THE FRENCH REVOLUTION.

Otago Witness, Issue 2861, 13 January 1909, Page 79

THE FRENCH REVOLUTION.

! PEMARKATSLE EPI^ODE^ gioatcat living iulh'ji it v <n the histoiy o' the Fier."h Revi/hil.onr.rv p^-ioJ, and ' ■^.-pe-"]?'lly on the stmi'p el.aia'*ci <■ vho i^ltv^il n pt'l iv the T\> 'yn n~ 'JVri'O'- i 7T^ }i;.= f-^ ■" -rjed doruri'"- it-, and lp-tflf ' I l'll-.-'t i :VV':-'l' V'Ml ."! - .TS O' ','!' T I 1.1"." X',lli i>- 1- 5- en r .'< U 1 liy ' li Ml t'i it l •! i ■! 'n ; ', , , • ' (1- 1 Id,- i k.1,,.' oi l}'"> ,ut',i- iii t ! '" ii c-' 1 1 . v • 1 1 " <^ ' r-itl mir.-rilo;'. -liriw m !■; I „y. A<vjv n , | liis many lii i -t»»i J .cp.l ViOik< not ors is rarue ! fasrini'ting ihon 'Romances of the Fron;h I Fevolutiou,'' v/hi< h lias been tian.-lat.cd by 3\/r Frtdcr'c Lcei. It is a role t-'iu of bt«di«s on lnanv of the 1 -«-l;iKmn nji-ncl?3 ; n.ij.d pei^ons <: tha p: volution. liil/ ai^ ! tokl ivitli all the vivicliic!..: of ionican.e. and ;

{ give a far more truthful picture of that j tremendous upheival thaa is given by hisJ torirns of th» ordinaiy type. — Fate of Madame dv Barry. — At no period it> modern history nave i the affairs ot a, great nation been con- • trolled by scoundi-ols and ruffians as those o 1 France were in ihe first five years of ■ t.io net decade of the eighteenth century. ">\ h happei.ed in it familiar to 7";-i reiders, but the doings in the pro- ' \n^e.s are not as well known. At that : lime France was a prey, not only to her ] own rascality, but to the vagabonds and 1 cut -throats of other nations who flocked in to take advantage of such an unequalled opportunity for plunder. One of the worst of \h.i^i toreigners was George U>:eve, an Englishman, of unfavourable , aiitecodcnls, who was instrumental in . bringing about the ruin of Madame dv Barry. This woman had been the mistress , of Louis XV, and during her ascendancy pt Versailles h:id secured enormous wealth. .S!:e retired to Louveciennes, a charming country village, where she- was beloved by the simple and ignorant peasants, to whom ,' she was a lady bountiful. Her chateau ; was filled with gold, silver, and jewels, • and intimate relations existed between her ' and the Due de Cosse-Brissac. In the 1 early days of the Revolution Grieve went 1 to Louveciennes, and aiTanged his plans. 1 It was an ideal place to plunder, where tK-Ho was "a defenceless woman, isolated by reason of her past, a handful of simpleminded peasants, and treasure which could easily be stolen." The scheme was a first-class "job," and, in order to carry it out succjJSfully, Grieve took two other scoundrals into partnership. His first step , was to take advantage of Madame dv , Barry's temporary absence in PaTis to j carry out a burglary at her chateau, by which she was robbed of jewels worth | two million francs. The booty was taken to London to be sold, and Madame dv Barry followed and tried to recover her property. The police had arrested the ' thieves 'at tha moment when they were selling her diamonds iv a city Jew. But , the magistrates could do nothing, as the offences had been committed abroad. After the Paris massacres of August 10, 1792, Grieve showed his hand. He made himself master of Louveciennes, calling himself the "friend of Franklin and Marat, first-class factiomst and anarchist, and disorgamser of despotism in the two hemispheres." On August 19 a band of 250 ruffians, who called themselves "patriots," arrived at Louveciennes, and on the invitation of Grieve entered the chateau. A week later Brissae was murdered at Versailles, and his body, hacked to pieces, was divided among the murderers. One iv an brought his parents a souvenir in the shape of a foot of the corpse covered- with a silk stocking and a new shoe. Another cut off the. dead man's fingers, and distributed them among his friends. Throe boys of 15 or 16 carried about the held on a pitchfork, and finally hurled it through the open window into the drawing room°of the chateau. These horrors are revolting to read about, but unless they are known it is impossible to thoroughly understand the French Revolution Such things were being done all over France. Any hcoundrel could collect a band of ruffians, invade a chateau, murder the inmates, and carry off all tin? valuables. Madame dv Barry, having been turned out of her country house, which was taken possession of by Grieve, who remained there for six' ..nonths, was arrested, and Grieve appeared before the bar of the Convention, and in the name of morality demanded the unfortunate woman's head. She was guillotined, the description of her execution, given by M. Lerotre ftv\>i an eye-witness, being heartrending. Grieve , retired to Brussels, and died there in 1800, a quiet person of independent means, which he 'had acquired by the plunder of 1 a King's mistress. ' i — Joseph le Bon. — J Perhaps the most infamous of all the Revolutionist* was the wretch who, by the irony of circumstances, was named Joseph le Bon. An account of the pro--1 opedinsjs against him was published at Amiens in two volumes, and a perusal ' ol them, according to M. Lenotre, may be , i-la'-sod union.; nightmares. He goes on to | fcay that during 20 sittings the survivors of" the he.jaiomb.- of Arras and Cambrai ,' gave evidence at Amiens against the for- ', nior member of the Convention, and so i extraoi linary are the statements of these ' phantoms n mourning that one begins to ; doubt the truth of their deposition*. ' Whole streets were depopulated, nonogerauans and 16-year-old girls had their throats cut alter a trial that was a mockmy. The-ie were executions accompanied "by music, with bands of children to guard the scaffold ; there was I debauchery, cynicism, and the refined cruelly ot" a drunken satrap. Le Bon s minion, which lasted eight month?, | ,-. M. Lenotie, one of the most leinunig ehaptois in history. His attitude *dunng the pioceedings is not the | U-a'-i extraordinary feature of the ;ase. lit- limned to the evidence attentively anil v ith an a-toni-hed expre.-i.i-on, "like v nun tv whom torn cone is leliting a vi 'a ii long since foi gotten." To the que at "-,/>> put Lo him Ikj leplied, '"I don't kii >-v " ; "It is pci -lble, but I don't re- <</! JJ ; "I obeyed coders." Dismayed at tLa hoiroio unfolded before him, he ( xc''iii--.'<l. "You ought to blow out my biain- 5 ." When the nine children of the 1 >rr/'-l lamily. \Uio:-e patents he had killed, appeared, fo^lowd by the evjht ot^ei- <>t Maxims I'rts-ton. of Cambrai, ai-'l ":n» wo. c. jeocnipmied by their r-:c'i">; M.' lame Marnier, when he h.id vw' 1 ■ a v't'ou. he was hoard to lmnniur. [• ,v mo .roing to call the- widows and oij'.a Thai he .-at down with a '?. _,< i ted -i-ir, as though he considered •Ji.i-3 evidence unfair. It is significant that Lh mother went mad. Le Bon was evidently, Li:© a large number of French revolutionists, a "degenerate" and homici'M maniac of the first order, Such men cxLt in every country, but only at a time like tlie lUvolv.lvli, Vlieja there is noithea 1

7 law nor government, are they allowed to I rise to the top. When the fall of Robes-'-^pifrfil" tt^s " aniiouiiced Le Bon left Cambrai in a panic. He was arrested, and after-- 14 months' detention -was brought tfcftwe the bar oi the Convention and condemned to ba executed. He drank large draughts of brandy in. the last horn, and had to be supported by the executioner. It was said that he was intoxicated, and he threw himself under the knife of *he guillotine- His body -was followed by a howling urowd, who on reaching the cemetery broke in and stoned the remains. — Fouche and Bilkvud-Varenne. — Of other infamous revolutionists, M. Lenotre has studies on Jc*?eph Fouche, who ctfterwards became chief of police under Napoleon, and Billaud-Varenne, chiefly in connection with their wives. Fouche was sent by the Convention to Lyons, aaid immediately appealed in the streets with a band of ruffians, acrmed with chrbs. and axes, whom he led to the churches which they ware to despoil. The next day he established the 'Terror." Between two parallel ditches, which were to serve as graves, 64 young men, who had been bound two by two, >vere cannonaded and hacfeod to pieces by balls," whilst Fouche looked on from a platform. At Brotteaux a few days later 209 Vrere fired at with grape-shot, and as the guns, which had been too near, had done handily any exarivikm the 'Survivors "were • sabred, mutilated, and massacred with pikes, hatchets, and pick-axes. " Fouohe's wife was very ugly, being skinny, with red hair and eyebrows, and kigh cheek bones. BiJlauo. s wife, on ' the contrary, was a beautiful girl. Whereas Fouche rose to a gieat position in the State, Billand cara« 10 utter grief. Whenever there was anything particularly iniquitous to be done, lie took a hand in it. He was present ■officially a* the massacres at the Abbaye, complimented the murderers, and promised them pay. He dragged to the scaffold the Girondins, QiieeD Marie Antoinette, and his farmer leader, Danton, who said of him, ''Billaud has a dagger under his tongue." He approved of the shooting, drowning, and othei wholesale massacres at Lyons, Nantes, and Artras. Ha encouraged Fouquier-Tinville. He organised the 'pitiless committee at Orange. His name is found, often the first, on €verj- -daatl* •wearrsunt- *W7Ker»— JRotespieawe^ Saint Juat, and Oouthon were threatened 1 ' with death, he deserted them, went ->ver to the enemy, and drove their to execution, proceedings foi -which no one wilK blame him. All this t4me he was a quiet, hard- working o'.erk, who had an ambition to be a tragic dramatist, and led a placid, humdrum life. He retained the affection of his beautiful young wife, who saidj "Not a cloud obscured the bright heaveii of our union." But retribution overtook; him. He was arrested, to the joy of the! crowd, which called out, "Kill him.. To" the (guillotine with the monster !" The rest of his days were s^ent, first in ma-, pri-cnment at Cayenne, and afterwards in* miserable exile in other places in America.. His wife had obtained a divorce, and/ married again, and in her place he took a yo;m.g negress, with whom he lived to the, lobt. suiviving his arrest 26 years. — The Argus.