CHAP. XIV. 1793. 25. Jolies intrig Jacobins vention. centre of the Revolution, "to be obliged to denounce an authority which was the hope of the patriots, and hitherto has so well deserved their confidence. But the Revolutionary Tribunal is on the point of absolving a guilty Denunciaperson, in favour of whom the beauties of Paris are mov- tion of the ing heaven and earth. The daughter of Custine, as antes at the skilful an actress in this city as her father was at the and the Conhead of the armies, solicits every one on his behalf." Robespierre made some cutting remarks on the spirit of chicanery and form which had taken possession of the Tribunal, and strongly advocated his condemnation. The municipality of Paris, on the motion of Hébert, passed a Aug. 27. decree prohibiting the fair supplicants (jolies intrigantes) from obtaining entrance to any of the jails or policeoffices. The consequences were decisive; General Custine was at length found guilty, and condemned amidst the rapturous applause of the Jacobins and Cordeliers, who filled the court. Young Madame Custine narrowly escaped death, in consequence of the noble part she had taken in his defence. When she appeared on the stair on leaving the court, a savage cry arose in the mob; the vociferations of the people, and their gestures, showed they were preparing to murder her on the spot. If she had sunk down, she would have been instantly torn in pieces; even the appearance of faltering would have proved fatal. Uncertain whether to advance or recede, she hesitated a moment, and the people were just springing forward to seize her, when an unknown woman in the crowd secretly pressed her hand, and taking the child, which she carried in her arms, from her breast, gave it to her with the words, "Return it at the bottom of the stair." She did so, and, protected by the infant citizen, escaped unhurt, and gave back the child; but she never saw her deliverer more. * Custine was sent to the scaffold, and, though shaken for * This curious incident is perfectly authenticated. See La Russie en 1839, par Marquis CUSTINE, i. 39—the son of the person thus marvellously saved. CHAP. XIV. 1793. 1 Lac. xi. 296, 297, 299. Toul. a moment, died firmly. The crowd murmured because he appeared on the fatal chariot with a minister of religion by his side, and knelt to pray on the steps of the scaffold before he ascended. General Houchard, 62.131. the second in command, who had denounced Custine, Th. v. 297. notwithstanding his recent success over the Allies at Trib. Rev. Hondschoote, shortly after shared the same fate; and 390. Hist. Baraguay d'Hilliers, reserved for higher destinies, was 417. sent to prison, from whence he was only delivered by the fall of Robespierre.1 Bull. du No. 95, p. Parl. xxviii. 26. Marie An Marie Antoinette was the next victim. Since the Situation of death of the King, his unfortunate family had been closely toinette. confined in the Temple; the Princesses had themselves discharged all the duties of menial servants to the Queen and the Dauphin. A project had been formed, with every appearance of success, for her escape: she at first listened to the proposal, but, on the evening before it was to be carried into execution, declared her resolution never to separate from her son. "Whatever pleasure it would give me," said she, "to escape from this place, I cannot consent to be separated from him. I can feel no enjoyment without my children with them I can regret nothing." Even in the solitude of her confinement, the cares of his education were sedulously attended to; and the mind of the young King already comprehended the duties of royalty. The Revolution of 31st May, however, was felt in its full severity by the prisoners in the Temple, as well as all the other captives in France. Hébert insisted that the family of the tyrant should not be better treated than a family of Sans-culottes; and he obtained a decree from the magistrates, by which every species of luxury was withdrawn. Their fare was reduced to the humblest kind; oil wicker lamps became their only light, and their dress the coarsest habiliments. He himself soon after visited the Temple, and took from the unhappy prisoners even the little movables on which their only comfort depended. Nothing was found tend CHAP. XIV. 1793. ing to inculpate them, but that did not alleviate the severity of their treatment; from the Queen they took a stick of sealing-wax, from the Princess-Royal a prayer for France. They carried off, "as a suspicious article," soon after, the last hat worn by Louis, which the Queen was striving to preserve as a relic. Eighty-four louis, which the Princess Elizabeth had received from the Duchesse d'AngouPrincess Lamballe, and which she had hitherto concealed, leme, 17. could not elude this rigorous search, and were taken Th. v. 369. away.1 Lac. x. 296. ment of the Soon the barbarity of the government envied the 27. widowed and captive Queen even the pleasure of behold- Cruel treating her son. The discovery of an abortive conspiracy Dauphin." for their liberation was made the ground for separating the Dauphin from his mother, and delivering him to the inhuman Simon, the agent and friend of Robespierre. In vain the young prince demanded to see the decree which authorised this cruel separation. His mother, weeping, resisted for above an hour, with the little boy clinging to her neck; but at length she was forced to let him go by the threat of instantly putting him to death. When removed, this poor child remained two days without taking nourishment. After he was for ever withdrawn from her sight, his beautiful fair locks, July 3. which still fell in profuse curls over his shoulders, were cut off, he was dressed in coarse garments, and compelled to wear the bonnet rouge, and the pantaloons and coat which composed the dress called "à la Carmagnole." All the cruel treatment of Simon, however, could not extinguish the native generosity of his disposition. "Capet," said he, "if the Vendeans were to succeed in delivering you, and placing you on the throne, what would you do with me?"-"I would pardon you," 22 replied the infant monarch. "What am I to do with Th. v. 376. the child?" said Simon to the Committee of Public d'Angoulême, 16, Salvation: "Banish him?" "No." "Kill him?" 17, 26. “No.”. VOL. III. "Poison him?" "No." "What then?"2 -- L 2 Lac. x. Duchesse CHAP. 1793. 28. Decree of the Conven motion of Barere for the Queen. Get quit of him." These instructions were too faithfully executed. By depriving him of air, exercise, and wholesome food, by keeping him in a continual state of squalid filth, the unfortunate child was at length brought, during the next year, to his grave, without imposing upon his keepers the necessity of actual violence. On the 1st August the design of destroying the Queen was for the first time brought forward in the Convention. tion on the The Committee of Public Salvation had been divided on the step. Robespierre resisted it; but Barère, Billaud the trial of Varennes, and the party who ultimately destroyed him, carried the point against his opposition. "How," said Barère, "do the enemies of the Republic still hope for success? Is it because we have too long forgotten the crimes of the Austrian? Is it because we have shown so strange an indulgence to the race of our ancient tyrants? It is time that this unwise apathy should cease it is time to extirpate from the soil of the Republic the last roots of royalty. As for the children of Louis the conspirator, they are hostages for the Republic. The charge of their maintenance shall be reduced to what is necessary for the sustenance of two individuals. But behind them lurks a woman, who has been the cause of all the disasters of France, whose share in every project adverse to France has long been known. National justice claims her as its own. It is to the Tribunal appointed for the trial of conspirators that we must send her. It is thus alone that you can make Francis and George, Charles and William, sensible of the crimes which their ministers have committed." pursuance of these views, he proposed that Marie Antoinette should be forthwith sent to the Conciergerie, separated from her family, and brought to trial before Moniteur, the Revolutionary Tribunal; and that all the members Août of the house of Capet, with the exception of the two children in confinement, should be banished the French territory. A decree in these terms, like all the other 2, 7, and 9 O'Meara, ii. 170. In decrees at this time, passed unanimously, without any debate. * CHAP. 1793. 29. to the Con Aug. 2. On the 2d August the Queen was torn from her weeping sister and daughter, and confined alone in the prison Queen sent of the Conciergerie, the most rigorous of the many ciergerie. rigorous places of confinement at that time known in Paris. A narrow, gloomy, and damp apartment, a worn mattress, and a bed of straw, constituted the sole accommodations of one for whom the splendour of Versailles once seemed hardly adequate. She was detained there above two months in the closest confinement; her mild and heroic demeanour interested even the wife of the jailer on her behalf. Night and day a guard of gendarmes was kept in her small and wretched cell. But the fidelity of her devoted adherents won over these guardians of the municipality; some faithful friends visited her there, and a courageous priest, M. l'Abbe Magnien, at the hazard of his life, often administered to her the sacrament, which she received with the most devout gratitude.+ Madame de Stael published a pamphlet, in which, with generous eloquence, she urged the impolicy as well as injustice of further severity Duchesse against the royal family. Women of France," she lême, 28, 30. concluded, "I appeal to you: your empire is over, if at x 339, ferocity continues to reign; your destinies are gone, if De Stael, your tears fall in vain. Defend, then, the Queen, by sur le Prothe arms which nature has given you: Seek the infant, Reine. who will perish if bereaved of his mother, and must be- xvi. 32. come the object of painful interest, from the unheard-of "Robespierre," said Napoleon, was by no means the worst character who figured in the Revolution. He opposed trying the Queen. He was not an atheist, like many of his colleagues. He was a fanatic, a monster; but incorruptible, incapable of robbing or putting to death from personal enmity. He was an enthusiast, who really believed he was doing right."-O'MEARA, ii. 170. +"Je certifie de plus que dans le moi, d'Octobre 1793, j'ai eu le bonheur de pénétrer à la Conciergerie avec Mademoiselle Fouché, d'y confesser plusieurs fois la Reine, Marie Antoinette, et de lui dire la messe et la communier. MAGNIEN, 4 Avril 1834."-See ALFRED NETTEMENT, Etudes Critiques sur les Girondins, 78, 79. 1 d'Angou 241, 249. Réflexions cès de la Euvres, |