Girondist Ministers, with Roland at their head, resigned their offices, June 13, 1792; and Madame Roland severely censured the king in a letter. These proceedings excited the frenzy of the French people and enabled the Revolutionists to bring about an insurrection. On the 20th of June, the anniversary of the Tennis Court, a furious mob, armed with scythes, clubs, axes, forks and pikes, and headed by the brewer Santerre and the butcher Legendre, entered the Tuileries for the purpose of compelling the king to approve of the decrees against the unsworn priests and for calling out the National Guard. For several hours the king bore the insults of the mob, who even went so far as to take off his diadem and put the red cap of the Jacobins on his head, until the appearance of the National Guard under Pétion freed him from danger. The plots of the Emigrants and the Austro-Prussian invasion of France caused the Assembly to declare the country in danger; and, in response to the call of the Jacobin leaders-Robespierre, Danton and Marat-the "federal army" mustered throughout France. The vilest wretches, many of them ex-convicts, hastened to Paris, singing the Revolutionary song just written by Rouget de l'Isle, and named the Marseillaise, because it was published at Marseilles. The following is an English translation of the Marseillaise: "Ye sons of France, awake to glory! Hark, hark, what myriads bid you rise! CHORUS. "To arms, to arms, ye brave! Th' avenging sword unsheath. March on, march on, all hearts resolved "Now, now the dangerous storm is rolling, And shall we basely view the ruin, While lawless Force, with guilty stride, "With luxury and pride surrounded, The vile, infatuate despots dare- Insurrec tion of June 20, 1792. The Federal Army. Marseil laise. Invasion The Like beasts of burden would they load us— "O Liberty! can man resign thee, Once having felt thy generous flame? Austro- Near the close of July, 1792, an Austro-Prussian army of one hunPrussian dred and forty thousand men, commanded by Duke Ferdinand of of France. Brunswick, the celebrated commander of the British and Hanoverian forces in the Seven Years War, passed the eastern frontier of France and marched into Lorraine. Before advancing into France, the Duke of Brunswick, at the proposal of one of the Emigrants, had issued an Duke of insolent proclamation demanding that the French submit to their lawful sovereign, threatening to lay Paris in ashes if the royal family were harmed, and promising to obtain a free pardon from their sovereign for their rebellious conduct if they submitted. The insolent tone of this proclamation tended to inflame the mad fury of the Revolutionists in Paris and excited in the French people the fiercest rage against the Emigrants and their foreign allies. Bruns wick's Proclamation. Violent of the the Federal Volun teers and the Such Jacobin leaders as Robespierre, Marat, Danton and Camille Courses Desmoulins harangued the Parisian populace and inflamed their rage. Jacobins, These demagogues called to Paris from Marseilles, Brest and other French maritime towns the very dregs of society and resolved upon a general insurrection in the capital. On August 3d (1792) the Sections of Paris, headed by Pétion, proceeded to the Assembly and demanded the instant dethronement of Louis XVI. The federal Sections. volunteers made the same demand on the 6th (August, 1792). The Assembly hesitated and finally resolved by a large majority not to arrest the king or bring him to trial. This action of the Assembly so infuriated the Sections that they resolved to take the matter in their own hands, and after they had secured the municipal government of Paris they proceeded to execute their purpose. Paris The Tenth of August. Before daylight on the 10th of August (1792) a frantic mob led by Danton appeared before the Tuileries, which was defended by nine hundred Swiss guards and the Parisian National Guard. The mob pointed their cannon toward the palace; and the National Guard, unwilling to fire upon the multitude, dispersed. The mob, gradually becoming bolder, finally demanded the dethronement of the king. Here upon the king and his family fled to the hall of the Assembly, where they remained for thirty-six hours. No sooner had the king left the Tuileries than the mob pressed forward and endeavored to force an entrance into the palace; whereupon the Swiss guards fired upon the multitude, who were driven back with a loss of two hundred men. The indignant Assembly, hearing the fire of musketry, required the king to order his guards to cease firing upon the people. No sooner was the order carried into execution than the infuriated mob stormed the palace, massacred without mercy all whom they found in it and destroyed the furniture. About five thousand persons, seven hundred of whom were Swiss guards, fell victims to the rage of the mob. Fall of Monarchy and Im prisonthe Royal Family. ment of The bloody event of the 10th of August was the death-blow to the monarchy in France. In the meantime the Legislative Assembly, at the demand of the triumphant mob and at the proposal of Vergniaud, the president of that body, suspended the royal authority and issued a call for the assembling of a National Convention on the 22d of September, 1792. On August 13 (1792) the king and his family were imprisoned in the Temple, a gloomy old building, which had once belonged to the Knights-Templars; and the Paris Commune virtually ruled France. After the king had been deprived of his authority the Assembly appointed a new Ministry with the Girondist Roland at its Roland's head. The frightful Danton held the office of Minister of Justice. The Ministry and the Common Council of Paris, which appointed Ministry. pikemen to the police of the capital, managed everything their own way. A Committee of Safety under the presidency of Marat was established, which inaugurated an infamous system of espionage and domiciliary visitation for the purpose of detecting conspiracies against the state. A Revolutionary Tribunal of nine judges was created to try persons accused of conspiracy against the state, and it was governed by martial law, while its decisions were final. Lafayette, who had hastened to Paris after the insurrection of June for the purpose of saving the king, if possible, was now ordered to appear before the Assembly to answer for his conduct. Rightly believing that the Jacobines were resolved upon his destruction, Lafayette fled into the Austrian Netherlands with the intention of escaping to America; but he was seized by the Austrians, who kept him a prisoner for five years in the dungeons of Magdeburg and Olmütz. Talleyrand fled to England, and thence to America, where he remained until the sanguinary period of the Revolution was over, when he returned to his native country. The capture of Longwy and Verdun by the Prussians infuriated the Parisians. Danton declared it necessary to crush all opposition by Second Girondist Committee of Safety and Revolutionary Tribunal. Flight and Exile of Lafayette Talley and rand. tember Massacres. It had The Sep- striking terror into the Royalists at home, and three thousand persons were arrested and imprisoned in one night, August 30, 1792. been determined from the first to put these prisoners to death; and at three o'clock in the morning of September 2 (1792) the tocsin was sounded; whereupon three hundred hired assassins, under the direction of Marat, Danton and Robespierre, broke open the prisons and commenced a frightful massacre of the unfortunate inmates. Twentyfour priests who refused to take the Revolutionary oath were cut to pieces. During the massacres the assassins, stained with blood, established courts for the trial of their victims; and the fate of each was decided in the course of a few minutes. Reign of The Guillotine. By these five days' September massacres (September 2-7, 1792) about three thousand persons were massacred in the different prisons of Paris; women, children, paupers and lunatics being slaughtered for no other conceivable reason than a thirst for blood. The Reign of Terror had fairly begun; and the guillotine, an instrument for beheading, named in derision after Dr. Guillotin, a member of the Legislative Assembly, was set up beneath the windows of the king's prison. Among Princess its first victims was the Princess de Lamballe, the friend of Queen Marie Antoinette. A band of pikemen held the head of the murdered princess upon a pole before the window of the queen, who fell into frightful convulsions at the horrid spectacle. The same bloody scenes were enacted at Meaux, Rheims, Lyons and Orleans. The monarchy in France was now completely overthrown, and the French Legislative Assembly ended its sittings on the 20th of September, 1792. de Lam balle Murdered. National tion and the First French SECTION IV.-REPUBLICAN FRANCE UNDER THE NA- THE French Legislative Assembly was succeeded by a National Convention, which assembled at Paris on the 22d of September, 1792. On the very first day of its meeting the Convention decreed that royalty was abolished in France and a Republic was proclaimed. The ConRepublic. vention also enacted that time, instead of being reckoned from the birth of Christ, should thereafter be reckoned from the 22d of September, 1792, the birthday of the French Republic. All titles were abolished, and men were to be called citizen and women citizeness. Thomas The Convention also condemned the Emigrants to perpetual banishment, and threatened them with death if they returned to France or were taken in arms. One of the members of the Convention was Thomas Paine, who had come to France to aid the Revolution, as he had before gone to help the establishment of liberty in America, and Paine in the Conven tion. |