The Sword of Honor; or, The Foundation of the French Republic
Page 19
CHAPTER I.
THE NATION INSULTED--AND AVENGED.
The taking of the Bastille on July 14, 1789, dealt a mortal blow to thepower of the monarchy, the same as its influence and that of thenobility and the clergy were wiped out when, upon the closing of theTennis Court at Versailles, and braving the orders of dissolutionpronounced by Louis XVI, the deputies of the Third Estate constitutedthemselves a sovereign, constituent, and inviolable assembly. Theresults of that immortal day of the Fourteenth of July were in thehighest degree advantageous to the cause of the people. The King wasforced to return to Paris to render homage to the popular victory, andthrew off the white cockade for the new national tricolor, blue, white,and red.
The fall of the Bastille re-echoed throughout France. Everywhere thepeople and the bourgeoisie of the towns rose against the representativesof the royal power, and replaced them with municipal governors electedby the citizens.
This general insurrection against royalty, and against the privileges ofnobility and clergy, threw into affright the Right side of the NationalAssembly, where sat the most violent antagonists of the Revolution.
The Center of the Assembly, called by turns the Plain and the Swamp, hadno settled convictions whatsoever. The Left was almost entirely composedof the deputies of the Third Estate, among whom, famous for theireloquence, were Sieyes, Duport, and Barnave. On this side also were somefew scattering representatives of the nobility, such as the Duke ofOrleans, the Marquis of Lafayette, the Lameths, and, most illustrious ofall, the elder Mirabeau, a magnificent orator, but corrupt in hisprivate life. At the extreme Left sat a deputy, then obscure and next tounknown, but destined soon to become the incarnation of the FrenchRevolution. 'Twas Maximilien Robespierre, attorney at the bar of Arras.
In one single night, the night of the 4th of August, 1789, the oldfeudal edifice crumbled before the determined attitude of the nation. O,sons of Joel, let us glorify the memory of our obscure ancestors, whoprepared the triumph of the Revolution.
The imperishable work of the National Assembly was the Declaration ofthe Rights of Man. This monumental document embraced territorial andadministrative unity; social, civil, political and religious equality;and above all, the formal recognition of the sovereignty of the peopleas the source of all power and of all functions, which it delegated toits representatives by election. Nevertheless we must admit that theConstitution of 1789-1791 lacked much that it should have contained, andcontained much which it would have been better without. Such, forinstance, were its several breaches of the sovereignty of the people,like the distinction drawn between "active" and "passive" citizens, thetwo-degree election, and the requirement of a certain amount of directtaxation to qualify one for election as a representative. The Conventionlater corrected these injustices; but it must be noted that theConstitution of 1789-91 made no provision for the rights of women. OurGallic fathers admitted women into their city councils, even when thedeliberations turned on matters of war. Equality of civil and politicalrights for men and women should have figured at the very head of theConstitution. The question of marriage should there have been taken upand established as a matter of free unions, ruled by mutual tastes andagreements. Property should also have been reorganized, and declaredcollective in the state, the department, the district, or the commune,according to its nature, and no individual should have possessed morethan a temporary title to the instrument of labor or the plot of groundwhich he needed for his support, and which should have been assigned tohim gratuitously by the commune. The abolition of inheritance would havelogically followed, and the suppression of interest on capital. A systemof free, compulsory, and nonsectarian education should have beenproclaimed, and also the right to assistance during youth, old age,illness or unemployment.
However that may be, and in spite of the regrettable omissions in theConstitution, honor to the labors of the legislators of '79. The clergy,the nobility, the monarchy, smitten in their prestige, in theirproperty, in their privileges, and in their temporal authority, receivedtheir death blow. The National Assembly inaugurated the era ofenfranchisement. It could, with good right, date its work the Year I ofLiberty. But we must not forget that it was the revolutionary attitudeof the populace of Paris at the attack on the Bastille, that ushered inour freedom.
But a fact often before made manifest, almost one century after another,was now once more to come into play. The royal power, forced to grantconcessions, sought only how best to elude or annul them, employing tothis end, each in its turn, perfidy, perjury, and violence!
Soon the hostility of the court showed itself in the open. Louis XVIrefused to sanction the Declaration of the Rights of Man, thecorner-stone and basis of the Constitution, and opposed his veto to thelaw attaching for sale the goods of the clergy. Thereupon, projectsfatal to liberty began to rear their heads with unheard-of insolence. OnOctober 1, 1789, the foreign troops were summoned to Versailles. TheBody Guard bespoke to a banquet the newly arrived officers, togetherwith those of the Montmorency Dragoons, the Swiss regiments, theHundred-Swiss, the mounted Police, and the Mayor's Guard. Severalmonarchical captains, picked out from among the National Guard ofVersailles, were also invited. The officers of the army, instead ofwearing the national tricolored cockade, affectatiously displayedenormous cockades of white. The Court was tendering to the Army asumptuous banquet, the expenses of which were paid by the King. Thetables were spread in the Opera Hall of the palace, which wasbrilliantly lighted. The bands of the Flanders regiment and the BodyGuard played during the repast royalist or topical airs, such as "LongLive Henry IV," or "O Richard, O My King, the World Is All ForsakingThee." The wine, liberally distributed, rose to all heads. They drainedtheir bumpers to the health of the royal family; one captain of theNational Guard proposed the health of the Nation; he was drowned withhoots.
Soon the officers called in their soldiers, who were massed in all thealcoves. Then the King entered the hall in a hunting habit, accompaniedby the Queen, who held the Dauphin by the hand. At the sight of LouisXVI, the officers were transported with enthusiasm. The Germanregimental band struck up the "March of the Uhlans," a foreign war song.The drunkenness rose to frenzy. Insults and bloody threats were hurledagainst the Revolution, against the Assembly. The cavalry trumpetssounded the charge. The officers whipped out their sabers to cries of"Long live the King!" The tricolored cockade was trampled under foot.Then these rebels, dragging after them their soldiers, as drunk asthemselves, poured out into the courtyard of the palace, crying savageimprecations against the Representatives of the people. The NationalAssembly, intimidated, defenseless, surrounded by these saturnalia ofmilitary force and placing little reliance in the National Guard ofVersailles, hardly dared show its fears. Unpardonable weakness!
But the people of Paris were watching in their clubs. The press soundedthe alarm.
"That Saturday night," wrote Camille Desmoulins in his journal,_Revolutions of France and Brabant_, "Paris rises. It is a woman, who,seeing that her husband is not listened to in his district meeting, isfirst to run to Foy's Cafe, at the Palais Royal, and denounce theroyalist orgy. Marat flies to Versailles, returns like the lightning,and cries to us, 'O ye dead,--awake!' Danton, on his part, thunders inthe club of the Cordeliers; and the next day this patriotic districtposts its manifesto demanding a march on Versailles. Everywhere thepeople arm; they seek out the white cockades and the black ones, thelatter the Catholic rallying sign, and--just reprisals--trample themunder foot. Everywhere the people gather, discussing the imminence ofthe danger. They hold councils in the gardens of the Palais Royal, inthe St. Antoine suburb, at the ends of the bridges, on the quays. Theysay the hardihood of the nobility is growing visibly, that the boatladen with flour, which arrives morning and night from Corbeil, has notcome at all for two days. Is the court, then, going to take Paris byfamine? They say that despite the orders of the Assembly, the localcouncils are still functioning; that that of Toulouse is burningpatriotic leaflets; that the council of Rouen has ordered the seizure ofcitizens ac
quitted by the Assembly; that the one of Paris has recordeditself, and is obstinately determined to make use of its Gothic formulas'Louis, by the grace of God, King' and 'Such is our good pleasure.' Andfinally they say that conclaves are being held in the aristocrats'mansions, and that they are secretly enrolling gangs of ruffians for thecourt."
Loustalot, a fearless young man, a generous and noble character, and oneof the most brilliant spirits of his time, wrote in his journal, _TheRevolutions of Paris_ (No. XIII):
"There must be a _second burst of revolution_, we have maintained forseveral days. Everything is ready for it. The soul of the aristocraticparty has not yet left the court! A crowd of Knights of St. Louis, ofold officers, of gentlemen, and of employes already included in thereforms or desiring to be, have signed agreements to enlist in the BodyGuards or other troops. This roll includes already more than thirtythousand names. The project of the court is to carry the King to Metz,there to await foreign aid, in order to undertake a civil war andexterminate the Revolution!"
And finally Marat, in _The Friend of the People_, of the 4th of October,1789, gave the following advice, with that promptitude of decision, thatdeep sagacity, and that admirable and practical good sense which werehis characteristics:
"The orgy has taken place! The alarm is general. There is not an instantto lose. All good citizens should assemble in arms, and send strongdetachments to take possession of the powder at Essonne; let eachdistrict supply itself with cannon from the City Hall. The NationalGuard is not so senseless as not to join with us, and to take care ofits officers if they give orders hostile to the people. Finally, theperil is so imminent that we are done for if the people does notestablish a tribunal and arm it with public powers!"
Admonished, enlightened, aroused by these ardent appeals to itsrevolutionary spirit, Paris was soon assembled in insurrection. But,strange and touching at once as it was, the signal for this newrevolution was given by the women. Flour and grain, by reason of thecourt's complot, began to run low. A young girl of the market quarterentered the barracks of the St. Eustace body guard, seized a drum, andmarched through the streets beating the charge, and crying "Bread!Bread!" A great throng of women fell in behind her, and together theyinvaded the City Hall, where the monarchical directorate was in session.These virile Gallic women demanded arms and powder, exclaiming, "If themen are too cowardly to go with us to Versailles, we shall go alone, anddemand bread of the King and avenge the insult to the national cockade!"Stanislas Maillard, an usher and a Bastille-hero, addressed thecourageous women. They hailed him as their chief, and marched onVersailles.
Close upon their heels a deputation of grenadiers of the National Guardpresented itself at the City Hall, and addressing Lafayette, theirGeneral, held to him the following language:
"General, we are commissioned by six companies of grenadiers. We do notyet wish to believe you a traitor, but we believe the government hasbetrayed us. That must end! The people want bread, and cry for it. Weshall not turn our bayonets against women. The source of the evil is atVersailles--let us go after the King and fetch him to Paris.Chastisement is demanded for the Body Guards and the Flanders regiment,who, at the royal orgy, trampled on the national cockade. If the King istoo weak to bear the crown, let him be deposed."
In the face of the exasperation of the people, Lafayette decided to takehorse, and himself gave the signal for departure. The National Guardtook the road for Versailles, preceded by an advance guard of about tenthousand women. My sister Victoria joined the Amazons. From her I havethe following account of their expedition:
Along the way, they recruited their ranks steadily from among their ownsex. The Old Iron Quay was thronged with women recruiting agents and thetroops they had marshalled. The robust kitchen maid, the trim modiste,and the humble sempstress, all swelled the phalanx of warriors. The olddevotee, who was on her way to mass, found herself carried off for thefirst time in her life, and protested vehemently against the abduction!The women elected a president and a council board. All who were"borrowed" from their husbands or parents were first presented beforethe president and her aides-de-camp, who pledged themselves to watchover the morals and honor of all who joined the troop. And the promisewas religiously kept; not the slightest disorder marred the journey.
The vanguard of women arrived at Versailles. Usher Maillard counseledhis companions to send a committee of twelve to the National Assembly,to request that several Representatives of the people be added to theirnumber to accompany them before the King. The Assembly granted theirrequest, and commissioned several of its members to conduct to thepalace the delegates of the women of Paris. The deputation was broughtbefore Louis XVI. He greeted the women with apparent good will, andpromised them to watch over the provisioning of Paris.
But during this very talk of the King with the delegation of women, aplot was being hatched out for Louis's flight. The plot was discoveredin time, and the palace placed under the surveillance of the NationalGuard. During the night, the multitude of men and women from Paris,augmented by Lafayette's army, sought shelter in the churches, orbivouacked on the palace grounds. At early dawn, several citizens,seeing a trooper at one of the windows, addressed some insults to him.The latter loaded his gun, took deliberate aim at a citizen, and killedhim. The pretorians of Louis XVI opened the fight. The Parisian womenand the National Guards, yielding to their legitimate indignation,invaded the palace. Blood was shed. The victorious people demanded andsecured the return of the King and the royal family to Paris.
Such were the results of the days of the 5th and 6th of October, 1789.