La comtesse de Charny. English
CHAPTER VII.
THE MEN FROM MARSEILLES.
We have said that Barbaroux had written to a friend in the south tosend him five hundred men willing to die.
Who was the man who could write such lines? and what influence had heover his friends?
Charles Barbaroux was a very handsome young man of barely twenty-five,who was reproached for his beauty, and considered by Mme. Roland asfrivolous and too generally amorous. On the contrary, he loved hiscountry alone, or must have loved her best, for he died for her.
Son of a hardy sea-faring man, he was a poet and orator when quiteyoung--at the breaking out of trouble in his native town during theelection of Mirabeau. He was then appointed secretary to the Marseillestown board. Riots at Arles drew him into them; but the seething caldronof Paris claimed him; the immense furnace which needed perfume, thehuge crucible hissing for purest metal.
He was Roland's correspondent at the south, and Mme. Roland hadpictured from his regular, precise, and wise letters, a man of forty,with his head bald from much thinking, and his forehead wrinkledwith vigils. The reality of her dream was a young man, gay, merry,light, fond of her sex, the type of the rich and brilliant generationflourishing in '92, to be cut down in '93.
It was in this head, esteemed too frivolous by Mme. Roland, that thefirst thought of the tenth of August was conceived, perhaps.
The storm was in the air, but the clouds were tossing about in alldirections for Barbaroux to give them a direction and pile them up overthe Tuileries.
When nobody had a settled plan, he wrote for five hundred determinedmen.
The true ruler of France was the man who could write for such men andbe sure of their coming.
Rebecqui chose them himself out of the revolutionists who had foughtin the last two years' popular affrays, in Avignon and the other fierytowns; they were used to blood; they did not know what fatigue was byname.
On the appointed day they set out on the two hundred league tramp, asif it were a day's strolling. Why not? They were hardy seamen, ruggedpeasants, sunburned by the African simoom or the mountain gale, withhands callous from the spade or tough with tar.
Wherever they passed along they were hailed as brigands.
In a halt they received the words and music of Rouget de l'Isle's "Hymnto Liberty," sent as a viaticum by Barbaroux to shorten the road. Thelips of the Marseilles men made it change in character, while the wordswere altered by their new emphasis. The song of brotherhood became oneof death and extermination--forever "the Marseillaise."
Barbaroux had planned to head with the Marseilles men some fortythousand volunteers Santerre was to have ready to meet them, overwhelmthe City Hall and the House, and then storm the palace. But Santerrewent to greet them with only two hundred men, not liking to let thestrangers have the glory of such a rush.
With ardent eyes, swart visages, and shrill voices, the little bandstrode through all Paris to the Champs Elysees, singing the thrillingsong. They camped there, awaiting the banquet on the morrow.
It took place, but some grenadiers were arrayed close to the spot, aRoyalist guard set as a rampart between them and the palace.
They divined they were enemies, and commencing by insults, they wenton to exchanging fisticuffs. At the first blood the Marseillaiseshouted "To arms!" raided the stacks of muskets, and sent thegrenadiers flying with their own bayonets. Luckily, they had theTuileries at their backs and got over the draw-bridge, finding shelterin the royal apartments. There is a legend that the queen bound up thewounds of one soldier.
The Federals numbered five thousand--Marseilles men, Bretons, andDauphinois. They were a power, not from their number, but their faith.The spirit of the revolution was in them.
They had fire-arms but no ammunition; they called for cartridges, butnone were supplied. Two of them went to the mayor and demanded powder,or they would kill themselves in the office.
Two municipal officers were on duty--Sergent, Danton's man, and Panis,Robespierre's.
Sergent had artistic imagination and a French heart; he felt that theyoung men spoke with the voice of the country.
"Look out, Panis," he said; "if these youths kill themselves, the bloodwill fall on our heads."
"But if we deliver the powder without authorization, we risk our necks."
"Never mind. I believe the time has come to risk our necks. In thatcase, everybody for himself," replied Sergent. "Here goes for mine; youcan do as you like."
He signed the delivery note, and Panis put his name to it.
Things were easier now; when the Marseilles men had powder and shotthey would not let themselves be butchered without hitting back.
As soon as they were armed, the Assembly received their petition, andallowed them to attend the session. The Assembly was in great fear, somuch so as to debate whether it ought not to transfer the meetings tothe country. For everybody stood in doubt, feeling the ground to quakeunderfoot and fearing to be swallowed.
This wavering chafed the southerners. No little disheartened, Barbarouxtalked of founding a republic in the south.
He turned to Robespierre, to see if he would help to set the ballrolling. But the Incorruptible's conditions gave him suspicions, and heleft him, saying:
"We will no more have a dictator than a king."