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The Flight of Louis XVI. to Varennes. a Criticism of Carlyle
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 February 2009
Extract
The arrest of Louis XVI. during his flight from Paris to Montmédy was one of the most important events in the history of the French Revolution, and probably one of the most important in the history of France. It also forms one of the best known and most admired portions of Carlyle's history of the Revolution. It occupies a whole book of the second volume, fifty-four pages of the Library edition. It may therefore be taken as a fair specimen of Carlyle's style, both in its strength and in its weakness. A careful examination of his narrative from a purely prosaic standpoint will throw light on his manner of composition. It may be said that it is un-gracious to criticise in the petty details of fact a narrative which has stirred so many hearts by its tragic pathos, and which in its broad outlines is consistent with the truth. But here lies the whole distinction between the historical poem and the historical novel on the one side, and history proper on the other. Carlyle would have said, if he had been asked, that his one object in writing history was to tell the truth. It is for this reason that he multiplies fact upon fact and detail upon detail, until he has brought the scene vividly before the eyes of the reader. His accuracy can be trusted where he has visited the scenes which he describes, and where he is not carried away by preconceived prejudices or ideas.In history truth is always more tragic and more moving than fiction.
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- Research Article
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- Copyright © Royal Historical Society 1886
References
page 320 note 1 We see by the account of an eyewitness in Klinlcowstrom's Comte d Fersen, i. 103, that the royal family never entered the royal carriage, but only berline, which was not allowed to leave the Cour des Princes.
page 321 note 1 Compare Fersen to Bouillé, Fersen, i. 118, and Bouillé to Fersen, i. 121.
page 322 note 1 Breteuil to Fersen, i. 128. Same to same, i. 131.
page 323 note 1 Choiseul, Relation du départ de Louis XVI. 38, foil.
page 324 note 1 ‘Un carosse non autrement remarquable’ in Ancelon, , La vé ritée sur lafuitc et Varrestation de Louis XVI. à Varennes, p. 180Google Scholar.
page 324 note 2 Bimbenet, Fuite de Louis XVI., p. 20, and Piéces justicatiyes, p. 51.
page 324 note 3 Crokei's Essays on the French Revolution, p. 125.
page 325 note 1 Madame de Tourzel (Mémoires, i. 306), says that the carriage stopped opposite the house called ‘Hôtel de Gaillarbois.’ The account in the Auckland memoirs, iii. 452, says ‘near the house which was formerly inhabited by the Duchess de la Vallière.’
page 325 note 2 Madame de Tourzel's interrogatory, Bimbenet, P. J. 88.
page 325 note 3 Fersen, i. 2.
page 326 note 1 Fersen, loc. cit.
page 326 note 2 Madame de Tourzel says (Mémoires, i. 307), ‘Le Roi nous raconta qu'après avoir été débarrassé de MM. Bailly et de la Fayette, il était sorti seul par la grandc porte des Tuilleries avec une grande tranquillité’ This is inconsistent with the other accounts.
page 327 note 1 Deposition of Balthasar Sapel in Bimbenet, p. 59.
page 328 note 1 Fersen says in his diary, i. 2: ‘Moi la traverse au Bourget et parti.’ His return to Paris is asserted in Weber, ii. 88, but is very doubtful. Feisen arrived at Mons at 6 a.m. on June 22.
page 329 note 1 Balthasar Sapel, in Bimbenet, loc. cit.
page 329 note 2 Madame de Tourzel, Mémoires, i. 310.
page 329 note 3 Madame de Tourzel, ibid.
page 329 note 4 Croker's Essays on the French Revolution, p. 119. The article was first published January 1823.
page 331 note 1 Fersen, i. 126.
page 331 note 2 Fersen, i. I.
page 333 note 1 Carlyle could not have fallen into this error if he had carefully read the narrative of Sieur Lagache printed in Choiseul, P. J. p. 128. Choiseul's text is thoroughly loose and untrustworthy.
page 334 note 1 Croker, p. 131.
page 334 note 2 Madame deTourzel says (Mémoires, i. 313), that Choiseul ‘perdit têtalement la tête. L'entreprise était au-dessus de ses forces.’ Fersen had before protested to Bouillé against employing him.
page 335 note 1 Choiseul, p. 83.
page 339 note 1 Bimbenet, P. J. p. 195. Madame de Tourzel says (Mémoires, i. 319), ‘Un officier s'approcha de la voiture du Roi, lui dit tout bas qu'il y avait un gué et lui offrit de tenter de le faire passer.’ The King unfortunately refused.
page 339 note 2 Fouché, , in Despatches of Lord Gower, p. 374Google Scholar.