Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume VII.djvu/399

 FRANCE 38T Early in 1792 the property of the emigres was confiscated. The Girondists had gained the complete leadership of the assembly ; and in March the king was forced to dismiss his ministers and to form a new ministry from members of this dominant party. Dumouriez held the portfolio of foreign affairs, and, al- though the only member not a Girondist, was the acknowledged leader. Urged on by him and by the assembly, the king on April 20 re- luctantly declared war against Austria; and the long conflict between France and the mo- narchical powers of Europe was begun. At the news of the first defeats of the French army, the greatest popular excitement broke out in Paris. A series of decisive measures was passed by the assembly in the weeks fol- lowing; the banishment of the priests and the formation of a force of 20,000 national or fed- eral guards near Paris, acts in direct defiance of the few vestiges of royal power still re- maining, were the most important of these. The collection of 20,000 republican troops es- pecially, under the direct influence of the Ja- cobins (a club composed of the most violent agitators), though ostensibly for the protection of the king and capital, could seem nothing but a threat to Louis, whose body guard the assembly had voted to disband. On June 13 the king dismissed his ministers. On the 19th the assembly was officially informed that he had vetoed both the above named measures. On the 20th a great body of the populace armed with pikes appeared before the meeting place of the assembly, demanded the abolition of the royal veto, forced their way into the hall, read an address in which the king was threatened with death, and afterward marched with violent demonstrations to the Tuileries, which they found prepared for defence, and protected by national guards with cannon. No force being employed against them, how- ever, they pressed into the palace, and for an hour the king, the royal family, and their ad- herents were exposed to the greatest danger. Petion, mayor of Paris, at last succeeded in dispersing the mob. In spite of all efforts the leaders of this movement were not punished ; affairs grew daily graver, both at home and abroad. The assembly now took more and more decisive measures, and on July 5, after Vergniaud's famous speech (La patrie est en danger), they swept away the last remains of even formal power from the king by decreeing solemnly "the country in danger," declaring themselves the permanent ruling body, calling the people to arms, and establishing a kind of exaggerated martial law throughout the nation. By the 1st of August all seemed prepared for a violent crisis. The people had been further excited against the king by a foolish proclama- tion of the duke of Brunswick in his favor, and by the entry of the Prussian army into Cham- pagne; the more violent party had rapidly gained the upper hand in the assembly and in Paris among the populace, where multitudes of armed men were in constant movement, ready to " enforce the will of the people ;" their real leadership was in the hands of the men who had established themselves as the representatives of the Paris sections at the hotel de ville, and who later, on the night of the 10th of August, laid aside all pretence of subjection to the regularly constituted author- ities and formed themselves into an insurrec- tionary commune. (See COMMUNE DE PAEIS, I.) All was ripe for a violent uprising, and on the night of Aug. 9-10 the outbreak came. Summoned by the ringing of bells and the drum roll beaten in the streets, a force made up of the more violent classes of the populace and a comparatively small proportion of na- tional guards collected and took up their march, hastily formed into columns, against the Tui- leries. A part of the guard posted about the palace affiliated with them and compelled the opening of the gates from within ; the king allowed himself to be persuaded to seek safety in flight to the meeting place of the assembly ; the Swiss guard alone began a defence which seemed likely to be successful. Suddenly they received from the king a message commanding them to cease all resistance and retire to their barracks. They obeyed, and gave up their posts. The assailants, however, now renewed the attack with greater fury, the combat be- came a massacre, and four fifths of the Swiss were butchered. In the assembly, where Louis had taken refuge, the greatest excite- ment meanwhile prevailed. At the proposal of Vergniaud two acts were passed, one pro- viding for the calling of a national conven- tion to assume the full power of government, the other temporarily suspending the king from all authority, and providing for his transfer to and virtual imprisonment in the Luxembourg; this destination was next day changed to the Temple, to which Louis and the royal family were taken on the 13th. The Paris commune, which had been the moving cause and director of the acts of the 10th, was now at the real head of affairs, and could force the assembly into merely following its wishes. Acts of an even more violent nature speedily succeeded. A special commission was organized with power to arrest and try all those who might be under suspicion of op- posing the " welfare of the country," and those who were called "the conspirators of the 10th of August " (the royalists and defenders of the Tuileries) ; and this first of the revolutionary tribunals soon brought about a perfect reign of lawlessness. The priests who had refused to take the prescribed oath were sought out and imprisoned; and under Danton's lead- ership the commune exercised unlimited con- trol over life and property. In the mean time the news of the Prussian advance through Lorraine increased the excitement. The news of the taking of Verdun produced a climax of violence. The populace committed the wild- est excesses ; troops of armed men entered the