Historical Epochs of the French Revolution Part 12

In La Vendee, General Haxo, after the example of General Moulin, blows his brains out, to avoid being taken prisoner.

All letters coming into France are opened.

From the 29th of April to the 4th of May, 109 persons are guillotined in Paris, and many more in the departments.

In the valley of Aost, 6000 French were killed by the peasants of Piedmont.

Barrere announces the capture of a Spanish camp, with two hundred cannon, and two thousand men.

All the farmers-general are accused in a ma.s.s, and sent to the revolutionary tribunals, The town of Sargio and Piedmontese camp taken by the French.

11. Seventy-one persons, among whom are 27 farmers-general, are guillotined.

Madame Elizabeth, sister of the late King, is carried before the revolutionary tribunal and interrogated, " What is your name?" "Elizabeth "Philippine Marie Helene de France."

"Your quality?" "Aunt of the King." These last words are scarcely p.r.o.nounced, when the tribunal condemns her to death.

12. The next day she is conducted to the scaffold, with 25 persons who were guillotined in her presence; it being directed that she should suffer the last.

She died at the age of thirty years, and left a character of unblemished purity.

Decreed, that all aged and infirm priests be kept in houses belonging to the republic.

Report upon mendacity. Decreed, that the convention will efface the name of beggary and poverty from the annals of the republic.

The town and citadel of Bastia taken by the English.

The commune of Sens writes to the convention, that it has dug up all the bodies of the Capets that were interred in their cathedral, in order to bury them in ordinary ground.

An address to the French nation is prepared by Barrere, and published by the convention, concluding with these words: "Let the English "slaves perish, and let Europe be free."

13. Revolutionary tribunals suppressed, except that of Paris.

14. L'Huillier kills himself in prison, and Rebecqui drowns himself--both active agents in the ma.s.sacres of Avignon, and of the 2d of September.

15. Kaunitz forces the French to repa.s.s the Sambre with the loss of 5000 men.

18. The Duke of York, with 3500 men, is attacked by 15000 French, and forced to retreat.

General Beaulieu, near Bouillon, kills 3000 French, and takes 700.

22. Battle near Tournay, lasts 16 hours; the French lose 12,000 men, and the allies 3000.

A French army of 10,000 men penetrates into Luxembourg.

24. Kaunitz takes 80 cannon, kills 2000 French, and takes 3000.

Insurrection of the patriots at Liege.

The Emperor quits the army, and returns to Vienna.

29. Battle of Germersheim; the French lose 400 killed, and 600 taken prisoners.

A plot to a.s.sa.s.sinate Robespierre and Collot d'Herbois fails of success; the former obtains a guard for his person.

_June_ 1. The British fleet under Lord Howe engages the French; the latter loses eight sail of the line.

2. The convention decrees, that no Englishman or Hanoverian shall be made prisoner in battle--no quarter to be given, but all without reserve to be put to the sword.

The Duke of York communicates this barbarous decree to his army, in a manner that does honour to a soldier and to a man.

The guillotine is destroyed by the people at St.

Brieux, and the revolutionary tribunal expelled.

4. The French are routed near Charleroy with the loss of 4000 men.

The man who saved Collot d'Herbois from a.s.sa.s.sination, obtains a pension of 1500 livres a year.

Decreed, that the members of the convention, when on duty, shall wear marks of distinction.

Proclamation of the Emperor to induce all Brabant to rise in a ma.s.s.

A military school is inst.i.tuted in the plain of Sablons near Paris.

Decreed, that a new grammar be published, to give to the language of liberty a character that is suitable to it.

8. Jourdan, called Coupe-tete, general of the army at Avignon, guillotined.

The son and daughter of Louis XVI. employed to make shoes and shirts for the nation.

10. General Clairfait is obliged to retreat.

The French take Port-Vendre, Collieure, and St.

Elme.

13. A festival to the Eternal. Robespierre acts the part of Pontiff. The ceremony is designed to satisfy the people, by putting an end to atheism.

The members of the convention a.s.sume the distinction of a plume of feathers in the hat, and a three-coloured scarf.

The French army in Maritime Flanders amounts to 170,000 men.

The inviolability of the members of the convention is renewed.

A large convoy from America with corn arrives in France.

16. The French lose 7,000 men in an action near Charleroy.

Ypres surrenders to the French--this conquest opens all Brabant.

The numerous forces opposed to the allies oblige them to retreat.

20. One milliard two hundred and five millions of livres in a.s.signats issued.

Port-au-Prince taken by the English.

The dread of the guillotine causes fifty thousand persons to emigrate.

21. Commencement of a quarrel between Robespierre and Bourdon de l'Oise, and another between Tallien and Robespierre.

Ninety-four nuns transported to Africa.

Twenty-one members of the parliament of Toulouze (sic) guillotined at Paris.

26. Every thing in France is put in requisition, men, horses, provisions, and all sorts of property.

28. Some terrible conspiracy is supposed, and announced to the public in order to authorise new ma.s.sacres.

"Paris," says Barrere, "shall be henceforth the "city with a hundred gates; each gate shall "announce some triumph, or some revolutionary, "epoch".

29. The French besiege Charleroy.

The number of persons guillotined this month is as follows. From the first to the ninth of June, 100 On the 9th, 22 10th, 30 11th, 33 12th, 8 13th, 20 From 14 to 17th 103 17 to 20th 50 On the 21st, 26 22d, 14 25th, 48 27th, 29 Total guillotined in Paris in the month of June 483

_July_ Religious worship abolished at Liege, the priests banished, and the churches demolished.

3. Sir Gilbert Elliot receives the crown of Corsica in the name of the King of Great-Britain.

Proclamation of the Stadtholder on the dangers which threaten Holland.

A festival of the human race at Paris--it ends with adopting poor children.

The French take Mons and Ostend; 87 persons guillotined.

Newport also falls to the French--130 emigrants shot.

Tournay taken by the same. The British 7. forced to evacuate Alost. Fifty persons condemned to death.

8. The Austrians quit Brussels; the French enter it, and retake Landrecy.

Spires, Mechlin, and Louvain, abandoned by the allies.

Sixty persons guillotined at Brest.

Robespierre, in an address to the convention, is heard for the first time with coolness.

The plunder of the churches of Brabant is sent to the convention, together with two millions of livres in specie from Mons.

18. Namur opens its gates to the French.

19. Revolution at Geneva.

The convention is charged in its accounts with 150 reams of paper a day;--each of its decrees costs 83,000 livres; on the first of April last, 6800 decrees had been pa.s.sed by the three legislatures.

The members who compose the committee of public safety, at this time of havoc and universal terror, are Robespierre, Couthon, Billaud Varennes, Barrere, Collot d'Herbois, Lindet, Prieur, Carnot, and St. Just.

26. Robespierre denounces to the convention one hundred of its members. A party instantly rises against him. He is attacked by Billaud Varennes and Tallien, and thunderstruck with the accusations against him.

27. Robespierre endeavours to kill himself; the wound not mortal.

28. All the following persons are guillotined this day: Robespierre the elder and the younger, Couthon and St. Just, members of the convention; Henriot, commander in chief of the Parisian guard; La Vallette, another commander; Dumas, president of the revolutionary tribunal; Lescott Fleuriot, mayor of Paris; Payan, chief agent of the commune; Viviers, a criminal judge, and president of the jacobin club; Simon, preceptor of the young Prince; upwards of eighty munic.i.p.al officers; one Deputy, a commissioner with the army, and one general officer, all partizans of Robespierre.

Tallien proclaims in the convention, that the day of the tyrant's death is a festival for universal fraternity.

From the 1st to the 19th of July were guillotined in Paris, in all 406 persons.

On the 20th, 34 21st, 29 22d, 46 24th, 30 From 25th to 27th 135 28th, 22 29th, 70 Total guillotined in July 772

_Aug_. 1. At this time the guillotine remains unemployed.

The convention charges sixteen committees with the management of public affairs.

2. The Spaniards are defeated--The French take Fontarabia and St. Sebastian.

Pichegru, with 190,000 men, is commanded to conquer Holland.

3. Prince Cobourg calls upon the States of Germany to a.s.semble and oppose with unanimity the alarming ma.s.s of French troops which is on the point of breaking in upon them.

5. The convention abolishes Robespierre's system of terror.

Brussels gives a civic feast on account of its union with France.

The French enter Treves, and summon Breda.

Pelet solicits the convention for the return of order, of justice, and of commerce.

10. The English take possession of Calvi.

11. The states-general earnestly exhort the Dutch to defend themselves.

13. A general release of prisoners confined in France by order of Robespierre--they amounted to upwards of 500,000.

Quesnoy retaken by the French, with 3000 men.