A.D. 1792.]

MARCH OF THE FAUBOURGS UPON THE TUILERIES.

the Swiss, and the national guards of the section Filles St. Thomas, on the Marseillais and the advancing faubourgs, such yet was the hesitation of these bodies that their dispersion would have been certain. Mandat had proposed that when one party of them debouched upon the Place of the Hôtel de Ville by the arcade of St. Jean, they should be suddenly charged, and that at the Louvre, those who should approach by the Pont Neuf, along the quay of the Tuileries, should be served in the same manner. He had ordered that they should be suffered to file past, and then be charged in the rear, whilst other troops should form through the wickets of the Louvre, and charge them in front. Had the king been capable of mounting a horse, and charging at their head, there would have been no question about the issue. He might have scoured the streets of the mob, seized the leading jacobins, broken up their club, dismissed, and remained master of Paris, as Bonaparte did at an after period, suddenly winding up the revolution at the back of well-served cannon. But Louis was not made of such stuff, and then-the revolution and all its horrors.

That all this might have been done, even at this late moment, is clear from the conduct of the insurgents. The Marseillais were waiting in vain for the men of the Faubourg St. Antoine, who did not appear, and they began to think that the scheme had miscarried. Santerre, the brewer, who did not show much courage on this occasion, also caught at this idea, that the Faubourg St. Marceau did not stir, and advised that the attack should be put off a day or two; but Westermann pointed his sword at Santerre, and declared that, if he did not march instantly, he would run him through. Then crying, " Allons, Santerre! allons, brothers of the Faubourg St. Antoine, and heroes of the Bastille!" the St. Antoine men began their march towards the Tuileries. Whilst this period of hesitation had lasted, Roederer, at the palace, hoping nothing in the absence of Mandat, had proposed to the queen that the royal family should hasten to the national assembly, and put themselves under its protection. The queen repelled the proposal with indignation, "Sir!" she said, "we have troops here; and it is time to know who shall have the upper hand, the king and the constitution, or a lawless faction!"

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tion of things at the palace, and request them to dispatch a deputation of their members thither, to add their authority to those of the commandant. And this was done.

Meantime, the insurgents were on their march from different quarters towards the palace. Theroigne, the notorious courtezan, who had figured so conspicuously on the day of the march to Versailles, had arrayed herself in a short-skirted riding-habit, with a grenadier's cap on her head, a brace of pistols in her belt, and sword in hand, and was marching all over Paris, calling on the patriots to arm and join in the grand assault on the monarchy. She was followed by a wild and furious troop of sans culottes, ready for any excess. As they reached the Champs Elysées in their rounds, they found that the patriots had encountered a number of gentlemen armed, who were supposed to be royalists hastening to the Tuileries, and who were, therefore, seized and shut up in a guard-house. Theroigne learned that all, except four of them, had escaped through a back window, and, to prevent the escape of these four, she demanded that they should be brought forth, and guarded to the Place Vendôme, where they were murdered under the eyes of this republican Amazon. This blood, added to that of Mandat, whetted the appetite of the mob, and they rushed forward to the centre of the day's enterprise.

By this time the palace was surrounded by vast throngs of the armed people. They could be seen by the inmates of the palace through the old doors of the courts, and from the windows. Their artillery was visibly pointed at the palace, and the noise of their shouting, beating of drums, and singing of insurrectionary songs, was awful. The king had issued an order that the Swiss and guards should not commence the attack, but should repel force by force, and Roederer had descended and gone amongst the soldiers to read this order to them. It was now recommended that the king also should go down, and by showing himself, and addressing a few words to them, should animate them in their duty. The queen, her eyes inflamed with weeping, and with an air of dignity, which was never forgotten by those who saw her, said also, "Sire, it is time to show yourself." She is said to have snatched a pistol from the belt Roederer, who knew better than the queen how little the of old general d'Affry, and to have presented it in an excitenational guards, still less the gensdarmes, were to be relied ment that scarcely allowed her to remain behind. Could she on, proposed to call M. Lachesnaye, to whom the command have changed places, had she been queen in her own right, had fallen since the death of Mandat. This was done, and there would soon have been a change of scene. As for Lachesnaye, who was himself a thorough anti-aristocrat, Louis, with that passive courage which he always possessed, was asked by Roederer whether he considered the arrange- and so uselessly, he went forward and presented himself ments for the defence of the palace sufficient, and whether to view upon the balcony. He was clad as he had appeared the national guards might be depended upon. Lachesnaye in the council over night, for he had never gone to bed. replied that he did, provided the swarms of aristocrats who He had on a purple suit, and wore a sword, but his hair were in the palace, and who prevented those whose duty it had fallen into disorder on one side of his head, whilst on was to defend the king getting near to him, were sent the other it retained its powder and curl. At the sight of away. The queen was incensed at this reply, and pro- him, the grenadiers raised their caps on the points of their nounced it unreasonable, declaring that the gentlemen who swords and bayonets, and there were cries of "Vive le had flocked about the king were ready to shed their blood Roi!" the last that saluted him in his hereditary palace. for him, and to put themselves in any position that M. Even at this cry, numbers of the national guards took Lachesnaye should command. Roederer, only the more alarm, imagining that they were to be surrendered to confirmed in his feeling of insecurity by the observation of the knights of the dagger, and that they had been betrayed Lachesnaye, proposed that two of the ministers should by the villain Mandat. The gunners, joining in the panic, be sent to the national assembly, to inform it of the posi-turned their guns towards the palace, but the more faithful

guards drove them from the guns, disarmed them, and put and his family. Roederer replied, addressing the king, them under guard.

The king, undeterred, descended into the court, and, passing along the ranks, addressed them from time to time, telling them he relied on their attachment, and that in defending him, they defended their wives and children. He then proceeded through the vestibule, intending to go to the garden, when he was assailed by fierce cries from some of the soldiers: "Down with the veto!" "Down with the traitor!" "Vive la nation!" Madame Campan, who was at a window looking into the garden, saw some of the gunners go up to the king, and thrust their fists in his face, insulting him in the most brutal language. He was obliged to pass along the terrace of the Feuillans, which was crowded with people, separated from the furious multitude merely by a tricolour line, but he went on in spite of all sorts of menaces and abuse. He saw the battalions file off before his face, and traverse the garden with the intention of joining the assailants in the Place du Carrousel, whilst the gensdarmes at the colonnade of the Louvre, and other places, did the same. This completely extinguished all hope in the unhappy king. The viscomte Du Bouchage, seeing the situation of Louis from the palace, descended in haste with another nobleman, to bring him in before some fatality happened to him. He complied, and returned with them. When the gunners thrust their fists in his face, madame Campan says Louis turned as pale as death; yet he had shown no want of courage, had it been of the right sort. He had, indeed, refused to wear a defensive sort of corset which the queen had had made for him, saying, on the day of battle it was his duty to be uncovered, like the meanest of his servants. When the royal family came in again, madame Campan says, "The queen told me all was lost; that the king had shown no energy, and that this sort of review had done more harm than good."

News now came that the Marseillais had crossed the Seine, and that all Paris was up. Roederer renewed his desire that they should go to the assembly. The viscomte De Bouchage vehemently opposed this: he declared that the royal family could never reach the assembly alive. Roederer, and some of the members of the departmental directory, offered to go to the assembly, and acquaint the members with the state of affairs. On their way, they met the two ministers who had been sent on the same errand before, and they told them they had been imploring the assembly, in vain, to render some assistance, and to send a deputation. Roederer and his associates turned back. As they entered the palace court, and told the gunners to defend the gates at any cost, they took the powder out of their guns, and threw both powder and ball on the ground, and dashed out their lighted matches. This was decisive to all who saw it; and at the same instant the Marseillais entered the Place du Carrousel, and took up their posts against the palace. They endeavoured, but in vain, to win over the Swiss; and Roederer, having seen enough, hastened into the palace, and assured the king that he had not a moment to lose; there was no safety for him except in the assembly. The king hesitated; the queen declared that she would be nailed to the walls of the palace before she would go to the assembly, which had never shown anything but enmity to the king

"Sire, time presses; it is no longer a prayer that we make to you; it is no longer an advice we take the liberty to give; we have but one thing to do at this moment-to demand permission to drag you to the assembly." Louis, who was sitting with his hands on his knees, looking on the ground, at these words lifted his eyes, and, fixing them on Roederer, said, "Let us go," and rose. "Sir," said the queen to Roederer, "you answer for the lives of the king and my children." 'Madame,” replied the procureur syndic, "I will answer for it that I will die by their side, but I can promise nothing more!"

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The ministers and madame de Tourzel, the governess, were allowed to accompany them, and they set out. In the lobby below, some of the officers of the national guard, as well as the courtiers, appeared disposed to prevent them going; but Roederer told them that the king and his family were going to the assembly, and requested that they would not create any delay. He desired the national guards to form two files, and march on each side of the royal family. This was done, and poor Louis only saying, "Gentlemen, I am going to the assembly," the procession set out. When they reached the outer door Louis paused a moment, and asked Roederer what was to become of all the courtiers and servants left behind? He never forgot those who were endangered on his account in the moments of greatest personal peril. Roederer said, that as they were in plain clothes, they had only to leave their swords and come out; he did not think that then any harm would happen to them. When they issued into the court, Louis remarked, that, after all, there were not so very many people collected; but Roederer assured him that all the faubourgs were on the point of arming; that there were twelve pieces of cannon on the Place du Carrousel, and there were very few of the guards that could be depended upon. The king moved on again. As they walked through the gardens of the Tuileries there was a great quantity of fallen leaves on the ground, although it was only the 10th of August. Manuel had declared, in one of the newspapers, that the king would only last till the fall of the leaf. Probably, Louis thought of this, for he said, "There is a great fall of leaves; they fall early this year." The little dauphin, unconscious of the prophecy, and of the real catastrophe of their situation, childlike, went on kicking the leaves about.

They now approached the assembly, and Roederer, recollecting that this body had claimed all the terrace of the Feuillans up to a certain point, halted there, not to infringe its privileges, and sent to announce the coming of the king. The members of the assembly came out to receive him. Louis said, "I come, gentlemen, to prevent a great crime; and I think that I cannot be safer than in the midst of you." Vergniaud, the president, replied that the assembly eagerly concurred in securing his safety, and offered him and his family an asylum in their bosom. He added that they had sworn to die in defence of the constituted authorities. They proceeded to enter the assembly; but the moment the Swiss and national guards were left behind, the mob crowded around the unfortunate royal family, crying, "Down with them! down with them!" Some of the savages managed to rob the queen of her watch and purse,

and one huge, ferocious-looking fellow, an officer of the grenadier guards, brandished a huge sword before the king's face, and declared that the whole of them ought to be butchered. Others cried, "No women! no women!" and added the most obscene language. Roederer addressed the brutal-looking officer with the sword, who suddenly put up his weapon, seized on the little dauphin in his arms, and then hoisted him upon his shoulder. The queen gave a shriek of horror, and was near fainting; but the man said, "Don't be afraid, madame, I will not do him the least injury," and he carried him in this manner safely through the crowd and set him down on the bureau of the assembly. Others, however, continued to cry, "Down with them! they are the cause of all our miseries! they shall not go into the assembly!" One man brandished a pike furiously near the king, but Roederer snatched it away, and the wretch fled. One of the national guards at the door of the assembly, as the king entered, said, "Don't be afraid, sire; we are good people, only we won't be betrayed any longer. Be a good citizen, sire, and drive all the black silk breeches out of the assembly." The king entered; but the crowd pressed around the queen and prevented her following. Roederer called in some grenadiers to make a way for the queen-and this they soon effected. He desired the president of the assembly to place a detachment of the grenadiers of the Filles St. Thomas to guard the doors and keep back the press.

The king seated himself beside the president; but Chabot observed that his presence might check the freedom of debate, and thereupon Louis, his family, and ministers, were cooped up in the lodge of the short-hand writers of the assembly, immediately behind the president. But lest, even there, they might be assailed by some of the mob, the iron railing betwixt the lodge and the assembly was pulled down, and in this operation Louis and his ministers assisted. There the royal family could see without being much seen, at the same time that they could hear every word of the debate. There they were destined to remain in suffocating heat for fifteen hours, and to listen to the most violent debates on the suppression of the monarchy. It is said that even there a workman pushed his way in, and said, "So, you are here, beast of a Veto! There is a purse of gold I found in your house, yonder. If you had found mine, you would not have been so honest!"

Roederer recounted to the assembly what had happened at the palace; and the assembly appointed a deputation to proceed thither, and order its protection. These gentlemen had scarcely quitted the place, when a discharge of cannon was heard. The assembly was horror-struck; and the king exclaimed, "I assure you I have forbidden the Swiss to fire!" But he was interrupted by fresh reports of cannon, showing that a fierce conflict was taking place at the Tuileries. News soon came that the deputation was dispersed; and this was followed by tremendous blows on the door. There was a cry-" We are stormed!" The president put on his hat; and there was a rush of members to keep out the assailants. Order was restored, and the members shouted-"The nation! liberty and equality for ever!"

was the royal family gone than the gensdarmes and the
national guards fraternised with the people, and, breaking
open the chief gate with hatchets, rushed into the court.
They then formed in column, and, turning the guns which
had been left in the court on the palace, they called out to
the Swiss within to give up the place to them, and they
would be friends. The Swiss, to show their amicable dis-
position, threw cartridges out of the windows, but
remained firm to their duty. In order to intimidate them,
the mob paraded before the windows the bleeding heads of
the four men who had been murdered in the Place
Vendôme under the command of Theroigne, the courtezan.
The Swiss remained unmoved. Westermann, the Alsacien,
imagining that the Swiss did not understand what had been
said to them, spoke to them in German; it had no effect.
Some of the mob, with long poles and hooks at the end,
then dragged some of the Swiss out of the vestibule, and
murdered them. They next fired three of the cannon right
into the palace, and the Swiss thereupon returned a smart
fire of musketry. Those of the servants and courtiers that
still remained in the palace now made haste to escape, if
possible. Cléry, one of the king's valets-de-chambre, who
has left a vivid narrative of these events, escaped by drop-
ping from a window upon the terrace. At the same
moment, the mob was bursting in at the grand entrance.
They found a stout piece of timber placed as a barrier across
the great staircase, and the Swiss and some national guards
intrenched behind it: then commenced a fierce struggle;
the barrier was forced, and the throng pushed back the
Swiss up the staircase. These now fired a sharp volley, and
the crowd fled, crying that they were betrayed. They were
struck by another volley in their retreat, and the Swiss
then descended into the court, made themselves masters of
the cannon, and, firing, killed a great number of the
Marseillais. The firing continued, and the savage Mar-
seillais fled, and after them the sans-culotte crowd. There
was a panic spreading all over Paris into the faubourgs,
and here was another of those almost countless evidences
of the ease with which a little firm and well-directed
resistance would have quelled this revolution. Had the
Swiss followed their advantage, and scoured the streets of
the city, they would have completely trodden out this
insurrection, released the royal family, and, had there been
any one in command capable of it, he would have ended the
revolution as promptly as Buonaparte did afterwards.
Buonaparte, then a poor lieutenant of artillery, was himself
a spectator of the scene; and it was his opinion that the
Swiss only wanted an adequate commander to crush the
whole rebellion.

But, by that fatality which attended all Louis XVI.'s affairs, at this moment arrived M. d'Hervilly from the assembly with the king's order not to fire on the people, but to follow d'Hervilly to the assembly. This was, in fact, to leave the palace at the mercy of the mob. Such as were in the court did follow d'Hervilly to the assembly, where he promised them their lives and security under the protection of that body. At this sight, the populace and the Marseillais recovered their courage. The leaders again called on the dispersed masses to rally. Mdlle. Theroigne rushed about

A terrible fight was going on at the palace. No sooner the streets, crying, "Vengeance! vengeance! Victory or

THE PEOPLE MASTERS OF THE TUILERIES.