"We are XIII. 1793. suance of these principles, orders were given to the Revo- CHAP. lutionary Tribunal to redouble its exertions. dying of fatigue," said the judges and the executioner to Collot d'Herbois. "Republicans," replied he, "the amount of your labours is nothing to mine; burn with the same ardour as I have for your country, and you will soon recover your strength." 101. of the pri Deeming the daily execution of thirty or forty persons too tardy a display of Republican vengeance, Collot Mitraillade d'Herbois prepared a new and simultaneous mode of soners. punishment. Sixty-four captives, of both sexes, were led out at once, tightly bound together, to the Place des Brotteaux; they were arranged in two files, with a deep ditch on each side, which was to be their place of sepulchre, while gendarmes, with uplifted sabres, threatened with instant death whoever moved from the position in which he stood. At the extremity of the file, two cannon loaded with grape were so placed as to enfilade the line, the whole civil and military authorities of Lyons were stationed on eminences on either side, while Fouché and Collot d'Herbois, from the balcony of the Hotel on the quay opposite, with their telescopes in their hand directed to the spot, were prepared to enjoy the spectacle. But the ferocity of their persecutors was disappointed by the heroism which most of these victims displayed in their last moments. Seated on the fatal chariots, they embraced each other with transports of enthusiasm, exclaiming "Mourir pour la patrie "Tous les jours il en passe, tant fusillés que guillotinés, au moins une cinquantaine.” —PELOT au Citoyen GRAVIER; Ville Affranchie, 28 Frimaire, Ann. 2. 'Ma santé se rétablit chaque jour par l'effet de la destruction des ennemis de notre commune patrie. Mon ami, je t'assure que cela va on ne peut mieux: tous les jours il s'en expédie une douzaine; on vient même de trouver cet expédient trop long. Tu apprendras sous peu de jours des expéditions de deux ou trois cents à la fois; les maisons se démolissent à force."-PELOT à GRAVIER; 13 Frimaire, Ann. 2. Papiers trouvés chez ROBESPIERRE, ii. 209. CHAP. 1793. Many women watched for the hour when their husbands were to pass to execution, precipitated themselves upon the chariot, locked them in their arms, and voluntarily suffered death by their side. Daughters surrendered their honour to save their parents' lives; but the monsters who violated them, adding treachery to crime, led them out to behold the execution of the objects for whom they had submitted to sacrifices worse than death itself. The wretched victims beheld with firmness the awful preparations, and continued singing the patriotic hymns of the Lyonnese, till the signal was given, and the guns were discharged. Few were so fortunate as to obtain death at the first fire; the greater part were merely mutilated, and fell uttering piercing cries, and beseeching the soldiers to put a period to their sufferings. A frightful shriek, arising from that field of agony, arose into the air, and was heard across the Rhone in all the neighbouring quarters of Lyons. Broken limbs, torn off by the shot, were scattered in every direction, while the blood flowed in torrents into the ditches on either side of the line. A second and a third discharge were insufficient to complete the work of destruction, till at length the gendarmerie, unable to witness such protracted sufferings, rushed in and despatched des Gir. vii. the survivors with their sabres. It took two fearful hours, 196, 198. Guillon, ii. however, to complete the massacre; for the soldiers, xi. 118, 121. unused to murder, were unskilful in the work of destruction. The bodies, when it was at length accomplished, were collected and thrown into the Rhone.1 1 Lam. Hist. 417. Lac. Prudhom. vi. 50, 51. 102. Vast num bers who thus perished. On the following day this bloody scene was renewed on a still greater scale. Two hundred and nine captives, drawn from the prison of Roanne, were brought before the Revolutionary judges at the Hôtel de Ville, and, after merely interrogating them as to their names and professions, the lieutenant of the gendarmerie read a sentence, condemning them all to be executed together. In vain several exclaimed that they had been mistaken for others, that they were not the persons condemned. XIII. 1793. With such precipitance was the affair conducted, that two CHAP. commissaries of the prison were led out along with their captives; their cries, their exclamations, were alike disregarded. In passing the Morand bridge, the error was discovered, upon the prisoners being counted: it was intimated to Collot d'Herbois that there were two too many. "What signifies it," said he, "that there are two too many? If they die to-day, they cannot die to-morrow." The whole were brought to the place of execution, a meadow near the granary of Part Dieu, where they were attached to one cord, made fast to trees at stated intervals, with their hands tied behind their backs, and numerous pickets of soldiers disposed so as by one discharge to destroy them all. At a signal given, the fusillade commenced; but few were killed; the greater part had only a jaw or a limb broken, and, uttering the most piercing cries, broke loose in their agony from the rope, and were cut down by the gendarmerie in endeavouring to escape. The numbers who survived the discharge rendered the work of destruction a most laborious operation, and several were still breathing on the following day, when their bodies were mingled with quick-lime, and cast into a common grave. Collot d'Herbois and Fouché were witnesses of this butchery from a distance, by means of telescopes which they directed to the spot. The latter Prudhom. went so far as soon after to write to the former to express Guillon, ii. his supreme delight at the massacre of two hundred and xii21. thirteen Royalists.1* All the other fusillades, of which there were several, * “Et nous aussi, nous combattons les ennemis de la République à Toulon en offrant à leurs regards des milliers de cadavres de leurs complices. Anéantissons d'un seul coup dans notre colère tous les rebelles, tous les conspirateurs, tous les traitres! Frappons comme la tonnere, et que la cendre même de nos ennemis disparaisse du sol de la liberté. Que la République ne soit qu'un volcan !-Adieu ! mon ami! Des larmes de joie coulent de mes yeux, elles inondent mon âme!-Nous n'avons qu' une manière de célébrer nos victoires; nous envoyons ce soir deux cent treize rebelles sous le feu de la foudre."-FOUCHÉ à COLLOT D'HERBOIS, Nov. 8. 1793. LAMARTINE, Histoire des Girondins, vii. 212. 1 vi. 51, 53. 427. Lac. CHAP. 1793. 103. witnessed by Fouché. * were conducted in the same manner. The flower of the population of Lyons, and the adjoining departments, were cut off in these atrocious massacres. One of them Butcheries was executed under the windows of a hotel on the Quay, where Fouché, with thirty Jacobins and twenty courtesans, were engaged at dinner. They rose from table to enjoy the spectacle. Many persons became insane from such an accumulation of horrors, and were executed raving mad. One man of the name of Lawrenceson, who had his pardon in his pocket, was seized with such a sudden fit of insanity that he could make no use of it, and was hurried away to the scaffold in a swoon, when the pardon dropped out of his pocket. He was taken to the Hotel de Ville, where he was restored to animation. "Am I yet alive?" cried he. "Give me back my head: Do you not see that stream of blood? it is over my ankles : I am falling into that gulf of dead bodies: Save me, save me!" The bodies of the slain were floated in such numbers down the Rhone, that the waters were poisoned, and the danger of contagion at length obliged Collot d'Herbois to commit them to the earth. During the course of five months, upwards of six thousand persons suffered death by the hands of the executioners, and more than double that number were driven into exile. Among those who perished on the scaffold, were all the noblest and most virtuous characters of Lyons, all who were 1 Prudhom. distinguished either for generosity, talent, or accomplishvi. 56. Lac. ment. The delight which these frightful massacres gave Guillon, ii. to the Revolutionists could not be credited, if not proved Lam. Hist. by the decisive evidence of their secret correspondence 193, 194, with Robespierre.+1 The engineer Morand, who had recently constructed the celebrated bridge over the Rhone xi. 121, 122. 317, 427. des Gir. vii. * "La guillotine, la fusillade, ne va pas mal: soixante, quatre-vingts, deux cents, à la fois; et tous les jours on a le plus grand soin d'en mettre de suite en état d'arrestation, pour ne pas laisser de vide aux prisons.”—PELOT au Citoyen GRAVIER, juré national; 24 Frimaire, Ann. 2. Papiers Inédits trouvés chez ROBESPIERRE, ii. 211. "Encore des têtes, et chaque jour des têtes tombent. Quelles délices tu XIII. 1793. which bore his name, was among the first to suffer, and CHAP. he was succeeded by a generous merchant, whose only crime consisted in having declared that he would give 500,000 francs to rebuild the Hotel Dieu, the noblest monument of charity in Lyons. 104. Toulon. These dreadful atrocities excited no feeling of indignation in the Convention. With disgraceful animosity, they Siege of were envious of any city which promised to interfere with the despotism of the Parisian populace, and were secretly rejoiced at an excuse for destroying the wealth, spirit, and intelligence which had sprung up with the commercial prosperity of Lyons. "The arts and commerce," said Hébert, "are the greatest enemies of freedom. Paris should be the centre of political authority: no community should be suffered to exist which can pretend to rival the capital." Barère announced the executions to the Convention in the following words :-"The corpses of the rebellious Lyonese, floated down the Rhone, will teach the perfidious citizens of Toulon the fate which awaits them." So little were the Jacobins of Lyons ashamed of their proceedings, that they got gold ornaments wrought into the form of guillotines out of the spoil which they amassed, which were ostentatiously worn by the dissolute females whose society they frequented. One might be led to despair of the fortunes of the species from the recital of such scenes, were not the dignity of human nature asserted by the conduct of many of the prisoners. A child, the son of M. de Rochefort, was led out with his father and three of his relations to be shot. The youth and innocence of the victim softened the hearts of the spectators and soldiers, and, when the fire took place, all fell but the child, who was spared, and his life promised. "I wish death," said he, embracing the lifeless aurais goutées si tu eusses vu avant-hier cette justice nationale de 209 scélérats! Quelle majesté ! Quel ton imposant! Tout va bien. Combien de grands coquins ont ce jour-là mordu la poussière dans l'arène des Brotteaux ! Quel ciment pour la République !"—ACHARD & GRAVIER; Lyon, 17 Frimaire, Ann. ii. Papiers Inédits trouvés chez ROBESPIERRE, ii. 233. VOL. III. H |