FRANCE. 379 



Soon after the capture of the British general O'Hara, the city of 

 Toulon was evacuated by the allies. On the morning of the 19th of 

 December, the attack began before all the republican forces had time 

 to come up. It was chiefly directed against an English redoubt (Fort 

 Mui grave) defended by more than three thousand men, twenty pieces 

 of cannon, and several mortars. This formidable post was attacked 

 about five o'clock in the morning, and at six the republican flag was 

 flying upon it. 



The town was then bombarded from noon till ten o'clock the same 

 night ; when the allies and part of the inhabitants, having first set 

 fire to the town and shipping, precipitated their flight. Two chalou- 

 pes, filled with the fugitives, were sunk by the batteries. The pre- 

 cipitation with which the evacuation was effected, caused a great part 

 of the ships and property to fall into the hands of the French, and 

 was attended with the most melancholy consequences to the wretched 

 inhabitants — who, as soon as they observed the preparations for 

 flight, crowded to the shores, and demanded the protection which 

 had been promised them on the faith of the British crown. A scene 

 of confusion, riot, and plunder, ensued ; and though great efforts were 

 made to convey as many as possible of the people into the ships, 

 thousands were left to all the horrors of falling into the hands of 

 their enraged countrymen. Many of them plunged into the sea, and 

 made a vain attempt to swim on board the ships ; others were seen 

 to shoot themselves on the beach, that they might not endure the 

 greater tortures they might expect from the republicans. During 

 all this, the flames were spreading in every direction ; and the ships 

 that had been set on fire were threatening every instant to explode, 

 and blow all around them into the air. This is but a faint descrip- 

 tion of the scene on shore, and it was scarcely less dreadful on board 

 the ships — loaded with the heterogeneous mixture of nations ; with 

 aged men and infants, as well as women ; with the sick from all the 

 hospitals, and with the mangled soldiers from the posts just desert- 

 ed, their wounds sciil undrest. Nothing could equal the horrors of 

 the sight ; except the still more appalling cries of distraction and 

 agony, that filled the ear, for husbands, fathers, and children, left on 

 shore. 



In the latter end of March, the party called the Hebertists, consist- 

 ing of Hebert, Momero, Vincent, and some others, were arrested, 

 brought to trial before the revolutionary tribunal, and twenty of them 

 executed. A few days after, the celebrated Danton, Fabre d'Eglan- 

 tine, Bazire, Chabot, and others, were arrested as conspirators against 

 the republic, tried in a very summary way, and sentenced to death ; 

 which sentence was executed on the 5th of April, 1794. 



In consequence of these executions, the government of France, 

 however nominally republican, became almost entirely vested in one 

 man, the usurper Robespierre — a name which will probably be trans- 

 mitted, with infamy, to late posterity. Under his sanguinary admin- 

 istration, the prisons of Paris, at one time, contained between seven 

 and eight thousand persons. Of the number of those tried and exe- 

 cuted, we have no precise account ; but they in general appeared 

 rather to be sacrificed in multitudes to a jealous and cowardly cru- 

 elty, than condemned with even the shadow of justice. In one of 

 these barbarous slaughters, the princess Elizabeth, the sister of the 

 late unfortunate monarch, having been condemned on the most frivol- 



