the eighteenth fructidor
while sothin, the minister of police, was drawing up his placards, and proposing to have carnot and forty-two deputies shot—while the directors were annulling the appointment of barthélemy, the fifth director, and promising his place to augereau if they had reason to be satisfied with him when the evening of the next day arrived—two men were quietly playing backgammon in a corner of the luxembourg.
one of these two men, the younger by two years only, had begun as an officer of engineers, and had published mathematical essays which had won him admittance into several societies of learning. he had also composed a eulogy on vauban which had been crowned by the academy of dijon.
at the dawn of the revolution he was a captain of engineers, and had been appointed chevalier of saint-louis. in 1791 the department of the pas-de-calais had elected him deputy to the legislative assembly. his first speech there had been directed against the emigré princes at coblentz, against the marquis de mirabeau, against cardinal de rohan, and against monsieur de calonne, who was intriguing with foreign kings to induce them to declare war upon france. he proposed that non-commissioned officers and sergeants should take the place of the officers belonging to the nobility who had emigrated. in 1792, he asked for the demolition of all the bastilles in the interior of france, and presented measures to abolish the passive obedience which had formerly been exacted from officers and soldiers.
in the days when the revolution had been threatened by foreign powers, he had asked to have three hundred[pg 537] thousand pikes manufactured to arm the people of paris. elected a deputy to the national assembly, he had unhesitatingly voted the death of the king. he had furthered the acquirement of the principality of monaco and a part of belgium by france.
sent to the army of the north in 1793, he had degraded general gratien from his rank upon the field of battle, because he fell back before the enemy, and placing himself at the head of the french column, he won back the ground that had been lost.
in the month of august of the same year he had been chosen a member of the committee of public safety, and, in that position, displayed an extraordinary talent which has become proverbial, by organizing fourteen armies and formulating plans of campaign, not only for each army by itself, but for operations including them all. it was at that time that the french armies won that astonishing series of victories, from the recovery of toulon to the surrender of the four strongholds in the north.
this man was lazare-nicholas-marguerite carnot, the fourth director, who, not having been able to agree with barras, rewbell, and la reveillière-lepaux, had just been condemned to death by them, being thought too dangerous to be allowed to live. his partner, who was shaking the dice with a nonchalance equal to carnot's energy, was the marquis fran?ois barthélemy, the last of the directors to be appointed, who had no other merit than that of being the nephew of the abbé barthélemy, the author of the "voyage du jeune anarcharsis."
as minister from france to switzerland during the revolution, he had concluded at basel two years before the time of which we are now speaking, the treaties of peace with prussia and spain, which had put an end to the first coalition. he had been chosen because of the well-known moderation of his opinions; and it was this very moderation which had justly led to his dismissal by his colleagues, and was later to lead to his incarceration.
[pg 538]
it was one o'clock when garnot, by a brilliant play, ended the sixth game of backgammon. the two friends shook hands at parting.
"au revoir," said carnot to barthélemy.
"au revoir," replied barthélemy. "are you sure, my dear colleague? in these times i am never sure when i leave a friend at night that i shall meet him again in the morning."
"what the deuce do you fear?" asked carnot.
"hum!" said barthélemy, "a stroke of the dagger is soon given."
"nonsense!" said carnot, "you need not worry about that. you are too goodnatured for them to think of fearing you. they will treat you as one of the do-nothing kings; you will be shaved and shut up in a cloister."
"but then, if you fear that," said barthélemy, "why do you prefer defeat to victory? for, after the propositions which have been made us, it depends solely on ourselves whether we overthrow our three colleagues or not."
"my dear friend," said carnot, "you cannot see beyond your nose, which is unfortunately not as long as that of your uncle. who are the men who have made us these propositions? the royalists. now do you think the royalists would ever pardon me for the part i have taken against them? it is only a choice of deaths; with the royalists i shall be hanged as a regicide, with the directors i shall be assassinated as a royalist. i would rather be assassinated."
"and with these ideas you can go willingly to bed in your own rooms?" said barthélemy.
"where should i go to bed?"
"in some place, no matter where, where you would be safe."
"i am a fatalist; if the dagger is to strike me, it will find me. good-night, barthélemy! my conscience is clear; i voted the death of the king, but i saved france. it is for france to take care of me."
[pg 539]
and carnot went to bed as composedly as he always did.
he was not mistaken. a german had received the order to arrest him, and, if he made the least resistance, to assassinate him. at three o'clock in the morning the german and his satellites presented themselves at the door of carnot's apartments, which he shared with a younger brother.
carnot's servant, when he saw the men, and heard their leader ask in bad french where citizen carnot was, took them to his brother, and he, having nothing to fear for himself, left them in error at first.
then the valet ran to warn his master that they had come to arrest him. carnot, almost naked, escaped through one of the gates of the luxembourg garden to which he had the key. then the servant came back. the brother, when he saw him, knew that the other had escaped, and he made himself known. the soldiers in a rage ran through the apartment, but they found only carnot's empty bed, which was still warm.
once in the garden of the luxembourg, the fugitive paused, not knowing where to go. he finally went to a lodging-house in the rue de l'enfer, but was told that there was not a vacant room in the house. he set off again, seeking shelter at random, when suddenly the alarm-guns went off. at the sound several doors and windows were opened. what would become of him, half naked as he was? he would certainly be arrested by the first patrol, and troops were marching toward the luxembourg from all directions.
while he was deliberating, a patrol appeared at the corner of the rue de la vieille-comédie. a porter half-opened his door and carnot sprang inside. chance willed that the porter should be a worthy man who kept him concealed until he had time to prepare another hiding-place.
as for barthélemy, although barras had twice sent him warning during the day of the fate that awaited him, he took no precautions. he was arrested in his bed an hour after he had left carnot. he made no resistance, and did[pg 540] not even ask to see the warrant, and the words "oh, my country!" were the only ones he uttered.
his servant, letellier, who had been with him for twenty years, asked to be arrested with him. this singular favor was refused. we shall see how he obtained it later.
the two councils named a committee which was to sit permanently. the president of the committee was named siméon. he had not yet arrived when the alarm-guns sounded.
pichegru had passed the night with this committee, together with those of the conspiracy who were determined to meet force with force; but none thought the moment when the directory would dare attempt its coup d'état was so near at hand. several members of the committee were armed, among them rovère and villot, who, learning suddenly that they were surrounded, volunteered to go out, pistol in hand. but this pichegru opposed.
"our other colleagues assembled here are not armed," he said; "they would be massacred by those wretches, who are only waiting for an opportunity. do not let us desert them."
just then the door of the room occupied by the committee opened and a member of the councils, named delarue, rushed in.
"ah, my dear delarue!" exclaimed pichegru, "what on earth have you come for? we are all going to be arrested."
"very well; then we will be arrested together," answered delarue, calmly.
and indeed, in order that he might share the same fate as his comrades, delarue had had the courage to force his way three times past the guard in order to reach the committee room. he had been warned at his own house of the danger he ran, but he had refused to escape, although it would have been easy for him; and, having kissed his wife and children without waking them, he had come, as we have seen, to join his colleagues.
[pg 541]
we have said in a preceding chapter that pichegru, when he had offered to bring the directors bound to the bar of the corps legislatif, if they would give him two hundred men, had not been able to obtain them. they were now eager to defend themselves, but it was too late.
delarue had scarcely exchanged these few words with pichegru when the door was burst open, and a crowd of soldiers, led by augereau, entered. augereau, finding himself near pichegru, put out his hand to seize him. delarue drew a pistol from his pocket, and attempted to fire upon augereau, but on the instant a bayonet was thrust through his arm.
"i arrest you!" cried augereau, seizing pichegru.
"wretch!" exclaimed the latter, "all you needed was to become a minion of barras."
"soldiers," cried a member of the committee, "will you dare lay hands upon pichegru, your general?"
without a word, augereau flung himself upon him, and, with the assistance of four soldiers, succeeded, after a violent struggle, in securing his arms and binding them behind his back.
with pichegru arrested, the conspiracy had no longer a head, and no one attempted further resistance.
general mathieu dumas, the same man who was minister of war at naples under joseph bonaparte, and has left such interesting memoirs, was with the committee when it was surrounded. he wore the uniform of a general. he left through the door by which augereau had entered and went downstairs.
in the vestibule he was confronted by a soldier, who thrust a bayonet in his face and said, "no one is allowed to go out."
"i know it," said he, "for it was i who just gave the order."
"i beg your pardon, general," said the soldier, lowering his weapon.
and the general passed out without further hinder[pg 542]ance. he was obliged to leave paris in order to insure his safety.
mathieu dumas summoned his two aides-de-camp, ordered them to mount their horses, galloped to the barrier, gave his orders to the guard, and passed outside the walls, to go, as he said, to another post, and disappeared.
