CHAPTER III.
POWERFUL, PERHAPS; HAPPY, NEVER.
The Narbonne Ministry lasted three months. A speech of Vergniaudblasted it. On the news that the Empress of Russia had made a treatywith Turkey, and Austria and Prussia had signed an alliance, offensiveand defensive, he sprung into the rostrum and cried:
"I see the palace from here where this counter-revolution is schemingthose plots which aim to deliver us to Austria. The day has come whenyou must put an end to so much audacity, and confound the plotters. Outof that palace have issued panic and terror in olden times, in thename of despotism--let them now rush into it in the name of the law!"
Dread and terror did indeed enter the Tuileries, whence De Narbonne,wafted thither by a breath of love, was expelled by a gust of storm.This downfall occurred at the beginning of March, 1792.
Scarce three months after the interview of Gilbert and the queen, asmall, active, nervy little man, with flaming eyes blazing in a brightface, was ushered into King Louis' presence. He was aged fifty-six, butappeared ten years younger, though his cheek was brown with camp-firesmoke; he wore the uniform of a camp-marshal.
The king cast a dull and heavy glance on the little man, whom he hadnever met; but it was not without observation. The other fixed on him ascrutinizing eye full of fire and distrust.
"You are General Dumouriez? Count de Narbonne, I believe, called you toParis?"
"To announce that he gave me a division in the army in Alsace."
"But you did not join, it appears?"
"Sire, I accepted; but I felt that I ought to point out that as warimpended"--Louis started visibly--"and threatened to become general,"went on the soldier, without appearing to remark the emotion, "I deemedit good to occupy the south, where an attack might come unawares;consequently, it seemed urgent to me that a plan for movements thereshould be drawn up, and a general and army sent thither."
"Yes; and you gave this plan to Count de Narbonne, after showing it tomembers of the Gironde?"
"They are friends of mine, as I believe they are of your majesty."
"Then I am dealing with a Girondist?" queried the monarch, smiling.
"With a patriot, and faithful subject of his king."
Louis bit his thick lips.
"Was it to serve the king and the country the more efficaciously thatyou refused to be foreign minister for a time?"
"Sire, I replied that I preferred, to being any kind of minister, thecommand promised me. I am a soldier, not a statesman."
"I have been assured, on the contrary, that you are both," observed thesovereign.
"I am praised too highly, sire."
"It was on that assurance that I insisted."
"Yes, sire; but in spite of my great regret, I was obliged to persistin refusing."
"Why refuse?"
"Because it is a crisis. It has upset De Narbonne and compromisesLessart. Any man has the right to keep out of employment or beemployed, according to what he thinks he is fitted for. Now, my liege,I am good for something or for nothing. If the latter, leave me in myobscurity. Who knows for what fate you draw me forth? If I am good forsomething, do not give me power for an instant, the premier of a day,but place some solid footing under me that I may be your support atanother day. Our affairs--your majesty will pardon me already regardinghis business as mine--our affairs are in too great disfavor abroad forcourts to deal with an _ad interim_ ministry; this interregnum--youwill excuse the frankness of an old soldier"--no one was less frankthan Dumouriez, but he wanted to appear so at times--"this intervalwill be a blunder against which the House will revolt, and it will makeme disliked there; more, I must say that it will injure the king, whowill seem still to cling to his former Cabinet, and only be waiting fora chance to bring it back."
"Were that my intention, do you not believe it possible, sir?"
"I believe, sire, that it is full time to drop the past."
"And make myself a Jacobin, as you have said to my valet, Laporte?"
"Forsooth, did your majesty this, it would perplex all the parties, andthe Jacobins most of all."
"Why not straightway advise me to don the red cap?"
"I wish I saw you in it," said Dumouriez.
For an instant the king eyed with distrust the man who had thus repliedto him; and then he resumed:
"So you want a permanent office?"
"I am wishing nothing at all, only ready to receive the king's orders;still, I should prefer them to send me to the frontier to retaining mein town."
"But if I give you the order to stay, and the foreign office portfolioin permanency, what will you say?"
"That your majesty has dispelled your prejudices against me," returnedthe general, with a smile.
"Well, yes, entirely, general; you are my premier."
"Sire, I am devoted to your service; but--"
"Restrictions?"
"Explanations, sire. The first minister's place is not what it was.Without ceasing to be your majesty's faithful servant on entering thepost, I become the man of the nation. From this day, do not expectthe language my predecessors used; I must speak according to theConstitution and liberty. Confined to my duties, I shall not play thecourtier; I shall not have the time, and I drop all etiquette so as tobetter serve the king. I shall only work with you in private or at thecouncil--and I warn you that it will be hard work."
"Hard work--why?"
"Why, it is plain; almost all your diplomatic corps areanti-revolutionists. I must urge you to change them, cross your tasteson the new choice, propose officials of whom your majesty never so muchas heard the names, and others who will displease."
"In which case?" quickly interrupted Louis.
"Then I shall obey when your majesty's repugnance is too strong andwell-founded, as you are the master; but if your choice is suggestedby your surroundings, and is clearly made to get me into trouble, Ishall entreat your majesty to find a successor for me. Sire, think ofthe dreadful dangers besieging your throne, and that one must have thepublic confidence in support; sire, this depends on you."
"Let me stay you a moment; I have long pondered over these dangers."He stretched out his hand to the portrait of Charles I. of England,by Vandyke, and continued, while wiping his forehead with hishandkerchief: "This would remind me, if I were to forget them. It isthe same situation, with similar dangers; perhaps the scaffold ofWhitehall is erecting on City Hall Place."
"You are looking too far ahead, my lord."
"Only to the horizon. In this event, I shall march to the scaffoldas Charles I. did, not perhaps as knightly, but at least as like aChristian. Proceed, general."
Dumouriez was checked by this firmness, which he had not expected.
"Sire, allow me to change the subject."
"As you like; I only wish to show that I am not daunted by the prospectthey try to frighten me with, but that I am prepared for even thisemergency."
"If I am still regarded as your Minister of Foreign Affairs, I willbring four dispatches to the first consul. I notify your majesty thatthey will not resemble those of previous issue in style or principles;they will suit the circumstances. If this first piece of work suitsyour majesty, I will continue; if not, my carriage will be waiting tocarry me to serve king and country on the border; and, whatever may besaid about my diplomatic ability," added Dumouriez, "war is my trueelement, and the object of my labors these thirty-six years."
"Wait," said the other, as he bowed before going out; "we agree on onepoint, but there are six more to settle."
"My colleagues?"
"Yes; I do not want you to say that you are hampered by such a one.Choose your Cabinet, sir."
"Sire, you are fixing grave responsibility on me."
"I believe I am meeting your wishes by putting it on you."
"Sire, I know nobody at Paris save one, Lacoste, whom I propose for thenavy office."
"Lacoste? A clerk in the naval stores, I believe?" questioned the king.
"Who resigned rather than connive at som
e foul play."
"That's a good recommendation. What about the others?'"
"I must consult Petion, Brissot, Condorcet--"
"The Girondists, in short?"
"Yes, sire."
"Let the Gironde pass; we shall see if they will get us out of theditch better than the other parties."
"We have still to learn if the four dispatches will suit."
"We might learn that this evening; we can hold an extraordinarycouncil, composed of yourself, Grave, and Gerville--Duport hasresigned. But do not go yet; I want to commit you."
He had hardly spoken before the queen and Princess Elizabeth stood inthe room, holding prayer-books.
"Ladies," said the king, "this is General Dumouriez, who promises toserve us well, and will arrange a new Cabinet with us this evening."
Dumouriez bowed, while the queen looked hard at the little man who wasto exercise so much influence over the affairs of France.
"Do you know Doctor Gilbert?" she asked. "If not, make his acquaintanceas an excellent prophet. Three months ago he foretold that you wouldbe Count de Narbonne's successor."
The main doors opened, for the king was going to mass. Behind himDumouriez went out; but the courtiers shunned him as though he had theleprosy.
"I told you I should get you committed," whispered the monarch.
"Committed to you, but not to the aristocracy," returned the warrior;"it is a fresh favor the king grants me." Whereupon he retired.
At the appointed hour he returned with the four dispatchespromised--for Spain, Prussia, England, and Austria. He read them tothe king and Messieurs Grave and Gerville, but he guessed that he hadanother auditor behind the tapestry by its shaking.
The new ruler spoke in the king's name, but in the sense of theConstitution, without threats, but also without weakness. He discussedthe true interests of each power relatively to the French Revolution.As each had complained of the Jacobin pamphlets, he ascribed thedespicable insults to the freedom of the press, a sun which made weedsto grow as well as good grain to flourish. Lastly, he demanded peacein the name of a free nation, of which the king was the hereditaryrepresentative.
The listening king lent fresh interest to each paper.
"I never heard the like, general," he said, when the reading was over.
"That is how ministers should speak and write in the name of rulers,"observed Gerville.
"Well, give me the papers; they shall go off to-morrow," the king said.
"Sire, the messengers are waiting in the palace yard," said Dumouriez.
"I wanted to have a duplicate made to show the queen," objected theking, with marked hesitation.
"I foresaw the wish, and have copies here," replied Dumouriez.
"Send off the dispatches," rejoined the king.
The general took them to the door, behind which an aid was waiting.Immediately the gallop of several horses was heard leaving theTuileries together.
"Be it so," said the king, replying to his mind, as the meaning soundsdied away. "Now, about your Cabinet?"
"Monsieur Gerville pleads that his health will not allow him to remain,and Monsieur Grave, stung by a criticism of Madame Roland, wishes tohold office until his successor is found. I therefore pray your majestyto receive Colonel Servan, an honest man in the full acceptation of thewords, of a solid material, pure manners, philosophical austerity, anda heart like a woman's, withal an enlightened patriot, a courageoussoldier, and a vigilant statesman."
"Colonel Servan is taken. So we have three ministers: Dumouriez for theForeign Office, Servan for War, and Lacoste for the Navy. Who shall bein the Treasury?"
"Clavieres, if you will. He is a man with great financial friends andsupreme skill in handling money."
"Be it so. As for the Law lord?"
"A lawyer of Bordeaux has been recommended to me--Duranthon."
"Belonging to the Gironde party, of course?"
"Yes, sire, but enlightened, upright, a very good citizen, though slowand feeble; we will infuse fire into him and be strong enough for allof us."
"The Home Department remains."
"The general opinion is that this will be fitted to Roland."
"You mean Madame Roland?"
"To the Roland couple. I do not know them, but I am assured that theone resembles a character of Plutarch and the other a woman from Livy."
"Do you know that your Cabinet is already called the BreechlessMinistry?"
"I accept the nickname, with the hope that it will be found without_breaches_."
"We will hold the council with them the day after to-morrow."
General Dumouriez was going away with his colleagues, when a valetcalled him aside and said that the king had something more to say tohim.
"The king or the queen?" he questioned.
"It is the queen, sir; but she thought there was no need for thosegentlemen to know that."
And Weber--for this was the Austrian foster-brother of MarieAntoinette--conducted the general to the queen's apartments, where heintroduced him as the person sent for.
Dumouriez entered, with his heart beating more violently than when heled a charge or mounted the deadly breach. He fully understood that hehad never stood in worse danger. The road he traveled was strewn withcorpses, and he might stumble over the dead reputations of premiers,from Calonne to Lafayette.
The queen was walking up and down, with a very red face. She advancedwith a majestic and irritated air as he stopped on the sill where thedoor had been closed behind him.
"Sir, you are all-powerful at this juncture," she said, breaking theice with her customary vivacity. "But it is by favor of the populace,who soon shatter their idols. You are said to have much talent. Havethe wit, to begin with, to understand that the king and I will notsuffer novelties. Your constitution is a pneumatic machine; royaltystifles in it for want of air. So I have sent for you to learn, beforeyou go further, whether you side with us or with the Jacobins."
"Madame," responded Dumouriez, "I am pained by this confidence,although I expected it, from the impression that your majesty wasbehind the tapestry."
"Which means that you have your reply ready?"
"It is that I stand between king and country, but before all I belongto the country."
"The country?" sneered the queen. "Is the king no longer anything, thateverybody belongs to the country and none to him?"
"Excuse me, lady; the king is always the king, but he has taken oathto the Constitution, and from that day he should be one of the firstslaves of the Constitution."
"A compulsory oath, and in no way binding, sir!"
Dumouriez held his tongue for a space, and, being a consummate actor,he regarded the speaker with deep pity.
"Madame," he said, at length, "allow me to say that your safety, theking's, your children's, all, are attached to this Constitution whichyou deride, and which will save you, if you consent to be saved by it.I should serve you badly, as well as the king, if I spoke otherwise toyou."
The queen interrupted him with an imperious gesture.
"Oh, sir, sir, I assure you that you are on the wrong path!" shesaid; adding, with an indescribable accent of threat: "Take heed foryourself!"
"Madame," replied Dumouriez, in a perfectly calm tone, "I am over fiftyyears of age; my life has been traversed with perils, and on taking theministry I said to myself that ministerial responsibility was not theslightest danger I ever ran."
"Fy, sir!" returned the queen, slapping her hands together; "you havenothing more to do than to slander me?"
"Slander you, madame?"
"Yes; do you want me to explain the meaning of the words I used? It isthat I am capable of having you assassinated. For shame, sir!"
Tears escaped from her eyes. Dumouriez had gone as far as she wanted;he knew that some sensitive fiber remained in that indurated heart.
"Lord forbid I should so insult my queen!" he cried. "The nature ofyour majesty is too grand and noble for the worst of her enemies to beinspired with such an idea,
she has given heroic proofs which I haveadmired, and which attached me to her."
"Then excuse me, and lend me your arm. I am so weak that I often fear Ishall fall in a swoon."
Turning pale, she indeed drooped her head backward. Was it reality, oronly one of the wiles in which this fearful Medea was so skilled? Keenthough the general was, he was deceived; or else, more cunning than theenchantress, he feigned to be caught.
"Believe me, madame," he said, "that I have no interest in cheatingyou. I abhor anarchy and crime as much as yourself. Believe, too,that I have experience, and am better placed than your majesty to seeevents. What is transpiring is not an intrigue of the Duke of Orleans,as you are led to think; not the effect of Pitt's hatred, as you havesupposed; not even the outcome of popular impulse, but the almostunanimous insurrection of a great nation against inveterate abuses.I grant that there is in all this great hates which fan the flames.Leave the lunatics and the villains on one side; let us see nothing inthis revolution in progress but the king and the nation, all tendingto separate them brings about their mutual ruin. I come, my lady, towork my utmost to reunite them; aid me, instead of thwarting me. Youmistrust me? Am I an obstacle to your anti-revolutionary projects? Tellme so, madame, I will forthwith hand my resignation to the king, and goand wail the fate of my country and its ruler in some nook."
"No, no," said the queen; "remain, and excuse me."
"Do you ask me to excuse you? Oh, madame, I entreat you not to humbleyourself thus."
"Why should I not be humble? Am I still a queen? am I yet treated likea woman?"
Going to the window, she opened it in spite of the evening coolness;the moon silvered the leafless trees of the palace gardens.
"Are not the air and the sunshine free to all? Well, these are refusedto me; I dare not put my head out of window, either on the street orthe gardens. Yesterday I did look out on the yard, when a Guards gunnerhailed me with an insulting nickname, and said: 'How I should like tocarry your head on a bayonet-point.' This morning, I opened the gardenwindow. A man standing on a chair was reading infamous stuff againstme; a priest was dragged to a fountain to be ducked; and meanwhile,as though such scenes were matters of course, children were sailingtheir balloons and couples were strolling tranquilly. What times we areliving in--what a place to live in--what a people! And would you haveme still believe myself a queen, and even feel like a woman?"
She threw herself on a sofa, and hid her face in her hands.
Dumouriez dropped on one knee, and taking up the hem of her dressrespectfully, he kissed it.
"Lady," he said, "from the time when I undertake this struggle, youwill become the mighty queen and the happy woman once more, or I shallleave my life on the battle-field."
Rising, he saluted the lady and hurried out. She watched him go with ahopeless look, repeating:
"The mighty queen? Perhaps, thanks to your sword--for it is possible;but the happy woman--never, never, never!"
She let her head fall between the sofa cushions, muttering the namedearer every day and more painful:
"Charny!"
The Dumouriez Cabinet might be called one of war.
On the first of March, the Emperor Leopold died in the midst of hisItalian harem, slain by self-compounded aphrodisiacs. The queen, whohad read in some lampoon that a penny pie would settle the monarchy,and who had called Dr. Gilbert in to get an antidote, cried aloud thather brother was poisoned. With him passed all the halting policy ofAustria.
Francis II., who mounted the throne, was of mixed Italian and Germanblood. An Austrian born at Florence, he was weak, violent, and tricky.The priests reckoned him an honest man; his hard and bigoted soulhid its duplicity under a rosy face of dreadful sameness. He walkedlike a stage ghost; he gave his daughter to a conqueror rather thanpart with his estate, and then stabbed him in the back at his firstretreating step in the snows. Francis II. remains in history the tyrantof the Leads of Venice and the Spitzberg dungeons, and the torturer ofAndryane and Silvio Pellico.
This was the protector of the French fugitives, the ally of Prussiaand the enemy of France. He held Embassador Noailles as a prisoner atVienna.
The French embassador to Berlin, Segur, was preceded by a rumor that heexpected to gain the secrets of the King of Prussia by making love tohis mistresses--this King of Prussia was a lady-killer! Segur presentedhimself at the same time as the envoy from the self-exiled princes atCoblentz.
The king turned his back on the French representative, and askedpointedly after the health of the Prince of Artois.
These were the two ostensible foes; the hidden ones were Spain, Russia,and England. The chief of the coalition was to be the King of Sweden,that dwarf in giant's armor whom Catherine II. held up in her hand.
With the ascension of Francis, the diplomatic note came: Austria was torule in France, Avignon was to be restored to the pope, and things inFrance were to go back to where they stood in June, 1789.
This note evidently agreed with the secret wishes of the king and thequeen. Dumouriez laughed at it. But he took it to the king.
As much as Marie Antoinette, the woman for extreme measures, desireda war which she believed one of deliverance for her, the king fearedit, as the man for the medium, slowness, wavering, and crooked policy.Indeed, suppose a victory in the war, he would be at the mercy of thevictorious general; suppose a defeat, and the people would hold himresponsible, cry treason, and rush on the palace!
In short, should the enemy penetrate to Paris, what would it bring?The king's brother, Count Provence, who aimed to be regent of therealm. The result of the return of the runaway princes would be theking deposed, Marie Antoinette pronounced an adulteress, and the royalchildren proclaimed, perhaps, illegitimate.
The king trusted foreigners, but not the princes of his own blood andkingdom.
On reading the note, he comprehended that the hour to draw the swordfor France had come, and that there was no receding.
Who was to bear the flag of the revolution? Lafayette, who had lost hisfame by massacring the populace on the Paris parade-ground; Luckner,who was known only by the mischief he wrought in the Seven Years' War,and old Rochambeau, the French naval hero in the American Revolution,who was for defensive war, and was vexed to see Dumouriez promote youngblood over his head without benefiting by his experience.
It was expected that Lafayette would be victorious in the north; whenhe would be commander-in-chief, Dumouriez would be the Minister of War;they would cast down the red cap and crush Jacobins and Girondists withthe two hands.
The counter-revolution was ready.
But what were Robespierre and the Invisibles doing--that great secretsociety which held the agitators in its grasp as Jove holds thewrithing thunder-bolts? Robespierre was in the shade, and many assertedthat he was bribed by the royal family.
At the outset all went well for the Royalists; Lafayette's lieutenants,two Royalists, Dillon and Biron, headed a rout before Lille; thescouts, dragoons, still the most aristocratic arm of the service,turned tail and started a panic. The runaways accused the captains oftreachery, and murdered Dillon and other officers. The Gironde accusedthe queen and Court party of organizing the flight.
The popular clamor compelled Marie Antoinette to let the ConstitutionalGuard be abolished--another name for a royal life-guard--and it wassuperseded by the Paris National Guards.
Oh! Charny, Charny, where were you?--you who, at Varennes, nearlyrescued the queen with but three hundred horsemen--what would you nothave done at Paris with six thousand desperadoes?
Charny was happy, forgetting everything in the arms of his countess.