A duke rode to the king's palace at Versailles to tell the news. "It is a revolt," exclaimed the king. The duke replied, "Nay, sire, it is a revolution." The deluge of blood had come. Revengeful men were roaming the streets of Paris murdering the nobles and the clergy. The National Assembly ordered the Bastile to be torn down, and the people leveled it to the ground.
In Strasburg, was a young man named Rouget de l'Isle. One day he was dining with his friend Dietrich, and they talked of liberty and equal rights. After dinner, he went to his chamber, sat down to the clavichord and began to play and sing. His soul was on fire for liberty for France. He seemed to be wrought upon by a higher power. Words came, and with them a strange, wild melody. He did not know which came first. He sang and played, and played and sang, and felt a strange delight. At length his head fell upon his breast: he was asleep. The morning sun was shining in his face when he awoke and the song was still stirring in his heart. He called in his friend Dietrich to hear it, he liked it well, and other friends were called in to hear it. A young lady sat down to the clavichord and played while Rouget de l'Isle sang:
"Ye sons of freedom, wake to glory!
Hark! hark! what myriads bid you rise!
Your children, wives and grand-sires hoary,
Behold their tears and hear their cries!"Shall hateful tyrants, mischief breeding,
With hireling host, a ruffian band,
While peace and liberty lie bleeding,
Affright and desolate the land?"Do you not hear the prisoners moaning?
Arise ye brave, the sword unsheath,
'Neath tyrants yoke no longer groaning,
Resolved on liberty or death."
The peculiar genius of the French language, as well as the strange versification of the song, will not permit of an exact translation.
For the benefit of those of our readers who understand the French language we give one of the stanzas as originally written:
"Quoi! des cohortes etrangeres,
Feraient la loi dans nos foyers,
Quoi! ces phalanges mercenaires
Terrasseraient nos fiers gueriers.
Grand Dieu! par des mains enchainees,
Nos fronts sous le joug se plieraient,
De vils despotes deviendraient,
Les maitres de nos destinees.
In a few hours all Strasburg was singing it. It went from village to village, from city to city, from province to province, and became known as the Marseillaise, or national song of France, which above all other songs ever written has stirred the hearts of men. Great events took place. The king of France and his beautiful queen, Maria Antoinette, were beheaded. A republic was started, but was soon overthrown, and the government seized by blood-thirsty villains. More than a million people perished by the guillotine, war, famine and starvation.
The nation waded through a sea of blood. Old things passed away never to return. The internal history of France during a period of two years from the fall of the monarchy, is perhaps the most appalling record, which the annals of the human family present.
Why did not France succeed in establishing a free government? Because all such must be founded on intelligence, virtue, and faith in God and immortality. Out of the revolution came the one man who could restore order to France—Napoleon Bonaparte.
It does not come within the limits of this work to relate the various wars of Napoleon. The French revolution—abortive as it seemed—rendered forever impossible the continuance of the despotism which had heretofore governed Europe. Napoleon, though one of the worst despots, sowed revolutionary principles broad-cast over Europe. His judicial code taught the equality of man before the law. His overthrow of so many princes taught the people to place a lower estimate on the sanctity of crowned heads. His consolidation of the petty German states, awakened the desire for a united Germany and paved the way for its accomplishment. He introduced constitutional government to Italy, Westphalia and Spain. He weakened the temporal power of the pope, and dealt fatal blows at the feudal nobility. His rude assaults shook to its foundations the whole fabric of European despotism, and led the lower orders of the people to entertain new ideas regarding their own rights. Never before had influences so powerful been brought so widely into operation over vast multitudes of men.