The Sword of Honor; or, The Foundation of the French Republic

by Eugène Sue

  CHAPTER VI.

  WAR AND COUNTER-WAR.

  After the massacre of the Field of Mars, the reaction thought itselfall-powerful, and entered pitilessly upon its career of repression. Thepresses of the patriot journals were destroyed, their writers forced toflee or go into hiding. The clubs, under the weight of intimidation,remained almost silent.

  Re-established in full power, Louis XVI immediately renewed hisintrigues, within France with the enemies of the Revolution, thenobility and priesthood, and without, with the Emigrant nobles, andforeign sovereigns.

  The Constituent Assembly, having finished its labors, submitted theConstitution to the royal sanction, and declared itself dissolved onSeptember 29, 1791. Although covertly resolved to tear the Constitutionto shreds, the King solemnly swore to uphold it. The ConstituentAssembly gave place to the Legislative Assembly. According to its ownenactment, none of the old members could be re-elected. Robespierre andthe other minority leaders no longer held their seats, therefore, amongthe Representatives of the people; but the principles which inspired theminority in the Constituent, became, through the majority of theLegislative Assembly, the expressed general opinion of France. Thespirit of the Revolution was resuscitated by the elections. The Right ofthe new Assembly was not composed, as that of the Constituent, of grandseigneurs, cardinals, bishops, bourgeois aristocrats, men of the courtor the sword, defenders of the old regime; the Right of the LegislativeAssembly was occupied by the Constitutional party, represented outsidethe Assembly by the Club of the Feuillants. The heads of this party,Lafayette, Mathieu, Dumas, Ramond, Vaublanc, Beugnot, and others, soughtthe continuance in power of Louis XVI and the Constitution. The leadersof the Left were, to a great extent, from the department of the Gironde,whence the name of Girondins, applied to Vergniaud, Guadet, Gensonne,Ducos and their companions. Their leanings were either purelyrepublican, or were on the way to become so. Finally Bazire, Chabot andMerlin sat at the extreme Left; but this faction, as well as that of theGirondins, was devoted to the Revolution, and determined to defend it byall means. The Center of the Assembly, undecided and watery, voted asthe spirit moved them, sometimes with the Left, sometimes with theRight. In short, the majority of the body, no longer able to doubt thetreason of Louis XVI or his secret understanding with the foreigncoalition, was undisguisedly hostile to royalty. It even decided, at itsfirst session, to suppress, in the reports of the representatives of thesovereign people and its executive committee, those ridiculousappellations of _Sire_ and _Majesty_, the superannuated relics ofmonarchical fetichism.

  Louis XVI, on his part, believing himself sure of the assistance of theforeign sovereigns, and counting, within, on the activity of the clergyand the complicity of the generals and officers of the National Guard,obstinately defied the Assembly. The King chose his ministry from theFeuillant Club, notoriously counter-revolutionary. In vain did theAssembly render its decrees against the priests, who were fanning thefires of civil war; against the aristocrats, who were flocking to jointhe body of Emigrants gathered in arms on the frontier. Louis XVIopposed his veto to the execution of these decrees. Soon there came tolight the odious plot of the foreign war, organized between the King,the ministers, the court party, and the despots of Europe. The Emigrantsmade open preparations on the frontiers for an armed invasion under theprotection of the German princes bordering on France, and were to serveas advance guard to the troops of the coalition. These threateningpreparations aroused the Representatives. Isnard mounted the tribunaland exclaimed:

  "Representatives of the people, let us rise to the height of our office.Let us speak to the King, to his ministers, to Europe, with the firmnessthat befits us. Let us say to the King: You reign but by the people andfor the people. The people alone is sovereign! Let us say to theministers: Choose between public gratitude and the vengeance of thelaws. Let us say to Europe: France draws her sword; the scabbard shewill fling away. Then she will wage to the death the war of the peoplesagainst the Kings, and soon the people will embrace before the spectacleof their dethroned tyrants; the earth will be consoled, the heavenssatisfied!"

  Meanwhile Louis cloaked himself in a well-feigned submission to theorders of the Assembly. He promised to hold off the German princesfirmly and with dignity. 'Twas the promise of a King! Under the pretextof possible eventualities of war, he chose as Minister of War the Countof Narbonne, a young courtier crammed with ambition and audacity. Thelatter organized three army corps, placing the first under the commandof the Marquis of Lafayette, and giving the other two to the Marquis ofRochambeau and Marshal Lukner, two enemies of the Revolution.

  Robespierre, Danton, and Billaud-Varenne were farsighted enough todetect the conspiracy hidden beneath these ostensible preparations forwar. In the memorable meeting of the Jacobins, of the 12th of December,1791, several orators of the republican party gave utterance to theirsentiments.

  "Far be it from me to raise my voice against the cruel necessity of aninevitable war," declared Billaud-Varenne. "No! For when in 1789 peoplewere congratulating themselves, saying that never had a revolution costso little blood, I always answered: A people which breaks the yoke oftyranny can never seal its liberty irrevocably save by tracing thedecree which consecrates it with the points of their bayonets! Thesemust be plunged at least into the breasts of our enemies! Only bycombating them can we be freed of them forever!"

  "If it were a question of deciding whether, actually, we were to havewar, I would answer, Yes," declared Danton in turn. "Yes, the clarionsof war resound; yes, the exterminating angel of liberty will smite thesatellites of despotism. But when are we to have the war? Is it notafter having well judged our situation, after having weighed everything,after having deeply scrutinized the intentions of the King who is goingto propose war to us? Let us be on our guard against the Executive."

  Thus did Billaud-Varenne denounce at the Jacobins the plan of thecounter-revolution, of which war was the mask. Thus did Danton, whilesharing the same suspicion, nevertheless incline toward war, asking onlythat before the declaration of hostilities, the Assembly should scanclosely the intentions of Louis XVI. Brissot took the floor and spokefor war, but a revolutionary war.

  Robespierre finally arose to the tribunal:

  "It seems to me that those who desire to provoke war have only adoptedthat opinion through insufficient scrutiny of the nature of the war weare about to embark upon, and of the circumstances with which we findourselves surrounded. What sort of a war is it proposed that we declare?Is it a war of one nation against other nations? Is it a war of one kingagainst other kings? Is it a war of revolution by a free people againstthe tyrants who override other peoples? No! What they propose to us,citizens, is the war of all the enemies of the French Revolution againstthe Revolution itself! This I shall prove by examining what has occurredup to this day, from the administration of the Duke of Broglie who in1789 proposed to annihilate the National Assembly, up to that of thelast successors of this minister....

  "Behold what tissues of prevarication and perfidy, of violence and ofruse! Behold the subsidized sedition! Behold the conduct of the courtand of the ministry! And is it to that ministry, is it to those agentsof the executive power, that you would entrust the conduct of the war?Is it thus you would abandon the safety of the country to those whowish to destroy you?

  "The thing which you have most cause to fear, is war. War is thegreatest scourge which can, in our present circumstances, menaceliberty! For it is in no wise a war kindled by the enmity of peoples. Itis a war concerted by the enemies of our Revolution. What are theirprobable designs? What use would they make of these military forces,this augmentation of power which they ask of you under the pretext ofwar? They seek, in strengthening the powers of the crown, to force us toa deal! If we refuse, these royalists will then attempt to fasten itupon us by the force of the arms which you will have put into theirhands.

  "What, there are rebels to punish? The Representatives of the peopleaimed at them with a decree, and the King opposed his veto to thedecree! I
nstead of allowing the punishment, imposed by the Assembly uponthe Emigrants, to take its course, the King proposes a declaration ofwar, a sham war, whose only aim is to place a formidable military forceat the disposal of the enemies of the Revolution, or to open to them ourfrontiers, thanks to the treason of the aristocratic generals still atthe head of our armies! There you have the secret workings of thiscabinet intrigue! There is the heart of this complot in which we shallbe lost if we allow ourselves to be taken by the snare so craftilycolored with patriotism and martial ardor, sentiments so strong in theFrench spirit."

  The sagacity of Robespierre thus tore the veil off the double project ofLouis and the Austrian Committee, that perennial hotbed of conspiracy.The soul of this Committee was the Queen, and its numerous emissariesmaintained relations with the Emigrant nobles and the foreign Kings; butLouis XVI and his court, by the sublimation of duplicity, carriedtreason within treason. They deceived even their accomplices.

  Louis XVI wanted war because he reckoned on a victory by the alliedKings, and upon their early entry into Paris. Lafayette and his partynever mingled in this machination against the country; hence, in orderto obtain their support for the declaration of hostilities, Louis had tofeign to conspire with them for the triumph of the constitutionalkingdom and monarchic institutions.

  The Girondins, scenting peril and treachery, sought to conjure away thedangers of the situation by imposing on Louis XVI three ministers whomthey thought worthy of their confidence: General Dumouriez was chargedwith Foreign Affairs; Servan with the Department of War; and Roland withthe ministry of the Interior. Dumouriez was a man of war, resourceful,bold and fiery, cunning and subtle of policy, but already grown old inunderground intrigue and occult diplomacy; ambitious, cynical,intemperate of habit, covetous to the point of exaction, unreasonable inpride, without virtues, without principles, capable of serving valiantlythe Republic and the Revolution, or of shamefully betraying both,according to the exigencies of his interest or ambition. Servan, anofficer of genius, was a soldier of integrity, industry and modesty. Hewas capable and upright, and devoted to the Revolution. Roland was oneof the purest and most beautiful characters of the time--simple,stoical, austere, disinterested, of scrupulous honesty, and with afirmness of will equal to the rigidity of his republican convictions,which were shared by his young and charming wife, the soul of theGirondin party, where she reigned as much by the loftiness of her spiritas by her qualities of heart and the attraction of her person.

  On April 19, 1792, the Assembly declared war on Austria. Some days afterthe opening of the campaign the army corps under Count Theobald ofDillon, was, at the first engagement, stampeded before the armies of thecoalition. The royalist officers gave the cry "Each for himself!" andprovoked a panic among the troops. The army fled in full rout. The enemycrossed our frontiers and the heart of France fell under the menace ofthe foreign cohorts.

  The Girondins recognized the trap into which their patriotism had ledthem, and spurred by the realization took three active revolutionarymeasures. They pronounced a sentence of exile upon the fractiouspriests, the promoters of civil war, who refused to stand by theConstitution; they had the Assembly decree the dissolution of the paidguard of Louis XVI; and they ordered the establishment of a camp oftwenty thousand men around Paris, to form a reserve army and to coverthe threatened capital. But Louis entered upon an open war with theAssembly, maintained his veto in the matter of the refractory priests,and refused to sanction the organization of the camp at Paris. Rolandand Servan, the two patriot ministers, were unseated the 13th of June,and Louis formed a new cabinet, choosing its members from among theenemies of the people.

  Still in the dark as to the designs of Louis XVI, and believing that themoment for a coup-d'-etat had arrived, Lafayette wrote from his camp athreatening letter to the Assembly, under date of June 16. The Assemblysummoned Lafayette before its bar. He refused to appear. His trial wascarried on without him, and he was acquitted by an immense majority. Theclubs were thrown into a ferment. Danton at the Cordeliers, Robespierreat the Jacobins, organized for the 20th of June a peaceful demonstrationto celebrate the anniversary of the oath of the Tennis Court, and togive Louis XVI a solemn warning. A huge multitude, swelled by women andchildren, gathered and marched down from the suburbs. The men were inarms; each district dragged its cannon with it. The delegates of thedemonstration appeared at the bar of the Assembly. The spokesmandelivered himself of his message:

  "Legislators, the people comes this day to make you share its fears andits disquietudes. This day recalls to us the memorable date of thetwentieth of June, 1789, at the Tennis Court, when the Representativesof the nation met and vowed before heaven not to abandon our cause, todie in its defense. The people is up and alive to what is occurring; itis ready to take decisive measures to avenge its outraged majesty. Theserigorous measures are justified by Article II of the Declaration of theRights of Man, Resistance to Oppression."

  While part of the manifestants stationed themselves in the vicinity ofthe meeting hall of the Assembly, a large body of them planted a tree,symbolic of Liberty, in the garden of the Tuileries. The invasion of thepalace gardens was accomplished with perfect order. Louis stood upon achair in the recess of a window, surrounded by a detachment of NationalGuards.

  One citizen, bearing a red cap on the end of a pole, passing in turnbefore the King, stopped for an instant and cried "Long live theNation!" Then Louis XVI, leaning over and making a sign to the citizento approach his pole nearer, voluntarily took the red cap and placed iton his head. A burst of fervid applause, from everyone who witnessed it,greeted the King's act.

  It was a day of suffocating heat; and Louis, seeing a National Guardsmanwith a water-gourd, indicated by signs that he wished to drink. Theguard with alacrity offered his gourd to the King, who slowly quaffedits contents.

  But the demonstration of the 20th of June changed in nothing thedisposition of the court. Louis XVI continued his shady machinations,and, on the 25th of July, the Duke of Brunswick, generalissimo of thearmies of the coalition, issued, in the name of the King of Prussia, theEmperor of Austria, and the Germanic Confederation, a manifesto againstFrance.

  The plans of the court were that the Duke of Brunswick, at the head ofthe Prussians, should cross the Rhine at Coblenz, ascend the left bankof the Moselle, attack that point, and march upon Paris by way ofLongwy, Verdun and Chalons. The Prince of Hohenlohe, commanding thetroops of the duchy of Hesse and a body of Emigrants, was to march onThionville and Metz. General Clairfayt, at the head of the troops of theEmperor of Austria and another corps of Emigrants, was to cross theMeuse and make his way to Paris by Rheims and Soissons. Other bodies ofthe hostile army, placed on the northern frontier and along the Rhine,were to attack the French troops and assist the convergent march of thecoalition upon the capital, which they were to seize.

  The publication of the manifesto of the tyrants, so far from crushingthe energy of the Revolution, exalted it to the pitch of heroism. Thejournal _The Revolutions of Paris_ renders in glowing terms its accountof the spirit in Paris and the departments:

  "The National Assembly has at last pronounced the terrible formula, thesignal of peril, the appeal to the courage of the people: _The nation isin danger!_ The danger is, in fact, immense. The Directorate of thedepartment of Paris is the most potent instrument the court has serveditself with to beat down liberty. The majority of the other Directoratesof departments, all the administrators, all the tribunals of justice,all the constituted authorities, are also either openly or covertly theaccomplices of Louis XVI, of Marie Antoinette the Austrian, and of thecourts of Berlin and Vienna. Louis XVI affords striking protection toall the fanatics, the artificers of civil war. This enemy, disguisedunder the name of the Constitutional King of France, does more harm ofhimself than all the other despots of Europe ever could. France isfallen into a state of convulsion, which will precipitate her intoeither slavery or anarchy. The country is in danger; the people is ininsurrection! Frenchmen, you have at last become free
!

  "France has but two dangerous enemies: Lafayette and Louis XVI; and ifthe latter were stricken down, Lafayette would no longer exist.

  "Then let Louis XVI be driven forever from the throne, and the nation issaved! People, to arms!"

  Indeed, an insurrection alone could save public affairs. On August 4Danton said at the Cordeliers: "The people must be appealed to, theymust be shown that the Assembly can not save them. There is no safetysave in a general rebellion."

  "There is but one question to solve," said Robespierre on the 9th of thesame month, at the Jacobins; "That question is the deposition of LouisXVI."

  From the beginning of the month of August, the ferment in Paris was onthe increase. Every patriot instinctively felt the approach of gravepublic danger, and vied with his comrades in the effort to overcome it.

  The Sections of Paris met nightly to deliberate on public matters. TheSection of the Blind Asylum, or "Quinze-Vingts," in the suburb of St.Antoine which was the most influential of all, took the initiative inthe measures for insurrection, with this manifesto:

  MINUTES OF THE SECTION OF THE BLIND ASYLUM, AUGUST, 9, 1792.

  The Section received the commissioners of the following Sections: Fish-Wife, Good-News, Carpet-Shop, Montreuil, Gravillieurs, Beaubourg, Red-Cross, Culvert, Lombards, Ill-Counsel, Popincourt, the Arsenal, the Tuileries, etc., etc. All have adopted the decisions of the Section of the Blind Asylum, recognizing that they were armed solely for the safety of public affairs and the regeneration of France.

  An address was read from the federates of the eighty-two departments, asking the Sections of Paris to assemble in arms.

  On the motion of its members, the Section decided that each of the Sections of Paris shall name three committee-men, the same to meet at the City Hall of Paris, replace the present Municipal Council, and consider the means necessary for the public weal.

  The Sections shall receive no orders other than those coming from a majority of their committee-men, forming the _Commune of Paris_.

  The committee-men named to represent at the Commune the Section of the Blind Asylum are Huguenin, Rossignol, and Balin.

  Each Section formulated the powers given by it to its committee-men inthe new council of the Commune of Paris. Thus, the formula of the BlindAsylum Section read: "The Section gives to its committee-men unlimitedpower to do everything to save the country." Prominent among thecommittee-men elected by the Sections to the new council wereRobespierre, Billaud-Varenne, Fabre D'Eglantine, Chaumette, andFouquier-Tinville.

  The first act of the members of this revolutionary Commune was to marchto the City Hall on the night of the 9th of August, and in the name ofthe sovereign people, whose representatives they were, to depose the oldMunicipal Council from its functions, with the following decree:

  The Assembly of the Committee-men of the Sections, assembled with full power to save the common weal, considering that the first measure of safety is to seize all the powers that have been delegated to the Commune of Paris, and to remove from the staff of the National Guard the evil influence that it has upon the public liberty, decree:

  1.? The staff is suspended from its functions.

  2.? The Municipal Council is suspended. Citizen Petion, Mayor, and Citizen Roederer, attorney for the Commune, shall continue their duties.

  These measures taken in the name of the majority of the citizens ofParis, according to the powers conferred upon it, the new Commune ofParis organized and established itself in permanence in the City Hall,ready to conduct itself in line with the Revolution; while the peopleloaded their muskets and cannon and prepared to march on the palace ofthe Tuileries.