CHAP. LXVI. 1789. Misrepresentations. 4th. Consequent proceedings. Insurrection in and to re-establish despotic authority. It was untruly affirmed that the national cockade was trampled under foot; that court ladies distributed white ones among the military; and the contrivance and guilt of the whole transaction were imputed to the Queen*. This feast, it is to be observed, took place at Versailles, where the Assembly was sitting; and, although it was made a theme in the clubs, the public meetings, and the taverns in Paris, the same night, yet it was not so much as mentioned in the legislature until three days had elapsed. In a debate on the King's delay in approving the declaration of the rights of man, Mirabeau moved for a deputation to inform him that his complete, absolute, and immediate sanction must be given. The orgie at the palace was then mentioned, and Petion, in a confused speech, in the course of which he was repeatedly contradicted in direct terms, related the Paris fable on the subject. Explain, sir," exclaimed the royalists; " declare distinctly the great crimes by which the Assembly is threatened, "and name those whom you mean to brand with "guilt." The feeble Petion was relieved by Mirabeau, who exclaimed that he was ready to do it, provided the Assembly would declare that no person, except the King, could enjoy the privilege of inviolability; and, that his meaning might be understood by all, he muttered the names of the Queen and the Duke de Guichet. 66 66 66 Favoured by these circumstances, and encouraged by the famine in Paris, which, if severely felt, was also See an account of this day depicted with the utmost malignity, History of the Revolution in France by Rabaut (de St. Etienne), p. 148. Many other writers have given similar accounts. But see the deposition of Elie Joseph de Miomandre de Chateauneuf, Procedure au Chatelet, troisième partie, p. 40. † In the narrative of these proceedings, I have generally followed Lacretelle, vol. vii. p. 184, et seq. but I have consulted all the other authorities. Lecointre of Versailles, afterwards a deputy to the Convention, was a principal fabricator of the scandalous narrative. This man, when called as a witness on the trial of the Queen, did not depose half of the facts which were currently believed at the time; and there is every reason to consider his evidence as untrue. Two persons whom he alluded to by name, as having been present, were called as witnesses (Percival and d'Estaing). Percival flatly contradicted the assertions of Lecointre, who, in his explanation, equivocated and referred to hearsay; and d'Estaing was only slightly examined No such fact as cursing the Assembly, trampling on the national cockade, or assuming any other, was advanced. See Procés des Bourbons, vol. iii. pp 21, 64, 72. greatly exaggerated, a new insurrection was arranged with much skill and cunning. On a Monday morning, at peep of day, a woman passed through the streets, beating a drum, and proclaiming that there was no bread in the bakers' shops. A band of females soon collected, and a countless mob covered the Place-deGreve, clamouring for bread, and attempting to hang a baker. A few horse-guards and a small body of foot soldiers made an ineffectual resistance; for, as the soldiers would not charge bayonets on the women, who were purposely placed in front, the men, who were stationed behind, put them to flight by showers of stones. They broke into the Hotel de Ville, and, forcing the doors of the armoury, seized all the muskets and two pieces of cannon. With yells and exccrations, they declared the whole municipality, with Bailly and Lafayette at their head, traitors, worthy of the lamp-iron, and raised a cry, "To Versailles! to Versailles!" that they might in person petition the Assembly for food. About six thousand women, of the lowest description, in rags, drunk, and breathing nothing but curses and threats, assembled at the Champs Elysées; they were armed with clubs, pitchforks, pikes, muskets, and pistols, and threatened to attack the arsenal for ammunition, but were persuaded to desist, and even to forego the arms they had. They set out for Versailles, preceded by eight or ten drums and a company of the volunteers of the Bastille, and attended by an immense concourse of squalid and ferocious men, from the manufactories in the fauxbourgs, who were not unarmed. Their shouts, songs, and cries were appalling: threats of murder were uttered against the Queen and the Court; and their favourite songs devoted all aristocrats to the lamp-iron, and accused the Queen of plotting the assassination of all the inhabitants of the capital*. The favourite song of the times, called "Ca ira," set to a pretty, lively tune, fit for a quick march, or a country dance, sentences "tous les aristocrats à "la lanterne," while another, produced about the same time, called the "Car"magnole," began "Madame Veto avoit promis With such invocations, so direct in their incitement, and so truculent in their import, in the mouths, not of the mob alone, but legislators, public functionaries, and CHAP. LXVI. 1789. Octr. 5th. СНАР. 1789. Proceedings at Arrival of the mob. During these transactions, and for several hours, the tocsin or alarm bell had been ringing. The Council of the Commune was sitting, and Lafayette was near them; but neither advice nor action was the consequence. At length, the General was aroused by a deputation from the grenadiers of the national guard, who, paying him the cold compliment that they did not believe him to be a traitor, said the government was betraying the nation. "The people are wretched,' they exclaimed; " and the source of the evil is at Ver"sailles. We will go and bring the King to Paris, " and exterminate the regiment of Flanders and the "gardes-du-corps, who have dared to trample on the "national cockade." Lafayette and Bailly remonstrated in vain. Their voices were drowned in an imperious clamour, "To Versailles! to Versailles!" and at length a written order was given to the General to obey his troops; and four commissioners were appointed to attend him. He took, as an advanced guard, three companies of grenadiers and one of fusileers, with field pieces; and there were seven or eight hundred men armed with muskets and pikes; they had also artillery and baggage waggons. What they were to do, they knew not; probably the General himself had never thought on the matter. On that morning, the King had gone to Meudon, to enjoy the sports of the field. The alarming intelligence being conveyed to him about one o'clock, he expressed his wishes that the supply of grain depended on him, his people should never have wanted; disclaimed all sensation of fear, and expressly commanded that the gardes-du-corps should not use their arms. About three o'clock, the first body of females made their appearance, led by one Stanislaus Maillard, who, with a deputation of fifteen women, was admitted. He demanded bread, of which he said there had been none for three days, and the punishment of the gardesdu-corps, who had insulted the national cockade. The military commanders, does it not seem monstrous that so much indignation should be expressed because the supposed song of the troubadour Blondel, which had been five or six years on the stage, should be sung in a moment of conviviality at a military dinner? aristocrats, he said, had bribed the millers not to grind corn, and he had taken a black cockade from one of these aristocrats. After a very little interrogation, the falsehood of his assertions became evident, and he began to own himself satisfied, when a large body of women burst into the hall, screaming for bread, for the dismission of the regiment de Flandres, and the punishment of the gardes-du-corps, and howling execrations against the Queen. To the august and passive representatives of the people, they behaved with insolent familiarity and imperious contumacy, commanding some to speak, and others to hold their tongues, as suited their caprice. СНАР. LXVI. 1789. A deputation, headed by the President, was ap- Deputation to pointed to wait on the King, to represent the state of the King. the capital; the women, on the outside, insisted on accompanying them; but, after much trouble, six were agreed to, and twelve went. They soon returned, proclaiming with joy his benevolent expressions; but their comrades swore they had been bribed, and two of them were only rescued from execution by the gardes-du-corps. They were again admitted, and obtained from the King a written declaration that he would cause supplies to be sent from Senlis and Lagni, and that all obstacles to the victualling of the capital should be removed. It was obvious that, in effect, this promise was of no value, but as an expression of kindness and good-will. Situated as he was, the King could no more command the grain in France, than that in Germany or America; he could neither interpose nor remove an obstruction; but it perfectly dispelled the illusion that he voluntarily occasioned the public distress; and Maillard, with forty of the women, returned to Paris in carriages, to communicate the joyous intelligence. Another delusion was removed by seeing the gardes-du-corps: they had not a black cockade among them; no public order had commanded the use of the three-coloured, and they continued the white, their accustomed and regulated uniform. Still the mob was unappeased; being joined by the populace, and even the national guard of Ver Further proceeding of the mob. CHAP. 1789. The King forced to assent tion of the rights of man. sailles, they tried to irritate the soldiery by outrageous abuse, and at length assailed them with stones and missiles, and even wounded one with a musket shot. Under all these provocations, the military made no attack, but, at last, shifted their ground just in time to avoid a general discharge of musketry and grape which was prepared for them. In all this transaction, the irresolution of the King, or rather his unwarrantably forbearing to direct rightly the force in his hands, was his bane. One charge of cavalry would have altered the whole aspect of affairs, and changed the clamours of unbridled insolence, and the shouts of unresisted triumph to tones of supplication and murmurs of despair. The deputation from the Assembly, feeling that to the declara- the time was improper, did not, as they were instructed, require from the King a pure and unqualified recognition of their declaration of the rights of man; but the majority of the body, restrained by no such delicacy, ordered their immediate return; and, amidst the yells and threats of a drunken and blood-thirsty rabble, the King was forced to give his free and full assent. Arrival of Lafayette. ings. Scenes of an atrocious and disgusting description continued until the arrival of Lafayette, at a late hour. On approaching the hall of the Assembly, he made his troops again go through the unavailing ceremony of swearing fidelity to the nation, the law, and the King. Entering the hall, he found very few deputies, the greater number having retired for the night, and a large assemblage of the Paris mob, sitting intermixed His proceed with those who remained, eating and drinking. Confiding, with characteristic vanity and folly, in his own influence, he assured the President of perfect tranquillity and safety. He then repaired to the King, and, after a short interview, returned and dismissed the faithful gardes-du-corps, placing in their stead the gardes françoises, of whose disloyalty and treachery he could not be ignorant. The regiment de Flandres was no longer to be trusted; a troop of Parisian women, headed by Theroigne de Mericourt, an Amazonian prostitute, had openly gone into the ranks and |