: we call them, in the language of metaphor, regulated -modelled shapes; some of which have bodies and life still in them; most of -which, according to a German Writer, have only emptiness, 'glass-eyes -glaring on you with a ghastly affectation of life, and in their interior -unclean accumulation of beetles and spiders!' But the Fact, let all men -observe, is a genuine and sincere one; the sincerest of Facts: terrible in -its sincerity, as very Death. Whatsoever is equally sincere may front it, -and beard it; but whatsoever is not?-- - - - -Chapter 3.5.IV. - -Carmagnole complete. - -Simultaneously with this Tophet-black aspect, there unfolds itself another -aspect, which one may call a Tophet-red aspect: the Destruction of the -Catholic Religion; and indeed, for the time being of Religion itself. We -saw Romme's New Calendar establish its Tenth Day of Rest; and asked, what -would become of the Christian Sabbath? The Calendar is hardly a month old, -till all this is set at rest. Very singular, as Mercier observes: last -Corpus-Christi Day 1792, the whole world, and Sovereign Authority itself, -walked in religious gala, with a quite devout air;--Butcher Legendre, -supposed to be irreverent, was like to be massacred in his Gig, as the -thing went by. A Gallican Hierarchy, and Church, and Church Formulas -seemed to flourish, a little brown-leaved or so, but not browner than of -late years or decades; to flourish, far and wide, in the sympathies of an -unsophisticated People; defying Philosophism, Legislature and the -Encyclopedie. Far and wide, alas, like a brown-leaved Vallombrosa; which -waits but one whirlblast of the November wind, and in an hour stands bare! -Since that Corpus-Christi Day, Brunswick has come, and the Emigrants, and -La Vendee, and eighteen months of Time: to all flourishing, especially to -brown-leaved flourishing, there comes, were it never so slowly, an end. - -On the 7th of November, a certain Citoyen Parens, Curate of Boissise-le- -Bertrand, writes to the Convention that he has all his life been preaching -a lie, and is grown weary of doing it; wherefore he will now lay down his -Curacy and stipend, and begs that an august Convention would give him -something else to live upon. 'Mention honorable,' shall we give him? Or -'reference to Committee of Finances?' Hardly is this got decided, when -goose Gobel, Constitutional Bishop of Paris, with his Chapter, with -Municipal and Departmental escort in red nightcaps, makes his appearance, -to do as Parens has done. Goose Gobel will now acknowledge 'no Religion -but Liberty;' therefore he doffs his Priest-gear, and receives the -Fraternal embrace. To the joy of Departmental Momoro, of Municipal -Chaumettes and Heberts, of Vincent and the Revolutionary Army! Chaumette -asks, Ought there not, in these circumstances, to be among our intercalary -Days Sans-breeches, a Feast of Reason? (Moniteur, Seance du 17 Brumaire -(7th November), 1793.) Proper surely! Let Atheist Marechal, Lalande, and -little Atheist Naigeon rejoice; let Clootz, Speaker of Mankind, present to -the Convention his Evidences of the Mahometan Religion, 'a work evincing -the nullity of all Religions,'--with thanks. There shall be Universal -Republic now, thinks Clootz; and 'one God only, Le Peuple.' - -The French Nation is of gregarious imitative nature; it needed but a fugle- -motion in this matter; and goose Gobel, driven by Municipality and force of -circumstances, has given one. What Cure will be behind him of Boissise; -what Bishop behind him of Paris? Bishop Gregoire, indeed, courageously -declines; to the sound of "We force no one; let Gregoire consult his -conscience;" but Protestant and Romish by the hundred volunteer and assent. -From far and near, all through November into December, till the work is -accomplished, come Letters of renegation, come Curates who are 'learning to -be Carpenters,' Curates with their new-wedded Nuns: has not the Day of -Reason dawned, very swiftly, and become noon? From sequestered Townships -comes Addresses, stating plainly, though in Patois dialect, That 'they will -have no more to do with the black animal called Curay, animal noir, appelle -Curay.' (Analyse du Moniteur (Paris, 1801), ii. 280.) - -Above all things there come Patriotic Gifts, of Church-furniture. The -remnant of bells, except for tocsin, descend from their belfries, into the -National meltingpot, to make cannon. Censers and all sacred vessels are -beaten broad; of silver, they are fit for the poverty-stricken Mint; of -pewter, let them become bullets to shoot the 'enemies of du genre humain.' -Dalmatics of plush make breeches for him who has none; linen stoles will -clip into shirts for the Defenders of the Country: old-clothesmen, Jew or -Heathen, drive the briskest trade. Chalier's Ass Procession, at Lyons, was -but a type of what went on, in those same days, in all Towns. In all Towns -and Townships as quick as the guillotine may go, so quick goes the axe and -the wrench: sacristies, lutrins, altar-rails are pulled down; the Mass -Books torn into cartridge papers: men dance the Carmagnole all night about -the bonfire. All highways jingle with metallic Priest-tackle, beaten -broad; sent to the Convention, to the poverty-stricken Mint. Good Sainte -Genevieve's Chasse is let down: alas, to be burst open, this time, and -burnt on the Place de Greve. Saint Louis's shirt is burnt;--might not a -Defender of the Country have had it? At Saint-Denis Town, no longer Saint- -Denis but Franciade, Patriotism has been down among the Tombs, rummaging; -the Revolutionary Army has taken spoil. This, accordingly, is what the -streets of Paris saw: - -'Most of these persons were still drunk, with the brandy they had swallowed -out of chalices;--eating mackerel on the patenas! Mounted on Asses, which -were housed with Priests' cloaks, they reined them with Priests' stoles: -they held clutched with the same hand communion-cup and sacred wafer. They -stopped at the doors of Dramshops; held out ciboriums: and the landlord, -stoop in hand, had to fill them thrice. Next came Mules high-laden with -crosses, chandeliers, censers, holy-water vessels, hyssops;--recalling to -mind the Priests of Cybele, whose panniers, filled with the instruments of -their worship, served at once as storehouse, sacristy and temple. In such -equipage did these profaners advance towards the Convention. They enter -there, in an immense train, ranged in two rows; all masked like mummers in -fantastic sacerdotal vestments; bearing on hand-barrows their heaped -plunder,--ciboriums, suns, candelabras, plates of gold and silver.' -(Mercier, iv. 134. See Moniteur, Seance du 10 Novembre.) - -The Address we do not give; for indeed it was in strophes, sung viva voce, -with all the parts;--Danton glooming considerably, in his place; and -demanding that there be prose and decency in future. (See also Moniteur, -Seance du 26 Novembre.) Nevertheless the captors of such spolia opima -crave, not untouched with liquor, permission to dance the Carmagnole also -on the spot: whereto an exhilarated Convention cannot but accede. Nay, -'several Members,' continues the exaggerative Mercier, who was not there to -witness, being in Limbo now, as one of Duperret's Seventy-three, 'several -Members, quitting their curule chairs, took the hand of girls flaunting in -Priest's vestures, and danced the Carmagnole along with them.' Such Old- -Hallow-tide have they, in this year, once named of Grace, 1793. - -Out of which strange fall of Formulas, tumbling there in confused welter, -betrampled by the Patriotic dance, is it not passing strange to see a new -Formula arise? For the human tongue is not adequate to speak what -'triviality run distracted' there is in human nature. Black Mumbo-Jumbo of -the woods, and most Indian Wau-waus, one can understand: but this of -Procureur Anaxagoras whilom John-Peter Chaumette? We will say only: Man -is a born idol-worshipper, sight-worshipper, so sensuous-imaginative is he; -and also partakes much of the nature of the ape. - -For the same day, while this brave Carmagnole dance has hardly jigged -itself out, there arrive Procureur Chaumette and Municipals and -Departmentals, and with them the strangest freightage: a New Religion! -Demoiselle Candeille, of the Opera; a woman fair to look upon, when well -rouged: she, borne on palanquin shoulder-high; with red woolen nightcap; -in azure mantle; garlanded with oak; holding in her hand the Pike of the -Jupiter-Peuple, sails in; heralded by white young women girt in tricolor. -Let the world consider it! This, O National Convention wonder of the -universe, is our New Divinity; Goddess of Reason, worthy, and alone worthy -of revering. Nay, were it too much to ask of an august National -Representation that it also went with us to the ci-devant Cathedral called -of Notre-Dame, and executed a few strophes in worship of her? - -President and Secretaries give Goddess Candeille, borne at due height round -their platform, successively the fraternal kiss; whereupon she, by decree, -sails to the right-hand of the President and there alights. And now, after -due pause and flourishes of oratory, the Convention, gathering its limbs, -does get under way in the required procession towards Notre-Dame;--Reason, -again in her litter, sitting in the van of them, borne, as one judges, by -men in the Roman costume; escorted by wind-music, red nightcaps, and the -madness of the world. And so straightway, Reason taking seat on the high- -altar of Notre-Dame, the requisite worship or quasi-worship is, say the -Newspapers, executed; National Convention chanting 'the Hymn to Liberty, -words by Chenier, music by Gossec.' It is the first of the Feasts of -Reason; first communion-service of the New Religion of Chaumette. - -'The corresponding Festival in the Church of Saint-Eustache,' says Mercier, -'offered the spectacle of a great tavern. The interior of the choir -represented a landscape decorated with cottages and boskets of trees. -Round the choir stood tables over-loaded with bottles, with sausages, pork- -puddings, pastries and other meats. The guests flowed in and out through -all doors: whosoever presented himself took part of the good things: -children of eight, girls as well as boys, put hand to plate, in sign of -Liberty; they drank also of the bottles, and their prompt intoxication -created laughter. Reason sat in azure mantle aloft, in a serene manner; -Cannoneers, pipe in mouth, serving her as acolytes. And out of doors,' -continues the exaggerative man, 'were mad multitudes dancing round the -bonfire of Chapel-balustrades, of Priests' and Canons' stalls; and the -dancers, I exaggerate nothing, the dancers nigh bare of breeches, neck and -breast naked, stockings down, went whirling and spinning, like those Dust- -vortexes, forerunners of Tempest and Destruction.' (Mercier, iv. 127-146.) -At Saint-Gervais Church again there was a terrible 'smell of herrings;' -Section or Municipality having provided no food, no condiment, but left it -to chance. Other mysteries, seemingly of a Cabiric or even Paphian -character, we heave under the Veil, which appropriately stretches itself -'along the pillars of the aisles,'--not to be lifted aside by the hand of -History. - -But there is one thing we should like almost better to understand than any -other: what Reason herself thought of it, all the while. What articulate -words poor Mrs. Momoro, for example, uttered; when she had become -ungoddessed again, and the Bibliopolist and she sat quiet at home, at -supper? For he was an earnest man, Bookseller Momoro; and had notions of -Agrarian Law. Mrs. Momoro, it is admitted, made one of the best Goddesses -of Reason; though her teeth were a little defective. And now if the reader -will represent to himself that such visible Adoration of Reason went on -'all over the Republic,' through these November and December weeks, till -the Church woodwork was burnt out, and the business otherwise completed, he -will feel sufficiently what an adoring Republic it was, and without -reluctance quit this part of the subject. - -Such gifts of Church-spoil are chiefly the work of the Armee -Revolutionnaire; raised, as we said, some time ago. It is an Army with -portable guillotine: commanded by Playwright Ronsin in terrible -moustachioes; and even by some uncertain shadow of Usher Maillard, the old -Bastille Hero, Leader of the Menads, September Man in Grey! Clerk Vincent -of the War-Office, one of Pache's old Clerks, 'with a head heated by the -ancient orators,' had a main hand in the appointments, at least in the -staff-appointments. - -But of the marchings and retreatings of these Six Thousand no Xenophon -exists. Nothing, but an inarticulate hum, of cursing and sooty frenzy, -surviving dubious in the memory of ages! They scour the country round -Paris; seeking Prisoners; raising Requisitions; seeing that Edicts are -executed, that the Farmers have thrashed sufficiently; lowering Church- -bells or metallic Virgins. Detachments shoot forth dim, towards remote -parts of France; nay new Provincial Revolutionary Armies rise dim, here and -there, as Carrier's Company of Marat, as Tallien's Bourdeaux Troop; like -sympathetic clouds in an atmosphere all electric. Ronsin, they say, -admitted, in candid moments, that his troops were the elixir of the -Rascality of the Earth. One sees them drawn up in market-places; travel- -plashed, rough-bearded, in carmagnole complete: the first exploit is to -prostrate what Royal or Ecclesiastical monument, crucifix or the like, -there may be; to plant a cannon at the steeple, fetch down the bell without -climbing for it, bell and belfry together. This, however, it is said, -depends somewhat on the size of the town: if the town contains much -population, and these perhaps of a dubious choleric aspect, the -Revolutionary Army will do its work gently, by ladder and wrench; nay -perhaps will take its billet without work at all; and, refreshing itself -with a little liquor and sleep, pass on to the next stage. (Deux Amis, -xii. 62-5.) Pipe in cheek, sabre on thigh; in carmagnole complete! - -Such things have been; and may again be. Charles Second sent out his -Highland Host over the Western Scotch Whigs; Jamaica Planters got Dogs from -the Spanish Main to hunt their Maroons with: France too is bescoured with -a Devil's Pack, the baying of which, at this distance of half a century, -still sounds in the mind's ear. - - - -Chapter 3.5.V. - -Like a Thunder-Cloud. - -But the grand, and indeed substantially primary and generic aspect of the -Consummation of Terror remains still to be looked at; nay blinkard History -has for most part all but overlooked this aspect, the soul of the whole: -that which makes it terrible to the Enemies of France. Let Despotism and -Cimmerian Coalitions consider. All French men and French things are in a -State of Requisition; Fourteen Armies are got on foot; Patriotism, with all -that it has of faculty in heart or in head, in soul or body or breeches- -pocket, is rushing to the frontiers, to prevail or die! Busy sits Carnot, -in Salut Public; busy for his share, in 'organising victory.' Not swifter -pulses that Guillotine, in dread systole-diastole in the Place de la -Revolution, than smites the Sword of Patriotism, smiting Cimmeria back to -its own borders, from the sacred soil. - -In fact the Government is what we can call Revolutionary; and some men are -'a la hauteur,' on a level with the circumstances; and others are not a la -hauteur,--so much the worse for them. But the Anarchy, we may say, has -organised itself: Society is literally overset; its old forces working -with mad activity, but in the inverse order; destructive and self- -destructive. - -Curious to see how all still refers itself to some head and fountain; not -even an Anarchy but must have a centre to revolve round. It is now some -six months since the Committee of Salut Public came into existence: some -three months since Danton proposed that all power should be given it and 'a -sum of fifty millions,' and the 'Government be declared Revolutionary.' He -himself, since that day, would take no hand in it, though again and again -solicited; but sits private in his place on the Mountain. Since that day, -the Nine, or if they should even rise to Twelve have become permanent, -always re-elected when their term runs out; Salut Public, Surete Generale -have assumed their ulterior form and mode of operating. - -Committee of Public Salvation, as supreme; of General Surety, as subaltern: -these like a Lesser and Greater Council, most harmonious hitherto, have -become the centre of all things. They ride this Whirlwind; they, raised by -force of circumstances, insensibly, very strangely, thither to that dread -height;--and guide it, and seem to guide it. Stranger set of Cloud- -Compellers the Earth never saw. A Robespierre, a Billaud, a Collot, -Couthon, Saint-Just; not to mention still meaner Amars, Vadiers, in Surete -Generale: these are your Cloud-Compellers. Small intellectual talent is -necessary: indeed where among them, except in the head of Carnot, busied -organising victory, would you find any? The talent is one of instinct -rather. It is that of divining aright what this great dumb Whirlwind -wishes and wills; that of willing, with more frenzy than any one, what all -the world wills. To stand at no obstacles; to heed no considerations human -or divine; to know well that, of divine or human, there is one thing -needful, Triumph of the Republic, Destruction of the Enemies of the -Republic! With this one spiritual endowment, and so few others, it is -strange to see how a dumb inarticulately storming Whirlwind of things puts, -as it were, its reins into your hand, and invites and compels you to be -leader of it. - -Hard by, sits a Municipality of Paris; all in red nightcaps since the -fourth of November last: a set of men fully 'on a level with -circumstances,' or even beyond it. Sleek Mayor Pache, studious to be safe -in the middle; Chaumettes, Heberts, Varlets, and Henriot their great -Commandant; not to speak of Vincent the War-clerk, of Momoros, Dobsents, -and such like: all intent to have Churches plundered, to have Reason -adored, Suspects cut down, and the Revolution triumph. Perhaps carrying -the matter too far? Danton was heard to grumble at the civic strophes; and -to recommend prose and decency. Robespierre also grumbles that in -overturning Superstition we did not mean to make a religion of Atheism. In -fact, your Chaumette and Company constitute a kind of Hyper-Jacobinism, or -rabid 'Faction des Enrages;' which has given orthodox Patriotism some -umbrage, of late months. To 'know a Suspect on the streets:' what is this -but bringing the Law of the Suspect itself into ill odour? Men half- -frantic, men zealous overmuch,--they toil there, in their red nightcaps, -restlessly, rapidly, accomplishing what of Life is allotted them. - -And the Forty-four Thousand other Townships, each with revolutionary -Committee, based on Jacobin Daughter Society; enlightened by the spirit of -Jacobinism; quickened by the Forty Sous a-day!--The French Constitution -spurned always at any thing like Two Chambers; and yet behold, has it not -verily got Two Chambers? National Convention, elected for one; Mother of -Patriotism, self-elected, for another! Mother of Patriotism has her -Debates reported in the Moniteur, as important state-procedures; which -indisputably they are. A Second Chamber of Legislature we call this Mother -Society;--if perhaps it were not rather comparable to that old Scotch Body -named Lords of the Articles, without whose origination, and signal given, -the so-called Parliament could introduce no bill, could do no work? -Robespierre himself, whose words are a law, opens his incorruptible lips -copiously in the Jacobins Hall. Smaller Council of Salut Public, Greater -Council of Surete Generale, all active Parties, come here to plead; to -shape beforehand what decision they must arrive at, what destiny they have -to expect. Now if a question arose, Which of those Two Chambers, -Convention, or Lords of the Articles, was the stronger? Happily they as -yet go hand in hand. - -As for the National Convention, truly it has become a most composed Body. -Quenched now the old effervescence; the Seventy-three locked in ward; once -noisy Friends of the Girondins sunk all into silent men of the Plain, -called even 'Frogs of the Marsh,' Crapauds du Marais! Addresses come, -Revolutionary Church-plunder comes; Deputations, with prose, or strophes: -these the Convention receives. But beyond this, the Convention has one -thing mainly to do: to listen what Salut Public proposes, and say, Yea. - -Bazire followed by Chabot, with some impetuosity, declared, one morning, -that this was not the way of a Free Assembly. "There ought to be an -Opposition side, a Cote Droit," cried Chabot; "if none else will form it, I -will: people say to me, You will all get guillotined in your turn, first -you and Bazire, then Danton, then Robespierre himself." (Debats, du 10 -Novembre, 1723.) So spake the Disfrocked, with a loud voice: next week, -Bazire and he lie in the Abbaye; wending, one may fear, towards Tinville -and the Axe; and 'people say to me'--what seems to be proving true! -Bazire's blood was all inflamed with Revolution fever; with coffee and -spasmodic dreams. (Dictionnaire des Hommes Marquans, i. 115.) Chabot, -again, how happy with his rich Jew-Austrian wife, late Fraulein Frey! But -he lies in Prison; and his two Jew-Austrian Brothers-in-Law, the Bankers -Frey, lie with him; waiting the urn of doom. Let a National Convention, -therefore, take warning, and know its function. Let the Convention, all as -one man, set its shoulder to the work; not with bursts of Parliamentary -eloquence, but in quite other and serviceable ways! - -Convention Commissioners, what we ought to call Representatives, -'Representans on mission,' fly, like the Herald Mercury, to all points of -the Territory; carrying your behests far and wide. In their 'round hat -plumed with tricolor feathers, girt with flowing tricolor taffeta; in close -frock, tricolor sash, sword and jack-boots,' these men are powerfuller than -King or Kaiser. They say to whomso they meet, Do; and he must do it: all -men's goods are at their disposal; for France is as one huge City in Siege. -They smite with Requisitions, and Forced-loan; they have the power of life -and death. Saint-Just and Lebas order the rich classes of Strasburg to -'strip off their shoes,' and send them to the Armies where as many as 'ten -thousand pairs' are needed. Also, that within four and twenty hours, 'a -thousand beds' are to be got ready; (Moniteur, du 27 Novembre 1793.) wrapt -in matting, and sent under way. For the time presses!--Like swift bolts, -issuing from the fuliginous Olympus of Salut Public rush these men, -oftenest in pairs; scatter your thunder-orders over France; make France one -enormous Revolutionary thunder-cloud. - - - -Chapter 3.5.VI. - -Do thy Duty. - -Accordingly alongside of these bonfires of Church balustrades, and sounds -of fusillading and noyading, there rise quite another sort of fires and -sounds: Smithy-fires and Proof-volleys for the manufacture of arms. - -Cut off from Sweden and the world, the Republic must learn to make steel -for itself; and, by aid of Chemists, she has learnt it. Towns that knew -only iron, now know steel: from their new dungeons at Chantilly, -Aristocrats may hear the rustle of our new steel furnace there. Do not -bells transmute themselves into cannon; iron stancheons into the white- -weapon (arme blanche), by sword-cutlery? The wheels of Langres scream, -amid their sputtering fire halo; grinding mere swords. The stithies of -Charleville ring with gun-making. What say we, Charleville? Two hundred -and fifty-eight Forges stand in the open spaces of Paris itself; a hundred -and forty of them in the Esplanade of the Invalides, fifty-four in the -Luxembourg Garden: so many Forges stand; grim Smiths beating and forging -at lock and barrel there. The Clockmakers have come, requisitioned, to do -the touch-holes, the hard-solder and filework. Five great Barges swing at -anchor on the Seine Stream, loud with boring; the great press-drills -grating harsh thunder to the general ear and heart. And deft Stock-makers -do gouge and rasp; and all men bestir themselves, according to their -cunning:--in the language of hope, it is reckoned that a 'thousand finished -muskets can be delivered daily.' (Choix des Rapports, xiii. 189.) -Chemists of the Republic have taught us miracles of swift tanning; (Ibid. -xv. 360.) the cordwainer bores and stitches;--not of 'wood and pasteboard,' -or he shall answer it to Tinville! The women sew tents and coats, the -children scrape surgeon's-lint, the old men sit in the market-places; able -men are on march; all men in requisition: from Town to Town flutters, on -the Heaven's winds, this Banner, THE FRENCH PEOPLE RISEN AGAINST TYRANTS. - -All which is well. But now arises the question: What is to be done for -saltpetre? Interrupted Commerce and the English Navy shut us out from -saltpetre; and without saltpetre there is no gunpowder. Republican Science -again sits meditative; discovers that saltpetre exists here and there, -though in attenuated quantity: that old plaster of walls holds a -sprinkling of it;--that the earth of the Paris Cellars holds a sprinkling -of it, diffused through the common rubbish; that were these dug up and -washed, saltpetre might be had. Whereupon swiftly, see! the Citoyens, with -upshoved bonnet rouge, or with doffed bonnet, and hair toil-wetted; digging -fiercely, each in his own cellar, for saltpetre. The Earth-heap rises at -every door; the Citoyennes with hod and bucket carrying it up; the -Citoyens, pith in every muscle, shovelling and digging: for life and -saltpetre. Dig my braves; and right well speed ye. What of saltpetre is -essential the Republic shall not want. - -Consummation of Sansculottism has many aspects and tints: but the -brightest tint, really of a solar or stellar brightness, is this which the -Armies give it. That same fervour of Jacobinism which internally fills -France with hatred, suspicions, scaffolds and Reason-worship, does, on the -Frontiers, shew itself as a glorious Pro patria mori. Ever since -Dumouriez's defection, three Convention Representatives attend every -General. Committee of Salut has sent them, often with this Laconic order -only: "Do thy duty, Fais ton devoir." It is strange, under what -impediments the fire of Jacobinism, like other such fires, will burn. -These Soldiers have shoes of wood and pasteboard, or go booted in hayropes, -in dead of winter; they skewer a bass mat round their shoulders, and are -destitute of most things. What then? It is for Rights of Frenchhood, of -Manhood, that they fight: the unquenchable spirit, here as elsewhere, -works miracles. "With steel and bread," says the Convention -Representative, "one may get to China." The Generals go fast to the -guillotine; justly and unjustly. From which what inference? This among -others: That ill-success is death; that in victory alone is life! To -conquer or die is no theatrical palabra, in these circumstances: but a -practical truth and necessity. All Girondism, Halfness, Compromise is -swept away. Forward, ye Soldiers of the Republic, captain and man! Dash -with your Gaelic impetuosity, on Austria, England, Prussia, Spain, -Sardinia; Pitt, Cobourg, York, and the Devil and the World! Behind us is -but the Guillotine; before us is Victory, Apotheosis and Millennium without -end! - -See accordingly, on all Frontiers, how the Sons of Night, astonished after -short triumph, do recoil;--the Sons of the Republic flying at them, with -wild ca-ira or Marseillese Aux armes, with the temper of cat-o'-mountain, -or demon incarnate; which no Son of Night can stand! Spain, which came -bursting through the Pyrenees, rustling with Bourbon banners, and went -conquering here and there for a season, falters at such cat-o'-mountain -welcome; draws itself in again; too happy now were the Pyrenees impassable. -Not only does Dugommier, conqueror of Toulon, drive Spain back; he invades -Spain. General Dugommier invades it by the Eastern Pyrenees; General -Dugommier invades it by the Eastern Pyrenees; General Muller shall invade -it by the Western. Shall, that is the word: Committee of Salut Public has -said it; Representative Cavaignac, on mission there, must see it done. -Impossible! cries Muller,--Infallible! answers Cavaignac. Difficulty, -impossibility, is to no purpose. "The Committee is deaf on that side of -its head," answers Cavaignac, "n'entend pas de cette oreille la. How many -wantest thou, of men, of horses, cannons? Thou shalt have them. -Conquerors, conquered or hanged, forward we must." (There is, in -Prudhomme, an atrocity a la Captain-Kirk reported of this Cavaignac; which -has been copied into Dictionaries of Hommes Marquans, of Biographie -Universelle, &c.; which not only has no truth in it, but, much more -singular, is still capable of being proved to have none.) Which things -also, even as the Representative spake them, were done. The Spring of the -new Year sees Spain invaded: and redoubts are carried, and Passes and -Heights of the most scarped description; Spanish Field-officerism struck -mute at such cat-o'-mountain spirit, the cannon forgetting to fire. (Deux -Amis, xiii. 205-30; Toulongeon, &c.) Swept are the Pyrenees; Town after -Town flies up, burst by terror or the petard. In the course of another -year, Spain will crave Peace; acknowledge its sins and the Republic; nay, -in Madrid, there will be joy as for a victory, that even Peace is got. - -Few things, we repeat, can be notabler than these Convention -Representatives, with their power more than kingly. Nay at bottom are they -not Kings, Ablemen, of a sort; chosen from the Seven Hundred and Forty-nine -French Kings; with this order, Do thy duty? Representative Levasseur, of -small stature, by trade a mere pacific Surgeon-Accoucheur, has mutinies to -quell; mad hosts (mad at the Doom of Custine) bellowing far and wide; he -alone amid them, the one small Representative,--small, but as hard as -flint, which also carries fire in it! So too, at Hondschooten, far in the -afternoon, he declares that the battle is not lost; that it must be gained; -and fights, himself, with his own obstetric hand;--horse shot under him, or -say on foot, 'up to the haunches in tide-water;' cutting stoccado and -passado there, in defiance of Water, Earth, Air and Fire, the choleric -little Representative that he was! Whereby, as natural, Royal Highness of -York had to withdraw,--occasionally at full gallop; like to be swallowed by -the tide: and his Siege of Dunkirk became a dream, realising only much -loss of beautiful siege-artillery and of brave lives. (Levasseur, -Memoires, ii. c. 2-7.) - -General Houchard, it would appear, stood behind a hedge, on this -Hondschooten occasion; wherefore they have since guillotined him. A new -General Jourdan, late Serjeant Jourdan, commands in his stead: he, in -long-winded Battles of Watigny, 'murderous artillery-fire mingling itself -with sound of Revolutionary battle-hymns,' forces Austria behind the Sambre -again; has hopes of purging the soil of Liberty. With hard wrestling, with -artillerying and ca-ira-ing, it shall be done. In the course of a new -Summer, Valenciennes will see itself beleaguered; Conde beleaguered; -whatsoever is yet in the hands of Austria beleaguered and bombarded: nay, -by Convention Decree, we even summon them all 'either to surrender in -twenty-four hours, or else be put to the sword;'--a high saying, which, -though it remains unfulfilled, may shew what spirit one is of. - -Representative Drouet, as an Old-Dragoon, could fight by a kind of second -nature; but he was unlucky. Him, in a night-foray at Maubeuge, the -Austrians took alive, in October last. They stript him almost naked, he -says; making a shew of him, as King-taker of Varennes. They flung him into -carts; sent him far into the interior of Cimmeria, to 'a Fortress called -Spitzberg' on the Danube River; and left him there, at an elevation of -perhaps a hundred and fifty feet, to his own bitter reflections. -Reflections; and also devices! For the indomitable Old-dragoon constructs -wing-machinery, of Paperkite; saws window-bars: determines to fly down. -He will seize a boat, will follow the River's course: land somewhere in -Crim Tartary, in the Black Sea or Constantinople region: a la Sindbad! -Authentic History, accordingly, looking far into Cimmeria, discerns dimly a -phenomenon. In the dead night-watches, the Spitzberg sentry is near -fainting with terror: Is it a huge vague Portent descending through the -night air? It is a huge National Representative Old-dragoon, descending by -Paperkite; too rapidly, alas! For Drouet had taken with him 'a small -provision-store, twenty pounds weight or thereby;' which proved -accelerative: so he fell, fracturing his leg; and lay there, moaning, till -day dawned, till you could discern clearly that he was not a Portent but a -Representative! (His narrative (in Deux Amis, xiv. 177-86).) - -Or see Saint-Just, in the Lines of Weissembourg, though physically of a -timid apprehensive nature, how he charges with his 'Alsatian Peasants armed -hastily' for the nonce; the solemn face of him blazing into flame; his -black hair and tricolor hat-taffeta flowing in the breeze; These our Lines -of Weissembourg were indeed forced, and Prussia and the Emigrants rolled -through: but we re-force the Lines of Weissembourg; and Prussia and the -Emigrants roll back again still faster,--hurled with bayonet charges and -fiery ca-ira-ing. - -Ci-devant Serjeant Pichegru, ci-devant Serjeant Hoche, risen now to be -Generals, have done wonders here. Tall Pichegru was meant for the Church; -was Teacher of Mathematics once, in Brienne School,--his remarkablest Pupil -there was the Boy Napoleon Buonaparte. He then, not in the sweetest -humour, enlisted exchanging ferula for musket; and had got the length of -the halberd, beyond which nothing could be hoped; when the Bastille -barriers falling made passage for him, and he is here. Hoche bore a hand -at the literal overturn of the Bastille; he was, as we saw, a Serjeant of -the Gardes Francaises, spending his pay in rushlights and cheap editions of -books. How the Mountains are burst, and many an Enceladus is -disemprisoned: and Captains founding on Four parchments of Nobility, are -blown with their parchments across the Rhine, into Lunar Limbo! - -What high feats of arms, therefore, were done in these Fourteen Armies; and -how, for love of Liberty and hope of Promotion, low-born valour cut its -desperate way to Generalship; and, from the central Carnot in Salut Public -to the outmost drummer on the Frontiers, men strove for their Republic, let -readers fancy. The snows of Winter, the flowers of Summer continue to be -stained with warlike blood. Gaelic impetuosity mounts ever higher with -victory; spirit of Jacobinism weds itself to national vanity: the Soldiers -of the Republic are becoming, as we prophesied, very Sons of Fire. -Barefooted, barebacked: but with bread and iron you can get to China! It -is one Nation against the whole world; but the Nation has that within her -which the whole world will not conquer. Cimmeria, astonished, recoils -faster or slower; all round the Republic there rises fiery, as it were, a -magic ring of musket-volleying and ca-ira-ing. Majesty of Prussia, as -Majesty of Spain, will by and by acknowledge his sins and the Republic: -and make a Peace of Bale. - -Foreign Commerce, Colonies, Factories in the East and in the West, are -fallen or falling into the hands of sea-ruling Pitt, enemy of human nature. -Nevertheless what sound is this that we hear, on the first of June, 1794; -sound of as war-thunder borne from the Ocean too; of tone most piercing? -War-thunder from off the Brest waters: Villaret-Joyeuse and English Howe, -after long manoeuvring have ranked themselves there; and are belching fire. -The enemies of human nature are on their own element; cannot be conquered; -cannot be kept from conquering. Twelve hours of raging cannonade; sun now -sinking westward through the battle-smoke: six French Ships taken, the -Battle lost; what Ship soever can still sail, making off! But how is it, -then, with that Vengeur Ship, she neither strikes nor makes off? She is -lamed, she cannot make off; strike she will not. Fire rakes her fore and -aft, from victorious enemies; the Vengeur is sinking. Strong are ye, -Tyrants of the Sea; yet we also, are we weak? Lo! all flags, streamers, -jacks, every rag of tricolor that will yet run on rope, fly rustling aloft: -the whole crew crowds to the upper deck; and, with universal soul-maddening -yell, shouts Vive la Republique,--sinking, sinking. She staggers, she -lurches, her last drunk whirl; Ocean yawns abysmal: down rushes the -Vengeur, carrying Vive la Republique along with her, unconquerable, into -Eternity! (Compare Barrere (Chois des Rapports, xiv. 416-21); Lord Howe -(Annual Register of 1794, p. 86), &c.) Let foreign Despots think of that. -There is an Unconquerable in man, when he stands on his Rights of Man: let -Despots and Slaves and all people know this, and only them that stand on -the Wrongs of Man tremble to know it. - - - -Chapter 3.5.VII. - -Flame-Picture. - - -In this manner, mad-blazing with flame of all imaginable tints, from the -red of Tophet to the stellar-bright, blazes off this Consummation of -Sansculottism. - -But the hundredth part of the things that were done, and the thousandth -part of the things that were projected and decreed to be done, would tire -the tongue of History. Statue of the Peuple Souverain, high as Strasburg -Steeple; which shall fling its shadow from the Pont Neuf over Jardin -National and Convention Hall;--enormous, in Painter David's head! With -other the like enormous Statues not a few: realised in paper Decree. For, -indeed, the Statue of Liberty herself is still but Plaster in the Place de -la Revolution! Then Equalisation of Weights and Measures, with decimal -division; Institutions, of Music and of much else; Institute in general; -School of Arts, School of Mars, Eleves de la Patrie, Normal Schools: amid -such Gun-boring, Altar-burning, Saltpetre-digging, and miraculous -improvements in Tannery! - -What, for example, is this that Engineer Chappe is doing, in the Park of -Vincennes? In the Park of Vincennes; and onwards, they say, in the Park of -Lepelletier Saint-Fargeau the assassinated Deputy; and still onwards to the -Heights of Ecouen and further, he has scaffolding set up, has posts driven -in; wooden arms with elbow joints are jerking and fugling in the air, in -the most rapid mysterious manner! Citoyens ran up suspicious. Yes, O -Citoyens, we are signaling: it is a device this, worthy of the Republic; a -thing for what we will call Far-writing without the aid of postbags; in -Greek, it shall be named Telegraph.--Telegraphe sacre! answers Citoyenism: -For writing to Traitors, to Austria?--and tears it down. Chappe had to -escape, and get a new Legislative Decree. Nevertheless he has accomplished -it, the indefatigable Chappe: this Far-writer, with its wooden arms and -elbow-joints, can intelligibly signal; and lines of them are set up, to the -North Frontiers and elsewhither. On an Autumn evening of the Year Two, -Far-writer having just written that Conde Town has surrendered to us, we -send from Tuileries Convention Hall this response in the shape of Decree: -'The name of Conde is changed to Nord-Libre, North-Free. The Army of the -North ceases not to merit well of the country.'--To the admiration of men! -For lo, in some half hour, while the Convention yet debates, there arrives -this new answer: 'I inform thee, je t'annonce, Citizen President, that the -decree of Convention, ordering change of the name Conde into North-Free; -and the other declaring that the Army of the North ceases not to merit well -of the country, are transmitted and acknowledged by Telegraph. I have -instructed my Officer at Lille to forward them to North-Free by express. -Signed, CHAPPE.' (Choix des Rapports, xv. 378, 384.) - -Or see, over Fleurus in the Netherlands, where General Jourdan, having now -swept the soil of Liberty, and advanced thus far, is just about to fight, -and sweep or be swept, things there not in the Heaven's Vault, some -Prodigy, seen by Austrian eyes and spyglasses: in the similitude of an -enormous Windbag, with netting and enormous Saucer depending from it? A -Jove's Balance, O ye Austrian spyglasses? One saucer-hole of a Jove's -Balance; your poor Austrian scale having kicked itself quite aloft, out of -sight? By Heaven, answer the spyglasses, it is a Montgolfier, a Balloon, -and they are making signals! Austrian cannon-battery barks at this -Montgolfier; harmless as dog at the Moon: the Montgolfier makes its -signals; detects what Austrian ambuscade there may be, and descends at its -ease. (26th June, 1794 (see Rapport de Guyton-Morveau sur les aerostats, -in Moniteur du 6 Vendemiaire, An 2).) What will not these devils incarnate -contrive? - -On the whole, is it not, O Reader, one of the strangest Flame-Pictures that -ever painted itself; flaming off there, on its ground of Guillotine-black? -And the nightly Theatres are Twenty-three; and the Salons de danse are -sixty: full of mere Egalite, Fraternite and Carmagnole. And Section -Committee-rooms are Forty-eight; redolent of tobacco and brandy: vigorous -with twenty-pence a-day, coercing the suspect. And the Houses of Arrest -are Twelve for Paris alone; crowded and even crammed. And at all turns, -you need your 'Certificate of Civism;' be it for going out, or for coming -in; nay without it you cannot, for money, get your daily ounces of bread. -Dusky red-capped Baker's-queues; wagging themselves; not in silence! For -we still live by Maximum, in all things; waited on by these two, Scarcity -and Confusion. The faces of men are darkened with suspicion; with -suspecting, or being suspect. The streets lie unswept; the ways unmended. -Law has shut her Books; speaks little, save impromptu, through the throat -of Tinville. Crimes go unpunished: not crimes against the Revolution. -(Mercier, v. 25; Deux Amis, xii. 142-199.) 'The number of foundling -children,' as some compute, 'is doubled.' - -How silent now sits Royalism; sits all Aristocratism; Respectability that -kept its Gig! The honour now, and the safety, is to Poverty, not to -Wealth. Your Citizen, who would be fashionable, walks abroad, with his -Wife on his arm, in red wool nightcap, black shag spencer, and carmagnole -complete. Aristocratism crouches low, in what shelter is still left; -submitting to all requisitions, vexations; too happy to escape with life. -Ghastly chateaus stare on you by the wayside; disroofed, diswindowed; which -the National House-broker is peeling for the lead and ashlar. The old -tenants hover disconsolate, over the Rhine with Conde; a spectacle to men. -Ci-devant Seigneur, exquisite in palate, will become an exquisite -Restaurateur Cook in Hamburg; Ci-devant Madame, exquisite in dress, a -successful Marchande des Modes in London. In Newgate-Street, you meet M. -le Marquis, with a rough deal on his shoulder, adze and jack-plane under -arm; he has taken to the joiner trade; it being necessary to live (faut -vivre). (See Deux Amis, xv. 189-192; Memoires de Genlis; Founders of the -French Republic, &c. &c.)--Higher than all Frenchmen the domestic Stock- -jobber flourishes,--in a day of Paper-money. The Farmer also flourishes: -'Farmers' houses,' says Mercier, 'have become like Pawn-brokers' shops;' -all manner of furniture, apparel, vessels of gold and silver accumulate -themselves there: bread is precious. The Farmer's rent is Paper-money, -and he alone of men has bread: Farmer is better than Landlord, and will -himself become Landlord. - -And daily, we say, like a black Spectre, silently through that Life-tumult, -passes the Revolution Cart; writing on the walls its MENE, MENE, Thou art -weighed, and found wanting! A Spectre with which one has grown familiar. -Men have adjusted themselves: complaint issues not from that Death- -tumbril. Weak women and ci-devants, their plumage and finery all -tarnished, sit there; with a silent gaze, as if looking into the Infinite -Black. The once light lip wears a curl of irony, uttering no word; and the -Tumbril fares along. They may be guilty before Heaven, or not; they are -guilty, we suppose, before the Revolution. Then, does not the Republic -'coin money' of them, with its great axe? Red Nightcaps howl dire -approval: the rest of Paris looks on; if with a sigh, that is much; Fellow- -creatures whom sighing cannot help; whom black Necessity and Tinville have -clutched. - -One other thing, or rather two other things, we will still mention; and no -more: The Blond Perukes; the Tannery at Meudon. Great talk is of these -Perruques blondes: O Reader, they are made from the Heads of Guillotined -women! The locks of a Duchess, in this way, may come to cover the scalp of -a Cordwainer: her blond German Frankism his black Gaelic poll, if it be -bald. Or they may be worn affectionately, as relics; rendering one -suspect? (Mercier, ii. 134.) Citizens use them, not without mockery; of a -rather cannibal sort. - -Still deeper into one's heart goes that Tannery at Meudon; not mentioned -among the other miracles of tanning! 'At Meudon,' says Montgaillard with -considerable calmness, 'there was a Tannery of Human Skins; such of the -Guillotined as seemed worth flaying: of which perfectly good wash-leather -was made:' for breeches, and other uses. The skin of the men, he remarks, -was superior in toughness (consistance) and quality to shamoy; that of -women was good for almost nothing, being so soft in texture! -(Montgaillard, iv. 290.)--History looking back over Cannibalism, through -Purchas's Pilgrims and all early and late Records, will perhaps find no -terrestrial Cannibalism of a sort on the whole so detestable. It is a -manufactured, soft-feeling, quietly elegant sort; a sort perfide! Alas -then, is man's civilisation only a wrappage, through which the savage -nature of him can still burst, infernal as ever? Nature still makes him; -and has an Infernal in her as well as a Celestial. - - - - - -BOOK 3.VI. - -THERMIDOR - - -Chapter 3.6.I. - -The Gods are athirst. - -What then is this Thing, called La Revolution, which, like an Angel of -Death, hangs over France, noyading, fusillading, fighting, gun-boring, -tanning human skins? La Revolution is but so many Alphabetic Letters; a -thing nowhere to be laid hands on, to be clapt under lock and key: where -is it? what is it? It is the Madness that dwells in the hearts of men. In -this man it is, and in that man; as a rage or as a terror, it is in all -men. Invisible, impalpable; and yet no black Azrael, with wings spread -over half a continent, with sword sweeping from sea to sea, could be a -truer Reality. - -To explain, what is called explaining, the march of this Revolutionary -Government, be no task of ours. Men cannot explain it. A paralytic -Couthon, asking in the Jacobins, 'what hast thou done to be hanged if the -Counter-Revolution should arrive;' a sombre Saint-Just, not yet six-and- -twenty, declaring that 'for Revolutionists there is no rest but in the -tomb;' a seagreen Robespierre converted into vinegar and gall; much more an -Amar and Vadier, a Collot and Billaud: to inquire what thoughts, -predetermination or prevision, might be in the head of these men! Record -of their thought remains not; Death and Darkness have swept it out utterly. -Nay if we even had their thought, all they could have articulately spoken -to us, how insignificant a fraction were that of the Thing which realised -itself, which decreed itself, on signal given by them! As has been said -more than once, this Revolutionary Government is not a self-conscious but a -blind fatal one. Each man, enveloped in his ambient-atmosphere of -revolutionary fanatic Madness, rushes on, impelled and impelling; and has -become a blind brute Force; no rest for him but in the grave! Darkness and -the mystery of horrid cruelty cover it for us, in History; as they did in -Nature. The chaotic Thunder-cloud, with its pitchy black, and its tumult -of dazzling jagged fire, in a world all electric: thou wilt not undertake -to shew how that comported itself,--what the secrets of its dark womb were; -from what sources, with what specialities, the lightning it held did, in -confused brightness of terror, strike forth, destructive and self- -destructive, till it ended? Like a Blackness naturally of Erebus, which by -will of Providence had for once mounted itself into dominion and the Azure: -is not this properly the nature of Sansculottism consummating itself? Of -which Erebus Blackness be it enough to discern that this and the other -dazzling fire-bolt, dazzling fire-torrent, does by small Volition and great -Necessity, verily issue,--in such and such succession; destructive so and -so, self-destructive so and so: till it end. - -Royalism is extinct, 'sunk,' as they say, 'in the mud of the Loire;' -Republicanism dominates without and within: what, therefore, on the 15th -day of March, 1794, is this? Arrestment, sudden really as a bolt out of -the Blue, has hit strange victims: Hebert Pere Duchene, Bibliopolist -Momoro, Clerk Vincent, General Ronsin; high Cordelier Patriots, redcapped -Magistrates of Paris, Worshippers of Reason, Commanders of Revolutionary -Army! Eight short days ago, their Cordelier Club was loud, and louder than -ever, with Patriot denunciations. Hebert Pere Duchene had "held his tongue -and his heart these two months, at sight of Moderates, Crypto-Aristocrats, -Camilles, Scelerats in the Convention itself: but could not do it any -longer; would, if other remedy were not, invoke the Sacred right of -Insurrection." So spake Hebert in Cordelier Session; with vivats, till the -roofs rang again. (Moniteur, du 17 Ventose (7th March) 1794.) Eight short -days ago; and now already! They rub their eyes: it is no dream; they find -themselves in the Luxembourg. Goose Gobel too; and they that burnt -Churches! Chaumette himself, potent Procureur, Agent National as they now -call it, who could 'recognise the Suspect by the very face of them,' he -lingers but three days; on the third day he too is hurled in. Most -chopfallen, blue, enters the National Agent this Limbo whither he has sent -so many. Prisoners crowd round, jibing and jeering: "Sublime National -Agent," says one, "in virtue of thy immortal Proclamation, lo there! I am -suspect, thou art suspect, he is suspect, we are suspect, ye are suspect, -they are suspect!" - -The meaning of these things? Meaning! It is a Plot; Plot of the most -extensive ramifications; which, however, Barrere holds the threads of. -Such Church-burning and scandalous masquerades of Atheism, fit to make the -Revolution odious: where indeed could they originate but in the gold of -Pitt? Pitt indubitably, as Preternatural Insight will teach one, did hire -this Faction of Enrages, to play their fantastic tricks; to roar in their -Cordeliers Club about Moderatism; to print their Pere Duchene; worship -skyblue Reason in red nightcap; rob all Altars,--and bring the spoil to -us!-- - -Still more indubitable, visible to the mere bodily sight, is this: that -the Cordeliers Club sits pale, with anger and terror; and has 'veiled the -Rights of Man,'--without effect. Likewise that the Jacobins are in -considerable confusion; busy 'purging themselves, 's'epurant,' as, in times -of Plot and public Calamity, they have repeatedly had to do. Not even -Camille Desmoulins but has given offence: nay there have risen murmurs -against Danton himself; though he bellowed them down, and Robespierre -finished the matter by 'embracing him in the Tribune.' - -Whom shall the Republic and a jealous Mother Society trust? In these times -of temptation, of Preternatural Insight! For there are Factions of the -Stranger, 'de l'etranger,' Factions of Moderates, of Enraged; all manner of -Factions: we walk in a world of Plots; strings, universally spread, of -deadly gins and falltraps, baited by the gold of Pitt! Clootz, Speaker of -Mankind so-called, with his Evidences of Mahometan Religion, and babble of -Universal Republic, him an incorruptible Robespierre has purged away. -Baron Clootz, and Paine rebellious Needleman lie, these two months, in the -Luxembourg; limbs of the Faction de l'etranger. Representative Phelippeaux -is purged out: he came back from La Vendee with an ill report in his mouth -against rogue Rossignol, and our method of warfare there. Recant it, O -Phelippeaux, we entreat thee! Phelippeaux will not recant; and is purged -out. Representative Fabre d'Eglantine, famed Nomenclator of Romme's -Calendar, is purged out; nay, is cast into the Luxembourg: accused of -Legislative Swindling 'in regard to monies of the India Company.' There -with his Chabots, Bazires, guilty of the like, let Fabre wait his destiny. -And Westermann friend of Danton, he who led the Marseillese on the Tenth of -August, and fought well in La Vendee, but spoke not well of rogue -Rossignol, is purged out. Lucky, if he too go not to the Luxembourg. And -your Prolys, Guzmans, of the Faction of the Stranger, they have gone; -Peyreyra, though he fled is gone, 'taken in the disguise of a Tavern Cook.' -I am suspect, thou art suspect, he is suspect!-- - -The great heart of Danton is weary of it. Danton is gone to native Arcis, -for a little breathing time of peace: Away, black Arachne-webs, thou world -of Fury, Terror, and Suspicion; welcome, thou everlasting Mother, with thy -spring greenness, thy kind household loves and memories; true art thou, -were all else untrue! The great Titan walks silent, by the banks of the -murmuring Aube, in young native haunts that knew him when a boy; wonders -what the end of these things may be. - -But strangest of all, Camille Desmoulins is purged out. Couthon gave as a -test in regard to Jacobin purgation the question, 'What hast thou done to -be hanged if Counter-Revolution should arrive?' Yet Camille, who could so -well answer this question, is purged out! The truth is, Camille, early in -December last, began publishing a new Journal, or Series of Pamphlets, -entitled the Vieux Cordelier, Old Cordelier. Camille, not afraid at one -time to 'embrace Liberty on a heap of dead bodies,' begins to ask now, -Whether among so many arresting and punishing Committees there ought not to -be a 'Committee of Mercy?' Saint-Just, he observes, is an extremely solemn -young Republican, who 'carries his head as if it were a Saint-Sacrement; -adorable Hostie, or divine Real-Presence! Sharply enough, this old -Cordelier, Danton and he were of the earliest primary Cordeliers,--shoots -his glittering war-shafts into your new Cordeliers, your Heberts, Momoros, -with their brawling brutalities and despicabilities: say, as the Sun-god -(for poor Camille is a Poet) shot into that Python Serpent sprung of mud. - -Whereat, as was natural, the Hebertist Python did hiss and writhe -amazingly; and threaten 'sacred right of Insurrection;'--and, as we saw, -get cast into Prison. Nay, with all the old wit, dexterity, and light -graceful poignancy, Camille, translating 'out of Tacitus, from the Reign of -Tiberius,' pricks into the Law of the Suspect itself; making it odious! -Twice, in the Decade, his wild Leaves issue; full of wit, nay of humour, of -harmonious ingenuity and insight,--one of the strangest phenomenon of that -dark time; and smite, in their wild-sparkling way, at various -monstrosities, Saint-Sacrament heads, and Juggernaut idols, in a rather -reckless manner. To the great joy of Josephine Beauharnais, and the other -Five Thousand and odd Suspect, who fill the Twelve Houses of Arrest; on -whom a ray of hope dawns! Robespierre, at first approbatory, knew not at -last what to think; then thought, with his Jacobins, that Camille must be -expelled. A man of true Revolutionary spirit, this Camille; but with the -unwisest sallies; whom Aristocrats and Moderates have the art to corrupt! -Jacobinism is in uttermost crisis and struggle: enmeshed wholly in plots, -corruptibilities, neck-gins and baited falltraps of Pitt Ennemi du Genre -Humain. Camille's First Number begins with 'O Pitt!'--his last is dated 15 -Pluviose Year 2, 3d February 1794; and ends with these words of -Montezuma's, 'Les dieux ont soif, The gods are athirst.' - -Be this as it may, the Hebertists lie in Prison only some nine days. On -the 24th of March, therefore, the Revolution Tumbrils carry through that -Life-tumult a new cargo: Hebert, Vincent, Momoro, Ronsin, Nineteen of them -in all; with whom, curious enough, sits Clootz Speaker of Mankind. They -have been massed swiftly into a lump, this miscellany of Nondescripts; and -travel now their last road. No help. They too must 'look through the -little window;' they too 'must sneeze into the sack,' eternuer dans le sac; -as they have done to others so is it done to them. Sainte-Guillotine, -meseems, is worse than the old Saints of Superstition; a man-devouring -Saint? Clootz, still with an air of polished sarcasm, endeavours to jest, -to offer cheering 'arguments of Materialism;' he requested to be executed -last, 'in order to establish certain principles,'--which Philosophy has not -retained. General Ronsin too, he still looks forth with some air of -defiance, eye of command: the rest are sunk in a stony paleness of -despair. Momoro, poor Bibliopolist, no Agrarian Law yet realised,--they -might as well have hanged thee at Evreux, twenty months ago, when Girondin -Buzot hindered them. Hebert Pere Duchene shall never in this world rise in -sacred right of insurrection; he sits there low enough, head sunk on -breast; Red Nightcaps shouting round him, in frightful parody of his -Newspaper Articles, "Grand choler of the Pere Duchene!" Thus perish they; -the sack receives all their heads. Through some section of History, -Nineteen spectre-chimeras shall flit, speaking and gibbering; till Oblivion -swallow them. - -In the course of a week, the Revolutionary Army itself is disbanded; the -General having become spectral. This Faction of Rabids, therefore, is also -purged from the Republican soil; here also the baited falltraps of that -Pitt have been wrenched up harmless; and anew there is joy over a Plot -Discovered. The Revolution then is verily devouring its own children. All -Anarchy, by the nature of it, is not only destructive but self-destructive. - - - -Chapter 3.6.II. - -Danton, No weakness. - -Danton, meanwhile, has been pressingly sent for from Arcis: he must return -instantly, cried Camille, cried Phelippeaux and Friends, who scented danger -in the wind. Danger enough! A Danton, a Robespierre, chief-products of a -victorious Revolution, are now arrived in immediate front of one another; -must ascertain how they will live together, rule together. One conceives -easily the deep mutual incompatibility that divided these two: with what -terror of feminine hatred the poor seagreen Formula looked at the monstrous -colossal Reality, and grew greener to behold him;--the Reality, again, -struggling to think no ill of a chief-product of the Revolution; yet -feeling at bottom that such chief-product was little other than a chief -wind-bag, blown large by Popular air; not a man with the heart of a man, -but a poor spasmodic incorruptible pedant, with a logic-formula instead of -heart; of Jesuit or Methodist-Parson nature; full of sincere-cant, -incorruptibility, of virulence, poltroonery; barren as the east-wind! Two -such chief-products are too much for one Revolution. - -Friends, trembling at the results of a quarrel on their part, brought them -to meet. "It is right," said Danton, swallowing much indignation, "to -repress the Royalists: but we should not strike except where it is useful -to the Republic; we should not confound the innocent and the guilty."--"And -who told you," replied Robespierre with a poisonous look, "that one -innocent person had perished?"--"Quoi," said Danton, turning round to -Friend Paris self-named Fabricius, Juryman in the Revolutionary Tribunal: -"Quoi, not one innocent? What sayest thou of it, Fabricius!" (Biographie -de Ministres, para Danton.)--Friends, Westermann, this Paris and others -urged him to shew himself, to ascend the Tribune and act. The man Danton -was not prone to shew himself; to act, or uproar for his own safety. A man -of careless, large, hoping nature; a large nature that could rest: he -would sit whole hours, they say, hearing Camille talk, and liked nothing so -well. Friends urged him to fly; his Wife urged him: "Whither fly?" -answered he: "If freed France cast me out, there are only dungeons for me -elsewhere. One carries not his country with him at the sole of his shoe!" -The man Danton sat still. Not even the arrestment of Friend Herault, a -member of Salut, yet arrested by Salut, can rouse Danton.--On the night of -the 30th of March, Juryman Paris came rushing in; haste looking through his -eyes: A clerk of the Salut Committee had told him Danton's warrant was -made out, he is to be arrested this very night! Entreaties there are and -trepidation, of poor Wife, of Paris and Friends: Danton sat silent for a -while; then answered, "Ils n'oseraient, They dare not;" and would take no -measures. Murmuring "They dare not," he goes to sleep as usual. - -And yet, on the morrow morning, strange rumour spreads over Paris City: -Danton, Camille, Phelippeaux, Lacroix have been arrested overnight! It is -verily so: the corridors of the Luxembourg were all crowded, Prisoners -crowding forth to see this giant of the Revolution among them. -"Messieurs," said Danton politely, "I hoped soon to have got you all out of -this: but here I am myself; and one sees not where it will end."--Rumour -may spread over Paris: the Convention clusters itself into groups; wide- -eyed, whispering, "Danton arrested!" Who then is safe? Legendre, mounting -the Tribune, utters, at his own peril, a feeble word for him; moving that -he be heard at that Bar before indictment; but Robespierre frowns him down: -"Did you hear Chabot, or Bazire? Would you have two weights and measures?" -Legendre cowers low; Danton, like the others, must take his doom. - -Danton's Prison-thoughts were curious to have; but are not given in any -quantity: indeed few such remarkable men have been left so obscure to us -as this Titan of the Revolution. He was heard to ejaculate: "This time -twelvemonth, I was moving the creation of that same Revolutionary Tribunal. -I crave pardon for it of God and man. They are all Brothers Cain: Brissot -would have had me guillotined as Robespierre now will. I leave the whole -business in a frightful welter (gachis epouvantable): not one of them -understands anything of government. Robespierre will follow me; I drag -down Robespierre. O, it were better to be a poor fisherman than to meddle -with governing of men."--Camille's young beautiful Wife, who had made him -rich not in money alone, hovers round the Luxembourg, like a disembodied -spirit, day and night. Camille's stolen letters to her still exist; -stained with the mark of his tears. (Apercus sur Camille Desmoulins (in -Vieux Cordelier, Paris, 1825), pp. 1-29.) "I carry my head like a Saint- -Sacrament?" so Saint-Just was heard to mutter: "Perhaps he will carry his -like a Saint-Dennis." - -Unhappy Danton, thou still unhappier light Camille, once light Procureur de -la Lanterne, ye also have arrived, then, at the Bourne of Creation, where, -like Ulysses Polytlas at the limit and utmost Gades of his voyage, gazing -into that dim Waste beyond Creation, a man does see the Shade of his -Mother, pale, ineffectual;--and days when his Mother nursed and wrapped him -are all-too sternly contrasted with this day! Danton, Camille, Herault, -Westermann, and the others, very strangely massed up with Bazires, Swindler -Chabots, Fabre d'Eglantines, Banker Freys, a most motley Batch, 'Fournee' -as such things will be called, stand ranked at the Bar of Tinville. It is -the 2d of April 1794. Danton has had but three days to lie in Prison; for -the time presses. - -What is your name? place of abode? and the like, Fouquier asks; according -to formality. "My name is Danton," answers he; "a name tolerably known in -the Revolution: my abode will soon be Annihilation (dans le Neant); but I -shall live in the Pantheon of History." A man will endeavour to say -something forcible, be it by nature or not! Herault mentions -epigrammatically that he "sat in this Hall, and was detested of -Parlementeers." Camille makes answer, "My age is that of the bon -Sansculotte Jesus; an age fatal to Revolutionists." O Camille, Camille! -And yet in that Divine Transaction, let us say, there did lie, among other -things, the fatallest Reproof ever uttered here below to Worldly Right- -honourableness; 'the highest Fact,' so devout Novalis calls it, 'in the -Rights of Man.' Camille's real age, it would seem, is thirty-four. Danton -is one year older. - -Some five months ago, the Trial of the Twenty-two Girondins was the -greatest that Fouquier had then done. But here is a still greater to do; a -thing which tasks the whole faculty of Fouquier; which makes the very heart -of him waver. For it is the voice of Danton that reverberates now from -these domes; in passionate words, piercing with their wild sincerity, -winged with wrath. Your best Witnesses he shivers into ruin at one stroke. -He demands that the Committee-men themselves come as Witnesses, as -Accusers; he "will cover them with ignominy." He raises his huge stature, -he shakes his huge black head, fire flashes from the eyes of him,--piercing -to all Republican hearts: so that the very Galleries, though we filled -them by ticket, murmur sympathy; and are like to burst down, and raise the -People, and deliver him! He complains loudly that he is classed with -Chabots, with swindling Stockjobbers; that his Indictment is a list of -platitudes and horrors. "Danton hidden on the Tenth of August?" -reverberates he, with the roar of a lion in the toils: "Where are the men -that had to press Danton to shew himself, that day? Where are these high- -gifted souls of whom he borrowed energy? Let them appear, these Accusers -of mine: I have all the clearness of my self-possession when I demand -them. I will unmask the three shallow scoundrels," les trois plats -coquins, Saint-Just, Couthon, Lebas, "who fawn on Robespierre, and lead him -towards his destruction. Let them produce themselves here; I will plunge -them into Nothingness, out of which they ought never to have risen." The -agitated President agitates his bell; enjoins calmness, in a vehement -manner: "What is it to thee how I defend myself?" cries the other: "the -right of dooming me is thine always. The voice of a man speaking for his -honour and his life may well drown the jingling of thy bell!" Thus Danton, -higher and higher; till the lion voice of him 'dies away in his throat:' -speech will not utter what is in that man. The Galleries murmur ominously; -the first day's Session is over. - -O Tinville, President Herman, what will ye do? They have two days more of -it, by strictest Revolutionary Law. The Galleries already murmur. If this -Danton were to burst your mesh-work!--Very curious indeed to consider. It -turns on a hair: and what a Hoitytoity were there, Justice and Culprit -changing places; and the whole History of France running changed! For in -France there is this Danton only that could still try to govern France. He -only, the wild amorphous Titan;--and perhaps that other olive-complexioned -individual, the Artillery Officer at Toulon, whom we left pushing his -fortune in the South? - -On the evening of the second day, matters looking not better but worse and -worse, Fouquier and Herman, distraction in their aspect, rush over to Salut -Public. What is to be done? Salut Public rapidly concocts a new Decree; -whereby if men 'insult Justice,' they may be 'thrown out of the Debates.' -For indeed, withal, is there not 'a Plot in the Luxembourg Prison?' Ci- -devant General Dillon, and others of the Suspect, plotting with Camille's -Wife to distribute assignats; to force the Prisons, overset the Republic? -Citizen Laflotte, himself Suspect but desiring enfranchisement, has -reported said Plot for us:--a report that may bear fruit! Enough, on the -morrow morning, an obedient Convention passes this Decree. Salut rushes -off with it to the aid of Tinville, reduced now almost to extremities. And -so, Hors des Debats, Out of the Debates, ye insolents! Policemen do your -duty! In such manner, with a deadlift effort, Salut, Tinville Herman, -Leroi Dix-Aout, and all stanch jurymen setting heart and shoulder to it, -the Jury becomes 'sufficiently instructed;' Sentence is passed, is sent by -an Official, and torn and trampled on: Death this day. It is the 5th of -April, 1794. Camille's poor Wife may cease hovering about this Prison. -Nay let her kiss her poor children; and prepare to enter it, and to -follow!-- - -Danton carried a high look in the Death-cart. Not so Camille: it is but -one week, and all is so topsy-turvied; angel Wife left weeping; love, -riches, Revolutionary fame, left all at the Prison-gate; carnivorous Rabble -now howling round. Palpable, and yet incredible; like a madman's dream! -Camille struggles and writhes; his shoulders shuffle the loose coat off -them, which hangs knotted, the hands tied: "Calm my friend," said Danton; -"heed not that vile canaille (laissez la cette vile canaille)." At the -foot of the Scaffold, Danton was heard to ejaculate: "O my Wife, my well- -beloved, I shall never see thee more then!"--but, interrupting himself: -"Danton, no weakness!" He said to Herault-Sechelles stepping forward to -embrace him: "Our heads will meet there," in the Headsman's sack. His -last words were to Samson the Headsman himself: "Thou wilt shew my head to -the people; it is worth shewing." - -So passes, like a gigantic mass, of valour, ostentation, fury, affection -and wild revolutionary manhood, this Danton, to his unknown home. He was -of Arcis-sur-Aube; born of 'good farmer-people' there. He had many sins; -but one worst sin he had not, that of Cant. No hollow Formalist, deceptive -and self-deceptive, ghastly to the natural sense, was this; but a very Man: -with all his dross he was a Man; fiery-real, from the great fire-bosom of -Nature herself. He saved France from Brunswick; he walked straight his own -wild road, whither it led him. He may live for some generations in the -memory of men. - - - -Chapter 3.6.III. - -The Tumbrils. - -Next week, it is still but the 10th of April, there comes a new Nineteen; -Chaumette, Gobel, Hebert's Widow, the Widow of Camille: these also roll -their fated journey; black Death devours them. Mean Hebert's Widow was -weeping, Camille's Widow tried to speak comfort to her. O ye kind Heavens, -azure, beautiful, eternal behind your tempests and Time-clouds, is there -not pity for all! Gobel, it seems, was repentant; he begged absolution of -a Priest; did as a Gobel best could. For Anaxagoras Chaumette, the sleek -head now stript of its bonnet rouge, what hope is there? Unless Death were -'an eternal sleep?' Wretched Anaxagoras, God shall judge thee, not I. - -Hebert, therefore, is gone, and the Hebertists; they that robbed Churches, -and adored blue Reason in red nightcap. Great Danton, and the Dantonists; -they also are gone. Down to the catacombs; they are become silent men! -Let no Paris Municipality, no Sect or Party of this hue or that, resist the -will of Robespierre and Salut. Mayor Pache, not prompt enough in -denouncing these Pitts Plots, may congratulate about them now. Never so -heartily; it skills not! His course likewise is to the Luxembourg. We -appoint one Fleuriot-Lescot Interim-Mayor in his stead: an 'architect from -Belgium,' they say, this Fleuriot; he is a man one can depend on. Our new -Agent-National is Payan, lately Juryman; whose cynosure also is -Robespierre. - -Thus then, we perceive, this confusedly electric Erebus-cloud of -Revolutionary Government has altered its shape somewhat. Two masses, or -wings, belonging to it; an over-electric mass of Cordelier Rabids, and an -under-electric of Dantonist Moderates and Clemency-men,--these two masses, -shooting bolts at one another, so to speak, have annihilated one another. -For the Erebus-cloud, as we often remark, is of suicidal nature; and, in -jagged irregularity, darts its lightning withal into itself. But now these -two discrepant masses being mutually annihilated, it is as if the Erebus- -cloud had got to internal composure; and did only pour its hellfire -lightning on the World that lay under it. In plain words, Terror of the -Guillotine was never terrible till now. Systole, diastole, swift and ever -swifter goes the Axe of Samson. Indictments cease by degrees to have so -much as plausibility: Fouquier chooses from the Twelve houses of Arrest -what he calls Batches, 'Fournees,' a score or more at a time; his Jurymen -are charged to make feu de file, fire-filing till the ground be clear. -Citizen Laflotte's report of Plot in the Luxembourg is verily bearing -fruit! If no speakable charge exist against a man, or Batch of men, -Fouquier has always this: a Plot in the Prison. Swift and ever swifter -goes Samson; up, finally, to three score and more at a Batch! It is the -highday of Death: none but the Dead return not. - -O dusky d'Espremenil, what a day is this, the 22d of April, thy last day! -The Palais Hall here is the same stone Hall, where thou, five years ago, -stoodest perorating, amid endless pathos of rebellious Parlement, in the -grey of the morning; bound to march with d'Agoust to the Isles of Hieres. -The stones are the same stones: but the rest, Men, Rebellion, Pathos, -Peroration, see! it has all fled, like a gibbering troop of ghosts, like -the phantasms of a dying brain! With d'Espremenil, in the same line of -Tumbrils, goes the mournfullest medley. Chapelier goes, ci-devant popular -President of the Constituent; whom the Menads and Maillard met in his -carriage, on the Versailles Road. Thouret likewise, ci-devant President, -father of Constitutional Law-acts; he whom we heard saying, long since, -with a loud voice, "The Constituent Assembly has fulfilled its mission!" -And the noble old Malesherbes, who defended Louis and could not speak, like -a grey old rock dissolving into sudden water: he journeys here now, with -his kindred, daughters, sons and grandsons, his Lamoignons, Chateaubriands; -silent, towards Death.--One young Chateaubriand alone is wandering amid the -Natchez, by the roar of Niagara Falls, the moan of endless forests: -Welcome thou great Nature, savage, but not false, not unkind, unmotherly; -no Formula thou, or rapid jangle of Hypothesis, Parliamentary Eloquence, -Constitution-building and the Guillotine; speak thou to me, O Mother, and -sing my sick heart thy mystic everlasting lullaby-song, and let all the -rest be far!-- - -Another row of Tumbrils we must notice: that which holds Elizabeth, the -Sister of Louis. Her Trial was like the rest; for Plots, for Plots. She -was among the kindliest, most innocent of women. There sat with her, amid -four-and-twenty others, a once timorous Marchioness de Crussol; courageous -now; expressing towards her the liveliest loyalty. At the foot of the -Scaffold, Elizabeth with tears in her eyes, thanked this Marchioness; said -she was grieved she could not reward her. "Ah, Madame, would your Royal -Highness deign to embrace me, my wishes were complete!"--"Right willingly, -Marquise de Crussol, and with my whole heart." (Montgaillard, iv. 200.) -Thus they: at the foot of the Scaffold. The Royal Family is now reduced -to two: a girl and a little boy. The boy, once named Dauphin, was taken -from his Mother while she yet lived; and given to one Simon, by trade a -Cordwainer, on service then about the Temple-Prison, to bring him up in -principles of Sansculottism. Simon taught him to drink, to swear, to sing -the carmagnole. Simon is now gone to the Municipality: and the poor boy, -hidden in a tower of the Temple, from which in his fright and bewilderment -and early decrepitude he wishes not to stir out, lies perishing, 'his shirt -not changed for six months;' amid squalor and darkness, lamentably, -(Duchesse d'Angouleme, Captivite a la Tour du Temple, pp. 37-71.)--so as -none but poor Factory Children and the like are wont to perish, unlamented! - -The Spring sends its green leaves and bright weather, bright May brighter -than ever: Death pauses not. Lavoisier famed Chemist, shall die and not -live: Chemist Lavoisier was Farmer-General Lavoisier too, and now 'all the -Farmers-General are arrested;' all, and shall give an account of their -monies and incomings; and die for 'putting water in the tobacco' they sold. -(Tribunal Revolutionnaire, du 8 Mai 1794 (Moniteur, No. 231).) Lavoisier -begged a fortnight more of life, to finish some experiments: but "the -Republic does not need such;" the axe must do its work. Cynic Chamfort, -reading these Inscriptions of Brotherhood or Death, says "it is a -Brotherhood of Cain:" arrested, then liberated; then about to be arrested -again, this Chamfort cuts and slashes himself with frantic uncertain hand; -gains, not without difficulty, the refuge of death. Condorcet has lurked -deep, these many months; Argus-eyes watching and searching for him. His -concealment is become dangerous to others and himself; he has to fly again, -to skulk, round Paris, in thickets and stone-quarries. And so at the -Village of Clamars, one bleared May morning, there enters a Figure, ragged, -rough-bearded, hunger-stricken; asks breakfast in the tavern there. -Suspect, by the look of him! "Servant out of place, sayest thou?" -Committee-President of Forty-Sous finds a Latin Horace on him: "Art thou -not one of those Ci-devants that were wont to keep servants? Suspect!" He -is haled forthwith, breakfast unfinished, towards Bourg-la-Reine, on foot: -he faints with exhaustion; is set on a peasant's horse; is flung into his -damp prison-cell: on the morrow, recollecting him, you enter; Condorcet -lies dead on the floor. They die fast, and disappear: the Notabilities of -France disappear, one after one, like lights in a Theatre, which you are -snuffing out. - -Under which circumstances, is it not singular, and almost touching, to see -Paris City drawn out, in the meek May nights, in civic ceremony, which they -call 'Souper Fraternel, Brotherly Supper? Spontaneous, or partially -spontaneous, in the twelfth, thirteenth, fourteenth nights of this May -month, it is seen. Along the Rue Saint-Honore, and main Streets and -Spaces, each Citoyen brings forth what of supper the stingy Maximum has -yielded him, to the open air; joins it to his neighbour's supper; and with -common table, cheerful light burning frequent, and what due modicum of cut- -glasses and other garnish and relish is convenient, they eat frugally -together, under the kind stars. (Tableaux de la Revolution, para Soupers -Fraternels; Mercier, ii. 150.) See it O Night! With cheerfully pledged -wine-cup, hobnobbing to the Reign of Liberty, Equality, Brotherhood, with -their wives in best ribands, with their little ones romping round, the -Citoyens, in frugal Love-feast, sit there. Night in her wide empire sees -nothing similar. O my brothers, why is the reign of Brotherhood not come! -It is come, it shall come, say the Citoyens frugally hobnobbing.--Ah me! -these everlasting stars, do they not look down 'like glistening eyes, -bright with immortal pity, over the lot of man!'-- - -One lamentable thing, however, is, that individuals will attempt -assassination--of Representatives of the People. Representative Collot, -Member even of Salut, returning home, 'about one in the morning,' probably -touched with liquor, as he is apt to be, meets on the stairs, the cry -"Scelerat!" and also the snap of a pistol: which latter flashes in the -pan; disclosing to him, momentarily, a pair of truculent saucer-eyes, swart -grim-clenched countenance; recognisable as that of our little fellow- -lodger, Citoyen Amiral, formerly 'a clerk in the Lotteries!; Collot shouts -Murder, with lungs fit to awaken all the Rue Favart; Amiral snaps a second -time; a second time flashes in the pan; then darts up into his apartment; -and, after there firing, still with inadequate effect, one musket at -himself and another at his captor, is clutched and locked in Prison. -(Riouffe, p. 73; Deux Amis, xii. 298-302.) An indignant little man this -Amiral, of Southern temper and complexion, of 'considerable muscular -force.' He denies not that he meant to "purge France of a tyrant;" nay -avows that he had an eye to the Incorruptible himself, but took Collot as -more convenient! - -Rumour enough hereupon; heaven-high congratulation of Collot, fraternal -embracing, at the Jacobins, and elsewhere. And yet, it would seem the -assassin-mood proves catching. Two days more, it is still but the 23d of -May, and towards nine in the evening, Cecile Renault, Paper-dealer's -daughter, a young woman of soft blooming look, presents herself at the -Cabinet-maker's in the Rue Saint-Honore; desires to see Robespierre. -Robespierre cannot be seen: she grumbles irreverently. They lay hold of -her. She has left a basket in a shop hard by: in the basket are female -change of raiment and two knives! Poor Cecile, examined by Committee, -declares she "wanted to see what a tyrant was like:" the change of raiment -was "for my own use in the place I am surely going to."--"What place?"-- -"Prison; and then the Guillotine," answered she.--Such things come of -Charlotte Corday; in a people prone to imitation, and monomania! Swart -choleric men try Charlotte's feat, and their pistols miss fire; soft -blooming young women try it, and, only half-resolute, leave their knives in -a shop. - -O Pitt, and ye Faction of the Stranger, shall the Republic never have rest; -but be torn continually by baited springs, by wires of explosive spring- -guns? Swart Amiral, fair young Cecile, and all that knew them, and many -that did not know them, lie locked, waiting the scrutiny of Tinville. - - - -Chapter 3.6.IV. - -Mumbo-Jumbo. - -But on the day they call Decadi, New-Sabbath, 20 Prairial, 8th June by old -style, what thing is this going forward, in the Jardin National, whilom -Tuileries Garden? - -All the world is there, in holydays clothes: (Vilate, Causes Secretes de la -Revolution de 9 Thermidor.) foul linen went out with the Hebertists; nay -Robespierre, for one, would never once countenance that; but went always -elegant and frizzled, not without vanity even,--and had his room hung round -with seagreen Portraits and Busts. In holyday clothes, we say, are the -innumerable Citoyens and Citoyennes: the weather is of the brightest; -cheerful expectation lights all countenances. Juryman Vilate gives -breakfast to many a Deputy, in his official Apartment, in the Pavillon ci- -devant of Flora; rejoices in the bright-looking multitudes, in the -brightness of leafy June, in the auspicious Decadi, or New-Sabbath. This -day, if it please Heaven, we are to have, on improved Anti-Chaumette -principles: a New Religion. - -Catholicism being burned out, and Reason-worship guillotined, was there not -need of one? Incorruptible Robespierre, not unlike the Ancients, as -Legislator of a free people will now also be Priest and Prophet. He has -donned his sky-blue coat, made for the occasion; white silk waistcoat -broidered with silver, black silk breeches, white stockings, shoe-buckles -of gold. He is President of the Convention; he has made the Convention -decree, so they name it, decreter the 'Existence of the Supreme Being,' and -likewise 'ce principe consolateur of the Immortality of the Soul.' These -consolatory principles, the basis of rational Republican Religion, are -getting decreed; and here, on this blessed Decadi, by help of Heaven and -Painter David, is to be our first act of worship. - -See, accordingly, how after Decree passed, and what has been called 'the -scraggiest Prophetic Discourse ever uttered by man,'--Mahomet Robespierre, -in sky-blue coat and black breeches, frizzled and powdered to perfection, -bearing in his hand a bouquet of flowers and wheat-ears, issues proudly -from the Convention Hall; Convention following him, yet, as is remarked, -with an interval. Amphitheatre has been raised, or at least Monticule or -Elevation; hideous Statues of Atheism, Anarchy and such like, thanks to -Heaven and Painter David, strike abhorrence into the heart. Unluckily -however, our Monticule is too small. On the top of it not half of us can -stand; wherefore there arises indecent shoving, nay treasonous irreverent -growling. Peace, thou Bourdon de l'Oise; peace, or it may be worse for -thee! - -The seagreen Pontiff takes a torch, Painter David handing it; mouths some -other froth-rant of vocables, which happily one cannot hear; strides -resolutely forward, in sight of expectant France; sets his torch to Atheism -and Company, which are but made of pasteboard steeped in turpentine. They -burn up rapidly; and, from within, there rises 'by machinery' an -incombustible Statue of Wisdom, which, by ill hap, gets besmoked a little; -but does stand there visible in as serene attitude as it can. - -And then? Why, then, there is other Processioning, scraggy Discoursing, -and--this is our Feast of the Etre Supreme; our new Religion, better or -worse, is come!--Look at it one moment, O Reader, not two. The Shabbiest -page of Human Annals: or is there, that thou wottest of, one shabbier? -Mumbo-Jumbo of the African woods to me seems venerable beside this new -Deity of Robespierre; for this is a conscious Mumbo-Jumbo, and knows that -he is machinery. O seagreen Prophet, unhappiest of windbags blown nigh to -bursting, what distracted Chimera among realities are thou growing to! -This then, this common pitch-link for artificial fireworks of turpentine -and pasteboard; this is the miraculous Aaron's Rod thou wilt stretch over a -hag-ridden hell-ridden France, and bid her plagues cease? Vanish, thou and -it!--"Avec ton Etre Supreme," said Billaud, tu commences m'embeter: With -thy Etre Supreme thou beginnest to be a bore to me." (See Vilate, Causes -Secretes. (Vilate's Narrative is very curious; but is not to be taken as -true, without sifting; being, at bottom, in spite of its title, not a -Narrative but a Pleading).) - -Catherine Theot, on the other hand, 'an ancient serving-maid seventy-nine -years of age,' inured to Prophecy and the Bastille from of old, sits, in an -upper room in the Rue-de-Contrescarpe, poring over the Book of Revelations, -with an eye to Robespierre; finds that this astonishing thrice-potent -Maximilien really is the Man spoken of by Prophets, who is to make the -Earth young again. With her sit devout old Marchionesses, ci-devant -honourable women; among whom Old-Constituent Dom Gerle, with his addle -head, cannot be wanting. They sit there, in the Rue-de-Contrescarpe; in -mysterious adoration: Mumbo is Mumbo, and Robespierre is his Prophet. A -conspicuous man this Robespierre. He has his volunteer Bodyguard of Tappe- -durs, let us say Strike-sharps, fierce Patriots with feruled sticks; and -Jacobins kissing the hem of his garment. He enjoys the admiration of many, -the worship of some; and is well worth the wonder of one and all. - -The grand question and hope, however, is: Will not this Feast of the -Tuileries Mumbo-Jumbo be a sign perhaps that the Guillotine is to abate? -Far enough from that! Precisely on the second day after it, Couthon, one -of the 'three shallow scoundrels,' gets himself lifted into the Tribune; -produces a bundle of papers. Couthon proposes that, as Plots still abound, -the Law of the Suspect shall have extension, and Arrestment new vigour and -facility. Further that, as in such case business is like to be heavy, our -Revolutionary Tribunal too shall have extension; be divided, say, into Four -Tribunals, each with its President, each with its Fouquier or Substitute of -Fouquier, all labouring at once, and any remnant of shackle or dilatory -formality be struck off: in this way it may perhaps still overtake the -work. Such is Couthon's Decree of the Twenty-second Prairial, famed in -those times. At hearing of which Decree the very Mountain gasped, -awestruck; and one Ruamps ventured to say that if it passed without -adjournment and discussion, he, as one Representative, "would blow his -brains out." Vain saying! The Incorruptible knit his brows; spoke a -prophetic fateful word or two: the Law of Prairial is Law; Ruamps glad to -leave his rash brains where they are. Death, then, and always Death! Even -so. Fouquier is enlarging his borders; making room for Batches of a -Hundred and fifty at once;--getting a Guillotine set up, of improved -velocity, and to work under cover, in the apartment close by. So that -Salut itself has to intervene, and forbid him: "Wilt thou demoralise the -Guillotine," asks Collot, reproachfully, "demoraliser le supplice!" - -There is indeed danger of that; were not the Republican faith great, it -were already done. See, for example, on the 17th of June, what a Batch, -Fifty-four at once! Swart Amiral is here, he of the pistol that missed -fire; young Cecile Renault, with her father, family, entire kith and kin; -the widow of d'Espremenil; old M. de Sombreuil of the Invalides, with his -Son,--poor old Sombreuil, seventy-three years old, his Daughter saved him -in September, and it was but for this. Faction of the Stranger, fifty-four -of them! In red shirts and smocks, as Assassins and Faction of the -Stranger, they flit along there; red baleful Phantasmagory, towards the -land of Phantoms. - -Meanwhile will not the people of the Place de la Revolution, the -inhabitants along the Rue Saint-Honore, as these continual Tumbrils pass, -begin to look gloomy? Republicans too have bowels. The Guillotine is -shifted, then again shifted; finally set up at the remote extremity of the -South-East: (Montgaillard, iv. 237.) Suburbs Saint-Antoine and Saint- -Marceau it is to be hoped, if they have bowels, have very tough ones. - - - - -Chapter 3.6.V. - -The Prisons. - -It is time now, however, to cast a glance into the Prisons. When -Desmoulins moved for his Committee of Mercy, these Twelve Houses of Arrest -held five thousand persons. Continually arriving since then, there have -now accumulated twelve thousand. They are Ci-devants, Royalists; in far -greater part, they are Republicans, of various Girondin, Fayettish, Un- -Jacobin colour. Perhaps no human Habitation or Prison ever equalled in -squalor, in noisome horror, these Twelve Houses of Arrest. There exist -records of personal experience in them Memoires sur les Prisons; one of the -strangest Chapters in the Biography of Man. - -Very singular to look into it: how a kind of order rises up in all -conditions of human existence; and wherever two or three are gathered -together, there are formed modes of existing together, habitudes, -observances, nay gracefulnesses, joys! Citoyen Coitant will explain fully -how our lean dinner, of herbs and carrion, was consumed not without -politeness and place-aux-dames: how Seigneur and Shoeblack, Duchess and -Doll-Tearsheet, flung pellmell into a heap, ranked themselves according to -method: at what hour 'the Citoyennes took to their needlework;' and we, -yielding the chairs to them, endeavoured to talk gallantly in a standing -posture, or even to sing and harp more or less. Jealousies, enmities are -not wanting; nor flirtations, of an effective character. - -Alas, by degrees, even needlework must cease: Plot in the Prison rises, by -Citoyen Laflotte and Preternatural Suspicion. Suspicious Municipality -snatches from us all implements; all money and possession, of means or -metal, is ruthlessly searched for, in pocket, in pillow and paillasse, and -snatched away; red-capped Commissaries entering every cell! Indignation, -temporary desperation, at robbery of its very thimble, fills the gentle -heart. Old Nuns shriek shrill discord; demand to be killed forthwith. No -help from shrieking! Better was that of the two shifty male Citizens, who, -eager to preserve an implement or two, were it but a pipe-picker, or needle -to darn hose with, determined to defend themselves: by tobacco. Swift -then, as your fell Red Caps are heard in the Corridor rummaging and -slamming, the two Citoyens light their pipes and begin smoking. Thick -darkness envelops them. The Red Nightcaps, opening the cell, breathe but -one mouthful; burst forth into chorus of barking and coughing. "Quoi, -Messieurs," cry the two Citoyens, "You don't smoke? Is the pipe -disagreeable! Est-ce que vous ne fumez pas?" But the Red Nightcaps have -fled, with slight search: "Vous n'aimez pas la pipe?" cry the Citoyens, as -their door slams-to again. (Maison d'Arret de Port-Libre, par Coittant, -&c. (Memoires sur les Prisons, ii.) My poor brother Citoyens, O surely, in -a reign of Brotherhood, you are not the two I would guillotine! - -Rigour grows, stiffens into horrid tyranny; Plot in the Prison getting ever -riper. This Plot in the Prison, as we said, is now the stereotype formula -of Tinville: against whomsoever he knows no crime, this is a ready-made -crime. His Judgment-bar has become unspeakable; a recognised mockery; -known only as the wicket one passes through, towards Death. His -Indictments are drawn out in blank; you insert the Names after. He has his -moutons, detestable traitor jackalls, who report and bear witness; that -they themselves may be allowed to live,--for a time. His Fournees, says -the reproachful Collot, 'shall in no case exceed three-score;' that is his -maximum. Nightly come his Tumbrils to the Luxembourg, with the fatal Roll- -call; list of the Fournee of to-morrow. Men rush towards the Grate; -listen, if their name be in it? One deep-drawn breath, when the name is -not in: we live still one day! And yet some score or scores of names were -in. Quick these; they clasp their loved ones to their heart, one last -time; with brief adieu, wet-eyed or dry-eyed, they mount, and are away. -This night to the Conciergerie; through the Palais misnamed of Justice, to -the Guillotine to-morrow. - -Recklessness, defiant levity, the Stoicism if not of strength yet of -weakness, has possessed all hearts. Weak women and Ci-devants, their locks -not yet made into blond perukes, their skins not yet tanned into breeches, -are accustomed to 'act the Guillotine' by way of pastime. In fantastic -mummery, with towel-turbans, blanket-ermine, a mock Sanhedrim of Judges -sits, a mock Tinville pleads; a culprit is doomed, is guillotined by the -oversetting of two chairs. Sometimes we carry it farther: Tinville -himself, in his turn, is doomed, and not to the Guillotine alone. With -blackened face, hirsute, horned, a shaggy Satan snatches him not -unshrieking; shews him, with outstretched arm and voice, the fire that is -not quenched, the worm that dies not; the monotony of Hell-pain, and the -What hour? answered by, It is Eternity! (Montgaillard, iv. 218; Riouffe, -p. 273.) - -And still the Prisons fill fuller, and still the Guillotine goes faster. -On all high roads march flights of Prisoners, wending towards Paris. Not -Ci-devants now; they, the noisy of them, are mown down; it is Republicans -now. Chained two and two they march; in exasperated moments, singing their -Marseillaise. A hundred and thirty-two men of Nantes for instance, march -towards Paris, in these same days: Republicans, or say even Jacobins to -the marrow of the bone; but Jacobins who had not approved Noyading. -(Voyage de Cent Trente-deux Nantais (Prisons, ii. 288-335.) Vive la -Republique rises from them in all streets of towns: they rest by night, in -unutterable noisome dens, crowded to choking; one or two dead on the -morrow. They are wayworn, weary of heart; can only shout: Live the -Republic; we, as under horrid enchantment, dying in this way for it! - -Some Four Hundred Priests, of whom also there is record, ride at anchor, -'in the roads of the Isle of Aix,' long months; looking out on misery, -vacuity, waste Sands of Oleron and the ever-moaning brine. Ragged, sordid, -hungry; wasted to shadows: eating their unclean ration on deck, -circularly, in parties of a dozen, with finger and thumb; beating their -scandalous clothes between two stones; choked in horrible miasmata, closed -under hatches, seventy of them in a berth, through night; so that the 'aged -Priest is found lying dead in the morning, in the attitude of prayer!' -(Relation de ce qu'ont souffert pour la Religion les Pretres deportes en -1794, dans la rade de l'ile d'Aix (Prisons, ii. 387-485.)--How long, O -Lord! - -Not forever; no. All Anarchy, all Evil, Injustice, is, by the nature of -it, dragon's-teeth; suicidal, and cannot endure. - - - -Chapter 3.6.VI. - -To finish the Terror. - -It is very remarkable, indeed, that since the Etre-Supreme Feast, and the -sublime continued harangues on it, which Billaud feared would become a bore -to him, Robespierre has gone little to Committee; but held himself apart, -as if in a kind of pet. Nay they have made a Report on that old Catherine -Theot, and her Regenerative Man spoken of by the Prophets; not in the best -spirit. This Theot mystery they affect to regard as a Plot; but have -evidently introduced a vein of satire, of irreverent banter, not against -the Spinster alone, but obliquely against her Regenerative Man! Barrere's -light pen was perhaps at the bottom of it: read through the solemn -snuffling organs of old Vadier of the Surete Generale, the Theot Report had -its effect; wrinkling the general Republican visage into an iron grin. -Ought these things to be? - -We note further that among the Prisoners in the Twelve Houses of Arrest, -there is one whom we have seen before. Senhora Fontenai, born Cabarus, the -fair Proserpine whom Representative Tallien Pluto-like did gather at -Bourdeaux, not without effect on himself! Tallien is home, by recall, long -since, from Bourdeaux; and in the most alarming position. Vain that he -sounded, louder even than ever, the note of Jacobinism, to hide past -shortcomings: the Jacobins purged him out; two times has Robespierre -growled at him words of omen from the Convention Tribune. And now his fair -Cabarus, hit by denunciation, lies Arrested, Suspect, in spite of all he -could do!--Shut in horrid pinfold of death, the Senhora smuggles out to her -red-gloomy Tallien the most pressing entreaties and conjurings: Save me; -save thyself. Seest thou not that thy own head is doomed; thou with a too -fiery audacity; a Dantonist withal; against whom lie grudges? Are ye not -all doomed, as in the Polyphemus Cavern; the fawningest slave of you will -be but eaten last!--Tallien feels with a shudder that it is true. Tallien -has had words of omen, Bourdon has had words, Freron is hated and Barras: -each man 'feels his head if it yet stick on his shoulders.' - -Meanwhile Robespierre, we still observe, goes little to Convention, not at -all to Committee; speaks nothing except to his Jacobin House of Lords, amid -his bodyguard of Tappe-durs. These 'forty-days,' for we are now far in -July, he has not shewed face in Committee; could only work there by his -three shallow scoundrels, and the terror there was of him. The -Incorruptible himself sits apart; or is seen stalking in solitary places in -the fields, with an intensely meditative air; some say, 'with eyes red- -spotted,' (Deux Amis, xii. 347-73.) fruit of extreme bile: the -lamentablest seagreen Chimera that walks the Earth that July! O hapless -Chimera; for thou too hadst a life, and a heart of flesh,--what is this the -stern gods, seeming to smile all the way, have led and let thee to! Art -not thou he who, few years ago, was a young Advocate of promise; and gave -up the Arras Judgeship rather than sentence one man to die?-- - -What his thoughts might be? His plans for finishing the Terror? One knows -not. Dim vestiges there flit of Agrarian Law; a victorious Sansculottism -become Landed Proprietor; old Soldiers sitting in National Mansions, in -Hospital Palaces of Chambord and Chantilly; peace bought by victory; -breaches healed by Feast of Etre Supreme;--and so, through seas of blood, -to Equality, Frugality, worksome Blessedness, Fraternity, and Republic of -the virtues! Blessed shore, of such a sea of Aristocrat blood: but how to -land on it? Through one last wave: blood of corrupt Sansculottists; -traitorous or semi-traitorous Conventionals, rebellious Talliens, Billauds, -to whom with my Etre Supreme I have become a bore; with my Apocalyptic Old -Woman a laughing-stock!--So stalks he, this poor Robespierre, like a -seagreen ghost through the blooming July. Vestiges of schemes flit dim. -But what his schemes or his thoughts were will never be known to man. - -New Catacombs, some say, are digging for a huge simultaneous butchery. -Convention to be butchered, down to the right pitch, by General Henriot and -Company: Jacobin House of Lords made dominant; and Robespierre Dictator. -(Deux Amis, xii. 350-8.) There is actually, or else there is not actually, -a List made out; which the Hairdresser has got eye on, as he frizzled the -Incorruptible locks. Each man asks himself, Is it I? - -Nay, as Tradition and rumour of Anecdote still convey it, there was a -remarkable bachelor's dinner one hot day at Barrere's. For doubt not, O -Reader, this Barrere and others of them gave dinners; had 'country-house at -Clichy,' with elegant enough sumptuosities, and pleasures high-rouged! -(See Vilate.) But at this dinner we speak of, the day being so hot, it is -said, the guests all stript their coats, and left them in the drawing-room: -whereupon Carnot glided out; groped in Robespierre's pocket; found a list -of Forty, his own name among them; and tarried not at the wine-cup that -day!--Ye must bestir yourselves, O Friends; ye dull Frogs of the Marsh, -mute ever since Girondism sank under, even ye now must croak or die! -Councils are held, with word and beck; nocturnal, mysterious as death. -Does not a feline Maximilien stalk there; voiceless as yet; his green eyes -red-spotted; back bent, and hair up? Rash Tallien, with his rash temper -and audacity of tongue; he shall bell the cat. Fix a day; and be it soon, -lest never! - -Lo, before the fixed day, on the day which they call Eighth of Thermidor, -26th July 1794, Robespierre himself reappears in Convention; mounts to the -Tribune! The biliary face seems clouded with new gloom; judge whether your -Talliens, Bourdons listened with interest. It is a voice bodeful of death -or of life. Long-winded, unmelodious as the screech-owl's, sounds that -prophetic voice: Degenerate condition of Republican spirit; corrupt -moderatism; Surete, Salut Committees themselves infected; back-sliding on -this hand and on that; I, Maximilien, alone left incorruptible, ready to -die at a moment's warning. For all which what remedy is there? The -Guillotine; new vigour to the all-healing Guillotine: death to traitors of -every hue! So sings the prophetic voice; into its Convention sounding- -board. The old song this: but to-day, O Heavens! has the sounding-board -ceased to act? There is not resonance in this Convention; there is, so to -speak, a gasp of silence; nay a certain grating of one knows not what!-- -Lecointre, our old Draper of Versailles, in these questionable -circumstances, sees nothing he can do so safe as rise, 'insidiously' or not -insidiously, and move, according to established wont, that the Robespierre -Speech be 'printed and sent to the Departments.' Hark: gratings, even of -dissonance! Honourable Members hint dissonance; Committee-Members, -inculpated in the Speech, utter dissonance; demand 'delay in printing.' -Ever higher rises the note of dissonance; inquiry is even made by Editor -Freron: "What has become of the Liberty of Opinions in this Convention?" -The Order to print and transmit, which had got passed, is rescinded. -Robespierre, greener than ever before, has to retire, foiled; discerning -that it is mutiny, that evil is nigh. - -Mutiny is a thing of the fatallest nature in all enterprises whatsoever; a -thing so incalculable, swift-frightful; not to be dealt with in fright. -But mutiny in a Robespierre Convention, above all,--it is like fire seen -sputtering in the ship's powder-room! One death-defiant plunge at it, this -moment, and you may still tread it out: hesitate till next moment,--ship -and ship's captain, crew and cargo are shivered far; the ship's voyage has -suddenly ended between sea and sky. If Robespierre can, to-night, produce -his Henriot and Company, and get his work done by them, he and -Sansculottism may still subsist some time; if not, probably not. Oliver -Cromwell, when that Agitator Serjeant stept forth from the ranks, with plea -of grievances, and began gesticulating and demonstrating, as the mouthpiece -of Thousands expectant there,--discerned, with those truculent eyes of his, -how the matter lay; plucked a pistol from his holsters; blew Agitator and -Agitation instantly out. Noll was a man fit for such things. - -Robespierre, for his part, glides over at evening to his Jacobin House of -Lords; unfolds there, instead of some adequate resolution, his woes, his -uncommon virtues, incorruptibilities; then, secondly, his rejected screech- -owl Oration;--reads this latter over again; and declares that he is ready -to die at a moment's warning. Thou shalt not die! shouts Jacobinism from -its thousand throats. "Robespierre, I will drink the hemlock with thee," -cries Painter David, "Je boirai la cigue avec toi;"--a thing not essential -to do, but which, in the fire of the moment, can be said. - -Our Jacobin sounding-board, therefore, does act! Applauses heaven-high -cover the rejected Oration; fire-eyed fury lights all Jacobin features: -Insurrection a sacred duty; the Convention to be purged; Sovereign People -under Henriot and Municipality; we will make a new June-Second of it: to -your tents, O Israel! In this key pipes Jacobinism; in sheer tumult of -revolt. Let Tallien and all Opposition men make off. Collot d'Herbois, -though of the supreme Salut, and so lately near shot, is elbowed, bullied; -is glad to escape alive. Entering Committee-room of Salut, all -dishevelled, he finds sleek sombre Saint-Just there, among the rest; who in -his sleek way asks, "What is passing at the Jacobins?"--"What is passing?" -repeats Collot, in the unhistrionic Cambyses' vein: "What is passing? -Nothing but revolt and horrors are passing. Ye want our lives; ye shall -not have them." Saint-Just stutters at such Cambyses'-oratory; takes his -hat to withdraw. That report he had been speaking of, Report on Republican -Things in General we may say, which is to be read in Convention on the -morrow, he cannot shew it them this moment: a friend has it; he, Saint- -Just, will get it, and send it, were he once home. Once home, he sends not -it, but an answer that he will not send it; that they will hear it from the -Tribune to-morrow. - -Let every man, therefore, according to a well-known good-advice, 'pray to -Heaven, and keep his powder dry!' Paris, on the morrow, will see a thing. -Swift scouts fly dim or invisible, all night, from Surete and Salut; from -conclave to conclave; from Mother Society to Townhall. Sleep, can it fall -on the eyes of Talliens, Frerons, Collots? Puissant Henriot, Mayor -Fleuriot, Judge Coffinhal, Procureur Payan, Robespierre and all the -Jacobins are getting ready. - - - -Chapter 3.6.VII. - -Go down to. - -Tallien's eyes beamed bright, on the morrow, Ninth of Thermidor 'about nine -o'clock,' to see that the Convention had actually met. Paris is in rumour: -but at least we are met, in Legal Convention here; we have not been -snatched seriatim; treated with a Pride's Purge at the door. "Allons, -brave men of the Plain," late Frogs of the Marsh! cried Tallien with a -squeeze of the hand, as he passed in; Saint-Just's sonorous organ being now -audible from the Tribune, and the game of games begun. - -Saint-Just is verily reading that Report of his; green Vengeance, in the -shape of Robespierre, watching nigh. Behold, however, Saint-Just has read -but few sentences, when interruption rises, rapid crescendo; when Tallien -starts to his feet, and Billaud, and this man starts and that,--and -Tallien, a second time, with his: "Citoyens, at the Jacobins last night, I -trembled for the Republic. I said to myself, if the Convention dare not -strike the Tyrant, then I myself dare; and with this I will do it, if need -be," said he, whisking out a clear-gleaming Dagger, and brandishing it -there: the Steel of Brutus, as we call it. Whereat we all bellow, and -brandish, impetuous acclaim. "Tyranny; Dictatorship! Triumvirat!" And the -Salut Committee-men accuse, and all men accuse, and uproar, and impetuously -acclaim. And Saint-Just is standing motionless, pale of face; Couthon -ejaculating, "Triumvir?" with a look at his paralytic legs. And -Robespierre is struggling to speak, but President Thuriot is jingling the -bell against him, but the Hall is sounding against him like an Aeolus-Hall: -and Robespierre is mounting the Tribune-steps and descending again; going -and coming, like to choke with rage, terror, desperation:--and mutiny is -the order of the day! (Moniteur, Nos. 311, 312; Debats, iv. 421-42; Deux -Amis, xii. 390-411.) - -O President Thuriot, thou that wert Elector Thuriot, and from the Bastille -battlements sawest Saint-Antoine rising like the Ocean-tide, and hast seen -much since, sawest thou ever the like of this? Jingle of bell, which thou -jinglest against Robespierre, is hardly audible amid the Bedlam-storm; and -men rage for life. "President of Assassins," shrieks Robespierre, "I -demand speech of thee for the last time!" It cannot be had. "To you, O -virtuous men of the Plain," cries he, finding audience one moment, "I -appeal to you!" The virtuous men of the Plain sit silent as stones. And -Thuriot's bell jingles, and the Hall sounds like Aeolus's Hall. -Robespierre's frothing lips are grown 'blue;' his tongue dry, cleaving to -the roof of his mouth. "The blood of Danton chokes him," cry they. -"Accusation! Decree of Accusation!" Thuriot swiftly puts that question. -Accusation passes; the incorruptible Maximilien is decreed Accused. - -"I demand to share my Brother's fate, as I have striven to share his -virtues," cries Augustin, the Younger Robespierre: Augustin also is -decreed. And Couthon, and Saint-Just, and Lebas, they are all decreed; and -packed forth,--not without difficulty, the Ushers almost trembling to obey. -Triumvirat and Company are packed forth, into Salut Committee-room; their -tongue cleaving to the roof of their mouth. You have but to summon the -Municipality; to cashier Commandant Henriot, and launch Arrest at him; to -regular formalities; hand Tinville his victims. It is noon: the Aeolus- -Hall has delivered itself; blows now victorious, harmonious, as one -irresistible wind. - -And so the work is finished? One thinks so; and yet it is not so. Alas, -there is yet but the first-act finished; three or four other acts still to -come; and an uncertain catastrophe! A huge City holds in it so many -confusions: seven hundred thousand human heads; not one of which knows -what its neighbour is doing, nay not what itself is doing.--See, -accordingly, about three in the afternoon, Commandant Henriot, how instead -of sitting cashiered, arrested, he gallops along the Quais, followed by -Municipal Gendarmes, 'trampling down several persons!' For the Townhall -sits deliberating, openly insurgent: Barriers to be shut; no Gaoler to -admit any Prisoner this day;--and Henriot is galloping towards the -Tuileries, to deliver Robespierre. On the Quai de la Ferraillerie, a young -Citoyen, walking with his wife, says aloud: "Gendarmes, that man is not -your Commandant; he is under arrest." The Gendarmes strike down the young -Citoyen with the flat of their swords. (Precis des evenemens du Neuf -Thermidor, par C.A. Meda, ancien Gendarme (Paris, 1825).) - -Representatives themselves (as Merlin the Thionviller) who accost him, this -puissant Henriot flings into guardhouses. He bursts towards the Tuileries -Committee-room, "to speak with Robespierre:" with difficulty, the Ushers -and Tuileries Gendarmes, earnestly pleading and drawing sabre, seize this -Henriot; get the Henriot Gendarmes persuaded not to fight; get Robespierre -and Company packed into hackney-coaches, sent off under escort, to the -Luxembourg and other Prisons. This then is the end? May not an exhausted -Convention adjourn now, for a little repose and sustenance, 'at five -o'clock?' - -An exhausted Convention did it; and repented it. The end was not come; -only the end of the second-act. Hark, while exhausted Representatives sit -at victuals,--tocsin bursting from all steeples, drums rolling, in the -summer evening: Judge Coffinhal is galloping with new Gendarmes to deliver -Henriot from Tuileries Committee-room; and does deliver him! Puissant -Henriot vaults on horseback; sets to haranguing the Tuileries Gendarmes; -corrupts the Tuileries Gendarmes too; trots off with them to Townhall. -Alas, and Robespierre is not in Prison: the Gaoler shewed his Municipal -order, durst not on pain of his life, admit any Prisoner; the Robespierre -Hackney-coaches, in confused jangle and whirl of uncertain Gendarmes, have -floated safe--into the Townhall! There sit Robespierre and Company, -embraced by Municipals and Jacobins, in sacred right of Insurrection; -redacting Proclamations; sounding tocsins; corresponding with Sections and -Mother Society. Is not here a pretty enough third-act of a natural Greek -Drama; catastrophe more uncertain than ever? - -The hasty Convention rushes together again, in the ominous nightfall: -President Collot, for the chair is his, enters with long strides, paleness -on his face; claps on his hat; says with solemn tone: "Citoyens, armed -Villains have beset the Committee-rooms, and got possession of them. The -hour is come, to die at our post!" "Oui," answer one and all: "We swear -it!" It is no rhodomontade, this time, but a sad fact and necessity; -unless we do at our posts, we must verily die! Swift therefore, -Robespierre, Henriot, the Municipality, are declared Rebels; put Hors la -Loi, Out of Law. Better still, we appoint Barras Commandant of what Armed- -Force is to be had; send Missionary Representatives to all Sections and -quarters, to preach, and raise force; will die at least with harness on our -back. - -What a distracted City; men riding and running, reporting and hearsaying; -the Hour clearly in travail,--child not to be named till born! The poor -Prisoners in the Luxembourg hear the rumour; tremble for a new September. -They see men making signals to them, on skylights and roofs, apparently -signals of hope; cannot in the least make out what it is. (Memoires sur -les Prisons, ii. 277.) We observe however, in the eventide, as usual, the -Death-tumbrils faring South-eastward, through Saint-Antoine, towards their -Barrier du Trone. Saint-Antoine's tough bowels melt; Saint-Antoine -surrounds the Tumbrils; says, It shall not be. O Heavens, why should it! -Henriot and Gendarmes, scouring the streets that way, bellow, with waved -sabres, that it must. Quit hope, ye poor Doomed! The Tumbrils move on. - -But in this set of Tumbrils there are two other things notable: one -notable person; and one want of a notable person. The notable person is -Lieutenant-General Loiserolles, a nobleman by birth, and by nature; laying -down his life here for his son. In the Prison of Saint-Lazare, the night -before last, hurrying to the Grate to hear the Death-list read, he caught -the name of his son. The son was asleep at the moment. "I am -Loiserolles," cried the old man: at Tinville's bar, an error in the -Christian name is little; small objection was made. The want of the -notable person, again, is that of Deputy Paine! Paine has sat in the -Luxembourg since January; and seemed forgotten; but Fouquier had pricked -him at last. The Turnkey, List in hand, is marking with chalk the outer -doors of to-morrow's Fournee. Paine's outer door happened to be open, -turned back on the wall; the Turnkey marked it on the side next him, and -hurried on: another Turnkey came, and shut it; no chalk-mark now visible, -the Fournee went without Paine. Paine's life lay not there.-- - -Our fifth-act, of this natural Greek Drama, with its natural unities, can -only be painted in gross; somewhat as that antique Painter, driven -desperate, did the foam! For through this blessed July night, there is -clangour, confusion very great, of marching troops; of Sections going this -way, Sections going that; of Missionary Representatives reading -Proclamations by torchlight; Missionary Legendre, who has raised force -somewhere, emptying out the Jacobins, and flinging their key on the -Convention table: "I have locked their door; it shall be Virtue that re- -opens it." Paris, we say, is set against itself, rushing confused, as -Ocean-currents do; a huge Mahlstrom, sounding there, under cloud of night. -Convention sits permanent on this hand; Municipality most permanent on -that. The poor Prisoners hear tocsin and rumour; strive to bethink them of -the signals apparently of hope. Meek continual Twilight streaming up, -which will be Dawn and a To-morrow, silvers the Northern hem of Night; it -wends and wends there, that meek brightness, like a silent prophecy, along -the great Ring-Dial of the Heaven. So still, eternal! And on Earth all is -confused shadow and conflict; dissidence, tumultuous gloom and glare; and -Destiny as yet shakes her doubtful urn. - -About three in the morning, the dissident Armed-Forces have met. Henriot's -Armed Force stood ranked in the Place de Greve; and now Barras's, which he -has recruited, arrives there; and they front each other, cannon bristling -against cannon. Citoyens! cries the voice of Discretion, loudly enough, -Before coming to bloodshed, to endless civil-war, hear the Convention -Decree read: 'Robespierre and all rebels Out of Law!'--Out of Law? There -is terror in the sound: unarmed Citoyens disperse rapidly home; Municipal -Cannoneers range themselves on the Convention side, with shouting. At -which shout, Henriot descends from his upper room, far gone in drink as -some say; finds his Place de Greve empty; the cannons' mouth turned towards -him; and, on the whole,--that it is now the catastrophe! - -Stumbling in again, the wretched drunk-sobered Henriot announces: "All is -lost!" "Miserable! it is thou that hast lost it," cry they: and fling -him, or else he flings himself, out of window: far enough down; into -masonwork and horror of cesspool; not into death but worse. Augustin -Robespierre follows him; with the like fate. Saint-Just called on Lebas to -kill him: who would not. Couthon crept under a table; attempting to kill -himself; not doing it.--On entering that Sanhedrim of Insurrection, we find -all as good as extinct; undone, ready for seizure. Robespierre was sitting -on a chair, with pistol shot blown through, not his head, but his under -jaw; the suicidal hand had failed. (Meda. p. 384. (Meda asserts that it -was he who, with infinite courage, though in a lefthanded manner, shot -Robespierre. Meda got promoted for his services of this night; and died -General and Baron. Few credited Meda in what was otherwise incredible.).) -With prompt zeal, not without trouble, we gather these wretched -Conspirators; fish up even Henriot and Augustin, bleeding and foul; pack -them all, rudely enough, into carts; and shall, before sunrise, have them -safe under lock and key. Amid shoutings and embracings. - -Robespierre lay in an anteroom of the Convention Hall, while his Prison- -escort was getting ready; the mangled jaw bound up rudely with bloody -linen: a spectacle to men. He lies stretched on a table, a deal-box his -pillow; the sheath of the pistol is still clenched convulsively in his -hand. Men bully him, insult him: his eyes still indicate intelligence; he -speaks no word. 'He had on the sky-blue coat he had got made for the Feast -of the Etre Supreme'--O reader, can thy hard heart hold out against that? -His trousers were nankeen; the stockings had fallen down over the ankles. -He spake no word more in this world. - -And so, at six in the morning, a victorious Convention adjourns. Report -flies over Paris as on golden wings; penetrates the Prisons; irradiates the -faces of those that were ready to perish: turnkeys and moutons, fallen -from their high estate, look mute and blue. It is the 28th day of July, -called 10th of Thermidor, year 1794. - -Fouquier had but to identify; his Prisoners being already Out of Law. At -four in the afternoon, never before were the streets of Paris seen so -crowded. From the Palais de Justice to the Place de la Revolution, for -thither again go the Tumbrils this time, it is one dense stirring mass; all -windows crammed; the very roofs and ridge-tiles budding forth human -Curiosity, in strange gladness. The Death-tumbrils, with their motley -Batch of Outlaws, some Twenty-three or so, from Maximilien to Mayor -Fleuriot and Simon the Cordwainer, roll on. All eyes are on Robespierre's -Tumbril, where he, his jaw bound in dirty linen, with his half-dead -Brother, and half-dead Henriot, lie shattered; their 'seventeen hours' of -agony about to end. The Gendarmes point their swords at him, to shew the -people which is he. A woman springs on the Tumbril; clutching the side of -it with one hand; waving the other Sibyl-like; and exclaims: "The death of -thee gladdens my very heart, m'enivre de joie;" Robespierre opened his -eyes; "Scelerat, go down to Hell, with the curses of all wives and -mothers!"--At the foot of the scaffold, they stretched him on the ground -till his turn came. Lifted aloft, his eyes again opened; caught the bloody -axe. Samson wrenched the coat off him; wrenched the dirty linen from his -jaw: the jaw fell powerless, there burst from him a cry;--hideous to hear -and see. Samson, thou canst not be too quick! - -Samson's work done, there burst forth shout on shout of applause. Shout, -which prolongs itself not only over Paris, but over France, but over -Europe, and down to this Generation. Deservedly, and also undeservedly. O -unhappiest Advocate of Arras, wert thou worse than other Advocates? -Stricter man, according to his Formula, to his Credo and his Cant, of -probities, benevolences, pleasures-of-virtue, and such like, lived not in -that age. A man fitted, in some luckier settled age, to have become one of -those incorruptible barren Pattern-Figures, and have had marble-tablets and -funeral-sermons! His poor landlord, the Cabinetmaker in the Rue Saint- -Honore, loved him; his Brother died for him. May God be merciful to him, -and to us. - -This is end of the Reign of Terror; new glorious Revolution named of -Thermidor; of Thermidor 9th, year 2; which being interpreted into old -slave-style means 27th of July, 1794. Terror is ended; and death in the -Place de la Revolution, were the 'Tail of Robespierre' once executed; which -service Fouquier in large Batches is swiftly managing. - - - - -BOOK 3.VII. - -VENDEMIAIRE - - -Chapter 3.7.I. - -Decadent. - -How little did any one suppose that here was the end not of Robespierre -only, but of the Revolution System itself! Least of all did the mutinying -Committee-men suppose it; who had mutinied with no view whatever except to -continue the National Regeneration with their own heads on their shoulders. -And yet so it verily was. The insignificant stone they had struck out, so -insignificant anywhere else, proved to be the Keystone: the whole arch- -work and edifice of Sansculottism began to loosen, to crack, to yawn; and -tumbled, piecemeal, with considerable rapidity, plunge after plunge; till -the Abyss had swallowed it all, and in this upper world Sansculottism was -no more. - -For despicable as Robespierre himself might be, the death of Robespierre -was a signal at which great multitudes of men, struck dumb with terror -heretofore, rose out of their hiding places: and, as it were, saw one -another, how multitudinous they were; and began speaking and complaining. -They are countable by the thousand and the million; who have suffered cruel -wrong. Ever louder rises the plaint of such a multitude; into a universal -sound, into a universal continuous peal, of what they call Public Opinion. -Camille had demanded a 'Committee of Mercy,' and could not get it; but now -the whole nation resolves itself into a Committee of Mercy: the Nation has -tried Sansculottism, and is weary of it. Force of Public Opinion! What -King or Convention can withstand it? You in vain struggle: the thing that -is rejected as 'calumnious' to-day must pass as veracious with triumph -another day: gods and men have declared that Sansculottism cannot be. -Sansculottism, on that Ninth night of Thermidor suicidally 'fractured its -under jaw;' and lies writhing, never to rise more. - -Through the next fifteenth months, it is what we may call the death-agony -of Sansculottism. Sansculottism, Anarchy of the Jean-Jacques Evangel, -having now got deep enough, is to perish in a new singular system of -Culottism and Arrangement. For Arrangement is indispensable to man; -Arrangement, were it grounded only on that old primary Evangel of Force, -with Sceptre in the shape of Hammer. Be there method, be there order, cry -all men; were it that of the Drill-serjeant! More tolerable is the drilled -Bayonet-rank, than that undrilled Guillotine, incalculable as the wind.-- -How Sansculottism, writhing in death-throes, strove some twice, or even -three times, to get on its feet again; but fell always, and was flung -resupine, the next instant; and finally breathed out the life of it, and -stirred no more: this we are now, from a due distance, with due brevity, -to glance at; and then--O Reader!--Courage, I see land! - -Two of the first acts of the Convention, very natural for it after this -Thermidor, are to be specified here: the first is renewal of the Governing -Committees. Both Surete Generale and Salut Public, thinned by the -Guillotine, need filling up: we naturally fill them up with Talliens, -Frerons, victorious Thermidorian men. Still more to the purpose, we -appoint that they shall, as Law directs, not in name only but in deed, be -renewed and changed from period to period; a fourth part of them going out -monthly. The Convention will no more lie under bondage of Committees, -under terror of death; but be a free Convention; free to follow its own -judgment, and the Force of Public Opinion. Not less natural is it to enact -that Prisoners and Persons under Accusation shall have right to demand some -'Writ of Accusation,' and see clearly what they are accused of. Very -natural acts: the harbingers of hundreds not less so. - -For now Fouquier's trade, shackled by Writ of Accusation, and legal proof, -is as good as gone; effectual only against Robespierre's Tail. The Prisons -give up their Suspects; emit them faster and faster. The Committees see -themselves besieged with Prisoners' friends; complain that they are -hindered in their work: it is as with men rushing out of a crowded place; -and obstructing one another. Turned are the tables: Prisoners pouring out -in floods; Jailors, Moutons and the Tail of Robespierre going now whither -they were wont to send!--The Hundred and thirty-two Nantese Republicans, -whom we saw marching in irons, have arrived; shrunk to Ninety-four, the -fifth man of them choked by the road. They arrive: and suddenly find -themselves not pleaders for life, but denouncers to death. Their Trial is -for acquittal, and more. As the voice of a trumpet, their testimony sounds -far and wide, mere atrocities of a Reign of Terror. For a space of -nineteen days; with all solemnity and publicity. Representative Carrier, -Company of Marat; Noyadings, Loire Marriages, things done in darkness, come -forth into light: clear is the voice of these poor resuscitated Nantese; -and Journals and Speech and universal Committee of Mercy reverberate it -loud enough, into all ears and hearts. Deputation arrives from Arras; -denouncing the atrocities of Representative Lebon. A tamed Convention -loves its own life: yet what help? Representative Lebon, Representative -Carrier must wend towards the Revolutionary Tribunal; struggle and delay as -we will, the cry of a Nation pursues them louder and louder. Them also -Tinville must abolish;--if indeed Tinville himself be not abolished. - -We must note moreover the decrepit condition into which a once omnipotent -Mother Society has fallen. Legendre flung her keys on the Convention -table, that Thermidor night; her President was guillotined with -Robespierre. The once mighty Mother came, some time after, with a subdued -countenance, begging back her keys: the keys were restored her; but the -strength could not be restored her; the strength had departed forever. -Alas, one's day is done. Vain that the Tribune in mid air sounds as of -old: to the general ear it has become a horror, and even a weariness. By -and by, Affiliation is prohibited: the mighty Mother sees herself suddenly -childless; mourns, as so hoarse a Rachel may. - -The Revolutionary Committees, without Suspects to prey upon, perish fast; -as it were of famine. In Paris the whole Forty-eight of them are reduced -to Twelve, their Forty sous are abolished: yet a little while, and -Revolutionary Committees are no more. Maximum will be abolished; let -Sansculottism find food where it can. (24th December 1794 (Moniteur, No. -97).) Neither is there now any Municipality; any centre at the Townhall. -Mayor Fleuriot and Company perished; whom we shall not be in haste to -replace. The Townhall remains in a broken submissive state; knows not well -what it is growing to; knows only that it is grown weak, and must obey. -What if we should split Paris into, say, a Dozen separate Municipalities; -incapable of concert! The Sections were thus rendered safe to act with:-- -or indeed might not the Sections themselves be abolished? You had then -merely your Twelve manageable pacific Townships, without centre or -subdivision; (October 1795 (Dulaure, viii. 454-6).) and sacred right of -Insurrection fell into abeyance! - -So much is getting abolished; fleeting swiftly into the Inane. For the -Press speaks, and the human tongue; Journals, heavy and light, in Philippic -and Burlesque: a renegade Freron, a renegade Prudhomme, loud they as ever, -only the contrary way. And Ci-devants shew themselves, almost parade -themselves; resuscitated as from death-sleep; publish what death-pains they -have had. The very Frogs of the Marsh croak with emphasis. Your -protesting Seventy-three shall, with a struggle, be emitted out of Prison, -back to their seats; your Louvets, Isnards, Lanjuinais, and wrecks of -Girondism, recalled from their haylofts, and caves in Switzerland, will -resume their place in the Convention: (Deux Amis, xiii. 3-39.) natural -foes of Terror! - -Thermidorian Talliens, and mere foes of Terror, rule in this Convention, -and out of it. The compressed Mountain shrinks silent more and more. -Moderatism rises louder and louder: not as a tempest, with threatenings; -say rather, as the rushing of a mighty organ-blast, and melodious deafening -Force of Public Opinion, from the Twenty-five million windpipes of a Nation -all in Committee of Mercy: which how shall any detached body of -individuals withstand? - - - -Chapter 3.7.II. - -La Cabarus. - -How, above all, shall a poor National Convention, withstand it? In this -poor National Convention, broken, bewildered by long terror, perturbations, -and guillotinement, there is no Pilot, there is not now even a Danton, who -could undertake to steer you anywhither, in such press of weather. The -utmost a bewildered Convention can do, is to veer, and trim, and try to -keep itself steady: and rush, undrowned, before the wind. Needless to -struggle; to fling helm a-lee, and make 'bout ship! A bewildered -Convention sails not in the teeth of the wind; but is rapidly blown round -again. So strong is the wind, we say; and so changed; blowing fresher and -fresher, as from the sweet South-West; your devastating North-Easters, and -wild tornado-gusts of Terror, blown utterly out! All Sansculottic things -are passing away; all things are becoming Culottic. - -Do but look at the cut of clothes; that light visible Result, significant -of a thousand things which are not so visible. In winter 1793, men went in -red nightcaps; Municipals themselves in sabots: the very Citoyennes had to -petition against such headgear. But now in this winter 1794, where is the -red nightcap? With the thing beyond the Flood. Your monied Citoyen -ponders in what elegantest style he shall dress himself: whether he shall -not even dress himself as the Free Peoples of Antiquity. The more -adventurous Citoyenne has already done it. Behold her, that beautiful -adventurous Citoyenne: in costume of the Ancient Greeks, such Greek as -Painter David could teach; her sweeping tresses snooded by glittering -antique fillet; bright-eyed tunic of the Greek women; her little feet -naked, as in Antique Statues, with mere sandals, and winding-strings of -riband,--defying the frost! - -There is such an effervescence of Luxury. For your Emigrant Ci-devants -carried not their mansions and furnitures out of the country with them; but -left them standing here: and in the swift changes of property, what with -money coined on the Place de la Revolution, what with Army-furnishings, -sales of Emigrant Domain and Church Lands and King's Lands, and then with -the Aladdin's-lamp of Agio in a time of Paper-money, such mansions have -found new occupants. Old wine, drawn from Ci-devant bottles, descends new -throats. Paris has swept herself, relighted herself; Salons, Soupers not -Fraternal, beam once more with suitable effulgence, very singular in -colour. The fair Cabarus is come out of Prison; wedded to her red-gloomy -Dis, whom they say she treats too loftily: fair Cabarus gives the most -brilliant soirees. Round her is gathered a new Republican Army, of -Citoyennes in sandals; Ci-devants or other: what remnants soever of the -old grace survive, are rallied there. At her right-hand, in this cause, -labours fair Josephine the Widow Beauharnais, though in straitened -circumstances: intent, both of them, to blandish down the grimness of -Republican austerity, and recivilise mankind. - -Recivilise, as of old they were civilised: by witchery of the Orphic -fiddle-bow, and Euterpean rhythm; by the Graces, by the Smiles! -Thermidorian Deputies are there in those soirees; Editor Freron, Orateur du -Peuple; Barras, who has known other dances than the Carmagnole. Grim -Generals of the Republic are there; in enormous horse-collar neckcloth, -good against sabre-cuts; the hair gathered all into one knot, 'flowing down -behind, fixed with a comb.' Among which latter do we not recognise, once -more, the little bronzed-complexioned Artillery-Officer of Toulon, home -from the Italian Wars! Grim enough; of lean, almost cruel aspect: for he -has been in trouble, in ill health; also in ill favour, as a man promoted, -deservingly or not, by the Terrorists and Robespierre Junior. But does not -Barras know him? Will not Barras speak a word for him? Yes,--if at any -time it will serve Barras so to do. Somewhat forlorn of fortune, for the -present, stands that Artillery-Officer; looks, with those deep earnest eyes -of his, into a future as waste as the most. Taciturn; yet with the -strangest utterances in him, if you awaken him, which smite home, like -light or lightning:--on the whole, rather dangerous? A 'dissociable' man? -Dissociable enough; a natural terror and horror to all Phantasms, being -himself of the genus Reality! He stands here, without work or outlook, in -this forsaken manner;--glances nevertheless, it would seem, at the kind -glance of Josephine Beauharnais; and, for the rest, with severe -countenance, with open eyes and closed lips, waits what will betide. - -That the Balls, therefore, have a new figure this winter, we can see. Not -Carmagnoles, rude 'whirlblasts of rags,' as Mercier called them 'precursors -of storm and destruction:' no, soft Ionic motions; fit for the light -sandal, and antique Grecian tunic! Efflorescence of Luxury has come out: -for men have wealth; nay new-got wealth; and under the Terror you durst not -dance except in rags. Among the innumerable kinds of Balls, let the hasty -reader mark only this single one: the kind they call Victim Balls, Bals a -Victime. The dancers, in choice costume, have all crape round the left -arm: to be admitted, it needs that you be a Victime; that you have lost a -relative under the Terror. Peace to the Dead; let us dance to their -memory! For in all ways one must dance. - -It is very remarkable, according to Mercier, under what varieties of figure -this great business of dancing goes on. 'The women,' says he, 'are Nymphs, -Sultanas; sometimes Minervas, Junos, even Dianas. In light-unerring -gyrations they swim there; with such earnestness of purpose; with perfect -silence, so absorbed are they. What is singular,' continues he, 'the -onlookers are as it were mingled with the dancers; form as it were a -circumambient element round the different contre-dances, yet without -deranging them. It is rare, in fact, that a Sultana in such circumstances -experience the smallest collision. Her pretty foot darts down, an inch -from mine; she is off again; she is as a flash of light: but soon the -measure recalls her to the point she set out from. Like a glittering comet -she travels her eclipse, revolving on herself, as by a double effect of -gravitation and attraction.' (Mercier, Nouveau Paris, iii. 138, 153.) -Looking forward a little way, into Time, the same Mercier discerns -Merveilleuses in 'flesh-coloured drawers' with gold circlets; mere dancing -Houris of an artificial Mahomet's-Paradise: much too Mahometan. -Montgaillard, with his splenetic eye, notes a no less strange thing; that -every fashionable Citoyenne you meet is in an interesting situation. Good -Heavens, every! Mere pillows and stuffing! adds the acrid man;--such, in a -time of depopulation by war and guillotine, being the fashion. -(Montgaillard, iv. 436-42.) No further seek its merits to disclose. - -Behold also instead of the old grim Tappe-durs of Robespierre, what new -street-groups are these? Young men habited not in black-shag Carmagnole -spencer, but in superfine habit carre or spencer with rectangular tail -appended to it; 'square-tailed coat,' with elegant antiguillotinish -specialty of collar; 'the hair plaited at the temples,' and knotted back, -long-flowing, in military wise: young men of what they call the Muscadin -or Dandy species! Freron, in his fondness names them Jeunesse doree, -Golden, or Gilt Youth. They have come out, these Gilt Youths, in a kind of -resuscitated state; they wear crape round the left arm, such of them as -were Victims. More they carry clubs loaded with lead; in an angry manner: -any Tappe-dur or remnant of Jacobinism they may fall in with, shall fare -the worse. They have suffered much: their friends guillotined; their -pleasures, frolics, superfine collars ruthlessly repressed: 'ware now the -base Red Nightcaps who did it! Fair Cabarus and the Army of Greek sandals -smile approval. In the Theatre Feydeau, young Valour in square-tailed coat -eyes Beauty in Greek sandals, and kindles by her glances: Down with -Jacobinism! No Jacobin hymn or demonstration, only Thermidorian ones, -shall be permitted here: we beat down Jacobinism with clubs loaded with -lead. - -But let any one who has examined the Dandy nature, how petulant it is, -especially in the gregarious state, think what an element, in sacred right -of insurrection, this Gilt Youth was! Broils and battery; war without -truce or measure! Hateful is Sansculottism, as Death and Night. For -indeed is not the Dandy culottic, habilatory, by law of existence; 'a -cloth-animal: one that lives, moves, and has his being in cloth?'-- - -So goes it, waltzing, bickering; fair Cabarus, by Orphic witchery, -struggling to recivilise mankind. Not unsuccessfully, we hear. What -utmost Republican grimness can resist Greek sandals, in Ionic motion, the -very toes covered with gold rings? (Ibid. Mercier (ubi supra).) By -degrees the indisputablest new-politeness rises; grows, with vigour. And -yet, whether, even to this day, that inexpressible tone of society known -under the old Kings, when Sin had 'lost all its deformity' (with or without -advantage to us), and airy Nothing had obtained such a local habitation and -establishment as she never had,--be recovered? Or even, whether it be not -lost beyond recovery? (De Stael, Considerations iii. c. 10, &c.)--Either -way, the world must contrive to struggle on. - - - -Chapter 3.7.III. - -Quiberon. - - -But indeed do not these long-flowing hair-queues of a Jeunesse Doree in -semi-military costume betoken, unconsciously, another still more important -tendency? The Republic, abhorrent of her Guillotine, loves her Army. - -And with cause. For, surely, if good fighting be a kind of honour, as it -is, in its season; and be with the vulgar of men, even the chief kind of -honour, then here is good fighting, in good season, if there ever was. -These Sons of the Republic, they rose, in mad wrath, to deliver her from -Slavery and Cimmeria. And have they not done it? Through Maritime Alps, -through gorges of Pyrenees, through Low Countries, Northward along the -Rhine-valley, far is Cimmeria hurled back from the sacred Motherland. -Fierce as fire, they have carried her Tricolor over the faces of all her -enemies;--over scarped heights, over cannon-batteries; down, as with the -Vengeur, into the dead deep sea. She has 'Eleven hundred thousand fighters -on foot,' this Republic: 'At one particular moment she had,' or supposed -she had, 'seventeen hundred thousand.' (Toulongeon, iii. c. 7; v. c. 10 -(p. 194).) Like a ring of lightning, they, volleying and ca-ira-ing, -begirdle her from shore to shore. Cimmerian Coalition of Despots recoils; -smitten with astonishment, and strange pangs. - -Such a fire is in these Gaelic Republican men; high-blazing; which no -Coalition can withstand! Not scutcheons, with four degrees of nobility; -but ci-devant Serjeants, who have had to clutch Generalship out of the -cannon's throat, a Pichegru, a Jourdan, a Hoche, lead them on. They have -bread, they have iron; 'with bread and iron you can get to China.'--See -Pichegru's soldiers, this hard winter, in their looped and windowed -destitution, in their 'straw-rope shoes and cloaks of bass-mat,' how they -overrun Holland, like a demon-host, the ice having bridged all waters; and -rush shouting from victory to victory! Ships in the Texel are taken by -huzzars on horseback: fled is York; fled is the Stadtholder, glad to -escape to England, and leave Holland to fraternise. (19th January, 1795 -(Montgaillard, iv. 287-311).) Such a Gaelic fire, we say, blazes in this -People, like the conflagration of grass and dry-jungle; which no mortal can -withstand--for the moment. - -And even so it will blaze and run, scorching all things; and, from Cadiz to -Archangel, mad Sansculottism, drilled now into Soldiership, led on by some -'armed Soldier of Democracy' (say, that Monosyllabic Artillery-Officer), -will set its foot cruelly on the necks of its enemies; and its shouting and -their shrieking shall fill the world!--Rash Coalised Kings, such a fire -have ye kindled; yourselves fireless, your fighters animated only by drill- -serjeants, messroom moralities, and the drummer's cat! However, it is -begun, and will not end: not for a matter of twenty years. So long, this -Gaelic fire, through its successive changes of colour and character, will -blaze over the face of Europe, and afflict the scorch all men:--till it -provoke all men; till it kindle another kind of fire, the Teutonic kind, -namely; and be swallowed up, so to speak, in a day! For there is a fire -comparable to the burning of dry-jungle and grass; most sudden, high- -blazing: and another fire which we liken to the burning of coal, or even -of anthracite coal; difficult to kindle, but then which nothing will put -out. The ready Gaelic fire, we can remark further, and remark not in -Pichegrus only, but in innumerable Voltaires, Racines, Laplaces, no less; -for a man, whether he fight, or sing, or think, will remain the same unity -of a man,--is admirable for roasting eggs, in every conceivable sense. The -Teutonic anthracite again, as we see in Luthers, Leibnitzes, Shakespeares, -is preferable for smelting metals. How happy is our Europe that has both -kinds!-- - -But be this as it may, the Republic is clearly triumphing. In the spring -of the year Mentz Town again sees itself besieged; will again change -master: did not Merlin the Thionviller, 'with wild beard and look,' say it -was not for the last time they saw him there? The Elector of Mentz -circulates among his brother Potentates this pertinent query, Were it not -advisable to treat of Peace? Yes! answers many an Elector from the bottom -of his heart. But, on the other hand, Austria hesitates; finally refuses, -being subsidied by Pitt. As to Pitt, whoever hesitate, he, suspending his -Habeas-corpus, suspending his Cash-payments, stands inflexible,--spite of -foreign reverses; spite of domestic obstacles, of Scotch National -Conventions and English Friends of the People, whom he is obliged to -arraign, to hang, or even to see acquitted with jubilee: a lean inflexible -man. The Majesty of Spain, as we predicted, makes Peace; also the Majesty -of Prussia: and there is a Treaty of Bale. (5th April, 1795 -(Montgaillard, iv. 319).) Treaty with black Anarchists and Regicides! -Alas, what help? You cannot hang this Anarchy; it is like to hang you: -you must needs treat with it. - -Likewise, General Hoche has even succeeded in pacificating La Vendee. -Rogue Rossignol and his 'Infernal Columns' have vanished: by firmness and -justice, by sagacity and industry, General Hoche has done it. Taking -'Movable Columns,' not infernal; girdling-in the Country; pardoning the -submissive, cutting down the resistive, limb after limb of the Revolt is -brought under. La Rochejacquelin, last of our Nobles, fell in battle; -Stofflet himself makes terms; Georges-Cadoudal is back to Brittany, among -his Chouans: the frightful gangrene of La Vendee seems veritably -extirpated. It has cost, as they reckon in round numbers, the lives of a -Hundred Thousand fellow-mortals; with noyadings, conflagratings by infernal -column, which defy arithmetic. This is the La Vendee War. (Histoire de la -Guerre de la Vendee, par M. le Comte de Vauban, Memoires de Madame de la -Rochejacquelin, &c.) - -Nay in few months, it does burst up once more, but once only:--blown upon -by Pitt, by our Ci-devant Puisaye of Calvados, and others. In the month of -July 1795, English Ships will ride in Quiberon roads. There will be -debarkation of chivalrous Ci-devants, of volunteer Prisoners-of-war--eager -to desert; of fire-arms, Proclamations, clothes-chests, Royalists and -specie. Whereupon also, on the Republican side, there will be rapid stand- -to-arms; with ambuscade marchings by Quiberon beach, at midnight; storming -of Fort Penthievre; war-thunder mingling with the roar of the nightly main; -and such a morning light as has seldom dawned; debarkation hurled back into -its boats, or into the devouring billows, with wreck and wail;--in one -word, a Ci-devant Puisaye as totally ineffectual here as he was in -Calvados, when he rode from Vernon Castle without boots. (Deux Amis, xiv. -94-106; Puisaye, Memoires, iii-vii.) - -Again, therefore, it has cost the lives of many a brave man. Among whom -the whole world laments the brave Son of Sombreuil. Ill-fated family! The -father and younger son went to the guillotine; the heroic daughter -languishes, reduced to want, hides her woes from History: the elder son -perishes here; shot by military tribunal as an Emigrant; Hoche himself -cannot save him. If all wars, civil and other, are misunderstandings, what -a thing must right-understanding be! - - - -Chapter 3.7.IV. - -Lion not dead. - -The Convention, borne on the tide of Fortune towards foreign Victory, and -driven by the strong wind of Public Opinion towards Clemency and Luxury, is -rushing fast; all skill of pilotage is needed, and more than all, in such a -velocity. - -Curious to see, how we veer and whirl, yet must ever whirl round again, and -scud before the wind. If, on the one hand, we re-admit the Protesting -Seventy-Three, we, on the other hand, agree to consummate the Apotheosis of -Marat; lift his body from the Cordeliers Church, and transport it to the -Pantheon of Great Men,--flinging out Mirabeau to make room for him. To no -purpose: so strong blows Public Opinion! A Gilt Youthhood, in plaited -hair-tresses, tears down his Busts from the Theatre Feydeau; tramples them -under foot; scatters them, with vociferation into the Cesspool of -Montmartre. (Moniteur, du 25 Septembre 1794, du 4 Fevrier 1795.) Swept is -his Chapel from the Place du Carrousel; the Cesspool of Montmartre will -receive his very dust. Shorter godhood had no divine man. Some four -months in this Pantheon, Temple of All the Immortals; then to the Cesspool, -grand Cloaca of Paris and the World! 'His Busts at one time amounted to -four thousand.' Between Temple of All the Immortals and Cloaca of the -World, how are poor human creatures whirled! - -Furthermore the question arises, When will the Constitution of Ninety- -three, of 1793, come into action? Considerate heads surmise, in all -privacy, that the Constitution of Ninety-three will never come into action. -Let them busy themselves to get ready a better. - -Or, again, where now are the Jacobins? Childless, most decrepit, as we -saw, sat the mighty Mother; gnashing not teeth, but empty gums, against a -traitorous Thermidorian Convention and the current of things. Twice were -Billaud, Collot and Company accused in Convention, by a Lecointre, by a -Legendre; and the second time, it was not voted calumnious. Billaud from -the Jacobin tribune says, "The lion is not dead, he is only sleeping." -They ask him in Convention, What he means by the awakening of the lion? -And bickerings, of an extensive sort, arose in the Palais-Egalite between -Tappe-durs and the Gilt Youthhood; cries of "Down with the Jacobins, the -Jacoquins," coquin meaning scoundrel! The Tribune in mid-air gave battle- -sound; answered only by silence and uncertain gasps. Talk was, in -Government Committees, of 'suspending' the Jacobin Sessions. Hark, there!- --it is in Allhallow-time, or on the Hallow-eve itself, month ci-devant -November, year once named of Grace 1794, sad eve for Jacobinism,--volley of -stones dashing through our windows, with jingle and execration! The female -Jacobins, famed Tricoteuses with knitting-needles, take flight; are met at -the doors by a Gilt Youthhood and 'mob of four thousand persons;' are -hooted, flouted, hustled; fustigated, in a scandalous manner, cotillons -retrousses;--and vanish in mere hysterics. Sally out ye male Jacobins! -The male Jacobins sally out; but only to battle, disaster and confusion. -So that armed Authority has to intervene: and again on the morrow to -intervene; and suspend the Jacobin Sessions forever and a day. (Moniteur, -Seances du 10-12 Novembre 1794: Deux Amis, xiii. 43-49.) Gone are the -Jacobins; into invisibility; in a storm of laughter and howls. Their place -is made a Normal School, the first of the kind seen; it then vanishes into -a 'Market of Thermidor Ninth;' into a Market of Saint-Honore, where is now -peaceable chaffering for poultry and greens. The solemn temples, the great -globe itself; the baseless fabric! Are not we such stuff, we and this -world of ours, as Dreams are made of? - -Maximum being abrogated, Trade was to take its own free course. Alas, -Trade, shackled, topsyturvied in the way we saw, and now suddenly let go -again, can for the present take no course at all; but only reel and -stagger. There is, so to speak, no Trade whatever for the time being. -Assignats, long sinking, emitted in such quantities, sink now with an -alacrity beyond parallel. "Combien?" said one, to a Hackney-coachman, -"What fare?" "Six thousand livres," answered he: some three hundred -pounds sterling, in Paper-money. (Mercier, ii. 94. ('1st February, 1796: -at the Bourse of Paris, the gold louis,' of 20 francs in silver, 'costs -5,300 francs in assignats.' Montgaillard, iv. 419).) Pressure of Maximum -withdrawn, the things it compressed likewise withdraw. 'Two ounces of -bread per day' in the modicum allotted: wide-waving, doleful are the -Bakers' Queues; Farmers' houses are become pawnbrokers' shops. - -One can imagine, in these circumstances, with what humour Sansculottism -growled in its throat, "La Cabarus;" beheld Ci-devants return dancing, the -Thermidor effulgence of recivilisation, and Balls in flesh-coloured -drawers. Greek tunics and sandals; hosts of Muscadins parading, with their -clubs loaded with lead;--and we here, cast out, abhorred, 'picking offals -from the street;' (Fantin Desodoards, Histoire de la Revolution, vii. c. -4.) agitating in Baker's Queue for our two ounces of bread! Will the -Jacobin lion, which they say is meeting secretly 'at the Acheveche, in -bonnet rouge with loaded pistols,' not awaken? Seemingly not. Our Collot, -our Billaud, Barrere, Vadier, in these last days of March 1795, are found -worthy of Deportation, of Banishment beyond seas; and shall, for the -present, be trundled off to the Castle of Ham. The lion is dead;--or -writhing in death-throes! - -Behold, accordingly, on the day they call Twelfth of Germinal (which is -also called First of April, not a lucky day), how lively are these streets -of Paris once more! Floods of hungry women, of squalid hungry men; -ejaculating: "Bread, Bread and the Constitution of Ninety-three!" Paris -has risen, once again, like the Ocean-tide; is flowing towards the -Tuileries, for Bread and a Constitution. Tuileries Sentries do their best; -but it serves not: the Ocean-tide sweeps them away; inundates the -Convention Hall itself; howling, "Bread, and the Constitution!" - -Unhappy Senators, unhappy People, there is yet, after all toils and broils, -no Bread, no Constitution. "Du pain, pas tant de longs discours, Bread, -not bursts of Parliamentary eloquence!" so wailed the Menads of Maillard, -five years ago and more; so wail ye to this hour. The Convention, with -unalterable countenance, with what thought one knows not, keeps its seat in -this waste howling chaos; rings its stormbell from the Pavilion of Unity. -Section Lepelletier, old Filles Saint-Thomas, who are of the money-changing -species; these and Gilt Youthhood fly to the rescue; sweep chaos forth -again, with levelled bayonets. Paris is declared 'in a state of siege.' -Pichegru, Conqueror of Holland, who happens to be here, is named -Commandant, till the disturbance end. He, in one day, so to speak, ends -it. He accomplishes the transfer of Billaud, Collot and Company; -dissipating all opposition 'by two cannon-shots,' blank cannon-shots, and -the terror of his name; and thereupon announcing, with a Laconicism which -should be imitated, "Representatives, your decrees are executed," -(Moniteur, Seance du 13 Germinal (2d April) 1795.) lays down his -Commandantship. - -This Revolt of Germinal, therefore, has passed, like a vain cry. The -Prisoners rest safe in Ham, waiting for ships; some nine hundred 'chief -Terrorists of Paris' are disarmed. Sansculottism, swept forth with -bayonets, has vanished, with its misery, to the bottom of Saint-Antoine and -Saint-Marceau.--Time was when Usher Maillard with Menads could alter the -course of Legislation; but that time is not. Legislation seems to have got -bayonets; Section Lepelletier takes its firelock, not for us! We retire to -our dark dens; our cry of hunger is called a Plot of Pitt; the Saloons -glitter, the flesh-coloured Drawers gyrate as before. It was for "The -Cabarus" then, and her Muscadins and Money-changers, that we fought? It -was for Balls in flesh-coloured drawers that we took Feudalism by the -beard, and did, and dared, shedding our blood like water? Expressive -Silence, muse thou their praise!-- - - - -Chapter 3.7.V. - -Lion sprawling its last. - -Representative Carrier went to the Guillotine, in December last; protesting -that he acted by orders. The Revolutionary Tribunal, after all it has -devoured, has now only, as Anarchic things do, to devour itself. In the -early days of May, men see a remarkable thing: Fouquier-Tinville pleading -at the Bar once his own. He and his chief Jurymen, Leroi August-Tenth, -Juryman Vilate, a Batch of Sixteen; pleading hard, protesting that they -acted by orders: but pleading in vain. Thus men break the axe with which -they have done hateful things; the axe itself having grown hateful. For -the rest, Fouquier died hard enough: "Where are thy Batches?" howled the -People.--"Hungry canaille," asked Fouquier, "is thy Bread cheaper, wanting -them?" - -Remarkable Fouquier; once but as other Attorneys and Law-beagles, which -hunt ravenous on this Earth, a well-known phasis of human nature; and now -thou art and remainest the most remarkable Attorney that ever lived and -hunted in the Upper Air! For, in this terrestrial Course of Time, there -was to be an Avatar of Attorneyism; the Heavens had said, Let there be an -Incarnation, not divine, of the venatory Attorney-spirit which keeps its -eye on the bond only;--and lo, this was it; and they have attorneyed it in -its turn. Vanish, then, thou rat-eyed Incarnation of Attorneyism; who at -bottom wert but as other Attorneys, and too hungry Sons of Adam! Juryman -Vilate had striven hard for life, and published, from his Prison, an -ingenious Book, not unknown to us; but it would not stead: he also had to -vanish; and this his Book of the Secret Causes of Thermidor, full of lies, -with particles of truth in it undiscoverable otherwise, is all that remains -of him. - -Revolutionary Tribunal has done; but vengeance has not done. -Representative Lebon, after long struggling, is handed over to the ordinary -Law Courts, and by them guillotined. Nay, at Lyons and elsewhere, -resuscitated Moderatism, in its vengeance, will not wait the slow process -of Law; but bursts into the Prisons, sets fire to the prisons; burns some -three score imprisoned Jacobins to dire death, or chokes them 'with the -smoke of straw.' There go vengeful truculent 'Companies of Jesus,' -'Companies of the Sun;' slaying Jacobinism wherever they meet with it; -flinging it into the Rhone-stream; which, once more, bears seaward a horrid -cargo. (Moniteur, du 27 Juin, du 31 Aout, 1795; Deux Amis, xiii. 121-9.) -Whereupon, at Toulon, Jacobinism rises in revolt; and is like to hang the -National Representatives.--With such action and reaction, is not a poor -National Convention hard bested? It is like the settlement of winds and -waters, of seas long tornado-beaten; and goes on with jumble and with -jangle. Now flung aloft, now sunk in trough of the sea, your Vessel of the -Republic has need of all pilotage and more. - -What Parliament that ever sat under the Moon had such a series of -destinies, as this National Convention of France? It came together to make -the Constitution; and instead of that, it has had to make nothing but -destruction and confusion: to burn up Catholicisms, Aristocratisms, to -worship Reason and dig Saltpetre, to fight Titanically with itself and with -the whole world. A Convention decimated by the Guillotine; above the tenth -man has bowed his neck to the axe. Which has seen Carmagnoles danced -before it, and patriotic strophes sung amid Church-spoils; the wounded of -the Tenth of August defile in handbarrows; and, in the Pandemonial -Midnight, Egalite's dames in tricolor drink lemonade, and spectrum of -Sieyes mount, saying, Death sans phrase. A Convention which has -effervesced, and which has congealed; which has been red with rage, and -also pale with rage: sitting with pistols in its pocket, drawing sword (in -a moment of effervescence): now storming to the four winds, through a -Danton-voice, Awake, O France, and smite the tyrants; now frozen mute under -its Robespierre, and answering his dirge-voice by a dubious gasp. -Assassinated, decimated; stabbed at, shot at, in baths, on streets and -staircases; which has been the nucleus of Chaos. Has it not heard the -chimes at midnight? It has deliberated, beset by a Hundred thousand armed -men with artillery-furnaces and provision-carts. It has been betocsined, -bestormed; over-flooded by black deluges of Sansculottism; and has heard -the shrill cry, Bread and Soap. For, as we say, its the nucleus of Chaos; -it sat as the centre of Sansculottism; and had spread its pavilion on the -waste Deep, where is neither path nor landmark, neither bottom nor shore. -In intrinsic valour, ingenuity, fidelity, and general force and manhood, it -has perhaps not far surpassed the average of Parliaments: but in frankness -of purpose, in singularity of position, it seeks its fellow. One other -Sansculottic submersion, or at most two, and this wearied vessel of a -Convention reaches land. - -Revolt of Germinal Twelfth ended as a vain cry; moribund Sansculottism was -swept back into invisibility. There it has lain moaning, these six weeks: -moaning, and also scheming. Jacobins disarmed, flung forth from their -Tribune in mid air, must needs try to help themselves, in secret conclave -under ground. Lo, therefore, on the First day of the Month Prairial, 20th -of May 1795, sound of the generale once more; beating sharp, ran-tan, To -arms, To arms! - -Sansculottism has risen, yet again, from its death-lair; waste wild- -flowing, as the unfruitful Sea. Saint-Antoine is a-foot: "Bread and the -Constitution of Ninety-three," so sounds it; so stands it written with -chalk on the hats of men. They have their pikes, their firelocks; Paper of -Grievances; standards; printed Proclamation, drawn up in quite official -manner,--considering this, and also considering that, they, a much-enduring -Sovereign People, are in Insurrection; will have Bread and the Constitution -of Ninety-three. And so the Barriers are seized, and the generale beats, -and tocsins discourse discord. Black deluges overflow the Tuileries; spite -of sentries, the Sanctuary itself is invaded: enter, to our Order of the -Day, a torrent of dishevelled women, wailing, "Bread! Bread!" President -may well cover himself; and have his own tocsin rung in 'the Pavilion of -Unity;' the ship of the State again labours and leaks; overwashed, near to -swamping, with unfruitful brine. - -What a day, once more! Women are driven out: men storm irresistibly in; -choke all corridors, thunder at all gates. Deputies, putting forth head, -obtest, conjure; Saint-Antoine rages, "Bread and Constitution." Report has -risen that the 'Convention is assassinating the women:' crushing and -rushing, clangor and furor! The oak doors have become as oak tambourines, -sounding under the axe of Saint-Antoine; plaster-work crackles, woodwork -booms and jingles; door starts up;--bursts-in Saint-Antoine with frenzy and -vociferation, Rag-standards, printed Proclamation, drum-music: -astonishment to eye and ear. Gendarmes, loyal Sectioners charge through -the other door; they are recharged; musketry exploding: Saint-Antoine -cannot be expelled. Obtesting Deputies obtest vainly; Respect the -President; approach not the President! Deputy Feraud, stretching out his -hands, baring his bosom scarred in the Spanish wars, obtests vainly: -threatens and resists vainly. Rebellious Deputy of the Sovereign, if thou -have fought, have not we too? We have no bread, no Constitution! They -wrench poor Feraud; they tumble him, trample him, wrath waxing to see -itself work: they drag him into the corridor, dead or near it; sever his -head, and fix it on a pike. Ah, did an unexampled Convention want this -variety of destiny too, then? Feraud's bloody head goes on a pike. Such a -game has begun; Paris and the Earth may wait how it will end. - -And so it billows free though all Corridors; within, and without, far as -the eye reaches, nothing but Bedlam, and the great Deep broken loose! -President Boissy d'Anglas sits like a rock: the rest of the Convention is -floated 'to the upper benches;' Sectioners and Gendarmes still ranking -there to form a kind of wall for them. And Insurrection rages; rolls its -drums; will read its Paper of Grievances, will have this decreed, will have -that. Covered sits President Boissy, unyielding; like a rock in the -beating of seas. They menace him, level muskets at him, he yields not; -they hold up Feraud's bloody head to him, with grave stern air he bows to -it, and yields not. - -And the Paper of Grievances cannot get itself read for uproar; and the -drums roll, and the throats bawl; and Insurrection, like sphere-music, is -inaudible for very noise: Decree us this, Decree us that. One man we -discern bawling 'for the space of an hour at all intervals,' "Je demande -l'arrestation des coquins et des laches." Really one of the most -comprehensive Petitions ever put up: which indeed, to this hour, includes -all that you can reasonably ask Constitution of the Year One, Rotten- -Borough, Ballot-Box, or other miraculous Political Ark of the Covenant to -do for you to the end of the world! I also demand arrestment of the Knaves -and Dastards, and nothing more whatever. National Representation, deluged -with black Sansculottism glides out; for help elsewhere, for safety -elsewhere: here is no help. - -About four in the afternoon, there remain hardly more than some Sixty -Members: mere friends, or even secret-leaders; a remnant of the Mountain- -crest, held in silence by Thermidorian thraldom. Now is the time for them; -now or never let them descend, and speak! They descend, these Sixty, -invited by Sansculottism: Romme of the New Calendar, Ruhl of the Sacred -Phial, Goujon, Duquesnoy, Soubrany, and the rest. Glad Sansculottism forms -a ring for them; Romme takes the President's chair; they begin resolving -and decreeing. Fast enough now comes Decree after Decree, in alternate -brief strains, or strophe and antistrophe,--what will cheapen bread, what -will awaken the dormant lion. And at every new Decree, Sansculottism -shouts, Decreed, Decreed; and rolls its drums. - -Fast enough; the work of months in hours,--when see, a Figure enters, whom -in the lamp-light we recognise to be Legendre; and utters words: fit to be -hissed out! And then see, Section Lepelletier or other Muscadin Section -enters, and Gilt Youth, with levelled bayonets, countenances screwed to the -sticking-place! Tramp, tramp, with bayonets gleaming in the lamp-light: -what can one do, worn down with long riot, grown heartless, dark, hungry, -but roll back, but rush back, and escape who can? The very windows need to -be thrown up, that Sansculottism may escape fast enough. Money-changer -Sections and Gilt Youth sweep them forth, with steel besom, far into the -depths of Saint-Antoine. Triumph once more! The Decrees of that Sixty are -not so much as rescinded; they are declared null and non-extant. Romme, -Ruhl, Goujon and the ringleaders, some thirteen in all, are decreed -Accused. Permanent-session ends at three in the morning. (Deux Amis, -xiii. 129-46.) Sansculottism, once more flung resupine, lies sprawling; -sprawling its last. - -Such was the First of Prairial, 20th May, 1795. Second and Third of -Prairial, during which Sansculottism still sprawled, and unexpectedly rang -its tocsin, and assembled in arms, availed Sansculottism nothing. What -though with our Rommes and Ruhls, accused but not yet arrested, we make a -new 'True National Convention' of our own, over in the East; and put the -others Out of Law? What though we rank in arms and march? Armed Force and -Muscadin Sections, some thirty thousand men, environ that old False -Convention: we can but bully one another: bandying nicknames, -"Muscadins," against "Blooddrinkers, Buveurs de Sang." Feraud's Assassin, -taken with the red hand, and sentenced, and now near to Guillotine and -Place de Greve, is retaken; is carried back into Saint-Antoine: to no -purpose. Convention Sectionaries and Gilt Youth come, according to Decree, -to seek him; nay to disarm Saint-Antoine! And they do disarm it: by -rolling of cannon, by springing upon enemy's cannon; by military audacity, -and terror of the Law. Saint-Antoine surrenders its arms; Santerre even -advising it, anxious for life and brewhouse. Feraud's Assassin flings -himself from a high roof: and all is lost. (Toulongeon, v. 297; Moniteur, -Nos. 244, 5, 6.) - -Discerning which things, old Ruhl shot a pistol through his old white head; -dashed his life in pieces, as he had done the Sacred Phial of Rheims. -Romme, Goujon and the others stand ranked before a swiftly-appointed, swift -Military Tribunal. Hearing the sentence, Goujon drew a knife, struck it -into his breast, passed it to his neighbour Romme; and fell dead. Romme -did the like; and another all but did it; Roman-death rushing on there, as -in electric-chain, before your Bailiffs could intervene! The Guillotine -had the rest. - -They were the Ultimi Romanorum. Billaud, Collot and Company are now -ordered to be tried for life; but are found to be already off, shipped for -Sinamarri, and the hot mud of Surinam. There let Billaud surround himself -with flocks of tame parrots; Collot take the yellow fever, and drinking a -whole bottle of brandy, burn up his entrails. (Dictionnaire des Hommes -Marquans, paras Billaud, Collot.) Sansculottism spraws no more. The -dormant lion has become a dead one; and now, as we see, any hoof may smite -him. - - - -Chapter 3.7.VI. - -Grilled Herrings. - -So dies Sansculottism, the body of Sansculottism, or is changed. Its -ragged Pythian Carmagnole-dance has transformed itself into a Pyrrhic, into -a dance of Cabarus Balls. Sansculottism is dead; extinguished by new isms -of that kind, which were its own natural progeny; and is buried, we may -say, with such deafening jubilation and disharmony of funeral-knell on -their part, that only after some half century or so does one begin to learn -clearly why it ever was alive. - -And yet a meaning lay in it: Sansculottism verily was alive, a New-Birth -of TIME; nay it still lives, and is not dead, but changed. The soul of it -still lives; still works far and wide, through one bodily shape into -another less amorphous, as is the way of cunning Time with his New-Births:- --till, in some perfected shape, it embrace the whole circuit of the world! -For the wise man may now everywhere discern that he must found on his -manhood, not on the garnitures of his manhood. He who, in these Epochs of -our Europe, founds on garnitures, formulas, culottisms of what sort soever, -is founding on old cloth and sheep-skin, and cannot endure. But as for the -body of Sansculottism, that is dead and buried,--and, one hopes, need not -reappear, in primary amorphous shape, for another thousand years! - -It was the frightfullest thing ever borne of Time? One of the -frightfullest. This Convention, now grown Anti-Jacobin, did, with an eye -to justify and fortify itself, publish Lists of what the Reign of Terror -had perpetrated: Lists of Persons Guillotined. The Lists, cries splenetic -Abbe Montgaillard, were not complete. They contain the names of, How many -persons thinks the reader?--Two Thousand all but a few. There were above -Four Thousand, cries Montgaillard: so many were guillotined, fusilladed, -noyaded, done to dire death; of whom Nine Hundred were women. -(Montgaillard, iv. 241.) It is a horrible sum of human lives, M. l'Abbe:-- -some ten times as many shot rightly on a field of battle, and one might -have had his Glorious-Victory with Te-Deum. It is not far from the two- -hundredth part of what perished in the entire Seven Years War. By which -Seven Years War, did not the great Fritz wrench Silesia from the great -Theresa; and a Pompadour, stung by epigrams, satisfy herself that she could -not be an Agnes Sorel? The head of man is a strange vacant sounding-shell, -M. l'Abbe; and studies Cocker to small purpose. - -But what if History, somewhere on this Planet, were to hear of a Nation, -the third soul of whom had not for thirty weeks each year as many third- -rate potatoes as would sustain him? (Report of the Irish Poor-Law -Commission, 1836.) History, in that case, feels bound to consider that -starvation is starvation; that starvation from age to age presupposes much: -History ventures to assert that the French Sansculotte of Ninety-three, -who, roused from long death-sleep, could rush at once to the frontiers, and -die fighting for an immortal Hope and Faith of Deliverance for him and his, -was but the second-miserablest of men! The Irish Sans-potato, had he not -senses then, nay a soul? In his frozen darkness, it was bitter for him to -die famishing; bitter to see his children famish. It was bitter for him to -be a beggar, a liar and a knave. Nay, if that dreary Greenland-wind of -benighted Want, perennial from sire to son, had frozen him into a kind of -torpor and numb callosity, so that he saw not, felt not, was this, for a -creature with a soul in it, some assuagement; or the cruellest wretchedness -of all? - -Such things were, such things are; and they go on in silence peaceably: -and Sansculottisms follow them. History, looking back over this France -through long times, back to Turgot's time for instance, when dumb Drudgery -staggered up to its King's Palace, and in wide expanse of sallow faces, -squalor and winged raggedness, presented hieroglyphically its Petition of -Grievances; and for answer got hanged on a 'new gallows forty feet high,'-- -confesses mournfully that there is no period to be met with, in which the -general Twenty-five Millions of France suffered less than in this period -which they name Reign of Terror! But it was not the Dumb Millions that -suffered here; it was the Speaking Thousands, and Hundreds, and Units; who -shrieked and published, and made the world ring with their wail, as they -could and should: that is the grand peculiarity. The frightfullest Births -of Time are never the loud-speaking ones, for these soon die; they are the -silent ones, which can live from century to century! Anarchy, hateful as -Death, is abhorrent to the whole nature of man; and must itself soon die. - -Wherefore let all men know what of depth and of height is still revealed in -man; and, with fear and wonder, with just sympathy and just antipathy, with -clear eye and open heart, contemplate it and appropriate it; and draw -innumerable inferences from it. This inference, for example, among the -first: 'That if the gods of this lower world will sit on their glittering -thrones, indolent as Epicurus' gods, with the living Chaos of Ignorance and -Hunger weltering uncared for at their feet, and smooth Parasites preaching, -Peace, peace, when there is no peace,' then the dark Chaos, it would seem, -will rise; has risen, and O Heavens! has it not tanned their skins into -breeches for itself? That there be no second Sansculottism in our Earth -for a thousand years, let us understand well what the first was; and let -Rich and Poor of us go and do otherwise.--But to our tale. - -The Muscadin Sections greatly rejoice; Cabarus Balls gyrate: the well-nigh -insoluble problem Republic without Anarchy, have we not solved it?--Law of -Fraternity or Death is gone: chimerical Obtain-who-need has become -practical Hold-who-have. To anarchic Republic of the Poverties there has -succeeded orderly Republic of the Luxuries; which will continue as long as -it can. - -On the Pont au Change, on the Place de Greve, in long sheds, Mercier, in -these summer evenings, saw working men at their repast. One's allotment of -daily bread has sunk to an ounce and a half. 'Plates containing each three -grilled herrings, sprinkled with shorn onions, wetted with a little -vinegar; to this add some morsel of boiled prunes, and lentils swimming in -a clear sauce: at these frugal tables, the cook's gridiron hissing near -by, and the pot simmering on a fire between two stones, I have seen them -ranged by the hundred; consuming, without bread, their scant messes, far -too moderate for the keenness of their appetite, and the extent of their -stomach.' (Nouveau Paris, iv. 118.) Seine water, rushing plenteous by, -will supply the deficiency. - -O man of Toil, thy struggling and thy daring, these six long years of -insurrection and tribulation, thou hast profited nothing by it, then? Thou -consumest thy herring and water, in the blessed gold-red evening. O why -was the Earth so beautiful, becrimsoned with dawn and twilight, if man's -dealings with man were to make it a vale of scarcity, of tears, not even -soft tears? Destroying of Bastilles, discomfiting of Brunswicks, fronting -of Principalities and Powers, of Earth and Tophet, all that thou hast dared -and endured,--it was for a Republic of the Cabarus Saloons? Patience; thou -must have patience: the end is not yet. - - - -Chapter 3.7.VII. - -The Whiff of Grapeshot. - -In fact, what can be more natural, one may say inevitable, as a Post- -Sansculottic transitionary state, than even this? Confused wreck of a -Republic of the Poverties, which ended in Reign of Terror, is arranging -itself into such composure as it can. Evangel of Jean-Jacques, and most -other Evangels, becoming incredible, what is there for it but return to the -old Evangel of Mammon? Contrat-Social is true or untrue, Brotherhood is -Brotherhood or Death; but money always will buy money's worth: in the -wreck of human dubitations, this remains indubitable, that Pleasure is -pleasant. Aristocracy of Feudal Parchment has passed away with a mighty -rushing; and now, by a natural course, we arrive at Aristocracy of the -Moneybag. It is the course through which all European Societies are at -this hour travelling. Apparently a still baser sort of Aristocracy? An -infinitely baser; the basest yet known! - -In which however there is this advantage, that, like Anarchy itself, it -cannot continue. Hast thou considered how Thought is stronger than -Artillery-parks, and (were it fifty years after death and martyrdom, or -were it two thousand years) writes and unwrites Acts of Parliament, removes -mountains; models the World like soft clay? Also how the beginning of all -Thought, worth the name, is Love; and the wise head never yet was, without -first the generous heart? The Heavens cease not their bounty: they send -us generous hearts into every generation. And now what generous heart can -pretend to itself, or be hoodwinked into believing, that Loyalty to the -Moneybag is a noble Loyalty? Mammon, cries the generous heart out of all -ages and countries, is the basest of known Gods, even of known Devils. In -him what glory is there, that ye should worship him? No glory discernable; -not even terror: at best, detestability, ill-matched with despicability!-- -Generous hearts, discerning, on this hand, widespread Wretchedness, dark -without and within, moistening its ounce-and-half of bread with tears; and -on that hand, mere Balls in fleshcoloured drawers, and inane or foul -glitter of such sort,--cannot but ejaculate, cannot but announce: Too -much, O divine Mammon; somewhat too much!--The voice of these, once -announcing itself, carries fiat and pereat in it, for all things here -below. - -Meanwhile, we will hate Anarchy as Death, which it is; and the things worse -than Anarchy shall be hated more! Surely Peace alone is fruitful. Anarchy -is destruction: a burning up, say, of Shams and Insupportabilities; but -which leaves Vacancy behind. Know this also, that out of a world of Unwise -nothing but an Unwisdom can be made. Arrange it, Constitution-build it, -sift it through Ballot-Boxes as thou wilt, it is and remains an Unwisdom,-- -the new prey of new quacks and unclean things, the latter end of it -slightly better than the beginning. Who can bring a wise thing out of men -unwise? Not one. And so Vacancy and general Abolition having come for -this France, what can Anarchy do more? Let there be Order, were it under -the Soldier's Sword; let there be Peace, that the bounty of the Heavens be -not spilt; that what of Wisdom they do send us bring fruit in its season!-- -It remains to be seen how the quellers of Sansculottism were themselves -quelled, and sacred right of Insurrection was blown away by gunpowder: -wherewith this singular eventful History called French Revolution ends. - -The Convention, driven such a course by wild wind, wild tide, and steerage -and non-steerage, these three years, has become weary of its own existence, -sees all men weary of it; and wishes heartily to finish. To the last, it -has to strive with contradictions: it is now getting fast ready with a -Constitution, yet knows no peace. Sieyes, we say, is making the -Constitution once more; has as good as made it. Warned by experience, the -great Architect alters much, admits much. Distinction of Active and -Passive Citizen, that is, Money-qualification for Electors: nay Two -Chambers, 'Council of Ancients,' as well as 'Council of Five Hundred;' to -that conclusion have we come! In a like spirit, eschewing that fatal self- -denying ordinance of your Old Constituents, we enact not only that actual -Convention Members are re-eligible, but that Two-thirds of them must be re- -elected. The Active Citizen Electors shall for this time have free choice -of only One-third of their National Assembly. Such enactment, of Two- -thirds to be re-elected, we append to our Constitution; we submit our -Constitution to the Townships of France, and say, Accept both, or reject -both. Unsavoury as this appendix may be, the Townships, by overwhelming -majority, accept and ratify. With Directory of Five; with Two good -Chambers, double-majority of them nominated by ourselves, one hopes this -Constitution may prove final. March it will; for the legs of it, the re- -elected Two-thirds, are already there, able to march. Sieyes looks at his -Paper Fabric with just pride. - -But now see how the contumacious Sections, Lepelletier foremost, kick -against the pricks! Is it not manifest infraction of one's Elective -Franchise, Rights of Man, and Sovereignty of the People, this appendix of -re-electing your Two-thirds? Greedy tyrants who would perpetuate -yourselves!--For the truth is, victory over Saint-Antoine, and long right -of Insurrection, has spoiled these men. Nay spoiled all men. Consider too -how each man was free to hope what he liked; and now there is to be no -hope, there is to be fruition, fruition of this. - -In men spoiled by long right of Insurrection, what confused ferments will -rise, tongues once begun wagging! Journalists declaim, your Lacretelles, -Laharpes; Orators spout. There is Royalism traceable in it, and -Jacobinism. On the West Frontier, in deep secrecy, Pichegru, durst he -trust his Army, is treating with Conde: in these Sections, there spout -wolves in sheep's clothing, masked Emigrants and Royalists! (Napoleon, Las -Cases (Choix des Rapports, xvii. 398-411).) All men, as we say, had hoped, -each that the Election would do something for his own side: and now there -is no Election, or only the third of one. Black is united with white -against this clause of the Two-thirds; all the Unruly of France, who see -their trade thereby near ending. - -Section Lepelletier, after Addresses enough, finds that such clause is a -manifest infraction; that it, Lepelletier, for one, will simply not conform -thereto; and invites all other free Sections to join it, 'in central -Committee,' in resistance to oppression. (Deux Amis, xiii. 375-406.) The -Sections join it, nearly all; strong with their Forty Thousand fighting -men. The Convention therefore may look to itself! Lepelletier, on this -12th day of Vendemiaire, 4th of October 1795, is sitting in open -contravention, in its Convent of Filles Saint-Thomas, Rue Vivienne, with -guns primed. The Convention has some Five Thousand regular troops at hand; -Generals in abundance; and a Fifteen Hundred of miscellaneous persecuted -Ultra-Jacobins, whom in this crisis it has hastily got together and armed, -under the title Patriots of Eighty-nine. Strong in Law, it sends its -General Menou to disarm Lepelletier. - -General Menou marches accordingly, with due summons and demonstration; with -no result. General Menou, about eight in the evening, finds that he is -standing ranked in the Rue Vivienne, emitting vain summonses; with primed -guns pointed out of every window at him; and that he cannot disarm -Lepelletier. He has to return, with whole skin, but without success; and -be thrown into arrest as 'a traitor.' Whereupon the whole Forty Thousand -join this Lepelletier which cannot be vanquished: to what hand shall a -quaking Convention now turn? Our poor Convention, after such voyaging, -just entering harbour, so to speak, has struck on the bar;--and labours -there frightfully, with breakers roaring round it, Forty thousand of them, -like to wash it, and its Sieyes Cargo and the whole future of France, into -the deep! Yet one last time, it struggles, ready to perish. - -Some call for Barras to be made Commandant; he conquered in Thermidor. -Some, what is more to the purpose, bethink them of the Citizen Buonaparte, -unemployed Artillery Officer, who took Toulon. A man of head, a man of -action: Barras is named Commandant's-Cloak; this young Artillery Officer -is named Commandant. He was in the Gallery at the moment, and heard it; he -withdrew, some half hour, to consider with himself: after a half hour of -grim compressed considering, to be or not to be, he answers Yea. - -And now, a man of head being at the centre of it, the whole matter gets -vital. Swift, to Camp of Sablons; to secure the Artillery, there are not -twenty men guarding it! A swift Adjutant, Murat is the name of him, -gallops; gets thither some minutes within time, for Lepelletier was also on -march that way: the Cannon are ours. And now beset this post, and beset -that; rapid and firm: at Wicket of the Louvre, in Cul de Sac Dauphin, in -Rue Saint-Honore, from Pont Neuf all along the north Quays, southward to -Pont ci-devant Royal,--rank round the Sanctuary of the Tuileries, a ring of -steel discipline; let every gunner have his match burning, and all men -stand to their arms! - -Thus there is Permanent-session through night; and thus at sunrise of the -morrow, there is seen sacred Insurrection once again: vessel of State -labouring on the bar; and tumultuous sea all round her, beating generale, -arming and sounding,--not ringing tocsin, for we have left no tocsin but -our own in the Pavilion of Unity. It is an imminence of shipwreck, for the -whole world to gaze at. Frightfully she labours, that poor ship, within -cable-length of port; huge peril for her. However, she has a man at the -helm. Insurgent messages, received, and not received; messenger admitted -blindfolded; counsel and counter-counsel: the poor ship labours!-- -Vendemiaire 13th, year 4: curious enough, of all days, it is the Fifth day -of October, anniversary of that Menad-march, six years ago; by sacred right -of Insurrection we are got thus far. - -Lepelletier has seized the Church of Saint-Roch; has seized the Pont Neuf, -our piquet there retreating without fire. Stray shots fall from -Lepelletier; rattle down on the very Tuileries staircase. On the other -hand, women advance dishevelled, shrieking, Peace; Lepelletier behind them -waving its hat in sign that we shall fraternise. Steady! The Artillery -Officer is steady as bronze; can be quick as lightning. He sends eight -hundred muskets with ball-cartridges to the Convention itself; honourable -Members shall act with these in case of extremity: whereat they look grave -enough. Four of the afternoon is struck. (Moniteur, Seance du 5 Octobre -1795.) Lepelletier, making nothing by messengers, by fraternity or hat- -waving, bursts out, along the Southern Quai Voltaire, along streets, and -passages, treble-quick, in huge veritable onslaught! Whereupon, thou -bronze Artillery Officer--? "Fire!" say the bronze lips. Roar and again -roar, continual, volcano-like, goes his great gun, in the Cul de Sac -Dauphin against the Church of Saint-Roch; go his great guns on the Pont -Royal; go all his great guns;--blow to air some two hundred men, mainly -about the Church of Saint-Roch! Lepelletier cannot stand such horse-play; -no Sectioner can stand it; the Forty-thousand yield on all sides, scour -towards covert. 'Some hundred or so of them gathered both Theatre de la -Republique; but,' says he, 'a few shells dislodged them. It was all -finished at six.' - -The Ship is over the bar, then; free she bounds shoreward,--amid shouting -and vivats! Citoyen Buonaparte is 'named General of the Interior, by -acclamation;' quelled Sections have to disarm in such humour as they may; -sacred right of Insurrection is gone for ever! The Sieyes Constitution can -disembark itself, and begin marching. The miraculous Convention Ship has -got to land;--and is there, shall we figuratively say, changed, as Epic -Ships are wont, into a kind of Sea Nymph, never to sail more; to roam the -waste Azure, a Miracle in History! - -'It is false,' says Napoleon, 'that we fired first with blank charge; it -had been a waste of life to do that.' Most false: the firing was with -sharp and sharpest shot: to all men it was plain that here was no sport; -the rabbets and plinths of Saint-Roch Church show splintered by it, to this -hour.--Singular: in old Broglie's time, six years ago, this Whiff of -Grapeshot was promised; but it could not be given then, could not have -profited then. Now, however, the time is come for it, and the man; and -behold, you have it; and the thing we specifically call French Revolution -is blown into space by it, and become a thing that was!-- - -Homer's Epos, it is remarked, is like a Bas-relief sculpture: it does not -conclude, but merely ceases. Such, indeed, is the Epos of Universal -History itself. Directorates, Consulates, Emperorships, Restorations, -Citizen-Kingships succeed this Business in due series, in due genesis one -out of the other. Nevertheless the First-parent of all these may be said -to have gone to air in the way we see. A Baboeuf Insurrection, next year, -will die in the birth; stifled by the Soldiery. A Senate, if tinged with -Royalism, can be purged by the Soldiery; and an Eighteenth of Fructidor -transacted by the mere shew of bayonets. (Moniteur, du 5 Septembre 1797.) -Nay Soldiers' bayonets can be used a posteriori on a Senate, and make it -leap out of window,--still bloodless; and produce an Eighteenth of -Brumaire. (9th November 1799 (Choix des Rapports, xvii. 1-96).) Such -changes must happen: but they are managed by intriguings, caballings, and -then by orderly word of command; almost like mere changes of Ministry. Not -in general by sacred right of Insurrection, but by milder methods growing -ever milder, shall the Events of French history be henceforth brought to -pass. - -It is admitted that this Directorate, which owned, at its starting, these -three things, an 'old table, a sheet of paper, and an ink-bottle,' and no -visible money or arrangement whatever, (Bailleul, Examen critique des -Considerations de Madame de Stael, ii. 275.) did wonders: that France, -since the Reign of Terror hushed itself, has been a new France, awakened -like a giant out of torpor; and has gone on, in the Internal Life of it, -with continual progress. As for the External form and forms of Life,--what -can we say except that out of the Eater there comes Strength; out of the -Unwise there comes not Wisdom! Shams are burnt up; nay, what as yet is the -peculiarity of France, the very Cant of them is burnt up. The new -Realities are not yet come: ah no, only Phantasms, Paper models, tentative -Prefigurements of such! In France there are now Four Million Landed -Properties; that black portent of an Agrarian Law is as it were realised! -What is still stranger, we understand all Frenchmen have 'the right of -duel;' the Hackney-coachman with the Peer, if insult be given: such is the -law of Public Opinion. Equality at least in death! The Form of Government -is by Citizen King, frequently shot at, not yet shot. - -On the whole, therefore, has it not been fulfilled what was prophesied, ex- -postfacto indeed, by the Archquack Cagliostro, or another? He, as he -looked in rapt vision and amazement into these things, thus spake: -(Diamond Necklace, p. 35.) 'Ha! What is this? Angels, Uriel, Anachiel, -and the other Five; Pentagon of Rejuvenescence; Power that destroyed -Original Sin; Earth, Heaven, and thou Outer Limbo, which men name Hell! -Does the EMPIRE Of IMPOSTURE waver? Burst there, in starry sheen -updarting, Light-rays from out its dark foundations; as it rocks and -heaves, not in travail-throes, but in death-throes? Yea, Light-rays, -piercing, clear, that salute the Heavens,--lo, they kindle it; their starry -clearness becomes as red Hellfire! - -'IMPOSTURE is burnt up: one Red-sea of Fire, wild-billowing enwraps the -World; with its fire-tongue, licks at the very Stars. Thrones are hurled -into it, and Dubois mitres, and Prebendal Stalls that drop fatness, and-- -ha! what see I?--all the Gigs of Creation; all, all! Wo is me! Never -since Pharaoh's Chariots, in the Red-sea of water, was there wreck of -Wheel-vehicles like this in the Sea of Fire. Desolate, as ashes, as gases, -shall they wander in the wind. Higher, higher yet flames the Fire-Sea; -crackling with new dislocated timber; hissing with leather and prunella. -The metal Images are molten; the marble Images become mortar-lime; the -stone Mountains sulkily explode. RESPECTABILITY, with all her collected -Gigs inflamed for funeral pyre, wailing, leaves the earth: not to return -save under new Avatar. Imposture, how it burns, through generations: how -it is burnt up; for a time. The World is black ashes; which, ah, when will -they grow green? The Images all run into amorphous Corinthian brass; all -Dwellings of men destroyed; the very mountains peeled and riven, the -valleys black and dead: it is an empty World! Wo to them that shall be -born then!--A King, a Queen (ah me!) were hurled in; did rustle once; flew -aloft, crackling, like paper-scroll. Iscariot Egalite was hurled in; thou -grim De Launay, with thy grim Bastille; whole kindreds and peoples; five -millions of mutually destroying Men. For it is the End of the Dominion of -IMPOSTURE (which is Darkness and opaque Firedamp); and the burning up, with -unquenchable fire, of all the Gigs that are in the Earth.' This Prophecy, -we say, has it not been fulfilled, is it not fulfilling? - -And so here, O Reader, has the time come for us two to part. Toilsome was -our journeying together; not without offence; but it is done. To me thou -wert as a beloved shade, the disembodied or not yet embodied spirit of a -Brother. To thee I was but as a Voice. Yet was our relation a kind of -sacred one; doubt not that! Whatsoever once sacred things become hollow -jargons, yet while the Voice of Man speaks with Man, hast thou not there -the living fountain out of which all sacrednesses sprang, and will yet -spring? Man, by the nature of him, is definable as 'an incarnated Word.' -Ill stands it with me if I have spoken falsely: thine also it was to hear -truly. Farewell. - - -THE END. - - - -INDEX. - -ABBAYE, massacres, Jourgniac, Sicard, and Maton's account of. - -ACCEPTATION, grande, by Louis XVI. - -AGOUST, Captain d', seizes two Parlementeers. - -AIGUILLON, d', at Quiberon, account of, in favour, at death of Louis XV. - -AINTRIGUES, Count d'. - -ALTAR of Fatherland in Champ-de-Mars, scene at, christening at. - -AMIRAL, assassin, guillotined. - -ANGLAS, Boissy d', President, First of Prairial. - -ANGOULEME, Duchesse d', parts from her father. - -ANGREMONT, Collenot d', guillotined. - -ANTOINETTE, Marie, splendour of, applauded, compromised by Diamond -Necklace, griefs of, weeps, unpopular, at Dinner of Guards, courage of, -Fifth October, at Versailles, shows herself to people, and Louis at -Tuileries, and the Lorrainer, and Mirabeau, previous to flight, flight from -Tuileries, captured, and Barnave, Coblentz intrigues, and Lamotte's -Memoires, during Twentieth June, during Tenth August, as captive, and -Princess de Lamballe, in Temple Prison, parting scene with King, to the -Conciergerie, trial of, guillotined. - -ARGONNE Forest, occupied by Dumouriez, Brunswick at. - -ARISTOCRATS, officers in French army, number in Paris, seized, condition in -1794. - -ARLES, state of. - -ARMS, smiths making, search for, at Charleville, manufacture, in 1794, -scarcity in 1792, Danton's search for. - -ARMY, French, after Bastille, officered by aristocrats, to be disbanded, -demands arrears, general mutiny of, outbreak of, Nanci military executions, -Royalists leave, state of, in want, recruited, Revolutionary, fourteen -armies on foot. - -ARRAS, guillotine at. - -ARRESTS in August 1792. - -ARSENAL, attempted destruction of. - -ARTOIS, M. d', ways of, unpopularity of, memorial by, flies, at Coblentz, -refusal to return. - -ASSEMBLIES, Primary and Secondary. - -ASSEMBLY, National, Third Estate becomes, to be extruded, stands grouped in -the rain, occupies Tennis-Court, scene there, joined by clergy, doings on -King's speech, ratified by King, cannon pointed at, regrets Necker, after -Bastille. - -ASSEMBLY, Constituent, National, becomes, pedantic, Irregular Verbs, what -it can do, Night of Pentecost, Left and Right side, raises money, on the -Veto, Fifth October, women, in Paris Riding-Hall, on deficit, assignats, on -clergy, and riot, prepares for Louis's visit, on Federation, Anacharsis -Clootz, eldest of men, on Franklin's death, on state of army, thanks -Bouille, on Nanci affair, on Emigrants, on death of Mirabeau, on escape of -King, after capture of King, completes Constitution, dissolves itself, what -it has done. - -ASSEMBLY, Legislative, First French Parliament, book of law, dispute with -King, Baiser de Lamourette, High Court, decrees vetoed, scenes in, -reprimands King's ministers, declares war, declares France in danger, -reinstates Petion, nonplused, Lafayette, King and Swiss, August Tenth, -becoming defunct, September massacres, dissolved. - -ASSIGNATS, origin of, false Royalist, forgers of, coach-fare in. - -AUBRIOT, Sieur, after King's capture. - -AUBRY, Colonel, at Jales. - -AUCH, M. Martin d', in Versailles Court. - -AUSTRIA quarrels with France. - -AUSTRIAN Committee, at Tuileries. - -AUSTRIAN Army, invades France, defeated at Jemappes, Dumouriez escapes to, -repulsed, Watigny. - -AVIGNON, Union of, described, state of, riot in church at, occupied by -Jourdan, massacre at. - -BACHAUMONT, his thirty volumes. - -BAILLE, involuntary epigram of. - -BAILLY, Astronomer, account of, President of National Assembly, Mayor of -Paris, receives Louis in Paris, and Paris Parlement, on Petition for -Deposition, decline of, in prison, at Queen's trial, guillotined cruelly. - -BAKERS', French in tail at. - -BARBAROUX and Marat, Marseilles Deputy, and the Rolands, on Map of France, -demand of, to Marseilles, meets Marseillese, in National Convention, -against Robespierre, cannot be heard, the Girondins declining, arrested, -and Charlotte Corday, retreats to Bourdeaux, farewell of, shoots himself. - -BARDY, Abbe, massacred. - -BARENTIN, Keeper of Seals. - -BARNAVE, at Grenoble, member of Assembly, one of a trio, Jacobin, duel with -Cazales, escorts the King from Varennes, conciliates Queen, becomes -Constitutional, retires to Grenoble, treason, in prison, guillotined. - -BARRAS, Paul-Francois, in National Convention, commands in Thermidor, -appoints Napoleon in Vendemiaire. - -BARRERE, Editor, at King's trial, peace-maker, levy in mass, plot, -banished. - -BARTHOLOMEW massacre. - -BASTILLE, Linguet's Book on, meaning of, shots fired at, summoned by -insurgents, besieged, capitulates, treatment of captured, Queret-Demery, -demolished, key sent to Washington, Heroes. - -BAZIRE, of Mountain, imprisoned. - -BEARN, riot at. - -BEAUHARNAIS in Champ-de-Mars, Josephine, imprisoned, and Napoleon, at La -Cabarus's. - -BEAUMARCHAIS, Caron, his lawsuit, his 'Mariage de Figaro,' commissions arms -from Holland, his distress. - -BEAUMONT, Archbishop, notice of. - -BEAUREPAIRE, Governor of Verdun, shoots himself. - -BENTHAM, Jeremy, naturalised. - -BERLINE, towards Varennes. - -BERTHIER, Intendant, fled, arrested and massacred. - -BERTHIER, Commandant, at Versailles. - -BESENVAL, Baron, Commandant of Paris, on French Finance, in riot of Rue St. -Antoine, on corruption of Guards, at Champ-de-Mars, apparition to, decamps, -and Louis XVI. - -BETHUNE, riot at. - -BEURNONVILLE, with Dumouriez, imprisoned. - -BILLAUD-VARENNES, Jacobin, cruel, at massacres, September 1792, in Salut -Committee, and Robespierre's Etre Supreme, accuses Robespierre, accused, -banished. - -BLANC, Le, landlord at Varennes, escape of family. - -BLOOD, baths of. - -BONCHAMPS, in La Vendee War. - -BONNEMERE, Aubin, at Siege of Bastille. - -BOUILLE, at Metz, account of, character of, troops mutinous, and Salm -regiment, intrepidity of, marches on Nanci, quells Nanci mutineers, at -Mirabeau's funeral, expects fugitive King, would liberate King, emigrates. - -BOUILLE, Junior, asleep at Varennes, flies to father. - -BOURDEAUX, priests hanged at, for Girondism. - -BOYER, duellist. - -BREST, sailors revolt, state of, in 1791, Federes in Paris, in 1793. - -BRETEUIL, Home-Secretary. - -BRETON Club, germ of Jacobins. - -BRETONS, deputations of, Girondins. - -BREZE, Marquis de, his mode of ushering, and National Assembly, -extraordinary etiquette. - -BRIENNE, Lomenie, anti-protestant, in Notables, incapacity of, failure of, -arrests Paris Parlement, secret scheme, scheme discovered, arrests two -Parlementeers, bewildered, desperate shifts by, wishes for Necker, -dismissed, and provided for, his effigy burnt. - -BRISSAC, Duke de, commands Constitutional Guard, disbanded. - -BRISSOT, edits 'Moniteur,' friend of Blacks, in First Parliament, plans in -1792, active in Assembly, in Jacobins, at Roland's, pelted in Assembly, -arrested, trial of, guillotined. - -BRITTANY, disturbances in. - -BROGLIE, Marshal, against Plenary Court, in command, in office, dismissed. - -BRUNSWICK, Duke, marches on France, advances, Proclamation, at Verdun, at -Argonne, retreats. - -BUFFON, Mme. de, and Duke d'Orleans, at d'Orleans execution. - -BUTTAFUOCO, Napoleon's letter to. - -BUZOT, in National Convention, arrested, retreats to Bourdeaux, end of. - -CABANIS, Physician to Mirabeau. - -CABARUS, Mlle., and Tallien, imprisoned. - -CAEN, Girondins at. - -CALENDAR, Romme's new, comparative ground-scheme of. - -CALONNE, M. de, Financier, character of, suavity and genius of, his -difficulties, dismissed, marriage and after-course. - -CALVADOS, for Girondism. - -CAMUS, Archivist, in National Convention, with Dumouriez, imprisoned. - -CANNON, Siamese, wooden, fever, Goethe on. - -CARMAGNOLE, costume, what, dances in Convention. - -CARNOT, Hippolyte, notice of, plan for Toulon, discovery in Robespierre's -pocket. - -CARPENTRAS, against Avignon. - -CARRA, on plots for King's flight, in National Convention. - -CARRIER, a Revolutionist, in National Assembly, Nantes noyades, -guillotined. - -CARTAUX, General, fights Girondins, at Toulon. - -CASTRIES, Duke de, duel with Lameth. - -CATHELINEAU, of La Vendee. - -CAVAIGNAC, Convention Representative. - -CAZALES, Royalist, in Constituent Assembly. - -CAZOTTE, author of 'Diable Amoureux,' seized, saved for a time by his -daughter. - -CERCLE, Social, of Fauchet. - -CERUTTI, his funeral oration on Mirabeau. - -CEVENNES, revolt of. - -CHABOT, of Mountain, against Kings, imprisoned. - -CHABRAY, Louison, at Versailles, October Fifth. - -CHALIER, Jacobin, Lyons, executed, body raised. - -CHAMBON, Dr., Mayor of Paris, retires. - -CHAMFORT, Cynic, arrested, suicide. - -CHAMP-DE-MARS, Federation, preparations for, accelerated by patriots, -anecdotes of, Federation-scene at, funeral-service, Nanci, riot, Patriot -petition, 1791, new Federation, 1792. - -CHAMPS Elysees, Menads at, festivities in. - -CHANTILLY Palace, a prison. - -CHAPT-RASTIGNAC, Abbe de, massacred. - -CHARENTON, Marseillese at. - -CHARLES I., Trial of, sold in Paris. - -CHARLEVILLE Artillery. - -CHARTRES, grain-riot at. - -CHATEAUBRIANDS in French Revolution. - -CHATELET, Achille de, advises Republic. - -CHATILLON-SUR-SEVRE, insurrection at. - -CHAUMETTE, notice of, signs petition, in governing committee, at King's -trial, demands constitution, arrest and death of. - -CHAUVELIN, Marquis de, in London, dismissed. - -CHENAYE, Baudin de la, massacred. - -CHENIER, Poet, and Mlle. Theroigne. - -CHEPY, at La Force in September. - -CHOISEUL, Duke, why dismissed. - -CHOISEUL, Colonel Duke, assists Louis's flight, too late at Varennes. - -CHOISI, General, at Avignon. - -CHURCH, spiritual guidance, of Rome, decay of. - -CITIZENS, French, demeanour of. - -CLAIRFAIT, Commander of Austrians. - -CLAVIERE, edits 'Moniteur,' account of, Finance Minister, arrested, suicide -of. - -CLERGY, French, in States-General, conciliators of orders, joins Third -Estate, lands, national, power of, &c. - -CLERMONT, flight of King through, Prussians near. - -CLERY, on Louis's last scene. - -CLOOTZ, Anacharsis, Baron de, account of, disparagement of, in National -Convention, universal republic of, on nullity of religion, purged from the -Jacobins, guillotined. - -CLOVIS, in the Champ-de-Mars. - -CLUB, Electoral, at Paris, becomes Provisional Municipality, permanent. - -CLUGNY, M., as Finance Minister. - -COBLENTZ, Emigrants at. - -COBOURG and Dumouriez. - -COCKADES, green, tricolor, black, national, trampled, white. - -COFFINHAL, Judge, delivers Henriot. - -COIGNY, Duke de, a sinecurist. - -COMMISSIONERS, Convention, like Kings. - -COMMITTEE of Defence, Central, of Watchfulness, of Public Salvation, -Circular of, of the Constitution, Revolutionary. - -COMMUNE, Council-General of the, Sovereign of France, enlisting. - -CONDE, Prince de, attends Louis XV., departure of. - -CONDE, Town, surrender of. - -CONDORCET, Marquis, edits 'Moniteur,' Girondist, prepares Address, on -Robespierre, death of. - -CONSTITUTION, French, completed, will not march, burst in pieces, new, of -1793. - -CONVENTION, National, in what case to be summoned, demanded by some, -determined on, Deputies elected, constituted, motions in, work to be done, -hated, politeness, effervescence of, on September Massacres, guard for, try -the King, debate on trial, invite to revolt, condemn Louis, armed Girondins -in, power of, removes to Tuileries, besieged, June 2nd, 1793, extinction of -Girondins, Jacobins and, on forfeited property, Carmagnole, Goddess of -Reason, Representatives, at Feast of Etre Supreme, end of Robespierre, -retrospect of, Feraud, Germinal, Prairial, termination, its successor. - -CORDAY, Charlotte, account of, in Paris, assissinates Marat, examined, -executed. - -CORDELIERS, Club, Hebert in. - -COURT, Chevalier de. - -COUTHON, of Mountain, in Legislative, in National Convention, at Lyons, in -Salut Committee, his question in Jacobins, decree of, arrest and execution. - -COVENANT, Scotch, French. - -CRUSSOL, Marquise de, executed. - -CUISSA, massacre of, at La Force. - -CUSSY, Girondin, retreats to Bourdeaux. - -CUSTINE, General, takes Mentz, retreats, censured, guillotined, his son -guillotined. - -CUSTOMS and morals. - -DAMAS, Colonel Comte de, at Clermont, at Varennes. - -DAMPIERRE, General, killed. - -DAMPMARTIN, Captain, at riot in Rue St. Antoine, on condition of army, on -state of France, at Avignon, on Marseillese. - -DANDOINS, Captain, Flight to Varennes. - -DANTON, notice of, President of Cordeliers, and Marat, served with writs, -in Cordeliers Club, elected Councillor, Mirabeau of Sansculottes, in -Jacobins, for Deposition, of Committee, August Tenth, Minister of Justice, -after September massacre, after Jemappes, and Robespierre, in Netherlands, -at King's trial, on war, rebukes Marat, peace-maker, and Dumouriez, in -Salut Committee, breaks with Girondins, his law of Forty sous, and -Revolutionary Government, and Paris Municipality, retires to Arcis, and -Robespierre, arrested, tried, and guillotined. - -DAVID, Painter, in National Convention, works by, hemlock with Robespierre. - -DEMOCRACY, on Bunker Hill, spread of, in France. - -DEPARTMENTS, France divided into. - -DESEZE, Pleader for Louis. - -DESHUTTES massacred, Fifth October. - -DESILLES, Captain, in Nanci. - -DESLONS, Captain, at Varennes, would liberate the King. - -DESMOULINS, Camille, notice of, in arms at Cafe de Foy, on Insurrection of -Women, in Cordeliers Club, and Brissot, in National Convention, on -Sansculottism, on plots, suspect, for a committee of mercy, ridicules law -of the suspect, his Journal, trial of, guillotined, widow guillotined. - -DIDEROT, prisoner in Vincennes. - -DINNERS, defined. - -DOPPET, General, at Lyons. - -DROUET, Jean B., notice of, discovers Royalty in flight, raises Varennes, -blocks the bridge, defends his prize, rewarded, to be in Convention, -captured by Austrians. - -DUBARRY, Dame, and Louis XV., flight of, imprisoned. - -DUBOIS Crance bombards and captures Lyons. - -DUCHATEL votes, wrapped in blankets, at Caen. - -DUCOS, Girondin. - -DUGOMMIER, General, at Toulon. - -DUHAMEL, killed by Marseillese. - -DUMONT, on Mirabeau. - -DUMOURIEZ, notice by, account of him, in Brittany, at Nantes, in La Vendee, -sent for to Paris, Foreign Minister, dismissed, to Army, disobeys Luckner, -Commander-in-Chief, his army, Council of War, seizes Argonne Forest, Grand -Pre, and mutineers, and Marat in Paris, to Netherlands, at Jemappes, in -Paris, discontented, retreats, beaten, will join the enemy, arrests his -arresters, escapes to Austrians. - -DUPONT, Deputy, Atheist. - -DUPORT, Adrien, in Paris Parlement, in Constituent Assembly, one of a trio, -law-reformer. - -DUPORTAIL, in office. - -DUROSOY, Royalist, guillotined. - -DUSAULX, M., on taking of Bastille, notice of. - -DUTERTRE, in office. - -EDGEWORTH, Abbe, attends Louis, at execution of Louis. - -EGLANTINE, Fabre d', in National Convention, assists in New Calendar, -imprisoned. - -ELIE, Capt., at Siege of Bastille, after victory. - -ELIZABETH, Princess, flight to Varennes, August 10th, in Temple Prison, -guillotined. - -ENGLAND declares war on France, captures Toulon. - -ENRAGED Club, the. - -EQUALITY, reign of. - -ESCUYER, Patriot l', at Avignon. - -ESPREMENIL, Duval d', notice of, patriot, speaker in Paris Parlement, with -crucifix, discovers Brienne's plot, arrest and speech of, turncoat, in -Constituent Assembly, beaten by populace, guillotined, widow guillotined. - -ESTAING, Count d', notice of, National Colonel, Royalist, at Queen's Trial. - -ESTATE, Fourth, of Editors. - -ETOILE, beginning of Federation at. - -FAMINE, in France, in 1788-1792, Louis and Assembly try to relieve, in -1792, and remedy, remedy by maximum, &c. - -FAUCHET, Abbe, at siege of Bastille, his Te-Deums, his harangue on -Franklin, his Cercle Social, in First Parliament, motion by, doffs his -insignia, King's death, lamentation, will demit, trial of. - -FAUSSIGNY, sword in hand. - -FAVRAS, Chevalier, execution of. - -FEDERATION, spread of, of Champ-de-Mars, deputies to, human species at, -ceremonies of, a new, 1792. - -FERAUD, in National Convention, massacred there. - -FERSEN, Count, gets Berline built, acts coachman in King's flight. - -FEUILLANS, Club, denounce Jacobins, decline, extinguished, Battalion, -Justices and Patriotism. - -FINANCES, serious state of, how to be improved. - -FLANDERS, how Louis XV. conquers. - -FLANDRE, regiment de, at Versailles. - -FLESSELLES, Paris Provost, shot. - -FLEURIOT, Mayor, guillotined. - -FLEURY, Joly de, Controller of Finance. - -FONTENAI, Mme. - -FORSTER (FOSTER), and French soldier, account of. - -FOUCHE, at Lyons. - -FOULON, bad repute of, sobriquet, funeral of, alive, judged, massacred. - -FOURNIER, and Orleans Prisoners. - -FOY, Cafe de, revolutionary. - -FRANCE, abject, under Louis XV., Kings of, early history of, decay of -Kingship in, on accession of Louis XVI., and Philosophy, famine in, 1775, -state of, prior Revolution, aids America, in 1788, inflammable, July 1789, -gibbets, general overturn, how to reform, riotousness of, Mirabeau and, -after King's flight, petitions against Royalty, warfare of towns in, -European league against, terror of, in Spring 1792, decree of war, France -in danger, general enlisting, rage of, Autumn 1792, Marat's Circular, -September, Sansculottic, declaration of war, Mountain and Girondins divide, -communes of, coalition against, levy in mass. - -FRANKLIN, Ambassador to France, his death lamented, bust in Jacobins. - -FRENCH Anglomania, character of the, literature, in 1784, Parlements, -nature of, Mirabeau, type of the, mob, character of. - -FRERON, notice of, renegade, Gilt Youth of. - -FRETEAU, at Royal Session, arrested, liberated. - -FREYS, the Jew brokers, imprisoned. - -GALLOIS, to La Vendee. - -GAMAIN, Sieur, informer. - -GARAT, Minister of Justice. - -GENLIS, Mme., account of, and D'Orleans, to Switzerland. - -GENSONNE, Girondist, to La Vendee, arrested, trial of. - -GEORGES-CADOUDAL, in La Vendee. - -GEORGET, at taking of Bastille. - -GERARD, Farmer, Rennes deputy. - -GERLE, Dom, at Theot's. - -GERMINAL Twelfth, First of April 1795. - -GIRONDINS, origin of term, in National Convention, against Robespierre, on -King's trial, and Jacobins, formula of, favourers of, schemes of, to be -seized? break with Danton, armed against Mountain, accuse Marat, -departments, commission of twelve, commission broken, arrested, dispersed, -war by, retreat of eleven, trial and death of. - -GOBEL, Archbishop to be, renounces religion, arrested, guillotined. - -GOETHE, at Argonne, in Prussian retreat, at Mentz. - -GOGUELAT, Engineer, assists Louis's flight, intrigues. - -GONDRAN, captain of Guard. - -GORSAS, Journalist, pleads for Swiss, in National Convention, his house -broken into, guillotined. - -GOUJON, Member of Convention, in riot of Prairial, suicide of. - -GOUPIL, on extreme left. - -GOUVION, Major-General, at Paris, flight to Varennes, death of. - -GOVERNMENT, Maurepas's, bad state of French, French revolutionary, Danton -on. - -GRAVE, Chev. de, War Minister, loses head. - -GREGOIRE, Cure, notice of, in National Convention, detained in Convention, -and destruction of religion. - -GUADET, Girondin, cross-questions Ministers, arrested, guillotined. - -GUARDS, Swiss, and French, at Reveillon riot, French refuse to fire, come -to Palais-Royal, fire on Royal-Allemand, to Bastille, name changed, -National origin of, number of, Body at Versailles, October Fifth, fight, -fly in Chateau, Body, and French, at Versailles, National, at Nanci, -French, last appearance of, National, how commanded, 1791, Constitutional, -dismissed, Filles-St.-Thomas, routed, Swiss, at Tuileries, ordered to -cease, destroyed, eulogy of, Departmental, for National Convention. - -GUILLAUME, Clerk, pursues King. - -GUILLOTIN, Doctor, summoned by Paris Parlement, invents the guillotine, -deputed to King. - -GUILLOTINE invented, described, in action, to be improved, number of -sufferers by. - -HASSENFRATZ, in War-office. - -HEBERT, Editor of 'Pere Duchene,' signs petition, arrested, at Queen's -trial, quickens Revolutionary Tribunal, arrested, and guillotined, widow -guillotined. - -HENAULT, President, on Surnames. - -HENRIOT, General of National Guard, and the Convention, to deliver -Robespierre, seized, rescued, end of. - -HERBOIS, Collot d', notice of, in National Convention, at Lyons massacre, -in Salut Committee, attempt to assassinate, bullied at Jacobins, President, -night of Thermidor, accused, banished. - -HERITIER, Jerome l', shot at Versailles. - -HOCHE, Sergeant Lazare, General against Prussia, pacifies La Vendee, - -HONDSCHOOTEN, Battle of. - -HOTEL des Invalides, plundered. - -HOTEL de Ville, after Bastille taken, harangues at. - -HOUCHARD, General, unsuccessful. - -HOWE, Lord, defeats French. - -HUGUENIN, Patriot, tocsin in heart, 20th June 1792. - -HULIN, half-pay, at siege of Bastille. - -INISDAL'S, Count d', plot. - -INSURRECTION, most sacred of duties, of Women, of August Tenth, difficult, -of Paris, against Girondins, sacred right of, last Sansculottic, of -Baboeuf. - -ISNARD, Max, notice of, in First Parliament, on Ministers, to demolish -Paris. - -JACOB, Jean Claude, father of men. - -JACOBINS, Society, beginning of, Hall, described, and members, Journal &c., -of, daughters of, at Nanci, suppressed, Club increases, and Mirabeau, -prospers, 'Lords of the Articles,' extinguishes Feuillans, Hall enlarged, -described, and Marseillese, and Lavergne, message to Dumouriez, -missionaries in Army, on King's trial, on accusation of Robespierre, -against Girondins, National Convention and, Popular Tribunals of, purges -members, to become dominant, locked out by Legendre, begs back its keys, -decline of, mobbed, suspended, hunted down. - -JALES, Camp of, Royalists at, destroyed. - -JAUCOURT, Chevalier, and Liberty. - -JAY, Dame le. - -JONES, Paul, equipped for America, at Paris, account of, burial of. - -JOUNNEAU, Deputy, in danger in September. - -JOURDAN, General, repels Austria. - -JOURDAN, Coupe-tete, at Versailles, leader of Brigands, supreme in Avignon, -massacre by, flight of, guillotined. - -JULIEN, Sieur Jean, guillotined. - -KAUNITZ, Prince, denounces Jacobins. - -KELLERMANN, at Valmy. - -KLOPSTOCK, naturalised. - -KNOX, John, and the Virgin. - -KORFF, Baroness de, in flight to Varennes. - -LAFARGE, President of Jacobins, Madame Lavergne and. - -LAFAYETTE, bust of, erected, against Calonne, demands by, in Notables, -Cromwell-Grandison, Bastille time, Vice-President of National Assembly, -General of National Guard, resigns and reaccepts, Scipio-Americanus, -thanked, rewarded, French Guards and, to Versailles, Fifth October, at -Versailles, swears the Guards, Feuillant, on abolition of Titles, at Champ- -de-Mars Federation, at De Castries' riot, character of, in Day of Poniards, -difficult position of, at King's going to St. Cloud, resigns and reaccepts, -at flight from Tuileries, after escape of King, moves for amnesty, resigns, -decline of, doubtful against Jacobins, journey to Paris, to be accused, -flies to Holland. - -LAFLOTTE, poison-plot, informer. - -LAIS, Sieur, Jacobin, with Louis Philippe. - -LALLY, death of. - -LAMARCHE, guillotined. - -LAMARCK'S, illness of Mirabeau at. - -LAMBALLE, Princess de, to England, intrigues for Royalists, at La Force, -massacred. - -LAMETH, in Constituent Assembly, one of a trio, brothers, notice of, -Jacobins, Charles, Duke de Castries, brothers become constitutional, -Theodore, in First Parliament. - -LAMOIGNON, Keeper of Seals, dismissed, effigy burned, and death of. - -LAMOTTE, Countess de, and Diamond Necklace, in the Salpetriere, 'Memoirs' -burned, in London, M. de, in prison. - -LAMOURETTE, Abbe, kiss of, guillotined. - -LANJUINAIS, Girondin, clothes torn, arrested, recalled. - -LAPORTE, Intendant, guillotined. - -LARIVIERE, Justice, imprisoned. - -LA ROCHEJACQUELIN, in La Vendee, death of. - -LASOURCE, accuses Danton, president, and Marat, arrested, condemned. - -LATOUR-MAUBOURG, notice of. - -LAUNAY, Marquis de, Governor of Bastille, besieged, unassisted, to blow up -Bastille, massacred. - -LAVERGNE, surrenders Longwi. - -LAVOISIER, Chemist, guillotined. - -LAW, Martial, in Paris, Book of the. - -LAWYERS, their influence on the Revolution, number of, in Tiers Etat, in -Parliament First. - -LAZARE, Maison de St., plundered. - -LEBAS at Strasburg, arrested, - -LEBON, Priest, in National Convention, at Arras, guillotined. - -LECHAPELIER, Deputy, and Insurrection of Women. - -LECOINTRE, National Major, will not fight, active, in First Parliament. - -LEFEVRE, Abbe, distributes powder. - -LEGENDRE, in danger, at Tuileries riot, in National Convention, against -Girondins, for Danton, locks out Jacobins, in First of Prairial. - -LENFANT, Abbe, on Protestant claims, massacred. - -LEPELLETIER, Section for Convention, revolt of, in Vendemiaire. - -LETTRES-DE-CACHET, and Parlement of Paris. - -LEVASSEUR, in National Convention, Convention Representative. - -LIANCOURT, Duke de, Liberal, not a revolt, but a revolution. - -LIES, Philosophism on, to be extinguished, how. - -LIGNE, Prince de, death of. - -LILLE, Colonel Rouget de, Marseillese Hymn. - -LILLE, besieged. - -LINGUET, his 'Bastille Unveiled,' returns. - -LOISEROLLES, General, guillotined for his son. - -LONGWI, surrender of, fugitives at Paris. - -LORDS of the Articles, Jacobins as. - -LORRAINE Federes and the Queen, state of, in 1790. - -LOUIS XIV., l'etat c'est moi, booted in Parlement, pursues Louvois. - -LOUIS XV., origin of his surname, last illness of, dismisses Dame Dubarry, -Choiseul, wounded, has small-pox, his mode of conquest, impoverishes -France, his daughters, on death, on ministerial capacity, death and burial -of. - -LOUIS XVI., at his accession, good measures of, temper and pursuits of, -difficulties of, commences governing, and Notables, holds Royal Session, -receives States-General Deputies, in States-General procession, speech to -States-General, National Assembly, unwise policy of, dismisses Necker, -apprised of the Revolution, conciliatory, visits Assembly, Bastille, visits -Paris, deserted, will fly, languid, at Dinner of Guards, deposition of, -proposed, October Fifth, women deputies, to fly or not? grants the -acceptance, Paris propositions to, in the Chateau tumult, appears to mob, -will go to Paris, his wisest course, procession to Paris, review of his -position, lodged at Tuileries, Restorer of French Liberty, no hunting, -locksmith, schemes, visits Assembly, Federation, Hereditary Representative, -will fly, and D'Inisdal's plot, Mirabeau, useless, indecision of, ill of -catarrh, prepares for St. Cloud, hindered by populace, effect, should he -escape, prepares for flight, his circular, flies, letter to Assembly, -manner of flight, loiters by the way, detected by Drouet, captured at -Varennes, indecision there, return to Paris, reception there, to be -deposed? reinstated, reception of Legislative, position of, proposes war, -with tears, vetoes, dissolves Roland Ministry, in riot of, June 20, and -Petion, at Federation, with cuirass, declared forfeited, last levee of, -Tenth August, quits Tuileries for Assembly, in Assembly, sent to Temple -prison, in Temple, to be tried, and the Locksmith Gamain, at the bar, his -will, condemned, parting scene, and execution of, his son. - -LOUIS-PHILIPPE, King of the French, Jacobin door-keeper, at Valmy, bravery -at Jemappes, and sister, with Dumouriez to Austrians, to Switzerland. - -LOUSTALOT, Editor. - -LOUVET, his 'Chevalier de Faublas,' his 'Sentinelles,' and Robespierre, in -National Convention, Girondin accuses Robespierre, arrested, retreats to -Bourdeaux, escape of, recalled. - -LUCKNER, Supreme General, and Dumouriez, guillotined. - -LUNEVILLE, Inspector Malseigne at. - -LUX, Adam, guillotined. - -LYONS, Federation at, disorders in, Chalier, Jacobin, executed at, capture -of magazine, massacres at. - -MAILHE, Deputy, on trial of Louis. - -MAILLARD, Usher, at siege of Bastille, Insurrection of Women, drum, Champs -Elysees, entering Versailles, addresses National Assembly there, signs -Decheance petition, in September Massacres. - -MAILLE, Camp-Marshal, at Tuileries, massacred at La Force. - -MAILLY, Marshal, one of Four Generals. - -MALESHERBES, M. de, in King's Council, defends Louis. - -MALSEIGNE, Army Inspector, at Nanci, imprisoned, liberated. - -MANDAT, Commander of Guards, August, 1792. - -MANUEL, Jacobin, slow-sure, in August Tenth, in Governing Committee, -haranguing at La Force, in National Convention, motions in, vote at King's -trial, in prison, guillotined. - -MARAT, Jean Paul, horseleech to D'Artois, notice of, against violence, at -siege of Bastille, summoned by Constituent, not to be gagged, astir, how to -regenerate France, police and, on abolition of titles, would gibbet -Mirabeau, bust in Jacobins, concealed in cellars, in seat of honour, signs -circular, elected to Convention, and Dumouriez, oaths by, in Convention, on -sufferings of People, and Girondins, arrested, returns in triumph, fall of -Girondins. - -MARECHAL, Atheist, Calendar by. - -MARECHALE, the Lady, on nobility. - -MARSEILLES, Brigands at, on Decheance, the bar of iron, for Girondism. - -MARSEILLESE, March and Hymn of, at Charenton, at Paris, Filles-St.-Thomas -and, barracks. - -MASSACRE, Avignon, September, number slain in, compared to Bartholomew. - -MATON, Advocate, his 'Resurrection.' - -MAUPEOU, under Louis XV., and Dame Dubarry. - -MAUREPAS, Prime Minister, character of, government of, death of. - -MAURY, Abbe, character of, in Constituent Assembly, seized emigrating, -dogmatic, efforts fruitless, made Cardinal. - -MEMMAY, M., of Quincey, explosion of rustics. - -MENOU, General, arrest of. - -MENTZ, occupied by French, siege of, surrender of. - -MERCIER, on Paris revolting, Editor, the September Massacre, in National -Convention, King's trial. - -MERLIN of Thionville in Mountain, irascible, at Mentz. - -MERLIN of Douai, Law of Suspect. - -METZ, Bouille at, troops mutinous at. - -MEUDON tannery. - -MIOMANDRE de Ste. Marie, Bodyguard, October Fifth, left for dead, revives, -rewarded. - -MIRABEAU, Marquis, on the state of France in 1775, and his son, his death. - -MIRABEAU, Count, his pamphlets, the Notables, Lettres-de-Cachet against, -expelled by the Provence Noblesse, cloth-shop, is Deputy for Aix, king of -Frenchmen, family of, wanderings of, his future course, groaned at, in -Assembly, his newspaper suppressed, silences Usher de Breze, at Bastille -ruins, on Robespierre, fame of, on French deficit, populace, on veto, -Mounier, October Fifth, insight of, defends veto, courage, revenue of, -saleable? and Danton, on Constitution, at Jacobins, his courtship, on state -of Army, Marat would gibbet, his power in France, on D'Orleans, on -duelling, interview with Queen, speech on emigrants, the 'trente voix,' in -Council, his plans for France, probable career of, last appearance in -Assembly, anxiety of populace for, last sayings of, death and funeral of, -burial-place of, character of, last of Mirabeaus, bust in Jacobins, bust -demolished. - -MIRABEAU the younger, nicknamed Tonneau, in Constituent Assembly, breaks -his sword. - -MIRANDA, General, attempts Holland. - -MIROMENIL, Keeper of Seals. - -MOLEVILLE, Bertrand de, Historian, minister, his plan, frivolous policy of, -and D'Orleans, Jesuitic, concealed. - -MOMORO, Bookseller, agrarian, arrested, guillotined, his Wife, 'Goddess of -Reason.' - -MONGE, Mathematician, in office, assists in new Calendar. - -MONSABERT, G. de, President of Paris Parlement, arrested. - -MONTELIMART, covenant sworn at. - -MONTESQUIOU, General, takes Savoy. - -MONTGAILLARD, on captive Queen, on September Massacres. - -MONTMARTRE, trenches at. - -MONTMORIN, War-Secretary. - -MOORE, Doctor, at attack of Tuileries, at La Force. - -MORANDE, De, newspaper by, will return, in prison. - -MORELLET, Philosophe. - -MOUCHETON, M. de, of King's Bodyguard. - -MOUDON, Abbe, confessor to Louis XV. - -MOUNIER, at Grenoble, proposes Tennis-Court oath, October Fifth, President -of Constituent Assembly, deputed to King, dilemma of. - -MOUNTAIN, members of the, re-elected in National Convention, Gironde and, -favourers of the, vulnerable points of, prevails, Danton, Duperret, after -Gironde dispersed, in labour. - -MULLER, General, expedition to Spain. - -MURAT, in Vendemiaire revolt. - -NANCI, revolt at, description of town, deputation imprisoned, deputation of -mutineers, state of mutineers in, Bouille's fight, Paris thereupon, -military executions at, Assembly Commissioners. - -NANTES, after King's flight, massacres at. - -NAPOLEON Bonaparte (Buonaparte) studying mathematics, pamphlet by, -democratic, in Corsica, August Tenth, under General Cartaux, at Toulon, -Josephine and, at La Cabarus's, Vendemiaire. - -NARBONNE, Louis de, assists flight of King's Aunts, to be War-Minister, -demands by, secreted, escapes. - -NAVY, Louis XV. on French. - -NECKER, and finance, account of, dismissed, refuses Brienne, recalled, -difficulty as to States-General, reconvokes Notables, opinion of himself, -popular, dismissed, recalled, returns in glory, his plans, becoming -unpopular, departs, with difficulty. - -NECKLACE, Diamond. - -NERWINDEN, battle of. - -NIEVRE-CHOL, Mayor of Lyons. - -NOBLES, state of the, under Louis XV., new, join Third Estate. - -NOTABLES, Calonne's convocation of, assembled 22nd February 1787, members -of, effects of dismissal of, reconvoked, 6th November 1788, dismissed -again. - -NOYADES, Nantes. - -OCTOBER Fifth, 1789 - -OGE, condemned. - -ORLEANS, High Court at, prisoners massacred at Versailles. - -ORLEANS, a Duke d', in Louis XV.'s sick-room. - -ORLEANS, Philippe (Egalite), Duc d', Duke de Chartres (till 1785), waits on -Dauphin, Father, with Louis XV., not Admiral, wealth, debauchery, Palais- -Royal buildings, in Notables (Duke d'Orleans now), looks of, Bed-of- -Justice, 1787, arrested, liberated, in States-General Procession, joins -Third Estate, his party, in Constituent Assembly, Fifth October and, -shunned in England, Mirabeau, cash deficiency, use of, in Revolution, -accused by Royalists, at Court, insulted, in National Convention, decline -of, in Convention, vote on King's trial, at King's execution, arrested, -imprisoned, condemned, and executed. - -ORMESSON, d', Controller of Finance. - -PACHE, Swiss, account of, Minister of War, Mayor, dismissed, reinstated, -imprisoned. - -PAN, Mallet du, solicits for Louis. - -PANIS, Advocate, in Governing Committee, and Beaumarchais, confidant of -Danton. - -PANTHEON, first occupant of. - -PARENS, Curate, renounces religion. - -PARIS, origin of city, police in 1750, ship Ville-de-Paris, riot at Palais- -de-Justice, beautified, in 1788, election, 1789, troops called to, military -preparations in, July Fourteenth, cry for arms, search for arms, Bailly, -mayor of, trade-strikes in, Lafayette patrols, October Fifth, propositions -to Louis, Louis in, Journals, bill-stickers, undermined, after Champ-de- -Mars Federation, on Nanci affair, on death of Mirabeau, on flight to -Varennes, on King's return, Directory suspends Petion, enlisting, 1792, on -forfeiture of King, Sections, rising of, August Tenth, prepares for -insurrection, Municipality supplanted, statues destroyed, King and Queen to -prison, September, 1792, names printed on house-door, in insurrection, -Girondins, May 1793, Municipality in red caps, brotherly supper, Sections -to be abolished. - -PARIS, Guardsman, assassinates Lepelletier. - -PARIS, friend of Danton. - -PARLEMENT, patriotic, against Taxation, remonstrates, at Versailles, -arrested, origin of, nature of, corrupt, at Troyes, yields, Royal Session -in, how to be tamed, oath and declaration of, firmness of, scene in, and -dismissal of, reinstated, unpopular, summons Dr. Guillotin, abolished. - -PARLEMENTS, Provincial, adhere to Paris, rebellious, exiled, grand -deputations of, reinstated, abolished. - -PELTIER, Royalist Pamphleteer, 'Pere Duchene,' Editor of. - -PEREYRA (Peyreyra), Walloon, account of, imprisoned. - -PETION, account of, Dutch-built, and D'Espremenil, to be mayor, Varennes, -meets King, and Royalty, at close of Assembly, in London, Mayor of Paris, -in Twentieth June, suspended, reinstated, welcomes Marseillese, August -Tenth, in Tuileries, rebukes Septemberers, in National Convention, declines -mayorship, against Mountain, retreat to Bourdeaux, end of. - -PETION, National-Pique, christening of. - -PETITION of famishing French, at Fatherland's altar, of the Eight Thousand. - -PETITIONS, on capture of King, for deposition, &c. - -PHELIPPEAUX, purged out of the Jacobins. - -PHILOSOPHISM, influence of, on Revolution, what it has done with Church, -with Religion. - -PICHEGRU, General, account of, in Germinal. - -PILNITZ, Convention at. - -PIN, Latour du, War-Minister, dismissed. - -PITT, against France, and Girondins, inflexible. - -PLOTS, of King's flight, various, of Aristocrats, October Fifth, Royalist, -of Favras and others, cartels, Twelve bullies from Switzerland, D'Inisdal, -will-o'-wisp, Mirabeau and Queen, poniards, Mallet du Pan, Narbonne's, -traces of, in Armoire-de-Fer, against Girondins, Desmoulins on, prison. - -POLIGNAC, Duke de, a sinecurist, dismissed, at Bale, younger, in Ham. - -POMPIGNAN, President of National Assembly. - -POPE PIUS VI., excommunicates Talleyrand, his effigy burned. - -PRAIRIAL First to Third, May 20-22, 1795. - -PRECY, siege of, Lyons. - -PRIESTHOOD, disrobing of, costumes in Carmagnole. - -PRIESTLEY, Dr., riot against, naturalised, elected to National Convention. - -PRIESTS, dissident, marry in France, Anti-national, hanged, many killed -near the Abbaye, number slain in September Massacre, to rescue Louis, -drowned at Nantes. - -PRISONS, Paris, in Bastille time, full, August 1792, number of, in France, -state of, in Terror, thinned after Terror. - -PRISON, Abbaye, refractory Members sent to, Temple, Louis sent to, Abbaye, -Priests killed near, massacres at La Force, Chatelet, and Conciergerie. - -PROCESSION, of States-General Deputies, of Necker and D'Orleans busts, of -Louis to Paris, again, after Varennes, of Louis to trial, at Constitution -of 1793. - -PROVENCE Noblesse, expel Mirabeau. - -PRUDHOMME, Editor, on assassins, on Cavaignac. - -PRUSSIA, Fritz of, against France, army of, ravages France, King of, and -French Princes. - -PUISAYE, Girondin General, at Quiberon. - -QUERET-DEMERY, in Bastille. - -QUIBERON, debarkation at. - -RABAUT, St. Etienne, French Reformer, in National Convention, in Commission -of Twelve, arrested, between two walls, guillotined. - -RAYNAL, Abbe, Philosophe, his letter to Constituent Assembly. - -REBECQUI, of Marseilles, in National Convention, against Robespierre, -retires, drowns himself. - -REDING, Swiss, massacred. - -RELIGION, Christian, and French Revolution, abolished, Clootz on, a new. - -REMY, Cornet, at Clermont. - -RENAULT, Cecile, to assassinate Robespierre, guillotined. - -RENE, King, bequeathed Avignon to Pope. - -RENNES, riot in. - -RENWICK, last of Cameronians. - -REPAIRE, Tardivet du, Bodyguard, Fifth October, rewarded. - -REPRESENTATIVES, Paris, Town. - -REPUBLIC, French, first mention of, first year of, established, universal, -Clootz's, Girondin, one and indivisible, its triumphs. - -RESSON, Sieur, reports Lafayette to Jacobins. - -REVEILLON, house destroyed. - -REVOLT, Paris, in, of Gardes Francaises, becomes Revolution, military, -what, of Lepelletier section. - -REVOLUTION, French, causes of the, Lord Chesterfield on the, not a revolt, -meaning of the term, whence it grew, general commencement of, prosperous -characters in, Philosophes and, state of army in, progress of, duelling in, -Republic decided on, European powers and, Royalist opinion of, cardinal -movements in, Danton and the, changes produced by the, effect of King's -death on, Girondin idea of, suspicion in, Terror and, and Christian -religion, Revolutionary Committees, Government doings in, Robespierre -essential to, end of. - -RHEIMS, in September massacre. - -RICHELIEU, at death of Louis XV., death of. - -RIOT, Paris, in May 1750, Cornlaw (in 1775), at Palais de Justice (1787), -triumph, of Rue St. Antoine, of July Fourteenth (1789), and Bastille, at -Strasburg, Paris, on the veto, Versailles Chateau, October Fifth (1789), -uses of, to National Assembly, Paris, on Nanci affair, at De Castries' -Hotel, on flight of King's Aunts, at Vincennes, on King's proposed journey -to St. Cloud, in Champ-de-Mars, with sharp shot, Paris, Twentieth June, -1792, August Tenth, 1792, Grain, Paris, at Theatre de la Nation, selling -sugar, of Thermidor, 1794, of Germinal, 1795, of Prairial, final, of -Vendemiaire. - -RIOUFFE, Girondin, to Bourdeaux, in prison, on death of Girondins, on Mme. -Roland. - -ROBESPIERRE, Maximilien, account of, derided in Constituent Assembly, -Jacobin, incorruptible, on tip of left, elected public accuser, after -King's flight, at close of Assembly, at Arras, position of, plans in 1792, -chief priest of Jacobins, invisible on August Tenth, reappears, on -September Massacre, in National Convention, accused by Girondins, accused -by Louvet, acquitted, King's trial, Condorcet on, at Queen's trial, in -Salut Committee, and Paris Municipality, embraces Danton, Desmoulins and, -and Danton, Danton on, at trial, his three scoundrels, supreme, to be -assassinated, at Feast of Etre Supreme, apocalyptic, Theot, on Couthon's -plot-decree, reserved, his schemes, fails in Convention, applauded at -Jacobins, accused, rescued, at Townhall, declared out of law, half-killed, -guillotined, essential to Revolution. - -ROBESPIERRE, Augustin, decreed accused, guillotined. - -ROCHAMBEAU, one of Four Generals, retires. - -ROCHE-AYMON, Grand Almoner of Louis XV. - -ROCHEFOUCAULT, Duke de la, Liberal, President of Directory, killed. - -ROEDERER, Syndic, Feuillant, 'Chronicle of Fifty Days,' on Federes -Ammunition, dilemma at Tuileries, August 10th. - -ROHAN, Cardinal, Diamond Necklace. - -ROLAND, Madame, notice of, at Lyons, narrative by, in Paris, after King's -flight, and Barbaroux, public dinners and business, character of, -misgivings of, accused, Girondin declining, arrested, condemned and -guillotined. - -ROLAND, M., notice of, in Paris, Minister, letter, and dismissal of, -recalled, decline of, on September Massacres, and Pache, doings of, -resigns, flies, suicide of. - -ROMME, in National Convention, in Caen prison, his new Calendar, in riot of -Prairial, 1795, suicide. - -ROMOEUF, pursues King. - -RONSIN, General of Revolutionary Army, arrested and guillotined. - -ROSIERE, Thuriot de la, summons Bastille, in First Parliament, in National -Convention, President at Robespierre's fall. - -ROSSIGNOL, in September Massacre, in La Vendee. - -ROUSSEAU, Jean-Jacques, Contrat Social of, Gospel according to, burial- -place of, statue decreed to. - -ROUX, M., 'Histoire Parlementaire.' - -ROYALTY, signs of demolished, abolition of. - -RUAMPS, Deputy, against Couthon. - -RUHL, notice of, in riot of Prairial, suicide. - -SABATIER de Cabre, at Royal Session, arrested, liberated. - -ST. ANTOINE to Versailles, Warhorse supper, Nanci affair, at Vincennes, at -Jacobins, and Marseillese, August Tenth. - -ST. CLOUD, Louis prohibited from. - -ST. DENIS, Mayor of, hanged. - -ST. FARGEAU, Lepelletier, in National Convention, at King's trial, -assassinated, burial of. - -ST. HURUGE, Marquis, bull-voice, imprisoned, at Versailles, and Pope's -effigy, at Jacobins, on King's trial. - -ST. JUST in National Convention, on King's trial, in Salut Committee, at -Strasburg, repels Prussians, on Revolution, in Committee-room, Thermidor, -his report, arrested. - -ST. LOUIS Church, States-General procession from. - -ST. MEARD, Jourgniac de, in prison, his 'Agony' at La Force. - -ST. MERY, Moreau de, prostrated. - -SALLES, Deputy, guillotined. - -SANSCULOTTISM, apparition of, effects of, growth of, at work, origin of -term, and Royalty, above theft, a fact, French Nation and, Revolutionary -Tribunal and, how it lives, consummated, fall of, last rising of, death of. - -SANTERRE, Brewer, notice of, at siege of Bastille, at Tuileries, June -Twentieth, meets Marseillese, Commander of Guards, how to relieve famine, -at King's trial, at King's execution, fails in La Vendee, St. Antoine -disarmed. - -SAPPER, Fraternal. - -SAUSSE, M., Procureur of Varennes, scene at his house, flies from -Prussians. - -SAVONNIERES, M., de, Bodyguard, October Fifth, loses temper. - -SAVOY, occupied by French. - -SECHELLES, Herault de, in National Convention, leads Convention out, -arrested and guillotined. - -SECTIONS, of Paris, denounce Girondins, Committee of. - -SEIGNEURS, French, compelled to fly. - -SERGENT, Agate, Engraver, in Committee, nicknamed 'Agate,' signs circular. - -SERVAN, War-Minister, proposals of. - -SEVRES, Potteries, Lamotte's 'Memoires' burnt at. - -SICARD, Abbe, imprisoned, in danger near the Abbaye, account of massacre -there. - -SIDE, Right and Left, of Constituent Assembly, Right and Left, tip of Left, -popular, Right after King's flight, Right quits Assembly, Right and Left in -First Parliament. - -SIEYES, Abbe, account of, Constitution-builder, in Champ-de-Mars, in -National Convention, of Constitution Committee, 1790, vote at King's trial, -making fresh Constitution. - -SILLERY, Marquis. - -SIMON, Cordwainer, Dauphin committed to, guillotined. - -SIMONEAU, Mayor of Etampes, death of, festival for. - -SOMBREUIL, Governor of Hotel des Invalides, examined, seized, saved by his -daughter, guillotined, his son shot. - -SPAIN, at war with France, invaded by France. - -STAAL, Dame de, on liberty. - -STAEL, Mme. de, at States-General procession, intrigue for Narbonne, -secretes Narbonne. - -STANHOPE and Price, their club and Paris. - -STATES-GENERAL, first suggested, meeting announced, how constituted, orders -in, Representatives to, Parlements against, Deputies to, in Paris, number -of Deputies, place of Assembly, procession of, installed, union of orders. - -STRASBURG, riot at, in 1789. - -SUFFREN, Admiral, notice of. - -SULLEAU, Royalist, editor, massacred. - -SUSPECT, Law of the, Chaumette jeered on. - -SWEDEN, King of, to assist Marie Antoinette, shot by Ankarstrom. - -SWISS Guards at Brest, prisoners at La Force. - -TALLEYRAND-PERIGORD, Bishop, notice of, at fatherland's altar, his -blessing, excommunicated, in London, to America. - -TALLIEN, notice of, editor of 'Ami des Citoyens,' in Committee of Townhall, -August 1792, in National Convention, at Bourdeaux, and Madame Cabarus, -recalled, suspect, accuses Robespierre, Thermidorian. - -TALMA, actor, his soiree. - -TANNERY of human skins, improvements in. - -TARGET, Advocate, declines King's defence. - -TASSIN, M., and black cockade. - -TENNIS-COURT, National Assembly in, Club of, and procession to, master of, -rewarded. - -TERROR, consummation of, reign of, designated, number guillotined in. - -THEATINS Church, granted to Dissidents. - -THEOT, Prophetess, on Robespierre. - -THERMIDOR, Ninth and Tenth, July 27 and 28, 1794. - -THEROIGNE, Mlle., notice of, in Insurrection of Women, at Versailles -(October Fifth), in Austrian prison, in Jacobin tribune, armed for -insurrection (August Tenth), keeps her carriage, fustigated, insane. - -THIONVILLE besieged, siege raised. - -THOURET, Law-reformer, dissolves Assembly, guillotined. - -THOUVENOT and Dumouriez. - -TINVILLE, Fouquier, revolutionist, Jacobin, Attorney-General in Tribunal -Revolutionnaire, at Queen's trial, at trial of Girondins, at trial of Mme. -Roland, at trial of Danton, and Salut Public, his prison-plots, his -batches, the prisons under, mock doom of, at trial of Robespierre, accused, -guillotined. - -TOLLENDAL, Lally, pleads for father, in States-General, popular, crowned. - -TORNE, Bishop. - -TOULON, Girondin, occupied by English, besieged, surrenders. - -TOULONGEON, Marquis, notice of, on Barnave triumvirate, describes Jacobins -Hall. - -TOURNAY, Louis, at siege of Bastille. - -TOURZELLE, Dame de, escape of. - -TRONCHET, Advocate, defends King. - -TUILERIES, Louis XVI. lodged at, a tile-field, Twentieth June at, tickets -of entry, 'Coblentz,' Marseillese chase Filles-Saint-Thomas to, August -Tenth, King quits, attacked, captured, occupied by National Convention. - -TURGOT, Controller of France, on Corn-law, dismissed, death of. - -TYRANTS, French people rise against. - -UNITED STATES, declaration of Liberty, embassy to Louis XVI., aided by -France, of Congress in. - -USHANT, battle off. - -VALADI, Marquis, Gardes Francaises and, guillotined. - -VALAZE, Girondin, on trial of Louis, plots at his house, trial of, kills -himself. - -VALENCIENNES, besieged, surrendered. - -VARENNE, Maton de la, his experiences in September. - -VARIGNY, Bodyguard, massacred. - -VARLET, 'Apostle of Liberty,' arrested. - -VENDEE, La, Commissioners to, state of, in 1792, insurrection in, war, -after King's death, on fire, pacificated. - -VENDEMIAIRE, Thirteenth, October 4, 1795. - -VERDUN, to be besieged, surrendered. - -VERGENNES, M. de, Prime Minister, death of. - -VERGNIAUD, notice of, August Tenth, orations of, President at King's -condemnation, in fall of Girondins, trial of, at last supper of Girondins. - -VERMOND, Abbe de. - -VERSAILLES, death of Louis XV. at, in Bastille time, National Assembly at, -troops to, march of women on, of French Guards on, insurrection scene at, -the Chateau forced, prisoners massacred at. - -VIARD, Spy. - -VILATE, Juryman, guillotined, book by. - -VILLARET-JOYEUSE, Admiral, defeated by Howe. - -VILLEQUIER, Duke de, emigrates. - -VINCENNES, riot at, saved by Lafayette. - -VINCENT, of War-Office, arrested, guillotined. - -VOLTAIRE, at Paris, described, burial-place of. - -WAR, civil, becomes general. - -WASHINGTON, key of Bastille sent to, formula for Lafayette. - -WATIGNY, Battle of. - -WEBER, in Insurrection of Women, Queen leaving Vienna. - -WESTERMANN, August Tenth, purged out of the Jacobins, tried and -guillotined. - -WIMPFEN, Girondin General. - -YORK, Duke of, besieges Valenciennes and Dunkirk. - -YOUNG, Arthur, at French Revolution. - - - -End of this Project Gutenberg Etext of The French Revolution A History by -Thomas Carlyle - |