water of the ditch under the fire of the Hauptstein; but then the results must be very speedy. It was thought better to open the trenches facing the double enclosure and opposite to the citadel, though that course would entail the necessity for a double siege. On the 16th of June, a first parallel was traced at the distance of eight hundred paces from the first enclosure. The besieged threw the works into disorder, and the enemy was forced to fall back. On the 18th, another parallel was traced at a much greater distance, namely, fifteen hundred paces; and this distance excited the sneers of those who had proposed the bold attack by the isle of Petersau. From the 24th to the 25th, closer approaches were made; the besiegers established themselves at the distance of eight hundred paces, and erected batteries. The besieged again interrupted the works and spiked the guns; but they were at length repulsed and overwhelmed with an incessant fire. On the 18th and 19th, two hundred pieces played upon the fortress, and covered it with projectiles of every kind. Floating batteries, placed upon the Rhine, set fire to the interior of the town on the most exposed side, and did considerable damage. Still the first parallel was not yet opened, the first enclosure was not yet won, and the garrison, full of ardour, had no thoughts of surrendering. In order to rid themselves of the floating batteries, some of the brave French swam off, and cut the cables of the enemy's boats. One was seen swimming and towing a boat containing twenty-four soldiers who were made prisoners. But the distress was at its height. The mills had been burned, and the besieged had been obliged to resort to mills wrought by men for the purpose of grinding their corn. But nobody would work at them, because the enemy, apprized of the circumstance, kept up a continual fire of howitzers on the spot where they were situated. Moreover, there was scarcely any corn left. Horse-flesh had long been the only meat that the garrison had; the soldiers ate rats, and went to the banks of the Rhine to pick up the dead horses which the current brought down with it. This kind of food proved fatal to several of them: it was found necessary to forbid it, and even to prevent their seeking it, by placing guards on the banks of the river. A cat sold for six francs, and horse-flesh at the rate of forty-five sous per pound. The officers fared no better than the soldiers, and Albert Dubayet, having invited his staff to dinner, set before it, by way of a treat, a cat flanked by a dozen mice. But the most annoying circumstance to this unfortunate garrison was the absolute privation of all news. The communications were so completely intercepted that for three months it was wholly ignorant of what was passing in France. It had endeavoured to convey intelligence of its distress, at one time by a lady who was going to travel in Switzerland, at another by a priest proceeding to the Netherlands, and at another by a spy who was to pass through the enemy's camp. But none of these despatches had reached their destination. Hoping that the idea might perhaps occur of sending intelligence from the Upper Rhine by means of bottles thrown into the river, the besiegers placed nets across it. These were taken up every day, but. nothing arrived. The Prussians, who had practised all sorts of stratagems, had got false Moniteurs printed at Frankfort, stating that Dumouriez had overthrown the Con vention, and that Louis XVII. was reigning with a regency. The Prussians placed at the advanced posts transmitted these false Moniteurs to the soldiers of the garrison. The reading of these statements always excited the greatest uneasiness, and to the sufferings which they were already enduring added the mortification of defending perhaps a ruined cause. Nevertheless, they waited, saying to one another: "The army of the Rhine will soon arrive." Sometimes the cry was, "It is come!" One night, a very brisk cannonade was heard at a great distance from the town. The men started up with joy, ran to arms, and prepared to march towards the French cannon, and to place the enemy between two fires. Vain hope! The noise ceased, and the army that was to deliver them never appeared. At length the distress became so intolerable, that two thousand of the inhabitants solicited permission to depart. Albert Dubayet granted it, but not being received by the besiegers, they remained between two fires, and partly perished under the walls of the place. In the morning the soldiers were seen bringing in wounded infants wrapped in their cloaks. A Meanwhile the army of the Rhine and of the Moselle was not advancing. Custine had commanded it till the month of June. Still quite dispirited on account of his retreat, he had never ceased wavering during the months of April and May. He said that he was not strong enough; that he must have more cavalry to enable him to cope with the enemy's cavalry in the plains of the Palatinate; that he had no forage for his horses; that it was necessary for him to wait till the rye was forward enough to be cut for fodder; and that then he would march to the relief of Mayence.* Beauharnais,f his successor, hesitating like him, lost the opportunity of saving that fortress. The line of the Vosges runs, as every one knows, along the Rhine, and terminates not far from Mayence. By occupying the two slopes of the chain and its principal passes, you gain an immense advantage, because you have it in your power to direct your force either all on one side or all on the other, and to overwhelm the enemy by your united masses. Such was the position of the French. The army of the Rhine occupied the eastern slope, and that of the Moselle the western; Brunswick and Wurmser were spread out at the termination of the chain into a very extensive cordon. Masters of the passes, the two French armies had it in their power to unite on one slope or the other, to crush Brunswick or Wurmser, to take the besiegers in the rear, and to save Mayence. Beauharnais, a brave but not an enterprising man, made only indecisive movements, without succouring the garrison. The representatives and the generals shut up in Mayence, thinking that matters ought not to be pushed to extremity, that, if they waited another week, they might be destitute of everything and be obliged to give up the garrison as prisoners; that, on the contrary, by capitulating they should obtain free egress with the honours of war, and that they should thus preserve twenty thousand men, who had become the bravest soldiers in the world under Kleber and Dubayet, determined to surrender the place. In a few days more, it is true, Beauharnais might have been able to save them, but, after waiting so long, it was natural to conclude that they should not be relieved, and the reasons for surrendering were decisive. The King of Prussia was not difficult about the conditions. He allowed the garrison to march out with arms and baggage, and imposed but one condition, that it should not serve for a year against the allies. But there were still enemies enough in the interior for the useful employment of these admirable soldiers, since called Mayençais. So attached were they to their posts, that they would not obey their generals when they were obliged to evacuate the fortress-a singular instance of the esprit de corps which settles upon one point, and of that attachment which men form for a place which they have defended for several months! The garrison, however, yielded, and as it filed off, the King of Prussia, filled with admiration of its valour, called by their names the officers who had distinguished themselves during the siege, and complimented them with chivalrous courtesy. The evacuation took place on the 25th of July. We have seen the Austrians blockading Condé, and laying regular siege to Valenciennes. These operations carried on simultaneously with those of the Rhine, were drawing near to a close. The Prince of Coburg, at the head of the corps of observation, faced Cæsar's Camp, the Duke of York commanded the besieging corps. The attack, at first projected upon the citadel, was afterwards directed between the suburb of Marly and the Mons gate. This front presented much more development, but it was not so strongly defended, and was preferred as being more accessible. It was agreed to batter the works during the day, and to set fire to the town in the night, in order to increase the distress of the inhabitants, and to shake * See Custine's Trial. † "Viscount Alexander Beauharnais, born in 1760 at Martinique, served with distinction as major in the French forces under Rochambeau, which aided the United States in the revolutionary war. He married Josephine Tascher de la Pagerie, who was afterwards the wife of Bonaparte. At the breaking out of the French Revolution, he was chosen a member of the National Assembly, of which he was for some time president. In 1793 he was general of the army of the Rhine, and was afterwards minister of war. In consequence of the decree removing men of noble birth from the army he retired to his country-seat. Having been falsely accused of promoting the surrender of Mentz, he was sentenced to death, in 1794, in the thirty-fourth year of his age." -Encyclopædia Americana. E. FRENCH REVOLUTION. The place was summoned on the 14th of June. their resolution the sooner. General Ferrand, and Cochon* and Briest, the representatives, replied with great dignity. They had collected a garrison of seven thousand men; they had infused the best spirit into the inhabitants, and organized part of them into companies of gunners, who rendered the greatest services. Two parallels were successively opened in the nights of the 14th and 19th of June, and armed with formidable batteries. They made frightful havoc in the place. The inhabitants and the garrison defended themselves with a vigour equal to that of the attack, and several times destroyed all the works of the besiegers. The enemy fired upon the place till noon, without its making any reply; but at that hour a tremendous fire from the ramparts was poured into the trenches, where it produced the confusion, terror, and death which had prevailed in the town. On the 28th of June, a third parallel was traced, and the courage of the inhabitants began to be shaken. Part of that wealthy city was already burned down. The children, the old men, and the women, had been put into cellars. The surrender of Condé, which had been taken by famine, tended still more to dishearten the besieged. Emissaries had been sent to work upon them. Assemblages began to form and demand a capitulation. The municipality participated in the dispositions of the inhabitants, and was in secret understanding with them. The representatives and General Ferrand replied with the greatest vigour to the demands which were addressed to them; and, with the aid of the garrison, whose courage was excited to the highest enthusiasm, they dispersed the discontented assemblages. On the 25th of July the besiegers prepared their mines, and made ready for the assault of the covered way. Luckily for them, three globes of compression burst at the moment when the mines of the garrison were about to play and to destroy their works. They then pushed on in three columns, cleared the palisade, and penetrated into the covered way. The garrison retired in affright, and was already abandoning its batteries, but General Ferrand led it back to the ramparts. The artillery, which had performed prodigies during the whole siege, again made great havoc among the assailants, and stopped them alinost at the very gates of the place. Next day, the 26th, the Duke of York summoned General Ferrand to surrender. He gave him notice that after that day he would listen to no proposal, and that the garrison and the inhabitants should be put to the sword. At this threat the people assembled in great numbers; a mob, among which were many men armed with pistols and daggers, surrounded the municipality. Twelve persons spoke for the whole, and made a formal requisition to surrender the place. A council of war was held amidst the tumult; none of its members was allowed to quit it, and guards were placed upon them till they should decide upon surrender. Two breaches, the unfavourable disposition of the inhabitants, and a vigorous besieger, admitted of no longer resistance. The place was surrendered on the 28th of July. The garrison marched out with the honours of war, was obliged to lay down its arms, but was at liberty to return to France, upon the only condition of not serving for a year * "Cochon de Lapparent, a counsellor at Fontenay, was, in 1789, a member of the States- t Moderne. E. + "Had the Duke of York been detached by Coburg against the camp of Cæsar with half his forces, the siege of Valenciennes might have been continued with the other half, and the fate of France sealed in that position." - Dumouriez's Memoirs. " In the darkest days of Louis XIV. France was never placed in such peril, as after the capture of Valenciennes." -Alison. E. ! against the allies. It still consisted of seven thousand brave soldiers, capable of rendering important services against the enemies in the interior. Valenciennes had sustained a bombardiment of forty-one days, during which eighty thousand cannonballs, twenty thousand howitzer-shot, and forty-eight thousand bombs, had been thrown into it. The general and the garrison had done their duty, and the artillery had covered itself with glory. At this same moment, the war of federalism was reduced to its two real calamities: the revolt of Lyons on the one hand, and that of Marseilles and Toulon on the other. Lyons soon consented to acknowledge the Convention, but refused to obey two decrees, that which transferred to Paris the proceedings commenced against the patriots, and that which dissolved the authorities, and enjoined the formation of a new provisional municipality. The aristocrats concealed in Lyons excited alarm in that city lest the old Mountaineer municipality should be re-established; and, by the apprehension of uncertain dangers, led it into real dangers, those of open rebellion. On the 15th of July, the Lyonnese caused the two patriots, Chalier and Picard, to be put to death, and from that day they were declared to be in a state of rebellion. The two Girondins, Chasset and Biroteau, seeing royalism triumphant, withdrew. Meanwhile the president of the popular commission, who was devoted to the emigrants, having been superseded, the determinations had become somewhat less hostile. The people of Lyons acknowledged the constitution, and offered to submit to it, but still on condition that the two principal decrees should not be executed. During this interval, the chiefs were founding cannon and purchasing stores; and there seemed to be no other way of terminating the difficulties than that of arms. Marseilles was much more formidable. Its battalions, driven beyond the Durance by Cartaux, could not oppose a long resistance, but it had communicated its rebellious spirit to Toulon, hitherto a thorough republican city. That port, one of the best in the world and the very best in the Mediterranean, was coveted by the English who were cruising off it. Emissaries of England were secretly intriguing there, and preparing an infamous treason. The sections had assembled on the 13th of July, and, proceeding like all those of the South, had displaced the municipality and shut up the Jacobin club. The authority, transferred to the hands of the federalists, was liable to pass successively from faction to faction, to the emigrants and to the English. The army of Nice, in its weak state, was unable to prevent such a misfortune. Everything, therefore, was to be feared; and that vast storm, spread over the southern horizon, had concentrated itself on two points, Lyons and Toulon. During the last two months, therefore, the aspect of things had somewhat cleared up, but if the danger was less universal, less astounding, it was more settled, more serious. In the West was the cankering sore of La Vendée; at Marseilles, an obstinate sedition; at Toulon, a secret treason; at Lyons, an open resistance and a siege. On the Rhine and in the North, there was the loss of two bulwarks, which had so long checked the progress of the allies, and prevented them from marching upon the capital. In September, 1792, when the Prussians were marching towards Paris, and had taken Longwy and Verdun; in April, 1793, after the retreat from Belgium, the defeat at Neerwinden, the defection of Dumouriez, and the first rising in La Vendée; at the 31st of May, 1793, after the general insurrection of the departments, the invasion of Roussillon by the Spaniards, and the loss of the camp of Famars-at these three epochs, the dangers had been alarming, it is true, bnt never perhaps so real as at this fourth epoch, in August, 1793. It was the fourth and last crisis of the Revolution. France was less ignorant and less new to war than in September, 1792, less affrighted by treasons than in April, 1793, less embarrassed by insurrections than after the 31st of May and the 2d of June; but if she was more inured to war and better obeyed, she was invaded on all sides at once, in the North, on the Rhine, at the Alps, and at the Pyrenees. But we shall not be aware of all the calamities which then afflicted the republic, if we limit our view to the five or six fields of battle which were drenched with human blood. The interior presented a spectacle quite as deplorable. Corn was still dear and scarce. People had to knock at the doors of the bakers to obtain a small quantity of bread. They disputed in vain with the shopkeepers to make them take assignats in payment for articles of primary necessity. The distress was at its height. The populace complained of the forestallers who kept back their goods; of stockjobbers who occasioned the rise in the prices of them, and threw discredit on the assignats by their traffic. Government, quite as unfortunate as the people, had no means of existence but the assignats, which it was obliged to give in thrice and four times the quantity in payment for the same services, and of which it durst not make any further issues for fear of depreciating them still more. It became, therefore, a puzzling question how to enable either the people or the government to subsist. The general production, however, had not diminished. Though the night of the 4th of August had not yet produced its immense effects, France was in no want either of grain or of raw or wrought materials; but the equal and peaceable distribution of them had become impossible, owing to the effect of the paper money. The Revolution which, in abolishing monarchy, nevertheless purposed to pay its debts; which, in destroying the venality of offices, nevertheless engaged to make compensation for their value; which, lastly, in defending the new order of things against coalesced Europe, was obliged to bear the expense of a general war, had, to defray it, the national property taken from the clergy and the emigrants. To put into circulation the value of that property, it had devised assignats which were the representation of it, and which by means of purchases were to return to the exchequer and be burned. But as people felt doubtful of the success of the Revolution and the stability of the sales, they did not purchase those possessions. The assignats remained in circulation like an unaccepted bill of exchange, and became depreciated from doubt and the quantity issued. Specie continued to be regarded as the real standard of value; and nothing is more hurtful to a doubtful money than the rivalry of a money of which the value is undisputed. The one is hoarded and kept back from circulation, while the other offers itself in abundance, and is thus discredited. Such was the predicament in which assignats stood in regard to specie. The Revolution, doomed to violent measures, was no longer able to stop. It had put into forced circulation the anticipated value of the national domains; it could not help trying to keep it up by forced means. On the 11th of April, in spite of the Girondins, who struggled generously but imprudently against the fatality of that revolutionary situation, the Convention decreed the penalty of six years' imprisonment against any person who should sell specie, that is to say, who should exchange a certain quantity of gold or silver for a more considerable quantity of assignats. It enacted the same punishment for every one who should stipulate a different price for commodities according as the payment was to be made in specie or in assignats. These measures did not prevent the difference from being rapidly manifested. In June a metal franc was worth three francs in assignats; and in August, two months afterwards, a silver franc was worth six francs in assignats. The ratio of diminution, which was as one to three, had therefore increased in the proportion of one to six. In this situation, the shopkeepers refused to sell their goods at the former price, because the money offered to them was not worth more than a fifth or a sixth of its nominal value. They held them back, therefore, and refused them to purchasers. This depreciation of value, it is true, would have been in regard to the assignats no inconvenience whatever, had everybody, taking them only at their real value, received and paid them away at the same rate. In this case, they might still have continued to perform the office of a sign in the exchanges, and to serve for a circulating medium like any other money; but the capitalists who lived upon their income, the creditors of the state who received an annuity or a compensation for an office, were obliged to take the paper at its nominal value. All debtors were eager to pay off their encumbrances, and creditors, forced to take a fictitious value, got back but a VOL. II. 8 |