CHAP. revelation of the secrets or objects of the fraternity was XI. 1821. punished with death, and they had bravoes ready at any time to execute that sentence, which was pronounced only by the central committee, or to assassinate any person whom it might direct. The members were bound by the most solemn oaths to obey this invisible authority whatever it might enjoin, without delay, hesitation, consideration, or inquiry. The association borrowed the illusions of the melodrama to add to the intensity of its impressions: it had, like the German, its Geheim-gericht nocturnal assemblages, its poniards directed against the breast, its secret courts of justice, its sentences executed by unknown hands. It was chiefly among the students at colleges, the sub-officers in the army, and the superior classes of mechanics and manufacturers, that this atrocious system prevailed, and it had reached its highest point in the end of 1821. It has since spread across the Channel, and Vaulabelle, those who are acquainted with the machinations of the Secrètes, Ribbonmen in Ireland, and the worst of the tradesunions in Great Britain, will have no difficulty in recogvii. 21, 22. nising features well known to them, perhaps by dearbought experience.1 Sociétés 19, 37; Cap. M. Lafayette,* Manuel, and d'Argenson were at the head of these secret societies in France, and they had attained such an extent and consistency in the end of 1821 that it was thought the time for action had arisen, * "Cette fois, M. Lafayette, pressé sans doute par les années qui s'accumulaient, et craignant que la mort ne lui ravît, comme à Moïse, la terre promise de la liberté, avait manqué à son rôle de tribun légal, à son caractère, à son serment civique de député, à ses habitudes d'opposition en plein jour; et il avait consenti, au risque de la sécurité de sa vie, et de sa conscience, à devenir le moteur, le centre, et le chef d'une ténébreuse conspiration. Toutes les sociétés secrètes des ennemis des Bourbons, et le Carbonarisme qui les résumait toutes en ce moment, parlaient de ses menées, et aboutissaient à lui.”— LAMARTINE, Histoire de la Restauration, vii. 26. See also, to the same effect, CAPEFIGUE, Histoire de la Restauration, vii. 308. The chiefs of this dark conspiracy were General Lafayette and his son, M. Manuel, Dupont de l'Eure, M. d'Argenson, Jacques Kochler, Comte Thiard, General Taragre, General Corbineau, M. de Lascelles, and M. Merithou. General Lafayette was by all acknowledged to be the head and soul of the conspiracy.-LAMARTINE, Hist. de la Restauration, vii. 29, 30. XI. 1821. 18. conspiracy Jan. 1, the more especially as the revolutions of Spain and Naples, CHAP. which were mainly their work, had strongly excited men's minds, and the accession of the Royalist Ministry in France threatened danger if the execution of their Abortive measures was any longer delayed. It was determined at Befort. to make an outbreak in several different places at once, 1822. in order to distract the attention of Government, and inspire a belief of the conspiracy having more extensive ramifications than it really had. Saumur, Thouars, Béfort, Nantes, Rochelle, and Toulon were the places where it was arranged insurrections should take place, and to which the ruling committee at Paris transmitted orders for immediate risings. So confident were they of success, that General Lafayette set out from Paris to Béfort, to put himself at its head, and only turned back when near that town, on hearing that it had broken out, and failed of success. Béfort, in effect, was so filled with conspirators, and they were so confident of success, that they at length were at no pains to conceal their designs, and openly armed themselves with sabres and pistols, and mounted the tricolor cockade. The vigour and vigilance of the governor, however, and the fidelity of the garrison, caused the attempt to miscarry. M. de Tourlain, the governor, was shot by one of them; but the rest, including M. de Corcelles and Carrel, fled on the road to Paris, and met General Lafayette a few leagues from the gate, just in time to cause him to turn back to his chateau of La Grange, near that capital. Such was the energy with which the Carbonari removed all traces or proofs of the conspiracy, that Colonel Pailhis Tellier, and two or three others, who had been caught in the very act, alone were brought to justice, and escaped with the inadequate punishment of . 233,234. three years' imprisonment.1 A more serious insurrection broke out, towards the end of February, at Thouars, where General Berton was at the head of the conspirators. In the night of the 23d February he set out from Parthenay, and surprised 1 Lam. vii. 36,40; Cap. vii. 308, 309; Lac. XI. 1821. 19. Berton's conspiracy Feb. 23. CHAP. Thouars, where he made prisoners the brigade of gendarmerie, and published a proclamation, declaring the establishment of a provisional government, composed of Generals Foy, Demarcay, and Lafayette, M. Benjamin at Thouars. Constant, Manuel, and d'Argenson, at Paris. He next attempted an attack upon Saumur, but in that he was foiled by the intrepidity of the mayor, at the head of a body of young Royalists, at the military school, and the commander of the castle. Obliged to retreat, the insurgents soon lost heart, and dispersed; and Berton himself sought refuge in the marshes of Rochefort, where he was at length arrested, along with several of his accomplices. Their guilt was self-evident; they had made themselves masters of Thouars, and proclaimed a provisional government. Six of the leaders, including Berton and a physician, Caffé, were sentenced to death; but the lives of all 1 Ann. Hist. Were spared, at the intercession of the Duchess de AngouY. 87, 90; lême, excepting the two last. Caffé anticipated the 237, 253; hands of justice by committing suicide in prison; but 56,58; Cap. Berton was brought to the scaffold, and died bravely, exclaiming with his last breath, " Vive la France! Vive la liberté ! "1 Lac. iii. 235, Lam. vii. vii. 311, 312. 20. of La Ro chelle. Still more important consequences followed a conspiConspiracy racy at Rochelle. It originated at Paris, on the instigation of General Lafayette, who directed a young and gallant man, named Bories, a sub-officer in the 45th regiment, to proceed from Pau, with some of the privates of his regiment, whom he had enrolled in the ranks of the Carbonari, to that city, in order, with the aid of the affiliated there, to get up a revolt. They were betrayed, however, before the plot could be carried into execution, by one of their accomplices, at the very time when they were concerting with the emissaries of General Berton a joint attack upon Saumur. Most important articles of evidence were found upon them, or from the information to which their apprehension led; among others, the cards cut in two, and the poniards, marked with their number XI. 1821. in the vente or lodge, which had been put into their CHAP. hands by Lareche, an agent of Lafayette. From the declarations of these prisoners, and others apprehended with them, a clue was obtained to the whole organisation of the Carbonari in France, ascending, through various intermediate stages, to the central committee in Paris, presided over by Lafayette himself. These revelations were justly deemed of such importance that the trial of the accused was transferred to the capital, and conducted by M. Marchangy, the King's Advocate, himself. The oath taken by the affiliated bound them to face any peril, even death itself, in support of liberty, and to abandon, at a moment's warning, their own brothers by blood to succour their brethren among the Carbonari.* The object of the association was to overturn the existing government in every country, and establish purely republican forms of government. To carry it into complete effect, there was a central committee of three persons at Paris, whose mandates were supreme, and which all the inferior lodges throughout the kingdom were bound instantly, and at all hazards, to obey; and subordinate committees of nine members, whose mandates were equally supreme within their respective districts. A more formidable conspiracy never was brought to light, or one more calculated, if successful, to tear society in pieces, and elevate the most ambitious and unscrupulous characters to its direction. It is melancholy to think that Lafayette, Bories, &c.; d'Argenson, Manuel, and the leaders of the Liberal party v. 777, 802; in the legislature, were at the head of such a perilous and 46, 47. destructive association. 1+ Bories and his associates made a gallant defence when * The oath was in these terms: "Je jure de tenir avant toute chose à la liberté; d'affronter la mort en toutes les occasions pour les Carbonari; d'abandonner au premier signal le trésor de mon propre sang, pour aider et secourir mes frères."-Annuaire Historique, v. 777. "Il existe à Paris un grand comité d'orateurs, qui entretient des correspondances avec tous les départements. Il y a dans chaque département, un comité de neuf membres, dont l'un est président. "Ce comité correspond avec ceux de l'arrondissement, et avec le grand 1 Procès de Ann. Hist. Lam. vii. XI. 1821. 21. and execu tion. CHAP. brought to trial; and the former melted every heart by the noble effort which he made, when the case had obviously become desperate, to draw to himself the whole Their trial responsibility of the proceedings, and exculpate entirely his unhappy associates. "You have seen," said he, in the conclusion of his address to the jury, "whether the evidence has produced anything which could justify the severity of the public prosecutor in my instance. You have heard him yesterday pronounce the words, All the powers of oratory will prove unavailing to withdraw Bories from public justice;' the King's Advocate has never ceased to present me as the chief of the plot: well, gentlemen, I accept the responsibility-happy if my head, in falling from the scaffold, can save the life of my comrades." The trial, which took place at Paris, lasted several days, during the course of which the public interest was wound up to the very highest pitch, and every effort was made, by crowds surrounding the court-house, anonymous threatening letters to the jury, and other means, to avert a conviction. But all was unavailing ; Bories, Gouben, Pommier, and Rautre, were convicted, and sentenced to death. They received the sentence with calmness and intrepidity. Determined to make a great example of persons deeply implicated in so wide comité. Il y a dans chaque arrondissement un comité composé de cinq membres, dont l'un est président. "Les chevaliers de l'ordre doivent être pris: 1. Parmi les jeunes gens instruits des villes et des campagnes. 2. Les étudiants des colléges, et des écoles de droit, de médecine et d'autres. 3. Les anciens militaires réformés, retraités ou à demi-solde. 4. Les possesseurs de biens nationaux. 5. Les gros propriétaires dont les opinions sont parfaitement connues. 6. Ceux qui professent les arts libéraux, avocats, médecins, et autres. 7. Les sous-officiers de l'armée active, rarement les officiers, à moins qu'ils n'aient donné des preuves non équivoques de leur manière de penser. "Le récipiendaire sera instruit verbalement de l'existence de la société, du but qu'elle se propose, ensuite il prêtera le serment suivant : "Je jure d'être fidèle aux statuts de l'ordre des chevaliers de la liberté. Si je viens à les trahir, la mort sera ma punition. "C. signifie chevalier; V., vente; V. H., haute vente; V. C., vente centrale; V. P., vente particulière; P., Paris; B. C., bon cousin."-Procès de Bories, &c., No. ix. Annuaire Historique, v. 801, 802. |