he Revolution 1

II. The Influence of America 20

III. The Summons of the States-General 39

IV. The Meeting of the States-General 57

V. The Tennis-Court Oath 68

VI. The Fall of the Bastille 77

VII. The Fourth of August 94

VIII. The Constitutional Debates 109

IX. The March to Versailles 126

X. Mirabeau 141

XI. Sieyes and the Constitution Civile 159

XII. The Flight to Varennes 174

XIII. The Feuillants and the War 193

XIV. Dumouriez 210

XV. The Catastrophe of Monarchy 224

XVI. The Execution of the King 240

XVII. The Fall of the Gironde 256

XVIII. The Reign of Terror 269

XIX. Robespierre 284

XX. La Vendee 301

XXI. The European War 317

XXII. After the Terror 331

Appendix: The Literature of the Revolution 345

Index 375

I

THE HERALDS OF THE REVOLUTION

The revenue of France was near twenty millions when Lewis XVI.,
finding it inadequate, called upon the nation for supply. In a single
lifetime it rose to far more than one hundred millions, while the
national income grew still more rapidly; and this increase was wrought
by a class to whom the ancient monarchy denied its best rewards, and
whom it deprived of power in the country they enriched. As their
industry effected change in the distribution of property, and wealth
ceased to be the prerogative of a few, the excluded majority perceived
that their disabilities rested on no foundation of right and justice,
and were unsupported by reasons of State. They proposed that the
prizes in the Government, the Army, and the Church should be given to
merit among the active and necessary portion of the people, and that
no privilege injurious to them should be reserved for the unprofitable
minority. Being nearly an hundred to one, they deemed that they were
virtually the substance of the nation, and they claimed to govern
themselves with a power proportioned to their numbers. They demanded