Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 24.djvu/183

Rh VERGNIAUD 165 emigres, as it developed into that of the counter-revolution ; and in his occasional appearances in the tribune, as well as in the project of an address to the French people which he presented to the assembly on 27th December 1791, he shook the heart of France, and, especially by his call to arms on 18th January, shaped the policy which culmi nated in the declaration of war against the king of Bohemia and Hungary on 20th April. This policy in foreign affairs, which he pursued through the winter and spring of 1791-92, he combined with another, that of fanning the suspicions of the people against the monarchy, which he identified with the counter-revolution, and of forcing on a change of ministry. On 10th March Vergniaud delivered a powerful oration in which he denounced the intrigues of the court and uttered his famous apostrophe to the Tuileries : &quot;In ancient times fear and terror have often issued from that famous palace, let them re-enter it to-day in the name of the law ! &quot; The speech overthrew De Lessart, whose accusation was decreed ; and Roland, the nominee of the Girondists, entered the ministry. By the month of June the opposition of Vergniaud (whose voice still commanded the country) to the king rose to fever heat. On 29th May Vergniaud went so far as to support the disbanding of the king s guard. But he appears to have been unaware of the extent of the feelings of animo sity which he had done much to arouse in the people, probably because he was wholly unconnected with the practices of the party of the Mountain as the instigators of actual violence. This party used Vergniaud, whose lofty and serene ideas they applauded and travestied in action. Then came the riot of the 20th of June and the invasion of the Tuileries. He rushed among the crowd, but was powerless to quell the tumult. Continuing for yet a little longer his course of feverous, almost frenzied, opposition to the throne, on 3rd July he electrified France by his bold denunciation of the king, not only as a hypo crite and a despot, but as a base traitor to the constitution. His speeches breathe the very spirit of the storm, and they were perhaps the greatest single factor in the development of the events of the time. On the 10th of August the Tuileries was stormed, and the royal family took refuge in the assembly. Vergniaud presided. To the request of the king for protection he replied in dignified and respectful language. An extraordinary commission was appointed : Vergniaud wrote and read its recommendations that a national convention be formed, the king be provisionally suspended from office, a governor appointed for his son, and the royal family be consigned to the Luxembourg. Hardly had the great orator attained the object of his aim, the overthrow of Louis as a sovereign, when he became conscious of the awful forces by which he was surrounded, and his eyes were opened to the infamy of their regime. The terrible revelation silenced him for a time. But the massacres of September again unchained his eloquence. He denounced the massacres their inception, their horror, and the future to which they pointed in language so vivid and powerful that it raised for a time the spirits of the Girondists, while on the other hand it aroused the fatal opposition of Robespierre and of his followers within and without the convention. The questions whether Louis XVI. was to be judged, and if so by whom, were the subject of protracted debate in the convention. They were of absorbing interest to Paris, to France, and to Europe ; and upon them the Girondist leader at last, on 31st December 1792, broke silence, delivering one of his greatest orations, probably one of the greatest combinations of sound reasoning, sagacity, and eloquence which has ever been displayed in the annals of French politics. He pronounced in favour of an appeal to the people. He pictured the consequences of that temper of vengeance which animated the Parisian mob, and was fatally controlling the policy of the convention, and the prostra tion which would ensue to France after even a successful struggle with a European coalition, which would spring- up after the murder of the king. The great effort failed ; and four days afterwards something happened which still further endangered Vergniaud and his whole party. This was the discovery of a note signed by him along with Gaudet and Gensonne and presented to the king two or three weeks before the 10th of August. It contained nothing but sound and patriotic suggestions ; but it was greedily seized upon by the enemies of the Gironde as evidence of treason. On 16th January 1793 the vote began to be taken in the convention upon the punishment of the king. Vergniaud voted early, and voted for death. The action of the great Girondist was and will always remain inscrutable ; but it was followed by a similar verdict from nearly the whole party which he led. On the 17th Ver gniaud presided at the convention and it fell to him, labouring under the most painful excitement, to announce the fatal result of the voting. Then for many weeks he sank, exhausted, into silence. When the institution of a revolutionary tribunal was proposed by the Robespierrists, Vergniaud vehemently opposed the project, denouncing the tribunal as a more awful inquisition than that of Venice, and avowing that his party would all die rather than consent to it. Their death by stratagem had already been planned, and on 10th March they had to go into hiding. On the 13th Vergniaud boldly exposed the conspiracy in the convention, taking occasion to discuss the profanation by the extremists of the name of liberty, and distinguishing between a true and spurious equality, employing with reference to the latter his famous simile of the bed of Procrustes. The antagonism caused by such an attitude had reached a significant point when on 10th April Robespierre himself laid his accusa tion before the convention. He fastened especially upon Vergniaud s letter to the king and his support of the appeal to the people as a proof that he was a moderate in its then despised sense. Vergniaud made a brilliant extemporaneous reply, and the attack for the moment failed. But now, night after night, Vergniaud and his colleagues found themselves obliged to change their abode, to avoid assassination, a price being even put upon their heads. Still with unfaltering courage they continued their resistance to the dominant faction, till on the 2d of June 1793 things came to a head. The convention was surrounded with an armed mob, who clamoured for the &quot;twenty- two.&quot; In the midst of this it was forced to continue its deliberations. The decree of accusation was voted, and the Girondists were proscribed. Vergniaud was offered a safe retreat. He accepted it only for a day, and then returned to his own dwelling. He was kept under surveillance there for nearly a month, and in the early days of July was imprisoned in La Force. He carried poison with him, but never used it. His tender affection for his relatives abundantly appears from his correspondence, along with his profound attachment to the great ideas of the Revolution, and his noble love of country. On one of the walls of the Carmelite convent, to which for a short time the prisoners were removed, Vergniaud wrote in letters of blood &quot; Potius mori quam foedari.&quot; Early in October the convention brought forward its indictment of the twenty-two Girondists. They were sent for trial to the Revolutionary tribunal, before which they appeared on the 27th of October. The procedure was a travesty of justice. Conscious of innocence, but certain of death, Vergniaud preserved silence, and his example was largely followed by his companions. By the end of