Part 9 (1/2)
The national guard, headed by La Fayette, marched victorious, but mournful, again into Paris: it was visible by their demeanour that they hesitated between self-congratulation and shame, as though undecided on the justice of what they had done. Amidst a few approving acclamations that saluted them on their pa.s.sage, they heard smothered imprecations; and the words _murderers_ and _vengeance_ were subst.i.tuted for _patriotism_ and _obedience to the law_. They pa.s.sed with a gloomy air beneath the windows of that a.s.sembly they had so lately protected; still more sadly and more silently beneath the windows of the palace of that monarchy, whose cause rather than whose king, they had just defended. Bailly, calm and glacial as the law--La Fayette, resolute and stern as a system, knew not how to awake any feeling beyond that of imperious duty. They furled the red flag, stained with the first drops of blood; and dispersed, battalion after battalion, in the dark streets of Paris, more like gendarmes after an execution, than an army returning from a victory.
Such was this ”_Day of the Champ-de-Mars_,” which gave a reign of three months to the a.s.sembly, by which they did not profit; which intimidated the clubs for a few days, but which did not restore to the monarchy or to the public tranquillity the blood it had cost. La Fayette had on this day the destiny of the monarchy and the republic in his hands: he merely re-established order.
XVI.
The next morning Bailly appeared before the a.s.sembly to report to them the triumph of the law. He displayed the heartfelt sorrow of his mind, and the masculine energy that formed part of his duty.
”The conspiracy had been formed,” said he; ”it was necessary to employ force, and severe punishment has overtaken the crime.” The president approved, in the name of the a.s.sembly, of the mayor's conduct, and Barnave thanked the national guard in cold and weak language, whilst his praises seemed near akin to excuses. The enthusiasm of the victors had already subsided, and Petion perceiving this, rose and said a few words concerning a _projet de decret_ that had just been proposed, against those who should a.s.semble the people in numbers. These words, in the mouth of Petion, who was well known to be the friend of Brissot and the conspirators, were at first received with sarcastic cries by the _cote droit_, and then with loud applause from the _cote gauche_ and the tribunes. The victory of the Champ-de-Mars was already contested in the a.s.sembly, and the clubs re-opened that evening. Robespierre, Brissot, Danton, Camille Desmoulins, and Marat, who had for some days past disappeared, now took fresh courage, for the hesitation of their enemies rea.s.sured them,--by constantly attacking a power that was contented to remain on the defensive, they could not fail to weary it out, and thus, from accused they transformed themselves into accusers. Their papers abandoned for a short time, became more malignant from their temporary panic, and heaped ridicule and odium on Bailly and La Fayette. They aroused the people to vengeance by displaying unceasingly before their eyes the blood of the Champ-de-Mars. The red flag became the emblem of the government and the winding-sheet of liberty. The conspirators figured as victims, and constantly kept popular excitement on the rack, by imaginary stories of the most odious persecutions.
XVII.
”See,” wrote Desmoulins, ”see how the furious satellites of La Fayette rush from their barracks, or rather from their taverns,--see, they a.s.semble and load their arms with ball, in the presence of the people, whilst the battalions of _aristocrates_ mutually excite each other to the ma.s.sacre. It is chiefly in the eyes of the cavalry that you behold the love of blood aroused by the double influence of wine and vengeance.
It was against women and babes that this army of butchers chiefly directed their fury. The altar of the country is strewn with dead bodies,--it is thus that La Fayette has dyed his hands in the gore of citizens: those hands which, in my eyes, will ever appear to reek with this innocent blood--this very spot where he had raised them to heaven to swear to defend them. From this moment, the most worthy citizens are proscribed; they are arrested in their beds, their papers are seized, their presses broken, and lists of the names of those proscribed are signed; the _moderes_ sign these lists, and then display them. 'Society must be purged,' is their cry, 'of such men as _Brissot_, _Carra_, _Petion_, _Bonneville_, _Freron_, _Danton_, and _Camille_.' Danton and I found safety in flight alone from our a.s.sa.s.sins. The patriots are timid factions.” ”And,” added _Freron_, ”there are men to be found, who venture to justify these cowardly murders--these informations--these _lettres de cachet_--these seizures of papers--these confiscations of presses. The red flag floats for a week from the balcony of the Hotel-de-Ville, like as in times of old, the banners torn from the grasp of the dying foeman floated from the arched roof of our temples.” In another part he says, ”Marat's presses have been seized--the name of the author should have sufficed to protect the typographer. The press is sacred, as sacred as the cradle of the first-born, which even the officers of the law have orders to respect. The silence of the tomb reigns in the city, the public places are deserted, and the theatres re-echo alone with servile applause of royalism, that triumphs alike on the stage and in our streets. You were impatient, Bailly, and you treacherous, La Fayette, to employ that terrible weapon, martial law, so dangerous, so difficult to be wielded. No, no, nought can ever efface the indelible stain of the blood of your brethren, that has spurted over your scarfs and your uniforms. It has sunk even to your heart--it is a slow poison that will consume ye all.”
Whilst the revolutionary press thus infused the spirit of resentment into the people, the clubs, rea.s.sured by the indolence of the a.s.sembly, and by the scrupulous legality of La Fayette, suffered but slightly the effects of this body blow of the victory of the Champ-de-Mars. A schism took place in the a.s.sembly of the Jacobins between the intolerant members and its first founders, Barnave, Duport, and the two Lameths. This schism took its rise in the great question of the non-re-eligibility of the members of the National a.s.sembly for the Legislative a.s.sembly which was so soon to succeed. The pure Jacobins, together with Robespierre, wished that the National a.s.sembly should abdicate, _en ma.s.se_, and voluntarily sentence themselves to a political ostracism, in order to make room for men of newer ideas and more imbued with the spirit of the time. The moderate and const.i.tutional Jacobins looked upon this abdication as equally fatal to the monarch, as it dealt a mortal blow to their ambition, for they wished to seize on the direction of the power they had just created; they deemed themselves alone competent to control the movement that they had excited, and they sought to rule in the name of those laws of which they were the framers.
Robespierre, on the contrary, who felt his own weakness in an a.s.sembly composed of the same elements, wished these elements to be excluded from the new a.s.sembly: he himself suffered by the law that he laid down for his colleagues; but with scarcely a rival to dispute his authority at the Jacobins, they formed his a.s.sembly. His instinct or calculation told him that the Jacobins must have supreme sway in a newly formed a.s.sembly composed of men whose very names were unknown to the nation.
One of the faction himself, it was enough for him that the factions reigned; and the tool he possessed in the Jacobins, and his immense popularity, gave him the positive a.s.surance that he should rule the factions.
This question, at the time of the events of the Champ-de-Mars, agitated, and already tended to dissolve the Jacobins. The rival club of the Feuillants, composed almost entirely of const.i.tutionalists and members of the National a.s.sembly, had a more legal and monarchical appearance.
The irritation caused by the popular excesses, and their hatred for Robespierre and Brissot, induced the ancient founders of the club to join the Feuillants. The Jacobins trembled lest the empire of the factions should escape them, and that division would weaken them. ”It is the court,” said Camille Desmoulins, the friend of Robespierre, ”it is the court that foments this schism amongst us, and has invented this perfidious stratagem to destroy the popular party. It knows the two Lameths, La Fayette, Barnave, Duport, and the others who first figured in the Jacobin a.s.sembly. 'What,' the court asked itself, 'is the aim of all these men? their aim was to be elevated to rank and station, by the voice of the people, and by the gales of popularity, of command of the ministers, of gold: what they needed was court favour to serve as the sails of their ambition; and, wanting these sails, they use the oars of the people. Let us prove to Lameth and Barnave that they will not be re-elected, that they cannot fill any important place before four years have pa.s.sed away. They will be indignant, and return to our party. I saw Alexandre and Theodore Lameth the evening of the day on which Robespierre's motion of the non-re-eligibility was carried. The Lameths were then patriots, but the next day they were no longer the same. 'It is impossible to submit to this,' said they,--'in concert with Duport--we must quit France.' What! shall those who have been the architects of the const.i.tution undergo the mortification of witnessing the downfall of the edifice they have reared, by this approaching system of legislation? We shall be condemned to hear from the galleries of the a.s.sembly, some fool in the tribune attack our wisest enactments, which we are denied the power of defending. Would to Heaven! that they would quit France. Is it not enough to cause us to despise both the a.s.sembly and the people of Paris, when we see that the clue of this is, that the supreme control was on the point of eluding the grasp of Lameth and La Fayette, and that Duport and Barnave would not be again elected.”
Petion, alarmed at these symptoms of discord, addressed the tribune of the Jacobins in conciliatory terms--”You are lost” said he, ”should the members of the a.s.sembly quit your party, and betake themselves _en ma.s.se_ to the Feuillants. The empire of public opinion is deserting you; and these countless affiliated societies, imbued with your spirit, will sever the bonds of fraternity, and unite them to you. Forestall the designs of your enemies. Publish an address to the affiliated societies, and rea.s.sure them of your const.i.tutional intentions; tell them that you have been belied to them, and that you are no promoters of faction. Tell them that far from wis.h.i.+ng to disturb public tranquillity, your sole design is to avert those troubles entailed on you by the king's departure. Tell them that we submit to the rapid and imposing influence of opinion, and that respect for the a.s.sembly, fidelity to the const.i.tution, devotion to the cause of your country and of liberty, form your principles.” This address, dictated by the hypocrisy of fear, was adopted and sent to all the societies in the kingdom. This measure was followed by a remodelling of the Jacobins; the primitive nucleus alone was suffered to remain, which re-organised the rest by the ballot over which Petion presided.
On their side the Feuillants wrote to the patriotic societies of the provinces, and for a brief s.p.a.ce there was an interregnum of the factions; but the societies of the provinces speedily declared _en ma.s.se_, and with an almost unanimous and revolutionary enthusiasm, in favour of the Jacobins.
”Free and sincere union with our brothers in Paris:” such was the rallying cry of the clubs. Six hundred clubs sent in their adherence to the Jacobins; eighteen alone declared for the Feuillants. The factions felt the importance of unity as fully as the nation, and the schism of opinion was stifled by the enthusiasm for the grandeur of their work, Petion, in a letter to his const.i.tuents which made a great sensation, spoke of these fruitless attempts at dissension amongst the patriots, and denounced those who dissented from it. ”I tremble for my country,”
said he; ”the _moderes_ are meditating the reform of the const.i.tution already; and to place again in the king's hands the power the people have scarcely acquired. My mind is overwhelmed by these gloomy reflections, and I despond. I am ready to quit the post you have confided to me. Oh, my country, be but thou saved, and I shall breathe my last sigh in peace!”
Such were Petion's words, and from that hour he became the idol of the people. He possessed neither the abilities nor the audacity of Robespierre; but he had hypocrisy, that shameless veil of doubtful positions. The people believed him to be sincere, and his speeches had the same influence over them as his reputation.
XVIII.
The coalition which he denounced to the people was true. Barnave had an understanding with the court. Malouet, an eloquent and able member of the right, had an understanding with Barnave: a plan for modifying the const.i.tution had been concerted between these two men--yesterday foes, to-day allies. The moment was come for uniting in one general measure all these scattered laws valid during a revolution of thirty months. In separating, on this review of the acts of the a.s.sembly, what was integral from that which was not, the occasion must arise for a revision of every act of the const.i.tution. It was, therefore, the moment to profit (in order to amend them in a sense more monarchical), by the reaction produced by La Fayette's victory. What impulse and anger had too violently taken from the prerogatives of the crown, reason and reflection could restore to it. The same men who had placed the executive power in the hands of the a.s.sembly, hoped to be able to withdraw it from them. They believed they could effect every thing by their eloquence and popularity. Like all who are descending the tide of a revolution, they thought they were able to ascend the stream with equal ease. They did not see that their strength, of which they were so proud, was not in themselves, but in the current which bore them along.
Events were about to teach them that there is no opposing pa.s.sions to which concession has been once made. The strength of a statesman is his power. One concession, how slight soever, to factions, is an irrevocable engagement with them: when once we consent to become their instrument, we may be made their idol and their victim, never their master. Barnave was doomed to learn this when too late; and the Girondists were to learn it after him. The plan was thus arranged:--Malouet was to ascend the tribune, and in a vehement but well-reasoned discourse was to attack all the errors of the const.i.tution; he was to demonstrate that if these vices were not amended by the a.s.sembly before the const.i.tution itself should be presented to the king and the people to swear to, it would be anarchy registered by an oath. The three hundred members of the _cote droit_ were to support the charges of their spokesman by vehement plaudits. Barnave was then to demand a reply, and in a discourse, apparently much excited, was to have vindicated the const.i.tution from the invectives of Malouet, at the same time conceding that as this const.i.tution was suddenly produced by the enthusiastic ardour of the Revolution, and under the impulse of desperately contending circ.u.mstances, there might be some imperfections in a certain portion of the construction; that the grave consideration and wisdom of the a.s.sembly might remedy these errors before it dissolved; and that, amongst other ameliorations which might be applied to this work, they might retouch two or three articles in which the power a.s.signed to the executive authority and the legislative authority had been ill defined, so as to restore to the executive power the independence and scope indispensable to their existence. The friends of Barnave, Lameth, and Duport, as well as all the members of the left, would have clamorously supported the speaker, except Robespierre, Petion, Buzot, and the republicans. A commission would have been instantly named for the special revision of the articles alluded to. This commission would have made its report before the end of the meeting of the chambers; and the three hundred votes of Malouet, united to the const.i.tutional votes of Barnave, would have a.s.sured to the monarchical amendments the majority which was to restore royalty.
XIX.
But the members of the right refused to give their unanimous concurrence to this plan. ”To amend the const.i.tution was to sanction revolt. To unite themselves with the factious, was to become factious themselves.
To restore royalty by the hands of a Barnave, was to degrade the king even to grat.i.tude towards a member of a faction. Their hopes had not fallen so low that it was thus they had but the option of accepting a character in a comedy of startled revolutionists. Their hopes were not in any amelioration of present ill, but in its progress towards worse.
The very excess of disorder would punish disorder itself. The king was at the Tuileries, but royalty was not there--it was at Coblentz, it was on all the thrones of Europe. Monarchies were all in connection; they knew very well how to restore the French monarchy without the fellows.h.i.+p of those who had overturned it.”
Thus reasoned the members of the right. Feelings and resentments closed their ears to the counsels of moderation and wisdom, and the monarchy was not less systematically pushed towards its catastrophe by the hand of its friends than that of its enemies. The plan was abortive.
Whilst the captive king kept up a twofold understanding with his emigrant brothers to learn the strength and inclination of foreign powers, and with Barnave to attempt the conquest of the a.s.sembly, the a.s.sembly itself lost its power; and the spirit of the Revolution, quitting the place in which it had no longer any hopes, went to excite the clubs and munic.i.p.alities, and bestow its energies on the elections.
The a.s.sembly had committed the fault of declaring its members not re-eligible for the new legislature. This act of renunciation of itself, which resembled the heroism of disinterestedness, was in reality the sacrifice of the country; it was the ostracism of superior power, and an a.s.surance of triumph to mediocrity. A nation how rich soever in genius and virtue, never possesses more than a definite number of great citizens. Nature is chary of superiority. The social conditions necessary to form a public man are rarely in combination. Intelligence, clear-sightedness, virtue, character, independence, leisure, fortune, consideration already acquired, and devotion,--all this is seldom united in one individual. An entire society is not decapitated with impunity.