The Marquis
Page 46
pornographic prints: The pornographic texts and images that derided Marie Antoinette have received a considerable amount of attention from scholars since the 1980s. See for example, Dena Goodman, ed., Marie-Antoinette: Writings on the Body of a Queen (New York: Routledge, 2003).
“What double rapture!”: Bordel patriotique institué par la Reine des François pour les plaisirs des Députés à la nouvelle Législature (Paris: 1791), 35. Through the process of elimination, Dena Goodman concluded that this pamphlet was produced by the Orléanists: nearly every other rival for power in 1791 comes under attack from the pornographer’s pen. Lynn Hunt, “Pornography in the French Revolution,” in The Invention of Pornography: Obscenity and the Origins of Modernity, 1500–1800, Lynn Hunt, ed. (New York: Zone Books, 1993), 316.
“thrust ahead”: Bordel patriotique, 35. The verb used is enfoncer, which means both to drive something in (such as a nail) and, in a military context, to vanquish.
“la poule d’autruche”: Because spelling was not yet standardized, the letters i and y are frequently used interchangeably, as in autriche and autryche, both of which mean Austria.
“Neither Phidias nor Scopas nor Praxiteles”: The Priapus Poems: Erotic Epigrams from Ancient Rome, trans. Richard W. Hooper (Champaign: University of Illinois Press, 1999), 54.
Marquis de Favras: On the “Favras Conspiracy,” see Shapiro, Revolutionary Justice, 124–47.
He kept a locksmith busy: LOC, reel 6, folder 42.
CHAPTER 17: DOWNFALLS
Cannon fire: This description of the morning of June 21 is based on the report given in “Assemblée Nationale,” L’ami du roi (June 22, 1791): 689. My discussion of the events of June 1791 is deeply indebted to Timothy Tackett, When the King Took Flight (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2003).
rumors swirled: Lafayette gives his version of events in Mémoires, 3:73–102.
In the chamber: AP, 27:358–97.
Alexandre de Beauharnais: Ibid., 27:361.
Soon, Lafayette himself was: Mémoires, 3:79.
“an attack”: AP, 27:370.
“Declaration of the King”: Ibid., 27:378.
“by special decree”: Ibid., 27:382.
“that services rendered”: Ibid., 27:379.
“Come back”: Ibid., 27:383.
“a satire of the Revolution”: Révolutions de Paris 8, no. 102 (June 18–25, 1791): 546.
“The Declaration written in the hand”: Ferrières, Correspondance, 368.
L’ami du roi: L’ami des français, de l’ordre, et sur-tout de la vérité (June 22, 1791), 173:689. On June 30, the paper reclaimed the title L’ami du roi.
at least since March: Campan, Mémoires, 338.
nécessaire de voyage: Ibid., 339.
twelve battalions and twenty-three squadrons: Bouillé, Mémoires, 237.
suspicions of local citizens: Tackett, When the King Took Flight, 69.
“happily”: Bouillé, Mémoires, 240.
added to the passenger list: Tackett, When the King Took Flight, 59.
Lafayette’s carriage: Memoirs of the Duchess de Tourzel, Governess to the Children of France During the Years 1789, 1790, 1791, 1792, 1793 and 1795, 2 vols. (London: Remington, 1886), 1:323.
“then looking at his watch”: Ibid., 1:329.
rode into Sainte-Menehould: “Lettre des officiers municipaux de Sainte-Menehould à l’Assemblée nationale,” June 22, 1791, AP, 27:424.
As Drouet told: Jean-Baptiste Drouet, Récit fait par M. Drouet, maître de poste à Ste Menehould, de la manière dont il a reconnu le roi, et a été cause de son arrestation à Varennes: Honneurs rendus à ce citoyen et à deux de ses camarades (Paris: Imprimerie du Journal des Clubs, 1791), 2.
circumventing Reims: Bouillé, Mémoires, 192.
raced to the town: This account summarizes Drouet, Récit.
“Here is my wife”: Drouet, Récit, 6.
“Monsieur the Commander General”: Révolutions de Paris 8, no. 102 (June 18–25, 1791): 535.
“Flesselle and Delaunay”: Ibid., 102:538.
loyalty of Lafayette: On June 23, Lafayette would lead a crowd of National Guardsman into the assembly hall to swear an oath reaffirming their commitment to the nation’s freedom. Mémoires, 3:86–87.
“is criminal or imbecile”: Révolutions de Paris 8, no. 102 (June 18–25, 1791): 532.
a messenger arrived: AP, 27:446–47.
“Does Your Majesty”: Mémoires, 3:92.
“issued orders that no honors”: Joseph-Thomas d’Espinchal, Journal d’émigration du Comte d’Espinchal (Paris, Perrin, 1912), 241.
“at the head”: Bouillé to National Assembly, letter dated June 26, 1791, AP, 27:602.
“calumny”: AP, 27:671.
“happily for him”: Mémoires, 3:79.
When the sun rose: Sunrise and sunset are given in Chronique de Paris (July 17, 1791), 198:799. The following discussion of the social, political, and economic divisions roiling Paris is indebted to David Andress, Massacre at the Champ de Mars: Popular Dissent and Political Culture in the French Revolution (Woodbridge, UK: Boydell Press for the Royal Historical Society, 2000), and David Andress, “The Denial of Social Conflict in the French Revolution: Discourses Around the Champ de Mars Massacre, 17 July 1791,” French Historical Studies 22, no. 2 (Spring 1999): 183–209.
tens of thousands of men: Andress, “Denial of Social Conflict,” 192–93.
clearing Louis XVI: This discussion is based on Tackett, When the King Took Flight, 137–42.
“all the firebrands of the capital”: Ferrières to Madame de Ferrières, July 20, 1791, Ferrières, Correspondance, 395.
“much Heat”: Gouverneur Morris to Robert Morris, July 16, 1791, Morris, Diary, 2:220.
“the principles that dictated”: AP, 28:372.
The violence began before noon: This description of the uncontested moments of the event is based on Andress, Massacre, 4–6; Mémoires, 3:103–9; and Tackett, When the King Took Flight, 145–50.
renewed their demand: AP, 28:380–81.
“were I to be a victim”: Ibid., 28:380.
“hailstorm of rocks”: Mémoires, 3:106.
Albert Mathiez: The following details are found in Albert Mathiez, Le club des Cordeliers pendant la crise de Varennes et le massacre du Champ de Mars (Paris: Champion, 1910), 146–52.
“Patriot’s Saint Bartholomew’s day”: Mathiez, Cordeliers, 152.
“Blood flowed”: Révolutions de Paris 9, no. 106 (July 16–23, 1791): 53.
“the roads of France”: Bouillé, Mémoires, 269.
popular destinations: Doyle, Oxford History, 156.
formal letter of good-bye: Mémoires, 3:120–23.
he reached Chavaniac: Ibid., 3:189.
“private life”: Ibid., 3:124.
“where he means, by his own example”: “The Following account of the Illustrious Marquis de la Fayette, extracted from a London paper, cannot fail to be acceptable to every reader who knows how to appreciate real magnanimity and patriotism.” The American Museum; or, Universal Magazine (February 1792): 48.
“this manner of serving my neighbors”: “Note relative à ma fortune personelle,” n.d. [1801?], Cornell, box 6, folder 16.
“give the region an example”: Ibid.
Dyson lived with Lafayette’s family: “Extrait du registre d’enregistrement des créances sur les émigrés du district de Brioude. Chapitre Lafayette, article 18, 9 février 1793,” Cornell, box 122, folder 1, D [Miscellaneous accounts, legal papers, documents, etc.] Chavaniac.
Vaudoyer also joined: Vaudoyer memo, 20 messidor year 8 (July 9, 1800). LOC, reel 6, folder 73. On Vaudoyer’s career, see Barry Bergdoll, “Vaudoyer, Antoine-Laurent-Thomas,” in Dictionnaire critique des historiens de l’art actifs en France de la Révolution à la Première Guerre mondiale, ed. Philippe Sénéchal and Claire Barbillon (Paris: INHA, 2009).
Vaudoyer served as Lafayette’s architect: Vaudoyer to Lafayette, July 4, 1792, Archives Nationales, C/358, no. 190
0.
“all would be well”: “Lettre de Lafayette relative à une instruction à adresser aux paysans de la Haute-Loire pour leur expliquer la constitution de 1791,” Séances et travaux de l’Académie des sciences morales et politiques, n.s., 62 (1904): 79.
all priests to swear an oath: See François Furet, “Civil Constitution of the Clergy,” in Furet and Ozouf, eds., Critical Dictionary, 449–57.
“you will never convert a fanatic”: “Lettre de Lafayette,” 81.
“the advantages of liberty and equality”: Ibid., 80.
“Here,” wrote Ferrières: Ferrières to Madame de Ferrières, November 1, 1791, Ferrières, Correspondance, 440.
Calls for war: Gouverneur Morris speculates on the reasons for the widespread desire for war in a letter to Washington of February 4, 1792. Morris, Diary, 2:355. Some believed that the war against the royalists in exile would finally unite the nation; Robespierre, in contrast, vehemently opposed the war, believing with the king that it would ring the death knell of the revolution. For a well-researched and highly readable biography of Robespierre, see Ruth Scurr, Fatal Purity: Robespierre and the French Revolution (New York: Metropolitan Books, 2007).
“amassing of armed French troops”: Charavay, La Fayette, 291.
three armies of 50,000 troops each: Ibid.
product of an incestuous liaison: Morris, Diary, 2:354.
Nicolas Luckner: One of the many tragic ironies of the French Revolution is that Luckner, the man to whom “La Marseillaise” was dedicated, died on the guillotine in 1794.
choice that pleased almost no one: Charavay, La Fayette, 291, reports that Louis XVI initially objected to Narbonne’s selection of Lafayette but was quieted by Narbonne’s assertion that “if Your Majesty does not name him today … the nation will compel you to do it tomorrow.”
the Jacobin party had been abuzz: The rumors are refuted in Charavay, La Fayette, 288–90. For an example of the rumor as it circulated in the Jacobin press, see “Derniers efforts de la faction-Lafayette, pour empêcher la fête civique des soldats de Château-Vieux,” Révolutions de Paris (March 31–April 7, 1792), 143:8–16.
“Festival of Liberty”: Detailed plans for the festival are spelled out in “Détails & ordre définitivement arrête de la fête des soldats de Château-Vieux,” Révolutions de Paris 143 (March 31–April 7, 1792): 16–18, and the event is described in “Première fête de la liberté, à l’occasion des soldats de Châteaux-Vieux,” Révolutions de Paris 145 (April 14–21, 1792): 97–108. For an analysis of the festival, see Mona Ozouf, Festivals and the French Revolution, trans. Alan Sheridan (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1988), 66–82.
“the national guard of Paris”: Lafayette to Adrienne, April 18, 1792, Mémoires, 3:430. This letter was found on Adrienne’s person when she was arrested by revolutionary authorities on September 11, 1792.
Lafayette’s supporters: Révolutions de Paris 145 (April 14–21, 1792): 125–28.
rousing proclamation: Mémoires, 3:311–13.
“The clubs usurped”: Mémories, 3:323–24.
lengthy letter: The letter was published in AP, 45:338–40, and the debate recorded in AP, 45:340–43. It is reproduced with annotations in Mémoires, 2:325–31.
“Organized like a separate empire”: Mémoires, 3:326–27.
“Strike down Lafayette”: Charavay, La Fayette, 305.
stormed the Tuileries Palace: For the most recent discussion of the events of June 20, 1792, see Micah Alpaugh, “The Making of the Parisian Political Demonstration: A Case Study of 20 June 1792,” Proceedings of the Western Society for French History 34 (2006): 115–33.
“excited indignation and alarm”: AP, 45:653.
Crimes of Lafayette in France: Crimes de La Fayette en France, seulement depuis la Révolution et depuis sa nomination au grade de général (Paris: Imprimerie du Patriote Français, [1792]). An original copy of this rare pamphlet is housed in the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Tolbiac, LB39-5208. A photocopy is available in Gottschalk, box 56, folder 9.
“issue a proclamation”: Mémoires, 3:345.
“we would be better off”: Ibid., 3:347.
What was to be done: Much of AP 46 and AP 47 is devoted to these questions.
“tyranny over the National Assembly”: This was the interpretation offered by the Left and voiced by the deputy Jean Debry on August 8, 1792. AP, 47:562.
expressing personal views: This argument was put forth by Vincent-Marie Viénot de Vaublanc, a leader of the Feuillants, in response to Debry. AP, 47:565.
“partisan and admirer”: AP, 47:8.
assembly took up the question: AP, 47:578.
“this was not another demonstration”: David P. Jordan, The King’s Trial: Louis XVI vs. The French Revolution (Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1979), 35. See also David Andress, The Terror: The Merciless War for Freedom in Revolutionary France (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2005), 82–90; Doyle, Oxford History, 186–90; and Schama, Citizens, 611–18.
“torn [Lafayette] to pieces”: Morris to Jefferson, August 1, 1792, Morris, Diary, 2:483.
“plotting against liberty”: Charavay, La Fayette, 327. For the discussion and text of the resolution, see AP, 48:387–88.
at camp in Sedan: Mémoires, 3:401.
“the nation, the law, and the king”: Charavay, La Fayette, 326.
CHAPTER 18: EXILE
“there was nothing left to do”: Mémoires, 3:401.
Bouillon: Bouillon is part of modern Belgium, but Lafayette described it as being “the extreme frontier of France.” Mémoires, 3:405.
Lafayette and forty-three other Frenchmen: Charavay, La Fayette, 330–31, lists the names of the officers and aides-de-camp who accompanied him. Although Charavay gives the hour of their arrival as eight o’clock and others have placed it closer to midnight, I have accepted the time of nine o’clock, proposed on the basis of archival research published in Paul S. Spalding, Lafayette: Prisoner of State (Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 2010), 1, the definitive account of Lafayette’s life from his 1792 arrest to his 1797 release.
“unable to withstand”: Charavay, La Fayette, 331.
“You were the instigator”: Ibid., 340–41.
Lafayette put pen to paper: Lafayette to Adrienne, August 21, 1792, Charavay, La Fayette, 332.
“You will greatly oblige me”: Short forwarded Lafayette’s letter to Morris. It is included in Morris, Diary, 2:551–52.
“supposing that Monsieur”: Morris to Short, September 12, 1792, Morris, Diary, 2:556.
“The less we meddle”: Morris to Pinckney, September 13, 1792, Morris, Diary, 2:557.
wrote directly to George Washington: Adrienne de Lafayette to George Washington, October 8, 1792, PGWP, 11:204–6. As translated by John Dyson, who forwarded the original and his translation to Washington. Washington received the letter on February 20, 1793, and responded to it on March 16, 1793.
“Enclosed is a letter”: Washington to Jefferson, February 24, 1793, PGWP, 12:207.
“all the consolation”: Washington to Jefferson, March 13, 1793, PGWP, 12:313.
“sincere sympathy”: Washington to Marquise de Lafayette, June 13, 1793, PGWP, 13:70.
“His circle is completed”: Morris to Jefferson, August 22, 1792, as quoted in Jared Sparks, The Life of Gouverneur Morris: With Selections from His Correspondence and Miscellaneous Papers; Detailing Events in the American Revolution, the French Revolution, and in the Political History of the United States, 3 vols. (Boston: Gray and Bowen, 1832), 203.
designated as émigrés: Massimo Boffa, “Émigrés,” in Furet and Ozouf, Critical Dictionary, 324–31.
begin the inventory: Cornell, 4611 bound manuscript 13++ supplement. A portion of this inventory is published by Henry Mosnier, Le château de Chavaniac-Lafayette, description—histoire—souvenirs (Le Puy: Marchessou Fils, 1883), Appendix 1, 45–51. However, Mosnier includes only those items inventoried on August 30, 1792. The inventory continued on Augu
st 31, 1792, and was conducted again on February 13–15, 1793. The 1793 inventory is more detailed than that compiled in 1792 and includes the estimated values of many of the items listed. I am grateful to Laurent Ferri, curator of the Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections, Carl A. Kroch Library, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, for signaling the existence of Cornell’s complete inventory.
“sentiments of humanity”: “Mme de La Fayette au ministre, 28 novembre 1792.” This letter and several dozen additional documents related to the purchase and sale of Lafayette’s properties in Guiyana are housed in “Titres, pièces, correspondance et renseignements concernant l’habitation la Gabrielle, venue à l’État par le marquis de La Fayette suivant contrat passé à Paris, le 13 germinal an × (3 avril 1802) devant Mr Perhet, notaire (1756-1829),” ANOM FM C/14/81.
“nothing could have ever impelled”: Mme de La Fayette à Geneste, 28 novembre, 1792, ANOM FM C/14/81.
inventoried on April 5, 1794: “Extrait des Minutes et Registres du Directoire du Département de la Guyane Française,” Archives Nationales, AB/XIX/366.
wrote to the Ministry of the Marine: Au Citoyen Ministre de la Marine, year 8, ANOM FM C/14/81. Lafayette remained in regular contact with the ministry from 1799 to 1802 as he negotiated the restitution of his property and its subsequent sale to the ministry.
slavery had been abolished: Slavery had, in point of fact, been declared abolished in 1794. However, actions on this front were evidently not taken immediately.
“the Sovereign owes”: Jean-Antoine-Nicolas de Caritat, Marquis de Condorcet, Réflexions sur l’esclavage des Nègres (Neufchâtel: 1781), 29–30.
last will and testament: Adrienne’s wills are available in LOC, reel 5, folder 67a.
taken into custody: “Procès-verbal rédigé par Alphonse Aulagnier, juge de paix au Puy, chef-lieu du département de la Haute-Loire, lors de l’arrestation de madame et de mademoiselle Lafayette,” reproduced in Virginie de Lasteyrie, Vie de Madame de Lafayette par Mme de Lasteyrie sa fille précédée d’une notice sur la vie de sa mère Mme la Duchesse d’Ayen (Paris: Techener, 1868), 461–63. Virginie was in the house as well, but she hid with a servant and was not discovered. Maurois, Adrienne, 233.