the fete of the Swiss of Chateauvieux,
and Collot d'Herbois was avenged. {125} But after the turn of the
victims came that of the headsmen. The unlucky comedian who, pursuing
even his comrades with his hatred, asked that "the head of the _Comedie
Francaise_ should be guillotined and the rest transported," the
impresario of the fete of the Swiss galley slaves, the organizer of the
Lyons massacres, Collot d'Herbois, cursed by friends and enemies, was
transported to Guiana and died there in 1796, just as he had lived, in
an access of burning fever.

[1] The oath taken by the deputies of the third estate in the
tennis-court of Versailles, in 1789.

{126}

XII.

THE DECLARATION OF WAR.

The wave of anarchy constantly rose higher, but the optimists,
sheltering themselves, like Petion, in a beatific calm, obstinately
closed their eyes and would not see it. Abroad and at home there was
such a series of shocks and agitations, of struggles and emotions,
perils and troubles; things hurried on so fast, and the scenes of the
drama were so varied and so violent, that what happened to-day was
forgotten by the morrow. The noise of the fete of the Swiss of
Chateauvieux had hardly ceased when the shouts of the multitude were
heard saluting Louis XVI., who had just declared war on Austria.

In reality, the King did not desire war, but the bellicose current had
become irresistible. The court of Vienna had shown itself intractable.
It forbade the princes who owned possessions in Lorraine and Alsace to
receive the indemnities offered by France in exchange for their feudal
rights, and threatened to have the Diet of Ratisbonne annul any private
treaties they might conclude concerning them. The electors of Treves,
Cologne, and Mayence undisguisedly favored the levying of troops by the
emigrant {127} princes, and even paid subsidies toward their support.
They refused to recognize the official ambassadors of Louis XVI., while
recognizing the plenipotentiaries of these princes. There was talk of
holding a Congress at Aix-la-Chapelle for the purpose of intimidating
the National Assembly. The successor of the Emperor Leopold, Francis
II., who, before his election to the Empire, had assumed the title of
King of Hungary and Bohemia, displayed extremely martial sentiments.
Austria, which had sent forty thousand men to the Low Countries and
twenty thousand to the Rhine, had just signed a treaty of alliance with
Prussia, "to pu