The three chambers, or Three Estates, as they were called, could come to no agreement. Petitions and clamours came in from all over France, to the Third Estate, urging the Commons to make a constitution for France, a set of laws binding on king and people alike. Many of the clergy declared themselves in favour of this: they were ready to go over and take their seats with the Commons in the Third Estate. So in June 1789, the Commons took upon themselves the name of the National Assembly, and proceeded to make a constitution for France, whether the privileged classes agreed or not.
This was one Estate claiming to act for the whole nation, the populace acting for king and nobles and asking for no consent. The Crown could not allow it. The Court raged and argued. Louis went down to the House of Representatives to make his intentions clear. He wished everything for the best: he promised many reforms: but he said the Estates General must consist of the three chambers. Then Mirabeau, the great orator and statesman, rose against the King. Mirabeau was a nobleman, but he had joined the Commons and sat in the Third Estate. He declared that the three-chamber model gave power to the privileged classes, and that the Commons were determined to resist it. The National Assembly, of one House, must represent the nation, the mass of the people, not just the nobles and clergy.
Now the King must either fight or give way. He was too kind-hearted to call in troops to crush the rebellion in the Lower House. In spite of the bold words he had spoken before the National Assembly, he had to give way. He must have money to carry on the government, and he could not have money unless the people would grant it him; for he was too weak to force it from them, as his predecessors had done. Therefore at last he asked the nobles and clergy to go over and join the Commons. Many had already done so: many more obeyed. At last, at the end of all the turmoil, all the twelve hundred representatives of France — or at least as many of them as chose to stay in the Assembly — were assembled in one room, and proceeded to draw up a constitution. In the count of votes, the people now had inevitably a fixed majority.
Louis saw that he had ruined the power of the Crown. He did not intend to yield altogether so easily. His courtiers clamoured for him to call up the armies. At last he consented. Necker, whom the people liked, was dismissed. Domineering nobles were gathered round the King. A great movement of troops was ordered, many regiments were to concentrate on Paris.
When the news of this reached Paris, the city went mad with excitement and wrath. The National Assembly sat at Versailles, twelve miles away. But in Paris were the famous, fiery mob-orators and politicians like Marat and Camille Desmoulins. Meetings were held everywhere, loud cries went up, great crowds gathered and swayed and shouted, the whole city was in the streets. Soldiers quartered in Paris went over to the people.
Suddenly the cry went up, ‘ To the Bastille.’ The Bastille was the famous fortress-prison, a great frowning impregnable place of power belonging to the Crown. It was not any more of any great importance. But the people detested it for what it had been, they hated its very name. The vast masses of the people surged forward.
The Bastille could have resisted for ever, if it had been provisioned. It could have dominated and overawed Paris. But the garrison was half-mutinous. The commander did not know what to do. He was told that the King had surrendered himself to the people. So, in the afternoon, he agreed to yield up the vast fortress if his life and the lives of the garrison should be spared. The promise was given by the leaders of the crowd. But as the commandant and his men were being conducted safely off, the crowd broke through the guard and cruelly murdered them. Then the mob surged delirious through the terrible fortress-prison, liberating the few prisoners and looking with fury and hatred on the dungeons where kings had thrown their victims.
The King and Court were thoroughly frightened. Louis at once dismissed the unpopular nobles from his Council, and recalled Necker. Now the people demanded that the King should come to Paris. He, however, refused to leave the great palace of Versailles. On October 5, a great crowd of fierce and hungry women, who had met to make a demonstration against the shortage of food, surged out on to the Versailles road, and swept like a flood towards the palace. The King heard the strange tumult, and went to the window. There he saw fierce masses of terrible women, some bearing arms, mixed with men also bearing arms. They cried fiercely for bread, and demanded that the King should come with them back to Paris. He returned a doubtful answer. The mob stayed muttering in the park and grounds all night. In the morning they swept up like a sea against the palace, broke in, and surged through the splendid corridors. The life of the King and Queen was in danger, when Lafayette arrived with the National Guard, stalwart Swiss mercenaries, and held back the mob. Lafayette, however, brought a request from the town council of Paris, that the King should take up his residence in the city. Unwillingly, and with foreboding, Louis had to give way. On the afternoon of October 6, the royal party set out, with its guards, towards the Tuileries. The crowds surged and muttered. But they did not really hate the King even now. They hated the Queen more.
The National Assembly, which now called itself the ‘ Constituent Assembly,’ proceeded to form a new constitution, very much on the English model, taking the power from the Crown and putting it into the hands of the citizens. ‘ All sovereignty rests with the people,’ they said. They also reorganised the Church, taking authority away from both the Pope and the King, and putting it in the hands of the voters. The Pope issued a Bull of Condemnation against this new order, and excommunicated all those who had helped in it. The King, however, was forced to sign the whole order, though he was most un- happy and uneasy, particularly at the religious changes. He hoped secretly to get a chance soon to undo all this wicked work, for such it seemed to him.
The people suspected his intentions. Orators and newspapers charged him with being the enemy of the Revolution. In the wine-shops his name was loudly execrated, insults against him and the Queen were scrawled large on the walls. Louis longed to flee. Marie Antoinette urged him to it. At last, on a night in June 1791, the royal pair escaped in disguise in their coach through the barriers of Paris, and galloped on towards the north-east, to the troops that were stationed near Flanders. Louis thought he would place himself under the protection of his troops. Many miles were travelled, and they approached the frontier. And then, as they drew near to safety, the royal fugitives were detected and escorted back to Paris, real prisoners now.
The Assembly determined to suspend the King from his functions until they had finally drawn up the Constitution. This Constitution he would be asked to sign. If he signed it, well and good. If he refused, he would be considered to have abdicated. But the masses were already raging for the King’s deposition, and for the declaration of a republic. A vast crowd met. It was dispersed by the National Guard. But there was great resentment, then resistance, then furious, frenzied fighting and crushing, and many people, men and women, were killed. This put the rest of the citizens of Paris into greater fury.
In September 1791 the Constitution was at last finished. Louis was to be king without any power of making or altering laws: he was to occupy something of the same position in the Government as the English king occupies. Louis formally accepted this Constitution, and promised to rule by it. Many now thought the great aim was achieved, and France would enjoy a free, national government such as Britain enjoyed, a time of prosperity and liberty.
But it did not turn out so. The King did not really abide by the new system. The Queen openly hated it and scorned it all, for she was proud to the backbone. And the people were worked up, their passions were roused, they had not had enough. They wanted to make a clean sweep.
At this time, Austria, Prussia, and Russia were seizing portions of Poland, dividing the country among themselves. They were too busy to interfere in France. But when the French declared that feudalism, with the paying of tithes and taxes to the overlord, was abolished, then the neighbouring countries began to look round; for many of the tithes and taxes of the French frontiers wen
t to German princes, or to the emperor. All Europe began to think the French Revolution was going too far, that it would upset order everywhere.
The French were quite indignant when they were asked to pay compensation for the tithes and taxes they repudiated. They had a grievance of their own. Many nobles, the King’s brothers among them, had crossed the frontiers since the Revolution began, and, establishing themselves in Treves or by the Rhine, had proceeded to drill troops and prepare armies, loudly declaring their intention of marching on the revolutionaries and chastising them severely.
Therefore the French people, very touchy, were all up in arms against their old enemy, the Emperor, who was supposed to be sheltering these runaway, menacing nobles. On either hand the war fever spread. The French people clamoured for war against Austria. Louis was quite willing, for he thought this might be a way out for him. Only the extreme revolutionaries, those who wanted a republic at once, were firmly against it. This party was called the Jacobins, because they belonged to an advanced revolutionary club which met in a building that once belonged to the Jacobin friars. The Jacobin leaders, Marat, Robespierre, Danton, declared that no good could come of a European war, at the moment where they found themselves. Yet the people wanted it. War was declared against the Emperor Leopold in April 1792.
The war began with great enthusiasm on the part of the French. But the first campaign in Belgium was a failure. The public now turned on the Kin”. The Queen was an Austrian. They declared that Louis had been in sympathy with the enemy, and had betrayed his own nation.
The Jacobins then formed a conspiracy. Danton, a barrister, was the leader. Troops that arrived in Paris from the frontier were secretly won over by the conspirators. Suddenly, on August 10, 1792, the Jacobin force made an attack upon the palace. The King was warned just in time. He fled with his family. But the palace was stormed, the Swiss guards who so faithfully defended it were cut down. The victorious insurgents crowded to the Assembly Room, and demanded that the King should be deposed.
The Assembly could not help itself. Louis was declared deposed: he was no longer king. The people were called to vote for a new Assembly. Each man was to have his vote. The Assembly should be called the Convention, and this should decide the destiny of the new republic of France.
This was the beginning of the end. France was now without a government. Who would lead, what would happen? People held their breath and trembled. The strong power’ in Paris was the Municipal Council, called the Commune. The extremist, Marat, was the leader of the Commune. He wanted the revolution to be very thorough, for there was a great, burning bitterness in him against the privileged classes.
The Commune declared that conspiracies were being formed to overthrow the new government. Paris must be searched for arms and traitors. By the end of August, the prisons were crammed with men who had been arrested because they were suspected of being friendly to the King. A tribunal was set up. Ordinary offenders, thieves, or scoundrels were sent back to prison. But men suspected of being friendly to the monarchy were thrust out of the doors and massacred in the street by the bloodthirsty, howling mob. This went on for three, even for five days, and more than a thousand people were butchered. Marat said it was the vengeance of a wrathful people on those who for centuries had ill-treated and trodden them down. But it was in part, at least, a deliberate plan carried out by the Commune.
Meanwhile the revolutionary forces under Dumouriez had inflicted a defeat at Valmy on the Prussians, and the advance of the enemy on Paris had been checked.
The Convention, elected by the men of the nation, met in September. It declared France a republic, and summoned King Louis to trial. He was found a traitor, and guillotined in January 1793.
Now began the Reign of Terror. The Jacobins were certainly a minority, yet they were in power. Civil wars broke out. In La Vendee, a district of Western France, peasants rose in arms because the Republic tried to conscript them into the army, and because they wished to defend the Church. In Lyons and Toulon were dangerous movements. The execution of the King had made enemies of Britain, Holland, and Spain. In 1793 France had to face a coalition of all the great states of Europe, except Russia. The French armies were defeated, and the collapse of the Republic seemed imminent.
Yet the Jacobins were determined to stand against everything. They knew that the majority, even in France, were against them. They were a small body. They must either fall, or deal a great blow at their opponents, that would strike terror into them and cow them for the time being.
They formed the Committee of Public Safety, led first by Danton, then afterwards by Robespierre. This Committee overruled every other authority. It at once set itself to raise troops and organise campaigns on the different fronts of battle.
And then, in Paris, it set up the Revolutionary Tribunal. Men and women were seized, who were suspected of having any connection with the aristocracy or any sympathy with the old system. The Queen was sent to the guillotine, more and more people followed her. It seemed as if the Jacobins got greedier for blood, the more they shed. Victims were condemned in batches. Even good republicans, even the very leaders who had started the Revolution, but who were now not red enough, were seized, condemned, and sent to the guillotine. For the extreme revolutionaries were frightened too. They felt all Europe was against them. They felt that even at home great numbers of the people were ready to betray the Revolution. Unless they struck first, and struck hard, and struck deep, they and all they stood for would be wiped out, the old would come back, all would be again as bad or worse than if they had never existed.
Then the Jacobins divided among themselves. Danton wished to be more merciful, and to limit the foreign wars. Hebert and Chaumette wanted to go further, to utmost extremes, to destroy every trace of the old way. They swept away the calendar, and called the year 1792 the Year One. They christened the months with new names. They made a week of ten days, and introduced the decimal system. They declared Christianity abolished, and the worship of Reason substituted for it.
But the third or middle party, led by Robespierre, ultimately triumphed. He drew the energetic revolutionaries of Paris, men and women, to his side, and obtained control of the fierce armed forces of the streets. He triumphed over his rivals. Danton and the others went to the guillotine. The Terror went on. Robespierre wanted to be supreme dictator, and to bring this about he condemned his victims by batches to death. He knew he could not last. Terror in his own heart urged him to inflict, or to try to inflict more terror on the hearts of the populace. In July 1791 men rose and denounced him in the Convention. He tried to gather his followers together, to fight for his position. But his adherents fell away. He was declared an outlaw, seized at last, and executed without any form of trial. The Terror came to an end.
King, Queen, nobles, gentry, all were gone. Republican leaders were gone too. The bloodstained crowds remained. Louis xv.’s Deluge had indeed come.
While all this was going on in Paris, the rest of France was more or less terrorised. First the provinces had to watch the foreign war, where so many of their men were enrolled and fighting. The enemy were penetrating into France, from the north, from the east, from the south. Every one felt unsafe, everything was in danger. Very bitter insurrections broke out, there was civil war against the hated rule of the Jacobins. The armies sent against the foreign enemies were disheartened and defeated. Things looked very black in 1793.
But the Jacobin leaders were swift and relentless. They crushed the rebels in France and punished them with great cruelty, using the fierce revolutionary troops against them. They appointed new, determined officers to the army, and infused into the men a great passion for the Revolution, a great hatred of foreign emperors and kings who were out to destroy the newly-risen people of France. As the Jacobins were relentless in Paris, against those who might bring back the hated old system of monarchy, the soldiers in the far fields became relentless against the foreigners who would crush the new rule of the people. The tide of war turned. The e
nemy was rolled back beyond the frontiers, and by the time Robespierre fell, France was almost free.
Men now began to recover their senses. The Terror was over, the hated Jacobins were gone, the people were masters and they seemed secure. What next? First, there was hostile Europe hemming France in. The French people recovered all their jauntiness. Let France expand, they cried, to her natural boundaries, of the Rhine, the Pyrenees, and the Alps. The Gallic vanity called loudly for the restoration of France to the limits of old Gaul. At the beginning, the Revolution had declared that it did not want to make conquests or acquire territories; it wanted to live at peace with all men. Now, quite the opposite, it defiantly announced itself at war with its neighbours, and proceeded to extend its dominions at the cost of all.
But at home, people wanted to solidify the country and appease many enemies by making a moderate Constitution. The present governing power was the Convention. It had the armies under its control. Men were now tired of the Convention. They wanted something quite new, an arrangement whereby perhaps there would be more balance of power, where the old Convention would not be so autocratic: for the Convention and the Committee of Public Safety had been far more deadly and overbearing than the old Kings’ Councils. But Convention decided that the first assemblies of the new Constitution should consist of two-thirds of its own members. There was an uproar. Convention was not going to be bullied any more by the mob. It called out its soldiers, under their young officer, Napoleon Bonaparte. When the masses attacked the Convention they were driven off with artillery.
Complete Works of D.H. Lawrence Page 915