IV. 1789. CHAP. he had promised. But Besenval had himself received no orders from the Duc de Broglie that day, though three successive couriers had been sent soliciting them: his previous orders were, not to fire on the people. The disposition of his troops was more than doubtful; and he Besenval, had found that acting with energy at Réveillon's only Lab.iii. 214, brought him into obloquy with the court. In these circumstances, after remaining for some hours a prey to the p.90. Deux most cruel irresolution, he took the determination of retiring with his whole troops-which he did, first to Sèvres, and before night to Versailles.1 ii. 366, 367. 215. Moniteur, 21st July 1789, Amis, i. 333, 334. 104. is forced to capitulate. Deserted thus in his last extremity by the external aid De Launay on which he had calculated, with a garrison of eighty wavering French, and only thirty Swiss on whom he could rely, in the midst of fifty thousand insurgents and two thousand French Guards, the brave de Launay took the only resolution which a high sense of military honour permitted he resolved to perish rather than submit. Taking a lighted match from one of the gunners on the ramparts, he rushed towards the magazine, which contained two hundred and fifty barrels of powder, with the design of blowing the whole fortress into the air; but he was seized and forcibly withheld by the soldiers. With piteous entreaties he besought these men to give him one barrel of powder; but they sternly repelled him with the bayonet at his breast. "Let us then," said he, "at least, reascend the towers; and since we must die, let us die with arms in our hands, bury ourselves under the ruins of the Bastille, and render our death fatal to our implacable enemies." But the French soldiers, crowding round him, all declared that they would no longer fight against their fellow-citizens, and that they insisted on a capitulation. "Well then," said de Launay at last, "beat a parley, hoist a white flag, and see if you can obtain a promise that you shall not be massacred." Upon this M. de Flue, a Swiss ensign, wrote on a piece of paper these words: "We have twenty thousand barrels of powder; we will blow 1 IV. 1789. 234 July 1789. p. 94. 216. De Moniteur, P up the Bastille and all the adjacent quarter of Paris if CHAP. you do not agree to a capitulation, and guarantee our lives." With some difficulty one of the insurgents, named Maillaird, who will again appear in the bloodiest days of the Revolution, got possession of this writing, which was pushed on the end of a pike over the drawbridge, and being brought to Elie and Hullin, officers of the Gardes Françaises, who commanded the assailants, they exclaimed "On the honour of French soldiers, no injury Agay, 74. shall be done to you." Upon this assurance, de Launay i. 333, 337. lowered the drawbridge leading to the inner tower, and the infuriated multitude instantly rushed in.1 tails sur la Bastile, par le Comte Deux Amis, 105. of the ca and mas sacre of soners. A bloody and treacherous revenge dishonoured the first triumph of the Revolution. The garrison had capi- Violation tulated on a solemn guarantee of their lives: a decisive pitulation, success, which gave them the entire command of Paris, had been gained, with the loss of only fifty killed and some priseventy-three wounded: every thing called for and enjoined humanity in the moment of victory. The feeble garrison, on the faith of the capitulation, laid down their arms in the inner court in two ranks; the officers of the Gardes Françaises, who had really gained the success, in token of the treaty, shook the officers of the garrison by the hand. But nothing could restrain the bloodthirsty passions of the people. Infuriated by the sight of their comrades slain or wounded by the fire of musketry which had issued from the walls, they surrounded the prisoners, overwhelmed them with maledictions and indignities, and demanded, with loud yells, that they should be instantly put to death. The Gardes Françaises, who exerted Amis,i.337, themselves to the utmost to restrain their fury, were . 218,219. unable to save the officers from destruction. Béquart him- 23 July self, who had held the arm of de Launay when he attempted 1789, p. 96. to blow up the fortress, and thus saved all their lives, was Crimes de seized with frantic cries, his right hand cut off, and he 118, 119. himself, with another grenadier named Asselin, hanged Moll. i. 337. on a lamp-post near the gate.2 Many of the Invalids and 2 Deux 339. Lab. Prudhom. la Rév. iii. Bert. de IV. 1789. 106. Delaunay and De the Provost Swiss were despatched on the spot. In a few minutes the whole rooms of the Bastille were ransacked and pillaged, the furniture thrown out of the windows and burnt. De Launay and Major de Losme, the second in comMassacre of mand, were conducted by Hullin and Elie to the Place de Grève. "Is this the capitulation you promised us?" Losme, and said the former, as the mob seized him, in spite of the Flesselles. herculean strength of Hullin, who strove to protect them, and observe the capitulation, which he bore aloft on the point of his sword. Despite all his efforts, these two unfortunate men were captured by the populace on the steps of the Hotel de Ville. De Launay was instantly hanged upon the lamp-post; his head cut off, and borne about with Béquart's hand aloft on pikes, amidst shouts of triumph. De Losme was the next victim. In vain the Marquis de Belport, who, during five years, had experienced his kindness when a prisoner in the Bastille, ran after the crowd, exclaiming, "Hold, for God's sake! you are going to massacre the best of men- during five years he was my father in the Bastille." "Young man," said the generous De Losme, "retire-you will destroy yourself without saving me." But the Marquis de Belport was not to be outdone in this noble strife; and still following the crowd, exclaiming, "I will defend him to the last drop of my blood," he wrested a musket from one of the mob, with which, with almost frantic courage, he strove to deliver his benefactor. It was all in vain. Surrounded by multitudes, shot through the neck, and pierced with bayonets, he fell senseless on the steps of the Hotel de Ville; while De Losme was murdered near the Arcade St Jean, and his head put on a pike, which was paraded amidst fearful yells through the streets. Miray and Persan, officers of the Invalids who had defended the Bastille, were in like manner murdered, the one in the Rue des Tournelles, and the other at the Port-au-Blé, and their mangled remains, yet streaming with blood, borne in triumph through every quarter of the city. M. de IV. 1789. 1 Deux 349. Lab. Moniteur, 234 July a Montjoie, 1789, p. 96. leans, ii. 88. Bert. de Moll. i. Flesselles, the provost of the merchants, soon after CHAP. perished. He had for some days been obnoxious to the mob, who suspected him of not being cordial in the cause of the insurrection, though he had joined in it, and was chairman of the committee in the Hôtel de Ville. Finding himself surrounded by distrust and apprehension after the Bastille was taken, he rose calmly and said, "I see Amis,i. 337, I am suspected by my fellow-citizens; let us go to the iii. 223,224. Palais Royal, and there I will justify myself." He rose accordingly, and was proceeding thither, surrounded by furious multitude, when a young goldsmith shot him from Consp.d'Orbehind through the head, exclaiming, "Traitor, you shall go no farther!" Flesselles fell dead, and the murder 340, 342. excited neither pity nor indignation among the crowd.1* In the midst of such hideous cruelty, it is consolatory to have one redeeming trait to recount, which proves that, The rest of in some breasts at least, the generous feelings were not and Swiss wholly extinct, and which effaces part of the disgrace are saved by which must for ever attach to the French Guards, for the Guards. treacherous part they took in the revolt that overturned the throne. When the privates of the Invalids and Swiss, who had capitulated in the Bastille, were brought to the Hôtel de Ville, the populace loudly demanded their blood, and insisted they should instantly be strung up in the streets to the lamps. + Such was the fury of the mob, that there seemed not a chance of their escape; and preparations were already making for carrying the popular mandate into execution, when the French Guards, roused * To extenuate this atrocity, it was maintained by the Republicans, that there had been found in the pocket of de Launay a note from M. de Flesselles, in which he said, "I amuse the Parisians with cockades and promises: hold out till the evening, and you will be reinforced." This is now proved to be a falsehood. The pretended letter was never produced, though the above alleged extract was inserted in the Moniteur; and Bailly himself "admitted to me," says Bertrand de Molleville, "when he quitted the mayoralty, that he had never seen that letter, and that it would be impossible to produce any one who had."-See Moniteur, 27th July 1789; and BERTRAND DE MOLLEVILLE, Histoire de la Révolution, i. 342. Those who have visited Paris will require no explanation of this cry, (à la lanterne!) so common in the Revolution, or the ready means thus VOL. I. 2 M 107. the Invalids IV. 1789. CHAP. to better feelings by the prospect of destruction to their ancient comrades in arms, clustered around them, and asked, as the only recompense to themselves for the share they had taken in the capture of the Bastille, that pardon should be extended to the prisoners. Passing from one extreme to another, the multitude were strongly moved by the appeal. "Grace! grace!" resounded on all sides ; and M. Marqué, sergeant of grenadiers in the Gardes Françaises, taking advantage of the enthusiasm, marched off twenty-two Invalids and eleven Swiss, surrounded by a detachment of the Guards, who succeeded in conveying them in safety to the barracks, and rescuing them from the dreadful fate which threatened them. At the same time M. de Montbarrey, formerly minister of the marine, who had been torn from his fainting wife, was brought in, almost suffocated by the throng pressing round him and clamouring for his head; while twenty bayonets were held to the breast of M. de la Salle, a popular leader, Amis,i.345, who was striving to protect him. At length, by a prode Moll. i. digious exertion of strength, M. de la Salle extricated himself, and tore M. de Montbarrey from the gripe of his bloodthirsty assassins; the multitude, admiring his prowess, applauded loudly, and both escaped.1 1 Deux 348. Bert. 335, 336. Moniteur, 23d July 1789. 108. the Bastille. Seven prisoners only were found in the Bastille when it Interior of fell into the hands of the insurgents-to such a degree had the mild government of Louis XVI. thinned that gloomy abode of the victims of former tyranny. They were all imprisoned on charges of forgery, chiefly for falsifying letters of exchange; none were implicated in afforded of despatching at once any number of persons who happened to be obnoxious to the populace. To those who have not, it is right to observe, that the lamps of Paris then, as in general now, were not, as in most other towns, affixed to the top of iron pillars placed on the sides of the pavement, but suspended directly over the middle of the street by cords, which were let down, for the purpose of the lamps being lighted, from pulleys affixed to the houses on either side; so that nothing was easier than to lower the lamp till some unhappy wretch had it directly above his head, and then attaching a cord to it, and fastening it round his neck, hoist him up and hang him in a few seconds over the heads of the multitude, who commanded and applauded the execution.-Personal Observation. |