PROGRESS OF THE REVOLUTION.--The independence of the clergy, and the judicial authority of the parliaments, were now extinguished by the a.s.sembly, The property of the Church was confiscated, as the salaries of the clergy were to be paid by the State; the cloisters and monastic orders were abolished; the clergy were to be chosen by the people; there was to be absolute religious freedom; there was a new organization of bishoprics; the press was to be free; France was divided, for purposes of government, into eighty-three departments; civil officers were to be chosen, directly or indirectly, by popular vote; hereditary n.o.bility, with t.i.tles and coats-of-arms, was swept away. The equality of all citizens was ordained. There was to be uniformity in measures, weights, and coinage. A uniform judicial system was inst.i.tuted, with jury trials in criminal cases.
THE CLERGY.--Thenceforward the clergy were divided into two cla.s.ses,--those who took the required oath to the const.i.tution (about one third of the whole number), and the "refractory" ones, who, in accordance with the Pope"s will, refused it.
THE CLUBS: PARIS.--While these const.i.tutional changes were taking place, the ma.s.s of the populace were becoming more and more excited by vehement orators, who discoursed of human rights, and by inflammatory journals. _Clubs_ were organized for democratic agitation, which were named, from the places where they met, _Jacobins_ and _Cordeliers_. The latter had for their head _Danton_, with his stentorian voice, and the brilliant young journalist _Camille Desmoulins_. The _Jacobins_ aimed later at the destruction of the old inst.i.tutions. The moderate monarchists, such as _Bailly_ and _La Fayette_, then formed another club (the _Feuillants_). The munic.i.p.ality or commune of Paris was divided into forty-eight sections, each with an a.s.sembly which served as a theater for demagogical harangues.
FeTE OF THE FEDERATION.--For a time the skies appeared bright. On the 14th of July, 1790, a great _Federative Commemoration_, or festival of civic fraternity, was held on the _Champ de Mars_ in _Paris_. _Talleyrand_ at the head of three hundred priests clad in white, with tri-color sashes, officiated at an altar in the midst of the arena. First, _La Fayette_ as president of the National Guard, then the president of the a.s.sembly, and last the king, took an oath before the half-million of spectators to uphold the const.i.tution. Then the queen, partaking in the common enthusiasm, held up the dauphin in her arms, and pledged his future obedience to the oath. There was unbounded joy at what was supposed to be a new millennial era of political freedom and brotherhood. The grand festival awakened sympathy and hope in all the countries of Europe.
FLIGHT OF THE KING.--The hope of unity and political bliss, which exalted all minds to a high pitch of emotion, proved, before long, to be an illusive dream. The king was not ready to confirm the ordinance respecting priests, which made them civil officers; nor was he ready to declare the plotting emigrant n.o.bles at _Coblenz_ and _Worms_ traitors. _Mirabeau_, who had enlisted in behalf of the king in a resistance to further measures for the reduction of regal authority, and in behalf of a const.i.tutional monarchy, in which the legislative, judicial, and executive functions should be kept apart, suddenly died (April 2, 1791), at the age of forty-two. His death, caused partly by overwork of brain, and partly by dissolute habits, deprived the conservative republicans and the court of their ablest defender. No one like him was left to stem the current of revolutionary pa.s.sion, which threatened to burst through all barriers. The Paris sections became more and more violent. They hindered a proposed journey of _Louis_ to _St. Cloud_. This determined him, against the urgent wishes of the queen, to escape, with his family, to the army of the _Marquis de Bouille_, at _Montmedy_. But the fugitives were stopped in their flight, at _Varennes_, and brought back in custody to Paris. This unwise and abortive proceeding of the king, coupled with his formal annulling of all that he had done in the two years previous, had for its natural consequence his suspension from office. An insurrection of the mob, to put an end to the monarchy, was suppressed by _La Fayette_. At the end of September, _Louis_ swore to the revised const.i.tution, and was restored to the throne. The a.s.sembly then dissolved, to give place to another, which should complete the new political creation by needful legislation: hence it was called
THE LEGISLATIVE a.s.sEMBLY (Oct. 1791-Sept. 1792).--It was composed of seven hundred and forty-five members, mostly young men, among them a number of eloquent orators. One-half of the body were advocates. The National a.s.sembly, by a kind of self-denying ordinance, had voted to exclude themselves from membership in the new body, which thus lacked the benefit of their knowledge and experience. In the a.s.sembly, on the right, were the different cla.s.ses of supporters of const.i.tutional monarchy, the _royalists_, and the _Feuillants_ (of the school of _La Fayette_). On the left, were the majority, which steadily increased in numbers, and embraced (1) the _Girondists_, or moderate republicans; (2) the _Mountain_,--so called from their higher seats in the hall,--comprising the most decided democrats or radicals. Here were the leaders of the _Jacobins_ and _Cordeliers_. A few of the _Girondists_ were for going beyond the const.i.tution of 1791, in the direction of a republic after the model of the United States. They were enamored of the spirit of the ancient commonwealths. They were fond of recurring to the Roman orators and historians. _Roland_, _Brissot_, and _Vergniaud_ were among their leaders.
THE PARISIAN POPULACE.--The populace of _Paris_ made _Petion_, a democrat, their mayor. In the Jacobin club were _Robespierre_; _Marat_, who denounced fiercely in his journal, "The Friend of the People," as aristocrats, all cla.s.ses above the common level, whether by birth or property, and the former play-actor, _D"Herbois_. _Danton_, and _Camille Desmoulins_, who belonged to the _Cordeliers_, took part in its sessions. From this company, the _Girondists_ separated after the fall of the king. The red Jacobin cap came into vogue as a badge of republicanism, and the _Ma.r.s.eillaise_ as its favorite inspiring song. Declaimers and journals were in full blast, stirring up the fears and wrath of the people.
THE a.s.sEMBLY AND THE KING.--The a.s.sembly pa.s.sed penal acts against the recusant priests,--those who refused the oath; and against the emigrants, who were trying to stir up the powers of Europe against the French government in its new form. These enactments were met by the king with a veto.
WAR WITH AUSTRIA AND PRUSSIA.--The authors of the French Revolution have been so generally objects of execration, and so terrible crimes were actually perpetrated in the course of it, that it is only just to note the circ.u.mstances which explain the origin of these atrocities, and which enabled violent leaders and wild pa.s.sions to usurp control. The efforts of the const.i.tutionalists to save the throne were balked by the exiles and the foreign governments. _Frederick William II_. of Prussia (1786-1797), and _Leopold II_. the emperor (1790-1792), in the Declaration of _Pilnitz_ (Aug. 27, 1791), called on the other European powers to join them in aiding _Louis XVI_. to establish a right sort of government. From Russia, Sweden, Spain, and even Switzerland, there were not wanting manifestations of hostility. The att.i.tude of _Austria_ had the effect to bring into power a _Girondist_ ministry. They wanted war as the best means of attaining the objects which they had in view at home. On April 20, 1792, _Louis_ was compelled to go to the a.s.sembly, and propose a declaration of war against Austria. "The courts of Europe had heaped up the fuel: the _Girondists_ applied the torch." They were not averse to a crusade in behalf of liberty.
THE CONDITION OF GERMANY.--Germany consisted of a mult.i.tude of states, of which _Austria_ (which had large territories not German) and _Prussia_ were the chief, and were in constant rivalry. The Holy Roman Empire kept up its name and forms. Besides smaller sovereignties, as Saxony and Bavaria, there were two hundred and fifty petty princ.i.p.alities, fifty imperial cities, and several hundred knights, each with an insignificant domain subject to him. The empire was one body only in theory. National feeling had died out. The Diet had little to do, and no efficiency. Austria, which held the imperial office, and included in its extensive dominions _Milan_ and _Southern Netherlands_, had sunk into a "gloomy and soulless despotism." The reforms of _Joseph II_. produced a ferment; but after the death of _Leopold II_. (1790-1792), under _Francis II_., a sickly and selfish ruler, a reactionary policy, inspired by the dread of change, had full sway. _Thugut_, the minister of _Francis_, cared only for the acquisition of territory: the people were so many millions "to be taxed, to be drilled, to be kept down by the police." In Prussia, _Frederick William II_. (1786-1797) and his people had no feeling so strong as that of hostility to Austria, whose influence was predominant in the minor states. Prussia cared more for getting additional Polish territory than for helping the French emigrants. The Prussian people were separated by rigorous lines into three cla.s.ses,--n.o.bles, burghers, and peasants. The n.o.bles were poor. The lawful occupations of each cla.s.s were prescribed by law. "The ma.s.s of the peasantry, at least in the country east of the Elbe, were serfs attached to the soil." The offices in the army were confined to n.o.bles, on whose absolute obedience the king could count. Blows were inflicted on the common soldier as if he were a slave. In some of the other Protestant states, the character of the government had improved. In the south and west, the serfs had been set free. In the ecclesiastical states, including the electorates of _Mentz_, _Treves_, and _Cologne_, the prince-bishops and canons were n.o.bles, who led a gay and luxurious life. Nowhere were poverty and wretchedness so general as in the lands of the knights. The political life of Germany, notwithstanding its abundant resources, mainly from the decay of public spirit and the want of political unity, had become stagnant and corrupt. Germany was almost incapable of vigorous, united action.
CONFLICT OF LOUIS AND THE a.s.sEMBLY.--There was no real union between _Louis XVI._ and the a.s.sembly. Troops of the National Guard, to the number of twenty thousand, from the provinces were to encamp near _Paris_. This measure, as well as a decree for the banishment of the non-juring clergy, the king refused to sanction. The Girondist ministers laid down their office. A mob burst into the Tuileries: they put on the king"s head a Jacobin cap, but he remained calm and steadfast in his refusal to a.s.sent to the decrees. _La Fayette_ came to Paris from the Northern army, to restore order; but the queen treated him with habitual distrust, and he fell under suspicion with the radicals. He went back to the army without effecting any thing.
IMPRISONMENT OF THE KING.--Prussia had joined its rival, Austria.
_Ferdinand of Brunswick_, an officer trained under _Frederick the Great_, commanded the Prussian forces. He issued (July 25) a threatening proclamation to the French people. There were three French armies in the field, under _Rochambeau_, _La Fayette_, and _Luckner_; but the fire of the Revolution had not yet entered into the veins of the soldiers. Military reverses heightened the revolutionary excitement in Paris. The munic.i.p.al government was broken up by _Danton_ and his a.s.sociates, with the mob of poor and desperate partisans at their back; and its place was taken by commissioners from the sections. An armed throng again attacked the Tuileries. The king took refuge in the hall of the a.s.sembly. The Swiss guards fought bravely against the a.s.sailants, when they received an order from him to cease firing. The result was that they were slaughtered without mercy. The uniform composure of the king in the most trying situations, and his conscientious feelings, were a poor subst.i.tute for intellectual force. The a.s.sembly voted to suspend the exercise of his authority, to put him and his family under surveillance, to hand over the young prince to the custody of a person charged with his education, and to call a national convention to draw up a const.i.tution. The royal family were given into the hands of the Paris commune, and lodged as prisoners, in apartments scantily furnished, in the castle called _the Temple_.
Ma.s.sACRES OF SEPTEMBER.--The blundering of the royalists, their intrigues, and the pressure of the coalition of foreign enemies, had thrown the power into the hands of the _Jacobins_. The city council, and _Danton_, the minister of justice, were really supreme, although the _Girondists_ had a share in the new ministry. _La Fayette_ was accused and proscribed, and fled from the country. He was captured by the Austrians, and kept in prison at _Olmutz_ until 1797. The news of the advance of the allies led to the "ma.s.sacres of September," when the prisons in Paris, which had been filled with priests and laymen arrested on charges of complicity with the enemies of liberty, were entered by ruffians acting under influence of _Marat_ and the commune"s "committee of surveillance," and, after "a burlesque trial" before an armed jury, were murdered. In _Versailles_, _Lyons_, _Orleans_, and other towns, there were like ma.s.sacres. The victims of these ma.s.sacres numbered about two thousand.
TRIAL AND EXECUTION OF THE KING.--The National Convention was made up entirely of republicans. The monarchy was abolished, and France was declared a republic. The Girondists had at first the preponderance in numbers; but the Jacobins, led by _Robespierre_, _Danton_, _Marat_, _Couthon_, _Fouche_, the _Duke of Orleans_ (who called himself _Philip egalite_), _St. Just_, _Billaud-Varenne_, _Barere,_ were supported by the clubs and the city council, and by the savage populace of the sections,--the _sans culottes_. The _guillotine_--a machine for beheading, which _Guillotin,_ a physician, did not invent, but recommended for use--was the instrument on which the fanatical revolutionists placed most of their reliance for the extirpation of "aristocracy." The energy of the _Jacobins_, aided by the general dread of a restoration of the royalists to power, and by the fury of the Paris populace, proved too strong for the more moderate party to withstand. The king, designated as _Louis Capet_, was arraigned before the a.s.sembly, tried, and condemned to death. There were seven hundred and twenty-one votes: his death was decreed by a small majority (Jan. 17, 1793). Through all the terrible scenes of the trial, the parting with his wife and children, and the execution (Jan. 21), _Louis_ manifested a serene and Christian temper.
VICTORIES OF FRANCE.--Meantime, in France the war was felt, and justly, to be a war of self-defense. The enemies were a privileged cla.s.s in alliance with foreign invaders. Volunteers flocked to the field. The troops under _Dumouriez_ and others had been successful. At _Valmy_ (Sept. 20, 1792) the allies, under _Brunswick_, were defeated. The victory of _Dumouriez_ at _Jemmappes_ was followed by the conquest of the Austrian Netherlands (Nov., 1792).
_Savoy_ and _Nice_ were annexed to France. The _Scheldt_ was declared free and open to commerce, and _Antwerp_ was made an open port.
CHAPTER II. FROM THE EXECUTION OF LOUIS XVI. TO THE FALL OF ROBESPIERRE (JAN. 21, 1793-JULY 27, 1794).
THE FIRST COALITION.-The execution of the king was the signal for the union of the European powers against France. The intention of the revolutionary party to propagate their system in other countries afforded one excuse for this interference. The Convention (Nov. 19, 1792) had offered their a.s.sistance to peoples wishing to throw off the existing governments. Another reason was the recent annexations, and the proceedings in respect to the free navigation of the _Scheldt_. The main ground and cement of the coalition was the dread which the governments felt of revolutionary movements among their own subjects, from their sympathy with the new inst.i.tutions in France.
POLITICS IN ENGLAND.--The reason just mentioned was operative in Great Britain. The revolution of 1688 had given power to a group of Whig families and their retainers. To shake off this Whig control, which had long continued, was a constant aim of _George III_. In _William Pitt_, the younger, he found a minister capable, under the favoring circ.u.mstances, of achieving this result. He was made prime minister in 1783, when he was only twenty-five years old. The king, in 1788, had been attacked with insanity; and while he was thus afflicted, _George_, _Prince of Wales_, who was unpopular on account of his loose morals, ruled as regent. The regent affiliated with the Whigs, but _Pitt_ retained his office. The leader of the liberal party was _Charles James Fox_, a man of n.o.ble talents and generous instincts, but notoriously irregular in his habits. The sympathy in England with the Revolution of 1789 was widely diffused. _Edmund Burke_, however, the great philosophical statesman, who had defended the cause of freedom in the American War, was alarmed by the events in France, and still more by the theories of human rights propounded by the enthusiastic friends of the Revolution. These ideas were set forth in England, in an offensive form, in the writings of _Thomas Paine_. _Burke_ published, in 1790, his _Reflections on the French Revolution_, in which he attacked as visionary the political notions of the French school in regard to human rights, and denounced them for their dangerous tendency. He separated from his party, and publicly broke friendship with _Fox_. Pitt was personally averse to war with France, but was driven into it by the prevailing sentiment. The anti-revolutionary feeling excited by the news of the death of _Louis_ moved England to an armed interference which involved the most important consequences to all Europe. A Tory minister, _Pitt_ was supported in the long struggle in Europe by a majority of the Whigs. In the next twenty years, Great Britain, by her military strength on the land, and much more on the sea, and in particular by her wealth, freely poured out in subsidies to her allies on the Continent, was a powerful, as well as the most persevering, antagonist of France.
FALL OF THE GIRONDISTS.--The advance of the allied armies increased the violence and strengthened the hands of the Jacobins. _Dumouriez_ lost a battle in _Neerwinden_ (March 18, 1793), and fell back, through Belgium, to the French frontier. He was in sympathy with the _Girondists_, and complained of the doings of the _Jacobins_ in Paris and in his army. Being called to account, he went over to the Austrians. This desertion weakened the Girondist party, and put new force into the party of _Jacobins_. At the same time, news came of a royalist revolt in the West, and of conflicts between the Jacobins and their adversaries in the cities of the South. Danton, who understood that "audacity" was the secret of success, procured the appointment by the convention of a _Committee of Public Safety_ (April 6, 1793), which was to exercise the most frightful dictatorship known in history. A "committee of general security" was put in charge of the police of the whole country. The commune of Paris co-operated in the energetic efforts of the Jacobin leaders to collect recruits and to strengthen the military force. The three chiefs were _Danton, Marat_, and _Robespierre_. There was a mortal struggle between the advocates of order and the apostles of anarchy. The fate of the moderates and Girondists was sealed by a great insurrection in Paris, and an invasion of the Convention by an armed force. The violent party had at their back eighty thousand National Guards, who hemmed in the Convention. Twenty-nine Girondist leaders were placed under arrest. Their party fell. The boldest and most reckless faction, which had the Paris commune behind it, triumphed.
WAR OF LA VENDeE.--Outside of _Paris_, in other parts of France, there were risings against the Jacobin rule. The most formidable of these was in the West, where the relation of the n.o.bles to the peasants had been kindly, and where the common people looked on the violent proceedings at Paris with anger and disgust. Thus began the war of _La Vendee_, a terrible episode of civil strife, in which the people of that region were subdued, but not until after protracted conflict and immense slaughter.
THE JACOBIN REVOLUTION.--_Danton_ and the other revolutionary leaders showed a tremendous energy in their attack on both domestic and foreign enemies. A levy was ordered of the whole male population capable of bearing arms. A _maximum_ price was fixed by law for commodities, and also for wages. The government paid its dues in depreciated _a.s.signats_ at the face value. Its emissaries were in all parts of France, stirring up the people and forming revolutionary committees. Thus a system of revolutionary government was everywhere established. A new _const.i.tution_, of an extreme democratic type, was offered to the acceptance of the people. This dominion of the _Jacobins_, it must be observed, was a second revolution. The Revolution of 1792 was as different from that of 1789 as was the proposed const.i.tution of 1793 from that of 1791. The insurrections, except at _Lyons_ and _Toulon_ and in _La Vendee_, were soon quelled. The Jacobin rule was identified with the cause of patriotism in arms against foreign invasion, and with antipathy to the restoration of Bourbon royalty and misrule. In _Paris_, the revolutionary tribunal was filling the prisons with the suspected, and sending daily its wagon-loads of victims to the guillotine.
MILITARY SUCCESSES OF FRANCE.-The achievements of the great coalition were not at all in proportion to its apparent strength. It was weakened by mutual jealousies and inefficient commanders. In the South, the Spaniards and Piedmontese did not profit by their successes. In the North and North-east, the summer of 1793 was partly wasted by the English, Austrians, and Prussians, in long sieges and in dissensions among themselves. Meantime the French army was growing stronger, and more and more on fire with patriotic ardor. The _Duke of York_, an incapable general, was obliged to raise the siege of _Dunkirk_ (Sept. 8, 1793). The forces of the coalition began to retire from ground that they had won. At _Paris_, _Carnot"s_ efficient management of military affairs gave France an advantage over her foes. The Prussians were inactive on the Rhine; and _Jourdan_, reinforced by a French detachment from that quarter, defeated the Austrians at _Wattignies_. By the movements of _Hoche_, the allies were driven out of Alsace. _Lyons_, after a stubborn defense, was captured and savagely punished, and the brave _Vendeans_ were completely defeated by _Kleber_ at _Savenay_. Near the end of the year, _Toulon_, then in revolt, was captured. At the siege, a young artillery officer, _Napoleon Bonaparte_, first distinguished himself by pointing out the proper spot for the planting of batteries that would drive away the English and Spanish fleets, and by carrying out his project.
BONAPARTE.--Napoleon was born on the island of _Corsica_, Aug. 15, 1769, two months after Corsica became subject to the French. His family, on both sides, were Italians. _Napoleon_ himself never became so fully master of the French tongue that he did not betray in his speech his foreign extraction. He was educated at the military school of _Brienne_ (1779-1784), and then went to the military school at _Paris_. His princ.i.p.al studies were mathematics and history. He quickly made manifest his military talents, and seems first to have aspired to gain distinction and power, in this line, in Corsica. His connection was at first with the _Jacobins_, although he afterwards denied it. He had imbibed the ideas of the Revolution, and saw that in the service of the leaders in the war there was opened to him a military career. He turned against his patriotic countryman, _Paoli_, when the latter sought to separate Corsica from France, at that time under the Jacobin rule.
THE REIGN OF TERROR.--The Reign of Terror had now established itself in France. The Committee of Public Safety wielded absolute power. Every man, woman, and child was called upon to take part in the defense of the country. The property of all the "emigrants" and prisoners of state was seized. Whoever was suspected of being hostile to the established tyranny was thrown into prison. Even to be lukewarm in adhesion to it, was a serious offense. Summary trials were followed by swift executions. The tenderness of youth and the venerableness of age were no protection. Day after day, the stream of human blood continued to flow. A new calendar was ordained: Sept. 22, 1792, was the beginning of the year _one_. There was a new division of months; in the room of the week, each tenth day was made a holiday. The commune of _Paris_, followed by other cities, began a crusade against Christianity. Fashions of dress, modes of speech, and manners were revolutionized. Every vestige of "aristocracy" was to be swept off the earth. There was a wild license given to divorce and to profligacy. _Paris_ was like a camp where young soldiers were drilled, weapons were forged, and lint and bandages made ready for the wounded. There were seen, even in the hall of the Convention, throngs of coa.r.s.e and fierce men, and of coa.r.s.er and fiercer women, with their songs and wild outcries and gestures. The commune of _Paris_ inst.i.tuted a sacrilegious festival in the ancient cathedral of Notre Dame, where an actress was enthroned as "G.o.ddess of Liberty." There were priests and bishops who abjured the Christian faith, and there were others who adhered to it at the peril of their lives. The prisons, which were packed with all cla.s.ses, were theaters of strange and thrilling scenes. In many cases, death, made familiar, ceased to terrify. Crowds escorted the batch of victims carried on carts each day to the place of execution, and insulted them with their brutal shouts. The arrested Girondist deputies were executed. Some of the leaders of that party, including _Roland_, perished by suicide. Among the eminent persons sent to the guillotine were the eloquent _Vergniaud, Brissot, Bailly, Malesherbes_ (the brave advocate who had defended _Louis XVI._), and _Madame Roland_; also the infamous _Duke of Orleans_, who had intrigued to get himself raised to the throne. _Marie Antoinette_, her hair turned white in the tragic scenes through which she had pa.s.sed, miserably clad, was dragged before the merciless tribunal. There she was insulted with foul accusations which n.o.body believed. After the mockery of a trial, she was carried like a common criminal, in a cart, with her arms bound, to the place of execution (Oct. 16). Her dignity and serenity, her pallid countenance, and the simple, pathetic words uttered by her at her arraignment, touched for the moment the hardened hearts of the imbruted spectators. Her sad fate has blinded many to the calamitous errors committed by her in the days of her power.
THE JACOBIN CHIEFS.--The Reign of Terror was not confined to Paris. The unexampled atrocities there were repeated in the other large towns with like circ.u.mstances of barbarity. A species of fanaticism ruled and raged in the land. The mania, if one may so call it, reached its height in such chiefs of the revolutionary party as _Marat, Billaud_, and _Robespierre_. In _Marat_ especially, the mastery gained by one idea almost amounted to mental disorder. He demanded first five hundred heads, then (in Sept., 1793) forty thousand; then, six weeks later, two hundred and seventy thousand. It did seem to be a "homicidal mania." _Marat_ was a.s.sa.s.sinated by a young maiden, _Charlotte Corday_, who devoted herself to the task of ridding the world of such a monster.
DEATH OF DANTON.--The Jacobin leaders found their ideal of virtue in the Spartan spirit. Infatuated by _Rousseau_"s theory of the omnipotence of the state, in which the individual is merged and lost under the despotism of the majority, they looked on the ma.s.sacre of countless persons, guilty of no crime, as a good deed. At length men began to grow weary of this frightful tyranny. The leaders became divided among themselves. _Danton_, though often the advocate of violent measures, was a statesman, and, to his credit be it said, halted at a point where the others advanced. He made an objection to the confounding of the innocent with the guilty. _Hebert_ and the leaders of the commune, with their atheism, as dangerous political rivals, were offensive to _Robespierre_, who was a deist. He held a sort of middle position, had most power with the Jacobins, and was enabled to crush and destroy his a.s.sociates. He was a dull man, of a quiet mien, often seen with a nosegay in his hand, and bloodthirsty according to a precise theory. His ascendency gave him the power, after scenes of tempestuous debate, to inflict first on _Hebert_, on _Clootz_, and his other confederates, and then on _Danton_ and the Dantonist chiefs, the same death by the guillotine to which they had doomed so many. _Robespierre_ abolished the worship of Reason, and caused the Convention to pa.s.s a resolution acknowledging the existence of a supreme Being, in whose honor fetes were held. Christianity was denounced as a base superst.i.tion.
CRUELTIES IN THE PROVINCES.--When _Robespierre_ was supreme, the Reign of Terror became still more terrible. In trials, the hearing of evidence and of argument were dispensed with. The prisons were crowded with "suspects." Alleged conspiracies in prisons were made a pretext for wholesale slaughter under the guillotine. Suicide and madness were of common occurrence. Even before _Robespierre"s_ predominance there had been in the provinces scenes of horror like those which occurred in the capital. The revolted cities, as _Lyons_ and _Toulon_, were punished with savage ferocity. At _Lyons_, men, women, and children in ma.s.ses were shot down with artillery. Those who were not killed with the shot were cut in pieces by the soldiery. At _Nantes_ prisoners were bound together in pairs, and huddled together in barges, which were scuttled and set afloat down the Loire. For these atrocities the deputy _Carrier_ was responsible.
FRENCH VICTORIES.--Yet, at this time, the arms of the republic, except on the sea, where the French fleet was badly beaten by the English, were mostly successful. The _Duke of York_ was vanquished on the Belgian frontier, and the defeat of the allies at _Fleurus_ (June 26, 1794) obliged them to evacuate Belgium.
THE BONAPARTES
Charles Bonaparte, _m._ Let.i.tia Ramolino.
| +--1, Joseph, King of Spain, _d._ 1844.
| | | | +--Lucien, Cardinal.
| | | | +--Zenade, | _m._ | +--Charles, _d._ 1857 | | +--3, Lucien, Prince of Canino, d .1840.
| | | +--Lucien.
| | | +--Pierre.
| +--2, NAPOLEON I, 1804-1814, (deposed, _d._ 1821), _m._ | (1), Maria Louisa, daughter of Emperor Francis II.
| | | +--Napoleon, Duke of Reichstadt (Napoleon II), _d._ 1832.
| | (2), Josephine, _m._ General Beauharnais.
| | | +--Eugene, Duke of Leuchtenberg, _d._ 1824. _m._ | | Augusta, daughter of Maximilian Joseph of Bavaria.
| | | | | +--Josephine, _m._ Oscar I of Sweden.
| | | +--Hortense, | _m._ +--4, Louis, King of Holland, _d._ 1846.
| | | +--Napoleon Charles, _d._ 1807.
| | | +--Napoleon Louis, _d._ 1831.
| | | +--LOUIS NAPOLEON III, 1852-1870, _d._ 1873. _m._ | Eugenie, Countess of Teba | | | +--Napoleon, _d._ 1879.
| +--5, Caroline, _m._ Joachim Murat, King of Naples, shot 1815.
| +--6, Jerome, King of Westphalia, _d._ 1860, _m._ Catharine of Wurtemberg.
| +--Napoleon. _m._ Clotilde, d. of Victor Emmanuel II of Italy | +--NAPOLEAN VICTOR JEROME FREDERIC.
CHAPTER III. FROM THE FALL OF ROBESPIERRE TO THE EMPIRE OF NAPOLEON (1794-1804).
FALL OF ROBESPIERRE (9TH THERMIDOR).--A reaction set in against the cruelties of Jacobinism. Men--even the judges of the murderous tribunal--grew weary of bloodshed. The authority of _Robespierre_ began to wane, even with his colleagues. The a.s.sembly at length turned against him. On July 27 (the _9th Thermidor_, according to the new calendar) he was arrested. He was released, but was again seized, and, with _St. Just, Couthon_, and most of the leaders of the commune, was guillotined.
Bare statistics, accompanied by no thrilling descriptions, convey a strong impression of the atrocities of the Reign of Terror. According to _M. Taine_, "there were guillotined at _Paris_, between April 16, 1793, and the 9th Thermidor, 2,625 persons. The same process went forward all over France. In Arras, 299 men and 93 women; in Orange, 331 persons; in Nantes, 1,971; in Lyons, 1,684 (avowedly, but a correspondent of Robespierre estimates the total at 6,000); in the _fusillades_ (deaths by shooting) of _Toulon_, more than 1,000; in the _noyades_ (drownings) of Nantes, nearly 5,000 perished. In the eight departments of the West, it is reckoned that nearly half a million perished." The deaths from want, under the Jacobin government, _M. Taine_ thinks, much exceeded a million. "France was on the brink of a great famine on the Asiatic scale."
REACTION: CONTROL OF THE MODERATES.--The Reign of Terror was brought to an end. The moderates controlled the Convention. The prison doors were opened, and the mult.i.tude of suspects were set free. The revolutionary tribunal was broken down. The commune of Paris was so shaped as to strip it of its most dangerous powers. The Jacobin and other incendiary clubs were suppressed. Religion was declared to be free, and the churches were opened to their congregations. The Girondist deputies who survived were invited back to their seats in the Convention. The National Guards were filled up from the middle cla.s.s,--the _bourgeoisie_. Little mercy was shown to the Jacobins anywhere. The reaction was seen in the altered character of society and of manners. Those who had acquired wealth in the late time by the changes of property came to the front. The old fondness for dress and gayety reappeared. Paris was again alive with b.a.l.l.s and other festive entertainments. The salons were crowded with elegant youth of the higher cla.s.s (the _jeunesse doree_). The party of Terror were cowed; but in consequence of the rise in the cost of provisions, and of the distress caused by it, and by the sudden abrogation of tyrannical laws settling the price of food and wages, there were two fierce outbreakings of the mob of Paris (April 1, May 20, 1795). These were quelled, and the power of the Jacobins was finally crushed. The moderates had now to guard against the increasing strength and rising hopes of the royalists.
CONQUEST OF HOLLAND: PRUSSIA.--The armies of France were everywhere successful. Through the victories of _Jourdan_ and _Pichegru_, Holland was conquered, and converted into the _Batavian Republic_, and Dutch Flanders surrendered to France. The Low Countries were now a dependency of the French Republic (1794-1795). _Hoche_, an excellent general, partly by conciliation, reduced the West--the theater of the La Vendee revolt--to submission. The English and emigrants landed in _Quiberon_, on the coast of Brittany, but were defeated. The coalition was broken up, first by the withdrawal of Prussia, which ceded (April 5, 1795), and, in a secret article, ceded permanently, its territories on the left bank of the Rhine to the French, for a compensation to be obtained from secularized German states,--that is, states in which the old ecclesiastical rule should be abolished. A few months later (July, 1795), Spain concluded peace, ceding _St. Domingo_ to the Republic. The soldiers of France were fast becoming trained, and their confidence rose with their increasing success. This success was due largely to the weak generalship of the allies. The French were commonly hard masters in the conquered places. On the other hand, however, they effected a welcome abolition of old feudal inequalities and abuses.