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bourg St. Antoine, in number about 15,000; but the CHAP. head-quarters of the insurrection were at the club of XXXV. the cordeliers, where Danton ruled with undisputed sway at his cry,-' to arms!' the insurgents, especially the Marseillois, impatiently called for the signal to march; and the cannon of all the sections began to roll toward the centre of the city.

Their first step was to seize the Hotel de Ville, dismiss the municipality, and appoint a new magistracy called the commune, selected from the most violent demagogues: while the rest of the insurrectionary forces were drawing toward this central point, a large proportion of the national guard repaired to the Tuilleries, where the few royalists, who still remained in Paris, hastened also to the defence of their sovereign: the only troops, however, that could be relied on, were the Swiss guards, mustering about 800 men. At the first alarm, the assembly met; and though their disposition was to defend the throne, the insurrection of the people had deprived them of the power. The events of this disastrous day, in which the queen of France exhibited the spirit of a heroine, and the king that of a martyr, are too well known to need a particular description. The defence of the Tuilleries was soon forsaken by the national guards, whose colonel, Mandat, had been that morning murdered by the populace, and whose loyalty was shaken by observing so many royalists in the palace: the gendarmerie, composed chiefly of the old French guards, again betrayed their sovereign; and the faithful Swiss alone remained. While masses of the insurgents were penetrating into the courts of the château, the king, following the advice of Roederer, procureur of the new commune, against all the remonstrances of his spirited consort, repaired with his family to the assembly; and the attack commenced. The courageous bearing of the Swiss, who vigorously charged and repulsed the Marseillois rabble, might even then have prevailed over the popular insurrection; but the king himself was destined to strike the

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CHAP, fatal blow to his own cause, by sending an order for XXXV. them to retire, and abandon the palace: this message was only given to one battalion, which instantly repaired to the assembly; and the rest of those faithful soldiers, after defending the staircase for a short time, were driven in, and inhumanly butchered by the mob, whose victory is said to have cost them 3000 slain. The assembly concluded the crimes of this bloody day by a decree, suspending their sovereign from his functions; ordering the formation of a national convention; and appointing a new ministry, in which the old Girondists, Roland, Servan, and Clavière recovered their offices, and Petion was allowed to retain that of mayor. Such were the terms tacitly granted to the assembly by the jacobins, for acknowleging their new municipality; but to the Girondist ministers were added Lebrun and Danton; the former being entrusted with the department of foreign affairs, the latter with that of justice: thus were the jacobins supported, when it became necessary to take measures for the defence of the kingdom. The Girondists, alarmed at the approach of the allied armies, and displeased at the domineering conduct of the jacobins and the commune, conceived the plan of abandoning Paris, and defending the country behind the Loire; but their opponents held the uncompromising language of bold defiance; and, inspired by the forcible eloquence of Danton, resolved to bury themselves under the ruins of the capital, rather than desert it. You know,' said that demagogue, in the committee of general defence, that France lives in Paris; and there we must maintain our position but it is impossible to think of fighting under its walls; for the tenth of August has divided France into two parties, of which one is attached to monarchy, the other desires a republic: the latter, and the smaller party, is the only one on which you can rely; the other will refuse to march, will agitate Paris in favor of the foreigners, and will place your defenders between two fires. If these

defenders fail, as I think they will, the ruin of your selves and your country is certain and immediate even if they succeed, their victory will not save you from danger; for it will cost you thousands of brave men; while the royalists, already superior in numbers, will have lost nothing of their strength. My advice therefore is, that, to disconcert their measures, we should frighten the royalists.' As the committee, who well understood the sense of these terrible words, seemed by their silence to reject his advice, Danton entered into engagements with the commune; he wished to daunt his adversaries by terror, and, making the multitude his accomplices, to leave the revolution no hope or refuge but in victory. This was the origin of those frightful massacres which soon took place in France, the victims being chiefly selected from the two dissident classes of clergy and nobility. The assembly desired to put a stop to them, but had not the power; while the ministry was as impotent as the assembly: the terrible commune was omnipotent, under the influence and direction of a man, in whose eyes the welfare of his party went far beyond all the laws of humanity.

The French troops first sent to repel the invasion, were inferior to their antagonists in discipline and equipment: besides, they soon became paralysed by intestine divisions, and their ranks were thinned by frequent desertions: but the revolution of the tenth of August changed both the command of the armies, and the state of military affairs. La Fayette, having in vain endeavored to raise the standard of revolt against the jacobins, and engage his army in the cause of the constitutionalists, was compelled to fly for safety to the Austrian lines; and as Luckner had disobeyed the orders of the convention, the command of both their divisions was transferred to Dumouriez, though the Girondists still felt some rancor against him, and his ambitious views were suspected even by those who rendered justice to his military talents.

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The allies proceeded slowly, and with apparent French timidity, in a country which they professed to con- victories.

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CHAP. sider as the scene of certain conquest; and they only invested Verdun on the thirtieth of August : the capitulation of that place on the second of September left the road to Paris open for their advance; but their dilatory conduct, and the enterprising genius of Dumouriez, counteracted all their advantages. As every thing depended on the occupation of the defiles in the forest of Argonne, that important post was immediately seized by the French general, who likened it to another Thermopylæ ; though,' he said, 'I shall be more fortunate than Leonidas.' In such a position he was able to stop the enemy, while he waited for the succors which were at this time hastening to him from all parts of France: even though he was driven from his post, he recovered his advantages through the slow operations and indecision of the enemy, maintaining another strong positions at St. Menehould, until he was joined by the divisions under Kellerman and Bournonville; when his army amounted to 70,000 men. The success of the campaign then became almost certain: on the twentieth of September, the allies attacked Kellerman at Valmy; and the almost insignificant success of that day, produced on the French troops, and throughout France, the effect of a complete victory. The invaders, on the other hand, were unprovided with stores or provisions; continued rains had broken up the roads; and for four days consecutively the troops had no other norishment than boiled corn; disease began to make extensive ravages in their army; and the duke of Brunswick commenced a retreat: in this he acted against the opinion of the king of Prussia and the emigrants, who would have risked a battle, and seized on Châlons: but as the fate of the Prussian monarchy almost depended on the army, the loss of which would have certainly followed defeat, the duke's advice prevailed. Negotiations were then opened; and the allies, relaxing in their terms, merely demanded the king's restoration to the constitutional throne: but the convention had just been

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assembled, the republic had been proclaimed, and CHAP. the executive council refused to listen to any pro- XXXV. position until the allied troops had quitted the French territories: they accordingly effected a retreat, which was feebly opposed by Kellerman; while Dumouriez set out for the capital, to enjoy his triumph, and to make arrangements for the invasion of Belgium. The moment was one of elation: the French general Custine had taken Trèves, Spire, and Mayence, the very key of the Rhine; Savoy and Nice were occupied by French armies; and the Austrians had retreated from Lille. Hastening therefore from the applauses and the fêtes with which he was welcomed in Paris, the victorious general marched against the Austrians, over whom he gained the bloody battle of Jemappe, and entered as a conqueror into Brussels on the fourteenth of November: Liege surrendered on the twenty-eighth: Valence took Namur; Labourdonnaie obtained possession of Antwerp; and before the end of December, all the Low Countries were intirely in the hands of the French. This important conquest showed to the startled nations of Europe the altered nature of the war, while it prepared them for its farther extension. On these very provinces the old political system had principally rested; for they were the bulwark of Holland. One battle now decided their fate, which at other times several campaigns had been unable to change; and men, hitherto unknown, took the lead as skilful generals. The bloodless seizure of Savoy also afforded a sample of the new international law established by the republicans.

Even in the time of triumph over foreign enemies the people felt all their vindictive rage excited against the unfortunate Louis. The convention was divided between two powerful parties; the first, consisting of Girondists, under Brissot, Petion, Vergniaud, &c.;-and the second of extreme jacobins, led by Danton, Robespierre, Fabre d'Eglantine, Chabot, and others, who assumed the name

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C