The life of Napoleon Buonaparte, emperor of the French. By Sir Walter Scott.

LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 35
it could only be victorious by the destruction of the pered of nations, the French seemed upon the Re.
present government. The republican and jacobin volution to have been animated not merely with the
party were open in sentiment and in action, encou- courage, but with the rabid fury of unchained wild
raging the insurrection by every means in their power. beasts. Foulon and Berthier, two individuals whom
The -constitutionalists, more passive, were still re- they considered as enemies of the people, were put
joiced to see the storm arise, conceiving such a to death, with circumnstances of cruelty and insult
crisis was necessary to compel the king to place fitting only at the death-stake of a Cherokee enthe helm of the state in their hands. It might have campment; and, in emulation of literal cannibals,
been expected, that the assembled force of the there were men, or rather monsters, found, not only
crown would be employed to preserve the peace to tear asunder the limbs of their victims, but to eat
at least, and prevenlt the general systenm of rob- their hearts, and drink their blood. The intensity
bery and plunder which seemed about to ensue. of the new doctrines of freedom, the animosity
They appeared not, and the citizens themselves occasioned by civil commotion, cannot account for
took armns by thousands, and tens of thousands, these atrocities, even in the lowest and most ignoforming the burgher militia, which was afterwards rant of the populace. Those who led the way in
called the National Guard. The royal arsenals such unheard-of enormities, must have been practised
were plundered to obtain arms, and La Fayette was murderers and assassins, mixed with the insur enlts,
adopted the comrnander-in-chief of this new army, like old hounds in a young pack, to lead them on,
a sufficient signi that they were to embrace what flesh them with slaughter, and teach an example of
was called the constitutional party. Another large cruelty too easily learned, but hard to be ever forproportion of the population was hastily armed with gotten. The metropolis was entirely in the hands
pikes, a weapon which was thence terlmed revolu- | of the insurgents, and civil war or submission was
tionary. The Baron de Besenval, at the head of the only resource left to the sovereign. For the
the Swiss Guards, two foreign regiments, and eight former course sufficient reasons might be urged. The
hundred horse, after an idle demonstration which whole proceedings in the metropolis had been enonly served to encourage the insurgents, retired tirely insurrectionary, without the least pretence of
from Paris without firing a shot, having, he says in authority from the National Assembly, which conhis Memoirs, no orders how to act, and being de- tinued sitting at Versailles, discussing the order of
sirous to avoid precipitating a civil war. His retreat the day, while the citizens of Paris were storming
]was the signal for a general insurrection, in which castles, and tearing to pieces their prisoners, without
the French Guard, the National Guard, and the autho ity from the national representatives, and
armed mob of Paris, took the Bastille, and mas- even without the consent of their own civic rulers.
sacred a part of the garrison. The provost of the merchants was assassinated at
We are not tracing minutely the events of the. re- the commencement of the disturbance, and a terrivolution, but only attempting to describe their spirit fied committee of electors were the only persons
and tendency; and we may here notice two changes, who preserved the least semblance of althority,
which for the first time were observed to have taken which they were obliged to exercise under the. conplace in the character of the Parisian populace. trol and at the pleasure of the infuriated multitude.
The Badauds de Pa2-is, as they were called in A large proportion of the citizens, though assumiing
derision, had been hitherto viewed as a light, laugh- arms for the protection of themselves and their faing, thoughtless race, passionately fond of news, nilies, had no desire of employing them against the
though not very acutely distinrguishing betwixt royal authority; a much larger only united themtruth and falsehood, quick in adopting impressions, selves with the insurgents, because, in a moment of
but incapable of forming firm and concerted resolu- universal agitation, they were the active and predotions, still more incapable of executing them, and so minant party. Of these the former desiired peace
-asily overawed by an armed force, that about and protection; the latter, from habit and shalme,
twelve hundred police-soldiers had been hitherto must have soon deserted the side which was ostensufficient to keep all Paris in subjection. But, in the sibly conducted by ruffians and common stabbers,
attack of the Bastille, they showed themselves and drawn themselves to that which protected peace
daring, resolute, and unyielding, as well as prompt and good order. We have too good an opinion of a
and headlong. These new qualities were in some people so enlightened as those of France, too good
degree owing to the support which they received an opinion of human nature in any country, to believe
from the French Guards; but are still more to be that men will persist in evil, if defended in their
attributed to the loftier and more decided character honest and legal rights.
belonging, to the revolutionary spirit, and the mix- What, in this case, was the duty of Louis XVI.''
tare of the men of better classes, and of the high tone We answer without hesitation,that which George II.
which belongs to them, among the mere rabble of of Britain proposed to himself, when, in the name of
the city. The garrison of this too famous castle was the protestant religion, a violent and disorderly mob
indeed very weak, but its deep moats, and insur- opened prisons, destroyed property, burned houses,
mountable bulwarks, presented:the most imposing and committed, though with far fewer symptoms of
snow of resistance; and the triumph which the po- atrocity, the same course of disorder which now
pular cause obtained in an exploit seemingly so des- laid waste Paris. It is known that when his minisperate, infused a general consternation into the king ters hesitated to give an opinion inpoint of law conand the royalists. cerning the employment of military force, for the
The second remarkable particular was that, from protection of life and property against a disorderly
being one of the most light-hearted and kind-tem- banditti, the king, as chief magistrate, declared