History of the Girondists Part 37

[14] Foulon was a contractor, who, odious to the populace, was compelled to fly from Paris, but being discovered, was brought back, and eventually murdered by the mob in July 1789. Berthier was his son-in-law, and also incurring the displeasure of the people, was a few days later stabbed by a hundred bayonets whilst on his way to prison.--H. T. R.

[15] See Michelet's History of the French Revolution, vol. i.

p.154.--_Standard Library._

[16]

"Hail mighty triumph!--enter these our walls!

Restore those soldiers, heroes of the day When fell Desilles, pierced by their murderous b.a.l.l.s, And blood of citizens bedew'd the clay!"

[17] In Michelet's _History of the French Revolution_, publishing contemporaneously with this work, the author acquits the Duc d'Orleans of any partic.i.p.ation in the riots and bloodshed at Versailles, on the 4th and 5th of October; but says, page 280., "Depositions prove that he was seen every where between Paris and Versailles, but that he did nothing. Between eight and nine o'clock in the morning of the 6th, so soon after the ma.s.sacre that the court of the castle was still stained with blood, he went and showed himself to the people, with an enormous c.o.c.kade in his hat, laughing, and flourishing a switch in his hand."--_Standard Library._--H. T. R.

[18] This pa.s.sage is somewhat obscure in the original: "_Dumouriez se trouva la genie d'une circonstance cache sous l'habit d'un aventurier._"

We trust we have caught its spirit.--H. T. H.

[19] Madame Du Barry was the favourite mistress of Louis XV., and her brother, as he was called, the Count Jean du Barry, had the king's patronage, and preyed on the public to a great extent, to supply his low habits and expensive tastes.--_Translator._

[20] The club of the Feuillants, of which La Fayette was the leading member, was formed after the 17th July, 1791. It consisted princ.i.p.ally of Royalists, and was soon dissolved.--H. T. R.

[21] The Ma.r.s.eillais trace their origin to a colony of Phocians in the 1st year of the 43d Olympiad, 599 years B.C. It was the Ma.s.silia of the Romans, and called by Cicero the "mistress of Gaul," and by Pliny, the "mistress of education."--H. T. R.

[22] M. Lamartine does not here refer to Andre Chenier, an admirable lyric poet, from whom he has quoted at page 351.; _he_ was a Royalist, and as such condemned and guillotined in July 1794, in his thirty-second year. He had a brother, Joseph Chenier, his junior by two years, who was an enthusiastic republican, and wrote and brought out, from 1785 to 1795, a great many tragedies, viz. _Charles IX._, _Calas_, _Henry VIII._, _Timoleon_, _Tibere_, &c., and was elected member of the legislative a.s.semblies from 1792 to 1802. He fell under Napoleon's displeasure, and he dismissed him from his appointment as inspector-general of public instruction, in 1803. The consul was becoming imperial in his aspirations. Joseph Chenier died in 1811, consistent to the last in his republican notions.--H. T. R.

[23] Editor of the infamous Pere d.u.c.h.esne.--H. T. R.

[24] Furor arma ministrat.--H. T. H.

[25] It was on the 30th July, 1792, that the Ma.r.s.eillais arrived in Paris.--H. T. R.

[26] M. Lamartine has not in his work given the verses 3, 4, and 5; we have therefore supplied them, that "The Ma.r.s.eillaise" may be complete.

The Ma.r.s.eillais ruffians entered Paris on the 30th July, 1792, by the Faubourg Saint-Antoine (the St. Giles's of Paris), and headed by Santerre, went to the Champs Elysees, (thus traversing the whole city from south to north,) where a banquet awaited them. Their arrival was marked by riots and bloodshed--Duhamel was murdered. This celebrated song was written by Rouget de Lisle, who also composed the air. On the 18th Nivose, an. iv.(8th January, 1795,) an order of the Directory enjoined that at all theatres and sights the air of the "Ma.r.s.eillaise,"

and those of "ca Ira,--Veillons au Salut de l'Empire," and "Le Chant du Depart," should be played. Rouget de Lisle was an officer of engineers in 1790, and in spite of his republican opinions, incarcerated during the reign of terror and only saved by the 9th Thermidor. He would a.s.suredly have been accompanied to the guillotine by his own song.--H. T. R.