THE

GOUVERNEUR MORRIS

the Tuileries.

The king,

HE 10th of August, 1792, was one of the most memorable days of the French Revolution. It was the day on which the French mon archy received its death-blow, and was accompanied by fighting and bloodshed which filled Paris with terror. In the morning before daybreak the tocsin had sounded, and not long after the mob of Paris, headed by the Marseillais, "Six hundred men not afraid to die," who had been summoned there by Barbaroux, were marching upon or rather the queen, had at last determined to make a stand and to defend the throne. The Swiss Guards were there at the palace, well posted to protect the inner court; and there, too, were the National Guards, who were expected to uphold the government and guard the king. The tide of people poured went the Marseillais, the armed bands, the Sections, and a vast floating mob. The crowd drew tional Guards, who were to check the advance, did nearer and nearer, but the squadrons of the Na

on through the streets, gathering strength

93

as they

and

not stir. It is not apparent, indee
any resistance, and the king a
eight o'clock lost heart and deserte
to take refuge with the Nationa
The multitude then passed into the
Carrousel, unchecked by the Natio
were face to face with the Swiss.
their king, the Swiss knew not how
stood their ground. There was som
at last the Marseillais fired a
the Swiss fired. They were dis
and their fire was effective. There

by

still

ing,

Then

and

troops, heavy

slaughter and the mob recoiled, lea

their cannon, which the Swiss seized. The R

lutionists, the fight raged

however, returned to the charge, a
on both sides, the Swiss holdin

their ground firmly.

Suddenly,

from the legislative hall, came an

order from the king to the Swiss to cease firing. s their death-warrant. Paralyzed by the order,

It was

and

most

of the gallant Swiss were slaughtered

where they stood. Others escaped from the Tuilesacked and the raging mob was in p

ries only

to

palace was

of all those who were known to be friends of the session of the city. No man's life was safe, least king, who were nobles, or who had any connection with the court. Some of these people whose

lives were

95

thus in peril at the hands of the bloodstained and furious mob had been the allies of the United States, and had fought under Washington in the war for American independence. In their anguish and distress their thoughts recurred to the country which they had served in its hour of trial, three thousand miles away. They sought the legation of the United States and turned to the American minister for protection.

Such an exercise of humanity at that moment was not a duty that any man craved. In those terrible days in Paris, the representatives of foreign else.

governments were hardly safer than any one

Many of the ambassadors and ministers had al-
ready left the country, and others were even then
abandoning their posts, which it seemed impossi-
ble to hold at such a time. But the American
minister stood his ground. Gouverneur Morris
I was not a man to shrink from what he knew
be his duty. He had been a leading patriot

to

in

our revolution; he had served in the Continental
Congress, and with Robert Morris in the difficult
I work of the Treasury, when all our resources
seemed to be at their lowest ebb. In 1788 he had
gone abroad on private business, and had been
much in Paris, where he had witnessed the begin-
ning of the French Revolution and had been con-
sulted by men on both sides. In 1790, by Wash-

ington's direction, he had

to London

and

had consulted the ministry the they would receive an American n he had returned to Paris, and at of 1792 Washington appointed hi the United States to France.

As an American, Morris's sympath strongly in favor of the movement from the despotism under whic

France

sinking, and to give her a better and mo
government.
But, as the Revolution pro

he became

outraged and disgusted by the m
He felt

employ The inabilt a profound contempt for

sides.

ing

the

inability of those who were con Revolution to carry out intelligent p

or maintain order, and the feebleness of the ki and his advisers,

with American

He was

were alike odious to the ma conceptions of ordered liberty

especially revolted by the bloodshed and

cruelty, constantly gathering in strength, which displayed by the revolutionists, and he had gone to the very verge of diplomatic propriety in advising the ministers of the king in regard to

the policies was coming

those of other intelligent

men who kept their

All his efforts and all his advice, like heads during the whirl of the Revolution, were

alike vain.
On August

storm broke with