France -- History -- Louis XVI, 1774-1793; France -- History -- Revolution, 1789-1799
This is what they call the First Emigration; determined on, as
appears, in full Court-conclave; his Majesty assisting; prompt
he, for his share of it, to follow any counsel whatsoever. “Three
Sons of France, and four Princes of the blood of Saint Louis,”
says Weber, “could not more effectually humble the Burghers of
Paris than by appearing to withdraw in fear of their life.” Alas,
the Burghers of Paris bear it with unexpected Stoicism! The Man
d’Artois indeed is gone; but has he carried, for example, the
Land D’Artois with him? Not even Bagatelle the Country-house
(which shall be useful as a Tavern); hardly the four-valet
Breeches, leaving the Breeches-maker!—As for old Foulon, one
learns that he is dead; at least a “sumptuous funeral” is going
on; the undertakers honouring him, if no other will. Intendant
Berthier, his son-in-law, is still living; lurking: he joined
Besenval, on that Eumenides’ Sunday; appearing to treat it with
levity; and is now fled no man knows whither.
The Emigration is not gone many miles, Prince Condé hardly across
the Oise, when his Majesty, according to arrangement, for the
Emigration also thought it might do good,—undertakes a rather
daring enterprise: that of visiting Paris in person. With a
Hundred Members of Assembly; with small or no military escort,
which indeed he dismissed at the Bridge of Sèvres, poor Louis
sets out; leaving a desolate Palace; a Queen weeping, the
Present, the Past, and the Future all so unfriendly for her.
At the Barrier of Passy, Mayor Bailly, in grand gala, presents
him with the keys; harangues him, in Academic style; mentions
that it is a great day; that in Henri Quatre’s case, the King had
to make conquest of his People, but in this happier case, the
People makes conquest of its King (_a conquis son Roi_). The
King, so happily conquered, drives forward, slowly, through a
steel people, all silent, or shouting only _Vive la Nation;_ is
harangued at the Townhall, by Moreau of the three-thousand
orders, by King’s Procureur M. Ethys de Corny, by Lally
Tollendal, and others; knows not what to think of it, or say of
it; learns that he is “Restorer of French Liberty,”—as a Statue
of him, to be raised on the site of the Bastille, shall testify
to all men. Finally, he is shewn at the Balcony, with a Tricolor
cockade in his hat; is greeted now, with vehement acclamation,
from Square and Street, from all windows and roofs:—and so drives
home again amid glad mingled and, as it were, intermarried
shouts, of _Vive le Roi_ and _Vive la Nation;_ wearied but safe.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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