his eye of its fre, and given his person an un-| the wolves had half devoured, and which the
healthy corpulence. He wore the dress in which clothes and papers discovered with them showed
the spectators recollected to have seen him habit- to be the remains of Buzot and Petion. M. de
ually dressed in the convention ; but the coat, too Lamartine has omitted the date of their death,
small for his swollen limbs, had burst in the seams, not the least painful circumstance connected with
and completed the picture of physical as well as it. That date was in July, 1794, only about three
political decay. Neither eloquence nor innocence weeks before the fall of Robespierre. Had they
could avail with judges who regarded the whole contrived to baffle their pursuers for that brief
public life of the accused as one crime. But the period, they would have been saved.
government took care to allow no room for either We have thus followed M. de Lamartine
pity or justice. A decree closed the proceedings, through his narrative ; endeavoring to convey to
without permitting the prisoners to make their de- our readers the story, as he tells it, of the period
fence. They were declared guilty, and sentenced of the revolution which coincides with that of
to death.

the existence of the party which forms the ostenThe famous supper which the prisoners took sible subject of his work. This important epoch together that night is minutely described ; and M. occupies altogether six of the eight volumes of de Lamartine has apparently eonverted this part M. de Lamartine's history: we regret that the of his history into a romance, for the purpose of length of our review of it precludes us following clothing in his own eloquent language the senti- him through the remaining two, which continue ments said to have been expressed on that occa- the narrative to the fall of Robespierre, and are, sion. Then follows the well-known story of the perhaps, the most interesting part of the work. death of the Girondins, as they went to the scaf- The different scenes of the Reign of Terror are fold, and successively ascended it, singing the successfully delineated with wonderful power. “ Marseillaise" in chorus, till the knife had extin- The mass of bloodshed and misery—the batches guished the last voice that raised the hymn of of from 60 to as many as 150 victims that each liberty.

day fed the guillotiue at Paris--the courageous The at once heroic and truly womanly death of resistance of Lyons, and the atrocious butcheries Madame Roland followed in a few days. The which followed its subjugation--the cruelties of news of her death reached Roland in Normandy, Lebon at Arras, and the yet more appalling atrocand was the signal for his own fate. He left the ities perpetrated by Carrier at Nantes, are placed retreat in which he had found safety, and laying vividly before our eyes. Sometimes our attention himself down by the roadside put an end to himself. is directed to the characteristic particulars that Condorcet was concealed by some generous friends distinguished the death of the more remarkable in Paris until the following April. There, with individuals. Now it is Barnave who passes along his illusions unabated, he composed his work on dejected amid the pity of the people, of whom he the “ Perfectibility of the Human Race.” A was once the idol ; now Biron, rising from his bright sunny day proved too irresistible a tempta- wine and oysters to die gayly amid the applauses tion to the captive ; he quitted his hiding-place, of the mob ; now the wretched Du Barri, screamsallied out into the suburbs, and enjoyed once ing “ La vie ! La vie ! pour tous mes repentirs ;” more the air, and sunshine, and fields. His ap- now Bailly perishing with undaunted soul in pearance gave rise to suspicions; he was arrested, defiance of the outrages and blows of vindictive and found next morning dead, with the phial of ruffians ; now the venerable Malesherbes laying poison which he had swallowed still by his side. down his life with not unseemly gayety ; now the

A detailed account is given of the escape of saintly sister of the king exercising her charity Guadet, Salles, Louvet, Barbaroux, Buzot, and towards her fellow-sufferers in her last moments. Petion, after the rout of the Girondin forces in We sicken at the prodigality with which the life Normandy. Having, amid fearful perils and suf- of whole classes is taken away at once. One day ferings, reached Brest, they got a passage to the the cortége bears along twenty-seven merchante neighborhood of Bordeanx, where the friends of of Sedan ; on another, the sixty farmers-general Gaudet provided them with shelter. Eight months of the revenue ; and on another, forty-five magiswere passed by them, at first in an under-ground trates of Paris, together with thirty-three mem vault, and subsequently in the house of a cour- bers of the parliament of Toulouse.

One morn ageous lady. The search for them being then ing a long line of carts conveys all the nuns, renewed, they separated. Guadet and Salles young and old, of the Abbey of Montmartre. On were taken in the house of the former's father, another are seen a group of girls, of whom the carried to Bordeaux, and executed. Louvet was eldest was not above eighteen. They had all saved by his boldness in taking refuge in Paris been brought up from their native town of Verdun itself. The others lingered about their former to die for having danced at a ball given to the asylum for some weeks, and then endeavored to Prussians. make their way to the Pyrenees. Some peasants The most harrowing tale of all is, the destrucin a field heard the sound of a pistol, and found tion of the whole family of the beautiful Madame the half-dead body of the once handsome Barba- de Sainte-Amaranthe. In the last days of terror, roux. A few days after, in a forest at a little this family was sacrificed by the colleagues of distance, were found some mangled limbs, which Robespierre, in order to wound him by their de

20

CXCVI.

LIVING AGE.

VOL. XVI.

struction. They were involved in a pretended trial, as so much straining after theatrical effect. plot with Cecile Renault, who was accused of This is a grievous injustice to the most gallant attempting to murder him. Eight carts bore to and skilful fight for life made during the revoluthe scaffold sixty-two prisoners, all clad in the red tion. Danton differed from the other victims of shirt that denoted the crime of murder. Of this the Reign of Terror in this : that, even when number were the porter of the house where L'Ad- within the grasp of the revolutionary tribunal, miral had stabbed Collot d'Herbois, and the por- his deeply-rooted influence with the mob gave him ter's wife ; the crime alleged against them being a chance of escape and victory. He had somethat they were “both guilty of not having broken thing else to do than merely to fall with dignity. out into sufficient joy when the assassin was ar- He harangued, he bore down his judges by bis rested.” The last of this group was M. de Sar- loud voice and imperious gestures, with a view of tines, who had to wait three quarters of an hour exciting a movement in his favor. He was on on the scaffold, and see all whom he loved on the point of succeeding. A single friend to direct earth batchered before his eyes.

the actions of the sympathizing populace-a little A very touching narrative is given of the long less energy than that exhibited by the Committee sufferings of a man, whose name will excite no of Public Safety—would, by our author's own feelings of sympathy—Egalité, once Duke of account, have turned the scale in his favor. Orleans. M. de Lamartine has taken some pains As we have said, however, Robespierre is the to defend this unhappy prince against the accusa- hero of the work. His conduct and motives at tions with which his memory is loaded. It has every stage are developed with the greatest pains. been his hard fate to be taken for the hidden con- The least details of his personal appearance, his triver of all those popular movements, which the dress, his daily habits, have been collected with imagination of the vulgar loves to attribute to extraordinary care. The ogre of the revolution is some mysterious plotter. The more light that brought before us in all the simplicity of his private history throws on the events of the revolution, life. We enter into his garret at the joiner Duthe more are all of them accounted for by obvious play's, and do homage to that honest poverty which, and sufficient causes ; and the more insignificant once a necessity, continued to be his choice after does the part of the Duke of Orleans appear. the fortunes of France were at his disposal : we He was the victim of constant disfavor and sus- follow him from the stormy debates of the Jacobins picion ; and much of his hostility to the royal or the fearful labors of the Committee of Public family is to be ascribed rather to their fault than Safety to his modest supper with his host's family, his. His chief, if not only, crime was, the base when he talked with them of the events of the day, rather than cruel vote which he gave for the or read aloud from Rousseau or Racine. His only king's death, in the vain hope of saving his own other relaxation was his walk on the Champs life.

Elysées, with no companion but his mastiff, Brount. A singular anecdote is told of the Duc de Occasionally, when an opportunity was afforded Chartres, now the King of the French, which for a day's holiday, or when some great oratorical can hardly have been published without the war- effort required unusual thought, he would wander ranty of that high personage. Some business forth to the haunts of Rousseau, and pass whole having brought him from Dumouriez's army to hours of reverie amid the woods of Meudon, or Paris soon after the massacres of September, Ermenonville. Even he, too, had his hopes of Danton sent for him, and informed him that he had domestic happiness in a quiet future, when, after heard that he ventured in conversation to speak the completion of the revolution, he might be united too freely on that subject. He told him he was to Eleonore Duplay, and pass the obscure remain100 young to judge of such matters, and added : der of his life on his few paternal acres in the “For the future be silent. Return to the army; neighborhood of Arras. do your duty ; bụt do not unnecessarily expose It is impossible to rise from the perusal of M. your life. You have many years before you. de Lamartine's book without a somewhat changed France is not suited for a republic ; it has the opinion of Robespierre. There is no vindication habits, the, wants, and the weaknesses of a mon- of his acts. No attempt is made to mitigate our archy. After our storms, it will be brought back horror at the crimes of which he is reputed guilty; to that by its vices or its necessities. You will none to justify massacres on the plea of public be king! Adieu, young man. Remember the necessity or righteous zeal. M. de Lamartine's prediction of Danton.”

aim is to analyze the motives that actuated RobesThe fall of Danton is clearly detailed and ex- pierre, as well as determine what was really his plained. Throughout the whole course of the share in the atrocities which were perpetrated in history he stands out as (what M. de Lamartine his name. Perhaps he does this with some parcalls him) the great statesman of the revolution. tiality. He has conceived an ideal framework of He is the one who, in spite of his coarse manners, Robespierre's character, and fills it up by attributhis profligacy, and even his terrible crimes, most ing to him particular acts or intentions of clemency, powerfully excites our interest. M. de Lamartine, for which he has often little and sometimes no however, bears hard upon him in respect of his warranty. Still, on the whole, his explanation death. He treats all his memorable sayings and of this strange character is satisfactory. Historidoings, during the period of his imprisonment and cal truth, and a knowledge of human nature, gain by reducing the distorted and exaggerated traits tee of Public Safety, and was at direct variance of the monster into the features of a man actuated with the “ Comité de Sûreté Générale," and had by the ordinary passions of humanity, gifted with no communication with the public accuser—the many noble and even amiable qualities, and plunged two authorities by whom the trials and executions into eternal infamy by common human weaknesses, were, in fact, entirely regulated ; that he denounced tried in fearful times by most extraordinary emer- Tallien, Collot, Carrier, and especially Fouché, gencies.

for their abominable cruelties, which he described In order completely to understand M. de Lamar- as “persecutions of the patriots.” We are the tine's estimate of Robespierre, it would be neces- more perplexed to explain how it was that, with sary to read his book ; but the following passage despotic power in his hands, he permitted the horat the close of the fifth volume, seems to us to rors which he himself regarded as both mischievgive the best summary of the author's views on a ous and disgraceful. character which most of his readers will hitherto The explanation seems to be, that he did not in have seen painted only in the darkest colors :- truth possess the power which opinion ascribed to

" There was something of these three elements him. He could not in reality direct the governin the soul of the convention ; a purpose which was ment of which he was at the head. To undertrue and practically attainable; chimeras, which stand his position we must examine the powers vanished at the attempt to apply them; fits of rage, and defects of his mind. He was a logical and which sought to extort by torture the realization of systematic thinker, whose system led him into a an order of things not as yet in the nature of man. Holy hopes, vain Utopias, atrocious means—such

dreamy enthusiasm. His leading qualification for were the elements that composed the social politics public life was a singular power of public speakof this assembly, placed between two civilizations ing. In close, clear logic, in dexterous debating, 10 exterminate the one, and herald in the other. he surpassed every speaker of his day; while in Robespierre personified these tendencies more than lofty eloquence, some of his speeches were hardly any of his colleagues. His plans, religious in their surpassed by the greatest of his rivals. But, like purpose, chimerical in their details, became sangui- the Girondins, he could do no more than prove his nary when they came in collision with practical impossibility. A frenzy of ber lence seized the point and make his speech. With the details of Utopian; this frenzy of benevolence has the same public affairs he was utterly unable to grapple. effects as the frenzy of mischief. Robespierre held Thoroughly unpractical, he depended on others— to his chimeras as to truths. Had he been more first on Danton, afterwards on his colleagues in the enlightened, he would have been more patient. Committee of Public Safety—to deterniive hy what His anger arose from his delusions. He wished to be the constructor of a social regeneration; society Without being justly subject to the reputation of

steps their purposes should be carried into effect. resisted; he took the sword and thought it was per cowardice he was timid in action, or rather averse mitted to man to make himself the executioner of God. He communicated this spirit, half through to act at all. Had the great movements of the fanaticism, half through terror, to the Jacobins, to revolution waited for him to produce them, they the people, to the convention. Hence this contrast would never have taken place. He shrank from of an assembly resting one hand on the revolution assailing the monarchy after the adoption of the ary tribunal and the instrument of death, and with constitution of 1791, and had no desire to see a the other writing a constitution which recalled the pastoral republics of Plato or Telemachus," and republic substituted for it. He kept aloof from

So, breathed in every page, God, the people, justice, the 10th of August, and the 31st of May. and humanity. Never was so much blood shed on when at the head of the government, he had little truth. The task of history is to wash out these share in the actual organization of the heroic efforts stains, and not to reject social justice because a del- that saved France. In all cases he left action to uge of blond has been spilled over the doctrines of others. It was his good fortune that public opinliberty, of charity, and of reason."

ion tended the same way as his, so that the result The sincere fanaticism of Robespierre was the of its movement, in spite of his inaction, always mainspring of his virtues, his greatness, and his furthered his purposes. His voyage prospered crimes. One high, steady purpose, pursued at longer than that of most of his rivals, not from his every risk, inspired his integrity, his perseverance, own good sailing, but because his course happened and his cruelty. He was at the head of a govern- to lie with the breeze. His ambition was of a ment assailed by enemies on every side ; and he patient kind. He loved the applause of his heardeemed it his duty to uphold that government by ers; he took the power which came gradually to striking terror into his adversaries, and disarming him ; but he would not precipitate events by graspopposition. Like all fanatics, he hated his oppo- ing it. In his last days the prospect of a dictatornents because he thought that the enemies of his ship did not tempt him. Even the necessities of righteous cause must be bad men. Still there was self-defence could not induce him, on the 9th Therin the acts which he sanctioned a prodigality and midor, to ensure a favorable issue to the last brutality of cruelty needless for his purpose, fatal movement in his favor, by putting himself at its to his own views of policy, revolting to the sensi- head. His disposition was to look even then to tiveness and refinement of his character, We any but violent means for safety and success ; and know that such was his own feeling, that he wished he easily made up his mind to silent acquiescence to stay the system of terror; that, during the worst in the fate of which a gloomy foreboding had long period of it, he absented himself from the Commit- hung over him.

6

Such a man was, from his sincerity, his incor- therefore, will in all probability exercise so extenruptible character, his great parliamentary powers, sive an influence on the popular views which will the natural head of a republican government, but be generally entertained of it. not its real director and master. There can be That influence, no question, will be very much little doubt that he wished to restrain the excesses, diminished by the want, in M. de Lamartine, of of his colleagues ; but he literally knew not how other qualities which are required to complete the to set about it. He had not the virtne which was character of a historian. His work is wanting, exhibited in the conduct and the favorite device of not merely in accuracy and research, but in the Vergniaud—“ Potius mori quam fædari.” He indications of large, calm, and solid thought. would not peril himself and his cause by inflexibly While we think that the author does more than rejecting the use of atrocious means. He took the any preceding historian towards giving a reasonasystem of terror as part of the necessities of the ble explanation of the events of the revolution, and 'revolution ; and closed his eyes and ears to its while we generally agree in the justice of M. de excesses just as he closed his shutters in the Rue Lamartine's conclusions and sympathize with his St. Honoré, while the carts went by to the guil- feelings; we feel that he does not express those lotine. When, at last, events required the cessa- conclusions in the tone of a philosopher, who has tion of that system—when he had achieved the deeply meditated and thoroughly mastered his subfirst of his dreams, proclaimed the “Etre Suprême," )ject. His narrative exhibits constant marks of reëstablished religion as the basis of his republic, exaggeration. The subject, undoubtedly, has a when he was hoping to lay the foundation of a tendency to produce this fault. All the moral peaceful order of things, he faltered before his phenomena of the revolution were on a great better purposes, cast vainly about for the materials scale, the vicissitudes unusually rapid, the results and instruments of action, and allowed himself to vast and overwhelming, the character of men so be surprised and butchered by the most vulgar and tried by circumstances as to develop extraordinary sanguinary ruffians of the revolution. He paid the manifestations of intellect, of virtue, and of wickpenalty of his weakness by his death, and in leav- edness. But we cannot understand what heighting his name loaded with execration, for guilt ening or transforming powers the revolution could in which he had participated unwillingly, as well have possessed over female beauty : when we find, as for crimes which his own fanaticism had therefore, that hardly a woman appears on the prompted.

scene, or is even mentioned as the wife or daughIn thus attempting to make our readers ac- ter of some distinguished man, but her beauty is quainted with the general effect and character of represented as having been perfectly wonderful, we M. de Lamartine's work, we have not ventured to cannot but suspect that other pictures may be give any extracts from those more striking parts equally overcharged. The story of the daughters of his narrative, which best exhibit the brilliancy of M. Fernig, who served as soldiers in Dumouand clearness of his descriptive style. The real riez's army, bearing the fatigues, exposed to the merit of these large pictures cannot be estimated perils, and sharing in the glories of the brilliant from particular portions of them; and as they are campaigns of Valmy and Jemappe, is romantic the parts of the original work of which the effect enough in its simplest outline : M. de Lamartine depends the most on the author's mastery of makes it absolutely ridiculous by investing the language, they are precisely those to which it is young ladies with the physical strength and prowleast possible for a translation to do justice. The ess of Paladins. The same tendency to exaggerpictorial power of the narrative constitutes the dis- ation is exhibited in every matter in which numtinguishing merit of his history. M. de Lamar- bers are in question. There is throughout too tine has shown that 'he possesses in an eminent great a disposition to heighten the effect of the degree one, at least, of the first qualifications of a narrative by adopting the largest estimates hazarded great historian, namely, the gift of stamping on by cotemporary writers; and our belief in the the reader's mind a living impression both of great melancholy realities of the revolution is shaken transactions and of the men that bore a part in rather than confirmed, by somewhat incredible torthem. Far be it from us to derogate from the rents of blood and heaps of carcasses. merits of those who, by extensive research and We should be happy to think that what we correct analysis, ascertain the facts of history and have taken for indications of a want of sound and explain the connection of events. It is only by a sober thought, may be only the consequence of the long series of such inquiries and speculations that excessive rapidity with which the “ History of the the materials of history are duly matured and Girondins” has been written. It betokens, how. brought together. But they are not the histories ever, little wisdom in an author, who writes for from which mankind 'takes its impressions of the fame and not for bread, to have composed a great past. He who'would give the world its historical work on a great subject without giving himself beliefs, must bring to the task the gifts of the poet sufficient time for thought. Let us hope that M. as well as of the philosopher; must be able to de Lamartine will avoid this most deplorable fault depict incidents as in an epic, and make each char- in the “ History of the Constituent Assembly,” acter appear and act with dramatic distinctness and which he promises us. A gestation of nine years effect. No historian of the revolution has done is more essential to a history than even to a poem. this so strikingly as M. de Lamartine ; and none, We know not whether M. de Lamartine has in him

OF

the capacity of being a great historian, but he has in the so-called “complete editions” of his works so many of the highest qualifications, that there -whose strain of graceful levity and exaggerated will be few literary mistakes more deeply to be gallantry indicated a talent distinct from that to regretted than that he should be found to have which he owes a fame now daily diminishing; and sacrificed his chance of usefulness with posterity prepared the few whose notice they attracted for a to the vanity of astonishing his contemporaries by transition from 6rave didactics and inflated declamathe celerity of his execution and the brightness of tion to lively badinage and debonair narrative. The his colors.

masses knew little about the matter, and cared

less. Latin verses, complimentary discourses, and From Blackwood's Magazine.

funeral orations, dating from a century and a half FLÉCHIER'S CHRONICLE

back, and relating to persons and events great and CLERMONT AS

brilliant, it is true, but now seen dim and distant SIZES. *

through the long vista of years, are not the class Many of our readers, unacquainted with his of literature to compel much attention in this pracwritings, will remember the name of the gentle tical and progressive age. As a constructor of prelate and renowned rhetorician who delivered the French prose, Fléchier is unquestionably entitled funeral oration of the great Turenne, accomplish to honorable mention. If his claims to originality ing the mournful but glorious task with such elo- of genius were small, he at least was an elegant quence and grace that the composition constitutes rhetorician and a delicate and polished writer, to his chief claim to the admiration of posterity. We whom the French language is under obligations. should say, perhaps, that it did constitute his prin- As a man of letters, he formed an important link cipal hold upon the world's memory, previously to between the school of Louis XIH. and that of the the year 1844, date of exhumation of a work likely Grand Monarque ; he was one of the first to apto command readers longer than his Oraisons Fu- preciate grace of diction, and to attempt the elevanébres, or, than any other portion of the ten serious tion and correction of a spurious style. His florid volumes published under the incorrect title of eloquence, however, not unfrequently wearies by Euvres Completes. We can imagine the aston- its stilted pomposity, and, save by a few scholars ishment of an erudite book-worm, suddenly en- and literati, his works are rather respected than countering, when winding his way through dusty liked, more often praised than read. He wrote for folios and antique black letter, a sprightly and gal- the century, not for all time. And his books, if lant narrative, sparkling with graceful sallies and still occasionally referred to, each day drew nearer with anecdotes and allusions à la Grammont; and to oblivion, when the publication of the Mémoires finding himself compelled, by evidence internal and sur les Grands-Jours tenus à Clermont came opcollateral, to accept the mundane manuscript as the portunely to refresh his fading bays. The lease work of a grave and pious father of the church. of celebrity secured by ten studied and ponderous A courtly chronicle, in tone fringing on the frivo- tomes, exhaling strong odor of midnight oil, had lous, and often more remarkable for piquancy of nearly expired, when it was renewed by a single subject than for strict propriety of tone, suddenly volume, written with flowing pen and careless dragged from the cobwebbed obscurity of an ancient grace, but overlooked and underrated for nearly escritoire and put abroad as the production of a two centuries. South, a Tillotson, or a Blair, would astound the Although scarcely essential to a just appreciapublic, and find many to doubt its authenticity. tion of the book before us, we shall cursorily sketch In bringing forward the earliest work of the amia- the career of Esprit Fléchier, esteemed one of the ble Bishop of Nismes, the librarian of the town of ablest of French pulpit orators--one of the most Clermont had no such scepticism to contend against. kind-hearted and virtuous of French prelates, Moreover, he had arguments and proofs at hand Born in 1632, in the county of Avignon, he early sufficient to confound and convince the most incred- assumed the sacerdotal garb, and obtained occupaulous. True, there was vast difference in tone and tion as teacher of rhetoric. At the age of eightsubject between the literary pastime of the abbé, and-twenty, business resulting from the death of a and the results of the grave studies and oratorical relation having taken him to Paris, he conceived talents of the reverend churchman and renowned an affection for that capital and remained there. preacher ; but affinities of style were detectible by Having no fortune of his own, he was fain to earn the skilful, and, in addition to this, there had crept a modest subsistence by teaching the catechism to out, at sundry periods of the present century, cer- parish children. Already, when professing rheto tain letters of Fléchiert—letters not to be found ric at Narbonne, he had given indication of the

oratorical talents that were subsequently to procure * Mémoires de Fléchier sur les Grands-Jours tenus a him the highest dignities of the church, the favor Clermont, en 1665-66 : publiés par B. Gonod, Biblio- of a great king, and the enthusiastic admiration thécaire de la Ville de Clermont. Paris, 1844.

+ These letters were addressed to a young Norman of a Sévigné. At Paris he busied hiinself with Lady, Mademoiselle Anne de Lavigne, who wrote sonnets the composition of Latin verses, for which he had in the Scudéry style, and with whom Fléchier kept up a gallant and high-lown correspondence in mingled prose a remarkable talent, and celebrated in graceful and verse. As far as can be ascertained the liason was hexameters the successes and virtues of ministers, an innocent one ; it is quite certain that it caused no scandal at the time. Most of the letters bear date three or

princes and kings. The peace concluded with four years subsequently to the Grands-Jours.

Spain by Mazarine, the future prospects of the