XIII. 1793. CHAP. body of his parent. "I am a Royalist: Vive le Roi ;" and he fell pierced by seven balls. A young woman who had seen her parents, brothers, and betrothed, cut down the day before in one of the mitraillades, exclaimed, when brought before the judge, "You have killed my father, my brothers, my betrothed. I have no one left in the world to love. My religion forbids me to terminate my existence put me to death." She was instantly condemned. A young man who had been condemned to be shot with his father, an old man of eighty years of age, found means during the night to escape by a sewer which communicated from the Hôtel de Ville to the river. Having made sure of the issue, he returned to bring his aged parent with him. The old man sank from fatigue in the middle of the passage, and entreated his son to escape and leave him to his fate. "No," said the youth, “we will live or die together :" with these words, he put the old man on his shoulders, and had the good fortune to escape with him. A young woman in the last stage of pregnancy, who had combated as a soldier during the siege, exclaimed, when seated on the fatal chariot, "I regret not life, I regret only the infant I bear in my bosom. The monsters! they Would not wait a few days lest I should give birth to an avenger of freedom." A cry for mercy arose in the crowd; but it was soon stifled by the fall of the guillotine. The lon, ii. 307, unheard-of atrocities were faithfully reported to Robespierre and the Committee of Public Salvation; but they produced no change in their sanguinary policy.1* des Gir. vii. 199, 206, 208. Lac. xi. 121. Abbé Guil 308. Toul. iv. 81. The troops engaged in the siege of Lyons were immediately moved towards Toulon; twelve battalions of the army of Italy were destined to the same service, "Nos campagnes sont dans la stupeur. Le laboureur séme avec la certitude de ne point moissonner. Le riche cache son or et n'ose faire travailler l'indigent. Tout commerce est suspendu. Les femmes, etouffant l'instinct de la Nature, maudissent le jour où elles sont devenues mères. Le mourant appelle son pasteur pour entendre de sa bouche une parole de consolation et d'espérance; et le pasteur est menacé de la guillotine s'il va consoler son frère. Les eglises sont devastées, les autels renversées par des brigands qui prétendent marcher au nom de la loi, tandis qu'ils ne marchent que par les ordres de XIII. 1793. of Toulon, assembled and soon forty thousand men were assembled under CHAP. its walls. It presented, nevertheless, great difficulties to be overcome; the more especially as the English 105. government had sent a body of troops from Gibraltar to Description co-operate in its defence, and a considerable force of and Allies Spaniards, Piedmontese, and Neapolitans, had arrived to for its deaid in defending so important a stronghold from the fence. Republican forces. On the land side Toulon is backed by a ridge of lofty hills, on which, for above a century past, fortifications had stood. Though formidable to the attacking force, however, these fortified posts were not less dangerous to the besieged, if once they fell into the hands of the enemy, for the greater part of the city and harbour could be reached by their guns. The Mount Faron and the Hauteur de Grasse are the principal points of this rocky range; on their possession depends the maintenance of the place. Shortly after their disembarkation, the English made themselves masters of the defile of Olioulles-a rocky pass of great strength, well known to travellers for its savage character, which forms the sole communication between the promontory of Toulon and the mainland of France. English detachment of six hundred men had driven the Republican posts from this important point; but the defence having been unwisely intrusted to a Spanish force, Carteaux assailed it in the beginning of September with above five thousand men, and, after a slight resistance, regained the pass. Its occupation being deemed too great a division of the garrison of the town, already much weakened by the defence of the numerous fortified posts in the vicinity of the harbour, no attempt was made An brigands comme eux. Grand Dieu ! à quels temps sommes-nous arrivés. Tous les bons citoyens, ou presque tous, benissaient la Révolution, et tous la maudissent, et regrettent la tyrannie. La crise est telle, que nous sommes à la veille des plus grands malheurs. Les éclats de la bombe que l'on charge dans ces contrées extermineront peut-être la Convention tout éntière si tu ne te hâtes de l'éteindre! Médite, Robespierre, ces vérités que j'ose signer, dusséje périr pour les avoir écrites!" GILLET à ROBESPIERRE, 8 Nov. 1793. LAMARTINE, Histoire des Girondins, vii. 214. XIII. 1793. CHAP. to regain the lost ground, and the Republican videttes were pushed up to the external works of Toulon. His recompense for this important service was, that he was deprived of his command by the Convention, and Dugommier invested with the direction of the besieging force. Every exertion was made by the Allied troops and the inhabitants of Toulon, during the respite afforded by the siege of Lyons, to strengthen the defences of the town; but the regular force was too small, and composed of too heterogeneous materials, to inspire any well-grounded confidence in their means of resistance. The English troops did not exceed five thousand men, and little reliance could be placed on the motley crowd of eight thousand Spanish, Piedmontese, and Neapolitan soldiers, who composed the remainder of the garrison. The hopes of the inhabitants were principally rested on powerful reinforcements from England and Austria; but their expectations from both these powers, as usual at that period with all who trusted to British succour, were miserably disappointed. They made the utmost efforts, however, to strengthen the defences of the place, and in particular endeavoured to render impregnable the Fort Eguillette, observation. placed at the extremity of the promontory which shuts Ann. Reg. in the lesser harbour, and which, from its similarity to Toul. iv. 81. the position of the great fortress of the same name, they called the Little Gibraltar. 1 1 Personal Th. vi. 52. xxxiii. 415. 106. obtains the The In the beginning of September Lord Mulgrave arrived, Buonaparte and assumed the command of the whole garrison. command of most active operations were immediately commenced for the artillery strengthening the outworks on the mountain-range behind the city. The heights of Malbousquet, of Cape Brun, and of Eguillette, were soon covered with works traced out by the French engineers. No sooner had General Dugommier taken the command, and the whole besieging army assembled, than it was resolved to commence an attack on the hill-forts which covered the harbour; and for this purpose, while a false attack was directed against XIII. 1793. Cape Brun, the principal effort was to be made for the CHAP. possession of the mountain of Faron, and the Fort Malbousquet. With this view the breaching batteries were placed under the direction of a young officer of artillery, then chief of battalion, destined to surpass all his predecessors in European history, NAPOLEON BUONAPARTE. Under his able superintendence, the works of Jom. iv. the fort soon began to be seriously damaged; and, to in- 219, 220. terrupt the operations, a sally was resolved upon from the xxxiii. 415. garrison.1 The Ann. Reg. the siege. of Buona On the 30th November the sally was made by three 107. thousand men from the town, to destroy the works on the Progress of heights of Arrennes, from which this annoyance was ex- First action perienced; while another column, of nearly the same parte. strength, proceeding in the opposite direction, was destined to force the batteries at the gorge of Olioulles, and destroy the great park of artillery placed there. Both attacks were at first crowned with some success. batteries were carried, and the park on the point of being taken, when Dugommier, after haranguing the troops, led them back to the charge, and succeeded in repulsing the assailants. On the side of Arrennes, the sally was at first equally fortunate-all the enemy's works were carried, and their guns spiked; but the impetuosity of the detachment having led them too far in pursuit of the enemy, they were in their turn attacked by fresh troops, headed by NAPOLEON BUONAPARTE, who here commenced his career of victory, and driven back to the city with considerable 414. Jom. loss. In this affair General O'Hara, who had recently Tol. iv. 85. arrived from England, was wounded, and Dugommier Th. vi. 55,, was twice struck by spent balls, though without experi- 13, 15. encing any serious injury.2 * Ann. Reg. iv. 220. 56. Nap. i. Fort Eguil The whole force of the besiegers was now directed 108. against the English redoubt, erected in the centre of the Capture of works on the neck of land called Eguillette, and regarded lette and the as the key of the defence on that quarter. After batter- forts. ing the forts for a considerable time, the fire of the exterior XIII. 1793. Dec. 17. CHAP. Republicans became quite incessant during the whole of the 16th of December; and, at two o'clock on the morning of the 17th, they advanced to the assault. They were received with a tremendous fire of grape and musketry from the works, and soon the ditch was filled with the dead and dying. The column was driven back, and Dugommier, who headed it, gave all over for lost; but fresh troops, continually advancing with great intrepidity, at length overpowered the Spanish soldiers, to whom a part of the line was intrusted, and surrounded the British detachment, nearly three hundred of whom fell while gallantly defending their part of the intrenchments. The possession of this fort by the enemy rendered the further maintenance of the exterior defences impracticable; and in the night the whole Allied troops were withdrawn from the promontory to the city of Toulon. Buonaparte had strongly recommended this measure, as the possession of this fort, which commanded the inner harbour, would render the situation of the fleet extremely perilous, and in all probability lead to the evacuation of the city. While this important success was gained on the side of Fort Eguillette, the Republicans were not less fortunate on the other extremity of the line. A little before daybreak, and shortly after the firing had ceased on the promontory, a general attack was made by the enemy on the whole extensive range of posts which crowned Mount Faron. On the eastern side the Republicans were repulsed; but on the north, where the mountain was nearly eighteen hundred feet in height, steep, rocky, and apparently inaccessible, they succeeded in making good their ascent through paths deemed impracticable. Hardly were the Allies beginning to congratulate themselves on the defeat of what they deemed the main 415. Th. vi. attack, when they beheld the heights above them crowded i. 14,22,23. with glittering battalions, and the tricolor flag displayed from the loftiest summit of the mountain.1 1 Jom. iv. 223. Toul. iv. 87, 88. Ann. Reg. 56,57. Nap. These conquests, which were projected by the genius |