CHAPTER V.

WAR DECLARED AGAINST AUSTRIA-INSURRECTIONS OF THE 20TH JUNE AND 10TH AUGUST-SUSPENSION OF THE KING-JULY 1791 TO AUGUST 1792.

The immediate consequences of the king's flight, therefore, was a republican interregnum, in which the executive functions were performed by the National Assembly. This was a provisional state which parties sought to terminate to their respective advantage. The moderates of the Coté-Gauche deemed the opportunity propitious for remodelling the constitution, and giving the crown an enlarged sphere of action, whereby Louis XVI., who was willing to lose a great deal, would be sincerely reconciled to the Revolution, and embrace it heartily. The constitutionalists thought that this cordial acquiescence would flow equally from the mere reinstatement of the king in the position he occupied previous to the evasion, and that the constitution, as already framed, ought to be maintained in its integrity. The republicanists, on the other hand, contended that Louis had clearly forfeited the crown by the intention he had manifested of leaving the kingdom and levying war on his people, and could regain it only by being purged of his meditated crime. Their views of annihilating monarchy would be well served either by subjecting the king to the ignominy of a public trial, which, even if it resulted in an acquittal, must denude him of all future respect and authority; or by deposing him, and setting in his place a child with the proverbial weakness of a regency. The members of the Coté-Droit abstained from taking part in the discussions that arose between the sections of the popular party, and issued a declaration to the effect, that, viewing the monarchy as destroyed, they abjured further participation in the acts of the Assembly, retaining their posts only as sentinels, to watch and interpose when they might be of service to the king, exposed as he was to the ruthless domination of rebellious subjects. It was better, perhaps, they should adopt this course, for, had they appeared prominently in the first moments of excitement, they would have only aggravated and imbittered the dispute, and rendered the efforts of those who opposed the republicans and Jacobins still more difficult. These latter were supported by all the force of the popular will, which had proved so powerful in every stage of the Revolution, and consequently wielded a formidable influence. They were seconded by continual deputations from meetings and clubs, which appeared at the bar of the Assembly, and presented addresses couched in the most violent

language, stigmatising Louis XVI. as a perjured and traitor chief, and claiming to have him judged by an appeal to the voice of the

nation.

The committees to which the subject had been referred, used unexampled diligence in making their report. They presented it on the 13th July. The declarations of the king and queen had been taken by three commissioners nominated by the Assembly. The king stated that the outrage of the 18th April had finally determined him to leave Paris for a frontier town, to which he was also moved by the desire of ascertaining the real sentiments of the country on the constitution, but that it had never been his intention to quit the kingdom. The queen confirmed this latter assertion, and generously acquitted all the assistants of any prior acquaintance with the scheme of evasion. Mugnet de Nanthon was the reporter of the joint committees; and after detailing the principal circumstances attending the flight of the king, he treated the question whether he had thereby rendered himself amenable to a criminal prosecution, which he solved in the negative, on the grounds that Louis XVI. had not violated any law by departing out of Paris; and that, even if he had, his person was inviolable. The chief culprit in the transgression he found to be Bouillé, who, he therefore proposed, should be impeached, together with several officers his accomplices. The rage of the republicans was unbounded at these conclusions. Pétion took the lead in denouncing the doctrine of inviolability, which he held compatible only with infallibility. He asked, 'Can a king commit murder with impunity? Shall a Nero, or a Caligula, be allowed to indulge their savage propensities, and yet command our reverence?' Indignant cries interrupted him, that it was not a Cæsar, but Louis XVI., who occupied the throne. He continued, nevertheless, to argue upon the folly and viciousness of the proposition, the applause of the galleries sustaining him against the murmurs of the Assembly. Robespierre followed in the same strain of reasoning, and surpassed Pétion in daring analogies and bitter anathemas. They were combated by Alexander Lameth, Duport, and Barnave; and after a debate of three days, the resolutions of the committees were adopted, and converted into decrees. But it was at the same time declared that the king should not be restored to the exercise of power until the completion of the constitutional act; and to appease the republican party, three specific cases were particularised, in which the king should be deemed to forfeit the throne, and be liable to impeachment for acts committed after such forfeiture.

But this concession to popular clamour served rather to inflame than to mollify the passions of the democrats. During the three days of the debate, all the usual arts of intimidation were resorted to. Crowds collected in the various places of assemblage, and

orators declaimed in gardens, squares, and at the corners of streets, inciting the people to sedition and bloodshed. The Jacobin Club passed a resolution that it no longer acknowledged a king; and the Cordeliers, a kindred association, founded by Danton, editor of a revolutionary journal, published a notice that a patriotic band had enrolled themselves as tyrannicides, bound by oath to put to death all who should impede the growth of French liberty. But the Assembly opposing a courageous firmness to this riotous effervescence, and disregarding the threats thus openly levelled at its freedom and independence, means were taken to foment an actual insurrection on the 17th July. No secrecy was observed in the preparations, and the municipality had timely warning of the plan to be pursued. On this Sunday morning, different musters were to take place on the site of the Bastille, and other open localities within the city, from which they would move to the field of federation, the Champ de Mars, and there sign a petition for the deposition of the king on the altar of the country. The municipality immediately issued a proclamation forbidding the citizens to assemble in groups; but its authority was contemned; and although pickets of the National Guards were stationed to prevent any crowd from congregating on the site of the Bastille, a vast multitude concentrated in streams on the Champ de Mars. Danton and Camille-Desmoulins appeared as the ruling spirits of the movement, and from the top of the altar delivered inflammatory harangues, directed equally against Louis XVI. and the National Assembly. A petition had been already prepared, drawn up by Brissot, himself a member of the Commune, and chairman of its committee of inquiry; but it was set aside for another composed on the altar itself. In this the Assembly was told that it had exceeded its functions, belied the hopes of the nation, and adopted a decree which was illegal both in form and in substance; consequently, it was exhorted to convoke a fresh Assembly for the trial of Louis XVI. This petition, for such it was incongruously styled, being read, and very cordially approved, the multitude commenced to sign it at eight different points around the altar. In the midst of the pressure and tumult of this process, a woman, standing on the steps, suddenly uttered a scream, and exclaimed that she was pricked in the foot from beneath. Search being made, two men were discovered under the altar, one of them an invalid soldier with a wooden leg. What their purpose might be was not asked; they were hauled out, pinioned, and carried before a police commissary of the section of the Gros-Caillon, who, finding no charge of criminality substantiated against them, refused to order their detention. The mob revolted against this decision, and vociferated for justice against two traitors to the nation. With arms in their hands, the bloodthirsty rabble soon proceeded from words to blows: one of

the unfortunate men, who vainly protested their innocence, was stabbed in a thousand places, and promptly despatched; the other was hanged to a lamp-post, but the rope breaking, he fell to the ground alive; thereupon his head was chopped off with a hatchet, and, with that of his comrade, hoisted on the end of a pike. These two horrible trophies were then borne into the city, and paraded through the streets by a horde of men, women, and boys, who were at length charged and dispersed by a detachment of the National Guards.

Upon hearing of this atrocious deed, the municipality deputed three commissioners, accompanied by a battalion of the National Guards under Lafayette, to repair to the Champ de Mars, and endeavour, by remonstrance and persuasion, to dissolve the meeting. These commissioners entered into a friendly parley with the leaders of the people, who represented that they had met for a legal purpose, and nominated four of their body to attend the Commune, for the purpose of giving this explanation; but in the meantime, the National Guards were assailed with stones, and Lafayette was fired at by a villain named Fournier, commonly called the American, but fortunately without effect. The assassin was seized, as well as four others of the rioters; but Lafayette, with magnanimity, ordered the former to be released. Before the commissioners returned to the Hotel de Ville, the most alarming reports were circulated through the city. The murder of the two men was exaggerated into a more general slaughter, and the National Guards were said to be repulsed, and driven off the field by the Cordeliers and Jacobins combined. Moved by these sinister tidings, the National Assembly sent an injunction to the Commune to take proper steps for restoring public tranquillity. The Commune itself was in consternation, and urged by this message of the Assembly, the highest power in the State, it ordained, perhaps with some precipitancy, the proclamation of martial law. The red flag was unfurled in the Place de Grêve; Bailly, with the whole municipal body, placed himself at the head of a large force of National Guards, and thus escorted, proceeded to the Champ de Mars. It was half-past seven in the evening before he reached the ground, which was still covered by a vast mass of people, comprising every age and either sex, engaged in different occupations: some crowded the steps of the altar to sign the petition; some listened to the orators, who bawled from divers stations; some danced carmagnoles to the patriotic tune of Ca Ira; others brandished sticks, pikes, swords, and howled execrations against king, Assembly, and Guards; the burly figure of Danton towered as the presiding genius of the scene. The appearance of the mayor and the troops, with the red flag fluttering in advance, threw this motley assemblage into the fiercest rage. All rushed forward, and drowning the voice of the mayor, who summoned

them, in terms of the law, to disperse, with shouts and yells of fury, threw among the Guards a rattling volley of stones. One ruffian took deliberate aim with his musket at Bailly, and killed a soldier immediately behind him. Lafayette ordered his men to fire, but first in the air, to try the effect of intimidation. This harmless discharge was laughed at, and only tended to exasperate the people yet more; they continued to hurl stones and other missiles, and many of the troops were seriously wounded. Then the word was given to fire in earnest, and some twenty of the insurgents were stretched on the field. The Guards now gave way to resentment and the heat of combat; they charged into the ranks of the flying mob, and executed a terrible massacre. Accounts vary as to the number slain, ranging from thirty to several hundreds; but it is sufficient that the butchery was considerable, and the populace most effectually cowed.*

Thus was the triumph of the constitutionalists secured at the expense of blood, which was one day to be fearfully avenged. The event caused a decisive rupture in the popular party. Barnave and the Lameths had now attained that degree of superiority which prepared them to side with power, and to deprecate violence of speech or action. They joined, therefore, in a coalition with Lafayette, and even with Malouet and the remains of Necker's party. Seceding from the Jacobin Club, they founded one in opposition, called the Feuillant, by means of which they sought to consolidate their influence. They were also in intimate correspondence with the king, especially Barnave, whom Louis consulted on every step he took. Thus in the ascendant, it was natural they should recoil from the extreme opinions they had hitherto professed, and be disposed to reconsider a constitution which reduced the executive power within such narrow limits. A committee had been already appointed to revise the constitutional decrees, which had been passed in no settled form, and to embody them in one act or digest. Through it modifications might be proposed, but there were serious difficulties in the way of their adoption. In the first place, Barnave, the Lameths, and Duport, durst not venture to risk their popularity too far; and secondly, the royalists and the republicans were equally averse to any improvements that might give a promise of stability to the constitution, for both looked to its speedy overthrow in different senses. Under these circumstances, it was arranged that

Scarcely any event in the Revolution is so variously related as this affair of the Champ de Mars. No two authorities agree, and it is difficult for the historian to gather the truth from the distorted and contradictory statements on either side. The records of the National Assembly differ from those of the Commune, and the newspapers of the day give conflicting accounts. In the eclaircissemens historiques appended to the first volume of Madame Roland's Memoirs, sundry original papers are found throwing light on the subject, and also in the like appendix to Bailly, vol. i.