Love and liberty

At the time when I determined to take the trip of which I will give you some details, and which put me in possession of the memoirs I am about to publish—that is to say, about t...

I was born in the village of Islettes, on the banks of a little river called the Biesme, in the Forest of Argonne, situated between St. Menehould and Clermont, on the 14th of Ju...

When I came to examine the book which M. Jean Baptiste had sent me, and the title of which was “Emile, or Education,” I sought out the chapter which had direct reference to my o...

Out I set at once, taking my book with me, to read on the way; and so interesting did I find the adventures of “Emile,” that I found myself near my friend’s house actually witho...

Next day I laid up for myself a course of study—physical and intellectual. In the morning I read and studied my books; during the day I worked at my carpentry; towards evening I...

Next morning I set out for St. Menehould, to see about M. Drouet’s job. He told me what he wanted, and that he should require the new furniture I was to make him to be of good,...

The work was estimated at five hundred francs, the materials alone costing a hundred and twenty; so that I received three hundred and eighty, with the compliments of my two mast...

In the reign of Louis XVI all the rigors of prisons were softened, with the exception of the Bastille, the discipline of which was harsher than ever. In former reigns they had b...

For a long time, reports of hidden dungeons and forgotten prisoners agitated Paris. Paris had had a mountain on its breast, and could not accustom itself to the deliverance from...

What was most remarkable, with regard to this corps, was the manner in which the battalions seemed, as it were, to spring from the earth. Liberty was as yet quite young; and yet...

I have said how much my encounter with De Malmy seemed to affect my companion, but that might have been accounted for in three ways. First, her fear for herself; second, her fea...

In this way we heard of the abolition of titles, on the 1st of August; of the suppression of tithes; of the recognition of religious liberty; of the orgie of the gardes du corps...

For some time I followed the carriage with my eyes, for I feared to look at Sophie, as I could not help thinking that the expression of her face would decide my future happiness...

On the morrow, the ninth of July, ’90, we were _en route_ at daybreak, drums beating in front of us, to assist in the celebration of the grand fête of the general federation.

The carpenter, Duplay, in contact with whom fortune had brought me, had, at that period—that is to say, on the 12th of July, 1790,—the celebrity of having given shelter to a not...

I asked M. Duplay where they were going. He told me that there was, under the church, a smaller hall—a sort of crypt—where the workmen and their wives held a club—the workmen at...

I wished to go to the Rue Grange Batélière, where M. Drouet lived, and where he had appointed a rendezvous at the “Hotel des Postes;” but M. Duplay insisting that I should parta...

The hall was deep and broad, and lighted with smoky lamps; a cloud formed by their smoke, and the breath of the audience, floated over our heads, and seemed to weigh heavily upo...

I had once or twice heard the name of the heroine of the 5th and 8th of October—the impetuous Liègoise, beautiful, but terrible; who, at Versailles, with a smile and soft voice,...

I had seen so much since my arrival, and had been in company with so many great men—Mirabeau, Robespierre, Lameth, Laclos, Chemier, Talma, David, Laharpe, Danton, Marat, Desmoul...

It was three hours after noontide when the ceremony was over. I made a rendezvous with M. Drouet for five o’clock at the “Hotel des Postes,” and left him to give my thanks and b...

I had such confidence in M. Drouet, that I did not think it necessary to ask him to come. I had only to tell him my sorrow, and I knew that he would come.

The changes made by death excepted, there is this strange and touching peculiarity of country life, that, whilst kingdoms are rent, hedgerows, and fields, and rustics, apparentl...

As I was an excellent workman, he gave me, as well as board and lodging, a salary of thirty francs a month, and often gave me to understand that he wished that I were a few year...

One can easily understand that it was late when we sought our respective couches, and that we rose early the next morning, having kept one eye open all the time that we slept.

The door yielded to the force used, and showed a man of fifty or fifty-five years, holding a candle in his hand. He was attired in a dressing-gown, and had his naked feet thrust...

My story would be incomplete did I not follow the royal family in their flight from the moment that they left the Palace of Tuileries, till their appearance at the top of the Ru...

They had determined to depart on the 11th, but having refused to take Madame de Rochereul, _femme-de-chambre_ to the Dauphin, and mistress of M. de Gouvion, aide-de-camp to Lafa...

Under the pretext of enlarging Madame Royale’s suite of rooms, the Queen kept these apartments, and said that the _femme-de-chambre_ of the Dauphin could share those of Madame d...

At St. Menehould, M. Dandoins awaited the King’s arrival with as much impatience as M. de Choiseul and M. Goguelot had; and about mid-day he set out with his lieutenant on the r...

M. Sauce, who, after he had conducted his guests to the chamber in which they were confined, had descended to get the key, remounted the stairs, followed by M. Goguelot and M. d...

In the midst of the tumult which was produced by the disarming of M. de Choiseul and M. de Damas, and the cries of “Vive la nation!” shouted out by the hussars, to the great del...

But M. de Bouillé could but little depend on his men. He was surrounded by hostile villagers, as he called them—that is to say, patriotic. He was menaced by Metz, by Verdun, and...

Nothing important passed between Varennes and St. Menehould. The illustrious prisoners, starting at every new noise, lost in a measure, as they approached the latter town, every...

Not only does it seem to me sufficient to relate what I have seen; I desire also, as an eye-witness, to rectify history and to combat, on sure grounds, the mistake of historians.

The route from St. Menehould to Châlons is long and fatiguing—nine apparently never-ending leagues, traversing flat and arid plains under a leaden sky, with a sun darting his sc...

I have already said that, on leaving Varennes, I had taken a place on the back of the carriage of the King. Happily, I had managed to retain my position, despite the heat, the f...

If a fanatic should fire on the King, which was, indeed, probable; if on the Queen, which was more than probable;—Barnave was there, to arrest with his own body the fell bullet...

It was nine o’clock in the evening. I went to look after my horse, which I had left in a house by the barrier. They gave it back to me as promised, and I retook it to the stable...

It will easily be imagined that the event of which I am treating was the subject of conversation for fifteen days in the house of Duplay in which I was apprentice, in the place...

The Assembly took the opinion of the commissioners, but the Jacobin Club refused its sanction to the Assembly. The Assembly had then above it a high chamber, which could annihil...

Madame Roland was very far from having assumed at that period the important position that she afterwards held. As yet she had never fretted and fumed her hour upon the political...

We had for neighbor, in the Rue St. Honoré, two doors lower down than our own, a hair-dresser, named Léger. This hair-dresser, like all his _confrères_, was a staunch Royalist....

A strong detachment of troops, with two or three pieces of cannon, which had been stationed there in consequence of the assassination which had taken place in the morning, seein...

We thought but little of the danger we were running at the Champ de Mars, and knew nothing whatever of what was going on at the Hotel de Ville. The crowd was nothing more than a...

I had no sooner quitted this frightful scene of bloodshed, than, thanking my saviors, I sprang forward towards the river, in order to cross it by boat, or, if there was a necess...

As yet, I knew not sufficient of Paris to be enabled to extricate myself from the labyrinth of streets which joined the Rue St. Honoré, and which stretched from the Rue Aubry le...

Here comes a break in my personal adventures during the course of the great struggle for liberty throughout France. I leading the way, and St. Just following, we went down the R...

Throughout August, affairs were tending more and more to dangerous threats. The National Assembly were ostensibly framing a new constitution; but the delegates proceeded very sl...

The National Assembly had ordered the provinces to send 20,000 troops to Paris. With them they brought the revolutionary hymn, the “Marseillaise.” It was written and composed by...

The wretched Queen’s head and eyelids drooped for a moment as she heard the words which dethroned her husband; then, once again, her head was high and defiant. Together with the...

The King had scarcely quitted the Convention upon the occasion of his first appearance there, than he was accorded the privilege of even the commonest prisoner on his trial—that...

With calm curiosity, and as though making inquiries concerning the affairs of another man, and not of his own, he learnt the particulars of the voting; and he made special inqui...

He and Cléry, the recently-appointed but faithful attendant on the King, heard the condemned man’s breath regular and peaceful, uninterrupted by cries or restlessness. His heart...

As the Place de la Revolution, the place of execution, came in view, a ray of sunshine fell upon the guillotine—one of those coincidences which the superstitious and the wonder-...

I will say no more than this—Louis died bravely, and like a man. And I think the people were sorry. Of course they had more to regret before the Reign of Terror was over.

The remains of Louis XVI were conveyed in a cart to the graveyard, flung into a hole, and lime cast upon the remains, that the bones might never be found, in order to be exalted...

On the eve of the last day in May (1793), of those twenty-two, only one, the leader, Vergniaud, slept in his own home. The others feared an assassination, and sought the aid of...

The body was carried by torchlight to the garden of the house in which he made his most inflammatory speeches; and there he was buried under trees heavily laden with countless b...

Marie Antoinette in her last prison, however, was not without pitying friends. The fierce communists ordered that she should drink the water of the Seine, drawn as it flowed pas...

The twenty-two had literally been under the control of the police, though not arrested, since May 31st. But as events progressed, their destruction became almost necessary to th...

The first to fall was the Duc of Orleans (father of Louis Philippe, King of the French). He had done nothing against the interests of the republic, but his birth was a crime, an...

When the Girondists fell, she knew all hope of life for herself was at an end. She was then removed to the prison whence Marie Antoinette went to the scaffold—nay, she was impri...

Robespierre and his friends, St. Just, Couthon, and Lebas, seated in a room by themselves, hear the jingle of approaching soldiers. Lebas takes one of a couple of pistols, and p...