The French Revolution: A History

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.