Laclos and Brissot had also promoted this insurrection, but not so openly as those above mentioned, and certain

steadiness of her mind. She looked for no recompense but in the reflec tion of having prevented the death of thousands, and the misery of tens of thousands. She was allowed an advocate to assist her at her trial. M. Chauveau, when the evidence was finished, pronounced the following brief speech to the jury.- L'accusée avoue avec sangfroid l'attentat qu'elle a commis; elle en avoue la longue préméditation; elle en avoue les circonstances; en un mot, elle avoue tout, et ne cherche pas même à se justifier. Voilà, citoyens jurés, sa défense toute entiere. Ce calme imperturbable, et cette entiere abnégation de soi-même, qui n'annoncent aucuns remords, et pour ainsi dire en présence de la mort même; ce calme, et cette abnégation sublime sous un rapport, ne sont pas dans la nature; ils ne peuvent s'expliquer que par l'exaltation du fanatisme politique qui lui a mis le poignard à la main, et c'est à vous, citoyens jurés, à juger de quel poids doit être cette considération morale dans la balance de la justice.'

The jury unanimously found her guilty. Sentence of death was pronounced. She then addressed M. Chauveau to this effect. Sir, you have spoken in my defence in delicate and generous terms: it was the only style proper for me. I thank you. It has inspired me with esteem for you, of which I will give you a proof. The judges have informed me that my goods are confiscated. I am indebted for some things at the prison. I charge you to acquit that debt."

A little before her execution, a confessor was introduced to her, and offered his services. She thanked him, and expressed a sense of obliga tion to those who had sent him; but said she had no need of his services.

When the officers entered her chamber to conduct her to death, she mildly begged to be excused for a few minutes until she had finished the letter she was then writing to her father.

The populace, in spite of their prejudice in favour of Marat were so struck with her undaunted deportment, that they did not, according to their custom, insult her as she was carried to execution. She occasion

ally

• The prisoner acknowledges the act of which she is accused; she acknowledges that she had long premeditated it; she acknowledges the va rious circumstances; in short, she acknowledges the whole accusation, and takes no pains to justify herself. In this, gentlemen of the jury, lies her entire defence. This astonishing calmness, this total abnegation of self, which betrays no remorse even in the very presence of death; this calm and this abnegation seem not to be in nature; they cannot be accounted for, but on the supposition that political fanaticism put the poniard into her hand; and it belongs to you, gentlemen of the jury, to de termine what weight that consideration should have in the scale of justice.

ly with views very different from each other. Laclos and others attached to the duke of Orleans wished the deposition of the king, that their patron might be declared regent, and that they themselves might of course obtain situations of power and emolument during the young king's minority. Brissot, who abhorred the duke of Orleans, promoted this seditious petition, in the hopes that the establishment of a republic would be the immediate effect of the king's being deposed.

This assembly in the Champ de Mars, under the pretence of signing a petition for the purpose of deposing the king at the very time that the national assembly had his conduct under consideration, and even after it was known that they had decreed his restoration, with the outrageous behaviour of the multitude, obviously to overawe the legislature, and carry their point by force, was certainly rebellion, however palliated by Brissot himself, in a work he published sometime afterwards, in which this event is singularly misrepresented.* The conduct of Brissot was strongly disapproved of by all those first movers of the revolution, whose view from the beginning, and whose ultimate wish, was a monarchical form of government limited by law, and consistent with the liberty of the subject; and had Brissot been tried at this time + for the part he

ally smiled as she passed; and by that alone showed that she paid them any attention. On the scaffold her face displayed the bloom of health, and the serenity of a mind undisturbed.

Assassination can in no case be entirely justified; but this seems the least culpable and most disinterested instance that can be imagined; and the whole behaviour of Marie Charlotte Cordé exhibits a benevolence of intention and heroic firmness of mind that perhaps has never been surpassed by woman or by man.

* On profite d'un rassemblement paisible de citoyens que signoient une pétition au Champ de Mars; on les peint comme un amas de brigands aux yeux de la garde nationale; on prépare la tragédie de deux hommes trouvés le matin sous l'autel et massacrés à propos. Le drapeau rouge est déployé sans nécessité; et le sang coule, sans que la loi ait parlé.Reponse de Brissot à tous les Libellistes, &c.

That Brissot thought himself at this time in some danger, and that he was shunned by many, appears by his own account. J'ai été un de

ces

certainly took in this insurrection, the object of which was to overset the constitution, he might have been justly condemned and a subsequent tribunal would have been saved the guilt of condemning him and his associates for crimes they never committed, and for that part of their conduct that was meritorious.

The formidable appearance which this insurrection at one moment had, made a strong impression on the minds of many members of the assembly, and of the most respectable citizens of Paris. They considered the insurgents as a gang of needy ruffians, who waited but for a pretext or a signal from their employers to burst into the shops and houses, and pillage them. The energy, therefore, which the assembly, municipality, and commander of the national guards, had shewn in suppressing this commotion was generally approved of; and a greater degree of order and tranquillity than had been known for some time before in Paris was the consequence.

It would have been fortunate that the constituent assembly had continued for at least one year longer; not only because it consisted of a body of more respectable men than the succeeding assembly, but also because by experience it had acquired a juster notion of things than when it was first constituted. The exalted theories concerning liberty, which had been entertained by some of its most distinguished members, were now considerably moderated by the scenes to which they had been witnesses. Whatever dislike the king may be supposed to have had to some parts of the constitution; yet after accepting it and swearing to maintain it, and after the dangers he had been exposed to, there is great reason to think that his resolution was to adhere to his engagements, and

ces hommes désignés publiquement pour l'échaffaud; moi que, huit jours auparavant, on portoit presque aux nues, je me trouvai tout-à-coup dans un abime effroyable, je lisois sur tous les visages, et les calomnies qu'on avoit repandues contre moi, et l'effroi que mon approche inspiroit, et ma sentence prochaine. Mille avis me parvenoient à la fois; mes amis trembloient pour moi; les uns me conseilloient de fuir; les autres de modérer mes traits contre mes persécuteurs,' &c.

that he would to the most minute particular have done so, if he had had an assembly to deal with who had formed a similar resolution. And those nearest the king's person, however different their original opinion may have been, must have confirmed him in this resolution, provided they wished well to the royal family: but all the dawnings of concord and tranquillity that seemed ready to open at this period on the French nation disappeared with the constituent assembly.

The committee which had been employed for a considerable time in digesting and arranging the constitutional decrees had now concluded its labour. The whole was read to the assembly on the 4th of August 1791. It was then debated article by article, and on the 3d of September presented to the king, who was at the same time restricted by the assembly to accept or reject the whole without exception or observation. On the 13th of the same month, being attended by a deputation of sixty members, the king went to the assembly, and sanctioned the assent which he had the day before sent in writing, by an oath to be faithful to the nation, and to employ the powers vested in him for the maintenance of the constitution: and on the 30th of September the assembly was terminated by its own spontaneous dissolution.

CHAPTER XXVIII.

The Legislative Assembly-The King determined to adhere scrupulously to the Constitution-The Gironde determined on a Republic-The King's Household Guards-Formation of the King's and the Queen's Household-A new Hardship put on the Clergy-The Veto exercised-Confusion this produces in the Assembly-Unforeseen Events in the Revolution-Disagreement among the King's Ministers-M. de Narbonne-M. de Bertrand-Administration dissolved.

UNFORTUNATELY for France the legislative assembly contained less wisdom than its predecessor. It was composed of men not only less respectable from their rank in

society, but in general of inferior abilities. There were in it however a few men of distinguished talents, a greater number of a considerable share of learning; but the ideas of both those classes on the subject of government had not been matured by long reflection nor corrected by experience. The remainder, forming by far the greatest proportion, consisted of men with no pretension to knowledge, some of them of impetuous characters and enthusiastic imaginations, who had been elected merely on account of their zeal and activity in the revolution.

From this account of the second or legislative assembly, nothing very wise or politic was to be expected in their conduct; but it could hardly have been conceived that they would have begun by so childish a measure as they really did, namely, contesting the prerogatives and honours which the preceding assembly had left with the king. Having met on the 1st of October, they verified their powers, chose their president and secretaries, took the oath to maintain the constitution decreed by the constituent assembly in the years 1789, 1790, and 1791, and never to propose or consent to any law contrary to it; and immediately after they decreed, contrary to what had been the usage during the former assembly, that when the king should repair to the present one for the cere mony of what they call l'ouverture de la séance, their president should have the first and the king the second place. This ridiculous conduct of the assembly was considered as highly insolent by the king's council, which was unanimously for resisting it; but the king himself found a method of eluding at once the contest and the humiliation, by observing, that as the constitution did not ordain that he should go in person to the assembly, either for the ouverture or any other purpose, he would on the present occasion allow the ouverture to take place without his appearing.

This new pretension of the assembly was viewed with indignation by the public in general, as well as by the king's council; which when the assembly understood, and