of dreadful reckoning had, at last, arrived, the ancient régime was paying a heavy penalty long overdue for its insolence, extravagance, and tyranny.

It was not the absolutism of the kings that aroused the anger and animosity of the people so much as the recollection of the long-continued and insufferable insolence of the aristocracy towards all those who were not in their class, and their contemptuous indifference to the miseries and privations of the poor. Flaunting in the face of the public their luxury, extravagance, and assumed superiority, they had created so deep a hatred in the hearts of the people that the nation at last arose in its indignation, not only to reform abuses, but also to resent an insult. Controlled by a spirit of vindictiveness, the Revolution became sanguinary, relentless, merciless; and yet it may truthfully be said that even the excesses in the "Reign of Terror" were only in part payment of an old debt and they did not exceed in enormity the cruelty and insolence of centuries. "Kind-hearted men," exclaims Michelet, "you who weep over the evils of the Revolution, shed also a few tears for the evils that occasioned it."

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CHAPTER VIII

DECLARATION OF THE RIGHTS OF MAN

TION OF PRIVILEGES

ABOLIFEAST OF THE GUARDS

MARCH OF THE WOMEN TO VERSAILLES RETURN OF THE KING TO PARIS THE JACOBINS - - ROBESPIERRE GAINS POWER AND INFLUENCE THROUGH HIS ASSOCIATION WITH THE JACOBINS.

On July 27, 1789, the committee reported to the Assembly the basis of a Constitution. France was to remain a monarchy, no longer absolute but limited in its authority; the person of the king was to be inviolable; the crown was to be hereditary; individual liberty was to be sacred; property rights were to be conserved; no loans were to be made without the national consent; taxes were to be equalized, and to continue only from one States-General to another.

After the submission of this report to the Convention and its favorable acceptance, Mounier read the Declaration of the Rights of Man, which, among other things, announced that men are born equal in respect to their rights; that the people are sovereign, and that all power emanates from them; that no man shall be molested on account of his opinions - political or religious — provided he does not disturb the public peace; that

the citizen shall be secure in his life, liberty, reputation, and property; and that in the levying of taxes he shall be heard through his representative.

When we recall what had been the social, religious, and political conditions in France under the ancient régime:- that the monarch had been absolute in power; that the divine right of kings had been taught as a holy precept; that feudalism had obtained in all its rigor; that political liberty was unknown; that the citizen could be deprived of property and even life without due process of law; that taxes were unfairly and unequally distributed; that they were imposed without popular representation; and that religious intolerance was of the rankest sort,- we may then have some appreciation of the significance of this great paper. It is worthy to be classed with the Magna Charta of England, the British Petition of Rights, and the American Declaration of Independence.

On the 4th of August the liberal nobles amidst the greatest enthusiasm, at a nocturnal session of the Assembly, proposed the abolition of feudal privileges. It was a scene which Mirabeau described as an orgy, but to Robespierre it appeared as the dawning of a new era. Emotional many of its features may have been, but it was nevertheless a great stride forward in the progress of the Revolution, and if at this point there could have been a halt and the reforms which had been suggested and adopted could have been made secure, France would have been the freest state in Europe and the hopes of the most sanguine

reformers would have been more than realized. But alas! the Revolution had only started on its way; the violence was just beginning.

Because of the unsettled conditions and the many dangers that menaced the future, wealthy people were emigrating in droves; six thousand passports were issued in Paris in five days. Domestics and servants of all kinds were in consequence thrown out of employment and the great army of the needy received vast numbers of recruits every day.

While this distress prevailed, an incident occurred at Versailles that greatly aroused the indignation of the suffering people. The Body Guards tendered a banquet to the officers of the Flanders regiment, and upon request the king generously gave permission to use the royal theatre for the purposes of the dinner.

During the progress of the feast, the king, accompanied by the queen and the dauphin, entered the hall, and they, of course, were received by the soldiers with the wildest enthusiasm and acclamation. Heated with wine and aroused by the strains of ravishing music, the banqueters with oaths and drawn swords pledged their loyalty to the royal family. In the excitement of the occasion, the tricolor was trampled under foot and the white cockade of the Bourbons was worn as the badge of honor.

News of the feast reached Paris, and the Palais Royal grew wild with anger; blatant orators denounced the affair as an insult to the nation, and stirred the passion of the people, many

of whom had already been made ferocious by hunger.

On the 5th of October, an army of women marched from Paris to Versailles to demand bread of the king. A horde of furies, terrible in aspect, poured through the gates of the city out into the open country and streamed to Versailles, twelve miles distant. The palace was despoiled, its halls and corridors were bespattered with mud and blood, and, to crown all, the rabble insisted upon taking the king back with them to Paris. His return to the capital was described as "The Joyous Entry " of October 6th.

The mob that destroyed the Bastile was not only the riffraff from the slums, but was also made up of lawyers, doctors, thrifty shopkeepers, and working men; but the rabble that marched to Versailles was composed of the lawless, the unemployed, and the discontented poor. Many of them were actually hungry, for bread was getting scarce in Paris and what there was of it was dear.

There seems to be no question that the march of the women to Versailles was taken advantage of by a number of conspirators as an opportunity to effect, if possible, the assassination of the king. Men in the crowd disguised as women were doubtless the paid agents of the Duke of Orleans, and why they failed to accomplish the object of their appointment is hard to tell. The queen's life was in danger, and it was saved only by the 1 See "Mirabeau and the French Revolution," p. 314.