Page:Cassell's Illustrated History of England vol 6.djvu/19

A.D. 1792.]ARRIVAL OF THE MARSEILLAIS IN PARIS. .5 hymn which should breathe all the spirit of the revolution. He wrote down the words and hastened to Dietrich. He found him in his garden digging up winter lettuces. It was so early in the morning, the old patriot's wife and daughters had not yet risen. Dietrich awoke them, and sent for some friends, like himself passionately fond of music, and capable of performing it. Rouget sang, Dietrich's eldest daughter accompanied him. At the first stanza all their countenances grew pale, at the second tears flowed, at the last stanza the wildness of enthusiasm burst forth. Dietrich's wife and daughter, the old man himself, his friends, the young officer, threw themselves weeping into each other's arms. The hymn of the country was found; but, alas! it also was destined to be the hymn of terror. Unfortunately, Dietrich, a few months later, walked to the scaffold to the sound of those very notes which had sprung forth at his hearth, from the heart of his friend, and the voices of his daughters.

The new song, performed several days afterwards at Strasburg, flew from town to town, to all the popular orchestras.

Marseilles adojited it, to be sung at the commencement and close of the sittings of its clubs. The Marseillais spread it through France by singing it on their way to Paris. From this came the name of Marseillais.

The old mother of De Lisle, a royalist, terrified at this echo of her son's voice, wrote to him : ' What is this revolu- tionary hymn which is sung by a horde of brigands travers- ing Franco, and with which thy name is associated ? ' De LLsle himself, proscribed as a royalist, shuddered as he heard it resound in his ears hke a menace of death when flying along the pathway of the high Alps. ' What do they call this hymn ? ' demanded he of his guide. ' The Mareeillaise,' repliel the peasant. It was thus that he learned the name of his own work. He was pursued by the enthusiasm which he had sown behind him. He escaped death with difficulty ; the weapon turns against the hand which has forged it ; the revolution, in its madness, no longer recognised its own voice." As the Marseillais wore conducted through Paris to the Champs Elysees, where a banquet had been prepared for them, they went singing this wild, new air to the astonish- ment of the crowd. These daring Jlarseillais stopped every one whom they met wearing a silk tricolom- and tore it from their hats, for it was now the fashion to wear worsted cockades, and to regard silk ones as a mark of aristocracy. Thiers says this occurred after the event we are now to relate. Not far from the spot where the jSIarseillais dined happened to be dining, at a restaurateur's, a party of the national guards of the Filles St. Thomas, and oilier royalists. These, who had met without any thought of the Marseillais, were drinking, singing royalist songs, amid such toasts as " A'ive le Roi ! " and " Vive la Reine ! " This gave offence to the populace, who cried, " Help, Marseillais ! " Tlie.se men, the most audacious cliaracters of the south, who had frequented the port of ^Marseilles, rushed out of their tavern, and fell upon the royalists sword in hand, killed one, wounded many more, and put them to flight. Many of them, bleeding, rushed to the Tuileries, where they excited a great alarm. The assaulted grenadiers of St. Thomas Bent a deputation to the assembly to complain of the outrage. They declared that, being only forty in number, they were attacked by five hundred and sixteen Marseillais ; but they were not suffered to s:iy more, for the Mareeillais, with whom the galleries were crammed, coitimenced hooting and insulting them. In the nn'dst of the confusion a number of jacobiuised national guards appeared at the bar, declaring, the grenadiers the offenders; that the court had certainly- set them on, and that the ladies of the court were then dressing their wounds and wiping away the blood with their pocket-handkerchiefs. Some one called out, '• Ha ! they aro certainly knights of the poniard ! " This was wildly ap- plauded by the galleries. The assembly declared that it would deliberate on the question ; but the next day fresh deputations appeared from both parties : the Marseillais protesting there was some horrible plot in operation at tlia Tuileries, and the grenadiers demanding the removal of the.=o ferocious desperadoes from Paris, where it was impossible for the pubUc tranquillity to be maintained in their presence. The demand was drowned in the clamours of the insolent Marseillais, and the assembly decreed that the discussion of the dispute must be left to the ordinary courts of law. But it was evident that a crisis was at hand. The jacobins had grown sufficiently daring for the execution of their last outrage on the monarchy by the arrival of tho federates. More of these were pouring in every day, and offices of insurrection were opened in various inns and wine- shops in the faubourgs. On the 2nd of August Guadefc moved in the assembly and carried a decree, that every deserter from the Austrian and Prussian armies should. enjoy a pension of a hundred livres per annum, and all the rights of French citizenship, including that of serving in the army, if he pleased ; when the Marseillais again appeared, and demanded formally the dethronement of Louis XVI., who, they declared, had again been butchering the people, and would never cease to do so, so long as ho was permitted to remain. Presently, in rushed a mob of men and women, crying, '• Vengeance ! they are poisoning the patriots ! they are poisoning our brothers ! " It was declared that bread had been given to the federates marching to Paris at Soissons, mixed with glass, and that a hundred and sixty were already dead, and eight hundred dying in tho hospitals ! These monstrous lies and exaggerations were every-day practices with the jacobins when they wished to hound on the rabble to some desperate deed. A commission was immediately dispatched to Soissons, who the next day reported that there had been no poisoning or intended mischief whatever ; that simply some flour had been stored in the church of St. Jean, and tho windows having been broken by the sans cidottes, as those of most churches were, some bits of the glass had fallen into the floiu-, and been, kneaded with the bread. There had been no death what- ever. Scarcely was this letter received by the assembly, when another mob of sans cidottes rushed in, demanding vengeance for the numbers poisoned. Vergniaud assured them that there had boon no such poisoning, and ordered the letter to be read. Deprived of this false grievance, tho mendacious sans culottes instantly improvised another. " Well," said they, " if they have not poisoned the patriots at Soissoris, they are doing worse here in Paris ; they are going to assassinate the whole people ! " Any body but the national assembly would have received this announcement