He forced himself to endure these trials only with difficulty, but was encouraged to bear them by the fact that he was steadily consolidating his position as a “true patriot” and that towards the middle of July Santerre began to give him more confidential tasks which brought him into touch with many of the revolutionary leaders in other Sections.
Towards the end of the month it became clear to him that the situation was rapidly deteriorating. He had learned that a permanent Committee of Insurrection had been established under the direction of Marat and Danton, which included Santerre, Carra, the Pole Lazowski, Fournier the American, and an Alsatian officer named Westermann. Owing to de Monciel’s effort to stop the fédérés, only 3,000 of them had arrived in Paris by the 14th in time for the Feast of the Federation, and consequently the King and Queen during their public appearance at the feast met with no worse than a very mixed reception; but many thousands more fédérés were now approaching the capital. The news from the front was bad and on the 22nd the Assembly had a black flag hoisted over the Hôtel de Ville, launched a great recruiting campaign, and officially declared the country to be in a “State of Danger”. That provided a ready pretext for fresh demonstrations against the Tuileries, in which, the people were led to believe, the Queen daily took the chair at an “Austrian Committee”, where her friends planned the betrayal of France and drafted letters containing valuable military information for secret despatch to the enemy. On the 21st of July and again on the 26th spontaneous insurrections took place, showing that the mob had once more become ripe to be used as a tool by the conspirators, and on the 30th, amid scenes of wild enthusiasm, the long-awaited bands of sans-culottes from Marseilles at last entered Paris by the Porte St. Antoine.
Roger felt that against the force of such a tide there was little he could do, but he still had hopes that when the crisis came he would be able to find some means of taking advantage of it. Having now appeared on the scene once more as a revolutionary, it was obvious that he could expect no help from lesser men of Barnave’s stamp, much less from old friends of his among the Royalists; but he knew that there were many thousands of honest working men in Paris who were still loyal to the Monarchy, and he decided to enlist secretly a little group of them upon whose aid he might call in an emergency.
To have attempted such a business himself would have been fraught with the utmost danger; so towards the end of the month he made a rendezvous with Dan and instructed him how to proceed. The ex-smuggler had a head like a rock and Roger believed in the truth of the saying ‘in vino Veritas’. He told Dan to frequent some of the taverns in the Filles St. Thomas Section, in which the National Guard were known to pride themselves on their loyalty. He was to listen to their conversation, pick men who expressed antirevolutionary sentiments when still sober, scrape acquaintance with them, make them as drunk as he could and argue against them. If they showed an inclination to fight him that could be taken as reasonable proof that they really meant what they said; he could then calm them down by admitting that he had only been leading them on, and arrange another meeting. When he had got to know them well, but not before, he was to sound them cautiously as to their willingness to carry their words into deeds and strike a blow for the King. By these means he hoped that Dan would be able to collect eight or ten really trusty fellows, already possessing uniforms and able to appear as a squad of National Guards ready to accept his orders when called on to do so.
The war fever that now held Paris in its grip was being taken utmost advantage of by the extremists. On the country having been declared to be in a “State of Danger”, the Assembly, and all other legally constituted bodies, began to sit “en permanence”, which frequently enabled the nominees of the conspirators to rush measures through on occasions when the majority of the moderates were absent. The Sections were not official bodies, as they were merely groups of electors who had been called together solely for the purpose of nominating deputies from their district to the Assembly, but, quite illegally, they had continued their sessions and claimed the right of dictating the policy of the deputies they had elected. Now, the conspirators set in motion an agitation for the Sections also to sit “en permanence”, and the Assembly weakly gave way, thus strengthening still further the power of the Committee of Insurrection.
The next step was to undermine the stability of the National Guard, and on the 1st of August Carnot initiated the passing of a decree by the Assembly ordering its reorganisation. Formerly, it had been recruited entirely from citizens who paid not less than one silver mark tax per annum; now its ranks were thrown open to the proletariat, its compagnies d’élite were suppressed and many of the most ruffianly fédérés were incorporated in it. On the 20th of June the National Guard would have fired on the mob had they been ordered to do so, but after these new measures they could be counted on to remain passive. To make certain of matters Pétion reorganised the staff on democratic lines and issued an instruction that no officer might give an order that had not been sanctioned by the Municipality.
Between the 14th of July and the 30th some 5,000 fédérés left for the front; but they were the genuine volunteers who had joined up with the intention of fighting for their country, and there remained behind all those who had come to the capital in search of free keep and plunder. Each day fresh bands of brigands were arriving, accompanied by hordes of slatternly women armed with knives and pitchforks. Drunk, quarrelsome, fierce and filthy, they swarmed in the streets, insulting respectable people by day and robbing them by night.
Half the criminals in France were now concentrated in Paris, and their attitude to property of all kinds became so menacing that even the original authors of this state of affairs took alarm. Santerre told Roger that the “lily-livered” Girondins had panicked and, abandoning their plans for the overthrow of the Monarchy, were preparing to combine with the remnants of the Royalists as the only means of maintaining a government strong enough to avert anarchy.
He added gruffly that it would make no difference, as the control of the Committee of Insurrection had already passed out of their hands, and that its new chiefs, Danton and Marat, were not the men to give up the game so tamely; but Roger could see that he was much upset, and knew that he now had good cause for anxiety. All but a minute fraction of the two hundred thousand householders in Paris, its Directory, and the Section Councils in all the better districts, were intensely worried and were most anxious that order should be restored. The Girondins were by far the most powerful body in the Assembly; if they threw their weight into the Royalists’ scale strong measures might be taken for the dispersal of the fédérés and the suppression of the Committee. In fact, Roger began to wonder if his six weeks’ association with Santerre had not already brought him into sufficient prominence for his own name to be included on any list of arrests to be made, should the Assembly suddenly order the rounding-up of Danton’s committee and of all its principal agents.
He need not have worried. On the 2nd of August there occurred an event which prevented the Girondins from exerting any influence on the situation. Although war had been declared in April, owing to the delays of mobilisation it was not until mid-July that the Allies had succeeded in concentrating a considerable army on the French frontier. Now that hostilities were about to commence in earnest, the Duke of Brunswick, who commanded the Prussian Army, issued a manifesto to the French people before launching the attack.
He disclaimed therein all desire for territorial conquest or any intention of interfering in the internal affairs of France. But, after calling on the French people to rise against their “oppressors”—by which he meant their legally elected representatives—he threatened any who dared to defend themselves against his invading troops with “the rigour of the laws of war”, and declared that in the event of a further violation of the Tuileries he would inflict on the citizens of Paris an “exemplary and never-to-be-forgotten vengeance” by giving the city over to his troops to sack and by executing all who had borne arms against him.
The Committee of Insurrection instantly grasped this golden opportunity to carry out its plans for seizing power. On the day following the issue of the manifesto Santerre called Roger into the room he used as an office, and said:
“Citizen Breuc, our chance has come! The withdrawal of the Girondin leaders has left the Assembly little more than a collection of honest fools, windy idealists and nonentities. Apart from Manuel and a few others, the Municipality is little better. We propose to create a new body consisting of real patriots, which will oust the Municipality and menace the Assembly into doing its will.
“The permission granted to the Sections to sit en permanence has created for us conditions which will enable us to carry out this plan. The majority of the electors have long since tired of attending the sessions of their Sectional assemblies; only those with strong political convictions now do so regularly. In many Sections the majority of these are our enemies, the bourgeois who favour a continuance of the Monarchy; but they must sleep some time. By skilful organisation we can so arrange matters that a time will occur when, the Section halls being almost deserted, our trusties can force through a resolution that will be legally binding on the Section in which they are operating.
“The resolution will consist of a vote of non-confidence in the Municipals previously elected to represent the Section, and it will be followed immediately by the election of three new Commissioners in each Section to replace them in the Communal Council of Paris. You see the idea?”
Roger nodded. “Yes; and it is a clever one. Even if we fail to get our nominees elected in the more reactionary Sections, we should succeed in creating a legal body far more patriotic in character than any which exists at present.”
The burly brewer pulled on his short clay pipe for a moment, then said, “That’s right enough. But for us to reap the maximum benefit from our plan we must have an overwhelming majority in this new Chamber, and that is not going to be easy to secure. If we attempted to do the job piecemeal, the moderates would take alarm and pack the Sections where the resolution had not been put, in order to prevent its being passed; so it will have to be done in all forty-eight Sections on the same night. Local events in some of them may cause well-attended meetings on the chosen night and so present an unexpected obstacle in forcing the resolution through. We can count on the Faubourgs, but much is going to depend on the skill with which each situation in the inner Sections is handled.”
He took another puff at his foul pipe, then went on, “I am giving you the Section des Granvilliers to look after. It is up by the Porte St. Martin. Nearly opposite the gate you will find the sign of Le Coussin et les Clefs. The landlord, Citizen Oysé, is one of us. He will furnish you with papers as an elector of the Section and give you full particulars about its Council. Without giving away what’s in the wind, use the names of Citizen Danton and myself to secure the obedience of the patriots that Oysé will make known to you. Arrange with them to be ready to vote at a snap division whenever you call upon them. On the day I send you word have everything ready to pack the Council at midnight; then get yourself, and the two other men in that Section selected by the Committee, elected as Commissioners.”
“That’s clear, Citizen,” replied Roger promptly, “and you may depend upon me.”
They discussed details of the plan for a further half hour; then Roger collected the few belongings he had acquired during his stay at the Axe and Facies, paid his bill, shook Citizen Jereau warmly by the hand and, with a feeling of unutterable thankfulness, left its stench and squalor behind him.
The Section to which he had been appointed being a better-class district, he could look forward to more comfortable accommodation and decent food there; but he had far more important things to think of at the moment. As soon as he was well outside the Faubourg St. Antoine he went into a quiet café and, calling for pen and paper with his drink, wrote a letter to Lord Gower. In it he gave full particulars of the plot and urged the Ambassador to warn not only the King, but also such ministers and deputies as might be able to frustrate it. He then walked to within a stone’s throw of La Belle Étoile and tipped a small boy to go in, ask for Dan and, if he was there, bring him outside.
Fortunately Dan was in, so they repaired to a nearby cafe. There Roger passed Dan the letter for immediate delivery, learned that he had succeeded in making friends with seven National Guards who could be fully relied on, and gave him new instructions. As Danton’s coup d’état might occur any day he now wanted Dan to keep in close touch, so it was arranged that he should drop into the Cushion and Keys the following noon, and that they would greet one another as old acquaintances who had met by chance. This public renewal of friendship would be excuse enough for Dan to become a regular frequenter of the inn if he also gave it out casually that he had recently obtained work in the district.
After they had parted Roger decided to do some shopping, as he felt that policy now coincided with his own inclination to smarten himself up a little. He was still wearing the Comte de Flahaut’s old and ill-fitting country suit and, for the moment, had no intention of changing it for anything better; but he thought that the electors of the des Granvilliers Section were likely to regard him with more confidence if he took to wearing reasonably clean linen, shaved every day and had his hair washed and dressed by a barber.
Three hours later, still seedily attired but clean in appearance, he arrived in a hackney coach at the Cushion and Keys, carrying a second-hand portmanteau containing his new belongings. Citizen Oysé, a swarthy little Provençal, had been notified in advance of his coming by Santerre, and received him with fraternal cordiality. After showing him to a rather shabby room which, nevertheless, seemed the very height of comfort compared with the dreadful attic he had occupied for so long, the landlord invited him to dine in his parlour; and over a meal, the very sight of which made Roger’s mouth water, he was initiated into the affairs of the Section.
Oysé said that to pull off their proposed coup would not be easy, because if even a moderate number of the electors were present at the voting the revolutionary proposals would be defeated by a large majority; and that their greatest danger lay in a young Doctor Guilhermy, who watched the transactions of the Section like a hawk, and who, if he got wind of their intentions, would do everything in his power to thwart them. He was also an excellent orator, and the weakness of the Left in the Section lay not only in their small numbers, but in their lack of a good speaker; so Roger gathered that it was largely on account of his own ability to talk with fluency and conviction that Santerre had sent him to Oysé’s assistance.
Towards the end of the meal a rough, morose-looking man named Bichot joined them; he was a tinworker, and the leader of the comparatively few sans-culottes who enjoyed the status of electors in the Section. It then transpired that he, together with Oysé and Roger, had been nominated by the Committee of Insurrection as the three potential Commissioners. After drinking a glass of wine to the success of the plot, all three of them wen
t round to the Section hall.
In order to provide Roger with legal qualifications as an elector, Oysé had already arranged the bogus sale of a small piece of property in the neighbourhood, and had had Roger’s name inserted in the conveyance as the purchaser. On the production of the deeds his name was duly entered on the electoral register, then they went, in to the sitting. Only about thirty people were present and a rather dreary debate was in progress on the subject of whose responsibility it was to pay for the restoration of a church porch, which had become dangerous and threatened to fall in the street, now that the Church had been deprived of its funds and all its property taken over by the nation. There followed a more spirited discussion about providing additional free quarters for the fédérés, and both Oysé and Bichot, wishing to see how Roger shaped as a speaker, urged him to join in; but he declined.
Later, when they had left the hall, he told them his reason for refusing. He said that the most dangerous thing he could do would be to alarm their enemies prematurely by a display of revolutionary fireworks, and, now that he had been registered, he did not even mean to go to the hall again until the night of the coup. Instead, they must provide him with lists of electors who inclined to the Left but were at present only half-hearted, then he would employ himself by seeking them out individually and endeavouring to convert them into trusties. This evidence that he possessed a more subtle mind than themselves impressed his two simple companions most favourably, and they readily promised him their assistance.
When he woke next morning, in the surprising comfort of a comparatively well-sprung bed, he took serious stock of his position. It had already occurred to him that by double-crossing Santerre he could ensure the failure of the coup in the des Granvilliers Section; but it was only one out of the forty-eight into which Paris was divided, and if he did so it would spell his own ruin with the revolutionary leaders. He would be throwing away the status he had won for himself, by enduring six weeks of incredibly hard apprenticeship, for an issue that could have little effect on the general situation; and gone would be all further chance of learning the secrets of those who were about to make a ruthless bid to become the new masters of France. He soon decided that by having warned Lord Gower of what was afoot he had made the only useful contribution that he could to checkmate the conspiracy, and that he must now go all out to secure a good future position, if the coup succeeded, by acting in every way as if an invisible Santerre was constantly at his elbow.
The Man who Killed the King Page 17
