Life of Napoleon Bonaparte, Volume II.Scott, Walter
History
Life of Napoleon Bonaparte, Volume II.
Scott, Walter
France -- History -- 1789-1815; Napoleon I, Emperor of the French, 1769-1821
On the thirteenth Vendemaire, corresponding to the 4th October, the
civil affray, commonly called the Day of the Sections, took place. The
national guards assembled, to the number of thirty thousand men and
upwards, but having no artillery. They advanced by different avenues, in
close columns, but everywhere found the most formidable resistance. One
large force occupied the quays on the left bank of the Seine,
threatening the palace from that side of the river. Another strong
division advanced on the Tuileries, through the Rue St. Honoré,
designing to debouche on the palace, where the Convention was sitting,
by the Rue de Echelle. They did so, without duly reflecting that they
were flanked on most points by strong posts in the lanes and crossings,
defended by artillery.
The contest began in the Rue St. Honoré. Buonaparte had established a
strong post with two guns at the cul-de-sac Dauphine, opposite to the
church of St. Roche. He permitted the imprudent Parisians to involve
their long and dense columns in the narrow street without interruption,
until they established a body of grenadiers in the front of the church,
and opposite to the position at the cul-de-sac. Each party, as usual,
throws on the other the blame of commencing the civil contest for which
both were prepared. But all agree the firing commenced with musketry. It
was instantly followed by discharges of grape-shot and cannister, which,
pointed as the guns were, upon thick columns of the national guards,
arranged on the quays and in the narrow streets, made an astounding
carnage. The national guards offered a brave resistance, and even
attempted to rush on the artillery, and carry the guns by main force.
But a measure which is desperate enough in the open field, becomes
impossible when the road to assault lies through narrow streets, which
are swept by the cannon at every discharge. The citizens were compelled
to give way. By a more judicious arrangement of their respective forces,
different results might have been hoped; but how could Danican, in any
circumstances have competed with Buonaparte? The affair, in which
several hundred men were killed and wounded, was terminated as a general
action in about an hour; and the victorious troops of the Convention,
marching into the different sections, completed the dispersion and
disarming of their opponents, an operation which lasted till late at
night.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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