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Twelve Who Ruled Twelve Who Ruled Tlte Year of the Terror in the French fuuolution Bv R. R. PALMER PRINCETON PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS (tt+t/ r,rst) rHE TWE,LVE CHAPTER I tlce Earth Tw)e/ae Terrorists to Be " stranger se t of Clotr'd'-C onr'peller's ._CARLYLII TH E FRIIN clr REVOLU TIo N m' ez, e r s a19." : NYONE who had business with the government of the Reign of Terror directed his steps to the Tuileries, an old the Guillotine"' a law- BpnrneNu Baninr, b. tT5S, "Anacreotl of palace of the kings of France on the right bank of the Seine -- t^uyJ.:t {amily, easy going' affable' hard- ,., brecl in " between the Louvre and the Tuileries Gardens, in which tilen as worl<irtg, clotlucrrt. now children played and chestnut trees blossomed in April' Enter- Bn.rauo-VennNur, b' t75(t' also a larvyer and sou ing the courtyard on the opposite side of the building from the JeeN-Nlcor-as garden, saw signs of a governnlellt not very sure of of a lawyer, a lvriter and agitator, impatiet'rt' clanlototls' the visitor itself, for two cannon and a file of soldiers guarded the door' enginecr' nathenlaticiau' LazenB C,ttltlot, b. r753, army officer, Passing tl-rese sentries and climbing what had lately been called of Victory'"' stern patriot, "Organizer the Queen's Staircase, he came into a series of communicating people, busy little function- Tnan-Manrr Cor-ror u'I{onnOIS, b. ]r75o, actor ancl playwright, chambers crowded vn'ith all manlter of and another, clerks carrying papers to be signed self -made, crude, excitable' aries of one kind by the great men within, army officers, politicians and contractors family mall' a GBoncBs CournoN, b. q56,lawyer, humanitarian' waiting for interviews, errand boys, porters, secretaries and paralYtic unallle to walk' factotums, and couriers with the mucl of distant provinces still nc-'l'lleman ancl business was urgent, or if Menrr-Jnex }Ii':neur-r pri SfcHer'r'Ds, b' r759' spattered on their boots. If the visitor's he eventually reached aristocrat, lawYer' wit, 1'ostur' he was a person of exceptional consequence, the last in the series of chambers, a room which Louis XVI had middle aged' Rosnnr LINorr, b.t7+3, steady, sensible' used as a private office, and which in a few years was to serve Pnrnun oF rHD Cdrn-p'On (Claude-Antoine Prieur-Duvernois)' Napoleon Bonaparte for the same purpose. b. t763,army oflicer and engil.reer' a youllg n.ran of protlise' Here if left for a moment alone the caller might reflect on past present. the window he saw the garden or public I'rieur) t756' lawyer' and Outside Pnrnun oF rrrE ManNp (Prierre-Louis 'b' park, knowing that beyond the trees, half a mile away, it opened lawyc'r' MaxrrrtrlrnN RosnsPrEnna, b' r758, lawyer and sot-t of a upon the superb Place Louis XV, the finest square in Europe, a introspective, sel{-righteous, idealistic' triumph of city planning in the last days of the monarchy. He would remind himself to call it the Place de la R6volution-appro- t749' Protestant mit.tister' one Auonfi JneNnow SarNr-ANpnf ,b' priately enough, for at the center of the new square (which we call diligent, master{u1' time ship's captairl, the Place de la Concorde), in full view of the new Champs-Elysdes Lours-ANrorwE SarNr-Jusrl, b' 1767, ".Ange.l of Death"' youllgest and the new Madeleine, stood a new invention of late monarchical of the Twelve, law graduate, impertous' 111c1slve' times, now symbolizing a new order-the guillotine. Turning from the window he saw riibre traces of the last Louis, whom this same guillotine had put to death a few months before. The clock bore the inscription, "clockmaker to the King." The rich carpet, the polished mirrors, the glistening chandeliers still kept TWELVE TERRORISTS TO BE TWELVE WHO RULED of France its authority was denied. The west and south fell apart object in-the room.was alive the elegance of royalty' But themain in civil war. The plans made in the earlier and supposedly wiser covered with green cloth' severely utilitarian, oval table phase of the Revolution had broken down. Local and outiying ^-i;r; Jnkwells and piles of papers matching the green p"p., 3" the walls' authorities could not be controlled and were nol centers o{ inde- number of men to work' littered the table, -otrti'lg1nt places f.or a pendent agitation. Initiative had fallen into the hands of political of Public Safety' one of It was the council t"lrl o-i thetommittee clubs and revolutionary committees. Paris was in turmoil. Street recelve the visitor' of whom whose members would sool1 appear to orators and demagogues, secret agents both of the government and therefore we can now take leave' o{ its enemies, radicals and counter-revolutiorraries of eve ry descrip- France during the The Committee of Public Safety governed tion roamed the streets. Deserters from the army, disguised priests First Republic'-Twelve Terror, the chaotic lt"*" of tttt yeai'old and strange foreigners jostled witir half-crazed patriots and self- twelve from Septem- *"a" up the Committee, always the same appointed saviors of the natiot-t. On the frontiers the armies of *." of the Year Two ;;;;;;;;'ln. iotto*i''* lty 27,'ot.sThermidor Er-rgland, Holland, Spain, Prussia and Austria were thrusting once sat at the green i"-r"i,6r",lo"ury p",l"tl"i The tweive never themselves into France. The ports were practically closed by the ceased to sit at all' for he was table at the same time' One presently British navy. Beyond the battlelines lay a Europe unanimously hahitually away' stationed put to death by the otirers' Sonle were hostile, stirred up by French dmigrds, by conservatives of all na- But tireir i" litfh"t or' nr,^tt- or Flanders' .Ptttt"ft .*"t*i-tlj; tionalities almost hysterical with fear, by the pope ar-rd the Catholic along with the vast streams ol iheir dirpatches came in regularly' hierarchy, and by Catherine the Great of Russia, ar-r old woman remair-ring in Paris had.to' deal' correspondence with whichthose near death who urged on the Allies while declining to join them. they had no chairman of those who sat in the green room, though chief' the best known out- and ,ecognired tro one oT thenrselves as Anarchy within, iuvasion from without. A cour.rtry cracking side its walls was RobesPierre from outside pressure disintegratir-rg from internal strain. Revolu- its affairs at ali hours' but its real , The Committee transacted tion at its height. War. Inflation. Hunger. F'ear. Hate. Sabotage. closed doors' at night' No one sessions took place stt'etty' behind Anyone interested Fantastic hopes. Boundless idealism. And the horrible knowledge, knows exactly *h"t ttapptned at these conclaves' o{ documents em- for the men in power, that if they failed they would die as criminals, ;;;;; ,."d, i'-t la'ie clear print' thousands proclarnations' letters of murderers of tlreir king. And the dread that all the gains of the anating from the Co-Littt", o'di'''"'-tttt' one can say what passed Revolution would be lost. And the faith that if they won they would command, advice anJ instruction. No No evidence bring Liberty, Equality and Fraternity into the world. g:t."n table l"to'" the decisions were reached' ;;;*;. innuendos This was the situation in which the twelve men who came to the for these mattefs a few-r:ontempotary "*irt. "*..pt indiscretions' a great many greeir room acted. Who were the twelve ? made for political purposes' ft* " years lalei tyo:t They were on the whole not very unusual people---only twelve ,r-orr, arrd a f"* written down !-f "tofltttio'lt were undoubtbdly lively' rather men of the old rdgime, brought into prominence by three of the survivors' But the debates typical and- disputed with Glowering at each the Twelve fr"i-""y secrets' Thgr jouSht an upheaval which no one could control. other and their nerves on otfr.r, sometimes differing widely.in policy, across the green table, they urust souretimes have pondered otr titc .".t, by revolutionary &; ;;; sheer fatigue, their- minds inflamed circumstances that had brought them together. Their position was almost all autocratic' jealous have Dassions. As individu*als they were a curious one. No human wisdon-r could foretold it. They had fi;;;;t:;*p*ed' But thev managed until near the end to act as been strangers to each other not long before, scattcred through to themselves' a single body, keeping their private.differences F'rance, with small prospect of any political career and with no year of revolution' They ruled .ou"T'y convulsed in its.fifth political experience, each apparently destined for the hurndrum " authority' but in half The National Convention claimed sovereign a TERRORISTS TO BII 6 TWELVE WHO RULED TWELVE 7 to the "good king be ar-r intrigue. IIe had the virtues alrd the life of his own occupation, all of them.loyal share sccmcd to him to ln lts grave' faults of an incluisitor. A lover of mankirrd, he could ttot euter Louis" whose headless body now rotted to France governed by with sympathy into the minds of his own neighbors- Aristocratic nrrrop. *"J tppttttd -see they in the peaceful years At Arras there was a litcrary society, where tlre members, be- "nobodies." Who then, o' *h^t, were sides reading each other oratiorrs and odes, often discussed public that preceded their great adventure i questions. f'heir discussious'w'ere likely to be bookish and abstract, before the Revoiu- for few of them, under the bureaucratic monarchy, had ever had At Arras, near the Straits of Dover' shortiy olcl' named Maxi'rilie.
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