[1792 A.D.] France who has proposed and supported the dictatorship, as the sole means of crushing traitors and conspirators. I am alone to blame or to be condemned for this. But first hear me. "Amidst the machinations of a perfidious king, an abominable court, and of false patriots, who sold the cause of liberty in two successive assemblies, can you reproach me with having imagined the only means of public safety, with having invoked the hatchet of popular vengeance on the guilty heads? No, you dare not. The people would disavow you the people, who, at length, in order to escape from tyrants and traitors, felt the necessity of turning dictator itself. "Believe me, I shuddered as much as any of you at these terrible insurrections; and it was to obviate the necessity of their recurrence that I wished to see the popular force guided by one firm hand. Had this been understood at the taking of the Bastille, five hundred heads would have fallen, and tranquillity would have been secured. But no; events were left to themselves, and vengeance was abandoned to the people. And what has been the consequence? A hundred thousand patriots have been slaughtered, and a hundred thousand more are menaced with a similar fate. At any rate, to prove to you that the dictator, or the triumvir, which I recommended, was not to answer to the vulgar idea of a tyrant, my proposal was that his authority should last but for a few days; that his only office should be to condemn traitors; and that this dread magistrate himself should have always a cannon-ball attached to his leg, in order that he might continue under the hand of the people. Such was the dream of my patriotism; and if your intellects have not elevation enough to comprehend it, so much the worse for you." While some were disgusted with the arrogance and blood-thirstiness of this speech, and others amused even to laughter by his impertinence, the too flexible majority were struck by the ferocious energy of Marat's character and views. The new deputies of the Plain, who had hitherto looked with abhorrence on the monster, here submitted to listen and learned to tolerate him. Boileau read an address to the people, signed Marat, and published that very morning. Its tenor was as follows: "Fifty years of anarchy are before us; and the only way of avoiding them is by appointing a dictator, a true patriot and statesman. O babbling people, did you but know how to act! An indescribable tumult took place on the perusal of this pithy address. "To prison with the wretch! to the guillotine!" was the general cry. The accusation of Marat was proposed. He again demanded to be heard, and once more took possession of the tribune with increased confidence and effrontery. "As to that writing which the member has denounced, I am far from disavowing it. A falsehood has never passed my lips, and fear is a stranger to my heart." Nevertheless Marat proceeded to state that the address just produced was written a week back, and suppressed, but republished that morning against his knowledge by his printer. Marat read them a more moderate article from a new journal which he had just commenced: “Had I not written a moderate paragraph this morning, you would have delivered me over to the sword of justice. But no, I had still a mode of escape from persecution. With this," said he, drawing forth a pistol, and putting it to his forehead, "I would have blown out my brains at this tribune. Such was to have been the reward of three years' sufferings, imprisonments, wakings and watchings, fears and labours, privations and dangers. As it is, however, I shall remain amongst you, and brave your fury." [1792 A.D.] Had the Gironde remained firm, and pressed the condemnation, at least of Marat, the final victory might have been on its side; but they gave up the struggle, in lassitude, or in contempt of their enemies; deeming, unwisely, that the thunders of their eloquence were sufficient to blight the brows and humble the power of the Jacobins. The newly returned deputies, who occupied the Plain, learned in this famous debate that the Jacobins were not altogether the monsters which they had been represented; or, if this was difficult, they at least saw that there was firmness, conviction, and even talent, in their monstrosity. The influence of the Gironde was shaken. The termination of this long and fiery debate proves forcibly this effect. It ended by a decree, declaring the republic one and indivisible; thus guarding, as it were, against the supposed federalism of the Gironde, rather than against the renewal of massacre and the establishment of a dictatorship by the Mountain. Nothing could be more inconsequential and absurd than such a vote succeeding such a debate; nor can anything more strongly paint the vacillation of the assembly and the weakness of its leading party. Whilst all the attention and zeal of the national assembly were spent in these quarrels, the Prussians were still at Ste. Menehould. But not even the menacing presence of a foreign enemy could distract the Mountain and the Gironde from the canine combat in which they tore each other, and struggled for mastery. Day after day it was renewed. The convention called for the accounts of the commune, and ordered its minister to draw up a report, which fully disclosed the system of fraud, murder, and anarchy established at the Hôtel-de-Ville. Yet, in spite of this, the municipality held its ground, and defied the efforts of its enemies. The national convention at this time had the singular infelicity of displaying at once all the disadvantage of party, as well as all the disadvantages of wanting it. The public weal and fortunes were absolutely forgotten in the struggle betwixt personal foes; and at the same time there was so little concert, foresight, and party organisation, that the Gironde was continually marred and crossed in its attempts to restore order and consolidate liberty by the trimming timid inertness of the Centre or Plain. On the 29th of October, after hearing one of the courageous reports of the home-minister, an anonymous letter was read, giving an account of the efforts of the Jacobins to blacken the Gironde and excite a new insurrection to get rid of the cabal Roland. "They will hear of none but Robespierre," continued the letter. ROBESPIERRE ADDRESSING THE ASSEMBLY The passions of the Girondists were excited. Louvet rushed to the tribune, instantly and solemnly accused Robespierre, and poured forth an extemporaneous philippic of unusual force and eloquence. He commenced by relating the rise of the anarchists, whom he described as "a party feeble in number and in means, strong in boldness and immorality," appearing in the club of the Jacobins not earlier than the January preceding, and soon [1792 A.D.] driving the Girondists from them by their violence and the noisy aid of the galleries. "At first," continued Louvet, "they astonished rather than disquieted us, until we saw them commence to make war upon all talent, all distinction, all who were not of their coterie. They soon set up an idol in Robespierre. "But what are their claims to popularity and rule? The insurrection of the 10th of August, which they attribute solely to themselves. I tell them, the revolution of that day belongs to us all-to the faubourgs, that rose to a man; to the brave federals, whom these men refused to admit within the walls. The revolution of the 10th of August belongs to the two hundred courageous deputies who issued the decree suspending Louis. To us all belongs the glory of the 10th of August. But that of the 2nd of September, atrocious conspirators, is yours-all yours-yours alone! Ye have made it your claim and your boast. Ye have named us, in your sanguinary pride, the patriots of August; yourselves, the patriots of September! May the distinction endure, for our justification and your eternal shame! "The people, ye say, participated in these murders. Else, ask ye, why did they not prevent them? Why? Because the tutelary authority of Pétion was chained; because Roland spoke in vain; because Danton, minister of justice, did not speak at all; because the presidents of the forty-eight sections, ready to repress such disorders, waited for the summons that never arrived; because the officers of the municipality, wearing their scarfs of office, presided at these executions. But the legislative assembly? Representatives of the people! avenge its powerlessness. For that powerlessness, to which your predecessors were then reduced, was, even amongst the enormous crimes of the day, the most audacious and most fatal of all. What could the legislative assembly do-tormented, degraded, menaced by an insolent demagogue, who came to the bar to dictate its decrees; who returned to the commune but to denounce it; and who dared to threaten the executive council with the tocsin ?" This vehement apostrophe roused to such a pitch the indignation of the assembly against Robespierre, that his instant condemnation seemed inevitable. For a long time it refused even to hear his defence; which, nevertheless, when quiet was restored, he was utterly unable to enter upon. He demanded a week to prepare it, and his demand was granted. A week, however, was more than sufficient to allow the passion of the majority to subside; and when Robespierre appeared to pronounce his elaborate defence he no longer addressed an exasperated audience. Applauses as loud as those which cheered the resentment of Louvet hailed his reply. Louvet in vain sought to resume his accusation. The accusation was set aside by the order of the day, and the defence of Robespierre was ordered to be printed. During this war of parties, Dumouriez paid a short visit to the capital. He was welcomed at the bar of the convention with applauses and embraces; in society, with fêtes, as the hero of the day. His aim was to stand well with all parties, in consequence of which both the most austere of the Gironde and the most ferocious of the Mountain suspected him. He had punished a regiment of his revolutionary soldiers for massacring some emigrant deserters. The Jacobins commissioned Marat to question the general on the subject; and Marat chose the moment when Dumouriez was present at a ball given in his honour, to intrude in his office of inquisitor. "It is you whom they call Marat," observed Dumouriez to the monster's summons; "I cannot hold converse with such a person.' Still the general preserved his intimacy with Danton, who, though his hands were deeply imbrued in September's blood, [1792 A.D.] was not yet decided to join the knot of Robespierre, and who wavered betwixt the anarchists and the Gironde. Dumouriez, as well as every historian of the Revolution, censures the Gironde for not having conciliated Danton, who alone could have combated Robespierre. But they abhorred the minister of massacre. BATTLE OF JEMMAPES (NOVEMBER 6TH, 1792) The victorious general cared, indeed, little for either party: his only thought was conquest; his plan, to invade and subdue Belgium. It was to cause the adoption of this, and to prepare the means, that he visited Paris. The moment was one of elation. Custine had taken the important fortress of Manz, the key of the Rhine, by surprise; Savoy and Nice were occupied by French armies; the Austrians had retreated from Lille,1 as the Russians from Valmy; and Dumouriez was determined, despite the lateness of the season, to assume the offensive. The Austrians, about 25,000 strong, occupied several villages upon heights in front of Mons: the central village was Jemmapes. Despite these advantages in being entrenched and long stationed on the ground, Dumouriez attacked them on the 6th of November; his right, his centre, and his left each formed in column of attack. Both wings hesitated as they came into action. A brigade suddenly gave way; the habitude of sudden panic had not yet been forgotten by the French; and the entire body of the centre, suffering under the fire of the Austrian batteries, offered symptoms of backwardness and disorder. Had the Austrians been alert, a charge would have here told more effectually than all the batteries of Mons: one brave man, however, rallied the brigade. It is a singular proof of the revolutionary confusion of ranks, that the hero who rode up to this brigade, and brought it to resume at once its position and its sense of duty, was Renaud, a valet in the service of General Dumouriez. The centre itself was rallied by its commander, an officer of more illustrious birth, the then duke of Chartres, later duke of Orleans, and king of the French. Forming the most willing and brave into a close column, the young duke led them on to the attack of Jemmapes; their reawakened ardour carried everything before them, and drove the Austrians from their redoubts. The left being at the same time successful, the victory was complete. The vanquished lost 6,000 men, and Belgium fell at once into the possession of Dumouriez. That general made his triumphant entry into Brussels on the 14th of November. THE KING IS BROUGHT TO TRIAL (DECEMBER, 1792) It was at this moment of universal triumph over foreign enemies, that the republicans felt all their vindictive fury excited against the unfortunate Louis XVI. If the insurrection of August and the massacre of September had each its excuse in the danger and panic excited by foreign invasion, [1 Of the vain siege of Lille, Carlyle says: "The Austrian Archduchess (Queen's Sister) will herself see red artillery fired: in their overhaste 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 sherd of it, introduced soap and lather into it, crying Voilà mon plat à 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 |