fore returned to Thouars, and thence to Niort. The troops of Saumur had taken a position in the environs of the town, on the road to Fontevrault, in the intrenchments of Nantilly and on the heights of Bournan. The Vendeans approached, attacked Berthier's column, were repulsed by a well directed artillery, but returned in force, and obliged Berthier, who was wounded, to fall back. The foot gendarmes, two battalions of Orleans, and the cuirassiers, still resisted, but the latter lost their colonel. The defeat then began, and all were taken back to the town, which the Vendeans entered at their heels. General Coustard, who commanded the battalions posted on the heights of Bournan, still remained outside. Finding himself separated from the republican troops, which had been drawn back into Saumur, he formed the bold resolution of returning thither, and taking the Vendeans in the rear. He had to pass a bridge where the victorious Vendeans had just placed a battery. The brave Coustard ordered a corps of cuirassiers under his command to charge the battery. "Whither are you sending us?" asked they. "To death!" replied Coustard; "the welfare of the republic requires it." The cuirassiers dashed away, but the Orleans battalions dispersed, and deserted the general and the cuirassiers, who charged the battery. The cowardice of the one frustrated the heroism of the others; and General Coustard, unable to get back into Saumur, retired to Angers.

Saumur was taken on the 9th of June, and the next day the citadel surrendered.†

* " Alexander Berthier, Prince of eufchatel and Wagram, marshal, vice-constable of France, was born in Paris in 1753. He was the son of a distinguished officer, and was, while yet young, employed in the general staff, and fought with Lafayette for the liberty of the United States. In 1791 he was appointed chief of the general staff in Luckner's army, marched against La Vendée in 1793, and joined the army of Italy in 1796. In the year 1798 he received the chief command of the army of Italy, and afterwards, being much attached to Bonaparte, followed him to Egypt, who, on his return to Paris, appointed him minister of war. Having, in 1806 1806, accompanied the Emperor in his campaign against Prussia, he signed the armistice of Tilsit in 1807. Being appointed viceconstable of France, he married, in 1808, the daughter of Duke William of Bavaria-Birkenfeld; and, having distinguished himself at Wagram, in 1809, he received the title of Prince of Wagram. In the following year, as proxy for Napoleon, he received the hand of Maria Louisa, daughter of the Emperor of Austria, and accompanied her to France. In 1812 he accompanied the French army to Russia. After Bonaparte's abdication he obtained the confidence of Louis XVIII., whom, on the Emperor's return, he accompanied to the Netherlands, whence he repaired to his family at Bamberg. On his arrival at this place he was observed to be sunk in profound melancholy, and when the music of the Russian troops, on their march to the French borders, was heard at the gates of the city, he put an end to his life by throwing himself from a window of the third story of his palace." -Encyclopædia Americana.

"Berthier was small and ill-shaped, without being actually deformed; his head was too large for his body; his hair, neither light nor dark, was rather frizzed than curled; his forehead, eyes, nose, and chin, each in the proper place, were, however, by no means handsome in the aggregate. His hands, naturally ugly, became frightful by a habit of biting his nails: add to this, that he stammered much in speaking; and that if he did not make grimaces, the agitation of his features was so rapid as to occasion some amusement to those who did not take a direct interest in his dignity. I must add, that he was an excellent man, with a thousand good qualities, neutralized by weakness. Berthier was good in every acceptation of the word." - Duchess d'Abrantes. E.

"Berthier was a man full of honour, courage, and probity, and exceedingly regular in the performance of his duties. Napoleon's attachment to him arose more from habit than liking. Berthier did not concede with affability, and refused with harshness. His manner was abrupt, egotistic, and unpleasing. He was an excellent head of the staff of an army, but that is all the praise that can be given him, and indeed he wished for no greater. He had such entire confidence in the Emperor, and looked up to him with so much admiration, that he never could have presumed to oppose his plans or offer him any advice. Berthier's talent was limited and of a peculiar nature. His character was one of extreme weakness." - Bourrienne. E.

t

" Three assaults on Saumur by the Vendeans began rly at the same time on the morning of the 9th of June, The redoubts were turned, and there passed, when suddenly a ball having wounded M. de Lescure in the arm, the peasants who saw him covered with blood, began to slacken their pace. Lescure binding up the wound with a handkerchief, endeavoured to lead on his men again; but a charge of republican cuirassiers frightened them. M. de Dommaigné endeavoured to make a stand at the head of the Vendean cavalry, but he was struck down by a discharge of caseshot, and his troop overthrown. The route became general; but a singular chance redeemed the fortune of the day. Two wagons overturned on the bridge Fouchard, stopped the cuirassiers, and enabled Lescure to rally the soldiers. The brave Loizeau placing himself at the head of some footsoldiers, fired through the wheels of the wagons at the faces of the cuirassiers and their horses; The Vendeans, being masters of the course of the Loire, had it now in their power to march either upon Nantes or upon La Flèche, Le Mans, and Paris. Terror preceded, and everything must have given way before them. Biron was, meanwhile, in Lower Vendée, where, by directing his attention to the coasts, he conceived that he was warding off more real and more serious dangers.

Perils of every kind threatened us at once. The allies, besieging Valenciennes, Condé, and Mayence, were on the point of taking those fortresses, the bulwarks of our frontiers. The Vosges in commotion, the Jura in revolt, the easiest access to invasion was opened on the side next to the Rhine. The army of Italy, repulsed by the Piedmontese, had in its rear the rebellion of the South and the English fleet. The Spaniards, in presence of the French camp under Perpignan, threatened to carry it by an attack, and to make themselves masters of Roussillon. The insurgents of La Lozère were ready to unite with the Vendeans along the Loire, and this was the design of the leader who had excited that revolt. The Vendeans, masters of Saumur and of course of the Loire, had only to act, for they possessed all the means of executing the boldest attempts upon the interior. Lastly, the federalists, marching from Caen, Bordeaux, and Marseilles, were preparing to excite France to insurrection in their progress.

Our situation in the month of July, 1793, was the more desperate, inasmuch as a mortal blow might have been struck at France on every point. In the North, the allies had but to neglect the fortresses and to march upon Paris, and they would have driven the Convention upon the Loire, where it would have been received by the Vendeans. The Austrians and the Piedmontese could have executed an invasion by the maritime Alps, annihilated our army, and overrun the whole of the South as conquerors. The Spaniards were in a position to advance by Bayonne and to join La Vendée, or if they preferred Roussillon, to march boldly towards La Lozère, not far distant from the frontiers, and to set the South in flames. Lastly, the English, instead of cruising in the Mediterranean, possessed the means of landing. troops in La Vendée, and conducting them from Saumur to Paris.

But the external and internal enemies of the Convention had not that which insures victory in a war of revolution. The allies acted without union, and, under the disguise of a holy war, concealed the most selfish views. The Austrians wanted Valenciennes; the King of Prussia, Mayence; the English, Dunkirk ;* the Piedmontese aspired to recover Chambery and Nice; the Spaniards, the least interested of all, had nevertheless some thoughts of Roussillon; lastly, the English were more

solicitous to cover the Mediterranean with their fleets and to gain some port there, than to afford useful succour to La Vendée. Besides this universal selfishness, which prevented the allies from extending their views beyond their immediate profit, they were all methodical and timid in war, and defended with the old military routine the old political routine for which they had armed themselves.

As for the Vendeans, rising untrained against the genius of the Revolution, they fought like brave but ignorant marksmen. The federalists, spread over the whole surface of France, having to communicate from great distances for the purpose of concerting operations, rising but timidly against the central authority, and being animated by only moderate passions, could not act without tardiness and uncertainty. They moreover secretly reproached themselves with compromising their country by a culpable diversion. They began to feel that it was criminal to discuss whether they ought to be revolutionists such as Petion and Vergniaud, or such as Danton and Robespierre, at a moment when all Europe was in arms against France; and they perceived that under such circumstances there was but one course to pursue, and that was the most energetic. Indeed all the factions, already rearing their heads around them, apprized them of their fault. It was not only the constituents, it was the agents of the old court, the retainers of the old clergy-in short, all the partisans of absolute power, who were rising at once; and it became evident to them that all opposition to the Revolution would turn to the advantage of the enemies to all liberty and to all nationality.

Such were the causes which rendered the allies so awkward and so timid, the Vendeans so shallow, the federalists so wavering, and which were destined to insure the triumph of the convention over internal revolt and over Europe. The Mountaineers, animated alone by a strong passion, by a single idea, the welfare of the Revolution, under the influence of that exaltation of mind in which men discover the newest and the boldest means, in which they never think them either too hazardous or too costly, if they are but salutary, could not fail to disconcert, by an unexpected and sublime defence,* slow-motioned enemies, wedded to the old routine, and held together by no general bond of union, and to stifle factions which wanted the ancient system of all degrees, the revolution of all degrees, and which had neither concord nor determinate object.

* " For all the advantages they gained, the Convention were indebted to the energy of their measures, the ability of their councils, and the enthusiasm of their subjects. If history has nothing to show comparable to the crimes which they committed, it has few similar instances of undaunted resolution to commemorate. Impartial justice requires that this praise should be bestowed on the committee of public safety; if the cruelty of their internal administration exceeded the worst despotism of the emperors, the dignity of their external conduct rivalled the noblest instances of Roman heroism."-Alison. E.

THE NATIONAL CONVENΤΙΟΝ.

MEANS EMPLOYED BY THE CONVENTION AGAINST THE FEDERALISTSCONSTITUTION OF THE YEAR III.-CHECK OF VERNON-DELIVERANCE OF NANTES-SUBMISSION OF THE DEPARTMENTS-DEATH OF MARAT.

THE Convention, amidst the extraordinary circumstances in which it found itself placed, was not for an instant shaken. While fortresses or intrenched camps detained the enemy for the moment on the different frontiers, the committee of public welfare laboured night and day to reorganize the armies, to complete them by means of the levy of three hundred thousand men decreed in March, to transmit instructions to the generals, and to despatch money and stores. It remonstrated with all the local administrations which purposed to withhold, for the benefit of the federalist cause, the supplies destined for the armies, and prevailed upon them to desist out of consideration for the public welfare.

While these means were employed in regard to the external enemy, the Convention resorted to others not less efficacious in regard to the enemy at home. The best resource against an adversary who doubts his rights and his strength, is not to doubt yours. Such was the course pursued by the Convention. We have already seen the energetic decrees which it passed on the first movement of revolt. Though many towns would not yield, yet it never had for a moment the idea of treating with those which assumed the decided character of rebellion. The Lyonnese having refused to obey and to send the imprisoned patriots to Paris, it ordered its commissioners with the army of the Alps to employ force, unconcerned about either the difficulties or the dangers incurred by those commissioners at Grenoble, where they had the Piedmontese in front and all the insurgents of the Isère and the Rhone in their rear. It enjoined them to compel Marseilles to return to its duty. It allowed all the local authorities only three days to retract their equivocal resolutions (arrêtés); and lastly, it sent to Vernon some gendarmes and several thousand citizens of Paris, in order to quell forthwith the insurgents of the Calvados, the nearest to the capital.

The important affair of all, the framing of a constitution, had not been neglected, and a week had been sufficient for the completion of that work, which was rather a rallying-point than a real plan of legislation. It was the composition of Hérault de Séchelles.* Every Frenchman, having attained the age of twenty-one, was to be a citizen and to exercise his political rights without any condition as to fortune or property. The assembled citizens were to elect one deputy for every fifty thousand souls. The deputies, composing a single assembly, were to sit for only one year. They were to issue decrees for everything concerning the urgent wants of the state, and these decrees were to be carried into immediate execution. They were to make laws for everything that concerned matters of a general and less urgent interest, and these laws were not to be sanctioned unless, after allowing a certain delay, the primary assemblies had not remonstrated against them. On the 1st of May the primary assemblies were to meet as a matter of right and without convocation, to elect new deputies. The primary assemblies were to have the

* "Hérault de Séchelles was the legislator of the Mountain, as Condorcet had been of the Gironde. With the ideas which prevailed at this period, the nature of the new constitution may be easily conceived. It established the pure government of the multitude; not only were the people acknowledged to be the source of all power, but the exercise of that power was delegated to them. As the constitution thus made over the government to the multitude, as it placed the power in a disorganized body, it would have been at all times impracticable; but, at a period riod of general warfare, it was peculiarly so. Accordingly, it was no sooner made than suspended."-Mignet. E.

right to demand conventions for modifying the constitutional act. The executive power was to be vested in twenty-four members appointed by the electors, and this was to be the only mediate election. The primary assemblies were to nominate

: the electors, these electors were to nominate the candidates, and the legislative body was to reduce the candidates to twenty-four, by striking out the others. These twenty-four members of the council were to appoint the generals, the ministers, the agents of all sorts, but were not to take them from among their own body. They were to direct, to keep a watchful eye over them, and they were to be continually responsible. One-half of the executive council was to be renewed every year. Lastly, this constitution, so short, so democratic, which reduced the government to a mere temporary commission, spared nevertheless the only relic of the ancient system, the communes, and made no change either in their circumscription or their powers. The resolution of which they had given proofs, procured them the distinction of being retained on this tabula rasa upon which was left no other trace of the past. In a week, and almost without discussion, this constitution was adopted, and, at the moment when it was voted in its entire form, the guns proclaimed its adoption in Paris, and shouts of joy arose on all sides. Thousands of copies of it were printed for the purpose of being circulated throughout France. It met with only a single contradiction, and that was from the agitators who had prepared the 31st of May.

The reader will recollect young Varlet haranguing in the public places; young Leclerc, of Lyons, so violent in his speeches at the Jacobins, and suspected even by Marat on account of his vehemence; and Jacques Roux, * so brutal towards the unfortunate Louis XVI., who begged him to take charge of his will all these had made themselves conspicuous in the late insurrection, and possessed considerable influence on the committee of the Evèché and at the Cordeliers. They found fault with the constitution, because it contained no provision against forestallers; they drew up a petition, which they hawked about the streets for signatures, and went to rouse the Cordeliers, saying that the constitution was incomplete, since it contained no clause against the greatest enemies of the people. Legendre, who was present, strove in vain to oppose this movement. He was called a moderate, and the petition, adopted by the society, was presented by it to the Convention. The whole Mountain was indignant at this proceeding. Robespierre and Collot-d'Herbois spoke warmly, caused the petition to be rejected, and went to the Jacobins, to expose the danger of these perfidious exaggerations, which merely tended, they said, to mislead the people, and could only be the work of men paid by the enemies of the republic. "The most popular constitution that ever was," said Robespierre, "has just emanated from an assembly, formerly counter-revolutionary, but now purged from the men who obstructed its progress, and impeded its operations. This Assembly, now pure, has produced the most perfect, the most popular work / that was ever given to men; and an individual, covered with the garb of patriotism, who boasts that he loves the people more than we do, stirs up the citizens of all classes, and pretends to prove that a constitution, which ought to rally all France, is not adapted to them! Beware of such manœuvres! Beware of ci-devant priests leagued with the Austrians! Beware of the new mask under which the aristocrats are disguising themselves! I discover a new crime in preparation, and which may not be long before it breaks forth: but let us unveil it, let us crush the enemies of the people under whatever form they may present themselves." Collotd'Herbois spoke as warmly as Robespierre. He declared that the enemies of the republic wished to have a pretext for saying to the departments, You see, Paris approves the language of Jacques Roux!

* "Jacques Roux was a priest, a municipal officer at Paris, and a furious revolutionist. He called himself the preacher of the sans-culottes, and, being intrusted with the care of the Temple while the King and his family were confined there, treated them with the greatest brutality. He boasted of being the Marat of the municipality, and even preached up theft and libertinism. In 1794 he was brought before the revolutionary tribunal; and, at the moment when he heard his sentence pronounced, he gave himself five wounds with a knife, and died in prison." - Biographie Moderne. Ε.