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43 - Story Of The World- A Simple History For Boys And Girls by Elizabeth O'Neill · Story Of The World- A Simple History For Boys And Girls

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  Speaker 1: Chapter forty three of the Story of the World A
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  Speaker 1: Simple History for Boys and Girls. This is a LibriVox recording.
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  Speaker 1: All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more
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  Speaker 1: information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Read
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  Speaker 1: by T. R. Love of Pleasant Hill, California. The Story
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  Speaker 1: of the World A Simple History for Boys and Girls
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  Speaker 1: by Elizabeth O'Neill, chapter forty three. The French Revolution. A
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  Speaker 1: few years after the French had helped the United States
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  Speaker 1: of America to win their independence, the French nation itself
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  Speaker 1: began a great struggle for freedom. This struggle is the
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  Speaker 1: most important thing which has happened in modern times. It
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  Speaker 1: is called the French Revolution. All through the eighteenth century
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  Speaker 1: France was becoming more and more in need of money.
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  Speaker 1: The wars of Louis the fourteen had thus the nation
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  Speaker 1: a great deal. Still, Louis had left his country great,
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  Speaker 1: but his great grandson, Louis the fifteenth, who ruled after him,
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  Speaker 1: was very different. He lived a very bad life, and
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  Speaker 1: under him the French wars resulted only in losses. As
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  Speaker 1: we have seen, France lost India and Canada. The nation
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  Speaker 1: grew more and more dissatisfied. The people had not complained
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  Speaker 1: of having an absolute king when he had led them
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  Speaker 1: to victory, but now things were different. In some parts
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  Speaker 1: of France, the peasants were very poor, though there were
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  Speaker 1: very few who were not free. It is often said
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  Speaker 1: that it was the terrible poverty of the peasants which
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  Speaker 1: brought about the French Revolution, but this is not true.
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  Speaker 1: The peasants in many of the German states, in Poland
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  Speaker 1: and in Russia were in a far worse state, for
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  Speaker 1: in those countries they were still serfs, like the peasants
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  Speaker 1: in England in the early Middle Ages. They could not
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  Speaker 1: leave their villages or marry unless their lords allowed them to,
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  Speaker 1: and they still had to work several days each week
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  Speaker 1: on their lord's lands, as in the early days of feudalism. Still,
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  Speaker 1: though the French peasants were free, they were poor. The
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  Speaker 1: French people had to pay great taxes at this time,
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  Speaker 1: and it made many of them very angry that the
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  Speaker 1: nobles had not to pay any at all. There was
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  Speaker 1: a large middle class in France, men who were educated.
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  Speaker 1: It was from among these that the leaders of the
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  Speaker 1: revolution came. Louis the fifteenth died in seventeen seventy four
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  Speaker 1: and his grandson, Louis the sixteenth, who was only twenty,
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  Speaker 1: became king of France. He had been married four years
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  Speaker 1: before to Marie Antoinette, a beautiful young princess and the
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  Speaker 1: youngest of sixteen children of Maria. To the Queen, was
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  Speaker 1: a year younger than Louis. Louis the sixteenth was quite
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  Speaker 1: different from his grandfather. He was a good and very
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  Speaker 1: religious man, but he was not a great king. He
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  Speaker 1: did not understand the troubles of France and was not
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  Speaker 1: strong enough in character to face the difficulties of his position.
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  Speaker 1: Marie Antoinette was at first very merry. She seemed to
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  Speaker 1: the French people who saw her driving through the streets
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  Speaker 1: of Paris, heartless and vain. But she was only a girl.
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  Speaker 1: The French never liked her, and she herself never forgot
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  Speaker 1: that she was an Austrian. But she too showed herself
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  Speaker 1: very brave, and she was always a good woman. The
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  Speaker 1: American Revolution, with its declaration of the rights of man,
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  Speaker 1: seemed a very splendid thing to many of the French.
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  Speaker 1: Many French soldiers and officers went over and helped the
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  Speaker 1: Americans against the English. Among them was a young French nobleman,
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  Speaker 1: the Marquis of Lafayette, who was one of the leaders
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  Speaker 1: in the French Revolution. Afterwards, men like these thought that
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  Speaker 1: France too might become happy and free and rich again
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  Speaker 1: if her people were allowed power in the government. The
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  Speaker 1: old French parliament, which was called the States General, had
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  Speaker 1: not met for one hundred and seventy five years. When
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  Speaker 1: Louis the sixteenth was persuaded to let it meet again
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  Speaker 1: on the first of May seventeen eighty nine, all France
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  Speaker 1: was full of joy. The people thought that a new
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  Speaker 1: time would commence when France had its parliament like England
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  Speaker 1: or America. They forgot that even when nearly two hundred
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  Speaker 1: years before the States General had been called by French kings,
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  Speaker 1: it had had very little real power. All over France,
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  Speaker 1: the people were busy electing their representatives. There were three
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  Speaker 1: divisions of the States General, the nobles, the clergy or priests,
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  Speaker 1: and the tir Etah or third estate, representing the people.
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  Speaker 1: They were to meet at the Palace of Versailles, and
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  Speaker 1: on the day they assembled, the six hundred members of
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  Speaker 1: the tir Atah walked in procession dressed in black. Behind
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  Speaker 1: them walked the nobles, dressed in bright colored silks and velvets,
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  Speaker 1: and behind them again the King and Queen and the
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  Speaker 1: people of their court. The people cheered the third estate
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  Speaker 1: and were silent as the nobles passed, for it was
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  Speaker 1: from the third estate, the representatives of the people that
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  Speaker 1: they hoped all good things would come. They cheered the
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  Speaker 1: king too, but grew quiet and sullen again as the
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  Speaker 1: Queen passed, But she made no sign, only looking up
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  Speaker 1: to the balcony where her eldest boy, the little eight
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  Speaker 1: year old Dauphine, who was dying, was propped up to
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  Speaker 1: see the procession. Before a month was over, the little
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  Speaker 1: boy was dead, and his younger brother was now the Dauphine.
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  Speaker 1: Marie Antoinette shut herself up for a day, and then
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  Speaker 1: came bravely out again, For there were signs of trouble
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  Speaker 1: in this wonderful new French Parliament. The King, in his
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  Speaker 1: speech at the first meeting, had told the States General
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  Speaker 1: that they must decide among themselves whether the three orders
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  Speaker 1: of nobles, clergy, and the tier atta should sit together
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  Speaker 1: as one house, or meet and vote separately. Everyone knew
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  Speaker 1: that the nobles and the higher clergy would not be
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  Speaker 1: as willing to make great changes in the government. As
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  Speaker 1: the tier at Ta would be it would mean that
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  Speaker 1: the two votes of nobles and clergy would make the
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  Speaker 1: vote of the tier at Ta useless. So the tier
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  Speaker 1: at Tade declared that the three orders must vote together.
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  Speaker 1: Some of the clergy joined them, but the nobles would not.
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  Speaker 1: Then the Tira Tah, with the clergy who had joined them,
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  Speaker 1: declared that they were the representatives of the nation and
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  Speaker 1: gave themselves the new name of the National Assembly. They
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  Speaker 1: said that the nobles could join them if they liked,
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  Speaker 1: and the King could give his consent if he liked,
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  Speaker 1: but that it really didn't matter. The Queen advised the
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  Speaker 1: King to resist, and an order was given that the
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  Speaker 1: hall in which the Assembly had been meeting should be closed,
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  Speaker 1: and that there should be no more meetings until a
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  Speaker 1: day when the king was to be present. When the
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  Speaker 1: Assembly found the door of the hall closed, they refused
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  Speaker 1: to break up, but held their meeting in a tennis
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  Speaker 1: court near by. Here they took the famous oath that
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  Speaker 1: they would never separate until they had given France a
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  Speaker 1: constitution by which they meant a government in which the
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  Speaker 1: people had some part. Louis tried to insist that the
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  Speaker 1: orders should vote separately. But it was no use. At
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  Speaker 1: Versailles and at Paris. The people were growing angry and
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  Speaker 1: the king had to give way. In Paris, bread was dear,
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  Speaker 1: and there were many strangers in the city. The feeling
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  Speaker 1: of disorder spread and the common people in the streets
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  Speaker 1: became very rough and violent. There were many men of
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  Speaker 1: the middle class in Paris, like the lawyer d'antrent, who
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  Speaker 1: were anxious to get rid of the king and make
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  Speaker 1: changes which the Assembly had not yet thought of. Three
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  Speaker 1: hundred men had been chosen to select the representatives of
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  Speaker 1: the people of Paris in the States General. These three
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  Speaker 1: hundred now made themselves the rulers of Paris. They began
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  Speaker 1: to collect soldiers to guard the city. Many of the
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  Speaker 1: roughest people joined this guard, which really became an army
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  Speaker 1: ready to fight the king. It was called the National Guard.
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  Speaker 1: The Hotel Dessonvalide, the home of the old soldiers, was
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  Speaker 1: attacked and guns and powder carried off. Then the old
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  Speaker 1: prison of the Bastille was attacked. Here was a great
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  Speaker 1: quantity of powder and only the governor and a few
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  Speaker 1: men to defend it. In a few hours, they gave
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  Speaker 1: up the prison, but were killed as they marched out.
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  Speaker 1: The news of the taking of the Bastille spread over Europe,
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  Speaker 1: and people understood that this was a real revolution. Marie
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  Speaker 1: Antoinette begged the king to flee away from France with
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  Speaker 1: her and her children until this dreadful time should be over,
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  Speaker 1: but other people advised him to stay. But many French
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  Speaker 1: nobles fled from France to safety, the first of many
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  Speaker 1: emmigreys who were to follow them in the next few years.
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  Speaker 1: The excitement spread all over France. In many of the
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  Speaker 1: country districts, the peasants rose, murdered the signeur or lord's
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  Speaker 1: of the land or drove them away from their castles.
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  Speaker 1: They took the land for themselves, and much of the
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  Speaker 1: beautiful furniture in the castles was destroyed. Louis made up
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  Speaker 1: his mind to go to Paris and did so. Lafayette
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  Speaker 1: rode before him on a white horse, and all along
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  Speaker 1: the road the people shouted, long live the nation. It
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  Speaker 1: was only when the king, pale and anxious, stuck the
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  Speaker 1: new colors of the revolution red, white and blue in
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  Speaker 1: his hat that they shouted long live the King. Then
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  Speaker 1: Louis went back to Versailles, where the queen was weeping
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  Speaker 1: and praying for his safety. But it was not long
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  Speaker 1: before the king was back in Paris again. A terrible
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  Speaker 1: mob of people poured out from the city to Versailles.
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  Speaker 1: Lafayette followed them with some soldiers of the National Guard.
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  Speaker 1: The mob broke into the palace and even into the
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  Speaker 1: queen's room, but she had fled to her husband's. Lafayette
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  Speaker 1: drove the mob from the palace, but still they shrieked
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  Speaker 1: and howled to see the king, and Louis stepped out
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  Speaker 1: on a balcony for all to see. Then louder cries
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  Speaker 1: came for the queen, and she stepped out with her children,
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  Speaker 1: the only two left to her, her daughter and the
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  Speaker 1: six year old Dauphin. But the crowd cried angrily that
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  Speaker 1: they did not want any children, and the queen signed
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  Speaker 1: to them to go back. From the balcony. She stood there,
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  Speaker 1: looking bravely down at the crowd. One man pointed a
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  Speaker 1: gun towards her, but did not fire. Lafayette stepped out
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  Speaker 1: on the balcony and kissed her hand. He was very
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  Speaker 1: sad now, for the revolution from which he had hoped
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  Speaker 1: so much, was becoming a very different thing from what
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  Speaker 1: he had expected. The angry mob still shrieked that their
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  Speaker 1: king should go to Paris, and the royal family was
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  Speaker 1: led by the crowd to the Palace of the Juileries,
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  Speaker 1: where they lived for the next two years. The Queen,
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  Speaker 1: always with her children, frightened to go beyond the gardens
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  Speaker 1: of the palace. The king, listening to information about the
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  Speaker 1: doings of the Assembly, giving his consent to what he could,
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  Speaker 1: refusing when his conscience told him a thing was wrong.
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  Speaker 1: The Assembly upset all the old arrangements in France. They
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  Speaker 1: did away with the old provinces and divided the country
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  Speaker 1: up into districts. Committees were sent out to rule these,
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  Speaker 1: but all were under the Assembly, but there was so
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  Speaker 1: much disorder that the taxes could not be collected. The
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  Speaker 1: Assembly was in great need of money. There were many
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  Speaker 1: men in it who did not believe in any religion
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  Speaker 1: at all, and they thought it would be an excellent
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  Speaker 1: plan to take the property of the church for themselves.
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  Speaker 1: They did so, and the clergy were then paid wages
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  Speaker 1: by the state. At the same time, they said that
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  Speaker 1: the French Church should no longer be under the pope.
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  Speaker 1: To these things, Louis could not agree. At last, in despair,
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  Speaker 1: he agreed with the Queen that the best thing to
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  Speaker 1: do would be to try to escape. Count Ferson, who
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  Speaker 1: was a great friend of the queen's, brought them clothes
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  Speaker 1: to disguise themselves. The king was to be dressed plainly
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  Speaker 1: like a man servant, and the queen as a governess,
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  Speaker 1: traveling with the two children. The Dauphine was put into
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  Speaker 1: girls clothes, and his sister, who was the only one
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  Speaker 1: of the family who lived through the revolution, said that
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  Speaker 1: he looked beautiful. They stole quietly out at ten o'clock
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  Speaker 1: one night to where a coach was waiting for them.
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  Speaker 1: Count Person was the coachman. Outside Paris, another coach waited
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  Speaker 1: for them with a German coachman, but things went wrong.
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  Speaker 1: The horses fell down and it took an hour to
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  Speaker 1: mend the harness. They missed a third carriage which was
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  Speaker 1: to meet them, and then a man named Drouette recognized
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  Speaker 1: the king. The coach rolled on, but Duet and an
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  Speaker 1: innkeeper took horses and raced it to our ends. There
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  Speaker 1: the royal family was stopped just as they were practically saved.
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  Speaker 1: The next day, they were taken back to the Juileries. Again,
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  Speaker 1: the king was suspended for a time, that is, the
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  Speaker 1: Assembly said that he should not have the position of king,
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  Speaker 1: But in a short time he was recognized as king
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  Speaker 1: once more. He gave his consent to the Constitution, which
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  Speaker 1: left him very little power, and then the National Assembly,
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  Speaker 1: having done its work, broke up. But things in France
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  Speaker 1: were now in hopeless disorder. A new parliament was to meet,
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  Speaker 1: to which none of the members of the Assembly were
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  Speaker 1: to belong. New men with no experience were to rule
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  Speaker 1: the country. The king and Queen were always hoping that
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  Speaker 1: the Emperor of Austria and the other kings of Europe
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  Speaker 1: would come to help them. They only agreed to the
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  Speaker 1: laws which were passed, thinking that in a short time
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  Speaker 1: foreign armies would come and free them, and all would
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  Speaker 1: be as it had been before in France. At last,
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  Speaker 1: the armies did march towards France, the armies of Austria
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  Speaker 1: and Prussia. Leopold, the Emperor was the brother of Marie Antoinette.
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  Speaker 1: Maria Theresa was now dead, but Leopold died just at
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  Speaker 1: this time, and his son was not so well able
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  Speaker 1: to help his aunt. Still, after long delays, his army came.
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  Speaker 1: The King of Prussia sent an army, for he felt
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  Speaker 1: that these new things which the French were preaching everywhere
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  Speaker 1: were dangerous for every king in Europe. The French knew
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  Speaker 1: that the King and Queen were riding to the other
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  Speaker 1: countries of Europe to help them, and the leader of
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  Speaker 1: the revolution grew more and more angry, as did the
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  Speaker 1: Paris mob. It was the French themselves who declared war.
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  Speaker 1: At last, all the soldiers who could be gathered together
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  Speaker 1: were sent off to the borders of France and the Netherlands,
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  Speaker 1: and the roughest men in Paris were allowed to join
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  Speaker 1: the National Guard. Before this, the Paris mob had broken
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  Speaker 1: into the Tooleries. They had stood joking roughly in the
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  Speaker 1: very presence of the King and Queen, and stuck a
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  Speaker 1: red cap of liberty on the head of the little Dauphine.
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  Speaker 1: In the end they had gone away without doing any harm.
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  Speaker 1: Many people all over France were now sorry for the
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  Speaker 1: King and Queen, and kind messages poured in upon them.
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  Speaker 1: But once the war commenced, the most violent of the
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  Speaker 1: people and the leaders had things all their own way again.
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  Speaker 1: The mob attacked the Tooleries, and the King and Queen
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  Speaker 1: with their children and the king. King's sister fled for
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  Speaker 1: safety to the hall where the Assembly had its meetings.
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  Speaker 1: Day after day they had to be crowded together in
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  Speaker 1: a small room used by newspaper reporters, and there they
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  Speaker 1: could hear the Parliament discussing what should be done with them.
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  Speaker 1: At last they were carried off to a prison in
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  Speaker 1: the building called the Temple in Paris. They lived here
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  Speaker 1: in small rooms very different from those to which they
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  Speaker 1: had been used. At first a few friends were allowed
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  Speaker 1: to stay with them, but later these were all sent away.
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  Speaker 1: Madame de Lambard, a great friend of the Queen, was
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  Speaker 1: driven from the Temple into another prison. By this time,
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  Speaker 1: nearly all the nobles and friends of the king who
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  Speaker 1: had not escaped from France had been shut up in prison.
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  Speaker 1: In the Convention, as the new Parliament was called. The
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  Speaker 1: most violent of the revolutionaries under maraut, A mad whose
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  Speaker 1: one idea was a republic in which all the people
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  Speaker 1: should have equal power, ordered that the friends of the
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  Speaker 1: king in prison should be killed. A band of two
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  Speaker 1: hundred men went from prison to prison and murdered them.
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  Speaker 1: There was only one woman killed in these dreadful September massacres.
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  Speaker 1: As they were called. It was Marie Antoinette's friend, the
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  Speaker 1: Princess de Lambald. As Louis the sixteenth stood staring out
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  Speaker 1: of the window of his prison. Suddenly the head of
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  Speaker 1: his wife's friend was held up on a spear before
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  Speaker 1: his eyes. The king's first thought was to prevent the
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  Speaker 1: queen from seeing it, but she had seen it and
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: fainted away the execution of the king. A week or
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: two later, the convention declared that France was a republic
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  Speaker 1: for the future. They spoke of Louis the sixteenth as
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: Louis Capette. He was a citizen like any other. Then
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: three months later Lewis was brought to trial as a
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  Speaker 1: public enemy. He was found guilty. Three hundred and sixty
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  Speaker 1: one members voted for his death and three hundred and
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  Speaker 1: sixty against it. He was condemned to die. Already he
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: had been separated from the Queen and his children, but
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: they were allowed to see him the night before he died.
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  Speaker 1: He was very brave and quite gentle. He made the
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  Speaker 1: little Dauphin promise never to take revenge for his death,
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: and then he sent them away and gave his last
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  Speaker 1: hours to preparation for death. The next morning he was
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  Speaker 1: beheaded in a public square in Paris, assuring the great
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  Speaker 1: crowds who were gathered round, that he died innocent. Meanwhile,
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: the Prussians and Austrians, who had thought that they had
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  Speaker 1: nothing to do but march on Paris, had not been
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  Speaker 1: very successful. They they had started too late in the season,
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  Speaker 1: the weather was bad, and their men fell sick. When
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  Speaker 1: the two armies at last fought at Balmay, they found
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  Speaker 1: that the French soldiers could not be driven back, and
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  Speaker 1: in a few days they marched out of France again.
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  Speaker 1: Then the French leaders at Paris were full of joy.
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  Speaker 1: They made up their minds to help all the peoples
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  Speaker 1: of Europe to set up republics too. Their armies overran
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  Speaker 1: Belgium and joined it to France. Another army did the
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: same in Savoy on the borders of France and Italy,
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: and another conquered the German states on the Rhine. They
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: then declared that they would attack England and help the
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: English Republicans to set up a republic. In this they
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  Speaker 1: were quite mistaken, for no one in England wanted a republic.
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  Speaker 1: Then came the execution of the king. Soon France was
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  Speaker 1: standing alone against Europe. England, Holland, Spain, Austria and Prussia
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  Speaker 1: were at war with her. The people in the south
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: and west of France rose in rebellion. In La and He,
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  Speaker 1: a district in the west of France and running along
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  Speaker 1: the coasts south of the River Loire, the peasants rose
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  Speaker 1: to defend their seigneurs and their religion. They nearly drove
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  Speaker 1: the Republicans out of the district. But now the Jacobins,
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: the worst revolutionaries of all, got power, and what is
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: known as the Reign of Terror began. Every one who
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: was suspected of being against the revolution was brought up
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: before judges appointed for that purpose. There was no real trial.
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: Practically every one suspected was put to death. Some were nobles,
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: but others were mere peasants. Even girls and little children
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: and old people were put to death. In Law and Dee,
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: the revolt was put to and people were killed in
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: hundreds for being faithful to their lords and their church.
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: It took too long even to behead them all with
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: the guillotine, the great new knife machine which had been
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: invented during the revolution, and so hundreds were thrown into
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: the river to drown. Men who were violent but not
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: violent enough, were seized and condemned to death in their turn.
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: Madame Rolin, the wife of one of the leaders, had
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: exclaimed when she was led out to die, Oh liberty,
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: what crimes are committed in thy name? For in the end,
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: she too was guillotined. But the Queen's turn had come
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: before this, Her children had been taken from her in prison,
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: and she too was tried and condemned to death. She
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: was old and white before her time, and blind in
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: one eye. Through the cold and damp of her last
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: prison for her last day were spent not even in
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: the temple, but in the common prison. From there she
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: was drawn sitting on a cart with her hands tied,
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: to be guillotine before the Paris mob. Her little boy
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: died in prison after being treated with the greatest cruelty,
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: but her daughter was at last sent to her mother's
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: relations in Austria. A girl from Normandy called Charlotte Corday
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: traveled up from the country to Paris and stabbed Marat
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: to the heart for his cruelty. She was killed in
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: her turn. Dantin and Robespierre, great leaders of the revolution,
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: were killed two at last, the reign of Terror came
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: to an end. France was winning victories on all her boundaries.
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: Now that Robespierre was gone, the people all over France
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: asked for a complete change of government. They turned against
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: the Jacobins who were left, and many of these were
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: massacred in their turn. After a time in which religion
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: had been attacked so cruelly, the people were now again
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: crowding to the churches. Many of the emigres came back
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: to France. It was thought even that the little Dauphine,
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: who was still alive in prison, might be made king,
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: but this was not to be. At last, a new
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: constitution was set up. It consisted of two houses of parliament,
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: and at the head five men called the Directors. But
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: in the lower house of the new parliament many of
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: the Jacobins were to sit again. There was a great
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: deal of disorder at the elections, and a young officer
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: called Napoleon Bonaparte was called in by barras the head
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: of the government to put down an insurrection. In this
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: way this young officer became important. We shall see what
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: a great part he played in the history of France
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: and the world in the next twenty years. End of
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: Chapter forty three,