Chapter 17

Page: 242-250

Proclamation of the prince de Condé; the king subjected to a kind of interrogation; reasons for his attempted flight; d'Orleans reveals himself; he gives the impression that he does not want the regency; Barnave forms a party to counter d'Orleans; affair of the Field of Mars.

A few days after the king's return a report appeared in the form of a proclamation, by Louis Joseph de Bourbon, prince de Condé, addressed to the national assembly. Here is an extract from it:

"For a long time," said this prince, "I carried at the bottom of my heart a sincere desire to see the nation's finances re-organized. Alas! It is this fatal wish, shared by almost the whole nation, to which France owes all of the evils which currently plague it today... It is greed, jealousy, ambition and licence which, joined together,

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have devastated this powerful monarchy... And it is wanted amongst the rebels that I come to applaud so many horrific scenes... To even cause division by my presence... No! I would prefer perpetual exile. I would rather give up all my possessions by plunder and fire than return to a kingdom wracked by so much disorder, and after these most odious attacks I would rather not even be known as a Frenchman. No! Never will our homeland see me at its centre as long as reason and justice have been banished from France!

"But if, opening their eyes one day, the French shake off the yoke of their new tyrants; if they can admit that freedom does not include the unrestrained capacity to ravish and destroy everything, or to give vent to one's wildest aspirations, then I will fly into the arms of my dear fellow-citizens...

"As for me, it is not against my homeland that I will turn my weapons - rebels always want to be identified with them - but the remainder of the French and all of Europe will not believe the change. And a surprise decree with the pretended backing of the king will not turn me into a rebel. I received this decree and here is my answer: I express it publicly

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so that Europe and France can read it in my heart, and judge me accordingly."

On his return, the king underwent a kind of interrogation under the name of a 'declaration'. He acknowledged that the ill treatments which he and his family had endured made him decide to move away. For the sake of decency he could no longer remain in Paris.

Ferment increased, and to cover the intrigues of the d'Orleans party there was talk about a republic and agrarian law. Sieyes was the author of these doctrines while Brissot, Marat, Laclos, Carra, and Hébert were declared to be the apostles of them. D'Orleans then exposed himself. He made a public statement in which he said that he did not want to serve France as regent but only as a citizen. Nobody was deceived by this show of false modesty. In fact he fostered the idea of having the regency conferred upon him simply by assuring everyone that he didn't want the position. The priest, Sieyes, used a similar ruse. He had a letter published in which he declared himself in favour of a monarchy as the best form of government!

All this duplicity was contrived and conspiratorial, and this dangerous duet would inevitably triumph when Barnave, at the head of a considerable party himself, moved to counter the d'Orleans party.

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And what did the rascal Robespierre say at this time? "We are lost, the king is saved!"

Then the Orléanistes began to conspire anew. They used their monopolistic power to create delays in the provisioning of Paris. They fostered pillage, murder, and ended up calling heroes those who knew how to draw blood. Lacking a symbol that could inflame spirits to the heights of fanaticism, they seized upon a tree which said to passers-by: Here is the genuine bonnet of freedom, but I defy you to take it. This tree appeared everywhere. In the provinces it took the form of skittles on which the carvers engraved circles depicting blood painted in indigo. While the bronze snake of Moïse cured poisonous punctures, the 'tree of freedom' overheated heads, exuded bile, and produced a disease which Italians call the 'rabbia francese', and what the English termed 'the French madness'.

I strive to find the center of all this madness. Then when I find it, I see that it lies behind a curtain where the agents of evil are holding a dishonoured prince and hold out to the rabble the promise of a share of all the rich spoils.

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These developments follow the order of revolutions, but what astonishes me is that decent people - wise people with good common sense - are drawn in by the torrent of despoilers and, without even suspecting it, join up with a fraction whose leaders and motives they are completely ignorant of. These decent people are really motivated by altruistic sentiments. They write patriotic novels and try to extend a golden century, and they accept all this destruction as the amputations necessary to bring about communal well-being. Then when the lustre of revolution wore off, they saw that their plan for communal well-being wasn't exactly what they had bargained for. Now they know that to regenerate a government, it isn't necessary to completely destroy every mechanism that makes a government work. And now they realize that to establish freedom and equality, one doesn't have to preach licence or violate one's right to own property.

Now they know that to establish order, one doesn't have to arm ordinary people when sound politics would rather see them disarmed. Neither is it wise to teach insurrection as the holiest of all duties. Furthermore, since crime is linked to fear, it becomes very active when it can be released without resistance. And in order to curtail superstition, religion does not have to be made to look ridiculous.

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Politics wants religion to serve as a brake - something only ignorant people adopt who fail to appreciate its contribution to empire-building. To produce peace, one doesn't have to propagate a spirit of fanaticism and even less to disturb the peace between neighbors. Neither the Athenians, nor the Spartans wanted Perseus to take them as his ideal model. And to erase all traces of despotism it isn't necessary to destroy all the artistic masterpieces of a culture. For example, in Rome when paganism was being purged, the statues of Apollo, Venus, and Hercules were spared because they were the works of Phidias, Praxitèle, or another skilful sculptors, and they served simply as models for these artists. Similarly, the English wisely did not destroy the statue of Charles I when he was executed. Yes, it was removed from public display, but with certain precautions so that even Cromwell knew where it was located.

To bind the powers of a disgraced monarch, it is still necessary to maintain respect for the head, and not to humiliate it, degrade it, expose it to the public's wrath and make it miserable, and it is still necessary to fight against any tyranny waged against him. To rely on the intervention of rabble to make a political machine work clearly proves that this machine is being created specifically for the rabble's own benefit and no one else's.

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It is an abuse, destructive of any harmony, to desire an empire that fosters this kind of rabble because subordination has at its base a class structure that individuals recognize. It maintains order through self-restraint as people keep to their respective places.

Neighbouring nations have never seen French people involved in such barbarous acts - people always given to devastation, pillage, arson and murder. The new order of things appears to be held together by nothing but brute force - something euphemistically termed 'the power of the French people'.

When the massacring hordes enjoy their devastation, it is the French people whose reputation suffers. When they kill, when they parade around with heads on pikes, when they are smeared with blood, it is the French people who are stigmatized through this menacing behaviour. The real nation is represented by peaceful citizens who stay at home and close their doors when fanaticism passes through their streets. And what were many of these people forced to do? A dozen rascals were hidden, occupied in making posters. They are the orators, charged to create chaos while making false promises. These are the true engines of a sovereign people who really have only arms and ferocious greed.

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These engines placed within a docile infrastructure were all the more dangerous because they were always agitated. The object of their sordid activity was clearly the king, on whom the various enemy sects directed equally their blows. Forfeiture was mentioned and all means were employed to have the idea adopted, but the constitution maintained the monarch's authority. But Lafayette, who wielded the force, appeared disposed to protect him.

Finally on July 16, 1791, the duke's party caused a petition to be circulated amongst Parisians to prepare a court case against the king demanding his dismissal. The petition was carried from door to door. An owner who wished to get rid of the king could sign for a number of occupants, and signatures were received from passers-by with the help of a bribe. Then a project was revived to assassinate the king and proclaim d'Orleans regent of the kingdom. To make this abrupt revolution possible, a large gathering was needed. On the Champ-de-Mars people assembled under the pretext of signing a petition, and in so doing the wildest rabble of the faux-bourg suburbs came together. Of course, they went there not to sign, but to work - to massacre.

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Lafayette and Bailly, followed by an armed force, went there also. They spoke without being listened to and the red flag of martial law was deployed. The mob's response was a hail of stones thrown at them. After three summations were made without success the crowd was fired upon, and this time the party of the court triumphed. The Jacobins published that the national guard had acted as butchers. Many people died in this affair but since this action took place at seven o'clock in the evening, reports were varied. No one knew exactly how many deaths had occurred. The Parlement condemned the gathering which was attributed to the Jacobins, and their club was dissolved for some time. Then the Feuillans were established but the Jacobins rallied, made war with the new party, and ended up subjugating them.