A Modern History, From the Time of Luther to the Fall of Napoleon / For the Use of Schools and Colleges

by John Lord

The confinement of the king in the Temple, the departure of the foreign ambassadors, the flight of emigrants, the confiscation of their estates, the massacres in the prisons, the sack of palaces, the fall and flight of La Fayette, and the dissolution of the Legislative Assembly, rapidly succeeded.

On the 21st of September, the The National Convention. National Convention was opened, and was composed of the most violent advocates of revolution. It was ruled by those popular orators who had the greatest influence in the clubs. The most influential of these leaders were Danton, Marat, and Robespierre. Danton was the hero of the late insurrection; was a lawyer, a man of brutal courage, the slave of sensual passions, and the idol of the Parisian mob. He was made minister of justice, and was the author of the subsequent massacres in the prisons. But, with all his ferocity, he was lenient to individuals, and recommended humanity after the period of danger had passed.

Marat Marat — Danton — Robespierre. was a journalist, president of the Jacobin Club, a member of the convention, and a violent advocate of revolutionary excesses. His bloody career was prematurely cut off by the hand of a heroine, Charlotte Corday, who offered up her own life to rid the country of the greatest monster which the annals of crime have consigned to an infamous immortality.

Robespierre was a sentimentalist, and concealed, under the mask of patriotism and philanthropy, an insatiable ambition, inordinate vanity, and implacable revenge. He was above the passion of money, and, when he had at his disposal the lives and fortunes of his countrymen, lived upon a few francs a day. It is the fashion to deny to him any extraordinary talent; but that he was a man of domineering will, of invincible courage, and austere enthusiasm appears from nearly all the actions of his hateful career.

It was in the midst of the awful massacre in the prisons, where more than five thousand perished to appease the infatuated vengeance of the Parisian mob, that the National Convention commenced its sittings.

Its first measure was, to abolish the monarchy, and proclaim a republic; the next, to issue new assignats. The two preceding assemblies had authorized the fabrication of twenty-seven hundred millions of francs, and the Convention added millions more on the security of the national domains. On the 7th of November, the trial of the king was decreed; and, on the 11th of December, his examination commenced. On his appearance at the bar of the Convention, the president, Barrere, said, "Louis, the French nation accuses you; you are about to hear the charges that are to be preferred. Louis, be seated."

The charges consisted of the whole crimes of the revolution, to which he replied with dignity, simplicity, and directness. He was defended, in the mock trial, by Desèze, Tronchet, and Malesherbes; but his blood was demanded, and the assembly unanimously pronounced the condemnation of their king. That seven hundred men, with all the natural differences of opinion, could be found to do this, shows the excess of revolutionary madness. On the 20th of January, Santerre appeared in the royal prison, and read the sentence of death; and only three days were allowed the king to prepare for the last hour of anguish. On the 24th of January, he mounted the scaffold erected between the garden of the Tuileries and the Champs Élysées, and the fatal axe separated his head from his body. His remains were buried in the ancient cemetery of the Madeleine, over which Napoleon commenced, after the battle of Jena, a splendid temple of glory, but which was not finished until the restoration of the Bourbons, who converted it into the beautiful church which bears the name of the ancient cemetery. The spot where Louis XVI. offered up his life, in expiation of the crimes of his ancestors, is now marked by the colossal obelisk of red granite, which the French government, in 1831, brought from Egypt, a monument which has witnessed the march of Cambyses, and may survive the glory of the French nation itself.

The martyrdom of Louis XVI. was the signal for a General War. general war. All the powers of Europe united to suppress the power and the principles of the French revolutionists. The Convention, after declaring war against England, Holland, Spain, Austria, Prussia, Portugal, the Two Sicilies, the Roman States, Sardinia, and Piedmont,—all of which had combined together,—ordered a levy of three hundred thousand men, instituted a military tribunal, and imposed a forced loan on the rich of one thousand millions, and prepared to defend the principles of liberty and the soil of France. The enthusiasm of the French was unparalleled, and the energies put forth were most remarkable. Patriotism and military ardor were combined, and measures such as only extraordinary necessities require were unhesitatingly adopted.

A Committee of Public Safety was appointed, and the dictatorship of Danton, Marat, and Robespierre commenced, marked by great horrors and barbarities, but signalized by wonderful successes in war, and by exertions which, under common circumstances, would be scarcely credited.

This committee was composed of twenty-five persons at first, and twelve afterwards; but Robespierre and Marat were the leading members. The committee assigned to ruling Jacobins the different departments of the government. St. Just was intrusted with the duty of denouncing its enemies; Couthon for bringing forward its general measures; Billaud Varennes and Collot d'Herbois with the management of departments; Carnot was made minister of war; and Robespierre general dictator. This committee, though required to report to the Convention, as the supreme authority, had really all the power of government. "It named and dismissed generals, judges, and juries; brought forward all public measures in the Convention; ruled provinces and armies; controlled the Revolutionary Tribunal; and made requisitions of men and money; and appointed revolutionary committees, which sprung up in every part of the kingdom to the frightful number of fifty thousand. It was the object of the Committee of Public Safety to destroy all who opposed the spirit of the most violent revolutionary measures. Marat declared that two hundred and sixty thousand heads must fall before freedom was secure; the revolutionary committees discovered that seven hundred thousand persons must be sacrificed."