Lafayette, We Come!: The Story of How a Young Frenchman Fought for Liberty in America and How America Now Fights for Liberty in FranceHolland, Rupert Sargent
History
Lafayette, We Come!: The Story of How a Young Frenchman Fought for Liberty in America and How America Now Fights for Liberty in France
Holland, Rupert Sargent
Lafayette, Marie Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert Du Motier, marquis de, 1757-1834
Then, at the end of July, the allied armies of Austria and Prussia,
accompanied by a great many French noblemen, crossed the frontier and
began their heralded invasion. The general in command, the Duke of
Brunswick, issued a proclamation calling on the people of Paris to
submit to their king, and threatening all sorts of dire things if they
persisted in their rebellion. The proclamation acted like tinder to
powder. The invasion united all parties for the moment. If the Duke of
Brunswick succeeded, no man who had taken part in the Revolution could
think his life or property secure, and France would return to the old
feudal despotism, made worse by its dependence on foreign armies.
The people of Paris and of France demanded immediate and vigorous
action; the Assembly could not lead them, and the Jacobins seized their
chance. Danton and his fellows addressed the crowds in the streets and
told them that France would not be safe until the monarchy and the
aristocracy had been exterminated. The people heard and believed, and by
August first were ready to strike down any men their leaders pointed out
to them.
Danton and the Jacobins made their plans rapidly. They filled the floor
and the galleries of the Assembly with men whose violent threats kept
the deputies constantly in fear of physical force. They taught the
people to hate all those who defended the constitution, and chief among
the latter Lafayette, whom the Jacobins feared more than any other man
in France. So great was their fury against him that Gouverneur Morris
wrote to Jefferson at the beginning of August, “I verily believe that if
M. de Lafayette were to appear just now in Paris unattended by his army,
he would be torn in pieces.”
On August tenth the mob, armed with pikes, surrounded the Tuileries.
The King looked out on a crowd made up of the most vicious elements of
the city. He tried to urge the National Guards to protect him, but they
were demoralized by the shouts of the throngs. Finally he decided to
take refuge with the National Assembly, and with the Queen and their
children succeeded in reaching the Assembly chamber.
The Swiss guards at the Tuileries attempted to make some resistance, but
the mob drove them from their posts and killed many of them. The reign
of terror spread. Nobles or citizens who had opposed the Jacobins were
hunted out and murdered. When the Assembly adjourned the deputies found
armed bands at the doors, waiting to kill all those who were known to
have supported the constitution.
Meantime the royal family had found the Assembly a poor refuge. A
deputy had moved that the King be dethroned and a convention summoned
to determine the future government of the country. The measure was
instantly carried. Louis XVI. and his family were handed over to
officers who took them to the Temple, which then became their prison.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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