书城公版The Origins of Contemporary France
19097600000553

第553章

[41] Moniteur, XIII. 742 (Sept. 21). Marshal Lückner and his aids-de-camp just miss being killed by Parisian volunteers. -- Archives Nationales," BB, 16703. Letter by Labarrière aide-de-camp of General Flers, Antwerp, March 19, 1793. On the desertion en masse of gendarmes from Dumouriez's army, who return to Paris.

[42] Cf. "L'armée et la garde nationale," by Baron Poisson, III. 475.

"On hostilities being declared (April, 1792), the contingent of volunteers was fixed at 200,000 men. This second attempt resulted in nothing but confused and disorderly levies. Owing to the spinelessness of the volunteer troops it was impossible to continue the war in Belgium, which allowed the enemy to cross the frontier." -- Gouverneur Morris, so well informed, had already written, under date of Dec.27, 1791: "The national guards, who have turned out as volunteers, are in many instances that corrupted scum of overgrown population of which large cities purge themselves, and which, without constitutions to support the fatigues.. . of war, have every vice and every disease which can render them the scourge of their friends and the laughing stock of their foes." -- Buchez et Roux, XXVI. 177. Plan of the administrators of Hérault, presented to the Convention April 27, 1793.

"The composition of the enlistment should not be concealed. Most of those of which it is made up are not volunteers; they are not citizens all classes of society, who, submitting to draft on the ballot, have willingly made up their minds to go and defend the Republic. The larger part of the recruits are substitutes who, through the attraction of a large sum, have concluded to leave their homes."[43] C. Rousset, 47. Letter of the directory of Somme, Feb. 26, 1792.

[44] "Archives Nationales," F 7, 3270. Deliberations of the council-general of the commune of Roye, Oct. 8, 1792 (in relation to the violence committed by two divisions of Parisian gendarmerie during their passage, Oct. 7 and 8).

[45] Moore, I. 338 (Sept. 8, 1792). - (The Condés were proud princes from a branch of the royal house of Bourbon. (SR).

[46] C Rousset, 189 (Letter of the Minister of War, dated at Dunkirk, April 29, 1793). -- Archives Nationales," BB, 16, 703. (Parisian national guard staff major-general, order of the day, letter of citizen Férat, commanding at Ostend, to the Minister of War, March 19, 1793): "Since we have had the gendarmes with us at Ostend there is nothing but disturbance every day. They attack the officers and volunteers, take the liberty of pulling off epaulettes and talk only of cutting and slashing, and declare that they recognize no superior being equals with everybody, and that they will do as they please.

Those who are ordered to arrest them are chased and attacked with saber cuts and pistols[47] C. Rousset, 20 (Letter of General Wimpfen, Dec. 30, 1791). --"Souvenirs" of General Pelleport, pp.7 and 8.

[48] C. Rousset, 45 (Report of General Wimpfen, Jan. 20, I792). -Letter of General Biron, Aug. 23, 1792.

[49] C. Rousset, 47, 48. -- "Archives Nationales," F7, 3249. Official report of the municipality of Saint-Maxence, Jan. 21, 1792. -- F 7, 3275. Official report of the municipality of Chatellerault, Dec. 27, 1791. -- F7, 3285 and 3286 -- F7, 3213. Letter of Servan, Minister of War, to Roland, June 12, 1792: "I frequently receive, as well as yourself and the Minister of Justice, complaints against the national volunteers. They commit the most reprehensible offenses daily in places where they are quartered, and through which they pass on their way to their destination." - Ibid., Letter of Duranthon, Minister of Justice, May 5: "These occurrences are repeated, under more or less aggravating circumstances, in all the departments."[50] "Archives Nationales," F7, 3193. Official report of the commissaries of the department of Aveyron, April 4, 1792. "Among the pillagers and incendiaries of the chateaux of Privesac, Vaureilles, Péchins, and other threatened mansions, were a number of recruits who had already taken the road to Rhodez to join their respective regiments." Nothing remains of the chateau of Privesac but a heap of ruins. The houses in the village "are filled to over flowing with pillaged articles, and the inhabitants have divided the owners'

animals amongst themselves." -- Comte de Seilhac, "Scènes et portraits de la Révolution dans le bas Limousin," P.305. Pillage of the chateaux of Saint-Jéal and Seilhac, April 12, 1792, by the 3rd battalion of la Corrèze, commanded by Bellegarde, a former domestic in the chateau.

[51] "Archives Nationales," F7, 3270. Deliberation of the council-general of the commune of Roye, Oct. 8, 1792 (passage of two divisions of Parisian gendarmes). "The inhabitants and municipal officers were by turns the sport of their insolence and brutality, constantly threatened in case of refusal with having their heads cut off, and seeing the said gendarmes, especially the gunners, with naked sabers in their hands, always threatening. The citizen mayor especially was treated most outrageously by the said gunners . . . forcing him to dance on the Place d'armes, to which they resorted with violins and where they remained until midnight, rudely pushing and hauling him about, treating him as an aristocrat, clapping the red cap on his head, with constant threats of cutting it off and that of every aristocrat in the town, a threat they swore to carry out the next day, openly stating, especially two or three amongst them, that they had massacred the Paris prisoners on the 2nd of September, and that it cost them nothing to massacre."[52] Summaries, in the order of their date or locality, and similar to those about to be placed before the reader, sometimes occur in these files. I pursue the same course as the clerk, in conformity with Roland's methodical habits.

[53] Aug. 17, 1792 (Moniteur, XIII, 383, report of M. Emmery).

[54] "Archives Nationales," F7, 3271. Letter of the administrators of Tarn, July 21.