LOUIS XVI. 



559 



had stated at 112,000,000, but which was estimated 

 at more than 140,000,000, rendered Calonne's plans 

 suspected. An opposition was formed, and Calonne 

 received his dismissal. Parliament refused the im- 

 position of two new taxes, which would have been 

 burdensome to the large landed proprietors, and 

 demanded the convocation of the estates. The nation 

 heard the proposition with exultation ; the court 

 trembled. Louis ventured on a lit de justice ; but 

 the parliament declared it void. According to La- 

 cretelle, a calembourg was the spark which kindled 

 the mine that overthrew the. throne, while the mass 

 of the nation, excited by opinions and passions, 

 exasperated by hatred and contempt, reduced to 

 desperation by the sight of multiplied wants, and 

 inspired, by the example of America, with the love 

 of freedom, became incapable of restraint or modera- 

 tion. The king banished the parliament to Troyes. 

 Thus war was declared between the throne and 

 nation. The government, moreover, had acted 

 without dignity in regard to the contest of the 

 Dutch patriots with the hereditary stadtholder, in 

 1 787, and thus entirely lost the respect of the people. 

 The king himself manifested a good nature, bordering 

 on weakness, to his nearest connexions, who, like 

 the duke De Coigny , consented only with the greatest 

 reluctance to the restrictions of the royal household. 

 A negotiation was finally commenced with the par- 

 liament ; it returned ; the measures, on both sides, 

 became more violent ; the rebellion broke out in 

 Brittany, in June, 1788 ; the nobility and the officers 

 of the regiment Vassigny, then, for the first time, 

 dared to carry arms against the commands of the 

 king. Even the clergy loudly demanded the convo- 

 cation of the estates. (Respecting the pernicious 

 artifices of the royalists, in general, much informa- 

 tion is contained in Besenval's and Mollevi lie's Me- 

 moirs.) The weak prime minister Brienne (see 

 Lomenie), opposed in all his projects, resigned, and 

 Necker entered the council, in 1788, as minister of 

 finances. Louis convened a second time the nota- 

 bles, to settle the form of the estates, and the manner 

 of voting. May 5, 1789, the states-general met. 

 Amidst the conflicts of the privileged orders, and 

 the new opinions, the king remained gentle and 

 timid, deserted and alone. " God forbid," said he to 

 the nobility, who would not unite with the third 

 estate, " that a single man should perish for my sake." 

 H is sole object, which he pursued with earnestness 

 of purpose, was the common weal; but around him 

 every thing vacillated ; how could he show firmness? 

 The democrats hated him as a king ; the emigrants 

 and the aristocrats, who remained in France, deemed 

 him incapable of governing. He himself made the 

 greatest sacrifices to the state, even such as endan- 

 gered his personal security, for instance, the dis- 

 banding of his body guard. He could not, neverthe- 

 less, escape the most envenomed calumny. Among 

 other things, it was reported that, by a secret act, he 

 had protested against every thing which had been 

 extorted from him in limitation of the ancient royal 

 prerogatives. Meanwhile, even amidst the grossest 

 calumnies, a flattering word was sometimes heard. 

 When Louis XVI. attended the national assembly, 

 (February 4, 1790), the national guard of Versailles 

 caused a gold medal to be struck, on which was 

 represented a pelican feeding its yonng with its 

 blood. The device was, Franqais, sous cet emblcme 

 adorez votre roi ! The 12th, 13th, and 14th of July, 

 1789 ; the night of August 4 ; the horrors of the 5th 

 and 6th of October ; the flight of the king, June 21, 

 1791, intercepted at Varennes, sixty leagues from 

 Paris, when Louis, from his hesitation to use force, 

 prevented the success of Bouille's plan for his 

 escape, and, at the same time, excited public opin- 



ion against himself by the declaration which he 

 left behind (see the statement of M. de Valory, in 

 the Minerve, November, 1815, and the Memoirs of 

 Bonille and Choiseul) ; the acceptance of the consti- 

 tution of September 14, 1791, which declared his 

 person inviolable ; the attack of the populace of 

 Paris on the royal palace, June 20, 1792, when Louis, 

 with equal firmness and dignity, rejected the demands 

 of the insurgents, and, on the 22d, openly declared 

 that violence would never induce him to consent to 

 what he considered hurtful to the general welfare; 

 the catastrophe of August 10, to which Louis sub- 

 mitted, because he had not the courage to overcome 

 the danger ; his arrest in the national assembly, to 

 which he had fled for refuge ; finally, his trial before 

 the convention, where he replied to the charges with 

 dignity and presence of mind ; these were the most 

 important events in the history of the king. (See 

 France, from 1789 to 1814.) He exhibited, under 

 these circumstances, the courage of innocence, and 

 a strength of mind before unknown in him. As a 

 prisoner of the municipality of Paris, in the Temple, 

 lie was denied, till shortly before his death, pen, ink, 

 and paper. (See the Journal de ce qui s'est passe d 

 la Tour du Temple pendant la Captivite de Louis 

 XP'1., by Cle'ry, the faithful servant of the king ; 

 and a work on the same subject by Hue, who fol- 

 lowed Louis to the Temple.) His usual employ- 

 ment was instructing his son and reading. He pre- 

 ferred Latin authors to the French. He read, almost 

 every day, portions of Tacitus, Livy, Seneca, Ho- 

 race, and Terence ; in his native language, chiefly 

 travels. On the evening before his death, he found 

 that he had read 157 volumes, in the five months and 

 seven days of his imprisonment. He evinced himself 

 a loving husband and an affectionate father. In his 

 private capacity, no candid man can withhold from 

 him his esteem. January 15, 1793, Louis was de- 

 clared guilty of a conspiracy against the freedom of 

 the nation, and of an attack on the general security, 

 by a vote of 690 out of 719 ; on the 7th Jan., he was 

 condemned to death, the law requiring for condem- 

 nation two-thirds of the votes, having been repealed 

 on the 16th, during the trial, and a bare majority 

 declared sufficient. After repeated countings, it was 

 found that 366 votes were given for death, making, 

 consequently, a majority of five in 727. Jan. 21, 

 1793, he was guillotined, in front of his former pal- 

 ace, in his thirty-ninth year, the appeal to the nation, 

 proposed by his advocates, Malesherbes, Tronchet, 

 and Deseze, having been rejected, on the 19th, by 

 380 votes out of 690. He died with the courage of 

 Christian faith. His last words, which asserted his 

 innocence and forgave his judges, were drowned in 

 the rolling of drums and in the cry Five la repiib- 

 lique ! See the Memoirs of the Abbe Edgeworth 

 (the priest who prepared him for death), containing 

 his narrative of the last hours of Louis XVI. (Lon- 

 don 1816.) 



Even in his youth, Louis manifested a sensibility 

 unusual in the higher classes. He needed not the 

 sight of misery; when he heard it spoken of, he shed 

 tears, and hastened to relieve it. Unknown, he 

 alleviated misfortune in the cottage and garret. 

 When he was first saluted at court, as dauphin, after 

 the death of his father, the duke of Burgundy, he 

 could not restrain his tears. Still greater was his 

 grief at the death of Louis XV. " O God," he 

 cried, "shall I have the misfortune to be king!" 

 His favourite maxim was, "Kings exist only to make 

 nations happy by their government, and virtuous by 

 their example." The establishment of the mont de 

 piele, the caisse d'escompte, the abolition of feudal 

 services, of torture, and of slavery in the Jura, are 

 only some of his benevolent measures. He caused 



