Produced by Al Haines [Transcriber's note: Page numbers in this book are indicated by numbers enclosed in curly braces, e.g. {99}. They have been located where page breaks occurred in the original book, in accordance with Project Gutenberg's FAQ-V-99. This has been done only in the book's main chapters (I-XVII). For its Preface and its Index, page numbers have been placed only at the start of each of those two sections.] [Frontispiece: 1. Voltaire. 2. Marie Antoinette on her way to the guillotine. 3. Fouquier-Tinville. 4. Carrier. 5. Danton before the Tribunal Revolutionnaire.] The French Revolution _A SHORT HISTORY_ _By_ R. M. Johnston M.A., CANTAB. _Assistant Professor of History in Harvard University_ NEW YORK HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY 1910. COPYRIGHT, 1909 BY HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY Published, May, 1909 Second Printing, January, 1910 TO Rayner Neate IN MEMORY OF OLD PEMBROKE DAYS {v} PREFACE The object of this book is similar to that with which, a few years ago, I wrote a short biography of Napoleon. The main outlines of the Revolution, the proportion and relation of things, tend to become obscured under the accumulation of historical detail that is now proceeding. This is an attempt, therefore, to disentangle from the mass of details the shape, the movement, the significance of this great historical cataclysm. To keep the outline clear I have deliberately avoided mentioning the names of many subordinate actors; thinking that if nothing essential was connected with them the mention of their names would only tend to confuse matters. Similarly with incidents, I have omitted a few, such as the troubles at Avignon, and changed the emphasis on others, judging freely their importance and not following the footsteps of my predecessors, as in the case of the capture of the Bastille, the importance of which was vastly exaggerated by early writers on the subject. The end of the Revolution I place at Brumaire,--as good a date as any, though like all others, open to criticism. The present narrative, however, will be found to merge into that of my _Napoleon_, which forms its natural continuation after that date. CAMBRIDGE, MASS., Feb., 1909. CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE