FOOTNOTES
[1] C. W. Oman, “History of England,” p. 581.
[2] Taine, “La Révolution,” preface.
[3] Victor Hugo, “Quatre-vingt-treize.” Illustrated edition of 1877. Paris, pp. 136-150.
[4] E.g. he says the “gentry” of France should imitate the gentry of England. But to do this it is necessary to own the houses of the peasantry; and even then the system does not always suit the Celtic temperament, they say.
[5] For example, the island of Serque.
[6] Bonaparte may have had a noble ancestry. But so had more than one true bourgeois whose family had had neither the means nor the desire to insist upon the privileged rank in the past.
[7] For the sake of clearness I do not mention the large class who had purchased fiefs, all technically noble, many practically bourgeois.
[8] Lyons was, of course, a frontier town of the empire, but locally it is the centre of its own country the “Lyonnais.”
[9] All biographers agree. The first publication of the extract from the civil register was obtained by Bougeart in August 1860. It was furnished to him by M. Ludot, the mayor at the time. There is a ridiculous error in the Journal de la Montagne, vol. ii. No. 142, “né à Orchie sur Aube.”
[10] The date is given in the extract mentioned in the preceding note.
[11] See the action of the relatives in [No. VI.] of the Appendix.
[12] Bougeart, p. 12. A Danton, who was presumably the son of this brother, was an inspector of the University under the second Empire.
[13] See [Appendix No. V.]; also Théâtre de l’Ancien Collège de Troyes, Babeau, published by Dufour-Bouquet, Troyes, 1881.
[14] See list of his library, [Appendix VIII.], and his interview with Thomas Payne, at the beginning of [Chapter VII].
[15] Speech of August 13, 1793. Printed in Moniteur of August 15.
[16] M. Béon.
[17] Danton, Homme d’État, p. 29.
[18] See “Notes of Courtois de l’Aube” in Clarétie’s “Desmoulins.”
[19] Danton, Homme d’État, p. 30.
[20] An excellent reading is afforded by the Avocat aux Conseils du Roi of M. Bos (Machal & Billaud, Paris, 1881), quoted more than once in this work.
[21] Since 1728 membership of this body had been purchasable and hereditary; a striking example of how wrongly society was moving.
[22] See [Appendix VI.]
[23] M. Bos, quoted above.
[24] Ibid., p. 520.
[25] See [Appendix V.]
[26] See [Appendix II.] on Danton’s lodgings in Paris.
[27] See Robinet, Danton vie Privée, p. 284.
[28] See [Appendix VI.]
[29] By nature his nose was small. His was one of those faces rarely seen, and always associated with energy and with leadership, whose great foreheads overhang a face that would be small, were it not redeemed by the square jaw and the mouth. Thus Arnault, “une caricature de Socrate.”
[30] I refer to the English reformer who, on taking ship at Bristol, cast his perruque into the water, crying, “I have done with such baubles,” and sailed bald to the New World.
[31] See [Appendix VIII.]
[32] See [Appendix IX.]
[33] From the Almanack Royal of 1788. Dr. Robinet, whose opportunities of information are unique, tells us that he first moved into the Rue des Fossés St. Germains, and later into the Cour du Commerce, some time in 1790. The statement as to the first direction is unaccompanied by any authority, but Dr. Robinet possesses a letter with this address on it; now here the definite information of an official list seems to me of the greatest weight.
[34] See Appendices [II.] and [VII.] Some rooms look on the Rue des Cordeliers, some on the Cour du Commerce.
[35] De Barentin. See [preceding chapter] and [Appendix V.] He became Danton’s client just before the decree that summoned the States-General.
[36] Sécretaire du Sceau.
[37] See [Appendix V.], Rousselin. The anecdote is little esteemed by Aulard, but is admitted to be of value by other biographers. Aulard relies for his opinion upon the undoubted errors in the matter of date. But Rousselin may have been right in the main, though (writing many years after) mistaken in the matter of a month or so.
[38] E. Champion, La France en 1789. Esprit des Cahiers in La Révolution (Hist. Générale, viii.).
[39] Ibid.
[40] Aulard, who quotes Chassin, Les Elections de Paris, vol. ii. p. 478. M. Aulard tells us that M. Chassin saw the document himself before the war.
[41] Less than six hundred.
[43] This description is taken from a contemporary water-colour sketch which I have seen in the collection of Dr. Robinet.
[44] See [Appendix I.]
[45] See the discussion of the somewhat meagre authorities in Robinet, Danton, Homme d’État, pp. 37-40.
[46] Documents authentiques pour servir à l’Histoire de la Révolution Française Danton, par Alfred Bougeart. Brussels, 1861 (La Croix, Van Meenen & Cie.).
[47] Aulard, who quotes Charavay, Assemblée electorale de Paris.
[48] Chassin, Les Elections et les Cahiers de Paris, iii. 580-581, on which this whole scene is based.
[49] Aulard, Revue de la Révolution Française, February 14, 1893.
[50] See the figures given in the petition against Danton’s arrest, [p. 108].
[51] This decree was passed by the Cordeliers on Tuesday, July 21, 1789. It is not so unreasonable as it might seem, for but two days afterwards (July 23rd) the informal municipal body recognises the necessity of new city elections.
[52] Signed 21st September; promulgated 3rd November.
[53] An excellent example is on p. 45 of Danton, Homme d’État.
[54] Their names were Peyrilhe, De Blois, De Granville, Dupré, Croharé. They can be found, with all the decrees touching this business, in Danton, Homme d’État (Robinet, 1889), p. 248. Printed, like all the Cordeliers’ decrees, by Momoro in the Rue de la Harpe, and signed, “d’Anton.”
[55] It may be remembered that Bougeart (p. 69) claims the presidency for Danton at the very beginning of ’89. The error of this has been pointed out. On the other hand, Aulard says he was not President till October. This is another error. There is at least one earlier document, that of September, quoted on the preceding page.
[56] They had sat for a while at the Evéché; on the Island of the Cité, while the Manège was being prepared.
[57] Rev. de Paris, xxiii. p. 20.
[58] November 11th and 12th.
[59] 22nd of December.
[60] 12th November and 14th of December.
[61] 31 against 20 (Aulard, from Journal de la Cour et de la Ville, p. 518).
[62] Danton, Homme d’État, pp. 256, &c. Signed, “d’Anton.”
[63] Danton, his friend Legendre, Testulat, Sableé, and Guintin. Several authorities have placed Danton’s election in September 1789 instead of January 1790, an error due (probably) to following Godard’s list, which was published in 1790, but bore the title, “Members of the Commune elected since September 1789.”
[64] Marat’s presses were hidden in a cellar of the Cordeliers now situated under the house of the concierge of the Clinique.
[65] January 19th.
[66] The Rue des Fossés was (and is, under its new name) remarkably straight for an old street. Cannon could be used.
[67] Their names were Ozanne and Damien; the same Damien, I believe, who committed the blunder of September 13, 1791. See [p. 150].
[68] Article 9 of the decree of October 8 and 9, 1790.
[69] “Notables-adjoints,” to the number of seven in each district. Danton himself was elected on to such a body in May or June 1790, and served for a few months.
[70] That is, till his election as substitute to the Procureur in December 1791.
[71] January 25, 28; February 4, 16; March 3, 5, 13, 19; June 15, 19, 23. Aulard, Rev. Française, February 14, 1893, pp. 142, 143.
[72] It is this warrant which has probably misled one biographer as to the date of the “Affaire Marat.” (Danton, Homme d’État, p. 67: “En mars survint l’affaire Marat.”)
[73] That is, of course, the inclusion of Paris into the general scheme of December 1789—a scheme that enfranchised the peasants, but created an oligarchy in the towns. See above, pp. [21], [22], and [93].
[74] He received 12,550 votes, the great bulk of the limited suffrage. Forty-nine odd votes were cast for Danton, but he was obviously not a candidate (Aulard).
[75] Ami du Peuple, No. 192.
[76] Révolutions de France et Brabant, tom. x. p. 171.
[77] There is a misprint (a very rare thing with this careful historian) in footnote No. 3, p. 231, of M. Aulard’s article on Danton in the Rev. Française for March 14, 1893. For “November” we should read “September,” for we know that the voting was over on September 16. See Robiquet, Personnel Municipal, p. 373, and the evidence on all sides that a new poll was ordered on September 17 in his Section.
[78] This big building in the island next Notre Dame disappeared in the restorations of Viollet le Duc. It was often used in the revolutionary period for public meetings, and even the Assembly sat there for a few days after entering Paris in October, and while the Riding-School was being prepared for it.
[79] Moniteur, Old Series, No. 316 (1790).
[80] M. Aulard says “somewhere between the 10th and the 15th,” and “nous n’avons pas la date precise.” He has probably overlooked L’Ami du Peuple, No. 290, “Le 14 de ce mois Danton a été nommé à la place du Sieur Villette.”
[81] Aulard. The other biographers all assume that he did not resign.
[82] Orateur du Peuple, vol. iii. No. 24.
[83] Ibid., vol. vi. No. 27.
[84] The letter will be found in M. Etienne Charavay’s Assemblée Electorale, p. 437.
[85] I quote from M. Aulard, Rev. Française, March 14, 1893.
[86] Note that Lafayette in his Memoirs (vol. iii. p. 64) talks of Danton “at the head of his battalion.” I doubt an error on the part of a soldier whose business it was to know his own command.
[87] e.g. that of the quarter of the Carmelites (ibid.).
[88] Révolutions de France et Brabant, No. 74.
[89] See his Collected Works, vol. xii. pp. 264, 265.
[90] M. Aulard points out an error in Condorcet’s own note (xii. p. 267), where it is mentioned as the 12th of July; but the Bouche de Fer of the 10th gives us the above date over these two speeches.
[91] He wrote a funny little letter (among other things) to the Républicain of July 16, describing a “mechanical king,” “who is practically eternal.”
[92] See Société des Jacobins, vol. ii. p. 541.
[93] Moniteur, July 16, 1791.
[94] Ami du Peuple, June 22, 1791.
[95] Révolutions de France et de Brabant, No. 82.
[96] This is not a rhetorical exaggeration. It indicates, as will be seen later in the chapter, the very number that finally formed the garrison of the palace—a point not hitherto noticed, and well worth remembering, for it shows how Lafayette’s accusations are half the truth. He had approached Danton, and he had told him many of his plans. Danton had not acceded, but he used the knowledge.
[97] Révolutions de France et de Brabant, No. 82.
[99] On June 24.
[100] I follow Aulard in this as to the general scheme, and largely as to authorities also.
[101] Aulard is my authority for the fact that the actual text of this second petition disappeared in 1871, when the Hotel de Ville was burnt by the Commune, but that Berchez saw it before that event, and carefully drew up a list of the principal names. Danton is not among them.
[102] The Courrier Français of July 22 asks if “the man in holland trousers and a grey waistcoat was Danton,” but says nothing more.
[103] See the letter published in the Rev. Française, April 1893, p. 325.
[104] Orateur du Peuple, viii. No. 16. Not over-trustworthy.
[105] Possibly later. Beugnot seems to speak as though Danton was still in Troyes on at least as late a date as the 6th of August (Mémoires, i. pp. 249-250).
[106] Since writing the above I notice that M. Aulard in the same article quotes a remark of Danton’s in the Electoral Assembly of September 10th. This is taken from the procès verbal of the Assembly, and M. Charavay communicated it to M. Aulard.
[107] His election was not declared till the 7th, but was known on the 6th.
[108] January 20, 1792.
[109] I see in that phrase all Danton’s attitude upon the war.
[110] There was a minority of seven.
[111] Perhaps as early as the evening of the 28th.
[112] This account is translated from the Moniteur, August 3, 1792.
[113] Journal des Débats, 183.
[114] I take this document from Robinet, Danton, Homme d’État, pp. 109, 112; but neither he nor Aulard (who quotes it) gives the authority. The circular is quoted often under the date of August 19; it was issued on that Sunday, but was drawn up and dated on the Saturday to which I have assigned it.
[115] Aulard, who quotes from the Moniteur, xii. 445.
[116] The scene can be reconstructed from his testimony at the trial of the Girondins and from his speech at the Jacobins on the 5th of November.
[117] I take all this from Aulard’s article in the Révolution Française of June 14, 1893.
[118] The votes of the 30th, 31st, and 2nd.
[119] The word “illegally” is just, for the constitution of the Commune and all its acts were legally dependent on the Assembly. On the other hand, the Commune had given this committee right to add to its numbers, but such men as Marat, who was not a member of the Commune, were surely not intended.
[120] First La Poissonnière, then the Postes and the Luxembourg.
[121] It is possible that this sentence, including the preceding phrase, “le tocsin qui va sonner,” &c., are the only part of the speech that has been literally reported. The Logotachygraphe was not founded till January, and while the Moniteur and the Journal des Débats give much the same version, the latter calls it a “summary.”
[122] “Appel à l’impartiale posterité.” Madame Roland had the great historical gift of intuition, that is, she could minutely describe events which never took place. I attach no kind of importance to the passage immediately preceding. If Danton and Pétion were alone, as she describes them, her picture is the picture of a novelist. The phrase quoted above may be authentic—there were witnesses.
[123] Moniteur, January 25, 1793. Speech of January 21st.
[124] Speech of January 21, 1793.
[125] The accusations against Danton in this matter are given and criticised in [Appendix IV.], where the reasons are also given for omitting any mention of Marat’s circular in the text.
[126] For the figures and very interesting details as to Egalité’s election see Révolution Française August 14, 1893, second note, page 129.
[127] More than 700 and less than 1000 died. The common exaggeration is Peltier’s 12,000.
[128] As a fact, his successor, Garat, was not elected till the 9th of October, and did not begin to act till the 12th. Danton seems to have remained at the Ministry till the evening of the 11th.
[129] October 23.
[130] Michelet, 1st edition, vol. iv. pp. 392-394.
[131] October 10 and 11.
[132] He made a speech on the 6th of November demanding (of course) the trial of the King, but not with violence. He left for Belgium with Delacroix on the 1st of December.
[133] This Dannon was a friend of Danton’s. He began, but did not complete, a collection of his speeches, &c., and an inquiry into his accounts. He was a member for Pas de Calais. It is not easy to get his name accurately spelt. I follow the spelling of a list of the Convention published in 1794. Dannon voted for banishment.
[134] I must not omit to mention one phrase which is far more characteristic of him—that spoken after Lepelletier’s assassination: “It would be well for us if we could die like that.”
[135] The proofs of the connection with Talleyrand are based only on inference. They will be found discussed in Robinet’s Danton Emigré, pp. 12-16 and pp. 270, &c. As for Priestley’s correspondence, it was sympathetic and deep, and continued in spite of the massacres of September. There is a draft of a Constitution in the French archives which some believe to be Priestley’s, but I am confident it is not in his handwriting.
[136] Moniteur, March 9, 1793.
[137] Ibid. March 10, 1793.
[138] See Patriote Français, No. 1308.
[139] See Moniteur, March 13, 1793.
[140] Paine’s ignorance of French was such that his speech on Louis’s exile was translated for him.
[141] La Roche du Maine.
[142] Levasseur tells us that Delmas spoke first, and that his remarks took the form of a definite motion for the appearance of the Committees to account for their action. Legendre is mentioned here because he alone is agreed upon by all the eye-witnesses (and by the Moniteur) as being the principal defender of Danton. We must not underestimate his courage; it was he who with a very small force shut the club of the Jacobins on the night of the 9th Thermidor, and so turned the flank of the Robespierrian faction.
[143] “Quand les restes de la faction ... ne seront plus ... vous n’aurez plus d’exemples à donner ... ils ne restera que le peuple et vous, et le gouvernement dont vous êtes le centre inviolable.”
[144] “Mauvais citoyen, tu as conspiré; faux ami, tu disais, il y a deux jours, du mal de Desmoulins que tu as perdu; méchant homme, tu as comparé l’opinion publique à une femme de mauvaise vie, tu as dit que l’honneur était ridicule ... si Fabre est innocent, si D’Orléans, si Dumouriez furent innocents tu l’est sans doute. J’en ai trop dit—tu repondras à la justice.”
[145] Robespierre’s notes for St. Just’s report were published by M. France in 1841 among the “Papiers trouvés chez Robespierre.”
[146] “La Convention Nationale après avoir entendu les rapports des Comités de Sureté générale et du Salut Public, décrète d’accusation Camille Desmoulins, Hérault, Danton, Phillippeaux Lacroix ... en conséquence elle declare leur mise en jugement.” These were the last words of St. Just’s speech, and formed his substantive motion.
“Ce décret est adopté à l’unanimité et au milieu des plus vifs applaudissements.”—Moniteur, April 2, 1794 (13th Germinal, year II.).
[147] Couthon was a cripple. Once (later) in the Convention it was called out to him “Triumvir,” and he glanced at his legs and said, “How could I be a triumvir?” The logical connection between good legs and triumvirates was more apparent to himself than to those whom he caused to be guillotined.
[148] We have the fragments of this “No. VII.,” which was not published. See M. Clarétie’s C. Desmoulins, p. 274 of Mrs. Cashel Hoey’s translation.
[149] Danton would have been thirty-five in October. Desmoulins had been thirty-four in March—not thirty-three, as he said at the trial. I give this on the authority of M. Clarétie, who in his book quotes the birth-certificate, which he himself had seen (March 2, 1760).
[150] March 10, 1793. Exception has been taken to the whole sentiment by Dr. Robinet, but great, or rather unique, as is his authority, I cannot believe that an appeal—especially an exclamatory appeal of this nature—was foreign to his impetuous and merciful temper.
[151] Wallon, Tribunal Révolutionnaire, vol. iii. p. 156.
[152] It is known that Fleuriot and Fouquier were alone when the jury were “chosen by lot.” This appeared at the trial of Fouquier. For the notes of Lebrun, see [Appendix X.]
[153] Wallon, Tribunal Révolutionnaire, vol. iii. p. 155.
[154] See [Appendix X.] The speeches which I have written here are reconstructed from these notes, and I must beg the reader to check the consecutive sentences of the text by reference to the disjointed notes printed in the Appendix.
[156] Wallon, Tribunal Révolutionnaire, iii. 169, quotes Archives, W. 342, Dossier 641, 1st Part, No. 34.
[157] Fouquier had written a letter to his distant relative Desmoulins, begging for some employment, on August 20, 1792, just after the success of Danton’s party, in which Desmoulins had of course shared. It is by no means dignified and almost servile. See Clarétie, Desmoulins, English edition, p. 318.
[158] This is M. Wallon’s opinion, who gives both versions, and from whom I take so much of this description. See Tribunal Révolutionnaire, iii. 177.
[159] All this appears in the trial of Fouquier.
[160] They are given in Clarétie’s Desmoulins in the Appendix.
[161] See the list of the prisoner’s effects in Clarétie’s Desmoulins.
[162] This gate may be seen to-day just to the right of the great staircase in the court of the Palais de Justice. It has an iron grating before it.
[163] The original of this I take from Clarétie, who quotes P. A. Lecomte, Memorial sur la Révolution Française.
“Lorsqu’arrivés au bords du Phlégéton
Camille Desmoulins, D’Eglantine et Danton,
Payèrent pour passer ce fleuve redoutable
Le nautonnier Charon (citoyen équitable)
A nos trois passagers voulait remettre en mains
L’excédant de la taxe imposée aux humains.
‘Garde,’ lui dit Danton, ‘la somme toute entière;
Je paye pour Couthon, St. Just et Robespierre.’”
[164] It was Madame Gély who told this to Despoi’s grandfather. Clarétie has mentioned it. But Michelet must have heard from the family about this same priest (Kerénavant le Breton), for according to Madame Gély it was he who married Danton for the second time.
[165] Ce qu’il y a de certain d’après le résultat donné par la commission des subsistances militaires, c’est que les armées sont approvisionnées jusque vers le premier octobre; l’armée d’Italie, la plus mal approvisionnée, a des subsistances pour quelques mois, et l’on a déjà préparé pour elle d’autres approvisionnements.
[166] Des traîtres se sont mêlés dans les rangs des patriotes et dans les convois de l’artillerie qui allaient combattre les révoltés; le comité en a fait arrêter la marche, et le comité de surveillance retient les principaux auteurs de ce nouveau complot. Malgré tant de surveillance, quelques soldats français, indignes de ce nom, ont trahi leur devoir et sont allés grossir la horde des rebelles. Partout les obstacles se multiplient; partout les administrations veulent régler les mouvemens des troupes et les commissaires veulent faire les fonctions de généraux, des communes arrêtent à leur gré des armes qui ont une autre destination, et c’est ainsi que toutes les forces s’atténuent et que les brigands ont des succès.
Mais du moins les rives qui correspondent aux perfides de George III. sont garanties. Les trois divisions commandées par le général Canclaux, qui occupent les ports intermédiaires entre les Sables et Nantes, entretiennent la communication entre ces deux villes, et contiennent les brigands à une certaine distance des côtes.
La communication par terre, entre Nantes et Angers, est libre, on travaille à rétablir la libre navigation de la Loire entre ces deux villes. Quelques bateaux armés de canons sont préparés, et suffiront pour cette protection.
Déjà une victoire signalée vient de raviver toutes les espérances de la patrie. A Saint-Mexent, l’artillerie et les approvisionnemens des révoltés sont le prix de la première victoire signalée que les patriotes viennent de remporter.