书城公版The Origins of Contemporary France
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第722章

[90] Archives Nationales, AF.,II., 37, to Fromcastel on mission in Indre-et-Loire, Floréal 13, year II. "The Committee sends you a letter from the people's club of Chinon, demanding the purging and organization of all the constituted authorities of this district. The committee requests you to proceed at once to carry out this important measure."[91] Words of Robespierre, session of the convention September 24, 1793. - On another representative, Merlin de Thionville, who likewise stood fire, Robespierre wrote as follows: "Merlin de Thionville, famous for surrendering Mayence, and more than suspected of having received his reward."[92] Guillon, II., 207. - "Fouché," by M. de Martel, 292.

[93] Hamel, III., 395, and following pages. - Buchez et Roux, XXX., 435. (Session of the Jacobin club, Niv?se 12, year II. Speech of Collot d'Herbois.) "To-day I no longer recognize public opinion; had Ireached Paris three days later, I should probably have been indicted."[94] Marcelin Boudet, "Les conventionnels d'Auvergne," 438.

(Unpublished memoir ot Maignet.)

[95] Buchez et Roux, XXXIV., 165, 191. (Evidence of witnesses on the trial of Carrier.) - Paris, II., 113, "Histoire de Joseph Lebon." "The prisons," says Le Bon, "overflowed at Saint-Pol. I was there and released two hundred persons. Well, in spite of my orders, several were put back by the committee of Surveillance, authorised by Lebas, a friend of Darthé. What could I do against Darthé supported by Saint-Just and Lebas? He would have denounced me." - Ibid., 128, apropos of a certain Lefèvre, "veteran of the Revolution," arrested and brought before the revolutionary tribunal by order of Lebon. "It was necessary to take the choice of condemning him, or of being denounced and persecuted myself, without saving him." - Beaulieu, "Essai," V., 233. "I am afraid and I cause fear was the principle of all the revolutionary atrocities."[96] Ludovic Sciout, "Histoire de la Constitution civile du Clergé, IV., 136. (Orders of Pinét and Cavaignac, Pluvi?se 22, and Vent?se 2.) - Moniteur, XXIV., 469. (Session of Prairial 30, year III., denunciation of representative Laplanche at the bar of the house, by Boismartin.) On the 24th of Brumaire, year II., Laplanche and General Seepher installed themselves at St. L? in the house of an old man of seventy, a M. Lemonnier then under arrest. "Scarcely had they entered the house when they demanded provisions of every kind, linen, clothes, furniture, jewelry, plate, vehicles and title-deeds - all disappeared." Whilst the inhabitants of St. L? were living on a few ounces of brown bread, "the best bread, the choicest wines, pillaged in the house of Lemonnier, were lavishly given in pans and kettles to General Seepher's horses, also to those of representative Laplanche."Lemonnier, set at liberty, could not return to his emptied dwelling then transformed into a storehouse. He lived at the inn, stripped of all his possessions, valued at sixty thousand livres, having saved from his effects only one silver table-service, which he had taken with him into prison.

[97] Marcelin Boudet, 446. (Notes of M. Ignace de Barante.) Also 440. (Unpublished memoir of Maignet).

[98] Archives Nationales, AF., II., 59. Extract from the minutes of the meetings of the People's club of Metz, and depositions made before the committee of Surveillance of the club, Floreal 12, year II., on the conduct of representative Duquesnoy, arrived at Metz the evening before at six o'clock. - There are thirty-two depositions, and among others those of M. Altmayer, Joly and Clédat. One of the witnesses states: "As to these matters, I regarded this citizen (Duquesnoy) as tipsy or drunk, or as a man beside himself." - This is customary with Duquesnoy. - Cf. Paris, "His. de Joseph Lebon," I., 273, 370.-"Archives des Affaires étrangères," vol. 329. Letter of Gadolle, September 11, 1793. "I saw Duquesnoy, the deputy, dead drunk at Bergues, on Whit-Monday, at11 o'clock in the evening." - "Un Séjour en France, 1792 to 1796, p. 136. "His naturally savage temper is excited to madness by the abuse of strong drink. General de .....assures us that he saw him seize the mayor of Avesnes, a respectable old man, by the hair on his presenting him with a petition relating to the town, and throw him down with the air of a cannibal.""He and his brother were dealers in hops at retail, at Saint Pol. He made this brother a general."[99] Alexandrine des Echerolles, "Une famile noble sous la Terreur,"209. At Lyons, Marin, the commissioner, "a tall, powerful, robust man with stentorian lungs," opens his court with a volley of "republican oaths. . . " . . The crowd of supplicants melts away. One lady alone dared present her petition. "Who are you?" She gives her name.

"What! You have the audacity to mention a traitor's name in this place?" Get away and, giving her a push, he put her outside the door with a kick.

[100] Ibid. A mass of evidence proves, on the contrary, that people of every class gave their assistance, owing to which the fire was almost immediately extinguished.

[101] Ibid. The popular club unanimously attests these facts, and despatches six delegates to enter a protest at the convention. Up to the 9th of Thermidor, no relief is granted, while the tax imposed by Duquesnoy is collected. On the 5th Fructidor, year II., the order of Duquesnoy is cancelled by the committee of Public Safety, but the money is not paid back.

[102] Paris, I., 370. (Words of Duquesnoy to Lebon.)[103] Carnot, "Mémoires," I., 414. (Letter of Duquesnoy to the central bureau of representatives at Arras.) The import of these untranslatable profanities being sufficiently clear I let them stand as in the original.-Tr.