The Sword of Honor Part 30

"Can we go away and leave behind us our women, our children, the old men, exposed to the rage of our enemies? What shall we do?"

"The _Friend of the People_ tells us what to do!" cried a voice in the crowd. "Long live Marat. To the lamp-post with the aristocrats! Here is what it says:

"'_The Friend of the People_ to the Parisians:

"'Folly! Folly! It is useless to proceed with law against the counter-revolutionaries!

"'People, march in arms to the Abbey!

"'Drag out the traitors, the Swiss officers, and their accomplices, the priests, the Jesuits, the monks--let them feel the edge of the sword!

"'People, strike your enemies with terror; otherwise you are lost!'"

"We approve the advice!" shouted several voices in response. "Legal justice absolves the guilty. Let us replace the judges, and strike the culprits. To the Abbey!--to the Abbey!"

Frightened at the turn things were taking, and dreading the consequences of the a.s.sent given to Marat's appeal, I attempted to fend off the ma.s.sacre of the prisoners. Raising my voice above the tumult, I addressed myself to the speaker:

"Citizen, it is true there are great criminals in the Abbey; but all the prisoners are not guilty in the same degree. Are there not some imprisoned merely as suspects? Are you sure that among them there are none innocent? And, with such doubt on your mind, would you kill all?

No, citizen, such a crime would defile the Revolution!"

My intervention seemed for a moment to have recalled the throng to less barbarous sentiments. But just at that instant there arrived a panting workman, who jumped on a curbstone, exclaiming:

"Citizens--I come from the a.s.sembly--I bring you serious news!"

"Silence!--Let us listen!"

"When the committee-men of the commune read their decrees to the a.s.sembly, Vergniaud cried out: 'I thank Paris for its courage and energy; now one may say the country is saved!' He called Longwy, which had surrendered to the Prussians, a city of cowards. Hearing the refrain of the Ma.r.s.eillaise he said 'There is enough singing of Liberty--we must defend it. It is no longer Kings of bronze that must be torn down--it is the despots of Europe! Down with the Kings!' And he, Vergniaud, closed his address to the a.s.sembly with these words: 'I demand that the a.s.sembly, at this moment more a military body than a legislative, send at once, and every day hereafter, twelve delegates to the entrenched camp in the Field of Mars, not with empty discourses to exhort the citizens to work, but to ply the pick-ax with their own hands. The time is past for orating. We must dig the graves of our enemies. Our enemies are both in front of and behind us, citizens; in front of us the Prussians, behind us the royalists, the priests, their lay communicants, and the brigands in the prisons!'"

And the workman proceeded with his report of the occurrences in the a.s.sembly:

"When Vergniaud left the platform, Roland, the Minister of the Interior, asked the floor to inform the a.s.sembly of some very important matters.

'The Vendee,' he said, 'spurred on by the dissident clergy, has risen in several places, and patriots have been ma.s.sacred. One portion of the south, under the instigation of the priests and the former n.o.bles, is the breeding-ground of a vast conspiracy, with the Count of Saillant at its head. He has declared himself "the lieutenant-general of the army of the Princes."'"

Before the crowd had recovered from the stupefaction into which it was thrown by these words the speaker continued:

"After Roland, Lebrun, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, announced that twenty thousand Russians were advancing on us through Poland and Germany, at the same time that a Russian fleet, proceeding from the Black Sea, was to pa.s.s through the Dardanelles and land at Ma.r.s.eilles.

At this Danton became sublime! 'Everything stirs, drives on, burns, to a combat,' he exclaimed. 'Verdun is not yet in the hands of the enemy. The garrison has sworn to slay those who mention surrender. Part of the people is rushing to the frontiers; another part is digging entrenchments; another army will defend the city at the point of their pikes. Citizen Representatives,' continued Danton, 'we ask of you to concur with us in directing this heroic movement of the people.

Whosoever refuses to serve in person or to give up his arms, let him be punished with death. All who are not with us are against us.' At these last words p.r.o.nounced by Danton, the a.s.sembly rose with enthusiasm--"

added the orator on the curb. "'That bell which now clangs is not a signal of alarm!' Danton cried. 'No! It is the signal for the charge against the enemies of the country. To whip them we must dare, and dare, and dare again--and France is saved!'"

An electric thrill ran over the tossing mult.i.tude as these words of Danton's were told it--heroic words accompanied by the tintinnabulations of the tocsin, the prolonged echoes of the five-minute alarm gun, the distant roll of the drums, and the strains of the Ma.r.s.eillaise, chanted in chorus by the column of volunteers. The ma.s.sive energy of Danton seemed to seize upon every spirit; it roused to its highest pitch their sacred love of country, and reawakened the ardor of vengeance. In that supreme moment, the prison ma.s.sacres were considered by the population, bourgeois and artisans alike, as a measure of public safety, a Spartan measure which many of the citizens deplored, but which they regarded as a fatal necessity, as a question of life and death for their families, for France, for the Revolution.

Bill-posters were now attaching to the walls the new decrees rendered by the Commune of Paris, which had now declared itself a permanent body.

The first of these was conceived as follows:

THE COMMUNE OF PARIS DECIDES AND DECREES:

ARTICLE 1. All horses fit for service are required at once to be turned over to the citizens who depart for the front.

ARTICLE 2. All citizens shall hold themselves in readiness to march at the first call.

ARTICLE 3. Those, who by reason of age or infirmity are unable to join the march, shall deposit their arms with their Sections, to equip those more fortunate citizens ready to go to the front.

ARTICLE 4. The ramparts shall be closed.

Paris, September 2, 1792,

COULOMBEAU.

The last paragraph, ordering the closing of the ramparts, caused a shudder not unmingled with savage joy to shoot through the crowd.

Through all minds flashed the thought: "The Commune orders the ramparts to be closed in order to prevent our enemies within from escaping. The work of justice will be the easier!"

Another decree which was posted, read:

THE COMMUNE OF PARIS

Decrees:

1. Enlistment shall go on in the Sections, in the theaters, in the churches and in the public places.

2. Foreign citizens shall enrol at the City Hall.

3. The Department of Paris shall furnish at once sixty thousand men.

4. The armorers, iron-workers and blacksmiths shall report to the Military Committee how fast they can turn out guns, pikes, swords, etc.

5. All leaden coffins shall be melted up for bullets. The retired soldiers will take charge of this work.

Paris, September 2, 1792,

COULOMBEAU.

On this terrible day, everything converged to throw the population into a somber vertigo. There was not an event which did not drive fatally onward to the ma.s.sacres in the prisons.

"Long live the Nation! Death to the traitors!" rose the cry.

The delegates of the Luxembourg Section declared to the Commune that they had adopted and recorded in their minutes the resolution "That it was urgent to purge the prisons before marching to the front." Three committee-men were sent to notify the Commune of this decision. The Sections of the Julian Hot-Baths, the Blind Asylum, and Ill-Counsel took the same action. The crowd about me echoed the cry:

"To the prisons! To the prisons!"

"Exterminate the rogues!"

"Purge the prisons!"

"Down with the black caps!"

"Death to the aristocrats!"

I sank into a stupor of despair. There was room for doubt no longer; public opinion was p.r.o.nouncing itself for the ma.s.s extermination of the prisoners. The Sections were despatching their delegates to the Commune to notify it of the urgency of the move. The Commune, through Tallien's organ, approved the ma.s.sacre; finally, Danton also approved it, Danton, the Minister of Justice, elected by the a.s.sembly. How could I stem such a tide? Still I tried, not without the knowledge that I thereby risked my life; for in moments of popular impulse and enthusiasm, to p.r.o.nounce oneself in opposition to the general opinion is to court being taken for a traitor. Nevertheless, I leaped upon a bench hard by, and cried in a voice vibrating with all the anguish of my heart: