CHAP. 1789. 94. Vigorous of the Re July 13. The Revolutionists acted very differently in their preparations. At three on the morning of the 13th, a hideous mob, armed with clubs, sticks, and pikes, surrounded the convent Saint Lazare, demanding bread. The preparations trembling inmates speedily emptied their stores, and the volutionists. mob, become furious when the distribution ceased, broke into the building, pillaged it from top to bottom, and were only prevented from burning it by the arrival of a company of the guards. Rapidly they proceeded to the Garde Meuble, containing a considerable store of arms, and many relics of inestimable value belonging to the crown: the gates were forced open, and the whole weapons seized and distributed among the people. The lance of Dunois, the sword of Henry IV., became the prey of the lowest of the populace, and were carried off in triumph. At the same time, the great prison of La Force was besieged, the gates forced, and the whole prisoners set at liberty, who instantly proceeded to the Conciergerie, where five hundred of the most abandoned felons, all in a state of mutiny, were making strenuous efforts for their liberation. A few only of them, however, were selected by the popular liberators. These bands, thus reinforced, forthwith began to traverse the streets, vociferating loudly, and calling on all true Frenchmen to join the arms of freedom. Such was the tumult, so loud did the clamour soon become, that hardly was the dismal clang of the tocsin audible from sixty churches, which, on the signal of a standard hoisted from the Hotel de Ville, all began to ring at once. No sooner, however, were these sounds of alarm heard above the din, than the whole citizens flew into the streets; in the twinkling of an eye posts were established, gunsmiths' shops pillaged, chaussées unpaved, waggons overturned, barricades erected, and every preparation made for a vigorous defence. "Arms! arms!" was the universal cry.1 1 Deux Amis, i. 281, 285. Hist. Parl.. ii. 96, 97. Lab. iii. 197, 198. Quesnard, Tableau Hist. de la Rev. i. 44. Meanwhile the leaders of the Revolution were taking measures, with unexampled energy, to organise and turn IV. 1789. 95. nisation of Munici Paris, and Flag. to the best account this extraordinary effervescence. The CHAP. Hotel de Ville, where a permanent committee of the electors had been established since the 4th July, presented a central point of direction-the sixty electoral First orgahalls for the like number of districts, so many rallying- the National points where their orders might be received, and commu- Guard, nicated to the obedient citizens. Night and day these pality of points of rendezvous were thronged by crowds loudly Tricolor demanding arms; and the electors soon assumed and received the supreme direction of affairs. A permanent committee, which sat without intermission at the Hotel de Ville, rapidly acquired the entire government of the insurrection, and decreed the immediate raising of a voluntary force in Paris of forty-eight thousand men. Each of the electoral districts was to furnish a battalion eight hundred strong: four battalions formed a legion, which took its name from the districts from which they were drawn. The committee named the officers of the Etat-major; but the nomination of the officers of battalions was left to the privates. Government was neither consulted, nor had it the slightest share, in the appointment or organisation of this formidable force. It of course fell into the hands of the most ardent and least scrupulous of the popular party.* It was at first named the Parisian Militia; and M. de La Salle D'Offremont, director of the arsenal, a well-known liberal, was invited to take the command. The device chosen was the red and blue ribbon, the colours of the city, and white, to mark the intimate union which should subsist between it and the army. These colours were immediately adopted by the National Assembly, and became the well-known standard of the Revolution.1 Such was the origin of the ii. 97, 98. MUNICIPALITY OF PARIS, THE NATIONAL GUARD, AND Moll. i. 308. THE TRICOLOR FLAG, the three most powerful springs of 201. Deux the Revolution, and of the last of which Lafayette nearly 301. * "Centurionum ordines legionibus offerebat: eo suffragio turbidissimus quisque delecti; nec miles in arbitrio ducum, sed duces militari violentia trahebantur."-TACITUS, Hist. iii. 49. 1 Hist. Parl. Bert. de Lab.iii. 200, Amis, i.300, CHAP. predicted the actual destiny, when he said it would make the tour of the globe. IV. 1789. 96. Rapid formation of the revolutionary force. Unbounded was the enthusiasm which the formation of this voluntary force occasioned in men of all ranks and ages. From the aged veteran who could hardly march, to the youthful stripling who with difficulty bore the weight of arms, all pressed to the various rallying-points to offer their services. It was not merely the democratic and the revolutionary who came forward; the most respectable citizens were the first to tender their services : a sense of common danger, the dread of impending calamities, united every one. Government appeared to have abdicated its functions; the law was in abeyance; the constituted authorities had disappeared; society seemed resolved into its pristine elements; and self-preservation, not less than patriotic duty, called on all to take common measures alike for their own and for the general protection. Money and arms, however, were wanting; but such was the general enthusiasm that this deficiency was not long experienced. The treasure of the Hotel de Ville, amounting to three millions of francs, (£120,000,) presented an immediate resource, which was instantly rendered available. Orders for the manufacture of muskets were given to all the gunsmiths; their whole disposable arms instantly pur286. Lab. chased. Every anvil rang with the making of pikes, of Toul. i. 75. which it was calculated fifty thousand would be ready in Lac. vii. 79, thirty-six hours. Scythes were affixed to the end of poles, rails beat out into swords, lead melted down into balls, and daggers or hatchets affixed to sticks. Never, in modern Europe, had such sudden and energetic efforts been made to arm the multitude.1 1 Deux Amis,i. 284, iii. 202, 203. 82. Th. i. 90, 91. Marm. ii. 357, 359. Hist. Parl. ii. 83. But these methods were not suited to the exigences of the moment, and could not at once produce a sufficient supply of arms for the vast population, numbering at least a hundred thousand men, who besieged the different electoral halls to receive them. The great arsenal of the Invalides presented an immediate resource, and the known IV. 1789. disposition of the troops stationed in the Champ de Mars, CHAP. in its neighbourhood, rendered it all but certain that they would make no resistance to the arms it contained being seized. Instantly the cry arose, "Allons aux Invalides!" 14th July. a prodigious crowd rolled in that direction, headed by the Procureur du Roi, Ethys de Corny, who, by order of the central committee at the Hotel de Ville, issued from its halls to put himself at its head, and speedily the insurgents surrounded the Hotel des Invalides. M. de Sombreuil, its governor, an old man of eighty years of age, seeing the multitude headed by so high a functionary and several persons of respectability, and being well aware that the invalids and gunners in his establishment would oppose no sort of resistance to the people, advanced at the head of his staff, caused the gates to be opened, and permitted the leaders of the insurgents to enter. They asked for arms to put into the hands of the people, and insisted for leave to search the building for that purpose. Sombreuil, destitute of the means of resistance, replied that he was not at liberty to comply with such a demand, but that he had sent a courier to Versailles for instructions, and the answer would determine his conduct. But the impatience of the people could brook no delay. While the conference was yet going on, a furious multitude of above forty thousand insisted on being instantly led to the assault, and, in almost frantic impatience, had already begun, with hideous yells, to descend into the ditches, and escalade the parapets. Ten thousand men were encamped in the Champ de Mars, in the close vicinity, under Baron Besenval; but that officer, intimidated by the cold reception he had received after his spirited suppression of the revolt at Réveillon's, and his orders not to fire on the people in this instance, did not venture to act; and the invalids in the garrison of the Invalides refused to point their guns on the people,* and even threatened to hang the *"Loin de s'opposer à l'invasion, les soldats de l'Hôtel des Invalides les favorisèrent, et peu s'en fallut que le gouverneur, à qui ces gens-là n'avaient pas un reproche à faire, ne fût pendu par eux à la grille."-BESENVAL, ii. 366. IV. 1789. ii. 100, 102. Prudhom. Rév. de CHAP. governor if he persisted in his resistance. The regiment of Chateauvieux, though raised in Switzerland, declared it would never fire on the people; and many others, it was well known, shared the same determination. Placed thus 1 Hist. Parl. between a timorous court and an insurgent soldiery, Besenval could not hazard any decisive step, and left the Paris, 17th Invalides to its fate. In this extremity, Sombreuil conp. 10. Hum- ceived he had no alternative but to submit ; the gates bert, Jourwere opened, and instantly a prodigious crowd rushed in, Deux Amis, and got possession of the whole arsenal in the building. Besenval, Twenty pieces of cannon, and eight-and-twenty thousand Moniteur, muskets and bayonets, disappeared in the twinkling of an 1789, p. 90. eye, and a large part of the Parisian populace speedily found themselves armed in the best manner.1 July 1789, nal, 7, 8. i. 302, 307. ii. 364, 366. July 20, 21, 98. Bastile. This great success was immediately improved by the It is deter- insurgents. Pickets were placed at all the important posts mined to around Paris, which intercepted the communication with Versailles, and got possession of the whole avenues to the capital. A large body, armed with fifteen guns, took post opposite the camp in the Champ de Mars; but it soon appeared, from the conduct of the troops, that the insurgents had more to hope than to fear from their operations. On one of the intercepted courtiers from Versailles was found an order addressed to de Launay, the governor of the BASTILLE, enjoining him to hold out to the last extremity. This order was immediately carried to the Hotel de Ville; and it was determined to proceed to the attack of that fortress before a duplicate of the instructions could be received by its governor. The strength of this celebrated fortress which had been built in the fourteenth century between Paris and the faubourg St Antoine, for the purpose of coercing both its deep ditches, massy walls, huge drawbridges, and lofty towers, armed with fifteen pieces of heavy artillery, seemed to defy an assault from * “Le régiment Suisse de Chateauvieux, campé au Champ de Mars, déclarait que jamais il ne tirerait sur le peuple. Son refus evidemment paralysa Besenval, laissa Paris libre, et maître de marcher sur la Bastille."-MICHELET, Histoire de la Révolution, ii. 270. |