A Trip to Paris in July and August 1792 Part 4

There are no longer any _Espions de Police_, or spies, employed by government. "That army of thieves, of cut-throats, and rascals, kept in pay by the ancient police, was perhaps a necessary evil in the midst of the general evil of our old administration. A body of rogues and traitors could be protected by no other administration than such a one as could only subsist by crimes and perfidy. Those were the odious resources of despotism. Liberty ought to make use of simple and open means, which justice and morality will never disavow."

There is a school at the point of the isle of St. Louis, in the river _Seine_, to teach swimming; persons who chuse to learn in private pay four _louis_, those who swim among others, half that sum, or half-crown a lesson; if they are not perfect in that art in a season, (five summer months) they may attend the following season _gratis_.

DRESS. INNS.

THE common people are in general much better clothed than they were before the Revolution, which may be ascribed to their not being so grievously taxed as they were. An English Gentleman who has gone for many years annually from Calais to Paris, remarks, that they are almost as well dressed on working days at present, as they were on Sundays and holidays formerly.

All those ornaments which three years ago were worn of silver, are now of gold. All the women of the lower cla.s.s, even those who sit behind green-stalls, &c. wear gold ear-rings, with large drops, some of which cost two or three _louis_, and necklaces of the same. Many of the men wear plain gold ear-rings; those worn by officers and other gentlemen are usually as large as a half-crown piece. Even children of two years old have small gold drops in their ears. The general dress of the women is white linen or muslin gowns, large caps which cover all their hair, excepting just a small triangular piece over the forehead, pomatumed, or rather plaistered and powdered, without any hats: neither do they wear any stays, but only _corsets_ (waistcoats or jumps.) Tight lacing is not known here, nor yet high and narrow heeled shoes. Because many of the ladies _ci-devant_ of quality have emigrated or ran away, and that those which remain in Paris, keep within doors, I saw no face that was painted, excepting on the stage. Most of the men wear coats made like great-coats, or in other words, long great-coats, without any coat: this in fine weather and in the middle of summer made them appear to me like invalides. There is hardly any possibility of distinguishing the rank of either man or woman by their dress at present, or rather, there are no ranks to distinguish.

The nation in general is much improved in cleanliness, and even in politeness. The French no longer look on every Englishman as a lord, but as their equal.

The inns on the road from _Calais_ to _Paris_, are as well furnished, and the beds are as clean at present as almost any in England. At _Flixcourt_ especially, the beds are remarkably excellent, the furniture elegant, and there is a profusion of marble and of looking-gla.s.ses in this inn. The plates, dishes, and basons which I saw in cupboards, and on shelves in the kitchen, and which are not in constant use, were all of silver, to which being added the spoons and forks of the same metal, of which the landlord possesses a great number; the ladies and gentlemen who were with me there, going to and returning from Paris, estimated the value at, perhaps, a thousand pounds sterling. Now, if we allow only half this sum to be the value, it is, notwithstanding, considerable.

Every inn I entered was well supplied with silver spoons, of various sizes, and with silver four p.r.o.nged forks; even those petty eating-houses in Paris, which were frequented by soldiers and _sans-culottes_.

There are no beggars to be seen about the streets in Paris, and when the chaise stopped for fresh horses, only two or three old and infirm people surrounded it and solicited charity, whereas formerly the beggars used to a.s.semble in hundreds. I did not see a single pair of _sabots_ (wooden-shoes) in France this time. The table of the peasants is also better supplied than it was before the revolution.

a.s.sIGNATS.

EXCEPTING the coins which I purchased at the mint in Paris, I did not see a piece of gold or silver of any kind; a few bra.s.s sols and two sols were sometimes to be found in the coffee-houses, and likewise _Mouneron's_ tokens.

The most common _a.s.signats_ or bills, are those of five _livres_, which are printed on sheets; each sheet containing twenty of such _a.s.signats_, or a hundred _livres_; they are cut out occasionally, when wanted for change. I do not know that there are any of above a thousand _livres_.

The lowest in value which I saw were of five _sols_, and these were of parchment. Those of five _livres_ and upwards, have the king's portrait stamped on them, like that on the coins.

Besides the national _a.s.signats_, which are current all over France, every town has its own _a.s.signats_, of and under, but not above five _livres_; these are only current in such town and its neighbourhood.

The _a.s.signats_ of and above five _livres_ are printed on white paper, those which are under, are for the convenience of the lower cla.s.s of people, of which few can read, printed on different coloured paper according to their value; for instance, those of ten _sols_ on blue paper, those of thirty on red, &c. though this method is not correctly adhered to.

I had projected many excursions in the neighbourhood of Paris, which were all put a stop to, in consequence of the events of the tenth of August, of which I shall give a true and impartial narrative, carefully avoiding every word which may appear to favour either party, and writing not as a politician, but as a spectator.

I had written many anecdotes, as well aristocratical as democratical, but as I was unable properly to authenticate some of them, and that others related to excesses which were inevitable, during such a time of anarchy, I thought it not proper to prejudice the mind of the public, and have accordingly expunged them all. I have only recounted facts, and the readers may form their own opinion.

Some particulars relative to the ma.s.sacre in August, 1572, are inserted to corroborate the description of the similar situation of Paris, in August, 1792, though not from similar causes. The execrable ma.s.sacre above-mentioned was committed by raging fanatics, cutting the throats of their defenceless fellow-creatures, merely for difference in religious opinion.

BATTLE AND Ma.s.sACRE AT THE TUILERIES.

ON Thursday, the 9th of August, the legislative body completed the general discontent of the people, (which had been raised the preceding day, by the discharge of every accusation against _la Fayette_) by appearing to protract the question relative to the king's _decheance_ (forfeiture) at a time when there was not a moment to lose, and by not holding any a.s.sembly in the evening.

The fermentation increased every minute, in a very alarming manner. The mayor himself had declared to the representatives of the nation, that he could not answer for the tranquillity of the city after midnight. Every body knew that the people intended at that hour to ring the alarm-bell; and to go to the _chateau_ of the _Tuileries_, as it was suspected that the Royal Family intended to escape to Rouen, and it is said many trunks were found, packed up and ready for taking away, and that many carriages were seen that afternoon in the court-yard of the _Tuileries_.

At eight in the evening the _generale_,(a sort of beat of drum) was heard in all the sections, the _tocsin_ was likewise rung, (an alarm, by pulling the bells of the churches, so as to cause the clappers to give redoubled strokes in very quick time. Some bells were struck with large hammers.)

All the shops were shut, and also most of the great gates of the hotels; lights were placed in almost every window, and few of the inhabitants retired to their repose: the night pa.s.sed however without any other disturbance; many of the members of the National a.s.sembly were sitting soon after midnight, and the others were expected. _Mr. Petion_, the mayor, had been sent for by the king, and was then in the _chateau_; the number of members necessary to form a sitting, being completed, the _tribunes_ (galleries) demanded and obtained a decree to oblige the _chateau_ to release its prey, the mayor; he soon after appeared at the bar, and from thence went to the _commune_ (mansion-house.)

It was now about six o'clock on Friday morning (10th) the people of the _fauxbourgs_ (suburbs) especially of _St. Antoine_ and _St. Marcel_, which are parted by the river, a.s.sembled together on the _Place de la Bastille_, and the crowd was so great that twenty-five persons were squeezed to death.[22] At seven the streets were filled with-armed citizens, that is to say, with _federates_ (select persons sent from the provinces to a.s.sist at the _Federation_, or confederacy held last July 14) from _Ma.r.s.eille_, from _Bretagne_, with national guards, and Parisian _sans-culottes_, (_without breeches_, these people have _breeches_, but this is the name which has been given to the mob.) The arms consisted of guns, with or without bayonets, pistols, sabres, swords, pikes, knives, scythes, saws, iron crows, wooden billets, in short of every thing that could be used offensively.

[Note 22: According to the _Journal de la seconde legislature_, _seance de la nuit_ II _Aout_.]

A party of these met a false patrol of twenty-two men, who, of course, did not know the watch-word. These were instantaneously put to death, their heads cut off and carried about the streets on pikes (_on promena leurs tetes sur des piques._) This happened in _la Place Vendome_; their bodies were still lying there the next day. Another false patrol, consisting of between two and three hundred men, with cannon, wandered all night in the neighbourhood of the _theatre francais_: it is said they were to join a detachment from the battalion of Henri IV. on the _Pont-neuf_, to cut the throats of _Petion_ and the _Ma.r.s.eillois_, who were encamped on the _Pont St. Michel_ (the next bridge to the _Pont-neuf_) which caused the then acting parish a.s.semblies to order an honorary guard of 400 citizens, who were to be answerable for the liberty and the life of that magistrate, then in the council-chamber.

_Mandat_, commander-general of the National Guard, had affronted _M.

Petion_, when he came from the _chateau_ of the _Tuileries_, to go to the National a.s.sembly; he was arrested and sent to prison immediately.

The insurrection now became general; the _Place du Carrousel_ (square of the _Carousals_, a square in the _Tuileries_, so called from the magnificent festival which Lewis XIV. in 1662, there gave to the queen and the queen-mother) was already filled; the king had not been in bed; all the night had probably been spent in combining a plan of defence, if attacked, or rather of retreat; soon after seven the king, the queen, their two children (the dauphin, seven years old, and his sister fourteen) Princess Elizabeth, (the queen's sister, about 50 years old) and the Princess _de Lamballe_, crossed the garden of the _Tuileries_, which was still shut, escorted by the National Guard, and by all the Swiss, and took refuge in the National a.s.sembly, when the Swiss returned to their posts in the _chateau_.

The alarm-bells, which were incessantly ringing, the accounts of the carrying heads upon pikes, and of the march of almost all Paris in arms; the presence of the king, throwing himself, as it were, on the mercy of the legislative body; the fierce and determinate looks of the _galleries_; all these things together had such an effect on the National a.s.sembly, that it immediately decreed the suspension of Lewis XVI. which decree was received with universal applause and clapping.

At this moment a wounded man rushed into the a.s.sembly, crying, "We are betrayed, to arms, to arms, the Swiss are firing on the citizens; they have already killed a hundred Ma.r.s.eillois."

This was about nine o'clock. The democrats, that is to say, the armed citizens, as beforementioned, had dragged several pieces of cannon, six and four pounders, into the _carousel_ square, and were a.s.sembled there, on the _quais_, the bridges, and neighbouring streets, in immense numbers, all armed; they knew the king was gone to the National a.s.sembly, and came to insist on his _decheance_ (forfeiture) or resignation of the throne. All the Swiss (six or seven hundred) came out to them, and permitted them to enter into the court-yard of the Tuileries, to the number of ten thousand, themselves standing in the middle, and when they were peaceably smoking their pipes and drinking their wine, the Swiss turned back to back, and fired a volley on them, by which about two hundred were killed;[23] the women and children ran immediately into the river, up to their necks, many jumping from the parapets and from the bridges, many were drowned, and many were shot in the water, and on the bal.u.s.trades of the _Pont-royal_, from the windows of the gallery of the _Louvre_.

[Note 23: This is a.s.serted on the authority of all the French newspapers, and of several eye-witnesses. It will never be possible to know the exact truth, for the people here said to be the aggressors are all slain.--These Swiss had trusted that they would have been backed by the National Guard, who, on the contrary, took the part of the people, and fired on the Swiss (who ran into the chateau as soon as they had discharged their pieces) by which several were killed.]

The populace now became, as it were, mad, they seized on five cannon they found in the court yard, and turned them against the chateau; they planted some more cannon on the _Pont-royal_ and in the garden, twenty-two pieces in all, and attacked the chateau on three sides at once. The Swiss continued their fire, and it is said they fired seven times to the people's once; the Swiss had 36 rounds of powder, whereas the people had hardly three or four. Expresses were sent several miles to the powder-mills, for more ammunition, even as far as _Essonne_, about twenty miles off, on the road to _Fontainebleau_. The people contrived however to discharge their twenty-two cannon nine or ten times.[24] From nine to twelve the firing was incessant; many waggons and carts were constantly employed in carrying away the dead to a large excavation, formerly a stone quarry, at the back of the new church _de la Madeleine de la ville l'Eveque_ (part of the _Fauxbourg St. Honore_, thus called.)

[Note 24: The b.a.l.l.s did no other damage to the palace than breaking the windows, and leaving impressions in the stones, perhaps an inch in depth.]

Soon after noon the Swiss had exhausted all their powder, which the populace perceiving, they stormed the _chateau_, broke open the doors, and put every person they found to the sword, tumbling the bodies out of the windows into the garden, to the amount, it is supposed, of about two thousand, having lost four thousand on their own side. Among the slain in the _chateau_, were, it is a.s.serted, about two hundred n.o.blemen and three bishops: all the furniture was destroyed, the looking-gla.s.ses broken, in short, nothing left but the bare walls.

Sixty of the Swiss endeavoured to escape through the gardens, but the horse (_gendarmerie nationale_) rode round by the street of _St.

Honore_, and met them full b.u.t.t at the end of the gardens; the Swiss fired, killed five or six and twenty horses and about thirty men, and were then immediately cut to pieces; the people likewise put the Swiss porters at the _pont-tournant_ (turning bridge) to death, as well as all they could find in the gardens and elsewhere: they then set fire to all the _casernes_ (barracks) in the _carousel_, and afterwards got at the wine in the cellars of the chateau, all of which was immediately drank; many citizens were continually bringing into the National a.s.sembly jewels, gold, louis d'ors, plate, and papers, and many thieves were, as soon as discovered, instantly taken to lamp irons and hanged by the ropes which suspend the lamps. This timely severity, it is supposed, saved Paris from an universal pillage. Fifty or sixty Swiss were hurried by the populace to the _Place de Greve_, and there cut to pieces.

At about three o'clock in the afternoon every thing was tolerably quiet, and I ventured out for the first time that day.[25]

[Note 25: The whole of the foregoing account is taken from verbal information, and from all the French papers that could be procured.]

The _quais_, the bridges, the gardens, and the immediate scene of battle were covered with bodies, dead, dying, and drunk; many wounded and drunk died in the night; the streets were filled with carts, carrying away the dead, with litters taking the wounded to hospitals; with women and children crying for the loss of their relations, with men, women, and children walking among and striding over the dead bodies, in silence, and with apparent unconcern; with troops of the _sans-culottes_ running about, covered with blood, and carrying, at the end of their bayonets, rags of the clothes which they had torn from the bodies of the dead Swiss, who were left stark naked in the gardens.[26]

[Note 26: Although I was not an eye-witness, I was however an ear-witness of the engagement, being only half a mile distant from it.]

One of these _sans-culottes_ was bragging that he had killed eight Swiss with his own hand. Another was observed lying wounded, all over blood, asleep or drunk, with a gun, pistols, a sabre, and a hatchet by him.

The courage and ferocity of the women was this day very conspicuous; the first person that entered the _Tuileries_, after the firing ceased, was a woman, named _Teroigne_, she had been very active in the riots at _Brussels_, a few years ago; she afterwards was in prison a twelvemonth at _Vienna_, and when she was released, after the death of the Emperor, went to _Geneva_, which city she was soon obliged to leave; she then came to _Paris_, and headed the _Ma.r.s.eillois_; she began by cleaving the head of a Swiss, who solicited her protection, and who was instantaneously cut in pieces by her followers. She is agreeable in her person, which is small, and is about twenty-eight years of age.

Many men, and also many women, as well of the order of _Poissardes_ (which are a cla.s.s almost of the same species and rank with our fishwomen, and who are easily distinguished by their red cotton bibs and ap.r.o.ns) as others, ran about the gardens, ripping open the bellies, and dashing out the brains of several of the naked dead Swiss.[27]

[Note 27: At the taking of the Bastille, on the day of which only eighty-three persons were killed on the spot, though fifteen died afterwards of their wounds, these _Poissardes_ were likewise foremost in bravery and in cruelty, so much, that the Parisians themselves ran away from them as soon as they saw them at a distance. They are armed, some with sabres and others with pikes.]