1793.

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the members. In vain the Girondists cried to the president to cover himself or quit the chair, the assembly being no longer free, no longer consisting of representatives. Hérault de Sechelles, who presided, persisted in putting the question, that the commission of twelve be broken and Hebert liberated. The mob voted with the members, and the motion was carried.

On the morrow, the 28th, the first act of the majority wa to protest that the decree had not passed, and that the com mission of twelve was consequently still in force. The convention was of this opinion; the motion voted by the intruding rabble was reversed; but, at the same time, the majority betrayed their fears, and sought as usual a compromise with the populace. Thus, while they preserved the obnoxious commission, they undid its acts, and deprived it of all force by ordering Hebert and the prisoners to be released. Such weakness emboldened, but did not conciliate the people; while it utterly discouraged the already wavering supporters of order and the convention. The anarchists in the commune found their public assemblies unfit to organize the final act of sedition; and accordingly they appointed a committee of six to combat the convention's committee of twelve. "Try any way,” said Danton to the Gironde, "in prudence and policy, or in audacity and revolutionary vigor, we will still surpass you."

The 29th of May was spent by the anarchists in planning; the 30th, in making preparations for the insurrection. The ministry, the commission of twelve, remained paralyzed awaiting the blow; whilst the Girondist deputies were driven to conceal themselves, and fled from lodging to lodging, confessing their feebleness, and lamenting their too evident fate. They had not amongst them one man of action. Three sections armed, and showing firm countenances, had declared against the insurrection; yet not one of the Gironde showed himself amongst them. Had they numbered even one soldier in their party? But, no: all were lawyers; a profession fit, indeed, to do the talking part of a revolution, but too apt to persevere in mere talking, when the tongue had ceased to be a weapon of influence. The counsel of Louvet was flight. "There is no more for us to do in Paris," said he, "at the mercy of conspirators and anarchists, when an insurrection of the departments can alone answer or put down that of the capital. Let us fly then each to our own province; for if we be taken and kept as hostages by the Mountain, it will but paralyze our friends." The leading Girondists scorned Louvet's counsel, and resolved to brave insurrection. They would die, they thought, in their curule chairs, like the Roman magistrates of old. Armed therefore, and prepared for the worst,

they made their way to the convention on the morning of the 31st, and could not but remark the joy that glistened in the eyes of the Mountainists on beholding them enter.

This same moment was that appointed for the insurrection, which, according to the plan and profession of the movers, was to be distinguished from preceding ones by being quite morale. The commissaries of the sections, assuming themselves to be delegates of the people, proceeded to the municipality, deposed it formally, then reinstated it, adjoining themselves as a part and portion of its body. Thus constituted, the revolutionary commune, which affected to be raised by this mummery to represent the popular will, and to purify the convention, mustered the armed guard of the citizens, or sections, rung the toscin, fired the cannon of alarm, and marched to invest the convention. The three anti-anarchist sections, those of the Butte des Moulins, of the Mail, and the Champs Elysées, had intrenched themselves in the Palais Royal. It was proclaimed in the fauxbourg St. Antoine that these sections had mounted the white cockade. The rabble accordingly marched against the Palais Royal. An engagement was expected. But the three sections were without leaders, without a party. They had neither personage nor flag to rally to; for the white cockade was of course an invention. They in consequence waved futile opposition, embraced their brethren of the revolutionary sections; and an opposing voice was no longer heard in the armed crowd of rabble and citizens, that now, many reluctantly, many ignorantly, besieged the con

vention.

That assembly had, in the mean time, met. The minister of the interior, Garat, and the mayor, Pache, had both thought proper to address it on the disturbed state of the capital, which the surrounding tumult, and the report of the cannon of alarm, sufficiently declared. The left side demanded that the people should be satisfied by the instant abolition of the committee of twelve. The right, on the contrary, moved that Henriot, the new provincial commandant, be called to the bar. Danton seconded the former proposal, and asked, reasonably enough. Why persist in supporting the commission when you annul its acts, and let loose those whom it arrests ?" The orator's sole argument was the expediency and prudence of submitting for a time to the will of the populace now in insurrection. Deputations succeeded each other at the bar, each rising in its demands. The tumult and the menaces of the crowd without, and the galleries within, increased. And at length Barrère, organ of the Plain, rose, and proposed that the commission of twelve should be broken, at the same time the armed force be

1793.

INSURRECTION.

47

placed at the disposal of the convention. The latter part of the motion was idle, a mere verbal set-off to the real concession. Ere it could be put to the vote, another and a bolder deputation arrived, demanding not merely suppression, but the arrest and accusation, not only of the twelve commissioners, but of the whole of the Gironde. After delivering this address, the mob which bore it broke into the convention, filled the benches of the Mountain, and prepared to vote with it, as had been done on a previous night. There was no need of such aid, however, to pass the motion of Barrère, then before the assembly. The deputies of the Mountain passed, therefore, to the right side, leaving the eft occupied by the mob. In this situation a vote first ordered the printing of the last address. Hereupon Vergniaud rose and left the assembly, declaring that it was no longer free. Had all the Girondists followed him, it would have proved a wise and decisive step. But not being followed, he was obliged to return; and the proposal of Barrère, breaking the commission of twelve, was put to the vote and carried.

Such was the first result gained by the anarchists. They had forced the majority of the convention to yield, and abandon the offensive. But peace and a return to order, in this state of things, was impossible. For if the Gironde was powerful in eloquence, and reason, and persuasion, before these events, how vehement was their indignation about to be after them! The silence, then, of the moderate party,—that is, its exclusion and arrest,-could alone give security to the violent. Thus, when force becomes the arbiter and weapon of parties, both are driven to extremes, by self-defence even more than by vengeance. The anarchists, who had raised an insurrection to screen themselves from the Gironde, were, now that they had overcome that host of talented men, obliged to crush them. The continuance of the insurrection could alone enable them to do this; and accordingly the tocsin continued to sound, and the drums to beat to arms, as if the country was in danger. All the population remained under arms, ignorant or terrified, each man awing his neighbor, yet asking that neighbor what all this meant. The majority of these armed citizens, could they have understood each other, might soon have restored peace and order. But all were the dupes of ignorance and fear, the worst qualities that can beset a multitude, and which never could have prevailed so completely and absurdly over any generation, save one reared in the darkness of despotism, and then exposed to the blinding light of sudden and extreme liberty.

The first of June was spent in parley betwixt the commit

tee of public safety, which represented the convention, and that of the municipality, which represented the anarchists and the mob. The latter demanded the exclusion of the Gironde; and the assembly was not likely to pass so iniquitous a decree. Garat at length proposed that the chiefs of the two parties, of the Gironde and of the Mountain, should sacrifice themselves for the sake of peace, and both retire. Danton applauded the idea. But Robespierre would not hearken to it. All attempts were vain; and accordingly the leaders of the insurrection surrounded the Tuilleries, where the convention then sat, with its most select and ferocious bands, led by Henriot. The order was given to these not to harm or offer violence to the deputies, but to prevent their egress or escape; in fact, to keep them close prisoners till they voted the exclusion of the Girondists.

These victims of proscription were most of them collected in a distant lodging, deeming it vain to brave any longer the fury of the insurgents, yet scorning to fly. Barbaroux, however, resolved to perish at his post, escaped from his friends, and took his seat in the assembly. Buzot made the same endeavor, but was prevented. Their cause, nevertheless, was not left without defenders. Lanjuinais was the first to rush to the tribune, vent his indignation at the conspiracy, and denounce the audacious conduct of the commune, of which he demanded the removal. "We are accused of calumniating Paris. It is false; Paris is pure. Paris is itself oppressed by tyrants, greedy of blood and domination." As the only reply which they were capable of giving to this, young Robespierre, Julien, and others, rushed and seized Lanjuinais, and endeavored in vain to drag him down from the tribune, to which he held in their despite. A deputation came to interrupt this scene, and made the usual demand. It came to de nounce, for the last time, the counter-revolutionists of the Gironde. "The people are tired of deferring their wishes. They give you yet an instant's time to execute them. If you hesitate to act for the people, we declare that the people will act for themselves."

In reply to this insolent menace, the convention passed to he order of the day, the last vote that did it honor; it was one of courage and of peril. And yet, even in the face of peril, had it been supported and sustained, there were still hopes that the cause of liberty and order might have survived the insurrection. But Barrère arose as usual with a temporary, and what he deemed a salutary expedient, and the assembly was induced to quit the vantage-ground of dignity and courage. Barrère invited the accused members to resign vol

untarily their functions of deputies for peace-sake; and the hitherto firm majority applauded the expedient, though it was naught else than the most pusillanimous capitulation. In reply to Barrère's proposal, Isnard offered his resignation. The impetuous Barbaroux censured his colleague, and scorned to yield. "I have no right," said he, "to quit my post, and betray my cause, and that of my constituents, in the hour of danger. I am ready to die here, but not to yield."

A member at this moment sought to leave the palace. He happened to be one of the Mountain, yet was driven back with rudeness by the guard. He returned to complain. Others made the same essay, but were driven back, and their garments torn. The assembly betrayed its sense of insult; the very Jacobins showed themselves hurt. The guards were summoned to the bar, but the guilty were not to be found. Barrère on this rose, and proposed that the whole assembly should walk forth, and ascertain whether it was free or not. This was adopted; and all the members, the very Jacobins joining the procession from shame to appear accomplices in the insults offered, proceeded out of their hall, led by their president, Hérault Sechelles. The convention issued from the Tuilleries, by the gate of the Carousel: the sentinels gave way in respect; but Henriot, amidst his cannoneers, signified to them that they must not pass till they had delivered up the twenty obnoxious members. The president turned to the soldiers and bade them "arrest the rebel." Henriot backed his horse, called to his artillerymen to stand to their pieces, and persisted in defending himself, and barring the way. The soldiers dared not to execute the president's command. The assembly in procession here denied egress, re-entered the Tuilleries, and re-issued from it on the other side into the garden. Here they were equally unsuccessful. They tried every gate, marched round the garden, but were everywhere denied a passage. They re-entered their hall of sitting, and there Marat and Couthon instantly exclaimed, "You see how perfectly free you are; how full of obedience are the people!"

.

The Plain now began to be alarmed; and when the decree for the arrest of the Gironde, so lately repulsed with indignation, was offered again to the reluctant assembly, there wer♥ signs of timidity and wavering. "After all," said some, "to vote the arrest of the proscribed, will not place them in a worse state than they are in, whilst it will release us. Let us not endanger ourselves by over obstinacy." The question was put; and the centre, in lieu of offering opposition, declined altogether to vote, the members declaring that they were nc longer free. The unopposed voices of the Mountain then