The History of the French Revolution, 1789 to 1795; or a country without a God

Front matter

THE HISTORY OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 1789 TO 1795; OR A COUNTRY WITHOUT A GOD. BY HENRY H. NORTHROP. M# n'KavaaUt, 6eoc ai> pvKTripi^Tm ■ b yap iav a-eipr/ av8pcmo<;, tovto aal depioct. Galatians, vi. 7. RICHMOND, VA. : FRANKLIN PUBLISHING CO. 1S90. Copyright, i8go. BY B. F. JOHNSON & CO. TO MOSES H. BIXBY, D.D. (The Eminent Pastor), TO LEVI W. RUSSELL (The Successful Educator), AND TO JOHN McAUSLAN. Esq. (The Christian Merchant), ALL OF PROVIDENCE, R. I., £bis Book IS RESPECTFULL Y DEDLCA TED BY THE AUTHOR. CONTENTS. PAGE PREFACE, Vli AUTHORITIES, ........ XI INTRODUCTION, Xvii

Chapter I. The Opening Of The States General At Versailles

3 II. THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY, ... 2] III. THE GATHERING OF THE ARMIES AND THE STORMING OF THE BASTILE, ... 43 IV. THE TRIUMPH OF THE PEOPLE, . . 65 V. THE PROVINCES AND THE FOREIGN NATIONS, 75 VI. THE IONOCLASMS OF THE FOURTH OF AU- GUST, 1789, 82 VII. THE MOB AT VERSAILLES, ... 97 VIII. THE ROYAL FAMILY IN THE TUILERIES, . II7 IX. FIRST CELEBRATION OF THE FALL OF THE BASTILE, 141 X. THE PROGRESS OF THE REVOLUTION, AND THE DEATH OF MIRABEAU, . . . 155 XI. THE FLIGHT TO VARENNES, . . . I74 XII. THE CAPTURE OF THE ROYAL FAMILY, AND RETURN TO PARIS, .... 186 XIII. THE KING AGAIN IN PARIS, AND MASSACRE OF THE CHAMP DE MARS, . . . I98 XIV. THE CAMP AT COBLENZ, . . . . 211 XV. THE INAUGURATION OF THE CONSTITU- TIONAL MONARCHY, .... 219 XVI. THE LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY, AND COM- MENCEMENT OF WAR, .... 231 XVII.

DUMOURIER AND THE GIRONDIST MINISTRY, 249 XVIII. THE MOB IN THE TUILERIES, . . . 263 XIX. THE LAST STRUGGLES OF THE EXPIRING MONARCHY 275 XX. DARKER AND DARKER 288 XXI. THE NIGHT OF THE TENTH OF AUGUST, . 294 XXII. THE STORMING OF THE TUILERIES, . 302 XXIII. THE IMPRISONMENT OF THE ROYAL FAMILY, 317 v VI CONTENTS. CHAPTER PACE XXIV. THE MASSACRES OF SEPTEMBER, . . 328 XXV. THE CANNONADE OF VALMY, . . 344 XXVI. THE GREAT BATTLE OF JEMAPPES, . . 354 XXVII. THE CONFLICT OF PARTIES, . . . . 365 XXVIII. THE TRIAL OF LOUIS XVI., . . . 378 XXIX. THE TRIAL OF LOUIS XVI. CONTINUED, 396 XXX. THE EXECUTION OF LOUIS XVI., . . 404 XXXI. THE DEFECTION OF DU-MOURIER, . . 418 XXXII. THE FIERCE STRUGGLE BETWEEN GIRON- DISTS AND JACOBINS, ... 43 ' XXXIII. THE FALL OF THE GIRONDISTS, . . 444 XXXIV. THE FATE OF THE ROYAL FAMILY, UNTIL THE REMOVAL OF MARIE ANTOINETTE TO THE CONCIERGERIE, . . . 459 XXXV.

THE REVOLT OF LA VENDEE, . . 468 XXXVI. THE VICTIMS OF NANTES, . . . 487 XXXVII. THE FUGITIVE GIRONDISTS, AND THE RIS- ING IN THE SOUTH, .... 499 XXXVIII. MARAT AND CHARLOTTE CORDAY, . 517 XXXIX. THE ABOLITION OF ALL RELIGION BUT REASON, . . . . . . 531 XL. THE EXECUTION OF MARIE ANTOINETTE, 537 XLI. THE TRIAL AND EXECUTION OF THE GI- RONDISTS AND MADAME ROLAND, . 547 XLII. THE SUFFERINGS OF THE LITTLE KING LOUIS XVII., ..... 559 XLIII. DOWNWARD AND STILL DOWNWARD, . 567 XLIV. THE FATE OF THE DANTONISTS, . . 581 XLV. THE INCREASE OF THE TERROR, . . 595 XLVI. RIVERS OF BLOOD, 605 XLV1I. THE FALL OF ROBESPIERRE AND END OF THE TERROR, ..... 620 XLVIII. LIFE AND FREEDOM ONCE MORE, . . 643 XLIX. THE THERMIDORIAN PERIOD, . . . 655 L. THE LAST EFFORTS OF THE JACOBINS, . 674 LI. THE I3TH VENDEMIARE, WITH THE OVER- THROW OF THE SECTIONS BY BONA- PARTE, AND ESTABLISHMENT OF THE DIRECTORY, ..'... 685 LII. THE DIRECTORY, THE CONSULATE, AND THE EMPIRE, .....

Preface

. My first endeavor in writing this History has been to tell the truth. The work is not designed for the scholar alone, but for the masses of the people also. The subject of the French Revolution has occupied my leisure hours, more or less, for thirty-five years. During a vast historical reading on many subjects, I have perused almost everything published in English, and much in French, upon this theme. Besides possessing a considerable library of my own, I have had full access to the Brown University Library, and the Public Library of Providence, R. I. In previous studies upon the French Revolution, I spent a year among the treas ures of the Astor Library in New York City. This work is the fruit of honest research and wide and impartial study for many years. I have been solicitous to do full justice to all the great actors in this mighty drama and terrible and bloody tragedy.

I have sought to exhibit Louis XVI., Marie Antoinette, the Duke of Orleans, Lafayette, Bailly, Dumourier, Petion ; the Terrorists Danton, Robespierre, and Marat, and the illustrious women like Madame Roland, as they actually were. I have weighed the probabilities in conflicting state ments as to facts and tried to give that which seemed to me nearest to the truth. My effort has been to write an impartial history. But in doing so I have not forgotten God and his government, nor Christ and his religion. I have freely presented the moral suggestions which naturally arise in contemplating and in recording the events of that dreadful convulsion. I have been very full in my descriptions of the pathetic •and humane scenes of the Revolution. I have derived great assistance in this directiop from such works as Beauchesne's Louis XVII., Madame Campan's Memoirs, Memoirs of Bouille, of Dumourier, Lives of Marie Antoinette by Weber, by Yonge, and many others, and the Revolutionary memoirs vu THE FRENCH REVOLUTION.

VIII and records. I have faithfully gone over the volumes of the Moniteur for 1789, '90, '91, '92, '93, '94, and '95, in which the debates of the Constituent and Legislative Assemblies and of the Convention are fully recorded ; and where accounts of the trials of Custine, Louis XVI., Charlotte Cor day, and Marie Antoinette are minutely given. The writings of Lamartine, Von Laun, Taine, H. A. Stevens, Mignet, Michelet, Alison, Louis Blanc, Thiers, Von Sybel, Gardiner, and a large number of other historians of the French Revo lution have been fully and carefully perused ; and there is not a single fact in this book, neither a description nor a dialogue, neither a speech nor an event, which is not based on authority. The Memoirs of Ferriers, of Peltier, and as to the Vendean War, of Madame de La Rochejacquelin and many others, have been of great help.

This book is written from the standpoint of Evangelical Christianity, but I have sought most conscientiously to be entirely just, truthful, and fair. That it is imperfect, as all human productions are, the author well knows. I return my sincere thanks to Mr. Edward C Bixby of the Providence Public Library, to Dr. R. A. Guild, Libra rian of Brown University, and to Professor L. W. Russell, Principal of the Bridgeham Street School of Providence, for the valuable assistance they have given me either as to books or in criticism. HENRY H. NORTHROP. 31 Arch St., Providence, R. I. March 20, 1 890. N. B. — I adopt the spelling Dumourier instead of Dou mouriez when using that general's name, and I believe I have sufficient authority for doing so. (SEKUHjSÆÆ IB ©MAIM OS ¥11. LOIZEROLLES GIVING HIMSELF FOR HIS SON.

AUTHORITIES. BOOKS USED AMONG MANY OTHERS IN THE PREPARATION OF THIS WORK. Alison's History of Europe, 4 vols. Moore's Journal, 17SS, 1789, 1790, 1791, 1792, 2 vols. Arthur Young's Travels in France, 1787, 178S, 1789. Travels in Spain, by the Chevalier, 17S9. The Ancient Regime, by de Tocqueville. Life of Burke (English Men of Letters). Moore's Life of Sheridan, 2 vols. Taine's Ancient Regime. Memoirs of Madame de Genlis, 6 vols. The House of Orleans, 3 vols., by W. Cooke Taylor. Guizot's History of France, 6 vols. Martin's History of France, 4 vols, Leckey's Ristory of Rationalism, 2 vols. Howitt's History of the Supernatural, 2 vols. Mrs. Jackson's Ancient Regime, 2 vols. James' Louis XIV., 2 vols. Morley's Diderot, 1 vol. Morley's Rousseau, 1 vol. Parton's Life of Voltaire. 2 vols. Voltaire's Age of Louis XIV., 2 vols. Lewis' History of Philosophy.

Reclus' Europe, 6 vols. Life of Marie Antoinette, by Yonge. Life of Marie Antoinette, by Madame Campan. Life of Marie Antoinette, by Weber. Life of Marie Antoinette, by Lady Jackson. Life of Marie Antoinette, in Plutarch Series. Lafayette, a Memorial. Life of Lafayette, anonymous. Life of Lafayette, by Mrs. Farmer. Life of Lafayette, 2 vols. Lafayette in America. Life of Mirabeau. Mirabeau, by Dumont. Mirabeau, reviewed by Macaulay. Mirabeau's Works. Memoirs of Roland. Memoirs of Madame Roland, by herself. Life of Robespierre, by Lewes. Leckey's Eighteenth Century, 6 vols. very Knight's History of England, 8 vols. Jesse's History of the Reign of George the Third, 3 vols. Pitt, by Macaulay. The English Jacobins. Mignet's Revolution Francaise, 2 tomes. Michelet's Revolution Francaise, 1 tome.

Louis Blanc, Revolution Francaise, 6 tomes. Lamartine's Histoire des Girondins, 3 tomes. Riouffe's Memoirs. Barbaroux's Memoirs. Louvet's Memoirs. Sanson's Memoirs, translated. The Diamond Necklace. Beauchesne's Louis XVII., 2 vols. Lacretelle's History, 6 tomes. Smythe's Lectures on the French Revolution, 2 vols. The Merovingians, 2 vols., by Thierry. Sharon Turner's Anglo-Saxons, 2 vols. Cæsar's Commentaries, I vol. The Ancient Britons, I vol. Pre-historic Man in Britain, 2 vols. • Guizot's Cromwell, 1 vol. Sufferings of the Royal Family of France, I vol. Precise Record of the Revolution, 2 vols. The War in La Vendee, George J. Hill, 1 vol. Memoirs of Madame de La Rochejacquelin, I vol. Life of Louis Phillippe, by B. P. Poore, I vol. Guizot's Memoirs, edited by his daughter. Memoirs of Napoleon, by Bourrienne, 3 vols. The French Revolution, by Gardener, I vol. French Revolution, by Morris, I vol. French Revolutionary Epoch, by Von Laun, 2 vols. Stevens' French Revolution, vol. I. History of the French Revolution, by H. Taine, 3 vols. History of the French Revolution, by Von Sybel, 4 vols. History of the French Revolution, by Thomas Carlyle, 2 vols. Essays on the French Revolution, the Guillotine, by Crocker.

Revolutionary Tribunal, etc., by John Wilson Crocker, I vol candid. Memoirs of Fouche, I vol. Memoirs of Cambaceres, 2 vols. Memoirs of Count Mathieu de Dumas, 2 vols. Geographical History, by Freeman, I vol. Atlas, I vol. Tableau Revolution Francaise, 2 tomes. Mirabeau, 1789, ad injinitum. Annual Register, 1789, etc. Edinburgh Review, 1804, etc. Memoirs of Bouille. Memoirs of Dumourier. Russell's History of Europe, 3 vols. Montgaillard in quotations. Jourgniac's Twenty Hours of Agony. A UTIIORITIES. XIII History of France, by Duruy. Memes' Life of Josephine. Abbe Edgeworth's Last Hours of Louis XVI. Memoirs of Clery. Memoirs of M. Hue. Memoirs of Madame the Duchess of Angouleme, " Madame Royale." Buckle's History, 2 vols. History of the Bastile, by Adam, I vol. Histoire de la Revolution Francaise, Janin, 2 tomes, folio, elegantly illustrated with portraits and wood engravings.

Thiers' History of the Revolution, 3 vols. Edinburgh Review. Quarterly Review. North British Review. Westminster Review. The Nineteenth Century. The North American Review. The Democratic Review. Memoirs of the Marquis of Ferrieres, 2 vols. From this work comes the vivid account of the opening of the States General, and the Fetes of July, 1790. It is from the Memoirs of Madame de La Rochejacquelin that we have the striking details of the War of La Vendee. It is from M. Hue's memoirs, from Clery, from Weber, from San son, from Memoirs of Abbe Edgeworth, from papers, magazines of those dates, 1792, '93, '94, that many varied facts are gathered as to Louis XVI. Besides these books the author has for twenty-five years read, among a vast historical reading, literally thousands of volumes more or less related to this work, and its subject.

Victoires des Francais, Paris, 1818. Remusats Napoleon, 3 vols. Iconographie des Gontemporains depuis 1789 jusqua 1829, 2 tomes, Paris, 1833. Madame d'Abrantes' Napoleon, 2 vols. Sir John Stephens' Lectures on French History. Burke's Works for 1789, '90, '91, '92, '93, '94, '95. The Moniteur 1789-1790, 1791-2, 3,4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9-1800, etc. Parliamentary Debates, many vols. Gentleman's Magazine, 1780, 1800. Draper's Intellectual Development of Europe, 2 vols. Lewis' History of Philosophy. Farrar's Critical History of Free Thought. Hurst's History of Rationalism. Works of Rosseau, Spinoza, Kant, D'Holbach, etc., etc. Crowe's History of France. Revolutionary Memoirs, many vols. Life of Madame de Stael, A. Stevens, 2 vols. Neckar's Works. The Eighteenth Century, by Lacroix. Causes of the French Revolution.

Letters from France, Helen Williams, 2 vols. Memoirs of Beaumarchais, 1 vol. Memoirs Justificatio Louis XVI., 1 vol. Hallam's Middle Ages, James' Life of Charlemagne. Charles VIII, by Segur, 2 vols. Memoirs of Mallet Du Pau, 2 vols. Memoirs of Lafayette, 3 vols. Memoirs of Talleyrand, 1834. Life of Talleyrand. Histoire de la Terreur, Mortimer Ternaux. Revolution de Thermidor, par M. de Hencoult Banners History of the French Clergy during the Revolution. London, 1794. . „ . La Justice Revolutionnaire, par Bernot St. Fnx. History of Chivalry, St. Paiyle. History of the Huguenots, 2 vols. Massacre of St. Bartholomew, White. The Huguenots, after the Revocation, Smiles. Life of Coligny, Besant. Tacitus. Suetonius. Ammianus Marcellinus. Neander's Church History, 6 vols. Giesler's Church History, 4 vols. Mosheim, 6 vols. Englishmen during the French Revolution.

Guizot's History of Civilization, 4 vols. Macaulay's Essays, Articles. Barrere, M irabeau, etc. Walks about Paris, Hare. Spruner's Historical Atlas (German). Revolutionary Pamphlets, many copies. Abbot's Louis Phillippe. History Modern Europe, Fyffe, 3 vols. Literary Men and Women 18th Century. Arsene Houssaye. 2 vols. Contains bright biographies of Dufresny, Fontenelle, Marivaux, Piron, Florian, Boufflers, Rurais, Gretry, Diderot, Crebillon, La Motte, Madame Pompadour, etc. Louis XIV. and His Court, 2 vols., Julia Pardoe. Histoire Revolution Francaise, Michelet. Histoire Revolution Francaise, Louis Blanc. Many volumes. History of Jacobinism, 4 vols. London, Barruel. Biographical Memoirs of French Revolution, John Adolphus, 2 vols. London, 1799. THE FOLLOWING IMPORTANT WORKS UPON THE FRENCH REVOLUTION WERE ALL PUBLISHED BEFORE 1 799.

Anecdotes du Regne Louis XVI., Paris, 1791, 6 vols. Vie du Dauphin, I'ere de Louis XVI., M. Montjoye. E16ge Historique et Funebre de Louis XVI. Appelle de l'lmpartiale Posterite. Memoirs de Eertrand Molleville. Conjuration d'Orleans, 3 tomes. Memoirs de la Duchesse de Polignac, par la Comtesse Diane de Poli^nac. Neckar on the Revolution. History of Jacobinism, Barruel, 4 vols. (English Translation.) AUTHORITIES. XV Residence in France, edited by Gifford. Impartial History of the French Revolution, 2 vols. Essay sur la Socie'te des Illumines. Rabaud's History. Defensur de la Constitution, par Maximilien Robespierre. Memoirs of Lally-Tollendal. Cristie's Letters on the Revolution. Le Livre Rouge, printed in red ink. La Regne de Louis XVI. Late Pictures of Paris, Peltier. Histoire de la Conspiration du 10 Aout, par M. Bigot de St. Croix.

Memoirs Court of Berlin, Pages. Clery 's Memoirs. Mercure'e Francais, 1791, 1792. Letters in 1793, Miss Williams. Robespiene et ses Committans. Jordan's Political State of Europe. Proces des Bourbons. Deniers Regicides. Views of the Causes French Revolution, Moore Apologie des projets des chief de la Revolution. Memoirs par Garat. Memoirs d'un Detenee, par Honore Riouffe. Roland's Appeal. Madame Roland's Works, Translated, 1799. Brissot a ses Committans. Barruel's History of the Clergy. Tableaux des Prisons sous Robespierre. Dumourier Unmasked. Memoirs Dumourier. Memoirs Bouille. Bastile devoille. Conspiracy of Robespierre. Tench's Correspondence. Rights of Man, Thomas Paine. Considerations of Nature, French, Rev. Mallet du Pan. History of the Brissotines. Life of Brissot. Precis de la Conduite de Madame de Genlis depuis la Revolution.

Conjuration de Robespierre, Montjoye. Les Crimes de Robespierre et de ses Principaux Complices. L'Etat de Ja France. Suite de l'Etat de la France, par M. Ie Comte de Montgaillard. Memoirs du Jacobinisme, par Barruel. Moniteur, — Brown University Library possesses a complete set of this invaluable daily journal, from May 5, 1789, to 1859. There the debates, the trials, the acts of the Commune, letters, articles, etc., all of the greatest interest, can be found. The author has read with great care the trials of Louis XVL, of Charlotte Corday, of General Custine, Marie Antoinette, of the Girondists, all of which are very fully reported. Such reports cease from Dec. 1793, until Oct. 1794, and then with the trials of Carrier and Fouquier-Tinville recommence. FRANCE BEFORE THE REVOLUTION, AS FORMERLY DIVIDED INTO PROVINCES, 1738. m

Introduction

. A BRIEF SURVEY OF THE CAUSES OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. FRANCE was known to the ancient Greeks as Galatia, ard to the Romans as Gallia, which we have modernized into Gaul. The great Celtic invasion, several hundred years before Christ, gave not only to Gaul, but to the British Islands, a vast population which drove before them the ancient races. Whether those races were Cimmerian or the geological man of the Stone Age, is yet a much-debated question among scholars. That there were remoter races in all these western lands is proved by the union of the Iberians in Spain with the Celtic invaders, forming those potent Celt-Iberian tribes which demanded the whole energy of Augustus Cæsar in the plenitude of his power to subdue and annex to Rome. The Celts a hundred years before Christ were not so powerful as when under their Brehns they assaulted the Rome of Camillus, invaded the domains of the Macedo nian King Ptolemy Ceranus, and established a victorious power in the heart of Asia Minor.

What they were as to character and temperament when Ammianus Marcellinus described them in the fourth century a.d., they continued to be through later centuries, "hot, rash, impetuous, violent when the frenzy came upon them, cruel by impulse, licentious by blood, terrible in assault, but easily discouraged and craven in defeat." The Celt of France was the cousin of the Briton, of the Caledonian in the north of the British Island and of the Celts of Erin, now called Ireland. In 1889 it can be truly affirmed, that, as to race, descent, and peculiarities, the Highlanders of Scotland, the Irish, the Welsh, and the Walloons of Belgium are nearly allied by blood to the Frenchman. Celtic Britain was invaded by Julius Cæsar, B.C. 50, and a hundred years later (a.d. 45) under the Emperor Claudius was permanently conquered and added to the Roman Em- THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. pire.

Gaul was for four centuries a vast, splendid, civilized province. It was traversed by Roman roads and filled with beautiful cities. It was early Christianized, and had great names like Irenæus and heroic martyrs like those of Lyons. When the Roman power fell in this province, as in Spain, it was by the invasion of the German tribes beyond the Rhine. Blue-eyed, tall, and strong, in a.d. 404 the hosts of the Franks, Allemanni, and Suevi crossed over that river in the winter time, ravaged the whole of Gaul, and finally be came its conquerors. It is not the purpose of this work to detail how, early in the sixth century, Clovis, the chief of the Salian Franks or Freemen, from a small territory, comprising a portion of modern Belgium, advanced to the South ; how he married a Christian wife, and besought in battle the " God of Clo tilda," for a victory which he won ; how he was converted to the idolatrous Christianity of that day, and was baptized by a bishop who said, " Burn, Sicambrian, what thou hast adored, and adore what thou hast burned."

He was an astute statesman and a great warrior, and, driving the Visi goths into Spain, he brought under his dominion nearly the whole of what is modern France. Clovis established the Merovingian Dynasty, a purely German rule and nobility imposed by the sword upon France. This truth must not be forgotten by the student of the causes of the French Revolution. For nearly fifteen centuries the German blooded royalty and nobility kept their feet on Celtic France ; and it is a fact of history that blond hair and blue eyes characterized many of the most ancient aristocracy of France in 1789. "Blond perukes," shorn from the heads of the noble ladies of France who were guillotined, were freely sold in Paris during the frenzy of 1793. The dynasty which,— through the triumphs of Carl Mar tel, — succeeded in driving back the vast hordes of Mo hamedan Arabs at Tours, and which after being for many years Mayors of the Palace, displaced the then feeble Merovingians,— was yet more German than the monarchs who had been cast aside.

Pepin and Charlemagne were German Franks, and the most successful campaigns of the latter were against the Saxons across the Rhine led by their great King Witikind. Charlemagne, crowned Em peror of the West in a.d. 800 by the Roman Pontiff Leo, CARL MARTEL AT THE BATTLE OF TOURS, A.D. 732. XX gave Christianity and the beginnings of civilization to Ger many, and died a Frank Emperor. The Carlovingian dynasty was Teutonic by descent and haughtily ruled the Celk of France. The empire of Char lemagne stands out like a beacon above the barbarian gloom of the ninth century, and in its laws, courts, and letters casts the light of a beneficent and scholarly influence over Western Europe. The Ebro on the south, the Elbe and Danube on the east, the Duchy of Beneventum in Italy and the Greek empire, — these alone marked the limits of the rule of the mighty Emperor of the Franks.

Charlemagne was a great warrior, art earnest scholar, legislator, and religionist, and made possible a hopeful future for discordant Europe. But through his paternal fondness Charlemagne made a fatal political mistake. He very unwisely divided his vast empire among his sons, and the dissensions, changes, and wars that followed abundantly prove the greatness of the error which he then committed. The whole tenth century was occupied by the selfish and ambitious conflicts of the descendants of this powerful monarch. The power of his imperial successors wasted away rapidly under Charles the Bald, Louis the Debonair, and other sovereigns. The feudal system was inaugurated, which led to a total disintegration of France, and, by the year a.d. 1025, we have a congeries of almost independent provinces, under their own dukes and counts, surrounding the mon arch who claimed at Paris to be King of France.

All these sovereigns, except those of Brittany and Normandy, were Germanic in tendency and distinct from the millions of Celts whom they ruled. It was the law and power of conquest, — the sword of the victor, — which created for the French nobility those exclu sive rights which existed in feudal forms a thousand years. The Normans who conquered England were lost after three centuries in the Englishmen whom they had subdued. But the Franks who conquered Gaul formed a noble class which, with all the modifications and immense changes of fifteen hundred years, rejoiced, even until 1789, in tracing their long descent back to the warriors of Germany. Conceive of the Normans, after eight centuries of rule, maintaining at this day their insolence, domination, and feudal rights in England, and we have a fair picture of the relations of the WITIK1ND SURRENDERING TO CHARLEMAGNE nobles to the people in France at the opening of the Revo lution.

There were three hundred thousand aristocratic tyrants in central and eastern France, under all the forms, changes, collisions, and wars of Francis I., of Henry II., of the expiring Valois dynasty, of the Bourbon rule under Henry IV., Louis XIII., Louis XIV., Louis XV., down to 1789 in the reign of Louis XVI., and these despots were harrying, grinding, depressing, starving, and ill-treating twenty millions of the French people with tailles, corvees, gabelles, detestable feudal rights and innumerable feudal claims. In Brittany and La Vendee (or Poitou) and Anjou, the rule was different. Those countries had for centuries been distinct from France. The Duke of Brittany ruled in independent pomp and splendor at Rennes as late as the time of Charles the Eighth (1485) and it was only in the last decade of the fifteenth century that, by the marriage of its heiress Anne with the ruler of France, Brittany became a part of the French Monarchy.

The nobles who dwelt on the banks of the pleasant Loire and all through the seacoast provinces of France were of the same blood with the people ; and there we see those paternal relations which made the life of the Vendean almost an idyl. In the body of our his tory they are fully described. In seeking the causes of the French Revolution the growth and power of the feudal system must always be carefully considered. The Monarchy which was destroyed in 1789 existed from the time of Hugh Capet (a.d. 987). Within two centuries the empire of Charlemagne had been broken into pieces, and the tenth century was a century of disorganization. It was then that Germany separated from France and became the Holy Roman Empire, which in its successive Saxon, Swabian, Franconian, and Austrian dyn asties existed with varying powers until 1806.

In a.d. 1000 Burgundy, Aquitaine, Normandy, Gascony, Flanders, Champaign, and Toulouse were all practically independent of the King of France. France was a name but not a real power. All the great feudal lords had become supreme rulers in their own domain, held their authority by here ditary right, and were only nominally subject to the throne at Paris. If we gaze on the map of France as it was in a.d. 1150, we observe the vast dominions of the Anjouan King of England, Henry II. Normandy, Poitou, Anjou, CHARLEMAGNE. nil and many other provinces are his. The south is under the control of the Counts of Toulouse. The east is yet German, and only the Isle of France, Champaign, and Picardy are actual royal domains. Through the constant changes produced by the conquests of the English during their wars with the French from 1340 until 1440, the France of one decade was not the France of another.

It was only in 1475 that the country began to assume its present form. Then Louis XI. consolidated his power, added many provinces, and enabled Charles VIII. , his successor, to place France in the position of a great nation and to acquire Brittany as Louis had obtained Bur gundy. But in all these changes, the laws and the sur roundings of the peasantry greatly and constantly differed, because of the collisions, independencies, and transforma tions of a hundred years. France in 1789 was, as it had been for two hundred years, a congeries of provinces with several internal revenue lines. But as a result of the religious wars of the sixteenth, and by the success of the despotic and concentrating policies of Richelieu and Mazarin in the seventeenth centuries, it was governed by an absolute King and an army, and had changed from a feudal state into an autocratic monarchy.

It possessed its parliaments, but they had no power as against the will of the monarch. The inhabitants of Central and Eastern France were badly governed. There the corvee, the gabelle, and the oppressions of the bailiffs were great and terrible, and there the cases of absenteeism surpassed those of Ireland in 1886. The poverty of the peasants and the oppressions which they endured were heart-rending. These abused men were com pelled to make those beautiful roads over which Arthur Young traveled in 1787. For all their toil they received no recompense. They were ground to the dust by salt duties and bridge duties, by the nobles when hunting destroying their crops, by church tax, nobles' tax, and King's tax. It was natural that in those frightfully oppressed provinces there should be the most terrible revolt, and that from those parts of France should come those republican armies which awed Europe, conquered La Vendee, and overthrew all revolts against the Commune in Paris during 1793 and 1794. Passing from the German conquest, and from the separa tions and diversities created by feudalism, to the period of

INTRODUCTION.

. the growth of the absolute monarchy, — we find that growth associated with the continuance of all the social and prop erty powers, rights, and results of feudal manners and laws. In this fact we detect a third cause of the French Revolution. Only Ireland as it exists to-day, infected by the conspiracies and discontent of its people, can afford to us any parallel of the awful sufferings of the French peasants as the result in Central and Western France of the development of a feudal system into an absolute monarchy witk the rights of feudalism over the people continued. That development was not with such equalities as were visible during the imperialism of the mighty Napoleon, but with all the rights, vexations, and oppressions of the cruel past still left to the nobles, yet with the military power and concentrated autocracy of the King supreme.

The absolute monarchy of France was the creation of Richelieu. It was fostered by the faithful regency of Maza rin, and found its full development when, in 1661, Louis XIV., young, handsome, and proud, slapped his boot with his riding-whip, before the Parliament of Paris, and said imperiously, " L'Etat, c'est moi." " The State, it is I." Louis XIV. was the greatest of all autocrats. He ruled the literature, he ruled the arts, he ruled thcsciences, he ruled the religion, he ruled even the thoughts of France. He was a tyrant, but in every fiber a gentleman. Despite the de tractions of these days, we venture to assert that Louis XIV. was a great King and a great man. He was thoughtful, appreciative of literature, and a generous friend of material improvements. He was candid, and at times tolerant.

He gathered around him a galaxy of the greatest men France had ever seen. In material improvements, Colbert; in the church, Massalon, Bourdaloue and Fenelon ; in letters, Moliere and Racine. Those imperishable men were all his proteges. He was cruel, intolerant, and persecuting in religion, ex travagant in life, and execrated after his death ; but after all he was a monarch of more than ordinary endowments. He was courteous, affable, and even forgiving when his creed was not involved. All the appointments in the state and army, and all the offices of France were in the hands of Louis. He distinctly claimed as monarch that he owned France and all in France. His smiles were life and wealth, his frown banishment if not poverty. He was the "Grand Monarque," and the L0UIS XIV.