sors, as in the case of the capture of the
Bastille, the importance of which was vastly exaggerated by early
writers on the subject.

The end of the Revolution I place at Brumaire,--as good a date as any,
though like all others, open to criticism. The present narrative,
however, will be found to merge into that of my _Napoleon_, which forms
its natural continuation after that date.

CAMBRIDGE, MASS., Feb., 1909.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE

I. THE PERSPECTIVE OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION . . . . 1
II. VERSAILLES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
III. ECONOMIC CRISIS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
IV. CONVOCATION OF THE STATES GENERAL . . . . . . . 35
V. FRANCE COMES TO VERSAILLES . . . . . . . . . . . 52
VI. FROM VERSAILLES TO PARIS . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
VII. THE ASSEMBLY DEMOLISHES PRIVILEGE . . . . . . . 89
VIII. THE FLIGHT TO VARENNES . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
IX. WAR BREAKS OUT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
X. THE MASSACRE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
XI. ENDING THE MONARCHY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
XII. THE FALL OF THE GIRONDE . . . . . . . . . . . . 170
XIII. THE REIGN OF TERROR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185
XIV. THERMIDOR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202
XV. THE LAST DAYS OF THE CONVENTION . . . . . . . . 222
XVI. THE DIRECTOIRE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239
XVII. ART AND LITERATURE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 262
INDEX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 279

{1}

THE FRENCH REVOLUTION

CHAPTER I

THE PERSPECTIVE OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION

The magnitude of an event is too apt to lie with its reporter, and the
reporter often fails in his sense of historical proportion. The nearer
he is to the event the more authority he has as a witness, but the less
authority as a judge. It is time alone can establish the relation and
harmony of things. This is notably the case with the greatest event of
modern European history, the French Revolution, and the first task of
the historian writing a century later, is to attempt to catch its
perspective. To do this the simplest course will be to see how the
Revolution has been interpreted from the moment of its close to the
present day.

It was Madame de Stael, under the influence of Constant, who first made
Europe listen to reason a