XXIII.

1797.

103. Mign, ii. 432.

tion of the

trious citi

zens of

France.

CHAP history of the religious wars in France. At the same time the press was subjected to the censorship of the police; while the punishment of exiled priests found Lac. xiv. in the territory of France, was extended to transportation to Guiana; a penalty worse than death itself.' From the multitude of their captives, the DirecTransporta- tory at first selected fifteen, upon whom the full rimost illus- gour of transportation should be inflicted. These were, Barthelemy, Pichegru and Willot, Rovere, Aubry, Bourdon de L'Oise, Murinais, De la Rue, Ramel, Dossonville, Troncon - Ducondray, BarbeMarbois, Lafond-Ladebat, (though the three last were sincere Republicans,) Brottier, and Laville Heurnois; their number was augmented to sixteen by the devotion of Letellier, servant of Barthelemy, who insisted upon following his master. Carnot was only saved from the same fate, by having escaped to Geneva. "In the Directory," says he, "I had contributed to save the Republic from many dangers ; the proscription of the 18th Fructidor was my reward. I knew well that Republics were ungrateful; but I did not know till I learned it from my own experi212. Lav. ence that Republicans were so much so as they pro

* Carnot's

Memoirs,

14, 70,

the exiles.

The transported victims were conveyed, amidst Cruel fate of the execrations of the Jacobin mob, to Rochefort, from whence they were sent to Guiana. Before embarking, they received a touching proof of sympathy in the gift of 80,000 francs, by the widow of an illustrious scientific character, who had been one of the earliest victims of the Revolution. On the road they were lodged in the jails as common felons. During the voyage they underwent every species of horror; cooped up in the hold of a small vessel, under a tropical sun, they experienced all the suffer

XXIII.

1797.

ings of a slave ship. No sooner were they landed, CHAP. than they were almost all seized with the fevers of the climate, and owed their lives to the heroic devotion of the Sisters of Charity, who, on that pestilential shore, exercised the never-failing beneficence of their religion. Murinais, one of the Council of the Ancients, died shortly after arriving at the place of their settlement at Sinimari. Troncon-Ducondray pronounced a funeral oration over his remains, which his fellow-exiles interred with their own hands, from the words, "By the waters of Babylon we sat down and wept." Soon after, the eloquent panegyrist himself expired. He calmly breathed his last, rejoicing on that distant shore that he had been faithful in his duty to the royal family. "It is nothing new to me," said he, "to see suffering, and learn how it can be borne. I have seen the Queen at the Conciergerie." The hardships of the life to which they were there subjected, the diseases of that pestilential climate, and the heats of a tropical sun, speedily proved fatal to the greater number of the unhappy exiles. Pichegru survived the dangers, and was placed in a hut adjoining that of Billaud Varrenes and Collot D'Herbois, whom, after the fall of Robespierre, he had arrested by orders of the Convention; a singular instance of the instability of fortune amidst revolutionary changes.' Th. ix. 306Pichegru, Willot, Barthelemy, Aubry, Ramel, and Dossonville, with the faithful Letellier, their volun- Escape of tary companion in exile, contrived to make their es- from Guicape; and after undergoing extreme hardships, and ana. traversing almost impervious forests, succeeded in reaching the beach, from whence they were conveyed to Surinam in an open canoe. Aubry and Letellier perished, but the remainder reached England in safety. The Abbé Brottier, Bourdon de L'Oise, and Rovere, both illustrious from their services on

1

Lac. xiv. 118, 121.

104, 105,

Pichegru

XXIII.

1797.

CHAP. the 9th Thermidor, sunk under their sufferings at Sinimari. The wife of the latter, a young and beautiful woman, who had signalized herself like Madame Tallien by her generous efforts at the fall of Robespierre, in behalf of humanity solicited and obtained from the Directory, permission to join her husband in exile; but before she landed on that pestilential region, he had breathed his last. Several hundreds of the clergy, victims of their fidelity to the faith of their fathers, arrived in these regions of death, but they almost all perished within a few months after their landing, exhibiting the constancy of martyrs on that distant shore; while the hymns of the new worship were sung in France by crowds of abandoned women, and the satellites of Jacobin ferocity. The strong minds and robust frames of Barbe-Marbois, and Lafond-Ladebat, alone survived the sufferings of two years; and these, with eight of the transported priests, were all who were 1 Lac. xiv. recalled to France by the humane interposition of Th. ix. 306. Napoleon when he assumed the reins of power.1

121, 126.

Meanwhile the Directory pursued with vigour Vigorous despotic measures in France. A large proportion measures of of the Judges in the Supreme Courts were dismissthe Direc- ed; the institution of juries abolished; and a new

and despotic

tory.

and more rigorous law provided for the banishment of the nobles and priests. It was proposed that those who disobeyed or evaded its enactment, should become liable to transportation to Guiana; the wives and daughters of the nobles who were married were not exempted from this enactment, unless they divorced their husbands, and married citizens of plebeian birth. But a more lenient law, which only subjected them to additional penalties if they remained, was adopted by the Councils. Two hundred thousand persons at once fell under the lash of these severe enactments;

XXIII.

1797.

their effect upon France was to the last degree disas- CHAP. trous. The miserable emigrants fled a second time in crowds from the country, of which they were beginning to taste the sweets; and society, which was reviving from the horrors of the Jacobin sway, was again prostrated under its fury. They carried with them to foreign lands that strong and inextinguishable hatred at Republican cruelty which their own wrongs had excited, and mingling in society every where, both on the continent and in the British Isles, counteracted in the most powerful manner the enthusiasm in favour of democratic principles, and contributed not a little to the formation of that powerful league which ultimately led to their overthrow. Finally, 1 D'Abr. iii. the Councils openly avowed a national bankruptcy; 324. De they cut off for ever two-thirds of the national debt 187. Lac. of France; closing thus a sanguinary revolution by 107. Hard. the extinction of freedom, the banishment of virtue, iv. 523, and the violation of public faith.'

1

Staël, ii.

xiv. 105,

524. Th.

ix. 321.

previously

with Napo

The Revolution of the 18th Fructidor had been concerted between Napoleon and Barras long before This revolu it took place; the former was the real author of tion was this catastrophe, and this is admitted even by his concerted warmest admirers. Augereau informed him, a month leon. before, that he had opened to the Directory the 'D'Abr. ii. designs of the revolutionary party; that he had been named Governor of Paris; and that the dismissal of all the civil and military authorities was fixed. Lavalette made him acquainted daily with the pro- See the gress of the intrigue in the capital. The former was sent by him to carry it into execution.* He was 234, 263.

* On the 24th June, 1797, the majority of the Directory wrote to Napoleon, unknown to Barthelemy and Carnot:-" We have received, citizen-general, with extreme satisfaction the marked proofs of devotion to the cause of freedom which you have recently given. You may rely

148.

3

letters in

Bour. i.

CHAP. accordingly transported with joy when he received intelligence of the success of the enterprise. But

XXIII.

1797.

6

on the most entire reciprocity on our parts. We accept with pleasure the offers you have made to fly to the support of the Republic." On the 22d July, Lavalette wrote to Napoleon, "This morning I have seen Barras. He appeared strongly excited at what has passed. He made no attempt to conceal the division in the Directory. • We shall hold firm,' said he to me, and if we are denounced by the Councils, then we shall mount on horseback.' He frequently repeated that, in their present crisis, money would be of incalculable importance. I made to him your proposition, which he accepted with transport." Barras, on his part, on the 23d July, wrote to Napoleon,-" No delay. Consider well, that it is by the aid of money alone that I can accomplish your generous intentions." Lavalette wrote on the same day to Napoleon, "Your proposition has been brought on the tapis between Barras, Rewbell, and Reveillere. All are agreed that without money we cannot surmount the crisis. They confidently hope that you will send large sums." On the 28th July, Lavalette again wrote to him, "The minority of the Directory still cling to hopes of an accommodation; the majority will perish rather than make any farther concessions. It sees clearly the abyss which is opening beneath its feet. Such, however, is the fatal destiny of Carnot, or the weakness of his character, that he has now become one of the pillars of the monarchical party, as he was of the Jacobins. He wishes to temporize." On the 3d August, Every thing here remains in the same state: Great preparations for an attack by the Council of Five Hundred; corresponding measures of defence by the Directory. Barras says openly, I am only waiting for the decree of accusation to mount on horseback, and speedily their heads will roll in the gutter."" On the 16th August, Lavalette wrote to Napoleon in these remarkable words: "At last I have torn away the veil this morning from the Directory. Only attend to what Barras told me yesterday evening. The subject was the negotiations in Italy. Carnot pretended that Napoleon was in too advantageous a situation when he signed the preliminaries, as not to be obliged to agree to conditions by which he could not abide in the end. Barras defended Bonaparte, and said to Carnot: You are nothing but a vile miscreant; you have sold the Republic, and you wish to murder those who defend it, infamous scoundrel!' Carnot answered, with an embarrassed air-'I despise your insinuations, but one day I shall answer them.""

Augereau wrote on the 12th August to Napoleon :-" Things remain much in the same state; the Clichians have resumed their vacillating and uncertain policy; they do not count so much as heretofore on Carnot, and openly complain of the weakness of Pichegru. The agitation of these gentlemen is extreme; for my part, I observe them, and keep incessantly stimulating the Directory, for the decisive moment has evi