Lectures on the French Revolution

XIII. THE FEUILLANTS AND THE WAR

LectFrRevol_151-200.indd 167 4/27/12 10:05 AM XIII THE FEUILLANTS AND THE WAR Tuesday, June 2r, the day on which the departure of the king became known, was the greatest day in the history of the Assembly. The deputies were so quick to meet the dangers of the situation, they were so calm, their measures were so comprehensive, that they at once restored public confidence. By the middle of the day the tumult in the streets was appeased, and the ambassadors were astonished at the tranquillity of Paris. They wrote home that all parties put aside their quarrels, and combined in a sincere endeavour to save the State. That was the appearance ofthings on the surface and for the moment. But the Right took no share in acts which they deemed a usurpation of powers calculated to supersede monarchy , and to make the crisis serve as the transition to a Republic. To the number of almost 300 they signed a protest, declaring that they would take no further part in the deliberations. Their leader, Cazales, went away to Coblenz, and was coldly received as a man who had yielded too much to parliamentary opinions, whose services had been unavailing, and who repented too late. The king's flight, while it broke up the Conservative party, called the Republican party into existence. For Lewis had left behind him a manifesto, meditated during many months, urging the defects of the Constitution, and denouncing all that had been effected since he had suffered violence at Versailles. Many others besides Lewis were aware of the defects, and desired their amendment . But the renunciation of so much that he had sanctioned, so LectFrRevol_151-200.indd 168 4/27/12 10:05 AM THE fRENCH REVOLUTION much that he had solemnly and repeatedly approved, exposed him to the reproach of duplicity and falsehood. He not only underwent the ignominy ofcapture and exposure; he was regarded henceforth as a detected perjurer. If the king could never be trusted again, the prospects of monarchy were hopeless. The Orleans party offered no substitute, for their candidate was discredited. Men began to say that it was better that what was inevitable should be recognised at once than that it should be established later on by violence, after a struggle in which more than monarchy would be imperilled, and which would bring to the front the most inhuman ofthe populace. To us, who know what the next year was to bring, the force and genuineness ofthe argument is apparent; but it failed to impress the National Assembly. Scarcely thirty members shared those opinions, and neither Barere nor Robespierre was among them. The stronghold of the new movement was the Club of the Cordeliers. The great body of the constitutional party remained true to the cause, and drew closer together. Lameth and Lafayette appeared at the Jacobins arm in arm; and when the general was attacked for negligence in guarding the Tuileries, Barnave effectually defended him. This was the origin of the Feuillants, the last organisation for the maintenance of monarchy. They were resolved to save the Constitution by amending it in the direction of a strengthened executive, and for their purpose it was necessary to restore the king. If his flight had succeeded, it was proposed to open negotiations with him, for he would have it in his power to plunge France into foreign and domestic war. He was more formidable on the frontier than in the capital. Malouet, the most sensible and the most respected ofthe royalists, was to have been sent to treat, in the name ofthe Assembly, that, by moderating counsels, bloodshed might be averted, and the essentials of the Revolution assured. But, on the second evening, a tired horseman drew rein at the entrance, and the joyous uproar outside informed the deputies before he could dismount that he came with news ofthe king. He was the Varennes doctor, and he had been sent at daybreak to learn what the town was to do with its prisoners. The king, ceasing to be a danger, became an embarrassment. He could not at once be replaced on the throne. Without prejudging the future, it was resolved that he be detained at the Tuileries 168 LectFrRevol_151-200.indd 169 4/27/12 10:05 AM THE FEUILLANTS AND THE WAR until the Constitution, completed and revised, was submitted to him for his free assent. Thus, for...